Happy Halloween!

Last night, I finally released a major update for my Addon-Free Arma Radio script - version 0.96 - which reintroduces distance as a factor when communicating with friendlies via in-game VOIP. (On all channels except Vehicle and Direct)

Radio ranges are 3500 meters for Group and Side, 8000 meters for Command and the custom "Air" (Or whatever you rename it to) channel. This means that if a player is not within radio range, they will not be able to hear you or radio noise/squelches!

New Screenshots

• Screenshot - New Radio Interface
  
• Screenshot - PushToTalk Radio Pop-up
  
• Screenshot - PushToTalk Character Animation
  
• Screenshot - Arma Radio Instructions Manual

Two months shy of 4 years, it was finally made possible to reach the true intended vision of AFAR thanks to two script commands introduced to Arma 3 (In version 2.00) by Dedmen. With help from the community "upvoting" my feature request ticket, it gained his attention and Dedmen reached out to me personally to verify what I wanted; a command which locally adjusts a player's VOIP volume. And now it's here!

It took a few months for it to get approved by Bohemia Interactive, but luckily it made it into 2.00, rather than a later Arma update. Big thanks to BI for actually making it a priority! We only get so much per update nowadays, so I am thankful for the addition. Now, we're on our way to the end of the tunnel for AFAR -- the phase where it will finally become feature-complete and bug-free! We're not there yet, but soon...

With that said, you can check it out on the BI forums[forums.bohemia.net] or on the Steam Workshop. I'll begin working on an addon version soon. I'd like to develop a server-side only version, but it may be more feasible to build a version which requires all machines to run the mod. Stay tuned for what ends up happening... I definitely would like to go the server-side route only though.



With my radio script out of the way, I can focus more on updating my other projects. My next project to release an update will be Phronk's Furniture -- it has been completely redesigned, rewritten, and includes so much more. It is literally better in every way than the current released version and I'm happy to say it's almost ready to come back in a big way!

One of the secrets I've been hiding behind is I had also taken a lot of time to write a civilian ambience system that accompanies the furniture script -- civilians which don't just walk from point A to point B aimlessly, but also interact with objects in their house and just animate for the hell of it. It adds to the immersion to see a guy sitting on a couch with a TV on in front of him, rather than a guy standing next to the couch. Stupid little nuance details like this is what I enjoy about coding AI. It's not even that sophisticated either, code-wise. But, it did suffer from performance issues and memory leaks. All fixable, mind you, but a tedious task. This means that Phronk's Furniture will, at first, not include civilian ambience, but it will come in the future. Probably a more simplified version of what I described above though, to help with performance.

Here are a bunch of screenshots of some Livonia furniture layouts[imgur.com] that'll be included in the upcoming release.

Normally, I try not to flood this group's announcements with frequent posts, but I figured it is worth mentioning that I've set a goal to update all of my projects within the next couple months or less.

Even though most of my focus has been on AFAR and COINOPS:♥♥♥♥ (Current working title, it might stay), my motivation has led me to updating a lot of code in Combat Realism Scripts, Phronk's Furniture, Simple IED Script, and even Takistan Insurgency. Not to mention, a lot of small/medium sized updates were made internally to all of those projects over the past couple years anyway. The only reason I haven't released public updates is due to bugs or the update not feeling feature-complete enough.

Either way, it's selfish to keep these changes to myself whilst leaving super out-dated buggy ♥♥♥♥ versions to the public. I don't get a sense of accomplishment by leaving them broken, publicly. While the updates will not be as feature-complete as I had anticipated, the code in each project will be less buggy, better for performance, and include some new additions. The updates will be worth trying out, if you used the current available versions.

Here's a rough list of what to expect in each project's update:

• Reintroduction of distance factors; players will need to be within radio range to communicate.
  
• Upgraded radio interface
  
• Optimizations & bug fixes
  
• Other misc. changes...

• Better support for hosting on dedicated server
  
• Easier implementation into your mission(s)
  
• Weapon safety (Experiment, it sucks but it's just for fun)
  
• ♥♥♥♥♥♥ NVG effect (Super early WIP, doesn't take lighting conditions into consideration at all yet)
  
• CQB chemlights (Placeholder proof-of-concept)
  
• Toggle IR strobe on helmet (Placeholder proof-of-concept, it's pretty standard and not impressive by any means)
  
• Breaching Charges (MAYBE... needs to be rewritten)
  
• Rewritten all code
  
• Optimizations & a lot of bug fixes

• Completely rewrote every script and how they work
  
• Giant optimizations FPS-wise, but potentially heavy on scheduler (May need to reduce number of furniture per house)
  
• Basic civilians & behavior (Might not include)
  
• Fully server-side, no need for clients to init the scripts (Can look into making it a server-side mod if script version is reported to work fine)
  
• All houses supported for Altis, Stratis, and Malden. Most houses for Tanoa, some for Livonia. (Livonia and Tanoa are still WIP; I had lost motivation for a while due to scheduler issue but it may be fixed now)
  
• Bug fixes (And optimizations, as stated above)

• Rewrote code to be more "flexible"
  
• Blast fragmentation
  
• Dead animals concealing IED (Experimental proof-of-concept, kinda ♥♥♥♥♥♥)
  
• Blacklisting areas!
  
• Optimizations & a couple bug fixes

• Completely rewrote civilian AI and behavior
  
• Updated code in nearly all scripts
  
• Minor base changes
  
• Optimzations & lots of bug fixes
  
• Other misc. changes and additions...

I may also release additional little side projects I've worked on for fun also, such as a dumb little "futbol" multiplayer mission I made when just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ around. The next announcement I'll be making on this page will be for AFAR once the main branch update releases and adds the new VON script commands so I can finally finish that damn project!


PS: I trimmed down the lists above to make it more straight forward, but there's a lot involved in each project. Check out the threads on this page and review the "Development News" post on each to get an idea of what to really expect.

The dev-branch of Arma 3 has officially introduced the script commands I requested 3+ years ago:

• getPlayerVONVolume[community.bistudio.com]
• setPlayerVONVolume[community.bistudio.com]

These commands will allow me to adjust specific players' microphone volume locally to achieve voices fading in/out as they leave radio range and return into it. It's expected to be in the next official main-branch Arma 3 update, so as soon as it comes out, I'll be working on updating AFAR to reintroduce distance factors and other new features.

Right now, I've been focused on optimizing AFAR as much as I can and fixing minor bugs, so that I can focus entirely on the voice handling when the new update releases. If you want to check on the current change-log (Which I actively update) for AFAR, you can view it here.


As for the other projects like CRS, my new insurgency mission, and others; A lot of progress has been made but nothing exciting to write about. I may do videos on CRS and gauge whether it's even worth releasing.

Version 0.95 is mostly ready for release, just need to test Command and Side channel more to ensure the radio effects are working properly -- and if not, fix them. Now I'm holding off on updating the script because I was notified that the script command I requested 3 years ago is finally scheduled to be included in the next Arma 3 update, however, I haven't seen it in any of the dev-branch change logs so I probably shouldn't hold my breath. If the Arma 3 update comes out and doesn't add the necessary commands, AFAR v0.95 will release shortly after. If the script command is added to the new Arma update, I may focus on reintroducing the distance factors and utilizing the new script command(s).

Beyond that, I'd like to experiment with voices cutting in and out while transmitting and include additional interference variables. Finally, once that's all done, I will look into converting AFAR into a server-side addon or global addon.

Stuck working on bug fixes and tweaking a new feature. Flashbangs work for the most part, but are a little wonky on dedicated servers; it's one of the things holding the update back all this time. Players and AI local to players react to flashbangs appropriately for now though.

A few new features have been added and a lot of code has been rewritten. I've rewritten the weapon attachments code and fixed all known bugs with it, there's a new weapon safety feature which is mostly complete, and few others. More info to come...

With version 0.95 nearing completion, I've shifted my focus to other Arma projects and got a lot of work done. Content is almost playable, but not quite. Still developing back-end systems and got a ton more to go with bringing the world to life, but it is coming a long way. Back-end coding, for me, takes forever because it's boring and tedious as hell to do; I've redesigned and rewritten a certain project at least 4 times now, for efficiency. Efficiency meaning the code and idea is generally more manageable and therefore performs better, plus thinking of new ways to code things to run faster sometimes calls for rewrites from time to time.

A small hint of what I'm doing is a lot of local spawning and code for clients and server. It requires strong micromangement but so far, at least in solo MP tests, has resulted in faster results. May impact those with potato computers, but I cannot cater to that crowd due to the project I'm working on pushing the game's limits as it is.

The only reason I haven't uploaded videos is because it takes nearly a day to do -- my upload speed is somewhere around 10-50kb tops. As I've said in the past, my new home has horrible internet service and it makes it harder to upload anything. More videos will come regardless, eventually.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ it's been 4 months since my last update? Might as well throw one in.

AFAR has been updated and is finally stable, no real known issues. I'm almost done with my first iteration of version 0.95 which adds a soft block to players using mouse button inputs (Forces them to talk in Direct when using any PushToTalk key bound to a mouse button), added an option to allow incapacitated players to talk on radios, and added an Allies channel to allow players on Independent faction to communicate with allies and vice versa. It's a little clunky but there's no better way to do it that I know of, plus you can technically disable the channel if you don't like it. I'm terrible with projecting release dates, so we'll see... it's almost ready for initial testing though. Maybe in a week. Will post the release sometime after when all bugs within my skills are confirmed fixed. This version will be one of the last before it is marked complete. Just waiting on Dedmen / Bohemia Interactive to add my requested script commands[feedback.bistudio.com] so I can be done with this one already.


A lot of progress has been made with CRS but it still suffers from a few bugs. It has come a long way but once it is officially stable and I complete a couple more features, I'll update this pack of scripts. It'll be a huge improvement from my current released version. Plus it actually works properly in MP/Dedi. What're the new features? Check out the thread and look at what's in development.


I had a change of heart again. I'm passionate developing a hardcore "milsim" insurgency mission and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I'm gonna do it. So I've made a lot of progress working on a totally new take on the insurgency gamemode. It's not even the traditional game mode anymore and hasn't been done the way I'm doing it, so that's one of many reasons that'll set it apart from others. There's no sense in me telling you guys about the features it'll have and build hype for no reason, I'd rather present it in a video when it is ready. Those of you who appreciate attention to detail, a real challenge, immersion, an emphasis on teamwork, and enjoy the simulations of a middle eastern conflict will like what I am working on. I keep mentioning this in my Steam page updates because it's a huge project and massive undertaking to code alone. Not asking for help, just keeping you all informed on what I am working on.

What about the traditional casual version? My original intention was to do a simple update of code, fix bugs, and apply some optimizations. Unfortunately, it's kind of a waste of time right now and I'm trying to manage my time and priorities better, so the traditional Takistan Insurgency mission may not get an update as soon as I'd like.


I've got several other Arma projects I work on here and there. Some unannounced, others you might already know of, such as my Simple IED Script or Melee Weapons script. These scripts have made a good amount of progress, but not enough to warrant an update; they're close to testing phase though. When significant progress has been made and everything is working well, I'll post an informative update about it here.


I want to do more videos and they'll come. It's difficult to do though, I currently am stuck in a lease at a place with horrible internet. 500kb download, 10kb upload. No other options in the community because landlords are cheap and refused to have good internet installed in the neighborhood because they didn't want to pay half of the installation fees. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ridiculous. Live and learn. As a word of advice for you guys, make sure you don't listen to the braindead call center people you first speak with at an ISP; instead of just asking if they're available at your location, ask them to see if they can set it up. It's like this for every ISP. The call center people may tell you "Yeah, we're in your area!" but when they enter the screen to actually set you up for your specific address, they may realize they aren't able to because no cables are setup in your neighborhood. That's my situation for the next year, stuck with ♥♥♥♥ internet.


Begun learning C# and game development within the Unity engine as a whole. As someone with very limited programming/scripting knowledge (HTML and SQF) I can say that Unity's CSharp script language has been pretty easy to adapt to, coming from an Arma scripter. The fundamentals are the same and there's a wiki, similar to Arma's, with commands/functions that describe what each one does. I tried game development 13 years ago when I was 17 and failed horribly -- the tools back then weren't user-friendly and there were a lot less helpful resources out there. Nowadays, a 12 year old can make a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ hentai RPG in Unity and sell it on Steam. All these horrible indie games, along with AAA devs being too scared to risk being creative, has motivated me to tackle game development again. It's a passion of mine. 13 years ago I had nearly no tangible skills aside from concept art. Now, I'm capable of programming, art, voices, design, direction, and possibly more. Might also look into basic 3D modeling and animation. The goal is to become a "Jack of all trades and a master of some" to efficiently build my own game and lead the team behind it with sufficient experience to assert a better outcome.

Don't worry, I'm still in learning phase, so I haven't blindly dived into building my own game. The commitment hasn't reached its peak yet, until then. Once I've attained "enough" knowledge and experience, I plan on shifting a lot of my focus to Unity. This won't be the death of my Arma projects or channel, it's still a niche experience to play and mod Arma and I don't see myself giving up on it. With that said, I'm working on updating all my scripts. I appreciate the patience, especially when I say I'm gonna release something in a couple weeks (Takistan Insurgency) and end up post-poning it a few months instead.

[EDIT]
Here's my current projects I intend to complete in chronological order:

1. Addon-Free Arma Radio
   
2. Simple IED Script
   
3. Combat Realism Scripts
   
4. Takistan Insurgency
   
5. Phronk's Furniture Script
   
6. "COIN"