ALiVE.OS · ALiVE 3 Development
SPOTREP
Writes enemy contact spot reports into each player's in-game notebook.
In development · 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
What SPOTREP does
Spotrep is a background system, not something a mission maker places directly in the editor. It quietly writes a personal diary entry (the notebook opened from the pause menu) for a player whenever a spot report about an enemy contact is generated. It only initialises when "Disable Adv Markers" on the ALiVE (Required) module is left off, and diary entries are then switched on through a setting on the C2ISTAR module called "Spotrep Diary Entries," which is set to No out of the box. With that setting on, a player who files a spot report from an ALiVE Advanced Marker gets a diary note recording who reported it, when, where, what the enemy looked like, what they were doing, what friendly forces did in response, and any extra remarks. That marker is the only thing that raises a spot report, so nothing appears just because AI spotted each other. This module has essentially no interface of its own, no settings to configure, and no icon players will ever click on in the editor. It exists purely to feed that one diary-entry feature and to remember reported contacts between sessions when database saving is enabled for the mission.
Because it has no player-facing controls, players and mission makers experience Spotrep only indirectly, through the diary notes it writes and, on missions using saved persistence, through contacts still being remembered after a save and reload.
Capabilities
What it handles
Writes a SPOTREP diary entry
When a spot report is created and the C2ISTAR diary setting is on, the notebook of every player in the report's audience gets a new SPOTREP entry with the date-time, reporting callsign, location (linked to a map marker), enemy strength, enemy type, enemy activity, friendly activity, and any remarks.
Report visibility by side, group, faction or player
A spot report can be shared with everyone (the Unclassified option), a whole side, a faction, just a group, or kept to the individual reporter, so diary entries only reach the players it is meant for.
Remembers reports between sessions
On missions with database saving enabled, spot reports are saved and reloaded automatically, so contacts logged in a previous session can still be recreated in players' notebooks after a restart (the map marker itself is restored separately, along with the other saved markers).
Catches up players who join late
A player who joins an in-progress mission is sent the current set of stored spot reports so their notebook and map end up matching what other players already see.
Recent work
What's changed lately
- Saved SPOTREPs come back for every playerPlayers who start with the mission, and players who join one already running, now get the saved spot reports back once their side is known. Before, many of them missed the reports.
- Deleting your last spot report sticksDeleting reports one at a time worked until the last one, which came back after a restart. It stays deleted now.
- A spot report fix, and saves named per mapFiling a spot report in a mission with no C2ISTAR module no longer writes an error on every player's machine, and the Spotrep Diary Entries setting is now read correctly at any point in the mission, so diary entries appear whenever it's set to Yes. Spot report saves also now include the map name, so a copy of the mission on another map starts fresh. Spotrep still has no settings of its own.
- Superseded by the newer contact map (COP)The C2ISTAR module's newer Common Operating Picture map builds its own live enemy contact markers independently of this system. Spotrep's diary-writing feature still works alongside it, but the map-marker side of spot reporting has effectively moved to that newer system.
Status
Where it stands
Diary entries from filed spot reports
With the C2ISTAR "Spotrep Diary Entries" setting on, filing a spot report from an ALiVE Advanced Marker adds a formatted SPOTREP note to the notebook of every player in the report's audience (everyone, side, faction, group or just the reporter, depending on how it's shared). Nothing else writes one.
Save and reload of reports
On missions with persistence turned on, spot reports survive a server restart and are handed back out to players, including latecomers.
Legacy status
This is an older, background-only system with no editor-facing settings of its own. Its map-marker duties are increasingly handled by the newer contact map in C2ISTAR, and the code still contains an open note about wiring it up to more events, so it should be treated as a supporting piece rather than an actively developed feature.
Testing
How you can help
Nothing to place in the editor for this module by itself. To see it in action, add an ALiVE C2ISTAR module, sync it to your OPCOM(s), and set "Spotrep Diary Entries" to Yes, because it's No by default. In the mission, open the map, make sure drawing mode is off, and press CTRL+ALT and the left mouse button to open the ALiVE Advanced Marker dialog. Tick ADD spotrep, fill in the callsign, location, enemy size, type and activity, and save the marker. Then open the notebook (default P key or pause menu) and confirm a new SPOTREP entry appeared with what you typed. Don't wait for AI contact to trigger one, the marker is the only thing that files a report. On a persistent mission, restart the server and confirm previously filed spot reports still appear for players once they reconnect.
Spotted a problem? Please report it on the ALiVE issue tracker on GitHub, with the map, rough location and what the units were doing so it can be reproduced.
Changelog
Updates to this page
- 2026-10-25Clicking a SPOTREP's marker on the map now opens its diary entry. Clicking the grid in an entry still moves the map to the marker.
- 2026-10-25A SPOTREP's diary entry is now titled with the time then the grid, like 061201ZJUL35 - 042032, instead of an internal id.
- 2026-10-19Players who join a mission already running now get the saved SPOTREPs too, once their side is known.
- 2026-10-17Saved SPOTREPs now come back for every player who starts with the mission; they were put back before the player's side was known and were lost.
- 2026-09-27Deleting your last spot report now sticks after a restart; it used to come back.
- 2026-09-22Filing a spot report in a mission without the tasking module no longer throws an error.
- 2026-07-27Page first published.