Tanks in Arma towns

[Guest]

Hey

In my current mission project im nearing the point of putting tanks in, and, I could really use some constructive advis/info from anyone on this matter, as in some areas of this new application ill be learning some as I go.

My main concern is town areas, excluding Corazol (because thats a frigged up mess that I already know it is), all major towns/cities north of Corazol are being used, and, the *idea* is to allow tanks to move into town areas, with the ground troops, and assist in securing town area. I already know theres major issues in Arma with vehicles getting stuck, and that many towns/cities have some pretty *cloistered* areas.

Basically, what im trying to accomplish is to allow tanks to go into towns, and remain on their wp plan, regardless of combat scenario, where they will return fire/fire on enemies, but not start trecking alover the town engaging enemies and getting stuck. A stuck tank would look really bad over time, and if I cant find a reasonable way to get tanks in Arma to go thru towns during combat without getting stuck, answer will be to not allow them in town areas at all (which is least desired)

So, any input on this is appreciated, any pointers, any constructive opinions on what *can* be done here would be awsome, and would help me greatly try to figure out the best approach, sure plenty of you guys got tons more experience than me with tanks in sticky areas during combat

[Guest]

Have done 5 tests in Bagango with 2 T72s moving thru with enemy units and apcs placed about, already got one permanently stuck, although this only occurred with wp path placed 'off the road', its already not looking good unless I can force these tanks to stay on the roads in towns during combat...

Going to test paths on roads only, keep throwing all kinds of enemies at em, see if they divert or not.

[Big Dawg KS 6]

You can't get tanks to drive on roads in non-safe/careless behaviour unless you changed the preferRoads value in the config, and then they'd always try to drive on the roads.

[Guest]

Gotcha on that, im seeing that somewhat micro-managing their paths in town, placing waypoints nearby eachother on roads keeps them 90% on them tho (prolly due to open pathing on roads), only bugger is of course something in the path of that road, like a destroyed vehicle, that would make them divert and maybe get stuck.

This *seems* to make allowing pathing in towns possible for these tanks, although for scripted moves that send a tank directly to a xyz position thru a town is kinda looking impossible, realistically considering the chances of getting stuck

[Big Dawg KS 6]

Not sure about ArmA, but in OFP giving tanks lots of waypoints wasn't an effective solution because they would stop at every single one to wait for the commander to issue the next move order (twice, once to the whole squad and then to the tank crew).

[Guest]

Correct, they do this indeed, although the wapoints are being placed mostly at each intersection, and inbetween sometimes, they do stop at each, but it doesent look too bad, honestly, theres no other option, every other town has so much they can get stuck on (walls, buildings, etc), only other thing I can dream up is to leave them out of towns, not really prepared to do that.

The ideal option here seems, keep waypoint plans in most open areas possible in towns, and keep them relatively closeley spaced at any area where there will be a change in direction.

In this mission, there is an area where tanks are possibly sent back to their towns via marker position doMoves, this is where, lol, have no clue what the hell is gonna happen, but, getting the inital waypoints to work were tanks can reliably not get stuck in towns is the first step here..

Thanks for the input there so far on this Kyle

btw - still trying to win Cti games in Ofp by flying everyone in on a chinnok to enemy base? did actually work a few times I recall...

[Guest]

Got another question, from a previous thread, was told for some reason that I honestly dont know, its more desirable when putting units into an empty tank, to send the driver in first, and him having the highest rank, then moving gunner, and commander in.

Im just following suit with that info, assigning the group leader (colonel) to get in as driver, then the 2 others as gunner, commander.

Assuming this is the desirable setup then? Cant find much about this in even old ofp forum search.

[VanhA 10]

I have a mission I've been working where a convoy of 10 vehicles with 1 T-72 in front is moving from a very far distance along a road and into a town and over a bridge in middle of town.

I have only 5 waypoints set for them and so far it works. Just before town the waypoint speed is set to "limited" and I found that a waypoint must never be on a bridge 'cos they then tend to drive past the bridge and into river.

If a bridge is disconnecting from a main road then they get confused and drive into river anyway.......annoying

[Guest]

Thanks for the tip on the bridge there, although regardless of where I put waypoints, so far ive never seen units make it across, maybe vehicles are a little more reliable then?

If someone could please help me out here, im finding no information on this assignAsDriver, AssignAsGunner,etc thing, and again, my question is, for a single player mission, does it really matter who goes where? I . e - im thinking that the Leader of the group should be sent to Commander seat, and other 2 guys to remaining positions, although ive been told that at least for MP (which this isnt) that one should assign driver first, whom must be group leader, then other 2.

Would help me alot here, this is a dynamic application getting units in vehicles at times, be alot easier if I dont have to worry about who gets in before the others, etc..

[Guest]

Actually, got it working fine with just prioritizing the driver seat position to the unit nearest the tank, and setting him to new group leader (which could help with other stuck units as well), then moving the other two, or one unit next to gunner, last to commander - ive probably done more than is needed for this to work, as im sure in SP missions, dont matter who gets in when, and who gets in where, as long as theres at least driver and gunner. Guess id rather be safe than sorry.

Thanks for the help everyone on this topic, muchly appreciated

[crashdome 3]

Perhaps an invisible object to place in areas they might get stuck? Help keep them out of that area maybe?

Although then I suppose a player could be running along and hit an invisible wall LOL.

[Guest]

Perhaps an invisible object to place in areas they might get stuck? Help keep them out of that area maybe?

Although then I suppose a player could be running along and hit an invisible wall LOL.

lol

Ya, scary the myriad of stuff one finds in their head as potential fixes to seemingly impossible to fix problems in mission making, thought of a few crazy ones similiar to what ur describing -

Bulldozer tank:

If tank has not moved in x seconds, destroy objects in front of tank (dunno if its even scriptable)

Tank kill object in front of it if not moved in x seconds (prolly would miss the object it was stuck on alot tho, unless it was dead center and high enough)

Nuke towns? ...

Already spent time destroying a ton of fenced areas in towns to open up areas for units, although destroying buildings causes inital lag (considerable), so thats not an option