Diving into ME. Need some help

[TheWarsimmer]

I've gone through the manuals a bit and watched some tutorial vids, but I'm still having some trouble. Specifically, I'm trying to make a simple SP mission where the ultimate goal is a group of AI bombers following a human leader to level bomb an area, from a cold start.

 

The problem is that I can never get the AI to even start their engines, and sometimes I won't even start in the player designated plane and instead the mission starts and then ends in just a few seconds with me looking at an empty field.

 

I must be missing something simple here. 

[TP_Silk]

I've not personally tried getting AI to follow a human player, so I can't comment on that one.

 

As for the mission starting then ending right away, that's usually down to one of two things. Either you haven't set a player controlled aircraft (unlikely) or you have a glitch in the map and season settings. Make sure that your GUI map and season and the imported map all match. If for instance you have the Kuban summer map, but have the season set to Winter this will cause the 'exploding pilot on entering the game' syndrome.

 

I usually set all my map stuff such as season, weather, etc right at the very start so that I know that it all matches and is out of the way

Edited May 31, 2018 by TP_Silk

[JimTM]

2 hours ago, baylor703 said:

...

The problem is that I can never get the AI to even start their engines...

...

 

Try this test mission:

JimTMTestPlayerAndAIWingmanV2.zip

 

The "Taxi Route" icon on the runway is a "fakefield" object with the AI taxi path to and from the runway defined. For details, see "Make a Plane Taxi to and From a Runway" on pg. 63 of the editor manual.

 

The "Take off" command tells both AI planes to start their engines but then they wait for you to start taxiing.

 

Once you start to taxi, the AI will follow you. However, in my test, they spun around a few times before progressing along the taxiway. You could try playing with the position of the initial taxi point and see if that prevents the spinning.

 

2 hours ago, baylor703 said:

...and sometimes I won't even start in the player designated plane and instead the mission starts and then ends in just a few seconds with me looking at an empty field.

... 

 

Further to what TP_Silk mentions, you could check if there is a corrupt season setting in the .mission file, as described in "Player Enters Plane and Is Kicked Out or Plane Is Destroyed or Goes Underground" on pg. 186 of the editor manual. It's possible that Silk's map/season suggestion may fix this issue.

Edited May 31, 2018 by JimTM

[TheWarsimmer]

I'll check out the mission zip and reference it. If I run into any issues after, I'll upload my own version. Thank you both for the help, and Jim, thanks for that manual!

 

I could be wrong, but believe the no plane issue may be the glitch, either with season settings or corruption. There are only a few planes on the entire map, all confined to one airfield, and the lead plane is designated player. I'll try it out and report back.