Hi guys,

You remember those vertical-scrolling flying games like Raptor? I'm working on a map like that.

Until now I have used a Vulture as your unit, since it's fast and has a speed upgrade as well. The problem is that Starcraft's lame path-finding AI ruins the intended gameplay since he rarely takes a straight line from A to B. Flying units have the type of path-finding I want: as straight as possible. However a flying unit displaces the constant stream of interceptors you are 'shooting' as missiles; all the interceptors are created below your unit.

So I have 2 options:
1) Use a flying unit: perfect path-finding but displaces your missiles.
2) Use a non-flying unit: lame path-finding which hurts the gameplay but missiles are created perfectly on top of you.

Option 1 is absolutely my favorite, but I would still like to have the missiles being created at your exact position instead of below it.

Here's a drawing of it. X is you, > is a good place for them to be created, - is a bad place and 0 is where the are currently being spawned.
- - -
> X >
- 0 -

So is there any way to spawn them on the proper place?
Or do you think that the misplaced missiles are so bad since they do are all launched from the same misplaced location?

Assuming the terrain is all walkable you can use a zergling mobile grid under the main unit to displace the interceptors

Yes. You just have to keep in mind that if this is being done every trigger cycle or even every other trigger cycle, it might cause hefty unit lag.

Also, if you're unclear on what (exactly) a zergling mobile grid is or how to do it, don't hesitate to ask. We're happy to help.

It could be made all walkable, though it will probably be messed up when you approach enemy units, right?

I feel like a complete noob now, but how would a zergling mobile grid work? I've tried created any number of zerglings between 2-18 and it doesn't give you a zergling which shares your y-position.

EDIT: I won't be creating them every cycle, just every 5-10 cycles so the lag won't be that bad I guess.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jun 25 2010, 4:32 pm by Daedalus.

I love Raptor!

You could use a no-collision air unit, although they're unstable. Basically create a disabled air sprite unit like a scourge, enable it via triggers and order it to move, and then move it where you want it. Since re-enabled sprite units have no collision, the other air units will pass right through it. The only air unit I've tried is a scourge, and there are two things to point out:

1. It creates a rock sprite, like any other sprite unit when this is done, so don't put it near the top of the map, because if the rock goes off the edge, it can cause a crash.
2. People randomly drop at times when the trigger runs.

I think the interceptors spawning below you isn't too bad.

Here's a picture of it. The red lines is the movement path of the interceptors (you start out with shooting one horizontal, later on you can shoot diagonally as well). They are spawned at the red circle, at that time the Corsair was at the yellow circle. The ideal situation would be if they would be created at the Corsairs' current location. (So if the Corsair would be at the yellow location the interceptors would spawn in front of it)



I still don't get the mobile zergling grid. I did find that Infested Terrans should work, coz they spawn similar to obs/scourges. However it will be screwed when you get near enemy ground units... any way to resolve that?

You can create a zergling mobile grid, as stated before. There shouldn't be any lag, since your unit is an air unit.
o: zergling
x: ur dude
.: space

normally, it would be like this:
......
..x..
......

now, create 9 or 16 or 25 burrowed zerglings at your location, depending on how far apart you want the missiles to spawn.
ooo
oxo
ooo I'm just using 9 in this example. There is a zergling under the x.

now, give 1 zergling to another player and remove it for that player.
..oo
oxo
ooo

give another zergling to another player and center a location on it. remove that zergling.
f: where interceptors will spawn
..oo
fxo
ooo

give 5 zerglings to another player and remove them. then do the same as above.
...
fxf
..o

remove the last zergling, and there will be 2 locations, to the left and right of your unit.

Err... you mean that every like every 0,4 sec you have a chance to drop? I don't want to play Russian roulette

Forgive me, I did understand the zergling mobile grid, I just thought there was a method without the offset glitch.

I'll just go with a ground-unit mobile grid despite the offset glitch. It still sucks that it's ruined near enemy ground units... I'm still wondering whether or not there's a solution to that?

Make all enemies air units or "intangible" ground units (method Roy described). It shouldn't crash randomly, probably only for Mac players.

All zerg air is stackable via morph. enable a disabled larva sprite. When you buy a ship, you morph it to the ship that you want (muta, ovvie, queen, guard, dev).

I thought I got a scourge to work once, but it didn't work the next time I tried it.

http://www.staredit.net/wiki.php?article=Disabled_Sprite_Effects

No, just when enabling the unit, which you only do once. There used to be a list of enabling sprite units somewhere, but I can't find it in the tutorial/wiki transition. There are very few air units that work, and I've had problems keeping all players to stay in the game with a no-collision scourge. It's probably a risk you'd rather not take, but it's always an option. If it's a single-player game, I would imagine you'd be in the clear; I've never crashed with that scourge when I was solo.

Ground units (and maybe the other air units) are much more stable and won't contain a risk for crashing the game, as yoonkwun mentioned. Making all ground enemies have no collision would solve the Zergling grid issue, but would involve a lot of pre-placed units.

See above post.

It's a lot of work for just a minor visual effect. I would have to side with Nude and say that what you have right now isn't that bad and going through all this trouble wouldn't be worth it.

The stacked zerg air is perfect, IMO, and is a much simpler solution than any triggered solution, though nude is correct.

If you look at tyrian's wild ball, you'd know that the bullets tend to shoot behind you first.

That's.... just brilliant! Simple, effective and efficient. Thanks!

It does suck that you'll have a Zerg hero while shooting Protoss missiles and getting Zerg missiles thrown at you, but you can't have everything.