Zeus useful scripting commands

[soulis6 24]

In the feature request thread there were questions and answers about scripting with Zeus, now that units have an exec box to easily modify. I figured it might be nice to have a thread to share useful small scripts or commands that anyone has found to be worthwhile or necessary in Zeus. Mostly thinking about god-GM mode, because you probably can't use the debug console or units exec functions on most ZvP or ZvZ servers.

This page was posted in that thread also, and is definitely handy: https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Scripting_Commands_by_Functionality

Some simple nice ones i've used so far or found useful:

Making helicopters land:

will land and shut off engine

this land "LAND";

will hover just off the ground to load or unload

this land "GET IN"; 

Make a unit surrender:

removeAllWeapons this;
removeBackpack this;
this action ["Surrender", this];
this Setcaptive true;

Setting groups speeds

only need to use on one unit in the group. There are others too, but the LIMITED speed especially is very useful, because otherwise groups you set on patrol will stay at full speed, and do a weird stop/start run animation regularly, which my players at first mistook for meaning that the unit spotted them the first time they saw it.

this setSpeedMode "LIMITED";

Manual artillery fire

For when you want your artillery pieces to be firing at something if you're players are nearby. You have to look up or have ready grid coordinates and shell class names every time though, which is a bit of a pain. This one in particular is HE shells for the Sochor arty tank.

this commandArtilleryFire [[14000, 18700, 0], "32Rnd_155mm_Mo_shells", 8]

These next couple aren't meant to go in Exec box on a unit, you'd have to use them in the debug console and globally execute them:

Unit chat:

This gets around the limitation of Zeus not being able to talk 'through' units.

First you have to run

unitTalking = this;

in the speaking unit's exec field, and then you can freely do

unitTalking sideChat "talking text goes here";

in the debug console (global exec).

You could also use globalChat or other chats, but i believe sideChat shows their group's callsign name as the talking unit, which is helpful for commander orders and the like.

Fade and text

for fading to a black screen and showing a text. Useful for when you want to change weather or skip time ahead on players. The 2nd one will fade it back, so don't run that until you're finished skipping time or doing whatever you need to do (you can actually still edit objects too, but it blacks out Zeus' camera too, not sure if there's a way to do it for everyone BUT Zeus)

cutText ["text goes here","BLACK OUT"];
cutText ["same text here","BLACK IN"];

I'll add more as I come across useful stuff, and I'd love to see ones that other people have found themselves needing or having use for while playing Zeus GM.

[feanix 1]

I can't see an exec field in the dialog that comes up when you double click a unit. Am I missing something?

[soulis6 24]

You have to have the debug console enabled. If it's one of the premade Zeus missions there should be a mission parameter for it, something like 'debug enabled'.

If it's a custom mission, you have to make sure to enable the debug console in the mission's description.ext file.

[feanix 1]

Thank you!

[feanix 1]

Here's another sript you guys might find useful. It'll make all the troops in a vehicle eject. Run it on the group leader (should work for any squad member but I havn't tested it out). I found I needed to use this to get troops to disembark from hovering helis.

{ unassignvehicle _x;

_x action ["EJECT", vehicle this];

sleep 0.1;

} foreach units group this;

[EDcase 87]

Good thread but its a pity these common actions are not integrated into the UI.

Making a helo land or hover SHOULD be an option button.

(You can force a group out of a vehicle by pressing 'g'. Careful because they will jump out of a helo even if its high up)

Edited April 14, 2014 by EDcase

[thenach 10]

Here's another sript you guys might find useful. It'll make all the troops in a vehicle eject. Run it on the group leader (should work for any squad member but I havn't tested it out). I found I needed to use this to get troops to disembark from hovering helis.

{ unassignvehicle _x;

_x action ["EJECT", vehicle this];

sleep 0.1;

} foreach units group this;

Open the left pane of the Zeus console. (press E)

Select the group you want to disembark.

And hit G.

---------- Post added at 17:47 ---------- Previous post was at 17:46 ----------

Good thread but its a pity these common actions are not integrated into the UI.

Making a helo land or hover SHOULD be an option button.

BI should add something like the UAV terminal... right click on the WP should let you change this.

Edited April 14, 2014 by theNaCH

[soulis6 24]

Good thread but its a pity these common actions are not integrated into the UI.

True, but give them time, Zeus is still new. It's so new and different, that i'm honestly surprised there aren't more problems or issues with it.

I believe the main zeus developer has already said that setting groups speed modes will be in for the next update, so we won't need the 'setSpeedMode' code for much longer.