What are the implications of having 'disabledAI = 1'?

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a blushing crow
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat May 02, 2015 8:39 am

What are the implications of having 'disabledAI = 1'?

Post by a blushing crow »

Hello,

First, a huge thanks for the F3 mission making framework and associated wiki - it is fantastic!!

I am trying to make my first half decent and sizable multiplayer mission with the F3 framework (coop, ~50 players), and was wondering what implications (good, bad or otherwise) there are for using the F3 framework, if I have:

Code: Select all

disabledAI = 1;

as part of the the description.ext file? (See https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Description.ext and search for 'disabledAI')

The practical advantage of adding this code is that, in MP missions, playable slots don't end up spawning AI in them by accidentally leaving "AI Enabled" on in the lobby (i.e. when the mission roster is not totally filled with players). For this reason, some mission makers seem to think adding disabledAI = 1; in the description.ext is good mission-making practice.

The only thing I'm lead to believe is an important implication is that setting "disabledAI = 1" leads to not being able to have JIP (not a deal-breaker to me) - and I even recall reading somewhere that this may not actually be the case and is a mistake on the Biki?...

I'm not wedded to having this code in the description.ext, but couldn't see anything on the F3 wiki that indicated whether this was/wasn't OK to do with the way the framework is set up. :confused:

Thanks for any help,
Kind regards,
A Blushing Crow

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wolfenswan
Posts: 1209
Joined: Wed May 25, 2011 4:59 pm

Re: What are the implications of having 'disabledAI = 1'?

Post by wolfenswan »

We keep AI enabled as by default our missions don't allow respawn or JIP. That means we can directly control which slots should be taken and which are locked for the duration of the mission by toggling the playable AI in the mission lobby. If we want to allow some sort of JIP we can just leave the AI for that slot enabled for the time being. An additional benefit of having playable AI enabled is that if a player looses connection, a playable AI will remain in his spot and he can reconnect to it.

Disabling AI (via description.ext) is mostly useful if you have respawn and/or JIP system in place. But you can also use it in no-respawn/JIP missions without issues, the only downside will be that as mentioned above you can't do any "on-the-fly JIP" and players who loose connection won't be able to reconnect as their old unit.

a blushing crow
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat May 02, 2015 8:39 am

Re: What are the implications of having 'disabledAI = 1'?

Post by a blushing crow »

Hello wolfenswan. Thanks very much for the reply. Much appreciated!

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