Dropship stuck in ground

[Chrispy]

Hi everyone, I'm Chrispy and new to these boards

I've been having trouble with getting a Dropship to spawn correctly in my map. I used this thread, and some links throughout it, to try and get a scenario running where a dropship would drop a squad of Combine on top of a building, and leave with the crate. Unfortunately the dropship spawns in the ground, only leaving and following its path when I destroy the crate its carrying with an RPG. I've meticulously followed the procedure set out in the thread & it appears that all the flags, I/O triggers, etc. are correct. I've also tried moving around the dropship, the npc_template_maker, and the path_tracks in Hammer, but it still spawns into the ground. Does anyone know why it would do this?

Also, when I downloaded and ran a file I found in a tutorial, definately set up right (well as the thread & tutorial said to do it), the Dropship would spawn correctly & follow its path, but wouldn't let loose troops or drop the crate.

Help for these two problems would be greatly appreciated.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Make sure the entity its spawning at is well up and out of the way of other objects.

If your using the distance spawning (where it lets you set if something spawns near/far in a random location from spawn points) then make sure the distance doesn't end up letting it spawn inside anything.

Make sure its also set to move to the first path corner aswell, to get it on its way.

 

[Chrispy]

Would the entity it's spawning at be the npc_template_maker? If so, it's way up in the sky - but near a path_track and the dropship itself. It's also set to go to the path_corner - which is why it works perfectly once it gets unstuck (with a little help from an RPG).

Though I'm unfamiliar with distance spawning - can you explain that please?

 

[Chrispy]

Here's the .vmf, in case you wanted to look at it:

 

[Chrispy]

Ok, I kind of fixed it. For some reason the npc_template_maker was always trying to spawn the dropship on the ground directly beneath it. A wacky displacement brush thingy has fixed it - for now. But I still need some way of making the dropship spawn in the air, and not on the ground.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Would the entity it's spawning at be the npc_template_maker? If so, it's way up in the sky - but near a path_track and the dropship itself. It's also set to go to the path_corner - which is why it works perfectly once it gets unstuck (with a little help from an RPG).

Though I'm unfamiliar with distance spawning - can you explain that please?

well the distance spawning basically works with the region spawn points. So you can place a group of these points around your map, then tell it to either spawn npc's nearer or further away from the player, when he's looking or when he isn't (at the spawning area)

It basically just makes it seem more random/realistic instead of NPC's spawning from the same spot everytime. eg: a zombie mod would use it to have zombies spawning randomly in different area's nearer the player, so you'd never be entirely sure if something was behind a corner or not.

 

[Chrispy]

Yeah, I saw that, fiddled around with a bunch of options, and it didn't make a difference. I would have thought that the gunship would would spawn at the npc_template_maker's position. Thanks for the help though, Dark Elf

 

[The Dark Elf]

Yeah, I saw that, fiddled around with a bunch of options, and it didn't make a difference. I would have thought that the gunship would would spawn at the npc_template_maker's position. Thanks for the help though, Dark Elf

the gunship can spawn.. hmm.. ahhh! did you give the gunship a name? for when it spawns? maybe thats it, needs a name on spawn for it to work correctly.. I reckon the same goes for the dropship.

 

[Cunbelin]

I think what probably happened is that the ship itself was clear of the brush but the crate wasn't. I would guess that the template spawner doesn't take into account the crate, and it simple spawns the enemy within a certain radius of itself if you don't set a spawn target. Also it might relate to the "fall to ground" flag being set.

 

[Revenge]

Hang on... Are you using the template makers as spawn points? There is a separate entity to use as a spawn point, something like info_npc_spawn_location or something or rather...

Anyways, check that the "drop to ground" flag is checked in the dropship's flags. Flying units basically ignore physics, and therefore gravity too. If you have them set to drop to the ground, then they simply stay right where they are up there in the air. Unchecking this box will actually teleport them, forcing them down to the ground.

 

[Chrispy]

the gunship can spawn.. hmm.. ahhh! did you give the gunship a name? for when it spawns? maybe thats it, needs a name on spawn for it to work correctly.. I reckon the same goes for the dropship.

Whoa, sorry, meant dropship instead of gunship there.

I've changed the "Drop to Ground" flag on and off several times, given it a spawn destination (info_npc_spawn_location), changed the radius it can spawn in to one, given it a name, the spawn destination, dropship AND template maker are all way up in the air, and it still hasn't worked! The strange thing is, it worked fine for manhacks in a previous map, with npc_makers instead of npc_template_makers.

Temporary solution: When I made a platform directly under the template_maker, up to the height of the dropship, it spawned into that. So I managed to displacement map out of the platform a chunk where the crate would go. It works fine now, but it isn't exactly a subtle solution.

 

[Revenge]

Hmm well another possible work around solution would be to have it spawn elsewhere using the method you just described, then have it teleport to a path_track in the location you really want it to spawn in.

Or you could also physically place a dropship in an out of the way place on the map, make it wait at a path_track with a blank next stop target (put the teleport destination in as a branch path), and then when you want the dropship to come in you can use the path_track's ToggleAlternatePath / EnableAlternatePath inputs to make the alternative path active.