Kodiak (fixed)

[kenoxite 155]

Hi,

I've tweaked the Kodiak island (normal version) to lower the City Halls enough so that they are enterable now (as in the winter version). I've also lowered the piers in the small E/SE islands, which were originally positioned too high.
 

All the City Halls should be fixed, but it's probable that there's one missing. If you're familiar with that island and remember their location, please, check that all of them are correctly positioned now and report any unfixed ones. Thanks. <- All fixed now.

The intro animation included is the same as the one in the original Kodiak. If you have the original island installed just overwrite the folder in Addons by the one provided here. You'll see that now you'll have the old ones plus "intro.kodiak_fixed".

Summary of fixes:

• All City Halls correctly positioned
• Piers in E/SE small islands are usable
• East area of big military base north of Sako elevated, so it doesn't sink under the tides
• Port of Sako also raised for the same reason
• ILS fixed. AI planes can now land and take off properly

Download v1.1:
- http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?kqw8rfeq8g1p120
- http://www.multiupload.nl/IS8MZ0PXIV

(Test mission without BAS dependencies: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?7j8cj79ajbuhxlr )

All the credits go to Instructor, the creator of the island.
Also, thanks to Nikiller for helping in finding bugs and giving suggestions.

BTW, I'm considering altering the area in Bh-66. A gate (or gap) would be placed in the north wall so the AI (infantry and, particularly, vehicles) could enter and exit that area. Check the pictures below. Right now the only way to go in there is through that small door/arch, and the AI, even infantry, aren't able to use that. That makes that area exclusively for players and unusable for SP missions overall. Maybe that was the intention of the author?

Location on map:


Original and suggested change:


What do you guys think?

Edited August 2, 2015 by kenoxite

[nikiller 18]

hi,

Very good move! I love this island and I think it's one of the best ever made for ofp. I was waiting for city hall fix since long time but I was too lazy to learn how to modify it :).

All the City Halls should be fixed, but it's probably that there's one missing. If you're familiar with that island and remember their location, please, check that all of them are correctly positioned now and report any unfixed ones. Thanks.

There's one city hall position you didn't fixed. It is at Jg-44 on a little island.

BTW, I'm considering altering the area in Bh-66. A gate (or gap) would be placed in the north wall so the AI (infantry and, particularly, vehicles) could enter and exit that area. Check the pictures below. Right now the only way to go in there is through that small door/arch, and the AI, even infantry, aren't able to use that. That makes that area exclusively for players and unusable for SP missions overall. Maybe that was the intention of the author?

What do you guys think?

That's a good idea. That's always better to have good AI pathfinding. This place is very good for defned mission.

I have few suggestions while I am at it.

- The airport ILS doesn't work properly. AI planes can land but they crash when they take off. Do you think it is possible to fix it?

- The forest are pretty monotonous. I mean it is always the same trees. It would add to the variety if some Nogova forest are added. Maybe on the southern part of the island?

- The ground textures are also monotonous (IMHO). I suggest to replace the southern part by sand. Again, it will add more variety to the island and more freedom to mission makers. Here's a pics to show you which part of the island:

- the big base who is WEST of the airport at Fa-54, the north part of Sako Fj-76 and WEST part of Suursaari Ii-74 are sometimes a bit under water. It depends of the time and date i.e if you set time to 1:00 and date to Tue, Feb 5 then you will see what I mean. This bug is not big deal but it's always strange to see a military base under 50cm of water :)

- Last thing who come to my mind is to add more town/places name like in Kodiak v2.

I have to go but I will report any bug I find on the island.

Thanks for your work.

cya.

Nikiller.

Edited May 16, 2012 by Nikiller

[kenoxite 155]

There's one city hall position you didn't fixed. It is at Jg-44 on a little island.

[...]

- the big base who is WEST of the airport at Fa-54, the north part of Sako Fj-76 and WEST part of Suursaari Ii-74 are sometimes a bit under water. It depends of the time and date i.e if you set time to 1:00 and date to Tue, Feb 5 then you will see what I mean. This bug is not big deal but it's always strange to see a military base under 50cm of water :)

Thanks for reporting that!

All the city halls are fixed now, and I've elevated the problematic area in the hyper-base about 1m over previous height. Now it doesn't sink, and you can still use boats without problems in its dock.

The only caveat I can think of with elevating that area is that any mission with objects ASL-positioned there will have to be changed. To have a visual reference, this is (roughly) the area that was elevated:

The download link has been updated with the new file. You only need to overwrite the previous pbo. The anims are still the same.

That's a good idea. That's always better to have good AI pathfinding. This place is very good for defned mission.

I have few suggestions while I am at it.

- The airport ILS doesn't work properly. AI planes can land but they crash when they take off. Do you think it is possible to fix it?

- The forest are pretty monotonous. I mean it is always the same trees. It would add to the variety if some Nogova forest are added. Maybe on the southern part of the island?

- The ground textures are also monotonous (IMHO). I suggest to replace the southern part by sand. Again, it will add more variety to the island and more freedom to mission makers. Here's a pics to show you which part of the island:

http://img4.hostingpics.net/thumbs/mini_611840kodiakfixed.jpg

- Last thing who come to my mind is to add more town/places name like in Kodiak v2.

I'll see what I can do. Just have in mind that this is my first attempt at using WrpTool, so it's probable that some of that stuff is out of my reach right now.

What I'm not sure about is adding a new climate zone to the island (the desert/sand in SE). I particularly enjoy how focused Kodiak is (heck, it even provides a _different_ version for winter), which enhances the realism feeling of the island. On the other hand, the vegetation change (adding some Nogovan spice to the south) is something that'd make sense and will probably look into that. My only worry is that it'll potentially clash too much with the rest of the island, which, again, kills part of the cohesion.

About the ILS, that's something I'll have to research, as I have no clue about how to fix that right now.

In any case, all the changes I'll make from now on the island will be apart from the fixed version that I've posted already. Something like a new version number of Kodiak, as you suggest. I make no promises about if or when it'll be done, though. Mainly because of my inexperience with WrpTool, as I've mentioned above.

Thanks for all the feedback. It's been really helpful!

[nikiller 18]

hi,

About the ILS, that's something I'll have to research, as I have no clue about how to fix that right now.

I did a little search for you on OFPEC and I found a tutorial on the method for marking out ruways and taxiways for AI and Autoland.

http://www.ofpec.com/addons_depot/index.php?action=details&id=111

I also found a very good thread by Planck who lists tools and resources relating to .wrp file creation and editing which are available in the Editors Depot and elsewhere, where appropriate, along with links.

http://www.ofpec.com/forum/index.php?topic=23908.0

What I'm not sure about is adding a new climate zone to the island (the desert/sand in SE). I particularly enjoy how focused Kodiak is (heck, it even provides a _different_ version for winter), which enhances the realism feeling of the island. On the other hand, the vegetation change (adding some Nogovan spice to the south) is something that'd make sense and will probably look into that. My only worry is that it'll potentially clash too much with the rest of the island, which, again, kills part of the cohesion.

Yea you are right, this island is pretty much FDF style so adding some new vegetation and desert part will look strange but in other hand it will increase mission makers possibilities.

Good luck.

cya.

Nikiller.

[kenoxite 155]

I did a little search for you on OFPEC and I found a tutorial on the method for marking out ruways and taxiways for AI and Autoland.

http://www.ofpec.com/addons_depot/index.php?action=details&id=111

I also found a very good thread by Planck who lists tools and resources relating to .wrp file creation and editing which are available in the Editors Depot and elsewhere, where appropriate, along with links.

http://www.ofpec.com/forum/index.php?topic=23908.0

Thanks for that.

Looking into this ILS thing I can see how easily can be done wrong. All this taxi lanes thing seems a bit convoluted.

Anyway, I've managed to fix it. Now the AI can use the airfield without crashing. I've updated the download link with the updated file in the first post.

This should be all for bug fixing, right? I think all the mentioned ones have been crushed already, which would make that the last version of the fixed Kodiak.

[kenoxite 155]

It turns out that the port area in Sako had the same problems with tides as the military base, so I've also raised that area.

Now this really should be the last update of this fixed version. I've renamed the island to Kodiak v1.1 to make it easier to know what's the latest version, just in case there's yet something else that needs fixing. I've also included in the zip file the test mission I used to check the new ILS settings.

Install this new version the same way as before. After that you can safely delete both the "kodiak_fixed" island and its animations in the Addons folder.

[CamoLady 1]

What do you guys think?

I also love Kodiak Island... but please don't forget the winter version. :j:

My favorite part is the secret tent setup in the northwestern part.

The original winter version was without runways...I don't like editing - but I had to put in runways.

Yes - the doorway should be larger, as AI units can't seem to walk through.

You should use Finnish houses packs' forest and tree objects

Also - do bushes have to be in bases?

[kenoxite 155]

What do you guys think?

I also love Kodiak Island... but please don't forget the winter version. :j:

The city halls in the winter version are correctly placed, which was the main reason for the version I released for the normal one. Apart from that, I'm not sure the issue with tides is as important as to force the release of a fixed version for the winter island. That can easily fixed by choosing a different date or time, after all.

Also - do bushes have to be in bases?

Maybe they are strategic bushes!

Apart from that, the author of the island decided to add them for some reason, and removing them is out of the intentions of all this, as I was concentrating on fixing some obvious (and problematic, gameplay wise) issues.

As for the suggestions, mine included, I'm afraid that's a task for others to fulfill. I haven't done any progress in that direction, and it's very unlikely that I'll do so in any foreseeable future.

About your edited runway in the winter version, I can give you the ILS data I used for the normal one. Copy and paste this in your dpboed config.cpp:

//ilsPosition[]={8272,5500};
//ilsDirection[]={0,0.08,-1};
//ilsTaxiOff[]={8272,6500,8330,6570};
//ilsTaxiIn[]={8340,6460,8286,6460,8272,6415};

ilsPosition[]={8274,5623,0};
ilsDirection[]={0,0.08,-1};

ilsTaxiIn[]={
	8325,6045,
	8325,5605,
	8307,5575,
	8282,5575,
	8274,5600,
	8274,5650
};

ilsTaxiOff[]={
	8274,5623,
	8274,6450,
	8325,6476,
	8325,6445,
	8325,6045
};

The commented part is left there just for orientation, as that was the previous ILS config. You can paste that code in any place in CfgWorlds (somewhere below centerPosition[] = {8500, 6250, 0}; , or so).

[nikiller 18]

hi,

Sorry I totaly forgot, but I tested the last fixed version and everything works as intented. Nice job you fixed the most anoying bugs (ILS and city halls).

Anyway, if you decide to fix kodiak winter version I have a suggestion:

- Replace water parts by ice like the FDF eastborder winter version. That was one of the smartest idea I ever seen in ofp island making.

PS: Don't forget to fix the ILS

Thanks again for your great job. Very useful.

cya.

Nikiller.

[kenoxite 155]

You're welcome. It's nice to have a Kodiak where you can use the city halls for missions after all. I also tried to fix the ammo bug in Afghan Everon but, unfortunately, it crashes on load in WrpTool.

- Replace water parts by ice like the FDF eastborder winter version. That was one of the smartest idea I ever seen in ofp island making.

Wouldn't that require another addon for a what actually is now an "addon free" island?

Anyway, how did they make that? If it's using some clever use of default textures and objects I might think about it. If it needs extra, then nope, as that wouldn't be a "fix" (not that adding ice would be a fix in the first place) but an "extension" or whatever you might want to call it.

PS: Don't forget to fix the ILS

But... there's no runway in the winter version!

No runway texture = no runway. In my book of laziness, that's it.

Anyway, the ILS settings are up there. Just saying.

[nikiller 18]

Wouldn't that require another addon for a what actually is now an "addon free" island?

Nope, FDF team replaced the sea/river in summer version by land in winter version. Ho and BTW the island name is rukajarvi and not eastborder.

Here is some pics to show what I mean:

Summer version:

Winter version:

cya.

Nikiller.

[kenoxite 155]

It seems the whole island was raised to be above sea level, not only the lake areas.

That's actually quite a major tweak. As all the objects will have to be setposed to ground level after the raise.

I'll look into it. No promises, though.

Anyway, all this sounds more like a modification than a fix, and for that I guess the author should be contacted, which I didn't for the fixed version as nothing was actually changed from the original (just slightly tweaked and corrected). Which leads to, is Instructor still active around this parts?

[nikiller 18]

hi,

It seems the whole island was raised to be above sea level, not only the lake areas.

I didn't pay attention about that I thought they replaced sea by ground. It seems to be a big work.

is Instructor still active around this parts?

Nope, I tried to contact him for a kodiak conversion in ArmA2 (CAA1 mod) with no succes since Instructor is not active in a while. Then I wrote a PM to Placebo to ask permission and he suggested to PM'ing him anyway as a last resort, if no reply in 1 week he suggested releasing and noting in the readme that I tried to contact him and full credit belongs to him.

cya.

Nikiller.