The author just took the base file of the dragon boss and turn it into a class..

A standard class is suppose to have a base file and the gender specific files for character creation. The base file usually points to skill and charge bar related code.

I'm not sure how far have you gotten into the charge bar creation, but here's an example.

You can try look into 'hum_arbiter_base' file, open it with notepad++

Then copy the lines from 'charges_max:1' until 'show_ui:always'  into the dragon base file.
Then scroll down a bit, search for "add triggerable' copy the whole [effect] code and paste it into the dragon base file. Save up, load the mod in GUTS and rebuild.

The dragon will have the Embermage charge bar.. but the charge effect is still not charging up.

I have no idea why it doesn't work .. but if I had to guess, its due to the dragon unittype being messed up.

Hey @Lord Nyriox welcome back. Yes chargebars are a fairly big area to cover, so bear with us as we try to phrase a response that is actually helpful I'll come back and edit this post when ive got something...

Hey @Lord Nyriox welcome back.

Hey to you, too!  (And yes, I know I have been gone a long time.) 

Yes chargebars are a fairly big area to cover, so bear with us as we try to phrase a response that is actually helpful I'll come back and edit this post when ive got something...

I am not in any kind of hurry to bash my head against this particular wall, so feel free to take all the time you need.  ;}

EDIT: I have opened a separate topic to ask all the other questions I have regarding this class project, in case anyone wants to help me out a bit. 

Thanks for the support.  :}

@Lord Nyriox If you want a good Charge Bar mix that isn't game breaking yet highly appreciated then just mix Engineer with Outlander Charge Bar bonuses together and try to implement the Charge Used function to empower or affect some of the Dragon Skills

You are assuming I understand the internal functionality of the charge-bar well enough to even do that much.  Please understand that I am not joking when I say I have no clue about the internals of this mechanic. 

Until someone explains to me exactly how the charge-bar works within the game's code, doing anything with it at all will remain an elusive dream. 

maybe make a custom Dragon Charge Bar Visual Texture... easier said than done I realize. 

Actually, finding a dragon-themed charge-bar texture was surprisingly easy.  A user named "icaruspade" had developed a so-called "dragonborn class" a long time ago--and as luck would have it, that mod includes a dedicated charge-bar texture.  It does have some obvious compression artifacts (along with some rather ugly aliasing), but otherwise it is both cool-looking and distinctive. 

I do agree that Embermage's 100% Mana Cost Reductions (Free Skill Cost) and Berserker's 100% Critical Chance on Attack and an unknown % Chance boost on Skills is also questionable for balance sake.

Ugh.  This class is already too OP for my tastes.  No need to blow up the game even more. 


Random Idea:  Perhaps an inverse version instead?  (As in, the charge-bar could apply a debuff that *increases* the mana-cost and *reduces* critical chance, dodge-chance, casting speed, and movement speed.)  Such a "fatigue" mechanic would certainly fit with the style of the class. 

Huh.  I really like that idea.  It could certainly help with the balance issues I have been dealing with. 

Thanks for helping me come up with a charge-bar proposal, @steffire3!  ;>

Hi @Lord Nyriox

Maybe this Mod can give you an idea about making "Monster Charge Bar".

- Monster hero.
- Like a Boss Class Pack

In that Mod you can use Boss Monster as a player and they also has own charge bar.

I hope this can helps.

From Darkness he awakes, in times of great need... It's told he's a legendary lurker, or some crazy guy, in fact he's just a modder, a very irresponsible and procrastinating modder... Here it is... It's-a me, Anarch16sync. Hi guys, just passing by...

OK, let me make myself abundantly clear: 

Someone needs to explain to me precisely what code I need to inject into my class to make a charge-bar work at all (including a comprehensive list of every single file that affects or is affected by the original vanilla charge mechanics), or charge-bars for this class WILL NOT HAPPEN. 
...

I'm not exactly fresh on the specific file needed for a working charge bar, since I been away from modding almost a year now, so just bear with me if I sound a bit unspecific...

Let's start with the basic, what a charge-bar is:
A charge-bar is the visual representation on the UI of the players "charge", like you said charge is a secondary resourse, is like mana.
Now let's go with what Charge is, "Charge" is a stat, a number, that if I recall correcty can go from 0 to 100. Nothing more, noting less. You also have other stat that I think is named "ChargeS" that are used in the enginner bar, so when you have one or more "ChargeS" you consume one to increase the effect of a skill.
Now the effects of a charge-bar, in the vanilla classes, are triggetable effects aplied to the character on creation. Triggetables are conditional effects, something like: If charge=100, give 3000 per second to the player for 5 seconds (That I think is what the Embermage chargebar does).
 Now, the vanilla charge is somewhat hardcoded if recall correctly to increase with normal attacks,  and with skills that have the "produce charge" flag to true.
 So there you have the basics working of a charge-bar, an UI piece that tracks the "charge" stat, and a triggetable effect attached to the class that uses the value of charge as a condition to do something, the embermage charge bar and the Outlander are the simplest ones to analise, one does something when is full, the other does something when is empty and give bonus based on the value of the charge stat.
 
 Now what  this is talking about is of a method that instead of aplaying a triggetable effect to the character, gives him a passive skill that does the work, and what that let's you do is balance your charge-bar effects without the need of strange measures to fix old characters, because a triggetable effect aplied directly to a characters is applied on character creation, and if you change that effect the only characters affected by the change are new created characters. If you use the passive method you can buff, nerf, overhaul or whatever to your charge-bar passive effects and every character will get the changes. If I recall correctly a good passive to base your charge passive is the "share the wealth" skill of the outlander that basicly gives a bonus effect based on the charge value (it has a layout attached to give the effect to other party members so you have to remove that part, and make it only affect the player)

Now like the charge is just like any other stat, and the charge-bonus are like any other bonus, you can do a lot of stuff with the "mechanics" of a charge-bar, some cool concepts but with a bit of tricks to them are for example the chargebars for the Destroyer (two charge-bars that charge independantly with different conditions, and give different bonus) or the Alchemist Charge-bar (only increase charge with skill usage, gives bonus based on value but triggers a negative effect when full) both in the TL1CP.

Hope this helps, if you need clarification on any thing... I'll try to give it, but maybe the other torchmodders can take it from here, since I'm really rusty on specific files and code lines.

Hi @Lord Nyriox pardon the delay in replying.

I composed a reply then saw that @Anarch16sync also answered, so pardon yet again if my answer doesnt flow smoothly from or into his (or Viz's or Steffire's lol).

So anyway I'll use the Arbiter's charge bar setup as the reference point for this short aswer to the question How does the Arbiter get those EFFECTs of "zero mana cost" and increased cast speed when their chargebar gets full?

The Arbiter's unit .DAT file specifies an "ADD TRIGERRABLE" EFFECT for the Arbiter unit, the "ARBITER_AVATAR" triggerable.

As the name implies, triggerables trigger something.  The conditions for the trigger to fire are in the first part of the triggerable's .DAT. I'm not well-versed with these, so I'll point you to Triggerables page on our wiki for details on those.

The ARBITER_AVATAR triggerable turns out to be a TRIGGERSKILL type of triggerable (there are only a few different types). So, as near as I can figure, because of that line "<STRING>SUBTYPE:MAXEDCHARGE" in the triggerable, when your Embermage hits maximum charge the named skill ("AVATAR") will trigger.

The AVATAR skill in turn adds the affix which gives the "zero mana cost" and increased cast speed effects (the "ARBITER_AVATAR" affix) and another to alter the charge mechanics for the duration of the affix (the "ARBITER_AVATAR_NO_DISPLAY" affix).

Weird how nothing so far references the "chargebar" itself! That's because the actual chargebar is just a graphical device at the end of all this stuff. It's driven by the ARBITER_AVATAR affix and displays whatever that affix is giving to the Arbiter at any point in time while it's active. And that's why there's that funny line in the Arbiter unit .DAT...

   [CHARGE_AFFIXES_TO_WATCH]
      <STRING>AFFIX:ARBITER_AVATAR
   [/CHARGE_AFFIXES_TO_WATCH]