Mission Complete Goals

[aotino]

Here's a tricky one for all you Scenario Designers. How do you make a global goal work as a mission complete goal? My approach has been to trigger it by having the player finish a set of secondary goals. My problem has been how to set the start/finish time. Here's the example: I have a scenario I'm working on where there are a number of land targets on Guadalcanal. They have all been assigned as kill goals (secondary goals). They are all placed under a global goal (primary goal) in the goal precedent file, so that when they are all killed, the global goal should be triggered, thus sending out a message I've written stating in so many words that the "Mission Is Completed." The problem is dealing with the time assignment. In this case, all these land targets are part of a dynamic group that appears after a certain ship arrives at a destination goal. If I designate the start time of the global goal to happen before the dynamic group appears, then the global goal will think the secondary goals have been achieved (killed) when the global start time has arrived. Since the secondary goals have not yet appeared in the game, its the same as if they were killed and therefore you get the "mission complete." I understand this. However, if you set the start time for the global goal well after the land units are triggered to appear thru the destination goal, the global goal will still appear only at the moment the start time of the global goal arrives, whether all the land targets have been been destroyed or not. I don't know the solution, other than the fact that global goals don't work when used in conjunction with goals that are dependant on dynamic groups. Any thoughts anyone?

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Alan Caso
Team Member
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[Lancer]

I've noticed this effect for some time, it's definitely a bug within the hard code. Those objects that are meant to be killed and placed in a dynamic group to reappear at a later time for some reason becomes detached from its kill goal. Kill goals will only work when the object they are attached to immediately appears (100% chance inclusion) within the start of the sim.

[Mike D]

Wow, your right, it should work. But I've seen FC do some strange things with goals. If want get your scenario where you want it and then email it to me with a inscription of what its actually supposed to do and I can look at it.

[aotino]

Wow, your right, it should work. But I've seen FC do some strange things with goals. If want get your scenario where you want it and then email it to me with a inscription of what its actually supposed to do and I can look at it.

Mike,
I will email you a test scenario I've quickly put together which recreates the problem listed above. If I were to send you the custom scenario I've been making where I discovered this anomaly, you'd have to get into the game about 2 hours....not a pretty thing. The test scenario will faithfully demonstrate the problem. Thanks.

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Alan Caso
Team Member
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[aotino]

Mike,
I will email you a test scenario I've quickly put together which recreates the problem listed above. If I were to send you the custom scenario I've been making where I discovered this anomaly, you'd have to get into the game about 2 hours....not a pretty thing. The test scenario will faithfully demonstrate the problem. Thanks.

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Alan Caso
Team Member
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Mike,
Didi you ever check out the test scenario I sent you regarding this bug? Alan

[Mike D]

Mike,
Didi you ever check out the test scenario I sent you regarding this bug? Alan

Sorry no. Maybe next week. Send me an email and remind me.

[catmike]

Here's a tricky one for all you Scenario Designers. How do you make a global goal work as a mission complete goal? My approach has been to trigger it by having the player finish a set of secondary goals. My problem has been how to set the start/finish time.
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Just set the start and finish time the same:
Start: 00:00
End: 00:00

Because your "mission completed" goal is an "automatic goal" it will triggered correctly by settings you made in the "goal precedent" dialog.

[aotino]

Just set the start and finish time the same:
Start: 00:00
End: 00:00

Because your "mission completed" goal is an "automatic goal" it will triggered correctly by settings you made in the "goal precedent" dialog.

Hey Catmike, I tried that and that's not the answer. It doesn't trigger the goal. Still trying to figure it out. Thanks anyway. Alan Caso

[aotino]

Just set the start and finish time the same:
Start: 00:00
End: 00:00

Because your "mission completed" goal is an "automatic goal" it will triggered correctly by settings you made in the "goal precedent" dialog.

Catmike,
What happens in a test scenario I put together to test this is the following:
Blue has a carrier group with Harriers already in the air (courtesy of Spain for lending me a group for this test!) Red has an enemy ship arriving on station which triggers a base. (The test is designed so the ship always reaches it's station successfully.) The base consists of several land units which appear after the trigger. The Harriers must head to the base and destroy the land units. The land units have kill goals assigned to them. The goal in question is the global goal I have all the land units with their kill goals assigned under. This global goal is named "Mission Complete." Theoretically, when the land units are all destroyed, the "Mission Complete" goal should be triggered. This doesn't happen no matter what times I have set for start and finish. If I put 0.00 start and 0.00 finish as you suggested, "Mission Complete" just appears at the start of the game, because the land units haven't been create yet due to the time gap between the start of the game and when the enemy ship arrives on station to trigger their creation. At the beginning, the game doesn't know that the lands units have yet to be created. It only knows that they don't exist on the map yet - hence, "Mission Complete." That's the dilemma. If you would like me to send you the test, send me your email, and I'll send it to you. Anyone else reading this, I would love to know if this is an anomaly with the game engine. Thanks. Alan Caso email - otino@roadrunner.com

[Lancer]

Just as I stated above, it is a bug in the hard code. If you want certain units included within a kill goal structure, they must appear at 100% chance inclusion. It will not work with units in a dynamic group, regardless of probability inclusion (except 100%) or varied goal settings.