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Alpha-Kilo

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Posts posted by Alpha-Kilo

  2. Posted

    This is a great concept, much better than what we have now. I like the way how different angles and several doors in close proximity are handled. But could you limit the activation distance to an arm's length and make the character lower his rifle in the process? This would allow a more realistic aproach to entering a building: For a single soldier it would be more risky in case an enemy is waiting right behind the door. But in a team you could place a shooter at the right place and have the door opened by a partner who stays clear of the opening.

    Another thing: Would this system make it easier to access the inventories of the fallen? Sometimes it is a bit tricky to find the right spot. I can imagine that a "trigger area" of roughly the size and shape of the upper part of a body would be quite good. Again, the activation distance should be approximately an arm's length.

  5. Posted

    Zakun,

    I have spent some more time with the Squad XLM Generator.

    - A square picture works perfectly well. It may be helpful to tell users that they should provide square pics from the start, though you might think this is obvious.

    - Is there a way to edit or change the picture? I had to delete my squad and create a new one when I wanted to replace the pic. For my 1-man test squad this was no big deal but imagine a full squad has to be deleted and started again just because they want to use a new pic.

    - I haven't tried but can you edit the squad name and abbreviation in case you need to correct a spelling error or if you decide to rename the squad?

    - The way you hide your compulsory donation system reminds of the business method of companies that trick customers into unwanted purchases. One squad of two members is free, if you want more, the donation system kicks in. There is no mention of this until you try to enter more than two squad members or a second squad. And you use the word "donation" but you charge a fee for a service, don't you? English is not my first language so forgive me if I am wrong but I understand "donation" as money you pay voluntarily and "fee" as a fixed price charged for a service. I think the amount of up to 10 USD depending on squad and member numbers is more than reasonable and I think it is OK to ask users to make contributions to the server cost but you should be more transparent about it. Perhaps I am overly sensitive? I would feel better if you stated on your front page that you ask for donations to help maintain your server. If you ask for voluntary donations the amount should be left to the user. Alternatively, you could put you price list on the front page and openly call it a price list. But if you officially charge money you have have a little business with certain responsibilities.

    Anyway, I think that the Squad XML Generator is a great tool which allows a group of friends to play together in an organised fashion even if they don't have a game server at their disposal.

  6. Posted

    Zakun,

    I have just tried your Squad XML Generator. Thank you very much for making this public. It works very well. Here are my suggestions:

    - Currently the registration process does not seem to allow user names with characters such as dash or underscore. It would be nice to lift this restriction.

    - You could update your web page to say that the squad XML also works with ArmA3.

    - Probably not your fault, but my picture seems to be a little distorted. I guess this is because I used a rectangular picture for my test squad. I will find a square picture and try again.

  7. Posted

    Thanks for the comments Ratszo and Mitor.

    I once tried GlovePie because I know it it is very popular application. Unfortunately I couldn't get it go work and I didn't understand how to program the commands. But I guess I will have to give it another try. I think I read that GlovePie has a kind of listening threshold which can be configured to avoid false positives or noise activated commands as you so aptly put it.

    I don't really want to activate VAC by a keystroke because it is quicker to just talk. I use a push-to-deactivate VAC key, though, which is the same as my Teamspeak push-to-talk. This way I can at least avoid issuing commands to VAC when I talk to anpother human player.

  8. Posted

    Mitor,

    I have been using VAC for some time now and I can confirm your issues. If this happens, i usually repeat the order a few times or use keystrokes. Of course this is not a good solution. However, I cannot sinmply say that it happens in missions, but not in the editor. I can only say, the responsiveness is unpredictable.

    Although it is quite obvious I'd like to point out that the game itself - or the AI to be precise - sometimes doesn't execute all commands as expected. Order a group of AI under fire to board a vehicle and observe the "ballet" they are performing. In these cases it's the game and VAC is not to blame. If you are not sure issue your order by keystrokes to verify if VAC is to blame.

    I often see another weird thing which I call "false positives": I have VAC listen to voice input and open the builder to see what the program is doing. Very often, the humming of the PC fan or maybe my breathing and other relatively quiet sounds are registered and interpreted as commands. Ingame these false positives lead to unexpected situations when menues pop open and other things happen though I didn't give any order. Does anybody know how to make VAC LESS responsive?

  9. Posted

    Simon

    I played the mission as COOP for two players (client-hosted, not dedicated server) and as single player. In the COOP game I took the role of the life saver and drowned because I had spawned in land gear - thus without the rebreather. When I played in SP mode Ii checked that all AI comrades were wearing wet suits. As someone else commented that one of his guys drowned, a possible mistake in the change-clothes script may be the explanation.

    I didn't know that the attack on the helicopter was not planned. I think it makes sense as it is. The helo flies low and fast. This makes the jump interesting.

    When the firefight on the beach lasts a while the enemy sends reinforcements. Are these newly spawned characters or are they the guards of a nearby location so that you can lure the opponents into an ambush and enjoy the rest of the mission with reduced enemy presence?

    Thanks for sharing the mission. I like it and will surely play it again - hopefully with a full team of human players.

  11. Posted

    I don't know if the following issue is part of the known and acknowledged freelook/TrackIR bug which is being worked on or if I am doing something wrong:

    I'd like to fly helicopters with keyboard and mouse. I configured the mouse to control "cyclic". Unfortunately, in the game the mouse only controls the views but not the main rotor. I repeatedly pushed both freelook keys (double-ALT and numpad asterix) to make sure that I hadn't accidently activated freelook but it didn't do the trick. Is there anything else I can try?

  13. Posted

    I agree with what Alwarren posted in #384. If I had a say I'd go by the quality-over-quantitiy principle. In an ArmA game this makes sense because additional content may be published later in a patch or a DLC and the community can provide variety as needed. But crippled content breaks immersion and is just off-putting. Attention to detail is a big USP and if resources are limited, it's better to do the stuff one by one instead of releasing a lot of half-finished vehicles. The decision if a feature is needed should be made by the user, not by the designer. And advertising a game as "polished" and publishing another "raw diamond" disappoints at least a part of the audience.

  14. Posted

    Rodbar,

    thanks for explaining what you did. It seems you're getting somewehere. The weirdness of the AI, which you observed correctly, has nothing to do with voice control. By typing the command you would see the same behaviour. AI pathfinding and similar issues have been a subject of discussion on this forum since the beginning. After working with builder and verifying the result with notepad you might want to put a group of foot soldiers and a few empty vehicles in the editor and use the airport with its long runway as a testing environment.

    Another thing: When you say a command, VAC sends it to the game. Your avatar says it again and the AI confirms it. Then they begin to execute it. You can speed up the process by disabling parts of the sound output with an addon such as "mrb_a3_voicestop".

    There is a normal email adress where you can report your problem with VAC's forum: vacsupport@dwvac.com

  15. Posted

    Rodbar,

    please explain how you got it to work. This will help the next guy.

    You can make any voice control software more responsive by doing several of the windows trainings for the voice feature. The more of the texts you read into the machine the better your computer will understand your voice. This is very important. Then, if you find, that certain commands are more clun ky than others, change the activation phrase. You can also write the words as you pronounce them, phonetically. This also helps, ewspecially whrn dealing with abbreviations.

    The power of your PC shouldn't matter too much, but the quality of your mic and the noise in the room certainly does. A quiet room and gaming with a headset is best. Loudspeakers and a mic on the table is not so good.

    I personally think that VAC works best for me. But you should definetely try GlovePie which is free. Many people use it and like it. Ready-to-use profiles are available. But I could not get it to work, no matter how hard i tried. Maybe GlovePie is the solution for you.

  16. Posted

    I remember I also had problems when I started to use VAC. I studied the help forum at www.dwvac.com and found a working solution. Sorry, I don't precisely remember what helped me. But there are several people reporting the same problem. Among the solutions offered most are:

    - Run VAC as admin.

    - Check if you use push-to-activate and make sure you are pressing the right key.

    - VAC sends the keys to the active windows. Close or minimize all other applications.

  17. Posted

    Quoted from the Terms of Service: "We may also need to share your data, information, files and folders with third parties who assist us in providing the service. You hereby consent to such sharing." This sentence is very clear. It difficult for me to use Copy but now I understand why they chose this name.

  18. Posted

    When I start ArmA3 Steam obviously works in the background, but I don't see any of it. ArmA 3 is the first and only game I own on Steam. I deactivated all its features the minute a friend explained that I have this option.

    Re: Anti cheat:

    I don't know anything about the tech side of the game. If the experts agree that BE is good enough I won't miss VAC.

    Re: Coop

    Why should I use the social features? In all the forums I use, people can PM me or send me emails. When I'm at my gaming PC I receive these messages and quickly switch on Teamspeak, when I'm not I can't play anyway. I think that too many different platforms which all have to be checked for news and messages, take too much time. What exactly is the benefit of Steam's social features? By the way, before typing this I had switched on Steam to take a look at it and I found three friendship messages from people I don't know. Or maybe I know them but they use different nicknames on Steam and elsewhere. Now I could ask these people who they are and then decide to accept or decline their offer of friendship and then I will have a few more icons in my Steam thing. Of course I will be notified everytime they purchase a new game and even when they are online. Is this necessary?

    Re: Workshop

    If the main modders boycott Workshop because they fear for their ownership rights, I will respect this. I am not a modder but I read Valve's small print. I can always download my stuff from Armaholic or through SIX. There are little helpers which make the download from SIX comfortable.

    Re: Achievements

    I don't really know what these achievements are. If we talk about virtual medals awarded for so many hours of gameplay or something similar I can live perfectly well without Achievements. My achievement is surviving a challenging mission without respawn, that's good enough for me.

    The enormous amount of ads throughout the Steam service is extremely annoying because I found it hard to find something relevant. Perhaps if you use Steam often you will learn which areas of the screen you can ignore, but for me it easier to ignore Steam alltogether.

  20. Posted

    GTOF

    Here is some feedback on v. 0.99.524 (Rev. 136):

    I like the launcher better with every new version. As usual, the update to new version was easy. No download, unpack, install operation - just a single click at the prompt. Very user-friendly.

    Re: Profile tab:

    - If you made the "add a profile" field as wide as the profile list, the icons for delete, favourite, and add a profile would be vertically aligned which may look nicer, don't you think? Of course this is just a simple matter of design, not funcionality.

    Re: Prioritization of mods: I hope you'll find a way to solve the problem.

    Re: 3rd-party programs: If you prefer to add 3rd-party apps in the launcher, this is fine. But are you prepared to add check boxes for apps the users start together with ArmA3? If so you might add voice control software such as "GlovePIE" and "VAC". Both are popular. I use VAC and other users may ask for more apps.

  21. Posted

    tortuosit

    You could try this:

    "w+s", "s+w" for slow

    "w+e", "e+w" for fast

    The combinations appear in two ways, so that it doesn't matter which key you press first. The combos for slow and fast can both be reached with the middle finger while ring finger and index finger rest on a and d.

    I don't use the keyboard for driving, so I am just guessing. If you try it, please advise if it works.

  22. Posted

    This launcher looks very good. Some suggestions for future updates:

    - If the mod order matters in ArmA3 as it does in ArmA2, can you add the possibility to prioritize mods?

    - I wonder if you could let the users decide which external programs they wish to launch together with ArmA3. Fraps and TrackIR are very popular but some people use pc-claw, software for sepecific controllers, voice command software, etc. Would it be possible to point the launcher at certain executables which will then be memorized by the launcher?

    Brainbug made a great translation to German. I agree with his suggestion to leave out the redundant writing and perhaps also the icons. This would give you space for three more languages and longer profile names. There are some little details he hasn't mentioned:

    - "defaut" is "Vorgabe" in German.

    - The launch button should read "ARMA 3 starten" with a small "s".

    - The minimize button should read "Nach Start minimieren" with a capital "S"

    - After Max. Memory the unit "(MB)" is missing.

  23. Posted

    Droikka

    I understand your comment as a rhetorical question but I'll answer anyway: Yes, I would welcome the possibility to holster pistols and no, in my opinion this is not a minor detail.

    Of course it is ridiculous to run for longer periods with a pistol in both hands. Make the experiment if you like. But realism is not my main concern in games. I am thinking about games which involve people with a pistol as their only weapon: pilots, medics, security people, police, civilians, etc. They would look much more believable if they could holster their weapons. ArmA models different ways of holding and carrying a rifle, a bit more variety for pistols couldn't harm.

  25. Posted

    Red Ferrari

    thanks for the comments.

    Re: No targets the the firing range:

    There are some very good dedicated firing range missions available already. Check them out at Armaholic. Perhaps the authors would allow you to use them in your mission? If not, you could just place plastic barrels as targets. Should you decide to use Opfor soldiers, take away their ammunition. This might help.

    Re: Killing the pilot:

    You don't have to wear a pilot's outfit to fly a helicopter in ArmA. Just put unlocked helicopters in your map and that's all. The pilot character is unnecessary and can be left out. If you do want him in the mission he can safely be ignored by the player. He doesn't have to be shot.

    Re: No map marker:

    The problem is opening the map (or the diary) did not reveal any info except the two tasks: go to Kamino firing range and go to the lighthouse. If you have more than these two tasks, you might want to look into the matter. I think you don't have to make it very complicated. The simplest way to solve the problem is to put markers on the map whereever an activity takes place. Then no written instruction of any sort or coordinates are required. The player can drive to the markers and if you're kind you could place vehicles at each destination so that the player doesn't have to worry about fuel.

    Re: Any other activities:

    When I read the big word "tutorial" I expected something else, I guess. But please keep the updates coming.

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