Rearming AI with the action "Rearm at ..."?

[NighthawkSE]

I can't seem to get the built-in action "Rearm at Ural ammo" to work with the AI soldiers in my unit.

When I trigger the action they don't go to the ammo truck and rearm, instead they remain in formation for a second before reporting back "Ready" while shifting from red status to normal. No ammo is picked up during this process though.

Instead I have to order them to pick up individual magazines, which becomes rather distressing during combat.  :-\

So, is this a bug, or have I missed some vital information on how this particular action works?

I'm using Resistance, patched to 1.96.

[h-]

Ammotruck has only ammo (by default) not magazines...

Ammo is used by vehicle mounted weapons and the purpose of the ammo truck is to supply ammo for the vehicles...
Soldiers can't pick up ammo, only magazines...
But if you add magazines into the ammo truck 'manually' (through a script or in the init field) then you should be able to order the individual soldiers to pick up certain magazines from it (like handgrenades, M16 mags etc...)

I think this is also something BIS never really implemented correctly...

[NighthawkSE]

Wow... that answer sure came fast! Thanks.

I do know that the rearm action is usually used when rearming tanks and such.

But after a heavy fightfight, in which I used up every bullet and handgrenade I had, I discovered that the "Rearm at ..." action was available to regular soldiers as well (when standing next to an ammo truck). And using this action makes my soldier pick up four magazines and six handgrenades, which is the soldiers default loadout, in one single motion, making it a very fast and easy way to rearm.

What I would like to know is why this works for me, but not the other AI soldiers in my unit? The action is available, when I select F2-F12 -> 6 Actions, but choosing it does diddelysquat.

All this with a regular ammo truck, no mods or scripts.

[h-]

Does not do that for me...

If I have a no ammo or mags whatsoever (nor do my AI squad) and I go near a ammo truck (west soldier/west ammotruck) I get no 'rearm at..' action...
Not in my action menu and not in the action list for the AI...

All I get is pick up 'thisandthat'...

That action problem sounds exactly the same which happens with custom actions added with addAction...

[NighthawkSE]

When you reduce your ammo level to nothing at startup, the action doesn't show. I just tried it and got the same result as you.

But when I start off fully armed, walk up behind the ammo truck, and fire a single round the action pops up every time. Seems like you must have some ammo to begin with for this to work.

[Planck]

I can confirm this, if you remove your magazines before mission start, you don't get the rearm at ammo truck option.

If you start the mission with ammo and use it all, you will get the option.

I just tried it.  ;D ;D


Planck

[NighthawkSE]

Any thoughts on why only players and not AI can use the option?

I'm a little puzzled but this...

[Planck]

I haven't got a clue......yet.

Maybe someone else can enlighten us.


Planck

[NighthawkSE]

Would be nice.

I mean, anyone who has led ofp troops in battle must have had this problem. There's no way that you have the time or energy to feed  eight triggerhappy soldiers one magazine at a time...

[Garcia]

I had this problem (with rearming my group fast) in a mission of mine, so MI_Fred made a simple weapon dialog where you can rearm your units fast You can get it here, the second one from the top (Weapon Stock - by MI_Fred)

[h-]

Funny
Even today we can find more 'BISed' features in OFP

It must be one of those that causes the AI problem with this...

There's no way that you have the time or energy to feed  eight triggerhappy soldiers one magazine at a time...

So how you have done it the past then ;D
That's the way I have always had to do it...

I never liked any of those dialog things because it just feels so arcadish...

[Planck]

After further playing about with this, I discovered that it must have something to do with the weapon that the AI soldiers have.

I started with one magazine, and so did my trusty AI buddy.

Once he was out of ammo, he wouldn't re-arm at ural ammo as has been described, although he made it seem like he had  ;D

Anyway, I got him to drop his weapon, and I dropped mine, then I picked up his weapon and I couldn't re-arm at the truck either.

When I picked up my weapon again I was able to re-arm at the truck.

Getting him to put his weapon in the ural and then take it again gives him a full weapons and 3 mags though.


Planck

[NighthawkSE]

HateR_Kint:
A rather disturbing amount of my missions is in Rambo style. Me against herds of bad guys. Having other soldiers to nanny just slows me down...  ;D

But commanding a group is also fun, and poses some new challenges. But having to order "Pick magazine ..." thirtytwo times in a row isn't a challenge. It's lack of intelligence.

Garcia:
Thanks for the tip! I'll definately check it out.

Planck:
Yeah, making that rearm option disappear is far easier than actually using it. *sigh* I'm starting to think that this whole rearm thing is a bust. I have one more idea to try, but concidering the overwhelming success I've had in my previous attempts, I wouldn't hold my breath.

You always got to have a Plan B
What would be the neatest solution to rearm AI soldiers? Criteria being less manual handling of magazines, and as much realism as possible. Ordering a soldier to "go rearm" should be enough.

Is it possible to expand the built-in "Take magazine.." option to make the unit fill up that particular type of magazine instead of just taking one? Or perhaps put a trigger over the ammocrate that runs a rearm script of some sort? Hmm.. anything really, as long as you don't end up with five triggers and nine scripts to get it done.

I bet in real life (in the army) that any officer having to order you to pick up every little thing would evidently spark a rather lengthy monolog enriched with words like "idiot", "stupid dumba**", and perhaps a couple of "kick yo a**".  ;D

*starting ofp to try that last idea*

[Planck]

Unfortunately the only way I could get him to rearm was to get him to put his weapon in the truck, then take it out again.


Planck

[NighthawkSE]

Yes, that does work for M16, AK74, etc, but we still need a way to pick up some handgrenades as well.

[Planck]

That might be difficult.

Try it when he still has at least one handgrenade in stock.

Then get him to put his gun in the truck, maybe once he takes the weapon again he will have a full complement of grenades too.

Then again, maybe not.


Planck

[NighthawkSE]

My last idea didn't work either. What a shocker! lol

[Planck]

Reminds me of another annoying feature of vehicles.

You want one of your men to drop a weapon so you can pick it up, but, you can't order him to drop it because the only thing you can tell him to do with it is put it in some vehicle about a million miles away.



Planck

[NighthawkSE]

Yeah... gaahhh!! This is somewhat frustrating, I must say. I guess all we can do is await the release of Armed Assault. Maybe their newly rewamped game engine will allow us to rearm our soldiers in a more normal manner?

Planck:
Are you sure you can't order one of your AI soldiers to drop a weapon? I mean... I just did. The "Drop M16" option was right there in the action menu, and using it actually worked.

Strange...

[Planck]

Sometimes it is there and sometimes not.

I think the game waits until you really need someone to drop a weapon, then it decides to disallow it, just to p*ss you off.


Planck

[NighthawkSE]

Well, I'm starting to think so too...

Seriously, sometimes I forget how incredibly complex these programs are (the AI alone is a bi*ch to build, just ask anyone who has tried). I'm guessing that the guys and gals of BIS have gone out of their way to fix stuff like this, but sometimes it just can't be done due to issues within the games framework. And making sudden changes to the framework, besides being very expensive, could render mods useless resulting in an outcry from the community. So I would pu**yfoot around that option too, if I was in charge.

Thanks for all your input, Planck.

[Planck]

You're welcome.


Planck

[FlyingDuck]

Hey,

For rearming a unit during a mission I placed a ammo truck nearby the fightin but out of sight.
Then you make a waypoint "Support" near the truck (5meters). Wihle playing you can call support "ammo" and the truck will go to your position. when the truck is there you can command you groupmember with the radio to rearm. with the action menu.
You must be in the radius of the waypoint if you are out of the radius the truck won`t come. so you have to make the radius large.

greetz,

[Wolfrug]

Reminds me of another annoying feature of vehicles.

You want one of your men to drop a weapon so you can pick it up, but, you can't order him to drop it because the only thing you can tell him to do with it is put it in some vehicle about a million miles away.



Planck

Actually, if you're the group leader, you can simply open up the map, go to the Gear section of your little notepad-thingy, and next to all their weapons and equipment there's a tiny little arrow (pointing down). Click that, and they'll get the order to drop their weapon (or magazine, or binoculars, or LAW) right there and then.

It's a bitch having them drop stuff like handgrenades and whatnot though, since you have to give a radio command for every one, but it's fairly quick. Quicker than having them put stuff in cars millions of miles away anyway

Just thought I'd add that little tidbit.

I've also experimented with the Rearm command in the past (can be accessed with an action ["REARM", vehicle] too, I think), but as far as I can tell it doesn't do diddly squat with AI. Didn't know it works for human players though! Planck's solution to have them put the weapon in the car and then pick it up again seems to me to be the most useable option for quick rearming. Maybe it works for rifles with attached grenadelaunchers too? At least if you pick up a GL-toting gun from a truck as a human player, any empty slots you have will fill up with Grenades and clips.

Ah well. I guess it's always possible to script in a custom addaction/radio command/doodad of some kind to give ya some quick rearming, if you can be arsed.

Good luck, anyways!

/Wolfrug out.