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KingN

The Forgotten Few - SP/MP Dynamic Campaign for CO

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Ok time for a little update. I've been actively working on the 051B. In addition to usual smaller new features, improvements and fixes as usual I will introduce major updates. Let me say that this update will be the biggest so far so you'll be in for a treat. For me it more or less changed the way the gameplay feels.

Build 051B higlights are as follows:

  • Civilian life and traffic
  • Greatly improved script performance
  • Dynamic position finding for AI infantry
  • More spread out mission area
  • Improved immersion

I'm not using ALICE module. The civilians are spawned and simulated by a cpu-friendly script of my own, avoiding the memory leak issues and other problems I've experienced with the BIS module. The simulation is kinda simplified (but still very immersive) and the civilians are de-spawned at distance. Most importantly now you have to check your targets when engaging: not everything that moves is an enemy.

The heavier scripts and functions work like a greased lighting compared to the previous builds. Missions will be generated at greater speed and dialogs run mostly without delays. Also LZ finding is performed instantly. All this is achieved by prioritizing these scripts with a better use of the "call" function command.

I have baked up a new dynamic position finder script. This will find a logical position for enemy and friendly infantry groups, in both unalarmed and combat situations. This will basically make the AI deadlier by choosing waypoint positons from cover and avoid too open areas when cover is available. The AI will also tend to stick more together.

The enemy will now set up forward defences/outposts in some mission settings. The enemy vehicles will also be patrolling this outposts and a wider area so you should be more carefull when closing in to the mission target.

All in all, after implementing the civilian life, enemy position finding, outposts and few new detail features that you will learn about will improve the overall immersion. The takistan version and newmission types will be added in the next builds but now I will concentrate on improving the old content and scripts. I will continue testing and adding stuff plus wait for new russian translations to improve the verbal aspect of the russian version. You will get your hands on this soon enough, like a month or so. Stay tuned my friends!

Waiting diligently on your next release King Nothing. This sounds like the shiet! The mission was already good to go as was. Good work!

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The mission was already good to go as was. Good work!

Agreed, no real changes were necessary as the mission was/is fantastic as is but be interesting to see how these changes make it even better (if that is possible).

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WOW Nice work! I love this mission. And the new things added

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Here it is, Build 051B!

I've done some rework in various aspects of the campaign and added whole new features. If you run into major problems, as always, please report back to me and try the previous build. This build is a bigger leap towards what I'm looking from the final non-beta campaign. I don't know how long I'm able to continue the work on this at this speed but I think the first non-beta full release should just around the corner. Build 052B will start soonish and I have plans for the next release, again. Meanwhile, enjoy this one! :)

I have released the addon version with version 1.1, meaning that there are few changes. It introduces T-80 pack by RHS and Improved BRDM2 units by hcpookie. The T-72 pack by dractyum is removed and replaced by the T-80 beasts. remember to download these new addons if you are playing the addon version. I also double checked that the addon dependencies are correct. If you haven't tried this version yet, I warmly recommend!

Build 051B Change log:

•NEW: Civilian life! A CPU-friendly dynamic script to spawn and simulate civilians and road traffic

•NEW: AI infantry scripts using a new dynamic position finder function DynamicPosFinder.sqf

•NEW: Sometimes the enemy has outposts around the mission target for some foward defence - be careful when advancing towards the main target

•NEW: Occasional unmanned enemy vehicles in enemy positions depending on scenario

•NEW: Sometimes enemy vehicle crew are disembarked and having a chat when unalarmed, a chance to take out the crew of an armored target

•NEW: 5 new jukebox radio songs added, making total of 22 songs

•NEW: VillageRaid mission type: West Solnichniy and North Dubrovka added as potential mission targets

•NEW: Mission type is stated during mission generation

•NEW: Game saved before new mission is generated

•NEW: Atmospheric lights at FOB added to illuminate the night

•NEW: Light towers at FOB actively sweeps the surroundings with spotlights at night for immersion

•NEW: AI Aiming skill values are persistent to over-ride any AI addon definitions

•NEW: A hint will appear and marker gets relocated if ground insertion/extraction vehicle can't reach target

•NEW: Default squad members are shuffled at campaign init

•NEW: Enemies get alarmed from artillery barrage

•NEW: Russian translations update

•NEW: More detailed debug parameters in editor

•CHANGED: Improved the way infantry groups seek for a dynamic move position accordingly to situation (DynamicPosFinder)

•CHANGED: VillageRaid mission type: Enemy infantry now defends a created dynamic fixed position rather than running around randomly (DynamicPosFinder)

•CHANGED: Ambush mission type: More dynamic way of finding ambush positions for enemy infantry (DynamicPosFinder)

•CHANGED: StrongPointUrban mission type: Some of the enemies scattered around the city and not only around the strongpoint house (DynamicPosFinder)

•CHANGED: Spark units now ordered to return to formation when "hold position" order is given

•CHANGED: Garrisoned enemy vehicles now sometimes patrol a bigger area in VillageRaid, StrongPoint and StrongPointUrban mission types

•CHANGED: Optimized city area size values

•CHANGED: Enemy strenght is 60% instead of 50% when only Torch squad is deployed

•CHANGED: Removed active city center variable checking as it was redundant

•CHANGED: Optimized color correction to give more blueish hue and more worn out film effect

•CHANGED: Reserve units will be hidden after the mission starts to prevent unnecessary interference and cpu usage

•CHANGED: Reworked animations for LZ / Insertion point finding

•CHANGED: Single enemy units added to "Reveal enemies" debug command

•CHANGED: Platoon members get respawned between mission to reset the AI

•CHANGED: Intro cutscene music, sound and narrator voice volumes are now balanced

•CHANGED: New mission is now already being prepared while debriefing is shown to make use of the loading time

•CHANGED: Platoon member unit models can be redefined in UnitsLibrary.sqf instead of in mission editor

•CHANGED: Joint insertion selected automatically if Spark Squad available and Helicopters not available

•CHANGED: Ground insertion/extraction driver speaks by "playsound" instead of "say" to avoid muffled speech

•CHANGED: Enemy house garrison stands up indoors

•CHANGED: Optimized the starting position randomization in ground insertions

•CHANGED: Bigger amount of enemy patrols but smaller in size on average

•CHANGED: Various other minor tweaks

•FIXED: Dialog windows are now somewhat lag-free now, considerably improving usability

•FIXED: LZ / Insertion point finding is force calculated immediately

•FIXED: Overall performance improved, especially in terms of running scripts

•FIXED: Mission generation times are reduced

•FIXED: Better scripting for mission plan scene

•FIXED: Player now properly needs to reach mission target to confirm enemies being defeated

•FIXED: Radio disabled during mission debriefing

•FIXED: AMbush mission type: Sometimes the secondary objective was incorrectly displayed

•FIXED: StrongPointUrban mission type: Mission scored correctly when enemy officer succesfully arrested

•FIXED: Problem with mission getting accomplished without contact if only 1 or 2 enemies were alive and active, condition added

•FIXED: Helicopter was marked as performing CAS when actually on an extraction mission

•FIXED: Possible game freeze when using a small radius with ValidPosFinder.sqf

•FIXED: Other dialog windows cannot be accessed when selecting artillery target

•FIXED: Wrong "Base" speech when hostages killed after rescue

•FIXED: Emergency stop command stayed available after insertion in a rare case

•FIXED: Various other minor fixes + cleaning of scripts

Chechnya Addon Version 1.1 Change log

•NEW: BRDM-2 Pack by hcpookie to be used by guerillas

•NEW: T-80 pack by RHS to be used by Russian army

•FIXED: Correct addon dependencies ensured

•Removed T-72 pack by Dractyum

First post is updated and sections Known Issues and Donation are added.

Edited by King Nothing

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Ok stuff I noticed after some short testing

I like that the character skills are random with each start of the campaign, But you should include a popup at the beginning that tells the player about it. Otherwise some people might go into battle without a Medic.

The expanded unit library is a good thing. Now I can replace the medics without going into the Editor.

I noticed that the spetznaz units are not present in the Editor. I really don't know how to add the Bis First Aid module now...

Civilian Traffic between towns! (There could be more traffic and civilians).

The debug show enemy script causes serious script lag for the rest of the campaign!

I used it in the first mission after I had to wait really long for the enemy reinforcements to arrive. After using this every script was really slw. Really long loading times and really long delay for menus to show up.

Will test some more.

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Ok stuff I noticed after some short testing

I like that the character skills are random with each start of the campaign, But you should include a popup at the beginning that tells the player about it. Otherwise some people might go into battle without a Medic.

The expanded unit library is a good thing. Now I can replace the medics without going into the Editor.

I noticed that the spetznaz units are not present in the Editor. I really don't know how to add the Bis First Aid module now...

Civilian Traffic between towns! (There could be more traffic and civilians).

The debug show enemy script causes serious script lag for the rest of the campaign!

I used it in the first mission after I had to wait really long for the enemy reinforcements to arrive. After using this every script was really slw. Really long loading times and really long delay for menus to show up.

Will test some more.

Yeah I could change the group member initial randomization so that in both teams the fifth unit is a medic as before and the rest will be riflemen.

I will try to implement the campaign settings window for the next version and see if I can make the first aid module work.

It's wierd that you get lag after the reveal command, which means that the scripts loop forever. There's a timer that should cut it at some point. I will look into it.

Thanks for the feedback!

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King Nothing, when I rescue the hostage from the enemy camp in your new v051B, the hostage that newly joins my group tends to stay inside the tent with no hope of getting him to exit out. Just seems that the tent opening is like an invisible barrier for AI. Maybe a team switch option might help fix that? I've always had problems with friendly AI not wanting to leave tents when I gain control of them or when they happen to spawn inside. Maybe this occurrence just happens to me?

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I have not played many other campaigns, so I can't really compare to other people's work. But I am just amazed at the quality of this campaign. It's just so enjoyable to play and very well crafted.

I'm playing using the latest Beta builds and ACE. Is this ok? I mean is it fully compatible? I haven't noticed any problems yet.

Edited by rainbird

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Anyone else getting random crashes? Cant even finish the second mission.

Edited by solidsnake2384

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Anyone else getting random crashes? Cant even finish the second mission.

Hi. Are you using ACE? I still haven't fully figured out what's causing these crashes for some people. I've played this campaign on three different computers but haven't witnessed it.

---------- Post added at 02:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:48 PM ----------

King Nothing, when I rescue the hostage from the enemy camp in your new v051B, the hostage that newly joins my group tends to stay inside the tent with no hope of getting him to exit out. Just seems that the tent opening is like an invisible barrier for AI. Maybe a team switch option might help fix that? I've always had problems with friendly AI not wanting to leave tents when I gain control of them or when they happen to spawn inside. Maybe this occurrence just happens to me?

I've had it once too when I was using ASR AI rearming feature. A guy went inside a tent to rearm and couldn't get out. :rolleyes: Have you tried running down the tent with a car or something?

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Anyone else getting random crashes? Cant even finish the second mission.

I've run through this about 3 or 4 times now and not a single crash until I turned on ACE then it crashed within the first mission.

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I've had it once too when I was using ASR AI rearming feature. A guy went inside a tent to rearm and couldn't get out. :rolleyes: Have you tried running down the tent with a car or something?

Yeah that must be it, my fault for not mentioning I was using ASR AI at the time, no cars/vehicles were available as I wanted to try to run it down as well. I was actually going to run tests with the new beta patches that allow AI to now crawl under fences on their own, because the hostage would try to crawl underneath the invisible barrier but still manage to stay stuck inside the tent. Thanks again.

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Yes I was using ACE. Ive read some people were able to play the campaign with ACE without crashes but I guess it only works for some people.

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Maybe the Crashes are triggered through System Load or colliding Code or both?

I mean this Campaign is no Diet Food Codewise, and ACE also. Just my two Cents. :)

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Maybe the Crashes are triggered through System Load or colliding Code or both?

I mean this Campaign is no Diet Food Codewise, and ACE also. Just my two Cents. :)

Tonci has a lot of experience in crashes with this campaign + ACE and had very interesting points which were causing these or were symptoms of it. I know much nothing about ACE and it's coding because I haven't used it but I hope someone with better knowledge could track down what's causing the crashes with ACE. This problem is maybe the biggest at the moment.

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Hey King Nothing,

after being urged to try your mission in the thread about "Zero", I gave it a go and just want to say a big THANK YOU!

Although I own many games of various genres, I always referr to all my BIS games (OFP, ARMA, ARMA 2, Arrowhead) as "The best game of the world". Even out of the box they have a lot to offer, but with mods and usermade missions, you come to play your very own interactive movies. This is, of course, especially true with your mission.

Despite experiencing a few crashes and, having reached mission six now, serious drop of framerate in densely wooded and enemy populated area, I owe your mission some of the most intense gaming hours ever!

I play with ACE and various AI mods, but never felt the game to be unbalanced. In my "Chechenya War Story" there had every mission it's own story to tell, but I take mission four and five as an example.

We had to find and secure an enemy weapon&ammo stash in the woods, and right at the beginning we lost one of the choppers to DKSHM fire during a CAS run. Then the battle raged for over an hour with enemy reinforcements coming from everywhere, and I lost two men from Spark squad and one from Torch. I had vowed to reload only if the main character would die, so after I realized we wouldn't get airlifted out because only one available transport chopper with eight seats would not suffice, I had to choose joint extraction by ground vehicle. Some script did not work, disallowing me to get a vehicle big enough for joint extraction, so we confiscated a Truck from the nearby pig farm and left. Really great idea to allow an extraction to get completed if troops are more than two Km away from the mission area. That feature proved really useful in the next mission.

In mission five we were to rescue a hostage from a remote forest camp during late dusk. After insertion, nightfall rapidly approached; all the better for us. I had planned not for a silent approach, but for a quick simultaneous attack from two directions on the camp with massive firepower. We managed to get into position quite fine, and then it was already dark enough to hope for easy success against the guerillas lacking NVG. But even if the following battle was much shorter than in the previous misssion, I lost all but one of the AI commanded Spark squad. I had totally underestimated the sheer number of enemy presence in the forest camp. In this fierce battle, my AI addons were really shining: AI without NVG was pouring massive amounts of small arms, HMG and grenades onto the muzzleflash-guesstimated position of Spark, and I could not bring enough pressure on the enemy to relieve them in time. It was amazing to see how in this great game you can be a crack shot all you like, but still be a bad leader. Of course we killed the guerillas off at last, especially because the player can avoid to get his position pinpointed by doing shoot n' scoot, yet himself with NVG and the enemy muszzleflash as help still easily score his hits. At last,we freed the hostage, but the day was not yet saved. Again too many for a separate or joint air extraction, we ordered and this time recieved a ground vehicle. Only to get shot by some antique T55 tank roaming between the operation area and the camp. Wounded, we fled into a dense orchard with stone walls around three sides, had our wounds badaged and then under the cover of smoke grenades I repaired the APC. But to no avail, the tank shot again as soon as I entered the APC. While obviously too weakly armed to destroy it altogether, it could endanger the passengers still, so I climbed out in panic and we fled all together on foot to the friendly airport. Mission complete, but how high a blood toll we had paid for the rescue of one hostage...

Mission six I had to restart because it was again a hostage rescue, but this time I could not find any hostage in all of the camp. Let's hope it works again after restarting this particular mission.

After I've completed all seven missions, I'll post some pictures of my K.I.A. and score. This experience is what other games only promise.

tourist

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Hey King Nothing,

after being urged to try your mission in the thread about "Zero", I gave it a go and just want to say a big THANK YOU!

Although I own many games of various genres, I always referr to all my BIS games (OFP, ARMA, ARMA 2, Arrowhead) as "The best game of the world". Even out of the box they have a lot to offer, but with mods and usermade missions, you come to play your very own interactive movies. This is, of course, especially true with your mission.

Despite experiencing a few crashes and, having reached mission six now, serious drop of framerate in densely wooded and enemy populated area, I owe your mission some of the most intense gaming hours ever!

I play with ACE and various AI mods, but never felt the game to be unbalanced. In my "Chechenya War Story" there had every mission it's own story to tell, but I take mission four and five as an example.

We had to find and secure an enemy weapon&ammo stash in the woods, and right at the beginning we lost one of the choppers to DKSHM fire during a CAS run. Then the battle raged for over an hour with enemy reinforcements coming from everywhere, and I lost two men from Spark squad and one from Torch. I had vowed to reload only if the main character would die, so after I realized we wouldn't get airlifted out because only one available transport chopper with eight seats would not suffice, I had to choose joint extraction by ground vehicle. Some script did not work, disallowing me to get a vehicle big enough for joint extraction, so we confiscated a Truck from the nearby pig farm and left. Really great idea to allow an extraction to get completed if troops are more than two Km away from the mission area. That feature proved really useful in the next mission.

In mission five we were to rescue a hostage from a remote forest camp during late dusk. After insertion, nightfall rapidly approached; all the better for us. I had planned not for a silent approach, but for a quick simultaneous attack from two directions on the camp with massive firepower. We managed to get into position quite fine, and then it was already dark enough to hope for easy success against the guerillas lacking NVG. But even if the following battle was much shorter than in the previous misssion, I lost all but one of the AI commanded Spark squad. I had totally underestimated the sheer number of enemy presence in the forest camp. In this fierce battle, my AI addons were really shining: AI without NVG was pouring massive amounts of small arms, HMG and grenades onto the muzzleflash-guesstimated position of Spark, and I could not bring enough pressure on the enemy to relieve them in time. It was amazing to see how in this great game you can be a crack shot all you like, but still be a bad leader. Of course we killed the guerillas off at last, especially because the player can avoid to get his position pinpointed by doing shoot n' scoot, yet himself with NVG and the enemy muszzleflash as help still easily score his hits. At last,we freed the hostage, but the day was not yet saved. Again too many for a separate or joint air extraction, we ordered and this time recieved a ground vehicle. Only to get shot by some antique T55 tank roaming between the operation area and the camp. Wounded, we fled into a dense orchard with stone walls around three sides, had our wounds badaged and then under the cover of smoke grenades I repaired the APC. But to no avail, the tank shot again as soon as I entered the APC. While obviously too weakly armed to destroy it altogether, it could endanger the passengers still, so I climbed out in panic and we fled all together on foot to the friendly airport. Mission complete, but how high a blood toll we had paid for the rescue of one hostage...

Mission six I had to restart because it was again a hostage rescue, but this time I could not find any hostage in all of the camp. Let's hope it works again after restarting this particular mission.

After I've completed all seven missions, I'll post some pictures of my K.I.A. and score. This experience is what other games only promise.

tourist

My advise:

If you have to raid an enemy camp at night then use silenced Weapons! The enemy will have a much harder time spotting your units.

I´m using ACE myself and I added the VS VAL Rifles to the Mission. They are great for silenced Operations!

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Hey King Nothing,

after being urged to try your mission in the thread about "Zero", I gave it a go and just want to say a big THANK YOU!

Although I own many games of various genres, I always referr to all my BIS games (OFP, ARMA, ARMA 2, Arrowhead) as "The best game of the world". Even out of the box they have a lot to offer, but with mods and usermade missions, you come to play your very own interactive movies. This is, of course, especially true with your mission.

Despite experiencing a few crashes and, having reached mission six now, serious drop of framerate in densely wooded and enemy populated area, I owe your mission some of the most intense gaming hours ever!

I play with ACE and various AI mods, but never felt the game to be unbalanced. In my "Chechenya War Story" there had every mission it's own story to tell, but I take mission four and five as an example.

We had to find and secure an enemy weapon&ammo stash in the woods, and right at the beginning we lost one of the choppers to DKSHM fire during a CAS run. Then the battle raged for over an hour with enemy reinforcements coming from everywhere, and I lost two men from Spark squad and one from Torch. I had vowed to reload only if the main character would die, so after I realized we wouldn't get airlifted out because only one available transport chopper with eight seats would not suffice, I had to choose joint extraction by ground vehicle. Some script did not work, disallowing me to get a vehicle big enough for joint extraction, so we confiscated a Truck from the nearby pig farm and left. Really great idea to allow an extraction to get completed if troops are more than two Km away from the mission area. That feature proved really useful in the next mission.

In mission five we were to rescue a hostage from a remote forest camp during late dusk. After insertion, nightfall rapidly approached; all the better for us. I had planned not for a silent approach, but for a quick simultaneous attack from two directions on the camp with massive firepower. We managed to get into position quite fine, and then it was already dark enough to hope for easy success against the guerillas lacking NVG. But even if the following battle was much shorter than in the previous misssion, I lost all but one of the AI commanded Spark squad. I had totally underestimated the sheer number of enemy presence in the forest camp. In this fierce battle, my AI addons were really shining: AI without NVG was pouring massive amounts of small arms, HMG and grenades onto the muzzleflash-guesstimated position of Spark, and I could not bring enough pressure on the enemy to relieve them in time. It was amazing to see how in this great game you can be a crack shot all you like, but still be a bad leader. Of course we killed the guerillas off at last, especially because the player can avoid to get his position pinpointed by doing shoot n' scoot, yet himself with NVG and the enemy muszzleflash as help still easily score his hits. At last,we freed the hostage, but the day was not yet saved. Again too many for a separate or joint air extraction, we ordered and this time recieved a ground vehicle. Only to get shot by some antique T55 tank roaming between the operation area and the camp. Wounded, we fled into a dense orchard with stone walls around three sides, had our wounds badaged and then under the cover of smoke grenades I repaired the APC. But to no avail, the tank shot again as soon as I entered the APC. While obviously too weakly armed to destroy it altogether, it could endanger the passengers still, so I climbed out in panic and we fled all together on foot to the friendly airport. Mission complete, but how high a blood toll we had paid for the rescue of one hostage...

Mission six I had to restart because it was again a hostage rescue, but this time I could not find any hostage in all of the camp. Let's hope it works again after restarting this particular mission.

After I've completed all seven missions, I'll post some pictures of my K.I.A. and score. This experience is what other games only promise.

tourist

Thanks for the feedback, I'm really glad you're enjoying it. :)

You didn't find the hostages? I haven't had this kind of problem before and would have been interested to see if it was true that they didn't spawn at all. For a small spoiler:

There are 3 kinds of compositions that gets spawned for the hostages: A wrecked car on it's side with a fire place, a half cylinder shaped ofp-style tent and a mass grave. These compositions are usually located a bit to the side from the camps. Only few meters. One possiblity is that you just missed it, but could have been a bug too.

About the problem with ground transports. Sometimes, due to some unknown problem the ground transport can't find a route to the destination. I have yet to find out why.

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Don't forget that this is a dynamic campaign/mission so the next time you play through it the missions are completely different.

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Keep getting crashes after first mission. Using no addons and no ace. Just vanilla ARMA2 CO. It will preload the second mission then "ARMA 2 has stopped working" when it gets to 100%.

Lots of script errors keep popping up as well whilst its loading.

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Keep getting crashes after first mission. Using no addons and no ace. Just vanilla ARMA2 CO. It will preload the second mission then "ARMA 2 has stopped working" when it gets to 100%.

Lots of script errors keep popping up as well whilst its loading.

Script errors? Could you post what the .rpt says about them? If you get script errors there's usually something wrong. I always use -showscripterrors param and try to fix all the errors that I get.

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