Convoy - best solution?

[Brute 11]

I am attempting to make a convoy of 4-6 vehicles simply drive down a main road for approximatley 4 miles, however i want them to react to fire, therefore if i use move waypoints they usually end up ignoring the fire and continuing without even returning fire. Does anyone have any ideas?

[NorthStar 10]

Use the Force. "forceSpeed 8" on all vehicles is the key to organized convoys.

[Brute 11]

Thanks for the tip, what about plotting their route?

[NorthStar 10]

Regular move waypoints should work; as long as you don't set the behavior on them to "careless" the units should hop out/return fire if they're under fire. At least with multi-passenger vehicles and vehicles with weapons. Usually in vehicles with only a driver the AI is too stupid to get out.

[Brute 11]

Regular move waypoints should work; as long as you don't set the behavior on them to "careless" the units should hop out/return fire if they're under fire. At least with multi-passenger vehicles and vehicles with weapons. Usually in vehicles with only a driver the AI is too stupid to get out.

I will setup a test and give it a try, thanks for the advice mate

[NeMeSiS 11]

Regular move waypoints should work; as long as you don't set the behavior on them to "careless" the units should hop out/return fire if they're under fire. At least with multi-passenger vehicles and vehicles with weapons. Usually in vehicles with only a driver the AI is too stupid to get out.

AFAIK only units in cargo will unload, and only if their vehicle has unloadincombat=1 (Or something similar) in the config.

[Brute 11]

Isnt it default true though?

---------- Post added at 09:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:34 PM ----------

The convoy doesnt really stay together, plus the vehicles seem to swerv all over the road?

[joshpc 0]

i think you can Sync them and they will wait for eachother? or something? maybe it was sync their waypoints.. IF they are in the same group they will follow the lead vehicle anyways I think. I could be wrong...

[Taurus 20]

Isnt it default true though?

I never saw a vehicle not unloading its troops when fired upon. :confused:

However they don't react to the ambush, i.e get the f out of the vehicle and find cover.

Also the group leader would order some of the units back into the vehicle.

Not sure how this would be implemented.

But if "under fire" was called, the group leader should tell the troops to "eject" and then the game engine would trigger "emergency disembark" or something.

About them firing at enemies with MG's

Its a problem with the AI in vehicles not engaging enemy targets.

They need to get a "Zomg look!? enemies!!" from the leader first.

Not when on foot when they could spot you 500 meters away.

The convoy doesnt really stay together, plus the vehicles seem to swerv all over the road?

BIS unfortunately enough broke the AI pathing in Arma 2, the AI in ArmA could drive in a convoy very good, until they reached those dreadful bridges.

Setting the waypoint speed to "FULL" helps abit.

unit forceSpeed x

doesn't have any effect on cars nor aircrafts.

(just tested)

Edited July 22, 2009 by Taurus

[imustkill 0]

If forceSpeed does not work try the setVelocity command.

vehicle setVelocity [x, z, y]

[f2k sel 164]

If forceSpeed does not work try the setVelocity command.

vehicle setVelocity [x, z, y]

Will setvelocity do anything other than give a unit a small nudge, wouldn't you have to call it repeatedly.

[Carpaazi 0]

how i make it work perfectly,is NOT to group any vehicles in the convoy, i use forcespeed for all the vehicles to set the same speed, and always sync the waypoints at the same location.

Example: My convoys usually have like 3-4 waypoints for 4 vehicles, so on one spot there is 4 waypoints (1 for each vehicle), sync them with eachother, and when the convoy arrives, every vehicle in the convoy will wait until all the vehicles are at their waypoints, then they all continue with the same forcespeed, and it work better than i expected

[Starlight 10]

I found that by using just a few markers, 1 per town and using these as waypoints, the AI was better at following the road / driving than using direct waypoints which tended to cause a lot of stops and minor adjustments back onto the road.

[FinalSin 10]

AFAIK only units in cargo will unload, and only if their vehicle has unloadincombat=1 (Or something similar) in the config.

Can you briefly explain how I edit the config to set that to false?

[Carpaazi 0]

From the Wiki:

Description:

Check if cargo of this vehicle want to get out when in combat.

Code:

canUnloadInCombat vehicle

I have no idea how to use this, so if someone does, please tell =)

[NeMeSiS 11]

From the Wiki:

Description:

Check if cargo of this vehicle want to get out when in combat.

Code:

canUnloadInCombat vehicle

I have no idea how to use this, so if someone does, please tell =)

It just checks if the vehicle will onload its cargo in combat, you can't set it from the mission editor AFAIK.

You would have to edit the config.cpp and just change the unloadincombat=1 to a 0, but that way it would become an addon which is quite inconvenient. (And i wont explain the whole proces to do it properly, im sorry)

The easiest way IMO would be to check if the units are still in the vehicle, and if they arent use the moveInCargo command on them. Though looping a script like that constantly on alot of units isnt going to improve the performance. :p

Now that i think about it, maybe setting the units in cargo to 'Careless' will make them ignore combat. But you might have to set the vehicle to 'careless' as well which may not be very useful in your mission.

JEDIT: ust use Carpaazi's solution, it sounds the best. :p

[Carpaazi 0]

Or just make a trigger that checks if some of the vehicles takes dammage and then forces the units to disembark the vehicles,that is what i usually do =)

[Cloughy 0]

Below is from the Com ref.

Syntax - object forceSpeed speed

Parameters- object - Object

speed - Number (in km/h)

So your forcespeed 8 will limit the convoy to 8kmh. I have just used it on a convoy and it seemed to work. Before my lead hummer was speeding ahead of my truck and medic hummer, after i forced speed of the lead hummer to 40, and the rest 50, The truck is much closer. But i agree, the AI driving needs fixing.

Cheers

GC

[jakerod 254]

Or just make a trigger that checks if some of the vehicles takes dammage and then forces the units to disembark the vehicles,that is what i usually do =)

I would add in there something about their speed being below 5 though. Or else you might get a truck going 60 and then taking a hit and everyone jumping out at 60mph and dying.

(speed uazm) <= 10 && !alive uazleader or !alive uazm1 or !alive uazm2 or !alive uazm3

I had that in my conditions field for a uaz. It states essentially that if any member in the uaz is killed and it is going 10 or under then they will jump out (well it will activate, the on activation field had the jumping out part).

(speed uazm) <= 10

(speed vehiclename) <= speedlimit

That is the part about going 10 or under.

Edited August 3, 2009 by Jakerod

[Jimmy the Saint 10]

A very helpful thread so far. But I wonder if there's a way to keep vehicles (first and foremost tanks and track vehicles) moving while they pass a waypoint. So far I cannot get them moving, they'll always come to a full stop at each waypoint (until they have been advised to their new direction/orders - I guess).

My question to this thread would be: Is it possible to integrate a tank into a convoy of "soft" vehicles (which are able to move fluidly along the waypoints) without having the whole convoy to stop at each waypoint and wait for the tank to get ready to move on? :386:

My opinion so far is that the behaviour of the tanks seems pretty clumsy on (dust) roads right now. Even if you set their behaviour to careless, they won't always follow the roads if you don't give them enough waypoints and if they follow the road they'll often move somekind of zigzag route.

[jakerod 254]

A very helpful thread so far. But I wonder if there's a way to keep vehicles (first and foremost tanks and track vehicles) moving while they pass a waypoint. So far I cannot get them moving, they'll always come to a full stop at each waypoint (until they have been advised to their new direction/orders - I guess).

I don't know if it will work but try putting a trigger around the waypoint that says if the leader of the convoy is present then switch to the next waypoint. It might work. Also if you do that will helicopters it will make their turns look a bit more fluid. You have to put the trigger pretty far out in front for the helicopter though.

Edited August 4, 2009 by Jakerod

[Jimmy the Saint 10]

Sounds like a good workaround. I will try that. :)

[kylania 567]

Just attachTo each vehicle to the one in front of it and hope you don't need to turn. :)

[diegoreymendez 10]

Just to add a tip... you can force a vehicle to both unload the cargo AND return fire while unloading by setting the driver's behaviour to careless. You should not set the whole's vehicle behaviour as careless as that includes the gunners. It's working great for me.

[Proud Gamer 0]

I just want to give a big thanks to all of the people posting all this, since I have some kind of crush to convoys.

Does anyone know if this is something that BIS is working on, or something we just need to lern live with? I guess not, but worth a shot.

Helo's have always been having the same problem in all of the games flying together as a group, but I can live with that. But now when even vehicles have the problem too I get worried. If you watch a group of soldiers walking in safe they do the exactly same thing, stops to adjust their position. But because they are just walking it's something that happens quite fast and not that visible.