[Rulke]

I'm sorry if I put my idea across badly, I know that crates can not be put in transports, but I was concerned about what it would appear like in-game. What I would do is make a truck that deploys into an invisible building with CrateBeneath=yes and CrateBeneathIsCash=yes, that has an ActiveAnim with a damage value and Strength=1, so upon deploying the tank would change into a crate. Whereas Your idea was that upon deploying the chopper would turn into a crate with bars round it, that would be shot at to have a crate appear.

If this was to be done physically it would be more accurate to have a chopper that would come down, drop off a crate for them to pick up, then fly off again, this time with room in it from where the crate was.

This means that for it to appear real, then a vehicle would have to be left afterwards,which could be achieved by giving the crategiving building a FreeUnit= tag, and because it was used to "transport" a crate, it would make sense to make the free unit a transport.

There is no real reason to choose my idea over your own, but I think that my idea is more realistic than having the chopper turn into what appears to be ( to the player) a crate that has been defended with the body of the chopper, but can be disposed of in one shot, to reveal a crate.

Also, vehicles can leave crates by use of the CarriesCrate tag, but not with the CrateBeneath tag, and with vehicles crate types cannot be specified.

[Kravvitz]

Since when is RA2/YR realistic?

I believe Whiteboy mentioned making a deploy anim for the vehicle.

[Whiteboy]

Well if you gave it a free unit, the unit would not appear exactly where the old one deployed, making it look weird and unrealistic. The whole game is unrealistic - that's really what makes it fun I suppose

I respect your ideas Rulke, but I'm not sure if they are feasible or would be convincing in the game (yes, a game can be convincing but not realistic at the same time). You can't make vehicles drop crates when destroyed BTW. They did in some other C&C games and maybe the SP mode of this one, but I never go thte CarriesCrate= tag to work.

I stand by my idea: I'll explain it again. As Kravvitz mentioned, the deploy animation is what makes it look convincing. You create an Aid Chopper. This vehicle costs, say, 2000. It is produced very fast though, because the point of this chopper is to act as a "give money to your ally" button which was never in the game. When the player gets the crate, there must be 2000 cash in it or something very close to that. Remember that whatever amount is in there is also the amount of cash you get when getting a random money crate (or is is the single player mode money crate? Not sure, but the point still stands).

Right. The Chopper has been produced. Let's make it have a small voxel since it only gets used once anyway and why should it be large if it just carries a crate? The player moves this chopper over to his ally's base, and tells it to deploy. This makes the chopper land, and now it's deploy anim kicks in. You see the chopper unpacking itself into what looks exactly like a crate, but it is actually a strcuture that looks like the crate, only with metal/wooden bars around it (like it's in a cage). You could even give this image little dollar signs on all it's sides for added effect

Now we have this structure all by itself. No other units spawn of come free with it etc. Your ally comes along, and destroys it with any unit. He can also capture or mind control it, then sell it fot the cash which will result in exactly the same as getting the crate when it's destroyed would: he gets 2000 cash (make the structure's price 4000, assuming selling a building gets you 50% of the original value).

So the structure is destroyed. It has a death anim. This anim simply fills the gap between the "barred" crate and the actual crate images. It shows the bars falling off, being ripped apart, etc., and then it disappears (like all structures do when destroyed), revealing a crate that it leaves behind, in exactly the same place as the structure with the bars was. This makes it look very smooth - as if the bars just fell of and that's it, you don't notice the transition between the structure's image disappearing and the actual crate appearing. Then the player (or an enemy) can get the crate and earn his cash.

The name of this structure is "Aid Package" by the way, well that's just my name.

A lot more settings can be tweaked to make this chopper perform in different ways, e.g. you can make it really fast or maybe you might want it slow, you can give it weak armour or make it invincible, you can make it invisible to radar or cloaked. But I don't think giving it a weapon is a good idea. It is also very important that the chopper builds fast because the players will want to help their allys quickly, and also, since there is no free unit (hence no opportunities for cheating), it is good compensation. Also, you will want to be making tanks etc., not waiting ages for a 2000 chopper to be made just to "give" 2000 cash to a helpless ally.

If for any reason your ally cannot destroy the crate or capture/mind control and thus sell it, you can always destroy it for him. This chopper also acts a a safeguard for "reserve cash". This means that you can make lots of them, move them to a very safe place (maybe hovering over water in a corner of the map) and that means that no matter what happens with your cash, such as if you overspend it and go broke, you always have "emergency cash" on had. Well OK, maybe this is a bit of a novelty idea but still, it's cool, no?


This whole thing would require some work - especially getting the crate structure to appear exactly where the real crate would appear on the cell, and getting it to look the right colour (a different SHP for every theatre?). You could just make the barred crate grey-ish though, to fit with most crate colours.

Does this idea seem good now Rulke?

[ziliu]

I have a quick question, if the "crate with bars" building was worth 4000,wouldn't it be possible for someone to keep building aid packs for himself and destroying them with his own units to make the units gain veterancy for free, maybe it's a slow way, but still it's possible, and that wouldn't be too good, eh?

[Rulke]

Whiteboy : Yes, your idea seems good, and always had, I was looking for a way to improve on it, and I realize now that trying to make something look realistic in RA2 is a bit pointess.

ziliu : You may be right, I for one havn't experimented with veterancy gaining before, but if that is the case then you could give the building Cost=1, and Soylent=2000, so the building costs 1, but can be sold for 2000.

[Kravvitz]

These tags might prove useful.

; Insignificant = Will this object not be announed when destroyed (def=no)?
; Points = point value for scoring purposes (def=0)
ThreatPosed=0	; This value MUST be 0 for all building addons
; Trainable = Can this object become veteran by experience (def=yes, buildings def=no)?

[Whiteboy]

Originally Posted by ziliu

I have a quick question, if the "crate with bars" building was worth 4000,wouldn't it be possible for someone to keep building aid packs for himself and destroying them with his own units to make the units gain veterancy for free, maybe it's a slow way, but still it's possible, and that wouldn't be too good, eh?

Ooooh, things to correct! How fun!

You are right about the ability to build lots of these chopeprs: as I said, they are produces quicklly. But they cost 2000, so the player must have cash first. The structure will have such little strength points tht it would take forever to promote units (is that how units are promoted? By killing things with high strength? Or is it the Points= tag?).

You cannot get promoted by destroying your own or your ally's structures. But enemies can get promoted by destroying your crates. Although this would take ages, like I just said. Also, one of the tags Kravvitz posted might control whether a unit can get promoted from destroying it or not.

Note: I'm not sure how units get promoted. It could be dependant on hpow strong an enemy is, or how much they are worth in money terms, or in points. I think the Points- tag is used for points you get in skirmish games though (tallied at the game's end).

Rulke, the Soylent= tag controls how much cash you get from grinding that unit in Yuri's Grinder, not how much you get from selling a structure. So if you give this structure Cost=1 that would be pointless; not only will it perhaps not even control how an attacking unit would get promoted from destroying it, but also it means that the player would get only 1 credit for selling it after capturing or mind-controlling it.

Side note: Rulke, have you ever made any mod of any size before? And Kravvitz, have you? You seem like a big contributer to the community and yet I have never seen a mod made by you. Do you just prefer to help out modders rather than make one yourself (because that would be too time-consuming or you don't have the motivation)?

[Rulke]

I've made small mods before to see what I can do in it, but I've never released them.

Edit:I just tested the Soylent= tag, and it works for selling structures as well. I gave a soviet tesla reactor Soylent=5000, and started a new game as Russia. Upon selling it my cash went from 9400 to 14400, not 9700.

[Renegade]

Interesting idea, Whiteboy...mind if ripped it?

[Kravvitz]

Originally Posted by Whiteboy

Side note: Rulke, have you ever made any mod of any size before? And Kravvitz, have you? You seem like a big contributer to the community and yet I have never seen a mod made by you. Do you just prefer to help out modders rather than make one yourself (because that would be too time-consuming or you don't have the motivation)?

I have never released a mod because any mod that I could make by myself would be basically indistinguishable from most of the RA2/YR and TS/FS mods out there.