Note: Title edited from 'Noob needs help with Patrols'.

Hi there guys! I recently decided to start making an aod map. I hope to make 3, any more would destroy me I'm sure! Any help would really go far! To start off, I will probably need very basic help in understanding certain points.

1. Currently having problems making units patrol areas. I found a command in the script about 'making units follow an EXACT waypoint path', how do I go about doing this? I know about creating waypoints, and 'joining them up' is this a waypoint path? Should I create the units on the map from the start in order to make them patrol, or should I spawn them in when the game starts?

2. Having problems with the Border tool. I can't seem to resize the border, as it is too big for the map at the moment. Also, if you place AI spawn points outside the border, will the units still function and be able to proceed into the map?

3. Camera Control for the Intro. I know basic 'move camera to waypoint' or 'tether onto unit', but I'm trying to make the camera zoom in a little more and fade into other areas and such, to show the patrolling units, and for a little scene at the begining.
Currently I have:



^As far as I understand it, this hides the controls, displays the text in notepad under 'intro1', sets a new timer to expire, and moves the camera away from every team memebrs CC to waypoint CAmeraintro1.
Is this correct?
What does the stuff like 'camerashutter' and 'ease-in/ease-out' mean/do?





^Here I am trying to, when the timer from the previous script has expired, the camera automatically switches to waypoint camerointro2. (The whole fadeout thing confuses me at the moment.( Then a new hidden timer starts and the camera moves to another waypoint in 5 seconds.
Does this mean it will take 5 seconds to move to the new waypoint? Or does it mean it will move IN 5 seconds? Is there a way to adjust the speed of the movement?




^Here, when the timer has expired, I make a jump cut to just outside an area where an inferno tank starts to attack civilians. The civilians are in the area 'infernotank_kill_intro, created using the polygon tool.




^I want the camera to slowly move over the area as we see the people being attacked, rather than to remain in one place.

that's as far as I got since I'm stuck on patrols. I know about creating teams and etc, just unsure what would be best, to spawn the tanks on the map and then make them act certain way, or to create them as objects on the actual map, and then transfer control when the game starts.

all help appreciated guys!

Edited by user Monday, April 30, 2012 5:28:33 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Title change, extras etc

Thanks for your help guys.

1. How do you select the waypoints, as a plural, you want it to follow? I still don't understand how to create a 'waypoint path'. I have created 3 or 4 waypoints as a route I want the team to follow, I am unsure how to classify or make the system recognise these as a 'waypoint path'. BTW I am trying to look at other maps for help, and I noticed some of them have the name of the waypoint in green, and then a second name for it underneath in red. Is this a waypoint path? How do you access it?

Some of the waypoints lead in a straight line. Is there a way to make them travel back again along the same route? Or would I need to create a ney path using the exact same waypoints, just reveresed, and then set to activate once the team reaches the end of the current waypoint path?


2. Ok, still not entirely sure how to resize the Border. Resizing the top right corner is a piece of cake, thanks to your insturctions mixery! But you said to use the 'resize tool' to change the bottom left corner. But when I select the Border tool, it says 'this tool has no options'. Where is the resize tool located?

Thanks for clearing up about spawns outside the map. Just to clarify, the border is where all players will see up to, right? So outside of the border will be shrouded in darkness, and unselectable? Because I don't want them to really 'see' the enemies until they are 'in' the map so to speak...

3. Ah. It seems the Camera is a finicky and harsh mistress. Plenety of experimenting is starting to yield some results. Is there any easier way to find out things like zoom without literally loading up zero hour and loading up the map everytime just to check the zoom is right? And concerning rotation.....to select it to rotate 0.5 times means half of the way towards the subject (waypoint/unit etc)?




EDIT - Also, the current army is Skirmish America. But I want the AI to use the Black Naplam upgrade. I know that you can use the script

for example to force the GLA CC to use Generals Powers. There doesn't seem to be a script to 'force' the China CC to use the upgrade/ability Black Naplam though.

NOTE: I have tried spawning a China WF at start, and then going under Unit - Command, and using: , but the Ability List is always blank for me there, even after clicking Ok and saving the map etc. what am I doing wrong?

Should I use one of the following?


Or









As you can see, I am a total freaking noob at this. Trying to understand, figuring a few things out for myself, but it's hard going lol.

BTW I remembered I made a few topics a while ago, so I've been going over them and relearning stuff. All this stuff I'm trying to do now is new I think. Also thanking people.

Edited by user Monday, April 30, 2012 5:51:05 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Aha, now I'm starting to understand about waypoint paths and such.
And thanks for the quickstart tip!
Wow I never would have guessed or figured out you have to spawn the building in place object first, THEN set that to command_ability, then delete it and select the 'spawn' building instead. thanks.

BTW, just to let you know, you've got me hooked again. Blast! XD the next two or three weeks I will most probably be working on these maps every day, trying to overcome problems not covered/understood fully by me, so I may be updating this thread quite a bit! lol


1.I was under the impression that using the resize tool would be exactly the same as the border Tool. However, it comes up with options for an 'anchor' and other resize options.

Changing the number under 'Border' resizes the whole ground underneath, not the orange box. What am I not getting? The Hor(x) box and the Vert y box mess up the map as well....

2. Also, I just realised the map is set to 4 players. How do I add an extra player to make it for 5 (4 vs 1)? Just placing a Waypoint and selecting Player_5_start as the name will do this?

3. Also the map is currently set up for players to have to guard 'entrances' until all waves are destroyed. Do you recomend setting the spawn teams to 'Hunt'? Reason I am asking is because some of the spawn teams are mixed Ground/Air. Will the aircraft simply self-destruct after dropping their payload? just trying to double check :)

4. Is there a way to make certain units (Say a Boss_Helix for example, just to make sure no human players build it) fire streams of fire similar to the dragon tank, or fire shots similair to the inferno cannons?

5.

As I understand it, this forces the team of two tanks to follow a set path, but attack if they spot any human forces. Is this correct?

Edited by user Tuesday, May 1, 2012 4:43:06 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Uh.....the border seems to be not responding the way it should.

I followed your example, but it just messed up for me.


In order to understand where the border starts, I decided to switch it to 10 and then adjust it as I saw fit.

So in your example:

your map is 200x200 and the border is 30.
X: 200 y: 200 border: 30.

X side is 30+200+30 (=260) and Y side is 30+200+30 (=260)

you want your map with the same map size, only different border so you will have to go with 10+240+10 in order to reach the 260 again
X: 240 y: 240 border: 10.


Ok, in my map the measurements are:

X: 375, Y: 350, Border: 70.
So going by what you said, this really means:
X = 70 + 375 + 70 (= 515) and Y = 70 + 350 + 70 (= 490)


So I want the border to shrink to 10, just so I get a feel of how much the bottom left corner will shrink in by.

Which leaves us with:
X = 10 + 485 + 10 (= 515) and Y = 10 + 470 + 10 (= 490).

So
X: 485, Y: 470, Border = 10.



BUT This doesn't adjust the bottom left corner at all, it only adjusts the top right corner of the border, and it shrinks the map itself (which is probably a good thing tbh). The bottom left corner is still far exposed over the left entrance.
I'm confused. I'll just continue working anyway before coming back to it.



Also, trying to figure out how to get Tunnels to work. One of the entrances I want to be a tunnel. Any special scripting required for this? 1 crappy solution I could just place a Train Tunnel down, and then make the enemies spawn just outside of it.
I don't understand how to make them 'pass through' the tunnel. Looking at other maps, it seems like they place two down to function as an exit/entrance similar to GLA holes. How do you 'link' certain tunnels? Is it the same as GLA holes (so a script telling them to 'enter' train tunnel1 structure and then another telling them to exit train tunnel2 for example)?

One other thing I'm unsure about. I'm able to prevent players from building any structure using Map --> Modify. But what about Generals Powers? Is there any way to restrict them unil x is destroyed? Otherwise disabling Airfields won't mean much if you can just Moab stuff instead...

Edited by user Tuesday, May 1, 2012 8:25:49 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

i was wrong about the tunnel.


i just took a further look at it and they actually work well. take a look at the attachment, i got tunnels to work very easily. it looks really awesome. but still: its a normal tunnel, no train tunnel. you could put this normal tunnel beneath a train tunnel of course. that would work well.

put in gla comp to test the map.

Edited by user Tuesday, May 1, 2012 12:37:49 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

*cries*
The amount of scripting required to do even this crappy map is insane. And for the other two I'll need probably more.
Oh well. I can only continue on.


Hey mixery, I used the code you suggested earlier to create Radar events, or 'beacons' on the map highlighting certain structures etc.





Ok, so this starts up the beacons.
I then want the beacons to stop flashing one by one, as the structures are destroyed individually. How do I go about doing this? At first glance there doesn't seem to be any THEN code allowing me to do this......

EDIT, wait, do I have to create a separate script for every beacon to go off, and then create more separate scripts freaking deactivating every 'flashing' script as every structure is destroyed/change in map?!?!?!?? Say it aint so! Now I think my idea of having around 50 beacons to highlight every change in the map isn't a good one....

Also mixery, soon I'll be posting the map up here, under your instructio0ns, so you can take a look at fixing the border out. While you go through it, you might notice I have probably over scripted, to allow for any mistakes. So every single team coming from every single entrance has a separate script for it. :p any tips regarding shortcuts would be helpful, because it took me like 2 hours just to give each team a script. (8 entrances, 29 spawns)



EDIT - Also, because I have very poor map editing skills (as you will see) in order to make this, I edited an official map. Map came with loads of waypoints, I presume for mission/skirmish whatever. Deleted the vast majority of them.
However I kept in the SE waypoints, because I thought it might be more authentic if the SE plays when you are over an area. At the moment for example, there is one called amb_waterriverloop, and when I check the waypoint/object there is a default sound attached in the properties.
Will this actually happen, or are .inf/scripts needed to play them?

Edited by user Thursday, August 16, 2012 5:08:36 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Ok, here is the test version of the map I am working on.

It obviously hasn't been finetuned or anything. Those later enemy waves seem too hard, I may just tone em down a little.

It is very basic.


4 players defend two entrances each. Entrance placements and general 'border' of map needs complete reworking I feel.

Airfields, Sw and Gen Powers are restricted until X is destroyed. intro should explain.






So yeah, tell me what you think mixery, and if you could, fix the border for me as well. I am also working on two more maps.





EDIT
It won't let me upload the map. I have the folder compressed as a winrar zip file. But it comes up with some weird sentence when I press upload. Something about Requested permission for File Security etc etc failed. so I uploaded it to sendpsace instead



http://www.sendspace.com/file/aexzh8

Edited by user Friday, August 24, 2012 6:27:28 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I guess I was trying to run before I walk. It seems that everyone wants those extremly basic AOD maps where you just 'stop enemy from reaching bottom of map'.

I'll think about what you said for sure. Now I'm not sure what to do. Perhaps I should start again. or find some way to remove the copy protection like you said.

I'll incorporate your advice into my next aod map, but oh dear, I had a lot of good ideas, but I guess maybe they weren't so good, having a Particle Cannon Beam chase players now seems retarded. lol. Hey thanks for your help mixery. hopefully you'll still stick around and give advice on my next aod map.