Little concept I had a while ago. It's similar to a Dark Swarm casting system, but works for multiple players, and the hero can be any ranged attacker. Here's how it works:

1) Place burrowed invulnerable units (or cloaked air units) near the player's hero so that they fill a square with the sides being the same length as the player's attack range (in tiles). The smaller the unit, the better.
2) Cycle through these burrowed units and spawn some other burrowed unit that the player has vision to and can attack above each one.
3) If the player moves, get rid of all the burrowed units and recreate them near the player.
4) Wait until one of these burrowed units dies.
5) Cycle through the invulnerable units until you find one without the other type on it.
6) The location will then be where the player attacked.

If your playing area is small, you can just preplace the invulnerable burrowed units all over the arena and skip step three.

I've attached an example map. I was rather lazy in making it, but you can see the system being used. Attack a mine with your Wraith and it will teleport to the mine you killed. If anyone wants, I can make a version with a larger "arena" and not use preplaced units, to show how to do it.

EDIT: Epic update: http://www.staredit.net/207969/

Post has been edited 4 time(s), last time on Feb 1 2010, 2:58 am by TassadarZeratul.

Yes please make a larger test map without pre placed units

Okay, on it.

Neat stuff. Force 1 shouldn't have random start locations.

I can see some complications arising from multiple ground ranged units using this, though (without preplaced units)

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Feb 1 2010, 12:37 am by yoonkwun.

Attached is a version with a bigger arena (64x64) and no preplaced units (except a Marine and two Start Locations). Attack a Lurker with your Marine to teleport to that Lurker.

I don't get how useful this would be in a real application though. What would we be using it for? Also, this seems to get really finicky near obstacles/doodads/walls, how would you solve that? I managed to break it going near the edges. Another issue is that you move really slow with ground units.

It's useful in a real application the same way a Dark Swarm or Disruption Web casting system is. Another possible use is as a spell selection system: Attack a burrowed unit to your left to cast spell 1, attack a burrowed unit above you to cast spell 2, etc.

I am aware that it glitches near the edges. A quick fix would be to line the edges with walkable Null: You can create units on it, but units can't walk onto it. I'm pretty sure that Creating the lurkers somewhere else and Moving them (instead of Creating them directly around the player) would fix the problem with doodads and units.

I didn't notice any slowing, but that's probably just me. Can you make a quick map demonstrating that it slows you? It's not that I don't believe you, but I want to know exactly how much it slows you by. (If it does slow you, increasing the size of the location "Location 1" would probably help a lot.)

EDIT: http://www.staredit.net/?p=shoutbox&view=717

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Feb 1 2010, 2:46 am by TassadarZeratul.

Eww mobile grids.

I got bored so I made this. This map can be pixel movement detection and more range, I was just lazy. It doesn't place an air lock and causes no slowdown. But the unit placement is less uniform and player-expensive.

^ you can't move/create a unit on the border between walkable null/walkable tile

Attachments:

Seems kinda clunky to me. Doodads and stuff interfere. Hard to manage; you have to constantly scan it; might cause lag due to running those grids all the time; breaks at the edge of the map (I know, fixable); would glitch to high heaven if, in multi, two of these systems got in the same general vicinity; overall, I think there are better systems for spellcasting. Even a leashed observer beats this to pieces.

It's an interesting application of grids, but not really comparable to a Dark Swarm system, as you claim. For one, the main feature of a Dark Swarm system is that wherever you click within range, it will cast; with this system, if your click goes between two of the target units, you don't get the effect (this also means that casting will be a lot slower with your system as opposed to with Dark Swarm, because it requires precision with the mouse, and mouse precision is the enemy of fluid speed). You've also got to choose between no air and no obstructive terrain, either of which would be a substantial limitation. I suppose it might have some potential in multiplayer applications if you're not using the air-unit version (where the target units will displace off of each other), but in general, the comparative poverty of having to attack one of a small set of target points as opposed to being able to cast anywhere within range, combined with the limits imposed on the map by the system's restrictions, would put this a definite step below a dark swarm/disruption web system.

@above: Maybe I was a bit over-eager when I said it was better than swarm for casting, but I don't accept that it's as bad as you claim. If nothing else, it's the only real way to create this type of effect in multiplayer. (I know that Elementa has a multiplayer swarm system, but that type of system limits the arena size greatly.) In responce to your comment about having to click directly on a unit: That is a valid point, but if you used Lurkers for the targets and a 1x1 tile grid (with scourges and observers), this would be a non-issue because of the size and proximity of the Lurkers.

@ImagoDeo: You only need to run the grid when the unit moves a substantial distance or attacks one of the burrowed units, so it shouldn't lag. And even if it does, you could use Move Units to "create" the grid air units - Move is much less laggy than Create, or so I've heard. (I mean preplacing a bunch of obs+scourges or devourers in an out-of-play area and Moving them where you need the grid, then Moving them back when you're done.) I guess it could glitch if two players got too close, but I also see a way to fix this. Expect an example map when I get home.

I this this would be cool if used sparingly for maybe one character in an AoS/RPG/Arena game, but this as the standardized method of spellcasting would be very, very bad. Overall, it's a little less effective than swarm, but you gain the advantage of not having to use defiler which is very good.

In a typical setting though, it's just as error prone due to doodads and unwalkable terrain as swarm is so don't worry much about that aspect.

Explain.

If you had let's say 6 people trying to cast spells at eachother in a fairly limited size area, this would be extremely clunky, inefficient, and bug prone compared to a triggered method based on gateway system or something like that. However, if you limit the use of this system to one character, it'd be just as good as dark swarm cast.

I know how to address all these concerns. I can't describe it with words, so I'll show you an example map when I get home.

Where's this example map we were promised?

If you CAN pull this off, it might actually be useful.

I like the idea, although as earlier said, it gets glitchy near map edges and implaceable terrain, also, doesn't it leave a nice blood mark wherever you shoot?