AI Script Issues

[sneakylikeaninja]

HELLO!

I've been trying to make certain AI scripts run properly for a while now and so far I've gotten one to work, one to half way work, and that's where I got stuck. I hear a lot about the magical "Set unit order: Junk yard dog" script being useful for a ton of things, but when I go to use it, nothing happens at all.

The one thing I've always wanted to do was make a ton of scourges all spawn and amass themselves in a writing pile in the middle of a location, then disperse into a beautiful circle of wings and teeth before dying into a ring of siege tanks or lurkers. I got them to spawn correctly, bump into each other correctly, and when the deaths limit is reached, they all become lurkers. The only problem is that the lurkers are all in one spot, right in the middle of the location. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but the junkyard script never successfully activates the way people say it's supposed to. I know it's possible because I've seen countless maps all use the same technique for randomly distributing units into something that's at least close to a circle and I've played maps that actually go ahead and make the circle. Can somebody who knows a little something about circles and junkyard dogs shed even a little light on this?

If somebody can teach me to pull this off then I'll be convinced that the Messiah has come...

Edit:
<------ Added that question mark thingy to the title on the last page. Alt+[left arrow] to see it with advanced clarity!

[IskatuMesk]

Junkyard script is what critters use to move around, basically. I am not sure what applications it has to maps (I'm not a mapper), but are you activating the AI for the player who owns the units, and before or after they are spawned?

[Vetraeus]

SC1 Script Issues right? because right now SC2's is all ass-backwards. Thanks to last patch of course.

[IskatuMesk]

I would assume because this is in the SC forum and not the SC2 forum it has nothing to do with sc2.

[Thalraxal]

What Junkyard Dog will do is make the units in the area the script was activated in wander the map aimlessly for all time. If you want your units to put themselves into a circle formation and stay there, Junkyard Dog is not what you're looking for.

To achieve your desired affect, I think you might be stuck using the Order action.

[sneakylikeaninja]

Wait just a minute here...!

I spoke face to face, screen to screen, username to username with a map maker, and I played the map he was currently working on which had this feature in it. He told me specifically that the AI script to use on the computer player was junk yard dog. Although I'm starting to become a little skeptical about this, I have a feeling it's true because if the units are ordered to wonder around aimlessly, then the result will be a wide variation of directions that the units are initially ordered in, especially if there is a lot of them, producing a ring. If you give the computer owned units back to a human player, the units will no longer respond to the script and will continue on the course they were set on as computer units.

"To achieve your desired affect, I think you might be stuck using the Order action."
-Thalraxal

If I used the Order action only, I would need to have a perimeter of very small locations around the entire map, then I would need to somehow develop a system that singled out wraiths, randomized a series of switches, determined a location, sent that unit to that location, gave it to different player, and repeated about twenty to eighty times. THAT is waaay too complicated for one thing, and entirely unnecessary for another because the junk yard script was created. Although I'm starting to consider using the script along with the order action with my reason being that nothing I've tried so far has worked when I use the script by itself. And I've tried...a lot.

Also, if you people need some evidence that it's possible, I have some maps where this circle business is demonstrated. Feel free to ask me for one and I'll post it on here just for you people that never play arena games.

[Thalraxal]

Okay, made a quick map to test it out, I see what you're getting at. Yeah, Junkyard Dog will do what you want most of the time. It's random, after all, but statistically you're most likely going to get an uneven ring.

Make sure the AI script is properly assigned to the player that owns the Scourges and you should be good.

As for the Lurker spawning: units always spawn in the middle of the location, or as close as they can get to it. Try spawning the Lurkers in multiple, smaller locations.

[AngelSpirit]

I can't remember off the top of my head if this applies to JYD, but check that the player running the AI script is a computer. Humans can't run most AI scripts.

[Pr0nogo]

Preserve trigger every now and then on the script trigger will allow a more randomised direction of movement and attack.