Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Custom Arenas => Topic started by: bbosen on August 19, 2011, 09:47:42 AM
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I'm glad to see the Custom Arena option, and I have high hopes for it. But there isn't much activity there yet. I can't get it to work for me because I want to set up a historically based scenario, requiring a lot of customization, and all of my customization is always lost after each session, requiring a lot of new setup each time. I just can't invest that much. I've tried everything I can think of to get it to work with the Coral Sea and Guadalcanal terrains, and I get different symptoms on each map, but after exhaustive attempts I'm giving up on those two maps. Maybe I'll find time to try another.... Many thanks to ImaDot and others for painstakingly explaining what they have found to work on other maps. I think if we stick to this and document what works and what doesn't, we can be of assistance to HTC getting all of the little bugs out.
I would still like to be proven wrong on this: Has ANYBODY been able to save and re-use airfield and plane setups with Coral Sea or Guadalcanal maps?
:salute
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Unfortunately, there are many 'events' terrains which have been specifically designed for scenarios/events and may not be able to use custom setups due to conflicts with the setups trying to be used.
It really does not surprise me there are issues with events related terrains and the custom arenas.
The special events team, historically, has been allowed to deviate from the norm, in terrain design, in order to meet event criteria. This has lead to those terrains not being able to be used in any normal arena configuration without previous knowledge of the differences in the terrain design.
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I try to put as much info as I can for the Special Events terrain over at the AHWiki, such as custom objects, re skinned planes and vehicles and the likes.
I will try to get this type of info added to the ones that are not using the normal design specs, such as no resupply strat and such.
:salute
midi
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Thanks for the information. I will continue to explore available maps to see if I can find any to my liking that permit saving and recalling setups. I'm specifically looking for something with a geographically accurate representation of the Pacific air war. If I am successful I will definitely post detailed instructions for the benefit of this community, and I appreciate those that have already done so with other maps.
:salute
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In the PTO area I can think of a couple right off hand that should work for you.
Luzon, Mindan09, New Britain I believe are all default.
:salute
midi
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Thanks. I'll give them a try. I just tried mndnao and had NO luck. Does that surprise you?
...incidentally, with mndnao, I couldn't even control aircraft availability offline. I deleted all of the bf109 series planes offline, and associated "mndnao" files were created as expected, but when I returned to that same mndnao offline map moments later, the bf109 series planes were still there. To me, this seems more serious than just a quirk of individual maps. But I will continue working this over....
:salute
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...One hour later....
Update: I just struggled for nearly an hour with mndan09. No go. I can't say I tried ALL of the permutations and combinations of options, file names, and file locations, but I certainly tried all of the obvious ones, and I NEVER saw any online option to load any of the arena tables files. I may be going crazy, but NONE* of the maps have worked for me. I've found I can make changes offline (on at least some maps) by storing copies of the changed files that are now generated in the chconfig folder with "standard" names (like the old method). But nothing I've tried has allowed me to load those files online, whether I try it from the initial, obvious-looking option when the arena is created, or later on, from the less-than-obvious method that's buried deep in the clipbook menu structure under "Arena Tables".
:cry
* Maps I've tried: Coral Sea, guadalc, mndnao, mndano9
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Not sure the process your using.
I just did this for the mindan09 terrain and every thing worked properly.
First if you have a mindan09 sub folder in your chconfig folder delete it first.
Then start up AH and choose the mindan09 terrain and load it off line.
In the text buffer type .dplane 0 0 *this will dissable all planes at all fields"
Then go to optons-cmtools-arena tables and click on the "Create New" that appears in the list.
Click on the fields/planes button and set all your planes you want for each field.
Then click on OK.
Then click on the arena variables button and set all your settings you want and click OK
Once those are done type in a name for your tables that's unique (not the same name as the terrain) something like mymin.
Then click OK or save can't remember what it is.
Now quit the off line and go to on line and create a custom arena and select the mindan09 terrain and leave the tables section at default.
Once your arena is up you can go to the hanger and notice that all the planes are enabled.
Now go to options-cmtools-arena tables you should see your mymin in the list box, highlight it and select upload.
You should see it uploading the fields, planes, and variables. Once this is done all your settings you made off line should be there.
:salute
midi
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One other thing. In the past I've noticed that even after you have loaded your tables, they sometimes do not seem to have "set" correctly,
What I do as a matter of course is once I've loaded tables, I go to options-arena setup-environment-country reset. I will then rotate countries and hit reset and then go back to the original order and reset again.
This seems to make the settings "catch" so to speak.
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One other thing. In the past I've noticed that even after you have loaded your tables, they sometimes do not seem to have "set" correctly,
What I do as a matter of course is once I've loaded tables, I go to options-arena setup-environment-country reset. I will then rotate countries and hit reset and then go back to the original order and reset again.
This seems to make the settings "catch" so to speak.
yeah nothing seems to save pain setting arena up each time
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Not sure the process your using.
I just did this for the mindan09 terrain and every thing worked properly.
{snip}
:salute
midi
Thanks mrmidi and all others that have attempted to help me. It still won't work for me. I tried to follow your detailed instructions exactly [thank you very much] but it STILL refused to display the option to load my customization files. Fortunately, I had my video recorder running throughout my attempt, and I ended up with a narrated video history of EXACTLY what I did, leading to the failure. It's 7 minutes long, and I hope somebody that has been successful will watch it and tell me where I'm deviating. Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHKhUEk831g
:salute
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Thanks mrmidi and all others that have attempted to help me. It still won't work for me. I tried to follow your detailed instructions exactly [thank you very much] but it STILL refused to display the option to load my customization files. Fortunately, I had my video recorder running throughout my attempt, and I ended up with a narrated video history of EXACTLY what I did, leading to the failure. It's 7 minutes long, and I hope somebody that has been successful will watch it and tell me where I'm deviating. Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHKhUEk831g
:salute
Watching your video right now.
Not sure you typed the dplane correctly the narration sounds as if you forgot a space and can't quite make the text in the buffer.
It is " .dplane<space>0<space>0 " without the quotes, brackets and word space of course.
continuing to watch now.
Edit: ok looks like I missed explaining a few steps in the fields and planes instructions :huh sorry I'll get more detailed instructions for you here shortly.
Now back to our scheduled movie
:salute
midi
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Thanks mrmidi and all others that have attempted to help me. It still won't work for me. I tried to follow your detailed instructions exactly [thank you very much] but it STILL refused to display the option to load my customization files. Fortunately, I had my video recorder running throughout my attempt, and I ended up with a narrated video history of EXACTLY what I did, leading to the failure. It's 7 minutes long, and I hope somebody that has been successful will watch it and tell me where I'm deviating. Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHKhUEk831g
:salute
Allright, first of all try it with standard characters, name your table something like bosen1, Once you save it it should immediately appear in the list to the left under <Add New>, If it doesn't immediately appear it won't appear later.
Once you have done that and can see the table listed offline then go ahead go online as you did before, and do the same process you did before.
If the first time you try to upload the table, if it doesn't work, try it again, you should see it start uploading like this screenshot:
(http://i1193.photobucket.com/albums/aa358/JG3Udet/bosen.png)
It will take a while to upload.
Once it is finished uploading then you may need to do the country reset thing to make it "set" right
As far as enabling planes you need to do more than just highlite the selection.
Say you want the Spit 1 enabled for bishops at all airfields, you need to select Air at the top left, you need to un check Rook and Knight, select the plane and then select enable at all fields. The spit will then be enabled for bish only at all fields of the category listed at top left.
Let's say you wanted to enable the spit at only A1 for bishops, highlite A1, and the plane selection as shown in the image, uncheck knight and rook and select enable plane in the center section.
(http://i1193.photobucket.com/albums/aa358/JG3Udet/bosenplanes.png)
I know it's frustrating but don't worry, we will get it figured out.
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i do have coral sea in my private room, it's been saved for awhile and always loads properly, just follow jimisons advice he's spot on.
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Ok finally managed to create a video of the process.
First one I ever put on Youtube.
here ya go hope it helps some one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79tdqY2Mctc
:salute
midi
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Thanks mrmidi. Your video was clear, and very helpful. It ALMOST solved my problem. Close, but no cigar.
I used the CoralSea map, since somebody here had commented that it worked for them, and its geography suits my needs pretty well.
I was able to follow your clear instructions precisely, and everything that you described worked as you described. However, I need to make a lot of airfield/country ownership changes, and NONE of those changes were seen online. Offline, the changes are immediately activated exactly as one would expect. Online, the "arena tables" now upload, plane by plane and field by field exactly as you showed in your training video clip. At the end of that process, plane availability is exactly as I had hoped. Arena flight mode and other similar settings are exactly as I had hoped. But Field ownership is unchanged from the (unsatisfactory) default. I can use the "Country Reset" tool to rotate the knights, bishops, and rooks around within the default strategic situation, but my request to rejigger the boundaries (so that a 2-country conflict centers on Bougainville instead of the jumbled, confused 3-country mishmash that's configured by default) is completely ignored.
So close, and yet so far....
The successful process that you showed in your video was very close to the unsuccessful process I have been using. I realize that when I made my video clip I forgot to click on "ENABLE AT ALL FIELDS" when I made my aircraft availability changes, and so your correction (made in a prior memo of this thread) is entirely correct in that context. However, I really have been making aircraft changes correctly in other situations, so I'm not sure which of the very small differences between your process and mine has resulted in better success for me. Perhaps because I was using 8-character filenames when I saved my arena tables.... I've shortened them, and I'm now having better success. That's my best guess as to why it's better now.
HOWEVER, I'm still wondering if ANYBODY has ever been able to save and retrieve EVERYTHING in a sophisticated custom setup, including customized airfield/country ownership settings????
:salute
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Are you wanting a setup similar to the Coral Sea Scenario?
:salute
midi
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bbosen, I just tried it twice and the country ownership settings are not transferring over for me either.
I tried it with Coral Sea and with Mindan09.
I can confirm that it used to work in AvA before the update, I have not had cause to try it in AvA since the update, but it is definitely not working for me in the custom arenas either.
One thing that may help you to quickly change field ownership online is the dot command if you don't already know it.
.sfield<space>field number<space>country number<space> repeat country number.
Default country numbers are Bish=1 Knight=2 Rook=3
To change field A-5 to knights would look like this: .sfield 5 2 2, that will change it's status as both original and current country to knight.
Us AvA guys may upload custom tables even more often than the SEA guys, if I'm not mistaken, they do most of their set up work online.
I would be surprised to learn that custom field ownership transfer is working for anyone.
Midi would you be able to try it and see if it works for you?
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I will look at this today. I'll start with the ndisles terrain since it is a default terrain, and then with one of the sea terrains.
:salute
midi
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Yep it looks like setting field ownership up off line first will not transfer to the custom arenas.
I tried this several times and ways with no success.
:salute
midi
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I've tried it on mindan09, Coral Sea and ndisles with no success.
It is apparently unrelated to specific terrains and simply does not work at all.
Now that we've narrowed this problem down to something specific, perhaps HTC can fix it.
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Thanks guys!
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Has anyone in the CM group ever tried to do a timed macro setup.
In other words, a macro that maps all of the necessary (possible) direct text buffer dot commands that runs in a continuous manner that by simply enabling or starting the macro would then initiate a series of generated key strokes on a line by line basis to set up the arena?
Such a macro manager generator could even effect the destruction of objects and rehabilitation of them such as the ships guns in Coral, as well as wind...which we all know is not store-able in any manner other than via this third party technique.
Thus a user could dispense with tables altogether, and starting with a blank slate default map, initiate the macro and then just sit back and wait for the macro to run its course. Under such a situation, the user would save a macro file instead of the FLD, PLN, VAR and DOD files.
Once the user was in game, he would simply invoke the buffer and set it to receive (blinking input text indicator), cram a button and wait.
An example:
macro output > game input > ".det f42shp 1" + return + (delay .5)
macro output > game input > ".det f43shp 1" + return + (delay .5)
macro output > game input > ".det f44shp 1" + return + (delay .5)
macro output > game input > ".det f45shp 1" + return + (delay .5)
macro output > game input > ".det f32baa 1" + return + (delay .5)
macro output > game input > ".det f32bat 1" + return + (delay .5)
macro output > game input > ".restore f32baa00c" + return + (delay .5)
macro output > game input > ".restore f32baa00d" + return + (delay .5)
macro output > game input > ".restore f32baa00e" + return + (delay .5)
It is an idea that has intrigued me for quite some time given the ponderous nature of setting the tables manually, as well as the problematic nature of using tables with the remote servers.
Just a thought and it would certainly be an interesting project to actually code.
Programmatic generated keystrokes are child's play, and the biggest hurdle would be the creation and maintenance of a user interface that dovetails with the games settings (flags, long vals, int vals, bool vals, string vals) etc Such a program would simply ignore any values that were default values and run just the script necessary to effect changes.
The delay value for each line of output input could be adjusted to suit the users connection speed to the host server
Further macro templates could be saved and recalled to accommodate the fact that so often settings for special events repeat themselves. Thus a user could start with standard template, that deviates from default, and make the few adjustments necessary to bring about the final template required for the frame or event.
A macro based system completely does an end around the fact DOD files cannot be uploaded via the Tables, Objects destroyed and Wind layers cannot be recalled either offline or online, and would eliminate the manual dot commands and/or menu interactions to effect such changes
Salute
Oneway
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While looking into this I discovered a few bugs in the system - specially with fields. It's already fixed and will be in the next release.
You will be able to select an arena configuration right off the Custom Arena dialog without it crashing or other funky things so you shouldn't need to visit the 'Arena Tables' dialog at all.
I'll talk to HiTech about revisiting the user interface to make things easier to navigate. But with the configuration selection working on the initial creation, most players won't even need to get to the config stuff.
- Sudz
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:aok
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Thank You Midi for that You Tube videolesson, it was simple and clear! :salute
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Nice work guys....just struggled for an hour or so trying to make changes stick.....should have watched the vids first LOL
<<S>>
Klam
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Cool! Looks like it's time to start pumping out custom terrains, again. :D
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I've tried it on mindan09, Coral Sea and ndisles with no success.
It is apparently unrelated to specific terrains and simply does not work at all.
Now that we've narrowed this problem down to something specific, perhaps HTC can fix it.
So I see that a new version of Aces High was published in mid-October 2011. Did this problem get fixed?
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Looks like some things got fixed but haven't tried it yet.
Version 2.25 Patch 0 Changes
Please note that there is an updated hi-res texture pack that you will need to download if you are running 1024 or greater texture size.
Added the P-40F and P-40N. Thanks to cactuscooler for the skins.
Added the Panzer IV F and updated the Panzer IV H. Thanks to Greebo for these skins.
Added the M-18 Hellcat.
Completely revised P-40 flight modeling from the ground up. Changed the P-40B designation to a P-40C.
Changed the muzzle flash on tank guns to emit smoke.
Fixed a low level collision test that could return incorrect results in certain situations.
Fixed a bug that could cause icon or text colors to not display correctly on systems with low end video chips.
Fixed a bug that caused arena tables with longer names to not appear on the upload table list.
Fixed a crash bug that happened when spawning a custom arena with custom settings.
Fixed an issue with the Tiger 2 that allowed it to be easily damaged from the inside.
Changed it so that if the barrel of a weapon is sticking into an object, it will no longer fire.
Many missing in-plane sounds (stall horn, wind, airframe stress, etc) now play in the film viewer. Note that they will only be present in new films.
Ground vehicles films now record gunsight and turret information along with other general improvements in this area.
Film viewer now saves the window size between sessions.
Fixed some potential plane performance issues that could occur above the normal service ceiling.
Updated canopy frames on the P-51s and Spitfires to 3D shapes.
Fixed a gear shadow issue on the B5N.
Calibrated the TBM's 10K mark on the altimeter.
Added the following new CM commands that are used for change cloud patterns:
.ulweath FILENAME - uploads a cloud file (.AWA) from your \aces high\chconfig\(terrain name) folder. Note that this function is only available to CMs at this time and not custom hosts. We're still working on other improvements in this area.
.dweath - Displays all available cloud patterns for the current terrain.
.sweath FILENAME - Sets the arena to use the specified cloud file.