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Shevvy

Creating tasks.

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Hi, I'm looking for some help with creating tasks/objectives using the editor. I'm very new to this and I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing but I've been following a guide on the Steam page to try and help me get started but I'm stuck on creating tasks and completing them. I've been toying with the editor for 6 hours and I actually got a seize the area objective to work once! I then added more units to the fray and broke it so the task wasn't showing then it would complete the seize without any BluFor being anywhere near the objective.

Basically I'd like a nice Editing for beginners guide if anybody knows of one. Every guide I've looked at so far says to put entry's here and whatever but it doesn't tell me why (and I still mess them up) to help me understand what's going on. Having never done anything like this I'm really struggling and a lot of page's are a wall of text with scripts which Honestly at this point are a little intimidating. I have great idea's to put into this game but I can't put them into practice. :(

I did manage to get the Virtual Ammo Supply crate to work which for me was nothing short of a miracle!

Thanks.

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Firstly, if you posted a link to any guides you are using, that might help people gauge what you have learned/done so far and if there is any important information missing from the guides. I personally do not use the task modules in the editor, and I am currently creating my own system of managing tasks that is far more robust. I highly recommend that you use external scripts to create and manage tasks. You may be particularly interested in these systems:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?151680-FHQ-TaskTracker

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?100731-Taskmaster-2

I have not personally used them, but they seem to fit your needs perfectly. There are several good beginner's guides for the editor, but most are for ArmA 2 or 1 and do not contain information about the task modules (as they are new to ArmA 3). You may also be interested in BIS functions for creating and managing tasks; they can be found in the functions view in the editor with names starting with 'task*'. If you need specific help for implementing any of those functions or systems, it may help to post more details about your mission.

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Thanks for the reply Zenophon. I'll check those links out but for now here are the guides I am trying to follow:

This one I find easier to follow using the create tasks but it seems to be a little hit and miss getting it to work for me.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=131671531

This one is very informative (including videos) but for a complete beginner I must admit I find this guide to be a little overwhelming.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=132000887

I've also ran into snags (which I expected to be honest which is why I am now using VAS) when adding the weapons to the supply box. Obviously that list and gone through some major changes from Alpha to our current state in Beta and may change slightly again when we hit release. So some of the information in these guides seem to be a little outdated. my main gripe is with both of these guides although they tell me what to do for each instance they are creating they don't exactly explain -Why- I'm doing them and what the function of each is.

I thought the idea of the task modules were for people that didn't know how to do scripting? I may be very wrong and I am willing to learn. :)

1) What I was trying to create was a simple mission with up to 4 players or Ai controlled if nobody was available.

2) I would have liked to have been inserted into Altis on a Ghost Hawk but I couldn't figure that out without flying the Helicopter (Sexy one at that) myself. This to me ruined any kind of immersion I was going for so I did an Assault boat version instead.

3) The small team would then move up after choosing the gear they wanted from the Virtual Ammo System (Which I got to work) to seize control of a small village from the OpFor.

4) After the village was secured the team would then move up engaging Semi Random patrols en-route to the power plant which again was under guard by OpFor. For this part of the mission I thought of adding IED's along the most logical path basically to be an ass to my friends. ;)

5) With the Power Plant secured the team would then have to wait until dark to try and sneak in to Sophia (steady now) and rescue a civilian from the OpFor. It would be nice if I could randomize the civilians location but this is well beyond me at the moment. This task can be done without silencers., I just thought looking at the location of Sophia the surrounding area doesn't have much cover and realistically would be easily spotted and more than likely taken out with relative ease.

6) The players would then try to extract the Civilian HVT back to the Ghost Hawk (or in my case Assault boat, lol). whilst being engaged by a pursuit force.

Well there you go. I'm excited by my idea that I cant currently put into practice :D

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Allow me to clarify what I said about task modules. They are, as you said, for mission designers who do not want to use external scripts. However, the core code within the modules is the same as the most basic code of any task system; there are several sqf commands that everyone must use to create and manage tasks. The difference is just that modules have an easier GUI instead of making you create sqf functions, but the functions can have extra logic layered on top to provide advanced features.

The modules are excellent if you do not need any complex operations done on tasks and if you only have a few tasks. You can imagine that if you use the task modules for a dozen tasks, the web of modules, triggers, and synchronization lines could become overwhelming as well as hard to debug or change later. The modules also cannot offer features like removing a task from some units and copying it to new units.

If you have any inclination to learn sqf scripting, I strongly encourage you to do so. The advantage that scripting offers over using only the editor is immense, and it constantly means the difference between implementing a feature I want in a mission and leaving it out. As you are beginner though, using the task modules will be faster and less frustrating than learning to use sqf functions for your tasks or figuring out how to use some one else's complex task system. All I can say is that learning to script will pay off later.

The first guide that you posted is a bit disorganized and fails to give you a good overall idea of what is being done, but the link to the forum thread at the very bottom seems much more promising. That thread seems to provide better, concise answers for using the task modules and includes some beginner questions that are answered.

For the second guide, I assume you are referring to section 16 of the guide. This is a slightly overcomplicated beginner's guide to creating tasks in a script. If you want to try using external tasks scripts, just refer to the parts of that section where the task is actually created (with 'createSimpleTask') and the part where an editor trigger is used to refer to that task by name.

Unfortunately, neither guide seems willing or able to explain what a task actually is or why they work that way. In short, a task is similar to an object (like a unit or a car) in that it has persistent properties that can be altered, but it is considered its own data type. Each task is assigned to a single unit, and there are numerous issues that arise when scripting tasks in multiplayer due to locality and JIP. I do not know if the task modules actually work well in multiplayer or not. If you are interested in more about scripting tasks, see this:

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Tasks

Whether you chose modules or scripts (or a combination of both), I recommend starting small and worrying about it working in multiplayer later. I have just run out of time to write this, but I will try to answer your question about a helicopter insertion later (maybe with an actual script instead of links and general advice).

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Thanks for your help again Zenophon. Hopefully I'll be able to get my head around some of it to be able to make a few scenarios.

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Concerning a helicopter insertion, I was going to post detailed steps and explanations as well as a short script to call for a helicopter insertion or extraction at any time. That is a bit off-topic in a thread about tasks, but I did say I would post something about it. I will just link a thread that shows a simpler, faster method:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?158122-Helicopter-insertion&highlight=helicopter+insertion

You also mentioned randomizing the civilian in the town. You could try making the civilian move randomly in the town. This can be done by placing this code in the init field of the civilian:

0 = [(group this), (getPosATL this), 100] call BIS_fnc_taskPatrol;

This code will make the civilian move semi-randomly in a 100 meter circle around his starting position. The civilian may start to run around randomly if he sees any guys with guns or combat.

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Awesome! Thanks. That will make setting up patrols in town's much more interesting and dynamic. I can't wait to get an afternoon free now to just add some of this and play around with it.

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