I might have thought of a new grid system. Not sure if this has already been thought of, but here goes...

You put a grid of high-medium-low hight terrain like this over the whole map: (H=high, M=medium, L=low)

HML
MLH
LHM
And so on.

You need the following locations: One 1x3 location (I'm going to call it "H" for this example), one 3x1 location (I'm calling it "V" for the example), one 1x1 (which I'm calling "C"), one which covers the entire map and has the Low Ground and Low Air flags (and only those flags) checked (I'm calling it "L"), and one which covers the entire map with the Medium Ground and the Medium Air flags (and only those flags) checked (I'm going to call it "M").

Now, center "H", "V" and "C" on a unit. You can figure out if it moves with the Brings condition. You can figure out which terrain hight it is on by detecting if it is at "L" or "M". (If it is at neither, that means it is on one of the High tiles.) By detecting if it is at "V" or "H", you can figure out if it moved horizontally (if it is at "H" but not "V"), vertically (if it is at "V" but not "H") or diagonally (if it is at neither). You can then figure out which square it is on by combining the two results. Use a pair of DCs to track the unit's coordinates.

Put burrowed Zerg units (or possibly small buildings) on the edges of the map, set it up so that each unit on each edge belongs to a different extended player, and cover each edge with a location. You can now center a location on a burrowed unit that has the same coordinate as the unit.

I think that might be hard to understand, so I'll make an example map when I get home.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Dec 23 2008, 7:01 pm by TassadarZeratul.

Very interesting. Seems more exact than this type of mobile grid because it's based on exact 16 by 16 pixel squares. Also seems easier to use.

Kind of restrictive due to you having to mess with the terrain, but it would be perfect for bound maps where you want a checkerboard pattern on the exploding sections anyway.

Yea, really nice idea
I do not know why SEN'ers choose you for the "newb of 08" award...

Unfortunately terrain like that seriously messes with ground unit pathing.

A couple questions, did you mean to do:
HML
MLH
MLH
Like you did?
And what's the point of centering coords on the tile the unit is in?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Dec 23 2008, 4:53 pm by Kaias.

Noob of SEN = Most helpful addition. l2read

/me facepalms
You could still probably find some uses for this... I hope...

No, that was a typo. It's fixed.

If you are referring to the last paragraph (the one that begins "Put burrowed Zerg units..."): This technique enables you to track the position of the unit, and you know the position of the burrowed units on the edge ('cause they're preplaced and don't ever move), so you can center a location on an edge unit that has the same x-coordinate/the same y-coordinate, depending on which one you want. Like, if the unit I was tracking (I'll use a Firebat for the example) was seven squares from the top edge of the map, I could center a location on a burrowed unit that is seven squares from the top edge and at the left of the map. Then, if I wanted a Scourge to fly from the Firebat and head due left, I could order it to move to the location I centered on the burrowed unit.

If you're referring to the second-to-last paragraph (the one that begins "Now, center "H", "V" and "C"..."): Centering the locations "H" and "V" before the unit moves allows you to figure out if the unit moved horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, due to their shapes.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Dec 23 2008, 5:59 pm by TassadarZeratul. Reason: None. TZ is to epic to give edit reasons

I understand that, I just don't understand the point. You could do the same thing by just centering the locations on the unit.

Also, how do you plan on distinguishing topright diagonal versus bottom left diagonal?

Interesting concept. Sadly this could only be used for only certain maps... most people don't want checkerboard patterns on their map xD But could be useful for Arena style maps.

Doesn't that glitch epicly if the unit gets too close to the edge? (Assuming you mean center a really long location on the unit, then center a small location on an edge unit at that location.) And this way, you can also do thinks like making things move on 45 degree angles to the edges if you make each unit belong to a different extended player and use a little math.

I just realized that myself and will have an answer as soon as I think of one.

Yes, I know this fails if you want any form of realistic terrain.

(Although, don't some tilesets have high grass and medium grass that look almost identical? That would help somewhat. You might be able to find a tile that fits pretty well for the low terrain, but I'd have to check that.)

Yeah like Jungle's Temple and High Temple look the same, and same with Jungle and High Jungle.

No, it shouldn't glitch. I think you're missing the primary benefit to this, ditch the units along the edges, they add little. If done right you would know the tile coordinates of the unit. So, you can use the coordinates like a bring condition, instead of actually putting a location there.
X coord is at least #
X coord is at most >#
Y coord is at least some other #
Y coord is at most >some other #
-----
Do some action

Place a burrowed unit where the unit is after each scan
During each scan place a 3x3 location on the unit, center a 1x1 location on 'men' in the 3x3 location.
If the 1x1 centers on your unit, your to the left, if it centers on the burrowed unit, you're to the right.

I don't understand.... I think I have the general idea, but can you write out the triggers please?


You're probably right.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Dec 23 2008, 6:29 pm by TassadarZeratul. Reason: Kaias's BBcode no longer fails.

The problem is that there are two 'L' diagonals, what I suggested just makes it so you know if your unit went left or right, from there you can determine with L diagonal they are in.

I understand that. I don't understand why what you said would do that, which makes me think I misunderstood you.

(Referring to this:I think I'm missing something...)

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Dec 23 2008, 6:53 pm by TassadarZeratul. Reason: Why should I give you a reason?

This help you understand? (It's a little difficult to see)

Oh. I thought you meant to create the burrowed unit under the unit you're tracking. /me facepalms But I still don't understand why that would center the 1x1 location on the unit you're tracking if it goes left and on the burrowed unit if it goes right...

Also, I just realized that centering on [men] would glitch if the player had another [men] unit in the 3x3 location... Wouldn't it?

Because the game picks the leftmost applicable unit

Which is a major sacrifice in order for it to work right, which makes this all more impractical to use.

Oh I was confused, this isn't a mobile grid, this is just unit tracking. Much less useful.

I retract the good things I said

(seriously though, still a interesting and creative idea)

Yah, well, I also described how to use it like a mobile grid. Place burrowed units on the edges with each edge having a different type of unit, and set it up so that the player the unit belongs to is equal to it's x-coordinate minus 9 (if it's on the top/bottom edge) or it's y-coordinate minus 9 (if it's on the left/right edge.) Then you can do anything you can do with a mobile grid by centering locations.

For example: Let's say I had a Firebat and I wanted an explosion one square to his left. I can center a location on an edge unit belonging to player (firebat's y-coordinate plus nine), create a Scourge on the Firebat, order it to the location, and use my "L" and "M" locations to detect when the Scourge is out of the Firebat's square, then kill the Scourge or whatever I want for an animation.

Now, this isn't instantaneous, which might be a problem if you wanted an effect to happen a fairly large distance from the tracked unit. But, you can have preplaced unit (I'd recommend a cloaked Scourge - You can cloak Scourges, right?) and use this system to make it mirror the tracked unit's movements. eg. Tracked unit goes left, Scourge goes left; tracked unit goes down, Scourge goes down, etc. Then, the Scourge's position is constant relative to the tracked unit's position.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Dec 25 2008, 3:56 am by TassadarZeratul.

Just give up for now. The future will bring more inspiration, and eventually you might hit actual gold (as opposed to fools gold).