LAFS – Light AI Fire Support
Light AI Fire Support is intended for giving the AI dynamic access to many weapons of war they previously couldn’t use to increase their threat, provide a more enjoyable combat experience for players and to provide a fair system of fire support that avoids the pitfalls of manually triggering it. The Light refers to the load on the server, with this mod intended for use by bigger operations and units.
LAFS Wiki, with detailed information on how the mod works[docs.google.com]
LAFS Demo Mission[drive.google.com]
^^^ Super Important! The Demo Mission is the easiest way to avoid incorrectly setting the system up, simply copy the functional system in the Demo Mission.
Spotter System:
Spotter groups have to personally spot the enemy forces before being allowed to call in fire support on their targets.
Artillery:
Artillery will be automatically detected and can perform both HE and Smoke fire missions. Rockets, mortars and howizters all behave differently, with different firing rates, scatter and so on, with Rockets uniquely skipping the ‘spotting round’ that the other two use for their HE missions. Artillery can also be mobile and will automatically perform Shoot & Scoot missions.
Airstrikes:
Both Helicopters and Planes can be used and have a variety of missions each. Guns, rockets, bombs and cluster bombs all function, along with general CAS and targeted CAP missions. Aircraft can be created, stored and resupplied from Air Bases.
FPV & Dropper Drones:
Utilizing Crocus FPV for the FPV models, Drone groups can deploy either dropper drones that drop grenades and mortar shells or they can use FPV drones which come in AP and AT variants. These can be deployed in a swarm too if the target is big enough.
EDIT: For those who seem to think this is possible, NO, I cannot separate the drone system from LAFS, it cannot function without LAFS. It is not some magical extra AI I’ve bundled into the system, it IS the system. If you just want to use the drones, then only place those groups. That’s all you have to do.
Counter Battery:
Both the AI and the players can be targeted with Counter Battery fire. To simplify: different artillery pieces have different ranges that they’ll be heard/spotted at. As long as enemy units are nearby to hear, then the knowledge of artillery at that location will grow. This will also place a marker on the map for players, getting more and more accurate as knowledge increases. This allows players to perform counter battery, but the AI will also decide to target these positions once enough knowledge is gained.
Supply System:
Several supports consume supply when they perform a fire mission, like Artillery, Drones and Aircraft. When supply runs low, a Supply Truck from a Supply Base will be called to refill the supply of the Support group.
And much more!:
Check the Wiki for more details on these other fire missions (Workshop has a word limit).
Credit:
This mod utilises a script for locating the nearest Airport from gc8 & a heavily modified launcher firing script originally from _Tally. Both are credited with links to the original source in the code.
Compatibility:
This mod is designed to be compatible with LAMBS by disabling LAMBS features on specific groups LAFS is using. Just don’t use LAMBS artillery system at the same time. It can also function without Crocus FPV if you don’t want to use FPVs. Other AI mods like VCOM and DCO are not planned for and may conflict. I’ve also added rough compatability with DCO (it simply disables any group that LAFS will use). I cannot guarantee smooth functioning with DCO as I do not personally use it.
The mod is covered under an APL-ND licence, with the following message: Please contact Rimmy if you’d like to make alterations to these scripts or release derivatives. If the mod is missing a feature you require, please contact rimmydownunder on discord ( discord.gg/rimmy ) and assuming the feature is possible I will attempt to merge it into LAFS. I’d like to avoid derivative versions in favour of making the core version feature more choice in how it operates.
