Newbie question re: crossing bridges

[Curtis]

Hi, I'm making a mission in which a large number of units (say 30-40, in around 5 groups) have to cross a bridge under enemy fire from the other side, but as soon as they reach the bridge, they drop to the ground (even before the enemies open fire about 1/4 of the way across.) There seems to be something of a logjam, and a lot of the units simply lie down spinning around in circles on the bridge (looks quiet bizarre...) or the surrounding area.

It takes forever for them to cross the bridge, and, while I wanted a certain element of this in the mission, the amount of time they take (those that go across at all) makes it pretty much unplayable. Is there any way to make them go across more quickly and efficiently? I've tried synchronising waypoints so they cross one group at a time, but I couldn't get it work. Failing that, is there a way to force them across despite the heavy enemy fire?

Damn, I knew OFP would turn me into a callous military commander...

[FlidMerchant]

If it is the enemy fire that is stopping them, type in the init fields: this setbehaviour careless

This will make them pretty much ignore everything

[ElJefe]

It could also be a pathing issue, I've seen BMP's just avoid the bridge completely and try to cross the river under it instead.

Sometimes, if the unit is in the wrong formation they won't cross the bridge either so try setting a move waypoint at the start of the bridge which tells them to form a column or a staggered column, then put another one at the other end of the bridge..

Might help.

[Curtis]

Hehe, great minds think alike...

I tried this last night, improved things slightly (they're still crawling across, but at least some of them are actually getting across.) Still takes too long, I think it's because they all pile up around the bridge and no-one can move, so they just spin around in circles. So I've set their preliminary waypoints at varying distances from the bridge, and I'm going to try and synchronise their crossing. Worth a try.

I tried the "setbehaviour careless" route, but of course they all strolled across in careless mode, so that's out. Is there a way to make them run with weapons drawn in careless mode? Also, is there a way to make them cross the bridge (not in careless mode) standing up? I tried fooling around with "setunitpos "up" ", but I can't get it to work. This might be because I don't really understand how to use arrays properly. Sorry for all the basic questions, but I'd be most grateful in anyone has answers.

[Wolf]

You have to use

This Setunitpos "up"

in the units init field, not
"setunitpos" "up"

Plus, try adding

This allowfleeing 0

in each of there init fields after the setunit.
Hope it works for ya.

[Curtis]

Sorry, the confusion is my fault here, I was using

this setunitpos "up"

I just included the quotation marks in the previous post to distinguish it from the rest of the post, I shall use new lines from now on. :-)

Thanks for the response, I shall try the allowfleeing thing now, fingers crossed. I tried putting

assaultgroup [which is the name of the group] setunitpos "up"

in the bridge-crossing waypoint, just on the off-chance that it'd work, and was amazed when I thought it had (briefly.) They did indeed run across the bridge, but dropped once they came under fire halfway across. Then I got in-game error messages for the other groups into whose waypoints I'd inserted that command, so I guess it doesn't work. Oh well, the only way to get this thing to work may be to cut down the number of groups, which would make the mission pretty much impossible. Shame, 'cause I think it has potential.

[Wolf]

As far as I know, this setunitpos "up", must be in each units initiliaztion field, or it will not work, that's how its been in my experience, it may be that there is another way, but when I put it in any units init field, they stay standing untill there dead, or badly wounded.

[Chris Death]

so try setting a move waypoint at the start of the bridge which tells them to form a column or a staggered column, then put another one at the other end of the bridge..

If you place a wayopint at the start of the bridge, and
you set the behaviour of the group/unit in this waypoint,
this will cause the group/unit to use the behaviour, you've
been setting in this waypoint. That's ok, but i think this
won't be the result, you want to get here, because the
behaviour settings of a wayopint will be executed, before
a unit/group has reached the waypoint.

e.g:

waypoint1: behaviour: safe

waypoint2: behaviour: careless

waypoint3: behaviour: combat

Now as long as the unit/group is moving to waypoint1, it
will be in "safe" mode. Once it has reached wp1, it will use
the settings of the next waypoint (careless in this case).
At the location of wp2, it will then turn to combat mode,
because that's the setting of the next waypoint.

So in the case of crossing the bridge, you might need to
set the behaviour to careless, or whatever you want, for
the waypoint after the one at the start of the bridge.

~S~ CD