Is it possible to add a NEW SIDE?

[MedwedianPresident 6]

No, I’m not talking about “factions” but about the highest unit classification level, e.g. BLUFOR/OPFOR/INDFOR/Civilian. Is it, by any means, possible to add a new side and/or create scenarios in which 4 or more armies fight against eachother? If yes, are there any mod examples?

[Tajin 349]

Nope. Not possible as far as I know.

[warlord554 2065]

Good guys, bad guys, neutral guys, civilians. What other sides are there?

[Private Evans 498]

Found this topic today while researching. Is there any valid information about sides being hardcoded ? Also would be nice to hear something from the devs about their plans for factions. in the future.

...and no it is not only about the good the bad and the ugly...same as it is not always just  black and white, not in Rl and not in the Armaverse too ! Things are a lot more complicated and a more flexible faction system would bring us a lot of more potential regarding scenarios and conflicts for Armas future.

I know that a large part of the community is happy fighting commis or talibs for their rest of their Arma life but I would like to see something more like this in the Armaverse when it comes to factions...

 

Blue                   Nato (US-Aegis, US-Pacific, US-Woodland, CTRG, LDF...)

Light Blue         Nato Partners and Allies (ION, UN, Tanoa Gendermerie...)

Green                Independent 1  (Russia...)

Light Green      Independent  2 (AAF, CDF, Takistan Army...)

Yellow               Independent  3 (Arabique League...) this would be a new player for the Armaverse

Red                    CSAT   (CSAT-Iran, CSAT-Pacific, CSAT-Africa...)

Black                 Guerilla (FIA. Syndicate, Looters, ChDKZ, Takistan Insurgents...)

Lila                     Civilians

 

just an example 🙂

[pierremgi 4905]

Anyway the question stays: who fights who?

Give all your factions the side you want. And you can modify the relationship with setFriend while in game.

 

BLUE vs RED only means they will fight each others by default. No matter the country/faction. Just limited by imagination and too often cliché.

GREEN are BLUE friendly, RED enemy or the contrary via editor.

CIVILIAN says "don't shoot at me. I have a diplomatic immunity", but they are enemy to RED by default (just give them a weapon!)

     Slightly different than captive who fall in CIV but keep their feeling (unilateral relationship) against other sides

 

This way, setting relationship (don't forget both ways), you can have 4 camps fighting like 4 armies.

 

For very bad trip, you can use RENEGADE. Enemy to anyone! Bilateral: this aspect is not often used because the rating of AIs doesn't often fall below -2000!

 

IMHO, the only missing point, impossible to workaround, is to keep a good relationship between renegade guys from the same group (faction?).

This way, you could fight group against group, which is not possible so far.

 

[bLAcKmAgE87 13]

Since you can't actually beat the game...you can tell...that the way to win: Create your own side. Since you can script, you can name a group, and control what they do from there. That is, using your config files, and sqfs you create your own party. If your any good or even get the game, you'd realize that each AI you program is a side, that side is your own. You have to teach your own side what to do. Even if that means flipping out and sniping everybody not in your group while still on your side. No matter what keep their ratings up, but nonetheless acting lethally  Or whatever it is that constitutes your logic for game play. I get my tanks to automatically shoot me all the time with triggers and scripts. They shouldn't get in trouble for it. If they see something not me... kill it. If I said don't kill something, program that, how does that part work? Don't worry about hard coding  your own side its beating the actual logical purpose of the game. That finishes my tenor. 

[Jackal326 1181]

23 hours ago, bLAcKmAgE87 said:

Since you can't actually beat the game...you can tell...that the way to win: Create your own side. Since you can script, you can name a group, and control what they do from there. That is, using your config files, and sqfs you create your own party. If your any good or even get the game, you'd realize that each AI you program is a side, that side is your own. You have to teach your own side what to do. Even if that means flipping out and sniping everybody not in your group while still on your side. No matter what keep their ratings up, but nonetheless acting lethally  Or whatever it is that constitutes your logic for game play. I get my tanks to automatically shoot me all the time with triggers and scripts. They shouldn't get in trouble for it. If they see something not me... kill it. If I said don't kill something, program that, how does that part work? Don't worry about hard coding  your own side its beating the actual logical purpose of the game. That finishes my tenor. 

lol what?

[froggyluv 2136]

On 12/23/2021 at 12:30 PM, bLAcKmAgE87 said:

Since you can't actually beat the game...you can tell...that the way to win: Create your own side. Since you can script, you can name a group, and control what they do from there. That is, using your config files, and sqfs you create your own party. If your any good or even get the game, you'd realize that each AI you program is a side, that side is your own. You have to teach your own side what to do. Even if that means flipping out and sniping everybody not in your group while still on your side. No matter what keep their ratings up, but nonetheless acting lethally  Or whatever it is that constitutes your logic for game play. I get my tanks to automatically shoot me all the time with triggers and scripts. They shouldn't get in trouble for it. If they see something not me... kill it. If I said don't kill something, program that, how does that part work? Don't worry about hard coding  your own side its beating the actual logical purpose of the game. That finishes my tenor. 

 

This sadly is the fate of one of the original designers of OFP AI.....men truly do go mad once they lay gaze upon its non - decipherable spaghetti code

[Jackal326 1181]

34 minutes ago, froggyluv said:

This sadly is the fate of one of the original designers of OFP AI.....men truly do go mad once they lay gaze upon its non - decipherable spaghetti code

What's that quote or saying about "staring into the void and it stares back"? Its basically that...

[bLAcKmAgE87 13]

On 12/24/2021 at 10:25 AM, froggyluv said:

 

This sadly is the fate of one of the original designers of OFP AI.....men truly do go mad once they lay gaze upon its non - decipherable spaghetti code

Its fun to code an assault wave... check out this topic I just put up... in other words... No you cannot create a whole new color. It isn't worth it. Bohemia has a totally different crew that creates their own milsims for militaries etc. 
Anybody who does that or manages to actually decode the ARMA platform, creates their own game, while managing copyrights. A totally new game...and out of bounds. Weird are business rules. It also probably has to do with the complicity of vectors in the solving of more than 3 variables... which gets to nearly impossible anyways in math. Logic aint simple

 

Edited January 5, 2022 by bLAcKmAgE87
correction

[pierremgi 4905]

Arma could evolve with more than 4 sides, independently from usual factions. I mean you could choose among more colors: blue, red, green, purple, yellow, black, grey, brown, orange... And decide who is fighting against who in a simple matrix.

After that, BI could create a specific side, like renegade, but on group instead of units (the whole group stays consistent and fights against any other unit).

[bLAcKmAgE87 13]

try solving this... in the  field of a battle you are a warrior against many enemies and of many allies... If you had to decide to kill first, you know the game picks your enemy, unless there are many enemies. Ok, so we can have a battle with three enemies... civs, Independents, and East... but ask someone this... when do you choose between enemies? When there are like 5 sides and 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 combinations of factors? You are trying to solve when and where each side will, as far as the AI fighting is concerned...But who goes first? The nearest target? What if it aint a threat? So you have like 5 civilian factions all working sort to say, what could go wrong? The game might not be able to predict each faction with any relation to the other with so many sides. It needs to know when A meets B when B meets C when C meets D or like Meets B and A, and then B and C... the predictions are not so simple, yet the lack of factions keeps us going with what we have to use... some basic formulas for control and unit data on the map. Most of the damage would probably come from triggers trying to evaluate how 3 sides relate to each that are friendly to another... while one other sides take it all as hostile. Or from just shooting, one side hitting the other, while thinking about something else if at all. 

[pierremgi 4905]

The relationship is only on sides and that's fine. All factions belong to a side.

You can:

- change the relationship by setFriend command, so between 2 sides, more exactly for a side to another one.

- change the side of a group...

 

AIs are not able to fire on friendly target, but players are. You can trigger some conditions for altering relationship, like AI crossing an area or player killing too many civilian (different from renegade for whom player  is enemy against any unit).

[bLAcKmAgE87 13]

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/countEnemy