[SP] Lost v 4.0 - Like a mash-up of 'Dogs of War' and 'Manhattan' (without the bugs)!

[deltafiveone 11]

Or playing as any OPFOR or a Takistani/Chernarus insurgent would be COMPLETE freedom! Of course the bad thing is that would change your whole spectrum/story of your original mission.

[markb50k 1]

Or playing as any OPFOR or a Takistani/Chernarus insurgent would be COMPLETE freedom! Of course the bad thing is that would change your whole spectrum/story of your original mission.

Yeah, ive considered that, and it would be a coding nightmare to do that, so I'm going to say that its probably not something to expect any time soon. LOL.

UPDATE: finished coding Chechen Rebels into the mod as another friendly group. After testing, will release with the rest of the new stuff.

[kiberkiller 10]

I never post on this forum usually but I just had to tell you how awesome your scenario is.

I love global missions and missions with a sense of progression and "Lost" has it all. Starting off as a lone soldier and then slowly recruiting stray troops on your side and slowly but surely taking over the whole map is absolutely amazing. (I always play with Friendly Squads set on 0, it's more fun that way.) That's exactly what I love in my singleplayer ARMA missions. You did a great job on this!

I wanted to share some of my thoughts about the mission and I would love to hear your opinion on them.

1) My very first though when I played your mission was "This totally begs for some kind of Warfare-esque module." Being able to steal or find an HQ vehicle and then scavenge money and supplies from houses and use those to build a small base would fit perfectly to this mission IMO. It would also give the player a great sense of achievement and prove a nice transition from lone soldier guerrilla warfare to coordinated raids to full scale warfare as you liberate more and more resources and are able to create a bigger base of operations for you and your guerrilla friends.

It would also feel nice when you can return to your base with a truck full of loot. Not to forget that it would allow for more scenarios to appear, think about how the player would feel when his base, that he worked hard to establish, would be found and attacked by an enemy chopper. You be that players would do anything to protect it.

2) I don't know if it's possible or not, but it would be great for shitty players like me, to get an "easy mode" where you would be allowed to respawn at your cache or your base, when you die. It would still penalize the player for dying, since he would lose all the gear he had on him and all his followers at that place would probably be dead.

Also, it might also be a good idea to only allow players to save at their base/respawn, that would prevent players from "cheating" by reloading all the time but it's a minor thing.

I hope this wasn't too big of a wall of text for you. Again, great job on your mission. I'll be glad to see what you come up with next, even if you decide to discard all my ideas.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot the most important thing. It is very annoying to search for Cache every time you spawn it or unload it from the vehicle.

Would it be possible to make it spawn much much closer to you/your vehicle?

Edited May 8, 2012 by kiberkiller

[heklos 0]

I've added Icewindo's apocalypse units from the newer unfinished ver 1.03 of the files... So I don't know if you would want to include it in your finished pack since the units/vehicles were unfinished. It is still playable though just a texture error from the vehicles and some texture swapping disappearing thing on the backpacks. I was just testing this part first before I go ahead and add Icebreakr's units for Jade Groove to it also. The biggest thing besides the unfinished state is the lack of vehicles, so I left some of the guerrilla vehicles in there with the new units, have not gotten to put the weapons available in the icewindo pack yet.

I have had another error crop up about Land_Church and am not sure about what or where its coming from as the error doesn't name a file, Ill track it down tho.

[markb50k 1]

I never post on this forum usually but I just had to tell you how awesome your scenario is.

Well first of all, THANK YOU for your thoughts and feedback on the mission. Its stuff like that, that makes me love doing this..

- base building : you can current "load" sandbag walls and static weapons into your vehicles, unload them and place/rotate/drag them. Did you know this? Adding in a small bit of functionality that allows you to construct a base using the Construction interface (COIN) is a great idea and something i will look into. Thanks.

- isnt the current setup allowing you to save whenever you want, basically an easy mode? I dont know how to do the respawn thing so that's my major reservation. plus its a SP mission, not sure how respawns work with that...

- when you unload your cache from a vehicle it tries to place it directly behind the vehicle. i can look at using "findsafepos" to get a location a bit closer.. will look into it..

@heklos : since its people's choice if they want to use a certain mod or not, i dont think its a deal breaker if the mod has some issues, on whether we make it supported by the mission. obviously if its a mod that is adding new classnames every week or so, i'd want to wait until it was stable to support it since every time it changes i'd have to edit my faction file. but if you have done the dirty work for me adding in the new array for the new mod, i can add it in on the next release

Quick update:

Expect in the next update, support for AAW (Australian Army), PRACS, Chechen Rebels, and more French soldier groups, plus support for the newest PCDF. Plus Torabora and a few bug fixes. Right now High Command doesnt work for new missions. I've figured it out and will get the new version out soon, hopefully tomorrow.

[Kommiekat 11]

I was wondering, me being a crappy player as well, what is a good initial set up for enemy and friendlies from the start?

In other words, balanced more on the Friendly side but not going overboard.

Honestly, I getting overwhelmed the first town I hit with men and armor and helo's.

Lastly, playing Lingor, the Hero is in a rubber raft starting on the opposite side of HQ. Seems like I could make may way, by sea to the Friendly HQ. Would that be a good idea or not?

[markb50k 1]

Yeah the rubber boat is a new feature I added since some maps require you to travel by sea. There are also fishing boats around if you can find them. I would definitely recommend using any means to get to friendlies including just sailing around.

As for starting setup I really don't have an idea what is an easier setup. I would say from 8 to 12 friendly groups and probably middle values for each enemy type. 20 veh patrols. 6 or less gunships. 4 para. Maybe 75 to 100 foot patrols. Just my guess. I usually max out the enemy because I'm a masochist lol

[kiberkiller 10]

I am, being a crappy player, always set minimum amount of all enemy units (5 mech, 2 air, 25 ground I think it is) but I always get murdered by APC's and god damn Hind's because I don't manage to find any AA or AT weapons at the start.

It's very exciting hiding in a city patrolled by a chopper though.

EDIT: There was one more thing I was thinking about.

From what I've noticed, only roughly 25% of all houses have loot in them but those houses can often hold several weapons at once.

Finding little amount of loot more often is more fun than finding bigger loot but less often.

Maybe it would be good idea to lower the amount of items you find but raise the amount of houses that hold loot?

Or even better, allow the player to chose how much loot is distributed though the map, at the start of the match.

That way players can chose for themselves if they want a harder or easier game.

EDIT2: Rubber boats was a great idea by the way.

Edited May 9, 2012 by kiberkiller

[markb50k 1]

Version 4.94

- ALL islands support ALL factions.

- island : Tora Bora

- faction : OFrP (added FELIN, G3, ISAF factions)

- faction : Project CDF (updated to newest version)

- faction : Project RACS

- faction : Chechen Rebels

- faction : Australians at War

- faction : Bundeswehr Mod (German Army)

- fix : High Command wasnt working (requires RESTART to fix if you started a game using 4.93)

Edited May 9, 2012 by markb50k

[Snake_61 10]

Hi Mark,

great job creating these LOST-Missions!

Strategic and tactical gameplay with very high immersion...just great

I've started the Chernarous-Mission and had to choose Factions.

In the menu I had the chance to increase the number of factions,what does that mean?

Higher numbers means more soldiers on whole map, or only the number of soldiers is devided by the factions?

I am not sure what I'm adjusting with the increase or decraese button.

Thanks in advance

[markb50k 1]

you were correct with your second guess. the increase just means that out of the friendlies that get spawned, more of them will be the factions with the highest numbers..

so, for instance, if you choose...

1 - BIS USMC

5 - @OFRP Regular Infantry

then 5 out of 6 friendly troops spawned (on average) will be the French instead of the USMC

(i say "on average" because the logic behind the scenes has some other factors involved, like special forces guys fall into their own bucket and arent spawned with normal troops, etc, but this is a good guideline)

It does not affect how many total friendly are spawned. Thats controlled in the second dialog which lets you specify the number of friendly groups spawned.. make sense?

Edited May 9, 2012 by markb50k

[Snake_61 10]

Ok, thx Mark...got it! :)

Good explanation,btw...

[Aegon 1]

I can't get this installed correctly. I tried the modfolder like I have for DayZ but no dice.

Can someone elaborate?

[markb50k 1]

If you use mod folder (@lost for instance) then create an Addons directory in the modfolder and put the markb50k_lostaddons.pbo in there

The mission pbos you can put in your arma 2/missions directory

You'll need to launch arma2 with -mod=@lost on the command line and it should work like a charm! Good luck!

[Kommiekat 11]

I would definitely recommend using any means to get to friendlies including just sailing around.

Sorry, I've been a bit lost on the concept, do to my ignorance, but you're suggesting the player should get the Friendly HG asap?

So, starting way opposite the HQ, going from town to town and "searching" my way to the HQ is of course a way to do it, but the best way is to get to HQ quickly?

So far, I've picked up a few men, a tank and we managed to shoot down a HIND with the tank, but armor and men are quickly showing up.

Not sure to set up camp asap or do a straight line through the bush for HQ and from there, "the fun starts".

[markb50k 1]

well, the key decision you have to make at the beginning of the mission is if you think you can save enough of the friendly forces to make it worth it to try to get to a radio.

So, no, you dont have to actually travel to the Friendly HG, but you should try to find a 'radio' as soon as possible, either on a dead enemy group leader, or in a military vehicle. Once that happens, and you TAKE COMMAND, you dont need to get to the friendlies, simply order them to go to ground and scatter into the wilderness, so at least they survive. I would also order them out of their vehicles immediately as well. Then once they are safely hidden in the trees or mountains, then you can take your time getting to them.

[kiberkiller 10]

Personally I like being buddies with guerrillas and wounded friendlies you find in houses, instead. They're giving me a sense of progression, where I start alone and slowly work up towards a larger squad. Rather than, bang, "here have some free stuff".

That's why I always play with 0 friendly squads.

---------- Post added at 12:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:18 PM ----------

Would it be possible to add UPSMON (http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?91696-UPSMON-Urban-Patrol-Script-Mon) module to the mission, or would it be too difficult?

Pathera Island has some great buildings that you can go inside and hide from choppers but the AI doesn't follow you inside unless you tell them specifically to do it, and they just kind of run around all buildings. As far as I understood UPSMON has features that allow AI to be able to use the buildings.

[markb50k 1]

I can check UPSMON for the house patrol functionality. Wouldnt want to integrate it wholesale since I think i got the AI patrolling down fine.

[Aegon 1]

I got it working, one thing I noticed right away was that when I deploy my weapons cache for the first time nothing happens.

Also, I get errors when I try most maps, only one I've tried that works is Takistan. I didn't look much into it because I'm tired, but do I need to download these?

[markb50k 1]

UPDATE: OPFOR gets some reinforcements, now you can have some nice new Russian troops (including Desert camo) to play against

Version 4.95

- faction : Stagler's GRU

- faction : Stagler's FSB

- faction : Stagler's Modern Naval Infantry

- faction : cmp's Modern Russian Mechanized Infantry

---------- Post added at 14:34 ---------- Previous post was at 14:30 ----------

I got it working, one thing I noticed right away was that when I deploy my weapons cache for the first time nothing happens.

Also, I get errors when I try most maps, only one I've tried that works is Takistan. I didn't look much into it because I'm tired, but do I need to download these?

Yes, the mission may support new maps and troops addons, but you have to have them loaded into your game to work with the missions. They arent included in the 3MB download.

As for placing the weapons cache, is anyone else getting this issue? Aegon please make sure your addon PBO is loaded correctly.

[Aegon 1]

I tried a different map, Chernarus, and it appeared. Do enemies really only spawn when you search buildings? If so, why? It seems slow-paced. I searched 90% of the biggest city on the map and found 4 enemies and some stray ammo.

Edited May 10, 2012 by Aegon

[kiberkiller 10]

Enemies are patrolling all over the map, the only reason you haven't seen then yet is because you managed to avoid all patrols somehow.

Sometimes when you search a house and find guerrillas, they fight you instead of joining you, that's who you fought against.

Just wait until enemy send a Hind and a APC bumrush on your ass.

[markb50k 1]

I tried a different map, Chernarus, and it appeared. Do enemies really only spawn when you search buildings? If so, why? It seems slow-paced. I searched 90% of the biggest city on the map and found 4 enemies and some stray ammo.

Depending on what you choose in the second dialog will determine how many enemies you find on the map. On Chernarus this is what i normally choose for enemy forces..

MAX vehicle patrols, think its 50 on Chernarus

6 gunship patrols

4 para patrols

200+ foot patrols

6-10 friendly groups.

I suspect you chose alot less foot patrols if you have been searching an entire town without seeing any regular army troops.

Dont worry about performance, each one of the footpatrols is spawned virtually across the map and wont get activated until you get near them.

[Aegon 1]

Thanks, how do I add the new islands? I downloaded the files, but how can I make Lost recognize I have them?

[markb50k 1]

Similar to the mission addon is how you add islands to your game

Make a folder called the island name or whatever you want. Example. @lingor

Create a @lingor/Addons directory and put all the pbos you downloaded into it

Add the mod folder name to your shortcut command line remember to separate multiple mod folders with semicolons. Example. -mod=@lingor;@lost

Run the game

For a better explanation google arma 2 mod folder tutorial