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Rifle Platoon 0.8b readme
April 4, 2004

Rifle Platoon is a realism mod for Call of Duty. It has most of the realism features which most of the realism mods out there have, as well as some new not-seen-before-in-CoD features.

Disclaimer: this is a beta release! I worked on this on and off as sort of a “pet project”, never meant to be released to any public except maybe my clan, and now rushed out because some people on the IWNation forums demanded some of the features in it J.

I tried to polish some stuff up this last week or so, but there are sure to be some bugs or glitches, especially when playing with more than a handful of players as I never tried that yet. In-game, console statements might appear telling you some function has started or what the status of a weapon or player is (although some statements about damage dropoff and distance were left in intentionally so you guys can help me and each other to tweak stuff – if you want to have these shown, set g_showdebugmessages to “1” in the server cfg). Also, modders going through the code will find plenty of comments, TODO’s, and redundant, unused, inefficient or unpolished code etc.

Finally, the best way to run this is with no other mods in your main folder. I’m not sure yet why exactly it was, but two clan members were continuously kicked and/or got weird menu behavior because they had an admin mod called HLCRCON running.

Why the name?

One of the things this mod tries to enforce, in fact its very basis, is (semi-)realistic squad composition. As the max number of people in a server is 64, and one team of 32 would just about form a rifle platoon (barring the command section), I decided to use it (I first thought of Rifle Squad, as the game is much more likely to be played 10 vs10, but the RS acronym is already taken a few times J ).

Installation

The new menus needed for the class system, as well as the changed weapon files, make this mod clientside; both the clients and the server need the pk3 file.

It can just be put into the “main” directory within the CoD installation directory. As this is a beta, and as yet untested with other mods, the best way to go would be to have no other mods in your main directory. If you experience weird behavior like getting kicked, weird server messages etc, your first action should be to check for any other mods, including admin mods and mods which are not supposed to interfere with other mods, and remove them.

The Elimination gametype (the only supported gametype right now) should work fine on any map that has retrieval spawn points, as those are the spawn points used (so while Elimination bears some resemblance to TDM, it does NOT use those spawns).

I have not checked how RP fares when put into its own mod folder, started with fs_game etc.

A sample server cfg file is included in the pk3 file.

Features

Many of these features can be set to off, but this is a realism mod so they should stay on ;-).

n New gametype: Elimination – see below for a description.

n Class system – see below for a description of the various classes.

n More realistic squad composition – see below for a description of the various restrictions.

n No carrying two primaries – picking up a primary will make you drop the one you’re holding.

n Reload by clip – reloading when your clip is not empty yet will still deduct a full clip’s worth of bullets from your ammo, but the bullets you had left in the clip come back later as “used” clips when your full clips are spent.

n More realistic ammo counts.

n Damage dropoff – the further you are away from your target, the less damage you do. Respective ranges of the weapons are based on their real counterparts (but scaled down to fit the CoD maps); some weapons (SMG’s and pistols mainly) won’t do any damage if the target is too far away.

n Movement speed based on primary carried – no speed boost when switching to pistol or nades. Primary weapons are divided into 5 weight classes, and for many the speed has been toned down based on their realistic weights. See below for some details on how this affects certain weapons.

n Changed weapon stats to decrease accuracy when unaimed, view bob when aimed, and more realistic weights as mentioned above. Also increased damage from most guns to work better with the damage dropoff system.

n No crosshair in unaimed mode.

n No kill confirmations or any visual clue on the scoreboard that you killed someone. You only know for sure if you see his dead body up close ;-).

n Dizzy spells - when health gets below 20, you suffer from dizzy spells every 10-20 seconds, lasting 3 seconds or so. Keep that in mind if you’re about to rush around a corner!

n No compass friendlies and no map except if you’re an officer.

n The usual: shellshock when losing a certain amount of health to grenades, rockets or getting bashed on the head, forced prone if hit by a grenade or shot in the legs/feet or taking damage from falling (keeping you down for a number of seconds based on how much damage you sustained), drop weapon when hit in the arm/hand, …





What does it NOT have?



Obviously, naming every single feature Rifle Platoon could have but doesn’t would take a while, but it might be good to know that RP does not contain ANY new skins, models, weapons, sounds, animations etc – all the RP features were added in script and by changing weapon files. Also, right now it only works on the new simple Elimination gametype, although it will support more gametypes in upcoming releases.





Elimination gametype



Elimination is a very simple gametype, meant to enable testing of RP’s realism features without having to focus on the gametype itself (yeah I could have used stock TDM, but that just doesn’t fit with the realism thought).



Basically, it’s TDM, but with no respawn, and the two teams spawning in fixed positions (usually on two sides of the map, the S&D or Retrieval spawns).





Class system



The name for this mod comes from the real-life platoon structure it’s based on: the rifle platoon, which in turn consisted of three rifle squads (and a command squad).



A rifle squad had a pretty standard composition in all WW2 armies, differing only in the number of men in them (ranging from 9 to 12). It was formed by an officer, a second-in-command, an LMG gunner with his loader, and the rest riflemen. Snipers and medics were kept higher up in the hierarchy on company level, as were SMG’s, to be handed out when necessary (and when time permitted it).



In this mod, I use 10 men as a base for determining restrictions. For every 10 men or part thereof, a team can have:



n one officer

n one sniper

n one medic

n one LMG gunner

n two close combat gunners (SMG’s)



This means a team with 1-10 players can have max one officer, one LMG gunner etc, while a team of 11-20 players can have two officers, four CC gunners and so on.



Additionally, a player cannot pick a “specialist” (ie non-rifleman) class if there are already more specialists than riflemen, for example a team of 8 or 9 players will always have at least 4 riflemen, a team of 10-11 players will have at least 5 riflemen etc. Of course, if there are 10 players and then all the riflemen leave the server, the team will consist of only specialists… this won’t happen too often, and no action to rectify this is taken (except that anyone joining the team will HAVE to be a rifleman).



Loadouts. All classes have a choice of at least two loadouts. This may be a choice between having a pistol and some ammo or two nades, an M1 Carbine or an M1 Garand, or in the case of officers and medics even a choice between only a pistol or a rifle or smg (which choice isn’t as easy as you’d think because of the added weight!).



Officer. The officer is the only class who can view the map, and also the only class who sees his teammates on the compass. In the works is a menu (well the menu is already there, but it doesn’t have any contents yet ;-) where the officer can check on his team’s members’ health and ammo count. When I have converted Headquarters to RP the officer will be the only one to see the location of the radio on the compass, which should make things interesting.



Medic. The medic can heal other players. To this end, he has a certain number of medic points (which correspond to health points). The medic is himself not very suited to the real fighting (having very little ammo for whatever weapon you pick for him, and he can’t heal himself), but he can of course keep the rest of his team functioning that much longer.



The medic can heal teammates he’s next to by pressing and holding the use key. He gets points for healing a certain amount of health. Healing doesn’t work when either player is moving, shooting or meleeing, and stops if either player does that once healing started, so pick your time and place carefully!



LMG Gunner, Close Combat Gunner, Sniper, Rifleman. These classes speak for themselves pretty much. This mod tries to place them more squarely in the role they’re meant for (you won’t see any across-the-map sniping with an SMG or pistol in this mod, nor a sniper whipping out an SMG and happily joining the room-to-room fighting), but their weapons are what you would expect: the LMG, SMG, sniper rifle and regular rifle.



Special class: veteran. The veteran is not a class you can pick; instead, you can become a veteran by surviving a minimum of three rounds in a row, and making a certain amount of kills during those three rounds. Veterans count as the class they were when they became veterans (or became when they were veterans), so the restrictions mentioned still stand: a veteran can be a medic, sniper or close combat gunner just as easily as a “regular” rifleman!



Veterans have 120 health points, and for some classes one or more new loadout options will appear. Veteran medics can heal an extra 50 health points.



Note that a veteran stops being a veteran when he gets killed! If you have a veteran-only loadout when you get killed, you will be presented with the normal loadout window for your class when you spawn again (unless you pick a new loadout before that).





Weight system



The primary weapons have been divided into 5 weight classes, each with their own moveSpeedScale (in-game move speed). Having the same speed no matter if you switch to pistol or grenades is accomplished by actually having 6 different versions of the pistols and grenades: one as they are in the stock game (for players without primary weapons), and one for each of the weight classes. If a player carries a primary of a certain weight class, he automatically gets the pistol and grenades of the same weight class (if he has a pistol and/or grenades in the first place).



As I would need many many more weight classes, as well as versions of each weight class for all primaries, to make a system where your speed is determined by all weapons (not just your primary, but also primaryb, pistol, grenades and ammo), this is impossible with this system: the game only supports 64 weapon files loaded :/ .



Below is a table with the weight classes, their moveSpeedScales, and the weapons in that class. Note that some weapons have switched from very light to quite heavy compared to the stock game! I used the real-life weight of a loaded weapon to divide the weapons among the weight classes.



weight class
moveSpeedScale
Weapons

none
1.2
pistol and/or nades only (no primary weapon)

1
1.15
M1 Carbine, Sten

2
1.1
Lee Enfield, Kar98K, Mosin Nagant, Springfield, Kar98K scoped, Mosin Nagant scoped

3
1.05
MP40, M1 Garand

4
1
MP44, Thompson, PPSh, FG42

5
0.9
BAR, Bren






Known bugs



As mentioned earlier, there are sure to be some bugs and glitches in this mod, as it’s a first public release, and a rushed one at that. I would love to hear about any bug, glitch or weird behavior, as well as ideas for features which would fit in the mod!



However, some bugs are already known, and some features have their basics in the code but have not been tested or activated yet.



Officer – view map – The map is only supposed to be viewable by the officer class. Other classes can indeed not see it, but the officer can’t either, unless he’s playing on the (non-dedicated) server… Not sure what could cause this.



Next round starting message – at the end of a round, a message is shown along the lines of “Waiting for round 5 to start…”. This message IS shown, but it’s hidden behind the scoreboard, and I haven’t checked on how to remove that in code yet.



Debug messages – while playing, sometimes a message may appear in the console telling you how far away from the player you shot you were, how much the damage was before and after applying the damage dropoff system, what function the code is executing etc.



Veterans – while players who are flagged as veterans should get the higher health value and the added loadout options, the system to determine if a player actually IS a veteran is not in place yet (ie nobody will become a veteran no matter how many kills you have and how many rounds you survive). This also means the MP44 (or StG44) is not available at all – this is a veteran-only weapon.





Future of Rifle Platoon



Because this is something I do for fun first, and only became something to release to the public a week or two ago, I will definitely keep on playing around and see what features can be added which increase realism while not impeding playablility too much, no matter if Rifle Platoon is praised or ground into the dirt.



The first things I plan to work on are:



n Compatibility with the stock Headquarters gametype and my own Escape gametype.

n New classes: LMG loader and scout. The LMG gunner will get limited ammo, needing a loader to be max effective, enforcing more teamwork. The scout will be the fastest moving, but will have less health (easier to wound/kill because he is lighter equipped). He will have the infiltration skill as outlined below.

n Infiltration skill for scout class – scouts start a round a certain number of seconds earlier than the other player types (I got this idea from the IWNation forums, I thought in the hardcore realism thread, but I can’t find it mentioned anymore).

n Veteran status – surviving a certain number of rounds while having made a certain number of kills during them gives a player the veteran status. Some code for this is already present, but incomplete. The description of the class system above gives more details of the veteran status.

n There should be a lot of possibilities to make the weapons more realistic; there are lots and lots of settings I have no clue what they do and/or how they are supposed to be used. Also, I made accuracy worse and aimed view wobble more for all weapons, but without taking any weapon specifics in mind (ie the aimed wobble should probably be based on the weapon weight etc). Weapon files will probably be changed with every version ;-).



A little farther along the road I hope to add the following (although some seem impossible right now due to limitations of what’s available/possible in script):



n Compatibility with more gametypes, preferably a conquest-like one, an S&D-like one (Demolition?), and maybe Retrieval.

n New class: Engineer. He would have an advantage in planting and defusing explosives, and hopefully by that time we know and can do enough to have him be able to plant mines and expacks or something.

n Some sort of stamina / heart rate system, with different movement speeds (walk, jog, sprint).

n More detailed weight system, to take into account not only the primary weapon but all equipment carried.

n Binoculars for the officer class.

n Bullet drop.



Would be so cool, but I can’t do it:



n new skins, especially for medic and officer.

n New weapons, with number one on my list the russian LMG (DP), closely followed by a deployable MG42, and some veteran-only weapons like the SVT40.



I’m sure there’s a lot of features either already out there in some mod or as yet not implemented anywhere that would fit right in in RP! If you’re interested in seeing those in a future version of Rifle Platoon, be sure to e-mail me about them, or post on the IW Nation forums.



I’m always open to suggestions and ideas!





Credits



Most of the features in this mod were coded by myself, even when there were versions of the feature out there already.



I used the medic functionality from Ravir’s Demolition mod as a base for my own medic. Even though the way a medic works in Rifle Platoon is quite different, the animations used to show you’re healing or getting healed, and the basic idea of the medic code, are his.



Some of the features, most notably the damage dropoff system, I discussed on the IWNation forums, to get information, ideas etc. Also, some of the modders there have been really helpful getting me up to speed on game scripting in general and CoD scripting in particular (as this is my first forray into the world of game scripting). Too many individuals to mention them by name, but to all: thanks for your input guys!



Finally, I’d like to thank my clan mates, especially Frags, Pirate, Thor, Mystie and Dune, for helping me test stuff.



If you feel you deserve named credit for whatever reason, be sure to contact me! It’s not my intent to steal other people’s code or ideas (as opposed to using them and giving credit for it that is – as a programmer I know the value of code reuse).





Contact details



The best way to reach me is probably by posting on the IWNation forums (http://www.iwnation.com/Forums/index.php), preferably the modding ones.



For private discussions you can e-mail me on pkortlevers@hotmail.com. I’m not really into PM’ing on the forums I visit, so don’t expect a quick reply if you PM me ;-).


by Unknown (email)