=VG= SemlerPDX

I just installed the PR Update on the server, and restarted mumble.... My time is limited, I need to know soon if Mumble is working correctly and if the server is updated properly. Please test & reply

Server restarted to last autosave

We do not "process" new members, we play with them for a long period of time, sometimes for up to a year or more, and if it is felt that the member would be a good fit in VETERANS-GAMING, a VG Clan Member will choose to sponsor the member for a vote. Again, we are not a "clan" clan, and we do not hand out clan tags often. When someone seems like a good fit, they get asked by a VG Clan Member, that is all. To be honest, I don't know you - and many VG Members here do not know you - but we know "of" you and see you playing on the PR COOP server here and there. Most people who become Clan Members are well known by many VG Members on a personal level, and are well known to the rest of the community as well, having made a positive name for themselves and having made many friends, and many of these people, coming from the PR Server, have also proven themselves already by being in-game Admins on the server. Being part of a "community" clan is more than donning the tags, it's an acceptance to the core crew, a sign of proven responsibility and an acceptable level of maturity. Patience is a virtue. Thanks again for your interest and see you around!

Thank you for your interest in joining VG. We are slow to recruit new members to be sure players are a good match with the rest of the =VG= members, and share the same values of maturity and the VG COOP Spirit in our games. Much of the discussion of new members and in-game admins happens in the background here in locked forums, and a common question that comes up is "Did you ask that person if they were even interested in joining?". It is good to know that you are interested, as it eliminates any guess work in that respect. It's the first step in the process... but the next step is out of your hands, as a VG Member would need to sponsor your membership as a vote in our locked admin forums - please do not request a VG Member to sponsor your membership, this is a decision they get to make on their own. What I can tell you now is to just keep playing and hanging out with the community. We have no problem with players remaining as players, and =VG= tags award you no additional privileges in our games, so please continue to enjoy your time on our servers. If a VG Member decides to sponsor your membership in the future, they will let you know. Have fun, be cool, and thanks again for your interest!!

Wow!! Cool tactic!

Sadly, I will be out of town that day, like way out of town - out of state. Looking forward to pics and videos! Have a great event!!

Best of luck to you! Just FYI, video editing and production is far more taxing on a PC/CPU than any 13 year old game. And raw FRAPS video clips from in-game would be Gigabytes in size, not easy to transfer - other recording software may produce smaller files that can be transferred from one another easier but you're still better off getting the shots you need yourself, or participating in a recording session where you can direct your actors and get their footage afterwards. I did something similar for the VETERANS-GAMING Insurgency for Arma 2 music video. But again, it's all about the computer you use for that 3-6 minute video and what you use to render it, and an old laptop will certainly have it's work cut out for it. That sucker will be rendering the final product for literal days. Not sure what you're using for a video suite, but After Affects and Sony Vegas are plenty easy to use on most computers, but when it gets to the clip preview renderings, you're limited by your RAM for dynamic previews, and by your CPU and HDD/SSD throughput. When you go to select music, be sure you're getting versions of it that are allowed to be used in videos (though they may monetize your video) and make sure you annotate in the description for any songs used - the ones that have automatic takedown recognition can cause your video to get pulled from YouTube with a strike against your account (3 strikes and you're done). Again, good luck to you! I can appreciate the amount of work involved in producing a good video!

lol! Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. At least the acronym doesn't have more syllables than the phrase... like GSW (gunshot wound) it would be easier to copy the link to this page and Ctrl V it to a notepad doc - the pic's won't transfer, or the tables or formatting. It's HTML.

The more we use this sort of stuff, the more fun and easy it will be to communicate - but just try not to be too forceful on casual players cuz we do still have a bit of fun in our games. Just that it's helpful when required to know proper protocols ahead of time. You don't read a survival manual after you're stranded - and you can't teach a drowning man to swim.

http://i.imgur.com/EeMKDX3.png The Community of VETERANS-GAMING VETERANS-GAMING was founded by retired Marine Staff Sergeant BLuDKLoT and though we are not a veterans-only community, we do have many veterans from around the world here, and the rest of us are military enthusiasts. We are an international group with members from over 40 countries on 5 continents, and as a whole we speak English as our common language. We are more of a fraternity or community of friends than an average gaming clan, we don't want people joining if they aren't sure what VG does, which consists of merely hanging out and playing games. VG is a home with open doors for casual and mature teamwork oriented gamers. We award Clan Membership tags to anyone who proves themselves to be responsible and have team play spirit and to those that have hung out long enough to be considered part of the wallpaper. We primarily host and play co-operative and player vs. environment game modes against AI "bots" rather than humans, but many of us also play competitive PvP games as well. If people are cool with that, we're proud to have them! We have no problem with players remaining as merely players, and we are slow to recruit players into VG. Some groups push to get as many tag wearing members who are interested in a common theme as they can. VG is more about quality over quantity. People who become VG are fairly well vetted over time, and more worthy of trust and responsibility than the average online gamer who gets their tags after a week and a handshake. We've been around for a decade now, and we'll be around for more years to come. VG Brotherhood Like a group of brothers, active VG Clan Members are familiar with each other or at least the names they see often in TS3, on the website and in games - we are many. Though not every VG member knows every other member and even if certain "brothers" play different games, or don't know each other as well, or even do not get along as well as others, each one can count on the other when it is important because we all have that common COOP Gaming spirit and value that Golden Rule: "treat others as you'd have them treat you" - which can easily be translated for VG into "Don't be a dick!" - a common sense term applicable to many rules which we must spell out for those lacking in common sense. We value our players just as much as our own VG Clan Members; if you are here, you're part of the community, and welcome to get on board and participate as community members in all Public VG activities. The Round Table of VG Our forum reputation and ranking system can help show who is most active and helpful around here, but we have no true ranks; VG Clan is a Round Table - though there are those who have stepped up to even higher responsibility whom we trust to make certain command decisions not suitable for a Clan Vote, and security dictates that we have only a small portion of our group with root accesses to certain areas - in the end, we are all equals here, even among our public players, with a common goal to have a cool place to hang out and call home while gaming. Although there are times when command decisions must be made for the benefit of the entire group, we don't pull rank on each other or even public players and all rules apply to us Clan Members just as much as everyone else. VG Clan Members must maintain the standard spirit of our own rules ("Don't be a Dick!") when playing on any server anywhere - we represent our community online, and are ambassadors of friendly team-play who value fair play and camaraderie overall. VG Community Participation and Support VG Clan Members and active community members check the website often, and try to participate in discussions on the forums as appropriate to maintain an active presence among our peers, but we will not force people to be active in events, the website, TS3, or any game server. We all get busy with life at times, and our individual absences will not be held against us if we become inactive. Our level of appreciation, support, activity, and commitment to VETERANS-GAMING is up to us. Some members are able to show their support by donating to help cover our community bills (currently $4.10/day US) and others help out by taking an active administrative role on our website or one of the game servers we run, and yet others just show their support by playing on our servers when they can and helping to spread the love of VG Gaming. We value all levels of support, and appreciate anything our members are able to do at VG even if it's just being part of the wallpaper! We have a great website here and a VG Facebook and Twitter for those who use those sites. We welcome posts, military gaming links, screenshots and videos, and even just general discussions - if we want to help grow the community, the active posting and social networking is a helpful tool we can use if we wish. VG Server Administration When we administrate a server, we do so by giving players the benefit of the doubt while also sticking to our convictions regarding the well being of the server, and we adhere to the spirit of our server rules as much as, or sometimes more than, the letter of our server rules. Every public player is a potential friend, admin, or even clan member in the future, and should be treated kindly and welcomed including such times as they must be spoken to regarding a rule violation. At that time, we must use our best judgement with a primary goal to correct their behavior which sometimes must include punishment for their actions - there are clearly times when immediate and swift harsh actions are required, but as VG Clan Members and ambassadors to the public, we must also gauge when it is possible to encourage and teach better attitudes for public gaming to the players and each other in hopes to further support and define the VG style of gaming: Organized yet casual fun with respect for others and the rules of the game. Be Cool, Have Fun, and Game On! Long Live VG! "This is the oath of a Knight of King Arthur's Round Table and should be for all of us to take to heart. I will develop my life for the greater good. I will place character above riches, and concern for others above personal wealth, I will never boast, but cherish humility instead, I will speak the truth at all times, and forever keep my word, I will defend those who cannot defend themselves, I will honor and respect women, and refute sexism in all its guises, I will uphold justice by being fair to all, I will be faithful in love and loyal in friendship, I will abhor scandals and gossip-neither partake nor delight in them, I will be generous to the poor and to those who need help, I will forgive when asked, that my own mistakes will be forgiven, I will live my life with courtesy and honor from this day forward." -- King Arthur, from the book Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table

^^ I still haven't gone through the forums for archive and locking/unpinning/unfeaturing as you suggested, @=VG= Double_13... it's a daunting task. So, feel free to do so if you ever wish, for any area of the forums - and if you are unsure if something is worthy to remain unlocked or remain pinned, just shoot a link to the topic to me and I'll have a look. But, of course, I will do what I can soon to chip away at the task of locking archives, unpinning dead subjects, or unfeaturing less-than-current events. Regarding this topic - Is this still a relevant protocol? Does TEDF still require this? Get us a ruling and we'll lock and strike TEDF's text at the top and archive it as appropriate.

We have indeed discussed that - and sadly it is not possible to code a variable bot spawing force, or any such automated system that can vary with player numbers. What we can do, and what still requires a bit of work to even make possible, is to make a more easier maplist setup that must be MANUALLY initiated by a PR Admin with TCAdmin Panel access to the server. In this way, a custom set could be put on a time schedule as well - only problem is that if for some reason, the number went up, they'd be steamrolling the AI like they were a sack of soggy shit until the server setup was reverted to the DEFAULT maplist/config parameters. Now, I've coded a few buttons for the PR Admins, and for now they swap 2 files if needed (a config and a maplist) but I noticed that TEDF needed to adjust something else for this EVENT -- so if another file or set of files needs to be included for a "LOW POPULATION MAP ROTATION" server setup, I can make that part of the function. But again, there is a bit of work and testing to see if this all works as intended, and if we can actually use a "LOW POP" server function button that will make Off Hours more entertaining to that smaller crowd, or if we can even slap something like that on a automated schedule so it's hands off (players would just experience a server crash, but return to the server list and see VG COOP back almost instantly). Us =VG= guys are and will be discussing this very thing in more detail very soon. It's something I very much want to implement if we can, and if it tests out to work just fine, which is yet to be proven. It's all theory and assumption right now, even though I did the coding for such actions already as a sort of "proof of concept".

...hmmm My opinion is not quite so valid as the others, as I am a noob again from years of no PR -- BUT coming from someone who retired with more than 3,000 hours logged, I can say that it was a great team effort and everyone seemed to enjoy playing and trying to fight as a group. That said, also with the understanding that this was one chapter of a larger story, I found it difficult to discern if we were supposed to have a snowball's chance in hell of doing anything when we knew for a fact that each time, some PR player with GUARANTEED more time than I have in this game lately spawned in and "started the bot advance". When we know there are tools we can use, but the logistics of the game itself prevent us from using those tools (such as a FOB and/or a Stinger emplacement, or any such defensive buildups) at a base that seems to be a maze to most players (read: unfamiliar map), it is very difficult to know if the game went awry or if it's playing out as it's supposed to and it's just a digital recreation of the fight for the Alamo. When we fight with AI on that difficulty level on such wooded map scenarios, it feels like it's weighted so much against us, it was equally difficult to tell if we were just getting steamrolled due to lack of action on our part or just because the game was not balanced as the mission designer intended, and moreso confusing knowing that human players were actively delivering extreme offenses on any lines we managed to set up. Again, I'm new to this, and my opinions are more of an outside perspective than those who play PR regularly, so don't mind my confusion about whether we were playing the game as it was intended or if things had just gone completely sideways due to simple AI spawning logistic facts that require us to "DON'T SPAWN IN! DON'T SPAWN IN!!" .... "Oh, sorry guys - I spawned in" .... on... EVERY... SINGLE.... MAP!!!!!! Also, and FatAbert brought this up more than once -- and maybe I saw more if it cuz I was a medic and they were popular players to gather around when you get your ass shot off every other minute, and also the fact that I'm newer myself and will be very slow to react, slow to get a kit item in my hands, and unfamiliar with the ability to push other people around when you're trying to just move next to the other medic who's busy... BUT... Don't bunch up like a JV Soccer team!! Spread the hell out - no more than 2 squad members within spitting distance of each other, and one medic should stay within earshot of the SL at all times. I was a bad medic; but the other "good" medic(s) were having a tough time with the multiple casualties in one pile that could have been avoided by spreading out a little bit more. Last edit, I promise: Finally, HaterOneActual just posted a great Comms Protocol guide with excellent suggestions and tips we should all review because Comms were nuts, cross comms between squads on direct was even worse. We can all do a little better on that front with a few exceptions, and they know who they are - the ones biting their tongues from not yelling at others to shut up for one goddamn minute while the SL talks with the other SL's and the Commander. All that aside, I had a great time and look forward to the next event! (Hopefully not another no-win scenario) Thank you TEDF, Double_13, PBASydney, and anyone else who worked to make this event!

Excellent comms guide and tips!! Thank you, Hater! We gotta keep it short, sweet, and clear on comms --- we get to joking around on the mics in games which is just fine, but know when it's time to snap back into Operator mode and clear the comms when asked. For the Viper Pilots here, in Falcon BMS, we get squelch when someone tries to transmit while another is already transmitting on the same radio - in this example, a "BREAK, BREAK" should be simulated by two separate bursts of squelch (press COMMS HAT Forward or Back two times on the UHF or VHF radio respectively). On VG BMS Server, If you hear two sounds in a row like this, drop comms (release transmit) to allow for the other transmission. It could be far more important AND time sensitive!

I'll be there - probably as a medic in some squad, or grenadier.

Just one more point on the Dev subject of COOP: COOP would already be dead, it was slated to be dropped on full release, and Melon saved it. They had no interest in doing the navmesh work required for the maps. It is NOT a primary focus of the PR Dev team in any way. The work we do here to make it popular, and the development work Melon and others do are essential to keep PR COOP alive, or it very well could be forgotten and dropped in future releases.

^^Very, very good explanation, FastJack!! That really explains a lot, and why it is so difficult to get these "AI" bots to behave in an intelligent manner. Maps look beautiful for a game of this age, but to see them in the way that the bots see them is very revealing.

First, no effort - and secondly, using my method, it would take less than 3 seconds to copy paste the settings. I already had to make several TCAdmin buttons for what will be the VG ARK Survival Evolved server, and it would be no effort to slightly modify the code to work on PR files (more like simply changing the file path in the code). Already modifying it for the Minecraft server for auto world backup. Different settings config with different name would be required, and that's part of the functionality - also custom command lines would be part of the swap. New changes to configs that are tested, and minor tweaks are just what you are doing now. Restarting the server with a different tested config will not make the server unstable. That would be the result of a poor choice in a config, not the ability to restart PR in a different configuration with the touch of a button vs. manually swapping files / copy paste or service settings edit. As far as bug reports and these changes you have been making, a public announcement and details to the specific changes would help - not as a discussion thread, but as a sticky post that can be updated and referred to for info. These are some rather sizable changes, a change log would be appreciated by many. Restart was implied in all ways, of course. And with regards to what Double wrote, yes, there could be a trigger that swaps out a maplist or config upon server start/restart so long as it is manually performed in TCAdmin - when the server crashes, I doubt it fixes itself and restarts to Mutrah, so there is a man-in-the-loop at the stage of a crash, and that man can have a host of custom actions that you decide, if you want. It is no effort to code, it's more just batch scripting anyway, and it would give you some next level config options for the already unique VG PR COOP Server. Think of each setup as a set of files (config, maplist, etc) that all have their own different folders with the name you choose - they sit in that custom folder, and if you edit them, these are what you edit. The ACTUAL working versions that PR sees are in their correct places, when they swap, the ACTUAL ones move to a dump folder (and then dump deletes the next to last file) and then your Custom Configs/Maplists/Etc. get copied from their special folders to the ACTUAL file places. FolderTEDFsetup1: maplist config FolderTEDFsetup2Mutrah247: maplist config FolderTEDFevent1: maplist config All of those could be on buttons - just examples - you never touch the ones in actual PR folders, just a swap button in TCA that puts those where PR will read them - then start/restart PR. Done. Just let me know.

@=VG= TEDF if you could use the tool, I can create a button for TCAdmin that can swap out the maplist for a different rotation. This also could be set on a schedule so that known down times could have a maplist rotation that is more feasible on a low pop server. I could even make a button in TCAdmin that swaps out a config for a different variant, again either manually pressed, or on a schedule. This could alter the game for Low-Pop times and revert itself when it nears High Pop times (or you admins could manually do this by pressing said custom TCA button). This is the sort of code-fu that I am very good at, let me know if you could use some "swap" tool buttons in your TCA panel for PR.

It takes over 4 minutes to dig a FOB?! Or is the point that it's faster with more than two people? Is this same as with Deployment or is it less/more? This could change the whole dynamic of placing a FOB, and their use and implementation in COOP, which could be a very good thing for more tactical gameplay - placement would need to be more well thought out, and the accomplishment of placing one is more of an achievement in and of itself, requiring and rewarding teamwork.

You want feedback, it is a good thing. Do what you can to help make the game fun and more involving, but do so with respects to the server running with different sized populations - I was also an "off times" player when I was big in PR, and it was a big challenge - because if you favor one group on the server with your changes (peak time players when server is fullest) you risk losing a portion of your player base and server popularity. This is not Deployment, it's COOP, and fun changes that help are great, but beware that stressing too many Deployment rules could make it less of a casual version of PR; vehicle respawn times is a good example where it's best at 5 minutes for COOP and 20 for Deployment, and altering it would change the nature of the game. Just because you don't see certain groups (those who play during non-peak times) doesn't mean they aren't dedicated VG PR COOP Players. Be careful what tools you remove - and test your changes, if something needs a day or two to feel out, fine - but be sure you pay attention to all the constructive feedback and don't mistake all of it as merely an "aversion to change".