Hey everyone. Long time user, first time poster.

I am making a defense map where you have to defend one building from death. Simple enough, right?
Well, that would be the case but I'm having an issue with making the map harder than before.

Because of the way the map works, I can't use the "order" trigger to move computer units. Players get to choose where they defend their building anywhere in the map (except certain areas where triggers block them from building there) so I use the suicide AI script. Also, every unit is invincible except the building they're defending so the attackers have only one thing to attack.
When I spawn tanks, they walk right up and shoot like normal, but if there's a way to make them siege when they're in the range of this building, that would be ideal. Or even sieging at all would be nice..
I tried giving the player controlling tanks (player 8) some computer AI with Insane and such, but it didn't work.
I gave player 8 all tank upgrades and research. Still nothing.
I've been told that this is a lost cause and I should just give up, but I figure the experts at se.net would know.

Thank you so much in advance for your help.

^ I've scratched that idea ^
and now I have a new problem I'd like help with.

On this defense map I'm making, if player 1 leaves, dies, or loses, the game cannot continue as no player has a 'starter' unit to activate the trigger. I'm looking for a way to give a 'starter' to P2 if P1 doesnt exist, or is dead. Or if P2 doesnt exist, to skip over P2 and go right to P3, and so on.

RIght now my current plan is that in the top right of the map, there's a Protoss building, and because it's placed before the game starts, a player who isnt there wont get this building. So, I'm trying to figure out how to give a player the 'starter' unit based off that. Or, if there is a way to kill/remove all units owned by Player 12, that would be nice to know aswell. So if someone leaves, they're crap isnt left behind.
Thanks zany_001!

Problem 2: When a reaver shoots a scarab, the scarab sits next to the building and deals its damage once every .1 seconds until it exploads about 6-8 seconds later, dealing massive damage, which kills any unit no matter what in one hit. Is this because I'm using hyper triggers?
Thanks again Zany.
I'll edit this thread once I run into another problem, and I'm sure I will.

Problem 3: With the cloaking beacons, can I put one location over 3 beacons and still get good results as if I put 1 location over each beacon, and I did the AI script 1 time per beacon in that location?
Basically, I got 3 beacons in 1 location, and i'm wondering if I can cloak them all at once with 1 location.

Problem 4: Having problems with shared vision. Was hoping I could find an explanation of how it works, and what I need to do to turn off my shared vision for another player (so they cant see my things) It seems what ever I do, it doesn't work. I'm guessing it has something to do with the players I choose to own the trigger.
Well thats awesome. Now I just need to sit down and figure out how I'm going to place this terrain. :\

Post has been edited 11 time(s), last time on Sep 6 2009, 9:55 pm by dpp89.

Getting computers to do stuff through the AI scripts is somewhat hard. About the best you could do is to remove/create new tanks when they are in range.

Yeah, if that's the closest thing to making it work every time, I might as well drop that idea.
I'm having a new problem. Check the first post for more information.

Just do a check for each player.
If P1 brings at least 1 unit to Anywhere,
Give CHOOSINGUNIT to P1 at location.

Then
If P1 brings at most 0 units to anywhere
If P2 brings at least 1 unit to Anywhere
Give CHOOSEUNIT to P2 at location.

Do the same for the other players, adding the previous player each time.
So P4 would have a check if P1 P2 p3 aren't there, and P4 is, give the unit.

Yeah I used that idea, only customized it a bit to fit my needs, but the same basic idea. Thank you sir!

No problem.

For problem 2, I doubt it is because of hypers. Is it just an ordinary reaver attacking the building like normal? Or are you trying to move with triggers?

5 reavers spawn from 5 different locations (total of 25 reavers).
Then they are ordered to attack (via random suicide AI). Every unit is invincible (except the building you defend, so they attack only that).
Once they get in range of shooting off a scarab, they do so. Then, the scarab sits next to the building for a bit (5-8 seconds) dealing damage every 0.1seconds, effectivly ripping through 500hp in 7 seconds (scarabs do 20 damage)

And that is all.

If I can't fix it, I'll just have to scrap the scarab level and replace it with something else~

Ah. What you have discovered is the amazing things random suicide scarabs will do. While this is useful for systems like DDS (use the search tool to find out more) it isn't good in your case. You will have to use a different AI script or not use reavers. There may be other workarounds but those are the easiest/best I can think of.

So now I have 3 options:
1) Rework triggers to have reavers act different than every other unit spawned (long, boring, stressful)
2) Cut out reavers. Use another unit instead (easy, takes very little time)
3) My game is now extra hard. =D

If I have any more problems/questions, I'll update this thread to avoid spamming and multiple threads.

Thanks zany. =)

Sorry for double post, but I have a small question in the first post.

Try it and see.

Alright.
Also one more thing. I'm having a problem with player 8 being able to see me through walls, meaning I didn't trigger it right so my vision is not shared for him. I'm guessing it's in this trigger:
I forgot how vision triggers work, do I need to put P8 in as one of the selected people who owns the trigger to have him unvision me? Or...


EDIT: Tested the beacons, and yeah, doesnt work. Only disables one of the three.

To be honest, you can start a new topic and I think you would be fine. But I suppose this is okay, because you are asking a lot of questions. What do you mean you run an AI script to cloak a beacon? Do you mean the enable/disable doodad state? All you have to do is detect if a beacon is anywhere in the map, center a location on that beacon, disable the doodad state, share vision somehow(create an observer for the player and then kill it) and give it to another player. It'll keep switching through all the beacons until the beacons are all owned by the player you want to give it too, which can be anyone. So basically, one player owns all the beacons at the beginning, and then running this trigger sequence, you'll eventually give them all to another player.

Yes.

I create one thread for all my problems, because if I didn't, people might think this forum is mine with all my questions - lol.

But yeah, I have shared vision for P7 (person who will be owning the beacons). I know how to make it work, I was just wondering if 1 location could disable more than 1 beacon at a time (guess not).
Now I have an issue with sharing vision

My yes was to the bit about P8 having to be one of the players running the vision trigger.

using the same topic is fine as long as you edit the description/title appropriately.

Shared vision works counter-intuitively. When player 1 runs "turn on vision for player 8", that means player 1 can now see player 8's units. Run turn on shared vision for player 7 on all players.

Alright that's good to know. Vision has always provided problems for me, this should clear up some confusion.