Poet

Will we see even more duplication though with the Unofficial Addon collection in the works, and this update pack? Why not shift your dedication to helping with the addon pack? I just dont see why we need an unofficial update pack thats really just an addon pack, when thats already in the pipeline?

0.02 Pounds Sterling: Have to say I'm against this idea. How do we know BIS wont release any more patches? Have they said so? What about the Linux server version check error with 1.91? As with the Addon pack, what happens when theres a new Blood pack or whatever? This should really be part of a collected addon pack, not an unofficial update. Just think this is the wrong way to go about adding addons.

Yet another update. http://quake3.barrysworld.net/poet/Sweet_Tooth.zip Mission3 - Removed redundant reference to Addons in mission.sqm - Removed some more units. Mission4 - Reduced Artillery by almost half. - Reduced Units/Vehicles. - Reduced Special Effects.

Thanks again Skunk Monkey. Mission3 - had a look through the .sqm and it was still listing the removed MH47. Now manually removed. What do you mean "you put MP slots in it :/ " Mission4 - feared that would happen, but its hard to find a balance between what my machine would take and what runs well on a server, easy to fix, I'll just reduce some arty and a few less objects. Did the Firedrop work though? ( were any vehicles on fire after being blown up? ) Thanks again.

Its a fantastic idea, and I hope it can be implemented. But there are just too many addons and addon teams ( e.g there's 4 teams working on AK47 and variants packs as I type - do we need 4 new AK47 packs? ) and lots of other duplication going on at the moment ( though its great to see so many addons, its a shame that so much talent is going into producing the same addons ) Who's to say which pack is better? And I dont want to install 4 different packs, no matter how nice they all are... That is a bigger issue as I see it. We need less duplication and more co-operation. Or players will be restricted from a lot of servers, unless they want to download ANOTHER 200+ server pack each time they see a new server that has addons. Oh, and more Missions and Campaigns with all these cool Addons!

Hi guys, Having a problem with one of my missions crashing. It was suggested it could be due to the addons listed in the .sqm. Its a mission with BAS addons only. The .sqm looks like this : </span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE"> version=11; class Mission { addOns[]= { "BAS_MH47185", "bas_kawa", "bas_mh6185", "bas_weap", "bas_deraw", "bas_soar185", "Bizon", "editorupdate102" }; addOnsAuto[]= { "Bizon", "bas_soar185", "bas_deraw", "bas_kawa", "bas_mh6185", "bas_weap", "editorupdate102", "BAS_MH47185" <span id='postcolor'> and I noticed that the names of the addons as they appear in this list are different to the names of the addons .pbo files as they appear in my addons folder - e.g BAS_MH47185 above appears as BAS_MH47E_185.pbo. And I dont have any addon called BAS_mh6185 in my Addons folder. I dont know anything about addons and mission editor names. Could this be the cause of the problem? If so, any ideas how I resolve? Any help as always is greatly appreciated.

New version : http://quake3.barrysworld.net/poet/Sweet_Tooth.zip This should be the final, could find no problems going through SP and have removed all offending code. Changes : - Removed BAS Chinook to prevent Linux server issues . - Removed CreateUnit command from Mission3 ( without to large a sacrifice to Enemy numbers ) - Added daddldiddl's ViewDistance Negotiation script ( no, Im not too sure exactly what it does either looks nice though ) Thanks to all for the cool feedback.

Thanks for the invite! I'll drop by. 3 is getting a major overhaul. I decided it has to be the way I used createunit. Its a shame, cause as it is, its by far the best of the missions. I chucked in a little bit of everything, and made it hard as hell too. Working my best ATM to keep its Spirit alive!

Cool! Could you do me a huge favour tho? I made a quick version of the mission with just a standard BIS Chinook instead of the BAS one. Could you just try and see if it actually loads up or if it dumps you back to the mission select screen. http://quake3.barrysworld.net/poet/War Pie_TEST.zip  ( link works, just copy and paste the complete link into your browser ) Would be great if you could, cause it would mean I can rule out other suspects for the crash, and redo the mission using Littlebirds or something else... Thanks Poet.

Good thinking Avon! I'd remembered seeing that thread, and wondered if it was connected, as the BAS Chinooks do have that line in the .cpp. I need to find out from Pang if the server is a Linux server, though I'll also knock up a quick version of the mission without the Chinook, using Littlebirds instead, and ask him if he'd kindly mind quickly loading it up to see if it crashes the same. I'll ask if he can get a hold of the .rpt as well. Thanks Avon! What would we do without you?

Thanks for the reply Suma. But I dont know what is causing the crash. In SP mode, the mission works fine. And the reports are extremely valuable from the online testers, but not really helpful in terms of tracking down the cause. If I try run my own server, from within OFP or via Gamespy, then I'm not really doing that much different from running it SP ( as I run as the server anyway ). And I tried running my own dedicated server, and then connecting to that as a client, but my system doesnt have enough memory for that so I get the "Memory Map" problem. i wouldnt mind, but I DO have access to my own bookable server at Game.net ( formerly Barrysworld ) but they are being funky about adding any Addons, so I cant book that for some testing time either...

Yes they do. Guess its not that then, grasping at straws really. if it loads fine on my machine, then it shouldnt really be the addon names, unless its an old version of the Ch47 that the server has, or doesnt have it at all. That would then leave the "createunit" command as the last culprit for the crash, which would mean either finding out why it doesnt work online ( IF it doesnt ) or removing it and having the mission lag due to the amount of AI.

PAng? Does your server have the latest version of the BAS Chinook? Thats the only add-on that appears any differently in the mission.sqm from any of the other missions?

w00t! Online feedback! Thats great, Thanks Guys! Â Pang : *Artillery Crumble. Shame that people don't get how to tackle the guards. Â But I know people love playing snipers, and I really like the idea of co-ordinated sniper attacks. Its tricky because I know when people play online, they are slightly reluctant to fully read the briefing and notes, they just want to play. But it was a trade-off I was happy with. But at least it sounds like everyone saw the artillery strike, that was my biggest worry ( special effects are tricky to get working in MP missions. ) *War Pie. Â My bet now is that it is the "Createunit" command I used in making the mission, otherwise the mission starts with 100+ AI spawning and lots of slowdown. I'll have to find out why that crashes the server, cause it works fine in Single Player tests. But I'll check the addons too. - adding Rotarwash. I'll look into it, but again its tricky adding Special effects like that to MP missions. See what I can do. Thanks! Skunk Monkey - Thanks for the kind words. Â 1. I never managed to complete every section in Single Player testing, but have a good idea why no ending trigger. Glad you got that far to find out for me. Â Should be easy to fix. 2. I tried to set it up so that theres loads of AT in the crates where you start, and where you land to get the bikes, and I also planned it in my mind to have maybe one or two guys laying charges and going back to the bikes to get more ammo. I wanted it to be about planning and forward-thinking. Again that kind of thing might be more suited to Single Player missions, but that doesnt mean it shouldnt be included for those online players that like a challenge. Glad you enjoyed anyway. Â 3. You wouldnt be able to play anyway due to the server crash... Â 4. Â - Glad it worked and you had fun. Can I ask though? I assume that the artillery strike worked as planned, but were any of the vehicles on "Fire" after the strike, I added a few Fire Drop scripts so the base would be full of burning vehicles to add to the atmosphere, but don't know whether the effect works online. I'll look at the adjustable View Dist thing too. Won't affect any mission in anyway. Good idea. Thanks for the feedback again guys, seriously appreciated. I'll have another play around with them today, and see if I cant get rid of the last few issues you raised and get them released.

I've used the Firedrop script to add more realistic looking flames and smoke to the fire. The problem with using that is that the fire no longer acts as a lightsource. And as you can see from the picture, if I light the fire the normal way as well, then the smoke effect from "this inflame true" just doesnt go with the rest of the fire and smoke, and plus I dont like the yellow/green light coming off it. Is there a way to have the Firedrop act as a lightsource, or add a realistic orangey lightsource to it? I tried using a flare, but its light is too stark, and I can't get a flare close to the ground without it going out. I searched and saw some links to a "spotlight" add-on but they were all busted. Though it didnt say if I'd be able to change the colour of the lightsource... Is it possible to have the fire lit normally ( inflame true etc ) and NOT give out smoke AND change the colour of the lightsource? All help warmly appreciated.  ( oh, and yes, that is Major Halliday and Geronimo   ) EDIT - sorry bout the oversized pic, I resized it and reuploaded it, but it hasnt updated yet.

I agree bn880. I saw a script for Satellite imaging and tracking that looked really cool, and though it had fairly clear instructions, I knew that the time it would have taken me to work out how to use it properly just meant it wasnt worth me bothering with. And I've come across loads of other examples where I know the work involved is simply beyond my ability ( at least right now ). But at least you DID create a manual, giving the user a starting place to start understanding the script. I'm not whingeing, I love the community, and the game and all the cool tools and toys that people have made. It just dissappoints me when I see something I want to download and use, and there's no instructions at all. I understand why it happens though. In my old job as IT Admin for 400+ users, I used to lose my patience too quickly with all the dumb questions I'd get bombarded with constantly. But it wasnt because the people were stupid. Its just that I'd totally forgotten how little I knew when I first started working with PC's.

Doh! Guess my head was fried yesterday ( I'd spent 7 solid hours cleaning and bug spraying my flat after a Carpet Beetle infestation - Mild Winters and Woolen carpets do not make for a pleasant experience ) Anyway, I found the Glow effects from the BAS vehicles under Objects. Just had to fiddle around and find a good spot to place it to get just the right effect. Works great though! Thanks TJ.

Is that the Grand Unified Theory of Everything? Or Coca Cola's Secret Recipe? I wasn't having a pop, uiox. I know that you set up a sample mission to show the user how to use it. But it just puzzles me that a lot of people in OFP seem happy to spend hours, days even weeks working on a killer script or add-on, but then don't bother with the 5 minutes it takes to write a readme. The first thing I look for when I download just about anything is a readme. ( you'll never catch me asking BAS how to load a Jeep onto their Chinook ) And I've come across some scripts where the sample mission was so complicated I just had to give up ( I think it was an AI respawn script someone had done, with dozens of triggers and waypoints, and no simple instructions for us poor noobs ).

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (uiox @ 11 May 2003,13:38)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Drop engine :download here<span id='postcolor'> Another cool looking bunch of scripts without a readme. ( happens far too much in Flashpoint, we're not all Script Wizards you know ) And the .sqs files dont even have any hint lines which might help. I wouldnt know where to begin with a set of scripts like that.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (jacobaby @ 11 May 2003,13:02)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">For the BAS Kiowas and MH47E I included a few little glow effects that I use in conjunction with the dropped fire particles. If you have those addons you could try them. Or if it is just for you, you could modify your fire details in your config.bin to suit you. TJ<span id='postcolor'> TJ? If I modify the config.bin would that not just affect the effect on my machine locally? Others downloading the Mission I'm making would just see the normal fire effect, or would they? As the mission I'm making includes the BAS MH47e, how would I go about using the glow effect you mentioned in your addon? How did you create it? Is it simple? Cheers, Poet.

Hmm, I didnt notice any light coming from the dropped fire. If there is a way to boost the light source ... if it is weak like you say ... that might solve the problem.

2nd post in here today! I promise I got a pretty darned slick Mini-Campaign on the way though. How can I set a time limit for the Player in a Single Player Mission set off by a trigger? E.g - Player boards chopper, Timer starts - Player shoots lots of stuff. If the player doesnt kill everything in 5 minutes, then the mission ends... Sounds simple, and I trawled these forums, and all my guides again, but can only find how to set time limits for MP missions. Again, any help would be appreciated. Thanks Poet.

Well, from reading the Seventh thread, and how quite a few people want Music adding from every Hollywood Nam film ... Maybe they could add a mission with Viktor and James surfing the beaches on Nam while Blake flies overhead blasting out Flight of the Valkyries? ( sarcasm aside, I suspect we'll see the return of at least one of the characters from OFP1. The continuity was one of the things that made the campaigns so good for me. )

STOP SMILING D*MMIT! Hiya, I'm in the middle of creating an emotionally intense cutscene , but I cannot stop the AI from smiling. I don't know anything about animating faces etc, and don't really need to know as I just want the AI to stand there and look serious. Its totally random, when you just leave them stood there, they smile, frown and pull all sorts of silly faces. I can hardly be telling the player that the love of his life has died while he stands there with a silly grin on his face! I searched the forums, and looked through all the guides I have, and of course the fabulous OFPEC is on hiatus for a few days, so havent been able to find anything. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Poet.

Great Work RED! I went cross-eyed staring at the script trying to work it out. Thanks once again!