Opfor ignores players (coop MP)

[Von_Lipwig 10]

Hi. I have tried searching for this issue, using words like 'ignore', 'ghost', 'and do not shoot at', but I remain clueless. If there have been threads about this issue then I am sorry, but my searches yielded no results.

---

The problem is the following.

In short: after a while in a mission, enemy (opfor) troops won't shoot at friendly (human blufor) players. :confused:

In this particular mission, players have to fly in (farmhouse near town of Rasman, Arrowhead) and hold a certain place. When entering a certain radius of the farmhouse, blufor sets off a trigger that makes opfor enemies move towards them. Waypoints are set to Search and Destroy, Open Fire and Engage at Will, Fast, Combat, all over the farmhouse.

I'm also using the respawn-west marker for respawns during the mission. The point is that after a while, enemies stop firing at blufor players and just run towards the farmhouse (while still looking very combat-like, maneuvering and such). You can fire at them and they won't do a thing.

I thought they stopped responding to human players altogether (somehow losing enemy status after respawning?) but when a friend I was testing it with lost connection and rejoined, he was fired at, no matter how often he died and respawned. The opfor still didn't fire at my other friend or myself however.

---

So basically, after a while enemies start ignoring players (or certain enemies just ignore them by default, they all do come in newly after all) but I checked and all waypoints do emphasise that they are to engage and fire at will. Rejoining fixed it for ONE guy apparently, but I don't know how.

I remember reading something about an issue approximately or exactly like this but as I said, my searches yielded nothing. Are you aware of this problem, and is there a known fix? :)

Please take into account that my editing skills are limited to waypoints and very basic triggers. Scripting isn't my strong side, at all... :o

Thanks in advance!

[kylania 568]

Noticed this happened last night during a game. In a mission that had worked fine before, this time we could walk right up to a OPFOR, poke his nose with our pistol and he wouldn't even blink. Next time through the map all was fine again.

[Von_Lipwig 10]

If it was just a one-time fluke I'd be OK with it, but it happened both times we tried it. On an earlier version it didn't happen though. The only difference between the two versions though is that I placed the first aid modules for the medic in the human team, and I placed some more enemy units to make it harder. Nothing that would induce a sudden sense of pacifism in Takistani troops.

[Jelliz 10]

try setfriend after spawning.

[Von_Lipwig 10]

Does that mean it goes into init lines? (sorry, I haven't really progressed beyond waypoints and basic triggers yet)

Am I right in assuming the setfriend goes into the players' init lines (if it goes into init lines at all :P )? I ask this because most if not all of the enemy units already exist at the start of the game (placed further away to create waves). Yes, I know some of you experienced mission makers are cringing at the thought of having all these units on the map at the very start. I'll look into spawning them in later. ;)

Anyway, since all enemy units already exist at the start of the game I doubt their friend status in regards to West changes at all, so I'm guessing it has to do with the players respawning. (alternatively, should there be a trigger that automatically sets friend status between west and east to 0? If so, how does one do this?) The only other cause I could come up with is that the waypoints somehow interfere with the whole 'firing at the enemy' thing but since they DID fire at my mate I don't think that has anything to do with it.

:)

[Von_Lipwig 10]

Someone told me to put the waypoints to 'Guard'. Do you reckon that's enough or do you suspect the problem lies on a deeper level than faulty waypoints? (especially since they DID fire at my mate who had just turned up)

[NorthStar 10]

I'm running into this issue as well in missions that have respawn. AI stops shooting at me post-respawn. Used to work fine; not sure what has changed. Would love to find a solution to this, though.

[Egosa-U 10]

Had the same issue last night, too. After respawning, you could run aroundwithout being shot at. They still shoot at enemy-vehicles, though..

Can't remember to have that issue on ArmA 2 w/o OA..but maybe haven't realized that back then..

Isn't this something for the Troubleshooting-Section?

[NorthStar 10]

I definitely had the issue in ArmA2, but only in later versions.

Isn't this something for the Troubleshooting-Section?

Maybe? :p

[Von_Lipwig 10]

I did have the problem once or twice in ArmA2 stock, but not often. In MP the mission now plays out relatively well, the enemy seem to be aggressive enough. I changed the waypoints from SAD to Guard and that seems to have helped, but I do think the problem lies deeper than just that; maybe it's just random and we were lucky that time. ;)

[NorthStar 10]

That's quite interesting actually... I had been using SAD waypoints almost exclusively in the missions where I experienced the problem. Maybe there is a bug in the SAD logic regarding respawns? Guard waypoints work quite a bit differently, so if that is indeed the problem it would be nice not to have to avoid using SAD. I guess for now I'll try using a combo of Guard and Move+Cycle.

Edit: Something else I just remembered... when I experienced this issue, the players being ignored by OPFOR were also unable to satisfy trigger condition 'BLUFOR present'. So it may be something more complicated.

Edited July 14, 2010 by NorthStar

[Egosa-U 10]

This REALLY should be moved to troubleshooting!

[garbol87 10]

Did you use First Aid Module? After respawning whit this module activated player will be set to "captive" = Civilians as I recall this hasen't been fixed since ArmA2 1.0.

[NorthStar 10]

That could be it as well... I remember there was a bug where after respawning with First Aid, the player would become invincible, but that was fixed. So this is a separate bug?

[Egosa-U 10]

Did you use First Aid Module? After respawning whit this module activated player will be set to "captive" = Civilians as I recall this hasen't been fixed since ArmA2 1.0.

Yes..that could be it..which frist aid module is it - maybe i'll think about removing that one..