Getting dropships too..well..drop stuff

[Death.Trap]

Anyone know how to do this stuff? I was messing around with it after playing antlion_troopers. Can't figure it out =/

 

[The Dark Elf]

animation sequences, paths, triggers and I/O setups. To start with.

 

[Death.Trap]

animation sequences, paths, triggers and I/O setups. To start with.

*shivers*

Ok, I'm freaked out now.

 

[polypod]

seems like the mine dropping droids would be a good template..

 

[The Dark Elf]

*shivers*

Ok, I'm freaked out now.

Don't be, its much easier than it sounds.

eg: dropship flying in a line overhead and then landing and letting out some combine...

Dropship goes from point A to point B along a path. When it arrives at point B its triggered to play a specific animation sequence (landing) and to wait a certain number of seconds at point B.

When the sequence is done it fires off an instruction to spawn 5 combine with a 2 second interval at a specific point inside the box thingy it can carry. The npc spawner tells the new NPC's to walk to a path_corner node just infront of the transport (to clear them out of the way of it) at which point the AI takes over and they behave normally

When they've all been spawned, the npc spawning entity tells the dropship to play the takeoff animation, which is timed to fit when the dropships wait time is up, so it then moves onto the next point in its path, once its out of sight and you don't need it again you can have the last path node kill the dropship.

But yeah, its far far easier in practice than it is in text.

 

[Tynan]

Actually the combine have a special "jump off dropship" animation. I think there's more likely a built in system for this.

It's obviously possible. Might not be easy.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Actually the combine have a special "jump off dropship" animation. I think there's more likely a built in system for this.

It's obviously possible. Might not be easy.

use that sequence for them then.

 

[Death.Trap]

Don't be, its much easier than it sounds.

eg: dropship flying in a line overhead and then landing and letting out some combine...

Dropship goes from point A to point B along a path. When it arrives at point B its triggered to play a specific animation sequence (landing) and to wait a certain number of seconds at point B.

When the sequence is done it fires off an instruction to spawn 5 combine with a 2 second interval at a specific point inside the box thingy it can carry. The npc spawner tells the new NPC's to walk to a path_corner node just infront of the transport (to clear them out of the way of it) at which point the AI takes over and they behave normally

When they've all been spawned, the npc spawning entity tells the dropship to play the takeoff animation, which is timed to fit when the dropships wait time is up, so it then moves onto the next point in its path, once its out of sight and you don't need it again you can have the last path node kill the dropship.

But yeah, its far far easier in practice than it is in text.

Awesome, I'm gonna work at that right now. Thanks for the help TDE.
:cheers:

 

[dart321]

Yeah man, you have a talent for explaining things.

 

[Death.Trap]

Hmmm, I can get it to fly to the path_track just above the ground. But I can't find any input that would make it land.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Hmmm, I can get it to fly to the path_track just above the ground. But I can't find any input that would make it land.

I'll try have a go myself if I get the time today (I haven't tried it, just assuming it had animation sequences lol)

 

[The Dark Elf]

Ok well apparantly its much easier. Just make sure you've got template NPC's for it to drop off, tell it what its land target is. What its carrying (can get them to easily drop striders too)


One thing I've noticed though when it drops a strider, it seems a bit iffy, as in the strider moving around is very jerky.. I dunno if its something my end or not, regular striders don't do it.

 

[Cunbelin]

Well since there's a request let me explain how I got mine working.

I do admit some things I mention here may not be needed but I take a if it ain't broke don't fix it attitude. Also I've not tried dropping striders or APC's only soldiers. To start off with you need to make your dropship squad, they have to be of npc_combine_s type (metropolice have an unusual bug where they fall through brushes, though maybe you'll have better luck than I have). There are two things you have to do, first they all need to be named something different and you need to go into flags and check Template NPC.

Next I'd make the path you want the dropship to follow, you don't have to make the path go directly to the landing point you want but it does help to have it near to it. To make the path create path_track entities, then name them and link them together. Make sure that the path starts somewhere that will be out of view of the player and is in plain view of where the dropship will start.

Next we need to make a landing point, for this I like using an info_target entity, put the landing point on the ground where you want the dropship to land, name it, and make sure the facing is what you want. Next make six info_targets each named uniquely, these are the dustoff points for the soldiers (assuming you are using six total, if you have less then you need less dustoff points). Don't forget to drop info_node entities as well, or the enemies will just stay still. We also need to add some info_node_air entities around the path, this will allow the dropship to fly back to where it came from.

Now you need to make the dropship, name it whatever you want, the first thing you need to do is set the "Target path_track" to the first path_track entity in our path. Next I like to set the sleep state to "waiting for input", that makes it so I decide when to activate it. Next I need to set the Land target name to my landing point. Then I need to set the NPC templates I want to use to jump out of the ship. Remember these all need to be different names, with that done set the dustoff points for each of the npc's. The last setting we need to change is the crate type, change it to Soldier Crate. You may want to change the invulnerable setting to yes (I haven't tested but I believe this refers to the crate as I can't seem to harm the dropship itself no matter what). Also I need to go into the flags and check "Await Input" or the player will probably be able to hear the dropship.

Now we need to setup the scripting to get the dropship to work, for my example map I'm using a trigger volume but you can use whatever you want. I generally just use time delay on the trigger you can change it however you like so that multiple triggers work.

First, since it should be asleep we need to Activate (not "Wake", "Activate") the dropship, no delay here just right on trigger. Next we need to send the dropship to the last path_track entity before the landing point using the FlyToTrackViaPath input, I have a 2 second delay on this. Finally we need to use LandTakeCrate on the dropship with an input of how many NPC's to drop, I have that on a 10 second delay.

The delays you use are going to be dependent upon how far your dropship has to go, when you use the LandTakeCrate the dropship will make straight for the landing point no matter what is in it's way so it needs to be within clear sight for this to work properly.

Now we have to set some outputs for the dropship itself to itself, both are going to be triggered by the "OnFinishedDropoff" output. The first one is a "FlyToSpecificTrackViaPath" it should target a path_track out of sight of the player, the second one is to kill the dropship and for mine I found a delay of 15 was fine. You will have to figure out your own delays.

That should do it, it's possible to re-use the same dropship, but I couldn't get it to stop making noise except to kill it. Also you would have to add new NPC templates with different names, if a dropship has two NPC templates with the same name, the first one to jump out will be teleported back into the crate when the second one jumps out. Another note it may be possible to have two separate paths one incoming and one outgoing for the dropship you just have to remember the first path_track entity has to be visible to the dropship. It may also be possible to just use info_node_air and some scattered individual path_track points, but I haven't tested it.

The example map should fill in any holes I left, if you are playing it just step on the platform and the dropship will activate.

 

[Death.Trap]

Wow, thanks Cunbelin. Nice.



Ya TDE, I can get mine to drop off striders and such, and I see what you mean.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Wow, thanks Cunbelin. Nice.



Ya TDE, I can get mine to drop off striders and such, and I see what you mean.

I wonder, is there a part in HL2 you actually see it drop a strider? I know a few times you see them heading overhead carrying one. Can't remember if you actually see one drop or if it goes behind buildings and then you happen to see one appear shortly after.

I didn't use a path for the strider it dropped though, so maybe adding a path fixes the jerkiness?

 

[Death.Trap]

I wonder, is there a part in HL2 you actually see it drop a strider? I know a few times you see them heading overhead carrying one. Can't remember if you actually see one drop or if it goes behind buildings and then you happen to see one appear shortly after.

I didn't use a path for the strider it dropped though, so maybe adding a path fixes the jerkiness?

But how do you set a non exsistatnt strider(in hammer) to follow a path?

And I think I saw a strider get dropped off in front of that one building...with the suppression thing on top of it,