new formations

[unkie]

hey, just wondering if it was possible to create new formations for squads, e.g a travelling column with two scouts ahead and the rest following 20 or so metres behind

[_hammy_]

yes im sure it could be possible.

[uiox]

U can do it but with 2 # squads and wps...

[Jakerod]

I always wanted a formation for urban combat where you have all your guys in a tight column. Or where you have two columns on on either side of the street.

[Diepvriezer]

yeah, and my desert units are already placed in one nice line with the rearmans at the back 2 meters from the rest of the group, I hope you cna make this a formation

[General Barron]

If anyone does do something like this, will they PLEASE, for the love of god, make it a realistic formation??? I'm tired of always seeing in movies and video games this bullcrap where everyone is like 5 meters away from each other. I wonder what happens if a grenade lands b/t them...? BOOM! 2 kills with one throw!

In RL the trick is to stay far enough apart so that one grenade can't take out more than one person. So, if the casulty radius of a grenade is 15 meters, each person should be 30 meters apart from the next person. This may seem like a lot of distance, but that's the way it really works.

[Josef]

I know movies and video games are not realistic but, man...

Imagine a movie with the actors shouting at eachother from their correct place in the formation ;D

And just for the record, HE in OPF does NOT kill people at 15 meters, so there is no need for that large formations...

But an Urban formation with short space between the men would be good, as keeping the team close is imprtant at point blanc range

Also a escorting formation could be good, with the 2 and 3 guys escorting the one with the last number, as this is allways the one that joined the squad last...

[Pandoz]

If anyone does do something like this, will they PLEASE, for the love of god, make it a realistic formation??? I'm tired of always seeing in movies and video games this bullcrap where everyone is like 5 meters away from each other. I wonder what happens if a grenade lands b/t them...? BOOM! 2 kills with one throw!

In RL the trick is to stay far enough apart so that one grenade can't take out more than one person. So, if the casulty radius of a grenade is 15 meters, each person should be 30 meters apart from the next person. This may seem like a lot of distance, but that's the way it really works.

realistic yes...30 meters apart...definitely NOT... One u cant provide supporting fire effectively on hilly terrain at those distances in most cases on OFP. Also in Urban areas a grenade could take out 5-6 guys easily, but then again u have 5-6 bullets going at the one guy very quickly in succession so its not likely that he will get his grenade off or in the right spot. Also yes i agree that the formations should be realistic, but it should be more of a covering/supporting thing rather than the left flank thing that is the only decent one to use in the game...even though its still not good.

[Diepvriezer]

Make a formation for special ops teams infiltrating buildings
They will stand like this:

   <- Man 1
   <- Man 2
   <- Man 3
   <- Man 4
   <- Man 5


mhuauhahua

[Josef]

Right, something like the formation in Rogue Spear would be good...

And while throwing nades in OPF you are sitting cuck for TWO seconds, THATS A LONG TIME!!!

[Fishion]

Well as General Barron said,
you spread out as far as possible, and as close as
necessary. Needless to say that in the Woods you stay closer than on an open field. When traveling in a staggered collumn on a road the minimum distance between men should be 8m, but that's already short,
usually our columns in training spread out over 100-200
meters (8 to 12 men)...you should always expect an ambush...well then this means the closer you are together the easier it is for the enemy...

just my 2 cent

[Josef]

OR get cut down one by one at the hands of a talented sniper...

[General Barron]

I just finished up a script that allows the editor to quickly and easily make custom formations  ;D. Basically you give X/Y coordinates for each member of the squad, relative to the leader. So, giving #2 (-10, 23) would make him stay 10 meters to the leader's left, and 23 meters in front of the leader. It's easy and it works great! It works with AI squads, with squads led by the player, and even in squads led by AI, and later taken over by the player (after the leader is killed).

I'm about to post the script, but if anyone has any suggestions of formations to be included in the upload, go ahead and post them.

[Josef]

I have it, I made some nice formations, mostly tight ones...



One is the refused flang, designed for having any flankers cut down...

[Plizkin]

could you make a "formation editor" ?  Looks approximately so:

°1   °2  
    °3

etc.

[General Barron]

Do you mean like a program? I was thinking about this, but I'm not very good at programming, so I decided not to try it. I'm assuming that you have downloaded my custom formations script. If not, get it here: http://www.ofpec.com/editors/resource_view.php?id=433
All the info on how to use it is in the readme, but I'll summarize how to make formations here:
It's just like plotting points on a graph. If you know how a rectangular coordinate system (x/y) works, then you know how to make these formations. I assume that you've taken a math class where you have studied graphs like y=2x and the like. Just imagine each soldier as being a point on the graph. The leader of the formation is at the center of the graph (the origin; point 0,0). "Up" on the graph is the direction the leader is facing. So if you want a guy to be 4 meters in front of the leader and 10 meters to his right, his coordinates would be (10, 4).
Now you just grab a sheet of graph paper, plot out the points of all 11 squad members and figure out their coordinates. Then open up the template and replace all the [x,y] with your coordinates.

I'm sure I made that sound much more complicated than it really is, but it truly is simple. I did a lot of behind the scenes work in my script so that making the formations is easy. If you really want to know, the script basically converts each position into a distance and a direction from the leader (polar coords), since that is what OFP has commands relating to. But it is simpler to set up a list of (x,y) coords instead of distance direction coordinates, so thats how I set up the interface.

If anyone has suggestions on how to make the readme clearer, please let me know.

[Plizkin]

yes, i do.  I already downloaded your new formation- script. But if they are moveing to the "new formations", there stand "moveing" or "ready", if they are at the position. Thats bad, 'cuz if I say "all, fall back in the formation" they are moveing to they`re really formations.  
I don`t know, how I can say it better.
(Sorry for my shitty english ) :'(

[General Barron]

Plizkin,

I understand what you are saying. You don't like how it always says "moving" or "ready" under your guys when using the script. I'm afraid I don't know of any way to deal with this. The script works by placing lots of "domove" commands on every squad member. These work the same way as when you click on a guy and tell him to move to a bush or something. I don't know of a way other than "domove" to get somebody to move.

As for the "fall back into formation"; also nothing I can do about that, because it is hard-coded into the game, while my formations are really just a script that acts sorta like an in-game formation. All I can say is that if you say "fall back into formation", and then you start moving, your guys will run to there spot in the custom formation, instead of the real one.

Even if you don't like how they work on player-controlled squads, keep in mind that they work for AI squads, too. So, if nothing else, just use them on the AI, because the player won't see the "moving" or "ready" messages.

[Josef]

Actually theire great for AI, it makes the leader just run, not stopping to maintain formation in urban terrain...

Makes AI far cooler when assaulting villages, also you can have REALLY close formations...