Cebi

Hi folks,
 
So it turns out that many of you don't like the new TS Tags, and that's fair.  This is a classic case of starting with a small task (fix the AWE moderator tag) that snowballed into a larger task (design something that makes sense across all the icons) and exploded into a big thing (create a whole new theme).
 
And it was done in isolation, assuming that it was such a small thing that no one would care or perhaps even notice.  Boy was I wrong!
 
So, here's how I'd like to go forward from here:
 
1) We'll go back to the older tags for now.
2) I'd like to start a design competition where everyone can submit their concepts for what new tags could be, with an actual prize.
3) When people have made submissions, we'd submit them to a vote, in addition to the current legacy tags.
4) If a new set of tags is chosen by majority vote, that person would win the actual prize. If the old legacy tags are chosen, then a random person who submitted tags will win.
 
and in general, any changes to all aspects of the site, no matter how small, will be conducted with consultation. I appreciate that you people care about how we do things here, and if you didn't, it wouldn't be the great place that it is.
 
Discussion in this thread, thanks!
 
Details of the competition to follow, we will reserve the right to veto a design (No Boaty McBoatface!)
 
- R

Hello all,
 
It's time for the admin team to ask your much-valued opinion, as many of you may have noticed the current reward system is viewed as sub-par by many long-term players and this has spurred the admin team into a careful discussion of our current options.
 
What we are thinking about is a complete rework of the current reward system, and therefore I&A itself. Here's the down low on our current idea, subject to changes and open to criticism and suggestions:
 
Remove non-standard vehicles from all default spawns (including FOB's and any other old spawning methods) Add a point-based system for the purchase of non-standard vehicles, points will be awarded for... Completing AO's, Main, Priority and Side (NOT individual kills) Transporting Troops Team-based actions, for example reviving or repairing Add a point-based system for the purchase of other combat aides, artillery strikes for example. Reward points are both individual and squad-based: so you can buy rewards as an individual, or donate your points to your squad so the squad leader can buy larger rewards. Reward squad-based play without penalizing solo play, for example, players complete a mission: All players on the server get 10 individual points All players who participated in the mission get 100 individual points All squads who participated in the mission gets 50 communal points Squad leader gets +25 points (These values are wildly speculative and subject to change) Reduce player point gain in non-standard vehicles to encourage their use as a support rather than a *Lets Complete the AO* (This also promotes a fairer distribution of assets amongst players). While players are mounted on certain vehicles, they accumulate points differently: 1st class : Armoured vehicles, vehicles with cannons : no points with active reward of that kind
2nd class : Medium vehicles, vehicles with guns : half points 3rd class : Transport vehicles : full points Limit the number of extreme assets (i.e. the Slammer) to prevent overuse. E.G. MAX 1 Heavy Tank
MAX 1 Gunship class helicopter
MAX 3 APC Class Vehicles
etc...
 
Here is a WIP list of proposed spawnable's, exact point costs yet to be discussed.
 

 
As said above, we at AW value your opinions and feedback. When it comes to the up and coming next iteration of I&A, this is the place to air your grievances, ideas and comments. 
 
Thank you in advance,

@Eagle-Eye: I enjoyed reading through your document. Even though this would take some substantial time on my side to learn you motivated me to try. I live near 21st. Air Force Base Caslav and some of my friends use radios to listen to pilots chatting with ATC and then spot approaching (or leaving) planes and helicopters with binos or cameras. To be able to more understand what they are saying is bonus cherry on top.

IonceWasATeddy was aware that there is situation going on as Scar contacted him.
 
But truth to be told this was the first time I witnessed something like this and at first, I was unsure what to do. It came back to me today on my morning commute and decided that I must write a forum post about what transpired yesterday and I found out there is already this discussion going on. Do these guys even sleep?
 
Edit:
To add to the discussion: First come - first serve is very common with rewards for pilots and I became used to it and never doubted the fairness of a "race" to get into that juicy AH-99, A-164 or Mi-48. Rarely any of the pilots really "deserved" that reward by active participation on completing side missions. So if somebody bested me I learned to stop whining that they will crash it in 5 minutes and instead provided helping tips how to survive around active AO and still be effective. And then I facepalmed as they crashed it or cheered for them as they landed at the base to rearm.
 
I think that current state is ok if we act like civilised people. But there may be another way.
 
We do have a point reward system tied to score. You can spend these points for various fire missions. What if completing side mission (namely interacting with the objective) awarded 1 special point that you could then spent at Reward NPC. After consuming the point the reward rolled from the pool will spawn next to reward NPC. The race for the reward will change to race for the objective. Of course, we might face a different set of problems with this :).
 
Just an idea.
 

@Eagle-Eye: I enjoyed reading through your document. Even though this would take some substantial time on my side to learn you motivated me to try. I live near 21st. Air Force Base Caslav and some of my friends use radios to listen to pilots chatting with ATC and then spot approaching (or leaving) planes and helicopters with binos or cameras. To be able to more understand what they are saying is bonus cherry on top.

@Eagle-Eye: I enjoyed reading through your document. Even though this would take some substantial time on my side to learn you motivated me to try. I live near 21st. Air Force Base Caslav and some of my friends use radios to listen to pilots chatting with ATC and then spot approaching (or leaving) planes and helicopters with binos or cameras. To be able to more understand what they are saying is bonus cherry on top.

I don't know which idiot wrote that script in the first post but it is rubbish, it only works for vehicles you name and needs to be endlessly copy pasted in the init files. Who the heck even listened to that idiot?  
 
On a more serious note:  after @Chuck Norris messaged me in TS asking me if that script could take an array of vehicles i had to answer that it didn't. So i set out to fix that. After writing multiple scripts that either don't do anything or don't do what i want them to do, contained multiple nested ifs and where pretty long i came up with this solution (if anyone could tell me why i wrote those damn long scripts before coming up with this?):
/*description: script that allows vehicles that are in the GunsInBase array to shoot in a given radius around a given marker. All other vehicles cannot fire in base. Can be put in both init.sqf and initPlayer.sqf. author: AW-community */ GunsInBase = ["B_MRAP_01_hmg_F"]; player addEventHandler ["Firedman", { params ["_unit", "_weapon", "", "", "", "", "_projectile","_veh"]; if (!(typeOf _veh in GunsInBase) && (_unit distance (getMarkerPos "hunterSpawn")) < 300) then {deleteVehicle _projectile; hintC "Don't fire inside the base!";}; }];  
Features:
-works for any vehicle not in the 'GunsInBase' array this includes players
-works for all vehicle turrets
-works for firing from vehicles
-partially works for smokescreens (it displays the message but doesn't delete the smoke)
 
 
I'm still trying to:
-add a whitelist for vehicles that are of a type not in the gunsinbase array but do need to be able to fire
-add a whitelist for a given set of UIDs
-add an array of the markers around which shooting isn't allowed
(-get a girlfriend and/or more icecream @TheScar )

So some practical info:
-it is supposed to replace the current script
-it can be placed in the following files: init.sqf, initPlayerLocal.sqf, onPlayerRespawn.sqf (i advise to put it in the last for the fobs, chuck will know what i'm talking about)
-instead of an array that says which stuff can fire in base, an array can be made for which can't.  However keep in mind that you'd need to add ALL vehicles in this array.  I strongly advise to use the version in this post.

Hey guys,
 
On EU #2 a few days ago, @TomShen mentioned it would be cool if someone took on the role of air traffic controller (ATCo). We discussed it a bit, and he said he didn't really know enough about it to do it himself. Being a former ab-initio ATCo, I began explaining what we could do and would need, but for obvious reasons, the in-game chat isn't the best place to do that, so I told him I would make a document outlining some basic stuff and post it here. I just finished the first version decent enough for public release (v0.9) which you can download here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11459075/ArmA/AW/AW ATC - Pilot.pdf
 
It's based on real knowledge and manuals, trimmed down to what I think we could use in ArmA. I know that in general, the contents of this document are (WAAAAY) beyond the scope of our public servers, I'm just putting it out here because Tom requested the info, and who knows whether some of you may use it to some extent (perhaps on AWE?).
 
Not written in the document, but I would highly advise to only use this when you have voice communications (preferably Teamspeak, DEFINITELY NOT on Global, Side or Command chat!!) since typing everything will undoubtedly end in more than a few crashes... If you feel it's missing something, let me know, and I'll look into it. If it has no place in here, let it disappear in the abyss of old and long-forgotten topics.
 
Cheers,
E²

@Cebi Huge respect for you for speaking out. Those players' behaviour was disgraceful.
And good luck to you Scar in the future, may you have all the Kumas.

@TheScar:
I understand your rage Scar. Actions of those players were intended to provoke you. To get rid of you with the perma ban. I don't know what you did to them or how you deserved their attention but they said it themselves on TS yesterday evening. 
 
@IOnceWasATeddy : Even if there is no proof. Those players were very much aware of what they are doing and announced their intent via TS to provoke SCAR to kill them. Off course you could not know that. When I typed to SCAR in an attempt to defuse the situation, they asked me to not contact him (basically shushed me). But can I ask you what passed through your head when you saw them perched on the hilltop away from AO (doing exactly nothing with that KUMA for at least 10 minutes) with SCAR at their back?
 
@ALL I am past the age that stigma of a snitch on the internet can bother me. I won't stand aside when somebody is trying to BULLY or PROVOKE others to get them banned from servers. In future cases with these MEMBERS please consider what I said in this post.
 
@SUPERLOVERs: I was disgusted by your lack of honour and respect to fellow player yesterday. I was used to dealing with this on PvP scene but we are on bloody COOP server. Can't you play nice with other kids?

@Stanhope You are not supposed to know. You can care about their opinion if they annouce it. If not do what you deem the best for overall effort.

@Stanhope
I cant agree with you. You say that if passangers cant be bothered to tell/type you their destination then you will not provide transport for them and will just sit on the pad untill somebody asks you to go somewhere? That you have problems to get people into your helicopter when you are landed on the pad with turbines off?
If you meet resistence...maybe you are swiming against the flow. I get it that all that you say is common sense and courtesy but in some games such things can only get you mad.
 
What if some of the players cant understand your language.
PS: You compared your service to a cab driver, but what if players are expecting us to be more like bus, metro or train.
@Eagle-Eye
How will you go about changing peoples mentality? You need rules and game design to support that. Not a topic on a forum which only regulars and people interested in community visit.

@Stanhope
I cant agree with you. You say that if passangers cant be bothered to tell/type you their destination then you will not provide transport for them and will just sit on the pad untill somebody asks you to go somewhere? That you have problems to get people into your helicopter when you are landed on the pad with turbines off?
If you meet resistence...maybe you are swiming against the flow. I get it that all that you say is common sense and courtesy but in some games such things can only get you mad.
 
What if some of the players cant understand your language.
PS: You compared your service to a cab driver, but what if players are expecting us to be more like bus, metro or train.
@Eagle-Eye
How will you go about changing peoples mentality? You need rules and game design to support that. Not a topic on a forum which only regulars and people interested in community visit.

@Stanhope
I cant agree with you. You say that if passangers cant be bothered to tell/type you their destination then you will not provide transport for them and will just sit on the pad untill somebody asks you to go somewhere? That you have problems to get people into your helicopter when you are landed on the pad with turbines off?
If you meet resistence...maybe you are swiming against the flow. I get it that all that you say is common sense and courtesy but in some games such things can only get you mad.
 
What if some of the players cant understand your language.
PS: You compared your service to a cab driver, but what if players are expecting us to be more like bus, metro or train.
@Eagle-Eye
How will you go about changing peoples mentality? You need rules and game design to support that. Not a topic on a forum which only regulars and people interested in community visit.

I always ask my passangers where they want to go. If I dont get a response then I announce my intentions. Most of the times they will agree on my plan of ingress. If somebody wants to be droped elsewhere then I ask them to stay in the heli during first landing.
 
I shut my engines if I land as a second helicopter on the pads. This way If your engine is down people will board active helicopter first and when it leaves I will spool up. Most public players consider you inactive or AFK if you have engines switched off.
 
Never had much troubles or missunderstandings with my aproach. Some of the actions I have read above feels wrong to me. Good pilots should understand that they are supposed to support players on the server and provide SAFE transport.

True Stanhope, but one worth being aware of. As much as I would be upset by it, it might be worth removing the falcon from the rewards list if it repeatedly causes these kinds of issue.

So i was studying some python and get fed up with it so i took another look at the scripts off I&A3.1.  As we all know vehicles are not included in base protection, leading to the occasional mass TK in base.  So i looked at the code a bit and wrote some code that includes vehicle in base protection.  
 
The code:
 
I tested it with a hunter, a slammer, a ghosthawk, a .50cal turret, a wipeout, a mortar and a greyhawk.  The script works for each one.  (The wipeout was fun because 1 click equals a burst of 20 rounds, meaning you get more than one of those hints.)
 
And like with the base i designed: it is, of course, up to whoever it's up to to decide if this gets used or not.  I'm just sharing something i made.  If you got any questions about it, PM me or post them down here.

A good NSFW topic would be nice aswell...

UAVs have NV in 1st person. Problem solved.

@[Luftwaffe]fr4q you look...damaged. Lets call repair specialist
To stay on topic:

 
Me explaining autorotation and vortex ring state to some dudes.
 
 

There is my little cutie born at 17.12.2016 with 3375g and 50cm ♥ Happy Christmas everyone ♥ *EDIT* Its´s a Girl

this should fix any fog issues, simply insert into init.sqf
 
if (isdedicated) then {true spawn {while {true} do {30 setfog [0,0,0];sleep 600;};};};  

@Jason.
It happened before I@A3 and I can confirm that it is not only I@A that suffers from it.
 
You know the drill, Jason. Find Admin or get mission restarted. If there are only a few players online you can do it by chat command.
 
@TheScar
So you got pissed about bad weather and some steel rain on you? I am pissed about a bad weather if my feeble body is exposed to it but not when I am sitting in my chair sipping on a cup of hot spiced wine playing a video game (-:. If the bad weather is bothering you can try to ask Zeus/Admin or switch server. I think they will be happy to help as most of the public crowd hates these conditions and it is generally good for donations to have a smoothly running server.
 
I know you prefer to run solo but what you describe is much more manageable if you team up. Shared misery is more bearable for me in real life and in a game too.  
 
BTW:
3000h on I@A only?
Arma offers a really wide variety of game modes. Sometimes it is good to hit the server browser again and find more missions to explore to get a wider picture.
 
Ahoj

Bitterly amused
 
Simple config change in titan ammo properties would make it less "magical". I am sometimes saddened by these bugs that have been reported to BIS ages ago but are still not resolved even after targeting revamp.
 
Would love to see a proper boost and glide flight modes of missiles but just making them turn properly would be enough.