[VAU CPACK] Summoner

The Summoner is a simple and frail building constructed from 200 Liftic and is responsible for Summoning available VAUs (Vertu Air Units) from the Vertu Interdimensional Empire for the purposes of securing a location for the latter purpose of obtaining more <REDACTED> by using the Greenar found in the the realm of creation known as the CW4 universe as a substitute of <REDACTED> that can be transmutated into <REDACTED> easily. Or from your perspective, for the purpose of aiding in the subduing of the Creeper.

Basic Stats:

Costs 200 Liftic to build.
Summons VAUs using Liftic.
Can store up to 2,000 Liftic.
1 HP.
Causes a healthy lag spike when first ever placed in a mission.
If summoning is interrupted by changing the summon type mid summon, the summoning will cancel and the Summoner will have to recharge before being able to summon again. (As though it finished summoning).
It becomes a very sad day when the Summoner dies with over 1,000 Liftic in storage.

Utilization:

If you don't need me to hold your hand and do a walkthrough, you can probably figure it out quickly but there are quite a few that need their hand held. Mainly because of the visual noise in a small space when someone assumes everything in the UI is “immediately important”.
Otherwise, if you don't need my tutoring, there is plenty of easily accessible information including unit capacities, amount of needed Liftic to summon a VAU, VAU descriptions, and other similar information are all provided in the Summoner's UI. All the information you may ever need is available so long as you bother to look for it.

The Summoner on it's own, as a building, can summon a limited maximum number of each VAU as displayed in it's UI. If this limit is reached, that summoner¹⁾ can't summon more of that VAU onto the map.
The Summoner will request Liftic at a default delay of 7 frames or just over 4 packets a second. This is fast but you need 150 for the cheapest VAU, the Auto Station, and 350 for the lovable Fighter, the 2nd cheapest. This value is a variable within the script that can be altered for PAC maps as a 7 frame request delay leads to a very swift infestation of VAUs that beat the player in. ~~A heavy SAM in VPAC is on the low-end of the to-do list so no real counter to them exists from me, Vertu, as of yet.~~ The idea of a Heavy SAM to counter VAUs has seen complete failure and disinterest among the VWC project and will never come to fruition.
Also, don't expect the Summoner to perfectly replace orbitals. There are many situations where they can be far more useful than more VAUs. Especially the Dampener Orbital.

The UI:

Don't be alarmed by how crowded the UI can be, its nothing more than the byproduct of keeping options and information available.

Summon Unit

The “Summon Unit” text is displayed above the choice widget that you will use to select what type of VAU you wish to summon while including how much Liftic is needed to summon it as seen beside the name of the VAU after selecting.²⁾

Unit capacities

A list of the maximum number of each VAU that can be summoned onto the map is provided under the widget for selecting a summon type. MVerse creates unit ghosts and very much like ghosts, don't truly exist from your and many API's perspective. So ghosts of VAUs don't count to the unit limit.

Description of

There is a description choice widget called “Description of” which will display the description of the selected VAU on top of the Summoner and is turned off by selecting “N/A”.

Reminder text

There is also reminder text that tells you, “Most VAUs spawn disarmed!” so please, don't forget to set them to ARMED and become confused to why they won't shoot. Don't make the CPACK AI better at using this CPACK than you as a player when the AI has no situational awareness or gamesense..

Summoning a VAU:

Within the Summoner's UI, the main UI widget is the Summon Type, a choice widget. This is where you are told how much Liftic is needed to summon the selected VAU besides the description widget. When the Summoner is off cool-down after already summoning a VAU and has enough stored Liftic, it will begin to summon the VAU as specified in the Summon Type widget. Swapping Summon Types mid summon will cancel the process entirely and the Summoner will need to recharge as though it completed the summon.
All except 1 VAU (the MBF) will spawn disarmed and all will wait at the summon location for orders. So please for everyone involved, set the VAU to ARMED and don't complain that they won't fire.
Furthermore, this process only happens when the game is unpaused as it should be obvious. The only time you can swap Summon Types after second-guessing is while paused because a frame has not gone by to immediately begin the summoning process and lock the Summoner to summon the initially selected VAU.

The description tab:

Please consider that the description text will not display or update when the game is paused as a unit's script can't possess any “run while paused” properties. You will need to advance the game by at least 1 frame which can be done by pressing (by default) N to advance the game by 1 completed frame at a time per press or by holding it down (will act as though you unpaused).
The description tab displays text at the Summoner which can be lengthy, including a bit of lore but only the lore that gives a perspective as to what the VAU is/does. Give it a good read and you will probably never need to read it again and will know everything important about that VAU.
The description is enabled via a choice widget that allows you to pick all the VAUs or just have it disabled and is labeled “Description of' [Widget choice]' and the “N/A” choice means to display no description.
When a description for a VAU is selected and the script isn't frozen via the game being paused, a surface of text will appear at the Summoner and provide all the information you will need for a perspective onto that VAU.
At the bottom of this text is a small rundown of the VAU's stats/properties, specifically including what kind of ammo it uses in case it may be of concern along with some other important properties. If you just want a basic rundown, look at the bottom of the description text displayed on top the summoner when enabling a description within its UI.

PAC AI:

The Summoner has a super simple PAC AI, or really not even an AI but just a logic sequence so simple I am just going to show the code:

if(<-activeVGPSFunits lt(<-Max_VGPSF_units) <-summoning ! &&)
	SetUnitUIState(self 1 3)
else
if(<-activeMBFunits lt(<-Max_MBFs) <-summoning ! &&)
	SetUnitUIState(self 1 5)
else
if(<-activeHCPPCASunits lt(<-Max_HCPPCAS_units) <-summoning ! &&)
	SetUnitUIState(self 1 6)
else
if(<-activeVRFunits lt(<-Max_EXP_VRF_units) <-summoning ! &&)
	SetUnitUIState(self 1 4)
endif
endif
endif
endif

If you (somehow) have no idea what the above means, here is an explanation using text.
If the Summoner is unable to summon a VAU, it switches UI states, and keeps doing so to be able to summon VAUs in the order:
Fighter/VGPSF (default) -> MBFs -> HCCPACS -> R-Fighter/EXP-VRFs
If at any time it can summon a VAU earlier within this order, it will switch UI state to that summon type. Hence the ELSE statements.
The reason only these VAUs are supported is because they possess a full PAC AI. All other VAUs need manual control as of the current major version.

LORE EXTRA:

I get very easily carried away when doing lore and this very much happened here.

Click to display ⇲

Click to hide ⇱

The build-plan of the Summoner is provided casually by an information virus that infects Rift Lab databases because the Vertu Empire saw that creating survey hitchhikers to hitchhike onto objects controlled by an intelligence who seem to have the sole purpose of going to every possible quantum-instance of their universe, would be a good way to survey the entire quantum dimensional reality of the universe in a cheap, swift, and efficient manner without actually doing it themselves, all in the pursuit of locating and extracting <REDACTED> substitute. In short: <REDACTED> is like energy to Vertu. Its a type of portable power that is very effective in converting stored energy into work in a very portable, efficient, and effective manner. It's like Uranium, assuming you have nuclear reactor technology that's not just an upscaled steam engine.

The process typically goes: A Rift Lab shows up out of nowhere and makes the local Creeper very angry 9 times of 10, triggering them to become online. The area has the information virus lurking around or this Rift Lab was already infected and has an infected database, the virus being nothing more than providing the build plan for the Summoner, being spyware, and replicating itself to then silently broadcast across all electromagnetic wavelengths and directions in hopes of another Rift Lab bumping into these new copies of information broadcasts and begin the initial process a-new. By this point, the Vertu Empire knows everything about how to get to the place you just entered. For Vertu, it's like needing an address but the virus provides the address the moment it “realizes” it's “somewhere”.

If there is enough detectable Greenar or the user of the Rift Lab enforces it (since the virus is recessive, hence why you only know it is a virus in the first place because I told you), the virus will make the Summoner build-plan available to the user. The user of the Rift Lab then builds a Summoner provided by said hitchhiker either of out curiosity or knows well it's usefulness, beginning the 2nd phase of the Vertu incursion on the planet. The user then has the Summoner conduct numerous transaction processes to summon VAUs who will cosplay as drones with the sole purpose of being an aid to their efforts. The Summoner relays to Vertu dimensional-nodes the more complex and precise information of the planet, you, the Creeper, and literally every other detail imaginable regarding wherever this is happening and with great interest in the amount of Greenar available. Typically, everything goes well as the user of the Rift Lab summons VAUs to aid in fighting the Creeper and eventually wins extra swiftly thanks to the VAUs. The Rift Lab then leaves for seemingly no reason (while baffling Vertu every time) and Vertu has all the quantum information to send whatever they wish to go and strip-mine the entire planet (if it's rich enough in Greenar) or do what ever the hell they wish to the planet and now that the Rift Lab has left, can begin to invade the area, starting phase 3.

Usually this just means the entire area will be terraformed into a massive factory for the processing of Greenar into <REDACTED> substitute ready for transmutation with the original Rift Lab never to be seen again and Vertu completely undisturbed after exterminating anything “Creeper” that so dared breathed a sign of activity (which they normally do). And such this usually is how it ends, eventually turning into something like the map of “PAC Prospector Fortress” for probably half an Earth year at that location and being disassembled like a magic trick of “now you see me, now you don't!” once the area has been stripped.
Phase 3 however, has the most variations in how it goes if the above doesn't happen:
If any sorry “privative” civilization where to remain after the departure of the Rift Lab for what ever reason, the now invading Vertu Empire will tell them to go throw themselves into the local star if they don't get off the ball of silicon they are living on in probably an Earth year while they rip the entire planet a new one. If the civilization can't leave due to technological reasons, Vertu will simply “avoid” accidentally having a mining laser skim through an entire city in the “mining” process with no regard for if the planet becomes uninhabitable for them. Vertu will often mercy exterminate them on arrival with the rare exceptions when it is highly probable (at least 95%) that they will be fine after Vertu does their Clark Tech to the planet.
If the Rift Lab sticks around, Vertu will become impatient and after some very harshly-worded warnings and a single Earth month, will commit Exterminatus, because well, a planet doesn't have the same needs as an organism so oh-big-deal if the crust is bombed down to the mantle because someone got a bit carried away with the Exterminatus process in the joy of watching all the pretty explosions after the infesting civilization met the surface of the sun at their front door.

Oh and Vertu won't ever leave a tip.

Download location and CPACK information location:

Download location
⇐ VAU CPACK
⇐ Index

¹⁾

On non-PAC maps, this should never mean anything as Summoners only have different caps by setting them in the editor individually or via script.

²⁾

Could of been done better, but, well,.. not enough random and/or new people are exposed to this CPACK outside of VPAC to warrant me to do something about it.

Knuckle Cracker Wiki

Table of Contents

[VAU CPACK] Summoner

Basic Stats:

Utilization: