Long time no post

[Eccles]

Hello everyone,
just recently bought resistance and I think I like it, some of the exellent addons from Ballistic studios really make a difference.

What I would like to ask you, is can you increase the distance the AI "see" the enemy? This would be ideal for snipers. Would it require some kind of script? What is the best way to make units appear randomly in a mission? There is a slider bar in the units editing "box" is that accurate? Would a script be of use? What I would like to generate is the "Fog" of war, units appearing where there arent supposed to be any and perhaps friendly units not appearing when they should.

If this has been covered in previous posts forgive me, have not played OFP for a good while. Fortunately Resistance has brought me screaming back and now OFP is all I take interest in. Much to my wifes disgust! Hope to hear from you, any tips would really be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

                 cheers for now
                Eccles

[Kaliyuga]

 Upping the enemys skill bar helps em a little better at targeting no matter the distance..


 you can use:  setviewdistance x     in a units init field.. but this will make all units be able to see that far.

 Using the probability of presence slider helps alot for randomness and then using the placement radius is really nice as well....

 

[macguba]

You can set placement radii on waypoints as well.

A good trick is to create an AI group.   Name the leader, say loon1.    Give him a probability of presence and obviously a placement radius.    Create a large group, with a good variety of weapons.   Each loon should have a probability of presence.    Also, if you look carefully, you will see that each unit has a Condition field.    In every Condition field except the group leader write this

alive loon1

The effect is this:  the group leader may or may not be in the mission, depending upon the probability of presence.    If he is, he could be anywhere in the placement radius and his group will be in formation round him.    If he is not, none of his group will appear since their probability fields apply only if the condition field is satisfied.    And, thanks to those probability fields, some of the group members will appear and some will not.    

So you have a group of random composition which may or may not appear anywhere in the placement radius.

To do the same thing effectively with tanks/armoured vehicles you need to add a step.    You can put only 4 tanks in a group before the game gets stroppy, which is no good if you want a 4 vehicle group of random composition.   (Say a mixture of Abrams and Bradleys with the possibility of a Vulcan.   The four vehicle thing is based on each one having a crew of 3.)    The solution is to create several groups, using the same tricks as above.    Make the first waypoint join and synchro all the join waypoints together.    The game is clever enough to work out the maths so that it creates a maximum of four vehicles.     If you've got APCs in the mix then of course you can create infantry groups as above and assign them to an APC.    Use condition of presence to ensure that you don't have too many soldiers for the wagons.


To help your long range AI snipers (who frankly are probably good enough already if you've got their positioning right - you have to Preview the mission as each one to check the field of view is correct) use the command reveal.   For example, create a trigger around the sniper, size as you like

Activation:   anybody present    Repeatedly
On Activation:    "_x reveal sniper1" forEach thislist

syntax not guaranteed.    This will mean that the sniper knows about everybody in his area, so he will shoot the enemy if he has a shot.

[Komuna]

About the sniping:

One very good way I found to place a deadly sniper is having sniper teams:


Place the sniper at 700m from the target area, which should not have more than 200m radius - Notice tha maximum AI range for Dragunov and M-21 is 900m.

Place one unarmed sniper (must be a sniper, as its sensitivity is higher than common units') hidden in vegetation near the target area, and doStop him (the leader should be the first one). This one will alert his leader for the enemy presence.

After lots of my deadly scripting/editing, this is the most simple and surely one of the most effective.

[Eccles]

Thank you so much for the tips, OFp takes up so much of my time days seem to go by in a blur. Not that I'm moaning about that, but there is so much to learn and take in it can seem somewhat daunting and alas for you lot that means questions and more questions. Not all of 'em dumb I hope!

Well will try all your advice, another long day in the work house.Its going to be hell folks, thank you all. Catch you next time.

                         cheers
                       Eccles