Creating Multiple Sides

[subliminalss 12]

So as default in game we have 4 or so sides, I personally think it would be possible to create sides for the game in the same way as the devs have done for the existing, i.e. a mercenaries WIF style game with lots of factions, US, Russia, Chinese, Mercs ... I know I can swap individual units from group east to west however I don’t see why a add-on cant be created with lots of groups or even in an init file for a mission, does anyone have any experience of this and what is required to build a side?

any advise on the issue would be greatley appreciated.

[slatts 1978]

you are stuck with the 4 core groups

Blufor

Opfor

Independent

and civs

these cannot be changed/or have new groups added in

new armies must be added into one of these groups

e.g, if you made some chinese units as you mentioned, you would have to add them to one of the 4 groups, so it would be like opfor/china/infantry/rifleman

Edited June 20, 2011 by Slatts
wording

[subliminalss 12]

No not created anything just thought it should be possible to create floating factions in a mission, with variable points i.e. do one mission you get £500 and 50 US Friendly points but - 100 chinease points, i suppose i could make triggers so above and below certaint point values = x groups join the east side then guer side then west side. Can you change an existing groups side or is it stuck to one side when created,

i.e. if you have 5 groups of US, complete a mission that is -101 us points hits a trigger -100 US points makes them enemy, will i then have to create goups USeast,USeast2 etc and delete USwest for example or can i just change the group side so US1, US 2 side east. Or of course the option for 3 floating groups for every one group, Hmm food for thought i think

[crimsontide 10]

not sure if I understand what you are asking for, but there was an addon for vanilla arma 2 that came out a few years ago that put the all factions on all sides. in other words, usmc factions under independant and opfor as well as blufor, guerrillas under bluefor and opfor as well as ind., etc. I cant seem to find the link though. it came out a while ago. if you want to make blufor units opfor, you can group them to an opfor unit and then make the probability of presence for the opfor 0. alternately, you can set the desired amount of opfor units and then go into the mission.sqm and change the classnames to the desired blufor units.

[subliminalss 12]

No crimson definitely re read my previous post it's allabout on the fly dynamic changing sides. I'm making an open world mission like mercenaries worl in flames game

[[aps]gnat 28]

Not sure this is really directly implemented in BIS commands.

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

See bottom of page for some possible method.

Another option may be SETFRIEND, but someone has said;

Intended to be used on mission start. Changing value during mission can cause unexpected errors in AI behavior.

[subliminalss 12]

I'm feeling u should maybe add the context of my use to shed some light in my idea.

1long mission with shops nd transport system little like Gta lots of repeat missions like soms and then a story. 4-5 factions and you play through gainin favour with each one and pissing the other off. Do work for yanks against Russians it adds us support options and makes the chance of the Russians shooting you higher.

It's this floating favour with 4-5 factions I'm struggling to re create

[Spartan 163 0]

I'm feeling u should maybe add the context of my use to shed some light in my idea.

1long mission with shops nd transport system little like Gta lots of repeat missions like soms and then a story. 4-5 factions and you play through gainin favour with each one and pissing the other off. Do work for yanks against Russians it adds us support options and makes the chance of the Russians shooting you higher.

It's this floating favour with 4-5 factions I'm struggling to re create

Beta test/proof of concept mission, screen shots, example scripts?

[subliminalss 12]

Beta test/proof of concept mission, screen shots, example scripts?

Is that a question for some? Demand or what

[Spartan 163 0]

I am not one of the many who say release it now fyi.

It seems to me that the only person who knows what you want/talking about is you. The above items would be nice to see so you might get the answers you want and the help you need.

[subliminalss 12]

I am not one of the many who say release it now fyi.

It seems to me that the only person who knows what you want/talking about is you. The above items would be nice to see so you might get the answers you want and the help you need.

I'm asking about the core system and it's all code not something you can see I'm afraid until it's at work I can show you a nice iPad interface for buying guns and the bus system

---------- Post added at 08:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:29 PM ----------

Also possibly nobody quite understands what im after as it is not possible in arma with the side restriction, maybe ill have to switch myself from independent, blufor opfor and Civ rather than the world.

Ill try explain,

You have USMC and russians,

at game start you can walk up to and talk to both commanders.

take a mission from Russians to attack US.

Outcome US dont like you so much

Take a few missions from the Russians to get lots of Russian guns and airstrikes etc the US attack on site.

Adversely if you want lots of US gear you do missions for them and eentually the russians attack on site. Surely this now makes sense.

And please someone must have played mercenaries: playground of destruction.

[abs 2]

There's no native way to do this in ARMA2. You'll have to code it yourself to keep track of the character's reputation amongst the sides. By using the commands on the page that Gnat gave you on the previous page, the best you can do is set whether or not you are a friend or an enemy to each side. As for the "points" system you have in mind (I'm 1083 points friendly with the west, 395 friendly with the east, and -500 friendly with resistance" you're going to have to program on your own.

Good luck.

Abs

[subliminalss 12]

I know i am programming my own lol the whole topic seems to have gone off lol. The origional question was can i make more than one side, naturally now as i want 4 or so factions not just 2.

Keeping track of the default arma factions is childs play but say i have NATO, USMC, Russians, Guerillas and Chinease. That becomes more complicated however if i was able to create sides for each, again this becomes alot easier. Its gonna have to be about triggerd Zones i think and outside of this zone everyone shoots as usual blufor vs opfor. and i belong to indep blufor or opfor depending on who ive done work for and against.

[abs 2]

I know i am programming my own lol the whole topic seems to have gone off lol. The origional question was can i make more than one side, naturally now as i want 4 or so factions not just 2.

Keeping track of the default arma factions is childs play but say i have NATO, USMC, Russians, Guerillas and Chinease. That becomes more complicated however if i was able to create sides for each, again this becomes alot easier. Its gonna have to be about triggerd Zones i think and outside of this zone everyone shoots as usual blufor vs opfor. and i belong to indep blufor or opfor depending on who ive done work for and against.

Maybe you're not understanding the definions of Sides and Factions, as it has a more specific meaning when it comes to ArmA.

Sides cannot be created in ArmA2. Period. No way around this.

Factions can be created and added to one of the default eight sides in the game (maybe. I've never tried creating a faction for the sideLogic, Friendly, Enemy, or Unknown sides.)

Each of the spolier boxes in my post is a Side. Each item listed in each box is a Faction.

SIDES:

WEST:

- USMC

- BAF

EAST:

- Russian Units

- Chinese Units

CIVILIAN:

- Civilian Units

RESISTANCE:

- FIA

- Other Guerrila Units

You stated a list of "NATO, USMC, Russians, Guerillas and Chinease", and how it would be confusing to keep track of so you wanted them all to have their own "Sides".

Unless you want NATO troops shooting at USMC troops, you can assign each Faction to the following Sides:

West:

- NATO

- USMC

East:

- Russians

Resistance:

- Chinese

Civilians:

- Guerrilas

I hope this has clarified things for you a little bit.

Abs

[subliminalss 12]

Never mind mate trust me I know the relationships I was talking about factions and sides in my conext. All the thread was about was if sides are createable. All the workarounds mentioned I have already thought of. Thanks for the suggestions though.

If devs can create sides I was hoping they might be creatable, I.e create a side create a centre create group add units. This has been cleared as not possible

However I was referring to sides and factions in the missions context. Instead of having factions inside 3 waring sides I wanted 1 more side added ala resistance model. Like i said though not possible.

But thanks for the responses guys workarounds are appreciated but I have them coming out my ears. Like I said I was hoping to separate each mission faction with an "arma side"

I know arma is not built to be a dynamic ever changing environment with long games in 1 mission but this is what I'm going for. And any naysayers it ain't your time it's mine to waste.

[subliminalss 12]

Well as i promised my Ipad Shopping interface works well as long as the weapons are delivered to a safehouse weapons locker. If any moderators read this im happy for the thread to be closed or moved to missions editing because it was placed in Mods accidentally

[Spartan 163 0]

Your image is way to big. You might want to scale it down.

[abs 2]

I can't decide if I want to ask if that's an iPad 2, or if it will take 6-8 weeks for delivery.

All jokes aside, creative interface!

Abs

[zooloo75 834]

I know what you're talking about. You want something like Mercenaries amirite?

BTW, nice concept! :D