Where are the good old lightning effects?!

[Ouguiya]

Hi there to one and all, and a big sigh...

I am in the process of testing out the galaxy editor... On the one hand I am stunned at what you can do now, on the other hand it really sucks that you have to set every minute detail for yourself. The huge set of choices the user has is more or less a bug than a feature.

One such think are lightning effects in the trigger editor... Where the heck are all the lightning effects?

Scenario: You want to make a map where one unit in a cinematic fires a beam. Thus, you would like this unit's beam to last while for 2-3 seconds, and then collapse again.

Back in TFT, this was very very easy to do... But now? All I could find in the trigger section was "Create effect on unit (from unit)". Here however, you can't select all the effects from the "previewer" section, and the ones you can dissapear right after you have created them.

So, does anyone have any suggestions? (Note: No, i don't want this to be an extra weapon or ability for a unit which I have to create through a dumb process. No, I don't want to spend 10 hours trying to do this in the data editor...)

Thanks in advance to one and all.

Yours,

Ouguiya

 

[Ancanus]

You may Actor - Attach Model to Unit as well, try some of the attack beam models. (Search for Beam within the Models category in the data editor.)

 

[Ouguiya]

Hi there!

That idea sounds nice. I checked it out, however, again there are models missing, and I am having problems, in that I don't see any way to define the length of the beam and where it originates from.

The scenario for which I would need it looks like this: A flying unit, firing a beam on a ground unit. The unit has to fire that beam for at least 3 seconds, without inflicting any damage.

In the previewer, there is this nice model named "Mothership photon beam" which would fit this nicely. I haven't been able to find it in "models" so far.

Thanks in either case for the reply. (+rep)

Yours,

Ouguiya

 

[Ancanus]

For the Mothership Photon Beam, you can create a new Model and assign it the actual model file.
For where the beam originates, you can specify the attachment point of your unit.
For defining the length of the beam, I don't think you can do this with triggers.

It seems to me that for your scenario, the data editor is the best (only?) way to go. I know you don't like it , but it's how the Starcraft 2 designers are herding map development.

 

[Arkless]

Since blizzard stated that 3 input fields for an actor are enough to get a beam working and you can create an actor of the type beam, I'd suggest you look into that. (the trigger editor allows you to create an actor with 3 input fields)