Friendly fire when bombing enemy installations

[coconut]

Maybe you have experienced the same problem I have when bombing factories or AAA located at the edge of a village: You get a notification that you have fired on a friendly, which is always a bit confusing. At first I thought maybe the fuse on my bombs were too short, and my gunner took shrapnel.

 

It turns out it's a feature in the mission file format that one should know of. Blocks have a country even when they do not have an entity, and this is set to "Neutral" by default. And apparently, neutral units are considered friendly (even though the AI will attack anything that isn't its own country, including neutral).

Block
{
  Name = "Block";
  Index = 2018;
  LinkTrId = 0;
  XPos = 52523.234;
  YPos = 60.558;
  ZPos = 68777.461;
  XOri = 0.00;
  YOri = 2.22;
  ZOri = 0.00;
  Model = "graphics\blocks\meh_01.mgm";
  Script = "LuaScripts\WorldObjects\Blocks\meh_01.txt";
  Country = 0;
  Desc = "";
  Durability = 10000;
  DamageReport = 50;
  DamageThreshold = 1;
  DeleteAfterDeath = 1;
}

Note on how the "meh_01" block as a LinkTrId of 0, meaning "no entity". Yet it has a line "Country = 0", meaning it has a neutral country.

 

To set it to Axis or Allies, you could edit the file by hand, or alternatively you can create an entity, edit the country in the advanced properties, delete the entity (because those things aren't free, resource-wise). The country you set in the advanced properties will stick, even though you no longer have access to the advanced properties dialog for that block.

 

[[DBS]Tx_Tip]

Thanks coconut that you posted this for everyone.

However there is a caveat when dealing with ready made groups.

 

Let's say Tank Revetments with Armor positioned and the user grouped the whole lot as country specific entities when that wasn't an issue resource wise. The revetments/blocks will return to whatever country it was originally grouped as even though the user goes in and just deletes the entity. 

 

One way around the issue would be to recreate the groupings country specific again from scratch this time doing the create entity for the blocks then save the mission without saving the group to file. Then go back in and delete the revetment/block entities. Group them up again as a New Group and save them to file country specific.

 

Or Delete the Revetment/blocks within the Group and then redo them using the same scenario.

 

In any event the blocks need to be rendered country specific for an accurate tally log wise.  One can also just unclick "Friendly Fire Notification" within the server settings. However that comes with the loss of those friendly objects that were destroyed being tallied in the logs. 

 

As far as AI. I don't use AI aircraft but Tanks/Artillery will shoot at the revetments within their own group as well so users should make sure that they set the Attack Command properly to look for vehicles only.

 

Good Stuff,

Tip

[Matt]

Alternatively, you could also make the "Neutral" country a member of the enemy coalition. Might be easier and should work fine, at least in SP missions.