=VG= SemlerPDX

The server underwent a large update and cleanup yesterday, it had been having CPU usage issues that may have caused spawn issues and such before yesterday. Moving forward, know that things should be better. Please report any issues that pop up after yesterday's cleanup - I'd like to know if it solves the issues we were having with frozen AI aircraft in the sky, and airbases and other ground textures not spawning or being empty or blank. !hi

***UPDATED POST: VG Falcon BMS Server is BACK UP from maintenance. Please review the connection guide if you plan to use IVC as the process for connecting and joining has changed: http://www.veterans-gaming.com/vg-plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?39754.last !hi

I just restarted it, it had crashed. This is the second time now it has happened in less than 24 hours. Not sure what is happening, but gonna need to keep a close eye on it to find out why, otherwise we'll be restarting to day one every morning like this...

How to connect to the VG Falcon BMS 4.36 Server Campaign with IVC Enabled NOTE: The Minimum Client Bandwidth Requirement is now 1500 as of March 25th 2018 NOTE: Our IP Address has changed! As of September 2017, the new VG BMS Server IP is: 205.161.30.10 ALSO NOTE: The server will now be 64-bit Version -- All players must launch with 64-bit BMS! IVC is the amazing comms system used by Falcon BMS. It functions in game very similar to the UHF and VHF Radios onboard many modern aircraft, has preset channels covering specific frequencies, and allows for custom channels to be set for private communications. The COMMS Hat on the Throttle Quadrant of the F-16 has a UHF and VHF Transmit button, altogether working in a familiar way like Push to Talk on a VOIP Server like TeamSpeak 3. It has been around for awhile, and many players have gotten used to it - so much so that TS3 isn't even needed (being mostly modeled with the in-game comms system). Things have changed slightly for IVC use in Falcon BMS 4.34, for complete audio device selection options, IVC should be launched prior to launching the game if setting custom audio input or output, and the IP must be entered in-game under the Comms tab for the Server IVC prior to joining the Campaign Server as shown below. If you use Default Windows Audio Device for IVC (and BMS), you do not need to launch IVC prior to launching BMS. Refer to the BMS Manual for complete details on new features such as IFF and ATC, etc. Jeffu has highlighted many new features in his blog post here: Connection Instructions, with pictures to help bridge the language barrier Current Server Version: 4.36.3 *Bypass Step 1 if you are using Windows Default Audio Device for both IVC and BMS: go to Step 2 Step 1:* Launch the 4.36 IVC Client Software via the BMS 4.36 Main Launcher or the application found in the folder shown -You do not need to enter the IP here, or your Nickname -Ensure your Audio Devices are properly set as desired -DO NOT CLICK CONNECT on the IVC Window!! You can just minimize the IVC window *images shown use my file path for a 2nd hard drive on older version - use the proper file paths for your PC Step 2: Ensure 64-bit is selected in the BMS 4.36 Main Launcher, and click Launch at the top: *images shown use my file path for a 2nd hard drive on older version - use the proper file paths for your PC Step 3: Click on COMMS along the top, and create an entry for VETERANS-GAMING just like the image below. -Enter IP into 'Connect to IP Address': 205.161.30.10 -Connection Bandwidth must be 1500 -IVC Enable and IVC Automatic Gain Control must be green (active) -Dedicated IVC Server IP must be entered here -Click SAVE to add the entry to your COMMS Book. -Click CONNECT when finished Step 4: Once connection is established, click on CAMPAIGN along the top -Click ONLINE -Click on VETERANS-GAMING http://i.imgur.com/QVk5cK6.jpg Step 5: Select the Airbase on the map on the right - click the one circled, Seosan Airbase. (fly here, or fly at busy airbases at your discretion, see list below) -Ensure 120th Squadron is highlighted in green -Click COMMIT ONLINE on the bottom right http://i.imgur.com/q3NeiFbl.jpg Step 6: Do not change anything on the RULES OF ENGAGEMENT Window, just click OK at the bottom right http://i.imgur.com/xD5F3Zvl.jpg Step 7: You are now in the server, your physical location is Seosan, South Korea and you are required to assign yourself your own mission(s). You can even task AI Flights to support you, or attach yourself to an AI Flight or Human Flight somewhere in the world. At the top of the screen, the COMMS Tab will show you any other pilots on the server - you can text message here or once in game you can press Shift + T to text chat (useful for IVC setup and troubleshooting). As the Fragging of Flights is a subject all it's own, you will need to watch tutorial(s) on YouTube for instructions if you do not know how. Special Note: You can see now that Falcon flight packages can be assigned to do most anything in the digital war, but remember: This is NOT Command & Conquer or Wargame! DO NOT frag AI flights to accomplish player goals! You may frag AI flights to support you on your specific mission, within reason (do not assign 12 AI aircraft to protect you on a deep strike just for extra cover, for example). The complex way that the AI frags it's own flights to support the proper flow of the online campaign depends on us not messing with it too much. The VG BMS Campaign is an attempt to balance the AI war with needed Human interaction, we have specifically grounded certain AI squadrons to allow players to take on a more active role in certain parts of the war. Please respect these rules on our server and thank you for flying with us! http://i.imgur.com/CLgt8FBl.jpg Either of these tutorials will give you the skills you need; watching both may benefit you by covering bits here and there that the other one may have missed or glossed over, and may give you a better understanding of the entire concept. How to Add a Package and Frag Flights from the Mission Schedule Screen of a Campaign: (by BloodBane611) (by Krause)

Server restarted to Day 1 - this time, to try to make it last longer, I've removed fragging from 3 total airbases: Seosan, Kunsan, and Osan. Let me know how it goes. Will look into the desktop resolution at some point soon, but at least it doesn't effect server performance, so it can go to the back burner.

Thank you for your tips and advice Brian - I also think a TV session is no longer needed, nor meeting in TS3, so don't bother hanging around in TS3 just for me (so busy with a home construction project I haven't even got to enjoy a flight in 4.33 yet) too busy to know when I'll be available right now. Yes, I have been creating these changes in Day 1 save files so it can be reset easily. Let me know if the lack of HQ fragging at Kunsan works out, or if it should go back to HQ fragging, or if this "second airbase for humans" would be better at a different airbase (i.e. Osan as mentioned above). Checked the server this morning, was start of Day 2, and server was stable. Again, I did a manual quicksave, but I will implement the autosave option to give a more frequent reset point for those invested in the progress of the Korean Campaign (I also do not like resetting to day 1 on crashes - ruins the accomplishments of those trying to effect the outcome of the war over the course of a week or so) Thanks again for all the advice, I was rather unfamiliar with all of this before this thread, and I feel more confident "managing" the campaign instead of just being a "maintenance tech". !hi Any ideas on how to get the game window to be resizable? Last little thing I don't know, the startup params are set to -window but this only keeps the window small during the menus, once I launch the campaign and the server is sitting in the pit of a KC-135 at Kadena, the window fills the desktop and I cannot make it small. Maybe it's different than 4.32, or maybe my Google-Fu is rusty, but I cannot find out how to adjust the window of the launched game (GFX options in game only allow 1280x720 and no other smaller options, FYI)

Update: We've turned of HQ fragging of flights from Seosan, and for a test, we've also turned off HQ fragging at Kunsan as well. We're still checking in manually a few times a day and manually creating the save files, and will be loading from them upon server crash - so long as the campaign finally starts lasting more than a day. We'll see if the fragging changes at Kunsan and Seosan work... if not, we'll try some other ideas. Good luck, and thanks for sticking with us! !cp

Brain LAN_WROTE ... Server back up for about 12 hours (looking at campaign time), 120th still fragging SEAD and CAP. DPRK already lost almost all AA on the FLOT and airpower is a joke, making these missions rather boring and pointless. So, unless one cancels AI flights (which is forbidden) or plans a flight hours ahead of time there is no way a human package can be created. Consider this: Set autosave and time in Falcon BMS.cfg, start a new campaign, set up squadrons for humans, save, restart as server, load, double check settings, done. All you got to do after a crash is reload the autosave. I'd suggest setting all squadrons at Kunsan to humans instead of the 120th. It's 3 squadrons less to fly SEAD early in the campaign making things more interesting, US Block 40s are in the mix and there is less conflict with AI flights (which behave strangely sometimes). We have an old friends who knows all about this stuff, unfortunately, he is busier than I am these days, and I would need someone experienced to show me how to set up the campaign in these ways. Brian, you sound like you know what you are talking about - any chance you and I could hook up and work on this together? I have scoured google, looked through most all setup screens and config files on our server, and I just cannot "figure it out for myself". I am retired (medical) and will be available whenever you are, so send me a PM or reply to this thread with a good time to meet you on TeamSpeak or something, and I'll be there; we could share a teamviewer session so we could both move the mouse, and kick these changes out. !hi

Yes - we are on it, great suggestions - things are just a bit different, please bare with us. And keep the suggestions coming! Any other issues that you can tell, let us know. !cp Sorry for the transition period here - and thanks for your patience!

Pastrami - cool pic!! I like 'em both! Ya know what, and I bet BLuDKLoT will agree, they're both great and since so many people already like the first one, we'll leave it up for a few weeks and then swap it for Pastrami's... and if we get any more we like so much, we'll try them out as well. nice response from your fans...

@derk - feel free to edit and submit any old BMS graphic altering the 4.0's and 4.32's to read 4.33, if you can. We'd certainly appreciate it!! @Meiz - thank you! That looks very good! Gonna swap it out for the Falcon BMS Facebook page now. Great job! !hi Kinda forgot about this logo pic, too - it also needs to have the 4.0 altered to read 4.33 while maintaining the blocking and placement of the titles...

We're looking for help to update a VG graphic to reflect the new version they released for BMS... This is the one we use now ( http://www.veterans-gaming.com/vg-images/banners/bmsbanner_rs.jpg ), and it says Falcon 4.0 BMS, but then we played Falcon 4.32 for a year or more... now the whole game has changed, and the new nomenclature is Falcon BMS 4.33 (and it has nothing to do with 4.32). It's not a version change/upgrade and update, it's an entire standalone release... My point is, if I edit the graphic with my limited abilities, all I could do is change the 4.0 to 4.3, but that is wrong... It should read FALCON 4.33 BMS (vertical) but I cannot do all those letters or squish them thin just a little to add one more digit and make it fit, without making the F of FALCON go into the Pilot's black helmet visor. If anyone can help, by erasing the name, making it thin enough to look the same but read FALCON 4.33 BMS (obviously the BMS still vertical) we would all really appreciate it!! !hi

Then AMD may be your best budget option like Airbats said. At a compromise, you'll rarely need more than 4GB of RAM, the ATI graphics cards pair well, and hit the budget category, and you'll never need more than a 600 watt power supply. The hard drive will still run just fine, if you can carry over that part from your old PC, or you can try to get a budget HDD or a small SSD to add with a cheap HDD to get the best of both worlds on the cheap cheap. It is very possible to build a system that will play well, record a bit while playing, too. Someone needs to toss up some AMD CPU's that aren't crap in the budget area, and some ATI cards or even nVidia's that work in the low to mid end, I can't quote any myself. Also, there may be certain Aussie companies with some bundles and even perhaps some Holiday sales coming up, but not sure how long you can wait.

If you have any questions, issues, or tips relating to our Falcon BMS Server, or the new version of BMS 4.33, post 'em up here, and we'll do our best to address them or simply spread the word to help us all adjust. !pilot Thanks for flyin with us, and see you at Angels 20! New pilots should read: How to connect to the VG Falcon BMS 4.33.1 Server Campaign with IVC Enabled

CHUMBO LAN_WROTE ... error, 32 bits....really? Quoted from the BMS 4.33 Manual: For the connection between two (*or more) computers to succeed the following settings must be the same on both computers: - BMS version (4.32 or 4.33) and platform (32-bit or 64-bit) must be the same. 32-bit Platform option from Launcher (or the 32-bit .exe) is required on VG Falcon BMS Server *For the time being, and for compatibility between all players on the VG Falcon BMS Server, the 32-bit Platform of the game will be required. The reasoning behind this is that those on 64-bit systems can run the 32-bit Platform option in the launcher, but 32-bit Operating System users cannot run the 64-bit version. For the record, BMS has before and still today takes very good advantage of available RAM, and in most cases the difference between platform options is nominal.

CHUMBO LAN_WROTE ... error, 32 bits....really? This an issue I'd like to correct: The server had always been running from the x86 .exe when it was 4.32, I tried my best to mimic the new server to run the same way, and I also ran into those issues when test connecting to the new server, but thought I had sorted it out to accept both 32 bit client versions and 64 bit client versions. Testing is hard when it's just me, and without controls set up yet, all I can do is test join over and over trying different things. The last thing I want to do is exclude players based on their client OS or launch preferences of 32/64-bit, and I am going to work on that issue today. TAC LAN_WROTE ... Is possible to leave 4.32 in place for others that have low end pc's??? Thanks guys. As far as running the older version as well, a 4.32 server AND a 4.33 server, the answer is YES! But... not right away; the current server can only support one campaign/instance of Falcon, though we may add another small server for 4.32 if it is found that players with older systems cannot adjust the graphics settings of this new 4.33 version to allow them to play it. This is another area where we do not want to exclude players based on their PC capabilities, but again, this will show within a few weeks as we all have a chance to work with 4.33 and test performance on low end through high end setups as a community.

*cyberpower only ships to the USA and Canada, sadly, no exports...

Server is Updated to 4.33 and is back up and running. The 120th out of Seosan is full of AI flight generation at the moment, but it will go back to being a mostly clear airbase once Belgriffin has a chance to tweak a few things there. Report any issues to BLuDKLoT, he can get a hold of me if needed. !hi

*The VG Falcon BMS Server will be going down for the 4.33 update this morning, from 10am-2pm Pacific Time, US - it may be far quicker, assuming no issues. We will post up here when the deed is done. !cp

Good point, but they really shouldn't have trouble now that the configs are set. It's also a very affordable way for them to do this.

If you recall, Murder - I did do my very first work while the server was running, thinking it was stopped. What if it was at that time that I loaded the config, before changing the size to match 12, and because the server was running, it created that security flag for the Host? Either way, fuck them, tell them it was a mistake and not a malicious attempt, and to make it work already - money spent is money spent, and they should help. Big difference when some one means to do a thing and when its merely incompetence or human error. Here's hoping they get you sorted out. !hi

I spent some time in the wombat web panel, got him basic and server config setup (copied ours minus the headless client stuff), and got the command line set up. Server name reset to SY31009 and wouldn't load correctly. So, it's set up, but doesn't work and they are going to be contacting customer service to troubleshoot it on their end.

THIS RIGHT HERE IS A PERFECT SUGGESTION! Ben =VG= LAN_WROTE ... I was thinking something like: Cpu: i5 4690k Cpu Cooler: Hyper 212 evo Mobo: H97 Extreme (or any motherboard that supports i5 and uefi) Ram: Crucial ballistix 8gb Case: Any mid size case SSD: Samsung 850 evo 120gb/250gb GPU: GTX 960 2gb This build i quickly put together is about $775, but it will run every game you play, just swap the i5 and gpu for something cheaper if you want to get it under $700. Or if you wanna pick out your own parts I can tell you if they're compatible or not and walk you through how to put it together. I don't know much about pre-built computers so if that's what you're looking for I can't really help you there. The GTX 960 is a killer card, just below top tier in affordability:performance - no matter which direction you go, this is the card you want until you can afford one of it's big brothers when they come out next year. Do not invest in anything such as 970 or 980 even if you had the scratch: nVidia is coming out with their new line early next year and major GFX "future-proof" or "god machine" purchases should wait until then. The i5 4670k is amazing for the price and will likely last you a few years, it has enough overhead for minor multi-tasking, and combined with one of those Samsung EVO SSD's, you will get Windows Performance Scores of 7.5 and 7.9 respectively. The 970 GTX rates at 7.9 as well, meaning it tops the Windows Performance rating system. Before anyone jumps down my throat for quoting these silly, almost arbitrary Windows scores, just know I'm using it as a generic point of reference for Melon here. You're not going to get a much better deal on RAM than the set mentioned, and 8GB (2x4GB) will be more than enough for anything you will ever need. If you are interested in simple overclocking, these systems now have "one-button" auto-overclocking that will attempt to take advantage of RAM with clocks over 1066MHz. With regards to RAM, speed is the only determining factor, and it is only achieved through overclocking, either with the easy "one-button" mode or getting super-geek and using 3rd party software to adjust voltages and timings. Trust me, the first method is safe, easy, and recommended to use. *edit: So, for your usage, do not bother with any RAM over 1600MHz as you will likely not achieve it unless you get "super-geek" with overclocking. On that point, overclocking will NOT be necessary, and your CPU (should you choose the i5 mentioned) will start at 3.5GHz per core, and overclock itself as needed in the background to up to 4.0GHz per core. Pretty neat, huh?? So - my advice is to take this list by Ben to an affordable company that can build this system for you, even if you have to order, say, the graphics card separate to get a better deal and slap it in the case when you get it... Finally, you will not need a PSU larger than 650, but if you can afford anything 80+ certified, you will not regret it, and the price difference is usually $30-50 from any standard PSU. You want the 80+, trust me - and a good surge/spike/dip/brown power bar is a good investment as well, but don't spend near $100 for a good surgebar (when you get to around $100 for power protection, it's better to invest in an Uninterruptible Power Supply with the same protections + a battery backup) You can and should plan to use your old hard drive(s) along side any new SSD you add to this system. I am using 240 GB of SSD and other HDD's. The WinOS is on the SSD's along with a few of my more intensive games, the rest of my programs are installed on the HDD's. You will achieve startup times of 20 seconds or so if you have an EVO and i5 combo for your system, it makes putting the PC into Hybernate or Hybrid Sleep pointless, as the entire system could boot in the same time it takes to wake, with more immediate control availability. ;) So - take this list to a company that builds PC's or start ordering these parts as affordable from NewEgg, Amazon, and the rest and you will be good to go in no time.

No problem bro! Thank for getting these into a thread! Just such great screesnshots, a good representation of the Arma 3 world. I use Imgur to give me huge lists already formatted with the largest thumbnail that will fit and they come out clickable with the link - basically I right click on an entire folder of pics and "Send To" Imgur. Not much work on my part, I'm lazy. ;)

Great videos!!! !fans wish I could have been there, but I was on a mountain side shooting a Henry Repeater .45 Long Colt and havin a good 'ol time in the woods.