[SP] Apocalypse - Invade. Control. Conquer

[kiberkiller]

Apocalypse if very CPU intensive it seems, I personally can't play on any other map that UItes and Zargabad, and even on Zargabad it gets really slow sometimes.

Utes is a great map though, so I'm not complaining.

[markb50k]

By the way, I managed to accrue 1000 points so requested a HQ. I waited some time and it didn't arrive, nor were there any other units with waypoints set to my location, so how long should it take for the HQ to turn up?

i guess it depends. Easiest way to know for sure is to look at the reinforcement display that pops up when you order any reinforcements. Look at the REINFORCEMENT QUEUE and you will see a "HQ Vehice*" with a time of arrival.

If its still listed in the queue, just wait until that time.
If its not on the queue, it either never got put on there (very unlikely, the code is working properly) or its transport aircraft has already arrived.
If it did arrive, its possible that the plane carrying it never got to you (was destroyed by enemy fire) or is aimlessly wandering. In the same display that lists your friendly forces, see if there are any groups on the top list that show "CombatVehicleDrop".. This latter case is probably not what's happening, because if it was, you'd still see a group with a waypoint at your position.

So, either it hasnt arrived yet (check the queue) or it was destroyed in mid-flight and you'll have to order it again.

Another thing you can check is to see if the option to order a HQ is available in the reinforcements menu. If it is not, then the game has detected your HQ group either inbound or in the queue. If the option is available, then most likely its aircraft was destroyed.

---------- Post added at 14:19 ---------- Previous post was at 14:17 ----------

Apocalypse if very CPU intensive it seems, I personally can't play on any other map that UItes and Zargabad, and even on Zargabad it gets really slow sometimes.

Utes is a great map though, so I'm not complaining.

I have noticed that very early on, if you pick one of the sides to have DEFENDERS "At start:" YES on the initial screen, FPS is a bit heavy because i end up spawning soldiers at every static weapon across the entire map. Try it with no side having DEFENDERS "At the Start" YES. See if that improves.

[doveman]

Apocalypse if very CPU intensive it seems, I personally can't play on any other map that UItes and Zargabad, and even on Zargabad it gets really slow sometimes.

Utes is a great map though, so I'm not complaining.

Thanks, I'll try those then.

---------- Post added at 16:25 ---------- Previous post was at 16:01 ----------

i guess it depends. Easiest way to know for sure is to look at the reinforcement display that pops up when you order any reinforcements. Look at the REINFORCEMENT QUEUE and you will see a "HQ Vehice*" with a time of arrival.

If its still listed in the queue, just wait until that time.
If its not on the queue, it either never got put on there (very unlikely, the code is working properly) or its transport aircraft has already arrived.
If it did arrive, its possible that the plane carrying it never got to you (was destroyed by enemy fire) or is aimlessly wandering. In the same display that lists your friendly forces, see if there are any groups on the top list that show "CombatVehicleDrop".. This latter case is probably not what's happening, because if it was, you'd still see a group with a waypoint at your position.

Thanks, I'll get the hang of how this all works eventually I can't order any more reinforcements to check the display as I've only got 43 points after ordering the HQ but if I go 0-8-5-2-9, it shows Request HQ (cost: 2000) (so it's doubled in cost) and if I select that, it says "Negative. You already have an HQ vehicle". I can check by 0-8-5-1 (Order of Battle Display) though and that shows the HQ Vehicle is due to arrive at 06:56 (current time is 06:48) so hopefully it will turn up soon but as there's no waypoints to my position I'm not certain it will be delivered to my current location. Guess I'll find out soon enough.

So, either it hasnt arrived yet (check the queue) or it was destroyed in mid-flight and you'll have to order it again.

Another thing you can check is to see if the option to order a HQ is available in the reinforcements menu. If it is not, then the game has detected your HQ group either inbound or in the queue. If the option is available, then most likely its aircraft was destroyed.

Damn I hope not. It took me ages to earn those points

I have noticed that very early on, if you pick one of the sides to have DEFENDERS "At start:" YES on the initial screen, FPS is a bit heavy because i end up spawning soldiers at every static weapon across the entire map. Try it with no side having DEFENDERS "At the Start" YES. See if that improves.

I don't think I had that enabled but I'll double-check.

[markb50k]

Thanks, I'll try those then.

---------- Post added at 16:25 ---------- Previous post was at 16:01 ----------



Thanks, I'll get the hang of how this all works eventually I can't order any more reinforcements to check the display as I've only got 43 points after ordering the HQ but if I go 0-8-5-2-9, it shows Request HQ (cost: 2000) (so it's doubled in cost) and if I select that, it says "Negative. You already have an HQ vehicle". I can check by 0-8-5-1 (Order of Battle Display) though and that shows the HQ Vehicle is due to arrive at 06:56 (current time is 06:48) so hopefully it will turn up soon but as there's no waypoints to my position I'm not certain it will be delivered to my current location. Guess I'll find out soon enough.



Damn I hope not. It took me ages to earn those points



I don't think I had that enabled but I'll double-check.

ok, well from your description of the menu options, it seems you havent gotten the latest version, where i revamped the menu's to make them MUCH easier to navigate. I recommend getting that version, you dont have to restart, it will auto-patch you.

as for your HQ, sounds like everythings working as it should. once it arrives, wherever you are, the group will spawn with your position as its waypoint. so no worries, its on the way!

[doveman]

ok, well from your description of the menu options, it seems you havent gotten the latest version, where i revamped the menu's to make them MUCH easier to navigate. I recommend getting that version, you dont have to restart, it will auto-patch you.

Yeah, my mistake. I thought the armaholic version I downloaded was 3.1 but it's 3.0, so I'll update and try again. Cheers

[doveman]

Well I haven't tried Utes yet, just carried on with my Chernarus with 3.1. I added some mods as well but none that would affect the AI I don't think, just visual, sound and a couple of UI mods. This is the commandline I used:
"-mod=D:\Games\ArmA 2;Expansion;ca;Expansion\beta;Expansion\beta\Expan sion;@cba;@cba_oa;@cba_a2;@blastcore_visuals;@jtd; @jsrs;@sos;@sthud;@stmovement;@mapplus;@mk4;@gnat' s b52;@ka-50;@rksl;@ukf_challenger2;@mar_marsoc;@island duala;@island_podagorsk;@island celle;@island fallujah1_2;@island lingor;@island panthera;@baf;@pmc;@markb50k_apocalypse" "-name=doveman" -nosplash -world=empty -maxMem=2047

My HQ did arrive eventually. It didn't actually get delivered at the ETA but entered the battlefield at that time and a waypoint to my location appeared and it took maybe another 5 minutes to get to me.

I decided to go and capture a nearby camp whilst I was waiting for it and was away when it was delivered. I then briefly had a squad member 2 but then he died almost immediately. I don't know if he was the pilot of the plane delivering the HQ so perhaps that got shot down, although I was at the drop-point for ages myself and there was no enemies anywhere near.

Probably because the CPU couldn't cope (hence the low FPS) but at some camps I found the enemies totally ignored me. At one I didn't notice a guy on a machine gun until I drove right up to it and he was looking right at me but never fired. Then I got out the vehicle and he had turned his back on me (so I shot him naturally) and then I saw another guy on the other side of the camp who didn't seem to have any idea I was there either.

The biggest problem I found was not being able to get any reinforcements. I played for about 2.5 hours and had almost wiped out green (they probably had about 3 camps left) and probably only accrued a total of 2000 points in that time. I spent 1000 of those on the HQ and tried a couple of times to order a gunship but it said none were available, so I was only able to buy some infantry a couple of times and I think I requested two lots of support infantry. I never saw any of them anyway, as they either got killed before they got to me or got caught up in an engagement or something and didn't proceed to where I wanted them, so I spent the whole game driving around on my own capturing camps. I kind of expected to start off in a squad as I dropped in with loads of guys so it seems a bit strange to not be in a squad.

I think one of the changes between 3.0 and 3.1 is that now when opening the Reinforcements menu, if you don't have sufficient points to buy anything it just shows Purchase and you can only cancel that. I preferred it before, where it showed the list and how much each thing cost, even when you didn't have sufficient points, as then you could see how many more you needed to afford something. It might be useful if you could show the points total on the topbar of the map screen, as it's a bit fiddly to check that at the moment (I think it's only shown on the Order of Play sidebar which appears when opening the Reinforcements menu, even if you can't afford anything and it shows when your team capture a camp and gain some points but it might be nice to be able to have it displayed on the map topbar as well).

Anyway, I'll try Utes next time and see how that goes.

[markb50k]

I think each person's experience is going to be a bit different.

one method however to gain points is to do the following... which is what i always do..

help out your side by finding infantry and putting them into vehicles. its the easiest way to gain points. first find an enemy vehicle that is serviceable and empty, or a friendly one that you know isnt claimed by another group, usually its jsut sitting there with a dead driver.

Make sure its an armed vehicle. cargo trucks and unarmed humvee wont gain you a bonus.

when you have enough to recruit 2 units, 300 points, use the recruit command. get near friendly infantry and recruit 2 soldiers.

merge the two HC squad together into one 2-man squad
use the "Assign group to vehicle near player" command to have them load up in the empty vehicle. you may have to play around with this as the AI sometimes doesnt realize a vehicle is empty.

An alternative is to have the two units join your squad and order them into the vehicle.

anyway once they are in, if they are in your squad, select them and use the "Units -> New Group" command. Either way, make sure they are in their own group and in the vehicle.

Select their group and use the "Release group" command. They will now go under AI control and you will get a bonus for putting them in a combat vehicle, up to 800 points if its a gunship or airplane.

Do this a couple of times ( i find empty vehicles or slightly damaged ones all the time) and you will gain enough points to order reinforcements.

Rinse and repeat.

[doveman]

Cool, thanks for the tips, that should get me going a bit better

[kiberkiller]

I have noticed that very early on, if you pick one of the sides to have DEFENDERS "At start:" YES on the initial screen, FPS is a bit heavy because i end up spawning soldiers at every static weapon across the entire map. Try it with no side having DEFENDERS "At the Start" YES. See if that improves.

I usually play without any defenders but I always play with x3 or x5 reinforcement speed so the maps get filled by units pretty quickly, and without fast reinforcements I think the mission is too slow (gameplay-wise), so I think I'll stick to Utes.

[markb50k]

I understand. Just to let you know, a couple of updates back i put in some code that will automatically accelerate the pace at which reinforcements come in when the number of units on a particular side gets low. In my current run with Zargabad, reinforcements are coming in VERY steadily. I know you were seeing some slowness before, but you may want to try again with normal reinforcement speed.