Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2010 5:36 am Post subject:
A way to create more mobile EMP vehicles (*)
This trick will allow you to create another unit like the mobile EMP without having to replace it. It's simple enough to give a unit an EMP weapon, but this trick will make the EMP blast spread evenly around the firing unit itself, as if it was deployed instead of fired on an enemy unit. Here's the code:
For weapons:
Code:
[IntiateEMP]
Damage=0
ROF=180
Range=4 ; This should be the same as the range of the EMP blast
ProjectileRange=0
Projectile=InitiateEMPPR
Speed=0
Warhead=SA ; You can use 0% verses to stop the unit from firing on infantry
Report=PLSECAN2
[EMPBlast]
Damage=100 ; Duration of EMP. See notes below.
ROF=180
Range=0.1
Projectile=AAHeatSeeker2
Speed=100 ; Instant effect
Warhead=EMPBlastWH
One interesting thing to note here is that the damage under [EMPBlast] acts a bit weird for some reason. When I set the value to 600 (half of the EMP cannon superweapon) the EMP effect would last for ages. To correct this, you should use alot lower value here then what you want the effect to really last. I don't know why it works as it does.
For projectiles:
Code:
[InitiateEMPPR]
High=no
VeryHigh=no
;Shadow=no
Proximity=no
Cluster=1
Ranged=yes
Range=0.1
AA=no
Image=DRAGON ; It explodes right away so you don't see this
ROT=4
Color=DarkGreen
Splits=yes
AirburstWeapon=EMPBlast
IgnoresFirestorm=yes
RetargetAccuracy=0%
For warheads:
Code:
[EMPBlastWH]
Spread=4 ; How large should the EMP blast be.
EMEffect=yes
AnimList=MEMPFX ; Displays an EMP shockwave. Can use some other anim here.
Bright=yes
In my early tests the unit firing the EMP didn't get EMP'd himself, but now that I test it he does. For my unit it's not a problem, but if you don't want the unit itself get disabled you will have to change the code a bit.
Since the reload time for a mobile EMP should probably be high, you could use
Code:
[IntiateEMP]
...
...
Anim=EMPReload
to display an animation above the unit that appears when the unit fires and lasts as long as the reloading takes time. Of course define EMPReload in art.ini and add it to rules.ini animations list. Oh and don't forget to add EMPBlastWH to the rules.ini warheads list.
You probably don't want the unit firing the EMP without direct orders (could disable half your own army). To make it attack only when ordered to do so, use NoAutoFire=yes and GuardRange=0 keys on the unit itself.
The reason why your EMP duration is a lot longer than expected is due to the Splits=yes logic.
The weapons fired from a Splits=yes Cluster do by default 10times the damage than normal.
Thus in your test with Damage=600 the EMP actually used Damage=6000 and this way last 10times longer.
Since this is almost a tutorial and a good one too, it should be in the tutorials section and rated with one *. _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
Thinking about it, couldn't this logic be used to create a suiciding system for units, just by changing the weapon from EMP to normal damage? Animation related suicide systems always suffer from spill damage since you can't define the warhead for animation damage. Even debris logic animations will spill damage a bit, but at least you can limit it to only 1 armor type. Particle system based suiciding doesn't spill much, but creates visceroids from the destroyed unit / building.
Need Banshee to move the topic to tutorials? QUICK_EDIT
yep, a suicide weapon should work, though i wonder which positive sideeffect you want to give the unit. When the weapon is already used for the selfdestruction, there isn't much left you can do with the unit: just a special particlesystem or animation.
In addition do i doubt, that you can prevent area damage with this system as there could still spread some of the damage to the adjacent cells due to the Split logic that launches the cluster weapon in a random direction (even Range=0 could still cause the projectile to move a bit, thus causing the game to calculate some damage for the nearest adjacent cell).
It's also dangerous to have such a suicide unit with a positive sideeffect (e.g. area healing) in a group of normal units as it would still try to attack the enemy, when the whole group is ordered to attack. So it would move right next to the enemy and instead of deploying the effect to your units it would give it to the enemy.
Thus i would still use the deploy logic for positive effects and for a simple demotruck it can be selfdestroyed by the weapon or whatever system you use.
Could the reaper logic be used again though? Use the 2nd form of the attack to kill the unit itself, then 3rd form to launch the wanted effect, like a burst weapon? Also Anim= key in any or all of the weapon stages could be used to call in debris animation based weapons.
I haven't tested if the suicide damage would spill to nearby tiles, but I'm confident it would be contained in 1 square if you set Spread=0 on the warhead. At least the EMP effect always appears right at the center of the unit. If this was used with infantry then it would affect other infantry units standing in the same tile though. QUICK_EDIT
I managed to create something interesting with this logic. I added damage and warhead to the 1st part of the attack. I've marked the changes to the original InitiateEMP weapon. The weapon uses a new warhead called EMPBlastFarWH also shown below:
Code:
[InitiateEMP]
Damage=100 ; THIS WAS CHANGED
ROF=180
Range=4 ; This should be the same as the range of the EMP blast
ProjectileRange=0
Projectile=InitiateEMPPR
Speed=0
Warhead=EMPBlastFarWH ; THIS WAS CHANGED
Report=PLSECAN2
[EMPBlastFarWH]
Spread=9 ; Large area of effect for the 1st EMP wave
EMEffect=yes
;AnimList=MEMPFX ; No need to display this twice
Bright=yes
This will make the unit fire 2 EMP waves simultaneously. The 1st one will affect 9x9 tiles, but the EMP effect will only last a short while (Damage=100). Note that the damage on the 1st attack form does not get multiplied by 10 as Lin Kuei Ominae noted, this only happens for the 2nd, 3rd, etc forms. The 2nd wave will affect 4x4 tiles but the EMP effect will last alot longer (Damage=100 * 10). So the EMP effect will be weaker at the edges of the attack, but useful for example to force subterranean units to the surface.
I'm sure this logic could be used for other interesting things as well, possibly with even 3rd and 4th parts for the attack. For example you could make the unit cause both EMP effect and damage at the same time, or cause vehicles to get EMP'd while infantry get caught in web. QUICK_EDIT
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A way to create more mobile EMP vehicles (*)
