- DynamicAI commanders plan and fight their own war
- PersistentSave the campaign and carry on next session
- Company levelInfantry, armour, air, artillery and logistics together
- Almost any mapMost maps already indexed, or index your own
For Arma 3
Built by Arma community veterans, its editor modules give players and mission makers everything they need to run realistic military operations up to company level, almost anywhere: command, combat support, service support and logistics.
Latest dev build · 2026-11-03Gameplay
A war that runs itself
Place a few modules in Eden, or plan the whole operation in the Mission Builder and export it, and ALiVE builds a living campaign across the entire map. AI commanders work through a ranked list of objectives, invading, holding ground or running an insurgency, backed by their own logistics, artillery and air command.
Players choose their part. Fight alongside the AI, lead a squad on tasks generated from the running war, call in combat support from the tablet, build a FOB and keep it supplied, or pick the AI commander's next objective yourself. Civilians live their lives around the fighting and react to it. Save the operation and carry on next session, solo or with a group.
ALiVE 3
The definitive ALiVE for Arma 3
A top-to-bottom overhaul, one module at a time: modernised code, long-standing faults fixed, a sharper editor and tablet, and new capabilities across force placement, the AI commanders, air tasking, combat support and civilian life.
- March 2026The overhaul starts
- NowDevelopment builds, steered by testers and mission makers
- December 2026Final release, the last ALiVE for Arma 3, on the existing Workshop item
- ThenThe foundation for ALiVE 4 on Arma 4
Features
Everything a company-level operation needs
Most features are a module you place in the editor and set in its attributes; Zeus modules go down during play. The docs cover every module and setting.
Editor modules
Place a few modules and markers in the Arma 3 editor and get a full scenario.
Map-wide placement
Enemy and friendly forces are placed across the whole map for large operations.
Virtual AI
Thousands of land, air and sea units simulated off-screen, spawned only near players.
AI commanders
OPCOM occupies, invades or terrorises objectives, with an insurgency mode.
Enhanced military AI
Garrisons, building patrols, route ambushes and insurgent hideouts, and commanders who shell the contacts they have spotted.
Air command
The MACC flies CAS, recce, SEAD and transport for the AI commanders.
Military logistics
Commanders reinforce and resupply their forces through a supply chain.
Insurgency and civilians
Civilians who talk, panic, flee and remember how you treated them, in towns the insurgents recruit from.
Ambient threats
Close quarters urban combat, IEDs, car bombs and suicide bombers.
Combat support
CAS, artillery and air or ground transport from a tablet, plus vehicles, reinforcements and supply drops.
Operations command
A command tablet with intel, an overhead camera and direct control of friendly AI groups.
Player FOBs
Deploy your own forward bases, build them up from supply and hold them: enemy commanders hunt them.
C2ISTAR
Task generation, intel overlays and SITREP and PATROLREP reporting.
Player logistics
Lift, shift and tow objects and vehicles.
Persistent markers
Map markers and tools that survive between sessions, tied into SITREPs.
Multiplayer support
Admin actions, player tags, view distance, gear persistence, multispawn, rally points, recruitment and crew info.
Zeus modules
27 modules a Zeus drops in play: hand groups to the AI commander, call air strikes, plant IEDs, stir up towns.
Faction tools
ORBAT Creator, the Custom Faction Compiler and the Class Picker make new factions and groups simple.
Persistence
Run an operation over many sessions, no database needed.
Zombie Outbreak
A game mode: zombie hordes run by an AI commander roam the map as virtual groups and attack everyone else.
War Room
The War Room is being rebuilt
The War Room tracked players, groups and operations on the web, with after-action replays. It's offline while it is rebuilt from the ground up. Saving and loading persistent missions still works in game, on clients and servers.
The new War Room will let groups host their own data, follow a running operation live on the Mission Builder's maps, and replay it afterwards. Follow progress on Discord.
Download
Get ALiVE
ALiVE (Development Version), updated 2026-11-03. Built from the latest code with the newest fixes and features, and updated on the Steam Workshop with every build. Report anything odd on the issue tracker.
Install
- ALiVE needs CBA_A3. Subscribe to it first.
- Workshop: subscribe, then turn both on in the Arma 3 Launcher.
- Zip: extract
@ALiVEinto your Arma 3 folder. - Servers: add
-mod=@CBA_A3;@ALiVEto the command line.
Mission makers
Build your first operation
The ALiVE 3 docs cover every module and setting, and are updated with each change.
Modules at a glance
Every module you can place in Eden: what each one does, how they fit together and what to sync.
Mission Builder
Plan an operation on the map in your browser and export it to the editor.
ALiVE Presets
Ready-made module setups you can load, share and submit.
Task Missions
Player tasks generated from the running war.
Index a Terrain
Get a map ALiVE does not know yet indexed and submitted.
Debug Markers
See what the AI commanders and profiles are doing while you build.
Scripting
Hooks, events and snippets for going beyond the modules.
Questions and Answers
Answers to the questions mission makers ask most.
What's new
Latest ALiVE 3 changes
Straight from the docs changelog. See every change.
Loading the latest changes…
Questions
Common questions
More in the docs Q&A, or ask on Discord.
Where's the documentation for ALiVE 3?
The ALiVE 3 docs have a page for every module and setting. The old wiki describes the older release and often won't match. In the editor, the circled ? next to a module's icon opens its page, and ALiVE Presets in the ALiVE menu places one of 16 ready-made setups.
What's the least I need for AI to spawn and fight?
ALiVE (Required), the Virtual AI System, a Military Placement with your faction, and a Military AI Commander with the same faction ticked, synced to the placement. Do the same for a faction on the other side and they'll fight.
Should I use the dev build or the stable build?
The dev build. Stable won't be updated until ALiVE 3 is finished, and the dev build is the one that gets new features, fixes and help on Discord. Back up your mission and test it after an update.
Is my faction mod supported?
Almost certainly. If it shows in Military Placement's faction list, ALiVE can spawn it. The Creator DLCs, RHS, CUP and 3CB work as they are, and a faction with soldiers but no groups gets squads built for it.
Is my map indexed?
Open it in the editor with ALiVE loaded and wait for the Index Viability notification: Good, Reduced or Poor means it has an index. If it hasn't, you can index it yourself and submit it from the docs.
How do I set up persistence?
Leave ALiVE Data's Database Source on Local, then turn on Persistent in each module whose progress you want kept. Saves go into your own profile, or the server's on a dedicated server. No website is needed.
How do I keep a mission running smoothly?
Most of the cost is how many AI are spawned around players. Lower Force Size on Military Placement and the Spawn Radius on the Virtual AI System. A headless client helps only with spawned AI; the commanders always run on the server.
How do I report a bug?
Open an issue on the GitHub tracker and attach the RPT log from the session where it happened. Turn on Enable Debug for the module involved first. A report without a log rarely gets fixed.
Team
Who makes ALiVE
Development team
- ARJay
- Friznit
- Gunny
- Hazey
- Highhead
- Javen
- Jman
- MarcelDev89
- Raptor
- SpyderBlack723
- Tupolov
- Wolffy.au
Contributors
- AUTigerGrad
- Cameroon
- HeroesAndVillainsOS
- Naught
- Neo
- Rye
- Sacha L
- Whigital
- WobblyHeadedBob
Testers
They play the dev builds week to week and steer the overhaul with their reports and ideas.
- A. Ares
- AshTray
- Benjamin (Benji)
- Eric
- Goldwep
- NeisAEL
- spooked
- Will501
Bugs and support
Report bugs on the GitHub issue tracker. Support covers the official ALiVE modules only, not general mission editing, Arma 3 itself or other mods.
Support the project
ALiVE is free. Donations pay for the servers behind the docs, the terrain indexer and the War Room: donate here.
Licence
ALiVE is open source; see the licence on GitHub. It's for personal entertainment on Bohemia Interactive's Arma 3 only. Commercial or military use is forbidden without the authors' permission.