[SP] Lost

[markb50k 1]

yeah, just played it for a while without ace, but with jsrs. Just got the invincible Russian. It's always the same one, just a standard soldier with ak-107. Can't kill him. Must be an incompatibility with CBA? rrrrr. Can't play this map with any of the good mods :(

I figured out the bug with the invincible Russian. Will put out an update tonight, just wasnt sure anyone was playing.

Also cleaned up the mission a bit and added Tasks to help with the storytelling.

EDIT: Added in 3.0

- NEW ADDON REQUIRED (Included in ZIP, just place "MARKB50K_LostAddons" in your ARMA 2/Addons directory)

- Added in several new TASKS to help point out some essential game play mechanics.

- Friendly forces laid out a bit differently, with more of the friendly groups set up at the rally point early on. Helped their survival a bit.

- Removed all always-present actions that cluttered your action menu. Now everything is accessible through COMMS menu.

- fixed invincible russian guy bug. This was not a conflict with another mod.

- Less Enemies option now has greater effect in cutting down enemy forces.

- Enemy vehicle patrols will retreat and try to fill gunner and driver spots if they accrue losses.

- Group manager now shows Ranks and Unit Type of your soldiers, helps with organizing your squads.

Edited February 6, 2012 by markb50k
Updated to 3.0

[maturin 12]

No need to start over, I don't think. Just ignore him in your BTR. Doesn't the mission only require getting 95% of enemies?

Also, I cam across a T-72 the other day. How common are those things?

[markb50k 1]

No need to start over, I don't think. Just ignore him in your BTR. Doesn't the mission only require getting 95% of enemies?

Also, I cam across a T-72 the other day. How common are those things?

I guess you can try to use your old save game but I wouldn't recommend it.

As for T72s I would say that probably less than 10% of the vehicle patrols are tanks, so around 3-4 total. It's all random of course.

[DogonCrook 1]

I played a little of the first one and it was fine. The new one is completely unplayable at the lowest settings. 3.8cpu, nvidia 560, 16g ram, ssd. I let it sit for 30 mins and i get 30fps unless i look around... Anyway you could give options for less enemy? How many ai spawn at lowest settings?

[markb50k 1]

I played a little of the first one and it was fine. The new one is completely unplayable at the lowest settings. 3.8cpu, nvidia 560, 16g ram, ssd. I let it sit for 30 mins and i get 30fps unless i look around... Anyway you could give options for less enemy? How many ai spawn at lowest settings?

Please download the latest version 4.5 on the other thread. I'm not sure if you are using the most updated version since you are asking about options about "less enemy" which is an option from the OLD version. Also please use the new thread. Admins could you please lock this thread please?

Download:

File @ OPFEC Beta thread

[DogonCrook 1]

lol yes i am using 3.0 thats very good news. thank you sorry for the confusion.

[anthropoid 1]

Finally got OA installed and got this mod running. Really looking forwrd to it :)

ADDIT: Well I've played it quite a bit now and _REALLY_ love the conception and feel of this "mission" (really almost a campaign though isn't it?).

ACCOLADES

The engine features where you collect and organize gear (and presumably in the latter stages build up a base?) and the focus on logistics is fantastic. The dynamic with being a geurilla force and having to hideout (at least initially) also fantastic. The inclusion of civilians wonderful. The attention to detail great.

The scenario in which you have to build up and organize a geurilla force and then start taking back territory and gradually build up partisan support are what most intrigues me with this mission.

PROBLEMS?

Unfortunately, it would appear that the Group reorganization features do not work quite right, or at least my group leaders don't like me or something . . .

Context

I have found a radio, evacuated my groups from their immediate areas, stolen an ammo truck, picked up stragglers, and assembled everyone at Devils Castle. I probably (in hindsight) should not have done this, but I basically "deleted" all four of the initial groups and moved all of them to be in the same squad with me. With them all in my squad I could fiddle around with the "Organize Group/Gear" functions off of the Gear Cache.

Partly this was just to learn how the engine works, but what I did was merge all groups into my own squad, then I used the Manage Group gear function and took away everyone's gear so that it would be more evenly distributed. Then sorted dudes into sets so that I'd have a good mix of different soldiers/skills/ranks for forming new groups.

Specifics of the Problems/Bugs?

I'm having two problems when I try to create new groups. Both of them seem to happen consistently in certain contexts

1. When I form a new group in the vicinity of a vehicle, the group automatically commandeers the vehicle. I don't 'want them to be in the vehicle but I am not seeing any way to keep them from adding it to their roster.

2. To try to circumvent this problem, I moved the soldiers who I wanted to form into a new group distant from the vehicle; I figured >250m and they'd not automatically add the vehicle to their roster.

Well it worked, the new four man squad formed up as I wanted, and they didn't automatically commandeer the vehicle, but . . . they automatically charged at an enemy in a village half a click or 750m south, completely ignoring my "Move To" orders and seemingly (based on their speed) ignorning my adopt "Stealth" posture.

This is weird because, when I initially gained High Command status, they definitely listened to my orders and did as they were told. I can't help but wonder if it has something to do with them being a new group, and their being a lag in them being receptive to player orders, during which time, they forge off on their own to suicidally attack an APC.

This reduced one of my two new formed squads from four men to 1 man, so it was kinda annoying.

Maybe this is not a bug per se, or maybe it is something that has emerged as a result of how vanilla code works in interaction with the new group managing features in your mod?

Anyway, LOVE this mod, and despite the frustration with some of the tricky HC functions, will definitely be playing with it some more to try to figure out how to get it to work like I want it to.

and BTW, when I click your "File @ OPFEC Beta thread" I get an error.

Edited June 10, 2012 by Anthropoid

[anthropoid 1]

Having played more, I am even more postive about this mod! GREAT STUFF!

The issue I was having where the new unit would commandeer the vehicle only seemed to happen either (a) that one time or (b) when I formed the unit NOT interacting with the Cache.

The issue with new / unattended groups forging off on their own havent' seem quite so egregiously, but they do seem to not be 'robots' who follow your orders exactly. If that is what the original problem reflect, then sure that is fine. Command and Control are not perfect right ;)

Just wanted to say, Great Job ! on this! You've taken the ArmA engine and the past work of other modders and really created an interesting and challenging mod. I hope you are still involved with it and haven't given up modding :)

Questions

1. It doesn't seem to be possible so siphon fuel into the barrels out of a vehicle. I'm gonna guess that, eventually, I'll find a fuel depot and I'll need a truck with abunch of those barrels in them to steal some fuel? Don't tell me unless I'm dead wrong eh; the mystery of what I'll find out there is part of the fun of this mod, but a hint so I don't waste hours on a deadend path where there is no such game functionality is appreciated

2. So far the only way I've found to heal myself or friendly troops is a somewhat damaged "Stryker MEV" that I commandeered and drove back to my hideout. Does that mobile MASH trucks healing capacity deplete over time? Are there other ways to heal soldiers?

3. The Spetsnaz Lieut map has these red dots but there is nothing there. In one case, the house with the red dot is enterable, but no one home. I'm gonna guess those are houses which, when searched prompt an enmy response?

4. There was a weapons crate in a tent I found. I parked my truck right outside the tent 'door' and tried the "Transfer to truck" on the crate (not all crates had this pull-down option), but it said it couldn't find a truck in range.

5. Granted it is only less than one-day in-game time for me so far, but, I've seen about 5 or 6 enemy strongpoints, and 3 or 4 red-dot houses, and have yet to see any static enemy presence, though I have seen patrols. I left the settings for force strengths pretty much at default when I started. I guess I just need to keep looking? Pretty frustrating for a sniper when there nothing to shoot at :(

6. Eating, sleeping, not required? Assuming it is not required, I'd suggest that (if possible) adding those features to the mod would be FANTASTIC!

7. I'm gonna guess no real time limit on winning right? I mean, what would be the rush in a post-apocalyptic Chernarus?

[Rydygier 1317]

Lately I have great fun with this mission too. I love this kind of open missions, where no one force me to act in certain way, in fact even started some works with somehow similar dynamic SP some time ago (so now I'm not sure, if there is a point in releasing it, if will be ready someday, when great "Lost" already is here :) ).

Running from hause to hause for loot and for "turning off" spy-eyes bring me to some conclusions:

1. Espiecially on Chernarus map my be good idea not to change markers from white to black, but deleting (same info effect with saving CPU some unnecessary work, unless these black markers are somehow important).

2. Such running across every town may prove quite tiring sooner or later, so what about my group members - is possible to make them do this for me? I can imagine, how nice effect will be, when you and yours men are entering the village, then you gives them simple search order, and they spread out and check every hause in some radius, one by one, and returning when ready... I admit, that for me in any mission team is usually more a burden, than help (preffering "lone wolf" style with SVD and RPG as optimal armament for any situation), cause must to watch their back all the time, what distracts me from my tasks, they also rather in not so effective manner consume valuable ammo (sometimes several mags, where one or two bullets should be sufficient) and so on... Anyway, with such functionality there will be one reason more to have and appreciate team help.

[percster 11]

1. It doesn't seem to be possible so siphon fuel into the barrels out of a vehicle. I'm gonna guess that, eventually, I'll find a fuel depot and I'll need a truck with abunch of those barrels in them to steal some fuel? Don't tell me unless I'm dead wrong eh; the mystery of what I'll find out there is part of the fun of this mod, but a hint so I don't waste hours on a deadend path where there is no such game functionality is appreciated

As far as I know, siphoning fuel into barrels is not possible. But the military camps in and around cities come in a variety of flavours, one of which might contain a solution to any fuel problem one might have. *wink*

2. So far the only way I've found to heal myself or friendly troops is a somewhat damaged "Stryker MEV" that I commandeered and drove back to my hideout. Does that mobile MASH trucks healing capacity deplete over time? Are there other ways to heal soldiers?

MEVs, civilian ambulance, MASH camp and medics amongst POWs as well as spawning partisans.

4. There was a weapons crate in a tent I found. I parked my truck right outside the tent 'door' and tried the "Transfer to truck" on the crate (not all crates had this pull-down option), but it said it couldn't find a truck in range.

Some items seem to be too large to be loaded onto any vehicle, including flatbed trucks. My suggestion: sweep the area, bring in your cache, automatically transfer everything in a 250m radius into it.

5. Granted it is only less than one-day in-game time for me so far, but, I've seen about 5 or 6 enemy strongpoints, and 3 or 4 red-dot houses, and have yet to see any static enemy presence, though I have seen patrols. I left the settings for force strengths pretty much at default when I started. I guess I just need to keep looking? Pretty frustrating for a sniper when there nothing to shoot at :(

Default settings are what I used in my first playthrough as well. If you ramp it up to max, it's a different beast altogether. Static deployments are still scarce, but roaming patrols become abundant, maybe overwhelming.

Default numbers of patrol groups allowed me to secure Gvozdno by killing precisely 6 soldiers, and Krasnostav had another 10-15. At max settings, I had to strip corpses for ammo twice before I even had a chance of escaping Komarovo, a clean sweep was out of the question entirely. When I hopped into my boat again, the area around my little stronghold was littered with black spots on the map, 30+ easy.

So if you want something to shoot at, crank up the number of foot patrols. ;)

However, due to the unorganized structure of the enemy forces, difficulty drops immensely once you acquire something like an AFV or an MBT as well as supply vehicles.

[SPC.Spets 21]

I'm playing the mission from time to time, I already like it

Random shotout almost at the beginning of the mission

hHJyN3aCEUM

[markb50k 1]

Wow lots of great feedback and questions. I am really happy this mission is being enjoyed. It's why I play it and why I built it

On vacation at Disney so can't devote the full time needed to address everything...

Siphoning only works from vehicle to vehicle. Barrels just provide fuel but can't receive. They can be moved only so you could theoretically stockpile them somewhere of your choosing

Ambulances don't run out of healing power. It's a vanilla engine thing not me

High command groups doing wacky things when you create them is an engine AI issue. I don't do anything special when creating them other than using the default engine commands. Can't be much help other than joining in on your frustration when they do stupid stuff

Red dots on your map when you gather intel off of dead officers is just current locations of enemy soldiers. The proximity of dots near houses is purely coincidental and does not signify any relationship of the dots to the house

Removing house markers is something I will consider to ease up on CPU cycles. Thanks

Allowing AI to perform searches is a neat feature i will think about

@anthropoid: not sure why the weapons cache did not detect your truck. Make sure it was 50m or less distance. And as was recommended using the "transfer all" functionality of your personal cache is another approach that should take care of the issue

Sorry if I missed any of your questions. Just let me know and I'll try to address it when i can

Again thanks so much for the interest and thanks for posting the vid. Great fun!!

[anthropoid 1]

Thanks for answering the questions Markb50K :) I agree that deleting the black dots, and an auto-search or command subordinate units/teams to search would be fantastic.

And also thanks for the suggestions guys. I will definitely try that with the moving the cache thing.

Having played through to having about 25 men, an MVTR, a troop truck, a utility truck and a CH-47, I feel like I know understand enough about the mod (as well as HC functions) that I can really play this game. Decihpering the key commands for teams, groups, units, HC, etc., etc. has been the main thing I've been focusing on and I feel like I sort of get it now. I finally figured out a few things that have been key

Watching SpetS15's video I can see that, I do have a lot more to learn about basic combat tactics; namely being able to anticipate how the AI will behave and moving into the proper position to take advantage of that. Question for you SpetS: that Gear interface when you took the stuff off the dead enemy near the power station, is that part of this mod or a different one?

---------- Post added at 13:54 ---------- Previous post was at 12:26 ----------

Few question:

1. Backpacks-> this is something from a mod right? Or is it from vanilla OA? I only bought OA to be able to run this mod so have not yet fiddled with default OA tutorials and stuff much.

I cannot figure out the rhyme or reason to who and who cannot "Take" (meaning put into their secondary slot) a backpack. Obviously officers cannot, though the human player can. I've seen some Sergeants who can, some who cannot, some Pvt can some cannot. I'm guessing that (a) having an empty secondary slot is important; (b) I predicted that not having all main ammo slots full had something to do with it, but no, that doesn't seem to be the case; © only other thing I can guess is, having a sufficiently high Endurance?

2. How should I use these things? Are they worth bothering to plan my squads around? If I have an automatic riflemen with a backpack full of missiles in team position #2 and a AT specialist with a corresponding missile launcher in #1, will the AT AI replenish his ammo from the backpack guy automatically? Or do I have to do it for him?

3. I notice in the first post in this thread that is says "- AI caching scripts optimized and improved to prevent loss of immersion (no units suddenly spawning out of nowhere)." But I'm not sure what this means.

One thing that I really anticipated I'd love about this mod is the ability to stealthily stalk the countryside, identifying enemy positions and activities, and then assembling my squads for well planned sneak attacks, else just do solo standoff sniping.

So far, I've found this to be pretty much NOT possible, though maybe I just need to play more or focus more on high population density areas?

As I pointed out in an earlier post, I have found some enemy officer maps with intell on enemy locations. I have scouted these locations. I have scouted the airfield, Grishino, one or two other towns, and multiple strongpoints and the ONLY time I have EVER seen enemy troops just loitering was shortly after I spawned at the far southeast of the map in one playthrough and happened to spot what was seemingly a patrol walking through town. They disappeared around a corner and I never found them.

On the other hand, whenever I got to search houses enemy spawns are fairly common, not overly so, but they definitely happen . . . or at least, I think they are "spawns."

My question overall here is: are ALL the enemy units that will exist through the entire game present once a new startup session has begun? Do they ever just sit still, you know, sleep, hangout?

I am getting the feeling that not all enemy units are present from the beginning and that player actions cause new units (or cached units?) to spawn in particular areas (e.g., when you search an enemy house and it provoke a "enemy response." Assuming however, that they are all present, then I'd like to suggest that, they way they behave at present (seemingly always on the move and never actually occupying well-built up fortified positions) seems a bit immersion breaking.

Sandbox and somewhat unpredictability to the enemy are great. But right now, a lot of my experience seems to be:

i. Roam the countryside for hours and hours and on rare occasion spot an enemy patrol

ii. Approach a known enemy location (from a pilfered officer map) only to find it unmanned. Start milling around and a few minutes later my troops (stationed on the nearby hilltop to watch) start reporting enemies approaching from the distance.

Referring to (ii), it is almost like, the enemy AI is programmed to always (or most of the time) stay on the move, but to 'sense' whenever one of its abandoned strongpoints is tampered with, and then return in force to try to ambush the player. Given I'm supposed to be a geurilla force, the fact that it seems almost impossible to sneak up on the enemy (or at least very patience and persistence dependent?) and the fact that I am almost ALWAYS being ambushed, is just a bit difficult to accept. Maybe I just need to play the game more, but these are my observations at present.

5. One last observation, that I think has more to do with the way the AI functions in the core game engine and not this mod so much, but it really chaps my ass . . . I have seen guys swear up and down that the no entity in the game, and definitely not the enemy AI have "X-Ray Vision" but this is contrary to my observations. SO MANY TIMES I am walking up a forested hill at night with the silhouette of the hill top visible up ahead, and with Auto-Report running me or one of my troops reports "Enemy 12 0'Clock Far," or some such. With Enhanced Map enabled, I click on the map and see the orange or red symbol(s) for the enemy that has just been spotted . . . he is on the other frigging side of the hill top!? >150m away?!?

So we have an engagement, and the enemy AI show remarkably effective sensitivity and reactivity to our presence. The way they manuever clearly suggests that once we close in, they are aware of our presence. The shoot back, at least somewhat effectively . . . indeed sometimes, despite us having spotted them first and moving in to ambush them in a night attack in the forest and my whole squad is equipped with NV Goggles, they manage to wound or kill some of my troops.

So then we loot the corpses . . . not a night vision goggle in the whole Goddamn crew. I take off my NV goggles to test the Ambient light levels . . . almost pitch dark. It is almost as if NV goggles do not matter in this game and the AI has superhuman spotting abilities. Again, maybe I just need to play more, but this is how it seems at present. Partly I think this might have more to do with the stock engine dynamics and not your mission/scripts or mods that are included.

So this brings me to my next question:

6. What mods to you suggest running with this "mission?" I thought I recalled seeing a list of mods that were included with this mission, but now looking at the original post I dont' see any list. In particular mods that address point (5) above would be terrific

Again, thanks for such an awesome mission :)

Some more bit of feedback for you, that I THINK might have to do with Clayman's Group functions thing.

7. Whenever I add all troops into my own group so that I can manually set their weapons and ammo, if I then delete all their gear, add back a different weapon(s) and its corresponding ammo, once I leave the Group Manager screen, the soldier's icon apears red indefinitely and he repeatedly states "I'm out of Ammo!" I have not yet tested what happens if I go into combat with soldiers in this situation, but if I take manual control of the guy, he has plenty of ammo, and reloading fixes it. If I take manual control of the guy, and have him arm himself from the cache this never happens.

It is almost as if, having been reassigned gear from the Group Manager window, he cannot recognize that he HAS ammo in his slots for his present weapon and will not actually reload it himself.

I observed this happen in a slightly different way with the CH-47 helicopter. We had been in an engagement with it and fired off most all the ammo on two or more of the guns on the aircraft. I haven't yet put much effort into figuring out how to reload those weapons, so we were subsequently flying around with no ammo in those weapons. Whenever I tell a squad to board the chopper, naturally a couple of them man those guns, and repeatedly state that they are out of ammo, okay not a big deal, just a natural reflection of the "auto-report" function doing its job. But then we disembark and they STILL stay red and do not reload their personal weapons (AK-74 or M-16 or whateer it is they are carrying).

Once recently I had 25 guys in the transport chopper. When we landed I ordered them to disembark. As they were disembarking, every single soldier in my group in sequence manned one of the aircrafts depleted guns, then immediately dismounted. By the time they had all dismounted they were all standing their with red icons, their personal weapons unloaded (despite all of them having plenty of ammo in their slots) and reporting "Out of Ammo."

Edited June 12, 2012 by Anthropoid

[KimJongIll 1]

This mission looks great! very impressed with editing skills

[markb50k 1]

Can everyone please move these posts to the lost 4.0 thread please. This is an old thread

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?132721-SP-Lost-v-4-0-Like-a-mash-up-of-Dogs-of-War-and-Manhattan-(without-the-bugs)!