Destroyed Vehicles on mission start

[Ext3rmin4tor]

This might be a noob question but I've never found the way to do that: I remember that in OFP there were several missions where you started and on the map there where destroyed vehicles (like the one in Red Hammer where you have to hold Montignac with Lukin). Now I want to know how you can place a destroyed vehicle on the map. I tried setting the damage to 1 but doing so will cause the vehicle to explode when the mission starts and I don't want that. I just want the vehicle to display the texture of a destroyed vehicle (in ArmA I think the game doesn't change the model like in OFP but it simply place a different texture on the vehicle). How can I do that?

[Zipper5]

Hm... There's probably a much more complicated scripting way of doing this, but this is what I can tell you. Still use the this setDammage 1 command but set the ammunition and fuel sliders of the unit to as low as they can go. The ammunition and fuel of vehicles in ArmA is what causes them to explode. When you do this, the vehicle won't explode but it will catch fire and look destroyed.

Of course, then you have the static vehicle wreck objects which can be located in Empty > Objects. There's a Ural wreck, a UH60 wreck, a M113 wreck, a BMP wreck and 3 jeep wrecks. These are all destroyed as soon as they're put on the map and don't smoke or explode.

Unfortunately I'm not sure if there's a way to put a destroyed vehicle on the map without it at least on fire/smoking for a while. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, of course. I think it's just an ArmA limitation. Hope that helps.

[Ext3rmin4tor]

It's good even if it's on fire. I just don't want them to explode. I didn't know ArmA was so realistic do distinguish the behaviour of a vehicle full of ammo and fuel from an empty vehicle.

In any case I didn't want to use a wreck, I just wanted the original vehicle to be destroyed (like in some official BIS missions).

EDIT: I tried and it works. Maybe I have an idea to prevent it from being on fire, since the vehicle is destroyed at the beginning of the mission I can simply use skipTime and skip 2 minutes, meanwhile the vehicle should stop burning. What do you think?

[Worldeater]

Using skipTime won't work. It seems to only affect the weather and the position of the sun, the moon and stars.

But you could try setAccTime.

[Knight Trane]

There are script to increase the length of time a fire burn and smolders.  Try shortening that variable.

Maybe you could delay the spawning of you characters?   Put in a fade to black and a sort brief of the situation.

There has to be a work around.

[johnnyboy]

In the init.sqs, fade to Black instantly, set the sound volume to zero, use setacctime to speed past the explosions, wait a second or so, then set volume and time back to normal, and fade in. 

That should get you past the initial explosions.

[bedges]

The traditional way to get around this without relying on the existing wreck models is to use a combination of techniques, along the lines of Johnnyboy's suggestion.

Create a cutscene at the beginning of your mission. It only needs to last as long as the smoke from exploded vehicles. Assuming you can't temporarily disable the sound - you might need sound effects - those vehicles should start off on a distant island so that the explosion is unobtrusive. They are then quickly setpos'd into position.

The cutscene can consist of some titles against a black screen, a simple fly-around of the immediate area, a visual introduction to the player's character, and if you want to get really fancy maybe a map animation showing the order of battle. All of this adds value and interest to your mission as an alternative to a (potentially long) black screen at the start.

[Luke]

Could one not simply remove all the fuel and ammo before setdammage-ing them to avoid the explosion?

Luke

[Zipper5]

Yes, that's what I suggested in my post, Luke. However, it doesn't explode, but it still burns for a little while. I believe that's what they're trying to combat now.

[Luke]

Sorry about that. 

Is it possible to disable the fire and smoke by using 'unit inflame false'?

Luke

[Ext3rmin4tor]

No, I tried it. That command works only for camp fires.

[The-Architect]

Be wary of using a cutscene to get rid of the smoke. Some people will have modded smoke effects which may mean the smoke last longer. Much longer in some cases.

[Ext3rmin4tor]

Yeah, but I can't release a mission compatible with every addon. If you mod the game, it's your problem I can only test it with the normal game since I don't have addons installed (only a sound mod).