Melody_Mike

Hey bub, This is an interesting post! My impression is that we are in a similar situation (or perhaps where you were previously). My missions tend to be for 4-10 players (and a zeus), with some experimentation in custom spawn and interaction scripts. Feel I need to be honest- your questions are extremely broad mate: Mission automation, mission performance at scale, effective zeus curating, mod compatibility... Each bullet point in your post already has several threads related to them on this forum. As you pointed out, our hobby (logically) doesn't have much rigorous documentation. The experienced and talented forum goers here are in high demand. So, would you mind narrowing it to a specific question? (PS you can try and message the Youtuber Liru the Lance Corporal on his experiences in mission design. He's on the Discord server. You can find his literally hundreds of large scale Zeus mission recordings on Twitch and Youtube)

+ 1 ! Spent hours on this. Still don't understand how each layer of classname in CfgFunctions works, and the naming convention with fnc_ versus fn_ as per the wiki: https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3_Functions_Library#Adding_a_Function A simple working example in a mission file would be greatly appreciated!

@nkenny Hello sir! Need to first of all say: thank you for spending your free time making this, and then answering all these support questions. I followed your suggestion on using standalone scripts from your GitHub to enable building searching: https://github.com/nk3nny/taskRush-Creep-Hunt-for-Arma3 However, after copying, executing the script function with the following syntax has no effect: null = [someUnit, 500] execVM "fn_taskCQB.sqf"; Where the target group was named "SomeUnit" and placed between buildings. I also tried preprocessing the file beforehand. I looked at the Github, and see on line 24: _building = _building select {count (_x getVariable ["LAMBS_CQB_cleared_" + str (side _group),[0,0]]) > 0}; -That the script refers to special variables not declared anywhere else in the file. So it seems it isn't an independent script. Before I go down a rabbit hole, I want to ask: is it realistic to unpack the mod and run the necessary scripts independently in a mission? Or does it require the mod framework/configs? Thanks! -MeM

Hey everyone. I have a very obtuse use case. Background: I am making a large scale (10+ player) cooperative mission. Most of the players are casual/newbies. My scenario finishes in an urban area with a convoy approaching. The default AI, as we know, does not really search buildings, which makes the urban aspect a missed opportunity. It would be brilliant if, with a trigger or script, one could manually enable this AI only from this point onward. Or apply it to specific units. Is this possible? After reading the above I am considering adding a headless client with the mod loaded for the convoy units, but I hope that I can keep it to one server with minimal scripting. Appreciate all input =].

I am thinking you could do a lot of things. A) Perhaps add a dummy enemy with allowdamage false and enablesimulation false, and then place them wherever off camera. B) Dummy enemy, and a scripting command for the gunner with doTarget or doWatch. See example: https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/doWatch There may be scripting commands that directly set the turret elevation and rotation, but I never had use for the them.

Heya @Larpushka, welcome to the forums! If your unit is a player, then you can add this to the init of their unit attributes: this moveinTurret [ tank , [0,2]]; Where "this" is the unit whose init you are typing in (that player), and "tank" is the variable name of the vehicle he is in. See BI Wiki for more explanation: https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/moveInTurret If it is an AI, you can order them using commands such as https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/assignAsDriver Good luck!

@AAO-Optik Question: do the Police have to have a special item in their inventory? Or is it fine if all Police players are able to open buildings? In that case, you can just include Police players as part of a special array in the _caller part of GOM_fnc_lockBuildingDoor (why is it called the "lockBuildingDoor" function?). Otherwise, if you want to require a player (any player, not just Police) to have an item, you can use these functions: https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/items https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/in As a beginner programming exercise, you can try to type out a line of code that gives TRUE for a player carrying their compass (classname: ItemCompass ). Just use the Debug console in the Eden Editor and press the "local execute" button. From there you can probably paste it into GrumpyOldMan's code to get it to work with any item you like. Good luck!

Hey @CloudyRob, welcome to the forums! I am curious: how are you making this slideshow happen? Because it has been tried before, but is surprisingly difficult to get working reliably in multiplayer. Multiplayer pathing to files is one aspect, as @IdoX mentioned. See other forum post: The most used method is with the ACE mod, with its slideshow function. Just subscribe to it via Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=463939057 A driect link to the slideshow function: https://ace3mod.com/wiki/framework/slideshow-framework.html

Hello Sir! Big fan of your work. There's some good news; we don't have to reinvent the wheel on this. A librarian named Krause took the time to research the topic and distill it for Arma 3 roleplay. Perhaps a place to start is a presentation script he wrote: http://portfolio.krauselabs.net/evidence/11-5.pdf He even adapted the forms from US manuals JP 3-09.3 and ATP 3-21.8 : http://www.krauselabs.net/dump/CASQuickReferenceSheet.pdf The Unites States Marine Corps MCWP 3-23.1 manual may also be useful. There's also a roleplay group (unrelated to the above) with a website that explains their adapted procedures: https://armafriday.readthedocs.io/en/latest/manuals/jtac.html Somebody even made flashcards: https://quizlet.com/55276249/cas-9-line-flow-flash-cards/ Hope this saves you some work. You can google the military publications quite easily. Game on sir!

@DogePlaysCZ Hey DogePlaysCZ, welcome to the forums! Convoys are not a standard feature of the Arma 3 A.I., unfortunately. There are a few ways you can "trick" a few vehicles into staying together. Sometimes it helps to split up the drivers into groups, putting cars in right place/distance, setting the A.I. to careless, or setting special waypoints... But if you want a reliable solution, then I suggest you use this script: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=31925 ^ It works with all kinds of vehicles, with soldiers in cargo, on any roads (or maps). The convoy reacts pretty okay to attacks, and after fighting, will keep driving. But you will have to do a some typing in script files. I didn't make this script: cannot guarantee it will work. But it does for me. Good luck sir!

@Alleged Accomplice Ah, so you're having trouble with the respawn? Not the attaching of explosives? The script should not interfere with any aspect of the respawn system. Honest. ^ To get this in your mission, follow this guide: http://killzonekid.com/arma-scripting-tutorials-respawn-on-marker/ (You are correct that the test mission does not have any respawn in it. You have to add that yourself) Good luck bub =]

@Alleged Accomplice Alright bub. I don't know which version you have on your hard drive. But the Armaholic download link version works for me, both SP, MP, and Dedicated. As it says in the README, I activate the script using this code in the init.sqf: waitUntil {time > 0}; execVM "EtV.sqf"; waitUntil {!isNil "EtVInitialized"}; [player] call EtV_Actions; The recent posts with RCA3's additions simply add another class of objects to which you can attach explosives. It won't change how the script starts. My advice: Does the script work in the test mission included in the download? Are you able to get the script to work on a new mission? Don't know why you mention respawns as part of the problem; my Dedicated mission had 12 players using the "BASE" template with markers (the test mission used different respawns). It worked fine. Good luck!

Hi everyone. I have an ambitious, conceptual question. I would like to scare the pants off of my friends in a multiplayer mission. My (ideal) technical aim is to have pre-placed corpses get up, then behave as regular AI (according to the popular Zombie mods eg Ravage). Placing bodies is easy. Animating them to get up will probably require tedious custom animations, but is not impossible. The real question is how to assign AI to them. Or perhaps place them as AI with animations disabled, and untargetable by players (so players don't get wise when they look at them up close). Any thoughts?

Good to know I am not the only one struggling. I realise now even the ACE* mod developers had to deal with this: https://ace3mod.com/wiki/framework/slideshow-framework.html But I have solved the "Can't find texture" problem, I think. Clients get no errors about "can't display" textures when the mission is in .pbo format. Current problem is that new slides quickly flash on the screen before going invisible to all users. This effect repeats (for the correct slide) every time "Next" or "Back" is activated. It only occurs in Multiplayer. * (Why not use ACE? My group plays very casual, so I want to avoid mod dependencies, medical systems, and other doo-hickeys.)

Hi gents, I realise that the original authors may be long gone. It's just that I (and other players) would probably enjoy having a slideshow script independent from the bells and whistles of ACE3 or ALiVe mods. Have done some private testing. The script works fine in Single- and Player hosted Multiplayer, but doesn't on a Dedicated Server (JIP or otherwise). As is, clients will get an error that says the texture won't display. This is easily fixed by converting the mission to .pbo format. The next problem is that, every time a new slide (texture) is called, the image displays for a fraction of a second, then disappears. This occurs for every slide in the array. I rewrote the BRIEFnext script using remoteExecCall: [bigScreen, [0, _slide]] remoteExecCall ["BRIEF_setObjectTextureGlobal"]; But this code gave the same result as above. Is there anything that I am missing in the implementation?

PS anyone know how to embed videos into posts?

Hi everyone. Sorry for the long wait. Life got in the way. I tested your script GF: it works fine in single- and multiplayer (player hosted). Here's a recording: https://streamable.com/7ubmk Notice how, even though I tried to vary the starting positions, all the AI characters get up in exactly the same, soldier-like manner. Went digging through some popular zombie mods, and with Ryan's "Zombies and Demons", I got this: https://streamable.com/gox1y Note: extreme wimpiness in the face of the undead. But also the unique animations. Note that the AI scripts in this mod counteract the setUnconscious command. My question has been answered. Hope others can use this information. Thanks for the input!

Hi @gc8, Not sure if this is what you need. There are other ways to find filepaths, such as using preprocessor. See KillZoneKids' blog: http://killzonekid.com/arma-scripting-tutorials-mission-root/

Thank y'all! @GEORGE FLOROS GR Animations scare me :(! But I will try to find an appropriate "getting up" animation. @johnnyboy Your solutions seem elegant, and read like they have been successfully tested. Because I would like the (zombie) AI to surprise the player up close, I think I will take the unconscious option. If this works works reliably in MP, perhaps use a starting pose in their init as well. Will report back on this. Appreciate the brainstorming.

After some googling, it's clear that I need to apply this method somehow: But surely replacing the vehicle config file with an edited one is possible with only a script? Therefore no addon (and dependency)? Thanks for reading.

Hiya everyone I have an absolute beginner question regarding vehicle configurations. My aim: I want to increase the amphibious/water speed of the AMV-7 Marshall unit (classname: B_APC_Wheeled_01_cannon_F ). After reading it through the config viewer, I think I only need to adjust the " waterspeedcoef " value. But how do I do this? TL;DR - anyone have a FAQ/Youtube link/BI forum post on how to change parameters on an existing vehicle? (Pardon my ignorance. Googling just gave me tutorials on how to create an entirely new vehicle)

Hi sir. Accidentally clicked your name when you tagged my post. Spent my Saturday afternoon trying out your scripts instead of answering my emails. Want to say "thank you" for the scripts AND documentation. But, need to share a bug on this script. When running the demo mission, Arma shows a persistent error (line 134). See image below: https://ibb.co/0K2zfnp (PS I never run any mods. Only mission scripts) Have a good day!

Oh, and welcome to the forum @Cl1ve! 🙋‍♂️

Heya bub, I was in the middle of typing out a solution. But, somebody already made a video that very literally answers your question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRDBv3WLj6c (Skip to 04:05 for your specific query) Happy editing!

@RCA3Thank you! You have solved my "hostage rescue" player scenario problem. Cheers.