ALiVE - Advanced Light Infantry Virtual Environment

[friznit2 350]

I WUB PUGS - it's just a performance warning. If it seems to be behaving, then go nuts! Remember Asymmetric uses a different method of selecting objectives based on additional criteria that just size/prio, so it's not as predictable as a conventional commander following a doctrinal operational strategy.

Tom - we don't plan to add support for local databases. We learnt our lesson that hard way in in MSO days - they're a complete nightmare to support. Besides, there's web based functionality planned for War Room that won't work without your data being hooked into it. Local dedi server hooked up to War Room is pretty straight forward to set up for single player.

[Neviothr 102]

Can I store mission data on my local machine that the server runs from? Perhaps using something like this?

[serjames 357]

You know what, it's not nearly as easy as you say it is. Last time I looked at all this, I spent over an hour trying to set up a mission, because every single tutorial or video I found was out of date. Even the website tutorials had gaps! I had to come on here and ask if there was even a function to have tasks auto added (how I learned about c2istar.. or what ever it's called). That wasn't on the website, but some obsolete things were. The worst part about it was going through all the steps of a video or what not, then getting instructions on a module which doesn't even exist anymore!

So yeah, it might be easy if you get the right instructions, but if you land on one of the other far more numerous out-of-date tutorials or video's- you'll just wind up confused and frustrated about spending free time on nothing.

By the way, I do want to make my own missions. All I do when I play ARMA is make my own single player missions. That's why I asked for templates and not just plain missions. With a template I can start off just quickly tweaking things, but the more I use it, the more I will be familiar with the modules required... without having to alt-tab 100 times to go back and forward from a tutorial to add each piece in one at a time.

I'm off to go look at the wiki now.

Some of the modules have changed in name I think, but genuinely it's fairly self explanatory once you get started... You can also use the info screen on the right hand side of the module placement UI; it does a pretty good job of showing you what needs to be linked to what etc..

Good luck with it and start small so it doesn't take forever to boot up. Use Debugging "ON" to show you what each module is doing... and HAVE FUN :-)

[Brawler 15]

I WUB PUGS - it's just a performance warning. If it seems to be behaving, then go nuts! Remember Asymmetric uses a different method of selecting objectives based on additional criteria that just size/prio, so it's not as predictable as a conventional commander following a doctrinal operational strategy.

Tom - we don't plan to add support for local databases. We learnt our lesson that hard way in in MSO days - they're a complete nightmare to support. Besides, there's web based functionality planned for War Room that won't work without your data being hooked into it. Local dedi server hooked up to War Room is pretty straight forward to set up for single player.

ok, i understand. but i did not think it as a war room integration. but simply a file that loaded progression when player dies, continue mission etc in that mission since normal saving cause crash. I wil try to set up a dedi then:-) didnt work last time i tried...

[i wub pugs 15]

Friz. My concern is that with N'Ziwasogo that most of the civilian objectives discovered and defined are like zero pointers. If I tweak them just one level I fear I will lose like all of them. Its the only thing I'm running on a 3 core NFO server. It doesn't appear to hate me yet.

My only thing with the assymetric OPCOM is that it stays centralized. So I put starting Boko Haram dudes in the bottom right, bottom left and center of the N'Ziwasogo map with the OPCOM in the center. It like never uses the guys from the bottom left or right. I know that the insurgency starts from the OPCOM on out, but I wish it would pull troops from those areas and start trying to infiltrate more areas. I can work around it by directing my guys with objectives, but I wish there'd be a bit more map coverage instead of spreading slowly like a virus centrally. Any way to tweak it for a later release where Assymetric goes off of areas already held according to troop placement? Or are we stuck with the insurgency spreading in physical relation to OPCOM.

Also sorry, to the new people. I will always call it the OPCOM module even if that is out of date.:cool:

Edited May 15, 2015 by I WUB PUGS

[Jackson Snow 10]

By the way, I do want to make my own missions. All I do when I play ARMA is make my own single player missions. That's why I asked for templates and not just plain missions. With a template I can start off just quickly tweaking things, but the more I use it, the more I will be familiar with the modules required... without having to alt-tab 100 times to go back and forward from a tutorial to add each piece in one at a time.

There are some templates in the demo subfolder of @Alive - it says single player and multiplayer, but I think the multiplayer one I've played with would definitely work for single player (maybe toned down in numbers slightly, perhaps).

[tupolov 520]

Can I store mission data on my local machine that the server runs from? Perhaps using something like this?

To quote our dev wiki

"Why a cloud DB?

MSO featured a local SQL database. This proved difficult to support and maintain. Much of our time was spent helping groups set up and maintain a DB. In addition a new SQL schema was needed on subsequent releases and updates. Many hosters do not allow external SQL connections or the possibility of installing MySQL on a game server. Finally, with ALiVE, the team were keen to push the boundaries around web integration and a companion web app.

The decision was made to move to a model that did not rely on a locally installed database. This would remove the need for database support or installation by groups. By using a cloud based DB with an HTTP API (Apache CloudDB), we can guarantee wider support for game servers and groups. We could centrally manage the DB and provide greater web integration by storing data on a single community DB. CouchDB was chosen due to its HTTP API and ability to scale.

The drawback to this approach is that ALiVE would require its own server infrastructure and therefore cost. The team agreed to move forward and fund the server, but with a view to use donations and ads to cover costs. In addition, the team agreed that they would look at local storage storage where it made sense (i,e. either local file or local couchdb/sqlite)."

We are fully aware of the local DB options, but at this time we are focused on War Room integration. If anyone wishes to join the development team to help us implement either local file based storage or a Linux based plugin for our current web approach, please let us know!

[spyderblack723 407]

Can anyone please point me towards (up-to-date) templates for Alive? I barely have time to play ARMA lately, so don't really want to spend all my free time reading (out-of-date) tutorials or watching (out-of-date) video's, featuring modules that aren't even used anymore.

I seen there is a Kunduz insurgency template, and I fired it up, but I'm not sure what I'm even meant to be doing. I just drove around (I didn't get any mission updates... maybe I broke that while trying to change factions?)

I found the 'Sample Missions' part of the Alive website, but when I tried the Zagrabad mission, It had modules marked 'Depreciated' and said not to use them. When I pressed Preview (in editor), it started with a bunch of errors, so I just closed it and assume it's not going to work because of all that.

Anyhow, has anyone collected a bunch of (still working) templates for basic Alive scenarios?

EDIT: Ok a different search phrase has found this kind of topic (started May 7) on the Alivemod.com Forum.

http://alivemod.com/forum/1059-mission-templates

There's a couple templates there, maybe more soon.

I'm working to update/add to them as I get time. I'll be busier than usual over the next week and a half but after that it should keep rolling again.

If there is something in particular you are struggling with, let me know and I'll cover that first thing.

Edit: And if you were talking about my insurgency Kunduz template, to have auto-tasked missions just go into the C2ISTAR module and turn on autotasking for blufor and it should start generating some. (I'll probably update the mission with this as the default anyway.)

Edited May 15, 2015 by SpyderBlack723

[bhaz 0]

it's just a performance warning.

Is that number gonna get bumped up eventually? Performance seems pretty good at 100-120 these days.

[easyeb 137]

So, while we are on the topic of performance, I'd like to run some things by you guys.

I'm a HUGE fan of ALiVE. It is the single best thing that has ever happened to Arma. What I like most is create a "occupied" Altis that I go around lookibg for trouble in. Problem is, my computers performance gets HAMMERED.

I place Civ Obj Placement, Mil Obj Placement and CQB that cover the entire island of Altis and as soon as I get close to something other than the mountain regions my FPS drops to 1. Now, is this because I'm asking too much or is something fvcky in my operation you think?

[friznit2 350]

ArmA is still ArmA and the engine (and your machine) can still only handle a certain number of spawned AI at any time. Typically for best performance this is in the region of 100 individual units, which is roughly 12 groups. You can run CountAllUnits on the debug console variable watchers to see how many units are being spawned. If your machine is struggling, I would suggest lowering the spawn distance for the Placement modules, spreading the AI out more (smaller force sizes in a larger TAOR), run up Headless Client and set CQB to spawn on it, and if necessary add a hard limit on the number of groups spawned as well (not ideal, but it's there to provide a brute force approach to limiting spawns if you're still having problems).

[Neviothr 102]

To quote our dev wiki

"Why a cloud DB?

MSO featured a local SQL database. This proved difficult to support and maintain. Much of our time was spent helping groups set up and maintain a DB. In addition a new SQL schema was needed on subsequent releases and updates. Many hosters do not allow external SQL connections or the possibility of installing MySQL on a game server. Finally, with ALiVE, the team were keen to push the boundaries around web integration and a companion web app.

The decision was made to move to a model that did not rely on a locally installed database. This would remove the need for database support or installation by groups. By using a cloud based DB with an HTTP API (Apache CloudDB), we can guarantee wider support for game servers and groups. We could centrally manage the DB and provide greater web integration by storing data on a single community DB. CouchDB was chosen due to its HTTP API and ability to scale.

The drawback to this approach is that ALiVE would require its own server infrastructure and therefore cost. The team agreed to move forward and fund the server, but with a view to use donations and ads to cover costs. In addition, the team agreed that they would look at local storage storage where it made sense (i,e. either local file or local couchdb/sqlite)."

We are fully aware of the local DB options, but at this time we are focused on War Room integration. If anyone wishes to join the development team to help us implement either local file based storage or a Linux based plugin for our current web approach, please let us know!

So that's a "no." ?

[serjames 357]

...yes

[--mastermind-- 10]

i was always scared to lower the groups count to 12 cause the hint says lowering it too much would cause funky issues. but if 12 is sweet spot....then gonna gonna go in HOT today!

[--mastermind-- 10]

ALSO I THOUGHT ID ADD.....So i know its been asked and somewhat covered....but WHY if the map is fully populated and opcoms have factions designated do i still have to choose a faction for C2ISTAR? this process of choosing an opposing faction....that i have already pre-set in a number of places in modules...makes me feel like the missions will be random...and NOT tied to the battlespace itself....some clarification would be excellent.

[DakotaM990 10]

Great mod. Been actually looking for a Insurgency template for Kunduz and just found it. Plan on using it with RHS, ACE and a few other mods.

[i wub pugs 15]

Player position persistence:

Soooooooo... I've got respawn enabled at three different bases. I'm using TFAR. Persistence is enabled on the server both via BI and ALiVE, yadayadayada and I have to respawn every time I join the mission which means positions aren't persistent. What's the workaround for this?

Got a template for getting positions to stick while also providing a respawn. Basically need my guys to be able to do recce in the bush and stay there through saves and server restarts.

[tupolov 520]

Player position persistence:

... I have to respawn every time I join the mission which means positions aren't persistent.

What do you mean by you have to respawn everytime you join? Shouldn't be any respawn on joining, unless you are dying at start?

[reaper lok 82]

What do you mean by you have to respawn everytime you join? Shouldn't be any respawn on joining, unless you are dying at start?

Not sure if this is the same issue for me, however, when I leave the mission (using the ALiVE exit tab and not the Default BIS Abort tab), the mission restarts from the start (assuming I am the last player out of our community server).

I remember when I could leave and then rejoin later that day and my character would be at the last place that I disconnected from. I have checked the server .cfg file and it is set to persistent......am I missing something on a module (default is set to persistent on ALiVE modules).

[tupolov 520]

Not sure if this is the same issue for me, however, when I leave the mission (using the ALiVE exit tab and not the Default BIS Abort tab), the mission restarts from the start (assuming I am the last player out of our community server).

I remember when I could leave and then rejoin later that day and my character would be at the last place that I disconnected from. I have checked the server .cfg file and it is set to persistent......am I missing something on a module (default is set to persistent on ALiVE modules).

Yah, just testing now, looks like something BIS_fnc_DynamicGroups(?) has broken ALiVE :( Not sure why, it looks like this function uses the addStackedEventHandler, which should be fine.

Can you guys confirm you are using this? Things like player stats, player persistence, war room profile loading when you connect (plus more) will be broken.

WORKAROUND: Do not call BIS_fnc_DynamicGroups when using ALiVE.

REAPER - You need data module setup and Player Options module (set to player persistence). If in doubt place them again in your mission to make sure you have up to date settings etc.

We have a fix coming in 0.9.9

Edited May 17, 2015 by Tupolov
Found issue...

[i wub pugs 15]

I join the server after a successful server exit or player save and exit and I have to pick a respawn point.

Edit: I'll check out the suggestion in the next build I do this week.

[shibdib 10]

Trying to find a good mideast fighter addon that works and isn't 2GB of additional crap I don't need.. Any help?

[tupolov 520]

I join the server after a successful server exit or player save and exit and I have to pick a respawn point.

Edit: I'll check out the suggestion in the next build I do this week.

Why would you have a player select a respawn point on connection? Sounds like you need to remove that bit of functionality (see Friz's post below :) ).

Edited May 17, 2015 by Tupolov

[friznit2 350]

BIS Respawn Templates will kick in after ALiVE Player Persistence, therefore overriding it. You can prevent this by putting respawnOnStart = 0; in description.ext.

[i wub pugs 15]

BIS Respawn Templates will kick in after ALiVE Player Persistence, therefore overriding it. You can prevent this by putting respawnOnStart = 0; in description.ext.

That's whatsup.

You guys had any conflicts with Taskforce Radio?