W.I.C.T -- World In Conflict Tool for ArmAII and OA

[ArmAIIholic 10]

@JB1528 it spawns around you, but you can specify the distance, in other words it can spawn on the whole map. And they dynamically fight for territory!!! Look the video #4 on Youtube

@Shad0wCatcher THANX MAN, I will take a look today/tomorrow and make new release ASAP.

[Shad0wCatcher 10]

No problem man. Happy to help. Stayed as close to BIS default groups as I could (had to...make up some stuff for some of 'em; and reduce some others).

[MWPA 10]

I have a lot to learn still about Arma 2 and programming in general. Last night I downloaded Mando Missiles and put it in my scenario. I had a great time with that.

I'm going to hold off on the questions for a little while because as I put them together in my head I feel the answers might be buzzing around in there too. In the meantime I'm having a lot of fun. Thanks again!

[kremator 1064]

Mando Missiles works seamlessly with any WICT stuff.

[Brockstar 10]

First of all great work. but Ive run into a wall with WICT:

Ive read the manual extensively, and most of each page in this forum, and after an embarrassing amount of hours trying to get things to work, I'm resorting to posting.... I'm unable to get any spawns whatsoever in Takistan for either East or West markers, Ive placed the functions and "server" game logic, Ive used the previously declared base names and changed the units classnames to opfor to the appropriate BIS_TK_INS units in the sqf. I also made sure the bases are detectable distance from each other. Do I have to place opfor on the map? or am I missing something extremely obvious? Its almost as if the majority of the scripts aren't executing, though I do get the WICT initialized text across the screen upon preview of the mission. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Shad0wCatcher 10]

Should have 2 texts that pop up if it executed completely. First is "Powered by WICT 7.0c"; one below it should read "WICT v7.0c SP/MP initialized successfully" or something to that effect. If you don't have the 2nd text there's an error in your unit config. I'm running into that issue at the moment with a few of the configs I uploaded (sorry ArmAIIholic :x). Other than that make sure (since the 'battlefront' spawns around you-ish) that the bases are outside of your minimum distance bubble.

[ArmAIIholic 10]

@Brockstar and Shad0wCatcher

"WICT v7.0c SP/MP initialized successfully" will pop up only if you have DEBUG mode ON...... If you don't have text that means, indirectly(!) that common user has error in config, under assumption that such user didn't change any coding.

What you need to get is hint message about number of groups and bases that are recorder, so my guess is that you maybe didn't start WICT -- initialization and actual starting WICT are two different things.

It could be missing , or [ ] or even ; in configuration, although you should get an error message if you are tracking them.

@Shad0wCatcher

What is the problem? You are quite good in operating with WICT "terminology" and you understood basics correctly, but what kind of error do you have in configs? :confused:

The "format" is simple :

variable = [

[array1],

[array2],

[array3]

];

I don't see how can that affect anything, unless you missed something in syntax. I won't be able to test your templates (there are several reasons I won't explain here), so please let me know when you upload stable version, I will wait with official release until then.

BTW than again for such effort the list of units and combinations you gave is quite impressive!

Cheers

[Shad0wCatcher 10]

It's got to be something simple that I've missed; misspelled unit or missing ; or ] or something like that. Getting errors in the Russians and Desert DPM brits. No initialization with either. Everything else works: Takistanis, USMC, US Army, MTP british, Woodland british, Insurgents. I took yesterday to kinda clear my head and I'll take a fresh look at it today.

[ArmAIIholic 10]

Notepad++ helped me a lot with brackets, since it can recognize C, C# and C++, and I love nice clean coding.

Take your time Shad0wCatcher

[MWPA 10]

I've begun working on my WICT warfare mission in Chernarus. Every town, airstrip, TV station, and the two factories on the east coast has at least one base (larger towns will have interior "character" bases). All of these start off in "civilian" hands guarded by trigger spawned, UPSMON driven Independents (actually the Iranian Army -- but I'd like to make that customizable like how Benny's Warfare offers three different varieties of resistance).

Blue starts off on Skalisty Island with a single base a few hundred meters offshore (perhaps to be placed later on an aircraft carrier). This base produces aircraft, and amphibious vehicles and boats filled with marines. There's always a battle at Kamyshovo between the marines and its defenders.

Red starts off in the NW corner heading down the Grozovoy Pass. They will be armor heavy with lots of CAS. That road will be heavily fortified with trigger spawned defenders. Along the five or so kilometers to Lopatino and the nearby airport are a few bases that will increase the quality and quantity of the Red units as they enter Chernarus. Likewise Blue will have the benefit of the two industrial towns in the south which in time will produce plenty of armor -- that is if the defenders can be broken.

While figuring out how to use UPSMON I placed a playable Independent Iranian rifleman and then for laughs, the Iranian President. I'd like to make the Independent's mission to be escorting the president to the east coast where a team of Iranian commandos will take him via zodiac to an awaiting submarine (or mothership or something). Maybe offer a choice in the mission to bring him to safety or hand him over for a big reward. I'm really concentrating on Blue but I'd like to see Red and Independent playable.

After the Independents are broken (if they're broken) I'd like to have guerillas popping up from newly spawned triggers or something (all this while the WICT-war rages on). I've seen a lot of interesting IED and car bomb scripts that could make the Independent role very interesting. A new additional purpose for income (from the capturable towns) could be bribing the local guerillas to attack the adversary instead. Since reinforcements and support will probably be free (they are at this point thanks to the air support console ;) ) money will have very limited uses... unless the cost of the air support console is like 100k and when it's used up you have to buy another... unless you're broke from bribing guerillas... who knows? I'm getting way ahead of myself.

This is a whole lot for someone who hasn't come very far from "Hello World!" so I'll be asking (and begging) for help. Right now I'm having a trigger problem. I can spawn in my defenders but after a certain amount of time I want to get rid of them to free up some groups. I'm searching the Biki and forums for information and in the process am learning a lot of other useful things. If anyone can help I'd appreciate it. Whatever I'm missing I don't think I'll figure out on my own anytime soon.

However my first question is how to get WICT spawned units for Blue and Red to be controlled by UPSMON on the tactical level? I know WICT has its own AI that governs its troop movements but could UPSMON be incorporated into it? I've been playing this mission in its current state and UPSMON is really impressing me. In fact they've been impressing me so much I had to call in some Mando bombs :D

Thanks again!

[ArmAIIholic 10]

1) but after a certain amount of time I want to get rid of them to free up some groups.

2) However my first question is how to get WICT spawned units for Blue and Red to be controlled by UPSMON on the tactical level? I know WICT has its own AI that governs its troop movements but could UPSMON be incorporated into it?

Your idea is brilliant, I can say from the start. You will have a lot to do. It is somehow similar to Marshal of Savannah, I spawned predefined missions and WICT was making warfare in the background.

1) I am not quite sure what you are asking. WICT has its own system for clearing units, so after you add those units if they are "near enough" to the players' average position they won't be deleted.

2) I am not familiar with UPSMON and how AI works. Please do find how does it governs AI -- is it SQF or FSM? WICT doesn't have any script that runs continually, but it gives waypoints to the groups and then ends.

Therefore >>> any script that augments AI will do just fine with WICT. Those units will follow new orders and cancel WICT-AI-orders......

It depends on what you want to accomplish.

I hope I helped,

Cheers

[MWPA 10]

Thanks! I'll have to check out "Marshall of Savannah." I like the title.

All that's needed for UPSMON to work is an init field for the leader of each group. There are two mandatory parameters (group leader, and waypoint location) that are passed on to UPSMON. It's a script so it should work. I think recognizing the variables and writing the code is probably way beyond me right now. I'm struggling with "if/then" statements :o

I'd like to make a new class: Amphibious; or to be more accurate, I'd like to ask you to make a new class. My offshore base is spawning only aircraft. The marines I see at Kamyshovo are spawning in there after the gunships cap the base I think (in the meantime I'm rushing over there in a RHIB with a squad of soldiers... great fun! :bounce3: )

I'm still trying to figure out my trigger conditions too. I'm embarrassed to admit that I don't know how to say: "if West and East are not in the trigger zone, run the script that will delete the Independents spawned by the trigger" in the trigger's text fields. Each town, airfield, and factory has a 1k radius trigger that spawns the garrisons after a 30 second timeout. I don't want to make the timeout any longer than that in case of airborne assault. I'd like to have it so that if there are no West or East units in the trigger zone for 5 minutes (more or less) the garrison spawned by that trigger will "despawn." Afterwards the trigger resets and waits for East or West to set it off again. Slow moving formations are activating the triggers on their way to the front so I figure this is a good fix. When the garrisons go back to "sleep" WICT can spawn in more Reds and Blues. The cleanup script is too aggressive so I set the parameters very high (30,000m). It deletes the playable Russian soldiers I have in the NW corner. They're used to keep the front in the middle of the map, otherwise it kinda follows me around.

I've played with it enough for today so I'll probably either install the B-52 for the Mando console or make a WICT war with everyone on bicycles. Maybe armed civilians in civilian vehicles. Those little bases of yours are a lot of fun!!! :D

[ArmAIIholic 10]

@MWPA can you give me short example of UPSMON command? It should go in master class spawn sqf.

You just have to use existing classes and add amphibious vehicle to setup.

The front in WICT is designed to follow you around! :) It is not so aggressive -- long ago I implemented interesting feature ----- if you don't want some units to be deleted just give them name, in the editor or when spawned ;)

The rule is this --- as long there is a unit with the name in the group, that group will be skipped for deleting and global assault.

I suggest you to increase spawn distance if you want spawning to be less obvious -- but again front is designed to follow you around.

[MWPA 10]

Do you mean the command from the trigger to UPSMON or a command from UPSMON to the units?

[ArmAIIholic 10]

masterClassSpawn.sqf has this line 2 times :

/* Executes _AI script */
call compile format ["_Unit1 doFSM [""WICT\AI\%1.fsm"", [0,0,0], _Unit1];",_AI];

for West and East, respectively.

You can add/replace that with similar line that will be UPSMON command, but I am not familiar with that. You are asking me how UPSMON works, but I don't know :(

_Unit1 in this example is leader of the group and it simply executes that line with some argument.

E.g. _Unit1 doFSM ["WICT\AI\infantry2W.fsm", [0,0,0], _Unit1]; (scripts use that argument through templates, but that is not important here, it is just example how masterClassSpawn.sqf sees it...)

Edited March 24, 2011 by ArmAIIholic

[MWPA 10]

I can ask about it on the UPSMON thread. At this point it's not as critical to the scenario as WICT (or Mando Missiles :) ). Last night I realized that using the warfare module will take care of my garrison triggers. I'm looking through an example mission and I'm recognizing the unit arrays and other parameters so I'll have some fun with that. Benny's Warfare was built from the ground up but looking through the code, I feel like a monkey :o So instead I'll use the module and use WICT to liven up the scene. Watching F-14s and Mirages whip by overhead last night was a blast! I still have a lot to learn about editing Arma but if the game wasn't so good I wouldn't be so eager :bounce3:

[Shad0wCatcher 10]

Biggest problem I can see in integrating the two and having UPSMON taking over WICT spawned units is the zone creation via marker that both UPSMON and WICT require. UPSMON groups are governed by areas defined in the group's initline; which goes something like:

nul=[this,"area2"] execVM "scripts\upsmon.sqf";

which tells the unit that:

this = this unit / group

"area2" = area defined via marker where the units go to patrol

Those are the minimum requirements to get a unit to go somewhere; there's quite a few parameters that can be set. the "spawned" parameter tells the system that the unit was created while the game is running and hands it over to UPSMON.

Biggest problem I can see is deciding what area you want them to get to and generating a marker for it on the fly then spawning the units with the correct params for them...

EDIT: Good news and bad news; good news is UPSMON reads markers just fine; so you can actually use the WICT flags as the 'destination'. Bad news is figuring out how to get those flag positions without using something severely resource heavy and passing that position along to each group's initline.

To be perfectly honest; both script sets do much of the same thing with UPSMON having more manual control over what units do via their parameters. I'd honestly use both in missions. UPSMON for that really easy unit command and control for a particular mission area with WICT layered to provide all its sandbox options (dynamic task creation / deletion / branches / warzone creation).

EDIT: Looking through those configs now ArmAIIholic. Real Life decided to get in the way over the weekend by way of needing a new game / TS server for my 'paramilitary group' and getting all that wonderful stuff set up.

Edited March 24, 2011 by Shad0wCatcher

[MWPA 10]

I haven't reached a frustration point yet, even when hours of work amount to nothing. Each obstacle has me reading more about editing Arma and even if I don't find the information I'm looking for, I find something else.

Earlier today I was messing with the warfare module and WICT. I got them working together then added in the Mando Missiles. I started missing the Benny's Warfare experience so I figured I give mixing WICT and Mando Missiles with Benny's another shot (I tried unsuccessfully once before). After some digging I got it working. I'm psyched! The reason I got into editing this game was to recreate the feeling I got from WW2 Online. So from Arma2holic recreating the feel of WIC, I'm getting to recreate the feeling of WW2 Online. Awesome!

I'm going to let it run overnight and see if it locks up before morning. Benny's usually locks up after four or five hours (the other reason I started trying to edit). So far WICT is keeping the group numbers manageable. :)

[kremator 1064]

MWPA this sounds great. The community would LOVE to see this mission hit the light of day. Good luck on testing. If you need another dedi testing then let me know!

[zapat 54]

If I spawn T-72s (east heavyarmor) by original WICT 7c, they get spawned empty. West heavyarmor works okay. Could anybody else confirm this, or did I messed something up?

edit: my bad, I accidentaly commented "EAST = createCenter EAST;" out...

It is hard to get back into coding after weeks of not seeing any code. :D

Edited March 25, 2011 by zapat

[ArmAIIholic 10]

nul=[this,"area2"] execVM "scripts\upsmon.sqf";

which tells the unit that:

this = this unit / group

"area2" = area defined via marker where the units go to patrol

Bad news is figuring out how to get those flag positions without using something severely resource heavy and passing that position along to each group's initline.

Quite contrary, it is easy to pass it to the leader (thus to whole group)....

1) Open masterClassSpawn.sqf.

2) 174. and 175. line for west side say:

/* Executes _AI script */
call compile format ["_Unit1 doFSM [""WICT\AI\%1.fsm"", [0,0,0], _Unit1];",_AI];

3) Replace it with this :

if ([color="red"]WICT_eb[/color] == "none") then 
{
null=[_Unit1,[color="red"]WICT_eb[/color]] execVM "scripts\upsmon.sqf";
}
else
{
null=[_Unit1,"any-default-[color="red"]east-base[/color]-marker"] execVM "scripts\upsmon.sqf";
};

3) For east side look lines 323. and 324., same text.

4) Replace it with this :

if ([color="red"]WICT_wb[/color] == "none") then 
{
null=[_Unit1,[color="Red"]WICT_wb[/color]] execVM "scripts\upsmon.sqf";
}
else
{
null=[_Unit1,"any-default-[color="red"]west-base[/color]-marker"] execVM "scripts\upsmon.sqf";
};

It will execute it on leader (_Unit1) for given side and look if there is know WICT base (from opposite side, of course) that is currently spawning units and it will send that group there.

Cheers

[Shad0wCatcher 10]

............Good sir, you are a genius.

[Shad0wCatcher 10]

Apologies for the double post; but I think the configs require their own bump.

http://www.gamefront.com/files/20158490/startSettingsConfigs.zip

These are 100%. BAF and Russians are fixed. Only a week late :/

[ArmAIIholic 10]

In other words this is final working version, right? (don't have to answer if it's positive ;))

[kremator 1064]

Gonna try that UPSMON change on the demo mission to see how it handles.