How to add entities to buildings

Entities in Buildings

On the islands of Skira and Skirinka there are a number of named locations or Areas of Interest (AOIs), which include buildings, ruins and other major features. Some of the buildings within the AOIs have multiple levels (floors). Buildings provide excellent cover from enemy fire and also provide a great way of creating urban combat environments.

The default view for the Map is set to exterior, this view will not display any internal rooms to a particular building. To be able to precisely position soldiers within a building you can use the Map Layers drop down box.

The Mission Editor has four building levels:

When changing the view using the Map Layers drop down box, any buildings with multiple floors will change colour.

When you are on an external view the building will appear in a dark grey colour as shown in the Figure below.

If you change the layer to a floor that exists in the building, the colour of the building changes to a light grey and any corridors or rooms will then appear, as shown in the Figure below.

The Map Layers view shows entrances, exits and staircases but does not show any windows or firing positions. The Map Layers do not change the entities height, so you will need to amend the players altitude to place them on different floors of a building.

Placing a Soldier in a Building

We will now create a simple mission file where you will place a soldier entity into a building.

1. Create a new mission file.
2. Zoom into the area to the south of Skirinka to see the town called Zeyka.
3. Change the Map Layers view to Ground Floor, this will then reveal all of the buildings that contain this floor.
4. Click on the USMC tab in the create properties window.
5. Expand the Soldiers folder and then select a soldier to place on the map.
6. Click on a building to place a single soldier entity (you may have to zoom in closer to be able to place the entity in a precise position).
7. Ensure that the Control Mode for the entity is set to Player.
8. Run the mission using the Test Mission option to confirm that the soldier entity appears in a building.