I'm trying to store a decent number of scarabs that won't ever die. I was told that this was possible and made a quick test map to confirm their lifespan. I'm using Make these Units Patrol and Set Generic Command Target AI scripts. The problem is that most of the scarabs die after a few seconds, only a few live. I tried continually looping patrol and generic command. I tried alternating generic command to two locations to get the scarabs to patrol. I tried continually moving the scarabs to a location as well. Unfortunately, the majority still blows up quickly.

How do I get these guys to live?

If I let the Reavers have multiple scarabs, after a few tries (3 tries for 24 scarabs) the scarabs do seem to live longer, but it's inconsistent and may cause glitches as I can't tell which scarabs are about to fail when I need to use them.

Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Nov 26 2008, 10:09 pm by SelfPossessed.

What do you need them for? I know methods to make them stay alive and stay still, but they may not work depending on what you're doing with the scarabs.

I'm going to give them to another player to use for Random Suicide Script attacks.

Again, I CAN store them indefinitely, but it takes 3 tries for 24 Scarabs. As in, I can't instantly replenish my storage after I use up my first batch due to the number of tries needed. Since multiple players might need the Scarabs, if they all need it at the same time and they aren't ready, I'm going to have problems. I'm just looking for a way to replenish my storage of Scarabs quickly.

I'm pretty sure there is no way to do it, any maps that I know of that use scarabs usually just have a few reavers constantly firing them, a faster way to get scarabs though, would be to create the scarab, and wait just long enough for him to fire, then remove him and create a new one, this gets rid of the recharge necessary between shots, so you can get new ones faster.

I need the Reavers to be there. Giving the Reaver gives the Scarab, and I need to give the Scarab.

I guess I could try moving scarabs a little at a time (as in not all at once) and seeing if that prevents them from blowing up. I really need something more consistent though.

Do you need an exact amount of 24? I mean, if you get close, it seems like it should work fine..

24 was just for a test. Right now it seems like I need at least 66, probably more if I add in a new spell that needs Scarabs.

Well, you could just be constantly loading up on scarabs, if you have over 66, then it's fine, will they be able to cast this spell repeatedly in a row?

They can cast some of them repeatedly. The biggest problem is if all the spells are cast at the exact same time when I don't have the necessary Scarab count. Storing 66 is a problem as in order to consistently get that much, I need more than 66 Reavers. That takes a hell of a lot of room.

Not if you stack em I wonder if the stacking trick works on reavers without crashing..

To my knowledge, it isn't possible to stack Reavers.

perhaps he means spritewise, unless that doesn't work either

Selfpossessed, I thought i showed you my map. Oh well. Here you go.

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hey morphling i dled that map of yours, but its kinda confusing for the scv for p8, couldn't you just used any unit since the reavers were targetting p9 scvs? i always found it hard to look at other people's triggers, because you don't know when did they do what trigger and since their not all lined up organized its hard to read XD but maybe its just me

The P8 scv is for burrow detection and the P9 scv's are for the reavers to attack.

oooh i see hehe that makes sense now, the scarab following the defiler kinda gives me an idea of making a map with a caster that has a scarab following it as a orb

@ Gameloader

Aside from sprites, I know of no other way to stack units. It doesn't change how Reavers crash (if memory server correct at least).

@ Morphling

Morphling, I've known of and have used the AI scripts already. If you read what I posted, I said that I CAN get it to work, but only after several tries. Patrol AI and Generic Command Target AI still causes a large majority of the scarabs to blow up initially. I have to get the Reavers whose Scarabs blew up to shoot again, then try the two AIs on them again. After doing this several times, it works for ALL the Scarabs, but I need to get it to work FASTER.

My current goal is to see if I can Random Suicide for one turn, then give it back to a generic command target player without the Scarab ever blowing up. If I can do that, then I won't need to replenish my Scarab supply at all.

Update. Set Generic Command Target and Junkyard Dog can't seem to override Suicide Mission's tendency to kill the Scarab after 5 or so seconds. I'm kind of stuck. I can't replenish a large number of Scarabs quickly enough. The 1-2 seconds it takes to get 66+ Scarabs indefinitely alive is too long.

EDIT:
Gah I had to know so I just tested. Random Suicide DOES rearm indefinite life Scarabs. Damnit.

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Alright, I've been testing it relatively rigorously. Even with a single scarab, it SOMETIMES fails at keeping it alive indefinitely. I'm using hypers and I'm continuously moving scarabs to a location and running the ai scripts patrol and generic command target.

Here's my guess as to what is happening.

Animation cycles run at about 24 times a second. Triggers run at about 12 times a second. My guess is that during the animation cycle, a Protoss Scarab will "arm" itself due to finding an enemy nearby and set a timer by which it will suicide. However, if the patrol and generic command target AIs are run on that same animation cycle, it will cancel the timer by preventing the Scarab from attempting to attack a target, causing the Scarab to live forever. The problem arises if the AIs miss the animation cycle and run one cycle too late, giving the Scarab time to find a target and arm itself.

It's only a guess though. I'm scratch my head as to what to do. I'm going to sleep now. Tomorrow, I'm going to try waiting for a large number of Scarabs to be indefinite, then run Suicide AIs for them. If the Suicide AI doesn't "arm" the Scarab again, then my problem will be solved. If the Suicide AI arms it though, then I'm in a bit of trouble

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Nov 27 2008, 10:39 am by SelfPossessed.

Well, after some thought, here's my current situation.

If I want to store permanent Scarabs, I need to do the following.
1) Find a way to detect is a Scarab is not permanent before it blows up. Waiting for a failed Scarab to blow up is the most time consuming part of making indefinite scarabs. I have no idea how to do this.
2) Move Scarabs from a Reaver without the Reaver having to initiate an attack (no enemies nearby so it's impossible to arm). I believe the hallucinated powerup glitch can work, but it's too inconsistent due to how long you have to wait for hallucs to die. I don't think it's usable.

The other option is to create a special section, one per Reaver, and time the Scarabs such that I'll always have at least 77 or so Scarabs (number may change based on what my final spell will be) available. This would involve either quite a few locations (a RPG is always starved for locations) or quite a few give triggers (lag) to do, but it's going to be my backup plan.