Kilo Zulu

My apologies for never stating the version. Things are good now. I installed Resistance finally (it's been sitting on a shelf for years waiting for my friends to get it.) Everything is running smoothly now. The AI no longer shoots at vehicles, as CSL pointed out. I also had some error messages that showed up when I used CSL's vehicle load/unload commands. Everything still worked, but I'd get an error while troops were unloading helicopters, or while a vehicle was waiting for troops to load. The script worked fine otherwise, however. The error messages no longer show up, which is an added plus, since players no longer know exactly when reinforcements are arriving.

For some reason I'm having trouble with the AI shooting at empty vehicles when they detect them. In some cases I've been able to hide the vehicles from sight, but it doesn't always work, and that's only a work-around, anyway. What's worse, I've seen occassions where the AI will continue to attack a vehicle after other allied troops board the vehicle. I can't think of anything unusual about either the vehicles or the troops in question. The vehicle might officially be part of the other side's inventory, but I wouldn't expect anyone to care as long as it's unmanned. It's annoying to start the mission and all you can hear is the sound of machine guns and hand grenades in the distance as the AI declares war on parked cars.

Already done, in a way. I've got a trigger to detect west, and it goes off once the AI spots the empty jeeps. That's when it gets funny. The patrols that spot the jeeps start trying to shoot the jeep, while the jeep crew races out of their barracks in response to the alarm. At that point it's a race to see if the jeep will get destroyed before the crew can mount it, the crew gets killed while they're trying to get in, or they manage to get away without being killed.

Update: The mission.sqm has been solved. A.) You can't modify an empty vehicle's side. The modified SQM cannot be interpretted by other players. B.) Changing the side of the crew who share the same variable as the jeep, instead of the jeep, will not fix the problem. I used "find" to locate the jeeps' names (jp1, jp2, jp3, etc.) and return their side to "empty" rather than "east." In my haste to return the file to it's original form, as players were waiting to play the game, I didn't look closely enough at the entries I was replacing. I changed the side of the vehicle driver rather than the vehicle itself, compounding the problem. I'm back to the original problem alone, which is that the AI is shooting at the empty vehicle. Thanks for the confirmation, CSL. I'm going ahead with installing Resistance. Two of my players have done so, and perhaps it'll put some fire under the remaining two. If that doesn't fix the problem outright, I've already downloaded the vehicle models that should rectify the problem.

Yep, 99% positive it's being caused by the mission.sqm. We did try playing a different mission, and it ran fine. Also, when I replaced the .sqm with it's back-up file, my friend could join normally. Unfortunately, the "back-up file" appeared to be blank. I'm guessing that it was simply created at the same time as the mission and never updated as I made changes. What's odd, however, is that I made my own back-up file prior to making changes, and it causes the same problems as the modified .sqm. My mission has no add-ons. I did, at one point, include an add-on model by mistake, but I removed it and it's file reference ages ago. We've played the mission any number of times since then. The error is completely different.

Seriously, it's easy. Â Hell, I'll even do it for you if you like. Â It would take all of 10 mins. Â You just need to tell me more specifically what you're needing. Â Which specific vehicles, and which specific side you want? I appreciate the offer, CSL, and I know how much you enjoy coding, but it's not what I meant. Â I haven't messed with any PBO editors, so it would be new territory for me. Â If I have to learn it, I will. Â It doesn't feel right to have you do it. Â "Teach a man to fish," and all that. I've decided that the easiest way to do it, without learning PBO's, is to get my friends to do the upgrade. Â They are doing it, it's been the plan for sometime, but they seem to be experiencing "coordination issues." Â I just need to get the mission back to a point where they can actually join it now.

New problem: since altering the mission.sqm, other players are unable to connect. I see "players config file has changed." They just crash to desktop and OFP remains running in their processes. I edited the file to remove my edits, but that didn't work, either. I can play the mission fine, but no one can join. How do I fix this? Thanks for your help.

I believe you are correct that the jeep was listed as "empty" to start. Â I'll peek again when I get the chance to verify that, as it's been a good week since last I looked. Â I'm using empty jeeps with MG's, which are eventually crewed by Guerilla units once the trigger is sprung. Â The Guerilla are sided with the Soviets. It's too bad that the Soviet side doesn't have anything similar to the Jeep w/MG. Â I've seen some BRDM models that would be great, but not all of my friends have Resistance yet (I've got them shopping for it,) and every useful model I've found requires it. I'm really hoping for this route, as CSL's plan of creating a custom PBO...scares me.

That's odd, I thought I had posted a response to this, but I don't see it here now? Well, the idea of changing the jeep's side in the mission.sqm file didn't work. I tried changing it from west to civ, from civ to guer, and from guer to east. Nothing worked. The same AI units continued to fire at it, regardless.

I haven't tried that specifically, but I have tried putting an AI unit of the same side into the jeep as the driver and just leaving him there from the start. The AI will still shoot at the jeep (and crew) even when it's being used by their own side, allied resistance, or even civillians. It's obvious that the AI couldn't care less who is using the jeep, it only looks at who's side it is listed as belonging to in the .cfg file. I've noticed this behavior in the past with other missions I've played, but never recognized a pattern until I made my own mission and could watch it repeat itself.

Welcome back, CSL. Â I'm glad for the opportunity to thank you for your vehicle loading scripts - particularly for loading/unloading personnel via helo. Â They work like a charm. I was hoping to avoid forcing players to take any additional steps to play my mission, but perhaps this was inevitable. Â If they have to stick a file in their add-ons folder, perhaps I should do it right and see if I can't find a Soviet car that offers a mounted machine gun, instead. Â Failing that, I'll be sure to use your pbo idea. None of this solves the underlying problem, however, which is that the AI shouldn't be shooting at empty vehicles by default. I've placed empty vehicles in the mission, as have others, with the notion that players would be able to commandeer them. It's frustrating when an AI squad mate starts shooting out the tires of your transportation.

Well, I've determined that the only empty vehicles that the AI shoots at are those which are technically designed for the other side. Â So, the AI members of the players' squad (west side) shoot at empty UAZ's, while the AI east side & (aligned) resistance shoot at jeeps. What's odd is that not all units will detect these vehicles as enemy and shoot at them. Â Those that do, however, will shoot at such vehicles even when they later are crewed by units from their own side. Â Furthermore, those that detect these vehicles as enemy actually detect them as belonging to the other side - such that a trigger to detect west will go off when the AI spots the empty vehicle. Given all that, I was forced to move the vehicles to bases where no one seemed to mind their presence, or they wouldn't be seen until they were called on to be used. Â Some of them are in full view of AI patrols, but are ignored, yet when they're crewed and driving down the road, their own forces will shoot at them in passing. It makes no sense. It would be so much easier if there's was a comparable UAZ with a machinegun.

Nope, didn't work. Â According to the comref, when setcaptive is used on a vehicle it applies to the commander. Â Since the empty vehicle doesn't have a commander, perhaps the command is ignored? Does it make a difference that this is a multiplayer mission?

I've had two situations where units have ignored their cycle waypoints and gone off to the waypoints that should only be activated by switch triggers. Â I've got tons of units who use those same triggers, and they follow their paths correctly. In the first, a group of infantry is supposed to walk a patrol until a trigger is called, then they run and board a helicopter for transport. Â Instead, they would walk to the first waypoint, which is also where the cycle waypoint connects, and then turn right around and head for the chopper. Â I eventually managed to work around it by moving waypoints around until it accepted the true route. Â I don't know what I did that made it work, and they're not actually running the route I would like. In the second instance, I have a jet that does a small loop out over the ocean until it gets called in for air support. Â This one is harder to track, since it's too fast, and it's hard to tell when it hits a specific waypoint. Â Even so, it's only got two waypoints and a cycle while it's waiting. Â Nevertheless, it flies off on the rest of the waypoints, ignoring both the cycle and the trigger that's tied to it. I've got to stress that nearly every unit in my mission is set up with a similar cycle & trigger combination. Â All of them work except for these two. Â I've even tied their cycle points to the triggers of other units that I know work, and the same thing happens. Any ideas?

I'll switch them to safe mode, but I've got three other units doing the same exact thing, without trouble. That's whats got me puzzled. They're the only unit that seems to have an issue, even though there's no difference in their setup from any other. They'll keep their weapons shouldered while safe mode?

 I had to. I'm asking questions that have surely been answered in the years that OFP has been out, but I'm not finding the answers through searches. Inevitably, however, someone points right to the post I missed with the tag, "RTFM!" Murphy's Law, and all that. Thanks for your help. Just out of curiousity, any idea why the AI reacts that way?

Well, seeing as how I was able to "fix" the infantry by moving the waypoints, rather than changing any of the scripting, I don't think it's anything to do with the helicopter setup. Here's the rundown, though: Start position: ->move waypoint (careless, limited speed) | move waypoint | move waypoint -- cycle<-----trigger (switch, enemy detected once) get in waypoint<--->synched w/ helo load waypoint move (aware, normal speed, engage at will/open fire) move guard I don't need a "unload transport" command because this is a multiplayer mission and I'm using Colonel Sanderslite helidrop.sqs. As for the jet, it is on a seperate trigger that only activates if enemy air units are detected. I figured out what the problem was, however: I'm an idiot. It turns out that the jet which was destroying my players' vehicle wasn't the enemy jets on standby, but rather a civillian piloted jet that was there completely for show. You see, the players parachute into the combat zone, and I had a jet start off above them for effect. Unfortunately, a shilka detected the jet when it was West controlled, so I put a civillian at the helm so the shilka would ignore it. The jet flies to the edge of the map and is then deleted. Well, as the jet flies away it spots the boat meant to extract the players later on, and shoots them. Why a civillian, friendly to both sides, would fire on the PBR's is beyond me. I gave it a "never fire" command, and the problem was fixed.

I've got a mission (same mission I've posted about before, actually) where an AI enemy chopper is supposed to show up and destroy a PBR coming to extract the players' group. What ends up happening is the chopper fires on the boat until it kills the crew, and then stops firing. I assume it's because once the crew is dead the boat registers as unoccupied rather than enemy. Unfortunately, a trigger is set to activate once the PBR is destroyed, and the mission can't continue until it happens. How do I make the chopper finish the job he started? I don't know if there's a way to detect if the boat is no longer occupied, but this could be an option, too. Thanks for the help. =)

I've got a unit that is meant to appear somewhere randomly on the map. That's easy enough, but how do I get a marker to appear at the same location as the unit? The idea is that the marker will be hidden until a certain objective is completed, and then it will show up on the map, letting the players know where the unit is located. Thanks again!

Thanks for that. I tried to plug it in before heading off to work this morning, but it gave me an error. Something about expecting a number. Probably a typo on my part, and I'll look at it in more detail when I get home this evening.

Thanks for everyone's help. Simply detecting the loss of the crew was enough to move things forward. I found that the boat veers off from the beach as soon as the chopper starts to attack, so even if the boat isn't destroyed it won't fall into the player's hands. I think it adds a little extra touch, in fact, to see the lifeless boat drifting off shore. Kinda poignant. My one chance to test it was rather ironic, however. The chopper actually destroyed the boat, before the crew. Everything continued smoothly from that point, however, so it's all good. Thanks again, all.

That's not a bad idea, actually. Â Since we already have a trigger to detect when the crew is dead, it probably wouldn't be hard to put a second trigger to blow up the PBR once that has happened. Â That way, the chopper would at least attack the boat before it goes boom. I assume the PBR retains it's unit name even if the crew is dead? Â Or perhaps I could just make a general "destroy all watercraft in range" kind of trigger?

I'm not sure how to do that. I tried to synchronize the helicopter's seek & destroy waypoint with the boat, but that didn't work. The helicopter itself is synched to an earlier trigger, so if I try to synch it to something else I believe I'll lose the first. The helicopter is out on patrol until the PBR is called on, and then it rushes to the scene to take out the PBR (silly players, shooting up flares to call it in! Because it's impossible to know where the chopper will be in it's route, the timing is pretty random as to when it'll arrive to attack the PBR. All of my testing so far has shown that it'll hit the PBR before the players can board, however, which is the point.

Thanks, I added that and I'll test it later tonight when I get some proper time for testing. My only concern is that the boat will drift up on shore and the players will be able to use it to escape. It would ruin the optional objectives that spring up afterwords, but I don't begrudge the players the opportunity to bug out if they want to forego the continuing adventure.

That wouldn't work. The players will be waiting on the shoreline. They would kill any LAW soldiers loitering in the area of their extraction.