[ALiVE, SP/COOP 1-20] Battle of Sangin [Insurgency]

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Minor performance update really unworthy of a change log entry. 64-bit seems to have improved performance a bit but on Sangin it's not as much as I'd hoped, so I went ahead and deleted and optimized some small stuff. I'm going to keep making incremental FPS tweaks as I make my way to updating for the next ALiVE release, which is going to fix and add some cool things (enemies manning static weapons on rooftops, baby!).

 

I'm going to keep tinkering away, deleting decorative objects and whatnot as I see fit in the meantime, so it's possible I may be editing this often for performance until I bump a formal release when ALiVE's next update goes live.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Update. Along with another batch of general performance improvements, this update adds manned CQB mortars and turrets to rooftops, as well as a refinement in the playable factions (USMC WD units have been replaced with all desert camo units), and an increase in the Taliban recruitment rate.

[jig86 10]

I understand what you were going for now! Sorry I sounded like a jerk. Finally got to try it out on a dedicated server, and it runs excellent. The only thing I can think of that would be a nice addition is placing Spyder's advanced interaction module.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

1 hour ago, jig86 said:

I understand what you were going for now! Sorry I sounded like a jerk. Finally got to try it out on a dedicated server, and it runs excellent. The only thing I can think of that would be a nice addition is placing Spyder's advanced interaction module.

No worries man. I took no offense at all. My main goal here is to bring the ALiVE insurgency model to as many people that don't feel like fussing around with the editor as possible, so if something is 'not right' or could be better, I definitely love and encourage the feedback and want to make the experience as enjoyable as humanly possible for everyone.

 

I 100% agree on Spyder's interaction. Except, the problem is, it doesn't fully work. One question in his conversation UI, the one that's supposed to reveal the most important Intel (revealing enemy HQ's) is broken, because the answer is always blank.

 

Meaning you'd still need to use the vanilla ALiVE action menu options to reveal Intel if you wanted to properly experience the insurgency model. And then people would need to know they had to use both systems and at the end of the day, I chose to avoid doing that.

 

But! The good news is, Spyderblack723 is officially working on updating his module, and officially incorporating it directly into ALiVE! :) This means, if he does this, everyone will be able to enjoy the interaction system whether they use his mod or not. 

 

Obviously, no promises he does this, but seeing as Friznit (another ALiVE dev) officially announced to the public the feature is being worked on, I feel pretty good we'll see it come true! :)

 

So hang on tight. By all means, feel free to add the module yourself, just remember you'll need to use both interaction systems. If you don't feel comfortable editing the mission and adding the module yourself, let me know and I'll do it for you and send you a PM with the module added just for you. :)

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Big update. Tons of performance improvements have been made. The mission has been rebalanced as well in preparation for a Steam Workshop release. Full changelog in the first post.

 

* For some reason, when connecting to a dedicated server, the client says that sangin.jpg can't be found, but that's a lie because it shows in the loading screen, so clearly the game can find it just fine. Not sure what's going on there but it is 100% harmless. That said, I will investigate. 

[domokun 515]

FYI, all 3CB mods are now available on SW.

This should mean more people playing your missions.

Because the fewer the mods required the lower the bar.

Equally the more mods that are on SW, the lower the bar.

This is great news all round.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

17 minutes ago, domokun said:

FYI, all 3CB mods are now available on SW.

This should mean more people playing your missions.

Because the fewer the mods required the lower the bar.

Equally the more mods that are on SW, the lower the bar.

This is great news all round.

Yep. I just saw that. It's a great day.

 

All the holdouts can finally experience the masterpiece that is 3CB and see what they've been missing.

 

That means every mod in all my missions (other than some of the maps I use) are now on Steam which should make my transition onto Workshop myself that much easier. 

 

This is very good news indeed. :)

[domokun 515]

1 hour ago, HeroesandvillainsOS said:

Yep. I just saw that. It's a great day.

 

All the holdouts can finally experience the masterpiece that is 3CB and see what they've been missing.

 

That means every mod in all my missions (other than some of the maps I use) are now on Steam which should make my transition onto Workshop myself that much easier. 

 

This is very good news indeed. :)

You'd better make sure that all your required mods are hosted elsewhere other than Armaholic

https://www.reddit.com/r/arma/comments/622oh0/psa_last_day_to_download_armaholic_mods_without_a/

Because 24h from now, all is disappearing behind a paywall.

e.g. your Battle of Sangin mission currently requires the Sangin map and points at Armaholic

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

1 hour ago, domokun said:

You'd better make sure that all your required mods are hosted elsewhere other than Armaholic

https://www.reddit.com/r/arma/comments/622oh0/psa_last_day_to_download_armaholic_mods_without_a/

Because 24h from now, all is disappearing behind a paywall.

e.g. your Battle of Sangin mission currently requires the Sangin map and points at Armaholic

What? 

 

Sangin isn't available anywhere else. Well, yes, yes it will be. My Dropbox. I don't condone anyone hosting anyone else's work, but if it's not available without paying....well, that's not what this community is about. 

 

Damn shame. But this map will live without having to pay. What a joke. I like Foxhound too, and I get it in a way. But damn this is sad and against the spirit of Arma 3.

 

Wow, thanks for the heads up. 

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Quick update. The "Picture 'sangin.jpg' not found" error on dedicated servers has been fixed. I've also given the player squad leader a laser designator by default so he has access to combat support on mission start whether or not he visits the Virtual Arsenal.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Quick update. Played the previous build for about 3 hours and I think I had went too far the other way with BLUFOR outnumbering the Taliban. This should be a good middle ground. Will test. Thinking this will be the first one I bring to Steam.

 

I will also add the new ALiVE feature that should be in the next build for saving your mission progress without the dedicated server requirement. This means you can now save your mission using "server save and exit" in SP and LAN. It's not out yet but I'll add a new download for it when it goes live.

 

Pretty sweet and works perfectly.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Hmmm. The balancing on this is kinda messed up. I'm guessing an ALiVE update changed the simulation a bit. BLUFOR is suddenly crushing OPFOR. I'm going to take a slightly different approach with this in the editor to get it back to where it was. I've already started but didn't have a chance to finish before work this morning, so the update may take a day or two. 

 

Strange. Anyway, I'm on it but I'd hold off on a DL until I get it out.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Update. The new build is looking pretty good! After getting it set, I fast forwarded in the editor for a few in game hours to make sure the simulation was solid and it's looking pretty nice all around.

 

 

[8LacK5naK3 192]

I`m going to try this one when the new build is out. I avoided Sangin for a while on my old 660 as it stuttered terribly, even though it was such a lovely terrain. Hoping the mix of shiny new overclocked 1070 and 64-bit finally makes it run sweet.

 

For the record, the paywall at armaholic just isn`t a thing. Foxhound has been busting his ass for years providing hosting at his expense, and not asking a thing in return. He`s now trying to recoup a little bit of the expense by limiting some of the features, but he hasn`t stopped a thing by way of actual downloads. Sangin can still be freely downloaded from there by anyone. I don`t want to make a big thing of it and divert the thread, but it`s inaccurate and only a few posts previous for anyone jumping into the thread here.

 

If it works all nice and proper, I`ll be happy as hell. It`s one of the best terrains we have :)

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

I actually talked with Foxhound and you are 100% correct. He's not preventing anyone from downloading anything, it's just that subscribers get to "see" new releases when they go up, etc. And he makes a good point for why this all was necessary.

 

The previous discussion was based on what people were saying on (surprise surprise) Reddit. And they were wrong.

 

@flyingpig I'd say if you want to check the mission out, go for it. I don't anticipate a whole lot changing between now and the next update. Though don't go in expecting amazing performance. Especially as you go west where the denser cities are. I have a 970/i7 6700k, and can personally tolerate it myself. But it's one of the worst performing maps in the game. I'm ok with that because this map is my personal favorite in all of Arma. 

 

That said, I've really done my best to keep the frames as good as possible. Over the course of this release, I've removed a lot of unnecessary stuff with each update and made a lot of refinements, all for performance. I think you'll enjoy it so give it a try! I updated it a couple days ago and think it looks pretty good. That said, balancing insurgencies is always the hardest (so some small tweaks are possible with the next update and let me know if you notice anything, you have a keen eye!) but all in all it's looking pretty good after a couple hours letting the simulation do its thing. 

[8LacK5naK3 192]

I`ll give it a go. I seem to remember Sangin being handed off to the CUP guys at some point for further development. Hopefully it`ll help with the frames sometime. It`s a bloody good and believable terrain that could use some optimisation.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

56 minutes ago, flyingpig said:

I`ll give it a go. I seem to remember Sangin being handed off to the CUP guys at some point for further development. Hopefully it`ll help with the frames sometime. It`s a bloody good and believable terrain that could use some optimisation.

That's Kunduz that's being handed off to CUP (Kunduz is amazing too. Can't wait for that!).

 

Don't be scared off too bad by the performance on Sangin. It can dip low, but for me it's playable. 

 

Not sure if you've played this one ever, but this is my best performing version of the mission. Aside from the 4 bases and a couple small Taliban outposts, it's primarily the map itself and ALiVE's simulation (and virtual profiles) doing all the work here. Very similar to Inshallah, with a bit more enemies to start (though not by much), but made more conservatively with civilians and CQB and (and other performance killing) stuff.

 

If you'd still like me to optimize it further, there are a couple other things I can do (for instance, I can drop Taliban CQB another 5%, etc). I left myself a little wiggle room, but for me it's enjoyable. Let me know.

[8LacK5naK3 192]

Ah, Kunduz. That`s the one. I knew it was one of them going to CUP :)

 

Not tried this one before at all on the lovely Sangin. Seeing as your other ones are a ton of fun though, might as well give it a shot ;)

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Update. Requires the test pre-release version of ALiVE.

 

https://github.com/ALiVEOS/ALiVE.OS/releases/tag/v1.3.2.1704261

 

This implements a local saving option for hosted MP environments (such as LAN), meaning a War Room account with a dedicated server registered is not required to save and load your progress.

 

A note to people that like using the couchDB War Room database, please unpack the mission and edit the option in the data module yourself (I am debating on maintaining two versions of the mission; one with local and one with War Room saving. Still unsure!).

 

This update also cleans up some RHS faction config issues, and does away with the BLUFOR civ obj module, to ensure players will do the bulk of the fighting (be prepared to call in reinforcements as you need them, especially to reinforce towns you've already cleared!).

 

There still quite a few BLUFOR on the map fighting though. It's just that they will focus on the military objectives. 

[sabre_3para_gu 18]

Hmmm tried running this, Sangin A2 version an both current and pre- release Alive

Get as far as Map screen, click ok and it just freezes on loading screen (even tried leaving for a few hours)

 

I not tried on dedicated server yet as wanted to check out first, can load into 3D editor and no missing mods flash up.

 

Guess I'll wait until next release of Alive and any update for this, thought I'd let you know though

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

28 minutes ago, sabre_3para_gu said:

Hmmm tried running this, Sangin A2 version an both current and pre- release Alive

Get as far as Map screen, click ok and it just freezes on loading screen (even tried leaving for a few hours)

 

I not tried on dedicated server yet as wanted to check out first, can load into 3D editor and no missing mods flash up.

 

Guess I'll wait until next release of Alive and any update for this, thought I'd let you know though

Sorry, I'm sure this is my fault. I've actually gone ahead and ninja edited all of my missions (I have like 10 of them now lol). They ALL require the most current pre-release test build of ALiVE:

 

https://github.com/ALiVEOS/ALiVE.OS/releases/tag/v1.3.5.1705121

 

Try downloading the mission again, and use this version of ALiVE please. 

 

Sorry not to bump the thread with all my activities. I didn't want to bump 10 mission pages all at the same time and have them all on the front page here. Grab the newest pre-release ALiVE, grab the mission again, make sure you're playing on stable Arma (not dev or RC) and you should be good.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Oh! Also this mission is no longer dedicated server compatible. It should only be run on a local hosted server. This will allow you to save and load your progress.

 

The first page now has instructions for how to save, load, reset your progress, and also instructions for how to make the mission dedicated server friendly.

 

Again, sorry for not detailing all this with an announcement or announcing my mission update(s). 

[EO 11277]

22 minutes ago, HeroesandvillainsOS said:

Sorry not to bump the thread with all my activities. I didn't want to bump 10 mission pages all at the same time and have them all on the front page here. 

 

Don't feel bad about updating all your threads simultaneously dude, it's your right as an active mission maker within the community.  

[sabre_3para_gu 18]

Have got it working now, was my fault rather than yours.

Left ST HUD running and surprisingly it only hangs when that is in my addons

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

20 minutes ago, sabre_3para_gu said:

Have got it working now, was my fault rather than yours.

Left ST HUD running and surprisingly it only hangs when that is in my addons

Hmm. I haven't used ST HUD in forever. That's weird. Maybe it's not 64-bit compatible? I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work with the mods loaded, but to be fair as much as I loved ST HUD, the new BI on-screen icons sort of scratch that itch for me now and I prefer to run with as few mods as possible.

 

Anyway, glad you sorted it out. Have fun.