joehunk

Warfare BE ACE Edition Warfare Benny Edition ported to ACE (Advanced Combat Environment) Current version 2.069 [1.4] (download link at bottom of post) What is it? This is a port of the excellent Warfare BE mission to use the ACE (Advanced Combat Environment) family of add ons. This is also an attempt to drum up interest in the Arma community for playing ACE-based Benny Warfare and using ACE in general, because our group has found it very fun. Finally, it's some simple instructions on how to get started. Why play with ACE? Because it's fun!! ACE is a collection of Arma add ons whose mission it is to make the game more realistic and immersive, but only where that matters to gameplay and makes the game more fun. Some of the stuff I love about ACE in general and ACE-based Warfare in particular: Better weapon assortment. ACE uses all the Arma weapons and adds many (including original models) of their own. More realistic weapon and round performance. ACE introduces a ton of new mechanics that make differences among weapons more compelling. Long barrel sniper rifles will fire a round farther and straighter than a carbine that fires the same round for instance. Base ArmA does not model this! Much better sounds. Especially the sonic cracks of bullets whizzing past your ear. Prepare to be knocked out of your seat. Better OPFOR/BLUFOR balance, without sacrificing realism. The number of small arms available to each side is much more similar, and a few late-model OPFOR vehicles have thermal sights (correctly) added. Way, way too many little things to count...adjustable grenade launcher sights, quicker switching to sidearms to take out the bad guy when you run out of ammo, machine guns much more accurate under automatic fire when used prone with a bipod, etc., etc., etc. It's amazing really. Like a whole new game. See the ACE features page for a breakdown. Also, man several members of the community put a TON of work into this stuff, and you should enjoy it too! How do I download/install ACE? This is the only hard part. If you have any problems please post here or PM me and I will attempt to help out. Heck knows I have spent many hours figuring this stuff out, and no reason everyone else should suffer as I have :) Anyway...ACE is a series of add ons that total more than 1 gig (!!) in size. Rest assured you will never regret spending the time downloading and installing them though. You can get ACE from a couple different places. Download from Six Updater This is what I use nowadays. It always hosts the latest version of ACE. It's a fairly full-featured software suite however, so I am not going to try to document its full usage here. The documentation and download for Six Updater are here: http://dev-heaven.net/projects/six-arma-updater Six Updater also handles launching the game with the proper options, so you can skip the "launching" section below if you use it (although make sure to enable Combined Ops mode if it does not come up that way by default!). Also Six Updater has automatic support for downloading the exact versions of a mod in use by a particular server, though in my experience, most/all servers run the latest Six Updater version anyway. I just always get the latest version and I am good to go. Download from AddonSync Note! I no longer keep my own AddonSync server up to date. Unless you know a server to use or need to use it for some reason, I recommend using Six Updater, above. AddonSync is available from: http://dev-heaven.net/projects/yoma-addonsync2009/files How do I launch Arma 2 with ACE? If you are using Six Updater, just launch from Six Updater. No additional manual steps are needed. If launching ACE manually, stop and download Six Updater :) Failing that, read on. By default, Arma just launches in normal-Arma mode, even after you install ACE. This is a good thing because it still lets you play non-ACE Arma any time you want. You need a special shortcut to launch in ACE mode. The way you make this is different for Steam vs. other installs. For Steam, download this file: http://www.blackcompanywow.com/ArmA/_runA2COAce.cmd Save it in your Arma 2 Operation Arrowhead directory. For most Steam installs, this will be "c:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead". Keep the file name the same (especially the ".cmd" extension). Some browsers I have seen try to add a ".txt" extension and make the file "_runA2COAce.cmd.txt". Depending on your settings, the .txt extension may not even show up in your file window!! But somehow you have to make sure the extension is seriously no-fooling ".cmd" Run the game by double clicking this file. You can also create a shortcut to it on your desktop by right-click dragging and saying "Create Shortcut." For non-Steam users: Find the shortcut you already use to run Arma in Combined Operations mode. Copy the shortcut and rename the copy "Arma ACE Combined Operations" or something like that. Right click on the new shortcut and choose "Properties." In the properties window, look for the "Target" blank. Copy/paste the following text at the end of whatever is already in there (make sure to get the space at the beginning of the line) "-mod=@CBA;@ACE;@ACEX;@ACEX_SM;@ACEX_RU;@ACEX_USNavy" Launch Arma with the new shortcut when you want to play in ACE mode. Once you launch the game with ACE, you should see the add ons show up in a list on the right side of your screen, like so: If you don't see them, then something is wrong. If you can't get it to work, post here or email me. Also once again, these missions are designed to run in Combined Operations Mode which means Operation Arrowhead plus base Arma. You can tell if you're in combined ops mode because you should be able to see all the missions, scenarios, and campaigns for both games. If you cannot get this to work, also post here or PM me. Soon, I plan on putting up a Wiki where I document Benny Warfare as a mission. I have never found a good place that explains the ridiculous number of awesome features in this mission, and I've had to figure them out by a mixture of trial and error, asking sheepish questions on Warfare servers, and in some cases reading the source code! I'll post as soon as it's up. Dedicated Server I have a server running the Takistan version of this mission discussed here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=110655 Come drop by, we often play evenings US Time but you are welcome to use it any time. And now the files! I only have a couple maps, both designed for Combined Operations mode (see above). Changelog: 1.8 - Fixed some issues with AI purchasing troops - Changed the AI to always use UPSMON. This seems to fix the "AI standing around" issue. - Updated UPSMON to latest version available. 1.7 - Fixed issue that caused the Tactical menu not to come up. 1.6 - Updated to 2.071 Warfare BE code base - Removed mando missile mod option (this is not compatible with ACE and makes the missions each about 4 meg smaller) 1.5 - Incorporated new EASA configs from woore - Javelin CLU added 1.4 - Updated to 2.069 code base for Warfare BE - ACE wounds can now be enabled/disabled via a parameter 1.2 - Updated to 2.067 codebase for Warfare BE - Added a couple missing magazines - Repair truck rebalance: repair trucks cost more, and rearming with a repair truck costs more as well. Rearming with an ammo truck is still free. - Added maps: Fallujah, Sara, Saralite, Lingor, Isla Duala - Consolidated all maps into a single zip file. 1.1 - Fixed bug that was causing some CSW to not be available to BLUFOR - Added tracer rounds to a couple places they were missing - ALL NEW! Gameplay: Defense Auto Reload parameter. You can set static defenses built from the base or repair truck to have unlimited ammo always, only when near your base, when near your base or a friendly town, or never. 1.0 - Fixed a couple issues with the new ACE Gear interface, such as respawn ruck contents sometimes being wrong. - Added some ACE crew-served weapons available for purchase as gear - Added some goggles/glasses for purchase - CSW mortars bought via gear purchase enable the artillery computer for the player using them, even if the parameter for the artillery computer is turned off. This is to induce players to make more use of CSW in the game. Mortars built from the base or from a repair truck will still follow the the artillery computer mission parameter on vs. off. - Revamped respawn penalty (still off by default). If you turn the respawn penalty on, a "respawn cost" will be displayed when purchasing gear. This is now based on how much more your gear costs than the default loadout. 7b - ALL NEW! ACE gear purchase interface supporting ACE rucks and weapon-on-back, all part of your respawn loadout - New gear interface shows all magazines available for a weapon in the magazine window, including grenade launchers, SMAW spotting rounds, etc. - ALL NEW! ACE wounds enabled, all wound gear in game - Officer class's "Spawn MASH" ability now actually spawns a MASH that works with the wound system - Medics spawn with medical gear - Added a few ACE crew-served weapons, including mortars. - Normally in ACE, static defenses such as those built by the commander must be manually reloaded. To preserve the gameplay experience of the original warfare however, a script has been added that will auto-reload static defenses when they run dry. Crew-served weapons purchased as gear must still be manually reloaded. - HuntIR monitors and rounds should now be buyable. - New map: Zargabad 6b - Updated to WarfareBE 2.066 code base - Added a couple more OPFOR rifles to round out caliber/optics/grenade launcher combos 5b - Extended JIP timeout. If you run this version in conjunction with ACE 1.7 pre-RC or later, you should not see the JIP bug. - Added ear plugs to default loadout. - Fixed some problems with magazines not being available for purchase. - Third time is a charm: SMAW spotting rounds ARE actually in now, and work. You will not see them as default ammo available for the SMAW; you must purchase them from the big list, just like you do grenades for an under-barrel launcher. 4b - Big pass over the code to clean up private arrays that could have been corrupting server variables - Some minor bug fixes I ran across during the clean up - JIP seems to work with the CBA hot fix (see Sickboy's post in this thread) even after the game has been up for hours - Fixed a problem with JIP that would cause the "Loading..." screen to disappear before the game was fully loaded. - Changed Loading text to "Loading (may take several minutes)..." since JIP does still seem to take a little bit if the game has been up a while. - Actually added the SMAW...I screwed up in b2 and it was not showing up in the Combined Ops version 2b - Added tracer rounds for most weapons - Added a couple more OPFOR launchers - Added AKMS SD as silenced option for OPFOR - Added spotting rounds for SMAW (SMAW itself was already in there) - Added themobaric round for RPG-7 - Extended JIP initialization timeout to 60 seconds. It just seems to be taking more time in ACE I guess. This was causing the game to get into bad state where people would join and not initialize (no Options menu etc.) Download (all maps): http://www.blackcompanywow.com/ArmA/WarfareBE_071_ACE_18.zip

I am having issues joining servers still on the old version of CUP. Steam workshop upgraded me automatically. Is there any place to download old versions? Thanks and love the mods!

For the most part, sounds in ArmA 3 are improved over ArmA 2. I often played the ACE mod in ArmA 2 and I though the sounds were much more immersive in ACE than in the base game. The sounds in ArmA3 remind me a lot of ACE *except* for the sonic bullet cracks. They sound identical to base ArmA 2 and not nearly as immersive/realistic as in ACE. I would love to see (hear actually) more immersive bullet cracks in the Marksmen DLC.

Well Benny has a post from last week, so I assume so. In any case, anyone who maintains a version of this mission is free to use my code to fix the issue.

Fix for vest/uniform inventory issue (for real this time!) I did some experimenting around and got the right script functions for adding items to the vest and uniform. Tested that it works properly with respawn, reload, and purchase. The mission is available on Steam Workshop, and also here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/41982446/ArmA/BECTI/becti_0096_z105_j101.Altis.pbo The post above links to a zip file with the now-corrected source files, if Benny wants to roll this into the main line. The secret was to use the same code as used to add items to the backpack, but to use the uniformContainer and vestContainer functions to obtain the container objects to add to.

EDIT: Okay it looks like something is seriously borked with the functions that add stuff to your vets or uniform. I tested that purchase and respawn worked, but oddly it seems although the items you buy for your vest and uniform show up properly, you cannot actually use them!! This is pretty poor; hopefully BIS will fix these functions soon. For now I am leaving up the zip for the source code but taking down the pbo. Here is a zip file containing only the files I had to change to get it to work, these are agains the "Zerty 1.0.5" version of the mission: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/41982446/ArmA/BECTI/becti_gear_fix.zip

If you want to play this game single player, launch it as a multiplayer game, and give your server a password so random people cannot join it. If you do that, it will bring you to a launch screen where you can adjust parameters. I have not tried the Javelin recently. I'll give it a shot when I get a chance. All I can say is I have not done anything to the Javelin, so if there's a problem with it, it could be an ACE bug. Have you tried using the Javelin in another ACE mission to see if it gives the same behavior? Keep in mind with ACE on, the vehicle damage system is completely overhauled. The base game uses a very simplistic "hit points" based model for vehicle damage that does not model armor thickness, slope, or location based damage. You could for instance shoot a 9mm pistol at the front armor of an M1 and eventually kill it if you were very, very patient. ACE models actual armor penetration, so depending on where you hit a modern tank with an AT rocket, it may do no or minimal damage. The only AT systems that are guaranteed kills on other tanks are smart missiles that attack the weak top armor such as the Javelin or Hellfire. TOWs are also usually enough to kill anything just based on raw power. Anything else (including the smaller Russian SACLOS missiles like the Metis) you have to be careful about what side you attack from. If the tank has reactive armor (another thing modeled in ACE but not in the base game), it can usually defeat the first couple AT rocket shots as well before being expended. Using the tandem HEAT round on the RPG-7 or RPG-29 (only available in ACE) can defeat reactive armor. EDIT: Hm Wikipedia says the NLAW does have a top-attack mode. I do not know if this is modeled in ACE. If so, that should kill most tanks on the first shot.

I have not looked at the EASA configs, it's possible they need work.

Hail Mary, full of grace, blessed is...erm...blessed is... Ah, hell I was raised Baptist what do I know. Here's the good file (linked in the OP).

Darnit, you're right Law Giver, it's corrupt. I'll have to take the link down until I can get home and fix it. Sorry. Bee8190, not sure what the problem is. The problem you are describing is exactly the sort of thing you will see if UPSMON is turned off, so is it possible you never enabled that parameter properly? Could you maybe post a screen shot of your Parameters screen? I tested extensively with the UPSMON option turned on and the AI worked flawlessly the whole time. I ran one test for a few hours and it never failed. Once I get the non-corrupt version of 1.8 posted, you should just be able to use the parameters as the default values and have it all work. I may even just go ahead and set UPSMON to always on and not even give the option to turn it off...

You didn't need to do that :) You can turn off ACE wounds in my version of the mission with a parameter (Parameters button when launching the mission). Also I spent a bit doing some research into the AI "giving up" issue, which TBH is the issue that bothers me personally most about this mission. I was able to find a couple issues. One was the AI was having trouble buying upgrades, which I fixed, but that did not make the problem go away completely. I traced the problem into the AI module that Benny uses as part of the mission. I am not sure if it's a bug in there or a bug in the way ACE interacts with it. What I do know is that if you turn on the UPSMON option, it makes the problem go away. So I am going to do what Law Giver did and update UPSMON to the latest, then I am going to make it the default and also make ACE Wounds off the default (you can turn it on if you want). I'll be releasing in a little bit. ---------- Post added at 08:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:59 PM ---------- Update! Okay I fixed the AI purchasing issues with ACE, and changes UPSMON to the default AI. This seems to make the AI work very well, and it never "gives up." It's like a whole different game!! I also made ACE wounds not the default (normal wounds is now the default). You can still turn ACE Wounds back on via a parameter. See original post for download link.

Yeah that has happened to me too (AI taking control when I die). It's certainly not anything I did to cause that behavior. Must just be something odd about the way ACE interacts with it. If I can figure out what's causing it, I'll try to fix it. As far as the AI "giving up", this has been an issue for as long as I can remember, and it seems to have little rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. I have not touched the AI code from what it looks like in base warfare BE, and I haven't really learned how to program ArmA AI either, so I can't do much to fix it if bugs are there.

Update! Okay I got 1.7 out, which has the fix to the Tactical menu not coming up. Enjoy! Link to download on original post. EDIT: Ack! Messed up zip file...fix incoming in a few. ---------- Post added at 09:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:19 PM ---------- Okay link is fixed now. I had accidentally just zipped the raw mission files instead of the .pbos. The link now points to the good stuff.

Yeah I noticed this issue. I will see if I can get a fix this weekend.

Update! 1.6 is now out. It's pretty much an update to 2.071 (plus Benny's JIP hot fix) and nothing else. I did remove the mando missile mod option, because this blows up if you try to run it with ACE anyway, and it also makes the mission .pbo's a lot bigger (4 meg each!!). Enjoy. See the top post for a link to download.

Greetings ArmA people. I know I tend to phase in and out of the community but I do like to check back in on how this mission is going as often as I can. I spent some time updating my version to the 2.071 code base last night, and will be releasing it tonight or soon after. I also gather some people (like Law Giver above) have been doing either a parallel effort or something based on my code, which are both great. My personal schedule is such that I can't devote much time to maintaining this mission anymore. But, I do have enough time to incorporate other people's changes. If you have any changes you've made that you'd like incorporated into my main mission, there are a couple ways to do it. - If it's a simple change just post the code here - You can email me the changes in .pbo form or as files - If you are extra fancy you can email me a .patch file - I actually use a Subversion server internally to track changes, and I would consider giving people at least read access to it (which would make generating .patch files very easy). Once again I apologize but I simply don't have much time to do anything major to the mission (or even anything minor if it requires significant testing) but if other people are willing to put the time in, I can at least handle the integration and release stuff. Look for a new version based on 2.071 plus Benny's JIP hotfix in the next day or so.

Anyone arguing over whether C# or Java would be better has obviously never written anything in SQF.

I actually posted this same thing a while back, which as an author of a few ACE missions was an issue near and dear to my heart. As far as it being "impractical" due to large mod sizes, I disagree. There's no way around the fact that if this game will allow large mods like ACE, someone has to download them from somewhere. The simple answer is, but the burden on the server admins, NOT the players. They could allow an advanced option like hosting the actual mod assets on an FTP or HTTP server somewhere (possibly not even on the same server as the mission), and the mission just points to the proper URL to obtain the assets. To deal with large files, you could allow background downloading, pre-downloading of mods from a particular server when you're at work (for instance), peer-to-peer file hosting, sophisticated diff computation so you only download what's changed from what you have already....any number of technologies available these days. EDIT: Yeah...or just hire Sickboy :)

I actually love warfare. I think most of the complaints in the OP can distill down to "the AI in Arma 2 is pretty bad", and in free-form formats like Warfare, that's true. As far as the byzantine economy or not feeling the effects of a town cap quickly enough, those either never bothered me or were addressed in some of the many user-made variants of Warfare that were available in Arma 2. And as far as it not feeling like a "sim"...that I *really* didn't care about. There were "realistic" scenarios and scenarios that were less realistic but more gameplay oriented. And a nice spectrum in between. This to me was fine. I actually liked the accurately simulated gameplay layered on top of an FPS/RTS-style scenario.

I skipped 0.68. Would the 0.67 version work for you? Also, I host a dedicated server on my home PC whenever I host a game (on the same PC I run the client), just because it seems to make things run smoother. Also, I have gotten busy recently which is why I haven't been able to release more ACE goodies, but I am still here.

Actually if you are modding my mission to put in the radios, what would help most is for you to send me the code or tell me where I can get it. I can then roll it into my mission and of course credit you. Although I am gathering enough contributors that I may have to put the credits on a web page instead of the 1-liner in the mission itself!

I will try to get woore's stuff rolled in this weekend and I'll do the radio at the same time. What cost/tech level do you put it at?

Update! A couple bug fixes. 1. Incorporated woore's EASA fix, thank you. I added you to the credit line. 2. Javelin CLU is now available for purchase Woore I looked at your configs, and they should not be too hard to pull in. Your code is structured a little differently than mine so it was not as simple as pulling in the EASA which was just a single file replace. I'll get to them as soon as I can block out more time, but I wanted to get the bug fixes out ASAP. See OP for link.

Woore you posted earlier in this thread, right after I posted my 2.069 update: I took that as a request to fix it, and sort of tacit permission to roll in your fix that already existed (as an alternative to the rather silly option of replicating your fix from scratch myself). I apologize for not asking. I thought it reasonable to expect no objections after you used the gear interface I wrote in your mission. Was I mistaken?

I tested Fallujah last night and it never desync'ed for me. Note that when I say "desync", I am referring to the "Desync" stat that appears when you select "Players" on the map to look at their net stats. I am not referring to "warping" which is a different thing. I did see a couple of AI's warp even at close range on Fallujah, much more noticeable than on other maps. My guess is that this is just because Fallujah is a pretty heavy duty map and/or has lots of cap points close together so more AI's are spawned. Also SirScorp mentioned to me in a PM that the desyncs tend to happen when someone joins. This is definitely true for me (although I just see heavy lag not a desync). I will often get the "red broken chain" icon for a short time when someone joins. Historically Warfare BE has had join-in-progress issues with ACE, to where some early versions of my mission would not JIP at all. I think it just has some heavy duty setup that temporarily starves the server. I got a hold of woore's mission and grabbed the updated EASA config. I'll be making a new release with that this weekend most likely.