When you creep up behind a suspect and punch him in the back of the head.
Then you suddenly bounce off the floor like you've been hit by a grand piano right in the kisser, because he just shot out his backside ;).
Showing posts with label SWAT 4. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SWAT 4. Show all posts
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
RvS -= 1; SWAT4 += 1
I spent part of the playing around with Raven Shield and SWAT 4: TSS. Although to the best of my knowledge, Unreal Engine 2 did have support for joysticks, both these games shipped with that support half-assedly disabled 8=). In short, the games basically ignore all joystick input.
Never being one easily daunted, the three obvious solutions occurred: A/ configure the games for keyboard only operation and the joystick to emulate keyboard input; B/ use AHK; and C/ write a small toy to emulate a mouse by way of joystick input. I have already done A, and plan to test out B tomorrow (eh, today), if need be, perhaps play with C at some later date just for fun.
Under the Unreal Engine, or at least UE2: movement is a fairly simple thing. Basically you apply a positive or negative "Speed" factor to a given axis, resulting in some kind of movement: such as translating the players pawn(?) or moving the cursor. It's kind of simple, +/- base X and Y axises are more or less your walk. Where as the aBaseX and aBaseY axises correspond to the mouse. For SWAT, the task is basically as simple as binding a group of keys to apply +/- Speed to those axises. The bigger the speed, the more reaction you get per key press. In Raven Shield however, despite several methods tried, only positive and negative X (left/right) movement was fully working. Irregardless of change, only upward Y movement was possible in RvS \o/. After 6 years of it, I am often the first to call Raven Shield a pile of crap. Tuning my retired joystick to trigger those keys, is fairly simple: although the profiler lacks mapping JS to mouse aixses, sadly.
While it is possible to configure SWAT 4 for keyboard only operation, and thus JS based aiming; it creates somewhat of a problem. It's virtually impossible to both be able to turn/maneuver around obstacles and to aim and fire at targets. The reason for this is somewhat Unreals fault, that and the fact that "Keyboard acceleration" is not quite, eh, the same as mouse acceleration. In testing with my stick, I found values of +/- 3.75 to 4 tended to work good for aiming, where as +/- 5 to 8 work better for turning. Since a joystick should garner a form of movement more acline to that of mouse acceleration, rather than a keyboards uniformity, it causes a conflict of interest. Mouse acceleration works on the indea, of increasing the speed of mouse movement in proportion to the distance you move it, e.g. it gets faster as the further you move it; where as accelerated it always moves at a steady rate. Perhaps a good if incomplete explanation, for anyone whose played a Playstation with an analog controller: mouse = stick, keyboard = d-pad; thus mapping js to keyboard = d-pad != analog stick. Obviously to play an FPS with a joystick, you don't want it to behave like a sluggish 'd-pad'. One way to solve this, would be to dynamically modify the Speed= value used by the key, incrementing/decrementing it by some stepping per use; while not as elegant as it might sound to some, is also impossible. UE2s console and command system could only handle the ++ and -- operations by writing out the increment steppings using the pipe(|) operator, and following it up with an OnRelease operator to reset it back.
A better solution, obviously is just playing a ficken game with joystick support \^/.
As for the aforementioned method B, wouldn't you happen to know that it's already there. It would be the best solution, and AutoHotKey is a fine bit of software; one I've always wanted to find a good use for in games. Depending on how well it can be made to work at converting a JS into a mouse compatible HID, in particular with games in general, I might actually give up using the mouse for regular desktop usage. Thanks to my laptop and having encountered a fair bit of hardware in life's travels, I have no special attachment to PC mice: only hatred for ones without tails. Than again, I don't like wireless hardware for much, period.
The third method (C), well, is one that I would only consider worth the effort, because of the learning about Windows specifics that it would involve. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft had it as a sample app somewhere either. The libraries I rely on for input backends (e.g. in Stargella) have their own portable handling of joysticks as is, so I've no real reason to care lol.
Never being one easily daunted, the three obvious solutions occurred: A/ configure the games for keyboard only operation and the joystick to emulate keyboard input; B/ use AHK; and C/ write a small toy to emulate a mouse by way of joystick input. I have already done A, and plan to test out B tomorrow (eh, today), if need be, perhaps play with C at some later date just for fun.
Under the Unreal Engine, or at least UE2: movement is a fairly simple thing. Basically you apply a positive or negative "Speed" factor to a given axis, resulting in some kind of movement: such as translating the players pawn(?) or moving the cursor. It's kind of simple, +/- base X and Y axises are more or less your walk. Where as the aBaseX and aBaseY axises correspond to the mouse. For SWAT, the task is basically as simple as binding a group of keys to apply +/- Speed to those axises. The bigger the speed, the more reaction you get per key press. In Raven Shield however, despite several methods tried, only positive and negative X (left/right) movement was fully working. Irregardless of change, only upward Y movement was possible in RvS \o/. After 6 years of it, I am often the first to call Raven Shield a pile of crap. Tuning my retired joystick to trigger those keys, is fairly simple: although the profiler lacks mapping JS to mouse aixses, sadly.
While it is possible to configure SWAT 4 for keyboard only operation, and thus JS based aiming; it creates somewhat of a problem. It's virtually impossible to both be able to turn/maneuver around obstacles and to aim and fire at targets. The reason for this is somewhat Unreals fault, that and the fact that "Keyboard acceleration" is not quite, eh, the same as mouse acceleration. In testing with my stick, I found values of +/- 3.75 to 4 tended to work good for aiming, where as +/- 5 to 8 work better for turning. Since a joystick should garner a form of movement more acline to that of mouse acceleration, rather than a keyboards uniformity, it causes a conflict of interest. Mouse acceleration works on the indea, of increasing the speed of mouse movement in proportion to the distance you move it, e.g. it gets faster as the further you move it; where as accelerated it always moves at a steady rate. Perhaps a good if incomplete explanation, for anyone whose played a Playstation with an analog controller: mouse = stick, keyboard = d-pad; thus mapping js to keyboard = d-pad != analog stick. Obviously to play an FPS with a joystick, you don't want it to behave like a sluggish 'd-pad'. One way to solve this, would be to dynamically modify the Speed= value used by the key, incrementing/decrementing it by some stepping per use; while not as elegant as it might sound to some, is also impossible. UE2s console and command system could only handle the ++ and -- operations by writing out the increment steppings using the pipe(|) operator, and following it up with an OnRelease operator to reset it back.
A better solution, obviously is just playing a ficken game with joystick support \^/.
As for the aforementioned method B, wouldn't you happen to know that it's already there. It would be the best solution, and AutoHotKey is a fine bit of software; one I've always wanted to find a good use for in games. Depending on how well it can be made to work at converting a JS into a mouse compatible HID, in particular with games in general, I might actually give up using the mouse for regular desktop usage. Thanks to my laptop and having encountered a fair bit of hardware in life's travels, I have no special attachment to PC mice: only hatred for ones without tails. Than again, I don't like wireless hardware for much, period.
The third method (C), well, is one that I would only consider worth the effort, because of the learning about Windows specifics that it would involve. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft had it as a sample app somewhere either. The libraries I rely on for input backends (e.g. in Stargella) have their own portable handling of joysticks as is, so I've no real reason to care lol.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Fresnal Melee, SAS style
It was the last round planned for most of us, and I got elected as Element Leader... so I called for something totally insane!
I ordered everyone to sling their weapons and skip the tac aids - none would be used. We then inserted into Fresnal station and made it half way through one of the largest maps before taking any causalities. Cara died by enemy shotgun shell, after weaving into my line-of-melee, then COT died by the same suspects 12g, when the guy fired while being beaten to death by two SWAT officers lol.
Walker and I then moved on and continued to clear the map.... the suspects never knew what hit them. I made it until being killed in a lag spike, sigh. In RvS at least when you lag out, you're hard to kill, in SWAT you just become bullet-bait.
If it wasn't for Walker firing one LTL Bean Bag round into a suspect about to flee the map, we would've completed the entire map with NO weapons or tactical aids what so ever. And if it wasn't for extenuating sircumstances, no one on our team would have died most likely!
Perhaps we are crazy as lunes, or just enjoy a challenge. With no weapons, one has to move fast, and SWAT 4 doesn't lend itself to unarmed combat as readily as real life does; slow punching but 2m distance is not a good trade off. The real key to it, is mastering the angles involved in the confortation—and beating the enemy senseless. It's even possible to take 2-3 suspects at once given the right stuff. Until Cara stopped exploiting the angles, it was an interesting 5-vs-1 pistols to fists fight for a moment on the next map lol.
I ordered everyone to sling their weapons and skip the tac aids - none would be used. We then inserted into Fresnal station and made it half way through one of the largest maps before taking any causalities. Cara died by enemy shotgun shell, after weaving into my line-of-melee, then COT died by the same suspects 12g, when the guy fired while being beaten to death by two SWAT officers lol.
Walker and I then moved on and continued to clear the map.... the suspects never knew what hit them. I made it until being killed in a lag spike, sigh. In RvS at least when you lag out, you're hard to kill, in SWAT you just become bullet-bait.
If it wasn't for Walker firing one LTL Bean Bag round into a suspect about to flee the map, we would've completed the entire map with NO weapons or tactical aids what so ever. And if it wasn't for extenuating sircumstances, no one on our team would have died most likely!
Perhaps we are crazy as lunes, or just enjoy a challenge. With no weapons, one has to move fast, and SWAT 4 doesn't lend itself to unarmed combat as readily as real life does; slow punching but 2m distance is not a good trade off. The real key to it, is mastering the angles involved in the confortation—and beating the enemy senseless. It's even possible to take 2-3 suspects at once given the right stuff. Until Cara stopped exploiting the angles, it was an interesting 5-vs-1 pistols to fists fight for a moment on the next map lol.
Monday, September 7, 2009
I've spent the last few hours playing SWAT, ended it with a bit of Barricaded Suspects (VIP servers virtually empty :'(). I don't really care much for SWAT 4s player versus player modes, since *at its best*, it basically boils down to forming a 2-3 man team: one with a big gun and the rest with 40mm baton cannon and cobras, arresting everyone in sight lol. I twas however a nice refreshing change - switch off the brain, run around, blow stuff up. Quake would have been a better choice.
Woke up around 0930Q, having dreamed something acline to the The Blackhole. I remember specifically a swirling blue-style blackhole, with balls of fire (like the asteroids in the film) flying form it, trying to escape but in the end, being sucked back into the event horrizion. Not to mention a lovely army of robots and an evil dictator, lol. The second dream, I don't remember anything of at this point, it faded away a few minutes after I awoke - to tasks to tend to :-(.
Haven't been in much of a good mood most of the day, this lack of sleep is driving me crackers. Still the same problems, sigh.
Woke up around 0930Q, having dreamed something acline to the The Blackhole. I remember specifically a swirling blue-style blackhole, with balls of fire (like the asteroids in the film) flying form it, trying to escape but in the end, being sucked back into the event horrizion. Not to mention a lovely army of robots and an evil dictator, lol. The second dream, I don't remember anything of at this point, it faded away a few minutes after I awoke - to tasks to tend to :-(.
Haven't been in much of a good mood most of the day, this lack of sleep is driving me crackers. Still the same problems, sigh.
Friday, August 28, 2009
It's been a long and tiresome day.
Played some Urban Terror to pass the time, hoping that SWAT 4 would pick up some steam. I found a funny server running a Simpsons inspired CTF map. After getting tired of the "LMG Battleship" approach of going for the flag, and timing between the waves; I took up a picket position with an eye on the enemies secondary advance-point to our flag. As such, I was the only mook using solid cover, but hey, I was head huntin' them blues ;-)
Swapped my Minimi and flak jacket for a helmet and a G36, tap-tap at the enemies centre mass and follow up until clipin' their heads resulted in fatal damages. Whenever necessary, I'd just move around cover in order to fire at the enemies primary and thirdary avenues of advance; leaving my sector to the run & gunners on my own team, and an occasional smoke grenade hehe.
Once I closed the game, I noticed that Duke, COT, and Filter had finally gathered, so I made ready to join the fray. I find the wolf in an ant-hill a good way to let off steam, but it's ever so more relaxing to have a decent game with friends, especially SAS style games!
Shortly after Duke called it a night, it was time for me to make a beeline to dinner, exercising plan A. I stuffed my face with my usual zeal—I've always been an expedient eater lol. The Undefeated was on tonight, which I enjoyed. It's especially nice to see, after so many years of brother against brother, ex union and confederate troops can still get along (and brawl) like brothers! Something that sadly, was quite a bit rarer in the post war years :/. Then again, between the pissing contest, Sherman, and the carpetbaggers, who can blame people for not getting along?
I also got to enjoy a nice 10~15 minute nap, and all this time, my laptop has been compiling updates; practically since I got home lool.
Played some Urban Terror to pass the time, hoping that SWAT 4 would pick up some steam. I found a funny server running a Simpsons inspired CTF map. After getting tired of the "LMG Battleship" approach of going for the flag, and timing between the waves; I took up a picket position with an eye on the enemies secondary advance-point to our flag. As such, I was the only mook using solid cover, but hey, I was head huntin' them blues ;-)
Swapped my Minimi and flak jacket for a helmet and a G36, tap-tap at the enemies centre mass and follow up until clipin' their heads resulted in fatal damages. Whenever necessary, I'd just move around cover in order to fire at the enemies primary and thirdary avenues of advance; leaving my sector to the run & gunners on my own team, and an occasional smoke grenade hehe.
Once I closed the game, I noticed that Duke, COT, and Filter had finally gathered, so I made ready to join the fray. I find the wolf in an ant-hill a good way to let off steam, but it's ever so more relaxing to have a decent game with friends, especially SAS style games!
Shortly after Duke called it a night, it was time for me to make a beeline to dinner, exercising plan A. I stuffed my face with my usual zeal—I've always been an expedient eater lol. The Undefeated was on tonight, which I enjoyed. It's especially nice to see, after so many years of brother against brother, ex union and confederate troops can still get along (and brawl) like brothers! Something that sadly, was quite a bit rarer in the post war years :/. Then again, between the pissing contest, Sherman, and the carpetbaggers, who can blame people for not getting along?
I also got to enjoy a nice 10~15 minute nap, and all this time, my laptop has been compiling updates; practically since I got home lool.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Ah it's been a fairly full day! I was having some crazy dreams, including many forms of transport but it was the end that really got me lol. At one point, I dreamed that I was on a ship sailing into a fierce storm, and being reassured by a Gary Oldman like figure that in his 'experience, the ship never goes down until after the storm'. Speaking of that, reminds me - I missed the Fifth Element the other night, a movie I've sooo wanted to see lately lol. But anyway, something happened in the dream, and I ended up catching a rope between my teeth and ripping it apart. The end result was loosing about 4 teeth in the process, and being my unnaturally-calm self when things hit the fan :/.
I was very happy to wake up and be able to feel my teeth were still attached! The way I dream, whatever happens: I can feel it... very, very real, as if it was actually happening. I've also lost several of my adult teeth to the "Folly of youth" so to speak, so I know all to well what it feels like. That being said, even when I do dream, even if it's something I've never experienced, it usually feels the same as actually experiencing it does lol,
Todays work load wasn't to bad, not as tiering as I anticipated. I aslo managed to spend some time with friends on the SWAT 4 server ;). On the down side, as lead admin on deck, I had to deal with the troublemakers a lot. Only my strict-demeanor I think, is what allowed most to survive without a ban! The one that came closet, was fortunate enough to shuffle off before I could ban his sorry ass; since we've kicked the idiot about 3 times in two days, he's not going to get any further warning! But on the upside, once the troublemakers were dealt with I got to kick back and relax, or as I told one teammate: "now that I can stop being a puckered ass of an admin". Once it the server was under control, I was loose and flying in good form >_>
Also, whatever path current business affairs take, I have an interesting idea that might be worth exploring in the near future.
I was very happy to wake up and be able to feel my teeth were still attached! The way I dream, whatever happens: I can feel it... very, very real, as if it was actually happening. I've also lost several of my adult teeth to the "Folly of youth" so to speak, so I know all to well what it feels like. That being said, even when I do dream, even if it's something I've never experienced, it usually feels the same as actually experiencing it does lol,
Todays work load wasn't to bad, not as tiering as I anticipated. I aslo managed to spend some time with friends on the SWAT 4 server ;). On the down side, as lead admin on deck, I had to deal with the troublemakers a lot. Only my strict-demeanor I think, is what allowed most to survive without a ban! The one that came closet, was fortunate enough to shuffle off before I could ban his sorry ass; since we've kicked the idiot about 3 times in two days, he's not going to get any further warning! But on the upside, once the troublemakers were dealt with I got to kick back and relax, or as I told one teammate: "now that I can stop being a puckered ass of an admin". Once it the server was under control, I was loose and flying in good form >_>
Also, whatever path current business affairs take, I have an interesting idea that might be worth exploring in the near future.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Todays personal training (SWAT 4)
Where; [SAS] Training Ground US
General criteria: no tactical aids permitted, other then breaching kit.
Phase I: Old Granet Hotel, stealth to first contact then high intensity clearing; round 1: success, mp5; round 2: failure, m4. Average shots per kill: 5-6/3-4, killed by a survivor of 4 5.56x45mm to the chest.
Phase II: Children of Tarrone Tenement; stealth until compromised; round 1: failure, mp5sd; round 2: failure, carsd; Average shots per kill 9 / 3; killed by the survivors of 9 9x19mm shots to the skull and 2 5.56x45mm to the skull, respectively.
Phase III: Victory Imports Auto, stealth until first contact then high intensity clearing; round 1: failure, mp5sd; round 2: failure, mp5 (was supposed to be uzisd); Average shots per kill: 4-6; Killed by the survivors of 3 shots to the chest, and a survivor of >12 shots to the body/arms/head.
I nearly threw the freakin' MP5 at the enemy when during an ambush against would-be bush whackers took about 20 rounds to the head and 3 more to the chest!
General criteria: no tactical aids permitted, other then breaching kit.
Phase I: Old Granet Hotel, stealth to first contact then high intensity clearing; round 1: success, mp5; round 2: failure, m4. Average shots per kill: 5-6/3-4, killed by a survivor of 4 5.56x45mm to the chest.
Phase II: Children of Tarrone Tenement; stealth until compromised; round 1: failure, mp5sd; round 2: failure, carsd; Average shots per kill 9 / 3; killed by the survivors of 9 9x19mm shots to the skull and 2 5.56x45mm to the skull, respectively.
Phase III: Victory Imports Auto, stealth until first contact then high intensity clearing; round 1: failure, mp5sd; round 2: failure, mp5 (was supposed to be uzisd); Average shots per kill: 4-6; Killed by the survivors of 3 shots to the chest, and a survivor of >12 shots to the body/arms/head.
I nearly threw the freakin' MP5 at the enemy when during an ambush against would-be bush whackers took about 20 rounds to the head and 3 more to the chest!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
So far experiments continue with SWAT 4 performance issues. Deeper testing has shown that it is no longer connected to graphical issues, not when running on my current hardware/driver config; nice to be able to max out the graphics online *and* in single player.
What happens is periodically when moving through an area, I get a stutter-lag-warp like motion: as if the whole game stopped spinning and then suddenly unlocked. The only consistency I've noticed is it happens when entering a region of the map that I have not been in previously—or have not been in for a while. One thought is that perhaps it occurs when the cache must be updated with stuff that has already been moved out of the games memory cache. My machine has RAM to burn so I have been testing the game with various cache sizes, but don't honestly expect any positive result. On modern machines, cache size shouldn't matter to much with the Unreal Engine 2.x lol.
Atm I'm defragging a few disks, maybe that might help a little. I don't know if it is just the much greater frequency of crashes with Windows XP, or that NTFS really sucks that much worse then FreeBSDs UFS2 system. But for one reason or another, my windows file systems always end up very highly fragmented. Although on the upside, unlike Win32: FreeBSD does kind of encourage you to fsck afterwards hehe.
Hopefully my experiments will yield some fruit, and I can stop warping all over the place lol.
What happens is periodically when moving through an area, I get a stutter-lag-warp like motion: as if the whole game stopped spinning and then suddenly unlocked. The only consistency I've noticed is it happens when entering a region of the map that I have not been in previously—or have not been in for a while. One thought is that perhaps it occurs when the cache must be updated with stuff that has already been moved out of the games memory cache. My machine has RAM to burn so I have been testing the game with various cache sizes, but don't honestly expect any positive result. On modern machines, cache size shouldn't matter to much with the Unreal Engine 2.x lol.
Atm I'm defragging a few disks, maybe that might help a little. I don't know if it is just the much greater frequency of crashes with Windows XP, or that NTFS really sucks that much worse then FreeBSDs UFS2 system. But for one reason or another, my windows file systems always end up very highly fragmented. Although on the upside, unlike Win32: FreeBSD does kind of encourage you to fsck afterwards hehe.
Hopefully my experiments will yield some fruit, and I can stop warping all over the place lol.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
A decent day....
Not a bad day, spent most of my time in Training Grounds #1. I turned off the aiming reticle again, so my accuracy is getting back up to snuff in RvS. Used to have it off all the time, but after getting back into SWAT 4, I turned it back on in RvS, for the consistency - since SWAT 4 won't let me turn off the aiming reticle there in Multiplayer mode :-(. Really, I like playing without the reticle on screen; much more realistic. It also frees me up to just aim and fire insticively, rather then using the red micro-dot in the centre, as my point of refence. Instead, I see target, I hit target ;-). That's basically the way I was trained, keep moving, go full auto, fire off short controlled bursts of 2~3 rounds and keep'em firing until the S.O.B. goes down for good. With the way things are going these days, I think the next generation of Recruits is gonna have it much easier then us lot did :\. But oh well, I'm just an old fart at heart lol.
Got to enjoy some range work also, taking shorts at near my maximum effective range on DF_Compound, limbering up the ol'CQB and virtual CS-imunity on Box_Storage, limping through the Playground on razor-eyes detail <_<, and commanding a stealth element on Private Airport and MP Training; finishing out witha little more 'mixed' ops hehe.
No idea who set up the line up for this afternoon, but I really enjoyed listening to the Radio today lol. This one song in particular is really starting to grow on me, and a friend introduced me to an interesting band today... hehe.
Sigh, it's back to work on Tuesday :-(
Got to enjoy some range work also, taking shorts at near my maximum effective range on DF_Compound, limbering up the ol'CQB and virtual CS-imunity on Box_Storage, limping through the Playground on razor-eyes detail <_<, and commanding a stealth element on Private Airport and MP Training; finishing out witha little more 'mixed' ops hehe.
No idea who set up the line up for this afternoon, but I really enjoyed listening to the Radio today lol. This one song in particular is really starting to grow on me, and a friend introduced me to an interesting band today... hehe.
Sigh, it's back to work on Tuesday :-(
Friday, January 2, 2009
New personal best RvS Crazy
Parade Line Up Mission; teammates dropping like flies, I'm running a blitzkrieg of a fight through the map.... clear the roof alone with just a naked MP5/10A2 with no attachments.
All the way pro.... just like I was trained, then I round the corner with gun ready as I slice it -> POW right in the kisser.
All that, without so much as a scratch, and he had to go do that lol.
All the way pro.... just like I was trained, then I round the corner with gun ready as I slice it -> POW right in the kisser.
All that, without so much as a scratch, and he had to go do that lol.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Determined exhaustion
Very tired atm... but not wiling to give up yet!
For the past week, I've been going to bed > 0500R, past 3~4 days worth I've barely had any sleep at night... When trying to sleep, it's more like time has passed with limited consciousness then ever actually sleeping, last night was the first dreaming I've dne in a awhile now. I'm hoping, with the weekend... I can stop going to bed so late, or at least sleep in for a change lol. I prefer 8 hours, but often live on <=5 :\.
Been playing a bit of SWAT 4 lately, good to finally have some R&R. Spent a part of yesterday teaching a green player the ropes of the server, hopefully enough that they will survive working in an element, and be able to learn more with practice if desired. COT finally made Recruit, hopefully with a bright future. With Dukes help, I'm also getting ready to reintroduce keybinds into my mixture. I should still have my 'English -- Deutsch' style keybinds backed up somewhere, but have been gaming without any textual keybinds since I reformatted sal1600. My controls are quite customized, and I am using the classic command interface for months, so the main problem is where to put things now lol.
sigh, already nearing midnight.
For the past week, I've been going to bed > 0500R, past 3~4 days worth I've barely had any sleep at night... When trying to sleep, it's more like time has passed with limited consciousness then ever actually sleeping, last night was the first dreaming I've dne in a awhile now. I'm hoping, with the weekend... I can stop going to bed so late, or at least sleep in for a change lol. I prefer 8 hours, but often live on <=5 :\.
Been playing a bit of SWAT 4 lately, good to finally have some R&R. Spent a part of yesterday teaching a green player the ropes of the server, hopefully enough that they will survive working in an element, and be able to learn more with practice if desired. COT finally made Recruit, hopefully with a bright future. With Dukes help, I'm also getting ready to reintroduce keybinds into my mixture. I should still have my 'English -- Deutsch' style keybinds backed up somewhere, but have been gaming without any textual keybinds since I reformatted sal1600. My controls are quite customized, and I am using the classic command interface for months, so the main problem is where to put things now lol.
sigh, already nearing midnight.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Installing SWAT 4 TSS on GNU/Linux
Disclaimer
The game is not supported by code weavers, and I don't support users of this posting ether. However, comments and corrections are always welcome - spam will be killed. Also note well, I prefer the command line interface, so I do not use file mangers such as Explorer, Nautilus, or Filer often.Prerequsists:
- Basic understanding of GNU/Linux user accounts and permissions
- Having a working GNU/Linux distribution installed (Ubuntu or Debian recommended)
- The ability to understand file paths and simple file operations (e.g. copy) without a photograph or explanation of how to copy/move/delete files.
- Legal copies of both SWAT 4 and SWAT 4: TSS, total of 3 CD-ROM
Step one: Purchase a copy of "CrossOver Games for Linux" from CodeWeavers, or download the free 7 day trial.
Step two: install Cross Over Games for Linux, hence forth called simply cxgames -- for brevities sake!
The installation process is simple, the format I suggest is to install it as root for all users. This basically amounts to executing the install shell script as root, either with su or sudo
$ su - root # ./install-crossover-games-demo-7.1.0.sh
$ sudo -H ././install-crossover-games-demo-7.1.0.sh
Either way, root will need access to you're display. Via the su method, on a secure system to will have to grant root this access. The proscribed method is you'll need to runxhost +local:root, and set your $DISPLAY value accordingly once you've su'd to root. N.B. a lot of documents sayxhost +localhost, which will grant everyone on your machine access to the display; instead of adding root.
Once you've launched the install script, it will walk you through it -- mostly by a graphical installation wizard.
Step Three: Install SWAT 4
Insert your SWAT 4 disk #1 into the drive, and make sure it is mounted. Some Linux distributions are set to automount it like Windows (Ubuntu), others require you to manually mount it. N.B. that secure systems will only allow root to mount file systems by default.
Launch the cxgames windows program installer; this may be in your applications menu (gnome/kde users) or have to be run manually from a prompt. If you have to run it manually, the program you want to execute is /where/you/installed/cxgames/bin/cxinstall, for example: /opt/cxgames/bin/cxinstall.
Since SWAT 4 is not one of the supported games, you'll want to go with the "install other games" option, and pass by the disclaimer. You'll thne need to tell it where to find the disk, usually this is just clicking a checkbox but it is quite flexible. You should install SWAT 4 into it's own "bottle", because Linux doesn't care much for spaces (and command lines are fun), a good bottle name is "SWAT4".
A bottle is just a simulated windows installation, so if desired - every game can be installed into it's own separate place. This really makes back ups a snap, limits one program screwing with another, and improves situations if you need to make 'tweaks' to the bottle. The installer will then create the bottle in your personal space, e.g. /home/terry/.cxgames/SWAT4. N.B. that .files-and-dirs in Linux are considered 'hidden' files, in a GUI file manager, you'll need to b/p to deal with that.
When the installer starts, run it, there is no need to change the default install paths, unless you are installing into a very customized bottle. Since SWAT 4 uses two CD-ROMs, you will have to umount your first disk, and mount your second before pressing "retry" on the change disks dialog. Same thing happens again at the end of the install, to put the play disk back into circulation. When you're done, you can close the install program and tell the cxgames installer that it has completed, it will warn you for paranoias sake -- close it.
Step Four: Launch SWAT 4
SWAT 4 uses a SecuROM based copy protection system, when I set this up - it thought cxgames version of wine was a cd-rom emulator! And refused to run, a quick fix is to google for the 'swat 4 no cd'. You will need to backup the old Swat4.exe, and then replace it with the no cd fix in order to launch the game.
Since I prefer the command line, I use cp and mv to copy and move files around; rather then copy/pasting icons in a file manager.
$ cd ~/.cxgames/SWAT4/drive-c/Program\ Files/Sierra\SWAT\ 4/Content/System $ mv Swat4.exe Swat4.exe.orig-1.0 $ cp /path/to/fixed/1.0/Swat4.exe ./Swat4.exe.nocd-1.0 $ cp Swat4.exe.nocd-1.0 Swat4.exe
Now launch the game, either via your applications menu (gnome/kde users), or manually with the wine subsystem of cxgames, e.g.
$ /opt/cxgames/bin/wine --bottle ~/.cxgames/SWAT4 ~/.cxgames/SWAT4/drive-c/Program\ Files/Sierra\SWAT\ 4/Content/System/Swat4.exe
Then go ahead and test the training level or something like that. SWAT 4 must take care of first run chores before you install the path. When you're done, just exit the game like normal. In the vent of catrostrophic disaster, you should be able to ctl+alt+function key to vtty, login to a command prompt, and us the ps and kill commands to terminate the process, cxgames also has it's own way of nuking bad windows processes hehe.
Step Five: Patch SWAT 4
Because the patch checks for a legit copy of SWAT4, we have to replace Swat4.exe with Swat4.exe.orig-1.0, otherwise the patch will fail and scramble a few game files.
$ rm Swat4.exe $ cp Swat4.exe.orig-1.0 Swat4.exe
Now insert you SWAT 4: TSS disk and run the installer, just like when you installed SWAT 4. Except use the same bottle, by selecting it from a list of existing bottles when prompted for a bottle to use. Once the TSS installer pops up, click the button to install the SWAT 4 1.1 patch.
Step Six: Test run SWAT 4 1.1
Now you need to use a no cd fix for SWAT 4 1.1 in order to continue, download it and do like in Step Four.
$ mv Swat4.exe Swat4.exe.orig-1.1 $ cp /path/to/fixed/1.1/Swat4.exe ./Swat4.exe.nocd-1.1 $ cp Swat4.exe.nocd-1.1 Swat4.exe
and launch the game as in Step Five.
Step Seven: Installing TSS
If you left the TSS installer open from Step Six, fine, if not, open it again -- same exact way.
You will have to replace the no cd fixed Swat4.exe with the original one from the path, else the TSS installer will bomb out on you.
$ rm Swat4.exe $ cp Swat4.exe.orig-1.1 Swat4.exe
Now get the TSS installer up and click the install swat 4 tss expansion pack button. Then proceed through the installation process; you shouldn't have any major problem, as long as you remembered switch executables first.
Step Eight: Run SWAT 4: TSS
Now you should be able to launch SWAT 4: TSS, when I did it... there was no problem with the Swat4x.exe file in the expansion pack, but the game soon refused to run, having verification problems, despite being a legally paid for copy, with the legally paid for copy in the drive. So one will need to employ another no cd fix to be able to use this legally paid for copy of the game.
$ cd ~/.cxgames/SWAT4/drive-c/Program\ Files/Sierra\SWAT\ 4/ContentExpansion/System $ mv Swat4X.exe Swat4X.exe.orig $ cp /path/to/fixed/Swat4X.exe ./Swat4X.exe.nocd $ cp Swat4X.exe.nocd Swat4X.exe
You can launch it the same way as SWAT 4, but in the case of the command line, the path changes. Just like on Windows, from Content\System\Swat4.exe to ContentExpansion\System\Swat4.exe.
Known Issues
If the game and your display are not running at the same resolution, moving your mouse pointer to the 'edge' will make it scroll outside the window, effectively creating a pan and scan across your display. I have a 1600x1200px primary screen and a 1280x1024 secondary screen. Having SWAT in 1024x768px mode, was horrible... edit: this happens even when the game and X screen are at the same resolution.
I have yet to determine under what conditions dual heads will work, but luckyally most X Window Managers handle dual heads better then Microsoft Windows (in my indignant opinion), at least that has been my experience under FreeBSD 7 and Ubuntu GNU/Linux 8.04 with X.Org 7.2,a nd Windows XP Media Center Edition. So the main problem is a question of mouse handling.
Because of the way things work, people who use mods (e.g. SSF) may have problems launching them, without a corresponding no cd exe. Other wise the game seems to be useable, I've only to acertain whether or not graphical performance can be maintained.
My word, wouldn't it be heaven to only need windows to play Raven Shield once in a blue moon?
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Work, Swat, Wesnoth, Work, Wesnoth, Work, Swat,... I'll be happy when the weekend comes... Or when I finish this campaign in Wesnoth lol.
Like always, as work increases... E-Mail, Journal, School, Sleep, Games, and Codea decrement their places on my priority list until work levels out again. Just thinking about work tomorrow, just makes me sick. I really need a !@#$2 vacation! No work, no code, no games, no nothing... just blissful rest and relaxation.
Fat chance of that happening within my life time.....
Like always, as work increases... E-Mail, Journal, School, Sleep, Games, and Codea decrement their places on my priority list until work levels out again. Just thinking about work tomorrow, just makes me sick. I really need a !@#$2 vacation! No work, no code, no games, no nothing... just blissful rest and relaxation.
Fat chance of that happening within my life time.....
Saturday, October 4, 2008
SWAT time + looking at the games enemy weapons
I finally got to play some swat :-)
Spent the day testing a new common-ops load:
I rather like using no armour in SWAT 4: TSS. When suspects deal 2 times the damage we can, walking around in heavy body armour really doesn't help. Well, if the enemy has an M1911 (many maps give them Bereta M9s) or the sawed of shotgun with the "low" ammo type (50% chance of low ammo). Then heavy armour might save your virtual life, but other wise it's just dead weight. A single AK47 FMJ fired from ~1050 unreal units away, will kill a player wearing heavy armour during a Multi-Player Co-Op game. And worth of note, all but a few weapons have a maximum range of 4000 unreal units, in TSS the exceptions are the Remington M700 Sniper Rifle (remote control only) at 3000uu, breaching shotgun, and the Taser/Cobra (Stringray) stun guns
Suspects always use JHP in these weapons according to the SwatEquipment.ini file fr SWAT 4: TSS:
and 10% of the time, suspects with FN P90 can get JHP rounds in TSS.
The rest of the time the enemy uses FMJ for clip based weapons (e.g. hg,smg,ar,lmg) and buckshot for round based weapons (e.g. shotguns). Some weapons use a "_LowAmmo" a certain % of the time (Python, M9, SawedOffSG, all come to mind). But generally the only differences between SWAT weapons and Suspect weapons is cosmetic (e.g. no tactical light) and numerical (they get less magazines for reload, not that I've ever seen them reload -- they are smart enough to switch to secondaries in a firefight instead).
All things considered, plus the games ridicules concept of ballistics.... I'd rather have the speed of no armour, then the protection of light armour. Simply put, I don't plan on getting shot often lol. The light armour vest will protect in some situations and in those, heavy armour does better. But most of the time, you get hit, you get dead, so why bother? The ability to cuff, reload, and switch between weapons at a more realistic pace is also worth the trade off in protection hehe.
Weapon popularity in the regular SWAT 4 maps, as noted by 'cmd> grep identifer Content\System\EneemyArchetypes.ini | wc -l'. Note that many suspects (especially terro-type) have access to plenty of weapons and a chance=precentage of how likely they are to use a given weapon type; to control just how often they will use an item in the available weapons list. This is just a summery of how many times a given weapon was specified as available.
Pistols:
M9 found: 43
USP found: 21
PythonRevolverHG found: 14
ScorpionHG found: 12
IngramHG found: 10 (This is basically a MAC-10)
1911 found: 5
Glock found: 0 (Model 17)
Sub Machine Guns:
UMP45 found: 15
MP5SMG found: 13
UZISMG found: 11 (Suppressed)
HK53 found: 9
SilencedMP5SMG found: 0
Assault Rifles:
G36kMG found: 10
M4MG found: 8
AK74suMG found: 8 (Proper name: AKS-74U, U = Ukorochenniy)
AK74MG found: 6
Pump1SG found: 12
SawedOffSg found: 11
M1Super90SG found: 8
M4Super90SG found: 0
Pump2RifleGripSg found: 2
I've yet to check the TSS maps for the enemy weapons though.
The USP40, HK53, AK47, and Colt Python being some of the most deadly of enemy weapons. The Uzi (accurate headshots), Ingram (very heavy bullets), and Scorpion sub-machineguns are also quite hazardous. By comparison, the only weapon available to players in MP Co-Op that really works well, is the AK47 :\. The FN P90 added in TSS helps out, if you are willing to pump in a lot more rounds, heck... I remember on one live op map. I took the P90 because I knew there would be little time to reload, if we had to go dynamic. I ended up using like 32-38 rounds per kill at near maximum range (if not occasionally beyond!) to drop tangos, which is tricky because the weapon is very inaccuate at long range in TSS lol.
Spent the day testing a new common-ops load:
- MP5 9x19mm Suppressed SMG, FMJ or JHP depending on primary OPFOR
- M1911A1 11.43x23mm Pistol, JHP or opposite of primary
- 3 M84 Stun grenade
- 1 Hornets Nest stingball grenade
- 1 Door wedge
- 3 C2 breaching charges
- Tactical Assault Vest (No Armour)
- The games ol'lucky helmet or AN/PVS-7 night vision goggles; depending on lighting conditions and method of engagement
I rather like using no armour in SWAT 4: TSS. When suspects deal 2 times the damage we can, walking around in heavy body armour really doesn't help. Well, if the enemy has an M1911 (many maps give them Bereta M9s) or the sawed of shotgun with the "low" ammo type (50% chance of low ammo). Then heavy armour might save your virtual life, but other wise it's just dead weight. A single AK47 FMJ fired from ~1050 unreal units away, will kill a player wearing heavy armour during a Multi-Player Co-Op game. And worth of note, all but a few weapons have a maximum range of 4000 unreal units, in TSS the exceptions are the Remington M700 Sniper Rifle (remote control only) at 3000uu, breaching shotgun, and the Taser/Cobra (Stringray) stun guns
Suspects always use JHP in these weapons according to the SwatEquipment.ini file fr SWAT 4: TSS:
- M1911A1
- MP5
- MP5 SD
- Desert Eagle
- M4A1
and 10% of the time, suspects with FN P90 can get JHP rounds in TSS.
The rest of the time the enemy uses FMJ for clip based weapons (e.g. hg,smg,ar,lmg) and buckshot for round based weapons (e.g. shotguns). Some weapons use a "_LowAmmo" a certain % of the time (Python, M9, SawedOffSG, all come to mind). But generally the only differences between SWAT weapons and Suspect weapons is cosmetic (e.g. no tactical light) and numerical (they get less magazines for reload, not that I've ever seen them reload -- they are smart enough to switch to secondaries in a firefight instead).
All things considered, plus the games ridicules concept of ballistics.... I'd rather have the speed of no armour, then the protection of light armour. Simply put, I don't plan on getting shot often lol. The light armour vest will protect in some situations and in those, heavy armour does better. But most of the time, you get hit, you get dead, so why bother? The ability to cuff, reload, and switch between weapons at a more realistic pace is also worth the trade off in protection hehe.
Weapon popularity in the regular SWAT 4 maps, as noted by 'cmd> grep identifer Content\System\EneemyArchetypes.ini | wc -l'. Note that many suspects (especially terro-type) have access to plenty of weapons and a chance=precentage of how likely they are to use a given weapon type; to control just how often they will use an item in the available weapons list. This is just a summery of how many times a given weapon was specified as available.
Pistols:
M9 found: 43
USP found: 21
PythonRevolverHG found: 14
ScorpionHG found: 12
IngramHG found: 10 (This is basically a MAC-10)
1911 found: 5
Glock found: 0 (Model 17)
Sub Machine Guns:
UMP45 found: 15
MP5SMG found: 13
UZISMG found: 11 (Suppressed)
HK53 found: 9
SilencedMP5SMG found: 0
Assault Rifles:
G36kMG found: 10
M4MG found: 8
AK74suMG found: 8 (Proper name: AKS-74U, U = Ukorochenniy)
AK74MG found: 6
Pump1SG found: 12
SawedOffSg found: 11
M1Super90SG found: 8
M4Super90SG found: 0
Pump2RifleGripSg found: 2
I've yet to check the TSS maps for the enemy weapons though.
The USP40, HK53, AK47, and Colt Python being some of the most deadly of enemy weapons. The Uzi (accurate headshots), Ingram (very heavy bullets), and Scorpion sub-machineguns are also quite hazardous. By comparison, the only weapon available to players in MP Co-Op that really works well, is the AK47 :\. The FN P90 added in TSS helps out, if you are willing to pump in a lot more rounds, heck... I remember on one live op map. I took the P90 because I knew there would be little time to reload, if we had to go dynamic. I ended up using like 32-38 rounds per kill at near maximum range (if not occasionally beyond!) to drop tangos, which is tricky because the weapon is very inaccuate at long range in TSS lol.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
the past ~48 hours
Been quite a busy time, I guess lol.
I think I royally fragged my blood sugar; after last nights gorging on beefaroni, I've been pissing my brains out (every ~30min). Things are finally starting to resync with the usual input equals output style equation. I'm not diabetic (as far as I know), but many people in my family have had diabetes, most dying of heart attack, stroke, and cancer even when fully healthy. Of course, I've always figured it's a case of which of the 3 will get me first.... But I expect the third, if the first permits in the long term.
I really should watch what I eat, and an extreme amount of pasta and meet is probably a bad idea. As I understand it, carbohydrates from pastas breaks down into glucose slowly over time, slower then a lot of snacks anyway. I've no idea whether that is good or bad thing; but I like pasta, in almost all of it's forms ^_^. Eating a shit load of it on the other hand, is probably just as bad as eating a lot of sugar though :\.
My guess is that it caused enough of a glucose spike, that my kidney's have been workin' overtime to deal with it. Biology (in general) was never really one of my strong points, in fact... My high school text book put me to sleep lol. The fact that searching the web and thumbing through old encyclopedias was better for passing exams, then remembering the text books contents, is besides the point :-P.
For the time being: I've cut the soda from my fluid intake, shit load of HFCS in that stuff... And replaced it with water, I usually drink soda during the day and bottled water at work & at night. Along with sweets, my diet usually consists of lunch, dinner, and a sweet or salty snack or two every few days (although I avoid junk food, because if I had it, I'd eat it).
I managed to download and install Virtual Box. I've also got PC-BSD7 in both the 3 CD and 1 DVD sets, the CD ISOs are on my laptop, and the DVD ISO on the desktop (I figured it would be easier to use with VB). When booting off the DVD ISO in VirtualBox, the boot process fails: snap shot. I intend to install it on my desktop, but after one of the posts I read on forums.pcbsd.org (by Graedus I thin), I'm not willing to let PCBSD7 touch my harddrive, until I've taken a full backup of my Windows install.... took to many hours to set it up the way I wanted, and I still have no wall paper lmao.
As to the image, I posted a thread on PC-BSDs support forum, not that I actually expect any help lol. In fat, one of the reasons I elected to test with VB first, is in he hopes I might be able to help some of the people having problems with PCBSD7 under VirtualBox.
I can't make heads or tails out of the output before BTX halted. I know most of the names, corrispond to processor registers. In fact, to be more precise, I believe the 'e' is some extended-mnemonic from when Intel's chips moved into the 32-Bit world. I don't understand the output though, because I never had time to learn about assembly or dive deep into documentation on IA-32.
I managed to get a little time in, training with Jonsi on TG#1. Do to current affairs, I've been spending most of my server time in SWAT (PG3/TG3), but it's nie to be reminded; I am still limber enough to put recruits through their paces :-). I need to take a look and see what's going on these days, training wise in RvS.
I also spent sometime to help a friend with porting a page from (invalid) HTML 4.01 Transitional to XHTML 1.0 Strict. Not to hard for me, since I work with XHTML like most people I know, would use MS Word. Although, I personally prefer LaTeX for documents, for a long time; I did use XHTML+CSS as a replacement for word processors. If I had the time to learn to do as much as I can in LaTeX/TeX, I probably would prefer troff; but a more TeXuaL solution is where I ended up investing time.
Also my brain was complimented today, but despite the things I know, it doesn't do me much good; because no one in this rats nest, will actually pay me for what I know or for using my brain lol. That's one reason, why I try to be content with the fact, that most of what I know, I learned because I wanted to and enjoyed learning, as opposed to ever learning stuff to make money off it. Although, I do admit... getting paid for what I know, would seriously be an improvement over my current line of work lol. But I'm generally content with enjoying it on my own time.
Now, if only I could change the one point that really does bother me...
Hmm, with about 34% of battery power remaining (according to hw.acpi.battery.life), I think it is time for bed !!!
I think I royally fragged my blood sugar; after last nights gorging on beefaroni, I've been pissing my brains out (every ~30min). Things are finally starting to resync with the usual input equals output style equation. I'm not diabetic (as far as I know), but many people in my family have had diabetes, most dying of heart attack, stroke, and cancer even when fully healthy. Of course, I've always figured it's a case of which of the 3 will get me first.... But I expect the third, if the first permits in the long term.
I really should watch what I eat, and an extreme amount of pasta and meet is probably a bad idea. As I understand it, carbohydrates from pastas breaks down into glucose slowly over time, slower then a lot of snacks anyway. I've no idea whether that is good or bad thing; but I like pasta, in almost all of it's forms ^_^. Eating a shit load of it on the other hand, is probably just as bad as eating a lot of sugar though :\.
My guess is that it caused enough of a glucose spike, that my kidney's have been workin' overtime to deal with it. Biology (in general) was never really one of my strong points, in fact... My high school text book put me to sleep lol. The fact that searching the web and thumbing through old encyclopedias was better for passing exams, then remembering the text books contents, is besides the point :-P.
For the time being: I've cut the soda from my fluid intake, shit load of HFCS in that stuff... And replaced it with water, I usually drink soda during the day and bottled water at work & at night. Along with sweets, my diet usually consists of lunch, dinner, and a sweet or salty snack or two every few days (although I avoid junk food, because if I had it, I'd eat it).
I managed to download and install Virtual Box. I've also got PC-BSD7 in both the 3 CD and 1 DVD sets, the CD ISOs are on my laptop, and the DVD ISO on the desktop (I figured it would be easier to use with VB). When booting off the DVD ISO in VirtualBox, the boot process fails: snap shot. I intend to install it on my desktop, but after one of the posts I read on forums.pcbsd.org (by Graedus I thin), I'm not willing to let PCBSD7 touch my harddrive, until I've taken a full backup of my Windows install.... took to many hours to set it up the way I wanted, and I still have no wall paper lmao.
As to the image, I posted a thread on PC-BSDs support forum, not that I actually expect any help lol. In fat, one of the reasons I elected to test with VB first, is in he hopes I might be able to help some of the people having problems with PCBSD7 under VirtualBox.
I can't make heads or tails out of the output before BTX halted. I know most of the names, corrispond to processor registers. In fact, to be more precise, I believe the 'e' is some extended-mnemonic from when Intel's chips moved into the 32-Bit world. I don't understand the output though, because I never had time to learn about assembly or dive deep into documentation on IA-32.
I managed to get a little time in, training with Jonsi on TG#1. Do to current affairs, I've been spending most of my server time in SWAT (PG3/TG3), but it's nie to be reminded; I am still limber enough to put recruits through their paces :-). I need to take a look and see what's going on these days, training wise in RvS.
I also spent sometime to help a friend with porting a page from (invalid) HTML 4.01 Transitional to XHTML 1.0 Strict. Not to hard for me, since I work with XHTML like most people I know, would use MS Word. Although, I personally prefer LaTeX for documents, for a long time; I did use XHTML+CSS as a replacement for word processors. If I had the time to learn to do as much as I can in LaTeX/TeX, I probably would prefer troff; but a more TeXuaL solution is where I ended up investing time.
Also my brain was complimented today, but despite the things I know, it doesn't do me much good; because no one in this rats nest, will actually pay me for what I know or for using my brain lol. That's one reason, why I try to be content with the fact, that most of what I know, I learned because I wanted to and enjoyed learning, as opposed to ever learning stuff to make money off it. Although, I do admit... getting paid for what I know, would seriously be an improvement over my current line of work lol. But I'm generally content with enjoying it on my own time.
Now, if only I could change the one point that really does bother me...
Hmm, with about 34% of battery power remaining (according to hw.acpi.battery.life), I think it is time for bed !!!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
*sigh*
SWAT 4 has almsot no consistency what so ever.
Came into a large room, that's a bit of a double-T junction, followed it in with a bang, since there was a fleeing suspect before. Seucred the area, no problemo. Follow it into the the side hall, come to a door... Spider senses tingling, I slap on a shaped charge and blow the door, coming in with P90 at the ready before the doors even done flying.
Two visual contacts, 11 o'clock and 2 o'clock. A quick shout, first T at 11 starts to spin, I check the other and he drops to a knee with hands up, so keep advancing and angle off to my right -- breaking line of fire with the one from 11 0'clock. I closed the distance (7~9ft) and gave the tango a swift punch in his left kidney (his vest looked to thin to have any SAPIs, moving myself into an immiedate circle strafe around him....
The punch didn't do squat, he kept spinning about with an AKM in arm; I let it rip with the P90, raking the tango across the shoulders and face. 10 rounds later and now behind him and taking the next corner, the tango finally reacted lol.
Suspect AI in SWAT 4 is coded with a range of 0 to 0.333 time unit before they can be effected by a less then lethal / less lethal stimulus. So I know for a fact, if the first swing don't have an effect, put the S.O.B. on the hard deck.
One thing I actually like about RvS, is it's consistency. A 2-4rnd burst will drop any tango with any weapon, or the tango will slide through it, and put a mag in your face; as your bullets magically leaving bullet holes behind them, but not in them hahaa.
Just once, I wish someone would design a game that actually gets the model right...
Came into a large room, that's a bit of a double-T junction, followed it in with a bang, since there was a fleeing suspect before. Seucred the area, no problemo. Follow it into the the side hall, come to a door... Spider senses tingling, I slap on a shaped charge and blow the door, coming in with P90 at the ready before the doors even done flying.
Two visual contacts, 11 o'clock and 2 o'clock. A quick shout, first T at 11 starts to spin, I check the other and he drops to a knee with hands up, so keep advancing and angle off to my right -- breaking line of fire with the one from 11 0'clock. I closed the distance (7~9ft) and gave the tango a swift punch in his left kidney (his vest looked to thin to have any SAPIs, moving myself into an immiedate circle strafe around him....
The punch didn't do squat, he kept spinning about with an AKM in arm; I let it rip with the P90, raking the tango across the shoulders and face. 10 rounds later and now behind him and taking the next corner, the tango finally reacted lol.
Suspect AI in SWAT 4 is coded with a range of 0 to 0.333 time unit before they can be effected by a less then lethal / less lethal stimulus. So I know for a fact, if the first swing don't have an effect, put the S.O.B. on the hard deck.
One thing I actually like about RvS, is it's consistency. A 2-4rnd burst will drop any tango with any weapon, or the tango will slide through it, and put a mag in your face; as your bullets magically leaving bullet holes behind them, but not in them hahaa.
Just once, I wish someone would design a game that actually gets the model right...
Monday, September 15, 2008
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Rockin' and Rollin'
Spent most of my day working on a couple of flow charts for tomorrows project meeting. I really wish I had the time to setup a proper presentation but the most important stuff is ready. If all the concerned parties are on time, we should even get done fairly quickly I think. I've had concept work and test cases stuffed in my brain for the past 2 or 3 days but no real time to sit down and work it out. I think, if I see another flow chart, I am gonna kick something. I've found Dia quite nice for doing simple diagrams and charts, it's enough like GIMP that the learning curve is almost null. It could do with a little more refinement in spots but hey, if it lets me get stuff done in a fraction of the time... I can put up with the stuff I don't like (mainly to do with text operations).
I'm working on it in my spare time, after work, after [SAS] operations, and along side my own projects, so effective use of my time is a plus hehe.
Some good news in [SAS] finally hit, I've been waiting for awhile now... But it was well worth it, seems several great NCOs are leading the charge in the indicated direction. I've left the details to others, since the emphasis was on getting it "done" rather then doing it well, and I'm just the schmuck who will probably have to deal with any later maintenance lol. But at least it's done....
Managed to get a little bit of RvS time in, I think my recent expedition into the SWAT4 server has thrown my movements off. In RvS, things tend to act very fast and chunky but in SWAT4 they tend to feel much smoother, if slow by comparison. I was rather surprised to have around accuracy rankings in the 60s of hit percentages. While I rarely miss in SWAT4, RvS requires more, should I say. "Shoot the fucker, shoot him again, and shoot'em some more" in order to combat latency and super tangos. RvS is nice in that 2 rounds will drop almost any enemy, if you can get the blasted hits to register cleanly over the network.
In the course of my days web surfing I found an interesting language, called erlang. It looks like it would be worth poking around, I just wish I had the time :-(. But I'm just to busy with other stuff and can't offerd to "cram one more" language between my ears... Rubber banding between C, C++, PHP, Perl, and Bourne for a couple days is, uhh.. a bit odd :\
I really do like to learn different languages, the only problem is time spent inhaling documentation and memorizing syntax / interfaces. Much of my thinking i fairly language independent, so I really don't have trouble picking up other languages. Python for example took a couple of hours at the most and ~2 days of "play testing" it on light problems before I was comfortable using it on a more serious project. Although I do admit, when it comes to expressing ideas I do really draw upon what I know.
For expedience of expression and to actually be able to read it at a glance. I'll often mangle English and common constructs together, forming a document local style of writing whatever pops up often. Basically writing it in a way that just lets me say what I need to remind myself of later, and read it quickly when I do have to look stuff up. I can usually read things at a fairly quick rate, my eyes scan it and break things down, parsing it into the elements I comprehend and working on the rest as I go along. So the strange code-lish style writing usually speeds things up, since my eyes can parse the flow of it more readily then a few extra paragraphs of contemporaneity English, which means I can also "home in" on the parts of interest and quickly discern what I need to read and what I can ignore when grepping my text.
Sometimes, I wonder if I'm just mad as a hatter lol.
I'm working on it in my spare time, after work, after [SAS] operations, and along side my own projects, so effective use of my time is a plus hehe.
Some good news in [SAS] finally hit, I've been waiting for awhile now... But it was well worth it, seems several great NCOs are leading the charge in the indicated direction. I've left the details to others, since the emphasis was on getting it "done" rather then doing it well, and I'm just the schmuck who will probably have to deal with any later maintenance lol. But at least it's done....
Managed to get a little bit of RvS time in, I think my recent expedition into the SWAT4 server has thrown my movements off. In RvS, things tend to act very fast and chunky but in SWAT4 they tend to feel much smoother, if slow by comparison. I was rather surprised to have around accuracy rankings in the 60s of hit percentages. While I rarely miss in SWAT4, RvS requires more, should I say. "Shoot the fucker, shoot him again, and shoot'em some more" in order to combat latency and super tangos. RvS is nice in that 2 rounds will drop almost any enemy, if you can get the blasted hits to register cleanly over the network.
In the course of my days web surfing I found an interesting language, called erlang. It looks like it would be worth poking around, I just wish I had the time :-(. But I'm just to busy with other stuff and can't offerd to "cram one more" language between my ears... Rubber banding between C, C++, PHP, Perl, and Bourne for a couple days is, uhh.. a bit odd :\
I really do like to learn different languages, the only problem is time spent inhaling documentation and memorizing syntax / interfaces. Much of my thinking i fairly language independent, so I really don't have trouble picking up other languages. Python for example took a couple of hours at the most and ~2 days of "play testing" it on light problems before I was comfortable using it on a more serious project. Although I do admit, when it comes to expressing ideas I do really draw upon what I know.
For expedience of expression and to actually be able to read it at a glance. I'll often mangle English and common constructs together, forming a document local style of writing whatever pops up often. Basically writing it in a way that just lets me say what I need to remind myself of later, and read it quickly when I do have to look stuff up. I can usually read things at a fairly quick rate, my eyes scan it and break things down, parsing it into the elements I comprehend and working on the rest as I go along. So the strange code-lish style writing usually speeds things up, since my eyes can parse the flow of it more readily then a few extra paragraphs of contemporaneity English, which means I can also "home in" on the parts of interest and quickly discern what I need to read and what I can ignore when grepping my text.
Sometimes, I wonder if I'm just mad as a hatter lol.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Opinions on tactical FPS
Rants, Rambles, and Raves... On Tactical FPS games
From a person who has been gaming since he was in diapers, using a Nintendo, and all the way into the future.
More realistic ballistics:
In old times, weapons were little more then you hit target, you do damage. And each hit from a given weapon doing so much damage, like 10% of life bar per bullet from SMG, 20% from rifle, Which is a piece of crap to start with, even by modern standards. More modern implementations might take into account mass, velocity, and hit modifiers.
Objects are generally boiled down to objects that can be penetrated and objects that can't. In Raven Shield they take it a step even worse, an object that can be penetrated is usually limited to a destructible one. I.e. a bullet may penetrate a pawn (rainbow, tango, hostage), a window, or a door. But it won't go through a carboard box, a cereal box, or wood fence, because these are all "solid bullet proof objects".
When a bullet hits something, the mass of the bullet and the velocity it hit at should be taken into account along with the type of material hit and the density of it and the bullet. For example compare trying to penetrate a strong tungsten alloy and a tin can, which takes more punch?
SWAT4 essentially operates on the concept that if an object may be penetrated, the bullet has M mass moving at V velocity used to calculate it's momentum. While the object being hit requires a certain amount of momentum to penetrate; if I looked deep enough into the games SDK, I wouldn't be surprised if "momentum" was just a synonym for velocity to the developers... When the momentum is exceeded, the the damage caused by the bullet on it's way through is modified by a modifier range or factor of how much damage it can still do.
What should really happen, in my opinion?
There should be several types of impact material, e.g. liquid, wood, concrete, metal, plastic. The idea is pretty simple, let's say you take a gun and fire into a pool of water. For an object to occupy a space within that water, it has to displace the same volume of water out of it's way, to move through it, it has to keep displacing water out of the way. Shooting through block of wood that is as thick as the water (e.g. same volume of) works about the same way, but the density is different, taking more force to displace the wood out of the bullets way in order to 'penetrate' the wood.
For the sake of performance it would make sense to have several known (common) densities with known properties and tune accordingly. It would still fall short of accuracy with the real world but make it easier to apply ballistics to all objects within the game.
The biggest problem with ballistics in modern FPS games, they continue to use the "can penetrate" and "can't penetrate" stupidly...
Proper damage models:
Shooting a the representation of a human in a tactical FPS should have similar effects to the real world. Most often, you get a set of hit boxes based on superficial anatomy. A head, a torso, arms, legs, etc. And if your lucky a modifier that adjusts damage done based on the hit box, e.g. head shots fatal, leg shots minor damage or something like that.
I think they should take it a step further and apply more things based on the hit boxes. For example, why not take a leg? Break it into 4 hit boxes, the foot, the crus, the knee, and the thigh. If the target gets hit in any of the leg hit boxes, they should die! Bleed to death or fall into shock awhile later maybe... but not die out right as in games. Getting hit in the crus or the thigh should effect ones ability to walk, getting hit in the knee or the foot should probably force the target to crawl instead of walk.
The torso should be split into h8it boxes based on internals, the "general torso", the heart, lungs, maybe the kidneys, e.t.c. A human might be able to survive several shots to the chest but I would think a double tap to the heart would have more (quickly) lethal effects, even if not as much as going for a T-Shot, I would think it more likely to disable the enemy in the sense of more games, and kill the target more readily.
Compared to games like Raven Shield (last patch) where it doesn't really matter where you shoot a tango, just hit them 2ce and they are as good as dead, pardoning latency and the FN Five-Seven. And SWAT4 where the only side effect is it pays to follow the Mozambique drill -- just to do enough damage quickly to put the target down. While in real life, the idea is if the double tap to centre mass doesn't stop the target, taking down their nervous system will put'em down for good.
Weapons Attachments and kit restrictions:
I think AAO:SF has the best in terms of realism but makes for a too oft abused configuration, M4 with aimpoint + suppressor + M203. Raven Shield limits you to one attachment but that sucks, especially since it makes weapons like the AUG, SA80, and G36K more powerful (built in scopes) -- further pissing off people who know about the Tavor Assault Rifles!
I think the proper solution would be to allow 2 attachments for all primaries, such as an barrel and an receiver attachment. So using the M4A1 carbine as an example. One could have an M4 with a scope and a suppressor or with a M203 and scope but not a bipod and a suppressor or an M203 and a suppressor, e.t.c. That would at least keep it fair.
Load outs, I really think a merger of the "package" and "individual" item ideas would work. For example, so many slots, like something like this:
Player Kit:
-- Primary Weapon = None | SMG | AR | SG | SR | LMG | LAW
--------- Front Attachment: None | Suppressor | Grenade Launcher | Bipod
--------- Rear Attachment: Default sights | CQB scope | Magnifying scope | Night scope | Laser aiming module
--------- Ammunition: FMJ/Slug | JHP/Buckshot
-- Secondary Weapon = None | Pistol | TASER | Special
--------- Pistol Attachment: None | Suppressor | Laser aiming module | Tactical light
--------- Ammunition: FMJ | JHP | Cartridge
-- Specialist item = None | Binoculars | Radio | Laser designator | Night vision goggles | Spy gizmo | Gas mask
-- Demolitions item 1 = None | Breaching shotgun | Door breaching charges | Plastic explosive | Satchel charge | LAW ammunition | Breaching hammer | Breaching bar
-- Protective Gear = None | Light | Medium | Heavy
Where light = Level IIIA, medium = level III, heavy = level IV on the NIJ standards.
And allot like 3 or 4 slots for grenade "packages", say 3 slots holding a "two pack" of grenades.
-- Grenade slot 1 = None | 2 x Fragmentation | 2 x Flashbang | 2 x Smoke | 2 x CS Gas
-- Grenade slot 2 = None | 2 x Fragmentation | 2 x Flashbang | 2 x Smoke | 2 x CS Gas
-- Grenade slot 3 = None | 2 x Fragmentation | 2 x Flashbang | 2 x Smoke | 2 x CS Gas
Which in my opinion would be the most flexible and much faster then having to equip each slot individually.
Breaching methods:
Ballistic breaching with shotguns, any shutgun capable of destroying the door and frangible breaching shot as well -- in effect making hinge and knob side breaching possible. Explosive breaching with any suitable explosive, as well as dedicated door breaching charges, using shaped charges to blast through doors and windows, etc. Mechanical breaching with bars, sledge hammers, and even fire axes that just happen to be sitting handy.
The ability to break down doors, blow up walls, come crashing through windows, is just a requirement. You can't have a tactical game unless you can conduct a full breach. Not having to use the "door" is also more realistic, why send everyone through one door... When we can sneak a team into the next room, frame charge through the damn wall. And employ snipers to pick off X-Rays through the windows -- after coordinating kill zones ahead of time that is.
Vehicles:
One of the big problems with games is the "vehicle" selling point. In games like BF2 or Halo, they often become the gods of the battlefield, you have to use the vehicles to win.
By nature of things, vehicles make good transport and are very useful. But have to be controlled to avoid them becoming all powerful monsters of destruction in adversarial games. Having stuff like personal motorcycles and dune buggies or HMMWVs for transporting troops would be nice.
What I would like to see is AI controlled support vehicles that can be called in by team leaders using a "radio" item. So for example, a squad leader could call in an attack helicopter or a gun ship and have it circle in a radius overhead, attacking every enemy in sight.
To make that even sweeter, in some maps the enemy could have AAA and shoot the thing down !!!
That would open up so many possibilities, such as vaulting a few DPVs into the target area, send a group/groups to secure the objective, while the other members of the patrol set up a parameter, guards the cars for egress, and calls in a few helo's for backup. The possibilities for hit and fade runs are infinite when that is combined with a map editor...
Game Types:
Round based Cooperative, following "mission" and various special coop types, e.g. search and destroy, recon, hostage rescue. Round based and respawn based team death matches in "objectiveless" team with the most points wins, capture the flag, and search and destroy games. Heck, you could probably convert coop levels over for use as player Vs. player missions by using some form of squad based spawn points for the defending team.
Mission Planning:
It's imperative to be able to play the mission ahead of time and adjust in combat. Raven Shields F4 map sucks horribly but at least you can draw on it. A real planning map that can accommodative multiple floors would be perfect.
Team leaders need to be set, teams organized, mission objectives reviewed, and assault teams synchronized on their objectives.
Human Capabilities:
People can walk, run, crawl, roll, jump, e.t.c so why why not do like wise in game? One of the most annoying thing in Tactical FPS games is when you get killed in one of those, "I could have just ... like in real life" moments. Walking should be quick but not to quick, watching a SWAT team on the moves a perfect example. Running should be quick and really jumble your aim around. The ability to crouch and crawl is a requirement IMHO, and on top of that. When going prone while running or dashing, one should go into a dive.
If your walking and drop to the ground, odds are you want to get on the deck eh? But if your running like a bat out of hell, odds are you might not want to stop where ya are and lay down!!! I think to avoid the bunny hopper problem, jumping should be limited to a very short height and while running, just enough to be useful, yet realistic for someone in ~15 plus kilograms of combat gear.
That would allow one to still move quick, jump quite short heights, and avoid the usual crap of not being able to jump at all, because nubs and pansies abuse it so often online.
One thing I would really like, is a special "physical" action button. One that changes what it does based on the situation, whne close to people, go for a rifle butt/pistol whip/CQC attack, when close to objects, try to push, throw, kick, or otherwise employ them. Such as kicking a chair across the room or flipping a table over -- be versatile.
Team Organization:
It should be kept simple, AAO is a perfect example. Platoon leader, Squad/Section Leaders, Squad members. I think it's useful to occasional have specialists but when it goes to the extent of say, BF2 or other class based configurations. I think you really loose all of the flexibility gained by having a tactical FPS modeled on anything beyond the general infantry...
Kit selection should define specialization options, not soldier "class".
A perfect example, in RvS if we need more grenades, we bring more grenades, if we need a demolitions man, we bring demolitions! We don't limit the demolitions man to a special class, we equip for the job. I think SWAT4's split of grenades, breaching, and protective gear is the right style but the devs chose to divide it wrongly in terms of a Tactical FPS. But for simulation of Police SWAT environment, quite well since there are less, uhh... Fun toys to play with in most police departments >_>.
Graphics and Performance:
An Intel or AMD chip with performance comparable to a Pentium 4 in the 2.0-2.2 Ghz range, 768MB, and a 256MB Graphics card supporting OpenGL or DX9 decently would be an ideal minimal spec IMHO.
If you have a super gaming rig, you should get what you paid for within reason. If you only have a common gaming rig, you should at least be able to play the game smoothly with lower graphics. Games should look as *nice* as you can make them on your hardware but you shouldn't need a $300 graphics card and double your RAM just to play.
Hell, a good make of GeForce 6800 is dirt cheap now and one of the best graphics cards of it's generation.
Communication Functions:
Text chat, V-Commands, and Text Macros.
Text chat is the lowest common denominator of the internet, and most games require a keyboard and mouse to use properly ^_^. Pre recorded Voice Commands like that used in MOHAA, RvS, SWAT3, SWAT4, BF2, and such are great. The only problem is game developers almost never choose decent stuff and many gamers never bother to use them.
V-Commands should be a quick pop up menu and issued through keystroke OR mouse gesture and drop a HUD or on screen indicator that says WHO, WHAT, and WHERE. Like in SWAT4, you can see a marker of WHO issued the V-Command, you can hear the WHAT part, and when orders are given you can see the WHERE part marked on screen.
In game VoIP has always been a pile of shit, no matter what game that has implemented it, it has ALWAYS been shit. Striking a deal with the TeamSpeak or Ventrillo people for a dream-team setup that allows the game to auto-join certain servers/channels from in game or when just joining the a given team on the server.
I've always liked TeamSpeak because its channel commander feature offers a lot for serious team gaming.
The ability to record text macros in game, without having to use keybinds like in Unreal 2 games, I think is something every FPS should do. SWAT3 is one game that really got it right, text + sound bites. Although, being able to open your configuration data in a text editor and adjust things to taste is, like the hugest perk ever created.
User account and Points / Rewards system:
Having any kind of spend your life playing this game and racking up kill points, and we will reward you with unlocks. Is just a crock full of shit, it's a marketing gimmick to make you play the game longer and an excuse to sell you expansion packs that add features that, often in my experience -- should have been there in the first place. Or freely able to be made by a modding community.
Game Mods:
SWAT3 was perfect, download ZIP file, copy ZIP file to folder, flick the on/off switches for what mods you wanted to play. Launch game, and play. The mods you had on got used when hosting the game but when joining OTHER peoples games, WITHOUT RESTARTING. The game would load the required mods for joining other peoples games, as long as you had them installed.
That is the way it should be, having to restart the game to swap mods or worse, having to use a conversion utility (e.g. MW4:Mercs) are just piles of crap, unless of course. You want to appear to be a company that would rather lock people into buying expansion packs or sequles that your not obligated to make, rather then letting people extend what hopefully is a decent game, and make it better!
User Accounts and Anti-Cheat:
The games got to have some way of ID'ing users uniquely, PB generally does a decent enough job of it. While I don't care much for PB, and in fact have never had much use for it as anti-cheat (aside from the spying part). It does do one good thing.
It helps enforce server policy.
Level Design:
Missions need multiple ways of completing it, unless the game is a "quickie" that you'll play once and then chuck on a CD-Rack, which means there is no point in paying more then ~20 bucks for it.
Problems should be approachable from many different angles, there should be multiple paths available on most missions. Objective and enemy placement should be able to be randomized, one of the greatest things of early SWAT3 was that the missions placed some "mission" specifics in a normal set of spawn points, then placed other stuff in more random locations. No playing from memory, you know X, Y, and Z are choke points, you know hostages may be on Level 2, but only the machine knows what you will find in between ^_^.
HUD:
A customizable hud, the ability o change colors and whats on it works best.
The ability to have a small tactical map or SAI like element is ideal. Having helmet cameras and UAV feeds available and the ability to reorganize the HUD and toggle cams on/off based on position in the team -- is even more fun ;-)
Cross hairs should be used but be able to be disabled (I for one prefer no cross hairs on my HUD, unless I've got grenades). Iron sights and scopes should work on every weapon available but allow for proper shooting. In CQB, you don't aim with the sights for every shot, learn how to use the weapon.
When it comes to ammo counts, I think the traditional rounds in the magazine counter is nice, although not really necessary once you get used to how the game tunes the rates of fire. What is important is knowing how much ammo you have left. I love how SWAT4 implements it, you know how many rounds are in your current magazine. You can see how many magazines you have on the HUD and how "relatively" full they are. Magazine based ammo tracking is much more accurate the the old NNN total rounds remaining ammo counter anyway.
I think moving some features that would really improve the value of a HUD, into a separate "PDA" screen would be useful. B ecause then one could really stretch things to realistic limits, targeting people like Robocop or a T-800 are a bit futher off for most troops in the 21st Century.
From a person who has been gaming since he was in diapers, using a Nintendo, and all the way into the future.
More realistic ballistics:
In old times, weapons were little more then you hit target, you do damage. And each hit from a given weapon doing so much damage, like 10% of life bar per bullet from SMG, 20% from rifle, Which is a piece of crap to start with, even by modern standards. More modern implementations might take into account mass, velocity, and hit modifiers.
Objects are generally boiled down to objects that can be penetrated and objects that can't. In Raven Shield they take it a step even worse, an object that can be penetrated is usually limited to a destructible one. I.e. a bullet may penetrate a pawn (rainbow, tango, hostage), a window, or a door. But it won't go through a carboard box, a cereal box, or wood fence, because these are all "solid bullet proof objects".
When a bullet hits something, the mass of the bullet and the velocity it hit at should be taken into account along with the type of material hit and the density of it and the bullet. For example compare trying to penetrate a strong tungsten alloy and a tin can, which takes more punch?
SWAT4 essentially operates on the concept that if an object may be penetrated, the bullet has M mass moving at V velocity used to calculate it's momentum. While the object being hit requires a certain amount of momentum to penetrate; if I looked deep enough into the games SDK, I wouldn't be surprised if "momentum" was just a synonym for velocity to the developers... When the momentum is exceeded, the the damage caused by the bullet on it's way through is modified by a modifier range or factor of how much damage it can still do.
What should really happen, in my opinion?
There should be several types of impact material, e.g. liquid, wood, concrete, metal, plastic. The idea is pretty simple, let's say you take a gun and fire into a pool of water. For an object to occupy a space within that water, it has to displace the same volume of water out of it's way, to move through it, it has to keep displacing water out of the way. Shooting through block of wood that is as thick as the water (e.g. same volume of) works about the same way, but the density is different, taking more force to displace the wood out of the bullets way in order to 'penetrate' the wood.
For the sake of performance it would make sense to have several known (common) densities with known properties and tune accordingly. It would still fall short of accuracy with the real world but make it easier to apply ballistics to all objects within the game.
The biggest problem with ballistics in modern FPS games, they continue to use the "can penetrate" and "can't penetrate" stupidly...
Proper damage models:
Shooting a the representation of a human in a tactical FPS should have similar effects to the real world. Most often, you get a set of hit boxes based on superficial anatomy. A head, a torso, arms, legs, etc. And if your lucky a modifier that adjusts damage done based on the hit box, e.g. head shots fatal, leg shots minor damage or something like that.
I think they should take it a step further and apply more things based on the hit boxes. For example, why not take a leg? Break it into 4 hit boxes, the foot, the crus, the knee, and the thigh. If the target gets hit in any of the leg hit boxes, they should die! Bleed to death or fall into shock awhile later maybe... but not die out right as in games. Getting hit in the crus or the thigh should effect ones ability to walk, getting hit in the knee or the foot should probably force the target to crawl instead of walk.
The torso should be split into h8it boxes based on internals, the "general torso", the heart, lungs, maybe the kidneys, e.t.c. A human might be able to survive several shots to the chest but I would think a double tap to the heart would have more (quickly) lethal effects, even if not as much as going for a T-Shot, I would think it more likely to disable the enemy in the sense of more games, and kill the target more readily.
Compared to games like Raven Shield (last patch) where it doesn't really matter where you shoot a tango, just hit them 2ce and they are as good as dead, pardoning latency and the FN Five-Seven. And SWAT4 where the only side effect is it pays to follow the Mozambique drill -- just to do enough damage quickly to put the target down. While in real life, the idea is if the double tap to centre mass doesn't stop the target, taking down their nervous system will put'em down for good.
Weapons Attachments and kit restrictions:
I think AAO:SF has the best in terms of realism but makes for a too oft abused configuration, M4 with aimpoint + suppressor + M203. Raven Shield limits you to one attachment but that sucks, especially since it makes weapons like the AUG, SA80, and G36K more powerful (built in scopes) -- further pissing off people who know about the Tavor Assault Rifles!
I think the proper solution would be to allow 2 attachments for all primaries, such as an barrel and an receiver attachment. So using the M4A1 carbine as an example. One could have an M4 with a scope and a suppressor or with a M203 and scope but not a bipod and a suppressor or an M203 and a suppressor, e.t.c. That would at least keep it fair.
Load outs, I really think a merger of the "package" and "individual" item ideas would work. For example, so many slots, like something like this:
Player Kit:
-- Primary Weapon = None | SMG | AR | SG | SR | LMG | LAW
--------- Front Attachment: None | Suppressor | Grenade Launcher | Bipod
--------- Rear Attachment: Default sights | CQB scope | Magnifying scope | Night scope | Laser aiming module
--------- Ammunition: FMJ/Slug | JHP/Buckshot
-- Secondary Weapon = None | Pistol | TASER | Special
--------- Pistol Attachment: None | Suppressor | Laser aiming module | Tactical light
--------- Ammunition: FMJ | JHP | Cartridge
-- Specialist item = None | Binoculars | Radio | Laser designator | Night vision goggles | Spy gizmo | Gas mask
-- Demolitions item 1 = None | Breaching shotgun | Door breaching charges | Plastic explosive | Satchel charge | LAW ammunition | Breaching hammer | Breaching bar
-- Protective Gear = None | Light | Medium | Heavy
Where light = Level IIIA, medium = level III, heavy = level IV on the NIJ standards.
And allot like 3 or 4 slots for grenade "packages", say 3 slots holding a "two pack" of grenades.
-- Grenade slot 1 = None | 2 x Fragmentation | 2 x Flashbang | 2 x Smoke | 2 x CS Gas
-- Grenade slot 2 = None | 2 x Fragmentation | 2 x Flashbang | 2 x Smoke | 2 x CS Gas
-- Grenade slot 3 = None | 2 x Fragmentation | 2 x Flashbang | 2 x Smoke | 2 x CS Gas
Which in my opinion would be the most flexible and much faster then having to equip each slot individually.
Breaching methods:
Ballistic breaching with shotguns, any shutgun capable of destroying the door and frangible breaching shot as well -- in effect making hinge and knob side breaching possible. Explosive breaching with any suitable explosive, as well as dedicated door breaching charges, using shaped charges to blast through doors and windows, etc. Mechanical breaching with bars, sledge hammers, and even fire axes that just happen to be sitting handy.
The ability to break down doors, blow up walls, come crashing through windows, is just a requirement. You can't have a tactical game unless you can conduct a full breach. Not having to use the "door" is also more realistic, why send everyone through one door... When we can sneak a team into the next room, frame charge through the damn wall. And employ snipers to pick off X-Rays through the windows -- after coordinating kill zones ahead of time that is.
Vehicles:
One of the big problems with games is the "vehicle" selling point. In games like BF2 or Halo, they often become the gods of the battlefield, you have to use the vehicles to win.
By nature of things, vehicles make good transport and are very useful. But have to be controlled to avoid them becoming all powerful monsters of destruction in adversarial games. Having stuff like personal motorcycles and dune buggies or HMMWVs for transporting troops would be nice.
What I would like to see is AI controlled support vehicles that can be called in by team leaders using a "radio" item. So for example, a squad leader could call in an attack helicopter or a gun ship and have it circle in a radius overhead, attacking every enemy in sight.
To make that even sweeter, in some maps the enemy could have AAA and shoot the thing down !!!
That would open up so many possibilities, such as vaulting a few DPVs into the target area, send a group/groups to secure the objective, while the other members of the patrol set up a parameter, guards the cars for egress, and calls in a few helo's for backup. The possibilities for hit and fade runs are infinite when that is combined with a map editor...
Game Types:
Round based Cooperative, following "mission" and various special coop types, e.g. search and destroy, recon, hostage rescue. Round based and respawn based team death matches in "objectiveless" team with the most points wins, capture the flag, and search and destroy games. Heck, you could probably convert coop levels over for use as player Vs. player missions by using some form of squad based spawn points for the defending team.
Mission Planning:
It's imperative to be able to play the mission ahead of time and adjust in combat. Raven Shields F4 map sucks horribly but at least you can draw on it. A real planning map that can accommodative multiple floors would be perfect.
Team leaders need to be set, teams organized, mission objectives reviewed, and assault teams synchronized on their objectives.
Human Capabilities:
People can walk, run, crawl, roll, jump, e.t.c so why why not do like wise in game? One of the most annoying thing in Tactical FPS games is when you get killed in one of those, "I could have just ... like in real life" moments. Walking should be quick but not to quick, watching a SWAT team on the moves a perfect example. Running should be quick and really jumble your aim around. The ability to crouch and crawl is a requirement IMHO, and on top of that. When going prone while running or dashing, one should go into a dive.
If your walking and drop to the ground, odds are you want to get on the deck eh? But if your running like a bat out of hell, odds are you might not want to stop where ya are and lay down!!! I think to avoid the bunny hopper problem, jumping should be limited to a very short height and while running, just enough to be useful, yet realistic for someone in ~15 plus kilograms of combat gear.
That would allow one to still move quick, jump quite short heights, and avoid the usual crap of not being able to jump at all, because nubs and pansies abuse it so often online.
One thing I would really like, is a special "physical" action button. One that changes what it does based on the situation, whne close to people, go for a rifle butt/pistol whip/CQC attack, when close to objects, try to push, throw, kick, or otherwise employ them. Such as kicking a chair across the room or flipping a table over -- be versatile.
Team Organization:
It should be kept simple, AAO is a perfect example. Platoon leader, Squad/Section Leaders, Squad members. I think it's useful to occasional have specialists but when it goes to the extent of say, BF2 or other class based configurations. I think you really loose all of the flexibility gained by having a tactical FPS modeled on anything beyond the general infantry...
Kit selection should define specialization options, not soldier "class".
A perfect example, in RvS if we need more grenades, we bring more grenades, if we need a demolitions man, we bring demolitions! We don't limit the demolitions man to a special class, we equip for the job. I think SWAT4's split of grenades, breaching, and protective gear is the right style but the devs chose to divide it wrongly in terms of a Tactical FPS. But for simulation of Police SWAT environment, quite well since there are less, uhh... Fun toys to play with in most police departments >_>.
Graphics and Performance:
An Intel or AMD chip with performance comparable to a Pentium 4 in the 2.0-2.2 Ghz range, 768MB, and a 256MB Graphics card supporting OpenGL or DX9 decently would be an ideal minimal spec IMHO.
If you have a super gaming rig, you should get what you paid for within reason. If you only have a common gaming rig, you should at least be able to play the game smoothly with lower graphics. Games should look as *nice* as you can make them on your hardware but you shouldn't need a $300 graphics card and double your RAM just to play.
Hell, a good make of GeForce 6800 is dirt cheap now and one of the best graphics cards of it's generation.
Communication Functions:
Text chat, V-Commands, and Text Macros.
Text chat is the lowest common denominator of the internet, and most games require a keyboard and mouse to use properly ^_^. Pre recorded Voice Commands like that used in MOHAA, RvS, SWAT3, SWAT4, BF2, and such are great. The only problem is game developers almost never choose decent stuff and many gamers never bother to use them.
V-Commands should be a quick pop up menu and issued through keystroke OR mouse gesture and drop a HUD or on screen indicator that says WHO, WHAT, and WHERE. Like in SWAT4, you can see a marker of WHO issued the V-Command, you can hear the WHAT part, and when orders are given you can see the WHERE part marked on screen.
In game VoIP has always been a pile of shit, no matter what game that has implemented it, it has ALWAYS been shit. Striking a deal with the TeamSpeak or Ventrillo people for a dream-team setup that allows the game to auto-join certain servers/channels from in game or when just joining the a given team on the server.
I've always liked TeamSpeak because its channel commander feature offers a lot for serious team gaming.
The ability to record text macros in game, without having to use keybinds like in Unreal 2 games, I think is something every FPS should do. SWAT3 is one game that really got it right, text + sound bites. Although, being able to open your configuration data in a text editor and adjust things to taste is, like the hugest perk ever created.
User account and Points / Rewards system:
Having any kind of spend your life playing this game and racking up kill points, and we will reward you with unlocks. Is just a crock full of shit, it's a marketing gimmick to make you play the game longer and an excuse to sell you expansion packs that add features that, often in my experience -- should have been there in the first place. Or freely able to be made by a modding community.
Game Mods:
SWAT3 was perfect, download ZIP file, copy ZIP file to folder, flick the on/off switches for what mods you wanted to play. Launch game, and play. The mods you had on got used when hosting the game but when joining OTHER peoples games, WITHOUT RESTARTING. The game would load the required mods for joining other peoples games, as long as you had them installed.
That is the way it should be, having to restart the game to swap mods or worse, having to use a conversion utility (e.g. MW4:Mercs) are just piles of crap, unless of course. You want to appear to be a company that would rather lock people into buying expansion packs or sequles that your not obligated to make, rather then letting people extend what hopefully is a decent game, and make it better!
User Accounts and Anti-Cheat:
The games got to have some way of ID'ing users uniquely, PB generally does a decent enough job of it. While I don't care much for PB, and in fact have never had much use for it as anti-cheat (aside from the spying part). It does do one good thing.
It helps enforce server policy.
Level Design:
Missions need multiple ways of completing it, unless the game is a "quickie" that you'll play once and then chuck on a CD-Rack, which means there is no point in paying more then ~20 bucks for it.
Problems should be approachable from many different angles, there should be multiple paths available on most missions. Objective and enemy placement should be able to be randomized, one of the greatest things of early SWAT3 was that the missions placed some "mission" specifics in a normal set of spawn points, then placed other stuff in more random locations. No playing from memory, you know X, Y, and Z are choke points, you know hostages may be on Level 2, but only the machine knows what you will find in between ^_^.
HUD:
A customizable hud, the ability o change colors and whats on it works best.
The ability to have a small tactical map or SAI like element is ideal. Having helmet cameras and UAV feeds available and the ability to reorganize the HUD and toggle cams on/off based on position in the team -- is even more fun ;-)
Cross hairs should be used but be able to be disabled (I for one prefer no cross hairs on my HUD, unless I've got grenades). Iron sights and scopes should work on every weapon available but allow for proper shooting. In CQB, you don't aim with the sights for every shot, learn how to use the weapon.
When it comes to ammo counts, I think the traditional rounds in the magazine counter is nice, although not really necessary once you get used to how the game tunes the rates of fire. What is important is knowing how much ammo you have left. I love how SWAT4 implements it, you know how many rounds are in your current magazine. You can see how many magazines you have on the HUD and how "relatively" full they are. Magazine based ammo tracking is much more accurate the the old NNN total rounds remaining ammo counter anyway.
I think moving some features that would really improve the value of a HUD, into a separate "PDA" screen would be useful. B ecause then one could really stretch things to realistic limits, targeting people like Robocop or a T-800 are a bit futher off for most troops in the 21st Century.
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