Why predetermine "OPFOR" and "BLUFOR" for the various factions?

[blackettle 10]

Is there any reason to have the various factions pre-designated OPFOR and BLUFOR? I wonder if it would not be nice to have factions designated as OPFOR or BLUFOR in the mission editor on a per-mission basis.

For instance, I could then designate USMC as OPFOR and BAF as BLUEFOR and have a rematch.

Let's say we get PLA faction eventually, then one could choose PLA/USMC v.s. RUSSIA for one mission and RUSSIA/USMC v.s. PLA for some other mission.

Edited January 20, 2011 by blackettle

[Mr. Charles 22]

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/setFriend,

write the fact that the russkies are friendly to US into ya briefing or you will get lots of blue on blue in mp missions

[galzohar 31]

Yeah this is just the default behavior, and while you can't redefine the sides, you can redefine which side is friendly to which (heck, independent side friendliness is in the editor itself! Blue/red though need the setFriend command), and you can also make any unit any side you want - Either edit the sides in mission.sqm or give it a leader of the desired side and set the leader's probability of presence to 0.

[rübe 127]

Nevertheless, it's really about time to set things straight regarding sides and factions. That system did well while still stuck in cold war, but the iron curtain is no more.. ;)

I hope that maybe for the next iteration of the game, finally unlimited sides will be available, aswell as the option to globally assign factions to sides. This would make things a lot easier... I mean, if you can't easily - that is no hacks or workarounds - have a fight between RU and TK/TK_INS (because both of them are on side east), you know something is a little bit broken.

[celery 8]

the iron curtain is no more.. ;)

If you mean to say that Russia and the West are now friends, that's really stretching it.

Edited January 21, 2011 by Celery

[spooky lynx 73]

Unfortunately, 'setFriend' command doesn't work in needed way. So change in side assignment of units would be very much appreciated. And it shouldn't be 'opfor' and 'blufor', I think. But 'player's', 'enemy', 'friendly' and 'neutral'. Such way of assignment would expand missionmakers' abilitied greatly.

[avengerzx 10]

Is this being posted in the wrong section?

[blackettle 10]

What if there is a section in the editor that allowed you to create sides (up to a finite number) and name them as you wish, then you could assign a faction(s) to each side.

Any units placed on the map belonging to a faction which has not been assigned to a side which you created would be considered neutral.

for instance:

I create 2 sides named:

1) "Axis"

2) "Allies"

Then I do assignments:

Allies: USA and German

Axis: PLA and Russia

Or

Allies: USA and PLA

Axis: German and Russia

Or

Axis: USA and IDF

Allies: Everyone else

---------- Post added at 04:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:33 PM ----------

Is this being posted in the wrong section?

I am suggesting that we be given the liberty of designating the sides that the factions belong to rather than having this predetermined.

Considering that it is a suggestion posted in the "SUGGESTIONS" section, it seems to be in the correct section.

[galzohar 31]

The thing is though you can change the sides, it's just takes more than 4 clicks to do it. Either edit the side in mission.sqm or give them a group leader from the desired side with 0% probability of presence. The setFriend command is not really needed.

[dmarkwick 261]

I think what would be more flexible is a system where you can set the side of each faction. I don't know how this would manifest in the editor, either have default sides that can be changed, or lose the sides part and just link factions. Have a module that can look after all this with a UI, or a drag & drop section where you can set it up.

[spooky lynx 73]

Just look at Sudden Strike editor. It is an example of solution.

[Beagle 684]

LockOn and DCS have a simple solution for this in the editor. Before making a mission you have to assign all available nations into a alliance

so you can have for example US, UK, RUS vs. Georgia, Turkey and Israel.

[galzohar 31]

Yes, an inherent editor interface to set those things would be nice, but currently it's not a whole lot more difficult than what it should be if you know how to do it (but granted, finding out how is not exactly intuitive either).

[stupidwhitekid75 11]

The interface could be changed where you go to select weather and who independents are friendly too...each faction could be added instead of independent and you could just select BLUFOR or OPFOR for each.

Look something like this:

USMC...........................|BLUFOR|...............|OPFOR|...............|INDEPENDENT|...............|NOBODY|

US Army.......................|BLUFOR|...............|OPFOR|...............|INDEPENDENT|...............|NOBODY|

Russian Army.................|BLUFOR|...............|OPFOR|...............|INDEPENDENT|...............|NOBODY|

Takistan Army................|BLUFOR|...............|OPFOR|...............|INDEPENDENT|...............|NOBODY|

It basically would be who they're friendly towards..the difference being is that independent would mean they're friendly towards both BLUFOR and OPFOR.

[2nd ranger 282]

Yeah, perhaps a set of checkboxes next to each side that you just tick to set their allegiance. Thing is though, I think whatever side the player is should always be BLUFOR. It looks weird in-game if you can see units on the map and your side is red while the enemy is blue. Red = danger = enemy.

So I guess if this was implemented in the editor, the BLUFOR checkbox would be ticked and locked for whatever side the player was. And they'd all be locked if no player was selected.

[NoRailgunner 0]

...just some informations:

Side relations: http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Side_relations

createCenter: http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/createCenter

You may also try the hidden 3D-Editor (Alt+E). ;)

And it shouldn't be 'opfor' and 'blufor', I think.

You are wrong, those abbreviations are very common in military usage:

BLUFOR = Blue Forces (friendly)

OPFOR = Opposing Forces (enemy)

Neutral

Unknown

[Pyronick 21]

From what I read it is not possible to seperate individual units by using something like "this setFriend"?

[maddogx 13]

From what I read it is not possible to seperate individual units by using something like "this setFriend"?

Do you mean making individual units on the same side hostile to each other? You can do that using the method described in the first link NoRailgunner posted.

[Pyronick 21]

Do you mean making individual units on the same side hostile to each other? You can do that using the method described in the first link NoRailgunner posted.

No, I not only ment individual OPFOR units going rogue against their own army, but also friends with BLUFOR. Without grouping them to BLUFOR units.

[galzohar 31]

Well group them to a bluefor unit with 0% probability of presence...

Yeah it's a bit complicated to change units' sides in the middle of the mission, but anyway the engine's way of handling units changing sides mid-mission seems a bit buggy anyway.

[kotov12345 10]

imho use real nations like target in game is bad idea and lead to bad things in real life.

IF I make game I did 2 army called something like ALIENS and Predators or white army and yellow with mixed weapons. When we play IC-ARMA we used mixed weapons and it was brilliant idea.

[rangerpl 13]

They should do it the way it's done in the Flanker combat flight sim series.

This is my proposition. You select a faction by clicking on it and use the arrow buttons to move it left or right as you please.

However, doing it this way would break all existing missions. My solution? This window would only allow you to override the default settings. Thus, missions created before this update would use the default settings (USMC and CDF vs RUS and ChDKZ), and any missions created afterwards would have the option to override the settings contained inside each faction's .pbo config files. You could also hit default and this would set factions the way BIS designed them. So, when the game loads the map (in editor or otherwise), it will look for the appropriate line of code in mission.sqm. If it finds this line (meaning the mission was created with the updated editor), then it will load the factions using the override and if it doesn't (meaning the mission was made before), then it'll use the vanilla settings for factions.

Edited February 26, 2011 by RangerPL

[celery 8]

Couldn't the factions just as well be on their default sides when you begin the dragging?

[Pyronick 21]

It would be nice if you could use the statement: "this setFriend WEST".