[Thrud]

i've seen mods that can make contrails stay longer and craters stay longer, but if we had a mod that could keep a bailed out pilot from disappearing too soon, we could rescue him.

example: an A-20 ditches in the water, you bail out and have maybe 1 or 2 life rafts and a pilot bobbing in the water. our server software reads the log file and records the X/Y location of the ditch. If we land a PBY at those coordinates (with in a radius) it can be recoreded as a rescue and add 1 more pilot to the pilot count.

the problem is the pilots disappear before the rescue plane can arrive. With the pilot gone, we can't see where to land or where the rescue should take place.

can this be done?

[Guest]

I like it... :wink:

[_-JARMOPOWER-_]

Good idea :wink:

[Guest]

...maybe the guys in the lifejackets can be assigned a 'timeout' function, so that in a rescue mission, you would have a certain time to find the guy before he becomes sharkmeat.... :lol:

[Potenz]

+1 in offline carreer you have missions when you have to search for a missing pilot and the pilot is there in the water all the mission, must be as an object in FMB, if we can give that property to the plane pilot when it's crash must to be there for the whole mission.

Potenz

[Thrud]

does any one have some leeds on people to ask or places to look?

[RAF_Leigh]

it would be a code you would have to make wouldnt it?

sound good

[Thrud]

it should be as simple as changing the time out/durration value. it was done on another mod for craters and contrails. it's just sifting thru the code to find it.

[Thrud]

[BH_Blue]

Thrud, you can say that again

I like this idea, it would be excellent if somehow it could be implemented into the upcoming 4.09 ded server.

[WWSandMan]

I don't know how to dig about within the code to find what's needed, but I did find these tidbits that may help:

The file "fb_3do08p.sfs" contains the following folder of interest:

• ...\3do\humans\Paratroopers\Water\

... with the following sub-folders:

• \JN_Jacket
  
  \US_Dinghy
  
  \US_Jacket

I haven't figured out (or bothered to look) how to open/edit the "Body.msh" files, but I think that file may hold the key. The .msh files are not text files and may require a hex editor.

I also haven't found the rest of the "Paratroopers\Water" listings (if they exist) for the other nationalities.

Hope this helps a little. In the mean time, I'll look for more nationality's "humans\Paratrooper\Water\" folders.

[WWSandMan]

More "...\3do\humans\Paratroopers\Water\" folders found in these files:

fb_3do.sfs (Germany and Russia)

fb_3do09p.sfs (more US)

[Bearcat]

I believe US dinghy is the US pilot in the dinghy.. You would have to find a way to set rescue as an objective.. perhaps like a varient of the recon objective.. and you would have to find a way to make the pilots disappear once the seaplane got near them.. and possibly assign points for picking them up, like say having them disappear when the seaplane gets within 10 feet.. and at say 50 points apiece or something... The PBYs would begreat for that..

Perhaps you could modify the load out and add rescue.. then when the plane gets near the pilot.. he hits the newly assigned key for rescue.. and each time he hits it.. one of the pilots gets picked up.. with say a limit near to what a PBY could carry with fuel & crew..

Just tossing out ideas on the subject..

[Thrud]

FBD and Gennadich can handle the rescue part. it can be done by reading the log file. the hard part is keeping that bailed out pilot from "despawning" long enough for a plane to find them. i remember many patches back they increased the time AI planes stayed "active" and not "despawning" because many people complained that it was an immersion killer to have the AI planes "despawn" after ending thier landing rollout.

this makes me wonder if it's a global value for all AI things or if there is a specific value. i'm leaning towards a global one otherwise you could have one type of plane linger longer than another.
Is the bailed out pilot an effect? if so there will be a timeout value like with the funeral fires, contrails, or craters.
If it's an AI routine, i wouldn't even know where to look.

[Thrud]

this is from the US_Dingy

[ClassInfo]
ClassName TMaterial
[General]
tfDoubleSide 0
tfShouldSort 0
tfDropShadow 0
tfGameTimer 1

i wonder what the tfGameTimer is?