Russian Ignitions

[shadow99]

Okay, I hope this is not one of my stupid questions I already know the answer to, but I'll ask anyway. I may give irrelevant information, but I'll just throw everything in:

I have a bunch of groups that I have initialized to start the mission off in Higgens Boats, with each group having a set of waypoints pretty much identical to each other. It goes:

Move
Get Out
Seek And Destroy
Hold/Cycle (I tried Hold and Cycle for this to see if it somehow fixed the problem)
Get In
Move
Get Out
Seek And Destroy

Right. So everytime Russians are cleared out from Saint Pierre, which would be around the first Seek And Destroy waypoint, everyone gets in their stolen Urals to go up this hilll, and wipe out another camp in the forest. The problem is, when they all get in their trucks, they don't move. My Dad suggested it was because the Americans have trouble with those Russian ignitions...  

[macguba]

Your waypoint sequence should look more like this

Move
Get Out
Seek And Destroy
Cycle    <---- maybe synchro with a switch trigger
Get In
Move
Get Out
Seek And Destroy
Cycle

The key point is that S&D waypoints are limited in time - the units will eventually stop and stand still or go on to the next waypoint if there is one.    However, a hold waypoint never ends:  the only way to get a group past one is to use a trigger.

S&D waypoints are not actually that great:  for important groups (like the one the player is in) its usually better to place a sequence of move waypoints manually.    S&D is fine for peripheral enemy groups.

If you want more there's some good stuff on waypoint types in some of the tutes in the ed depot - getting started.

[shadow99]

Argh. Stupid me. Sorry about all this, but I forgot to tell you that I do have a switch trigger synchronized with all the cycle/hold waypoints.

Maybe you're right though. The S&D could be ending before it's complete, and therefore they won't move once they're in the vehicles because they're still meant to be S&Ding?

I don't know. But, if it doesn't work, I'll throw in another post. As far as I know though, there are no error messages or anything.

[macguba]

Ah, I suspected as much.   No, it's not that the S&D isn't finished, its something else.     Probably nothing to do with the waypoints at all.   If it is, it feels as if the getin waypoint is not completing for some reason.

Make a test copy of your mission and delete everything except one of these groups.   Does it work now?    Does the Ural have fuel?   Is it undamaged?  Does it have a clear route to drive, particularly the first 20 feet?     Is the getin waypoint properly attached to the Ural?  Are you sure everybody in the group is in?   Preview it both as a member of the group and an external observer.   Cut and paste the whole sequence to a different (clear) part of the island and see if it works there.     Delete the whole sequence and create it fresh from scratch - does it work now?

[Acid]

Try this:

Move
Get Out (Or Transport Unload)
Guard (Set behaviours to Open Fire Engage At Will & Combat)
Get In
Move
Get Out (Or Transport Unload)
Seek And Destroy (Or another Guard waypoint like before)

Synchronise the first Guard waypoint with the trigger that fires when the enemies in the area are dead and your soldiers should move on. Synchronising a waypoint to a trigger doesn't stop the units from reaching that waypoint, but it does stop them from going to their next one after that until all the conditions of what they're synchronised to are true. In this case they will remain on their Guard waypoint with Combat mode (Danger) and Open Fire Engage At Will, you may also want to set their speed to full for this waypoint.

I personally think Guard is better to use as they'll patrol around the area and with those behaviour characteristics it essentially makes it a search and destroy waypoint anyway, with Hold waypoints the units will generally stand still anyway with giant bullseyes stamped on their asses.

EDIT: One other thing that you know might be causing the problem? No driver. The untis on the Getin waypoint may simply be boarding the truck and riding in the back, the truck aint gonna move if no one is driving it. Easy way around this is in the triggers OnActivation field add this:

unitname moveindriver truckname

Replace unitname with the name of the leader of the group, and replace truckname with the name of the truck you want him to drive, the other units will use the waypoint to get in the truck. You might want to use a script though so the truck waits till everyone is aboard before it drives off.

[shadow99]

Well first I tried Macguba's suggestion. It worked. And then without trying it on the 'filtered' mission, I tried a few of Acid's suggestions like Guard. Although it didn't work, you've shown me the wonders of Guard, and I thank you for that. Much more effective, isn't it?

And I've sorted out the problem now. And I think you'll shoot me when I say it, but I'll say it anyway. The waypoint after 'Get In' Truck led the Urals directly up that giant hill next to Saint Pierre. I now know that you cannot treat this bit of land as if it were flat when mission-editing. If faced with a waypoint to go directly up a steep hill, a vehicle will not move AT ALL. It will turn it's wheels once, and then nothing will happen. So, I just made several waypoints along the way.

Coincedentally though I've made my mission hard with all those Eastern groups, and I don't know if it works yet.  ;D

I'm heading to bed now (12am here), and I'll check tomorrow.