Ryko

Here is the final change log for Beta 059: we'll be running the next beta test this coming Wednesday at 1800 UTC. If all goes as planned and there are no major bugs, this may very well be the release version! 059 --- NEW 1. Added mission persistence and set to ON by default. When server restarts, completed AOs / player rewards are loaded from persistent save. 2. Added smoke screen deployment option to heavy air trans vehicles (Ghosthawk, Huron, Blackfish level vehicles). It is a action menu item (similar to the deploy ammo box) and will be available when the vehicle is going less than 40 km/h and more than 400m away from base. You have one charge, which can be reloaded at Air service or helipads. 3. Added Artillery Smoke reward (1000 points). 4. Added Button in rewards menu to show/hide vehicles, weapons and gear that the player is restricted from purchasing due to their role. Useful to let you purchase a non-role vehicle, then activate the related squad. 5. Added Vehicle Flag reward (lets you add your faction's flag to your current vehicle) 6. Replaced vehicle servicing functionality with vanilla repair / rearm / refuel functionality - you just have to drive into the service area, and R/R/R will activate automatically. Vehicle ammo/fuel paradrops also now function this way, but those boxes will despawn after five minutes. FIXES 1. Turret toggling in Ghosthawk 2. UAV secondary mission 3. Further fixes to prevent players having access to prohibited gear via the arsenal 4. Players can no longer donate fractions of reward points (trying to donate 10.7 points will cause you do donate 10 points) 5. Inventory may no longer randomly close (cleanUp function was deleting player's virtual inventory item) 6. Empty reward vehicles show up on map. 7. Skills assignment to OPFOR AI 8. Attempt to stop AI from spawning in rocks 9. Reinforcement troops added to composition of enemy, changes win condition and cleanup activities 10. Ammo drop reward wasn't spawning correctly. 11. Notifications for when player is incapacitated or killed. 12. Tweaks to how Goblin UAV spawns 13. Redesign base restrictions to prevent trolling / griefing and bringing vehicles into player spawn area. 14. Fixes to prevent exploit on loading gear from arsenal to elude gear restriction. 15. Gunner positions in the Armed Blackfish are now usable by non-VIPER crew members. TWEAKS 1. Tweaks to rescue civilians mission. 2. Tweaks to ambient AI spawn placement. 3. Tweaks to garbage cleanup script. 4. Tweaks to enemy awareness scripting. 5. Tweaks to UAV respawning. 6. Tweaks to respawn loadouts. If you have a loadout saved from the arsenal, you won't get the default loadout for your role on respawn. 7. Tweak to map markers: empty vehicles show as dark yellow instead of yellow. 8. Tweak to ammo depot, repair depot and command+control sub objectives: 8A. Destroying the objective will no longer despawn nearby friendly vehicles (whoops!). 8B. Tweaked how holdAction charges are set (only one player at a time can set charges, you can't set them more than once, and a notification will spam to nearby players when the charges are set). 8C. Tweaked how they are spawned, trying not to spawn them directly on roads. 9. Tweak to enemy reinforcement notification (shortened text to fit in notification box). 10. Tweak to artillery reward - will now only give one 'splash' report before barrage begins. 11. Tweak to enemy mortar sub objective, and determining how that task completes. 12. Tweak to custom vault action. Fixed for when 'v' key is used in vehicles, should resort to default behaviour. 13. Removed enemy counter attack from secondary missions, not super interesting, win conditions were difficult and in general it was just misbehaving. 14. Tweak: NATO now has advanced MAAWS, AAF has basic MAAWS (was reversed, thanks Bohemia for confusing class names) 15. Tweak to revive, trying to fix bug which puts you in medical animation even while you are incapacitated 16. Tweak to player name tags: name and tag are now place at chest level and responds to player stance position. 17. Tweaked how map markers are updated and communicated to players. 18. Reward menu (gear) now only propogates items that attach to weapons you have in your inventory. 19. Removed Shelldrake (Mortars) squad - problematic in a few ways. 20. If you are in an air group where no vehicles are available for that group, you will be kicked from that group (VIPER, REAPER and TALON) 21. Commander cannot kick players from slots in layer configured for pub play (default) 22. Talon (CAP) vehicles can no longer mount air-to-ground ordinance, but are restricted to air to air and anit-radiation missiles. 23. Tweaks to heavy asset respawn times (slightly longer). 24. Slight buff to skill level for the following enemy AI: Anti-air soldier, Pilots, Crew, Squad Leader, Team Leader. 25. Added 5.56mm magazines to NATO/NATO pacific faction ammo boxes. Simplified how ammo/ vehicle ammo/ vehicle fuel boxes are delivered to the battlefield (no longer spawn a delivery vehicle). 26. Changed how vehicle rearming works for air vehicles with dynamic pylon loading. Instead of selecting individual weapons, the player can now purchase pre-configured loadouts for these vehicles. 27. Civilians who stray outside the AO distance are now deleted. 28. Attempts to fix seat switching to roles you're not allowed have failed; you'll be ejected if you try.

It's being tested internally at the moment to make sure it's ready for primetime

Version 059 is now in internal testing. Change log: 059 --- NEW 1. Added mission persistence and set to ON by default. When server restarts, completed AOs / player rewards are loaded from persistent save. 2. Added smoke screen deployment option to heavy air trans vehicles (Ghosthawk, Huron, Blackfish level vehicles). It is a action menu item (similar to the deploy ammo box) and will be available when the vehicle is going less than 40 km/h and more than 400m away from base. You have one charge, which can be reloaded at Air service or helipads. 3. Added Artillery Smoke reward (1000 points). 4. Added Button in rewards menu to show/hide vehicles, weapons and gear that the player is restricted from purchasing due to their role. Useful to let you purchase a non-role vehicle, then activate the related squad. FIXES 1. Turret toggling in Ghosthawk 2. UAV secondary mission 3. Further fixes to prevent players having access to prohibited gear via the arsenal 4. Players can no longer donate fractions of reward points (trying to donate 10.7 points will cause you do donate 10 points) 5. Inventory may no longer randomly close (cleanUp function was deleting player's virtual inventory item) (still working on this) 6. Empty reward vehicles show up on map. 7. Skills assignment to OPFOR AI 8. Attempt to stop AI from spawning in rocks 9. Reinforcement troops added to composition of enemy, changes win condition and cleanup activities 10. Ammo drop reward wasn't spawning correctly. 11. Notifications for when player is incapacitated or killed. TWEAKS 1. Tweaks to rescue civilians mission. 2. Tweaks to ambient AI spawn placement. 3. Tweaks to garbage cleanup script. 4. Tweaks to enemy awareness scripting. 5. Tweaks to UAV respawning. 6. Tweaks to respawn loadouts. If you have a loadout saved from the arsenal, you won't get the default loadout for your role on respawn. 7. Tweak to map markers: empty vehicles show as dark yellow instead of yellow. 8. Tweak to ammo depot, repair depot and command+control sub objectives: 8A. Destroying the objective will no longer despawn nearby friendly vehicles (whoops!). 8B. Tweaked how holdAction charges are set (only one player at a time can set charges, you can't set them more than once, and a notification will spam to nearby players when the charges are set). 8C. Tweaked how they are spawned, trying not to spawn them directly on roads. 9. Tweak to enemy reinforcement notification (shortened text to fit in notification box). 10. Tweak to artillery reward - will now only give one 'splash' report before barrage begins. 11. Tweak to enemy mortar sub objective, and determining how that task completes. 12. Tweak to custom vault action. Fixed for when 'v' key is used in vehicles, should resort to default behaviour. 13. Removed enemy counter attack from secondary missions, not super interesting, win conditions were difficult and in general it was just misbehaving. 14. Tweak: NATO now has advanced MAAWS, AAF has basic MAAWS (was reversed, thanks Bohemia for confusing class names) 15. Tweak to revive, trying to fix bug which puts you in medical animation even while you are incapacitated 16. Tweak to player name tags: name and tag are now place at chest level and responds to player stance position. 17. Tweaked how map markers are updated and communicated to players. 18. Reward menu (gear) now only propogates items that attach to weapons you have in your inventory. 19. Removed Shelldrake (Mortars) squad - t'was problematic in a few ways. 20. If you are in an air group where no vehicles are available for that group, you will be kicked from that group (VIPER, REAPER and TALON) 21. Commander cannot kick players from slots in layer configured for pub play (default) 22. Talon (CAP) vehicles can no longer mount air-to-ground ordinance, but are restricted to air to air and anit-radiation missiles. 23. Tweaks to heavy asset respawn times (slightly longer). 24. Slight buff to skill level for the following enemy AI: Anti-air soldier, Pilots, Crew, Squad Leader, Team Leader. 25. Added 5.56mm magazines to NATO/NATO pacific faction ammo boxes.

Increasing the skill level for manpads is a good idea, actually. We tried VCOM on EU1 in the past, it took about 15 fps off of everyone's experience. We might try again with I&A4, not sure if it was just how I&A3 ran that killed performance.

I understand, but it is useful to know where it is for a variety of good reasons... as in, figuring out where it impossibly spawned so as to help players complete the mission

Yes, that's still an option, haven't been using it as it's more useful to have everything open for the beta. Plus, on EU1, my sense is that the players prefer to have everything open, but we can certainly discuss whether we want things to run that way. It's possible of course, the problem is that if/when the number and distribution of players decreases, now there is a high level of anti-air that makes it even more difficult for the current number of players. Balance is extremely difficult, I think we're almost at the right level.

Well, I could set it up so that Talon can't mount air-to-ground ordinance, I was kind of hoping to not have to go into that level of detail, but perhaps it's necessary. But I think the point you're trying to make is correct, it's not about the assets, it's about the players and how they use them. No amount of code can fix that.

Unfortunately I have to put this into the "blame Bohemia" category, as that's how they've decided to engineer the holdAction. Technically, I think as long as you're pressing space bar on the "holdAction" you shouldn't trigger any other actions (you'd have to stop reviving, and then hit another action). At least, that's how it's supposed to work. I should add smoke arty shells as a purchasable reward.

Well, I do wonder if the role is perhaps a bit too powerful for EU1? There is an artillery reward that's perhaps a bit more reliable and strategic. I see a couple of issues with Shelldrake: 1. Players who go into the mortar role with no experience, so you have to talk them through the whole thing of getting the backpacks, etc. 2. Players who take the role, continually ask other groups if they need support and don't get any response because the groups in the field don't want it 3. Players who take the role and launch all their shells into the AO without permission. Much like the UAV role, I believe the Shelldrake role also doesn't generate reward points for kills. I am very on the fence about keeping Shelldrake in general EU1 pub play, I don't think I have really seen a situation where they were used effectively.

Yes, this is how it works - the lock option will appear when you are 400m away from the player spawn zone.

Yep, should have thought of that, though I'm not sure of the solution. My intent was to prevent griefing by players, locking assets in base. Your thoughts on this are appreciated, I can think of worse situations. 1. Player locks vehicle that's sitting on a service pad. 2. Player locks vehicle parked on runway. In both cases, leaving the vehicle results in a griefing situation.

If you're looking for the awe (eu3) server, it is currently offline.

Well, you'd expect the "railed" classname to be the one with the fancy optic, but it's not. It's the other way around Fixed in next version.

On the topic of the MAAWS, I'm confused, as I think I'm giving the Mod 1 version to NATO and the Mod 0 version to AAF. NATO class name: "launch_MRAWS_green_rail_F" AAF class name: "launch_MRAWS_green_F" Am I missing something obvious?

I&A4 version 058 ------ 1. Overhauled how artillery rewards work. Instead of trying to make the Liberty fire shells, shells are now created dynamically. Results in greater accuracy for calculating ETA and other benefits. Shells are also laser guided, so if you have a laser designator, you can precisely designate a target within 500m of the targeted point. 2. Tweaks to UAV respawning to prevent crashing. 3. Removed full service button from vehicle repair. 4. Fixed holdAction on ammo depot / repair depot subObjectives, should now properly set a charge. 5. Fixes to gear removal code to prevent abuse. 6. Fixes to how Gambler / Hitman vehicles are claimed (resolves issue where player was prohibited from entering an armored vehicle when other group members were in a non-armor vehicle) 7. Minor fixes for vehicle and backpack locking. 8. Fix: added exception handler to catch case where player is incapacitated while reviving or healing another, should prevent player from being put into medical animation while player is unconscious. 9. Overhauled destroy command + control center subObjective with a less confusing win condition. 9A. Added task images for some sub-objectives for greater clarity. 10. Further tweaks to enemy infantry vs armor balancing (slightly more infantry, slightly less armor). Secondary missions now include some level of randomness, but not linked to player count and generally a lower number of units overall. 11. Tweak: added code to remove zombies at base 12. Tweak to destroy prototype tank mission (instead of just super thick armor, it now has an active defence system) 13. Fixed turret locking on Ghosthawk. 14. Lights in base no longer destructible. 15. Added hint/hintC/kick functionality for admin players to the Players section of the Squad interface. 16. UAV strike is offline for the time being to have a think about how it can be better implemented. 17. Fixes to vehicle rearming. 18. Fixes to custom groups.

Yes, you can add an eventHandler that fires when a unit is hit, but you open up a Pandora's box regarding how you're going to handle damage. Arma has some rules regarding what happens when a bullet hits an armored target. They are not complex (which is why you had people creating mods which simulated armor plates and the like) but I'm sure this was done so as not to overly impact performance. Essentially it's a random number generated every time the target is struck, which is compared against the armor value of the target impact. Arms and legs are also not considered instantly debilitating, so between the two of these effects it explains why you can strike a target multiple times and they will rag doll a bit, but not get killed. If I were to go down this dark path, I'd have to create subroutines that track the caliber of the bullet doing the hitting, the velocity of the bullet, even the angle of impact, in order to "accurately" determine whether a target should realistically be incapacitated. Which is exactly what Bohemia wanted to avoid in the first place, as it would assuredly add a performance hit, especially when calculated on every hit.

Tomorrow!

Thanks kman There's a limited amount I can do on the points you've raised as it's hard - coded into arma. The ai spotting is already impacted by night cycles - and they are equipped with nvgs, so I'm loathe to impact them any further. As for damage, blame bi for making csat uniforms armored. This is no way different from performance you would see in i&a3 (I have not given them any extra stamina or armor).

The problem is that over time Gambler and Hitman can accumulate multiple armored vehicles and one-man each of them, which ends up (as kman indicates) dominating the AOs and making it no fun to be an infantry player. I understand your frustration, but the end result is that I need a mechanic which restricts the amount of friendly armor on the field, and this is how it's shaken out.

I'm taking a look at that mission. We may try to change it so that instead of the tank just shrugging off a certain % of damage taken, it actually employs an active defence system which lets it shoot down incoming missiles / GBUs. So the mechanic to defeat it will be to shoot multiple missiles at it at the same time, as it will only be able to defend against singular incoming threats.

Yeah, I've been struggling a bit with that bit of code and I'll be looking at it today. What is supposed to happen is when you take your role, it parses through your loadout equipment and adds to the list of equipment that's permitted, anything in the default loadout. So the Bipod should have been examined and added, but that's not happening (no matter how many different ways I try to except that...).

Beta test version 057 change log 1. Conquering an AO will now conquer zones within 1.4 km (previously conquered zones contained in the zone itself), should help to prevent zones that are 'behind' the players from being selected as the next zone 2. Some of the sub-Objectives in an AO are now mandatory to completing the main objective task. 3. Added some extra exception handler so that parachute is never removed after purchasing a paradrop, "should" prevent player from dropping without a chute. 4. Tweak to presence of enemy armor in main AO, slight reduction; slight increase to presence of enemy infantry. 5. Added notification to player who tries to spot while in base (you can't) 6. Fixed vehicle claim shenanigans, now limited to Armor squads only, infantry squads can claim all the vehicles they like. Armor (when set to default mission parameter) is limited to 1 vehicle per squad 7. Tweaks/fixes to certain reward purchases (can only use vehicle paradrop in base zone on land vehicles) 8. Added to rewards list: additional launchers to Rifleman LAT / Anti-Tank roles (MAAWS for NATO/AAF, Vorona for CSAT). Added laser designators for all non-command roles. Added medium machine guns as rewards for Heavy Gunner. 9. Teleport action to carrier moved to Talon player rather than whiteboard. Must be within 50m of the player spawn area. 10. Added teleport action to Vortex/Viper/Reaper pilots, will teleport them to helicopter spawn area. Must be within 50m of the player spawn area. 11. Tweaked AAC Airfield base 12. Tweak to enemy garrison code (trying to stop one group member from being garrisoned, and the rest from standing in formation like dorks outside the building) 13. Tweaks to vehicle pylon rearming. You can now reload configured pylons without going into the pylon screen. 14. Tweaks to how enemy vehicles are spawned, and waypoints are created, to keep them out of the tight corners of cities. 15. Fix - compass returning after respawn, if preference was set to off 16. Fix - vehicle inventory could be accessed even if vehicle was locked 17. Fix - enemy reinforcements couldn't find deployment locations 18. Fix - deployment of ammo box from Vortex chopper while touched down couldn't find deployment location 19. Tweak to how squad management interface works, player may also switch to same role in another squad while outside of base. 20. Tweak to how vehicle nudging works. 21. Tweak to gear restriction & checking. 22. Tweak to get over / v key binding, should allow regular usage for vehicles.

So right now I just add everything that's available to add. The problem is that there are different camo schemes for each vehicle so a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work. And I'm not going to expend programming time (at this point) on inherently cosmetic bits and pieces.

Yeah the vehicle-per-squad thing was a bug that's being addressed in the next version. There won't be a restriction on regular infantry squads, but (by default) Armor squads will be limited to one armored vehicle each. What this means is that if Gambler Driver is in the field, one-manning a Panther, and a Slammer spawns, Gambler Gunner won't be able to get into it and take it (you'll get an error saying that Gambler has already claimed it's vehicle (the Panther)). Gambler Driver can abandon the vehicle in the field, letting the Gunner take the Slammer, but you can't run both vehicles at the same time. I've tweaked the amount of armor that spawns in the next version. It's hard when you have some players saying there's not enough armor, and others saying too much, so eventually with tweaks every test, we'll probably find the right balance. Added in the MMG's to the next reward definitions!