Warfare BE: ACE Edition

[zuff 10]

The exact server name is:

"Chux ACE 1.6 Warfare BE : See http://www.blackcompanywow.com/arma.html"

We usually play evenings US time. Details are in the "dedicated server" section of the OP.

Also...

Version b4 Released!

See original post for details.

When playing as "Squad Leader" and I try to "Deploy Mash" I get caught in constant animation loop of trying to build it, but it's never built.

The only way for me to stop is to respawn.

Sorry if this has been brought up already, I just ran into the problem and thought I'd post real quick.

EDIT: While alt-tabbed to type this post, I came back to a built mash. Not sure why it took so long but it seems like last time I tried it never worked. :/

EDIT 2: After having it built, it doesn't seem to serve any purpose. Can you not heal at it?

[Maniacski 10]

Well at first I did not have Arma 2 installed but I did yesterday and reinstalled ACE following your guide. Still the same problem.. :(

[Freakboy 10]

Seriously I'm not moron enough to fuck up a mission installation - I think !

yeah! yeah! it belongs into mpmissions folder !

But this pbo file refuses to show up in the mission list

[even tried on dedi] !!

[djczing 10]

Sickboy: Thanks for your response and all your great work.

I put the 0.7.2 CBA on my server and tested last night. The JIP bug Ive been seeing is still there (by the way I run CBA on both client and server).

I run a linux server, so im not sure what the parrallel is to the RPT file -- I can collect server output (stdout, stderr), and a server core file. Client-side I need to figure out how to get some useful data for analysis. Once I get all that, Ill submit a bug report.

Thanks again !

[joehunk 10]

@zuff:

I did not change anything about the MASH from the base Warfare BE. I tried building myself one recently and yes, the animation does take a really long time (around a minute or 2) and does seem to loop, but it does get built.

As far as what purpose it serves, your guess is as good as mine heh...again I did not change this from the base Warfare BE so it does whatever it did in there. Honestly a lot of this stuff I have just had to figure out by looking at code. Once I have the mission in a state where I think I can leave it be for a while, I did want to do a web page on general docs for Warfare BE.

@Maniacski:

There are a couple things you can try:

- I seem to recall you need to run vanilla Arma 2 just once to get the registry set up right. So go to Steam, run Arma 2 regular (not OA) then just exit once it's launched. Then try the script again.

- You should be able to run Combined Operations with no mods by going into Steam, right clicking on Arma 2 Operation Arrowhead, and selecting "Launch Arma 2: Combined Operations". This will launch without ACE, but it will be interesting to see if it even works at all. Try the above step first though.

@djczing:

Did you try with b4 of the mission? Also, what hardware are you running your server on? Are you running a dedicated server? I tried logging on to your server and it took a really long time to even get to the team selection screen. It seems to me that faster machines (and/or machines with fatter upstream bandwidth) seem to JIP faster. Like I logged into the "Twisted" server and JIP'ed a game that had obviously been on for several hours and it was fast. Doing the same with my server will work but is less fast. And if downloading the town data takes longer than 1 minute, it will just give up and time out with a "town initialization" error, which is what I got on your machine.

Short version: consider running a dedicated server, running the server on a bigger machine, and/or just playing on our server :)

@Freakboy

All I can think of is maybe you are putting it in the MPMissions dir of your regular Arma 2 installation, instead of Operation Arrowhead? It has to go in the Operation Arrowhead folder, which you then run in Combined Operations mode. If you are doing all that, I am kinda out of ideas, since it's always worked for me and seems to work for everyone else.

Edited December 7, 2010 by Joehunk

[sickboy 13]

Mashes should generally allow you to heal. In case of ACE, with the wounding system enabled, the mashes do not provide healing but do provide many medical items.

In case of the latest ACE versions, they also allow non medics, to heal other units, by using a med-kit (medkits are available in the medical facilities).

http://ace.dev-heaven.net/wagn/Wounds_Overhaul

@djczing;

Thanks and thanks for checking!

Is it immediately noticeable? Like if I start the mission now without CBA, it is fast, but if I run the mission with CBA, the effect is directly noticeable, or do you need to play for hours?

[Freakboy 10]

Thanks for your quick answer!

But ist CO here so and I'm pretty confsed about that.

(sitting in the shit since CWC)

What makes it stranger is the fact that that I can join server at

IP: 188.165.226.173:2302 which is running your mission.

So we will meet anyway; without the option for me to run it.

I also ported warfare be to ace myself. I suffed a lot of love into loadouts.sqf.

My KI mofos shoot tracers by default so there is a lot fo disco - looks pretty impressive!

But if you play around with standard ki equipment it is necessary to run ACE A2 Compat

addon which was part if ace 1.5 and then disappeared. So this is optional complication.

I think its worth it! Just tell me if you are interested and I will send it to you.

By the way how did you solve the problen with the nil variable getting overwritten. (since updates of 1.6 stable)

Otherwise you are chased by a cloud of bullet impacts which should not be there.

Hint:And town init runs smoother when you turn city amount on to full or super large or whar it's called!!

But to be honest i wait for version 66 because ki is not doin what it should. Thy dont spawn right? right?

Peace! or better full scale war!

[joehunk 10]

@Freakboy:

I do run my server on "full" town size. From what I can tell, there is just a straight up bug in some of the "smaller-than-full" sizes for Takistan, where it's trying to take out towns but failing because...I dunno maybe they are spelled wrong or wrong case or something.

I definitely advise that anyone running Takistan choose "full" size. Maybe Chernarus too, I dunno. I am pretty sure I made "full" the default in version 2b, but I don't have the code in front of me now so I am not sure.

Also I did not do anything explicit to solve that issue you were talking about, but I have never seen it. Are you sure the cloud of bullet impacts chasing you that "shouldn't be there" isn't me shooting at you? :)

@Sickboy:

My experience with the JIP issue is that JIP works just fine and is very fast until your side starts capturing towns. If you try to JIP after some towns have been captured, it starts taking a long time and eventually does not work at all and/or times you out and disconnects you.

Now, as I said, the severity of this seems to vary by:

- How long the game has been up/how many state changes there have been in terms of town capping/losing/etc.

- "Beefy-ness" of the server (beefier servers seem to suffer less...could be CPU or upstream bandwidth, I dunno)

Also 2 other factors at play that I have not rigorously controlled for:

- My 4b version has a lot of code clean up of the base Warfare BE code, and some were potential really nasty bugs like .sqf files being synchronously called with non-private variables with common names like "_index". There were also a couple straight up bugs that I have fixed.

- And my server is running CBA 0.7.1 plus your hot fix on top of an otherwise 1.6-stable ACE. But I have no clue if that's making a difference.

All I know is that with 4b and your hot fix, JIP always works but may take 1-2 minutes in the late game.

EDIT:

I should also mention...

Me and a couple other folks will be around tonight, looking for some killin'!

We usually start around 7-8pm US Central time. I'll have my server going, but if there are already people in the "Twisted" server we may hop on that one instead.

Edited December 7, 2010 by Joehunk

[djczing 10]

JoeHunk:

Its a Q6600 with 4MB running redhat linux and linux server v1.56.

Ive never had an issue running BE until OA 1.55. The server is on my LAN at 1Gbps - and I have the JIP issue. My son plays on it too, over the internet adn while the initial load has always taken a bit for him, hes always gotten there fine until 1.55. Since then he cant JIP - and of course I cant JIP either.

Im thinking of trying a couple things:

1. Reinstall client-side and server-side, as of all the BIS patches Ive put on, something might have messed up

2. Run a windows server for awhile and see how that acts.

To this point Ive been struck by the fact that I dont see this issue as widespread -- before someone mentionned it here I was thinking that Im the only one with the problem. Now im not so sure.

And lastly, I get the town init errors too, almost every time, then it fixes itself. At the time of init, the CPU is running about 30% capacity so theres no lack for power at that point in time. Its possible that my meager hardware is causing some timing issues with the cba init, but if anything Id more suspect an installation issue if im the only one seeing the problem.

And yeah, id be happy to play on your server -- but the beauty of running my own is that I can mod it with what I want (GL4 and Zeus have been staples for me), run the server profile and mission parameter settings that I want. Ive been addicted to warfare for over a year now, and BE is the only one that satisfies. If we can get a group together that wants to play ACE BE, then Id probably be playing your server more than my own.

In any case, its all good fun.

[joehunk 10]

I hear ya about running your own server. Modding whenever you want is a 2-edged sword though. If just you and your son (and others you can be in close communication with and provide all your mod updates to) are going to play then it's no big deal. But if you're going to be a public server then it's probably better to mod as infrequently as you can manage.

Both the "Twisted Few" server and mine are running ACE 1.6 stable + CBA hot fix, which is what I would recommend to people that want to run a public server open to "just anyone."

I joined Twisted Few briefly over lunch to check it out, and the JIP was very fast, and was after they had capped a couple towns. They are running the same ACE and CBA as me, and their JIP is notably faster then mine when the game is at that point. I'd say 10-15 sec on their server compared to 45 sec or so on mine. And I am not hurting for compute power either (AMD 6-core 3.2 GHz 8G memory).

What I'll do when I get the chance is get client logs from joining Twisted vs. mine and see where the slow down is. That may give a clue.

Meantime, both Twisted and my server at least work. I was unable to stay to play over lunch but tonight I will be looking for some slaughtering.

EDIT:

BTW the town init error you get at the beginning is the same error message but different root cause than the JIP bug. If you set your game size to "full", the initial town init error will go away, but you still may have the JIP problem.

Edited December 7, 2010 by Joehunk

[Maniacski 10]

Nice to hear you like our server Joe. I hope we get more players soon!

Thanks again for helping me get this working, I am having a blast!

[djczing 10]

I might join yall in the fight - Id have to d/l the 1.6 ACE, but I can probly start that now and maybe we can slay some baddies tonight.

Thanks for converting BE -- BE is great on its own, but I had a pure blast last night with ACE BE. It definitely adds a realistic layer to things.

[joehunk 10]

I might join yall...

You from Texas? Me too :)

[djczing 10]

Heheh - northern NY - but have lived in GA since '90.

Yall is one of the more useful words they use here ;-)

[Freakboy 10]

@Freakboy:

I do run my server on "full" town size. From what I can tell, there is just a straight up bug in some of the "smaller-than-full" sizes for Takistan, where it's trying to take out towns but failing because...I dunno maybe they are spelled wrong or wrong case or something.

I definitely advise that anyone running Takistan choose "full" size. Maybe Chernarus too, I dunno. I am pretty sure I made "full" the default in version 2b, but I don't have the code in front of me now so I am not sure.

Also I did not do anything explicit to solve that issue you were talking about, but I have never seen it. Are you sure the cloud of bullet impacts chasing you that "shouldn't be there" isn't me shooting at you? :)

To make sure about the bulletcloud

I took cover behind a large mountain. So this was a mipossible angle to shoot me. The cloud did not care and remained there till I left the server.

To see these clouds you have to use the newer versions of ACE that came out after the 1.6 stable release.

Do you remember these "spots" you should not step on because you die immedeately from ArmA1 Warfare - so that phenomenon is not new !

Whatever I dl 1.6 stable again - less trouble...

[joehunk 10]

Ah okay. Well I've been running 1.6 stable on my server all along, except with updated CBA. So that's why I haven't been seeing that.

[joehunk 10]

Update!

I checked the server list over lunch (US time) and was pleased to see 3 servers running various versions of this mission with multiple people playing. I did notice that most servers were running the latest ACE 1.6 Update 3, NOT ACE 1.6 stable. If this is the way people want to roll, that is fine, but in that case I may go to hosting the latest ACE update, instead of the latest ACE stable, on my Addon Sync server as well as on the dedicated server I run.

The only kinda sucky thing about the latest ACE update is that it's not as easy to get as the stable version. Places like Armaholic always host the Stable version; to get an update you have to use Six Updater:

http://dev-heaven.net/projects/six-arma-updater/wiki

Another possibility is for me to split the difference: run the stable version on my dedicated server, but host the update on my AddonSync so people have another way to get it in addition to Six Updater, if they want to play any of the servers that require it.

Also, an update on bugs/stability

The b4 version (now available for download) in combination with the latest @CBA seems to completely fix the JIP issue! At least I have not been able to reproduce it since then. So I recommend you get the latest version of the mission as well as @CBA.

I also noted a bug when I joined someone else's server. They had disabled all the AIs, so it was just players. Apparently Warfare BE was not designed to work this way since it does not even compute state information for blank slots. If you JIP to a slot that was previously empty (no AI in it or anything) then your money will be bugged and you will not be able to buy anything. I intend to see if this is an easy fix, and fix it if so. Once again this is a bug in all editions of Warfare BE, not just the ACE one.

Edited December 8, 2010 by Joehunk

[Greez 10]

we run b4 chernarus ACE WF

got this random error on JIP players

http://s05.radikal.ru/i178/1012/1f/c2518484752b.jpg

Joehunk, i can send to you RPT file.

just give me your e-mail.

with best regards

administrator of otstrel.ru ACE Arma 2 server

[djczing 10]

Yes - thats what happens to me also most times.

I know its not because of ACE BE, at least in my case.

THe same thing happens on a regular (non-ace) version of BE, whenever I have CBA loaded.

I still havent had a chance to generate some debug output and enter a bug report at dev-heaven. Maybe this weekend.

[joehunk 10]

Alright I guess it is not fixed :( Oh well it's at least a lot harder to reproduce. Note that I am playing the Takistan version but both of them share code so I wouldn't expect Chernarus to have a bug Takistan doesn't.

My email is listed on the page I link from our dedicated server:

http://www.blackcompanywow.com/arma.html

The best would be if you could send me the .rpt from the server AND also from a client trying to JIP when that error happens. The client is maybe even more important since that is where the error shows up. In fact anyone who has a .rpt file from a client joining and seeing that error, send it to me.

djczing you run Chernarus too right? Maybe I did mess up porting changes between the two; I will make sure.

EDIT:

Nope the code is the same except for the map-specific parts.

Edited December 10, 2010 by Joehunk

[djczing 10]

I took my linux server and booted that machine to a winxp partition, where my original install of arma2 was. I installed OA and upgraded to 1.56, no errors, no fuss.

Im now running the windows dedicated server on that machine and it appears stable, and above the server-side FPS im used to seeing.

Whether the JIP bug remains or not Ill find out shortly.

Ill probably end up blasting that fresh installed partition back to both my client arma installation and the linux server.

Ill post when I know if we have JIP or not...

[joehunk 10]

Also dj I saw your server last night and you were running the 1b version of the mission. I did a lot of code clean up between 2b and 4b, and 4b seems to have the JIP problem much less. The poster a couple posts up claims to have reproduced it on 4b but that is the only time I have heard of it happening; I have not seen the JIP problem on my server (which is Windows) since going to 4b.

Just download the latest files from the OP to get 4b.

[sickboy 13]

Perhaps for those experiencing it with the latest mission version, it is caused by a mix of old and new CBA versions, as well as missing the CBA server-side hotfix; http://dev-heaven.net/issues/15622 (also included with the latest CBA dev on Six Updater). Official CBA 0.7.3 is next week or the week after.

We have also seen general issues caused by improper player/groups initializations during JIP, perhaps the upcoming OA 1.57 patch brings improvement as it seems to be including improvements to MP in particular.

Did some testing and found that with the latest versions (CBA/ACE/Missions) I had no problems with JIP.

The Takistan variant of the mission however (original BE, and the ACE version), with and without mods, on normal join (from start), would give 27 towns, vs 29 total; Seems to be a problem with the mission/configuration/island?

The Chernarus variant always worked fine.

So for now unable to reproduce the JIP 0-towns error.

I also found out that the long wait at JIP (~60 seconds at JIP vs ~23 seconds at normal join (from start)),

is indeed CBA, ACE etc initializing during preInit state.

However it seems to be an engine problem; the same code simply takes about 3 times longer to initialize as a JIP player,

which is odd given the moment and type of initialization (first object on the map, synchronous init).

Will look what we can do about it, but I think only BIS can.

Edited December 10, 2010 by Sickboy

[joehunk 10]

Thanks for lookiing into this Sickboy. I am for sure running your hot fix on my sever; not sure if dj or the Russian folks that posted are doing the same.

As far as:

The Takistan variant of the mission however (original BE, and the ACE version), with and without mods, on normal join (from start), would give 27 towns, vs 29 total; Seems to be a problem with the mission/configuration/island?

This is just a bug with the Takistan mission I have not gotten around to fixing yet. As you observed it exists in non-ACE Warfare BE as well. The bug can be worked around by playing the mission with the map size set to "full". Even if you play with the bug, it is non-serious. It's only serious when the towns number is shown as zero.

[joehunk 10]

Interesting, I joined the Twisted Few server just now and got the JIP bug for the first time ever on that server. They appear to have upgraded to 1.7 pre RC1 of ACE...every time in the past when I joined and got no JIP bug, they were running 1.6 stable. No clue whether they were running the hot fix, or if the hot fix is even supposed to be necessary in 1.7 preRC.

EDIT:

Looks like ACE 1.7 might just be taking a little longer to init, and I need to increase the timeout. Will release 5b version soon with that. As Sickboy observed JIP is taking right about 60 sec, and the timeout is...60 sec. So I will jack it up to 120 and see what happens. By the way the timeout in 1b is 30 sec (i.e., what it is in base WFBE, so that will probably never work).

Edited December 12, 2010 by Joehunk