"Heal that man!" Giving orders to the AI in single-player missions

[WCG 1]

In general, I think I know how to give orders to my AI teammates in single-player missions, but maybe not, because I've got hardly any options (stop/regroup, fire/hold fire, move here). I'd think that was just a consequence of the game being in alpha, but I've seen videos where a player gives all sorts of precise orders to the AI. How?

Most important, right now, is how I can tell my medic to heal someone. I can use the correct f-key to select the medic, but that option still doesn't come up (nor when I select the injured soldier, either). If I point at an injured soldier, I just get the option to select him, too - but not the option to tell my medic to heal him. The backspace key is supposed to bring up additional commands, but that never gives me anything at all.

So how do I order a medic to heal another soldier?

Also, how do I order my guys to change their stance? Mainly, how do I tell them to go prone, facing in a certain direction? If I go prone, they frequently do, too, but sometimes they wander around getting killed. I've seen this one in a video for sure, but I never see the option to tell them to hit the dirt, myself.

If I could do that, maybe I'd just leave them on overwatch while I moved forward. Then again, they always spot enemies LONG before I do, so maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea, either. Basically, if I could only heal my injured, that would make a huge difference. We might at least make a decent start on a mission then, instead of crashing and burning immediately. :)

[Gorbachev 1]

I am also confused by this. In ArmA3 they seem to have hid most of the actions that were available in ArmA 1 and 2. You could send a lone unit 5km away, select him and choose all available actions near him. Including a list of nearby vehicles you could order him to get into, ladders to climb and doors to open.

Why this is not easily accessible anymore is beyond me.

[Alpha-Kilo 36]

I normally select the medic by his [F...]-key, then menu [6], choose who has to be healed and give the order. This works if the medic and the injured soldier are in the player's squad. You cannot order your medic to heal a "stranger" or an enemy.

Ordering your AI subordinates to assume any given posture is also easy: Select your guys by their [F...]-key or select them all with the key left of [1], choose the menu which lists postures, choose the appropriate one and that's it. (Sorry, I don't know the right key by heart but it is one of the number keys.)

Any order you can possibly give is listed in the menu system of the number keys: formations, stances, vehicle-related stuff, forming fire-teams etc. There are so many options that some people revert to voice control systems so that they don't have to memorise all these number codes.

[CthulhuRay 10]

I've noticed though that when you do use F[...], 6 (Action Menu), Heal ...

the medic will heal the said person and then say something in the lines of "Negative" or can't do that

not sure if it's buggy at the moment

[dmarkwick 261]

I think that one of the main problems is that as soon as you select a unit, you get a list of generic actions you can give, but there isn't an onscreen indication that the 1-0 keys still give access to the traditional command menu structure.

And, you have to "know" which one to go to without any hint.

Edited April 10, 2013 by DMarkwick

[kremator 1065]

Das Attorney had a great script in Arma2 called AllRoundDefence (ARD) where you could task the medic to heal all members that needed healing automatically. AWESOME script.....come on DA, get yer arse in gear and update it!

[Alpha-Kilo 36]

I've noticed though that when you do use F[...], 6 (Action Menu), Heal ...

the medic will heal the said person and then say something in the lines of "Negative" or can't do that

not sure if it's buggy at the moment

I can confirm that: The medic heals as instructed, his patient is up and running, then the medic says that he cannot heal - probably because he has already restored the health of his patient and has nothing else to do. This must be a bug in the voice system. You can verify that the treatment was successful by checking the icon of the patient. It is red when medical assistance is needed. When the red mark disappears, the soldier is fit for work no matter what the medic says.

[WCG 1]

I think that one of the main problems is that as soon as you select a unit, you get a list of generic actions you can give, but there isn't an onscreen indication that the 1-0 keys still give access to the traditional command menu structure.

And, you have to "know" which one to go to without any hint.

OK, yes, this was my problem, I guess. I forgot that there were number key commands, and since they don't show up on the screen, I thought I was more limited than I am.

Thanks for this! It will help a lot!

Bill

[froggyluv 2136]

Two things I'd like to see make return/added are being able to order a weapon and/or magazine change which was possible in OFP IIRC. For instance, coming ashore with AI scubamen and they've all got their UW ammo still loaded whick makes them totally ineffective sitting ducks on land. And of course we all know about the AT guy not pulling his launcher.

Another thing that would help with situational awareness is when you order #2 to fetch some ammo at...or Target that Rifleman at...to add the last know distance to the equation. Knowing that one target/ammo is 50m away while the other is 400m away makes a little difference, no?

Rearm at Ifrit, 11 o'clock (50) would do the trick :)

[Gorbachev 1]

I think that one of the main problems is that as soon as you select a unit, you get a list of generic actions you can give, but there isn't an onscreen indication that the 1-0 keys still give access to the traditional command menu structure.

And, you have to "know" which one to go to without any hint.

http://dslyecxi.com/images/arma/ttp/command_menu.jpg

Thank you, I wasn't aware of this. I had managed to accidentally bring this old menu up but wasn't sure how.

[dr. hladik 231]

I can confirm that: The medic heals as instructed, his patient is up and running, then the medic says that he cannot heal - probably because he has already restored the health of his patient and has nothing else to do. This must be a bug in the voice system. You can verify that the treatment was successful by checking the icon of the patient. It is red when medical assistance is needed. When the red mark disappears, the soldier is fit for work no matter what the medic says.

Could you please provide repro stets?

Also, do you use stable or dev. version?

[Alpha-Kilo 36]

Two things I'd like to see make return/added are being able to order a weapon and/or magazine change which was possible in OFP IIRC. For instance, coming ashore with AI scubamen and they've all got their UW ammo still loaded whick makes them totally ineffective sitting ducks on land. And of course we all know about the AT guy not pulling his launcher.

Another thing that would help with situational awareness is when you order #2 to fetch some ammo at...or Target that Rifleman at...to add the last know distance to the equation. Knowing that one target/ammo is 50m away while the other is 400m away makes a little difference, no?

Rearm at Ifrit, 11 o'clock (50) would do the trick :)

You're right, frogggyluv, both suggestions deserve implementation in the game. I think they should be mentined in the feedback tracker to bring it to the attention of the right people.

Dr. Hladic, I use the default version. I noticed the medic's behaviour when playing normal missions. If I had to reproduce it I would do it like this:

- Play a mission where you are in control of a team of AI which includes a medic or generate a squad in the mission editor.

- Observe that the number in the icon of an injured subordinate changes from normal to red. If necessary provoke this by shooting one of your guys in the leg.

- Order the medic to heal the patient as described above.

- Observe that the red mark disappears from the patient's icon when he is healed.

- Note that the medic says: "Cannot comply", "I cannot do that" or something similar.

Edited April 11, 2013 by Alpha-Kilo

[Mirudes 1]

When I was playing Operation Flashpoint (1), I activated the medic [F-Key] and tell him with the action-menu (6) to "Heal that Rifleman".

When the medic was selected, I could even point to a wounded unit and click on him. In this case I was saying: "Medic, support that man!"

When I activated the wounded rifleman [F-Key], I used the menu (6) and tell him "Heal at medic".

When I gave the medic the command to "Engage at will", the medic began to heal the wounded units automatically. In this case I gave the medic always the command to "Stay back".

Even the wouded units moved back to the medic, out of the fire, when they were in the "Engage at will" awareness.

[lugiahua 26]

Actually...what annoys me the most is that you can't ask medic from another squad to heal you.

sometimes I am in a unit that has no media, but the nearby one has it.

[mmaruda 20]

When you actually get the hang of it (watch this

), it get easier, but from my point of view, the keyboard commands are just not intuitive and take long to figure out. It would be easier, if you just had a Como-rose style menu and could use your mouse. Definitely improvements are needed, but as mentioned earlier once you learn the commands, it's not really a big problem. People argue that a Como-Rose menu would clutter the screen and such, but using the number keys takes your hand of your movement controls and take longer than it would actually take IRL to talk to your squad.

[bigshot 64]

I think that one of the main problems is that as soon as you select a unit, you get a list of generic actions you can give, but there isn't an onscreen indication that the 1-0 keys still give access to the traditional command menu structure.

And, you have to "know" which one to go to without any hint.

yep, common sense and user friendliness has never been an earmark of a BIS game :p (seriously though, I thought they were saying that easier squad control was supposed to be one of the new features in A3, no?)

[XCess 0]

It was all explained during one of the campaign missions in Operation Flashpoint :p

[CthulhuRay 10]

guys I'm pretty sure if you just press backspace without selecting anyone first it will give you the full list of commands 1-0, it's done this since OFP.

[dmarkwick 261]

guys I'm pretty sure if you just press backspace without selecting anyone first it will give you the full list of commands 1-0, it's done this since OFP.

I don't know if this is true or not (until I fire up A3 again...) but my first thought is that the 1-0 commands don't make any sense unless there are units selected. Are you saying that you can press 1-0 to get the command structure up then you can select units?

But, this is aside from the point that there is no way for the player to know this unless he just knows this :)

[CthulhuRay 10]

eh you're right DMarkwick, didn't mean to sound like I was "attacking" anyone.

I'm at work at the moment but I am pretty sure in the older games you select someone and it brings up the default command screen, you can press backspace and it will go to the commands menu... I could be mistaken though

[Mirudes 1]

Actually...what annoys me the most is that you can't ask medic from another squad to heal you.[...snap]

Yes, that's unrealistic, normally you would move to a medic and could use the [*]-icon (standard action) when you are injured. I would say that the medic would rather move to you, when you are in his range and in a safe position.

When you activate a wounded unit, and using the action-menu (6), you would see:

Heal at medic

Heal at medic

Heal at APC

...when there are more than one medic, according to the distance from the soldier.

[kremator 1065]

Just playing around with Das Attorneys AllRoundDefence scripts presently and the medic will go to every AI or player and heal them!

However with DAPMAN, once it is fully finished you can be healed by any wandering medic automatically.

[HKFlash 9]

Just playing around with Das Attorneys AllRoundDefence scripts presently and the medic will go to every AI or player and heal them!

However with DAPMAN, once it is fully finished you can be healed by any wandering medic automatically.

DAPMAN? Isn't there a module in the editor for that? Or is the module DAPMAN?

[kremator 1065]

Aye. DAP has it either as a module, addon or scripts. The Arma2 version had it all, and the Arma3 version is shaping up nicely.

[Mirudes 1]

But actually we are discussing the alphaversion of ArmA3 and medics must work as expected.

In my opinion it is just not the right stage for community-made mods.

And it is not the purpose of community-made mods, to fix basic functions.

Though it would be a nice addition to have these extended capabilities for the native A3-medics.