Just for anyone using this or considering using it, the latest version on GitHub has some pretty big fixes as well as one or two features I'm pretty excited about that could benefit from a bit of testing if anybody is up to it. I'll be releasing on the BI forums too once I know from someone other than me that this works for them too!

The biggest feature (and the one that has taken my last weekend) is:

Persistent player AI Teammates

(When ALiVE data is present).

As sort of requested by @HeroesandvillainsOS....

Requires:

• ALiVE (obvs)
• iniDBI2 to be loaded on the client and server. (A workaround until there's a fix for issue #120 ).
• Mission time persistence to be set to on (so iniDBI2 can tally it's information with ALiVE's persistent data).

This is intended for SP / Coop TADST sessions where all clients exit the server at the same time.

Brief overview:

• Saves full unit information for up to 11 AI teammates.
• No configuration required, just load the iniDBI2 mod and it will save your group state periodically (including health, loadout, skill etc.) until you save and exit the server.
• Standalone, does not require undercover or intel to be loaded (I can give instructions if anyone wants).
• To have full persistent AI teammates you need to:

(a) save and exit the server at the end of each session
(b) when loading the mission, make sure the mission time is the same as it was when you last saved and exited (if not, your persistent group won't load and the data will be overwritten)
(c) don't play the same mission in multiplayer in the meantime if persistent data hasn't loaded (this will also overwrite your saved group data)

More information (for troubleshooting etc):

• When you save and exit the server, the most recent group information will be stored in an iniDBI2 database file. Only one group is saved per client, per mission, to prevent the database file from exploding in size.
• Upon loading the mission, the DB will wait for ALiVE persistent data before loading. Then it will check if the mission time of the last group save on the database is the same as the current mission time (after ALiVE persistence) before restoring the client's last saved group.
• To put it another way, group persistence is tied to mission date / time (+/- 10 minutes). It will only load if you have a corresponding persistent ALiVE save of the same time you last exited the mission.
• For instance, if you saved and exited the server when the mission time was 1500 on the 6th May, it will only load your group if, the next time you play, the mission time is within 10 minutes of 1500 on the 6th May.

Other random features

Civilian Weapon Enhancements (for recruitment)

• User configurable concealed weapons for armed civilians
• If the civilians revolt, civilians will only pull a weapon if they already have one in their inventory
• Other cool shit

Enjoy!

I hope so but it's quite a lot of data and it took a good 5 hours to get it to work properly with iniDBI2 (partly because I'm new to all this, but also partly because the encoding and decoding has its quirks)... but yes, once #120 is good then I'll find a way!

In theory, we're now at the stage where you can work as an insurgent, living off the land, scavenging gear, recruiting people as you go, using disguises (you can now change your disguise when compromised and enemies won't recognise you) mounting raids, with your group hiding their weapons and melting back into the civilian populations... for weeks on end in an ALiVE persistent campaign.

Just need someone to tell me if it works for them too now!

Have been looking for this type of functionality for my missions for some time. Thanks for you your efforts.

Does this work with factions?

@incontinenetia Yeah, anything like that. It basically allows a unit to dress as a civilian and go incognito, then recruit civilians and do whatever you want. Imagine yourself as the insurgent, asking people to join your cause and creating havoc.

So, you could dress as a civilian and keep a suppressed rifle in your backpack, sneak into a sensitive area, find a decent hiding spot, kill a HVT... or just do some recon, or use your disguise to mount an ambush inside a place you couldn't ordinarily get without fighting your way through. Or you could act as a FAC / JTAC deep behind enemy lines, stuff like that.

I recently recruited a whole load of dudes, ambushed an enemy patrol, stole their supplies and gave them to my new civilian team, then got them to hide their weapons, head to an enemy base and mount a diversion while I snuck in and blew up a load of vehicles.

You could also have a BLUFOR FIA insurgency going on and play as one of them, only revealing yourself when you need to attack and blending back into the civilian population once your attack is over. Does that make sense?

The BLUFOR limitation is just because this was designed with a specific scenario in mind and I haven't quite figured out a reliable way to integrate the reputation and recruitment system dynamically yet. I'll hopefully get round to changing that soon.

SP / COOP is exactly what it is useful for.

Nice.

That would explain why its not working for me. I am trying to replicate the film - Beasts of No Nation.

The players would be civvies living in a township protected by the UN, Gov forces roll in and kill everyone. The civvies flee to the bush and seek out the Rebel forces.

I managed to make the UN switch to OPfor by linking them to an invisible Opfor leader and then when players spawn they trigger incoming forces that wreak havoc killing everyone. I placed some civies with opfor invis leaders so it is quite the massacre.

I have African government forces as Independent (the enemy) and rebel African (opfor) forces as the player side. I geuss I need to switch the factions so I am Blufor

Shame, African conflict has blufor however they are white fella's. All the indigenous africans are either ind or opf.

Sadface

Hmmm...how to use this in my upcoming mission where the largest part of our player base is going to be CIV_F while the SF team that is working with them is BLU_F again the VME PLA group that is setup as IND (via the config from VME)? Might need to engage a few people via Discord on this one.

Hi @Ludi - the BLUFOR limitation is gone now, so if you give the latest version from github a whirl it should work with any side as long as you've correctly specified the enemy sides (as in, east, west, independent, rather than factions) in the setup file. Does that answer your question re: factions?

The only side it can't work with at all is CIV_F. The player has to have a side (independent, east or west) to begin with and the script itself will make that player appear to be civilian to the enemy as long as he isn't being naughty (same goes for any AI members of his group too). For now, it's best to keep any players in separate groups otherwise there might be some weird stuff going on (it will interfere with persistency and simple armed tracking). Also bear in mind there is about a 20 second delay before the script fully initialises so don't spawn any enemy until after that.

@Nichols does that make sense with the civilians? So if you want your guys to function with this script, make sure they are independent in the editor and set west as an enemy side.

I'm curious to hear how you guys get on. The current build works perfectly in the testing I've done so far but as it's my script I'm bound to overlook things in the setup etc. Let me know if you have any more questions.

@HeroesandvillainsOS  Oh sorry. I misread you. I mistakenly assumed you didn't just need Africans, but you needed enemy Africans. Boko Haram obviously is not friendly to BLU_F. They are an Islamic terror group. Disregard.

Project OPFOR may have a friendly African Army but I haven't checked. Despite its name there are some BLUFOR groups in there. You should check it and see.

Thanks for the heads up, definitely checking it out.

Wow, you reworked the script for lil' old me!
Many thanks.

Working on this nowish.

I did rework a version of the mission so that the players were aligned with UN (blufor) and the enemy set as opfor however I couldn't seem to get this working. I expect that my white listing needs some work so that I am not immediately detected as hostile.
This was a compromised solution so am pleased it is working as I desire (being able to play as opfor).

I have so many mods and I think Massi pulls equipment randomising loadouts so I am not sure where to start with classifying permissible clothes / backpacks and vest.

@incontinenetia Hi @Ludi - the BLUFOR limitation is gone now, so if you give the latest version from github a whirl it should work with any side as long as you've correctly specified the enemy sides (as in, east, west, independent, rather than factions) in the setup file. Does that answer your question re: factions?

The only side it can't work with at all is CIV_F. The player has to have a side (independent, east or west) to begin with and the script itself will make that player appear to be civilian to the enemy as long as he isn't being naughty (same goes for any AI members of his group too). For now, it's best to keep any players in separate groups otherwise there might be some weird stuff going on (it will interfere with persistency and simple armed tracking). Also bear in mind there is about a 20 second delay before the script fully initialises so don't spawn any enemy until after that.

I'm curious to hear how you guys get on. The current build works perfectly in the testing I've done so far but as it's my script I'm bound to overlook things in the setup etc. Let me know if you have any more questions.

* Uniforms and vests automatically added from faction lists (ability to manually add still remains) - thanks to @SpyderBlack723 for the script

Does this mean I can specify any faction in the gear settings?

I assumed it was limited to vanilla

@incontinenetia Updated the script (same DL link as before) with a few requested changes:

• Undercover units are no longer limited to BLUFOR
• Trespassing zones can now be set up using triggers

* Uniforms and vests automatically added from faction lists (ability to manually add still remains) - thanks to @SpyderBlack723 for the script
* A few small tweaks and fixes here and there

Keep throwing the ideas / feedback out there guys.

I haven't tested it with mods but it should work as long as the faction's gear isn't randomised with a script post-init (I know the Iraqi Syrian Mod does this, maybe Masai too?).

If you can't get it working, could you be a bit more specific about what you have in your settings and what you tried? Did you try debug mode?

Stable release version now up; full release on BI Forums imminent depending on how this version goes...

Just a heads up for anyone after drone-based / high altitude CAS in their missions, I chucked out a script on the BI forums that lets you call in airstrikes without needing to faff around with Arma's pilot AI. May come in handy for some ALiVE mission makers out there.

Link is here .

Well you can also use smoke / chemlights / IR strobes, but lasing a target is pretty much just pointing a laser designator at a target and (if using ACE) left clicking.