Deep Sandbox (for Zargabad)

[dmos 10]

Deep Sandbox

Inspired and guided by thomsonb's brilliantly done sandbox series. Deep Sandbox aka Deep Sand is a single-player dynamic mission based in Zargabad. Requires Operation Arrowhead.

• 90% 95% 98% dynamic mission.
  
• 100% dynamic combat.
  
• Most gameplay aspects are random or dynamic.
  
• Uses the awesome UPS (Urban Patrol Script) by Kronzky! As result enemy groups behave in a much more realistic and immersive manner.
  
• Respawn on death in a dynamic way. There's a twist ;)
  
• Randomly placed caches containing weapons, equipment and ammo. Contents also completely random. There are 2 stashes that are bigger than average and they are landmarked by huge radars. The rest of the stashes are 25 in force and they're completely dynamically placed all over the map. (TIP: There's little chance of finding one in the middle of the city and they often have H-barrier cubes surrounding them for cover. Check image further down).
  
• NEW Completely Vanilla compatible, but if you want the most out of Deep Sand, use mods posted just below.
  
  Content supported by Deep Sand (if you don't use it, you will still be able to play Deep Sand out of the box):
  
  
  • The awesome RH weapon mods (following packs:
    HK416
    ,
    M4/M16 and the PDW mini-pack
    ).
    
    
  • ACEX-RU (the Russian Army) – highly recommended, adds Russian Desert groups.
    
    
  • ACE, ACE-X.
    
    

    
    

  [*] You are NOT a lone soldier. You command a small 4 man fireteam. As you play you can accept encountered friendly units into your squad.

  [*] Self and teammate healing (following thomsonb's example).

Upcoming features:

The mission is still in development. These are the features that are still only semi-implemented:

• Fireteam gets credit (money) for performance and survival. The credit can then be used to: improve/upgrade/expand fireteam's equipment, abilities; recruiting experienced/capable/well equipped or maybe specialized (medic,engineer,AT,AA,etc.) soldiers. Also penalties for losing members and dieing. Lots of possibilities. I would really like to hear your suggestions!
  
• [DONE] RH weapon mods, ACE items, and some other mods will be automatically enabled if you're using them, if not you will still be able to play the mission out of the box.
  
• [DONE] Scattered stashes of equipment/ammo.
  

TODO and IDEAS:

• NEW Add the ability to rearm your fireteam through the stash with one click. Big thanks to Kyle_K_ski for the idea.
  
• Develop the rewards system. Emphasis on survival.
  
• NEW Add enemy groups that paradrop in. Paradrop reinforcements for your fireteam.
  
• NEW Add more depth to the healing process. Again thanks, Kyle_K_ski
  
• [DONE] Dynamise "static" elements of the mission: more dynamic mission start, add dynamics to the player character and fireteam, etc.
  
• Get ideas from you guys on how to integrate night fighting into Deep Sand? I'm itching for Night Vision, ACE Chem Lights, Lasers, Weapon Lights, etc.
  
• Combat Support: Close Air Support – probably attack helicopters.
  
• Place enemy (and maybe one or two friendly) snipers/marksmen at random windows throughout the towns and suburbs to produce ambushes.
  
• Revive friendly unit if he hasn't been downed for longer that x seconds.
  
• Much more stuff that I forgot.
  
• Your suggestions go here...
  

This is you.



There are over two dozen dynamically placed weapon stashes.

Two of them are marked by radars and are slightly bigger than average.



Not only infantry. You also have the less frequent vehicles and planes.



Again radar marking a stash.

You can also see a civilian car parked there. I've taken thomsonb's brilliant "carpark" script.

I hope that's alright with him. A script like that is waay beyond my scripting capacities.



An example of a dynamically placed weapons cache. Note that usually they're not on roads.



Night time post mortem insertion, you can see teammates' parachutes in the distance.

Time/weather randomization is geared so that a reasonable part of missions would be at night.



Already mentioned time/weather randomization is centered around you enjoying

the whole range of atmospheric effects and settings.

It would be really cool if you would join in making this sandbox and be a co-author. Help with scripting and ideas would be VERY useful!

Feel free to use any of my code and add yours where you like. It would be great if you would share your improvements and tweaks.:chef:

Big Thanks to:

Thomsonb for his already mentioned Flashpoint sandbox. It gave me hours and hours of fun and inspired me to do Deep Sand. I learned alot from his code and Deep Sand has his great "carpark" script.

Krozky for his awesome Urban Patrol Script.

DOWNLOAD

code here

(Update 6, June 17)

Armaholic mirror (Update 6, June 17):

- Deep Sandbox (Zargabad)

Changelog:

Update 6:

• Still compatible with vanilla, but if you have any of the following custom content it will be used by Deep Sand: RH weapon mods, ACE, ACEX, ACEX_RU army.
  
• Weapon cache system much better.
  
• Infantry groups no longer mixed, all units from the same group are from the same faction.
  
• Infantry groups improved generally.
  
• New factions. If you're using ACEX_RU (highly recommend you do) you'll have Russian Desert fighting along side Takistani Army and Militia.
  
• Every time player dies, the time is forwarded by a bit. That's so you could enjoy atmospheric changes and get rid of that feeling like you're stuck in the same 5 minutes.
  
• Improved a lot of other things.
  

Update 5:

• Increased number of stashes.
  
• Improved and expanded missions dynamism.
  
• Improved random weather/time mechanism. Should yield more pleasing results.
  
• Can't remember.
  

Update 4:

• Stash system. Stashes randomly placed through out. Random contents.
  
• One in four chance to start the mission at night or very early morning. This is to enjoy the dynamics of night combat.
  
• Respawn heli now with full crew.
  
• Numerous fixes and improvements.
  

Have fun!

-dmos

Edited June 18, 2011 by dmos

[mrcash2009 0]

Looks good especially what its based on.

I was hesitant to download becuase I kind of avoid Zargabad due to FPS issues on that map, will you be implementing a Takistan version at all? Sorry that's none to helpful on feedback, I will test it out later though.

[kremator 1065]

IS it just me or are the radars sitting at a jaunty angle in the pictures ?

[xALIENAx 10]

IS it just me or are the radars sitting at a jaunty angle in the pictures ?

Depending on where you place them (where they make sence in a given situation) it can be quite diffacult to find a good place (large enough level area). one good trick is to find a Small Level Area and place a small Object then AttachTo the radar onto it (hiding the small object under it)

[dmos 10]

I kind of avoid Zargabad due to FPS issues on that map, will you be implementing a Takistan version at all?

Personally, I find that Takistan doesn't illustrate a mountainous region very well (which is of course very hard) and consequently it doesn't work very well with freely roaming AI. And I love the urban/rural setting in Zargabad.

However, currently the scripts are not extremely dependent on the map and I'm working on making them more independent. So with a bit of work you could adapt Deep Sand to any map. Currently the only bigger obstacle would be that the area patrolled by AI is static.

Preparing a Takistan version is not very important to me, but I am optimizing the code and making it more adaptive so hopefully soon you'll be able to easily "stick" the scripts on maps with minimal setup.

IS it just me or are the radars sitting at a jaunty angle in the pictures ?

It's not just you :) they're often crooked. They're nonadjustable. They reflect the tilt of the ground they're standing on.

---------- Post added at 01:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:31 PM ----------

Depending on where you place them (where they make sence in a given situation) it can be quite diffacult to find a good place (large enough level area). one good trick is to find a Small Level Area and place a small Object then AttachTo the radar onto it (hiding the small object under it)

If I understood that way the radar would ignore the terrain, right? I wouldn't want that, because then up close it would look either submerged or a bit floating. That would be bad for immersion. Or did I misunderstand?

[xALIENAx 10]

Well you do it this way

radarname attachTo [object,[0,0,1]];

[0,0,1] Are XYZ cooordinates relative to the object you are attaching to, and it does accept Decimals, so you have to play with it, Even rotate the unit as needed but you can get it to settle in there nicely if you play with it for a while. When Attaching, yes it will ignore terrain to an extent, however it will still colide with buildings. Careful attaching and placement tho will get it to sit right and not look corney :)

Edit: On a seetp hill you can insert a 3rd Object (like a block of concrete) and attach it to this conglomeration and make it appear as tho one end is supported by the block :)

[sw1 10]

Looks good mate :D,

One recommendation though, by putting

this setvectorup [0,0,0.1];

in the init of any object (the radars in this case), you can force them to stand level regardless of ground.

That's the single script I use the most :)

Edited June 8, 2011 by SW1

[dmos 10]

Cheers, SW1 and xALIENAx. I put SW1's line in the script, thanks man. I put your nicks in the comments ;)

Just uploaded the update. A few significant optimizations and tweaks; added some randomization to the fireteam - random members; added the just mentioned radar straightening; improved the transition from black at the start. Download from first post.

-dmos

---------- Post added at 05:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:03 PM ----------

Also a quick question about setVectorUp. I don't quite understand the math behind this command, so here it goes: is it possible to tilt the object (in this case radar) halfway from it's current rotation and completely upright rotation. Just because it sometimes looks weird up close if setVectorUp makes a big change.

[sw1 10]

I know what you mean but I don't really understand the maths involved in the command either (:(), any value above 0 seems to level the radar by the same amount, whilst negative values rotate it by 180. You could try posting the query in the editing/scripting section and see if anyone knows the answer there.

BTW I just played the mission and it's really great :D

[dmos 10]

BTW I just played the mission and it's really great :D

Thanks man. Means alot to me :D

[dmos 10]

I'll upload an update in the evening. Tripled the amount of possible starting positions and developed the stashes system a bit. Now the randomly placed stashes will have random sets of equipment that will be specialized. This is the base of the stashes system. After that further development concerning stashes will be mainly just increasing the number of possible sets of equipment and increasing the number of stashes.

Edited June 9, 2011 by dmos

[sw1 10]

Good stuff :) look forward to playing the new version...

[pendragonuk 0]

I have played some, I found it a little confusing at first without an objective, anyhow. Is there any chance of a Coop MP version? I would love to host it on my server.

[dmos 10]

Uploaded update. Download from first post. Gotta run

[rscarrab 10]

I really liked Flashpoint Takistan myself. About to download this mission now, looks good. :)

If your looking to make those radar thingies upright you could add to the init's;

this setDir xxx.xxx;

I used RTE editor to place H Barriers around Sosnovka, took me fookin ages mainly because they didnt line up. They were all leveled, the same as the nearby houses. :(

Once i removed "this setDir 113.967;" (for instance), they lined up with the terrain they were on. Thus i was able to line them up and have a nice walled town. :D

Ever since then whenever i place something that i want level --so to speak-- i either leave in the "this setDir" or add it in, depending.

Hope this helps. :)

Edited June 9, 2011 by rscarrab

[dmos 10]

Just uploaded UPDATE 4.

This is a big one. Stashes system practically done. The whole mechanism is there. Just left to expand and improve the possible equipment combinations. Stashes are placed completely dynamically. Mostly next to buildings or in courtyards and very rarely in very urban areas (for example middle of the city). Made more changes and improvements. I just updated the first post and started the changelog. Check that for a bit more info. Download from first post.

---------- Post added at 12:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:22 PM ----------

I found it a little confusing at first without an objective. Is there any chance of a Coop MP version? I would love to host it on my server.

Hehe yeah understand why you might be confused :)

This isn't really a mission in the standard sense, because there are no objectives. Except maybe to have fun ;) The idea is centered around freedom, dynamism, free roaming, exploring the game and different gameplay aspects as well as tactics.

And for MP compatibility -- I'd love to make it playable in multiplayer, but I have no idea how to go about it. I know nothing about the whole local vs synchronized problem and the whole multiplayer mission making business seems dark and scary to me. If anyone would like to take this up I would help as much as I can.

I really liked Flashpoint Takistan myself. About to download this mission now, looks good. :)

If your looking to make those radar thingies upright you could add to the init's;

I used RTE editor to place H Barriers around Sosnovka, took me fookin ages mainly because they didnt line up. They were all leveled, the same as the nearby houses. :(

Once i removed "this setDir 113.967;" (for instance), they lined up with the terrain they were on. Thus i was able to line them up and have a nice walled town. :D

Ever since then whenever i place something that i want level --so to speak-- i either leave in the "this setDir" or add it in, depending.

Hope this helps. :)

I'm not a fan of micromanagement :) Currently i'm using setVectorUp to make it completely upright, which is really easy and quick, but it does interfere with the terrain. I'm planning to write a quick script so that it would find a good position on its own using isFlatEmpty.

Edited June 11, 2011 by dmos

[Kneecap 10]

Im eager to try out this mission, however im a newbie when it comes to installing third party missions on this game. So um, this mission download comes with one pbo file (wich the readme says to put in the missions folder so thats ok) however, theres another folder called deepsand.Zargabad. Where do i put this folder?

Thanks in advance for any help. :)

[dmos 10]

Im eager to try out this mission, however im a newbie when it comes to installing third party missions on this game. So um, this mission download comes with one pbo file (wich the readme says to put in the missions folder so thats ok) however, theres another folder called deepsand.Zargabad. Where do i put this folder?

Thanks in advance for any help. :)

No problem ;) What you described is an older release. You probably got it from Armaholic, right? Click the huge red DOWNLOAD link at the end of the first post to get the latest version.

I supply the .pbo and the code of the mission. I used to upload both together (thats what you have), but now they're seperate downloads. The already mentioned DOWNLOAD link gets you the .pbo which is all you need to play. And if someone is interested in the code, the link for that is there too (under the DOWNLOAD link).

Edit: btw enjoy the mission ;)

[Kyle_K_ski 1]

Since yesterday, I've twice tried out your Infinite-Mission type mod.

To say that I like this mission a LOT is an understatement. It's very close to being perfectly brilliant. If you take my advice, it will be! FPDR

First, I certainly don't mind not having objectives, other than to stay alive and apply your tactical wits the whole time while doing so. I've only tried BI's official campaigns once, for a total of about 1/2 hour's time anyway. Anything else I've played has been using the excellent online Planned Assault mission planner, but I'm going to run with this tremendously engrossing work of yours for a good long time I think.

Some questions, and then some suggestions:

Where are the British units coming from? From the "Lite" version that BI released to everyone, or does your mission "look" through the mods that the player's loaded up, and draw units from there? If it's the latter that's VERY cool. It'll be neat to see some of the German units running about if that's how your mod works. If so, I'll be certain to add the PLA units too.

I really enjoy the option of being able to add BLUFOR to one's team whenever one desires to do so. This gives the player a lot of control of the size of the force he likes to command. This is a very thoughtful and well executed feature on your part.

What I'm also itching to see randomly placed are:

...debris piles

...defensive positions of all types, from a lump of sandbags to vehicle checkpoints

...blast craters that are big enough to be tactically useful

Am I correct in remembering that you have HK416s and their variants available at the ammo caches? If not, it sure would be nice if they were.

If the weapon caches could be setup so that a quick "Rearm" command can be given to the whole squad, who, upon receiving it, would automatically stock up on ammo for the weapon types that they're already carrying. It would also be VERY nice to have an option along the lines of "Rearm with suppressed weapons," at which point the units would select the best suppressed match to their class. Once a unit is carrying suppressed gear, there would be a command available at these ammo caches of "Rearm with non-suppressed weapons."

If I'm not mistaken, the loadout for the respawned player is randomized, yes? Yet every time I've respawned, I've only ever had smoke grenades. Could you make it so that out of the four grenade slots, two of them are frags? I've respawned (nice touch by the way!) and then after hoofing it a loooong distance to get back to the fight, encountered some OPFOR, ran like mad for the nearest cover, been so out of breath to not be able to shoot, yet not so out of breath that a frag grenade could've pulled my butt out of the fire--were it available on me. I'm only bringing it up due to the frequency of this type of encounter.

Would it be possible to include 2-3 randomly placed Red Cross/Red Crescent field hospitals to the map, staffed by 3-4 doctors? That way, if the player or one of his units are badly injured, they can be fully healed once they get there. To act as a penalty, I'd have the healing-procedure at the hospital take a good bit of time, like 2-3 min., based on the severity of the wound. I'd also apply a dizziness side effect whose duration is based on the severity of the wounds that were fixed up. The more severe the wound was, the longer the fully healed unit will suffer from dizziness, although I'd cap it off at 3 min, unless one desires to cause the player to vomit on their keyboard! :D

For every friendly wounded AI that the player applies first aid to, the player gets rewarded with $7 (a "lucky" number) to the Currency Counter. Now, talk about making it a hard choice for the player to ignore a wounded virtual comrade! Does the player risk his neck to save him, or not? Yeah, that would be evil. :p

I really appreciate having the randomly placed vehicles on the map, which caused me to think about wouldn't it be cool to also have an ambulance that would randomly drive about and park at a location for 10-15 min.? While there, the BLUFOR and the OPFOR could get fully healed as if it's a field hospital on wheels with flashing emergency lights!

Scatter around some terrified AI civilians, and add some rare encounters with domesticated animals. That would add a lot of ambiance, deepen the immersion factor, and potentially act as a penalty for the player, such as...

...dropping his currency counter by 6 (an unlucky number) and...

...bumping up the next spawn of enemy infantry by 6 for every civilian killed beforehand!

This would simulate the consequences of killing civilians, chiefly that of driving the locals that one's supposedly supporting right into the arms of the enemy.

Could you explain in a little more detail what the Currency Counter is capable of doing other than keeping track of partial/full kills?

Also, if it's not too much work, or a hit on the framerates, could you add small arms ammo as cargo that the player/AI can access if needed?

And then, after all of the above GREAT ideas (*hint-hint*) have been added, port over this great mission to other maps!

I love the idea of this Infinite-Mission type. BI should throw some money your way and integrate it into ArmA III. :bounce3:

Great stuff here. Thank you for your hard work, and sharing it with us.

:notworthy:

You do this because we're so good looking, right?

Or is because I'm such a good dancer?

Edited June 11, 2011 by Kyle_K_ski

[jedra 11]

Enjoying this very much, so well done. It's great just to pick up and play for an hour or so at a time. I am currently modding it for myself to work on the new Malden 2010 map (released today) whilst also making it more ACE specific. Then I think I will do one for Isla Duala when the next version arrives.

Excellent idea and execution. If people keep releasing stuff like this then I will never get my campaign built ;-)

[Kyle_K_ski 1]

Jedra,

Are you planning on releasing your version to the public?

[jedra 11]

Jedra,

Are you planning on releasing your version to the public?

No - that would be a bit out of order. If it works well, then I would offer it to dmos. It's his mission after all and then he can decide if he wants to release it.

I have to say though, this mission is bloody good on Malden - the forests and mountains provide excellent fire-fight opportunities. At the moment I am struggling to decide what OPFOR to use, so for now I am using Iranian forces and Speznatz! I have also changed the player units (and loadouts) to the excellent Task Force 86 Navy Seals.

dmos - is there any reason why you have US Pilots piloting the SU25's?

By the way, dmos the mission was excellent in its origninal form. My only issue is that for some reason my graphics card hates Zargabad - I have to put the fan up to 90% which then causes the local meteorlogical office to issue hurricane warnings!

It's so good, it would work well on any map (well perhaps not Desert!).

[Kyle_K_ski 1]

No - that would be a bit out of order.

Yeah, I was thinking that, but I haven't bothered to read any kind of Read Me (can't remember if there was even one in the file) that might have said, "Go ahead and use it..." So, yeah, you're following proper procedure asking dmos beforehand.

In regards to switching over to the Navy SEALS... The units look great, but the loadouts? I wasn't too pleased with the default selections, but should I ever get the time, I'll cook up some of my own for them.

Iranians and Speznatz? Hah-hah! That is a pretty surreal pairing!

In spite of all the propaganda that saturates our airwaves, it's challenging for me to imagine a "mighty" Iranian army invading, well, anywhere.

It's kind of like the situation in the 1980s when the Reagan administration told the public about how the Sandinistas were eventually going to invade the U.S. through Texas. It's hard to believe that anyone with even two working braincells could believe such utter nonsense, but, very sadly, far too many did.

So, I wish your Iranian forces a lot of luck in their, uh, "capabilities" at conquering Malden. They're definitely going to need it.

[dmos 10]

Thanks for your input, man! It's greatly appreciated :)

Where are the British units coming from? From the "Lite" version that BI released to everyone, or does your mission "look" through the mods that the player's loaded up, and draw units from there?

I believe they're coming from the Lite version that's in Operation Arrowhead. And no unfortunately it doesn't search your setup for available units; HOWEVER it would be great if someone helped me to implement that, because it's a bit out of my scope. If someone could help I would be very interested in collaborating with them. And you can always add units manually. It's the two arrays (WEST and EAST) in the clock.sqf script.

What I'm also itching to see randomly placed are:

...debris piles

Debris piles sounds interesting and it would be good for immersion, but I'm hesitating because it might make the mission heavy on memory and for me and my laptop that's an important factor :D When I'll find time I'll definitely try making a script that would scatter some random objects around.

...defensive positions of all types, from a lump of sandbags to vehicle checkpoints

...blast craters that are big enough to be tactically useful

I like the idea of scattering some sandbags and I'm itching to implement the ACE sandbags too. This is definitely going to the TODO list. If it's possible to place craters like regular objects (is it?), then I'll work on implementing those too.

However, I'm not very fond of the idea of vehicle checkpoints. Could you expand on that? What would that exactly be and how would it contribute?

HK416s and their variants

I'll gladly put it in. Which weapons is it exactly?

If the weapon caches could be setup so that a quick "Rearm" command can be given to the whole squad, who, upon receiving it, would automatically stock up on ammo for the weapon types that they're already carrying. It would also be VERY nice to have an option along the lines of "Rearm with suppressed weapons," at which point the units would select the best suppressed match to their class. Once a unit is carrying suppressed gear, there would be a command available at these ammo caches of "Rearm with non-suppressed weapons."

That's a great idea. Straight to the TODO list. Thanks!

field hospitals

That's a no-no for me ^^ but if someone would write the actual script I would gladly put it in as an optional feature.

I'll be sticking to the current healing system. But, you did give me an idea on how to expand it. Currently you can heal a teammate or self fully every minute. I'll change that to being able to heal self or teammate half-way every 15 seconds (simulate dressing the wound/stopping bleeding) and restoring to full health every 2 minutes (i'll call that administering morphine or something). This will depend on how hurt he is.

For every friendly wounded AI that the player applies first aid to, the player gets rewarded with $7 (a "lucky" number) to the Currency Counter. Now, talk about making it a hard choice for the player to ignore a wounded virtual comrade!

I'm working on a similar idea but instead of getting rewards for healing, you'll be penalized for teammates' deaths. For example if 1/4 of your team dies, you'll loose a similar fraction of your quarters.

the loadout for the respawned player is randomized, yes?

Not yet, but soon :)

Yet every time I've respawned, I've only ever had smoke grenades. Could you make it so that out of the four grenade slots, two of them are frags? I've respawned (nice touch by the way!) and then after hoofing it a loooong distance to get back to the fight, encountered some OPFOR, ran like mad for the nearest cover, been so out of breath to not be able to shoot, yet not so out of breath that a frag grenade could've pulled my butt out of the fire--were it available on me. I'm only bringing it up due to the frequency of this type of encounter.

Haha that's exactly the idea behind 4 smokes and no frags ^^ After respawn you have to regroup, organize and retreat if need be. I made the option of blasting your way through, the hardest one on purpose. I want players to feel that they're only a team of 3-4 and not a tank.

Right now I don't have anymore time, but thanks ALOT for your ideas ;) they're great

---------- Post added at 11:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:53 AM ----------

No - that would be a bit out of order. If it works well, then I would offer it to dmos. It's his mission after all and then he can decide if he wants to release it.

I have to say though, this mission is bloody good on Malden - the forests and mountains provide excellent fire-fight opportunities. At the moment I am struggling to decide what OPFOR to use, so for now I am using Iranian forces and Speznatz! I have also changed the player units (and loadouts) to the excellent Task Force 86 Navy Seals.

dmos - is there any reason why you have US Pilots piloting the SU25's?

By the way, dmos the mission was excellent in its origninal form. My only issue is that for some reason my graphics card hates Zargabad - I have to put the fan up to 90% which then causes the local meteorlogical office to issue hurricane warnings!

It's so good, it would work well on any map (well perhaps not Desert!).

Feel free to post it and message me if you do, I'll put in a link.

And that US Pilot thing is an accident :) thanks

And good luck with your campaign!

[dale0404 5]

Trying this out now, will report back!