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Topics - Archimonday

Pages: [1] 2
1
Gaming / World In Conflict
« on: 11-05-2013, 12:05:55 »
Anyone own this game? It was released in 2009 but I never gave it a chance until now. I was searching for a game to fill my modern tactical RTS fancy, but games like Wargame: European Escalation just weren't cutting it for me. I paid only a few dollars for this game, and I really like it. It even has a complete set of modding tools and gui-integrated mod support. I'm surprised there hasn't been more mods for it to be honest.

It reminds me a lot of Company of Heroes. While it has a pretty far fetched story-line and some really annoying characters in its Single-player, it does a decent job of putting the player in situations that look and feel very powerful. I just got done playing a mission from the single-player where you defend a Washington State town from a counter-attack and through calling in fire-support, airstrikes, and clever work of M88 Hercules recovery vehicles, I managed to hold off the Soviet Union which makes continuous wave assaults on your position. I'll probably dive into modding it at some point.

What opinions does FH community got on World In Conflict?

2
Modding / Over The Top: No Mans Land Refurbishment
« on: 23-09-2012, 18:09:49 »
Alright guys, going to leave this topic here to update from time to time with some articles regarding what I'm doing to hopefully restore No Mans Land to a working condition, and then to expand upon it.

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




Rubbing Off The Mud by Archimonday

It's been almost seven months now since I last saw any part of No Mans Land and its content, and five thousand miles from home the little projects I had going are now nonexistent. Upon returning from my training I had searched in vain for the old public release of NML, in hopes I might continue working on it in my spare time, but to my dismay a prompt on Gamefront informed me that new policy said that files which were not downloaded within a set period of time were deleted. Discouraged I moved on.

That was until last night, when a question about it in the General Discussion threw my gaze back on the old set of tweaked and modded files. Evidently somebody, somewhere, had done quite a bit of complaining to the old Filefront website, because all the files were now back and ready for download. I was excited, and quickly downloaded the old outdated public release, originally only intended to play one map.

To my dismay though the updates that have flooded Forgotten Hope 2 in my absence rendered the small modification useless. Crashes on every map were the norm. There is no need to threat however, No Mans Land still remains intact, and the few maps we had going for us are still ready to be fixed. However, which ones to save? Certainly we want the experience of both a large, and small map to test out the entirety of our efforts. Can both be achieved on the same ground? I believe so.

I remember mapping for Battlefield 1942, those were the golden days. Our clan fired out map packs, and I was even sucked onto the small team that turned out a map pack for Battlefield Pirates (another favorite mod of mine.) Battlefield 2 has, as of yet, really thrown me for a loop. I tried mapping about a year ago and found that I had little time to do so, and even then I knew very little of the Level Editor. Perhaps even less now. However, since I have returned from the blazing hot forests of Ft. Benning, GA. I've found a new understanding in some things I previously had none.

So whats the first thing I do? I open each map individually, replace flags, spawn points, and other like items. All in hopes that I can get one of the maps up and running on Forgotten Hope 2, and begin scratching off the mud left from almost a year in the trenches without use.




P.S. Administrators feel free to merge (or preferably) delete the old thread to tidy up a bit. This is where I'll be posting about anything I do for No Mans Land from now on.

3
Gaming / A Cold Day Up North
« on: 18-08-2012, 19:08:23 »
Winter is swiftly approaching here in Alaska, leaving me with one burning question: what will i do locked in the billets all winter?

That answer is simple, but, similarly difficult.  Three thousand miles of territory separates me from my rig, the same machine i spent so much time and money constructing. The Goliath aluminum beast is hardly worth the effort of shipping half way across the world, if for no other reason than its lack of portability. This realization leaves me with two options: build or buy a new computer, or risk having my old one shipped to the last frontier. More than a good part of me wants to supply another pc for my time here in Alaska. Theres a debate here as well.

I could in theory spend thousands on a lower end gaming laptop that would come with the slim physique and convenient weight of a portable system, but, feel i could get much more bang for my buck by building a small mid-atx machine with just the right parts to stomach me through 2015, and a couple of 19 inch monitors. My budget is just around 1600 USD, and my time limit is October 1st.

Thoughts?

4
Off-Topic / Halloween Costumes!
« on: 11-10-2011, 04:10:48 »
I assume most people are in full swing hunting down their Halloween Costumes, lets see/hear your ideas for this October 31st.

Backstory behind my own:

I was inside a Wal-Mart with a few friends looking at totally nerdy T-shirts, when we came across a vibrant red T-Shirt with an Angry Birds face on the front. The girl that was with us commented that it would make an excellent outfit with red pants/shorts, a red hat, gloves, socks, and shoes. In an instant we stared at each other for a moment, and proceeded, the three of us, to sprint around Wal-Mart finding the appropriate items.

I still have to pick up Gloves, Shoes, and a Hat, and I plan to put two stripes of red face paint under my eyes, or paint my entire face red as well:







Coupled with all my hard work training, should be a good laugh at some of the parties I plan to go to this year!


How bout you guys?!

5
Modding / Archi's Master Mapping Thread
« on: 10-05-2011, 12:05:50 »
I'm changing the name of this thread, so that I can use it whenever I work on a new or different mapping project.

The thread will contain attached text files with descriptions of maps, and the most current project and or notice will be posted below with the date and a short title.

--5/26/2011 - Schonberg's Rest--

Due to some editor issues, and some crashes on Schonberg, I'm putting it on the back burner for now, to work on a smaller, simpler map that will help me get my old mapping jive from the 1942 days back. Not being able to load the map in the game, and after hours of searching and being unable to discover the issue, is weighing on me, and it limits the creative process because I can't get a good feel for how the map will actually look, and feel.

Nevertheless, doesn't mean Schonberg wont still be worked on, but it will be my secondary project as I examine it from head to toe looking for the issue.

My Primary project will be a fictional map, not based off of any real place, focused on game-play alone, and will take on the role of some anonymous French town or Village, or it'll try to embody a certain experience that will be unique to maps currently out there. I'm looking at doing an infantry map, since admittedly I'm an infantryman in game, and want to see more Infantry maps of all sizes. I havn't got an official name for it yet, or any photos of a concept, but on my desk I have a number of drawings, and in my head I have a group of ideas I'm currently working around.

I think this smaller map will allow me to prove (to a select few of the guys on TS xD) that I actually have retained mapping abilities from my days working with BF1942, but only time will tell.

Stay tuned!


6
Off-Topic / Fun Times With the Wonderful PayPal!
« on: 02-02-2011, 23:02:42 »
So, as you some of you saw from a previous topic, I've had troubles with my Power Supply. So I set out to try and replace it, and what better place I thought than the well known internet marketplace, Newegg.com! Surely one of the most well known websites for selling computer parts at reasonable prices could find me a nice replacement part, a better one especially!

Now seeing as I do not trust banks, and unlike many people I know the grim reality of our banking system, I do not own credit cards, and I have no debit card directly linking any account at my local bank to a form of plastic. I say to myself, well this should be no problem, you can transfer money from a Bank Account to PayPal, and using funds withdrawn from my actual savings account, I should be able to purchase my part, no questions asked! Oh, how wrong I was!

As it turns out Newegg demands that you have a credit card on file, now it is understandable that a company would want a form of ID security, and a way to charge you for your purchase should PayPal not come through, of that I do not hate them. But it is the circumstances, and the long loops I have had to take, to no actual avail that have made me annoyed of both PayPal, and Newegg, and which have stopped me from ever wanting to use an online banking, internet marketplace, or any form of digital transaction ever again.

Lets begin our story two weeks ago, as I am sitting here, doing some delightful research.

The night was a cold one, coldest it had been in years, so cold in-fact that I was forced to take my place on our living room couch next to the huge pellet stove there, instead of sleeping in my room perfectly positioned in the basement of our home. The time must have been around 10 o'clock, and I was preparing to start researching Power Supplies to replace the one I am currently using, primarily at first to make way for the eventual expansion of my case with a new graphics card and other powerful hardware that would allow me to play my games on high.

The night was not unusual, I was enjoying a full canteen of water while listening happily singing along with "Commotion" by Creedance Clearwater Revival, my dog lay by my side snoring loudly as he slept. The boys on Teamspeak were enjoying a round of Project Reality, and I began my search. Using a series of website based applications I was able to discern how much power output the Power Supply I was purchasing would need to have, and carefully removed the side of my tower to count the numbers of plugs, and types of plugs that would be needed to successfully install a new power supply without problems.

Life seemed good, now seven months out of high school, and unemployment aside, here I was, finally upgrading my PC as I had always hoped I would be able to do. I was losing weight, I was eating healthy, my love life and the good company of my friends seemed to be improving. Life was good, aside from the overly boring days and endless job searches. Here I was preparing to spend money for the first time in years that I myself had actually earned by some manner. I would soon find however that PayPal, and Newegg sought to rip this miraculous moment from my hands and toss me back into a crate.

After gathering the appropriate information I was going to need in order to purchase my new part, I set about newegg.com, feverishly looking for the power supply I needed, the power supply that was going to set me on track to a better PC gaming experience! At one point I must of had at least 30 different power supplies bookmarked into my firefox, and looking at the list I knew that somewhere in the list was the power supply for me. I spent another two hours, at least three refills of my canteen, and a package of sliced pepperoni sifting through the pile finding the right one. With the right parts, best wattage, and least amount of complaints for its usage. At long last I found it. The feeling of euphoria as I stared at the picture at 2:00 A.M. on a Wednesday night was heart warming. I promptly informed one of my good friends who had been up helping me research that I had finally located the proper one! It was time to buy.

A day or two earlier I had set about transferring funds over from my bank account to PayPal, and the transfer success date was listed as that Thursday. The power supply was perfect, it was on a $60 Dollar sale, and it had everything I needed, as well as matching my case quite well. I anxiously spent that Wednesday checking PayPal countless times to see if the money had transferred. I woke up the next day, at around 8:00 A.M. It was Thursday, and January was coming to its final week or so. The money had transferred, I rubbed my eyes, and chugged water, making sure I wasn't dehydrated, and that the funds had actual transferred. They had! Glorious!

I immediately typed "newegg.com" into my browser, and watched anxiously as the page loaded piece by piece. There in my shopping car was the power supply, the grand total $79.99, oh how I was happy. The glorious Checkout button was never clicked so fast. I had spent that previous Wednesday preparing Newegg for the event, everything was set, all I had to do was get PayPal to transfer the funds to Newegg and my Power Supply would be well on its way, hopefully arriving before the next big snow storm. Things seemed to move in slow motion as the page was transferring, and it was there that my heart sank, my water was dropped, and the reality of what was to come hit me.

A messaged appeared that broke my heart "The transaction amount is greater than your PayPal balance." What I thought? How could this be true? I had over 140 USD in the account, I knew I had enough even with tax. My happiness immediately turned to curiosity and soon to anger as I began scanning through Google for an answer to this problem. With no noticeable answers from any Google search, I set out posting on their help and support forums. I posted a wonderfully written post which explained the problem in detail, and I continued my search on Google.

Eventually a post arose that noted Newegg authorizes the payment of the full price without discount, and then charges the discount price. That's fine I said, I would simply transfer 20 USD more, so that PayPal would then have enough to pay for the PSU even without a discount. Transferring money this time however would take longer than before and after a series of winter storms battered our bank, the confirmation for the 20 Dollar purchase took almost a week. I watched and watch PayPal, hoping that the money would transfer soon, the month was coming to an end and I didn't want to miss out on this awesome deal! I constantly refreshed my support topic in their forum, with no reply by PayPal employees, I constantly updated myself on the weather conditions and anxiously awaited the money to transfer before the month ended.

Alas all my hope in the world was in vain as I logged on yesterday, February the first and saw that the price had risen 20 Dollars. Fine I said, its not a big deal, its still more than 40 Dollars off its original price. The money still had not transferred. I sat up late into the midnight hours watching PayPal hoping it would transfer soon. Finally, after I awoke today at 10 A.M. the money had transferred. I came back inside from shoveling us out of our driveway to see 160 USD on my PayPal Balance. Great! Lets try again!

But there was no rejoicing, the same error popped up and I was at this point discouraged. I had not wanted to ask my mother to borrow her credit card, in fear that something may be charged to it, and that was a debt she could not afford, regardless if I could cover the balance of it. Reluctantly I walked into the kitchen and asked her to borrow a credit or debit card to put on file in order to make the transaction. She agreed, and I proceeded to try her cards. First, the debit card failed, I figured this was understandable, after-all, there was no money in the debit account to be used. I switched over to a Capital One Card, entering its numbers and waiting patiently until PayPal informed me that the card was linked to another account. Fine I said, there is still one more, and that is perfectly understandable! The last credit card did not work either, alright I said, there has to be a way around this, this credit card works, I know it does. So I spent a few minutes working with PayPal until finally the credit card was confirmed on the account, and I said to myself "Great! now I can go ahead and make my purchase after two weeks, and a price raise."

Again I traveled to newegg, clicking the checkout button, selecting PayPal as my form of transaction, and up came the page again. "Transaction amount is more than PayPal Balance", this makes no sense, it even says that there is 1 active credit card? How can this be? Perhaps I was just doing something wrong?

I calmed myself and proceeded to the Newegg help and support page, where I started up the live support chat and waited patiently as a customer representative came on. I had gone on previously to inquire as to the same error, and to see if there was another way to pay with PayPal without having a credit card, apparently there wasn't, but now I was confused. The conversation began:

      
 4:56:17 PM :  Please let our Representative know if you have contacted us by email regarding this same issue or question so that we may remove the duplicate request from our systems. Thank you!

 4:56:40 PM :  You are next in queue...

 4:56:42 PM :  A Customer Service Representative will be with you as soon as one becomes available.

 4:57:16 PM :  Thank you for your patience.

 4:58:22 PM :  Rose has joined this session!

 4:58:22 PM :  Connected with Rose. Your reference number for this chat session is 2176575.

 4:58:22 PM :  Hello my name is Rose. How may I help you today?

 5:00:29 PM : Matthew Damon: Hi, for weeks now i've been trying to purchase a product from your website through PayPal, let me first start out by saying that I have nothing against Newegg, but the annoyance this is causing is ridiculous. The power supply I am looking to buy for my PC was 79.99 because it was discounted 60 dollars from its original 139.99 Price. I thought great, an excellent part with everything I need at a low price, it sounds too good to be true! I attempted to use PayPal to purchase the part, the PayPal at the time had 140 USD on it, and I knew I had enough. However the PayPal account was demanding I enter a Credit Card, because I didn't have sufficient funds. I contacted your support team earlier today to ask about that question, after waiting two weeks for more money to transfer thinking that Newegg was trying to authorize for the full price of the part

 5:00:36 PM : Matthew Damon: I was given the answer that PayPal requires a credit card on file

 5:00:37 PM : Matthew Damon: fine with me

 5:00:58 PM : Matthew Damon: I go and get a credit card from my a family member, because I myself do not use Credit or Debit cards, I still to cash

 5:01:24 PM : Matthew Damon: First try, the debit card fails, ok fine. I go and get a capital one card they have, and try it, it has been linked to another account, fine understandable

 5:01:35 PM : Matthew Damon: The Fidelity VISA card fails again, and at this point im annoyed with PayPal

 5:02:01 PM : Matthew Damon: so I go and confirm my email address, and link the card to my Account through PayPal, now when I go to purchase the item through PayPal, it tells me that the VISA card is linked to my account

 5:02:12 PM : Matthew Damon: but for some reason, it still demands that I place credit card information into the prompt

 5:02:31 PM : Matthew Damon: If I place the credit card information from the VISA card that is already linked, it tells me that it is already linked, and of course, none of the other cards work

 5:02:43 PM : Matthew Damon: Is it just me? Am I doing something wrong? or should I go elsewhere for my business?

 5:04:26 PM : Rose: I would be glad to assist you with that. . . Can you please give me one moment while I look into this for you?

 5:04:56 PM : Matthew Damon: yes

 5:05:04 PM : Matthew Damon: I apologize for any rudeness, im a bit annoyed

 5:05:44 PM : Matthew Damon: to top all this off the price has risen 20 bucks since i've been screwing with all this, so thats added frustration on my side.

 5:08:07 PM : Rose: Thank you for holding. Please be advised that usually PayPal needs to be linked to a credit card. You may contact PayPal to see if any changes can be made. Please be advised that once you select PayPal as payment, you are directed to PayPal platform.

 5:08:55 PM : Matthew Damon: Thats not the problem, the problem is that despite PayPal recognizing the credit card as even being in existence, linking from your website to their by means of the checkout, suddenly it no longer exists and cannot be used

 5:10:57 PM : Rose: I do apologize. In this case, you need to enter a credit card information. There is no other way.

 5:11:45 PM : Matthew Damon: Haha...Thanks for your help Rose.



So here I am, without a Power Supply, transferring my money back into my savings account, annoyed with PayPal, and stuck, once again, with a low end Computer that cant even run BF2 on high settings. Thanks Newegg!

7
Suggestions / Rifle Grenade Suggestion
« on: 30-01-2011, 20:01:35 »
Well I was playing FH2 the last few days, and found that, to me anyway, rifle grenades are somewhat annoying. Its not so much that I get killed by them constantly, but the more the way in which I get killed by them. There is an overwhelming number of players that charge around with rifle grenades at the end of their rifles constantly read to fire, and before they enter a house, they fire a grenade at full speed and kill a bunch of us in the house.

Now I'm not one to judge exactly how rifle grenades were used in World War II, but It seems to me that the tactic of running around, rifle grenade prepped and ready to fire at any advancing target on the spot was not how they were intended to be used, or for that matter, how they would've been used in combat. I feel like the usage of a rifle grenade would've been to flush out an emplacement, sniper, or to take down hard cover where men were being pinned from, not to clear rooms.

I'm going to use a system we've been developing in No Mans Land as an example of my alternative suggestion, and how I think FH2 rifle grenades could be turned from, a room clearing all purpose weapon, to a tactical choice weapon used more sparingly and with more thought.



I want to try and keep the technical aspects of it to a minimum, I'm quite sure the FH devs have some one who understands how these things work, but I will post code regardless:

rem ---BeginComp:SoldierDeviationComp ---
ObjectTemplate.createComponent SoldierDeviationComp
ObjectTemplate.deviation.setFireDev 4 4 0.1
ObjectTemplate.deviation.minDev 20
ObjectTemplate.deviation.setTurnDev 2 1 1 0.25
ObjectTemplate.deviation.setSpeedDev 4 2 2 0.25
ObjectTemplate.deviation.setMiscDev 48 48 0.6
ObjectTemplate.deviation.devModStand 1
ObjectTemplate.deviation.devModLie 0.6
ObjectTemplate.deviation.devModZoom 0.05
rem ---EndComp ---

rem ---BeginComp:DefaultZoomComp ---
ObjectTemplate.createComponent DefaultZoomComp
ObjectTemplate.zoom.zoomDelay 0.4
ObjectTemplate.zoom.addZoomFactor 0
ObjectTemplate.zoom.addZoomFactor 0.8
ObjectTemplate.zoom.zoomOutAfterFire 1
ObjectTemplate.zoom.mouseSpeedMod 0.075
rem ---EndComp ---

Basically (for those who don't know what this all means), is this. The rifle grenade has not changed in the least from its FH2 self, the way in which you accurately fire it though has been changed. First the deviation is adjusted so that while just standing around, running, or in any other of the unzoomed poses or movements, you have a constant deviation of 20, which means that if you fire the rifle grenade without zooming in, you are more liable to kill yourself, or teammates around you with the thing. In addition there is added penalties to that already high minimum by turning and running forward, jumping of course (as Kev had previously coded it), etc.

When you zoom in, the game multiplies that deviation by 0.05, which then makes the rifle grenade have a deviation of 1, pretty accurate, (that can of course be adjusted, the accuracy rate could be debated). There is one penalty to zooming in with the weapon though. Your traversal speed is drastically slowed down, so that aiming the rifle grenade is slightly harder, and would prevent people from zooming in as they enter a room and traversing quickly to take out targets in a specific corner, or perhaps through a doorway. The amount of this slow down could also be up to speculation, it is mainly a control to again prevent the usage of such a thing in a close quarters situation accurately (not saying they wouldn't still be fired in close quarters, just not accurately).

Last but not least, a video to demonstrate, shot on our new Argonne map, so a bit of a spoiler as well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DAfTJzhMbA


8
Off-Topic / The Book Club - 2011
« on: 28-01-2011, 23:01:05 »
Instead of bumping the old book club thread all the way back up, Im startin this one. What new books are you guys reading for 2011?


I currently have 3 books I'm reading,

The first two are by the same authors Michael Green & James D. Brown. Published by the Zenith Press, these two books focus around American Military Units from World War I all the way through to Iraqi Freedom. They are part of a series of books with the title War Stories. Currently I'm reading War Stores Of the Infantry, and War Stories of the Tankers.

I picked up both these books quite by accident. I noticed them on a shelf inside a warehouse store, and pulled them down to take a look. I was immediately captivated by the idea that these books outline individual soldier's experiences through their own words, and even in the Preface they state that the stories told are in the words of the soldiers themselves, with very little editing done to tidy up the language. This was proven true to me when I started reading the very first accounts, those of World War I.





The stories told in these books are very well told, told from the best point of view: the soldiers view, and with a good amount of detail, and in-some, a heavy amount of unapologetic explanation of the gore of combat. The way these tales are told, as if threw an interviewee, make for an excellent group of stories, both from the Infantry perspective, and the tank perspective.

I have reached Vietnam in the Infantry book, which is about half way through it, and World War 2 in the Tanker book. Definitely recommend these to anybody who likes reading about war.


Finally I began reading just today actually, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, written by T.E. Lawrence. I'm reading it partially because I'm preparing for Uncharted 3's release this November, and the book has a role in the story line of the game, in-fact in the reveal trailer Drake is reading from the Introductory chapter of the book. I've read about three quarters of Chapter 1 thus far, and I am really enjoying this book. The language is very good, and the explanations of their situation through the eyes of Lawrence are very drawing. I look forward to getting a start on this book as well.

9
Off-Topic / Hm. This is bothering me.
« on: 27-01-2011, 21:01:28 »
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlZmHxTYLF8


Either the PSU or CPU Fan is vibrating, I can't tell which it is, and have cleaned both now...any ideas? Loud humming noise, and occasionally a screeching noise...I wish I had some machine oil.

10
Modding / Finding a link.
« on: 09-01-2011, 02:01:51 »
As i'm reinstalling items on my PC, I got to 3ds Max. I got all the necessary tools, but im looking for the Doomlab extended ones in particular. It seems that the doomlab website is either shut down, or unavailable at this time.

any information on this? and if it is down, could anybody here supply me with a zip or a copy of the Doomlab Extended Tools for 3ds Max?

11
Modding / Help.
« on: 06-08-2010, 01:08:43 »
I know some of you guys are pretty good at this, I need some information on how an Mg08/15 is reloaded. It may sound strange "thats straight forward!" but after looking at pictures and other sources I think I may be ignorant to the proper procedure.

12
Modding / Looking for some info
« on: 25-07-2010, 18:07:48 »
Who originally modeled, textured, and worked on the Lewis Handheld? Need em for credits.

13
Modding / The Animation Thread
« on: 04-07-2010, 13:07:19 »
We should sticky this thread here for anybody who does any animating of FH2 for fun. So if you ever do an animation or two for FH, post up your work on YouTube or elsewhere!


I recently did some Walther P38 ones myself, take a look:


whole set: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJT0Q1HOr64
fixed reload: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2wrlIk3Sw8

14
Off-Topic / World War
« on: 20-02-2010, 14:02:38 »
The United Socialist Republic Of New England is seeking allies!

http://apps.facebook.com/worldwars_/reward


15
Off-Topic / BGF Update Thread - Updated Regularly
« on: 26-10-2009, 01:10:45 »
PTRD - PZB 738r

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsJgyrwk668


Check Main Website for update 73


Main Website: http://www.bgfmod.org/

Forums: http://www.bgfmod.org/forum/

YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/BGFMod

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