fatty's ambient artillery tool

[fatty86 10]

Wrote this short little script to add ambience to missions involving large artillery pieces like cannons, rocket artillery, mortars, etc. Presumably would work with just about anything - I can confirm it works with Shilkas, for instance.

Basically, an object run with this script will fire at regular intervals at a target until the gunner is dead or runs out of ammo. Confirmed dedicated server safe.

SQF File

Demo Mission

/*

fatty's ambient artillery tool (faat) version 1.0

by fatty


Forces an AI gun (e.g. cannon or rocket artillery) to fire at regular intervals at a defined target. Gunners will persist until out of ammo or dead.

CAUTION: the guns fire live ammo, so be careful where you aim!

Required Parameters:
Artillery Piece (object) - object to begin firing.
Target (object) - target at which the artillery piece will fire. Suggested target is an invisible H setPos'd several hundred metres above the gun.

Optional Parameters:
Delay (number) - delay between shots in seconds (default is 10 seconds).
Disable aiming AI (boolean) - prevents AI gunners from engaging other targets (default is true).
Enable auto-rearm (boolean) - enables automatic rearming of gun after every shot (default is false).

Examples:
nul = [big_gun, gun_target] execVM "faat.sqf";
nul = [rocket_artillery, house, 20, false, true] execVM "faat.sqf";


*/

private ["_gun","_target","_delay","_disableaim","_autorearm"];

_gun = _this select 0;
_target = _this select 1;
_delay = if (count _this > 2) then {_this select 2} else {10};
_disableaim = if (count _this > 3) then {_this select 3} else {true};
_autorearm = if (count _this > 4) then {_this select 4} else {false};


if (_disableaim) then {
{_gun disableAI "_x";} foreach [move,target,autotarget,anim];
_gun setCombatMode "BLUE";
};

(gunner _gun) lookAt _target;

While {alive (gunner _gun)} do
{
sleep _delay;
_gun fire (weapons _gun select 0);
if (_autorearm) then {
	_gun setVehicleAmmo 1
};

};

Edited January 29, 2011 by fatty86

[nikita320106 0]

thanx mate)

[ricnunes 0]

Thanks fatty! That's the kind of script what I'm wishing for a mission that I planned to make sometime in the near future.

[ollem 4]

The script works great, but has one minor issue: the guns will try to shoot in a straight line to the target.

Confirmed to work with mortars too and even fixed machine guns will fire shot every x seconds :)

Would be nice if it could actually shoot at large distance using a parabolic flight path.

UPDATE:

It is actually possible:

I thought the guns were aiming at the helipad.

They do so, but I missed the option to set higher altitude in the helipad.

If you increase the z-axis, the rounds will not drop at the helipad area, but somewhere right behind it. distance depends on the set height of course.

Edited January 23, 2011 by Ollem

[fatty86 10]

UPDATE:

It is actually possible:

I thought the guns were aiming at the helipad.

They do so, but I missed the option to set higher altitude in the helipad.

If you increase the z-axis, the rounds will not drop at the helipad area, but somewhere right behind it. distance depends on the set height of course.

Yes, this is what I do in the demo mission: an invisible H setpos'd up in the air makes a good target. The challenge with this is that the live rounds going up will eventually come down somewhere. Would be nice to figure out a way to get the weapons to fire 'blanks.'

[f2k sel 164]

You need to use the fired command which can then be used to delete the fired ammo, you can then spawn a shell above the target.

Place this in the units init; when fired it will delete the shell.

this addeventhandler["fired", {deletevehicle (nearestobject[_this select 0, _this select 4]); _this execVM "spawnscript,sqf"}]

The following variables would be passed to the script.

Script.sqf

_shooter = _this Select 0; 
_weap = _this select 1;

_ammotype = _this Select 4;
_projectile = _this select 5;

// The rest off the code would go here

[demonized 20]

Would be nice to figure out a way to get the weapons to fire 'blanks.'

the "ARTY_Sh_105_ILLUM" rounds fire duds in patch 1.57 no beta afaik.

You can track the bullet all the way to the target area using a a fired EH but no impact, maybe its only duds when player shoot them, did not test with AI at the time.

this is that magazine "ARTY_30Rnd_105mmILLUM_M119"

Find more in:

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA_2:_Weapons#Artillery_Weapons_and_Special_Ammo

[ollem 4]

Great idea this script.

Took liberty to create modified v2 version (based on hint of F2k Sel. hope you don't mind.. ;-) )

faatv2.sqf

Demo mission v2

/*

fatty's ambient artillery tool (faat) version 2.0

by fatty, modified by Ollem

Forces an AI artillery to fire at regular intervals at a defined target. 
Gunners will persist until out of ammo or dead.

CAUTION: the guns fire live ammo, so be careful where you aim!

Required Parameters:
Artillery Piece (object) - object to begin firing.
Target (object) - target at which the artillery piece will fire. Suggested target could be an invisible HeliPad, flagpole, house, enemy vehicle, etc

Optional Parameters:
Delay (number) - delay between shots in seconds (default is 10 seconds).

Examples:
Put the following parameters in the initialization string of the artillery piece(s)
nul = [gun, target] execmVM "faatv2.sqf";
nul = [rocket_artillery, house, 20] execmVM "faatv2.sqf";

Changes v2.0:
- No need to put parameters in the initialization string of target anymore
- Target stays on actual position; a new hidden target is temporarily created at high altitude
- Faked artillery shots by deleteing rounds after firing and re-creating rounds 30m above target (with some random spread)
- Added some random time between shots
*/

private ["_gun","_target","_newTarget","_spawnDelay","_delay","_tposx","_tposy","_tposz","_dist","_posxGun","_posxTarget","_posyGun","_posyTarget","_poszGun","_poszTarget"];
//global variable faatAmmoType
faatAmmoType = 0;

_gun = _this select 0;
_target = _this select 1;
_delay = if (count _this > 2) then {_this select 2} else {10};
_delay = _delay + (random 6);

// keep gun pointed at target
_gun setCombatMode "BLUE";
_gun disableAI "move";
_gun disableAI "target";
_gun disableAI "autotarget";
_gun disableAI "anim";

_posxGun = ((getPosASL _gun) select 0);
_posxTarget = ((getPosASL _target) select 0);
_posyGun = ((getPosASL _gun) select 1);
_posyTarget = ((getPosASL _target) select 1);
_poszGun = ((getPosASL _gun) select 2);
_poszTarget = ((getPosASL _target) select 2);

_tposx = _posxTarget + ((_posxGun - _posxTarget)*(3/4));
_tposy = _posyTarget + ((_posyGun - _posyTarget)*(3/4));

_dist = _target Distance _gun;

if ( _poszGun > _poszTarget ) then {
_tposz = (getPosASL _target select 2) + (_dist/3);
}
else {
_tposz = (getPosASL _gun select 2) + (_dist/5);
};

// delay impact based on distance to target (no realistic timing)
_spawnDelay = (round (_dist/666));

// create virtual target (empty hidden helipad in the air)
_newTarget = "HeliHEmpty" createVehicle (getPos _target);
_newTarget setPosASL [_tposx,_tposy,_tposz];

sleep 1;

// gunner will look at hidden targets 'flying' in the air
(gunner _gun) lookAt _newTarget;

sleep 2;

// create eventhandler to monitor if gun is fired. If so, delete the fired round and put type of ammo in global variable
_gun addEventHandler ["fired",{faatAmmoType = _this select 4;deleteVehicle (nearestObject [_this select 0, _this select 4]);}];

While {alive (gunner _gun)} do
{
_gun fire (weapons _gun select 0);
sleep _spawnDelay;
//hint format["Fired ammo: %1",faatAmmoType];
// create new artillery round at actual target location at height of 30m
faatAmmoType createVehicle [(_posxTarget + 30 - random 60),(_posyTarget + 30 - random 60),30];
_gun setVehicleAmmo 1;
sleep _delay;
};

// removing auto created hidden virtual target and eventhandler
deleteVehicle _newTarget;
_gun removeAllEventHandlers "fired";

Edited February 19, 2011 by Ollem

[thedudeabides 40]

how is this script server side? Any one try it yet?

[Nikoladis 12]

Anything has to be changed for this (v1 version) to run in Arma 3?

When I do
nul = [art, pad, 20, true, true] execVM "faat.sqf";

It also fired at my CUP Fishingboat where I am in, 2 Km away, even though it has no line of sight, and second last parameter is true.

And should this line strings not be in capitals or does that not matter:
 

{_gun disableAI "_x";} foreach [move,target,autotarget,anim];

I need to use v1 of this script, since v2 does not show the projectile flying, and the projectiles seems to be stuck above the target in v2 also.