Random unit placement ?

[Hawk66]

Hi,

I've just started to play a little with the editor. It seems, that there is no possibility to randomize unit placement or the availability of units at all...or do I have overlooked sth?

[Field Marshal Blücher]

The way to have random unit placement is to go to the AI page, select a group, and draw areas on the map for the units to set up in. Make sure that you have a Setup Zone drawn over that area, and also make sure that the units are placed in that setup zone. The AI will randomly distribute itself.

There is, however, no possibility to randomize the availability of units that I'm aware of.

[Hawk66]

Thanks, this was helpful!

[LongLeftFlank]

Oh, this is tangential, but worth remembering. If you place units then resize your map, the position of your units will change.

Vehicles will appear inside buildings, and will move through them as if they weren't there if you start playing the game. Guys on higher storeys will be seen floating in the air like Canada Geese.

[SgtMuhammed]

You can create randome mine fields as well. Make the mines a group and then sprinkle AI setup spaces over the area you want the mines to be in. When the scenario starts the computer will scatter them about.

[Chelco]

The way to have random unit placement is to go to the AI page, select a group, and draw areas on the map for the units to set up in. Make sure that you have a Setup Zone drawn over that area, and also make sure that the units are placed in that setup zone. The AI will randomly distribute itself.

Hi FMB,

The last time I tried, the AI will always put units in the same spots every time the scenario is re-started.

[Field Marshal Blücher]

I have definitely noticed randomization with that; I don't know why it doesn't work for you.

[Chelco]

FMB,

I tried a time ago, but no avail. I wanted to create a MOUT scenario where enemy combatants would appear in different buildings every time the scenario was started. Never got it to work as I wanted (groups would appear in the same building every time I started the mission). I will try again when the module is released. Thanks,

[Field Marshal Blücher]

Would they all appear in the exact same buildings every time? I've noticed that sometimes the AI does tend to favor a particular building.

[Chelco]

Yes they would. I even tried a flat, billiard table map with three setup zones and just one group: they would always choose one setup zone.

Give some time to have a second look at it. I'm glad you say you can make it work. This randomization thing adds a lot of replayability to the scenarios.

[Field Marshal Blücher]

Are the setup zones the same one (e.g. Red Setup Zone 1) spread out over three areas or are they three different setup zones? If the latter, you need to make the setup zone the same one spread out over different areas.

[Chelco]

Hi FMB,

Sorry for the confusion.

I painted a big, all-covering red setup area in the map, and then I went to the AI menu, select a group of troops and gave setup/deploy orders (the yellow ones) to this group. The yellow setup orders were 4 or 5 non-contiguous square areas inside buildings, and within the big red setup area.

I ran the scenario several times, and the guys would appear always in one of the 4/5 squares.

[Field Marshal Blücher]

Hmm. That seems very strange; I don't know what's wrong.

[missinginreality]

I had a little look see at this for my own curosity too and for reference:

[Assuming blue-human v red-ai]

If you're not planning on a RED human player don't paint any RED set up zones from the MAP EDITOR window.

If you want to specifically place RED units in a starting position place them by hand in the DEPLOY UNITS section of the UNITS editor and do NOT assign them an AI SETUP ZONE from the AI EDITOR window.[However as long as you assign them a AI group you can give them further AI orders without having to paint a set-up zone. They will begin from where you manually placed them]

If you want to have the AI decide where to put the Red units, assign the unit an AI group using the F1 - F8 keys.

Paint an AI SETUP zone from the AI EDITOR window.

As has mentioned previously in another thread, painting squares that include buildings and outside buildings the AI will put units outside builidngs. If you want AI to use a set-up zone inside a building make sure it is fully in the building only.

The AI SetUp Zone needs to be large enough to encompass all the units assigned [from the manual]