Defunkt

^ This.

I gather what he's saying is that being stackable with other mods isn't a PR goal. Personally I commend that, required mods (varying from game to game) are the bane of the public servers I expect PR is out to populate.

Take heart, Project Reality will have a release out before long, if anyone can crack the ArmA public server equation they can...

Nice one. I wonder if instead of being something portable it might be associated with a vehicle crew position? Would manufacture a pretty good purpose for the (otherwise nearly-pointless) HQ variants of the BTR-90 and LAV-25.

You're assuming I care about whether the game is more popular or not, I don't particularly beyond wishing BIS financial security, in fact if the pursuit of popularity led BIS to offer gamers less options (which is where every other developer/publisher has already headed) I would be very much against it. What I am responding to is the endless whines that it's too hard to join a server when what they're really bemoaning is that BIS provided communities and server-ops with too many options to tailor the game to their liking. If the way people run their servers is something these whiners expect BIS to fix then the inevitable and eventual solution will simply be removal of the degree of customisation available (like every other studio that has decided modding isn't worth the hassle). And before anybody starts cracking on about other games offering auto-downloading of mods let me tell you I've run dedicated servers for ArmA, Source and COD and Arma is already ahead of the game in terms of what customisations can be delivered inside a mission. You cannot rock on up to an Insurgency server with your Source SDK game and auto-download that mod, you need to download and pre-install it separately just like you do with ACE. COD would auto-download mods (though no longer of course, see hassle above) but these are incredibly limited and simplistic in what they can achieve because they're just models and textures, all code is executed on the server. Similarly I've never known Source games to deliver actual code by http, it's all bound up in compiled binaries which again have to be pre-installed. Compare that to things like Mando Missile and R3F Artillery & Logistics which deliver huge changes to gameplay with locally executing code. I get tired of the constant moaning by the uninformed about what BIS haven't done for lazy players when what they're actually complaining about is that BIS have made so much more possible than they're prepared to keep up with. Mod management in ArmA is very advanced, I can't think of another game that allows you to mix and match and stack customisations in a non-destructive manner like ArmA can. The more BIS give the more people seem to feel they're entitled to moan. Your option is to play vanilla, it's still a great game, if you can't be bothered setting up mods then play without and spare us your whines, if you can't find anybody else playing vanilla then I guess that's just because the vast majority of us enjoy using the customisations available.

So what's your solution? Force everybody to play the variation you like? This game offers choices, lots of them, it seems to me you feel it would be better to limit everybody's choices so you don't have to invest any effort yourself.

Walling off the server, creating and installing a bunch of modifications (and for that matter using separate voice, which virtually all communities do for all games) isn't something BIS built into the game, it's a choice made by those people playing, so who or what are you actually whinging about? Seems to me you want a game like every other simplistic shooter out there, one which nobody would ever bother walling off because there's no customisation worth a damn and the gameplay is limited, generic and repetitive. There are plenty of games that offer that already, go play one of those if you're time's so valuable, you're missing the key benefits of this one.

Ah cool, I was looking for that today but failed to find it (when I made this post).

No foul, I had to ask someone also. You can't place an empty object until a Player unit has been placed.

I do of course respect every modder's right to work when, on what and with whomever they like but I can't help imagining what might be achieved if all of the WW2 teams could find enough common ground to jointly assemble a unified set of assets. Each team might still distinguish themselves in the campaigns they create but imagine the best of 31st Normandy + Invasion 44 + Liberation 1941-1945 + The FEW all rolled into one consistent download! Of course we might eventually be able to mix and match components ourselves but we'd likely always be plagued with distribution and compatibility issues. Well it's a nice day-dream. :)

It is naive to suppose it is so straightforward. What if you want to join a server running an ACE beta release, should it overwrite your ACE 1.0 folder? Create a new folder for each new beta release? Decide to overwrite the beta release used on your usual favourite server? There are other games that do it but none of them have to deal with the volume and variety of modifications available for this game. And when the server has downloaded 800MB of ACE how will you know how to use it if you haven't had to invest a single ounce of energy in seeking out what it is and what it does.

No thanks.

Server keys are not required to run addons on a server, if the server won't run it's not for want of a key. Perhaps the problem is that you cannot connect because your server config includes VerifySignatures=1 (server will run but clients with that mod will be rejected as there is no matching key installed). Anyway, HERE is the BIS Wiki entry on the subject, and 'yes', it explains how you can sign addons yourself.

Have you released a revision? If you have I missed it and can only comment on those in the OP: One person in our group suffered repeated crashes with (I think) the second iteration (and he hasn't played with us again since) but other than that it has been very stable. I had a few problems with the initial release (one core stuck at 50% and game frozen) 2 or 3 times but have not seen this of late and not at all since using the 003 release. I suspect if people were crashing a lot they'd have said.

I think it might be http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=9201.

That is great news. Congratulations on your (pre-)release by the way, it is somehow refreshing to see an actual beta (i.e. with known rather than as yet undiscovered work-to-do) opened up to the public. For the most part people seem able to accept it for that and appreciate the opportunity to begin working with it sooner rather than later.

Having used this a bit now I'd like to suggest that the direction of the speaker and to a lesser extent the listener should influence volume. It should be easier to hear people that are turned toward you and, though it's not a sonic distinction, it is also easier to understand a speaker if you are looking at them and able to read lips and visual clues and I feel this might be approximated with a slight increase in volume also. I'll also re-iterate my hope that the auto-connecting of opt-in clients to a gameserver specified TS host will be made a part of the addon itself rather than having to be called by a mission script. That done I think superior VOIP quality might have a very positive effect on the quality of play on public servers.

FYI I just tried the symlink idea on our Linux box and it has worked a treat, separate keys and mpmissions folders and everything else is a link (even the server binary) so there is still only one install to maintain/update. I think NTFS supports symbolic links also.

Windows or Linux? You could maybe try creating a second install folder with everything except keys a symbolic link to the first install.

The Undead Mod by Charon incorporates TeaCup's great zombie walk animation from ArmA1 so it can be done (I've no idea on the specifics of how though).

Huzzah! I look forward to finally trying these out. A second beta is a good move I think, you might be pleasantly surprised to see what others come up with when they have your creations in hand. Here's hoping Eble didn't lose all of his tie-fighter conversions with his recent PC troubles.

I was looking this weekend just gone and the only one I found on Armaholic was... http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=9271 ...haven't played it yet but I did check that it loads without issue. I suppose there may be more buried in The Undead Mod thread but I lack the fortitude to go through checking page by page.

Yep, agreed. I've been working on a mission for it of late and am constantly impressed by the degree to which it feels like a real place.

Have you tried any/all of the above without running ACE?

I've noticed this also, 50% being an entire half of a dual-core. Sounds like the plug-in is polling the clipboard without yielding to other processes. I think they've said they're moving to QT and that this has clipboard event handling which should fix this.