Afghan War Diary - wikileaks

[TV-PressPass 10]

I don't know if you've all already seen this or not, but wikileaks has posted over 90,000 documents from the Afghanistan war. Literally thousands of after action reports have been posted.

Seeing this, I can't help but think there is an opportunity here. These are ideal mission layouts. They are an insight into the war. They are hundreds of tiny dramas made available to us.

I hope to see as many as possible converted into missions for Operation Arrowhead. I've started the ball rolling, with a mission that should be up on Armaholic soon and can (hopefully) be downloaded here in the meantime.

This mission is based on a real report from Afghanistan in 2006. US forces successfully engaged and killed fourteen enemy men using small arms and mortar fire. The contents can be found online here. It is part of a larger conversion of the Afghan War Diary into ArmaII.

My project is based on the idea that videogames can be a part of our cultural understanding of war. As a journalist, I believe a true story is infinitely more valuable than a fictional one. I would like to see these small stories of Afghanistan translated into a more relatable and human medium than just the textual contents of each report

The reports of the Afghan War Diary are a wealth of information, offering insight beyond what we can see and hear on the nightly news. They are a record of the war unlike any other, and I believe they should be made available in as many forms as possible. Like films, music, and novels before, a simulator like Operation Arrowhead can be part of the cultural landscape and contribute to how we process the war that so many western nations have been embroiled in.

This project is not meant to trivialize, nor does it support camps for or against the war. It is merely trying to be an interpretation of what happened.

I am curious to know who else would be interested in developing missions built around these reports. There are a few that come to mind as being worth the translation.

[Callsign 128]

In essence whilst I agree that the information is useful for mission makers, I don't think with it being quite so recent a direct remake would be advisable. More generalised (ie, same in everyway except whos and wheres) should be the focus. I don't think people should see the death of a relative/colleague emulated in game with it being so recent.

Other than that, yes awesome sauce/source of ideas!

[VariousArtist 19]

My project is based on the idea that videogames can be a part of our cultural understanding of war. As a journalist, I believe a true story is infinitely more valuable than a fictional one. I would like to see these small stories of Afghanistan translated into a more relatable and human medium than just the textual contents of each report

Comming from a cultural studies background I find this aspect very interesting. Keep it going!

[TRexian 0]

hehe

I've been combing through many of the reports, for a similar idea: to make realistic missions.

I think you will find that many of the missions set in the fictional Takistan are realistic, and echo what is found in many of those reports.

In other words, I think your wish is already being fulfilled. ;) Also check OFPEC.com for good missions.

[kylania 568]

Short and simple, nice little mission.

[Grizzle 0]

Yeah, I think most of us thought this info would be a good source for some real world missions. I expect we'll see many more based on these reports. Dl'd your mission and will try it out.

[Brainbug 10]

Interesting, I'd like to play through real missions, even if they seem a bit "boring" for some people who like those "one man against the red army" missions.

One issue with this mission though, the 4-man enemy team didn't move, they just kept lying on the ground until I eventually moved out and found them.

[jeza 5416]

Ah nice work pall, think you'll work through the whole 90,000 leak? :P

[Buzz_Fledderjohn 0]

Doesn't that massively violate OPSEC?

[TRexian 0]

OPSEC? Well, probably. But, that's wikiLeaks ... dude doesn't really care about that....

Also, for my own interests mostly, there's some interesting stuff that could be an ArmA mission.

Operation Red Wing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Red_Wing

Dispatches regarding it are generally on this page:

http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/sort/date/2005_06_7.html

Including:

http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/event/2005/06/AFG20050628n117.html

http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/event/2005/06/AFG20050628n116.html

http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/event/2005/06/AFG20050628n118.html

http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/event/2005/06/AFG20050628n120.html

http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/event/2005/06/AFG20050628n122.html

Interesting stuff.

[Specialist 10]

Thanks, Im going to try it out, Ive been hearing about this leak on the news for the past two days!

[Egosa-U 10]

But please, for god's sake, without addons required...

[supergruntsb78 67]

OPSEC? Well, probably. But, that's wikiLeaks ... dude doesn't really care about that....

it realy doesn't hurt OPSEC as the current OPSEC is different by now and dude (wikileaks) does care because they kept several reports out of the leak for security reasons and are awaiting clearence (read censorship) to put them up the site

i like the idea of converting the real missions in to arma 2 (OA is already pretty realistic but it always can be better)

[sick1 13]

I think its very interesting, 98% of the reports go like this as far as I can see."Found IED. Removed it". "Indirect Fire. No casualties". Pretty boring and predictable. As for Wikileaks, they don't give a damm about Journalism. Even the NY times contacts numerous government agencies before posting sensitive material. Wikileaks doesn't care about the operators in the field. They are exposing response times and tactics of ODA teams, local followers on are side, and double agents working for us. I would like to see a mission made were you have to find and capture the creator of Wiki leaks. This would be great!!

[RaZoR1472 10]

I've played your war diaries mission, a breath of fresh air. Just a nice simple mission. I hope you continue to create more missions like these, very interesting.

[pre-Vet 10]

being inspired by these "reports" okay.

reënacting them.. mmmm a bit to soon.

I'll pass this one.

[Takko 10]

Searched so long for the enemy. Nothing. Its really boring, nothing like

the real life events.

[kremator 1065]

Will take a look.

[JB1528 10]

Searched so long for the enemy. Nothing. Its really boring, nothing like

the real life events.

I'm pretty sure that real life war is pretty much 90% boredom too.

[Takko 10]

But at least you know your objectives and where they could be instead of being on a map with not even a single marker.

[therev709 10]

I would like to see a mission made were you have to find and capture the creator of Wiki leaks. This would be great!!

LMAO excellent idea! totally stealing it ;)

[Ryujin 0]

Gave it a spin, was pretty good for what it is, I think there should be more simple small unit missions (though not necessarily based on individual reports).

I played it using the SLX mod, which is real good at drawing out the firefights and such, 2 friendly KIA at the end. I didn't see the mortar until the AI started using it. Got plastered by several hits. Not so much a reenactment as a worst case version...

[TV-PressPass 10]

Thanks for all the feedback guys! A few quick responses:

But please, for god's sake, without addons required...

I totally agree with this. While I love modifying my game to add more guns or more islands, I want this to be as accessible as possible to everyone who bought the game. I will never intentionally design something to require external material. Thats why I didn't use the Arma2 M16A4 and other US side weapons that aren't in Operation Arrowhead.

I'm glad the enemy mortar kicked in for you Ryujin! I spent a solid hour wrestling with arty scripts before giving up and deciding it was better as is.

I'm sorry that the mission feels slow, or for the 3XAK47s that stop. In the actual events, they were engaged before they reached over-watch position so I was unsure of what to do with them. But the idea is for it to be a slow calculated thing.

I think that Ryujin's experience highlights something that I'm trying to get across with these: That things could have been very different over there. For a report to have that tag of "no injuries or damage to friendly forces" is a very fortunate thing, because the risk was real for there to be injuries or worse.

In that vein, part of the criteria for selecting a report to convert is the sensetivity. I'm not going to make a mission about revenge killings in a tribal town, and I don't think anyone should. But the helicoper that crash lands in the mountains and has to be stripped before dawn? Now thats an interesting and different story.

In the next few hours here I'm going to try and post a few possible reports and see what people think.

Essentially, I'd like to see the project grow into an eventual mission pack featuring a number of different authors. A campaign is unlikely just because there is so much happening all over the country over the years that I'd like to see covered.

Really the key to making one is just to have the Afghan War Diary tag before the mission name, and then the wikileaks report info in your briefing. I'll cast a wide net and say that any mission with those two traits qualifies in my mind as a successful progression.

In fact, I know I'm not a very good mission designer. Usually I'm just making things for myself to play "drop some guys here, put a plane there, some patrol scripts etc." To be honest, I'd like to see some more developed guys try their hands at making one. I'm not a very skilled builder, but I think this is something important and worth doing.

Edited July 29, 2010 by TV-PressPass

[Devil Dogs SF 13]

I have a mission I made not long ago for my own use, not based upon the leaked files but it takes place in Afghanistan. Only problem is it requires CAA1, Arma 1 Afghan village map, Desert USMC and Tier One operators which adds up to large downloads if the player doesn't already have them.

Other than that the mission is solid and I didn't experience many bugs during playtesting. I can polish it up a bit and release it as my cousin (Whos in the Marines) said he has done several missions destroying Taliban caches (Although of course never hunting down a Warlord or taking down AA) so I guess it could serve the realistic approach these missions take, you can playtest it and see if there is anything to do to make it more realistic since this was your idea.

The mission was a marine fireteam hunting down a Taliban warlord under Bin Laden and then destroying their caches. Optional task is taking down Taliban AA for an AH-1 Super Cobra to come in and give you air support. Tier One undercover Delta Force operators have a cache for you if you run out of ammo.

Edited July 29, 2010 by Devil Dogs SF

[JB1528 10]

Most of the reports I've read seem to either involve 10 minute firefights ending with either the attackers disappearing or being blown to bits by CAS. Or they involve and IED killing 30 or so civilians.

In other words most of the reports can be made in 10 minutes in the mission editor. But the missions would be pretty basic and not very fun.