ANNOUNCE: PVP script pack released

[.kju 3244]

sbsmac I have applied as ARMA 2 Game Supervisor at ClanBase.

You might be interest to help out?

It would be nice to establish an AAS league over there, as well as getting other

PvP concepts part of it or as separate league(s).

Especially your work might be a good candidate for it.

[Tom_Anger 0]

I won't speak for mac, but I believe he is involved with ArmA Leagues

[sbsmac 0]

V2.04 released

* CTF_gameStartThreshold can be used to configure the number of players that need to be present on each side before the game will start. By default this is 1. This prevents games ending immediately when only one player joins them.

* CO-OP mode now supports objectives. The CO-OP example mission is now fully working.

* Simple auto-generation of tasks from objectives has been added (this is an early implementation)>

* Fixed a bug where players who were dead and respawning were not recognised as being in the game.

* Cleaned up spectator script to make it's use by CTF_deathCam a lot more reliable.

* CTF_deathCam now recognises the "away" option.

* The new 1.04 lobby dialog system is now supported - any number of dialogs can be used.

* The 'isReferee=true;' method of adding spectators has now been changed. You must add 'CTF_referee=player;' to a unit's init slot to ensure that spectator slots will work.

IMPORTANT - due to the new lobby-dialog system, the ctfConfig.sqf file has changed and old dialogs are no longer supported. You must be careful when updating to this version of the scriptpack.

----

Tom - item 4 is what you were seeing before.

Kju - yes I would definitely be interested.

[Tom_Anger 0]

woot - thanks for the V2.04

[sbsmac 0]

Just added a camControl.sqf hotfix which contains a small improvement in the FlyRound intro type; the time it takes for the intro should now be completely independent of framerate so players should start the game much closer together.

@AceofSpades

You should find Co-op mode is now working! Hopefully with the fixes I have put in place you should be able to get something up and running quite quickly.

[rome 0]

I really happy with new release.

But i m so sad that the feature 'progressive spawn zone' is not implemented.

Im not bitching around, i was just soo impatient to go to work on my mission. I guess i just want to share my pain.

But ofcourse STILL a wonderful work sbsmac! nice job!

P.S:Is the 'progressive spawn zone' in the pipes?

P.P.S: i dont understantd this line in the manual :"Players will always spawn in the same location unless you set CTF_preservePlayerSpawnPos=false." Does it means that when set to false they will spawn randomly anywhere?

Edited September 20, 2009 by RoME

[sbsmac 0]

He-he - it's still in the works mate - just taking a little longer than I hoped. Had various distractions like my gfx card blowing up and internet connection dying to occupy me :)

>i dont understantd this line in the manual :"Players will always spawn in the same location unless you set CTF_preservePlayerSpawnPos=false."

If you set this variable to false, players will spawn at a random location within the respawn_east/west markers and facing a random direction. This is annoying unless you are creating a DM or similar map where you actually want this behaviour.

---------- Post added at 08:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:37 PM ----------

WARNING - looks like I have broken something to do with respawn in 2.04 :-( Players you kill can just leave bodies standing up in the place they died.

Ok - this bug is only associated with the "away" DeathCam option.

Other bugs though....

* Spectator slots don't work

* CTF HUD doesn't properly give the status of the flag

* Also games _still_ seem to end if there are only two players and one kills the other

Edited September 20, 2009 by sbsmac

[Tom_Anger 0]

Want me to get on MSN later on to go over some stuff with you mac?

[sbsmac 0]

V2.05 released

A good bunch of bug-fixes...

* Intro sequence should now take the same amount of time regardless of framerate.

* The method for adding spectators has changed. Any playable unit placed within a 'spectators' marker will be treated as a spectator and can view other players.

* The "zombie" problem with the "away" DeathCam camera mode has now been fixed. "away" now focusses the camera on the player in respawn.

* Fixed a problem where if there was only one player 'in-play' on a side and that player was killed, the game would end even if there were respawn tickets left.

* The flag-state reporting is now working in CTF mode.

* DM, KOH, and FF game-modes were probably not working correctly as a result of the ticket/in-play system.

* Logics can no longer be treated as spectator targets.

* Spectators can no longer respawn themselves into the player respawn area.

*edit* Sorry Rome - still haven't got your progressive respawn working yet :)

Edited September 21, 2009 by sbsmac

[Tom_Anger 0]

Tx mac - I took a day off these missions waiting for the fixes. Back on track. Will have TDM, TKOTH, and AAD missions completed soon - hopefully by the weekend.

[Batstat 10]

My first try with the PvP script pack. I'm using ver 2.05

From ctfConfig.sqf

#define GAMEMODE_CTF

From mission.sqm

under class Markers

class Item2

{

position[]={12378.598,6.1792684,3532.5886};

name="wFlag";

type="mil_flag";

};

respawn_west working - check

wSpawn working - check

same for east

West flag pole showing up - fail (?)

Do I need to test this on a dedicated server or do I need to turn on more atributes to get the flagpole visuals and mechanicks to turn on?

Tested with preview, saved as user mission and then previewed it, and at last saved as multiplayer mission, going out to lobby and run the mission form mulitplayer setup - no difference.

[sbsmac 0]

Hmm- just had a night of playing CTF missions based on 2.05 so fairly confident it's working :)

Your marker looks fine and you have the right GAMEMODE. You don't need to do anything special - it should 'just work' .

It may help to take a look at the _CTF-template.utes example mission. The other possibility is that you have got a syntax error in your ctfConfig.sqf file- this often happens when people change the titles and forget to add or remove commas at the end of lines. If you place a marker such as 'guns' and fail to see an ammo crate in the preview you should suspect a syntax error.

If all else fails, feel free to PM me your ctfConfig and mission.sqm - I should be able to spot the problem pretty quickly.

Edit- I don't know if you've seen it but QSens put together a good video at

which is still pretty accurate for CTF. Edited September 22, 2009 by sbsmac

[Tom_Anger 0]

I can't tell you how many times I had an extra or missing (,) in the config, lol.

[Batstat 10]

:) ok i redo the mission from scratch tonight

[Tom_Anger 0]

What I do is start with a new mission, add the borders, spawn points, 2 flags, and then my player slots. Once saved I then open the template then copy everything except for the mission file and paste in my new map folder, make any changes I want to the config file, save & test.

BTW - A good idea for any mission is to have NOTES. If you need help adding notes to the mission so that when players join and want to see information let me know. It is simple text to add in the init.sqf file. In game you can click M, then Notes and read good information.

Example

_diary = player createDiaryRecord["Diary", ["[color="DarkOrange"]ADD YOUR NOTE TITLE[/color]", "[color="Sienna"]Add what you want your note to say here[/color]"]];

I add this at the ver very ery top of the init.sqf file. So for example if you had CTF and wanted to give players something to read you could have something generic like this

_diary = player createDiaryRecord["Diary", ["Author info", "Mission designer: Batstat<br/><br/>Gameplay scripts by [sBS]mac"]];
_diary = player createDiaryRecord["Diary", ["Spawn Protection", "Do not try to camp your opponents spawn.  There is a protection barrier which will kill you.  Play fair and stay in the fight zone."]];
_diary = player createDiaryRecord["Diary", ["OPFOR Objective", "Gain points by going to the Enemy Flag and using scroll mouse you can take it.  Bring the flag back to your team flag."]];
_diary = player createDiaryRecord["Diary", ["BLUFOR Objective", "Gain points by going to the Enemy Flag and using scroll mouse you can take it.  Bring the flag back to your team flag."]];
_diary = player createDiaryRecord["Diary", ["Gametype", "CAPTURE THE FLAG<br/><br/>Taking the opponent flag back to your flag will earn you pointss.  The team who reaches the score limit or has the most points when time expires wins the round."]];

There is more you can do with notes, but this gives you enough to go on. You could also put your contact info for feedback in there if you like. Whatever you want to add can go in there. Enjoy.

[AceOfSpades 10]

Just wanted to let you know mac cause I disappeared for a bit... Everything is working fine think I had some conflict with older version and new arma patch,who knows but I know it works now. Absolutly love the spectate ability. Just designed a live fire exercise to evaluate applicants for my squad. The spectate is invaluable addition. Fantastic work man.

From a co-op point of view only improvement I can think of is to have a chopper ferry as I mentioned in a previous post.

Also is there a way to allow the space bar to work? In a few training scenarios I can think of it would be a good thing to have that as a switch.

Once again fantastic man...fantastic

[sbsmac 0]

Great news mate - very pleased to hear it :) Since there aren't a lot of co-op mission makers using this at the moment I'd love to hear if you have further ideas for improvement.

>From a co-op point of view only improvement I can think of is to have a chopper ferry as I mentioned in a previous post.

Ok - this may take a little while to implement.

>Also is there a way to allow the space bar to work?

Yes, that's a straightforward change. In the init.sqf file just comment out (ie, put "//" in front of) the line near the bottom that says

[] spawn compile preprocessfile "ctf\disableCommandMode.sqf";

Glad you like the spectate function - I'm also finding it almost as much fun watching other players as playing myself ! I have fixed a very minor bug which prevented you going backwards through the camera modes. The hotfix for that is at http://dev-heaven.net/attachments/download/2602/spectator.sqf if you want it.

Edited September 23, 2009 by sbsmac

[Tom_Anger 0]

Hi mac,

Been testing TDM and AAD a little and will work on this more Friday and try to get my CTF and CH- Team King Of The Hill missions completed so that we can get some nice TVT events going.

Here is what I found in TDM so far.

• When I start a round the system will wait to begin the timer until another player joins - GREAT. If that player leaves the mission is forced into an end due there only being 1 player in the game. Not sure if you want that to happen or if you want to let the timer run out. I think a variable should be setup once the timer begins and keep that round going no matter if people leave, but not a criticle request. In a match some rules will allow for internet connections to give people some time to get back in the game to finish, but this forces an end to the match if there are only 2 players and 1 loses connection.
  
• Kill points seem to register better better (probably since arma patch 1.04), however, when I shot OPFOR I got the score to update on screen perfectly, but when OFPOR killed me their on screen score stayed at 0 and instead the score for BLUFOR increased by 1. If you hit 'I' the kill value was correct, but didn't match what the on screen had. I haven't checked to see what score determines the outcome of the round, but that will be in time.
  
• Shooting some objects negates scores (i.e. barrels -3, and other items) and that looks like a functionality in arma so I am going to have to remove destructbable items unless you know of a line I can use that will prevent that.
  

I believe that is all I have so far in TDM, but will do more testing in the next day or 2. Here is what I have for CH-Attack & Defend.

I recall our discussions on Attack & Defend where you had to get a player in a zone. We were calling that RECON. I have a better name for it. 'SEIGE' where OPFOR defends the SEIGE AREA and BLUFOR has to get a player in the SEIGE AREA for the capture time. I have marker 1 out of reach which has the line 'WestHQ, West, Score=0' and my SEIGE AREA is setup as

'SEIGE AREA,east,captureTime=10'.

Problem with this (and you may know the solution) is after 10 seconds of BLUFOR being in the SEIGE AREA the zone goes to neutral (all players on both sides gets the message) and then another 10 seconds it takes to fully cap it. I want it to be 10 seconds BAM!!! BLUFOR owns it with no message stating it went to neutral. If there is no work around for that then I'll make due. Also for this to end is this line setup correctly?

CTF_allowDominationWin=true;

It seems to work, but I recall in previous updates that false was what I had.

Lastly - If I kill everyone on one team the mission isn't ending as I would expect so I think I may have missed something. Here are my CTF variable settings

CTF_allowSilencedWeapons=true;
CTF_allowSniperRifles=true;
CTF_allowGrenadeLaunchers=true;
CTF_allowMachineGuns=true;
CTF_antiGimp=true;
CTF_introLength=20;
CTF_outroLength=20;
CTF_allowDominationWin=true;
CTF_allowNeutralisationWin=true;
CTF_endWarnings="10,5,1";
CTF_allowGPS=true;
CTF_allowNVG=true;
CTF_hudNoScore=true;
CTF_hudNoObjectives=true;
CTF_ticketLimit=0;
CTF_ticketLimitEast=CTF_ticketLimit;
CTF_ticketLimitWest=CTF_ticketLimit;

[sbsmac 0]

Thanks for the feedback Tom.

but this forces an end to the match if there are only 2 players and 1 loses connection.

The current behaviour is by design. The thinking is that if all players on one side have left the game then you really want to see 'Game over' come up rather than wait another 10 minutes for the time to expire. I agree though that the downside is that if the last active player loses connection accidentally you may get a premature game end. I can't really see a good solution to this - the 'least bad' would be to force the remaining side to wait for a 'reconnection timeout' period in case the disconnect was accidental. Alternatively I could try to differentiate between players who have gone active because they have run out of lives and those who have disconnected. Will think on this....

however, when I shot OPFOR I got the score to update on screen perfectly, but when OFPOR killed me their on screen score stayed at 0 and instead the score for BLUFOR increased by 1.

I'll double-check the code later. It's possible I've just made a mistake with the scoring variables. The fact that you say the 'I' scoreboard is correct points to it being my bug.

Shooting some objects negates scores (i.e. barrels -3, and other items) and that looks like a functionality in arma

I have some thoughts about implementing true kill-scoring (most of the bits of code I would need I already have) but for the moment one workaround might be to use the preventDamage markers over those objects.

P

roblem with this (and you may know the solution) is after 10 seconds of BLUFOR being in the SEIGE AREA the zone goes to neutral (all players on both sides gets the message) and then another 10 seconds it takes to fully cap it. I

Right now there is no way to avoid the neutral phase (although I can see it would be nice to be able to avoid it). If you use CTF_allowNeutralisationWIn though the game will end when the objective is neutral rather than waiting for it to be captured by west.

Lastly - If I kill everyone on one team the mission isn't ending as I would expect

Hmm - sounds like a bug in my code. Bear in mind there is a 5 second delay between the last person getting killed and the game ending - I suspect you are already waiting long enough that this shouldn't be an issue though.

[Tom_Anger 0]

Good stuff - yes I waited more than 5 seconds on the kill. I was thinking it may be something on my end. Do I need internment, lol. I know I keep asking you that. removed those markers... I will use the neutralize to win and go with that as the timer for SEIGE winning condition. Tx.

[sbsmac 0]

Do you need internment ?

If you don't use it, then players who have run out of lives will end up in the specator script. However, they still have bodies and those bodies actually appear at their normal respawn position. IF you set up an internment marker though, those bodies get teleported to that location.

So it really comes down to whether you care about the respawn area filling up with a bunch of shop-floor dummies as players run out of lives. If you do, you can make things look a little tidier by using an interment area but you don't actually _need_ it.

[sbsmac 0]

Lastly - If I kill everyone on one team the mission isn't ending as I would expect so I think I may have missed something. Here are my CTF variable settings

Hmm - looks like I have broken the ticket system. However you can accomplish what you want quite easily by removing the CTF_ticketLimit settings and using CTF_playerRespawnLimit=0 ;

[Tom_Anger 0]

Deathmatch timer starts when 1 player joins. This is unlike the others that wait for a minimum # to start the timer. Is there a setting to make DM wait? I know you have the CTF_gameStartThreshold setting, but wasn't sure if DM needs something tweeked...

I have finished the other gametypes last night and will be testing over the next couple of days. I think I am very close to good working missions now, but I want to release them with no bugs. For TDM and DM I still have to go and remove barrels because the screw up the score. In DM if I am the only player and shoot a barrel I lose 3 points and lose the deathmatch even though I am the only player, lol.

---------- Post added at 04:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:21 AM ----------

Nevermind, lol. CTF_gameStartThreshold=2; Will wait for2 players. So it seems that whatever I set this to is what the game will wait for. Good stuff right there. I'll let you know what I come up with after testing the other gametypes over the next couple of days.

[sbsmac 0]

Deathmatch timer starts when 1 player joins. This is unlike the others that wait for a minimum # to start the timer. Is there a setting to make DM wait? I know you have the CTF_gameStartThreshold setting, but wasn't sure if DM needs something tweeked...

It is waiting for a minimum number - it's just that the minimum number is 1 ! :) Since there is only one 'side' in DM there is no point in waiting for player to join the 'other' side. I agree that DM is a bit pointless with only one player but you can set CTF_gameStartThreshold=2 if you want to wait for a second player.

I'll take a look at the barrels - maybe there is something I can do there.

*Edit* - just noticed your later post - lol

[Tom_Anger 0]

mac and I were going over some stuff today and he will have some edits when he gets to them.

For now - I'll be running some PVP on the Urban Resistance TVT/PVP server over the next hour or so if anyone is interested. Have the same 4 missions in DM, TDM, CTF, CH-Team King of the HILL, and Attack & Defend (SEIGE). We have a Warfare event taking place after so if you join later and see Warfare that is why. I will be on for a bit as admin if anyone has a request.