New Respawn Screen (dev branch)

[DarkDruid 96]

Hi there,

in the last update of development branch you will find the new Respawn Screen. Except the complete UI overhaul, there are even some changes in the (mainly scripted) system itself.

When we started to work on this new Respawn Screen, we had three main goals in mind:

• Complex overhaul of UI, mainly because we wanted to create more intuitive and really easy to use UI. 
• Big overhaul of scripts running in the background, this should help to remove some limitations and issues of old system and even allow us to implement a few new features.
• Back compatibility of the new system which is definitely very important topic for us.

Current implementation in development branch should by fully working version even though there are some placeholder icons and even some not yet implemented features. Our decision to release this version to development branch was made mainly for testing and tweaking purposes. We were able to test it with our official missions and even with some other publicly available missions, but there still be probably a lot of compatibility issues, because variability of user-created missions is really huge. We can't promise we will be able to fix every compatibility issue, but we will definitely do our best in this matter and we believe that result of our mutual effort will be worth it.

So please feel free to let us know your ideas, experiences or bugs you may experience. The best place for any feedback is this thread. But please try to avoid any off topic discussions, so we can quickly react and eventually address everything which really needs it.

 

Thanks in advance for all your feedback and help!

 

Screenshot:

 

Configuration:

The screen appears when you use correctly respawn template "MenuPosition", "MenuInventory" or both of them. For more info see Respawn documentation: http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3_Respawn

The new respawn screen documentation: http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3_Respawn:_New_Respawn_Screen

 

Example description.ext:

respawn = "BASE";
respawnDelay = 15;
respawnDialog = 1;
respawnTemplates[] = {"MenuPosition","MenuInventory","Tickets","Spectator"};
respawnOnStart = 1;

class CfgRoles
{
    class Test
    {
        displayName = "Test";
        icon = "\A3\Ui_f\data\GUI\Cfg\Ranks\sergeant_gs.paa";
    };
}

class CfgRespawnInventory
{
    class WEST1
    {
        displayName = "Light"; // Name visible in the menu
        icon = "\A3\Ui_f\data\GUI\Cfg\Ranks\sergeant_gs.paa"; // Icon displayed next to the name
        role = "Test";

        // Loadout definition, uses same entries as CfgVehicles classes
        weapons[] = {
            "arifle_MXC_F",
            "Binocular"
        };
        magazines[] = {
            "30Rnd_65x39_caseless_mag",
            "30Rnd_65x39_caseless_mag",
            "SmokeShell"
        };
        items[] = {
            "FirstAidKit"
        };
        linkedItems[] = {
            "V_Chestrig_khk",
            "H_Watchcap_blk",
            "optic_Aco",
            "acc_flashlight",
            "ItemMap",
            "ItemCompass",
            "ItemWatch",
            "ItemRadio"
        };
        uniformClass = "U_B_CombatUniform_mcam_tshirt";
        backpack = "B_AssaultPack_mcamo";
    };
    class WEST2
    {
        // Alternative configuration pointing to a CfgVehicles class. Loadout will be copied from it.
        vehicle = "B_soldier_AR_F"
    };
};

Example init.sqf:

//ticket definition
[west,1000] call BIS_fnc_respawnTickets;

//inventory definition
[missionNamespace,"WEST1"] call BIS_fnc_addRespawnInventory;
[missionNamespace,"WEST2"] call BIS_fnc_addRespawnInventory;

//position definition
_respawnPos1 = [(getPos player) select 0,((getPos player) select 1) + 5,0];
[missionNamespace,_respawnPos1,"",-1,true] call BIS_fnc_addRespawnPosition;

EDIT: Screenshot, configuration (+description.ext & init.sqf examples) and documentation link added.

[james2464 176]

Screenshot for reference (someone) please :)

[mistyronin 1181]

Looks good, it adds a bit of battlefield touch, but maybe it's what Arma MP pub servers need. A good step IMHO.

I'll test it more to see if there's any issue.

[fn_Quiksilver 1636]

looks good

 

the loadout section does not look intuitive to me, and I'd like to see an Arsenal button for respawn loadout customization.

 

the Respawn text in the middle looks like a button, so from first glance it looks like there are two Respawn buttons on the menu. Generally in A3 displays, titles go across the top of the entire menu. This way looks fine too, but could lead to some confusion by newbies clicking on the title thinking its a button.

 

Behind the scenes, save the last selected (lbCurSel) settings to a namespace variable at onunload event, to apply lbSetCurSel at next respawn menu onload, so we don't have to scroll to find the same one each time. Ideally it should be one-button respawn most of the time, with scrolling/selections only necessary to change something.

 

For role selection, many scenarios limit the number of players in a certain role. (do we really want 40 snipers?) This may need to be accounted for if you want the Respawn Screen to penetrate to larger public scenarios. Perhaps allow for the Role Selection to be outsourced to a dedicated Role Assignment display (where we can manage Role availability). Also regarding Roles/Abilities, is there consideration for post-selection management? IE players in a Sniper role able to equip and use AA launchers and vice versa. Players will find a way around everything they can, so Unit Abilities/Role scripting can't just be confined to respawn gear, IMO. We can and have scripted this sort of management, but players (especially newbies) often trip over the idea of "Hey bud, you chose a sniper role, you can't fire a Titan launcher!". 

 

And a big thing, is for Respawn Screen to be compatible with community medical/revive systems. This is another requirement for penetration into scenarios with established medical/revive systems.

 

also ability to disable the spectate button for some scenarios.

 

also don't see many scenarios making big use of Respawn Tickets. The respawn tickets control takes up significant real estate on the menu.

 

Just some feedback at this moment in time,

 

thanks!

[R3vo 2654]

Looks great from the screenshot, but I can't get it to work in EDEN. Would you mind sharing the description.ext or EDEN settings you used?

[en3x 209]

looks good

 

the loadout section does not look intuitive to me, and I'd like to see an Arsenal button for respawn loadout customization.

 

the Respawn text in the middle looks like a button, so from first glance it looks like there are two Respawn buttons on the menu. Generally in A3 displays, titles go across the top of the entire menu. This way looks fine too, but could lead to some confusion by newbies clicking on the title thinking its a button.

 

Behind the scenes, save the last selected (lbCurSel) settings to a namespace variable at onunload event, to apply lbSetCurSel at next respawn menu onload, so we don't have to scroll to find the same one each time. Ideally it should be one-button respawn most of the time, with scrolling/selections only necessary to change something.

 

For role selection, many scenarios limit the number of players in a certain role. (do we really want 40 snipers?) This may need to be accounted for if you want the Respawn Screen to penetrate to larger public scenarios. Perhaps allow for the Role Selection to be outsourced to a dedicated Role Assignment display (where we can manage Role availability). Also regarding Roles/Abilities, is there consideration for post-selection management? IE players in a Sniper role able to equip and use AA launchers and vice versa. Players will find a way around everything they can, so Unit Abilities/Role scripting can't just be confined to respawn gear, IMO. We can and have scripted this sort of management, but players (especially newbies) often trip over the idea of "Hey bud, you chose a sniper role, you can't fire a Titan launcher!". 

 

And a big thing, is for Respawn Screen to be compatible with community medical/revive systems. This is another requirement for penetration into scenarios with established medical/revive systems.

 

also ability to disable the spectate button for some scenarios.

 

also don't see many scenarios making big use of Respawn Tickets. The respawn tickets control takes up significant real estate on the menu.

 

Just some feedback at this moment in time,

 

thanks!

Those are very good points.

Makes me think that current UX is meant exclusively for end game.System that could be used for MP communities should

be more flexible.

[DarkDruid 96]

Looks great from the screenshot, but I can't get it to work in EDEN. Would you mind sharing the description.ext or EDEN settings you used?

Oh, sorry, I should have done this right on the start. Part Configuration with examples added to the first post.

 

the Respawn text in the middle looks like a button, so from first glance it looks like there are two Respawn buttons on the menu. Generally in A3 displays, titles go across the top of the entire menu. This way looks fine too, but could lead to some confusion by newbies clicking on the title thinking its a button.

It is actually a button and not a title. There are two buttons right now, we are thinking about removal of that bottom one, this way we could put the Statistics button in there instead.

 

Behind the scenes, save the last selected (lbCurSel) settings to a namespace variable at onunload event, to apply lbSetCurSel at next respawn menu onload, so we don't have to scroll to find the same one each time. Ideally it should be one-button respawn most of the time, with scrolling/selections only necessary to change something.

Should be done already. If it doesn't work for you, let me know with repro and I will check what is broken.

 

For role selection, many scenarios limit the number of players in a certain role. (do we really want 40 snipers?) This may need to be accounted for if you want the Respawn Screen to penetrate to larger public scenarios.

Planned feature, but it is not in there yet.

 

Also regarding Roles/Abilities, is there consideration for post-selection management? IE players in a Sniper role able to equip and use AA launchers and vice versa. Players will find a way around everything they can, so Unit Abilities/Role scripting can't just be confined to respawn gear, IMO. We can and have scripted this sort of management, but players (especially newbies) often trip over the idea of "Hey bud, you chose a sniper role, you can't fire a Titan launcher!".

We will definitely look at this proposal and reconsider it, but unfortunately there is not anything like this in our plans related to Respawn Screen overhaul at this moment.

 

And a big thing, is for Respawn Screen to be compatible with community medical/revive systems. This is another requirement for penetration into scenarios with established medical/revive systems.

We haven't looked at this yet and I am not sure how real is to cooperate with number of mods. I mean it could simply require more time/resources than we actually have. But we can look at it and maybe there could be at least something we can do. Unfortunately I can't promise anything in this matter right now.

 

also ability to disable the spectate button for some scenarios.

It is already in there. When you don't use the "Spectator" template, then the button is disabled.

[El Tyranos 1264]

Nice !

 

Might be a stupid question but how do you assign an usable vehicle as respawn ?

[R3vo 2654]

Part Configuration with examples added to the first post.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

Here's some feedback:

 

1. In my opinion the "Menu" button is pointless. Why can't we enter the pause menu by pressing ESC as it is everywhere else?

2. I was able to get stuck in the respawn menu, pressing the "Menu" button to open the pause menu and hitting "Abort" there didn't bring me back to the editor

3. One of the respawn buttons should go, I am personally no fan of having multiple buttons for the same functionality.

4. Entering the pause menu should hide the respawn dialogue, otherwise it overlapps and looks kinda amateurish

5. Can we get an option to disable map interaction and chat/VON while a player is dead to add more realism or "punishment" for being dead?

6. The auto respawn enable/disable button could be better placed / highlighted.

 

 

Nice !

 

Might be a stupid question but how do you assign an usable vehicle as respawn ?

 

[missionNamespace,yourVehicleVarName] call BIS_fnc_addRespawnPosition;

[fn_Quiksilver 1636]

Oh, sorry, I should have done this right on the start. Part Configuration with examples added to the first post.

 

It is actually a button and not a title. There are two buttons right now, we are thinking about removal of that bottom one, this way we could put the Statistics button in there instead.

 

Should be done already. If it doesn't work for you, let me know with repro and I will check what is broken.

 

Planned feature, but it is not in there yet.

 

We will definitely look at this proposal and reconsider it, but unfortunately there is not anything like this in our plans related to Respawn Screen overhaul at this moment.

 

We haven't looked at this yet and I am not sure how real is to cooperate with number of mods. I mean it could simply require more time/resources than we actually have. But we can look at it and maybe there could be at least something we can do. Unfortunately I can't promise anything in this matter right now.

 

It is already in there. When you don't use the "Spectator" template, then the button is disabled.

 

sounds great :)

 

regarding integration into community medical systems, the main thing is facility to differentiate between deaths where the player should respawn conventionally, and deaths where the player respawn is scripted to put them at the death position in an incapacitated state.

 

Here's an example of a respawned player entering into respawn menu or reviveable state

// on respawn, determine if the player should see the respawn menu or be set as incapacitated
player addEventHandler [
     'Respawn',
     {
          if (!(player getVariable 'QS_revive_incapacitated')) then {
               // player was killed while NOT incapacitated, set as incapacitated
               [] spawn QS_fnc_reviveIncapacitated;
          } else {
               // player died while incapacitated, bring up respawn menu
               [] spawn QS_fnc_menuRespawn;
          };
     }
];

However it turns out its great to see the respawn menu getting some love

[Cookie5 8]

Thanks for sharing.

 

Here's some feedback:

 

1. In my opinion the "Menu" button is pointless. Why can't we enter the pause menu by pressing ESC as it is everywhere else?

2. I was able to get stuck in the respawn menu, pressing the "Menu" button to open the pause menu and hitting "Abort" there didn't bring me back to the editor

3. One of the respawn buttons should go, I am personally no fan of having multiple buttons for the same functionality.

4. Entering the pause menu should hide the respawn dialogue, otherwise it overlapps and looks kinda amateurish

5. Can we get an option to disable map interaction and chat/VON while a player is dead to add more realism or "punishment" for being dead?

6. The auto respawn enable/disable button could be better placed / highlighted.

 

[missionNamespace,yourVehicleVarName] call BIS_fnc_addRespawnPosition;

 

Good feedback so far!

 

1. & 3. These buttons will be removed soon and functionality for the menu button will be mapped to Esc key

2. Yes, this is known issue that need's to be fixed

4. We would like to dim the screen when pause menu is opened

5. We'll put this into consideration

6. Brand new icons are being prepared for this, stay tuned! 

[twistking 204]

brilliant work, you're doing!

 

will there be a way to work with specialisations? so that when i choose the medic-loadout, i also spawn with medic specialisation and when i choose engineer loadout i have engineering abilitties?

 

and have you considered the possibility of respawning with the custom loadout configured in eden-arsenal?

 

that would be super awesome, because scripting with CfgRespawnInventory takes to much time for people like me, who are not very good with coding ;)

also the last time i tried custom loadout with CfgRespawnInventory it didn work well.

[twistking 204]

another suggestion.

 

if it is not to complex to code: define respawn classes/loadouts not via scripting but have a module in eden to which you sync units. the units do not spawn, but the loadout and specialisation (medic etc.) are pulled from the units to be used as respawn loadouts.

[R3vo 2654]

another suggestion.

 

if it is not to complex to code: define respawn classes/loadouts not via scripting but have a module in eden to which you sync units. the units do not spawn, but the loadout and specialisation (medic etc.) are pulled from the units to be used as respawn loadouts.

 

Interesting idea, but that could be easier added via a new 3den attribute.

[armatoday 12]

"After respawn INIT Box" may change respawning AIs or object's objective, state etc.

Also but NOT by "ticketing", users may define "how many times an AI will respawn."

[joemac90 16]

twistking:

 

You can use the same BIS function arsenal uses to export unit configs:

 

Place this in the units init script:

_invCfg = [this , "config" , false] call BIS_fnc_exportInventory;

copytoclipboard invStr;

Its not full cfgRespawnInventory class, only the units inventory.

 

There is a slight error in the script for configs, uniforms are output as uniform and not uniformClass.

Author: Karel Moricky

	Description:
	Export unit's loadout

	Parameter(s):
		0: OBJECT - unit of which loadout will be export
		1: STRING - export type
			"script" - scripting commands, target is referred to as _unit
			"init" - scripting commands, target is referred to as this
			"config" - CfgVehicles attributes
		2: BOOL - true to export identity (face, voice and insignia)

	Returns:
	STRING - SQF code

Edited April 10, 2016 by joemac90

[joemac90 16]

 

 

mdcclxxvi, on 07 Apr 2016 - 22:06, said:

For role selection, many scenarios limit the number of players in a certain role. (do we really want 40 snipers?) This may need to be accounted for if you want the Respawn Screen to penetrate to larger public scenarios.

Planned feature, but it is not in there yet.

 

It would be nice to have total side limits and squad/group limits.

[Fiddi 68]

Would be great if the loadout selector could be configured to be able to choose from saved loadouts from Virtual Arsenal.

 

Though I also could not respawn at all, I'm just getting stuck in the menu without a way out, even abort doesn't work. However I see that you know about this already and I can't wait for a fix. :)

[joemac90 16]

Posted Today, 18:44 #18

Would be great if the loadout selector could be configured to be able to choose from saved loadouts from Virtual Arsenal.

 

Fiddi: The arsenal saves load-outs using the same function mentioned above to export to clipboard.

[this , "unit or script or config" , false] call BIS_fnc_exportInventory;

[Imperator[TFD] 444]

I’m at work at the moment so cannot provide a screenshot/video however I have noticed that the new Respawn UI is still present but not visible in the standard map screen while playing. This is evident by moving the mouse to the center bottom of the map and noticing the cursor change to an arrow rather than the GPS Co-ords. You can even outline the UI element by tracing around the edge.

[Electricleash 133]

Hi there, I think I may have run into a bug that's possibly related to the new overlay.

 

In any given situation on the map screen there appears to be a hidden GUI element taking up a portion of the bottom of the screen.

I have marked the area in red in the screenshot:

 

 

Moving the cursor over this area changes its icon to an arrow as you would get when you mouse over a GUI element (Though I can't capture that in the screenshot).

The effect of this is that it removes map interaction within this box, so no GPS coords on the cursor or no ability to double click to add a map note.

While this may just be cooincidence, the size of the box is consistent with that of the new respawn overlay and has only appeared within the last week.

 

E

 

EDIT: Ah looks like Imperator beat me to it, but the screen should illustrate his point too.

[Imperator[TFD] 444]

Well thanks for posting the screenshot anyway Electricleash - saves me having to do it! :)

[DarkDruid 96]

will there be a way to work with specialisations? so that when i choose the medic-loadout, i also spawn with medic specialisation and when i choose engineer loadout i have engineering abilitties?

 

and have you considered the possibility of respawning with the custom loadout configured in eden-arsenal?

It would definitely make sense to work this way. I haven't looked into the scripts handling loadout application on unit so far. If it doesn't work this way, we can definitely look at it and check what can be done in this matter.

There is already a possibility to configure loadout in the Arsenal and use it in mission config afterwards.

 

another suggestion.

 

if it is not to complex to code: define respawn classes/loadouts not via scripting but have a module in eden to which you sync units. the units do not spawn, but the loadout and specialisation (medic etc.) are pulled from the units to be used as respawn loadouts.

This is more question for team working on Eden. I will consult this with them. Thanks for the feedback!

 

Would be great if the loadout selector could be configured to be able to choose from saved loadouts from Virtual Arsenal.

We will look into this, thanks for the suggestion!

 

I’m at work at the moment so cannot provide a screenshot/video however I have noticed that the new Respawn UI is still present but not visible in the standard map screen while playing. This is evident by moving the mouse to the center bottom of the map and noticing the cursor change to an arrow rather than the GPS Co-ords. You can even outline the UI element by tracing around the edge.

This should be fixed soon (today or tomorrow).

[Uzir0ck70 1]

Will it be possible to simply not use this, and stick with how respawning works now, scripts and all?

 

It's not that I don't think this looks cool, but it over-complicates the act of me spawning in, shooting my 2IC, and then getting gunned down by my fireteam.

[JojoTheSlayer 35]

My visual feedback. The first thing that jumped out at me on the OP was the unneeded information condensed into small windows that if used needed to be scrolled in some cases. More tedious than streamlined and something few would therefor actually use ingame (like map locations, unless forced to like role before details), if you ask me. Role switch for example. Would in my view mostly consist of people scrolling, then pressing a new role before also instantly pressing "details" to see more anyway...

 

What I did not like:

Red = Dont like at all or seem pointless. Two spawn buttons (excluding assumed double click on map)? Scroll bars....

Blue = Too much information condensed into too small info boxes and thereby becoming useless and or tedious to actually interact with.

 

My shoddy Paint mock up of possible solutions:

• The general idea is that primary screen show important stat info, selectable spawn points on the actual map and respawn button and thats it.
• While you have all "exit that screen" buttons on the right side (Spectator, Respawn, Menu).
• Top Tabs left to right. Close all tabs button (or press same tab again to close), Show text list screen etc of spawn locations, Show role and gear screen, Show spectate options and selection screen.
• The big black square is the space taken up by those screen when their tab is pressed.

 

------------------------------------------------------------

Edit: A few visual outlines of the possible tab screens

 

Location:

Mini Map parts: You dont technically need to have a "extra" mini map. You can just have a big "hole" in that tab gui showing the underline main map and have that do the same zoom etc function when options on that tab screen are being used. Same idea could be applied in Spectate tab of course. Moding buttons are intended for "artillery" icon + script or whatever in CTI or other mission types needing more advanced map options.

 

Role / Loadout:

 

Spectate: