tvig0r0us

Ultimately I would have liked to have player's joining player teams and persistent squads at the same time. There are localization issues when selectUnit and join/joinSilent are used together. The entire spawning system will be defeated if I use premade squads, but that can be handled by individuals wanting to mod them mission. The join player group action remains in the script so it could be reactivated in the player actions script by an adept scripter. If anyone has a solution to this I would love to have it all work, but this is a BI issue that has unfortunately prevented me from executing my plan the way I had hoped. In all honesty, there was always a problem with the player groups because if there were AI recruits before the second player joined the squad and the leader player dies, it leaves an AI in charge of the squad and that was never intended. I'll wait to release 007 pending some amicable solution for this problem... lemme think on it, I'm sure there's something I can do. It's pretty rare for me to run into a problem I just plain can't solve with some resourceful coding. Cheers :D

I've managed to pull off a couple of decent test sessions. As a result of the tests I've reached the following conclusion. Due to localization issues, I've decided to remove the ability to join player teams since it causes issues with persistent squads on respawn. It seems to me that it was a rarely used future and obviously serves no purpose in a match with only one player. This seems to me a fair tradeoff for persistent squads, which are working flawlessly. I also observed a couple of other minor problems that I've tracked down and fixed. All in all I'd say the 007 version has every feature that has been asked for and runs as well or better than any of the previous versions. I'm have the four map layouts done already, but I'm considering the addition of a couple of the layouts that came with v005. I'll post some time in the coming week. The server is up and running 24/7 at this point hosting Agia Marina by default if you want to try it out. I'm not sure what the source of the connection problems was as I've had a few error free sessions since the problem was reported. Cheers :D

It appears I'm having some kind of a stupid network issue. Go figure, when I need to test something no one can get on my server. I'm trying to work it out.

I need someone to join the test server while I'm on so I can test the player squad rejoining feature. If it all works I'll release it. Urban Conquest 24/7 It's still dev branch

New status update: -Scoring system done -Tasking system done -Persistent squads done Server is up and running. I won't be able to jump on until later because I'm going to my bday dinner, but feel free to jump on and give it a go!! Everything seems to work well. There is no provision for a player joined to a player squad if the non leader player dies, but leader players will be rejoined by their squad when they respawn. Server name: Urban Conquest 24/7 Dev Branch with latest update. Running Urban Conquest v007 Agia Marina See you on the battlefield... I hope!

Sorry. Dev branch is running really smooth on the last couple of updates. You can always switch back. I'm keeping my server on the dev branch though. Cheers :D

Quick status report: -Scoring system - done -Tasking system - done Will host Agia Marina later today on my dedicated server. Game version will be dev branch. UC version 007. Please stop by this evening and help me test :)

I can do that, but it probably won't happen till I implement all of the new stuff. I'm kinda hoping we'll have the beta by then tbh. I want the third side in there and planes too. We'll have to see what happens, but I think things will be much better when we get more assets in the game from bi. I don't know about everyone else, but the latest dev versions have rendered much better framerates for me, which I find quite encouraging. I hope the game keeps improving like this. I can't say enough for how responsive BI is to the community. It's a shame that this isn't the template that other game developers follow, but one thing's for sure, they set the standard in my eyes. I honestly have another thought that's been brewing in my mind for a long time as a mission for arma. I have already made it happen for Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising, even though that's taboo around here. Anyhow, I made a totally epic mission for that game called Squad Level Tactics and I would really like to recreate something like it in arma. Urban Conquest has developed into a cool mission in my eyes, but it will never be the tactical masterpiece that SLT was. If I can reproduce that in Arma I think it will truly be a great mission. Anyhow, I am hoping to put the wraps on UC so that I can move on. UC to me is exactly what I would want from an arma mission from day one, now lets see if I can put together something else. I'm working on the changes I mentioned and will post the update as stated in my previous post. I hope in the meantime you are all enjoying the latest update. Cheers

I'm already in the process of straightening out the scoring and persistent tasking is done as of yesterday. I'll release a v007 revisionary update when I get the scoring worked out. Cheers :D

Well, the tasks aren't exactly anything outside of capturing zones, but it's good because now there are named zones and you can get a waypoint ingame to let you know your proximity to the center of the zone you're after. Here are my thoughts on the persistent squads. Without having to modify the mechanics of the game, I think I can make it function so that if you die with a squad, when you respawn they will then rejoin you automatically. This however will not make for squads that persist throughout the entire game. I can at least pull that off without making any major modifications to the ai command system, since they're kind of interconnected. The ticket system for now is all backwards so you'll be playing to be the first team to run out of tickets. This will change in the future to mirror the battlefield type scoring system, but for now, just remember... if you loose all your tickets, you win. Not sure what the time frame is going to be on all of this. For those of you that have been following this thread you know I've stated recently that I was going to step away for a while, but I'm not very happy about these issues looming with the scoring system and I've had thoughts about trying to make the squads persistent before, so what the hell. While I'm at it, I may as well go ahead and try to incorporate some kind of base spawn system as well. I'd say it's probably going to be a while so just hang tight with v006 while I get all this worked out. Cheers :)

Yes. Sorry, I knew I was forgetting something in my changelog. The scoring system changed, but after reviewing your posts I realize that it is not working the way I had intended. I'll have to fix this. For the time being, the first team to run their ticket count to zero wins the game. A team that controls > 50% of the zones will bleed tickets. I suppose I'll be changing things afterall since I also have grown unhappy with the fact that I have to reassign my task everytime I respawn so I'm going to try and make the task seletion persistent. Just hang in there with the current system for a while and I'll work it into the next update. Cheers :)

Unless I'm missing something,it sould be fine for both stable and dev versions. Thanks also for the support. I know exacly what you are saying and that's what I meant with my rant. When I start to put too much stock in acceptance it's time for me to step back for a second. I'm prone to that for some reason. Anyhow, hope you enjoy the new versions.

The Armaholic mirror has been updated to v006. Special thanks to Big for maintaining UC on Armaholic. Much appreciated. tvig

When we have a whole new map and more assets you can probably count on seeing an update ;)

v006 has been posted and is awaiting approval on Moddb. - many optimizations - fixed vehicle commandeer script to not allow commandeer of a player controlled vehicle - added irregular zone sizes and shapes - removed depreciated cp size from parameters - added tasking for each zone - added zone names - removed arrow objects for vehicle spawns - changed all map layouts for new irregular zones @BigShot I would be lying if I said I had any plans to make any further changes to UC. I'm of the mind that it's probably time for me to step away from this for a while, but I may pick it up in the future. Thanks for the support :) Cheers :D

Thank you guys and there is no need for any apology by anyone. As I said, I know that it's going to be impossible to totally please everyone. I think when someone takes this mission and modifies it to suit their desires, then they have done the best thing that can be done. I've always taken that approach to other developers as well, just ask zonekiller. I was modifying his mission and he helped guide me through it so I could learn how to script for arma. I'm not offended in any way, shape or form by anything that anyone has said. Here's my sick sad little take on mission creating. It's an art. Bohemia has provided us with a giant blank canvas and a shitload of tools we can use to bring our visions of the perfect mission to reality and share with each other. Just like any other form of art, we can show them off to each other and enjoy them together or seperately in any way we like. Just like any other form of art, we all have an opinion about them. Just like any kind of artist, we would all like our works to be seen and admired, but most importantly, we create our works in the image of what we find to be truly reflective of the things we would like to see in our art. The fact that we have differing opinions about the art itself makes us all artists in our own right, but what seperates us is the knowlege of our craft. I'm not adept at the craft of visual art, so I gladly accept the offerings of those that have mastered the craft. Of course I have opinions about those offerings, but I wouldn't think of going to the artist and telling them they should change their art so that I might find it pleasing. In stead, if I felt that strongly about it, I would pick up a paint brush and create my own images. Here we have the advantage, through this digital medium, to go back and alter the works of others to suit our needs. Some people do get offended by it, but I am not one. In fact, I'm flattered that one would make my art, or mission in this case, the basis for their own aspirations. While all of this is true, one still has to ask themselves who their art is ultimately made to please. Sometimes it's easy to let praise be the determining factor in wether or not you're creating the right thing for yourself. When I find myself at that point, I know I've moved to far away from my initial motive for creating the work in the first place. That's when it's time to figure out what is truly a product of my own imagination again, and less a product of the desire to manifest someone else's vision in my own art. If this makes sense to you, then you should understand exactly where I'm at with this. It's probably way more serious than it should be, but I'm passionate about my art. If this seems like the ramblings of a mad man, then you've probably never spent countless hours trying to share your aspirations with the world at large. In any case, Urban Conquest is what it is. If you want to make it your own, you have my full support. If you want to make it your own but you can't, you'll have to accept it for what it is. Thank you for your support. ...gets up from the couch and walks out...

I look at it this way. I made these missions to my liking, and I do like the way they have turned out very much. If people want to mod the missions to customize them to their liking, I'm totally ok with that. In fact I would encourage people to do that. While I enjoy hearing about people's experiences with the mission, I am not particularly fond of people's suggestions that I change the fundamental mechanics of the mission, which I've seen alot of along the way. I wrote it to fulfill my vision of a fun mission and I truly enjoy sharing it with other people, but I don't really get the feeling that too many other people enjoy it. That is ok with me too, but don't come here and tell me to change it so that it fulfills your vision of a fun mission, make one for yourself instead or modify it to suit your needs. I think that's totally cool. I know there are some people that appreciate it for what it is but it seems to me that the general consensus of the gaming community leans towards the post apocalyptic survival game type, which I find a bit disappointing. To each his own though. I think I've just burnt myself out a bit and seeing that there are no servers kinda forces me to take a look at my motives for carrying on with a project that has such little interest outside of a select few people. Maybe I'm just too easily entertained and this mission really does suck.... hell, who knows. One thing I figured out a long time ago though is that no matter how brilliant of a job I think I've done on a mission, there are always people just waiting to opine about all of the things I should have done differently. It all boils down to this, you can't please everyone. So on that note, I'm going to upload v006 tomorrow with only 3 map layouts because I don't really care to do any more with it at this point. If you like them, good. If not, good. Frankly my dear, I just don't give a damn. Cheers :D

Then can you clarify your original post. What do you mean by remove something and this stuff about downloading something?

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. This mission was designed with easy in mind. There is no need to jump from interface to interface to accomplish things in the game. It's all designed so that you can look at something and perform an action without ever taking your eyes off of the action. There are no modules or addons required to run the mission because I coded the thing from the ground up with a little bit of help from zonekiller. The mission has its roots in the style of play that I enjoy the most which is intense combat without spending a half an hour deciding what weapon I want and how to get to the objective. It's quick dirty ass kickin' combat, and that's all there is to it.

1) That's because there isn't enough interest in it for people to want to run it apparently. I've also noticed that there are no servers running it. It's kind of dissapointing to see that and part of the reason for my lack of urgency in getting the new version released. 2) Because you are your own squad leader. You're welcome!

I've considered making uncaps and an option to disable spawning in the zones. It's not going to be any time soon though. I'm so crunched on time I haven't even been able to port any of the new code versions for 006 so just getting that posted is going to be an accomplishment at this point. RL has me by the balls if you know what I mean ;)

That's some good information. I hadn't seen that anywhere else. My script operates on setOvercast, setRain and setFog only, but setFog is the only one I've been able to use effectively. I've not been able to get them to work in the stable or dev branch. When I say they're broke, I mean I've not been able to get them to work at all. I voted on the issue here, but I'm beginning to worry this is being overlooked.... even though I know there's a lot going on. @Tonic... so would I set my weather conditions then run simulWeatherSync as the next command to make them take effect? Thanks :) edit- ok, just tried this with simulWeatherSync and it did something, but not what it was supposed to. I started with an overcast sky, set to 0 overcast over 10 seconds and ran simulWeatherSync. The clouds didn't disappear (after the major stutter), but they did turn streaky. The overcast conditions really didn't seem to actually change, it just corrupted the rendering of the clouds. I'm using the dev branch to test this, but to reiterate, I have had no more success with these commands in the stable branch than I have in the dev branch. edit 2- Something is definitely not right. I was able to turn a clear sky into a cloudy one, but unable to reverse it. The long and short of this is that I had a working dynamic weather script for OA that doesn't work at all in A3. After more testing I'm convinced something is out of whack. IMHO the environment is a pretty major part of the game, especially since I also believe that A3 has the most authentic weather I've ever seen in a video game. It's just a shame that this issue is still lingering, but I understand that there is still much to do. I just hope it gets some attention soon ;)

I really hope the fix for the broken weather commands is coming soon. It takes a lot away from the randomization element of my missions and I don't know exactly how they intend to test all of this with these commands being broken. Broken commands: setOvercast setRain setWindDir setWindStr ...and maybe others. Those are the ones I've run tests on so far. I know it's only alpha, but the environment is a pretty big element of the game that should probably be tested and proven solid sometime in the near future. Cheers :D

Thanks Kremator. I've currently got all of the code worked out and ready to go. I'm hoping for a fix to the weather commands in the next big update so I can get the dynamic weather system squared away. I guess I'll just port and release it if nothing happens on that front pretty soon. Cheers :D

In no version of this game have I ever seen them rearm without being ordered to do so via script or player command. Especially in ArmA 2 it was pretty common to find them running around with an empty magazine and a loaded sidearm, without enough smarts to at least draw their sidearm. I still think this would be something best handled by way of script or module though. It's hard enough to get the ai to do what you want them to do, with another distraction it will just make it that much more difficult.