-= ZKs BattleZone =- 72 Player [CO-OP] - Warfare

[Kremator]

Talked that idea over with ZK, Mono. Of course it COULD be done, but having that starting randomness is great. As Forrest Gump said 'Life if like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get' - same with BattleZone

I find that even with 15FPS on the server there is a massive amount of action and responsiveness. Shows the power of FSMs !

Glad you are enjoying it

[Mono]

Loving it still got my hosted lan version running now went back and 2 of the 6 bases had moved location and the taki have taken over one of the independent bases. I might leave it running in the background all night just to see what happens!

Also for the solider param does that mean total soldiers or groups/squads of? Just out of interest.

I suppose the randomness will level itself out once one of the bases close to each other gets overrun!

[Kremator]

I think thats the number of soldiers . They will the join groups set,in the params.

It is truly a persistent battlefield, and I leave it running for days to see what happens. Interestingly it can be one soldier that gets through the enemy defences and starts knocking out buildings that can sway the course of the war.

Was going to say previously that setting the total units to 100 means that every vehicle will get made eventually, whereas a lower total count inserts a little randomness in what gets built during the war. I play it boths ways!

To REALLY test your system, increase total units and each type. On standard options I think there are 55 things that can be made.

I prefer running 10 defences and 0 soldiers to give enemy a sporting chance if they get into my base!

[vengeance1]

Thanks! MAN I love this game! Talk about exciting!

And I have been fighting them off not knowing about the "J" key or the "E" key HA!

Do you have a recommended Prams setting?

I find if I sneak in and "Load Up" the Enemy Work shop does that destroy that base? Seems like you should be able to do that until all the Enemy Buildings are down?

[Kremator]

I think ZK removed that sneaky option a while ago, after I tried it.

If you use the enemies ammo crate however then you can grab their satchels! One per building is enough.

Actually I recommend turning everything up to 11! Try to max out your server with greater numbers and see how the war turns out!

Tip of the day - why not place you defences on top of a tall structure? Hold V while looking for a good spot. If you are lucky you may even put them on you illuminated towers !

[Zonekiller]

Thanks! MAN I love this game! Talk about exciting!

And I have been fighting them off not knowing about the "J" key or the "E" key HA!

Do you have a recommended Prams setting?

I find if I sneak in and "Load Up" the Enemy Work shop does that destroy that base? Seems like you should be able to do that until all the Enemy Buildings are down?

I suppose the randomness will level itself out once one of the bases close to each other gets overrun!

Maybe not - as the truck picking up the base need to get it to its destination , if the truck is destroyed the HQ container is up for grabs again.

Thanks ALL
Im working on a UpDate so you have an action to leave your group, also so when you JIP you dont have the last persons group still attached to you.
its almost done.

I do recommend Pressing K in the Build Menu and looking what options you have.

You cant packup an enemys base untill you have all the buildings down,All the -players that belong to that HQ- in that basearea are dead and have one of your sides trucks to back it on to.



As for the Params NO std settings.
Most of the work is done on the server so it depends on the CPU Power
of your system.
I designed this on a single core CPU so i had to make sure the code was tight.

You get a different effect with every change of the params
if you only use 2 sides there seems to be more of a front line but have only 288 groups in total on the map, 3 sides scatters things up even more and allows for 432 groups in total.

allowing vehicles with no weapons - its less aggressive but there is more cannon fodder , also riding around on the back of a bike is cool. - i know you cant get in driver on a bike "not sure why yet" if you want to be a driver of a bike , just make an empty one.

If the Medic tent is down the base can not build anything untill it builds a new medic tent- you cant respawn at the base if there are no medic tents or bunkers. if you have Fortifications and build small medic tent - or bunkers you can still respawn at them , infact you will randomly respawn at any of them buildings if they are in your basearea, If you cant respawn at your base and dont want to wait till a medic tent is up , you can click on one of your other bases on the mini map and respawn there - that will then be your default HQ, the last HQ you build from becomes your default HQ, if your HQ is lost , all AI and yourself will get the next HQ as your default HQ, lose all your HQs - Game Over for your side unless you can get one back on foot and have a truck from your side handy-

every AI that gets out of a vehicle - Joins just one group and gets new orders to attack enemy bases on foot. when you see green smoke some of them AI are getting picked up by a chopper land vehicles will pick up AI too ,and when there are 4 or more cargo they are taken to an enemy base to do an assult on the base.

as far as groups - groups are cleaned every few minutes ,there is a limit of 144 per side
when 132 is reached that side can not build any more PLAYER CAN ONLY EMPTY VEHICLES,

when you make soldiers there 1 group per soldier, if AI make them it 1 group per team , in the parms you can set the "Units Per Patroling Group :", have more men but still use fewer groups.

Convoy size is the same deal - each convoy = one group.

so if you run out of groups quickly - increase these numbers.
All AI that get out of a vehicle join one group per side.


With Total build if that number is bigger than the added up amount of all the types then it will build the total amount of each type. If Total build is smaller than added up amount of all the types then it makes it more random ,
as it may make all choppers and not have any room left to make tanks ect;

All the building of anything with the AI -ive made that as good as i could- but sometimes a building gets in the way - you can delete it and move it somewhere else - it remembers its last position so if its desrtoyed it will build it back where you had it.
If you have water in your base area & Water_Spots array and boats enabled - it will only make boats on water.

I do recommend looking at the other islands as well - the action on them is even more intense because of there size.

After a year of making this even i have forgotten all that it can do.
so hit me with as many questions as you need to.

ive tried to use everything as much as i can , ie if a driver gets shot the gunner will get into the driver seat and goes back to base to pick up a new gunner, same will happen if you shoot its gunner.if it has cargo one of them may take the gunners spot.

So if you on foot and have no BFG you can still shoot the gunner out of a tank if they are turned out , -they are if not in combat mode- the tank will then head back to its base , so you can render it usless untill then.

for more of a surprise attack feeling , jump in the gunner of a Land vehicle
and see how fast you need to react when a enemy comes over the hill
also this is a good time to grab a beer and relax for a bit while your on your patrol.

i recommend to just play with the Params and find out what works best for you

Just an update of opinions — played this morning hosted with all settings default and then also upped the items available to 100 and to my surprise it ran perfect! Great news for me since bennys and other variants of mass warfare ARMA mission lag like hell after 30mins of gameplay.

One small feature I would love is a param for inital distance between the factions as quite a few times I have encountered them over the hill! (still loads of fun though!)

Can't wait for a Chernu variant also. Amazing mission.

Try unPBOing the mission and giving the 3d editor a go yourself.
only one file needs to be edited and the editor writes that code for you.
everything is done with arrays -- i love arrays --
so when you port it to a new map just empty the arrays and build new ones.

ZKs 3D Editor Help

Start the Mission with --ZKs 3D Array Builder : Edit Mode-- in the Params

Welcome To ZKs 3d Editor for -= ZKs BattleZone =- By ZoneKiller

All the arrays needed to move this mission to a new or existing map are created with this.

In this file
User_Settings\Mission_Settings.hpp

Really only needs to be edited if an object is conflicting with your Mission Settings
also to adjust the finer points of the objects -- INFO in the file --

All the Arrays go in here
InitFolder\POS_ARRAYS.hpp

LOCATIONS
---------
HQ_Base_Spots : Random Places your Base can start. -- Required --

Town_Spots : Random Places your AI Patrol. -- Required --

Water_Spots : Waypoints for Boats. -- If Empty Boats are Disabled --

Starting Points for East or West First HQ
Airport_South :
Airport_North :
-- If Empty Starting Points are Random --

Plane_Build : Exact Place and Direction for AI to Build Planes. -- If Empty Planes are Disabled , Must be in BaseArea --

Runway_Turf : Used to collect Runway Texture. -- Used for Plane Rearm also a setting in User_Settings\Mission_Settings.hpp -runwaybuild- to adjust the Building around Airports --

OBJECTS
-------
Ban_Build : Places where Players and AI cant Build. -- Can Be Empty --

Vtol_Only : Vertical TakeOff Planes Only. -- Used on short runways, Must be in BaseArea , Can Be Empty --

Runway_Clean : Cover the Runways and Taxiways with these Markers to delete Craters so the Planes don’t get stuck. -- Can Be Empty --

--------------------------------------------


First Make a new Mission.
Import the objects from an existing mission.
Make the required Units player able.
Set the Resistance side to -Friendly to None-
SAVE THE MISSION.
Copy all the files to that Mission Folder.
Start the Mission then go into Params and set -ZKs 3D Array Builder- to Edit Mode. Set your View Distance. -ZKs 3D Array Builder- Is always Disabled on a server --


Adjust them to suite. Objects must be on land - Respawn Markers must be on land away from the mission area.
HeliPads are optional. -- Put Invisible ones where the Map has a HeliPad and use Normal ones where there are none. Used for returning Choppers to Rearm and also You can override the Build settings and Build a Chopper on a Helipad anywhere --

Press L to get all the Town locations. -- By going to -Add Town Spots- you can add or delete some or all the Locations. Make sure that all HQ_Base_Spots have a Town_Spots close to them. the more of these the more random the Patrol pattern is --

Add at least 2 more HQ_Base_Spots than the MAX Containers you can have in the Description.ext -- Leave all 12 Containers in the mission and Edit the Description.ext -class Containers- to adjust the MAX --

With Add Water Spots the distance between Waypoint are halved so if gotoWP = 3500 then keep the distance between these Markers about 1500.

Starting Points for East or West First HQ
Airport_South :
Airport_North :
-- If Empty Starting Points are Random, If not the First HQ on East and West will take one of these spots --

With Add Plane Build you will get an Arrow on your centre piece that will show you the Direction that the Planes will start in.

With Runway_Turf run your centre piece over the RunWay and a Hint showing the Texture will show.

Ban_Build : Places where Players and AI can’t Build. -- Can Be Empty --

Vtol_Only : Vertical TakeOff Planes Only. -- Used on short runways, Must be in BaseArea , Can Be Empty --

Runway_Clean : Cover the Runways and Taxiways with these Markers to delete Craters so the Planes don’t get stuck. -- Can Be Empty --

ALL THE KEY CONTROLS ONLY WORK ON THE ARRAY YOUR WORKING WITH.
ALL MARKERS ARE COLOUR CODED TO THE WORDS ON THE BOTOM LEFT OF THE SCREEN.
ALL ARRAYS HAVE A DIFFERENT COLOUR.

To Add to an Array use your RMB.
to Delete use your DEL key and get the centre piece with 10 meters of the Marker. -- Will only delete the colour Marker of the Array your working with --

In standard Map Mode you can just click on the Map to TP there.
In the Editor Pressing T will TP you to the centre piece.

Press J to copy a single Array to the clipboard. -- Paste Into InitFolder\POS_ARRAYS.hpp before you Copy anything else. You can always go back to that Array and press J again --
Pressing C will give you all the Arrays BUT is limited so you may be missing half on them. -- Still good for setting up all your empty Arrays --

Setup all the required Arrays then restart the mission with -ZKs 3D Array Builder- Disabled.

Even tho the markers show up in the ZKs 3D Editor they do not exist in the mission itself.

[Mono]

Thanks for that Zonekiller might be a weekend project for me!

Just had the best game of ARMA in a long time — possibly forever.

Playing as Taki with US and Indy turned on with 2 crates each and 100 items.

It got a little too laggy too the end of the game but for 2 hours it ran perfect hosted and playing on the same machine.

So many individual moments that made the game that there is too many to mention.

Here some screens —

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Monoton...72449783645020

The battlefield as I left its ( saved for later ofc! )

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Monoton...72449783642826

Little-bird on the horizon line ( alarms to the base sound off! )

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Monoton...72449783635262

Lucky shot from myself with the KVSK ( good night little-bird! )

Next game I'm going to lower the land vehicles as getting to the base became a real chore but it was fun with some front lines established still.

Also had a real laugh in a SU taking out as many M1's as bombs I could carry!

EDIT: I just had another crack on the mission and there was two things I wanted to ask.

1) How do you go about capturing another teams crate again? ( I managed to get up to an enemy crate and then choose the option 'pack up now'
but this just removed the base/items from the game, leaving no crate to move etc? Maybe I'm just missing something out from the process that
Krem gave me the heads up on! )

2) On the map I have bases with a small triangular icon and bases with a large bold reticle what are the difference between the two? ( curiosity )

Again though had an absolute blast on the mission trying as many things as I could and feel I could have the params set to my perfect conflict!

[Zonekiller]

good to know your having a blast with the mission

if you could packup the enemy container then i need to fix that again.
to capture the base just destroy all the enemy buildings,

The triangle FOB marker is one of your bases , if you click on it while in reapawn menu thats where you will respawn. the circle means the enemy knows about that base.
cool screenshots

[vengeance1]

Yes that was what I was trying to say also, I can Pack Up the Container without all the buildings down.

At times we get to a stall when nobody can spawn anything because items have been reached or something like that. Which Parameter controls this?

[Zonekiller]

Hi Guys

Each item has a max number it can build.
There is a total items each base can have at anyone time.
MAX Groups at 132 Per Side.
And
No Medic Tent - Which stops Respawn at that base.

Any of these things get to MAX you cant build that item.

There is a countdown on the bottom left corner, When you select an item it shows you what you have left
In the Main Menu it tells you how many in total you have built. Base Building are not counted.

If total items is at max just delete something you dont need. ie : A patroling man at the base.

If an item is at MAX you have to wait till one dies or use some other item.

If MAX Groups - it cleans Groups every 5 Minutes. so its just a bit of a wait maybe.

If Medic Tent is down - It will stop all items from being made. It aslo resets the building clock so it cant be made again till the item_delay is reached.
and
No Respawn at that base.
Unless there is a small medic tent or a bunker - found in Fortifications - in the base area

You Click on a FOB -Triangle- Marker to Respawn at that base.

The 2 Radar Icons on the top left change to orange when enemy is detect near the base -
Defence Radar turns orange then a enemy land vehicle is near the base
Air Radar turns orange then a enemy AIR vehicle is near the base
Aslo Different sirens.



Working on.
Leave Group
Being able to pack up an Enemy Base

Sorry for the Bugs . We did think we had them all sorted.