Data/Abilities/Queueable/Specialize

Specialize

(Editor Screenshot) needs a good pic

Description

Ability that can act as a Effect - Instant ability with multiple slots but no levels or can queue effects like a Research ability queues Upgrades or a Train ability queues Units

Hint

• Could be used to queue global effects/auras
• Useful if you want a mini-menu in the command card with lots of options but do not want to take a lot of abilities
• Use in combination with the Queue ability

Known bug

Any cooldowns used on timers other than "Time use" will not work or set anything unless their location is set to "unit". The "ability" location is broken and will lead no where.

Example Usage

Vulture - Make Spider Mines (Hidden Build)

The only ingame example of this ability type. When the charges on the spider mine ability is depleted, the button for this ability is revealed allowing the player to replenish the charges via a Modify Unit effect. Could easily have been replaced with an Effect - Instant

URL

As the Vulture and its abilities are already in the campaign dependencies, no URL is needed.

Example Name 2

(Description from a global overview, tell us the relationship of combined data objects to this object)

URL

(URL to the real example, because we could use 1 example for 5 different objects)

Fields Description

Ability - Alignment

• Determines whether the ability is considered neutral, negative or positive.
• If the ability shows anywhere (usually does not, since it will be buffs or buttons you will see in game), it will be coloured by the alignment. Neutral is nothing, positive is green, negative is red.
• This also applies for buttons and buffs.

Ability - Info - Alert

• The alert from the Alerts data type played if the effect slot is unable to be used due to filters, requirements or validators

Ability - Info - Button - Default Button

• The button seen in the command card for the unit with this ability unless otherwise specified by the unit
• Links a button from the Buttons data type to the execute of the slot for the ability

Ability - Info - Button - Flags

• Flags for the buttons
• Hidden (Unknown)
• Send To Selection (Unknown)
• Show In Glossary (Unknown)

Ability - Info - Button - Requirements

• Requirements from the Requirements data type for executing the ability
• Also can determine the conditions under which the button is visible in the UI

Ability - Info - Button - State

• State of the buttons
• Available means the button is always visible
• Restricted means the button will only appear if the Show parts of the requirements are met
• Supressed stops the button from being visible

Ability - Info - Charge - Count (Max)

• Max number of charges this ability can hold

Ability - Info - Charge - Count (Start)

• Starting amount of charges of the ability

Ability - Info - Charge - Count (Use)

• Amount of charges is used with each use of the ability

Ability - Info - Charge - Hide Count

• Hide the amount of charges count in the UI

Ability - Info - Charge - Link

• String that allows several abilities/effects to share the same pool of charges

Ability - Info - Charge - Location

• Determines the sharing of the charges
• Ability means that the charge sharing is only limited to this ability
• Behavior (Unknown)
• Global means that the charges are shared between all players so that an ability could only be used a limited number in total by all players
• Player that the charges are shared between all units of that player
• Unit means each unit has it's own charge pool

Ability - Info - Charge - Time Start

• The time taken to regenerate a charge
• Might have changed since last patch

Ability - Info - Charge - Time Use

• The time increment to the Cost - Cost - Charge - Time Start each time the ability is used
• Might have changed since last patch

Ability - Info - Cooldown - Link

• Allows several abilities to share a common cooldown

Ability - Info - Cooldown - Location

• Determines the extent of the sharing of the cooldown
• Ability means that the cooldown sharing is only limited to this ability
• Behavior (Unknown)
• Global means that the cooldown is shared between all players so that an ability
• Player that the cooldown is shared between all units of that player
• Unit means each unit has it's own cooldown

Ability - Info -Cooldown - Time Start

• Cooldown when the unit is created before it can first use the ability

Ability - Info - Cooldown - Time Use

• How long the cooldown is between uses of the ability

Ability - Info - Cost Display

• If the ability costs resources or vitals to use, this field determines which ones are shown

Ability - Info - Effect

• The effect used when the ability is cast
• Unless a Search Area effect is used to target somewhere else, the target is the caster by default.

Ability - Info - Flags

Flags for the ability

• Auto Cast allows the ability to be autocast
• Auto Cast On makes the ability default to auto cast being on when the unit is created
• In order to have the the auto-cast work, it is required that the unit has any form of "Queue" ability. Otherwise the auto-cast will NEVER trigger.

Ability - Info - Technology Resource Cost

• Cost of using the ability in technology resources (minerals, vespene, terrazine and custom)

Ability - Info - Time

• The duration taken for the queued effect to be cast
• Comparable to the field of the same name in the Build, Research and Train abilities

Ability - Info - Vital Fraction

• Cost of using the ability in percentage of life, shield and/or energy

Ability - Info - Vitals

• Cost of using the ability in life, shield and/or energy

Ability - Max Count

• The cap on the number of times you can use this ability irrelevant of charges

Ability - Set ID

• This is used to link different abilities together
• Presumed to be related to the Issue Orders effect and triggers for commanding units to use a specific ability Cost - Refund Fraction - Charge
• If the ability is canceled this determines what fraction of the Cost - Cost - Charge - Count (Use) is refunded

Cost - Refund Fraction - Cooldown

• If the ability is canceled this field determines what fraction of the cooldown is deducted from the cooldown

Cost - Refund Fraction - Resource

• How much is refunded in resources if the ability is cancelled

Cost - Refund Fraction - Vital Fraction

• How much is refunded in percentage of vitals if the ability is cancelled

Cost - Refund Fraction - Vitals

• How much is refunded in vitals if the ability is cancelled

Stats - Flags

• Flags for the ability
• Best Unit when a group of units is order to cast this ability, only the "best unit" (usually the closest one) will do so
• Transient allows the ability to be used while the unit is moving. If casted outside of its range or arc, the unit will NOT move or rotate to cast the ability
• Turn Auto Cast Off When Owner Leaves turns off the autocast of the ability if the owning player leaves the game
• Use Unit Order Queue makes the ability queue the effects being produced using a Queue ability like the Research ability does with upgrades

Tech Tree - Tech Alias

• (Unknown)

Tech Tree - Tech Player

• (Unknown)

UI - Activity

• The text shown in the UI when the queued effect is undergoing progress

UI - Alert

• The alerts from the Alerts data type that appear if the ability is unable to be cast

UI - Error Alert

• The alert that will happen if the ability cannot be cast.

UI - Orders - Color

• (Unknown)

UI - Orders - Line Texture

• The vertical banner texture shown when queuing several casts of the ability using the shift button

UI - Orders - Model

• The model used to highlight the ground of the location where the ability will be cast if several casts of the ability are queued using the shift button

UI - Orders - Scale

• Scale of the line texture and model

UI - Target Message

• Message that is displayed in the command card while you are targeting the ability.

UI - Tooltip Priority

• Priority of this ability's tooltips.
• Not quite sure how it works, or where in game this has affect.

Related

• Buttons
• Effects
• Requirements
• Effect - Instant
• Queue
• Research
• Train