VFAI.Equipment -> Public Domain

[VictorFarbau 0]

Hello,

recently I received a message from nikita320106 requesting permission to modify and re-release VFAI.Equipment with some of his ideas. I initially refused that since I planned to maintain and extend the addon myself in the near future.

However, I have done an honest assessment regarding probability of that to happen and found myself saying: no time for this. Also, I lost a bit of interest in doing the same addon over and over again for almost 3 years now.

So, instead of jealously guarding that lousy piece of scripting I thought I'd rather post the material I have :) If anybody feels like reworking / enhancing and re-releasing it: please do so! I give explicit permission to everybody to do this. I believe some fresh ideas are welcome here.

Only this advice: keep the Equipment and Smokeshell addons separate (that little Smokeshell code is not even included, it is contained in the smokeshell addon and this is the only version I worked with).

Also, observe unit behaviour in massive multiplayer when you modify the equipment code; you may find units getting stuck if you overload their command queue and the game might even crash. Be easy on the timings (no "delay 0.05" or similar). The more generous you are on the timings the better all this usually works - depending on how busy the engine is. Can be painful to debug this if there the error is not in the code but merely in the way you apply it.

Anyway, the little time I can spend on Arma II OA at present is required for me to maintain our massive MP mission we rarely get to play. The little tricks and tweaks possible in Arma II still intrigue me so I will rather continue with small things such as VFFPSS, VFTCAS and the like.

DevHeaven is ot reachable for me at this moment, so I am uploading this to the following location:

http://www.mediafire.com/?d7hru9pgwnne4lz

Regards,

VictorFarbau

Edited August 30, 2010 by VictorFarbau

[nikita320106 0]

very big thanx for you very hard and needfull job)

hope to see some new stuff from you

sorry ma bad engliz)

[[frl]myke 14]

Generous to give your work to the public, much appreciated. Sometimes i wish more would do so but on the other hand i understand fully if some don't want to.

[spangg 0]

thx Vic,

Guys, whoever picks it up, (Nikita :) some suggestions if possible:

it might be easier to make the script easy on cpu to render the script to safe behaviour only,

also if recognition and usage of ammo crates and if they would enjoy priority over weapons on ground would be great.

There was an issue with it as well if I remember well, namely you couldn't permanently switch to keep weapons because it switched back to drop weapons after some time automatically.

ignore if they were addressed already, haven't used it for a while

thx anyway...

Edited August 30, 2010 by spangg

[VictorFarbau 0]

Spangg,

1. There is a big set of conditions that determine whether VFAI will be run or paused. I can say that the current code should be reasonably easy on the CPU.

2. Ammo crates - unless we get an engine command to read the contents of ammo crates (respectively "weapon holders") from a script -which is not possible at present- that will be tough. It was / is one of the biggest engine restrictions for VFAI.

3. Automatic reactivation after turning it off - that was resolved in the latest version (see the original addon post thread with its change notes).

Regards,

VictorFarbau

thx Vic,

Guys, whoever picks it up, (Nikita :) some suggestions if possible:

it might be easier to make the script easy on cpu to render the script to safe behaviour only,

also if recognition and usage of ammo crates and if they would enjoy priority over weapons on ground would be great.

There was an issue with it as well if I remember well, namely you couldn't permanently switch to keep weapons because it switched back to drop weapons after some time automatically.

ignore if they were addressed already, haven't used it for a while

thx anyway...

[Robalo 465]

Work in progress:

DBaxopmxoys

The AI will check vehicles, crates, bodies and their (OA) backpacks.

Unless they have a sniper, mg or an automatic rifle, they will take AT weapons too. This version is made for ACE so they have no problems stealing stuff from unconscious units. They also grab bandages and the medics will also check for epi and morphine :).

Needs just a little more tweaking, maybe make them look for their own side weapons first, or their specialty etc. if it doesn't overcomplicate the scripts.

[lao fei mao 21]

Great, can't wait for playing it.

[Component Actual 10]

Victor, Just want to say thanks for giving this to the community. Been using VFAI for a good while now, and its one of those rare gems that I end up that I rarely think about an thats a good thing, cuz you usually are only thinking about something when it isn't working correctly. But yeah its a great mod that does excatly what it says.

[[frl]myke 14]

@Robalo_AS

that looks really great. Could you implement that AI also share ammo to each other when one is running out of ammo and another still has almost full amount?

And please, if possible, make it autodetect if ACE is installed or not so also non-ACE users could have the pleasure making use of this. This effort would be much appreciated, not only by me.

[Robalo 465]

Myke;1751438']@Robalo_AS

that looks really great. Could you implement that AI also share ammo to each other when one is running out of ammo and another still has almost full amount?

That's not such a bad idea, I'll keep that in mind but can't promise anything.

About the ACE thing, yes it will be auto-detected, not required.

[dmarkwick 261]

I know I mentioned this in t'uther thread, but I add it here for completeness.

When out of ammo, the AI should try to rearm from nearby dead bodies, even under fire. I think currently that being under fire overrides the rearming logic, but I think that being totally out of ammo should override the override :)

Edited September 17, 2010 by DMarkwick

[Robalo 465]

I know I mentioned this in t'uther thread, but I add it here for completeness.

When out of ammo, the I should try to rearm from nearby dead bodies, even under fire. I think currently that being under fire overrides the rearming logic, but I think that being totally out of ammo should override the override :)

Already implemented ;)

But if they're under your control you can still prevent it by issuing a stop command.

[dmarkwick 261]

Superb :) That was really the only issue I have, the addon has always been a constant for me since it first came out for ArmA1. I look forward to the first "new" release :)

[lao fei mao 21]

Today, I suddenly noticed that even if the vanilla AI(not your team) without or short of ammo positively search for ammos, is it the new feature of 1.54 patch?

[Robalo 465]

Today, I suddenly noticed that even if the vanilla AI(not your team) without or short of ammo positively search for ammos, is it the new feature of 1.54 patch?

I don't think so, I've rarely seen it happen even since OFP but only when I was in a group with AI leader and a unit in the group reported "low ammo" or "out of ammo" the AI leader gave command like "take magazine from...".

Are you sure that was with vanilla ? Rearming can happen when using SLX or GL4 too.

If I'd try the same as presented in the video, with vanilla, they would do nothing.

[erazor 10]

Work in progress:

DBaxopmxoys

The AI will check vehicles, crates, bodies and their (OA) backpacks.

Unless they have a sniper, mg or an automatic rifle, they will take AT weapons too. This version is made for ACE so they have no problems stealing stuff from unconscious units. They also grab bandages and the medics will also check for epi and morphine :).

Needs just a little more tweaking, maybe make them look for their own side weapons first, or their specialty etc. if it doesn't overcomplicate the scripts.

That looks pretty sweet.

Say, you gunna do a non-ACE version too?

ANd please do tell, whats that nice little 'radar' you got bottom-center? Looks like something i must get :)

[Robalo 465]

That looks pretty sweet.

Say, you gunna do a non-ACE version too?

ANd please do tell, whats that nice little 'radar' you got bottom-center? Looks like something i must get :)

1. ACE will not be a requirement, it will be checked for and if found running, ACE features will be used.

2. It's the ShackTac HUD

[spangg 0]

@Robalo

Any beta we could try?

[Robalo 465]

Not yet, haven't worked on it since I posted the video and it needs a little more tweaking. Maybe next week.

[domokun 515]

@Robalo: finished tweaking? I'd be happy to test it for you.

[Robalo 465]

@Robalo: finished tweaking? I'd be happy to test it for you.

Heh, more like a major overhaul :) I was busy with other projects so this got delayed. Hope to make time for it this week, it's coming along nicely.

Thing I'd like to improve, currently the AI only grabs one item at a time so they keep running back and forth to the same place sometimes, I have to make them grab whatever they need at once when found so they don't look so stupid :)

[kroky 1]

I am really happy to see you Robalo to even improve Victor's nice addon.

[domokun 515]

Indeed such attention may seem like unnecessary detail but I think such features are worth waiting for. You can be sure that if we saw the AI running to and fro it whilst re-arming it would definitely create disbelief, not suspend it. So keep going Robalo! We're all waiting on this true heir to Victor's already magnificent work!

[Xerxes-17 10]

I can't wait for this mod! Will make rearming my squad after takign a town a simple matter of walking through it and all of my guys just take stuff from the dead rebels as they need it.

[Robalo 465]

If anyone has any tips about using the TAKEMAGAZINE and TAKEWEAPON actions, please advise.

I'm having some problems, the AI unit looks like it's doing it, the item dissapears from where it was but it doesn't end up in the unit's inventory. It all looks correct but the weapon or magazine taken just vanishes.

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA_2:_Actions#TakeMagazine_.2F_TakeWeapon

EopNhMqCTko

Edited October 1, 2010 by Robalo_AS