ANNOUNCE: PVP script pack released

[Durka-Durka 10]

Is there a way to place the respawn options in the parameters? I'm going over the start lobby dialogs and don't see an option for that, but I might have passed over it accidently.

[sbsmac 0]

>Is there a way to place the respawn options in the parameters?

Can you explain what you are trying to do ?

[Durka-Durka 10]

>Is there a way to place the respawn options in the parameters?

Can you explain what you are trying to do ?

Sry, I'm trying to get it so that admins on the servers can set the number of respawns through the parameters, rather than going through the config file.

[Tom_Anger 0]

Oh - you mean set the tickets up as a parameter. By default it should be infinite. What would you like for options?

None

1

3

5

10

Infinite

I believe I know how to do it, but honestly changes are made by mac and I highly recommend before tweeking some files that you confer with mac either in PM or here in the forums as you have done already :). You'll be surprised at what you may find out :)

[Durka-Durka 10]

Oh - you mean set the tickets up as a parameter. By default it should be infinite. What would you like for options?

I believe I know how to do it, but honestly changes are made by mac and I highly recommend before tweeking some files that you confer with mac either in PM or here in the forums as you have done already :). You'll be surprised at what you may find out :)

yah, All I need to figure out is if it's possible to have a parameter for admins at startup to have respawns in 0,1,3,5,10,Unlimited.

Also, I'm using the gametype mentioned and have done my own tweaks, but I'm finding that when I go to the last flagpole, it has two flags up there. One for East and one for Neutral. When I capture it as a West soldier, it has one flag for East and one for West. I wonder if i'm doing something wrong, or if it's just the way the gametype is. *scratches head*

P.s. Thanks for all your help in this! It's much appreciated!

EDIT: Here's what the "defending" flag looks like. In this photo, it is neutral and hasn't been claimed by anyone at the moment. It is named "objective" and in the text area it says "Flag,score=15"

Edited October 21, 2009 by Durka-Durka

[sbsmac 0]

Durka,

Yes, adding a respawn limit dialog should be straightforward. On your dual-flags issue, the most likely explanations are that either:

1) You have accidentally created 2 markers on top of each other. This is very easily done if you have used copy-and-paste in the editor since by default it creates copies of markers directly on top of the old one. Try dragging the marker and seeing if there is one hidden underneath it.

2) More likely I wonder if you are using an ICON marker with an additional 'flag' keyword? ICON objectives have flags by default so the keyword is not needed. It's possible there is a bug that using the keyword gives you two flags :-)

---------- Post added at 09:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:09 AM ----------

If it's neither of these, I will need to look at your mission.sqm file - this is just a text file and the relevant portion is the section inside 'class markers' - you should be able to pick out markers for the objectives quite easily.

[Durka-Durka 10]

Durka,

Yes, adding a respawn limit dialog should be straightforward. On your dual-flags issue, the most likely explanations are that either:

2) More likely I wonder if you are using an ICON marker with an additional 'flag' keyword? ICON objectives have flags by default so the keyword is not needed. It's possible there is a bug that using the keyword gives you two flags :-)

That's exactly what it was. Thanks for helping me out! It's fixed now.

[Halli~SPARTA~ 0]

Now get back to work Durka!

[Flash Thunder 10]

Im having an annoying problem with this script, I did everything like in the video on youtube but when I started the game the intro never came up or anything and the AI weren't doing anything, so I figured out in the Description.ext file theres a DisableAI and its set to 1, so I changed it to Zero and its the only thing I changed, I want to play against the AI bots.

No when I got to Multiplayer and click Okay at the Server name and password screen the game crashes and gives me an error saying line 132 is missing a '}' or something like that but I obviously never touched that section so I don't know whats going on plus im a complete noob at this in general.

All I want to do is play against the AI bots, and it wont work!! :mad:

Also I had two unrelated questions regarding MP, Why do all my mission names save with %20 where spaces are???? :confused: I don't get that.

Last question, When I tried to preview the mission in the editor the Preview and Continue buttons were NOT there? Why is this, I felt like I totally FUBAR'D my game, im leaving it alone until a response :o

[Durka-Durka 10]

Also I had two unrelated questions regarding MP, Why do all my mission names save with %20 where spaces are???? :confused: I don't get that.

That's just the game's way of filling in the blanks. When you name your mission, try using _ when saving. If you don't want those to show up on your mission select screen, in the editor, go to the top right hand corner where it shows the mission name/time/weather, and at change it there.

Last question, When I tried to preview the mission in the editor the Preview and Continue buttons were NOT there? Why is this, I felt like I totally FUBAR'D my game, im leaving it alone until a response :o

You need to classify one of your "units' or players as "player" instead of "playable/non-playable" and that'll fix your problem

[sbsmac 0]

Thanks Durka for answering the other questions :)

>intro never came up or anything

If you are not getting an intro it's a big hint that you have introduced a syntax error either in description.ext or else ctfConfig.sqf. You can get more of a clue by looking at your arma.rpt file. Going back to basics, you could try using one of the example missions and introducing the changes you want one-by-one. If you are really stuck then post a link to your description.ext, ctfConfig.sqf and mission.sqm files and I may be able to look in my copious free time ;-)

[Flash Thunder 10]

That's just the game's way of filling in the blanks. When you name your mission, try using _ when saving. If you don't want those to show up on your mission select screen, in the editor, go to the top right hand corner where it shows the mission name/time/weather, and at change it there.

You need to classify one of your "units' or players as "player" instead of "playable/non-playable" and that'll fix your problem

Ah, oops that would make sense. :o :D

Thanks for the fast reply, im going to try it out and comment back tomorrow.

---------- Post added at 01:00 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:46 AM ----------

Well it seems like its working now but the AI still won't do anything I got rid of the errors though, I just need the AI to WORK.

Argh I hate scripts. :mad:

Also why is it when I click Shift which is my Command mode it fades to a black screen and says please dont use this in the game, click backspace to return to normal view I click Backspace and nothing happens than I got to restart or quit, why is this? :mad:

[ArMoGaDoN 0]

Hi sbsmac,

Just found this topic after a long absence from ArmA etc., and downloaded the pdf to take a peek at what you guys have been up to.

Looks like a very well thought out and slick interface for the user you've come up with, far better than the bodge of arrays I tried.

VERY nice work indeed, gratz to you and your team!

I haven't looked at the MP of ArmA2 myself, so can't really be of any help as yet, though a question is nagging at me since I first looked at this topic, how many maps are being made and played now using your templates so far?

Looks simple enough to use that I would expect the uptake to be high, have folks been using and playing these maps now, or is the prevailing mood still mainly in Sahrani life and evolution-only stuff like Arma 1 became?

If the uptake-rate of these more serious map-types looks more encouraging than last time I might be tempted to look again at ArmA and script developing again.

Comments?

edit: One thing that annoyed folks in earlier AAS maps was the lack of indication to the player of the direction/distance of the next objective.

The reasons why similar AAS game mode in "frontlines:fuel of war" game works and is very popular is due to two factors:

one: the on-screen map shows the objectives. two the 'HUD' shows the direction/location of the current/next objective, on-screen so the nOOb knows where to go next, without bringing up a map. FatMan did ask me to look at this, but I couldnt get it working on ArmA1.

Perhaps you could implement such a thing now to get the game modes more popular and fun?

p.s. take apart the ortego and paraiso maps i made for aas ages back, see the layout in cities? sounds like folks need some smaller maps like those from other noises i see on forums.#

Edited October 22, 2009 by ArMoGaDoN
added suggestion

[sbsmac 0]

Hi sbsmac,

Just found this topic after a long absence from ArmA etc., and downloaded the

pdf to take a peek at what you guys have been up to.

Looks like a very well thought out and slick interface for the user you've come

up with, far better than the bodge of arrays I tried.

VERY nice work indeed, gratz to you and your team!

Thank you very much. :) Unfortunately with one notable exception (thanks Tom!) I pretty much am the whole team :) Not complaining (though help is always welcome!) but that explains why development of features is somewhat slower than I would like,particularly with my recent involvement in www.armaleague.com

I haven't looked at the MP of ArmA2 myself, so can't really be of any help as

yet, though a question is nagging at me since I first looked at this topic, how

many maps are being made and played now using your templates so far?

Looks simple enough to use that I would expect the uptake to be high, have folks

been using and playing these maps now, or is the prevailing mood still mainly in

Sahrani life and evolution-only stuff like Arma 1 became?

That is an excellent question. My sig is certainly out of date, and the number of _known_ maps is currently over 80. Unfortunately it's hard to track since the whole concept of the scriptpack means that I tend not to see the end-result! I track the download numbers on Armaholic and dev-heaven (but not other sites) quite closely and can say that V2.08 has had nearly 400 downloads. With that number of downloads the apparent shortage of publicly available maps is difficult to understand although it's clear that a lot of people tend to make maps for their own team/server and don't publish them.

That said, I think it is still the case that Evo/Domination tend to dominate

If the uptake-rate of these more serious map-types looks more encouraging than

last time I might be tempted to look again at ArmA and script developing again.

I think it needs a serious push to popularise these. Evo/Dom are popular because you can just jump on and play but other gametypes require more planning and coordination to get a bunch of players together. I don't think that's not a reason to try though, CTF looked 'dead' until we set up www.armaleague.com and were, frankly, amazed to get registrations from 24 teams. TomAnger (Fatman) has been threatening to set up something with his SIEGE maps (very good concept - I would definitely recommend these) and kju is working with ClanBase.

One thing that annoyed folks in earlier AAS maps was the lack of indication to the player of the direction/distance of the next objective.

The reasons why similar AAS game mode in "frontlines:fuel of war" game works and is very popular is due to two factors:

one: the on-screen map shows the objectives. two the 'HUD' shows the direction/location of the current/next objective, on-screen so the nOOb knows where to go next, without bringing up a map. FatMan did ask me to look at this, but I couldnt get it working on ArmA1.

Perhaps you could implement such a thing now to get the game modes more popular and fun?

Yes, that's a good idea. I now have code which can be used to display on-screen text (currently used to tag campers but easily extendible for other uses). An on-screen map is something I'd like to look at seriously as well but I'll need to rip apart some example code to see how this is done (I'm guessing there is a 'map' control for dialogs/rscs).

p.s. take apart the ortego and paraiso maps i made for aas ages back, see the layout in cities? sounds like folks need some smaller maps like those from other noises i see on forums.

Can you give me a link to these ?

---------- Post added at 01:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:45 PM ----------

@ Flash...

Well it seems like its working now but the AI still won't do anything I got rid of the errors though, I just need the AI to WORK.

What do you mean by the AI 'not working' ? They don't appear at all or they just don't do anything intelligent? And how do you define 'AI' - playable units that don't have any player present or non-playable units ? A bit (actually, a _lot_0 more detail would help.

Also why is it when I click Shift which is my Command mode it fades to a black screen and says please dont use this in the game, click backspace to return to normal view I click Backspace and nothing happens than I got to restart or quit, why is this?

The black screen is a deliberate 'feature' since many people complained about the presence of spacebar scanning in the game. Why you can't get out of it I don't know except that it sounds like you have rebound your keys so it may be that 'delete' is not the right key for you. Instead of 'delete' just use whatever key you have bound to get rid of the command-menu.

If you do want to be able to use command-mode the short-term fix is to comment out the line in init.sqf that says

call compile preprocessfile "disablecommandmode.sqf"

Longer term, I can introduce a configuration option for this.

[Tom_Anger 0]

ArMoGaDoN is my daddy - hows it going bud?

[Durka-Durka 10]

Hi sbsmac,

I haven't looked at the MP of ArmA2 myself, so can't really be of any help as yet, though a question is nagging at me since I first looked at this topic, how many maps are being made and played now using your templates so far?

These maps are very easy to make. I, personally, have made a template of my own and have produced 2 infantry maps and one tank battle in less than 2 days. These haven't been put out except to our own server, but maybe in the future I'll put out a pack for the rest of the public. It just goes to show how easy these maps are to make.

[Flash Thunder 10]

@ Flash...

What do you mean by the AI 'not working' ? They don't appear at all or they just don't do anything intelligent? And how do you define 'AI' - playable units that don't have any player present or non-playable units ? A bit (actually, a _lot_0 more detail would help.

The black screen is a deliberate 'feature' since many people complained about the presence of spacebar scanning in the game. Why you can't get out of it I don't know except that it sounds like you have rebound your keys so it may be that 'delete' is not the right key for you. Instead of 'delete' just use whatever key you have bound to get rid of the command-menu.

If you do want to be able to use command-mode the short-term fix is to comment out the line in init.sqf that says

call compile preprocessfile "disablecommandmode.sqf"

Longer term, I can introduce a configuration option for this.

When I put the disableAI options to= 0 False, I load up the game and it gives me the option to disable enable AI I have them turned on.

Now when the game loads the AI will just sit at their spawn for both sides, they don't move or do anything, meaning they don't work.

Actually I don't think I got the script to work :o each time I die it makes me spawn as a bird and its gameover, I watched your video on Youtube and pretty much copied it I don't know why its not loading up, I moved the mission to my MPmissions copied the script into that folder, made sure that the gametype was on Gamemode_CTF and switched the name of the mission but it still won't load up with the intro like in your tutorial, it goes straight to the player and the AI just sit at spawn.

Does that clarify more, they don't do anything.

[sbsmac 0]

>Does that clarify more, they don't do anything.

What do you expect them to do ? ;-) AI are pretty dumb and unfortunately you'll have to give them instructions in the form of waypoints.

>Actually I don't think I got the script to work each time I die it makes me spawn as a bird and its gameover, I watched your video on Youtube and pretty much copied it I don't know why its not loading up,

Did you remember to add a respawn_east/west marker ?

Here's a top-tip....

www.scootersoftware.com provide a trial version of BeyondCompare which is an excellent file-diff'ing utility. If you download it you can use it to check the differences between the ctfConfig.sqf, mission.sqm and description.ext in you mission and one of the known working ones in the exampleMissions directory :)

[Flash Thunder 10]

>Does that clarify more, they don't do anything.

What do you expect them to do ? ;-) AI are pretty dumb and unfortunately you'll have to give them instructions in the form of waypoints.

>Actually I don't think I got the script to work each time I die it makes me spawn as a bird and its gameover, I watched your video on Youtube and pretty much copied it I don't know why its not loading up,

Did you remember to add a respawn_east/west marker ?

Here's a top-tip....

www.scootersoftware.com provide a trial version of BeyondCompare which is an excellent file-diff'ing utility. If you download it you can use it to check the differences between the ctfConfig.sqf, mission.sqm and description.ext in you mission and one of the known working ones in the exampleMissions directory :)

Yep I added all the escential markers, spawn,spawn protection, borders, flag markers made sure there wasn't accidently two of them on top of each other made everybody "playable" and in the lobby the rest of the slots say AI since I enabled AI in Discription.ext.

BIS needs to improve the AI in this game it feels tacked on unless Heavily scripted nothing of what he back of the box and the manual say. :mad:

[AceOfSpades 10]

Flash, don't know if this info will help much , difficult to understand exactly what you are trying to accomplish....

Mac's fine script pack does not alter or make AI do anything. They won't understand about a capture area or flag or a base on thier own. "Out of the box" all the AI can do is fight somewhat unintelligently. If you want them to move, capture something or pretty much anything but act aggressive towrds seen enemy at the spot you inserted them on the map, you have to write a script or use waypoints(which is limited).

In a mission if you want to control AI as a squad/fire team leader ect., then you must link them together under the "player" labeled soldier you want to be you. To do this use editor, click group and click and drag each guy you want under your control to you. When you are done you should have a line that leads from each of them to you. When played they will be accesable and under your control.

As far as making a flag type match with you against AI, pretty impossible unless you can write scripts since the waypoint system in the editor does not making capturing a flag possible. About the best you could do is make capture and hold( or no hold) areas and use waypoints for them to move to them.

---------- Post added at 01:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:24 AM ----------

Hey Mac, been out of the loop for a week or so, Still gonna work on creating a complete co-op tutorial for your script pack manual. If you would like me to help test you new 3.0 work I would be honored to help but time is limited I should say upfront for me atm. But I do have some time to fiddle with testing certain funtions ect. Just give me a PM if you need my help. Have gotten good feedback on my football version idea of your rugby we talked about briefly earlier in this thread, I think it could be a rather popular mode if its all worked out. Thanks

[sbsmac 0]

Good to see you back ! I understand about the time thing - no problem. There hasn't been a lot of uptake on the beta program so I'm very happy to take what help I can do :) Beta builds can be obtained from http://dev-heaven.net/wiki/sbsmac-pvpsp/BetaProgram. The latest betas now allow your suggestion of multiple scoring flags for RUGBY/Football mode though I haven't yet implemented different scoring.

I'll PM you my contact details - it's a lot easier to discuss bugs/features via IM :)

[kadinx 12]

In Arm assault I, I used a scoring system that would take points off or even return the units score to zero if the unit died. I used triggers and the addscore command which does not work in a Dedicated server environment anymore.

Is there any potential to create such a system with PvP script?

[sbsmac 0]

PvP script already has a ticket system (even when actively used it is running in the background) so the server knows when players have died and could modify the score quite easily. So the answer is yes - if you can specify a bit better how you would like it to work I can figure out how best to work it into the system.

[kadinx 12]

I was thinking more like a dialog option along with the other ones you have lined up at the begining of the mission. For example: "Onplayerdeath:" and then values of 0, -1, -2 and ALL points removed from player's score.

It can be enabled or not, with default value, similar to the other dialog options.

It can get fancier, if you get killed by a friend your points stay, where his follow the above dialogue, but it does not have to be like that.

...

[sbsmac 0]

KadinX - will look at adding that - should (famous last words!) be relatively easy. BTW, I just sent you a reply on the dev-heaven forums.

REMINDER - I'm looking for Beta-testers/contributors for V3 !

I've had a couple of volunteers but more would be helpful - if anyone can spare the time I'd really appreciate the help :-) PM me if you are interested or just have questions.