KolgujevConflict/Arma

[Guest]

Some weird page bug, again now for the 3rd time, anyhow, refer to page 10 for latest update..

3rd time now I post an update and it puts a non existent post on top of the update on the next page...

[CharveL 0]

Holy crap, I was just cleaning out some old favorites links and came across one to this thread which I thought was long dead.

And then to find all these updates and some light at the end of the tunnel!

I've been drifting more and more away from ArmA lately due to AI frustrations, general malaise, and a lack of gaming time but by the sounds of it, this will give us just the right offline botox injection it needs to carry through to ArmaII.

So thanks again for your efforts Ed and feel free to send a link to it early for me via pm, lest I meet with some untimely demise before having the pleasure of making to the alpha release.

Heh, it's tough not getting caught up in 'feature creep' with such an open-ended and rich scripting environment like this game has, but the payoff will be in spades I'm sure.

[Guest]

Holy crap, I was just cleaning out some old favorites links and came across one to this thread which I thought was long dead.

And then to find all these updates and some light at the end of the tunnel!

I've been drifting more and more away from ArmA lately due to AI frustrations, general malaise, and a lack of gaming time but by the sounds of it, this will give us just the right offline botox injection it needs to carry through to ArmaII.

So thanks again for your efforts Ed and feel free to send a link to it early for me via pm, lest I meet with some untimely demise before having the pleasure of making to the alpha release.

Heh, it's tough not getting caught up in 'feature creep' with such an open-ended and rich scripting environment like this game has, but the payoff will be in spades I'm sure.

Thanks CharveL

I am trying to avoid the feature creep syndrome, problem is, I want the mission to be as much 'real time' style as possible, just want to do it right, and avoid viewable spawns and such.

The mission uses 13 factions, which wage war on each other periodically, just the nature of that in itself has made many applications/features/functions become quite lengthy and complex to pull off, basically each function has to be universal in its design to be called upon and used by any of the clan factions, and more so complex when spawning is avoided.

[.kju 3241]

@Special Ed

select 'Print this topic' if you have the bug with topic and no posts

[Guest]

Thanks Q

Have to try that if it happens again

[Guest]

Its all about the feeling of the mission right?

Wow alot of time spent getting the part of the helo scripts to send out units finished, its now done.

The most complex combination of scripts ever, hands down.

One stupid bug ive found, very annoying, and hard to fix -

Units dropped from a helo dont want to respond to doMove/MoveTo orders until either the helo has left, or a good amount of time has passed - dont ask me why, I setup a test mission to confirm this, and yep, the units dont do jack after disembarking until the helo lifts off - wow, an unbelievable bug issue wiht arma

Only good news is there is a fix, I can make a waypoint and give it to the group being dropped off, and its the only thing they will immediately chase down after being dropped, bad thing, not easy to impliment this change for garrison troops..

Means I have to add in a waypoint for each garrison type group dropped off to get them moving towards the town upon exiting helo, and also manage the waypoints, hence have to remove them afterwords, yep, unreal pain in the ...

As it is now, they work fine, except the garrison troops spread out around helos and sit there for like 20 secs before they decide to follow the oders given by the scripts to move to various positions, which works, but is not as visualy appealing as it should be.

So the fix is to initially send garrison troops to the center of the town being reinforced, then let the scripts take over and send them to their positions, a simple bug fix has turned into a major problem, this is basically brain surgery to get this worked into the scripts... I dont think Ofp units had these issues..

Anyhow, on the upside, again, helo scripts main functions are now complete, some bug fixes remain.

Provided I can keep my sanity over the next week, and actually get all the bugs cleaned up to where I am happy with the overall function, I am thinking of releasing the helo reinforcement script system, at least its something from the mission people can look at and play with. I cant release the core battle function due to people using it to create their own versions of my mission before my release, but this reinforcement script system I can release, and if its nothing more than a glimpse at what the mission provides, or maybe someone wants to use it in a mission..

Of course the function will be released before it is directly implemented into the mission, so it is completely standalone.

Mind is blown out, time to dig a hole and go to bed

[CharveL 0]

cool keep the updates coming!

[CharveL 0]

cool keep the updates coming!

[Guest]

Spent already too much time trying to fix this issue with units not wanting to respond to orders for x time after getting out of helos.

I tried adding a waypoint to the group before creating the units, I tried adding a waypoint during their flight, all the same, they get out and spread around the helo and sit there for 10 seconds or so before moving, which is no better than what I had.

Done with this. Moving on to other issues. As it is, garrison troops dropped will spread out around helo crouched for about 10 seconds and then they will incrementally advance to in town defensive positions. Way too much time spent on this.

About 5 other smaller bugs to fix, and moving on to release the helo reinforcement script function, then impliment into mission.

Moving on.

[Guest]

New update

Bug causing some helos to get stuck trying to take off from DZ's near towns - fixed

Bug - 25 % of units that are spawned at barracks doors and sent to helos want to roam the helo pad area for up to 30 secs before getting in, I cannot find a fix

Have tried -

Reveal Helo

All forms of setBehavior and SetCombatMode

DisableAi Target

Nothing, some units insist on scoping out the area before following their orders to get in helo as cargo

This is likely due to the mass number of units moving into the helos nearby, and the 3 helos with blades spinning nearby, and the units, due to Armas currently screwed up ai wanting to investigate all this before identifying everything as friendly..

Nothing new, Armas Ai in some areas is impossible to fix, I have on last attempt here, to just do a 'doMove' same pos for each unit upon spawn, then give them their orders, I doubt it will change anything.

To confirm it is the ai behavior, they work great in 4 x speed, they run right into the helos, because the fast speed dulls their ai and makes them do only the most important things (which are denoted as such by the game engine).

Setting their behavior to safe mode was the only thing that worked, how sad tho, because setSpeedMode wont respond to 'FULL' speed in this mode, so they go right in, but walk at a snail crawl to get there, which is worse than ever.

Last attempt to fix this, and it prolly wont work.

Thanks to Armas garbage Ai, once again, have to settle for it as is, during the 3 helos loadup sequence, dont be suprised to see a bunch of units running alover the place before they get in..

Either way, nearing completion of bug fixes.

Moving on.

[Guest]

Sweet!

Problem fixed!!!

Correct timing of SetSpeedMode causes it to work, provided its used *after* a command is issued to a unit! What a sight to see all these units move into the helos on the pad area correctly!

Now that this fixes the load issues, have to see if this might clean up units sitting at the Lz before moving out too!

[Guest]

The first Alpha version of the Reinforcement system

I feel inclined to release this, its been a heck alot of work

This *should* not require any addons, please let me know if it says it does, I think after looking at the sqm file it is all either standard stuff or addons free'd up by sixth sense eu, all of which should be avaliable thru any updated Arma version.

When you run the mission, simply select your radio, and execute the reinforcement call only once, do this by selecting "SendHelo1In", which actually activates a full 3 helo reinforcement call (I know, radio test name never got changed ) . Over a short period of time, after the pilots have boarded you can jump in any helo and hitch a ride to the town being reinforced.

This script system is universal, the information provided to the main helo scripts allows any town to be reinforced by any groups.

This is an Alpha, the enemy helo scripts need to be put in, a matter of primarily copying and pasting the current friendly scripts and making a few name change modifications.

There is also a bug that shows an error upon a helo crash, which is a seldom possibility, this is to be fixed, again this is an alpha version. Recommended do not use fast time during the test, it tends to increase chance of helos crashing, because fast time can mess up delays in scripts. Overall reliability is very high. Also note that helos land very close together at the DZ, this is only for testing, all towns in the mission will have the helos landing farther apart, for obvious safety reasons..

Enjoy

Helo Reinforcements ALPHA1

Edit/

This is currently setup to run from mission editing area

Put this under a characters name under your documents, Arma Other Profiles, your characters name, Missions

Then run it, in Arma from editing area, Sahrani map, preview.

I think this still can be put directly into your missions as well, but it is not currently pbo'd

This is an Alpha, Im sorry but its been around 3 months of work and focus is to actually get it to a final beta and implement into mission and release a final beta, final beta release will be in permanent form.

[manzilla 1]

Wow, this is nice. Congrats on the Alpha and thankds for getting something out.

[Guest]

Thanks m8

Btw fyi, the location for the pilots spawn is at the front of the air factories, these are actually movable spawn locations denoted by markers, so I never made perfect locations for them to spawn from, but they can be moved to spawn from anywhere. They will be moved to newly placed building doors later.

The troops that board the helos spawn from actual barracks doors of three buildings around the helo pad area.

Also note that the town being reinforced is empty of units except for 2 groups, these 2 groups are remaining units left over from a successful attack. The reinforcement scripts are set up to reinforce towns in the following order :

Reinforce "advancable' groups first - these are groups that are already pre-exitsing that can be moved forward later on during battles against other towns, units will be joined to these groups and move to in town positions to fall into formation. These are the units in potentially 2 main groups left over that have successfully taken over the city/town, which later on can move to attack a new city/town. Does not matter if no units are left from one of these groups, their waypoint plans are still valid, and new reinforcement units will move to the current updated in town holding positions which wait on a variable to continue waypoint plans to attack the next town.

Move at least one, if not 2 units nearby each avaliable artillery piece for usage upon next battle. During the next battle scripts pickup and use nearby proper side units to man arty pieces in town to barrage enemy town.

Man any script provided mg's

Man spotlights next

Move units to static guard positions

Move units to patrol routines

In this order

All the script needs is the locations of such for each town, and it will fully occupy provided positions in the order above.

Any residual units left over will be added to patrols. In this case, there are three patrols, each of which ends up with 1 extra unit per patrol due to a test scenario here of allowing 3 total units extra left over, standard patrols are 2 units per, in this case equals 3 total units left over that have been dropped (1 unit added per patrol, 3 total extra units, thus 3 man patrols)

This is dependent on if all units make it to the Dz alive, it is more than possible for a unit of 2 to get stuck and not make it to heli before lift off, or a unit or 2 to die upon drop off (squished?) best I can pull off, but total dropped off alive unit count will be used effectively. There is a chance a unit put into the advancable groups may get stuck, this has not been addressed and they likely will still move upon a new attack, but all garrison units will be forced to their positions if stuck for x time.

This is a test scenario, the lack of advancable group units left over from the winning clan denotes how many units will be left over to defend the city/town, which involves simple math to execute proper unit additions to advancables/garrison troops for each call.

Edit

You can also see what happens if you destroy helo 1 using the radio command during the load up process, if u do it before the pilots spawn it will re-create the helo (due to the side still having the ability to create helos), if u do it during the loading process, it will stop the units boarding it, and eventually send them all back to their back to their barracks. Again, during actual in flight disaster, I need to bug fix that, it still seems to work fine in overall effect, but brings up an error..

[CharveL 0]

Excellent! Will give it a go...

[Guest]

Fixed error showing upon helos crashing, stupid typo..

Its finally time to replicate the 3 scripts for the enemy helos, put them in. Once that is done, and tested, the markers will be switched to 'empty' type so they are not visible in game, and will comment out the debug code that shows, and release it as the final version. I am not likely going to get into making a description for it, it will simply be released as both a glimpse of a chunk of the mission, and if someone wants to use it in their mission, the description for usage in the scripts should be sufficient. Only reason Ive decided not to go into a huge official release of the reinforcement system with a fancy usage description and modifications for ease of users, is because it will chew up more time, and I greatly desire to get this thing implemented into the mission, actual implementing will take some time, more code brain surgery, alot of markers, and alot of testing.

Either way, the reinforcement system is free to use in a mission, provided credit is given to both ColonelSandersLite and myself for the creation of it.

[Guest]

After spending much of the day yesterday on it, the enemy reinforcement scripts and corresponding script reliant markers are done. Tested a few times over, its working.

Of course, something had to come up..

The Mi-17's are showing very unreliable at low to moderate fly in heights, so the flyInHeight is going to be changed for them to be higher. They dont have the reaction speed the blackhawks do, and are crashing, ALOT, when encountering steep terrain..

Aside from that, the entire function is now complete, believe it or not.. wow, wasnt sure if this thing would ever get done, somewhere around 20 scripts total to put this function all together.

Moving on.

[Guest]

k heres the scoop

Due to the *overwhelming* response to the initial Alpha release of the helo reinforcement system, I dont plan on bothering to release the final beta unless people are interested, not going to waste more time on modifying functions for public release to get no response, no offense, but thats just plain logic.

Next, the helo reinforcement system is now full working for both friendly and enemy bases, which supports up to 9 groups to fly in, 30 some units. Only remaining thing to do is put fly in markers for all the other towns. Implementation will take some time, will likely require a separate script in the mission which processes by math the count of units that should be placed in certain groups to reinforce what during each call. Problem is, I cant effectively do this now, because the towns in the actual mission do not yet have defensive objects/defensive marker positions/etc placed yet. Hence, its time for a new change...

The time has come to build up the towns into bases, with both defensive units and objects, walls, buildings, patrols, etc.

This was done too early in the original Kolgujev Conflict mission in Ofp, before things were even close to ready.. Now, the helo scripts are done, and their implementation rests on having these objects and markers avaliable so the scripts can send units to these marker positions and to static weapons/spotlights/towers, etc.

It suks a little bit, cause I dam well know by making this focus change, by the time I come back to put in the helo scripts, I'll have forgotten half of that shi# in the scripts, and prolly have to end up spending half a day re-learning them, but this is the proper way to do this, in correct order.

First step, look around and pickup any desired new map object packs, aside from what I already have avaliable thru sixth sense Eu.

See if there is *finally* a system that lines up walls and such on hills, if not, time to remember the method I had to modify objects angles in their inits to get walls looking good.

Begin work on town 1. Completion = town 1 to town 15 completely built up.

I dont know if anyone is even bothering to watch this topic anymore, but do expect to see some impressive pics in the near future, towns and cities will be built up extravagantly just like in the old Ofp pics, the effort will be put in to individualize each town/city and bring them to life.

Lastly, there is a very good chance there will be a relatively soon release of KolCon battle system pre-Alpha. The reason for doing this is simply to get all this very hard work out, for others to see (call it self gratification if u like ). Unfortunately, it will come with a current Uela, the battle function as a whole may not be used in a mission. The scripts can be ripped, but any direct usage of the battle function as a whole will be currently forbidden - and this is not like me to do such, but understand this :

coming on 3 years of work on this, most of the code is mine directly, and there is alot of code, and code structure that I modified/enhanced which was written by ColonelSandersLite, whom stayed with the project for at least 6 months.

This mission is not yet done, and if people decide they want to use the battle function *as a whole* to create a backdrop to their own mission, then their mission, if released before this is finished, will hugely diminish the effect of this missions release.

Lastly, the battle system has many areas of mass complexity, involving many scripts linked together, usage of global arrays being modified often in scripts, it is doubtful anyhow unless someone is a well accomplished scripter in Arma, it will prove worthless to attempt to use the battle system anyhow in someones mission. If it ever happens, it would happen by usage of the battle system as a whole, as it is now, which I regret at this time I cannot give support to, and declare such is not allowed, nor acceptable.

Again, normally I rather enjoy to allow my work to be freely used, but in this case, releasing something that is not yet a fully finished product, I cannot allow this, because of the potential destruction of the current project by somone elses use of the scripts in a release before the project is complete

On the positive side, many here have asked for an 'alpha' or preview of the battle system, and this will be a way, by such terms, I can provide such. It will not lack the debug text, simply because the debug text will remain until the mission is in beta stage, in case any issues come up for ease in finding problems. And it will not be modified for ease of usage, it will come as I have it, where it is in test phase, rather than it running on random selection. Players can watch battles pan out, by selecting thru radio which battle sequence they wish to see occur, and hence that town battle will execute.

This is all really dependent on public interest, if it dies, so does the updates, I have re-kindled my enjoyment of working on the mission now that the appearance aspects can be addressed, it means the battle function is closer than ever to being complete, but updates are dependent on interest, if no one wants the mission but me, Im not going to put up pics for myself

I appreciate the support in the past, but I think maybe lotsa folks just have gotten bored of updates here, which is fine, worst comes to worst, updates will thus end, but I will continue enoying seeing a gargantuan mission grow near completion that surpasses every mission I have ever played

Cheers

[hamis 0]

I'm really looking forward to release!Good luck with your project.

[Snake Man 402]

Due to the *overwhelming* response to the initial Alpha release of the helo reinforcement system, I dont plan on bothering to release the final beta unless people are interested

Actually I haven read all this topic through, but I feel your pain as a fellow unappreciated mission maker, I'll take a look at your mission on princible. I mean that is if you want someone to test it and give feedback.

I cant promise anything major, but I'll sit down, take a decent look at it and then report back what I think about it.

[.kju 3241]

Special Ed sorry to say, yet your posts are most of the time

way too large or at least not well structure (use bold or underlined).

At least I don't want to spend the time to read everything.

That said I am still very much interested in your project and check

updates of this thread like every time.

Yet huge posts scare me of.

[Wolfrug 0]

@Special Ed

Sorry I haven't had time to look at your script, although I'm sure it kicks ass One thing you need to be aware of is that the more "universally useful" a script is the better - right now it seems like this script is mostly useful for one single function inside your mission.

If you want your resource tested and potentially hosted, you should head over to OFPEC(.com), register at the forums, and make a post about it in the Resources Beta testing & submission forum. There you will hopefully receive script-specific comments and a chance that it gets added to the Editors Depot

Keep up the good work! We need a good SP sandbox mission in ArmA, badly!

Regards,

Wolfrug

[Guest]

Well thank you gentlemen for your responses, I sometimes get too emotional, and this dang project is usually the cause of that

@Snake Man

Thanks

I appreciate the offer, any feedback is welcome, and I appreciate your interest as well.

@Q

I know, the posts get huge often, and I try to get everything in each post I can that describes whats going on. Thanks for your interest too

@Wolfrug

Thanks

The script is actually completely universal, and can be used in any mission. The problem is, its pretty complicated to get into describing how to implement new towns/markers/objects in the script to get it to work on them. I knew it would prolly take me a week or more to really get a step by step description put together for how to use it, and that would of course lead to desiring to make it more user friendly for the public, leading to more script put in to do such, I just couldnt fathom doing more with the system after so much time.

To be dead honest, it took such a huge effort to get it fully working, there was just this huge desire to at least put it out, let people see a piece of the mission working, without releasing the main battle function.

@hamis

Thanks m8

@ all

Thanks again for helping to put a little spark back in mission feeling, I really got burned out after the helo scripts, I appreciate the support.

Cheers to all of you guys, and I'll keep the mission updated as progress continues. Screenshots should be in order as towns are built up with fortifications and properly populated with initial garrison troops.

[Drongo69 117]

The sad fact is, the community doesn't really seem to give a shit about missions these days. SnakeMan gives a good quote about the state of things in the link in his post above.

If you are not making this mission simply for your own personal satisfaction, you may as well spend your time on something else. You can be fairly certain that about the only responses you get upon release will be "can you make an MP version?" or requests to add/remove certain addons.

It's probably not what you want to hear, but that's the fact of the matter with the ArmA community.

Good luck with it though, it's a great concept.

[liljb15 0]

It really is a shame how little response great missions like yours get.

I don't know why but most missions which should be getting unwaivering attention seem to go unnoticed.

Great missions like

-EVO CTI

-Seize zones

and

-Quarantine

seem to go unnoticed by the Arma community