SLX Mod WIP

[kroky 1]

MadMike.48th: Looks like disableAI "autotarget" gets the AIs to hold fire completely when told to hold fire and have no target, but they can still fire at assigned targets. Maybe I can make a selection in the command menu for players to set their AI to not fire. It could even be an ROE mod: always hold fire, fire when fired upon, fire at will, etc.

I'm very interested in this, Solus. I noticed right now AI's fire their weapon even when told to hold fire. Maybe, because of suppression? So a ROE mod would be very welcome.

A question: Sometimes on the icons of the teammates (AI) there shortly appears the 'follow' command and disappears again. It is just a split second. What is this?

Next question: Since I'm using SLX again, you lose your weapons in water immediately, after 1-2 seconds. Didn't you change this a while back to keep the weapons longer?

[MadMike-Brig2010- 10]

A selection in the command menu - That sounds great. :)

One last question: I use norrin-revive. Everytime i got shot a dead soldier with dropped weapons appear. He lies next to me even after revive. I got the timer to execute the unconscious state set to "0" but it seems that slx_wounds.pbo detects the "dead player" faster before the revivescript is initalised.

Is there a way to deactivate the dead-player animation? Or another way to not have "duplicate dead soldiers" lying around, even if they are alive after revive?

EDIT: Fixed it for myself: In description.ext respawn was set to "instant" (death place). I set it to "base" and now no dead bodies occur. So i only have to wait for your implemantation of the "HOLD FIRE"-ROE and i think i found a ai-enhancement-mod that really fit my needs. :)

Edited March 7, 2010 by MadMike[Brig2010]

[Solus 1]

Kroky: The 'follow' thing is probably AIs diverting to go somewhere (take cover, etc) and then returning to formation if they are in formation.

MadMike.48th: Sounds good, I'll make the ROE thing sometime.

[MadMike-Brig2010- 10]

@Kroky

You said u use the GL4-ai instead of the GL3-ai. Do you use the whole GL4-mod or do you sorted things out like at SLX?

I´m really interested to get them working together, but i had several problems in the past to initialise GL4 well on server and client. Maybe you got some tips for me?

Also it would be nice to see in which order you load all the different mods. I use ACE2, SLX, RUG_DSAI, VFAI and WarFX at the moment.

Edited March 7, 2010 by MadMike[Brig2010]

[EddiePrice 16]

There's some great work here Solus but I for one would like to see this mod to be less dependable on itself. There are some great features in here, but some of them people do not want to use and others may also be using conflicting mods causing various issues.

[kroky 1]

@Kroky

You said u use the GL4-ai instead of the GL3-ai. Do you use the whole GL4-mod or do you sorted things out like at SLX?

I´m really interested to get them working together, but i had several problems in the past to initialise GL4 well on server and client. Maybe you got some tips for me?

Also it would be nice to see in which order you load all the different mods. I use ACE2, SLX, RUG_DSAI, VFAI and WarFX at the moment.

Ok the answer how it works for me:

Arma2 1.05 with latest beta 63164

Mod load order:

-mod=beta;@@panthera;@cba;@ace;@ace_wounds;@acex;$$acex_sm;@gl4;@jtd;@landtex;@modpack;@slx;@vf;@poen;+bb;+rksl;@dsai_arab;@dsai_eng;@dsai_gen;@dsai_rus;$$trsm_fixedwings;$$trsm_rotarywings;$$trsm_trackedvehicles;$$trsm_wheeledvehicles;@nim_weather;r:\@@isladuala;r:\@proper;@mma -nosplash -world=empty

Ok some explanations:

1. ace_wounds is a .pbo which I made following the instructions of Sickboy, which initializes the ACE wounds system on every mission. (this is not an official ACE addon!)

2. $$acex_sm is basically the original ACEX_SM, but modified to get rotary wings sounds replacement by TRSM.

3. JTD folder includes: FAS, Flies, FatRain, ClearHorizons

4. The Modpack folder includes: CLAY_TopolkaDamFX, sakulightfx, Jon_Editorupdate_V1.3

5. poen is the Polish to English language patch.

6. I use different category of modfolders (with the Spirited Machine mod launcher) to have more overview:

- @@ folders are islands

- @ folders are important gameplay mods that I use on every game start

- $$ folders are sound mods

- + folders are Addons, that I only use for certain missions, where required

- ++ folders are Replacements packs, (for units i.e.)

- r:\ folders are running from RamDisk, for a much better performance and to

avoid LOD texture popping. Game runs much smoother.

7. Slx folder has only these pbo's:

- slx_ai

- slx_ai_dodge

- slx_ai_turnmove

- slx_aiskill

- slx_animals

- slx_bis_bc_fix

- slx_bis_xeh

- slx_cloud

- slx_dialogue

- slx_explosiondust

- slx_findcover

- slx_fov (thanks Solus for this, eventually somebody made a good fov)

- slx_helicopter_ai_fix

- slx_lights

- slx_mimics

- slx_netcode

- slx_ragdoll

- slx_shoteffects

- slx_shout

- slx_suppressioneffects

- slx_uav

- slx_vehicleeffects (this pbo probably fixed for me the ctd)

- slx_wounds

- slx_wounds_ais

8. r:\proper folder contains all the plants and building pbo's made by kju for better performance. Total 10 pbo's.

9. Intentionally left out, after testing:

- Zeus mod, WarFX (This mods conflict in one way or the other and costed me to much performance, compared to the benefit they brought to my mod mix.

Now the settings on GL4_Global:

- Reinforcements true, but reduced to 1 group (performance)

- Reinforcements courage, distance and delay tweaked for better performance

- Artillery set to false

- Air Strike set to true

- Smoke (Man, Tank) true

- Flare true

- House Search true

- Car Weapon true

- Helicopter Paradrop true

- Advancing true

- Suppressive Fire true, (I have to try to disable this since its in SLX already)

- Combat Tactics true

- Body Detect true

- AI detection true

- Rearm false (already running VFAI, which is by far better)

- AI Extraction true

- Body remove false

- Difficult level false, (some problems when true, with ACE)

- Enemy AI Idle true

- Enemy AI Garrison true

- Enemy AI Static Weapons true

- Enemy AI Surrender true (Maybe overlapping with SLX, have to check)

- Simulate Dead true

- Map Marker false

- Recruit true

- AI Advancing and Suppressed true

- Get In System false

Of course there probably could be made some more optimizations. I still work on a better mix between performace/gameplay. But right now, I'm very happy with it.

Hope this helps some people to get better gaming experience with all this super mods!

Edited March 7, 2010 by Kroky
not complete information

[dmarkwick 261]

Aah - what other game could possibly compete in carving yourself your own vision of gaming perfection? :)

[jpinard 10]

Kroky -that is damn brilliant. Thank you!

[alloc 14]

Hi Solus first of all I want to say, that I really appreciate your great and complex mod. I play mostly single player, SLX mod also with MMA and GL4 going to be best of the best :). I really like the option to have every *.pbo separate, that’s really useful. I most interested in AI behavior. The AI with SLX is waaay better, but I have little problem. I experimented with .pbos and I think it causes the slx_findcover.pbo. For example when I see enemy units in the distance I order my squad to go somewhere (hide behind house, wall,…), to have better tactical position or to flank enemy. They go there until they are under fire :confused:, they cancel my order and return to formation. It would be nice, if they could continue to their destination without interruption, only with cover movement checking enemy position and trying to find the safest path to the waypoint. THX.

[LJF 0]

Just tried out the new mod and wow! Awesome work mate!

The only things I don't really like are the fire from the rockets (just after they are released, shouldn't this just be smoke?) and the messages that come up telling you that someone has been captured, which really breaks the immersion for me. Not sure about the rocket course deviation, isn't it a bit much? I just watched footage of an SU-25 using unguided rockets from 2000ft, whereas with SLX you'd need to be 500m or less distant for them to be effective.

However the AI changes like Alloc said, are incredible! I love the mod man :)

Edit: Anybody else notice any performance issues? I just tested a missions then and noticed a significant drop,

SLX + ACE:

60 AI moving to combat = 45 - 50 fps.

60 AI in combat = 18-25 fps.

ACE:

60 AI moving to combat = 45 - 50 fps.

60 AI in combat = 37-42 fps.

Edited March 8, 2010 by LJF

[Hunter123 10]

I've got exactly the same problem as Alloc when using this configuration. must be due to some dependency issue.

[MadMike-Brig2010- 10]

@Kroky

Many thx for your amount of answers. I give it a try to get it all work the same way.

How large do you set up your ram-disk and how many real-ram you got?

Edited March 8, 2010 by MadMike[Brig2010]

[kroky 1]

Real RAM 4GB, RAM disk 1,4GB

@Solus

Yes, I would like to get rid of the surrendering messages too. Honestly I would like to disable the surrender feature from SLX all together, since in GL4 I can set the parameters for surrendering.

Can you please split the features more? Like already suggested dragging and wounding separate.

Preferably for each feature one pbo. Or a userconfig file (like GL4, he he) for enabling/disabling features.

Edited March 8, 2010 by Kroky

[MadMike-Brig2010- 10]

@Kroky

I try to setup the ramdisk but i cant find a tool which do this for win7. Which tool do you use?

[jpinard 10]

Real RAM 4GB, RAM disk 1,4GB

@Solus

Yes, I would like to get rid of the surrendering messages too. Honestly I would like to disable the surrender feature from SLX all together, since in GL4 I can set the parameters for surrendering.

Can you please split the features more? Like already suggested dragging and wounding separate.

Preferably for each feature one pbo. Or a userconfig file (like GL4, he he) for enabling/disabling features.

Kroky, I'm going to create a new thread for your configuration, because I'm guessing a lot of people would like to do what you've done and there's a lot of questions about it. PlusI don't want to derail SLX's mod thread and further.

Go here please: Kroky's amazing combo mod techniques and performance boosts

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Edited March 8, 2010 by jpinard

[kroky 1]

@Kroky

I try to setup the ramdisk but i cant find a tool which do this for win7. Which tool do you use?

Superspeed RamDisk Plus, works for me on Win XP Pro. Dont know if it works on Win 7.

[tawah 13]

Hi, dataram Ramdisk works fine with 7

http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk

The free version is limited by the maximum size of the ramdisk (4Gb) but in my case it's sufficient.

[MadMike-Brig2010- 10]

Thx, man.

[kroky 1]

Has anybody observed that with SLX the units loose their gear in water immediately? Or is this ArmA2 vanilla related. I remember the would keep their gear for at least 3-4 minutes.

[jackass888 0]

Has anybody observed that with SLX the units loose their gear in water immediately? Or is this ArmA2 vanilla related. I remember the would keep their gear for at least 3-4 minutes.

yes but my test showed it was ace-s fault

[kroky 1]

yes but my test showed it was ace-s fault

Will try it with ACE only, and if it is like you say, then Im gonna make a bug ticket on dev heaven.

[Solus 1]

Kroky: SLX_Anim_Swim: Adds slightly faster, slightly less tiring swimming. Swimming people lose their gear when they get tired.

[the.d 0]

Goodness, why haven't I used this before! Was a huge fan of your work back in ArmA1! Thank you very much indeed!

I spent the last couple of hours on tweaking - and I now have SLX running with ACE2, the latest GL4, Zeus Combat AI and some properly adjusted ArmA2 AI difficulty settings (.ArmAProfile file) - it's amazing! Zeus and GL4 create a very realistic AI combat behaviour and SLX vastly improves their maneuvering precision and animation speeds providing realistic reaction times! The only conflict I cannot seem to get rid of is a weird "bug" (or is it just stupidity on my side?) when healing enemy wounded soldiers. In the mouse wheel menu there are two "healing" options, one that says "Give first aid to [soldier name]" and one that says "Heal [soldier class name]" - the first one is undoubtedly from SLX, as healed enemies surrender instantly. The second non-SLX one will heal the enemy alright but will also get him to shoot you right afterwards.

So... there are two alternatives:

1) Is there any way to remove the wounding system from the already quite modular SLX without causing missing animation/scripts error messages?

2) Any idea on how to disable the second healing option? (If anyone has any ideas on that, that is... I should probably ask this one in the ACE2 thread and I will do so if further testing won't get me anywhere :-) ) Sadly, this is not an option. Removing this healing option would also prevent the player from healing allies :-(

If I manage to get all of this to work, I'm going to post a step-by-step description how to properly configure the mods. For now it's testing, testing, testing!

Again, thanks a lot for this beautiful mod, Solus!

Edited March 11, 2010 by The.D

[jpinard 10]

, I'm going to post a step-by-step description how to properly configure the mods. For now it's testing, testing, testing!

That would be super awesome! Please do! :)

[kroky 1]

Kroky: SLX_Anim_Swim: Adds slightly faster, slightly less tiring swimming. Swimming people lose their gear when they get tired.

Yes but in combination with ACE2 they lose their gear INSTANTLY when in water.