Bartkusa's Artillery Battery Officer script

[bartkusa 10]

Artillery Battery Officer

I play a lot of ArmA multiplayer, and I really like using the Artillery Module to aim mortars at targets spotted by other players. However, I found that I wasn't happy with the amount of firepower a single mortar offered me, and there was no way to have, for example, AI subordinates shooting their own mortar tubes. Also, multiplying the number of explosions you drop is always more fun.

With this pile of scripts, you can order AI subordinates to man indirect-fire weapons, mimic your own gun's azimuth and elevation, and fire coordinated volleys for effect.

You'll need to use the built-in Artillery module (or some other addon) to aim the battery. You could also use the Construction module to allow players to place their tubes where they want. All these scripts do are coordinate aim and coordinate fire.

Downloads

• Source code v1.0, plus demonstration mission
  
• PBO of demonstration mission, for single-player

Demonstration Instructions

1. Order your AI dudes into some mortars.
   
2. Sit down in a mortar, and use the "Open Targeting" action to aim your mortar.
   
3. Once you're happy with your aim, toggle Freelook to freeze your aim, and hit 0-0-9 to tell your AI dudes to aim in the same direction.*
   
4. Hit 0-0-1 to order them to fire. Shots should rain down roughly in the same arrangement as your men's tubes are layed out.
   
5. Use the Team Switch keys to jump into an aerial observer helicopter, and use freelook to watch the mortars fall.

* Once you order your men to aim, some of their AI ("MOVE", "TARGET") will be turned off. To reactivate the AI, you must issue an aim or fire command while sitting in a mortar that's different from the one they're in; this reactivates their AI. **

** Yes I know this is dumb as hell.

Caveats

• I don't think this will work for anything larger than the ~80mm mortars, for now. With bigger artillery, I think the distance between the gun's position and the gun's muzzle's position screws up my aim-coordinating math. I've only successfully tested the M252 and the PODNOS 2B14 so far.
  
• Very little of this code is inside "isServer" checks, so it might not work in multiplayer.
  
• It uses Radio Alpha and India to order your men to fire. This might cause scripts to execute on all clients, which would therefore make it difficult to have multiple arty officers in a multiplayer mission.
  
• Sometimes the men spontaneously explode themselves. I haven't the fainted clue why.
  
• If your subordinates drop rounds on friendly units in the field, nearby friendly units might execute them :o
  
• Artillery officers can only be defined at mission start currently; I'd like to be able to promote people to artillery officers at any time.
  
• Friendlier support for AI subordinates who are doing security instead of firing tubes.

Please report bugs.

Edited October 30, 2009 by bartkusa

[DTM2801 10]

I like this idea, step 3 not so much. Could this also be achieved by a global mapclick? making the arty 1/3 map screen absolete.

Edited October 30, 2009 by DTM2801

[bartkusa 10]

I like this idea in general, step 3 I'm not very happy with and would be a problem to use in a combat mission... the opened map targetframe is very hard to control, especially in a time critical situation. Could this also be achieved by a global mapclick? making the arty 1/3 map screen absolete.

So far, the only interface for that is the built-in Artillery module. Doing it via mapclick requires even more math than that module already uses. I'm not going to reinvent that entire wheel.

As for the other steps, when you hit 0-0-9, the units in your group near-instantly align to the new aim. Luckily, the 0 and 9 keys are close to each other on most keyboards.

Toggling freelook is not required. It only prevents you from bumping the mouse with your hand and screwing up your aim.

Edited October 30, 2009 by bartkusa

[DTM2801 10]

Wheels are there to be reused :), thinking about the existing call arty scripts (BIS and custom).. which require a mapclick, arty takes that as targetlocation. Maybe its more like reverse-engineering, as the target is now called by the arty officer. It might also mean a "lighter" variant while less calulation is needed.

Just bluring what comes to mind... although it might miss its purpose that you had in mind with these scripts

Edited October 30, 2009 by DTM2801

[bartkusa 10]

If you want to aim mortars with a map click, then there's no reason to actually sit on the tube. People have already implemented forward-observer scripts; I'm not trying to duplicate that.

I want a manual process. I want a human spotter to work with a human mortar commander. If you think that's too much work, then there's already solutions out there for you.

[gunterlund21 10]

One think you might want to try is jones arty module. It provides elevation and azimiuth for targeting and you could have the ai line up to that. I believe the old wgl had you punch in coordinates and the ai would hit that.

[tromac 11]

Hi guys,

Just wondering if anyone has tried this with R3F Artillery scripts and 105mm guns?