wiper

Hi all ! Essentially a development that started in the good old OFP times and that most probably will go on, arrives on its first step for Arma2. For details see the readme below, here just a snapshot for what you may expect : The mission development was centered around four central themes: Literally unlimited replayability providing unexpected encounters each time the mission is restarted. Let the player experience how awesome the AI and micro AI actually is that BIS has created for us and what I think is the most sophisticated AI for home computer games to date ! Give the player the possibility to explore and enjoy the gorgeous beauty of the Chernaurus map while immersed in a living environemt. Embedding all of the above into a plausible "story line" keeping a most enjoyable balance. No Addons needed. Please post your impressions, what you like or what you miss or what you wanna have changed - in other words your feedback is more than welcome Have fun ! version 1.41b uploaded 17-11-09 Download Cipher v1.41b For Arma2:Operation Arrowhead check out AlecDelorean's thread for his great conversion here: Cipher: Valleys of the Takiban Please check the change log for the latest fixes in the readme below. Mirrors: Armaholic SP section Armaholic MP/coop section (Note that these mirrors may take some time to be actualized. If uncertain use the above link for the most recent version.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Cipher' - a full dynamic SP & MP mission for Arma2 with unlimited replayability, v1.41b ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Description: 'Cipher' is a Arma2 mission fully based on scripts. The mission development was centered around three central themes: Literally unlimited replayability providing unexpected encounters each time the mission is restarted. Let the player experience how awesome the AI and micro AI actually is that BIS has created for us and what I think is the most sophisticated AI for home computer games to date ! Give the player the possibility to explore and enjoy the gorgeous beauty of the Chernaurus map while immersed in a living environemt. Embedding all of the above into a plausible "story line" keeping a most enjoyable balance. As a result, on one hand the mission concept is based on a relatively advanced AI “engine†as a core system that I originally started to develop in the beginning of the good (golden) old OFP times and provides a full dynamic driven persistent AI. On the other hand the "AI engine" (ADPI) provides sort of an interface so that it can be relatively easy adopted into a different mission concept. So essentially 'Cipher' can be seen as a base module with a minimum content story wise, that just needs to be expanded to be a fully story driven mission. However this means, the story part still needs drastic scripting efforts not to speak of all stuff that needs to be implemented to have multiple and dynamic story lines working perfectly even in MP mode. Features: So, starting 'Cipher' what can you expect: ‘Cipher’ is playable in SP mode as well as in MP coop mode (just copy the mission into your respective Arma2 folder). Each time you start the mission over, you start at a unique location anywhere on Chernarus. Each time you start the mission over, the primary objective is located somewhere else. 2 basic mission modes are available: ‘Task Force’ mode by default, features a 10 man group and alternatively ‘SpecOp’ mode for a intense solo experience. There is even a third mode ‘SpecOp light’ where some of the enemy patrols are removed to ease up a bit. You need to search for the main objective and after successfully completing the required tasks, call for extraction and leave Chernarus. While on mission, you will encounter 'living' AI, easily implemented thanks to the new BIS modules, as well as scripted civilian population roving around the whole map, mostly by car. Dynamically acting hostile forces, using choppers and armored vehicles, initially randomly patrolling around the target area, and dynamically reacting to encounters - eventually flanking your position and supporting each other. random time start (at daylight), selectable daytime emphasis per option. full dynamic weather no Addons needed What will you not meet in 'Chipher', yet: large cinematic cut scenes (besides small intro & outro cuts) voice actings From that latter point of view consider 'Cipher' in beta stage. While the mission/concepts are heavily tested and should be working as intended, those fancy elements were needed to be kept out of focus, otherwise its development would have needed much more months to spend in. Installation: requires Arma2 v1.04 or later. Extract the pbo files to your ArmA2\Missions folder for SP. Extract the pbo files to your ArmA2\MPMissions folder for MP. Known issues: Well most of us Arma2 (and earlier versions of the game) users know that we need to live with some quirks the engine still has, mostly concerning AI behaviour. Right after the mission has started your MTVR truck (or ammo crate in SpecOp mode) maybe isn’t accessible right away. This is a game engine peculiarity of fresh spawned vehicles and not a bug. If this happens give it about 20 seconds at max. After that time it can be accessed as usual. When you find the Suitcase placed on elevated building positions (barns upper levels, deer stands,..) it may happen that it seems to vanish when you open it. Actually the “opened suitcase†might now be found at ground level. Also that action menus sometimes take some time to be active. Although since patch 1.03 most of the civil module glitches seem to be fixed, expect strange civilian behaviour in some regards, often cars placed at strange places or strange wording by some civilian guys. (Civilian) AI drivers seem to love to crash into other cars standing right in front of them on the road. Occasionally they often roll over other AI or player units, so always consider evasive behaviour with them. Air AI has trouble navigating around rough terrain eventually crashing sometimes, particularly when attacking. Performance: right at mission start up expect some lags and frame rate drops for some seconds on slower computer hardware, usually vanishing within 20-60 sec. After that time span the mission performance should be the same as for the official missions, most probably even better due to highly optimized scripts performance wise. JIP (Join In Progress): Sometimes the daytime is not synchronized for a JIP’ing player. This particularly seems to happen with a fresh hosted game and it seems to be very hard to reproduce. To sync the time, abort to the lobby and reconnect a second time. In ‘Task Force’ mode you need to chose the slot of group member of the High Commander (the originally group leader) if teams are split. In SpecOp mode you need to select a new slot that was not played in the current mission. For the mission itself and its tasks refer to the briefing when started. MP notes: Some words for the MP mode: The mission is JIP (Join In Progress) ready and should run fine on a dedicated server but you need to know some specifics: ‘Cipher’ can be played by 1-10 human players as Blue in Coop against OPFOR AI. At least one player needs to take the role of one Team leader! If starting alone always choose the first slot/group leader to minimize JIP issues for connecting players. The standard mission starts as one single team but the group leader can split up the group into several teams where each team has its own leader using the HTS menu (use the Command menu for this). Note that the split teams can’t rejoin after the original team leader (i.e. “High Commander†of the sub teams) is killed. When playing the SpecOPs version no team splits can be performed and only one human player is group leader. Each connecting player will be assigned to the team leader and always starts with a bike at the insertion point. Also initially no AI players are allowed but you need to let the AI enabled (in the lobby options) as the AI exists as a poll for JIP’ing players and for semi-respawns. Because the team occasionally can be split after mission initialization, JIP works limited, yet: when JIP'ing you maybe need to reconnect and choose one of the units of the originally 'group' leader in TaskForce mode or one of the free slots of the pool AI in SpecOp mode. Performance: In MP mode the mission's visual distance and the grass rendering can be chosen vie the lobby parameters. Respawn/revive: Currently the mission doesn’t support respawns or reviving. The AI is tweaked to be challenging but not overly hard to fight. This should provide for a well balanced learning curve in mastering the game as well as the mission itself. Both aspects don’t match up with reviving elements very well I think. However if not all slots are taken by human players there’s still the possibility to switch over to a free slot using the team switch. Hints: Finally some hints from 'under the hood' - feel free to read on, as due to the mission concept 'spoiling' is not really possible, you'll never know what you will face As briefing suggests, approach carefully. Often the mission can be easily failed by simply rushing towards the hostile area. The closer you move to the hot spot the more likely you may encounter ambushes. Every single hut or deer stand may be a hideout! In the first phase planning is crucial, always use terrain and cover to YOUR advantage! Consider taking out Air targets at first hand, then APC or armored forces before moving in further. Hostile air patrols periodically take place about every 5-30 minutes (you never know when they start), covering the hostile area for about 5-20 minutes. Enemy armor is focussed around the primary target, but patrol movement may carry them far out for 1-2 km's away, Same goes for some hostile infantry patrols. Always remember the persistence of the AI: each enemy AI unit is there right from the beginning of the mission and none is spawned randomly. So relax - no cheating AI, each one you've killed is out of question, but if you encounter one you didn't expect at that position, you just have overlooked it Have fun ! Made by Wiper Change Log: v1.41b fixed: JIP broken in SpecOp mode tweaked: extraction chopper spawns closer to the players team/ leader v1.41 added: options for auto revealing the suitcase improved: revealing algorithm improved: intro implementation fixed: black screen sometimes not terminated on clients v1.40 added: intro improved: small briefing changes and fixes v1.39 hot fixed: respawning in SpecOp MP mode didn’t spawn player vehicles. v1.38 added: bike options for SpecOp mode added: separated options for open and closed trucks. improved: code fetch indications. improved: removed default assignment of “team redâ€. fixed: briefing texts not correctly updated after suitcase auto reveal. fixed: second supply dump sometimes placed too close to roads. fixed: JIP caused player side units being invulnerable. v1.37 added: SP options for team size. added: options for player vehicles. added: supply depot randomly somewhere near the approach path. improved: options dialog. fixed: wrong daylight emphasis notations in the briefing hints. fixed: insertion markers misplaced for JIP’ing players. v1.36 fixed: primary target marker vanished when a player JIP’ed. fixed: using team switch could screw insertion process somehow. fixed: possible frozen chopper after reload of a insertion procedure. improved: primary target more likely to be found in urban areas. v1.35 improved: further polishing of the suitcase placement added: option for high and low solar altitudes added: more guns to briefing gear and cargo spaces fixed: some minor issues. v1.34 fixed: wrong unit distribution for the player side terminated the insertion script if AI units got disabled in the MP lobby (special thanks for silent_op.pxs for finding that out). v1.33b added: MP option for disabling Med Packs in SpecOp mode. v1.33a hot fix: removed “debug teleport†that slipped through. v1.33 fixed: bug in AI flanking evaluation. fixed: added further blacklist areas (mostly lakes and ponds) improved: armoured AI movements. improved: slightly decreased AI “communication†distances. improved: insertion chopper withdrawal. v1.32 fixed: insertion chopper sometimes didn’t land fixed: on dedicated servers enemy Hind didn’t continue movement sometimes. fixed: BMP3 additional gunners disembarked under contact. fixed: added further buildings to the buildings blacklist fixed: added further areas to the positions blacklist fixed: removed “open suitcase†to avoid odd sat phone placements improved: task assignments step by step. changed: briefing texts adopted to new tasks / flow. v1.31 added: insertion by helo and rendezvous for all mission modes. added: ammo crate at rendezvous point in Task Force mode. added: reintroduced & improved default weapon and gear load out. added: automated revealing function for the suitcase location depending on difficulty and player superiority. improved: code fetching and radio activation takes some seconds now emphasizing the intended challenge of that task under certain conditions. tweaked: briefing texts and briefing updates edited also to reflect latest additions. fixed: black screen on clients after reload of MP missions v1.30 added: difficulty options in SP and MP mode. added: actual mission options in the briefing hints tweaked: AI communication radius, patrol times and accuracies minor fixes v1.29 hot fixed: vehicle driving AI not getting back in vehicles after disembarking hot fixed: disabled AI (in MP lobby) caused permanent script errors fixed: weapon cargo in truck and ammo crates not accessible for JIP’ing players fixed: pier type object missing in the blacklist for the primary target v1.28 fixed: insertion point in inland water under rare circumstances fixed: daytime inconsistencies in the briefing fixed: script errors after loading a save game. tweaked: SP dialog options now before the briefing starts tweaked: better distribution of civilian road vehicles around the mission primary area. added: SP & MP options for specific day & night time emphasis added: SpecOp ‘light’ mode with lesser enemy patrols and armor improved: various AI aspects mainly focussed on placement and movement v1.27a hot-fixed: due to a small oversight the dedicated SpecOp pbo wasn’t actually switched to ‘SpecOp’ mode tweaked: several minor briefing corrections. v1.27 fixed: some civilians and opfor units placed on roads without cars fixed: odd suitcase placements possible in rural areas fixed: some typos in the briefing fixed: under *very* rare conditions only the enemy general was placed in the primary target area. tweaked: enemy Hind should not crash in forests and hills too easy anymore, also by preventing its kamikaze attacks. tweaked: slightly increased probability of aiming shake and reduced accuracy of the hostile AI v1.26b fixed: general and sentries moved away from their intentional holding positions after mission start. fixed: Suitcase always placed next to the center of the target area. v1.26a hotfixed: permanent script error message due to a undefined variable. v1.26 fixed: scripted AI movements and behaviour of saved games broken. added: ample stuffed supply crate at Insertion Point in SpecOp mode. changed: russian road patrols occasionally use civilian vehicles changed: civilian cars now randomly distributed. changed: total rewrite of the extraction logic for more freedom and control of the rescue chopper for the player now. improved: enemy armored vehicles spawn using a point distribution system making them more random and variying. tweaked: rain value varying while raining, reduced probability. added: hint texts in the briefing diary section in cadet mode. added: parameter “view distance†in MP lobby added: parameter “grass setting†in MP lobby (needs Arma2 v1.03.58899 or higher) v1.25 fixed: TeamSwitch didn’t teleport to insertion point on MP clients under certain conditions. fixed: hostile vehicle AI gunner also ejected at initial enemy contact improved: rain transitions and rate sync in MP. added: 3 med packs for the player in SpecOp mode. added: additional heavy gear in the units load section of the briefing. tweaked: slightly lowered probability of presence for the hostile T72. tweaked/fixed: reverted back to previous indirect BuildingPos placement methods for AI troops as due to a probable game glitch direct placements often seems to kill troops. v1.24a HotFixed: ‘GodMode’ not deactivated in MP mode. v1.24 fixed: map locations and markers not set in SP briefing room fixed: dead group leader not removed from players group in SpecOP MP mode. tweaked: slightly higher possibility to spawn primary target in urban areas. tweaked: disabled auto team split in MP mode (use HCS for splitting) tweaked: removed odd locations for SuitCase spawns (bridges, ruin walls) tweaked: AI placement now also on elevated buildings highly possible (beacon towers, industrial facilities…) multiple minor AI tweaks. v1.23 fixed: added a briefing.html for a proper briefing show up before the mission starts in SP mode. fixed: rescue chopper didn’t launch in SpecOp mode. fixed: AI waypoints sometimes out of bounds (introduced in v1.22). fixed: Insertion point in rare situations on inland water surfaces. fixed: AI waypoints for armored vehicles within forests fixed: disembarked AI vehicles in combat weren’t unassigned. optimized: both mission modes supported now by one pbo. optimized: introduced pbo verisioning for the sake of dedicated server admins. tweaked: weapon gear loadout now accessible in MP briefing, no more auto-distribution to human players. tweaked: Insertion point spawns tendentially closer to the primary target now. tweaked: rescue chopper doesn’t cut running engines while on wait tweaked: all but first task assigments distributed according to previous task completions. tweaked: slightly higher probability of presence for enemy AI group members tweaked: coherence/swarming varying of attacking enemy AI tweaked: slightly higher accuracy and lesser handshake for enemy AI. tweaked: various text info, mostly for MP mode. tweaked: daytime randomization now linear tweaked: increased the visual distance by 500m in MP to 3500m. v1.22 fixed: HCS was not active, supports SP and MP now. tweaked: some BuildingPos added to a blacklist to avoid odd suitcase placements (like scaffolds, walls,..). tweaked: civilian AI driving on roads now more present. Added: a second play mode “SpecOP†included as an extra pbo. v1.21 fixed: radio channel alpha was accessible before code retrieval fixed: stalling enemy AI in most instances added: 2 enemy AI squads mostly patrolling outside the target area tweaked: enemy AI have a tighter patrol radius tweaked: enemy AI responds quicker in general tweaked: enemy AI does not flank excessively, going for a more direct approach v1.20 fixed: suitcase interaction was broken added: HCS made by Mr_Centipede (SP mode only) added: images tweaked: briefing texts v1.19 fixed: mission end sequence not started. fixed: accidently deleted mapcenter marker, causing civilian cars mass near the SW end of the map, eventually stalling. tweaked: reduced primary target area sizes. Larger areas often cause the primary objective to be placed on deer stands somewhere out in the forests. v1.18 fixed: hostile air AI never launched fixed: enemy HQ AI partly disabled v1.17a Tweaked: rewritings for the extraction radio messages plus map updates, both for proper LZ planning. updated the readme accordingly. v1.17 First public release. Credits: All credits go to Bohemia Interactive, : http://www.bistudio.com, and its whole staff, as well as to all people supporting BIS, mods, fanboys, ranters and others, in other words, further credits to the whole community , http://forums.bistudio.com, mainly to the OFPEC team, http://www.ofpec.com/ for all of their hard work and help in supporting the community. Armaholic http://www.armaholic.com/ and its Admins, most importantly Big for his efforts in keeping track for all mission updates. Further credits to Mr_Centipede for HCS (Hybride Commanding System) and Kremator for hints in and implementation of HCS. Special credits to John Buford for the briefing Overview, his countless hours of testing online, edits of my english texts and his invaluable gameplay advices ! Nightrat for testing too and for his neverending patience in my combat playstyles Last but not least specific credits to all who have contributed by spending their precious time and energy in testing, suggesting and feeding back. Without the enthusiasm of these people this mission never would have become what it is: Hoz , Greg, keet, alpha-kilo, galzohar, DogTags, Alex72, Manzilla, MaXyM, Kremator, silent_op and/from www.phoenixsoldiers.com and WallyJas, markushaze plus all who I may have forgot to list here and all of you I unfortunately don’t even know :-) Thanks to you All!

Hi All, language mods for Arma2 versions with sticky language setting available here, all signed and with key file included. ( links refreshed as by 2010-11-20 ) version 1.05 : Czech to English German to English German to French Polish to English Russian to English previous language mod uploads version 1.04 : German to English For questions regarding installation or other issues concerning this mod please check the first Arma2 language mods thread. Have fun !

not really a beta glitch but present for looong time and getting more and more annoying in particular for SpecOp missions where the player snipes and/or stealth attacks standing "safe" put units very often. The (idle) animation continues playing, even for 10+ seconds, despite the unit is lethal hit. see the 'alive' state in the hint window here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNI5OKL_2ZU Just made a ticket for it http://dev-heaven.net/issues/24449 contains repro and video

I'm sorry Suma, its attached now: http://dev-heaven.net/issues/4483 (direct link: http://dev-heaven.net/attachments/13808/test_AI_skill.utes.7z)

plus non-recognizing of setSkill array values set in missions is still "reintroduced" since [83544] : " Improved: AI skill settings in difficulty options easier to use." Reported it yesterday in the recent beta thread and here: http://dev-heaven.net/issues/4483 including a small test/demo mission. Great to know the game is further improved though :) Thanks !

setSkill array values set in mission being ignored again was fixed in beta [83390] but most likely reintroduced with beta [83544] ("Improved: AI skill settings in difficulty options easier to use."). The last public beta that does it well is [83500]. updated related ticket + test mission with description: http://dev-heaven.net/issues/4483

links refreshed unfortunately the 'hungarian to english' version is deleted on FileFront (as most of the 1.04's) and I don't have them on my HD anymore, i'm sorry

lol Well I'm pretty sure that just asking for a mission port isn't THE demotivating part for a missionmaker in doing one ;) However, I thought it wont hurt a small linky to AlecDelorean's thread for the A2OA Takistan port right next to the download link on the first page. And as I'm loving handy links anyways here's the one for the A2OA port too: For Arma2:Operation Arrowhead check out AlecDelorean's thread for his great conversion here: Cipher: Valleys of the Takiban cheers & have fun !

Hi folks, sorry for my big time of absence here. Real live things are stacking up heavily these days and I'm practically out of PC gaming completely for the time beeing. This, however, might change again within the next months or so but I cant promise or even estimate how things develop atm. As for Takistan I'd be interested too how Cipher can be adopted for it, not to mention how the new game and features play out. Given the 3-6 months developing+testing+polishing phase of Cipher on the other hand shouldn't let us be too optimistic for a new incarnation of the mission for the new game/addon too. Beeing an old BIS game hardcorer I definitly will get the addon as soon as its available, thats for sure, so lets keep fingers crossed. As soon as I'll get certain RL things sorted and regain some room for mission design eventually, the chances for a new Cipher style mission should rise considerably. Have fun & good luck - Wiper

Amount of patrols shouldnt be an issue. Try to stick with the same parameters as with the other patrols first. Maybe a small issue with the params array ? I often overlooked the commas for the parameters sub arrays... Check if the're all initialized (placed) correctly and if they start moving I'll PM u for details

The amount you can stuff into a vehicle is limited. The "smaller" the vehicle the lesser you can put in, the rest is dropped. Heavy ammo needs lot of space that isn't there in a Hummer especially if already stuffed with added gear like in Cipher.

here you go ;) http://www.filefront.com/15215729/Arma2_v1.05_po2en.7z first page updated. Admin issue. Unless they copy the enclosed server key file in the "keys" folder on the server there's nothing we can do about :(

lol yea, that's indeed mission related Im afraid. Things like this I tend to see as kinda "trade off" for a open AND dynamic mission environment, so to speak ;) As long as the pilot isn't a group member (or can't be team switched to) there is not much that can be done, aside additional scripting and special "measurements". Always find a properly cleared LZ for extraction should be the best precaution to avoid such unlucky situations. But yes, admittedly its a mission flaw, no question. To cover ALL possible peculiarities in such an open and randomized mission environemt on the other hand would need tons of additional code stuff I'm afraid. I put it on the todo list for a next version increment anyways though, thanks for reporting !

Thanks for your great feedback guys, it makes me confident that Cipher is still a most enjoyable mission although full ACE2 support is not yet implemented. I certainly will update Cipher in these regards as soon as I'll find more capacity for that task as well as fixing at least one minor issue I already know about. I hope you'll all have much fun playing it and that you'll enjoy the dynamicly acting AI this mission particularly was designed for ;) Merry Xmas to all of you !

1.05 versions available, check first page. merry xmas :)

recent build 59857 seems to have introduced a bug/error message with the Alice module. In my 'Cipher' mission I have placed just one Alice module covering the whole map and it worked well and without any error messages since patch 1.01. Now with the current beta build 59857 the following error message spams the arma2.rpt file (and, if enabled, the screen respectively) if the player is near certain map locations. Couldn't find any dependencies of where and what triggers that error yet, just wanted to report it asap. Error in expression <completedFSM _fsm || _statusChanged || (_twn != _unit && _da> Error position: <_statusChanged || (_twn != _unit && _da> Error undefined variable in expression: _statuschanged

Hi folks, yes NR is the third team leader in the lobby. Should be easy to fix and I'll do that asap but I'm too busy with different things atm (besides transferring teras of registered stuff on a fresh system). In the meantime a possible workaround of this error could be to NOT disable the last 3 unit slots in the lobby for team size reduction. hope it helps, need to reinstall Arma2 within the next days :o

Thanks for your comments folks ! version 1.41b is uploaded and considered as final :) v1.41b fixed: JIP broken in SpecOp mode tweaked: extraction chopper spawns closer to the players team/ leader markushaze: SpecOp mode doesnt support all vehicle options, just 2 (for a green bike or mountain bike). SpecOp mode was originally intended to be a solo 'iron man' mode, therefore in MP each player has its "own" vehicle as soon as he connects. As for the yellow marker it should never show up when reveal is disabled and can be seen the earlier the lower the difficulty is set, if reveal is enabled. Greg: Yes, that extraction chopper behaviour you reported sounds rather bizarre and, because the end sequence was triggered correctly, I also tend to assume a game/AI at this point. The other issues you reported definitley are, and I think we have to live with them, as we did since OF :). I think in a heavily randomized and dynamic mission like Cipher those peculiarities seem to be even more obvious because the AI is much more "stressed" than in deteministic scenarios which often can be tailored (more easily) quite around certain issues. brrupz: Welcome on board, and thanks for the kudos ! :) Could it be that you (or another player in the team) called the extraction chopper twice or more ? It tries to relocate in such cases and if you're close to enemy armored units the new LZ might be calculated far off a previous one. The extraction routine should be rather robust now and should be working very reliable.. which doesn't mean it can't break in any case of course :o SLX mods/changes some key functions for the AI afaik. Cipher changes loads of AI parameters by itself and controls most of AI movements and "communication". So merging *any* (heavily) AI modding AddOn with Cipher will most certainly break major aspects of both, the mission AND AddOn functionalities. Cipher doesnt touch any view settings in SP mode ! In MP however you can set viewdistance and terrain features in the MP-parameters on the server or using the server control feature of the actual public beta.

If the radio is missing, you probably team switched to a different unit/slot before saving. I noticed this for myself, even without reloading, that some units seem to have no radio on the map when taken over their role. You may however always use the radio via the UI menu or simply typing (default) <backspace> 0-1-<channel#> iirc As for the performance issues: how big are your save files ? For what I have seen they thend to be around 30 and 40 MB after a while, but aint not too bad in loading time, taking about 30 seconds or so (10-15 seconds reading, similar time for "receiving"). I've never noticed save game dependant stutters though. Sounds annoying but unfortunatly I cant tell from experience and just might conjecture on this. Are you sure you dont have similar symptoms with other missions after frequent save/loads ?

Batstat: Maybe something slipped through but I can't reproduce what you report here, maybe you can specify it a bit more ? Theres no end trigger bound on to the extraction zone. The mission ends (read: should not end) until all men alive are on board the extraction chopper. If not all men are on board the chopper and one guy calls the extraction chopper again (using radio alpha) the chopper with the men on board redeploys to the next suitable landing spot next the (first) group leader and lands again after a more or less intense calculation process (depending on how many enemy AFV's are still alive) for the LZ position has ended. But again, the mission should not end (debrief) unless all men are once on board. IceBreakr, H3NRY: Porting the mission properly would first require to adopt all respective zone and road markers on the map and edit the UrbanPos.sqf accordingly. While the road markers could be easily copied and readjusted (keeping their numbers, those are mandatory or need to be rediefined in one of the scripts) the primary location markers (UrbanPos) are used to show up the village names in briefing texts ! As for the black lists there are two types to be looked after: 1) The area blacklist "func\IsInPosBlackList.sqf". I think this one just needs just to be emptied as it defines "islands" to be igored by the placement calculations and there are no islands on panthera afaik. 2) Those 4 ADPI_BL_VehicleSfcs= ["#CRForest1","#CRForest2"]; ADPI_BL_RoadSfcs= ["#CRGrass1","#CRGrass2","#CRGrassW1"]; ADPI_BL_CoverObjects= ["Mosquito","HouseFly","DragonFly","HoneyBee","ButterFly","SeaGull","SeaGull2","Crow","FxWindPollen1"]; ADPI_BL_BuildingPos= ["Land_HouseV_1L2","Land_molo_drevo_bs","Land_Dam_Conc_20","Land_Dam_Barrier_40"];//+...... // see init_initial.sqf; defined in the init_initial. If Panthera uses no other than Chernarus objetcs all should run fine with those just unedited. If not we need to add new ones to the lists. Particularly buildings with buildingPos need to be treated carefully as they may screw up AI movement and possibly the whole mission (suitcase position) Theres also one (or more?) bridge on Panthera. I have yet no experience of how the Arma2 AI deals with them. They only way they worked well in OF and A1 was to use carefully handpicked waypoints. They never worked well with dynamicly calculated waypoints, but maybe thats better in A2. However, another issue that needs to be watched and tested carefully :o

Thanks for all the kudos folks. I'm really happy to see that the mission seems to please so much people and that it was obviously worth going public with it. New version 1.41 is available on the first page. It contains some important fixes for the MP intro and a new option for the auto revealing function now that also allows to disable it too, which in fact is my favorite setting hence its set as per default :) v1.41 added: options for auto revealing the suitcase improved: revealing algorithm improved: intro implementation fixed: black screen sometimes not terminated on clients As for the wishes I'm afraid 1.41 is the final version and if no new issues or bugs creep up this might be the one that also will be rated by the OFPEC team. Particularly additional mission objectives or even PVP support are not only out of scope of the current mission design, they also would need to recode a plethora of already stable running code so that is definitely someting for a new mission concept. Porting 'Cipher' for another island/map might be a bit simpler but also needs intense preparations as the mission is taylored very close around buildings, roads and terrain using loads of black and white lists that would have needed to rebuild from ground up or at least refreshed properly. So lets see what future brings and if I may find more time to play 'Cipher' even myself again, some further inspiration may pour in for any future versions using the dynamic AI concept used in this mission. In the meantime lets enjoy what we already have with 'Cipher' and look forward to further game engine tweaking as those most promising recent beta patches (build 59875) really push gameplay quality in a great direction. Have fun.

done. http://dev-heaven.net/issues/show/5610 unfortunately I dont find options to edit that ticket anymore

oops yep, you're right Beagle, thanks. However the 59857 modules.pbo didn't change for build 59875 so the issue is most probably still there.

Hi m8, great you like it. Thanks :) You should have got a "task completion" message and a new task assginment as soon as one of your guys is close to the suitcase (~10m). Also a action menu should've been available while near the case. This may take some seconds though and needs the player to focus the briefcase more or less exactly. But thats it generally, its where&how the mission continues. Yes hopefully I'll manage that at one point. Needs tons of encapsulating stuff though, read loads of work. Thats one type of time constraint for such a release. The other one are game issues still present in A2 which are partly worked around and partly are omitted features in Cipher and I'm waiting to get fixed (broken 'findcover' function, kamikaze choppers, convoy road driving mess). So lets face it...:o

Try disabling the intro in MP that should always provide for solid startups. There ARE some issues with it in MP, particularey when JIP. That damn MP intro gives me lots of headache currently and I'm spending every spare hours i find (but havent enough) for that.