I'm curious about making certain effects in spells, as I've decided to add units. For example, I'm making a Dark Shrine from the Xel'Naga Temple which would thus contain upgrades and research for DTs, DAs and "Dark Shaman"(from hero DTs). They would have healing, Maelstrom, and maybe some kind of protoss-exclusive repair spell, and having Warp Gates have a "nydus" function or having Recall(the latter of which I know how to apply). Or having a certain unit and a new structure have an exclusive mind control spell that only affects zerg, or giving the Psi Disrupter some kind of slowing spell. Are any of the spell possibilities I mentioned possible? If so, how?
Also, would it be prudent to give the Protoss Shuttle "Psi Provider" script? Would it work correctly?

Note: I attempted to prepare to make a healing spell for the protoss by copying Heal, but I can't find Heal in the DatEdit weapons field! any suggestions?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Dec 1 2011, 10:57 pm by SCRuler.

"Nydus" function: impossible without using the original Nydus Canal structures AFAIK, unless you do some massive plugin work. Even with plugins, I'm not sure if it's entirely possible at plugin development's current stage. Ask Biophysicist.

Recall/backwards recall: possible.

Zerg-only mind control: Can probably be done with plugins. Basic idea would be to detect the mind control order and check if the target is Zerg. If not, order the unit to stop. Ask Biophys.

Psi Disruptor with slowing spell: Give it ensnare, the button for ensnare, the energy capacity to do so, and the animations for it. Should work AFAIK.

No idea if giving the Shuttle Psi Provider will let it actually generate Psi Fields. I'm pretty sure this does not work.

Ok. I will only attempt an organic mind control spell... Would one be able to get ensnares results without having its appearance? Or does that require plugins? Also, how does one Reverse recall capabilities? And I still wonder about Protoss exclusive repair... I was told to try and mess around with recharge shields but I know of no way to make it affect Protoss structure and non biological health as opposed to shields.
And I gave a shuttle psi provider and placed a rescuable photon cannon in the testing map. It became permanently powered... Would it be possible to make a protoss ship transform into a structure or something that could become a psi provider?

Easy, remove the overlay. This can be done a number of ways, but the easiest is to just replace the GRP with a blank/invisible one. Alternatively, you can dig around in the iscript and remove it altogether.

I want to keep Ensnare for the queen, but I want to copy it's effects. I am going to replace EMP Shockwave at least. I am going to turn the Science Vessel into a cloak generator.

Ah, now that's a bit tougher. The hard part isn't removing the actual spellcasting animation; it's removing the overlay for specific units that's difficult.

As far as I know, you cannot keep the overlay specifically only for the Queen without some pretty fancy plugin work. Problem being, if a unit is ensared, how are you going to tell which unit ensnared it?

This is something I'm not sure of. My recommendation would be to try fiddling around with DatEdit flags; for example, see if setting the "Building" flag on the Shuttle makes a difference. I haven't experimented with this before, so I unfortunately can't give you much help. Hopefully someone else here has worked with pylons and psi fields before.

Ah ok. I want to avoid plugins when I can... Most of the mod is going to be a slight turn away from established canon, so I guess I can try to remove ensnare's overlay.
As for those other things involving the psi field, i suppose I can test it.

There are some /interesting/ things one can do with Nydus Canals. For one, if you edit the reqs for the order Build5 to allow another unit to use it, and copy the button from the Canal to that unit, and change the action and requirement variables of the copied button to that unit, then that unit will also be able to place Nydus Canals. There are some issues: It can /only/ build the Nydus Canal structure (oddly enough), the building requirements for both the Canal and the builder must be met (so a unit that needs PSI will only be able to place in an area with both PSI and Creep), and it probably breaks the normal Nydus functionality. However, in memory, the Nydus link still exists, so one dying will probably kill the other, and it can only place one Canal. I will do some further research to investigate these issues, ofc. ;b I do NOT have GPTP working atm, but I can possibly throw together some EXE Edits for you that will fix these problems, if you'd like.

Exactly. As mentioned, I can't actually compile plugins atm, but I can write out the source and make someone else compile it, lol. ;b

Another option would be to do a passive slowing aura, as SC2's Disruptor does, via plugin. Also, I'm not sure how SCBW handles a caster which can't turn; I know you can make them work (as evidenced by the ComSat Station), but don't remember exactly how (or even if you have to do anything special).

Biophys to the rescue again! ;b There's an iscript hack to do this. First, Make the Ensnare overlay itself invisible. Second, create a dummy weapon which bounces (like Glave Wurm) and applies the Ensare overlay to stuff it hits.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Dec 3 2011, 4:20 pm by Biophysicist.

Wow thanks Biophys! But as far as reverse recall goes, I'm interested. Is there a way to do this without plugins?

Yup! EXE Edit in Firegraft. (Actually two.)

Ah excellent. And is there any way to make a Protoss exclusive repair spell?

Unsure. I'll get back to you.

Ok. Take your time. lol

Ok, I'm back on making the mod. Can I get details on how to properly warp in a Warp Gate, and a small step-by-step if possible on how to give it Recall? I'm a bit fuzzy. And I still kinda need help with the warp rift problem, whereby the graphics for warping in structures that came with the Dark Protoss pack I found on maplantis cause crashing whenever a warp-in is started.
Wow, I used the word warp like four times not counting the one I just used.