New feature suggestions for addons...

[kegetys 2]

Suma, if you have nothing else to program to OFP, here's something that would be very useful in some future patch:

- New vehicle categories.

Right now the "vehicleClass" array is static in the CfgVehicles class, which makes addon makers stuck with the default classes (men,car,armored,etc.), which, after installing a dozen of differen unofficial addons makes all the lists so full of stuff that its hard to find anything. Having units in new categories would be very helpful, for example placing all winter camoed soldiers into "Men (Snow)", desert soldiers into "Men (Desert)" etc. Maybe the vehicleClass could be hadled like the island lists are hadled with CfgWorldList...

- Different name for editor and in-game name

Having different names for vehicles in the editor list and in-game would be useful, so that when an unit is named "Desert Machine Gunner STT", which is good in mission editing, it tells you pretty much what it is and from what addon it came from, but when a guy says "12 o'clock Desert Machine Gunner STT, 500" it looks kindof funny, would be better if it could be just "10 o'clock Machine Gunner, 500". Maybe a new variable, displayNameEditor, which would define the editor name. If it would not be defined, displayName would be used instead.

- (more) scripts from addons

1.75 added the "UserActions" class for vehicles, which has the "statement" property to execute scripts. Would it be hard to code more features like this, such as events like "onFire" (executed when weapon fires), "onEngineOn" (Executed when vehiche engine turns on), "onDriverEnter" (Executed when driver/pilot enters vehicle) etc? This would allow much much more advanced addons without doing tricks with the init line within the editor. Maybe also an "internal trigger" for vehicles, which would have a "condition" and "statement" field to do things (without user interaction with actions), for example having "getdammage _vehicle > 0.5" in condition would trigger the "statement" script when the vehicle is damaged over 50%.

[N.o.R.S.u 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">- Different name for editor and in-game name

Having different names for vehicles in the editor list and in-game would be useful, so that when an unit is named "Desert Machine Gunner STT", which is good in mission editing, it tells you pretty much what it is and from what addon it came from, but when a guy says "12 o'clock Desert Machine Gunner STT, 500" it looks kindof funny, would be better if it could be just "10 o'clock Machine Gunner, 500". Maybe a new variable, displayNameEditor, which would define the editor name. If it would not be defined, displayName would be used instead.<span id='postcolor'>

This is something I've waited since I started making addons.

-bump

[Major Fubar 0]

I agree 100%. I fully understand modmakers reasons for naming their mods the way they do, but it makes it look very cheesy ingame.

[-CCCP-Stalker 0]

I agree too. We must use all features of OFP engine.

[dkraver 1]

I agree to the above.

Other thing that could be great and would save a lot of space in the men addons folder and a lot of typeing in the init field would be if you had

-a selection that said uniform where all the different uniform textures went.

-under that you would have a selection for each weapons/ammo/guns/equipment slot.

That way you dont need to have 8 different men with the same uniform but with different weapons and will also do that people dont have to put the weapon they made into the game with a soldier.

You would just say i want a soldier with us uniform in one selection. M16 in another and so on.

[NZXSHADOWS 0]

I always thought it would be better if you could select addons from the author name instead of West,East,etc.

[Scorpio 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (NZXSHADOWS @ July 16 2002,13:24)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I always thought it would be better if you could select addons from the author name instead of West,East,etc.<span id='postcolor'>

So we can have North and South.

Well yeah, that would be quite effective, but what if some of the addons that are already made dont have author name tags?

[kegetys 2]

Hmm... One thing about this new addon handling thing, which I noticed with my revolvers... Im posting this here, I hope someone from BIS is reading

The Magnum 44 revolver addon has this in its config:

class Civilian: Man {};

class Civilian6: Civilian {}

class KEGsw44mCivilian6: Civilian6

which defines a new Civilian 6 guy with the Magnum 44 pistol. The PBO name of where this config is is KEGm44.pbo, and the PBO where "civilian6" is defined is O.pbo (Original Resistance pbo), and these addons are loaded in alphabetical order it seems, so KEGm44.pbo gets loaded before O.pbo, and when that happens, the game things that "Civilian6" was defined in this addon, and after that all missions that use Civilian 6 (For example, the Nogova intro mission that plays behind the main menu) pop up a "Missing addon: KEGm44" even when that addon is installed.

A workaround for this is to put the pbo in the original addons dir, not resistance addons, but im afraid this can cause problems with other addons too...

[Speeeedy 0]

I have put ALL my new addons which are only working with resistance in my flashpoint addon and never ever had any trouble with them

[kegetys 2]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Speeeedy @ July 17 2002,11:47)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I have put ALL my new addons which are only working with resistance in my flashpoint addon and never ever had any trouble with them<span id='postcolor'>

But try to play ofp 1.46 after that

Anyway, there can be problems because of this even when they are on the "old" addons dir if an addon is based on another addon, and gets loaded before the one its based on (OFPEC author tags makes this impossible to fix). I have seen players getting errors such as "Missing addon: ashifvreal" online when playing missions that dont use any unofficial addons, propably just because of this "bug".

[suma 8]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Kegetys @ July 16 2002,08:52)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">- Different name for editor and in-game name

 Having different names for vehicles in the editor list and in-game would be useful, so that when an unit is named "Desert Machine Gunner STT", which is good in mission editing, it tells you pretty much what it is and from what addon it came from, but when a guy says "12 o'clock Desert Machine Gunner STT, 500" it looks kindof funny, ...<span id='postcolor'>

You can do this now using accuracy = 1000 trick, like in this default class:

class Truck5tOpen : Truck5t

{

//--

scope=public;

model=truck5t2;

hiddenSelections[] = {};

displayName=$STR_DN_5T_TRUCK_OPEN;

accuracy=1000; // never recognized

};

This way your class will never be recognized and base class will be used instead.

[suma 8]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Kegetys @ July 16 2002,08:52)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">- (more) scripts from addons

 1.75 added the "UserActions" class for vehicles, which has the "statement" property to execute scripts. Would it be hard to code more features like this, such as events like "onFire" (executed when weapon fires), "onEngineOn" (Executed when vehiche engine turns on), "onDriverEnter" (Executed when driver/pilot enters vehicle) etc? This would allow much much more advanced addons without doing tricks with the init line within the editor. Maybe also an "internal trigger" for vehicles, which would have a "condition" and "statement" field to do things (without user interaction with actions), for example having "getdammage _vehicle > 0.5" in condition would trigger the "statement" script when the vehicle is damaged over 50%.<span id='postcolor'>

While we understand it would be very beneficial to have this possibilities, we are afraid it could effect performance - especially the "vehicle condition" thing. Other things (onEvent) seems to be a nice idea.

[suma 8]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Kegetys @ July 16 2002,08:52)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">- New vehicle categories.

 Right now the "vehicleClass" array is static in the Having units in new categories would be very helpful, for example placing all winter camoed soldiers into "Men (Snow)", desert soldiers into "Men (Desert)" etc. Maybe the vehicleClass could be hadled like the island lists are hadled with CfgWorldList...<span id='postcolor'>

We are considering this.

We will probably implement solution you suggest .. or maybe we will make class list completely dynamic and automatic (whatever class name will be used in addon, it will be visible in the editor).

[kegetys 2]

Thanks

Did you notice my post about the addon handling?

[KKB 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Kegetys @ July 17 2002,10:54)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Speeeedy @ July 17 2002,11:47)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I have put ALL my new addons which are only working with resistance in my flashpoint addon and never ever had any trouble with them<span id='postcolor'>

But try to play ofp 1.46 after that <span id='postcolor'>

No Problem, just insert the 46 bytes you have to remove from O.pbo and Noe.pbo (to de-pbo them) at the beginning of your resistance-only addon pbo (for instance the KEGsw44m.pbo) and ofp 1.46 won't even notice it during startup...

But that doesn't fix the problem of course.

[SelectThis 0]

re: accuracy = 1000 trick.

The only issue I have here would be what other effects this would have with the game engine. ie, wouldl the enemy AI treat it differently.

Take for example the UH-60, it has a accuracy setting of 0.3, and the AI machine gunners will not fire at it. Change the accuracy to 5 and the AI Machine Gunners will fire at it.

Would it be possible for you to tell us what other effects setting accuracy to 1000 would cause?

Re: OFPEC addon tags... we don't require that the tag be put at the front, it just has to appear somewhere in the name.. so maybe putting 1kegmag44.pbo would help here?

PS: Keg, good ideas and good to see Suma looking at implementing some of them!

SelectThis

[miles teg 1]

Well while Suma is reading this I thought I'd take the opportunity to make two big recommendations for addon features.

1. A Bayonet system.  This may already be possible to create by addon makers as it could have a rifle use a different type of ammo with only a point blank kill radius that is set off when you select the bayonet and press the trigger...however I'm not sure how the ammo thing would work with it.  I would be nice if BIS implemented some type of system for a bayonet.

There have been occasions when I've run right into an enemy only to realize my clip was empty.    Not a good feeling. A bayonet would be good for silent kills as well.  

Maybe this is already possible as I noticed that there is a punch animation that indeed causes damage. It would be nice to see more hand-to-hand combat systems put into the game. That could serve as a starting point for future war games by BIS that might require more hand-to-hand combat (Like an U.S. Civil War simulation for example).

However without making any new animations I think the bayonet would be feasible...and there already is a "punching" and a "rifle-butt attack" animation that could be capitalized on and refined into something that could be easily used by the player.

2.  Artillery system.  One of the chief weapon systems that OFP lacks is long range indirect fire capability.  Yes there are scripts and stuff that can be used, but there is no way to integrate those scripts so that they would cause a artillery unit to face in the direction of the target and elevate their weapon to the required elevation.  What would be nice and simple (well maybe not so simple programming it) would be to have a special artillery site that gave a measurement in meters when you elevated the gun as well as your heading.  That way a forward observer could give you the coordinates of a target (or mark it on your map) and the artilleryman could adjust his artillery piece to the correct elevation/distance.  Even better however it would be nice to have a "Forward Observer" class that could give an artilleryman the exact distance between the target and the artillery unit.  Then of coarse...there is the trick of getting the AI to use it properly.    

Now I realize that this would be more then just a simple addon and that it would require some very intensive programming, but it would be VERY much appreciated if some type of working artillery system (even a simple one) could be made.  Currently with the unofficial mortar addon for example, the shots are just made by guessing and can only be made accurately with targets that can be seen.  For a mortar that's not too bad, but with something longer range like a Howitzer or a M109 Paladid self-propelled artillery piece, it's next to impossible to do those realistically.   An MLRS (rocket artillery) addon is another example of where a dedicated artillery system would help immensely.   Anyways if it's something beyond the scope of OFP/Resistance then that's cool.  But if it's doable or if the BIS programming team has already made something like that, it sure would be nice to see that.  I think it would make the game a much more complete warfare simulation.  

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>

[PSC 0]

I was astonished that BIS did not implement a feature into Resistance to download custom addons for multiplayer maps (at least temporarily) since this issue was discussed widely. If it works with map files, why does it not work with addons? This would be a feature I would write on top of my whish list, since I have realized that most of the servers don't use maps with addons, which is a great pity.

PSC

[kegetys 2]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (PSC @ July 17 2002,17:47)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I was astonished that BIS did not implement a feature into Resistance to download custom addons for multiplayer maps (at least temporarily) since this issue was discussed widely. If it works with map files, why does it not work with addons? This would be a feature I would write on top of my whish list, since I have realized that most of the servers don't use maps with addons, which is a great pity.

PSC<span id='postcolor'>

I dont think such feature would not be very good, because:

- Addons tend to be very big downloads, would you want to wait for a modem player to download 15MB addon for you to get playing with him?

- Addons cannot be loaded "in fly" so OFP would need to be restarted in order to get the addons in-use

- Bad addons can screw up your game, so an user might accidentally end up downloading an addon that stops his/her OFP from running anymore. And you cannot expect that everyone knows how to get rid of them...

Resistance did change it so that if an user misses an addon, he wont get disconnected but instead a message is displayed that he is missing an addon. When this happens, other people in the server can instruct him on where to download the addon, after which the player can join back... Imo it works fine like this.

[PSC 0]

As usual there is a pro and contra for this. I personaly would not mind to wait a min or two for someone to DL an addon. Most of the addons I guess are not 15 MB or bigger. I would say 3 to 5 MB are more realistic. And a lot of maps with custom sounds are as big as that too. To give you an example; on one of my favorite servers, vetoo7's coop server, is a mission called HALO-Blackop. It is a very beloved mission, and due to that quite frequently played. The size of this mission is about 2 MB. Usually there always is someone who did not play the mission yet and has to DL it. That means you have to wait most of the time for someone to DL (and with Resistance which only saves missions temporarily it will be even more worse cause you have to DL the mission yourself again and again too). And together with the other usual reasons why a game does not start imediately (usually someone sleeps and does not click "I'm ready" so that you have to wait another 5 mins before he realizes it) you have to wait half an hour before the game starts anyways. Thats why I think one more minute for an addon to DL does not count that much.

The only thing I did not think of is that you have to restart your OFP to make the addons work. But there must be a way to improve this lack. Everything is (somehow) possible. But I fear I have to wait for this feature till OFP 2 comes out. Anyways this still is Nr. 1 on my personal whish list, because it would make custom addons more usable. At the moment most of the custom addons are kinda futile for me since I'm neither playing custom singleplayer missions, nor make missions myself. Thats what I think.

PSC

P.S.: You still get kicked if you don't have an addon that is required on a server. It only shows a message now like "addon xxx is needed...".

[Scorpio 0]

the memory point "clan sign" and "clan" - does it show in MP games through the images specified on the XML feature?

If so, would it be possible to resize/rotate ect. the image?