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ALiVE.OS · ALiVE 3 Development

Modules at a glance

Every module you can place in Eden, with the icon it shows there, what it does and what it syncs to.

Living document · ALiVE 3

ALiVE 3 is in active development. This briefing describes work in progress, and the behaviour it covers is subject to change as testing continues. Check the changelog at the foot of the page for what has moved recently.

On this page

Overview

Finding them in Eden

ALiVE is built from modules you place in the Eden editor. They're all in one place: open the Systems tab (F5), then Modules, then ALiVE. Each one below shows the icon you'll see on the map and in that list, the name Eden gives it, what it does and what it needs syncing to.

Most of ALiVE finds the modules it needs wherever they're placed, so only a few need sync lines: objectives into the commander, the modules that serve a commander, and support modules into Player Combat Support. The diagram shows how the pieces fit, and the second one shows every sync that matters.

Map

The modules and their jobs

Each icon is the one Eden shows. Pick one to read what it does further down.

How it fits together

Which modules sync to which

A sync line only matters where a module reads it, and most of ALiVE finds the modules it needs wherever they're placed. So the lines to draw are few: objectives into the commander, the modules that serve a commander, and the support modules into Player Combat Support.

  • Placement modules and the commanderA Military AI Commander takes its objectives only from the placement modules synced to it (Mil. Obj., Cust. Obj., Civ. Obj. and Cust. Civ. Obj.) and from Eden location logics synced to it. With none, it has no objectives and never starts. A custom objective with Force Factions left empty takes its factions from every commander it's synced to. A Garrison Obj. is ignored even if synced: its infantry hold their spot, but a vehicle it places can still be sent elsewhere.
  • Military Logistics and the commanderLogistics reinforces and resupplies only the commanders synced to it, and one module can serve several commanders of one side. With nothing synced it warns in the RPT and does nothing. Logistics itself ignores anything else synced to it, so a Logistics Hub can be synced to it alongside the commander.
  • Player Combat Support and its support modulesEach CAS, Transport, Ground Transport or Artillery support module synced to Player Combat Support adds one asset to the players' menu. One left unsynced does nothing, and nothing says so. A vehicle you place and sync to it joins as it is: an aircraft as CAS unless its CS_TYPE says otherwise, and a ground gun only with CS_TYPE set to arty, or it's dropped with a line in the RPT. A vehicle you place and sync to one of the four support modules becomes that asset where it stands, crewed if it's empty: an aircraft for CAS or Transport, a ground vehicle for Ground, a gun and its group for Artillery. Without one the module builds its asset at its own position.
  • Air Component Commander and the commanderSynced, it takes that commander's factions as its own, flies their aircraft and answers their requests, and its airfield becomes one of that commander's objectives. Unsynced, it still answers a commander whose first faction is its own Faction. With the Virtual AI System's default settings, aircraft placed in Eden have to be synced to it before the air commander can take them over.
  • Custom Faction Group CategorySynced to one soldier of each template group you built in Eden and to the Faction Compiler, it adds those groups to the compiled faction under its category.
  • Faction Compiler and a placement moduleSynced to Mil. Obj., Cust. Obj., Civ. Obj., Cust. Civ. Obj., Garrison Obj. or an air commander, its faction replaces the module's own (on a custom objective it replaces Force Factions). Typing the Faction ID into a placement module's faction field does not work: sync the compiler. One compiler per module; sync two and both are ignored, with a warning. A commander that should use the faction needs its Faction ID in Additional Factions.
  • C2ISTAR and the commanderWith Display Map Intel on and the commander's side ticked in Commander Intel Sides, that commander's spot reports go on the map. C2ISTAR's tasks and tablet don't need the sync.
  • CQB and placements or a commanderSynced to placement modules, CQB fills buildings inside their objectives. Synced to a commander, it covers the whole map with that commander's Factions list, not its Additional Factions; under an Asymmetric commander its houses start switched off and come on around insurgent installations. Anything else synced, a Faction Compiler included, is ignored with a warning, and with nothing synced it uses its CQB locations setting.
  • IED Threat and the commanderSyncing swaps its settings. Synced to a commander, it rigs settlements once at the start from Starting IED Threat, and places suicide bombers and car bombs from Suicide Bomber Threat and Vehicle Borne IED Threat; with an Asymmetric commander, Insurgents Send Bombers also lets insurgent groups send a bomber after a player they've spotted. Unsynced, it ignores that and uses IED Threat, Suicide Bomber Threat and Vehicle Borne IED Threat. Insurgent IEDs come either way.
  • Commander Artillery and the commanderUnsynced, one module serves every side that no synced module has claimed. Synced to a commander, it serves that commander's side only, so two modules can tune two sides separately.
  • A trigger and the commanderAn Invasion or Occupation commander starts no new attacks until every Trigger synced to it has fired.
  • Player FOBs, its Field HQs and FOB TypesEvery object synced to Player FOBs, a crate, a building, a vehicle or a unit, becomes a Field HQ, where players get Request FOB Kit and Request Supply Crate. With none, kits and crates come from the Player Combat Logistics tablet or are placed in Eden. A FOB Types module synced to it gives kits a choice of types. Player FOBs reads no other sync: it finds the commanders and Military Logistics wherever they're placed.
  • Rally Points and its rally pointsEvery object synced to Rally Points, a flagpole, a tent or a vehicle, becomes a rally point players can travel between. With none synced it still works when Side HQs or Player FOB Rally Points are on, or with objects of the classes in Rally Point Classes. It finds the placement modules' HQs and Player FOBs without a sync.
  • Logistics Hub (add-on) and the logistics modulesEvery object synced to a Logistics Hub, a crate, a container or a building, becomes a hub for the module's Side. Synced to Player Combat Logistics, it lets players of that side standing at a hub collect a requisition there, with no delivery. Synced to Military Logistics, each hub becomes a supply point that convoys can leave from. Sync it to either or both; one left out keeps that part off. A sync that leads nowhere, such as no Military Logistics serving the hub's side, only warns in the RPT.
  • Syncs to your own units and objectsALiVE Virtual AI System runs the Eden groups synced to it, or leaves them alone, depending on Synchronisation Options. Recruitment puts a Recruit action for each of its unit classes on every object or unit synced to it, and does nothing with none. Player Multispawn uses the vehicles synced to it, Player Logistics (Settings) takes the logistics actions off objects synced to it, and Class Picker works on the placement modules synced to it.

Placed anywhere, no sync. ALiVE (Required), ALiVE Data, ALiVE Player Options, Civilian Population, Civilian Placement, Military AI, Ambient Dynamic Weather, Persistent Craters, Map Indexer, ALiVE Tour and ALiVE ORBAT Creator read no sync lines. Every placement module and commander needs the Virtual AI System in the mission, Civilian Placement needs Civilian Population, and Player Combat Logistics needs a Military Logistics module, all without a sync.

Every mission

Every mission

Place these first. Every ALiVE mission needs ALiVE (Required), and the Virtual AI System runs the forces the placement modules put on the map.

ALiVE (Required)

The one module every ALiVE mission needs. It starts the services the whole mission shares and holds the settings that apply to all of it.

ALiVE Virtual AI System

How ALiVE runs a whole battlefield in the background and brings units into play near you, rebuilt for smoother performance and faster spawning.

Syncs toOptional: Eden groups it should run or leave alone

Objectives

Ground to fight over

Placement modules put forces on objectives. Synced to a Military AI Commander, their objectives become the ones it fights over.

Military Placement (Mil. Obj.)

Places a full AI military force, from squads to armour to artillery, into an objective area from any installed faction.

Syncs toA Military AI Commander

Military Placement (Civ. Obj.)

Garrisons the map's towns and civilian infrastructure with a defending military force built from ALiVE's own shipped objective index data.

Syncs toA Military AI Commander

Military Placement (Cust. Civ. Obj.)

Hand-place a civilian objective on any map, even unindexed ones, and generate a defending military force around it.

Syncs toA Military AI Commander

Military Placement (Garrison Obj.)

Puts a hand-picked garrison exactly where you put the module, instead of letting ALiVE choose the spot.

Syncs toNothing: a commander ignores it even if synced

Commanders

The AI commanders and what serves them

One Military AI Commander per side runs the war. The rest add to what it can do.

Military AI Commander

The virtual AI high command that captures objectives, defends ground, recruits troops and runs insurgent campaigns without a player micromanaging every group.

Syncs toTakes its objectives from the placement modules synced to it

Military Logistics

AI-run convoys, helicopter lifts, slingload and paradrops that keep the battlefield resupplied and reinforced.

Syncs toThe commanders it serves

Military AI Commander Artillery

Lets your AI commander call in real artillery fire missions against contacts it has actually detected.

Syncs toOptional: one commander, to serve that side only

Military Air Component Commander

Flies your faction's aircraft on its own: patrols, strikes, reconnaissance and air defence, launched from your airfields and recovered onto their own stands.

Syncs toOptional: a commander, to take its factions

Military Close Quarters Battle

Garrisons AI defenders inside and around buildings near an objective for close-quarters firefights.

Syncs toPlacement modules, or a commander

Military IED Threat

Seeds an area with roadside IEDs, vehicle-borne bombs and suicide bombers for asymmetric, insurgency-style threats.

Syncs toOptional: a commander, which swaps its settings

Civilians

Civilians

Life in the towns, and how it reacts to you.

Civilian Placement

Populates a mission area with individual civilians, civilian vehicles and animals around existing settlements and objectives.

Civilian Population

Civilians who talk, surrender, panic, flee, and remember how you treated them.

Players

For players

What players use in the mission: tasks and intel, support on call, deliveries, recruits, forward bases and respawns.

Player Command/Control (C2ISTAR)

Runs the mission's task engine, intel map and player command tools for every side.

Syncs toOptional: a commander, for its spot reports on the map

Player Combat Support

The player-facing tablet for calling in CAS, artillery, air and ground transport on demand.

Syncs toNothing: its CAS, Transport, Player Combat Support (Ground Transport) and Artillery modules sync to it

Player Combat Support (CAS)

Defines an on-call CAS aircraft that players can task from the Combat Support radio menu.

Syncs toPlayer Combat Support

Player Combat Support (Transport)

A transport helicopter players call from the Combat Support tablet for pickups, insertions, paradrops, medevac and slingloading.

Syncs toPlayer Combat Support

Player Combat Support (Ground Transport)

A crewed truck, armoured car or APC players order from the Combat Support tablet: pick up, move, patrol a road, or go home, checking the road for IEDs and mines on the way.

Syncs toPlayer Combat Support

Player Combat Logistics

Lets players call in vehicles, reinforcement groups and supply drops from a tablet, restricted to the factions and delivery methods a mission maker allows.

Syncs toNothing, but Military Logistics must be synced to your side's commander

Logistics Hub

Turns crates, containers and buildings into hubs where players collect a tablet requisition on the spot, and the AI Commander's convoys set out from.

Syncs toThe objects that are hubs, and Player Combat Logistics, Military Logistics or both

Recruitment

Lets players recruit AI soldiers into their own group at objects the mission maker chooses.

Syncs toThe objects or units players recruit at

Player FOBs

Players deploy their own forward operating bases, build them up from supply, and have to hold them: enemy commanders hunt them and can take them.

Syncs toOptional: the objects players get FOB kits and supply crates at (Field HQ)

FOB Types

Gives a FOB kit a choice of types, such as a fire base or a patrol base, each with its own headquarters, build list, who may deploy it, limit, cost and map marker.

Syncs toPlayer FOBs

Rally Points

Lets players, and a group leader's AI, travel between rally points: synced objects, each side's HQs and its Player FOBs.

Syncs toThe objects players travel between (optional: HQs and Player FOBs count too)

Player Multispawn

Gives mission makers extra respawn options for players beyond the default Arma respawn screen.

ALiVE Player Options

The in-mission menu where players adjust view distance, tags and persistence settings, opened with the ALiVE key.

ALiVE Tour

A walk-up-and-learn introduction to ALiVE for new players.

World

World, AI and saving

Settings that shape the whole mission.

Military AI

Set AI accuracy, reactions and courage per faction, and let soldiers take cover and fire back on their own.

Ambient Dynamic Weather

Sets a climate for the mission and lets weather drift naturally over time instead of staying fixed.

Persistent Craters

Shells, rockets and bombs leave craters that stay, and the big ones dig into the ground.

ALiVE Data

Saves mission state to a database so a campaign can pick up where it left off, and powers the stats and performance tracking other modules rely on.

Tools

Tools for mission makers

For building factions, lists and map data.

Map Indexer

Builds the object and objective data new maps need before other ALiVE modules can use them.

ALiVE ORBAT Creator

Build custom factions and orders of battle directly in the editor, then export them as ready-to-use config code.

ALiVE Custom Faction Compiler

Turn hand-placed Eden template groups into a real ALiVE faction that placement modules and the air commander can spawn from.

Syncs toA placement module or an air commander, whose faction it replaces

ALiVE Custom Faction Group Category

Sorts the template groups synced to it into one ALiVE category (Infantry, Motorized, Armored, Air and the rest) for the Custom Faction Compiler.

Syncs toOne soldier of each template group, and the Faction Compiler

Class Picker

Build the lists ALiVE asks you to type by looking at things in the world instead of hunting for classnames.

Changelog

Updates to this page

  • 2026-10-12
    Page first published.