Questions and Answers

Is there up-to-date documentation or a beginner's guide for ALiVE 3? The old wiki doesn't match.

Yes. The ALiVE 3 documentation is at alivemod.com/alive3, with a page for every module and every setting explained. The old wiki describes the older stable release, so it often won't match what you see in the dev build. If something isn't covered yet, ask on the ALiVE Discord. In the dev build, every module's attributes window in the editor also has a circled ? next to its icon: click it and that module's page opens in your browser.

The quickest way to start is a preset. In the editor, open the ALiVE menu at the top and choose ALiVE Presets...: it lists ALiVE's 16 ready-made setups, starting with First steps, a single enemy commander, and you double-click one to place it. The same presets are on the ALiVE Presets page, and each module in them has its own page here. To lay out your own setup on a map first, Online Mission Builder... in the same menu opens the Mission Builder in your browser; copy what you build as a preset and bring it in with Load Preset from Clipboard.

The bundled scenarios show a complete ALiVE mission, but they were made before ALiVE 3 and don't use its newer features, such as pathfinding or the AI Commander's artillery. You'll find them under Showcases in the singleplayer menu, and in the mission list when you host a multiplayer game. Every name starts with "ALiVE |":

• Quick Start (Stratis) and Quick Start APEX (Tanoa, needs Apex): a basic ALiVE setup.
• Tour (Stratis): a walk through the modules.
• Hurt Locker, Divide and Rule and Air Superiority, plus Air Assault and Sabotage in multiplayer.
• Operation Cobra (needs Spearhead 1944).
• Khe Sanh Valley, Op Van Tien, The Battle of Hue, Paper Hands, Diamond Hands and Erawan Secret War (need S.O.G. Prairie Fire).

ALiVE plays fine in singleplayer. How big a mission your PC can handle depends on the PC.

More: First steps: one enemy commander preset, ALiVE Presets, Mission Builder, ALiVE (Required), ALiVE 3 Q&A

What's the minimum set of modules I need for AI to spawn and fight?

1. Place ALiVE (Required).
2. Place ALiVE Virtual AI System.
3. Place Military Placement (Mil. Obj.). Pick your faction in Force Faction and leave Place units on Place Units. Objectives Only marks out objectives but spawns nobody.
4. Place Military AI Commander and tick the same faction in Factions.
5. Sync the Military Placement (Mil. Obj.) module to the Military AI Commander (right-click, Connect, Sync to). The commander only takes its objectives from modules synced to it, so without the sync it has nothing to do and stops.

For a fight, repeat steps 3 to 5 with a faction on the other side. Units only exist as real soldiers within Spawn Radius (m) of a player (1500 m by default). Further out they're simulated, so go towards an objective, or turn on debug, if you want to see them.

More: First steps: one enemy commander preset, Outbreak: zombies hold an area preset, ALiVE (Required), Virtual AI System, Military Placement: Force Faction, Military Placement: Place units, Military AI Commander: Factions, Virtual AI System: Spawn Radius (m)

Should I use the dev build or the stable build, and is it safe to switch mid-project?

Use the dev build. The stable build won't be updated until ALiVE 3 is finished. The final release, due in December 2026 and the last ALiVE for Arma 3, goes on the existing stable Workshop item, so you won't need to subscribe to anything new. The dev build gets new features and fixes often, and it's the build that gets help on Discord.

Because it changes often, an update can now and then change how a mission plays. Check the Overhaul Ledger for recent changes before a scheduled event, and give your mission a quick test after updating.

1. Back up your mission folder.
2. Load the dev build instead of stable. Never load both at once.
3. Open the mission in the editor, check your ALiVE modules and save.

Settings you've already chosen are kept. Settings added since then start at their defaults, and any that have been removed are ignored. Everyone on a server needs the same build: ALiVE Versioning on ALiVE (Required) warns anyone whose ALiVE doesn't match the server's, or kicks them if you set it to Kick players.

More: Overhaul Ledger, ALiVE (Required): ALiVE Versioning, ALiVE on the Steam Workshop (stable)

Steam says ALiVE has updated but I still seem to have the old version. Why?

This is a Steam and Arma 3 Launcher problem rather than an ALiVE one. It usually clears with a restart and a repair:

1. Close Arma 3, the Arma 3 Launcher and Steam, then start Steam again.
2. In the launcher's Mods list, use Repair on ALiVE so it checks every file.
3. Start any mission, then open the newest .rpt log in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Arma 3 and find the ALiVE version line near the top. It shows the build you're actually running; the entry on checking which build you're on explains the line.

Quote that line whenever you ask for help, so everyone knows which build you're on.

More: Q&A: Which build am I on?

I copied my mission to another map and old factions or saved progress turned up in it. What do I do?

ALiVE keeps every save per mission name and per map, so a mission called Patrol on Stratis and a copy called Patrol on Tanoa each run their own campaign. Builds from before late September 2026 kept most of the save under the name alone, which is how a copy picked up the original's units and objectives.

A campaign saved by one of those builds doesn't record its map. The first copy you launch on a newer build takes it over and any other copy starts fresh, so launch the copy you want to keep first. If that might be the wrong copy, the RPT says the campaign "may belong to the copy of this mission on" the other map and names it.

• A Database Source of Cloud saves nothing now that the Cloud service has gone, so there's no Cloud save to carry over.
• To carry an ALiVE setup to another map without its save, right-click one of its modules, choose ALiVE, then Share as Preset, and confirm what to take. In the new scenario, right-click, choose ALiVE, then Load Preset from Clipboard, and click where it should go.

More: Persistence, ALiVE Presets, Q&A: War Room

Does an ALiVE mission end on its own when one side wins?

No. None of the ALiVE modules ends a mission, even when one side has lost everything, so the war carries on until you stop it. If you want an ending, add one yourself with triggers or tasks. The Battle of Hue, Erawan Secret War and Diamond Hands scenarios that come with ALiVE all have one scripted in.

Don't end the mission when no enemy units are left. Most of an ALiVE force is simulated and only turns into real units near players, so a trigger that counts enemy units will fire long before the enemy is actually beaten. End on something the players do instead, such as holding a town or completing a task.

More: Virtual AI System: Spawn Radius (m), Event Reference

Which ALiVE modules need sync lines, and what do I sync them to?

Only some modules read their sync lines. A sync line a module doesn't read does nothing, so there's no harm in it, but it won't do what you hoped either. The ones that matter:

• Military Placement (Mil. Obj.), Military Placement (Civ. Obj.), Military Placement (Cust. Obj.) and Military Placement (Cust. Civ. Obj.): sync each one to every Military AI Commander that should fight over its objectives. Military Placement (Garrison Obj.) is the exception, because a commander deliberately ignores it.
• Military Logistics: sync it to the commanders it supplies. With no commander synced it does nothing.
• Military Air Component Commander: sync it to the Military AI Commander whose air missions it should fly, and it takes that commander's factions as its own. Unsynced, it only answers a commander whose first faction is its own Faction.
• Military AI Commander Artillery: synced to commanders, it serves only their sides. With nothing synced it serves every side that no other artillery module has claimed. Players can also call its batteries from the Combat Support tablet if Commander artillery on call is on.
• Military IED Threat: sync it to a Military AI Commander only if you want Starting IED Threat. Syncing changes which threat settings it uses.
• Player Combat Support: sync the CAS, Transport, Artillery and Ground Transport modules to it. To use a gun, aircraft or land vehicle you placed yourself, sync it to its own support module (a gun to Artillery, an aircraft to CAS or Transport, a land vehicle to Ground Transport), and the Virtual AI System leaves it alone.
• ALiVE Virtual AI System: sync the Eden-placed groups you want ALiVE to take over, or the ones to leave alone, depending on Synchronisation Options.
• Player FOBs: sync any object to it (a crate or flagpole) and that object becomes a Field HQ, where players get FOB kits and supply crates. Sync FOB Types to it as well to give the kits a choice of FOB types.
• Recruitment: sync a flagpole, crate or similar as the recruitment point. With Offer Synced Units and Vehicles on, the men and vehicles you sync are what players can recruit. Rally Points: sync each object that should be a rally point.
• Player Command/Control (C2ISTAR) needs no sync. Syncing a commander to it only shares that commander's intel. Military Close Quarters Battle has its own Q&A (see the links).

Civilian Placement and Civilian Population don't read sync lines at all, even though the editor offers to sync them to a commander, so leave them unconnected.

More: Q&A: Does every AI Commander need to be synced to the objective modules?, Pitfall: Military Logistics synced to the wrong module, Q&A: What does syncing C2ISTAR to an AI Commander do?, Q&A: What should the CQB module be synced to?, Q&A: Making a group hold a position, Military IED Threat: Starting IED Threat, Virtual AI System: Synchronisation Options, Q&A: How do I use a gun, aircraft or ground vehicle I placed myself?, Player FOBs, Recruitment: Offer Synced Units and Vehicles, Rally Points

Does the War Room website still work, and do I need it for persistence or stats?

The old War Room and the Cloud service behind it are gone, and you don't need either. A new War Room on alivemod.com is in testing, but persistence has never needed it. Leave Database Source on ALiVE Data on Local (the default) and saves go into your own profile, or the server's profile on a dedicated server.

Statistics, AAR and the performance monitor are War Room features, so ALiVE switches them off without it, whatever you set. The one exception is the new War Room's test: on a dedicated server running its test server mod (@alive_wr), with Database Source on Local, Statistics switches on and sends its events to alivemod.com. AAR and the performance monitor stay off even then. A Database Source of Cloud stops ALiVE Data altogether, so nothing is saved. Guides and videos that send you to the War Room website are out of date on this point.

More: ALiVE Data: Database Source, Q&A: How do I set up persistence?, Pitfall: Database Source left on Cloud

A setting I read about isn't in the module's Eden window. Where has it gone?

It's probably hidden because it doesn't apply to the choices you've made. Eden now hides a module setting that only matters for another choice, and shows it again the moment you change the setting it depends on. A section whose settings are all hidden hides its header too. For example:

• On the Military AI Commander, the Assault, Occupation and Asymmetric sections show only for that Control Type, and Start From Ship only for Invasion or Occupation
• On the placement modules, the unit settings hide while Place units is Objectives Only
• On the Virtual AI System, the Outbreak settings show only when Game Mode on the ALiVE (Required) module is Outbreak
• On Player FOBs, settings for the supply source you didn't pick hide, and Save Interval shows only with Persistent on

To see everything anyway, open Addon Options > ALiVE > Eden Editor and set Settings that don't apply to Greys them out or Shows them all (Hides them is the default). Hidden settings keep their values, a mission saved before keeps what it had, and on the AI Commander a hidden setting still applies if the control type changes during play.

More: Military AI Commander, Addon Options

Why do CSAT or NATO troops spawn when I picked a different faction?

Each module picks its own faction, and any module left on its default spawns that default. Check these first:

• Military Placement (Mil. Obj.) and Military Placement (Civ. Obj.): Force Faction starts on NATO, and each module only places the one faction it's set to.
• Military AI Commander: Factions starts on NATO. If you clear it and leave Additional Factions (by name) blank too, it falls back to NATO. Ctrl-click to pick more than one faction.
• Military Close Quarters Battle: with Placement set to Static and nothing picked in Factions, it fills houses with CSAT. On Dominant (the default) it uses whichever faction holds the area. Syncing it to a Military AI Commander switches it to Static with that commander's Factions list and its Additional Factions (by name).
• Player Command/Control (C2ISTAR): enemies in its tasks, such as a Liaison task's QRF, come from Auto Task Factions. Each Enemy slot starts on The mission's enemy, the factions of the AI Commanders hostile to that side, and falls back to CSAT (NATO for OPFOR) only when there's no hostile commander. A faction you pick there is kept as long as an AI Commander in the mission fields it. A pick none of them fields is swapped for the hostile commanders' factions, and the RPT says so; with no hostile commander, the pick stays. An Enemy slot can take several (only the ones in play are kept), and each task picks one at random. Builds from before 31 October 2026 used CSAT unless you picked another faction.
• A module from an older mission that shows (unrecognised) at the top of its faction list is set to a faction that isn't loaded.

Still stuck? Read the RPT: each Military Placement module logs the faction it placed and how many it created, and Enable Debug set to Yes adds more detail. The editor also shows a red warning when nothing in the mission gives an AI Commander's faction any forces: no module places it, and the Virtual AI System takes over none of its editor-placed units. Builds from before July 2026 could put CSAT into outlying houses in Dominant mode, so update if you're on one.

More: Military Placement: Force Faction, Military AI Commander: Factions, Military AI Commander: Additional Factions (by name), CQB: Placement, CQB: Factions, Military Placement: Enable Debug, Player Command/Control: Auto Task Factions

Reinforcements arrive as my side's default faction instead of my custom one. How do I stop that?

Set Air Transport Assets to Faction Only on the Military Logistics module. The reinforcement troops always come from the commander's own factions; what shows up as the default faction is the transport. On Side and Faction (the default) a faction with no transport aircraft of its own for the job borrows the side's helicopters or planes, and those bring them in.

If your faction has no transport helicopters of its own, Faction Only means reinforcements come by road instead. Trucks are borrowed from the side's default faction only when your faction has none, so give it some with Override Land Transport, and add helicopters with Override Air Transport.

More: Military Logistics: Air Transport Assets, Military Logistics: Override Land Transport, Military Logistics: Override Air Transport

Is my faction mod (Creator DLC, RHS, CUP, 3CB and so on) supported?

Almost certainly. If it shows in the Force Faction list on Military Placement (Mil. Obj.), ALiVE can spawn it.

• Factions whose groups are set up the standard way work as they are. That covers the Creator DLCs and the big faction mods such as RHS, CUP and 3CB, and ALiVE carries extra support for several of them, including SOG Prairie Fire, Global Mobilization and Spearhead 1944.
• A faction with soldiers but no groups of its own is still offered: ALiVE builds its squads from the base game's squads for that side and swaps in the faction's own soldiers and vehicles.
• A faction that files its groups under unusual categories may place nothing. See the entry on factions flagged as faulty.

To see which groups ALiVE has to work with, open the faction in the ORBAT Creator and look at its groups by category.

More: Military Placement: Force Faction, ORBAT Creator, My faction is flagged as faulty

ALiVE says my mod faction "may be faulty" and places nothing. How do I fix it?

The warning reads "no usable groups found to use, the faction (name) may be faulty". ALiVE looks for a faction's groups under the standard categories: Infantry, Motorized, Mechanized, Armored, Air and SpecOps. A faction that files its groups under other names gives it nothing to place. Any one of these fixes it:

• Easiest, with no mod to make: place an ALiVE Custom Faction Compiler, set Faction Override Mode to Override categories and use the mod faction's class name as the Faction ID. Build groups from its soldiers and sync them to the categories you need.
• Or build it as a new faction with the compiler, leaving Faction Override Mode on New faction.
• Or fix the faction itself in the ORBAT Creator: in the group editor, select the groups (Shift-click for several), choose Edit Group, pick the right category, then export the faction and load it as your own addon.

A faction with only air groups gets a different, harmless RPT line saying so, and is placed only where aircraft are wanted.

More: Custom Faction Compiler: Faction Override Mode, Custom Faction Compiler: Faction ID, ORBAT Creator, Using the Custom Faction Compiler

My custom faction is loaded in the editor but I can't find it in ALiVE's faction list.

The list is grouped by side (OPFOR, BLUFOR, INDFOR) and sorted by each faction's class name, not its display name. Look under its side for the class name shown in brackets after the name.

A faction is left out if:

• it has no side, or it's a side that module doesn't use (military modules don't list civilian factions)
• it has neither groups nor soldiers of its own
• it was made with the ALiVE Custom Faction Compiler: those never appear in lists, you sync the compiler to the module instead

For a faction that isn't loaded while you edit, type its class name into Additional Factions (by name) on the Military AI Commander.

More: Military Placement: Force Faction, Military AI Commander: Additional Factions (by name), Using the Custom Faction Compiler

How do I use the Custom Faction Compiler, and why doesn't my compiled faction spawn?

The compiler turns groups you build in the editor into a faction for that mission only. It never appears in faction lists; you sync it to the modules that should use it.

1. Place an ALiVE Custom Faction Compiler. Give it a Faction ID made of letters, numbers and underscores that no other faction or compiler uses, and a Proxy Faction on the same side as your groups: it lends fallback vehicles and camps, and the vehicles, crews and supply boxes modules add for the faction take its side, though your soldiers keep their own.
2. Place an ALiVE Custom Faction Group Category for each category you want (Infantry, Motorized, Armored and so on), set its Category and sync it to the compiler.
3. Build each template group in the editor. For a vehicle group, put the soldiers in the vehicle as crew and passengers: a vehicle nobody in the group is sitting in isn't captured.
4. Sync one soldier from each group to its category module, never the vehicle. The editor shows a red warning if you sync a vehicle. A drone is the exception: sync the UAV or UGV itself, and it becomes a group of its own.
5. Sync the compiler to the Military Placement modules or the Military Air Component Commander that should use it. Leave their own faction setting on a normal faction; the compiler overrides it. Only one compiler per module.
6. If a Military AI Commander should command them, type the Faction ID into its Additional Factions (by name). The editor's faction check reads a compiler synced to a placement module, so it won't warn that nothing places that faction.

In either mode all groups must be on one side: groups on a different side from the first are left out, and stay in the mission as live units. In New faction mode a category you don't compile spawns nothing. Set Debug to Yes on the compiler and the RPT says how many groups it captured, or that it found none. On builds from before mid-August 2026 compiled units spawned but never got orders, so update if yours just stand there. Compiled soldiers get their kit back every time they spawn, and after a death the survivors keep their own.

More: ALiVE Custom Faction Compiler, Faction ID, Proxy Faction, Debug, Military AI Commander: Additional Factions (by name), Drones in a compiled faction

Can I put a drone or UGV in a Custom Faction Compiler group?

Yes. Sync the drone itself, not a crew member, to a Custom Faction Group Category module, as you would sync a soldier. It becomes a group of its own: the drone's hidden AI crew, with the drone as the group's vehicle. You can place it empty; the compiler crews it before reading it.

When the group spawns, the drone comes with its crew. The editor's red warning about syncing a vehicle doesn't fire for a drone; any other vehicle still goes in through the soldiers sitting in it.

More: Making a faction with the compiler, Custom Faction Compiler

Does a compiled faction replace a module's faction list or add to it, for example on CQB?

It depends on the module.

1. Placement modules (Military and Civilian Placement objectives, the custom objectives, Garrison, the Air Component Commander): a synced compiler replaces the module's faction. On a custom objective it replaces the whole Force Factions list, so only the compiled faction is placed there.
2. CQB: a synced compiler is ignored, with a warning in the log. Type the Faction ID into Factions (manual override) instead. It's added to whatever you picked in Factions, not swapped for it, and each house takes one faction from the combined list.
3. CQB with Placement on Dominant (the default): each house takes the faction of the forces already nearby, so your list isn't used. A house with no forces near it stays empty for now and is tried again later.
4. CQB synced to an AI Commander: it switches to Static and uses the commander's Factions and Additional Factions instead of its own list, so a Faction ID typed into the commander's Additional Factions reaches CQB too.

More: CQB: Factions (manual override), CQB: Placement, Military AI Commander: Additional Factions (by name), Which modules sync to which

My faction's groups spawn but just stand there, and the RPT says there are no groups for the AI Commander's faction. Why?

The AI Commander finds its troops by faction name, and that name has to be the same in three places. When a group is placed, ALiVE tags it with the faction written inside that group's own config. The commander then looks for groups tagged with exactly the faction you picked in its Factions list. If the two don't match, the groups are placed, but the commander never counts them, so it never gives them orders.

In the faction's config, check that these 3 are the same class name, spelled the same way:

• The faction's class in CfgFactionClasses (the name you pick in the AI Commander).
• The faction's class under its side in CfgGroups, which holds its groups.
• The faction = line inside each of those groups.

With the AI Commander's Enable Debug on, the RPT shows a "Counting 0 profiles for faction" line when this is the cause. ALiVE's config check also warns about it at mission start, with lines such as "Suggest naming the CfgGroup parent class matching faction name".

The "There are no groups for OPCOM faction(s)" warning is always written to the RPT. It only shows in side chat as well when the AI Commander's Enable Debug is on.

You can't fix a Workshop faction's config yourself, but the Custom Faction Compiler gets round it: it builds a faction that tags its groups with the compiled faction's own name, so placement and the commander always agree.

More: Q&A: using the Custom Faction Compiler, Q&A: finding a faction's classname

How do I rename my faction's editor categories (Men to Infantry) or merge two of them?

The ORBAT Creator can't set this (the category list in its unit editor only filters the units you pick from), so edit the exported config. Give each unit a subcategory and name that subcategory in the editor's subcategory list, as in the example below; units that share one are listed together. The older vehicle class setting isn't needed.

class CfgEditorSubcategories {
    class MyFaction_Infantry { displayName = "Infantry"; };
};

// in each unit class:
editorSubcategory = "MyFaction_Infantry";

It only changes how the editor lists units. ALiVE spawns from the faction's groups and never reads it.

More: ORBAT Creator

Why do units from my ORBAT Creator faction get random faces, facewear or a changed loadout?

Set Disable Unit Randomization to Yes on the ALiVE ORBAT Creator module (it's the default) and export the faction again. Exported soldiers then keep exactly the gear you gave them instead of the game's random headgear and facewear. A faction exported before the setting was on, or on a build from before September 2026 that doesn't have it, keeps randomising until you export it again.

Faces and voices still vary within the head type and language you picked for each unit. That's normal Arma behaviour.

More: ORBAT Creator: Disable Unit Randomization

Why do units from my ORBAT Creator faction speak the wrong language?

A unit made in the ORBAT Creator by copying another keeps that unit's voice. Copy CSAT soldiers and your faction speaks Farsi, whatever it's meant to be.

Open each unit in the ORBAT Creator, pick the language you want in the voice list of the unit dialog, then export the faction again. Russian voices only show up in that list if RHS or CUP is loaded, because the base game has none.

It's the voice the soldiers use for everything they say, radio calls included, so changing it changes them all.

More: ORBAT Creator

How do I limit how many tanks spawn, or stop one particular group or soldier from spawning?

To cap a whole category, use the Override settings on each Military Placement (Mil. Obj.) module: Override Armour, Override Mechanised, Override Motorised, Override Infantry and Override SpecOps. Enter the number of groups you want, 0 for none, or leave it blank to let the force size decide. On Military Placement (Cust. Obj.) the same settings are called Armour Count and so on, and they start at 0.

To stop one group but keep the rest of its category, put its group class name in the group blacklist in the mission's init.sqf, like this:

ALiVE_PLACEMENT_CUSTOM_GROUPBLACKLIST = ["OIA_TankPlatoon"];

The Class Picker can collect the class names for you: aim at a soldier and it picks up the group that soldier came from.

To keep one soldier out of every group instead, put his class name in the unit blacklist. The rest of each group still comes:

ALiVE_PLACEMENT_CUSTOM_UNITBLACKLIST = ["O_Soldier_AA_F"];

That covers the groups both Military Placement modules, the AI Commander's recruits, Military Logistics reinforcements and the C2ISTAR tasks place. Vehicle crews still come, and a group made only of listed soldiers comes as it is: the RPT names it, so you can put that group on the group blacklist instead. CQB takes single soldiers from its own Blacklist Units box, and for a Custom Faction Compiler faction you leave the soldier out of the compiler.

How many vehicles a group brings is set by the faction, so blacklisting a big platoon lets smaller groups take its place. A blacklisted group is never picked, so another group of the same type takes its place, for the RHS factions ALiVE carries fixed group lists for and for factions from the Custom Faction Compiler as well. If every group of a type is blacklisted, the objective gets none of that type. For a faction from the Custom Faction Compiler the Class Picker won't collect its groups; leave the group out of the compiler instead.

More: Military Placement: Override Armour, Military Placement: Override Mechanised, Military Placement (Cust. Obj.): Armour Count, Class Picker

Why does my Vietnam (or other period) faction spawn modern-looking camps and roadblocks?

Camps, HQs and roadblocks don't come from the faction. ALiVE picks them from its shared composition sets, and the set it uses depends on the terrain: each terrain index names an environment such as Woodland, Desert or Jungle. The faction only rules out compositions marked for an enemy faction.

• For SOG Prairie Fire, load ALiVE's optional SOG compositions. They come with the mod in its optional folder and only count once moved into the addons folder; the RPT warns when they're missing. They fill the Jungle set, which the SOG terrains (Cam Lao Nam, Khe Sanh and The Bra) and the other Vietnam and Indochina maps use, such as Unsung's Khe Sanh, Cao Bang, Da Krong, Song Bin Tanh and Prei Khmaoch Luong. Without SOG loaded, a Jungle map uses ALiVE's Pacific compositions instead. On any other terrain, or for an INDFOR faction, you'll still get the standard camps.
• To choose them yourself, set Roadblock Compositions on Military Placement (Civ. Obj.) and Spawn Composition on Military Placement (Cust. Obj.).

More: Military Placement (Civ. Obj.): Roadblock Compositions, Military Placement (Cust. Obj.): Spawn Composition, Terrain Compatibility

Why does my faction only ever spawn infantry, even with Force Weighting set to Motorised?

Vehicles only come from vehicle groups. Force Weighting asks for motorised, mechanised or armoured groups from the faction's own group lists, and if the faction has none of that kind (Syndikat has none, for example) those groups are skipped without a word and you get the infantry that's left. Vehicles added to a faction as loose units, not inside a group, are never picked either.

• Build vehicle groups for the faction in the ORBAT Creator, or add them with the Custom Faction Compiler, filed under Motorized, Mechanized or Armored.
• Or use a faction that already has vehicle groups.
• Setting Override Motorised to a number won't help on its own: it still needs groups of that kind to pick from.

More: Military Placement: Force Weighting, Military Placement: Override Motorised, ORBAT Creator, Custom Faction Compiler

How do I find a faction's classname to type into a module, and does the case matter?

Usually you don't need to type it. Force Faction on the placement modules and Factions on the Military AI Commander list every loaded faction to pick from. You only type a classname in Additional Factions (by name), for a mod that isn't loaded while you edit.

1. Place a unit of that faction in Eden.
2. Open the debug console and run faction ((get3DENSelected "object") select 0) with the unit selected, or give the unit a variable name and use that instead of the selection.
3. Type the result exactly as it comes back.

Case matters. A commander given b_cad_836 won't find groups of B_CAD_836: the RPT says "There are no groups for OPCOM faction(s)", and if that was its only faction the commander stops there.

More: Military AI Commander: Factions, Military AI Commander: Additional Factions (by name)

RHS USMC never uses the LAV-25 or AAVP-7A1 that 3CB adds. Can ALiVE give it mechanised groups with them?

Not built in. ALiVE uses each faction's own groups, and RHS doesn't ship a USMC mechanised group with those vehicles because they come from 3CB, so ALiVE's list for that category is empty. Pairing two mods like that is a choice for each mission, so it's set up in the mission rather than in ALiVE.

You can add the groups yourself without making a mod:

1. Place an ALiVE Custom Faction Compiler, set Faction Override Mode to Override categories, and use the RHS faction's class name as the Faction ID (rhs_faction_usmc_wd or rhs_faction_usmc_d).
2. Place an ALiVE Custom Faction Group Category set to Mechanized and sync it to the compiler.
3. Build each group in the editor: the LAV-25 or AAVP-7A1 with the soldiers inside it as crew and passengers, then sync one soldier from each group to the category module.
4. Sync the compiler to the Military Placement modules that should place it.

Override categories only replaces the categories you compile, so the faction keeps all its other RHS groups. If you'd rather have it everywhere, build the groups into your own faction with the ORBAT Creator.

More: Custom Faction Compiler: Faction Override Mode, Custom Faction Compiler: Faction ID, Using the Custom Faction Compiler, ORBAT Creator

Why do enemies only appear in one town, or nowhere at all, inside my TAOR?

Usually a filter or the choice of module is removing the places you expect. The usual causes:

• Military Placement (Mil. Obj.) only uses places the map index marks as military, such as bases, airfields and military buildings. To put troops in towns and villages, add Military Placement (Civ. Obj.) with its own TAOR.
• Military Placement (Civ. Obj.) has Objective Size Filter set to Ignore small objectives by default. That drops every objective with a radius under 250 m, which is most villages.
• An objective counts as inside the TAOR only if its centre is inside the marker.
• A TAOR Marker name that doesn't exactly match a marker is ignored. If none of them match, the module uses the whole map.
• Force Size is shared out across every objective found. If there are more objectives than groups, the leftover objectives only get their garrison from Garrisoned Infantry Groups Per Objective, which is one or two groups at the default Low.
• A second placement module with an overlapping TAOR can make it look as though the first module placed the wrong forces.

1. Set Enable Debug to Yes on the placement module.
2. Set Objective Size Filter and Objective Priority Filter to Do not filter.
3. Start the mission and open the map. Each objective has a dot labelled with its ID, type, priority and radius in metres, and a circle showing its area.
4. Tighten the filters again until only the places you want are left.

Use one or a few large TAOR markers, and Blacklist Marker areas to cut out what you don't want, rather than lots of small or overlapping ones. Both are read once when the mission starts, then hidden. For an exact spot the map doesn't mark, use a custom objective instead.

More: First steps: one enemy commander preset, Outbreak: zombies hold an area preset, Military Placement: TAOR Marker, Military Placement: Blacklist Marker, Military Placement: Objective Size Filter, Military Placement: Objective Priority Filter, Civilian Objective Placement: Objective Size Filter, Military Placement: Enable Debug, Making your own objective

What does Force Size actually control, and how does ALiVE pick infantry, motorised, mechanised or armour?

Force Size is a scaling value, not a head count. ALiVE turns it into a number of groups of each type using Force Weighting, then shares those groups across the objectives in the TAOR.

At the default Company (200) with Light Infantry, that's 16 infantry and 4 spec ops groups, plus 0 to 3 motorised, 0 to 3 mechanised and 0 or 1 armoured groups picked at random, so roughly 150 soldiers. Garrisoned Infantry Groups Per Objective then takes one or two of those infantry groups (at the default Low) out of the main force once and places that many garrison groups at every objective, so the more objectives the TAOR holds, the more soldiers you end up with.

• Force Weighting leans the mix towards Armoured, Mechanised, Motorised, Light Infantry, Air or Spec Ops, but other types still appear in smaller numbers. Random picks Armoured, Mechanised, Motorised or Light Infantry for you; on the two Civ. Obj. modules it can also pick Air.
• On Military Placement (Mil. Obj.), Air only places aircraft if Place helicopters or Place aircraft is on.
• For exact numbers, fill in Override Infantry, Override Motorised, Override Mechanised, Override Armour or Override SpecOps. A whole number replaces the calculated count, 0 means none and blank keeps the calculation.
• A faction with no groups of a type gets none of that type, whatever the weighting.
• Groups are shared out evenly across the objectives, not by objective size, and dealt round them one at a time, so each objective gets a mix of vehicle and infantry groups. Any that don't divide evenly go one each to the first objectives in the module's list. With Enable Debug on, the RPT line "Placed X of Y groups over Z objectives" shows the result. Builds from before 27 October 2026 gave the first objectives every vehicle group and the rest infantry only.
• For the same mix at every objective, read Z from that line, then set each override to Z times the groups you want at each one. With 20 objectives, 20 armour, 20 mechanised and 60 infantry gives every objective 1 armoured, 1 mechanised and 3 infantry groups. Set Override Motorised and Override SpecOps to 0 too, as a blank one adds its calculated groups on top, and so does Place Artillery. Garrisoned Infantry Groups come on top as well.
• The Override counts and the force pool count groups, not profiles. A vehicle gets a profile of its own, so a group riding in 2 vehicles is 3 profiles but 1 group.

Objective size (m) on Military Placement (Cust. Obj.) is something else: the objective's radius in metres. On builds from before late September 2026, choosing Spec Ops quietly gave you Random.

More: Military Placement: Force Size, Military Placement: Force Weighting, Military Placement: Override Infantry, Military Placement: Garrisoned Infantry Groups Per Objective, Custom Military Placement: Objective size (m)

How do I make an objective where the map doesn't have one, like my own base or bunkers? Does it need a TAOR?

Use Military Placement (Cust. Obj.). It creates an objective at its own position, so the map doesn't need to mark the place as military, and it has no TAOR.

1. Place Military Placement (Cust. Obj.) where you want the objective.
2. Set Objective size (m), the objective's radius, to cover the site, and set Objective priority.
3. Sync it to the Military AI Commander that should fight over it. Leave Force Factions empty to use that commander's factions. If you sync it to commanders on both sides, set Force Factions to the faction that should hold it, or both sides start on the same spot.
4. Set Infantry Count, Motorised Count and the other counts for the troops it should start with. They're all 0 by default and its garrison is drawn from the infantry, so with the defaults you get an objective with nobody in it.

Buildings and bunkers you place in Eden inside the radius count as part of the objective. For a town-style objective, such as a few buildings you've added, use Military Placement (Cust. Civ. Obj.) the same way; it sizes its force from Force Size. To add an objective from a script instead, with no troops, run this on the server once the commander has started (use your commander's side or faction, then a name, position, radius, type and priority):

["EAST", "addObjective", ["myBase", getMarkerPos "myBaseMarker", 200, "MIL", 100]] call ALiVE_fnc_OPCOM;

A side reaches the first commander of that side, so with two on one side use a faction instead. Dev builds from late April to late September 2026 ignored a side or faction here and added nothing. With Persistent on, the commander saves the objective and loads it back, so run this once per campaign rather than at every start, or it gets the objective twice.

More: Defensive: CSAT invades, NATO holds preset, Offensive: NATO attacks CSAT-held ground preset, Custom Military Placement, Custom Military Placement: Objective size (m), Custom Military Placement: Force Factions, Custom Military Placement: Infantry Count, Custom Civilian Objective, Pitfall: Custom objective with no Force Factions

How do I make a group hold a position, like a trench or a building, without the commander moving it?

Use Military Placement (Garrison Obj.). Each module places one infantry group, or one vehicle, at that spot. The infantry group, or the vehicle and its crew, is flagged busy and held in place, so the commander never re-tasks it for attacks or reinforcements.

1. Place the module on the position and rotate it to set which way the group faces.
2. Set Force Faction. Optionally type an Infantry Group Classname for a particular group (blank picks one at random), or a Vehicle Classname to place a vehicle instead.
3. Set Objective size to cover the position. Any CBA AI Building Positions inside it are manned, each soldier facing the way the position points, so you can line a trench.
4. Don't expect it to be a commander objective. A Military AI Commander ignores the module on purpose, even if it's synced, so players never get assault or defend tasks on it, and the module's Allow player tasking setting is hidden. If the spot should be a task target, add a Military Placement (Cust. Obj.) covering it, leave its counts at 0, and sync that to the commander.

Place one module per group you want to hold.

More: Garrison Objective, Garrison Objective: Objective size, Garrison Objective: Infantry Group Classname, Garrison Objective: Allow player tasking, Custom Military Placement

Why are there no roadblocks with my invasion or occupation commander, or too many in one place?

There are two separate Roadblocks settings:

• On Military Placement (Civ. Obj.) and Military Placement (Cust. Civ. Obj.), Roadblocks works under any commander. Each civilian objective has a chance of getting them (Low 15%, Medium 35%, High 50%, Extreme 75%, All every objective), and one that does gets up to 1 (Low), 2 (Medium or High), 3 (Extreme) or 4 (All) on its roads.
• On the Military AI Commander, Roadblocks only matters when Control Type is Asymmetric. It lets the insurgents build roadblocks as part of their installations.

Roadblocks only appear once a player comes near, and none is placed within 100 m of another. If there are too many, lower the setting. On builds from before late June 2026, a persistent mission also added a second set on top of the saved ones at every restart, so update if you see them doubling.

More: Civilian Objective Placement: Roadblocks, Custom Civilian Objective: Roadblocks, Military AI Commander: Roadblocks, Military AI Commander: Control Type

Can the enemy's objectives be different each time the mission starts?

Yes, using Eden rather than an ALiVE setting. Place several Military Placement (Cust. Obj.) modules, sync them all to the commander, and give each one a Probability of Presence below 100% in its Eden attributes (30 to 40% is a good start). Each time the mission starts, only the modules that roll present exist, so the commander gets a different set of objectives.

With persistence on, the objectives chosen at the first start are saved with the campaign and loaded back on every restart, so the set only changes when you start a fresh campaign.

More: Custom Military Placement, Persistence

Why does CQB fill buildings with CSAT or the wrong faction instead of mine?

Check the Placement setting in the Military Close Quarters Battle module's Factions section:

• Dominant, the default, ignores the Factions list. For each building it uses whichever faction has the most AI nearby, first within 250 m and then out to the spawn distance. Your own side's AI counts, and so do forces from any other placement module. Groups CQB placed itself aren't counted, so one garrison of the wrong faction doesn't spread to the houses around it.
• Static uses the factions you pick in Factions, plus any classnames typed into Factions (manual override). If both are empty it uses CSAT.

To choose the faction yourself, set Placement to Static and pick it in Factions. On builds from before July 2026, Dominant also fell back to CSAT when it found nobody nearby; now that building stays empty and tries again later.

Synced to a Military AI Commander, CQB always uses that commander's factions. With an Asymmetric commander it starts empty and only fills buildings around the insurgents' installations as they're set up, so it grows during the mission. CQB units aren't counted in the commander's forces.

More: Special operations: a small team against a held town preset, CQB: Placement, CQB: Factions, CQB: Factions (manual override)

How do I keep enemies and objectives out of my players' base? A blacklist marker didn't stop AI walking in.

A Blacklist Marker only stops objectives inside it being used. It isn't a no-go zone, so AI can still drive or walk across it and attack from outside.

1. Draw a marker over the base.
2. Put its name in Blacklist Marker on every placement module: Military Placement (Mil. Obj.), Military Placement (Civ. Obj.) and any others.
3. Put it in Blacklist Marker on Military Close Quarters Battle and IED too, if you use them.
4. Turn Enable Debug on for the Military AI Commander and check no objective marker sits on the base.

Random camps and a Field HQ are the exception: each starts from a spot outside the marker, then settles on clear, flat ground up to 800 m away, which can put it inside. Make the marker reach 800 m past the base, or set Random Camps (m) to 0 and Create Field HQ to No on the modules nearby.

To keep garrisons out of buildings in a marked area, without blacklisting the objectives there, put the area marker's name in Garrison Area Blacklist on a placement module. It covers garrisons only, not Close Quarters Battle, and it isn't a no-go zone either.

More: Military Placement: Blacklist Marker, Military Placement (Civ. Obj.): Blacklist Marker, CQB: Blacklist Marker, IED: Blacklist Marker, Garrison Area Blacklist

Can I use several Military Placement modules for one faction, and what if I leave the TAOR Marker empty?

Yes, that's the way to vary forces by area. Give each module its own TAOR Marker and settings, say armour along the front line and light infantry elsewhere, and sync them all to the faction's commander. The commander runs every group of its factions, wherever it was placed.

A module with TAOR Marker left empty, or with only marker names that don't exist, uses the whole map.

More: Military Placement: TAOR Marker, Military Placement: Force Weighting

If I add a second Military Placement over the same area, do its troops come on top of the first one's?

Yes. Each Military Placement module places its own force at the objectives it finds, so a second one with Force Size 800 adds about 800 more on top of the first one's 1200, spread over the objectives it covers. Filter it to Huge objectives and the extra troops go only to those.

Don't sync the second one to the AI Commander if it covers the same ground as the first. The commander doesn't merge objectives that come from two modules, so it would get two of every town and treat each as a separate place to take or hold. It still commands the second module's groups either way, as they belong to its factions.

Modules that cover different areas are the other case: give each its own TAOR Marker and sync them all.

More: Military Placement: Force Size, Military Placement: Objective Size Filter

How do I cut the enemy down for a small player group?

Start with Force Size on the enemy placement modules, since it's the biggest lever. Then trim the extras:

• Force Size: drop from Company (200) to Company (100) or a Platoon setting.
• Force Weighting: Light Infantry keeps vehicles to a few.
• Readiness (%): type 50 or 25 to hold the rest of the infantry back as reserves that only wake when players come close and the objective's active defenders have been worn down.
• Garrisoned Infantry Groups Per Objective: keep it low, or type a small number in Garrisoned Infantry Groups, exact, as it adds groups at every objective.
• Objective Size Filter: ignore small objectives, so there are fewer places to fill.
• Place helicopters: No.
• Random Camps (m) and Place ambient vehicles: leave them at 0 and None, the defaults.
• On the enemy Military AI Commander, set Max. simultan attacks lower than 10 and Reinforcements to Conservative (50%).

The same numbers play very differently on a small island and a big map, so try it on the map you'll use.

More: Military Placement: Force Size, Military Placement: Readiness, Military Placement: Garrisoned Infantry Groups Per Objective, Military Placement: Objective Size Filter, Military Placement: Place helicopters, Military AI Commander: Max. simultan attacks, Military AI Commander: Reinforcements, Q&A: Readiness, garrisons and reserves

What do Readiness, garrisons and reserves do on Military Placement?

• Readiness (%): the share of the module's infantry and ground vehicle groups that's active from the start, typed as 0 to 100. The rest waits as a reserve inside each objective, with vehicles parked empty. Air groups, garrison groups, and any group with a mortar, static weapon or artillery piece, are always active.
• Reserves wake to defend their own objective when a player comes close (Reserve engagement radius) and the active force there has dropped to the Reserve activation threshold (%). If nothing at that objective started active, they wake as soon as a player comes close.
• Active patrol percent: of the active groups, how many patrol and how many sit in buildings near the objective.
• Garrisoned Infantry Groups Per Objective: extra groups that hold buildings at every objective instead of joining the commander's attacks.

Garrisoned Infantry Groups Per Objective takes one or two infantry groups (at the default Low) out of the main force once, then places that many garrison groups at every objective. To set the number yourself, type it in Garrisoned Infantry Groups, exact; it's capped by the infantry the module has. So garrisons add soldiers on top of Force Size, and the more objectives the TAOR holds, the more they add.

More: Military Placement: Readiness, Military Placement: Reserve activation threshold, Military Placement: Active patrol percent, Military Placement: Garrisoned Infantry Groups Per Objective, Military Placement: Garrisoned Infantry Groups, exact, Q&A: What Force Size means

Can I make the enemy field mortars or towed guns instead of self-propelled artillery?

Yes. Set Artillery type to Mortars, Towed guns or Self-propelled. All four placement modules have it: Military Placement (Mil. Obj.), Military Placement (Cust. Obj.) and the two Civilian Objective Placement modules. It does nothing on its own, because the module has to place artillery in the first place: Place artillery units set to Yes (it's No by default) on the Mil. Obj. and Civilian Objective modules, or Artillery Count above 0 on the custom ones.

The default, Any (self-propelled first), places what it always did: the faction's artillery groups where it has them, otherwise batteries built from its artillery vehicles, self-propelled guns first. With Any, a faction gets mortars only when it has no other artillery, or on a small map where its other artillery is rocket trucks that can't reach anything.

With a kind picked, each battery comes from the faction's artillery groups of that kind. Where it has none, the module builds the battery from the faction's vehicles of that kind, with crews. Check these:

• If the faction has no guns of that kind at all, the module places what it has, as Any, and writes one line saying so in the RPT. That's what you'll see if you ask for towed guns from a faction that doesn't have any.
• With an Artillery faction set, every battery is built from that faction's vehicles of the chosen kind.
• Mortar and towed batteries can't move once they're placed.
• Mortars count as artillery, so the Military AI Commander Artillery module books them for fire missions. Builds before 26 October 2026 turned every mortar away, so Mortars placed what the faction had, as Any.

More: Military Placement: Artillery type, Military Placement: Place artillery units, Custom Military Placement: Artillery type, Custom Military Placement: Artillery Count, Civilian Objective Placement: Artillery type, Custom Civilian Objective: Artillery type, Why does the AI Commander's artillery fire so rarely?

How do I use a particular roadblock or checkpoint composition, such as one from another mod?

Pick it in Roadblock Compositions on Military Placement (Civ. Obj.). The list shows every loaded composition whose category mentions checkpoint, barricade or roadblock. Tick the ones you want and each roadblock picks one that fits the road.

If a mod files its compositions under some other category, they won't be listed. Type their classnames into the Override field under the list instead. With nothing ticked, ALiVE uses its own checkpoint sets.

More: Military Placement (Civ. Obj.): Roadblock Compositions, Military Placement (Civ. Obj.): Roadblocks

Why do vehicles sometimes spawn inside each other or blow up when they appear?

A vehicle spawns where its group was, and ALiVE gives it a few seconds without damage so the engine can settle it against whatever's there. On crowded ground it can still end up inside a wall or another vehicle, and once that window ends it takes damage like anything else.

• Raise Vehicle Spawn Settle (s) on the Virtual AI System from 15 to 30.
• Lower Place ambient vehicles on the placement modules, since parked cars fill up the space.

More: Virtual AI System: Vehicle Spawn Settle (s), Military Placement: Place ambient vehicles

Should the CQB module be synced to my placement modules, a commander, or nothing?

• Synced to placement modules: CQB fills buildings only inside those modules' objectives.
• Synced to a Military AI Commander: CQB covers the whole map and uses that commander's factions. This is the setup for an insurgency.
• Not synced: CQB uses its CQB locations setting to choose where to fill.

Syncing it to anything else does nothing, and the RPT says the sync was ignored.

More: Insurgency: FIA against NATO preset, Special operations: a small team against a held town preset, CQB: CQB locations, CQB: Placement

How do I save a composition I've built so I can use it for a custom military objective, and where do I find the class names of existing ones, such as CUP's?

ALiVE spawns compositions from config: CfgGroups, then Empty, then Military (or Civilian or Guerrilla), then a category such as Camps. It looks in your mission's description.ext first, then in your mods, so a composition of your own can live in the mission.

• Build it in the editor, with a man of the faction it belongs to standing in the middle (a civilian if it's for no faction).
• Preview, open the debug console and run ["Camps", "Medium", "MyCamp", "My Camp"] call ALiVE_fnc_exportCfgComposition. The size picks how far round the man it reaches: Small 15 m, Medium 30 m, Large 60 m.
• It copies a class to the clipboard. Paste it into description.ext inside class CfgGroups { class Empty { class Military { class Camps { ... }; }; }; };
• Type its class name (Camps + size + _ + your name + _ + faction, such as CampsMedium_MyCamp_BLU_F) in the Override box of Spawn Composition on Military Placement (Cust. Obj.).

To find existing class names, open the Config Viewer at configFile >> CfgGroups >> Empty. The Spawn Composition picker lists the ones ALiVE can use. Compositions that only appear in the editor's Compositions panel (Cfg3DEN), as many mod packs ship, can't be spawned by ALiVE as they are: place one in the editor and export it as above.

Player FOBs don't use compositions. Players build them piece by piece from the FOB module's Build List, round the HQ object you pick in FOB Hub objects.

More: Military Placement (Cust. Obj.): Spawn Composition, Player FOBs: FOB Hub objects

Can a custom objective use several compositions, and how do I put several of my own in description.ext?

Yes. Spawn Composition on Military Placement (Cust. Obj.) is a list you can pick several from: Ctrl+click adds or removes one, Shift+click picks a range. Its Override box takes class names as a comma-separated list, for mod compositions the list doesn't show.

Each module spawns one of them, picked at random. If that one doesn't fit the ground there, it tries the others. Leave it empty and no composition spawns.

ALiVE_fnc_exportCfgComposition exports one composition at a time, with no parent classes round it. Run it once for each, then paste the classes side by side inside the same category: class CfgGroups { class Empty { class Military { class Camps { class CampsMedium_One_BLU_F {...}; class CampsMedium_Two_BLU_F {...}; }; }; }; }; For an Independent faction use Guerrilla instead of Military.

More: Saving your own composition, Spawn Composition

Can objectives be hidden until they're found? My commander lists the enemy's random camps and the AA and AT positions I set up for them.

It's the sync that decides. An AI Commander takes its objectives only from the placement modules synced to it, whatever side the module is set to. If your commander lists the enemy's random camps, the Military Placement that makes them is synced to it.

• Sync the enemy's Military Placement, random camps and all, to the enemy commander only. Your commander won't list those objectives or show them on the tablet
• Custom objectives for the enemy's AA and AT positions work the same way: sync them to the enemy commander only
• Your commander still learns about enemy units there once its men spot them, as contacts rather than objectives
• Tasks Only Against Known Enemy on the AI Commander aims the tasks it gives players at what it has actually found, and sends you to recon first when it has found nothing

There's no setting that keeps an objective hidden until it's discovered.

More: Military Placement: Random Camps, AI Commander: Tasks Only Against Known Enemy

Do garrisoned soldiers stay in their positions when they're attacked, or do they move once they're alerted?

They stay put. A soldier who reaches his post in a garrison, from Military Placement or from the AI Commander, is held there and keeps firing instead of walking off. He stands if he's inside a building or more than 1.5 m up, and crouches in the open. In a test attack all 8 men in a garrison stayed on their posts and fired back; when they were only told to stop, 7 of the 8 left.

He's let go when his group is given a new order, such as an attack or a move. A garrison that simply carries on keeps him held.

Some men aren't held:

• A man who couldn't get within 2.5 m of his post, or whose group was sent to search, is only told to stop, so he can still move.
• Men walking to their posts are ordinary AI until they get there.
• A man on an open rooftop, with no roof over him and no wall round him, leaves his post the first time fire comes close. Men inside a building or behind a parapet stay.

More: Military Placement, Military AI Commander, A group the commander never moves

Does setting Create HQ or Create Field HQ to No break logistics, or anything else?

No. Both are on Military Placement and default to Yes. Create HQ garrisons a military building near the module as the side's HQ, and Create Field HQ spawns a field HQ camp.

Turning them off changes two things:

• Players get no rally point at the HQ. The Group Manager adds one at each HQ.
• With Create HQ on, a commander on Occupation or Dug In puts the HQ's objective first. With it off, that objective is weighed like any other.

Military Logistics doesn't use either HQ. Its reinforcements set off from the AI Commander module's position or a Logistics Hub, so logistics works the same.

More: Where the supply base is, Create HQ, Group Manager

How often does the AI Commander make decisions?

It works on two clocks. Every five minutes it takes a fresh look at the whole map: which objectives each side holds, what troops it has, and what to attack, defend or reinforce. In between, it hands out new orders as soon as groups finish or fail the ones they had, so it isn't sitting idle until the next five-minute review.

The tactical side wakes every 15 seconds, and about once a minute it looks for enemies near its troops. That's what sends quick reaction forces and calls in artillery. An Asymmetric commander works differently: it goes through its objectives one at a time and rests for 30 seconds after each full pass.

None of these timings can be changed in the module settings.

More: Military AI Commander, Control Type

Can an AI group that's losing a fight call for help?

Yes, with Groups Call For Help on the AI Commander, which is off by default. Once a minute the commander checks its own groups:

• A group that's lost half its men, and at least 2, with a loss in the last 2 minutes and an enemy within 500 m, asks for help
• The commander sends 2 free groups that can reach that enemy, trying the hurt group's own kind first (it answers at most 2 calls a minute)
• A group asks at most once every 2 minutes, and an enemy the commander is already dealing with isn't asked about again
• Every call writes an OPCOM HELP line to the RPT, naming who was sent or that nobody was free

It works for Invasion and Occupation commanders, not insurgents, and player groups never ask. It's on top of the quick reaction forces the commander already sends at enemies near its troops.

More: AI Commander: Groups Call For Help

Can the AI Commander take control of a squad I placed myself in Eden or with Zeus?

Yes, as long as ALiVE has turned the squad into a virtual group and its faction is one of the commander's factions. The commander takes charge of every virtual group of its factions, and picks up new ones the next time it reviews the map (within five minutes).

1. Sync one unit of the squad to the ALiVE Virtual AI System module; the whole group comes with it, and the vehicle it sits in. That's with Synchronisation Options left on Only virtualize synced units; if you've set it to Virtualize all editor placed units except synced units, leave the squad unsynced instead.
2. Tick the squad's faction in the Military AI Commander's Factions list.
3. A squad with a playable slot in it is left alone at mission start. Make sure the commander has at least one placement module synced to it. With no objectives it doesn't start, and won't command anyone.

It doesn't matter if no synced placement module places that faction; the commander still runs your squad. Builds from before late September 2026 wrote a harmless line starting "ALiVE OPCOM init MISMATCH" to the RPT about it.

For a squad placed in Zeus, place ALiVE's Virtualise Groups In Radius module over it and enter a radius. It turns every AI group in that circle into a virtual group; groups with a player in them are left alone. Two other Zeus modules work on one group at a time: Hand Group To AI Commander turns a group you placed into an ALiVE group its faction's AI Commander takes on, and Spawn ALiVE Group makes a new one already under the commander. Every ALiVE Zeus module is on Zeus Modules.

For squads your own script creates during the mission, run [] call ALIVE_fnc_createProfilesFromUnitsRuntime; on the server once they exist. It virtualises every AI group that isn't virtual yet, the same as the admin action Profile Non-Profiled Units, and skips groups led by a player or marked with ALIVE_profileIgnore.

Syncing the squad to the Military AI Commander itself does nothing. Only the faction matters.

More: Synchronisation Options, Factions, Virtualisation & Spawning

What does the warning about more than 80 objectives mean? Is it a hard limit?

It isn't a limit. Each Military AI Commander counts its own objectives. Above 80, it writes a line in the RPT suggesting you stay below that, then carries on with all of them. An objective synced to two commanders counts once for each.

More objectives mean more work every time the commander reviews the map, which costs server frames on busy missions. A few over 80 is usually fine. If you're well past it, trim what the placement modules hand over:

• Objective Size Filter and Objective Priority Filter drop sites by size or importance (the Only small... options keep the small ones instead). Random camps aren't covered by either.
• TAOR Marker limits the modules to the area you're actually playing in.
• Blacklist Marker cuts areas out.

More: Objective Size Filter, Objective Priority Filter, TAOR Marker, Blacklist Marker

Does every AI Commander need to be synced to the objective modules it should use?

Yes. A Military AI Commander only knows about objectives from the placement modules synced to it. One placement module can be synced to several commanders, and each commander gets its own copy of those objectives to fight over.

That's how two sides meet. If each commander is synced only to its own placement modules, neither knows the other's ground exists, so neither attacks the other's objectives. They'll still send a quick reaction force at enemy groups that turn up near their own troops, but there's no war over ground. Sync the contested placement modules (or all of them) to both commanders.

Each Control Type treats the same objectives in its own way. Invasion works outward from where you put the commander module, nearest first. Occupation ranks them by size, importance and high ground, and puts more troops into defending. Asymmetric runs an insurgency across them instead of fighting for them head on.

More: Combined arms assault: guns, armour and infantry preset, Defensive: CSAT invades, NATO holds preset, Offensive: NATO attacks CSAT-held ground preset, Three-way war: NATO, CSAT and AAF preset, Control Type, Military Placement, Civilian Objective Placement

If I give one AI Commander two factions, does that make them allies?

No. A commander can only run several factions if they're already on the same side, and it never changes who's friendly with whom. That comes from the mission's side relations, such as the Independent allegiance in the Eden mission attributes.

If you tick factions from different sides, the commander doesn't start. It writes "There are factions from different sides within this OPCOM" to the RPT (and to the side chat if you're hosting or in single player) and stops there. The same goes for a faction ticked on two commanders. Each faction can belong to only one commander, so neither of them starts.

More: Three-way war: NATO, CSAT and AAF preset, Factions

Why does the AI Commander's artillery fire so rarely, and how can I test it?

At the default Medium intensity it's meant to be sparing. The commander looks for enemies near its troops about once a minute, and a battery only fires when all of these are true:

• The target plus one more known enemy group or vehicle is within 200 m of it, 2 in all. Set Target selectivity to Loose to fire on a single group.
• The side isn't already running a fire mission. Medium allows one at a time; Simultaneous fire missions raises that.
• The battery is in range, has ammunition and has cooled down since its last mission (7 to 9 minutes at Medium, 3 to 4 at Extreme).
• No friendlies are in the impact area, unless Ignore nearby friendlies is on.

Shells only appear when a player is within the Visible-fire range (m) (3 km by default) of the target or the battery. Further out, the mission is worked out without drawing any shells, so you won't see or hear it.

All of these are in the Fire Missions, Fire Rate and Ammunition, Targeting, and Safety and Performance sections of the Military AI Commander Artillery module. Sync the module to a commander to give that side its own settings; left unsynced, one module serves every commander. Call-for-fire rate set to High or Surge makes commanders call fire on several contacts at once. The module doesn't place guns: turn on Place artillery units on a Military Placement (Mil. Obj.) module, set Artillery Count on a Military Placement (Cust. Obj.) module, or place artillery in the editor and virtualise it. Preparation Fire on the Military AI Commander adds another kind of call: once its scouts have found the enemy on an objective, it asks for fire on the defenders before the assault and holds the assault for two and a half minutes. The battery still has to pass the checks above.

Artillery type, on all four placement modules, picks the kind of guns: Mortars, Towed guns, Self-propelled, or Any for what they placed before. Where the faction has no artillery group of that kind, the battery is built from its vehicles of that kind, with crews; with no guns of that kind at all, the module places what it has and says so in the RPT. Mortars count as artillery, so mortar batteries get fire missions, including a crewed mortar you place in the editor and virtualise. Mortar and towed batteries can't move once placed.

To test it:

1. Place a map marker named or labelled strike.
2. Turn on the module's Debug so you can follow it in the RPT; artillery has no map markers.
3. Run the line below in the debug console with Server Exec (Local Exec in single player). The nearest battery in range fires real shells at the marker.

[ALIVE_MilArtillery, "debugStrike", "strike"] call ALIVE_fnc_MilArtillery;

More: Combined arms assault: guns, armour and infantry preset, Targeting, Fire mission intensity, Target selectivity, Simultaneous fire missions, Visible-fire range, Call-for-fire rate, Place artillery units, Military Placement: Artillery type, Artillery Count, Military AI Commander: Preparation Fire

Why do AI vehicles, especially big ones like rocket artillery, drive in circles or keep doing three-point turns?

That's mostly Arma's own driving AI, which struggles to manoeuvre long or heavy vehicles in towns and on tight roads. ALiVE gives the group its route; the engine does the actual driving.

• Keep Pathfinding on the ALiVE Virtual AI System set to Yes (the default). Vehicle routes then favour roads and avoid water and steep ground, which leaves big vehicles fewer awkward turns to make.
• Set Route Memory on the Virtual AI System to Low or High. A spawned group that makes no headway for 90 seconds (150 on foot) then gets a detour round the spot, and later routes avoid it for a few hours. It's Off by default.
• Artillery shouldn't be driving about at all. The AI Commander keeps artillery it recognises out of attacks and holds it in place to fire through the Military AI Commander Artillery module. If a modded launcher is still being sent forward, ALiVE isn't recognising it as artillery, so report its class name.

More: Pathfinding, Route Memory, Pathfinding, AI Commander Artillery

Why do AI vehicles stop and wait for no obvious reason?

Ambient animals on the road can make AI drivers stop for them. Turn animals off (keeping ambient sound) by putting enableEnvironment [false, true]; in init.sqf, so it runs on the server and every client.

Player Multispawn's intro shot switches the environment back on when it ends, so run the line again after it if you use one.

More: Player Multispawn

Can I change how one faction's units find their way, such as avoiding water or sticking to roads?

Yes, per faction, with a few lines in the mission's init.sqf. Pathfinding on the ALiVE Virtual AI System must be Yes. A rule applies to every route that faction asks for after it's set, including units that spawn later; groups already on the move keep their current route. To change one group rather than a whole faction, see the next question.

There are six movement types, one per line in the example: on foot, cars, trucks and armour (anything that isn't a car), boats, helicopters and planes. Each takes three lists:

• What it can cross: land, trails, roads, water, air (true or false).
• Its off-road limits: the steepest slope and the densest ground it'll enter.
• Its preferences for roads, water, height and density. A negative number makes it favour that, a positive one makes it avoid it.

Set all six for the faction, as below, because a faction with only some of them set can lose its routes for the rest. The example is the default values with CSAT's trucks and armour made to stick harder to roads; change the faction name on the first line and the numbers to suit.

if (isServer) then {
    [] spawn {
        waitUntil {!isNil "ALiVE_Pathfinder"};
        {
            [ALiVE_Pathfinder, "addPathfindingProcedure", ["OPF_F", _x]] call ALiVE_fnc_pathfinder;
        } forEach [
            // type, [land, trails, roads, water, air], [max slope, max density], [road, water, height, density]
            ["Man", [true, true, true, true, false], [0.7, 30], [-0.1, 0.6, -0.1, -0.1]],            // on foot
            ["LandRoad", [true, false, true, false, false], [0.5, 2], [-0.5, 0, -0.1, 0.75]],        // cars
            ["LandOffRoad", [true, false, true, false, false], [0.5, 2], [-0.9, 0, 0.1, 0.75]],     // trucks and armour
            ["Naval", [false, false, false, true, false], [0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0]],                    // boats
            ["Heli", [true, true, true, true, true], [0, 0], [0, 0, -0.1, 0]],                      // helicopters
            ["Plane", [true, true, true, true, true], [0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0]]                         // planes
        ];
    };
};

More: Pathfinding, Pathfinding setting

Can I make one group find its way differently from the rest of its faction?

Yes, from a script. Give the group's profile the name of a movement type, and its routes from then on use that one instead of the one its vehicle decides. Pathfinding on the ALiVE Virtual AI System must be Yes.

Use one of the six built-in names (Man, LandRoad, LandOffRoad, Naval, Heli, Plane), or register your own with addPathfindingProcedure as in the question above and use its name. A name that isn't registered is ignored and the server log says so. Set it back to "" to return to the default.

// Keep this infantry group to roads, using the cars' rules
[_profile, "pathfindingProcedure", "LandRoad"] call ALiVE_fnc_profileEntity;

// Back to the default for its vehicle (or on foot)
[_profile, "pathfindingProcedure", ""] call ALiVE_fnc_profileEntity;

More: Pathfinding

The loading screen is stuck on 'Preparing the battlefield'. How long should it take?

Small missions are usually through in under a minute; large ones on a busy server can take several. The screen shows what it's WAITING ON, which is the module still setting up, and lists any fault it hits in red or amber underneath.

A Military AI Commander can't finish until the ALiVE Virtual AI System and every placement module synced to it have finished, so if a placement module is listed too, look at that first. More objectives, more factions and a big mod list all make it slower. Start-up got noticeably quicker over August and September, so update if you're on an older build.

The screen doesn't give up while work is still moving. After 15 minutes with no progress it comes down and names what never finished. The mission may only be partly set up, so check the RPT for errors from that module and report it.

More: Startup Screen, Military AI Commander

What do the commander's objective states (attack, defend, reserve, idle, unassigned) mean in debug?

• Unassigned: no one holds it yet. The commander treats it as something to take.
• Attack: held by the enemy and needs taking. Attacking means groups are on their way.
• Defend: held by this side but under threat. Defending means groups are on their way.
• Reserve: held and quiet. Reserving means groups are being sent to hold it.
• Idle: held with nothing to do.

An insurgency commander gives its own orders: attack, defend, terrorize (IEDs, suicide bombers, sabotage and ambushes) and reserve (recruiting and building installations).

More: Offensive: NATO attacks CSAT-held ground preset, Military AI Commander: Enable Debug

The RPT warns about a commander's factions and its synced placement modules. Is that a problem?

Syncing the enemy's placement modules is normal: a synced placement module only gives the commander its objectives, and the commander runs every group of its own factions in the mission, synced or not. Builds from before late September 2026 still logged an "OPCOM init MISMATCH" line for that. It was harmless, and current builds don't write it.

The warning that matters is "There are no groups for OPCOM faction(s)": nothing anywhere places that faction. It also lists the factions the synced placement modules do place. A commander with no groups for any of its factions stops. Check the faction is picked in the Factions list and in a placement module's Force Faction, spelled the same way, or leave a synced Military Placement (Cust. Obj.)'s Force Factions empty so it takes the commander's. That warning goes to the RPT, and to side chat only while the commander's Debug is on. A commander set to Start From Ship still starts with nothing ashore yet, because its force is aboard the ship.

More: Military AI Commander: Factions, Military Placement: Force Faction

We cleared an objective but it didn't change hands. Can players capture objectives?

Yes. The commander works out who holds an objective from the groups within 500 m of its centre, and player groups count the same as AI ones. When only your side is in that circle, your side holds it. One enemy group left at the edge keeps it contested, so clear the whole circle, not just the middle.

Holding it doesn't mean the AI garrisons it. To have the AI take over what you clear, give your side its own Military AI Commander (Invasion or Occupation) with objectives from placement modules. Its groups then move in and hold it.

On an Occupation commander you can also turn on Follow The Players Up (off by default). The commander then stops attacking on its own. Once players of its side are in an objective with no enemy left within 500 m, it sends a group to garrison it, and Security Patrols walk it from then on. It still defends a place under attack and takes any objective you order it to.

More: Military AI Commander, AI Commander: Follow The Players Up

Can I keep a few squads under my own High Command while ALiVE runs the rest?

1. Set Synchronisation Options on the Virtual AI System to Virtualize all editor placed units except synced units.
2. Sync one unit of each High Command squad to the Virtual AI System. The whole group is left alone.

Those squads stay spawned all the time, so keep them few. Groups ALiVE places itself are unaffected.

More: Virtual AI System: Synchronisation Options

Can the AI Commander carry out amphibious landings, even a big one like D-Day, or start from a ship at sea?

Yes. Set Start From Ship on the AI Commander and its force starts aboard a ship and goes ashore in waves. You need:

• The AI Commander module on a ship (a static one such as the Expeditionary Forces amphibious ship or the base game carrier or destroyer, or a large ship that can sail, such as the Naval Legends ships), within 400 m of it, set to Invasion or Occupation. The ship must be placed normally: one with Simple Object ticked is never picked, so set-piece ships can stay simple objects
• A Military Logistics module, and a Custom Objective or other objective on the shore synced to the commander. No civilian objective is needed
• Transport helicopters for the faction or its side. A faction with none, like Spearhead's US Army, uses its own landing craft instead. To land by boat first whatever the faction has, set Go Ashore By to Boats, helicopters with none

The ship itself can sit as far out as you like. Landing craft need a beach within 1.5 km of the objective they're landing at; with none, the boats stay aboard. Vehicles go ashore slung under a helicopter that can lift them or, when the force lands by boat, in a landing craft of their own.

How big a landing is up to you:

• Infantry Groups Aboard (6 by default) and Motorised Groups Aboard take any number, and don't come out of the force pool. They go ashore in waves of Groups Per Ship Wave (2 by default), Seconds Between Waves apart (200 by default), infantry first. 0 seconds asks for the waves together, up to 8 infantry and 4 motorised groups at a time
• Every wave lands at the same beach: the objective nearest the ship that the commander is attacking or holding. There's no landing on several beaches at once
• Only infantry and motorised groups go aboard; mechanised and armoured groups start on land. With landing craft, each motorised group gets a craft of its own, the faction's biggest boat, and the group is made on the beach as its craft lands. A craft lost on the way in loses its group, and the rest carry on
• Anything the commander's Military Placement places starts on land as usual. For a landing with nothing ashore at the start, set that placement's Place units to Objectives Only

The first wave leaves a few minutes in, and waves wait while any player is within 1.5 km of the ship, so watch from the shore. When a check fails, the RPT says which one and the commander starts on land instead: search it for Start From Ship and OPCOM SHIP.

The ship is only where the force starts. It isn't an objective, so the enemy won't go for it, and it isn't the commander's HQ: once everyone is ashore, reinforcements come from the ground the commander holds.

For boats patrolling the water instead, set Sea Patrols on Military Placement.

More: AI Commander: Start From Ship, AI Commander: Infantry Groups Aboard, AI Commander: Motorised Groups Aboard, AI Commander: Groups Per Wave, AI Commander: Seconds Between Waves, Military Placement (Mil. Obj.): Sea Patrols, Military Placement (Civ. Obj.): Sea Patrols, Military Placement (Cust. Civ. Obj.): Sea Patrols, AI Commander: Go Ashore By

How do I make the AI Commander attack more often, send bigger attacks, or stop leaving troops idle?

Two settings on the Military AI Commander control it:

• Max. simultan attacks (10 by default) caps how many objectives it attacks at the same time. Lower it for a slower, more focused campaign; raise it to open more fronts.
• Task profile count overrides sets how many groups the commander gathers for each kind of order. Type pairs such as [["attack",3],["defend",4]]. An attack only goes ahead once the commander has that many groups free for it, so a smaller number means smaller, more frequent attacks and a larger one means bigger, rarer ones. Reconnaissance and capture orders use the attack number.

The normal numbers are attack 4, defend 2 and reserve 1 for Invasion; Occupation uses defend 5, Assault attacks with Groups Per Wave (4) and defends with 2, and Asymmetric uses 1 for each. Reserve is the garrison for an objective the side holds with no enemy on it, and defend is for one it holds while enemies are there, so groups sitting on quiet objectives are usually reserve garrisons rather than stuck. Task profile type overrides chooses which kinds of group go on each order, for example [["attack",["mechanized","armored"]]].

Some settings hold new attacks on purpose, so check them if the commander seems to stall: Pause After Capture (min) on an Occupation commander, Preparation Tasks Before Attacks on an Invasion one, a killed High Value Target, and Follow The Players Up on an Occupation commander (it stops attacking on its own). Defence and reserve orders carry on meanwhile. To get some of the quiet garrisons moving, set Security Patrols.

Check your typing. If the text isn't a valid list, or a task name is misspelt, the commander just uses its normal numbers. 0 is accepted but isn't a clean off switch: the commander still raises the order and then sends nobody. A list with a bracket missing is ignored too: the game reports its own "Missing ]" at start and ALiVE writes a line to the RPT.

More: Combined arms assault: guns, armour and infantry preset, Offensive: NATO attacks CSAT-held ground preset, Military AI Commander: Max. simultan attacks, Military AI Commander: Task profile count overrides, Military AI Commander: Task profile type overrides, Military AI Commander: Security Patrols, Military AI Commander: Control Type, AI Commander: Follow The Players Up, Q&A: What do the commander's objective states mean?, Q&A: How often does the AI Commander make decisions?

Can the AI Commander pin the defenders and attack from the side?

Yes. Set Flanking Attacks to Yes on the OPCOM (Military AI Commander) module; it's No by default. When its scouts have found defenders on an objective and it sends 3 or more ground groups, one group stops about 300 m short and holds the defenders in place. The others swing round to its side, then everyone closes in together.

• The group that holds is the heaviest it has (armour first, then mechanised, motorised, infantry), the one nearest the objective.
• A group within 60 degrees of that line swings round on the side it's already on, about 400 to 500 m out. A group already standing off to the side goes straight in.
• The holding group waits until the last group swinging round should be in place, and never more than 20 minutes. Turn on Attacks Arrive Together as well and it counts the longer way round for the waiting groups.
• A swing point in the sea, or too close to or too far from the objective, sends that group straight in instead.

It's for Invasion and Occupation commanders. Attacks with fewer than 3 groups, attacks where the scouts found nobody, aircraft and insurgent commanders all go in as before. A group that's swinging round isn't sent to help anywhere else until the objective is taken.

More: AI Commander: Flanking Attacks, AI Commander: Attacks Arrive Together, How do I make an attack arrive all at once?

How do I make an attack arrive all at once?

Set Attacks Arrive Together to Yes on the OPCOM (Military AI Commander) module. It's No by default, so the groups sent against an objective set off together and arrive one by one, with tanks minutes ahead of the infantry.

With it on, the slowest group sets the pace. Every faster ground group waits where it is, by the estimated difference in travel time, so they all reach the same point at about the same moment. It works on both legs: the move to the points round the objective, then the move to capture it.

• A wait is at most 15 minutes, and a difference of under 20 seconds is ignored.
• Vehicles' travel times are raised by a third to allow for roads, so they're held back a little less than the raw distance suggests.
• Aircraft are never held.
• It needs 2 or more groups on the same order; a lone group has nobody to wait for.

The wait is worked out from distance and speed before they set off, so it's an estimate; a group held up on the way can still arrive late.

More: AI Commander: Attacks Arrive Together, AI Commander: Flanking Attacks

How do I give an occupying force a stronger presence, with more troops at the objectives it holds?

The Military AI Commander decides how many groups each objective gets from the kind of order it gives. With Control Type on Occupation it sends 4 groups to take an objective and 5 to defend one that enemies are near. Once the objective is held and quiet it keeps just 1 group there as the reserve. Invasion uses 4, 2 and 1.

So the number that shapes the everyday presence is the reserve. Raise it in Task profile count overrides, under the commander's TASK OVERRIDES heading. For example, [["reserve",3],["defend",8]] keeps 3 groups on every quiet objective it holds and sends 8 when one is threatened. Add ["attack",6] to take objectives with more as well.

The groups come from the commander's own force, which is whatever the Military Placement modules put on the map. More groups per objective means fewer objectives covered at once. To keep the coverage too:

• Raise Force Size on the Military Placement modules.
• Lower Max. simultan attacks, so the commander puts its strength into fewer objectives at a time.
• On Military Placement, Garrisoned Infantry Groups Per Objective adds groups that sit in buildings at every objective it places, on top of the commander's orders.

More: Military AI Commander: Task profile count overrides, Military AI Commander: Max. simultan attacks, Military Placement: Force Size, Q&A: bigger or more frequent attacks

Which groups does the AI Commander send to defend an objective, and do they go back afterwards?

When enemies come within 800 m of an objective it holds, the commander sends a defence: 5 groups on Occupation and Dug In, 2 on Invasion and Assault. Task profile count overrides changes those numbers.

It takes the nearest free groups, searching 2 km round the objective first and widening 2 km at a time out to about 15 km. It never takes a reserve group, the one left holding a quiet objective. When it needs 5 or more, it will also take groups it has given to other objectives; when it needs fewer, it leaves those alone.

Once the enemy's gone, only a Dug In commander sends the groups back to the objectives they came from. On Invasion and Occupation they stay at the objective they defended until the commander gives them other orders.

More: More troops at held objectives, Task profile count overrides, Dug In against the other Control Types

Will the AI Commander run out of groups holding everything it takes?

Not quickly. It leaves one group on each objective it holds and nothing more, and it only attacks with groups that are free:

• Reserve: each objective it holds and isn't being attacked keeps 1 group. Defence: when enemies come near it sends 2 more on Invasion and Assault, 5 on Occupation and Dug In.
• Attack: 4 groups on Invasion, taken only from groups with nothing to do, so it never strips an objective it holds to attack. If too few are free the attack waits and it tries again later. Once the objective is taken, the attackers beyond the reserve are let go: an attack of 4 leaves 1 group holding and frees the other 3, so ten captures tie up about ten groups, not forty. Orders of 5 or more groups may pull in groups it has given to other objectives.
• Reinforcements: with Military Logistics synced, once its strength falls below its Reinforcements share of what it started with (Moderate, 75%, by default) it asks for enough to make up the losses, back to its starting strength and no further. Each group comes out of the Force Pool.

So a side that keeps taking ground spreads thinner but doesn't empty itself. To let it grow, turn on Inc. Force Strength (Obj. Capture) on Military Logistics: each capture raises the strength it tops up to by Inc. Force Strength Factor (%) of its starting strength, rounded up (10 on a commander 40 groups strong adds 4), and as each capture raises the total, the next one adds a little more. That doesn't add to the Force Pool, which pays for the extra groups. A Dynamic Force Pool or Income per Held Objective adds to the budget as it holds more, and C2ISTAR tasks players complete and vehicles traded in at a Logistics Hub pay into it. To leave taken objectives empty instead, put ["reserve",0] in Task profile count overrides.

More: Taking ground and reinforcements, Which groups defend, Reinforcements, Inc. Force Strength (Obj. Capture), Task profile count overrides

Which Control Type should my Military AI Commander use: Invasion, Occupation, Asymmetric, Dug In or Assault?

Pick the one that matches how the side should fight:

• Invasion (the default) pushes forward and captures objectives.
• Occupation holds what it has with static and patrolling defences and is slower to advance. It sends 5 groups to defend a contested objective where Invasion sends 2, so it suits a side holding a beach or a front line. Follow The Players Up (Occupation only) makes it stop attacking on its own and garrison what players clear.
• Asymmetric is an insurgency. It grows by recruiting from the civilians around its recruitment HQs, builds installations such as IED factories and weapons depots, and sends a single group on each order. By default it never recruits tanks, planes, helicopters or boats, and with Recruit only what placements place on, it leaves out AA and wheeled APC groups its placement modules don't place (see the answer on insurgent AA and APCs), and it doesn't ask Military Logistics for reinforcements. Set Drug Labs to Yes and its IED factories are drug labs instead, and every one left standing speeds up its recruiting, up to twice as fast with four.
• Dug In is a last stand. It holds the objectives it has and never takes another: ground vehicles are parked where they stand, infantry garrisons, and groups from its other objectives go to help one under attack, then go back. Aircraft still fly, its minefields and forts work as on Occupation, and players can't give it objectives or send its groups out.
• Assault (waves) attacks one objective at a time, the most important first (or the places you list in Assault Targets, in order). It sends a first wave at once and another of Groups Per Wave groups every Wave Interval (15 minutes) until the objective falls, using only free groups, so its garrisons stay put. With Assault Order on Pocket it takes the objectives round a target first. Players see the next wave on the tablet's Commander tab and can send it early.

So Asymmetric on a regular army's faction gives you an insurgency wearing that army's kit, not an army with the IEDs switched off. For a regular force that holds ground and reinforces its losses, use Occupation. An insurgency also needs civilians to recruit from; see the links below.

More: Combined arms assault: guns, armour and infantry preset, Defensive: CSAT invades, NATO holds preset, Offensive: NATO attacks CSAT-held ground preset, Three-way war: NATO, CSAT and AAF preset, Military AI Commander: Control Type, Military AI Commander: Excluded force kinds, AI Commander: Follow The Players Up, Military AI Commander: Installations, Military AI Commander: Drug Labs, Q&A: Does an insurgency commander need Military Logistics?, Q&A: How do I balance an insurgency?, Pitfall: An insurgency with no civilians, Attacking in waves

Can the AI Commander start small at one spot, like a bridgehead, and spread across the map?

Yes. Give it a few groups at the start point and let reinforcements do the rest.

1. Place a Military Placement (Cust. Obj.) at the start point. Its Infantry Count, Motorised Count, Mechanised Count and Armour Count set how many groups begin there.
2. Place a Military Placement over the rest of the map with Place units set to Objectives Only. It gives the commander the objectives to take but places no troops.
3. Sync both to a Military AI Commander on Invasion, and put the commander module at the bridgehead: Invasion takes the objectives nearest its module first, so it pushes outward from there.
4. Sync Military Logistics to the commander and give it a Force Pool. Reinforcements arrive at objectives it holds, the bridgehead first and then further forward as it takes ground.

Groups stay virtual until players come near, so a big map costs little until the fighting reaches it. To set the route yourself, use Assault (waves) instead of Invasion and list the places in Assault Targets, in order. With only a few groups at the start, keep Task profile count overrides in mind: an attack only goes once enough groups are free.

More: Place units, Infantry Count, Force Pool (groups), Attacking in waves, Will it run out of groups?

How do I make the AI Commander attack one place at a time, in waves?

Set the Military AI Commander's Control Type to Assault (waves). It picks one target and keeps sending groups at it until it falls, then moves on.

1. Choose the target. With nothing else set it goes for the objective with the highest Objective priority (set on the placement modules), nearest first among equals. To set the route yourself, type marker or object names into Assault Targets, comma separated: it takes the objective nearest each one, in order, then carries on as an Invasion commander.
2. Set the waves. The first wave goes at once, then another of Groups Per Wave groups (4 by default; 0 sends every free group) every Wave Interval (15 minutes). Waves only take free groups, never ones holding objectives.
3. Optionally set Assault Order to Pocket: it then takes every objective it doesn't hold within Pocket Radius (1500 m) of the target first, cutting it off, and then the target.
4. In game, the tablet's Commander tab shows where the current wave is and when the next one goes, with Send now to send it early.

This is the Assault section's Groups Per Wave; the ship's is called Groups Per Ship Wave. A save keeps the target, the wave number and the time to the next wave.

More: Control Type, Assault Targets, Assault Order, Choosing a Control Type

Does ALiVE take over the units I place in Eden, and how do I keep a group as normal Arma AI?

Only the ones you tell it to. Synchronisation Options on the ALiVE Virtual AI System decides which Eden-placed groups ALiVE virtualises at the start:

• Only virtualize synced units (the default): only groups synced to the Virtual AI System are taken over. Everything else stays as normal Arma AI.
• Virtualize all editor placed units except synced units: every Eden group is taken over except the ones you sync.

A group holding a player's slot is left alone either way, and so is a vehicle synced to a Combat Support module. Once virtualised, a group of one of a commander's factions is run by that commander. To keep a particular group out whichever option you use, mark it in init.sqf with myGroup setVariable ["ALIVE_profileIgnore", true];, using your group's variable name.

Groups created later by script or Zeus stay as normal AI. They're only taken over by an ALiVE tool such as the Zeus module Virtualise Groups In Radius or the admin action Profile Non-Profiled Units. Groups that aren't virtualised stay spawned all the time, so keep them few.

More: Virtual AI System: Synchronisation Options, Q&A: Can the AI Commander take control of a squad I placed myself?, Q&A: Keeping squads under your own High Command, Admin Actions

Do AI keep their loadout and ammo when they virtualise? Can they run out over a long campaign?

Soldiers don't keep their kit. When a group virtualises, ALiVE keeps each soldier's class, position, damage and rank. When it spawns again, each soldier gets the standard loadout for their class with full ammo, so infantry can't run dry. Vehicles are different: they keep their ammo, fuel and damage.

Any loadout you changed by script is lost the same way. Reapply it in On unit spawn (SQF) on the placement module, with Run once per group set to No, because with Yes it only runs on the group's first spawn.

More: Military Placement: On unit spawn (SQF), Military Placement: Run once per group

Does the AI Commander fortify or mine the objectives it holds?

It can, on Invasion and Occupation. Two settings in the Holding Ground section of the AI Commander module, both None by default:

• Prepared Defences: an objective held for 10 minutes gets a small fort at its edge facing the enemy, from the faction's own compositions. Few fortifies up to 3 objectives, Many up to 8; on Many one held for 40 minutes also gets a medium fort.
• Frontline Minefields: a band of about a dozen mines beyond the edge of a held objective facing the enemy, anti-tank where a road runs through. Few allows 2 fields, Many 6. The commander's own and friendly sides know where they are.

Neither is ever placed within 300 m of a player, or on a runway, taxiway or apron. With persistence on, the mines left in each field are laid again after a load.

More: AI Commander: Prepared Defences, AI Commander: Frontline Minefields

What's the high value target, and how do we find him?

With High Value Target set on the AI Commander module, the commander keeps a named officer and a guard group at the most important objective it holds. He stays put and takes no orders.

With Intel set, intel read from that side's dead marks where he was last seen about a third of the time, for ten minutes. Killing him stops the commander starting new attacks for the time chosen in the setting, and every side gets a popup. To write that message yourself, fill in Killed Message, His Enemies and Killed Message, His Own Side: %1 is his name and %2 the map grid where he was last seen. He carries a Wallet (ID) that says who he is, and he's saved with the mission.

More: AI Commander: High Value Target, AI Commander: Killed Message, His Enemies

Can players give an insurgency commander objectives?

Yes. On the Operations tablet an insurgency commander's objectives can be listed, added, cancelled and reordered as an invasion or occupation commander's can, with the same toggle (on by default), cooldown and cap on the C2ISTAR module. Take or Hold can be chosen on the tablet, or set from the map with a marker whose text starts "obj take" or "obj hold".

It rarely has anyone free, so a player's objective borrows the nearest insurgents from one of its other operations. Guards on an installation are never pulled off.

More: Player-directed objectives, C2ISTAR: allow player objectives

Is the High Value Target only for Asymmetric commanders? I can only find it under the Asymmetric settings.

No, any AI Commander can have one, whatever its Control Type. Its settings have their own High Value Target section in the AI Commander module, just after Start From Ship and above the Asymmetric sections. It shows whatever the Control Type, though Eden hides some sections around it that don't fit the type you picked.

More: AI Commander: High Value Target

Can I name my AI Commanders and have that name used in their radio messages?

Yes. Type the name into the Military AI Commander's Custom Name box. It shows in the commander list on the ALiVE tablet and in the RPT, and the side's HQ radio messages open with it.

It's one name per side on the radio: the first named commander of a side keeps it. So if two commanders share a side, give the name to the one you want heard.

More: Military AI Commander: Custom Name

How do I tell the AI Commander where to attack or what to hold?

Open the Operations tablet, pick a place for the commander, and choose Take or Hold. The commander then sends troops to capture it or to defend it.

You can also do it from the map without the tablet. Place a marker whose text starts with "obj take" or "obj hold" and the commander treats it as that order. Delete the marker to cancel it.

It is on by default. To keep the commander out of players' hands, set Allow Player Objectives to No on the Player Command/Control (C2ISTAR) module. The cooldown between orders and the cap on how many a side can hold are on the same module.

An Assault commander picks its own target, the most important first. The mission maker can list the places it should take, in order, in Assault Targets; players can press Send now on the tablet's Commander tab to send its next wave early.

More: Player-directed objectives, C2ISTAR: Allow Player Objectives, Assault Targets

What are Security Patrols?

Three settings on the Military AI Commander, in its Holding Ground section: Security Patrols (None until you pick a level), Security Patrol Mode and Security Patrol Reach.

Some of the infantry the commander keeps at quiet objectives go out on a walk and back home, so the ground between objectives isn't empty. Security Patrol Mode decides where they go:

• Objectives (the default): a patrol walks through the nearest 2 or 3 rear objectives the commander holds within reach. Few sends a quarter of the groups at an objective, Some half and Many three quarters. One group always stays at an objective that has more than one.
• Coverage: a patrol walks through up to 4 of the coldest patches of the commander's own ground within reach. Cold means none of its side's patrols has been there lately and no group at an objective is watching it. Only the groups above an objective's minimum go out (2 at a large objective, 1 at a small one), Few sending a third of them, Some two thirds and Many all. Reserve groups count as spare, but the last group never leaves.

Security Patrol Reach (3000 m by default, 500 to 10000) is how far a patrol goes from home in either mode. Nothing goes out within 2 km of a fight, a patrol whose route turns hot heads straight home, and the commander takes the patrols back whenever it needs them.

More: Combined arms assault: guns, armour and infantry preset, Military AI Commander: Security Patrols, Military AI Commander: Security Patrol Mode, Military AI Commander: Security Patrol Reach

Can I give orders to the enemy's AI Commander, say from a Zeus or admin slot?

Yes, through the Operations tablet. On the Player Command/Control (C2ISTAR) module set Limit Command to All, and the Operations tablet lists every commander, the enemy's too. You can pick their groups, give them orders and, with Allow Player Objectives on, place objectives for them.

It's a mission-wide setting, not an admin permission: anyone who can open the tablet gets it. To keep it to your Zeus or admin slots, see the next answer.

Switching a commander between Invasion, Occupation, Insurgency, Dug In and Assault only works on your own side's commander, and the server checks it. Pausing it and changing its stance are for admins by default: Commander Controls on the C2ISTAR module decides who else may. Stance is the exception: with Player OPCOM Stance Control set to Yes, anyone carrying a C2ISTAR access item or an ALiVE tablet can change it on the tablet, as they can from the ALiVE menu. Start the war, for a commander on Hold Until Go, is only ever for an admin, the host or the player in singleplayer.

From Zeus, the AI Commander Objective module orders any side's commander to take or hold a spot, and Reinforcements sends it groups. See Zeus Modules.

More: Player Command/Control (C2ISTAR), Zeus: AI Commander Objective, Commander Controls, Player OPCOM Stance Control

Can I keep the C2ISTAR tablet to certain slots, like Zeus or admins?

Not by slot: C2ISTAR opens for anyone carrying one of its access items. So give those slots an item nobody else has.

On the Player Command/Control (C2ISTAR) module, clear Access Item Categories and put that item's class name in Custom Access Items. Make sure the slot gets it back on respawn, and don't hand out the ALiVE Tablet, which always gives access.

Pick a class name that isn't part of another item's name, as the check matches part of a name. Leave Command Point Classes empty too, or anyone standing within Command Point Radius (m) of an object of those classes gets C2ISTAR as if they carried the item. This controls who can open C2ISTAR at all, not only the Operations tablet.

More: Player Command/Control (C2ISTAR), C2ISTAR: Command Point Classes

How do I send a group to recon, ambush or search and destroy, and why might it be ignored?

Two ways, both while playing. On the tablet's Operations tab, click a spot on the map and press Recon Position, Search and Destroy or Ambush Position. Or place a marker on the in-game map whose text starts obj recon, obj sad or obj ambush. Markers placed in the editor or by Zeus aren't read.

The commander answers every order, on the tablet's status line or, for a map marker, in chat. If nothing moves, that answer says why: Allow Player Objectives is off on C2ISTAR, you're not carrying an access item, the 300 s cooldown hasn't passed, two of your orders are already out, the commander is an insurgency commander (it takes no orders like these), or no group is free to send.

The commander sends its nearest free group on foot, spec ops included, that isn't holding an objective, in reserve or across water. A recon group looks from a distance and reports; an ambush or search and destroy group is handed back after ten minutes.

More: Player-directed objectives: recon, search and destroy, ambush, C2ISTAR: Allow Player Objectives

Can I choose which ground each side holds at the start, like one side on each bank of a river?

There's no setting for who owns what. At the start each AI Commander looks for troops within 500 m of each of its objectives: only its own side's means held, only the enemy's means attack, both means defend, and nobody at all means it's there for the taking. So a side holds ground by having troops placed on it.

To give each side one bank and have them fight over the other:

• Give each side its own Military Placement with a TAOR marker on its own bank, so its forces start there
• Sync each AI Commander to both sides' placement modules. A commander only goes for the objectives of the placement modules synced to it, and a synced module of the other side gives it objectives, not troops
• An Asymmetric commander only works the objectives synced to it too, and its Installations setting is the chance each one starts with an insurgent installation
• To hold a side back at the start, sync a trigger to its commander: it starts no new attacks until every trigger synced to it has fired

With a TAOR alone, a commander's objectives are all on its own bank, so it has nothing to attack. With no TAOR, one side's placement spreads over the whole map and it starts holding almost everything.

More: Military Placement: TAOR Marker, AI Commander: Installations

Will an AI Commander attack outside its TAOR?

Yes, if it has objectives out there. The TAOR belongs to a placement module, not to the commander: it decides where that module places troops and objectives. The commander then goes for every objective it's been given, wherever it is.

• A commander only goes past its own TAOR when it's synced to objectives out there, such as another placement module
• Its troops travel wherever an objective is; a TAOR isn't a boundary they stay inside
• To give it objectives somewhere without placing more troops, sync a Military Placement there with Place units set to Objectives Only

More: Military Placement: TAOR Marker, Military Placement: Place units

Can two AI Commanders share a side with different factions, and can my players' faction stay out of the AI's orders?

Yes to both. Two AI Commanders can be on one side as long as no faction is in both; a faction listed in two commanders stops the second one starting.

• Leave your players' faction out of every AI Commander's Factions. A commander only gives orders to its own factions' groups, so the players' faction is never mixed in
• Give the players their work from C2ISTAR instead: automatic tasks per side, and Civic tasks such as aid deliveries, medical outreach and meeting local leaders
• Your players' troops near an objective still count towards their side holding it, the same as the AI's

More: AI Commander: Factions, C2ISTAR: automatic player tasks, C2ISTAR: Enabled Civic Task Families

Can I have more than three sides fighting, like a 1v1v1v1?

No. Arma has three fighting sides, BLUFOR, OPFOR and Independent, plus civilians, and ALiVE's AI Commanders work per side, so four separate sides isn't possible.

A three-way works. Give each side its own AI Commander, then in Eden open Attributes > General and set Independent friendly to nobody. Each commander reads the side relations when the mission starts and treats every hostile side as its enemy, so the Independent commander fights both of the others.

You can stack several factions on one side, and one commander can command several factions, but everyone on a side is allied.

More: Two factions under one commander, Two commanders on one side, Factions

My AI Commander has two factions, an army and a police force. Can I keep the police in towns and the army at military bases?

Yes. On the AI Commander, put the police faction's class name in Town-Only Factions and the army's in Base-Only Factions. Town-only factions are only sent to civilian objectives, the ones from Civilian Placement and Custom Civilian Placement; base-only factions go to every other objective. A faction in neither list goes anywhere, and orders a player gives through Player Command/Control aren't limited.

Leave both empty and the commander doesn't look at faction when it picks who goes where: it sends the nearest free groups of the right type, so police can end up at a base and the army in a town.

Two AI Commanders on the same side, one faction each and each synced to its own objective modules, still works if you'd rather keep them apart completely.

More: AI Commander: Town-Only Factions, AI Commander: Base-Only Factions, AI Commander: Factions, Two AI Commanders on one side

Does Force Weighting set to Random give a mix of every type, and does the AI Commander send tanks when the enemy has tanks?

No to the first. The second depends on a setting. Random picks one of Armoured, Mechanised, Motorised or Light Infantry once, when the mission starts, and that Military Placement module's force is weighted towards it like any other choice. Whichever is picked, infantry and spec ops are always part of it, and the other vehicle types turn up in small random numbers.

For a real mix, place several Military Placement modules with different weightings, or set the Override Infantry, Motorised, Mechanised, Armour and Spec Ops counts yourself.

The Override counts are exact numbers of groups, not shares of Force Size. 25 in each of the five gives 125 groups, 25 of each, whatever Force Size says. Force Size and Weighting only work out the types left blank, and 0 turns a type off.

By default the AI Commander's reinforcements don't look at what the enemy is fielding, but its quick reactions do react to what it spotted:

• Reinforcements replace what it has lost, type for type, once its strength drops below the Reinforcements threshold. Lose three tanks and it asks for three tanks back
• With Reinforcements Match the Enemy set to Yes on the AI Commander (off by default), half of each request still replaces its own losses and the other half follows the enemy its units have seen in the last 30 minutes. A commander that lost only infantry while facing tanks then asks for some armour. It never asks for more groups than it lost, it can ask for a type it didn't start with if its faction has groups of that type and Military Logistics is allowed to send them, and with nothing seen it replaces losses as before
• Each time it scans and finds enemies, it reacts to the first one it found. A tank or aircraft brings a CAS request to the Military Air Component Commander when there is one; without one, the heaviest ground type it has goes instead. A car or truck brings one armoured section, or the next heaviest type if it has no armour. An enemy on foot brings two infantry sections
• An attack on an objective goes to the nearest free groups of the allowed types, not the best match for the enemy
• Task profile type overrides on the AI Commander sets which types each task may use, for example [["attack",["mechanized","armored"]]] sends only mechanised and armoured groups to attack

More: Military Placement: Force Weighting, Military Placement: Override Infantry, AI Commander: Reinforcements, AI Commander: Reinforcements Match the Enemy, AI Commander: Task profile type overrides

Can the AI Commander find out what's at an objective before it attacks, instead of walking into it blind?

Yes. On the Military AI Commander, set Find Out Before Attacking to Yes. An Invasion, Occupation or Assault commander then holds each assault while it finds out what's there:

• its recon groups, SpecOps first, look at the objective;
• with a Military Air Component Commander in the mission, a recce flight reports what it sees once a minute while it's over the objective;
• with a C2ISTAR module, players on its side get a Reconnoitre Objective task there.

The assault goes in when it's as sure as Intel Needed Before Attacking asks (0.5 by default), when everyone it sent has reported, or when Intel Wait (20 minutes) runs out; with a recce flight, the wait counts from when the Air Commander accepts it. An airstrike it calls on the objective then goes for up to three of the vehicle groups it saw. Set Intel Markers to Yes and players on its side see on their map what it knows.

Once the objective falls, it reports by radio what became of each enemy group it had seen there: destroyed, falling back toward another objective, or not accounted for. Then it moves on to where most of them went. Players can follow all of this on the tablet's Commander's Picture, and, if the C2ISTAR module's Commander's Picture setting allows orders, tell it to go now, look again or strike.

More: Find Out Before Attacking, AI Commander: Find Out Before Attacking, AI Commander: Intel Markers, Commander's Picture

Can I have an AI Commander that only defends what it holds and never attacks?

Yes: set Control Type to Dug In. It keeps the objectives it holds and never goes after another. Its ground vehicles are parked where they stand and its infantry garrisons. When one of its objectives is attacked, groups from the others go to help, and once the enemy's gone they go back to where they came from.

Aircraft still fly close air support, and Prepared Defences and Frontline Minefields work as on Occupation. Security Patrols and Groups Call For Help stay home, and it turns down objectives and recon, search and destroy or ambush orders from players. Switch it to Invasion or Occupation from the C2ISTAR tablet and the vehicles it parked are free to move again.

More: AI Commander: Control Type, C2ISTAR: Player OPCOM Stance Control

Can I hold the AI Commander until we're ready to start?

Yes. On the Military AI Commander, set Hold Until Go to Yes. The commander and its Air Tasking Order then order nothing until an admin picks Start the war. It's in the C2ISTAR menu while a commander is holding, whatever the Commander's Picture setting, and also on the tablet's Commander's Picture (the Commander tab, with no objective picked) when that setting is Read only or Read and orders. Only an admin, the host or the player in singleplayer gets either. One Go starts every commander that's holding, and each radios its side that the war has started; the menu entry then goes. A server script can do the same with [nil,"go","name"] call ALiVE_fnc_OPCOM. A game loaded from a save doesn't hold again.

You can also pause it. Put ["ALiVE_mil_OPCOM"] call ALiVE_fnc_pauseModule; in the AI Commander module's init field: it waits for the commander to finish starting, up to 10 minutes, then pauses it. Resume it with ["ALiVE_mil_OPCOM"] call ALiVE_fnc_unPauseModule; from the debug console, a trigger or a script, or with Resume on the tablet. The name is the module's class, so the line pauses every AI Commander in the mission. Unpausing doesn't lift Hold Until Go: only Start the war does.

While it's paused the commander gives no new orders and doesn't act on finished ones; groups already out carry on with what they were doing. Its objectives keep the state they had, so one it held still counts as held. It builds no Prepared Defences while paused, and the clock that times how long it has held each objective moves on by the length of the pause, so paused time doesn't count as time held. Changing its stance doesn't unpause it.

More: Pause and resume ALiVE modules, Military AI Commander, Hold Until Go, Operations tablet, Player Command/Control (C2ISTAR)

Why don't my insurgents spawn at the start like other commanders' units do?

An Asymmetric commander doesn't raise an army when the mission starts. At the start you only get what its synced placement modules place (with Place units set to Place Units), plus any installations seeded by the commander's Installations setting, which is Unused by default. Everything after that is recruited from civilians at recruitment HQs.

An HQ only goes up in a settlement that already leans the insurgents' way, and a fresh settlement doesn't. Earlier insurgent activity there (an IED factory, IEDs, sabotage, an ambush) tips it, and every one of those needs a group of the commander's own to carry it out. With no placed units and no seeded HQs, it stays empty.

Once an HQ is up, its first recruitment attempt comes at least Recruit cycle min after it's set up (30 minutes by default). Recruit success chance is 50% by default, and each attempt gets that unless players have been winning the town over with Hearts and Minds tasks, which lowers it. So a new group usually shows up within an HQ's first two attempts, between 30 minutes and two hours after it goes up.

If nothing appears at all, check that the placement module's faction matches the commander's and that Place units isn't set to Objectives Only.

More: Hunt the recruiters: NATO against FIA preset, Insurgency: FIA against NATO preset, Control Type, Installations, Recruit cycle min (mins), Recruit success chance (%), Place units, Asym Installation Overrides

Does an insurgency commander need Military Logistics?

No. Recruitment HQs, weapons depots, IED factories, roadblocks, IEDs and sabotage all work without it. An Asymmetric commander grows by recruiting and never asks Military Logistics for reinforcements, so its Reinforcements and Reinforcements, exact (%) settings have no effect.

More: Insurgency: FIA against NATO preset, Reinforcements, Military Logistics

For an insurgency to work, does the players' side need an AI Commander too?

No. An insurgent AI Commander (Control Type Asymmetric) works on its own, with no commander on the other side and even with no players. What it needs is objectives to work from and Civilian Population's ambient civilians round them.

Its fighters come from the insurgent faction's own groups, not from civilians changing sides. The civilians decide where it can work: it only sets up a recruitment HQ where at least Min. recruitment size civilians are about (2 by default), and sabotage needs civilians nearby.

More: What an insurgency needs, Why insurgents appear slowly, Min. recruitment size

How do I balance an insurgency so it neither gets overrun nor dies out in a long campaign?

An insurgency only grows through its recruitment HQs, and each HQ recruits from the civilians around it, so the mission needs Civilian Placement and Civilian Population modules. After that, these are the settings that matter:

• Recruit attempt limit: how many tries each HQ gets. 0 (the default) means one try per civilian attached to the HQ, so every HQ eventually runs dry. -1 means it keeps recruiting for as long as the HQ stands.
• Recruit success chance (%): the chance that each try produces a group (50 by default). Hearts and Minds work lowers it and lengthens the wait in the towns players win over: through the support they earn with tasks, and with the civic model on through the town's civic phase as well. Civic recruitment multiplier scales that, and 0 turns it off, apart from the civic phase.
• Recruit cycle min / max (mins): the wait between tries (30 to 60). With a limited number of attempts, a shorter wait only spends them sooner. It doesn't give you more insurgents overall.
• Installations, or Asym Installation Overrides on Military Placement (Civ. Obj.): how many HQs and other installations exist at the start. More starting HQs means faster early growth. For example, [["HQ",3],["depot",1]] puts three HQs on three different objectives from that module, plus one depot. An objective never gets two of the same kind, so a module with two objectives gets two HQs at most. Installations adds nothing on top for that module's objectives.
• Recruiters, with Recruiter Boost: a recruiter stands in each HQ while players are near, and while he's alive Recruiter Boost makes that town recruit faster and with a better chance (None by default; Some is a quarter, More a half, Double twice). Killing or capturing him costs the town Recruitments Skipped attempts (1 by default), so it gives players a way to slow the insurgency town by town.
• Asymmetric force cap: recruiting stops once the insurgency has this many groups and vehicles in play (-1 for no cap).
• Friendly AI disables installations: on Proximity (the default), any friendly AI group within 150 m of an HQ takes it down and ends recruitment there. Objective Capture or Off protects HQs from roaming patrols.

To stop the occupier overwhelming it, keep the occupier's starting force small and make it grow into the map. Give its Military Placement module a TAOR around the starting area, and sync a second one covering the rest of the map with Place units set to Objectives Only. Use Override Infantry and the other override fields for exact group counts rather than leaving it to Force Size.

More: Insurgency: FIA against NATO preset, Recruit attempt limit, Recruit success chance (%), Civic recruitment multiplier, Recruit cycle min (mins), Installations, Recruiters, Recruiter Boost, Recruitments Skipped, Asym Installation Overrides, Asymmetric force cap, Friendly AI disables installations, TAOR Marker, Place units, Override Infantry

Why don't my insurgents recruit AA vehicles or APCs?

With Escalation intensity on, an Asymmetric commander recruits AA and wheeled APC groups as the escalation rises. Set Recruit only what placements place to Yes on the AI Commander (it's No by default) and the placement modules synced to it decide instead:

• AA groups, ones with a vehicle firing lock-on missiles at aircraft like the Igla Hilux, are left out when every synced placement places no AA: Spawn AA Units at 0, which is Military Placement's default
• Wheeled APC groups, such as the BTR, BRDM and Marid, are left out when every synced placement has Override Armour or Override Mechanised at 0
• On Custom Military Objective, 0 or blank both count as none, and its default is 0. On Military Placement a blank means it works the number out, so only a typed 0 counts
• Guns that can also hit aircraft, like the ZU-23, don't count as AA, so those groups stay

So if your insurgents get no AA or APCs with that setting on, set Spawn AA Units, or Override Armour and Override Mechanised, above 0 on at least one placement module synced to the commander, or set it back to No. The RPT names each group left out and why, in lines starting ALiVE OPCOM asymmetric recruits. Tanks, planes, helicopters and boats stay out unless you take them off Excluded force kinds.

More: AI Commander: Recruit only what placements place, Military Placement: Spawn AA Units, Military Placement: Override Armour, Military Placement: Override Mechanised, Choosing a control type

Why did an insurgent installation vanish by itself, and will I be told when friendly troops remove one?

Friendly AI took it down. The Military AI Commander's Friendly AI disables installations setting is on Proximity by default. The commander checks every 30 seconds, and if a friendly AI unit is within 150 m of an insurgent IED factory, recruitment HQ or weapons depot, that installation is dismantled with no interaction needed. Roadblocks and IEDs aren't affected.

• Off: only players can dismantle installations, using the hold action.
• Proximity: friendly AI within 150 m dismantles them (the default).
• Objective Capture: they're dismantled while a friendly AI commander is defending an objective of its own within 200 m, which happens when its troops and enemy troops are both there. An objective it has simply taken and holds doesn't count.
• Both: whichever happens first.

Groups with a player in them don't trigger Proximity. That covers players and their AI squadmates, who have to use the hold action instead. Whenever an installation is dismantled, a subtitle naming the unit and the grid is shown to that unit's side. There's no setting to switch that message off. With Drug Labs on, the commander's IED factories are drug labs, and they're dismantled the same way.

More: Insurgency: FIA against NATO preset, Friendly AI disables installations, Drug Labs

Can an insurgency commander use custom objectives, and why won't it spread beyond its TAOR?

Yes. An Asymmetric commander uses objectives from Military Placement (Cust. Civ. Obj.) along with its civilian objectives, and from Military Placement (Cust. Obj.) along with its military ones. Older development builds dropped them, so if an insurgency synced only to custom objectives reports 0 objectives in the RPT, update ALiVE.

It needs civilians too. A recruitment HQ only forms where there's an indexed settlement with at least Min. recruitment size civilians, so on a map with no ALiVE index an insurgency has nothing to recruit from.

It won't spread past the TAOR because it only works the objectives it's been given, and the TAOR on its placement modules is where those stop. Widen that TAOR, or sync a second Military Placement (Civ. Obj.) that covers the rest of the map with Place units set to Objectives Only.

More: TAOR Marker, Place units, Min. recruitment size, Custom Civilian Objective, Terrain Compatibility

What can I type in Asym Installation Overrides, and where do suicide bombers go?

Asym Installation Overrides on Military Placement (Civ. Obj.) sets how many of each installation an Asymmetric commander starts with on that module's objectives. It takes [installation,count] pairs, for example [["HQ",1],["factory",2],["ied",3]].

• The installations it takes are HQ, depot, factory, IED and roadblocks. Anything else is skipped
• Suicide bombers aren't an installation. They're on the AI Commander's Installation Types setting: untick them there and the commander never uses them
• If a bracket is out of place, the whole box is ignored and the RPT names it; it used to show an error on screen

More: Military Placement (Civ. Obj.): Asym Installation Overrides, AI Commander: Installation Types

How do I cut down the number of civilians, and why do crowds outnumber normal civilians?

Normal civilians and crowds are capped separately, so with crowds switched on a town can have more crowd civilians than normal ones. On the Civilian Population module:

• Active Limiter (count): the most normal civilians spawned at once (30 by default).
• Spawn Radius (m): how close players have to be before civilians spawn (1500 by default). A smaller radius keeps civilians to the area right around players.
• Crowd Spawn Radius (m), Crowd Civs per House (count) and Crowd Limit (count): these control crowds, which are off until Crowd Spawn Radius is set above 0 and have their own cap of 50. Set Crowd Spawn Radius back to 0 to turn crowds off.

On the Civilian Placement module, Placement Level sets how many civilians each settlement gets. Low (0.5x) is the default and the smallest option.

More: Active Limiter (count), Spawn Radius (m), Crowd Spawn Radius (m), Crowd Limit (count), Placement Level

Why don't civilians appear at my custom civilian objective?

A custom civilian objective is somewhere for AI commanders to fight over, not somewhere civilians live. Civilians normally only spawn in the settlements from the map's ALiVE index.

To populate it as well, set Include Custom Civ Objectives to Yes on the Civilian Placement module. Civilians then spawn there as long as there are civilian buildings inside the objective's radius. The setting shows up on modules already in your mission, so you don't need to place them again.

More: Include Custom Civ Objectives, Custom Civilian Objective

Why did a civilian join my group?

That's intended. Detaining a civilian puts them in your group so they come with you, and so does giving them the Follow order. To let a detained civilian go, use Release (on a detained civilian the Detain button changes to Release) and they go back to being an ordinary civilian. To send one who's following you back to his house, tell him Go home; he leaves your group and walks there.

With ACE loaded, you need a cable tie in your inventory to detain someone.

More: Enable Interaction

Can civilians lie about where the insurgents are?

Yes, on purpose. Ask a civilian to Gather Intel and one of four things happens:

• They refuse. Only civilians with hostility above 50 do this, and the more hostile they are, the likelier it is. In the dialog, a civilian at 60 or more has the Gather Intel button greyed out with the note that they refuse to cooperate.
• They've nothing useful to share. How often they do know something is set by Gather Intel Chance (%) on the Civilian Population module, which is 30% by default.
• They lie and mark 2 to 4 fake installations. This can happen from hostility 25 upwards, rising to about a 45% chance at full hostility.
• They tell the truth and mark the insurgents' objectives and installations within 2 km.

Fake markers use the same red circle and dot as a real reveal and lead to empty ground. They aren't ambushes. A decoy is drawn just like a real reveal, labelled MIL or CIV and often with an installation icon (Recruitment HQ, Weapons depot, IED factory), so you can only tell by going to look. You can only ask each civilian once. If Civilian Interaction UI is set to Classic scroll-wheel, only about one civilian in ten offers Gather Intel, but those civilians always tell the truth. Civilian interaction needs Enable Interaction set to Yes.

With Tablet Intel Log set to Yes on the C2ISTAR module (it's off by default), whatever a civilian marks is also kept in the tablet's Intel Log after the marker fades. A decoy is logged just like a real reveal.

More: Hearts and minds: NATO wins over the towns preset, Gather Intel Chance (%), Civilian Interaction UI, Enable Interaction, Tablet Intel Log

How is asking a civilian questions different from Gather Intel?

Both draw on the same picture of the insurgents, but they work quite differently:

• Each question gives you one thing: one IED, the nearest insurgent group, one hideout, a suspicious neighbour or the civilian's home. It's usually a small marker, often only an area, and it fades after 30 to 75 seconds.
• You can keep asking, but each question can annoy the civilian. At hostility 60 they refuse to cooperate.
• What they tell you about insurgent groups and hideouts also reaches your side's AI Commander as a sighting.
• Gather Intel is one try per civilian. When it works, it opens the map and marks every insurgent installation, IED area and roadblock within 2 km in one go.
• Its odds come from Gather Intel Chance (%) on the Civilian Population module (30% by default), and a failed try still uses it up. Asking for it never angers them.

Hostile civilians can lie either way. A question can give you a false position, and Gather Intel can mark 2 to 4 fake installations (see Can civilians lie about where the insurgents are?).

More: Gather Intel Chance (%), Can civilians lie about where the insurgents are?

Can a civilian tell me where the town elder lives?

Yes, once Civilian Roles on the Ambient Civilian Population module is Western or Eastern (None by default). The question list in the talk window gains one more: Where can I find the town elder? with Eastern roles, or the mayor with Western ones. The scroll menu and the ACE menu on a civilian offer it too.

A willing civilian names the nearest one in the town and marks the house on your map, with the person's name and role. From the talk window the marker lasts 30 to 75 seconds; from the menus it lasts 60. A friendly civilian does this most of the time, and now and then just refuses.

If nobody in the town holds the role, the civilian says so. The answer may name a priest, muezzin or politician instead when the town has one of those and no elder or mayor. Only about half the civilians get a role, so a town may have none.

A hostile civilian mostly refuses, and one who does answer may mark the wrong house, as with the other questions. The scroll and ACE menu entries are hidden from a civilian whose hostility is 60 or more.

More: Civilian Population: Civilian Roles, Civilian Population: Enable Interaction, Why can't I talk to civilians?, Can civilians lie about where the insurgents are?

How can I see how hostile a town is during a mission?

Nothing shows the exact figures on screen, but there are a few ways to read it. Every town keeps a hostility value for each side (WEST, EAST and GUER), not for each faction, and these show it in different ways:

• Hostility Indicator on the Civilian Population module (Off by default) shows how hostile the civilian you're talking to is, in their interaction window. It's approximate: the highest of their own hostility, the threat their town is under and the module's Hostility setting for your side, plus a small offset
• COP Layer: Civilian Sentiment Heat on C2ISTAR shades towns green or orange on the map for your side. It needs an Asymmetric AI Commander, and towns in between aren't shaded
• Debug on an Asymmetric AI Commander labels each of its objectives with a Hostility figure. That figure also counts the troops and installations nearby, so it isn't the town's value alone
• With Debug on the Civilian Population module, the RPT gets each civilian's own and town hostility whenever someone talks to them

For the exact figures, run this in the debug console in single player or as host. It lists every town with its grid reference and its hostility towards WEST, EAST and GUER. On a dedicated server, run it with Server Exec and swap systemChat for diag_log, so the lines land in the server's RPT:

private _cl = [ALIVE_clusterHandler,"getClusters"] call ALIVE_fnc_clusterHandler; {private _c=[_cl,_x] call ALIVE_fnc_hashGet; private _h=[_c,"hostility"] call ALIVE_fnc_hashGet; systemChat format ["%1 %2 W:%3 E:%4 G:%5", _x, mapGridPosition ([_c,"center"] call ALIVE_fnc_hashGet), [_h,"WEST",0] call ALIVE_fnc_hashGet, [_h,"EAST",0] call ALIVE_fnc_hashGet, [_h,"GUER",0] call ALIVE_fnc_hashGet]} forEach (_cl select 1);

To change a town's hostility from a script, see ALIVE_fnc_updateSectorHostility on the Scripting Overview page.

More: Civilian Population: Hostility Indicator, C2ISTAR: COP Layer: Civilian Sentiment Heat, AI Commander: Debug, Is the Hostility setting a starting value or the lowest it can ever get?, Scripting Overview: Towns, roadblocks and IEDs

Can I use IEDs from another mod with ALiVE, and who can set them off?

Yes. There are two ways, both on the Military IED Threat module:

• Integration: ALiVE recognises several IED and mine mods (RHS, CUP, ACE Explosives, SOG Prairie Fire, Spearhead 1944, Global Mobilization, CSLA, Western Sahara and IEDD Notebook). It uses their objects and, for some of them, leaves the arming to the mod's own mine system. Auto uses ACE Explosives' IED objects when ACE is loaded and ALiVE's own otherwise, so pick a Defer to entry for any other mod. Force ALiVE handling keeps ALiVE's own IEDs. Only mods loaded when you open the editor are listed. Defer to: IEDD Notebook (it needs CBA and ACE as well) makes ALiVE place IEDD's own IEDs in its IED towns and leave the rest to IEDD: they wire themselves, go off when a player walks within 10 to 15 m, and are defused with the IEDD notebook, so ALiVE's Disarm IED doesn't apply to them.
• Road IED - Additional Classes and Urban IED - Additional Classes: add object class names from any mod, separated by commas with no spaces. ALiVE places these objects, sets them off and lets engineers disarm them, even when Integration has handed a mod's own mines to that mod or the game, as long as what you add isn't a mine itself. Only the SOG punji choice leaves them to hurt on contact.

Mods that aren't in the Integration list can't take over ALiVE's IEDs. Their objects can only be used through the class lists.

By default only players set IEDs off. Turn on AI Units Trigger IEDs if you want AI on the players' side, or a side friendly to it, to set them off too; civilians and the players' enemies never do. Only engineers see Disarm IED: that means anyone carrying the IED Detector Class item, explosives specialists, and ACE engineers or EOD. The vanilla engineer trait on its own doesn't count. With Engineer Challenge on Yes (the default), an engineer who approaches carelessly can still set one off. On No, engineers are immune.

More: Integration, Road IED - Additional Classes, Urban IED - Additional Classes, AI Units Trigger IEDs, IED Detector Class, Engineer Challenge

How does Asym Installation Overrides work, and why did it place fewer than I asked for?

It's on Military Placement (Civ. Obj.) and sets how many of each installation an Asymmetric commander starts with on that module's objectives. Type a list of type and count pairs, like [["HQ",2],["factory",1],["ied",3]].

• Types: HQ, depot, factory, ied and roadblocks. recruit and recruitment_hq also mean HQ, and ied_factory means factory. Case doesn't matter.
• The counts are for the whole module, not per objective, and each objective takes at most one of each type. So the real limit is how many objectives the module has.
• ied needs the IED module in the mission. It marks the objective as an IED area run by that module, with bombs laid to the area's size and a car bomb too. Without the IED module the ied entry does nothing.
• A bracket out of place makes the whole box do nothing, and the RPT quotes the text so you can find it. A pair with an unknown type, or a count in quotes, is skipped on its own with no warning. With the commander's Enable Debug on, the RPT says when fewer were placed than asked for.
• A type left unticked in Installation Types on the Military AI Commander isn't set up at all, whatever count you give it here. All types are ticked by default.

More: Hunt the recruiters: NATO against FIA preset, Insurgency: FIA against NATO preset, Military Placement (Civ. Obj.): Asym Installation Overrides, Military AI Commander: Installations

How do I actually give a civilian food or water, and do ACE rations work?

1. Walk up to the civilian and use Talk to Civilian (with ACE, the Talk action on the civilian).
2. Press Give Ration or Give Water. You need a suitable item on you.

ACE water and MREs, including the ACE humanitarian ration, are recognised already, along with ALiVE's own water bottle and ration and several other mods. For anything else, tick it in Humanitarian Items on the Civilian Population module or type its classname in the Override field. Humanitarian Aid Limit (count) caps how many times one civilian will take aid. Aid still works on a Defiant civilian, but not a Hostile one, and what it takes off wears off as their hostility drifts back to 30.

To win over a whole town at once, hand over a box holding at least 10 of those food and water items instead (Aid Crates, Yes by default). Use the action on the box, or Hand Over Aid in the talk window when the box is within 15 m of the civilian. The town's centre has to be within 200 m, and each town can take one crate every 30 minutes by default (Aid Crate Cooldown (s)).

More: Hearts and minds: NATO wins over the towns preset, Civilian Population: Humanitarian Items, Civilian Population: Humanitarian Aid Limit (count), Aid Crates, Aid Crate Cooldown (s)

Should I run ALiVE's Advanced Civilians together with RCiv?

No, pick one. Enable Advanced Civilians on the Civilian Population module makes ALiVE's own civilians react to gunfire and explosions, flee and hide, which is the same job. Running both means two systems giving the same civilians orders.

More: Civilian Population: Enable Advanced Civilians, Advanced Civilians

With IED debug on I only see area circles. Where are the actual IEDs?

IEDs only exist while someone is near. Each area has a trigger 250 m wider than the area itself: the bombs are created when someone who can set them off enters it, and removed again when they leave. At the start you only see the area circles.

To see them, go into an area, on foot or by Zeus. A bomb won't appear within 75 m of a player, so they turn up a little ahead of you.

More: IED: Enable debug

Why doesn't an IED go off when I walk over it?

Usually it isn't armed yet, or ALiVE is treating you as a bomb disposal specialist. Check these:

• It needs time to arm. After an IED appears it waits 15 seconds, then up to another 60 seconds for players to move out of its blast zone, before it's live.
• Players always set IEDs off, on foot or in a vehicle. AI only do so if AI Units Trigger IEDs is Yes (it's No by default), and then only AI on a player's side or a side friendly to it; civilians and the players' enemies never do.
• You count as a specialist if you're on foot and carry the item named in IED Detector Class (a Mine Detector by default), or your unit is an explosives specialist (vanilla or ACE), EOD, or an ACE engineer. The vanilla engineer trait on its own doesn't count. A specialist doesn't set one off just by walking near it: with Engineer Challenge on Yes (the default) the risk builds up the closer, faster and more upright you are, and with it on No specialists are completely immune.
• Everyone else sets it off as soon as they come within its trigger distance, which each IED picks at random between 2 and 11 m.
• With Integration on Auto, ALiVE's rules decide when an IED goes off, even with ACE loaded. A mod picked with Defer to may change that; Force ALiVE handling always uses ALiVE's rules. With Defer to: IEDD Notebook, IEDD's own rules decide instead: its IEDs go off when a player walks within 10 to 15 m.

To test, use a plain rifleman with no mine detector, walk into the area, wait about a minute and a half, then walk through. With Enable debug on the module, the RPT logs each IED as it arms. Only specialists get the Disarm IED action.

More: Ground convoy: transport, escort and recruits preset, Military IED Threat: AI Units Trigger IEDs, Military IED Threat: IED Detector Class, Military IED Threat: Engineer Challenge, Military IED Threat: Integration, Military IED Threat: Enable debug, Q&A: Where are the actual IEDs?, Q&A: Using IEDs from another mod

Why can't I talk to civilians, or why are most of the interaction buttons greyed out?

If there's no option to interact at all, set Enable Interaction to Yes on the Civilian Population module; it's off by default. If you've filled in Limit Interaction, only the classnames or player UIDs listed there can interact. Talk to Civilian only shows when you're within a few metres of the civilian and looking straight at him, so a wall or a closed door between you hides it.

Greyed-out buttons with the tooltip Civilian refuses cooperation mean the civilian is too hostile towards your side. Hostility runs from 0 to 100:

• Below 60: every button works.
• 60 to 79 (Defiant): only Calm Down, Detain, Give Ration and Give Water work.
• 80 and above (Hostile): only Search and Detain work.

Go Away and Close always work. Go Home does too, unless Advanced Civilians is on and doesn't run that civilian (a town elder, a priest or one placed by Zeus, say): then Go Home, Follow, Stay, Hands Up, Kneel and Get In are greyed out, with the tooltip This civilian doesn't take orders. One who's in your group after Follow or Detain keeps these orders, as long as Advanced Civilians had run him before. The hostility used is the civilian's own. Civilians from the Civilian Placement module start at the highest of BLUFOR Hostility, OPFOR Hostility and Independent Hostility when that's above 30, and every civilian settles back towards 30 over time. If your side's Hostility Floor is set (it's None by default), a civilian never reads lower than it for your side. Each ration or water you hand over has a chance, set by Humanitarian Hostility Decrease (%) (20% by default), of lowering the civilian's hostility by 7, so a handout isn't guaranteed to work. A civilian takes no more items than the Humanitarian Aid Limit allows, whether or not each one worked. Set Hostility Indicator to Descriptive or Numeric if players should see roughly where a civilian stands.

More: Hearts and minds: NATO wins over the towns preset, Civilian Population: Enable Interaction, Civilian Population: Limit Interaction, Civilian Population: BLUFOR Hostility, Civilian Population: BLUFOR Hostility Floor, Civilian Population: Humanitarian Hostility Decrease (%), Civilian Population: Humanitarian Aid Limit (count), Civilian Population: Hostility Indicator, Q&A: Is the Hostility setting a starting value or a floor?, Q&A: How do I give a civilian food or water?

The junk around IEDs looks modern. How do I get clutter that fits a Vietnam or WW2 mission?

There are no era presets, but for SOG or Spearhead you may not need to edit anything. Set Integration on the Military IED Threat module to one of its Defer to: SOG Prairie Fire or Defer to: SPE choices and it puts Vietnam or Normandy clutter around the IEDs, as long as you haven't typed your own list into Clutter Object Classes. Each of those choices also brings that mod's own IEDs. Left on Auto, Integration doesn't do this, even with those mods loaded. For another era, or to choose the props yourself, edit the class lists on the module. Untouched, it uses the shipped modern junk: garbage containers, bags, tyres, pallets and a trash barrel.

• Clutter Object Classes is the harmless junk scattered around IEDs to hide them. Keep the era-neutral ones from the shipped list, Land_Basket_F,Land_Sack_F,Land_Sacks_goods_F,Land_Sacks_heap_F, and add your era mod's own props.
• Urban IED Classes carries the same modern junk, because an IED in a town can be one of those objects. Take them out of that list too.
• Anything in Clutter - Additional Classes is always added on top, whatever the main list ends up as.

Separate the classnames with commas, with no spaces or quotes.

More: Military IED Threat: Clutter Object Classes, Military IED Threat: Urban IED Classes, Military IED Threat: Clutter - Additional Classes, Q&A: Can I use IEDs from another mod with ALiVE, and who can set them off?

Will blowing up houses turn a town against us?

Yes. When a side destroys a building people live in, that town's civilians grow more hostile to it, by half what killing one of them does. Walls, sheds and anything outside a settlement don't count.

More: Civilian Population

What's a trigger man on an IED?

With Trigger Man Chance (%) set in the IED module's IED THREAT section, some IEDs get a civilian watching them. While he's free he sets the IED off himself when anyone comes near, so a careful approach won't save an engineer.

He takes a ground-floor spot in a house 40 to 150 m from the IED with a clear view of it through a door or window, so he's in among the civilians rather than alone in a field. Only when no nearby house can see the IED does he stand outside, 60 to 150 m away with a clear line of sight. He's dressed like the civilians of the area and carries a Wallet (ID): take it from his body, or from him once he's detained, and you're told he was the trigger man for that IED.

Kill him, detain him or make him surrender and the IED no longer goes off when approached; disarm it as usual. Anyone can detain him with the Detain hold action from within 3 m, with or without ACE. With a C2ISTAR module in the mission he becomes a prisoner like a surrendered soldier, and questioning him asks about the insurgents nearby. It applies to ALiVE's own IEDs only.

More: IED: Trigger Man Chance (%), Q&A: What can I do with a prisoner?

Where's the IED module's ambush chance? I can't find it

It's Ambush Chance After a Blast (%), in the IED module's IED THREAT section, after the detection settings and Trigger Man Chance (%). The module's settings are folded into sections, so open that one to see it. It's a box you type a percentage into, from 0 to 100, and it's 0 (off) until you change it.

It came in with the 16 October 2026 dev build, so an older build doesn't have it. When it fires, a squad from the nearest hostile force turns up 150 to 300 m away out of sight after an IED goes off near players, attacks, then pulls back after a few minutes or once half of it is down. It needs the profile system and a hostile force within 3 km.

More: IED: Ambush Chance After a Blast (%)

Does every Recruitment HQ have a recruiter, or only the ones with a task?

Only when the AI Commander's Recruiters setting is Yes (it's No by default). Then every Recruitment HQ has a recruiter standing in it while players are within 800 m, with Recruiter Guards beside him (2 by default). Each time he's killed the town loses recruitment attempts (Recruitments Skipped, 1 by default), and a new recruiter turns up after one Recruit cycle max.

With a C2ISTAR module in the mission, a recruiter whose guards are down and who has a hostile player within 25 m gives himself up instead. That costs the town the same as killing him, and questioned he always talks, naming his own Recruitment HQ wherever it is.

Recruiter Boost makes a town with a living recruiter recruit faster and with a better chance (None by default). Recruiter Walks The Town sends him and his guards round the buildings within 150 m of the HQ, so you can catch him away from it.

Recruiter Runs When Pressured (No by default) lets him run for it when players press him, instead of staying put whatever happens. See the question on whether a recruiter runs away.

He carries a Wallet (ID) naming the town he recruits for, so you can find out who you've got by taking it from his body, or from him as a prisoner.

Recruiter HVT Task Chance (%) is separate: it's the chance a new Recruitment HQ also raises a task to kill its recruiter. With Recruiters off, only those tasks have one, and killing him doesn't slow the town's recruiting.

More: AI Commander: Recruiters, AI Commander: Recruiter Guards, AI Commander: Recruitments Skipped, AI Commander: Recruiter Boost, AI Commander: Recruiter Walks The Town, AI Commander: Recruiter HVT Task Chance (%), Recruiter Runs When Pressured, Does a recruiter run away?

Can a recruiter HVT task fail?

Not in current builds. Since 20 October 2026 the recruiter waits at his Recruitment HQ and the task stays open until he's killed. Older builds sometimes had him driven in or taken away, and a task where he was taken away failed if he got more than 2 km from every player. Recruiter Runs When Pressured, which is off by default, can still send him running out of town; see the question on whether a recruiter runs away.

The task has no marker at first, so finding the HQ doesn't find him. Once your side has spotted him, or one of you is within 200 m of him, the task points at him and follows him as he moves.

A side has one recruiter task at a time, and one nobody goes after stops holding up the next one after an hour.

Killing him only slows that town's recruiting when the AI Commander's Recruiters setting is Yes: then the task's success costs the town Recruitments Skipped attempts, as killing any recruiter does. Otherwise dismantling the Recruitment HQ is what stops that town recruiting.

More: Hunt the recruiters: NATO against FIA preset, AI Commander: Recruiter HVT Task Chance (%), AI Commander: Recruiters, Does a recruiter run away?

Does a recruiter run away, and what does it cost if I let him go?

By default he runs in one case only: his Recruitment HQ is knocked out while a player is within 400 m. He heads about 800 m away from the nearest player and is gone once no player is within 1 km of him, or after 5 minutes. His guards stay and fight, and go once no player is near.

Recruiter Runs When Pressured (No by default) adds a second case, while the HQ still stands. With it on, he runs when a hostile player within 150 m kills one of his guards or fires near him, or stays within 60 m of him for half a minute. If a player is already within 30 m he's cornered and stays, so with his guards down he can still give himself up. His guards stay and fight, and the next recruiter takes them over after the usual pause.

Letting him get away costs nothing extra. When the HQ went down, that already ended that town's recruiting for good. When he ran from pressure, the HQ keeps recruiting, but without his Recruiter Boost until a new recruiter turns up. Killing him on the run counts as usual.

While the HQ still stands (with the AI Commander's Recruiters setting on):

• Left alive, he keeps the town's Recruiter Boost going, so it recruits faster and with a better chance.
• Killed, or cornered into giving himself up, he costs the town Recruitments Skipped attempts, and the boost stops until a new recruiter turns up.

A recruiter HVT task never becomes a manhunt: HVT Manhunt Chance (%) on C2ISTAR leaves recruiters out, since he's already hidden until found and stays at his HQ.

More: AI Commander: Recruiters, AI Commander: Recruiter Boost, AI Commander: Recruitments Skipped, C2ISTAR: HVT Manhunt Chance (%), Recruiter Runs When Pressured

Do civilians tell me where a recruiter is?

Yes, indirectly. Ask a civilian Do you know the location of any insurgent hideouts? in a town where the insurgents have a Recruitment HQ with its recruiter in it. They name that HQ 2 times in 3, add whether he's inside or out on the streets with his guards, and put a Recruiter marker where he is.

It only works while the recruiter is alive and not a prisoner, so you need Recruiters set to Yes on the AI Commander, and he is only there while players are within 800 m of the HQ. Otherwise they talk about the hideouts as usual.

The marker works like the other hideout answers: it can be an exact spot or a rough area, it fades after 30 to 75 seconds, and a hostile civilian may point you to the wrong place.

More: AI Commander: Recruiters, Does every Recruitment HQ have a recruiter?, Civilian questions or Gather Intel?, Can civilians lie about where the insurgents are?

Why are there no suicide bombers in my insurgency?

Older builds had a fault: with the IED module synced to an AI Commander, no bombers or car bombs ever turned up, whatever Suicide Bomber Threat said. It is fixed in dev builds from 17 October 2026 on, so update first.

Then check three things:

• The Military IED Threat module is synced to an Asymmetric AI Commander.
• Suicide Bomber Threat is above None (and Vehicle Borne IED Threat if you want car bombs).
• Insurgents Send Bombers is Yes, which is the default.

An insurgent group that has spotted a player 150 to 800 m away may then send a bomber at him, or half the time a car bomb driven at him. Each player gets one at a time. Once one is sent, none comes for Bomber Wait (minutes) (10 by default), at him or at any player within Bomber Wait Shared Within (m) (150 by default), so players close together draw one bomber between them, not one each. A car bomb starts at least Car Bomb Start Distance (m) (300 by default) from every player. A player on the insurgents' side, or on a side friendly to it, is never a bomber's target, so test as their enemy.

More: Hunt the recruiters: NATO against FIA preset, IED: Suicide Bomber Threat, IED: Insurgents Send Bombers, IED: Vehicle Borne IED Threat

Do I sync the IED module to the AI Commander or leave it unsynced?

Either works. Syncing changes only what the module places at the start:

• Synced to an AI Commander (any kind, not just an insurgency), the towns get the Starting IED Threat: IEDs that are already there when the mission begins.
• Unsynced, they get the normal IED Threat, and the Starting IED Threat is ignored.
• Suicide bombers and car bombs are placed either way.

An insurgency commander's own IEDs and its ambushes only need an IED module somewhere in the mission, and so does Insurgents Send Bombers, as long as Suicide Bomber Threat is above None. The module doesn't have to be synced to that commander.

More: Hunt the recruiters: NATO against FIA preset, IED: Starting IED Threat, IED: IED Threat, IED: Insurgents Send Bombers

Is the Civilian Population module's Hostility setting a starting value or the lowest it can ever get?

A starting value, since 20 October 2026. The lowest it can get is now a separate setting, Hostility Floor. ALiVE keeps hostility in two places.

• Each town's hostility towards a side starts at the setting (Low 0, Medium 30, High 60, Extreme 130) and moves both ways during the mission: firing near civilians raises it, while disarming IEDs, finishing Hearts and Minds tasks and the like lower it. It can go below where it started. The insurgents' recruitment counts only the rise since the start.
• Face to face with one civilian (talking to them, the ACE menu, the gestures, how they react to a raised weapon, Gather Intel, vehicle stops), each civilian has their own hostility. Civilians from the Civilian Placement module start at the highest of the three Hostility settings when that's above 30, and every civilian settles back towards 30 over time, so players can win them round whatever the setting.

BLUFOR Hostility Floor, OPFOR Hostility Floor and Independent Hostility Floor (None by default) put a floor under every civilian for that side. On High (60) a civilian never deals with that side at less than 60, and at 60 a civilian refuses to cooperate when you talk to them, however much you've done for their town. Older builds used the Hostility setting itself as that floor, so a mission that relied on that needs the matching Hostility Floor set now. Missions saved before the change load with no floor.

More: Civilian Population: BLUFOR Hostility, Civilian Population: BLUFOR Hostility Floor

I'm playing the insurgents. Can civilians tell me anything?

Yes. A player on the side of one of the Civilian Population module's insurgent factions is offered "Have you seen any soldiers nearby?" instead of the question about insurgents. A civilian who answers marks the nearest group within 1100 m of any military side hostile to you.

How willing and how truthful civilians are works the same as for everyone else.

More: Civilian Population: Insurgent Faction

In Outbreak, how do I give players supply caches to find, and where do they turn up?

On the Virtual AI System, set Supply Caches to Yes; it's off by default and only works with Game Mode on Outbreak. Each cache is a crate hidden in a house, one per town at most, holding weapons and magazines of the mission's own AI Commanders' factions, first aid kits, food and water. Players open it like any ammo box.

• Number of Caches: how many are hidden at once, 1 to 50 (12 by default).
• Caches Hidden In: Fallen Towns (the default) only uses towns where fewer than a quarter of the people are left, or zombies are in town and fewer than 60% are left, so caches appear as the outbreak spreads. Any Town uses every town from the start.
• Cache Refill (minutes): after players empty a cache, it's taken away this long after (60 by default) and a new one is hidden in another town. 0 leaves it where it is.
• Cache Markers: Once Found (the default) marks a cache on the map after a player has found it; Never and Always do what they say.
• Cache Loot: leave it empty for the automatic loot, or list what every cache holds, such as FirstAidKit:2-4.

More: Supply Caches, Outbreak

How do I get C2ISTAR to give players tasks automatically?

On the Player Command/Control (C2ISTAR) module, set the players' side to Strategic or Constant. Strategic gives players a capture task on the objective a Military AI Commander rates highest among the ones it's attacking. Constant gives a steady run of tasks near the players and doesn't need a commander.

1. Place one C2ISTAR module only. A second one replaces the first one's settings.
2. Leave Automatic Player Tasks on Yes, which is the default.
3. Set Auto Task BLU, Auto Task OPF or Auto Task IND (whichever side your players are on) to Strategic or Constant. All three start at None.
4. In Auto Task Factions, set that side's friendly slot to the faction the commander runs (normally the players' own); left alone the friendly slots stay on NATO, CSAT and AAF. The enemy slot starts on The mission's enemy (its AI Commanders), the commanders hostile to that side, so change it only when tasks should fight someone else that an AI Commander in the mission fields. A pick none of them fields gives way to the hostile commanders' factions. An enemy slot can hold several factions: click each one to add it, and every task goes after one of them at random.
5. For Strategic, place a Military AI Commander for that faction and give it objectives from Military Placement modules. You don't need to sync it to C2ISTAR.

Players can also start or stop Constant or Strategic tasks for their side from the tablet. Once they do, the tablet's choice counts instead of the Eden setting.

For Strategic, the friendly slot has to be one of the commander's factions, not just a faction on the same side. If it isn't, no tasks turn up and nothing tells you why. A commander with more than one faction picks one at random each time it attacks, and every one of those attacks becomes a task. Constant only reads the enemy slot: its tasks take the players' own faction, whatever the friendly slot says.

Still nothing? Open the ALiVE menu and go to Commander Actions > OPCOM Orders (you need the access item, a laser designator by default). Opt Out of OPCOM Orders stops tasks for that group only (preparation tasks before an attack included), and Stop Automatic Tasks (all players) stops them for everyone. Request Order in the same menu gets your group a task whatever the module is set to, as long as your group isn't already holding one. If it is, the entry becomes Request Different Order and swaps the order out. Automatic orders also pass over a group that already holds a task, and come again once it ends.

More: Special operations: a small team against a held town preset, C2ISTAR: Auto Task BLU / OPF / IND, C2ISTAR: Auto Task Factions, C2ISTAR: Automatic Player Tasks, C2ISTAR: Access Item Categories, Military AI Commander

Why won't Request Order give me the same kind of job twice in a row?

It's on purpose. Each time your group asks the commander for an order, the commander remembers what kind of job it handed you and keeps that kind off the table for the next few requests. The number is Do Not Repeat An Order Type For on the Military C2ISTAR module. It's 2 by default, so your next 2 orders are a different kind of job. Raise it for more variety, or set it to 0 to let the same kind come straight back.

This is per group, and it only covers the kind of job. Places are avoided separately: a group isn't sent back to somewhere it was sent in its last few orders. Two more things can narrow the choice:

• A kind of job your side already has open is skipped while another kind is available, so two groups don't get the same hunt at once.
• Only the kinds the module allows can be offered. If that leaves nothing new, the commander gives you the best it has, repeats included, rather than nothing.

On builds before 23 October 2026, a group whose name had a hyphen in it, such as Alpha 1-1, could still be handed a kind of job its side already had open. That's fixed.

More: Military C2ISTAR: Do Not Repeat An Order Type For, Q&A: How do I get C2ISTAR to give players tasks automatically?

Can I stop tasks being aimed at enemies my side hasn't seen?

Yes. On the C2ISTAR module, turn on Tasks Only Against Known Enemy. It's off by default. A generated task against enemy vehicles, air defences, infantry, buildings or installations then only goes after something your side's AI Commander knows of. That means what its units have seen in the last 30 minutes, plus what players pass on: SPOTREPs, civilians' and prisoners' answers, and an informant's debrief. The enemy groups within 150 m of a reported place become known, and so does the place itself. A prisoner who lies feeds nothing in.

If nothing is known, another kind of task is picked. A player who asked for one on the tablet gets a message from HQ saying nothing is known yet, and to send a spot report or question prisoners and locals. Tasks placed on the map are left alone.

It needs an AI Commander on the players' side; without one, every enemy target stays fair game. The AI Commander module has a setting of the same name, which does the same for that commander's own preparation and clean-up tasks. The two are separate, so turn on whichever you want, or both.

More: C2ISTAR: Tasks Only Against Known Enemy, AI Commander: Tasks Only Against Known Enemy, Why is the AI Commander waiting before it attacks?

Can I cap how many destroy tasks are open at once?

Yes. On the C2ISTAR module, set Open Asset Tasks Cap to the most you want a side to have open at once. 0, the default, means no cap.

It counts a side's open tasks against enemy vehicles, infantry, buildings, air defences and insurgent installations, including sabotage tasks. While a side has that many open, the tasks C2ISTAR generates for it, and orders requested from the OPCOM Orders menu, are of other kinds. As soon as one closes, those kinds come back into play.

More: C2ISTAR: Open Asset Tasks Cap, How do I get C2ISTAR to give players tasks automatically?

Can I keep C2ISTAR tasks to one area of the map?

Partly. Task Pins send a task type to spots you choose and Task Blacklist keeps tasks out of areas, but there's no single "stay inside this area" setting. Where a task goes depends on how it was made:

• Task Pins placed in Eden decide where automatic tasks of their type and side go, so pins spread over one area keep those tasks there. See the next question.
• Strategic tasks go to the objective the Military AI Commander rates highest among the ones it's attacking. Set a TAOR Marker on the Military Placement (Mil. Obj.) and Military Placement (Civ. Obj.) modules that feed it, and the tasks stay inside that area.
• Constant tasks and orders from Request Order go to the nearest suitable spot to the players, so they follow the players around. Minimum Task Distance (m) pushes them further out and Maximum Task Distance (m) keeps them within a set range of the players (the next one is built round the player nearest the last), but neither can hold them in an area.
• Hearts and Minds tasks go to the closest settlement that isn't still resting after a recent task, and only settlements a Civilian Placement module has filled with civilians count, so its TAOR Marker does keep these tasks in one area. With the civic model on, a settlement under insurgent pressure can be picked over a slightly nearer quiet one.

Strategic tasks for your side come only from the commander that runs the faction picked for your side in Auto Task Factions, so it's that commander's placement modules that need the TAOR. Task AO Radius (m) only draws a circle round each task marker. It doesn't limit where tasks go.

More: Hearts and minds: NATO wins over the towns preset, Military Placement: TAOR Marker, Military Placement (Civ. Obj.): TAOR Marker, C2ISTAR: Minimum Task Distance (m), C2ISTAR: Task AO Radius (m), Task Pins: placing them in Eden, C2ISTAR: Maximum Task Distance (m)

Can I choose where a particular task appears, say Aid Delivery always in one town square?

Yes, with Task Pins. In Eden, open the marker list, find the ALiVE Task Pins group and place the pin for the task type and side you want, Aid Delivery (BLUFOR) say, on the spot. The next automatic task of that type for that side is built right there instead of round a player.

• With several pins of one type, the one nearest the player is used, skipping a pin that already has a task of that type on it, and only within Maximum Task Distance when that's set.
• The task sits on the pin itself. Minimum Task Distance doesn't push it away.
• Only automatic tasks follow pins. A task a player requests, an order from the AI Commander and the clean-up after an attack keep their own place.
• If nothing can be built at a pin (no target there, say), the task is built round the player as before, with one line in the RPT.
• The pins are hidden from players when the mission starts.
• For a Supply Convoy the pin sets where the convoy is picked up, not where it delivers. If Delivery Destination is set to a Player FOB or friendly base, that FOB or base is where it sets off instead.

To keep tasks out of places instead, list area markers in Task Blacklist on the C2ISTAR module.

More: Task Pins: placing them in Eden, C2ISTAR: Task Blacklist, C2ISTAR: Maximum Task Distance (m), C2ISTAR: Delivery Destination

How do the C2ISTAR task lists and Civic Task Weights work? Do I tick a task in both lists?

You don't have to touch either list: by default every task type, including all the Hearts and Minds ones, is already in play. A Hearts and Minds task only comes up if all three of these are true:

• It's in Override Auto-Generated Tasks. Leave that empty and you get the full stock list. Fill it in with Custom Class Mode on Replace and only the tasks you tick are used. On Append, your ticks are added to the stock list. Tablet Task List set to Only the picked task types makes the tablet's Generate Task screen offer just those ticks too.
• It's ticked in Enabled Civic Task Families. All of them are ticked by default.
• Its Civic Task Weights value is above 0.

Ticking a task in both lists doesn't double its chances. Each time a task is picked, the Hearts and Minds types are narrowed to one choice for the nearest settlement, and that choice then competes with the military tasks. The more Hearts and Minds types you allow, the more often one of them wins. Medical Outreach, Local Liaison, Informant Exfiltration and Market Reopening only appear with Enable Civic-State COIN Model on. Turn that on first, then reopen the module to see them in the lists.

Write weights as Name=Number pairs separated by commas, with no spaces. Types you leave out count as 1, decimals such as 0.5 are fine, and 0 turns a type off. Weights only affect which type is picked when the civic model is on. Even then they're combined with what the settlement needs most, so they tilt the odds rather than fix them.

AidDelivery=2,MeetLocalLeader=0.5,MarketReopening=0

More: Hearts and minds: NATO wins over the towns preset, C2ISTAR: Override Auto-Generated Tasks, C2ISTAR: Custom Class Mode, C2ISTAR: Enabled Civic Task Families, C2ISTAR: Civic Task Weights, C2ISTAR: Enable Civic-State COIN Model, C2ISTAR: Tablet Task List

How do I complete the Pick up the troops task?

It's the first half of Troop Transport Insertion. The squad walks over and boards on its own; you just have to turn up with seats.

1. Bring a vehicle with a seat for every one of them to within about 200 m of the pickup point. You can get out to secure the area, as long as the vehicle stays near the pickup and can still move. The stage completes once they're all aboard.
2. Drive or fly them to within about 300 m of the drop-off and they get out. Lose the vehicle on the way and the task fails.

• Once you're within about 800 m, orange smoke marks the pickup while the sun's up. Any time it's down or low, including dawn and dusk, you get an infrared strobe instead.
• A vehicle only counts if one of the task's players brought it there. An AI-flown helicopter works if you're riding in it, and so does a Zeus-spawned vehicle.
• If you turn up on foot or with no free seats, HQ tells you to find transport. The task waits for you; it doesn't fail.
• If your vehicle has some free seats but not enough, the radio says so once and the squad waits for a bigger ride.

More: Task Missions: Transport & rescue

Why did my Aid Delivery task fail when the van wasn't destroyed?

It was left behind for too long. Once you're driving the van to the settlement, the task fails if none of its players has been within 250 m of the van for more than five minutes. Losing the van (destroyed or deleted) fails it straight away. Enemies near the drop point don't fail it. The 250 m and five minutes are fixed and can't be changed in the editor.

1. Get in the van or within about 12 m of it.
2. Drive it to within about 60 m of the settlement.
3. Park within about 35 m of the distribution point, stand within 4 m of the van and hold Distribute Aid for ten seconds.
4. Then hold the area for the Civic Hold Time (s) set on the C2ISTAR module, 120 seconds by default. The countdown pauses while enemies are within 150 m, and the task fails if none of your side's players is within 200 m of it for 30 seconds.

The delivery can also come as a relief crate instead of a van, to carry in a vehicle that can take it or sling-load under a helicopter. Aid Crate Chance (%) on the C2ISTAR module sets how often (0 by default), and a pickup with no road nearby always gets the crate. Leaving the crate behind or losing it fails the task the same way.

With Delivery Destination set to a Player FOB or friendly base, the van starts from there (at the nearest road) instead of from open country. It still delivers to the settlement that asked for the aid.

More: Hearts and minds: NATO wins over the towns preset, Task Missions: Civil affairs, C2ISTAR: Aid Crate Chance (%), C2ISTAR: Delivery Destination

How do I complete a wiretap task?

Carry a toolkit or a wiretap kit, walk right up to the marked building or mast and hold Setup Wiretap. The prompt only appears if you're within about 3 m of the target with the item on you. The hold takes 15 to 30 seconds, longer for bigger targets. Any of these items works:

• The standard Toolkit.
• The wiretap kit or the toolkit from S.O.G. Prairie Fire.
• The Spearhead 1944 toolkit.

Toolkits from other mods don't count.

More: Special operations: a small team against a held town preset, Task Missions: Intel & insurgency

How do I make an HVT task a manhunt, where players narrow down where he is?

On the C2ISTAR module, set HVT Manhunt Chance (%) above 0. It's the share of HVT tasks that become a manhunt. At 0, the default, every HVT task works as before. A recruiter is never picked, since he waits at his Recruitment HQ.

In a manhunt the task shows a 1500 m search area instead of a target. Clues shrink it to 900 m and then 500 m, with a radio line from HQ each time. Clues come from civilians telling you about enemies nearby, intel read from his men, and what prisoners and informants say. The civilian and AI Commander modules supply most of these; without them you can still search the area.

• Three clues raise a Wiretap task on a house near his hideout. Once it's done, HQ names a place and a time window on the game clock, and he's there for about ten minutes. The window opens 15 to 25 minutes after HQ names it.
• Six clues give you the window without a wiretap, so the hunt still moves when no Wiretap can be built.
• Miss the window and he goes to ground 2 to 4 km away, half the clues are lost, and the search starts again. If you're right on him when it closes, he stays five more minutes.

More: C2ISTAR: HVT Manhunt Chance (%), How do I complete a wiretap task?, What's the high value target?

What are the kinds of Extract Informant task, and how do I choose?

Set Informant Extraction on the C2ISTAR module. Classic is the default and is the task as it always was. The others:

• Hot: enemy infantry are already in his town when the task starts.
• Timed: once one of you is within 2 km of his town, a hunter team sets out. He dies if they reach him, or if Informant Hunt Time runs out before you've secured him. Wipe the team out and the clock stops. Once he's secured they still come after him, so get him out quickly.
• Cold: no extra enemy. At the hand-over he's debriefed, the enemy round his town go on your map, and he can give you a new task, as a prisoner questioned at a prison does.
• Random: picks hot, timed or cold each time.

The task's title says which kind it is: "(hot area)", "(against the clock)" or "(debrief)". Informant Hunt Time (s) is in seconds, 900 (15 minutes) by default and never less than 120. It only matters for Timed, and it starts counting when one of you first comes within 2 km of his town.

A new task from a debrief, or from a prisoner at a prison, can be a hostage to rescue or an HVT to take out instead of a destroy task. Questioning Reveals Hostages and HVTs (%) sets the chance, 20 by default, and the popup says which you got.

Extract Informant is one of the Hearts and Minds tasks, so it only comes up with Enable Civic-State COIN Model on.

More: C2ISTAR: Informant Extraction, C2ISTAR: Informant Hunt Time (s), C2ISTAR: Questioning Reveals Hostages and HVTs (%), C2ISTAR: Enable Civic-State COIN Model, How the C2ISTAR task lists and Civic Task Weights work

What does the Stop the Saboteur task involve?

A man in a bomb vest is heading for a building in a town to blow it up, and you have to stop him first. He starts 500 to 800 m from the building and waits until a player of the task's side is within 1.5 km. Then he walks to the building, plants up to 3 charges inside, runs about 100 m clear and sets them off 10 seconds later.

• Kill him or detain him before then and the task succeeds. The charges never go off once he's stopped, even if he's already planted them.
• Detain is a hold action on him. It works alongside Advanced Civilians, which leaves him alone. ACE handcuffs count too.
• A kill or an arrest only counts once a player of the side is within 500 m of him or the building.
• The task fails if the building comes down, and is cancelled if he can't reach it within 15 minutes. Left alone, he brought a building down about 7 minutes in.

You don't have to set anything up: it's in the default list of tasks to generate. If you've replaced that list with your own, tick Stop the Saboteur in it. If the task is deleted, or the commander is given a different order, he and his charges are removed. A task loaded from a saved mission is cancelled, because the man and his charges aren't saved.

More: Task Missions: Intel & insurgency, C2ISTAR: Override Auto-Generated Tasks

What's the red and green grid on the map, and how do I turn it on?

That's T.R.A.C.E., a grid of 100 m squares over built-up areas showing where enemies might still be. Turn it on with T.R.A.C.E System on the C2ISTAR module by picking a fill pattern (Solid is the easiest to read). Set it to None to turn it off.

Every square starts red. A square turns green when a player on foot stands in it with no enemy within about 75 m of its centre. It only goes red again if an enemy comes within 75 m while one of your side's players is in the square, so a cleared square you've left stays green. Each side clears its own copy of the grid, so a square your side has turned green is still red for the other side. The grid updates every 30 seconds and covers buildings within 30 km of the module. With persistence on, cleared squares are saved and come back green for their side after a reload. On builds from before 9 October 2026 the whole grid was red again at the start of each session.

More: C2ISTAR: T.R.A.C.E System

What does syncing C2ISTAR to an AI Commander do, and why do I get kill reports where nothing's happening?

It only shares intel. The commander's reports show on the map for sides ticked in Commander Intel Sides. It never gives the commander objectives or orders.

Kill reports also come from fighting between virtual groups nobody can see, and from IEDs and suicide bombers. Intel Coverage starts at Total (100%), so every event is reported. To quieten it:

• Lower Intel Coverage.
• Set Map Intel Visibility to Same Faction.
• Or set Display Map Intel to No, which is the default.

Use a single C2ISTAR module. A second one replaces the first one's settings.

More: C2ISTAR: Commander Intel Sides, C2ISTAR: Intel Coverage, C2ISTAR: Map Intel Visibility, C2ISTAR: Display Map Intel

Do C2ISTAR tasks use up the enemy commander's troops or reinforcements?

No. Tasks that send you after enemies point at groups the commander already has. Tasks that bring their own enemies, such as CSAR, checkpoint partnership, a community event, a hot or timed Extract Informant or Stop a Saboteur, spawn fresh groups for the task and remove them afterwards. Neither takes anything from the Military Logistics reinforcement pool.

One task works the other way: finishing a Destroy Building task raises your own side's reinforcement level.

More: Ground convoy: transport, escort and recruits preset, Task Missions, Military Logistics

A hold task (checkpoint partnership, community event) never completes. Why?

After the meeting starts you hold for about 9 minutes, and it only completes when all of these are true:

• The hold time is over and every enemy wave has been sent.
• A player on the task is within 1 km in person. A Zeus camera doesn't count.
• No enemies are within 250 m.

If the task's own enemies get stuck somewhere, it clears them 10 minutes after the hold ends, as long as the area is otherwise clear.

More: Task Missions

Can enemy soldiers surrender, and what can I do with a prisoner?

Yes, when the mission maker sets AI Surrender Chance (%) on the C2ISTAR module (it's 0, off, by default). Once an enemy group has lost half its men, each survivor on foot with a player of a hostile side within 200 m has that chance to give up: he drops his weapons, puts his hands up and leaves his group. With ACE he becomes an ACE captive. An enemy you've knocked down and cuffed, or tied up, can be questioned the same way, surrender or not.

Walk up to him and use Talk to soldier (scroll wheel, or the ACE menu with ACE). The window offers the following. The first order or question takes his weapons, so he isn't brought back armed later.

• Question: once per prisoner in the field. Seven times in ten he talks, marking up to 4 enemy groups within 2 km on your map for ten minutes and revealing his side's installations nearby. A group on the move gets a mark that follows it, plus one where it's heading. With Field Questioning Lies (%) set, a prisoner may lie instead: his marks are 800 m to 2 km off the real groups and he reveals no installations.
• Restrain: ties his hands, or with ACE cuffs him, and ACE's escort then leads him.
• Follow me and Stay here: he walks with your group or waits where he is. Without ACE.
• Search: lists what he's carrying.
• Release: lets him go.

Bring him to a prison and question him there and he always talks, and never lies. A prison is any map marker placed in the editor whose name or text starts with the word prison: inside it for an area marker, within 50 m for any other. An active Player FOB within 100 m counts as a prison too, so you can bring him back to base. There he marks up to 6 groups within 3 km of where he was taken, and he can be questioned there once more even if he was already questioned in the field. Your side also gets a task from what he gave up: destroy an insurgent installation he knew of, or else the nearest group he named. Questioning Reveals Hostages and HVTs (%), 20 by default, is how often that task is a hostage rescue or an HVT at the place he named instead. That's one task per prisoner and one per side every 20 minutes, and none while automatic player tasks are switched off.

An untied prisoner nobody takes is removed once no player is within 1 km. For one who's tied up, see the next question.

More: Hunt the recruiters: NATO against FIA preset, Special operations: a small team against a held town preset, C2ISTAR: AI Surrender Chance (%), C2ISTAR: Field Questioning Lies (%), Q&A: Is a prisoner in a prison deleted when no player is near?, C2ISTAR: Questioning Reveals Hostages and HVTs (%)

Is a prisoner I've put in a prison deleted when no player is near?

Not while he's tied up at a prison. A prisoner who surrendered is checked every 30 seconds until he's gone:

• Walking in a player's group: he stays.
• Tied up or ACE-cuffed at a prison (inside a prison area marker, or within 50 m of any other prison marker): he stays however far away the players go.
• Tied up or cuffed anywhere else: he's removed once no player is within the Virtual AI System's Spawn Radius (m) (1500 m by default, and never less than 1 km).
• Not tied up: he's removed once no player is within 1 km.

So a restrained prisoner left at a prison stays there, but one left tied up where he was taken is cleared away once the players have moved on. Release him later and the 1 km rule applies again. He's taken out of the Virtual AI System the moment he surrenders, so he's never despawned into a profile either.

He isn't part of ALiVE's saved data, though, so a prisoner won't be there after a persistent mission is reloaded.

More: C2ISTAR: AI Surrender Chance (%), Q&A: What can I do with a prisoner?

Can I ask friendly AI what they've seen or where they're going?

Yes. Walk up to an AI soldier of your side who isn't in your group and use Talk to soldier. The window has three questions:

• Friendlies: marks every other friendly group within a kilometre of him on your map for two minutes. The C2ISTAR module's Ask Soldiers About Friendly Units turns this one on or off.
• Seen any?: the enemy his group knows of, marked on your map for two minutes.
• Heading?: where his group is going, as a grid and a direction, also marked.

Each soldier can be asked about friendly units once a minute, and only units that are spawned near you are known. Asking Seen any? or Heading? again replaces the marks from your last answer instead of piling up more.

More: C2ISTAR: Ask Soldiers About Friendly Units

Can friendly AI help with a task we're taking too long over?

Yes. Type a number of minutes into AI Takes Over Slow Tasks (min) on the C2ISTAR module; 0, the default, means never. When a player task is still open after that long, the nearest friendly AI group within 3 km that isn't busy is sent to search and destroy in the task area, and HQ says so on the radio.

The task stays open, so you can still finish it yourselves. The group goes back to its AI Commander when the task ends, however it ends. It never takes a group from an aircraft, a boat, a static weapon, a held garrison or a player's group.

More: C2ISTAR: AI Takes Over Slow Tasks (min)

Can I stop generated tasks appearing in or near our main base?

Yes. Place area markers over the places tasks must stay out of and type their names, separated by commas, into Task Blacklist on the C2ISTAR module. A generated task won't pick an enemy position, town or insurgent site inside any of them.

A marker name that doesn't exist is reported once in the RPT and ignored. Minimum Task Distance (m), which keeps tasks a set distance from the players, still applies on top.

More: Special operations: a small team against a held town preset, C2ISTAR: Task Blacklist

What is the hatched circle marked "sighting" on my map?

It's an intel marker from the C2ISTAR module. The hatched circle is one of an AI Commander's objectives, coloured by the side whose forces are there: blue BLUFOR, red OPFOR, green Independent.

The label says what that side is doing there: "sighting" means its forces have been seen scouting the objective, "occupied" that they hold it, "captured" that they've just taken it. A small arrow beside it shows the direction they're coming from.

Display Map Intel on the C2ISTAR module turns these on (it's No by default), Map Intel Visibility decides which players see them, and Intel Coverage sets how often enemy moves are reported.

More: C2ISTAR: Display Map Intel, C2ISTAR: Map Intel Visibility, C2ISTAR: Intel Coverage, Intelligence: recon and capture markers

How do I get an Intel Log on the tablet, so I can look back at intel after the marker has gone?

On the Player Command/Control (C2ISTAR) module, set Tablet Intel Log to Yes. It's No by default. The tablet's Intel page then has an Intel Log button. It lists the intel your side has been given, newest first, each row with its time and grid, and it's still there after the map marker has faded. Pick a row and the map goes to it.

• Installations, and ambush and IED sites, revealed by documents, civilians, prisoners and informants.
• What civilians said, and what prisoners and informants said when questioned or debriefed.
• HVT sightings and the steps of an HVT manhunt, and trigger men you've detained.
• SPOTREPs shared with the whole side.

A row shows only what the map showed. A civilian's rough answer is logged as its circle, a decoy as the decoy, and a trigger man where he was detained. Reports are only written while the setting is on, so turn it on before the mission starts.

The same installation revealed again is counted ("reported 3 times") instead of listed twice. Each side keeps up to 150 reports. Limit Intel (Side, Faction or All) decides whose reports you see. The log is saved with the tasks when the mission is saved locally.

More: C2ISTAR: Tablet Intel Log, C2ISTAR: Limit Intel

Why are SPOTREP entries titled with a time and grid, and can I click the marker to open one?

Yes to both. A SPOTREP's diary entry is titled with its DTG (the date-time group) and then its grid, like "061201ZJUL35 - 042032". Builds before 25 October 2026 titled it "DTG:" and the time, followed by a code that meant nothing to players.

Click a SPOTREP's marker on the main map and its entry opens in the diary. Clicking the grid inside an entry already moved the map to the marker; now it works both ways. The click has to land very close to the marker (within about 2.5% of the screen), so a click elsewhere does nothing. Shift and Alt clicks are left to the game.

The catch is that the diary entries only exist when Spotrep Diary Entries on the C2ISTAR module is Yes. It's No by default, and with it off a SPOTREP only puts its marker on the map, so there's no entry to open.

More: C2ISTAR: Spotrep Diary Entries

Why is the AI Commander waiting before it attacks, or giving us tasks after it takes a town?

That's the Military AI Commander's operation tasks, all off by default. Preparation Tasks Before Attacks (Invasion) gives your side tasks at an objective before the commander attacks it: a wiretap, destroying the AA and mortar emplacements or enemy vehicles there, or an insurgent installation within 2 km. The attack goes in once every task is done or failed, or when Preparation Timeout (min) runs out (15 by default). With no players on the side it doesn't wait.

Pause After Capture (min) (Occupation) works the other way round: after a capture it holds new attacks while players get clean-up tasks there, such as removing IEDs, destroying vehicles, or for a town an aid delivery and a meeting with the local leader. Attacks resume when those are closed or the pause runs out.

Fewest and Most Tasks per Operation set how many you get, and Preparation Tasks How Often limits how many attacks get them at all (every attack, about 2 in 3 or about 1 in 3). HQ says on the radio when an operation is waiting, going ahead or out of time, and any preparation task still open when the attack goes in is cancelled. A group that has opted out of OPCOM Orders gets no preparation tasks. With Tasks Only Against Known Enemy on, the tasks only go after what the commander's units have seen. A place it knows nothing about gets a Reconnoitre Objective task first, and a second round of tasks follows against what the players report. With an Air Commander on your side, that report also asks it for a strike on what you saw. With Choice After Recon on, HQ then asks whether you take those targets yourselves or hand them to the commander; you answer from the OPCOM Orders menu, and no answer by the timeout counts as handing them over.

With Find Out Before Attacking on, every attack waits while the commander finds out what's at the objective, up to its Intel Wait. See Find Out Before Attacking.

More: AI Commander: the operation tasks diagram, AI Commander: Preparation Tasks Before Attacks, AI Commander: Pause After Capture, AI Commander: Tasks Only Against Known Enemy, AI Commander: Preparation Tasks How Often, AI Commander: Choice After Recon

Where do I find out who a dead target was?

Task targets carry a Wallet (ID): the insurgency recruiter, the commander's high value target, assassination targets, hostages, downed pilots, and the VIPs, informants, local leaders and contacts from Hearts and Minds tasks, plus an IED's trigger man.

Take it from the body, or from him as a prisoner, and you're told who he was, for example that he was the insurgent recruiter for a named town. Suicide bombers and car bomb drivers don't carry one.

More: C2ISTAR: player tasks

I don't get any radio calls in side chat during my tasks. Is there something I have to do to get them?

Two things decide it. Task updates (a task done or failed, the Hearts and Minds hold countdown, Combat Support's radio) follow Addon Options -> ALiVE -> Game -> Task and radio updates. Subtitles is the default; pick Chat lines to get them in chat.

The HQ radio talk when a task starts or ends always goes to side chat, and only shows for a player with a radio in the radio slot. Take the radio away and none of it appears. Switching the side channel off doesn't hide it.

The choice has three settings: Subtitles (the default), Hints and Chat lines, and each player sets their own. Combat Support's radio lines follow it too (builds from 24 October 2026; before that they always went to side chat). With Subtitles or Hints, lines that arrive close together, such as a SITREP request and its answer, show one after another, each for 4 to 10 seconds depending on its length, instead of each replacing the last. Chat lines are unchanged.

I missed a radio message from HQ or Combat Support. Can I read it again?

Yes. Open the map and look for the Radio Log page in the diary. Every ALiVE radio message you received is there, newest first, with the in-game time and who sent it, up to your last 100: Combat Support, Player Logistics, task updates, AI Commander HQ messages and Logistics Hub notices.

More: ALiVE Required: the radio log

Can players see what the AI Commander has found out, and tell it to attack now?

Yes, on the Operations tablet. Open Commander's Picture from its own entry in the C2ISTAR menu, or from the Commander button on the Intel page. It lists the objectives the commander is finding out about, how sure it is of each, and whether it's looking, going in or has taken it, with the report of what the enemy did once it fell. Radio and Air tabs list what has come in. Positions show on the map only with the commander's Intel Markers on.

If the C2ISTAR module's Commander's Picture setting is on Read and orders, players can also give orders on an objective:

• Go now: attack without waiting to be sure.
• Look again: scout it again for up to 10 minutes, twice per objective.
• Strike: call an airstrike on the latest vehicle seen there.

It's Read only by default, and Off hides it.

The commander's settings on the tablet (pause, stance, Intel Wait, how sure it must be, next wave) also need Read and orders, and Commander Controls decides who may change them. Stance can be changed without either when Player OPCOM Stance Control is Yes and the player carries a C2ISTAR access item or an ALiVE tablet. A read-only setting says which C2ISTAR setting is stopping you: Commander's Picture, the Ops limit or Commander Controls.

More: Commander's Picture, Find Out Before Attacking, Operations tablet

Where's the ALiVE Tablet, and how do I open the ALiVE menu?

In the editor and the Arsenal, the tablet is called the Combat Support Tablet, so search for that name. It has the same name in the Access Item Categories list. Carrying it always opens Combat Support, Player Combat Logistics and C2ISTAR, whatever access items the modules ask for. The vanilla support supply boxes carry a few as well.

Open the ALiVE menu with the Application (Menu) key next to right Ctrl. If you've bound Use Action 20 in Arma's Custom controls, that key is the default instead. To change it, go to Options, Controls, Configure Addons, ALiVE, Open Menu, then restart the mission. With ACE loaded, the same entries also appear under ACE self-interaction. Builds from before late September 2026 ignore a key combined with Shift, Ctrl or Alt, so use a single key on those.

If Combat Support isn't in the menu, it's usually one of these:

• You aren't carrying an access item. By default that's any laser designator. Tick more categories in Access Item Categories, or add mod items to Custom Access Items (classnames).
• You aren't carrying an access item and aren't standing at a command post. An object marked as a command post gives the menu to any player within 10 m of it, with no item needed.
• Support Access is set to First player only (the default), so only one player per side can call support. If that player leaves, another player on the same side takes over. Set it to All players to give everyone with an access item the tablet.
• A C2ISTAR module is placed, which moves Combat Support into the C2ISTAR entry of the ALiVE menu.

More: Combat support: CAS, transport and artillery on call preset, Ground convoy: transport, escort and recruits preset, Access Item Categories, Custom Access Items (classnames), Support Access, ACE Menu, C2ISTAR, Q&A: How do I let players command from a map board at the HQ?

How do I let players command from a map board at the HQ instead of carrying a tablet?

Place a map board in the editor (the Map Board Altis object, MapBoard_altis_F, works well), put this in its init box, and any player within 10 m of it can open the ALiVE menus without carrying an access item:

this setVariable ["ALiVE_accessPoint", true, true];

That covers the C2ISTAR, Combat Support and Player Combat Logistics menus, on the scroll wheel and in ACE. Put a number where true is to change the radius, so this setVariable ["ALiVE_accessPoint", 25, true]; reaches 25 m. Any object can be a command post, not just a map board.

To avoid a script on each one, list the object's class in the C2ISTAR module's Command Point Classes setting instead. Every object of that class, however it was placed (Eden, Zeus, a script or a FOB), then works as a command post within Command Point Radius (10 m by default).

A player who still carries a tablet or one of the access items keeps access wherever they are. If you want commanding to happen only at the HQ, set the modules' access items to something your players don't carry.

More: C2ISTAR: Access Item Categories, Player Combat Support: Access Item Categories, Player Combat Logistics: Trigger Item Categories, Q&A: Where's the ALiVE Tablet?

Why is Player Combat Logistics greyed out, or why does my convoy never turn up?

Greyed out means Military Logistics never started for your side. Check all of these:

• ALiVE (Required) and ALiVE Virtual AI System are placed.
• A Military AI Commander for your side has Military Placement (Mil. Obj.) or another objective module synced to it, and that module's TAOR marker actually has military objectives inside it.
• Military Logistics is synced to that same commander. Anything else synced to it, a placement module or Player Combat Logistics, is ignored.
• Player Combat Logistics is placed, and you're carrying one of its Trigger Item Categories (a laser designator by default) or the Combat Support Tablet.
• Your player is on the same side as that commander.

Military Logistics only starts once the Virtual AI System has finished setting up, so on a big mission the entry can stay grey for a while. If it never lights up, the RPT names the missing piece in a line mentioning Military Logistics or Player Combat Logistics. Ticking Enable Debug on Military Logistics adds more detail (it did nothing on builds before late September 2026).

If you can order but nothing arrives, the radio reply tells you why:

• "No insertion point is available": Reinforcement Type on Military Logistics is set to Static, and your side doesn't hold the one objective nearest that module. Take and hold it, or set Reinforcement Type to Dynamic, the default, which never gives this answer.
• "Insufficient resources available": the Force Pool has run out.
• "No military logistics supply chain found for your players faction": your faction isn't one of the commander's factions, and your side has either no Military Logistics module or more than one. Add your faction to that commander, or put the players in one of its factions.
• "The forces requested are not available": nothing could be built at the departure point. Builds from before late September 2026 hit this after a delivery to a ship left the departure point out at sea.
• "LOGCOM is still setting up": wait and ask again.

Deliveries leave from the Military AI Commander module's position, or from an earlier delivery point nearer the destination. Put the commander on dry ground a truck can drive out of. If a convoy still never appears, look in the RPT for "no GROUND transport assets found for faction=": neither that faction nor its side has any trucks to use. A faction with none normally borrows its side's stock trucks, so this only happens when a mod or script has removed those as well. Give the faction some in Override Land Transport.

More: Combat support: CAS, transport and artillery on call preset, Military Logistics, Reinforcement Type, Force Pool (groups), Enable Debug, Override Land Transport, Trigger Item Categories, TAOR, Military AI Commander

How do I make logistics use my mod's crates, trucks and airdrop containers instead of vanilla ones?

What players can order and what carries it are set on two different modules.

• What's on offer (Player Combat Logistics): by default the tablet offers the player's own faction (Restriction Type is Faction), cut by its List, Standard by default. If a mod crate or vehicle is missing, check it belongs to that faction, or add its faction to Factions or type the faction's classname into Factions (manual override). List set to Everything stops the cut by kind. Supply crates that belong to no faction, such as the vanilla ammo boxes, are let through anyway.
• To offer only certain items, list them in Requisition Only These. A list of vehicles or crates there sets the catalogue itself, so list everything you want to keep; groups are narrowed only when it names a group. A box or supply object named there that isn't a vehicle, such as a mod's cardboard boxes or food sacks, is offered under Combat Supplies whatever its faction. Never Requisition removes items, and Also Requisition adds items past the other lists, such as a crate from another faction. All three are separated by commas.
• What carries it (Military Logistics): Override Land Transport sets the convoy trucks, Override Air Transport the helicopters, and Override Airdrop Containers the box an airdrop comes down in, per faction. Custom Class Mode decides whether your picks replace that faction's defaults (Replace) or add to them (Append).

RHS, 3CB, CFP and IFA3 factions come with their own logistics classes, as do seven CUP factions: British, Czech, German, US Army, USMC, Russian and Taliban. Any other faction borrows its side's vanilla trucks, helicopters and containers until you set the overrides above, except that Air Transport Assets set to Faction Only stops the helicopter borrowing. Resupply trucks, the ones sent to Combat Support assets and to Player FOBs, come from the faction too: its first ammo truck, then any other truck it has (a truck you set in Override Land Transport counts), and the side's stock ammo truck only when it has none.

More: Factions, Factions (manual override), Requisition Only These, Never Requisition, Override Land Transport, Override Air Transport, Override Airdrop Containers, Custom Class Mode, Air Transport Assets, Also Requisition, List, Restriction Type

How do I get fuel, ammo or repair trucks for my side?

Order one from Player Combat Logistics using Heli/VTOL delivery. Its Vehicles list includes Support, the class Arma uses for fuel, ammo, repair and medical trucks. Convoy delivery only offers Car and Armored for most factions (RHS factions add Support), so service trucks don't show up there.

Big trucks can be heavier than any helicopter your side has can lift. When that happens, the truck comes down at the delivery point without one: under a parachute when a player is close enough to see it, set down when nobody is. Otherwise, place service vehicles at your base in the editor or with Zeus.

Combat Support aircraft, guns and ground vehicles can look after themselves: set Use Military Logistics Simulation to Yes on the Player Combat Support (CAS), (Transport) or (Artillery) module, or Use Military Logistics on the Ground Transport module, and Military Logistics sends a supply truck when they run low. It's one of the faction's own ammo trucks, or another of its trucks, and the side's stock ammo truck only when the faction has none. Logistics Source picks where the truck leaves from: Static (LOGCOM Base) is wherever the Military Logistics module sits, and Dynamic (Nearby Objective) is a nearby objective your side holds.

More: Combat support: CAS, transport and artillery on call preset, Allow Heli/VTOL, Use Military Logistics Simulation (CAS), Use Military Logistics Simulation (Transport), Use Military Logistics Simulation (Artillery), Use Military Logistics (Ground Transport), Logistics Source

Why do logistics helicopters drop the vehicle on the ground, or hover and not land?

A vehicle that comes down at the delivery point with no helicopter bringing it is the fallback, not a fault. It happens when no helicopter your side can use can lift it: it's too heavy, or for an Airdrop it has no sling points or 3 loads are already slung. It comes down under a parachute when a player is close enough to see it and is set down when nobody is, and with a player near, an Airdrop's car or truck comes off the back of a transport plane instead when your side has one that can carry it. If your side has no transport helicopter at all, vehicles come down the same way, and supplies arrive in an airdrop container, under a parachute when a player is close enough to watch it come down. To get it flown in, pick a lighter vehicle or give the faction a heavier helicopter in Override Air Transport. With Air Transport Assets set to Faction Only, only that faction's own helicopters and your overrides count. An Airdrop's paratroopers work the same way: with a player near the drop zone and a transport plane with seats for them on the faction (or the side), they jump from the plane as it flies over, and they only come by helicopter when there's no such plane or nobody is near to see it.

A helicopter bringing a vehicle doesn't land: it hovers over the spot, lowers the vehicle on its ropes and lets go once it's down. One bringing troops that hangs in a hover over the drop point is ordered down again after a while; if it still hasn't touched down about two and a half minutes later, the troops get out where it is, by parachute if it's in the air, and it flies home. On its way home with a player within 1500 m, a delivery helicopter lands at its base and waits there, engine off, until nobody is within 500 m, rather than vanishing in front of them. Flat, open ground near the delivery point helps it land first time.

Helicopters leave from the same place as convoys, the Military AI Commander module's position, so keep that on open ground. Helicopters Depart From Airfields only changes the AI commander's own reinforcement flights (helicopter insertions and combat paradrops), not player deliveries. If one never takes off or crashes on the way, report it with:

• the ALiVE build and the map
• the delivery type and exactly what you saw
• an RPT with Enable Debug ticked on Military Logistics and Player Combat Logistics

More: Override Air Transport, Air Transport Assets, Helicopters Depart From Airfields, Enable Debug (Military Logistics), Enable Debug (Player Combat Logistics)

How does Military Logistics decide where each side's supply base is?

It uses the position of each Military AI Commander module synced to it. Put the commander module where that side's base should be, on ground the side holds; the RPT warns if it's over water. By road, reinforcements then go to an objective the commander already holds. By helicopter, Military Logistics picks the spot: once the side holds three or more objectives, it prefers one the commander is attacking or defending, and skips any with three or more enemy units within 500 m. With Helicopters Depart From Airfields set to Yes, the commander's helicopter insertions and combat paradrops take off from the nearest airfield the side holds instead, and fly home to it. Resupply trucks are the exception. The ones sent to Combat Support assets leave from the Military Logistics module itself when Logistics Source is on Static, the default. Trucks for a Player FOB that's running low leave from one of the side's held objectives nearest the FOB, or from the Military Logistics module if it holds none.

More: Combat support: CAS, transport and artillery on call preset, Military Logistics, Player FOBs, Helicopters Depart From Airfields

Does taking ground give a commander more reinforcements, and can a side get stronger as it loses?

Only if Military Logistics is set up for it. A commander asks for reinforcements when its strength falls below a share of what it started with (Reinforcements on the Military AI Commander, 75% by default), and every group sent comes out of Force Pool (groups) on Military Logistics. When the pool is empty, requests are refused.

• A number in Force Pool (groups) (1000 by default) is a fixed budget. Capturing objectives adds nothing to it, unless you set an income, players complete C2ISTAR tasks or trade vehicles in at a hub (below).
• Typed (set below) lets you type any number of groups into Force Pool (typed), 0 or more, when none of the listed sizes fits. It's a fixed budget too, apart from any income.
• Dynamic sets the pool from the total priority of the objectives the side holds, so it grows as the side takes ground and shrinks as it loses ground.
• Dynamic, from typed (set below) starts at the number in Force Pool (typed), then rises and falls with objectives taken and lost, just like Dynamic. A loss can't take it below 0.
• Income per Held Objective (0, off, by default) pays the pool that many groups for every objective the side holds, every Income Interval (15 minutes). Income From can count only military objectives, and Income Cap stops the pool growing past a number. Nothing is paid with an Infinite pool or while Military Logistics is paused. The tablet's Commander tab shows the pool and its income.
• C2ISTAR tasks pay into the pool as well: when players complete one, its reward (usually 10 to 50 groups) is added and HQ radios the side's new reinforcement level.
• Vehicles traded in at a Logistics Hub pay in too, with Trade In Vehicles set: a share of a point each, half for an enemy vehicle, less for damage.
• Inc. Force Strength (Obj. Capture) and Dec. Force Strength (Obj. Loss), both No by default, raise or lower the strength the commander tops itself back up to when it takes or loses an objective, by their Factor (%) of its starting strength each time. They don't change the Force Pool.

No setting makes a side stronger as it loses ground. The nearest you can get is a fixed pool with Dec. Force Strength (Obj. Loss) on No, so its strength doesn't fall as you push it back. For an insurgency, Escalation intensity on an Asymmetric commander unlocks vehicle groups as hostility towards the insurgents rises. Reinforcement Type matters too. On Static, nothing is sent while the side doesn't hold the objective nearest the Military Logistics module, so losing that one objective cuts reinforcements off until it's taken back. Dynamic, the default, never stops them that way.

More: Defensive: CSAT invades, NATO holds preset, Military Logistics: Force Pool (groups), Military Logistics: Force Pool (typed), Military Logistics: Inc. Force Strength (Obj. Capture), Military Logistics: Dec. Force Strength (Obj. Loss), Military Logistics: Reinforcement Type, Military AI Commander: Reinforcements, Military AI Commander: Escalation intensity, Income per Held Objective, Will it run out of groups?, Trading in vehicles at a hub

Why can only one player, or only the host, call combat support or use Player Combat Logistics and C2ISTAR?

Check two things:

• Support Access on Player Combat Support is First player only by default: one operator per side, handed to another player if that one leaves. Set it to All players to give everyone the support menu.
• Every menu also needs the player to carry an access item, or to stand within 10 m of a command post (an object marked as one, see the HQ Q&A). Access Item Categories on Player Combat Support and on C2ISTAR, and Trigger Item Categories on Player Combat Logistics, all start on Laser Designators; the Custom ... (classnames) field next to each takes extra classnames. The Combat Support Tablet always works for all three.

Player Combat Logistics and C2ISTAR have no one-player setting of their own, so if only some players get them, it's the access item.

More: Combat support: CAS, transport and artillery on call preset, Player Combat Support: Support Access, Player Combat Support: Access Item Categories, Player Combat Logistics: Trigger Item Categories, C2ISTAR: Access Item Categories, Q&A: Where's the ALiVE Tablet?, Q&A: Commanding from a map board at the HQ

Do friendly sides share Player Combat Support assets?

Yes. The support menu lists your own side's assets, and every side that's friendly to yours (a friendship of 0.6 or higher, as BLUFOR and INDFOR usually are) gets them too, and you get theirs. Transport, CAS and Artillery are shared at mission start, and each Ground Transport vehicle is shared as it spawns.

There's no setting to turn the sharing off, and the menu can't be narrowed to your own faction. So in a mission where BLUFOR and INDFOR are friends but should keep their own supports, both sides' players will see each other's aircraft, vehicles and guns.

More: Player Combat Support, Ground Transport

Can I use my own placed aircraft or guns for combat support, and what happens when one is destroyed?

Yes. The simplest way is to sync the vehicle to its own CAS, Transport, Artillery or Ground Transport module (see the next question). The older way, below, skips the module: place the vehicle where it should be based and sync it straight to Player Combat Support. It keeps its class, position and facing, and its group name becomes the callsign. Tell it its job in its init field:

• Aircraft: this setVariable ["CS_TYPE", "transport"]; using "cas" (the default), "transport" or "hybrid". Hybrid puts the same aircraft on both lists, so one helicopter can carry troops and make gun runs.
• Ground vehicles can only be artillery and must be told so with "arty". A gun synced without it is ignored, with a line in the RPT saying why.
• Optional extras on the same vehicle: CS_CALLSIGN, CS_HEIGHT and CS_CODE, plus CS_SLINGLOADING and CS_CONTAINERS for transports.

A destroyed asset comes back as the same type in the same place after Respawn Time (10 minutes by default). CAS Respawn Limit, Transport Respawn Limit, Ground Transport Respawn Limit and Artillery Respawn Limit (3 each) are totals shared by every asset of that type that doesn't set its own, so 2 CAS aircraft on the default get 3 replacements between them. 0 turns replacement off, and an empty limit means no limit. An asset made with a CAS, Transport, Artillery or Ground Transport module can set its own Respawn Time and Respawn Limit on that module instead. The AI Commander never takes over combat support assets.

More: Player Combat Support: Respawn Time, Player Combat Support: CAS Respawn Limit, Player Combat Support: Transport Respawn Limit, Player Combat Support: Ground Transport Respawn Limit, Player Combat Support: Artillery Respawn Limit, Close Air Support, Support Transport, Support Artillery, Q&A: Using a gun, aircraft or ground vehicle synced to its own module

How do I use a gun, aircraft or ground vehicle I placed myself for player Combat Support?

Place the vehicle, then sync it to its own support module (not to Player Combat Support): a gun to the Artillery module, an aircraft to the CAS or Transport module, a ground vehicle to the Ground Transport module. That vehicle becomes the asset where it stands, and it replaces the module's vehicle type setting. Sync the support module to Player Combat Support as usual.

• The module's own position no longer matters when you sync a vehicle. Without one, the asset is built at the module, which is why vehicles can seem to turn up somewhere odd.
• An empty gun or aircraft is given a crew. An aircraft placed with a crew serves its crew's side.
• Use one vehicle per module. Only the first synced one is used, and the server log names any other synced vehicle that was left out. For guns, the first gun's group is the battery, so other guns in that group are not left out.
• An aircraft is taken wherever it stands, a carrier deck or a roof included. If it is lost, its replacement comes back on that deck or roof. One placed flying comes back on the ground below, and so does one whose roof is gone.
• The Virtual AI System leaves the synced vehicle alone.
• Artillery takes static weapons (the vanilla mortars included, and its type list now offers them) and land vehicles such as an M109, CAS and Transport take aircraft, and Ground Transport takes land vehicles that are not static weapons.

Syncing a gun or aircraft straight to Player Combat Support with CS_TYPE set is a separate way to do it, as in the question above. Use one way or the other for a vehicle, not both.

More: Support Artillery, Support CAS, Support Transport, Ground Transport, Player Combat Support

Can players call the AI Commander's artillery?

Yes, if you turn it on. Set Commander artillery on call on the Player Combat Support module to Mortars only or All. It's Off by default. The tablet's Artillery list then gets a Commander's guns row.

• Pick HE, smoke or illumination and a round count, up to the commander's own volley, then click a grid. Rate of fire and dispersion are the commander's, so there's Rapid only and no dispersion slider.
• Confirm only comes on when a ready AI Commander battery on your side reaches that grid. The nearest one fires a real mission.
• The HQ answers by radio: stand by, shot, rounds complete, or why not (no guns, out of range, friendlies too close). Friendlies near the grid refuse the call before anything is spent.
• The commander's cooldown, ammunition and friendly check still apply, and each call spends the commander's rounds. An Insurgency commander answers with mortars only, even on All.
• Only the side's Combat Support operator can call it, as with the rest of the tablet.

It needs a Military AI Commander Artillery module serving the caller's side. With the setting on, a side with a single battery of its own no longer has it picked for it, because the list now has two rows.

More: Player Combat Support: Commander artillery on call, AI Commander Artillery, Support Artillery

Why does my M270 or rocket battery not fire?

The 3CB M270 now fires. Its launcher isn't on the turret the AI aims, so its crew used to ignore every artillery order. If it hasn't fired or turned 90 seconds after the order, its rockets are launched for it, and on later missions it fires at once. This covers both Combat Support and the AI Commander's batteries.

A battery that can't fire now says so on the radio instead of calling splash for rounds that never left. If you get that message, check the target is in range, the battery has ammunition and nothing is blocking the shot.

More: Combat Support, Q&A: Why the AI Commander's artillery fires so rarely

Can the AI Commander or Combat Support fire an MK41 VLS?

Yes, both. The MK41 has no artillery computer, so the game doesn't count it as artillery, and it used to answer "out of range" at every distance. It's now treated as its own kind of battery. A round is one guided cruise missile, fired at a laser target put on the grid, and the side is told about it until it lands.

• Combat Support: call it from the tablet's Artillery page like a gun, with HE or cluster, no more than it carries. It reaches 100 m to 32 km. Switching between HE and cluster takes the launcher about 3 minutes, so the first missile of a mission can be slow to leave.
• AI Commander: set Missile launchers to Yes on the Military AI Commander Artillery module (No by default). A profiled MK41 of the commander's side then becomes a battery, and its strikes bring the same warnings, tasks and radio calls as a howitzer. One on a ship's deck is put back on the deck whenever it spawns. One on open water with nothing under it is refused, and the log says to place it on a deck or on land.

Either way it holds its fire between missions, so it won't launch at targets shared over the datalink, and players can't take it over from a UAV terminal. Resupply reloads the launcher itself. Stinger pods, AA tanks and helicopters with missiles aren't mistaken for one.

More: AI Commander Artillery: Missile launchers, Player Combat Support, Support Artillery

Can players call in CAS or artillery without a laser designator, for example in a Spearhead or SOG mission?

Yes. Both take their target from the map in the Combat Support tablet, so nobody needs a laser:

• CAS: pick the Attack task, click the target on the map and set the circle with the radius slider (250 to 1000 m, 500 by default). The aircraft attacks every enemy inside it, empty vehicles included, and keeps making passes for up to 5 minutes, until the area is clear or it's low on fuel, out of ammunition or badly damaged. If somebody does lase a target, the pilot takes that one first.
• Search and Destroy is the CAS task the tablet describes as engaging painted targets, so it's the one that expects a laser. Use Attack when nobody has a designator.
• Artillery: the fire mission lands on the point you click on the map, or on an 8-figure grid typed into the tablet, with the round type, count and spread you pick. Only laser-guided rounds need a laser.

The designator only matters for getting into the tablet (standing at a command post gets you in too), because Access Item Categories on Player Combat Support starts on Laser Designators. For an era without one, add the era's own item to Custom Access Items (classnames). It matches part of a name, so binoc covers any binoculars with that in their classname. The Combat Support Tablet item always gets a player in too.

More: Combat support: CAS, transport and artillery on call preset, Player Combat Support: Access Item Categories, Player Combat Support: Custom Access Items (classnames), Player Combat Support (CAS), Player Combat Support (Artillery)

Can a helicopter evacuate our wounded?

Yes. A Transport helicopter with passenger seats has a Medevac task on the Combat Support tablet. Mark a landing zone and confirm; the helicopter lands there and waits.

• Players near it get Load Wounded, which puts their group's wounded within 50 m aboard, and Clear To Leave.
• It flies them to its base, where everyone aboard is treated (ACE's own full heal when ACE medical is loaded).
• Then it brings them back to the landing zone and returns to base.

A new order from the tablet takes over at any point. Gunships and helicopters with no passenger seats don't offer it.

More: Player Combat Support (Transport): how to use it

Why don't the door gunners on our transport helicopter fire?

They do now, as long as the helicopter has armed turrets and its rules of engagement allow it. On the Combat Support tablet, pick the transport and set its ROE: Fire At Will lets the gunners engage enemies they can see while the pilot keeps flying his route; Hold Fire stops them.

Logistics helicopters' gunners fire back on the way in and on the way home, and hold fire while landing, unloading or dropping. A copilot's seat doesn't count as a gun, so an unarmed transport stays quiet whatever the ROE says.

More: Player Combat Support (Transport), Military Logistics

Can CAS stay over us and cover an area?

Yes. Give the CAS aircraft the Loiter task on the Combat Support tablet, mark the area and pick how long: 10, 20 or 30 minutes, or Indefinite (20 by default).

• With ROE on Hold Fire it only watches the area.
• With ROE on Fire At Will it covers it, engaging hostiles it sees there.

It stays until the time runs out or you give it another order.

More: Player Combat Support (CAS)

How do I send reinforcements I called in back home?

Men that Player Combat Logistics delivered into your group can be sent back. While any are in your group, the ALiVE menu shows Send reinforcements home. They leave your group as a group of their own, head away from the fighting and are removed once no player is near them.

More: Player Combat Logistics

How do players recruit AI soldiers or take vehicles?

Place a Recruitment module and sync it to the objects that offer recruits, such as a flagpole, a crate or an officer. Players there get one Recruitment action that opens a window listing the soldiers and vehicles on offer.

• Soldiers join the player's own group, up to the module's group size.
• Vehicle Classes lists empty vehicles players can take, up to Vehicles Per Player each; a destroyed one frees its place.
• Spawn Points are marker or object names. An object gives its own height, so a ship's deck or a roof works.
• Force Pool Cost (Soldier) and (Vehicle) charge the faction's force pool, which Military Logistics keeps; 0 is free. Force Pool Cost per Class prices single classes on their own, as ClassName=cost pairs; anything not listed costs the Soldier or Vehicle price.
• Code On Each runs on every new recruit and vehicle, with _this the new soldier or vehicle.
• Offer Synced Units and Vehicles (No by default) offers the men and vehicles you synced to the module exactly as you placed them, with their own loadout and paint. They're removed when the mission starts and come back when a player recruits them. A synced flag or crate is still the recruitment point.

With player saves on, recruits come back with the player who recruited them, and can still be dismissed for a refund. Vehicles bought there are kept by the Player Logistics save: after a load each one still counts towards its buyer's Vehicles Per Player and can still be dismissed.

More: Ground convoy: transport, escort and recruits preset, Recruitment, Recruitment: Force Pool Cost (Soldier)

Can we call in a truck or APC instead of a helicopter?

Yes. Place a Ground Transport module, sync it to Player Combat Support and pick a vehicle. On the Combat Support tablet it's the GROUND entry, with Pickup, Move, Road Patrol between two points you set on the map, and Return to base.

It drives along the roads. For Pickup and Move it then leaves the road for the spot you clicked when that's up to 150 m away and there's no water or steep slope in between.

While it drives, the crew checks the road ahead for IEDs and mines, stops for what it finds and rolls against the module's Disarm Chance; a failed roll sets the device off at the vehicle. An armed one fires back under the tablet's rules of engagement.

Riding in it, or looking at it from within 50 m, gives you Talk To Driver, which opens the tablet with that vehicle already picked. The panel's Escort box can send another armed ground transport that's standing by along with it, 40 m behind.

More: Ground convoy: transport, escort and recruits preset, Ground Transport

I'm standing in my FOB's headquarters, so why is there no Rally Points action?

A Player FOB only becomes a rally point from the tier set in the Rally Points module's Player FOB Rally Points setting, and that starts at tier 2. A tier 1 FOB isn't one until it's upgraded. Set it to From tier 1 if you want a FOB to count as soon as it's deployed, or Off to leave FOBs out.

This is a different setting from Respawn Point on the Player FOBs module, which only decides where players can respawn. A FOB can be a respawn point from tier 1 and still not be a rally point.

You also need to be on foot, not unconscious or captive, and standing at the rally point: for a FOB, within about 15 m of its centre. Every rally point you can use shows on your map, which is the quickest way to check: a rally pin named Rally (ALiVE's own pin by default, or Arma's yellow flag if Map pins and markers is set to Arma default or Tidy map labels is off), or for a FOB, its own marker with "(rally point)" after its name.

More: Rally Points: Player FOB Rally Points, Rally Points

Does Rally Points work with ACE?

Yes. With ACE loaded the action moves to your ACE self-interaction menu, under the same conditions. The Rally Points module's Interface setting can keep the scroll-wheel action instead, or offer both.

More: Rally Points: Interface

Can BLUFOR and OPFOR players each have their own rally points?

Yes. Place one Rally Points module per side:

• Set Side on each module, then sync that side's objects to it or give it its own Rally Point Classes
• A module's synced and class-matched points are only offered to the side it names
• Side HQs and Player FOB rally points already go by side on their own, so each side only sees its own
• The other settings (Squad Radius, Enemy Check, Leader Rally Points, markers) are read from one module only, the first to start, so set them the same on both

In builds before 30a7a74b, two modules that both had Rally Point Classes removed each other's points every 30 seconds. Use a current dev build.

More: Rally Points: Side, Rally Points: Rally Point Classes

Do rally points on objects I placed get overrun, and what happens if the object is destroyed?

A squad leader's own rally point is overrun once enemies hold it for Leader Rally Point Overrun Time. A point on an object you placed in the editor, synced to the module or matched by Rally Point Classes, is overrun only if you set Placed Rally Point Overrun Time; at 0, the default, it stays for the whole mission. Either kind can come back after Overrun repair time, which is off by default.

• Placed Rally Point Overrun Time works for a side's own points, so Rally Points Side must not be Any side. Enemies within Enemy Radius count whoever they are: AI, players or ALiVE's virtual groups
• To give one object its own time, put this setVariable ["ALiVE_rallyOverrun", 60]; in its init field. 0 there keeps that one point safe whatever the module says, and it also works on a side HQ
• An overrun object stays where it is. It just stops being a rally point, and that side's players get a notification. With Overrun repair time set it goes back on the list after that many seconds, if the object still stands, and shows on the map as down until then
• 0 in Leader Rally Point Overrun Time means a squad's own point is never overrun. An overrun one comes back where it stood after Overrun repair time, unless the squad has put another one down
• Enemy Check still applies to every point: by default nobody can travel to one while enemies are within 100 m of it
• A point is tied to its object and only offered while the object is alive, so once it's destroyed or deleted it drops off the list straight away

More: Rally Points: Leader Rally Point Overrun Time, Rally Points: Placed Rally Point Overrun Time, Rally Points: Enemy Check

Why can't I respawn at my Player FOB?

By default a FOB is only a respawn point from tier 3, while its headquarters stands. The Player FOBs module's Respawn Point setting lowers that to tier 1 or 2, or turns it off. A FOB type can set its own respawn tier too, see the FOB Types answer.

The mission also needs a respawn type that offers respawn positions (for example respawn = 3 with the respawn menu in description.ext), or there is nothing to pick the FOB from.

More: Player FOBs: Respawn Point, What are FOB Types for?

What are FOB Types for? Can I have unlimited supply FOBs but only a couple of fire bases, each costing different amounts?

Yes, that's what they're for. With a FOB Types module synced to Player FOBs, one FOB kit offers several kinds of FOB when it's deployed, and each kind has its own:

• headquarters buildings and build list, so a fire base and a supply base can put down different things
• a build list of its own: preset= picks a ready-made one and catalogue= names a list from your description.ext, whose Only and Also add to that type's menu and whose Never takes off it
• map marker and name prefix
• cost, taken when it's deployed
• limit on how many your side can have at once (0 for no limit)
• who may deploy it: the whole side, leaders only, or a list of players or units

A type can also set its own respawn tier, starting supply and supply per minute; anything it leaves out, and the rest of how a FOB is supplied and upgraded, stays on the Player FOBs module. Garrisons per type aren't in yet. You don't write the Types text by hand: the FOB Types button on the module opens the FOB Types editor, now part of the Build and Supply Catalogue page, which writes it for you to paste in.

More: FOB Types, Player FOBs

How do I write the classnames in the FOB Types module? With or without quotes, and what about spaces?

Without quotes. Write plain classnames separated by commas; a space after the comma is fine. With quotes ALiVE doesn't find the class, leaves it out and says so in the RPT.

One type per line, as key=value pairs separated by semicolons, for example:

id=fire_base; name=Fire Base; prefix=FB; hubs=Land_Cargo_HQ_V1_F; build=+Land_Mil_WiredFence_Gate_F, +Land_TentLamp_01_suspended_red_F

• hubs are the headquarters buildings the type can use
• build adds to the type's build list with + (or no sign) and takes off with -
• The FOB Types editor writes the line for you. The module's Open the FOB Types editor button opens it; paste the result into the module

More: FOB Types: Types, FOB Types editor, What FOB types are for

How do I give every FOB type the same baseline items, such as flags and lights, on top of what each type adds?

Put the baseline on the Player FOBs module and only the differences on each type. A FOB of any type offers the module's build menu, plus that type's extras, minus that type's removals.

• Baseline for every FOB of every type: list the classes in Also Build on Player FOBs. They're offered on top of the normal build menu
• One type only: put the class in that type's build (the extras on the FOB Types editor page). An item no FOB offers otherwise stays that type's alone
• Take something off one type: -Classname in that type's build
• Leave Build Only These empty unless you want to cut every FOB's menu down to your list. When it's set, every FOB offers only those plus Also Build, and the types' extras still come on top. Never Build beats them all, except a type's own extras: a class a type names in its build is offered at that type even when Never Build lists it (the plain FOB still never builds it)

For the same lists across missions, put them in description.ext under CfgALiVEFOBBuildables: whitelist[] does what Also Build does, only[] what Build Only These does and blacklist[] what Never Build does. The module's fields add to it, and a mission's list wins over a mod's.

class CfgALiVEFOBBuildables {
    whitelist[] = {"Flag_Blue_F", "Land_PortableLight_double_F"};
};

More: Player FOBs: Also Build, Player FOBs: Build Only These, Player FOBs: Never Build, FOB Types: Types, Writing classnames in FOB Types

How do I give each FOB type its own build list on the Build List page?

Edit one FOB type at a time. In step 3, FOB Types has a card for each type: pick one, and steps 4 and 5 then change only that type. The plain FOB card, first in that row, takes you back to the plain FOB.

• There's no shared base list to edit. Each FOB type starts from the card it builds like, not from the plain FOB's ticks
• A type's ticks become the build= part of its line in the Types box: +Class for an extra, -Class for a removal
• A type only gets a list of its own in description.ext when you change which categories it offers in step 4, and its card then says "with categories of its own"
• What you untick for the plain FOB goes into the module's Never Build. A type's own extras still come through at that type, but the plain FOB and the other types don't get them
• Prices and build times are set per item and shared by every type

After changing any type, copy both the description.ext block and the Types box again from step 6, which also shows the whole list each FOB will offer. Your ticks are kept in this browser as you go; signed in with Discord, Save keeps the list on the site so you can load it on any computer.

More: Build List page: 3. Pick a card, Build List page: 6. Copy into your mission, Baseline items for every FOB type, Listing exactly what a FOB can build

Can players build a helicopter or a plane at a FOB?

Yes, once the FOB is tier 3, but not with the default build list. Standard FOB's only vehicles are cars and trucks, so set Build List Preset on Player FOBs to Everything or Airfield (aircraft, supplies, trucks and field works), or add the aircraft you want in Also Build. They're then in the Build Menu's Vehicles tab. A helicopter costs 300 to 800 supply and a plane 350 to 1000, before the module's Cost Multiplier. The price goes up with weapons carried, armour and seats, so an armed jet costs the most.

• A helicopter goes on a helipad. Aim at one inside the FOB's Build Range; it's placed on the nearest pad within 10 m of where you aim. The pad must be clear: no vehicle on it, and no tree or building inside the rotor's reach. A pad another ALiVE module has claimed for its own aircraft is refused.
• A plane goes on an airfield's taxiway or parking area, inside the Build Range. Never on or near a runway, and not on the public road past the field. A map with no airfield can't build planes.
• The preview turns red and tells you why when the spot won't do.
• Drones and parachutes aren't offered.

A saved aircraft comes back on the same pad or taxiway spot, facing the same way. If something is parked there when it returns, it's put on a clear spot nearby.

More: Player FOBs, Player FOBs: Build Range (m), Player FOBs: Tier 3 Cost, Player FOBs: Cost Multiplier, Build List Preset, Player FOBs: Also Build

How do I stop just anyone dismantling our FOBs?

Use Who Can Dismantle on the Player FOBs module. It decides who can dismantle a FOB, recycle at it or rename it. Tick any mix of Anyone on the side (the default), Group leaders, The player who deployed it, and Players on the list. Any one ticked lets a player in.

For a clan server, tick Players on the list and fill in Allowed Players with player IDs (the 17-digit Steam ID), unit classes and slot variable names, separated by commas, for example 76561198000000000, B_officer_F, jtac. A unit class lets in every player in a slot of that class. A variable name is the Variable Name you gave a playable unit in Eden (P1, jtac, convoy_driver), and it lets in whoever takes that one slot.

Admins can always dismantle a FOB, so with nothing ticked only admins can. Logged-in admins can also change it while the mission runs, from the Permissions button in the FOB window or FOB Permissions in the ALiVE admin menu. That holds until the mission restarts.

Players who aren't allowed see Rename and Dismantle greyed out, with a tooltip saying why, and no Recycle.

More: Player FOBs: Who Can Dismantle, Player FOBs: Allowed Players, Admin Actions

Can I list exactly what a FOB can build, and set the prices?

Try Build List Preset on the Player FOBs module first. Standard FOB, the default, is the Infantry list with one of each model rather than every camo and loadout copy: field works, supplies, static weapons up to tier 2, cars and trucks, troops and kit from the player's own faction. It has no armour, boats or aircraft. Everything, Outpost, Fortified Base, Infantry, Mechanised (Infantry plus APCs and IFVs), Armoured Base (everything but artillery and aircraft), Airfield (aircraft, supplies, trucks and field works) and Logistics Hub are the other ready-made lists (the tablet and the Logistics Hub offer the same names in their List), and Custom takes a list of your own from description.ext, named in Custom List Name. Build Only These, Never Build and Also Build apply on top of whichever you pick.

To list exactly what's offered, put class names in Build Only These, separated by commas. The Build Menu then offers those and nothing else, apart from anything in Also Build, from whatever faction they come. A class that isn't in the game is skipped. Check The Lists on the module names it in Eden, and at mission start the RPT lists it and admins get a hint. A class named twice, in any mix of upper and lower case, is offered once.

To set a price, add it after an equals sign: Land_HBarrier_5_F=12. That barrier is then 12 supply, whatever the module would have worked out. The price must be a whole number from 1 to 100000; anything else is ignored with a warning in the RPT and the module's own price stays. Spaces round the = are fine. A class with no price is priced by the module's usual rules (as a fortification if they wouldn't pick it), times the Cost Multiplier.

You don't have to type any of this. The Build List button on the module opens the Build List page: untick what players shouldn't have, change prices, and it writes the list for you to paste in. To remove a few things without listing everything else, use Never Build, which still applies on top of Build Only These. Also Build adds classes the menu wouldn't offer by itself, even with Build Only These set, and Never Build beats both. A kind of FOB is the exception: a class it names in its own build list is offered at that kind even when Never Build lists it, while the plain FOB still never builds it.

More: Player FOBs: Build Only These, Player FOBs: Never Build, Player FOBs: Also Build, Build and Supply Catalogue, Build List Preset, Custom List Name

Can things built at a FOB take time to build, instead of going up at once?

Yes. In description.ext, give the item a buildTime in seconds beside its cost under CfgALiVEFOBBuildables:

class CfgALiVEFOBBuildables {
    class Land_HBarrier_5_F { cost = 12; buildTime = 45; };
};

The player then kneels and works it off on the same bar as deploying a FOB, and Stop The Timer If on Player FOBs stops it the same way. Supply is taken only when the bar finishes, so a build stopped part way costs nothing, and a player who can't pay is told before the bar starts. The Build Menu shows "Takes N s to build" for that item.

• Times run from 0 to 600 seconds. Anything outside that builds at once, with a line in the RPT
• Leave buildTime out, or set 0, and the item goes up at once, as before
• Soldiers and groups raised from the Build Menu still come at once

More: Player FOBs, Listing exactly what a FOB can build

Why do the FOB Build Menu and the Player Combat Logistics tablet offer far fewer vehicles than before, and how do I get them all back?

Since 29 October 2026 both start on a short list from the player's own faction, showing one of each model instead of every camo and loadout copy. Nothing is gone from the game; only the defaults changed. With RHS loaded the tablet went from 1152 items for BLUFOR to 450 for the RHS US Army.

• Player FOBs: set Build List Preset to Everything for every kind of item and every variant, and Vehicles And Troops From to Side for every faction your side's commanders field.
• Player Combat Logistics: set List to Everything, and Restriction Type to Side.
• A Logistics Hub with no List or Only These of its own follows the tablet, so it changes with it.

To add back just a few things, name them in Also Build or Also Requisition. Those are offered whatever list or faction is set; only Never Build or Never Requisition beats them. To see what a module's lists keep without running the mission, press Check The Lists on it in Eden. At mission start the RPT also writes a block starting ALiVE Lists: for the tablet, each hub and Player FOBs, and admins get a hint about any name that isn't in the game.

More: Build List Preset, Vehicles And Troops From, Also Build, List, Restriction Type, Also Requisition, Logistics Hub List, Check The Lists

Players can dismiss recruits anywhere, even mid-firefight far from base. Can I keep dismissing to the recruitment point?

Yes. Set Allow Dismiss on the Recruitment module to At the recruitment point. A recruit can then only be dismissed within 50 m of one of the objects synced to that module, and the cost still goes back to the force pool.

Yes (the default) lets players dismiss anywhere, and No turns dismissing off.

More: Recruitment: Allow Dismiss

How do I give each side its own FOB kit, supply crate or squad rally point object?

Type the side first, then an equals sign and the class name, with a comma between sides: WEST=B_CargoNet_01_ammo_F, EAST=O_CargoNet_01_ammo_F, GUER=I_CargoNet_01_ammo_F. WEST is BLUFOR, EAST is OPFOR and GUER is Independent.

One class name with no side in front is used by every side. You can mix the two: a side you name gets its own class, and the rest use the one without a side. A class the game doesn't have falls back to the usual ALiVE object, with a line in the RPT saying so.

More: Player FOBs: Kit Object, Player FOBs: Supply Crate Object, Rally Points: Squad Rally Point Object

How do I get an escort for my transport, and where does it come from?

On the tablet's transport panel (air or ground transport), the Escort box sits under the behaviour settings. It starts at "Escort: none", so a transport goes alone unless you pick one. Pick one, give the transport its order, and the escort goes with it, weapons free.

The escort is one of your side's own Combat Support assets, the same ones you could call from the tablet anyway: the CAS module's attack helicopters and the Transport module's armed helicopters for an air transport, the Ground Transport module's armed vehicles for a ground one. Only ones standing by at their base are listed. It flies or drives out from where it's parked and goes back there afterwards. Nothing is spawned for it, and it never borrows the AI Commander's forces.

An air escort flies about 150 m behind and circles overhead while the transport lands; a ground escort drives just behind. When the transport heads home the escort does too. If it's lost, it comes back the way that asset always does, with its module's respawn settings.

More: Transport: the escort diagram

Can ground convoys get a helicopter escort?

Yes. Set Convoy Air Escort Chance on the Military Logistics module to 25%, 50%, 75% or 100%. It's Off by default. Each time a convoy sets out by road with trucks, that's the chance it gets an escort of its own.

• The escort is an armed, crewed helicopter of the convoy's own faction. A gunship is picked before an armed transport, and never a drone. It flies about 60 m up, just ahead of the lead truck, for the delivery and the trip home. If the lead truck is lost it moves to the next one.
• It costs 1 from the force pool, the same as any other reinforcement.
• It needs Reinforce with Helicopters on Yes (the default), and the faction must have an armed helicopter. With the pool empty, no truck to follow or no suitable helicopter, the convoy goes without and the RPT says why (search it for convoy escort).
• When the run is over it's removed with the convoy, once no player is near it.

More: Military Logistics: Convoy Air Escort Chance, Military Logistics: Reinforce with Helicopters

Can a transport helicopter drop us by parachute?

Yes. Give the transport helicopter the Paradrop task on the Combat Support tablet, mark the drop zone and pick a drop height from 150 to 500 m. It flies over the drop zone at that height and puts its passengers out on static lines, one a second, each with an open parachute. Backpacks stay on, and players get a canopy they can steer.

If it starts close by, it flies 1.5 km out first to make a proper run. The crew, door gunners and anyone unconscious stay aboard. If it can't get within 400 m at a safe height, nobody jumps and it says so. Afterwards it holds over the drop zone for its next order.

More: Transport: drop passengers by parachute

Can I move my artillery battery?

Yes, with Allow Repositioning on the Artillery module. A battery that can move (a self-propelled gun or a mortar team) has Relocate Battery on its tablet page while it's idle: click the map and press it. The new spot becomes its home.

A mortar team too small to carry its tubes stays put and says so, and a spot in water is refused.

More: Artillery: Allow Repositioning

Why do reinforcement trucks keep arriving new? Can logistics reuse its trucks?

Yes. Trucks Kept per Supply Point on Military Logistics (0 by default) lets each faction keep that many trucks at each supply point. They drive back after a delivery and carry the next one.

A delivery waits for free trucks up to Longest Wait for Trucks (600 s), then brings its own. A lost truck is replaced for 1 force pool point. Trucks that aren't kept now go once no player is within spawn distance, instead of piling up.

More: Military Logistics: Trucks Kept per Supply Point, Military Logistics: Longest Wait for Trucks

Can a script add to or set the force pool while the mission is running?

Yes. The force pool is kept on the server, one number per faction, so a script running on the server can read and set it at any time:

• Read it with [ALIVE_globalForcePool, "BLU_F", 0] call ALIVE_fnc_hashGet, where BLU_F is the faction's class name
• Set it with [ALIVE_globalForcePool, "BLU_F", 500] call ALIVE_fnc_hashSet, so adding points is a read, a sum and a set
• The faction needs a Military Logistics force pool first, so wait until the read stops returning nothing before you set it
• Dynamic and Dynamic, from typed only add or take away the change in objectives held, so a number you set stays

For Player FOBs to spend from it, set Supply Source on the Player FOBs module to Force pool; otherwise each FOB has its own supply count. With Military Logistics persistence on, the number is saved and loaded with the rest of its data, so setting it by script after the mission loads is easier than editing a save.

More: Military Logistics, Player FOBs: Supply Source

Can players buy gear from an arsenal anywhere other than a FOB?

Not yet. The FOB Arsenal is the only one. Players build it at a FOB from tier 2, or open it with FOB Arsenal at the headquarters once the FOB reaches that tier, once the Player FOBs module's FOB Arsenal setting is on (it's No by default). It costs 60 supply to build, before the Cost Multiplier.

It offers the infantry gear of every loaded mod, and what a player takes out is paid from that FOB's supply when they close it. Gear handed back earns nothing. Grenades, mines and explosive charges are left out unless Arsenal Grenades and Explosives is Yes. Tank guns, mortar tubes and their ammo aren't offered, unless a list names them.

Which gear it offers and what each item costs can be set on the Build and Supply Catalogue page, under its Arsenal tab, or with Build Only These and Never Build on the module.

More: Player FOBs: FOB Arsenal, Arsenal Grenades and Explosives, Build and Supply Catalogue

How do I set up a supply point where players collect a requisition, with no convoy?

Use the Logistics Hub module. Place it, set Side, and sync it to the objects that should be hubs (a crate, a container or a building, not a vehicle) and to Player Combat Logistics. Military Logistics must also serve that side through its AI Commander, because it pays for what's collected from the force pool, as it would for a delivery.

A player of that side standing within Collect Radius (m) of a hub (30 by default) opens the Player Logistics tablet and picks Collect at a hub as the delivery method. The requisition is set out beside them straight away. Who Can Collect decides who may (anyone on the side by default; admins always can). A hub offers what the tablet does; its own List, Only These, Never and Also cut or add to that, but the tablet's Never Requisition always applies at a hub too. A FOB kit and a FOB supply crate can be collected this way too, and arrive ready to use. Vehicles collected this way can be recycled once empty within 100 m of one of the side's hubs, for 1 point back to the force pool (this needs Player FOBs in the mission); collected crates give nothing back. With Trade In Vehicles set, a player can also drive a vehicle to a hub and trade it in for a share of a force pool point; see the answer on trading in vehicles.

Sync the module to Military Logistics too and each hub also becomes a place AI convoys and helicopter inserts set out from, when it's nearer than the commander's own position.

More: Logistics Hub, Collecting a requisition at a hub, What a Logistics Hub syncs to, Trading in vehicles at a hub

Can players trade captured vehicles in for reinforcements?

Yes, at a Logistics Hub. Set Trade In Vehicles on the Logistics Hub module to Enemy vehicles or Any vehicle (it's Off by default). A player who drives a vehicle up to one of their side's hubs, within its Collect Radius (m), and stops gets Trade in this vehicle in the action menu. The vehicle goes, and its worth is paid into the player's faction's force pool.

• A vehicle takes 1 point from the force pool, so a trade-in pays a share of that: half for anything not of the player's side, and Own Side Pays (three quarters by default, or half or full) for the player's own side or faction
• Enemy vehicles takes only vehicles of a side at war with the player's. Any vehicle takes anything with wheels, tracks, rotors, wings or a hull, but never static weapons
• Damage takes its share off, so repair it first. A wreck is worth nothing
• What doesn't make a whole point is kept for the faction toward the next trade-in, and the notification says how much

The player must be allowed to collect at that hub (Who Can Collect), and everyone else has to get out first. Vehicles made at a hub or a FOB, or recruited, can't be traded in: they go back with Recycle or Dismiss instead. The player's faction needs a force pool, so Military Logistics has to serve that side.

More: Logistics Hub: Trade In Vehicles, Logistics Hub: Own Side Pays, Setting up a Logistics Hub

Why can't I dismantle the enemy's Logistics Hub?

The enemy can only dismantle a hub when nobody of the hub's side is within 60 metres. That counts their soldiers, vehicles and static guns on the ground, and also any of their troops ALiVE holds near the hub without spawning them, so a garrison you can't see still stops you. Clear the area first.

It's also refused when the mission maker set Enemy Can Dismantle to No (it's Yes by default), when your side isn't hostile to the hub's side, or when the hub is already down. Stand right at the object: the hold action shows only within about 8 metres, or nearer the walls of a large building.

A dismantled hub stays down for the rest of the mission unless Repair Time (s) is set, and while it's down nothing is collected there and convoys don't set out from it.

More: Logistics Hub: Enemy Can Dismantle, Repair Time (s)

Two allied sides share each other's transport, CAS and artillery. Can each side keep its own?

Yes. On Player Combat Support set Share With Friendly Sides to No. Each side's transport, CAS, artillery and ground support are then offered only to its own players. Yes, the default, lets players use the supports of any side friendly to theirs as well as their own.

More: Combat Support: Share With Friendly Sides

How do I set up the air commander (MACC), and why does it never get any aircraft?

It works in ALiVE 3. Place the Military Air Component Commander on or beside the airfield you want it to fly from. It takes the runway inside its airspace that's nearest the module, or failing that a heliport, then any military site. Runways are the ones in ALiVE's map index, plus any airstrip the terrain declares in its own config with no indexed runway within 1.5 km (on Sumava that adds Plasy, Rabi and Modrava). Its headquarters is a military building within 750 m of the module, or a field HQ it builds for itself if Build HQ If Needed is Yes. It can also fly from a carrier: place it on the deck of the game's USS Freedom or the USS Nimitz workshop mod, and the deck becomes its airbase. Aircraft park on the deck, are towed onto a catapult and shot off it, and a jet coming home lands on the wires.

1. Set Faction to the faction whose aircraft it should fly.
2. Leave Airspace Markers blank to cover the whole map, or name area markers that include the airfield.
3. Sync it to your Military AI Commander so it flies Close Air Support, Strike, Reconnaissance and Offensive Counter-Air for the ground war, and takes that commander's factions as its own. Unsynced, it still flies them for a commander whose first faction is its own Faction. With no such commander it patrols and defends its airspace, and goes after air defences it spots there if it has anti-radar aircraft.
4. Give it aircraft. Either place armed aircraft of its faction on the airfield, or set Place Air Assets to Yes and it stocks the base for you: a helicopter on every helipad, and a plane at the first hangar and a 70% chance of one at each other hangar, up to 8, fighters and attack jets in turn, a fighter first. With no hangar it gets one plane, parked near its HQ. Only the hangars in ALiVE's map index count, on its airfield and any other military site within 600 m of it, so a small airfield gets a small air force. Place Drones adds one drone on top of either. When it stocks the base, Aircraft Types lists the only helicopters and planes it places, from any faction, and Excluded Aircraft lists ones it never places; leave both blank to use the faction's own aircraft.

To choose where its aircraft come from yourself, draw a marker, name it in Ingress Marker and set Always Fly From Ingress Marker to Yes. It then flies from the marker even when it finds an airfield, with no airbase on the map: no HQ, no guards and no parked aircraft, just the Ingress Aircraft held at the marker. A carrier is still used if the module is on one, and if the marker doesn't exist it flies from the airfield it found, with a warning in the RPT.

If it never flies anything, check these:

• Place Air Assets and Place Drones are both No (the defaults) and there are no armed aircraft of its faction, or of a synced commander's faction, inside its airspace. It then has nothing to fly for the whole mission.
• It has aircraft but no fighter. Patrols and interceptions need a plane with air-to-air missiles and a radar, so helicopters and attack jets such as the A-164 Wipeout and To-199 Neophron never fly them. Place Air Assets puts a fighter first when the faction has one, but aircraft you place yourself, or that Military Placement parks on the airfield, are whatever they are. Without a Military AI Commander, the only other thing it flies is SEAD, and only with anti-radar missiles.
• There's no ALiVE Virtual AI System in the mission, or its Synchronisation Options is on Only virtualize synced units (the default) and the aircraft aren't synced to it. The commander can only take over aircraft the Virtual AI System has virtualised.
• An Airspace Markers name is misspelled. It's ignored, and if none match, the commander covers the whole map and may pick a different airfield.
• There's no airfield, heliport or military site inside its airspace, or the terrain has no ALiVE index. Name a map marker in Ingress Marker and it flies from that point instead, creating its own aircraft there (Ingress Aircraft sets how many, 6 unless you change it). Without Always Fly From Ingress Marker, the marker is used only when none of those, and no carrier, is found.

Parking, take-off and landing were reworked through September 2026, so if you're on an older build, update before reporting a problem.

More: Air war: NATO and CSAT fight for the sky preset, MACC (Military Air Command & Control), Place Air Assets, Place Drones, Aircraft Types, Excluded Aircraft, Airspace Markers, Build HQ If Needed, Ingress Marker, Ingress Aircraft, Virtual AI System: Synchronisation Options, Military AI Commander

Can I keep the air commander's SEAD jets off a site my players have a Destroy AA task for?

Yes, and it's on by default. Leave Players' Sites to Players on the MACC (Military Air Command & Control) module is Yes unless you've changed it. Once an air defence site has been given to players as a Destroy AA task, that commander's own SEAD jets leave the site, and anything within 500 m of it, alone while the task stands.

The hold starts when the task is offered and lasts at least 10 minutes. It lapses 5 minutes after the task ends. It only covers that commander's SEAD sorties, and only sites that have been given to players as a task; any other air defence site is still fair game.

Set it to No and the jets go after the site anyway. Either way, if someone else destroys the site first, the players are told who did and get no reward for it, so leave it on if you want the task to be theirs.

More: MACC: Leave Players' Sites to Players, MACC: Generate SEAD Tasks, How do I set up the air commander (MACC)?

Why does the air commander move the aircraft I placed and take their crews out?

The Military Air Component Commander takes over any armed aircraft of its own faction or a synced Military AI Commander's faction that's inside its airspace with no player aboard, once the ALiVE Virtual AI System has virtualised it. You don't sync the aircraft to the air commander, but on the default Synchronisation Options only aircraft synced to the Virtual AI System get virtualised. One that's flying is taken once it lands. Drones count too, armed or not, unless Use Drones is No.

Every aircraft it takes over gets a parking spot at its airfield: a helipad for helicopters and VTOLs, and a hangar bay or the apron for planes. The spot you put it on isn't kept, so the aircraft is moved to its new spot straight away if nobody's within 1 km. With players nearby it waits 10 minutes and then goes once none of them can see it: on a runway or taxiway it goes at 10 minutes anyway, and anywhere else 20 minutes after that, whoever's watching. Its crew is deleted until it's sent on a sortie.

To keep an aircraft for yourself, do one of these:

• Place it outside the commander's Airspace Markers, or inside an area named in its Airspace Blacklist.
• Keep it out of the ALiVE Virtual AI System. On the default Only virtualize synced units, don't sync it. On Virtualize all editor placed units except synced units, sync it.
• Put this setVariable ["ALIVE_profileIgnore", true, true]; in the aircraft's init field. For an aircraft placed with a crew, use the option above instead so the crew is left alone as well.

You can still fly the commander's aircraft yourself: Players Can Use ATO Aircraft is Yes by default, and an aircraft goes back to the commander once you've got out.

An airfield that looks empty from a distance is working as intended. Parked aircraft are hidden and frozen while nobody's near (about 1.5 km by default for someone on foot, further for anyone flying) and reappear before anyone gets there.

More: Air war: NATO and CSAT fight for the sky preset, Airspace Markers, Airspace Blacklist, Use Drones, Players Can Use ATO Aircraft, Virtual AI System: Synchronisation Options, Q&A: Eden units and virtualisation

Why do helicopters park on the grass next to helipads instead of on them?

A helicopter only takes a helipad that's clear. When every pad in reach is refused, it falls back to a hangar, the apron or open ground, which is usually right beside the pads. A pad is refused when:

• A vehicle is on it, including a crashed or burnt-out one, or an aircraft already parked there.
• Loose clutter such as crates, rubbish, sacks or tyres, or a placed barrier, is inside the rotor disc. The map's own buildings and walls around the pad are ignored, even ones the pad is tucked against, and so is anything outside the disc.
• Another aircraft has just been given it, or another ALiVE module put it down for its own helicopters to land on.

To fix it, clear the pad, or place your own helipads (an invisible helipad works) on flat, open ground at the base; they're used just like the terrain's own. The air commander looks for a free pad up to 1 km from its airfield, and Military Placement (Mil. Obj.) looks within 400 m of each helipad in its objectives. Your RPT log says which reason applied: search it for ALIVE FASP.

More: MACC (Military Air Command & Control), Place helicopters

I placed the Military Air Component Commander, but it keeps announcing CAS requests and then saying they're denied. How do I set it up?

That usually means the module has no aircraft it can fly. The AI Commander asks for air support against each enemy aircraft it sees, every 90 seconds or so, and each request is turned down once no plane or helicopter comes free.

• Sync the module to the AI Commander it supports, and set its Faction to that commander's faction (it starts on OPF_F).
• Give it aircraft: set Place Air Assets to Yes, or place the faction's planes and helicopters at an airfield yourself.
• Make sure its airspace covers an airfield or military buildings it can use as a base. The RPT says so if it found none.

A commander's repeated requests are now read out on the radio at most once in five minutes for each kind of sortie; a request a player makes is always read out. The RPT names the reason for each refusal, such as no airbase or no free aircraft.

More: MACC: Place Air Assets, MACC: Faction, MACC: Airspace Markers

When does the AI Commander send a reconnaissance (Recce) flight?

Only to support an attack. Right after the commander commits to attacking an objective, it asks the Air Commander for a Recce flight over it. It doesn't send them on its own to scout enemy positions.

The objective has to be larger than 150 m, have enemy groups within 1 km and at least one building of a kind ALiVE recognises. On the air side, the Military Air Component Commander must be synced to that AI Commander, have Recce ticked in Available ATOs (it is by default), and have an aircraft that can scout: a drone, or an armed aircraft with sensors.

CAP and CAS are far more common because they answer threats as they appear, while a Recce comes once per attack, or again when a player tells the commander to look again from the tablet.

More: Air Commander: Available ATOs

Can players ask the Air Component Commander for CAS?

Yes, when the mission has a C2ISTAR module and an Air Component Commander. On the tablet, the C2ISTAR menu has Request CAS: pick it and click the target on the map.

The request goes to your own side's air commander, or an allied one if yours has none, as long as it has CAS ticked in Available ATOs. Your side hears it acknowledged or turned down on the radio, and an aircraft goes when one is free. A mission that limits remote execution must allow ALiVE_fnc_ATOKernel.

More: Air Component Commander: the Request CAS diagram, C2ISTAR: Request CAS from the tablet

Can I stop the AI Commander's CAS hitting near my players?

Yes. Set Keep Commander CAS Away From Players on the Air Component Commander to 500 m, 1, 2 or 5 km. The AI Commander's CAS requests are then turned down, without a radio call, while a friendly player is that close to the target.

A player's own request always goes through. Off is the default.

More: Air Component Commander: Keep Commander CAS Away From Players

Do enemy anti-air guns shoot at the AI Commander's aircraft when no player is near?

Yes. Air Defence Spawning on the Virtual AI System (on by default) spawns enemy anti-air vehicles while an AI Commander's aircraft is within Air Defence Radius (m) of them, 4000 by default, even with no player near. A radius of 0 turns it off.

More: Virtual AI System: Air Defence Spawning, Virtual AI System: Air Defence Radius

How do I set up persistence? Should ALiVE Data be set to Cloud or Local?

Leave Database Source on ALiVE Data on Local, the default, then turn on Persistent in every module whose progress you want kept. Those settings are all off by default. On its own, ALiVE Data only keeps moved objects, markers and reports, listed further down, plus the roadblocks, camps and field HQs the placement modules build. Its Save Roadblocks/Outposts setting covers those, and it's Yes by default. Player FOBs keeps its FOBs, what's built at them and their supply by itself, as its Persistent setting is Yes by default, and Persistent Craters keeps its craters the same way (Keep craters over a save is Yes by default).

1. Place ALiVE Data and check Database Source says Local, the default. An older mission may still say Cloud, the old War Room service, which is offline, so with Cloud nothing is saved.
2. Set Persistent to Yes on ALiVE Virtual AI System (the AI forces themselves) and Military AI Commander, plus whichever of these you use: Military Logistics, Military Close Quarters Battle, Military IED Threat (Persist IEDs), Player Command/Control (C2ISTAR) (Persistent Tasks) and Military Air Component Commander.
3. For players, place ALiVE Player Options and set both Persist Player State and Save to Database to Yes.
4. To save, press Esc and use SERVER SAVE AND EXIT (Admin Only) in multiplayer, or ALiVE SAVE (Single Player) in singleplayer. The mission ends once the save is written, and the next time you load the same mission it carries on.
5. To save as you go as well, type the minutes between saves into Autosave (min) on ALiVE Data. It saves the same things Save and Exit does without ending the mission, so a crash or an unplanned restart only loses what changed since the last one. It's 0 (off) by default and needs Database Source on Local.

Objects moved with player logistics, map markers, SPOTREP, SITREP and PATROLREP reports, and the respawn tickets of a mission that uses the game's ticket respawn are saved without a setting of their own. Saved markers and reports go back on the map for every player of the side they belong to, including players who join a mission that's already running; builds from before 19 October 2026 could miss them. Set Save Mission Time to Yes if the date and time should carry on too. Everything is written into the Arma 3 profile of the machine running the mission: the dedicated server, the host, or your own PC in singleplayer.

You don't need the game's own save (ALiVE (Required) switches it off with Disable Default SP Save, because it can cause out-of-memory crashes), and you don't need a server's persistent battlefield option either. That only keeps the mission running while nobody's connected; it isn't ALiVE persistence.

More: Persistent campaign: a war that carries on where you saved preset, ALiVE Data: Database Source, ALiVE Data: Autosave (min), ALiVE Data: Save Mission Time, ALiVE Virtual AI System: Persistent, Military AI Commander: Persistent, Military Logistics: Persistent, Military Close Quarters Battle: Persistent, Military IED Threat: Persist IEDs, C2ISTAR: Persistent Tasks, Military Air Component Commander: Persistent, Player FOBs: Persistent, Player Options: Persist Player State, Player Options: Save to Database, ALiVE (Required): Disable Default SP Save, Persistent Craters: Keep craters over a save

After loading a save there's a copy of my character at base, or my AI squad starts back at base. Why?

Builds before 3 October 2026 only put the player back where they saved. Their AI squad started from the editor on every load and walked out to find them, so a squadmate of the player's own class looked like a copy. A squad synced to ALiVE Virtual AI System could also be saved as a separate AI squad that came back at base every time.

Now a restored player who leads their group gets the squad's men on foot brought back beside them. The squad stays put if the player saved in a vehicle, is being sent back out for rejoining as a different class, or it's already within 100 m.

• Leave the players' own squads unsynced from ALiVE Virtual AI System on its default, Only virtualize synced units. A squad holding a player's slot is left alone at mission start either way, except with Enable AI off: the slot is empty until its player joins, so a synced squad is taken over as ordinary AI.
• On Virtualize all editor placed units except synced units, sync the players' squads instead.
• A campaign saved on an older build can still bring back an extra AI squad, so start it fresh.
• A regroup trigger or script that moves the squad to the player isn't needed any more.

More: Player Persistence, Player Options: Store Position, ALiVE Virtual AI System: Synchronisation Options, How do I wipe my save and start the campaign fresh?

My single player save ends in Mission Passed when I load it. Why?

Builds before 25 October 2026 did this when the save was made while you were playing a different unit from the one you started as, for example after switching to another man in your squad. On load, ALiVE saw a different character class from the one saved and treated you as a player rejoining a server as the wrong unit. It turns those players away by ending the mission for them, and in single player that's the whole mission.

Now that check only runs in multiplayer. In single player the save goes onto whichever unit you're playing, and your squad is brought to the restored position as well. Update to a current build.

If you're stuck on an older build, set Allow Different Class Rejoin to Yes on the Player Options module (it's No by default). In multiplayer a player who rejoins as a different unit is still turned away unless that setting is Yes.

More: Player Options: Allow Different Class Rejoin, Player Persistence, Why can't I use Arma's own Save in a singleplayer ALiVE mission?

How do I wipe my save and start the campaign fresh?

Clear the save, or rename the mission. A save belongs to the mission's file name and the map, so MyOp.Altis becoming MyOp2.Altis starts clean. Going back to a name you've used before brings that old save back. The name shown in the lobby or on the loading screen doesn't matter; only the file name does.

To delete saves, open the ALiVE menu (as admin in multiplayer) and go to Module Settings > Persistent Data, which has three entries:

• Clear Current Mission's Data removes this mission's whole campaign on this map: the AI forces and objectives, the AI Commander's high value target and any pause it was in, logistics, tasks, the air commander's aircraft, Player FOBs, Persistent Craters' craters, player saves and the saved date. A copy of the mission on another map keeps its own. Builds from before late September 2026 left most of it behind, and builds from before 21 October 2026 left the Player FOBs and the commander's high value target and pause. Builds from before 2 November 2026 left the craters too.
• Clear Saved Vehicles and Buildings Only removes just this mission's Player Logistics save on this map, and keeps the AI Commanders' objectives, installations and roadblocks, the AI forces, tasks, the saved date and player saves. What's already in the game stays put and Player Logistics saves nothing more until the mission restarts, so restart it to start without them. Builds from before 3 November 2026 don't have it.
• Wipe ALL ALiVE Data removes every ALiVE save on that machine, for every mission, and keeps your saved presets. On a dedicated server, a save an older build made for another mission stays until that mission has saved once on this build, so clear that one from inside its mission. Builds from before late September 2026 also deleted presets, and on a dedicated server removed nothing.

After wiping, leave with the game's normal Abort or restart the server, not an ALiVE save or exit button, or the mission that's still running writes itself back. If Autosave (min) on ALiVE Data is set, leave before the next autosave, as that writes it back too, and don't build or dismantle anything at a Player FOB, which saves the FOBs straight away.

More: Persistent campaign: a war that carries on where you saved preset, Persistence (ALiVE Data), Admin Actions

On a dedicated server, why isn't player kit and position restored after a restart?

Set Save to Database to Yes on ALiVE Player Options. With it off, the default, player state is only kept in the server's memory: it survives a reconnect during the same session but not a restart.

For restarts, especially scheduled ones:

• Unless Autosave is on (below), nothing but player data, Player FOBs and Persistent Craters is written to disk until someone uses SERVER SAVE AND EXIT (Admin Only) from the Esc menu, so do that before every planned restart. Everyone is saved and sent out first, then the mission ends. A restart without it loses everything since the last save.
• Whoever saves must be logged in as admin, or have their Steam UID in Save Server Allowlist on ALiVE Data.
• Auto Save Interval (s) writes player data to disk regularly while ALiVE Data is set to Local, so a crash or unplanned restart only loses what changed since the last write. It's checked every 10 seconds.
• Autosave (min) on ALiVE Data saves the whole mission as Save and Exit does (the AI forces, objectives, players and the air commander) every so many minutes, without ending it. Type the minutes between saves; it's 0 (off) by default. Set it as well as saving before planned restarts, so a crash only loses what changed since the last autosave.
• A mission can also save itself when it chooses, from a trigger or a script, by running "now" call ALiVE_fnc_AUTOSAVE_PNS on the server. It saves what Autosave saves, straight away and without ending the mission, so a script can save just before a scheduled restart. It needs Database Source on Local, and a timed Autosave keeps running.
• Players are matched by Steam ID, not by slot. Rejoining as a different unit type gets you sent back out unless Allow Different Class Rejoin is Yes. If your unit changes slots from week to week, set Persist By to Slot instead: the kit, position and health then stay with the slot (named by its Eden Variable Name) rather than the player, and the class check doesn't apply. A slot with no Variable Name is still saved by player. Switching an existing campaign to Slot carries each player's own save over, once, to the first slot he takes that has no save yet.
• Keep the server's profile name and profiles folder the same between restarts, because that's where Local saves live.

You don't need to wait at the slot screen: your saved state is applied once the server has finished loading, however early you join. Builds from before mid-August 2026 could miss it when someone rejoined straight after dropping out.

More: Persistent campaign: a war that carries on where you saved preset, Player Options: Save to Database, ALiVE Data: Autosave (min), Player Options: Auto Save Interval (s), Player Options: Allow Different Class Rejoin, Player Options: Persist By, ALiVE Data: Save Server Allowlist, How do I set up persistence?

Will ALiVE remember objects I placed in Eden, and how do I keep one out of the save?

Yes. Ammo boxes, static weapons, fortifications and other static objects, land vehicles, boats, aircraft and loose physics objects you place in Eden are tracked by player logistics. A campaign saved on a build before late September 2026 can keep a duplicate of a boat a player moved. Once a tracked object is moved, driven, has its inventory changed or is destroyed, its position, damage, fuel and cargo go into the save and come back on load, and destroyed ones stay destroyed. Crews aren't recreated, and vehicles belonging to the ALiVE Virtual AI System are saved with the AI forces instead. Those keep their fuel, damage and remaining ammo across a save; a save made before October 2026 brings them back fresh.

If you move a saved object in Eden between sessions, the move wins: the next load drops the old saved copy instead of making it again. Saves from before 3 November 2026 can leave two of a vehicle the first time you do this.

There's no way to clear just the vehicles: the admin menu clears the whole mission's save or every ALiVE save, and that also re-rolls an insurgent commander's roadblocks and installations. To have vehicles start where Eden puts them while the rest of the campaign carries on, set Disable Persistence to Yes on Player Logistics (Settings). It skips loading as well as saving, the old vehicle save stays where it is, and setting it back to No brings that save back.

To keep an object out, sync it to a Player Logistics (Settings) module. That also stops players carrying, towing or loading it. You can do the same from the object's init field with this line:

this setVariable ["ALiVE_SYS_LOGISTICS_DISABLE", true, true];

Excluding an object doesn't take it out of a save that already holds it, so start a fresh save if it's already in there. Disable Persistence on Player Logistics (Settings) turns object saving off completely.

More: Player Logistics (Settings), Player Logistics (Settings): Disable Persistence, How do I wipe my save?

Can shells and bombs leave craters that stay?

Yes, with the Persistent Craters module. Place one anywhere; it syncs to nothing. Mortar rounds and rockets then leave a crater mark, and artillery shells (155 mm and up) and bombs dig a bowl into the ground that every player sees, including players who join later.

• Only rounds that really go off in the world count, from players, AI near players, the server or a headless client. Fights between virtual (unspawned) profiles fire no rounds, so they leave no craters
• Roads, runways, buildings, FOBs and the AI Commander's military objectives are kept clear; towns, civilian objectives and ground beside a road or near a building get a mark only
• Once Most craters kept (150 by default) is reached, the oldest fill back in and the ground goes back to its old height
• Keep craters over a save is Yes by default: they're saved through ALiVE Data when the mission has it, otherwise in the server's profile

Set Dig the ground to No for marks only, with no change to the terrain. With Debug on, every crater is marked on the map and the RPT says why a hit left nothing, in lines starting ALiVE Persistent Craters.

More: Persistent Craters, Persistent Craters: Smallest hit that leaves a crater, Debug Markers: Persistent Craters

What does 'Problem occurred when saving profile data. File may be set to read only' mean?

It's Arma's own message: the game can't write to your profile folder. ALiVE's Local saves and your saved presets live in that profile, so they aren't being written either while you see it.

1. Close Arma 3.
2. Find the profile folder: Documents\Arma 3 for the default profile, or Documents\Arma 3 - Other Profiles\<profile name> for any other. On a dedicated server it's inside the folder set by its -profiles parameter.
3. Right-click the folder, choose Properties, untick Read-only and apply it to all subfolders and files.

More: Persistence (ALiVE Data)

Can I edit my mission in Eden during a campaign without losing the save?

Yes, as long as it keeps the same file name and map. The save is matched by those, not by what's inside the mission, so saving or exporting it again keeps the campaign. On the next load:

• The AI forces come from the save, so new or changed placement modules don't add any troops until you start a fresh save.
• Eden objects the save already knows about go back to where they were saved. If you move or delete one of them in Eden, a copy turns up at its saved spot.
• New objects you place appear as normal.
• Renaming the mission starts a new campaign. A copy on another map runs its own campaign, even under the same name.

More: Persistent campaign: a war that carries on where you saved preset, Military Placement, Virtual AI System: Persistent, How do I wipe my save?

Does persistence keep ACE Fortify builds, trenches and ACE Cargo?

ACE Fortify builds, yes, with a Player Logistics module whose Disable Persistence is left at No and an ALiVE Data module. ALiVE saves each build when it's placed, with its position and facing, and drops it when it's removed. It works on current ACE, which still raises Fortify's events under their old ACEX names (checked on ACE 3.21.2).

Trenches dug with ACE's entrenching tool, yes, with the same two modules, once a trench has been dug all the way. A half-dug one isn't kept, and one removed with the shovel is dropped from the save.

ACE Cargo, no. Items loaded with ACE Cargo aren't saved. The inventory of crates and vehicles is, and so is anything loaded, towed or lifted with ALiVE's own logistics.

More: Player Logistics, Persistence

What doesn't persistence save? Vehicles and variables I set on them came back wrong.

• Variables your own scripts put on a vehicle or crate aren't saved. Store what you need yourself and set it again on load.
• A vehicle's state is saved when someone closes its inventory, gets out, or it's destroyed. One nobody used since the last restart comes back as it was last saved.
• Player tasks are saved only with Persistent Tasks on in Player Command/Control (C2ISTAR). The AI Commander's objectives start over after a load, so it gives its attack orders afresh, and the attack tasks tied to them start over too.
• The red and green grid on the map is saved now: squares a side has cleared come back green after a reload. On builds from before 9 October 2026 every square started red again each session.

What is saved for each object is its type, position, facing, inventory, loaded cargo, fuel and damage. With ACE, a fuel truck's fuel cargo and an ammo truck's supply are saved too.

More: Persistent campaign: a war that carries on where you saved preset, Player Logistics, Persistence, Q&A: The red and green map grid, Player Command/Control: Persistent Tasks

Why can't I use Arma's own Save in a singleplayer ALiVE mission?

ALiVE switches it off. Disable Default SP Save on ALiVE (Required) is Yes by default, because Arma's own saves of a big ALiVE mission can crash the game by running out of memory. You can set it to No, but the supported way to keep progress is ALiVE's persistence: Database Source on Local, plus Persistent on each module whose progress you want kept.

More: ALiVE (Required): Disable Default SP Save, ALiVE Data: Database Source, Q&A: How do I set up persistence?

Are recruited AI and the commander's minefields saved?

Yes, with saving set up. Recruits are saved with the player who recruited them when Save to Database is on in ALiVE Player Options, and come back in that player's group with the same kit, skill and damage.

An AI Commander with Persistent on saves the mines left in each frontline minefield and lays them again where they were; ones that went off or were cleared stay gone. Its high value target is saved too, and so is a pause after a capture: on load its attacks stay held for the time that was left, and the pause's tasks are given again once a player of the side is in. Builds from before 21 October 2026 lost the pause on a reload.

More: Ground convoy: transport, escort and recruits preset, Persistent campaign: a war that carries on where you saved preset, Player Options: Save to Database, AI Commander: Frontline Minefields

Does a save keep vehicles bought at a Recruitment point?

Yes, with a persistent save. The vehicle comes back with who bought it and what it cost, so it can still be dismissed for a refund after a reload. Recruited soldiers keep their cost too, so they refund the same way.

More: Recruitment, Q&A: Are recruited AI saved

How do I keep an ALiVE mission running smoothly, and what's the best server setup?

Most of the cost is how many AI are spawned around players at once. The biggest levers are how much you place and how far from players it spawns. The terrain matters too, because big, dense maps cost more.

• Force Size on Military Placement (Mil. Obj.): the default is Company (200). For singleplayer or a small group, Company (100) or smaller is a good start. It's a scaling value, not a soldier count, and garrisons add groups on top of it at every objective.
• Spawn Radius (m) on the Virtual AI System: 1500 by default. Lower it and fewer groups spawn around each player. Players spread across the map each spawn their own area.
• Military Close Quarters Battle: it defaults to Probability (%) 1 and Group Size Ceiling 2, which is already light. Raising Probability (%) by even a few points fills a lot more houses.
• Active Limiter on the Virtual AI System: 144 groups by default. It caps how many groups are spawned at once. The rest wait, still virtual, until a slot frees up.
• Zeus Spawn Virtual Groups: set it to No if you don't want AI spawning wherever the Zeus camera flies.
• Air Defence Spawning on the Virtual AI System (on by default) spawns the enemy's anti-air near an AI Commander's aircraft while it's flying, even with no player near, within Air Defence Radius (m), 4000 by default. Untick it, or set the radius to 0, if you don't need anti-air shooting at the commanders' aircraft away from players.
• Bodies and wrecks are cleared for you. ALiVE (Required) runs its own garbage collector: every 300 seconds (Garbage Collector Interval (s)) it collects the dead and deletes them once no player is near, and if the dead pile up past 100 (Garbage Collector Limiter) it clears them at once. There's no separate module to place. Leave the interval alone, since 0 turns it off.

For multiplayer, a dedicated server is best, with a headless client taking the AI off it (set AI Distribution on ALiVE (Required) to Headless clients). A LAN with the server, headless client and players on it is faster than playing over the internet. If the war should keep going while nobody's online, put persistent = 1; in the server's server.cfg. Without it, Arma ends the mission when the last player leaves.

More: Force Size, Spawn Radius (m), CQB Probability (%), CQB Group Size Ceiling, Active Limiter, Zeus Spawn Virtual Groups, Air Defence Spawning, Garbage Collector Interval (s), Garbage Collector Limiter, AI Distribution, Q&A: Setting up a headless client

Why does ALiVE's AI stutter or rubber-band when AI I place with Zeus moves smoothly?

ALiVE's AI runs on the server and reaches every player over the network, so it's only as smooth as the server's frame rate and your connection. AI you place with Zeus is usually run by the Zeus player's own machine, which is why it looks smooth to them. The fix is to take the AI load off the server with a headless client:

1. In the editor, place a Headless Client (Systems, Logic Entities, Virtual Entities) and tick Playable.
2. On ALiVE (Required), set AI Distribution to Headless clients. It's Server by default, so nothing moves until you change it.
3. Start a headless client on the server machine and let it join that slot.

ALiVE checks about once a minute and hands the server's spawned AI groups to connected headless clients in turn. Commanders, virtual groups and combat support assets stay on the server. If another mod or script already moves AI to your headless clients, leave AI Distribution on Server so only one of them is moving groups. ALiVE steps aside by itself only for ACE's headless module (ace_headless, or acex_headless in older ACE), and while it does it tells ACE to leave alone the units ALiVE keeps on the server, Combat Support vehicles included.

More: AI Distribution, Q&A: Will a headless client make my mission run better?

What happens to AI near players when the mission hits the Active Limiter?

They wait. The Active Limiter on the Virtual AI System caps how many groups are spawned at once across the whole mission (144 by default). It counts groups, not vehicles. A group that comes into range while the cap is full stays virtual, keeps moving and fighting virtually, and spawns once a slot frees. The group nearest a player goes first. Nothing is deleted. Civilians have their own limit, Active Limiter (count), on the Civilian Population module.

While groups are waiting, the server RPT says "more profiles are in range than the Active Limiter allows", with the number waiting and the limit. Raise the Active Limiter if you want more of them active at once, but every extra group costs frame rate. If the server can't cope, place less instead.

Builds from before 22 September 2026 deleted the group that couldn't get a slot, and it never came back. If groups vanish near players, update ALiVE.

More: Active Limiter, Civilian Active Limiter (count)

Can I control ALiVE's units with Zeus, and should I delete them or kill them?

Yes. When a Game Master module is in the mission, ALiVE adds every unit and vehicle it spawns to Zeus as it's created, so once a group is spawned you can move it, give it waypoints, change its behaviour or remote-control it. ALiVE takes over again when it despawns: the waypoints it has then become its virtual route, and the AI commander can give it new orders later.

Kill ALiVE's units rather than deleting them. A death is how ALiVE knows a soldier is gone: the group shrinks, and when the last man dies the group is removed and counted as a loss. A soldier you delete with Zeus stays gone, but ALiVE only notices when the group next despawns. Until then it still counts him, and a group deleted whole leaves the register without being counted as a loss. Builds from before 3 October 2026 never noticed a deletion, so a deleted soldier came back at the next spawn.

Groups you place with Zeus aren't part of ALiVE. To hand them over, use the Virtualise Groups In Radius module in Zeus. It turns every AI group and empty vehicle in the radius that ALiVE isn't already running into ALiVE groups. Groups with a player in them are left alone. For one group at a time, Hand Group To AI Commander does the same and hands it to its faction's AI Commander, and Spawn ALiVE Group makes a new ALiVE group outright. See Zeus Modules.

More: Virtualisation & Spawning

Can I stop ALiVE's units being editable in Zeus?

Not with a setting. When a Game Master module is in the mission, ALiVE adds every unit and vehicle to Zeus as it's created, so the units it spawns are always editable. Several of ALiVE's bundled example missions also run a script in initServer.sqf that adds everything to Zeus every 10 seconds. If you built on one of those, take that loop out as well.

To keep ALiVE's units out of Zeus, put the script below in the mission's initServer.sqf. It switches off the hook that adds them, then strips anything already added. Everything the Virtual AI System spawns carries a profile ID, which is what the filter uses. Units you place yourself, or with Zeus, stay editable.

[] spawn {
    waitUntil {!isNil "ALiVE_fnc_ZeusRegister"};
    ALiVE_fnc_ZeusRegister = {};
    sleep 10;
    private _profiled = (allUnits + vehicles) select {(_x getVariable ["profileID", ""]) != ""};
    { _x removeCuratorEditableObjects [_profiled, true] } forEach allCurators;
};

More: Zeus Spawn Virtual Groups

How do I make AI spawn near something other than a player, like a UAV or a scouting object?

Players and connected UAVs spawn AI already, and so does the Zeus camera if Zeus Spawn Virtual Groups is on. An AI Commander's aircraft in the air also spawns the enemy's anti-air near it (Air Defence Spawning), and with Kill Box Markers on, a map marker whose text starts with KILLBOX keeps the area around it spawned while a player is within 10 km. Nothing else does. To add anything else, push the object itself (not its classname) into ALiVE's list of spawn sources with the line below. It runs on the server, after the Virtual AI System has started, since starting it empties the list.

ALiVE takes nothing out of that list itself, apart from the markers it makes for Kill Box Markers, and only a deleted object stops counting. A dead unit or a body still counts, so a scout that gets killed keeps waking up the AI around it until you deal with it. When a source is no longer wanted, take it out of the list with ALiVE_SpawnSources = ALiVE_SpawnSources - [myScoutObject], or delete the object.

if (isServer) then {
    waitUntil {!isNil "ALiVE_SpawnSources"};
    ALiVE_SpawnSources pushBack myScoutObject;
};

More: Virtual AI System: Zeus Spawn Virtual Groups, Virtual AI System: Kill Box Markers, Virtual AI System: Air Defence Spawning

My client FPS dropped to single digits on a big mission. What should I check first?

1. Turn Enable Debug off on every ALiVE module. Debug markers are expensive to draw, and one mission went from 90 to 18 FPS with them on.
2. Cut the number of objectives with the placement filters and TAOR markers, since that's what drives how much ALiVE runs.
3. Leave the Active Limiter at its default of 144 groups. Raising it lets more groups spawn at once, which costs more, so only do it when the RPT says groups are waiting and the server can cope.

More: Virtual AI System: Enable Debug, Virtual AI System: Active Limiter, Military Placement: Objective Size Filter

Will a headless client make my ALiVE mission run better?

Only for AI that's actually spawned. The commanders, the virtual groups and the objectives all run on the server whatever you do, so a headless client doesn't speed those up.

Combat support assets stay on the server too. To use a headless client, set AI Distribution on ALiVE (Required) to Headless clients; the entry on AI that stutters or rubber-bands has the full steps.

More: ALiVE (Required): AI Distribution, Q&A: Keeping an ALiVE mission running smoothly, Q&A: Why does ALiVE's AI stutter or rubber-band?

Is my map indexed? It isn't on the list, or it's a variant of a map that is.

Open the map in the editor with ALiVE loaded and wait a few seconds for the ALiVE Index Viability notification. Good, Reduced or Poor means ALiVE has an index for the map. Critical nearly always means it hasn't: a map with no index can't score above 20. If you want to be certain, the ALiVE Index Viability block in the RPT says "Source: bundled" when an index was found and "Source: none" when it wasn't.

You can also search the Terrain Compatibility list, which matches on the map's display name and its classname. If the name you know doesn't find it, try the classname (Rung Sat Special Zone is vnx_rssz, for example). Typing worldName into the debug console gives you it. The list doesn't have a row for every map ALiVE carries an index for, so the notification is the surer test. Winter and other variants are separate maps with their own classnames, and each one needs its own index.

The Map Indexing Status spreadsheet on the old wiki stopped being updated, so it's missing every map indexed since. Newer indexes, Sa'hatra, Dibrova and Isla Pera among them, are in the ALiVE dev build only, so on the stable release those maps still have none. It works the other way too: Sturko, Sbeneh Outskirts and Nam2 had an index but no longer do, because the mods they need can't be got any more.

If the map has no index, you've got two options:

• Index it yourself, on the Index a Terrain page or with the Map Indexer module in game, then send it in so it's added to ALiVE for everyone. On a Workshop map, Index this terrain in the editor's ALiVE menu opens that page with the map filled in.
• Build the mission without the modules that need an index. Military Placement (Mil. Obj.) and Military Placement (Civ. Obj.) have no objectives to work from on an unindexed map, so place Military Placement (Cust. Obj.) and Military Placement (Cust. Civ. Obj.) where you want the fighting instead.

If you've put an index in your mission folder, the notification will still say Critical, because it only checks the indexes built into ALiVE. The mission itself will still use your index.

More: Terrain Compatibility, Index a Terrain, Map Indexer, Submit a Terrain: how to index a terrain, Custom Military Placement, Custom Civilian Objective

How do I test an index from Index a Terrain before I send it in?

Every finished job on Index a Terrain has an Index (zip) download. Inside is an x folder, the same one the in-game indexer makes, so you test it the same way:

1. Start a new mission on the terrain with a player unit, ALiVE (Required), the ALiVE Virtual AI System (debug on, Synchronisation Options set to Virtualize all editor placed units except synced units), and Military Placement (Mil. Obj.) and Military Placement (Civ. Obj.), both with debug on.
2. Save it, then copy the x folder from the zip into the mission's folder, next to mission.sqm.
3. Play it. It should load without errors, with units spawning in sensible places.

When you're happy with it, open the job on Index a Terrain and use Send it in.

More: Index a Terrain, Submit a Terrain

Can my mission use a newer index than the one ALiVE ships for a map?

Yes. ALiVE looks for a map's index files in the mission's own folder before it uses the ones it ships, so a newer index there wins for that mission. It's how you'd try a fresh online index of a map whose shipped index is old.

1. Make the index on the Index a Terrain page and download its zip.
2. Save your mission in the editor, so it's a folder with mission.sqm in it.
3. Copy the whole x folder from the zip into that folder, next to mission.sqm, keeping its folders as they are: x\alive\addons\main\static, fnc_analysis\data, fnc_strategic\indexes, mil_placement\clusters and civ_placement\clusters.
4. Play or preview the mission. You don't need to start Arma with -filePatching for this. The RPT shows a second SETTING UP MAP line when the mission's copy is the one in use.

The copy only applies to that mission, and only while the mission is a folder; inside a packed mission PBO the x folder has to go in the PBO too. The Eden notification about the map's index still describes the shipped one, so it can say Critical while your mission uses the new index. To make a newer index the one everyone gets, send it in on Submit a Terrain.

More: Index a Terrain, Submit a Terrain

Map indexing fails with a path error, 'ERROR with deWrp' or a blacklist error. What do I check?

Look in the RPT for the line "There was a problem, exiting indexing:". What follows it tells you what went wrong:

• ERROR - Cannot find @ALiVE folder: the indexer only works from a copy of ALiVE in a folder named exactly @ALiVE inside your Arma 3 install folder. A Workshop copy lives somewhere else, so copy the mod there and load that copy, with -filePatching on, for the indexing run.
• ERROR - Cannot find blacklist file: alive_object_blacklist.txt has to sit directly inside that @ALiVE folder. It comes with ALiVE, so copying the whole mod folder brings it along.
• ERROR - Path to map incorrect: Map PBO file path must name the terrain's file, relative to the Arma 3 install folder, with its extension (.pbo, or .ebo for an encrypted one). The default placeholder always fails.
• ERROR with deWrp: Windows couldn't start DeWrp, the tool that reads the terrain. On Operating System Windows 7, the default, the indexer always starts it in C:\Program Files (x86)\Mikero\DePboTools\bin, so that folder has to exist with DeWrp.exe directly in it whatever your PATH says. DeWrp is no longer in Mikero's free downloads, so download ALiVE's copy, unzip its 3 files there and unblock them (right-click, Properties); if you already have Mikero's tools in it, back up your own DePbo64.dll first. On Windows 10 it's found through your Windows PATH instead, which Arma only sees once Steam has been restarted after the change. The indexer's own log, @ALiVE\indexing\<map name>\log.txt, shows the command it tried. If Stratis indexes fine with the same setup (Map PBO file path set to Addons\map_stratis.pbo), the fault is in that terrain's files, not your setup.
• Nothing after the colon: the indexing extension didn't load. Turn BattlEye off for the run and let your antivirus allow the @ALiVE folder.

Everything the indexer needs is on the Submit a Terrain page, with a step-by-step run that covers what to do if it stops at Generating Sector Data.

If Arma crashes as soon as the scan starts, change Operating System on the module. On ALiVE builds from before 5 August 2026 that setting was ignored, as was Object Categorization, so update ALiVE first if changing it makes no difference. A warning that ALiVEPlugIn could not be found comes from ALiVE's persistence extension and has nothing to do with indexing. A "not found" warning for a file under fnc_analysis\data is just ALiVE noticing the map has no index yet.

To start again from scratch:

1. Delete the map's folder under @ALiVE\indexing. If a static data file is already there, the indexer skips object categorisation and won't rewrite Composition Environment.
2. Set the module up again and run the indexer.
3. When it finishes, the index is in @ALiVE\indexing\<map name>\x. Copy that x folder into your mission's folder, next to mission.sqm, to use it.

More: Map Indexer, Map PBO file path, Operating System, Composition Environment, Submit a Terrain: what the indexer needs, Download DeWrp for ALiVE map indexing (zip, 489 KB), Submit a Terrain: how to index a terrain

What does indexing a map actually do, and do I then have to use every objective?

An index is a list of the map's objects, from which ALiVE works out clusters: military sites and settlements that become objectives. Placement modules then pick from those, filtered by their TAOR Marker, Blacklist Marker and size and priority filters.

You don't use them all at once. Each placement module only takes what's inside its own area, so you can cover part of the map and add more modules later.

More: Map Indexer, Military Placement: TAOR Marker, Submit a Terrain: what each object category means

Which environment should I pick when I index a terrain?

The environment decides which set of compositions ALiVE uses on the map for camps, HQs, roadblocks and installations. Pick the one that matches how the terrain mostly looks:

• Urban, Woodland or Desert for most maps.
• Pacific for tropical islands such as Tanoa.
• Jungle for any Vietnam or Indochina map. With SOG Prairie Fire and ALiVE's optional SOG compositions loaded it uses those; without them it uses the Pacific compositions, so it's safe whether or not your players run SOG.
• Bocage for Spearhead 1944 maps.

On the Index a Terrain page, Measure it chooses for you from the ground, the trees and the Workshop description. It only chooses Jungle for SOG's own maps, so pick Jungle yourself for a Vietnam map from another mod. If it picks the wrong one, index the terrain again with the environment chosen yourself.

More: Index a Terrain, Submit a Terrain: how to index a terrain, Composition Environment

How do I report a bug so it gets fixed, and where do I find my RPT file?

Open an issue on the ALiVE GitHub tracker and attach the RPT log from the session where it happened. The log usually shows the cause. A report without one, especially one posted only on Discord, rarely gets fixed because there's nothing to trace.

1. Set Enable Debug to Yes on the module the problem involves, then play until it happens again. Most modules have their own switch; the one on ALiVE (Required) only affects the garbage collector.
2. Find the RPT: type %localappdata%\Arma 3 into File Explorer's address bar and take the newest .rpt file. If you launch Arma with your own profiles folder, the RPT is in that folder instead.
3. For a multiplayer problem, get the server's RPT too. A dedicated server writes it to the folder its -profiles parameter points at, or to the same AppData folder on the server machine if it has no such parameter.
4. Save the mission unbinarised: in Eden, open Attributes > General, untick Binarize the Scenario File and save. Scenario > Open Scenario Folder shows you where the mission.sqm is.
5. Open an issue on the tracker. Say what you saw, what you expected and whether it happens every time, then attach the RPT, the mission.sqm and screenshots of the module settings involved.

Keep an eye on the issue afterwards. A quick answer to a follow-up question is often the difference between a fix and a report that goes nowhere.

More: ALiVE issue tracker, ALiVE (Required): Enable Debug

Another mod (sounds, radios, civilian interaction) misbehaves when ALiVE is loaded. What should I do?

Make sure every machine runs the same mods, then find out whether it's really ALiVE by taking the other mods away.

1. Load ALiVE on every player's machine, the server and any headless client. A player without it misses ALiVE's menus and actions, and any difference in mods between two machines is the first thing to rule out.
2. Try the mission with only ALiVE, CBA and the mods your units come from. If the problem goes, add your other mods back one at a time until it returns.
3. Report it with the RPT from the player who saw the problem, plus a list of the mods that were loaded.

One known case is fixed. On builds from before 9 July 2026, when one player ran ALiVE and another didn't, each could stop hearing the other's gunfire and seeing them fire, which looked like a fault in their sound mod. Update ALiVE, or have everyone load it.

More: ALiVE issue tracker, Ambient Civilian Population

How do I count ALiVE's virtual groups, soldiers and objectives per side, or get their positions, from a script?

Ask ALiVE's profile system, on the server. Every ALiVE group has a profile whether it's virtual or spawned in, so counting profiles gives you the lot. Don't add a count of spawned groups on top, or you'll count them twice.

The code below prints groups, soldiers and vehicles for each side, then how many objectives each commander has. Run it on the server: Server Exec in the debug console, or Local Exec in singleplayer. Player groups are left out.

{
    private _side = _x;
    private _groups = 0;
    private _men = 0;
    private _vehicles = 0;
    {
        private _profile = [ALiVE_profileHandler, "getProfile", _x] call ALiVE_fnc_profileHandler;
        if (!isNil "_profile") then {
            if (([_profile, "type"] call ALiVE_fnc_hashGet) == "entity") then {
                if !([_profile, "isPlayer", false] call ALiVE_fnc_hashGet) then {
                    _groups = _groups + 1;
                    _men = _men + count ([_profile, "unitClasses", []] call ALiVE_fnc_hashGet);
                };
            } else {
                _vehicles = _vehicles + 1;
            };
        };
    } forEach ([ALiVE_profileHandler, "getProfilesBySide", _side] call ALiVE_fnc_profileHandler);
    (format ["%1: %2 groups, %3 soldiers, %4 vehicles", _side, _groups, _men, _vehicles]) remoteExec ["systemChat", 0];
} forEach ["WEST", "EAST", "GUER"];

{
    (format ["%1 commander: %2 objectives", [_x, "side", ""] call ALiVE_fnc_hashGet, count ([_x, "objectives", []] call ALiVE_fnc_hashGet)]) remoteExec ["systemChat", 0];
} forEach (missionNamespace getVariable ["OPCOM_instances", []]);

// A profile's position:
// [_profile, "position"] call ALiVE_fnc_hashGet

// Trigger condition (Server Only): any EAST group within 500 m, virtual or not
// count ([getPos thisTrigger, 500, ["EAST", "entity"]] call ALiVE_fnc_getNearProfiles) > 0

For positions, read a profile's position, or ask for the profiles near a point. The last line works as a trigger condition, but only on a trigger set to Server Only, because the profiles live on the server.

More: Virtualisation & Spawning, Military AI Commander, Event Reference

Can my scripts react to ALiVE events, like objectives changing hands or installations being destroyed?

Yes. ALiVE raises events for commander orders, tasks, logistics, air and artillery requests, kills and more, and your script can listen for any of them on the server. The Event Reference lists every event with the data it carries, and the Hue Defence and Operation Cobra scenarios each include a working listener.

For objectives changing hands, poll instead, because the commander events describe orders rather than who holds what. Every so often, go through each commander's objectives and ask whether that commander's side holds them, as in the first half of the code below. A yes means fewer than three enemies are near the objective and the groups sent to hold it haven't been wiped out, so an objective nobody has reached yet can read as held too.

The same check works for something like a respawn point once players have cleared an objective: it turns true when fewer than three enemies are within 300 m, even though the objective hasn't changed hands. Pick the objective nearest a marker of yours, wait until the check is true, then create the respawn marker.

When an insurgent factory, recruitment HQ or weapons depot is destroyed or dismantled, ALiVE raises an event naming the type, the building and who did it: the player who dismantled it, or whoever destroyed the building. It fires on every machine, so the handler in the second half of the code works anywhere.

// Who holds what: run on the server
[] spawn {
    waitUntil {!isNil "ALiVE_REQUIRE_INITIALISED"};
    while {true} do {
        {
            private _side = [_x, "side", ""] call ALiVE_fnc_hashGet;
            {
                private _held = [_x, _side, 300, false] call ALiVE_fnc_isHeldObjective;
                // compare _held with last time and react here
            } forEach ([_x, "objectives", []] call ALiVE_fnc_hashGet);
        } forEach (missionNamespace getVariable ["OPCOM_instances", []]);
        sleep 30;
    };
};

// Installation destroyed or dismantled: works on any machine
["ASYMM_INSTALLATION_DESTROYED", {
    params ["_type", "_building", "_killer"];   // _type is "factory", "hq" or "depot"
    private _who = if (_killer isKindOf "Man") then {name _killer} else {"an unknown attacker"};
    systemChat format ["%1 at %2 taken out by %3", _type, mapGridPosition _building, _who];
}] call CBA_fnc_addEventHandler;

More: Event Reference, Military AI Commander

Where do I put a script line so it runs when the mission starts?

1. In Eden, choose Scenario > Open Scenario Folder.
2. Create a text file called init.sqf there if there isn't one already. Check Windows hasn't called it init.sqf.txt.
3. Put your line in it and save. It runs on every machine when the mission starts, and on the machine of each player who joins later. For lines that should only run on the server, use initServer.sqf instead.

The Init field in the mission's Attributes > General also runs on every machine at the start, so it's fine for a simple line too.

If the value is one an ALiVE module already sets from its own settings, such as a module's debug switch, change the module's setting instead. The module applies its settings as it starts up, after your line, and overwrites it. To run something once ALiVE has finished starting, wrap it like this:

[] spawn {
    waitUntil {!isNil "ALiVE_REQUIRE_INITIALISED"};
    // your line here
};

More: ALiVE (Required): Enable Debug, Event Reference

Which AI mods work well alongside ALiVE, for example for AI artillery?

Players on the Discord report good results with:

• LAMBS Danger for how AI see and react, with VCOM handling assaults if you run both (turn VCOM's own sight and hearing changes off).
• Drongo's AI Fire Support or LAMBS for artillery from groups ALiVE doesn't direct.

For the commander's own artillery, use ALiVE's AI Commander Artillery module.

More: AI Commander Artillery

How do I check which ALiVE build I'm running, for a bug report or after a Workshop update?

Look near the top of the RPT from that session for the ALiVE version line; searching for built for Arma finds it. Every mission start writes one like ALiVE 3.2.0.<build> DEV | built for Arma 2.22 build <number> | running on 2.22 build <number>. Builds from before mid-August 2026 don't write it.

• The build number is the date the build was made (year, month, day) followed by that day's build count, so a later date means a newer build.
• DEV marks a development build; a release build says RELEASE.
• built for is the Arma version ALiVE was made against, and running on is the one you have loaded. If they differ after an Arma update, say so in your report.

Paste the whole line into any bug report.

More: Q&A: How do I report a bug and find my RPT?, Q&A: Steam says ALiVE has updated but I have the old version

Why is Debug Console greyed out in ALiVE's Admin Actions?

In multiplayer it only opens for a logged-in admin or when the mission allows the debug console. Either log in with #login and the server's admin password, or add enableDebugConsole = 1; to the mission's description.ext (or enableDebugConsole[] = {"your Steam UID"}; to allow only the players listed). In single player it always works.

More: Admin Actions

Do AI mods like LAMBS override the AI Commander's orders?

ALiVE has nothing special for LAMBS or any other AI mod, and they don't clash in the setup. While a group is virtual, an AI mod never sees it. When it spawns near players it becomes an ordinary group, given the waypoints ALiVE has for it, and from then on an AI mod's combat behaviour works on it like any other group.

When it despawns, ALiVE takes its waypoints back from the group as they are then. So an AI mod that moves a group about in a fight but leaves its waypoints alone doesn't change the orders, and the group carries on with them afterwards. One that adds or removes waypoints changes what the profile is left with.

If you want the commander's groups left to ALiVE alone, check your AI mod's options for turning it off per group.

Alt + left-click on the map teleports me. Is that ALiVE?

No. Alt + left-click on the map is the game's own teleport when you play a mission from the Eden editor (Play Scenario). It isn't there on a server or in an exported mission.

ALiVE's own teleport is in Admin Actions: a plain click on the map, with no Alt, and only while you've switched it on from the menu. If Alt + click teleports you on a server, look at a script in the mission or another mod; some admin and cheat menus add the same thing.

More: Admin Actions