Alot of blah blah, read on..

Recently I made a map called Sidewinderimproved. My intention was to make an ai multiplayer map popular so I'd have something to play with others online.

I'm very grateful for the response it got, (much more than expected) showing people did enjoy the battle it had to offer, lots of humans and covenant attacking back and forth in vehicles etc.

Then I joined a server with me and 3 others, ouch! Ai did not sync. What does this mean? Ai would respawn without a weapon, unkillable in 1 position, causing lag and a lack of fun.

I learned from this that the community did like the piece of crap map I had to offer, or its intention anyway. By looking at the servers a few days ago I saw some name the server "rpg etc"

Here's my new intention:
update sidewinderimproved as a sandbox rpg where you must eliminate 3 opposing covy leaders.

It will be simple in build, where you and the covy have limited respawns on soldiers, however each base you attack, more respawns at the other 2, creating a natural increased difficulty for each time you eliminate enemies at a given base.

Of the 3 bases(with covy leaders) there will be items you pick up, (weapons , or steal their vehicles) simulating reward, and sort of rpg mix.

The thing that I believe makes a map fun is the battles it offers. I try to work steadily on ai driving vehicles and using the vehicles appropriately in combat.

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OK ENOUGH OF MY BLAB, if you could tolerate it.

I wanted feedback on what vehicles you would like in sidewinder, to fight with/against. I will be tweaking such vehicles to be driven by ai, and to attack you or your allies with them.

weapons however I wont be messing with, (too much over-writing of original tags) and npcs. I've had much trouble with npcs and weapons, crashing sapien.

Also if sidewinder bores you, please send me the bitmap file for the map you would like me to create big vehicle battles in.

My hek does not extract the .bitmap file correctly (i have vista) , example - sidewinder.bitmap.
I found sidewinder.bitmap online, so I was fine, otherwise im limited to what maps I can mod in sapien. (I may do ice fields anyway, but likewise, the map has no shading involved since to get it to work i must remove reference to the bitmap, in the scenerio tag)

Umm ok, this is a common issue here in HCE community:
AI will not sync online meaning they wont appear to them (clients) as they will to you (host)

Your AI map isnt too bad but another few issues:
AI dont charge at each other, they stay at their base
The human turret gunner on the Elephant is virtually invincible with a head-on attack

Fix these and it will be improved :)

Ah, I played this map! It was quite good for an AI map. I think you should add in a little more enemies and make them re-spawn. Also the elephant is called a hornet for some reason.

Other than that it was good!

Strings lists. Since there is a "Hornet" string, I assume that the author knows how to edit strings lists.

I'm sorry I wasn't too clear. I ran across the ai sync issue, and DECIDED not to make it multiplayer. This map update will be single player only.

I already have an updated version of the sidewinderimproved, which improves the ally engagement/battles, greatly improved wraith ai, they are a true covy tank.

But it takes almost a week to get the map online, and a couple hours to upload, a true pain. Also the screen shots I uploaded were never used, so I decided to upload on the next major update.

The new version(not to be released) has about twice as many vehicles driven at once, (spectres, i hate spectres, a serious anti air ) has 1/3 less troops running around ,scenery items removed, sight increased for across the map(jackals shooting you from afar etc).

Problem: wasn't fun. I took off in a hornet, aaaah spectres! however wraith bombardment was fun. tweaked the wraith and banshee pilots to fire upon you . also the covenant team wooped human butt.

I still have an issue. I cant seem to fix the wraith's /elephants almost invincible health. This leads to me not making the shadows health stronger aswell.

I'm currently reinstalling halo ce, hek, and downloading fresh new single player tags. All so I can create a single player scenario of human vs covy defense in a30 map. Sidewinders bend around the corner base to base causes ai movement problems. And I dont have a working bloodgulch.bitmap tag(corrupt every time i extract). I'll use a30 for the assualt.

FOR YOU MAPPERS LISTEN UP!

I spent countless hours monitoring, taking data on how/why the ai does what it does. Here is how you get your ai into vehicles correctly!

A vehicle can only accept 1 ai entering it at a given time. If more than 1 ai tries to enter the vehicle at a given time, the first ai listens, ALL THE REST forget the command, and go on to the next command. Looping the first command wont fix this. Set each vehicle away from each other greater than the radius you set for each ai looking for vehicles to get into. As soon as the transaction is complete(ai entering vehicle) then command the next ai to enter.

So to get a warthog with 1 driver 1 gunner every time, make 2 encounter(drivers, gunners, etc..) gunners enter vehicles imediately. drivers wait 10 seconds then execute enter vehicle command. If 2 drivers are close to the same of any vehicle, and attempt to get into the same vehicle, you failed, move the vehicles further apart. I suggest set radius in the enter vehicle command to 3 and place start point next to vehicle, and set each vehicle at least 10 world units apart.

I should make a tutorial on interactions of ai, explaining why your covy driver keeps pacing back and forth and not listening to you;) But i'd rather make a great battle for you to enjoy.

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I do need to know how to edit vehicle dmg taken(their armor), and which vehicles youd like to see in the fight ;)

If the next upload goes well like my first crap map did, then I may even script the troops to exit the elephant once a destination has been reached(found script online b4, it would be a fun assualt) But ill see how this next map works out for community.

RE: Yes, its time to nerf the elephant, help on nerfing the gunner please?

RE: I don't know about the hornet strings, I simply put already made vehicles into the map, and tweak their ai. But I have been learning more. Now I can/and have changed some vehicles to 1st perspective (hornet real hard to see thru the glass, cool but not fun) also edit vehicle seat positions. I may learn more. But right now I just want a big epic battle. For example, I've made 8 warthogs attack a base on a30. I placed alot of trees, as if you snipe the gunner, the hog is nothing of a threat, however 1 missile hog can wipe out your entire defense(hunters, elites, turrets) if close range. Enemy human snipers are no fun, they snipe me and my grunts.

Ok I'll stop blabbing. And get working. Recommendations on WORKING actor varient tags/weapons/vehicles. If its a good stand alone tag. Too many times I dll, and tag requires some missing tags, maybe error on my part..

I think b30 would make a good ai arena instead of sidewinder. Also, I think there is an imroved hornet somewhere that uses V/STOL physics instead of banshees. I also think some sort of gunship (like a pelican) would work better, or at least some extra seats attached to the hornet. An AA wraith would be fun to. I guess I would just like a large aerial battle. As for the elephant, I know how to do something like that where you aproach a location and everyone gets out.