Probability

[O Neil]

Hey

What does it do? All I've found is that if you place down a unit with it's probablility UNDER half, then it won't be there. If it's OVER half, then it's there.

Thxs

[Artak]

Hey O'neil

Propability of presence means just what it says. It's a propability of the units existance on the map.

Propability of 50% means that the unit will be there every other time. (IN THEORY!!).

It's all statistics. If you have a 1/6 000 000 chance of hitting the jackpot in lottory, you can still do it 10 times in a row.

Just like if a unit has a propability of presence of 10% it means that it's very unlikely the unit will exist, BUT ,it can be there every single time you play the mission.

Get it?  

[macguba]

I've found that probability of presence thing does work, but the scale is not too accurate .... in general soldiers are slight more likely to appear than the slider suggests.  

If you want a test, create a bunch of easily identifiable dudes - medic, machine gunner, LAW, pilot etc - each with probablilty of about 40% (according to the slider).     Stand them in a line where you, the player unit, can see them all.     Retry the mission a dozen times and you will see that you get a different bunch of dudes each time.

I have an impression - which may be entirely false - that when you do any probablilty thing in OFP the units are "sticky".   That is, if something appears once, it is slighty more likely to appear the next time as well.   Which is why you have to run this test plenty of times - if you just try it twice you might well get the same result.




   

[O Neil]

Does ANYBODY actually use the Probability in thier game?

O Neil

[Artak]

I use it lots. It gives a nice random touch.

I even use to stuff like bushes and fires ect. not just enemy units.

+ there is a way to make a whole group random which is nice.

[macguba]

It's absolutely essential if you want to make a half decent mission.       Otherwise when you replay a mission (say after being killed halfway through) the bad dudes are all the same, which is immeasurably tedious.

[Chris Death]

Yes, probability of presence in combination with condition
of presence is a must for me in my missions.

e.g: the leader of my group (let's call him gl1) has a probability
of presence of: 50%

Now i put into each of his group members condition of presence
field: alive gl1

What happens?: the whole group will only appear, if the
leader is there (where we have a 50/50 chance).

Also using this for objects is a good idea (imagine: ammo crate
is there or isn't it, or there's a bunker to take cover - huh - it
ain't there, but i remember it was there in a previous try).

Same goes for vehicle support  

~S~ CD