[SP/Coop PVE] Foothold - Persistent Dynamic Sandbox

[Dzsekeb]

14 minutes ago, BRAVO_16 said:

So to add the Hercules for supply, I can just add the aircraft in a slot, no special setup required?

Yup. Add a slot and once ingame, load it up with Generic Crate [20000lb]  from the rearm menu and go airdrop them in a friendly or neutral zone.

[BRAVO_16]

If I give a Hercules the name helicargo1, will it then enable the unit to carry units via the CTLD script?

 

[Dzsekeb]

6 minutes ago, BRAVO_16 said:

If I give a Hercules the name helicargo1, will it then enable the unit to carry units via the CTLD script?

 

Not without adding the CTLD script to the mission.

[feefifofum]

Any ETA on your Syria effort?

My group is very excited to play with this framework on a larger scale!

[Dzsekeb]

10 hours ago, feefifofum said:

Any ETA on your Syria effort?

My group is very excited to play with this framework on a larger scale!

Im still in the process of setting up all the zones and supply lines between them. 

Im trying to make the progression less linear this time, and its starting to get a bit overwhelming, so I've been spending some time drawing up plans.

That and implementing some new ideas into the framework, most of which you'll probably see soon in the caucasus mission, which I've been using as a test bed. 

Here's a sketch of what I'm working on:

The tool I'm using wont allow me to export a higher res image, but it should give you an idea. Incirlik top right corner, Palmyra in the bottom right.

Colored squiggly lines are the the AI that I've already set up, black boxes are the zones that I still need to do.

I've counted 40 zones so far. Spawns at 2 start locations, 4 capturable heli spawns and one capturable fixed-wing spawn.

A few zones will not be capturable, only serving as strike targets.

I'm trying to set up one section of the mission with an insurgency vibe, hopefully making it viable for coin ops with less capable aircraft as well.

Also planning on including ground forces moving between some of the zones, but this part still feels a bit questionable in use, due to travel times between the zones reaching 1-2 hours in some cases. Will see when I get there.

Edited February 23, 2022 by Dzsekeb
More info

[BRAVO_16]

This looks great!  Can't wait!

Put the UH-60 and Hercules in there by default and it is a win win.

Just a suggestion, to add the A-10C and A-10A and not just the A-10C II.  We have people that fly those frames and it would be great if we can accommodate them.

 

Edited February 23, 2022 by BRAVO_16

[Dzsekeb]

2 hours ago, BRAVO_16 said:

This looks great!  Can't wait!

Put the UH-60 and Hercules in there by default and it is a win win.

Just a suggestion, to add the A-10C and A-10A and not just the A-10C II.  We have people that fly those frames and it would be great if we can accommodate them.

 

 

While I do play with some mods, and I'm happy to add support for them where I can, I am not going to include them as it makes it difficult for people without them to customize the mission.

As it stands anyone can add any module they wish simply by adding a new aircraft to one of the zones, no additional setup required. Feel free to edit the mission and add whatever slots you and you're friends would like.

Edited February 23, 2022 by Dzsekeb

[feefifofum]

Cannot wait. I've built several full-map ops like this over the years, but have always had to do the heavy lifting for persistence and enemy activity by hand (repeatedly editing mission and scripts over reboots, etc.)

This is one of the most "alive" feeling map scenarios I've had the pleasure of flying when all the pieces play together, and the persistence works beautifully. 

For my .02, a 2 hour trip for ground forces isn't completely out of the realm of reason for a big op like this. A way to mitigate pilots losing track could be a handful of coalition vehicle in zone triggers that could report positions as ground forces pass checkpoints.

 

[Dzsekeb]

9 minutes ago, feefifofum said:

Cannot wait. I've built several full-map ops like this over the years, but have always had to do the heavy lifting for persistence and enemy activity by hand (repeatedly editing mission and scripts over reboots, etc.)

Well, you still kinda need to set up all the AI groups by hand, the scripts only really control whether they should spawn or despawn. I've looked into auto generating the AI's waypoints based on zone locations, but I found that the convenience would take away a lot of the freedoms you have with the current system.

8 minutes ago, feefifofum said:

For my .02, a 2 hour trip for ground forces isn't completely out of the realm of reason for a big op like this. A way to mitigate pilots losing track could be a handful of coalition vehicle in zone triggers that could report positions as ground forces pass checkpoints.

 

That's a good idea, but instead of coalition vehicle in zone, I could just run scripts on the groups waypoints instead, a bit easier to set up, as far as i'm concerned at least.

[mimamema]

My squadron love this mission, is really engaging and we are really looking forward for the version in Syria. 

We are having a problem lately with your 1.2.2 version, after some days playing it and some restarts this is the error that the missions throws after restarting the server. I uninstalled the Hercules mod from the server and it´s not happening again. Any clue why this is happening?  The Hercules it´s not added to the mission. 

Apart from that, this is an amazing job you are doing with this script and mission. Thank you so much!

[Dzsekeb]

5 hours ago, mimamema said:

My squadron love this mission, is really engaging and we are really looking forward for the version in Syria. 

We are having a problem lately with your 1.2.2 version, after some days playing it and some restarts this is the error that the missions throws after restarting the server. I uninstalled the Hercules mod from the server and it´s not happening again. Any clue why this is happening?  The Hercules it´s not added to the mission. 

Apart from that, this is an amazing job you are doing with this script and mission. Thank you so much!

Looking at the code, it doesn't seem like it would be caused by the hercules mod specifically. Rather the dcs scripting engine is, strangely, triggering a takeoff event, but not providing the unit that has taken off. 

I'll include a fix for the error in the next version, which i'll try to release this week if i get the time.

[mimamema]

Sure, for the moment we are not getting any more errors. We would be really happy to beta test your new releases as they are ready if you want so I can report you this kind of error messages or any strange behaviours. I´m following your github so I´m more or less aware of what is coming next.  Seriously, it´s an amazing job you are doing with this script.

 

Edited March 1, 2022 by mimamema

[Dzsekeb]

14 minutes ago, mimamema said:

Sure, for the moment we are not getting any more errors. We would be really happy to beta test your new releases as they are ready if you want so I can report you this kind of error messages or any strange behaviours. I´m following your github so I´m more or less aware of what is coming next.  Seriously, it´s an amazing job you are doing with this script.

 

 

I would not mind some help with the testing at all. You can always find the latest version under the DemoMission folder on github.

Please report any issues you find on the github issues section.

[HappyVoo]

Great quest, I want to translate the prompts in the quest into our language and play with my buddies, is this authorization allowed?

[Dzsekeb]

10 minutes ago, HappyVoo said:

Great quest, I want to translate the prompts in the quest into our language and play with my buddies, is this authorization allowed?

Feel free to edit it to fit your needs.

I will also note down and see how I can add support for easier translation in the future.

[mimamema]

On 3/1/2022 at 2:03 PM, Dzsekeb said:

I would not mind some help with the testing at all. You can always find the latest version under the DemoMission folder on github.

Please report any issues you find on the github issues section.

Good, I have added version 1.3 to our server and for the moment everything is going ok. I will let you know through your github of any issue we could find.

 

[FDXMadcat]

Hello there! Any News on the Syria-Version? 

[Dzsekeb]

2 hours ago, FDXMadcat said:

Hello there! Any News on the Syria-Version? 

Not much, sorry. Ive been fixing up some bugs here and there, but didnt have much drive to startup dcs recently. 

[Dzsekeb]

~~~~Update 1.3 2022-03-10~~~~

Added supply convoys, which work with similar rules to supply helicopters

Added ground assault convoys, which work with similar rules to preexisting attack missions launched by the enemy.

Added Krymsk combined arms assault event, which has a chance of being triggered while Krymsk is blue, and enemy has enough funds.

Added coordinates of zone to its status message.

Added carrier spawns on shoreline.

JTAC now has a priority setting. If se t, it will try to prioritise targeting units of that category. 
If no such units can be found it will fall back to targeting anything else.

Fixes:

Fixed zones not behaving correctly if placed on high altitude locations.

Fixed issue that prevented upgrades to a zone in some cases, when first group of zone was destroyed.

For mission builders and editors:

Added quad zone suport (Make sure not to turn the zone inside out while editing its vertices)

GroupCommander class now works with ground and naval units. 
You need to set an extra parameter when creating the object in order for the script to track it correctly: type='surface'.
To add an aircraft group that operates off a carrier se t the type parameters to 'carrier_air'.

Hercules cargo drop resupplies work by tracking the Generic Crate weapon object that is dropped by the mod.
You can now enable any weapon to trigger a zone capture or upgrade, by defining it as follows: HercCargoDropSupply.allowedCargo['weapons.bombs.Generic Crate [20000lb]'] = true
The name must match the typeName of the weapon returned in the SHOT event.

[Dzsekeb]

Progress update on Foothold Syria.

I now have finished adding all the zones I was planning, together with the most of the supply lines between them, coming in at a total of 41 zones.

Testing if all the AI units are behaving as expected is proving to be very time consuming.

Next up is adding patrol and attack AI missions, events, support options for the store, and player spawns.

[FDXMadcat]

On 3/10/2022 at 5:17 PM, Dzsekeb said:

~~~~Update 1.3 2022-03-10~~~~

Added supply convoys, which work with similar rules to supply helicopters

Added ground assault convoys, which work with similar rules to preexisting attack missions launched by the enemy.

Added Krymsk combined arms assault event, which has a chance of being triggered while Krymsk is blue, and enemy has enough funds.

Added coordinates of zone to its status message.

Added carrier spawns on shoreline.

JTAC now has a priority setting. If se t, it will try to prioritise targeting units of that category. 
If no such units can be found it will fall back to targeting anything else.

Fixes:

Fixed zones not behaving correctly if placed on high altitude locations.

Fixed issue that prevented upgrades to a zone in some cases, when first group of zone was destroyed.

For mission builders and editors:

Added quad zone suport (Make sure not to turn the zone inside out while editing its vertices)

GroupCommander class now works with ground and naval units. 
You need to set an extra parameter when creating the object in order for the script to track it correctly: type='surface'.
To add an aircraft group that operates off a carrier se t the type parameters to 'carrier_air'.

Hercules cargo drop resupplies work by tracking the Generic Crate weapon object that is dropped by the mod.
You can now enable any weapon to trigger a zone capture or upgrade, by defining it as follows: HercCargoDropSupply.allowedCargo['weapons.bombs.Generic Crate [20000lb]'] = true
The name must match the typeName of the weapon returned in the SHOT event.

Nice Update! 

I've noticed a "bug": The Waypoints from the Jets on the Carrier are not on the Ground. Easy to fix for myself in the Editor, but for further updates it would be cool to have them on the ground for "WPDSG"-Reasons

[Dzsekeb]

9 minutes ago, FDXMadcat said:

Nice Update! 

I've noticed a "bug": The Waypoints from the Jets on the Carrier are not on the Ground. Easy to fix for myself in the Editor, but for further updates it would be cool to have them on the ground for "WPDSG"-Reasons

Thanks, gonna upload a fix for that soon.

[Omelette]

On 3/12/2022 at 6:29 AM, Dzsekeb said:

Progress update on Foothold Syria.

I now have finished adding all the zones I was planning, together with the most of the supply lines between them, coming in at a total of 41 zones.

Testing if all the AI units are behaving as expected is proving to be very time consuming.

Next up is adding patrol and attack AI missions, events, support options for the store, and player spawns.

 

My friends and I had so much fun playing your mission!! It’s the closest thing we get to a dynamic campaign. We look so much forward to your Syria version. Quite a few people are buying that map in the recent sale just to play your future mission. Seems like that would be more non-linear than the current one. I’m sure it’s not an easy task to program so please accept my gratitude and admiration.

[Dzsekeb]

9 minutes ago, Omelette said:

My friends and I had so much fun playing your mission!! It’s the closest thing we get to a dynamic campaign. We look so much forward to your Syria version. Quite a few people are buying that map in the recent sale just to play your future mission. Seems like that would be more non-linear than the current one. I’m sure it’s not an easy task to program so please accept my gratitude and admiration.

While I appreciate the enthusiasm, please don't buy the map specifically for my mission. That's raising the expectations a bit too much.

I'm considering releasing the mission in a slightly incomplete state, because I could use some feedback on the balancing of the AI groups. Due to the larger scale, it's very time consuming to test by myself.

[FDXMadcat]

Well... i would pay Money to support your work tbh..... so if you have paypal or something....