Convoys stay on road in general?

[ladlon 10]

I've had a few convoy ambush missions (Mission Wizard) where I wait forever for the convoy... only to find they decided to detour through the field, rather than the road route. Do they generally go along the roads, or will they go through fields and stuff?

[Steakslim 1]

in an ideal world they'd use the roads, but the AI doesn't seem to follow the roads very well at times so yes they will cut through fields if they have the opportunity.

[maturin 12]

The more safe they feel, the more they will stick to roads, in general.

[ladlon 10]

What's you general strategy when faced with a convoy ambush mission? Do you go along the sides of the road, hiding, waiting for them to come? Do you go to the middle of the route, the end?

I generally try and find a straight section towards the end, and position my guys just off the side of the road, spread out on either side, and have them hold fire until the convoy is almost surrounded by us.

[SteveJA 12]

Yeah thats what i tend to follow,

I usally go by this chaps guide

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=74994

[Dwarden 1125]

unfortunately there are some problamatic spots in chernarus road network and AI path planning which results in such behaviour ...

it's known issue ... unfixed atm.

[Tonci87 163]

I hope it will be better in OA, By the way how many km Road can we expect?

[fabrizio_t 58]

I hope it will be fixed for Chernarus too ...

[ladlon 10]

Oh, okay... Ya, so many times I would rush my guys over to a section of the route road, position them at strategic points, get them all to go stealthy, whip out the binoculars and watch and wait in anticipation of the first car appearing over the hill...... and waiting.... and waiting... and ... wondering if maybe we're in the right place.... and waiting... and wondering if we should move ahead a bit... or scope around... but then maybe stay put, as they might come over that hill......

....and....

...aw, nuts. Well, guess that ambush isn't happening!

Actually, that's been happening a lot lately.... I guess it's because I'm using a user map, rather than the default one.

[Alex72 1]

There are no problems making a convoy pass where you want. Thats what waypoints are for. You cant put 1 WP at the end of the map and hope they will take the route you have in your head. Add WP's at critical places and they WILL go where you want them to.

Use WP radius in certain places where you want them to go RANDOM everytime.

[katipo66 94]

Oh, okay... Ya, so many times I would rush my guys over to a section of the route road, position them at strategic points, get them all to go stealthy, whip out the binoculars and watch and wait in anticipation of the first car appearing over the hill...... and waiting.... and waiting... and ... wondering if maybe we're in the right place.... and waiting... and wondering if we should move ahead a bit... or scope around... but then maybe stay put, as they might come over that hill......

....and....

...aw, nuts. Well, guess that ambush isn't happening!

Actually, that's been happening a lot lately.... I guess it's because I'm using a user map, rather than the default one.

Ahaha classic, ambush is my favorite mission in SOM, i lay down satchels and find a spot where can bail easily if over whelmed, i got it setup so i can call any mission, so i usually head into a town for ambush missions...

Its funny when waiting and you can hear them as they get closer struggling to stay on the road and they handle corners like old grannies

[jakerod 254]

There are no problems making a convoy pass where you want. Thats what waypoints are for. You cant put 1 WP at the end of the map and hope they will take the route you have in your head. Add WP's at critical places and they WILL go where you want them to.

Use WP radius in certain places where you want them to go RANDOM everytime.

Too bad you can't do that when using SOM.*

*By "can't do that" I mean without going into a lot of depth that he does not yet understand. Nor do I and I have been playing BI games for the past decade almost.

[Smurf 12]

In OFP and A1 they were better?

I really don´t recall.

[swtx 42]

If your having trouble keeping convoys on the road you can try this:

http://www.ofpec.com/forum/index.php?topic=34778.0

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Use WP radius in certain places where you want them to go RANDOM everytime.

For different random routes I'd use waypoints linked to markers instead. WP radius might take them to the middle of a field which might not be desired.

[jakerod 254]

For different random routes I'd use waypoints linked to markers instead. WP radius might take them to the middle of a field which might not be desired.

I thought you couldn't group/use markers with waypoints?

[Alex72 1]

Yeah its not perfect ofcourse. And SOM is another thing that is affected by it. But making your own mission the traditional way you can rely on that they will come where you want them to.

In ArmA1 i remember adding just 1 WP at the bottom of the map and they took the fastest way down there - on the roads. It was great.

[NoRailgunner 0]

Even on careless with skill=1 AIs are going cross country.

I would say that the AI pathfinding in general is far from perfect and often far from plausible (AI stuck in walls and trees, circling around etc). Using different vehicles in convoys increases the driving chaos. Imho max vehicles in AI convoys are actual three and if you're lucky five. Otherwise you have to find a "straight and open" = AI friendly route.

Wonder if somthing like a convoy module can solve this headache?

[node_runner 0]

From my experience so far, Norrin's convoy script does a pretty good job with up to about 8 vehicles (mechanized, armor still gets messed up). The only problem I'm having with it is that once the lead unit reaches the final waypoint/marker, all the other vehicles are determined to pull up beside the lead vehicle in a line formation instead of just staying on the road in a column formation and coming to a stop. If anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate it.

[ladlon 10]

I'm talking about playing in a Mission Wizard - Combat session... Not a scripted mission.... Read my post!

So, all this about setting waypoints is not possible.

[Alex72 1]

Then... Your boned. Skip the wizard - its for nubs.

[jakerod 254]

Then... Your boned. Skip the wizard - its for nubs.

I enjoy it. Its nice that its completely random. As hard as I try to make totally random missions with some kind of meaning, I never really can.

[ladlon 10]

I'm with you on that one, Jakerod... I use it because it's random, and has the support stuff coded in. As I've pointed out, ad-nauseum :rolleyes: I started Arma2 using the Editor, and created my own little random mission thing (with the Secom module, Ambient Combat, and a VERY wide random placement of my team. Worked, but there was no support (artillery, airstrikes, etc).

Then I was introduced to the Mission Wizard, and all that was fixed (...at the cost of not being able to adjust a few things, like weapon loadout, specific module settings, etc)... So that's what I've been playing for the last few weeks.

Now, if I could get the artillery, airstrikes, UAVs, transport, etc support coded into the Editor, then I'd go back to it, since that would allow me to further add things and tweek them as needed. If someone could give me the code to put in (and explain where to put it, etc), I'd be more than happy to switch back to the editor.

[node_runner 0]

Have you guys played with Planned Assault yet? It's pretty impressive: http://www.plannedassault.com/

[ladlon 10]

Can't seem to get onto that site, node_runner... but I'll try again a few more times today. Thanks!