Need a Capture-the-Flag Group

[Thad]

Salutations fellow mission builders,

 

I desire a sample working Capture-the-Flag and Timing Group for my current mission creation efforts.

 

I want to modify the multi-player Capture-the-Flag type scenario for use in a single player mission.

 

If there are no such Group available... please direct me to a known mission that has one in it so I can copy it for modification.

 

Thanks.

Edited July 21, 2017 by Thad

[Thad]

UPDATE! I found a Capture-the-Flag group of groups in the FME Manual. Now the tweaking begins.

[Thad]

Salutations Fellow Mission Builders,

 

Despite my finding a Capture-the-Flag Group in the FME Manual I have been unable to get it to work properly in my Single Player mission as desired.

 

It works up to a point. Unlike in the multiplayer version, I am starting the zone triggers with AI controlled aircraft from both sides or the player vehicle. Actually, the flag goes down the pole, changes into the proper sides flag and then goes up to the top of the pole as it should and does starts a 30 minute countdown once a check zone is triggered which starts a "Russian or German Start Mission Timer".

 

At this point the timers 'should' start accumulating capture time for each side.

 

I am getting the subtitle announcements at 30 minutes, 20 minutes, 10 minutes, 5 minutes and one minute left just fine. I am NOT getting the "Russians captured the flag for 5 minutes!", "Germans captured the flag for 5 minutes", "Russians Capture the flag for 8 minutes" etc, etc.

 

From my understanding, the starting triggers must be initiated for a short time and then paused. This should happen automatically by the Start Mission Timer being triggered by the craft/side check zones. The timers should then be ready to start accumulating capture time.

 

For some reason this is NOT happening. The capture timers are not starting.

 

I can play though my mission to the end with either side overwhelmingly controlling the Flag Area and I always get a 'Stalemate' mission conclusion. The timers are obviously not performing.

 

I'm not using the German or Russian craft Spawn as in the MP version. That is the only difference I can see between it and my SP version. Is that the problem... if if it is, why and how can I overcome it?

 

You may ask, why do I even want the SP Capture-the-Flag scenario? Simple... I want a time sensitive objective based tank scenario to be played against an AI force by the Player.

 

Any insights or ideas as to how I can get each sides 'capture timers' to start working would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks.

[JimTM]

Salutations Fellow Mission Builders,

 

Despite my finding a Capture-the-Flag Group in the FME Manual I have been unable to get it to work properly in my Single Player mission as desired.

 

It works up to a point. Unlike in the multiplayer version, I am starting the zone triggers with AI controlled aircraft from both sides or the player vehicle. Actually, the flag goes down the pole, changes into the proper sides flag and then goes up to the top of the pole as it should and does starts a 30 minute countdown once a check zone is triggered which starts a "Russian or German Start Mission Timer".

 

At this point the timers 'should' start accumulating capture time for each side.

 

I am getting the subtitle announcements at 30 minutes, 20 minutes, 10 minutes, 5 minutes and one minute left just fine. I am NOT getting the "Russians captured the flag for 5 minutes!", "Germans captured the flag for 5 minutes", "Russians Capture the flag for 8 minutes" etc, etc.

 

From my understanding, the starting triggers must be initiated for a short time and then paused. This should happen automatically by the Start Mission Timer being triggered by the craft/side check zones. The timers should then be ready to start accumulating capture time.

 

For some reason this is NOT happening. The capture timers are not starting.

 

I can play though my mission to the end with either side overwhelmingly controlling the Flag Area and I always get a 'Stalemate' mission conclusion. The timers are obviously not performing.

 

I'm not using the German or Russian craft Spawn as in the MP version. That is the only difference I can see between it and my SP version. Is that the problem... if if it is, why and how can I overcome it?

 

You may ask, why do I even want the SP Capture-the-Flag scenario? Simple... I want a time sensitive objective based tank scenario to be played against an AI force by the Player.

 

Any insights or ideas as to how I can get each sides 'capture timers' to start working would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks.

 

If you would like to post the mission Thad, I can take a look.

[Thad]

Thanks... it's a rather large tank battle.

 

I'm at a loss.

HTL.zip

Edited July 30, 2017 by Thad

[JimTM]

Thanks... it's a rather large tank battle.

 

I'm at a loss.

 

The zip file is empty Thad.

[Thad]

I'm very sorry.

 

I must be brain dead from trying to figure  out the Capture-the-Flag situation. Try it again please.

[JimTM]

As far as I can see, the flag-capture logic looks OK. In the flag camera, are you seeing the flag move up and down?

 

Note:

 

- The capture-time timers are started and paused by a "Begin" translator near the timers, not by the craft/side check zones that you mentioned.

 

- In the flag area, clear the "Enabled" checkbox in icon translators "Flag captured by Russians" and "Flag captured by Germans". Those icons must be invisible at mission start.

[Thad]

Yes, the flag moves up and down during the mission.

 

Right, I'll clear those "Enabled" check boxes.

How about the Flag not captured yet... should that "enabled" box be checked or unchecked. It is checked right now.

[JimTM]

For a test, try creating a very simple mission using the following from the manual:

- Timing and scoring logic

- Flag logic (set to detect vehicles as you have done)

- Your vehicle and an AI vehicle, placed just outside the flag zone

 

Instead of triggering "Start Mission Timer" (to start the 30-minute mission time) with check zones, trigger it with a mission begin translator.

 

Try driving your vehicle into the zone and note the flag and capture timer response. Then place a waypoint to get the AI vehicle to drive into the zone and rerun the mission to see the response.

 

Post the test mission here.

[Thad]

I ran my mission with the 'enabled' boxes uncheck and still no possession times reported.

 

Ok... I'll post the test mission when ready.

[JimTM]

I ran my mission with the 'enabled' boxes uncheck and still no possession times reported.

 

...

 

The enabled box suggestion was only an aside. 

[Thad]

Sorry it took so long to get back. My brother and his family stopped in for a visit.

 

Ok... with the Player as German... the Flag responded and changed to German. The mission timer ran as usual. Still no capture timer responses seen.

 

When I added two Russian vehicles and when they entered the Flag zone the flag went down and back up as Russian. One side has to have a numerical advantage to change the flag state. I waited upwards of ten minutes during the tests. In the end, there were no capture timer responses.

 

Mission below.

TestMission.zip

Edited July 30, 2017 by Thad

[JimTM]

It looks like the flag capture events OnFlagCapturedBy01 (Russians) and OnFlagCapturedBy02 (Germans) no longer respond. I tried a mission with just the flag and a player plane, in SP and MP, and neither mission produced a "Captured" message (but they did produce the "Blocked" and "Unblocked" messages.

 

You could try OnFlagCapturedBy00 and some other numbers to see if they work. I think the other numbers are meant to register all the various factions that are available in RoF.

[Thad]

Well, that doesn't sound very hopeful. Is there no other way to trigger the scoring system?

 

Oh well, it doesn't look promising, but I'll try to do some experimenting.

 

Thanks for your suggestions and help.

Edited July 31, 2017 by Thad

[JimTM]

Well, that doesn't sound very hopeful. Is there no other way to trigger the scoring system?

 

...

 

No, I don't think there's any way you can register flag capture without the capture events. I'll log a bug report.

Edited August 17, 2017 by JimTM

[Thad]

It would help if we knew what all those OnFlagCapturedBy numbers actually represent. It could save a lot of time.

[Thad]

JimTM,

 

The "Blocked" and "Unblocked" events are correctly reported. Is there 'any' way to use these dependable reported event messages to trigger the capture scoring routines?

 

Another idea.. for single player, have the flag trigger a counter set at 1. It could trigger my Russian scoring routine. Have another counter evented to the flag set a 2. When it goes off it would trigger the German scoring routine. Have another counter set at 3 and the Russian scoring routine started again... etc.

Edited July 31, 2017 by Thad

[JimTM]

JimTM,

 

The "Blocked" and "Unblocked" events are correctly reported. Is there 'any' way to use these dependable reported event messages to trigger the capture scoring routines?

 

Another idea.. for single player, have the flag trigger a counter set at 1. It could trigger my Russian scoring routine. Have another counter evented to the flag set a 2. When it goes off it would trigger the German scoring routine. Have another counter set at 3 and the Russian scoring routine started again... etc.

 

The "Blocked" and "Unblocked" events fire regardless of the side that triggers them so you would need some kind of logic to detect which side caused the events. I'm not sure how your suggestion would work and I'm short of time to play around today.

 

Try thinking of the exact sequence of events that you need to implement (given that you can detect block/unblock events), and then think of the MCUs that you need to implement that sequence.

[Thad]

I just got the Russian Capture time to start reporting... I tied it to a AI controlled Russian tank reaching its Waypoint! So at least now I know the capture time routine does work. I Still want it tied to the 'unblocked' event to permit side changes in scoring. Testing will continue.

 

I'll keep you posted. I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer.. but I am stubborn and persistent.

Edited July 31, 2017 by Thad

[Thad]

Salutations,

 

I have made some progress. 

 

The Single Player Capture-the-Flag Group I have been working on is coming along. It now correctly reports the capture times for the flags controlling side. It didn't before. I have it verified to work with one enemy flag capture. Working on re-capture performance to ensure the reports keep coming in correctly.

[JimTM]

Salutations,

 

I have made some progress. 

 

The Single Player Capture-the-Flag Group I have been working on is coming along. It now correctly reports the capture times for the flags controlling side. It didn't before. I have it verified to work with one enemy flag capture. Working on re-capture performance to ensure the reports keep coming in correctly.

 

Nice work Thad!

[Thad]

Yes... gratifying but draining. I'm Going to take a few hours brake... my brain is fried.

 

Hey, I haven't got that much brain to work with anyway. 

[Thad]

I got it working the way I wanted. It has been posted on the forums for others to use and modify.