The Zeus game mode has a lot of potential, especially if the game master is good. Since we have a lot of talented mission makers on coop nights, we would love to have some Zeus scenario mastered by one of the guys. All it takes is making a basic scenarios and posting it on the mission release board, and preparing a concept to play by. That, along basic knowledge of the Zeus interface can turn into a very interesting game.
So, do we have any volunteers who would like to Zeus us?
I would try, but I don't know anything about Zeus, did the showcase mission twice but hardly get it.
Well I did it before, so if you weren't completely bored back then I could do it again.
(12-04-2014, 12:21 PM)Outlawz7 link Wrote: [ -> ]I would try, but I don't know anything about Zeus, did the showcase mission twice but hardly get it.
Would be great if you give it a try!
(12-04-2014, 03:26 PM)Alwarren link Wrote: [ -> ]Well I did it before, so if you weren't completely bored back then I could do it again.
Sure! the best course of action would be a flexible scenario player count wise. I guess it's easy to adapt the mission to the number of players on the fly.
(12-04-2014, 03:26 PM)Alwarren link Wrote: [ -> ]Well I did it before, so if you weren't completely bored back then I could do it again.
Far from it, it was a good experience, nice touches, if you feel comfortable with the role go for it, i'd like to play another FHQ mission
ajd. notes from the Skype:
It's quite difficult to curate a mission from the start. Especially if you don't have a 1h time for a setup and there are many players to keep an eye on
Don't be afraid to have multiple curators. If there's nothing to do they can still remote control enemies (Something like the OPFOR in A2/OA Insurgency. Just not with an intention to kill the player, but rather an intention to scare them or ad an immersive moment to their gameplay.) Even when playing standard D&D we preferred to have multiple DMs once there were more than 4-5 players.
If you put the Zeus "on top" of a standard mission and sync the objects to be editable it will just give you the opportunity to react properly to the emergent situations, to spice up things here and there and fix and unstuck stuff on the fly. But the mission can still go on without your intervention which isn't the case if you start with the blank canvas. There if you aren't creating a generic scenario (like sector control), aren't quick enough, can't improvise well, the player may easily fall out of immersion and get bored. In an ideal world a player never needs to ping the Zeus
Thanks for the tips oukej! Few questions:
(12-04-2014, 09:17 PM)oukej link Wrote: [ -> ]ajd. notes from the Skype:
It's quite difficult to curate a mission from the start.
You mean from scratch? As in not prepare a scenario before the game?
(12-04-2014, 09:17 PM)oukej link Wrote: [ -> ]Don't be afraid to have multiple curators. If there's nothing to do they can still remote control enemies
Do you mean players that jump in to the Zeus role, do their thing and get back to their previous slot? If so, would that require these players to disconnect back to the slots screen and slot in to a Zeus slot and vice versa?
(12-06-2014, 10:34 PM)Variable link Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks for the tips oukej! Few questions:You mean from scratch? As in not prepare a scenario before the game?
Do you mean players that jump in to the Zeus role, do their thing and get back to their previous slot? If so, would that require these players to disconnect back to the slots screen and slot in to a Zeus slot and vice versa?
I think he meant that as a Zeus you can control a AI unit and back with the click of a button.
I would be willing to try as well, but I worry about 1) having barely played with Zeus outside of the tutorial and not really knowing the interface that well, and 2) potential balance issues. Though I guess if it seems too hard you can always just "strike down" extra units.Â
I thought I'd chime in here with our experiences using 1 or 2 Zeus controllers during our missions nights. Unfortunately the overall experience of the mission/session hinges almost wholly on how well 'trained' and experienced Zeus is. There is little worse in Arma than playing a poorly curated mission.
Two simple rules I follow when curating myself:
NEVER directly kill a player
Remember that you are there to challenge the players by providing them an immersive and enjoyable experience; not to beat them into submission.
I do agree on the neccessity of having some sort of pre-existing objective or scenario flow already in place at mission launch to get the player group moving and working together quickly rather than having players idling at the spawn location. That tends to lead to misconduct (at least in my experiences.)
I was Zeus on my Fuel Effects mission and I'm wondering how I did from the player's perspective.
You guys took 10-15 mins to leave base, so I placed a Wildcat to fly over twice for entertainment.
I set up a squad in Dubrovka and a sniper team along the road to harass the convoy, which the convoy passed by with no effect. I placed an APERS mine near the powerline. The exact location was a pure guess based on the fact that the convoy moved alongside the powerline, but the first vehicle managed to hit it so hooray for predictability :p
I was afraid at first that I killed someone in the vehicle that hit the mine. The squad at Dubrovka started firing on the convoy which prompted Variable to flank through the open and get shot along with some other squad members. I saw that it went wrong and struck one of the enemy machine gunners with a lightning bolt to go easy on you guys (as I hoped this was the first ambush of many :p), tried ordering the damn squad to move away (I guess ASR AI insisted on staying or sth) and finally I put together a reinforcement squad consisting of another Wildcat and a CDF squad which I ordered to mop up the enemy while the convoy reassembled itself. Incidentally I saw Gwynn firing on the Wildcat (even though it was on the same side as the convoy).
I saw the line alwarren drew and placed a low-skilled squad with no PKMs or RPGs along the route. I guess I should have removed the RPK gunners too, as they ripped apart the rest of the convoy in 15 seconds. I ordered them to leave, which they did this time and then the admin ended the mission.
As the mission's creator, I liked that instead of pre-placing a battalion's worth of enemies everywhere to account for every possible route and spot, I could respond on the go. I'm concerned if it was too much, seeing as even with some deus ex machina help, one AI squad kicked everyone's ass and another finished the job even when they got dumbed down.
I think it was probably a mixture of bad luck and incompetence on my part. I tried to just race to the destination Hollywood-style. The field were we got ambushed was pretty open and the grass played against us, resulting in a number of casualties. One barrels go missing, it becomes pretty hard to predict. I think you did fine as Zeus.
But missions like this are indeed best curated instead of pre-made. I remember one of ck's missions were we basically didn't see anyone until near the end. That means that yeah, you either plant a complete battalion on the map, or risk that nobody gets near the players.
Good Zeusing Outlawz! I made a terrible decision to counter attack the town instead of the obvious bypass of it...
We wondered what stopped our lead vehicle because we didn't hear any explosion, great spot to stop us with that sniper cover. The first contact we had - I decided to drive through since it sounded not too close to us which proved correct.
I'd love to try this one again with you as Zeus.
(12-19-2014, 10:09 PM)Variable link Wrote: [ -> ]We wondered what stopped our lead vehicle because we didn't hear any explosion,
I did hear the explosion, could it be a sound mod thing (I don't run JSRS or anything like that)?
(12-20-2014, 11:03 AM)Outlawz7 link Wrote: [ -> ]I did hear the explosion, could it be a sound mod thing (I don't run JSRS or anything like that)?
Could be. But I suppose it could also be the fact that we were inside the vehicle and you outside of it.