Turning WPs on/off!?

[Mooseman]

This is about waypoints that are synchronized to a trigger: When you get to a WP this yellow square changes form Move to "Wait for others"... until the trigger fires.

My Q: Can you suppress this yellow "wait-for"-square temporarily?

E.g.: When player reaches WP1 it turns to "supressed"/"invisible"-mode instead of "wait-for"... When Trigger 2 switches Player sees WP2 again until he reaches it. Then its set to "supressed"/"invisible"-mode again and so on?

[Sui]

You could try making the WP a HOLD waypoint, and writing the text you want in the text field.

You would also need to make sure your trigger was a switch type trigger, otherwise the waypoint would never finish...

[Mooseman]

Yes Sui, I use switch triggers.

It's just that I need a part during the mission where there are no WPs visible for the player.

E.g.:

1. Player starts off with a MOVE-WP, then a TALK-WP then another MOVE-WP. Classical.

2. Then the player has to search for captives, not knowing exactly where they are. Therefore I want him to see no WPs until he finds the captive and sets them free. NB: I also do not want him to see a "WAIT FOR OTHERS"-WP that he would see if there's a switch trigger synchronized to the last MOVE WP.

3. After captives are set free the player gets (and sees) his LEAD and some more MOVE WPs. Classical again.


I think a thing like the above isn't possible. I remember my very first playing OFP: It was SP-Mission "Steal the car". In this mission you have to search for the car and BIS placed the MOVE WP in the middle of the town and labelled it "Steal car". It was driving me crazy searching every corner near the WP not knowing that the car was at a different end of town...  

[Ottie]

I think the way bis do it in the steal the car mission is the only way.

But I have a little suggestion what you can do is that the last waypoint of your player is the search waypoint and after that nothing, when the player has found the captives you add him to a empty group with waypoints and with a trigger and from that moment on he will follow the waypoints of the empty group. I dont know if it will work but you can try it.

If your interested I can make a demo mission.

[Sui]

Ahh... I see now.

yeah, that's a toughie...

I recently had a mission where the player had to run around an area marking a minefield. I put the waypoint right in the centre of the area, and made sure it was out in the open.

I figured if I made it as clear as I could that the waypoint wasn't supposed to mark the position of any mines, the player would realise they have to do a bit of legwork. I just had the waypoint as a hold waypoint, displaying the test "Mine field".

I'm not sure it's possibly to turn a waypoint 'off' in cadetmode... short of getting the player to join a group that doesn't have any waypoints (you could make the player join a group by themself, and then join them back afterwards).

[Ottie]

What i mean is give the player waypoints and the with a switch trigger let it finish the latest waypoint (if this is possible). After the player has found the fugitives let him join a group (empty - the famous deleteVehicle trick) with waypoints and he will continue following the waypoints of the group

[Mooseman]

Yes Ottie,

that's a good idea. I'll try it an report back!

Btw: What is the infamous DeleteVehicle trick??

[GaryP]

Yeah.  I would like to know too.

Does this help?
http://www.ofpec.com/editors/resource_view.php?id=34

[deaddog]

He means that you want the player to join an empty group but you can't place an empty group in the editor.  But you can make it empty by doing this:

Place a soldier and in its init field type: groupname = group this;deletevehicle this

This will create a new group and then delete the soldier to make it empty.  The group name still exists and can now be used later.

Now, when you are ready to make the player join the new group, type:

[player] join groupname

or

(units group player) join groupname (if you want all the units in the players group to join the new group)

Hope that helps

[Ottie]

Thank you deaddog for the explanantion and it is exactly what I meant.

Mooseman for you a demo mission

And it works for me ....

[Mooseman]

Thank's Ottie for the demo mission. I'll try it.  Couldn't do anything yesterday, really.

@Deaddog: I see what u mean. Thank you too.

[deaddog]

Hey Mooseman, you're welcome

And just for info, an easy way to avoid the whole problem is to not use waypoints for the player.  If you (or someone else) play your mission in veteran mode, then the waypoints are not visible.  Therefore, any conditions for winning that are tied to a specific waypoint may be missed.  The player may not go to that exact location, or may do it in a different order, etc.  As you can see already, player waypoints can cause a lot of problems

It's best to explain in the briefing and use map markers to tell the player where to go and what to do (more realistic, too)  ;D

[Mooseman]

Hi Ottie,

promised to report back:

It works fine! I did it the way you described. Thanks again!

The only thing is that I have 6 men joining the new group. And that means six times you hear "1 follow 1, 2 follow 1..." etc. and "2 ready, 3 ready..." etc.

Is there any way to suppress that?

[Ottie]

I solved that problem too .....

[Sui]

The only thing is that I have 6 men joining the new group. And that means six times you hear "1 follow 1, 2 follow 1..." etc. and "2 ready, 3 ready..." etc.

Is there any way to suppress that?

Indeed there is

Try:

enableradio false

Just remember that you'll need to turn it back on again after they've done their thang... with:

enableradio true