Kolgujev Conflict

[Guest]

Hello

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Im more less putting this up to be able to get maybe any sort of feedback regarding the mission ive been spending alot of time on recently, which can be encouraging when one gets to the quitting point occasionally lol(happened last night).

The main script engine, although untested is nearly complete, and took alot of time as it is very complex, nice thing is I have run the script without most of the main mission elements it is linked to and at least there are no errors so far in the script itself.

Soooo, before I bore anyone any farther on the technical stuff, heres what the mission is about, as I stated it is single player.

The story itself will be composed lastly, its the concept I am concerned about, which if it works right should make a very alive atmosphere on Kolgujev which the player can interact with.

The mission starts out with 14 towns across the map that are held by various 'clans'. These clans will mostly operate independantly, there will be of course freindly clans and enemy clans. The freindly and enemy towns are spread out also, to where there initially is no defined line between enemy and freindly territory. Each town is spiced up as much as I can to appear as alive fully functional clan bases, alot of goodies added, patrols, guards, checkpoints, HQs, perimeter fences, soldiers hanging out inside bases and more. Also trading convoys will move from same faction town to same faction town trading goods.

2 Main towns on either end of the island (the biggest towns on Kolgujev) will be 'merchant' towns, one freindly, one enemy. These merchant towns will be big, very big and heavily defended. They can and will at times provide support units for clan towns that have significantly lost combat units, via convoys sent out to the particular town.

The player will be a rus spetz natz gone over to the other side and will be west, with his/her own clan name and flag symobl for that clan, and will be allowed only one ai possible, and an ai unit may be obtained from time in the freindly merchant town, like a soldier for hire, a merc, or just a jo shmo lookin to lend a hand.

The players main role played will be to try to assist in any way possible in making the island a better and safer place to live, as the 'enemy' clans have been ruthlessly scouraging the countryside. Essentially to help in the overall removal of the tyranical presence of the East and Resistance clans.

Once the mission has started within a period of time a war will begin to brew between 2 clans of opposite faction. This will be declared via the radio station in the freindly merchant town, and the freindly clan will ask for assistance in the upcoming battle. One or both of the towns involved may begin shelling the other, using Coc's artillery. There will usually be ample time for the player to get to the freindly clan town to assist before the actual battle starts. Many battles will be composed of the two towns battle units moving to meet eachother somwhere in the 'middle' more less.

If one of the two clans pushes through the battle it will carry on to its enemies town, where it will attempt to take it over. If the town is taken, the radio station will declare the town takeover and the clan takers name, the map will show and update clan owners of each town.

At this point if the clan that took the town is low in units from the battle (which it prolly will be) the merchant town for that faction will be contacted by that clan requesting reinforcements, which will be sent out via a convoy to the town. The player may participate in escorting/defending the convoy as it makes its way there thru possible hostile areas(if the clan being reinforced is freindly). A merchant town that has been taken over by an opposite faction clan will of course no longer be able to send out support units, and in the case of the freindly merchant town being taken player will lose all map updates of clan/town ownerships and radio station broadcasts.

Periodically these clan wars will continue to erupt, often the same clan that most recently took a town will try to continue to advance to the next enemy faction town, thus the player wont have to constantly run around to assist in battles.

Towns will have flags that will represent the current clan owner, each clan has its own unique symbol.

Player will be able to take over an enemy faction town, by securing the town paremiter completey, thus the flag will change to their clan symbol, although this is just an option provided, as it would be very difficult for the player alone to do this, more often the player will be providing assistance to freindly clans in battles which would if they take a town during the battle would be considered that freindly clans town. A player held town may be reinforced with units from the merchant town, but these units in particular will only defend, no advance.

Towns taken over may immediately fall under attack from opposite faction towns nearby if the clan in the town just taken are weak in numbers.

Some battle scenarios will be one town attacking the other only, not meeting up between towns.

This will continue on, and on. The primary idea for mission complete will be all towns are freindly clans.

The mission will use accelerated time, but it can be turned off for lower end users.The accelerated time will certainly greatly enhance the adventure experience, weather will probably remain partly cloudy, lag due to rain is feared, visiblity will be clear, standard, no fog.

It will be recomended that FFUR mod is used during this mission, as well as Bergohffs island enhancements that come with FFUR mod. The selection of the rus spetz naz is primarily because of the new unit added thru FFUR mod, he looks to me about the best unit addon ive seen, and he fits the role well here, especially with the full packs and all and no bulky helmet to drag around the island for hours, a very sharp looking unit.

Also if possible will be adding respawn as an option if killed (repsawn in a SP mission lol), where u can respawn to a lil camp up in the mountains. Will be adding a few additional saves via radio, primarily for when peeps are done for a period of mission play.

Some things that may be added depending on how long the primary stuff takes and how much trouble it is to add them:

Renegade enemy groups operating from wilderness camps attacking freindly convoys and even towns (player can go after em)

Mercs being sent after the player, hunting them down - lil super sniper addon I got could do well here.

Rewards placed on certain ai individuals or groups that have been causing trouble for a certain clan, for the player to collect on if he/she tracks them down and takes em out.

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

And theres more in the details, but primarily this is the concept, when doing all of this I am trying to keep it all 'real', to me a very important aspect, the bases will look alive, the battles will be immersive, the options will be many, convoys moving about either trading or reinforcing, and the other stuff.

Pheww.

Any comments welcome and appreciated. If not much feedback comes in is fine too, its nice to be able to put this down, kinda share a little.

[.kju 3240]

sounds cool

still dont overdo yourself. you have quite much on your plan

waiting for you to finish it

[Guest]

sounds cool  

still dont overdo yourself. you have quite much on your plan  

waiting for you to finish it  

Thanks. It does look like alot lol, and after typing it all it does scare me a lil, lol, but the neat thing is the main townbattle script pretty much takes care of the worst of it, which essentially is done, the best part will be finishing the work in the editor(which actually can be 'fun', where all thats needed is wapoints that wait on certain variables.

I have 2 town bases essentially done in the editor, took about 4 hours to get them together and so like I said the script work is worst part, and the worst part is getting closer to being done (till I find the lovely errors once the whole thing is put together, there will be errors lol, that much i know)

[karantan 0]

*sigh* Ah yes, the unberable easiness of mission making.

Have you maybe played Abandoned Armies a lil to much, and now you think that makin' a similar mission is peice of cake? A job for thru the weekend maybe?

But don't mind me dude, go for it ...

[Guest]

*sigh* Ah yes, the unberable easiness of mission making.

Have you maybe played Abandoned Armies a lil to much, and now you think that makin' a similar mission is peice of cake? A job for thru the weekend maybe?

But don't mind me dude, go for it ...

Lol

Actually ive spent about prolly 40 some solid hours on just the script that processes the whole townbattle function, which uses alot of randomness, and is done in a way to keep the variable use very simple, although the script structure itself is very complex and between three seperate scripts its about 30 pages long.

This 'concept' was thought up actually before abandoned armies came out and the idea of town taking was more derived from CTI than anything, although initially it was to be mp but I ended up deleting the whole thing and snapping the backup disk in fifty peices lol. It was far to monumental of a task, but with it single player at least I can see it actually getting done.

Basically the main scripting left to do is spawning reinforcements in the merchant towns and sending them out, aside from that just little stuff.

And im not posting this saying its almost done, im posting this just to get any feedback at all, which is nice to have while I attempt to finish this, my freinds and family naturally have no interest in this, so my only link to be able to share a little with others is here and gain a little 'support', no where else.

[Drongo69 117]

Very interesting concept. Good luck with it.

[Guest]

Thanks tacrod.

[Billabong81 0]

Sounds awesome mate. Can't wait for its release. Good luck with it .

[Guest]

Thank you Hooahman. And thanks to everyone for taking some time and reading this thread, I do appreciate it, nice to have a little feedback. - I do already have Coc's arty firing (upon a variable value set,ai manned) back and forth between the two town bases I have done in the editor, it looks really neat at night, especially when the rounds are coming in - although it does require tweaking as I cant have bases smashed before they get a chance to battle, and the radius where the rounds are landing needs to be spread out more.

Thanks again for the feedback gentlemen.

[nubbin77 0]

Sounds good to me.

I am curious though, have you already done the work related to setting up multiple clans? The reason I ask, is why it would be necessary to do all the work to make seperate factions within East / West / Res sides. It seems like in practice this will be like E vs W vs R where you help the W. Just seems like an extra layer of complexity that isn't really necessary. I'm all for anything that will make your job easier - means we have a better chance of seeing the end result.

Good Luck. Looking forward to it.

[Guest]

Ya, pretty much that part is done, the script actually did have to be set up for each particular clan because although there are only essentially 2 sides invloved (East,Res Vs West-player-) every clan operates independantly in their battles against enemy clans, and their movements from town to town are independant as well, which had to be tracked thru the script to constantly update where they are and who can battle with who (depending on if 2 opposing factions are holding towns nearby eachother) - and also, global text will appear updating what clans are battleing and who has taken over which town, which again means keeping track of what each individual clan does. I hear ya, lol, been tring to keep it simple, it hasnt been nearly as simple as I had hoped it would be lol.

As I had stated earlier the main last scripting task that lies before me is doing the reinforcement thing, sending them to particular towns without running them into enemy towns on the way, it will prolly require some sort of script system, but shouldnt be near as complex as the town battle script was. After that itll be time to go at it with the editor and start putting in all the bases, convoys and linking units/vehicles paths to the script already written - that should be the fun part, its just getting there... lol

Thanks for the input nubbin77

[-Snafu- 77]

This mission sounds really good, we need more like it.

[Guest]

Thanks Scotchsoldier, I would imagine plenty of folks out there have imagined similiar missions, and the trouble I've been going thru, and the trouble that others have gone thru for similiar missions shows why there arent too many around lol

I just got more than half the scripting done for showing and hiding the markers(50 or so), which wasnt in the script engine and of course it took the whole afternoon, but the whole thing about sending out reinforcements to towns is becoming a little bit of a growing concern as Ive been pondering the easiest ways to do this, trouble is seems there arent any easy ways that ive dreamed up yet (that would look realistic).

I figured once I got the townbattle script written there would be nothing left but easy stuff, well the mission is about there now and like I said the reinforcements thing is looking kinda big. I could just say heck with the reinforcements and put in the editor stuff and get it all linked to the script variables, but without reinforcements every town that goes to battle will probably never advance to the next town after that because of low troop strength.

Right now the idea was to have troops spawn in either side merchant town (those units being added to the remaining groups of the particular clan) and then getting them in a truck (was gonna have convoys, now its 'a' truck lol) and sending them to the town where their clan is. All this is ok, not too awfull bad, heres the problem, I cant just send them to a marker pos at the town theyre supposed to go to, cause theres a good chance theyll drive right thru an enemy town on the way there! lol And that changes everything, meaning all sorts of either checks for enemy towns enroute = goto new marker pos or make 20 dif marker systems that go completely off the roads where the trucks might end up getting stuck.

Now helos would be a different story, but then there goes what could have been a nice addition to the atmosphere with those trucks going back and forth. And worse I dont know helo scripting well so it would take some time to get it right.

I was thinking of merging the two concepts, having trucks goto just the one marker pos unless an enemy town is enroute, then the script would send a helo instead, but of course that means 2 seperate scriptings for each vehicle usage.... which is prolly the best answer I can dream up, rather than moving markers alover trying to get trucks past enemy towns(and doing that in the script 20 times, once for each town reinforcement path).

The mission was gonna have some limited 'low budget' helo activity, meaning some oldies (Hueys), maybe this would be ideal for putting them in at the same time..

Thought I might get the reinforcements scripts close to done by tommorow evening, lol, aint gonna happen

[Kendo J 1]

This mission sounds awesome...

I have been developing a mission that is not necassarily dynamic in terms of enemy etc, but some of the elements are dynamic like being able to choose your objectives, have a UH60 taxi servioce fly you around the map and helo insert/extract where you choose.

My problem is with scripting if i could add random battles and townships like what you are deveoloping in your script that would be amazing!!!

Anyhow... I was wondering if you are going to release the script seperately for community use?

Kind Regards

Kendo

[Guest]

The problem is that the script is not completely universal by itself, umm, meaning, that basically there are alot of predefined paths already set up in the editor where move waypoints wait on variable settings, which are set (randomly) thru the script, basically I had to map out all of the waypoint plans on paper before doing the script(a spiderweb of em), so as it is anyone who used the script would be forced to use the exact same waypoint/group placement in the editor. Lately its been hard enough trying to get this final scripting done, to imagine trying to configure the script for use by the community would prolly be a gigantic task, and the description of how to use it would be very complicated. Unfortunately also most of the mission itself is composed of these scripts, so no offense but it would kinda be like taking CTI scripts and handing them out for public use, which is the same as handing out the mission itself lol.

I can say that when I get this thing done my full intent is to allow the community to do whatever they want with it as long as the credit for the original mission that has been altered is given me (rightfully so), was kinda hoping someone might get a little brave and try to make it mp, which I gave up on cause of my scripting limitations and scope of that project - but anyhow, I dont want to get a 'big head' here, lol, as with most of my past projects - if this thing turns out even close to what I had originally imagined ill be content, its been a difficult lesson in scripting and it aint over yet...

Thanks

Edit// By the way as this thought is buggin me, wanted to add that I did think of trying to release the scripts somehow initially for the community, as I feel already the community has done alot for me, but realistically considering the complexity of the scripts (and them being hardcoded to elements set in the editor) the best way to do this is to just give permission to all to be able to alter the mission with the one requirement that credit is given to me for the original mission that has been altered....

Anyhow, moving on.

[Kendo J 1]

Well it is a shame that your script isn't necassarily transferable to a default version.

In reply to your problem on reinforcements have a look at Bremmers AI script - calls reinforcements depending on the risk e.g. Helos for armour, infnatry for infantry etc... depends on how you set it up. but anyway the way the units respond is more "intellegent" units will try to flank enemy and laydown cover fire, e.g. move tactically

and Group Link II - GLII just seems to send units in a straight line direct to the spot where reinforcement is needed and they preform a patrol pattern then return to waypoints

Also for helos SnYpirs support pack does alot of helo work and may have a few cluesin how to use them more effectivly.

Can't wait to test the mission sounds like hours of fun death and warfare.

Regards

KENDO

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Just a little idea that poped into my mind while reading your description of the script...

I like the idea of it and was wondering if a simpler version can be made so that half an island is held by one faction (west) and the other half is held by the opposite faction (east).

that would mean that you have to use your unit/squad to take over the areas held by your enemy while they can randomly attack freindly installations and vise versa.

By not giving the player any missions or just a few major ones you are free to engage in large battles or small ones and only win once you and the west guys have gained control of the whole island.

Would a simple version that only uses two sides and doesn't include all of the many details such as flags and multiple clans.

I only mention this because I really need a CTI style script for a mission i am developing that allows the player to travel by helo anywhere they want and be extracted accoringly. It is just I am rubbish with scripting and would never be able to write a CTI (ish) script.

[Guest]

Quote[/b] ] Well it is a shame that your script isn't necassarily transferable to a default version.

It could have been, but would have been ALOT more complex, being that I can use editor placed units and their waypoint systems it makes for a ton less scripting work, rather than trying do all that with sending them to markers scripting in all movements.

Quote[/b] ]In reply to your problem on reinforcements have a look at Bremmers AI script - calls reinforcements depending on the risk e.g. Helos for armour, infnatry for infantry etc... depends on how you set it up. but anyway the way the units respond is more "intellegent" units will try to flank enemy and laydown cover fire, e.g. move tactically

and Group Link II - GLII just seems to send units in a straight line direct to the spot where reinforcement is needed and they preform a patrol pattern then return to waypoints

Also for helos SnYpirs support pack does alot of helo work and may have a few cluesin how to use them more effectivly.

Thanks, any help towards this task is appreciated, although the spawned units are really only going to be moving to join preexisting groups that are low in troop strength, normally before a battle may occurr, but the GLII sounds interesting if I removed the patrol part. The helos thing is partially covered by ColonelSandersLite's helo pickup and drop, and wanted to ask if would be interested in making a spawn script for ai only with these combined, but hes pretty backed up in his to-do list lol - so I might ask a little later- he did already do the ground unit spawn for me (extremely kind of him).

Quote[/b] ] Just a little idea that poped into my mind while reading your description of the script...

I like the idea of it and was wondering if a simpler version can be made so that half an island is held by one faction (west) and the other half is held by the opposite faction (east).

that would mean that you have to use your unit/squad to take over the areas held by your enemy while they can randomly attack freindly installations and vise versa.

By not giving the player any missions or just a few major ones you are free to engage in large battles or small ones and only win once you and the west guys have gained control of the whole island.

Remove the clan stuff and the intermingled side towns and the mission still does all of this. No plans to have any actual 'missions', its all free as to what the player decides to do, who to help or not help, etc. Only mission is same as you described, all towns west side = win.

Quote[/b] ] Would a simple version that only uses two sides and doesn't include all of the many details such as flags and multiple clans.

I only mention this because I really need a CTI style script for a mission i am developing that allows the player to travel by helo anywhere they want and be extracted accoringly. It is just I am rubbish with scripting and would never be able to write a CTI (ish) script.

See the thing is to have towns (bases, groups of units) battle each other in different areas every so often is easy, I saw that from the beginning, and there wasnt any intention of having clan flags or even clan battle declarations, but, if you want to carry it on from there and keep specific groups advancing then I had to keep track of their progress and reinforce them, which meant may as well add in all the goodies for the clans being I will have all that info needed in the script anyhow.

So actually what you are proposing would be fairly simple, just make the concentrations of side groups have editor placed waypoints that meet up and then keep them from moving to those waypoints unless a certain variable value is set(or a variable that is made true). Then just make a script that randomly selects a particular variable value(or makes a variable true) and that would initiate one of your battles waiting to go. And so every so often execute that script again, being sure in the script to remove the battle scenario that is selected each time a selection is made.Thats it.

If you had say ten potential battles set up, and spread out the time between each battle selected to say 10 - 15 min then the mission could last for, well, a long time lol. Of course the only thing is you dont want peeps to have to run alover the map chasing down newly initiated battles, so if the battles dont normally occur within a decent distance of eachother an option would be to allow groups to progress to new engagements after one ended, which would probably require the use of reinforcements to keep it going, where you could use one of the pre-made reinforcements addons like you listed. A scenario like this would be able to be mostly done right from the editor, just a little scripting that would randomly select a battle and then maybe triggers to see if west is in enemy town and all enemy dead = execute next battle - and mix in sending reinforcements before or at the next battle. Which is again what my mission does, but it would be a much simpler approach avoiding the individual 'clan' thing.

Edit// Of course reinforcements sent in should be in response to the amount of units left over from a fight, and would want to keep the amount sent limited to not overwhelm the enemy in the next battle.

[Guest]

Ok.

After spending at least like 6 hours this afternoon trying to get vehicle driven reinforcements sent to towns to work this concept is going buh-by. The many problems of vehicles getting stuck, getting shot, etc, leaving units on foot x amount of miles away from towns that needed reinforcements in a timely manner is just too much to manage in a reasonable time frame considering the scripting involved.

So it will be all helo flown reinforcements now, a helo that crashes will likely kill all occupants so no worry about what to do with the leftovers, it either makes it or it dosent, simple lol.

A few more checks added to the main battle script for timed out battles, finish up the markers and its on to getting helos to fly in reinforcements, which will be a far simpler task than the mess of checks I just deleted for ground vehicle troop transports.

There will still be convoys and lone vehicles moving about from town to town.

Basically just putting this down to re-emphisize to myself that this 2 day 'stuck' point is over, time to get this thing rollin.

[Guest]

After much time and effort, list of tasks is done for the townbattle script and the marker scripting is complete.

Although thourough testing awaits all of this once all the main editor placed elements are put in, at least at this time I cant find anything more to add in the town battle scripts.

Its on to some editor stuff until the reinforcements application is added, which should be the last mission system essential scripting, and should be relatively easy considering the use of only helos for reinforcement transport..

I expected to be putting 20 dancing bananas up once I got this far, feel more like putting these up instead

[-Snafu- 77]

Sounds good. Keep up the excellent work

[Guest]

Thanks ScotchSoldier.

[Guest]

Yes, the mission is still alive.. lol

Spent the last 3 days doing general testing of the townbattle scripts, and have gotten to the point where I am satisfied enough for now with its functionality, no errors come up at this point (spent much time removing errors and bugs, changing things) but I would basically asssume more will come up as the mission progresses, but I am moving on. In order to have been able to test the scripts I did put in waypoints (finally) for 2 town clans and temporarily locked the script to execute that battle scenario, its pretty neat, it works, and even executes a new battle search after the battle has ended.

I do wish I had a website to post some images of the bases and whatnot, but I dont...

Anyhow, going after the reinforcement thing, big thanks to ColonelSandersLite for making that air cav spawn script, I can start messing with that and get reinforcements to come in at certain times.

I do want to make a note that the mission is probably not going to be super personalized, at least in this first release. Primarily because my original idea was just to make a 'fun' mission with alot of freedom within an alive enviornment, although I can see the potential for it being more 'personalized' with more detailed ai group actions, more of ai units and groups speaking, and other stuff.. And mainly of course this stuff would take ALOT of extra time, and id like to get this done in fairly reasonable time frame.

Of course I also have to watch out for lag, as bases continue to be formed in the editor ill be monitoring this closely, hopefully most of what I originally imagined can be pulled off without problems...

Thanks to everyone who gave their input on this, it was helpfull as I dredged through what is probably the most complex scripts Ive ever put together

[-Snafu- 77]

Wow this just sounds better each time. Good Luck and Keep up the fantastic work.  

Can't you just post screenshots here or send them to a ofp site?

[Guest]

I did alot of screen shot posting for WWIII FFF campaign for Ghost Recon, but I had a website up that I was paying for, so it was easy, I dont have one anymore and it seems that its the same deal for images, need to have a URL, and I dont know html so I cant use free websites that require such knowledge to post em

[Guest]

11 of the 13 'town bases' are up, markers set, triggers set, units placed. The best was saved for last, working on the freindly merchant town now, and then lastly the enemy merchant town. The mapfact barracken and military objects addons have been great assetts, really helping to bring alive the enviornment. Going to attempt to do some limited 'interactual' stuff in the freindly merchant town, provided it dosent take to long. As it stands right now, I could finish these 2 bases, put in the waypoints, and aside from final testing it could be a full fledged massive mission, but I do need to get the reinforcements thing, probably lastly(I kinda changed the order of the to-do list ), so that with this addition the mission would last 10 times longer, and be more immersive. Im reaaaaally trying not to spoil too much of the mission here lol, but I gotta say puttin down that Coc Paladin in the merchant town almost gave me chills(a few other towns have artillery cannons only), it should be a neat base as im taking my time putting some effort into making it a REAL, alive merchant town.

Well, this has begun to turn into a neat creative experience now that I can see some real true progress towards completion, thanks again for the support. I may not update very often anymore as I dont know when exactly this will get done (weeks? months? (hopefully weeks?)) and I dont want drag people around for great lengths of time and start feeling pressured, that just sucks for both parties. I do hope this gets done before Arma comes out, and half of the ofp community shifts, but if not oh well.

C u all around, take er easy