Comrades in Arms Discussion Board - Arma 3

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[Image: F98BC144C59CEC30792D8391C324761A4917565A]

Private Military Company Versus has been assigned by the Takistani paramilitary group Al-Azif to destabilize the Altian government by any and all means necessary. The third party commission for this whole operation (designation 'Cronos') is 4.2 million euros. Prepare for asymmetric warfare and effects-based operations. Prepare for the blackest of operations known to Versus. Prepare for questionable ethics. Prepare for a fat paycheck.

Get version 2.06 from Dropbox.

Mission content:

Operation Resurreximus: eliminate the local extremist group key personnel, acquire weapons and vehicles.
Operation Metamorphoses: eliminate the last of the extremists and steal explosives from the AAF.
Operation Afflamus: destroy liquid containers and eliminate a distillery foreman.
Operation Alcyon: seize an AA installation and ambush transport helicopters.
Operation Ignis Graecus: eliminate a plantation owner and destroy olive tree saplings.
Operation Semideus Rabiosus: sabotage a go-kart event.
Operation Caesiae Maria: ambush a fuel transport convoy and free prisoners.
Operation Canes Currunt: deliver intel and avoid search patrols.
Operation Terriculi: defend an FOB and investigate an unknown contact.
Operation Argentum Vivum: clear an LZ for extraction choppers.

Requirements:
NATO SF and Russian Spetsnaz Weapons

What's this mission pack going to be (and what's not):

Co-op mission pack for 1-10 players.
Small scale black operations with infantry.
A backstory to tie the missions loosely together.
Closer to Thirsk ops than Chernarus ops (because of my hardware)
Not a massive mission pack with 30 missions like the Chernarus operations.
No cutscenes, no zone restrictions.
Difficult.

Changelog:

2.06
- Total ending trigger overhaul: switched to Arma3 end function.
- Total loadout overhaul, eveything set up again from scratch.
- Mission pack is now dedicated server compatible (thanks Alwarren and Varanon!)
- Balance tweaks for most of the missions based on feedback (thanks everyone!)
- Lots of minor and a couple of major bug fixes throughout.
[/li]
2.05
- [li]Added an RPG-7 for Perditus in Argentum Vivum.
[/li]
2.04
- Fixed typos in briefings.
- Changed marksmen rifle optics.
[/li]
2.03
- Minor balance tweaks for the first four missions.
[/li]
2.02
- [li]Fixed Argentum Vivum. Totally.
[/li]
2.01
- Added "Join teams"-order to all missions. Now the missions are, at least in theory, possible to complete in SP.
- Fixed some typos in mission briefings.
[/li]
2.00
- Added minor balance tweaks.
[/li]
1.83
- [li]Changed mission ending triggers throughout.
[/li]
1.82
- [li]Hotfix for Semideus Rabiosus.
[/li]
1.81
- Fixed some balance issues thoughout.
[/li]
1.80
- Added "additional" subheader to briefings for credits and thanks.
- Fixed some spelling mistakes and vague expressions in briefings.
- Fixed(?) ending triggers in missions 3-6.
[/li]
1.61
- Fixed Metamorphoses stuck AAF QRF.
- Balanced Semideus Rabiosus.
- Removed Semideus Rabiosus duplicate map markers.
[/li]
1.60
- Minor fixes and balance tweaks for old missions.
[/li]
1.40
- Fixed Resurreximus civilians not engaging players.
[/li]
1.33
- [li]Fixed Afflamus "independent friendly to everybody".
[/li]
1.32
- Fixed some enemy positions in Resurreximus.
[/li]
1.31
- Fixed the order of briefing subheaders.
[/li]
1.30
- Fixed Metamorphoses ending trigger.
- Fixed all triggers for checking if the other team is alive.
- Removed Metamorphoses unintended firefight at start.
[/li]
1.00
- [li]Added the first 2 missions.
[/li]

Here's something that's on my TODO-list besides this mission pack. All of these require new hardware and on the other hand more ACE content to Arma 3:

PMC Versus tank operations in Takistan or Podagorsk.
PMC Versus operations as a part of large-scale military.
Convert Thirsk and Chernarus ops to Arma 3.

Hot damn! That was quick! I'm so looking forward to it. This is my the most anticipated Arma project of them all!

(09-06-2014, 02:06 PM)Fuiba link Wrote: [ -> ]The zeroth mission in the upcoming Private Military Company Versus co-op mission pack. This is just to test the features of Arma 3's editor and create a template for the upcoming missions. I'll use this thread to inform of any new missions in this mission pack and for all my ramblings. Feel free to comment.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cxxz17lyh3vqbz...s.pbo?dl=0

I had a crash with the Steam version (sorry I don't remember the message, it was something about the mission + Altis and it caused to a crash when starting the game after subscribing to the mission.) The Dropbox link works fine.

(09-06-2014, 02:06 PM)Fuiba link Wrote: [ -> ]This template mission requires (right now) only massi's NATO SF/Russian weapons. I'll be developing the actual mission pack with All in Arma, Varanon's FHQ Task Tracker and Psycho's Advanced Injury System.

Note that the community's finest are working on importing all the Arma 2 content to Arma 3. I guess you can count on all the Arma 2 vanilla content.

(09-06-2014, 02:06 PM)Fuiba link Wrote: [ -> ]I'm experiencing really low FPS on Altis regardless of the number of units on map and I'm considering moving the mission pack to Stratis.

Damn Fuiba we will buy you a new PC then!!! Wink

Stratis is a bit dull... Have you considered lowering the view distance by using fog? It improves FPS immensely.

(09-06-2014, 02:06 PM)Fuiba link Wrote: [ -> ]

Singleplayer / Co-op mission pack for 1-5 players.[/l][/l][/l][/l]

We will have to play those outside coop nights then, it gets really late before we get to five players... Nowadays, our coop nights are starting with about 15 players. Smile

(09-06-2014, 02:06 PM)Fuiba link Wrote: [ -> ]Not a massive mission pack with 30 missions like the Chernarus operations.

Noooooo!!! Smile

Well, I hope that the great feedback you'll get will push you towards 30 again!

(09-06-2014, 02:06 PM)Fuiba link Wrote: [ -> ]

[li]
[li]Here's something that's on my TODO-list besides this mission pack. All of these require new hardware and on the other hand more ACE content to Arma 3:

[li]PMC Versus tank operations in Takistan or Podagorsk.

PMC Versus operations as a part of large-scale military.
[li]Convert Thirsk and Chernarus ops to Arma 3.[/l][/l][/l][/l][/l][/l]

I'd play Thirsk and Chernarus again!

[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Please let us know if you need any assistance. Using FHQ task tracker and Psycho's AIS means you are already on the right track.

Thanks for the feedback, Variable! I'm using those mods because of your recommendations.

I think the main reason for keeping the mission pack shorter than Chernarus ops is because of lack of current content. Arma 2 OA + ACE gave so much content to build around that it was easy to make enough variations to the missions. The other reason is that I want to create something different after this (like tank or combined operations) and making of those 30 missions took me some 200-250 hours Smile

And yes, Stratis is kind of dull Smile

I had planned using fog and bad weather to limit the draw distance and I'll still try to work with Altis! I also thought of moving these ops to some Arma 2 terrain, but I already have a Greek backstory and all so that is not an option Smile

Arma 3 has been a cold shower for me in terms of difficulty: the enemies take good deal of hits before they drop and seem to have serious aiming skills. It has been a little embarrasing for a veteran (in Arma 2 and OFP) to set custom AI aim to the lower end of the scale.

(09-07-2014, 09:46 AM)Fuiba link Wrote: [ -> ]Arma 3 has been a cold shower for me in terms of difficulty: the enemies take good deal of hits before they drop and seem to have serious aiming skills. It has been a little embarrasing for a veteran (in Arma 2 and OFP) to set custom AI aim to the lower end of the scale.

Oh don't feel bad... the default AI skill and accuracy settings are unhumanly difficult. BIS is actually still constantly tweaking them and asking for feedback regarding the recommended default values. What also makes the AI act in a more human way is ASR AI (AI behavior mod) and TPWCAS (AI suppression mod, it makes the AI susceptible to suppression fire, makes them go crouch and prone while lowering their skill level under heavy suppressive fire). I really suggest that you 1. design your missions with these mods, and 2. Play with them Smile

It makes the game much more interesting and convincing. Until TPWCAS we couldn't implement infantry tactics of suppression and flank, and now we can! It changes gameplay dramatically.

These are the settings that we, after a course of a year of tweaking, find challenging, yet not too unforgiving.:
skillAI=0.7
precisionAI=0.4

Thanks for the tip! I'll try those mods too. Since you have a large number of players, I think I could bump the player count to 10. I've planned for two groups of 5 but initially though that the other was controlled by AI (out of sight).

About the hardware: what kind of rigs are you playing with and with what kind of FPS? I have an old Intel Core 2 Quad @ 2,4GHz, 4GB RAM and a GTX 560 Ti (1 GB) and frankly I've skimmed though a lot of performance guides Smile

Nonetheless, this has been enough to run most of the games I play at medium/high settings.

Two teams of 5 would be great for us!! Thanks.

Arma 3 is quite demanding, but not a lot more than Arma 2. At least that's my experience, and I have GTX 680, 6 GB RAM, i7 950. Arma's installed on an SSD.

I have a Core i5-2450k and GeForce GTX 660 Ti. I am quite happy with the performance I must say.

Thanks for the replies, gentlemen! That doesn't really sound too demanding! I though that I could save some money by buying Arma 3 on sale (thanks Variable!) but now it seems that by saving 25â¬ I'll need to ~~spend~~ invest some hundreds to new hardware Wink

Well, I guess it's about time.

Added one new mission. Feedback is most welcome!

I tried to capture the nature of asymmetric warfare as I see it: one explosive moment and it's over. If you find yourselves in a prolonged firefight, consider yourself in big trouble. In all the three missions (and the missions to come) you have two teams of five and I really liked the tactical aspect that brings to the table. Each team can complete its share of the common objectives or you can synchronize your attacks on the same objective and overpower the enemy.

Although creating two teams as opposed to only one required a little more work but was indeed rewarding. This is for you, Comrades in Arms!

It was really difficult trying to balance the difficulty mostly because I did all the play testing in SP. I think the first mission is on the easier side. Speaking of SP - I cannot really recommend this mission pack for single player because of the two teams. Team switching in SP seems to remove the mission objectives, which happened also in Arma 2.

(09-28-2014, 02:24 PM)Fuiba link Wrote: [ -> ]Team switching in SP seems to remove the mission objectives, which happened also in Arma 2.

Are you assigning the tasks to 'player'? That sounds like it and isn't recommended practice for MP missions, player command is local to each client.

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/player

Check out FHQ Task tracker for tasks/briefing management, much easier and guaranteed to work with MP/JIP.

(09-28-2014, 02:24 PM)Fuiba link Wrote: [ -> ]Added one new mission. Feedback is most welcome!

Yay! Uploaded. Hopefully first batch of feedback will come tonight!

(09-28-2014, 02:24 PM)Fuiba link Wrote: [ -> ]I tried to capture the nature of asymmetric warfare as I see it: one explosive moment and it's over. If you find yourselves in a prolonged firefight, consider yourself in big trouble.

We just had a conversation about that on the CiA skype group (you are welcome to join), and this fits perfectly how I feel missions should behave.

(09-28-2014, 02:24 PM)Fuiba link Wrote: [ -> ]In all the three missions (and the missions to come) you have two teams of five and I really liked the tactical aspect that brings to the table. Each team can complete its share of the common objectives or you can synchronize your attacks on the same objective and overpower the enemy.

Although creating two teams as opposed to only one required a little more work but was indeed rewarding. This is for you, Comrades in Arms!

Thank you very much for considering our player count. It will allow us to provide feedback quicker and I do think that gameplay is enriched when playing with two teams. It allows more flexibility in tactics and adds depth to missions.

(09-28-2014, 02:24 PM)Fuiba link Wrote: [ -> ]It was really difficult trying to balance the difficulty mostly because I did all the play testing in SP. I think the first mission is on the easier side. Speaking of SP - I cannot really recommend this mission pack for single player because of the two teams. Team switching in SP seems to remove the mission objectives, which happened also in Arma 2.

If this is indeed the case and not fixable, OMAC (an veteran SP player who's a fan of your missions and posted on your armaholic thread) will be disappointed, but that will allow me to put more pressure on him to join our coop nights Smile

You should join too! The CiA coop nights time is perfect for Finns' timezone.

P.S could you please add the English meaning of the missions' latin code-names as you did for the first PMC campaign? I love this bit of reference... I'll add it to the mission list as well.

(09-28-2014, 02:58 PM)Outlawz7 link Wrote: [ -> ]Are you assigning the tasks to 'player'? That sounds like it and isn't recommended practice for MP missions, player command is local to each client.

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/player

Check out FHQ Task tracker for tasks/briefing management, much easier and guaranteed to work with MP/JIP.

I assigned to tasks to "all playable units" via the BIS task module. I haven't really had the chance to test if it works when players join/reconnect, but I thought (mistake number one) it would apply to MP.

Variable:

As for the operation names there's always room for interpretation when it comes to Latin. I originally (when creating the Chernarus ops) though that Latin would be a fitting language for a PMC without an official country of origin: even though the Latin operation documents were stolen or misplaced or radio communications intercepted, what country do you associate with Latin language? And who can translate it on the spot, anyway?

I always thought that Versus uses Latin in all communication, but for obvious reasons the radio messages and intel is in English. Also, this way the operation names stay unique - I can use however cheesy operation names without having to worry about it being cheesy Smile

As the saying goes "omnia dicta fortiora si dicta Latina" (whatever said in Latin sounds profound).

Resurreximus = We have risen
Metamorphoses = Transformations (the poem by Ovid)
Afflamus = We breathe out poison

(09-28-2014, 04:33 PM)Fuiba link Wrote: [ -> ]BIS task module.

To be fair, those do work sometimes. I still recommend FHQ Task Tracker, though.

(09-28-2014, 05:40 PM)Outlawz7 link Wrote: [ -> ]To be fair, those do work sometimes. I still recommend FHQ Task Tracker, though.

Thanks, I'll try that. Variable suggested FHQ Task Tracker, too but somehow I managed to forget all about it along the way.

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