tvig0r0us

Ha! And here I was examining my code to see why the names weren't lining up with the markers anymore!

Found a few minutes (more like made a few minutes) and wanted to see the new jets, so here's one around the main airport in Tanoa. Tanoa Airport - A1 Enjoy! --tvig

I'm working on it. Unfortunately I do have to place all of the assets for the mission by hand to set up a particular area so its slow going getting them put together. I wish I had more time to devote to it, but real life is running me over at the moment. That being said, I did put this little advance and secure infantry only style mission together in on Altis just to kind of show off the versatility of the code. As for planes, I need to make a mission with airports and they will be available. I haven't even tried to create any kind of cas scripting or anything like that. Same with the UAVs. I'll keep working on it as I have the time. In the meantime, enjoy this little AAS mission. By all means, if anyone wants to unpbo the mission and try to put some layouts together, I will totally support their efforts where possible. There are a few things that need changed in the params.hpp file that are layout specific parameters and the rest is in the description.ext. If anyone does it, you need to keep the weather and time settings for everything to work as desired with the environment, but other than that it's all just placing markers and areas to create the layout. The code does the rest. If anyone gives it a go just let me know and I'll be happy to consult. Battle for Zaros alpha1 Enjoy! --tvig

This looks like it would be awesome for a Total Conquest mission. Do you have any plans to try and make it into an addon? --tvig

I think I have some configs for ASR in one of the files. I wonder if it's causing something to run off of the rails when the mission initializes. I'll have to look at that. --tvig

Here is a shot at Katalaki Bay. I may still have some tweaking to do though. I added a bunch of zones and did some work with the bases list. This layout is quite large and contains over 50 points so it's pretty random. Katalaki Bay - RC1 Enjoy! --tvig

Here's something I've been threatening to do for quite a while now. A complete explanation of the parameter settings... And then there's this... I think this one might be the one. Tanoa - Left Island (No Plane) - RC2 Enjoy!! --tvig

Not sure what is going on with the blackscreen. There is a global variable that gets set to signal the initialization of the scripts is complete, I wonder if it's getting overwritten on the client. I'll check it out. I honestly wish I knew how. I've observed that too and I think it's odd since it's the hint box that I'm using to generate that. I wish it was part of the interface that could be moved around in the options. If you or anyone else knows of a way to change it's position through code, please drop a link or something and I'll make that change. This is actually a roll of the dice. It's random what mode they spawn in, but I imagine that with 192 on assault they probably shift into combat mode really quick. Some should come out aware, others stealth and others combat. Defenders may even be in safe, but it's all subject to the conditions in the battle field. I'll keep digging into those other things. Thanks again! --tvig

Well I think I finally have this vehicle thing worked out. At least I've had a few successful test runs. Now one last issue to resolve. I need to get the weather figured out. I had it all working at one point,but I think some updates to the game have made it a bit wonky. Anyway, I think it's almost ready for another round of maps and releases. @kremator I'm not sure what could be causing the client to slow down. I am playing on an alienware 17 r4, which pretty much consumes any slowdowns transparently. Only when i play the game local do I notice any stutters. When I'm playing on the dedi it's as smooth as silk. One slowdown I do notice on the server is occasionally the dedi will drop into the mid to low 30s for a minute or so, then it's back to the high 40s. Again, it's nothing that affects the game play in the least. If there is anyone out there that is good at building interfaces, I would love to have an interface built for this mission. If you would like to collaborate, that is something that would really round this thing off. If interested, PM me. --tvig

Sorry I missed out on this whole discussion. This is sort of a hidden function in this mission and probably the product of lack of documentation, but... If you add a bunch of soldiers to your group, then select them. Use the scroll wheel to scroll to supports. Select "Set as defense". The ai soldiers are then turned over to the fsm and proceed to defend the nearest friendly territory, like the one that you are in (provided you are in one). You can also release control by selecting "dismiss" and they will run off and attack a target of the command system's choice. As far as locality, I'm pretty sure it is turned over to the server, but I could be wrong I suppose. I've never had an issue with locality with regards to this issue. If you have activated defenders in the parameters, this is effectively what you have done. When a group reaches a zone and takes it, the number of entrances in the zone is counted and a calculation is made using that number and the selection of the zone defenses parameter. That determines how many groups will be assigned to defend a given zone. If there are a lot of buildings there, you will see more groups take up defense depending on how heavy you set the defenses. Truth be told, I could probably pull back that parameter as it seems to make for heavy zone defenses in a lot of cases. Anyhow, once the number of groups is determined they are pulled from the pool of assaulting soldiers in the area until the number and size of groups is completely fulfilled. New assaulting soldiers are then put into play by the spawn system. In the case that an assault group is spawned in a zone that needs defense roles filled, they will immediately be recruited into the defending groups or they will be assigned to defense as a group. In the beginning of a mission, all occupied zones are given defenders according to the calculations I just mentioned. In addition to all of this, when a vehicle overruns a zone, the occupants of the vehicle will jump out and take up defense of the zone. To answer an earlier question posed by you Krem, your experience with the ai when commandeering a vehicle is how it is meant to be. When you commandeer a vehicle, the crew will fill any remaining spots in your group. If your group fills up, any of the ai that don't fit will be placed back into the assaulting group and move off to find a fight. The same should happen if you jump in a vehicle. This is what I was trying to fix. I've yet to have it work completely as I want and thus the expansion and release of new maps has been delayed a bit. As far as the eye in the sky, one thing I can offer in future maps is this... I already have built the code for drones in these missions, but I don't think it's the way you are describing. One thing you can do in a mission with them though is switch to them. The only caveat is that once you switch to the drone, you become the drone and can no longer do anything else until you die and respawn. I'll have to do some more work with that in the future. Thank you guys for giving this mission a good run. I really appreciate your feedback and continued support. Cheers! --tvig

I appreciate the feedback. With regards to the point capture mechanics, there is a parameter that enables you to adjust the height of a capture zone. Its default value is pretty high, allowing helos to perform a cap just by flying over an unoccupied zone. It can be set as low as 10m which pretty much limits capturing to ground vehicles or infantry. I've tried several different methods for capping zones and I ultimately found that making the cap instant if the zone contains no opposition made for the best play. One thing I might suggest is turning on zone defenses. This adds the mechanic of assigning defenders to the zone to hold it. They are taken out of the assault pool and new assaulting soldiers are spawned in their place. The downside is the potential performance hit. On the note about the ai searching a yellow zone, they actually are supposed to do that, but I found that the ai takes alot of time determining their routes and actually getting moving. If they're not stuck inside of a building, they should be looking around in the zone until they kill whatever is there. That said, once I get this player vehicle issue fixed, the mission design is exactly as I envisioned and I have no plans to change it from a pure mechanics perspective. I am happy to add things to it if I can so so without destroying the existing mechanics, but I'm totally happy with the play of it, as is. With all due respect, if you play this mission and you find yourself saying, I wish it was more like this, I wish it was more like that, then unpbo it and modify it to your liking. Or go play the other missions that you are comparing it to. As I've stated before in this thread, this mission was created completely to my liking so that I could play A3 in a way that gives me the most satisfaction. I'm sharing it with everyone here, not designing it to everyone's spec. If you see something that looks like it it might not be right, by all means, let me know as I would certainly like to get it fixed. If you just don't like the mission because of its design, then I'm afraid you're out of luck. --tvig

Hmmm... I'm wondering if it's some kind of issue with the number of ai you're running. I have the defaults on my server with autoinit and it keeps running game after game with no issue at all. At this point I'm seeing an issue with vehicles not being taken out of the ai command system when a play occupies them, but other than that everything seems to be running flawlessly. Let me know if you have a log file and I can look it over to see if I can find the issue. Thanks again! --tvig

Did you get any logs by chance? --tvig

Just updated the OP with the link to the Tanoa RC version. Also added server info and registered my server here. Please jump on and check it out. It's set to constantly run a game with or without humans, so who knows what you'll find if you get on it. If you have any problems, please let me know so I can address them. Hopefully there will be more to add to the rotation soon! Cheers :) --tvig

Yes This may not be as hard as you might think. The code to do it is written to a degree, I just need to adapt it to player entities and get it to update the tasking. Man, I am hugely appreciative of your support. It's great to know that at least one other person gets as big a kick out of this as I do. I've not seen that myself, but yes, that is AWESOME! --tvig