FAQ

ALiVE in Editor

How exactly do TAOR & blacklist markers work?

See this description of TAOR usage. Blacklist and TAOR markers will only affect unit and location placement at mission start. Blacklist markers will not completely prevent units from moving into those areas during the game if they spot enemy there. However, Military AI Commanders will not find objectives in those areas.

How do I prevent a spawned unit/group from being profiled?

By default units/groups spawned during runtime by scripts other than ALiVE's Placement Modules will not be profiled by the Virtual AI System. In fact, on default settings, only units synced to the Virtual AI module will be profiled, so even manually placed units will remain as normal. For added flexibility, a command can be run on any spawned units to force the profiler to ignore them (for example, using an extended event handler):

_vehicle setVariable ["ALIVE_profileIgnore", true];

How do I set the CAS units to spawn at a certain height for things like the USS Nimitz?

In the CAS module there is a field for spawn height - be sure to use ASL not ATL !!

Is there a way to specify what type of enemy units spawn?

ALiVE is designed to spawn credibly realistic force compositions based on GENFOR combined arms tactics with simple modifiers that influence what type of battle group you will encounter, whilst keeping a reasonably balanced combined arms battelgroup. However, you can choose to override this by entering a maximum number of groups of each type or setting them to 0 to prevent them spawning at all.

Advanced users can create Custom Blacklists by editing staticData.sqf, or customise group types by Declaring Faction Mappings, or create an entirely custom faction with the Orbat_Tool.

What do the numbers mean (50|150) next to the placement modules in debug?

The first number (50) is the priority of the objective in relation to OPCOM. The second number (150) is the size of the objective (radius from centre). Taken together with some other data such as proximity to the location of the Mil Placement module, OPCOM will use these numbers to determine which objective to attack first.

Zone markers show the type of objective: red for military, yellow for civilian.

cluster id | cluster type | cluster priority | cluster size

Colour index for the location markers:

CIVILIAN

green - priority 0 e.g. CIV|0|150 pink - priority 10 blue - priority 30 orange - priority 30 white - priority 40 yellow - priority 40 black - priority 50

Relation to filtering settings:

size

none: 0 tiny: 160 small: 250 medium: 400 value: 700

priority

none: 0 low: 10 medium: 30 high: 40

How do I reset persistence?

Change the mission filename. See ALiVE Data page for further details of how to reset persistence and stats.

ALiVE in Game

How do I bring up the ALiVE menu (Combat Support / Admin Actions / View Distance etc)?

Your player must have the required item defined on the Combat Support module (see below) and the relevant modules must be placed in the editor.

Use your App Key to open the ALiVE menu: the app key is found next to your right control key. If you do not have that key you can map it to any other key once in game by going to Configure >> Controls >> Configure Addons >> Addon: ALiVE.

Alternatively, the old method of mapping User Key 20 in the options menu of the game still works but you will need to restart ArmA for this to take effect.

How do I change what item is required to access the Combat Support Interface?

The Combat Support module has a field for an item classname (default: LaserDesignator) - change this to taste. Try using the "ALiVE_Tablet" object. Note that both ACRE and TFR are supported.

Can I have CAS limited to players with a Laser Designator but still allow transports to be used by all?

Players can interact with ALiVE transport choppers by boarding the chopper and selecting <scroll wheel> Talk to Pilot. This will bring up the tablet interface and allow you to give orders to the pilot. Once you arrive at your location remember to order the pilot to RTB before hopping out.

Can I save the progress without a dedicated server?

Set Persistence to Local in the ALiVE Data module. If you want to use War Room services such as Mission Stats, Server Monitoring and AAR, you need to run @aliveserver on the host machine and have a War Room account with the host details setup (ensure the IP address is correct).

Cloud Persistence works best with a dedicated server on a static IP. However, it is possible to set up a "local server" on your PC (arma3server.exe) running the same mods and register that with the War Room. Be sure to check the IP address in your War Room group profile from time to time, as most people are on a dynamic IP and it may change. See the BI Community Wiki for info about setting up a server.

Advanced users can set up their own local instance of CouchDB.

ALiVE Modules

How do I get a community made faction to work with the ALiVE modules?

Check if the mod is on the known working faction list or load it with the Orbat_Tool to see which groups are compatible with ALiVE.

If you are the author of a unit mod working with ALiVE, please take a look at the config standardisation page

How do I get a community made map to work with the ALiVE modules?

Check if the mod is on the known working maps list.

If the map is not on the list you can request it be looked at by a ALiVE dev on our github page.

How do I define a custom objective for Military AI Commanders?

See the Military Placement (Custom Objectives) module.

Advanced Mission Editors can use the following script command to add Objectives: [_OPCOM,"addObjective",[_id, _pos, _size]] call ALiVE_fnc_OPCOM

ALiVE and Third Party Scripts

R3F Logistics: can I persist objects moved with R3F Log?

Place a gamelogic on the map named LOGIC_ALIVE (or you can simply name the ALiVE (Required) module ``LOGIC_ALIVE). You need to add the following line of code to R3F_LOG\objet_deplacable\relacher.sqf at line 12:

[LOGIC_ALIVE,"updateObject",[R3F_LOG_joueur_deplace_objet]] call ALIVE_fnc_logistics;

VCOM AI: How can I stop VCOM taking over my CAS Units?

There are a couple of methods. The simplest is to follow the Advanced Vehicle Placement instructions to place a Combat Support unit manually then for each crew member put setVariable ["NOAI",1,false]; in their init line. Alternatively, you can disable VCOM globally for specific unit types in init.sqf:

[

 {
   {
     If (!isNull (driver _x) ) then {
       {
         if !(_x getVariable ["NOAI",false]) then
         {
           _x setVariable ["NOAI", true, false];
         };
       } foreach (units group (driver _x));
     };
   } Foreach (vehicles select {_x isKindOf "Helicopter"});
 },
 10,
 []

] call CBA_fnc_addPerFrameHandler;