pftq.com
January 23rd, 2007
Posted by pftq

NearUnit Effects

        Another set of trigger effects for AOM and AOE3 designers…

         These are one of the more unique, less straight-forward trigger effects I have made. One of many things RMS have over scenarios is the randomness of each game. The below effects should add some of that missing element to scenarios and open up many more possibilities.

The basic workings involve:
- Radius: As with other effects and conditions, radius determines how far a selected location can be. Unfortunately, due to a lack of the squareroot function in XS, filling every spot within the radius actually forms a square. :P
- Edges Only: This will set it to only fill the perimeter. If every spot is filled, you will see a hollow square.

         The fact that the radius is a square should not really much a problem. The only way you can notice is if you actually fill every spot, which you probably wouldn’t be doing (in a serious use of the effect) anyways.

Screenshots of what I mean:
Perfectly Filled Squares
Perfectly Hollowed Squares
Instant Box Wall Created With Triggers

         I’ve taken the effects I found useful and also combined it with the ToUnit Effect. Perhaps it is just preference, but I see no point in using an area selection, other than being lazy. Using a unit target, you can simply place a block down to specify the area - not only that, but you can also have a moving area (moving unit). That is far more useful.

These are the trigger effects included in this set:

Army Build Building Near Unit
Army Deploy Near Unit (Heading removed for Space, let me know if this is a problem)
Army Teleport Near Unit
Invoke God Power Near Unit (Area GPs only, and with single location)
Move From Area To Near Unit
Teleport Units to Near Unit
Unit Build Building Near Unit
Unit Create Near Unit

Download NearUnit Effects Here

Some things to keep in mind:
- Army Deploy deploys next to the obstacle if an obstacle is an encountered - therefore you will not have a perfect square or line.

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January 21st, 2007
Posted by pftq

QV Compare Group Set

        These conditions and effects for Age of Empires III and Age of Mythology allow you to select the highest or lowest QV from a group.

Quote:

These effects and conditions allows you to compare an unlimited number of QVs.   The condition compares a single QV against any number of other QVs and the effect gives you the highest or lowest value QV out of a group (again of any number of QVs).

QV Compare Group Condition: Measure unlimited QVs by inserting more conditions without enabling the reset box (make sure to check the same QV in “QV to Check”).   Enable RESET to start a new check.   Note that there may be multiple QVs with highest value.

QV Save Highest or Lowest: The NAME of the QV with the highest or lowest value is saved to QVerHighLow (in same trigger only). Enter “+QVerHighLow+” in place of the QV name when you want to get the name of the QV with that value. Be sure to have the “QV Start Highest or Lowest” ONCE in the trigger BEFORE using this any number of times. Measure unlimited QVs in the same trigger by inserting more conditions without enabling the reset box (make sure to check the same QV in “QV to Check”).   Enable RESET to start a new check.   Note that there may be multiple QVs with highest or lowest value, in which the last QV will be used.

Example Trigger to get the Highest QV of a Group:
Effect: QV Start Highest or Lowest
Effect: QV Save Highest or Lowest
- QV1, QV2, QV3 <-- Find highest of these three
- Reset, On
- Checked Var is, >
Effect: QV Save Highest or Lowest
- QV4, QV5, QV6 <-- Also see if any of these are higher
- Reset, OFF <-- Otherwise it doesn"t remember the last 3 QVs
- Checked Var is, >
Effect: Send Chat
- Player 1 says (with decimal): The Highest QV is “+QVerHighLow+” with a value of “+trQuestVarGet(”"+QVerHighLow+”")+”!
- Player 1 says (no decimal): The Highest QV is “+QVerHighLow+” with a value of “+(1*trQuestVarGet(”"+QVerHighLow+”"))+”!

Results:
- If QV1 is highest (value of 99), it will say: The Highest QV is QV1 with a value of 99.000000! (or 99 if no decimal)

Download QV Compare Group Set

137 unique view(s)
January 20th, 2007
Posted by pftq

ToUnit Effects

         This is my 4th venture into using kb commands for triggers. These commands were discovered by TwentyOneScore nearly 4 years ago, but no effort was put in by the community to understand them. From what I gather, once TOS left, the concept was buried and seemingly lost.

         The build of these triggers is very different from my previous kb trigger effects and conditions (as it is a different type, not an “in Area”), but you should find that it works exactly as it should - ex. Army Deploy with the location set to a unit.

         I have gone and taken all effects I find useful, that use a location as target, and configured them to use a target unit as well:

Army Build Building At Unit
Army Deploy To Unit
Army Teleport To Unit
Invoke God Power At Unit (Lightning, Shift Sands… where unit is)
Move From Area To Unit
QV Invoke God Power At Unit (see Invoke GP At Unit)
Teleport Around Unit To Unit (so weird modding my own code)
Teleport Units to Unit
Unit Build Building At Unit
Unit Create At Unit

Download ToUnit Effects Here

103 unique view(s)
January 20th, 2007
Posted by pftq

Teleport in Area Effect

        Following up on my last release “Convert Units in Area”, I’ve configured the “Teleport Unit” effect as well to take in area inputs.

        It works just as one would expect.   A center unit is selected, which is not teleported of course.   Player ranges to teleport from can be set as well as unit type (which should be defined if possible.. looping through all types is very hard on the computer).

        The exact same code works on Age of Mythology and Age of Empires III, expansion and non expansion.

        Teleport in Area Effect

105 unique view(s)
January 15th, 2007
Posted by pftq

Convert Effects for AOM/AOE3

        Figured out how to do knowledge base queries in XS just yesterday - and after playing around with it for a bit, created this as my first endeavor. :p

        Age of Empires III’s editor lacks a few vital triggers. One is the Change Units in Area effect from Age of Mythology and another is missing from both games: Convert Units in Area. These effects perfectly fullfill both.

         As far as I know, such an effect  has never been created before (however, the technique has been known since 2003…  everyone must have been asleep or it got buried).   There have been some attempts to  create  a Convert in Area effect, but they were always partial.   This is the first true Convert in Area effect that does exactly as one expects.  

Download: Convert Effects

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