Dreadnought808

Excited! Specifically curious about the further walrus nav improvements.

Hi all, Despite the fact I'm definitely still enjoying blowing stuff up, I've got a question- is there any way to CANCEL an order/program? Hitting E pauses the command, but I'd like to simply clear the unit's memory with a single button press. The only way I know, is to give the unit a move order very close to the front of the unit. Surely there must be an easier way to do so.

Played a few hours with it- it's bloody awesome. Can't imagine playing without it now.

Aha! Thanks! It's not in the key bind options yet, nor in the patch notes- is this a beta patch addition?

Oh. I thought you were handing out cookies. seriously though- since the pathfinding was tweaked, I find myself rather happy with the game overall. If you manage to get it running, stick to strategy mode. My reason for occasionally checking these forums are helping others with issues I can help with, and the hope of further AI tweaks, as the pathfinding still isn't perfect.

I believe it is because of the Xbox platform requiring a VERY large amount of money to be paid, PER patch. It wouldn't be financially viable to release another patch, I reckon. Steam probably has a similar cost but is likely to be lower. Just guessing though.

If I remember correctly, once you teleport back to the room, you start up that last reactor, and then have to walk over to a monitor somewhere to start the downloading process of the data onto some sort of data storage. The big rods sticking out of the wall should then rotate and spit out the item you need. the doors should open then. If not- reload a savegame from before you entered the first person part. The single manta picking off the defences before heading in is definitely a valid way of doing it. Taking down a carrier is, depending on who you're talking to, either too easy or too hard. Sounds like you have the best experience :D If you do think it's too hard- it just takes a bit of practice. The trick is to use your bow cannon to take out his engines and weapons, while protecting your own bow cannon. As for the torpedo- you hang it under a manta like a bomb. Then, you aim the nose of the manta at the enemy carrier, and fire the torpedo. The torpedo will drop in the water and just sits there for... what, 5 seconds? to arm itself. Then, it'll speed off forwards. So if the enemy carrier is moving, it's a bit tricky. Best used from behind or when he's not moving. 2 of those will sink it, by the way. Hope that's of some help.

Scrapser, it is generally wise to prepare for imminent attack. The two times I played through the campaign, I usually left the islands as they were, until you know the carrier is coming. By then you should have enough resources to work with and you can easily bunker up your island chain. When they're defended properly, often the enemy carrier simply fails taking the island he's attacking, or takes long enough for you to take 3-5.

Interesting, and agreeing completely. Allow me to add an example of a perfectly operational and as far as I know, quite profitable PC-only platform: DCS (Digital Combat Simulator), a simulator that runs on a broad range of computer systems. The DCS system is free to download and play, and gives you access to a huge battle area, and control over one airplane. You can buy additional packs that plug into the DCS program, and add additional planes and helicopters to fly, but there's also packs that turn the whole thing into an RTS where you take control over the battlefield ground units, or even take direct control over a tank and turn the thing into a tank sim. Scrapser, if you want to see something that is NOT dumbed down, have a look at their DCS- A-10C Warthog pack. It's as close a non-pilot can get to flying the real deal. it IS possible. It IS profitable. (they're on their, what, 8th pack now) One just needs to get the head right. Picking the right kind of product helps, but more importantly, not let it get screwed up by funny business. (IE. war Z, Diablo 3) Anyway, thought i'd throw that in there as example of how it can be.

Thanks for the clarification Johny!

I was just having a conversation today about similar worries Jureidinim. And then, BAM! Another patch update! Good timing I'd say, hah. However- the one thing I'd really like to see a fix for isn't in there, and the mention of this being the last update before the official release of the patch makes me fear it won't be in there at all.... the walrus AI pathfinding. I'd really think that's priority.

Completely agreeing with Tortuosit. Yes, that was out loud. I've been around here from the start, assisting where I could, and I'm saddened by... well, I cannot think of any way to put it without being penalised for it. Having said that- I do strongly stress, that I'm still fully behind the product. All it needs, is the patch that, as I'm assuming, the devs are still working very hard on. They've had a tinker with the map nav grid, now they were looking into, if I'm not mistaking, the walrus nav AI acting up when another walrus is in it's path. (I.E. on follow, or simply moving to thesame spot as others) Once that has been improved, the biggest issues will be delt with and everyone will be happy to pick up Carrier Command. Releasing the beta patch with the nav grid fix was a great step, now we're all getting curious about the next one. Any word on progress of the patch from the devs? As I mentioned in earlier posts- loving any tech details on what's being worked on, plus, it'll let us all know that there is in fact still hard work going on behind the scenes :D

Agreed. Pathfinding AI fix will put this thing to the top of my favourites list.

I suspect most people that used to post here are simply waiting for the patch, I myself included :D The recent beta patch, if it'd work for you, fixed many of the pathfinding problems that are maprelated. I'm hoping the next step in the patch development will be the fixing of the AI, more precisely the navigation getting confused when another walrus is near the the planned path. Once that is sorted, (and the few remaining maprelated issues) most navigation will work flawlessly.

Aye, a tech tree progression option for strategy mode seems to be a popular request. However, considering the negative feedback on the first person shooter parts, this should also be a choice option. (however I do believe that'd include having to create the actual first person missions too, so I doubt it'll be good use of resources) Strategy mode options Enable tech tree progression (hack enemy labs) yes/no Enable first person missions (turns some hack tasks into first person missions) yes/no

Agreed- the love you speak of, mateyj80, should be going into the "strategy" mode of gameplay, which is the main bulk of the game. You can merrily capture all the islands and build them up to your standards as much as you desire. The campaign is there to give you a nice story and a tutorial, a nice start before diving into strategy mode- to get your mind into the story, sort of.

Inded, skirmish mode is the main deal and the carrier will need to be sunk only once. However in the campaign, if you followed the story, you've been told you need to collect the plans for a special torpedo. These plans are hidden on some of the later islands, so you can't permanently destroy the carrier until you have these torpedos.

On behalf of the more active members of the forums, I'd like to ask what sort of feedback would be useful to the developers from us, the playing, modding and tech-savvy public. Allow me to clarify. I've noticed a significant improvement in walrus AI since the beta patch, however on some islands, I still notice serious pathfinding issues. This makes me think it's island-specific, and as mentioned before in other posts, we're guessing it has to do with the navigation mesh. What sort of feedback would the devs like to receive? would it help them in any way if we provide the islands and exact locations where pathfinding is still wonky (consistently), or would that just waste your (and our) time? Also, is there anything specific we need to pay attention to? And lastly, and I'm not sure if you can answer this, but- how's the walrus pathfinding work, exactly, and what was the problem with it? I'm sure there's a lot of techies on these forums that would love to know, but I've seen noone ask it this bluntly yet ;)

Loving the pathfinding fixes, I restarted the campaign, both for my amusement and to have a look for any bugs. Found a big one. Carrier command steam version, beta version of 1.03 installed, fully functional. Win 7 64 system specs can be provided if relevant. Restarted campaign, clean start. I'm at the point where I need to find the two parts for the missile. I've got a re-createable crash to desktop when approaching the island Taksaven. If I remember correctly it contains a part for the missile so the campaign cannot be completed. As soon as the island loads, I get a crash to desktop, along with an error message: NULL pointer to instance Class: trigger_trigger_minefield01 function: 'onload' Happens every time with no exception, so if someone can verify that this island is indeed not accessible at all in the campaign, that'd be grand. Probably just a crossed wire somewhere.

That's correct. I always like it when the story gives you the impression of urgency, but the gameplay doesn't actually force you into rushing. Timers = bad!

Tontow- ductape does fix everything. If ductape don't fix it; it ain't broke.

Island: Granite The turn on the Southeast coast road, where it connects to the sea. Directly below the middle base. The entire turn causes some issues about 60% of the time. North of the central base containing the headquarters: When moving the walrus from west to east or east to west, on the plain directly in front of the base, very often the path leading through the base is chosen. Suggest creation of a road/path in front of it, west to east, near the treeline. Small Northeast bridge. Walrus ends up in the canyon below 90% of the time. Presence of other walrusses causes issues throughout the entire island because of the narrow paths. (Not due to navgrid, but the dynamic obstacle avoidance problems)

We've received some useful info in regards to persisting pathfinding problems: "We did many changes to pathfinding in the latest patch. The first one is fixed bug in navigation-space generator which accidentally created paths down from the cliffs, or contrary, up the steep hill. This solved problems on certain islands where the walruses were totally hopeless. If you can report certain island or certain spot on the island where the problem persists we will appreciate it. That what you were asking for, so yes, please - feedback is welcome. (...) Filip Doksansky Lead Programmer Bohemia Interactive" I suggest to keep this thread clear of chats and discussions about pathfinding, and only post the exact locations of where you've encountered pathfinding issues. Please test thoroughly before posting- one small hickup does not mean it's an actual problem in the code. Test with a single walrus on the island, in defensive mode, and preferrably test it a good few times so you're certain it should be mentioned here. Thanks in advance for your support!

I'll take the liberty of copying some info down here as it is relevant: In regards to walrus pathfinding, how it works, what was fixed, and what was wrong. Very interesting stuff! "We did many changes to pathfinding in the latest patch. The first one is fixed bug in navigation-space generator which accidentally created paths down from the cliffs, or contrary, up the steep hill. This solved problems on certain islands where the walruses were totally hopeless. If you can report certain island or certain spot on the island where the problem persists we will appreciate it. That what you were asking for, so yes, please - feedback is welcome. Another problem is dynamic obstacle avoidance which was extremely pessimistic and one walrus ahead of another rendered completely blocked pathway and forced the one behind to look for other way. This hasn't been solved completely yet but improved a lot. We are still working on it. Last big problem is assist AI action which is sometimes stressed with constantly changing terrain, width of pathway, dynamic obstacles, different speeds of vehicles etc. It has been improved a lot but some problems still remain. It's the top most priority now. best regards, Filip Doksansky Lead Programmer Bohemia Interactive" Leads me to conclude that a lot of my pathfinding issues were caused by a walrus somewhere up ahead. Interesting stuff. As for feedback- I'll make a separate post for that as not to clutter this one. Turns out that many of my current nav problems have to do with another walrus being somewhere down the line of the chosen path. So I reckon it's mostly the dynamic obstacle avoidance that's unknowingly causing people problems at this time. When doing tests with a single walrus on the island, performance is significantly better. That'd also explain how one walrus decides to take "the long way around."

If I'm not mistaken you can continue taking over all the other islands except for... Fulcrum I believe. You'll need the missile for that one so once you get there and haven't gotten the missile, you'll have to wait until it's fixed. Shouldn't be long now as the patch is in Beta now.