Little Birds straight down the road. My (sad) story! (2nd try)

[jens198]

Hi folks,

it took me a whole afternoon to set up my AH-6 Little Birds droping down in a narrow alley and deploy the Delta-Guys and leave the same way out as they come in. At the end the helos came down straight, touched down and took of again without overshooting the (invisible) helipad, flying curves, crashing into houses or spining senselessly around. Everything was fine as I watched the scene (with music from the original BHD soundtrack) and was really satisfied. I watched it over and over again (till my wife told me to come).

The next evening I was very eager to continue my work. Now guess what? These damm helos overshoot the drop down point, crash into the houses and do everything they are not supposed to do. I didn't change a single piece?? What happend?

Therefore I am demmanding a solution to let the helos land where we want it!!

Jens (still angry)

P.S. Still couldn't pursuade the pilots to come straight down the alley.

[Monkey6014]

Yes, I've had the same problem myself. I would perfect something, but then I had to redo stuff cause the heli wouldnt land right.
Not sure how to correct it, but you're not alone in this situation

[jens198]

Always good to know when you're not alone in such a situation.

[CareyBear]

I also want to comment that I have had a script work on Friday and not on Saturday - with no changes at all. OFPScript (?name? heh, why not) is even weirder than JavaScript.

I thought it was just my lack of 1337 5cr1p71n9 5k1115... *sigh*. And it probably is..  ;D

The only thing I can suggest about helos is.. If you *absolutely* have to have them do *EXACTLY* what you want, and you have no extraneous factors that might screw the whole shebang (like people shooting at them).... Don't ask the AI. It gets *far* too excited about being told to move somewhere.

You need to use a progressive setpos. Telling helos to move is accurate to within about 30 meters only, and they don't slow as they approach a waypoint.    

If you don't know what I mean by a progressive setpos, take a look at the way this script handled it for picking up vehicles with a helo.

http://www.ofpec.com/editors/snippet_view.php?id=41

I warn you however, this approach requires a lot of work and patience - you end up feeling more like you're making a movie than a mission. The comments in this script are informative however. Setting helo speed to "LIMITED" may also help a little, as it will reduce overshoot - but you've probably already tried that one.

[TAPNKEGS]

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ok i think i have it figured out....at least coming from a guy that can't script to save his life, but i tested it about 50 times last night and had the EXACT same result each time. there are just a couple of little constraints that i'm sure others can improve upon. I was going to type out the explaination but i will just do a demo mission when i get home and submit it here. You will need to have the SOMALIA map and the LITTLEBIRD pack and the SEB DES DELTA units installed for this to work but i assume the people that need this problem solved already have this.

[DaCoroner]

If you get really bored you can also try just having them fly very low between two close waypoints and force the passenjers to eject, identical to the paradrop scripts minus the parachuting part.

Basically, one wp just "past" the final obstacle they have to fly over, a second along the desired path with flyInHeight set to about 5 (it works even though BIS claims 50 is minimum) a third with speed set to limited continuing on the desired path.  The forth wp could return them to normal altitude and speed for egress.  run the eject commands for all passengers starting at the second wp and they'll all hop off landing safely on the close ground as the bird keeps moving.  Or, you could stop the bird easily enough.  This method also makes it easier to drop passengers onto rooftops.

I've also found that by giving them a very melow and easy to follow approach to the insertion point the AI pilots fly well within the acceptable area.  Keeping all of the choppers separate and un-grouped also greatly reduces their tendancy to crash (synchonization is much easier than re-writing sloppy AI).

I know it's not really an answer to your problem, but maybe it will give you some ideas

[vektorboson]

I know this problem, too. I think that the problem is the following:

If you open the mission.sqm in your text editor, then you'll find a class property called "randomSeed". This value determines the "random" behaviour of the units in the mission. So once your chopper lands perfectly, the other time it flies into the next tree.

If it would be possible, to keep the randomSeed constant, those random behaviour-problems should not appear.

[Gameer_77]

Jings Vektor, how the heck did you figure that out!?  

Is that changed everytime the mission is previewed, or what?  

 :thumbsup:PEACE

[TAPNKEGS]

ok i finished the demo for my VERY primitive work around of this problem, please check the post under "general editing" for the explanation and attached PBO on the post titled "SOLUTION TO LITTLEBIRD DROPPINGS"

[jens198]

@ TAPNKEGS

couldn't find your new threat. Where is it? I'm very interessted in your solution.

cu
Jens

[TAPNKEGS]

@JENS

    go to the section for "EDITING: GENERAL" and it's prob on the second page entitled "SOLUTION TO LITTLEBIRD DROPPINGS" the explaination of the work around and the mission are on that post, also the PBO demo mission is there also, just be sure to read the post to see what to do

[Gameer_77]

I know this problem, too. I think that the problem is the following:

If you open the mission.sqm in your text editor, then you'll find a class property called "randomSeed". This value determines the "random" behaviour of the units in the mission. So once your chopper lands perfectly, the other time it flies into the next tree.

If it would be possible, to keep the randomSeed constant, those random behaviour-problems should not appear.

Know anything else about this Vektor, like when it assigns one and how this affects units.

 8)PEACE