Izual

Hey there, It's been a long time since my last post. I just wanted to highlight that for my community Gaia has really been a gamechanger, both for our main missions - now with an incredibly better AI - and for side missions that can now be made in less than one hour in the mission editor. Thanks again for making Gaia a standalone. Do you plan to improve it and to release a v2?

It's 1am and clouds are at 85%. It's quite dark. I'll run some more tests, glad to know it should work.

I think these requirements were met. You don't mean chemlight when saying flares, do you?

Questions. They keep popping in my head man, can't help it. I've given flare shells to grenadier AI, to see if they used it at night when engaging their opponents. I noticed everyone was using smoke grenades so the system seemed to work pretty well. However, during the tests not a single flare round was fired by the grenadiers. How do I make this work?

Wow, that's really nice. Thanks for the answers!

Hey spirit, another quick question if I may. What happens when there's sea/water in the zone? Will Gaia ignore the ocean part, or actually try to patrol it if it has boats? Does it affect foot soldiers' patrols (e.g. they patrol on the shores to see as much ocean as possible)?

So, tried a multiplayer mission with Gaia tonight, all made with editor. Fantastic tactics for the AI, it was quite incredible! You really did a good job there. The only problem there is, is when basic A3 fighting AI has to take control. I've seen perfect manoeuvers of the AI soldiers wasted because they didn't react in time to our players shooting them (sometimes up to 5-8 seconds to just acknowledge that "yes, we are being shot"). Also, I think AI should (not that it's easy, of course...) take covers into account when attempting to move. Most of the time AI manoeuvres were taking place in open areas, where it was easy for us to just duck behind large rocks and exterminate.

Ok, thanks for clarifying all this. I had studied the template so I had a working transportation truck already, but I didn't know helis couldn't transport troops.

Alright, even though it sounds a bit strange to have SF roam the countryside, but I get the idea. Look, I don't want to hijack this thread with stupid questions so I have some for you but feel free to tell me if they are inappropriate here. Regarding helicopters. I watched the videos, and I understand that their patrol shedules are random. Yet, I've got a Pawnee there that refuses to ever lift off (I waited for 25 minutes in the editor preview, and nothing happened, even when I finally spawned enemies MRAP next to his allies). No reaction. He's in zone 4, very far away from zone 1 (I tweaked caching options so that he doesn't disappear), and here is his init: "(group this) setVariable ["GAIA_ZONE_INTEND",["1", "MOVE"], false];". Is it possible that it simply won't patrol because Gaia feels it has enough terrain coverage with foot soldiers already? Also, will unarmed helicopters patrol (to provide recon for Gaia) or do they have to be armed? Next, I wanted to have a backup fire team next to a transport helicopter, far from the mission area, available as backup if Gaia needs some. I tried to have the soldiers MOVE their own area, with the transport heli doing the same - which means he should transport everyone that needs it, right. But how to tell Gaia to take these men in priority as backup rather than other patrols that roam an actually important zone?

Well I'd definitely be interested in studying the patterns of a seasoned Gaia user. For example, regarding patrols in a large area do you go for one huge zone, or do you prefer lots of tiny ones?

Can we have the (multiplayer) mission.sqm to study it in the editor?

Ok, thanks for your answer, it definitely is clear now. I'm eager to test your system :) Thanks again.

Alright. I'm done reading the PDF and the topic, time for noob questions - can I? First, you don't explain what caching is in the manual, can you tell us what it is and how/why we should use it? Also, I understand pretty well how to make Gaia defend/patrol zones dynamically, and this is of course a huge improvement on BIS basic editor, but I don't understand how Gaia reacts to the player's actions. If I have two zones, and one fire squad patrolling each zone, how will Gaia react to an invading enemy? Will it send the fire squad patrolling zone 2 to zone 1, where the enemy is? Will it send reinforcements from other zones/units with no particular orders? Or will it use any unit currently in the zone to do a counter-offensive, including units with orders like "fortify"? In short, I see how to make individual patrols and position holding and so on, but will Gaia override these orders when there is danger, or will it use other units as backup?

Amazing. I'm reading the pdf right now, quite excited! Just to be clear, there are no requirements on server side, everything is in the mission file?

nkey and LordHeart, any thought on this? Not being able to use TFR breaks my heart a bit more everyday. :'(