Post your OFP nigglies

[General Barron 0]

A 'niggly' is a small annoyance that you run into alot. I'd like to hear those little things that annoy people about OFP, that you wish some mod (like the ECP) would fix. Please limit them to thing that could possibly be solved using the current game engine, and also things that would not require a new addon to implement (i.e. 'multiple turrets' is sorta fixable, but there is no way to implement them into existing addons).

Usually mods (ecp included) tend to take on BIG things, like improved AI, new explosion effects, etc. However, I'm sure there are lots of LITTLE things that haven't been addressed, that should be. Well, that should be enough clarification, so I'll post my nigglies:

1) AI men can't seem to see beyond like 200m, or hear beyond like 100m. For example: if you are attacking one side of a small base (a couple hundred meters in diameter or so), the enemies on the other side of the base act as if nothing is going on. They keep their weapons on their back, or they just stand there.

2) AI choppers very rarely target men on the ground. If anyone has tried editing with chopper air support, you would know what I'm talking about. You have to try some funky stuff with reveal and dotarget to even get close to what you want.

3) Men don't attack choppers, by default. Many addons are targetable by ground units, but not the BIS ones.

4) The sounds are really, REALLY weak. If someone is shooting at you from 300m away, the only way you can tell is if you see the bullet hit the ground. Even with a DR addon, many sounds are still too quiet.

5) Similar to #1. If you shoot at the AI, but miss and hit the dirt in front of them, they don't seem to notice (unless it is very close to them). Makes sniping even easier.

6) You can't run as fast with a pistol, or unarmed, as you can with a rifle.

7) Also similar to #1. You can drive a truck or other vehicle really close to an enemy base without them even noticing, even though they have a direct line of sight to you.

Well, that's all I can think of right now. So how about yours?

[mr reality 0]

Are yo a mind reader General Barron.As all of your suggestions are my main "niggles" .I suppose i could say my main "niggle" in one word...AI.I realy hate it when there is two or more "west" groups attacking a town but if one of them is in trouble they wont come over to help out the others if there field of view is blocked by a hill.Which leads to your suggestion about the view and hearing distance.

[BoweryBaker 0]

I agree. Another thing is, its assumed everyone has a radio. If i scrape up against a building you won't hear nothing. Running through walls. Can't be on a moving object. Can't do a drive by. Can't arrest people. Can't flatten some tires on some vehicles. Not many breakable windows. Wack damage models. Inconstant speed rates in different poses. No knife usage. No timed grenades.

[Ironsight 1]

Gun on plane not traversable/moveable

[Rudedog 0]

1. Support call only works for AI in MP.

2. Very few MP missions for community-made addons.

I'll post more as I remember them.

[sanctuary 19]

Quote[/b] ]1) AI men can't seem to see beyond like 200m, or hear beyond like 100m.

You can solve this problem with some mission editor workaround. But unfortunately if the mission is not using any workaround for this , without editing it the AI will not see very far (while M2 Gunners and some other soldiers can engage and kill you from awesome distances)

Quote[/b] ]2) AI choppers very rarely target men on the ground.

It is very different from time to time, i remember having seen my squad being annhilated by a chopper when moving from a forest to another, while sometime we are ignored in the exact same mission, strange issue i don't really understand why it is occuring.

Quote[/b] ]3) Men don't attack choppers, by default.

Usually machingunners will open fire against chopper, but the other soldiers will not (minus the AA soldiers of course).

The situation is worse with armored vehicles , no AI (minus the AT/LAW/RPG soldiers) will open fire .

Even if they have no chance to destroy it , it would have been interesting to simulate desesperate soldiers.

Quote[/b] ]The sounds are really, REALLY weak.

I think (never tried myself) it can be fixed by making a sound pack with higher volumes for the shot samples.

A problem that is occuring is when you do not hear shots near you but can hear shots from the other side of the island .

But this problem seems related to the scripting, as it happens a very lot in CTI but never in some other gametypes.

Quote[/b] ]5) Similar to #1. If you shoot at the AI, but miss and hit the dirt in front of them, they don't seem to notice

Isn't this normal according to the skill level of the AI ?

High level skilled AI seems to have no problem returning fire when i miss. While low level skilled AI sometime would not see an elephant at 10 meters and are very forgiving about your missed shots.

Quote[/b] ]6) You can't run as fast with a pistol, or unarmed, as you can with a rifle.

My main problem with OFP actually, very very annoying problem in some of my missions, i really hope this problem will be fixed.

And i will add that i don't like the fact a soldier can sprint (i am not talking about joggin) all his way through an island without having to stop due to being tired and exhausted.

Quote[/b] ]7) Also similar to #1. You can drive a truck or other vehicle really close to an enemy base without them even noticing

Isn't this related to the skill level of an AI too ?

High skilled AI do not really tolerate an enemy driving very near their bases

[HotShot 0]

Group no. Limit (69 is it?), and that damn cursor bug, where you have to alt-tab out to fix, but it takes about 20 try's to Alt tab back to desktop succesfully

[General Barron 0]

Ok, I guess I wasn't clear about what I meant in the topic.

I know that many of these problems can be solved; the point is, I want to hear what problems others notice, and then I want to solve them in the ECP (so you can play any mission with those problems solved; not just certain ones using certain scripts/addons).

For example, you can extend the AI view/hearing distance via the game config, you can make timed grenades via scripting (they are in the ECP already), etc. But like I said, the point of the thread was to point out those little annoyances, so that mods (like the ECP) can fix them.

So things like non-traversable guns on aircraft are truly annoying for addonmakers I'm sure (though an akward scripted workaround could be done). But I was looking more for things that most likely could be fixed within the existing game engine.

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

Ok, now some replies:

Quote[/b] ]Inconstant speed rates in different poses.

Can you clarify this?

Quote[/b] ]My main problem with OFP actually, very very annoying problem in some of my missions, i really hope this problem will be fixed.

And i will add that i don't like the fact a soldier can sprint (i am not talking about joggin) all his way through an island without having to stop due to being tired and exhausted.

It is a very easy problem to fix, and when I finish, I will definately post the files for others to use themselves. As for sprinting (or even jogging) across the entire island with full combat gear; yeah, its unrealistic, but just try playing a mission in 'walk' mode (press 'F' on the keyboard), and you will see that playability goes WAY down when you suddenly have to spend 30+ minutes walking 3k towards your objective. I'll take gameplay over realism on this one, because I don't have the 8+ hours to sit in front of my computer that real military operations take .

Quote[/b] ]Isn't this related to the skill level of an AI too

Yeah, lots of things are related to the skill of the AI, but IMO, the 'view ability' of a 0 skill AI is WAY too low. Like you said yourself, sometimes a low skill AI would not see an elephant at 10 meters. It seems to me that the skill slider shouldn't go below reasonable human levels of vision.

Quote[/b] ]Usually machingunners will open fire against chopper

Really? I know many addon choppers are targetted by mgunners, but I could have sworn that the BIS choppers weren't.... I guess I'll have to take another look.

Quote[/b] ]The situation is worse with armored vehicles , no AI (minus the AT/LAW/RPG soldiers) will open fire .

Even if they have no chance to destroy it , it would have been interesting to simulate desesperate soldiers.

Actually, if there was a way to target the tank's viewports, optics, etc, this might be useful. Actually, that could possibly be implemented in a new addon, I would think (perhaps with invisible models for the AI to target). But I'd rather see the AI try to run away, the way things are.

Quote[/b] ]A problem that is occuring is when you do not hear shots near you but can hear shots from the other side of the island .

Ahh yes, I remember the CoC was talking about this when they released UA. Basically the sound levels don't drop realistically according to distance. Now, I wonder if this could be fixed with post-processing effects, in a manner similar to Kegety's DXDLL? THAT would be an amazing change to OFP, along the magnatude of reflective water! I would have no idea how to do this, but if Kegety or somebody with the right knowlege could pop in here and let us know...

[Junker 0]

Quote[/b] ]1) AI men can't seem to see beyond like 200m, or hear beyond like 100m.

I use Jam Units, The Machine gunners like to shoot from 500+ m

Quote[/b] ]2) AI choppers very rarely target men on the ground.

BAS little birds(GUNS) love to shoot ground units.

My only niggle is the lack of support for making missions in the editor, No instructions or references came with the game had to rely on the public heavily for this.

[Placebo 28]

Being crouched and then changed to standing up whenever you pick something up, I think that's the only thing that really bugged me

Some things I wouldn't personally class as niggles when they can be fixed so simply, for example double cursor, that can be simply fixed in a multitude of ways, it's as niggly as saying I hate it when I sneeze and my T-shirt gets all gooey, put your hand over your mouth, no brainer

[HotShot 0]

double cursor, that can be simply fixed in a multitude of ways

How do you do that? If i put the cursor up off screen sometimes it works, but that's all i've found?

[Scud 0]

Quote[/b] ]Being crouched and then changed to standing up whenever you pick something up, I think that's the only thing that really bugged me

Another one is not being able to crouch if no weapon. Its either prone or stand no in between.

[mr burns 131]

double cursor, that can be simply fixed in a multitude of ways

How do you do that? If i put the cursor up off screen sometimes it works, but that's all i've found?

the refresh rate in your ofp options must be higher than in windows settings.

only when you set both refresh rates equally the double curser will appear.

edit: the only nigglie i can think of is the missing w-buffer with newer video cards, that´s all.

[void_false 1]

...when u leave some vehicle lights go off automatically.

...when u eject a vehicle it's engine goes off too. (hell yeah i've seen too much holywood's movies )

...when u r holding RPG/LAW and suddenly enemy soldier pops up, yr character slooooowly starts to put his launcher on back and sloooowly takes his rifle in a hand. same goes for binocular. This makes me mad in MP.

and the most annoying thing is that u cant unflip vehicles

[the_shadow 0]

that most vehicles (especially tracked ones) seem to hover about 2-5cm above the ground..

[Lupus-WD- 0]

I'd talk about the proportions of the humans as compared to vehicles and especially aircraft, but well, would take a TC to fix.

Maybe it could gice some idea to ppl making Total conversion mods like WGL, CSLA, FDF. Who knows.

(In other words, looks like vehicles and humans are not at the same scale... midgets in helicopters for instance)

[tankieboy 0]

FIBUA.

Fighting In Built Up Areas.

Nightmare with human players. A joke with AI.

AI's legs sticking out of walls, running through walls, etc is far from fun.

Basicly any combat in a town or village is not do-able in OFP.

Another point. Lack of a forth MBT crew member (Loader/Operator) for those tanks simulated from R/L that have them. DKM worked around by having a cargo (Thanks DKM), but its far from real life. Also, Commander on the right and Gunner on the left of the turret of BIS MBT's! What is that about!

[Scud 0]

Quote[/b] ]Lupus[WD]

I'd talk about the proportions of the humans as compared to vehicles and especially aircraft, but well, would take a TC to fix.

Not wrong there, planes are not too bad but I am doing three choppers atm and I have had to scale up or stretch the birds to fit the correct number of ppl in.

As I always said, the ppl in Ofp have such big butts.

[Lupus-WD- 0]

Quote[/b] ]Lupus[WD]

I'd talk about the proportions of the humans as compared to vehicles and especially aircraft, but well, would take a TC to fix.

Not wrong there, planes are not too bad but I am doing three choppers atm and I have had to scale up or stretch the birds to fit the correct number of ppl in.

As I always said, the ppl in Ofp have such big butts.

huh... i said the opposite actually

the humans are midgets in the helicopters if you use the scale that's recommended of one grid unit for one meter.

first off there's something wrong with the cranium volume in the cockpit. then almost all helmets are made too "thin"... and the general proportions of the humans are weird, a little like they are stretched to the right size but the volumes are still too small.

If you dont understand what i mean, search the web for different photos of helo pilots in their cockpits and compare with their ofp counterparts...

[benreeper 0]

You've found most of them.

What I would like is more combat chatter.

--Ben

[Lupus-WD- 0]

Isnt it weird that you can shout "6 move to..." when hiding in a bush 5 meters away from an ennemy and that he cant hear you ? :P

Now if it was possible, that would be cool if issuing orders or using voice command ('injured', 'under fire'...) would increase the detection factor for AI's, and if humans could hear them. but well, maybe it's a bit too much to ask

And while you're at it implementing easy stuff, add a new voice mode (color). a silent one with no text caption but only hand signals easy to implement isnt it... dream on, dream on

[Scud 0]

Quote[/b] ]the humans are midgets in the helicopters if you use the scale that's recommended of one grid unit for one meter.

when building to the 1 metre scale I find you can not fit the right amount of units into the set cargo space.

So I always fing the units too big.

Maybe its just how you look at it

[ebns72 0]

My biggest annoyance is not being able to walk around in moving vehicles. Sucks when you walk into a c130 taking off and it slips out from underneath you.

Also, ai and CQB is really annoying too. I hate it when I am laying down a blanket of supressing fire and one of my dumb squadmates runs right into my field of fire.

[cain2001 0]

#1 The netcode aint made to send many small packets at the same time = doubble kills

#2 Filecheckers are always giving everyone modified files

#3 OFP Gaming Community have totally been killed, No good maps to play, no good players, you find a game and get kicked off.

#4 The missing support for OFP Clanwars gameing, (recording possibillty, spectating and official tournaments,leagues)

These are what effectis me when i play ofp, stuff like ais shooting through 500meter woods is something i just choose to avoid = no problemo ;)

[DanAK47 1]

Trying to aim at something far away and your iron sights can only move left to right 2-3 pixels at a time, so you can't get centered on the target.

MGs useless on full auto (but this can be fixed with addons).

Quote[/b] ]#3 OFP Gaming Community have totally been killed, No good maps to play, no good players, you find a game and get kicked off.

Partially agree. I can't seem to find a game anywhere that isn't playing CTI or Hexenkessle. They get kind of old after a while.. What happened to all the C&H maps?