Respawn as seagull only when last in group

[desertjedi]

I've read a lot of the old posts here about "respawn" and I read the "Respawn Tutorial" that's hosted here.

I play a mission pack called City Battles Co-op Pack. It's got 3 nice co-op missions taking place in Paraiso, Dolores and Ortego. IIRC, there are several squads set to "playable". I just pick the Team Leader in the first squad when starting.

Respawn is set to "Group" in these missions. When I'm killed, if there are AI players still left in my squad, I respawn into one of them. But if I'm the last one alive in my group and I die, I get the seagull animation and then the mission ends.

I really like this method and would like to incorporate it into missions as I encounter them and edit them. I looked at the pbo files and there's absolutely nothing tricky in them regarding respawn - it's simply set to "Group" - that's it.

I've tried to emulate this behavior where you become the seagull if you die as the last person in your group but have never been able to. I can't stand the default behavior where the "continue" panel comes up and actually cuts off the enemy gun sound (that killed you). And if you're new to the game, you're sitting there thinking "what the hell just happened?". IMHO, that's the worst end-of-mission behavior I've ever seen in a game.

Has anyone seen this "seagull behavior" before? Maybe if I make some other squads and set them to playable I would get the desired effect? I've only see this happen in the City Battles Co-op Pack and, I think, that's all.

I just re-read my post and thought, how does the seagull appear in the first place if Respawn is set to "group"? I really wish I knew what was going on.

[JamesF1]

This page on the Biki should give you all the info you need

[desertjedi]

Well for the first time I noticed text for "group" respawn saying that if you are the last man and you die, you respawn as a seagull.

My problem is that that almost never happens. So far, it only happens in the one co-op mission pack I mentioned above. In probably every other MP co-op mission I've played, I get no seagull - only that dumb "end of mission" panel that cuts off the enemy gun sound. I'm assuming that this is not unique to me but happens to everyone.

I will go back over those missions with a fine tooth comb but I found nothing out of the ordinary. My first attempt at analyzing them yielded nothing.

BTW, I always play hosted, not dedicated. I've mostly played v1.14 but have tried v1.16b as well.

UPDATE: Okay, make me look like a fool!!! I slapped together a super-simple mission and the seagull on the "last death" works perfectly in any and every situation - regardless of what other soldiers exist in other squads. I need to investigate some missions to see what is preventing this from happening.

UPDATE 2: I fairly sure I found my answer. If a mission "intercepts" the call to the seagull routine by using a onPlayerRespawnAsSeagull.sqs, you'll never see the seagull. Otherwise, you will. The end result...on any mission using onPlayerRespawnAsSeagull.sqs (such as a mission using Kegety's Spectating script) the last man to die gets the Missing End Summary screen slapped in his face before the fatal bullet even hits.