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Zipper5

Former Developer
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Everything posted by Zipper5

  1. Losing squadmates in Survive is almost never a consequence of the player's actions as he is not the squad leader. It is unfair, and frustrating for most, to punish them in the next mission because their squadmates couldn't take care of themselves. Plus, each mission was designed to provide the best experience with a set number of people in the player's squad, something that is vital when it is many players' first contact with the game. However, you will notice if you look at your team as you progress, that squadmates who die are never with you again. You don't have fewer people in your squad, but they are different people. This includes your squad leader as well, which is made more obvious if you hover over your squad's marker on the map and see who's leading you after your squad leader died.
  2. It should already be fixed on the dev branch. See my note attached to this ticket if you want more information: http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=15844
  3. I wish that was always the case, but it is not. Would make my life a lot easier. :) I feel I should maybe explain a couple of the reasons for the other issues with Radio Silence. So, first of all, the only requirements for succeeding the tower task is you kill all of the tower occupants before you run out of mortars. I'm sure you can see now that changing them to MGs would make no difference. You can try shooting the guards, but if the AI in the base detect you as a result, you will compromise your position and be forced to engage anyways. While nowhere in the mission does it explicitly tell you that you only need to kill the guards in the tower, it also doesn't tell you that you need to destroy the towers themselves. You need only "neutralize" them. This is because I had to think of what sounds most transparent to the player. Destroy the towers? Why? Kill only the occupants? Why? "Neutralize" keeps it ambiguous, but it is interesting to learn that, for most, this defaults to thinking you need to destroy the towers themselves. Something to note for the future. The other issues with this mission all go back to the change that was made to how mortars behave. When the mission was designed, everyone could easily take out all 3 towers with 3 mortars. This left you with 5 rounds to use on the reinforcements. Your squad will not attack the reinforcements until they either get too close to Mike-26, or you run out of rounds. As such, a player would typically have used the remaining 5 rounds by a point that the reinforcements are so close that your squad rarely even got to the dirt road before the reinforcements were neutralized, if they ever moved from Mike-26 at all. And now, again, I'm sure you can see how the change to the mortars affected this. This part was only ever meant to be a failsafe, but now it's become a part of the default mission flow. I wish this had been caught earlier and allowed us time to properly adjust the mission or the mortars, but it wasn't, and I apologize for that. I am in full agreement that this reinforcement segment doesn't work very well now. It definitely doesn't work as I intended it, at least. As such, I am investigating how I can improve both aspects of this mission.
  4. Thanks for the kind words but, for the record, I am personally happier my work on with Survive than I am with both Operation Cobalt and Blood On The Sand. Everyone wants something different from Arma. As Jay Crowe, our Creative Director, said in today's blog post, Survive is primarily intended to ease those new to Arma 3 into the experience. Though, that's not to say we just disregarded veterans such as yourself. I'd like to think there's something in Survive for both. I hope you'll find what you're looking for in the next two episodes. :)
  5. Zipper5

    The D Word

    Check the official MP missions included in the vanilla game again. Among the coop scenarios you will also find: DEFEND 10 Defend Syrta - closest to what you're asking for there: asymmetric MP, with two sides defending a location against waves of enemies. SEIZE 10 Seize Edoris - another asymmetric MP mode where you progress from strongpoint to strongpoint fighting an ever growing number of enemies. SEIZE 10 Seize Feres Granted, it can be tough to find these missions being played on servers. It's up to the server admins to decide what they host which, I understand, is the other problem you face. However, these official missions do exist.
  6. Don't worry, we haven't chosen one over the other. We're still investigating if we can improve that issue, as it is also a common complaint.
  7. In response to your guys' feedback, the mechanics of this particular mortar sequence have been revised. You should see it in the next dev branch update.
  8. The Official Missions section of these forums is exempt from spoilers unless they're in thread titles. See the section's description:
  9. Definitely am thus far, just like with your previous work. Both Mazi Beachhead and Force Recon have sure had their epic moments (UAVs bombing the beach has been the stand-out so far), and both have been a serious challenge. After fighting as hard as I did throughout Force Recon, losing all squad members but one, I failed to destroy all of the armored reinforcements. :( I did, however, get all of the APCs, so I guess I can take comfort in knowing my guys only had to face Striders. :) I favorited both on Steam Workshop. Going to move on to Goose Green tonight. Looking forward to it!
  10. Zipper5

    Briefing sqf

    The system for tasks changed fairly significantly since Arma 2. I'd recommend first checking out the official functions, which you can view in the Functions Viewer present in the Editor under the Tasks category. They're fully multiplayer compatible now. The ones that will probably concern you the most are: BIS_fnc_taskCreate - creates the task. BIS_fnc_taskSetState - sets the task's state. BIS_fnc_taskSetCurrent - sets the task as the current task. There are a whole bunch there with various different functionality. Go nuts. :) But if you'd find yourself more confident using methods outside of scripting, I recommend you check out the Task Modules. You just place them in the Editor and, they too, are multiplayer compatible. You can find them in the Intel category under Modules, which you can find on the left bar of the Editor. Place them just like you would a unit. If you click the Show Info button it'll give you information on how to use them, and the fields that aren't self-explanatory will give you some instructions when you highlight them.
  11. Awesome. Now I know what I'm going to be doing with my Saturday evening. :)
  12. Our campaign being single player only is not new information; it has been the case since Arma 3's reveal. Though, that's not to say it's the same campaign it was back then. There were many reasons for us deciding to go single player only. However, I believe, and I'm sure my fellow campaign team members will agree, that the big reason was as follows: for all of their ambition, and for everything they got right, no one can deny that our previous multiplayer-compatible campaigns were at their most unstable in multiplayer upon their release. Even now, they are not without their flaws. Having to develop the campaign for both a multiplayer and single player environment is a massive undertaking. While I believe the multiplayer element did add something to each campaign's experience - it was originally how I first finished Harvest Red, though I would hardly have called it smooth - the positives did not outweigh the negatives. Their state was, in many ways, unacceptable. We're a small team, comparatively speaking, and we wanted to do better. We had to face the fact that we could not do so if we wanted to go both single player and multiplayer. On a more personal level, I, for one, am glad we went with the single player approach. That's where my heart has always been with Arma (and, especially, OFP before it). I believe the campaign has benefited significantly from the choice and I am proud of what we have accomplished. And, hey, you'll be able to judge for yourselves soon enough. :)
  13. To answer your question; it is in the nature of the development branch itself, has been since the launch of the Public Alpha, and there are currently no plans to change it. It's entirely opt-in, i.e. it's not the default branch, and nothing about it is guaranteed. Things will change and things will break, as they already have, and will continue to. There are disclaimers in the top right of the in-game loading screens that explain this, and we have repeated this here and through other communication channels many times. If you do not want to partake in this, it is, of course, perfectly fine to opt-out. :)
  14. Gamefront Mirror Armaholic Mirror (All mirrors are appreciated!) Requirements: ArmA 2: Combined Operations (ArmA 2 & ArmA 2: Operation Arrowhead) Credits: - Bohemia Interactive Studios: For my favorite games of all time - OFPEC - The Editing Center - Binkowski, Celery, Cole, Gaia, Rellikki, RoyaltyInExile, W0lle, Wolfrug: For all of their help and support - Binkowski, Cole, Sick1, Variable: For offerring to do voice acting, even if it wasn't used - Binkowski, Celery, Cole, mathias_eichinger, Mr. Charles, Rellikki, Wolfrug: For beta testing Description: The official sequel to Operation Cobalt Features: - 9 missions long - 4 unique endings - Multiple paths to choose - Custom field dressing mechanic - Makes use of Celery's jukebox script - Dramatic storyline & cinematic cutscenes - Fully working loading screens, overviews, briefings & debriefings - Play as 3 different characters: James Stephen, the main character, a member of the Chernarrusian Defense Force, Chris Peterson, a Delta Force team leader, and Jan Brazda, a Lieutenant in the Army of the Czech Republic Feedback: As always, any and all constructive feedback is more than welcome! I don't expect to have caught all of the bugs, but I hope I caught most of them at least! Changelog:
  15. Zipper5

    Arma 3 - Sneak Preview Livestream

    Yes. This is personally something I'd like to see for future streams, but we'll see.
  16. Zipper5

    Arma 3 - Sneak Preview Livestream

    Correct. We have some streaming enthusiasts on hand who might be able to assist us with employing better solutions for future streams. :)
  17. Zipper5

    Arma 3 - Sneak Preview Livestream

    This started as an explanation for the poor framerate in the video, and was sidetracked into a discussion about optimization. I am not denying Arma 3 has performance issues. :) However, and I have no reason to lie, the framerate drops in the video were not the ones we were experiencing. Check out this personal DayZ stream I did a few months back (when Rocket tweeted about it and suddenly I had an audience :D): http://www.twitch.tv/zipper5/b/358926056 Skip to around 10 minutes in, once I start getting closer to more complex scenery. You'll notice similar issues when the scenes get too complex (the bitrate I have it set to at home is quite low, due to my crappy upload). However, this was on my personal rig (overclocked i7 2600k @ 3.7GHz, "superclocked" EVGA GTX 580, 8GB DDR3 1033MHz RAM, running Arma 2 off a SSD), and I run Arma 2 solid @ 60 FPS on almost-full settings.
  18. Zipper5

    Arma 3 - Sneak Preview Livestream

    When using the program, we specify a bitrate for the uploaded capture that we want it to maintain. This helps keep the stream constant rather than cutting in and out. The program itself then handles a lot of different areas to try and maintain this bitrate, lowering the image quality, audio quality and, as we learned, the framerate, if it deems it necessary. So, in the areas of the capture deemed too complex by the program, it was lowering the framerate to try and maintain the bitrate. Those experienced with the way Arma handles its changes in performance can perhaps notice, upon close inspection, that the areas in which the framerate drops don't always seem natural.
  19. Zipper5

    Arma 3 - Sneak Preview Livestream

    The capture program was set to capture at 30 FPS, so it locks the game's framerate to that. Just like how Fraps works, for example. Just like any recording you do without a capture card, the framerate isn't going to be as good as it is when not recording. :) Maybe we'll be able to employ better capture solutions for future streams.
  20. Zipper5

    Arma 3 - Sneak Preview Livestream

    This was a problem we realized in the previous streams as well. The game we were seeing was actually running butter-smooth at 30 FPS and above the entire time, but the streaming program compresses the video file to fit a specified bitrate, and it automatically lowers the framerate of the game capture that is broadcasted to ensure this, if it has to. We tried to improve it for this one, since we were doing it offline, but it would appear we still didn't set the bitrate high enough. It never had to lower the framerate for the webcam, so that's why it remained smooth while the game appeared choppy in places. Apologies for this. We'll try to fix it for future streams. :)
  21. Zipper5

    Development Blog & Reveals

    Thanks for the kind words, but you're mistaken. I am part of the team of talented folks bringing Arma 3's campaign together. :)
  22. R6d2ggjCr4g Version: 1.03 zipper5.armaholic.eu Game Front Armaholic (Mirrors appreciated!) Description: Many people dislike the fact that AI will use their valuable anti-tank launchers on infantry. This addon makes some simple changes to the CfgAmmo entries of Arma 2's anti-tank launcher ammunition to stop this. Installation: 1. Extract the @zp5_at_fix folder into your Arma 2 root folder 2. Add the mod to your Arma 2 shortcut's target line 3. Run the game using your shortcut Changelog:
  23. Have a look at the function BIS_fnc_endMission. You can find it in the Functions Viewer in the Editor, under the Misc category. For example: to make a mission end with "END1" and show this effect, this code needs to be called: "END1" call BIS_fnc_endMission; Hope that helps! :)
  24. Zipper5

    Join In Progress Tasks

    I believe the best way to learn is to find out yourself. :) However, I shall try to explain it nonetheless. Each function has a header defined that should explain to you how to use it. You'll see it at the start of the function's code, enclosed in comment tags, stating the author, description, parameters, and what the function returns, if anything. So, let's take a look at the header for BIS_fnc_MP: /* Author: Karel Moricky Description: Send function for remote execution (and executes locally if conditions are met) Parameter(s): 0: ANY - function params 1: STRING - function name 2 (Optional): OBJECT - function will be executed only where unit is local [default: everyone] BOOL - true to execute on every client, false to execute it on server only NUMBER - function will be executed only on client with the given ID ARRAY - array of objects 3 (Optional): BOOL - true for persistent call (will be called now and for every JIP client) [default: false] Returns: ARRAY - sent packet */ You can see that any code passed to it can be executed on any client, and also executed upon Join-in-Progress. Combine that with the Tasks functions, following the parameters outlined, and you will have a task framework, in a sense. I hope to, in future, embed this directly into the Tasks functions themselves, negating the requirement to use BIS_fnc_MP. Hope that helps! :)
  25. Zipper5

    Respawn player with SAME GEAR...

    I wrote a little tutorial in another thread on a similar issue, located here. Basically, I recommend you make use of Respawn event handlers.
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