Today I will introduce two very special new objects to you, ReactDelay and AreaGoal.
ReactDelay
We all know that the AI in Lock On isn't perfect. Especialy anoying for mud movers is the lack of reaction times for air defense units, Lock On's AD is insta reacting. As we know, the surprise effect is very important for ground attacks. The first golden rule of mud moving - never return for a second pass - is a testemony for that. Now it will be possible to achive this.
The object ReactDelay is very simple. The 3d model itselfe is empty ( invisible, not there ), it consists of a simple hitbox, about 15x15m big. The object is placed around the ( stationary ) unit you want to add a reaction time to it. What will happen: The unit will engage aircraft as usual. But the hitbox around it will absorb the fire, meaning no fire gets away from the unit. After a certain amount of time the hitbox gets destroyed and the path to the targets is free. This time when the fire is cought in the hitbox is our simulated reaction time when no aircraft can be engaged.
I created 4 versions of ReactDelay now and spent the afternoon scaling the hitpoints for various units. There are versions that block AAA for about 20 or 45 seconds, or block the first 2 missiles of the Strela-10 etc.
I think this is pretty cool. You can have heavily defended targets that can be "surprised" by a quick attack and after about a minute when the AD "wakes up" there is no more comming trough.
This is a pretty rough methode, but quite effective. I know we will get something like this with the more realistic AI in BS ( at least I expect so ), but this is a good workaround until then.
AreaGoal
Creating good mission goals is sometimes not easy as most mission designers know. Lets say you want the player to attack a camp, artillery site or vehicle park. What goal that decides mission failure or success do we use ? If you add a destroy goal to every unit in the camp, the player must destroy them all to succeed. If you add the destroy goal to only one unit in the camp, the player migh do heavy damage but miss the one target with the goal attached, thus failing the mission. With AreaGoal this is a thing of the past.
AreaGoal is a invisible object, only consisting of a hitbox, 500x500m wide on the ground. It will not hinder the placement or fire of other units in the area. The object is no real goal, but a object to attach your mission goal to it.
You can place the AreaGoal object in the target area and add a destroy goal to it. When the player attacks the general target position, he might hit or miss some tanks, but the 500x500m AreaGoal bellow it gets destroyed.
This gives us the possibility to have more realistic mission objectives for the Su-25. As we know, the Su-25 is mostly used to attack enemy positions, not specific targets. So if the player goes in and drops his weapons in the designated area, the mission is considered a success. This is realistic because pilots are tasked to attack something, not especialy to destroy it ( although that would be preferable ). What amount of damage they cause is often not in the hands of a pilot. With AreaGoal we can tribute such attacks.
I am very enthusiastic about those two objects, as this is stuff that I wanted for a long time. What surprises me is the simplicity of the ideas. I have been thinking about the possible application of the static objects for weeks now, but this morning on my way to work the idea struck me like a lightning :)