Authority 20 player coop.

[Tankbuster 1733]

 

On 21/06/2018 at 1:31 AM, Jnr4817 said:

What is this, if I may ask?

2640: Added new Protestflight SM. WIP.

Thanks

Ah yes. If you're British, of a certain age and of a military background, you might remember a particular incident.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Hunter_Tower_Bridge_incident

Now, let me start off... I was only 2 when this happened, but it's an incident that's known to many familiar with RAF Cold War history. I happened to have  just finished the tour of the bridge and it's mechanisms with the kids a few weeks ago and had been trying to think up new secondary missions and it occured to me that we should bring this incident to Arma.

It's a work in progress and some of the code is in the mission, but I didn't finish testing and polishing it before the release. There was quite a few bug fixes in the release so I felt under pressure to get it out and the protestflight mission took up all of my time. If there are no further bugs reported, I will be finishing protestflight and will do another release as soon as it's done.

 

[Tankbuster 1733]

The protestflight is working nicely in my internal build. So obviously, I'm going to tease something else that's in the works.

It's a bit rough because A3 convoy driving is quite poorly at them moment, but I've managed to cobble together something that might be useable.

Thanks to @Devastator_cm for his script that is the base of what you see here.

[Tankbuster 1733]

[HazJ 1288]

Downloaded via workshop, clicked play and...

I think there was a discussion about this before if I remember correctly. Or maybe it was a dream. Using Dropbox for now anyway.

[Tankbuster 1733]

Are you joining a locally hosted server when this happens? Because that is what happens when I do that. No idea why.

[HazJ 1288]

ARMA! EVERY! SINGLE! TIME!

[Tankbuster 1733]

You know it. If you run a dedi on your machine, you can join it from a client on the same machine. That will work fine.

[Tankbuster 1733]

Build 2765 on on Steam Workshop and Dropbox.

Highlights:
Added protest flight and convoy kill secondary missions.
Fixed air and land reinforcements.

Replaced my queued hint system with @HazJ's lovely Notification System

 

Full changelog in spoiler below.

 

Spoiler

 

2698: Removed Panthera data as it doesn't work well for the mission.
2699: Added Protest Flight secondary mission.
2700: Gunners less likely to bail at roadblocks.
2702: Added missing Kajman to primary target 'must kill' array.
2703: Players set to global channel by default.
2711: Improved diagnostics output by using diag ticktime instead or servertime.
2714: Removed deprecated 'return empty vehicles to server' function.
2717: All enemy vehicles now unlocked when airbase assault completed (to allow towing of wrecks)
2718: Added Haz Notification system.
2721: Crews less likley to bail in counterattack secondary mission.
2727: Re-added accidentaly removed setowner fr ropes in slingload container secondary mission.
2735: Road reinforcements now work properly.
2737: Improved spawning of roadblocks.
2739: Chopper reinforcements now work and only when there's a player in the AO.
2741: Fixed mission dialog showing negative numbers when counting roadblocks. Also, players notified when all roadblocks cleared.
2743: More improvements to diagnostic output in the #includes files.
2748: Added findroads function that finds a string of road pieces suitable for convoy building.
2749: Removed deprecated setfuel function.
2752: Town markers now change colour quicker. (Note this does mean the airbase briefly shows yellow which is shouldn't really do)
2755: Optimised player marker stuff. Added earplugs (key is F1)
2758: Removed old earplugs stuff.
2760: Fixed misspelled variable name and fixed diagnostics screen.
2764: Added convoy kill secondary mission.
2765: Build and publish.

 

 

 

 

[HazJ 1288]

Also... You can holster your weapon. You can set your own key via in-game controls - User3.

 2755: Optimised player marker stuff. Added earplugs (key is F1)

This can be changed as well - User1.

[R0adki11 3945]

18 minutes ago, Tankbuster said:

Build 2765 on on Steam Workshop and Dropbox.

Highlights:
Added protest flight and convoy kill secondary missions.
Fixed air and land reinforcements.

 

Thanks for the update, are you planning any mod support? Or could it be converted to work with other mods, as i would quite like to make/see an Unsung Version.

[Tankbuster 1733]

Just now, R0adki11 said:

 

Thanks for the update, are you planning any mod support? Or could it be converted to work with other mods, as i would quite like to make/see an Unsung Version.

I'm afraid the short answer is no, or at least, I won't be doing it. Originally, the mission used RHS, and then CUP, but it was too hard for me to maintain. They are both wonderful things, but they were too buggy to work with. I was spending more time trying to work around tricky stuff in the mod than making the mission. One faction of civilians in CUP, for example, are configged as soldiers and when I reported it, I was roundly blanked. When I made a bug report about the interior LOD of a west vehicle in RHS, the report was binned with a single reply. "WIP". So, I moved on :)

So I took the decision to develop the mission in vanilla, but hopefully, make it obvious and easy for others to mod it. I've no problem with other added mod packs like Unsung, RHS and CUP, none at all, I just don't have the time to do it myself.

Moving it to other islands is a couple of hours work, but I've not really found any that work for the mission. I works best on large landmasses with a number of large towns and a bunch of coastal airbases.  It takes half a day to do.

[Jnr4817 215]

Thanks for the update, such a solid mission.

[Tankbuster 1733]

9 hours ago, Jnr4817 said:

Thanks for the update, such a solid mission.

Except that the Tanoa version is broken. :( Locks up while the mission is starting.
I'll have a look at it this evening. Sorry about that.

[Tankbuster 1733]

Tanoa build fixed and on SW and Dropbox. Apologies.

[Tankbuster 1733]

Build 2811 is on Steam Workshop and Dropbox.

 

There's aren't many features to this build. I had to restart my server and thought it was a good time to update the mission with what I had.

 

 

Spoiler

2766: Added magazine repack and new player marker system
2768: Added new Secondary Mission (SM) Laser Designation mission (WIP)
2769: New array, destroyablebuildings created during init for use in the laser desig mission, and others.
2771: tky setskill and random damage system applied to heli and road reinforcement OPFOR.
2772: Updated plaer marker fnc. Revive icon shows when players incapacitated.
2773: Medic (or all players, according to parameter) are shown nearby incapacitated players.
2774: Broken BI triggers controlling completion of Primary Target assault phase replaced by tky code.
2775: New array, ptmen created by spawnprimarytargetunits to enable better counting of OFPOR in primary target.
2778: Added an include to allow the grabbing and reporting of mission build number. (Not actually used though)
2779: Added pt_active bool. Also, consolidated cpt_marker variables.
2780: Using new global cpt marker.
2781>
2799> New convoy SM , eventually code was dumpedin a rewrite.
2800: New array, alllogics that contains all logics created by the mission.
2801: Rewrite of convoy SM. (WIP).
2811: Build

15

I'm planning to get the convoy interdiction missions going next - I've been fiddling with them for weeks, perhaps months if you include summer breaks.

There's been a lot of new routines added to the mission init. It uses quite a lot more memory now, but it prepares some large arrays for use later in the mission. Deep water, destroyable buildings, road bridges etc. All of these now are found during the mission init, rather than when the mission is running, so should hopefully clean out some lag spikes.

I've fixed the broken BI triggers either holding up, or completing too early, the assault phase of the primary targets. Don't know why they were broken, just that they were.

Also, the reinforcement guys that are dropped or driven into the PT should now be less superhuman.

[Tankbuster 1733]

Build 2853 is now on Steam Workshop and my DropBox.

 

Release highlights;

Found and fixed a mission breaking bug in the system that detects when the primary target had been cleared of OPFOR.

Added new convoy kill secondary mission. Players are tasked with finding and destroying an AI vehicle convoy. More details later in the post.

Users of my server; it now supports Arma password keychain. LINK

 

 

Spoiler

2811: Mission build number now written to server log.
2813: Convoykill2 (hereinafter known as ck2) uses 'pathfinder' method for orientating and ordering convoy vecs.
2814: Debug makemarker script now returns a reference to the marker it just created.
2829: Added an 'unstick' for group leader in ck2.
2833: ck2 unstick system now works for all convoy vehicles if they have a driver and fuel. Also, it can push backwards if theres an object in front.
2835: ck2 truck types now choose tempests or zamacx and then chooses classnames from inside that.
2841: findroads2 (hereinafter known as fr2) function replaces findroads function. This is better at finding straight stretches of road.
2846: Fixed softtrigger not working on towns after the first airfield assault.
2849: Fixed softtrgger bug where it wasn't counting CQB troops.
2850: fr2 can now work with 2nd roadsconnected result element. Greatly increases it's reliability.
2852: Added occasional intel updates for players playing the ck2 mission. Also kills drivers on foot to stop them walking to destination.
2853: Improved ck2 conveoy vehicle classname arrays.
2854: Added new radar trailer to bigarty array for vehicle depot kill 2ndary mission. Also added it so that it can be the primary target radar asset.
2856: Added ck2 mission to sm manager roster so it can be played.
2853: Build.

 

The convoy kill mission. Lots of work went into this Myself and Haz did the heavy lifting but the community helped out here and there. Contributors in this thread were most helpful, as well as here. In particular, @pierremgi broke the back of the problems I was having with AI convoys. Forever grateful, mate!
The mission itself is in a few parts. Being dynamic, it has to choose a start and an end point. It only chooses those on the same landmass as the players.

It then finds a straight stretch of road to spawn the convoy, but before it actually does that, it makes a man on an ATV and sees which way he goes when given the order to go to the destination. The convoy is then spawned facing the direction he went in. Also, the vehicle in the convoy closest to the way he went is designated group leader and the rest added to his group. Usually, the first and last vehicles are escort vehicles and the ones in between are just trucks.

Once they are underway, it does a few checks to make sure everything is working. If a vehicle has a driver and fuel and is stopped for more than 5 seconds, it is given a little nudge forwards. If there's an object in front, the nudge is backwards. This seems to resolve much of the wierdness that plagues AI convoys.

They aren't reliable yet though. Expect crazy shit.

[Tankbuster 1733]

Should probably mention, or really should have it some time ago;

This mission can take some time to start, it only actually starts when the first player joins, so that first join can take quite a long time. I've seen as much as 45 seconds on my test server.

During mission init, the mission creates lots of arrays of information it will use later. For example, it makes a list of all the deep water points on the map. This is quite time consuming - it uses a lot of memory too - and so it's best to do it before the players get in, rather than do it mid mission, potentially causing lag and warp.

Using the 'autoinit' server parameter might mitigate this to some extent. It starts the mission when the server starts, not when players join. This might break stuff - I've not tried it yet, it's on the to do list.

[HazJ 1288]

As @Tankbuster stated, -autoInit will help. Note: I think this locks mission parameters though even if you #missions -> select mission -> edit or at least used to. In your CfgMissions in server config file you can set them like so:

class Missions
{
	class Authority
	{
		template = "COOP40_Authority.Altis";
		difficulty = "Custom";
		class Params
		{
			// See descriptions and possible values inside description.ext (search for Params)
			PARAM_testmode = 0;
			militarybasesincluded = 0;
			primarytargetchoosing = 0;
			notveryclose = 0;
			allowcapturefail = 0;
			insurgencymapmarkers = 0;
			playercanjump = 0;
			PARAM_Fatigue = 0;
			PARAM_AimSway = 0;
			enemyspawnlevel = 0;
			removeenemyvests = 0;
			enemyskilllevel = 0;
		};
	};
};

 

[Tankbuster 1733]

[Tankbuster 1733]

 

Quick preview of the revamp of the Mission Status Dialog. @HazJ

[HazJ 1288]

Preview showing half icons in use:

[Tankbuster 1733]

We decided we didn't like the old text based method of showing the players the enemy force. At the same time, we didn't want to say '8 soldiers, 2 tanks and an Ifrit still to kill' so we came up with this new method.

 

When the primary target starts, all ten icons are show in each of the categories (unless there's zero of that type) , as you kill them, the markers are removed, so if there's 100 men and you kill 10, you will see 9 icons. If it starts with 40 and you kill 10, you'll see 7.5 icons. So we're showing a fairly accurate measure of the strength without giving away actual numbers.

[Jnr4817 215]

this is superb, gentlemen.

[HazJ 1288]

Magazine repacking will be in the next patch as well. Along with backpack locking (inspired by @fn_Quiksilver's I&A). Regarding the coding process involved for this it sucks that you can't remove partial magazines with X ammo count. You have to do some sloppy workaround...

[thebuckfastwine 1229]

Brilliant stuff guys, I stuck it on my server the other night we played for 8 hours straight was some epic action going on, will be posting some of it when it is uploaded and I even got kidnapped by a ghost car, sometimes arma gives us the funniest bugs, looking forward to some more great action in the next update.