Artillery Support System Package: Released

[soccerboy 0]

its quite late so forgive me for not understanding some of the things you brought up.

Tried this and noticed some major issues:

Not generalized. For example, adding another MLRS unit to your sample mission and changing the files so that you can fire more rounds will make them indeed fire up to 24 rounds instead of 12, but after the first fire mission is executed the menus will stop working (none of the actions you added show up at all).

in what sense did you change what file and how.

There's a huge need for "max" duration option in the duration menu, so you don't have to click "add" a million times to make them fire all their ammo.

i kind of like that idea. i'll give it some thought.

It would be nice to be able to set an absolute max ammo counter. That is, limit the amount of resupplies that can be done, with actual value being chosen by the mission's designer.

i like that idea too. maybe even some like randomized supply outage like if a "Non-existant" convoy didn't reach the destination that it'll just reset the script without resupplying.

All values that are set by the user should preferably be set in the same file, so someone who wants to change them doesn't have to look for which files he needs to change.

everything intended to be changed by the mission designer is in the Options file. if you change anything outside of that you can very well break the system as with anybody's script.

Can't give separate batteries different missions. Would be nice if there was an option to auto-release a battery right after it gets its mission, and have it available for acquiring again once it's ready.

hmm thats an interesting idea to a problem i've been trying to solve for a while.

It would also be nice if ROF could have some more "default" settings, like "slow", "medium" and "fast" (each giving it a different value in seconds), so user only needs to use the add/substract if he wants to decide on the exact interval but can also quickly set it to a long interval by choosing "slow". Renaming the "reset" option to "reset to X" would also make it more understandable.

i like that idea and will give it some thought. i did get annoyed by setting the ROF too so i normally never go beyond 3-4 seconds.

You may want to consider using if (condition) then {code} else {code}, or switch for multiple conditions. Using goto makes your code near-impossible to understand.

thats an sqf syntax which i'm not very experienced at all for this kind of scripting. it would take me a few weeks or a month tops to figure out how to write what and where in sqf format.

You also may want to use global variables for stuff like ammo limitations, and possibly set them based on the actual artillery unit (say, if the MLRS group has 3 units, then the MLRS max would be set to 36 and every place you used the value of 12 would use that global variable). That will make it much much easier to adjust your demo mission to the user's needs.

i think i already figured out how i would do that too so i'll look into it.

as of now though my main focus is getting an addon version done with a few features like Radio limitation and Auto battery recognition so nobody has to fill in any names anywhere anymore and probably with some of the easy things you suggested will be there too. but production is gonna be slow with it for a bit because i don't spend more than maybe an hour on this per day due to other things in life.

[galzohar 31]

Well, it seems like your action menu scripts already don't allow increasing the "duration" of MLRS to more than 12, so changing it only in the options is not enough. I changed it in the menu scripts as well so that I can increase the duration beyond 12. With 1 MLRS it still only fired 12 rounds, and worked normally (that is, worked as if it was set to 12 regardless of how high I set it in the script), which is good. Then I added another MLRS unit to the group, which did allow it to fire up to 24 rounds, however after firing those rounds everything broke (no more menu options).

If/then/else and switch/case statements are very basic programming stuff that are pretty much the same in every programming language, and will make the code much easier for both you and others to understand. Using "goto" makes even the most simple pieces of code incredibly hard to read, and should pretty much always be avoided if you ever want to read what you've written ;)

[Apocal 10]

Well, it seems like your action menu scripts already don't allow increasing the "duration" of MLRS to more than 12, so changing it only in the options is not enough. I changed it in the menu scripts as well so that I can increase the duration beyond 12. With 1 MLRS it still only fired 12 rounds, and worked normally (that is, worked as if it was set to 12 regardless of how high I set it in the script), which is good. Then I added another MLRS unit to the group, which did allow it to fire up to 24 rounds, however after firing those rounds everything broke (no more menu options).

Does the same behavior happen with mortars as well? I thought I tried it, but I don't know if it breaks everything or not.

Edited July 25, 2009 by Apocal

[chappy 0]

Any progress on Dedicated MP useability?

[soccerboy 0]

Well, it seems like your action menu scripts already don't allow increasing the "duration" of MLRS to more than 12, so changing it only in the options is not enough. I changed it in the menu scripts as well so that I can increase the duration beyond 12. With 1 MLRS it still only fired 12 rounds, and worked normally (that is, worked as if it was set to 12 regardless of how high I set it in the script), which is good. Then I added another MLRS unit to the group, which did allow it to fire up to 24 rounds, however after firing those rounds everything broke (no more menu options).

If/then/else and switch/case statements are very basic programming stuff that are pretty much the same in every programming language, and will make the code much easier for both you and others to understand. Using "goto" makes even the most simple pieces of code incredibly hard to read, and should pretty much always be avoided if you ever want to read what you've written ;)

i'll see what i can do to simplify it and even fix the amount of rounds you can set to be fired to a dynamic value based on how many weapons you actually have in a battery.

Any progress on Dedicated MP useability?

don't misunderstand the problems that i ran into with the dedicated server. it fully works on a dedicated server but i'm unsure why 1 of my 3 missions has problems with it. the only problem that i got in that one single mission is that it doesn't reset the variables for the Shot/Rounds Complete/Splash radio dialogs so by the 2nd fire mission you'll get those three radio messages all at once for some odd reason and i have yet to figure out why it does that.

[galzohar 31]

i'll see what i can do to simplify it and even fix the amount of rounds you can set to be fired to a dynamic value based on how many weapons you actually have in a battery.

Would be even better if it would change dynamically to the amount of rounds that your battery has loaded, and that setting the duration to max would always fire max number of rounds, so if your battery reloaded while you were setting up the mission it'll still fire everything. It would mean that you'd also need a boolean variable that will be set to true whenever you pick max, and be set to false whenever you make any manual adjustments to the duration or reset it to 1. Then when fire mission is submitted if the boolean variable is true, then the duration will then be set again to the current ammo of your battery.

[soccerboy 0]

Would be even better if it would change dynamically to the amount of rounds that your battery has loaded, and that setting the duration to max would always fire max number of rounds, so if your battery reloaded while you were setting up the mission it'll still fire everything. It would mean that you'd also need a boolean variable that will be set to true whenever you pick max, and be set to false whenever you make any manual adjustments to the duration or reset it to 1. Then when fire mission is submitted if the boolean variable is true, then the duration will then be set again to the current ammo of your battery.

literally the battery will always have the max number of rounds loaded through the artillery module. the ammo limitation that i simulate is virtual and is definable in the options file. now the way i understood what you said is that if the weapon has the literal ammo that would be 12 per M270 MLRS vehicle and if it were my simulation then it'll be user defined which could easily be 3,000,000 rounds probably.

i do however have a method already in place to dynamically set the amount of rounds based on how much simulated ammo you have. like if you try to shoot 12 rounds with only 2 left then it'll only shoot 2. i'm unsure if its in 1.03 or not and forgive me if i don't check right now i'm having quite the success making all this into SQF and using the if/then/else which is very nice by the way. it was a very bumpy and frustrating start but i think i'm getting the hang of SQF.

i'll be collecting more input from you guys and you all should get a more detailed status report on this once i get more of the scripts rewritten and functional.

[galzohar 31]

I've noticed that since MLRS only have 12 rounds, they will not fire more than 12 no matter what you tell them to, unless you reload them somehow? Or did I just miss changing something somewhere other than the options?

Either way, you shouldn't allow the user to set more ammo than your artillery has, be it virtually or physically, as the first is unrealistic and the second is misleading.

[soccerboy 0]

alright as promised here comes the SITREP:

after much much work i've successfully converted all the scripts from SQS to SQF. i've also successfully added an easier detection method with synchronizing the artillery modules with a logic.

i'll be releasing two version, an addon version and a script version.

the addon version is like a plug and play where you only have to synchronize the ASSP Init Module to your artillery modules and you're done.

the script version is going take a bit more code adding but not much.

V1.04

Changed: Changed the format from SQS to SQF.

Changed: Opened up the Artillery Support to everybody with a first come first serve deployment

Added: Option to turn off the Artillery for mission makers in the options.sqf

Added: You can now either disable or enable respawn mode in the options.sqf. respawn mode is when the player respawns that he gets his menus back.

Added: Auto Battery detection and classification through synchronization.

Changed: Rate of Fire Menu chagned to Immediate\Fast\Semi-Fast\Slow which represent 0\1\2.5\5 Seconds.

Changed: Mission Wording of Timed to Suppression.

Changed: Duration Menu is dynamic now depending on which mission mode you're in. in Suppression the options are Short\Medium\Long\Very long which represent 10\15\25\35 Seconds. in Immediate its the traditional Add\Subtract.

Changed: The duration menu for the M270 is dynamic depending on how many vehicles there are. max 15 duration.

Changed: The batteries won't be resupplied until they run out of one ammo type.

Changed: A few moments After Submitting a Fire mission you will regain access to your radio menu again but are limited to changing everything other than setting target\submitting mission\releasing battery.

Changed: Now all 3 batteries can be what ever weapon you wish to choose (M119\M252\M270). example you can now have M119\M119\M252 or M270\M252\M252. etc.

Changed: Dispersion Add and Subtract Menu have been replaced with set ranges of 50\100\150\200 Meters.

(Changelog is subject to change with other additions)

i'm still fighting with a radio limitation method which i originally was going to use the same synchronization method as with the artillery detection but because of the locality of the player (client computer) and the logic (hosting machine) synchronization isn't going to work and another easy way would have been to make a custom radio model, config and used the "hasweapon" command but thats out of my league. i'll be thinking and working on a way to implement an easy and user friendly way now that the batteries are opened to everybody so they don't get spammed with like 50 fire missions. if anybody has an idea how i would do this i'm all ears... or i guess i mean eyes. :D

PS. if people wish to have one i'll also add the Russian Artillery pieces and even make a PvP version if requested.

Edited July 30, 2009 by soccerboy

[nikita320106 0]

alright as promised here comes the SITREP:

a

PS. if people wish to have one i'll also add the Russian Artillery pieces and even make a PvP version if requested.

ALWAYS

wish to have one

Russian Artillery

ALWAYS))

will be wait)) so much

any eta for 104???

===============

o) what about ranging-in shot???(sorry ma engliz)

example==splash-splash out//player adjust correction//shot-shot out//player check correction//fire for effect//

o)and about default

ranges of 50\100\150\200 Meters

dependent from calibre (no way for MRLS take place in 50 m for each shot// as i know for MRLS without head - danger-close about 2000 m(i'm not about realism but about common sense) may be 500 m should be enough)))) Edited July 30, 2009 by nikita320106

[mr_centipede 31]

Fixed: Improved overall game performance caused by some scripts related to player disconnection or player respawn and now these scripts should only run in multiplayer.

I am a bit confused about that line, do you mean it only should run in MP, meaning not suppose to work in SP by design or do you mean it should be able to run in MP?

My common sense said it would work in MP, but that line gave me some confusion...

Thanks

[soccerboy 0]

I am a bit confused about that line, do you mean it only should run in MP, meaning not suppose to work in SP by design or do you mean it should be able to run in MP?

My common sense said it would work in MP, but that line gave me some confusion...

Thanks

that statement pretty much means that some of the scripts are not needed in single player like disconnection or respawn. because in single player you don't have to worry about other people not releasing the battery before disconnecting since you're the only one playing :) and from what i could see is that there is no such thing as respawn in single player so that script is redundant in single player aswell.

ALWAYS Russian Artillery

ALWAYS))

will be wait)) so much

any eta for 104???

===============

o) what about ranging-in shot???(sorry ma engliz)

example==splash-splash out//player adjust correction//shot-shot out//player check correction//fire for effect//

o)and about default dependent from calibre (no way for MRLS take place in 50 m for each shot// as i know for MRLS without head - danger-close about 2000 m(i'm not about realism but about common sense) may be 500 m should be enough))))

this is reality talk not game talk. in the real life that all depends on the munition shot by the MLRS i don't know if the US Military fielded it yet but i saw a GPS guided Rocket shot out of a MLRS on future weapons before so i mean it is possible with the right munition.

in game now you can either simulate it as a dumb munition or Smart munition. i like the abillity to have one big heavy precision strike but i think i will widen up the area of effect for the MLRS and the M119.

and i like the idea of Shooting a Spot round and then adjusting fire and then fire for effect. but that'll have to wait for 1.05. the only big change i'm gonna implement before completion is the radio limitation that has been requested for a while now, and maybe change the dispersion as said above.

i can't really say of an ETA at the time. the ETA is limited by my ability to added the last big feature to the list then i'll do some of my own testing. then i'll find a group to test it with, and then you guys can go nuts on it LOL. :D

[galzohar 31]

With the way artillery is currently made in-game, there is no point in adjusting fire, as the rounds are dead accurate and only way to have dispersion is add it yourself as fully random dispersion. IRL batteries would both have minimum dispersion AND have extra semi-random miss on the first round due to calculation errors (calcs not taking 100% of the factors into account and thus you miss by a little and adjust). Implementing those stuff properly into the game via scripts is going to be very difficult if not impossible and require actually knowing RL values for those stuff. I'd say to not focus too much on these things and leave this to BIS and modders (ACE2 and the likes) to handle.

What you could do is add an option for the mission designer to set what he wants the minimum dispersion for each artillery type to be, so until BIS/moders fix it at least the mission designer can be responsible for making the artillery realistically accurate/inaccurate. Then the action menu would have disperson options for X (where X is the number entered by the mission maker for minimum dispersion), 2X, 3X, and 4X, and then if 4X is still less than one of the default options (50/100/150/200) then add those options as well.

I'd still really like to have the ability to just order the battery to fully unload all they have with as few clicks as possible, and also to have them resupply themselves even if they didn't fire everything if I order them to (make a "resupply battery" action which can be used when they're not firing which will make them unavailable during the resupply process). You don't even have to have auto resupply when running out of 1 type of rounds because I may want a smoke barrage immediately after the HE barrage which should be possible.

PvP support is definitely very much needed.

[soccerboy 0]

With the way artillery is currently made in-game, there is no point in adjusting fire, as the rounds are dead accurate and only way to have dispersion is add it yourself as fully random dispersion. IRL batteries would both have minimum dispersion AND have extra semi-random miss on the first round due to calculation errors (calcs not taking 100% of the factors into account and thus you miss by a little and adjust). Implementing those stuff properly into the game via scripts is going to be very difficult if not impossible and require actually knowing RL values for those stuff. I'd say to not focus too much on these things and leave this to BIS and modders (ACE2 and the likes) to handle.

What you could do is add an option for the mission designer to set what he wants the minimum dispersion for each artillery type to be, so until BIS/moders fix it at least the mission designer can be responsible for making the artillery realistically accurate/inaccurate. Then the action menu would have disperson options for X (where X is the number entered by the mission maker for minimum dispersion), 2X, 3X, and 4X, and then if 4X is still less than one of the default options (50/100/150/200) then add those options as well.

I'd still really like to have the ability to just order the battery to fully unload all they have with as few clicks as possible, and also to have them resupply themselves even if they didn't fire everything if I order them to (make a "resupply battery" action which can be used when they're not firing which will make them unavailable during the resupply process). You don't even have to have auto resupply when running out of 1 type of rounds because I may want a smoke barrage immediately after the HE barrage which should be possible.

PvP support is definitely very much needed.

the way i see it is the battery will shoot where you tell it to shoot. now if you placed the target point in the wrong place then the battery is going to execute the fire mission you gave it in the wrong place. now i'm thinking that it would be nice to be able to fire a spot round to see if the marker is in the right spot before executing the entire fire mission. in easy mode with all the map icons on and stuff the spot round would be redundant. but for people who play realistically with no map icons or other aids it would make sense to be able to fire a spot round to see if you marked the target right. i'll think about this feature for a bit before i start to work on it and maybe get it in with 1.04. however you are right that it would be very very hard, at least for me, to have that many random values for each shot.

i think with the way i changed the Timed option it'll be easier and quicker to set up fire missions to last a certain duration in seconds.

the OPFOR artillery and PvP support will be a priority for me in 1.05.

[galzohar 31]

I suppose you could have a "trial" shot for people who might miss with the map marker due to playing on expert, but in default you should not have anything like that - only use "adjust fire" round if the user specifically requested it via a separate action (basically same as the previous version).

And again, I think it's very important to have a "max" option for duration, that will fire all the ammunition the battery has loaded.

[soccerboy 0]

i apologize that it has been so quiet here from me but heres some news for you guys that you all might like.

i have completed the major work on the script version and i'll be starting stress testing it in a few days once my friends are back in town again. so if everything goes well i'll have a release done and ready by sunday\monday.

heres the updated changelog:

Changed: Changed the format from SQS to SQF.

Changed: Opened up the Artillery Support to everybody with a first come first serve deployment

Added: Option to turn off the Artillery for mission makers in the options.sqf

Added: You can now either disable or enable respawn mode in the options.sqf. respawn mode is when the player respawns that he gets his menus back.

Added: Auto Battery detection and classification through synchronization.

Changed: Rate of Fire Menu chagned to Immediate\Fast\Semi-Fast\Slow which represent 0\1\2.5\5 Seconds.

Changed: Mission Wording of Timed to Suppression.

Changed: Duration Menu is dynamic now depending on which mission mode you're in. in Suppression the options are Short\Medium\Long\Very long which represent 10\15\25\35 Seconds. in Immediate its the traditional Add\Subtract.

Changed: The duration menu for the M270 is dynamic depending on how many vehicles there are. max 15 duration.

Changed: The batteries won't be resupplied until they run out of one ammo type.

Changed: A few moments After Submitting a Fire mission you will regain access to your radio menu again but are limited to changing everything other than setting target\submitting mission\releasing battery.

Changed: Now all 3 batteries can be what ever weapon you wish to choose (M119\M252\M270). example you can now have M119\M119\M252 or M270\M252\M252. etc.

Changed: Dispersion Add and Subtract Menu have been replaced with set ranges of 50\100\150\200 Meters.

Changed: Dispersion Add and Subtract Menu have been replaced with set ranges of: for MLRS its 50\100\150\200\250\300 Meters. for all the others its 100\200\300\400\500 Meters.

Added: Added an Option to cancel a fire mission in progress but only after the first shot.

Added: A few voice Radio Dialogs for the FDC.

the voices are extracted from the sounds.pbo and aren't 100% perfect but it'll do for now.

i'm in the progress in making a dialog menu with the dialog maker to make it easier to create fire missions off of just one page but it won't be in 1.04.

i hope this post will be proof enough that i have not forgotten nor have i given up on this project.

talk to you guys again on sunday for another status update.

[MadCatChiken 10]

give it a name and you MUST tell the system which name you gave it in the "options.sqs".

Ok how do i do this? I found the options.sqs but how do i make it know which player to give arty?

[kremator 1065]

Super soccerboy..... looking forward to the next release !

[soccerboy 0]

Ok how do i do this? I found the options.sqs but how do i make it know which player to give arty?

you don't. the artillery will be accessable to everybody prior to 1.04 which won't be out till next week.

the name giving is to tell the system which batteries you have so it knows which code to execute on what battery.

[MadCatChiken 10]

you don't. the artillery will be accessable to everybody prior to 1.04 which won't be out till next week.

the name giving is to tell the system which batteries you have so it knows which code to execute on what battery.

Ahh ok, i'll wait until 1.04 release, thanks for the help.

[kremator 1065]

Is that YOUR 1.04 or BIS 1.04 :) Just kidding !

[soccerboy 0]

Is that YOUR 1.04 or BIS 1.04 :) Just kidding !

lmao good one. now i could say BIS 1.04 which will be a while :D. now that you mentioned it though, i think i need to hurry up with 1.05 (kidding) because BIS is catching up with the version numbers and they're doing a lot more than i am. :rolleyes:

[gunterlund21 10]

Soccerboy I love your arty stuff. Use it alot. One thing I noticed is in MP everyone has access to the menu. Is there a way to limit this. I think if you play PVP both sides would have access to the blue batteries?

[soccerboy 0]

Soccerboy I love your arty stuff. Use it alot. One thing I noticed is in MP everyone has access to the menu. Is there a way to limit this. I think if you play PVP both sides would have access to the blue batteries?

i started a bit of work on a PvP version but that work is only limited to a bit of menu work and some detection work and i put in a check to see which side you're on. everybody is going to have access to the "open menu" option reguardless but if anything is listed in it is regulated by two things, side you're on and are you a radio operator or not.

for the PvP version it'll be done 1.05 or 1.06. i'm not sure because i'm playing around at the moment with implementing a GUI Dialog page.

the radio limitation to only a certain people (soldiers) is coming in 1.04 which should be out soon if everything goes as planned.

[soccerboy 0]

its here people. see front page for download link.

i'm also going to add a future additions for the project for an overview on the first post of what i'll be trying to add to this.

sadly my friends got delayed so i couldn't test it in an active mission with them but i have created and played an active mission in SP. i don't want to delay and delay over and over, and i can say with 99% certainty that it'll work in SP and with 95% certainty that it should behave the same way as the previous versions but without the bugs :D

if you do find any bugs let me know. if they're serious show stoppers i'll get on it immediately.

i'm looking forward to all your findings :D

Edited August 10, 2009 by soccerboy