DDay Style Tracers

[mikesmithdesign]

I'm doing a ww2 DDay paradrop mission, which is pretty impressive so far, with flak fire etc.  But the one thing I'm missing is small arms gunfire and machine gunfire coming from the ground, shooting at the parachutes.

I can put in AA guns but they tend to decimate the planes, before they drop the guys.  And AI on the ground doesn't seem to shoot at the parachutes in the air.

Any suggestions?

[dmakatra]

If I understand it right you want the soldiers shoot on just the parachutes and not the planes untill they have parachuted them off. Well, you can make it by this.

1. Setcaptive all planes
2. Edit your script and find a nice spot to unsetcaptive em.

AI canÂ't shoot on parachutes, and they shouldnÂ't either cause parachutes canÂ't take damage. It goes right through them. What you should is to simulate suppresing fire and use some animations and of course setdammage. Script, script, script.

[mikesmithdesign]

Thanks for the reply

Quote:
"If I understand it right you want the soldiers shoot on just the parachutes and not the planes until they have parachuted them off"

Yup that's exactly what I want to, I want fire coming in from the ground aimed at the guys parachuting, not at their parachutes.

I'm no programmer though, and scripts really are not my forte.

So are you are saying that there is no real easy way of doing this, without extensive scripting.  That's a real shame, I work for a games company as an artist, and when at work when there's an issue like this I just ask a programmer, and hey presto they do magic!  If anyone could help me out with this I would be really grateful.

Does anyone have any other suggestions on this issue?  Its really just a visual effect I'm looking for.

[macguba]

You could try

loonOnGround doTarget ParachuteLoon
loonOnGround doFire ParachuteLoon

A little scripting (like that) goes a long way to improve a mission.   It's not difficult and there are plenty of tutes in the Ed Depot to help you.   To achieve what you want will certainly take a little scripting, but it doesn't have to be "extensive".

[mikesmithdesign]

That sounds ideal, as I could define who I wanted to get shot at! just thinking, could I assign this to a gamelogic unit.  so the "loononground" would shoot up at the air,  in effect looking like he's shooting at nothing.

Also do gamelogic units follow waypoints?  So if i set up a move waypoint on a cycle, would the gamelogic move and so the end result look like random suppresive fire?

[macguba]

Gamelogics do follow waypoints, though I think they do it almost instantly so you would need to put timeouts in the waypoints.

However, you can't normally target gamelogics.    This "fire in the air" problem has come up before so search the forum and see what  you can find.    I have a vague recollection that if you group a gamelogic under a group leader of the appropriate side, then enemy soldiers maybe able to target it.     Use the init field of the group leader to deleteVehicle him at the start of the mission.  Dunno if it will work, but worth a try.

You could also just use the command fire to make the loons fire into the air.

Check the Command References (both official and unofficial) in the Ed Depot for more information on how to use these commands.      It's always worth searching the FAQ and the forum too.    If you get stuck come back here and ask.

[mikesmithdesign]

Ok, thanks for the info,  Im going to have a play around tonight and see what i can come up with.  

Just been playing a beta of the mission here at work on the LAN.  And I was amazed how atmospheric it was.  

Imagine, pitch black night, you jump from the c-47's flak exploding all around, more planes pass overhead dropping yet more airborne.  You hit the ground and move onto your objective, the only light source coming from the flak bursting over your head!

I did notice that machinegunners shoot into the air, not sure if they were shooting at the planes or the infantry though.  I'll report back if i figure it out.

[Gielovic]

He Mikesmithdesign,

Your mission sounds very cool!!!
Where do you get all the WW2-weapons/units/etc.?
I want to make a WW2 mission too, but I don't have enought addons, only a couple of stupid soldiers!!!

[macguba]

I found this in an addon readme

You can visit the WWIIEC Site at http://ww2ecteam.com/ or the WWIIEC Forums at http://www.toad-one.org/forums/thecorps/

There are buckets of WWII addons out there, just search all the usual addon sites.

[titan]

Have a look at this mission and tell me what u think!