How do I make a unit constantly move around a map randomly, stays for about 5 minutes at one spot then randomly teleport to another area of a map?

I believe their is an AI action in units.dat that involves roaming. See the neutral critters as a guideline. This will cause the unit to roam about like a Kakaru or other critter when not performing an explicit order.

As for stopping and then teleporting elsewhere: that will almost certainly require plugin work. You can set up a timer, count 5 minutes worth of frames, and then order the unit to Place COP at some random point on the map. I am not sure how effective this brute method would work though.

Ok I'll give that a try then.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAck.
I meant to put this into the UMS assistance sorry.

This would require a grid system of some sort. If you have a limited number of positions you want the unit to appear in, using regular locations or a static grid (depending on how many positions you have) would be the simplest thing to implement.

Location grids will give you the most control, but they take a lot of work to get up and running, and use up a ton of locations, so you'd probably have to convert your entire map to use the system as opposed to just this one thing.

A hybrid approach would be to have a large static grid set up across the map, and then use a mobile grid to move randomly away from a randomly selected static point.

Randomization article: http://www.staredit.net/starcraft/Randomization

Alternatively you could use observers that randomly move around the map, and then move the unit to the observer's location. It's not completely random, but it's an approach that doesn't use grids or anything beyond Starcraft's native limitations. With the 5 minute time limit, it could work pretty well.

For increased randomness, you could have more than one observer roaming around, and use random switches to select one.

Right now the map doesnt have a lot of triggs all the units are balenced and terrain is all done. So the grid wouldnt be too much problems. Thanks roy

It seems like you've already got a solution here, but I figured I'd chime in with my solution. Basically I would just have however many burrowed units across the map at all the predefined "random" locations you would like to move a unit to. Then, when you would want to randomly select a location to move to, you could use random switches while cycling through the different spawn locations to chose one. This has many benefits to a grid system, which might require half the locations in your map. Theoretically you could do the entire system with just one mobile grid and possibly just one location, however the complexity of such a system would be intense. So if you have some extra units to spare in your map, and you could settle on a less than truly 'random' system, I would recommend doing it this way. Let me know if I didn't explain any of the topics fully enough.

This method is similar to Inferno's, although differs slightly, as Inferno's method would actually replicate true randomness quite nicely, however the clear drawback to Inferno's system is having 100 blurred units roaming your map.

I dont really know how to randomize the switch stuff.

If you don't know how to randomize switches then you probably shouldn't be attempting to use any sort of grid system. To randomize a switch you simply do the Set Switch action, and do Randomize.

You're going to have to be more specific on what you don't understand. As Inferno says, The "Set Switch" action has a "Randomize" option, which is how you can randomize switches. This is mentioned in the randomization wiki article:

For a static grid, you'd be giving a random number of units to a different player before centering the location onto one of the grid units. You can accomplish this by assigning each switch a number of units to give, such that if Switch 1 is set, you give 1 unit, if Switch 2 is set, you give 2 units, and if Switch 3 is set, you give 4 units. In that example, if Switch 1 is cleared and Switches 2 and 3 are set, you would end up giving 6 units to another player, and the static grid location would be centered onto the 7th unit. See the binary countoffs article for more information on this sort of arithmetic.

Did you go over the examples in the randomization wiki article? They explain several methods and how they work.

I get it now. thanks

What kind of distribution do you need?

I can make you a system that's totally random or an algebraically defined distribution. For simplicity's sake, let's limit the resolution to one matrix square, although greater resolution can be achieved if desired.

No I got it now. Thanks anyway.

Just wanted to point out that he asked for random movements, and critters don't roam randomly. The randomization article Roy linked to mentions this near the end.

Are you sure? The above methods are too limited in scope imo.

It would be a good chance to introduce yourself to some more complex trigger design.

Ok then. I wanted 50 spots or around that amount too be scattered around the map. Say the caster ( Zergling ) casted the spell and it randomly teleports the ling to one of the 50 spots. But then after 5 minutes no matter what you are doing again it teleports you to another one of the 50 spots. The spell would be in effect for about 15 minutes. I could make the 5 minute teleport into 3 minutes or less and the total 15 minute duration 10 if its too long or short. The spell can also be used by all other players once reached a certain lvl or exp range. If I wasnt detailed enough tell me please. Thanks. (I should have around 50 extra location spots left.)

Without going into details on the rest of the thread...

The most resource friendly and elegant way to trigger that is to burrow a unit at each of the 50 spots and have them owned by a neutral player, say P11.
Then, every trigger loop center the teleport target location of the spell to [burrowed unit type] owned by P11 at anywhere then give the unit at that location to P10.
When P11 doesn't own any [burrowed unit type] give all [burrowed unit type] back to P11.

That way you only need 1 location and no true randomization.

Keep in mind, however, that cycling through 50 units in the manner described takes roughly 4 seconds on fastest and that this method gives the leftmost [burrowed unit type] first and move on from left to right until none are left.
So if the player is able to see the burrowed units and their owner change (on the mini map) he might be able to time it right so he can roughly choose the place where he'll end up. This could be either a feature or undesireable.
In any case you can add (pseudo-)randomization through dcs or switches to prevent the issue, while still keeping the resource friendly system.

I see I see. thanks

You could also place burrowed units (let's say Zerg Drones) for Player 9 at 64 different positions. Then when you want to teleport to a random position, you'd randomize 6 switches, and have these 6 triggers:


Then you'd just need to move the "teleport" location to "Zerg Drone owned by Player 9 at Anywhere".

This will result in the location being randomly centered on 1 of your 64 burrowed units.

To reset the system, you'd want to add a trigger that clears all 6 switches (or you could clear each one in its own "___ is set" trigger). Also, after moving the location at the end, you'd need to "Give all Zerg Drone owned by Player 10 at Anywhere to Player 9".

This system has the benefit of making the destination unpredictable, and the player cannot manipulate it to get a destination of their choice. Additionally, if two different players use their teleport ability at the same time, they'll both get a unique random destination, as opposed to a global method of randomization which would teleport both players to the same area.