Evolution V1.0 Large scale respawn coop

[Wolfrug 0]

Actually, both adding points for repairing/refuelling things (to stop abuse, repairing things 500+ meters from the base, incremented the longer away the repairs are) AND for driving repair trucks to, say, designated FARP points (which would move their respawning point to there) would be absolutely brilliant!

Say, have a couple of FARP points à la Air Cavalry somewhere down south, then give a couple of points for driving each sort of support truck there, and make sure they also respawn down there. Should work out nicely, methinks.

Great mission otherwise! Thumbs up!

Kind regards,

Wolfrug

[Serial Squirrel Killer 0]

Destroy Armour mission at FB 65, the target armour was inside a big rock on the hill side so we could not kill them or get a new mission.

[Dave3573 0]

Been playing this map for the last week flat out with a few friends and love it. Great work, will be looking forward to future releases.

[Jack-UK 0]

I dunno if its possible... but the AI squad members arent used too much IMO. I think if there was a feature where the AIs could automatically go to refuel + repair a downed chopper/vehicle. i tried to do this manually, giving my AIs a move waypoint to the downed chopper and stuff but they didnt park the repair/refuel trucks close.

I dont know if they could like 'getpos' of the downed vehicle and be dispatched and retrieve it back to base. This could be another feature for a higher rank maybe...

I think it would be a good idea to make use of AI squad members more But it might not even be possible...

[SmallBlackSheep 0]

Thanks, Kiljoy!

[Nixer6 0]

I wouldn't call the couple of FARPS all over the island, but yeah..they are there.

Whoops replying to an old post on another page, lol.

[Dr. Mojo- PhD 0]

I'm considering forking this mission and making some tweaks and changes.

Removing the fog that's curiously in the middle of the desert, for one. I've never known an arid region to be that humid, ever.

Removing the option of 24 minute or 24 hour day and fixing it at 24 hours. Adding in the option to choose the start time of the mission using a 00 to 23 hour and 00 to 59 minute option to pick any time during the day. Adding in the option to choose weather, and whether or not that weather is static or dynamic.

Perhaps some tweaks to the squad system as well (it's utterly ridiculous that snipers can't start with sniper rifles, and that pilots have to ground-pound -- makes pilots useless since ANYBODY can fly, and not only that, but pilots look dangerously like SLA members, making it difficult for them to gain ranks because they consistently get TK'd, and of course it ruins the immersion.)

I was considering adapting some respawn scripts so that once you rank up sufficiently to choose a specialization, new soldiers will open up to you (sniper, special forces, pilots, crewmen, medic, engineer, &c.). Thus one chooses their specialty on spawn and receives access to the appropriate equipment (weapons and vehicles) depending. A special forces guy couldn't pilot a blackhawk, a medic wouldn't drive a tank, a tanker wouldn't have access to sniper rifles, pilots couldn't grab a SAW, etc.

Open up the ranks a little. Although I'm a filthy Canuck, these are (vaguely) US Army soldiers here (despite some issues like the officers curiously wearing Marine cover) and so USA ranks should be recognized and respected. Add in Pv1, Pv2, Pfc, Cpl, Sgt, &c., &c. Kill off anything higher than a certain rank. Typically one doesn't see colonels running around the field with their men. Or give the option to refuse promotion. Majors and whatnot do pilot, but they're rarely ground pounding on the front. Take the commission and you lose the ability to ground pound.

I think doing this fork could be really beneficial, as it would add a large amount of dynamics to the mission. I'd also like the option to close off squads and call up the names of squad mates, and change the structure of the squads a little bit. (A Sgt. being able to lead two other people is a little flaky -- since when could a sgt. not be trusted to even lead a complete fireteam?)

Since I posted some of these issues on this forum and received no feedback, I guess its going to fall on me to fork it. Though if I do, you know, and you like the changes, feel free to incorporate them (w/credit, naturally) and I'll turn the fork back over to you.

edit: I should say I received "not much" feedback. I know your complaints with the SAW, but still, if you add in the specialisation idea I talked about, that goes right out the window. The SAW is a formidable weapon, but having trained with the C9 (the FN Minimi with an ELCAN sight -- oh my! ) you'd know it's quite the formidable weapon (when it doesn't jam up -- abusing Minimis is a bad idea). Of course, it also features no scope whatsoever in the game (but I see you there, Picatinny rail! )

Also, I'm having problems with the CSAR side mission. I locate the reporter, clear the area, and the damn asshole just sits in the tent facing the rear. I don't know how to get him to follow me to lead him out of the area, and it's quite frustrating.

[Mobious 0]

I have been running this map on my server for the past few days. It does seem very popular and I have to admit i love it. It does kill the server though. Its looks like all player stats are saved in memory with out any way to dump them, except for restarting the server or changing the map. Is or could there be a way to dump missions stats to say an xml file or even a db in future versions?

[OrLoK 20]

Hello,

with rgds to Dr Mojo's ideas, I too would like to see some of his ideas implemented.

I assume the fog is there to keep the framerate up. So i can suspend belief there.

Time of day settings would be nicer to be able to choose, but i'd def keep the 24hrs in 24 mins, it give those of us who cant play for hours, a nice all round atmospheric experience with a change of tactics. But definatly give us all the options to suit different play sytles and mentality.

Now where i do do do agree with the good Dr, is keeping units within their specialisation.

I too dislike seeing Pilots yomping about with launchers and assault rifles. If they bail/crashland, let em keep an smg/pistol/flare for eg. for self defence and rescue.

I'd love to see other specials, like the medic recieve points for healing as well as kills. (a bit BF2 i know, but bear with me)

also, i'd really limit the use of sniper/marksmen rifles/and launchers. it seems so common now to see the standard kit that folk use into Launcher +3 rockets and spr.

It somehow seems wrong to have these odd mixes of weapons (im sure examples do come up in real life of this) but when everyone has a launcher it really lessens immersion.

im whaffling as usual bgut i think you get me point.

BUT i think there should be an option to use the "VET" fork career path or the standard "vanilla" ranking.

The more configurable the more people will love it

I don't, however, agree with Dr's rank designations. I think an imaginary ranking system (based on real ranks) should be used rather than adherance to on particlar army.

no offence Dr.

Or perhaps, (as the models ARE based on US forces) there should be the choice of using the RACS forces and then one could keep the proper ranks for the US and the imaginary semi realistic ranks for the RACS ?

thats my 2 pence.

Oh btw, great mission

rgds

LoK

[Dwarden 1125]

please mod out that helicopters parked in the wild (aka near battlefield) loose fuel ...

also to prevent "permanent loss of vehicles" what about use feature like in RTS-4 (instead of buy vehicle e.g. call reinforcement or so) ...

bit more dynamic AI patrols , enemy trying reinvade territory etc ...

btw. i found bug BRDM alive in city yet CITY was clear  ...

location obregan

[1212PDMCDMPPM 200]

Two suggestions:

- add the ability to cancel a side mission

- add a respawnable civilian car in each city/village. It's nice to drive instead of going back on foot when you're on your own somewhere (for any reason, like crash, teleport bug..Etc)

BTW, did anybody suffered from the jeep telport bug ? I entered one at the airport, got a lot of screen flickering and reappeared from a jeep at the other side of the map !!

1.

[Monkwarrior 0]

Very nice missions.

Some bugs we noticed:

* some missions can be choosen but they end right away and the squad gets the points for free (it's nice to have some points but action is better )

* chopper pilots sometimes end inside the water magically killng all inside the chopper, the chopper itself is found on the ground a bit damaged

* vulcans cann't be reloaded

Not sure if these bugs are arma or mission-related.

We have a lot of fun with this one.

Monk.

[InqWiper 0]

I would like to see some more information about vehicle respawn in the briefing. Please remove that fog, I really hate it.

[Dr. Mojo- PhD 0]

I gotta reiterate how crappy the squad management system is. I was squad leader, and on crash, I rejoined the squad. For whatever reason, EACH PERSON in my squad was now displaying as "1" in the squad position, but sounding off as "2". I was in 5.

The squad leader died, and for whatever reason it assigned me as squad leader. Then next time I died, it assigned nobody as squad leader, so nobody could see the side mission objectives. So on top of not being able to tighten up your squad (which means tag-alongs not on TS or not team players can follow your waypoint and screw up your battle plan), if anything goes wrong with the game, unless each person in your squad disconnects and rejoins, you cannot EVER get it back to the way it was.

This is on top of the fact that it also doesn't display some names in the squad management system at the transfer building. For whatever reason, you have to join in a hierarchy. Let's say Tom, Dick and Harry are playing. In game, Dick has to join Tom's squad. Harry can't join Tom's squad to he has to join Dick's squad. This just keeps on going down the line (it's also annoying because each subsequent person who joins is thus assigned a spot like that, so you get people sounding off like this -- the fifth player who joins is subsequently bumped up each successive squad, so it goes like this:5 follow 1 - 5 follow 1 - 5 follow 1 - 5 follow 1 -- Ready - Ready - Ready - Ready, because 5 is getting kicked up each squad in the hierarchy and being issued the order each time by the squad leader.)

Don't get me wrong, it's a completely awesome mission (when I can rejoin instead of just hanging at "waiting for host" or "receiving data") but it's got some real kinks that need ironing out.

[KilJoy -SFG- 0]

Jack-UK

Quote[/b] ]. I think if there was a feature where the AIs could automatically go to refuel + repair a downed chopper/vehicle. i tried to do this manually, giving my AIs a move waypoint to the downed chopper and stuff but they didnt park the repair/refuel trucks close.

Its hard to remotly get ai to repair refuel. Try parking the truck close to the broken vehicle, get an ai to sit in the broken vehicle give the truck driver engage at will order, then tell the driver of the broken vehicle to repair at the truck, the truck driver will say engaging and try to fuel/repair the broken vehicle.

Nixer6

Quote[/b] ]I wouldn't call the couple of FARPS all over the island, but yeah..they are there.

I will be adding some armour and a farp to corozal. Of course the base would have to be recaptured. but once corozal is under control. This will make it easyer to get repiars up north of corozal which for now is difficult partly because AI and bridge navagation in corozal. Its a bit of a black spot for now.

Dr. Mojo, PhD

Quote[/b] ]Removing the fog that's curiously in the middle of the desert, for one. I've never known an arid region to be that humid, ever.

Its a fair point, Ill move the fog north and the rain south.

Quote[/b] ]

Removing the option of 24 minute or 24 hour day and fixing it at 24 hours. Adding in the option to choose the start time of the mission using a 00 to 23 hour and 00 to 59 minute option to pick any time during the day. Adding in the option to choose weather, and whether or not that weather is static or dynamic.

I like the idea of shifiting weather paterns and a weather forcast avaiabil by radio im pretty confident I could sync these on all clients too. But the problem in arma is you cant change wind speed , Its linked to the value setOvercast, so when 24 minuite day is activated and your in an overcast area the weather looks abnomal the clouds go by at 1000 miles an hour.

I suppose weather could be disabled for 24 minuite day mode.

Quote[/b] ](A Sgt. being able to lead two other people is a little flaky -- since when could a sgt. not be trusted to even lead a complete fireteam?)

I assume at this stage you are talking about ai. Let me explain somthing about AI squadmates in arma. So far as i understand it any AI under your control is local to your computor. This means when he moves you tell the server he is moving where he is moving what gun he is shooting and all other stuff about him in a packet. you also have to send a packet explaining where you are what your doing ect ect. In effect if you are a colonel and are leading a squad of 6 AI teammates your are using 6 times more bandwith then a player with no teammate. So you can see why it might not be wise to have 30 players commanding 6 AI.

Besides I doubt meny people even knows how meny people a Sgt would be normaly be leading or what the size of a fire team even is. I for one dont.

Quote[/b] ]I was considering adapting some respawn scripts so that once you rank up sufficiently to choose a specialization, new soldiers will open up to you (sniper, special forces, pilots, crewmen, medic, engineer, &c.). Thus one chooses their

I originaly wanted to do this to start everyone off as a grunt then as you gained rank you could specilize, you would go to a building and join the airforce say. Then heres the problem there is no way i could find to transfer a players identity to another model, you can put a player in a pilot model in game but they will have a random generated AI name. Even in the score board.

Quote[/b] ]Open up the ranks a little. Although I'm a filthy Canuck, these are (vaguely) US Army soldiers here (despite some issues like the officers curiously wearing Marine cover) and so USA ranks should be recognized and respected. Add in Pv1, Pv2, Pfc, Cpl, Sgt, &c., &c. Kill off anything higher than a certain rank. Typically one doesn't see colonels running around the field with their men. Or give the option to refuse promotion. Majors and whatnot do pilot, but they're rarely ground pounding on the front. Take the commission and you lose the ability to ground pound.

Im not a soldier I never was but when I make missions I always spend some time reserching and I did look at the rank system for the us army during this time. However the rank system i use is tied into the rank system that is hardcoded into arma

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/setRank

From a gameplay point of view which is always my first priority to have so meny seargent ranks to get thro (7) you would be ranking up every 5 minuites and getting few upgrades.

Quote[/b] ]Also, I'm having problems with the CSAR side mission. I locate the reporter, clear the area, and the damn asshole just sits in the tent facing the rear. I don't know how to get him to follow me to lead him out of the area, and it's quite frustrating.

You will get a messege when the area is clear if you are leader.

Be sure to walk all around the green marked area on the map. when you kill the last guy you will get the messege area clear and your waypoint will change to return home or lead hostage depending on your range to the hostage. when he is following you you can get in a vehicle and he will automaticly attempet to board as a passenger. make sure you have room for him as a passenger. Return to drop off with the hostage and its mission complete.

Quote[/b] ]I'm considering forking this mission

Id prefer if people refrained form making alternate versions of this mission untill I clear the critical client crash bugs that still happin from time to time. People still make posts here about version 1.0 bugs last thing I need is somone posting here about how there name changed to Michael Flaherty when they choose pilot carrer.

Im general I think your after a much more realistic experiance. But in order to make games enjoyabil realism must be comprimised. Firstly you have to take the game into account first when making a mission and not realisim. In order to progress

in evoloution you need score. In order to get score you need weapons. In order to get good weapons that give you a lot of score you need a lot of score. Give somone a weapon that is to powerfull compard to the other options of that rank and you will create a situation where people do the same thing over and over when they play the map.

If it were to be realistic and up to date half the weapons box would have to be empty. It would be m4 to start and only a hand full of weapons in between. I wanted to provide the player with the complete arma experiance from pistol shoot outs to air to air combat.

Quote[/b] ] I was squad leader, and on crash, I rejoined the squad. For whatever reason, EACH PERSON in my squad was now displaying as "1" in the squad position

I think I know what the problem is here. And basicly stems form the problem that dynamic human squads was probably never tested with join in progress. Lets say Jim joins the server and john joins after him. john joins jims squad as 2. jim disconnects and john becomes squad leader still as 2. Now john gains rank and recruits a squadmate the squadmate joins as 1. now jim decides to rejoin the game. the game is hardcodded to set him as 1 in johns squad (jims old squad) no matter what. So now you have two soldiers claiming to be 1. I will have to further experiment with this in order to see if there is a soloution.

orlok

Quote[/b] ]I too dislike seeing Pilots yomping about with launchers and assault rifles. If they bail/crashland, let em keep an smg/pistol/flare for eg. for self defence and rescue.

I'd love to see other specials, like the medic recieve points for healing as well as kills. (a bit BF2 i know, but bear with me)

I know it hurts the feeling of realisim to see pilots with rpg.

Id like to reward medics for healing and repair truck drivers for there efforts too. It is hard to even imagin an unabusabil sytem for these things but i will think about it.

Dwarden

Quote[/b] ]please mod out that helicopters parked in the wild (aka near battlefield) loose fuel ...

This is only if the chopper is dammaged Its built into arma design. In my view its a good thing and gives the choppers a much needed Achilles' heel.

Quote[/b] ]btw. i found bug BRDM alive in city yet CITY was clear ...

citys are never clear like in other missions that require clearing citys. You never have to find the last man. I think its 6 for larger citys and 4 for smaller ones can still be there and it will be declaired free. This is becuse the odd ai soldier can get stuck under ground ect. Just watch your back in citys even if there clear. The brdm was probably part of another players convoy mission and got stuck going throgh that town after it was clear.

Quote[/b] ]bit more dynamic AI patrols , enemy trying reinvade territory etc ...

Could be fun. There will be somemore surprise attacks next version.

Monkwarrior

Quote[/b] ]* some missions can be choosen but they end right away and the squad gets the points for free (it's nice to have some points but action is better )

* chopper pilots sometimes end inside the water magically killng all inside the chopper, the chopper itself is found on the ground a bit damaged

* vulcans cann't be reloaded

first bug is fixed in version 1.1

second thing sounds really strange, not sure what you mean

third is an arma bug. my advise for now is to order an AI at guy to blow it up and it will respawn in a half dammaged no fuel state with ammo. If you destroy it yourself you will lose points.

InqWiper

Quote[/b] ]I would like to see some more information about vehicle respawn in the briefing. Please remove that fog, I really hate it.

Yes people do need to know which ones respawn ill add more info. About the fog, Its not always sunny in war and a real pilot must be able to fly by

IFR

[=Grip= 0]

Kiljoy,

I ran into a bug the other day, I beleive it might be tied into the crash to desktop thing you were mentioning.

What happened,

I loaded onto the server, played for several hours. I was ranked at Colonel and had a full squad of AI. I had every single AI in some type of vehicle parked around the map. I got a crash to desktop, then I restarted ArmA and logged back onto the server. Once back in the server I looked at the scoreboard and I still had my rank and points, etc. I then went to the AI recruitment building (thinking all of my AI auto-despawned) and tried to recruit a new squad. I did this because my group bar at the bottom was gone and not showing anyone in my squad. When trying to recruit AI nothing would happen. Then I started getting radio transmission from my old AI squad, calling targets and reporting positions. I couldn't order them, select them or even communicate with them... but they were reporting to me. After several minutes I restarted ArmA again, once back on the server I saw a no-name player standing near the AI recruitment building that was the same class that I was (Sniper). The no-name player was infact ME... or rather "was" me. At that time I was the only player left on the server, so I logged in as Admin and restarted the mission. Upon mission restart I played as normal.... everything went fine. Once I got into a town and started killing things I noticed that when I first died the message said "Nobody was killed". I thought, that's very odd. So I kept playing and each time I died it would say the same thing, "Nobody was killed". Shortly after others logged into the server, they saw the same thing when I died, however when they were killed it was normal and displayed their name.

One additional thing I would like to point out, not sure if this is a ArmA issue or mission issue. When at the Airbase and you have AI in your group. If you go into the hangers or order them to go into the hangers, the AI gets all messed up and sometimes will get stuck in the hangers. Example: I have 1 AI in my group and is in formation with me, I run into the hanger next to a vehicle. I then do 1 of 2 things, I order the AI to board the vehicle or I board the vehicle and then order the AI to board the vehcile, most of the time the AI will walk around in a very odd path and not function properly. Same situation occurs anytime AI enter the hangers, they seem to get lost and can't find their way out. Most times I end up having to get in a vehicle and run them over to keep my points and get rid of them.

Thanks again for this wonderful mission

[Nixer6 0]

. About the fog, Its not always sunny in war and a real pilot must be able to fly by

IFR

I do...I do

I Follow the Roads  

[Nixer6 0]

The logistics. Repair/refuel need to automated.

Spawn an AI repair team and we have to protect them?

But then we have the positioning problem........

[Dr. Mojo- PhD 0]

More problems with squads and missions.

Unfortunately without a way to kick or leave a squad, I couldn't get out of a squad. I didn't want the particular person in my squad and I didn't want to do side missions for them to earn points. I had NO CHOICE but to disconnect and reconnect in a new slot, or else if I disco'd and reco'd it would simply refuse to let me take a mission because I had to be the leader of the squad.

Then of course somebody else took my same mission at the exact same time I did, so he went out and completed my mission for me and I couldn't finish the mission, nor could I return to the mission HQ and abandon the mission to take a new one.

Needless to say, since snipers have a better camouflage rating for the AI than the SF Assault group (strange choice of players actually, a whole lot of SF Marksmen and SF Assault (why both?), two combat medics, and six snipers) I won't play as anything but a sniper.

Once the two free sniper slots were pooched, there was no point in taking anything else because I couldn't control my squad, leave me squad, or abandon a mission.

On my own server, no less.

[Monkwarrior 0]

A suggestion for the transport planes.

1) you might want to add one or two real transport planes / choppers

2) make sure they can be entered by pilots from the beginning without points

To make sure these planes are not abused in public servers add the following rules. When crashing a plane you cann't fly another plane for a certain period of time. Your mod is able to remember the playernames so make sure that reconnecting is of no use when "punished" for crashing a plane/chopper.

Another rule could be that a pilot can fly again once he has rescued a plane with a service truck for instance.

The map is really large and adding this kind of transportation would really shift teh balance from driving to fighting

Monk.

[1212PDMCDMPPM 200]

Two suggestions:

- add the ability to cancel a side mission

- add a respawnable civilian car in each city/village. It's nice to drive instead of going back on foot when you're on your own somewhere (for any reason, like crash, teleport bug..Etc)

BTW, did anybody suffered from the jeep telport bug ? I entered one at the airport, got a lot of screen flickering and reappeared from a jeep at the other side of the map !!

1.

KilJoy, what about these two suggestions ?

Thx for this excellent mission !

1.

[=Grip= 0]

Can we expect to see more versions of this later in the future?

Different scenerios (starting locations, spawning, etc) would be excellent. Say for instance everyone starts at a makeshift base at the corner of the map that has a gass airfield or whatever, and as the mission progresses and towns are cleared more bases and spawning areas open up.

Not sure of that is possible in ArmA since it does sound complicated but I never expected something like this mission to be possible so you never know.

[KilJoy -SFG- 0]

In the next version you will be able to lock your squad and cancle a side mission.

@Monkwarrior hopefully the respawning mh6 in the next version will help this situation.

[ck-claw 1]

Well done Kiljoy , using Q-tracker its the most played/popular map going!

[dr_eyeball 16]

Great map (v1.1). One thing that's killing it though is TK'ing. It doesn't appear to be a direct TK by real players but it seems to be by A.I., since there's no name but a "xxx was killed (friendly fire)" message.

I'm guessing someone's recruiting an A.I. then instructing that A.I. to target given ally soldiers. It's happening over and over, so I suspect you are not penalising A.I. TK's in any way. You should probably remove that A.I. from that group and delete it, or penalise the Team Leader of that group. Easy enough.