Arma 3 Faction Creation with ALiVE ORBAT Creator

A technical guide for creating custom factions in Arma 3.

Prerequisites

• Familiarity with file systems, creating and editing files, copy/paste, general familiarity with the Windows Operating System are all required to understand this document.
  
• You will not need to understand the Arma scripting language to complete this guide.
  
• Basic familiarity with the 3DEN editor (where the Assets pane is, and how to place units and modules).
  
• Basic understanding of how Arma 3 organizes units within a faction; infantry, special ops, anti-air, tanks, planes, etc.

Scope

The purpose of this guide is to walk a novice through the ALiVE ORBAT creator to create, from scratch, their own Arma 3 faction. It is a fairly streamlined process that will result in a local mod that can then be loaded into the Arma 3 Launcher from the desktop or other location on the harddrive. It can also be uploaded to the Steam Workshop. This guide assumes you will be creating a faction from scratch.

This process is fairly technical, and it is recommended to read through the guide first before attempting to follow it.

Preliminary Setup

• Ensure you have a stable install of Arma 3 installed
  
• Download and install the ALiVE mod and it's dependencies. It comes prepackaged with the ORBAT Faction Creator; ORBAT Faction Creator is not a standalone mod
  
• Any other mods you will need to create your faction

Note: When choosing mods to use, select the bare minimum. Each mod you use will be listed as a dependency for your faction, so if you want other people to use it, keeping the number of required mods to a minimum will help make it more attractive. Avoid using obscure or buggy mods; mods like CUP and the Red Hammer Studios are popular, stable, and offer high-quality models, animations and sounds. However, this should not keep you from using an obscure mod should your faction absolutely need it. Balance creativity with practicality.

Once you have the data, you will need to spend time designing your faction:

• What sort of uniforms will they have?
  
• What sort of arms will they have?
  
• How will these arms be distributed throughout squads?
  
• How big will the squads be?
  
• What will the squad composition be?
  
• What sort of heavy weaponry will your faction have?
  
• What sort of vehicles will they have?
  
• Will vehicle crews have a separate loadout compared to the infantry?
  
• Will pilots and aircrew have separate loadouts from vehicle crews and infantry?

It pays to have a firm idea of what sort of equipment your faction is going to have before getting into the Editor. Making changes later is possible, but not trivial. Ideally, you should spend some time in the Virtual Training playing around with different loadouts. You should ensure that everything matches your vision: uniforms, goggles, chest rigs, backpacks, weapons, scopes, attachments, NODs, radios, UAV terminals, helmets, amount of ammo, grenades, everything. Save all these loadouts so you can reference them later in the guide. Be sure to give them obvious names.

• See the section after Step 34 to create the folder tree and files for your faction.
  
• Install "Arma 3 Tools," from your Steam Library. It can be found in the "Tools" category of your Library; click on the drop-down menu above the search bar, and make sure only "Tools" is selected. Scroll down to find "Arma 3 Tools" and install that.

Process

1. Launch Arma 3 with ALiVE, and any other mods you have selected, loaded. See the Note under Preliminary Setup.
   
2. Open the editor. Load any map you want (map doesn't matter for the purpose of this guide).
   
3. Place a single player-controlled unit
   
4. On the right hand side of the screen navigate to Systems -> Modules -> ALiVE Modules
   
5. Place a single "ALiVE ORBAT Creator" anywhere on the map. Right next to the unit from Step 3 is fine.
   
6. Click "Play Scenario in Singleplayer," or press ENTER on your numpad.
   
   The "game" will load into the ORBAT Creator (called "Faction Editor" at the top). At this point, be careful when using the ESCAPE key, as it can exit the ORBAT Creator without saving your work.
   
   
7. Click "New" on the left side of the screen under the list of currently loaded factions.
   
8. Enter data for all the fields. All of this is to generate a unique classname for your faction. Hovering over the descriptors will give you an idea of what to enter.
   
9. Choose which side your faction will be; BLUFOR, OPFOR, Independent, Civilian
   
10. Choose a flag. There is a way to add flags, I'm sure, but that will be added later to this guide.
    
11. Click "OK"
    
    At this point you have created the faction in name only; it is essentially a "bucket" into which you will place all your squads, vehicles, units, etc into. But right now this "bucket" is empty.
    
    
12. At the top, click Unit Editor -> Open. This is where you will start creating individual units in your faction. Make sure your faction name is listed at the top in the drop-down menu.
    
13. Click "New"
    
14. Fill out the fields as necessary. Be sure to generate the "Classname."
    
15. Under the section "Unit Type," You will see "Faction," and "Category." Here you will use an existing unit as a template for your new unit. Navigate to a faction and category for your unit to start with. Bear in mind that your final faction will use the same catregorization when you're done; if you use "CSAT" and "Men (Story)," your unit will appear under that branch -- with that exact wording -- in your faction tree in 3DEN. It is best to use nonspecific categories such as "Men," or, "Anti-Air," to keep your faction from mimicking another.
    
16. Select a "Type" to designate your unit. This might be "Combat Life Saver," or, "Rifleman (AT)," etc.
    
17. Click "OK." You will be brought back to the main Unit Editor screen.
    
18. From here, you have the option to edit the loadout as well as edit the description.
    
19. Click "Edit Loadout," and then at the bottom, load in the loadout you created that matches the unit type. Apply your "medic" loadout to your "Combat Lifesaver," or the "anti tank" loadout to your "Rifleman (AT)." You can still tweak your loadouts, but unlike the Virtual Training, you can't test them.
    
20. Either "Cancel Changes" at the lower left, or "Save Changes" at the lower right.
    
    Sometimes the ORBAT creator will bug slightly and show the first person view of the unit you placed in Step 3. This is not a problem -- you can still add and edit units and export them. It's just a graphical bug. If you want to see your unit that you created, click on "Unit Editor" and then "Open." This will return you to the Unit Editor, and you can see your list of units that you've been working on.
    
    
21. Repeat steps 12 through 19 until you have created all your faction's units.
    
22. To add vehicles to your faction, repeat steps 12 and 13, but instead of selecting a human-type unit as you would in step 14, instead choose a vehicle. For example: "Faction: CSAT," "Category: Helicopters," and then select "P0-30 Orca." Just like with Step 14, your vehicle will be listed under this category in your faction tree.
    
23. Click "OK."
    
24. Click "Edit Vehicle."
    
25. "Crew" will automatically be selected. You will be prompted to select a crew for the vehicle. On the right side of the screen, select a role, and then fill it with a unit from the left side of the screen.
    
26. Under "Crew" is the "Appearance" menu. Click it to access a list of available skins for that vehicle. Choose one.
    
27. Select "Cancel Changes" at the lower lower left, or "Save Changes" at the lower right.
    
28. Repeat Steps 21 through 26 to add all the vehicles to your faction.
    
    Once you are done adding all the units and vehicles to your faction, it is time to begin making group compositions.
    
    
29. At the top, click Group Editor -> Open.
    
30. Ensure your faction is selected in the drop-down menu at the upper left.
    
31. On the right side of the screen, select a category for your new group to go in. Similar to Step 14 above, this is where the group will be stored in the faction tree. Select an appropriate branch for your group.
    
32. Click "New," and fill out the fields. Click "OK."
    
33. You will be returned to the Group Editor main screen. From here, your Group has been created, but like your faction after Step 11, it is an empty "bucket."
    
34. Begin adding units to the group using the left side of the screen. Select which category you want from the drop-down menu under "Available Assets," and then click, "Add to Selected Group" to add that unit to the Group you made in Step 30.
    
35. Repeat steps 31 through 33 to fill your Group as you see fit.
    
    Once you have crafted all your units, put them in vehicles, and placed them in groups, it is time to start exporting. To prepare your mod, you will need the following nested folders:
    
    "@[modname]" containing "addons" containing "[faction name]"
    
    For example: @Fish's_Factions\addons\Bandit_Faction. The '@' symbol is important -- don't leave it out!
    
    In the [factionname] folder, you will need four files:
    * autogen.hpp
    * CfgPatches.hpp
    * config.cpp
    * SPBOPREFIX$ (note that this file does not have an extension like the other three)
    
    In the "config.cpp," write the following lines:
    

    #include "CfgPatches.hpp"
    #include "autogen.hpp"

    In the "SPBOPREFIX$," write the following line:
    

    x\testmod\addons\test

    
    
36. Click Export -> Full Faction. You will see a notification in the lower left: "Config data copied to clipboard."
    
37. Paste this data into the "autogen.hpp" file you created above.
    
38. Click Export -> CfgPatches. You will see a notification in the lower left: "Config data copied to clipboard."
    
39. Paste this data into the "CfgPatches.hpp" file you created above.
    
    You have now completed creating the raw data for your faction. Exit the ORBAT creator, and you will be kicked into the mission as if you were playing the game. Exit the mission, 3DEN editor, and game.
    
    You should now have a set of nested folders that look something like this:
    
    @[modname]\addons\[factionname]
    
    And in that last folder you should have four files:
    * autogen.hpp, with the bulk of your faction's data (if you open this file in Notepad, you should see "Config Automatically Generated by ALiVE ORBAT Creator" surrounded by forward slashes at the top.
    * CfgPatches.hpp, with all the dependencies for your faction. You should see "class CfgPatches {" at the top.
    * config.cpp, which should have only two lines in it, as described above.
    * SPBOPREFIX$, which should have one line in it, as described above.
    
    
40. Launch "Arma 3 Tools." Select "Play Arma 3 Tools," and click "Play."
    
41. Select "FileBank," which is about halfway down the left side.
    
42. Click "Browse" next to the field under "Source." Navigate to the [factionname] folder contained in @[modname]\addons\[factionname].
    
43. Ensure "Destination" is selected. This will put the resulting packed file within the "addons" folder.
    
44. Click "Pack Data."

Your faction is now complete.

Conclusion

It's worth describing what you should have. Your "addons" folder should now have a folder called [factionname] and a file called [factionname].pbo. For some reason, Arma 3 requires this setup -- the entire mod will not be contained in a single file, but rather will be a series of folders with the .pbo near the bottom.

You can now launch the Arma 3 launcher, go to "Mods," and select "Local Mod." Click on the "@[modname]" and the launcher will load your mod.

You can delete the folder [factionname] if you want, but it's worth keeping in case you want to edit your faction later. You can follow the above steps again to open your faction in the ORBAT editor and edit your units, compositions, vehicles, etc.

If you open the "autogen.hpp," you can in fact edit your units if you know what to look for. All ORBAT is doing is automating a great deal of tedious typing. If you're feeling particularly masochistic, you can edit the results further to achieve your goals. Just be aware that doing so is likely to break the file if you don't know what you're doing, so make a copy.

Credits

A huge thank you to friznit and Matt for making the mod and opening up a ton of possibilities for us mission makers.

Another big thank you to the "War Is Hell" Youtube channel and his "How To Make A Custom Faction In Arma 3 With The ALiVE Orbat Creator" video. His guide helped me figure this out, and hopefully this guide will help you out.

[Trooper_025]

ORBAT Creator doesn't seem to be able to edit stuff like camo nets and slat armor for vehicles, nor edit vehicle inventories. Is there a way to do this manually in the autogen.hpp file?

[Eyuep]

Your guide is very good and the description is easy to understand, but still however it don´t works for me ... i can´t find the faction ingame
Any idea why it could be?

[Taff-79]

I believe the line in the "SPBOPREFIX$," file is not quite right.
The default in the original example folders was indeed "x\testmod\addons\test", but you should change this to be the same as your new folders; "@[modname]\addons\[factionname]".

This way its meant to allow you to place more than one faction inside the addon folder,

eg,
@MyCoolMods\addons\SAS
&
@MyCoolMods\addons\DELTA

I got this from a post by SpiderBlack723 on the Alive forum here;
http://alivemod.com/forum/4792-orbat-factions-not-working-together/0

However, this still doesn't work for me. :(

But here's another question too, why doesn't the Copy feature work.
Lets say i want to copy the "Looter" faction and make them OpFor.
It doesnt work You can manually do it, but copy simply doesnt work. try it.

[VoidHeart]

@PizzaBagel147 Hey, did you ever manage to fix your issue? Currently going through it myself

[tenhunter]

@pizzaBagel147 Having the same exact issue with Orbat vs DRO...

[PizzaBagel147]

Hey I got an issue I wanted to see if anyone can help me with. I created a faction and it works for almost everything. I wanted to use it with Dynamic Recon Ops, but when units spawn in they are missing all their equipment in their backpacks and vests, and their weapon attachments disappear. I tried making a faction with only vanilla assets and got the same issue. Any ideas?

[sleeper]

Any idea why they only appear in Eden?

[conway]

@Braunn: Thanks! I figured I could edit the config but didn't know what the right language ID was...

[Braunn]

@conway : Basically you could use Alive and then after copying the files, rewrite identitytypes so it looks like this:
identityTypes[] = {"gm_language_deu_male","Head_Euro"};

[conway]

Is it possible to add custom voice packs to a faction (i.e., German from Global Mobilization)? They show up in the "normal" virtual arsenal, but not in the virtual arsenal of the Orbat Creator (-> there is no voice class called "German").