Rydygier

I didn't touch A2 since A3. If you feel opposite, just stick to A2 - problem solved.

The only Arma 3 experience, I care, is SP. Never managed to convince myself, MP is a kind of fun suitable for me. It isn't. But indeed above all Arma 3 is a sandbox to me. A space for creative endevours, experiments, weird tests, all good stuff, I want and can do with scripts... It started (Arma 2) out of my frustration, there's no certain things handled in Arma, that IMO should be handled, so I wanted to add this stuff myself. That was a trap! It was too late, before I realized, I enjoy scripting even more, than playing... If I do, it is most likely some test run of my own creations. Other than that - I enjoy the most in general the same kind, I'm making myself. SP, open, procedural scenarios with high replayability, giving me a feel, I'm only one of many cogs in the bigger machine of events, but because of that my actions have certain effect on the whole situation. A good, immersive, personal, moving narrative is always a good thing too. I like to watch how complex simulation of life revolves around in surprising ways, to perceive a fictious war from different, non-cliche perspectives. 4372 in Arma 3 according to Steam, not sure about Arma 2, but generally it is about 1000 hours per year so far (there was a 2 years gap). Although, to be honest, initial enthusiasm weared off (its 9th year after all...), ideas, I had, are mostly completed, paths, I wanted to explore, are mostly explored, so who knows, how it will look in the near future. Probably more, than 90% percent of the above number goes to scripting itself and debug tests.

Something like that. I think so. Seemed OK to me, but I assumed certain amount of SQF scripting involved. Default A3's key mapping options support 2xkey press mapping too BTW, I'm using it for some things. Yep. 2x(KEY1) seems better, than default way to get for example "copy my stance" result - dancing over whole keyboard with 0-x-x menu - (Select (All))->(KEY1)->(KEY2)->(KEY3) IIRC. A general issue become apparent - different people consider different things more or less convenient/intuitive, than default, as for key mapping etc. For me, the less keyboard usage, the simplier/better (thus my ideas utilizing mouse) and the less various keys to be pressed to get something - the better (thus double pressing to get for whole group something similar, pressed one time key do for my character). The less my fingers need to dance on the keybord to get a result - the better to me. As for individual preferences, for example I, probably unlike the most, never use WSAD for directions, so all my most used key bindings are focused on the right side of the keyboard, around cursor keys - these are easier for me, because separated from other keys, unlike WSAD. So, if new solution should be universally benficial, should allow customization and should work well with different key mappings (like whole thing indeed should be based rather on actionKeys etc. than arbitrarily chosen keys). Well, I hope more ideas will appear.

Also perhaps this would work: _mapSize = getNumber (configFile >> "CfgWorlds" >> worldName >> "mapSize"); _isSeaOutThere = (count (selectBestPlaces [[(_mapSize/2),(_mapSize/2)], _mapSize * (sqrt 2), "sea", 100, 1])) > 0; As for checking certain positions, surfaceIsWater sounds like a plan, but just in case, possible alternative could be ([0,0,0] stands as an example for any ATL position on the terrain surface) : _isSeaThere = ((ATLtoASL [0,0,0]) select 2) < 0;

Wip file updated: fixed mentioned error with looting encampment box, few minor adjustments: Warping Plague 1.20 wip3

Looks like The Fittest looting encampment (they sometimes establish such temporary presence to ransack the town more efficiently, no serious opposition, if player is lucky may even "steal" the box content unnoticed). Possible at day 2. Still, after using "Take the content" action there should be some sound and message about taken content (even, if you had no room for any stuff, it would be like "Food +0" etc.). Marcus there is a coincidence. EDIT: but I found some script error in the code responsible for taking the content from these particular boxes. That would explain lack of any effect (and you would probably see same error log in RPT file). I'll fix that, thanks.

All right, wip file updated: Warping Plague 1.20 wip2 - new init setting for Zone SFX intensity (previous default is now under "high") - how loud/far, how often; - new init setting for hallucinations (Audio only, visual only, both, none); - new setting for Zone growth rate. There's some statistical spread, but on average: current/default is normal. Very slow - 4x slower. Slow - 2x slower. Fast - 1.5x faster than normal, Very fast - 2x faster, than normal, which means is likely, that for "very fast" around day 20 Arudy will be inside the Zone with all usual consequences of that fact. Note, zone growth isn't exactly linear, in other words, growth rate isn't constant. Daily increments tend to be slightly bigger each consequtive day; - improved "returning to the town" code (safer placement to avoid collisions with nearby vehicles etc); - now crafting magazines costs ammunition, as was intended, not materials. Cost is calculated using bullet/mag characteristics (caliber, typical speed, hit, indirect hit, indirect hit range, magazine mass, bullet count), also (main factor) type of weapon. Ranges roughly from 1-2 per mag (handguns) through around 5-7 (SMGs) and 30-75 (rifles-sniper rifles) to around 200 per MG belt, but what really matters is the cost per bullet, which makes probably the cheapest 0.45 handgun bullet and most expensive - 0.50 APDS sniper bullet.

Great, you like new WP. 🙂 Thanks for reminding about this. Probably in 1.20 I'll apply to fast travel back to town same code, I'm using with crafting new vehs, that should ensure safe positioning (in reasonable limits).

I had no complains about 1.23, so probably will be OK. BTW HAL development is continued by someone else (who takes it in own direction of course), here: https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/topic/216044-hetman-artificial-leader-nr6-edition/ https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/topic/220327-nr6-pack-hal-artificial-leader-evolved/

HAL 1.22 released. HAL 1.22 (Armaholic) HAL 1.22 (Dropbox) HAL 1.22 (Zippyshare) PDF manual HAL 1.23 wip for testing purposes. New config variables listed here. HAL development is continued in new directions by @NinjaRider600 : HAL NR6 Edition NR6 Pack INTRODUCTION HAL is intended to enliven the battlefield of Arma 3 the same way a human leader would operate. HAL does not deal with the manner in which orders are executed (unit level), but mainly deals with the issuing of orders. In other words, this addon gives one or both sides of a conflict a field-commander level AI. HAL control is mostly based on issuing waypoints, and as much as possible HAL avoids interfering with low-level AI. In other words, HAL focuses on giving orders, rather than on the way in which orders will be executed. HAL gives new, higher level AI, rather than changing the existing AI. There are only a very few exceptions to this rule, and generally these are optional. HAL should therefore enrich the gaming experience with new features, without conflicts with other addons. HAL is intended to complement their effects rather than to compete with them for control over units (at least for those addons that do not mess with waypoints). HAL can serve as an instant battle generator as well as a general player opponent, or as base for complex missions and/or gameplay modes. Addon version requires Community Base Addons. ----- USAGE To activate HAL for one side, one of the units of that side must be named LeaderHQ. Essential also is the placement on the map of any object (for example, an empty trigger) named RydHQ_Obj1. The location is entirely your choice. Its position will designate a target point which the Artificial Commander will try to conquer at first (for example, a spot near the leader of the opposing side). Analogously, there should be placed in freely chosen areas (eg in cities, strategic positions or simply nearby opposite Leader) three other objectives (RydHQ_Obj2, RydHQ_Obj3, RydHQ_Obj4), which will be conquered in numerical order. If the mission designer wants less than four objectives, then simply place the unneeded objectives at same position as the ultimate objective. For the script version only, to initialize HAL the following code should also be executed in some way, e.g., by placing the following script in the init field of any object (for example, in the activation field of an empty trigger or waypoint): nul = [] execVM "RydHQInit.sqf"; Alternatively, that line may be placed at the end of a mission's init.sqf. Init.sqf is recommended place for init config variables (beacuse of better readability), especially for bigger configs, eg containing RHQ arrays. See included manual for all details, and there is lots of them. ----- ALTERNATIVE SOUND SETS FOR RADIO CHATTER SoundSets (4) ----- TO DO ----- MY THANKS To all people, that helped me earlier with HAC and did first steps towards Hetman in A3 before me. But especially those, who funded me Arma 3 game, so I could release HAL so soon. ----- SAMPLE MISSIONS HETMAN: War Stories ----- BUG REPORTING Any feedback, ideas, bug reports are highly appreciated. This allows me to develop Hetman further and faster. You can expect even faster fixing, if bug is reported properly. That means exact and detailed description of the problem and circumstancies of its occurance, any suspicious RPT logs. In most cases crucial is provided repro mission. That means uploaded, ready-to-play mission without any addon dependencies except HAL (so also CBA, bug must occur without any other addons), where I can reliably see reported bug "in action". Such repro is huge help. Helpful is also info about overall circumstancies, like kind of gameplay (single, server, dedi, client...), version of HAL (addon/script), game branch (stable/dev), if PC is good enough for Arma 3... ----- Addon was created "by player for players", source scripts you can freely modify, copy, "cannibalize", to use in your projects. It is released under APL-SA license. I'll be grateful for notification about each such usage. Voice acting: DuddBudda, SiC_Disaster, nettrucker. Enjoy being under control. Rydygier

These values are stored inside Leader's group namespace (each Leader has own, separate value under each variable), not under global variable (mission namespace). To monitor them try (for "A" Leader): (group LeaderHQ) getVariable "RydHQ_Cyclecount" or something like this to get some info, when variable is nil: (group LeaderHQ) getVariable ["RydHQ_Cyclecount","not defined"] Etc. for other variables and Leaders.

Some time ago I decided to try to understand the concepts of neuron networks (out of curiosity mostly, prior to that day knowing nearly nothing particular about them). After rather extensive google'ing in both my native tongue and English, seemed, I gathered enough info to grasp very basics. Even broke through involved math, at least I thought so, thought, I was ready/able to model a neural network in SQF now. Which I did. Problems however started when it came to proper traininig of such network. While I'm interested mostly in unsupervised learning, tried both, un- and supervised (probably didn't 100% grasp the math of backpropagation here though). Results was IMO either partially promising or a failure (depending on network architecture, input values, learning parameters...), in general not desired/expected by me. Anyway, now returned to this. My problem is, I lack working with 100% certainty SQF reference (while not familiar with any other programming language enough to benefit from available in the internet examples), so I don't know, either I'm doing something wrong, either I expect not, what I should/misuse the network somehow. Is there any good soul, who successfully implemented neural network and trained it with good result using SQF and could share his code here? What I have so far (unsupervised part only, code described mostly in Polish to make learning easier for me): (with the above code I'm for now simply trying to make the nn to properly classify numerical input data (be it 2D coords for example) into few classes by returning distinctive numerical output per category)

Thanks, from what I learned so far about neural network usefulness, I tend to agree, it would be difficult to put nn in any practical use in Arma, at least from SQF level (although in the linked thread, IIRC, there was someone, who achieved that with some external programming). Still, one could think about, simplistic indeed, kind of tactical awareness where code recognizes situation visually, similar, how recognizing letters works. But at this point it is pure fantasy, currently I'm just feeling that special kind of itching curiosity, if I'll be able to actually make it work with any form at all. Arma's SQF is simply the best (the only) tool, I have at hand.

Don't know, what listed mods introduce, so not sure, if not duplicating them, but few ideas for streamlining infantry subordinates commanding came to my mind: 1. Selecting/deselecting subordinates via aiming at them while RMB* pressed and/or just aiming long enough (alternative selecting way by "pointing the finger" equivalent); 2. If doable, selecting and/or other commanding options (including those from x-x-x menu) can be available under mouse wheel while pointing at subordinate AI similar, as it is currently with vehicles' "get in" and alike actions; 3. Mouse wheel action orders as above, but available without actual aiming at the AI, for all currently selected subordinates; 4. Stance choice keys (perhaps also some other keys, like rising the weapon etc.) tapped twice in quick succesion (double key press) could trigger "copy my new stance"/"copy, what I'm doing now" order for: - all subordinates, if none selected; - for selected only if any selected. 5. A bit more fancy thing - if any subordinate(s) selected, moving with the crosshair while RMB* pressed over the terrain can define an area boundaries, where selected AIs would then go and pick positions. It may be something as simple as random positions, or with some "pick good cover" stuff going on. *or whatever is mapped for "temporary zoom" I hope, this helps anyhow.

Welcome back in 2020. 🙂 It's time for... Warping Plague 1.20 wip1: 1. Thanks to awesome contribution from @RZNUNKWN (thanks again, man!) Warping Plague is now enriched with many new, custom sound effects (therefore doubled file size). First part concerns various radio messages background, second are the Zone enviromental sfx, third - see point 2. 🙂 As for Zone's sounds, these are positioned in 3D, and consist constant background hum and also dynamically spawned at random other weird noises. These are planned to be optional (not yet), with customizable volume/density. I appreciate the feedback regarding their general sound, frequency of occurence and volume. Experiences may differ one from another depending on audio settings and used sound hardware, for example music set on loud can drown out these sounds; 2. Hallucinations - both, sound and visual, may appear, if Psyche value drop to "BROKEN" level. A tip: best way to decrease the Psyche level would be, I'm affraid, to kill own towners... Lets leave details as a surprise. 🙂 Experimental - let me know, how it works and what you think, guys. 3. Psyche now divided into two hidden factors (the sum is displayed) - long term and short term. The latter includes currently only one thing: prolonged Zone exploration. The longer Gregory stay inside the Zone, the more prominent will be its negative influence on Gregory's mental state. Probably around one hour may bring Psyche from stable to broken. But the Psyche recovers from that in real time when out of the Zone. Speed of recover depends on current total Psyche and total time (all visits summed up), Gregory spent in the Zone (the longer, the slower recovery). Small part of that Zone influence is long term though.

Another observations: 1. 2. Regarding stealth/detection system After more tests my guess is, it works based on knowsAbout combined with restricted gear, actions or areas. At least in case of restricted areas seems enough for the AI to have knowsAbout high enough to react on the player inside such an area, no matter, if "physically" this AI possibly could see area violation. It can be behind the wall or watching opposite direction, it will react as soon player enters restricted area. To make it more realistic, I would suggest, script-wise, on the top of knowsAbout add three-step detection check: - distance. If not too far: (inbetween these two knowsAbout condition could be put) - orientation. If inside FOV arc (not behind the AI): - LOS check. If there's not obstructed LOS: reaction. 3. Regarding "phones' bad timing" - I can suggest, what I did in Pilgrimage. I had two variables. One was true, if the player knew about any enemy, another - if any enemy knew about the player. First one meant "stealth mode", second - "combat mode". In both modes phone calls was rejected by the player, and attempts to make same call was repeated after some time. Here however there's third factor - incognito. Only, if incognito is broken (player is "wanted"), calls should be rejected. But if in the incognito he is not hostile towards AI, then likely there's no "stealth" not "combat" mode anyway. BTW I would suggest indicate somehow level of suspicion somewhere out of the map, otherwise without GPS active, player may have no clue, what's going on until he open the map. 4. Regarding QRF, the chopper. Seems, it does similar thing, the chopper in my Pilgrimage does, namely SAD waypoint. Can't say, what it does next, because in the two cases, I saw, the chopper stuck mid air during SAD and was just hovering, probably indefinitely (I felt merciful and I shot down second one with AT missile to put end on his misery). Same was happening sometimes in Pilgrimage (nothing new, it was so at least since 2015, I recorded a playthrough in this year with this issue shown, it was A3 1.40 stable). I suspect, the reason may be some issue in the SAD waypoint behavior code. 5. Don't know yet, how it will develop, but I wonder, how useful l'Ensamble support is. I mean, if the player can achieve everything alone (so far my case), there may be no motivation to dance tango with Syndicat, and in such case whole, not so small aspect may appear redundant - would be a shame. We'll see. 6. 7. Loading saves takes usually too short for me to read all these interesting hints displayed during that process. 8. I know, it's not trivial, it's hard to do believeably in fact, but I'll note this just pro forma, not expecting any remedy - if I snipe some AI from the safe distance, my preferable way, his comrades does little to none about that. I've cleared the checkpoint that way, one by one, some, from the killed unit's group I guess, seemed alarmed for a while, but in general, all AIs was passive about the situation, just some QRF patrol arrived, which allowed me to assume, they at least called for help. 9. I've rather negative opinion on saving mechanics blended into character's activity. Paradoxically, it breaks immersion in a way. Protagonist does things because of out-of-scenario reasons. Like going to sleep not because, he would in his situation do such thing, but because the player wants to save the progress. I do not like this. It's healthy, IMO, to keep narrative layer (what is going on inside the gameplay) and meta-gameplay layer (save/load, options, settings etc.) separated. 10. Would be useful to have an option to fast travel from anywhere to one of discovered FT points, if it is safe. Without this, so far found no reason to use FT even once (especially, if without my vehicle). Still having great fun (*note, I'm playing with custom mod re-enabling free saves button, condicio sine qua non as for me), I like, how the island is enliven, not desolated. Once I described, what kind of scenarios I would love to see in Arma. That's the closest so far - personal, immersive, open, freedom of the choice, how to approach to the tasks, and all as true singleplayer... Also I like procedural elements, wherever they show up, not sure, how many of them here, but these are great for replayability, as preventing each playthrough repeativity. Anyway, it's definitelly worthy of polishing and adding into official platform. And, if I'm not mistaken, I see number of small mechanical inspirations from Pilgrimage? Cool, if so. 🙂

So, tried stealth at night. Slow crawl and darkness seem to help. Perhaps it is based on knowsAbout factor... Not sure, if/how much it is an issue, and how to remedy, if so, but the fact is, checkpoints often can be ridiculously easy bypassed by going offroad etc. If that's a problem, perhaps checkpoint staff should react seeing such an attempt? Also I can confirm serious FPS drops (below 30) at towns (could be Tanoa itself thing). General note about black market economy: there's too much advanced weaponry to be found at the corpses or in the caches. If obtaining advanced weaponry for free is easy, there's no point for buying such stuff (and no motivation and joy when enough money is obtained to buy something fancy). If limiting access to the weaponry is difficult due to realism - many firefights around, each body means a rifle etc. Then ammo can be made rare and/or expensive. Another thing: from my own experience, it could be good idea to make some aspects of gameplay optional/customizable at init. It could work nicely for free saves issue (some people require them to actually enjoy the gameplay, some on the contrary, why not to please both?), there could be an option to choose density of random fights, weapons to be found, enviromental stuff like the weather etc. etc. Also, if that's the truth, what I've read, that fast travel means leaving current vehicle behind, it should be otherwise IMO - currently assigned vehicle should be moved along with me. Player often will have some valuables in the vehicle. So far enjoying this mission a lot. 🙂

Not yet, but that was my last idea for the next time.

Is it designed to enable stealthy approach? if so, doesn't work apparently. Tried to enter some restricted area in sneaky manner (testing, if I can complete the scenario without direct violence), and seems, I'm inevitably detected by someone certainly not seeing me (there's a wall between us, healthy (as for potential detection by noise) distance and he is looking in opposite direction, still speaks to me). Like the only criteria used is the distance to the unit and the presence inside restricted area. So, question is, is there any sense in attempts of unarmed, non-violent gameplay style, or should I drop this as futile and grab the gun? I'm assuming, there's no any roleplay-like "talk through the guard" possibilities. What could be useful in general - making clear, how internal scenario logic works, what player can try (talk, sneak, shoot...), and where are immersion/realism boundaries. It's... unobvious currently.

Similar here, but after waking up it is till half-sunk, just less, than before. BTW I like resting screen. 🙂 But these dogs! Constant barking. Don't get me wrong, it's realistic, I have same in the RL sometimes, and that's an issue of a kind, I would likely change the neighbourhood to quiter one - annoyed nearly just like in RL. Dogs should bark in reaction to a stranger coming close or noises like shooting, but make them stop sometimes at least... BTW again, there in fact was some rather close shooting just after I arrived to my home previous evening - nice immersion thing, although it was continued in the morning - some, prolonged, intense fights out there apparently. I'm tempted to go there in hope of any loot.

Here's my makeshift mod, that re-enables save button (probably not optimal, works in the 1 sec loop, I just wanted to put together something ASAP), if anyone wants to play this way. Requires CBA.

Am I supposed to hide from OPFOR? I assumed, I'm civilian free to be there, also I wasn't attacked by them when riding close to the base, I started at, but here:

I'm using Contact DLC props/not-for-player-usage-stuff in my vanilla scenario without issues (I do not own this DLC myself).

Just started, so initial things for now, as they appear. First - I love this type of gameplay, so I'm truly happy, we got official, dynamic playable content dedicated specifically for singleplayer. Thank you very much! For now I'm still standing, where player starts. So far I like the plot's foundations and how they are given. Pleasantly personal, no hectic rush, player isn't dragged anywhere in hurry, has time to familiarize, immerse, decide course of action - great. One serious problem I see at this point is, what I kinda expected, this weird game design compulsion to enforce on player blocking free game saves - the button is gone from the menu. Whatever purpose lies behind, I strongly recommend to leave at least the option to enable free saving for the player's decision. There was whole games, I abandoned just because this flaw alone, it is highly frustrating, when player is forced to waste his time and nerves by repeating again and again a portion of gameplay because it's easy to die/fail and no option to save. In the case of Old Man, I feel motivated enough to continue, but since I don't want to spoil the fun by the lack of free saving, I intend to use/prepare a mod, that will give me free saving option, so I'll get at least single slot free save functionality equivalent. I hope, that will not break the mission design. Nitpicking: - in the intro, at some point player gets two chains of text on screen simultanously: lines of general introduction and small, white text as subtitles of some conversation going on in the background. Probably not a problem for the native speakers, but for guys like me it is a struggle trying to follow both in the same time. I lost some information here being unable to follow two sentences at once. - in the custom map GUI element "MESSENGER" doesn't fit single line, last "R" is moved into second line: That's it for now, thanks again, great Christmas gift. 🙂