2.8 SitRep

[Stoner]

http://www.americasarmy.com/community/

V2.8: MAP EDITOR
Posted: December 19, 2006 - by Phoenix


Over the past four years America's Army has brought you many innovative maps. "Bridge" introduced linear style, assault/defend game play, "Border" combined both long range and close quarter battle, and "Steamroller" brought multiplayer gaming to new heights. Now we're ready for you to show us what you can do. For the first time, you have the ability to create your own America's Army maps.

Creating successful Multiplayer Maps is a balancing act and sometimes a test of patience and endurance — but all successful Level Designers (LDs) know the incredible feeling of seeing their creation at the top of the "most played" lists. There's no question most gamers can imagine numerous ways to improve an existing game level and just about everyone has had a great, "never been done before" idea for a new map — but all too often aspiring LDs are put off by arcane level editing tools and/or find the creation/submission process too arduous or unrewarding.

The key, we believe, is not just releasing a tool for map/mission creation but defining an entire process for submission, feedback and ultimately hosting maps on Official Army servers.

The upcoming release of America's Army: Coalition will debut a customized version of the America's Army Mission Editor. Additionally, there will be tutorials, online editor forum support and an organized submission-review-hosting process that will allow our player base to create game play for America's Army in a system paralleling our actual internal development process.


If you're a first-time Level Designer, don't worry. We've prepared an extensive online instruction manual (an updatable Wiki) and a number of tutorials using actual America's Army maps. We'll take you through many of the steps used to create two of our existing missions, Border and Dusk, so that you can apply these techniques to create your own maps.

Via the America's Army Mission Editor you'll learn the simple steps required to construct elements in the game world using Binary Space Partitioning (BSP) to create buildings, staircases and terrain. The entire America's Army library of assets or "Static Meshes" will be available for use in your levels, including radio towers, doors, vehicles and a variety of sound effects and particle effects to suggest smoke, fire and wind.

Scripted events and special functionality can also be added via easy-to-use "triggers" and "movers", which allow for breaking glass or doors that open and shut, for example. Finally there are critical elements like scoring, zoning (to improve performance) and writing the mission briefing — all of this is also supported in the Mission Editor to make the overall process more streamlined and flexible.

MISSION DEPOT
The final and most important step in creating America's Army missions will be the submission process. After you complete your new map, you can upload it to the new Mission Depot site located at http://www.aamissiondepot.com/. Mission Depot is hosted by Pragmatic Solutions and is the official map submission site and repository for the America's Army game.

Once your map has been received, the Mission Depot will display screen shots plus allow the community to vote and provide feedback in order to ensure everyone's work is thoroughly vetted, which will give each designer the means to improve their map. Any good LD will tell you, it's the feedback that makes or breaks the best levels!

The core of Mission Depot is the map review process. Maps uploaded to Mission Depot will be reviewed by a panel of experts. The most creative and well constructed maps that best fit within the America's Army game may be chosen to become Official America's Army maps! Only maps submitted and approved by Mission Depot will be designated Official Maps for deployment on Honor Servers.

MAPPING FORUM
Coinciding with the release of v2.8, we're also rolling out a brand new section on our Official Forum dedicated to mapping. There you'll be able to discuss the art of map building with others in the community, learn mapping tips and tricks, ask questions and more.

There are sure to be exciting times ahead with the release of the Map Editor, Mission Depot, and the Mapping Forums.

Version 2.8 America's Army: Coalition, "the next mission could be yours!"

[FlashhhBanggg]

Nice find stoner but map editor not to keen on it :p

[Spin]

so then there isnt any real update just a map editor and bug fixes??

[IceBlade]

Can't wait. I've got a decent idea for a map. Dunno if it'd work but we'll see.

[Spin]

wouldnt it be awesome to have people playing ur map on the game that would rock...only if i had the patience to do it lol..Ice ya gotta post SS's here first ya know

[Stoner]

more info up...

AA: SF (COALITION) V2.8 RELEASE NOTES
Posted: 20 DEC 06, by Phoenix
While you're waiting on the next release of America's Army: Special Forces (Coalition) v2.8, we're posting the v2.8 Release Notes to prepare you for what's up-n-coming! For all you map makers out there, this release is geared for you!

Note: Links/URLs provided in the Release Notes may not be updated or online until the time of release.


America's Army: Special Forces (Coalition) Release Notes (Version 2.8.0)

WHAT'S NEW

New America's Army Mission Editor:

America's Army: Special Forces Coalition (v2.8) is proud to debut the AA Mission Editor, which is based on the actual UnrealEd tools used by the Development Team in the creation of multiplayer missions such as SF Hospital and Interdiction.

The Mission Editor will enable America's Army players to modify existing levels and/or create new levels using any of the existing art, sound, particle effects and gameplay assets created by the Dev Team. All player-created levels and missions will contain a unique signature in the map file to allow clear identification when submitting a final version for review. Only maps submitted to Mission Depot (http://www.aamissiondepot.com) will be reviewed and certified for approval. Once a player-created level or mission has been approved it will be hosted on Official America's Army servers for everyone to enjoy.

To help get you started we've included two special, "tutorial" maps, which explain the basic UnrealEd Tools and define the America's Army mission creation process. As these are the actual tools used by our developers, who've had years of practice understanding their nuances, the overall ease-of-use will vary by individual.

Ultimately, creating missions for America's Army using the Mission Editor will
require patience and probably a bit of trial and error - but with some practice maybe you can be creating the next great Multiplayer Combat experiences in America's Army!

More information regarding the editor can be found at http://manual.americasarmy.com.


SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (have not changed):

The current Minimum System Requirements for AA:SF (Coalition) are as follows:




3-D graphics card with 128 MB memory and support for hardware transformation and lighting

2.4 GHz processor or equivalent

English version of Windows(r) 2000/XP Operating System with latest updates

512 MB RAM

3.5GB of uncompressed hard disk space for game files

4X DVD-ROM (not required for downloaded installations)

Windows 2000/XP compatible system (including compatible 32-bit drivers for CD-ROM drive, video card, sound card, mouse and keyboard)

DirectX(r)9.0

100% Compatible DirectX 9.0 soundcard

56kbps Modem or other network connection

NVIDIA(r) nForce(tm) or other motherboards/soundcards containing the Dolby(r) Digital Interactive Content Encoder required for Dolby Digital audio



The current Recommended System Requirements for AA:SF (Coalition) are as follows:



3-D graphics card with 256 MB memory and support for hardware transformation and lighting

3.0 GHz processor or equivalent

English version of Windows(r) 2000/XP Operating System with all updates

1 GB RAM

3.5GB of uncompressed hard disk space for game files

4X DVD-ROM (not required for downloaded installation)

Windows 2000/XP compatible system (including compatible 32-bit drivers for CD-ROM drive, video card, sound card, mouse and keyboard)

DirectX(r) 9.0

100% Compatible DirectX 9.0 soundcard

Broadband Network Connection *Nvidia® nForce™ or other motherboard/soundcards containing Dolby Digital® Content Encoder required for Dolby Digital® audio.



TECHNICAL NOTES

** IMPORTANT NOTE FOR SERVER HOSTS/ADMINS **

NOTE: The cooperative missions will take significantly more CPU resources to run during normal gameplay due to the additional AI processing load (shared between the server & client). Server hosts planning to run Co-Op servers should plan accordingly. In addition, players running a Co-Op server and client on the same machine will experience heavy CPU demand.

It is recommended that server rotations switch only from Co-Op level to Co-Op level, or MP to MP level forbest performance.


NETWORK PORT REQUIREMENTS:

The internet ports currently required to be open for America's Army v2.8 are listed below:

UDP - 1716, 1717, 1718, 8777, 27900
TCP - 14200, 20025-45, 20046, 20047, 20048, 28910

UDP ports explained:
1716 for the Game
1717 for the GameQuery
1718 for the Master Server Query
8777 for the Standard UT Query
27900 for GameSpy

TCP ports explained:
28910 for GameSpy
20025-45 for MBS Game Server
20046 for the Auth server
20047 for MBS
20048 for DCDS
14200 for LAN


WHAT'S FIXED

NOTE: This list only includes bugs present in v2.7 that have been fixed.
(Security/exploit related bugs are not included in this list.)


[Admin Command]



Admin forceclass all can not forceclass sniper

Player admin can spectate other players while still alive

Multiple Weapons missing from drop down selection list on "Player" tab in AdminCP


[A.I.]



Civilians die from inconsistent amounts of damage, give random amounts of ROE


[Audio]



CommoWhisper 23 "grenade" is very quiet.


[Crash/Server Related/Admin Commands]



Mission completion and weapons stats not being updated for co-op maps

Super admins lose the ability to spectate players if they mouse click between rounds.


[Gameplay]



Hits & kills with CROWS are not reporting in stats

Hitting or killing an enemy vehicle doesn't show up in player statistics, but the Shots Fired does

CROWS & SAI compass: 90 Degree discrepancy

Going to prone position while holding grenade causes grenade release.


[Map Specific]



Eagle Tower: Ground at the base of Eagle Tower has the wrong material property for environmental audio

Interdiction: Comm volume in Northern Entrance tunnel is misspelled

Medic Field Training: HUD text instruction player to follow 'Compass'

SF Courtyard: Player pawn gets stuck on East Courtyard Ladder

SF Courtyard: Player pawn gets stuck on East Upper Walkway Ladder

SF CSAR: Rubble static mesh does not fully cover roof

SF Extraction: NPC civilian blocks rear bus doorway

SF Snakeplain: Player receives an incorrect death message upon going in the well

SF SnakePlain: POW is unable to run if he does not pick up a weapon

SF SnakePlain: No points awarded for destroying tanks or BTR

SF Snakeplain: One of the ladders at a QRF has bad collision

SF Snakeplain: Player is unable to step off ladder at bottom to kneel to get into tunnel entrance at QRF

SF Snakeplain: ReportIn locations for East and West Courtyard are reversed

SF Snakeplain: Player is able to get to unintended place

SF SnakePlain: Zoning issue at door in one of the QRF locations

SF SnakePlain: Player is able to get stuck at Mamba Mezzanine

Urban Assault: Blocking volume above overhang near west objective does not let thrown objects pass through


[Server/Browser Related]



Engine.LevelInfo.debugThis:0000 --- Recursion Error

Pings do not resolve in MBS, remain listed as question marks

LAN Name isn't saved when double clicking server name

'Erope' location filter should be called 'Europe (other)'

NPC Logs still present when running a game server

Server Filters Sets are not saving

Coop Rounds will not start if "MinNetPlayers" is set higher then 1

Accessed None: AGP_Interface.AATraining_Overview.TrainingNMLPrePa rser

Too many unnecessary queries from client to MBS server are impacting MBS performance


[U.I.]



Console key randomly quits working

Login page shows "Invalid Password" dialog box twice if invalid password is entered

Mouseover text is incorrect on "save results" button for Weapons Fam level

Mouseover text on "Save Training" button for Eagle Tower level is incorrect

Tool tip for Deploy button is "Deploy"

Real Hero badge description pane should reset when a new real hero is selected from the drop down


[Mission Editor]



User is unable to move Mission Editor to different screen (dual monitors)

Building a tetrahedron with a sphere extrapolation above 8 will result in a critical error

Review paths feature causes critical error when no paths are present

Clicking Fog Button When Editor Panes Have Lost Focus Causes Crash

Opening a user created map file while there is no internet connection results in a "Map CPS failure"

Editor can be closed without prompt for saving map

Making a simple map with a few static meshes, saving and then closing the Editor will result in a save message

The taskbar icon that appears when the Editor is first launched differs from the taskbar icon when the Editor is open

The Editor freezes once it is launched


[Vehicles]



Getting in and out of the HMMWV triggers a black screen and softlocks the player

BMP-1 gives inaccurate death message; it is not equipped with 115mm HE as stated in message

HMMWV engine sound occasionally drops out


[Weapons]



Player able to change/force/silent class to M870 Shotgun



KNOWN ISSUES

White/missing viewports
When the Editor is launched, the viewports will appear to be missing or all white.
To resolve this issue simply go to "View > Viewports > Configure ...", select one of the options and click OK.

Brightness/Gamma
When the Editor is launched the brightness/gamma will be increased.
Adjustments to the gamma can be made in "View > Gamma Options".

Unable to select any map objects (static meshes, brushes, etc.) using right or left mouse click
This issue is specific to systems with ATI graphics cards and occurs due to Anti-Aliasing and/or Anisotropic Filtering being enabled. Disabling these settings has been shown to resolve the problem.

Dual Monitor Setup: Unable to move the Editor from one monitor to the other.
This issue is specific to systems with ATI graphics cards. To resolve this issue, click the View menu and uncheck the "Automatically reposition windows".


America's Army Server Manager (AASM):

Installation and Uninstallation Notes

To remove previous installations (or if the install fails and is unable to automatically remove the previous version)
do the following:



Download and install from Microsoft the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility. You can retrieve it from Microsoft on this webpage: http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;290301

Delete the contents of the AASM folder (unless you are planning on installing the new AASM 1.5 version provided with 2.8.0, in which case simply skip this step).

Run the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility and select the "America's Army Server Manager 1.0" (or 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 depending on which version you have installed) from the list. The utility will remove it from your Add/Remove programs list.


For help using AASM please see the provided manual or press F1 to get help for specific portions of the program.



What do you plan to make with the editor?
Let us know by posting to this article!

[Spin]

dayum looks like they gonna out update alotta older pc's again with this one

[Stoner]

yep...that means bad news for me.

I've only got $300 saved up so far for my new comp too...

[IceBlade]

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (have not changed):

System requirements haven't changed but I bet the maps will require a lot of hardware we don't have :(

[macdaddyk]

Oficially Out Dl Now Biaches