Hi Guys,
First time here and very happy to find such a strong C&C Zero Hour community.

I have a map I am building (my first from scratch).
I am running Zero Hour with a 1.04 upgrade and Shockwave 1.1.

The map I have built is no beauty but is intended for myself and a friend to play online against 6 AI teams.

I have made the map quite large and have allowed a huge area for building for each if the AI teams (The AI teams are designed to be around the outside of the map whilst we defend the middle ground).

I have added what I believe to be all the correct starting points, perimiters and waypoints.

The map does 'work' and has given us some great games but I am having a problem with the AI teams. Often 4 of the 6 will build just fine leaving the other two sat there with a dozer and a mobile construction yard twiddling their thumbs.

I am trying to get this debugged but am having problems tracking down the issue (is it my install or a problem with the map?)

I would really appreciate it if someone could have a look at the map for me with a fresh pair of eyes as I have reached the point where I might not be seeing the wood for the trees. Even a confirmation fo the fault on another install would be great.

The map isn't very 'exciting' yet, but the hope is to use this as a starting place to build better and more 'interesting' maps for myself and the community.

I am a 3d artist and programmer by trade so there is some real potential but I need someone with some experience to help with this debug before I commit to going further. 😄   Abandoned Fortress.zip (167kb) downloaded 2 time(s).

Does this behave any different?   Abandoned Fortress2.zip (168kb) downloaded 3 time(s).

Drummin,
Tested and working! 😁

So what did I miss? I would really appreciate a quick run down of how you found the error. Any tips on problem solving on these maps will be a god send for the future. I am assuming that I had made something of a schoolboy error somewhere?

Just my opinion....
Picture each AI with a unique unknown pattern in which they build their base. If you've played any game over with the same AI player, you've probably noticed they use the same pattern for the most part and every faction has their own variation. What we do notice is that if their pattern is disrupted (Ah man, my pattern doesn't fit with this inner perimeter) they stop building. An easy spot is where the start position sits within the inner perimeter. Is it centered? The AI build-pattern may extend 500feet from the start position in any direction. The Civilian object TempBuildingSize represents this area where the AI expects to have available to build their base. By placing this object over the start positions you will see where "Cramping" issues might arise. As each AI has a different pattern and each start location might have a different "cramping" issue you will find some AI players working in one position but not another. The best answer is to have the inner perimeter of at least 1000x1000 feet or 500 feet from start position on all sides and one or more supplies sources within this area.

What did I do to your map? Adjust the innerperimeter where it was tight near supplies to extend around supplies at least 500 feet giving AI more room in that direction for building.

That makes soe really good sense to me. Thank you once again for looking at the map so promptly and pointing out what is (after the event) an obvious flaw in my design.

I'm off to make my life harder by garrisoning some pillboxes... 🙂