Tanks for Support (Working Title) Community ALPHA

[Kenadian]

Hello all,

...as some of you are aware, I've been working on a Multiplyer Mission for ArmA2 for quite some time now.

Mission parameter is to advance East from the Airfield outside Loy Manara (South East Takistan), through Chardarakt, eventually ending up at Hazar Bagh.

~ I'll post a map shortly ~

Along the way you are to engage, neutralize and secure the area against any enemy presence as the US intends to use the Airfield as a base of operations for further infiltrating Takistan.

This is an infantry, IFV and Armor based mission lacking air support as the area still remains unstable.

You can get a very loose idea of what the mission is like via the following YouTube Video.

The first couple of minutes of the video is all taken directly from this mission once assembled.

Please keep in mind this is my very first YouTube Video/Video Commentary so it's still a bit dry:

[video=youtube;wkyEjfkyE1g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkyEjfkyE1g&feature=plcp[/video]

There are a number of bugs that require squashing prior to this Mission being complete. In fact, I don't see it being complete until ArmA3 is released at which time I will port it over.

This is an ALPHA so it will be very buggy in the beginning. In fact I'd even term the first few connects pre-ALPHA as I anticipate frequent connecting, editing, re-packaging and re-connecting.

At this time, the mission has only been tested by myself and as such has not been properly scaled to accommodate more players.

Mission Intel: (what you can expect to see ingame)

• Scripted Enemy Artillery Strikes x 3 (minimum); random shell drops so no key location is ever truly safe.
• Loosely Scripted Armor and IFV column advance.
• Randomly generated AI presence Oppositional Forces (OPFOR)
• Randomly generated AI presence US/USMC (BLUFOR)
• Dead body removal script
• Randomly placed Static Enemy Support Vehicles with probability of presence at 50%.
• Randomly placed Static Enemy Re-Supply Depots with probability of presence at 50%.
• Randomly generated Enemy Armor.
• Randomly generated wrecks and vehicle hulls used for cover and concealment.
• OPFOR and BLUFOR offset engagement means the war goes on whether your there or not.
• Hidden OPFOR/BLUFOR AI respawns (you should never see AI appear out of thin air).

Known Issues:

• Tanks and IFV's will not engage enemy quickly enough.
• Wildlife can stop IFV's and armored columns.
• Tanks and IFV's do not "turn in" once engaged.
• Player respawn in vehicle not working.
• "Mission Failed" not configured based off BLUFOR tanks being KIA.
• Smoke columns and fire not configured to burn on ruins.
• Out of bounds not yet configured.
• Markers not fully configured, still WIP.
• Objects, Hint Dialogues and Markers visible ingame. These will be removed as tests continue and only serve to determine if AI is reacting as expected.
• MAP INTRO not created.

I will not be providing any insight into exactly what you should do once ingame. The reason is that I need to alleviate any level of mission confusion as this will eventually be released to the ArmA Community.

Your initial confusion, assuming you load ingame and have no idea what to do, will help me determine the best execution of Intel, Mission Notes and Map Markers to make gameplay clear to anyone new to the mission.

What I need from you:

• Feeback (both positive and negative) so I can expand on what works while minimizing, replacing or deleting what doesn't.
• In depth bug reports. If you see something (anything) you don't think is working please give me as much detail as possible on what happened, where, when and any changes you think could be made.

The only caveat to the above is...

...parameters are pretty much locked at this point so I can't make any huge changes to the overall mission design. Elements such as BLUFOR armor, IFV and infantry movements are now mostly unchangeable.

I can make small changes in deployment of infantry but armor and IFV cannot have their routes or behaviors modified unfortunately.

...

This mission currently accommodates between 15 - 20 players but will scale depending on ALPHA/BETA outcome.

Mission Execution Timeframe: Initially targeted mission completion currently lies at 3 hours. This will be adjusted to accommodate our schedule but will be scalable between 60 - 240 minutes.

If interested, please let me know in this post and we'll start hashing out a Community ALPHA start date.

Thanks all!

Ken

 

[JohnnyK]

Multiplyer

Multiplyer

Multiplyer

I'm so sorry.

Nice work though!

EDIT: Yeah, I made this myself - I'm a true artist

 

[Kenadian]

lol @ Multiplyer.

It figures, I actually re-read and edited the post several times before publishing it.

 

[Ogami Itto]

This is an infantry, IFV and Armor based mission lacking air support as the area still remains unstable.


What I need from you:

• Feeback (both positive and negative) so I can expand on what works while minimizing, replacing or deleting what doesn't.
• In depth bug reports. If you see something (anything) you don't think is working please give me as much detail as possible on what happened, where, when and any changes you think could be made.

The only caveat to the above is...

...parameters are pretty much locked at this point so I can't make any huge changes to the overall mission design. Elements such as BLUFOR armor, IFV and infantry movements are now mostly unchangeable.

Don't hate on me! Please state the reason for the restriction of air-power in this mission. The reason I ask is that the availability of air-power for the western democracies is global at this point, no one intervenes with our tanker support and so we have global coverage. If you're going for realism, for a sim community, and you still feel the need to eliminate friendly air-strikes I would use the term "Available strike packages have been prioritized elsewhere." The idea that the local area in not secured for air use is a fallacy and shouldn't be used as the reason it is unavailable. US forces in particular don't get out of bed without air support, however they may be needed more critically elsewhere.

If you want to include friendly air I have a couple of suggestions, any area called Takistan is going to be very far away from bluefor airbases, therefore the number of air strikes would be one or two total. Enemy artillery could be fierce enough to require a counter-battery mission if that is possible, or have the numbers tilted more so that the correctly timed use of air-power may required to tilt the battlefield favorably.

Other than this issue with the scenario setup, I'd be happy to beat my head against the wall again and again. j/k We could run this on a weekend so as to gather up our euro-brethern and maximize squad size to test your scalability when it is operational. Count me in!

 

[Kenadian]

The problem with adding air is it will totally break the mission at this point.

Air in ArmA is a very dicey proposition and you have to seriously restrict what the AI can do otherwise they'll just crash into stuff. Even adding a flyInHeight value to keep them level means that if engaged, they may deviate outside their envelope and crash into a bl00dy mountain or each other.

I don't want to speak for all missions, but most missions I've seen in ArmA MP are always pretty wide open terrain where the air can maintain level flight and not run the chance of hitting something. Also I've yet to see any online mission for ArmA2 where numerous vehicle columns are meant to traverse cities; it just isn't done because of ArmA's AI pathfinding.

This particular area in Takistan is pretty much a valley between two mountains loosely speaking and there is just no way to get AI air in there and have them navigate without hitting something. If they take out a few tanks in Chardarakht which is easily done with splash damage, the entire column and subsequent columns will pathfind straight into buildings.

Air will engage the armor pretty much immediately and the husks alone are enough to stop any vehicle column dead in their tracks. The AI is then left to pathfind around the vehicle husks but if there anywhere near buildings, the vehicles will get stuck at best; I've seen them bounce off buildings and end upside down in a fiery wreck.

Also, air is very OP in ArmA2; they can't fly worth a damn but my God are they ever good shots.

Air wasn't part of the mission design parameters in the beginning so implementing it at this late stage is like starting over and I'm over 100 hours in at this point in time.

I am going for as Sim an experience as I can get but unfortunately there are limits to what I can achieve in ArmA2.

ArmA3 is supposed to have much better AI pathfinding so hopefully I can revive an air mission I had working in ArmA1 which had air as well as paradrops. It was awesome but I had to shelve it because the AI when left to their vices will release late if engaged and infantry would fall to their deaths breaking the mission.

As a side note, if I was an experienced scripter I'm sure I could come up with something but my scripting prowess in ArmA2 is still pretty weak so I have to work with what I got and utilize what I know works.

 

[Ogami Itto]

Ah, forgive me, just my noobishness in ArmA II sticking out. Your reasoning for no air-power sounded WWII kinda dated to me and I didn't want your work chewed up and spat out for that reason if we get the rest of the mission polished up.

 

[Kenadian]

No worries, it was actually a very reasonable question.

In most of these missions I do try to add an air element but it just wouldn't work here sadly. I love having air because I believe it adds to the overall aesthetic of the mission but in this one there really is enough going on where lack of air can be explained and not noticed as much.

I guess the true test will be when you all play. It will keep you busy but immersion and authenticity are always difficult to achieve.

 

[ElektroVodka]

No air, does this also mean we have no choppers? I'd love to be the designated pilot..Both for attack and transport if there's any.
And yes count me in!

 

[ElektroVodka]

I'll get Systo to join up aswell, he needs to read the forums....slacker
Im not sure if Oxhzor will join as GW2 will be released this weekend.

 

[Kenadian]

The one thing I'll never do in any of my missions is EVER allow the players to have vehicles of any sort, not even a pedal bicycle.

I've seen enough chaos from the stupidity of some online people who just grab a jeep and start mowing down their own team for my own liking.

Every mission I make has you close enough to the action where you can get into the battle in a very short amount of time which negates the reason to have vehicles.

If you guys do want some sort of player based vehicle mission maybe come up with something and I'll see what I can put together in the Mission Editor.

I recommend though sticking to Takistan as it's probably the best map for MP as it seems to commit reasonably low CPU resources while still maintaining some level of greenery.

 

[PepsiChic]

You already know me and Keith are onboard!