Balschoiw

I have been thinking about a place where Editors can place suggestions to improve or extend the scripting or editing capabilities within Arma or it´s follow-up Arma2. This includes scripting changes, editor changes, sublevel changes of menus in the editor and extended features for certain types of editor elements, like waypoints, unit-setup, etc. This thread is strictly meant to collect and debate such suggestions only related to the editing part of the game. Do not ask for addons or specific units or bugfixes here ! To have some kind of order in this only one suggestion per post should be made. The content should be : - Suggestion - Elaborate how you think it should be implemented - What would we gain from implementing If this is appreciated by the forum administration and BIS it could be made a sticky.

I experienced two total freezes with 1.11 today. The screen froze and I had a high tone coming from the speakers. I disabled EAX and had no more freezes of that kind. I also use X-fi card. I do not run the latest beta drivers for the card as they didn´t work that good and have replaced OpenAL .dll´s with old ones as the new ones make Arma start only after 2-3 minutes of waiting. Never had such freezes before, especially with that high tone coming from speakers.

Yesterday night when playing the campaign with the new patch I entered Dolores and crossed the first bridge with a squad of AI following me. I was very happy to see them follow me like little ducks on their way to safe water. When we crossed the second bridge I had one of these moments again: "Oh noooo, 2 is down !" This time it was definately not a result of too much harm for the cause as 2 managed to run through the bridge somehow and created an impressive road pizza down below. I guess loosing one AI per bridge is acceptable though

use "this setcaptive true" in init of UAV

I somehow have the suspicion that bugfixes/features for Arma are made with the background to be implemented in Arma2. This way BIS can extend or optimize Arma while using the new features for Arma 2, too and use the community to betatest modules of Arma 2 right away. That´s my opinion from checking what has been fixed or added for Arma up to now. They put very much time into VON, I don´t see why they invested that time to get rid of the release bugs first. The only explanation I have is that they will use the VON module for Arma 2, so adding it to Arma and having a community betatest it right away is much more efficient for BIS. Still, the patching process should be different imho: 1. Fix the bugs 2. Add new features And not: 1. Add new features 2. Fix some bugs 3. Fix bugs created with new features 4. Forget about old bugs and don´t fix them at all That´s most likely the reason why some ageold and cheap bugs are not fixed up to now. They have no priority because they do not contribute to developing Arma 2. I hate it aswell but the bigger picture is pretty obvious. If 1.11 is supposed to be anywhere close to the final version, then I don´t know why we were told to report bugs as a big chunk of them ( and I´m not talking about bugs that would glue a programmer 1 week to his chair) simply STILL haven´t been adressed or new ones (interior sound in vehicles) were produced when creating patches and have not been fixed until now.

Another thing that maybe could need a little attention: When riquochets from bigger caliber guns (BRDM, etc) hit pallettes they go flying. They are not just jumping or moving, but are really flying up into the air for 50 or more meters. Noticed this when attacking a camp and some riquochets hit pallettes. They went straight into the sky like rockets.

I just fiddled with the controller setup, let alone the y axis sensitivity but lowered the x axis of the mouse alot. It somewhat smoothened aiming for me, but it´s not a perfect result.

I´m using a Logitech Marble Mouse and had this aiming problem since Arma has been released. Vertical it´s quite precise, but horizontal with ironsights it´s just not working right. When I try to aim at someone beyond 200 I have to readjust left and right to finally get my sights on the target precisely. Quite annoying and it got me killed more than I can count. I´d also be very pleased if BIS fixed the aimpoint. As it is right now it is just too big and hindering aiming when zoomed in. I guess there is a mod that fixes it but I´d prefer a unified BIS solution here.

Looks like the Uninstaller caused the problems. I simply deleted the content of the content "BETA" folder, installed the new beta and use the same shortcut I had already created for the 1.09 beta to start the new one. No problems whatsoever. I still use it and have no problems. I need to test it without as memory management seems to be improved. I used maxmen of 768 MB and the game didn´t freeze. Prior 1.11 the game froze when using that value. Now it´s shackatastically working

As I am still at replaying the campaign I am quite happy with the fixes. VON is not of my interest as I don´t play MP, so I can´t comment here. Pro´s I have found: - Game seems to run flawless regarding memory handling. No more CTD or freezes up to now. - AI still responsive and dangerous but more lifelike when it comes to detecting and firing. - Improved memory handling seems to enable me to run with higher overall settings and viewdistance - I can use shadows now Con´s: - Again OpenAL issue after install - mouse aiming is unprecise and aiming is hard as the mouse "jumps" - Still no option to disable autocentre when controlling vehicles - Texture loading bug still there + all the other unadressed flaws that have been there since the original release of Arma and have been talked to death already - volume inside vehicles too low, still Overall a good patch so far but still not a final one that would at least fix all those little annoyers we have to live with since day one. Nice easter-present though. Cheers !

Set the behaviour to "careless".

Still, I guess the best way to do it is to open an existing C&H mission and check the triggers and scripts and the description.ext as it somehow will be a very complex and "big" thing to explain here.

The mission plots are still the same afaik, but they added more detail, sounds, reworked some missions, added new defence positions, got rid of showstoppers and reworked some of the objectives to make it critical for the player to follow the plan at times. I like it.

I know I´m one of those representing the decreasing number of households that have no access to fast internet and I appreciate the 100KB rule very much. When I visit the CP thread it already takes me minutes to load the images with 8kB/sec. The linked images that are bigger than 100 KB are a good way to serve all interests imo. I cans till watch the CP thread if I feel to do so and others who have broadband can load the high quality images via a simple click. Pls keep it that way

Better late than never: After I had to reinstall Arma I started to replay the campaign and I have to say that a lot of fixes and tweaks have been added that make the campa quite enjoyable. Along with the technical bugfixes the remixed campaign is actually quite fun. If you haven´t tried, do it Good job BIS

Red Faction was just an example of an oldtimer software that already had it implemented. I´m not asking for something totally absurd if I´m asking for a better environmental physics system. Just take a look at the glass in Arma. Don´t you feel a bit bored that glass is still not really breaking where the projectile hits and doesn´t really break at all. I guess the texture swap system is really becoming old by now and the funny effects of it can be watched by shooting a tire on a vehicle. BIS has introduced some nice features with OFP but today there are other methods that can be used apart from switching textures. Now and then it doesn´t hurt to replace modules of an engine with something new, apart from using it to death with variations that are still using the old system and certainly are not that attractive to gamers. BIS wants to sell Arma 2, right ? Then they have to make some real step forward. You can have the most sophisticated Ai and whatnot in your game, but if the rest of the package is unattractive and repetative or just fiddling with old habits it won´t be a broad success.

Typical hardware setup in 2001 was: Processor 1Ghz Memory: 256 MB Gfx card: 64 MB I guess the change in hardware commonly used should be obvious.

Looks like Stanislav Lem scores again. The invincible Stephen Thaler just stole the idea from Lem who developed it in 1964 Very good book btw.

Better have a working "simplistic method" (I somewhat disagree with you here as the glass for example dismembers in a very nice way, unlike Arma where only textures are swapped) than what we have today with a product that is from 2007. Apart from that I didn´t claim that I want a "fully realistic and super authentic awesome-o dynamic destruction system". Could you just try to debate the matter in a grown-up fashion or is that impossible for you ? I think that the system Arma uses is outdated. That´s purely my opinion. It doesn´t only focus on building destruction, but deformable terrain, object interactivity and physics as a whole. A new flight model doesn´t make a completely new physics engine. I guess anyone who bought Arma after it´s release just knows about "unacceptable" things too well. Nothing new here. I simply think that without a proper physics system embedded that Arma 2 will most likely be no real step forward. We had the "much better AI" already with Arma and to be honest, apart from solo soldiers permanently flanking me (wich is highly unrealistic IRL btw) , I couldn´t really see that improvements. In my opinion the AI in OFP was acting much more homogeneously than in Arma. There are so many issues with AI in Arma, that it´s new features simply drown. The pathfinding and movement precision is sometimes a real joke and watching AI flying a helo along waypoints makes you feel like watching a rollercoaster. I´m all for new options, better and smarter AI and all that, but first of all it should work properly. If it doesn´t do that it´s worth nothing. A good computer simulation-game for me has to be a package of things combined in a suitable manner to make it special and different from other titles released. - Interaction, Handling - AI - Interface - Sound - Story - Physics - Gfx - Replayability (modable) While Arma certainly was a big step forward in some of those aspects, some changes made the gaming experience worse. If we would be judging Arma from the screenshot thread, it would be THE topnotch sim-game, but if you play it you will find out that it´s lacking a lot in other (for me) vital parts of the game. For sure you have to make compromises if you are doing a game of that size, but technology didn´t stop over the last years but you can´t sell a wonderful AI setup that comes with an environment that doesn´t fit or doesn´t keep pace with the other improvements. A game is a package. If the package isn´t made homogenous, the game itself isn´t homogenous and therefore no topnotch game.

Have you ever played Red Faction ? It´s from 2001 and had fully working GeoMod embedded. Since then the typical computer specs have evolved a lot and I also do think that the Arma physics compartement needs a serious overhaul anyway as the current physics in Arma are simply outdated in comparison to the technology that is widespread available and used. I guess part of the problem is that BIS wants to develope everything inhouse and don´t want to use 3rd party subengines for certain compartements of the game. I do not think that they will be able to keep up with todays technology with a small dev team and the limited timeframe they give themselves. I also think that the engine evolution they do is part of the problem aswell, as evolution does make it hard to change very fundamental assets of the engine. Results of this were noticeable when playing Arma. There were many leftovers and bugs that already plagued OFP and found their way into Arma aswell. Deformable terrain would be one of the things that have been talked about since OFP was released and even BIS thought about it. Still, up to today it hasn´t been implemented for reasons we don´t know as it seems to work with VBS that uses the very same platform. I´m not asking for a 1:1 implementation of GeoMod into Arma 2 , but something has to be done in that direction. As groundbreaking as Pac Man has been at it´s time, today it´s outdated. By today´s standard OFP and Arma are outdated in some technical aspects, no matter what.

Welcome back to earth ch_123 While you have been on your mission to Mars this has already been implemented with the latest beta patch. I don´t think it would be a very good idea to reintroduce a DVD-check once more. I can see burning villages, rioting housewifes and guys diving into their litterbox to find that damn DVD again Additionally to this is should be a vital interest of BIS to keep Arma unified and optimized with the patch. A different set of configs apart from a producer-granted approach is always the second-best choice when it comes to MP playability and compability.

Just some feedback on my issue. I had to rearrange the drives in my tower to be able to connect optical drives with the correspondant IDE hardrives. I checked the position of cables first and also had a look at the jumpers on the drives and they all seemed to be in place properly. What I found was that there was some dust collecting between the jumper pins of the harddrive that was not properly working. As I found no other problems I guess that the dust in combination with humidity caused some kind of short circuit and therefore the drive sometimes was recognized and sometimes not. I repositioned the drives, cleaned the jumper section, rewired them and since then have no problems anymore. Thanks for your input and help !

I sent a question to Suma about this a while back and received this example for description.ext entry : <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">class voice1 { name = "voice1"; sound[] = {"\ca\voice\alan\actions\activatebomb.wss", db+1, 1.0}; titles[] = { 0, }; }; Didn´t work for me though and I just gave up at some point.

This is at least not true for western equipment I have been using. A gun barrel will turn blue very soon (from my own experience after 80 to 100 shots) and it´s not the deformation that is critical first but the overheating of the chamber that will cause reload problems and malfunctions. While the barrel surely will not deform at that point you will be unable to keep going as you will have malfunctions. Apart from the heat that will make it unable for you to hold the gun in a serious manner anymore. I once ended up with pulling a boonie from the side pocket of my trousers and had to protect my hand that was guiding the gun from the heat the gun produced. Machine guns are very volatile to overheating aswell, that´s why some have a standard replacement barrel with them that has to be used if you don´t want to risk that your gun gets seriously jammed or worse. There were also instances I have witnessed where barrels from machineguns that got shot white and where dropped out of the gun into snow were damaged beyond repair because of the sudden cool-down. This is not nonsense but part of the deal when operating weapons. Additionally tests have found that 491 shots of 5.56 ammunition fired with a M16A2 rifle within 169 seconds made the barrel rupture and burst. The temperature of the barrel was ~870° C. The M4A1 barrel lasted just over three and a half minutes for 596 rounds at a max temperature of ~892° C. This is the point where the barrel got totally destroyed. Malfunctions due to heat are coming up much, much sooner and are known from reports from units using such rifles under mission-conditions.

If you want to detect if your player fires a weapon, use this in his init line: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">this addEventHandler ["fired",{if (_this select 2 == "m24") then {activatetrigger=true}}] This will detect if your unit fires the M24 sniper rifle and if he does it will set the variable "activatetrigger" to true. You can use the variable "activaterigger" in the condition field of the waypoint of the target or a trigger, so once the shot is fired the target will move on and flee. If the target is dead, there won´t be any action. Search for the right weaponname here