Invasion 1944 v2.6 (CO)

[dimitri_harkov 10]

The module itself works (burning tank engines etc... very nice work btw), so I guess it's the beta.

[PacUK 1]

Hmm yeah the mines do seem to have no effect on the tanks (thought they are at least blowing up). We'll look into it, don't forget to post bugs on Dev-Heaven! Thanks!

Edited February 7, 2013 by PacUK

[jiltedjock 10]

I'm using Beta 99700 and I'm happy with it, there has been nothing in the changelogs since then that I have been bothered about, and quite a few reports of issues in most Betas since.

[PacUK 1]

Ok so I know you're all probably a bit bored of Omaha, covered and covered blah blah, but for the two or so people that are still interested in it... I started myself a little mini-project that I've been wanting to do for ages, here's a few screens of the progress so far.

In the past we've had to depend on mission placed objects to create our trench systems, but I've recently implemented a lovely little set of concrete trenches by Biiskaps that were sitting around gathering dust, textured them up and created a few extra little floor pieces to get rid of that pesky grass. Then with a lot of zooming in on scans of my Omaha defense map, tried to match as closely as possible with our resources the defensive layout of the 'Wiederstandneste' (Resistance Nest) stations that line the coast (WN61, and WN62 so far pictured here with a few more to build). This should give players and mission makers a lot more to play with, and if I can nail down the AI pathing, hopefully more interesting enemy behaviour too. Also a huge benefit to MP missions that won't require the hundreds of extra objects lagging the server. Quite when this will be ready I'm not sure as it will have a large impact on existing missions I'd guess 2.7 as the beach assault missions will all need to be reworked to remove the old decorations and take advantage of the built in fortifications!

[rknharry 10]

Very nice! 8) Would it be possible, to add "house positions" to these objects? Foxholes could need some too, but off couse doesn´t quite solve AI path finding.

With regards to foxholes and small trench section objects, I´d wish for some maps (or somewhat reworked Neaville, Merderet...) to have moulds worked in, just large enough (-2m ~) to fit Foxhole/trench objects, so that these are level with the surrounding ground. These maps could have many of these moulds for this particular use, so one has options to place defensive lines. Any unused moulds either can be made a crater by putting a texture object on it, or maybe "plugged" with a purposely made plug object.

Probably a nightmare for the AI and causing FR losses, but maybe a usable idea for MP type of games. :)

[PacUK 1]

Would it be possible, to add "house positions" to these objects? Foxholes could need some too, but off couse doesn´t quite solve AI path finding.

I was actually going through the 'trenchline' and 'foxhole' objects adding pathing and positions for AI which led to me remebering these concrete trench sections (and then the following work texturing them up and pathing them + testing AI would follow waypoints on editor placed versions, which they did very nicely). The only issue I am having is the initial entry of AI who are say in a player group into the trenches I think the thinness might make it hard/impossible. But those AI placed in them and waypoints along the paths seems to work pretty nicely.

With regards to foxholes and small trench section objects, I´d wish for some maps (or somewhat reworked Neaville, Merderet...) to have moulds worked in, just large enough (-2m ~) to fit Foxhole/trench objects

This unfortunately is impossible, at least on Omaha and all of our current maps. As maps work on a gride size, omaha using 10m for example, each point that you can raise or lower is far bigger than any of these objects, and making them that large for a small feature really sticks out. As we have no way of cutting away the ground geometry this is as good as it gets on a large map in ArmA2. Only smaller higher detailed terrain maps like Bastogne using a much smaller grid (but because of the detail has to be a much smaller map) which allows for placement of foxholes etc in the holes more seamlessly.

[mcnools 62]

beautiful Pac, beautiful!

[jiltedjock 10]

there is a nice little script I have used to spawn AI into trenches in IronFront and keep them there, I'll see if I can find and post it. I have used a variant of it to occupy buildings on the Neaville and Omaha maps with good results.

edit: those pics look superb by the way

---------- Post added at 01:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:07 PM ----------

I was actually going through the 'trenchline' and 'foxhole' objects adding pathing and positions for AI which led to me remebering these concrete trench sections (and then the following work texturing them up and pathing them + testing AI would follow waypoints on editor placed versions, which they did very nicely). The only issue I am having is the initial entry of AI who are say in a player group into the trenches I think the thinness might make it hard/impossible. But those AI placed in them and waypoints along the paths seems to work pretty nicely.

Arma could do with an "Occupy that" command, with a disableai "autotarget" included to keep them in place until you ask them to reform. Pointing at a house (with an index of buildingpos) and giving a move order is often ok but you can't be sure all of your group will enter. Given that there are a number of garrison scripts out there that loop over buildinpos indexes it might be possible to fashion a radio command out of one of those, I will have a look at it this weekend if I get a chance.

Edited February 8, 2013 by jiltedjock

[domokun 515]

Sweet. All the more important when you consider how significant those bunkers were. Hundreds of US soldiers were killed and wounded trying to assault them.

Your incredible lengths you guys go to ensure that this mod is as authentic as possible is a credit to their bravery.

Many thanks

[kremator 1065]

Arma could do with an "Occupy that" command, with a disableai "autotarget" included to keep them in place until you ask them to reform. Pointing at a house (with an index of buildingpos) and giving a move order is often ok but you can't be sure all of your group will enter. Given that there are a number of garrison scripts out there that loop over buildinpos indexes it might be possible to fashion a radio command out of one of those, I will have a look at it this weekend if I get a chance.

Now THAT would be a nice script ! Yes please!

[jiltedjock 10]

beautiful Pac, beautiful!

I have had some cracking small scale actions against the AI on Neaville. There are so many little detailed areas it's got huge replayability for a map of that size - three 88s hidden in the high treeline near Hill 92, mortars behind the hill, a halftrack and a panzergrenadier platoon holed up in one of the farms...a couple of Churchills with mortar and infantry support...doesn't take much to get a cracking battle going.

Nice work!

[domokun 515]

I have had some cracking small scale actions against the AI on Neaville. There are so many little detailed areas it's got huge replayability for a map of that size - three 88s hidden in the high treeline near Hill 92, mortars behind the hill, a halftrack and a panzergrenadier platoon holed up in one of the farms...a couple of Churchills with mortar and infantry support...doesn't take much to get a cracking battle going.

Nice work!

Mind sharing your actions with us?

[jiltedjock 10]

Mind sharing your actions with us?

I'll see what I can do. I use a heavily config'd GL4 to produce a particular effect when combined with ASR_AI and TPWCAS, so there are only three waypoints in the mission, to initiate the contact between forces. After that, everything that happens depends on these addons, particularly GL4.

[domokun 515]

That's no problem mate.

Just let us know which GL4 pbos you are using and, if you don't mind, which edits you've made and I'll give it a go.

I used to be a massive fan of GL4 but my interest wavered and then waned as it gathered dust.

I then moved onto Zeus and finally ASR AI but other community member (Chris B notably) have rekindled my interested in both Zeus and/or GL4.

[PacUK 1]

Thanks guys, progressing well got WN64 and a few tank traps done today! Just a few more to go! I'd definitely be interested in playing with those garrison scripts, I've yet to test with anything like DAC etc to let the AI explore and man posts, but I have managed to fix the bunkers pathing and that does help the AI lead into the trenches much better. Bit more fiddling and I'm hoping they'll be able to explore it freely, just seem to be having an odd occassion where the AI decides to wander through geometry trying to fit into their squads formation doh! I tend not to use many/any extra AI mods except for TPW's suppression system which I adore! But I've heard some good things about ASR_AI recently and Zeus in the past, its always been something I've considered bringing in as part of I44 but as people generally have their own preferences it seems to be best to leave that as a third party addition for now unless we can get a specific version designed for I44 so we could do things such as deploying mg's etc, will just have to daydream about getting an AI coder in for now!

[nickmow 10]

Dumb question, just started fooling around with DAC and can get a zone up and troops in it. Only problem is following the epic readme I only seem to be able to get modern Arma units to spawn. So obvious question how do I get the I44 guys to spawn into the fight ?

[slatts 1978]

I sent a PM off to SFG but couldn't see when he was last on, is he still around? Just looking to see if I can use the Bren gun.

[PacUK 1]

SFG has been busy getting A's in class, I thought I'd got back to you on that but I'll recover quickly. I'm afraid we can't share a lot of our content in anyway outside the mod mainly as the original authors are no longer active members and without their say so we can't authorise use. Off-hand I don't know who's model it is, so if you spot this message and don't mind loaning out your gun speak up! :D On that note you might wanna check with Waxbutter about his Bren in the Pacific mod, lot newer (I've had my eye on robbing your armoury for a while now wax when you poke your head up out of the jungle for a second!

With DAC you need to use the config's alongside your mission and you can redefine the groups used. There are some versions of I44 templates floating around on here and our public forums. Also you can unpack any of our Coop mission they mostly use DAC so have lots of preset groups, though sorry not one config with every faction, I might do one for 2.7 if there's time/demand and no one else gets round to it first!.

Back to the beach!

[nickmow 10]

With DAC you need to use the config's alongside your mission and you can redefine the groups used. There are some versions of I44 templates floating around on here and our public forums. Also you can unpack any of our Coop mission they mostly use DAC so have lots of preset groups, though sorry not one config with every faction, I might do one for 2.7 if there's time/demand and no one else gets round to it first!.

Back to the beach!

Ok thanks so more read the read me and unpack to have a look at a mission, make sense. Thanks

[orcinus 121]

Ok thanks so more read the read me and unpack to have a look at a mission, make sense. Thanks

There's also a specific thread for DAC configs, though I don't recall if there's any i44 configs. Any general Qs about DAC should be posted in the DAC thread which is still very much alive & kicking.

BTW do not use Windows Notepad with word-wrap on to write a config - the saved file will have extra spaces in it which breaks the config. Get Notepad ++ which is vastly superior plus both cuel & Ionos have released plugins which will colour-code & autocomplete sqf files for editing.

[nickmow 10]

Thanks I just unpacked one of the I44 coop missions and took it from there, Now my Troop of Cromwells is roaming the Norman countryside dealing with whatever shows up, fantastic Armour sim and random enemy's. ARMA reborn

Happy tanker.

P.S. I have Notepad++ use it for editing DCS stuff and more good tip though.

[rknharry 10]

Ok so I know you're all probably a bit bored of Omaha, covered and covered blah blah, but for the two or so people that are still interested in it... I started myself a little mini-project that I've been wanting to do for ages, here's a few screens of the progress so far.

http://imageshack.us/a/img18/7761/omaha01.th.jpghttp://imageshack.us/a/img716/5247/omaha02.th.jpghttp://imageshack.us/a/img268/4997/omaha03.th.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img526/5883/omaha04.th.jpghttp://imageshack.us/a/img20/9095/omaha05.th.jpg

In the past we've had to depend on mission placed objects to create our trench systems, but I've recently implemented a lovely little set of concrete trenches by Biiskaps that were sitting around gathering dust, textured them up and created a few extra little floor pieces to get rid of that pesky grass. Then with a lot of zooming in on scans of my Omaha defense map, tried to match as closely as possible with our resources the defensive layout of the 'Wiederstandneste' (Resistance Nest) stations that line the coast (WN61, and WN62 so far pictured here with a few more to build). This should give players and mission makers a lot more to play with, and if I can nail down the AI pathing, hopefully more interesting enemy behaviour too. Also a huge benefit to MP missions that won't require the hundreds of extra objects lagging the server. Quite when this will be ready I'm not sure as it will have a large impact on existing missions I'd guess 2.7 as the beach assault missions will all need to be reworked to remove the old decorations and take advantage of the built in fortifications!

Looks like the new trenches are single piece (two walls + floor)? 8) Could you also make some variation that is textured purely earthen and does not have sandbags? These would fit way better into landscapes generally and when tactically well placed, work better towards camouflage. :)

[belgerot 33]

What's the current status of the Wespe? It's not in the latest version yet is it?

[PacUK 1]

Looks like the new trenches are single piece (two walls + floor)? 8) Could you also make some variation that is textured purely earthen and does not have sandbags?

Not quite, the new trenches are concrete walls for one, theres both a trench and a wall version (e.g. one and two sides), these are solely for the WN stations I'm not modelling new pieces just making use of things we've had waiting to be used for a while. There is already the Trenchline wooden version and the built in arma fortifications which cover less established trench areas just fine, or the foxholes. Mud ramps really don't work and weren't used as cover by anyone as far as I know, far too easy to drive a tank into them a bury people under the mud which is why you would always support a position like that.

The Wespe has been fully ready as a model for ages, but has not been included as there is no artillery system for it, we cannot use ArmA2's as it requires a very high angle of fire not a low one as the Wespe used. We'll probably end up including it as a direct fire only weapon just like a standard tank as no one is stepping up to give coding a new arty system a go... yet.

[PacUK 1]

Just a little note I've seen a number of servers still running v1.02C/1.03D releases of Battlegrounds, all C&H missions were updated v2.65 with latest patch and I would highly recommend running them over the old versions! Server admins update your mission folders!