I&A 4 Beta Test Feedback

[Ryko]

1 hour ago, Lindi said:

 

@Ryko - Is the dynamic squad layout still a thing, limiting number and types of squads according to player numbers? I feel for example that Vortex-1 is enough with say ~10 players. Vortex-2 would activate at say ~25 players... CAS/CAP assets would become available somewhere around ~35-40 players?

 

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.

 

Quote

Either increasing the rate of "Anti-Air (Goalkeeper)" objectives, or spawning a few more AA-infantry/static launchers?

 

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.

[Lindi]

My thought was, by restricting the number of air assets when the player count decreases we have less of a problem with too many pilot, that potentially spoil the fun for the few infantry players by just leveling everything alone. I find that simply increasing the enemy strength does not solve the problem and might actually be an incentive for some to utilize the air assets even more.

In the worst case the air assets are lost and the players are at an even bigger disadvantage.

[MidnightRunner]

Would it be possible to have the cache  in the side mission not show on the Zeus interface by default, conscious of it being interacted with or deleted by mistake. #Childproofing

[Ryko]

27 minutes ago, MidnightRunner said:

Would it be possible to have the cache  in the side mission not show on the Zeus interface by default, conscious of it being interacted with or deleted by mistake

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

[MidnightRunner]

They are still easy to find if you need to, so would it be better to avoid breaking the mission and people could add it to their interface if needed?

[Lindi]

1 hour ago, MidnightRunner said:

They are still easy to find if you need to, so would it be better to avoid breaking the mission and people could add it to their interface if needed?

As it is in I&A3 right now. We are used to add them if need be!

[kman]

4 hours ago, Stanhope said:

kman as you appear so bothered by it, did you submit a player report?  As it's clearly rule breaking. 

Stan, I dont rly took those screenshots to seek punisment for SoldSoul. Yes he obviously didn't read rules thoroughly, and was thinking he does no wrong - which on publicly accessible server is just bound to happen over and over. You explain to one and another will come next day.

Its more to show that system needs to be tweaked to prevent it as much as possible automaticaly, thats why we are having Beta after all.

[Lindi]

This being a public server means there will always be players who unintentionally or even intentionally break the rules. I would be very happy if all of us regulars just try to remind the new guys about the rules. If that doesn't help, then you can use the !admin command and player report function if an admin is not available. People will always find loop holes rules and in the code, the Spartan and Admin teams will of course try our utmost to keep order on the server.

 

A quick note on the player report; it is always a good idea to submit a screenshot or two, maybe even a recording as evidence of an incident, that will help the admins resolve the issue as fast and accurately as possible. The reply to a report is not instant, but all reports will be handled and resolved and both parties the reporting player and the player being being reported will be notified, the later in case the report leads to action being taken.

[RiverWolf]

On 4/2/2019 at 5:00 PM, WinterMute said:

Would it be possible to buff enemy AA abilities when the ratio of pilots:infantry gets too high?

 

Either increasing the rate of "Anti-Air (Goalkeeper)" objectives, or spawning a few more AA-infantry/static launchers?

 

It sounds like you don't want to neuter the abilities of Talon etc... but it could encourage them to work with infantry, if they are unable to knock out an AO without significant risk to their (limited availability, iirc?) jet.

 

I have noticed while Zeusing in I&A 4 that AA manpads rarely use their shoulder mounted launchers, example for instance, there are two AA running around in the AO with no Bluefor anywhere near them, a Ghost hawk comes flying over the top of them and drops it's infantry and still gets out completely safe and with no engagement, I have also noticed the massive lack in enemy jets and helo's for Talon and Bluefor manpads to shoot down too but as I have Zeus powers I can throw some enemy air assets at them every now and then until it's changed, I did that very thing the other night and Talon was dealing with what I threw at them which took their focus off of ground targets and I'd like to say enhanced their gameplay.

[Kacper]

2 hours ago, RiverWolf said:

I have noticed while Zeusing in I&A 4 that AA manpads rarely use their shoulder mounted launchers, example for instance, there are two AA running around in the AO with no Bluefor anywhere near them, a Ghost hawk comes flying over the top of them and drops it's infantry and still gets out completely safe and with no engagement

Maybe increasing the skill level for manpads will help? Not sure cuz its still Arma AI...

btw @Ryko i know that AI is smarter and more challenging than before but is there any chance to use something like VCOM AI in the future?

Edited April 3, 2019 by Kacper
vcom ai

[Ryko]

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.

[Ryko]

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.

[Mad Eye Moody]

Whats the password please?

 

[WinterMute]

I&A4 is being tested on EU1 at various times, no password required

[Ryko]

41 minutes ago, Mad Eye Moody said:

Whats the password please?

 

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

[WinterMute]

2 hours ago, Ryko said:

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

Ooh "internal" is the keyword. Whoops! We'll see it when we see it

[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.

[Johnson]

Gonna try to get some of us old EU#3 cretins on the next Beta Test to see what we're all missing. Should be fun, can't wait to see how much I&A has changed.

 

@HybridRage@Pancake @Minipily @kennychr @Wavy_Gravy

[Admiralbumfluff]

I'm enjoying how its shaping up, gonna be waiting for the next BETA to go live.

any word yet on what forces we are gonna be playing as ? CTRG would be cool AF

[Ryko]

Change log for beta 060
---
NEW
1. Changed how UAV optics work, no longer uses the keypad, but mouse control. UAV strike reward is back; purchasing it activates two Scalpel missiles for the player to use. After six missiles have been fired, Goblin will RTB to rearm.
2. Added Sniper teams to OPFOR assets in main AO, randomly spawn when player number > 35 players.

FIXES
1. Several bugs related to improvements implemented in dynamic groups.
2. Donate button was obscured by filter button in rewards screen
3. Bug related to map icons
4. UAV respawning
5. Bug related to role removal (no vehicle available)
6. Bug related to mission persistence
7. CTRG marksmen now have SPAR-17 as default weapon
8. Base cleanup
9. Refine how Zeus modules are created/used in attempt to stop Admins from being battleye kicked en masse

TWEAKS
1. Optimizations to ambient AI subroutines
2. Added nearest player notice while player incapacitated.
3. Added additional MAAWS rockets to ammo boxes.
4. Revives will bring you back to a wounded state. If you were revived by a medic, you will be revived back to normal.
5. Slight reduction in main AO assets to improve performance.
6. Added maintenance loop to synchronize tasks for JIP players (and other rare circumstances where players don't see active tasks).

[Stanhope]

Errors from my RPT for Ryko to play with:

Spoiler

20:16:58 unknown entity: ' checking.<br />22. tweak to get over / v key binding, should allow regular usage for vehicles.<br />056<br />---<br />1. kill for velocity now restricted to players outside of vehicles (ie., forgetting to pull your chute).<br />2. assets from uncompleted subobjectives now clean up after main ao is completed.<br />3. vehicle nudge action now only flips vehicles in base.<br />4. new reward vehicle classes earned in secondary missions now properly propagated to players.<br />5. added vehicle ammo drop and vehicle fuel drop miscellaneous rewards.<br />6. fix for main ao not completing error.<br />7. tweaked position of secondary arsenals by ground vehicle servicing.<br />8. gave laser batteries to default loadout of armor commander. whoops!<br />9. tweaked how uav view functionality works, 8/4/6/2 buttons now slew the camera n/w/e/s in 150m increments.<br />10. slight increase to vehicle respawn times.<br />11. developed vehicles functionality. by default, armor groups (hitman and gambler) are 

20:25:51 error in expression < = ""; };
_virtualgroup = virtualgroups select _group;
_virtualgroupmembers = _>
20:25:51   error position: <select _group;
20:25:51   error zero divisor
20:25:51 file mpmissions\__cur_mp.altis\dg\dg_client.sqf, line 109
                                   
20:36:29 Error in expression <
localVirtualGroups = [];
{	if ( count (_x select 4) > 0 ) then
{	localVirtualGr>
20:36:29   Error position: <_x select 4) > 0 ) then
{	localVirtualGr>
20:36:29   Error Undefined variable in expression: _x
20:36:29 File mpmissions\__CUR_MP.Altis\DG\squad_dialog.sqf, line 31
  
21:34:38 Error in expression <2.5,0,2.5]];
};
} forEach [rrr_freedom, rrr_aac_01, rrr_aac_02, rrr_aac_03, rrr_>
21:34:38   Error position: <rrr_aac_01, rrr_aac_02, rrr_aac_03, rrr_>
21:34:38   Error Undefined variable in expression: rrr_aac_01
21:34:38 File mpmissions\__CUR_MP.Altis\scripts\vehicle\createLocalRepair.sqf, line 25
           
21:34:39 Error in expression <ir.sqf"
waitUntil {time>1};
{	if !( _x == objNull ) then
{	_r1 = "B_Slingloa>
21:34:39   Error position: <_x == objNull ) then
{	_r1 = "B_Slingloa>
21:34:39   Error Undefined variable in expression: _x
21:34:39 File mpmissions\__CUR_MP.Altis\scripts\vehicle\createLocalRepair.sqf, line 6
  
21:34:40 Error in expression <l_01, rrr_mol_02, rrr_mol_03];
{	if !( _x == objNull ) then
{	_pads = (getPos _>
21:34:40   Error position: <_x == objNull ) then
{	_pads = (getPos _>
21:34:40   Error Undefined variable in expression: _x
21:34:40 File mpmissions\__CUR_MP.Altis\scripts\vehicle\createLocalRepair.sqf, line 27
             
21:34:40 Error in expression <e false;
} forEach _pads;
};
} forEach [rrr_aac_04, rrr_aac_05, rrr_abd_04, rrr_>
21:34:40   Error position: <rrr_aac_04, rrr_aac_05, rrr_abd_04, rrr_>
21:34:40   Error Undefined variable in expression: rrr_aac_04
21:34:40 File mpmissions\__CUR_MP.Altis\scripts\vehicle\createLocalRepair.sqf, line 35
           
22:13:37 Error in expression <lGroups = [];
{	_virtualGroups pushBack _x;
} forEach (virtualGroups + customVir>
22:13:37   Error position: <_x;
} forEach (virtualGroups + customVir>
22:13:37   Error Undefined variable in expression: _x
22:13:37 File mpmissions\__CUR_MP.Altis\DG\squad_management.sqf, line 18

 

 

[GamerbugUK]

Purchased a new sight (actually tried two) and suppresor for my marksman last night and it wouldn't allow me to attach either.

 

Only purchased from the allowed list, so wonder if this is intentional or a bug?

 

 

[MDCCLXXVI]

well done on the mission so far! I can see from the code many hundreds of hours of time & care have gone in so far. played on the server for awhile, very fun

 

maybe AO could shrink in size if there are fewer players on? 2km diameter AO is a lot of area to cover for ~20 player

[WinterMute]

That would also give a good idea of the relative risk of entering the AO. Last night the server pop halved soon after an AO spawned and it was only when I got there, got killed, and 3 enemy vehicles drove past my corpse that I realised how lethal it was 

 

2 squads of enemy soldiers with 1 vehicle (or whatever) is only enough to hold a courtyard or something, and would allow for a pitched battle to be coordinated with the limited player count available.

 

Also aware that there is a drive to get I&A4 released in a functional state first. Consider all my suggestions just ideas to chew over for after 4 is released bug free. It's nicer than 3 (sorry 3!) and I want to avoid adding complications and potential bugs that would push full release back!

[Ryko]

6 hours ago, GamerbugUK said:

Purchased a new sight (actually tried two) and suppresor for my marksman last night and it wouldn't allow me to attach either.

 

Only purchased from the allowed list, so wonder if this is intentional or a bug?

 

 

 

It was most definitely a bug. I tried a new tactic for dealing with an exploit to get stuff out of saved loadouts, and I think the unintentional side effect was that purchased gear items were getting removed immediately.  I didn't find it in local testing as "zeus" users are exempted from gear restrictions... long story short, it's on the list.

 

Quote

1 hour ago, MDCCLXXVI said:

maybe AO could shrink in size if there are fewer players on? 2km diameter AO is a lot of area to cover for ~20 player

 

 

That's not a bad idea.

 

45 minutes ago, WinterMute said:

That would also give a good idea of the relative risk of entering the AO. Last night the server pop halved soon after an AO spawned and it was only when I got there, got killed, and 3 enemy vehicles drove past my corpse that I realised how lethal it was

 

So that's a classic problem.  What happened the AO spawned with 40 people on it, and then people started to disconnect because it was getting late, and now we have a fully-stocked AO full of bad guys, and half the players needed to deal with them.  Even with 20 players, between Vortex and people afk, or getting geared up, there were only ~5 players actually in the field... ouch.

 

I'm not sure what the answer is to this; I'm hesitant to try and implement something where enemy squads disappear or despawn in relation to player numbers, because that would also imply they should spawn in response to an increase in player numbers.