Spawn Unit

A unit appears whole and at once — with no factory, no resources and no queue

mediumYou need: What a world processor is, Searching an area

steptick 0

Query0

shapecircletypeunitteamxywh

Sensor1

=

 in

Jump -> 62

if >=

Spawn Unit3

typexyrotationteamresulteffect

Sensor4

=

 in

End5

Stop6

@counter0number

amountnullnull

freshnullnull

newKindnullnull

spawn @dagger 9 5 90 @sharded fresh

A dagger appears on tile 9 5 — finished, at full health, with no factory at all. In the example the program does this until there are three of them and then stops.

Field	What is in it
first	the unit type: @dagger, @poly, @flare
second and third	coordinates in tiles
fourth	rotation in degrees: 90 is up, 0 is right
fifth	the team: @sharded, @crux, @derelict
sixth	where to put the created unit

The sixth field is the most useful: the unit arrives as an object and can be worked with straight away. Not with every instruction, though:

spawn @dagger 9 5 90 @sharded fresh
ubind fresh
ucontrol move 20 5 0 0 0

A world processor manages such a binding even to an enemy unit — that is its privilege.

Note

Rotation matters little at the moment of appearance: the unit immediately starts turning wherever it needs to go. It is only noticeable on ground units, for whom turning costs time.

There is no counter here

Silent failure

spawn counts neither resources nor the unit cap. Every iteration of the program creates a new one — and a world processor can run up to a thousand iterations per tick.

A spawn line with no check at all will breed thousands of daggers in a second and bring the game down. It is the most common mistake in world-processor scripts, and it shows immediately.

So spawning is always limited by something:

• count how many there already are. As in the example: query over an area, sensor @size, and spawn only if there are few;
• do it once. A flag variable or a global flag: created, recorded, then checked;
• by time. @time and a comparison with a deadline: a wave every half a minute.

query circle unit @sharded 9 5 5 0
sensor amount @queries @size
jump 0 greaterThanEq amount 3
spawn @dagger 9 5 90 @sharded fresh

Four lines, and the map always has exactly three daggers: one dies and another takes its place.

Note

The instruction does not look at the unit cap from the game’s rules (unitCap) either — it is stronger than the rules. If the cap matters to a script, check it yourself: @unitCount will not help, it is the length of the type table, not the number of living units.

Remember

• spawn type x y rotation team result creates a unit instantly.
• The created unit arrives as an object in the last field.
• The instruction checks neither resources nor the unit cap.
• Spawning must be limited: by a count, by a flag or by time.

Task

Change 3 to 8 in the jump line: there are now eight daggers on the map, and the program stops again.

Then replace @sharded with @crux in the spawn line: the count of your own never adds up — query looks for yours while enemies appear, and the program never stops.