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Shelved PR 287 recon drone wildcards

rayswaynl edited this page Jul 3, 2026 · 1 revision

Shelved: PR #287 — AICOM recon-drone wildcards (W25/W26)

State: Ray-shelved 2026-07-03 (Build 89 pick round). PR #287 was closed without merging; nothing from it is in Build 88/89.

WHAT

Adds two new AI-commander wildcard cards: W25 Recon Drone (Ka-137, WEST) and W26 Recon Drone (Pchela, EAST). When drawn, the AI spawns one unmanned recon drone near its HQ that loiters the nearest enemy front town in a non-combat (CARELESS/BLUE) role, reveals nearby enemy units to the AI's knowledge every ~8 seconds, then self-despawns after a TTL. It gives the AI an ISR/intel card it currently lacks — real-time enemy positions near the front without a map-hack.

WHERE

  • PR: #287 — "[fable] AICOM recon-drone wildcard W25/W26 (Ka-137/Pchela, flag, default 0)".
  • Branch / head commit: fable/aicom-recon-drone-wildcard @ c45f7d2ab29a80b27113f71a6dcb31568bb6613d.
  • Flag (if any): WFBE_C_AICOM_DRONE_RECON = 0 (default OFF — both cards weight 0, never drawn). Tunable: WFBE_C_AICOM_DRONE_TTL = 180 (loiter seconds). Rare weight 5 each when enabled.
  • Files touched: Server/Functions/AI_Commander_Wildcard.sqf (+~133 lines: eligibility gate, weight-table entries, and the case 25/26 apply block with reveal-loop + self-despawn); Common/Init/Init_CommonConstants.sqf (2 constants). Mirrored Chernarus + Takistan.

WHY SHELVED

This PR was decided together with the two "Avenger SAM" wildcards (#357 Iron-Dome and #315 Avenger SAM ambush). On 2026-07-03 Ray's pick was "neither Avenger path, no recon cards" — declining the recon-drone wildcards outright alongside both Avenger approaches. The cards were default-off (weight 0) and never drawn in production, so nothing is live.

HOW TO REVIVE

  • Recover from branch fable/aicom-recon-drone-wildcard @ c45f7d2ab29a80b27113f71a6dcb31568bb6613d; re-add W25/W26 to the weight table and eligibility gate in AI_Commander_Wildcard.sqf, keeping WFBE_C_AICOM_DRONE_RECON default 0.
  • Ray declined "no recon cards" this round, so revival needs a fresh pitch — likely paired with a demonstration that the drone's reveal loop measurably improves AI targeting.
  • Watch for drift: the wildcard weight table and the _wW25/_wW26 locals were sequenced against sibling PRs #357/#315 (which also edited the same weight-line region) — rebase carefully onto current AI_Commander_Wildcard.sqf.
  • Validate in-engine: confirm the drone spawns, loiters at ~80m, self-despawns on TTL with no orphan vehicle/group, and that the per-side anti-stack latch (wfbe_aicom_drone_active_<side>) clears on every exit path.

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