Forcing Positions?

[EbolaBoy]

I'm having a few issues with Enemy units wandering around even when their waypoints tell them to HOLD.

I'm having an issue where I want to keep a sniper in the top floor of a building near a window but he keeps exiting the building and heading toward the enemy. This happens in other instances too...

What is the BEST and most effective way of keeping a unit in ONE PLACE and only one place?

[General Barron]

Hmm.... I'm not sure what exactly the "hold" waypoint does, but it may not do what you think it does. Anyway, does this sniper ever need to move again? If not, then put this in his init field:

this disableAI "move"

That will keep him from wandering around on his own. Here is another quirk though: he can still move, if he is "engaging an enemy". Oddly enough, if there is a group of units, the leader will stay still and make the rest of his group engage the enemy (meaning, walk out towards the enemy, try to flank him, etc). So if this sniper is in a group that he isn't the leader of, you also need to put:

this disableAI "target"

The sniper will still be able to shoot at guys on his own (to disable that would be to disable "autotarget"), but he won't move out to engage the enemy. Even if he isn't in a group, it may be a good idea to put this in his init field still.

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Just for your own info: alternatively, you could put this in his init field:

doStop "this"

Which would allow him to move again later on. 'dostop' is good for making guys in the same group stand all out of formation around a base or sumthin. However, when the enemy is spotted and the group tries to engage the enemy (as above), then all the guys who were stopped by 'dostop' will just move in to attack the enemy. Again, this is good if you want to do things like put half of a group in a tent, and another half on some waypoints patrolling the base.

But for what you want to do, you should definately use the disableAI method, since it will literally freeze the unit exactly where he is standing.

Hope that helps

[EbolaBoy]

Actually that very much. It's exactly what I was looking for.

In regards to the HOLD waypoint I've always seen it described as a way to have a unit hold a given position.  

[macguba]

If a unit on a hold waypoint sees the enemy, he will advance and attack.   After a certain distance however, he will return to the waypoint position.

You could also try setcombatmode ....errr ... yellow I think.

[The-Architect]

You could set him to careless until the enemy gets to a certain range. However with a sniper I guess you want him to fire.
Never mind.

[Dubieman]

Macguba is right, usually when under attack the AI will atack and move but try fiddling with the combat behaviours too in the waypoint window.

One thing I hate is that when holding a positon, the AI first dives to the ground when he sees an enemy or hears gunshots. They should crouch or something instead cause it is so easy to rush them like that, just run up and blow their head off as they try to hump the ground. :gunman: