Warfare Proton Mods

[USMCLuke 10]

Easy solution would just be to put Arty on a timer, which is already implemented in several mods. You don't need a building of any type to fire arty or mortars, just a plotting board and an FO (Forward Observer), which can end up being anyone who is on the other end of the hook requesting a fire mission.

I saw it mentioned somewhere that MLRS are not a Marine Corps asset, but we have field tested them in the past although they have not deployed to any theater under our command. Just because something can fire up to 32km, doesn't mean you can't fire under that either, meaning they could just as easily be a real world unit as well, although if you're going for authenticity, they definitely are not in the inventories of any of the current MEU's.

M252 81mm mortars have a max effective range of 5.9km. For these, we MG guys have discussed having capturable LP/OP's in strategic positions in order to implement this realistically.

And from the perspective of about 20 former Marines, sailors, and soldiers, Warfare is the closest game mode to actual sustained combat as the ArmA 2 community can currently offer while still allowing for a multitude of AI as well as PvP while still offering the flexibility of multiple roles and no reliance on actual players.

[Proton 11]

Ok guys, thank you all for the feedback. I hope I could get rid off most of the bugs, at least it looks like working properly on my dedicated server config now. Most of the problems were hidden because I did not test it with a separate server. Btw. it is just amazing how colossal bugs are there in the original mission, e.g. BIS just simply forgot to properly synchorize the base buildings for new clients. There are config variables which actually do nothing, etc...

List of changes:

1.1 BETA:

+ Fixed buy unit menu for multiplayer clients.

+ Fixed bugs in supply truck autopilot.

+ Server-side execution of MHQ wreck placement.

+ Made lock/unlock faster for the owner.

+ Added more vehicles.

+ Fixed: minimum HQ deployment range from town centers works now.

+ Fixed: structures now updated for new clients.

+ Fixed: AI supply trucks do not refill anymore at undeployed or destroyed HQ.

My priorities at the moment:

- Fix any further bugs you or I find.

- Get rid of that addon. If I can somehow port the GUI into a classic, non-filtered dialog, then the mission would be much more accessible for the crowd.

- Add arty.

- Add airports.

And please do not forget it is a BETA for a reason. I am working on this alone, I am not paid for it and I need your support to test it in real environment. If you cannot cope with frustration and do not want to help, do not even download it. If you find a major bug, do not suffer with it, just post the bug here and come back later. Anyway, hope the experience will be much better this time.

---------- Post added at 06:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:19 AM ----------

One more: if you find some functionality to stop working after a long time, it would help a lot of you could paste here the relevant part of the log (arma2server.rpt on the server and arma2.rpt on the client in Local Settings\Application Data\ArmA 2\), especially if it says something about what happened. It is possible that some errors happen only in special circumstances after long hours of play, but there is no way I can reproduce them here. Look for "Error in expression" messages at the *end* of the files. Forget about the others, they are, well, "normal".

[kremator 1065]

Proton, THANKS for doing this mode. Take your time, making sure that you play the game as well - we don't want you getting annoyed that you are constantly scripting !

Keep at it. There are lots of people in the community REALLY enjoying this - me included !

[USMCLuke 10]

Thanks for sticking with it Proton. MG will give it a shot again on our server tomorrow.

[Takbal 0]

Luke, just a question about that lock/unlock bug: was the action entirely disappearing from the menu, or you could select it, but it did nothing?

If it happens next time please send me the .rpt files.

[USMCLuke 10]

You could select it, but nothing would happen. When it happened, it seemed to happen to everyone on the server at about the same time.

[The.Yield 10]

Awesome job Proton! Ill be putting it through the wringer today and tomorrow and I'll let you know what I find! Your work is very much appreciated!

And for the guy who mentioned my logic of game scale to exclude/include things. I do this because arty is used from as safe a location as possible. If you could have your MLRS squad 25 to 32km away, why wouldn't you?

And I've long held jets as inappropriate for this scale of land mass (in a player controlled fashion), so don't throw that particular example at me! :D

But of course that view point is very unpopular as everyone loves their pseudo top-gun fantasies.

Edited July 20, 2009 by The.Yield

[Takbal 0]

Sorry, bad login :)

[Proton 11]

Luke:

It looks like that a server script was broken then. So far the lock/unlock was propagated through the server and then it came back to your machine. Now I added a line which first lock/unlocks the vehicle on your client, *then* it propagates the change through the server to other clients. The first part cannot fail, so you will most probably never meet again with an un-accessible vehicle. But if the same bug happens as earlier, it will manifest itself in vehicles which are seems to be unlocked for you, but still locked for other people, so you might be unable to share vehicles with mates. If it happens, pls send the logs.

Edited July 20, 2009 by Proton

[DarkMater 10]

I just want at least for vehicles to become unlocked if there are no alive units in them. Its annoying to kill units in a vehicle and then not be able to take it.

[Proton 11]

If it is yours, you should have the Lock/Unlock option available when you stand next to the vehicle, even when no AI in it.

Edited July 20, 2009 by Proton

[USMCLuke 10]

I think having the vehicle locked is more of an anti-theft device to keep other players from doing precisely what you said, shoot all the occupants, steal the vic.

[Proton 11]

Exactly. The other major point is when lots of people are spawning the same vehicle in a factory, it is hard to tell which one is yours if you are playing on a higher difficulty level and there are no on-screen markers. The lock-unlock action is only added on that client who actually created the vehicle (supposedly the one who bought it). Only the MHQ is treated in a special way which has to be lockable by the commander.

[USMCLuke 10]

As far as setting up your fixed-wing to runways, a simple solution (at least it sounds simple to me in my head), would be to put a capture location at the airfield and then maybe have a set spawn point for where aircraft would spawn for that faction when purchased. This is aided already by your buy anywhere script since you don't necessarily have to have a base structure built there, just an Aircraft Factory built somewhere.

A couple requests, if I may:

Can you put the F-35B as a buyable aircraft? The A-10 is not a USMC asset, FYI.

Can you allow for the purchase of the Avenger HMMWV since the Russians get Tunguskas?

Also there are many, probably too many to list, infantry units for USMC that we'd like to see, especially the Designated Marksman and Force Recon bubbas.

The GP-25/203 smoke rounds, colored smoke, 1911, and 1014 are several of the weapons we'd like to see as well.

Would it be hard to implement the actual helo pad that some other mods have as a buyable/placeable base structure? being able to tell your helo to land at a given point at the base is really helpful when running AI pilots. The lazy side of me would like to see an auto-rearm/refuel/repair at the pad, but the purist in me kinda likes that you currently have to manually drive the 3 trucks to the aircraft to resupply it.

[Proton 11]

The F-35 and the Avenger is already there. I will check the other assets as well. It is actually quite easy to edit these: all the stuff which can be built in the structures are defined in the Scripts/Common/Config directory within the mission if you unpbo it. It is so easy to add I wonder why BIS left them out at the first place. Balancing? Are the missing ones all last minute additions?

The only thing which must be figured out from the files is the internal name of the objects, but somebody already made an ArmAII_library.pdf which lists all the available assets with images.

The helo pad is a good idea.

[USMCLuke 10]

Interesting, did you add those vehicles since your 1.0 release? We didn't see them there, and I haven't tested 1.1 yet. I've uploaded 1.1 to our server and I believe one of my staff members is currently running it but I will be unable to check until I'm at home tonight.

[Proton 11]

Yes, I did it in 1.1.

[The.Yield 10]

Ok, quick update on the supply trucks. Now instead of heading to the center town building and driving around it, they just sit there...

http://img.photobucket.com/bf-analyze/albums/v96/WaTTz/ZieTrucks.png?t=1248116029

Mine is the truck on the left, sat there for about 5 minutes. The other belongs to the AI... and was there since the town was capped and never moved an inch (in excess of 15 minutes I believe).

How long does it take to delivery usually? Am I just being impatient?

Edited July 20, 2009 by The.Yield

[USMCLuke 10]

I still haven't had a chance to check yet myself, but out of curiosity, is the bug fixed that would cause the other team to win if you took over Commander from the AI before the HQ was initially deployed?

I always like to take it away from the AI and move it somewhere else like an airfield, and build it more strategically. I've noticed that in regular Superpowers, if you take it away immediately at mission start, you won't get the option for construction unless you discon./recon. The benefit of doing it this way is, that if you reassign it back to AI, so that the AI can issue missions to the AI squadleaders (because if you move them they dump their squads and go off alone and get killed) the AI generally doesn't try to build new stuff at the older location.

If you take over after the AI has already been commander, the the AI will do all sorts of wierd things, depending on how long you're Commander and what you do, like never issue orders to AI squadleaders, try to build an all new base back at the first location (if you moved it), or best of all just pack up the MHQ and do nothing at all.

Also, I may be doing something wrong, but if an AI squadleader dies while I'm Cmdr, his unit symbol is gone perm., this doesn't seem to happen while AI is Cmdr.

In your version when I tried this, playing as BluFor, as soon as I deployed the MHQ, OpFor won and that was that...

[DarkMater 10]

I think having the vehicle locked is more of an anti-theft device to keep other players from doing precisely what you said, shoot all the occupants, steal the vic.

But if I shoot out the AI from an enemy, I think I should be able to take their vehicle.

Why I cant get into a armed pick-up used by the resistance is a bit annoying. If I do the work to wipe the driver and gunner out without getting killed I think I should at least be able to capture the vehicle.

Its not anti-theft against the enemy. Its fine leave "Lock" in for the team I am on, but make enemy team vehicles unlocked to me.

[USMCLuke 10]

That's not scripting written into Proton's mod, that's just the way it is in Superpowers. Quite frankly, it really wouldn't make sense to allow enemy vehicles to be taken.

This isn't GTA.

A U.S. Marine is not going to jump into a half shot up enemy technical, even if he's on foot, for a great number of reasons.

[Proton 11]

The.Yield:

I checked it as well, and yes, sorry, but it was broken. I uploaded the correct one just now (22:19 UK time). What actually happened is that I maintain two sets of files, one for editing and one for the release. The editing version has faster build/vote times and infinite money/supplies, so I do not have to wait minutes to test something. I thought I moved every changes I did in the debug version of a crucial file, but actually a function was not compiled there, and I packed that version.

These mistakes happen when you do something at 5 am, after staying up and coding all night... ;)

[USMCLuke 10]

Have you modified either of the files that are part of the Addon between versions? The reason I ask is that I need to tell my people whether or not they need to re-download and reinstall those 2 local files or if they will be fine as long as I have the latest version uploaded to our server.

[Proton 11]

No, the addon is the same.

[Binesi 10]

A U.S. Marine is not going to jump into a half shot up enemy technical, even if he's on foot, for a great number of reasons.

But that really isn't the point. A marine *could* jump into a vehicle. There is nothing artificial blocking him. I think it's important to keep up the realistic simulation aspects of ARMA.

Besides, you may not think of a reason why a marine would do this, but I think there are more than a few - especially in cases of subterfuge, ambush, etc. Not every war would follow the mode of recent conflicts and Marines could come up against an enemy which requires significantly different tactics.

I personally like to use enemy trucks to load up my infantry. Great for infiltration.