Is it possible to move a FARP and the statis objects all at once?

[pimp]

Hi All,

I'm just now getting into making FARPs thanks to the Apache. I have a FARP with a lot of static objects on it, and I want to move them to another location of the map. Is it possible to move them all at once? I know you can create/load Static Templates, but they only place the objects in the same location on the map the template was create on. Also, you can only copy and paste a unit, and cannot select multiple static objects to copy. Is there no easy way to achieve this besides one at a time?

Thanks in advance!!!

[Jagdgeschwader]

+1

[Rudel_chw]

1 hour ago, pimp said:

... I have a FARP with a lot of static objects on it, and I want to move them to another location of the map. Is it possible to move them all at once?

 

Sorry .. no, there is no way that I know of.

 

1 hour ago, pimp said:

I know you can create/load Static Templates, but they only place the objects in the same location on the map the template was create on.

 

Yes, that's true ... but even so I have found that over time you can build a quite large library of Static Templates, say you could have a dozen of FARP templates for the map you are using .. at that point the odds are that when you need a FARP on a mission, you will already have a template for it.

For example, here I have a dozen templates for Viggen roadbases (not mine, they are the work of @hilmerby) ... that I have used on several Viggen missions of mine:

 

You don't need to build them all at once, if you begin any new mission by first identifying which of its components might be useful on other missions, then make ST for those, and only then build the mission proper ... you will end up building a library of ST of your own

 

1 hour ago, pimp said:

Also, you can only copy and paste a unit, and cannot select multiple static objects to copy. Is there no easy way to achieve this besides one at a time?

 

You can click on the first static or unit, then shift+click on the next one, repeat until you have selected all of them, at that point use cut/paste (Ctrl + X & Ctrl + V) to relocate (DO NOT DRAG THEM) .... it takes practice, as any small error in the shift clicking will deselect all objects 

Edited April 7, 2022 by Rudel_chw
Fixed typos

[pimp]

Thank you @Rudel_chw for that suggestion. I'll give that a try.

[[HOUNDS] CptTrips]

On 4/7/2022 at 6:52 PM, Rudel_chw said:

 

Sorry .. no, there is no way that I know of.

 

 

I cannot for the life of me fathom how an editor for a commercial product, in this day and age, not have such a basic and fundamental tool such as box/region select.  

If you have something like the measuring tool, you are 90% of the way there.  I spent a day googling assuming I was just missing it somehow before I came to the shocking realization that it just didn't exist.  An 8yo script-kiddie could write that for them in 15 min if they had access to the source.  And worse, in searching I saw posts of people complaining about it's lack for a decade.

I wish they would open source the editor so people with coding experience could make improvements themselves.  A powerful editor is a massive force multiplier for DCS to unleash armies of content creators.  They then could focus on internal issues like better AI.

 

[Rudel_chw]

2 minutes ago, [16AGR] CptTrips said:

An 8yo script-kiddie could write that for them in 15 min if they had access to the source.  

 

Yeah, right ... just 15 minutes ... what a wonderful and dismissive comment. 

 

2 minutes ago, [16AGR] CptTrips said:

...  people with coding experience could make improvements themselves. 

 

But of course, since Eagle Dynamics has been coding for such a short period of time, they are still newbies at it   .. wonder why they dont hire your experienced people.

[[HOUNDS] CptTrips]

4 minutes ago, Rudel_chw said:

Yeah, right ... just 15 minutes ... what a wonderful and dismissive comment. 

I might be wrong, It could take 16min. 

Relax.  Hyperbole aside, my point isn't to be dismissive, but to express confusion.  But you can't tell me that for a team that can produce the Apache-64, that adding a simple box/region select to the editor in the 11 years of posts I've seen it begged for is an insurmountable task.

It's pretty much a standard feature any editor should have and can't be that difficult.

I get AI is hard, you'd have to explain to me why a box select couldn't be accomplished in a decade.  What exactly is it that makes that a harder problem than I am assuming?

 

[Magoote]

@pimp 
The only way I found for those cases is to select all the units, copy them and then paste in the place you want, then you must delete the initial units one by one.

[[HOUNDS] CptTrips]

11 minutes ago, Magoote said:

@pimp 
The only way I found for those cases is to select all the units, copy them and then paste in the place you want, then you must delete the initial units one by one.

 

That's what I been doing.  If it's one or two objects I can live with that, but it is a huge burden when trying to manipulate complex collections.

One really annoying thing I've run into, you can click in the unit icon and still get a deselect.  It seems you often have to click in the exact center of the icon to ensure reliable success.  Sometimes you do carefully click into the icon rectangle, and then you still lose everything.   It's very frustrating to click in the icon and still lose 20 items you had painstakingly selected.  Even if it just didn't get that item it would be bearable, but to lose everything else?   I'm wondering if you need to not show the icon and make sure you are clicking on the actual item model.  But if icons are being displayed, clicking anywhere in the rectangular area of that icon should be a successful select.  Maybe it is more of a problem for models noticeably smaller than the icon.  I'll experiment more with it.  

Regardless, not to be too dismissive , it can make for a very frustrating user experience to have to fight so hard trying to so something so simple.

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by [16AGR] CptTrips

[Magoote]

@[16AGR] CptViajes
If of course I have suffered a lot from what you refer to, it is frustrating to lose all the selection in the last unit.
It is also very annoying to have to delete one by one and not be able to select all of them and delete them at once.
But at the moment it is the only thing we have.

Hopefully one day ED can give us the tools to work faster and more comfortably.

[[HOUNDS] CptTrips]

Just now, Magoote said:

Hopefully one day ED can give us the tools to work faster and more comfortably.

Agreed.  My main point is something like this has to be low hanging fruit that can make life  a LOT easier for people trying to provide ED free content.  There are a  lot of other cool stuff that would be useful that I understand would take a lot more effort, this is not one of them.

  The ROI on that should be obvious. Every little bit they can improve the editor's usability provides them with even more free labor and content creation from the community.  

In the meantime, you got to do what you got to do, but you don't have to pretend you like it.

[fargo007]

You can absolutely do this if you are creating the objects via scripting.  It really is very simple. 

 

Another way is to create a static template, and manually edit it, modifying the x/y of the objects.  As I've posted before, you can also make the template portable to another map this way.  

The .stm file is just text.

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by fargo007

[[HOUNDS] CptTrips]

For instance, this screen cap didn't capture the mouse icon, but I marked where I clicked.  

If your mouse moved ever so slightly off the center, even though you are still clearly within the visible unit icon, NOPE!  You lose everything and get to start over.  

There is no visible clue WHERE it is safe to click, you would assume anywhere in the rectangular icon region, but NOPE, there is some hidden area inside of that you have to hope to strike upon, or start over.

Edited April 12, 2022 by [16AGR] CptTrips

[[HOUNDS] CptTrips]

For the OP...

Here is what I think will help if you have to try and copy a large number of units in ME sorta reliably.  It's still painful and a very poor user experience, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

If you have an object that is larger than the NATO icon like this tank, you can't click on the model or you lose everything.

You can often click inside the NATO icon and still lose everything.

If you turn off model and icon, you see there is a smaller icon hidden underneath the others.  This is the shape that appears to control the selection and it can be quite a bit smaller than the NATO icon in some cases, like infantry,etc.

 

 

[fargo007]

Change the icon style to Russian.  Much easier to deal with and you get to see the heading reflected as well.

[[HOUNDS] CptTrips]

42 minutes ago, fargo007 said:

Change the icon style to Russian.  Much easier to deal with and you get to see the heading reflected as well.

Sorry.  That's what I had done.  Not turn icon off, but turn it to Russian.

Interesting.  That makes sense.  The Russian's wrote it to pick up the click on their shape.  They just didn't change it's click boundaries to the NATO icon when you switch.  So it makes sense it is the Russian icons that are driving it which be a different size and be hidden by the NATO icon.  

So lesson learned, until they give us a box select, use the Russian icons for seeing the proper select target.