Cobra Sandbox [Persistant Survival Sandbox]

[heklos 0]

-The server runs on the latest non-beta version (because I do not know how to install the beta patch on remote dedicated servers. (And the installer going "lolgamenotinstalled" whenever trying to patch does not help either).

alleycat, you just need to take the "beta" folder from your desktop machine inside of C:\arma 2 operation arrowhead\Expansion\beta or where ever you have installed the game at. Take that beta folder and copy/ftp or however to the server and replace the same folder on the server install. Just include in your startup Expansion\beta and Expansion\beta\expansion. I use the TA2DST tool and just select those as mods. Or copy whats in the _runA2CO_beta.cmd. *This is for a windows server install.

Edited March 3, 2013 by heklos

[alleycat 28]

Thanks I'll try that.

[heklos 0]

That's how I update my local VM server. And if you want to save the old beta's just rename the old folder BetaOLD or however and then you can always easily roll back by renaming the old folder to beta and the new folder to beta<whatever>.

I will be CONUS next month, so I will stop in the server. I want to check it out. Sounds pretty sweet, both in gameplay and the extras you have.

[alleycat 28]

Note: There was a connection bug in the code that affected players with exotic UID numbers and prevented logins. This is now fixed.

[geestyleed 1]

Sounds like a great mission.

I am not sure if it is implemented (and if so I am sorry), but have you thought about the R3F Logsitic Script and Fortification spawns for base building?

[JohnWildkins 1]

I will admit this mod has a great amount of promise. However, there are a lot of things you need to fix and change in order for this to have any hope of competing with the likes of Wasteland and DayZ.

Firstly:

[bUGS] - little is here for bugs currently as this was only after about 30 minutes of play, but if I have the time, I will search for more

* On respawn, thirst is kept from previous character and increases at alarming rate [0.5/sec]

* On respawn, soda can entries are bugged (7 entries on context menu for 1 soda can)

* Again, on respawn, none of the items given on first spawn are given back (You only respawn with a Makarov PM [1 mag], and NVGs)

* CZ 550 sometimes will not equip on spawn (must be dropped and picked back up)

* Interestingly, you die at 90 damage vs. 100 (at least Dehydration)

[sUGGESTIONS]

* I would first suggest that you implement either random spawn locations - spawning in the same place makes it easy to exploit and it also makes it rather boring to manoeuvre the same scenery

* I would also up the loot counts or make it more consistent where loot spawns - combing through six villages to find only one gear box with nothing but a makarov mag is not fun gameplay.

* While your custom sounds are of good quality, I would seriously recommend letting people use their own sound mods, as not only does Wasteland, your main competitor, allows them, but many weapons have no custom sounds and thus left at the default A2 sounds

* In relation to the above, I wouldn't recommend locking down all of the mods on the server. Allow sound mods and other clientside mods (@sthud, etc) to be used - if a bug happens, it won't effect serverside issues, only the client, and that's testing that people can do for you rather than you having to take development time to do it yourself

* Affiliation is a great idea to separate yourself from Wasteland - but you need to implement it better I feel. Put in some NPC factions that roam the wastes, set up small outposts, etc., and let the affiliation system work into that, allow groups to be able to ally or war themselves with the NPC factions and make it so some territorial development occurs

* I find problems mainly with how the map is set up. The current spawn location leaves you in a pretty empty area that without at least a decent amount of walking, you will not see anything more than a couple huts for a long time.

* Further into that problem is the lack of any navigation. People unfamiliar with Aliabad will not be able to find their way around due to the lack of a compass as well as a lack of shift+click waypoint support or map marker for player location

* The different items (rad medicine, soda cans, etc.) should have differentiated models and an attempt should be made to move from a context menu system to either a DayZ-style right click in gear menu system, a Wasteland-style player menu system, or a combination of the two (or perhaps a different style of menu or even a hotkey system - but the current setup just clutters the context menu)

I honestly hope this works out to be a great mod that learns from DayZ and Wasteland and become the "true" persistent survival sandbox, but a lot of work needs to be put in to refine the mod and make it so that it both learns from the two mods aforementioned as well as improves upon the ideas while adding in new ones that revolutionize the subgenre. Good luck, and I hope to see this mod thrive in the future.

[alleycat 28]

[bUGS] - little is here for bugs currently as this was only after about 30 minutes of play, but if I have the time, I will search for more
* On respawn, thirst is kept from previous character and increases at alarming rate [0.5/sec]
* On respawn, soda can entries are bugged (7 entries on context menu for 1 soda can)
* Again, on respawn, none of the items given on first spawn are given back (You only respawn with a Makarov PM [1 mag], and NVGs)
* CZ 550 sometimes will not equip on spawn (must be dropped and picked back up)
* Interestingly, you die at 90 damage vs. 100 (at least Dehydration)

Awesome find. That bug appeared after respawn in the latest patch causing the abnormal climb in thirst. Thanks for identifying this bug, was very game-breaking. I would have probably not noticed it for 2 days.

In any case, the bug is fixed now.

Again, on respawn, none of the items given on first spawn are given back (You only respawn with a Makarov PM [1 mag], and NVGs)

That is the default gear you are supposed to get.

* CZ 550 sometimes will not equip on spawn (must be dropped and picked back up)

Try cycling the selected weapon with the f key.

* Interestingly, you die at 90 damage vs. 100 (at least Dehydration)

Not sure wether arma2 is using a wobbly interpretation of when a unit is dead (I had people die and vehicles explode on 0.9 damage in regular arma2) or it might be because the HUD indicator lags 1 second behind (it ticks every second).

---------- Post added at 11:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:52 PM ----------

v0.2a
(server-side patch, clients do not need to download anything)
-Fixed a bug that caused the life loop to break. (thx JohnWilkins)

[bounce_nlw 1]

i cant seem to able to find the server any were pleas help

[Kris.. 10]

Me and my clan mates tested today, great potential waiting for updates.

[sik 10]

Please put the new bikey for @cba_co to your server.

The latest beta require the new CBA version! I always play with latest beta. ty

As of the latest beta's after 100697, a new CBA version is required to operate properly.

This new CBA version comes in the form of @CBA_CO and is again a merged variant (so you only launch @CBA_CO, not more CBA modfolders).

For Play withSIX and SIX Updater users, everything will be handled automatically, just like back in the day with the JayArma2Lib required for old builds, and JayArma2Lib_new required for newer builds.

[alleycat 28]

alleycat, you just need to take the "beta" folder from your desktop machine inside of C:\arma 2 operation arrowhead\Expansion\beta or where ever you have installed the game at. Take that beta folder and copy/ftp or however to the server and replace the same folder on the server install. Just include in your startup Expansion\beta and Expansion\beta\expansion. I use the TA2DST tool and just select those as mods. Or copy whats in the _runA2CO_beta.cmd. *This is for a windows server install.

Does not seem to work on my remote dedicated. The server appears on the server list after a rather long delay and when joining it simply says connection failed. (the exact same TADST profile on a local one does not fail to connect)

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?147291-Joining-Game-Connection-Failed

Edited March 4, 2013 by alleycat

[alleycat 28]

New feature:
(coming soon)

Crates that act as stashes to hide things. After deploying it the player has some time to move it around before it freezes in place. The crate is supposed to be large so players actually have to find a good place to hide it.
Also it saves permanently (even after a server restart). They do not have an owner and can be accessed by anyone. Edited March 4, 2013 by alleycat

[alleycat 28]

New feature:

Magic loot dragons. During the game, dragons will appear in the sky which you have to battle in epic melee combat and if you defeat them you can absorb its soul and become much stronger, gaining more power.

?

(=The EAST and the WEST will at times appear on the map in form of mighty attack/transport choppers and if shot down they might leave some high end loot. This gives more coop minded players a PVE element to play with and it helps occupy players if the player count is low.)

It will appear in a serverside update, no client update needed

[sik 10]

Would like to try the new features. But I don't see the server. Is it up?

Edit: It is down atm

http://arma2.swec.se/server/data/370542

Edited March 6, 2013 by sik
server down

[alleycat 28]

I dont think that site is reliable. The server is up and was without a break for the last 15h. And I changed several things listed on this link (exact server name and so forth) over 2 days ago and the last game this it reports is 2 days old.

Checked with several tracker sites. It is not listed on most but it is 100% up and running with the latest beta and CBA on it. The ingame browser reports it without problems. I think the trackers failing is connected to the gamespy issue that appeared 2 days ago.

---------- Post added at 01:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:12 PM ----------

Something is weird. There are large amounts of players attempting to connect and it looks like this:

13:03:46 xxxxx uses modified data file

13:03:46 Player xxxxx connecting.

13:03:47 Player xxxxx connected (id=xxxxx).

13:03:50 Player xxxxx disconnected.

Does that simply mean they have other non-whitelisted addons loaded? Because players that do successfully connect do not report any issues at all. And the above one does not show any error about wrong addons either.

---------- Post added at 01:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:06 PM ----------

I am not sure if it is implemented (and if so I am sorry), but have you thought about the R3F Logsitic Script and Fortification spawns for base building?

Is that something like PR has? With being able to push crates and load things into vehicles?

Edited March 6, 2013 by alleycat

[sik 10]

And I know why I could not find the server. You turned off Battleeye and my filters were hiding the server.

Is that something like PR has? With being able to push crates and load things into vehicles?

It is something that Wasteland and other mods have. Randomly spawned base parts which can be moved around and transported via vehicles. You can build bases but they won't save if server restarts.

Suggestions:

Let your radiation level go down very slowly. Like 0.1 every 5 min. To get rid of 30 radiation points you need to be 25h ingame or use antirads. It is up to you how fast it should go down.

Bugs:

Magazine count does not save in database. You can leave 1 bullet in mag, reload another mag. If no more mags left, reconnect and you have full mags again.

Edited March 6, 2013 by sik

[alleycat 28]

v0.2b

-Added AI helicopters

Bugs:

It is something that Wasteland and other mods have. Randomly spawned base parts which can be moved around and transported via vehicles. You can build bases but they won't save if server restarts.

I am almost done with PERMANENT object saving on the server, however I am not even sure if I should continue with COBRA on arma2. Perhaps the players will abandon arma2 for arma3 soon so I am going to see wether it would make more sense to continue this on ARMA3 instead.

[alleycat 28]

Note for players that keep connecting with other mods loaded: The server only allows connections if you have these things loaded: Cobra, CBA, Aliabad. If there is anything else loaded it will block you from connecting.

[alleycat 28]

The mod is now available on SIX

http://play.withsix.com/mods/450-cobra