Set Civilian Groups to East or West Side

[Captain Crunch]

Hi. I have two questions:

1. I have put two groups of civilians and would like them to fight each other. I know there is a way to set a unit or a group to any sides in OFP but I forgot what it is.

2. I can't find the way to "switchMove" a unit to "captive". I mean when a unit has his hands on his head.

Thank You in advance for Your help.

[Cheetah]

There is a setFriend command or something like it, but I don't know how to use it and on top of that I don't know if it works. Anyway, what you can do is put down a BLUFOR Colonel, with probability of presence set to 0%. Next, press F2 on your keyboard and draw a line between the civilians you want in one group and the BLUFOR Colonel.

For the other group, do the same except make an OPFOR Colonel. This should result in two groups, one BLUFOR (West) the other one OPFOR (East).

As for the hands on the back, I don't know if there is such a move in ArmA. Will try to find it.

[sharkattack]

cheetah has it spot on (again)  ...   
heres a little demo mate  ...

[bardosy]

I have the same problem:

I want simulate an industrian zone guarded by civil security guards. And player is also a civil thief.
I used my good old way from OFP: put down WEST units as guards and open mission.sqm in a texteditor and rewrite the vehicle section of these units from "SoldierWB" to "Civilian14". Then I put a OPFOR soldier as player and rewrite his vehicle to "civilian" in mission.sqm.
Then ther are in WEST and EAST group but with civilian body.

But doesn't work (in OFP does). I can walk peacefully between the guards. I can block their way or someshind, they didn't shoot me. If I kill a guard, the others wolk away... 

What's the problem?

[Cheetah]

Have you tried the synchronizing stuff? Don't know, maybe that would work  pretty weird but I've never been charmed by the civilian battle skills.

Anyway, if it's just the player trying to sneak in, maybe you can set the players rating to a negative value?

[Planck]

Put your civvies on the map and group them with a west officer, make the officer have a probability of presence of 0, make sure that all the civvies are of rank private.
Any that are higher than private may not group with the west officer.

Make sure you give the civvies some ammo and a weapon.

Finally, place yourself as an OPFOR soldier in the middle of them.........see how long you survive.


Planck

[bardosy]

@Planck:
1., The player must be also civilian (enemy of other civilian). So player can't looks like an OPFOR (but he must be on OPFOR side)
2., The other (enemy) civilians has individual WP-s (they are patroling the area). Sometimes the change their moods (speed). Sometimes (in alarm situation) new security guards come to sweep the area... If I link them to a WEST colonel, they are in one group and they couldn't do their job, isn't it?


@cheetah: add negative rating to player is not too good. I want add many ratings if they can do his job... Or maybe, addRating -10000 in the init.sqs and when mission end, addrating 10000+collected ratings... Well, I'll try it.

[Captain Crunch]

@ Cheetah, Prank and shark attack,

This worked perfect. Thank You very much.

[sharkattack]

hi mate ..
also remember if a civi is grouped with west  then he becomes west
set any triggers accordingly ... ie  not activated by civilian

[Planck]

@bardosy

Create each civilian and group him to a west officer, so if you have 4 civilians you would then need 4 officers , one for each.

Make each officer have a probability of presence of 0.

Give each civilian some patrol waypoints and don't forget a weapon with ammo.

Place yourself as a civilian grouped to an east officer who has a probability of presence of 0.
Also give yourself a weapon and some ammo.

Now approach any of the other civilians and see how long you last.


Planck

[bardosy]

Hi All!

Yesterday evning I tried your all suggestions, but didn't work...

1., I added -10000 rating to player
2., I group the player with 0% presence EAST colonel

Nothing... I runing front of the guards but they didn't shoot. Body contact...  they didn't shoot.

Interesting facts:
- if I change the player to a real east vehicle, like sniper, the guards started shooting.
- if I change the tme to daylight (it's a night mission) and I go to VERY close to a guard, they started shoot me.

So I thought the problem is: the civilian didn't see in night (it's a very moonligh night (I could see everything without NVG)). So I made a script, if player are close to a guard, guard reveal player. But nothing happened. (((

[Mandoble]

the civilian didn't see in night

Same in OFP, civs are blind at night.

[bardosy]

Same in OFP, civs are blind at night

Thanks.

And reveal command or any else could help or it's impossible?

[Mandoble]

I didnt get any result even giving NVGoggles to civs, In OFP I end using the resistance civs present in editor updates, they were also as skilled as normal soldiers and were able to see at night much better than normal blind civs. I noted also that lightsources didnt solve the problem.

If desperate, you may try the following, put the day cloudly and in a time before 18:00. Create a resource inside titles covering all the screen with color [0,0,0,0.2] (a normal RscText), and try to make it so it does not expire. Then call it with CurRSC or TitleRSC, this will darken everything as if it were night. I know it is crazy, but it is also the last and only idea I can provide to make that civs to see in a fake-night.

[Cheetah]

Civilians are stupid as hell, in the Royal Sec. campaign I experienced it for the first time and haven't found a solution so far. In urban areas civilians are lacking, they don't use any tactics or whatsoever once you start shooting at them.

And as you found out, at night it's even worse, they don't do shit. You can get close to them even with them having NVGs, they still don't see you, weird stuff.

For the best results I suggest to stay away from urban areas where possible. There's a bit of hope left though, couldn't get it to work with the reveal command, but the civilians will spot you once you start shooting at them, needless to say I got killed in seconds after opening fire at one of them (their skill at expert). This could imply that there is a method to make them a bit smarter, haven't figured out how to do it.. other than shooting at them though.

Attached is the mission on Rahmadi I used to test this.