Need some help with a mission - Synchronized unit movement

[Geskes]

I am working on a CAS mission where the players have to support armor assaulting enemy armor.

 

The friendlies consist of about 8 platoons of units that move forward simultaneously.

 

I wanted to give the player some control over when the friendlies move forward so I made a radio option that activates a flag that is the stop condition for the hold task of the friendly units.

 

There are three points in the mission where the friendlies will hold and wait for player command.

 

Now, what I want to do is that the option to make them move on only becomes available once they are ready to move on otherwise the attack will be desynchronised and friendlies will be obliterated. Initially I made a zone at each of the holding points and once one of the platoons is in that zone the option becomes available. However, suppose that platoon gets destroyed the player will not get the option and the mission will get 'stuck'.

 

I dont like to do it just on time because suppose the players get delayed at some point they will be in trouble for the rest of the mission.

 

The only thing I could think of was to make the option available from mission start but I think it is hard to judge for the players in the air when the friendlies are all in position and ready to move on.

 

Another option I thought about was to have one invincible unit tagging along that sets off the triggers.

 

Does anyone have better ideas on how to make the units advance simultaneously on player input?

[Speed]

You said:

Initially I made a zone at each of the holding points and once one of the platoons is in that zone the option becomes available. However, suppose that platoon gets destroyed the player will not get the option and the mission will get 'stuck'.

 

It sounds like you are on the right track. Instead of simply "part of group in zone" as a condition to set the flag that indicates that the platoon is ready, make it Part of Group in zone OR Group is dead

 

That still leaves it possible, however, for a group to get stuck by getting stuck AI-wise. Such as a destroyed bridge will get a group stuck. Then they will never be in zone, and never be dead. To avoid that particular circumstance, most ground units can ford smaller rivers and streams. Just make them drive around any bridges and directly through the water.

[Grimes]

Put a trigger zone at each waypoint.

 

Once Part of Group (Group1) Is in Zone (A-1) > Flag 1 Increase 1

Once Part of Group (Group2) Is in Zone (A-2) > Flag 1 Increase 1

....

 

and so on

 

Once > Flag 1 is More Than x (however many groups you want to be alive to continue the attack) > Group Resume (I'd use "Flag on - 20")

 

Switched Condition> Flag 20 is True > Group Resume 1, Group Resume 2.... Flag Off 20

This way you use a single trigger to resume all groups each time rather than using 8 group resumes in the trigger.

 

It's alot of extra triggers but it works fairly well. You'd also need an indication if there isn't enough groups to continue the attack. So maybe...

Once Flag 1 Is More than 0 > Flag on 10

Once Time Since Flag 10 is 3 minutes> Message "We can't continue the attack, we've taken to many losses"

 

@Speed, AI have some weird behavior with rivers and bridges.

-If can ford river, then no problem

-If it can't they ford the river they will go directly to the LAST waypoint. They will ignore all other waypoints. The route they take is based on whether their on a road or not and whether the final waypoint is on a road.

 

If its just tanks, they oughta just drive through rivers. I'm pretty sure the vehicles that can't ford rivers are in the vast minority.