Effects and looks

The lasting effects units carry, the particles a client draws, and how units look and move on screen. None of this changes what a unit can do; that is replication’s to say.

Lasting effects

A lasting effect sits in one of a unit’s effect slots and shows on its icon row. A server puts one on with EffectAdded, replaces the one in a slot with EffectReplaced, restates how many are stacked with EffectCount, and takes it off with EffectRemoved. The unit carrying an effect can differ from the unit that cast it. A server can do each of these for several units at once (EffectAddedGroup, EffectReplacedGroup, EffectCountGroup, EffectRemovedGroup), and set the number an effect shows on its icon with EffectCounter.

Particles

ParticlesCreated starts a client drawing particles, and KillParticle stops one. A server can also pause or resume a named group of emitters with EmitterPause, and drive a value of a unit’s lasting particles from something that changes, such as a capture point or the unit’s resource, with ParticleSource.

ParticlesCreated starts sets of particles, each named by its own id.

In 3.02–3.04

A client takes EmitterPause as a ChatAllowance, the first four bytes of the group’s name standing as the lines left. A server MUST NOT send EmitterPause.

Looks and animation

A server lays a new look over a unit’s own with AppearancePushed; looks stack, the newest showing, and AppearancePopped and AppearanceCleared take them away. AnimationOverrides has a unit play one set of movements wherever it would have played another.

A server can also:

play, stop, pause and advance a unit’s animations (PlayAnimation, StopAnimation, PauseAnimation, AnimationAdvanced);
fade a unit or a side’s minions (FadeTo, FadeRemoved, FadeMinions);
set how each nexus looks (NexusIdle, NexusSkin);
tint a side’s screens (ScreenTint);
change the voice a unit speaks with (VoiceOverride).

Messages

Each message of this system in this book, with each layout it has across the book’s patches and every note its definition carries. A layout is the message’s body, after the header its channel’s family puts in front (see Messages).

`EffectAdded`

What a server sends to put a lasting effect on a unit. The header names the unit carrying the effect, which can differ from the caster named inside.

Field	Type	What it is
slot	u8	Which of the unit’s effect slots it sits in.
kind	u8	What sort of effect it is.
count	u8	How many of it are stacked there.
hidden	u8	Whether the client keeps it off the unit’s display. Values: 0 shown, 1 hidden.
effect	u32	Which effect, by the number its name gives, as Objects and identifiers works it out.
package	u32	Which set of art and sound the client draws it with.
runningFor	f32	How long it has already run, in seconds.
lasts	f32	How long it runs in total, in seconds.
caster	u32	The unit that put it there.

Field	Type	What it is
slot	u8	Which of the unit’s effect slots.
runningFor	f32	How long the effect has already run, in seconds.
lasts	f32	How long it runs in total, in seconds.
caster	u32	The unit that put it there.

Field	Type	What it is
slot	u8	Which slot.
count	u8	How many are stacked there now.
timeLeft	f32	How long it has left to run, in seconds. With runningFor it adds up to the whole run the effect was added with.
runningFor	f32	How long it has already run, in seconds.
caster	u32	The unit that put it there.

Field	Type	What it is
slot	u8	Which slot it sat in.
effect	u32	Which effect, by the number its name gives, as Objects and identifiers works it out.
timeLeft	f32	How long the effect had left to run when it was taken off, in seconds.

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Trueshot Season 3