supressive fire

[Ham Sandwich 0]

I'd like to know how to have units fire at a piece of ground for a set peried of time, wether they have targets or not. I want to do this in order to have covering fire from a supporting element while the assaulting element is approaching the objective.

I got this to work to a certain extent using a trigger with the doFire function which starts the support group firing when the assault gp enters it, and then ceases once they leave it. A target unit or object is needed to initiate the "doFire" and the problem is, units only seem to engage actual units or empty enemy vehicles when the doFire function is used. And those are no good for my purposes becuase they inevitably die or are destroyed, and then the firing stops.

Ideally, i'd l'd like to be able to set an invisible object (like the invisible H) down as an aimpoint but i cannot get units to engage empty objects. Is there any way to get them to do this?

[zwobot 22]

I think the only way to do this is with an "Invisible target" addon as someone had made it for Ofp. I believe it is not yet ported to ArmA.

I am very interested in bringing more suppressive fire into ArmA myself, so hopefully anyone will come up with a solution

Another problem would be to control the rate of fire the AI pumps into the invisible targets. Normally they would fire bursts and run out of ammo fast. The other thing is to make enemy AI react to such suppression.

Maybe there could be something done with FSM files?

[Ham Sandwich 0]

Hmmm. An invisible target addon would be ideal so long as it could be undestroyable.

[december 0]

"And those are no good for my purposes becuase they inevitably die or are destroyed, and then the firing stops."

Can't you just have a script running that checks the health of the object and then sets it to 1 all the time. Sure I saw such scrips in ofp.

[johnnyboy 3797]

Invisible objects by Lester worked great for OFP, and he is planning on releasing one for ARMA soon (in weeks or days I think) as part of a MAPFACT addon. I know they work in ARMA because I converted his OFP target addon to ARMA and tried it. Its his addon though, so I'm now waiting for the official MAPFACT one.

Invisible targets only take damage from nearby explosions (bullets and projectiles pass through with no damage). This happens, but not that frequently. Plus you can run a script to replace targets if they are destroyed.

I use the hidden targets in various ways:

1. Run a script that continually repositions the target near the player (randomly). This gives the enemy ai something besides the player to continually shoot at. The player is then taking alot more rounds in his general direction.

2. Add an armored target near infantry player. This causes enemy armor, enemy AT soldiers, and helicopters to fire cannonts, rockets, etc., near the player.

3. Put triggers around static cover objects such as vehicles, barrels, small walls, windows, etc. When player or AI enters the trigger area an invisible target is created on the opposite side of the object. Enemy AI then pours fire down on that target. If you are player and hide behind a car, the enemies are now hosing down that car, giving you that thrilling sound of bullets hitting metal. The scripts will alternately hide and show the target, so the enemy fire is more sporadic (otherwise enemy will fire at the target nonstop). This is no substitute for real suppressing fire though, but until BIS codes suppressing fire, it helps, but it takes alot of work.

My scripts for number 3 above were all hardcoded in various missions. I hope to develop a generic one that will automatically calculate the opposite side of a cover object where to place the target, and adjust it as player moves. So if you hide behind a car on the West side, the target will appear on the East, and vice versa.

[Second 0]

Well problem with invisble targets is that the supporting team gives away it's position and enemy doesn't react to suppressive fire. They may lay down, but then they start to shoot supporters who consentrates to invisble targets and not to enemies which are killing them. Assaulting team might start to engage invisible targets and not enemies... Attack goes little bit out-of-the-plan, so to speak

[orson 0]

Yes make an invisible target but dont give it a fire geometry , literaly all it needs to be is a point in the memory which will be the AI target , all rounds just pass straight thru .

As Second points out ^ its no good for a fluid firefight , just for cutscenes and scripted missions , allthough area denial is just as effective as direct fire in some cases .. get some grenadiers to keep lobing HE into an area by firing at fake target .

*edit* sorry didnt see Johny boys post , he describes perfect use of such targets .

[tj72 0]

The invisible target and setpos command  can be the basis for a more complex cover/suppress script system.

 If a unit is killed the event can trigger a script that checks any relevent arrays/variables. Then if it decides, it setpos's the target at the enemy group and two machineguners start the dofire and the rest of the squad does a drop back and flank around or something else. I would send them away so they dont go in front of the MG. The invisible target can move around slightly for an area effect of where the bullets are hitting add more things like this when they come up....

The enemy group can check if the invisible target is in a list from a scanning trigger and will then know if they are under suppresive fire. This check can be an event off of unit HIT so a group wont know the invisible target is there too early and add any other little tweaks as such......

 Throw a few game logics in there in an arrangement facing the invisible target object so the group has some different positions to work through like fall back and advance pos. Maybe its possible to check with some trig if these positions are behind nearby buildings in relation to the target position and if not move them accordingly. Add any enhancements that this part will need.....

 My point is a nice cover/suppress system could be developed and expanded with the invisible target and setpos and a few other simple commands as the core.

[johnnyboy 3797]

Quote[/b] ] its no good for a fluid firefight , just for cutscenes and scripted missions

Agreed. Great for cutscenes, and it can add a little spice to scripted missions. A good example is if the player's team hides out in a house. You sprinkle a few targets around the house, then you get lots of incoming fire.

[zwobot 22]

Well problem with invisble targets is that the supporting team gives away it's position and enemy doesn't react to suppressive fire. They may lay down, but then they start to shoot supporters who consentrates to invisble targets and not to enemies which are killing them. Assaulting team might start to engage invisible targets and not enemies... Attack goes little bit out-of-the-plan, so to speak

Workaround with a "knowsAbout" check from the enemy group, as soon as the enemies know about the supporting team you can order them to hold fire and let them engage the real targets.

[johnnyboy 3797]

Another workaround I use, is to have a looping script that removes the hidden targets for a few seconds, then puts them back for a few seconds, over and over. This prevents supporters from only shooting at hidden targets.

[Second 0]

Well i can see that people are putting lots of trust to invisible targets... Which is good. I have bit pessimistic feeling about those targets. They feel somewhat un-natural, so i rarely even try to use them in anything... Time to check my attitudes? Seems so

[zwobot 22]

Does the "onMapSingleClick" command work in map view only or is there a way to get the position and selected units of a mouseclick in the normal command interface?

I think this would be a good way to order AI units in player's group to fire at a specific area where you could spawn invisible targets around the mapclick and then look what happens...