No fuel = No pilots

[EddiePrice 16]

Hi guys,

I've been mission editing for some time now with OFP and now ArmA and one thing is really starting to bug me. In OFP a good way to trigger an extraction vehicle or chopper or simular would be to set the fuel to 0 on the unit and then have a trigger change their fuel value when you want the vehicle to start moving.

However, in ArmA the crew of the vehicle will bail out and start walking towards their next waypoint. Is there anyway to get around this? I want the crew to stay in and wait.

Using the method of a synced delayed get in waypoint for the crew isn't really an option for me here.

Any ideas? I've tried locking the vehicle and I'm all out of ideas.

Thanks!

[Namikaze 0]

Give the helicopter a waypoint right on top of their spawn position, and put a condition on it. Something like "booleanName" which is a boolean expression. When booleanName is true, the helicopter will complete the waypoint and move to the next one. Just make sure to define booleanName at some point, and you should be golden.

[EddiePrice 16]

Right ok thanks mate.

EDIT: Just tried this, the heli still takes off, but hovers in place. I want it to stay on the ground, engines off.

[Namikaze 0]

Right right, I should have thought of that.

One method would be to start the crew on the ground somewhere (near the heli or wherever you want, really) and then give them a waypoint near their start point (just like you did with the heli). Then their next WP would be near the heli, type would be "LOAD" or "GETIN" (I can't remember which will make them board properly). In this case, you would want to remove the extra WP from the helicopter, since the crew isn't on board and ultimately it's the crew that you want to travel to the location.

I know there are other ways to solve this problem, using scripted commands like flyInHeight and setFuel, but the answer above should work without needing anything but the mission editor.

[tj72 0]

You could create an empty chopper and create the pilot in editor and give him a moveindriver command in the units init field:

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

pilotname moveindriver choppername

Give the pilot no waypoints

you can do the same for gunners, add them to the pilots group.

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

gunnername1 moveInTurret [choppername, [0]]

gunnername2 moveInTurret [choppername, [1]]

He will sit there and do nothing from mission start. Then you could create a separate unit with a group name and give it your desired waypoints.

In that units init put

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

groupname = group this;deletevehicle this

The unit will delete but his group and waypoints will stay in memory.

With a trigger or a waypoint of your specifications you could put this code in onActivation:

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

[pilotname] join groupname

or

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

[pilotname,gunnername1,gunnername2] join groupname

if you have more than one in crew.

Once in the group he will inherit the waypoints and be on his way. It may be not an ideal solution but at least you can consider another trick like your setfuel workaround to make the game act like you want it.

 It seems the AI needs stuff like this to make it more controllable so I tend to use scripted move commands over waypoints but thats just me.

[EddiePrice 16]

Seems ridiculous that these are the only ways to get around this problem. You'd think locking the vehicle would keep them in it...

Thanks for the feedback anyway guys, I'll try out these methods, see what works best.