is there any way i could force a unit to deal reduced damage to shields? having shields the same type as unit really screws some stuff up.

Pseudotrigger method:
Event: A unit attacks
Condition: Target shields are above 0
Action: Split this up into two cases - if attack damage < shields left, just give the unit some more shield hit points. If attack damage > shields left, add some to the actual life and the remainder to the shields.

This should work, but it's messy. There's probably a data-based way.

In the damage effect for the whatever is attacking the shields change Combat - Shield Bonus (positive or negative). You can also modify a unit's base shield armor if you want it on a certain unit.

i really dont know how to trigger at all, and it doesnt seem like it would fit my purposes. in the data editor, i can see the shield bonus fields, but they dont actually deal a lower amount of damage ever. i tried putting -5 onto a stalker for shields, but it still did full damage to a nexus. it seems to attempt to cause maximum damage with any damage type it has available, and since shields are still classified as armored/light bio/mechanical or structure, it will refuse to accept a reduction in damage. i dont see any way around this, unless i can force the game to cause reduced damages.

Did you try changing the shield armor on units with shields?

i dont think armor would work on shields because i have weapons designed to eat shields with very high fire rates or attack numbers. i also have heavy weapons with over 250 dmg, making armor a very tricky thing to get right.

Look at the Immortal's hardened shields. They use a validator and a damage response. Copy that behavior and edit the damage response.

gtg so not much detail sorry

I just tested the Shield Bonus field and it worked fine. The way it works though is the stalker does 14 damage to armored units (nexus) and then -5 for shields so it ends up doing 9 damage to the shields of the nexus. You can also use the shield factor field to modify the damage down to fractions instead of a set amount.

This might help.

i just retested as well. before i guess i just didnt set the shield bonus low enough. i set it to -9 this time and it worked. odd thing however, against a nexus, a stalker with +5 armored and +5 structures dmg with -9 to shields and 10 base damage did 11 dmg to the nexus shields. therefore, i am now changing the topic of this thread to: how is this damage calculated? the average of 1/15/15/10 dmg would be 10.25, so it could be that if always rounded up. also could be sum of all applicable bonuses/negations, 10+5+5-9=11. shall test.
edit: payne i saw your past after i posted mine, i saw that earlier today but it is quite messy and too cumbersome for my purposes.
edit#2: this thread can be closed down at the leisure of the moderators. turns out bonuses are accumulative, not averaged.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Aug 31 2010, 8:54 pm by exelsisxax.

Why would the bonuses ever be averaged? That makes no sense.

i thought they might be averaged because the bonuses ALL stack. if you have a unit with +2 dmg to mechanical, armored, structure, and massive, and hit a unit with all of those types, it would do 8 bonus damage. thats probably why no melee units have more than 2 dmg types.