I've unerarthed this thread since I think it is again pertinent.
We currently have Drawde working on AI, and doing an incredible job of it, Remick_04 who is now a dev, has given us a great new surface to work with i.e Olympus, Totalize and Cobra which I can tell have already become some of our favorite maps... Sure hope, he keeps giving. Aserafimiv is also helping out, given us Villers Bocage, Lebisey 16 and now, Falaise with vehicle navmesh.
We still need some coordination though. I think it will be nice to get clearer feedback to Drawde and Aser about their work, like we did when this all started. Also, we should remember we are trying to add Singleplayer to the Official maps, meaning allowing singplayers to experience an alternative version to the pubbies....
Adding the lost vw and SDKthingy was an excellent thing, Drawde, in this respect, and glad to see Falaise in the flesh, that said I think we should try to stick as close to the original design, especially concerning maps, because these were already balanced by the devs. Any tweaks needed, as seen from us beta-testing the maps will surely be welcome, but it helps not to change things right off the bat
Also, I feel the amount of personal work required is getting hefty... ie. Drawde doesn't have to beta-test his own AI, nor Remick nor Aser their own maps... that's what we are there for, so lets give them the feedback they need. Also, we need to get this all in a format that Remick can easily use for the official version - It also does wonders for newbies who want singeplayer maps. If we can, we should try to put them in a way they can easily use. That's you, CannonFodder... since youhave the sticky...I was glad to see the properly skinned Panther in replacement in your version of Goodwood for instance....
Well, here's what we have achieved so far:
1/ We now have gotten Singleplayer back on the move!
2/ AI is improving for the first time since 2.2 and WinterHilf and Leagion's pet project
3/ We have solved the stuka dive issue that has been there since 2.0!
4/ We have gotten the Stuka using its divehorn - And what a divehorn that is.. Even the multiplayers will be envious if they decided to get their heads out of their own asses:-)
5/ We got mortar working - a task deemed impossible once upon a time on account of 'the elevation being too sharp', here, we've even outdone FH1
6/ Howtizers fire finally, albeit shorter ranged than we would have liked, but hopefully, if I don't cause too much friction for Drawde, we might get it firing further yet :-)
7/ Bots not only fight agressively and use decent smoke without getting transfixed by it, but also flee from grenades, flee when 'startled' and flee from overwhelming enemy strength i.e tanks versus riflemen
8/ All vehicles now have working AI code and can be plugged in at will without fear of CTD
9/ Bots can use everything and will use them tactically too allowing the devs skill in modelling and vehicle balancing shine through
10/ We currently have only 2 maps without any form of Singleplayer support - Point en Bessin and Mareth Line. With all but Lebisey and Villers Bocage being in final stage
11/ We have Remick on this inside, Drawde on the outside, which for me equates to a perfect way to get outside help in, like mods are supposed to be... and look what we've achieve doing that :-D
12/ Tanks fire all they have
13/ All AT infantry use their stuff
14/ We have restored the game to what the devs designed i.e needing to prone for mgs and AT. We might need to work a bit on the AT to get them to fire more, but from seeing mg gunners, I am convinced we are moving in the right direction.
15/ We have gotten bots to man static guns and stay on them, which makes for a proper battlefield for the first time
16/ Planes fly sensibly and choose their targets and weapons
17/ Most battles proceed to a conclusion not too far off from what the rfeal battle would have, with the human being the determining factor
*We wouldn't be where we are though without these people:
/Bizness, for the ground work and starting bots doing stuff the engine hadn't anticipated in the first place
/Winterhilf, for continuing where binzness left off, and in superb time, given us more maps, better AI and improving such things as the universal carrier and not to forget my persona favorite map, Alam halfa in all its glory.
/Leagion, for making more agressive bots, more tactically moving tanks and opening my eyes to getting bots to use everything
/Drawde, we couldn't have done this without you, man
/Remick04, where can we we play if we don't have a playground... Glad to have you aboard... keep being our tactical trooper :-)
/Aserafimov, glad to have you aboard, your work is certainly moving this grou along
/ Fellow chearleaders and BTs, CannonFodder, DJBarney, zoomotorpool, Raziel
/ DevilMan... Ok, you remind me of Deepthrout from Metal gear Solid for your mysterious but porfessional knowlege in these matters, but you've really been an aid in out buggiest issues :-)
/All other fans I might have forgotten. Every bit of help we need counts.
If you can do AI, navmesh, know something about historic balancing (Spike, I'm still waiting for you to get interested), do join us... we need all the hands we can get
Ok, back to the work desk....
I sure hope the devs would have kept up with our project and realized the benefit of this open-source work, which Drawde has said more than once, can be 'stolen' as long as it is used for the official release... You don't get the spirit of mods any more than that
I suggest we put a developer sticky thread up to focus our energies on getting this work out, and getting into the official version for 2.3 of whatever version is next, as well as put feedback and comments on issues or errors right here so they are in one area for logging. I suggest the first post be updated based on prevailing issues with bugs etc being outlined in bullet or paragraphs, one for each problem, so the actually developers (Drawde, Remick, Aserafimov) know exactly where to focus.
Extra posts in that thread would be the issues we discover as we discover them, and once this is corraborated, it will be updated into the first post... Anyone volunteer to be the one to have this post? You need to be up to date with the comments and the development in order to update your initial post