11-25-2015, 05:53 PM
Comms issues:
I noticed issues with wrong LR/Alternate channel first time when we played my winter mission two weeks ago. LR/Alternate for my SR wasn't set. Same issues has happened now with several missions, and it seems to be first mission of the day.
Approaching Kavala
In RL fireteam/squad leader has eye contact, gestures, hand signals, harsh language, can grab someones vest and pull the grunt to safety from under fire, etc. In Arma we have none of these. Even menial tasks which you can give with a nod, hand signal etc have to be addressed in voice in Arma. It stresses comms channel and emphasizes comms discipline. In small fireteam mission you can get away just by following leader and using common sense and listening local.
In mission like this, NFW. If comms fails for any reason, it results confusion. If things would go smoothly without radio communication in mission like this I would be scared. It would mean my tin foil insulation isn't working and others can read my mind.Â
This had to be one of the toughest for the leader. There are lots of things to manage. Even if comm's discipline is perfect and we have no radio issues, it is lot of work.
With mission of this scope, it might make sense to assign someone from Alpha as 'dedicated fireteam leader' to handle the micromanaging of the actual squad, at least in phase when teams are scattered. Overall leader acts like rl platoon leader.
His job is to direct vehicles, tells where teams goes, and tries to keep the strings in his hands. He makes sure they are going to right place, but actual hands-dirty-infantry-managing is left to team leader(s). PL moves in with one of the squads, Alpha would be natural choice, but he lets the '2nd in command' handle the bulk of infantry movement of the Alpha and intervenes only if he has to.
Now Den had to act as leader for Alpha, manage other infantry team, 2 hunters, 1 Marshall and 1 Bobcat under less-than-working radio environment. That is a load of work, especially with poor visibility, rain, fog, and without the magic map. When you have lot of things going on, good way to ease workload is to utilize your sub-commanders to max.
I think Den did good job in a tough mission under difficult conditions. We got lot hell of a lot further this time. I thought we were going to make it until things at bunker got ugly. We didn't nade the bunker properly and took lot of casualties in clearing it. At that phase we also took fire from infantry further down the road. Then Gorgon showed up and barbecued us to orbit.
I'm really looking forward to try this mission again.
Technically:Â
I wouldn't make radical changes.
This isn't a Burger King mission. This is a Grand Tour of Murder. Spiritual relative to..something like FHQ missions and it has to be evaluated as such. I usually dislike missions where we're attacking vastly superior force (95% of Worskshop missions, including some of my own), but in this case we also have tools. 2 HMGs with thermals, APC. When used right, that packs quite a punch. Mission is winnable and we got quite close this time. Lot of effort and details including voices!Â
Personally I would add 1 firemission (not more!) of mortar support to leader. It adds extra card to leaders
deck without disrupting the mission balance.
I had some FPS issues and I don't know the unit count on the map. Maybe slightly less? Or spawn some less critical units dynamically via scripts when comrades approaches mission critical areas? Kavala is pretty lag heavy area and AI urban pathfinding is tough on performance.
We also had some issues with loadouts. Lot of people were missing NVGs and as it takes time at evening, there is no point why NVG isn't in loadout in the beginning. We had to rely on battlefield capture for NVGs for lot of men.Â
Outpost assault
Burger King mission. Okay. Easy.
Spartan assault
I had bad vibes from reading the not-so-good briefing, but it turned out to be pretty good mission. I would have preferred some info from HQ that friendlies are about to assault the airfield with us, as we had lot of Red-on-Red with AI.
I noticed issues with wrong LR/Alternate channel first time when we played my winter mission two weeks ago. LR/Alternate for my SR wasn't set. Same issues has happened now with several missions, and it seems to be first mission of the day.
Approaching Kavala
In RL fireteam/squad leader has eye contact, gestures, hand signals, harsh language, can grab someones vest and pull the grunt to safety from under fire, etc. In Arma we have none of these. Even menial tasks which you can give with a nod, hand signal etc have to be addressed in voice in Arma. It stresses comms channel and emphasizes comms discipline. In small fireteam mission you can get away just by following leader and using common sense and listening local.
In mission like this, NFW. If comms fails for any reason, it results confusion. If things would go smoothly without radio communication in mission like this I would be scared. It would mean my tin foil insulation isn't working and others can read my mind.Â
This had to be one of the toughest for the leader. There are lots of things to manage. Even if comm's discipline is perfect and we have no radio issues, it is lot of work.
With mission of this scope, it might make sense to assign someone from Alpha as 'dedicated fireteam leader' to handle the micromanaging of the actual squad, at least in phase when teams are scattered. Overall leader acts like rl platoon leader.
His job is to direct vehicles, tells where teams goes, and tries to keep the strings in his hands. He makes sure they are going to right place, but actual hands-dirty-infantry-managing is left to team leader(s). PL moves in with one of the squads, Alpha would be natural choice, but he lets the '2nd in command' handle the bulk of infantry movement of the Alpha and intervenes only if he has to.
Now Den had to act as leader for Alpha, manage other infantry team, 2 hunters, 1 Marshall and 1 Bobcat under less-than-working radio environment. That is a load of work, especially with poor visibility, rain, fog, and without the magic map. When you have lot of things going on, good way to ease workload is to utilize your sub-commanders to max.
I think Den did good job in a tough mission under difficult conditions. We got lot hell of a lot further this time. I thought we were going to make it until things at bunker got ugly. We didn't nade the bunker properly and took lot of casualties in clearing it. At that phase we also took fire from infantry further down the road. Then Gorgon showed up and barbecued us to orbit.
I'm really looking forward to try this mission again.
Technically:Â
I wouldn't make radical changes.
This isn't a Burger King mission. This is a Grand Tour of Murder. Spiritual relative to..something like FHQ missions and it has to be evaluated as such. I usually dislike missions where we're attacking vastly superior force (95% of Worskshop missions, including some of my own), but in this case we also have tools. 2 HMGs with thermals, APC. When used right, that packs quite a punch. Mission is winnable and we got quite close this time. Lot of effort and details including voices!Â
Personally I would add 1 firemission (not more!) of mortar support to leader. It adds extra card to leaders
deck without disrupting the mission balance.
I had some FPS issues and I don't know the unit count on the map. Maybe slightly less? Or spawn some less critical units dynamically via scripts when comrades approaches mission critical areas? Kavala is pretty lag heavy area and AI urban pathfinding is tough on performance.
We also had some issues with loadouts. Lot of people were missing NVGs and as it takes time at evening, there is no point why NVG isn't in loadout in the beginning. We had to rely on battlefield capture for NVGs for lot of men.Â
Outpost assault
Burger King mission. Okay. Easy.
Spartan assault
I had bad vibes from reading the not-so-good briefing, but it turned out to be pretty good mission. I would have preferred some info from HQ that friendlies are about to assault the airfield with us, as we had lot of Red-on-Red with AI.