I'm pretty sure the unconscious animation is the closest you'll get, either with the lone ally or with the boss ally. In both cases, they'll stand up if the enemy gets too close, which I'm not sure can be avoided. I heard about a mission in another thread that pulled this off, but they never told me which mission so I couldn't check it out myself, and it sounded like they put the "dead" bodies in the front, and the enemies in the back, making it unlikely that they'd cross each other.
The only other thing I can think of is a captive with the enemy group set to ally, but I don't think you can change a captive's animation, and you'd have live allies besides.
bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner-
ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenth ur-
nuk!
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The only other thing I can think of is a captive with the enemy group set to ally, but I don't think you can change a captive's animation, and you'd have live allies besides.
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I tried that and it looked great at first. I made the captive and all the captors lie down, and it looked like a massacre. I put the captive in the bum slump animation and had him gasp out a message as if he were mortally wounded. It was perfect.. until a group of enemies came too close. Then the allies all jumped up and started fighting. 
I got it to work by accident just now. I switched to a more powerful character for testing, and none of the enemies lived long enough to disturb my "deceased" allies, but that's not something I can count on. I might be able to put in enough to fill the first room with just ally spawns, but I don't know if that would be reliable. When you get different numbers of people on the team, don't extra spawn points get populated? And I suspect there is some randomness to how it allocates who goes where within the "front" category.
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
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When you get different numbers of people on the team, don't extra spawn points get populated?
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Not to my knowledge - I believe it just clusters more dudes around the same spawn point.
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And I suspect there is some randomness to how it allocates who goes where within the "front" category.
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Depends on the map. Some maps are extremely reliable (e.g. cargo ship maps), others are completely random (e.g. most outdoor missions). I found that office-to-cave maps have bleed-over between the sections, probably some others too.
Personally, I'd say that if your map behaves for you, fill all the front spawns with dead dudes and keep your enemies in middle and back. Of course the player can still kite enemies back to your corpses, but I think that's the best you're gonna do.
bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner-
ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenth ur-
nuk!
[ QUOTE ]
I got it to work by accident just now. I switched to a more powerful character for testing, and none of the enemies lived long enough to disturb my "deceased" allies, but that's not something I can count on. I might be able to put in enough to fill the first room with just ally spawns, but I don't know if that would be reliable. When you get different numbers of people on the team, don't extra spawn points get populated? And I suspect there is some randomness to how it allocates who goes where within the "front" category.
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Extra people on the team don't create extra spawn points, they just cause the spawns to get bigger.
My advice would be to try to separate your groups by floor. If there are never any enemies on the same floor of a map with the slumping allies, you shouldn't have their animations disturbed.
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
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Extra people on the team don't create extra spawn points, they just cause the spawns to get bigger.
My advice would be to try to separate your groups by floor. If there are never any enemies on the same floor of a map with the slumping allies, you shouldn't have their animations disturbed.
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That is proving difficult to do, mostly because I refuse to use one of the larger maps. I really want the player to have to escort someone to the exit, and doing that on a big map is just a pain. I think I have it, though. The only problem is that the "bodies" are a little off to the side, and I'd hate for the player to miss them. I thought of putting in a bit of inactive dialog along the lines of "Arrrr, they got me!" to draw the player's attention as they pass by. For some reason, the dialog doesn't seem to trigger, ever. I'm not sure what's up with that.
Still, I'm making progress. Thanks for all the advice.
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
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For some reason, the dialog doesn't seem to trigger, ever. I'm not sure what's up with that.
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Known bug... inactive dialog proximity seems to be the same as active dialog proximity for certain detail types.
It's really annoying, too.
bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner-
ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenth ur-
nuk!
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
For some reason, the dialog doesn't seem to trigger, ever. I'm not sure what's up with that.
[/ QUOTE ]
Known bug... inactive dialog proximity seems to be the same as active dialog proximity for certain detail types.
It's really annoying, too.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, I'd heard of that one, but that makes the dialog trigger too early. In this case, I'm not seeing the dialog trigger at all. I tried putting it in active and inactive for both the target and the group around him, but no dice. I'll play with it some more. Maybe it was just a fluke.
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
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Yes, I'd heard of that one, but that makes the dialog trigger too early. In this case, I'm not seeing the dialog trigger at all. I tried putting it in active and inactive for both the target and the group around him, but no dice. I'll play with it some more. Maybe it was just a fluke.
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Was it a friendly boss? I was having a lot of trouble with friendly boss dialog. Same with friendly captive surrounding group.
bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner-
ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenth ur-
nuk!
"Ally" setting for the guard group on hostage objective = lines triggering only when you drag an enemy in and the "allied" guards aggro said enemy. I had to add an ambush in a mission of mine that did that. You may be encountering something like this.
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The Invasion of the Bikini-clad Samurai Vampiresses from Outer Space? - Arc ID 61013
Thinking a cool MA 3.0 feature would be a mission option box to leave fallen mobs on the map.
I'd like to have some dead bodies scattered around in a mission, to indicate that the bad guys have already arrived and started in on the carnage. I can't find a good mechanism to do it.
1. Body bags: it doesn't really make sense for the bad guys to stuff bodies into bags when they're in the middle of committing a crime, plus the bags would be glowing and humming which is unnecessary.
2. Battle: I could include a battle, but it doesn't really give me what I want. I can't guarantee which side will win. The battle is usually over before the player can see it, and the bodies already vanished. The survivors just stand around awkwardly.
3. Something tricksy. I have been trying various sorts of ally or rescue a hostage type objectives, setting people to the unconscious animation, and setting them to be allies, but nothing works. The closest I can get is a lone ally lying on the floor, but he stands up when a bad guy gets too close, even though he's set to be non-combat.
Any advice?
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie