Debug Markers

Reading the markers

Turn on Debug in a module and it draws what it's doing on the map. Most markers are a small icon with a line of text. Where several markers would sit on the same spot, ALiVE moves the text out to one side and leaves a tiny dot on the true position, so look for the dot, not the label.

The colours on this page are the game's own. Side colours (BLUFOR blue, OPFOR red and so on) follow each player's own game settings, so they may differ slightly on your map.

Objectives and placement

The placement modules draw the objectives they found or were given, and what they put on them.

Marker	Text on the map	Colour	What it is
	Cluster c_7: MIL, priority 50, size 120	the cluster's own	An objective cluster: a dot on its centre and a circle of its size. c_7 is just the cluster's number on this map.
	HQ c_7: CIV, priority 40	Black	A civilian objective of the HQ kind: a town's police station or town hall. Not an insurgent HQ.
	Power c_12: CIV	Yellow	A power station or pylon cluster.
	Comms c_3: CIV	White	Radio and phone masts.
	Marine c_9: CIV	Blue	Harbours and piers.
	Rail c_4: CIV	Khaki	Railway buildings.
	Fuel c_5: CIV	Orange	Fuel stations and depots.
	Construction c_8: CIV	Pink	Building sites.
	Settlement c_2: CIV	Green	Ordinary houses: villages and towns.
	Custom c_1: CIV	Red	A cluster from a custom objective.
	WEST - HQ Building (BLU_F)	Blue	The HQ building Military Placement picked for a faction (Field HQ the same, with Field HQ in the text).
	a camp's name	Blue	A camp Military Placement made (Random Camps).
	an AA site's name	Blue	An anti-air position.
	WEST - Custom Comp (class)	Orange	Custom Military Placement: its composition, HQ or Field HQ.
	RoadBlock Q (50m)	Brown	A roadblock placed by Civilian Placement, with its size.
	Objective Size (200m)	Red	A custom objective's size.

AI Commander

With the commander's Debug on, each objective it knows is a small dot in its side's colour, numbered by priority.

Marker	Text on the map	Colour	What it is
	EAST #1 (MIL)	OPFOR	An objective of the OPFOR commander, priority 1, of the MIL kind.
	WEST #4 (CIV)	BLUFOR	The BLUFOR commander's objective number 4.
	GUER #2 (MIL)	Independent	The Independent commander's.
	Anatoli Alekseev ?	Red	Where intel says the commander's High Value Target was last seen. Gone after 10 minutes.

Insurgency

An insurgent (asymmetric) commander marks what it has set up at each objective. These are the markers to look for when you want its HQs, depots and factories: they only appear once the installation exists, and they sit on the building it uses.

Marker	Text on the map	Colour	What it is
	Recruitment HQ	Red	A recruitment HQ: it raises new insurgent groups from the town.
	Weapons depot	Red	A weapons depot: it arms the recruits.
	IED factory	Red	An IED factory: it plants IEDs around the area. With the AI Commander's Drug Labs option on, the factories are drug labs instead and the text reads drug lab.
	Sabotage	Red	A sabotage task at this objective.
	Ambush	Red	An ambush is set here.
	IED	Red	IEDs have been planted in this area.
	Suicide bomber	Red	A suicide bomber is active in this area.
	Roadblocks	Red	Insurgent roadblocks in this area.
		Red / Green	The objective's area: red while it's dangerous for the insurgents (enemy troops about), green while it's quiet for them.
	Hostility: 40, action: recruit	Red / Green	Not a percentage: the insurgent commander's score for how dangerous the town is for it. With no enemy troops near it is -100. Otherwise it is 10 for each enemy soldier minus 10 for each of its own. The civilians' hostility towards the insurgents and the effect of its installations are then added. Below 0 the marker is green, above it red. Then, while troops are assigned to it or guarding it, what the insurgents are doing there, followed by the actions already done ("done: ...").

Inside the building, an installation is furnished from the AI Commander's Installation Interiors setting. By default (Auto) it matches the faction: Vietnam, WW2 or Cold War sets for those factions and the Modern sets for any other. You can pick ALiVE's own older tables and IEDs instead, or choose the interiors for the factory, depot and HQ separately, the mission's own sets included. Disable it with the hold action on any of its props.

Virtual AI (profiles)

The Virtual AI System marks every group it runs. A full-strength icon is spawned (real soldiers in the world); a faint one is virtual (only on the map, until players come near).

Marker	Text on the map	Colour	What it is
	e12	side	An infantry group. The text is the end of its profile ID.
	e12	side, faint	The same group while virtual.
		side	A car or truck.
		side	A tank or armoured vehicle.
		side	A helicopter.
		side	A plane.
		side	A static weapon.
		side	A boat.
	12	side, faint	A group's waypoint, numbered with its profile.

Military Logistics

Reinforcements and player requests mark where they come from and where they go.

Marker	Text on the map	Colour	What it is
	ML INSERTION / ML DESTINATION	side	Where reinforcements start and where they're heading.
	ML LZ / ML DROP ZONE / ML AIRDROP	side	A helicopter landing zone, a paradrop zone, an airdrop.
	ML BASE / ML HELI SPAWN / ML PARADROP SPAWN	side	Where the transport comes from.
	PR CONVOY START / PR AIR INSERTION / PR AIRDROP	side	A Player Combat Logistics request on its way.

Persistent Craters

With Debug on, every crater gets a dot on the map, labelled with its number. The server's RPT says what each hit left and why, in lines starting ALiVE Persistent Craters.

Marker	Text on the map	Colour	What it is
	C1, C2 ...	Yellow	A crater mark only: a mortar or rocket, or a big hit kept to a mark in a town, near a building or beside a road.
	C1, C2 ...	Orange	A dug crater, from artillery.
	C1, C2 ...	Red	A big dug crater, from a bomb.

Common questions

Why is there an "HQ c_7" marker on a town with nothing in it? That's a civilian objective of the HQ kind, the town's police station or town hall, found by the placement module. It isn't an insurgent HQ. An insurgent Recruitment HQ shows as a red installation marker with the words Recruitment HQ.

Where are the insurgents' HQs, depots and factories? Look for the red installation markers in the Insurgency table above. They appear once the commander has set one up, so an early mission may have none.

Why do installations look like an IED on a table? That's ALiVE's older dressing. The AI Commander's Installation Interiors setting matches the faction by default (Vietnam, WW2, Cold War or Modern sets), and you can pick ALiVE's own tables and IEDs or the mission's own interiors instead.

Changelog

Updates to this page

• First published.