Author Topic: operation goodwood  (Read 14217 times)

Offline djinn

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Re: operation goodwood
« Reply #75 on: 12-03-2010, 09:03:31 »
Yer, probably still have that somewhere.. Its definitely an interesting play - But amazingly (since it uses FH2's stuff) quite arcade... I most like the the appearing dissapearing mg42 gunners - Fun for a bit, but it wont remove my gaze from the horizon and Lobo's Omaha :-)




Offline cannonfodder

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Re: operation goodwood
« Reply #76 on: 12-03-2010, 13:03:21 »
I was initially disappointed with it due to 75% of the bots standing around with a grenade in their hand (maybe something to do with the AI mods), then I realized it was because of the MG42's. Took them out and they swarmed up the beach. The hardest thing is trying to take that first flag, between your teammates getting distracted by the enemy and those damn 88's, even neutralizing it is bloody impossible.


Back to GW...

I just played a couple of rounds, on the first there was plenty of fighting at Cagney West, the flag changed hands twice before we got rid of all the Germans. I glanced at the minimap, two Brit halftracks were about to leave Cagney via the main road and I was sitting at the flag planning my next move when it crashed...this was about 10 minutes into the round with the Brits holding all the flags above the rail (not 100% sure about Le Mes, though).


The second round: Well, what can I say? You gotta take the good with the bad don't ya... :P

We took Le Pri and I went for Cagney West, took myself out with a HEAT grenade trying to kill the Panther that arrived to steal my flag. Spawned at Le Pri, grabbed the Sherman after clearing the halftrack traffic jam at the gate into the yard. I turned left into the field and headed for Cagney...

About halfway between the yard and that small bunch of trees near the road, I see a shell come streaking out of the bushes (where the Brits spawn on GW-16) which almost hits me. WTF, I think, there's no bloody AT gun in there!, then the top of the Panthers turret appears above the bushes... :D

We exchange a couple of rounds as he slowly emerged from the bushes, but they all missed. Once he was in the open he (strangely) decided I wasn't worth the effort and floored it down the road to Le Pri, as I was lining him up I noticed a P.IV further back heading up the same road. I disposed of the Panther once he got side-on to me and swung back to blast my new target...but as it turned out, he wasn't the target, I was... :o

I fired in vain, but stood no chance at all...and the bloody thing crashed as soon as the Tiger's shell hit me... :(  (The Germans held all but Le Pri when it crashed).

Watching that Panther creep outta the undergrowth was fucking magic... ;D Even though I'm at a total loss as to what he was doing, I've never seen a tank in there before.


EDIT: Tried another couple of rounds as a Tiger pilot to see if it had anything to do with it, but I doubt it - killed numerous tanks with it and one CTD happened when I was sitting still watching the minimap, the other when I was sitting on the back, again, watching the minimap. Both times there were bots near Cagney West but not actually in the town proper.

*sigh*...I give up. I was starting to think it had something to do with dodgy AI in one of the vehicles, but as far as I know, all the GW vehicles appear on other maps... :-\
« Last Edit: 12-03-2010, 14:03:23 by cannonfodder »

Offline djinn

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Re: operation goodwood
« Reply #77 on: 12-03-2010, 14:03:33 »
So true mate... I've personalll changed the the Tiger with a KT so it can't be the former

However, someone did say they removed all vehicles and it never CTDed? If that's true, then it must be a vehicle of sorts.. And we would now have to play, putting each vehicle in, one at a time

Alternative is that it's from some dodgy navmesh at one of the south entries into Cagney West... But that is just going on the theory put foward and the fact that it seems as though, once no one has reason to pass through Cagney West from the south eg. Germans holding Cagney and all AT and dual-purpose guns in the town occupied, you can do 2hours of play easy...

Offline cannonfodder

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Re: operation goodwood
« Reply #78 on: 12-03-2010, 14:03:17 »
I might try that tomorrow, dump all the vehicles and use the process of elimination to narrow it down. It'll take awhile but it seems like it's the only option. And if I have no luck, at least we'll know it's not the vehicles.

Offline rd.king

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Re: operation goodwood
« Reply #79 on: 12-03-2010, 21:03:54 »
I've pointed this out before and I don't know if you've looked into it.
I have removed the mobile artillery for both sides in the 2 locations
and changed all other artillery pieces to flak 18's for both sides.
I have left the 25 pounders at the allied base and the neblwerfer in.
And I have not had a CTD since and that is playing both sides.

I believe there is an issue involving a random interaction between
the pak / howitzer and some other model, vehical, bot or building.
I have tried changing the pak 40 to 38's or making them all howitzers
but nothing other than this has worked for me.

Offline Drawde

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Re: operation goodwood
« Reply #80 on: 12-03-2010, 22:03:30 »
I have removed the mobile artillery for both sides in the 2 locations
and changed all other artillery pieces to flak 18's for both sides.
I have left the 25 pounders at the allied base and the neblwerfer in.
And I have not had a CTD since and that is playing both sides.

What are the mobile artillery units you mention? (I haven't played Goodwood enough - due to the CTD - to be very familiar with what vehicles are in it). And did you leave the other vehicles (tanks, halftracks etc.) in?

I'm wondering if a similar thing might be causing the CTD on Luttich 64 with my AI mod. I have a suspicion that the German rocket artillery halftrack might have something to do with it.

Offline djinn

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Re: operation goodwood
« Reply #81 on: 13-03-2010, 00:03:02 »
I suspected so too

Offline cannonfodder

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Re: operation goodwood
« Reply #82 on: 13-03-2010, 14:03:13 »
...I believe there is an issue involving a random interaction between
the pak / howitzer and some other model, vehical, bot or building...
I don't think it's that because all the AT guns work fine on other maps - not 100% sure about the Pak 40 though, but if it was the 40 swapping it to a 38 would fix it.

I would suggest it's a placement prob, e.g. the entry/exit point for the bots is "bad", but I'm pretty sure I've seen the bots man all the AT guns (static and mobile)... :-\

Fuck it, it's time to crush this annoying bug... >:(  It's either remove the guns one at a time or drop the bot number to 5 a side so I can keep an eye on exactly who's doing what at all times.


@Drawde: He means the non-static AT guns.


EDIT: Ok, first I tried deleting all the Paks - CTD. So I assumed it was a problem with a 6pdr (there's only 3)...so far, I've seen the bots man and fire the one at Le Mes (no probs), and man the one at Le Pri.

I tried removing the 6pdrs just to make sure having no AT guns at all would stop the CTD...but it still CTD  :-\
« Last Edit: 14-03-2010, 08:03:39 by cannonfodder »

Offline matthewfarenheit

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Re: operation goodwood
« Reply #83 on: 26-03-2010, 09:03:29 »
First so you don't necessarily get bored reading a otherwise pointless post, the big news: I made the map work for singleplayer with 63 mods and no mayor changes.

Now, the detailed description on how I did it:

I play Singleplayer a lot. This is because the little time I have available for gaming I gotta spend it on FHT for FH 0.7 (I'm a CO there) and the rest of it the FH2 servers are depopulated. The map I played the most is Goodwood since 2.2 (I got BF2 just for FH2.2 launch), so I have a personal interest on the map to be fixed. Also, I kinda want to be useful to the guys that release such a great mod, so I doubled my efforts at this.

When I first CTD, I used to play with 31 bots. After some more gaming sessions, I realized that if I played Allies and managed to keep the Axis on their base singlehandedly, I could complete a full singleplayer session without CTD issues. However, if I took long to basecamp Axis, CTD possibilities started to be higher. Also, when I started to use 63 bots, I always got CTD earlier than with 31 and couldn't ever manage to keep the whole Axis team contained in their base, thus CTD were inevitable and happened 100% of my gaming sessions.

Then, again over several sessions, I realized that if I shot a static Pak40 I would immediately CTD. When I reported this:

I dunno if this helps, but I know as a fact that this map crashes as soon as you destroy any of the static PAK40s (or when the bots do). Killing the bots that man them without destroying the guns doesn't CTD though.
I got this as an answer:

Are you using Drawde's AI mini-mod?

I am, and destroying the static Pak at the railway crossing doesn't cause a CTD for me.
With that reply in mind, I realized that If I raced and destroyed the statics Pak40 as soon as I could, the game wouldn't CTD. But after a while (A time I did not measure, but it was about the 3rd time I destroyed the pak40 I think) if I destroyed the static Pak40 again, IT WOULD FINALLY CTD. As a side note, the fact that the Pak40 was manned or not did not affect the CTD issue.

After finding out this, I had the curse of installing PR 0.9 because a friend insisted. I started having problems with my shaders, couldn't aim with the right mouse button or I would start seeing strange things (like blinking images of the layout behind buildings) and a lot of strange stuff. After trying pretty much every other solution on this forums, I solved that problem only recently with a complete uninstall and reinstall of ONLY BF2 and FH2, no PR this time. The problem I had with getting CTD while trying to get on a cromwell with the aimod 1.1 was because of this, so it should be ignored.

Now, I have the aimod 1.1 AND I replaced every instance of pak40_static and 6pdr_mkiv on singleplayer mode by using djinn's method described here:

No you aren't. I had to manaully change the Tiger I to a Tiger II.

I went to operation Goodwood folder> Server> Gamemodes> gmp_coop>\64
and opened GameplayObjects.con in a text editor. Within that file are all vehicles in the map. I simply found the Tiger file and replaced it with kingtiger_1944fall

And voila, the KT came to life. I also changed the Panther from the ones currently in to panthera_alt which is yellowish rather than brownish and works better in comoflage for that map.

This was instead used to replace in singleplayer (also coop, but I always use singleplayer anyways) every instance of a static pak40 ("pak40_static") or static 6 pounder ("6pdr_mkiv") for the flak 18 already present on the map in the church ("flak18_fr"). I also changed one of the Marders for a KT, but that was only for laughs heh (and the marder I changed turned out to be the marder 1 inside the barn, so it was a tight fit through the door lol) and should be considered as a liability that could have caused more CTDs instead of something that might have solved the issue, but I mention this coz who knows... maybe it was a factor on this solution heh.

The result is as follows: I played 2 whole rounds with full tickets and using the whole map. As Allies, I didn't manage to keep the Axis at bay on their base and I still didn't CTD. The whole map was played in and there were several recaps for the Axis but never a CTD. Destroying the 88s I left as replacements for the Pak40s and 6 pounders didn't cause any effect (also made me realize that they have a notoriously longer spawn time, but whatever).

As Axis, I drove the KT around a lot, no CTD. Destroyed again the 88s and no CTD. Broke havok on the Allies lines, no CTD. Had teammates spawning on my KT, no CTD. Had lots of smoke thrown at me by the bots and FPSs fall but no CTD... etc etc etc. I never could play a whole round defending as Axis on this map, so this time was my 1st completing one. It should be noted that the allies never had more than 2 flags at the time, and most of the time had only a grey, but whatever...

Overall, the problem that caused the oh so damn frequent CTDs seems to have dissappeared completely. I dont know what is the specific cause for it, but out of the randomness that causes the crash, now I can say with confidence that it has to do with the static pak40s and/or their counterparts the 6pdrs, and with them replaced with 88s the map plays like a wonder (though some of the 88s look weird replacing the paks heh). I will continue to check the map and will place back the marder instead of the KT, but my statement stays as it is now: no CTDs on Goodwood achieved :D

Offline djinn

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Re: operation goodwood
« Reply #84 on: 26-03-2010, 10:03:49 »
Great going, Matt. I can't tell from reading where the exact issue is, but I'm glad you are thinking outside the box on this one - If it is possible, can you upload your version of the Goodwood map so we can DL it and try to narrow down the issue? You might only have to upload Server.zip as it seems all your changes were in that.

I sure hope this issue is solved soon - Normandy is nothing without some tank/ infantry battles...

Offline matthewfarenheit

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Re: operation goodwood
« Reply #85 on: 26-03-2010, 11:03:21 »
Link:

http://www.mediafire.com/?xgijwzihwih

This is a new version: namely, all static pak40s have been changed to 6pdrs instead of 88s and those that were originally 6pdrs were left alone. Also, no KT this time :D.

I checked and everything went ok, even after destroying the 6 pdrs repeatedly, so I narrowed down the problem to the static pak40s. It should be noted (and this is something that surprised me as well) that the 6pdrs are the mobile versions, even the ones that on the unmodified singleplayer map spawn for allies where a static pak40 spawns for axis. So, it seems that it's something about the static version of the pak40. Just to check I switched to the normal singleplayer version of the map with static pak40s and even with the aimod 1.1 the game CTD in a minute or two (I capped Cagny West, destroyed a pak40, went to get an ammo kit from the floor 3 secs after, and CTD...).

I guess that we could replace the static pak40s with mobile ones. I'll try it later today or tomorrow, as I have to go to college and stuff. Also I'll try to get the static 6pdrs from luttich in here to see if there's any problem with staticness in general. I'm glad of being of any use :D

EDIT: the file I provide to you is the only file inside server.zip that has to be changed, namely Server.zip\ Gamemodes\sp3\64\GamePlayObjects.con (or Server.zip\ Gamemodes\gmp_coop\64\GamePlayObjects.con if you preffer coop: both are exactly the same). You can replace yours inside server.zip with mine or, as I do, just copy the contents of mine and replace the contents of yours with it and let your winrar or winzip or whatever you have do the job.
« Last Edit: 26-03-2010, 11:03:18 by matthewfarenheit »

Offline Drawde

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Re: operation goodwood
« Reply #86 on: 26-03-2010, 18:03:20 »
Great work tracking down the source of the CTD at last! :D I'll try this out ASAP. I'll also have a look at the Pak40 files (comparing them to the Pak35 and 38, which work fine) to see if I can find what it is that causes the problem.

One question, would replacing the static Pak40s with mobile ones (instead of 6pdrs) work?

Offline matthewfarenheit

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Re: operation goodwood
« Reply #87 on: 26-03-2010, 21:03:17 »
I found out something bad: I hadn't properly installed drawde's ai patch, namely I unzipped the aitweak.zip files provided instead of placing them on the fh2 folder as they were. Now I checked by properly installing it and, regretably, the ai mod CTD even if we replace the static pak40s with something else (already checked moveable pak40s or 6pdrs). I will make other tests both with the ai mod and without it, but the CTD is official and it doesnt make you wait  ::). Conversely, I can still assure that CTD doesn't happen when the static pak40s are replaced with something else with the unmoded singleplayer ai.

On another note, both with and without aimod, we have CTD issues if the static pak40s are replaced with the static 6pdrs from luttich. So, it seems there's a problem with staticness, or maybe with the specific way it's implemented for those 2 guns. I will try El Al's pak38s later.

If I find the time, I will try to tweak the aimod so as not to include anything that directly affects AT guns. Any ideas on what to do?

PD: I noted that with the aimod on I can't move the front shields on the german APC, so maybe you wanna have a look into that as well?
« Last Edit: 26-03-2010, 21:03:24 by matthewfarenheit »

Offline CBCRonin

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Re: operation goodwood
« Reply #88 on: 26-03-2010, 22:03:04 »
PD: I noted that with the aimod on I can't move the front shields on the german APC, so maybe you wanna have a look into that as well?
I use a track ball mouse and the forward window plates constantly open/close when I move my line of sight (same with the deployable roof/windscreen on the allied jeep).

So it works for me with the mini-mod.

Offline matthewfarenheit

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Re: operation goodwood
« Reply #89 on: 26-03-2010, 23:03:07 »
PD: I noted that with the aimod on I can't move the front shields on the german APC, so maybe you wanna have a look into that as well?
I use a track ball mouse and the forward window plates constantly open/close when I move my line of sight (same with the deployable roof/windscreen on the allied jeep).

So it works for me with the mini-mod.
Strange, it does that for me too. The shield goes up and down depending on if I look up or down with the mouse.

It's a bug because, normally, you can move it up and down only with the arrow keys.