MP mission collection maker(s) needed!

[celery 8]

<span style='font-size:11pt;line-height:100%'>There are two issues that make the multiplayer aspect a little tricky:</span>

Names

The first one is that most people name their missions how they see fit, either by giving only the main name like "Kill Everyone" or adding brackets into it so it will appear at the start of the list, or making up their own "standards".

Grass

The second problem is grass which can't be turned off as a server setting in the current version of the game and which many mission makers ignore completely. Grass takes a huge amount of fps away from weaker machines, especially in forests and northern meadows where the fps easily drops below 20.

<span style='font-size:10pt;line-height:100%'>The solution</span>

To the above problems we have a solution that requires an eager volunteer or volunteers who want to make the world better and become famous in the process. The goal is to make mission collections that consist of one or several similar game types and thus make it easy to download an assortment of missions without concern of messing up the mission list or budget PCs brewing up because of the heavy grass. The collections may include a whole bunch of missions for all we care, the more the merrier. They may also include missions that are OK without conversion.

The collection makers download missions (preferably newest versions) from servers or mission sites, unpbo them, change the name in mission.sqm to one that follows the official mission name standard, add the command line setterraingrid 50 to the start of the init script (setterraingrid 50; if it's sqf), re-pbo the mission folder and finally name the filename according to the standard as well. As a courtesy to the original mission maker, add a note about the conversion with your name in the briefing file after the author's credits.

Those who want to help the community this way can show their interest here and tell us which game type or missions they want to convert. That way work isn't wasted with possibly many people converting the same missions. Coop is by far the largest game type that needs conversion, so work may be shared in that case. The no-grass, standard name collections can be posted here or as a separate topic, it's your independent work afterall. I'll add links to them here and in the sticky thread.

[Gisen 0]

This is a great suggestion but I wish there was a better way to remove the grass as having 'normal' terrain detail really improves gameplay; it's the grass that's the problem. What about using a modified island that doesn't have the stupid grass on it?

[-DirTyDeeDs--Ziggy- 0]

I will do my part to convert missions on the {USI} ArmA server to no grass. They follow the mission name standard for the most part. I have already started doing this with a choice few maps, and I pledge to convert the other CTF missions there. It will be done over time as I have it.

As for converting whole packs of maps and offereing them for Download, I will have to get some support to host files.

I only hope this wont turn into multiple packs released with similar maps and slightly different names.

good initiative though, thanks!  

[azdood 0]

lol Celery right now im speechless.

Ive been following the mission naming standard since it was first released. And I have been renaming the 150 missions on our server to follow this standard.

I have converted 78 missions so far to the Mission Naming Standard. But, I found many missions to be corrupt, or of course for the makers satisfaction I havnt renamed certain ones because they deserve their own name. Like GC FrontLine Commander and MFCTI MFArmA.

A dozen more of our missions on our server have been converted to Grass Off settings. Since BIS wont be adding a server option any time soon, I decided to start switching some missions that badly needed it.

Most of the missions which didnt need the grass of I simply added GO to the end of the version, so people know grass is off. But for missions that needed it, like a large game CTI, I removed it simply because the server doesnt need that much power to satisfy a single player who wants weeds sticking up from the earth.

So far I found the easiest way to turn grass off is of course the sqf file with 'setterraingrid 50'

Well, I support you and excited to know that there are more out there fighting against the horrors of disorder.

And I hope more join in this "War" including all the mission makers who apparently never read this. http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....t=65064

[zaphod 0]

disabling grass = ofp

cannot agree with that ... why to create a bunch of no-grass versions as people gets a new computer within 12 months anyways to play anything !? ... i'm not willed to leave improvements brought by arma, just to fit all needs on the worst computers ... this is a heavy battlefield simulation and not all community warcraft playing.

instead of leaving grass i'm thinking of increasing setmaxviewdistance up to 1600-2000!!!

[celery 8]

@Dirty & AZDooD

Thank you for the support! I look forward to seeing released collections for everyone to download.

disabling grass = ofp

cannot agree with that ... why to create a bunch of no-grass versions as people gets a new computer within 12 months anyways to play anything !? ... i'm not willed to leave improvements brought by arma, just to fit all needs on the worst computers ... this is a heavy battlefield simulation and not all community warcraft playing.

instead of leaving grass i'm thinking of increasing setmaxviewdistance up to 1600-2000!!!

Good for you, I can see that you really like people.

The above comment made me think, is grass really the defining feature that separates ArmA from OFP to you?