I have another problem, I'm not sure what to do about it but it completly took down many of my triggers

My map was like this :

P1 = Human
P2 = Human
P3 = Human
P4 = Human
P5 = Human
P6 = Human
P7 = Computer (Used only for the Arbiter AI script which I really need)
P8 = Neutral (just neutral instead of Human, Computer etc... it's used for unit timers and other stuff)

It worked great like this.

... until the day I needed a Rescuable player for some reason. So it became like this :

P7 = Rescuable (color = black)
P8 = Computer (I needed a comp player for the Arbiter AI Recall)

P8 has several units on the map (dropships, zerglings, overlords, reavers etc) : those are timers which I use for duration, cooldown etc, by making them cross different distances. When P8 was neutral, they acted just like I asked them to. But when he became a comp, for some unknown reason P8 started moving those units and they left their timer positions (especially the flying ones). Also, Yggdrasills and Dropships started picking up other P8 ground units to give them a ride -_-' This turned then into a big mess, as expected.

The question is why do Computer players do things on his own when there isn't a script or anything ?

I can turn him back to neutral so timers work fine again, but Recalls won't work anymore. I only needed this for the Recall animation.

As for the Rescuable player, i need him because his color is black, and every player (P1-P6) must be able to control black units whenever the conditions are met, along with his own color and units.

So, what I need is :

1) Black color potentially controlled by all Human players (Rescuable player, P7)
2) Recall animation (requires a comp player)
3) "Neutral" or computer units that don't do anything, unless triggers make them do (I wanted P8 to be a comp player who handles those units and the Recalls..).


What should I do ?

I was thinking of few solutions :

1) Turn everyone's color to black and have back P7 as a Comp and P8 as neutral (this way there is no need to get black resuable units and will work fine, but I don't like much the idea all the Human players to share the same color : / Plus, there won't be any difference between normal units and "special black units"). Don't like this much.

2) Use some kind of restriction through triggers to forbid P8 Comp player to move its units, unless a trigger decides to move them (this will make the triggering even more complex... But I'll have to do it if there isn't a better way).

3) Make a Recall using a non-computer player (rescuable, human or neutral) => I think this is impossible, but if someone knows of a way...

Damn, this is quoite frustrating... Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.

I think your problems would be solved if you used death counters instead of having physical units on the map.

Some units have behavior without a script running, like idle Zerg units burrowing, or being aggressive toward enemy units. You could try making the computer player allied to everyone, or disabling their vision from everyone (including themselves), or giving the units to Player 12 (which is a neutral player) if you just want to quick fix it.

Oh yeah, there might be another solution :

Replace the unit timers by something else, like terran burning buldings timer, for example... This way, they can't be moved. But this will change a lot of triggers so if it can somehow be avoided, I'd like to avoid it.

Hehe yeah, I already disabled Burrowing for P8

Hmm, yes death counters would be fine, but they only work along with Hypers, and my map doesn't use any

You can use Players 9-11 (or 9-12) as neutral players. Order works for them, and they perform no actions.

But why not use deathcounters as timers instead of units moving?

EDIT:
Aaa, Roy beat me to it. I was confirming that Order worked for player 9.

Your simplest solution would be to give the units to Player 9, but I think the best solution would be to, wherever possible, use deathcounters as a more reliable timer.

That is wrong. Death counters do not require hyper triggers: they just run slower without them. So instead of 12 deaths every second, it would probably be closer to 1 death every two seconds. This will have at least the same level of frequency as your current system, as without hyper triggers your Bring triggers wouldn't execute on a faster timeframe, either.

So yes, death counters are definitely an option. And they're your best option.

Thanks !

Player 9, eh. Good to know he can follow orders ! I thought Players 9, 10 and 11 couldn't do anything : http://www.staredit.net/starcraft/Player

Maybe I just misunderstood.

Hmmm, so we can have :

Player 7 = black Rescuable
Player 8 = Comp player for Recall
Player 9 = neutral player owner of timer units

I have another question : Can you create a unit on the map with a trigger for Player 9 during the game (the trigger's owner will be a regular Human player) ?

And yes, I promise the next map I make will use Hypers and Death Counters Complex maps without Hypers can be such a pain.

No. You have to create for P1-P8 and then give the unit to P9.

And technically, players 9-11 aren't neutral. They're hostile, but they have no vision to any units including their own, so they can't "see" and therefore can't attack (though there are weird cases where they can).

Roy, this sounds strange.


I thought once of using death counters by relying on the trigger cycles. One count every trigger cycle. But whenever there is a Wait instruction, trigger cycle is cut and SC will check all triggers again, including the ones using death counters.

Thus, let's say a normal trigger cycle rusn every 2 seconds. So every 2 seconds the deathcount is triggered.

But if theres is a Wait of 500 milliseconds, the game won't wait another 2 seconds to execute the triggers and will do it as soon as the 500 milliseconds passed. Which means deathcounters might actually run faster than they are supposed to.

That's how Hypers work. They decrease the trigger cycles with Waits, so they run faster.

Do I have it wrong ?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Mar 8 2014, 8:56 pm by Stranger.

You have it right; I'm just used to people designing their maps without the Wait action (and with hypers), so I hadn't entertained that scenario. If the countdown timer is unused, you could base your shortest increment of time on that instead.

Alright

Yeah, Waits are crappy. When I started this map, I still lacked of knowledge and experience about some stuff, and figured out many things myself while mapping. I just made the thing in a way it works as I would like, no matter what it takes. But as I said, if I start making something new after this, I will use hypers and no Wait actions


Ok, good to know. Thank you for your help.

I'll try using Player 9 in addition to Player 7 and Player 8 for now.

IT WORKS !

Thanks for everything !

I'll definitly finish that map !