HETMAN - Artificial Commander

[humvee28 10]

Maybe you should use HAC only in a Sandbox, before he will take over your Computer. :D

[Rydygier 1302]

Also about main objective: how long does HAC keeps it occupied when it captures it? I need it for timeout duration.

How about this: I will make, that group will stay busy with capturing mission by given time after SAD waypoint completion? This time may be customizable, and by default... 10 minuts? In fact there was 60 seconds of sleep after SAD, now is 600 by default and may be changed dynamically (such change will be considered by next capturing mission).

Maybe you should use HAC only in a Sandbox, before he will take over your Computer.

Are you sure, that you talking with human right now? :)

Edited January 27, 2012 by Rydygier

[taro8 806]

Ok, so I managed to get basic mission working. Its kinda fun to wade through the jungles of Nam searching for the enemy :D.

Anyway I noticed some odd thing, does Cargo Demo supports helo transports? I placed some Venoms and had objective placed about 6,5kms from west forces. Unfortunately HAC didnt give ride to any fire team. I made sure to place objective somewhere near LZ, and I was able to order commandeered chopper to drop me there without problem.

BTW: When I tried to release the chopper I made it land again on top of my teammate, funny stuff :p.

[Rydygier 1302]

Cargo demo has some bugs here and there; I'm not sure, why they not fly in this mission. I have UNSUNG, so can test yours mission, if units are not from other addons, but, if I remember right, on my hardware this jungle map was loading about 20 minutes when I tried. All these trees... :)

I decided following: 1.1 will be without bigboss, unless you, people, prefer to wait another week or two until I will be sure, if this is ever to be done and until I will do this, if so (but I'm not sure, how many time I will have in February).

Bigboss will come up later, if at all (I hope so), and for now there will be only five commanders more (three of them for now are ready) to do, manual to write, MSO module to wait for and... release!

Anyway, decided also to give one more alpha with demo mission (today perhaps), need to know, if there are some efficiency changes and some things to fix before will start with further copying all these files.

[Rydygier 1302]

So here it is:

HAC 1.1 alpha4 (demo mission)

What's new:

- fronts: by setting with specific name an empty trigger on map you can create front area for given leader. He will pay attention only for hostiles inside this area;

- third leader, side C;

- voice notifications for player controlled Team leaders in two versions: mimimal - only beep&text or with some dialogs, recommended for USMC faction;

- some efficiency changes (please, when testing, pay attention whether there is a lag, and whether the gameplay is smoother than in previous versions, or vice versa);

- removed sidechat with info about new cycle - diag_log into .RPT instead implemented;

- new air units category for recon planes (UAV);

- another bugs eliminated and fixes maded.

New config variables (default):

RydHQ_VoiceComm (true) - voice notifications for human controlled team leaders with dialogs if true, and only with beep&text if false;

RHQ_RAir ([]) - array for non-generic recon planes;

RydHQ_Front (false) - if true and "front area" trigger is prepared, then leader will pay attention only for enemies inside this area. Do not set this "true" without front trigger prepared!

RydHQ_Obj1 to RydHQ_Obj4 - new names for main objecitves. To play with only one, set on map RydHQ_Obj1 and add to init config following:

RydHQ_Obj2 = RydHQ_Obj1;
RydHQ_Obj3 = RydHQ_Obj1;
RydHQ_Obj4 = RydHQ_Obj1;

or set all four objectives at same position.

RydHQ_ObjHoldTime (600) - how long (seconds) should group with "capture" task stay in objective area before will become again available for other tasks;

HET_FA, HET_FB, HET_FC... HET_FH - names of triggers which position, shape, size and direction determine the boundaries of front zones (one per leader).

This time it is really last alpha... I suppose... This a last chance for bugtracking before public release of HAC 1.1. :)

Enjoy playing & testing this demo. Default player's unit has teleport (there is needed small fix in init field of this unit :change "leaderHQ" to "Player") on map click and is resistant to damage. Is also excluded from HAC control. See map markers and init.sqf file for more details about config.

---------- Post added at 20:01 ---------- Previous post was at 19:14 ----------

PS. This is long mission, forces are moving across all Chernarus. If someone want to speed up fights, may of course re-locate units and triggers or make resets occurs more often, which will speed up capturing objectives: RydHQ_ResetTime = 300; RydHQB_ResetTime = 300;RydHQC_ResetTime = 300; for 5 minuts for example.

Edited January 27, 2012 by Rydygier

[kremator 1064]

Just .... plain ..... WOW !

Excellent work mate. Really excellent.

Now what we need is a camera to watch the fight :) Something like the COIN script (with unlimited boundaries) with WASDQZ functionality would be AWESOME. Perhaps a mapclick too for debugging ?

Edited January 27, 2012 by Kremator

[humvee28 10]

As Kremator said : Excellent Work! Will check this one out ASAP. :) Thanks for sharing.

[Jingle 0]

Just .... plain ..... WOW !

Excellent work mate. Really excellent.

Now what we need is a camera to watch the fight :) Something like the COIN script (with unlimited boundaries) with WASDQZ functionality would be AWESOME. Perhaps a mapclick too for debugging ?

Agreed can see a poor mans warfare mode with this system - choppers flying in reinforcements to secure lzs, wow just amazing work.

Not to detract but try MCC_Sandbox for the camera modes is just beautiful to watch plus you can hijack individual units, great for fun or debugging:)

[Rydygier 1302]

Two notes:

- teleport relocating leaderHQ, not player unit :) so in player's default unit init field leaderHQ must be changed to Player.

- perhaps too long takes to capture given Objective. After an hour and half forces are at second objective (plus one major battle), but still, there are big distancies and action is growing slowly - rather realistic, but maybe too realistic? Three factors have influece on this: interval between resets, required number of ally units nearby objective (default 30, maybe to many) and radius within allied units are counted. First and second is user-adjustable, but third not. So maybe radius should be greater than 250 meters? Will adjust to 300... EDIT: I know: I will make this adjustable too. Default will be 300 for now...

Third note:

- maybe leaderHQ should be relocated after capturing objective to this objective area? EDIT: universal rule: if you have doubts about something, make it optional, let user has these doubts instead of you. :)

Edited January 27, 2012 by Rydygier

[dcal 16]

Maybe you should use HAC only in a Sandbox, before he will take over your Computer. :D

Uh Oh, is this an early version of Skynet?:D

[Jingle 0]

Uh Oh, is this an early version of Skynet?:D

Or perhaps this...:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecPeSmF_ikc&feature=related

[Rydygier 1302]

What have I created?! :)

[kremator 1064]

........a very versatile tool :)

Still more to do (can't let you off THAT easily) but it is looking good.

[CaptainBravo 0]

The new communications is a very nice too.

Played mission for 45 minutes then had to stop as lag became too much and frame rate droped to 15.

Tried again same mission with 50% less units. There was still lag but not as much.

I have a Q6600 CPU. So someone with i5 or i7 might have had a different experience. It would be interesting to see if others experienced same lag.

- Transport. Saw some choppers give some smaller teams a ride (nice touch) but larger squads still had to walk 4-5 kms (smaller teams got a ride),

- Commanders. To be honest I prefer the 2 commander version. Simpler to configure, quicker response from AI and less lag. So maybe have 2 versions, lite one with only 2 commanders and one with more.

I personally prefer optimised smaller scale ( 2 cmdrs) with more focus on tactics and communications.

But over all great AI mod!

Edited January 27, 2012 by CaptainBravo

[taro8 806]

What Has Science Done?!

Anyway I will send you the mission so you can check the helo cargo. However first I want to do some testing.

Blackhawks and Mi-17 can load whole squads. Dunno how its in HAC, but in normal play only small squads corrctly used Venoms and Hinds for transport.

[CaptainBravo 0]

Have you had full squads get in trucks?

[Rydygier 1302]

To be honest I prefer the 2 commander version.

With this version there is still possibility to play as in previous versions - two commanders, two armies, two objectives, no fronts and other complications, all as you wish. Scale and complexity depends only on mission maker. Now mission may, not must, be more complex. Additional commanders or four objectives - this are optional & additional feauters requested by people.

However worries me these lags...

Still more to do (can't let you off THAT easily) but it is looking good.

Yeah, I doubt, if this will be last version, but also I doubt, if next one will be created so quickly as 1.1... Real life calling me louder and louder. :)

[Rydygier 1302]

Now writing new manual content - significant amount of work itself...

Until it will be finished waiting for reports about newest demo. Especially these lags - someone else experienced lags? When? All the time, or in particullar moment (what happens on battlefield in this moment). How big lags? Acceptable, or too big? On what hardware? Comparing to earlier versions (eg CargoDemo)? For sure caused by HAC, and not by some else active addons? I have lag all the time with FPS about 10-12, but in Chernaruss I experience that even on empty map without HAC, so can't compare, only that, with HAC FPS isn't worse for me than without...

Have you had full squads get in trucks?

If you mean 13-men USMC squad in MTVR with driver - it is impossible and never will occur with HAC, or without. One man always will stay outside, because MTVR has 13 places including driver's.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=2096020&postcount=534

[Rydygier 1302]

Hmm. Left running demo for 2 hours, just returned, and I have same FPS as at beginning, and same as on empty map - means 20-22 when looking on sky. No lags at all? On my old junk? Strange.

[humvee28 10]

On my Side, Lag is decreased, compared to the previous released Alphas, but it still need further testing.. :)

[Astrosammy 10]

22 FPS in empty Chernogorsk, 30 in the Sobor region. In the test mission an average of 8, still quite good for my slow processor, which really is the bottleneck of my system:

Toshiba Satellite L650D-15F

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Version 6.1.7600 Build 7600 (64 bit)

AMD Athlon II P340 Dual-Core Processor, 2200 MHz

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 with 1 GB RAM

4 GB RAM (2x2GB)

Well, one day I'll have a better desktop... maybe when Arma IV is released... :lol:

When using some of my own small HAC missions it feels like the new alpha runs better.

[Rydygier 1302]

Hmm. So indeed, HAC requires a lot from CPU, since its presence has such a big impact on FPS when processor is pretty weak. Although my Intel Core2 Duo E7400 2800 Mhz swollows three commanders without any impact on FPS. My bottleneck is graphic card, old GF 8400 512 MB and I have in Chernarussian forest 8-10 FPS on very low resolution and minimal graphic setting regardless if with HAC or without it. I wonder how it will be with all eight commanders and what hardware handle them smoothly... In the future I definitely need to explore ways to improve the efficiency of the code.

However good to hear, that new version works better. Preprocessing did its job, but still lot to do in this matter.

[DomZ 15]

I loaded your cool HAC demo and have lots of fun seeing how it behaves. I like it.. I merged it with my High Command Extensions, which is a manual way off controlling the armies. I noticed that I could not give commands to squad members, or create new high commands. This is not a problem with your mod. In the Demo it has the player set as the variable Player.

This variable (Player) switches off use of High Command for all other units other than that unit. It also switches off the macro groupSelectedUnits which reports squad units selected.

Therefore I deleted the variable name Player from the player sniper. You ort to look at High Command Extensions as an analysis tool because it can watch all your code behaviour on all sides of the game. See http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=14961. Helps me see what is going on in the simulation. Admire you work DomZ

---------- Post added at 02:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:21 AM ----------

Rydygier

I would agree with your earlier analysis that macros do not slow down Arma2. Macros are slowly executed code that runs in background at low priority. Macros only take recourses away from other macros. That is a very good part of the design of the Arma2 engine.

[Rydygier 1302]

Yeah, player character named "player" was not so wise choose. :) Of course must to try yours HC extensions.

[Astrosammy 10]

Some testing:

G78vNvDVN0E

One Screenshot every 60 seconds, the low framerate has been caused by the unusual camera position, not by HAC.