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Rydygier

HETMAN - Artificial Leader

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It's not important, in what way a group would appear on the map, it may be controlled by Hetman on the fly regardless, treated as reinforcement. Problems may appear, if/when mentioned mods would try to control same groups in same fashion, Hetman does - via waypoints and setting group behavior/combat mode. Then you have basically two mods fighting for the control over AI groups with all kind of bizarre side effects expected. No such problems expected with most of low level AI enhancers though.

How to overcome possible issues depends on used mod specificity, and I do not know well enough to tell you.

Thanks for the quick reply. Yeah, I already assumed that other "High level AIs" could broke this script, but I was thinking more on the "appear/dissapear" of the groups in the battlefield, as the commander would then need to reposition the squads every time that happened.

Wanted to know if it has already been tested (I will probably use EOS, due to simplicity and support of Headless Client).

Still, I will try and test. I will report back once I know how well they interact.

Thanks again!

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"appear/dissapear"

If group is gone (deleted by script) - is dead/destroyed for HAL. That affects his decisions and morale. Also Hetman is supposed to control also groups far from the player. He can't, if group is gone (or freezed). Same problem with arty shelling far targets. HAL doesn't tolerate well caching/decaching except one dedicated solution.

Edited by Rydygier

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The complexity of the Leader is exactly what I have been looking for. This slower paced realism has me foaming at the mouth waiting to try. Can't wait to play around with it.

2 Questions:

1. I intend on making map wide operations (ie, lots of objectives), this is possible..correct? Any caching system that makes this tolerable?

2. Persistence. Is there any way to make all of this stuff persistent between server restarts?

Thanks!

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1. In the normal mode Hetman uses up to 4 objectives. You can via additional scripting move objectives and reset progress, so Hetman will again consider those as not completed. Or use Big Boss mode, designed for whole map operations, that will do same thing autonomously till all objectives are taken. Yu can point for him custom objectives, rely on his judgement - then he'll consider as objectives locations like cities, villages, hills or combine both... The only caching, that, as I heard (not tested yet), is designed to work with Hetman is ZBE caching.

2. No idea about such MP stuff. Ask MP specialists about that. :)

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ZBE_caching works perfectly with Herman. I run it all the time for every mission.

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Do I need to do anything to units placed so that the leader recognizes them as support, special forces, ect? What determines that?

Also, only 4 objectives need to be placed on the map for BB? He'll then move them to positions he deems appropriate after theyve been captured? Manual talks about placing a trigger for the BB, but it doesn't explain it well. What all has to be placed for BB?

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Do I need to do anything to units placed so that the leader recognizes them as support, special forces, ect? What determines that?

It's based on the unit's class and applied to the whole group consisting unit of that class (so one group may belong to more than one category and often does). By default it's autonomous process (using config values to categorize each unit + default hardcoded set for vanilla classes) and you don't need to do anything, unless you disagree with default categorization. Then you may use so called RHQ/RHQs arrays to manipulate this. It's described in the manual. BTW some special categories are left empty by default, this applies to mentioned special forces. If all the grups conisting unit of given class should be considered as such, use RHQ array to "inject" that class into SF category.

Also, only 4 objectives need to be placed on the map for BB? He'll then move them to positions he deems appropriate after theyve been captured?

4 objectives per Leader (so total count depend, how many Leaders you want to set and make them controlled by BB). Yes, he'll move them from objective to objective using own judgement.

Manual talks about placing a trigger for the BB, but it doesn't explain it well.

What's unclear? There is mentioned Front trigger, one per Leader, which setting and purpose is described earlier - trivial, just square, empty trigger anywhere, of any dimensions named accordingly (eg HET_FA for leaderHQ, HET_FB for leaderHQB etc., see 5.10). In the chapter 7 (page 33) there is also described RydBB_MC variable, that may be defined as a name of the another square trigger, which dimensions will limit "area of interest" for Big Boss. Recommended, when only part of the map will be used - for quicker map data loading, but optional.

What all has to be placed for BB?

All, what's listed in the manual, chapter 6:

- 1-8 Leader units (leaderHQ, leaderHQB,...) to be controlled by BB (while others may act indepedently as well, if needed), all set in limit control mode, eg syncing method (for the first Leader: RydHQ_SubAll = false;RydHQ_SubSynchro = true; then synchronize chosen to be controlled by this Leader group leaders with Leader unit). Limit control setting not needed, if only one Leader of given side is set. By default Leader will control all the groups of his side.

- front triggers, one per Leader under BB control.

- game logic named RydBBa_SAL (and another, RydBBb_SAL, if you set up B for both sides);

- RydBBa_HQs (and b if both sides) array defined - here you decide, which Leaders wil be controlled by this side of BB. Eg: RydBBa_HQs = [leaderHQ,leaderHQB];RydBBb_HQs = [leaderHQC];

- an unit/object named RydBBaHQ (and RydBBbHQ if for both sides), but only if RydBB_BBOnMap=true;

- optional custom objectives as described in manual;

- finally RydBB_Active = true; to turn whole thing on.

All init variables refering directly to BB (RydBB_) are listed in the last part of chapter 7.

In case of doubts, you can also see in editor included BB demo mission, where all is set for maximal possible amount of Leaders (8). Note, BB can control any number of Leaders between 1 and 8, for one or anyhow divided between both sides. Even a single Leader for the single side.

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Thank you so much! Just to clarify, I could only put one Leader down with one BB, and he would attempt to take the whole map? Ie, the 4 objectives would be reset for leader one after they have been captured and moved, right?

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, I could only put one Leader down with one BB

Nope, as you see here:

RydBBa_HQs = [leaderHQ,leaderHQB];

You can put more. Even all eight of them for one BB side, or divided between two BB sides. There is up to 8 Leaders possible and up to two BB sides (a/b). In the included demo there are 4 Leaders under control of BBa and 4 under BBb, so it's 4vs4 fighting over whole Altis. BB treats each Leader with his forces as kind of "division" or task force, each will get another single objective to take at a time (but for 4 Leaders or more under BB control, one/two Leaders may be hold as reserve).

and he would attempt to take the whole map?

Yep. By default at least.

Ie, the 4 objectives would be reset for leader one after they have been captured and moved, right?

Yes. To be exact - each Leader has own 4 primary objectives, but BB needs only one at once per Leader, so he moves all 4 together, as one from objective to objective.

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@Kremator, what área you using to spawn enemies? Custom scripts? Editor? Other?

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I'm just running the BB big demo that Ryd made. So I haven't done anything fancy. I'm just a voyeur at heart and spend hours watching the AI fight :) (with ZBE_Cache of course to help the frame rate, and bCombat to help the ...combat :) )

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OK, thanks! I will report in the future, probably will try EOS with this script. Bastión mode would be perfect for testing.

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ZBE_caching works perfectly with Herman. I run it all the time for every mission.

I love Herman as well Kremator ;) . I've been away for some time but can't wait to try out the improvements.

Have another beer Rydygier: Paypal 9MR31181XH849223G

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Question:

If you don't put the config variables in the init.sqf (or anywhere for that matter) will it just opt to the default setting? Or do I need to put all of them in regardless if I change or not?

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There is some default setting, so not necessary to add any init configs. If you want though, best/easiest to use place is advanced setup window.

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If Leader has set default, unlimited control - just spawn a group. If proper side, Leader will assume control over it with his next cycle. If Leader is in limited control mode - spawn a group, then include it to the controlled groups depending on the way, you pointed them - array or synchronization. Unless you mean something else by "dynamic spawn"?

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Nope, thats exactly what I was going for. Didn't know if the Leader would pick them up if they hadn't been on the map since the start! Thanks, loving the mod!

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One last question. Since the leaders represent a sorta...platoon leadership, would it be smart to organize armor under one leader, infantry under another, ect with BB tied in to manage it all?

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platoon leadership

Rather autonomous combined task force. You can try a way, where each Leader gets only certain kind of forces, I'm curious about results, but by design Leader is prepared rather to lead varied set of groups. For example groupin all artillery under one Leader means, it will be wasted, because arty support is allocated on Leader's level only, so only for the groups of the same Leader.

Edited by Rydygier

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Does BB look at what the leader has in terms of force before assigning it objectives? Ie, LeaderA would be better because he has tanks and tanks would help him with this certain scenario ect. Whats the extent of BB's coordination?

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Yes, BB takes into consideration composition of Leader's forces.

In general, BB divides area-to-take to the three parts: left flank, center, right flank. For each topographical analyze is made. Leader with biggest percentage of vehicles will be assigned most likely to the part most vehicle-friendly as for terrain (most of flat, open areas), and vice versa for infantry. Also most numerous task force will be allocated to the part, where biggest number of objectives is. Also as for reserve division for 4+ Leaders, most probable choice is above average numerous task force dominated by foot infantry.

Whats the extent of BB's coordination?

As mentioned, Leaders are allocated to given parts of the map, each will get own objective or, to be exact, a chain of 1 to several objectives for consequtive taking. If some part of the front is under strong enough enemy pressure, reserve division may be sent there. Reserve's infantry pool is first place, where BB looks for spare groups to garrision taken objectives.

Also is possible, so division operating in the one part will be redirected to make flank attack on hostiles fighting with neighbouring division. But it's very rare in practice (so not tested too well).

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Whats the maximum number of troops a leader can handle effectively? I found out real quick that one leader shouldn't have 200 troops lol.

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I can't point any such limit. It all depends, what CPU can handle without huge exec delays and/or lags. So it's a question, how many units at a time your PC can juggle with without choking. For example included BB demo works pretty well as for Hetman's scripts to me, but framerate is pretty low due to amount of not cached AIs moving/fighting across whole map.

IMHO Hetman (BB) should handle even some tousands of units (obviously not tested though), just there isn't CPU, that could handle that, the more keeping enough computational power to run Hetman smoothly in the meantime.

In the A2 times HAC was successfully tested with 300+ units, IIRC even more. In the battles vanilla AI was failing then though, suffering delays.

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