STW Boats Spawner — Online Manual

STW suite connection

STW Boats Spawner is part of the STW (ScienceTechWorks) suite. It is a self-contained, server-authoritative boat population system: no other STW mod is required for its core operation. Its configuration and saves use the usual STW profile locations while remaining specific to this mod.

What it adds

Following a configurable delay after scenario initialization, the server analyses maritime points of interest and searches nearby water for valid boat positions. A generated set aims for the configured target count, but a terrain with too few suitable coastal positions may produce fewer boats.

Coastal-aware placement

Each candidate is tested for minimum water depth, distance from the maritime point of interest, and separation from accepted boats.

Player-ready boats

Generated boats are placed as normal usable vehicles in the world. There is no separate player menu or boat-request interface.

Controlled map markers

Markers can be disabled, made exact, or deliberately offset over water. A map-zoom threshold prevents markers from cluttering a wide map view.

For players

There is no client-side setup. Join a server running STW Boats Spawner and use the boats you encounter with normal Arma Reforger vehicle controls.

When boat markers are enabled, open the map and zoom in to the configured threshold to see them.
By default, marker positions are approximate rather than exact; use them as a coastal-area indication.
Boats can survive server restarts when persistence is enabled, but destroyed or deleted boats are omitted from later saves.

For Game Masters and scenario hosts

STW Boats Spawner starts from the authoritative server world and does not add a Game Master placement tool, per-boat editor, or player menu. Game Masters can interact with generated boats through normal world tools; population, placement, markers, and persistence are managed in the server configuration.

In-game automatic-generation control

Game Masters can enable or disable automatic boat generation during a running game. Open Scenario Properties, select the STW Boats tab, and use Automatic Boats. Disabling it removes only assets explicitly registered as STW automatic boats, clears their cached replacement positions, and removes their saved automatic records. Re-enabling it requests a fresh automatic generation pass after the configured delay. This is a session-only control; the next game follows the normal server configuration and persistence state.

Server setup

Install and enable STW Boats Spawner on the server, then start the target scenario and map once.
The mod creates $profile:STW/Boats/STWBoatsConfig.json.
Stop the server, back up and edit the configuration file, then restart the scenario.
Values are validated on startup and the current boat set is generated or restored according to persistence.

Safe editing: stop the server before editing configuration or persistence files. Start with the default target and placement ranges, then adjust gradually for the terrain you operate.

Configuration

Settings live in $profile:STW/Boats/STWBoatsConfig.json.

Setting	Default	Meaning
`targetBoatCount`	5	Desired size of a completely new boat set. It is a target, not a guarantee.
`minimumWaterDepth`	1.5 m	Minimum water depth at a candidate. The enforced minimum is 0.5 m.
`minimumBoatSeparation`	500 m	Minimum distance between accepted generated boats. Negative values become zero.
`minimumDistanceFromPOI` `maximumDistanceFromPOI`	10 m / 80 m	Search range around a maritime point of interest. The minimum is at least 1 m and the maximum cannot be lower than it.
`maximumPlacementAttemptsPerPOI`	24	Water positions tested per point of interest. At least one attempt is required.
`showBoatMarkers`	true	Creates static markers for generated and restored boats.
`markerZoomThreshold`	1.5 PPU	Minimum map zoom at which markers show. Zero keeps them visible at every zoom; negative values become zero.
`preciseMarkerPositions` `maximumMarkerOffsetDistance`	false / 75 m	Exact markers or water-only random offsets. The offset is ignored when precise markers are enabled; if no valid offset is found, the exact location is used.
`persistenceEnabled`	false	Saves and restores automatic boats for the same scenario and map. Enable it to retain the boat set between restarts.
`persistenceIntervalMinutes`	15	Save interval for surviving boats when persistence is enabled. Values below one are reset to 15.
`generationDelaySeconds`	10	Delay before new coastal analysis. Negative values become zero.

Persistence

persistenceEnabled defaults to false; persistenceIntervalMinutes defaults to 15. When enabled, the mod saves surviving automatic boats under $profile:STW/Persistence/ and restores them only for the same scenario and map. Destroyed or deleted boats are omitted from later saves. When persistence is disabled, a new set is generated whenever that scenario starts.

To reset one boat set, stop the server, identify and back up only the corresponding persistence file, then move or delete it. Start the server again to perform a fresh coastal generation.

Destroyed-boat replacement

The mod can replace a destroyed automatic boat without rerunning the full coastal scan. The separate file $profile:STW/Boats/STWBoatsRespawnConfig.json is created automatically on first run. Replacement applies only to boats created and registered by this addon during the active server session; manually placed, player-created, and unrelated boats are never managed.

Setting	Default	Meaning
`enabled`	true	Enables destroyed-boat replacement. Set to `false` to disable it entirely.
`minimumRespawnMinutes` `maximumRespawnMinutes`	15 / 45 min	Random delay before the first replacement attempt. The maximum cannot be lower than the minimum.
`playerSafeRadiusMeters`	1,500 m	Replacement candidates closer than this horizontal distance to a connected player's controlled entity are rejected. Zero disables the distance check.
`candidateAttempts`	12	Number of cached, valid water positions tested per replacement attempt.
`retryDelayMinutes`	5 min	Delay before trying again when no cached position is currently player-safe or spawning fails.

How it works: the feature uses water candidates cached during the initial generation scan. It chooses a player-safe candidate other than the destroyed boat's recorded position, restores its faction where possible, and recreates its map marker when markers are enabled. Restarting the server begins a new session; replacement queues are not persisted.

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Arma Reforger server: STW Reforger

Community: https://discord.gg/T2AZp6GGMJ

More STW manuals: STW Online Manuals