SP/COOP philosophy and thoughts

[djinn]

Back OT

I do wish Drawde, Remick04, Aserafimov and all the SP Fan BTs get some inspiration from what I've outlined both in objectives and overall picture

We should also want to stick to the FH2 dev's philosophy of creating something solid, not rough and dirty, a balance... Fix the issues to make them playable, while trying to add new improvements to AI. Like we did with Goodwood, and now, hopefully, PDH, we sometimes need to focus on the bug and squish it, other times we need to find ways of getting bots to do things that add the gameplay - Like the Stuka

Each come with their own inherent challenges. Bug fixing seems more priority, but it can be time-consuming and hard to find while new contents adds freshness to gameplay, but is a quantum leap and requires creativity with all involved, and especially pressure that I'd rather try to make easier for Drawde and Remick especially...

Another thing that I believe in is the power of 'open-ness'. We wouldn't have gotten this far with bug fixing and content-adding had we being doing all this by PMs and some of the biggest additions and help came when we worked in the open. I believe that's what a mod is all about when it can be, and more so a minimod such as ours... How arrogant and hypocritical are we if we act like this is our birth-right, when we have the DICE and FH2 devs to thank for the platform... and hopefully their blessing :-)

[cannonfodder]

...What's gone or “dying” is BF2 mod development....which means it's pretty much over...

Naturally. Most of the mod-devs have moved on because they hit the limit of what they could with the game engine or they just simply retired.

Like you, I don't like the direction the gaming industry is headed. It'll be a cold day in hell before you'll find me flailing around like a fucktard in front of the TV (I get enough exercise at work) or downloading games off the net, but like Ts said, all ya can do is vote with your cash. As such, I only buy games from my local PC games store, yet I have little doubt that the day will come where I'll be forced into downloading them...

I'm patiently waiting for BF3 to come along and put the BF series back on top of the FPS pile. The big question is: will it be mod-able?

...What ever you do with the bots don't bother focusing on things you can't fix...

Speaking for myself, I'm only really focused on getting the battle to flow smoothly, not minor things that don't make a noticeable difference.

Once all the maps play smoothly, are CTD-free, and the fixes/improvements included in the mod proper, I'll be happy. If no-one appreciates the time and effort involved in getting SP/Co-op to that point, well it's no skin off my nose mate...

...Speaking of art something that blows me away to this day was how the hell did the NAW guys get that shoulder launched Javelin missile to lock on, fire straight up in the air and attack the target...

Haven't seen it myself, tried DL'ing NAW a few months ago but all the links for the first mappack kept getting to about 80% and then just ending, leaving me with a corrupt/incomplete file...

The overhead artillery/mortar cam in PoE2 is pretty cool.


All that said, this discussion's getting too off-topic. As per the title, if you have any more thoughts about SP/Coop, by all means continue...

But if you just want to vent your spleen about the current state of gaming and it's bleak outlook, please...go start a thread about it in the Off-topic forum and we can continue bleeding about it there...


@djinn: Sorry about that...

[Devilman]

...Speaking of art something that blows me away to this day was how the hell did the NAW guys get that shoulder launched Javelin missile to lock on, fire straight up in the air and attack the target...

That is done by giving a laser target code to the weapon,and weapon HUD,and by giving the projectile a gravity code of

ObjectTemplate.gravityModifier -4

- meaning up

 

[DirArtillerySupport]

I hear ya ...had very little to do with the feature.  I could have been talking about the unique reloading function on one of their hand pistols.  The point was the player base is really really thinning out and are becoming more and more fickle and sensitive to shortcomings.  At one time it may have made sense to sway in the direction of a "combat simulator" promoting the most realistic mod in existence.  Now it's more about hanging on for dear life to the people that are left.  Cutting a portion of them out to promote an idealistic crusade is just quickening the pace.  Translating that idealism into your mini-mod won't do much for attracting new players that just want to have a little fun.  I can't see how sprinkling a few custom pickup kits all over the place at various flags would hurt the mod as a whole.  After all we'd just be doing it to kill bots not people.  Last night when FH2 got kinda tiresome and slow we switched to AIX and they have got kits EVERYWHERE and all weapon's slots are full to bursting.  Made for a fun night...but then we tend to gravitate to towards anything that “unlocks” the game from restrictions as most mini-mods tend to do.

[General_Henry]

you guys don't know how to play COOP, it is to set up 40 bots (or more) on the other team and very few for your own team, also, install all those fan-made SP patches/maps etc etc. Also lower the ticket count of your own team...

Try that, trust me, even a multiplayer veteran like me get smashed 9/10. (never the less great fun) And we have a few humans on our team, sometimes the bots manning your tank MGs are just better than a human until you accidentally blew him up with your HE shell. There is a server running with such setting located in Japan. Sometimes your dear bots get more kills than humans. (some are NOOBS, but the vanilla FH2 bots are ... worse than NOOBS right?)

What FH2 lacks is not SP, it only lacks the player for multiplayer. I'm pretty sure, if FH2 ever goes Pacifc/China, it would be one of the first games offering awesome multiplayer gameplay featuring Japan/China/Australia/Thailand in WW2. I'm sure it sells, at least to the Japanese community. FH is not making profit so it doesn't matter whether if it is pirated or whatever in China. We want players to play the mod, to make the mod looked a popular game.

When the development of European theatres is satisfactory (includes Russia), it should be full speed ahead to Asia.

[djinn]

Well, I guess its a different school of thought

I played on Veteran Server. It was fun with with like 10 players against about 54 bots. Not sure it works for bots only though....

Personally, I'm trying to get it to play eavenly so it wont matter which side you were on. Sure, it would be nice to have realistic ratios like in FH1, but not sure FH2 allows that map per map. Maybe, someone who knows would best answer this

Can you get realistic ratios for each battle in FH2 on a 50:50 ratio? Or maybe in SP?



I like the idea of balance though, playability and yet challenge. Too see a massive force on the attackers side with massive defences for the defenders. With possibly, everything usable being used.

[General_Henry]

Well, I guess its a different school of thought

I played on Veteran Server. It was fun with with like 10 players against about 54 bots. Not sure it works for bots only though....

Personally, I'm trying to get it to play eavenly so it wont matter which side you were on. Sure, it would be nice to have realistic ratios like in FH1, but not sure FH2 allows that map per map. Maybe, someone who knows would best answer this

Can you get realistic ratios for each battle in FH2 on a 50:50 ratio? Or maybe in SP?



I like the idea of balance though, playability and yet challenge. Too see a massive force on the attackers side with massive defences for the defenders. With possibly, everything usable being used.

realistic ratio is not necessary for coop, usually you would want more bots on the other team, now you must choose maps that would play well with more bots on the other team.

Example:

Human as allied:

Siege of Tobruk
Fall of Tobruk

Human as axis:

Operation Totalize
Operation Luttich (poor map for SP I must say)
Crete

get my point?

[djinn]

I get... But its just not the way I see it. YOu cant'ge the open battles and large troop formations in CQ, so I feel the only place you can is in SP/COOP. As fun as it may be to have overwhelming strength, I feel that fact is already inherent in the vehicle loadout eg. In tobruk, the Germans have a greater number of tanks and will break through notwithstanding. No need to bias it to 'feel' that, imo.