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

[delta9857 10]

ok, removed the needless dependency of Hinds!

just let me get a merge done to the master branch so you have a more straightforward download from github

** edit **

ok! now it's done - grab it while it's hot! ;)

Thanks man! Downloading now!

EDIT: Ok so it is installed and all seems to be working correctly except that I can't figure out how to get missions? I can walk around and buy things in the office and get the mechanics to refuel my chopper but I don't know what else to do. Do I need to use a radio or something?

Edited January 8, 2013 by delta9857

[moach_mayhem 10]

get in the chopper, turn on the radio - you'll get a "call in available" option - do that so dispatch "knows" you're up and you'll begin to see tasks appear around the map

pick a task, and make it your current - then you'll see another radio option to request that assignment

after that, you are committed to that mission... you can abort, but that makes you look bad (and in the future may have dispatch frown at you and give you tougher gigs to some extent)

do note also, that the task you requested disappears from the map, and briefly gets replaced by a new "current assignment" entry - it'll be deselected by default, so you can take on a more truly VFR experience...

but if you wan't the VOR needle (which acts more like an ADF, if you know what i mean) pointing where you oughta go, then just go and select that for your current task

this is intentional, this additional step is analogous to having to set your GPS in a real-world(ish) situation...

as for maintenance, you CAN get the mechanics to service your chopper - actually, you will have to if you come across anything that's not OK during your pre-flight inspection (skip that at your own risk) - you should also have them look at your bird if you start to hear any "funny sounds"* coming from the back when the engine is running....

* pay attention to that - a light "tink tink" nuisance may very well lead into more severe "CluNK KlUcK" problems and eventually you may end up hearing a loud bang-grind-sputter and find that your engine is longer your friend.... and then - you're in an autogyro!

for refueling, there's no need to bother the hangar crew - they take too long, anyways - there's a pump on the side of the pad (not that facing the water, that one isn't yours - you want the pump to the left of your chopper) - this device allows you to refuel by yourself as required (for now, it's free - enjoy while you can)

to refuel with the pump, just walk up to it, draw the fuel line (whilst setting the desired fuel level) - walk to the chopper, near the fuel port and you'll get a "start refueling" action.... you'll hear the pump engage, and you'll get a "ding" hint when it's done

for safety reasons, this doesn't work (and similarly, should not be attempted) with the engine running....

another thing, don't walk into your tail rotor when it's spinning... i learned that the hard way :rolleyes:

cheers!

Edited January 8, 2013 by Moach_Mayhem

[DnA 5143]

Cool initiative, hoping to give it a go soon! :)

[TheHarvesteR 11]

Just to add an update on the current status of the Office system for the mission:

On my last update, I finished up the item arrival and usage system. Basically, the main issue was with finding a way to require players to be at the Office to be able to properly 'receive' an item.

That is, if you're out flying, you'll get a hint notifying you that an order has arrived, say, that GPS unit you ordered. Now, the GPS is a player gear item, so we can't just have it add itself automatically with a "player addWeapon" when it arrives, because you could be anywhere when that happens.

So the solution was a simple one, and it looks like it's going to work nicely for all sorts of items. When orders arrive, they're listed on your inventory screen, but they're not spawned physically anywhere (some orders aren't physical items at all actually). They're just items in a list, until you go into the office, and unpack the item.

Unpacking items them to your gear (in case of equipment), or makes service items available to the service crew, and so on and so forth.

It's also possible to return items you purchase (provided there was a refund policy on it), by re-packing the item, which removes gear from your inventory and enables the "sell" button. Remember though, that when you open a package, the item's condition is immediately changed from "new" to "used", so don't expect a return for full retail value.

If you drop an item somewhere, but then try to repack it to sell, you won't be allowed, because then all you have is an empty box for your item. If you really want to sell it you'll have to find it again.

So, ordering items, cancelling orders, unpacking, repacking and reselling is all in, and I've removed the test items from the list and added a few more meaningful ones. Currently the store offers maps, GPS units, Binoculars and watches. Later on, helicopter bits and whole helicopters will also be available.

Cheers

[mjr.hassle 13]

Thanks for your continued work on this guys! I've been having great fun. :)

The mechanical failures were a surprise to me! I managed to land for 2 of them, although one time I lost my rotors to a nearby tree. I had some music playing at the time so I didn't hear the tell tale signs until it was too late.

also had a tail rotor incident, where 2 of my passengers went around the back of the helicopter and promptly got hacked up. Was nice to see that the mission could still be completed. :)

Really impressed with this, look forward to seeing what else you include.

[delta9857 10]

Thanks for the reply Moach, but I am still having trouble figuring out how to get it to work. When i get in the heli and turn the ATC on I don't get any extra options to do with calling in. I do have two options called "D+D: Log Position [RZ]" and "D+D: Log Position [LZ]" but I'm not too sure what these are for. Also, when I try to save my career progress in the hanger I get an error message saying: "Script HW_Savegame.sqf not found". Is this simply because I haven't been able to do any missions yet or is this a bug?

Keep up the good work, it's looking very impressive so far!

Cheers,

Oli

[TheHarvesteR 11]

You don't get any actions to call in, you get radio actions. Use the comms menu (0-0-1) to call in available.

As an alternative, use the clickable radio on the map.

Cheers

[delta9857 10]

You don't get any actions to call in, you get radio actions. Use the comms menu (0-0-1) to call in available.

As an alternative, use the clickable radio on the map.

Cheers

Oh I get it now! Thanks, that works perfectly! Any idea why i am unable to save my career progress?

Edited January 8, 2013 by delta9857

[TheHarvesteR 11]

I don't know if career saving is properly implemented yet... In any case, there is very little to save as of now, since missions don't reward you yet, and the Office funds aren't persistent.

We're taking it a few steps at a time. We'll get to that eventually.

Cheers

[delta9857 10]

I don't know if career saving is properly implemented yet... In any case, there is very little to save as of now, since missions don't reward you yet, and the Office funds aren't persistent.

We're taking it a few steps at a time. We'll get to that eventually.

Cheers

Ah that makes sense, thanks for the reply!

[delta9857 10]

Has there been any progress with the mod lately? I'm really enjoying it and hope it doesn't become inactive :). Also, I have a quick question about the sling loading missions. When I take the load to the drop off point and am supposed to disconnect it, do I have to lower the load to the ground and then land next to it and get out of the chopper and manually disconnect it; or can I just hover with it on the ground and press a hotkey or something that disconnects it automatically without me needing to land next to it?

[TheHarvesteR 11]

The project is very much still alive, definitely. I haven't had much time to work on it myself, but I know Moach has been at it almost every day.

We haven't pushed the latest changes to the master branch because they're still somewhat unstable, and we didn't want to break things for everyone.

About the slingloads, you can release the cargo using the Rope Interaction key (2xR by default). However, that key sometimes doesn't respond immediately, so you'll probably have to spam the R key a little, until you hear the 'click'. Then, a hint will let you know if the cargo landed nicely or crashed.

Cheers

[delta9857 10]

The project is very much still alive, definitely. I haven't had much time to work on it myself, but I know Moach has been at it almost every day.

We haven't pushed the latest changes to the master branch because they're still somewhat unstable, and we didn't want to break things for everyone.

About the slingloads, you can release the cargo using the Rope Interaction key (2xR by default). However, that key sometimes doesn't respond immediately, so you'll probably have to spam the R key a little, until you hear the 'click'. Then, a hint will let you know if the cargo landed nicely or crashed.

Cheers

It's good to here that the mod is still active! I've been having a lot of fun with it lately and as i said before, it would be a shame to see it become inactive as I believe it has a lot of potential :). Thanks for the help regarding the sling loads, hopefully this should make my life easier!

Cheers

[moach_mayhem 10]

i managed to fix that slingload release bug... but the fix on my end is really not the key - in order to get an instantaneous release action, you gotta remove the 2xR default assignment, and set it to a single button press - if not you end up having to mash it a couple of times before it releases, even if you have an alternative assignment for it - the 2xR combination will always impose a little delay....

other than that, yesterday the first progress got done on the Hangar maintenance dialog... a full feature replacement for managing your fleet, not relying on the rather limited span of the built-in heliport module

the full list of features is much too large for such a post... plus it'd take me all day to properly explain everything and how it's supposed to work, and what has and hasn't yet been done this far...

i'd rather spend this time reviving SimCopter... i'll have to write a proper manual anyways

but after this next 'feature leap' is through, missions requiring specific equipment will be a sure thing (i.e. news coverage flights requiring a camera, pursuits requiring FLIR and whatnot)

you can keep up with general working progress by downloading the master from github - the MoachMod and HarvestersMod branches are highly experimental and are usually a dice roll in terms of stability... those are where real work is taking place (i keep mine updated almost in real time, with several commits per day)

well, back to that then...

[delta9857 10]

Thanks for the update Moach, I'm looking forward to see what else you add to this mod. Also, I've been wondering, do I have to launch it from the editor each time I want to play it, or can I launch it like a regular mission?

[nosecone 1]

Hi

Need some help just got my PC back after a complete windows reinstall and just gone throught the painful task of reloading toh. Went to the editor but when I went to select heli 4hire I get a message saying.

" You can not play/edit this mission;it is dependent on downloaded content that has been deleted.cammisc3,CABuilings,ind_tank,shed_wooden"

really would like to be able play this I have reinstalled the patches not sure what to do next

Cheers

Rhys

[[evo] dan 79]

arma 2 possibly is what your missing, needs installing before latest toh patch

[TheHarvesteR 11]

Aye, there is some complication when you are developing a mission with several mods installed... The game assumes you'll be needing them, and adds them as dependencies.

IDK if there's any rearmed content that makes this necessary... I'd expect none, because this is a very TOH-oriented project anyway. It's most likely just a loose dependency that needs to be removed.

Moach did all the mission setting up though, he can answer that better than I can.

Cheers

[nosecone 1]

Thank you

Will wait to hear from Moach to see whats going on. I only have the free version of army 2 which I haven't installed yet

The updates I have are

-patched to rearmed

-noisecontollers

Nothing else added as Im not sure what I need to install:(

Rhys

Edited January 16, 2013 by nosecone

[moach_mayhem 10]

well, there just may be some rearmed stuff going around...

yeah, it wasn't a -little- stuff... it was quite a lot, actually....

so i couldn't iron it out with an automated process... the only alternative was to kill off rearmed from my mod loading list, override the dependency no-goes by manually removing the addos flags on the .sqm and bite down on a couple of errors and some objects (mostly decorative stuff, no biggie) are now missing...

i tried to edit away the .sqm with notepad++ in order to find the now-orphaned objects and cull 'em out... but that led to the mission failing to load altogether

a few years back that could mean the project was ruined right there, for there was no backup file -- but there IS Git!

this magic device can simply revert any file to as-was last time i told it to keep track of what i was doing (or any other point, for that matter), kinda like a savegame -, but for the whole project, and it can operate by bulk or on individual files as needed....

what a formidable tool! i must stop and worship it a little (as i'm doing now) every time it saves me from the consequences of my hapless forays into daring misadventure ;)

ok, back to our pesky no-cfg-entry errors now... i'm sure most are familiar with this inconvenience... it doesn't stop the game, but it does bother a lot... and I find it quite nasty to leave unchecked, even though it makes the mission work without Rearmed now....

at a loss for a seek-n-destroy type tool to run down the sqm and locate the faulty objects from amongst the 20k+ lines of that file (it's grown mighty big with all the thousand manually positioned LZs, each will add ~10 more lines to that file, even though placing them is just a hit of CTRL+V) - i must now resort to scouring the map in search of no-go objects....

quite a robot's job, IMO... now, i cannot seem to find my 'robot', some type of sqm-cleaning tool, anywhere...

anyone got a clue?

[nosecone 1]

Hi Moach

I updated TOH to rearmed which is showing on the top right main menu. Maybe I have missed an update somewhere along the way. Are you referring to army 2 or the TOH rearmed patch.

I did see in the first page of this topic someone mentioned Jedra_missions addon.

The work you are doing sounds fantastic and after the PC being away since Xmas Im hanging out to give it a try.

Cheers

Rhys

Edited January 16, 2013 by nosecone

[moach_mayhem 10]

oh boy...

this is gonna take a long time, unless someone can help me here....

SQM files do NOT enjoy being hand edited... there's a bunch of requirements that make removing an item arbitrarily quite cumbersome...

first, not too bad, but there's a counter entry that must reflect the exact number of objects found in the map... easier said than done, as we good just under 3000 objects here...

but fortunately this is easy enough, just find the last entry, take one (to compensate the zeroeth) and voilá!

but second, the baddest of all, each of those class entries is named ItemXXX, with XXX being the sequential number for the placement of each object -- this sequence must NOT be broken

if at any point the sequence skips but a single number, as would be a natural consequence of manually removing entries (a major necessity now to remove those missing config problems) - the mission will not load

this ties us down to the need to "cascade" down each line, manually altering EVERY SINGLE ONE of the ~3000 entries to bear the correctly numbered class name....

it would take one or maybe more full days of unbelievably boring work to do this by hand... 3000 entries will inevitably lead to crippling repetitive motion injuries by the end of it... and i already got plenty of that :p

so what we need is an automated tool for this.... seems like such a pressing matter, it would have been done already -- and turns out, IT WAS!

but alas, fortune isn't with me, for this week-saving solution cannot be found at it's download location... site went out or something....

there's only documentation, as if taunting me...

here: https://sites.google.com/site/macsarmatools/sqm

yet even Armaholic.com has had trouble contacting the author.... as it stands, this desperately needed bit of logic has quite simply disappeared from the internet

now, let us mull over a possible solution... i really don't wanna have to dredge through that file...

---------- Post added at 09:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:47 PM ----------

Hi Moach

I updated TOH to rearmed which is showing on the top right main menu. Maybe I have missed an update somewhere along the way. Are you referring to army 2 or the TOH rearmed patch. The work you are doing sounds fantastic and after the PC being away since Xmas Im hanging out to give it a try.

Cheers

Rhys

there are a few stray dependencies of actual ArmA2 content, thus requiring you to own ArmA2+OA itself, not just having the rearmed patch installed... (if only, read above)

i've managed to make it playable, but it will nag away with missing config entry errors every time you start it...

---------- Post added at 11:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:50 PM ----------

well, got it!

wasn't all easy, but at least i didn't have to run down the entire file....

it was simpler in the end to turn rearmed back on, so i could see where the no-go objects were located on the map, then delete them from inside the ingame editor...

and with the help of notepad++, searching for the last few forgotten of each kind was made simpler by running a text search, minding the coordinates and looking it up on the map with a trigger-happy finger on top of the delete key

in just under an hour, all ArmA2 content dependencies were removed, now we're in the clear again!

...and it didn't even need a robot!

[nosecone 1]

Hi Moach

Thank you for getting back to me so quick. I have the free version of ArmA2, if I install that will that fix things? not sure what the +OA is or is that the full paid version of Arma2

Rhys

[delta9857 10]

Alright, so I have another sling loading mission related question: I have just met with the logistics crew and been told that it is highly advisable that I do a fly-by of both the cargo tower and the drop off point. My current waypoint is set to the cargo drop off point so I fly there. When I arrive, nothing happens and the cargo doesn't spawn at the tower. What exactly am supposed to do in this situation? Is this a bug? BTW, it is only this type of cargo mission I have trouble with, all the others seem to work fine.

[nosecone 1]

Thanks Moach

looking forward to the new download when its ready

Cheers

Rhys