Interaction Scripts

[gobbo 10]

As announced by Glowbal, here's my little update on what I've been up to.

Firstly, let me introduce myself.

I'm gobbo, maybe known to some. I was part of the DayZ development team, mostly responsible for the German translations and bad ideas (:P). I've been scripting SQF since ArmA 1 and currently am learning C++ config coding.

When Glowbal asked for help in our community (16AA), I offered to do some SQF scripting, expecting to toss in a few lines here and there, but my C++ coding ended up dragging me completely into this project.

I've mainly been working on two things so far, the interactions with vehicles and civilians.

Interaction with vehicles was previously limited to searching the vehicle. A hint would pop up, telling you what you found in that vehicle. Sometimes that script would generate an IED in that vehicle, but it was all completely at random. If you didn't remember what vehicle contained what, things could get messy, which prompted us to change something about the script.

Which is where my C++ knowledge came in handy, as demonstrated by the following picture:

The vehicle interaction menu.

It contains a list of random junk in the vehicle (same on all clients in MP) as well as some interactions.

If the vehicle has a live IED, the "Disarm IED" button becomes available. IEDs are now generated in a separate script that Glowbal has been working on, allowing mission makers to place vehicle-borne IEDs in the mission, giving them complete control over all IEDs involved. When a player tries to disarm an IED, there is a chance he might set off the IED. This chance is lower for engineers and demolitions experts, as they are trained in handling and disarming explosives.

There is a small chance the players can find evidence in the vehicle. In that case, the "Take Evidence" button becomes available, adding an evidence item to the player's gear.

For this, I rewrote the entire vehicle interaction script from the ground up, and I'm fairly satisfied with the result.

Glowbal liked the menu a lot, so I went ahead and uncluttered the action menu by creating another menu:

The civilian interaction menu.

With this menu, players can interact with civilians. It basically collects actions previously found in the action menu and moves them into a neat menu.

The "Arrest Options" become available once the civilian gets subdued using keycuffs (currently the ACE ones, but we're working on an own keycuff item to be independent from ACE).

After arresting, the menu looks like this:

Now the player can interact with the subdued civilian. He can take the civilian with him, put them down on the ground, load them into nearby vehicles, and release them again.

That's all from me for now, but there will be more coming soon.

If you have any questions so far, feel free to ask!

Fun fact: While making the vehicle interaction menu, I crashed my ArmA 2 about a dozen time due to sloppy C++ coding. However, the civilian interaction menu went without crashes. ;)

[khaki 10]

So when disarming IED's, it's basically relying only on chance?

[orcinus 121]

- Stance system

Hi Glowbal

Thanks for your & your colleagues' work on this, it will definitely be a really nice addition to mission design.

One point on stance changes - two addons that I regard as essential for combat are asr_ai & TPWC AI suppression, both of which change stances. TPWC AI suppression was designed not to conflict with asr_ai. I hope that either any stance changes in the Interaction scripts will not cause conflicts, or alternatively can be toggled off.

Cheers

Orcinus

[glowbal 13]

So when disarming IED's, it's basically relying only on chance?

It is relying on chance, however if you are an engineer the chance of it going wrong is low. While if you are playing as any other slot, there is quite a high chance of it blowing up in your face.

Hi Glowbal

Thanks for your & your colleagues' work on this, it will definitely be a really nice addition to mission design.

One point on stance changes - two addons that I regard as essential for combat are asr_ai & TPWC AI suppression, both of which change stances. TPWC AI suppression was designed not to conflict with asr_ai. I hope that either any stance changes in the Interaction scripts will not cause conflicts, or alternatively can be toggled off.

Cheers

Orcinus

Perhaps I named it wrongly. English is not my first language.. It's something that keeps track between the relationship between BLUFOR and civilian units. It does not let them crouch or go prone. Lets say you are on patrol, get into a fire fight and you toss in a grenade into a compound. When you enter, you notice there are civilians in side, now dead. It keeps track of those kind of things. The more civilian casualties you make, the more chance there is that the civi's will be pissed off.

This can be seen through talking with civilians (they reply with angry sentences) for the moment. Eventually I plan to supply something that will take it futher and spawn angry crowds or more insurgents on the map depending on the level of the system. But that's something I still have to flush out and see if it's even doable and worth it (performance and all that).

[PTV-Jobo 820]

Every time I check this thread, I am filled with both awe and excitement. I am definitely looking forward to integrating this into coop missions when released. It adds a whole new dimension and life into missions. :D

[scarecrow398 43]

How did i only just discover this thread? this is looking like a great addition to interaction with the game world and overall immersion, nice work!

[raptor 6 actual 13]

Welcome to the team Gobbo and great job on the progress Glowbal. I love seeing the progress on this. It will definitely be on my "must have" mods once it's finished. Keep up the great work.

[orcinus 121]

Thanks, Glowbal - that's great, since TPWC AIS doesn't apply to civs. Dunno if asr_ai affects civs, but it uses setPosWeak for the stance changes; so there shouldn't be a problem even if it does run on civs.

You might like to take a look at what MadRussian has been working on with regard to civs & spawning/'choosing' sides, interesting stuff with lots of possibilities:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?133128-Making-a-BUSY-squad-unit-take-orders-again

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?134239-Switching-AI-units-from-one-Side-to-another-gt-Getting-quot-Non-Reactive-quot-units

The devs fixed the bug MR found within a day or two.

@Gobbo: nice menus, I like the idea of taking them out of the action menu very much :)

Really interesting work, looking forward to trying it out. If you need testers, PM me at any time.

Cheers

Orcinus

[glowbal 13]

Another update in a short period of time, but we made some more progress which I really wanted to show.

Dialog image created by: Deadman

Dialog in game & adjustments to code by gobbo

Basicly, we've attempted to create something to add more depth in the interaction with civilians. This started off with the ID feature I've added in a few weeks ago, which was very basic and simple. And over the last week, I've been working on getting some system going that assigns information to a person, which is the code behind what you saw in the video.

Now it currently has two states: 1) Person is not in the system yet and 2) Person is in the system already. It can however only be in the system if he has been assigned data already. While it works that you have to do a scan first before a person is in the system.

In the next few days I'm going to implement another check, which basicly means it will check whatever or not someone is an insurgent, and if he is, there is a chance it will display this information + he will already be in database.

I want to thank Deadman for his awesome work on the picture, and of course gobbo for the awesome work with putting it in game and making it look nice. :D

One note on this: I realise it does not function like the real life version, but this is how we felt it would bring something interesting to the game. Feed back is welcome.

Also an update for the spotter;

When you get near, he will take his ride and drive off. Eventually he will go relatively near to his starting position, get off his bike and start watching for BLUFOR units again and repeat the entire process.

There will be two versions, one with and one without the motercycle.

And to close off, I've done another test with ~16 people, which again was succesful. This time I also tested the insurgents, riots and so on. And I've found a few bugs which were fixed, as well as some performance fixes for the riot (way lighter now!). A video of this gameplay might be uploaded in the next few days, for those interested. It has some very interesting moments.

[gobbo 10]

Short update:

As Glowbal is currently away, I'm working on fixing a few bugs and integrating a few new minor features at the moment.

Apart from soldiers now only being able to take one suspect with them (previously a bug allowed you to take every single suspect on the map with you if you wanted), I added randomized weapons for insurgent gunmen as well as this:

IEDs and evidence now show up in a vehicle's content list, and if an IED gets disarmed, a disarmed IED gets displayed in the menu.

(The vehicle content in this picture has been set to contain both IED types as well as evidence for debug reasons.)

Edited July 24, 2012 by gobbo

[goose4291 11]

This is one of the few things I'm looking forward too. Can't wait for this to be released. Have so many mission ideas this will help realise. Thanks in advance!

[MGeverelli 1]

Seriously impressive stuff! Really pushing the boundaries of the game. Keep up the good work !

[Cytreen 14]

I love the ideas you guys are coming up with but i fear that its not going to be compatible with MSO. I hope it will be compatible with both MSO and ACE.

[scarecrow398 43]

I love the ideas you guys are coming up with but i fear that its not going to be compatible with MSO. I hope it will be compatible with both MSO and ACE.

shouldn't have any issues with MSO, you can pretty much run what ever you like as long as you include all the scripting/addon side your self (im sure Tup/HH in going to chime in at somepoint)

[BasileyOne 10]

cool add-on.

wanna dancing with ambient female civilian ? not problem anymore !!

just don't forget to execute some "dating" actions before inviting to tango ;-)

[Cytreen 14]

You are speaking of addon is it going to be an addon or script. I would love to at lease have the civilian questioning and escorting\arresting in script form. I was wondering how far along you guys are in developing this.

[BasileyOne 10]

Example:

General Guba: "do you marry me, girl ?"

Civilian Female4: "capture Grishino 1st ! and kill dragon finally !!"

[gobbo 10]

I hope it will be compatible with both MSO and ACE.

We are actually developing the module using ACE, so at least ACE compatibility is given.

You are speaking of addon is it going to be an addon or script. I would love to at lease have the civilian questioning and escorting\arresting in script form. I was wondering how far along you guys are in developing this.

It is going to be a set of scripts packed into a module (added to the editor with a few addons) you just drop onto the map to enable it. There will be modules to spawn individual insurgents, and we have plans to include modules that place random insurgents and IEDs in the mission as well.

Edited August 6, 2012 by gobbo

[Cytreen 14]

Will there be some documentation so we can use it in script form only. I ask cause the servers that host my missions have to remain addon free as they are recruiting servers for various ACE/ACRE Realism Units in the arma community. Its hard enough getting pubbers to join with ACE installed let alone ACRE (I help just about every pubber who wants to get setup with ACRE) but having another addon dependance is just going to ruin the server population. (I know from experience) As an addon it will definitely make it easier for people to incorporate it into there privet missions or unit operations ware you can really get away with addon dependency.

If its possible using some of the features as scripts would really help out allot. I really like allot of what you are trying to do but if its an addon its a no go for use on the public servers. The main feature i really want in scrip form if its not to much trouble is the Question, Detain, Arrest, Escort and load into vehicle stuff. It will make for some really easy random kill/capture missions. In the long run it would be to add it to MSO T-Cells (when they get it working with client side civs) so that you can question\detain and gather intelligence on IED\Cell locations\bomb plots throughout the mission.

Anyways thanks for working on this its much appreciated. I am looking forward to getting my hands on it.

Edited August 8, 2012 by Cytreen

[kremator 1065]

I second the call for scripts, as it makes the mission more accessible.

[glowbal 13]

A script version can be made available. In fact I am sort of planning to.

PS. I am back and got some new work done. Hopefully another update soon. Will be interesting.

[kremator 1065]

Excellent Glowbal..... thanks mate!

[glowbal 13]

We finally got past alpha status and are now in beta! Which means it is now going to be tested in a closed off environment by my own community and soon to be send to some others for in-depth testing and feedback.

This means that we will be playing and using it with 60+ players regularly and hopefully give me some good feedback on stability and usability. Now I find it no more as suiting to also include the newest update regarding progress on here. So here we go:

Current Status

The core parts are all more or less done and it’s mainly a matter of adjusting things and fixing small bugs, a lot of which have been fixed now. These core parts are talking, searching, arrest/detain, and the supporting features for this such as the so called “stance systemâ€.

I’ve also added an first attempt for hearts & minds, which will be one of the key things I hope to get more in-depth feedback on during the BETA testing, which will hopefully allow me to improve it.

As you can see in the screenshots, it currently allows you to shake hands and give them food and/or water. These items you of course need to have in your gear. Which brings me to a different subject; I’ve added a ton of new items for help with immersion. This sadly means certain features will be AddOn depended, besides the CBA dependancy for everything. This excludes the talking, search and arrest part, but things like the insurgents, Biometric scanner, will require an item. Although I’m certain that someone with any scripting knowledge will be able to remove this dependency easily.

Items include; Phones, notebooks, keycuffs, biometricscanner, MREs/Ratpacks, water bottles, camelbak, different sorts of evidence, some random things you would find in pockets of people (keys, chewingcum, etc). Now don’t worry, being able to eat or drink is not part of this mod. That will be something separate. :P The items however are shared and included so you can use them for immersion and hearts & minds.

Next step

There are still a few things laying around which we’ve yet to complete or even start on but would really like to include in the final version. Things such as a vehicle checkpoint system, improvements on the ability to give civilians orders, and the insurgents. But also on our own IED system. Think along the lines of you place a module down, which spawns an insurgent who plants an IED in the nearby area. When you get near, and the relationship with the local civilians is high enough, any local civilian may approach you and tell you there are IEDs in this area and might even point you to the rough area. The insurgent who planted the IED, might also still be in the area whom you then can go and find.

These are some features and things I will be working on in the next few weeks and will post updates when I got something new to show.

[raptor 6 actual 13]

Absolutely outstanding work guys. Hopefully, the medical system I'm working on will allow for winning of the hearts and minds of civilians if we treat a villager and he/she has a positive outcome. Will await and see how it continues to progress. Keep it up.

[orcinus 121]

Brilliant! - this will fill a big hole in Arma gameplay. Please let me know if you would like someone to test in in SP scenarios.