My Paratroopers Are Cowards!

[Beebop]

I can't get paratroopers to exit the plane over the target area.
I have looked through the manual, done (almost, see below**) everything mentioned but the cowards stay in the plane!

 

Here's what I've found and read...

p.122
Make an Object Attack Enemy Objects Within an Area

1. Place an attack area command (pg. 237) anywhere and object link it to the attacking
object or the leader of an attacking formation.
2. Set the attack area command properties and advanced properties.
3. Trigger the attack area command with a target link from another MCU or a message
link from an object.
See an example in Create a Singleplayer Mission (pg. 33).

p.33
Create a Singleplayer Mission

The attack area command is object linked (green arrow) to the AI FW190 at the top left of
the View Port. From the AI FW190, an OnPlaneTookOff event message link (purple arrow)
connects to the attack area command. When the FW190 takes off, the OnPlaneTookOff
event message triggers the attack area command, causing the plane to fly towards the attack
area and start patrolling.

 

In my case I want an airborne Ju-52 w/paratroopers to jump over the target area.

So far I have;
* Mission Start MCU
* 2s START Timer linked to Mission Begin and first plane waypoint.
* Command Attack MCU over target area, 500m radius, Priority High, Attack Ground Targets checked, Time 10 minutes, linked to the plane.
* Enemy objects are in the attack area radius.

Plane flies route fine but over target does nothing and after leaving attack area at the next waypoint continues on route.

How do I send an event message to the Attack Area MCU to get the paras to exit over the target area? 

** Do I need an "On Report"  (p.224, 'Reference)?  Looking at and comprehending the explanation is a bit overwhelming in it's complexity at this point in my mission builder education.

Would a mission file help?

 

Thanks (yet again) in advance.

[Jaegermeister]

Try raising the altitude of the transports. They won't jump below a certain height. I don't remember exactly but it's over 500m

[Beebop]

Plane and all waypoints set at 1000 meters.  During playback the plane appears to be at and stay at that altitude.

[JimTM]

See this post.

[Stoopy]

Great and timely topic!

 

Coincidentally I spent pretty much all of this last weekend getting a formation flight of Ju52's to drop paratroopers and canisters over an airfield during a coordinated attack.  I had them set at 300m so they'd make a nice low drop and noticed that the lead Ju52 flew much lower than the other two in formation, yet nothing would drop from it either, so I thought it was an altitude-related problem, but reading the post at the link above has me wondering if it's the canisters not dropping (I have 4 different random configurations of Ju52 formations with different payloads for variety, so it' s quite opssible that lead Ju52 had canisters instead of troopers).

 

I also spent my time this morning editing the mission to add some debug messages event linked to the OnBingoBombs and OnBingoCargo events to see if the troopers and containers were considered bombs or cargo.    When I could have just looked here and read about it, go figure.  

 

You guys ever do that? Spend every second of your free time in the morning chewing on cereal and coffee while you make changes in the ME that you thought about making all night long, only to go rushing out the door in a hurry late for work?     ?

 

[Beebop]

7 hours ago, =[TIA]=Stoopy said:

...You guys ever do that? Spend every second of your free time in the morning chewing on cereal and coffee while you make changes in the ME that you thought about making all night long, only to go rushing out the door in a hurry late for work?     ?

 

All the time until I retired.  Now I "...Spend every second...in the morning chewing on cereal and coffee while (I) make changes in the ME that (I) thought about making all night long..." then I go back to bed and think about it some more.?

[Stoopy]

I spent more time playing with Ju52's last night - because really, what else is there to do in life - and confirmed a few things:

 

- A set drop altitude of 300m actually works just fine.  I might set it even lower, as I'm sure the paratroopers will appreciate getting down out of the AA kill zone more quickly.

- The issue I had with paratroopers not jumping from just the lead Ju52 (I am using formations of 2-4 aircraft) was that I had a low priority waypoint activated on the other side of the Attack Area command - the original intent was to use that as a "brute force" method to drag the Ju52's through the intended drop zone of the Attack Area MCU.  Apparently this had the effect that the lead plane had switched attention from the Attack Area command to flying to the next waypoint and focused only on that, while the planes following in formation still did their duty and dropped their cargo over the drop zone as they passed through it.  Once I disabled that next waypoint, all the planes including the flight leader executed their drops perfectly.  Stupidity on my part.  And once it works it's really a sight to behold.

- For level bombing and dropping parachutes, it seems that AI planes tend to focus on the exact center the Attack Area MCU circle for when to begin their bomb runs or para drops.  They don't start at the beginning of the area as they fly into it, and these are sizeable areas, 1200m radius and such.  As a result, bombs are more likely to fall only on the last half of the intended area, minimizing damage, and the last paratroopers out the door of the Ju52 will likely land well outside the intended drop zone, out in the farmland where they may be in danger of being indefinitely detained by a local nunnery or girl's finishing school.  So careful placement of the center of the Attack Area MCU is needed.  

- Having disabled the egress waypoint, the next question was  how to activate it again by tying to an appropriate event trigger.  Going on the basis of  Pransgter's sample mission in the other post linked above, I got curious and tested links to an MCU subtitle message from the events "OnBingoBombs" and "OnBingoCargo" and found that the OnBingoCargo always triggers (or at least, it triggers after the OnBingoBombs, and the subtitle text is displayed every time) - and seems to do so quite reliably, so I'm sticking with that event since it's prolly just good karma anyway to not treat my paratroopers like bombs.   Just mentioning it in case anyone has trouble using the OnBingoBombs event. 

 

 

Edited December 31, 2019 by =[TIA]=Stoopy