DMA LIBYA

[akd 0]

Well, here's an idea: look just to right below and in front of the central dome, partially obscured by the crenallation along the front wall. Looks like the exit for a stairwell. What if you built an enclosed stairwell with an external exit along the right wall of the first story porch, back behind the columns?Doors to other stories in the stairwell could be nonfunctioning. That would provide realistic access to roof without need for modelling the actual interior of the building.

[Kyle_K_ski 1]

Honchoblack,

Here's something that I can't recall ever seeing featured in a major way in an OFP game: a cemetary. Not only would it create a more believable environment, but it would also supply a potentially very "spooky" location, especially if it's modeled after a now infamous hilly cemetary in Iraq.

I've posted below a link that goes into some depth regarding an actual battle that took place at a mammoth cemetary in Najaf. I first heard about it on a piece done by "60 Minutes," a Sunday news program. The footage that they showed depicted an absolutely massive and fairly clausterphobic cemetary surrounded on all sides by building complexes. It's a huge collection of one brick grave marker and tomb after another. The soldiers they interviewed described what could only have been a nightmarish hell, as all the combatants were ducking in/out, and around the graves. While the graveyard was set on hilly terrain, the cemetary itself frequently had staircases that followed the contours of the land. Some of the tombs were quite large, and sat upon thick and broad staired foundations.

The link below is pretty comprehensive in regards to supplying info, pics and videos, although the game play elements that are also featured look pretty thin to me.

Perhaps some of the tombs could be blown open, revealing some horrid remains, and simultaneously creating areas where one could find some horrific cover and concealment.

Here's the link: http://www.kumawar.com/Najaf/globalheadlines.php

Let me know if you think that this could be a possibility.

By the way, will the AI be able to gain access on their own to the buildings that have ladders and stairs? Will they also be able to use these means of movement to leave an elevated area?

And a fairly unrelated question regarding AI that I'm hoping you'll know the answer to any way: why is that the AI that are using emplaced machineguns never leave their posts, and/or otherwise seem unable to bring the weapon about towards their flanks? I'd be happy if they were even smart enough to let go of the emplaced weapon just so they can bring an assault weapon to bear on enemies who are too close to them to effectively use the heavy weapons against--when the area was cleared of the immediate and close ranged threat, they'd go back to using the emplaced weapons. Just call me "curious."

Yours,

Kyle

.

[Kyle_K_ski 1]

One other thing I had wanted to mention...

The Libya map might gain some variety by adding 2-3 tropical oasis, of varying sizes. It'd be nice to have an environment where there's the possibility to get caught up in engagements where there's some thick vegetation for concealment, and tree trunks for cover. The water present at the oasis could be very shallow, but it wouldn't hurt to make parts of it deep enough to act as a tactical consideration since the player and AI couldn't move through it.

[ag_smith 0]

By the way, will the AI be able to gain access on their own to the buildings that have ladders and stairs? Will they also be able to use these means of movement to leave an elevated area?

Yes, the AI is able to run up the stairs to access some balconys, if they're told to do it by player (or special script, for that matter). They won't go there by themselves, unfortunately. They might be able to climb the ladders, however I doubt they'll stay on top. That's just their hard-coded behavior. Same goes for AI using emplaced machineguns. I could imagine it might be possible to solve this by some complex scripting, but other than that, it's an another game engine limitation.

[su27 0]

The island is beautiful, it was a pleasure to take my boys into Land Rover and just ride through those great looking cities. I showed them ruins, ports, airfield

However, in Afghanistan, in capture/kill leader missions, very often terrorists didn't go out of the city. I had to enter the city and i had the same feeling as when i saw "Blackhawk Down" for the first time. I was really afraid to go there

In Bleed for Oil street fighting is very rare. Most of the time enemy is running towards attacking SAS, emptying the city. It's a pity because those cities are ideal for CQB

Also, bodies disappear too fast. Few times i run out of ammo and i wanted to grab dead enemy's gun. I couldn't because all bodies disappeared faster than i could get to it

BTW: Poor SAS, they have so few weapons, no silenced guns, no other assault gun but sa80, even Polish special forces have more

BTW2: There should be an option to remember/save squad weapon configuration, it's a little annoying to send them one by one to ammo crate

[honchoblack 2]

Su27, thank you regarding your feedback regarding the Libya island and feedback on the Bleed mission.

Your observation regarding the behaviour of the terrorist regarding the capture the leader mission is true. I unfortunatly used the "homing" squads on the SAS, which I shouldnt have. And the time regarding the deleting of the dead units is not very well picked. I also prefer the way I implemented it in the Dynamic Afghanistan missions, where the units are deleted once the player resets the mission at the CO at base (or by radio).

Regarding the loadout of the SAS/Paras, I wanted to use as limited addons as possible, since I use alot in the mission already.

Since you enjoy the cities so much, you will like the update alot, since AG Smith was so kind to create very interesting city buildings which are AI usable (if ordered, they dont use it on their own). So I reworked both cities and added a new on in the desert, which features a complete new set of buildings.

On the next mission for the island I will address the issues that you have with the Bleed mission, and change it accordingly.

[sanctuary 19]

On capture the leader mission type, ('raid' type of mission) , on both Bleed for oil and templates, the enemy is wandering around randomly without going to the player squad position (unless you are unlucky of course).

[honchoblack 2]

Strike the "homing squad" from above, Sanctuary knows the template I used for the Bleed mission by heart, and I just checked for the Bleed mission and he is right.

The difference to the dynamic afghanistan missions raid mission is, that the enemy squads wander less than in the bleed mission. This could lead to the deserted cities you witnessed.

So I am mistaken about the homing squads (the homing does occur on the merc mission though, so beware).

[su27 0]

I have just finished another "Enemy presence in the city". As usual, my squad wiped out 3 or 4 enemy squads running almost 500m away from the city. The city was clear.

What i'm saying is my general impression. An impression that in Afghanistan there was more frightening street close combats. The enemy was waiting for me there, on the streets AND around the city. In Lybia the enemy attacks you before you get to the city and thats all, no more terrorists on the streets. You can go home.

[honchoblack 2]

I will look into it, since the city fights will be the most interesting battles once I release the udpate of the map, thanks to the new buildings and new city layouts.

[su27 0]

Another mission. Capture the terrorist leader.

He was in old ruins. This time i tried to get silently close to target area so i took jeeps and unmounted my boys about 2km's from ruins. About 800m from target my squad did quite a massacre shooting to 3 terrorist groups running through the wide open terrain below the ruins. Fourth enemy squad appeared suddenly right before walls making some trouble to my machinegunner but when i finally get into the walls and enter the ruins there was nobody but the terrorist leader alone.

"They learned combat from Star Wars Storm Troopers" said my medic fixing wounded MG operator.

I remember a few missions in DF and VDV Afghanistan when i lost half of the squad trying to get into the center of the city fighting against hidden snipers at every corner.

These were unforgetable moments that reminded me why i love OFP. After Afghanistan i'm a little bit disappointed with Libia city combat

P.S.Which side of the road am i supposed to ride my british landrover?

p.s.2 How can i abort mission? I was ordered to kill a leader but i can't find him. After killing whole bunch of rebels around and within the terrorist base i searched area for target but no luck. Now i can't go further in Lybia

[su27 0]

I probably found a bug. The mission purpose was to save crashed pilots. I wasn't able to save them, i killed all enemies but the pilots were dead. I called for extraction and returned to base. Now i can't get another mission because my CO tells me i failed the last one. I can't save and can't take free SAS mission. I'm stuck.

[honchoblack 2]

Yes its a bug, to solve it a little work is involved, unpbo the bleed mission, and look for the missionchoice.sqs in the "mission" folder of the Bleed mission.

Open it up and scroll down to #misfailed, then add the following, replacing everything down to goto "end"

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">#misfailed

titletext ["You failed your mission ! Get out of my sight.", "PLAIN"]

~0.2

support=support+20

valuelv=valuelv-1

assignated = 0

miscom = 0

~0.2

misfail = 0

~0.2

[] exec "mission\purge.sqs"

goto "end"

assignated = 0

miscom = 0

misfail = 0

is what is missing in the release version of the mission, these lines are needed to reset your status to nomission nonelost and completed

Or download this fixed missionchoice.sqs and substitute it in the unpboed mission folder in the subfolder "mission"

http://s63.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=26J15ZP0N07RT0KD6ZPOHT0BDK

Now either play it in the editor, or save it as usermission and load your last gamesave.

[sanctuary 19]

We don't make mistakes here, we just have happy accidents.

-Bob Ross

[su27 0]

Thanks for the help with bug, it works well now.

I changed one of the MG jeeps into a UKF Warrior, it seems strange that British forces in such a dangerous place don't have any armored vehicles. They should learn from US experiences in Mogadishu, right?

Another question: Where can I increase amount of time after which bodies disappear? It seems a little bit unnatural that the dead bodies go away so quickly, also I can't use dead enemies weapons. The best way would be to clean area after extraction or right after reporting completed mission.

EDIT: Something is still wrong. One rescue mission went well but another was broken. Pilots were dead but HQ congratulated me and told me to secure their extraction and nothing more happened. Mission is in progress but there is no further moves from HQ. Im stuck again.

EDIT2: Also, I noticed that troop order in reinf.sqs is different than in spawnteam.sqs so if you lost your medic, suring reinforcement you'll get ordinary soldier instead.

[sanctuary 19]

Quote[/b] ]Another question: Where can I increase amount of time after which bodies disappear? It seems a little bit unnatural that the dead bodies go away so quickly, also I can't use dead enemies weapons. The best way would be to clean area after extraction or right after reporting completed mission.

If honchoblack didn't changed this from the templates, you can expand or disminish the time by changing the delay of each "cleaning" scripts located in the eventhan folder of the mission.

If you want to experiment without the killed eventhandler that delete dead units after a while, you can just edit all the spawn scripts that are located in the spawnterror folder of the mission

And there, for each created units, just remove the part

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">this addeventhandler [{killed} , {_this exec {eventhan\cleanupUS.sqs}}]

or

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">this addeventhandler [{killed} , {_this exec {eventhan\cleanup.sqs}}]

or

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">this addeventhandler [{killed} , {_this exec {eventhan\cleanupfree.sqs}}]

or

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">this addeventhandler [{killed} , {_this exec {eventhan\cleanupdefend.sqs}}]

or

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">this addeventhandler [{killed} , {_this exec {eventhan\cleansf.sqs}}]

from the files (i am talking about the SP templates, no idea what exactly Honchoblack added or modified there when converting it to Bleed for Oil)

There is , along the killed eventhandler, a purge script that is running when you are in the base, i add it there just in the case the eventhandler "miss" someone that is dead (that can occur sometime).

But consider that i added the "delete dead bodies after a delay" feature to prevent lags in some of the missions.

You have certainly noticed how all the mission is running lag free despite the amount of fights you can have , that is because of scripts tricks like this one.

Without it and counting only on the base purge would lead you to see lags in some missions like the 'defend' mission and the 'free mission' that involve hundred and virtually infinite of opponents (thanks to some script trick), hundred and virtually infinite dead bodies staying until you get to the base for the purge script to be running would be enough to produce lots of lag.

(and add in this the presence of civilians in some missions)

Hopefully, minus those 2 big scales missions, the other kind of missions should stay lag free even without the delete dead body script, but with the global purge at base.

[gatordev 219]

Forgive what is probably a simple answer to my question, but how do you make the Mapfact oil addons animate? I saw the one post from Commando that all you have to do is call the script in the init field of something, but I'm not quite sure how the syntax works. I just don't understand what you're calling based off the readme. I see the name of the command, but not sure how it gets implemented ("MAP_oa_pumpOn" for example). Also, when using this, will it turn all the pumps on at once, or do you turn each one on individually through ids? I'm sure this is OFP basics, but it seems to be above me right now.

[honchoblack 2]

the animations has to be started for each object seperatly, which means that you need the ids of all the objects you want to animate.

- OA oil pump

(object number) animate ["Haupt_Anim", 1] moves the "head" of the pump

(object number) animate ["Antr_Anim", 1] Animates the swing wheels

(object number) animate ["Rad1_Anim", 1] Animates Wheel1 (Wheel1 to Wheel3, Rad = Wheel in german)

- oil pump #2

Works like the first pump, Rad2/3_Anim (wheel2 to wheel3) dont exist here.

now start the script in the init of a mission to animate the objects you want, our in any script you call during a mission.

[offtime 0]

damn i will never again use grenades in gas storage facility

@honchoblack

RC1 is super

some Cat's buildings have some geometry issues but its only noticable when you realy start to look for bugs, theres no way it can spoil all the fun this map has to offer

i never knew what fun means when it comes to OFP until i played on this map

[honchoblack 2]

Great, I am glad you enjoy the RC1 of the coming update. I just love to fight the AI in the urban areas, its excellent fun with the variety the new AG Smith have to over (Staircases, roof accessability). I keep running around the island using the GROM units fighting the GMER, libyan soldiers and DMA Euro Res.

I have another trait coming your way, check your pm.

[gatordev 219]

the animations has to be started for each object seperatly, which means that you need the ids of all the objects you want to animate.

Thanks for the reply, Honcho. You knew it was coming, so now for the second question... In the editor, I turned on "Show IDs" but none displayed. I didn't see a list in the readme, so what am I missing? How do I find the IDs for the pumps or wells?

Finally had a chance to sit down and explore the island last night, and wow. Thanks to all the DMA guys for a great addon.

[ag_smith 0]

You have to zoom in really close on the map and then the IDs will show up.

[sanctuary 19]

Be carefull with objects ID

When an island maker is updating an island, those objects ID have the very bad idea to change, breaking scripts that are using them.

In the case of the Lybia island, as hinted previously, Honchoblack is working on a big update for it.

And you can be sure the objects ID will not be the same as in the currently available beta of the Lybia island, and so scripts refering to them in the beta version will not work anymore in the upcoming version.

[gatordev 219]

@ag smith: Okay, I'll look again, more closely this time. Thanks.

@Sanctuary: Fair enough. I'll keep it in mind. I don't know though, is a free island of this quality worth having to update a few scripts? Of course it is! Appreciate the heads up, though.

[gatordev 219]

the animations has to be started for each object seperatly, which means that you need the ids of all the objects you want to animate.

- OA oil pump

(object number) animate ["Haupt_Anim", 1] moves the "head" of the pump

(object number) animate ["Antr_Anim", 1] Animates the swing wheels

(object number) animate ["Rad1_Anim", 1] Animates Wheel1 (Wheel1 to Wheel3, Rad = Wheel in german)

- oil pump #2

Works like the first pump, Rad2/3_Anim (wheel2 to wheel3) dont exist here.

now start the script in the init of a mission to animate the objects you want, our in any script you call during a mission.

Please forgive my ineptitude at this stuff. I'm sure the problem is me, and not anything else, but I'm just not making this happen. Is there a mission somewhere I can download and look at how someone actually did this? I went through the included missions w/ the DMA Release day, but didn't see anything calling these animations. If not, no big deal...it's all eye-candy anyway.