Dissapearing Debris

[AZ-Stalker 88]

Any destroyed vehicle hulls I place in the World Builder don't show up in game (I think they act lice freshly destroyed vehicles and "fall" down out of the map almost instantly). I've tried making them indestructable and switching their ownership (plyrcivilian/neutral/AI/player...) but they just wont stay on map. I need them to stay permanently. Scorch marks stay, but the hulls vanish. Any ideas? Do I need to enable them to stay on the map via scripting or something?

 

[Guest Rabbit]

I really don't think you can make them stay.

 

When a unit is destroyed, it is temporarily replaced with the hull, and the sole purpose of the hull is to sink into the ground after a few moments.

 

The only workaround I can think of is if you create a new unit that is a normal unit (that doesn't sink and sits stationary), and somehow link the art models to that unit.

[Plok 327]

The only workaround I can think of is if you create a new unit that is a normal unit (that doesn't sink and sits stationary), and somehow link the art models to that unit.

Then make it completely invincible and let the units transform to that unit when they're destroyed. But then you'll need to copy the entire Generals arsenal to do this.

[AZ-Stalker 88]

Should have known this would have been a long shot, since I don't remember any hulls being present in any campaign missions. Though I'm just messing around with my own singleplayer map, so modding isn't something I'd like to get into at the moment. Thanks for the help but I think I'll just work around it by replacing the hulls with severely damaged neutral vehicles (+ "unselectable" option). Should have thought of that a long time ago. *facepalms*

Edited September 17, 2012 by AZ-Stalker

[Guest Rabbit]

Alright, tooled around in TibEd, and figured out how to make it work in TibEd. I can't say the same about the worldbuilder.

 

With each hull, you need to make the following changes:

• In the SlowDeathBehavior module, you need to change Destruction Delay and Sink Delay to 9999999999
  
• In LifetimeUpdate module, change both the maximum and minimum lifetime to 9999999999
  
• In the PhysicsBehavior module, change the KillWhenRestingOnGround to No. This part might not be necessary, but it's one of the steps I took.
  

Doing these three things will give you the grey husks indefinitely. They will never disappear unless you play a game that takes 2777 hours.

 

Unfortunately, I don't know how to make these rule changes apply to maps individually. And if you don't, well, it looks like this will be a single-player only mod or one that you'll have to send to someone before playing with them.

[AZ-Stalker 88]

Good to know, thanks for the follow up info, but the problem of the dissapearing debris that was puzzling me at the time wasn't anything critical so I worked around it with similar techniques to the one described in my previous post. Nevertheless, it's good to know how it can be done. A shame it's not an option without modding the actual game though.

[Nmenth 291]

They will never disappear unless you play a game that takes 2777 hours.

When you can turtle as well as I, you'll start calling that a quick match.

[Plok 327]

A shame it's not an option without modding the actual game though.

Not necessarily. If you open MapsZH.big in your Zero Hour directory, you can see that certain maps have their own .ini file which can be modified in the same manner as the game files themselves. Just put "Object yaddayaddayadda" and ONLY the strings that you want to CHANGE. Hope this helps.

Edited September 28, 2012 by Plokite_Wolf