Weird placement radius problem

[Balschoiw 0]

I´m currently making a MP mission. I wanted to have a group placed within a random radius on the map. I set the placement radius to 300 covering the desired region for the squad leader.

Tested -> no effect, unit always at same spot.

Next try, ungrouped all squad units, gave them own placement radius, same result. All units in place.

Next test: Set a single boat offshore to be able to spot unit. Entered placement radius -> preview -> boat always starts in same place.

Am I stupid or is it FDF mod ?

I also decreased probability of presence, but in my understanding it only indicates the percentage level that a unit will actually show up on the map, but has nothing to do with it´s position. Some early Tut´s were wrong on this.

Why does placement radius not work with FDF ? Or is it a known bug ? I remember that I used this option quite often when making maps.

Or is it me , who got something wrong ?

I´m really confused.

[wheres my rabbit ? 10]

isn't there a trick you can do with a gamelogic (i think a logic anyway) where you can put a few on the map and group the units to them and they will start at one of gamelogics randomly ?

[sanctuary 19]

I tested quickly in the editor , desert island

I place myself, and edit my placement radius to 100

I create just next to me another unit not grouped with me to serve as an "anchor"

I preview and center my view to the "anchor" unit , and it seems to work as i am not near it anymore :

I press ESC then select Retry , again it seems to work, as i am now in a totally different place :

After that i tested with a whole squad, but only me the leader has a 100 placement radius, and after several ESC-Retry it seems to work perfectly : i am never in the same place and all my squad is with me.

I have not tested with FDF mod for now, but i don't think they have made anything to disable the placement radius, maybe you are just very unlucky and the random placement is always selecting the same place (unlikely but it is always possible statistically) ?

Ot it could be the fact instead of Esc-Retry you go back in the editor and click preview again, i noticed during the development of a mission where a random location is selected that i had always the same result when clicking preview.

Maybe randomization is not really random when clicking preview (but when you compile the mission to be played in the Single Mission/Multiplayer menu, it will work perfectly)

[Balschoiw 0]

Inspired by your approach I tested it on Desert Island and other islands aswell. It works great on every island but not the island I´m making the mission on.

It´s the new Suursaari island. I get a chance that it works if the unit´s are in the open but as soon as the units are placed in woods with the placement radius set they always show up at the same spot. Maybe the engine has problems in finding a place for them. It´s a really weird problem. I will adress it in the corresponding addon thread.

Thx for your efforts

[Smartti 1]

I get a chance that it works if the unit´s are in the open but as soon as the units are placed in woods with the placement radius set they always show up at the same spot. Maybe the engine has problems in finding a place for them.

Yup. I did some testing too. When trying to get a "random placement" with all its range inside the forest, it always starts at middle. But when the placement range has open terrain, then it works like it should. Maybe it can't find a place for unit(s) or something.

The Boat test: Looks like the range doesn't work in open waters, so same like with forest. But when the range has some flat open land inside it, boat will start there.

Tested with both plain vanilla OFP and FDFMOD and with different islands (Desert Island, Everon, Kolgujev, Suursaari). Didn't notice any difference between mods or islands.

Strange...  

[wheres my rabbit ? 10]

oops lol dont group gamelogics to the player i just hideously crashed my computer

ok using sancs anchor unit trick to test i figured out that trick to force guy to random spots that you choose not totally random but it should work in the forests

1: put your unit on the map you want to spawn randomly placed

2: place a number of markers at a few different places you want him to start (use EMPTY type markers so they wont show up on the map)

3:group him to all the markers

thats it he will now start at any of the markers randomly everytime you start the mission and you can still group units to him

[Sniperwolf572 758]

You don't group game logics, you group the markers, if you have two markers grouped with a unit, there are three possible locations for the unit to appear, either of the two markers, or the units original position.

This might help you.

[Balschoiw 0]

Thx for the help guys. I guess the workaround with markers will do the job.

It´s funny that this OFP bug has never been uncovered before.

Maybe it will be adressed in the next OFP patch

[thobson 38]

There are indeed a number of wierd bugs still lurking in the system

[sanctuary 19]

You can try this script that should make the same job as the random placement radius

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">_uni = _this select 0

_dis = _this select 1

_cooX = (getpos leader _uni select 0)

_cooY = (getpos leader _uni select 1)

_wheX = random (_dis*2)-_dis

_wheY = random (_dis*2)-_dis

{_x setpos [_cooX+_wheX,_cooY+_wheY,0]} foreach units _uni

exit

i call this script by example rndpos.sqs

and i call it like this

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">[TEAM1,150] exec "rndpos.sqs"

TEAM1 is the name of a group (so can change to any group name you want)

150 is the max distance of the placement radius (and so can be modified by what you need)

And with that script, the group -can- spawn in a forest.

[Balschoiw 0]

Thx a lot sanctuary !

I will give credits in mission.