Multi-Session Operations v3.4 is released!

[FelixK44 10]

Question... What would need to be changed for an OPFOR MSO?

Example: Terrorists(PLAYER SIDE) vs USMC (AI SIDE)

P.S.

Already know respawn_US would need to be changed but is there anything that would stop MSO from working completely if your playing as EAST instead of WEST?

[wolffy.au 9]

Never tried. Its an interesting point, as to make it PvP, it would need to take sides into consideration, so I'm interested in how hard it is to get working.

[friznit2 350]

The intensity decreases the chance of random spawn. The an example formula is:

(random 1 > 0.33 / rmm_ep_intensity)

where rmm_ep_intensity is 0.25, 0.5, 1, or 1.5.

Low intensity (0.25) would be:

random 1 must be greater than 0.4356

whereas high intensity (1.5) would be:

random 1 must be greater than 0.222

I know, not a huge variation, but a variation none the less! :)

Thanks for the details. So intensity essentially controls the amount of enemy being generated over time, but it keeps going and going until the server can't handle any more and falls over. Currently, the only thing controlling the upper limit of enemy on the map is the player killing them, which doesn't appear to be happening fast enough to save the server.

Would it be possible to cap the number of spawns in the en pop, so for example add an if statement to the en pop module? e.g. If en groups <500 spawn new group else skip it and wait for a while before checking again - yeah, scripting isn't my strong point :P

[highhead 20]

Hey friz,

i really messed around heavily with enemypop and if you enable debug, yu can see clearly what it does. As far as i understand it, enemypop should not spawn over a long period of time, but only once the mission is set up. So maybe there is something other going wrong. And maybe its not the enemypop but the TCells thats causing it (TCells is "recruiting" civis and for that it will increase over a time with 4 recruits/hour to 1 recruit/3hours, depending on paramter-settings. So if you dont kill Terrorists, you are in trouble after 5 days if you have (4 recuits) x 24 hours x 5 days = 480 enemies by TCells only.

Enemypop is different:

It places markers on locations defined in "world-config" (if the map maker placed some) or in fn_initlocations.sqf (so mission editors can customize).

The locations of the map are shuffled each time the mission is set up, so the spawn locations are randomized and different each time.

Enemypop runs once, and it places only "spawnmarkers" until all defined and shuffled positions have been filled. Also the strength of the enemy patrols are defined with an array [8,4,2,1] what means probability of 8 infantry, 4 motorized, 2 mechanized, 1 armored (pls correct me if im wrong, wolffy). The time it takes to spawn the spawn-locations depends on the amount of locations the map has. Then enemypop is finished, and there will no more spawn locations be defined in later mission stadium. They all were defined now.

And now, after mission start, enemy AI will only spawn on these markers (and cost FPS) if a player is within a certain radius (1000 i believe) of one of these markers. If you go over each marker once and dont kill any enemy it could be that there are over 1000 AI or even more on map. You can easily achieve this by just going over the map with a plane for 15 minutes - have some fun with the thunderbolt. AI caching helps a bit, but wont calm down your CPU completely. It will drop to 05-10-15 FPS depending on your hardware of course.

Takistan has about 400+ locations if i remember correctly, but I had maps where nearly no locations where filled in and MSO didnt spawn any enemies, or if it spawned 1(!) group finally, it was always on the same location. it only took a millisec then. Now, I just set up a 3.41 and VTS version on Fallujah and there are over 1200 locations (!! wow, mostly flatcityareas) and if i used the default 100% intensity setting, i had to stop the location-spawning after about 400 enemy groups by killing server process... FPS was on 0 already and it ran about 3 minutes and wasnt ready still. I then started to fiddle around with the intensity and on a 86% setting it was perfect - with around 80 groups in fallujah. But if i used the 50% or less setting there were NO enemies spawned (dunno why, maybe i messed soemthing up myself dunno).

to keep it short :)

Fiddle around with the intensity setting (edit it in the params.hpp of the enemypop modules folder) and the spawn types. See which settings meets your needs best. You can see how many groups have been spawned if debug is on or look in server rpt file. For our needs about 50-80 were ok. If you have many players you can also have 200+ groups but having 400+ in fallujah is slighty too much ;)

now i gotta play a bit ;)

BTW @Wollfy: i wanted to disable norrins revive and enable yours, but i am instantly spawned on Base after my test, killing me with a grenade ;) even with default RC candidate on Takistan. Do i miss something or is the infinite bug back, or does it simply not work if no players are connected beside me, really dunno...

Edited May 24, 2011 by highhead
4 recruits per hour, is a setting on TCells

[friznit2 350]

Gotcha, thanks for the very thorough explanation. I'll have a play with intensity then and see if I can reduce it to a level that our server can manage long term.

[highhead 20]

yeah - start with 85% try to spawn as much AI as you can by going near it (teleport or fly) - then check performance with many AI spawned - repeat it with 100% (or 90% if 100 is too much already) and then take a value between (you can calculate the factor then and set it on a value that gives you the amount of groups you want).

[wolffy.au 9]

...but it keeps going and going until the server can't handle any more and falls over.

No it doesn't work that way. It counts the total number of "locations" on the map (+600 on Chernarus, +400 on Takistan) and iterates through them using the formula above. Depending on the random outcome, a unit is spawned.

Part 2 of that is, the AI is not "spawned" until you come withing 2000m of them, thats why flybys are not good for server performance. Once they spawn, they cache, but the performance difference between the two is significant.

Would it be possible to cap the number of spawns in the en pop, so for example add an if statement to the en pop module? e.g. If en groups <500 spawn new group else skip it and wait for a while before checking again - yeah, scripting isn't my strong point :P

Yeah, not sure how it would affect game play, but it can be done. The potential there is you approach a location, it doens't spawn cause the limit is reached, you kill a few guys and they spawn in your vicinity. Might be able to get around it by ensuring no one spawns within 2km of any player. Can you log this as a feature request please?

---------- Post added at 22:58 ---------- Previous post was at 22:53 ----------

Also the strength of the enemy patrols are defined with an array [8,4,2,1] what means probability of 8 infantry, 4 motorized, 2 mechanized, 1 armored (pls correct me if im wrong, wolffy).

It basically means, you have 8 times more chance of getting a Infantry patrol than an Armoured patrol, etc. It doesn't mean for every 8 infantry, you will definitely get an Armoured patrol, but with randomness, you would hope it works out to something like that.

BTW @Wollfy: i wanted to disable norrins revive and enable yours, but i am instantly spawned on Base after my test, killing me with a grenade ;) even with default RC candidate on Takistan. Do i miss something or is the infinite bug back, or does it simply not work if no players are connected beside me, really dunno...

Log a bug please - once I release v3.41 (when my newborn lets me), I will start going through bugs.

[highhead 20]

Hey Wollfy! i will do. Congrats on your fathership! also an awsum work :)

[kremator 1064]

Good to play with you last night highhead. The VTS mission incorporating MSO is great - in fact could be the killer application for MSO!

A randomly generated living world, with anything you like put on top. Sounds like a winner to me ! I was impressed at how the server was coping even with a very large amount of groups on it.

Now if we had something like Gossamers Warfare (with the bells and whistles) ontop of that it WOULD be an EVO or DOMI killer :)

@Wolffy - grats on becoming a dad...... greatest thing in the world !

[wolffy.au 9]

Thanks guys - my 3rd, first daughter. Unfortunately keeping me away from the keyboard most nights, but we'll get there.

[kremator 1064]

Look on the bright side .... getting up with your daughter will give you an excuse to program through the night :)

[friznit2 350]

Gratz Wolffy!

[highhead 20]

Yeah Krema!

Was really nice, esp. for just a little beta testing it was some really nice fighting! And i played on the same PC, where dedicated server was hosted, so performance will be better on a "real" server!

And what i arleady tried, was to put insurgency on top of it all :) I think it works, but only in Takistan. I never played warfare (i know, its a shame), but i will take a look at it. I think it really would be cool - but for the beginning: you can open a shop with VTS too!

guidance

---------- Post added at 14:54 ---------- Previous post was at 14:53 ----------

Wolffy! Your daughta always will have the highest prio, so dont care about us - we will have our fun with the awsome releases you already made!

guidance too

[kremator 1064]

Dropping MSO into already great missions would open up a whole host of possibilities :)

[friznit2 350]

Indeed. I'm starting to drop Nomad and the JIP stuff into regular missions, just to cater for those annoying disconnects that some people inevitably get. No more waiting for people to catch up again and having to redo all the map markers :)

[wolffy.au 9]

Big thank you to Friznit2 for updating the MSO Users Guide!

It can be found here:

http://dev-heaven.net/projects/mso/documents

[HoneyBadger 10]

Hey, just wanted to say i've recently stumbled upon the MSO and its great, I really appreciate the time you have put into making it.

As i have no friends to play arma with i play this on my own and i'm trying to add a SecOp manager with the support fuctions so i can be taken around by the chopper or call in UAV's etc.. but it doesn't work when i put it on the MSO map. all that appears in the communication menu is AAR, CAS and settings.

is there any way i can work this into my missions or is there some modules i need to deactivate to get it working?

cheers

[wolffy.au 9]

Dropping MSO into already great missions would open up a whole host of possibilities :)

Indeed. I'm starting to drop Nomad and the JIP stuff into regular missions, just to cater for those annoying disconnects that some people inevitably get. No more waiting for people to catch up again and having to redo all the map markers :)

Good to see - the more places you can use the MSO code, the better.

.. but it doesn't work when i put it on the MSO map. all that appears in the communication menu is AAR, CAS and settings.

I was planning to put in a dedicated server compatible SOM next, but no timeframe on when it will happen unfortunately.

[highhead 20]

If yu start the specops module from map(i.e putting the init-startup code of the module in a trigger or vehicle-init field) and it uses the com-commands its very likely overwritten by mso startup! If you place it in the init.sqf its very likely you have the specops commands but no mso commands like cas and settings over the com-commands anymore! I believe yu will have to alter the code and init loading sequemce to have it work together

[highhead 20]

Krema, i found a fix for the coloreffects ("grey-colors-issue" we talked about) and did a failsafe for norrins taxi script (both works flawless)! Disabling weather just bugged it and thats why the init didnt load completly and so you didnt have the colorfx i think! Join tomorrow or pm your email adress so i can send it to you! will provide for ithers when testing is done

[kremator 1064]

Great news highhead. Knew it was something to do with weather module :)

If you have Xfire add me...... kremator1968

Cheers

Kremator

[HoneyBadger 10]

i couldn't get the secop trigger working to get support but instead i put in norrins transport script and thats perfect for what i need.

[stk2008 14]

Hi sorry to ask again and again is there an ACE mission version out yet?.

One that don't require AAW etc etc

Thanks

[friznit2 350]

That latest 3.41rc should work ok with ACE. It's pretty easy to fire it up in the editor and drop in ACE specific addons if you want them as well. I think the only real difference is the ACE versions typically have the revive and logistics modules disabled, but it works pretty much OK with them on.

Once Wolffy's released 3.41 final I'll throw together a more fully ACE'd up version.

[stk2008 14]

That latest 3.41rc should work ok with ACE. It's pretty easy to fire it up in the editor and drop in ACE specific addons if you want them as well. I think the only real difference is the ACE versions typically have the revive and logistics modules disabled, but it works pretty much OK with them on.

Once Wolffy's released 3.41 final I'll throw together a more fully ACE'd up version.

That would be great thanks very much.