Paradrop Player Experience Reference

Paradrop Player Experience Reference

Source-verified 2026-07-02 against origin/claude/build84-cmdcon36@6f2fc4bd10c8339fd13be087d327717ff58c85e8. Paths below are Chernarus source mission paths unless noted. The maintained Vanilla/Takistan root carries the same relevant support scripts. This page changes wiki documentation only.

This page documents what a commander, recipient, tester or operator should expect when a paradrop support call is used in-game. It complements Paradrop delivery functions, which owns the line-by-line function internals, and Tactical support menu, which owns costs, cooldowns and upgrade gates.

Quick Matrix

Support	Human entry point	Arrival trigger	Player-visible result	Cleanup / failure
Paratroops	RequestSpecial dispatches Server_HandleSpecial.sqf case "Paratroops" into KAT_Paratroopers	Transport leader comes within 300m of the clicked destination	AI infantry eject from cargo with a 0.35s plane delay or 0.85s helicopter delay. Human calls send each dropped unit to the requesting client for marker/audio/drop-zone feedback	If the transport never gets greenlight, the created paratroopers are deleted. After a successful drop the transport flies home, then pilot/vehicle/group are deleted
ParaAmmo	RequestSpecial dispatches case "ParaAmmo" into KAT_ParaAmmo	Transport comes within 100m of the destination	Ammo crates are created, attached to parachutes, detached below 3m, then re-created at the landed position	If the requester is no longer player-led or the flight exceeds 500s, the script damages cargo/pilot/vehicle and deletes the group. After the drop the aircraft flies home and is deleted
ParaVehi	RequestSpecial dispatches case "ParaVehi" into KAT_ParaVehicles	Transport comes within 100m of the destination	One cargo/repair vehicle rides attached under the aircraft, detaches, receives a parachute after a 2s pause, detaches below 10m, and remains as the delivered vehicle	Same leader/timeout abort as ammo; successful aircraft returns home and is deleted. The dropped vehicle enters emptyQueu / WFBE_SE_FNC_HandleEmptyVehicle

Request Surface

The three support scripts are compiled server-side as KAT_ParaAmmo, KAT_Paratroopers and KAT_ParaVehicles (Server/Init/Init_Server.sqf:53-55). The server router switches on the first RequestSpecial argument: "Paratroops" spawns KAT_Paratroopers, "ParaVehi" spawns KAT_ParaVehicles, and "ParaAmmo" spawns KAT_ParaAmmo (Server/Functions/Server_HandleSpecial.sqf:50-60).

For player-facing cost and button availability, use Tactical support menu. Current guide values are: Paratroopers cost $8,500 with the WFBE_UP_PARATROOPERS gate, Paradrop Ammo costs $9,500, Paradrop Vehicle costs $3,500, and the ammo/vehicle drops share the lastSupplyCall cooldown family. This page starts once the server support script is already running.

All three scripts choose a map-edge airspawn. If WFBE_BOUNDARIESXY exists, the scripts build four corner-ish spawn points at 400 + random 200 altitude; otherwise they fall back to two hard-coded southern edge points. WFBE_BOUNDARIESXY is set for known islands, including Chernarus 15360 and Takistan 12800, in Common/Init/Init_Boundaries.sqf:4-16,19-36. The support scripts use that boundary value at Support_Paratroopers.sqf:17-32, Support_ParaAmmo.sqf:12-24, and Support_ParaVehicles.sqf:12-24.

Paratroopers

Human paratrooper support creates one or more faction transport aircraft, then spawns the side's current paratrooper-tier infantry directly into the requesting _playerTeam, not into the transport group. This means the dropped soldiers join the commander's group after ejection rather than staying in the aircraft group's lifecycle (Server/Support/Support_Paratroopers.sqf:34-45, :47-70, :79-98).

The aircraft flies to the clicked map position and polls once per second. It aborts if all vehicles are destroyed, all pilots die, the human requester's team leader stops being a player, or 500s elapse. Current Build 86/87 support also detects AI-called drops with _isAI = !(isPlayer (leader _playerTeam)); AI drops keep the 500s transit cap but do not abort merely because there is no player leader (Server/Support/Support_Paratroopers.sqf:9-15, :100-112).

When the aircraft reaches within 300m, it gets greenlight. Every cargo unit except driver/gunner/commander ejects, sleeping 0.35s between troops for planes and 0.85s for helicopters. Human-called drops then call WFBE_CO_FNC_SendToClient with HandleParatrooperMarkerCreation for each dropped unit. AI-called drops skip that client marker send (Server/Support/Support_Paratroopers.sqf:114-127).

After the drop, the aircraft is ordered back to its spawn point and cleaned up once it reaches within 300m. If it never got greenlight, the pre-created paratroopers are deleted instead. Final cleanup deletes transport crew, aircraft and the transport group (Server/Support/Support_Paratroopers.sqf:129-147).

Ammo Paradrop

Ammo paradrop uses one transport aircraft. The server logs the request, creates a "paradrop" group, spawns the aircraft and pilot, registers the aircraft as a side unit, and sends it toward the target (Server/Support/Support_ParaAmmo.sqf:1-42).

The outbound loop ends when the aircraft reaches within 100m. If the aircraft/pilot dies, the loop exits. If the requester's leader stops being a player or the flight exceeds 500s, the abort branch runs setDammage 1 over _cargo plus pilot and aircraft and deletes the group. In normal use, that means a commander who disconnects or stops leading during the delivery can lose the in-flight support (Server/Support/Support_ParaAmmo.sqf:45-52).

The drop itself creates each configured ammo crate from WFBE_%1PARAAMMO, sleeping 0.8s between crates. Each crate gets a parachute created below the aircraft, is attached to the chute, waits until it is below 3m, detaches, then is deleted and re-created at the landed position before the chute is deleted after 5s. The re-created crate is the object players interact with after landing (Server/Support/Support_ParaAmmo.sqf:54-93).

The transport then flies home, waits until it is within 200m of its origin, deletes pilot and aircraft, and deletes the group (Server/Support/Support_ParaAmmo.sqf:96-108).

Vehicle Paradrop

Vehicle paradrop mirrors the ammo flight path but carries one WFBE_%1PARAVEHICARGO vehicle attached under the aircraft. The cargo vehicle is also inserted into emptyQueu and WFBE_SE_FNC_HandleEmptyVehicle, so after landing it uses the normal empty-vehicle cleanup path rather than being a special untracked object (Server/Support/Support_ParaVehicles.sqf:1-49).

The aircraft reaches greenlight at 100m. The same death, player-leader and 500s timeout aborts apply. On greenlight the script detaches the cargo vehicle, waits 2s, creates the side parachute below it, attaches the vehicle to that chute, waits until the vehicle is below 10m or destroyed, detaches it, waits 10s, and deletes the chute. Unlike ammo crates, the delivered vehicle is not deleted and re-created; it remains the original cargo vehicle (Server/Support/Support_ParaVehicles.sqf:51-75).

The aircraft then returns to its origin, waits within 200m, and deletes pilot, aircraft and group (Server/Support/Support_ParaVehicles.sqf:78-90).

Marker, Audio And Client Handoff

Only paratrooper infantry drops have per-unit client feedback. The server sends HandleParatrooperMarkerCreation to the leader of the requesting player team after each human-called ejection (Server/Support/Support_Paratroopers.sqf:121-126). WFBE_CO_FNC_SendToClient rewrites the target to the player's UID and the command to CLTFNCHandleParatrooperMarkerCreation, then sends a client public variable or spawns the handler locally on a hosted server (Common/Functions/Common_SendToClient.sqf:13-20).

On the receiving client, headless clients reject ordinary client PVFs; only selected delegation HandleSpecial payloads are allowed through. Normal player clients accept string destinations only when their getPlayerUID player matches the destination (Client/Functions/Client_HandlePVF.sqf:16-34). The handler then waits for client init, side-gates to the matching side, creates a local tracked marker for the dropped unit, and spawns MarkerUpdate (Client/PVFunctions/HandleParatrooperMarkerCreation.sqf:7-18, :29-40; Common/Common_MarkerUpdate.sqf:25-43).

Current Build 86/87 also plays one throttled commanderNotification and creates a local Paradrop drop-zone marker for the friendly client, deleting it after 30s. That cue is throttled by WFBE_C_LastParatroopSound so a stick of paratroopers does not stack one sound per soldier (Client/PVFunctions/HandleParatrooperMarkerCreation.sqf:42-61). The client handler records a paratrooper_marker_spawn performance-audit event when the audit recorder is present (Client/PVFunctions/HandleParatrooperMarkerCreation.sqf:64-68).

Ammo and vehicle paradrops do not use this marker callback. Their player proof is visual: the aircraft approaches, the crates/vehicle separate under parachute, and the aircraft returns/cleans up.

AI-Called Paradrops

There are two AI-side paratrooper paths to know about. AI_Commander_Paratroops.sqf is an opt-in AICOM reinforcement worker. It requires WFBE_C_AICOM_PARATROOPS_ENABLE > 0, no human commander unless AI lock is active, researched paratrooper tier, a live Command Center, cooldown, and a sensible target. It then creates an aicom_paradrop group and calls the same KAT_Paratroopers function with ["Paratroops", _side, getPos _target, _grp] (Server/AI/Commander/AI_Commander_Paratroops.sqf:1-29, :35-79, :90-118).

Wildcard W4, Airborne Assault, is the second AI route. It picks a spearhead/front town, forces the side's paratrooper level to 3 long enough for Support_Paratroopers.sqf to read it, calls the same support function, then restores the previous level after 10s (Server/Functions/AI_Commander_Wildcard.sqf:671-715). W4 also gets a short friendly-side map marker through the wildcard event marker system (Server/Functions/AI_Commander_Wildcard.sqf:1521-1569).

Because both AI routes pass a non-player-led group, Support_Paratroopers.sqf treats them as AI drops: no player-leader abort, no per-trooper HandleParatrooperMarkerCreation send, and only the 500s transit cap plus normal aircraft death guards apply (Server/Support/Support_Paratroopers.sqf:9-15, :105-127).

Smoke Checklist

Use a hosted or dedicated run with a commander who can open Tactical Support. For each support call, watch the server RPT and the requesting client:

• Paratroopers: trigger a human paratrooper support call; confirm aircraft approach, ejection inside the 300m greenlight, one throttled notification, friendly local Paradrop marker cleanup after 30s, per-unit tracking markers, no enemy-side cue, and no rejected/missing HandleParatrooperMarkerCreation PVF warning.
• Ammo: trigger ammo paradrop; confirm approach to roughly 100m, crate parachutes, crates land and persist as re-created ammo boxes, aircraft returns/deletes, and no false marker expectation.
• Vehicle: trigger vehicle paradrop; confirm cargo vehicle is visible under the aircraft, detaches, rides chute, remains usable after landing, and aircraft returns/deletes.
• Failure: test disconnect/leader-loss or unreachable delivery in a controlled run; human ammo/vehicle drops should abort on non-player leader or 500s timeout, while AI paratrooper drops should not abort solely because the leader is not a player.
• AI route: if WFBE_C_AICOM_PARATROOPS_ENABLE or W4 is enabled in a test build, verify the AI drop uses the same aircraft/ejection behavior but does not send human client marker callbacks.

Continue Reading

• Paradrop delivery functions
• Tactical support menu
• Support specials and tactical modules
• Paratrooper marker revival
• AI commander execution loop
• Testing and release workflow