[SP] Zero

[Clayman 20]

Title: Zero
Type: SP Mission
Side / Role: OPFOR, Independent / Various
Version: 1.55
Arma2 Version: CO 1.62
Date: 2013-04-24



Description:

Based on the events in “Eagle Wing“. Nikolay Zverev finds himself in a different world. Hiding in a bunker with only three of his comrades still alive. After four weeks with no sign of life from the outside, the men decide to try to find a way back home. None of them knows that their journey will be much longer and harder than they expect...
Find yourself through a post-apocalyptic world where nothing is like it seems... or is it?
Fight against a superior enemy, struggle with constant lack of men and equipment and take a look into the darkest depths of the human soul.



Release Trailer by McLupo:

Propaganda:

Post-Release Trailer (Remember the Mission "Zero") by McLupo:

Review by McLupo @ arma2base.de
german | english

2nd Place in the OFPEC Mission Editing Competition 2011
OFPEC Review by mathias_eichinger (Rated 9/10)

Gameplay Videos by Spetznaz:    

Required Addons:

• CLAY_ZeroAddons.pbo (included)

Credits:
Scripts:

• "Chernarus Electrical Grid" by Loyalguard
• "UPSMON" by Monsada
• "OFP Style Deathquotes" by Psychobastard
• "Random Position Generator" by Shuko
• "Improved Task Defend" by Binesi
• "Convoy Control" by DTM2801

Music:

• "Krieg" by Bums

(Beta) Testers:

• Stoned Boy
• McLupo
• ataribaby
• SaOk
• savedbygrace

Thanks:

• BI for Arma2
• Demonized, neokika, sbsmac for scripting help
• McLupo for the fantastic trailer & never ending support - You're the Man, man! ;)
• Everyone who provided feedback, bug reports and / or new ideas – Thanks a lot! :)

Download:
Zero [1.55]
Armaholic Mirror


Have fun! :)
- Clayman

[tom3kb 15]

Very good mission (nice intro), i like that you add that equipment/squad management somthing like in KingNothing Forgotten Few but better with more options. I

just started playing but I can see that this will be one of the best sp mission in which I played. Great work :)

[wiggum2 31]

Hi Clayman, that sounds great !

What kind of addons are inside this "CLAY_ZeroAddons.pbo" ?

[Psychobastard 136]

Looking realy great!

I start playing and think i can finish it in round a half hour. But this mission is for days of gameplay. I like it how you have integrated the suqad- and weapon- management system.

The atmosphere acts throughout the game play and is not immediately lost after the intro. The entire mission branches into smaller tasks, which can turn to small tasks too. The enemys are all over the Chernarus scattered and so i have to be careful all the time while i'm in move.

The details are brilliant - low fuel, destoyed cars, low ammo, ruins, ... - great! What i not like is that nearly every time the enemy has heavy armored support. I know, i can cut the communication - but it's realy hard with this overpowerded brdm's.

Realy great (and bug-free) work.

regards

[KBK 10]

Fantastic mission! You really caught the feel of being the underdog and having to resort to guerilla tactics.

I got a bit bold (lazy) after having taken the Supply Depot by force and it didn't take long before I got my face kicked in by a counterattack :D I guess I should've just picked up what I could carry and gotten the heck out of there :D

5/5

[McLupo 118]

Hello Clayman :)!

Great mission, nothing more to say.

The meaning of "challenge" has to be redefine to "Zero"!

A masterpiece of mission design, that´s for sure.

Best Regards

McLupo

[Clayman 20]

@tom3kb

Thanks. Actually I came across Forgotten Few while working on the Group Manager, and I was kinda surprised that someone else already had the exact same idea. :D

@Wiggum

Just some small config tweaks, to overcome the limitations of spawning Opfor / Independent units on Blufor side.

@Psycho

Thank you. Well, those BRDM's are a piece of cake once you get your hand on some decent armor yourself. The problem is, you'll need some luck to find decent armor. :D

And good luck for trying to complete the mission within half an hour.^^

@KBK

Haha. Yeah, that probably would have been better. :p :D

@McLupo

Thank you, once again, for all your kind support. All the time you spent for testing, giving feedback and of course the great trailer, you have been truly helpful. Thanks a lot, mate. :)

[KBK 10]

Seems that my savegame on this mission has gone corrupt :(

Time of day (ingame): ~19:30

Number of saves: 9 + 1 Continue point

Progression: Both militia groups hired, Supply depot and Radio tower raided/destroyed, camped in the hills above the SW harbour.

Error message: "Cannot load HDD:/Documents/ArmA 2/Saved/missions/Clay_Zero.chernarus/continue.ArmA2OASave"

Tried changing which savegame it loads from but I get the same message about the other savegame files. Might be an error in my client though? I'm not too familiar with the guts and gears of ArmA2 so I don't really know.

=================================

I absolutely love the dynamics of the mission.

After having successfully stolen alot of equipment including a much needed ammo truck from the supply depot, I was hungry for more. It was already dark when I spotted a convoy consisting of two offroad vehicles and one ammo truck, all ripe with fuel and munitions. So we quickly set up an ambush at a chokepoint. Needless to say they didn't stand a chance.

Going through the corpses I found something invaluable, a pair of NVGs was strapped to the leader's head. My luck was greater than I had imagined, three fully fuled vehicles, ammo up to my ears and a major nighttime advantage!

It turned out though, that I was not the only one who held great value to that convoy. Shortly after their demise the familiar thunder of heavy helicopters came rolling over the hills. Two Mi-8s began dropping troops just to the north of our position and accompanying them on the ground was a BMP-2 and a Pickup(PK). We jumped in the vehicles and tried our best to escape but the wall of bullets was too thick. The ammo truck was hit first and went up in a ball of fire, burning the driver alive. Their BMP then made quick work out of the other two vehicles as they tried to speed out of there.

Out of ten brave, only four made it back alive. I traded six of my men and half of my ammo (I employ the Navy Seal tactics of escape, keep that trigger scolding hot while you make your retreat) for a pair of NVGs. Don't bite off more than you can chew eh? :D

Edited October 25, 2011 by KBK

[wiggum2 31]

Finally i played it (a bit) !

The intro is great but maybe you should use those "pre load location" stuff to prevent objects from staying at low LOD. I believe there was some option to pre load stuff.

After The intro i felt kind of lost, i mean the task is clear but why are all guys around me just stand around and then move only slow and with lowered weapons if the enemy is near ?

The weather looked kind of weird (totally clear) and very suddenly changed (storm) as we reached the village.

...then i got shot. :p

I had constant stuttering which i normaly dont have.

Most likely the scripts (UPSMON) or to many AI spawning ?

I would suggest to rework the beginning abit (walk to the first village), at the moment it kills the immersion for me after the great intro.

Maybe just some ingame briefing where the leader tells you about the plan to free the other captives.

Its the AI i know but it looked a bit weird that they just "rush" into the village. And you the player are told to walk to "that tree" (i need immersion :) ).

I know, its most likely complaining on a high level and i dont even reached the really fun part of the mission but that are just my thoughts about the first few minutes.

[zapat 54]

I haven't had any problems with framerate/stuttering. You may not have enough memory: if I watch the intro with maaaaany quick position switches, thus way to much texture loadings, then I need to restart the mission, so the engine can empty the non used data. After that mission itself is smooth as silk.

Clay: I've just managed to play with Zero a couple of hours: it plays great, manager is great idea, and that part is perfect. Weather, and color effects create a very-very good athmosphere. (And I didn't have any problems with first mission immersion-wise). My only concern is that the world feels a little bit empty as is.

Not the enemies, but other stuff. You have like 3 guerilla bases altogether with like 5-6 guys each, other than that there is no life, except "random" enemies. Which wouldn't be a problem if you shouldn't drive a lot, but you do that through default Chernarus landscape (without any ruins, or damage): the story/atmosphere is kinda stopping there, and you need to do this a lot.

Anyhow, thanks for this, I've had great time with the mission, and it also got me thinking. :) This setting is very attractive. :)

Edited October 27, 2011 by zapat

[Clayman 20]

@KBK

I'm sorry about the corrupt savegame. No idea what might have caused this, as I never had any problems with saving / loading during the mission. Also none of my testers reported anything. I don't know if there is anything you could do to resolve the issue. But I'm afraid the only solution would be to restart the mission and hope that it doesn't happen again.

However, thank you for taking the time to write about your experience. It was really entertaining to read. (Though I wonder where the second MI-8 came from, there should only be one at a time. Going to check that for the next update.)

I think reading such small stories is the biggest reward a mission maker can get. Thank you very much, really appreciated. :)

@Wiggum

Maybe they are moving slowly because the enemy is near? I don't know, they are guerrilla fighters, not some kind of highly trained SF guys. Normal people prefer walking instead of running.^^

Not sure what you mean with the weather. There shouldn't be any clear sky during the whole mission. At least not during daytime. The only issue is with the fog instantly getting less once you reach the first village. Unfortunately there is no way around this except having less fog from the beginning. But that was never an option for me.

The stuttering must be a problem at your end. Especially at the beginning there is not much going on. Most scripts run only after the first objective is complete. Maybe you want to try what zapat suggested.

@zapat

Thank you for your kind words. :)

I know what you mean with "empty world". There are some vehicles in the towns (randomly damaged) and a bunch of wrecks scattered over the landscape. And that's pretty much it. I wanted to add a lot more "atmosphere", I even tried destroying some of the towns. But I noticed quite a big performance drop (especially with destroyed buildings). Might be a problem with my outdated computer. :(

However, as there already is a lot of stuff going on in the mission I decided to keep the "eye candy" to a minimum. I know it kind of kills the immersion, but I guess most people spend more time fighting the enemy than looking at destroyed buildings. :D

[wiggum2 31]

@Wiggum

Maybe they are moving slowly because the enemy is near? I don't know, they are guerrilla fighters, not some kind of highly trained SF guys. Normal people prefer walking instead of running.^^

Not sure what you mean with the weather. There shouldn't be any clear sky during the whole mission. At least not during daytime. The only issue is with the fog instantly getting less once you reach the first village. Unfortunately there is no way around this except having less fog from the beginning. But that was never an option for me.

The stuttering must be a problem at your end. Especially at the beginning there is not much going on. Most scripts run only after the first objective is complete. Maybe you want to try what zapat suggested.

With "slow" i meant "SAFE" mode.

I thought they should advance at least in "AWARE" with normal speed. What about spitting up the group at the first objective ?

Give the player a small group and a special task like "you go in from that side" or something. I think you are correct with the fog, could be that what suddenly changed.

The fog looked kind of weird, what fog script do you use ?

I would recommend this:

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=13101&highlight=FOG

I think the style of the mission could be much darker and apocalyptic. But if you concentraded on the fighting part then this is no issue, just a matter of taste. ;)

Anyway, great mission !

[Clayman 20]

Hi Wiggum.

I understand your point about the atmosphere. I believe your picture of post-apocalyptic differs from mine. :D

I didn't want to create a horror, zombie style feeling. It's a more subtile kind of "darkness", if you know what I mean. ;)

Which fog script I used? Well... 0 setFog 1 :D

While the script you posted has a great effect, it's not quite the look I was after.

Anyways, thanks for your input. Although I don't fully agree with you, it really is appreciated. :)

[Stalkermight 10]

It happens that the save gives me a black screens, i can move and shoot but I do not see anything.

Sorry for my bad English

[Clayman 20]

Does it happen when loading any savegame or only sometimes?

[kevaskous 10]

Does it happen when loading any savegame or only sometimes?

All my saves do this now aswell.

[Stalkermight 10]

Does it happen when loading any savegame or only sometimes?

only sometimes

[mortyfero99 10]

I think this is FINALLY a great mission to play !!

FINALLY means not the usual mission like "move to place X, face a hundred enemies with a 6 men squad and kill them all" ...

The atmosphere is great, the equipment menu and group menu are awesome !!

Thanks a lot

[asa 10]

Hey, thanks ... I´ve spent several hours playing and i only can say ¡ OLE! (great). It´s a very good mision.

But now the problem: when i restore a saved game the screen looks like a bad black & white version, almost black, I think it´s the same problen with Stalkermight. It´s began when i already saved and restore succesfylly several times, but since it´s began i haven´t be able to play unless a use night vision glasses, then i can see the world, but with daylight it´s not funny.

[Kommiekat 11]

Hi, nice mission so far.

About vehicles I come across on the map:

When and if I can manage to drive a vehicle back to base camp, will it refuel? They seem to stay almost empty on gasoline. Should I even bother driving any vehicles including BMP's back to the base?

[tourist 617]

Hi Clayman,

played some of your other missions and liked them, so I gave this one a go.

This is EXACTLY the kind of mission I have been looking for; it is this one or a dynamic mission allowing me to play in Chernarus rather than Panthera or Isla Duala. Since there is no dynamic mission for Chernarus, it is you who filled the gap.

Unfortunately, I encountered the black screen bug after restoring a (normal, not your unlimited)save I made when night slowly fell. I can revert to an earlier save, but when I save after this save, it is black screen again.

This is so annoying because I had managed to come across a lonely supply truck near a small bunker on a field and single-handedly (wanted to conserve my men and drove there with a pickup alone) killed one infantry group of 7 men each plus a reinforcement of 10 and their Ural transport cause I hit that truck with two rounds of VOG 25 grenades in a row. With ACE, COSLX and ASR_AI running, that game is freakingly hard on veteran and I was proud like you ever imagine. But then I called four of my men as backup,reversed the truck and accidently killed one b efore he could jump in. I reloaded the save made after defeating the two enemy groups - bang! Black Screen!

And whenever I reverted to a save made directly after finding the ammotruck and before enemy troops arrived, all was fine, but when I made other saves after that one, each of these led to black screen. And I got shot a lot or my men, so I had to reload, but...

Had fun so far and hope there is a solution for that bug, thank you for creating a cool mission nontheless,

touristo

[asa 10]

I have exactly the same problem that Touristo, ¿any solution?

[Clayman 20]

First of all thanks to all of you for the comments. :)

@Stalkermight, Kevaskous, asa, touristo

So far I wasn't able to reproduce the black screen bug. But now I have an idea what might be the problem. I use different color settings for day and nighttime, with a transition time of 30 minutes. I think the bug occurs when loading a savegame made while this transition was in progress. I'm going to do some testing and hopefully I can find a solution. Thanks for reporting.

@mortyfero99

Thank you. :)

@Kommiekat

There is no auto-refuel / repair / reammo option. You will have to find support vehicles to do the job.

I have to admit, they are very rare, but there are refuel, repair and reammo trucks in the mission. ;)

@touristo

Thanks alot. I'm glad to see you enjoyed the mission so far.

I never tested it with any mods like ACE or SLX. Not sure if these mods might cause other bugs or unpredicted behaviour. But I'm sure it makes the mission a lot harder. (Not that it's easy at all by default. :D)

[mortyfero99 10]

Damn ... i've found the gasoline truck but one of my men dropped an rpg on it ... :butbut:

The only big trouble is that you have to go around the island with a long truck/car column and the driver are used to get stuk everywhere ...

Does anybody know a mod or a patch to make your mates better drivers ?? Thanks !!

[Tonci87 163]

This is EXACTLY the kind of mission I have been looking for; it is this one or a dynamic mission allowing me to play in Chernarus rather than Panthera or Isla Duala. Since there is no dynamic mission for Chernarus, it is you who filled the gap.

touristo

I think you might like

The Forgotten Few

Cipher vs. Wiper

They are also dynamic