Combat Support

Capabilities

What it handles

How to use it

Getting started

1. Place the Player Combat Support modulePlace one Player Combat Support module anywhere in Eden. It works mission-wide, and a mission can only have one.
2. Sync it to the support modules you wantSync Player Combat Support to any of Player Combat Support (CAS), (Transport), (Ground Transport) and (Artillery). Only synced assets show up on the tablet.
3. Or sync your own vehicles insteadPlace the aircraft or gun, sync it to Player Combat Support and set its job in its init field: this setVariable ["CS_TYPE", "transport"];. Aircraft take cas, transport or hybrid (both); a gun must be arty. Optional: CS_CALLSIGN, CS_HEIGHT, CS_CODE, plus CS_CONTAINERS and CS_SLINGLOADING for transports. Or skip the variable and sync it to its own support module.
4. Set who can open the tabletUnder ACCESS, pick Access Item Categories (Laser Designators by default) or add classnames in Custom Access Items. Set Support Access to First player only (the default: one operator per side) or All players. Under MISC, Share With Friendly Sides (Yes) lets players use the supports of sides friendly to theirs; set No to keep each side's to itself.
5. Set asset replacement limitsUnder ASSET REPLACEMENT, set Respawn Time (s) (600 seconds by default) and the CAS, Transport, Ground Transport and Artillery respawn limits (3 each by default). A limit of 0 turns replacement off for that kind; leave it blank for no limit. Each asset's own module can override the time and limit for that asset.
6. Optionally let players call the AI Commander's artillerySet Commander artillery on call to Mortars only or All, and make sure a Military AI Commander Artillery module serves the players' side. On the tablet, pick ARTY, then Commander's guns, choose a round and click a grid one of its batteries reaches. The commander sets rate of fire and dispersion, so only Rapid is offered.
7. Get an access item and open the tabletAs a player, carry an access item (the Combat Support Tablet always works) and pick Player Combat Support from the ALiVE menu, or Combat Support in the ACE self-interaction menu. With a C2ISTAR module in the mission it's under Commander Actions > Combat Support. On First player only, just the side's current operator sees it. Near a transport, Talk To Pilot (helicopter) or Talk To Driver (ground transport) opens the tablet with that vehicle already picked.
8. Call in support and check replacementRequest CAS (Attack, Search and Destroy or Loiter), an artillery fire mission (or Relocate Battery), or a transport order (you can type an 8-digit grid). On a transport's page, pick an Escort first if you want one. Then destroy an asset and check it's replaced after the Respawn Time (s).

Settings

Every setting, and what it does

These settings decide who can call in CAS, transport and artillery, and what they need to carry to do it. They also control how often destroyed support assets are replaced and whether requests come with radio chatter.

Presets that use this module: Combat support: CAS, transport and artillery on call, Ground convoy: transport, escort and recruits. Place one in the editor to see it set up.

Quick setups

Recent work

What's changed lately

• A transport can take another support vehicle as its escortThe Transport and Ground Transport pages have an Escort box. Pick an attack helicopter or armed transport helicopter for air, or an armed ground transport for ground, give the transport its order, and the escort goes with it, weapons free. An air escort flies 150 m behind and circles overhead while the transport hovers or lands. A ground escort drives 40 m behind. It goes home when the transport does.
• Ground transport, a fourth support typeA truck, armoured car or APC waits for orders on the tablet: Pickup, Move, Road patrol and Return to base. The crew checks the road for IEDs and mines. Pickup and Move can now leave the road for a spot up to 150 m away, and Talk To Driver opens the tablet on the vehicle you are in or looking at.
• Call the AI Commander's gunsWith Commander artillery on call set to Mortars only or All, the Artillery list gets a Commander's guns row. Pick a round, click a grid, and a ready battery of the commander on your side fires on it. The commander's cooldown, ammunition and friendly check still apply, and the HQ answers by radio.
• Relocate Battery on the artillery pageA battery that can move shows Relocate Battery while it sits idle. Click the map and press it: a self-propelled gun drives there, and a mortar team packs its tubes, carries them and sets up again. That spot becomes its home. A battery that can't fire now says so on the radio instead of calling a splash for rounds that never left, and the 3CB M270 fires.
• Placed vehicles and per-asset respawn timesSync an aircraft, vehicle or gun you placed to its CAS, Transport, Ground Transport or Artillery module and it becomes that asset where it stands. Each of those modules also has its own Respawn Time and Respawn Limit; left empty, they follow the Combat Support module. The Combat Support Respawn Time is now typed in seconds.
• The tablet and radio read in your languageButtons, headings, task names and radio messages follow the game's language: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian and both Chinese scripts.

Status

Where it stands

Testing

How you can help

Place a Combat Support module and sync it to SUP CAS, SUP Transport and/or SUP Artillery modules, then check that a player carrying a qualifying item (default: a laser designator) sees the tablet menu, and one without a qualifying item does not. With the default Support Access of First player only, only the one operator per side sees the menu even if other players carry an item, and that slot goes to the first player on the side whether or not they carry one, so set Support Access to All players for this check or test with the operator. Try the Custom Access Items field with a classname that is not in any stock category and confirm it grants access on its own. Test both Support Access modes: with "First player only" set, confirm only the current operator can dispatch requests, and that the slot passes to another player if the operator disconnects; with "All players" set, confirm every tablet holder can call support. Call in CAS, artillery and a transport pickup in the same session on a dedicated server (not just a hosted or local test) to confirm all three respond and the access setting is honoured. Destroy a CAS aircraft, a transport aircraft and an artillery piece in turn, and confirm each is replaced after the configured respawn time up to its configured limit, and that setting a limit to zero stops replacement. Use "Talk To Pilot" on a nearby transport aircraft to arrange a pickup, and try requesting a pickup by typing an 8-digit grid coordinate (for example 04604900) instead of clicking the map. Watch the RPT for script errors when opening the tablet, especially via the ACE self-interaction menu and immediately after joining in progress. For transport insertion, set a height well away from the default, mark a point at least two kilometres out, and confirm the helicopter arrives at that height and stays there for the whole hover rather than climbing back up. Try the low end of the slider, and a point on sloping ground, where the height is measured from the ground beneath the aircraft rather than from the spot you marked. To try the commander's guns, set Commander artillery on call to All, sync a Military AI Commander Artillery module to the commander on your side, pick Commander's guns in the Artillery list, and click a grid in range of one of its batteries. Confirm should stay off for a grid none of them reaches, and a grid with friendlies near it should be refused by radio before any rounds are spent. To try an escort, leave an attack helicopter or armed ground vehicle standing by, open the transport's page, pick it in the Escort box and give the transport a move order; the escort should trail it and come home when the transport does. For a ground transport, give a Move order to a spot 100 m off the road and check it leaves the road for the last stretch. Pick a battery that can move, click the map and press Relocate Battery.

Changelog

Updates to this page

• 2026-11-03
  A ground transport waiting at the end of a Move order can be sent home with Return to Base. Before, the button was greyed out and only another Move order would shift it; it still stays off while the transport is at its base (within 75 m).
• 2026-11-02
  Combat Support now waits for the map's data to finish loading before it starts, as the Civilian Population module now does, so it never starts with half its lists missing.
• 2026-10-31
  New setting Share With Friendly Sides. Yes, the default, works as before; No keeps each side's transport, CAS, artillery and ground support to its own players.
• 2026-10-30
  A transport helicopter that has landed back at base now starts its engine for a sling-load or drop order, instead of sitting on the pad with the order.
• 2026-10-30
  Combat Support's messages on the Radio Log page now show in full, newest first, on one scrolling page.
• 2026-10-30
  Sling-load now hooks the cargo you picked on the tablet: picking the first cargo moves the marker onto it, and the helicopter takes the nearest load it can lift within 15 m. After dropping a load it flies back to base.
• 2026-10-29
  Combat Support's radio messages are kept on the map's Radio Log page too, whichever way you chose to see them (chat, subtitle or hint).
• 2026-10-29
  Each of your side's support units shows on every map, and on the tablet's, as an ALiVE unit pin with its callsign. Pins follow their unit every 2 s and go when it's destroyed.
• 2026-10-29
  The tablet's map now shows ALiVE's map layer, so Logistics Hubs, FOBs and rally points appear on it too.
• 2026-10-29
  Tablet hints and status lines are white and a size larger. Available reads light green; killed, out of ammo and immobile read light red.
• 2026-10-29
  The tablet's GRID label and the digits typed beside it are white now, and the entry box has a dark fill that shows where to type.
• 2026-10-29
  The CAS task hints are white, a little larger and about half as long, so the Attack hint no longer runs to three cramped lines.
• 2026-10-28
  A CAS plane that starts on the ground at an airfield whose only taxi route is the runway itself, such as Kunduz River's main airfield, now starts on the runway at the nearer end, facing down it, and comes back there when it respawns. Before, it drove cross-country through a fence. Placed 60 m off the Kunduz runway, it was in the air 63 seconds after the call. Airfields with a proper taxi route, and planes already on the runway, are left as they are.
• 2026-10-27
  The tablet now looks like kit from the mission's war: a modern tablet, a Cold War field terminal, a Vietnam map case or a 1943 map case, picked from the mission's terrain and units. Addon Options -> ALiVE -> Game -> Tablet style overrides it.
• 2026-10-25
  The tablet's grid box, Set and Terrain buttons now line up with the right edge of the map and sit on the top edge of the screen, on both the toughbook and the map bag.
• 2026-10-25
  Players see the callsign set on a Combat Support asset. It was only renamed on the server, so players saw the game's own names like "Alpha 3-6". Players who join later see it too (#1096).
• 2026-10-24
  Picking a helicopter, vehicle, aircraft or battery from the tablet's unit list now slides the map to it, keeping your zoom.
• 2026-10-24
  With subtitles or hints, radio lines that arrive close together now show one after another instead of replacing each other. Each stays up 4 to 10 seconds, depending on its length.
• 2026-10-24
  Combat Support's radio messages now follow your Addon Options choice, Task and radio updates: a subtitle (the default) or a hint from HQ. Pick Chat lines to keep them in side chat.
• 2026-10-24
  ALiVE's own map pins (Addon Options, Map pins and markers) now cover Combat Support's pickup points, ground transport markers and strike targets.
• 2026-10-22
  Transports can take an escort, from Eric: the transport and ground transport panels have an Escort box listing your side's attack helicopters, armed transport helicopters or armed ground transports standing by. The escort follows weapons free, circles while the transport lands, and goes home with it.
• 2026-10-19
  Ground transport no longer hangs on an order to a point whose nearest road is 100 to 200 m away.
• 2026-10-19
  Ground transport sent to a spot off the road (Move or Pickup) now drives to the road, then off it to the spot itself when it's up to 150 m away with no water or steep slope on the way. Before, the spot was moved onto the road.
• 2026-10-19
  The Combat Support radio has a Back button beside Close that opens the C2ISTAR menu (hidden when the mission has no C2ISTAR).
• 2026-10-19
  New Paradrop task for transport helicopters: mark a drop zone, pick a drop height from 150 to 500 m, and it flies there and puts its passengers out on static lines, one a second, straight into open parachutes with their backpacks still on. It waits until it's over the zone at that height, flies out 1.5 km first when it starts close by, keeps its crew, door gunners and anyone unconscious aboard, and holds over the zone afterwards.
• 2026-10-18
  Ground transport has a Talk To Driver action, like Talk To Pilot for helicopters. From inside the vehicle, or looking at it within 50 m, it opens the tablet on the ground transport page with that vehicle selected.
• 2026-10-18
  A mortar team short of men to carry its tubes stays where it is and says so, and water is refused. Needs the artillery module's Allow Repositioning on.
• 2026-10-18
  A battery that can move has Relocate Battery on its page of the Combat Support radio while idle, in place of the greyed RTB button. Click the map, press it, and a gun drives there or a mortar team packs its tubes, carries them and sets up again. That spot becomes its home.
• 2026-10-17
  The 3CB M270 now fires. Its launcher isn't on the turret the AI aims, so its crew ignored every artillery order. If a launcher hasn't fired or even turned 90 seconds after the order, its rockets are launched from it by script, aimed for the distance, and that type of gun launches straight away on later missions. Within 5 m of the aim point at 3 km.
• 2026-10-17
  A battery that can't fire now says so on the radio, instead of calling "splash" for rounds that never left. The firing and splash calls wait for the first round that actually leaves.
• 2026-10-16
  New Commander artillery on call setting adds a Commander's guns row to the tablet's Artillery list, so players can call the AI Commander's own batteries at a grid. It's Off by default, so existing missions don't change.
• 2026-10-16
  Each call spends the commander's rounds and obeys its cooldown and friendly check. With the setting on, a side with one battery of its own no longer has it picked for it.
• 2026-10-16
  The CAS, Transport and Ground Transport modules can now use a vehicle you placed, as the Artillery module already could: sync an aircraft or ground vehicle to its module and it becomes that asset where it stands.
• 2026-10-16
  An artillery module can now use a gun you placed: sync the gun to it and the gun and its group become that battery.
• 2026-10-14
  Respawn Time is now typed in seconds, and each support asset can set its own respawn time and limit on its CAS, Transport, Artillery or Ground Transport module.
• 2026-10-14
  The transport pilot names the right colour for smoke from SOG, Spearhead, Global Mobilization and other mods.
• 2026-10-12
  Combat Support messages (not the operator, grid entry, wounded loaded) now show in the ALiVE message box, with the logo and the module's name as the title, instead of a plain hint.
• 2026-10-12
  Ground transport is the tablet's fourth support type, and the new Keep Order Markers setting keeps an order's destination (and both ends of a road patrol) on the ordering player's map while it runs.
• 2026-10-12
  Talk to Pilot opens the tablet on Transport with that helicopter selected, and the radio opens on a helicopter waiting at its smoke even when no CAS is placed.
• 2026-10-12
  Transport orders, SITREPs and the out-of-assets and back-on-station notices read in each player's language.
• 2026-10-12
  Transport task names on the tablet follow the game's language; a mission maker's own task without a translation shows by its name.
• 2026-10-12
  Artillery rate of fire and round count, CAS task names, weapon tags and loiter times on the tablet follow the game's language.
• 2026-10-12
  The rest of the tablet follows the game's language too: grid entry hints, transport slider and cargo labels, speed and rules-of-engagement lists, and map marker labels.
• 2026-10-12
  The tablet's dispersion, delay, CAS radius and altitude readouts follow the game's language.
• 2026-10-12
  The artillery "please respond" reminder is said at most three times, and a few radio lines and word choices were corrected.
• 2026-10-12
  Transport and CAS radio calls, and the orders players send from the tablet, read in each player's own language.
• 2026-10-12
  The Combat Support tablet's buttons, headings and task descriptions follow the game's language (seven languages).
• 2026-10-11
  Combat Support keeps to its limit of three supply trucks at once: trucks sent for the air commander no longer free its places when they finish.
• 2026-10-11
  A CAS aircraft only uses weapons on a seat someone alive is in. A helicopter whose gunner is killed moves to what it has left or heads home, rather than hanging over the target until the attack time runs out.
• 2026-10-10
  Combat Support aircraft and artillery are refuelled to a full tank when resupplied, as the air commander's aircraft are, rather than to half.
• 2026-10-09
  A CAS aircraft's init code runs after the start-up refuel and re-arm, so fuel or ammo set there is no longer reset to full.
• 2026-10-08
  On a dedicated server, the radio notice that a support asset is out of replacements or back on station reaches its side again. It went to nobody.
• 2026-10-04
  A CAS jet parked at the start of a runway no longer takes off by itself at mission start: if it starts up on its own before it has a task, it is held on its spot until you give it one, and the RPT says which jet it was.
• 2026-10-04
  The loiter time you pick for a CAS aircraft on the tablet (10, 20 or 30 minutes) now ends its loiter: it flies home by itself, lands and parks on its stand. Pick Indefinite to keep it on station.
• 2026-10-04
  A parked CAS jet sent on an Attack now taxis and takes off from the runway at its own pace, and only speeds up for its run once it's in the air. Before, it could race off the runway across the grass and crash.
• 2026-10-04
  A CAS jet sent home now stays down after it lands: it's held once it slows below 60 km/h, put back on its own stand, and takes off again for its next task.
• 2026-10-04
  A two-seat CAS jet such as the S.O.G. F-4C Phantom now offers the bombs on its back-seat pylons in the CAS menu.
• 2026-10-03
  An Artillery module made by script without a gun type now gets the M4 Scorcher, the editor's default, rather than a Mk6 mortar.
• 2026-10-03
  A battery's rounds now come off only for shells that actually leave, so a mission the guns can't fire no longer empties it. The rounds complete call waits for the last shell.
• 2026-10-03
  A mortar team that moves into range now assembles its tube in a few seconds. Every set-up used to wait 60 s before the tube appeared.
• 2026-10-02
  A battery told to Get in Range now moves only as far as its rounds need, stopping just inside their reach rather than 500 m from the target, and backs off from a target too close. The tablet's range rings show that reach.
• 2026-10-02
  Artillery now aims at the ground on high ground. Missions used to aim above the target by its height above sea level, so shells fell long on hills and some hilltops in reach were refused.
• 2026-10-02
  A mortar battery told to Get in Range now packs its tubes, walks into range, sets up and fires. It used to be written off on the way and respawn at base.
• 2026-09-28
  The Transport, CAS, STRIKE and Last fire markers are drawn flat, with no drop shadow.
• 2026-09-28
  Marker labels on the tablet map aren't bold any more: they use the same plain face as the main map and the COP.
• 2026-09-28
  An artillery battery that runs out of rounds fires again once it's resupplied, and an Eden-placed mortar team now fires every round. A blank respawn limit means no limit, and a side with no Military Logistics no longer stops everyone's resupply. The artillery Code field now runs on an Eden-placed gun too.
• 2026-09-27
  A CAS attack on an area now keeps making passes until the whole radius drawn on the tablet is clear, not just 150 m round the mark. Units of your own or an allied side, and parked civilian cars away from the mark, are left alone.
• 2026-09-27
  A respawned artillery battery keeps its round types, its Allow Repositioning and its Military Logistics setting, and 2 support assets lost together can no longer both respawn when only 1 respawn is left.
• 2026-09-27
  Mortar teams work as Combat Support artillery again: the battery is the side's mortar with its crew and 2 men to carry it, it fires every round of a mission, and a lost team comes back as the same team.
• 2026-09-25
  In Access Item Categories, ALiVE Tablet is now called Combat Support Tablet, the tablet's own name, and the ACE radios entry lists the 2 ACRE radios it takes.
• 2026-09-22
  A CAS or artillery classname that does not exist now says so in the log, naming the callsign and the missing class. Before, the callsign appeared in the support menu and simply never produced anything. Transport already behaved this way.
• 2026-09-17
  Sync your own artillery piece straight to Combat Support without setting CS_TYPE and it used to vanish without a word. The log now names the vehicle and gives you the line to paste into its init field. The sub-modules were never affected.
• 2026-09-16
  Documented a route that has always worked: sync a vehicle you placed yourself straight to Combat Support and set CS_TYPE in its init to cas, transport, arty or hybrid. It's CAS unless you say otherwise. See the getting started steps.
• 2026-08-06
  The artillery repositioning entry corrected: moving to a new firing position is off by default and has to be switched on, and the battery still waits for you to order the move.
• 2026-08-06
  Helicopter insertion now holds the height set on the tablet, and holds station while hovering instead of drifting off.
• 2026-08-05
  Starting height shown on the insertion panel corrected.
• 2026-07-27
  Page first published.