Data - Panic and Berserk Unit States (Beginner Difficulty)

by ProzaicMuse (24 August 2010)

To the best of my knowledge, there isn’t any kind of “go into a frenzy” or “run around screaming” setting or object that you can readily apply to units. Instead, we are going to be making a system of Effect - Issue Order’s that will tell the affected units what to do.

Panic Unit State

Effects Tab

This will tell the unit to stop whatever it is doing. This will signify the “end” of the panic state.

This is the “panic” part of the ability. This tells the unit to run to each of the offset points we will create.

This will randomly select an offset (direction) to tell the unit to run to based on its current location.

This is a placeholder in the effect chain until you have created the actual behavior.

This effect is optional, but we will use this to apply the affect to units in a given blast area.

Behaviors Tab

This behavior increases the speed of the panicked unit, prevents player control and determines how long the unit flees and how frequently it changes directions.

Buttons Tab

Abilities Tab

Models Tab

Actors Tab

This is the visual blast that represents the initial search area. It’s important that you remove the Host + subject or the blast might end up attaching itself to a unit near the target point. While not game breaking, it can misalign the model so that it doesn’t accurately represent where the search is actually created.

This will create the “panicked” model and attach it to each unit affected by the given behavior. The current setup will allow you to change the behavior’s duration without needed to modify the actor. It will play for as long as the behavior is active.

Berserk Unit State

Effects Tab**

This will tell the unit to stop whatever it is doing. This will signify the “end” of the berserk state.

This is the “berserk” part of the ability. This tells the unit the target found by the search area..

This effect is how the unit will find targets to attack, but we will use this to apply the affect to units in a given blast area.

This is a placeholder in the effect chain until you have created the actual behavior.

Behaviors Tab

This behavior increases the speed and damage of the berserking unit, shifts control to the neutral AI (an alternate method of preventing player control) and determines how long/frequently the unit rages and selects targets. It also causes negative life gain, degenerating 3 hit points per second to represent the self-destruction nature of rage.

Buttons Tab

Abilities Tab

Models Tab

Actors Tab

There is a lot going on with this actor, but it’s actually quite simple when broken down. The actor creates a model, increases the unit’s size and tints both red. Then when the actor is destroyed after the behavior ends, it returns the unit back to normal. Perhaps the most important part of the events is the Target field on each event action. This is how you tell the actor to change its host rather than itself.

Caster Test Unit

We’re going to use an Observer for our abilities, so you won’t need to do anything other than add abilities. I duplicated the Observer and its actor for the text map while renaming it Provocateur.

Units Tab

Feel free to use the attached Test Map or contact me via forum post/IRC if you encounter problems. Keep in mind that I’m a busy person so I may not reply right away, but I’ll do my best to answer all questions/concerns that I am aware of :)

tags: data