wasting time on upgrades

[MissKerrigan]

Hi guys,

(still have the problem with the units+buildings, can't see them)

I created a map where you can buy a total of 8 heroes
All heroes have 10 damage, attack speed and range uprgades

I really freaked out when I saw the clock after programming all upgrades, you know requirements, upgrades, buttons, abilities
SPEND LIKE 5 HOURS ON THIS!

Does anybody knows if there is an easyer way to create upgrades without spending hours on it?

MissKerrigan

 

[Siretu]

(still have the problem with the units+buildings, can't see them)

Are you talking about the problem you posted in this thread?

I replied to it a couple of days ago. Did my solution solve your problem?

On-topic: Yes, upgrades can take a lot of time. However if the different levels on an upgrade are simple(+10 damage on level 1, +20 damage on level 2 etc), it can be sped up a lot. In your upgrade effects, make the upgrade add 10 to the weapon's damage effect. Now each time you get a new level of this upgrade it'll increase by 10. You wont need more buttons, requirements or upgrades.

Now, if you want the current upgrade level to show in the button tooltip, things get more complicated. In my map, I wanted the upgrades to show "Level X / 5" in the tooltip. You can do this with several buttons and requirements but it quickly gets very time consuming. What I did is no perfect solution but I'm impressed with myself for figuring it out.

Unfortunately, there's no way to insert a reference to the current level of an upgrade into a button tooltip(Please correct me if I'm wrong). What I did was to make a dummy behavior(could be anything really) and I then made the upgrade effect not only do the normal effect but also add 1 to the duration of the dummy behavior. What this does it that it saves the level of the ability in the duration field of the dummy behavior. The duration can then be referenced in the tooltip. This allows you to have one button for several levels of upgrades.

The reason this is not perfect is that if a player holds his mouse over an upgrade, it'll say "Level 0 / 5". Now, when he presses the button to upgrade, the tooltip will still say "Level 0 / 5". It will stay that way until the player moves his mouse away from the button and back again, which allows the tooltip to refresh, therefore updating the tooltip to the new level.