I'm trying to make a game based off of another, and I don't want to share the name just yet, so if it does get finished and released you can be surprised.

If you do happen to figure out what I'm making, don't say please. I don't want it spoiled.

I'm wondering if you can do something like this:

Say, you have a lurker, and there's 4 marines running around, individually owned, you burrow and your lurker attacks someone, could you somehow make the lurker "pull" the attacked target towards them?

I know it sounds a bit weird, but if it's possible. It'd be great to get some help.

Possible. Create/move a ling with 1 hp constantly under the marine. When the ling dies create a mobile grid the size of the lurkers attack range on the lurker. Detect where the marine is via the mobile grid, then have a trigger for each possible location that will move the marine one tile closer to the lurker. Finally recreate the ling under said marine, and let the whole thing unfold again.

If your worried about slowing down the marines because of the constant ling movement, you can move the ling only every other or every third trigger cycle.

EDIT: If this is going to be a one time event then there's no need to implement a mobile grid, you can make use of more locations (1 for each tile or whatever size you want). Then a trigger for each location used that activates when the ling dies and move the marine to a location closer to the lurker(determined by you).

Related wiki topics:

• Mobile Grids

  
  

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Feb 12 2009, 12:12 am by Elvang. Reason: Added alternative

I might aswell tell you what the game is based on, so you will know what I want as my final outcome for the "Lurker" pullback.

I'm trying to recreate the game "Left 4 Dead" on Starcraft, this will be very advanced, and I haven't done a major project like this before, so I'm taking it step by step, etc.

If you haven't seen Left 4 Dead, this is the character I'm trying to imitate:

"Smoker Point of View"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vAuRcKg2fc&feature=related

EDIT: "Survivor Point of View"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahoCziVNzxk&feature=related

With a little modification my solution still works.

• (preserved)Move 1 hp ling under marine
  
• (preserved)When ling dies
  • Create mobile grid over lurker the size of lurkers attack range and set switch or death counter
• (preserved)check if being pulled(switch/death counter) and determine where marine is (trigger for each possible location)
  • Set death counter to appropriate number (will represent time needed to be fully pulled in)
• (preserved)If ling is dead and death counter is above 0
  • Move marine one location closer to lurker and subtract 1 from death counter
• (preserved)If lurker is not next to marine and death counter is 0 and ling is dead
  • Create new ling for marine

So I would need to create a location which is set to follow the lurker?

How exactly would I modify it to fit the range of the lurkers attack range?

Is there an estimate at how far the range is? So I can create a 16 by 16 (etc) location which will fit how far the lurker reaches.

The ling would act as a "Yes or No" switch, so if it was alive, the marine is able to be pulled, if not, then it's not able to be pulled, etc?

I'm not particularly clear on what:

(preserved)check if being pulled(switch/death counter) and determine where marine is (trigger for each possible location)

* Set death counter to appropriate number (will represent time needed to be fully pulled in)

So, make a switch which will trigger when the death count is 1, and will reset and will not trigger when the death count is 0?

Also, it will take a certain number of seconds determined on the range of the Marine, I guess I could just set it to 2 seconds (Normal range smoker pull)

Remember, this isn't going to cover just one area, this lurker will need to be mobile, and the location will need to be constantly applied to any part of the map at any given time.

Yes
Not sure what the range of a lurker is, I'd create a lurker and then a straight line of zerglings( 1 per tile) and see which zergling is damaged last.
Yes
My bad, no need to set a switch/death counter to check if your being pulled, a lack of a zergling under the marine means you are. Basically this is the section that will repeat until you are either next to the lurker or you've been freed. Each trigger cycle the goal is to get the marines current location relative to the lurker (via mobile grid), and move the marine one location closer. Now, the death count is there as a timer, otherwise the marine would move a tile per cycle (12 cycles a second with hyper triggers).
Mobile Grids are named aptly, they are meant to be used on a unit that could be anywhere when its time to use the grid.

why don't you just center a location over the burrowed lurker and order the rine towards it?

The game doesn't work like that.

The marines will be controlled by players, and will be free-moving through the level trying to reach the end, they must be able to move with their own will, but once the lurker hits them (location) it will drag them back, and constrict them, in which case the marines will be helpless and teammates must help.

It's not a simple "Come here and die" game.

so you're looking for the drag/constrict command. Sorry, it doesn't exist. There's "move" and "order".

All sarcasm aside, you still haven't given me a good reason why order won't work.

There are methods of constricting a unit via trigger. Is this effect what you were looking for? (attached map, build marine to activate ability) I didn't bother adding a trigger to free the marine somehow, easy enough to do though, just add a condition and an action to add the zergling back.
It'll have to use mobile grids if you want the marine to still be able to attack up until hes touching the smoker unit.

Attachments:

Elvang, something is wrong with the marine trigger.

As soon as I built the marine, my SC crashed and an error message popped up.

that's because he set marine build time to 0.

I thought scmdraft handles that correctly(IE sets it to the lowest possible time that works)? I've never crashed from building it before

That's kind of what I wanted.

But I want a "dragging" effect, not the marine completely dissapearing.

Also, the Lurker will need to stay, not dissapear and will have to have life (of course)

If you watch that Smoker video, I want to mimic that effect, that the Marine literally gets "dragged" to the Lurker. (If they do get dragged, they turn into a civilian and take damage until the Lurker is killed.)

I guess you could make it teleport directly to the Lurker, but have it a 2-second timer, to mimic the smoker's range. But the main thing is that I wanted it like this.

A.) The lurker MUST be burrowed.
B.) The "Constricted" marine cannot attack the Lurker.
C.) Teammates must kill the Lurker in order for him to be released.
D.) He needs to be "Dragged" to the Lurker.

when did the marine completely disappear?

I have no clue, I built him, then moved him to the location surrounding the Lurker, and it just disappeared.

Did it twice, dunno what happened though.

You could have it so when the Zergling under the marine dies an invisible air unit is moved over the marine and ordered to the lurker. Then you just keep moving the marine underneath the invisible air unit until the air unit reaches the lurker at which point you dispose of the air unit. If you prefer it, you could order the marine to where he was before every time you move him under the air unit to make it look like he's struggling.

There are other more involved / more difficult ways that could give a better end product (using a location grid and line calculation), but that would require a lot more effort, a lot more knowledge and a lot more sacrifices.

you built a marine, and then moved that marine? highly unlikely. make rine to move the lurker under the zealot, have zealot attack marine, watch the fireworks.

His problem doesn't sound very complicated.
Elvang basically solved it in the first post, just needs to work out the details. Rockz also gave a hint on that by suggesting to order.

Requirements:
- 1 10x10 pixel location per Marine (maybe a few pixels smaller, need to test)
- 1 Ling with 1 HP allied to everyone per Marine
- 1 (about) 10x10 tiles location per Lurker
- Hyper Triggers

Now how it works:
Whenever a Marine is created center a 10x10 pixel location on him, create a burrowed ling for that player everyone is allied to and move this ling to the 10x10 loc.
Now every trigger loop recenter the location on the marine and every 2nd - 3rd trigger loop recenter the ling under the marine (to avoid slowdown).

Now our sad Marine walks into location Lurker1 and gets hit, his ling dies.
You can detect that this player brings a marine to Lurker1, a marine to 10x10 but there's no ling at this Marine's 10x10 loc.
Then always order this Marine to the Lurker1. The player can slow this down via spamclick, but he will eventually get drawn to the center. The constant order also prevents him from hitting the Lurker, while the Lurker continues to hit the Marine.

Stop the spam order, create and center a new ling, as soon as the Lurker at Lurker1 is dead.
The only "problem" I see here is that you need 1 trigger set for every Lurker.

U know, theres a series of ways to do this, Because 1) There are a series of ways to move the rine, and 2) Because there are a series of ways to detect the lurker's attacking of the rine.

For The Detecting of the rine being attacked by the lurker, Here are some possible solutions.
- You can have an EUD detecting the marine's decreased health (Which means the ling will not slow down the marine, and you can have it with no blood (From what I can see in the video, There is no blood for that litlle.... "Tether/Rope" Thingy, so that solves that problem.

-It IS possible to Use a zergling that is burrowed under the marine, although the Ling will slow down the marines incredibly, (Putting the marines at an increased disadvantage), and there will be blood(I dont know if its good or bad, but im pretty sure its bad.)

-A 3rd option for you is to actually have a cloaked unit near the rine (This option is ridiculously long to create, and it leaves tons of places for bugs, so I don't suggest it, but if you desire this kind of effect, go for it.) Now, by cloaked, I dont mean an arbiter, but I mean disabling a unit that will be affected by the splash. This way, you can have an effect of a unit dying or something that ISN'T blood. (Example, High templars) Or maybe a Dark templar, if you want to avoid disabling.

Anyways, those are the 3 options listed for you all in one nice convenient little place.

For the dragging of the rine, another series of possibilities are :

1) Creating an observer that will slowly move towards the lurker, and have the marine be constantly moved to under it.
2) Having the Marine be constantly ordered towards the lurker, and if you have hyper triggers, theres no way that the players would be able to stop it.)
3) Having mobile grids to detect the the lurker relative to the lurker, and having it moved via the grid locations.
4) Having a location grid/coordinate grid (now, i don't mean covering every square of the map, but actually using a mobile location grid) - Keep in mind, these take a ton of time to make. (At least for me)

I Suggest #1 for the Detecting of the marine being hit, and # 1 (or #2 if you don't want to do #1) for the Moving of the marine towards the lurker. (If you hate both #1 and 2, Mobile grids is the way to go)



To Replicate the Tether effect, you can have a series of Scarabs be constantly created at the lurker and moved towards the rine, and this is incredibly easy to do. You need about 4 triggers, and 3 locations.
Just have a bunch of reavers attack a building that will never die, and have the scarabs move towards the rine when teleported at the lurker. When they get to the marine, have them removed.

Granted, they ARE blue, but it would help the players see the rope and understand what the rope is doing.