How to add a crew to your vehicles

Adding Crew to Vehicles

To add a crew to a particular vehicle you will need to place crew and vehicle entities onto the Map Editor. Once they are available on the map you will then be able to assign each individual soldier entity to a particular seat location on the vehicle.

1. Create a new mission file.
2. Find a location on the map to place a number of entities. In this example we have picked the west side beach on the island of Skirinka.
3. Insert a USMC vehicle on to the map, to do this ensure you are on the USMC create tab, then expand the Vehicles tab. Click on the AAVP7A1 entity and then place it on the Map Editor.
4. Expand the Fireteams folder and select the USMC Assault team, place it on the Map Editor.
5. You will now have an armoured vehicle and four soldiers added to the map as shown in the Figure below.

First we need to change one of the AI characters to be a player character.

1. Click on one of the AI soldiers within the group.
2. In the entity properties window, change the Control Mode from AI to Player.

We now need to tell the Mission Editor that these soldiers will be operating the vehicle.

1. Click on the AAVP7A1 vehicle.

The properties window will appear, scroll down until you find the vehicle section  You will notice that there are a number of seats available to place your soldiers. Some vehicles have room for passengers as well as the core personnel (driver, gunner, commander). All core staff have their positions coloured in blue.

1. Select the Commander seat, then click on the Pick button.
2. This now allows you to select a Commander for your vehicle. Click on one of your fireteam, but not the player character.

This will now add the entity to the vehicle. The vehicle will turn the colour of the mounted unit, in this case we have used a USMC soldier and so the vehicle graphic turns blue. You can see the a single soldier added to the vehicle in the Figure below.

1. Place another soldier in the position of Gunner and another as Troop1.
2. Click on the Driver option and then click on the Pick button. Select the Player object.
3. Run the game using the Test Mission option and you will see all four soldiers placed in the vehicle and you will be able to drive around the island as shown in the Figure below.

Dismounting Crew From Vehicles

You may want soldiers associated with a particular vehicle, but do not want them initially mounted on it. This is particularly useful if you want the soldiers to be fulfilling some other task before entering the vehicle. An example of this could be that the soldiers are patrolling around a base, and once the enemy is sighted they enter their vehicle.

To dismount a soldier or unit from a vehicle:

1. If you still have the previous example open then select one of the soldiers identified by a circle next to the vehicle to bring up its property window. If you do not have the previous example file open, click on File | Open and navigate to %System Drive%Program FilesCodemastersOperation Flashpoint - Dragon RisingMission EditorHelpMissions. Open the invehicle.mssn file and then select one of the mounted soldiers.
2. In the modify properties window, scroll down until you are under the Character section. Unselect Mounted and the soldier will be dismounted from the vehicle and linked to the AVVP7A1 by a coloured line.
3. If you run the file, and change the camera view to outside of the vehicle, you will see the dismounted soldier.