Using deactivate/reactivate to simulate AI infantry resupply with AI helos

Is this the best way to do this?

I have several companies of infantry moving and taking positions with player CAS. At a certain point the infantry will stop and AI helos will arrive to 'resupply'. Since you can't actually resupply with AI helos, I am having these infantry units to deactivate with a trigger for about 10 seconds and then reactivate.

I have two questions, will AI OFF/AI ON rearm them as well? This would keep me from placing duplicate units to reactivate. Then how would they handle a hold order for that resupply waypoint with AI Off/On?

Also is there a better way to simulate all of this? They do not have truck support by the way, I am doing a Falklands reenactment battle, they are humping it.

Hey Ghostrider, unfortunately you've got some work ahead of you to make this exact set of circumstances work.

Without trucks (or another static structure defined as a warehouse through the aerodrome menu) there is no way to rearm units. GROUP AI OFF/ON will not do anything beyond what it sounds like; with AI off troops will not move/shoot/respond to threats.

A hold order is best executed with GROUP STOP and GROUP RESUME; your units will still respond to threats this way.

The only way I can think of to do this (assuming you don't want to get into writing .lua) would be to create multiple sets of groups, late activated, at your preset resupply points. When your groups and the chopper reach the resupply, deactivate the original infantry and activate the new groups. Unfortunately, as you have probably guessed, casualties will not be persistent under these circumstances...but maybe this is not an issue, if we handwave the extra infantry as "reinforcements" dropped by the helo.

Your other alternative, sans-scripting, would he to hold the group at the resupply point and spawn an ammo truck in for a short time while the helo lands to rearm your group. I think an issue you may find here, though, is that I don't think units will rearm until they have completely drained their ammo reserves.

Good luck!

Unless something has changed, you can use an invisible truck.

Ok so my backup plan is just going to be what you described Feefiffum, a late activated 'reinforced' and resupplied duplicate company.

Thank you for the heads up about the Group Stop/Resume, I have never used that and that is exactly what I will certainly need in a few other situations and especially if I go with Paganus little suggestion, I may just have to try those invisible trucks. My only concern is the 30 minute resupply time that sometimes occurs? Certainly more realistic time wise though.

As far as invisible trucks, I mean what we don't see doesn't hurt us right?

Thanks for the help fellows :thumbup:

The invisible option will make the unit invisible to other AIs in the sense they will not detect or fire on the trucks, but it will still be physically present and able to be seen. This may also have the unintended consequence of preventing the troops from "seeing" the truck to rearm at it, but I haven't tested that.

The resupply time varies by unit, but does indeed tend to be on the long side. If the reinforcements idea works that's probably the path of least resistance.

I will update here after I test and decide on a method. I'm starting to think the approach of copy/paste my infantry companies at the resupply point with late activation and using deactivate/reactivate is the most reliable way to go.

I will suggest, to do the following...

I haventr tried but it should work. Using a truck, with the CTLD script... you can pick it up, with an helicopter, then you deploy into the zone your infantry is.

And then, to do an script where, this truck will disapear and respawn in the original place.

You can use this script to give orders to the helicopters.

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=187639

I'm going with the deactivate then activate a duplicate that was hidden/late activation method for now, just because this mission is so complex already and this is a concept I'm very familiar with, however I would love to be able to do this helicopter script and will try it out in the next mission of this campaign I'm making. Thanks for the idea and script link.

Quick question, how do you get an AI helicopter to start off in the air with cargo or truck already attached?