Do ghost animations have a turn before they shoot? E.g. you are traveling upwards, you target something that is to the top left of you. Will the ghost play a few frames turn animation before playing the shoot animation, or will it play the shoot animation immediately?

Are you curious because of snipers games? I remember I had read about it somewhere, but don't remember where and when. Anyway, I *think* the ghost shoots immediatelly if it's standing still before the shot. Elsewhere, sometimes it might require several frames to finish movement animation.

P.S. For sure, there used to be a question like this on SEN and there was a good answer. Maybe it was even rockz who answered this.

Yep because of snipers.

I know that if the ghost is standing still it will shoot immediately (if you target the instant the other unit comes into range). And depending on timing it will need to finish a few frames of moving, yes. But I'm more wondering if it has any turn animation frames, outside of its walking and shooting frames.

No, there are only a few units in the game with turn-to-shoot animation delays and they were hard coded if I am recalling those topics correctly. So to answer the question, no, there are no turning frames or delays for the Terran Ghost.

I remember in sniper's games it was best to be walking away from your opponent, and then turn around a shoot him, rather than just walk up and shoot him. I wonder what the mechanic is behind this.

I believe the idea is to make opponent's ghost move while yours standing and shooting.

OK, so now my question is, is there any difference in ability to shoot based off angle? That is, if Ghost 1 is moving left and Ghost 2 is to his direct left, whereas Ghost 2 is moving up and Ghost 1 is to his right, will there be any difference when they try to shoot each other at range?
If there's no turning animation, in theory they should fire at the same time, no?

No, because they are moving. When moving, sometimes ghost must finish his moving animation, but sometimes it will shoot instantly. (At least as I picture it.)

I may be wrong, but the one on the left would be damaged "first" because of how SC processes information. However this isn't enough to warrant note, you could never react within this window for it to be pertinent. I believe what you are trying to get at is the thing that everyone knows about, the latency for the transition between Move/Attack/Stop orders.

Yes.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Jan 6 2014, 1:20 pm by LoveLess.

it seems to me that the range of the ghost is identical, but the target acquisition range depends on the angle of the target. It seems like certain angles can anticipate the target coming into range and begin the firing sequence 1 frame faster. I don't know this to be true, but we certainly can say that most of the time these angles do exist in sniper maps. Theory doesn't match practice.

I don't believe iscript units use any form of "turning" animation and just go. Most ground units move at 4 pixels per frame and completely ignore the flingy acceleration/turn radius/max speed.