Attempting to 'trigger' Stuart666's Historically Accurate Normandy Flak Template

[skybaby68]

A user created this incredible template to which the work must've been truly painstaking. Unfortunately the hit on frames due to the enormous amount of units makes it a slideshow in VR particularly so I tried the idea of using trigger zones ... splitting the area up into zones (10 in total) and making everything 'LATE ACTIVATION' with the idea of having relevant 'zonal' units spawn whenever an allied aircraft occupies that zone then all units disappearing once again once all allied aircraft have left the zone. This sort of thing I'm doing all the time in IL-2 GBS Mission Editor and so thought it would be beyond simple ...but ... :(

 

Each zone has two lots of triggers .. a 'zone on' and a 'zone off' ... the 'zone on' uses 'part of coalition in zone' ... 'group activate' .... the 'zone off' uses 'all of coalition out of zone' ... 'group deactivate'. And all looked good, I flew around the different zones enjoying great frame rates as only the relevant zones became active and then deactive when I left the zone but on returning back to that zone (or another allied aircraft entering it, nothing would reappear).

Little did I know that 'group deactivate' actually PERMANENTLY DELETES the units from the mission.

I've tried all things from using ,ONCE. to 'SWITCHED CONDITION' TO 'REPETITIVE' and have replaced the GROUP ACTIVATE/GROUP DEACTIVATE with GROUP AI ON/OFF, GROUP STOP etc but nothing else works so I thought I'd post this incredible work of Stuart666 here along with what I tried to do. If anyone with the knowledge could get it working whereby the units spawn, despawn, respawn as necessary, it would be a wonderfully great template made even better.

 

Cheers.

Normandy flak test.miz

Edited April 13, 2020 by skybaby68

[stuart666]

A user created this incredible template to which the work must've been truly painstaking. Unfortunately the hit on frames due to the enormous amount of units makes it a slideshow in VR particularly so I tried the idea of using trigger zones ... splitting the area up into zones (10 in total) and making everything 'LATE ACTIVATION' with the idea of having relevant 'zonal' units spawn whenever an allied aircraft occupies that zone then all units disappearing once again once all allied aircraft have left the zone. This sort of thing I'm doing all the time in IL-2 GBS Mission Editor and so thought it would be beyond simple ...but ... :(

 

Each zone has two lots of triggers .. a 'zone on' and a 'zone off' ... the 'zone on' uses 'part of coalition in zone' ... 'group activate' .... the 'zone off' uses 'all of coalition out of zone' ... 'group deactivate'. And all looked good, I flew around the different zones enjoying great frame rates as only the relevant zones became active and then deactive when I left the zone but on returning back to that zone (or another allied aircraft entering it, nothing would reappear).

Little did I know that 'group deactivate' actually PERMANENTLY DELETES the units from the mission.

I've tried all things from using ,ONCE. to 'SWITCHED CONDITION' TO 'REPETITIVE' and have replaced the GROUP ACTIVATE/GROUP DEACTIVATE with GROUP AI ON/OFF, GROUP STOP etc but nothing else works so I thought I'd post this incredible work of Stuart666 here along with what I tried to do. If anyone with the knowledge could get it working whereby the units spawn, despawn, respawn as necessary, it would be a wonderfully great template made even better.

 

Cheers.

 

 

Thank you for this SB.

 

 

Hope someone here can find an answer.

[Habu_69]

Interesting concept and I think the objective can be achieved with scripting, but I don't have time to look into it now.

[wraith70]

Just looked at this very quickly and can't try it right now. Can you try Group AI ON and Group AI OFF rather than Activate/Deactivate??

 

Wraith

[Sabre-TLA]

The problem is the group deactivate removes the units from the mission.

 

Through scripting you might be able resurrect them however a brute force approach could be to duplicate the units based on the number of times you think someone will enter the same zone.

 

For example - 1st time - group 1 units, 2nd time - group 2 units, etc.

 

It would be alot of cloning triggers but it would work if the number of times someone reentered the zone was small.

 

Just looked at the mission and there are over 4400 units but the number of triggers is small so it might work however I'm not sure that increasing the number of overall units will be good as you might hit some limit.

 

It's a cool template but it might work better if you broke it up into multiple templates and used the specific template for the area of the map you want to fly in (unless your mission desires are to fly all over the map!).

[Kestrel Ironworks]

Have you tried using Activate AI, deactivate AI? This wont delete the units

 

I have edited the mission so zone 01 has the required triggers.

 

You have the makings of a great template edit here, very useful.

Normandy_flak_test_edited_001.miz

[stuart666]

Thank you.

 

 

If anyone wants anything put in or taken out (there are some suggestions on the associated thread in the missions forum) then im happy to take it on board.

 

 

The next plan is to do the allied side, but I plan to do it stripped down so we just have firing units and I dont include the trucks. I learned my lesson there.

[Kestrel Ironworks]

Okay, so had a look into the template further and super impressed with the level of detail and the obvious passion that has gone into this. Many of the ground units could easily be replaced with static trucks and using the static spawn option.

 

Just set up the triggers again for the first section so they spawn the units and then enables the AI or deactivates the AI when in or out of the zone, maybe this will help with performance. It may be a solution for the FPS if replicated over the map, dividing the current trigger zones into more smaller ones as suggested. It wont be a full fix though as the blue side travels around the map it will constantly spawn new units eventually bringing the fps down even though the AI is disabled.

 

Apologies for maybe being over enthusiastic while not being much help, this template will be used by me in the very near future.

Normandy_flak_test_edited_002.miz

[stuart666]

Thanks Kestrel.

 

 

I had originally intended it for use by multiplayer, but as usually I overegged the pudding and its just not going to do that. I think you are probably right though, its still viable for scenario work.

 

 

Not to worry, ill just restring my bow and make some changes. Im sure I can do something that will put some serious flak in the air, and still be viable for multiplayer.

 

 

Thanks for the help.

[Knock-Knock]

Can do it with MIST (and probably Moose too, for those that can script).

Here just a quick test where I reuse a small piece of script code that I found here on the forum somewhere at some point:

 

mist.respawnGroup 'FLAK Group'

 

In the attached mission, I just have a FLAK group as late activation and a trigger zone.

I load MIST, and use the following two triggers:

Switched Condition -> Part of Coalition inside Zone (Blue, FLAK) -> Do Script (mist.respawnGroup 'FLAK Group')

Switched Condition -> All of Coalition outside Zone (Blue, FLAK) -> Group Deactivate (FLAK Group).

 

And then a set of A-20's buzzing in and out of the trigger zone (just time accelerate (CTRL+Z)). It'll respawn the FLAK position all day. But, big but. It will not work if you start chipping away on it, as in destroying units. It'll just respawn a fresh group when you re-enter the zone.

And advanced waypoints dont work with this, they are being ignored.

FLAK Activation.miz

[stuart666]

Thats really interesting, thank you.

 

 

Ive actually done a part 2, backdating it to the previous year, so if anyone wants to have a play with that it might prove interesting.

 

 

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3309201/

 

 

 

Im happy to package anything come up with with the template. if they can demonstrate it works.

[NakedSquirrel]

Can do it with MIST (and probably Moose too, for those that can script).

Here just a quick test where I reuse a small piece of script code that I found here on the forum somewhere at some point:

 

mist.respawnGroup 'FLAK Group'

 

In the attached mission, I just have a FLAK group as late activation and a trigger zone.

I load MIST, and use the following two triggers:

Switched Condition -> Part of Coalition inside Zone (Blue, FLAK) -> Do Script (mist.respawnGroup 'FLAK Group')

Switched Condition -> All of Coalition outside Zone (Blue, FLAK) -> Group Deactivate (FLAK Group).

 

And then a set of A-20's buzzing in and out of the trigger zone (just time accelerate (CTRL+Z)). It'll respawn the FLAK position all day. But, big but. It will not work if you start chipping away on it, as in destroying units. It'll just respawn a fresh group when you re-enter the zone.

And advanced waypoints dont work with this, they are being ignored.

 

Can I ask why you do mist.respawngroup before deactivation as well as with activation? Is it something that makes deactivation cleaner, or was it accidentally left over from copying the previous trigger?

[Knock-Knock]

Can I ask why you do mist.respawngroup before deactivation as well as with activation? Is it something that makes deactivation cleaner, or was it accidentally left over from copying the previous trigger?

 

Oops, mistake. I cloned the activation trigger and forgot to kick the do script part out of the cloned one :music_whistling:.