A mission I've made don't work, I don't know why

Hi

Since the last update, ED gave us beautiful trains and I want to make a mission with the Huey escorting the train from Batumi to Tbillissi. I've made the train, and I've made the run between these two towns and that, that's work fine. But if the train wasn't attacked by terrorist, that could be uninteresting.

So' I've placed an armed 4X4, plenty off hideous insurgent, somewhere near the railway and for us, I've defined waypoints on roads near the railway and that works too.

First try: I've defined a trigger zone and when the train reach this zone, the insurgent, in delayed activation, must begin to move: Nothing, like simply cows, they nonchalantly look the train running and don't move anymore.

Second try: Instead of activating the terrorist, the train reaching the trigger zone, actives a marker (1) in true. The advanced option of the terrorist's 4X4 is set to "maintain position" with stop condition of this option when the marker 1 is enabled to true. Same behaviour than in first try, the terrorists are not moving even after the passage of the train.

Any ideas ?

Other question: I don't how to designate the train as the main target for the bad guys with the advanced option "opened fire". of course the train is blue and terrorists are red.

Maybe the triggered action when the train reaches the zone should be "attack unit" or "attack group" or something like this. You can play around with the ROE too.

Does the train even trigger the trigger (pun unintended)? When you add "message to all" to that event, is the message displayed?

Which was the exact trigger you use? I always use "Part of group in zone" for such things

It's not a message.

If I don't enable delayed activation, the bad guy's car starts immediatly. But if I set the a first advanced option : "maintain position" they don't move and it's quite normal as we haven't reach yet the end of "maintain position" condition.

But if I set "maintain position" with the stop condition of this option " marker 1" enabled and that, justly, the train entering in the trigger zone enable this marker, the bad guy's car should begin to move. But it doesn't move.

The first thing I tried is to set a delayed activation without advanced options for the bad guy's group and when the train reaches the trigger zone, I set the action "activate group" and selected in the dialbox, the group "terrorist", as I named it. Nothing happens. They're staying where they are.

I will try too what has said Reflected if I find the option "attack unit" if I find it ( My DCS is in french, as I'm french).

Thanks for your help, for the both of yours .

You did not read what I wrote. Please add a message to that event. Then: Is the message displayed when the event should trigger? This ensures the trigger is set up correct. Remove the message afterwards.

Also: What kind of trigger is the trigger? The middle part in the editor window. The part:

"I've defined a trigger zone and when the train reach this zone"

Should read:

Once -> Part of group in zone (group: Train, zone: ActivationZone) -> Flag on (100)

^ this will fire once, when a part of the group called "Train" enters the zone "ActivationZone", and sets the flag "100" to 1

The stop condition of your "hold position" advanced waypoint action should be "User flag 100 is 1"

The trigger is unit " cheminot" ( that's how we call the drivers of trains in France) is in the zone "activate bandit". So the trigger is "unit in zone".

But instead, I will try "group partialy in the zone " if I find it.

I will add a message to see as you advise me, to see if the trigger runs properly.

I'm not familiar enough with the flags. I havn't yet understood the difference between a flag ( activated or not) and its value.

I'll try immediatly, I'll told you after and thanks again.

Ok, as you thought, I can't see any message, so the train don't activate the trigger, entering in the zone.

I've tried the 2 ways " unit in the zone " and "group partially in the zone" and it's the same. So if no trigger activated, no change in the bad guy's behaviour, it's quite normal.

Just I must understand now why the train don't active the trigger. I will try with an other kind of unit, to see if it's an issue linked to the new train.

A flag can basically have a number. By default every flag is 0 or off or false. All the same. If you set a flag "On", its value is 1, or true. Again all the same. But you can set a flag also to a number, for example 5, 12 or 1230. Again, all the same.

So a flag is basically a variable, which name is a number and its value is also a number, with the special case that 0 is off (false) and 1 is on (true)

It's a bit hard to understand.. because the "name" of the flag is also a number. So you can have Flag 1 and Flag 2 for example.

Say we use Flag 1 to trigger an effect based on a random result. Say, when you start your misison, there should be a 50% chance for a unit to move to a specified position. So you create a trigger at mission start, which says "Random(50)" -> Flag on (1)

This will set the Flag 1 to value 1 in 50% of the cases (statistically)

Say we have Flag 2 and we want to count the seconds a unit needs to reach a specific area.

So we would set up:

Continously -> Time more(1) -> Flag add(1) (don't know without being in the editor, what the correct name is)

This is basically a trigger, which fires every second (which continously triggers do) as long as the mission time is > 1 second (Time more(1)). So the first time the trigger fires Flag 2 has value 1, the second time it has value 2, third time value 3, and so on.

For example you could now set a trigger:

Once -> Flag(2) greater than 120 -> message to all("mission failed")

Of course you could substitute the time more.. trigger with "All of group out of zone", for example, otherwise you wouldn't need the flag and just use time more.., but it is only an example ^^

In anyway now, with your help, I have the answer:

Trains are not activating the triggers. It's an ED bug. I've tried with an other vehicle, on the road near the railway and it activates the trigger and I see the message and the bad guy's car moving when it's time to move. So I will report the issue in the AI issue forum.

Thanks for your explanations about the flags, I will read it several times to understand better.

Is the train triggered by something? Or does the train arrive at that point always the same time? You can use the "Time more(xy)" trigger as a workaround. So if the train reaches the zone after 2 minutes every time, you just set the trigger "Time more (120)" to stop the "hold position" action.

If they don't attack the train you can also as a workaround trigger an explosion at the position, where the train is, simulating a bomb or IED.

I'd thougt myself to measure time since the beginning of mission, to activate the bad guys.The train isn't triggered. It starts with the mission, from Batumi docks, near the cranes and the static boats and I've made a way to Tbillissi. So it arrives at the trigger zone, always at the same time. But acting like that, doesn't make it considered as ennemy by the bad guys. And in the mission I want to built, I must shoot the bad guys before they can destroy one of the tank car of the train, spilling highly toxic gaz around the train.

That's why I've reported the following bugs to ED:

Trains aren't activating triggers and aren't considered as ennemies by opposite coalition.

In anymway, I must thank you for 2 things:

Your explanations about triggers ( I must work them).

The little trick with the message, to verify the good performance of a trigger. I thought,that I had an issue with the advanced options of the bad guy's vehicle and no, it was just a non-activated trigger issue.

You're welcome. Another handy trick with Flags: an excel sheet with all trigger numbers, what they are for, and the value they have when activated. Saves so much time when you have a high flag count and have to search all your triggers, if you already have used flag xy