Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 9:41 am Post subject:
Problematic Basic Mission Triggers, Advice??
Subject description: Some work, some no matter what don't
Greetings everyone,
I hope someone out there can advise where I'm going wrong. I'm currently in the process of making my own campaign missions, but I'm having great difficulty making some basic triggers work.
I have a good understanding of AI editing, having vastly altered the aimd file for skirmish games, covering triggers, teamtypes, taskforces, scripts etc...
When it comes to my attempts to make missions, I have seemingly exhausted all efforts to make things work, even after reading seemingly every source I could find.
Stuff that seems to work; Time-based triggers. I can make reinforcements arrive based on elapsed time. I've set ownership of units/buildings. I've set win and lose triggers (for my recent tests they have been very simple conditions). And I set triggers to allow for AI production, triggers, and setting an enemy (although none of these seemed to make a difference, and I've sence removed and added and removed these).
What doesn't work; Triggers Not based on time. For example, I want an enemy team to appear when the player gets to a certain area, or finds a certain building. I find it, yet the team doesn't appear. To help know when the trigger is fired, I added a 'play speech' action. Can anyone advise on implementing a find/discover building/area trigger?
Weirdly, I made another trigger, this time if a specific building recieves damage, then to make the enemy team in question appear. So I order a start unit to shoot it, and Yes, the trigger fires, and the enemy appears.
I notice also that in a new multiplayer test map I made, I can create a reinforcement team of 2 conscripts whom will then patrol 3 waypoints, but using the same setup it won't work in a singleplayer map.... Any clue?
Recently I've run out of ideas, including remaking the triggers from scratch, and even the whole damn maps and missions from scratch, and have been looking into 'set local' and LocalVariables, but have gotten nowhere with that, and don't know if it's even necessary. QUICK_EDIT
For us to get a better understanding of why your triggers aren't working, it would be wise for you to upload screenshots of the triggers in question. QUICK_EDIT
And just getting a screenshot... (Ok attached image)
So, as I've written in the OP, I ended up making a separate trigger ('Make the enemy come'), set off by firing at a building; in this case the practice target in the screenshot. This triggers the arrival of teamtype 'Enemy A' (tanks). And I'm aware this is currently at a loop, but it was just to finally make it work through something Other than a time trigger.
Trigger '01000040' was the original trigger that was supposed to activate the arrival of Team A, as well as accompanying trigger '01000045' for Team A2 (Atroop, consisting of a bunch of GI's), by the player going near/on the highlighted cell tags, or going near the tent building which has now had a cell tag placed on it also....
Everything there looks fine so I'm guessing that the problem lies within the trigger event. Would you mind uploading a screenshot of the event tab on the trigger menu and explain how, if at all, it has been inputted on the map? I can see Celltags, so I'm going to guess you're using the "entered by" event type? What house is the player? I noticed that you mentioned the trigger works fine for the event of attacking the target object, so that's fine, some event types are worded poorly and don't typically work as you would initially think.
Just as a side note: If you're using the event type "Discovered by house/player" (I don't recall exactly what it is, it's been a few years since I opened a map editor) then it needs to be attached to an object placed on the map as opposed to being used in a Celltag. As a general rule, Celltags should typically be used for the event type "Entered By". QUICK_EDIT
Everything there looks fine so I'm guessing that the problem lies within the trigger event. Would you mind uploading a screenshot of the event tab on the trigger menu and explain how, if at all, it has been inputted on the map? I can see Celltags, so I'm going to guess you're using the "entered by" event type? What house is the player? I noticed that you mentioned the trigger works fine for the event of attacking the target object, so that's fine, some event types are worded poorly and don't typically work as you would initially think.
Just as a side note: If you're using the event type "Discovered by house/player" (I don't recall exactly what it is, it's been a few years since I opened a map editor) then it needs to be attached to an object placed on the map as opposed to being used in a Celltag. As a general rule, Celltags should typically be used for the event type "Entered By".
Hi Aro, I've tried different combinations, at the moment the trigger is indeed attached to an object (the army tent), and then I ended up placing celltags, even on it in later tests after running out of ideas.
The player house is Russia, the enemy trigger belongs to America, the map does include 1 small patrol team of side allied to Russia (Cuba/Confederation), which itself does not work.
I added the screenshot you asked showing the Event, although not much to see I guess; I didn't want to have to enter a building to fire the trigger, so as you can see I used '4 - Discovered by player', the player being the Russians... The trigger currently 'belongs' to Americans, used to have it set to Russians, but maybe I can try putting it back, I think I've tried that but will do again later.
@Aro & G-E, a big thanks to you guys for your input here, I have made some progress, I'm surprised to say!
I was thinking about what you both said, and started with the simplest thing; changed the enemy triggered team to have no tag, and indeed you were correct G-E, it did stop the recurring unit spawn loop. I even made an additional trigger to self cancel, but doing what you said gives greater and simpler control to that.
Next I thought about the Victory trigger (which I had setup, and it works), and it is simply attached to a building (outwith the screenshots), and upon discovery it does trigger the winning triggers. I wondered why it wasn't triggering the enemy to come. I deleted the celltag overlapping the tent, did nothing, then I thought, 'What if it won't fire because it's already discovered (by my ally)'? So I moved the starting ally (invisible in screenshot), and it then worked as it should. So a big lesson for any SP map editing people out there; when using the trigger 'Discovered by player', make sure it doesn't start within view of you or an ally!
I will now be able to (Finally!) make cautious progress, and hopefully finish some big & beautiful campaign missions, which I will eventually release.
Couldn't have done this without both your input, thanks guys. QUICK_EDIT
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Problematic Basic Mission Triggers, Advice??
