[About] Faction config

Ok, according to this thread, here some info about Faction config and maybe some thoughts, ideas and suggestions about some guidelines to avoid too much cluttering.

Basics:

With ArmA 2, BIS introduced Factions, which are basically subgroups of the four main sides, known as BLUFOR, OPFOR, RESISTANCE and CIVILIAN.

AFAIK, Factions that belong to the same SIDE, can't be enemies to eachother.

So when defining new Factions, you should think to which side it appears to be logical to add them.

Config template

class CfgFactionClasses {
class USAF {
	displayName = "U.S. Air Force";
	priority = 100;
	side = 1;
};
};

It is pretty self-explanatory but i'll give some info anyway.

class USAF

Obviously the classname. You'll use this name to assign units and/or vehicles to a faction.

	displayName = "U.S. Air Force";

This is the text you'll see in the Editor when placing units/vehicles. Can be plain text or stringtable reference.

	priority = 100;

This controls where it is sorted in the whole list of factions (if there are coming more and more). Starting from 1 as highest priority, being listed first, goin down to infinite(?).

	side = 1;

Again obvious, to which side this faction belongs to.

1 = BLUFOR

2 = OPFOR

3 = RESISTANCE

4 = CIVILIAN

Thoughts about upcoming factions

As people will start to create units/vehicles which belongs to very different Factions (in widest terms), there is a certain risk that the faction list becomes cluttered, even more as independent addonmakers will create the same faction each for himself.

Let me pick an example: the F-16C i've released already has 4 different factions, just to avoid having it cluttered in the editor. One of those factions is US Air Force (see example above).

Now it's more than likely that there will follow other addons which also would belong to US Air Force.

How should we handle this? If everyone creates his own faction class, we'll probably end up with multiple factions "US Air Force".

One solution would be to create an independent cfgFactionsClasses addon which holds all necessary classes in one place.

This would have to be centrally managed and updated regulary. People could request adding a new faction if needed for theyr addon.

I think, this wouldn't be a great deal as such an addon would be extremely small since it just contains a rather small config.

Special case: theme based mods and similars

For theme/era based mods (WWII mod, BWmod, FDFmod and others) it would be nonsense to add them into such a centralized faction class addon. For sure they would create theyr own factions (with mod prefix? like FDF Airforce i.e.?) and most likely also theyr own vehicleclasses (to avoid cluttering in empty vehicles since there is no splitting into factions anymore).

Surely a topic to discuss about. What could be possible that those modteams would agree to sync theyr class priority in this thread just to avoid having same mods/faction on same priority.

Suggestions

Creating a standardized faction class addon, being updated regulary for single addons.

Tracking/assigning priority values for larger mods (if needed/wanted).

Addin new factions on request by users.

First Results:

There were already the first faction suggestion transmitted and i see they fit pretty well so far. So i would say this is a start for a upcoming factions addon. Still open for additions of course.

class CfgFactionClasses
{
class Default;
class USMC;
class CDF;
class BWHE: CDF		{ displayName = "Bundeswehr - Heer";};
class BWLW: CDF		{ displayName = "Bundeswehr - Luftwaffe";};
class BWMA: CDF		{ displayName = "Bundeswehr - Marine";};
class RU;
class SLA: RU		{ displayName = "Sahrani Liberation Army";};
class INS;
class GUE;
class RACS: GUE		{ displayName = "Royal Army Corps Sahrani";};
class CIV;
class CIV_RU;
class USAF: USMC 	{ displayName = "U.S. Air Force";};
class USAC: USMC 	{ displayName = "U.S. Army Corps";};
class USNA: USMC	{ displayName = "U.S. Navy";};
};

I have uploaded a suggestion for a "copy&paste" sample to pastebin.com:

fractionSampleSuggestion pastebin.com

Everybody, feel free to add usefull fractions, so others might copy and paste those to their config, so all addons will merge into the same fraction.

BR,

mike

Made some: http://pastebin.com/m14c6161

How should we handle this? If everyone creates his own faction class, we'll probably end up with multiple factions "US Air Force".

I might suggest this:

There is a fairly well used convention of the three-letter ID for addon makers, for example I work under the 3 letter addon ID of JTD. We could adopt a system where the faction numbers are derived from this ID, using the number each letter comes in the alphabet. To avoid confusions with letters that come before "J" (and that thus have a number less than the 2-digit number of 10), we could start at letter 101 = "A". Then we add in a further 2 three-digit number until we have a 9-digit number, then add "000" for the first faction, allowing the makers up to 999 "slots". So that would be a 12-digit number.

So, if JTD were to make a faction for example, we would use the number "110120104000"

Or some such system of numbering?

As the number of factions allowed is infinite, there should be no problems right?

Good idea although i see it a bit simpler. Just use the letter as digit reference and to avoid a zero as first digit, add a 1 as prefix. So let's take GLT which is used by our clan just as quick example:

G = 07, L = 12, T = 20

Would make: 071220

Add 1 as prefix: 1071220

Would make it much shorter and therefor much easier rememberable, IMHO.

Keep also in mind that there are a few with four letter tags, these would be even longer again.

Good idea although i see it a bit simpler. Just use the letter as digit reference and to avoid a zero as first digit, add a 1 as prefix. So let's take GLT which is used by our clan just as quick example:

G = 07, L = 12, T = 20

Would make: 071220

Add 1 as prefix: 1071220

Would make it much shorter and therefor much easier rememberable, IMHO.

Keep also in mind that there are a few with four letter tags, these would be even longer again.

Yep that would work too :) and I think the 4 letter tags would be fine. If, as is assumed, the numbers available is huge.

BTW, I suggest using a "1" prefix even if the first number is already naturally a "1" as in "JTD" (us), which starts with a "10" naturally. Not that it really matters too much especially if we also append "00" as the first faction number for each modmaker's use.

Could I suggest that if you're going to use U.S. Air Force etc. that the displayName for USMC should then be updated to U.S. Marine Corps. Personally I'd prefer to see the periods dispensed with (i.e. US Marine Corps, US Air Force) such that where acronyms appear (i.e. CDF) they're all treated the same.

Could I also suggest while you're at it that you propose guidelines for simple colour/camouflage variations. IMHO your grey and black F-16 variants should really have been listed in the one US Air Force faction along with the default scheme and differentiated in the unit listing with a prefix like [schwarz] F-16C Mehrzweck. A prefix means they'll group together so if you were (for instance) placing Marines on a Middle East map it's easy to pick from the desert marpat versions...

That's a good idea indeed. It was always a damn thing to figure out if a certain unit has desert or woodland camo when they're using the same display name.

I like the idea of the prefix [Desert]. But what about other camo scemes? I don't think it would be a good idea to add [Woodland] or [Marpat] in front of all units. So should this prefix only be for certain units? If yes, we should define some criteria.

Added Royal Army Force and Soviet Union proprosal

http://pastebin.com/m6193211