GetTactical - a tactical-RTS interface

[zapat 56]

Arma 3 is about freedom and depth
The GetTactical Interface is about taking these to new levels
by enabling you to decide if you want to play:

a full-fledged top-down tactical RTS,
your well-known FPS enhanced,
or the hybrid of the two

all with a single keypress.

 

FOLLOWING FEATURE IS ALREADY AVAILABLE (post v1.8)

"Not gonna lie. This looks fucking amazing." - MacScottie
"This "GetTactical View" looks like what would be needed to make SP mission were you command a team fun again." - Wiggum
"In other words a game changing enhancement Like ACE was for ARMA 2." - Dr@gon
"Holy crap zapat! This is wonderful mate!...I think I just 'gizzed in my pants'" - Kremator
"such kind of team management should be BI's vanilla IMO. Very promising." - Rydygier
"This seems to be one of the greatest for arma so far!!" - spangg
"Wow, this is awesome, no, it is a true revelation! Very intuitive! " - Brainbug
"This new command system is insanely awesome. Huge props to you man." - froggyluv
"Love this project, Zapat! this solves exactly why I stop playing ARMA..." - Daabear
"GetTactical makes Arma a whole new game for me....a thinking game." - sttosin

 

LIMITATIONS

SINGLE PLAYER ONLY!

The mod supports 10 units maximum

It may or may not work with a specific mission: I can't foretell. (There is witchcraft included in the sripts: you've been warned)

It all depends on how [unit switching] and [changing the player unit] is handled in the mission.

> The mod disregards unit-switching limitations within the players group.

> The mod creates a hidden player unit and attaches it to your last real-player unit when in top-down view. (so you can command all units yet the triggers trigger)

These can be enough to break a weaker mission. You shall note this: so you don't come crying.

Vehicle handling is still WIP. Infantry works well.

 

REQUIREMENTS

The mod requires CBA.

 

TUTORIAL

Visit, download and play THE BLACK RAIN PROJECT mission's tutorial. WARNING! Mission itself is broken, but tutorial is fine.
 

MANUAL

A quick-manual for the reader types:

PRESS your GetTactical Ke y to e nter/exit interface.
HOLD your GetTactical Key to enter Quick Command mode,

HOLD MIDDLE MOUSE BUTTON or HOLD ALT key to rotate the camera.
Use your default MOVEMENT KEYS to move the camera. WARNING! Arrow keys cannot be used!

LEFT CLICK selects (unit or wp), RIGHT-CLICK commands! (The target, follow, un-follow icons are commands)
RIGHT CLICK-HOLD & DRAG with a unit selected lets you specify his direction, speed and pose (move your mouse and use mouse-wheel)

SINGLE CLICK on buttons works for selected unit. (The red and green stripes under unit's name works too)
DOUBLE CLICK on buttons works for whole team effect.

SHIFT + RIGHT CLICK enables force move. This is a new feature: you can only click where there is a STRAIGHT LOS! But then unit will run as fast as possible in all circumstances.

You can sync waypoints by HOLDING LEFT-CLICK on one and DRAGGING it to another. At a synced waypoint units will wait for each other.

DOUBLE-CLICK on a unit poitions the camera on him.
SHIFT + DOUBLE-CLICK on a unit will make the unit player.

 

Team Management Layer MANUAL NEW IN V1.8

PRESS and HOLD CTRL to enter team management mode.
There is two independent layers of mass unit management: sub-groups, and rubber command.
Any unit can get a rubber command and he will follow it.
If a unit is in a sub-group, he will follow his leader if the leader gets an individual order.

blue buttons: these buttons extend the already known sub-team system with some quick grouping commands.
The system is semi intelligent: if you have a selected unit, he will be the leader, if not, the closest unit to where the cam looks will be the leader.
ALL: all units will be in the same group and instantly follow leader. (it's like the 0-1-1 command)
DIS: all units disband. This button deletes all sub-teams instantly.
SPT: cancels all subgroups and splits all units into two subgroups.
CLS: puts close units into a sub-group. Close to either a selected unit, or to the one in the center of view.
SEL: puts red-selected units into a sub-group.

red colorcode: indicates rubber-command related things. Rubber command is the fastest mass unit command mode and is independent from sub-groups. You can think of it as a batch WP utility.
- HOLD CTRL
- by LEFT CLICK red select/deselect units (semi automatic, considers sub grouped units, unit in center of view, etc. - for initial selection)
- by RIGHT HOLD draw one or more lines with your mouse
- RELEASE CTRL: units will have synced wps along the drawn line, facing outwards from the curve

 

SETTINGS

Your default GetTactical Key is CapsLock.
Press it the first time you enter a mission with this mod. Then you'll have a settings panel to customize your cam-controls, with persistant, global settings.
 

THANKS

To every member of this forums who've been helping me for the past 4 years. Especially:
Rübe (he showed me that the editor is really for sissies only)
KillzoneKid (I'd be nowhere around without his site)
Das Attorney (The helpful smart man)
Larrow (The other helpful smart man)
iceman77 (The father of every UI orphan)
kylania (One more helpful smart man)
demonized (Another)
deadfast (And another)
Kremator (The great admirer of new releases. THE feedback giver)

To my family and my two kids who were born in the meantime

BIS for making not a game but a canvas you can paint on. Such addon wouldn't be possible in too many games.

 

 

DOWNLOAD v1.12

 

Changelog:

V1.12 01-15-2016

FIX: Gamebreaking stuck bug now fixed at last.

CHANGED: Quick Command mode doesn't use a camera anymore, and you can move around while in it.

 

V1.11 01-05-2016.

FIX: hide mechanism rewritten from scratch. No more disappearing units.

FIX: interference with default UI is fixed

TWEAKED: forced move tweaked (it's still jaggy, but it is as good as it can get)

ADDED: the switched-to-unit's name is shown when exiting the interface (I usually get lost in who I just switched into)

 

V1.10 04-13-2015.
FIX: Game update 1.42 broke the initial formations

V1.9 03-10-2015.
FIX: grenade mode didn't work. Now it does.
FIX: rubber command gave stand WPs only. It now copies unit's current stance.
FIX: units stopped on interface open. Now they keep on following player or doing whatever they are supposed to.
FIX: sometimes player unit stayed in "wait" BIS mode. If it happens again just open and close interface.
FIX: autostart mode was removed. It caused more errors than benefit.

V1.8 03-06-2015.
Add: team management layer

V1.7 12-18-2014.
Add: Hotkey selection (F1...F10)
Add: camera turning/moving on the edge of the screen (can be set in the settings)
Add: "All! Follow x!" quick button.

Add: Autostart function
Fix: Several engine fixes under the hood.
V1.5-1.6
F_ing savegame fixes
V1.4 11-11-2014
FIX: Load game bug is hopefully fixed
ADD: space button now switches between realtime and plan mode
ADD: you can now throw grenade 360 degrees
FIX: several smaller bugfixes


V1.3 08-27-2014
ADD: Cam can be rotated by HOLDING ALT
ADD: Start in Plan mode switch added to the settings
FIX: Most urgent fixes for units in vehicles.

Note! Vehicles are not treated as separate units yet, but at least they are not broken and can be used as infantry units.

FIX: Selected WP stayed on after deleted a plan
TUNE: tuned Force move when obstructed, resulting in more believable ghosting
FIX: some more minor code fixes

 

Edited January 14, 2016 by zapat

[froggyluv 2135]

Congrats on your release!

This is revolutionary for the Arma series and anyone interested in the minute control of their AI should take notice.

[cub1 11]

Fantastic.. Thank you so much for this... Downloading now....

Cheers.

[wansec_6 200]

Looks great in video. Will dl asap and give it a try.

[kremator 1065]

Woohoo ! Good job zapat !

[Drongo69 117]

Excellent, thanks for the addon version.

[miketim 20]

Woah this is going to be great, surely I will make some type of rhs based syrian mission on this.. Wow

[astrell 3]

Finally! Jagged Alliance with good Graphics :P Nice Job, trying it out.

[wiggum2 31]

Finally, now lets start to play SP again ! :D

Great work zapat !

[theevancat 277]

Will be tryin'. This looks fantabulous.

[zapat 56]

You mean fantactics? :D

[markocro 66]

great mod, this is gamechanger

[wiggum2 31]

Three things you might want to include:

1. Add the option to always start the GetTactical View in the planing mode.

That mean, if you press the GetTactical Key at any time you start in planing mode instead of realtime.

2. Add a option for tuning off the Grey effect in planing mode (should be very easy to do)

3. Add a option to choose another key for screen rotation, i hate to use the mouse wheel as a button (it feels strange) and would like to use another one

[zapat 56]

Wiggum:

1. Yes, this is a good idea. It will be included in next version.

2. would this be important? Its not hard to do, but it turns grey for a reason... :)

Apart from this: new setting, new profilenamespace var,etc...

3. this has got the most complaints: held ALT will also rotate cam in the next version.

Edited August 27, 2014 by zapat

[sttosin 67]

Congrats on the addon release! I agree with (1) above.

[wiggum2 31]

Wiggum:

2. would this be important? Its not hard to do, but it turns grey for a reason... :)

Apart from this: new setting, new profilenamespace var,etc...

I think you use a colorcorrection for the grey effect and dont know how this will affect other colorCorrections the mission Designer might want to use, also in some lighting condition the effect may be contra productive.

[froggyluv 2135]

I think you use a colorcorrection for the grey effect and dont know how this will affect other colorCorrections the mission Designer might want to use, also in some lighting condition the effect may be contra productive.

I think it's intended to make the planning mode a little more difficult.

On another note if you switch to GT mode while flying aircraft everything goes wonky when you return to first person such as weird camera FOV and losing control of aircraft.

[zapat 56]

Well, vehicles are yet to be handled. Its still infantry only... As it is noted in the limitations. :)

I need to rework a big part of the code to be able to include vehicles: they behave differently than foot-units. (eg.: just think of the dircetion. Direction of driver? Direction of gunner? Direction of vehicle? These are the same for a n infantry unit)

One of the main reasons I didn't want the addon version so early. But oh, well. :)

Edited August 27, 2014 by zapat

[zapat 56]

V1.1 is up!

Changelog:

V1.1 08-27-2014

ADD: Cam can be rotated by HOLDING ALT

ADD: Start in Plan mode switch added to the settings

FIX: Most urgent fixes for units in vehicles.

Note! Vehicles are not treated as separate units yet, but at least they are not broken and can be used as infantry units.

FIX: Selected WP stayed on after deleted a plan

TUNE: tuned Force move when obstructed, resulting in more believable ghosting

FIX: some more minor code fixes

[kremator 1065]

ADD: Cam can be rotated by HOLDING ALT

Woot. Found it hard to use the camera before.

[zapat 56]

And is it better? Or worse.... :)

I am lost with alt.

[stlassen 16]

And is it better? Or worse.... :)

I am lost with alt.

It's much much better...

My first intuitive attempt with ALT was to also press right mouse button, but I don't think that is necessarily better than just ALT and move mouse.

Though... I still find myself wanting to also hit Q and E to rotate the camera... hmm... Maybe a combo?

[zapat 56]

I'd skip Q and E for now if ALT suffice. It would require to rewrite the cam logic, which is dependant on mouse movement.

[stlassen 16]

I'd skip Q and E for now if ALT suffice. It would require to rewrite the cam logic, which is dependant on mouse movement.

Thats okay. It's an old habit. As it is now, it is easy to use and easy to get used to.

[kremator 1065]

Just had a go with the latest version zapat. Loving it ... however the camera still feels clunky. The problem is, of course, that in Zeus or other COIN cameras, the RMB is used to help rotate the camera. This can't be done with GTV as RMB is used to convey orders. Perhaps having it that when mouse pointer is at the edge of the screen it moves the view? I also found that turning continuous movement off (when holding ALT) was much better than with it on. Perhaps I'm too old school ?

I may be asking too much here, but is there a way to PRECISELY get soldiers to stack up exactly where you want them (to the centimetre!)? I found that when I have a soldier selected then move the cursor close to another it wants me to join the groups (which shouldn't be the typical order). Perhaps a way to force join group on key press or use an icon ?

Apart from that LOVING IT (think i said that already)