[COOP|02-10] Altis On Fire Campaign

[sandman1980 18]

Hi Meatball, today we have play the EP1 for several hours!!! is great! but we can't finish because the players have to go. It would be good if the missions be persistents! i mean that if all the players left the server, the mission still running and can reload in another moment to continue it. I see the EP2 and are a million task!!! hehehe

[meatball 25]

I've thought about that in the past, but just haven't done any research on how to allow players to save games or make them persistent. I'll start checking into it and maybe it'll be a good addon for v 1.07.

[sandman1980 18]

Look at the mission do by SaOK http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?147768-SP-MP-Dynamic-Whole-Map-ArmA3-Missions-by-SaOk. I don't have experience making missions, but i think that the only you need is an option to enter and leave the server but the mission still persistence. I have renter a server for my clan, and i have it with the option persistence on, so when a mission is loaded on the server if all players disconnect the mission still running. This not happend with all missions. Some of the missions that i see are persistence are WLS (the mission do by SaOK), the domination missions, the insurgence missions, etc.

[meatball 25]

I've done a bunch of research, and unfortunately, I don't believe persistence or saving/loading is doable at this point.

Anyone can easily setup persistence, but the way the missions are structured, at least one player needs to be alive at all times or the mission will be a failure. You can set the server to be persistent with the mission, but as soon as the last player disconnects, the mission will think everyone is dead, and the mission will end. Persistence does work with some missions b/c there's not a set end point if all the players are dead/disconnected, but in the Altis on Fire episodes, there's not really a way around that since the missions aren't built for infinite respawns, in all the mission storylines, the players are part of finite teams that have a set tasks to do.

As for saving/loading, this would be the way to do it to get around the problem of the mission seeing the team as dead/wiped out on disconnect, but I haven't been able to find any way to allow players to 'save' a mission state, and then reload that mission state without using some sort of database mod/addon. Since the mission files are simply pbo's, there's no way to save files into that pbo so they can be loaded later, and there's no way that you can save/load an external file into the players missions directory with the current command set/engine. If there was, I'm pretty sure I could save out an array that has the list of objectives completed/failed and the teams location at the save point, and then have the mission 'load' that state on startup, but I just don't think it can be done with A3 at this point.

Sorry folks, I'll keep my eyes open in case BI adds in new functionality that can do this, but if someone knows any current commands that can save/load files in a pbo or players mission directory, please let me know!

[sandman1980 18]

Thanks for the effort that you make!!!!

[Brainbug 10]

I've now played through mission #2, as single player (i.e. I edited out the other team mates, deactivated the btc revive and put a virtual arsenal on the spawn crates, but no other changes) with my usual set of addons, and while fps were improved over the first version, they were still quite low, I struggled along with just 6 fps for most of the time (except for the base defense, where it went down even further), it took me several days to do it (in-game some 15 hours). But eventually I did not manage to fulfill all tasks. The task to overload two generators simultaneously was obviously undoable and failed properly, so no problem here.

But I also encountered bugs that prevented other tasks: The crate on the graveyard did not trigger, even though I put in the correct equipment (the other two similar crates, medic equipment and sniper rifles, did however work as intended). And also the four fuel trucks at the gas station did not trigger properly, in spite of me putting enough satchels there to blow up half the town. And the drone recon didn't work either: I wasn't sure how to achieve the task to "get footage", but from looking into the mission in the editor, I learned that it wasn't meant to actually look at the town parts with the turret camera (I had tried that first), but rather hover with the drone inside the trigger areas for 30+ sec. However that didn't do anything either. Several new attempts from various reloaded savegames didn't help in any of those cases.

So maybe you can look into those small issues (maybe there is something to fix, maybe it was just the insanely low fps that skipped over the triggers somehow, I don't know). Also maybe you could even further reduce the distance for enemies being spawned (beyond 500m from the player it's quite unnecessary to have units roaming about), that will certainly help fps. Any maybe there are just a tad too many tasks in this mission ;)

Was quite a fun experience anyway, despite the headache-causing low fps (but as I said, I do need a new comp, and when I get one, I'll certainly try this again), but while this is an extremely long mission (I think it is certainly one of the, if not THE longest ever mission in the history of the Arma series, at least in the category "does not rely on dynamically created new tasks"), it never became tedious (like other big missions that have 20 tasks that are all "clear the town", that kind of thing really wears off after a while), because the tasks are all different, so it is like playing ten "normal" missions one after another. So a big thumbs up from me!

[meatball 25]

Hey BB, thanks for the feedback, and I'm glad you mostly liked the episode. I've already gone through and fixed some of the problems you've mentioned, and I do have a couple extra questions for you if you don't mind.

Fixes:

1) I've tweaked the needed gear and fixed the graveyard box issue. Mainly stemmed from the trigger counting 'itemCargo' for Binocs, when it actually needed to watch for 'weaponCargo' for them. That task should now complete correctly when 2 GPS', 2 Compasses, 2 Radios and 2 pairs of Binoculars are placed in that crate.

2) I don't know why, but those fuel pumps at that station seem to need a nuclear device to be destroyed. Now the task should be completed if you just blow the four fuel trucks, which should be easier.

3) I've tried to clarify the task to make it a bit more clear what you need to do with the UAV at Panochori. Basically you need to just hover the UAV above the three sections of town for 30 seconds in each area. There is a trigger when you get close to the UAV's that will show you the actual spots to send the UAV, but it was set to only fire when more than 1 player from the team was in the area and since you were playing by yourself, it never fired. I changed it so it should fire with any player from the team. So, check your map when you get to the UAV's and you should see markers for NW, Central and SE that you can use to guide the UAV. You should also get a hint when you've hovered over the area long enough (~ 30 seconds)

4) I'll look into the FPS issue, but I do have one question. By default the mission is set with a Parameter for Number of Enemies of "Many (Good for 5-6 Players)". Did you drop that down to "Few (Good for 2 Players)"? That would definitely lower the overall number of AI in the mission and ease up on your machine. I'll look into a few more tweaks to see if I can spawn AI closer as well.

5) You won't be able to complete the two gens with only one person, but like you said, it should fail and still counts as 'complete'.

Other Questions

1) Every 5-8 tasks or so, you get a 'special' event available for the player like Supply Drops or Naval Bombardments. Did you ever see any of those pop up, and were they working correctly if you did?

2) You should be able to 'win' if you 'complete' (Success or Fail) all 61 tasks/subtasks. You should get Evac off the island, did that happen?

[Brainbug 10]

no, as I said, I couldn't do some tasks, so no extraction, I just stopped playing when there were no more doable tasks. I got the supply drops A, B and C (a tank, wow! but I sticked with my "found" Ifrit for the last few tasks) and a couple of naval bombardments (I only used one for the weapons factory, worked well), so no problems here.

I have played the mission as a sp scenario, not as a client hosted mp, so I missed the parameter settings. Might have gone a bit better if I had. And I should also have played with less addons. The TPW addons, that add civilians, cars etc. and improve AI reactions in close range, are an extra burden on the CPU, so for the next time I probably deactivate some of it. The number of enemies wasn't really a problem from a playing perspective (even the base defense was not too overwhelming, I could control everything fine from the big tower, the defenders suffered a few losses but didn't get wiped out completely), only the fps, so fighting less enemies to get more fps is not really a good decision, makes it too easy. I only assumed (wildly guessed) that you maybe spawned enemy groups far away from the player that are too far to be in fighting range but still bog down the CPU.

But when I was halfway in the mission I didn't want to start again, so I kept going (which turned out not to be a wise decision *lol*). But before I make another attempt to play this, I think I'll go on a hardware shopping tour first^^ so don't count on me for further reports in the near future. But I'm glad you could fix the mentioned issues, so I'll certainly keep this misison on the list what to play when I have upgraded eventually.

EDIT: Maybe my fps are so low because I'm out of memory in that scenes, could be. So better listen to others' performance experiences than just to mine.

Edited October 11, 2014 by Brainbug

[meatball 25]

New Version Update!

Changelog

v 1.07

- All 3 Episodes: Tweaked AI spawn rates/numbers a bit.

- Episode 2/Force Recon: Fixed bug in task "Deliver Supplies - Poliakko"

- Episode 2/Force Recon: Fixed bug in task "Disrupt Fueling Operations - Agios Dionysios"

- Episode 2/Force Recon: Fixed bug in task "UAV Recon - Panochori"

Hopefully this should be the last update for the Make Arma, Not War contest. Please let me know if you run into any issues, no matter how small!

Altis on Fire Contest Page

Altis on Fire - Episode 1 "Fallout" - Steam Workshop

Altis on Fire - Episode 2 "Force Recon" - Steam Workshop

Altis on Fire - Episode 3 "Rock and a Hard Place" - Steam Workshop

Altis on Fire Mission Pack - Armaholic

Edited October 15, 2014 by Meatball

[piluspalus 10]

great work!

[meatball 25]

Now that the entry deadline has come and gone, I wanted to offer my thanks to everyone that's tried out the Altis on Fire missions and special thanks for all the great feedback I've gotten! I had a blast making and playing the missions, and couldn't have done it without all the great community support!

There's some excellent entries in the MP (and other) categories, and I wish all the other entrants good luck! I know I'm looking forward to a lot of new Arma experiences with all this great new content!

Thanks again everyone!

[meatball 25]

Any folks out there still playing some AoF missions regularly? Just wondering if anyone has run into any issues with the missions over the last few months with all the new patches that have rolled out recently.

[meatball 25]

New Version Update!

Changelog

v 1.08

- Minor Tweak/Bug Fix. Since BI has changed their Headless Client Configuration/Setup I had to adjust the in mission place holder unit for the Headless Client. Should work fine now, but please let me know if you run into any issues, no matter how small!

Altis on Fire Contest Page

Altis on Fire - Episode 1 "Fallout" - Steam Workshop

Altis on Fire - Episode 2 "Force Recon" - Steam Workshop

Altis on Fire - Episode 3 "Rock and a Hard Place" - Steam Workshop

Altis on Fire Mission Pack - Armaholic

Edited December 16, 2014 by Meatball

[Cowboy10uk1 10]

Just tried Force Recon for the first time, I must say this is fantastic. I normally play with one or two mates, and I love the fact that this pack allows me to config the mission, to the amount of players online.

However I need a slight hand if possible.

Every 5 mins or so, I'm getting the black error box pop up with what appears to be script error for the weather, I believe it stated Fog, but sadly I didn't make a copy of it sorry. This obviously takes away the immersion when the box turns up.

I changed the time to 07:00, and switch enemy to 1 - 2 players, and then hosted the mission online, I don't believe anyone else is getting the error message, just myself. I'm running the Latest Development build avalible on steam.

Does anyone else get this box pop up or any errors on the weather? Or if not, any idea how I can stop it.

Cowboy10uk

[meatball 25]

Hey Cowboy, glad you're enjoying the missions! I haven't actually messed with any of them in a while, so it could be changes in the weather scripting commands in the last few patches.

Might be a few days till I can sit down and do some testing to figure out what's going on, bit I'll definitely take a look. If you get any screenshots or the actual error messages and can post them up, that'd be great!

[Cowboy10uk1 10]

No probs Meatball, hoping to get on either tonight or tomorrow, so I will certainly screenshots or details written down if I can. Thanks for getting back to me asap mate.

Cowboy10uk

[meatball 25]

Sure thing! Just let me know any info you find on that or any other issues you run into. Hopefully I can dig into it over the weekend.

[meatball 25]

Now that the contest is over, I'm shifting the main thread / support over to the A3 User Missions Forum. Check out the continued support thread here.