RTS-4 ArmA Released

[Dwarden 1124]

ok i got some "minor" requests

1)

i wonder if it's possible to use kegetys spectator script modded to see my AI squads movement on map (movement target and path to it, targets firing on etc)

also such modded script may allow to use multiple commands queue

(do A then B then C, like move to this tree, then to this rock then to this busH) while keeping all steps visible on "tactial commander map"

2)

i really wish that AI start to use ammo crates, ammo resuply vehicles WHEN out of AMMO and "no enemy in sight",

same goes for healing and repairs (it's pain in ass trying to command dozens soldiers to just reload some ammo) ...

e.g. You build 2 vulcans are dedicated AA , attach to them one ammo truck so they really use it after out of ammo

3)

air drop (ammo) , will be nice to be able use transport copters to drop ammo (on parachute) ... i know this may looks like BF2 but no forget that game even exists

needed AI manned UH-6 with engineer onboard !

4)

officer / commander unit => should be able to take command of "wandering" AI nearby (join them into own squad) and call in air dropped supplies

5)

engineer team (AI manned repair truck + engineer) with ability to repair bridges

maybe also ability to lay down minefield (small 2x2, medium 3x3, big 4x4)

6)

after AI receive "STOP" command then auto execute "engine off" command for all AI drivers in any ground vehicle

7)

new structures

- complex with "oil tanks" to hold spare oil for "worse" times ... (lovely target for any diversion or air guys) ...

- warehouse to hold spare ore for "worse" times

8)

commander option to upgrade forward bases / resource centers with some AI squad to guard ...

ok enough for now

[BLSmith2112 0]

I'm going to be honest... There...is.. just...too many words in here to keep up with... my brain hurts

[HellToupee 0]

if you saying about spawning like parachute jump, in any position on the map... I think this is Sucks... go to C&H.

No more like what halftracks do in Company of heroes, they serve a purpose of spawning replacement squad members which is not in any position.

If u want to parachute jump anywhere on the map u can just use a helecopter.

[IceShade- 0]

this movein driver [MCU]

NUFF SAID.

(Move the commander, at the start of the mission, in the driver slot of the MCU. This will prevent MANY restarts and delays)

Edit:

One ammo crate per truck would be nice. This to prevent massive ammo crate spam done by idiots.

[Georilla 6]

I agree with IceShade about the commander in driver spot..

Since today I got pis**d off, a guy took the commander spot, while it was his FIRST TIME.. Tip: NEVER TAKE COMMANDER SPOT WHEN ITS YOUR FIRST TIME!!

But that wasn't the major problem, he started to teamkill everybody etc.. after 15 minutes.. we finally kicked him out and could start properly.. but of course, the enemy already had about 6-7 flags in their hands.

So generally, please, pick the commander spot when you played RTS before! And the TK'ers, no comment, every serious guy knows what to do with them.. with 1 command..

- Georilla

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

@stickler - a lot of what you're suggesting sounds very similar to what already exists in RWS - Real War Simulator.  That's a mission I made for OFP and ported over to Arma, but I haven't messed with it for a while.  Basically your team starts off with a supply truck (the only way to cap territories), and you must cap territories in order.  Each territory gives you certain assets, i.e. vehicle factory, etc.

The commander can assign roles to teammates, i.e. Pilot, tanker, infantry and whether or not they can deploy vehicles, etc.  You only have a limited inventory, and once you're out, you're out.

That mission takes almost too much teamwork, so it's really hardcore.

@Dwarden - 1) I'll look into modding Keg's script more once I have time, but I'm not certain I'll make it that detailed.

2) - might be possible with a looping script on AI.  But I don't really want to have a script looping for every AI.

3) - Hmm, not sure.  I'll be working on an improved ammo loadout menu, etc. and a better way to distribute ammo as well.

4) - Most wandering AI are probably in someone else's squad already.

5) - Might be possible, but I won't get to looking at it for a while.

6) - not sure I can make that happen with reliability.  AI tend to turn their engines on and off themselves.

7) - I'd prefer there be no resources to "cache".  Instead I want effects of losing a territory to be immediate.

8) - You can already build custom squads now and send them to guard any bases - as of Beta 2C.  I've improved upon that for Beta 2D.

Whew.

Well, I've added some more stuff for Beta 2D, but I'll probably hold off on release until I add a few more things.  Basically, I color-coded the custom squads, so when you deploy them, they deploy to team red, blue, green or yellow for easier control.

There still needs to be an easier way to select only one team than with the command button.

I also added "Flyinheight" option over the group list so you can have any AI flying aircraft fly in at a specific height.

I put a paradrop option on the transport helo's so you could have an AI pilot take over a squad, fly at a certain height, and then paradrop the crew in an orderly manner without you ever having to leave the base.

My main two goals next are to finish modding Kegetys's spectate script to filter out units not in your group and to make a new ammo loadout script.  I may make it so you can only get ammo from support vehicles and take away the option of building ammo crates since that just leads to clutter.

@Helltoupe - I don't really want to add spawning in chutes--I'd prefer to keep spawning limited to the base and forward bases.

@Iceshade and pirate2 - I'll look into that. The MCU is supposed to be locked and only the commander has the key, but apparently it doesn't work right ATM. I can't just move the commander into the truck since he has to deploy first--and if I mess with that, I might screw up some timing on the JIP stuff.

Okay, my fingers are tired of typing for now, so that's it 'til later.  

Thanks for all the suggestions and keep 'em coming!

[richard_dean_anderson 0]

3)

air drop (ammo) , will be nice to be able use transport copters to drop ammo (on parachute) ... i know this may looks like BF2 but no forget that game even exists

needed AI manned UH-6 with engineer onboard !

Yeah, I think that's a good idea, sorry if its too bf2 for anyone.

Being that the chopper will have to take off, fly to your position without being shot down, and then drop the ammo makes it quite different than BF2 where it just magically drops to you.

Thats why I like the idea of having an AI blackhawk pilot (in it's own group, commanded by no one) being able to drop new AI guys, who will then join your squad.

Remotely training a new squad, then ordering them to get into the newly-deployed chopper, directing them where to go/land/disembark is just too much work, especially if you are simultaneously trying to regroup/heal etc. the remaining squad members that didn't die in the firefight you were just in. Hitting so many function keys isn't that much fun, especially when the guys you are deploying from the barracks show up right away on the list as soon as they get out of the barracks.

Also, isn't there a way to set the respawn to "group" and then when the last group member dies, you respawn at the base like normal?

As far as I know, thats still not possible. But, wouldn't that be nice if it was?

[Dwarden 1124]

Kar point 8 was about AI defence "independent" on player control ...

just to avoid easy "siege" of forward bases, resources and own fabs ...

also RND auto AI patrols around Barracks/Air/Vehicle/Naval Factory prevents sniper camping (killing spawned players entering game) ...

[Jack-UK 0]

Just been playing for a good few hours on your Bootcamp server Great map, got a few bugs such as the chopper spawning inside the hangar and exploding :S and some random code errors appearing. But as expected for a beta

And Dwarden: Its quite easy to defend a particular base IMO. I spent over an hour trying to capture a well defended airfield base. And i still never completely captured it. So if the players are good enuff, it can be defended fine

Keep it up Karr.

[Dwarden 1124]

yes but then i do nothing else than just trying protect one single factory ...

some little offload of work to AI would be welcome ...

[Jack-UK 0]

Well yeah, thats what i mean It was basically defended by AI. They flew a couple of MI17's and para'ed them into the base and i couldnt break through the sheer amount of AI. Despite sending trucks of them in myself

An occassional resupply and it defends well

[Turkmenbashi 0]

I will have your babies if you make a Ground War version.

[BLSmith2112 0]

lmao... Perhaps have cargo boats or something to take use of the small boats we currently have instead of some huge frigates. Perhaps a no 3rd person. No Map. Random Weather. Advanced Only Version. Now that would be wicked awesome!

But its best to get the core version nailed down before making a shabam more different types.. Cuz then you'd have to re-release new versions like crazy.

But a North version would be sweet It takes that stupid mountain out of the way.

[HellToupee 0]

@Helltoupe - I don't really want to add spawning in chutes--I'd prefer to keep spawning limited to the base and forward bases.

I never said anything about chutes, that was Sukhoi's interpretation of the word mobile, i meant in the style of like company of heroes, which has foward garrisons but also apcs that can reinforce squads. I like the mobile option as some guy in a tank usually just parks on a hill and pops anyone comming from a fixed base.

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

@Turkmenbashi - what do you mean, a ground war version? No aircraft of any sort?

@Helltoupee - I get your point about static bases becoming camp zones. If I allowed a mobile spawn point, it'd only be for respawning players--not for creating AI infantry. Still, I'm not sure it'd mesh very well with the way I want things to work.

@Victor - I'll be making a North version, and also an entire island version which uses most of the towns. I might call that one RTS-IV Infinity, because that's how long it'll take to play it.

First, I'll be revamping a couple of things. First, I'm going to create a multiplier that will adjust the costs of different items depending on the number of flags. That way, I can add in more or less flags and the costs will adjust for the vehicles so things don't get entirely out of whack.

Second, I need to get the ranking system in place so it'll remember player's scores when they leave and come back.

Don't know when I'll get to doing that, but it'll be soon.

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

BTW - just posted RTS-IV Beta 02E for download. See the first post in this thread for a link and for the changelog.

[Jack-UK 0]

Changelog looks good! I'll try it out once it gets uploaded to some servers tomorrow

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

It's already on my server (see my sig) and I'm sure some people will be playing it. I've seen afternoon crowds (eastern time U.S.) playing on it regularly.

[Dwarden 1124]

1.

i guess i found little glitch , when i try deploy manned BMP ambulance it only fill queue but nothing appear after it's done ...

2.

another problem is i getting once or twice per RTS-4 session this error:

" No entry bin\config.bin/CfgWeapons.M16A4GL"

3. in version E barracks are not repaired back after destruction ?!

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

M16 error is because I forgot the underscore in "M16A4_GL" in the loadout script. It'll be fixed next version.

BMP ambulance has been that way since the start...just keep forgetting to find the correct class name.

Barracks should auto repair so long as you have enough energy. At 1 energy it'll repair very slowly, so it might not appear to be repairing. I didn't touch anything with regards to the base units, so that's probably what it was--or some random glitch.

[Dwarden 1124]

strange all others structures were repairing yet barracks "vanished"

noticed this already in 3 games (all on east side)

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

D'oh I figured it out. I found out that this has actually been going on a while because I forgot about one publicvar in the JIP script. Will be fixed for the next release.

Thanks!

[general 0]

It would be nice if you could set up a limit for the planes as AIs will

NOT fire at them. Shilka or AA they wont fire at them. So unless

you want to have half the team defending the base with AAs you're

toast. And even if you do you need to hit them in their approach

which can be quite hard. They'll keep bombing again and again and

again and again. Shilkas wont stop them at all. Well, maybe if they

are flying at 200 km/h but they don't.

Maybe you could give the Americans a Humvee that's got a good

radar and is equipted with AA missiles, instead of AT. Or maybe

something like in MFcti where there were HE cannons. That made it

almost impossible to just fly in with choppers or planes without first

taking out the HE cannons.

[Dwarden 1124]

It would be nice if you could set up a limit for the planes as AIs will

NOT fire at them. Shilka or AA they wont fire at them. So unless

you want to have half the team defending the base with AAs you're

toast. And even if you do you need to hit them in their approach

which can be quite hard. They'll keep bombing again and again and

again and again. Shilkas wont stop them at all. Well, maybe if they

are flying at 200 km/h but they don't.

Maybe you could give the Americans a Humvee that's got a good

radar and is equipted with AA missiles, instead of AT. Or maybe

something like in MFcti where there were HE cannons. That made it

almost impossible to just fly in with choppers or planes without first

taking out the HE cannons.

or just deploy SAM sites or AA based on ships (finally NAVAL factory gets use) and vehicles

for that use MANDO missile script with heat guided missiles

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....t=60537

also You can use same script to give copters and airplanes countermeasures against guided missiles ...

You can use same script to build vehicles with anti Air-Land missiles (this force players to actually use and deploy land troops first to disable enemy AA and anti missile batteries prior use of own air in area)

also ships can contain some Sea-Ground , Sea-Sea missiles too again in Mando script

SAM coverage should be done similar like e.g. in KP CTI on this screenshot ofcourse adjusted to dynamic objectives and main base (factories) area

[general 0]

that would rock