Multiplayer

[[FRL]Myke]

Well, i think a ranking system can easily split the community....one side loves/wants it, the other side hates it. Count me to the second side.

However, i think generally refuse a ranking system isn't the way to go. Also i think it's indiscutable to have a permanent ranking system.

I guess the best way is to find an optional way through all this. Server owners may decide if they enable rankings or not. Mission makers may decide if they build in ranking options into theyr mission (rewards for kills, goodies they can get) and players should be able to choose by them self if they want their stats stored or not.

At first it looks as this would end up with a mess, but i think it will balance itself. Some serverowners might decide to deactivate ranking, therefor no ranks and stats are shown/stored. Some Missionmakers might decide to not restrict things for lower skilled (whatever that means) players.

I guess at the end all will benefit from an open system where everyone may choose by himself. If you like a ranking system, enable it at your side, look for ranked servers and for ranked missions. If you dislike it, then just keep away from ranked servers.

The problem about storing the ranks and stats is then a technically problem. I'm no IT specialist so i wont give any comments about it besides this one: right now it is already possible to have a squad.xml....why not developing something based on this?

[Praelium]

This is kind of minor, but I hope that if we open up the chat box to type something, we can scroll up and read past messages. I think CSS has it and it's kind of usefull.

[NeMeSiS]

This is kind of minor, but I hope that if we open up the chat box to type something, we can scroll up and read past messages. I think CSS has it and it's kind of usefull.

You can, open up the type console thingy and press pageup/down to scroll.

[Praelium]

This is kind of minor, but I hope that if we open up the chat box to type something, we can scroll up and read past messages. I think CSS has it and it's kind of usefull.

You can, open up the type console thingy and press pageup/down to scroll.

Oh really? Thanks.

[ArMoGaDoN]

Totally agree with the concept of the game itself downloading addons from *somewhere* (cloud of designated servers?) automatically as addon-based missions are a pain to host successfully - which is a problem when one of the OFP line's greatest strengths is the addons...

Finer-grained control from and by the server on addon allowing/disabling would be VERY good to have IMO:-

After seeing many great mods with multiple PBO's (The TrueMods and Sight Adjusters for example) there are some of these PBO's that would be good to allow on MP, but some that a server admin might prefer to disable in-game.

Some way of the clients (optionally) auto-downloading missing addons (Approved and SIGNED only!) and some way of the server checking the SIGNED addon maker and each of the addons are allowed, BUT allowing specific PBOs while denying (or better: temporarily disabling!) other PBOs would allow community addons and the game itself to flourish much better I feel.

I think that this would mean some hard work as ALL addons are loaded at startup currently - a better way may be to have a 'DISABLED' flag for each addon that is set dynamically at server connection time? The disabled/enabled status to be dictated by the server itself.

This lack of granularity, combined with lack of simple download, has been one of the reasons why the signed addons method has not been so widely adopted.

[dentist guba]

heres my ideas.

Spectating
1. how about some new spectating modes, i'm fond of the seagull but i would welcome the addition of some new ones. the main new thing i want is the ability to snap on to any soldier and watch them (like the guy did in the demo vid), it could get quite boring at times flying around and not being able to see anything because you didn't know where the other people were or they were in a jet. you could use a modified teamswitch thing for this.
2. host option whether spectators can speak to living players
3. maybe allow people to specate from the start rather than having to die (could be fun to watch while eating lunch LOL
4. maybe make use of bullet follow scriots e.t.c.

mission editing
1. there should be a simple way to download other peoples maps (including on XBOX live), this would allow people to co-operatively make maps by merging.
2. hopefully this will be covered by the script database but we should be able to make things spawn more easily.

Stats
1. the leaderboard for ofp elite was quite good but i would like to be able to see a more detailed breakdown e.g. total no of tanks killed or men lost.

also the host should be able to kick a player without them returning to a game and possibly warn first.

[Cross]

Option suggestion in difficulties...

- In-vehicle sound suppression on/off

allows sound effect dampening for MP sessions when using VON / TS.

[Boborish]

Scripting command that allows missionmaker to turn off the scoreboard for the specific mission so people finally stop the stupid rallying in frags and care more about their own survival and overall mission success.

[jerryhopper]

What I would like to see in ArmAII is samekind of point/rank system ***like in Battlefield. Of course this sounds like utopia but this is my suggestion and dont take it personally.
Evolution mp missions are good example what i seek but in larger scale. It would be more than nice to get new weapons when going up in ranks etc.
Of course this kind of global ranking system would need a lot of resources and manpower, but personally it could bring something more to the mp. At least thats the only reason why i ever (quite seldom) play BF.
In my vision there is one or more mp missions made by BIS that are "ranked". From other missions you wont get any "official" points. After every match all the points are saved in some database which is accesable to all to see.

Maybe this kind of a system can be developed by group of ArmA community?

kindly yours -SR-

Funny to read ***this

i actually BUILD this system for BF2 ( its called: Alternative Battlefield Ranking )

What is needed, is a way to interface with the internal scoreboard of the engine. it should be able to read & write data to somewhere.
This functionality would allow people to do things as suggested by you.

This would give 'modding the game' a new dimension

yea, i think its time that the scripting language in ArmA needs some nonblocking http-class.

[LJF]

I would actually like to have multiplayer templates built into the game, for example, team death match, death match and king of the hill and all the other gametypes. It would be much better for those of us mortals who can't script or anything.

Also - and this is the big one - I would like better respawn ... ah ... thingies. I want to be able to spawn with my starting equipment or equipment I've set for a soldier, eg, AT has rocket launcher, mg has mg etc. I don't like spawning with a single magazine of the standard rifle every time. I know it can be done, but it seems all these sort of things require complex scripting, which as I've already stated, I know absolutely nothing about.

By templates I mean things we can edit or modify, not the ArmA "templates". I want to put respawning into my own missions.