Starting a mission with already-destroyed buildings

[HighMaintenanceB]

For immersion reasons, I'd like to make it so that when I start playing a mission, some buildings are already pre-destroyed if you will, or otherwise set on fire.  The alternative appears to mean using AI or something to blow up the buildings I wanna blow up before I start flying (or driving since I have Combined Arms).  Any advice on what sort of trigger zone to use, what lines of code I must enter, and where? 

 

[cfrag]

You can put in a trigger zone over the building(s) that you want damaged, and then add an explosion at mission start. Made power to some 3000 - that should spread some damage

[Exorcet]

There is a trigger for this specifically, Scenery Destruction Zone, it has a percent option to control how widespread destruction is:

For fire specifically, use the Big Smoke static object, it can be turned on and off with triggers, has different sizes of fire and smoke, and moves with the wind (so they look kind of weird at zero wind because they go straight up):

Note that each fire or smoke plume is one object. I suggest adding a few of the different sizes to the map, then copying and pasting the sizes you want around the area. Also, note that since building destruction can be randomized, fire might not line up with destroyed buildings unless you specifically destroy the buildings you want on fire, or just use 100% destroy to destroy everything in a zone.

Edited January 4, 2024 by Exorcet

[Mr_sukebe]

Just be careful to not have too big a zone, as it requires some serious horsepower to run and at least for me left me unable to do anything for a couple of seconds.

I was looking to emulate an earthquake, so flattened a whole city.  If you want to do the same, might be easier to use multiple scenery destructions and spread them apart in time.

Edited January 4, 2024 by Mr_sukebe

[HighMaintenanceB]

Thanks, guys, for the advice.  I was out of town earlier today so I've just now managed to get back to my computer.  I'll keep you posted.