Arma Scripting & Tutorials

One feature that's been missing in every single Arma game has been the ability for a.i. to autonomously evacuate their wounded. While various mods have been created for Arma II and III that allow players to summon a MEDEVAC helicopter, to my knowledge, no mods have ever existed that allow a.i. to accomplish this autonomously. This is a major concern when it comes to realism. Most medical/first aid/damage mods in Arma have used an instant revive system in which downed players or a.i. can be healed on the spot and continue fighting. While this might be more fun than being CASEVAC'ed from a gameplay perspective, it changes the dynamic of operations if one side cannot inflict permanent losses against the other. Luckily, autonomous a.i. medical evacuations can be achieved with a little bit of trigger-scripting. Using nothing but triggers that check for a unit's "Incapacitated" state and distance from friendly units, it is possible to script a simple process in which a group picks up their wounded and loads it into a CASEVAC/MEDEVAC vehicle. Please let me know if you'd like to know my specific coding. The lack of realistic MEDEVAC in Arma has always been a thorn in my side, and I'd be glad to share how I made this!

The ArmA series is known for its modding community, but in the age of "click to subscribe" on Steam, the player base seems to have lost touch with one of the features that has made ArmA stand out among mil-sim and tactical shooter games: trigger-scripting. These days, new players often expect their mods to do everything for them. If they can't find a mod that causes A.I. to behave the way they want, they assume it simply can't be done in the game. Yet, in the very early days of our favorite series, A.I. didn't do much of anything at all, other than follow waypoints and shoot at enemy units within their (pathetically narrow) field of view. It was up to the players to introduce more complex behaviors via creative scripting. Though tedious, it was a truly rewarding experience for those with a willingness to learn and experiment with basic "computer logic" and game commands. As an example of how a specific A.I. behavior could have been introduced back in the day without the use of mods, I demonstrate in this video how a simple bleedout mechanic can be introduced for both players and A.I. in Bohemia Interactive's debut installment of the ArmA series -- Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis (ArmA: Cold War Assault).