UPSMON - Urban Patrol Script Mon

[seba1976 98]

@Rafalski: ACE tweaks the AI ability to spot, identify, and engage enemies, and as far as I know, the same for every single firearm, man portable or vehicle mounted. If you test and adjust (under ACE) the variables that holds the thresholds that control any kind of behaviour you want from UPSMON, you will not be able to produce anywhere near the same results a non-ACE player will get from it. So even when the mod will not complain about the absence of ACE, it will make it, in fact, incompatible with non-ACE games.

I develop this kind of things too. What I suggest to you is this: develop and test without ACE, and then YOU play with ACE. If you see any problems running it along with ACE, solve them. Its impossible for us, to know if some behaviour is normal or intended, so we cannot do the tests you ask. But you can. Regarding behaviour, let's be honest, the worst that can happen is the resulting AI being too aggressive and lethal under ACE (if you adjust it for vanilla), or too soft and easy for vanilla (if you adjust it under ACE).

Now if you want to make UPSMON the best ACE companion, then by all means do it. You're fully entitled to.

Cheers.

[Rafalski 10]

@galzohar , u were right, end of post 943.

@ all who complain about UPSMON 5.0.8 R1

1 ) UPSMON does not required ACE to run! (said it again! :))

2) To do "if (ACEMOD) then {_sleepTimer = 1.3} else {_sleepTimer = 1};" I have to know where to use is. No one so far did any tests if it works under Vanilia or not. and Lonestar said that he'll stick with 5.0.7 until I test/confirm that UPSMON runs well with Vanilia (as I understand his problem). Ohh please , what else should I do to make you try UPSMON 5.0.8. in your mission on your server.

3) I do not have time / place / and willing do the Vanilia test myself. All servers I play use ACE, the community where new versions of UPSMON is ususaly tested use ACE. Please do not expect I will specially write/ or ask my colegues to write missions which do not use ACE, and force the community to stop using ACE because I want to check if UPSMON 5.0.8 + 30 people on server works as well on Vanilia as with ACE.

4) And ... to any one saying here that UPSMON should stay Vanilia compatible:

What is the problem? What is wrong with UPSMON 5.0.8 R1 that is does not work with Vanilia ? Some of you keep talking: make is Vanilia compatible, do test... but no one of you check If it works or not....yet.

And only because I said that I did not test it myself... and basically asked you guys to test it in your missions on Vanilia and let me know of any problems..

(Pls do not mention sample mission.sqm, taking about UPSMON script only).

End of story....if you don't like 5.0.8 use 5.0.7. I'll not do any test on Vanilia myself. But I hope you do.

Edited March 17, 2011 by Rafalski

[styxx42 0]

I love this script and Yes I happily am a ACE user so it works perfectly for me.

THANKS for your effort Rafalski.

I am so impressed.

I would be interested to hear how it works for all the vanilla players that are speaking up on this threat. Is it not working the way it is in ACE, what is or isn't working?

Or is this all conjecture and happenstance?

*********(HOLY FREAKEN COW BAT MAN. DEMONIZED that is a spectarlar report. Awesome man.. )

I should have waited55 more seconds literally.

I can totally understand why Rafalski would not have the time to test it with all AI's out there and chose to use the one he uses in game.

TIME.

Like Gollum said it beats down tall mountains.

Have to get back to it.

Thanks again

Edited March 18, 2011 by Styxx42
Demonized awesome test report post.....@!

[demonized 20]

I have been playing around with UPSMON 5.0.8 R1 in editor.

Purpose was to determine UPSMON 5.0.8 R1 functionality without ACE from an end user (player) perspective.

Map used: Takistan

Town used: Sakhe.

West units start in south end of town, East units north part.

I used Arma2 CO (A2 +OA) Vanilla + full BAF AND PMC, no mods or addons.

Latest official patch 1.57, no beta.

Initial feel: WOW!!! UPSMON have never looked so good.

Both tests was with US vs Takistani army units

1st test:

10 west and 10 east infantery groups - total 20 groups - activated with:

nul=[this,"town","move","delete:",150,"respawn"] execvm "scripts\UPSMON.sqf";

Performance: No noticable performance loss or gains detected by eye, or prior versions experience of UPSMON (5.0.7) - nothing off to report.

Note: smoke grenades affect performance but can ofc be turned off in UPSMON so not relevant to this test as smoke lag is arma particle handling and your hardware, not UPSMON related.

Beheaviour: looks good, same as before, maybe even better as it seems AI uses way more cover more intelligently now - nothing off to report.

Note: At the gas station a unit sat crouched behind the fuel pump leaning out and shooting, tho a fuel pump is a lol cover position in rl, it still used it perfectly, even shifting more left and more right behind it depending on advancing enemys position.

This may be AI updates from BI or a amazing UPSMON feature.

The use of smoke does indeed add lag, but DAMN!!! its been a long time since ive seen such a cool battle in Arma2, the athmosphere was incredible in Sakhe. i will forever keep smokes on :)

2nd test - my favourite:

5 west and 5 east infantery groups and 5 armor groups with a full rifle squad for each side - total groups 20 - activated with:

nul=[this,"town","move","delete:",150,"respawn"] execvm "scripts\UPSMON.sqf";

Now here is my wow factor really the look and feel of armored battle combined with smoke throwing ground units-- wow.

Performance - nothing off to report.

Beheaviour - Armor still is way to eager to charge into battle, they should slow down or get cover and engage carefully instead of driving fast to town, probably a game engine error and not related to upsmon.

vehicle combat works as normal, no getting in and out of vehicles and leaving them.

friendly ground units hitch rides from friendly vehicles that have same patrol area.

Vehicles avoid (very good avoidance compared to regular arma) of running over AI foot soldiers, making road patrols with foot soldiers in front use armor at rear.

May be coincidence but thats how it played out unless enemy was detected, but still then good avoidance.

Armor still seems a little bit to eager to CHARGE enemys but still looks good.

BUGS/ISSUES:

1: when using "respawn" on vehicles, in this case the us M2A2 bradley IFV it will not respawn the vehicle but instead respawn the full crew on foot and this error:

copy from rpt file:

"UPSMON started"
Error in expression <dEmptyPosition [10, 200];
sleep .4;
if (count _newpos <= 0) then {_targetpos = _>
 Error position: <count _newpos <= 0) then {_targetpos = _>
 Error count: Type Bool, expected Array,Config entry
File C:\Users\DP490\Documents\ArmA 2 Other Profiles\LCpl%20NotNice\missions\UPSMON507.Takistan\scripts\UPSMON.sqf, line 2313

Note: that was only error of a longer battle with 20 different UPSMON groups active, same error happens with other vehicle m2 stryker, thos were the only vehicles tested for this bug.

Maybe UPSMON does not support vehicle respawn, but that can probably easily be fixed.

2: armor/cars use speed limited even if they are 5km away from patrol marker, or units getting into empty armor/cars, then speed is normal or full as expected, only for armor/cars placed in editor from side, (with full crew as default) uses limited, now when aproaching patrol area thats fine, limited seems the best way as they can scan for hostiles etc, but not when 5km away, as it will take AI a looooong time to get there.

3: when a us group is on foot and a empty HMWW SOV is near, tl orders units to enter and they do, but TL stays still unable to move, nothing happens group waits in car and tl stands out side doing nothing, disableAI "move"??

It works fine for several other vehicles tested regardless of side, car or units.

Edit more info: when group contains only TL (1 unit total) TL will get in front gunner(commander seat and will not switch to driver seat as it does with other cars.

When 2 units total in group it works as normal, TL gets in commander seat(front guner) and second unit gets in driver and off they go.

If 3 or more units total in group all group members will enter vehicle but tl will stay still not moving possibly disableAI "move" or something.

Final end user conclusion UPSMON 5.0.8 R1 no ACE:

As a end user you will get a great script package working perfectly fine with vanilla arma2 and with other mods as before.

In my opinion UPSMON have improved a great deal since Raphael took over the project, most noticable improvement is vehicle combat.

There is nothing found in this test that suggest that UPSMON will not work or work badly without ACE mod, in fact it works perfect from a players perspective.

I recomend UPSMON 5.0.8 R1 to any users for a easy, carefree and awsome tool for any battle, big or small.

It does not matter if you use ACE or not, tho i have not tested if ACE makes this great thing even better, but thats not for me to say, this test was with vanilla arma2 only.

Request to Raphael:

1: add or fix vehicle respawn for vehicles used at the time UPMSON init of group, note group must be in full control of vehicle, occupy all commander, driver, gunner positions etc to avoid hijacks.

2: check the empty hmww SOV issue as reported above.

3: improve vehicle combat, ie vehicles should not charge carelessly so much into battle.

4: grab a beer and a lap dance at your favourite strip club and send me the bill, youve earned it. :)

Edited March 18, 2011 by Demonized
updated found bugs info.

[AnimalMother92 10]

Although I appreciate all the work the ACE team have put in, I tend not to use ACE unless I have to. Really the only bits I HATE are the wounds and the blacking out (on tiredness or as a pilot)

The Wounding system is optional and the Stamina system can be disabled by a module :)

[Rafalski 10]

limited seems the best way as they can scan for hostiles etc, but not when 5km away.

I understand you placed vehicle outside patrol area... and It uses limited speed to get there to do patrol in the area.

this is tricky problem as:

- on default UPSMON uses on standard, (no fight, no target, just patrol) limited speed, unless "noslow"

- UPSMON does not know if 5km outside patrol area is far or not :). example: for small patrol area 200m could be far, for 4000x4000 200m is practically inside the borders.

- if the patrol targerpos is on the other end of the patrol area, probably you would like it only move fast to the border of the patrol area. So UPSMON should non stop check if the vehicle is inside or outside the area. (there is not such thing at the moment)... can be done?, yes but size of the code and usage CPU etc.

at 2. Of course could be made conditions in the script which compare how far is the distance if you compare the distance to size of the patrol marker... but in this case I would leave it as it is. (low priority problem).

PS if it was not the problem - please create a ticket and do not forget attach simple sample mission

Edited March 18, 2011 by Rafalski

[demonized 20]

the limited thing was not only related to armor placed with default crew from editor, but also cars.

Also empty armor or cars mounted by passing by UPSMON groups move as normal or full.

Ive posted 3 found bugs on DH and updated more found info on the bugs there and in my previous post (the test) here.

Bugs are by any means not game breaking at all, but they are there.

Edit: Shuko posted something very interesting regarding inside markers of various size and shape:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=89376

I would really like any vehicle to use limited when approaching a area with buildings and enemys was not detected in that town/village.

Only if said area was inside patrol area, and route was not previously done, if it was on the way to patrol area then do nothing.

Would be sufficient with doing this that every 20 sec or what it is when in safe mode/no enemys detected.

Example for previously done routes could be related to roadsections and group could just add any roadsection it drives on wich is inside marker to an array and check if current section it is driving on have been driven on before

if ( groupUsesVehicle AND notInCombatMode AND !( (current _roadsection) in _doneRoadsectionArray ) AND ( _vehicle distance (nearObjects "house") < 200 ) ) then {_grp setSpeedMode "limited"}

Said code is not correct but shows how i think it would work in some way

Edited March 18, 2011 by Demonized
edited.

[Dwarden 1125]

just question so i can get up to speed related to this script project:

is UPSMON still based off the old (obsolete) UPS or did someone included the changes from latest several updates of UPS (last build 2.1.0)

http://kronzky.info/ups/index.htm

?

thanks

Edited March 18, 2011 by Dwarden

[demonized 20]

// Based on Urban Patrol Script

// Version: 2.0.3

// Author: Kronzky (www.kronzky.info / kronzky@gmail.com)

latest version is 2.1.0 acording to kronskys web page for a2

[Lonestar 11]

Thank you for the in-depth test Demonized, I owe you big time! :smile:

@Rafalski: I understand you don't have the time to test on vanilla but could you at least provide a non ACE sample demo mission for new users to try the features you introduced?

@Dwarden: UPSMON is based on UPS v2.0.3.

Edited March 18, 2011 by Lonestar

[Rafalski 10]

Thanks to Demonized I can say that I found a bug that concerns only No ACE players.

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/18314

[galzohar 31]

IIRC Monsada did say that the newer version of UPS is not needed because the fixes made in the newer UPS versions were already fixed in UPSMON. Dunno where to find the post though.

[seba1976 98]

I've never tried UPS by Kronzy. Can someone list the main differences between UPSMON and the last UPS? I'm not making much of the two lists of features.

[galzohar 31]

Basically UPSMON added features like "fortify", "reinforcement", "nowp", AI taking vehicles and more, as well as fixing some problems.

[seba1976 98]

//AI improvements

* There is a General commander that organize the attack and defence of all UPSMON squads in the same side:

o Squads of AI fights together as an army, so they comunicate each other by radio the enemy known positions.

o flanking manauvers are taken depending on friendly position.

* AI has enhanced actions and movements in combat:

o AI run crouched when enemy is near or under fire.

o AI does fire suppression and squad movement can be supressed by fire too.

o AI avoid snipers when fired by uknown enemy.

Thanks galzohar. From the above list of UPSMON features, which ones are not present in the underlying UPS upon which Monsada has built this new one?

[Dwarden 1125]

Thank you for the in-depth test Demonized, I owe you big time! :smile:

@Rafalski: I understand you don't have the time to test on vanilla but could you at least provide a non ACE sample demo mission for new users to try the features you introduced?

@Dwarden: UPSMON is based on UPS v2.0.3.

i know (typo ofcours i mean 2.1.0) ...

and that's why i ask about UPSMON being synced to last UPS base

if the fixes are there then

again this can be told only by someone comparing the sources as i remember the fairy tale about UPSMON being ok and it turned out there was bug with resource leak soon after ;)

so actual proof of the UPS base same or equal to UPSMON ... would be time savier for such questions

[galzohar 31]

Check out page 11:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=91696&highlight=ups&page=11

in UPSMON this fixes not aply because I changed all and that bug I corrected long time ago.

Which was an answer to my question from end of page 10:

Do you plan to use the fixes made by the latest version of UPS?

[shay_gman 272]

I'm not sure but is UPS project still alive? I though UPS turned into UPSMON after UPS stopped developing and now after Rafalki took over since Monsada is busy in RL ATM.

Now about resource leak, I'm playing with UPS/UPSMO/Rafalski and never noticed it, but then again I didn't do any real check on it.

Still UPS on his variants is the best AI behaviour out there.

[Lonestar 11]

UPS development was discontinued by Kronzky a long time ago, but the script is still widely used by mission-makers. For it's reliable and easy to set up.

There's no performance problem with UPSMON at all. At least none I've noticed so far.

[galzohar 31]

UPSMON came out before development of UPS have stopped. There were a few updates to UPS since Monsada first made UPSMON, but apparently nothing that Monsada didn't already take care off (according to his quoted post from page 11).

[Rafalski 10]

Uploaded UPSMON 5.0.8 R2

fix to some reported bugs only.

=== 5.0.8 !R2 ============================================

Modified:

• Change: armor using limited speed no matter range when placed directly from editor with default crew. Now the speed depends on the distance to the new targetpos (r.by Demonized)
  
• Fixed small code bugs: ex: {exit=true;}; should be: {_exit=true;};
  
• Solved bug: Respawn for vehicles not working. (r.by Demonized)
  

Misc:

• HMMWV_M998A2_SOV_DES_EP1 added to bugged vehicles for NoACE players. http://dev-heaven.net/issues/18314
  

=== 5.0.8 !R1 ==========================================

Modified:

• CBA is no more required !!!
  
• Solved bug: reinforcement AI after getting out of the combat vehicle, often the vehicle did not move. (r.by seba1976)
  

[demonized 20]

sweet, great work Raphael.

[Dwarden 1125]

ok good to know all the fixes are already incorporated,

and in fact i'm very happy of the colaborative approach on such scripts

(again shows the power of community sites like OFPEC and DEVHeaven and ofcourse You all here in BIF) ...

[igneous01 19]

upsmon stopped working for me, i dont know why but the ai refuse to do anything anymore. they just stand still as they were put in the editor, the script doesnt do anything anymore.

not sure what happened :/

[demonized 20]

upsmon stopped working for me, i dont know why but the ai refuse to do anything anymore. they just stand still as they were put in the editor, the script doesnt do anything anymore.

not sure what happened :/

You must be doing something wrong, i confirm UPSMON 5.0.8 R2 to be 100% working.

How are you activating UPSMON? are marker names correct in usage? any addons used? patch used?