3 - Intermediate Helipad Tutorial

[GeneralCamo]

Author: Jonwil, Generalcamo

Skill level: 3

 

 

This tutorial will show you how to make functional helipads and make the helicopters arrive to the helipad and link them to it instead of the War Factory.

 

Note: It will be totally separate from the weapons factory/airstrip in that you will be able to buy helicopters even if the war factory/airstrip is down and you will be able to buy ground vehicles if the helipad is down. You can even have someone buying a helicopter and someone else buying a ground vehicle at the same time.

 

 

1. Setting up the sidebar

Firstly, in order to use this functionality you need to be using the sidebar in your map.

Follow this tutorial (https://secure.w3dhub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=414727) to set up the sidebar.

You also require a scripts build that supports this feature. Copy its content to your game folder (not Data) and overwrite all.

Also copy ttle.dll, memorymanager.dll and shared.dll to your root LevelEdit folder, where LevelEdit.exe is sitting. Restart LE if it was running.

 

 

2. Prerequisites

You also need to include a helipad_cinematic.txt (you can give it a different name) file and xg_hd_htraj.w3d in your map mix file or always.dat.

 

Open the C&C_MyMap_tt.ini file you made in the sidebar tutorial and add the following:

VehicleFactoryVehicleLimit=10
AirFactoryVehicleLimit=6

If you want to set a global limit that applies to all maps, put these into tt.ini instead of the mapspecific ini file.

This sets the limit of the vehicles and helicopters players can buy, feel free to change these limits.

 

 

3. LevelEdit work

To set up the helipads, first you need to put a building on your map to act as the helipad. Create it like any other building (give it MCTs, PTs, damage aggregates and whatever else you want for it)

Then open leveledit and open your map.

 

 

3.1 Cinematic preset

Create a new preset underneath "simple". This will be the helipad fly-in cinematic object.

Untick the "DefaultHibernationEnable" checkbox. Tick the "NotTargetable" checkbox. Tick the "IsEditorObject" checkbox. Tick the "IsHiddenObject" checkbox. Leave all the other settings at the default.

 

Attach the script Test_Cinematic to this object and give it the parameter helipad_cinematic.txt

 

 

3.2 Landing object preset

Next, you need to create a landing position preset with whatever name you like. This will determine where the helicopters will fly in at and do nothing else.

You will need one preset for each team (the fly-in cinematic preset is used by both teams).

Make this one a copy of the Dave's Arrow preset with no changes to the settings and you are done. Now you should have the presets ready that can not be seen ingame but act as the landing position.

 

If you can't find a Dave's Arrow preset, don't panic. This preset is used to place objects in LevelEdit that do not appear ingame. You can make one by creating a simple object, DecorationPhysics type and the model is o_davesarrow.w3d. On the settings page, tick IsEditorObject, untick DefaultHibernationEnable and you are done.

 

 

3.3 Building preset

Next, go to buildings and then air factory. Create an instance of this (one for each team). If you dont see air factory in the list it means you dont have 4.1 installed properly.

 

Set this preset up as for any other building with all the usual settings and scripts you want.

Make sure to set the building type to "helipad"

 

Set LandingPosDistance to 1000

Set CinematicTimer to 14.0

Set CinematicSlotIndex to 4

Set Landing Position Object to the landing position object preset created earlier.

Set fly-in Cinematic Object to the fly-in cinematic object preset created earlier.

No special scripts are required for this building.

 

Once you have done this, place the helipad building controllers as per normal for buildings. Then place several (2 or 3 works good) of the landing position objects (for the right team) around the helipad at ground level. (these will determine where the helicopters land at).

 

You can't have more than one helipad per team, the logic doesn't support it.

 

Now you need to set up the war factory/airstrip to not build helicopters anymore and to have them be built at the helipad.

If you have helipads on an individual map, create temp presets of the war factory and airstrip (or if you are already using temp presets, open them). If you are making a full game, mod the normal presets. The only change you need to make is to tick the BuildGroundOnly checkbox.

 

 

4. Finishing touches

For all maps using the helipad, you need to tick the allow flying vehicles checkbox under edit-level settings in LE.
Note: this tickbox does not need ticking at all from scripts 5.0 onwards. 

Do not forget to set a proper flight roof (blocker) or the players will be able to fly out of the map.

[moonsense715]

Change: the Allow Flying Vehicles tickbox is obsolete from scripts 5.0 onwards and does not need ticking.