Okay, so I've got this spell idea I want to do, but I've no idea how to actually pull it off.

It involves teleporting three lings to the nearest hero in a triangle around them, lots of flashy stuff and the hero is stunned for five seconds.

Now, I can do everything except make the triangle with the three lings; I've been told that it's something to do with mobile grids?

The layout should be like this:-

-----Z-----
-----E-----
Z--------Z

Whereas Zs are zerglings, and the E is the enemy.

Could anyone give me some guidance or an example on this please?

Thanks in advance.

Yes, mobile grids are the way to go here.
Please check the wiki(s), tutorials and use google and search before creating a topic. It's part of the posting rules!

Yes, I know, I have read the wiki.

I was asking how to execute it, seeing as I do not understand grids whatsoever.

That wasn't really helpful.

Fist you create units. Either 4,9,16 or 25, depending of how big your triangle should become.

Then you remove the units 1 by 1 and center locations on them.
Assuming you have a 3x3 devourer grid (created 9 devourer) and want to create lings at 01, 04 and 09, you center 'Ling1' on devourer (will be 01) at anywhere, then remove 3 devourer (01, 02 and 03), center 'Ling2' on devourer at anywhere (will be 04), then remove another 5 (04, 05, 06, 07 and 08), and center 'Ling4' on the last devourer (will be 09), then remove it.

Then you can create the lings and your effects at these locations.

EDIT: Some info on why the patterns are the way they are:
When creating units, starcraft places the units in a counter clockwise spiral around the canter, starting with down.

When centering on (or removing, killing, etc.) units starcraft is always taking the leftmost unit that it can find, and when there's multiple units with the same x-coordinate it picks the one with the highest Unit ID (= created last)

Thanks Nude, much appreciated =)

I'll try it and get back to you soon.

Just be aware it won't be a perfect equilateral triangle. Should be pretty close but

----A----
----B----
C------D

Distance AB will be slightly less than BC or BD. If we take a grid unit = 1 block, with a devourer being 2x2 grid, then AB = 2
and BC = BD = square root of 8, approximately 2.828. Dunno if that will affect what you're doing, just a point you might want to know about.

Couldn't you have a special grid designed to get around that or mitigate the effect?

Like:
Devourer Devourer Devourer
Devourer Devourer Devourer
Scourge Scourge Scourge

or something.

That won't give you a square grid, but it's an idea. If you found a setup that happened to give a perfect equilateral triangle, you could use it though.

Would the fact that the units are visible affect the effect (paha) at all?

If so, would this be possible with observers or similar?

Having the triangle equilateral isn't really priority, seeing as the point of the attack is to surround the enemy and stun them, giving them the chance to attack the enemy from all sides without difficulty. Should be good to combo with though.

Mobile grids generally go way to fast to be seen, especially if you remove and not kill the units, It's hard to even know they're there.


You could easily make a square surrounding the person.

Yes, I know, but it's a "Triplets" thing.

And thanks for the info on the grids, I just tried it, and yeah, it's much simpler than I thought and works perfectly.

Thanks everyone =)

Actually, You CAN make a Better triangle by using 14 wraiths.
You Can't keep the wraiths there, there are 3 that make a triangle that is closer to being equilateral than other triangles. Just remember to use the ones NOT on the outside, but the second one to the bottom left hand corner, and the second one to the bottom right hand corner, and the VERY top one (not the second one FROM the top, but the very top one).
That will make it so the lings are equidistant from your target of the spell.

I have made a test map, and it does work. The giving might be a bit confusing, but you can do it with some experimentation.

I reckon i could give it a go.

Cheers, Pyro.

Create 8 Current Player
Create 1 Computer Player
Create 8 Current Player
Create 1 Computer Player
Create 1 Current Player
Create 6 Computer Player
Remove All [Unit] For Current Player
Center Location "Location 1" on [Unit] owned by Computer Player
Create 1 ZLing At "Location 1"
Remove All [Unit] For Computer Player at "Location 1"
Center Location "Location 1" on [Unit] owned by Computer Player
Create 1 ZLing At "Location 1"
Remove All [Unit] For Computer Player at "Location 1"
Center Location "Location 1" on [Unit] owned by Computer Player
Create 1 ZLing At "Location 1"
Remove All [Unit] For Computer Player at "Location 1"


And there you have it. A triangle with three zerglings spawned on the three points.

Why do you suggest such strange placement?
21 20 19 18 17
22 07 06 05 16
ZL 08 01 04 15
ZL 09 02 03 14
ZL 10 11 12 13

Did you mean
21 20 19 ZL 17
22 07 06 05 16
23 08 01 04 15
24 ZL 02 03 14
ZL 10 11 12 13
? Still doesn't make sense.

But why not
21 20 ZL 18 17
22 07 06 05 16
23 08 01 04 15
ZL 09 02 03 ZL
-- 10 11 12 13

Which would be
Create 13 Current Player
Create 1 Computer Player
Create 4 Current Player
Create 1 Computer Player
Create 4 Current Player
Create 1 Computer Player
Remove All [Unit] For Current Player
Center Location "Location 1" on [Unit] owned by Computer Player
Create 1 ZLing At "Location 1"
Remove All [Unit] For Computer Player at "Location 1"
Center Location "Location 1" on [Unit] owned by Computer Player
Create 1 ZLing At "Location 1"
Remove All [Unit] For Computer Player at "Location 1"
Center Location "Location 1" on [Unit] owned by Computer Player
Create 1 ZLing At "Location 1"
Remove All [Unit] For Computer Player at "Location 1"

I think i got the 5 sqare grid wrong, maybe it starts back from the top?

it was supposed to be

. . A . .
. . . . .
. . . . .
. . . . .
. A . A .

That's not a very good triangle. It will end up being isosceles. He wants it to be equilateral (And also equiangular).


Btw, Nude, thanks for elaborating on that coding. It wasn't making sense to me, I thought I just didn't understand something, so I didn't reply.