Holy Smoke

Hmmm... OFP (Operation F*** -that- Publisher)

May you live interesting times... I've always thought Codemasters never got a clear view of Operation Flashpoint: what it was and who was the target audience. Still wonder what they were trying to achieve with those missions that, although funny, had nothing to do with the spirit of OFP in Red Hammer. If the outcome of all this mess is Codemasters eventually publishng *something else* under the name of OFP2 there will be no doubt they failed too understand the concept of OFP CWC and its future potential. The community, we, might buy it ("fake" OPF 2) if it has any use at all. Why not, we're into games and appreciate quality. Supposing the product meets our minimum standards, there'll be no need to boycot a developer trying to make a living. It is not that Codemasters seems is leaving BIS, just the other way 'round i'm afraid. Bohemia, our appreciated guys, had something very big in mind that, back in 2001, could only take the form of Cold War Crisis and soon after of VBS. Their actions, their support and their continuous development throughout all these years confirm that fact. Do you guys remember that poll Codemasters sent a while ago asking astonishing questions suggesting OPF 2 should make concessions in order to increase playability??? Nuts! Like BIS went trough all the pains they sure have had along this years to finally end developing something that was against their original concept of their Project. Enough is enough and BIS leaves Codemasters out of the picture. Honestly, those guys at Codemasters are blind if they can't see the strong ties BIS has stablished and holds with us the community from day 0 We ain't buying a name, we are buying BIS' stuff. If BIS' baby sold that well without being known and with that little support provided by the publisher, now they're gonna fly high. Such is life... Regards

hmm... ETA has been killing people for more than 30 years in Spain and the death toll is over 800. ETA always tries to commit a terrorist attack prior to congress elections. Most times they succeed. Al-Qaida attacked the spanish interests in Morocco not long ago and, by the way, it seems the terrorists responsible of Madrid bombings had something to do. Al-Qaida or alike extremist group blasted a restaurant in Madrid in the mid 80s killing 11 americans and 3 or 4 spaniards... ...and we're feed up with that, I can tell. The only time I recall ETA having (indirect) influence in politics was around 10 years ago: It was made public that the government supported a group called GAL, created by some elements of the police and with goverment's knowledge, in order to fight ETA with the same weapons: killing them whatever the cost might be. It was a blackop, always denied. When this stuff hit public opinion through the press... well, like Walker already said electorates removed liars and in 1996 JM Aznar won the elections. Some moths before '96 elections, ETA tried to kill Aznar by blasting his car, but he survived thanks to the armor plates. It was discussed whether this fact had influence or not in the elections, and some conspiration paranoids made the sick statement that actually Aznar blasted himself to influence electorates. Anyway, if we have to analize the subject, I believe that being a victim of a terrorist attack had a positive impact on his public image, but I have little doubt that he won the elections because the outgoing goverment was involved in too much scandals and LIED to the people. Now talking about the present, let me tell you I'm spanish, 27 yo, and this means terrorism it is a matter that "has been there" all my entire life. A lot of people has grown up with that in Spain. I don't get the point when I hear/read people say Spain won't be fighting terror or not confronting enemy. All democratic governments in Spain did it and will continue to do whatever the form terrorism adopts. Enemy is the one that will try to kill you because you think/live/act in a different way. I do know how does it feel when he shows up, hurts you and tries to bring you on his ground long before the matter we are discussing here happened. Spain stands against the enemy, looks for him, brings him to justice and, finally, we see him end his days in jail. Walker had a big point when he said that to fight terror you must bring it to your ground, and not going to his own. I already told what happened with the government preceeding Aznar's, but I will remind it: they tried to fight terror in they ground, failed, lied about it and lost elections. Understand please, once and for all, that most of the spanish people believes war on Iraq was a bad move consisting in fighting terrorism on their very own ground (and i'm not talking geographically here) and rules. You can agree or disagree (though better let's talk about this on Iraq threads), but saying we duck our head on this matter is false and shows little respect to the memory not only of the 200 in Madrid, but also with the 800 that ETA killed before. Last, I wish to say (if anybody wonders) I did found none of the previous comments written here ofensive. As long as the discussion keeps civil, positive and avoids simplistic topics will be interesting and constructive. The bombings were discussed here and the consequences should be discussed here as well. I can think of no spaniard being offended by the later discussions taking place on this thread. Regards

lol (interesting thread anyway) Ok guys, if you want to stick with polls and numbers bear in mind that: 1) Those very same polls that were giving PP a victory, were showing that 57% wished a change in the government but they thought it was not possible. 2) In Spain, you can stablish a rule that reads as: high participation is to be in profit of the PSOE, low participation benefits PP. On March 14 participation was rated at 77%, wich is one of the highest records in the last 25 years. 3) Polls are not always accurate and we have discussion every now and then about its usefulness, because in more than one ocassion they had nothing to do with actual results. Electoral polls aren't an exact science and this is very true when you are facing a country with such a complex political map, wich is the case of Spain. Beisdes, you can not avoid the proven fact that a couple of months before the attacks, a great deal of sh*t was hitting the fan concerning internal/domestic affairs and politics. The Stuff was flying away mainly from the government (the PP) against the autonomic communities (call them länders if this makes it clear) and people was already mad about that. Once the attacks happened, the gov insisted it was ETA even when everybody abroad was thinking AQ, forced the UN to sign a comunicate against the "Attack by ETA", foreign affairs dep. was instructing all diplomats to say it was ETA, the press was receiving phone calls from the gov (even from Aznar himself) stating that it was ETA and some police chiefs were furious because they were forced to engage anti-ETA measures when they suspected it wasn't ETA and doing that could even allow actual suspects fleeing away. Sure it was difficult to be aware of all of this outside Spain, but inside we had reports every hour. It was such a thick "atmosphera" you could split it with a knife. Some months ago, when Bush and Blair where appearing before the Congress and the public saying that maybe they were wrong about the WMD and some aspects concerning the war in Iraq, Aznar was simply refusing to do it because they had enough seats in the congress to avoid that. To the eyes of many, that just made a liar of him: he lied to the public and lied before the congress when stated "believe me, Iraq has WMD and I can prove it". After the bombings people had the same impression, the gov was lying to the public again. This made a lot of people going to vote when, had the attack never happened, they might stayed home. Read number 2 abaove to know what happens when a lot of people votes in Spain. I'm not saying nobody changed oppinion because of the attack, I say those don't represent such a high number to affect the overcome in a signifficative way. Regards.

Denoir, terrorist attacks plus the way the governmet was informing the people (as walker pointed before), made people go out and vote. I dont' think the attacks changed people's minds in signifficative numbers. The attacks influenced but not decided the electioral outcome. And I won't be taking into that high account the polls saying Rajoy was going to be elected. I cant' recall a pre-elecctoral poll showing accurate results, and you can check that once the electoral process is over. Polls in 2000 were giving a fair victory to PP, but nobody could think they were going to achive 183 seats in the Congress (that's a lot). Aznar not only was leading very impopular measueres concerning foreing affairs, but internal affairs were lead the same way: impopular. I agree with Acero you could see that miles away, though I admit nobody though it was going to be that hard for the PP. żWhat did Al-Qaeda here? It was a matter of timing and they simply choosed the "proper" momment to appear. Had the attacks happened today and nobody will be saying "the terrorists achieved a victory", whatever the result of the elections and whether Spain is backing off Iraq or not. Elections are hot dates when you're expecting terrorist attacks and we're aware of that in Spain: ETA always shows up, though sometimes we are fortunate enough their actions are aborted before commited. Al-Qaeda showed last week and caught everybody off guard. The only thing they achieved was popularity by acting within 3 days of an election of a country supporting the coalition leaded by the US and in a signifficative date -> 911 days after 911 and so on... Regards

You've got a point here, denoir. Actually it is impossible to pretend such an event will not affect the outcome, but I'd dare to say this only was the last straw. Let me explain. Aznar's government has lead several actions that a lot of people disliked, some concerning foreign affairs, many concerning internal affairs. The last are difficult to explain to non spaniards in a few words, but believe me when I say that some of them were driving people mad when realizing the gov was overeacting and trying to gain electoral profit because of some situations, when they were approving laws through the Senate avoiding thus discussion in the Congress... Besides, Aznar refused to appear before the Congress in too many ocassions sheltered by the vast majority of seats the PP was occupying. This not to mention the ilogical anti-Euro policy he was addopting. Today participation was over 77% while four years ago it was almost 69%. People went out and voted today, and I want to believe they voted bearing in mind the last 4 years. Yes, 11-M has influenced us, but it wouldn't be fair thinking this was the only fact we had in mind when we voted. Regards, and excuse my english.

Actually it deployed air brakes and opened ramp but none of the groups inside left the plane. They were assignAsCargoed and moveInCargoed. Anyway, the thing is perfect for HALO drops using Toadlife´s real_halo. its quite simple all you have to do is make 2 triggers 1st <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">[nameofplane] exec "\HWK_c130\script\parasoldiers.sqs" this preps for the jump (ramp opens, slows down) 2nd <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">nameofplane animate ["jump",1] this makes the contents of the plane jump hope this helps Indeed, it helps! I haven't tried in MP yet, but I guess it will work the same as in SP. As long as only one preson is messing with the action menu (prepare group to jump, group jump) this should work.

Does anybody know how the AI can perform a paradrop on its own with this bird? I tried executing the internal script ("parasoldiers.sqs") but didn't work as expected: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">[c130] exec {\hwk_c130\script\parasoldiers.sqs} Actually it deployed air brakes and opened ramp but none of the groups inside left the plane. They were assignAsCargoed and moveInCargoed. Anyway, the thing is perfect for HALO drops using Toadlife´s real_halo.

Sure I'll explain more: Supposing this won't fool the AI and make their behaviour odd, let's say your radio magazine has such a huge ammount of rounds (ie 999) that there's no way you're going to waste it in a mission. Then, besides being able to use it for calling support via internal scripts, you'll have a variable that changes every time the radio is used. This could be detected with following code: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">RTO ammo "BAS_RTOmag" This would return a different number every time the radio is fired/used, so mission editers can use it to script several actions related to the number of times you break radio silence. Like I said before, this way numbers lower than original can trigger different actions: alert enemy forces in the area, raise "knowsAbout" value they have about you (->they've triangulated your position and know where you are). You can even write a "radio failure/break script" by depleting all its ammo, so the player has to find a workaround to keep radio contact. Though AI may actually have problems firing the radio, a human RTO controlled unit will not, so at least that'd be useful in MP. My scripting abilities are very limited, but I believe this could be done with both KeyCat's or Toadlife's "Group Link" scripts, that basically are always counting ammo you 've left to make nearby enemies hear your shots and come after you. Anyway, thanks for reading and taking everyone's suggestions into account. I for one appreciatte a lot the time and effort you all at BAS are spending to produce those great addons (thoug girlfriend is not that happy when BAS releases a new addon ) Regards

That's a nice thing to read Another question on the subject: Will it spend "ammo" when used? That way you colud make scripts based on the number of "shots" the radio has fired (actually remain) for multiple purposes: nearby enemies w/ com systems could intercept your chatter and be alerted of your presence in the area, or even triangulate your position if you use it too much. Regards

Just a question. The Satcom radio featured on latest BAS units is defined as a secondary weapon and has its magazine. Well, don't know if this was answered when the Delta-Ranger pack was released, but żis it possible to detect via script that the radio has "fired"? żis it possible to make a unit under your command fire it? I mean I'd like to give a true meaning to the radio as a vital com system in missions, instead of the featured radio via key commands 0-0-x. Then, lose your radio operator and you have to carry the hardware, lose the hardware and you're incomunicated. If this is not possible now, I'd love a future release featuring it. Regards.

I tested and it works as I expected. Cool! Besides, using the "knowsAbout" command introduced an "effective range" factor. 3 seems to be a low number for the purpose, since there's no way you can "hit" (or be hit by) units further than 50-75 m, so I set it at 2 (increasing range to 100m) and even 1. Did not test that much using a value of 1, but I recon a knows About factor of 1 means that a unit has just been spoted, and that will be useful if the ROE in the exercise require complete stealth. Regards

Thanks a lot! Impressive job m8, I'm afraid you've created the first "MILES system script" around. I'm eager to try it. Again, thanks. Regards

This is for a stealthy infiltration training mission. The idea is to simulate a MILES system within the possibilities of the engine. No weapons involved, only detection, so it is possible. So, the idea is player is west and instructor OPFOR are resistance (or east) without carrying any ammo at all. When a unit of one side is detected by a unit of the oposing side, detected unit is marked as hit and eliminated from the exercise. I did this using a trigger tied with the unit: OPFOR Condition: Detected by West On activation: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">h="smokeshellgreen" camCreate (getPos OPFOR1); OPFOR1 disableAI "target"; OPFOR1 disableAI "move" Trigger must be the size of the exercise area. I'm not sure if disableAI "target" prevents them from detecting more units once hit, but you can deleteVehicle them anyway. WEST (other units in players group) Condition: Detected by Resistance On activation: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">h="smokeshellred" camCreate (getPos w2); w2 disableAI "target"; w2 sidechat "i'm hit"; [w2] join bustdgrp *bustdgrp is an empty group previously created to detach eliminated units under your command. create a unit and then on init field <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">bustdgrp = groupThis; deleteVehicle this In sum, this involves a trigger for every unit performing the exercise, so I'll much appreciate if anyone can figure how to put all of these in a script. Thanks

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (John C Flett @ 15 May 2003,23:08)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Upon booting up, the game worked perfectly with the blood addon-that is, until I selected someone with a pistol. Apparently anytime I equip a soldier with a handgun (as the player) i'm unable to move. Even weirder is when I select a civilian with a handgun-they seem to be halfway into the ground. It might be a error on my part, as I don't edit bin files often. If it is a bug, and not my shoddy bin editing skills, is there a way around it? [Edit: oh hell, hes gone for 3 days. Ah..anyone else have this problem then?] <span id='postcolor'> Just noticed this myself and no its not your editing skills. The .cpp is doing this in its raw form before the blood script. More importantly having selected the handgun I can't put it away. The AI also is effected and gets rooted to the spot.<span id='postcolor'> Yep, same problem with handguns here, besides walking sound vanished. The raw config for 1.90 seems to be corrupted. Is the 1.91 config file also causing trouble? Seems some people here made it work, so maybe it is only 1.90 that has bad data. Regards.