Rts-3 released

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

RTS-3 (Real Time Strategy) is now available for download.  This takes lessons I learned from RTS-1 and 2 and takes it a step further in some ways, and also makes extensive use of dialogs to simplify the interface that had grown so cumbersome with the 50-item action menus.

BTW, there is an addons-free version of RTS3 so if you do NOT want to download addons, then don't get the versions with @ in the mission name.

UPDATED file 09-Sepetember-2003

RTS-3 BETA 5g is now available and requires an addons pack.  There are now 8 missions in the RTS-3 Mission pack.  This includes Single Player functionality and you can play it COOP as well.

Beta 5g is Addons only.  Beta 4c versions which require NO addons are included in the pack.  There are Vietnam RTS versions, and also new lite versions of RTS with mainly ground units and fewer air units.  See my last post about more changes in this version of RTS3.  There are 14 RTS-3 missions now on 9 different islands.

Get all Addons and missions here:

http://www.aggression.org/karr.html

Instructions:

Unzip all addons to your Operation Flashpoint\Addons directory.

If you already have some of the following addons, then you may not need the pack.

Here's the addons:

DKM OV-10 Bronco - http://www.dkm-mod.mkdi.net/

DKM M109 ADATS

DKM 26M Tunguska

BAS Littlebirds - http://www.concept-5.com/ballistic

quakergamer M109A6 Paladin Version 2 - http://www.roughnecks.org/opgwc/default.asp

PSC - Dragonfly

Hit_sqd_Charlie (@ck*knowledge) Ackropolis Island - http://hitsqd.net/

Phaeden USMC - Phaeden's Island

KLR 250 Motorcycle by SelectThis - (individual dload available at http://www.aggression.org/karr/klr.zip )

What's new:

-All new dialog interface for all buildings

-Each building has only 1 action on the action menu instead of 5 to 30 (depending on the bldg)

-You no longer have to Login to buildings.

I now have an autologin script that detects all new buildings and automatically adds the appropriate actions to it.  I left the Login option available on the Mission Control screen just in case lag or something causes a player to not get the necessary info to add the menu option to a building.  This also applies to Ammo crates, and the Mi17 and CH47, both of which can recycle vehicles.

-The new Command HQ interface allows the easy changing of settings by entering a number, instead of clicking an Increase/Decrease button (like the old method of increasing the AI limit)

-New ammo crate dialog that allows you to easily change your loadout, create custom loadouts, and quickly equip custom loadouts.  You can also load your custom loadouts into the ammo crate for your AI to easily re-arm.

-New Mission Control dialog

    Now tracks your research and shows a timer

    Tracks your vehicles in progress for the Aircraft and Tank factory complete with timers.

    Shows all soldiers under your command along with a soldier cam so you can track them easily.

    Shows the current score and status of the game

-New Factory dialogs show pictures and much better descriptions of all vehicles available for construction.

-Construction Jeep now has a dialog as well for building Auxilary units.

-Random start positioning has been improved

-New buildings for Soviets and NATO have replaced some of the old ones (I'm still deciding on some of them)

-All of Nogova is covered with Territory to capture

The territory capture works like this:  Whichever team has the most units on a territory (within a certain zone) can take control away from the enemy.  You do not take flags in this, rather you must occupy the territory space for a certain time period in order to take control.  In order to help a conquering team, they receive a squad of reinforcements on each territory they capture, along with some resupply vehicles.  That way it should be easier to hold onto territory once you cap it.

-Lag improvements

I was able to use the dialogs to help me remove almost 50 scripts and use only 1 in their place.  In RTS2 I had to use 1 script for each vehicle, plus another script to build it.  Each base building had its own script as well, so that added up to a large number of scripts.  I managed to use just 1 script now to replace all of that, and I've reduced the number of scripts running in the background as well.  Most testers have reported that the mission runs much more smoothly now, even with heavy fighting.  Creating a lot of AI will still cause some issues, of course if you have several human players with 12 AI in their group.

-Improved worker actions.

Sometimes in RTS2 they would run for the hills and disappear.  I think I fixed that in RTS3.  Maybe they just weren't confident in their leader....I don't know. =)

Additions since original release

-New Radar Dish -  This structure that helps to fend off enemy air attacks by increasing the AA capabilities of the base and gives early detection to the base.

-CH47-D and Mi17 are able to carry  3 vehicles (excluding the MCU and other air units.)  Each is loaded and unloaded individually.  If you load them up while fully manned, then the AI units will get out of the vehicle, get into the chopper, and when unloaded will get out of the chopper and into their vehicles.

-Dynamic Commander assignment:  Basically this monitors the commanders for each team.  If one loses connection then it will automatically assign another team member the commander abilities.  Commanders can also manually assign someone else the duties.

-Money Giving:   You can give teammates money to help them out of a pinch.

[Angry Radish 0]

Woohoo!

...that is all....

[RED 0]

Good work KaRRiLLioN, I will download it and test it out tonight.

RED

[Harnu 0]

Awlll right! Now to confuse the new guys even more, hehehehe

[SantaMania 0]

Awesome... im gonna test it right away!

[Doolittle 0]

KaRRiLLioN, nice work! I like how you have the icons in there. Looks sweet! I didn't even know you could do stuff like that in OFP.

By the way, when I captured a city, a squad appeared, but I couldn't control it. Is it just supposed to stand by the flag and guard it?

I noticed you changed the buildings?? Like the Heli Factory..whenever I go up to it it keeps saying Climb Ladder which is a bit annoying (because of the building you chose). I was also wondering if it is possible to make it so that if you own a vehicle and you tell an AI to go get in that vehicle, that the AI would unlock it themselves rather than you having to go unlock it and then tell them to get in.

What you've done though is great and I can't believe you did it that fast! Considering RTS2 was "just released".

Doolittle

[bn880 5]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (SantaMania @ Nov. 06 2002,16:47)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">"I know not, with what weapons the third World War will be fought with, but the fourth will be fought with sticks and stones."

"Fight the power"<span id='postcolor'>

And who says that? Not everyone knows...

[Doolittle 0]

Erm, Einstein?

Said after he finished designing atom bomb. Joking..

Fight the power? Black panthers? Some movie by Spike Lee?

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

Doolittle, any AI in your squad can unlock it if you command them to. Simply hit F1-F12 to bring up the appropriate soldier, press 6 and then the UNLOCK option should be on there somewhere.

The factory with the ladders has been the same since RTS-1, but the ladder is actually useable now. It used to be if you tried to climb it you'd get stuck there until someone killed you. I can't remove the option for it, and I haven't spotted another building that suits my fancy for that.

Also, the squads that appear at cities are reinforcements that will stay and guard the city. You should also get an Ammo and Repair truck there after holding it for a certain period of time.

I'll soon be adding AI squads back to the game, but there will be a much greater method of control over them I hope. I'll be using OnMapSingleClick to position markers for them (like in RTS-2) but you'll have more flexibility on moving them about. Basically teams will be able to create up to a certain number of independent squads (this can be limited at the Command HQ) and then tell them each separately where to go. In RTS2 you can only create pre-defined squads, like Armored AA and Tank Squads. I hope to greatly improve it.

[skyline666 0]

Nice work Karrillion, especially the interface.

With regard to the guarding squads, would it be possible to add a "take cover" or "scan horizon" command to them when they are created. They are cannon fodder just standing by the flag.

I also noticed that u can take over a town by just flying over it in a chopper. You may want to adjust this to ground troops only ?

I think a co op version of RTS3 would be really cool, but it would mean some heavy AI programming on your behalf !!

Please keep up the good work, its stuff like this that really makes a difference.

Cheers

Skyline

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

Flying over and capping is possible, but you still have to wait for a period of time to cap it, during which you're wide open for attack.

Each territory has a large block of land associated with it.  When it's unoccupied, that area is gray.  Within the large area is a flag marker and a smaller black area.  This is the portion of the territory that you have to occupy in order to capture the territory.

If the territory is empty, then you can contest it.  During this period of time, the larger gray marker turns yellow to indicate that it is contested.  You have to contest it for at least 30 seconds in order to take control.  After that, if an enemy wants to take the territory from you, they must have more troops on that area than your team does in order to begin the process of taking away control.  If they manage to keep more troops there, or wipe out opposition, then they have to stay there for at least 60 seconds.  Then the territory is taken away from whoever was holding it before and put into contest mode for the attackers.  Then they have to hold it for an additional 30 seconds.  If during that time the enemy comes and brings more troops, then they could start contesting it for themselves.

So, while you can take a chopper and take over a territory, it isn't so easy as zooming over and having it.  You have to wait, and if there are any enemies on the ground, then it's harder to find them and eliminate them so you can take the territory back.

I'm working on making the AI guarding it a bit smarter, but unfortunately, during an MP game, the lag makes them quite dumb in a lot of ways.  I may reduce their numbers and simply place a couple of them with SAM's or something.  Their main goal is to slow down any attacker long enough to get reinforcements there.

I'm also working on a way so that in order to take any territory, any adjacent territory must first either be unoccupied or controlled by your team.  That way you can't just fly into the middle of enemy territory and snag territories.  I think this will make the land game a lot more interesting.

One question, do you think there are enough territories right now, and what do you think of their placement?

[skyline666 0]

Karrillion,

To answer your question, I think more territories would be better as it would be more strategic. I also think "deep strikes" into occupied territory is OK. It would be hard for the attacker to pull it off so leave it be.

I was thinking, what is the point of the flag and the troops guarding it. Why not remove them and instead place some armoured units set to "scan horizon" to protect the territory. Something like 2 X MBT and 1 x AA vehicle and a few infantry.

That should slow an enemy adavnce more that 8 infantry.

Sometimes i think the cash side of RTS is a bit surreal. Maybe an "economy rating" effected by "supply routes" would be more .. i dunno "realistic".

Anyway ive rambled,

look forward to next version on RTS3.

Sky.

ps

When do you play on your server ? It would be good to hook up for some RTS mayhem

[balkan 0]

Wow nice......i like it much more than RTS 2, the VTOL option for planes is a very nice touch too, i was kinda confused in the beginning on how it worked but i figured it out .

I especially love the HALO jump that you added to the plane, i just dont know when it pops out, do i need to go above a certain alltitude for it to be do-able ? Anyway the free fall is pretty cool

P.S. I think the house barriers are a bit.....out of place....i think walls or those X shaped barricades are good enough as barricades...

[skyline666 0]

Karrillion,

Re VTOL in SU25

I got in the plane but after landing I could not issue the "get out" command. Sorta stuck there or I eject. Expensive.

Thought you would want to know.

Cheers

Sky

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

sky: you probably hit the Lock command on the plane. All vehicles come out locked, and you have to unlock them to get in. Sometimes it's possible to lock yourself in the vehicle and the Unlock option might not appear.

VTOL is rather clumsy, but I stuck it in there so that players who built in the middle of bad terrain could still take off.

For capping territory, I used to put 1 Vulcan/Shilka and 1 T80/M1a2 to guard it, depending on how long the territory was held. It didn't work too well because AI get quite dumb in Multiplayer due to lag, and they tend to miss enemy choppers. For that reason I've recently changed it over to a soldier with a SAM site. These are harder to spot and shoot from the air, and they can still take down enemy aircraft fairly well. It's kind of maddening that I can't seem to get a good AA mechanism that works consistently well in MP. For the most part the AI seem to shoot behind the enemy, even if their skill level is set to max.

The only other option is to massively increase the cost of aircraft, but then that slows the game down a lot more, and it's already not a fast-paced mission type.

Balkan: HALO will work once you're above 200m altitude. And those barriers are more to protect from Helo and plane attacks, and they are also for hiding other assets behind. The wire fences and such aren't much good at that. Once you've played it for a while, you'll kind of see how it fits into the strategy. I made RTS-1 more than a year ago and I've been learning from each new version I make. Balance is very tough to achieve in all respects though.

[Hit_Sqd_Maximus 0]

I like the touch that you get 2 points for every flag you capture now I was sick of taking all the towns and not getting credit for it.

[Night181 0]

i love VTOL man =-) cause anyone who plays on the FH server knows i cant fly makes it much easier on my poor noobie arse . anyway helluva job man!

quick question though. i took 4 Spetz Natz and 2 AT and dropped them into an enemy town from an UH-60 how come the territory never changed over? (they killed the AI and were in the middle of the town all of the game, i kinda left them there)

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

UPDATE:

-Fixed repair vehicle bug where you coudn't repair some vehicles. Now you can repair anything from Tanks to Med tents.

-Fixed recycling bug where some vehicles and units couldn't be recycled.

-Construction Jeep now makes Med Tents

-Mi17 and CH47-D can now carry up to 3 land vehicles except the Mobile Construction unit. They cannot carry other aircraft. In other words, you can load up a squad and 3 tanks and carry them across rough terrain, and then drop them off in the enemy's back yard. If the chopper is destroyed with the cargo, you lose all those vehicles. BTW the vehicles disappear into the chopper and don't hang underneath it. I know it's not as realistic, but RTS isn't all that realistic anyway.

-Territories now indicate whether NATO or Soviets are present on that territory. If you're trying to capture a territory and it doesn't seem to be changing, check the map to see if there are enemies present.

-If you personally capture an area, you get 2 bonus points which translates to an extra $10 income every 60 seconds.

-other minor fixes

I updated the download link at the beginning of this thread with the new version.

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

I just uploaded version g, and updated the download link.

I improved the way the Chinook and Mi17 carry loaded vehicles. Now you can load up a vehicle with Driver, Gunner and Commander positions occupied by AI. They will automatically get out of the vehicle, get into the chopper, and then their vehicle will be loaded. Anyone in cargo, i.e. riding in back of a vehicle will not be loaded this way. After a vehicle is loaded, a new action will appear on the chopper's menu that says "Unload M1A2 Abrams" for example. Each vehicle can be unloaded individually this way. When you unload them, the driver,gunner and commander (or whichever slots were occupied when you loaded it) will get out of the chopper and get into their vehicle. It seems to work pretty well and it's a lot easier than trying to coordinate everything manually while flying a chopper. =)

I also made a few other minor changes to fix a few bugs.

[RED 0]

I just tested it out, it is great, good work!

1 bug found (minor):

The M1A1 is labled as M1A2 in the tank factory. There was another bug but I forgoten it.

1 Suggestion:

Take out the option for a 20 second game

RED

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

Heh, I left the 20 seconds in there so I could test the outro and such. Once I'm completely satisfied with it then I'll remove it.

Also, BIS had the M1A1 listed as an M1A2, so I assumed that perhaps it was supposed to be that.

[strider67 0]

I happen to love these style missions, however i am encountering a problem with this one. No matter where I start the mission, be it in a New Internet game or on a LAN with no one else on it, I always get the same error message. "NO MESSAGES RECEIVED FOR XX SECONDS" What gives? I have been able to at least see the menu interface and it looks mighty nice. Just wish I could play it.

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

Do you have Resistance version 1.85? If so, you're having problems even loading it up on your own PC? I've never heard of getting that msg like that before when it's being played only locally on the client's machine.

Just to make sure, Open Opflash, click on Multiplayer, then click NEW at the next screen. Now Select the mission and click OK. Choose a team and start the mission. If you're getting that msg while playing like this, then I'm not sure what is going on.

[strider67 0]

yup, thats what's happening. I have 1.85 (resistance) and i goto OPFlash Res>Multiplayer>LAN>New>RTS 3>Choose Team>Start>ERROR ERROR  Don't know what's going on. Getting POed cuz it looks cool as hell.

EDIT- I got it working and OMFG!!! EXCELLENT WORK!! I sat there for close to an hour just messing around. Once I find a server that this is playing on, I'm never gonna leave the house! Simply beautiful work! I'm amazed that the AI can actually fly a chopper. I had a sniper flying me around Nogova and LANDING so I could get out and take the town. I am speechless(but my fingers still work! ) Keep up the great work! Can't wait to see what happens next in this awesome mission!

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

Great! Glad you got it working.

I've just updated the link for another new version to fix some bugs and add a few requested features.

Bug Fixes:

-Research bug where "Research Aborted" msg keeps repeating when building dies

-Base buildings were not being added back to total base count for that team after repair. Now they are.

New Additions:

-You can now set respawn to any Command HQ except for an enemy Command HQ.

-Added "Recycle Nearest Building" to MCU Build Menu. Now when a base building is destroyed, you can recycle it and place it somewhere else if you like, or if you're the enemy you can clean up the base you just wiped out. ONLY the MCU (Mobile Construction Unit) can do this.

-Added "Remove Nearest Building" to MCU build menu. Now you can remove an undamaged building from your base. If it is the primary building of that type, i.e. it has a marker on the map, the marker will disappear and reappear wherever you rebuild. You can also do this to enemy buildings, but ONLY the MCU has this ability, so unless it's a building they made in the middle of nowhere, it's not a very safe way to win. =)

Note that since the team Commander is the only one who can access the MCU menu, they are the only ones who can use these new features.

Soon I may make it so that you can airlift your MCU. That way you could actually recycle the buildings, load up the MCU on the chopper and then go rebuild on an island, or just somewhere else after the enemy finds you.