Potential of the unitMarkForEvent event trigger

Busheedoh · November 6, 2026, 2:10am

Hello, I recently saw a thread by @Adarvik regarding a video where you are able to control aircraft carriers in custom multiplayer battles, and I decided to dive into the subject as a result. But I would like to extend credit to him for finding about this in the first place.

I would also like to link his WT live mission and video:

I make this thread to possibly open up some discourse regarding the use of this event trigger as it has some of the most possibly use I’ve seen from really anything in the game. Also to give my own understanding of how it works, as I just spent the past 6 hours diving into what it does. Again, thanks to Adarvik for bring this to my attention to begin with!

The unitMarkForEvent event trigger lets you assign player control to certain vehicles based on join order to session from my understanding, while still retaining control of your original.

Here are some of my findings:

ships and tankModels classes function the best, but players are generally speaking only able to control vehicles they own:

A) You own, so if you own the Maus, you can swap to the maus
B) Vehicles in a grey zone that aren’t purchasable, so say the MLRS systems in NT, or ships like Aircraft Carriers or the modern ships in NT that aren’t purchasable

planes can be controlled, but dying in them soft-locks you, you also cannot exit
stationary guns and such have really weird physics, and tend to freak out if you use your movement keys
for ships, all the ships with the _ec designator at the end can be used regardless if the player owns them or not
the _story ships and other legacy ships noticed by the fire on their barrels crash your game if you attempt to control them
NT TBMs are usable but it is beyond me how you are supposed to use them properly
the AI AA from NT can be used, but do not work properly
Based on the info from Adarvik’s thread, it seems that this player slot related, I did not personally test this, but apparently he and his team did

List of usable ground vehicles

WW2 AT Guns
germ_at_gun_flak36
germ_at_gun_pak36
germ_at_gun_pak38
germ_at_gun_pak40
uk_at_gun_qf17pounder
uk_at_gun_qf6pounder
us_at_gun_m1
ussr_at_gun_53k
jp_at_37mm_type_1
jp_at_47mm_type_1

Recoiless Rifles
us_at_m40
ussr_at_spg_9

MLRS systems
ussr_ai_mlrs_9a52_2_smerch
us_ai_mlrs_m270

APCs
germ_apc_m113
us_apc_m113
ussr_apc_bmp_1
ussr_apc_btr_152

Unarmed Vehicles
germ_truck_sdkfz_6_2_tent
jp_truck_type_94_isuzu
uk_truck_us6_studebaker_board
uk_truck_us6_studebaker_tent
us_truck_us6_studebaker_tent
us_truck_us6_studebaker_tent
ussr_truck_gaz_aaa

us_hummer_h1

List of usable ships

WW2 ACs
jp_aircraftcarrier_shokaku
uk_aircraftcarrier_illustrious
us_aircraftcarrier_enterprise
us_aircraftcarrier_lexington
us_aircraftcarrier_saratoga

Cold War/Modern ACs
fr_aircraftcarrier_foch_ai
uk_aircraftcarrier_ark_royal
us_aircraftcarrier_forrestal
ussr_aircraftcarrier_admiral_kuznetsov
ussr_aircraftcarrier_baku

Unarmed Vessels
ussr_cargo_ship_liberty
uk_cargo_ship_liberty
us_cargo_ship_liberty
us_cargo_ship_ss_ohio
germ_cargo_ship_goldenfels
jp_cargo_ship_kashino

tanker_nicolaos
saturn_pr498
heavy_load_carrier_black_marlin

jp_daihatsu_landing_craft
ussr_g5_mtb_landing_craft

Cold War Ships
ussr_destroyer_rckt_pr956
us_cruiser_rckt_california
ussr_destroyer_pr56_bravy_ec
us_destroyer_cf_adams_class_cf_adams_ec

Possible use cases

Ability to designate player roles in customs

It is possible to let a certain player control preset vehicles like say an AA battery in it’s full, or perhaps a team commander to control assets like aircraft carrier, or command vehicles that could create interesting and varied objectives. It would also perhaps let a certain player control static assets along with someone else, but research into how slot reservation plays into this is to be done.

Two vehicles per player

A player could control two vehicles on two different sides of the map, as it goes into AI control after the player leaves it, but how finicky this would be is another question.

Adarvik · November 6, 2026, 3:35am

Thanks for the Credit. Though I wasn’t the first to find this, I did want to bring attention to it with the possibilities it brings.

There is a few things I’d like to note, I had seen 2 pervious missions using this action and these only contained the action and vehicle which though was very interesting was lacking in the ability to properly test in practice. Hence the mission I made, I have also been conducting further testing with other models and noticed the same need to own researchable or purchasable vehicles.

“2. planes can be controlled, but dying in them soft-locks you, you also cannot exit”

I thought this was the case initially but actually you can exit them using the keybind from ship controlled floatplanes, I found this out this morning in my own mission.

“5. the _story ships and other legacy ships noticed by the fire on their barrels crash your game if you attempt to control them”

I cant speak for all of these however I was able to get the IJN Carrier “Ryojo” is partly functional.

The Carrier had some controls including rudder and speed controls but when a player landed on it, the model desynced with the both of us moving apart with the aircraft still on a now an invisible (to me) carrier, when leaving the vehicle (which doesn’t destroy it for naval vehicles btw) the carrier had resynced under the landed aircraft.

Based on the info from Adarvik’s thread, it seems that this player slot related, I did not personally test this, but apparently he and his team did

Player slots are completely unrelated, this is a separate mechanic I use for combining the control of AI units with players directly via the slots in the missions themselves. I’ve used this in a number of missions including some unreleased ones.

I modified it from an older UserMission Trigger for tank convoys, the player slots are necessary to get it to work with multiplayer and results in a strict invite order in a custom lobby. It was first used in an unreleased mission of mine and with the first publicly available use in my 2nd Battle of Sirte Mission for the use in creating Destroyer “Flotillas” and Cruiser “Divisions” with a single player command unit and up to any number of bots in company as long as there is room in the mission file.

It was shown in practice in this video:

Two Players isn’t the limit!

In testing of my Carrier Mission we were able to discover Console players can control far more than just 2 vehicles as PC players can, The username will only show on 2 vehicles but Xbox player “Speedy” has been able to control BOTH CARRIERS!!! with his own spawned destroyer and combine the Radar of his original ship with the Carriers. In further testing today I gave him 4 Heavy Cruisers (that he already owns in the tech tree) in addition to his player Destroyer all the Cruisers were using a grouped version of my “Convoy Trigger” set-up and and were all following his original vehicle. This can be further pumped up for using a ship equipped with a floatplane on the original vehicle, Later I will add floatplanes to all previously mentioned cruisers to see how far this can go.

Combining my modified “Convoy Trigger” and “UnitMarkforEvent” forces all AI vehicles not currently controlled by the player to follow the original vehicle which still count as occupying the set “player slot”. I believe this mechanic can be pushed even further than anyone imagines and for once Console Players have the advantage… as @LtCol-RedFox phrased it during our Playable Carrier test event.