Orienteering Mission Release

[delta99 34]

Orienteering Mission

Description

Very loosely based on International Orienteering Rules.

You will start randomly on the map somewhere and will be given clues as to your starting point and 5 control points. You will have to determine where you are on the map at start and plot a course to each of the 5 Control Points (CPs). Control Points are flags with the International Orienteering symbol on them (will update post with a pic later). The goal is to check into the 5 control points as quickly as possible. Your time in total and to the current control point is displayed at the top right corner. Your journal will also be updated for each control point checked in.

Features

• Completely random starting location and CP locations every time.
  
• Hints are random and different every time.
  
• Works with Vanilla Arma2 and also with ACE.
  
• If running with ACE you will get mapping tools which will help greatly in plotting distances and bearings.
  

Background

This mission is a followup to my Orienteering WIP from last year I decided to release this as-is in a somewhat unfinished but usable form. Unfinished meaning there is no real debriefing and end mission. But otherwise is working really well.

It should work with or without ACE mod. ACE gives you a proper compass and decent mapping tools to properly measure distances rather than guess with regular Arma.

Instructions

You need to run it in Veteran mode otherwise it won't let you start the course. Reason being is you can't then see where you are on the map.

When you first start the mission there will be an action item to "Start Course". Once you do that the timer will start and you will have a description about your starting location and the control points (flags) in your journal pages. Look at the map for them.

You'll want to plot your position on the map with the hints and then plot the positions of the control points. From there figure out your heading to Control Point 1 and so on. When you reach a flag you will have an option to check into the CP. You have to check into the CPs in order.

The journal pages will record your times to all the CP's.

There is another action "Show My Location" you can use if you become really lost or just want a little bit of a cheat/hint. In a later version I will probably add a time penalty or other such thing.

Other Maps

Should work pretty well with other maps that have defined names for cities, towns, water features, hills etc. Tested with Lingor and Unsung SEA by CSJ so far and working pretty well.

As an example for Lingor rename the mission to: D99OrienteeringV1_2.lingor.pbo

As an example for SEA by CSJ rename the mission to: D99OrienteeringV1_2.CSJ_SEA.pbo

On Lingor you will start in the water but after selecting "Start Course" should be on land. This can be fixed by editing the mission and moving the player to land in the editor.

Change Log

V1.2:

• Use centerPosition or safePositionAnchor if defined in the world config otherwise default to player start position as center position of the map.
  
• Use safePositionRadius if defined in the world config. For Unsung Mod map SEA by CSJ ignore since it is defined as 100 (which is not correct).
  
• If safePositionRadius is not defined then use 6000 as default. Used in random position calculations.
  

Download

Download v1.2 directly from here.

Armaholic mirror: Orienteering (@)

Edited August 4, 2013 by Delta99
v1.2 released

[tortuosit 486]

Thanks Delta, very much apreciate you made it working with ACE again :) Do you think it is possible to make it island independent? This way it would be a good mission to getting to know knew islands while learning orienteering. E.g. the "DUWS Dynamic War" mission creator for Arma 3 managed this. You simply use an islands name as a part of the name and the mod uses that island... In your case like "orienteering.utes.pbo"...

Edited August 3, 2013 by tortuosit

[delta99 34]

It will probably work that way for Arma2 but I haven't had the chance to test it yet. Go ahead with something like Lingor which is a good island for this mission. One of the Unsung Mod islands was really good for it too when I was testing with it. I can't remember if it was with or without ACE but in Unsung there are paths that are just very barely visible in the map. Makes things really interesting because it is so easy to get lost in the thick jungle. I can't wait to get back to trying that.

Arma3 is a different story altogether. It probably is a simple fix to get it working but will need to look into it.

[tortuosit 486]

Hmm, Lingor kinda works, but usually you spawn on the smaller islands to the east. With UNsung Lowlands ("csj_lowlands") I always start swimming...

EDIT: With Plei Trap Valley ("uns_ptv") I managed to spawn somewhere outside water, but: Control points are described hex, like "cp1 is 163 degrees from 0xddff1421 which is of type 0x47574788"

Edited August 4, 2013 by tortuosit

[Harzach 2517]

This might be really fun on the "special edition" of Tigeria.

Nice to see you stuck with this atypical yet interesting mission, Delta99!

[delta99 34]

Hmm, Lingor kinda works, but usually you spawn on the smaller islands to the east. With UNsung Lowlands ("csj_lowlands") I always start swimming...

EDIT: With Plei Trap Valley ("uns_ptv") I managed to spawn somewhere outside water, but: Control points are described hex, like "cp1 is 163 degrees from 0xddff1421 which is of type 0x47574788"

For islands like Lingor I might have to add functionality that ignores certain areas. I had the same time with Cherno as well but only happens occassionally. This will mean however that one can not just rename the one mission but will have to have separate missions for each island.

I will check Unsung islands soon. They may not have their centers defines in their world configs which I am relying on as well. I might have to put some code in to do something different if this is not in the config. Also can't remember but there might have been an Unsung island with nothing really named. The mission randomly selects cities, towns, lakes, anything with a name defined in the map. If there is nothing very odd things will happen.

Again, I will take a look when I get a chance.

Thanks for the feedback.

---------- Post added at 12:37 ---------- Previous post was at 12:33 ----------

This might be really fun on the "special edition" of Tigeria.

Nice to see you stuck with this atypical yet interesting mission, Delta99!

Thanks Harzach. It amazes me that as much as I have played regular missions on Cherno, when I am testing this I almost always see something I've never seen before. Amazing that can still happen after years of playing on this map. I think because one is mostly in combat mode or concentrating on spotting enemy and such you don't enjoy the scenery as much. With orienteering you are mostly looking at scenery and landmarks and such.

What is this special edition of Tigeria?

[Harzach 2517]

...when I am testing this I almost always see something I've never seen before. Amazing that can still happen after years of playing on this map.

Absolutely - that's why it's so interesting! Chernarus is a fun place to explore, full of surprising vistas and the occasional picturesque tableau.

What is this special edition of Tigeria?

It's a version of Tigeria where the foliage has been bumped up to a very high level. Walking through the jungle areas can be extremely disorienting, as you can't see 10 feet in front of you. It would be amazing for PvP (it was designed for it, I think) as long as view distances were kept low. It comes packed with the "normal" version.

[delta99 34]

Absolutely - that's why it's so interesting! Chernarus is a fun place to explore, full of surprising vistas and the occasional picturesque tableau.

It's a version of Tigeria where the foliage has been bumped up to a very high level. Walking through the jungle areas can be extremely disorienting, as you can't see 10 feet in front of you. It would be amazing for PvP (it was designed for it, I think) as long as view distances were kept low. It comes packed with the "normal" version.

Definitely will have to try Tigeria.

S.E.A. by CSJ in the Unsung Mod is fantastic like this. It is almost impossible to move in a straight line due to the foliage and difficult to keep on your heading as there are usually no decent points of reference. You need to stop and check the compass a lot. And its very very easy to get lost in the jungle as opposed to something like Chernarus where you can usually pick out some landmarks to get you back on track.

---------- Post added at 15:38 ---------- Previous post was at 15:34 ----------

Hmm, Lingor kinda works, but usually you spawn on the smaller islands to the east. With UNsung Lowlands ("csj_lowlands") I always start swimming...

EDIT: With Plei Trap Valley ("uns_ptv") I managed to spawn somewhere outside water, but: Control points are described hex, like "cp1 is 163 degrees from 0xddff1421 which is of type 0x47574788"

Looks like Plei Trap Valley does not really have any names defined for any landmarks at all so there is nothing to reference for the CP's. Look for v1.2 coming out very soon. Works well with S.E.A by CSJ in Unsung.

---------- Post added at 16:14 ---------- Previous post was at 15:38 ----------

Version 1.2 just released. See initial post for info.

[tortuosit 486]

Wow, this was fast. Very much looking forward to play it and to do some Tigeria Orienteering...

EDIT: CSJ_SEA is a fantastic choice. As for Tigeria_SE, I think it's great as well, but I often spawned in rather grasslands.

Delta, when I'm inside ArmA and see e.g. three of your Orienteering missions (which have different filenames) I have no indicator what mission it is. Can you make it show the islands name from within ArmA?

Edited August 5, 2013 by tortuosit

[delta99 34]

Absolutely - that's why it's so interesting! Chernarus is a fun place to explore, full of surprising vistas and the occasional picturesque tableau.

It's a version of Tigeria where the foliage has been bumped up to a very high level. Walking through the jungle areas can be extremely disorienting, as you can't see 10 feet in front of you. It would be amazing for PvP (it was designed for it, I think) as long as view distances were kept low. It comes packed with the "normal" version.

Tested Tigeria. Very nice island. Seemed to work well with this mission too.

I don't find the jungle areas that bad especially compared to Unsung island. They are 100 times more thick and disorienting. If you get a chance try them. That is not to say that Tigeria is not interesting. It certainly is.

---------- Post added at 16:34 ---------- Previous post was at 16:30 ----------

Wow, this was fast. Very much looking forward to play it and to do some Tigeria Orienteering...

EDIT: CSJ_SEA is a fantastic choice. As for Tigeria_SE, I think it's great as well, but I often spawned in rather grasslands.

You mean non-jungle type areas? Or are you meaning there is a problem. It is different than CSJ_SEA in that you can be in jungle or open land and such. More like Chernarus.

Delta, when I'm inside ArmA and see e.g. three of your Orienteering missions (which have different filenames) I have no indicator what mission it is. Can you make it show the islands name from within ArmA?

No, not really as I don't think there is a way to programatically change the mission name. It can be done of course by creating a new PBO for each island but that defeats the purpose of being able to just rename the PBO.

What you can do I suppose is move the missions out of your mission folder except for the one you are intending to play. Only works if you know what you want to play before launching Arma though. Or possibly renaming to something other than PBO which then Arma may not list in its mission screen.

[Harzach 2517]

Tested Tigeria. Very nice island. Seemed to work well with this mission too.

I don't find the jungle areas that bad especially compared to Unsung island. They are 100 times more thick and disorienting. If you get a chance try them. That is not to say that Tigeria is not interesting. It certainly is.

I'm not sure I agree on the "100 times more thick" thing, but I will say that UNSUNG's islands are superbly crafted and incredibly immersive. Certainly ideal for this kind of mission. I figured Tigeria_SE was a good alternative for those who didn't want to install UNSUNG.

Now I just need to find the time to play!

[delta99 34]

Just a heads up to anyone wondering if there will be an Arma3 version. I've been working out all the bugs. Surprisingly enough the simple scripts I'm using have a lot of issues with Arma3. In some ways it is Arma3's scripting that is not nearly as forgiving as Arma2 so it makes you write better scripts. Unfortunately I've had to rework a bunch of stuff.

Some other issues which will probably hamper the release:

1. I don't see a small flagpole that I can use so temporarily using one of the larger flag poles. At least it works with allowing me to set the flag texture properly. There are some small flag poles but they do not actually contain a flag. Not sure if there is a way to add an actually flag to them. Time will tell.
   
2. There are hills defined on Stratis without names. This is pretty bogus as I use these hills randomly to generate the task descriptions. I can exclude them but it would be nice if BIS just properly named things. I've never run across this issue with the tons of hills that are properly named on Arma2 Chernarus.
   
3. Although I am only getting a warning so far, I need to rework the taskHints which are no longer supported in Arma3. Although right now it doesn't break and works. But I suspect when Arma3 is released it probably won't.
   
4. Need to figure out the stamina system to tone it down a bit.
   

Having said all this, I will probably be able to back-port all of these changes to Arma2 and have a single mission file that works for both A2 and A3. I would even release this beta version right now if it wasn't for the hill problem. Maybe I'll remove hills in the search for random locations or something.

Edited August 24, 2013 by Delta99