Suursaari Island

[StealthTiger 0]

Looks like Edge came up with feasible explanation since I'm so far able to walk through only one building and that's the brown garage-style hut.

Feasable: Yes.

Although as can be seen above in testing, it made actually made no difference. I assure you everything in my setup is ordinary and I haven't modified it in any way.

[norsu 180]

Edit: As suspected with the quality set at it's lowest and with an fps of 46 I wandered into the large green house...

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/ODB_StealthTiger/inagain.jpg

Now then, this has all taken place in the town of Suurkyla in the NE of the island. I haven't tried this anywhere else, but I imagine that if the same models are used then the issues would appear in the areas too.

Very odd, because I can't run through any houses except that brown reddish garage even with 4x game speed . Also all fences break down when driven over, except those stone walls which will stop the vehicle or slow it down just like BIS' sandbag walls do.

There's probably something wrong with your FDF, Suursaari or OFP install .

[Smartti 1]

I have now been in game again and found that I could run through the majority of the buildings and stone walls - and I've not tried it with time acceleration.

Please don't get this offensive or so, but are you trying to walk through houses? I bet you can walk through any OFP building when conditions are favourable and you try hard and long enough.

Well, I tried that myself and yes I could walk through one brownish fish hut lookalike building. Took a little time to find "the right spot" but after that I could just walk through. Other buildings I tried, didn't give any result of wall breaking. But to be honest, I don't spend time running against buildings when playing, I spend my time more often avoiding the hot heavy metal from Urals meeting my poor virtual soldier. In case you like to discuss about these "building problems" more precisely or have some solutions for them, feel free to PM us (mail/ICQ/MSN works too).

Aaaah slightly off-topic, sorry sorry

Edge: I want to say this in public too, but it is nice to see Suursaari finally "done" and released. Long time project anyway, it's over two years, but is it over three years?

manhunter09: This one is quite realistic presentation of Suursaari island, with buildings placed as they were before WWII. It explains the "emptiness", it was just a island in middle of sea with not too many people. Btw. with little imagination player operated takeoffs should be possible with propeller planes...

[StealthTiger 0]

I am not trying to detract from what is otherwise a great looking island.

I don't normally try and run through buildings whilst playing either. I came across this bug by accident but since noticing it of course I tried it on other buildings. I cannot however replicate this on other islands or BIS stuff. I got inside the buildings quickly and easily, with only what I would consider minimal effort - ie. quick enough to do it in the heat of a MP firefight.

I will point out that I couldn't do this on around 20% of the buildings as a guess.

I wont labour the point any longer.. I just thought you may want to be aware that players/a player was having this issue. I don't know anything about modelling so could not give you an idea of how to solve it I'm afraid.

[Blake 0]

I suggest you reinstall FDF 1.3 then 1.4 and finally Suursaari.

If that doesnt work try to reinstall OFP if you want to go through all that trouble.

[Balschoiw 0]

Tooooooooooooo bad I´m on a crappy Inet connection at home, but I will get it tomorrow and I´m very much looking forward to it.

I think it´s great that there are not much facilities on the map as it always got me a bit tired to see empty bases, deserted villages and such just because there was no use for them in missions or the unitlimit was just about to explode. I do hope it works well for MP. They best thing is that I am currently working on a mission that is extraordinary in setup and goals. I hope I can transport it to the island and finish it soon. WW2 FDF has so much potential but still we mostly see the same concepts over and over again. Time to skip the 1929384´th attack/defend, kill the traitors mission and go for something different.

I´m looking forward to the island ! Nice surprise Edge !

[Edge 2]

@ Feb. 08 2006,18:25)]Edge: I want to say this in public too, but it is nice to see Suursaari finally "done" and released. Long time project anyway, it's over two years, but is it over three years?

My work on Suursaari started long before Visitor was publicly released, so it is relic from those dark but great times of ancient modding, when WrpEdit was the only choice for island makers. My estimation is 3 or more years, I can't quite remember.

In fact, I am really lazy guy - the island was done in two or three months of work time, stretched over extremely long period.

Blake, that was really interesting reading. Making of winter version seems inevitable now.

StealthTiger, I am sorry I cannot help you. Since geometry LODs of FDF buildings seem flawless, and I did not experience anything like you mention on my system (neither did many other people), I assume there is something wrong with your OFP installation.

Balschoiw, thanks for such positive feedback, and I have to say I am really looking forward to the mission. I hope you will benefit from the map of local names we made (in fact, it was idea of SmartDrv, who also bore the burden of spell-checking). Can you reveal something more about your unusual mission?

[StealthTiger 0]

StealthTiger, I am sorry I cannot help you. Since geometry LODs of FDF buildings seem flawless, and I did not experience anything like you mention on my system (neither did many other people), I assume there is something wrong with your OFP installation.

Normally if someone told me I should reinstall my OFP when I don't have any other problems with it - I'd say "Get stuffed!"

But I really want to like this more than I do and my comp didn't like the CiA coop night too much (although I did) which is run on FDF. So, tonight I'll wipe it all and try again .. all for the sake of this one island!

[Edge 2]

Normally if someone told me I should reinstall my OFP when I don't have any other problems with it - I'd say "Get stuffed!"

But I really want to like this more than I do and my comp didn't like the CiA coop night too much (although I did) which is run on FDF. So, tonight I'll wipe it all and try again .. all for the sake of this one island!

Good luck! If it won't work, I'll go and stuff myself...

[-HUNTER- 1]

@ Feb. 08 2006,18:25)]manhunter09: This one is quite realistic presentation of Suursaari island, with buildings placed as they were before WWII. It explains the "emptiness", it was just a island in middle of sea with not too many people. Btw. with little imagination player operated takeoffs should be possible with propeller planes...

Yeah, I didnt check for suitable landing spots for the dakota but when I did fly over the island to check stuff out I saw that the trees and all are nice camoflage for a pair of Harriers under camo netting. Taking off from forest... >>RKSL Gr-7's I cannot wait...

I going to make a large airbase on the island though, because the surrounding nature then would be perfect for what I would like. Nice and calm just one airbase with shelters in woods and stuff like that! For personal use will probally not release it.

Ive been thinking about sniper missions, but I couldnt think of much because there isnt much on the island. I did make 30 resistance guys hold the little town against soviet airborne.

[StealthTiger 0]

Normally if someone told me I should reinstall my OFP when I don't have any other problems with it - I'd say "Get stuffed!"

But I really want to like this more than I do and my comp didn't like the CiA coop night too much (although I did) which is run on FDF. So, tonight I'll wipe it all and try again .. all for the sake of this one island!

Good luck! If it won't work, I'll go and stuff myself...

Well Done!... after an hour + re-installing everything, it seems to be fixed.

For your professional curiosity the only difference in the install was that I installed to 'C:/...Operation Flashpoint' not 'C:/...OperationFlashpoint' (the default on my CWC disc) as I noticed this was your default in your installer.

[the_shadow 0]

im just reading a book about finnish winter war....

and it sais that the russians wanted the island to build a airbase on it just before the war started...

actually, the first chapter of the book sais quite much about Suursaari (or Hogland as it sais in the book)...

but the most interesting is that the russians wanted finland to give them the island so they could build a airbase... or atleast have the permission to build it there (wich finland didnt agree on)

[sputnik monroe 102]

I just downloaded the map, looks very good. I was a bit curious about the running through building bug I've heard mentioned, alas I only found one building that I could do that with...

That seems to be the only building I could run through. I wasn't able to run through fences or any other buildings. Only other bug I got is when I exit a mission or the editor after using the island I get a pop up error that says "Missing addon kegsw44m".

That's all bug wise. I really like the you based the island off of real terrain. I also have been tired of maps that are clutered with ruins and villages that serve no obvious purpose.

Keep up the good work

[Balschoiw 0]

Ok now that I have the island installed and had some helo and jeep recon missions on it to get the right impression I have to say that it´s really very nicely done. Good job !

Eagerly I already started transferring my wip mission to it and found some excellent spots.

But I ran into a weird thing soon after. If you place units with a random placement radius on the map they will always show up in the same spot. It works to an extent in the open, but units placed in woods do not alter their position, even if they have a 200 m placement radius. If there is some space nearby that has no trees and woods the unit will be placed there almost every time. Random placement in woods does not work though.

I do not know if this is a specific Suursaari bug, or an OFP bug in general but it looks like the engine can´t find a spot for the unit within the placement radius and therefore will always place it in the intitial map position or on the next available spot on "free" land. That kind of bugs me as I wanted to have scattered units operating on their own within the woods.

I will try to do it with Game Logics and keep you updated.

You can easily check the flaw by inserting yourself with a 200 m radius in a woods area and placing a second unit ungrouped just in fron of you. You either end up with him or on the next meadow without woods and trees. Odd

Edit:

My old , rotten brain forgot to link you to the thread in mission-editing I had set up about it

Weird random placement problem

Edit 2:

By testing the issue we have found out that it seems to be a bug within the OFP engine itself. Maybe it never surfaced before because your island has a load of woods and forest areas. I will bypass the OFP bug by using markers bound with the units that need to be placed randomly.

[Edge 2]

@the_shadow: I am now playing Finnish campaign in Forgotten Battles, and made some test missions myself in the Gulf of Finland map. Even from this game, it is clear that airbase on Suursaari would help Soviets a lot.

Speaking of history, I wish to know what happened to the island after it became part of USSR. Some sources say there is some military detachment and meteorological station, the lighthouses seem to be functional (according to naval charts), but nobody knows what happened to the settlements. I assume they were left uninhabited and changed similarly as German villages in Czech Sudetendland after WW2...

Soviets had airstrips on Seskar and Moschnyi (both to the east from Suursaari), if you look at Google Earth, they still seem to be there. I wonder why they didn't build there an airbase after WW2?

@Sputnik Monroe: It is really strange what could be missed during island development... The building does not have proper geometry LODs, which I found just after release. I hope next patch of FDF Mod will fix this building. I ahve used this model because its modern version has some traffic signs on it and wouldn't fit too good.

@Balschoiw: This is really interesting. I went through the thread you mentioned and I saw Sanctuary suggested solution via script, so I hope your mission is not entirely lost.

Maybe this is not "bug" but some intention by developers in BI, made because AI could be lost in the forest square objects where AI movement is realized along the pathways... However, this looks rather "bug-like".

[Balschoiw 0]

Quote[/b] ] so I hope your mission is not entirely lost.

Not at all

It´s only things like that, that make me curious on why they don´t work and I spend a lot of time on testing and trying. It´s only a little thingy but if those thingies don´t work I sometimes end up trying houres just to get it work. For the mission itself it´s not really important which solution I do it. If the placement radius in editor doesn´t work I can use the scripted method or the grouped with marker method. It´s just that I literally bite in the problem and want to understand why it doesn´t work. I got a similar problem right now. I use the drop command to make blooddrops. It´s just for eycandy on a certain spot, but I want to have it in so I spend much time on experimenting and testing and trying and testing.... In the end I will hopefully understand how the whole drop thing really works and can be much faster next time when I try to implement a custom drop effect.

As a side product I already created some chimney smoke that looks very real. You get funny things when trying around

Anyway, the random placement imo is a bug/feature. Woods are basically square objects if I have my knowledge right. So OFP engine may not be able to place units in this area as it appears to be occupied by something else. While this makes sense in urban areas to avoid the placement of units in or on houses by accident, in woods it´s a bit nasty. The correct answer I guess can only be given by one of the OFP developers. It´s just a detail, but it´s making you mad if you want to have it in

[russin 0]

make life easy

i read that this island used objects from FDF MOD

it would be very very usefull to supply the Objects used from FDF and package it with the island download saving time of having to DL the entire FDF MOD and loading addons not really needed to run the island....

or even Name the pbo's ya used for the objects would be helpfull

[sputnik monroe 102]

Quote[/b] ]make life easy

i read that this island used objects from FDF MOD

it would be very very usefull to supply the Objects used from FDF and package it with the island download saving time of having to DL the entire FDF MOD and loading addons not really needed to run the island....

or even Name the pbo's ya used for the objects would be helpfull

Normally I would agree, but not this time. This is based on a real island between Finland and Russia. What possible use do you have for this island out side of FDF mod?

[russin 0]

Quote[/b] ]make life easy

i read that this island used objects from FDF MOD

it would be very very usefull to supply the Objects used from FDF and package it with the island download saving time of having to DL the entire FDF MOD and loading addons not really needed to run the island....

or even Name the pbo's ya used for the objects would be helpfull

  Normally I would agree, but not this time. This is based on a real island between Finland and Russia. What possible use do you have for this island out side of FDF mod?

MFCTI where i would like to port over to this island but don't want to Force people to DL the Entire FDF mod just to play on this island seems silly

[Edge 2]

or even Name the pbo's ya used for the objects would be helpfull

Check the readme, man.

Quote[/b] ]Following PBOs are needed to run it properly: FDF_island_o.pbo, FDF_s.pbo, FDFww2_o.pbo.

If used outside FDF Mod, buildings would not have config support, so no names would be displayed, and no gates could be opened through action menu.

I wanted the island to be as independent as possible, and since I think FDF is a "must have" in this community, I felt I can satisfy my artistic needs to supply the island with some good-looking Finnish objects everyone has.

Besides, although I could have extracted the objects from FDF, I felt it would be too much work with just little effect. I also wanted to keep integrity of FDF Mod untouched, and I personally see no use in increasing amount of addons one has to have on harddrive. Thanks for understanding.