Tutorial 5:
Creating Deployable Units (i.e. Like the Artillery & Tick Tank)

Overview
The Purpose of this tutorial is to teach you the process of making a unit that deploys to a structure and back to a unit again.

Tutorial
Start up SunEdit 2K and from the toolbar, click on the Structures button. The first thing we need to do is to create the structure the unit will deploy into. If you want to just have the vehicle deploy either one way (into the structure and not back again), or you want to deploy into an existing deployable unit (like the Artillery), you can skip this step.

Creating the structure

Ok, clone the structure of your choice, for this example, I choose the GDI Barracks. Find the GDI Barracks (It's in the GDI structures group) and click on the clone button.

Using this method, it is conceivable that you could have a unit that deploys into a number of structures. Called a 'Deployment Chain', this could be achieved by having 3 structures (can be any number, actually) and 3 matching vehicles. You would then set the deploy & undeploy into settings as follows.... Vehicle 1 Deploys Into Structure A Structure A Undeploys into Vehicle 2 Vehicle 2 Deploys Into Structure B Structure B Undeploys into Vehicle 3 Vehicle 3 Deploys Into Structure C Structure C Undeploys into Vehicle 1 Just as long as the last structure links back to the first vehicle, it will form a Deployment Chain.

Creating the vehicle

Ok, so you cloned the barracks, now you need to clone the vehicle component. This can be any vehicle you want. I'll choose the Loaded Truck. Find the Loaded Truck (It's called Truck B) and click on the clone button. OK, you've got the two components, now you need to link them. 

Linking the structure and vehicle

This is very easy. As you've got the vehicle window open, we'll do that first. On the Advanced | General 2 section there is an option called "Deploys Into" (1), at the moment it will be set to "none". Click on the Down arrow (2) and from the list that pops up, select "Clone Of GDI Barracks" (or what ever you called the cloned structure, it will be in the New Structures group!!)

So your new vehicle should look like this...

Ok, now click on the '...' button (3) next to the down arrow and the structures window will popup, showing the settings for the cloned barracks.

On the structures window, the Undeploy option is the Advanced | Advanced Settings section. Click on the down arrow to the right of the Undeploy option to set the vehicle to undeploy to. In the New Units -> New Ground Vehicles group will be the Clone Of Truck B. Select it and click the OK button.

That has the two objects linked. Now we need to set the cloned barracks' other settings up. The settings you set up may be different to mine. 

General Tab :
Name : Deployed Mobile Barracks

Advanced Tab:
Base Structure - Unchecked. (Box is clear)
Tick Tank - Checked (This, or Artillery must be checked, otherwise when the structure un-deploys you will loose the vehicle, it won't re-deploy into it).

Construction Tab:
Check the Not Buildable option, so the player cannot build the barracks in it's deployed state.
Uncheck Normal Base Rules Apply.
Uncheck Allow AI to build this.

Now you have a few things to set for the Truck, close the structures window and go back to the Truck's settings.

General Tab :
Name : Mobile Barracks
Cost : 2000 (or whatever!!)
Strength : 800

Advanced Tab:
Base Structure - Unchecked. (Box is clear)

Construction Tab:
Uncheck the Not Buildable option, so the player can build the truck, and set the Tech Level to what ever you want, I'll set it to 9.

Uncheck the No Limit box & set the limit to 1. This keeps it inline with the Firestorm Mobile war factories. You don't have to restrict the player to just one, it's up to you.

Set the ownerships and requirements as you see fit. I'll make it quick to build so we don't have to play for an hour just to test it!! - Set it to GDI + Nod (should be anyway). Set the Primary to Common Structure Types - GDI Radar or NOD Radar.

OK, that's all you need to do to make a mobile barracks!! When creating these special unit & structure relationships, there are some points to bear in mind....

Any storage setting (ie. for a mobile refinery) will be lost when you undeploy the structure, meaning you'll loose the money. The best thing to do is set the storage to 0.

To make it so the vehicle has to deploy before it can fire, make sure the "Deploy to fire" option in Advanced | General is set.

Now, save the changes and close the window. Save the settings to the file and apply the changes and test the new vehicle out.

Two Pictures to show the unit working.

Before....

After....

Links:

Tutorial Results In S2K file

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