Arma 2 Mission Dev Blog Post - TrackIR Shooting Contest - MCC Sandbox - USMC Platoon Ops - Civis?

[=VG= SemlerPDX]

!wiz the force is strong with this one ...
...though the rabbit hole does indeed keep going deeper...and I am on to learning higher concepts of Arma 2 scripting.

-Only for those interested, the bored, and those who need a long book to get sleepy-

A VG Arma Dev Projects Update *LONG* Blog (not required reading) regarding my status, the TrackIR Shooting Contest, and what that awesome USMC image is on the very last post:

Now that I am "done" with all the learning hoops I had to jump through to really understand in a practical way this code syntax, applications, and best practices of, I have found out, tested and have premade examples of:

- Amazing cut scenes; embeded pre-recoreded video in game (I watched "Clippy's Tactial Roll" video from within Arma - way cool), I can also control titles; dynamic notes; and then just recently I learned how to make dialog boxes (those things that pop up with words and a few buttons to click like Okay and Cancel - For example, ACRE Radios are a "dialog box" - an image with clickable buttons that pops up on your screen).

So, yes, I can for example make a game inside a game(Arma 2), say, Pong, on a TV you walk up to, even multiplayer (2 players max, duh) - just need to see the code for Pong and translate it into Arma 2 Scritping language, and build a simple dialog box from an image I'd request from one of you, say, a hand held video game looking device (with ambient non funcional buttons like dpad and functional buttons like Start and Select, or A and B, and a big black empty square where the screen would go for my additions. I don't need this, but it can be done easier that you'd imagine.

Pong is lame, just an example. I was thinking more along the lines of many training modules for weapons systems, vehicle systems and group/convoy deployment and formations, etc.
Using the score logging systems I wrote for the TrackIR Shooting Contest, I could do most anything like that.

[=VG= SemlerPDX]

Regarding the TrackIR Shooting Contest:
Sorry for saying I could do something, but I had more learnin to do to make a secure, organized, structured shooting contest that is fair, cannot be cheated in without obvious indicators in the score logging, and looks cool and is fun.

I'd like to extend a personal apology to BLuDKLoT and Seth at TrackIR for getting the gears working back in May, only to have contact drop off with no updates. I had so much more yet to learn, and should not have "bitten off" such a large chuck without respect for what it would entail. At all points, I ran into issue after issue, regarding use of coding sytax to score logging and variable corruption. I felt like only news I would have been able to report would have been inconclusive and inaccurate estimates of when such a thing would be working and completed.

If you are still interested, I can make this happen. Humbly, -SemlerPDX

(shown in photo: in-game leaderboard proof of concept, final is website only but I can't program one - HELP!)

Also, at no point did I toss this on the back burner and forget that I had committed to making this secure database logging contest system and fun shooting contest promotion. I am disabled, and cannot go off to a nice job and office, so this is my office. I am a perpetual student of object oriented programming, and specifically fluent with the Arma 2 game engine, and chose to dedicated myself to that engine (and the new version coming soon). I have spent an average of 10-15+ hours a day since May creating this wonderful contest system, which I am fully able to adapt to most anything inside the Arma engine, perhaps even that DayZ contest idea someone had - except I understand the concept of a target shooting board, but can't picture people competing for kill count without it being corrupted by cheaters. At least not yet - I continue to learn more and more every day, as my friends here can attest to - it's hard to drag me away from reading, learning, or writing awesome game systems and code that I want my game to have.

I do all this for a number of reasons:

1. I love gaming and playing games, and hated the days when all I could do was complain ("ARG! I died again from that stupid bug!" or "Dude, this game rocks, but if it only had.....")

2. I cannot just "play" games anymore - I'm too old for that. And I even have life's most perfect excuse, as it were, being disabled (if you don't know, my damn shoulders won't stay in socket. I gotta be super careful all the time). But hell, my daughter is nearly as old as some of our younger members. I needs money for her college, I love having time to be a dedicated father, happily report she's an 8th grader in 9th grade Algebra and loving it, and I dedicate all the rest of my time to the VETERANS-GAMING Core Vision. This is because I know now, more than when I was in my early to mid-20's, that hard work and dedication pay off if you stay true to your goals, and the industry we've chosen deals in BIG, BIG numbers with the added benifit of working at home, internationally conferencing instead of being slaved to some office building or jet-setting all over hell and back.

4. ...or are we on three? oh yea, 3. I have so much fun with all this - the game events, the socializing, the productive creation of amazing functional works that delight us all, the networking. Therefore, if there is a possible paycheck down the road, I have a sense of purpose - a goal, a dream, the VG Vision. I would like to thank BLuDKLoT, the founders of VG and all who came before me, from the very bottom of my heart for giving this purpose to me. The teamwork on the fields and behind the scenes is so unique and wonderful that it almost brings a tear to me 'eye. So, to conclude, creating and not just playing all the time (I swear I will get in game more - read below) fulfills and completes the top level of my Maslow Triangle heirarchy of needs. (or is that one food? I can't remember, I think I saw it on a cereal box about 20 years ago...)

[=VG= SemlerPDX]

All that being said, I am 99% done with the TrackIR Shooting Contest and it has been live on one of the test servers for a month while I've been trying to learn how to make a stand alone program that can pull the shooters scores, names, and one or two other things from the arma2oaserver.RPT file.

I did not succeed. I spent a week taking this C# (C-Sharp) tutorial program that Terremer hooked me up with and learned 2 things - C Sharp is a rather poor program for myself to learn as it so changes the concepts of how to code in C that it would ruin my goals of learning C and C++ with any proper learning curve.
Secondly, I learned that the time and learning curve can so delay progress, even though I am getting new tools in my coding toolbox, that I should give up.

Clearly, the most appropriate action is to outsource it to another member of our team to bring the score board/leaderboard of the shooting contest here to the website like with the DayZ and MSO leaderboard proof of concept tests.

(Go test the TrackIR Shooting Contest - it knows if you've already seen the intro video, you won't have to watch it twice - and you don't need a group, it's not COOP - it's like a single player thing, so go log some test scores, dammit! Shoot to win! Try to beat your high score! TEST!

Then do it again in a day or two! password is in the ts3 channel descrip, and an ingame leaderboard will show you how you and everyone else did. Final mission will not allow restart, BETA Test, you will restart at the pistol lane, and can check the scoreboard.

PLEASE TEST! Ignore the crooked hescos, and lack of polish/flair and only report to me any control issues or teleport bugs, etc.

I only need data - I will check the RPT file after the weekend and collect my data.)

The TrackIR Contest BETA Test is up, and has been up. Please go run through it, try to get the best score you can get as if you would win an awesome TrackIR unit for winning. Give feedback, if you want, but really, I just need to check the logs after so many players have done it. It is designed to be autonomous, and funneled - The player enters the contest, sees an intro video of what the contest is, what to do, what can be won, and lets them know where to go to check their place in the leaderboard (here at website).

They will shoot a pistol, then fade out and fade into the rifle range with a rifle, after 30 shots, they are done - they get a "Thank you for participating!" message, and for the BETA, there is an in-game example of the leaderboard as I have only the ability to code an in game one, website will be up to SolarFlame, Terremer, Poffadder, or anyone else capable of doing so. I must focus on what I am good at - GO TEAM VG!

[=VG= SemlerPDX]

FINALLY - What I have been up to most recently - USMC Platoon Ops

We geeks behind the scenes of VETERANS-GAMING pushing the big buttons have been following what I feel is a good, mostly speedy learning curve to assemble all the skills we need to make the VG Vision a reality, so we are prepared when we do go to get a new website and gamer networking format. I can literally link an Arma 2 mission to a persons personal profile on the website, so socially, his "characters" in RPG fashion, are visible to all, and trust me - the kids love them stats! Even if you are one who doesn't care for those pages of stats, there is too large of a fan base for it to not include such a system, were I to code this idea into a mission.

MCC SANDBOX TEASER NOTICE:

I have spent the last 9 days straight,. over 16 hours a day, creating a mission framework to take advantage of this amazing MCC Sandbox mod by shay_gman. I've had oddly abundant energy for someone who's only stimulants are a pot of coffee in the morning. Not that sitting in front of the PC is very draining, but it's that it has felt like Christmas Eve and I'm a little kid again with this mission framework I am building. It is the culmination of a military game organization structure that I have been envisioning for exactly one year now, to utilize the open source easy creation that the Arma 2 engine, my very favorite military game, has available to make the video game I want to play. Not just someone elses idea, but my idea, our ideas.
So, I have been eating well, drinking water, and for some reason, still full of energy till the wee hours. 100 hours of production so far:

- Dynamic - "Lite" - Easy to Use - Easy to Play - Fun - Always Different (ALWAYS!) -
- "Group ACRE Use Made EZ" - Arma Tanks Can Drive Uphill (per Renainn a.k.a. Davestrike) -
- Unique to VG Clan - Amazing Artillery Module - Boxes and Easy Gear w/ Pre-Packed Backpack List -
- Full Military Platoon Role Simulation - Ability to Become "DayZ RPG Like" - Playable with Few or Many -
- 100 Percent Full Mission Control - Can Have Database Logging for Website PHP "Nifty's" -
- Could Do Something In Game and Imediately Change Something Here At Website - Ideas?


Secret: - SHH!!
Just kidding - it's just something I've been working on - no need to write home about it, but here in a post - meh...
Playable Civilian Side Fully Modeled: could play as evil or good, ied the shit out of some BLUFOR but weapons will not be issued at start, nor easily aquireable without playing and building up to it, like: can interact with ai civi bots, civi missions, fun fun things - all in a world populated by a platoon of 44 Marines attempting to take the country of Takistan back from the rebel army, secure an airfield, construct a base, and stage the liberation of the entire region. When done, focus will change to insurgents and cartel forces undermining the new government (say they try to stop elections, etc) - all sorts of scenarios like we see in movies, or hear about, we can make up and then deploy on at the drop of a hat to see if we can use our Arma skills to win the day.

But I have paused now, that I have what I feel will be a good initial BETA for us to start at, and can be running while I continue to implement new systems. My focus is on functions, not just things that can be done for sake of doing it - thats where the in game Mission Designer console comes in. But civs rock - playable civs rock, even though they add a small PvP element to an otherwise COOP game. Takistan is huge - I'm thinking a smaller number of players that the USMC's 44 playable slots. (btw, before I forget, BETA Test only has 33 playable slots - will change to 50 with 18 playable civs). I did my homeworks and I understand that a Marine Corps Platoon is 3 Squads, each with 3 fireteams, each with 4 team members, a Platoon Sergeant, Navy Corpsmen, RTO's, FAC's, the Platoon Commander himself, and his staff. I needed to make this playable, and not rank-upable but role capable, as in:

Fireteam Leader has 4 men under him. He leads the Fireteam as the Squad Leader dictates, to coordinate with Fireteam 2. He will become a better Squad Leader if he can handle 4 men, because he has been on the front, in the shit. He will be able to lead a Squad of 2 fire teams in a coop manner with other players using ACRE and able to handle the more radio and command oriented role. That will prepare him for trying to lead the whole Platoon as the Platoon Sergeant, because that role will coordinate FAC, 2 squads of 12 men each, and of course I threw in a Marine Scout Sniper role (and his spotter) for TortiaBoy, Beast, and all the others who needs their ghillie and 30 inch long barrels for maximum wargasm potential. ;)

Concepts I am Considering for a small Playable Civilian Side:
- Doesn't start with a weapon, open world design - ability to "die", can interact with most everything and every bot on the map
- Be a Civ: Join, get recruited to army, or get forced to join cartel or group insurgents, find a gun runner and buy one somehow? NO COPS! This is not a City Life RPG spinoff, and is only similar on surface. Shit, I've already typed out a freakin book, here.

How can I be brief without giving someone the wrong idea?
Just image if you could become paid informant for BLUFOR players, providing valuable intel for forces in area, or linking up with others to become a thorn in their side. They got the gear, the good stuff - but if you are sneaky, subversive, use your voice over ACRE and a bit of guile, and talk your way out of a confrontation, only to track and kill your prey?

HAHA! I'm sayin it now - we will lose Poffadder as our regular Platoon Commander to this civi side, it will be fun... lol

Again, starting like DayZ with no real gear, not even a pistol - anything you can imagine, I can make happen with the push of a few buttons while you and your friends are in game. I can even change day into night, and turn water into cold filtered, genuine draft beer.
!mental
This is just ONE of the very do-able ideas in my head that I can and will be implementing into my game, USMC Platoon Ops - featuring lag-free civilian populations and real live human civs, too - ROE does have a place in Arma, I will make it happen on a large population server, ours, within acceptable FPS server and client side. Just needs some "outside the box" idears to be thunk up.

The public will flock to fill spots, will wish they could reserve one, and will be back and forth to our website to check either cool unlocks, or social features, or shit, any other thing we can make that is cool, using Steam In Game Web Browser or just Alt-Tabbing out. I will make this happen!

I am so positive that the full "not-yet finished" game inside my head will be very cool that I am sending a callout to anyone who wants to contribute ideas, concepts or even supply creative works I can use for what I am sure will become then next most popular way to play Arma 2 with ACE and ACRE, and all the coolest things you are supposed to be able to do with those mods that we have barely scratched the surface of. Sucks when you look in a crate and see something cool, but have no way to use it, because the current mission is set in stone. NO MORE!

FEATURING MCC SANDBOX BY SHAY_GMAN, I HEREBY PRESENT TO VETERANS-GAMING:
USMC Platoon Ops (BETA v0.2) by =VG= SemlerPDX


BETA TESTING TO BEGIN AS SOON AS I FINISH THIS ONE LITTLE THINGYMABOBBER

(click photo for full size image - shown in photo: custom platoon menu - current is a squad/platoon leader's menu)

[=VG= Murderface0151]

nice posts man :) i wish i could begin to help with coding and what not, i feel a bit of a spare tool not being able to put anything in for the group. i will have to look into it me thinks.

as for your ping pong interface, it's 2D and s****y i got one for you :P

http://i982.photobucket.com/albums/ae310/Murderface0151/Gamething-1.png

[suomikeizari]

WANT PONG!

Well I thought you were deep in to this stuff before but wow.. Nice work man, I cant wait to try out the USMC Platoon ops, seems just perfect!

hope you change you're mind (can fix your shoulder somehow) about the gaming part, we miss you on the battlefield :)