Request Team Update Squad Discipline Handler

RequestTeamUpdate Squad-Discipline Handler

Source-verified 2026-06-21 against master 0139a346. Paths relative to Missions/[55-2hc]warfarev2_073v48co.chernarus/ unless noted. Arma 2 OA 1.64.

RequestTeamUpdate is the server PVF that lets a human commander push manual squad-discipline state — behaviour, combat mode, formation, and speed mode — onto AI teams from the Command menu. The commander opens the team-properties tab of the Command dialog (GUI_Menu_Command.sqf), picks one value from each of four list boxes, chooses a target scope (selected teams vs the whole side), and clicks apply. That fires MenuAction == 303, which builds the payload and ships it to the server through WFBE_CO_FNC_SendToServer. The server handler then applies four engine commands (setBehaviour/setCombatMode/setFormation/setSpeedMode) to the targeted groups.

This is the manual discipline-push path. It is distinct from the AI commander's autonomous orders, which call the same four engine commands but from a separate code path inside Server\AI\Orders\* — see Legacy-AI-Order-Primitive-Reference and the contrast section below.

Payload contract

The payload is a five-element array [_team, _behaviour, _combatMode, _formation, _speedMode], read positionally by RequestTeamUpdate.sqf (_team = _args select 0 at Server\PVFunctions\RequestTeamUpdate.sqf:4; properties at select 1..select 4, :9-12/:20-23). Element 0 is overloaded — its typeName is the branch discriminator (ARRAY vs SIDE, see below). Elements 1-4 are the four discipline strings, drawn verbatim from the client list boxes.

Index	Field	Type	Engine command applied	Source
0	_team	ARRAY of groups or SIDE	(branch selector)	RequestTeamUpdate.sqf:4,7,18
1	_behaviour	String e.g. "AWARE"	setBehaviour	RequestTeamUpdate.sqf:9,20
2	_combatMode	String e.g. "RED"	setCombatMode	RequestTeamUpdate.sqf:10,21
3	_formation	String e.g. "WEDGE"	setFormation	RequestTeamUpdate.sqf:11,22
4	_speedMode	String e.g. "NORMAL"	setSpeedMode	RequestTeamUpdate.sqf:12,23

The four value vocabularies are fixed client-side lists (GUI_Menu_Command.sqf:81-84) and are passed through to the engine commands without any server-side allow-listing:

Field	Allowed values	Source
Behaviour	AWARE, CARELESS, COMBAT, SAFE, STEALTH	GUI_Menu_Command.sqf:81
Combat mode	BLUE, GREEN, RED, WHITE, YELLOW	GUI_Menu_Command.sqf:82
Formation	COLUMN, DIAMOND, ECH LEFT, ECH RIGHT, FILE, LINE, STAG COLUMN, VEE, WEDGE	GUI_Menu_Command.sqf:83
Speed	LIMITED, FULL, NORMAL	GUI_Menu_Command.sqf:84

Client caller — Command menu, MenuAction 303

The team-properties tab populates the four list boxes (IDC 14017/14018/14019/14020) by lbAdd-ing the vocabularies above (GUI_Menu_Command.sqf:86-89). While the dialog is open, the property tab also reads back the current state of the selected team's leader and pre-selects the matching list-box rows, so the menu reflects live discipline (behaviour/combatMode/formation/speedMode of leader _team → find → lbSetCurSel, :510-526). The _updateProperties one-shot flag (:508-509) makes that read-back happen on tab entry rather than every loop tick.

When the commander clicks apply, MenuAction is set to 303 and the handler block runs once (it immediately resets MenuAction = -1):

Step	Action	Source
Read selections	_behavior/_combat/_formation/_speed = <list> select (lbCurSel <IDC>) for IDC 14017/14018/14019/14020	GUI_Menu_Command.sqf:413-416
Default scope	_to = sideJoined (whole-side branch)	GUI_Menu_Command.sqf:419
Selected-teams scope	If !_isAll, rebuild _to as an array of clientTeams select (_x - 1) over the selected list rows _teams	GUI_Menu_Command.sqf:420-426
Dispatch	["RequestTeamUpdate", [_to,_behavior,_combat,_formation,_speed]] Call WFBE_CO_FNC_SendToServer	GUI_Menu_Command.sqf:431

_isAll is true when the team list-box selection is the synthetic "All" row (_curSel == 0) or when row 0 is among the multi-selected rows (GUI_Menu_Command.sqf:117). _teams = lbSelection _listbox_teams (the 14012 list box) is the set of currently selected rows (:119); each row index _x maps to clientTeams select (_x - 1) because row 0 is the "All" pseudo-entry prepended at :29. The commented-out WFBE_RequestTeamUpdate/publicVariable/HandleSPVF lines at :428-430 are the legacy raw-PV form, superseded by the SendToServer helper call.

The send helper wraps the name into the server convention: WFBE_CO_FNC_SendToServer (defined in Common\Functions\Common_SendToServer.sqf) rewrites payload slot 0 to SRVFNCREQUESTTEAMUPDATE (Common_SendToServer.sqf:12), then either broadcasts WFBE_PVF_RequestTeamUpdate to the server (:14-15) or, on a hosted server, spawns WFBE_SE_FNC_HandlePVF directly (:17). See PVF-Send-Helper-Contract-Reference.

Server dispatch and registration

RequestTeamUpdate is registered as a server-bound PVF in the command list at Common\Init\Init_PublicVariables.sqf:20 (it is element 11 of _serverCommandPV). The registration loop compiles the handler into a global named SRVFNCREQUESTTEAMUPDATE from Server\PVFunctions\RequestTeamUpdate.sqf and attaches a public-variable event handler that spawns WFBE_SE_FNC_HandlePVF on receipt (Init_PublicVariables.sqf:60-61). The dispatcher (Server\Functions\Server_HandlePVF.sqf) resolves the handler by name — _code = missionNamespace getVariable _script where _script is the SRVFNC... token — and spawns it with the parameter array (Server_HandlePVF.sqf:11-15). See Public-Variable-Channel-Index and PVF-Dispatch-Implementation-Playbook.

The two target-scope branches

The handler body branches on typeName _team — the same slot-0 value carries the scope semantics. Both branches apply the identical four engine commands; they differ only in which groups they iterate.

Branch	Condition	Iterates	Per-group commands	Logging	Source
Selected teams	typeName _team == "ARRAY"	forEach _team (the group array built client-side)	setBehaviour/setCombatMode/setFormation/setSpeedMode on _x	one LogContent line per group	RequestTeamUpdate.sqf:7-15
Whole side	typeName _team == "SIDE"	forEach (missionNamespace getVariable Format["WFBE_%1TEAMS",str _team])	same four commands on _x	one LogContent line for the side	RequestTeamUpdate.sqf:18-26

The whole-side branch resolves the side's group registry through the WFBE_<SIDE>TEAMS namespace variable. That variable is populated at mission init from each side's logic object (initJIPCompatible.sqf:267, copying wfbe_teams off the side logic), and is the same registry that Common_GetClientTeam.sqf:6 indexes for client-team lookups. Because the two branches are independent if blocks (not else-chained, :7 and :18), the discriminator must be exactly ARRAY or SIDE; any other type silently no-ops.

Both branches emit WFBE_CO_FNC_LogContent INFORMATION lines — the ARRAY branch logs each updated group (RequestTeamUpdate.sqf:13), the SIDE branch logs once naming the side (:25).

Authority note

The handler performs no requester validation: it does not check that the sender is the side's commander, and it does not allow-list the four discipline values before passing them to the engine commands. The values arrive verbatim from the client list boxes. This is tracked as a security gap in Server-Authority-Migration-Map (the "validate requester is commander / allowlist behaviour-combat-formation-speed values" rows). A spoofed WFBE_PVF_RequestTeamUpdate could retarget any side's whole team registry via the SIDE branch.

Contrast — not the AI-commander order path

The autonomous AI commander issues movement and posture orders through a different code path: the order primitives under Server\AI\Orders\ (e.g. AI_MoveTo.sqf, AI_Patrol.sqf) call the same setBehaviour/setCombatMode/setFormation/setSpeedMode engine commands as part of executing the AI commander's own decisions. Those are not driven by RequestTeamUpdate and carry no command-menu payload. RequestTeamUpdate is exclusively the human commander's manual override; the AI-order primitives are the machine commander acting on its own. See Legacy-AI-Order-Primitive-Reference.

Continue Reading

• Legacy-AI-Order-Primitive-Reference
• PVF-Send-Helper-Contract-Reference
• Server-Authority-Migration-Map
• Public-Variable-Channel-Index
• AI-Squad-Team-Templates-Catalog