The original team is in EOL mode now and have moved on to other things. If we threaten to beat them they will work on fixing bugs. ALiVE is open source now so anyone can make changes or add features.

Why not do both? :)

My CLAfghan experience is mostly from the A2 version but:

• AI sometimes have issues with the hilly terrain (this is probably worse with A3 AI drivers).
• AI pilots do not like the runways in CLA - this might be better with the A3 version
• as JD mentioned the spawns might be a bit sparse on this map - you can add custom objectives to increase the number of AI groups

Glad to help!

Sorry for the late reply.

The commander will send groups to all objectives to guard/patrol. If you have too many objectives you may run out of available groups in which case the commander will stop giving new orders and all groups will remain in situ. I would check your placement modules on either side and reduce the number of objectives (there is a filter for this) either by size or priority.

Objective Filters provide options to restrict objective clusters by size or relative priority, so for example it is possible to identify only large military bases and airfields as objectives, excluding smaller bunkers and watchtowers.

BCRs are not reinforcements but Battle Casualty Replacements... basically it won't add new groups but will replace destroyed groups depending on the module settings

http://alivemod.com/wiki/index.php/Military_AI_Commander#Usage

Technically speaking, Military Logistics provide replacements and not reinforcements. The AI Commander will only request replacements for units that have been destroyed since mission start. If the AI Commander starts with zero units, it will never request replacements because as far as it's concerned it will never lose any. If you set up a mission this way, the Player can still call in reinforcements using the Player Combat Logistics module.

Re: OPCOM and attacks:

The number of groups used by the AI Commander to conduct a recce/attack, reserve or defend operation is determined by the AI Commander's strategy.

Invasion:
4 Attack, 1 Reserve, 2 Defend

Occupation:
4 Attack, 1 Reserve, 5 Defend

If your objective priorities are all zeros then that is why the commander is not sending troops. Try replacing that central civ objective with a custom objective and set the priority to max (which IIRC is 999)

http://alivemod.com/wiki/index.php/Military_Placement_(Custom_Objectives )

What I would do is simplify.. set up your 2 opposing TAORs with commanders and sync them with the one fighting area objective. Make sure groups spawn and are given orders before adding more TAORs, objectives, etc. Let's make sure a simple mission will work with the mods you are using.

The debug dots are not the objectives.. they are structures or other objects (military or civilian). The objectives will have numbers beside them... see the wiki for more info:

http://alivemod.com/wiki/index.php/FAQ#What_do_the_numbers_mean_.2850.7C150.29_next_to_the_placement_modules_in_debug.3F

Are your OPCOMs synched to the enemy TAORs? (perhaps that is not your intent... if so please ignore). If not the commander won't recognize those areas and will not send groups to secure objectives.

The TAOR you are using as the 'fighting arena' - make sure it's set to objectives only and that there are actual objectives within the TAOR (turn on the debug for the placement module). Make sure OPCOMs are synched to this module.

If you are new to ALiVE I would highly recommend starting with vanilla units to rule out any issues there (we've had problems in the past with certain mods not working with ALiVE).

My only suggestion would be to try and generate your faction (or just a simple test faction) without using the ALiVE template to see if you get similar key errors.

@AUTigerGrad - any suggestions?

You might have better luck getting server key help from the BI forums (lots more people there).

I'm not very familiar with custom faction creation so I'm not sure if it's a problem with the faction itself or the key signing process. Do you get any errors when generating the keys or only when you join the dedicated server?