Mirknir

Have a little faith ; I am not going to kill anything ; just trying to create more opportunities, not replace the one we already have. This seems to be a recurring fantasy of having AI fighting over an objective and player coming to help and stuff but I find it very difficult to execute. I tried to do this with convoy attacking a base but usually, a clear winner emerge very quickly in AI fights, not a lot of time for players to intervene. If I spawn 5 versus 5 infantries fighting over a wreck, the fight will be resolved before an helicopter have the time to arrive. AI waits for no players! I am not sure how to solve this tbh. I found out that creating scenario on papers and executing them on the server is 2 different things. Especially when you try to make it accessible, easy to understand, easy to communicate to the player, repeatable and not dropping performance too much. When you add 'random' into the mix, you also want to control it somehow and not spawn impossible objective like a wreck 350km away in the enemy protected zone. I would and could do crazier scenario if I was doing a single player campaign or even a server dedicated to helicopters. Adding features in OC is a crazy balancing act and an interesting challenge :lol:

Objective System Rework Hello guys Recently, you might have noticed that I've done a lot of new things and experiments in the objective system. New objective types, radio beacon, LZ smokes, spawning static units, dynamic rescues and extractions... Seeing what works and what doesn't and considering all your ideas, I am currently reworking this system. Without entering to much into code details, I am switching the objective system from a specialization model to an aggregation model. What it means is that I am isolating and extracting the different objective features into lego block. Once it's done, it will be easier to combine the existing blocks, add new ones in order make more complex objectives and cross-coalition objectives. Right now, extracted blocks are rescue drop off ; rescue pick up ; delivery drop off ; delivery pick up ; stuff to destroy ; dynamic spawning. I would also like to involve more directly attackers and fighters in these missions, not just helicopters :) An example could be: An AI bomber downed behind enemy lines The enemy coalition, closer from the wreck, would have to send helicopters to: Loot and extract secret materials/documents Extract captured pilots Short distance for helicopter The bomber coalition, further from the wreck, would have to send attacker and fighters Destroy the looting helicopters Destroyed the wreck and its secret New block examples could be: Spawning more complex stuff like active units Infantries defending a wreck SAMs to be deployed Escaping helicopters to shot down So yea, lot's of foundation work but after, it should be easier to create more complex scenario. :thumbup: As usual for big reworks, the first step is not really exciting for you guys since it consists of having the mission working like before but with the reworked system. Still, I thought I would keep you posted! I still, of course, take suggestions and ideas of what block could be interesting to do ; the more reusable, the better :) I don't have an ETA for this as I work on it when I can, let's say between F5 and F18 release :P

Sadly, the way radio system doesn't work well in DCS and I had to work around a lot of bugs to make beacon works. Long story short, I can't re-use a frequency once it had been used for a beacon. I have a list of frequencies for each mode and this list limits the number of beacon I can use in a session. Each time a new beacon starts, I take a new set of frequencies (VHF, UHF, FM) 117 Free VHF Frequencies - Max Beacon Count: 117 358 Free UHF Frequencies - Max Beacon Count: 117 300 Free FM Frequencies - Max Beacon Count: 117

It could be a good idea even if I don't want to overload the mission size with too much sounds but yea. Noted. It's funny cause I feel like I only give love to helicopters recently and maybe attackers and fighters should get some too :) Yea I wanted to reflect the transport capability of the helicopter. Yea I pretty much fly the su27 and that's it ; I sometimes miss some detailed knowledge about some aircrafts. It's not because I don't wanna give love, it's because I just don't know it would be helpful or it even exists. For example, I had to do a lot of research to do the heli mission and radio beacons. For anything super dedicated to an aircraft like the MI8, provide me with the information and I'll do my best to put it in the mission. I added more radio beacons a long time ago when I merged them with the green smoke to create 'Navigation Beacon'. If it has a green smoke, it has a radio beacon. Try '-re MED' and you will get the information

Yea it's a bug :thumbup: And thanks for the ideas! Sadly, I have more ideas and suggestions than time to implement them. I am working on making Skynet objective system more advanced and dynamic but it's taking some works. I might soon do a post about this, stay tuned! Hosting a DCS server is very rewarding but also not really self sustaining. I also need to divert some OC times to more lucrative activities to feed the kids, wives, cats and dogs :megalol: The updates might be slower to come but they will still come!

Yea, for me, knowing what you transport and what you can transport is part of the piloting like handling your fuel. If you have committed time and fuel to go to an objective you can't complete because you are full and if you are in the process of trying to hover over it, I don't think the order of the "cant do it" checks are that important even if it could save you the trying-to-hover time. It reminds me of when I do a nice approach, align with the targets and do a rocket run with only 2 left in the tubes :smilewink: Your current load and load capacities are in the "my status" ; "my inventory" and "you've loaded/picked-up something" popups so it's a lot of tool to help you.

The messages are correct but "You are not hovering low enough" message might be confusing. You will get it if you are under the hovering altitude (15m AGL) OR speed ( < 1m/s). I might update it.

Better than random failures... KITTENS! http://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/brave-soldiers-rescue-kitten-who-fell-asleep-in-army-helicopter/

Using CAP will not confuse Skynet but maybe players? It was either CAP or CPT or EXT(traction) I take suggestion :) For the radio menu not displaying the capture extract, I thin I know why, gonna check after my run. I don't control DCS score but run my own where you get points for every action. I don't promote this Skynet Score as I need to find a way to properly display it, ideally by replacing DCS score. I will contact the dev team see if it's or will be possible at some point.

Feels like a mirage200 multiplayer bug more than a server bug. Server wise, I don't do anything special to aircrafts except setting up radios. Sadly, I don't have the mirage to do more test. :(

Please, next time, use the -report command when it happens or it will be impossible for me to find the moment and check if it's a bug. Btw, how high are the trees in DCS?

On my side, I am experimenting with my objective architecture to see how dynamic I can go. Recently, of what I've done, I really like the wreck concept (dynamic rescue and capture) and the hospital being both delivery and rescue objectives. I have ideas to go more in this direction and involve more than helicopters in those 'dynamic event' but it seems like it requires a small rework of Skynet objective system so we'll see how it goes. On another note, I am also playing ED's last campaign about a Su27 pilot that goes back home to help his village and his family fight against beer-drinking terrorists. It's pretty good :megalol: [Vodka breaks] [Why We fight] [Terrorist Hunt]

In Map: Open Conflict Khashuri - v6.1.3 Fixed: Cold A10C Slots that were actually hot Reported by Axel Tweaked: Blue Hawk SAM protection Protection has been reduced over Tkibuli lakes

haha, let me put my nerd cap :) When you connect to a server, the server receives your unique client ID (UID), your IP address and your player name. I index and reference players with UID so if you change your name or your IP address, I will still know it's you. For skynet, the name doesn't matter, it's just a display name. When you connect, if it's the first time, I create a new profile file for you and if you've already been there, I load your old file. The profile file has the stats, the offenses, the different name used and the options of the player. When you play, stats are computed and regularly save to your profile file. If you like metrics: so far, I've about 3900 unique players, with each their profile file for about 15M. When you crash or disconnect, I detect it and display a 'left server' message. Skynet will still keep your profile in memory and still tracks you. This is how you don't lose stats or how I only send ONE 'welcome to open conflict' sound per player per server session or also how I do temporary ban. As a player, you can't really do something to lose stats but when the server crashes, you might lose the stats computed since the last time the profiles were dump from memory to files.

You can pm CrimsonGhost, he is the one owning the TS. Thanks to him BTW :thumbup:

Yea, I want to do more complex and dynamic scenarios but I am also going slowly and incrementally to be able to release small features at a time. Ideally, I would have ED support to do a full fledged dynamic campaign server, host it on NASA computers and have Scarlett Johanson voice Skynet but I am just one programmer in his garage :lol: I like all these ideas and I will think about them. Still a common objectives will ask helicopter of the furthest coalition to travel maybe more than 100km to go on site :) Also, the site location would be know by both factions so it could be interesting or full of trolling...

Because I update the server a lot, I prefer to have all the help dynamically in the server. The ingame briefing is a nice place to start. Then typing '-help' in the chat will give you all other help commands like '-ag help' that will give you all the special commands like '-ag <objectivecode>' Then you have -tr: transport/delivery -re: Rescue/Extraction -aa: Air to Air -ex: Explosive Packs -opt: Preference/Option -server: Server status Then you can check the radio menu that has a lot of shortcut to the chat commands. Radio commands are a bit more limited but usually more practical to use in flight or if you fly VR. Then you have the F10 map that have 'spotters' around targets so you can still see the objective location without seeing all the individual targets. You can check the very first post of this thread ; there are some sexy images explaining some stuff like this one Have fun!

In Masterscript: Skynet v2.5.7 Fixed: Navigation beacon could be shared between rescue/capture objectives on opposite faction Navigation beacon are supposed to only be shared between objectives in the same location The algorithm was not working properly with dynamic objectives like rescue and capture extraction

Hello guys I really love all the stories, keep them coming cause they keep me going :lol: @Decipher on Capture system: I did some test with DustOff and the captured pilot extraction basic feature seems to work. As usual after releasing a feature, I will check Skynet log files on busy sessions to check if the feature is working properly over time when repeated and used a lot. A typical busy session is 40k lines of logs sorted in debug/warning/error so, of course, the more precise the bug, the faster I can find it :) I can already tell you I see some new warnings in the rescue/downed pilot system. :thumbup: I'll keep you posted in release notes. Some precision about the Capture Pilot Extraction: Both coalition have the 'pilot captured' chat message so that both coalitions may try to not get captured and maybe do less suicidal runs. So you may see a chat message about a capture that is not a 'capture extraction' objective for you. Only the coalition that has the extraction objective will receive the objective popup message with sound. Also, spawned downed pilot, captive pilot and commando are the color of the coalition that needs to do the extraction. They can be killed. They will be killed by a nearby convoy or a crashing helicopter. In this case, the objective will be cancelled. I've added a screenshot of what it should look like. @Samek about the skin of MI8 I don't use non official skins on the server, I want everyone to see the same skins, especially for MEDIC. If I use a downloadable skins, only people that downloaded it will see it. Last time I checked, MI8 MEDIC had 2 official skin possibilities: the blue naval SAR or the civil Police. I can use the blue SAR even if it's for sea I think. Tell me which is better ; I ll add a screenshot. I think they are adding a proper medic one "soon"

Where are the cupholders?

In Masterscript: Skynet v2.5.6 Tweaked: Rescue and Capture LZ smoke auto request has been decreased to 4km (was 6km) and manual request increased to 12km (was 8km) This will make manual request more meaningful For people still using Game of Throne unit system, it's 2.16nm for auto / 6.48nm for manual request :) Tweaked: Combat Log will now display a hint of player's color/side (B) Mirknir in Su27 ▶ R73 ▶ ® John Cassey in Su27 (B) Mirknir ejected deep in CZ and got captured by ground forces!

I won't ; I may adjust the auto/manual distance to make manual request more meaningful. Because it's a multiplayer game, I always prefer player driven content/event. For different reasons, players are not ejecting a lot, that's why I initially added AI ejection in the system. But this last update, I added player crashes in the system and players crash A LOT so this should lead to more wrecks. Also, as always, I am monitoring the server stats and this thread feedback. If adding player crashes doesn't work as planed, I will put AI back in the system, don't worry.

My question to helicopter fans: Why does USA seem to prefer skids and Russia seems to prefer wheels? Is it for philosophy reasons? for weight? for stealth?

When increasing the LZ request distance, I added log infos to track the feature and be able to tweak it. I'll check them. The distance is also computed in 2D, I remove the altitude coordinates so sometimes, the reach may seem further.

I've found no way to remove the automatic notification without removing the AWACS. I would like an AWACS that only speak when spoken too but it seems impossible ; I even contacted the dev. If you have a flaming cliffs aircrafts, you can do this If you don't, you might need to check your aircraft radio manual.