.pablo.

sounds good, checking it out now...

thats what i've been thinking; on the one hand, i want ofp to become a better game, and on the other hand i don't want it to get so popular as to attract that "wrong sort of player." overall i think ofp2 should have the same kind of "cult classic" status as ofp1.

where did you read this? according to the E3 website, the convention will be held may 18-20, not april 16. although i wouldn't rule out magazine previews... http://www.e3expo.com/ im the most curious about the new animations; i think they were one of ofp's biggest problems (aside from the physics), as every time i showed ofp to one of my friends they nearly always commented on how strangely the people ran. that and the bouncing tanks.

i doubt it, it would just sap resources from more crucial aspects like the ai and physics

wow, i just looked for ww2ol screenshots/videos and it appears that i've missed a lot of improvements (paratroopers??) Â i think i'm gonna have to try it out again...

something to consider is that the animal should match the location of the "island." considering that there will be new areas that aren't islands or near the water, seagulls look out of the question for at least some of the areas. i really don't care what we respawn as, as long as it controls better than the seagull does now and can travel at least as fast as the seagull can now.

i think he meant engine-wise; BIS can always patch minor things, but they won't be able to add significant features (like soldiers swimming, or more realistic physics) after the game is released. also: baron, what is that quote in your signature from? the one that starts: 'Elated? Pleased?' 'Those are the closest words...' i've been wondering for a while and never got around to asking

i think its two different kinds of trade-offs: ww2ol was great in that it had the vast distances to fight across and large view-distances, but the downside was that the game didn't look too pretty up close. and thats not just with graphics; in order to have such a large game run smoothly, they had to remove a lot of the maneuverability which we have in ofp; anyone who has played as a soldier in ww2ol knows what i'm talking about. thus, its a trade-off in scale; the larger a game gets, the less resources it can use for details. the second trade-off is between realism and "user-friendliness." in ww2ol you often have to travel for 10 minutes or more before getting to the war zone, and i had many experiences while in boats in planes in which i was flying or driving for half an hour before seeing another human being. and once you get to the war zone, you go down a lot easier than in ofp. its not so much that you are physically weaker as a soldier/plane/boat/tank, as much as it is that in ww2ol the victory most often goes to the person who has been camping in a spot for 20 minutes waiting for someone to pass by. of course this can happen in ofp as well, but in ofp you generally don't have to go through as much trouble to get to the warzone again.

an explanation of the command engine: http://www.website.thechainofcommand.net/command_engine.htm some missions featuring the command engine (it isn't an addon that needs to be downloaded, just a system of scripts): the names that start BS feature the command engine

can someone post a picture of the vbs1 model this looks like?

i think its pretty safe to say they will be there, because if OFP2 is gonna launch in spring 2006 that means that it only has one E3 left until it ships, and most companies aren't going to pass up an opportunity to promote their product like that

lookin forward to playing it (need to d/l the addons...) just in case anyone is curious to know the addons required before they d/l the mission (its in the readme): BIS_Resistance Invasion 1944 Demo: ftp://www.gamezone.cz/ofpd/invasion44/DemoV1-2Full.exe Normandie Island by Jean Christophe: ftp://www.gamezone.cz:8021/ofpd/islands2/jc_normandy2.1.rar P51 Mustang by AIA: ftp://www.gamezone.cz:8021/ofpd/unofaddons2/AIA_P51EM.rar COC Artillery: http://www.ofpec.com/addons/linkstats2.php?ID=440 US Pack 1.11 by WW2EC: http://dynamic6.gamespy.com/~ww2ec/download.php?view.128

the real question is "why?" in my opinion, there are two major reasons that people spend more time with addons than trying new missions: the first reason is that most missions out there for ofp are bad. and by bad, i mean the mission maker obviously had no one seriously beta-test the mission before it was released. spelling and grammar errors, no overviews, bad overviews, cur__sp, bad briefings that leave the player confused, no intros, a poorly conceived plot/no plot, error messages, lots of obscure addons, bad scripting, the difficulty being too high or too low, lag, the mission not ending, no outro, etc. etc. lead to no motive. the player has no motive to play the mission because doing so is just aggravating. is this true for all missions? no, of course not. but its true for most of them. a little bit later i will talk about novelty in missions, which is something completely different from amateurish mistakes. the second reason people mess around with addons intead of playing missions is more theoretical; i.e. i have no proof other than my own testimony. i don't download variations of an addon i already have (new m4s, new t80s, etc), but when i do download an addon, it is because it captures my imagination. for example: i downloaded the jetpack addon when it came out, made a quick scenario with me and a couple other jetpacks attacking a convoy, and imagined all the other amazing missions that could be made with the jetpack. the novelty of the jetpack was enough to engage my interest for a while, but i soon grew tired of the relatively similar situations that having the jetpack put me in. the key idea here is that variety and novelty are the key elements to making a good mission. a mission can be perfectly balanced, include a story, intro, etc, but if the player just got done with another mission that had the exact same set-up, then what's the point? this is where multiplayer gaming comes in. as it has been said so many times before, human opponents offer the variety and unpredictability which keeps games alive for years after all its players have finished the single player campaign. therefore, if a singleplayer mission is to hold the attention of a multiplayer gamer, it must either: a) attempt to imitate the unpredictability of a human opponent with its ai, or b) offer some kind of gimmick that multiplayer does not have. examples of attempts to alter the ai include general barron's realistic combat patrol, all sorts of waypoint systems used by players, triggers, scripts, etc. examples of gimmicks include the chain of command's command system, all sorts of long cutscenes involving custom music, a fancy story, etc. these are not suggestions, these are things that a mission maker must do if they want their mission to be successful. and these things are on top of the most abundant kinds of problems with missions, which are just simple and aggravating mistakes.

edit: my original post got deleted for being too long, so i'm going to repost it on the next page

in which mode? it wouldn't solve the problem of the ai's super fast reflexes in "aware" mode, and it would look unrealistic seeing people walk around hunched over their weapons (im pretty sure thats the anim it plays when in limited speed). the fact was that there was no way to solve all of the problems with "safe" and "aware" mode until these patrol anims.

i told you it was a good idea!! i want my props!! lol

ordering your squad to sit in safe mode makes them less combat ready, regardless of how realistic it looks. no one will, because there is no need to "rest" your soldiers. Â the only way the sitting anim is used in ofp is for when mission makes want a character to be sitting down around a campfire or radio. Â no one uses the sitting anims any other way.

i disagree, for several reasons: if you have ai in safe mode and they "see" an enemy using sanctuary's anims, they will immediately go into either aware mode or combat mode, in which case they will be either kneeling (aware mode) or lying on the ground (combat mode). no human player will move around in safe mode, because its too slow; even if they did, they would not sit down if they heard or saw an enemy, they would pull out their gun and crouch, and whatever ai they were commanding would do the same (if you're commanding a squad in safe mode and pull out your gun, the ai automatically pull theirs' out as well). thus, if you want your squad to crouch when not moving, just pull out you're gun. point #2: most of the time, the sitting-down animation is used with people sitting around a fire or radio (look at the official campaign). Â if you switch the position from a comfortable one (sitting down on your butt) to a less comfortable one (having all your weight on your leg) than it looks very strange when a bunch of people are sitting around a fire in such a position. if you want to replace the default anims, i would change them to something like the way the second man from the left (back row) is sitting in this picture: http://www.diggerhistory.info/images/uniforms/nz-anzac.jpg sitting on the ground, leaning forward with his arms resting on his legs or a variation of the man sitting in this picture: http://img.photobucket.com/albums....7v3.jpg with one leg propped up and the other on the ground, but most importantly, in a position that he could stay in for a long time. the man kneeling behind him could not stay like that for 30+ minutes. the key is to make sure it looks good when you have people sitting around a campfire, because that is the way most people use the sitting animation. Â therefore, i suggest that the animation have the person sitting on their butt, regardless of whatever orientation the rest of their limbs are in.

here's 1.5 with all the optional anims one question: do the new patrol anims require the new sitting anim? Â and if they don't, what is the name of the sitting anim so i can use the old one instead? it would be fine as a static, it just doesn't fit look right when you have a bunch of people sitting around the campfire in that position, which is the way most people use it. thanks again for the great anims

yeah i had the same issue; before you repbo the "Anim" folder, go to "properties" in Makepbo.exe (if that's what you're using) and select *.RTM files to not be compressed. although i don't even know if it matters if they are compressed or not...

here are some better images of the new patrol anims in action the mission is Realistic Combat Patrol by General Barron the image below shows sanctuary's optional "crouch as default ai stance" anims all in all, i must say that i am very happy with the way things look

i can't believe you were able to make it just like that! you're the man, sanctuary! thank you so much!

i looked through DK's anims, but now i'm confused: why do some of his anims require the depbo'ing of O.pbo? also, is his "patrol" anim a full anim or just a static? and if i replace your safe anim with his, will it "flow" or will it be jumpy? thanks the heads up!

hi, i just wanted to say how much i like using your anims; to be honest, at first i was kind of like "ehh...looks...different..." But i found that the more i used them the more i liked them, and now i dont think i can go back to the originals! anyway, its sad to hear that you won't be updating them anymore (although i can't complain). i was just wondering what you're opinion was on an idea that i have had for a while: a problem that annoys me in most missions is that if you want enemy soldiers to patrol an area, you can either have them in "aware" mode or "safe" mode. the problem with "aware" mode is that the soldiers run everywhere, which looks very unrealistic. the problem with "safe" mode is that the soldiers have their guns on their backs, which also looks unrealistic. below is a link to the conversation i had with general barron about his mission "Realistic Combat Patrol" back in september, where we agreed it would be nice if there was a solution: http://www.ofpec.com/yabbse....tart=45 the problem was that i didn't know how it could be fixed, until i saw the work you were doing with animations. after remembering the problem i'd had back in september, i had the thought of changing the way the "safe" animation looks so that the soldiers are carrying their guns like in the link below: http://www.usafa.af.mil/wing/34edg/airman/walk.gif i wasn't sure whether such a change would be possible though, and that's why i'm posting it here for your review. any thoughts would be much appreciated. ...and thanks again for creating the anim pack!

its not loading for me either 1ghz 512mb ram geforce4 128mb addons: besides official and FTA, only 18mb i tried loading up just the island and it worked, then i unpbo'd the mission and tried to play it through the editor, and it had the same crash