Don't attack the troops... yet

[ZeekLTK]

Ok I am making a mission where you come in via boat and attack the enemy base. There are some helicopters that fly in with you and destroy the enemy tanks in the base. That all works fine.

But then there are some convoys (Urals) of enemy troops sitting in a town down the road who are suppose to come for enemy reinforcements once you have cleared the base of it's original enemies.

The problem is, the helicopters always attack the Urals after they fly over/bomb the base and by the time the base is cleared the Urals are usually destroyed as well. Is there a way I can set it so the choppers do not attack the Urals and any of the troops in the town, but everyone else on my team will attack them once they start to move towards the base?

[UberKreb]

Do the helicopters leave after they attack the base?  Or are they suppose to give support to the ground troops?  If they leave after their assault, I would assume ural setcaptive true would work for protecting the urals from assault and then you could use ural setcaptive false in a trigger after the helicopters leave the area.  I hope this helps.

[ZeekLTK]

Actually they are suppose to continue to fly over the base like they are patrolling. There are a couple of tanks that attack the base (from a different direction than the Urals) so I need the choppers to help fight them off too.

From what I can tell, the choppers mostly only attack vehicles. They always fly in and blow up the enemy tanks and boats but usually most of the ground units are left intact for us to fight when we get there. I tried having the soldiers walk to the base for an attack but that just took too long, so I gave them some trucks to ride in... but then the choppers kept targeting the trucks and blowing them up.

I guess what I need is a command to make the Urals non-targets to the choppers, but have it so the rest of my team (all the ground troops) will attack the trucks and the men inside. Is that possible?

[MadFred]

You could have the reinforcement infantry waiting a little bit closer to the base and then have them come in (on foot) by using a trigger which detects the defeat of the enemies in the base.

This is what you could do:

Place the group(s) of reinfeorcements close to the base (close enough to make the time to get there acceptable for your mission)

give them a Move waypoint close to their initial point ( put em on "careless" mode so they will just wait even if they spot you or your mates.

Then give them another waypoint to the base (seek and destroy). and now have them on "aware" mode (at least)

Now place a trigger over the base (covering the base) and have it activated by East, on NOT PRESENT
trigger type switch.

Synchronize the trigger (F5) with the reinforcements first move waypoint by drawing a line between the trigger and the WP

This way the group will wait untill all the enemy units in the base are dead and then come in!

As long as they are out of sight of the player then it doesnt really matter if they really come from a nearby town or just from the bushes nearby the base. plus you dont need the Urals and dont get in trouble with the helo's shooting them!

Hope this helps you!

MadFred

[ZeekLTK]

That sounds pretty good, thanks

[ZeekLTK]

Actually that didn't really work well. The choppers still attacked them when they were in the town. I guess the soldiers with RPGs were shooting at the tanks and stuff. I dunno but they still kept dieing before they were even suppose to be part of the mission.

So I decided to reduce the number of tanks attacking and send the choppers off after we capture the base. I started the trucks and tanks all the way on the other side of the island (well, not quite, but far enough away that the choppers are gone before they get to the base to attack). Now, there are 2 problems. 1) Sometimes we clear the base really quickly, so we end up waiting up to 5 minutes for the enemies to come, and 2) Sometimes (actually this has been happening a lot of the time) the trucks/tanks will activate the trigger, then they will drive out of it or something and it will end the mission, thinking that they are dead.

I'm going to zip up the mission and put it on here, maybe someone else can look at it. Everything else runs fine except for this part. Well, at the beginning the camera is suppose to go all the way around the base but it stops about half way and jerks back and forth a few times before ending...

So if anyone can help me, I'll appriciate it.

*EDIT* This mission takes place on the Rebuilt Kolgujey Map. I'm pretty sure that's the only addon that you will need for it.

[MadFred]

Hi again

Although I cannot guarantee I could make it work I will take a look at it.

Fortunatly I already have rebuilt Kolgujev.

I'll let you know the outcome soon!

MadFred

[MadFred]

Well I wanted to take a look at it but got the following error on loading mission:

Cannot load Addons ASF_AustrianUH60, JudgeOfficer.

If you could replace them with original units for this purpose and post your mission again it would be nice.
 
thanks

MadFred

[ZeekLTK]

Well those are two units that I had used at one point in the mission, but they are not in it anymore so I don't know what to tell you. I know that I deleted them. I'll check about the Australian Aircraft, but I *know* that I deleted that JudgeOfficer (he was a civilian unit that I was using to observe the enemy base to make sure all the enemies were doing what they were suppose to).

[macguba]

I've only read the last post and it seems you have having a standard "ghost addon" problem.    Fortunately this is easy to solve.

Close the mission in the mission editor.    Using Notepad/Wordpad or whatever, open up the mission.sqm file.     Delete all the addons listed at the beginning.   If you have Intro/Outro (or have ever had them) you will need to find the addon sections relating to them to.

Once you have deleted the addons, save the file.  (Don't panic!)   Now go back to the mission editor and open up the mission.   Save the mission.

If you want, go back to Notepad and look at the mission.sqm again.   The addon list will now be correct.

In other words, to delete an addon from you mission it is not sufficient to delete the unit in the Editor.  You must open the mission.sqm and delete it manually too.

[ZeekLTK]

Thanks macguba.

Ok MadFred I fixed the problem (I hope). I'll upload the file again. Thanks for taking the time to look at it and help me.

[MadFred]

My pleasure!

Okay the Urals now reach the drop off point without being attacked by the choppers (but when the men are out they are fair game)

Here's what I did,

First I have made the Urals "captive" so that they arent fired upon
but when I did this on your existing units the trucks stopped moving before their last WP.

So I created new trucks and independent squads (men and truck not in same group)

Then I have set the trucks captive on their first WP and not captive on their final WP (which is a move WP after transport unload so the men will get out safe) then after the men are out friendly a.i. WILL target the trucks.

Check out the init fields on groups (officer) and trucks and the activation boxes on first and last Ural waypoints to see what I've put in!

You can replace the WP's if they are not exactly on the spots you desire!

Hope this helps!

Greetz MadFred

Here it is:

[MadFred]

hmm I said replace the waypoints but of course I mean reposition  ;D

[MadFred]

still with me Zeek?