A battered CDF platoon and a tank crew evade occupying Russian forces. Their one hope to reach the beleaguered town of Zelenogorsk is to smash their way through the Russian forces with an old Soviet T-34.
As the first live trial of my convoy script was a success, I'll post it here incase others want to make convoy missions and live out years of frustration of waiting with your mines while trucks hump trees 10 miles away.
There are two script files
- convoy.sqf which handles the movement and
- ambushaction.sqf which handles what individual vehicles do when under fire.
tl;dr what is needed to get a convoy running -
You need your convoy vehicles, not grouped with each other and placed on the road in the desired order. The vehicle names must be conveh_1, conveh_2, conveh_3 etc.. They don't need to be placed in the numerical order of the names.
On the convoy path, place logics conwp_1, conwp_2, conwp_3 etc... These must be in numerical order.
The easiest way to do this is place a logic conwp and then when you copy and paste it on repeat, the index numbers are automatically generated.
Consider the logics as waypoints the vehicles will drive to reasonably directly. This means you can skip directly over some spooky narrow road S shape in the middle of nowhere.
Vehicles and logics placed, then just do null = [] execVM "convoy.sqf" at your time of choice.
When the convoy comes under fire either one of these conditions has happened:
-One of the vehicles can't move
-Has received a large amount of damage
-The driver is dead
Then convoy.sqf ends and the actual convoy stops with ambushaction.sqf executed on every vehicle. Also a variable "ambushed" is set to =1. Can be used to trigger QRF and stuff.
By doing "this setvariable ["ambush_type",-type-];" in the vehicle editor init field, you can choose what behaviour ambushaction will command:
type "tank" - seek and destroy
type "apc" - dismount infantry, then seek and destroy
type "truck" - dismount everyone (so no "Why yes, the lead tank just got taken out by an ATGM and mines are going off all around. Best to stay calmly at the wheel.)
default if the variable is not set = seek and destroy
Haven't commented or polished the script - maybe I'll do it I reach some final version I'm completely happy with. Or maybe some other professional programmers can pick up the idea do it in a correctly presented manner.
After NATO operations on Tanoa and sabotaging Chinese propaganda towers and pacifying regions terrorize by Maoist bandits and Triad members, one of the terrorists shot down the Chinook of an extracting with a FN-6. After a rain of bullets and a quick hasty extraction, the pilot died of his wounds, but manage to land the chinook safely in the crater.
NATO forces have no choice, but to hold off against incoming Maoist bandits coming in the crater and hold the position until US air superiority comes in to sweep up the remaining terrorists and get us safely out of the crater.
Features
- Spectator Slots
- Zeus Slots
- Side Respawn
- Optional CUP Weapon loadouts if CUP is loaded
- Trenching tools for assistant MG & missile specialists if ACE is loaded
- High Command
- Extra AI if low player count mode is enabled or played in singleplayer
So, I'm sat here with a shitload of time to myself, and Strike Back on, and I get to thinking about certain aspects of certain missions. And we don't have a thread like this, for suggestions for parts of missions, not the idea so much as mechanics.
The 2 that come to mind immediately are:
Stealth missions. This is not aimed at anyone in particular, its just something that happens even in AAA games, and that is on stealth missions you are given the tools but then the enemy isn't really setup for it. You come across a camp and for no readily apparent reason they seem to be on high alert. 8 sentries on the guard towers, like 30 guys out on patrol both inside and outside of the camp, patrols across the countryside around the base. Which is good action wise, but doesn't really make sense from both a game design POV or a real life one. Especially in Arma, where silenced weapons aren't like in other games. But from the realism POV, how are they going to support having their whole force up and patrolling 24/7? Why have few enough sentries that they can cover 360deg, maybe even with a blindspot the players can take advantage of, with a patrol or 2, maybe have the patrol cover the blind spot, and then have the rest of the force inside the base, in barracks blocks, or stood around "talking" (LAMBS has a function for this IIRC). Or even have it so that they are spawned inside the buildings and go out to patrol/defend when the base is alerted.
The second point is for combined arms. Currently, in missions, they are set up so that all arms are focusing on a single specific objective. And then the next, and so on. However, this need not be so. The idea that came to me, is for example, having to take a city. You have the infantry, who have the job to physically take the city. The tanks, who need to help them break in, but then have to ring the city and prevent enemy reinforcements from reaching the place. Air units who are their to provide airstrikes (use dumb munitions and civilians to prevent them from being too OP) and also air superiority (have planes and helicopters come for the friendly tanks). That way, you can scale the threat for each individual arm of the fight and don't get say, AH and tanks doing everything while the infantry does nothing, and it's still teamwork to achieve a single objective.
These are just 2 ideas, feel free to add to them, and also, they are suggestions, not digs or anything like that. I'll probably add some stuff as I think about it the next couple of weeks.
Marines are trapped inside buildings while an A-10 is called to clear a path for them to escape. Taliban are pounding them with fire and we don't have much time. No pressure A-10 pilot...but it's all up to you!
If you're interested in giving feedback to Mission Makers on what sort of missions we're seeing a need for, it will be very appreciated! https://forms.gle/b9AuqXHxYgEoZWcC7
Please take the poll, and I will compile the results and deliver them to the community and mission makers to help inspire ideas.
Also very open to feedback on what additions to make to the poll, or refinements to it.