63...is a magic number...

[CosmicCastaway 0]

Howdy!

I've done a search for this, but nothing really seems to explain simply enough for me.

I've recently encountered the '63 groups only' limit in the Flashpoint editor. Can someone explain to me what it classes as a 'group'? I'm certain I don't have anywhere near 63 groups in the map. I might be close to that in individual items (soldiers, vehicles etc), but definately not in groups. It's probably me being dim, but what exactly does it mean?

On the same tack, is there a workaround? I've examined some maps that spawn units using a .sqs file, would this prevent the 63 limit from occuring?

One other query, a general 'best editing practice' question. Is it preferable to spawn the units using triggers, rather than having them present throughout the entire mission? I assume this would be less taxing on the players machines?

Cheers for any assistance!

[Ninja_STO 0]

Pretty much, a group is a soldier or set of soldiers, with from 1-12 soldiers per group. If you place a single tank on the map, it counts as one group, but 3 soldiers. If you placed 10 soldiers on the map they would count as 10 groups, unless you grouped some of those units together.

So yes, individual soldiers and manned vehicles do count as their own group unless grouped to other units. Empty vehicles or objects do not count as a group.

[CosmicCastaway 0]

Right, that explains that then

Ok, so the best way to overcome the 63 group limit is to group more of the units together? Or is there a better way?

[Ninja_STO 0]

The group limit is not negotiable. And each group can only contain up to 12 soldiers max. In other words, a group can only contain 4 fully-crewed tanks, etc.

A good way to allow more units in a mission would to group them together, but remember that a group will act as such and will mostly stay as a group. How you will group units just depends on the mission you are making.

If you like, you can message me with your mission problem, and I'll try and help you come up with a good solution for it.

[CosmicCastaway 0]

Ok great. I just needed the whole concept of the 'groups' explaining really.

It's not a problem as such, it's just that I reached the limit of groups when I was only half way through putting my mission together. Might go back to the drawing board and scale it down a bit, or make the whole thing a bit more efficient unit wise.

Cheers for the assist.

[Unnamed_ 0]

You can have 63 groups each for East, West, Res and Civ. So if you set Res friendly to east for example, and use the trick where you group east soldiers to a res officer then delete the officer at the start of the mission. you can have 126 enemy groups.

But I'm assuming you wont have all these units on screen at once, so camcreating them as and when you need them is probably the best bet.

[-)a)( 0]

A "logic" counts also as a group!

[bn880 5]

Dax is correct(as usual), but be careful with using logic group for military ops, so try not to spawn too many soldiers in there as when they get some commands they may crash OFP. (from memory)

[Unnamed_ 0]

I thought Side Logic was neutral, would they still fight each other? Although you could probably assign the logics squad members to East or West commanders when you need them.

[bn880 5]

They are neutral, and also not full AI as far as I remember. From what I've seen in the past, SideLogic members are not full pledged brains... Maybe I'm confused as it's been a while.

[Messiah 2]

also remember its only 63 placed groups... meaning you can place a 12 man group and then make them all seperatly join group null.... in essence joining their own group... you can then direct them by the domove command instead of waypoints...

in that way you can get 63x12 groups.... whatever that is

[-)a)( 0]

Have you tested having more than 63 groups using "join grpnull"?!

You can't use the side "LOGIC", bcs in some cases you're not able to interact with the OFP-World anymore (Get in vehicles or pick up weapons). Especially that issue appears if your groupleader is an AI, and the group belongs to side "LOGIC"

[bn880 5]

also remember its only 63 placed groups... meaning you can place a 12 man group and then make them all seperatly join group null.... in essence joining their own group... you can then direct them by the domove command instead of waypoints...

in that way you can get 63x12 groups.... whatever that is

I played with that before, and there is a limit to this, at some point I decided it was not a good solution but i can't remember why. Maybe because they join SideCivilian or SideUnknown...

[Messiah 2]

it does get a little weird the further on you go... not tried it to its ful extent, as i can see my pc freezing if i did

[Unnamed_ 0]

Castaway, just out of curiosity do you have lots of sandbag walls e.t.c In your mission?

For every object like a West Sandbag wall you place in the mission, the editor treats them as though they are individual groups. If you have, then just group them the same way you would group a squad, and it should work ok.