tj72

I played a bit yesterday after the patch came out and was able to review what I still dont like in the UI specifically: Selecting of group units when Im the leader: I dont like how the unit stays highlighted after I give the order, especially if I have two pages of units and I have to hit f12 all the time to check to see if the unit is still selected because the commands are the ones I intended. I would rather they automatically deselect after an order is given in the old fashion. Earlier games had a smoother operation here. Also the command menu stays in its position so I am constantly deselecting units and hitting backspace so I can get my quick commands back from the top level. Like - select units and tell them to watch direction. If Im not careful they get another watch direction command instead of a stay crouched. Im fighting the menu while I am in a firefight and its so easy to get killed while Im dealing with it. Kills like that are frustrating and if it is complained about in this forum the poster receives outright ridicule for not being leet enough from idiots! If I am in the squad leaders tactical view ( '.' yeah the one we shouldnt use pfffft!) and I switch to map mode I cant zoom the map with the mouse scroll because the commanding menu sticks in there and cycles through the menu instead of zooming the map. I have to close the map and hit backspace twice and then go back into the map. Its cumbersome, punishing and should be changed. If there are options that can change these parts of the game I was not aware of them. Other things: I still cannot find a tutorial on how to use the mortars and backpacks in the boot camp or any official (or even unofficial) sources. I can use mortars in a basic way but I just cant figure out how to pack them and move them and load them into vehicles and stuff like that which would be a cool feature to play with. Its as simple as adding a bootcamp mission for mortars and believe me I will check again. More bootcamp missions for things like mortars and backpacks should be added with major patches if not allready. I still cant get my units to reload easily even if there are ammo trucks and crates nearby. I have to manually move them to the right location and then use the action menu to tell them to rearm and then they finally take their mags. Medics still have to be commanded specifically to heal units and even themselves. Its sometimes useful to have such granular control but they should have a clear way to know when to automatically heal people and themselves! On a final note, why are there only 3 servers in my MP lobby in 1.60?

To get a plane to fly at a high altitude and simply drop a bomb, I needed to add heavy scripting methods to overcome whatever the default AI behaviour was doing to make it not work. I had to setpos and setdir the plane at height and use the fire command (dofire didnt work work well at all) and setvector the bomb towards the target on the way down. If the disableAI fsm for planes can prevent it it from dive bombing targets and crashing into the ground and or deviate from its intended flight path then all that scripting can be taken out and now the plane simply does what it is told by the scripter. Its really important that scripters are allowed to controll the AI when they want to and can enable or disable the default AI methods as needed. If I want a plane to just fly around an area and "do stuff" then the default behaviour is okay. If I want a plane to fly through a hail of AA fire and ignore all targets except for my specific ordered target then I need to turn those behaviours off so I can get the controll I need. Just adding my experience with scripting AI for what its worth.

If you search for "useweapon" this is the third result: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=124467&highlight=useWeapon

Obviously, something in the AI logic is deciding for you what should be fired upon and when. Im not sure why that would change when the player is commander but it obviously means the AI full crews will not dofire reliably unless the firing conditions are considered good enough by said AI logic. The AI wont reliably fire on what the mission designer wants them to unless the weapon is force aimed and force fired and that is why I use the fire and lookat commands because it pushes the AI to fire no matter what. Its nice when dofire works and I have made scripts that try it and if it fails then go to the next method. The lookat command is reliable but if the AI is distracted by nearby enemies it may start to aim off the desired target so the lookat command has to be entered again like in a simple loop.

The trigger will run the code but I would use a script and run it with a trigger. The lookat part should only be needed to aim the turret. If its stays aimed allready then you should not need it. The fire command works like this: unit fire weaponName e.g. Shilkaname fire "AZP85" - this might not be the right weapon so you will have to test this. If its right you should have complete controll of the Shilkaname gun. lookat works like this: unit lookat target/position target shilkagunner lookAt target1 this would work if your shilka gunner was named shilkagunner and your target unit would be named target1. If your crew is spawned in the tank you can run the gunner command to get the gunner unit instead of his name. shilkagunner = gunner shilkaname;shilkagunner lookat target1;shilkagunner fire "AZP85" I would put them in separate triggers just to test them and give the lookat part some time to aim the barrel. Then I would put the code into a script and execute it somehow like from a trigger or init.sqs.

Try using the lookat command combined with the fire command on the shilka gunner. You may not need lookat but I find it works reliably. The fire command should work on the turret very well unless recent patches have changed the behaviour.

I will test the latest beta sometime soon and post back....

You are right but its a "new" bug. In older version/games it would hold the position. It should get fixed but I dont know if it is in the Bug Tracker. Try dofire instead of or right after dotarget as I remember that seemed to keep the weapon aimed. Incidentally, dofire should work on certain target objects and enemy units that the AI internally decides it "wants" to shoot. If the target is too far (which seems to be over 50 meters or so) or the object being fired at is not the right type then the above manual method works as a workaround to the issue. Also the "fire" command (unless recently fixed in betas/patches) does not work for infantry as many allready know, the unit fires up in the air. If a vehicle is given the fire command it usually works as expected. The useweapon method described here is intended for infantry only to work around these issues. I have only used it for rifles and not handguns or launchers...

Useweapon works it just has to be used properly.... http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=113243&highlight=useweapon It works everytime even if the weapon is on shoulder. The unit goes to pick up a weapon if useweapon command does not have a gamelogic to run the action on. You cant just tell it to get weapon 0 if that is not the current correct weapon. The code in the above link works no matter what the weapon is as long as its the current primary. I didnt test on handguns though.

Taking something away from people who are used to using it to make things easier in an editing forum is wrong. The ease of helping new users that is gained is FAR less than the loss to another user who either does not know .sqf and may not ever learn how to use it and is left on the sidelines. Im sorry but people who dont understand the concept of two different formats before writing some code and experts who are too lazy to clarify what format they are writing in is not good enough reason to remove something so useful. Whatever happened to live and let live? Programmer types dont have the right to dominate Arma series scripting, its just wrong no matter how mad some of you get about it. You are in the wrong on this. Maybe we need separate forums for the two formats so everyone can play nice. This bully attitude displayed here is unacceptable to me. Maybe BIS should delete sqs and sqf and move onto LUA? sgf is ugly crap and LUA is the future. All it will achieve is making scripting more exclusive to one type of person, one who is better at writing programs compared to someone who is more creative and wants to use the easier format to get something done. You guys are WAY out of line but thanks for being honest about your agenda.

So lame and boring...... Such a nice attitude and demeanor you have there ruebe. sqs gets shit on by the great experts who want to clean it out from the series future in the name of being a jerk....

Not everyone is a programmer......

The main reason its easier is because you dont get hassled by the experts who rip on sqs even though most things could be done in either. Not everyone is a programmer. Programmers arent necessarily the best script designers.

dotarget was messed up the last time I tested it. its like it aims but then does not stay aimed. I havent tested the aimedattarget command but it should be possible to give the dotarget and use the aimedattarget value to determine how well the weapon is aimed at the target. At the instant it is aimed perfectly a disableAI "Anim" command can be given and the weapon should hold in place as the unit has no ability to do any animations at all. It will take playmove and switchmove animations (at least the last time I checked) so the unit could be told to move forward or back and should hold the weapon in place. Then enableAI "anim" will put it back to normal. Its probably a little too complex for your idea OP but I thought it was useful information anyway.

Yeah its all MAPFACT grass objects I was using.....