nyles

I mostly play on my squad's server or on finnishplatoon or kyllikki FDF servers. The -[uTw]- united Teamwork server is either running in Finmod 1.2 or standard OFP 1.96. However we will also sometimes have the server running NAMpack2, I44demo or BAS. It will be noticed in the server name, though. When running FDF we will have equalmodrequired=1 to prevent easy cheating.

The Resistance camo is parts old Swiss camouflage and parts modern German Flecktarn.

Dito.

Flashpoint2004 page now has a "coming soon" ad for VBS1 Advanced. I hope that's not the only thing we can expect this year beside the X-Box release.

Well if you want to simulate for example a vietnam era USMC rifle squad, you would need 13 keys. 12 keys for 12 men would normally be enough but it makes things like platoon control, etc.. very unflexible. May suggestion about a reworked control structure inclunding radio usage can be found here!

I assume that when JiP is introduced, there will be a number of commands following that will enable scriptors to include the neccessary routines and deal with new players in an appropriate way. But yes, if JiP will make it in, it will most likely be a setting the mapper can choose to use or not use, like for example respawn. I think that it might be interesting to be able to join in for example a running coop game by taking over an AI controlled soldier. If there ain't any left, then there simply is no chance to join in later on. Of course this again would require the mission maker to enable a setting that allows JiP for that particular mission in beforehand.

Mhh, interesting! BIS, can you tell us more?

Not that there are much players left that don't have Resistance anyway... I mean, the GOTY edition has all wrapped into one bundle for ca. 12,- EUR. So what's the point of still being against a Nogova retexture/rework? The textures are used on 1000000 other islands already if that's the point? People without Resistance still get the "missing addon BIS_resistance" message if a mission uses resistance vehicles, units etc, which excludes about 90% of all missions on nogova anyways. I just don't see the point there, sorry.

Wouldn't it be a nice idea to maybe add the Camel to the final 1.9x patch? You then would get rid of that problem and have at least one additional addon to come with the patch?

Thank god the game is a flop. It plays like BF1942 arcade crap mixed with some pseudo realism stuff, which actually adds even more to the arcade gameplay. There are some few nice things like the water surface effect (although it is nothing really special) or the customizable soldier model, but overall it is just one big disappointment compared to what was said the game would be. BF:V is crap, JointOps is crap and now it is confirmed that Soldner is crap, too. Heh, doesn't look like BIS has to worry - which is good.

As long as you play FDF missions and not just normal coop missions that don't neccessarily require the FDF addons, people without Finmod can still connect to the server (If I'm not mistaken). What you can do is set "EqualModRequired=1" in your server.cfg. This will prevent people with a different modfolder structure than the server uses from connecting on your server. So for example, if your server is running Finmod, you will have the modfolders "res" and "finmod". So everyone with just res alone or res plus additional modfolders like hisky, bas, ecp, will not be able to connect the same like anyone with res, finmod and any other additional modfolder won't make it on the server.

Works for me. However yesterday there was some downtime due to maintenance.

It would be possible, sure, but then again Codemasters advertisement campaign should have kicked in by now. Afterall you can't just put a new game in the shelves without people knowing about it. Every Publisher wants to prepare such an event by at least one month of pimping the product. Furthermore I don't think that BI would release anything before this years' E3. There ain't much better events to get people to know your stuff than this expo. So a summer release is not unlikely (even though it might not be flashpoint2 but something different like a new addon-pack with VBS and X-Box stuff), but not in april.

Toning down engine sound inside vehicles should be really considered by all addonmakers. Especially on mulitplayer servers with disabled external view (which simply is the best way to play OFP) it can be tough to voice-com with other players when there are loud engine sounds on aircraft and tanks. Inside such vehicles the crew would mostly wear protective earplugs with integrated comms, allowing them to talk to others without having to yell. OFP should simulate this by toning down the interior engine sounds.

Which version of OFP are you running and have you tried the -nomap parameter yet?

As I said before simply make the nbc-gear a hidden selection that can be either visible or not via a simple line of code.

I am very pleased that 1.96 will most likely be more widely accepted now, as it is at least half official now and no longer a beta. Many conservative admins might decide to update their 1.91 servers now. Personally I would have hoped for some more small bugfixes like the above mentioned rework of autocenter or a small improvement of the ai dogfighting so the plans cease to crash into the ground most of the time, still it is a good decision to push 1.96 by making it more than just a beta. This will help getting the community back on one level, without having 3-4 different versions on all the dozens of OFP servers. Thank you, BIS!

Actually, they are pointing the wrong way It is standard procedure for ALL US units to have the flag pointing "the wrong way" to "simulate" the fact that that is what the flag would look like in real life if it was being rushed forward by advancing troops. Well but definetly not for the '85 soldiers and probably not even the '91 soldiers. The reversed flag has been introduced sometime in the nineties, if I'm right. Don't know when exactly, though...

Not a backpack version, but maybe a backpack, which can be dropped like in FDFmod, or a backpack as hidden selection, so you could enable/disable its visibility. Beside those suggestions I made earlier in the topic and which I mailed you as well, I'd suggest to reverse the USA flag at least on the '85 units. Back then they still wore the USA flag normally and not reversed like you see nowadays to have this "banner-in-the-breeze" effect.

After some weeks without further loosing connection indicents, I think I can say that the bug, whatever reason it had, seems gone. Same goes for most of the people that reported massed timeouts during mulitplayer gaming. After installing anti-spytool software, the constant loosing connection issues ceased. Maybe unrelated still worth a try.

-[uTw]-Nyles

Mhh my wheels have been flattened by AI hand- and riflegrenades quite a lot. At least soft targets they indeed do engage.

Those us army guys sure look great. Especially the PASGT helmet is ace. It looks very good! I have some suggestions though that go in line with those posted by ebud before: --1.-- First off, I would suggest to group the soldiers differently. I would create 6 groups total: eighties, nineties and early 21st; each having a woodland and a desert subgroup. From the current release, I would take the '85 woodland for "woodland eighties", the '91 desert for "desert eighties" and both the '03 desert and woodland for "early 21st". To fill the gaps I would suggest to then create some additional models with vietnam style steel helmet, woodland bdu and maybe with olivdrab (like the '85 webbing) flak jacket. Some skin variations should include only parts with eighty-style woodland and 6-color desert colors, while other parts are still the old green camo clothing. Just make sure that both steel helmet and kevlar helmet always feature woodland pattern. With such combinations alongside the all woodland and desert eighties style soldiers in the current release, you would have some very excellent eighties soldiers. Equipment wise, I'd remove the dust goggles from the eighties woodland soldiers and none of them should have a clamp to attach a night vision goggle on the helmet. The ones you just released look a lot like late eighties soldiers and the suggested alternative things would make allow for early-mid eighty soldiers like they would appear in a '85 scenario. For the nineties soldiers there should also be variation between several different camo patterns. All soldier models should be equipt like your eighties soldier model with new helmet, but you should change the oldstyle flashlight to another grenade pouch. Furthermore the olive/brown webbing should be mostly replaced by some more green'ish webbing with ALICE2 gear. The woodland subgroup should consist of a few eighties woodland pattern textured bdus but mostly the newer style (minor differences) woodland pattern would be the better choice. Night vision clamps should be available for around half the members of a squad. Preferably squad leaders and machinegunners/automatic rifleman. I would then really give this equipment to those soldiers having a visible clamp. Only special forces like airborne and rangers all have night vision devices in a squad. Eighties desert should be a mix of chocolate chips pattern and newer 3-tone desert to allow both desert storm and black hawk down scenarios with this group. I'd also make some crossovers where a soldier has a newer style desert bdu but still wears an old-style chocolate chip flak jacket or helmet cover. Furthermore some woodland parts clothing here and there could give a nice touch. Afterall these ain't special forces and thus won't receive the newest stuff once it is fielded. The last main group, the early 21st century soldiers should differ a lot from both eighties and nineties style. The woodland soldiers all should get the newer style woodland bdu. Like with the current release they are wearing the new body armour instead of the flak jacket. Still only half of the soldiers in a squad should get clamps for night vision goggles. The desert subgroup should consist of 3-tone desert bdus, mixed with some rare appearance of some woodland bdu parts (although I would suggest to make them look sandy/dusty). The body armour is only available in woodland, thus no desert version. --2.-- The soldiers' equipment and weapons should also be made slightly different at some points. I don't know what your plans are weapon wise, like if you plan to make these soldiers require the BAS rangers addon, etc.. I would suggest to make them not only require JAM but completely base their weapons on what BAS might release in the near future. Especially for the 21st century soldiers this would be very very useful. Again I start with the eighties. There should be soldiers with M16A1 (30round mag) and M16A2 assault rifles, machinegunners should have the M60 and grenadiers should have the M16A1+M203 or M16A2+M203. The sidearm should be the Colt1911 for officers and others not the Beretta. Anti Armour should be the LAW (and if available the M47dragon). I'd suggest to have several groups depending on whether they are early or late eighties. For early eighties, I'd go with M16A1 for rifleman and either M16A1 or M60 as SAW, while mid- to late-eighties should have M16A2 with M249 (early version) as SAW. I would even go so far and ignore the OFP CarlGustav as it is working completly different in OFP than in real life, and because US Army forces do not use this weapon. Only rangers do have a few and those were bought in the early nineties. Snipers should only have access to the M21. The nineties soldiers should have more variety, weapons wise. There should be soldiers with M16A2 mainly, but machinegunners could have anything from M60 to M230. The SAW would always be a M249, however this could either be an older one or one with PIP design. AT would be some LAWs but mainly AT4. Again the M47dragon would be heavy AT. Snipers should either get the M21 or M24. The early 21 century soldiers would have all the weapons from the nineties but there should also be some M16A4 (with mounted scopes) and M16A4+M203 (also with scope) available. When grouping soldiers, a few should have those newer weapons but most ordinary rifleman still only got the M16A2. Weapons like the M4A1 with all the goodies are again special forces only, making them limited to airborne and rangers mainly. There are still some few M60 used as machineguns, however the majority of the MMGs should be replaced by the M230. The most common SAW should be the PIP version, with some very few coming with mounted scopes. Some few M230s' should have mounted scopes as well. AT would be the AT4 and heavy AT would mainly be the Javelin with some few M47dragon remaining in service. The sniper rifle of choice should only be the M24, while M14 aimpoint or M21 rifles are only used by special forces to some extent. --3.-- I would really love to see the option to define custom armpatches and markings on helmets in a future release. You could then use the eighties and nineties soldiers as airborne and ranger units as well. For 21 century Airborne and Rangers, the BAS units are the best choice as they have the airborne chinstraps and some more custom webbing for example. --4.-- Some few general model changes I'd suggest, would be a helmet for the officer model with the helmet attached to the webbing somewhere. The cap should get some rework as it looks kinda strange. Maybe some small realignment can do magic there. The gasmask should be a hidden selection so you could define if the model has the gasmask pouch visible and on another step you could even make a visible/hidden gasmask model on the head. For the officer model, the hidden selection stuff might also work to define whether the helmet is on or not, thus saving some space. In fact, I'd really like to see some more variation there. For example a medic with cap and firstaidkit, an engineer with some visible bags for ordnance, a machinegunner with ammo belts and an automatic rifleman with ammo pouches for the SAW. I'd also like to see those knee-protectors to be a real model and not just a texture. It would also be nice to have a rucksack model (like in Finmod) that can be given to soldiers not carrying a machinegun or AT-weapon. ----- Ah well, I could keep talking for hours, but I want to make a stop here. The models are really really nice and I hope that at least a few of my suggestions will make it into the next version.

Would be a shame to see this pack die. Maybe convert it to a new eighties and nineties (no MARPAT) style USMC infantry pack instead?

You can enable a command called "equalmodrequired" (sp?) by setting it to the "1" in the server config. Once activated it will only allow connections of people with the save modfolders activated like the server does. So for example if the server is a default OFP:Resistance server, it will only allow people to connect that have Res as their modfolder (which everyone automatically has, when starting OFP in version 1.75+). If the server is a Finmod server, you could thus prevent anybody from connecting, who doesn't have finmod as the server will only allow players to connect with the modfolder structure "Res;Finmod". However this also prevents people from connecting who might have finmod running but use yet another additional modfolders (i.e. "hi-sky", "ecp", etc...).