RTS - Farm Wars

[CrazyAce 0]

Depends on which version have tested it. In the newer versions, I have silently made those static defenses invincible, because it is already to easy to kill the gunner. It was impossible to repair a destroyed gun/vehicle again, because it was still marked as not alive. Thus you shouldn't need to repair it and you should be able to tell the gunner to get in with the regular ArmA command menu. Won't work in the RTS Interface right now, because I'm checking, whether there is a free gunner's position, which is occupied by a dead body.

Sorry for asking this question again, but we didn't get a response. What about a way to remove placed buildings and structures from the command interface window?

Sometimes I’ll make a mistake and place a defense structure that the AI can’t get to, or when I place a building that it is to lopsided to access, it would be nice to have a way to fix these issues. And the only thing I can think of to fix these issues is to remove the buildings; maybe get a refund :D and try placing again.

Edited July 26, 2009 by CrazyAce

[TiGGa 0]

Oh, I can forsee how some idiotic team mates will simply delete your walls which you have placed.

[cloudcaptain 0]

Running version F and having a blast. Still can't get either the automatic or semi automatic cow production to work. Any advice would be appreciated. The AI tractors will work for 1 or 2 cows for me then go silent.

Is there a way to repair vehicles? I can grab them with the Support BMP but do not see service trucks in the menu. The Factory doesn't seem to have an option either.

Just purchased the infrastructure upgrade. What are the effects? Didn't note any. Have you got any of this in a document I can read somewhere? The notes in the mission are vague about production.

I really appreciate the work you are doing on this. Its a riot. Most fun I have had playing ARMA in a long time.

[CrazyAce 0]

Oh, I can forsee how some idiotic team mates will simply delete your walls which you have placed.

Nature of the beast… That’s why I like playing offline just for those reasons. Then again I can see some dumb ass build structures in the most annoying and inconvenient ways...

Running version F and having a blast. Still can't get either the automatic or semi automatic cow production to work. Any advice would be appreciated. The AI tractors will work for 1 or 2 cows for me then go silent.

Tractors work great in version F.

What I do is set up the automatic feature and then build 1 AI tractor, then to get him moving I select transport to cow shed and transport to cow factory, this usually gets him going and keeps him going. Also have a nice clear open area for the tractor to move around. BI didn’t do too good of a job with the AI pathfinding.

Is there a way to repair vehicles? I can grab them with the Support BMP but do not see service trucks in the menu. The Factory doesn't seem to have an option either.

I would like to know that also, I can’t get that far sometimes as it takes me a while to get going…

Edited July 27, 2009 by CrazyAce

[AmnesiacJack 10]

Any one planning on doing a Farm Wars night?

Most of the servers I've been joining don't stay up long enough to really get into the game. If any one plans on wasting half a day or something to do a full game I'd like to join in :P

[TiGGa 0]

The repair action menu is bound to the damaged vehicle. You have to get out and select the option at the damaged vehicle. Alternatively, you can do that in the RTS interface as long you have a unit in the damaged vehicle. Select that vehicle and press R to start repairing.

[CrazyAce 0]

I spoke to soon about the tractor working great. I notice that it stalls when trying to transport a cow to the factory and messing with the Administration menu didn't help any. I walked over to the tractor and grabbed the nearest cow option form the tractor, walked the cow to the meat factory and grinded the cow into hamburger. Then the tractor started working again. I bet that the semi and full auto functions are conflicting with one another causing this problem to happen.

If I knew how I would eliminate the semi option and test to see if the tractor worked in full auto mode...

:edit:

Err, well... Maybe its just a problem with transporting the cow from the shed to the factory... so far this is the problem that I have seen with 0.2F, I have to keep grabbing the nearest cow to take to the factory from the stalled tractor. And what I have seen is when I do this, the tractor heads to the factory, as if it’s still transporting the cow... Then goes back to its original routine and yet again after a few minutes gets stalled again transporting a cow back to the factory...

Edited July 27, 2009 by CrazyAce

[TiGGa 0]

Maybe it is because the cow feet is clipping through the roofs of the tractor. I have seen support BMPs moving really slow, when carrying a vehicle which is clipping it.

[CrazyAce 0]

I wonder if the clipping also affects the crates. I'm just now having a problem with the tractor being stalled by the base super market with a crate on its roof… And unlike the cow, I can’t grab the nearest crate to manually deliver it.

:edit:

Well after killing the driver I got in the tractor as the driver and drove closer to the base market, I couldn’t deliver the crate while being as the driver, so I got out and the tractor auto self destructed. After the tractor died out and disappeared, the crate was left in mid air, I was then able to get the "grab nearest crate" option (I had to get very close to the crate to it to get that option), then I was able to sell it and start again with another AI tractor.

:edit2:

I'm starting to think it’s more along the lines of timing. When the player messes with the administration menu when teh AI tractor is set in motion, the AI tractor doesn't track back, either in time or properly.

Edited July 27, 2009 by CrazyAce

[TiGGa 0]

The semi automatic script is basically listening and waiting for an array to be filled with an idle tractor, the transport mode (cow/meat) and the destination. Then it will launch a script to control the movement of the tractor by passing all the relevant information from the array.

The full automatic mode is checking whether the conditions are met and is filling the same array with the relevant information which in turn will activate the semi automatic mode. There is no real conflict there and in fact it is working very good. I have checked the variables and the tractors are receiving all the information they need. Thats why they are actually picking up the cow/crate.

Now, the script controling the movement is just like this: domove to the cow shed (which it does), then waitUntil the tractor is close enough or the driver/cow is dead.

When the driver/cow is dead, then destroy the tractor and detach the cow/crate, so you can manually pick it up again. When the tractor arrived, then attach best cow to the tractor and domove to the factory. Again waituntil the above has happened.

Just a simple bunch of move orders. THe fact that the tractor is actually continuing its routine once you have picked up the cow from the roof shows, that the script itself is ok. The script is ok, because it is not waiting until the cow has been stolen. Maybe its collision avoidance is kicking in and it is constantly recalculating a route around the cow. But then why doesn'T it happen all the time? Recent sessions showed no problems in that aspect at all (except when there is a lot of trees and a lot of walls). In that case, I took an support bmp and tried to transport it out of the base. The tractor then starts to move again, just to get stuck at the same location. Again I carried the whole tractor out of the base (this time a bit further) and then the tractor wants to move again on the roof. Because it is attached to the BMP, it cannot move which will trigger the script to destroy the tractor. It is the wayfinding which is the problem.

I have checked their expectedDestinations and those where just fine. A conflicting move order wouldn'T result in a stop. The tractor would just follow the latest move order so a conflict between those scripts is impossible.

Edited July 27, 2009 by TiGGa

[S!fkaIaC 10]

Observations in a local hosted 0.2f, me as CEO of the russians, COOP mode as russian:

Tractors on a mission to deliver something to a Pasture do not take any mission if the pasture was taken by enemy while they are on their way. New purchased tractors worked fine after I took back the pasture, but the other 32 tractors remained immobile.

Suggestion: Give CEO more control over the single tractor. Let him define A-End and B-End of a route by selectable targets. Then let the CEO assign Tractors to each route. But at any time let the CEO select on or more Tractors and the ability to a.) drop the cargo b.) abort current mission and return to a waypoint (in case path is in danger) c.) change the Tractor to a different route

With that the CEO could maybe work around the generic immobile Tractor issue.

[cloudcaptain 0]

Thanks for the heads up on the repairs.

I will mess around with the tractors more. It might be due to the fact that I make walled bases and my cow shed, factory, and meat shop are close to each other.

I have had good luck buying 5 manual tractors, loading the cows myself, and driving a tractor back with 4 AI, unloading, and grinding. It takes me away from commanding and the RTS portions but it works well. It really helps to have additional human players :)

@TIGGa How about ammo reloads for static defenses?

[cadmium77 16]

Wow how did you get that red interface with the soldiers icons like that in the 3d editor?

[CrazyAce 0]

I have checked their expectedDestinations and those where just fine. A conflicting move order wouldn'T result in a stop. The tractor would just follow the latest move order so a conflict between those scripts is impossible.

Is there a way to run a script on the tractor that detects when the tractor stops, but is set to do an action (none idle, but stopped) and have it restart automatically? I can say that after testing for many hours that when the tractor stops it’s not set in idle, but is trying to do something, but can’t for some odd reason and the best way that I have found to clear the cache, as I call it; is to manually get it moving again, by commanding the tractor in the administration menu to take that action.

Say for example it’s trying to deliver a cow, but is stopped, I go into the administration menu and select deliver cow to factory from shed and push that button under that option from the drop down in the semi automatic section and then it works again, that is until it stalls out again. Same principle applies to the tractor delivering a meat crate to a super market… It might be difficult to have such a detectable script with all the different parameters set up, like the town’s super market and the pastures.

I don’t know how a script like this would be written or even called from; just an observation.

Edited July 27, 2009 by CrazyAce

[VariousArtist 19]

@TIGGa How about ammo reloads for static defenses?

At least at the HQ they automatically reload within a range of 200m.

The eutf.org-server usually has the latest version running. Currently its 0.20i - seems tigga had no time to update the first post!

@tigga, maybe you want to add this info to the first post, too?

@all: It would be really cool when you add the version you had issues with. Might help the Tigga in case some bug might already be squeezed! thanks!

Edited July 27, 2009 by Zothen

[cloudcaptain 0]

Most had been...was sort of a rolling conversation.

Thanks for the heads up on base reloads. I was noticing that my outpost at a pasture ran out of ammo. Normally by the time I have it built the AI sends two T34s after me and my AT towers get a work out.

---------- Post added at 11:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:28 PM ----------

Maybe setting up a script to automatically move and grind cows without a tractor...like a "conveyor belt with rotating knives" inside the base with a low payout is the way to go. That would allow you to build your base any way you want without AI pathing issues. I surround my facilities with large H Barriers personally. You could then focus on pasture-work and transporting those cows back for rendering...while getting a small automated flow of money from your base's cow supply.

I've been playing a lot of the "Civil War" MP mission as well...and like the payout for kills and captures they use. I was wondering if perhaps the other farmers in the company would benefit from a small payout for kills and the like. Maybe $5 a head. It would give them a slight income that they can use for reinforcements and motivate them a bit more than with the current model. On a public server I would think it would be hard to track who was really working hard for the team otherwise. The rewards for town and pasture captures could be generous.

Just my two cents.

[TiGGa 0]

Static defenses outside the base can be rearmed with the support BMP.

The versions on the EUTF server are pretty much internal tests which I haven't published yet. So no updates for now. Parallel to Farm Wars, I have already started on another RTS. Should be technically (scriptwise) better then Farm Wars as I will keep the current bugs and issues in my mind. No information on that yet.

[cloudcaptain 0]

Cool! Based on your current work will gladly give that a spin.

Will try the BMP on the reloads. That will be a big help.

[This is Bosnia 10]

Any one planning on doing a Farm Wars night?

Most of the servers I've been joining don't stay up long enough to really get into the game. If any one plans on wasting half a day or something to do a full game I'd like to join in :P

yeah i can go full game if u like we can do 1v1 haha

i am in usa east time pm me or msn, xfire with the time i go on and we can do it.

Edited July 28, 2009 by This is Bosnia

[CrazyAce 0]

The versions on the EUTF server are pretty much internal tests which I haven't published yet.

Where are the mission files stored on my computer when I connect to a server with the latest test version?

:edit:

Nevermind I found it under:

C:\Users\PCNAME\AppData\Local\ArmA 2\MPMissionsCache

Edited July 28, 2009 by CrazyAce
nevermind

[kremator 1065]

Parallel to Farm Wars, I have already started on another RTS. Should be technically (scriptwise) better then Farm Wars as I will keep the current bugs and issues in my mind. No information on that yet.

OOOOoooooooh you little tinker ! Go on, a hint ... don't keep us in suspenders :)

[CrazyAce 0]

Is there a way to give the AI (the 9 AI farmers) a cycle waypoint? I notice that we can give them multiple waypoints, but I haven't seen a way to give them a cycle waypoint.

[TiGGa 0]

Rightclick on the last waypoint and change the type.

[CrazyAce 0]

Yeap that works, although sometimes "cycle" doesn't kick in and run when the AI gets to the waypoint, but I just keep trying and eventually they get going smoothly.

Thanx Tigga for all the hard work you have done, I look forward to what you come up with next and I'm here if ya need a tester :D

[TiGGa 0]

Schwab is taking over the work on Farm Wars and he will try to improve it here and there. Seems like it is a lot smoother when replacing those tractors with Urals.

I will open a new thread soon about my new project.