zskill.xml outline

[Dawson]

Oh my gosh, quest editing! we can't do that! It's too complicated :s... /wrong/ Once you learn the tags and variables and the possible choices for each tag it's pretty simple. and it can also give you a reason to make elemental resistant items (The Elemental Resistance you put on items isn't for ingame elementals it's for the resisttype="*" in the skill)

To start I recommend you grab the ijji or BR zskill.xml and make a copy of a generic spell and lay it out in a way you find it easy to read and modify, for example my layout is like so:

<SKILL id="4" 
        name="Generic Ice Bolt" 
	delay="3000"
        resisttype="2"
        offdlight="true"
        castinganimation="2"
        traileffect="icemissile" traileffecttype="1" traileffectscale="2.7" draw.track="true"
        effecttype="2" hitcheck="true" guidable="false" delay="1500" velocity="2000" throughNPC="true" colradius"35"
	lifetime="0" effectstarttime="1300" effecttime="3000" effectarea="2" difficulty="15" mod.damage="30"
	mod.dot="0" mod.criticalrate="0" mod.speed="100" mod.antimotion="false" mod.root="false"
	mod.heal="0" 
	<REPEAT delay="0.0" angle="0.0 0.0 0.1" />
	<REPEAT delay="0.0" angle="0.0 0.0 -0.1" />

Now let's get to the fun part, learning the tags. I'll use the same code, but this time with comments on every single possiblity

<SKILL id="4" 
        name="Generic Ice Bolt" // Self explanitary
	delay="3000"  // The delay before the spell can be cast again
        resisttype="2"  // The type of elemental it is. Slow/Unresistable == 0 Fire == 1 Ice == 2 3 == ?? 
                           4 == Swings and Earth and a mosh pod of others MAIET got lazy, it then skips a few. 6 == healing... there are a few more but you can tinker  
        offdlight="true" // GFX shaders shit just leave it as true
        castinganimation="2"  // The animation it uses when the skill is cast, again too many to name here check out the client and existing skills 
        traileffect="icemissile" traileffecttype="1" traileffectscale="2.7" draw.track="true"  // The trail projectile and it's effecttype all can be found in examples of ijji zskill.xml
             the scale is the size of it, if you wanted a very large trail you would make it a higher number, and visa versa for lower. draw.track="*" decides if the track should exist or not more shader shit, leave it as true  
        effecttype="2" hitcheck="true" guidable="false" delay="1500" velocity="2000" throughNPC="true" colradius"35"
 // The effect it has. 1 being fire 2 being ice, ect. again use the existing zskill to find out what you need. hitcheck="*" should it hit or can it miss? ThroughNPC="*" can it travel through NPC's?
colradius="*" the radius of the effect going off and hit detection, leave it around 35 unless it's a speciality skill 
        lifetime="0" effectstarttime="1300" effecttime="3000" effectarea="2" difficulty="15" mod.damage="30"
 //  lifetime is a bit buggy it seems, I just leave it at 0 and adjust the effect start time and end time. start time is when the effect kicks in after you're hit, and effect time is how long the whole skill is on your character
effectarea is the AOE of the skill when it strikes a target, 2 is the default for fire balls and ice bolts, again. increase for a nova or whatnot. difficulty is the reliant on int="*" in the npc.xml. mod.dmg="30" is the damage delt from the effect

	mod.dot="0" mod.criticalrate="0" mod.speed="100" mod.antimotion="false" mod.root="false"
// mod.dot=*" Damage over time. mod.criticalrate="*" chance to crit. mod.speed"*" still not sure. mod.antimoton/root are keeping your char from moving 
	mod.heal="0" // heal plawks?
	<REPEAT delay="0.0" angle="0.0 0.0 0.1" />
	<REPEAT delay="0.0" angle="0.0 0.0 -0.1" />
// loop the spell and shoot it off at a different angle or delay this is just a 3 round burst ice blast

Just noticed I forgot to tag Velocity it's the projectiles move speed.

Now that's for projectile spells, there are spells like Blizzard and Other creep Heals which use a whole different brand of strings to do their magic.

I'm still learning how to prefect working with them, Ill edit this post when I can be of more use on AOE/Heal type spells

[MentaL]

[Phoenix]

Thanks a lot. This is very useful and interesting. I'm going to edit my zskill to try out new stuff :).
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[Dawson]

There are tons of shit deep in the XML that no one touches, I'm considering posting more outlines of under-used files

[KillerStefan]

This is interesting indeed.
Great tut!

[StephanW]

I knew like 95% of this so far :3.
Good you made a tutorial ;).

[Dawson]

I knew like 95% of this so far :3.
Good you made a tutorial ;).

There are many who didn't know of this, and if I helped even just one of those leachers, Im helping gunz move onto bigger and better things.

[Arcelor]

Gunz doesn't have AoE spells? 0_O
Thanks for the tutorial!

[Dawson]

GunZ /Does/ have AOE spells I just didnt include there here as Im not 100% positive on how they work, Im a bit unclear on the variables.

[Linear88]

Thanks a lot!