ARMA 3: How to create your own faction.

[@P1MKdrunkpingu]

Man Thank you. This tutorial is simple but complete, easy to understand for non native English speakers and goes straight to the point. It is perfect thank you

[@neptune442]

bro, I've been struggling with trying to get my own custom units to keep their uniforms, and this is a godsend

[@armandomarchan7888]

FYI you can also save units as compositions, if your making a proper faction I'd say use this, but if your Lazy like me just do that lol

[@harkness3134]

Glad it worked out for you man! I never expected so many folks to see this one, but I'm glad it's helped some!

[@Lucas_WAZZAA]

yoo dude, this tutorial is sick, at first i was confused (and even angry) because i couldnt find a good PBO manager download, but thanks for including it (I was blind lol).

[@harkness3134]

Thanks for the kind words dawg, I wish I would've sunk more time into this one, but I had NO clue it would take off the way it did. I might end up making another one of these, that is much longer and addresses a lot of the common issues with the ORBAT tool. Thanks for stopping by homie, I hope it helped!

[@IzButter]

Is there away to put it in the faction params so i can use it for Arma war machine? im trying to take other peoples factions and put them in there so i can use it in warmachine

[@columbo6292]

Thanks for the basics, it's enabled me to finally put my pen to paper so to speak with releasing a custom faction mod. I do have two questions though. One, how can I alter the unit class names? For example, if I use SOG:PF units from, let's say, the PAVN, it will showcase that individual unit under the title "Men (PAVN)" or something similar. I'd like to edit that, if able. Another thing, is it possible to customize the vehicle equipment inventory? Some vehicles hold equipment I don't want my custom faction having access to.

[@harkness3134]

Hey man, the vehicles inventory comes with what vehicle is it's base class. You SHOULD be able to edit these in the TXT. files, but I am unfamiliar on the process how. Sorry for the delay! I am SUPER busy atm. As for unit class names, I do not think you can. But when they spawn, they should have the name you specified in ORBAT. So it SHOULD only affect the Zeus interface.

[@Bongerbongerpatron]

i get the cfgpatches error what to do?

[@colonelgeorgiousakhanteros9538]

Great video! Can you do the tutorial on how to add your own unit patch into singleplayer to be avaible in arsenal?

[@zarzadcakamczatki9242]

Hello It's possible to export copied faction as independent mod without ALiVE mod? (I want to copy CSAT Pacific and add them as BLUFOR for Ovethrow mod, cause only BLUFOR can be an enemy faction).

[@Pablo-lh3zj]

good tutorial, very well explained and very clear it worked for me

[@harkness3134]

Appreciate the feedback man, I don't really do KZbin much, but I'm glad it was able to help out some people, ARMA is horribly confusing sometimes lmao

[@Pablo-lh3zj]

@@harkness3134 yes, sometimes it's a bit confusing

[@JoloAgsalud]

Hey man i’m having a problem creating my own faction. Idk if putting tons of custom units and vehicles that took me hours to put them all in one faction makes the error or not. As i launch my arma game, it says “File (faction name)\CfgPatches.hpp, line 1058: ,CfgPatches: Member already defined.” Idk what it means please help

[@BigSauce_]

this is much better than everyone else's shit tutorials

[@mamaco721]

I really loved the tutorial, it was simple, and easy to understand, quick, and it worked perfectly, but i got a question. I wanted to play with my faction on dynamic recon ops altis, but the face wears of the units doesn't appear, i need to add them manually, and also the ammunition and equipment inside of the vest and bag disappeared. If anybody know how to fix that or something, i would like to know.

[@justaguy723]

Just a question man. I use resources from a lot of different assets. I use RHS, 3CB, SOG PF, and more. So: I have about 3 different slots for helicopters, and static crew served weapons, for example. Is there anyway you know of I could compile them all so the unit isn't bloated with 10 different categories for the same thing?

[@cron1165]

Can I just save it somehow and then play with my faction in missions like dynamic recon ops or do I have to go into the files like at 12:08 ? I'm shit with pc's when it gets complicated

[@harkness3134]

The going into the files part at 12:08 is turning your faction into an actual mod that Arma can use. Think of it like witting a paper in Microsoft Word, you can write all day long but if you don't press save it means nothing. The orbat creator only makes the text files for you, you have to turn those text files into a mod so Arma can load your faction and you can use them. Sorry man, I know it's a bit of a pickle.

[@cron1165]

@@harkness3134 Thanks and no problem your tutorial was great! I'm just bad at this stuff no matter how well someone explains it lol

[@harkness3134]

@@cron1165 Thanks for the kind words friend, I'm HORRIBLE at following directions, so I completely understand man!

[@hohtari1]

My problem is, because I'm using some other unit as template, it pulls the gear randomization etc from that base unit. Is there a way to change that? I'd also like to add my own options for randomized gear.

[@harkness3134]

Hello friend, if you're in the ORBAT editor and you see peoples faceware change, ignore it. It does not show up in the final product. If you did get the "template" from 3CB Factions, then that randomization might be permanant. My units have their facewear change all the time in ORBAT but never in actual zeus. Happy hunting!

[@sziumpipium1116]

my game crashes, it says something like file custom faction CFG something member already defined and the game crashes. What should i do? I need help.

[@harkness3134]

Sometimes if you click "full faction to file" twice, it will paste TWO lines of code into the text documents. The fix is somewhat complicated, but you need to find your mod files like CfgFactionClasses, CfgGroups etc etc and go into each one and delete the extra lines of code. Every textfile will begin with "Config Automatically Generated by ALiVE ORBAT Creator" so just hit CLTR+F and type in "Alive Orbat" and delete everything after the first one. I know it sounds like alot, and it is, but luckily arma will point you to the "already defined" parts, so it'll take you a couple of tries but the mod is saveable!

[@carterc4307]

If I created unit loadouts in Zeus mode prior to using alive can I still put these in a faction? They won’t show up under loadouts

[@harkness3134]

Hey homie, I'm not familiar with creating loadouts in Zeus, but I am familiar with the arsenal. If you spawn as these loadouts in Zeus, go to an arsenal, save them and then when in the ORBAT creator you should be able to immediately use em'.

[@carterc4307]

@@harkness3134 Ok thanks so much!

[@mgguy5550]

Great tutorial dude! Can I overhaul the vanilla factions with this? (replacing gears for factions from Bohemia themselves) something like "NATO RHS overhaul"

[@BrodyAlsonze]

How do you get the cfg patches folders and notepads into the faction folder

[@paroxy1119]

can anyone help? Im getting a "member already defined" error and my arma wont launch

[@Kick_Blitz]

Same, not sure how to fix this, though it likely is an error regarding nameing possibly.

[@harkness3134]

Hey fellas, this is a bit of a complicated problem. Hey fellas, I genuinely apologize for missing these, college started a bit ago and I've been as busy as ever, hope this finds you well! So what has happened is that for some reason, maybe you clicked the export button twice or ORBAT is just being fucky, the config file for your faction was created TWICE in each text file. It's a pain to fix, but it's absolutely doable, you need to open your mod and check EVERY text document for duplicated stuff. If you see something that says //////////this was created with XYZ////// You should have a BUNCH of code below that. If you have two massive blocks of ///////etc etc//// then there is a duplicate and you need to delete one of them. Member already defined means "Hey! This already exists!" so find the dupes and keep trying, if it says line 292, find that and delete it and check again for duplicates. Remember, you should only have one "/////////this was created using the alive orbat tool///// if you've got one at the start of your text file, good! But if there's another below that one, after all the code, that's a duplicate and it needs to be wiped. Sorry if my explanation isn't up to snuff, I'm thinking about redoing this video as honestly, I never expected it to get as big and I'm not really happy with the quality of it.

[@Kick_Blitz]

@@harkness3134 No worries dude, the quality isn't as bad as you think, I've actually created a faction before using one of your and some other's videos and it got the job done. I think you are correct that the system was just a bit fucky and that caused a duplication in the files. I'll take a look when I get some time to look for and remove duplicated code. Also if you do created a new video, I'll be sure to watch it, you seem to have a good knowledge base and can make some good tutorials on this stuff.

[@noname788]

There isn't an option for PBO to pack the files. Idk if it's because I'm in windows 11, but when I right click it, there are no options for PBO manager. I have the whole thing setup and ready to use yet it doesn't give any option at all for packing nor does it appear as an option what so ever. Anyway to fix it?

[@FH-rp5or]

I had the same issue as you. unfortunately i couldn't find a fix for this issue, but i have found a way around it. Grab any PBO, duplicate it, rename it, open it with PBO manager, select and delete all the files and folders it contains. Then paste in the empty PBO the content of the faction folder you created using ALIVE. Make sure to ONLY paste the content of the folder without the folder itself.

[@michael-dumbley]

​@@FH-rp5oryou guys needed to download one, this guys left his one in the description

[@KeithB235]

You're looking in the wrong place. Go into Windows File Manager, navigate to your new Faction folder, right-click on the folder and there is a pop-up menu option there for PBO Manager. Click it and you'll see two sub-options, the top one is to pack the folder contents into a PBO file.

[@VietnamWarShorts]

I do not have the PBO manager option upon right clicking despite PBO manager installed

[@harkness3134]

Hey man, did you ever get it sorted out?

[@VietnamWarShorts]

@@harkness3134 Yes I used ARMA tools to pack it, but now I have another problem, 2 custom factions I made from ALIVE right? if both are loaded, the other one will not show.

[@harkness3134]

@@VietnamWarShorts Hey man, this may sound like a stupid question. But do you have both of the mods in the same mod folder? Like both of the factions under one mod? If so, try splitting them up into their own separate mod. I'll dig for some more info on the bug, I've had it happen to me a couple of times.

[@harkness3134]

Got some more info on the bug, personally I create my factions with a single mod per faction. So Harks VC and Harks ARVN would be two different mods with their own folders, and that's always stopped me from having the disappearing issue. Keep me updated, we'll be sure to find a fix for you man!

[@VietnamWarShorts]

@@harkness3134 Can we talk in Discord? So I can explain it better? thank you

[@Ryzux619]

How did you get these files? I can't find them anywhere and yes i extracted the faction but when i click control v or right mouse button i have nothing so i'm stuck. Plus when i tried to do it from another youtuber and i launch the game it says something like error in file autogen, line 6 there is * and not = or something like that and when i search for that * i find nothing.

[@CCOOKE88]

Could I use these factions in antistasi?

[@harkness3134]

Absolutely! If you have a zeus spawn them in. But as for Antistasi itself spawning them? I'm unfamiliar with that and I'd absolutely say "no" without some arduous work on it.

[@Steggman]

I have a question though; I want a BLUFOR IDAP faction. So that OPFOR can engage them. If i manually create a new faction and manually add in all units and vehicles it works fine. BUT if i copy the original faction and set the copy to be BLUFOR, It does pack correctly but it doesn't work properly and simply creates two IDAP factions in Civilian. I've looked at the files and cant see anything obvious, both are listed as West yet no dice. Any ideas guys?

[@kgp227]

Is there a trick to adding drones? They break when you just put regular crewmen in them and you can't leave them empty either.

[@onyx9935]

I know it’s been a while since this was posted but how do you stop it from randomizing the unit’s facewear?

[@onyx9935]

Nvm just a glitch in the setup, works fine

[@KeithB235]

In the unit customisation editor, or in Eden Mission editor? If the latter you need to go into the Attributes of each unit and turn off the 3CB Unit randomisation options at the bottom.

[@RTenjoyer]

My clothes don’t load, only the weapons. Am I doing anything wrong ?😅

[@harkness3134]

Hey man, are you still having that issue?

[@matija3500]

How can i change weapons of units from Custom faction when they are in Eden editor?

[@mimmil8162]

How can i add a vehicle that doesnt appear in the unit type thing?

[@mimmil8162]

it only appears in the editor cause its a vehicle with no units

[@orca223]

hey how do you add stuff to a preexisting faction

[@harkness3134]

I'm sorry man, I'm unaware of how to. I've tried doing it, but I'm unable to, as it always leads to having two faction files and one is dependent on the other. Doesn't sound that bad, but in Zeus, you get TWO of your faction, so I believe editing one is off the table. You could save all of your units loadout to the arsenal, and rebuild the faction and just import their gear, but it definitely is a pain in the ass man. I wish ORBAT was much more user-friendly than what it is. Great tool, but by no means perfect, but it does beat having to do it all manual.

[@buddylifeafterraw]

Hey bro, how do you pre-set up their formation using alive? I hate to drop them and settle their formation manually. 😅

[@henryschmidt485]

Ok dumb question probably but how do you get your files application to revert to the older version mine is the new windows 11 or so version and I’d rather go back to the one ik

[@noname788]

I want that too but it's too late for me. You can do that via windows rollback feature but all your files and data will be gone. This includes everything in your PC if it isn't stored in a USB or a cloud. When I first got my PC I couldn't revert back for some stupid reason, I tried rolling back but it kept failing and Microsoft support didn't have an answer, but maybe it'll work for you

[@funnybunns7142]

I keep getting "Config data file write failed due to" When i try to export. Is there a fix to this?

[@freshnick6684]

Thanks for the tutorial mate However one issue I'm having is when I click the button to export to file, one the bottom left corner it says "Config data file write failed due to" and then when I open my Arma installation directory I cannot find any new file

[@funnybunns7142]

I am having the same issue. Did you ever figure it out??

[@fjr1799]

Has anyone got it figured out? It happened to me even though i made a faction with 1 dude lol

[@VanEscolaGames]

hello , every time when i click in categories in the units maker my game close,can you help me?

[@rexthekiller6822]

What do I do when it only copies to clip board even though I'm clicking export to file

[@harkness3134]

Hey homie, there should be a folder inside your Arma 3 directory with your factions class name on it. Try checking there and seeing if there's any unusual folder with a weird name

[@ethanwilliams2201]

there is a glitch with some of the troops. go to the troop editer and click on all of the troops one by one (not the vehicles) if there is a data line that pops up when you click on the troop then delete them and remake them (may say "edit vehicle" instead of "edit troop". after you go thru all of them try to export. should work.

[@DrWraithwolf]

Hey, I keep getting an error code "File black tusk special unit\cfgpatches.hpp,line 552;,CfgPatches: Member already defined. " I deleted all prior iterations/ files of this custom faction mod (remastering, i.e., putting new things in and making the whole faction again) What would I need to do to fix this? Go into the cfgPatches, find and delete that duplicate line? Or start from scratch again?

[@harkness3134]

Hey man! Find that line and delete the duplicate line and you should be good! Note pad ++ is a word editor that will tell you which line you're working on so it'll make chasing down this issue alot easier. Arma will tell you the line, which in your case is 552, so open the cfgpatches in notepad ++, find line 552 and delete all the duplicates. Everything below 552 is a duplicate, because "already defined" means "hey, this already exists." Happy hunting trooper!

[@DrWraithwolf]

@harkness3134 thx man! lol I guess this is what the coding feels like, putting all time and effort into a glorious masterpiece only to find out that it doesn't work because of one line in like a thousand had a coma where it shouldn't lol yeah I know I didn't code anything but it's sure felt like it when I got the error lmao.

[@DrWraithwolf]

@harkness3134 hey man, I tried deleting line 522 down, and it gave me another error saying lines 21, 22, etc. After each time, I delete a line and launch the game.

[@harkness3134]

Hey man, so it's duplicated your ENTIRE config file into the .txt files. So an example would be, You had 500 lines of code, but because of the duplication, you now have 1000. In order for the mod to work, you need 500 lines, nothing can be repeated or duplicated. If this offers any solace, everytime the ORBAT tool makes a config it says "//////////////////// this config file was automatically etc etc////////" ^ You should ONLY have ONE of those things, that's at the start of every file the ORBAT creator wrote. Therefor, go into your file "cfggroups, patches" etc etc find the SECOND "/////////////this file was automatically//////" and delete IT and everything below it. Repeat for all the text files in the pbo. If you continue to have issues, let me know, and I'll have you send me your PBO and I'll fix it for you if the issue persists, but I'd rather leave that for a worst care scenario. The most important thing is that your mod gets working and you're able to enjoy it!

[@DrWraithwolf]

@harkness3134 Hey man, I just recreated the custom faction again, and it worked, idk what caused it to duplicate my faction on the first go around. Thx for the help, though! And for that, do you wanna see my custom faction? I can send you it if you want. It's inspired by Tom clancy's The Division. Specifically, Black Tusk and True Sons.

[@MRTP80]

did all the steps file dosent show up anywhere

[@ethanwilliams2201]

mine did that too. go though and click on your troops and if a data line pops up then delete it and recreate it. then try to export again.

[@sometimesposting6779]

Is there any way to work on your faction over time using this tool?

[@kaellinbeckett1505]

Is there a way to have two mods or make two factions in one mod?

[@thatonevodkalover]

Yes you Just have to add all of those units into that faction manually

[@zackeryblankenship1109]

Some of us aren't exactly computer people so first off what's a PBO and I still can't find my mod

[@harkness3134]

I explained in the video what a PBO is. I'll even provide you the timestamp, it's at exactly 13:12. To your next part, all I can recommend is to repeat the steps as listed. I can't really solve the "I can't find my mod" because I don't know what step you missed / messed up. It's a lengthy process, and it's really fickle. Just keep trying at it, and I promise you'll get it eventually, it's pretty difficult if I'm honest and mistakes are going to happen. If you still can't find your mod, after retrying everything, reach out to me again and we'll see what we need to get cookin'.

[@witheringgaming24]

how do we edit it after we finish also can I add multiple factions to the same mod?

[@marcuslevesque5350]

Awesome tutorial! One issue im having though, I can't seem to use a custom load out in the eden editor, meaning once I have made a load out in ORBAT, if i select another weapon in the eden editor, hit play scenario, the loadout will be reverted to the one I made in ORBAT. I know I can override it in Eden editor, but when I load dynamic combat ops, this seems to be a real issue. Any idea how to fix this?

[@harkness3134]

Hey man! Small question, did you by chance have 3CB factions loaded and did you select one of their units to build off of? For some reason, some of my units if they're built from 3CB cannot be customized just as your describing, but if I use a standard NATO guy as in vanilla, their loadout will swap just fine. The theory I have is that since 3CB uses randomization on their troops, it clashes with assigning custom loadouts.

[@marcuslevesque5350]

I actually used aus sof lite template for my “custom faction”. That did not require any mods at all. That mod had no issues swapping load outs too but as soon as I loaded something else on it, bam same issues. I might try using NATO guys and see what happens. This only happens in dynastic combat ops and eden editor(unless I override ) but strangely no issues with dynamic recon ops

[@alexzngaihte3892]

Bro how do we add custom flag and custom insignia

[@phaessian3568]

Would this work for antistia?

[@Zeozzz]

The game crashes after trying to select a unit type

[@Duna1999]

i get "config data file write failed due to"

[@teusbrx2330]

Absolutely a legend!

[@revilsanjiani146]

Holy shit it works

[@Alonm14]

i get a cgf patches erorr

[@rafaelcarvalho7727]

This is pure gold !!!

[@theman3181]

and how to publish this mod in workshop? please

[@loslingos1232]

Unrelated but, extremely based profile picture.

[@gabrielsinger3751]

You need to have arma publisher then put the file in it there is a video that shows you how it is called how to make a custom faction

[@harkness3134]

A bit late, but I got you homie kzbin.info/www/bejne/gH6wYnuGZpl2jKM

[@pedrohenriquepensovalentin9229]

Can I play as those?

[@harkness3134]

Yes you can! steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2919581482&searchtext=

[@Krejii05]

So how do you save the factions?

[@cron1165]

Did you ever figure it out? I can't figure it out

[@Krejii05]

@@cron1165 nope

[@cron1165]

@@Krejii05 Fuck. I guess around 12:08 is how you do it, I just don't want to jump through hoops and make new files for a single custom faction. I don't get why there's not a save button that I can press and play, its all obviously there already why do I have to do all the extra bullshit in the files lol

[@harkness3134]

Hey dawg, college just started for me so I've been off the radar for a bit, my bad for missing these fellas, honestly. 11:29 has the "saving" of the faction, as it writes the code for the faction into your Arma directory, and then you just gotta put it in a mod format. Yeah, it's definitely a bit of a pain in the ass. ORBAT (faction creator tool) is a clunky tool at best, good tool to have but perfect by no means. Hope you guys are taking care of yourself out there!

[@Krejii05]

@@harkness3134 ahhhhhh, thank you, hope ur college goes well

[@celta3911]

Muchas gracias amigo.

[@xmagma4633]

How can I update it ?

[@Bongerbongerpatron]

Yeah that’s my same question, if you know now pls tell me

[@masakiedward8448]

inspiring

[@masakiedward8448]

❤

[@averagebritishmale309]

you forgot to post the link lmao

[@harkness3134]

Which link exactly? I have PBO manager and the ALIVE mod in the description,

[@Birdsofparadiselost]

@@harkness3134 Hey man, thanks for the guide, but the link takes me to mod removed. Is it gone now? Can't find it in workshop search anymore either

[@Birdsofparadiselost]

new working Alive mod link 9-2022

[@harkness3134]

@@Birdsofparadiselost Thanks my man! I didn't even notice, updating the link now. Thanks for looking out homie.

[@sanelamarinkovic8876]

my ArmA 3 crashed saying pba patch is the error, what do i do?