=VG= SemlerPDX

unbanned *would like to know why he was banned by Nvram... dude's played here for years, hundreds of hours on the server, good references, sits in ts3 not afk but in 'text chat' like some do, not a crime, never bothered anyone... answers?

unbanned /locked

I am very willing to swap out the current server save file, but a bunch of testing needs to happen first. Let me know how things go, tweak things you want to, and let me know when it's stable and tested. Your efforts are appreciated! !hi

Damn - get well soon! That sucks - still, glad you are alive to tell the story!! Take care!

Restarted to last autosave. Sorry for the slow response time.

Server was down earlier today, I just got the message and it's now restarted - try connecting again.

There is no part of the difficulty sliders that allow for damage modifiers, it's not part of that aspect that we can change - all that is hard coded. Unless this is part of that "morale" thing that ground troops get that you mentioned and unless those OPFOR troops were buffed somehow from said "morale", I cannot imagine why you experienced such lackluster performance with those two cluster bombs... !dntknw

unbanned

HARM (High-Altitude Anti-Radiation Missile) re-training in BMS -- SAM sites have 2-3 sets of vehicles, we don't just bomb the SAM launcher cuz we'd have to be so far inside it's engagement zone it would be suicidal. Instead we attack the Missile Guidance Radar, or in some situations the Search and Acquisition Radar, with a missile so large it can fly at Mach 3+ for more than 60 nautical mile (much farther than the range of most SAM missile systems) homing in on the radiation emitted by the Radar. Missiles take around 2-3 minutes to reach the target, and you call out the shot and time when launching with your callsign and time of flight: "Weasel 3-1 Magnum (PET Alpha) 3 Minutes" and you call out when it's counter reaches zero "Weasel 3-1 Magnum PET Alpha timeout". In fact, it's such a heavy missile, when I fire off one of the two under my wings at the first SAM site (actually at it's "Fan Song" missile guidance Radar) the jet begins to tip to the side that still has a HARM and I have to add a decent amount of Roll Trim to compensate to keep the jet from veering off course. In this pic, I've taken out the first SAM site, an SA-2, and launched at the second - an SA-3 - which will be destroyed in 14 seconds as shown in the right MFD: (click photo for HD Res)

This morning it was crashed. Restarted to the last autosave, but I didn't do anything to force it back to the 2D map. Gonna wait until one of you is online later so we can try to do so and see if it continues to run well as it has this past week. If it works, I will add that step to the restart procedure (launching then returning to the 2D map). What we did this last time was simply ignore the anomalous event of the server forcing itself back to the 2D around last weekend. Time to see if we can make it happen at will with same results. !hi

Server has been running at the 2D map for days now. It actually seems to have made things more stable. Based on what others have written above, this concept that the "player bubble host" is taking up some of the workload of AI units close to said player may be the most beneficial route as we cannot afford to upgrade the BMS server hardware at this time, and every one of our PC's is definitely a few generations ahead of the server CPU (whether AMD or Intel) and far more capable. I'll say this for the old workhorse of a server: I've tweaked and fine tuned it's copy of Windows to be as slick as possible, there's only like 41 processes running at any given time including IVC server and the BMS server, and it has mostly modern cable internet with a stable ~35Mbps down and ~12Mbps up. Let me know if it crashes, of course - it's harder for me to verify server health when it's at the 2D map, so I'm gonna rely on word of mouth from one of you for the most part when it is not obvious that the server crashed. When it doesn't display a crash popup from Windows or the like, I just cannot tell. We'll see if this works like this.

I never used the UnitPlay/UnitRecord functions for any kind of troop movements in Arma 2 and I've got over a thousand hours scripting. Here is a topic where a scripter had issues trying to copy/reuse UnitPlay scripts and had issues he resolved: https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/152864-reusing-bis-fnc-unitplay-problem/ What you are trying to do can be done in the 2D editor with routes and paths, or you could script routes using waypoints or triggers for the events (IED/Ambush). One of the most helpful ways I learned how to do a thing I wanted to do was to look at a few examples of work doing similar things (don't copy people's code, but review it for training/teaching). Find some convoy like mission and break it open, peer into it's guts and look for the interesting bits that make it work. Then, you can write something worth testing without getting frustrated at dead end results. Also, if you don't use it, download and install this little program "Arma Edit" - then right click on an Arma script file (.sqf) and select "open with" and find Arma Edit.exe - tell it to always open files like this with Arma Edit. The key benefit (aside from syntax highlighting) is the ability to look at the entire list of commands, and right click on them for command help which opens the OFPEC website showing operand types, description, examples, etc. Very helpful. Shown in this image: http://imgur.com/NRTOGrp For mission.sqm, do NOT open with Arma Edit, but use Notepad++ as it will not alter the save file extension. Notepad++ has line enumerations and can have syntax highlighting for most any language, available from the drop down menu box along the top, and will save files that are not saved (program could be closed with an edited unsaved file and will re-open the file as is with the edits even if PC restarted) Arma Edit: http://www.armedassault.info/index.php?cat=utilities&id=10 Notepad++: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v6.9.1.html !cheers

Brain LAN_WROTE ... Looking at the squadrons I noticed all stock Viper squadrons are still set to HQ. For months we had 3 of them disabled (Kunsan, Osan, Seosan) and still the campaign won itself. What exaclty is the thought behind it? How is it supposed to help when BLUFOR is already overpowered? Oh, holy flipping face palm!!! I messed up big time there!! I cannot find the emote to express my embarrassment. I will check for online players and fix this immediately. This was a big mistake and I never meant for those squadrons to be active again - in fact, I intended to disable the A-10's at Osan or Kunsan wherever they are to see if that gives the DPRK that slight edge that is not overpowered. Big mistake. !hang

Ouch! What's always frustrating to me is turning off HQ fragging at Seosan before any flights have fragged, time stopped - then getting into a mission in the first hour of the war only to have to compete for runways at Seosan with AI Vipers!! Not like there's even time for them to have been diverted from another field or any such reasons. I wonder if other servers have the warping AI issue...

New version is now live, see above posts for details. Thanks again, Sinu! !cheers

Okay - all of this is great feedback. @Sinu - contact me when you are online and we'll kick out a revised Day 1 Master Save file. CobaltUK also flys here often, not sure if he has any points to add, or if it's all been said already. Next Proposed Changes: -Difficulty needs to be increased a fair amount -Disable AI Squadrons on Vinson until Day 3 (turn off HQ fragging at least, remove Vinson on Day 1 at most) -Disable A-10 Warthogs at Osan -Add Viper Squadron at Kangnung ?? (AI/HQ Fragged I assume is what Brain meant) -Harriers only for humans, and only for fun (aircraft has issues as noted by Brain) --*Consider "Strong DPRK" as an option, feedback and discussion would help on this point. I'd like to get a new campaign with several of these proposed changes active before Saturday (tomorrow) morning if possible. If you read this, Sinu, see if you can do these things or contact me when able.

I am wondering how the weekend went -- it's time to increase the difficulty level and it's a great time to address any other issues. How do you all feel about the USS Vinson being on scene so early? Were there sufficient targets? Or had the BLUFOR AI overwhelmed them? How are the BLUFOR Anti-Air Defenses? Do they need to be decreased or increased? How are the DPRK Anti-Air Defenses? Do they need to be decreased or increased? How does the ground war look? Does it need to be re-balanced to either side? How does the air war look? Enough enemies in the air? Too many? Too few friendlies? I realize the campaign has been going for less than five days with the new settings, but if there is something that needs to be adjusted, I don't want it to wait too long - I don't want you all having to "put up" with poor settings on the server. Please advise. !hi

Man that sucks, bro! Hope everything turns out for the better. Good to hear from you again - I still have fond memories thinking I was a crack heli pilot, then getting schooled in your chopper as you skim the streets and fly through hangars on Mutrah like driving a car. Take care man - might have to dust off my PR just so I can tag along again. !cheers (sig's ain't working on the site right now, so I gotta photo bomb my sig you made for me for MC support ;) )

Brain LAN_WROTE ... We know BMS has some memory leaks and the server will eventually reach critical CPU loads. The server CPU is dated - it's an Intel Core 2 @2.13GHz. There is no way to run BMS off of our dedicated server in Germany, we are only able to offer this server run on the machine it is currently running on (for the time being).

That was going to be my first question: Did you know that there is no AI/HQ fragging for any of the new added squadrons? **I have similar concerns tho about the carrier being present so early, but lets take it in stride and change it as necessary. If we get through this now, we can play for years in a very cool world we all like. Also - the difficulty I set for the previous campaign is the same as the one set for this one - I literally shared a screenshot with Sinu. Finally, I will be happy to increase rather than decrease the difficulty as you mentioned, it's too easy right now. No problem with that at all. Only in that I need to include Sinu in the process, but he's USA timezone so I anticipate little issue with the 'feeling out' process to get us a Master Day 1 save we can reuse for years and years like the old days. I did write above that I wanted to go to the other end of the spectrum a few posts back, in terms of balance - rather make it a little easier and work up to the correct "hard/veteran" setting than have it too weighted to DPRK and get reports of an unplayable campaign due to bombed out player airbases and missing these reports for hours until I get to my desk - avoiding such downtime is my goal as we work up here to the "best" Day 1 save for the server. And if we find that any of these added squadrons create an OP or terribly weighted problem for the server, we'll revert them as needed. I cannot apologize enough for having to go through all this again so soon, but it is true that I don't have the ability to feel it out first hand and I rely on all of you regular pilots' input. And I thank you for choosing this place to fly - there are certainly more organized, more populated and more knowledgeable BMS groups - we're indeed a casual place to fly with no crazy rules, "just come fly". Cheers for all the very helpful in-depth reports, don't worry at all EVER about that - keep them coming. We'll mold this thing into something we all enjoy! !cp

Server is live with the above changes now. Thanks Sinu! !thx

A question: Added a "third" squadron to Seosan? In addition to the 2 squadrons already there? Also - regarding the Vinson, does it normally arrive at some random date in the beginning of the war? Will it not adversely effect the AI war by bringing it in sooner? The reason I had tried to turn off HQ fragging at Osan and Kunsan was so players could use the Block 40's as well as having a slightly closer airbase to take off from. Would you be able to add a squadron of 40's to Kunsan and Osan that could have HQ fragging turned off (but keep the current squadrons at those airbases HQ fragged so as to not affect the AI war)? I would be most willing to change out the server save file for one you create if these things can be added and/or addressed.

Okay - spent this morning tweaking the Day 1 save file for the campaign. We're gonna start at the opposite end of the spectrum and work backwards -- by this, I mean, I've made Seosan the ONLY airbase with no HQ fragging. Kunsan and Osan are once again fully AI/HQ fragged. Players should still be able to snag a flight out of those bases when aircraft are available, but we need to try a more 'default' war for now in 4.33.1 to see how it goes. (edit - added clarification:) As we try to balance it, we may delete HQ fragging of one or more squadrons at one or both of these bases, but let's do it one at a time, as needed - instead of me turning them off outright as I did earlier, which let the DPRK roll straight over our bases like it did. I've also tweaked the difficulty level and weight of troops on either side. BLUFOR should have slightly better air defenses now, ground and naval forces are still weighted to DPRK, as are the air forces - but as we've slightly increased the air defense and re-activated 2 airbases, it should balance out. Input is very much appreciated, and I thank you all for your patience! I've been busy with projects around the house, so I'm still using my laptop (not able to run BMS yet). I expect to get my PC back up and running this week, got the new cooler in a box, and a new tube of Arctic Silver ready to go. For those of you who see warping planes, I'd like to see you try upping your bandwidth to 2048 - just for a test. I doubt it will help, I'm pretty certain a sync issue like that is linked to latency from players who'd have a higher ping to Kansas USA, but I could be wrong. I'd like to narrow it down if possible, and I'd like to test trying that higher bandwidth for players farther from the server, and for multi-player flights with international players from all over. Server is back up now - I'll be in TS3 here and there, and you can poke me or message me with issues. I'll also keep an eye on this thread, and we have a chat bar at the bottom of this site where you can get a message to me almost instantly (if I am at my desk, it beeps almost annoyingly loud). I'm happy to quickly restart and change the server if you find something I've done here to be too severe or 'game breaking' for you to fly here. Thanks again for your patience! !hi

there are crash logs I believe under the BMS programs folder, under User, under Logs. If it was a windows thing, event viewer will have logs, too.

Well, that is the first bug - actually, a big one. Dang it!! It's supposed to be 32-bit, had that selected, launching from the 32-bit launcher, too. Ugh. I'll change it over this evening - just popping in now, don't have the time to restart it just yet - but when i do, it will restart to the last auto-save, so no progress you make right now will be lost. !dash