[Mini ACE2 SP Campaign]A Noble Cause

[manzilla 1]

Here's an ACE2 SP campaign I've been working for a long time now. It's only 3 missions long but the missions aren't super short. I planned it as an ACE2 intro type campaign and it includes many of it's features and has various hints to help players use the features. The missions are pretty close to finished beta states but still may have some bugs and need a little polish. None should be game killers. I've played them all extensively. Eventually more missions will be added. Please help me test this and feel free to provide any suggestions for existing missions and/or future missions. Enjoy!

Here's the beta:

A Noble Cause Beta v1.1

Southern Takistan villages and it's oilfield has been under protection of a UN peacekeeping force but things around the region have intensified putting the force at risk. Finally under orders of Takistani Dictator Qasim Fahim the Takistani Army has moved against the world's sanctions and taken back the lucrative southern oilfields. They unleashed a vicious unprovoked attack on the UN Peacekeepers protecting the southern populace and the oilfields. With this fragile peace broken the US and it's allies are preparing another invasion of Takistan. Before we invade we need to secure the southern airfield for a staging area of the main invasion force. You(Team Sandman), Viper and WHiskey teams will be inserted via chopper and are task with taking over the airfield. You are the tip of the spear.

Features:

Intro/Outro's

Mando Missiles Support

High Command and Hybrid HC

Various ACE2 features(CSW, Spare tires, Wounds, and many more)

ACEX

ACEX US Army

UPSMON

DAC

Team switch

BAF and some PMC stuff

A bunch more I forgot

Required AddOns:

ArmA2 Combined Ops v1.57(only tested on newest beta though)

ACE2, ACEX, ACEX RU & ACEX US Navy- At least v1.9RC3 and most recent ACEX build

CBA

Hopefully I didn't miss any used in testing.

I'm not sure if it requires BAF and PMC but you can try and let me know.

I always update to the most recent build once they are released so if you use an older version/outdated milestone I will not support any troubles you may encounter. Sorry.

Credits and Thanks:

Mandoble- MMA Script Suite/Mando Heli Route

Silola- DAC v3

Big Dawg KS- Light Truck script

Centipede- Hybred HC script

Monsada- UPSMON

The guys at ACE2

BIS

The community for keepin' BIS in business and thus keeping these games alive.

Everyone else that's provided help, support and scripts.

If I've forgotten to give credit to anyone please PM and I will make sure I add you immediately. I'll get a proper read me included soon. I'll try to get everyone in there.

Known Issues:

Not sure but there's gotta be a ton.

Mirrors:

v1.0 beta(old)

ArmAholic.com

Future Plans:

Refine story line

Refine current missions

Add more missions

Make MP compatible(I'll need a lot of help and testing cause I've never made a MP mission. Or played much for that matter.)

Edited March 23, 2011 by Manzilla

[galzohar 31]

The thing with MP is that if you don't make stuff MP-compatible from the start you kinda have to re-write most of the scripts to make them MP-compatible :(

[manzilla 1]

I think most of the scripts I used are MP compatible. Of course there's some of my scripts but they are all real basic. I was afraid of this though. But I have seen others have crated there SP ACE2 missions to at least COOP so I'm always hopeful.

[Max255 59]

Well, I'm after 1st mission and must say I like it a lot.

There are some minor things that can be improved... Only issue I had, was the stucked squad - despite the order to move to the airfield thay stayed at OP where they started...

[manzilla 1]

Thank you. That first mission is the farthest along in development so the rest may not be as clean. Which squad got stuck? Yours or one of the over watch teams? I had that happen for the player's squad in earlier version but I thought I removed the script causing it. Also where in the mission did this happen.

Thanks again for playing and I'd appreciate any suggestions you can think of.

Enjoy.

[HG_Havok 10]

I feel kinda stupid for asking this but I tried putting the pbo file in my missions folder and could not see it listed as a mission in the game. What am I doing wrong? :o

[Baldman 10]

Will definately DL and try this a bit later.

I'm making an ACE2 campaign myself.

[ast65 10]

I feel kinda stupid for asking this but I tried putting the pbo file in my missions folder and could not see it listed as a mission in the game. What am I doing wrong? :o

Maybe try putting it in your campaign folder :)

[manzilla 1]

Maybe try putting it in your campaign folder :)

That's it! :)

Sorry, I'll have instructions when I finish the readme.

[Militant1006 11]

tried to run it and it froze arma twice, not using any extra mods, will redownload and try again

EDIT: LOL, the armaholic download for this mission is 2.65mb, the one linked here is 26.8mb, huge difference, might wanna fix that.

EDIT (again...): Still doesn't work, specific things I am running are, CBA, ACE 470 beta, ACEX, ACEX_SM, WarFX, stable 1.57.

Edited March 11, 2011 by Militantsausage

[manzilla 1]

tried to run it and it froze arma twice, not using any extra mods, will redownload and try again

EDIT: LOL, the armaholic download for this mission is 2.65mb, the one linked here is 26.8mb, huge difference, might wanna fix that.

EDIT (again...): Still doesn't work, specific things I am running are, CBA, ACE 470 beta, ACEX, ACEX_SM, WarFX, stable 1.57.

Hmmm. Not sure why that is. Never had that happen. I wonder if it's due to the fact I use the betas not stable v1.57. There's been so many changes since then that there's bound to be problems. The changes are really good, many AI specific, so you should try them. Performance has been boosted too I think.

The ACE2 build is fine. That's what I'm using but I will update today. Try removing WarFX and ACEX_SM. Both should be fine with it. I've never used ACEX_SM while making these missions but I have used the most recent WarFX in the past and it worked. Haven't used it in sometime though. I'm thinking it's the beta vs stable thing. It's worth a shot to try the beta. You can still use v1.57 stable, just use the shortcut you currently use. The beta has it's own.

Are you using BAF and PMC? I've only tested this with those mods active. I was under the assumption that v1.57 would work because it contain "lite versions" of BAF and PMC. I may be wrong though. Shit I also use ACEX RU and NAVY. I should add that to the list.

Finally, where in the campaign does it occur? Before the start? Loading first mission? If anyone else finds this please tell me.

EDIT:

I just tried it with v1.57 stable, no BAF/PMC and it worked just fine. I warn you against using this and not the beta though. The AI is terrible in v1.57 compared to the newest betas. The heli in the intro is all messed up and so is most of the AI squads. I remember a few betas ago I was able to tweak the waypoints for much of the AI cause they were much more effective now and where doing things I've never seen. They really are much improved in recent beta builds.

Edited March 11, 2011 by Manzilla

[HG_Havok 10]

Thanks for the help fella's, I'll give this a try over the weekend.

edit: Not to feel so stupid after all as the "Campaigns" folder is not installed by default and needs to be created by the end user in the default ARMA2 folder. Make sure it is spelled in the plural!

Edited March 12, 2011 by HG_Havok

[manzilla 1]

My pleasure. I may have a newer version up today or tomorrow. I found that the first mission doesn't initialize UPSMON and I've updated it to the newest version. There may be a few more fixes but nothing major. The update probably wont have many more gameplay tweaks yet.

EDIT:

Please use ACEX_RU and ACEX_USNavy or it won't work. They are required. I've amended the first page to reflect this. It will cause a freeze if you don't use them.

Edited March 11, 2011 by Manzilla

[Militant1006 11]

Manzilla ill try with betas, that is probably why

Edited March 12, 2011 by Militantsausage

[manzilla 1]

Good choice. It's well worth it. The fixes are fantastic. Almost a new SP game experience with the latest one. New one was released today.

[Militant1006 11]

Oh you need USNavy and RU? didn't have them so that was probably why.

[Baldman 10]

No crashes or errors using BAF, PMC and ARMA2 CO.

Played through Ground and Pound a few times, my thoughts below.

So far, a few minor gripes.

1. Ranks are all fubar. Squad is made up almost entirely of Captains :). Doesnt impact anything but it irks the ever loving shit out of me when people do it for some reason, lol.

2. The TWS takes away from the atmosphere of almost all missions immensly. I would recommend replacing it with a NV scope of small magnification. It takes away form the work you put into the mission and turns it into a game of 'shoot the white bit'.

Let us see your mission and let ACE2 create the atmosphere for you, that is what it excels at. Everything good is taken away when forced to view the mission through a large magnification or a TWS.

3. The large ammo/weapons dump in ground and pound, for me personally, took away from the realism of the mission. I just don't see myself being inserted into an LZ then bump into an armoury of weaponry. It took from the realistic atmoshere for me personally, but thats just my opinion.

4. Chopper rides can be very exciting, try recording a formation then using the replay as your chopper ride. It adds 100x to any chopper ride in game.

5. I had a niggling issue with some IR strobes not turning off. Almost like some were set to on at the beginning of the mission and some were off. Ordering them off turned ON the OFF ones and OFF the ON ones :). If that makes sense.

Now that the minor bad stuff is out of the way, great mission. Good length and a good, plausible amount of side missions. Its a good showcase for ace features which, considering the amount, you managed to implement very well with minimal to no errors.

The locations were well placed, there are quite a few tactical options to take with the selected landscape and the pacing of the mission allows the slow, methodical players like myself, as well as the faster paced guy the opportunity to do things the way they like.

I enjoyed it quite a bit. Overall, well done mate.

Edited March 12, 2011 by Baldman

[manzilla 1]

Oh you need USNavy and RU? didn't have them so that was probably why.

Yes sir.

No crashes or errors using BAF, PMC and ARMA2 CO.

Played through Ground and Pound a few times, my thoughts below.

So far, a few minor gripes.

1. Ranks are all fubar. Squad is made up almost entirely of Captains :). Doesnt impact anything but it irks the ever loving shit out of me when people do it for some reason, lol.

2. The TWS takes away from the atmosphere of almost all missions immensly. I would recommend replacing it with a NV scope of small magnification. It takes away form the work you put into the mission and turns it into a game of 'shoot the white bit'.

Let us see your mission and let ACE2 create the atmosphere for you, that is what it excels at. Everything good is taken away when forced to view the mission through a large magnification or a TWS.

3. The large ammo/weapons dump in ground and pound, for me personally, took away from the realism of the mission. I just don't see myself being inserted into an LZ then bump into an armoury of weaponry. It took from the realistic atmoshere for me personally, but thats just my opinion.

4. Chopper rides can be very exciting, try recording a formation then using the replay as your chopper ride. It adds 100x to any chopper ride in game.

5. I had a niggling issue with some IR strobes not turning off. Almost like some were set to on at the beginning of the mission and some were off. Ordering them off turned ON the OFF ones and OFF the ON ones :). If that makes sense.

Now that the minor bad stuff is out of the way, great mission. Good length and a good, plausible amount of side missions. Its a good showcase for ace features which, considering the amount, you managed to implement very well with minimal to no errors.

The locations were well placed, there are quite a few tactical options to take with the selected landscape and the pacing of the mission allows the slow, methodical players like myself, as well as the faster paced guy the opportunity to do things the way they like.

I enjoyed it quite a bit. Overall, well done mate.

Baldman,

First, thank you for taking the time to play it and comment. I appreciate it. Those are just the type of comments I'm looking for.

1.) Yeah I'm not a fan of this either. To be honest the only reason I do it is that I've been under the impression, for along time, that using higher ranks makes the AI better. I guess I don't even know if that's the case.

I can always fix that.

2.) I can do this as well. I've played it with out using TWS a few times and it is definitely more fun, tougher though, but I personally enjoy tough missions.

3.) I see your point and agree. The main reason behind the ammo dump was simply to offer the player the ability to choose from a few great ACE2 weapons. It also was a half ass attempt to add a side story that may pop up later in the campaign and a reason to add another cut scen.. A little "rivalry" between the 2 teams.

There's no doubt it takes away from realism though. I'll try to think of a comprise or just remove the dump completely.

4.) The chopper? absolutely agree here as well. Honestly the only reason I didn't use the replay method is cause I don't know how yet. I looked at this when the feature was first released but I never took any time to learn how to set it up. I will definitely use it in future versions.

5.) Yes the IRs are a little wonky. I need to tweak a few things. They do turn on in the chopper so it's not necessary to have that hint up. Also I haven't activated them on a couple of team members. I added a few members in later version and forgot to add them to the activation script.

I get this taken care of.

Thanks again for playing it and the comments. I look forward to more in the future.

[j rock 10]

just finish playing ur campaign ty for the time and effort. its easy to c that it u hav put many hours into it... all the cut scene, planning, testing and script

i m sure i had played the first mission b4, well that mission is still amazing and big improvement since u now starting with the right team this time and control another 2 team by high command. just that air support thing still giving me a headache, lazing don't do any thing ai still hit what ever it want...

well then second mission i suffer FPS issued the whole way, my pc hate that air base tamplate... then as soon as i enter that town i got kill by my AI cause i though any 1 afghan lookin would be enemy, not that it matter i should only fire when i m fired upon so my bad. then after i saved that guy he some how got kill even i told him to hide in a building when i fight off the attack. well after he die i didn't hav to mood to carried on so i -endmission, then error came it say campaign structur error....

[manzilla 1]

j rock,

Thanks for playing it and yes I have tried to improve it greatly. Now I just need to do that to the 2nd and 3rd missions.

The 2nd mission is a bit FPS intensive. The base really is a hog. I plan on taking a bunch of objects out of it.

I see why the -endmission thing didn't work. I have an error in the campaign description file that sets up the structure. I just forgot to change the mission name in the description file. I'll do that tonight and upload a new one tonight or tomorrow morning. Unfortunately this mean the 3rd mission can't be played yet unless you manually change the 3rd mission name in the campaign description.

Sorry about this everyone. I got a new version to release anyways with some minor fixes so it's perfect timing.

[Coffeecat 10]

thx for you work, just tried out the first mission.

problem: if you die you can switch teammembers, but you dont have control over the HighCommand anymore.

Also some soldiers actually defending the AA site would be nice, the AA guys dont even react to incoming fire cause they are busy watching the sky for planes while bullets cracking about their heads. Maybe make them get out of the statics if they receive fire.

[manzilla 1]

thx for you work, just tried out the first mission.

problem: if you die you can switch teammembers, but you dont have control over the HighCommand anymore.

Also some soldiers actually defending the AA site would be nice, the AA guys dont even react to incoming fire cause they are busy watching the sky for planes while bullets cracking about their heads. Maybe make them get out of the statics if they receive fire.

Thanks for playing coffeecat! Hmmm, not sure how to fix the team switch/death thing. I'll figure it out though. There should be reinforcements that come, a small patrol and a few fortified units at the AI site but I didn't have UPSMON initialized. I'll get it fixed for the next version. Should be ready today.

[Inkompetent 0]

1.) Yeah I'm not a fan of this either. To be honest the only reason I do it is that I've been under the impression, for along time, that using higher ranks makes the AI better. I guess I don't even know if that's the case.

It's a "yes and no"-case here. AI reacts to the ranks of the enemy they fight, so even if higher rank doesn't automatically make the AI better, ranks do have an impact on AI morale. If I recall correctly high ranking AI is more aggressive than a low ranking AI, who prefers cover more than shooting. Indeed though it would seem logical for such a reason to make SpecOps at the very least Sergeants, so that they fight with more confidence and aggressiveness than their avarage opponent.

Edited March 13, 2011 by Inkompetent
Memory got better!

[manzilla 1]

It's a "yes and no"-case here. AI reacts to the ranks of the enemy they fight, so even if higher rank doesn't automatically make the AI better, ranks do have an impact on AI morale. If I recall correctly high ranking AI is more aggressive than a low ranking AI, who prefers cover more than shooting. Indeed though it would seem logical for such a reason to make SpecOps at the very least Sergeants, so that they fight with more confidence and aggressiveness than their avarage opponent.

That's exactly what I was thinking. I swear I read something by BIS about this years ago. It was well before A2 and maybe even A1. I've done this in my missions for a long, long time.

[fortun 14]

Is it okey to ask where to find how to make the sidechat with the radio sound? Im doing a Co-op mission for my friend who is gonna get a new computer to play Arma 2 with me sometime this month, so would just like to know where a guide on how to do it where to be found? I know how to do the sidechat like

HQ SideChat "blablabla", but then how to add radio command to that?

Btw, on the secound mission, is the AI driving skill better than in 1.57 with 1.58 beta? Cause it was almost unplayable when guiding the apc forward.

Gonna try to test out the rest tomorrow, but seems nice so far ;)