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Wednesday 14 December 2011

Guess what.. yes more updates.

I like to keep things moving with the updates here what's changed in the last 24 hours:

Zargabad:
  • This mission now has all the latest updates revelant (so revised IED system, random weather/time, updates to loadouts, apache support, ammo crates in vehicles etc.)
Takistan:
  • Side mission system tweaked slightly to fix a bug to help with chained/extended side mission content
  • Reviewed a few more of the older side missions and revamped ( this is going to be ongoing as I get feedback )
  • Fixed a bug with the BAF Slot 5 person (kept scrolling when trying to select a weapon)
  • New "Minefield" style side mission added!


Update since posting: (after your comments)
  • Server 1 & 3 updated to have 12 players.
  • OPFOR slots now limited to 2 instead of 4.

14 comments:

  1. Nice, I'll see how the side missions play out ;)

    Yesterday Syntax asked why the player slots are only 10. By reading your old posts I think it is due to server problems and instability of the Linux version of the server. Could you raise now the limit of players or is it better if you don't?

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  2. Updates in the Zagrabad server looking good, currently a few folks playing on there.

    The only nagging issue which keeps arising is that of human OPFOR. In a 10-slot server, people would seem to prefer to sit on three or four OPFOR slots and never spawn than join the BLUFOR side.

    Maybe if you were to downsize the opfor slots to one, as it's still good to have human opponents?

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  3. Sorry, I meant to add that it's frustrating to lose out on a slot when the server is full, when one or two guys are just basically doing nothing in OPFOR slots 3 and 4, due to them being unable to spawn.

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  4. All good points, I've increased players to 12 for the moment for the servers (Server 2 will update when no one is on).

    With the linux server version, it only will use 2 cpus per game, no matter how many players are set. Therefore I can make more servers to handle load and then people can join up on one server.

    I found I personally prefer smaller player games where everyone plays as a squad, working closely together, rather than a mass battle of players all rushing to a cache/town.

    I created the servers as I didn't always like some of the settings on other popular arma servers, these servers are for you guys and so I will take all feedback and help work to make a server setup thats works for everyone.

    Will have a look limiting opfor slots, I'm going to keep updating the current side missions as I watch how people play them out to improve them and make them more of a challenge and add various new elements to keep them interesting. Feedback for new side mission ideas are always welcome ;-)

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  5. Don't get me wrong, I totally agree with the settings in terms of the player limit.

    However, while 4 OPFOR slots on a 32 player server provides good balance, the 4 slots on a 10 player server (even if only 2 of those slots are able to spawn) means that players will happily sit in those other two slots, unwilling to move to BLUFOR or leave to free up space, taking up two slots we dearly need at times.

    Other than that - seems to me there's a good base of players recognise the server name now and will happily join - gone are the days of nibbling at the edges of Zagrabad and the big cities in Takistan by myself!

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  6. Totally. Your wish is my command. Server 1 & 3 updated ;-) Will sort out Server 2 with OPFOR restrictions once the current map completes.

    I do like getting all this feedback, without we can't evolve the server.

    Sean as a regular player, if you want to get the server tag setup (currently named DesertDevils - name to change at some point), just email me with your playerid (see previous posts)

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  7. I sent you an email earlier today, finally got around to it, but in my infinite wisdom I forgot the player id, will resend soon.

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  8. hi guys
    As we are now the destert devils wanted to how best we could squad up i.e what weapon load out do you use ?as a five man sqaud we should make the most of each man
    I suggest we have AA,AT,C4 at all times and play around with a mix off tripod/tow/mortor/HMG.
    so i`m aksing what do you carry and how could you help to construct a sqaud with all these elements in.
    we should know who can call in artillary who is sat on the mortor with in the sqaud .
    And with all this comes a code of conduct and some sort of rules maybe?
    Here again are a few of my suggestion(we do most of them already)

    1,only using artillary/mortors on request or on confirmation that area is safe to do so
    2,telling squad members when artillary/mortors are in bound and marking where possiblie
    3,not rushing in ,but clearing the houses and putting a black dot up to show that is safe\clear
    4,not landing a little brid to close to the AO at night if you crash its a nightmare to see \to landing it smack bang in the middle of the AO in the day time it will stir up the whole town (unless of course thats how the whole squad want to do it )
    just think that if we all play like a team and run the server in the same manner we will alway have a good game. With all the servers up and running sure theres some thing for everyone out there .For the guys i sope too today just want it to be fun and reall as poss :O)

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  9. wicked i did not delete it this time :O) oh and in response to my own post;: in the day i like the MK17 RCO i carry satchal charge one smoke a bat for laz and the lazer marker 8 m203 gps and a spec ops pack with more charges in ,at night the same but M4 SD or MK16 TWS so im looking for AA,AT ,tripod,mortor carryers ;O)

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  10. If I'm not mistaken there is even such a possibility to save a certain equipment to your player ID (over squad.xml or similiar), so say if we join a server we will have everything set from the beginning right how we want it. Don't ask me about details on this though, just remembered reading that somewhere.

    Regarding your thoughts on more tactical gameplay:
    It think it would be also fun if we can make maybe a kind of "Team-afternoon" on weekends, since most of us have the possibility to play then.
    But this also goes more in the direction of clan-gaming and I think that an voice-chat program outside of ARMA would be needed for this.

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  11. My typical loadout, for day and night. It's always the same because now enemies have NVG, so I think that in this way there's nothing really different from the day, because they can see us anyway.
    Mk 16 TWS + M230 + 8 mag, 2 White smoke, 2 Frags, 7 HE for M230, 1 White smoke for M230. I carry always the rangefinder. At night I have NVG. Sometimes I carry the Laser Marker. As backpack I use the ACU Explosives, with 2 satchels and 2 vehicle landmines.
    This is a medium-short range outfit, which gives me the possibility to demolish stuff with satchels. I'm uncapable of sniping because of the insufficient magnification of the TWS, but the thermal view gives me a good awareness of the situation.

    A proposal for a complete team would be the classic tactical team (which is composed of 4 elements, but for 5 it doesn't change much).
    Leader with scopes or TWS
    Machinegunner (Mk48 mod 0 for short range firing and suppressive fire)
    Designated Marksman (any weapon with scope he finds comfortable with, for example M240 TWS, M110 TWS)
    Medic (short range weapons, works well with a machinegun if he wants)
    Rifleman/Grenadier (medium-short range with M203)
    This is a flexible formation, and the Marksman can stay outside enemy range, so he can be a good spawning point. The Marksman is also suitable to use artillery and other support weapons if needed.

    Speaking of mortars etc, I find them too much cumbersome. Having to carry tripod+weapon is a definite disadvantage. Also, we lack in mobility, and the guy(s) who operated such weapons are usually easy targets.
    The mortar can be the only weapon really worth using, but if we need always two people to set it up, it becomes too long. It's much better having somebody with an M240 TWS on a hill, rather than a mortar. The number of kills is much higher.

    Speaking about rules, what I really don't like of many players is their rushing towards the cache, like football players at the superbowl. We should pass the idea that the good player is the one that thinks, and does teamplay, and not the one that just makes a lot of kills or finds the cache as first. Many times also I see people entering a team and then doing the "lone wolves", running around randomly and leaving the others behind. The simulation part in the game is surely ruined by this kind of players, because nobody sane of mind would rush like that against enemy targets.

    This is connected to the diversification of the objectives that I would like to see in the future: moving the core of the game itself from just "find the cache" to something more complex, would surely force many people to think more about their actions.
    I think that "making people think and teamplay" should be one of our first priorities, when thinking about additions to the game ;)

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  12. Reading Wiesel: I'm working on an editor mission that could be a sandbox. I still lack the scripting abilities to make it so, but playing together and training ourselves and new members (like Dogz) could be useful and fun ;)
    Anyway I got some custom missions that (more or less) work :)

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  13. Hey Boffin, have you checked out "Patrol Ops 2"? Maybe that's something you should take a look at. The description says it's a multiplayer mission that randomly gives you missions to do.
    http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=126904

    Maybe we could use that instead of insurgency on one server, or maybe you could use some of its features to improve the current game ;)
    Maybe this was the "sandbox" mod you were talking about some time ago.

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  14. Hi guys,
    I agree with everything written by Whiteraven.

    For a better organization of ideas and communications would suggest a forum for better classification of arguments.
    (when I read the blog I always have to understand where the last post and sometimes some of the speeches are intertwined in various posts).

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