Dynamic Patrol?

[whisky 1]

Hey,

I made a lot of missions in A2, but I always used UPSMon, here, I don't have it...

I tried to use the BIS_fnc_taskPatrol, not working...

I tried the Skirmish thingy, don't have a clue how it works, now I'm asking you, how can I make a vanilla dynamic patrol?

[hellfire257 3]

TaskPatrol works fine here. Anyway, the dynamic patrol works by syncing it with a Skirmish init module and the units you wish to patrol with. You need to enter the names of your waypoint markers into your desired route section. From what I've seen, they go to each marker in order. Bear in mind that the entries you make into the routes has to be in array format.

[whisky 1]

Never mind, UPSMon is now in ArmA 3, it's fine, thanks anyway...

[Garthra 10]

Hellfire257,

Sounds like you got it (dynamic patrol) working! I been struggling with it for an hour. I am looking forward to this to add randomization to missions...

My intent is several fold: 1.) to make a given pre placed patrol randomly patrol a zone 2.) to have pre placed patrol patrol 1 of 3 routes (chosen randomly among those three) 3.) To have randomly generated (not pre placed) patrols perform function 1) and 2.) I can spawn patrols with dynamic spawner linked to skirmish init. But I cannot get the random spawns, or the pre-placed guys to do the random patrol.

Could you clarify how to make the dynamic patrol module work? I have synced it to a skirmish init module, and a pre placed squad leader as you said. I tried making markers and putting their names in "route 1" (wp1,wp2,wp3,) but nothing happened. What else must I do or what am I not getting? I am not a programer and am not so skilled with code. Could you be idiot proof? For instance with examples/step by step?

My intent is several fold: 1.) to make a given pre placed patrol randomly patrol a zone 2.) to have pre placed patrol patrol 1 of 3 routes (chosen randomly among those three) 3.) To have randomly generated (not pre placed) patrols perform function 1) and 2.) I can spawn patrols with dynamic spawner linked to skirmish init. But I cannot get the random spawns, or the pre-placed guys to do the random patrol.

Thanks!

Garthra :)

Edited March 6, 2013 by Garthra
typo

[hellfire257 3]

The code for the route needs to be like this:

["waypoint_1","waypoint_2"];

...and so on and so forth.

That sounds like the only thing you're missing.

Hope this helps!

[Garthra 10]

Thanks for the quick reply, but still no luck.

So I have "skirmish -dynamic patrol" module synced to a "Skirmish--init" module AND synced to a squad to BLU FOR infantry leader. In the "dynamic patrol" module I have the following

ROUTE 1 ["wp1","wp2","wp3"]" (Where wp1, 2 and 3 are markers (invisible) with those names). I also have a second route, route 2, with ROUTE 2 ["wp4","wp5","wp6","wp7"]. I have it set to "apply to GROUPS of synced units."

When I start the mission the infantry group just stands there...

Any ideas?

Thanks again for the help!

Garthra

[hellfire257 3]

I made an example mission for you. Here's the link.

www.havoc-company.com/downloads/dps_example.Stratis.zip

I didn't test beyond this.

[dga 12]

Never mind, UPSMon is now in ArmA 3, it's fine, thanks anyway...

Can you tell us where you found it? Had no luck on devheaven etc.

edit: nevermind. found it http://kronzky.info/ups/index.htm

Edited March 6, 2013 by dga

[Garthra 10]

Thanks for your help Hellfire!

I got it working. But it always seems to do route 2 on mine no matter how many times I restart it. One step at a time I guess! This is a success in my book.

The next question is: How do I make it randomly choose among the paths?

The final one is: how is this distinct from just setting waypoints for the pre-placed squad?

What is dynamic about it? Does it select its own route? If so, under what constraints? Does it select "route 1" or "route 2" or "route 3," and follow them in order? Or does it randomly create a path among the waypoints on route 1?

Edited March 6, 2013 by Garthra

[dernt 0]

I think the dynamism comes from that when the missions inits, the group chooses one of it's patrol routes, random on all 3. If you set a placement radius for the group, you will get a random patrol pretty much every mission startup. the setup for my missions right now is:

1- I create my fireteam patrols with a placement radius.

2 - Set 3 diff markers around the placement radius or where I want my patrols to go to.

3 - Sync the dynamic patrol module with every group leader.

When I start the mission, Every fireteam spawns randomly in the placement radius and chooses randomly one marker. They go back and forth and it makes a random patrol every new game. Fast to set up, practical and gives good replayabilty.

[Garthra 10]

Dernt,

Thanks for the input! I think I am getting the hang of this. Thank you everyone for your patience with a slow learner.

Several questions...

1.] Could you clarify your "steps?"

For instance, on step 1... You create several fireteams, each with a "placement radius. Ok. 2.) Then you create patrol markers. 3.) Then you sync the patrol module to each leader, which means each leader should pick 1 of the 3 patrol routes. And this added on to the fact they spawn at a random place means they begin the patrol from a different location. But in the end it is still just random start location and 1 of 3 paths right?

For instance if (wp = way point) route 1 was wp1, 2, 3, and route 2 was wp4,5,6, and route 3 was wp7,wp8,wp9. Then the group would do either, 1-->2-->3. Or 4-->5-->6, or 7-->8-->9. Never 2-->5-->8. Or 3-->6-->2. Is that all correct?

2.] So why do my guys KEEP choosing route 2? I create 2 routes. One is "wp1","wp2","wp3". Two is "wp4","wp5","wp6". I tested it like 6 times, and ever time the guys went for route 2. Never route one. So it seems like it is not randomized. Is there something to do with not naming three possible routes? What am I doing wrong here?

3.] How do I tie this in with the dynamic enemy spawner? (So I would not personally need to place each group?)

Thanks again for you help!

Garthra

[dernt 0]

1) Right. At least that is what I believe.

2) I don't know. In the dozen of playtests I did, it seemed to choose randomly one of my 3 patrol routes, but to keep testing simple, I made REALLY simple patrol routes. They consisted of only 1 marker for each route. So the patrols would just spawn in randomly in the placement radius and go to one of the 3 markers i set up. Sure they are not complex patrol routes, but they were random (at least for the few tests i did).

3) Tying it with the enemy spawner is another mystery and would probably need some scripting. I would wait for DAC or something of the like for a complete dynamic spawning and patrol system.

[Garthra 10]

Thanks for your help everyone. My question re dynamic patrol has been fully answered. Score 1 for the ArmA community!