Profile of Popsicle

The group of people I play COH2 with rather enjoy large messy battles against four Expert AI, the larger the map the better, but small maps offer their own unique challenges. We also like to try and have each human play a different faction such that we can benefit from each faction's unique units and abilities. As a result we often find that one of us is lacking munitions but has plenty of fuel and another of us is lacking fuel but has plenty of munitions. A game/skirmish lasting an hour is a quick game for us, we often play 2+ hour games. It is not for everyone, but we enjoy it.

There doesn't appear to be a way to give my extra fuel to another player through the existing UI. I have been thinking about an in-game mechanic that we might use to accommodate the transfer of one player's resources to another player. High attrition rates and costly end game units drain resources quickly, and often hamper our efforts. We are not however, looking for a "cheat" or "trainer" solution to our problem. We enjoy difficult games and morn the loss of every unit. Winning is not the fun part of the game for us, the struggle, comradery, and team efforts are. So the idea that I have come up with, on paper, is to use the Opel Blitz supply truck to literally transport a resource from my HQ building to another player's preferred delivery point.

The way I would like to accomplish this is by giving the Opel Blitz 2 unique construction menus in command card positions 21 and 22.

Loading the Truck
The construction menu in slot 21 would be labeled "Load Truck" and would open up into a standard 3x4 grid where the player would see the following "Items": Load 100 Fuel, Load 200 Fuel, Load 400 Fuel, Load 1000 Fuel (positions 11-14), Load 100 Munitions, Load 200 Munitions, Load 400 Munitions, Load 1000 Munitions (positions 21-24). Only the "Items" with the requied_resource would be active; that is to say that if the player does not have 1000 fuel then the "Load 1000 Fuel" item would not be active, it would be visible but not active.

In order to load the truck it would have to be near the player's HQ building in order for the "Load Truck" Construction Menu to be active (near_entity requirement). Once the vehicle was near the HQ then the player could select the "Load Truck" button which would bring up the 3x4 grid mentioned above. If the player then had enough fuel to load 400 fuel they would select that "construction item", a player upgrade of "400 Fuel Loaded" would be applied to the Opel Truck Entity, and 400 fuel being the "Cost" for this action would be deducted from the player's balance. The "400 Fuel Loaded" upgrade would "unlock" the "Unload 400 Fuel" construction item in the "Unload Construction Menu". Taking the 400 fuel from the player now, adds an element of concern and anxiety, if the truck is destroyed the resource is lost forever.

Unloading the Truck
The construction menu in slot 22 would be labeled "Unload Truck" and would open up into a standard 3x4 grid where the player would see the following "Items": Unload 100 Fuel, Unload 200 Fuel, Unload 400 Fuel, Unload 1000 Fuel (positions 11-14), Unload 100 Munitions, Unload 200 Munitions, Unload 400 Munitions, Unload 1000 Munitions (positions 21-24). Only the "Items" unlocked by the appropriate Player Upgrade would be active/selectable.

After having loaded their Opel Blitz truck, the player providing the resources would then send the truck to the desired delivery location; the customer, a.k.a. needy player, may only have infantry that can receive the shipment at a forward or midfield position. Upon arrival the delivering player would then select the "Unload Truck" construction menu and select an available "Unload button". This action would then spawn an appropriate entity on the ground worth x-amount of resources, and would remove the player upgrade that unlocked it. The needy player would then send infantry over and have it pick up the item, thus gaining the resource.

Another Delivery Option
Another option I am entertaining is a new "Shipping and Receiving" building that once built spawns Rear Echelon like troops who will automatically pickup resource entities that spawn on the ground near them. Much like the British mechanics who repair vehicles that are near a Forward HQ. This would be one less thing the receiving player would have to worry about mid-to-late game when things are the most hectic. It would however mitigate the risk involved in the delivery process which might ruin some of the "fun". Although the receiving player could just as easily have infantry at their own HQ that are ready to receive the supplies so it probably all balances out.

The questions that I have are: How do I setup the "Load Truck" construction menu such that I can apply a player upgrade at a cost of resource x, without actually constructing something? Unless there is a Transformers mod I am not aware of, there aren't any construction animations for the Opel Truck. It does have a loading and unloading animation, I wonder if that would appease the "entity_blueprint_ext\animator" gods? I noticed an option of "visible_in_world" but not sure of the implications; maybe an invisible entity could be built that only lives for 30 seconds and then dies?

And finally, the "Unload Truck" construction menu items. In the on_construction ext there is an option to spawn an entity, but again, do I really have to construct something? If so, invisible, dies after 30 seconds? The whole Transformers thing again as vehicles do have construction animations?

Thanks for listening. What are your thoughts? Concerns? Ideas? Advice?

Okay, I just recreated the 25-pounder emplacement again, from scratch, following your guide. Everything is working just fine; it builds, it turns, it fires. I want to add smoke and airburst abilities to the gun. I'll add and test them one at a time to make sure the gun still turns toward the target.

Sorry for the confusion Sneakeye.

Hello again. I followed your guide to making the 25-pounder emplacement and everything works, EXCEPT, it does not turn toward the target. The rounds will leave the end of the barrel and head towards the target area regardless, but the gun does not turn. I found this thread and followed your directions, EXCEPT for these values quoted here. I can not seem to find them. I checked the gun, the weapon, and even the ability. What am I doing wrong?

Embarrassed to say I found those values in behaviour_ext of the weapon. I made the changes, because they were exactly opposite of what you called for here. I tested and the gun still does NOT rotate.

Not that I am aware of. The Raketenwerfer has the same issue. It is the only AT-gun which can retreat, but also the only AT-gun without reverse button.

Okay. Thanks SneakEye. Appreciate you taking the time to get back to me. And a big thanks for all the work and help you provide to the community. Your guides and the like have been immeasurable.

Really? Yes, I am was aware I had to add the 'squad_retreat_ext' but I did not realize that it was the mechanism to add the retreat button. Thankyou very much.

So, what determines the ui_position for the retreat button? I guess I do not have any control over the location? I think reverse replaces retreat in position 14. I'll give it a go and see how they sort each other out.