NPC to PC back to NPC with WP's

[Max-Violence]

OK, I've been trying since DD3 to get squad members, who were NPCs at one point during the map, BACK to an NPC and make 'em walk a waypointed path.

I've tried everything I can think of to make it work, and it should, but it just won't. I can get normal NPCs to start stationary/WP'd then change to WP's or a different set of WP's, but I just dunno why a PC that goes back to an NPC can't use waypoints!

If anyone can help me out, I'd be most appreciative...

[OnTheBounce]

I don't see why it would present a problem, unless we're up against some sort of funky bug in the AI. (Sort of like the issue of not being able to set the Sentry Mode for NPCs that join the player's squad until you've Quick Saved.)

All you should have to do is to have the NPC change to Player Index 1, then back to some other Player Index, and then set up a trigger to change the AI for that Player Index to Waypoints or Random Waypoints.

Are you simply changing the NPCs team to an Index that has its AI already set to Waypoints? If so, you might try inserting a trigger to set the Player Index to Waypoints from a previous setting of Stationary.

I hope this helps,

OTB

[Max-Violence]

Here's exactly what I do:

Set up a player index - lets say PI 2 is Billy-NPC1

Controller: Stationary

Set up another PI - PI 3 is Billy-NPC2

Controller: Waypoints

Move target Tag: Billy-NPC2_WP

Trigger:

C:

Whatever, blah blah blah blaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh etc. etc etc.

A:

Change unit Billy's player index to Human

Then, later on:

C:

Wizzle wuzzle?

A:

Change uint Billy's player index to Billy-NPC2

That should be enough, right? Well, I've also tried (IIRC) putting in a Set Player Move state - Waypoint action as well, still don't work.

And yes, I'm sure I set up the waypoints themselves properly (thanks to the miracle of Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V)

Maybe it is a bug in the game... won't be the first time

Oh well... there's another thing that can be improved for FOT2, right? ...Right?

[OnTheBounce]

Yes, it should work that way. I can only say to try what I suggested, namely to set that second PI to Waypoints after the NPC has changed from Human to Computer control and make sure to make use of Blocking.

If that doesn't work...I suppose you might try a clone work-around...

OTB

[Max-Violence]

With or without Blocking, it don't work.

Clone work-around? Oh, joy...

Two possible problems with that:

1) Making it look somewhat realistic, or

2) Making it look at least remotely realistic.

All of this working around bugs makes me glad I'm taking programming classes

Although a simple add/subtract/multiply/divide calclulator isn't quite a computer game, it's a start!

[Section8]

It's entirely possible that there is a bug in the code that affects reinitialising of the AI when the entity changes from human to computer control, I might have a play around and see what I can discover.

[Flamescreen]

Wow, we're having a MicroForte personel member visitor!

[Jimmyjay86]

MV said:

Wizzle wuzzle?

Aha! There's your problem...

Do the clone, I don't think it looks unrealistic. Has anyone tried to open up Tactics with Hex Workshop to see if there is an way to make changes to any of these sticking points we are running across?

[OnTheBounce]

Two possible problems with that:

1) Making it look somewhat realistic, or

2) Making it look at least remotely realistic.

Yes, I thought about it after I posted and you'll run into the problem of having your NPC at one point, and then having the clone activated at another. That would look like shite and probably confuse some people. The only thing I can think of is to make the zone that they have to be delivered to very small, perhaps a bottleneck in a hallway or something.

Section 8: If you can help us out here...well, I'll volunteer Max to be the bearer of your children.

OTB

[Max-Violence]

I'll volunteer Max to be the bearer of your children

Uh... did I miss something?

But yea, if you can help us out here... I'll volunteer JJ86 to be the bearer of OTB's children.

Er something...

[Section8]

Wow, we're having a MicroForte personel member visitor!

I've been supposed to do this for ages (with a dormant hosted site on the old gamespy server ) but I've always been too busy, and spending too much time of the vault13 forums (where there's basically nothing going on in the mapping forums)

As far as solutions, I tried AI -> Human -> AI and couldn't persuade it to do anything. Cloning is ugly, and the best workaround I can think of (without digging into deeply into even uglier solutions) is to have the NPC leave "between maps," so to speak, and spawn the clone at the start of the next map, and possibly force some speech, which avoids any positional problems for the clone, but may require some design overhaul if the map separation doesn't help your original idea. Plus there's always going to be issues with the inventory of the NPC (which could be done with the biggest, dirtiest workaround you've ever seen )

[Max-Violence]

Yer right - that solution is pretty f'n ugly.

Technically, my map's design could allow for that solution to work OK, but my God, the ugliness factor would jump up tenfold.

Thanks for the input, though. It's good to know that I'm not the only one who can't get something to work 8O