Yeah I understand, but there doesn't need to be a check for Apex. It is literally impossible to start a dedicated server without Apex loaded. If you don't put it in the startup parameter, it is still loaded. The same applies for all "non-optional" DLC: Tanks, Jets, etc. The server always loads them because even if a client doesn't own them they are still loaded so that they can play with people who do own them. It appears that check is what is causing the mission to end immediately. If someone has found a way to run an up-to-date dedicated server without Apex loaded, then they had to try specifically not to. Personally, I have no idea how they could. I'm almost certain that's the issue. Either way, an error message saying that a class is missing is far better than soft-locking your server/clients.
Anyway, played for another few hours yesterday. Altis worked great all-in-all and was personally my favorite of the two. However my friends and I ran into a few bugs:
The revive is either buggy or broken, its hard to tell. Even after being shot and killed ~20 times over the course of our playthrough, I only went into "revive mode" once. I immediately lost squad leader status, and my AI stood next to me and did nothing to help. Eventually I just had to force respawn. Are you using BI Revive? If not, I recommend it. It seems to work great for both players and AI. This has been happening since I first tried your mission, its just something I forgot to report earlier.
Also, and this is probably related to the following bug, the player isn't "slot 1" in their groups, they are "slot 2." As in, the first AI you recruit is selected by F1, then the second is by F3, third by F4, etc.
Speaking of Squad Leader status- Sometimes, and seemingly at random, the player loses squad leader status, even while alive. Respawning doesn't fix, and disconnecting and reconnecting fixes it, but only temporarily (less than a few minutes). This is essentially a game-breaking bug, since that player is now completely unable to do anything with their AI.
Some feature requests:
If possible, add Headless Client support. Personally its never been difficult to add in my missions, but I don't know how your commander AI works. If its a simple 10 second job like it usually is though, it would definitely improve performance.
Add in everything from all the non-optional DLC to the gear/unit menus. Like I said earlier, clients do not need to own these DLC's to join the mission. They in fact can not keep them from loading. The only problem they can run into is that when they try to use a weapon from a DLC, or use a vehicle from a DLC, they will get a pop up asking them to buy it. I've only played the NATO side, but the A-164 Wipeout can barely clear the runway on the carrier, and trying to land it on the carrier is a nightmare. Adding the Black Wasp, etc from the DLC would be a massive improvement. Adding weapons from Marksmen, and tanks from Tanks, would also be a great addition.
Lastly, here's my request for a specific mod to support. Personally, I think it could improve your mission's popularity a lot. Adding support for RHS would drastically increase your audience. I think its safe to say that as far as the CTI genre goes, there are more people playing RHS CTI missions than are playing Vanilla and any other mod setup (maybe CUP excluded) combined. Playing with these fancy future weapons is fun at times, but in the end me and my friends are always going to prefer realistic modern tech over Arma 3 Vanilla stuff.
