Small Update - Big Change for CLoD

Interestingly there was a small update for Cliffs of Dover today that added the following:

Rearm and Refuel: Mission builders can now allow rearm and refuel functionality in their missions.
OnBuildingDestroyed() is now correctly called in multiplayer when a building is destroyed.
A static Dictionary has been added to the AMission object so mission builders can modularize code.

There are more things (you can see the full change list here but the important stuff is above, particularly the item in bold.

As some of you may remember, I designed and built a campaign structure for Cliffs that used that code and testing it during single player worked perfectly but when we tried to test it in multiplayer it didn't. The script simply didn't function in multiplayer the way it did in singleplayer and there was nothing we could do to fix it. I believe this was nearly 4 years ago? It seems crazy that it was that long ago.

The upshot of this fix (if it's working correctly - full testing will need to be done) is that the entire Cliffs of Dover channel map becomes a proper target. Every lamp post, every post box, every factory, every rail station, every bank, every watch tower - everything.

I'd be very curious to test if this does work. Fortunately, I believe I hung onto all of my cliffs of dover stuff and probably still have the mission code ready to test. Would anyone be interested in trying this? DCS and all its glory has become very enjoyable lately so I'm not sure there's enough desire to go back and play Cliffs right now, especially because the AI situation has yet to be dealt with. On top of that, the IL-2 BoX series has really picked up in the intervening years and I'm very much enjoying playing that as well in my spare moments. Lots of aircraft, enjoyable graphics, etc. The only thing that really holds me back with BoX is that I can't speak bloody Russian so I can't understand what anyone is saying without taking my eyes away and reading text. Frustrating. Bodenplatte should fix that when it's out, and on top of that will have 401 RCAF stationed at Heesh (B88) on the map for a full career mode hopefully.

Let me know what you guys think. Do you remember testing that mission so long ago?

EDIT: I jumped the gun on this one. We've been asking for OnBuildingKilled() to be fixed, not OnBuildingDestroyed(). I'm not even entirely sure what that one does or what it passes to the system.

I remember, and I'm interested in revisiting. So does this mean, if it works, that your War of Attrition campaign could now track and preserve the condition of targets between sessions?

StiC wrote:I remember, and I'm interested in revisiting. So does this mean, if it works,  that your War of Attrition campaign could now track and preserve the condition of targets between sessions?

The War of Attrition campaign tracked target conditions I believe, the problem was more that the map would reload with targets 'rebuilt' even if they'd been obliterated (though I might be wrong - it's been a while).

The same problem is likely going to be part of this as well though I believe there may be a way to designate areas 'pre-destroyed' when the map loads. At least I believe there was a function for that.

The OnBuildingDestroyed() code does pass location data that would be useful for that purpose and could potentially allow me to write some code that builds up a database of 'destroyed' buildings. Could maybe even add timers to allow them to be rebuilt over time with various conditions for that as well. Not sure. I'll have to jump in again and make sure the OnBuildingDestroyed() code works as I remember it still and it's just been fixed rather than changed.

It definitely makes target designation more interesting. Really the only objects that need to be placed now are defenses and if everything is a valid target, that becomes an interesting puzzle in itself. You can hardly put 1000000 AA guns on the map to protect EVERYTHING but then again, that was the real challenge historically too, so fair enough.

Wolverine wrote:The War of Attrition campaign tracked target conditions I believe, the problem was more that the map would reload with targets 'rebuilt' even if they'd been obliterated (though I might be wrong - it's been a while).

This is what I remember as well. Although I thought the host could load and see damaged/destroyed targets, but other players could not, but it was a long time ago so I'm probably wrong. Being able to attack the same targets week after week, as if they had never been damaged, and have them count towards the objective was tough compromise for using the OnBuildingDestroyed() function.

Count me in.I miss the group ops for that time era.

Managed to find my original code for this in a long ago post asking for assistance. Maybe it'll work out of the box. Fingers crossed:

Code:

public override void OnBuildingKilled(string title, Point3d pos, AiDamageInitiator initiator, int eventArgInt)
    {
        base.OnBuildingKilled(title, pos, initiator, eventArgInt);

        string BuildingName = title;
        string BuildingArmy = "";
        string PlayerArmy = "";
        string sectorTitle = "";
        string sectorName = GamePlay.gpSectorName(pos.x, pos.y);

        if (GamePlay.gpFrontArmy(pos.x, pos.y) == 1)
        {
            BuildingArmy = "England";
        }
        else if (GamePlay.gpFrontArmy(pos.x, pos.y) == 2)
        {
            BuildingArmy = "France";
        }
        else
        {
            BuildingArmy = "Neutral";
        }

        if (initiator.Player.Army() == 1)
        {
            PlayerArmy = "RAF";
        }
        else if (initiator.Player.Army() == 2)
        {
            PlayerArmy = "Luftwaffe";
        }
        else
        {
            PlayerArmy = "Unknown";
        }

        GamePlay.gpLogServer(null, "BUILDING:" + BuildingName + " in " + BuildingArmy + " was destroyed in sector " + sectorName + " by " + initiator.Player.Name() + " from the " + PlayerArmy + ".", new object[] { });
    }

False alarm. It doesn't work. Nothing's changed with OnBuildingKilled() which is the one we need.