Lost Key Systems (v.99d)

[loki72]

as it stands: aug 22 2008 (v.99d) pbo'ed
it is 90% complete.

Greetings to my fellow Arma junkies,

I would like to introduce to you the results of my months of love and frustration in beta form. It is nearly complete but far from what I intend it to be. I present to you, Loki's Lost Key. Have you ever been pinned down in the editor with a mound of work spread out before you and needed a way to test your progress? Have you ever doubted your projects ability to endure the angles of the masses and desired a way to push it to the limits? This interface is the key to your relief and the savior of prolonged agony. Simply insert this project into your Arma addons folder and have the power of the Arma Gods at the click of your mouse. Spawn any unit contained within your add-ons folders at anytime and anywhere in any amount. Utilize the power of precision or carpet bombing, artillery barrages and a nightmare of Hellish fire destruction on any map location. You are provided access to all in game music at a click for quick selection and ambiance comparison, teleport yourself at anytime anywhere on the map, change your view distance at a whim, check your teams status whenever, change your weapon load out and equip yourself with any weapon within your add-on folder, or just become a walking terminator with das Big Guns and have the power to unleash the firepower of billion dollar aircraft from your shoulder.
It has been submitted in mission form with the intention of producing feedback from those who are the prospected users. In its final form it will not be compatible in multiplayer settings of any kind, including LAN and it will not be admissible on servers.
Its primary task is to enhance an editor's work and provide a convenient way of testing his/her WIP.

A list of credits are as follows...

if you like it: loki

if you don't.. it's these peoples fault...

spooner                 for all the hours on teamspeak
savedbygrace        for writing the intro and beta testing
mandoble              for his scripts and help.. try hitching a player to a helo...
morsa                    for his anygear.. so i didn't have to do one from scratch.
drbobcat                for the some of the artillery scripts and the idea for ABV
wolfrug                  without his awesome body armor script... loki would be mortal...
the ofpec staff as a whole!!!
and of course... you.. for trying it out...

anyone i missed ... lemme know.. happy to add names to the list.



it is NOT for submission at this stage.. just putting it out here for some feedback.

[Mandoble]

Might be you want to describe with more detail what is the purpose of this tool and which are the planned options for it.

[loki72]

thanks mandoble... more info is on the way...

i love typing so much.. i have 2 voice communication servers...

edit: more information added.. thanks savedbygrace

[ViperMaul]

This looks fantastic on its face. I cannot wait to try it.
In its final form it will not be compatible with MP??
I live in MP mission editting and testing. This is where all my frustration is.
So I hope there will be a way to toggle it on and off. I understand the need to prevent cheating. Let's find other solutions. But until we do I guess I have to agree to make sure its disabled for MP in its final form.

[loki72]

i've been wrestling with the same thing.
but until i can create a script that runs on a dedicated server and can 'see' that the 'lost_key.pbo' is being ran on the potential players computer... i can't. it is too powerful and my name would become synonymous with the "@#!%, who released a hack and ruined MP play." i might be mischievous.. but i'm not stupid...

dedicated servers are my first thought.. since i have one

i wish there was a way to do it.. then addons like RTE could be used by those of us.. who have people that want to build missions in real time with one another.

EDIT: fixed addon error... arma just loves to keep stuff in the mission.sqm (NO addons are needed)
          the mors error has been fixed.

[B2KDragon]

Hey man ive played with this a lot and its a rly good thing i cant wait for it to be finished

[loki72]

 
yea.. some feedback.... any suggestions?

edit: i have added hints to all the 'custom' stuff.. it will be in v.99b.
        fixed sound error with napalm
        fixed hitch paths

[Spooner]

Rather than limiting use of this with (missionName = ""), which means it is only available in SP missions/editor, please just use (isServer), which will still allow its use in SP missions/editor, but will also allow it to be used in the MP editor or if you are playing as the host in an MP game.

[ViperMaul]

Why can't ou can simply add a client-side config check for a server side config reference. If does not exist then disable itself.
That way the server admin who wants to enable it for MP testing just adds this server side pbo that has the correct config reference that the client is looking for.

Then make sure you highly recommend signature files and verifysignatures=1 on the server so that people do not modify your client pbo just to bypass the problem.

[loki72]

 
v.99c is out in pbo form
works in local MP

[ViperMaul]

Example of what I am talking about

MPAddonEnableCheck.sqf (this goes in your main client-side addon & is execVM'd from init.sqf -- SEE NOTE BELOW about SP )

Code: [Select]



loki_lk_MPClient_Version = getNumber( configFile >> "CfgPatches" >> "loki_lk" >> "ClientVersion" );


iF ( isServer ) then {
    loki_lk_MPServer_Version = getNumber( configFile >> "CfgPatches" >> "loki_lk_MPServer" >> "ServerVersion" );
    publicVariable "loki_lk_MPServer_Version";
};

\\Then do a check
if ( loki_lk_MPClient_Version != loki_lk_MPServer_Version  ) then <add code here to disable clientside addon>;


Of course you will need a server-side pbo for this that could look something like this....


loki_lk_MPServer.pbo (placed on the server only & you must have a completely seperate signature file for this or else there is an exploit. Seperate from your main client-side addon)

Code: [Select]

// loki_lk_MPServer Enable File
#define __loki_lk_version__ 2.31
class CfgPatches
{
class loki_lk_MPServer
{
units[] ={};
weapons[] ={};
requiredAddons[] = {};
requiredVersion  = 1.14;
                ServerVersion    = __loki_lk_version__;
};
};

Credits: Sickboy taught me this method when I was reading his code one day.

NOTE ABOUT SP:

Using this method may disable SP usage so you can use the following Pseudo-Code if you need to differentiate between different modes (SP/MP/MP-Client)

Code: [Select]

// not exactly an elegant way of disabling version checks for SP Modes
//of course you need to assign the right value to InitState. There is a reference in the BI Wiki somewhere on how to do this.
if ( InitState!="SP-SERVER+CLIENT/EDITOR" ) then {
[] execVM "MPAddonEnableCheck.sqf "; //Check to Enable MP Lost Key
}; 

[loki72]

very interesting vipermaul...

i will look into this.. the idea is good.

[loki72]

99d is out...

new dialog layout.. artillery menu is beefed up.. tons of other changes.. you'll have to go through the menus again to see...

also a readme is included.. thanks to savedbygrace.

edit:

i wanted to say a special thanks to drbobcat for his 'Crazy Vaclav's Camel Attack'.. it is the funniest thing i have seen i a long time...

[Navalax[DK]]

I dont get it.. How do i use a pbo script? I only know to using a .pbo as an addon in the addon folder. "Putting it in your mission folder" doesnt cut it for me.

[loki72]

 

v99c was script form.. many people wanted it as an addon.. i forgot to change the instructions.

as with all addons.. drop it into your addons folder.

[Manzilla]

I just wanted to give a heads up that the use of FFN Mod conflicts with v0.99d.(I use FFN's XEH replacement with the Mod) I imagine it has something to do with the fact that the actual FFN mod neglects to use XEH in any form. Only william1's replacement file uses XEH but some Mod features don't seem to work with his replacement.

There's probably not much you can do about the conflict, loki. I just wanted to mention this in case there are others like myself who couldn't seem to get Lost Key Systems to work. Just disable FFN while using the editor and all should work just fine.(Also remove tr_obj from the mission.sqm if you've saved an editor mission while FFN was active.) Of course, this assumes you didn't place any FFN objects in a mission. In other words one only used the replacement file.

I hope Tony uses XEH in the updated FFN version.

[loki72]

whoa.. somebody actually found this..? 

thanks manzilla... you are right there is nothing i can do if the FFN disables 'all' extended event handlers...

the scripts need them in order to fire up in all conditions... and...
some of the 'toys' i didn't put in the released version must have them.

 

[ViperMaul]

I use it daily and love it.
It saves me so much time in my testing of complex mods and addons.
Thanks again loki!

[Manzilla]

Yup, I'll second second ViperMaul's comment. This is wicked. It only took me 3 months to realize something was conflicting with it after it's been in a Mod folder but not working. Once I realized this and found the culprit I'm more then happy with it.

Thanks.

[xxbbcc]

Loki,

Could you please change this addon so that it never shows up in the middle of the screen? It's a great addon but it gets in the way during playing when the menu item appears in the middle of the screen for almost every object that can be interacted with.

Otherwise, very nice addon, thanks for creating it.