Edit:

1.2.1 was released a few days ago and as promised the Firehouse Server has been updated to the latest standard. The Server is now running 1.2.1.

We urge you NOT to uninstall 1.1.1.1. The two programs run separate of each other and both co-exist nicely. If we do come into stability problems again in the future 1.1.1.1 will remain fully configured on the server computer to our addictions in check.

With the autoupdate feature installed, it has become more important than ever to ensure we are reporting system critical bugs and issues- together we can help DCS make a huge difference in the delivery of this epic sim experience.

Thanks again for all of your contributions to this thread and the server experience- it has truly made the Firehouse a great place to hang out!





(Original thread post)
We received word that the forum software gets a bit unpredictable when individual threads get over 400 responses- especially threads with heavy screenshot involvement. The purpose of this thread is the same as its predecessor: Inform SimHQ users of what's happening on the server- what missions are being flown... new developments... IP address changes... and to generally chat about recent engagements and share your experience with others.

There was some talk about making the transition to the new thread when a new patch came out and the server transitioned over into the 1.2 world- but frankly nobody knew whether or not that was going to happen before the universe collapsed around the thread. This thread will describe the transition as it occurs and will hopefully include ample input from a variety of users regarding probems and solutions. Until further notice the Firehouse Server will stick to 1.1.1.1.

(Edit: It's worth mentioning here that were are an OPEN server that does its very best to accommodate virtual pilots of all skill levels. We ask that you complete your training missions in single player- however we are taking to running multiplayer training missions as well. A bulk of our membership is acquainted with the basic systems and are enjoying learning about more advanced systems. Whether you're still getting used to some of the keystrokes or you're a veteran looking forward to helping others develop- you are WELCOME! The server runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week as long as the 4 of us (X ray, TC, Crew and I) can maintain it. There is no dedicated server- so we try our best to be one.

We ARE protected by Servman and have had VERY little interference despite our open concept. Some guys come in to do their best off of TS3 (not SimHQ users)- but they don't interfere with the overall mission effort.

This thread is AAR friendly- in fact, we encourage it! If the thread gets too "big" then we'll open another one... so feel free to post your favourite screens of Firehouse Server missions. As our regular membership grows, so too does the occurence of memorable events. Just remember- we're excited about those cooperative moments as you are!)

Nuke Plant is currently running and it looked like 1 and 2 were taking a beating. 3 and 4 were due for some attention. Stay tuned for more info on the individual missions!

Eno's Firehouse has a new IP address -

174.7.66.194:10308

IBT(eventual)L!!

Here's to another 400 replies! I'll probably be in tonight, depending on real world activities. When are you back Eno? Is it a week at a time you're on the clock?

Yeah... I'm gone a week at a time but only work 12s- it's not like I'm on the clock the entire time I'm gone. This one is a smidge longer so I'll be back for next Thursday gaming!

On that note, I haven't heard back from Habu23 yet but I'm guessing by the fact his mission is in the open download list that we should be good to use it. If we're going to CHANGE anything, however, we'll need his permission.

We should look at getting that mission installed sooner rather than later.

Yeah for sure. I take it hats something Crew could do, or I could learn to do? Im guessing it's a "download, unzip and place in the correct folder" kind of deal?

Thanks for setting up the new thread Eno. I was trying to think of a good name and you came up with an excellent one! Eno, this wouldn't have happened w/o your server, dude!

---

I will download Habu23's mission and put it in the directory - prolly do that tomorrow, Saturday.

---

I want to carry something over from the other thread, and to say, Wow! that was a great thread and we had a lot of good discussions. For much of it - is debate - the old back and forth and challenges and responses and most of all how that leads to new ideas and new missions.

When someone expresses their opinion in a enthusiastic, straight-up, hard, or insensitive way, you know what? - that's OK. I've learned to pause and think for a bit and just state back my opinion, re: the 'what is cheating in a mission' thing. This is the place to throw out your thoughts and we have a mature membership as demonstrated over the years.

---

And a lot of it was about How To? - I am still learning!

---

GG - you said something in the first thread about the job of the A-10. Loosely put, you said "The A-10 is a tank killer, stop wasting your time on SEAD." That is worth repeating. It is what I remember most.
Now, with that thought in mind - in the missions where I can join the 'dark side', it is the armor at the enemy positions that I kill first. My side's attacking ground forces can take out the ADA when they are not getting killed by defenders.

And to everyone who do do the SEAD including me - 20,000 feet is your friend.

Your thoughts on first thread, ..?

---

Screenies -







A hunting I will go...


Oh, I'll hunt down game, I'll blast away
I'll shoot what ere I can
I'll aim my gun, I never miss
Or my name's not Yosemite Sa-a-a-a-a-am
YAA-HAAA!



YAA-HAAA!

I'm wondering what happened to Lucky812? Sound off if you're out there!

I was pretty stoked to see the interest in the thread- I'm surprised it was a relatively small percentage of contributors actually posting in it. Then again, not everyone likes to type... so I guess that explains some of it.

Many have moved on to 1.2 and are dealing with those issues and we will move on as well eventually- as soon as the benefits of the uprade outweight the problems we have with 1.1.1.1. Currently, I think the gaming experience in 1.1.1.1 is solid and now that I've finally (sorry) gone hardwire and got that part of it worked out... I think stability has REALLY improved. Once I get to the new place I have another i7 machine I can put to task so that the 950 can be committed to single user tasks as opposed to it being shared right now. That'll be around the time I suspect 1.2 will have matured into something a bit more attractive and maybe Combined Arms will be ironed out to incorperate the JTAC. That arcade style ground combat thing doesn't interest me in the least.

I'm still struggling a bit with my mission building- but suffice to say I'm at a point now where a few finishing touches would smooth out the gameplay flow and it will be ready for testing! I've got all the roadblocks designed in and established a general randomness that will force guys to really lay back and watch what is happening before opening fire on certain units. In edition- armament is restricted to rockets and gun (SUPPOSED to be training ammo- after all! shhhhhh) so it will need to be used carefully. Kind of the same as Crew's Highway concept... Some roadblocks will open fire immediately- others will return fire... others will hold fire no matter what. Some will open fire on you- some will be shooting at convoys but leaving you alone...

My greatest interest is in generating some variation. I'm going to do a lot of the mission development discussion in the thread crew started in that other section- that way we can keep this thread on target and alive longer!


I'm always happy as hell to log into my computer and see a few names in the server flying. It's tough to just leave the computer on all day and night... with up to 4 guys checking up on it throughout each 24 hour period... and not see anyone flying! I suspect things will get busier as we transition to 1.2- unless they get that dedicated server thing sorted out? Then my comps will get a good breather!

Anyway gents- my shift is wrapping up and I'm heading to bed soon. Looking forward to some good discussion!


And CREW- ya cheater you! Go help me out in that mission building thread or else!

Hey Eno. Still here but work has been kicking my butt lately. I have also been glider flying on the weekend, so that has taken a lot of time. My A-10 install got screwed up (no sound?) and was kinda waiting on the transition to DCS World to happen. I will try and re-install A-10 this week.

Lucky, just out of curiosity, if you Alt+Tab out of the sim, Left Click the speaker icon and Click Mixer, is DCS turned all the way down? That's happened to me a couple times, thought I'd mention it in case that's the issue. Might save you the time/effort.

I did download Habu23's Operation_Bactria_COOP10_v2 - looks interesting!

A few folks are on The Highway right now, so I will upload it to the Firehouse later. You will prolly want to take notes from Habu's Mission Briefing to keep handy during the flight.

WC

Eh lucky! Sorry I got the number on your name wrong (edited)- what is the 812 for anyway?

I've had some sound issues before as well- wasn't sure if it was my game or just the sound card- but my sound does come back with a restart (unfortunately) and I'm sure you've tried something like that.

There is certainly some fun to be had in 1.2 but it we're confident that there is still plenty to squeeze out of 1.1.1.1 as well. Crew keeps putting out new and interesting missions and as you see we are expanding our inventory to very randomized scenarios that should really help with the game immersion. I'm looking forward to some aspects of 1.2 but sometimes when I get something I like that works I'm hesitant to upgrade / change.

Thanks for taking care of that mission crew- how is game stability lately?

Last night shift tonight then I'm on course for three days.

All is well at the Firehouse. The Highway finished up with a win from some folks who I've not seen before... I got in a few shots before it flipped over.

A few minutes ago the new Habu's Operation Bactria COOP10 v2 went up on the server!

This is a public mission by Habu23 that was downloaded from DCS -
http://files.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/201633/


--- edit -> Thread -
http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=89051


Operation Bactria v2.0
******************************************
COOP 10 - Multiplayer

File Size: 8.84 MB

Mission by Habu23 (Eagle Dynamics Forums) aka Force_Majeure (www.unitedoperations.net)

This mission is completely randomized and has a total of 16 taskings.



****TASK****

1) Fly to IP Banks (Hawg Flight), IP Adder (Pig Flight), IP Dodge (Boar Flight) and await radio contact from AWACS (Chalice 3). Once on station, Chalice 3 will provide tasking as needed by ground forces in the AO and ComSec.

2) If Hawg or Pig flight is winchester before AWACS (Chalice 3) grants you clearance to RTB, the host player can use F10 radio commands to inform AWACS that a flight wishes to RTB. The host must be careful to press the key cooresponding to the correct flight.



****MISSION BACKGROND****

(Folks - go here to the source)
http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=89051

One of the points made in there is that people will need to learn how to input coordinates into the CDU... Einstein was kind enough to create a how to on this over in the training thread- so to save people the inconvenience of those few mouse clicks I'm including a link HERE


Another concern I have is about the "Host" being able to advance return to base requests to the AWACS- simply because the "host" computer doesn't have anyone on it. I will submit the question to the mission designer as to whether or not there is a work around to that feature.

A thunderstorm started rolling through as soon as I started my gun run on that Shilka at Novo, dang it!

SLMod is the answer. http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1514039&postcount=239
Simply put it is a server side mod which adds mission scripting capabilities to missions. It has lots of cool little features, but the most important feature for MP checks the chat for specific messages and then performs the pre-scripted action. For example it negates the requirement for a host to use the F10 Other list by allowing the host to use chat or for connected clients to use chat. You add a little line of code into the mission file via the "Do Script" action (added in 1.2.0). In 1111 you can make it a triggered action for an AI group and use "AI Task> Run Script".

The command in question is this one slmod.chat_cmd ( string cmd_text, number flag, number stopflag, string coa )
string cmd_text is the text string it looks for.
Number flag is the flag it sets to true
numer stop flag: when this flag is true it will no longer check for the string
String coa is the coalition which can send the command. Usually 'red', 'blue', or 'all'
The code would look like:


You may notice I left out the number stop flag and string coa, this is because both of those are optional.

If you have any setup questions feel free to ask. Its a kick ass mod and it helps make MP a little better.

I was going to ask you about that missing info so I'm glad you clarified. ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm: Yeah, right.

Thanks for the lead skortch... We'll have to make sure our regular guys know the drill- though I'm going to need to try it out myself before I have any clue what you just said lol.

It DOES look simple enough- but I'm still really trying to get my head around flags and scripts etc.

Checked the server and Operation Bactria had been running for +44 hours - that's stability.

I did switch it over to iShot The Shilka.


WC

Considering the kids have had two movie nights on that computer- id say that's pretty freakin good!

Opened up a wider path into Min-Vody tonight - in iShot. The Hawk eventually got me after I committed to guns, but not until we managed to lay down some damage to the blue slime dogs at the airbase. (How the BLF managed to capture all that nice U.S. equipment we did ponder over.)





Saw a new pilot tonight, and on TS, too, Looking forward to seeing some others soon. The server has been running well.

iShot has over 24 hours into it. The Red has damaged Blue Min-Vody to 60% Dead. If the RDR red dogs destroy Min-Vody defenses then a small (3-4 units?) Red group will capture the base and the Blues have only 30 minutes to capture it back.


Same goes for Blue - you need to open a path to Beslan Airbase and destroy all Red assets there.



Hmmm, we should have this one wrapped up in a few days...


WC

Other than 1.1.1.1 do I need to do anything special to join you guys in these games?

Your brother and a few beers are all.

I have to go to a work meeting tonight but may find some time to get on-line. Wednesday's are always busy for me with other things, like frakkin work.


WC