[SP] Pilgrimage

[digitalcenturion 20]

First off, I would like to thank you Rydygier for this AWESOME mission! I have played several runs of it now, only one victory so far but that was in "only" 3,5 hrs, and started as very hard ;) This is the most fun I've had in Bohemias sandboxes since the Resistance campaign!

As I can't do anything in Arma without having some ideas floating around, here are some:

1) Lower threat enemies in cities that are pistol or SMG armed. I love Arma3 pistol fights. Needs to be more of them. Dont know how to do this without addon dependency but maybe an idea. Maybe you could have CSAT or AAfs with only uniform/underwear and a pistol spawn randomly in some houses that are "off duty", so you need to be more careful when breaking in to all those homes.

2) Have some NPCs that have an high value item for sale? Sort of like the quest system now, they could go "Hey I found this item (Thermal scope / sniper rifle / at mine), if you pay me 6000 FF you can have it" and you can buy it from them. Probably best not to have the item on the NPCs but have them have it "stashed" somewhere safe.

3) Separate difficulty from starting gear? So you could have map markers off but start with assault rifle. And maybe you could have a "define own gear" startup gear option that would open up arsenal and let you pick your own stuff? For "roleplaying" purposes, not cheating purposes.

4) Selectable list of what factions should appear? So I can toggle CSAT on/off for OPFOR but maybe toggle some of Massis africans on instead, for a more low tech playtrough.

I also have some questions:

A) Do you run a script on all spawned enemies that randomly removes some mags or other equipment?

B) Which files/scripts determine the spawned enemy types? I found a lot of entries in JRinit, is there more somewhere else?

Finally, I also had a crash in my playthrough, seems related to when certain AI units die, once a AAF regular and some other times a CSAT specop. Mods are @CBA_A3;@bcombat;@mas;@moduload;@pilgrimage;@RDS;@TPW_MODS;@CAF_AG1.5. Before this it works well enough, maybe the mission got too large? It is a shame, cause its a great playtrough. Maybe I borked something up, I modified some entries in JRInit to use RDS tanks and some other things.

The end of the crash dump looks like this:

Mods: @CAF_AG1.5

Distribution: 0

Version 1.28.127008

Fault time: 2014/09/25 20:51:53

Fault address: 62E05516 01:001E4516 C:\Windows\system32\D3DCOMPILER_43.dll

file: pilgrimage (__cur_sp)

world: altis

Prev. code bytes: DB 79 0D 8B 16 6A 01 8B CE FF 52 14 8B C3 EB 04

Fault code bytes: 89 37 33 C0 5B 5E 5F 5D C2 08 00 CC CC CC CC CC

Registers:

EAX:00000000 EBX:00000000

ECX:000000E8 EDX:03D3F3EF

ESI:306E6180 EDI:0004001A

CS:EIP:0023:62E05516

SS:ESP:002B:0CD7DB8C EBP:0CD7DB98

DS:002B ES:002B FS:0053 GS:002B

Flags:00010246

[Rydygier 1302]

Thanks for feedback. :)

Overall - as for MANW edition, I do not plan make any more serious changes, since there is not enough time for stability/bug-free testing. But after deadline - who knows, what will happen. :)

1) Truth is, I would expect not only regular military, but also some "gangs", sure. But would poorly armed thugs survive "competition" with "professionals"? This would also require some makeshift scripted faction, like OPFOR FIA - not looking like soldiers, but unfriendly. Anyway, currently the only way to introduce such force is playing with addon containing that type of opponents. Potentially interesting alternative may be dynamic arming some civilians with small arms, if player's reputation is low/high enough and making them temporary allies or enemies. Hmm. I like that.

2) When was discussed idea of traders, main (not only) objective problem was reasonable pricing for custom content. Similar problem appears for that idea, unless we'll limit this to the vanilla content only. In such form, if very rare - who knows...

3) Too many settings already. I really don't want to particularize them even more.

4) Ditto...

A) Yes. Good for balancing, but also reasonable - these units are marauders etc. Without any regular supply.

B) JRInit controls generating of all persistent/initial "population" and gathers all available factions/groups/units/vehs etc. For spawning itself uses some functions defined in JR_fnc. Another function from the latter serves for Ambient Combat (RYD_JR_Warmonger, line 5104), triggered from MainLoop.

Can't say anything about that crash. May be triggered by some mod's bug, don't know, personally never experienced that, but if it happens for various units, then this may be Arma bug as well. Crash dump says me not much, I'm not a programmer. Nothing, I could repair on my end. Fault adress points apparently some system Direct3D (?) file, that is completely beyond me, but don't know, if this means, cause is in this file, or only the cause triggers such failure in this file.

Edited September 25, 2014 by Rydygier

[digitalcenturion 20]

Thank you for a thorough answer!

Regarding the qs

1) Yeah I like your thinking. Isnt there configs already for guerillas for OPFOR and INDFOR too, just not editor visible? Maybe these guys with lower quality weapons in cities. In a war-torn place like this it makes sense to have local militias that are affiliated with either side.

2) Maybe just take the sell price and make it times four or five?

3 & 4) Ok I understand

A) Ok I see, i like it too. Makes those NV-goggles really mean something when you find them in the middle of the night

B) Thanks!

Gonna try the latest beta you posted now :D

[NotSoMLGAlly 10]

For an odd reason whenever I play I find no loot except only vehicles, i even had a cheat mod that showed all intel and it only showed vehicles on the map T,T there aren't any enemies, civillians and i've tried turning the chances to 100% yet nothing still. please help me D; :confused::confused:

[Rydygier 1302]

Hi. More details needed. What's your Arma 3 version, what mods are used, and what RPT file says?

[digitalcenturion 20]

Hi Rydygier, again :)

Started a new game with your latest beta, very hard and random starting time. My luck would have it in NW Altis in the middle of the night, but luckily I came across some AAF camps that were pretty easy pickings for me and my squaddie. Regarding my previous crash, it might have been a mod thing caused by outdated CBA. But cant say for sure.

Some more ideas:

1) If the time is night, could there be any clever way to script so that enemies without NVGs could have flashlight attachments? Or would this be better to pull off with some kind of replacement config addon? Would be very atmospheric to see an enemy patrol patrolling the woods with flashlights shining. Sure, easier pray maybe. It would, however, give them a better chance when the player employs chemlights to lit their position. I find the AI uses flashlights semi-smartly atleast.

2) Could there be a greater chance for "civilian" loot in civilian houses, like maps, radios, binoculars and maybe pistols?

Thanks again for a great mission, your mission is the perfect place to showcase the loving detail BI has crafted in Altis. In my latest mission I rolled trough the village of Oreokastri (i think) at about 3 am in the morning, a clear sky with strong moonlight. The village was really pretty (glad I upgraded recently!), some lights here and there and deep blue shadows. It was my best "oh this game is pretty" moment so far!

[Rydygier 1302]

1) Maybe... We'll see. :)

2) Not really. Each box is by chosen category (weapon/mag/item) randomized across whole config, so each item has equal chance to be randomized. In this system there is no way to eg boost chance for a pistol. Still, if I figure something out - why not?

your mission is the perfect place to showcase the loving detail BI has crafted in Altis

Great to hear, one of my goals in fact, to create such thing. :)

All right people, motivated myself just enough to focus my efforts on promised attempt to make Pilgrimage COOP. Really, I hope, that this thing will be the last my experience with MP scripting, it's like scripter's nightmare, just you can't awake... :)

Anyway, under wip section you may now find very wip version of COOP Pilgrimage. Release of this MP coding masterpiece is sponsored by letters: "L" for locality and "I" for issues. In fact would be not bad, if any one prove to be lucky enough to run this properly (note, before use wring it well from the blood and sweat). So do not expect anything as for fun, but expect everything as for bugs and weird events. That's in fact the purpose of this release - I need to put together a list of bugs, no doubt large list, that I can't/won't test out myself, so I'm counting on feedback about any bugs, observed abnormalities, RPT errors and so forth. Especially, if both players see same (same icons or comments on the same places, same actions...). Shortly - anything wrong.

Mission is for two players. Customization is possible via lobby parameters (settings not remembered, sadly), server side of course. IMO lesser issues amount may be expected, if Alex is played server side, and his comrade client side (simple server-client session). You may try also on dedi, but there some functionalities may not work properly (like saving at chapels), and you can't change default settings. Note, many things, like loot or civilians, are Alex-centric, so if his mate will go far enough, may found himself out of radius and see great emptiness... I think so, at least. Note also, especially client-side loading may take long without any visible progress, because mission awaits, until server finish spawning and caching whole AI population.

EDIT: I was pretty sure, yesterday I've added the link, but today it was not there. Weird. And corrected now. :)

Edited September 28, 2014 by Rydygier

[Stonejackit 10]

Hi Rydygier.

Big Fan of your mod here.

I just wanted to continue with my mission (ca 160 places left) when Arma 3 told me, it cannot load the save game due to incompatibility. Turns out, there was a hotfix yesterday that makes it impossible for me to load my last savegame. oh noes!! :butbut: Is there any work around for that? e.g. can i downgrade somehow to an earlier Arma built? If there is something i can do, i would be so glad to here it since i really dont want to completely start over with the mission again.

all the best,

Stonejackit

[Rydygier 1302]

Hi.

e.g. can i downgrade somehow to an earlier Arma built?

They say, there is something like "legacy build" (not sure where and how to use it) but AFAIK this will get you back to 1.24, so it's useless here. Nope, I'm affraid, there is nothing, you can do. At least nothing, I'm awared of. Each game update (or mission update, but this you may control, if using non-Steam version) all saves become useless. :( Annoying, but this way BIS designed this game, and that's the consequence of crappy Steam dependency. AFAIK there is a way to disable autoupdates in the Steam, but I heard it's not reliable (like resetting on Steam update or something). Reliable would be disconnecting internet each time you want to launch Steam... The only good thing here is, each gameplay is different, so at least no worries about repeating same again.

Same way just lost my ADAPT progress. I think, I don't want start it again. Maybe better, wasn't sure if second play was worthy of my time, now dilemma solved.

Edited September 30, 2014 by Rydygier

[Stonejackit 10]

Aw, man that's a bummer for sure. *sigh* Thank you for replying anyway.

[digitalcenturion 20]

Same thing happened to me. Argh, had such a nice start going for the mission. But restarted, got my first set of decent kit in a quite new way:

Was speeding along a dirt road on my commandeered ATV when I noticed a parked Ifrit and a lone CSAT rifleman standing by the side of a t-junction, his back facing me. So I just sped up and rammed him from behind with the ATV :) Voila, instant vehicle and assault rifle. Too bad is was unarmed... Wonder what he was doing there, taking a leak? :D :D :D

Ideas (again):

1) Would it be possible for you to manually place some civilian boats in the ports with a low chance of apperance. Sometimes it would be easier to cross a bay by boat rather than going all the way around by car. But AFAIK none of the TPW modules add parked boats?

[Rydygier 1302]

Wonder what he was doing there, taking a leak?

Those are kind of secondary "checkpoints", when at chosen location there is no room suitable for primary checkpoint, code tries to find room at least for such "picnic". If unarmed - easy prey, easy vehicle. And yes, I like ramming too. :)

1) Would it be possible for you to manually place some civilian boats in the ports with a low chance of apperance. Sometimes it would be easier to cross a bay by boat rather than going all the way around by car. But AFAIK none of the TPW modules add parked boats?

Manually not, I don't like such static approach (but feel free to de-pbo mission, open it in editor and do it for yourself). By dynamic script however - possible. But that would be rarely useful (also rarely encountered), while eating some performance. And you have one boat already... So not sure, have to think. BTW If you want, may be worth of trying simply to request such feature for TPWs. IMO good idea for his modules.

So, anyone out there want to try coop? Maybe even I could join one day to see with my own eyes, what is happening (and, I guess, I have to familiarize with MP sooner or later, one way or another). Although not so easy with me - I know barely nothing about multiplaying and can't communicate in English by voice...

There was so many requests for coop, but seems like no one is interested in this anymore, now, when I'm finally convinced to try make it. :) If not - OK. I'm trying this only because of all those requests, so no problem, I can abandon it without regret. Can't do much more without feedback anyway.

Edited September 30, 2014 by Rydygier

[digitalcenturion 20]

I could try some co-op with you Rydygier if you want to, this mod has given me so much fun it would be an honor. Like you I am a more or less arma MP n00b tho. But I have some spare time, for the rest of this week mainly daytime (GMT +2 here, same in Poland?) and next week evenings. PM me if interested.

Regarding the boats, yeah I could try to do some thing like that. Personally, I dont think that it is too static - when boats are not at sea, they are at their place in the marina. Not parked all over the place like cars. A spawn chance of sub 10% could keep it interesting. Also might try to maybe add some civilian aircraft to the airfields. Would be pretty cool to fly a Cessna in this mission. But that is a mod, so... Also, in the init script which bit controls what the abandoned vehicles are? Is it RYD_JR_Tanks =or? Or is that OPFOR tanks?

[Rydygier 1302]

Pool of possible empty vehicles is filled here:

for "_i" from 0 to ((count _vehClass) - 1) do
{
_class = _vehClass select _i;

if (isClass _class) then
	{
	_class = configName _class;
	_lowClass = toLower _class;

	if not (_lowClass in ["c_kart_01_vrana_f","c_kart_01_red_f","c_kart_01_f","c_kart_01_fuel_f","c_kart_01_blu_f"]) then
		{
		_scope = getNumber (_vehClass >> _class >> "Scope");
		if (_scope == 2) then
			{
			_sim = toLower (getText (_vehClass >> _class >> "Simulation"));
			if (_sim in ["carx","tankx"]) then
				{
				_hasDriver = getNumber (_vehClass >> _class >> "hasDriver");

				if (_hasDriver == 1) then
					{
					_vc = getText (_vehClass >> _class >> "vehicleClass");

					if not (_vc in ["Autonomous"]) then
						{
						if (_lowClass in ["b_g_quadbike_01_f","b_quadbike_01_f","o_quadbike_01_f","i_quadbike_01_f"]) then
							{
							_class = "C_Quadbike_01_F"
							};

						switch (_sim) do
							{
							case ("carx") : {RYD_JR_AllSoftV set [(count RYD_JR_AllSoftV),_class]};
							case ("tankx") : {RYD_JR_AllArmor set [(count RYD_JR_AllArmor),_class]};
							}
						}
					}
				}
			}
		}
	}
};

So, soft vehicle classes are stored in RYD_JR_AllSoftV, and armored in RYD_JR_AllArmor.

I could try some co-op with you Rydygier if you want to, this mod has given me so much fun it would be an honor. Like you I am a more or less arma MP n00b tho. But I have some spare time, for the rest of this week mainly daytime (GMT +2 here, same in Poland?)

Great. :) It is GMT +1 now in Poland, 26 October time will be switched to Winter time (one hour back).

[Stonejackit 10]

Quick question here, because i can't find anything about it in this thread. How can you turn off the fatigue effects. It says "- fatigue effects switch added to supports menu (0-8)." Where is this supports menu?

[Greenfist 1863]

It says "- fatigue effects switch added to supports menu (0-8)." Where is this supports menu?

Press 0 (zero) and 8, I guess. :)

[Stonejackit 10]

Press 0 (zero) and 8, I guess. :)

Thanks a lot!

[Rydygier 1302]

After first, short session with DigitalCenturion (thanks :) ) Pilgrimage COOP is updated to wip2 (working client-side sounds, music, messages, basic respawn for testing purposes...).

[Big_Jas 10]

Hi Rydygier,

are there by any chance any boats located around the map, other than the boat at the start and end location? The reason is that in my latest mission (ver 1.86c) the body is located (along with a UGV) on an island. For reference the island is in Pyrgos Gulf, across the water west from Pyrgos, north of the peninsula, and just west of Sagonisi island. (yep the little island with the chapel on it). How do you get there and back with the body? I did a search a few km in either direction up and down the coast and could not find a boat that wasn't a wreck. Ideas?

Thanks,

Jas.

[Rydygier 1302]

The reason is that in my latest mission (ver 1.86c) the body is located (along with a UGV) on an island.

Wow. That's rare. No other boats. Three things to try:

1. If you're able to bring your own boat close enough (200 meters from the body IIRC), should be available action on the body to load it directly onto the boat (what that finish the scenario). Not sure, how far you can go on that boat though with available fuel, unless you find a way to refuel it at some beach with fuel truck, if any;

2. Not sure about that, never tried. But perhaps some of military armored vehicles may have amphib ability;

3. Lastly, if you play with enemy choppers, you can try to capture one and use aerial approach. :P

But 1st should do the trick.

Edited October 2, 2014 by Rydygier

[digitalcenturion 20]

We tested the mission some more today with Rydygier today, the co-op version actually works pretty damn well for being such an early iteration, I encourage you all to give it a try!

As for boats, well I mentioned earlier that it might be a good idea with some boats in marinas. Of course, you have your own boat so.

I believe the strider MRAP (AAF one) is ambhibious too. I would not be surprised if other APCs are as well.

[Rydygier 1302]

Yep, that was real fun, less bugs I expected. And good opportunity to practice a bit spoken English... :) As for wip2, we did not encountered any serious bugs, except possibly not working assassination quest, but not sure and suspicious AI group behaviour, that means lack of behavior. IMO group shouldn't just stand in formation doing nothing. Don't know, why it was that, maybe there is good explanation, like temporary stop during a patrol, other groups was acting properly, and all AI control is anyway server side. One note: radius for showing markers is server-centric, so to know, where is the loot, intel etc, client-side player should stay relatively close to the server-side player. Not sure yet, but, respawn could be optional, if possible, it's set in description.ext. Or maybe death will be permanent but delayed with some bleeding script... Unless it's as easy as in SP to save&resume, don't know yet. Just something to avoid necessity of starting new session from the beginning just because one player died.

I'll think about additional boats, maybe a dozen or so at some marinas randomly spawned like abandoned vehicles... But IMO such are rarely useful, and case like that (not forseen notabene) is once per 217. For now I'll add more fuel to the Alex' boat. Not sure, how fast fuel is consumed for such boats, and how far player can go using it before bingo fuel. EDIT: no problem for speedboat. 0.0016 per 1000 meters. To circle the island quite wide it's about 0.16 (16% of full fuel tank)

Edited October 2, 2014 by Rydygier

[alky_lee 276]

Wow. That's rare. No other boats. Three things to try:

1. If you're able to bring your own boat close enough (200 meters from the body IIRC), should be available action on the body to load it directly onto the boat (what that finish the scenario). Not sure, how far you can go on that boat though with available fuel, unless you find a way to refuel it at some beach with fuel truck, if any;

2. Not sure about that, never tried. But perhaps some of military armored vehicles may have amphib ability;

3. Lastly, if you play with enemy choppers, you can try to capture one and use aerial approach. :P

But 1st should do the trick.

Approaching the island in an unarmed vehicle probably is not advisable unless you have dealt with the UGV first. A chopper is rarer than hen's teeth. If you attack an airfield, often the chopper is destroyed in the process. Also may have difficulty using it's weapons if you are on your own.

The only realistic option is an armed version of a Strider or a Marid, which you will probably have to fight for unless you are lucky enough to find one disabled by ambient combat. The other two amphibious vehicles are the Gorgon and the Marshal.

Regarding the fuel in Alex's boat, I have always assumed that he would have set off with a full tank, so he obviously did not have enough to get back again

[Alpha-Kilo 36]

There's another reason why additional boats are welcome. Boats become unusable when they touch land. It is a pity to restart a mission just because you cannot nudge a boat back into the water in this game.

Edited October 5, 2014 by Alpha-Kilo

[Rydygier 1302]

Approaching the island in an unarmed vehicle probably is not advisable unless you have dealt with the UGV first.

That island is pretty close to mainland, not more than 200 meters, so dealing with UGV should be possible with any AT launcher or mounted heavy cal. And, I hope, that's the only island with own chapel... In fact I found this event quite funny, rather feature of "unexpected complications" than an issue to repair. Alternatively, I could blacklist that chapel, but, as said, I like such possibility. :)

There's another reason why additional boats are welcome. Boats become unusable when they touch land. It is a pity to restart a mission just because you cannot nudge a boat back into the water in this game.

Code-wise, no matter, how much boats I'll add, currently only initial Alex' boat ends the scenario if filled with the body. So having many boats and only one "working" for ending will provoke good question, why is that? Hmm. If I add more boats, I should also change the script then. Not sure, how serious/deep that change may be. Anyway, meanwhile perhaps one my try to push boat back into the water by hitting it with another vehicle...

OK, I'll try to add, most probably to the post-MANW edition, some boats, if not too difficult. Not many, so not easy to finds, but in logical spots.

Edited October 2, 2014 by Rydygier