setCaptive

Description

Mark a unit as captive. If unit is a vehicle, commander is marked. A captive unit:

is seen as belonging to the civilian Side
will not be fired upon
will still shoot at its real side's enemies
will make its killer earn/lose score/rating as usual
will not get its weapons removed (see removeAllWeapons)
will not trigger "detected by" conditions for its original Side.

Note
The number used as status can be retrieved by captiveNum to keep track of the captivity status at a finer resolution (e.g. handcuffed, grouped, etc).

Syntax

Syntax 1

unitName setCaptive status

Parameters:

unitName: Object
status: Boolean - true means captive

Returns: Nothing

Syntax 2

since arma2 1.00

unitName setCaptive statusNumber

Parameters:

unitName: Object
statusNumber: Number - zero means non-captive, a non-zero value means captive; see captiveNum

Returns: Nothing

Examples

Example 1

_soldier1 setCaptive true;
side _soldier1;            // returns civilian
side group _soldier1;    // returns e.g blufor

Example 2

_soldier1 setCaptive 1;
captive _soldier1;        // returns true

_soldier1 setCaptive 42;
captive _soldier1;        // returns true

_soldier1 setCaptive 0;
captive _soldier1;        // returns false

Community notes

Talkingtoaj2011-01-01

If you change a unit from captive to no longer captive (for example, to "reveal" an undercover unit), enemy units that already have prior knowledge of the unit as a captive will only partially engage, making it very easy for the undercover unit. This seems to be a bug.

However other enemy unit the unit later encounters will engage freely with full force.

Lou Montana2017-11-19

Talkingtoaj's note does not apply to Arma 3 anymore (earlier than 1.76)

A captive unit will immediately be shot (after a normal "human" reaction time from the AI)

DreadedEntity2022-04-26

In A3 2.08.149102, entering an empty vehicle with the same side as the player as defined in configFile >> "CfgVehicles" >> _vehicleClassname >> "side" will briefly switch the side of the vehicle to the side of the player soldier (specifically, while the get in animation is playing), even if captive. Once exiting the vehicle, it will retain that side until the player enters a new vehicle or, seemingly arbitrarily, moves more than 100 meters away from the vehicle player distance _vehicle > 100. If the player gets within 100 meters of the vehicle without entering a new vehicle, it will again switch to the players side. This is probably a bug, in my opinion