Waves

[Monkey6014]

I'm making a simple "defend the city" scenario and I was wondering how to make waves of the enemy come in.

Like first helicopter, then tanks, then infantry.

I'm sure I'm just overlooking the solution, thanks in advance.

[Artak]

If you're using waypoints to move the AI enemy you can easily set a timer to delay the activation of those waypoints.
Look at the waypoint options and you'll notice a option which says 'timeout' and has 3 boxes next to it with 0's in them.

Now, for example, make 1 waypoint for your choppers and the choppers will fly in.

Then make 2 waypoints for the tanks; the 1st one right on top of them and the second one to the place you want them to attack. In the first waypoints 'timeout fields' you put 90 90 90 and the tanks will start rolling in 90 seconds after the choppers have.

Do the same for infantry with 130 130 130 or whatever.

[Monkey6014]

Ok, sounds good to me, I'll try it out.
Thanks!

[macguba]

Alternatively, snychronise waypoints ..... the chopper has a move waypoint near the objective synchroed with a waypoint of hte tanks a bit further away and so on.

Another alternative is to use switch triggers.     The infantry move forward and hide in the woods until they get the "signal" that the tanks have been destroyed or reached a certain place.     The signal takes the form of a trigger, type switch, synchroed to the infantry's HOLD waypoint in the woods.    Search the forum for more tips on switch triggers.

A good attack will probably use a combination of several methods.

[LimeCordial]

you can also delay a waypoint until a specific trigger has activated.........make a move waypoint for the units directly in front of them, and put 'go' or whatever in the 'condition' field of the waypoint. this means that the next waypoint (that is, the one AFTER the one with the condition) will only activate when 'go' or whatever is true.

so, if you wanted a simple way of calling reinforcements for example, you would make a trigger activated by a radio command and put 'go=true' in the on activation field......this will make the units continue on their way once the radio command is activated.

hope that makes sense.......... :-\

[Monkey6014]

We'll I've been messing around with it, and i've been able to use switch triggers, and the condition fields and such.

Ok, I have a new question: macguba, you said that "The infantry move forward and hide in the woods until they get the "signal" that the tanks have been destroyed or reached a certain place". Ok I've been able to do this, but is there another signal to activate the SWITCH trigger if the tanks have been destroyed besides the NOT PRESENT deal on the trigger. Possibly through some script like if mygrp = dead then the trigger activates. I know this is getting into scripting, but thought I would save room and not re post it.

[Monkey6014]

ok, i've worked on it and have come up with some good results.

Wave 1 starts off with a tank platoon rolling in from the cities left side, then about 30 seconds later one in the middle and then about a minute later one on the right side. When the third tank platoon nears the town it fires off a trigger that uses the condition "go" thing like you where talking about. Then there is a short delay and 3 helicopters drop soldiers on the city, the helicopters arrive 15 seconds apart to make it seem like there are a whole lot more people in the air.
Then the BMPs carrying troops arrive about 30 seconds later while simultanously about 5-6 groups emerge from the woods.

I was able to use all 3 methods and they gave me many options, thanks for all your help.

[macguba]

Well done Monkey, that sounds fantastic.    You were absolutely right to post the additional question in this thread, its a follow up/related question so this is the right place for it.     Mild scripting like that is best covered here rather than the Scripting boards anyway, which are really for whole scripts not just the odd line or two.

The best way to make something happen when tanks are destroyed is to put something like this in the Condition field of the trigger

(not (canFire tank1)) and (not (canMove tank1)) and (not (canFire tank2)) and (not (canMove tank2))

It's a bit laborious but it gives the best results.   If there are a lot of tanks use a little script rather than writing it all in the trigger.     Why is this the best way?    Well it fires the trigger if allthe tanks cannot fire and cannot move, which is as good a definition of destroyed as there is .... if you use not alive then you can run into problems with the tank appearing dead but in fact need just one extra shell to make it blow up completely.