Info Age- What does it mean?

[David Schofield 10]

I'm a veteran player of ArmA 2 and mission editor, but I've never really understood what the "Info Age" setting means. :o

[kylania 568]

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

Info Age

Defines how long it has been since some unit belonging to the same side as player has seen this target. By default enemy units are not known unless somebody sees them (unknown). This way you can reveal some enemy unit to the center of the player. The impact of this value on AI behaviour is minimal, it influences mostly path-finding (AI groups try to avoid known enemies), to some extent it changes how fast will AI recognize the unit once they see it, and it may also cause AI center to send units which are available as guards (are ready at a guard waypoint).

[Trapper 0]

Shit, I'm too late to paste. :p

So, in some way it creates the floating unit symbols on the map, you'll know from regular difficulty - at least for the AI, I've never tried it as player.

[maturin 12]

I've read that. It's very confusingly written.

Defines how long it has been since some unit belonging to the same side as player has seen this target.

Some unit? This is so vague. Can I define which unit the info age refers to who? But how on earth would I do that with a simple drop-down menu?

By default enemy units are not known unless somebody sees them (unknown). This way you can reveal some enemy unit to the center of the player. [

'To the center of the player?' Will the player see them marker on the map? Will he call them out to his squad?

The impact of this value on AI behaviour is minimal, it influences mostly path-finding (AI groups try to avoid known enemies), to some extent it changes how fast will AI recognize the unit once they see it, and it may also cause AI center to send units which are available as guards (are ready at a guard waypoint).

How would this affect AI at all? It was just stated that changing info age gives information to the player.

[kylania 568]

"some unit" as in "someone on your side knew about it" not any specific or selectable unit, just a general "before the battle we have intelligence that X was at Y".

"Center of the player" means "side" of the player. Before you can spawn a unit you need to create a group and before you can create a group you need a center on the map. Usually players have no idea about this since in the 2D editor you don't have to worry about it unless you're using scripts to spawn things.

It'll affect AI exactly as described - very minimally adjust it's movements, maybe.

This isn't really a feature that does much or one you should put a lot of effort into. :)

[elmas 10]

I have made experiments regarding AI behaviour. If they can shoot from very far away, like helicopters, they do, as they already know the position of the unit or, the fact that the unit exists.

[Trapper 0]

Some of your questions you'll have to try out yourself (e.g. will the unit markers appear on the early/briefing map? are they called out by anyone?)

One scenario coming to my mind which is maybe worth info-age, would be a mission start, taking place in a big base attack/defense, where one or both sides will already know about the enemy positions.

The AI engagement ranges and movements should differ.

Also info-age could be used instead of a scripted reveal command, in a situation where the mission maker wants to create a non scripted, realistic ambush.

Same goes for an AI air raid in which the pilots are meant to be briefed about the enemy AA positions.

Info-age is one of the ways to "talk" to your AI actors. It's present since the OFP editor and maybe was supposed to be WYSIWYG, like some other editor parts, in a time when no one thought scripting would become that detailed and important.