ORBATRON: Simplified workflow possible (enhancement suggestion)

  1. 6 years ago
    Edited 6 years ago by thebgpikester

    Had to truncate the attached code :( it's half of it but enough to get the idea.
    Is it possible to consider using a templated format of the below to simplify changing factions and tokenising the actual unit classnames? Benefits would be ability to change the faction groups ALiVE uses without editing anything majorly. I tested this method and it works perfectly. What is more, I can delete or add lines to the groups to change the format of groups very very easily, without even Arma open. You can leverage that to adjust how the force sizes work or to swap out vehicles or units very simply, without PBO distribution and without changing the mission since it edits the BLU_F and OPF_F on the fly, and ALiVE simply goes with it.

    Make sense?

    class CfgGroups
    {
    class West
    {
    name = $STR_A3_CfgGroups_West0;
    side = TWest;
    class BLU_F
    {
    name = $STR_A3_CfgGroups_West_BLU_F0;
    class Infantry
    {
    name = $STR_A3_CfgGroups_West_BLU_F_Infantry0;
    class BUS_InfSquad8
    {
    name = $STR_A3_CfgGroups_West_BLU_F_Infantry_BUS_InfSquad0;
    side = TWest;
    faction = BLU_F;
    class Unit0 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_squadleader; rank = "SERGEANT";};
    class Unit1 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_riflemanat; rank = "CORPORAL";};
    class Unit2 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_grenadier; rank = "CORPORAL";};
    class Unit3 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_riflemanat; rank = "PRIVATE";};
    class Unit4 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_rifleman; rank = "PRIVATE";};
    class Unit5 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_medic; rank = "CORPORAL";};
    class Unit6 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_autorifleman; rank = "CORPORAL";};
    class Unit7 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_machinegunner; rank = "PRIVATE";};
    };
    class BUS_InfSquad16
    {
    name = $STR_A3_CfgGroups_West_BLU_F_Infantry_BUS_InfSquad0;
    side = TWest;
    faction = BLU_F;
    class Unit0 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_squadleader; rank = "SERGEANT";};
    class Unit1 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_riflemanat; rank = "CORPORAL";};
    class Unit2 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_grenadier; rank = "CORPORAL";};
    class Unit3 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_autorifleman; rank = "CORPORAL";};
    class Unit4 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_autorifleman; rank = "PRIVATE";};
    class Unit5 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_riflemanat; rank = "CORPORAL";};
    class Unit6 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_medic; rank = "PRIVATE";};
    class Unit7 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_machinegunner; rank = "PRIVATE";};
    class Unit8 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_grenadier; rank = "CORPORAL";};
    class Unit9 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_machinegunner; rank = "PRIVATE";};
    class Unit10 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_rifleman; rank = "PRIVATE";};
    class Unit11 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_riflemanat; rank = "CORPORAL";};
    class Unit12 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_medic; rank = "PRIVATE";};
    class Unit13 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_rifleman; rank = "PRIVATE";};
    class Unit14 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_rifleman; rank = "CORPORAL";};
    class Unit15 {side = TWest; vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_rifleman; rank = "PRIVATE";};
    };
    [i]example continues for the rest of the faction and then the blue faction.[/i]
  2. Edited 6 years ago by Nichols

    I may not be smart enough to understand what you just said but you mentioned doing this "without" redistributing a pbo or even opening Arma? How would someone go about doing that and would it be a simple copy and paste of classnames, unit names, etc... in the code? If so then I am super interested in learning how that might be done.

  3. Yes.
    I can't attach a file, i'll look for the OP on Armaholic or wherever I first found it, but if you scan the above code part you notice where those lists are Infantry groups of Blufor, then a bunch of units below that say "vehicle = rhsusf_army_ucp_blah blah." You are changing just that, with a text editor.

    It's just one file you need, and the parts you can (easily) edit are the rhs_army_blah blah which is the classname of the unit in RHS. But it could be anything in there, a civilian, a taliban from CUP, a 3CB Javelin dude, mixed together.

    All that in just one text file in the mission, so no pbo's. It's a translation of groups, its saying, "BLU_F infantry group 1" is made up of "RHS soldier 1, RHS soldier 2, RHS soldier 3 etc".

    Basically, you put out the group you want it to be, right click it in Eden, Log->copy faction class to clipboard, then paste into this file in Notepad. Takes about 20 minutes depending on your eyesight and tiredness level to replace BLU and OPF, the default factions, with the requirements to provide infantry, motorised, mechanised (and sometimes others if you need).

    The thing is, this isn't just for ALiVE, BiS is a bugger and they force you to use default factions for some of their modules like Sector control. So without doing this workaround, you can't use your custom factions for Sector control. Thus I setup a cool sector control on the Prei Kmaouch map with VC and New Zealand troops.

    The reason I linked this as an alternate way of changing around factions is because often we mess with the broken factions of mods, but have those mods loaded anyway, and using the file you can then remove the requirement for an addon that manages this, which Orbatron shoudl be able to do anyway, but the added side bonus is that you can leave ALiVE set to BLU_F and OPF_F as default and play with the factions in the text file above instead, reducing the places you need to edit the mission and the chances to forget the ever changing faction names that are piling up.

    It's not a substitute for the Orbatron, because that can handle the in depth unit configuration, but generally the value of unit fine control is somewhat diminished by all the randomisation scripting these mods force on you anyway and the availability of loadouts anyway in the broken mods. The advantage of this is that it's obviously easier to replace the default faction in a script so you dont have to create a new one then change the ALiVE factions to use it.

  4. Found it, the OP: https://forums.bistudio.com/forums/topic/202224-custom-faction-spawn-for-sector-control/

  5. The reason I linked this as an alternate way of changing around factions is because often we mess with the broken factions of mods, but have those mods loaded anyway, and using the file you can then remove the requirement for an addon that manages this, which Orbatron shoudl be able to do anyway

    This is because we didn't want to encroach on addon maker's rights and allow people to essentially "steal" their content and redistribute it. It's not a problem on a small scale, but integrated into a tool like ORBATERERERERER, it could become an issue and draw some criticism.

 

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