'Heli-4-Hire' SimCopter Revival Dynamic Sandbox (WIP)

[moach_mayhem 10]

its not really hard keeping stuff updated - we're using Git, which makes this stuff pretty well seamless as work goes along...

i mean, every time there's a change, Git can check what has been modified, regardless of it being a single character in one loose line of code or an entire folder worth of new stuff - it commits the 'news' very fast and uploads them to server right away...

this happens several times a day (when work is getting done, that is...) -- and every time there's a commit done to the master branch, you get a new 'release' ready to download, no clumsy uploads or zip files to pump via FTP or any of that nonsense! -- just push a button, and it's there - takes about 5 seconds, really...

the 'moachMod' branch, which you can access by the dropdown menu on the left side of the GitHub interface, is where the works goes on almost in real-time... it's updated so often, it's not even practical to try and keep up, unless you're using Git yourself as well...

anyways, that branch is outright broken more often than not - so i do not recommend downloading directly from it, and advise to downloading only from the master

usually i post a progress report whenever the master gets updated... but make sure to keep an eye on it, as some updates may still slip by the forum at times ;)

[sjaba 19]

Just been skimming this thread after months of not playing Take on...This project got me really interested again..As far as i can see this exactly what this game needed to keep it alive.

Looking forward to a release..

Just as a comment to the progress status.

A summery of features and fixes and some kind of overview of the project in first post would be great.

ATM it was a bit tricky to get all the info on this great project.

As for one question in my head i missed druing my read..is this MP compatible ?? because that would be just awsome :)

Sjaba...

[moach_mayhem 10]

still not MP compatible - that's the last bit on the to-do list....

it's hard to make multiplayer out of something we don't even know what the full set of features is - so when we have that, it 'll be easier to understand what must be adapted, what works and what doesn't...

plus, SimCopter was a purely single-player experience, which makes recriating it as a multiplayer thing quite a larger challenge...

therefore, this will be tackled only after we're set with all the not few things required to rise SC back to glory inside TkoH

a proper list of features, yes, that is indeed missing.... will add it shortly! good call! :rolleyes:

[nephros 23]

I'm enjoying your project very much and can't wait to see what else you can do with it!

I'll point out anything I find during gameplay, such as this -

On the sling load destination in grid 234 - 272, the cargo sits about 5 feet above the level of the roof.

[moach_mayhem 10]

that happens somewhat randomly, actually... not so much due to any one position or another - the exact cause of it, unknown :p

but then, it's still kinda rare, and it doesn't necessarily need to ruin your day, as you can just abort that mission and take up another run...

anyhow, my PC went to the dogs yesterday... something is wrong with the boot partition, i don't know... never seen it happen before, so i took it to my 'guy' so he can have his wonderful machines have a look at it and hopefully, fix the thing without having to replace and/or format the whole SSD unit...

well, he said it would probably be done tomorrow, but in the meantime, there's not much progress can be done here:rolleyes:

anyways, the car seat i had ordered some time ago just arrived this week, and i've been using this surprisingly well-timed pc crisis to take my time and rig it all up into the simpit (read from beginning of this thread to see a picture of the beast)

this i'm posting from my trusty laptop (as far as i trust windows 8, at least) -- yet very much comfortably seated on my finally adjusted new racing-style 'chair' now complete with side rigs for joystick, throttle unit and razer nostromo! cleverly attached with fabric loop-and-hook fastener patches ('velcro' is a trademark) so that all controls can be easily adjusted for positioning

i'll post a picture once the PC is back in the loop... kinda lame to show it off while it can't be turned on

cheers!

Edited February 5, 2013 by Moach_Mayhem
typo's

[JoaoHackbart 1]

Hello,

Could someone teach how to do the maintenance of the chopper? I can change parts through the Hangar but I can't do the maintenance...

P.S: I'm working on a video.

P.S²: Whoever needs a gaming recording software for free that doesn't lag the game nor the video, should try out MSI Afterburner.(Just try not to cook your G.P.U)

[moach_mayhem 10]

maintenance work is a little 'underfeatured' for the time being...

as it stands now, every time you install a component on your aircraft, it'll be reset to good as new - so repairing stuff only required you to remove and reinstall the defective components (which is not yet in any way indicated by the largely unfinished UI)

remember, WIP stands for Work-In-Progress...

and progress now may finally resume! - my PC is back alive and kicking! - the reason behind the massive failure to even boot up past the windows loading screen without an appearance of the infamous BSOD was pinned down to a hardware failure on my main SSD unit

replacing the faulty apparatus with a new (larger) one fixed the problem, with the small side effect of leaving me to reinstall, well... everything :p

no important data was lost - but it'll be a while before all my software pool becomes operational again... i'm gonna take it one thing at a time and worry about each individual program as i come to need it...

ToH took no time at all to get all set again, it was installed on my bulky RAID-0 setup which suffered naught from the case - and reinstalling Steam had the existing installation ready to go in no time (gotta love that thing)

the editing tools needed for this project really require no major OS support, so just having them in the surviving drives makes them usable albeit "under new management"

so we're back!

let's see where i had stopped....

Edited February 9, 2013 by Moach_Mayhem

[delta9857 10]

Good to hear Moach, I'm looking forward to seeing what you are able to do in the coming weeks!

[JoaoHackbart 1]

Hey, Thanks for the answer and good luck with that. I'm cheering here, and I know this mission is going to a be a big success.

[JoaoHackbart 1]

Hello,

As told I have made a little video showing the mission, I know it's just the first part for now. That's because I had some trouble with the missions (couldn't finish the survey mission it kept demanding other adjustments, like going higher or turning around). But I'll upload the second part in a few days. This is what I've got for now and I hope you guys enjoy.

[moach_mayhem 10]

nice going with the video! - thanks for making it!

looking forward to seeing the 'sequel' ;)

[tnprvteye 10]

Quick Question. Are there supposed to be actual people who get on your helicopter when you land at these points? I've tried several times with both Survey and Passenger missions, but when I land (within 10m usually), nothing happens, and the mission eventually goes away. I'm not running any mods besides Hinds and yours. Am I missing a step? I set it as "Current Task", then I 0-0-2 on the Radio. It gives me the waypoint, but when I land, nothing appears. Do I need to shut the Helicopter down, or get out...maybe open a door or something?

I've put the folder included in the ZIP file in the "C:\Users\<me>\Documents\Take On Helicopters\missions" folder, and renamed it to "Heli4Hire-master.United_States_H". I also enabled the addon included as well. Everything else seems to be working, I just don't see any people.

[moach_mayhem 10]

there is indeed supposed to be people there - they will board the helicopter when you arrive...

this is true for all helipads on ground level, while on rooftops you may not see the passengers until they are already aboard (they would be on the ground, or perhaps 'inside' the building) - they're still there nonetheless

in each case, there should be a hint appearing as soon as you touch down close enough to the target location... if you're not seeing that, you may be landing at the wrong place, or perhaps haven't requested the mission so it could start...

all missions will display a hint telling you the time at which you're expected to arrive - that's the cue for knowing you're committed.... make sure to set the '-CURRENT ASSIGNMENT-' task as your active then, so you'll know exactly where you oughta fly into

speaking of this same matter, the latest progress includes the need for the pilot to decide when it's safe for passengers to get in and out of the helicopter (this is a true pilot responsibility in real life) - so you'll be prompted with a decision action (much like for landing 'offroad') once you arrive at your departure and destination

this was also an opportunity to change the boarding/deboarding processes so they use a common script, rather than each mission having to define the same functionality within it's own FSM

this is a lot better for maintenance, for when any change is made to this script - it will reflect on all missions, eliminating the need to alter each one individually...

alas, i did break a thing or two in the process, just little things like missing/forgotten markers at certain situations, but awkward bugs nonetheless - so that's a must-fix before this small new set features makes it to the master

cheers

Edited February 13, 2013 by Moach_Mayhem

[tnprvteye 10]

Maybe I'm missing setting the "current assignment" task as my active then. I'll give it a shot.

Absolutely LOVE this mod, though...I have very fond memories of SimCopter. I also like the fact you changed the "loading screen" text to match that of SimCopter...nice little touch! :)

---------- Post added at 09:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:04 PM ----------

Well, I still can't get anyone to show up. Here's what I do:

After I click on the task and set "Set as Current", I then go to the radio and do 0-0-2. It shows up as a blue marker, with a time and distance next to it. When I land there (again within 10m usually), nothing happens. Do I need ARMA2 installed? This is really odd.

[moach_mayhem 10]

you shouldn't need ArmA2... very odd, indeed

the thresholds for a normal landing like this is something around 250 meters anyways - if your passengers can walk up to you, there should be no problem at all...

or, wait what? -- you said a blue marker - that's not your mission, that's another one ;)

your current mission marker should appear in black, and there would be no distance and time next to it, it would simply read "departure"

do you see one of those around?

if not, make sure you have "called in available" by radio 0-0-1 once you're ready to start - and remember, all radio calls can only be done when you're inside the helicopter and the power and radio are turned on

there may be a bug there where trying to communicate with the radio turned off fails silently rather than hinting about what's (not) happening

hope this helps!

cheers!

[tnprvteye 10]

I got it sorted. I re-installed everything and set it to "Run as Administrator"...not sure which worked, but it did. And on my first flight I managed to make my passengers barf. Not a good start to my career! Thanks for the AWESOME mod...gonna be spending alot of time on this, I can tell.

[moach_mayhem 10]

ok, internet is back up for me... a not trivial lighting storm recently made my puny wireless router into an honorary toaster for a moment there... so that cost me a few days of disconnection from the external world (how on earth did we live like that for all those years back then?!)

anyhow... i think we're coming around the return of the medevac mission and the new emergencies...

much work to do ahead - but all systems are go (for now) and the sky is blue for the first time in weeks, albeit the new router does have a "surge protection" logo printed on the box...

anyways i'm not taking chances - this is why i don't have a cable hooking it directly to my PC, lest it becomes part of an unexpected new lightning rod

let me get back to it...

cheers

[moach_mayhem 10]

ok, we got a new master up!

still, no medevac or any emergency missions aboard - that's because there's a lot more to emergencies than the way the regular 'gigs' work... mostly because, emergencies are not gigs themselves, but gigs are spawned around them

the reason for this apparent over-complication of things is because of the immense level of complexity that would rise from trying to handle emergencies through the same dispatch system that delivers simpler gigs...

emergencies will be spawned by a separate mechanism, which will create only the emergency event itself, and will not actively track your efforts to address it (i.e, putting out fires, rescuing accident victims and whatnot) -- gigs spawned around these would deal with where you'd pickup a medic, or whatever you gotta do...

this logical separation is a better analog of how a real event of such nature would take place in a real-life situation...

and that is a somewhat off-the-beaten-path new approach to the programming of this sort of thing... I and HarvesteR called it "Organic Programming", and it basically proposes that any simulation should be programmed with logical patterns that best mimic the logic behind the real-life counterpart of the situation being represented...

may sound obvious when phrased like this, but the current most largely accepted paradigm used on most games development goes quite contrary to this notion... specially so in the larger-budget titles (the so called triple-A's) - BIS may be the sole exception nowadays, afaik...

anyhow - this generally standardized notion of 'tricking' a superficially developed span of logic to respond to situations by imposing a pre-determined set of rules around them may be tempting, specially when looking from a 'design' point of view...

but once you get down to it, you'll find you have to build up a huge blob of messy code that does more to 'remove' unwanted effects than it does to create interesting possibilities...

Organic logic posits that the better your program assumes the form of a digital analogue of the simulated matter, the easier it will be to produce straightforward, clean code that allows all possible situations to combine in perhaps unforeseen, highly interesting ways and delivers the best experience to the user...

an example of this would be the way Simcopter handled a lot of what happened in your city - every accident victim was in itself a MEDEVAC waiting for your action, an arsonist started fires that were driven by the same logic behind firefighting jobs...

an anti-example would be a game such as "call of duty" where all events are hard-wired to happen in a certain way, independently of the REAL cause and effect which would prompt a similar event in an more consequence-driven simulation...

i.e. while in the ArmA series a tank will blow up from receiving damage from various sources, in most other games such a scene would be prompted by the player entering a trigger zone, starting a scripted sequence of forced events....

i'm not criticizing any particular way of doing things, but of course, while it may seem easier at first to force 'canned' events to proceed in predictable ways - it does too happen that a much more complex set of rules will be required to give such a system even the least bit of flexibility...

and since flexibility is a key feature for our purposes here, it pays to bite the bullet and work up a more initially demanding but vastly better resulting system to deliver emergencies in such a more fluid way

ok then.... what's next?

well, in the meantime i did manage to code up a few new little things - things like an improved weather randomizer engine, that produces less predictable conditions different every time you play!

most existing missions have had their working parameters revised - cargo runs and survey flights (now called "scout flights" for more open interpretation of the purposes bringing those people aboard your helicopter) will have a lower average count of cargo items / scout locations to fly in a single run, making them less demanding on time and the general gameplay better paced...

also, the default helicopter now begins pre-equipped with doors, back seats and a boarding step - the minimum requirements for taking on passenger assignments... those may still be removed in the hangar screen, though...

so again, a new master release is up, grab it while it's hot!

cheers!

Edited February 19, 2013 by Moach_Mayhem

[zentaos 10]

How goes the scripting for the "save progress" feature?

You see...beggars CAN be choosers...or so they think.

Keep up the good work!

[moach_mayhem 10]

save progress is quite a mind-boggling barrage of twisted logic, you see...

the script goes:

savegame;

complex stuff, right? ;)

anyhow, that does little to nothing at the moment, mostly because plainly put - there's really nothing to save....

as soon as missions start paying off hard cash, and buying parts and choppers and whatnot plus the cost of fuel and maintenance becomes a thing - then it'll be worthwhile to pursue.... so far, between saving and not, there's really no difference

that's the "glory" of WIP... :rolleyes:

i'll get back to it now... still working on some new stuff to make the dispatch system more flexible (you may now report done and sign out after ending an assignment, that was surprisingly tricky to manage)

cheers!

[nephros 23]

I think I got to try out your new organic emergency generation system today. I damaged a load while sling loading, so I dropped my supervisor on the roof. As I was calling in to dispatch I saw him plummet off the roof to the pavement below. I don't think a medevac would have helped him though. Are you modeling a helicopter hearse?

[moach_mayhem 10]

any medevac may still turn out in ways that gets you in the position of one flying a "hearse" - that's a fact :rolleyes:

but yes, the plan is that indeed - if you manage to injure someone by your rotor-winged antics, this will generate a medevac - much as it did in Simcopter

of course, there could be money in doing that, for a rescue is still a rescue - but then again, it just might be that once you return to base there will be a couple of guys in black suits waiting to have a little "friendly talk" with ya ;)

but none of that is working so far, it'll be some work yet before anything else

cheers!

[nephros 23]

This is going to be awesome regardless - but if you could get this functional in multiplayer so players are rescuing each other after crashes, it would be epic!

[RSF TheCapulet 59]

Any chance someone could post it in PBO form for me please?

[TheHarvesteR 11]

This is going to be awesome regardless - but if you could get this functional in multiplayer so players are rescuing each other after crashes, it would be epic!

I think if the Event logic is added to each human unit as a small script, that just posts the event to the event-posting-thing when the unit takes damage, then it just happens naturally. It's a piece of logic that can be attached to anything, so in theory, it could be attached to actual MP player units too.

Mind though, that multiplayer isn't planned for some time yet.

Cheers