RACS Chinook not following Get Out Waypoint, Help plz Options

[Sniper_Ghost]

I'm doing a mission with two bases,

Base A = Small AA/beach defence

Base B + A large Artillery encampment, further inland

The idea is that once Base A is taken out by a small Spec-Ops squad, a helicopter strikeforce arrives and lands troops which assault Base B, calling in airstrikes, armoured support etc...

I have five helicopters on the small island south of Cayo, 3 RAC Pumas and 2 RAC Chinooks.

Each individual helicopter has the following waypoints: 'Load'(synchronised with a seperate squad 'Get In' Waypoint) , Move(synchronised with a Trigger that activates once 'Base A' has been neutralised) and a 'Transport Unload' Waypoint connected to an invisible helipad near 'Base A'

The Pumas follow thier waypoints perfectly, once activated by the trigger they land in the right location and unload troops.
Frustratingly however, once the Chinooks are activated by the Trigger they fly past the landing zone without stopping and begin attacking 'Base B', without unloading thier troops and then getting shot down.

I think this probably has something to do with the RAC Chinook but i don't know, can this be solved???

Addons used: Project RACS Team Units, i.e Chinook & Puma.

thanks for reading this really long explanation, hope it explanis everything.

This post has been edited by Sniper_Ghost: Dec 1 2008, 21:06

Reason for edit: Proper title given

[Toadball]

Anything you use for transporting troops should use a Transport Unload/Unload way point, not a get out way point to unload its troops. This may be the issue here, as afaik it is very unlikely for an addon to ignore way points.
To elaborate:
by giving it a get out waypoint, you are telling the chopper crew to get out, not the cargo. Now as you have a waypoint after this for, lets say seek and destroy the AI will take this into account when they arrive at the "Get Out" way point and basically ignore the landing and getting out part and proceed to their next way point.
With Unload or Transport Unload you are telling the chopper to go to the waypoint and unload its cargo and not move on from that point until all the cargo is out of the chopper. using the AssignAsCargo command on the respective chopper's cargo tends to help this.

[Sniper_Ghost]

Thanks for the reply, ill try it.

[Supr3me KiLL3r]

I had this same problem using MI-17's.

Three MI-17's were supposed to land on rahmadi and drop off a squad each, then leave while the squad clears the island.

But almost every time, 1 or 2 would land, and the rest would fly in circles around the island firing their door mounted PKT's at everything and getting shot down, never unloading their cargo. TRANSPORT UNLOAD and UNLOAD waypoints won't fix that all the time.

I wrote a script to get around that. It forces the helicopters to land (quickly) and wait until the cargo is out before it can take off and move again. Its by no means perfect, but I found no alternative. If you must land the helicopters fast, then use this.

Add a waypoint for the helicopters where you want them to land and put this in the activation box
[group, helicopter] exec "heliland.sqs"

CODE

;heliland.sqs
_group = _this select 0
_vehicle= _this select 1


#heliland
_v = Velocity _vehicle
_vehicle setVelocity  [((_v select 0) / 1.001), ((_v select 1) / 1.001), -6]
~0.01
?getPos _vehicle select 2 > 10: goto "heliland"
?getPos _vehicle select 2 <= 10: goto "heliland2"
#heliland2
_v = Velocity _vehicle
_vehicle setVelocity  [((_v select 0) / 1.001), ((_v select 1) / 1.001), -3]
~0.01
?getPos _vehicle select 2 > 1: goto "heliland2"
?getPos _vehicle select 2 <= 1:[_group,_vehicle] exec "getout.sqs"
?getPos _vehicle select 2 <= 1: goto "heliland3"

#heliland3
_v = Velocity _vehicle
_vehicle setVelocity  [((_v select 0) / 1.001), ((_v select 1) / 1.001), -0.5]
~0.01
?({vehicle _x == _vehicle} count units (_group) <= 0 ): exit
?getPos _vehicle select 2 <= 1: goto "heliland3"

CODE

;getout.sqs
_Group = _this select 0
_Vehicle = _this select 1

_listunits = units _Group

_A = 0
_B = count _listunits
#KEEPSENDING
_listunits select _A action ["EJECT", _vehicle]
Unassignvehicle (_listunits select _A)
_A=_A+1
~1
?_B >_A:goto "KEEPSENDING"

[Toadball]

hmm I'll have to give that one a try m'self, I've avoided using scripts to modify heli behaviour since a nasty incident invloving a black hawk spinning in circles for a while...

[Sniper_Ghost]

I had this same problem using MI-17's.

Three MI-17's were supposed to land on rahmadi and drop off a squad each, then leave while the squad clears the island.

But almost every time, 1 or 2 would land, and the rest would fly in circles around the island firing their door mounted PKT's at everything and getting shot down, never unloading their cargo. TRANSPORT UNLOAD and UNLOAD waypoints won't fix that all the time.

I wrote a script to get around that. It forces the helicopters to land (quickly) and wait until the cargo is out before it can take off and move again. Its by no means perfect, but I found no alternative. If you must land the helicopters fast, then use this.

Add a waypoint for the helicopters where you want them to land and put this in the activation box
[group, helicopter] exec "heliland.sqs"

CODE

;heliland.sqs
_group = _this select 0
_vehicle= _this select 1
#heliland
_v = Velocity _vehicle
_vehicle setVelocity  [((_v select 0) / 1.001), ((_v select 1) / 1.001), -6]
~0.01
?getPos _vehicle select 2 > 10: goto "heliland"
?getPos _vehicle select 2 <= 10: goto "heliland2"
#heliland2
_v = Velocity _vehicle
_vehicle setVelocity  [((_v select 0) / 1.001), ((_v select 1) / 1.001), -3]
~0.01
?getPos _vehicle select 2 > 1: goto "heliland2"
?getPos _vehicle select 2 <= 1:[_group,_vehicle] exec "getout.sqs"
?getPos _vehicle select 2 <= 1: goto "heliland3"

#heliland3
_v = Velocity _vehicle
_vehicle setVelocity  [((_v select 0) / 1.001), ((_v select 1) / 1.001), -0.5]
~0.01
?({vehicle _x == _vehicle} count units (_group) <= 0 ): exit
?getPos _vehicle select 2 <= 1: goto "heliland3"

CODE

;getout.sqs
_Group = _this select 0
_Vehicle = _this select 1

_listunits = units _Group

_A = 0
_B = count _listunits
#KEEPSENDING
_listunits select _A action ["EJECT", _vehicle]
Unassignvehicle (_listunits select _A)
_A=_A+1
~1
?_B >_A:goto "KEEPSENDING"

I feel such a noob for asking this but...how do i use this??

I've really only just started using scripts like addWeapons etc, still haven't quite mastered the basics, still don't seem to be able to add grenades to a unit, but thats for another topic....

To JynX: I changed the 'Get Out' Waypoints to 'Transport Unload', plus added dimissed waypoints to each helicopter. Result = Pumas Perfect, Chinooks same problem!!!!

Changed 'Transport Unload' Waypoints to 'Unload'. Result = Pumas arrive, don't unload troops and fly off. Chinooks....No Change (sigh), any more suggestions? at this rate i'll just rreplace the Chinooks with Pumas.

Oh and another little problem i'm using the 'this setflyingheight' command, the pumas once again work fine keeping close to the ground whilst flying in....whereas the Chinooks continue at normal height.

This post has been edited by Sniper_Ghost: Dec 1 2008, 15:22

[Toadball]

Well if my way didn't work I presume Killer's solution has some grounds for sucess so here's how to do it:

1) In note pad copy & paste the text from the first code box.
2) Save it as: heliland.sqs (make sure the file type drop down menu thing [...Not sure what the technical term is for it] is set to "Any") in the mission folder
Eg: mine would be: C:/<route to my documents>/ArmA Other Profiles/ToadBall/Missions/<mission name>.<island name> you'll know it when you see it.
3) repeat steps 1 & 2 for the second code box this time saving it as getout.sqs

4)Having put these two scripts into your mission folder now load up arma and load up your mission for editing
5) Edit the activation field of the waypoint where the chopper is to unload its cargo, you should put: [group, helicopter] exec "heliland.sqs" in the activation field.

Where group = the name of the group in cargo and helicopter = the name of the helicopter

for naming the group your best just naming the squad leader something like s1 and instead of doing group in the exec line use: group s1.

[Sniper_Ghost]

Thanks JynX, but.....I tried it and it didn't work. I think I followed your instructions correctly, the chinooks still ignored the 'Transport Unload' waypoint.
However I then removed all ammo from the Chinooks which seemed to solve the problem, though now another one has cropped up (sigh) Despite using invisible helipads the five helicopters either take for ever to land or they collide with one another. I might just have to relocate my mission and redo it all. Thanks anyway guys, much appreciated!

This post has been edited by Sniper_Ghost: Dec 1 2008, 21:12

[Toadball]

If you look on OFPEC.com there is a helicopter colision avoidance script which should help you.