Disguised enemy in cars. Players interacting with..

[Tankbuster 1733]

Another triumph in my long line of terrible topic titles. I will explain and hopefully, my question will become clear.

 

One of the secondary missions for my MP Coop Mission Authority sends the BLUFOR players to man a premade, but semi-randomly/dynamically placed roadblock. Random AI vecs are sent, one at a time, to the roadblock. They are scripted to stop short of the RB at what I call the pause point. If the car is friendly, players are to raise the bar gate and allow the vehicle through. If it's enemy, and Independents are enemy, players are to kill the passengers and the vehicle itself.

While in a particularly cunning mood, I coded a civilian car, crewed by Indis, but who have no weapons and are wearing civilian clothes.  They drive to the pause point and wait for the gates to be opened, which is exactly the same behaviour of the real civvies. So to the player, at first glance, they are civvies.

The twist is that the inventory space of the car has 2 IEDs in it and it's only by looking in the inventory space of the car that players can find out that these civvies are actually enemy. 

This is where the story really starts then. Because the car is enemy, although it looks civvy, players can't get the car's inventory screen up - you can't look in the inv of an enemy vehicle.

What are my options?

I can setcaptive true all the crew. This allows players to inspect the vec, but if they shoot, they get score and rating penalties.  Might it be possible, once the players start shooting to setcaptive false the crew? I thought of the firednear EH to change the setcaptive. Would that work in time? Given that the whole map is populated with Indis, players at the roadblock might engage *other* indi forces, which would activate the firednearEH making the car crew enemy. The players might then be confused by the fact they couldn't look in the car's inventory space.

We thought that once a player had seen the inventory, (containeropened EH) we could make them setcaptive false at that point, but suppose the players wanted another look in the car inventory? They might have closed it by accident.

Could I group the car crew to a west guy? Would that make the car inventory available to players? What about rating and score when players start shooting?

I could fake the car's inventory dialog? This would mean there wouldn't need to be any fiddling with the side of the car crew. Is this doable? This would be totally new territory for me.

Would a handledamage EH on each of the car crew that setcaptive false the moment they took hits be fast enough? 

Would it be simpler just to allow players to kill the setcaptive true car crew and adjust their rating and score later?

Is there something else I haven't thought of yet?

[GEORGE FLOROS GR 4206]

Hello there Tankbuster !

 

I think just by changing the side to whatever you want should be the best option and change them again with an EH as you said.

[Tankbuster 1733]

Thanks George. I tried the firednear, but it works too well. While we were inspecting the car, an enemy helo flew over and one of the players shot at it, activated the firednear EH and made the car enemy before we'd even got a chance to look in its inventory space!

[GEORGE FLOROS GR 4206]

You can enable the script on the inventory open ( InventoryOpened EH )

[Tankbuster 1733]

10 minutes ago, GEORGE FLOROS GR said:

You can enable the script on the inventory open ( InventoryOpened EH )

Yes, but again, it's a one shotdeal with that. The players would open the car inventory which would make the car setcaptive true. This would mean the players can't go back for another look.

[GEORGE FLOROS GR 4206]

What exacly you mean by saying for another look ?

So else the inventory is not placed in each different space of the car so you won't probably check more than once !

[Tankbuster 1733]

1 hour ago, GEORGE FLOROS GR said:

What exacly you mean by saying for another look ?

So else the inventory is not placed in each different space of the car so you won't probably check more than once !

I mean that the car inventory will likely be opened more than once, either multiple players opening it, or a single player opening it twice or more.

So, using the opening of the car inventory (or indeed, closing it) to make the car crew suddenly become enemy will work, but once the car becomes enemy to players, they lose the option to get the car inventory.

Never underestimate players ability to do something the mission designer didn't forsee, no matter how illogical. 🙂

[beno_83au 1362]

@Tankbuster, have you had a look at this:

 

 

Seems like it might be a viable solution, maybe with some extra workarounds to get you where you're going?

[Grumpy Old Man 3540]

What about using the containerOpened EH to wait 2 seconds, then arm all passengers of the car with handguns/SMGs and let them jump out using reveal command for further fun?

This way the players have to get rid of attackers, the vehicle will no longer be occupied by opposing forces and is available to be inspected again.

 

Cheers

[Tankbuster 1733]

8 hours ago, beno_83au said:

@Tankbuster, have you had a look at this:

 

 

Seems like it might be a viable solution, maybe with some extra workarounds to get you where you're going?

I've not seen that. 'faking' the inventory (allowing players to see it even though it's enemy) was on my list of things to investigate. This looks like it might do that. Thanks!

[Tankbuster 1733]

5 hours ago, Grumpy Old Man said:

What about using the containerOpened EH to wait 2 seconds, then arm all passengers of the car with handguns/SMGs and let them jump out using reveal command for further fun?

This way the players have to get rid of attackers, the vehicle will no longer be occupied by opposing forces and is available to be inspected again.

 

Cheers

Yes, this is something that could be applied to this and other parts of this mission. At the moment, the ai stay in the car at the pause point. Sometimes they might get out instead of patiently waiting for the gate.

[Tankbuster 1733]

Update. I tried the ammo crate trick by @f2k sel, but got strange results. I've asked in that thread, so meantime, I decided to try my idea of using an EH to setcaptive false them.

 

I setcaptive true all the guys in the vec. I added a handledamage EH to setcaptive false them when they take damage and that worked. No score or rating penalty when I shot them and because the vec was civ, I could see it's inventory. Result!

But I was curious, so I removed the handledamage EH. So the crew are all setcaptive true, I can see the vec inventory. And when I shot them, no score or rating penalty! I was expecting penalties because the setcaptive made them side CIV. But no.. the game still knows they are Indi. At least, I assume that's what's going on.

[HazJ 1288]

You can override the scoring issues.

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3:_Event_Handlers#HandleHandleScore

[Tankbuster 1733]

That's not required. Enemy units that are captive are not civilian for the purpose of score and rating

[HazJ 1288]

General knowledge though. 😋

[Tankbuster 1733]

As we discussed in chat, it would be useful to know if this behaviour is limited to mounted units. I'll test with a dismounted unit later.

[Tankbuster 1733]

Can confirm that ANY (mounted or dismounted) unit that is setcaptive true, while it is neutral to all sides and is side CIV, if a player kills that unit, their score and rating is calculated on the unit's original side (before the setcaptive command was used).

So where I'm using Independents who are setcaptive true, players can kill them without penalty. This is one of the reasons I started this thread because I wasn't aware of this.