Saving data in MP above the mission level

[sidhellfire 0]

I'm not a mission maker or anyhow experienced, but wanted to share with thing.

A lack of ability to write some data on the server, and access that informations in other missions is quite noticeable.

I think that's the main problem in creating multiplayer campaign or enhancing other missions like silly RPG games (Nogville etc.)

I'm not talking about saving a current state (positions, health etc.) cause it's a lot of information. Rather being able to define own "variables" which could store custom data. For now I know that everything is lost whenever server restarts, or mission itself.

Those 'gobal variables' could be storent even outside the server, like on an external http deamon. (.htaccess and other functionality inherited).

Maybe even storing on the server custom faces, to prevent it being constantly resent (option: p2p connections).

Imagine having a series of missions formed into a shape of dynamic campaign, where the existence of a group of units, or certain objects are dependent on a data written while playing previous mission with friends.

With external database for custom data, we could even apply custom access and ie. display mission objective status in the internet browser window, and even correlate those data with other servers in realtime! It's quite amazing functionality.

If the developers of other games/platforms would introduce that media, we could have players playing any jetfighter simulation, and have affect on games status on ArmA2 server. And I know that ie. Russian "Eagle Dynamics" would look into that cooperation gladly while building their DCS which is aircraft oriented. But that's hypothetical situation. Still while staying within ArmA2 title, the possibilities are quite impressive.

[The_Captain 0]

In OFP and Arma you can save object status in MP to the campaign save file. If you name the objects appropriately and use the health field, you can store integers up to about 1,000,000. This makes simple variable setting possible, if you write a mission which to read them in. EG, you could write a branching campaign which read in the current 'next mission' variable from the campaign file every time you loaded the map.

That said, it woud be much nicer to have the capability to save regular variables to a server to make multiplayer campaigns/etc easier. Since BIS is including a cooperative version of the regular campaign, they've probably enabled this functionality. Here's hoping.