General Barron

Hopefully you'll be joined by all those Hollywood 'tards who said kinda the same thing last time, but didn't follow thru... Guam gets a vote? I guess I really don't have any idea what Guam or Puerto Rico's relation to the US is.... Lol! XD Yeah, I don't really like the two-party system either... I won't say much more on that. But I have heard some good arguments for the electoral college system, and when you look at it, there have only been a few times when a candidate has won the election, but his oppenent had more votes. When you look at it that way, the benefits might outweigh the problems of the EC. @Last few posts... Ah yes, more of that great respect and compassion for your fellow human being. I guess name calling is a true progressive value...

I don't know why I'm bothering coming back into this rediculous board... but anyway... Gimme a break. I'm sure you'll remember that people were saying that exact same thing 4 years ago. And what happened? Bush got elected, and we had a majority republican congress. HOWEVER, you remember what happened when Bush tried to appoint some judges, right? The dems used some really dirty and unprecedented tricks to block almost every appointment. I don't see why things would be different this time, if Bush does get elected. Anyway, do your homework next time.

More info about the command here: http://www.ofpec.com/editors/comref.php?letter=K

Exactly. Here we have a problem of the engine limitations of OFP getting in the way of realism. What I mean is, this tactic is used in the real world, but in OFP, it is generally useless. Therefore, either OFP is flawed, or the tactic is flawed. I'm gonna put my money on the first choice... This is only part of the problem. But there is a more important problem: there is nowhere to take cover. Sure, there are a few bushes every 50m or so, but IRL, you can lay down behind a little rock in the middle of a field, or behind a small bump in the ground, etc. OFP lacks this completely, as do many other games, due to CPU limitations. Even if it had this "micro terrain", the controls are so limited, so you couldn't really take advantage of it. If anyone has played paintball, for example, you know that you do more than just (a) stand straight up, (b) crouch, or © lay prone. You adjust your body to the terrain around you, smooshing yourself in however you can. NO video game that I know of accurately simulates this, and I don't see any attempt to. I've always thought that a "take cover" button would be a good idea: pressing it would make your guys fit himself into the cover in front of him as best as he can. But this might also be too much for current computers to handle, so oh well.... In summary, OFP is a pretty limited simulation in this very key aspect of infantry combat. It's still better than almost all other FPS out there, but we've got a long way to go towards a more realistic game... ------------ Now, bringing it back to OFP. I've found that if you use HD weapons, like those in the SEBnam pack, then you can *sorta* correct for these limitations. Realistically, the weapons are way, way to innaccurate, of course; even in the AI's horrible accuracy with them. However, the effect of this is that it is best to get as close as you can to the enemy, in order to kill him, which is the basic premise behind real life tactics. For example, in OFP, it is no problem to pick off some idiot laying in the middle of the field, 300+m away. The same shot in real life would be just as easy, assuming the guy is laying down in a parking lot (the equivalent of OFP terrain). However, in real life the guy would likely have a small ditch, or a rock, or a few small shrubs, or some other form of cover. Suddenly that same shot can become nearly impossible, if the guy just keeps his head down. Therefore, you need to use flanking tactics to get around his cover, or you just need to rush and close to him (50m or so), so you can throw a grenade on him, for example. By default, this doesn't happen in OFP, because the AI can never take cover like in the example above. But if your weapons are just so horribly accurate that you need to be 50m away just to hit the SOB, then you get the same effect, only without the cover. Anyway, that's just my take on the issue, and it is the reason why I'll never make a mission without HD weapons again, and I'd suggest everyone else do the same. I've found that rushing actually becomes a useful tactic when using HD weapons; especially for the player. Normally in OFP I just sit back and pick everyone off from like 300+m, but with HD, it is best to get close. Flanking also has meaning, because bushes and trees (the tiny bit of cover actually in OFP) become 2-3x better in terms of cover. Anyway, just my 2 cents.

Woah... I didn't even look at the date on this one. WTF?

Will the name appear in radio messages when you use setidentity? Example: Alpha Black One (Billy Bob) "bla bla"As far as I know, that is not possible; though I really hope that someone will tell me I'm wrong. Yes it will, but remember, that name ONLY shows up when it is the player speaking, not any AI squadmates.

I'm not farmiliar with the tactics of the Brits, but in the USMC we do something called 'rushes' that look similar to what you are talking about. Only difference is that instead of having the squad divided into 2 separate teams of rushing/covering, we do it by either fireteam (3 per squad) or individual, so it ends up being less predictable as to who is going to get up next. Anyway, I've written a script for doing just that, and you can grab it here: http://www.ofpec.com/editors/resource_view.php?id=683 *edit* added in www... I guess ofpec.com doesn't work anymore...

Hey nx_illusion, why don't you check out this thread here: http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....t=42631 Let's put in animations and keystrokes for things like holding an AT weapon while prone or standing, running with binocs, reloading and moving, leaning left/right, etc. But on a side note, I've always wished that when guys sprinted, they would run with the rifle at port arms (like a broomstick). It looks more realistic, it would look cooler, and it would make more difference between the running and sprinting anims.

Yeah, I can think of a bunch of scripting problems, aside from what bn880 said. But the main question is: why? I've never played a mission that used even half of an entire island's area, so why would you need twice as much? Only thing I could think of would be to make some sort of Red Hammer/Warcraft style RTS mod.

Interesting... so what are you opening with binview exactly? The save game file? This might be useful for debugging scripts. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound useful for doing things like saving scores on servers, etc, unless someone made a custom program... BTW, where can I get binview? On ofpec, it is "posted", but the program isn't attatched.... Hmm... I never knew that. Definately nice to know, however. Actually, there are times when a function (or variable, if you store the result of that function) can actually have the value "null". Can't remember the specifics off the top of my head though, but for an obvious example, you can actually return the value with the "null" command.

I don't know. Like I said, I've never used them or looked into how they work. But in resistance, there are missions where you take a truck full of ammo, and it adds those weapons into your pool for the next mission, right? Well, then there must be some way to "read" what is in that truck, via the weaponpool commands. But is there a way to "read" what is in the weaponpool? I don't know. EDIT There is a Vectorboson tutorial mission here: http://www.ofpec.com/editors/resource_view.php?id=123

For the most part, just collecting a list of little things to fix in some later version. Mainly because I was making a little list of my own, and I decided to ask other people as well.

I don't know if it would work, but you *might* be able to do something using those "weapon pool" commands, which allow you to, for example, take the contents of an ammo truck and put it into your "pool" to be used in later campaign missions. I've never used these commands myself, so I don't know how they work, but there is a tutorial on OFPEC by vectorboson that might tell you something. Oh yeah, let us know if it works too, because I know others have wanted to do this.

I don't like how most missions involve just you and your squad vs like a company of poorly placed enemies, without any kind of support. My favorite missions are ones where there is a feeling of actually having... I dunno, like an army or something that you are a part of, instead of just 12 rambos vs the world. I love missions where you have lots of support, such as other AI squads, tanks, or being able to call for artillery and airstrikes. Combined arms style missions especially are great (and the best kind of MP missions). When you have infantry supported by tanks supported by artillery supported by aircraft, then you have a mission that is truly using OFP to its full potential. It's also nice to have missions where the AI is placed intelligently and realistically (not just standing in a wedge in the middle of their base). Basically, missions shouldn't require a gagillion enemies in order to be hard. One well placed and covered soldier can do the work of a squad of idiots running around randomly on a S&D waypoint. Also, giving the enemies artillery support can help level the playing field. I could write more, but I gotta go now.

I don't like how most missions involve just you and your squad vs like a company of poorly placed enemies, without any kind of support. My favorite missions are ones where there is a feeling of actually having... I dunno, like an army or something that you are a part of, instead of just 12 rambos vs the world. I love missions where you have lots of support, such as other AI squads, tanks, or being able to call for artillery and airstrikes. Combined arms style missions especially are great (and the best kind of MP missions). When you have infantry supported by tanks supported by artillery supported by aircraft, then you have a mission that is truly using OFP to its full potential. It's also nice to have missions where the AI is placed intelligently and realistically (not just standing in a wedge in the middle of their base). Basically, missions shouldn't require a gagillion enemies in order to be hard. One well placed and covered soldier can do the work of a squad of idiots running around randomly on a S&D waypoint. Also, giving the enemies artillery support can help level the playing field. I could write more, but I gotta go now.

Actually, if you look in the editors depot, there is a section for "wizard templates".... sounds like just the place for what you've got. Plus, you can be the first one to put something in there!

You mean Keycat's .p3d, right. Ah, another one I've noticed, but forgot about. That should be easily fixed. Well, it actually is realistic that low-skill AI would take longer to aim and fire off a shot... but that is in semi-auto mode. I agree that it is absurd with full auto; machine guns especially; for them to sit there shooting one bullet at a time. But with machine guns, you are supposed to be shooting bursts anyway, so configing bursts in the weapon for the AI to use seems fine to me, as long as you can keep the full auto mode there for the player. There is no "delete" in the editor--when you "delete" something, it is copied to the clip board, so you really are "cutting", not "deleting". So ctrl+V will paste it back down, although not in the same location if you moved the mouse... But that's why I learned to save after I do anything.

Sounds great! I'll try it out when a link gets posted.

Thanks for the replies, all. Glad to see there is some interest after all . Big thanks especially to those of you volunteering to help out with the project. Maybe in a couple weeks, when we gather enough people, we can get started planning/working on the project. Yeah, actually in my second post I cover this, though I'm sure I made no sense in that post. Anyway, you'll notice that pressing shift+sidestep does the exact same thing as just pressing sidestep (when holding a rifle). Therefore, we can make shift+sidestep into the 'lean' keys without any loss of original controls. Same applies to rolling when prone. There are actually a bunch of key combinations like this that are "free", as I was referring to them. What is that? I don't play CoD, so you'll have to explain how it is different than the OFP aim/V key. I'm pretty tired of the BIS animations as well, but for now, I think we'll just work off of them. There are TONS of BIS animations, and to replace even some of them (say, just the rifle ones) would take a ton of work. I've tried some 'animation replacement' packages out there, and they tend to be.... incomplete; meaning, things like transitions between standing-prone, standing-crouched, running-prone, etc are often overlooked. Can't say I blame em though, because there really are a TON of animations to replace, when you add in all those transitional anims. Plus, the BIS anims generally aren't that bad. Since BIS used motion capture technology, their anims obviously are going to seem more lifelike than anything we can do on a computer. But to repeat, the main problem is workload. I'd rather focus first on bringing in brand new movement options (like standing/prone AT weapon use, moving while reloading, etc), instead of trying to make what is already there prettier.

Lots of great suggestions here, keep em coming. I'll comment on a few of them: I forgot about how much I hate this one. I usually hit the speed up time button when I'm giving lots of commands, but in combat that doesn't work too well. I don't think this one can be fixed though, unfortunately.... Oh yeah, that is annoying. Forgot about that one too. I think that should be fixed in the ECP... except I don't know how you make a texture glow or not glow. Leaning is most definately possible, and I am for sure going to implement it into ofp (eventually). And I'm talking about from the keyboard, like you hold shift+strafe left to lean. Jumping is a possibility, but not for sure. This isn't counterstrike, after all. Jumping would only be nice, IMO, so you could get over fences and other little obstacles. Aha! That's a new one I didn't think about! That will definately be thrown into my "list" of new movements/controls to add into OFP! If anyone is interested, check this thread out here: http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....t=42631

Thanks for the offers to help, renault and Wilco. I just started school as well, so I'm short on time too, I'm afraid. But I'm determined to get these things into OFP eventually (despite the seeming lack if interest.... ). I guess if no one else replies to this thread, I'll have to start seeking out people directly. @STGN I totally agree that it shouldn't be part of a big mod. The way I plan to release it is like this: we make a pbo file that includes the animations, and a new cfgMoves class. Then, any addon or mod can make their units use the new movements by just putting a line in their config, and requiring that our pbo also be in the addons folder. We would also release a modified BIS config that changes the 'man' class to use our movements, so that one could still use the new movements without having to use a mod as well.

Ok, I've never done any MP editing, but I really need to learn. I've read snYpir's intro to MP editing, so I understand the basic concept of scripts running separately on each client, variables being local only to that client unless you use the global command, and how to make scripts only run on the server. But I still have a couple Q's that the tut didn't seem to answer. My main question is: If you use a command that affects the 'game world' (i.e. setdammage, move, setbehavior, etc), does it matter what computer that command is run from? So, what would happen if I had a unit named 'bob', and on ONE client's computer, I scripted "bob setdammage 1"? What if I did the same thing on the server, or what if I did it at the same time on all computers? Actually, this one Q has been keeping me from getting into MP editing. I know a few commands are only local to one computer, like camcreate and drop, but other than that, I don't know about the rest of them. TIA.

It's new to those of us who didn't know it before .

One of these days I'm going to make a good ofpanim tut... but that is the easy part. The hard part is making a tut on how to config the anims, especially since I don't have it all figured out myself yet.  Anyway, here I've made a little list of what I hope we can accomplish. Comments are welcome: New Movement Positions  These are positions of movement (i.e. standing rifle, crouched AT, etc) that don't exist in the game, but could be added. Standing AT Weapon  Static  Movement in all directions (walking)  Reloading  Dying Prone AT Weapon  Static (legs left/legs right)  Movement in all directions (low priority)  Reloading  Dying  Transitions between standing, crouched & prone w/o putting weapon on back Crouched Movement  Crouched walk in all directions (overwrites crouch to running movement)  Shift+move will remain as is, for quick movement to standing running/sprinting  Crouched grenade throw Crouched Pistol Movement  Same as crouched rifle Moving with binoculars out Pretty self-explainitory.  Free Keys  "Free keys" are movements that can be changed without any loss of default movement options. For example, when prone, holding shift while moving in any direction except straight forward will result in the exact same animation as not holding shift. Therefore, these movements are "free"; meaning new movements could be added when you are holding shift, without losing any of the default movements. Below are some of the free keys, and my ideas on what to use for them. With pistols, the free keys are the same, except when standing (you run backwards faster when holding shift) Shift + AT movement  This currently includes only the default crouched AT movement, but would also include the new positions (standing and prone). For standing, this could mean a slow run in the direction (weapon disabled). I don't think faster movement should be available for crouch and prone, though I don't know what to use there. Shift + Prone movement  Left/right: barrel roll  Not sure what to do with back or the diagonals... Shift + crouched non-forward movement  Already explained in the crouched movement section Shift + standing non-forward movement (not applicable to pistols)  Left/right: standing lean left/right  Backwards: Jump forward, if possible  Backward left/right: unsure.... Other Things to Add Reloading while moving  For rifles and pistols only  New anims required for each movement direction  Sprint reload anims should be LOWEST priority for realism & workload reasons (hard to reload while hauling ass)  Reload time should be slightly longer than standing reload (or standing reload can be sped up) Faster Non-Rifle Movement  Running unarmed/with pistol should be as fast as with rifle  No new anims required Bug Fixes  Unarmed women can't throw grenades  Some others related to unarmed men I can't remember

Ok, do all scripting on the host that affects the game world. Got it. So would this be the best way to do it? Make a variable called ExecCode, or whatever. Make it an empty string. On the server, you have a continuous loop that waits until that variable changes (from a global broadcast). Execute that codestring on the server via call. Set the variable back to an empty string and repeat. That seems like the most useful way to do it, instead of having a ton of global variables each linked to a certain event or string. Is this the best way?