A roadblock created by Asymmetrical forces

ALiVE : Uprising — Creating an Asymmetrical Force

So far we’ve built a functioning ALiVE scenario with an occupational force and a dynamic civilian population; it’s time to build the Asymmetrical force that will be antagonizing the occupational force — the Uprising. The ALiVE team has documented their Insurgency setup, but here’s how I went about building something similar.

Tutorial Series

1. The Uprising Backstory
2. Familiarization and Resources for building with ALiVE
3. The Base ALiVE Mission
4. Creating the Occupying Force
5. Creating Civilian Population
6. Creating the Asymmetrical Force (You are here)
7. Creating the Attacking Force
8. Creating Playable Forces
9. Troubleshooting Information

Initial Setup

We get started exactly like we did with our Occupational force: by placing an AI Commander, TAORs, and Military Placement modules and syncing them all together. In Uprising, I want the unrest to begin in the south, so I’ve added my AI Commander (blue) and the Placement modules (red) as depicted here:

The Asymmetrical commander and placement modules.

The un-circled module is the CQB module, which we will discuss shortly.

In Girna, I’ve placed a Civilian Objective Placement module that spawns infantry units, just like we did with the Occupational force, except it uses the FIA (BLU_G_F) faction. This will garrison the city with some FIA around the city and the AI Commander will begin to order them around. I’ve also configured it to set up “All” Roadblocks — one of which is depicted in the title picture.

The roadblocks settings are pretty cool; ALiVE will pick some reasonable locations around the Civilian areas and spawn different types of roadblocks there. The type of roadblock will vary each time the mission is loaded, and some times it won’t even be there (depending on what you set the Roadblocks option to).

For some reason, the little villages of Agios Cephas and Agios Ioannis were not being detected as Civilian Objectives, and ALiVE wouldn’t spawn any units there. So, I just placed some Custom Objectives (one is a machine gun nest and the other a roadblock). These will also spawn a couple of FIA infantry groups. The hope is that they will try to harass LZ Connor quickly and begin to spread out from there.

Note that there is no need for a Logistics module with an Asymmetric force as they do not have the military supply infrastructure. Instead, an asymmetric force will resupply and reinforce itself using the civilian population.

The Placement modules will spawn units that patrol and move around outside; we also want to position our uprising force in buildings. For that, we use the CQB module.

The Close Quarters Battle Module

The “intended” set up of the CQB module

The Close Quarters Battle module is responsible for spawning military units inside of structures. Simply drop it on the map and sync it to any of the Placement modules where you’d like units to spawn in buildings.

Warning: Most of the documentation says that the CQB module should be synced to the Asymmetric Commander. This is supposed to make it so that the CQB spawns stay inactive until their side controls the area, then units will spawn in the buildings. This is definitely what I wanted here, but I was not able to get it to work; whenever I synced the module to the Commander, all the CQB spawns would remain inactive and no units would ever spawn, even if the FIA controlled the area. I had to sync the CQB module to the Placement module to get any units to spawn at all, but this means that the Asymmetric force did not have to control the area at the time. Not sure if I’m doing something wrong or if this is a bug. I will do my best to find out and update here.

That’s actually it! Just drop in the CQB module and sync it to any Placement modules that define the areas in which you’d like CQB to spawn. Here’s my configuration:

CQB Module configuration settings

Since I’ve synced the module to a Placement module, the CQB Locations, TAOR Marker, and Blacklist Marker are all completely ignored. I want a very strong force garrisoned in Girna, so I’ve set the Probability and Density settings to really high values. Do not do this for large areas of the map; it will create extremely long loading times. With the AI Amount setting, you can spawn either Solo, Pair, or full Fireteams of units inside each building that gets selected.

With the Placement setting, you can choose “Dominant” or “Status”. “Dominant” will spawn whatever faction controls the area, while “Static” will only spawn the units of those listed in the Factions setting. I’ve chosen Dominant so that if our occupational force takes over the city, their units will take up positions in the buildings.

The IED Threat Module

Another option for your asymmetric guerilla forces is to employ IEDs using the IED Threat module. You have the option of configuring IED, Suicide Bomber, and Vehicle-borne IED threats. Once again, all we do is drop in the module and sync it to our Commander.

For Uprising, I wanted a less likely but still present threat, but only in occupied areas, so the settings for Uprising look something like:

IED Module configuraion

When you preview your mission with Debug on for the module, you’ll see marks like this wherever IEDs get placed:

How the hell they got the IEDs in the base, I do not know.

By default, only Explosive Specialists or players carrying Mine Detectors can detect and/or disarm IEDs. Use the Action Menu to Disarm an IED once you are close enough.

Asymmetrical Operations

The Asymmetrical commander employs different tactics than its counterparts. Instead of head on assaults, it engages indirectly with smaller forces. Leaving the Commander’s Debug on, you will see missions like this on the map:

Asymmetrical objectives in Debug mode

The number (-10 here) indicates the hostility levels in the area. The number indicates Civilian hostility in the area.

I’m actually not yet sure of which direction this hostility goes. I don’t know if it is hostility toward the player’s faction or hostility towards the Asymmetric force. Again, I will attempt to find out and update accordingly.

The text indicates the type of mission. Types of missions include:

• Assault — Units attempt to secure the objective (usually only occurs at unguarded or lightly guarded positions)
• Recruit — Units attempt to attract disgruntled civilians to their cause.
• Ambush — Units set up an ambush for any enemies that may pass through (this is stupid fun to watch).
• Roadblocks — Units will set up roadblocks around the TAOR to help coerce the civilians and impede opposing forces.
• Depot — Units will establish a weapons cache where newly recruited civilians will go to arm themselves.
• Factory — Units will establish an IED factory

Some times, when guerilla forces conduct an ambush, they will set an IED in the area. While I was testing, I was watching a unit about to ambush an OPFOR patrol along a forest road at night. All of the sudden, a civilian vehicle sped through the area and triggered the IED the unit had placed and a massive explosion ensued. I was not expecting it; scared the shit out of me.

Our fully synced commanders and objectives

All that’s left to do is to ensure that both commanders are synced to all of the Objectives that we want them to know about and attempt to capture. Once we do this, we’ve got a fully functional guerilla war going on. One force will work to occupy the entire map and quell the uprising, while the other will operate in the shadows and take targets of opportunity. This is great to watch! Next up, we’ll add our Invading force.

Tutorial Series

1. The Uprising Backstory
2. Familiarization and Resources for building with ALiVE
3. The Base ALiVE Mission
4. Creating the Occupying Force
5. Creating Civilian Population
6. Creating the Asymmetrical Force (You are here)
7. Creating the Attacking Force
8. Creating Playable Forces
9. Troubleshooting Information