Helicopter refuses to land no matter what I try

[Mynock 244]

I cannot get the helicopter to land no matter what I try. Any other ideas would be appreciated but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to just scrap this aspect from the mission entirely at this point.

No mods running at all, 100% vanilla.

Helicopter has a LOAD waypoint and is sync'd to a GET IN waypoint at the same location for the infantry.

Helicopter's LOAD waypoint is on an in game LZ (LZ Baldy).

Placed an invisible helipad at the location just to be sure.

Put land script into the load waypoint heli1 land "land"; just to be sure.

Set pilot to careless just to be sure.

There is no enemy AI anywhere on the map by this point, so the helicopter is never under any sort of threat.

Nothing. Still continues to hover above the LZ forever. Only thing I can think of is I have the helicopter drop off the units at the same LZ, so maybe the helicopter is getting confused somehow? Either that or having the GET IN waypoint be the only waypoint for the infantry is a problem because it gets "run over" by the infantry when they unload from the helicopter at the beginning of the mission. But I can't exactly move that waypoint across the map or it'll never work correctly I imagine.

Mission goes like so:

Starts with players in helicopter

Helicopter moves to LZ Baldy and drops off team

Helicopter takes off and goes to a loiter waypoint

Team completes objectives and returns to LZ

Trigger activates helicopters return to LZ Baldy

Helicopter is then supposed to land, pick up team, and proceed out to sea where a mission end trigger fires

Obviously if the stupid helicopter never lands to pick up the team, the mission never ends. It lands fine at the LZ when dropping off every single time, and that's without anything other than the TRANSPORT UNLOAD waypoint. I didn't have to force it to land or anything with the heli1 land "land"; command or anything. It only refuses to land on pickup and I've tried every single thing I've come across to fix it. I'm about 4 hours into trying to fix just this issue without any success, so please refrain from telling me to "just figure it out yourself" because I have tried for a long, long time.

---------- Post added at 02:02 ---------- Previous post was at 01:41 ----------

Tried moving the infantry's GET IN waypoint across the map. No change.

Edited July 27, 2015 by Mynock

[f2k sel 164]

No issue here doing it as you describe, try to create the pickup on a fresh map and if it fails post the simple mission so it can be tested.

Was the chopper spawned, I've seen an issue where a spawned chopper wouldn't land.

[Mynock 244]

No it's the same helicopter that drops the player off, so it's not spawned unless you consider the beginning of the mission it spawning in mid air with the player(s) inside it already, but I'm pretty sure you're referring to something that spawns after the mission has already started.

---------- Post added at 02:25 ---------- Previous post was at 02:12 ----------

So I opened the mission in the editor. Deleted everything in the mission except the team and the helicopter. Just added a trigger so the helicopter can leave then come back when it's tripped. Now it works fine of course. So what could possibly be causing it to not work in the mission with all the other stuff? I'm 150% positive all of the triggers, tasks, etc. are all sync'd 100% correct in the mission, I didn't accidently group or sync something together that shouldn't be. I've quadruple checked every single thing in the mission.

---------- Post added at 03:46 ---------- Previous post was at 02:25 ----------

This is beyond frustrating, it will only work if I delete everything in the mission. I've spent the last couple hours deleting things one by one and re-trying the mission to see what could be causing it. It will only work if I delete everything in the mission except the playable units and the helicopter with its waypoints.

So glad I spent probably 10+ hours building this mission and almost the same amount of time trying to get this stupid helicopter to work for nothing. Makes ZERO sense why it doesn't work when I have anything else in the mission because none of it directly relates to the helicopter at all.

Edited July 27, 2015 by Mynock

[Mynock 244]

I've decided as a temporary work around I will have the helicopter remain at LZ Baldy until the mission is complete and will then extract the player's team. 1km from an objective probably isn't a realistic distance for a helicopter to stay on the ground, but for now it will have to do and prevents me from having to potentially throw away hours of work.

[f2k sel 164]

It's one of those odd ones where unless you can reproduce the fault it's difficult to diagnose.

[GrumpyRhino 30]

I had a similar problem once. I fixed it by adding "Never Fire" in the extraction-helicopters waypoint combat mode.

I also used two different helicopters for insertion and extraction.

The extraction-helicopter starts as a flying unit with this in it's init field:

Heli_Extract_1 hideobject true;Heli_Extract_1 enablesimulation false;Heli_Extract_1 allowfleeing 0;

When the final objective was completed, a trigger would fire this:

Heli_Extract_1 hideobject false;Heli_Extract_1 enablesimulation true;

I'm not sure about the allowfleeing thing.

The "Never Fire" option might not be related to if a helicopter has weapons or not, but maybe it's more about the helicopter AI's state of mind.

I hope you get it working.

Edited July 27, 2015 by GrumpyRhino
Spelling

[Grumpy Old Man 3546]

Working with editor placed waypoints got exhausting pretty fast, so I moved away from them.

Never had a situation where a chopper with a

dostop chopper;
chopper land "land";

would fail to make the chopper land, except you tried to make him land next to an enemy of course.

The dostop part seems to add some weight to it for some weird reason.

My only gripe with AI choppers is that, once landed and you give some units orders to get in, the chopper tries taking off with the engine half shut-down.

Very annoying.

That might be your issue combining a load with a get in waypoint,

could be worth a try to make a small script with waituntil chopper distance and touching ground checks, then let the squad move in.

Cheers

[R3vo 2654]

Use https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/BIS_fnc_UnitPlay if it's a singleplayer mission.

[Mynock 244]

It's one of those odd ones where unless you can reproduce the fault it's difficult to diagnose.

Like I was trying to explain before, and maybe it was unclear so I apologize, it will work, but only if I delete everything from the mission except the helicopter and the playable infantry units. So something must be causing a conflict, however I have absolutely no idea what it could be, because nothing else is associated with the helicopter in the mission.

I had a similar problem once. I fixed it by adding "Never Fire" in the extraction-helicopters waypoint combat mode.

I also used two different helicopters for insertion and extraction.

The extraction-helicopter starts as a flying unit with this in it's init field:

Heli_Extract_1 hideobject true;Heli_Extract_1 enablesimulation false;Heli_Extract_1 allowfleeing 0;

When the final objective was completed, a trigger would fire this:

Heli_Extract_1 hideobject false;Heli_Extract_1 enablesimulation true;

I'm not sure about the allowfleeing thing.

The "Never Fire" option might not be related to if a helicopter has weapons or not, but maybe it's more about the helicopter AI's state of mind.

I hope you get it working.

I'll have to try this and see what happens, thanks for the suggestion. I wanted to avoid using 2 helicopters if possible, but I guess if I make them identical units the player likely wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Working with editor placed waypoints got exhausting pretty fast, so I moved away from them.

Never had a situation where a chopper with a

dostop chopper;
chopper land "land";

would fail to make the chopper land, except you tried to make him land next to an enemy of course.

The dostop part seems to add some weight to it for some weird reason.

My only gripe with AI choppers is that, once landed and you give some units orders to get in, the chopper tries taking off with the engine half shut-down.

Very annoying.

That might be your issue combining a load with a get in waypoint,

could be worth a try to make a small script with waituntil chopper distance and touching ground checks, then let the squad move in.

Cheers

I was under the impression that I needed to sync the helicopter's LOAD waypoint at the LZ to the infantry's GET IN waypoint, is that not the case? Every time I've tested it without doing that in a blank mission to see what would happen, the helicopter lands for all of a second then immediately takes off again and does not wait for any of the infantry to board. The only way I can get it to sit on the ground while loading troops, in any mission, is to sync those waypoints.

Use https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/BIS_fnc_UnitPlay if it's a singleplayer mission.

It has 4 playable units, so I imagine it will be used for co-op by some people, so I'm not totally sure this, whatever it is, would work. But thanks for the suggestion.

My work around actually does look sort of cool to me though I must say, almost tempted to keep it now. I added a couple AI units who hop out and secure the helicopter while it's shut down and waiting. The distance to the objective is a bit close for a real life situation, but the more times I play through to test it the more I like the way it looks. I still want to solve the original issue for learning sake though.

Edited July 27, 2015 by Mynock

[f2k sel 164]

I see you've found a work around that's ok if you can get away with it.

A little more info.

To keep a chopper on the ground you need two waypoints very close together, the first would be the a waypoint with the land command in it the second wp will need the condition changing, usually you make it so it only becomes true when a group has boarded the chopper and the chopper then continues.

placed in wp condition. The vehicle waits for all living members of bluegrp to mount the chopper.

{_x in vehicle this } count units bluegrp  == {alive _x} count units bluegrp 

The problem is if your not syching waypoints you will need a way to tell the group to board the chopper, one way would be to wait until the engine has been shut down.

placed in a move trigger on act

vehicle this land "land";null=this spawn {waitUntil { !isengineon (vehicle _this)};{_x assignAsCargo vehicle _this; [_x] orderGetIn true } foreach units bluegrp }

[Imperator[TFD] 444]

I can't remember if LZ Baldy has an actual helicopter landing pad at it; if not you will need to place one down using the editor (there's an invisible one if you don't want the H-pattern on the ground.)

helo1 land ""GET IN"";

Place this in the activation field of the waypoint where you want the helo to land and make sure it's near your landing pad. Then have a trigger with the code that F2kSel posted "{_x in vehicle this } count units bluegrp == {alive _x} count units bluegrp;" so that the helocopter does not leave until every living member of bluegrp has boarded the helo. You can then either sync that trigger to a waypoint far away or use the moveto command and create a marker far away so that the helicopter flies there.

Additionally you should consider disabling the targeting mode of the AI just so that it doesn't do anything silly. This can be done by either using script commands or you can use the module for it listed under (im at work so this might not be 100% accurate):

Modules (F7) - Object Modifiers - Set AI mode

If you get really stuck send me a PM and I will send you an example mission that does exactly what you're looking for and can be pretty much copy+pasted into your mission.

[3l0ckad3 17]

If you need help in the editor or in script I can help you out.. I have both models for you to use already working.. I suggest PM me so I notice I have your attention.
Cheers dude and good luck..

[tiger6k@aol.com 0]

Hi everyone, 

 

Just getting into Arma 3 for the first time, and was messing around with the editor.  I'm having issues getting a helicopter to land using the EDEN editor and it's waypoints, so I've been searching for a couple days now about possible reasons for this.  A lot of the videos I've seen, and forum posts I've seen are all at least a year old, so I'm not sure what has changed.  

 

To get a helicopter to land, is it still necessary to use:

 

this land "land"; ?

 

I figured out how to set a trigger and an action to have the helicopter take off once it is landed, but I can't actually get the helicopter to land right now.   The transport unload works if I already have troops in the helo, but I just can't get it to land on it's own.

 

What is the most current method of getting a helo to land at a waypoint?

 

Thanks for your time,

 

-Kris

[DOA 20]

With an invisible H pad and trigger I believe the Heli will miss it if it is flying too high. I can't remember the altitude but you can experiment with lowering the altitude. 

[davidoss 552]

Works well using code

null = [] spawn {
		_heli = heli;
		_heliGrp = group _heli;
		_posToLand = getMarkerPos "marker_land";
		_wp = _heliGrp addWaypoint [_posToLand, 0];
		_wp setWaypointType "MOVE";
		_wp setWaypointBehaviour "CARELESS";
		_wp setWaypointCombatMode "GREEN";
		_wp setWaypointSpeed "FULL";
		_wp setWaypointFormation "COLUMN";
		_wp setWaypointStatements ["true", "(vehicle this) land 'LAND'"];		

};

place any marker , make sure its named marker_land

place any chopper with crew  make sure its named heli

run the preview  execute the code in debug console

you can also use game logic module

[zagor64bz 1225]

Works well using code

null = [] spawn {
		_heli = heli;
		_heliGrp = group _heli;
		_posToLand = getMarkerPos "marker_land";
		_wp = _heliGrp addWaypoint [_posToLand, 0];
		_wp setWaypointType "MOVE";
		_wp setWaypointBehaviour "CARELESS";
		_wp setWaypointCombatMode "GREEN";
		_wp setWaypointSpeed "FULL";
		_wp setWaypointFormation "COLUMN";
		_wp setWaypointStatements ["true", "(vehicle this) land 'LAND'"];		

};

place any marker , make sure its named marker_land

place any chopper with crew  make sure its named heli

run the preview  execute the code in debug console

you can also use game logic module

@Davidoss

nice..but how do you add another waypoint to that?  Thank you

[davidoss 552]

In exactly the same way.

null = [] spawn {
        _heli = heli;
        _heliGrp = group _heli;
        _posToLand = getMarkerPos "marker_land";

        _wp = _heliGrp addWaypoint [_posToLand, 0];
        _wp setWaypointType "MOVE";
        _wp setWaypointBehaviour "CARELESS";
        _wp setWaypointCombatMode "GREEN";
        _wp setWaypointSpeed "FULL";
        _wp setWaypointFormation "COLUMN";
        _wp setWaypointStatements ["true", "(vehicle this) land 'LAND'"];

        _posNextWaypoint = getMarkerPos "marker_next";
        _wp1 = _heliGrp addWaypoint [_posNextWaypoint, 1];
        _wp1 setWaypointType "MOVE";
        _wp1 setWaypointBehaviour "CARELESS";
        _wp1 setWaypointCombatMode "GREEN";
        _wp1 setWaypointSpeed "FULL";
        _wp1 setWaypointFormation "COLUMN";
        _wp1 setWaypointStatements ["true", "(vehicle this) land 'LAND'"];   

};

[zagor64bz 1225]

@Davidoss: Thank you man!

[Nick Andersen 0]

Works well using code

null = [] spawn {
		_heli = heli;
		_heliGrp = group _heli;
		_posToLand = getMarkerPos "marker_land";
		_wp = _heliGrp addWaypoint [_posToLand, 0];
		_wp setWaypointType "MOVE";
		_wp setWaypointBehaviour "CARELESS";
		_wp setWaypointCombatMode "GREEN";
		_wp setWaypointSpeed "FULL";
		_wp setWaypointFormation "COLUMN";
		_wp setWaypointStatements ["true", "(vehicle this) land 'LAND'"];		

};

place any marker , make sure its named marker_land

place any chopper with crew  make sure its named heli

run the preview  execute the code in debug console

you can also use game logic module

Im new to this, and im trying to understand it:)

Where do i place this bit of code?

[EdjeEdje!1 0]

On ‎04‎-‎09‎-‎2016 at 10:23 AM, davidoss said:

Works well using code

null = [] spawn {
		_heli = heli;
		_heliGrp = group _heli;
		_posToLand = getMarkerPos "marker_land";
		_wp = _heliGrp addWaypoint [_posToLand, 0];
		_wp setWaypointType "MOVE";
		_wp setWaypointBehaviour "CARELESS";
		_wp setWaypointCombatMode "GREEN";
		_wp setWaypointSpeed "FULL";
		_wp setWaypointFormation "COLUMN";
		_wp setWaypointStatements ["true", "(vehicle this) land 'LAND'"];		

};

place any marker , make sure its named marker_land

place any chopper with crew  make sure its named heli

run the preview  execute the code in debug console

you can also use game logic module

 

@davidoss

 

It tried two days to figure it out, but couldn't do it.

Your last line, especially  the  "(vehicle this) part did the trick.

Thanks a lot, I can now move on and make my first scenario a better one.

 

Edjeedje

[opusfmspol 282]

On ‎7‎/‎27‎/‎2015 at 11:25 AM, Mynock said:

My work around actually does look sort of cool to me though I must say, almost tempted to keep it now. I added a couple AI units who hop out and secure the helicopter while it's shut down and waiting. The distance to the objective is a bit close for a real life situation, but the more times I play through to test it the more I like the way it looks. I still want to solve the original issue for learning sake though.

 

For learning's sake...  It was figured out.

 

Using LOAD and GET IN waypoints has a locality issue in multiplayer.  For the waypoints to work the vehicle must be created on the same machine (or instance of Arma) as the unit ordering the get in.  (See this post):

 

When the mission circumstances don't really allow for this, a scripted landing and load would be the way to go.

[Mynock 244]

Good to know I guess 2 years later.