So I'm working on an allies cog that has allied soldiers follow the player around

So basically what I need to know is how find a vector that's maybe 0.2 to 0.5 jku behind the player (a stoping point for the allies behind the player)

Do I need to use VectorAdd or VectorSub or something lik that?

Couldn't you just have them stop when they are in a certain distance from the player? When the player moves in a certain direction they will end up behind him anyway. The only thing you'd need to do any sort of math is if you wanted them to line up parade-style.

Just do VectorLen(VectorSub(GetThingPos(player), GetThingPos(ally))), that yields the distance.

awesome.. thank you guys... i make things more difficult than they really are lol

the answer is dependent on the field your vectors are over

I'm interested to see how it turns out, as I once was wanting to make allies follow the player as well. I don't know if they'll end up bunching together like a flock of geese -- you might have to put a condition in there so they stay a certain distance from each other as well. I also wonder about friendly fire, but start off simple, and see how it turns out before worrying about the "what ifs."