"Freeze Unit" or "Change Unit Stance" in Scenario Editor

[obnoxiousoboe]

I've been creating scenarios for AOE2 for years now and yet I still can't get the "Freeze Units" trigger to work correctly. How is that supposed to work? How did the designers do it? I've tried using that effect, and nothing happens. The unit still moves. This is so frustrating. I've even tried the new "Change Unit Stance" trigger, by setting it to "Stand Ground", and still nothing. Why is the game trolling me?

[Quokka, First Class]

I believe to make a unit stop you need to use "task units" and have nothing selected as the destination.

[obnoxiousoboe]

Tried that. It didn't work.

[obnoxiousoboe]

I wish there was a way to keep my units still. I will need to use that trigger eventually for certain scenarios, and it is frustrating to have units wandering all over the map and ruining the scenario.

[Jineapple]

Freeze unit does what you want. Make sure you have selected the right player and that the unit/area selection works properly (check via "go to objects"/"go to area").

The AI might override this for scouting if it has no other units to scout I think. If that's the case, I assume you want to control all enemy units solely via trigger - In that case, google "immoble units ai", it's an AI designed not to issue any scouting, work commands etc.

[obnoxiousoboe]

It shouldn't. The unit I want to freeze is a Cavalier. And yet, the trigger's not working.

I have heard of Lothar's AI patch, but will it work in the HD version, not just the original?

[Jineapple]

I use it myself for testing sometimes, it works fine.

[☨Crossman☨[SIN]]

I am quite late, but this is what I think you could do:

The AI always uses the fastest unit it has to scout. Place a unit from the Player you want to freeze in some unused corner of the map and wall it off with forest, water, cliffs, etc. With the new Change Unit Speed trigger you can give the unit a speed boost to make sure its the fastest unit at the AI´s disposal. This causes the AI to "scout" with the walled off unit, leaving the other units inactive (unless you attack them or otherwise trigger them). If you wish to completely freeze a unit (ignores all triggers and just stands there), use the Freeze Unit trigger, make sure you have the correct Player selected and select the unit and/or area. I seem to get better results when I just set the area where the unit/s are standing rather than selecting them. Hope this helps!

OH, and for some reason the None AI type ignores all reason and just sends all units to scout, so do not use it if you wish to use the above technique!

[obnoxiousoboe]

That's the problem. I usually set the area that I want the units to freeze in, and it doesn't seem to work. When I test the scenario, I usually use "Flag A" as a placeholder so then I would know whether or not the AI is behaving correctly. A lot of times, though, I see a Man-at-Arms or some unit walk off. In one of the scenarios I made, it was a jumbled mess. I had a "Change Ownership" trigger, so that if I killed that enemy's hero, the army would switch allegiance, but instead they scattered all over the place, and this was WITH the "Freeze Unit" trigger on. I might have to try the "barrier" method for the scout, even though I don't think Ensemble/Microsoft seemed to have any trouble with their scenarios; they didn't have a barrier to shield off a "scouting" unit.

[obnoxiousoboe]

Well, I tried closing off the scout cavalry and the units still moved! I had the source player set to "Player 2", and the trigger was set to "starting state", but the units in the area I froze still scattered all over the place right at the start of the scenario. How do I get this effect to work properly?!

[BOY♂NEXT♂DOOR]

I've been testing and you have to set the AI to "No AI" to get them not to do anything. They will attack and hunt down a target if there is one available though unless you use the "Freeze Unit" trigger. All expansions except for RoR so that may make a change.

[obnoxiousoboe]

Thank you, Graphics Carrot! I finally got it to work!

[Noelsy]

I have been looking for a solution to this problem as well, but how do I set the AI to "No AI"?

[obnoxiousoboe]

You have to do it in "Player". There you can set the CPU's personality to standard, none, or original. Setting it to "none" will prove the trigger useful.

[Noelsy]

I tried that shortly after posting my comment, but it did not change my situation.

[Noelsy]

UPDATE: This appears to only be a problem when I try to freeze villagers. All other units work fine, but I need villagers to be frozen for my scenario.