High Command Extensions

[DomZ]

I'll have a think about what is possible in terms of chain of command. Stances are easy. Waypoints are possible, but will require manual adjustment of locations. However, complex sub units would not work very usefully without directly commanding the groups.

[DomZ]

I've added some basic chain command stuff and will expand it. It will be in the next version soon. But it will not be as controllable as direct group commanding, obviously.

[Lucmi]

Awesome, looking forward to it

[Anthropoid]

Hey DomZ,

I'm having some issues with (what I think are) High Command Extension features as they are deployed in MarkB50Ks "Lost" mission. The last couple posts in this thread provide details of it:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthrea...-bugs)!/page23

But basically the simple description:

1. High Command Groups behave erratically. Sometimes they seem to ignore orders, or react very slowly (does having a commander with a map compass or GPS matter for this stuff?), other times, they go chasing off across the map apparently pursuing enemies that they have spotted or have engaged and are running off. The lack of a "STOP" command or a "Go Prone" command makes it very difficult to keep them on a leash when they do this.

Having something like a: Report your Status, command that would prompt the unit to reply back via the radio with its current posture, assignment, location, and engagement status (in combat or not, something like that) combined with a "Clear all current commands and hold for further orders" would be fantastic.

2. And I don't know for sure if this is really related to your High Commands Extensions or if it just reflects an inherent issue with HCE working with vanilla AI (or perhaps with ASR AI, which I have enabled): When using the Regroup, or Return to Formation commands, I've often seen that my squad is very responsive, almost like mirrors. But sometimes in the past, and especially now that I'm running ASR AI, some other squad member seems to become the focus for Regroup or Return to Formation commands, and my squad will not form on me. More details in the quote from the post in the Lost thread below.

Spoiler:

show spoiler

I have to admit, I'm completely befuddled by the "Regroup" and "Return to Formation" commands. I seems to work differently than vanilla, though tbh I have not played enough vanilla OA in Warfare mode to know if the problem is really just with vanilla HC Group dynamics. It could also be Robalo's ASR AI mod (the only other mod I have running apart form CBA) but I kind've doubt that.

I finally figured out how I can switch from my player squad ("Own Group" in game terms) to a different squad (one of the so-called "HC Groups") that I've set up. I have about 16 troops divided into two squads ("Groups" in game terms), "Own Group" and "Group B." Each of these "Groups" consists of two fire teams of four soldiers: 1. Capt Squad Leader / Sgt Team Leader; 2. Corporal or Specialist Automatic-Gunner/Machinegunner; 3. Corporal or Specialist AT rifleman else Marksman; 4. Corporal or Specialist Grenadier.

In the case of my "Own Group" it looks like this:
1. Capt. Steven Shannon M-107 sniper
2. Cpl Zdislav M-249
3. Pvt Smith Javelin + M-16A4
4. Cpl Jones AK-74GL
5. Sgt Roberts Mk16 EGLM
6. Cpl Edwards M-249
7. Pvt Donnelly RPK
8. Cpl Ian M-16A4 RCO ACOG

"Group B" is set up in the same fashion except that, in place of the originally spawned player solider (Capt Steven Shannon) there is a random Capt "Team Leader" soldier; I don't understand why this soldier type is called a "Team Leader" and not a "Platoon Leader" or even "Company Commander" given he is a Capt and not a Master Sergeant, but oh well . . . a slight tangent: I have given up on "Officers." Those guys with bars on their icon just are worthless. If I put them in command of an actual squad ("Group") of soldiers they just go forging off on their own to certain death. In fact, I finally disposed of the one "Officer" I got from my latest startup. I put him in command of his own "Group" (consistin of him, himself and him) and let him go off on his own to end it in a flash of fury . . . I _think_ most of the "groups forging off on their own to do stupid shit" problem probably relates to this issue: the Group having a soldier that is equal or higher rank to the players starting soldier (Capt or higher) and therefore forging off on his own . . . but anyway back on topic.

As I say, I finally figured out how to take direct command of the "Group Leader" for my other groups "Group B" in the example outlined above. I can tell this squad to do various things successfully: Move There; Stop; Go Prone; Get up; etc. I can even switch to direct control of each of these soldiers in this group (e.g., F2, 0, 8, 3, 2). But what I cannot get them to do is to simply FOLLOW the goddamn Captain who obviously IS (or at least should be) in charge of the fricking SQUAD! ("Group"). I select all, and hit 0, 8, 3, 1 "Make Player Group Leader," to no avail . . . When I then select all and say "Regroup" #1 says: "All follow 5 (the Sgt who is supposed to be the leader of the second fire team in the squad). I try "Return to Formation" same effect. I swtich to direct player control of #5 and from this character it will sometimes say "All follow 2," sometimes follow 4, and once it said follow 1. However, as soon as I resumed control of #1 and moved off, they did not follow me, and when I said "Regroup" from #1 again it said "follow 5" again!!!

When I'm playing my originally spawned soldier (Steven Shannon) this doesn't seem to happen (as often anyway)

---------- Post added at 16:08 ---------- Previous post was at 15:39 ----------

Unfortunately, when you switch to control the Group Leader for another Group, your original Group Leader then forges off on his own and does his own thing . . . after painstakingly setting up my Own Group in Myskino for a house-to-house sweep of the village, but switching to one of the HC groups to fix his not moving, when I switch back to my HC Leader I find my toon has ran off to the ambulance I left near the cache and has driven it out of gas and most of my troops have moved to follow him *sigh* PVP is less annoying than this . . .

---------- Post added at 18:07 ---------- Previous post was at 16:08 ----------

I just had another "Group forging off on its own" that lead to group decimation. Incredibly annoying and as sad as it makes me to say it, basically makes the mod unplayable in a warfare type of mode.

It is day 1 of my most recent startup. I have ~30 troops divided into 3 groups of 8, 8, 8, and 3 or there abouts.

The group of 3 includes a valuable Engineer and a couple guys to guard him back at camp ("Group 3"). The first group of 8 is my player squad. The second group of eight is "Group 1," the third is "Group 2."

I'm doing a house-to-house sweep of Myshkino, provoking action to try to get the village support up. Group 1 is setup on the southern side of the road hiding in the forest set to "Danger" status in Line Formation. Group 2 is in the same posture on the north side. My player group is setup on the northwest side of the village progressing southeast along the road with snipers and an AT specialist setup outside the village to watch. I have all squad members set to STOP and then use 0-8-3-2 to progress through all squad members, moving each one manually into position to protect one another. When they are in position for the next couple of houses, I search, and when enemies spawn, usually one of the ~25 AI soldiers pointing at the center of the town from every angle will manage to down the enemy. However, this most recent time, a couple of spawns must have happened up on the hillside by Group 2 and before they killed him, the enemy killed the Team Leader.

The next thing I know, Group 2 has run 1.5km off toward the center of the map!?

I know that this is probably just from vanilla engine. It is possible that there is some kind of user error here, but I doubt it. I SOOO wanted to love this mod, and I do, except that it seems virtually impossible to effectively use the High Command features and coordinate multiple squads. They just keep ignoring orders and/or forging off on their own. The lack of the same commands for Groups as exist for soldiers in one's own group (e.g., STOP, Go Prone, etc.) is a real problem.

Sorry for the wall of text

[DomZ]

I haven't done anything to alter the default AI. Groups tend to have there own urges to attack stuff if they see it. However I did put in some commands to control your groups behaviour on the menu like:

Group States (0-8-6-0)
Only Defensive Fire (GREEN) (0-8-6-0-1-1)

I'll add more explanation when I'm less tried.

[Anthropoid]

Hey DomZ, just a bump to say I'm still having issues with the Regroup and Return to Formation commands when playing the Lost mission. Here is the post where I describe the issues in detail.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthrea...=1#post2175105

Appreciate any suggestions for how to 'reset' my soldiers when this happens. At present I cannot figure out how to make them responsive to commands to follow me in formation and about the only solution I can consider at this point is to restart and just avoid using the switch other team members all together.

ADDIT: Found a solution that works 'sometimes'

After trying to use the 0 - 8 -6 -1 on each and every unit, it didn't help. So I split all of them into different groups. We navigated around a bit, searching some civilian houses and then setting up to for a dawn ambush of Khelm (too foggy when we arrived and not enough NVG in the group). I used this as an opportunity to learn a bit more about how groups behave, and probably gave each of the four HC groups that my ~32 soldier were divided up into a good 10 or 15 waypoint commands as well as quite a few formation change, posture change, etc., commands and they were all very responsive. After probably an hour or more of game play like this, I decided I wanted to take more direct control over every solider (and see if they would be responsive again), so I merged all four HC groups back into my own group.

Voila they were no longer stuck! though they were a bit slowish to follow orders.

So, if after lots of unit switching units become unresponsive and the 'reset' command does not work (0 - 8 - 6 - 2 or whichever one it is), one solution is just to regroup them into a few HC group and give enough orders/wait enough time and they seem to reset.

Having done this before and had it not work (Create New Groups -> Wait a bit -> add units back into your own group -> still unresponsive) the solution does not seem to be simply to (a) send units that are stuck to join a new HC Group, but rather, (b) do step (a) then give enough sequential orders (waypoints and or other orders) and/or wait long enough that it effectively 'clears' any lingering commands in each soldiers queue? or something like that? It would seem the trick is to to "delete the waypoints" that are causing the unresponsive behavior by each soldier that I think Markb50K or you mentioned. I realize the 0 - 8 - 6 - 2 command "Unit not moving, try this" is probably supposed to achieve that, but for whatever reason, when the user engages in a long string of sequential switching to control all the AI toons in a squad, that command does not seem to suffice.

If you set soldiers in your group to a new group and don't wait long enough time, or engage them in enough behavior to 'clear' their waypoints then when you have them rejoin your group it seems they are still somehow 'stuck.' In sum, it is a bit unpredictable how long you need to operate with them as separate HC Groups and/or how many commands (or which commands) you need to give them before they are "reset" and can be made to rejoin your own group and will once more be responsive to regroup commands.

[DomZ]

I think the lost missions uses part of High Command Extensions version 0.7 which is very old compared to the current version 1.14. The menu commands that it uses have been changed from High Command Extensions version 0.7, in terms of menu names and short cut keys. I have not put in anything that would stop regroups with High Command Extensions used on its own. However, it possible that other systems could affect the regroup operations. They may assume that groups are not changed once created. Have no idea what the modifications are in the lost missions, but I think they are an amalgamation of different things.

[DomZ]

I noticed this post on Utube about how to use High Command Extensions. However, don't use the high command module, because it will stop most of the functionality (they didn't read the instructions). A far from full example of what everything is, but a bit interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ-thWsjuVE&feature=plcp
There are advanced waypoints for unloading troops remotely.
Almost finished a new version now that is more polished than the previous.

[InstaGoat]

Hello!

I am currently trying this, and learning how to use it. I have come across a problem with loading/unloading troops. When using the menu commands, the debug window always says 0/X squads loading. Only assigning a waypoint and using the waypoint load/unload/getout commands, I can load troops. Loading troops into vehicles not assigned to the squad is impossible completely.

I am also running ASR AI. May there be a conflict?

I am also unsure how to properly run this mod. I am using the init.sqs provided with your demo missions, is it possible I have some variables wrong in there? I am not keen on touching anything inside of that for fear of breaking something.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. (I also searched the thread, and couldn´t come up with anything like this. I am sorry if there was something already and I missed it.)

Cheers

Insta

[DomZ]

I can't see any problem when I used ASR AI 1.15.

To get groups in they need to be small enough to fit in as crew or cargo in a vehicle using the commands on:
Get In Nearest as Cargo (0-8-8-3)
Get In Nearest as Crew (0-8-8-4)

The commands on:
Get In Nearest as Crew & Cargo (0-8-8-0)
don't work properly in version 1.14, but are fixed in my currently working version.

At the start of a mission issuing these commands to all groups will set up a side for commanding effectively (group icons will be refreshed automatically):

Command all Uncommanded of Side (0-8-1-4)
Split on Non Crew to New Groups (0-8-8-2-4)
Split per Vehicle Crews (0-8-8-2-5)
Selected Groups Engines Off (0-8-8-8-2)
Reset Vehicle Crew Ranks (0-8-8-7-5)