GRAW2 Extended Mod

[Wolfsong]

This is the title of my little mod project for GRAW2. I've had a few different topics on this, but figured it would be best to gather it all up into one and will keep posting in this one.

The mod will change some things around to say the least. It will also try and add or tweak minor features that the community has asked for.

Among other things it includes:
- Increased draw distance from 150 to 300 meters and adjusted AI for it
http://www.theplatoon.com/forum/modding-general/increasing-draw-distance/0/
- New MP classes and kits
http://www.theplatoon.com/forum/modding-general/graw2-custom-classes-and-kits/0/
- Adjusted SP kits and class restrictions
http://www.theplatoon.com/forum/modding-general/graw2-sp-kit-adjustments/0/

Those things are in the first ALPHA that can be downloaded here (but fully working for everyone yet, and broke the AI in Coop):
http://www.ghostrecon.net/files2/index.php?act=view&id=810

For the next ALPHA version, which will come soon, I've also expanded the Ghost team to 6 actors (player + 5 AI). This will not be turned on for SP due to vehicle insertions and such, but it will be turned on for Campaign Coop which can be played alone with only AI as well. It will also make it possible to play Campaign Coop with 6 players of course.

And on top of that I've extended the Ghost team with 5 more AI. Some new and some old returning names. Edited their profiles and given everyone a specialty although they play the same in game.

CAPTAIN SCOTT MITCHELL – TEAM LEADER
Scott Mitchell is a professional soldier. He believes that whatever job one does, one should do it to the best of one's abilities, and he applies that philosophy to soldiering. Mitchell leads by example and believes that respect is earned. Speaks fluent Spanish and passable French.

MSG DERRICK PARKER – AUTOMATIC RIFLEMAN, QUARTERMASTER
Derrick Parker is the oldest of the Ghosts. He’s a career soldier with a lots of field experience and prides himself on being professional. Parker is rock-solid in combat and has a seemingly unlimited stamina. He earned his degree in Political Science while in the Army.

MSG JOHN HUME – SNIPER
John Hume joined the Army to see the world and spends his free time backpacking alone. He is freindly, but not outgoing and enjoys being alone. When in combat Hume can be so cold blooded that he sometimes scares his own team mates. He is extremely sharp when it comes to spot enemies and unravel camouflaged vehicles and weapons nests. Speaks passable Khmer.

SFC JOE RAMIREZ – RIFLEMAN, CQB SPECIALIST
Joe Ramirez is a first generation Mexican-American who immigrated as a child. Ramirez is a career soldier who does everything by the book and preferred being in the field to being behind a desk, which is why he turned down an office job at OCS to serve with the Ghosts. Speaks fluent Spanish.

SFC MARCUS BROWN – AUTOMATIC RIFLEMAN, ARMORER
Marcus Brown comes from an affluent family who wanted him to go into politics. Rebelling from an upper-class upbringing, the headstrong Brown dropped out of collage and joined the Army. He is extremely though and reliable and perfer the direct approach in any situation.

SSG PAUL SMITH – RIFLEMAN, RECON SPECIALIST
Paul Smith is quiet and polite, never forgetting his manners. In combat Smith transforms into an intense no nonsense warrior. He understands the chain of command and follows orders without question. Growing up in the woods has made him into an efficient battlefield hunter. Smith is usually the first to see or contact the bad guys as he always walks the lead.

SSG BO JENKINS – GENADIER, MEDIC
Bo Jenkins tends to talk a lot and can be quite animated. The only time he seems to calm is when working with explosives or doing maintenance on his equipment. Although Jenkins is strong and capable, he is also a bit impatient and can go forward without orders. Speaks fluent Spanish and Tagalog.

SSG MIGUEL RIVERA – GRENADIER, LANGUAGE SPECIALIST
Miguel Rivera fears very little and shows it. Although he specialized in heavy weapons and demolitions, Rivera is also a linguist, which makes him a strong asset to the team when operating in foreign parts of the world. Speaks fluent Spanish, French, German, Russian, Serbian and Arabic, as well as passable Mandarin and Swahili.

SSG RICHARD ALLEN – DESIGNATED MARKSMAN
Richard Allen comes from a family with a long tradition of military service and joined right out of high school. He is soft-spoken, quiet and intense, focusing on his job at all time. Allen has been an outdoorsman all his life and competes competitively in service-wide rifle competitions where he places first quite often. Speaks fluent French.

SGT MATT BEASLEY – RIFLEMAN, COMMUNICATION
Matt Beasly is a loner who sees and hears everything around him. His wariness leads him to rarely volunteer for an assignment. He has not, nor does he ever want to command anyone. Yet in a fight, Beasley is quietly committed to the team and will never leave anyone behind. Speaks Spanish and Farsi (Persian), and a few Afghani dialects.

SGT KC KIRKLAND – RIFLEMAN, INFORMATION SPECIALIST
Kirkland is excitable and heavily motivated, yet slightly rebellious. He is an odd combination of two extremes. On one hand he is an adrenaline junkie who enjoys extreme sports in his spare time, on the other he is a high-tech gadgets and information technology freak. Kirkland is very outspoken and not afraid to speak his mind in any situation.

More things will be added and adjusted as well. Currently the mod also includes almost 100Mb of adjusted graphics which should up the performance some I hope. Will keep on going through each map and see what can be fixed.

[Dr.Jeckyl]

AWESOME news! Keep us posted.

[Wolfsong]

I'm up to about 150Mb of graphic fixes now...

[Wolfsong]

Removed AI recovery in SP campaign. Now ghosts die for the rest of the campaign and don't get replaced my new members either.

[Zoog]

Great to hear you're working on this mod for GRAW2!

[BajaBravo]

Very cool!

[Wolfsong]

1.5.2 ALPHA coming today!

Uploading it to Rocky at GR.net right now.
EDIT: Download link http://www.ghostrecon.net/files2/index.php?act=view&id=810

Contents of readme file:

============================
=====( GRAW2 EXTENDED )=====
============================

========( Contents )========

------( v1.5.2 ALPHA )------
+Fixed AI not noticing player bug in Coop.
+Fixed Mission 03 crash bug from the 1.5 patch.
+Fixed broken effect links.
+Fixed sound bank errors on some levels.
+Increased team size to 6 in Campaign Coop.
+Added 5 more team AI in SP.
+Added "death" state in SP. AI lost during a campaign will no longer come back.
+Added pre-defined kits for all team members and all missions.
+Moved MP Predator from primary slot to backpack.
+Fixed internal body linking and texture link warnings/errors on a few hundred units.

------( v1.5.1 ALPHA )------
+Ads new kit setup for MP and Coop, with new classes and over 100 kits to select from.
+Includes special classes which will not be used in the standard kit restriction in later versions.
+Adds G36K and G36C to SP load out, with fixed kit icons.
+Adds restrictions to team AI load out in SP and Campaign Coop.
+Changes arming distance on GL round to 25m.
+Changes draw distance to 300m.
+Changes AI awareness distances.
+Fixes a couple of graphic bugs found.


========( Installation )========

Unrar contents into GRAW2 installation folder.

Included files:
graw2_extended.bat              <-- Start file for mod
graw2_extended_context.xml      <-- Context file for mod
graw2_extended_readme.txt       <-- Info file for mod
clean_xmb.bat                   <-- Support file to clean out old XMB files
mods/graw2_ext_152_alpha.bundle <-- Content file for mod

Correct placement of included files for mod to work (in case it got extracted somewhere else):
"your GRAW2 folder"/graw2_extended.bat
"your GRAW2 folder"/graw2_extended_context.xml
"your GRAW2 folder"/graw2_extended_readme.txt
"your GRAW2 folder"/clean_xmb.bat
"your GRAW2 folder"/mods/graw2_ext_152_alpha.bundle


=======( How to use )=======

To play the game with this mod, start the game by using the included graw2_extended.bat file.

To play the game without this mod, simply start the game by using the original graw2.exe file.

To use this mod while playing in MP as a player, you have to start the game with
 the included BAT file and join a server running this mod.


!! You can not join a server not using this mod if you have started the game with the included BAT file !!


To setup a dedicated server to use this mod, these steps has to be followed:
1. Uploaded mod files to the server in the correct places as listed above.
2. Edit the context-standalone.xml file and add the <mod_bundle name="graw2_ext_152_alpha"/> tag
    after the initial script tag.
   
   Example start of context-standalone.xml file:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
   <context>
      <script base="data" exec="level/dedicated" editor="false" language="english"/>
      <mod_bundle name="graw2_ext_152_alpha"/>
   
      <layer_config file="\data\settings\layers.xml"/>
      <scene_config file="\data\settings\scenes.xml"/>   
   
3. Start up the server as normal.


========( Warnings )========
!! The extended draw distance increases the minimum hardware specs and will approximetly half your FPS. !!
!! I would recommend at least a duo core to run the game with this mod. !!

This mod will not work well with another mod in a local folder overriding it.

Although it should work with most custom levels out there, there is always the possibility that
 mods may collide somewhere. Each custom level has to be tested for compatibility, which is easiest
 done by running the game with the mod and starting a LAN server with the maps you want to test
 and then simply starting each level. If it crashes, this mod won't work with that level for some reason.


======( Support Info )======
This mod was created by GRIN_Wolfsong in his own time; support is through the www.ghostrecon.net or www.theplatoon.com forums, not Ubisoft or GRIN.

[Zoog]

sweet

[BajaBravo]

Downloading.... (I guess I should install GRAW2 while I'm at it)

[HoppinRaven]

Fantastic mod to improve still further on a great game!

Personally I can't wait to see the campaign coop feature be extended to 6 players. Me and five other friends have been hoping for someone able to do this since we all **** at modding. So thank you especially from the War Monkeys!

Hop...

[HoppinRaven]

Not sure if this is the spot to put notices up of errors I keep getting with the Extended mod. The error occurs in two instances:
one - Multi play in Campaign mode, when another player than myself (me running server) tries to use a grenade (hand or underbarrel).
two - in single play, campaign chapter the last stand, when I kill the tank with either a zeus or air strike.

This is the error message:
Crash in application version: 30899.3048

data\lib\managers\damagemanager.dsf(-1): No such name :light in unit :street_light

SCRIPT STACK:
   data\lib\managers\damagemanager.dsf(0)
   data\lib\managers\damagemanager.dsf(0)
   data\lib\managers\damagemanager.dsf(0)
   data\lib\units\extensions\damagesystem.dsf(0)
   data\lib\script_network\networkdamage.dsf(0)
   data\lib\units\extensions\damagesystem.dsf(0)
   data\lib\managers\damagemanager.dsf(0)
   data\lib\managers\damagemanager.dsf(0)
   data\lib\managers\damagemanager.dsf(0)
   data\lib\setups\setup.dsf(0)
   data\level\level.dsf(0)

Renderer: threaded
Physics : threaded


Sorry if this is the wrong thread for it. Hope it helps to work out the bugs.

[Wolfsong]

I'll take a look at it when I get back into fixing this mod. 

Trying to fix my apartment right now.

[HoppinRaven]

Oh hey! Congrats on your appartment! 


Got a question for this mod too: I was wondering why you limited the choice of kits when in Campaign mode with Extended. I would love to have the extended range and full possibility to fill in the team with the weapons of choice for the mission and not limited to a certain type.
Also is it possible to add a vote for leader instead of server always being lead?

No rush though, real life always comes first 

Hop...

[Wolfsong]

I limited the kits to make it more like GR1 where the classes actually are different. But because I added more troops to the list to select from it should still not be a problem the setup team like you want as long as you keep them alive during the campaign.

Adding vote for team leader is beyond my in the diesel programing language, so that won't happen. Just have the person you want to be team leader host.

[HoppinRaven]

Heh, silly me: I meant campaign mode in multi play, so with other players filling in the other spots.
True with GR1 you had the different kit choices under the different kit groups, but that's just it - when players join the server they get thrown into some kit group from which they have to make do with the kits in that group. But they are not given the choice to either be a rifleman, demo, support, or sniper such as was the choice in GR1.
Or is there a way to make kit group choice first and then kit choices that I missed with my fellow players?

Oh, did I mention you got us drooling at the thought of being able to play the campaign together with all six of us? 

Hop...

[Wolfsong]

Ah. That's true. I'll see if I can put in a check for game mode there as well...

Anyhow, the 6 player thing works right now besides that I forgot to up the server limit for the user interface so it will lock the server down when 4 has joined. But I'm gonna fix that.

[HoppinRaven]

Besides a check for game mode, since me and five other friends usually play together anyhow, is it possible to add the choice to use the selected kit restrictions or at least to select what kit each player would like to use?

*sighs at himself* I should have learned programming. Hrm, on that note: is Diesel an easy to learn code?

Hop...

[Wolfsong]

You don't have access to the diesel code. And even if you had it's no use learning it as it's a dead language. We don't use it at Grin anymore.

[HoppinRaven]

Thats a pity, has that got anything to do with Ubi's descision to stop the FPS line of games? Or is that a fluke?

Anyways I got another bug to report, happens in both normal multiplayer as with the Extended mod in multiplay. The following causes the application to crash: when switching to secondary weapon and right after (weapon still coming up into hud) changing fire rate:

dCrash in application version: 30899.3048

data\lib\units\extensions\inventory.dsf(-1): cant find member: player_data in type <Unit>

Renderer: threaded
Physics : threaded

Its getting really annoying as I get into very intense firefights on the sierra and sierra day maps and when the enemy is flanking and surrounding me I want to switch between weapons quick and change fire rate if needed when I have picked up a new weapon from a downed tango... and the application crashes 

Don't know if it is the map or the game though.

Hop...

[Wolfsong]

Probably the game code somewhere. Not sure it's something I can fix.

And we use LUA these days in the next generation of the Diesel engine, instead of having an inhouse language.