Quick question on setting up respawn script

[Hammer1-1]

So I am setting up a multiplayer map for helicopter training, and there is a specific area I am trying to set triggers up for respawning dead units. You can see this area in the screen pull. This is about as far as my knowledge goes with creating a mission. Not knowing much of anything about MIST, how would I go about creating a script for these units to respawn?  I got an interesting response in an identical thread that I am going to study, and in due time Ill start implementing more from what I learn, but right now I just need something simple to figure out how to do and what all I need exactly for this one trigger.

Edited April 26, 2022 by Hammer1-1

[toutenglisse]

34 minutes ago, Hammer1-1 said:

...Not knowing much of anything about MIST, how would I go about creating a script for these units to respawn?...

Hi, you can do almost the same as this other example, except in your case the condition would be for example "coalition red out of zone".

If you want to delay the respawn you can activate a flag instead of using respawn function, and create another "switched condition trigger", condition "time since flag", and action respawn + deactivate flag.

 

[Hammer1-1]

18 hours ago, toutenglisse said:

Hi, you can do almost the same as this other example, except in your case the condition would be for example "coalition red out of zone".

If you want to delay the respawn you can activate a flag instead of using respawn function, and create another "switched condition trigger", condition "time since flag", and action respawn + deactivate flag.

 

Im looking into Moose, Mist and DML and started reading on what to do. I guess I can say Ive really no idea where to start here, so that would be my next question...

Edited April 26, 2022 by Hammer1-1

[cfrag]

7 hours ago, Hammer1-1 said:

Im looking into Moose, Mist and DML and starte reading on what to do.

Since you are looking at DML, I recommend you look into clone zones. They can spawn any time that their clone? flag changes, and you could change that flag every time a helicopter comes into or leavbe the zone. There are many demos within DML package, and they are all documented to help you get up to speed quickly.

 

Edited April 26, 2022 by cfrag

[toutenglisse]

17 hours ago, Hammer1-1 said:

...I guess I can say Ive really no idea where to start here, so that would be my next question...

The steps are described in the post linked.

If it is still not clear, just post your mission here, it will be quick to post it back to you with the trigger added.

[Hammer1-1]

well all this stuff ATM is greek to me. Ill delve into it later tonight and through the week, and this mission requires a substantial amount of 3rd party mods. If I get lost, Ill just ask more questions about what exactly to do because I am very much starting mission building from scratch and got a LOT to learn.

[Hammer1-1]

Ok dumb question, but how does this work? The script I mean...do I copy and paste this in the ME? Or are these files supplemental to the .miz file? Im still searching through the notes and pages, but would prefer an example of what to put and where to put it.  I also see in the triggers menu an option to open an initialization  script, and 3 boxes - Triggers, Conditions and Actions.

Edited April 27, 2022 by Hammer1-1

[cfrag]

3 hours ago, Hammer1-1 said:

how does this work?

I think it would really help if you told us what you mean by 'this'. You are knee-deep in this, but we aren't - for example, what script are you referring to in 'this script'? We need to know some more context to be able to help. It also seems that you are facing multiple issues at once, making it difficult to find a single item to focus on. Maybe you can break it down top to bottom to separate out the issues to get a good overview: Mission-specific (what do you want to achieve in the mission from the player's perspective, what is the goal, what is keeping you from getting there), Mission-mechanics (how do I determine something: how do I get the mission to react: what are triggers, how do they work, and what is it that you need to better understand before you can progress), Tool-Specific (how does ME do something specific, how can I get units to respawn, how do scripts interact with missions: what is currently blocking you from moving to the next step, and what is that next step).  

That being said, there are things in ME that are difficult to grasp. It may help if you create one or two missions within the "normal" scope of ME. Unfortunately, there is no way to find the boundaries to that unless you try. In general terms, I'd say that anything that you can do without resorting to scripts is "standard/normal" ME, everything else is 'enhanced'. Get one or two "standard" missions under your belt to get a feeling for how triggers work (or usually don't work, as everyone finds out), what ME's limitations are, and how the many parts interact. It won't take long, and it helps immensely to see how the little cogs interact to build a greater picture.

After that, understanding how scripts can come into play is much easier. The difficulty here is that scripts can do things that are orders of magnitude more complex than what ME allows you to do, and it may seem almost magical at first - until you realize that they, too, are bound by ME's main principles, and understanding ME's limitations becomes even more important to gainfully employ scripts.  

Trying it all at once (designing missions, using ME's triggers and UI, integrating scripts) is akin to simultaneously riding a bike through a busy town while talking to someone on your cell phone. None of these tasks are difficult by themselves, and are only slightly more challenging to do at the same time. If they are all new to you (never rode a bike, never been to that town, never used a cell phone) it becomes impossible until you have some experience with all.

Edited April 27, 2022 by cfrag

[Hammer1-1]

2 hours ago, cfrag said:

I think it would really help if you told us what you mean by 'this'. You are knee-deep in this, but we aren't - for example, what script are you referring to in 'this script'? We need to know some more context to be able to help. It also seems that you are facing multiple issues at once, making it difficult to find a single item to focus on. Maybe you can break it down top to bottom to separate out the issues to get a good overview: Mission-specific (what do you want to achieve in the mission from the player's perspective, what is the goal, what is keeping you from getting there), Mission-mechanics (how do I determine something: how do I get the mission to react: what are triggers, how do they work, and what is it that you need to better understand before you can progress), Tool-Specific (how does ME do something specific, how can I get units to respawn, how do scripts interact with missions: what is currently blocking you from moving to the next step, and what is that next step).  

That being said, there are things in ME that are difficult to grasp. It may help if you create one or two missions within the "normal" scope of ME. Unfortunately, there is no way to find the boundaries to that unless you try. In general terms, I'd say that anything that you can do without resorting to scripts is "standard/normal" ME, everything else is 'enhanced'. Get one or two "standard" missions under your belt to get a feeling for how triggers work (or usually don't work, as everyone finds out), what ME's limitations are, and how the many parts interact. It won't take long, and it helps immensely to see how the little cogs interact to build a greater picture.

After that, understanding how scripts can come into play is much easier. The difficulty here is that scripts can do things that are orders of magnitude more complex than what ME allows you to do, and it may seem almost magical at first - until you realize that they, too, are bound by ME's main principles, and understanding ME's limitations becomes even more important to gainfully employ scripts.  

Trying it all at once (designing missions, using ME's triggers and UI, integrating scripts) is akin to simultaneously riding a bike through a busy town while talking to someone on your cell phone. None of these tasks are difficult by themselves, and are only slightly more challenging to do at the same time. If they are all new to you (never rode a bike, never been to that town, never used a cell phone) it becomes impossible until you have some experience with all.

 

"this" being scripting and mission editing, and how to bring the script into the mission. Guess you can say I need a list of things I need to do in order to accomplish to make this work; I can figure out the how it works but only after I know how to make it work. Say I want to make a lot of individual static units placed on the map be resurrected after being destroyed. Really think I could use an example on how to set something like that up. A format I can see for myself and just kind of dissect it.

I  am nowhere near finished with this mission. There are more assets, training zones and other zones I am tinkering with, plus my target range is to get a lot more units as well for moving target practice. Id like to see one example I can work with if possible so I can work from there and extrapolate what I can so I can connect what I see in my mission and what I want to what it says in your manual so I can connect the dots...if that makes any sense.

 

This is the mission thats current.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gg50k5qevbm8rz9/Helicopter Training Map 1.miz?dl=0

 

This link here tells you where you can download the modules needed for the map above. Its technically the same map, but a bit further along.

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3321341/

I appreciate any help I can get here! Its a big fire hose, but with a little help I can figure out most of the rest and keep asking questions when I need to.

Edited April 27, 2022 by Hammer1-1

[cfrag]

1 hour ago, Hammer1-1 said:

This is the mission thats current.

Apologies - that mission uses mods and I can't open it until I install them as well (which I won't).

Perhaps let's start small and go one step after the other. In have thrown together a simple, tiny training mission. Goal is for red to destroy the 5 targets on the defunct airfield (straight ahead). You can change the aircraft in ME to other types, choose 'client' as skill if you want to fly yourself. Once all five are destroyed, the entire group respawns. Let's see if we can't go from there. Caveat emptor: this mission uses DML (re-spawning units require 'script-enhanced' ME. I prefer DML for obvious reasons, Mist and Moose will certainly serve equally well).

Cheers,

-ch

 

Hammer's Training Demo.miz

[Hammer1-1]

6 hours ago, cfrag said:

Apologies - that mission uses mods and I can't open it until I install them as well (which I won't).

Perhaps let's start small and go one step after the other. In have thrown together a simple, tiny training mission. Goal is for red to destroy the 5 targets on the defunct airfield (straight ahead). You can change the aircraft in ME to other types, choose 'client' as skill if you want to fly yourself. Once all five are destroyed, the entire group respawns. Let's see if we can't go from there. Caveat emptor: this mission uses DML (re-spawning units require 'script-enhanced' ME. I prefer DML for obvious reasons, Mist and Moose will certainly serve equally well).

Cheers,

-ch

 

Hammer's Training Demo.miz 100.52 kB · 0 downloads

Ok cool, I see most of what you did here and looks simple enough. Question though - do you have to edit any script for it to work? Or do they simply work OOB? Also, the group you placed in the ME are a single group...does it have to be a group for the triggers to work? In my mission these are all individual statics; would there have to be these scripts for ALL Of them? Or does it work for units within the trigger zone regardless? One last thing: in the picture here, this is just all the text I need to write or is it auto generated? Honestly seems simple enough...

Edited April 27, 2022 by Hammer1-1

[cfrag]

Just now, Hammer1-1 said:

do you have to edit any script for it to work? Or do they simply work OOB?

DML works by leaving the scripts as they are, and then use ME's trigger zones (with attributes that you edit in ME) to control the scripts. That is what makes DML usable to people who want to enhance ME but don't want to use Lua itself - a middle ground, so to speak. You have to include scripts (the ugly part) but you can control their function without ever changing a single character. 

 

[Hammer1-1]

Ok one last really quick... do script (--cf/x zone ma)

Not seeing that specific module in here, but I do see cfx.zones in the modules list. Am I missing something?

[cfrag]

24 minutes ago, Hammer1-1 said:

Ok one last really quick... do script (--cf/x zone ma)

Not seeing that specific module in here, but I do see cfx.zones in the modules list. Am I missing something?

A double dash '--' is Lua code for comment. The doscript Actions merely list the first few characters of the entire script that is put into the text box. The cfxZones script merely begins with a comment.

Click into the TEXT box below ACTION, hit ctrl-a (select all), then ctrl-c (copy), then switch to a text editor (e.g. word pad), click into it, and hit ctrl-v (paste). What you'll receive is the entire code for that module. Or, fetch a copy of DML, and look into the modules folder. There you can see each module by itself.

Note that it is entirely NOT necessary to understand a single line of those modules to use DML. So unless you develop a taste for coding (which you probably will, these things seem to lure in the unwary), simply ignore whatever is in those doscript boxes, and merely look at the trigger zone attributes.

DML comes with some documentation that may help you better understand what each module does. There are also some demo missions that are touched upon in the docs.

 

Edited April 27, 2022 by cfrag

[Hammer1-1]

When I loaded the CF/X zone, it just listed it as CF/X zone.LUA, not MA....thats whats throwing me off...

Also, when I load one of these modules, they come up as DO SCRIPT (cfxMX.lua) whereas in the mission you sent earlier shows that same one loaded DO SCRIPT (cfxMX = {} cfxM). The format looks different in yours compared to mine when I load the scripts into DCS.

 

Edit - think I see it now, in ACTION, I select DO SCRIPT, not DO SCRIPT FILE...or am I overthinking this?

Edited April 27, 2022 by Hammer1-1

[cfrag]

I prefer DOSCRIPT to DOSCRIPTFILE, but that's a purely personal choice (and a slightly different way the data is stored inside the .miz) - you can use either. After you import the modules, there should never again be a need to touch them, so it is of very little consequence how you do it. 

May I trouble you to perhaps read the very first post in this thread, and watch the two videos contained therein - that should clear up many of your initial questions, and save you some time. The second video focuses on how to import modules.

 

[Hammer1-1]

12 minutes ago, cfrag said:

I prefer DOSCRIPT to DOSCRIPTFILE, but that's a purely personal choice (and a slightly different way the data is stored inside the .miz) - you can use either. After you import the modules, there should never again be a need to touch them, so it is of very little consequence how you do it. 

May I trouble you to perhaps read the very first post in this thread, and watch the two videos contained therein - that should clear up many of your initial questions, and save you some time. The second video focuses on how to import modules.

 

I think I understand it now, guess the only question I have now is how to tie these scripts into the trigger zone...is that an automatic deal? Im still working on the name and values on the trigger zone and thats where I am at atm.  Ill go ahead and watch those videos while Im here.  Where can I find a list of these names and values for the trigger zone?

Edited April 27, 2022 by Hammer1-1

[cfrag]

1 minute ago, Hammer1-1 said:

these scripts into the trigger zone...is that an automatic deal?

You got it in one  - each module has a keyword it looks for. smokeZones look for zones with an attribute named 'smoke'. CloneZones look for a 'cloner' attribute, CSAR Manager for 'CSAR' etc. Use the Quick Reference to see which module uses which keyword to automatically bind a module to the zone. It does not matter in which order attributes appear in a zone, and you can 'stack' multiple modules onto the same zone.

[Hammer1-1]

So I understand, the trigger name and values in trigger zone are what tie in the triggers and actions that I just wrote? I can make more triggers, write the name and value anywhere and these triggers are automatically pointed to? (IE I dont have to import the module again every time I write a trigger as its already in the ME for this mission Im writing).

 

Also, just random...you sound like Schwarzenegger.

Edited April 27, 2022 by Hammer1-1

[cfrag]

2 minutes ago, Hammer1-1 said:

the trigger name and values in trigger zone are what tie in the triggers and actions that I just wrote

Basically yes. If you want to get technical: the actions in the one start trigger each run a script at mission start. These scripts install themselves (the modules), and each module then scans all the trigger zones in a mission for “their” keyword attribute. When such a keyword is found,

• each module remembers that zone,
• loads any other attributes it understands from that zone to customize it (so you can have multiple zones with the e.g. keyword ‘smoke’ and still function differently),
• and then starts to regularly (while the mission runs) inspect those zones for something interesting to happen and respond appropriately

A rather simple mechanism, and very flexible - with a minuscule performance impact.

9 minutes ago, Hammer1-1 said:

you sound like Schwarzenegger.

I have a beautiful Kraut accent. Arnie… doesn’t.  

 

[Hammer1-1]

Another quick question...on a whim I decided to add and try out cargo spawns just to get a feeling on how to manage something else. Loaded up the demo helicopter mission, took a look at how it was done, and brought a few things over as a simple test. The scripts loaded for both missions...but on my mission I get a static object processing spam message with cargo receiver 1.2.1 started prior to that. I didnt see this on the demo mission...any idea?

Edited April 28, 2022 by Hammer1-1

[cfrag]

1 hour ago, Hammer1-1 said:

any idea?

Yes (blush) - a left-over from a debugging session last week when static objects with 'turn' attribute returned strange results in cloenZone. After resolving the issue, I did not remove that line. 

It will be removed in today's update

 

Edited April 28, 2022 by cfrag

[Hammer1-1]

gotcha. also how does this work? I always used a script for cargo but they were used in the F-10 menu, yet I dont see this in there at all.

Edited April 28, 2022 by Hammer1-1

[cfrag]

21 hours ago, Hammer1-1 said:

I always used a script for cargo but they were used in the F-10 menu, yet I dont see this in there at all.

I recommend you try the demos that come with DML, particularly "Helo Cargo.miz" and read that chapter in the docs, as it discusses how the parts interact. In a nutshell: The spawners create cargo objects that automatically appear in the helicopter's cargo menu and can hand them off to the cargo manager; the cargo receivers generate the signals that other modules can use for their own purposes. 

On my list of items to do is the ability of cloners to automatically hand off cargo to the cargo manager as well. Until then, it's easier to use spawners for cargo.

 

[Hammer1-1]

On 4/29/2022 at 7:20 AM, cfrag said:

I recommend you try the demos that come with DML, particularly "Helo Cargo.miz" and read that chapter in the docs, as it discusses how the parts interact. In a nutshell: The spawners create cargo objects that automatically appear in the helicopter's cargo menu and can hand them off to the cargo manager; the cargo receivers generate the signals that other modules can use for their own purposes. 

On my list of items to do is the ability of cloners to automatically hand off cargo to the cargo manager as well. Until then, it's easier to use spawners for cargo.

 

Ok I checked my mission and your mission side by side. In the heli cargo mission theres an F6 option that my mission lacks. I dont see anything different between my triggers and the ones in your mission, so what am I doing wrong??

Edited April 30, 2022 by Hammer1-1