Usmc gaia island

[NZXSHADOWS 0]

Dude,Ive let it go so why cant you,Does it bother you that bad,Whats the point in even haveing a TAG system if others are not going to use it.I bet if anybody else who followed the TAG system would be pissed just the same.And dont tell me they wouldnt,

[Tex -USMC- 0]

Dude,Ive let it go so why cant you,Does it bother you that bad,Whats the point in even haveing a TAG system if others are not going to use it.I bet if anybody else who followed the TAG system would be pissed just the same.And dont tell me they wouldnt,

Slow down, bud, I'm just curious. I don't pay much attention to Addon making politics, so I'm just asking for information. It doesn't bother me at all- if I was bothered, two things would happen: you'd get offended, and I'd get banned I'm genuinely interested in a system that I've never heard of before- I just figured that your tags were just incidental acronyms to make naming easier. At any rate, Phaeden didn't mean any harm, it's just that his experience in the Marine Corps had a large influence on how Gaia took shape. I don't know if he has posted this here yet, but Phaed put together a little background piece on Gaia and how it came about and put it on our forums, so I'll just repost it here:

Quote[/b] ]* G A I A *

Welcome to my island. My name is Phaeden and I am creating this document in response to a wide variety of feedback and comments. I will attempt to make it organized, but like the island, it is a vast endeavor to include everything in an easy-to-follow format.

ISLAND CREATION:

I began making Gaia in March of 2002. I have spent over a year and half creating the island. Typically, I would spend approximately three hours a day on this project. Roughly, I spent approximately 1,500 hours working on the island. I lived in a small, remote Alaskan village (Stebbins) for ten months. While there, I had a lot of “free-time†to work on the island. It is in Stebbins that I laid the backbone for the island. I placed the majority of the towns, and locations of other features during the cold, dark nights of winter in Alaska.

As some of you know, I originally released a BETA version of an island simply called, “Phaeden’s Island.†This island was just a test-bed for Gaia. I learned how to make islands, how to place objects, and spent a lot of time listening to feedback regarding all matters island related. From this feedback, and my real-life experience with the U.S. military (United States Marine Corps), I began to develop Gaia.

I started by thinking about what OFP was missing, what it had (but needed improvement upon), and what worked well already.

First, I decided that the island needed to be big. I liked the default islands, but felt they were simply too small to encourage realistic military campaigns. I wanted to create an island that utilized all of the available map space. I wanted an island that would take a long time of serious game play with which to become truly familiar. I know that I, and most serious OFP players, can identify their position on any of the default maps in a matter of minutes (even without a map). I wanted to avoid that on my island (unless you were in, say, the main city or port). I still “get lost†when randomly spawned. I strove to create an island that also “made sense.†To this end, I began creation of the island by fabricating an island history and geography. Where would the island be? What function would it serve in the real world? Why and where would people live? How would military influence alter the island? I answered all these questions, and more, before I even began creating the physical terrain (which is, incidentally, also done by hand).

Seconds, I wanted an island that was accessible over the entire surface. I wanted to avoid an abundance of cliffs/steep hillsides as these highly limit the avenues of approach. I felt that many other islands are very limiting in the true freedom of movement. There are massive forests, steep hillsides, or water which dramatically limit where vehicles and men may travel. On Gaia, there is very little to stop either a man or a tank from going anywhere it pleases. On a personal note, I spent some time working with the U.S. Rangers. During one of our training exercises at JRTC in Fort Polk, I had the opportunity to work near some M1A1s and other support vehicles. This experience changed the way I think about and react to armor. At one point, my team was hiding a short distance from a road. As we were awaiting pickup in some M2A2 vehicles, I was honestly scared by the rumbling of the armor as they approached. I knew they were friendly, but I could imagine what it must be like to be infantry on the field of battle with enemy tanks nearby – it would be terrifying. I wanted to make sure that this feeling of helplessness was possible on my island. On Gaia, tanks can go almost everywhere. There are no impenetrable forests for infantry in which to hide. There are no cliffs to use as shields. Essentially, if there is armor out there on Gaia, you either want to be really close to an AT-4 or running away as fast as possible. Another thing I wanted to avoid was to have very little playing space on the island as a result of water occurring where there should be land. As you may see, Gaia is one massive, albeit “unshapely,†island. As OFP was not designed to be Harpoon 4, I figured I should allow for space to actually use the ground-based units – thus more land, less water.

Third, I wanted realistic looking towns, bases, and vegetation. I knew I had the problem of having only a few dozen buildings from which to create realistic towns, so I borrowed some from AGS and Baracken. Still, this left me with a limited amount of buildings with which to work. So, I began, initially by creating Northbrook and Glenview (real towns near Chicago, IL). Originally, these towns were two distinct towns. You can see a remnant of this in the road directions. As they began to have a life of their own, the towns blended into one massive suburb. I spent a great deal of time testing this town to get a feel for object placement, density, and Frames Per Second (FPS). I felt I had a good balance between looking realistic and still allow for a modest computer to run the town. It was impossible for me to test this while in Alaska as I did not have access to the internet (only through a slow school connection (I am a school teacher now)). So, not being able to test online was another challenge. I simply tried to “replicate†multiplayer games by running background programs, setting the view distance to 9,000 and placing a lot of men/vehicles in the mission editor. I think this worked as there is very little lag in that region of the island. Regarding the military bases, I had to make sacrifices. Real military bases would take up the entire island (look at Camp Pendleton, CA or Twenty-Nine Palms, CA for example). As a result, the bases are a little “cramped.†I spent my whole life in and around the Marine Corps, and have a really good “feeling†for the way objects/buildings should be placed, etc. I designed each base to have a distinct feeling, yeah still remain believable as a real base. The FARPs are the most “unrealistic†military camps on the island. They are designed almost entirely for use in multiplayer maps. They are not very realistic, but they serve the function of providing a low density military objective for game play.

KNOWN ISSUES:

I know Gaia has problems. I know and I am sorry. There are over 500,000 objects on Gaia, and I worked very hard to make sure there were as few problems as possible. Let’s look at this from a academic viewpoint. To receive a grade of “A†in school, one needs to score above 90%. If I were attempting to “score†an A, that means I could have errors on as many as 50,000 (yes, fifty-thousand) objects. I do not have that many errors. I know of some road textures that overlap, some road textures that are several inches short of connecting, and, regrettably, I have found a few bushes that still exist on the road (I really tried to get rid of all of these, but driving miles and miles of roads becomes very tedious). I know some buildings are “repetitious.†I know some of the trees overlap each other or overlap fences. For these known errors, I am regretful.

COMMON COMPLAINTS:

“The bridges don’t line up and aren’t level!†I know that the bridges do not line up perfectly, nor do they connect smoothly with the terrain on either side. There is also a difference between what you will see in SINGLE versus MULTIPLAYER – I am not too sure why this occurs, but it is very frustrating. I know the bridge by Casa del Phaeden (hehehe) is misaligned, and for some reason, the WrpTool would not allow me to correct for this – but as it is only a few inches, I hope that you can overlook this inconsistency and just drive on by. Only island makers can truly understand the frustration of bridge placement, but let me assure you that I have done as much as I am willing to do regarding bridges and bridge placement. In fact, I was so opposed to placing bridges (as they require a “special†kind of love) that I did not include bridges of any type until the last version of the island.

“Where are the lights?†Simple question – easy answer. There are no lights on Gaia; not in the city, not in the towns, not on the farms, runways, port or anywhere else. A very long story short is I tired using default lights (too bright, too much FPS hit), I tired using other addons (can’t place in WrpEdit/WrpTool/Visitor or turn on (“this inflame true†is an evil code)), and I tried making my own lights – this took hours of my life that I will never get back. All attempts failed or were unsatisfactory. I plan on releasing (sorry, no date at this time) a “default†mission that will include streetlights, runway/taxiway lights, and street/road signs. This will require mission makers to simply merge this “Default†mission and receive all of the lights they care to use for their mission. I am sorry I had to go this route, but my sanity was riding on it (Angus, Zulu, and Doc can all attest to this (as well as my hatred of telephone poles – go ahead, count them all, I dare you).

“I can’t place anything near Crassus Airfield (or heavily forested areas) in the mission editor!†I know, again, I am sorry, but those areas require mission makers to either have a system with good RAM or to place objects elsewhere and “Drag†them to the forest region. In this region, modest computers will also have difficulty due to the density of tree objects. In order to help make this region playable, I have used a higher proportion of default (non Resistance) OFP trees (i.e. the pine tree with low poly, low texture detail). I also had several versions that were 2x to 10x as dense. Just be thankful that I went with the current version.

“Spoonerville, Camp Exorcist, FARP Recon Ranger etc. really are laughable, what was interesting was Welsh, Irish, Scottish, US and many other dialectical features in the names were all mixed together, I can't imagine what the maker was thinking with some of them.†- Jinef, Dec 10, 2003. There is a simple reason. I named a lot of towns after fellow members of the USMC-Warriors (www.usmc-warrios.com). I have known many of them for years. All of them have provided at least some help during the creation of the island (whether it was BETA testing, recommendations, or what have you). Some of the other features are named after Marine Corps Medal of Honor recipients. A few are named after religious figures. I named the towns and features after things and people that mean something to me (i.e. “Ellie’s Cabin†is my wife’s retreat.). I believe this is how it is done in real life as well.

“WTF are the maps?!?†Ok, this one is a bit tricky, but the short answer is fairly straight forward. AngusHeaf began testing the island during its BETA phase. His input was greatly valued and during our conversations, I learned he was creating a weapons/vehicle modification that the Wargames League (http://www.virtual-wars.com/). During our subsequent conversations, we agreed that the Gaia island would compliment WGL nicely. We then decided to release his addon pack with my island to promote unity and encourage a new level of realism with missions and gameplay. The reason the island was released without any missions is due to a time constraint. The WGL winter 2003 season competition teams needed time before the season to become familiar with the island and the new weapons. Even after 18 months of making the island, I still needed time to finish it to the standard I had set for myself. The last three days before the release were a frenzy of 15 hours of continuous refinement

“What is the AI airport?†The AI will use the center runway of the International Airport. In order for the AI to take off – set them on the east side of the tarmac in the “ungrouped†hangers (just south of the “terminal†and north of the hanger groups). Once you set them there, just set your first waypoint off the airfield (you don’t have to have a waypoint on the runway). For the AI to land, the must approach the airfield from the south (again center runway.) Set a waypoint near the numbers on the south end of the runway and set the aircraft to land there (this land “landâ€). I know it works, on both takeoff and landing, but you may have to fiddle with it a little.

“The AI path finding on Gaia is questionable.†I agree. The AI is not human. They make decisions based on 0s an 1s. They can’t always figure out the best way to get from point A to point B, but they do try – bless their hearts. Tanks sometimes just sit there burning fuel. Men occasionally run around dumbfounded by a row of bushes. Helicopters occasionally decide to get to close to trees. I am aware of these things and have tried making adjustments, but I can’t make it any easier for the AI without dramatically reducing the number of objects and overall realism of Gaia. With that said, I have tested a lot of formations and movements through all (or almost all) of the terrain/vegetation types and am generally satisfied with the result. The AI will make it through in 99% of situations, it may just take them a while. With reverence to Tonal (which I enjoy), the AI in the jungle react much worse, get lots more easily, and are essentially useless.

“I am getting an ‘out of memory’ errorâ€: You are trying to load too many addons with your mission. Try placing ‘-nomap’ in your shortcut target properties. This will limit what addons are loaded prior to play. This should eliminate the memory error.

“My game crashes to desktop!†This one is new to me. I have had no problems, personally or from any of my BETA testers, with CTD with regards to the island. If you have downloaded the Gaia/WGL 2.0 addpack, it is likely that the CTD is something WGL related. Angus has a lot more variables in his weapon/vehicle addon than I do with the island. While he (et al) have done the superhuman task of trouble-shooting the vast plethora of units, he knows of some bugs and is working diligently to correct them as quickly as possible.

TIPS TO IMPROVE GAMEPLAY:

First, lower the viewing distance. On the majority of the island, you will not have long range engagements. In areas that these engagements are likely, such as tank battles in the valleys, there is a lower object count, so FPS should increase naturally. In the heavy forest (south east and south central) portions of the island, it is not likely that you will be able to see more than 100 meters anyway – so lower your viewing distance and increase your fog. I have tested single and multiplayer missions in an attempt to find the best balance and have concluded that a viewing distance of 900 meters and a fog of 20-50% allow for smooth FPS and low LAG issues, as well as increasing the overall ambiance of the mission.

Second, set your TERRAIN DETAIL (complexity) to VERY LOW. I intentionally created the island to have a great deal of “natural†microterrain. You do not need to supplement this with the game drawing extra triangles. The valleys are supposed to be smooth, the hills are supposed to be more varied. The southwest corner of the island has the most “aggravated†terrain – you can drive a tank there, but you won’t see much as you are bouncing around. The bridges (which I despise) are set to be “level†on the VERY LOW setting, so you may as well view it thus.

Third, make sure you are running with settings that work. Sounds simple and rudimentary, but this is often overlooked. Run the default Flashpoint Preferences and enable it to set your game to run optimally.

Fourth, ensure you have all the latest drives for your sound and video hardware. I am no expert, but a simple search in Google will help you on the right path for updated drivers.

Fifth, in your OFP shortcut (on your desktop), include -nomap in the property line. Again, I am not an expert, but this somehow limits which objects/addons will load. This may help if you are receiving “out of memory†errors.

Fifth, if you are still having trouble, lower the resolution of the terrain, cockpit, and special effects. The highest resolution for any of the textures on Gaia is 512x512, so you don’t need anything above that and it still looks good when set to a minimum.

Sixth, if all else has failed, and your FPS is still unplayable, I, regrettably, recommend that you do not fight in any of the main towns (i.e. Kamai City, Lakotaville, Port Squiddog, Los Mingus, or anywhere near Crassus Airfield).

MISCELLANEOUS:

I want to thank my wife, Ellie, for her undying love and understanding. She has been the base to which I could go for sanctuary. She is instrumental in the release of Gaia. Her understanding, compassion, and occasional crassness help me stay focused and enthusiastic during the entire creation process. I also wanted to thank all members of USMC-Warriors. They are good people. They have been extremely helpful and knowledgeable in all matters. Without their valued input, the island would simply be “less.†Additionally, I owe thanks to AngusHeaf, Doc, and numerous others – the names are well known throughout the OFP community.

http://forums.usmc-warriors.com/index.php?showtopic=2818

[NZXSHADOWS 0]

I dont have anything else to say about this matter,The reason you dont know about the TAG system is because you come up in this Forum and only post in the OFFTOPIC threads.And they give you the VIP 2002 for Bullshit posting.Not stepping on the mods judgement or anything just stating my opinon.Sorry for the rudeness to all that were offended.Maybe the MODs wont ban me for this one.

[phaeden 0]

NZXSHADOWS - easy there friend. I am aware of and support the TAG system. I did not step on your toes - if you look carefully, it is USMC_ and not USMC. This is registered with ofpec and has been for a long time.

I would not presume to have my unworthy addons be mistaken for real USMC tagged addons. Please forgive me if someone has spoken with you about the island.

In regards to the USMC Markers Addon, I released that well before there was an official TAG system.

I was in the REAL Marine Corps, am in the USMC Warriors, and will always attach USMC to my name. I have earned the right in the real world. I am sorry that you did not look carefully enough at the addon before becoming upset, but hopefully this will clear it up.

Semper Fi

-Blanco - I intentionally left off all lights on Gaia. This was done primarily as a way to reduce FPS hits, and secondarily as a way to allow more flexibility to mission makers - it is a lot easier to add lights than it is to remove them.

[NZXSHADOWS 0]

its all good here,Now im the one using your TAG.now isnt this a pain.Ive been using ex: USMC_AAVP7A1,Now all of my addons are really screwed,But I guess thats my problem,Man this really sucks,"Throw addons in Trash Bin".But thanks for setting me strait.

[Major Fubar 0]

Lets all calm down before I have to start handing out PRs  

Tex, to answer your question, OFPEC initiated an semi-official TAG system some time (years?) ago, where people could register their tags to avoid people accidentally doubling up on the same TAG.

[GODSMACK 0]

There's no electricity on GAIA, no workings streetlamps.  

I could be wrong because it's a huge island...

Small thing, you can place them by yourself...

thats how he wanted it, he saids its easier to add them in a mission then take em out

[Consigliere 0]

Jeez...Grow the f*ck up, NZXSHADOWS!  

[phaeden 0]

I am in no way offend or upset, NZXSHADOWS has a right to feel upset. However, if you are going to complain about people using incorrect tags, then you should rename all of your addons. Consistency is the key to happiness.

[ag_smith 0]

@ Dec. 16 2003,00:22)]

Quote[/b] ]* G A I A *

Welcome to my island. My name is Phaeden and I am creating this document in response to a wide variety of feedback and comments. (...)

Seconds, I wanted an island that was accessible over the entire surface. I wanted to avoid an abundance of cliffs/steep hillsides as these highly limit the avenues of approach. I felt that many other islands are very limiting in the true freedom of movement. There are massive forests, steep hillsides, or water which dramatically limit where vehicles and men may travel. On Gaia, there is very little to stop either a man or a tank from going anywhere it pleases. On a personal note, I spent some time working with the U.S. Rangers. During one of our training exercises at JRTC in Fort Polk, I had the opportunity to work near some M1A1s and other support vehicles. This experience changed the way I think about and react to armor. At one point, my team was hiding a short distance from a road. As we were awaiting pickup in some M2A2 vehicles, I was honestly scared by the rumbling of the armor as they approached. I knew they were friendly, but I could imagine what it must be like to be infantry on the field of battle with enemy tanks nearby – it would be terrifying. I wanted to make sure that this feeling of helplessness was possible on my island. On Gaia, tanks can go almost everywhere. There are no impenetrable forests for infantry in which to hide. There are no cliffs to use as shields. Essentially, if there is armor out there on Gaia, you either want to be really close to an AT-4 or running away as fast as possible. (...)

Actually, this is corect to some extent only.

From T-72 field manual: it IS FORBIDDEN to run over the trees that trunk's diameter exceeds 40 cm. I think it's quite the same with every other tank. Tanks IRL can't drive across normal forest knocking down everything on their way.

[phaeden 0]

I absolutely agree, but I wanted to cause fear in the hearts of infantry. If you havent done it yet, try driving a tank in the forest. Even though you CAN do it, you can't see anything and you're just asking to get a rocket up the engine.

[Baron von Beer 0]

***Actually, this is corect to some extent only.

From T-72 field manual: it IS FORBIDDEN to run over the trees that trunk's diameter exceeds 40 cm. I think it's quite the same with every other tank. Tanks IRL can't drive across normal forest knocking down everything on their way. ****

I can just see the hard ass tank commander. Middle of battle, and the #2 tank, the commander a veteran of many battles, runs over a tree. The unit commander skids to a halt, jumps out (ignoring the bullets whizzing around) pulls out a tape measure, then produces his trusty T72 manual, and lectures the #2 commander about NOT driving through trees that are 40.9 cm diameter.

*Edit* for below: Of course I know. But, have you ever known someone/yourself been in the military? There ARE commanders who would do just that. Sort of like the kid in school who screams murder when someone runs in the halls.

[ag_smith 0]

***Actually, this is corect to some extent only.

From T-72 field manual: it IS FORBIDDEN to run over the trees that trunk's diameter exceeds 40 cm. I think it's quite the same with every other tank. Tanks IRL can't drive across normal forest knocking down everything on their way. ****

I can just see the hard ass tank commander. Middle of battle, and the #2 tank, the commander a veteran of many battles, runs over a tree. The unit commander skids to a halt, jumps out (ignoring the bullets whizzing around) pulls out a tape measure, then produces his trusty T72 manual, and lectures the #2 commander about NOT driving through trees that are 40.9 cm diameter.

C'mon guys, you know what I'm talking about.

[crashdome 3]

Great work. Your island has been done very well.

I enjoy driving around on it.

In fact, I was going to use this for a campaign, but I'd like to point out why I am choosing not to (no offense - just my own considerations I take when making missions).

Perhaps this may help in your future islands?

1. No water - this isn't a big issue really, but because the land extends to the edges of the map, when I am on a boat and using GPS I have no idea where I am exactly. For those that don't like water anyway, this isn't an issue.

2. Odd names for cities -- I understand that these names mean something for you, but honestly, my campaign/mission is not going to feature a raid at Camp BumpnGrynd. The younger folk probably enjoy this, but it isn't anywhere near realistic to me.

3. Forests and Large Size are pretty but lag intensive -- I hear when people say that their machine runs fine in MP, but in SP or in large co-op MP the AI really causes a severe hit in those heavily areas. My guess is that since the AI uses trees and bushes for cover and the AI accounts for all those objects. One big forest square is only considered one object I think. Test this -  I have. Put about 20 guys(10 vs 10) in an open field, a forest square, and in a field full of those trees. Don't go near the areas, stay in one open area far away so the FPS isn't affected by any rendering. Watch the FPS... here are my results:

20 guys battling in:

Open area(minor bushes/trees): 24-31fps

Forest Square: 27-32fps

Heavy Trees: 12-15fps

All were on GAIA

This is important to me... I need it to run good. Looks mean nothing to me when I design a mission because if it creates the excitement and desired effect it is good enough.. only if the extra eye-candy/realism don't get in the way of those will I enjoy it.

4: I know everyone wants to get all possible types of terrain in one island, but it can prove unbalanced overall.

In all honesty, I'd like to see several specialized islands rather than one large behemoth that isn't fun to actually play on. Someone told me that they'd even like to see a small Kolgujev type island that came in different seasons..that way you could simulate changing weather also.

In any case, your island is gorgeous.. I will not deny that. In all honesty, I will probably never make a single mission for it, however. It just requires everyone to own a machine that won't be around until well after OFP2 anyways in order for a decent number of units for medium battles and scenarios (around 100-200 units).

Single add-on packs work well too... especially if they are designed around that island.

----

P.S. about that TAG and what NX can do --

for those that do not know (OFPEC is down)

from OFPEC:

Quote[/b] ]

OFP Tags must:

Be 3 to 5 letters long.

Contain only alphanumeric upper case characters. The first letter must be alphabetical.

Not be the same as pre-existing tags.

Four and five letter tags must be followed by an underscore, three letter tags can be be followed by an underscore, ie. SNY_MyVariable, SNYMyFunction or OFPEC_MyAddon.pbo. When you don't use an underscore after a three letter tag, you are not allowed to use any underscore in the following identifier, ie. SNYMyVariable or SNY_My_Variable, but not SNYMy_Variable.

In my opinion.. an underscore is not a letter or number and does not count. Whoever registered USMC (or USMC_) first should have the TAG. In all truth, the TAG system is honor only and mistakes do sometimes happen. It is in your own interest to come to a good,fair decision on what to do about it - between the two of you. No one wants to be seen as greedy or inconsiderate. Vindictiveness and Stubborness aren't looked upon as good qualities in a community based on trust and understanding.

Perhaps you can coordinate a USMC Cooperative? or NX maybe you could undergo a slight name change something like USMC2(probably bad idea) or XUSMC?

[Consigliere 0]

Good post Crashdome, but inevitably, there are a few of your points which I disagree with :

You said it yourself, but I'll confirm it, I don't really think there's much point in having so much water, considering OFP is a land combat sim.

Forest squares are just what they are called ; squares, and this is a real eyesore, especially when you're flying a chopper, and you see these green blocks appear in front of you.

Gaia doesn't have any desert area, nor does it have mountains.

As for the lag issue, well you also said it yourself ; it's playable in MP, but gets laggy in SP. The island was created to complement the Wargames Addon pack, or vice versa, and the WG Addon Pack was designed to be used in Wargame League matches : MP.

[NZXSHADOWS 0]

All I have to say one this TAG issue is that I WILL Be using it like this "USMC_AAVP7A1"Far as I know the underscore is not valid.it only states the 4 to 5 letter tags must be FOLLOWED by an underscore.Heres the rules,

Tag Rules

OFP Tags must:

Be 3 to 5 letters long.

Contain only alphanumeric upper case characters. The first letter must be alphabetical.

Not be the same as pre-existing tags.

Four and five letter tags must be followed by an underscore, three letter tags can be be followed by an underscore, ie. SNY_MyVariable, SNYMyFunction or OFPEC_MyAddon.pbo. When you don't use an underscore after a three letter tag, you are not allowed to use any underscore in the following identifier, ie. SNYMyVariable or SNY_My_Variable, but not SNYMy_Variable.

I dont think and underscore counts as a number.

If I am in the right,Than I have no problem shareing the USMC tag.Im not communist,But If Im in the wrong than oh well,I will cut my loses and get on with something else,No big deal.

[Consigliere 0]

"Quote (Cuntsigliere @ Dec. 15 2003,03:03)

Jeez...Grow the f*ck up, NZXSHADOWS! "

Truly commendable, NZXSHADOWS

That really showed me!

[AngusHeaf 0]

On the topic of tag prefixes....

This whole thing is stupid. Play more OFP, make more missions, and think less about ultimately worthless arguments like who called dibs on some letters. Hell it's not like anyone has even run into some conflict yet. Furthermore, I doubt anyone will ever say "is your usmc_ pbo related to usmc_gaia? that island was shit!" because let's face it, if you're going to be confused with someone, at least be glad you're confused with quality. Hehe. Let it go, time will work out all problems. But enough of that subject....

Water.... I tend to agree that the area around the edge of the island is a bit tight. Will it ruin my day? Eh, probably not. It's a shame that scaling the mission up to the next size would have lagged the hell out of it because it would be nice to have a few little islands out there and more room in the coastal water to navigate. Btw, what does GPS say when you're "off the map"? I've never tried it.

Performance... Everything in gaming is a trade off and a trade off based on audiance. Realism needs to be balanced against playability, detail needs to be balanced against speed, depth needs to be balanced against size, etc etc. As a player I would probably find myself not caring much about AI because coop doesn't really float my boat. But that's where audience comes in. Ultimately it's up to the mission maker to try to balance them against his own tastes and the tastes of those he's trying to please. And as they say, you can't please everyone all of the time.

Terrain... I'm very happy to see an island that doesn't try to do it all in one small island. I'd like to see more islands that were very consistant in their theme and such. There's obviously a benefit to a certain audience to have varied and oft slightly unrealistic terrain types all in the same area. But again, that all depends on who you are.

Names... If you feel the need to take out your frustration with the naming on the island, please feel free to level that stinky trailor park Phaeden named after me, Heaf Estates. Hehehehe.

[xawery 0]

*Edit* for below: Of course I know. But, have you ever known someone/yourself been in the military? There ARE commanders who would do just that. Sort of like the kid in school who screams murder when someone runs in the halls.

As a matter of fact, this has little to do with what is and isn't allowed. Driving a tank through a forest that is moderately dense (not like the 'forests' near Modrava on Nogova) simply isn't possible: you may knock over the first few trees, but eventually they will get entangled in the following trees, resulting in a heap of wood and leaves you will NOT drive through with tank.

Just to clarify: a pic (marvel at my Adobe skills! woohoo!)

Thankfully, the forests on Gaia are not that dense. And they're a hell of a lot prettier than the blocky grids on standard islands.

Good show!

regards,

X.

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

I finally added this island to my server and everyone agrees that it is magnificent. I created a couple of Specops CTF missions, one in Kamai City and the other in the harbor town to the SE. Both of those run ok, although the Kamai one can get a bit lagged.

I then created a CTF mission with tanks (actually it's a copy of one that I made for Ackropolis) and placed it in the Lower SE area of the map near Crassus field, etc. The mission was unplayable. It worked great whilst testing it by myselft, but in MP we were all pausing every couple of seconds. The game would literally freeze up. I'm not sure why it would do that. When it wasn't frozen it seemed that the FPS were decent. Maybe the game was calculating which trees were knocked over or something. There are a TON of trees down there. I have a P4-3gz 1GB RAM and a Radeon 9800, so my machine is about as maxed as it can be. I also turned my quality settings down, and turned off shadows just to see if that mattered, but it didn't. Does anyone else have any suggestions as to the cause of this?

A suggestion for Kamai City--the city is excellent, but all of those little dogwood trees could probably be removed and the city would still be beautiful, and it might cut down on some lag too. Overall there's a few too many trees. Also, some of those skyscrapers were destroyed by one bullet from an M4 ACOG. Are they all ags buildings? If so, the armor values on them should be very high, IMHO, because it would take a lot to destroy a skyscraper. Would it be possible to make some sort of "elevator" script built into those skyscrapers so a person could get onto the roof? Note, that I'm not talking about being able to climb a ladder to the top, or anything that would make the buildings enterable. I think it'd be cool to have a script which would sort of simulate taking an elevator up there. I could make one myself, but it'd be a pain to do it for each and every building when something could be built into the addon itself.

Anyway, the island looks awesome. I hope to find more playable areas on it. Unfortunately flying helos, etc. is probably out of the question in MP because I think many people would be too lagged from that. For infantry it looks great. I'll have to do more testing to see if tank missions are possible.

Oh, and I wish there was a big-arsed ravine on this map, like on Phaeden's Island. That was a great strategy area on that island!

[Consigliere 0]

Meh...Ravines, useful for :...

[crashdome 3]

Consigliere:

Quote[/b] ]You said it yourself, but I'll confirm it, I don't really think there's much point in having so much water, considering OFP is a land combat sim.

AngusHeaf:

Quote[/b] ]Water.... I tend to agree that the area around the edge of the island is a bit tight. Will it ruin my day? Eh, probably not.

Looking back it probably wasn't worth me posting.. I will admit that, but it does have SOME worth in it ;)

As far as the comments on beauty vs. lag:

There is nothing like realism and beauty in a sim, but I still stand by my original thought that efficiency and playability are of higher priority. Also, this engine wasn't designed to have forests of stand-alone trees or there wouldn't have been those squares in the first place! I will agree that the squares are ugly, but in my day.. I played games where you were a roaming block of pixels firing little blocks at other blocks in a 2d plane ... and they were fun!! The fact that I can now stand and walk around and shoot in 3d is great. Why would I want to ruin a game if it meant a FPS of 10-15 to be about 1% more realistic? In 10 more years, yes it will probably be standard to have stand-alone trees.

I am sure this discussion could be pounded into the ground, so I will simply say that it is VERY pretty. I enjoy looking at it, but that is about all I can do with it. So therefore it is not fun.

Karrilion: this is probably along the same lines as my AI problem. There is object verifications of some sort that are run in the background that no one short of hacking or BIS themselves can fully understand. All I can say is that large amounts of stand-alone trees (or other objects) are not meant to be (in this realm of technology so far).

Pheadon: I mean no harm at all in your work. I love this island as much as I love Tonal (can't really say which is better if one is). I, however, cannot invest time in making a SP or MP Co-op mission on this island(as Tonal also). I think this island helps us all understand OFP just that much more and was worth every bead of sweat put into this. If I ever have the capability tech-wise and free-time I would definately revisit this island.

[phaeden 0]

I appreciate all of your input. As I have stated, I tried to find the right balance between playablity and "prettiness." I built the island on a middle level PC (by today's standards) and tried to simulate as much lag as possible. I too have a hard time running large battles in the Dark Forest, but I can play this area with infantry in a MP match (up to 16 have been in there with no lag). I did NOT make this island so the the slowest computers could run it with no lag. I did NOT make this island as a naval map. I did NOT make this island with the intent of having massive SP missions on it. I built this island with the focus of having realistic areas in which to engage in MP. Of course, I like single player, and tried to leave some areas that would work extremely well for that purpose, but it was not my focus. I think it boils down to my decision not to try and meet the needs of every player. I fear it would end up looking just like the default islands.

I have played many MP games (up to 18 ppl so far) which included helos, tanks, and infantry. Depending on the area, the time of day, the weather, the fog, and the view distance, I have been able to create nearly lagless maps. It can be done.

As far as forests, I made them (on the majority of the island) to provide enough coverage to hide infantry as they moved to their objects. These sparse areas are also useable by tanks. They can move through them in real life as well as in the game. The thick forests are another story. It is hard to see in them as infantry, and using a tank in there is useless. While it is true (and I know this) that real tanks can't go through forests, I had to make the decision to either use those square forest that came with the game (which I do not like) or create my own forests. If you have been in these areas and don't like them, try this - increase the fog to 70%, set the time for twilight, and increase the weather to near storm level. Then try and hunt some AI or human enemy in there. I really enjoy this part of the island and have had no lag/FPS problems there.

I am sorry to hear that you choose not to play on Gaia. Perhaps you can come on my (or another) server and use one of my missions. Perhaps you will change you mind when you see that play is not only possible, but challenging. Please feel free to contact me (ICQ 27564138) and we can arrange for a meeting.

The buildings in Kamai are all AGS buildings, and unfortunately, have very, very low damage ratings. I am not sure why this is, nor do I know how to fix it. It was another decision I had to make: Use buildings that look good but are made of paper or Use the same little apartment buildings that came with the game.

Regarding the TAG system, I have no problem with him or nayone else using the USMC (in all its derivations). I did not deliberately try to pull the rug from under him in any manner. My apology - no harm was meant.

[nubbin 0]

I too love this island but have trouble with its performance.

I was wondering, (before I actually go ahead an do this, I wanted to see if it would be worth it) if I cut out a piece of this island that I really like (the big city and suburb in the middle) and put it on a 128 * 128 island, (which is much smaller than the 256 * 256 island its currently on) Do you think it will play more smoothly? Or will it not really make a difference because those areas are still crowded anyway?

any thoughts?

[cornhelium 0]

Wow - this is beautiful.

Just had a quick look around and love the close mix of pines and deciduous trees - very "New England"!

The cities/ports are fantastic. Awesome for sniper & spec ops missions

One small problem - when I come out of the mission editor back to the main OFP menu screen with Gaia loaded as the island, I get this error message:

Could not load mission: missing addon wgl_men_200, wgl_wep_200, wgl_veh_200

I'm running 2.01 full install with 1.94b exe. No other addons.

Thanks Phaeden & Co.