Tip to mission makers

[Megagoth1702]

Hey folks.

 

Just a quick tip.

 

Instead of looking for "group dead" and having the player search and kill EVERY SINGLE TINY UNIT rather use "group alive less than".

 

Think about it. There are situations where you need to kill all units. SAM sites, tank groups.

 

But if you are looking at a group of lets say a tank, a ZU23 truck and some infantry you should not use "group dead" because its very tedious to pick off every single infantry man. Probably he is hidden in the forest - the player needs way to long to find him and wasting a bomb or something like that on a manpad is frustrating. It is also not realistic. Hey man - your whole group just got blown to pieces by something you dont even see or hear, you'd drop your pants and run away! Use a mixed condition of "unit dead" for the tank and the truck and a "group less alive than" for the whole group. Having these 2 in the same trigger will probably give you the best results.

 

So yeah - save us the frustration and boring picking off single targets and use more dynamic triggers.

 

 

Thank you for your attention - I hope I have not stepped on anyones toes here. :)

[Daimaju]

Good hint! Faced this problem (searching for 1 soldier) in some missions before, very annoying...

[Guzzo]

I agree! This is a very good idea!

[HiJack]

+1

[maxmax]

Yes,

True. I stumbled upon that a while ago while testing my own mission. From then on all I have used is that. A good question is which percentage to use.

[Megagoth1702]

Do the maths. ^^ Think about how many units should be dead and which ones. So let's say:

 

You have 10 units. 2 BMP-3s with 4 infantrymen each.

 

Each unit is "worth" 10%.

 

If both BMPs are dead and more than half the infantry is dead you want them to GTFO shitless/mission success.

 

Trigger condition:

-BMP1 dead

-BMP2 dead

 

That's already 20% of the group. So less alive than 81% would already kick in. But we also want half the infantry gone. Set "group less alive than 41%".

 

Just do the math. :)

 

 

Mission attached. Watch the helicopter kill BMPs, kill the infantry yourself using the radio/other option. Try killing the infantry before and after the apache has killed the BMPs, everything works fine. :) The infantry units withdraw after most of them are getting whacked.

 

Love it.

@MissionEditorTesting2.miz

Edited December 23, 2011 by Megagoth1702

[chromium]

I usually set 3 levels:

 

1° : <99% -> "we are under attack!"

2° : <50% -> "we are taking severe damage, request assistance" + every offensive action gets on hold, if a retire path is possible, it's activated;

3° : group dead -> comms reference unit (signal unit) say that it has no more communications with the group.

 

Non much difficult, but enhance SA a lot :)

[Megagoth1702]

I usually set 3 levels:

 

1° : <99% -> "we are under attack!"

2° : <50% -> "we are taking severe damage, request assistance" + every offensive action gets on hold, if a retire path is possible, it's activated;

3° : group dead -> comms reference unit (signal unit) say that it has no more communications with the group.

 

Non much difficult, but enhance SA a lot :)

Retire path?

[chromium]

first: sorry for my english ;)

 

I usually assign for artillery and support companies an "hold" status at start, and waypoints headed in friendly territories. The companies start moving (group resume) when hit by enemy fire.

 

But the subject of the post is about how I use the GROUP ALIVE LESS THAN, as I'm courios about how other people use it :)

Edited December 23, 2011 by chromium

[Heli Shed]

Have 'key' small groups that are the activator in line with the mission briefing, and the rest as large randomised groups. Makes things look and feel a lot more dynamic

[chromium]

AI TASK (group name) - Hold;

But you need to set a triggered action of "hold" in the group.

 

When you set triggered action, you add the action (with its name if written) to the AI TASK list that you can use in the actions side of trigger.

 

Es: holding "111" group

 

ONCE -> (desired conditions) -> AI TASK 111 (in the list you will find "111 - Hold")

 

Es. resuming "111" group

 

ONCE -> (desired conditions) -> GROUP RESUME (111)

 

Remember that you can also set the "hold" task in the advanced waypoints options, but you won't see it in the AI TASK this way and the action will be performed only when the group get to the waypoint.

 

PS:

I believe that this thread could be moved to mission editor subforum ;)

[chromium]

only for FARP: I believe that if ground units aren't working the heli would not be repaired. So you can set to activate ground only after some minutes.

 

But I don't know how to recreate in an airport... maybe setting a park point far away the apron?