HETMAN - Artificial Commander

[Rydygier 1309]

Yeah, sort of works. They still don't move nearly as fast as default Arma2 waypoints so I'm not sure what is going on.

So I'm not sure too. With Rush setting HAC issues waypoints with normal speed (groups run instead walk), same, as if you will set up a waypoint in editor. If this not helps - then I do not know. Must be some factor out of HAC, that affects movement speed. If yours missions doesn't use any other addons, that I haven't - I can check it, if you want.

armor not going in if it is known that there is potential AA assets.

AT assets in the area, if known to the HQ, same, as not armor-friendly terrain, can make Leader hesitate about sending tanks there - chances will be lower. For HAC there is not such thing like "potential presence" factor however. Only confirmed presence. That's why recon is important to him. This also depends on Leader's personality, and this is always only probablility, not certainty.

armor was rushing ahead in before everything else

Many factors affects order, in which troops will be send forward by HAC. Hard even to list them all. Force profile and initial placement according to the objectives, terrain around, HAC settings (if recon is active, HAC will send armored quickly only, if there are no any better recon units available, but if recon is off, he will send pack of groups towards objective to take it right away/quick, and so armored can be used for that, if eg closer, than other groups, but this is more complex. Size of the group is also important)...

1. If the objective markers are moved during the mission will HQ re-evaluate?

Yes. HAC in each cycle takes current objective position, not initial. So eg. objective object can be even mobile unit, if needed such thing, also static objects, like triggers, can be displaced any time.

2. If it does evaluate how does this work? For example, lets say HQ takes Objective #1 and are on there way to Objective #2 or have then taken Objective #2 and at some point I move Objective #2 to an empty area? What happens then?

Once taken, objective will stay considered as taken even after displacement, as long as enemy will re-take it or will take objective of lower number by being present in big number enough and long enough (till next reset) in objective's area. Taken objective also will be not occupied forever, only some time, so is possible and common situation, when objective is taken, and there is no longer Leader's groups nearby (however some idle groups will often hanging around last taken objective). Eg if you have three objectives taken already, third can be lost when enemy take it, or take obectives 2 or 1 (for 1 also number 2 will be lost). Numerical order rules here. Note, that Leaders are in fact blind on every others objectives except their own. So each Leader will be interested of enemy's objectives' area only, if his own objectives are placed there, in nearby spots (when opposite objectives are paired). If own objectives are placed far from enemy's, Leader will not send any of his troops against opposite Leader's objectives -will ignore them completely.

However there is possible some trick to change HAC's objective status manually, it is used by BigBoss BTW, as he makes Leaders push forward after they take their objectives exactly by re-displacement of objectives forward.

There is internal global variable, that informs HAC, which objective is current for each Leader. This variable changes value when new objective is taken, or previous is lost, but you can manipulate it also "manually" to convince HAC, that given Leader does not take any objective, he took less, or more, or even all (what is useful for defensive mission setup). This is RydHQ_NObj variable (with usual letter distinction per Leader), described in chapter 9 of manual. Should have value of positive integer from 1 to 5. 1 means, that first objective is current for relevant Leader, 2 - second etc. 5 means, that all are taken. Set it back to dispalced objective number (eg. RydHQ_NObj = 2 after second objective displacement), if you want, so Leader will try to take it again (all subsequent will be considered as lost too due to numerical order rule, but without impact on morale).

Edited May 12, 2013 by Rydygier

[delta99 34]

Thanks again Rydgier for your excellent response. I will keep at it and continue to use this system to create interesting missions.

[ryanbeckey0 1]

hey rydgier, how is the work on guerrilla leader going?

[Rydygier 1309]

It is going, but slowly. I made this working already, but there is lack of some advanced behaviors like dynamic ambushes, IED planting/disarming, town occupation, ammo stashes sweep, hit and run attacks (mostly I know, how to do, but lack of time for coding this currently)... Lately was distracted by other stuff and this will stay that way some time. This would be more like very sophisticated version of ACM module than something like HAC Leader over certain amount of groups (strictly AI-centric). User will define positions of occupation force's FOB(s) and couple of other settings. Rest is based on suppoprt factor re-calculated for each town cyclically. If low, there is chance, that insurgent patrol will appear (town, because of which group was spawned, is considered as hometown of that group. Depends on town size there is limit of amount of such groups, that city can maintain at the time -the bigger town, the more groups possible, but also the slower support change). At FOB (each has own range of interest) there are spawned some guards (like HAC's garrisons), patrol groups and special, interventional groups (used for special activites, as engaging known insurgents directly, clearing towns or long lasting forward outposts somewhere) within certain limit depending of the size of FOB. Each cycle FOB will send patrol groups on the route through the towns within its interest radius, where support is lowest. On FOB's size depends also maximal amount of spawned group at the time. Presence of each occupation force group will rise support, presence of each insurgent group will lower the support. Insurgents, each group, have stashed in good hidden place own ammo boxes, where they can resupply ammo. They by default will patrol own town area, but can also decide on some special activities, like ambushes at predicted patrol routes of occupation groups, raid another town of too high support value to lower it, make coordinated attack on chosen target with other groups or even FOB itself (FOB can be destroyed permanently). If under attack, FOB will spawn additional guards. Combat ineffective occupation groups are replaced by new, when base is not under attack. Combat ineffectve insurgent groups will simply disperse etc. Player can here only act as independent factor (presence of any group, not only controlled by code will affect towns support), can also on his own attack partisans or occupants, and be ambushed/IED-ed accidently, but that's it.

All this across whole map, in the background. As for player's view this means rather low density of visible "action" around, unless by the chance he will go where something bigger is going on at the moment. Usually he just will see some patrol group on route here and there, some outpost sometimes or FOB...

So, it is different as for philosophy behind, than HAC. This is rather living and self-centred, constant, assimetric background warfare system.

Edited May 13, 2013 by Rydygier

[katipo66 94]

wow that sounds very interesting, I think I get how it would work, sort off :)

It All this across whole map, in the background. As for player's view this means rather low density of visible "action" around, unless by the chance he will go where something bigger is going on at the moment. Usually he just will see some patrol group on route here and there, some outpost sometimes or FOB...

Nothing wrong with slow burn as long as there is some life somewhere, need not always be action orientated.

With this system would it be possible to have any faction as the "occupier" who has supply trucks or patrols moving from town to town or base to base or variations of both, without any enemy forces spawning with the idea being that a player or group could attack/sabotage/infiltrate where ever they wished on the map or maybe with intel on routes similar to secops ambush etc?

Apologies if it's obvious from your explanation but it's late and my brain is fading fast.

Edited May 13, 2013 by Katipo66

[Rydygier 1309]

With this system would it be possible to have any faction as the "occupier"

That's the plan. Same for insurgents.

who has supply trucks or patrols moving from town to town or base to base or variations of both, without any enemy forces spawning with the idea being that a player or group could attack/sabotage/infiltrate where ever they wished on the map or maybe with intel on routes similar to secops ambush etc?

I'll think about such mode. Or even separate thing like that, we will see... :)

[katipo66 94]

Nice to hear mate, thanks, really looking forward to this!

[delta99 34]

These additions are sounding really great.

Rydygier, is there a repository or anything of missions created with HAC? Be nice to have one spot to goto and check out various missions.

[Rydygier 1309]

Well, no. There is no such repository. Not much to put in. I'm not awared about such missions released. Seems, that most people uses HAC for quick dynamic mission generation (like "throw some groups, leaders, objectives and go!"). I know, that some people was working about something more ambitious, but heard nothing about ready projects yet.

[delta99 34]

Ok, having trouble with a Lingor mission. I am using the Lingor Units config from the HAC Config thread. Not sure if it is up to date or even works but I've done some spot checking with it and seems to include units I'm using.

It seems like it is picking up all my units under the HQ command so that they must at least be defined somewhat properly.

What I am having a problem is, the leader is not taking objectives. At first I thought it was because I only had 2 objectives defined in the mission but I have since added all 4. The only missions being assigned are Recon missions. I only have OPFOR on the map so far so there isn't any enemy to contend with yet.

I've tried setting RydHQ_NoRec = 100 to have the HQ not even do recon and what happens is that all units get no orders at all. It seems I must be missing something for attack or capture missions.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Rydygier 1309]

Well, in such cases talking is usually not very helpful. For now I can only guess some typo/syntax kind of error. I should have Lingor addon, so best would be, if you can upload and provide me link to your mission here, so I could download it and just check, what is wrong, what I'll do gladly.

EDIT:

Also you could check, if RydHQ_RapidCapt is used too, along with RydHQ_NoRec. Without it HAC will usually wait several cycles before capturing missions, and will not send "take objective" misions, if too many enemies are known. But even then at least idle patrol/guard missions should be issued. Also perhaps RPT file contains some answers, always worthy of checking.

Edited May 21, 2013 by Rydygier

[delta99 34]

Well, in such cases talking is usually not very helpful. For now I can only guess some typo/syntax kind of error. I should have Lingor addon, so best would be, if you can upload and provide me link to your mission here, so I could download it and just check, what is wrong, what I'll do gladly.

EDIT:

Also you could check, if RydHQ_RapidCapt is used too, along with RydHQ_NoRec. Without it HAC will usually wait several cycles before capturing missions, and will not send "take objective" misions, if too many enemies are known. But even then at least idle patrol/guard missions should be issued. Also perhaps RPT file contains some answers, always worthy of checking.

If you do have Lingor, I'm using v1.4 or whichever one is currently available on Six. There was an update to Lingor within the last week but I haven't seen it available on Six yet.

I have probably tried RapidCapt but don't recall. I also tried NoRec and what happened was that no orders at all were issued over many cycles. I did have idle missions turned off though.

There was nothing in RPT that I could see. Either errors or otherwise. I've also gotten pretty good and debugging and watching internal HAC variables and such to see what is going on but I'm sure you'd have a much better idea what to look for.

Oh, I should mention I'm using the latest ACE version available via Six as well. I haven't had any real problems with ACE and HAC before so I didn't think of testing without it. EDIT: Tried again with Vanilla, no ace, no mods and same. Zipping up and uploading somewhere then will PM you link.

What I will do is pack up the mission when I get a chance and provide a download link for you (likely through a PM).

Edited May 21, 2013 by Delta99

[delta99 34]

Just a followup to my issues with Lingor. Basically it came down to the unit config I got from the forums being incorrect. Rydygier agreed that his private response to me would be worthwhile to post here in case others run into a similar issue. Here is his response:

Main problem was caused by RHQ set, because author of this set put officer classes into RHQ_FO, what shouldn't be done. HAC divides his combat effective groups between two categories: reconAvailable and attackAvailable. Groups of first category will be never used for capturing missions as specialized recon troops. So, if groups is FO or Recon, can't be in the same time attackAvailable, as these are observers, not fighters. And only attackAvailable groups can be used for capturing. As general rule, with small exceptions, if in the group is even only one unit of given category, whole groups is added to that category. As every group has own officer, each, except three choppers, was considered as FO group, means not attackAvailable, means capturing for all these groups was not allowed. Choppers of course wasn't used for capturing, as these are aerial units.

Solution is simply: remove all three officer classes from RHQ_FO (optionally add there more proper unit classes if needed (keeping in mind above explanation), FO is kind of recon with some special bahavior during recon missions - will tend to take elevated positions near recon area and will stay there much longer than regular recon), and after that in debug mode you shoulkd see Cap markers around first objective, as I saw, quite quick, if are used also:

RydHQ_NoRec = 10000;

RydHQ_RapidCapt = 10000;

Much thanks to Rydygier for a great system and also helping out so much on the forums. Involved contributors like him make this community great.

[Rydygier 1309]

Lately tested some other scripts with HAC, and managed to combine them into something probably nice to play. Speaking shortly - I made a mission :). Nothing big, so there is no separate release. Using it inaugurated for a try new section in the first post of the thread, between "to do" and "my thanks" - "sample missions". Interested can find there this mission, named "Last Truck", including description, also, if there will be any, other missions in the future. Feel free to let me know, what do you think about this idea and the mission itself, if want to try it. It is not quite typical mission. It is not about killing enemies, nor surviving, but about saving civilians from the war zone.

Used HAC code contains some small fix for radio chatter system.

Edited June 16, 2013 by Rydygier

[delta99 34]

Sounds like an interesting mission idea actually. I will try to try it out but busy these days so may not get around to it for a few weeks.

[CthulhuRay 10]

the description of the mission sounds cool, I'll see if I can get a chance to try it out tonight. I also like the idea of spectating the "HAC" battle, is it tricky to set up?

I've never made a full mission with briefings and whatnot but I love playing around in the editor, my latest development uses HAC and Charons Undead mod. basically you start on the top Chernarus airport as Opfor with a squad and taxi helicopter. Bluefor start at the bottom. all out infantry combat with transport heli and trucks clearing towns and avoiding zombies. It's sort of random I guess. I just love watching the russian helicopters transporting troops to and from the battlefield. pity I can't fly myself ;p

if I happened to make myself a transport helicopter pilot would HAC give me missions to transport troops around? never tried it.

[orcinus 121]

I also like the idea of spectating the "HAC" battle, is it tricky to set up?

Least disruptive way is to make your player character a civ - I usually employ a Doctor - and add to the init.sqf the line

onMapSingleClick "player setpos _pos";

Clicking on the map will teleport you to wherever you want.

To be safe, add to the init box of the unit

this allowdamage false;

which will prevent you getting killed off by stray bullets, artillery, etc.

[Rydygier 1309]

if I happened to make myself a transport helicopter pilot would HAC give me missions to transport troops around?

Yes. If yours helicopter will be needed for transport, and you will be a group leader, you'll get such mission. Rarely tested, but should work.

If you want to spectate like in Last Truck mission, with free cam autonomously choosing spots to show, check this demo:

ActionCam

Copy all content of this mission folder except mission.sqm directly, as is, into yours mission folder, then in editor set up same, named CamTr trigger, where you want initial camera position, you can initialize from it the camera eg via radio channel, same as in demo, or initialize camera in any other place you like with same line (nul = execVM "Spectate.sqf";).

[CthulhuRay 10]

Thanks Orcinus and Rydygier, I'll play around with it tonight. I hope to someday create something worth of sharing with the rest of the world :P

[ryanbeckey0 1]

hey rydgier, quick question for you

could I attach one of the 4 objective triggers to a unit? say for example, objective 4 trigger will be attached to the enemy commander (me), or will this cause my pc to overload with the HC planning attacks everytime I move around?

[Rydygier 1309]

Yes. You can attach. You can even make a Leader to be also an objective simultanously via RydHQ_Obj4 = leaderHQ;. Only changing objectives' object should be avoided, cause some variables for capturing are stored in that object's scope.

This will no affect attacks number nor cause any load increase. Never tested that frankly, but I suppose, if objective is on the move, attack already sent will go to the position valid at the init of that attack, so should be futile, as code checks for present capturing forces the vicinity of the object, not its position at the begin of the capturing mission. So enemy will go, where objective was at the mission start, and will stay there as long, as usual capturing groups wait at the objective. Next attack of course will be send on new position.

[ryanbeckey0 1]

great news, guess ill be playing as a guerrilla commander on the run from the US ;)

thanks for reply

[3inar 10]

Hey Rydygier,

I was curios if and when you will releas this for arma3? Mabe it already works with it?

I love arma 3 but without this mod it is like a pice is missing! :)

[Rydygier 1309]

There was reports, that current version works under A3 with exception for features basing on A2 object classnames, like ammo drops (used chute class name). MP compatibility, I heard, is in A3 handled another way, than in A2 (no MP Framework anymore), so this is not working too, I guess, same of course for whole artillery system based on A2 arty module, in alpha lite I saw only two mortars however, that somehow are able to take care on themselves and no need as much babysitting to fire. Rest probably should work.

On first page there is linked zorrobyte's repository with his unofficial work on HAC for A3. Currently this is the only movement towards A3 here. I'm planning A3 version, but will start with it when I get A3 final, stable release (1.0 at least). This may take some time, as I'm technically cut off from downloading big data, so must wait for box version with all data on DVD only activated on the Steam (BTW games' Steam dependency, because of my poor, limited net connection become more and more my personal plague, when comes to gaming).

Edited June 29, 2013 by Rydygier

[Georilla 6]

I'm struggling a little on a mission I'm trying to make. HAC is perfect for the general idea, but the execution is a little troublesome. Here is the thing I'm trying to make: Takistan map, a war has just started, NATO invaded the country. The bigger cities, airports and keypoints (like the oil locations) are owned and occupied by the Takistan Army. The smaller general and non-strategic positions are generally non-hostile or sometimes occupied by the Takistan militia forces. Other than that I use the ALICE module to randomly fill the towns with a little ambience.

My problem is that thinking big, which means a couple of platoons of forces on both sides quickly ends in a lag fest when playing. And they're not even engaged yet. Especially when using big boss. I'm running out of ideas on how to execute this. The best solution would be caching the units (like DAC does), but HAC doesn't seem to like that very much -- according to what I read on this thread. I could use DAC, but it doesn't really have the brain of HAC like a coherent force. And I don't like the way it randomly makes squads with sometimes strange combination of units. I'm guessing I can work out the Takistan militia with some dynamic script, they're not supposed to operate with the Takistan Army anyway. ALICE works fine too.

That leaves out what to do with the big armies on both sides?

The big picture is a modern NATO invasion on Takistan on key points. But making it work without the (what looks like scripting, huge piles of information) lag.