Crew skins

[Agent Fire]

Does anyone know how to change the skin of a driver, gunner, or commander, without creating an empty vehicle and putting the required units inside?

[OFPWiZard]

Yes...

unitname setFace "Face1"

1 - how many faces you have

[macguba]

If you are talking about the face, then OFPWiZard is right.    If you name the vehicle (eg tank1) the crew are automatically named

tank1C - the commander
tank1G - gunner
tank1D - you've guessed it the driver

so you can write

tank1C setFace "face1"

in init.sqs.   Similarly you can change their gear etc.

If, as I suspect,  you are talking about uniforms, its more difficult.   I suppose you could do it by editing the mission.sqm file.   Or you could create an addon.    But its probably just easier to create an empty vehicle and moveindriver etc the crew as you suggested.

[Agent Fire]

Yes (sorry people) I do mean uniform. My problem is that - due to the situation on the mission I am making - I can't create the empty vehicle and move men into it.  :-\

[Agent Fire]

Unless of course anyone can think of an excuse for troops in woodland camo working on jungle Everon.

[macguba]

If all the relevant units are AI you can instantaneously teleport the old ones out and the new ones in.  Or cover it with a cutscene.

If they are human then that's not so good.   If only BIS had included a changing room in the game.

[Agent Fire]

Surely there's some kind of command that you can put in the init line; you can change the faces so why can't you change the clothing? :hmm:

[macguba]

If you can find such a command there are a LOT of people who would like to hear from you.  

You're right of course, it should be possible.    You can change virtually everything else about a unit.  But if there is a way, I don't know it.

Tell us more about the precise situation.    What exactly is going on?

[Agent Fire]

OK. I have a large convoy (but all 5T trucks and Jeeps) heading along a road at full speed. Because it is max 12 men pre squad, only the vehicles consist of the convoy, but they are all full of seperate squads of Vietnam US troops (move in cargo command). Thanks to you in a different topic, I sent some Vietcong units with satchel charges to plant their bomb on the ground and hide. As the front leader of the convoy hits a trigger, the Charlie triggers his SC under the leader's truck and blows him (and 9 poor, defenceless men) to hell. Then some squads of Vietnamese troops get up from no fire, stealth mode and attack the convoy. At the same time, the convoy's new leader instantly triggers two nearby get out and transport unload triggers. All of the soldiers, as I said before, are in US kit, but my problem is that the drivers/gunners are in woodland camo. I can't have empty vehicles with them inside because then I couldn't have the soldiers AND the crew in at the same time - if I do that, either the troops or the crew automatically leave the vehicle.

[Agent Fire]

(And also the drivers couldn't be in the same squad, and so they would drive past each other and stuff.)

[macguba]

hmmm ... try this

create a column of empty vehicles
create a squad of drivers
create a whole bunch of squads as passengers

the drivers and passengers all have the camo you really want.

the drivers get assignAsDriver/moveInDriver commands
the passengers get moveincargo commands

the drivers (in one squad) will drive in convoy if you make the first move waypoint formation column.    behaviour safe usually helps too.    The order of the vehicles will be the order of squad number - 1 at the front, then 2 etc with 12 at the back.   This may be the same as rank.

on ambush, use switch triggers to give the passengers get out waypoints
meanwhile, the drivers are awarded git-the-hell-out-of-here waypoints

if get out waypoints don't work, try unAssignVehicle commands for the passengers as well

that should leave you with passengers on the ground and drivers still in their vehicles

I can't have empty vehicles with them inside because then I couldn't have the soldiers AND the crew in at the same time - if I do that, either the troops or the crew automatically leave the vehicle.

I don't understand this bit.    

[Agent Fire]

Translation to misunderstanded bit: For some reason two seperate groups in an empty vehicle don't mix. I had a quick go; putting 3 men (different squads) in an empty jeep with mgun (hoping that one would be driver, andother gunner, another passenger). But I ended up sitting alone as passenger while the others were waiting a few hundred metres away.  

[macguba]

Well.    Now I understand the problem.   It is possible to put drivers from one group and passengers from another into the same vehicle, because it occurs quite happily in my mission Regina Proeliorum, currently available for testing in the beta forum (hint, hint).

Try my suggestion and see what happens.    Put the instructions in the units init fields.

[Agent Fire]

Did you say that the drivers should be in the same group? :wave:

[Agent Fire]

Because when they are in the same group but assigned into different vehicles, they all start as an infantry squad while my passengers sit on their own. So lonely. :'(

[Agent Fire]

by the way I'm gettin ur map :thumbsup:

[Agent Fire]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooo*breath*oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo*breath*oooooooooooooooo:oKILLME
NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
WWWWWWWW:gunman:!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have cold war crisis only! Me no have that version! 1.46 maximum at the moment! NNNNN
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
....................................

[Agent Fire]

P.S. is there an AssignAsGunner and AssignAsCommander command?

[Artak]

Yes, there is.

There's also a AssignAsCargo command

These and a whole lot more with exact syntax you can find out by downloading the official command reference from here
http://www.ofpec.com/editors/browse.php?category=1_5&start=25

[Agent Fire]

Thanks - everyone was talking about this thing, but I didn't know where to get it. :cheers:

[Agent Fire]

Anyway, back to the original question. Any ideas?

[macguba]

In that mission I have a three squads.    There are three vehicles, a UAZ and two trucks.    One squad goes in the back of each truck.   The third squad provides the drivers for all three vehicles and a couple of spare loons in the back of the UAZ.    

Everybody has moveInCargo or moveInDriver commands in their init lines.   (Except the infantry loons, I used a forEach in the leaders' fields)   Then there are some move and get out waypoints.   That's it.

Try it and see if it works for you.   It should.     assign and unassign will help if you run into problems.

And Artak is right (no change there), always check the official and Unofficial command references, the are essential reading.

[Agent Fire]

Should I send you the mission so far? Then you can un-PBO it and look at it.

[macguba]

lol, no, please don't.

First of all because I won't get round to looking at it (I owe two people beta tests as it is)

Second of all you should always post things so that everybody can see.

Third of all you haven't fully tried my suggestion yet.  Have a good go at it and see if you can make it work.    If you can't, come back with a full report on what you did and what went wrong and we'll see what we can do.

And fourth of all, I have enough trouble making my own missions work without taking on other people's  

[Agent Fire]

Affirmative

[Agent Fire]

What commands are there that place a unit in a group or make a unit follow another? I might use them to put the drivers into the same group after the mission starts, rather than them starting in them.

[Artak]

[unitname,unitname,unitname,...] join yourgroup

[unitname,unitname,unitname,...] being an array of units you want to join to the group and
yourgroup being the groupname in which you want them to join

to get a groupname you should for example put
yourgroup = group this
into the leader unit's init field.

That's the way you join units to groups.


If you want them to just follow a group without joining it you can attach a move waypoint by selecting waypoints, selecting the units and then double clicking right on top of the leader unit of the group which you want to be followed.


Or if you'r familiar with scripting you might want to make a script with something like this

#loop
(leader mygroup) move getpos (leader theothergroup)
~20
goto "loop"