OFP2 documentation & event handlers

[baddo 0]

Here's a few of the many points that have popped into my mind during the years with OFP:

1. DOCUMENTATION

In the software industry companies tend to release products without proper documentation or sometimes, practically without useful documentation at all. Why not BIS be a good example and release OFP2 with full documentation for the mission editor (not like the crap that came with OFP1, with all respect to whoever made that...) and for the scripting language, including full list of actions and animations and how to use them etc... stuff what the community had to figure out for OFP1 with little or no help at all from BIS.

The command reference should also include information of how commands behave in multiplayer environment.

Generally everything that can be used in mission editing should be properly documented and released to the public by BIS with the game. Why? Because there is a mission editor in the game. Is there...?

And because the quality of the product skyrockets if it has proper documentation with it.

I am not asking to include documentation for addon creating, that's probably too much to ask. But it wouldn't hurt either.

2. EVENT HANDLERS

Mission designers should be able to select the visibility of each event handler. In other words one should be able to choose if the event handler should be executed globally, locally or only in the server.

3. 'DISCONNECTED' EVENT HANDLER

An event handler which detects if a player has disconnected from a multiplayer game session would be a really handy one. It could be used to delete the disconnected player's unit or anything else the mission designer wants.

Deleting units left behind by disconnected players could also be done with a setting in the description.ext file or equivalent. Like a boolean variable deleteDisconnected = true/false. This method should not exclude the 'disconnected' event handler.

[Fork122 0]

I think BIS has actually helped alot with the mission editor and addon making.  Their Command Reference Guide is what I learned basic mission making from and the tutorials for O2 are very helpful for starting out.  In my opinion, if they just keep doing what they've already done, that'll be way more than what I expect from most game developers.

I'd rather download a tutorial off the internet and have a file of it on my hard drive rather than having some bulky paperback manual.  Nowadays most games that come with manuals are more expensive, I'd rather have a free digital copy of a manual than have a paper manual I had to pay for.

[hardrock 1]

It may be a bit offtopic, but an updated version of the BIS comref with lots of additional information about scripting, usage of the commands and performance tweaking is to come. It will be a sort of documentation, covering many aspects in OFP's scripting language and filling the gaps that were left in the official ComRef like lack of/bad explanation of different commands.

[baddo 0]

@ Fork122

With documentation I meant (sorry for not stating it clearly) that the game package should include (should have been included for OFP1) the command reference and a proper guide for the mission editor in digital form (it's still documentation). That is a fair expectation for a game that has a mission editor and a big part of mission editing can be done with the scripting language. And I really do not want paper copies of the command reference or tutorials.

Of course I am happy with what BIS has given to us to this date. But because they are professionals they know they should have released proper documentation at the first place, regarding the mission editor and the scripting language, not addon creating. My guess is that they ran out of time and resources with the documentation side when doing OFP1 and I hope it will not be the case for OFP2. As I already said, BIS could be a good example for other software companies in how to document their products.

@ hardrock

Will that updated version of the command reference be an unofficial version? Well anyway that's good news to all of us and I am looking forward to seeing it. Great!

[hardrock 1]

Will that updated version of the command reference be an unofficial version?

Yes, totally new, only based on the official one (the content that is).