[Me Myself and Pi]

Is it possible to modify Zero Hour so that structures can be built in water for a certain map? I'm asking this on behalf of a member from cncgeneralsworld & I thought I would bring this question to you guys. This guys has a map & he's given it a rain affect & has put puddles everywhere. He doesn't want this to affect the course of the game so he wants to have vehicle to pass through it & structures to build over them. We've got the vehicles to pass through but we can't find anywhere in the INI files where we can change this for structures.

[beng]

As far as i know you cannot have structures be built on water. You can build them on land and have them move to water, and you can OCL them in water, but you cannot build them on water (or even on sloping or bumpy land).

[beng]

What you can do is make the structures mobile (add PhysicsBehavior, AIUpdateInterface, Locomotor) and have BuildCompletion - APPEARS_AT_RALLY_POINT, and make them KindOf = PORTABLE_STRUCTURE instead of STRUCTURE IMMOBILE.

Then change the command buttons for building them to UNIT_BUILD instead of DOZER_CONSTRUCT, and add ProductionUpdate and DefaultProductionExit to the dozer, so the dozer becomes like a war factory and your structures become vehicles it builds.

You can then have the dozer build the structure anywhere the dozer is (like if it can move on water). Then you can give the structures a locomotor upgrade to None which also upgrades their command set to be able to build things so they stop moving and behave like static factories again when upgraded.

[malaitotoro]

..Then you can give the structures a locomotor upgrade to None which also upgrades their command set ...

or maybe (is it possible ?) replace it with another structure after it was built like the code for GLASneakAttackTunnelNetwork.

[BlueLightning2K6]

Originally Posted by beng

As far as i know you cannot have structures be built on water. You can build them on land and have them move to water, and you can OCL them in water, but you cannot build them on water (or even on sloping or bumpy land).

Can't you just make the dozer/worker able to move on water by giving it the amphibious locomotor setting? The naval structure might only be built near the shore of the player's base.
I guess you could somehow undeploy the building on land into a vehicle and drive it into the water, then deploy again in water. However, I've never seen a unit turn into a structure in Generals (it does happen in the other C&C games).

[beng]

Making dozer move on water is not the problem, the problem is that buildings are not allowed to be placed on water or even bumpy ground by the command DOZER_CONSTRUCT which is used by the command buttons to build buildings. You can build units like vehicles on water, so i was suggesting you make the buildings into vehicles so the dozer can make them, then upgrade them to make them behave like buildings.

As for the idea of making the building on land and moving it to water and then making it stationary again, this is possible and is what i use in my naval map.ini to make the shipyard building. But the map with lots of puddles everywehre does not have enough dry land so this may not work for that map.

[Mere_Mortal]

I think another method that was used for naval structures was to make the geometry rather small whilst the actual model is larger, basically allowing the factory exit bone to be within water when placed on land, assuming it's orientated correctly when placed (else naval units will be spawned on land and won't be able to move). I'm sure this will of course affect collisions, so I can see it being buggy.

[beng]

You have a good idea there. It is not the geometery that you need to play with but the exit bones and the exit and rally point coordinates in the ProductionExit behavior. The exit (and docking) bones are used for when something is repaired inside the building and on finishing being repaired, it exits the building.

The Production exit behaviors control where objects that are newly built appear, and where they go to. It is easy to define it so the object appears some distance from the building, it does not have to be inside the building geommetery. The only drawback with this method is that it does not look so nice to have an object suddenly appear some distance away from the building - it does not look like it was built in the building.

But this is really a method for having, say, a naval boat factory, build ships on water. The original post in this thread is about a different problem, that of building buildings, on a map where there are a lot of puddles of water. Since i know of no way to use DOZER_CONSTRUCT command buttons on water, the buildings will have to be built as mobile buildings, which can move onto the water after having been built on dry land, or they will have to be built by means of OCLs that can place them anywhere.

[beng]

For an example of the method of building buildings on land that can then move out onto water, see the floating naval shipyard in my navalised map.ini :
Beng's Naval Mod Map.ini for Zero Hour - CnCMaps Map Editing Forums

Basically the shipyard object has physicsbehavior, AIupdateInterface, and Locomotor, enabling it to move. It's locomotor set NORMAL includes an amphibious locomotor and it's Draw module calls particle effects to make ripples and wakes when it is MOVING OVER_WATER. After beiing built on land it can be moved to water, and then i made it such that an upgraded is needed to give it the command set to build boats, and the same upgrade triggers a locomotorsetupgrade which makes it no longer able to move, thus fixing it in position. This is not necessary for functionality as it can build units whilst on the move, but i did this to make it easier for enemy players to target your shipyard (since it can't run away), otherwise it becomes hard to play against people who have moving buildings.

[beng]

For an example of how structures can be built on water using UNIT_BUILD comand buttons by a worker who has ProductionUpdate and DefaultProductionExitUpdate modules, see the map.ini in my unfinished Admiral's Challenge map:
Build time/cost - CnCMaps Map Editing Forums

This is a single player mission for Generals (not Zero Hour). You can build a swimming worker and that worker can build demo traps in the water. He uses the method mentioned above, so that the demo traps are not made using DOZER_CONSTRUCT but UNIT_BUILD, which uses not the workerAI but the ProductionUpdate and DefaultProductionExitUpdate (like a barracks or war factory).