I need a system of ordering groups of units that follow these guidelines:

• Units can travel to any of a wide variety of locations, but nowhere else (ex: I send x units to any set location 1 through 20 or so, bidirectionally)
  
• Units can be sent to any one of the points above, but CANNOT, even if running into another building, be considered to be at their destination unless it is the intended direction. Solved as I was typing it, see below.
  
• Units, once sent, cannot be controlled, redirected, etc.*
  
• Units may not attack other groups while moving*
  
• Units spawn one-by-one, and all travel to the same location*
  
• The origin (basically a rescuable building) must work for multiple (up to 4) different human players*

*These aren't the hard parts, the first two bullets are really all that I need to have considered.

What I would like to do is to be able to send a predetermined number of units (to be calculated in other triggers) to other buildings, and I would rather not allow the human player to have control over the individual units (meaning anything allowing such would be scrapped). The solution for the second line is simple enough: have a number of burrowed zerg moved to the destination as a counter, both for spawning and for the destination counter.

However, I cannot find a working, professional method of sending units from any commanded point to another, destination that can lie anywhere on the map. I want something better than the shoddy massing systems found on almost any mass map. Also, EUDs are not an option, as it is to be multiplayer, and I'm already concerned about the ones I'm employing.

EDIT: I don't have any limitations as to the number of triggers. This map is going to be a very large file, and I don't think another 10 or 20 additional Kb will matter much.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Mar 28 2010, 8:09 am by poison_us. Reason: clarification

Why doesn't "Order units: move to" work for your purposes?

That's not the problem. That's exactly what I would use to move them. If I had a method of determining the destination. I guess I should have actually written that down, but I had thought it would be understood that something like the Order action couldn't be the focus of a problem, at least not for a semi-decent mapper.

I'm confused as to what you want. What's your problem? Do you need a system to pick the location to send units to, or a method of ordering the units?


So you want to be able to set a location anywhere on the map via triggers, so that you don't have to use a lame massing observer or something, right?

Well, you could cover the map with a location grid, and would need to line two sides of the map with units in which to center locations for the grid onto. Then you can place a location anywhere on the map via triggers: http://www.staredit.net/wiki/Location_Grids

I want to be able to allow players to send units from one building to any other one on the map, but without something lame like observers, yes. I don't need a location grid, because the points wont move. It's supposed to have a "master controlling his pawns" feel, so any direct control is undesirable. The locations wont change, but I want a system that a player can use to order units from any of his buildings on a map to any other building.

If it's from one building to another, you could detect the two points by lifting the buildings off the ground, or building a specific unit at the building. Using one of these two will allow you to center locations onto both of the buildings, and if you wanted you could mobile grid off of each building to place a location off to the side a little bit, to make the units go to the "entrance" instead of just straight to the building's center.

Is that what you meant?

Or are the buildings pre-placed before the game starts?

I still don't know what you specifically want..

Unit Order Coordinates and Selection Detection work multiplayer and would work great for that purpose, the former being better than the latter.

Edit: Or even rally point coordinates if the buildings are owned by the player.

They're preplaced, and I want a player to be able to select his building, select a destination through whatever method, and then order the units to move. The units should not be visible when selecting the buildings, only after the destination has been selected should they spawn and move. It should look something likewhat can be seen on this game.

Okay well, pick some sort of input method for each player, and a way to represent the building. You can use dropships to capture user input, the killing of a unit, the turning of a hydralisk into a lurker, etc. etc.

I suggest having a separate trigger system for each building, and keeping the units in the buildings in the form of deathcounts. This way, you can use binary countoffs to divide by 2, and transfer the DC from the building's supply into the amount being sent from the building to another location.

I made a quick map of what, from what I read, you seem to be needing. It's very rough but the idea's there. You don't need to use sprites for barracks if you want, just use a mobile location to store burrowed units in front or at the back of real barracks.

If you're wondering how it works, just cast disruption on the origin then on the destination. Each barrack initially has 3 marines "stored" in it. You can only send one group at a time but sending several groups to one destination would be just as easy. If you want to send several groups to several destinations just use different players for the marines.

I hope this helps.

While playing the game you linked, I had this idea: Used the invisible bunker trick (Get marines in the bunker then move it away.) with marines or civilians, that way you can stack the amount you want. When the player wants to use the marines, you move the bunkers back and get them out. You can possibly use a mutalisk as a the controller over each bases. Or, do like in the game Zone control where there was a section in the middle that looked like the field but smaller and the player had to use their generals to move their troupes.

If your idea works, your map should be sick.

Only the top two buildings work, obviously it could with more. It uses rally points. Minimalism ftw

Attachments:

You could use a mini representation of your map in some corner where you have immobile units (e.g. burrowed lurkers) representing all the different starting points and destinations.
Then you use a Dark Archon to MC the lurkers.

This is location intensive however, you need 2 locations per destination.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Mar 29 2010, 10:32 am by NudeRaider.

Apos mentioned something like that, I think, and more than likely it's what I'm going to do. I just wish EUDs worked for multiplayer. I wanted a minimalistic method, but it's not really possible.

Farty once made a multiplayer map with selection detection

Many EUDs do work for multiplayer, including order destination detection and selection detection.

The map I posted works multiplayer as well. Can't have any Mac users though.

Blasphemy. You mean to tell me that I can order units by selecting through something similar to the method in the map? So I can have units over buildings (multiple building select) and then click an opponent's unit, and it'll work without disconnecting??

Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Mar 30 2010, 5:30 pm by poison_us.

probably not. you can do rally points though on each building.