This is a system that can detect the position at which a unit died with a ~50% of success. Bear in mind that this is nothing new. I am making this topic because this system might be very useful for map-makers taking part in the 2009 Last Stand RPG Challenge, as it offers a simple, location-efficient method of making monsters drop items upon death (and other useful things). If you have any questions about the system, feel free to ask them here.

Example Map: Duplicating Marines

If this helps atleast one mapper with his map, this topic achieves its goal.

So you basically put a burrowed zergling under every unit, then check if the unit is still on top of it or not.

Yes. Important note: I put the burrowed zerglings under the units AFTER a death has been detected, so there is no need to move zerglings under units every trigger cycle. Therefore it works with large amounts of moving units.

Its been done JaFFy. Sorry to burst your bubble.

Notice he's not passing this off as a new concept?
If you look at the date on the linked map it was uploaded "June 20 2008"

Anyway, I'm linking to this and a few other threads as helpful concepts in the 2009 Challenge thread so if you have anymore suggestions to add please tell me. http://www.staredit.net/117306/

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Mar 8 2009, 6:47 pm by Kaias. Reason: Link

Viet: Lethal illusion is the one who first thought of this, as far as I know. And I doubt you were one of the people he showed his map to, so how did you know it was done before, assuming you didn't notice that I said it's not new?

Kaias: All the Direct Damage topics must be in the helpful concept list (there is the original announcement topic in Theory and Ideas and a help topic in UMS Assistance... and some odd feeling tells me that there is a third one, but that might be wrong). Unfortunately there is no wiki/tutorial on those. I'll make a test map when I get back home for Easter Break, and possibly (and that's a big 'possibly') make a wiki on the subject, maybe with SP's help.

Who doesn't know that this has been done before..?

It seems to me that not everyone was aware of that. The most common ideas that were floating around were either for static units or based on a 1x1 pixel location following a unit.

...but then again, I am on break from mapping for more than half a year now.

Well I would use this system but it would be hard for more then a few units, plus its not very reliable.

Explain more about the situation you have in mind. I'm quite sure that DPD, if applied smartly, will function flawlessly for a very large numbers of units (try copying triggers and placing more marines in the test map and see for yourself). It is impossible to increase the 50% though, which I assume is the 'lack of reliability' that you are referring to?

Sorry for not reading the whole topic : so there is known system that detects death up to 100%?

No, hyper triggers run every other frame, and if a unit dies on an off frame, it's not detected as dying. If you wait 0 ms, will it jump to the next frame or the next trigger run? Also, if you wait 0 ms on multiple triggers, do they add up to 42*number of waits? That's the only way I could see it being more accurate.

A location for each applicable unit.

No It's not possible to make Hyper triggers any faster.

EUDs...
but you would need a kind of switch for nearly every unit placeable on map
and then you still don't have a location over that unit.

It's not worth it.

Just tested this map for the hell of it. Interesting thing to note: if you stand next to a data disc and kill another Marine, the data disc will most likely spawn next to you rather than where the Marine dies.

Though I don't exactly remember the setup of this map (are you a wraith flying arounf and killing marines?), I guess it's just SC not being able to place a data disc due to its size...

Whatever. That's not the point of the map at all. The point is that you can easily use this for enemies dropping items, kill-based spells, etc...

In Theory:::::::


I know it probably wouldn't be all too convenient, but wouldn't it be possible to make it so the units can't die on those frames that aren't affected by triggers?

Like, maybe have the first trigger activated in each loop be the first player's first trigger, making them all vincible, and then having the very last player's last trigger making them invincible?

That would make it impossible to kill units in general. Besides, you're probably confusing something here: frames are twice shorter than pauses between the last and the first trigger, not the other way around.

EDIT:
Fuck, nevermind. I was playing the wrong map. Some random test map that involves randomly placing items under a dead Marine.

My bad.

No, I'm pretty sure I'm not confusing anything at all. It would make any unit invincible untill triggers are in play. When Triggers start, The units are vincible, making them susceptable to the Death Checking thing. When the triggers end, it turns off the invincibility, and makes them not susceptable to the death checker thingie.

Wouldn't my Theory work for a HP System using Scarabs?