Sentry WP. My new fav WP type

[mr_centipede 31]

Been playing around with OA lately and stumble on sentry wp type. Now I can somehow make the AI to do some sort of fighting withdrawal.

Here's what I did. Put a squad of enemies with sentry WP, then another WP further back (their withdrawal route). Then another squad of friendlies, moving purposely to have contact with the enemy.

And here's what happened, after the initial contact, the enemy start to withdraw, (because the nature of sentry WP) but at the same time return fire to keep the friendly at bay. Though unfortunately some en AI break formation and engage the attacker. Not perfect, but I like it... in the end there's at least 1-3 enemy manage to withdraw (out of 5) facing a squad of friendly of 8. No casualty on the friendly side.

BTW, I used zeus AI with precision of 0.425 on both friendly and enemy.

[Inkompetent 0]

Yeah. Sentry is really awesome. Hold until spotted units are identified, then move, which coincides with the starting of a firefight due to game design. Simply rocks :)

[meade95 0]

Been playing around with OA lately and stumble on sentry wp type. Now I can somehow make the AI to do some sort of fighting withdrawal.

Here's what I did. Put a squad of enemies with sentry WP, then another WP further back (their withdrawal route). Then another squad of friendlies, moving purposely to have contact with the enemy.

And here's what happened, after the initial contact, the enemy start to withdraw, (because the nature of sentry WP) but at the same time return fire to keep the friendly at bay. Though unfortunately some en AI break formation and engage the attacker. Not perfect, but I like it... in the end there's at least 1-3 enemy manage to withdraw (out of 5) facing a squad of friendly of 8. No casualty on the friendly side.

BTW, I used zeus AI with precision of 0.425 on both friendly and enemy.

Thanks for the tip! - Plan to use it -

Also, when one edits tthe "enemy AI precision" within their "profile". When you say you have it set to 0.425 ? Is that it? Or do you keep it at the same length with just zero's..

For example the standard length of precisionEnemy=0.76999998; (is something like this).

So is yours set to precisionEnemy=0.42500000;(like this?).

Also, what is the correct way to save your proflie? I know you open it with "notepad" for example. But you don't want it to change into a word/notepad document..... So do you simply save it as "all files"? Once you change the precisionEnemy number?

Thanks

[mr_centipede 31]

Thanks for the tip! - Plan to use it -

Also, when one edits tthe "enemy AI precision" within their "profile". When you say you have it set to 0.425 ? Is that it? Or do you keep it at the same length with just zero's..

For example the standard length of precisionEnemy=0.76999998; (is something like this).

So is yours set to precisionEnemy=0.42500000;(like this?).

Also, what is the correct way to save your proflie? I know you open it with "notepad" for example. But you don't want it to change into a word/notepad document..... So do you simply save it as "all files"? Once you change the precisionEnemy number?

Thanks

I just put in 0.425; and thats it. From my experience it doesnt affect anything.

when saving the config, I just "SAVE" it. Not "Save As..." so whatever I save, is save within the same file. so that I dont have to worry with saving the file with wrong extension...

[meade95 0]

Does anyone know - I hit "SAVE AS"...and now within my folder the Arma2/AO.profile file...."looks" like a notepad file??

I used the save as "all files" with the UTF-8 extention? Is this correct?

How does one go about creating a new profile? If needed. I noticed you can't simply "delete" your primary one within the game.

[kremator 1064]

I just put in 0.425; and thats it. From my experience it doesnt affect anything.

when saving the config, I just "SAVE" it. Not "Save As..." so whatever I save, is save within the same file. so that I dont have to worry with saving the file with wrong extension...

Good to see you still around Mr Centipede! Been modifying HC to include sentry WPs?

[mr_centipede 31]

Hello kremator... been a lurker all this time... HCS dev has been stopped. No more motivation to continue. hehe

@Meade95:

If you use "Save as..." then chose "all files" and then save the file with *.ArmA2OAProfile. You have to specifically to type the ".ArmA2OAProfile" at the filename field

[meade95 0]

Ok. So I do need to type in the ArmA2oaprofile part? It is odd, because when I launch A2/OA...all seems fine. But I know my profile file appearance wise within my, "my documents" folder....is appearing like a notepad file???

If my profile name is meade..... I should save the file as meade.ArmA2OAprofile than? (type it in fully). Then "save as", ALL FILES and as a UTF-8, file....correct?

Edited August 7, 2010 by meade95

[RomeoSierra 10]

Ok. So I do need to type in the ArmA2oaprofile part? It is odd, because when I launch A2/OA...all seems fine. But I know my profile file appearance wise within my, "my documents" folder....is appearing like a notepad file???

I believe it's because the file extension is now associated with notepad (So if you double clicked on it would open with notepad & not pop the box saying 'unrecognised extension, please choose program' or whatever it says). Nothing to worry about! (AFAIK)

[meade95 0]

I believe it's because the file extension is now associated with notepad (So if you double clicked on it would open with notepad & not pop the box saying 'unrecognised extension, please choose program' or whatever it says). Nothing to worry about! (AFAIK)

Ok! Thank you!

If it wasn't working correctly - If A2/AO wasn't recognizing my profile I would most likely be getting some type of "error" message, wouldn't I?

[arthur666 10]

Never really understood the SENTRY WP. If you make it the last WP, does the group act like on GUARD, except only engage enemies within view, and not all over the map?

How does the SENTRY work? I read the wiki, but feel like there's more to it.

Edited August 7, 2010 by arthur666

[Drumheller 19]

Same question as Arthur. How does sentry work?

From the OP it seems like the AI will go to a point and just stay there until they make contact with their enemy, then they will start to move to their next waypoint. Sort of like a "fall back" or "advance", depending on where the way point is.

[Windexglow 10]

What's the difference between any of the waypoints?

[CarlGustaffa 4]

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA:_Mission_Editor#Select_Type

[zwobot 17]

From the OP it seems like the AI will go to a point and just stay there until they make contact with their enemy, then they will start to move to their next waypoint. Sort of like a "fall back" or "advance", depending on where the way point is.

Almost correct.

The group will move to the position where the sentry waypoint is and wait there until they see any enemy then they will move to the next waypoint.

Unfortunately it does not work as a "movement to contact" waypoint because the group will always move to the position of the sentry waypoint first. If any enemies are spotted on the way to the sentry waypoint the withdrawal to the next waypoint will not happen.

It would be nice if this was the case though. Then the sentry waypoint could be used as "withdraw" as well as "move to contact" waypoint.

Does anyone know an elegant way of realising a group "moving to contact" without using an external script?

[CarlGustaffa 4]

You sure? With information sharing they could be on sentry until some other unit knows about the enemy. He shares that information with the group on sentry, and the next waypoint is moved to where the enemy was last seen - movement to contact, despite knowing about the enemy. With information sharing they may know about the enemy without actually being able to fire upon him.

[zwobot 17]

I'm afraid I don't understand what you are talking about CarlGustaffa...

[Heatseeker 0]

Information sharing = guard (cheating), what you want is Hold.

[Pathy 0]

Guard is a favourite of mine. However, the tendency of the enemy to run off all over the map needs careful workaround. What I do is put units I want to react (advance towards) the enemy on a move waypoint. I then give them a 2nd waypont, guard. I then synchronise a "Blufor present" trigger (although you can do detected if you've other units in the area) with the move WP.

Result; opfor group waits at the move waypt until blufor units trip it, then move out to engage when the En is seen by another unit. The area they'll react in is obviously controlled by the trigger area. It's a great way of making a quite dynamic group of enemy react to you entering an area.

[Heatseeker 0]

I think a good description for the sentry wp is that its a wp with group knowsAbout enemy in the condition field, when this condition is met it triggers the next wp for the group.

For withdrawl or movement its not that great but its good to override or change default a.i. behaviour without having to use sync'ed side detected by side triggers.