General Barron

I'm sure that is possible. I wouldn't be the one to do it, but it seems like I'm the only team member monitoring this thread at the moment, so I'll pass it on to the team.

@Kroky, While I would concede that things like the rank and single unit restrictions should be optional, I'm afraid that as a mission designer myself, I am of the opinion that the mission designer should have the say on whether or not you have a group. You could say "hey, its up to the player to decide what he wants to use--kinda a difficulty setting." But if something is EASILY AVAILABLE, most people will end up using it. What if we added a script so you could create a tank or a helo to get in, at any time, via the action menu? It would likely mess up a ton of missions, right? Sure, it would only mess it up if the player uses it, but why even give them the option to do so? If a player is truly dead-set on playing a certain mission in a tank, or with a squad, then he can depbo the mission and add in the tank or squad. The same philosophy (to not interfere with the mission author's mission) is the reason why Keycat's group link script, or similar scripts, will not be included in the ECP, to my knowledge. The problem with those types of AI scripts is that they make groups travel long distances to help each other, similar to creating waypoints for those groups. This could easily mess up a mission makers design, because it could draw units from places they are not supposed to leave. Komuna is the main man who is working on AI improvement, but his AI scripts will not "make waypoints" for units. It will focus on things like how units move between waypoints, how they engage the enemy, etc. Groups will move in to support each other, but only when they are reasonably close to one another (in visible range or a short hike from engaging the enemy). This is all still under development though, so there is nothing to show yet. On the join bugs: You can join units to your squad at ANY time AFTER you have control over a squad. Even if you currently don't have a squad, you can still grab units, as long as you have had a squad at some point previously. So if you release all your units, you can still join them back to you--assuming you outrank them. Actually, there is a 10 second or so loop in there to detect when you first have a squad, so there is a very small possiblity that you could get a squad, then lose it before that loop completes (a 10 second gap max, usually smaller), and you would never be considered to have controlled a squad. I used a loop like that to reduce lag, but if it turns out to be a big problem, I suppose I could shorten it. As for the vehicles, I'll have to check into it, but I assume the problem is the pilots are "too far away" from you, so you can't grab them. The blame for that actually lies with Red, since he was the original author of the script :P. But I'll look into it, and maybe increase the max range of the join command.

Great idea on the smoke, Munk. I'll look into it! Also, thanks for the comments on having the squad shout and stuff during combat. I'm working on adding that in. Also, I remember browsing some site a while back and seeing what looked like a really great 'nam mission, but I didn't download it. One of the things the mission said it had was a great "jungle sound engine" or something, which I assume would make lots of bug/snake/animal noises as you walk through the jungle, greatly increasing atmosphere. Now I want to use that in my mission (with permission and credit, of course), but I can't find the mission or site it was on! Anyone know what I'm talking about? -------- I know the radio interface can be a bit clunky, especially when accessing submenus, but Blanco hit the nail on the head: After a bit you can get pretty good at using the commands (I am pretty quick with them, having played the mission a bunch). I'm sure using BIS's menus to control your squad was pretty awkward when you first used it, too. But after a while you get used to it. I understand if it still ain't your cup of tea though This couldn't be incorporated into the ECP, for a number of reasons; the main one being it uses the entire radio menu, which would overwrite the mission makers radio commands. However, I will make a sort of "template" when I'm done with the campaign. Basically it would be a mission that has the bare-bones units and scripts needed to make this work. The mission maker could then choose a new island, change the type of units used, and then go ahead and make a mission like normal. Thanks again for the comments all! Be sure to let me know your stats when you finish the mission so I can work out a scoring system, such as men lost, civiis killed, pows taken, etc. Also any other notable things, like did you get the air support shot down, was your ammo found by the enemy, etc. Thanks again!

Whooops... I messed up the OFPEC mirror link. I can't seem to get the hyperlink to work, so now just copy and paste the link into your browser. That @war mirror should work just fine though, and if all else fails, there is the freewebs link. @Bonko the Sane Thanks for the feedback! Jeeze, this is just supposed to be an alpha-test version of the mission/scripts, and already people are enjoying it Those nice warm pats on the back make it all worthwhile.... ;) Now actually, the bunker you start out in does have a way out-- you just must be lost :P Check out the intro and you will see the camera go into the bunker and then right up to you. As for the ammo, two things: First off, it takes around five minutes before the ammo is dropped off, so maybe it hadn't even arrived yet. Also, the ammo parachutes down just like a person would parachute down, meaning the wind will carry it places. So when its windy (like in the mission), the ammo can sometimes land like 300 meters from where you call it. I'll work out a way to make it easier to find though. Thanks for the comments, and be sure to post your stats when you finish the mission!

Thanks for your comments all Keep on the lookout for bugs! You shouldn't need to open the map; just use the radio menu from the #keys; much like you use to control your squad the standard way. I know that you have to open the radio menu again for submenues, which is annoying, but BIS hasn't left a way to fix this I still don't know how to do dialogs yet, but even if I learn them, I won't make a dialoge to issue the orders. How would that be any easier or faster to use than the clicking on the radio on the map I know the commands seem akward at first, but like BIS's radio commands, after a while you will memorize them somewhat. At that point things get MUCH easier to control. Maybe I've been using this way more than anyone else will, but I think that you should be somewhat "fluent" with the commands after a few tries. Once I make the campaign, you will definately get enough practise with 'em Lol.... that's because you are used to OFP's unrealistic squad control :P Normally, your squad is nothing but a bunch of mindless robots that you have to micro-manage.

Just to be clear, let me state how the AI join scripts work in version 1.071, and in 1.072: 1.071: You can join ANY ai to your group, at any time (assuming you have space). There is an optional restriction that you can only grab units that do not have anyone else in their group. 1.072: You cannot join ai to your group until AFTER you first have control of a squad. Even then, you can only join units whom are a LOWER rank than you are. If units are in a group, then you have to outrank their leader in order to join them to your group. There still is the optional single-unit-group restriction. In the next update, The rank restriction will become an optional restriction. I also will lower the rank restriction so you can grab units of equal or lower rank than you (its more realistic on second thought). Why can't you join units to your group until you first have control of a squad? Because I want to honor the intention of the mission designer. Simply put, there are some missions where you are not supposed to have control over other units. Try the mission in my sig for an example. In these cases, I don't want the author's mission spoiled by allowing players to run around the countryside, grabbing allies here and there. How can the script tell if the mission designer wanted you to control a squad? Simple; it just waits until you have control over one. In many missions, you start with a squad, so you will be able to grab units from the start. In other missions, you are assigned a squad later on after the mission starts. In this case, after you are assigned your squad, you can go ahead and start grabbing units. In missions where you are supposed to have a squad, there should be no problems with this script. I'm not going to make this restriction optional in SP, out of respect for mission makers. However, I will likely make an option to disable this in MP only; if that is possible. In this case, the it would be up to the server to decide whether or not to restrict this. In SP missions, I would consider the mission author to be the "server", and I would assume he would disable it. I'm afraid this won't be happening in the immediate future, as I'm rather busy right now This is something I was not aware of. Please provide some more specific information on the bug (were the units in the chopper to begin with? can you join them after they get back out of the choppers? etc), and I"ll look into it. @victorious Yes, this is possible, and a good idea. Check out the alpha-test of my latest mission; the link is in my signature. It has something like what you are suggesting; enemies will surrender if the odds don't look good for them. You can capture these enemies and they follow you around. You can't shout "surrender", but that could also be done (I would think that if the enemy knows about you already, they wouldn't surrender, but if you sneak up behind them they usually should). I had thought about including this in the ECP, and now that I see there would be a demand for it, I think I will. (assuming the rest of the team ok's it) Again, it all just takes time, and currently I haven't had time to spend on the ECP (its all been going to my mission or to school/girlfriend/work/etc).

I've finished the remaining hand signals, and updated the addon. The link in the main post has been changed to the new version. Feel free to use/distribute the hand signals addon with your own missions if you want; just be sure to always include the readme with the addon

To a certain extent, yes. To rearm your squad, you need to call in an ammo drop. When you get near the crates, just use the action to rearm your squad, and they will automatically be "refilled" to their full ammo state. I've thought about doing what you suggest, and making a command to "find ammo", but I'm not entirely sure it is possible to do very well. I'll look back into it though

http://www.ofpec.com/editors/ecfg/

Who likes 1kbps? No one? Okay, I got a new mirror from @war then. The link is in the main post.

That thought has crossed my mind. It might take a little bit of work to get it universal enough for everybody's taste, but if others made missions like it, it'd be worth it.

Sorry 'bout the crappy host.... I'm working on getting someone to mirror it for me. Hopefully a mirror will be up by sometime tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy the 1kps

SoldierWLAWSniper That is the vehicle name of a west sniper who can carry a LAW. I think it may have more slots, too. Just edit the mission.sqm, or createunit one.

No. As benu said, this works just like Kegety's EU: you need the addon to play the missions made with it. Only, in this case, you could use Keg's EU to play missions made with my EU, or vice-versa. Basically, they are exactly the same EU, except for the objects you can use when editing.

Required Version has been bumped to 185 to make the requiredAddons Feature work and requiredAddons has been inserted. Without this the addon can make trouble in MP because it's addon dependencies are not declared correctly. Hmm.... wasn't aware of that. I've made an updated version and included that fix. Big thanks for the tip, benu! I've updated my freewebs d/l, and the ofpec one (though it still doesn't seem to work...). Thanks for the mirrors, Avon and joltan. Please update them with the (hopefully) final version, if you would be so kind!

Okay, you can grab the most up-to-date file (with readme) from my freewebs site. Copy and paste this link into your browser's window: www.freewebs.com/general-barron/downloads/editorupdate_GENBed.zip

I'm not farmilliar with what "corrections" you're talking about, I'm afraid, so I can't answer your question. The only "corrections" I've applied are that I've "unlocked" the items from Gunslinger's EU that Kegetys hid, and I've also organized the objects into clearly marked catagories. Could you direct me to the EU you're using please? Grrrr..... well, OFPEC is supposed to be up by tommorrow, so hopefully I'll fix it then. In the meantime, I'll post a freewebs mirror, and include a README Well, I wouldn't call it "Barron's EU", because I'd be taking WAY too much credit for something, when really all the credit still goes to Gunslinger and Kegetys   I've just been calling it the "Editor's Edition", as in "Editor Upgrade - Editor's Edition" (I know kinda repetitive ;) ). I say that because if you are a mission editor, this should make your life easier; but if you just play missions, there is no need at all to get this, really. I suppose "General Barron Edition" would also be modest enough

---Update Renamed the file the original editorupdate102.pbo. Renamed all paths within config.cpp

What old Hand signal code? I coded the whole darn thing myself, entirely from scratch I'm also making my own animations, in part because of that gun in hand problem, and also because there are only a couple of signals to begin with.

Hmmm..... good point. Perhaps I will rename the file to the same as Kegetys, and put a line in the readme telling people that they can change the name of the file with no problems, if it helps them keep track of which is which. Lol.... I am the kind of person who starts a project, works on it fanatically for a while, then starts another one before I finish the old one. But I almost have something to show! Hopefully by the end of next weekend, I'll put up an alpha version of a vietnam mission I've been working on since September. Its a whole new OFP experience, really. You have to command your Marines through shouts and hand signals. No birds-eye view this time! I'll let you know when I put it up for testing. Also, I've been doing a lot of scripting/addon work for Kueter, and his latest mission "D vs the Undead". It should be coming out for testing around mid-late febuary. (Actually, he released a "final" version already a few months ago, which was a good mission already. But I messaged him and started doing some scripting for him. This new version should be excellent, but I haven't played it yet)

Nope The class CfgPatches is the same (in the config.cpp), and that's all that matters. But if it makes you feel more comfortable, go ahead and rename the pbo. I just gave it a different name so you would know which EU you were running, and you don't get them mixed up. Wouldn't want all those nasty "modified config" files in MP

Sweet! Now if somebody makes a "Bay of Pigs Invasion" mission for it, I'll be sure to download!

Hmmm... your right. I didn't realize that. Oh well, it was almost a good idea though....

What I mean is, if you right click on a file and open up "properties", then click on the "summary" tab, you get a little window where you can write in some info for the file (title, subject, author, keywords, catagory, commments). You can type some stuff in there, then hit ok. Then, when you hold your mouse over the file for a second, the text you entered will pop up, underneath info such as "pbo file, XXmb", etc. WHY DON'T ADDON MAKERS (and mission makers) USE THIS?!?! Why would this be useful? example 1) You've got a bunch of addons in your addon folder, and you decide you are going to clear out the addons you never use. But how do you know what everything is? For some addons, it is pretty clear what it is by the filename. But sometimes it can be hard to tell exactly what the addon will add. If addon makers simply wrote something in the comments field like: "By XXX mod. Adds XXX and XXX units. Version 1.23. Requires XXX.pbo. www.blahblah.com", this would make things MUCH easier! example 2) You're going to clear out your missions folder, but you can't remember which missions are good and which are bad by their filenames. You could open up OFP, look at your missions, then try to match them up to the filenames, or you could simply look at the comments, such as: "Platoon Commander V1.2. By General Barron. Required addons: editor update102.pbo Summary: Lead your men into......" Notice you can also state what addons are required for the mission, so the user can know what mod folder to start up. Does this stuff make sense to anyone else besides me? If it does, please start commenting your pbo files!

Would anything bad happen if somebody using FAT downloaded/used/viewed a file with comments?