StarCraft: Hands of Power -- Completed!

(June 6th, 2009 - June 15th, 2009) Completed: July 31st, 2009
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thebrowncloud
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Re: StarCraft: Hands of Power

Post by thebrowncloud »

Okay, so we're at 17 now, but we're going back to some of the old maps and changing a few things to make it a little more interesting. With such changes and 3 more maps to go, we very well wont get to test very much, but we'll see.

But i propose a problem that we have been experiencing (or rather we can't figure out how to do this). So here is the scenario. the player is terran and is able to build marines and vultures, but no medics or goliaths. a computer ally is able to build medics and goliaths, but no marines or vultures. once the player gets to the comp ally's base, they merge together into one army under the player's control. how do i make it so the player now has access to every unit that the respective sides were unable to build?
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thebrowncloud
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Re: StarCraft: Hands of Power

Post by thebrowncloud »

Laconius wrote: I'm pretty certain that if you disabled a player's units through Unit Settings in the Campaign Editor, then there is no way to re-enable them again in the same map. 

However, you could simply use triggers that instantly remove the units that you don't want the specified players to build.  When the forces combine, you could set a switch that disables said remove trigger.
Krazy wrote: Limiting the player's vespene would also work.  Have it set to preserved 0 until they get the ally's base.  Then, disable that trigger.
Both good ideas. I know that Blizzard made it happen in mission 2 of the bw protoss campaign (when you get the dark templar on your side, u can then build them), but they also have better editors than us and they made the game, so.....  :-\

We'll experiment with both of your ideas and see how that works. If worse comes to worst we can just can the limited tech tree idea and have both player and comp ally be equally capable.
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Dem0nS1ayer
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Re: StarCraft: Hands of Power

Post by Dem0nS1ayer »

You can disable the units for the specific player, and then create the building for the player when they get into the base.  For example, disable goliaths, and then when the player gets into the building, create an armory somewhere.  I don't know.  :-\
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omega20
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Re: StarCraft: Hands of Power

Post by omega20 »

thebrowncloud wrote: Both good ideas. I know that Blizzard made it happen in mission 2 of the bw protoss campaign (when you get the dark templar on your side, u can then build them), but they also have better editors than us and they made the game, so.....  :-\
Actually, in that mission you can start build DT from the beginning of the mission (you only need to build a gateway and... voila!). However, they need 100 gas to be built, and you only're given 600 minerals at the beginning of the mission. So, to create DT you MUST build an Assimilator, a Gateway and a Nexus. And the dark templar scene happens when you build a Nexus and a Pylon. ;)
Krazy wrote: Limiting the player's vespene would also work.  Have it set to preserved 0 until they get the ally's base.  Then, disable that trigger.
Yes, that could work. But you'll be unable to build Firebats, Tanks, Ghosts and any air unit until you've access to the vespene, and without medics or goliaths... the only units you'll be able to use until you get the ally's base'll be Marines and SCVs.

Krazy's idea is good, but it'll make the mission a bit difficult. I'd use instead Laconius' idea. This way, you'll have access to more units. ;)
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Re: StarCraft: Hands of Power

Post by Symmetry »

As an alternative to limiting vespene, you could make the player unable to build an academy or an armory and when the player merges his army, give the player control of the AI's academy/armory.
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Re: StarCraft: Hands of Power

Post by omega20 »

Symmetry wrote: As an alternative to limiting vespene, you could make the player unable to build an academy or an armory and when the player merges his army, give the player control of the AI's academy/armory.
Yes, but then if you'll only have access to 1 academy/armory, and if they're destroyed, you wouldn't be able to build more. Also, without a academy/armory, the player'll be unable to built Firebats and Valkyries.
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Re: StarCraft: Hands of Power

Post by GnaReffotsirk »

Respawn the structures? Like how cerebrate respawns or the overmind.

You can also add a limit to this respawns by using counters. You can have these structures taken away from the player after N units are controlled by the player (trained); You can have these structures taken away from the player if he is at a certain level of ore or gas; etc.

You can spawn new structures for the player for different conditions. Etc... :)

You can then leave a beacon on the area when the structure is destroyed, for example. And the player will have to have say 150 minerals in store and send an SCV to the beacon and poof! out comes the Barracks.
Last edited by GnaReffotsirk on Sun Jul 26, 2009 4:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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omega20
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Re: StarCraft: Hands of Power

Post by omega20 »

GnaReffotsirk wrote: Respawn the structures? Like how cerebrate respawns or the overmind.

You can also add a limit to this respawns by using counters. You can have these structures taken away from the player after N units are controlled by the player (trained); You can have these structures taken away from the player if he is at a certain level of ore or gas; etc.

You can spawn new structures for the player for different conditions. Etc... :)

You can then leave a beacon on the area when the structure is destroyed, for example. And the player will have to have say 150 minerals in store and send an SCV to the beacon and poof! out comes the Barracks.
Yeah, this can work too. Anyways, the decision of which one of these ideas are you gonna use's up to you, browncloud. ;)
Last edited by omega20 on Sun Jul 26, 2009 4:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: StarCraft: Hands of Power

Post by thebrowncloud »

Thanks much, guys! Tim and I are still working on what we want to do with it. since there doesnt seem to be a method thats really..... fluid(?)..... we might just scrap the idea and have the comp ally stay a comp ally. also, some of the ideas that u guys said might not work cause i didnt say the actual units that were restricted for each player (trying to spoil as little as possible, even though that seems an insignificant detail  :-\)

We are getting pretty close to finishing, but we are overhauling a few missions to try and make them a bit more interesting. unfortunately, two of our missions that were borderline dungeon-crawler missions had some serious bugs in them, so we decided to start those from scratch. still at 17ish missions complete, but the last three will be pretty easy. 18 and 19 are wrap-ups of two character's storylines and the last one is a bit of a surprise!  ;)

We hope you like it when we finally get it done!  ;D
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Re: StarCraft: Hands of Power

Post by thebrowncloud »

So I have recently encountered a problem while testing some of our maps the other day that seems to be recurring. Apparently the method i use for playing music and displaying dialogue dont mix well. What happens is that every time an amount of time is invilved with a trigger, it screws up the music and actually makes it play again while its already playing. This would include every time that a series of transmissions takes place. Also, while the music is playing, transmission triggers dont take place until after the music they created finishes. I'm assuming that the problem is the way i have my music setup:

Condition:
Music (Switch) is clear

Action:
Set Music (Switch)
Wait 'blah' milliseconds
Preserve trigger

Condition:
Music (Switch) is set

Action:
Play 'blah (wav file)'
Clear Music (Switch)
Preserve trigger

Can anybody help?
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Re: StarCraft: Hands of Power

Post by Lavarinth »

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Re: StarCraft: Hands of Power

Post by Dem0nS1ayer »

To be safe that you're not experiencing wait blocks, it would be safer to use death counts.
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Re: StarCraft: Hands of Power

Post by thebrowncloud »

Ah, I see! Another player for the second part of the setup! Never would have thought of that. Thanks much, Lav!
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Re: StarCraft: Hands of Power

Post by The Oracle »

Yeah the second player is the key to the music looping and absorbs the wait time.  The human player just plays the sound.
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Re: StarCraft: Hands of Power

Post by thebrowncloud »

I'll definitely have to keep that in mindfor the future. This is the first project I've done where I've incorporated music, so I just tried what I thought would work. Turns out I thought wrong.
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