[MP] Invade & Annex [COOP]

[fn_Quiksilver 1636]

have to ask one more thing lol

i like VAS its cool but can you take that out to and replace it with VR Arsenal ?

2.75 build is no longer receiving official updates, beyond bug-fixes and ArmA version compatibility.

Speaking of next version (not sure what to call it still)

There was some debate in my mind, whether to completely replace or to have both side-by-side for some time to allow players to easily and comfortably convert their loadouts to VA.

I like the simple and straightforward User Interface provided by Tonic's VAS ... Compared to what I believe is a rather unclear and 'confused' Virtual Arsenal interface.

In the end, I have decided just to use Karel Moricky's VAS (virtual arsenal) and have removed Tonics VAS. I think the best choice would be to have both side-by-side for a little while, but that is not the approach taken in this case.

Speaking of next version ... Development continues. I have had some technical difficulties last week and reduced amount of coding time per day, but the work goes on.

The build right now is a little further away from being released than it was a couple weeks ago. Decided to do a rebuild of some of the player interactions, to maximize performance. Involved in this was pulling out an older system. Currently working on stabilizing the newer and more efficient system, but this sort of thing adds dev time.

I am speaking precisely of publicVariableEventHandlers attached to the player. Have redesigned that, for performance gains.

...

Also have been working on a system to make the mission lower-maintenance for administration. It is aimed at lower-level (the most common kind) of trolling and disruptive play. The players who join the server and start shooting friendlies at spawn with a vehicle, or driving over people. They are the targets.

Two aspects of the system:

1. Soft

- Gives players ability to easily identify (and thus avoid and/or alert staff) potential trolls on the server.

2. Hard

- Preventative action is taken against people who are repeatedly a threat to their fellow soldiers.

Hopefully this will free up administrative time to focus on higher-level threats like script kiddies and hacks.

Edited July 22, 2014 by MDCCLXXVI

[ice_age0815 37]

...

Also have been working on a system to make the mission lower-maintenance for administration. It is aimed at lower-level (the most common kind) of trolling and disruptive play. The players who join the server and start shooting friendlies at spawn with a vehicle, or driving over people. They are the targets.

Two aspects of the system:

1. Soft

- Gives players ability to easily identify (and thus avoid and/or alert staff) potential trolls on the server.

2. Hard

- Preventative action is taken against people who are repeatedly a threat to their fellow soldiers.

Hopefully this will free up administrative time to focus on higher-level threats like script kiddies and hacks.

that is a nice idea.

[fn_Quiksilver 1636]

DEV BLOG:

Working on some smarter AI and patrol logic, curator integration and white-listing, and a bit more add-action work (for performance gain and mission flexibility).

Helicopter sling script was going to be removed due to instability, however it has been overhauled and vastly optimized, and will remain in the mission. I've added a touch of -- IMO -- sensibility to it. Only the CH-49s are sling-capable, and the heavier armored vehicles and trucks are too heavy to lift. To augment that sling capability, is towing capability that can be used for armored-vehicle logistics.

Edited July 30, 2014 by MDCCLXXVI

[ice_age0815 37]

that is good i like that so no one can fly tanks around really good idea just car and small trucks

[ice_age0815 37]

have to ask you something just wondering is there a way that you can just make a mission where you can to to an officer and get the side missions you like to play and not random ? nothing wrong with having it random just wondering

[fn_Quiksilver 1636]

have to ask you something just wondering is there a way that you can just make a mission where you can to to an officer and get the side missions you like to play and not random ? nothing wrong with having it random just wondering

This is certainly possible. If you send a link to the version you want that implemented in, I'll sort it out. It's a bit fiddly, as it would require some adjustments to the way missions are selected.

DEV BLOG:

Pace is slow but development continues.

Spent this past weekend implementing Virtual Arsenal in a suitable manner. Not quite finished doing this, as I want it to be forward compatible for future development pathways and not have to keep changing it as I go. IE. front-load the work and configuration.

IE. Should the same range/depth of gear be available in the main base arsenal as is available in a mobile/forward deployed arsenal? In my opinion, no.

Also had a pleasant surprise today, tested the full mission and most everything is working well.

First part of this week dev time is being spent on adding a MOUT sub-objective. Primary objectives are already going to feature more urban combat, however now it's time to give that combat a purpose.

I have to be careful at this point. Having freed up some performance budget, I don't want to spend too much. Having too many things happening at once isn't good for gameplay or server/player FPS, so some careful consideration will have to happen. Urban combat is a great FPS killer if not done correctly. Can pack a lot of enemies into a dense urban area without getting the type of combat I'm looking at bringing forward.

AI coding was put on the backburner for a week or so. Later this week it'll come back to front and center for main focus of development.

Finished a script last week, don't want to reveal what it is yet but I think it will be appreciated.

Also ... The development .pbo has also breached the 1MB size, despite being quite dense (very little wasted/unused code or fluff). :). I shaved it down to about 600kb two months ago, since then it has been growing. :)

Edited August 12, 2014 by MDCCLXXVI

[ice_age0815 37]

What you are planing sounds really interesting. Cant wait for it to be done and play the new mission

[DaViSFiT 21]

Hey. im using your new version released on armaholic. Just a few questions about it:

- when dropping ammo from helo, it disapears after 30sec. infantrie cant reach it not fast enough. What do i wrong?

- "T" is not very ideal if player have Arma2 controlls acitvated. is it possible to change it to "ALT+T" or similar?

- when do side mission appear?

[fn_Quiksilver 1636]

Hey. im using your new version released on armaholic. Just a few questions about it:

- when dropping ammo from helo, it disapears after 30sec. infantrie cant reach it not fast enough. What do i wrong?

- "T" is not very ideal if player have Arma2 controlls acitvated. is it possible to change it to "ALT+T" or similar?

- when do side mission appear?

The version on Armaholic is 2.75, from top of this thread. It's not the version that has been in development since mid-May, that is still in development :)

- Sometimes the ammo box from the drop can do that. Not often but it does happen. Without going into technical details, it does not 'land' properly and can sometimes sink into the ground. I would say in 2.75 it works about 80% of the time. I've sorted it out for next version.

- I agree 'T' is not the best key for squad manager. I have again addressed this for next version, but in the meantime, if you know how to open/edit a .pbo, it is easy to change to the key you want. There is a link in the code to a list of key codes. I left it as T for that version because it is common standard across many servers.

- Side missions must be acquired from an Officer upstairs in the terminal building. If you want them to be automatic let me know.

Edited August 15, 2014 by MDCCLXXVI

[ice_age0815 37]

one more thing i have to ask is there a way to get the side mission to be stand alone ? i no a little bit about scripting but not that much

[DaViSFiT 21]

ThX Mr 1176 :D Terminal building worked.

But we had this "bug" with the ammo box everytime. I dropped it 10x on different spots and everytime the box disappeard. Even on the airfield while autohover 60m over ground.

Another question: Is your current released version workable for a persistent server? So, do you have good cleanout scripts that clean up everything? We played a bit around for testing and serverfPS wasnt that good :(

SideMission didnt finish (destroy arty) and we cant get a new one. Get an Error right lower corner: SetNamedPipeHandleState failed.

We had after reached the ResearchFacility the Defend it mission but nothing happened, no enemys spawned. After a while it was successfull. :confused:

The rewards didnt spawn at the reward marker set on the map. :D

The "base cleanup" on the laptop should also reset all vehicles that are standing around. Would be cool to cleanup all stuff so chaos after 1 day of publics could be cleared up.

Do you plan perhaps a version with AGM? :D

Edited August 16, 2014 by Numrollen

[fn_Quiksilver 1636]

ThX Mr 1176 :D Terminal building worked.

But we had this "bug" with the ammo box everytime. I dropped it 10x on different spots and everytime the box disappeard. Even on the airfield while autohover 60m over ground.

Another question: Is your current released version workable for a persistent server? So, do you have good cleanout scripts that clean up everything? We played a bit around for testing and serverfPS wasnt that good :(

SideMission didnt finish (destroy arty) and we cant get a new one. Get an Error right lower corner: SetNamedPipeHandleState failed.

We had after reached the ResearchFacility the Defend it mission but nothing happened, no enemys spawned. After a while it was successfull. :confused:

The rewards didnt spawn at the reward marker set on the map. :D

The "base cleanup" on the laptop should also reset all vehicles that are standing around. Would be cool to cleanup all stuff so chaos after 1 day of publics could be cleared up.

Do you plan perhaps a version with AGM? :D

Are you perhaps running any mods?

Most things do get cleaned up in 2.75, enough so that you should not see any FPS problems for quite some hours even with 40 players in-game. Though it does depend what we are comparing the FPS to. If comparing Co-op FPS to PvP FPS, of course it will be lower due to AI. Cleanup is not great, but satisfactory and sufficient for a full 50 player server to have a good time for 12+ hours. For next main release, I can say cleanup will be superb when compared to any other 'big' mission out there. To the point that the only thing to do re cleanup will be to begin gathering data again to see where (if any) perf leaks remain.

I have existing agreements with a few of the larger communities to allow me to come in to their server occasionally, log in with debug and gather some data to help make aspects of the mission better.

I'll test the ammo box thing now on my end. If I find the disappearing issue I'll fix and PM it to you.

edit:

re disappearing crate. this is the relevant code, in "scripts\vehicle\drop\drop.sqf".

Let me first say the crate used is a very unreliable crate.. "B_supplyCrate_F" may be causing some of the issues itself. Could be handy to try a different crate, one of the smaller plastic-looking ones.

this can be edited on line 22

_crateType =  "B_supplyCrate_F";

Technical blah blah: The reason being the bounding box of the supplyCrate_F model is very long on the Z-axis (height), and the crates position in its bounding box is right in the middle. Sometimes the crate can 'sink' into the ground to the bottom of its bounding box, which puts it several meters underground.

EDIT: Disregard the above sentence, this was fixed by BIS in the ArmA 3 1.26 update.

Other than that.

line 85

		waitUntil {
		position _crate select 2 < 1 || isNull _chute
	};

	detach _crate;
	_crate setPos [position _crate select 0, position _crate select 1, 0];

Try using the line

_crate setPosATL (position _crate);

instead of

_crate setPos [position _crate select 0, position _crate select 1, 0];

* The main issue with the ammo drop in 2.75 and prior versions is the fact that the script is not very MP compatible. When you go to drop it, sometimes it is unavailable though it should be available. On my dev build that has been resolved but in the meantime for public release build that's just the way it is.

Edited August 31, 2014 by MDCCLXXVI

[DaViSFiT 21]

Thx for reply. We didnt have time to change the code, we played yesterday an event with your mission. Yes Mods caused that problem with no side mission and no rewards (ALiVE? AGM? Dont know), it worked well. We didnt use resupply with ammo boxes.

But 2 big problems we had:

1. Fly around with a liftet vehicle is a pain, its horrible. Speed changes between the vehicle that is liftet and the helicopter. 80kmh / 120 kmh, ~ 100kmh, not able to fly faster. We also lost 1 APC in midair, it still remained in the middle of the air :P

2. Revive script causes losing some stuff that you carried. Looks like you lose half of your equip or sometimes revive with your starting gear. Very strange and a big problem if dropping ammo crates with helo dont work ;)

[fn_Quiksilver 1636]

If there is enough interest, I'll release another 2.75 version with a couple bug fixes. Specifically, related to helicopter sling, BTC Revive, and cleanup.

Also a note for server admins ... Be judicious with the mods you run. You can get away with some pretty neat mods if the intention is only for a few players, but if we're talking 40-60+ players, that CPU/network traffic represents a much tighter performance budget and many mods that I've seen drain performance quite dramatically.

[ice_age0815 37]

not from me like to wait for the new mission

[fn_Quiksilver 1636]

Just a news update and some closure.

I am no longer developing this mission.

If anyone is editing the code and wants some confidential technical support or questions answered, I can be reached via PM or on Teamspeak. I won't be responding to posts in this thread.

I am still developing a big co-op mission however it is of a different nature than this mission.

When I am satisfied with it, a new thread will be posted. :)

[ice_age0815 37]

really to bad