[SP] Apocalypse - Invade. Control. Conquer

[tourist 617]

Hi Mark,

meanwhile I have started an APOCALYPSE game, but of course in LOST mode. Like posted by GiorgyGR, I admire the whole concept, but my hardware simply isn't up to the task of providing ressources for an all-island, all-out war between two or three different armies. But I really appreciate that now I can have the benefits of the APOCALYPSE coding and features in a LOST mission. Thanks for your great and ongoing dedication to your mission and thanks for even incorporating individual user requests like the drowning!

For me, my recently started LOST mission under the APOCALYPSE coding on Isla Duala runs a lot smoother than the previously started mission on the same island under the old LOST coding. Although in my current mission already a lot has happened (and therefor is stored in the savegame), the framerate stays around 20 FPS,which is totally fine for A2 OA and a notable improvement compared to the old LOST coding. Plus,this isn't Counterstrike or one of the BF/COD games, and I'd say better have unparalelled features and immersion @20 FPS in a truly open world mission than shallow run+gun @100 FPS in small box-like levels with one enemy per square meter spawning near you whether you go left or right.

Speaking of immersion... well, you score in that department and you know it! I can also fully understand BlackADD3R's "hunter-gatherer"/"crackhead" approach towards mods - I have very much the same desire for the perfect combination to give me the perfect game. I run LOST in the current mission with

ACE,ACEX,ACEX_RU,ACEX_USNAVY,COSLX(partly), GL4, ASR_AI, ASR_appendix, STmovement,STbunnyhop,TGW_Suppression,TGW_LOS, TrueGameplay,TrueUser, PROPER, JSRS 1.4.3 (my basic modline)

plus unit addons for this specific playthrough: BWmod,BWmod_ACE, GAF,AMT, Isla Duala, FFAA_Terroristas, Desert mercenaries and blackops for OA

These provide me with the thrilling option to play a scenario based on actual events:

North Mali has been overrun by islamists who then imposed their stone age interpretation of sharia law upon the poulace. The Mali government is weak, but will most likely get support from various western countries, primarily in form of instructors for the Mali armed forces. These instuctors will of course have some guard force with them; also some troops to accompany the Mali soldiers into battle as a means to build trust in the western instructors - we all know this from other theaters of war.

Now in my game, I play from the perspective of a German KSK SGT who just won't accept defeat as long as he knows his German comrades, some other western SF guys and the remnants of the Mali government army(Afrene) are trapped in an enemy-controlled country and are still desparately fighting for survival after the islamists had overrun the south of Mali as well. Hence all the addons representing the German detachment including vehicles and the support of the Mali islamists (Molatia) by various foreign elements as well (FFAA_Terrosristas and the generic middle eastern OPFOR from Schnapsdroesels's Desert Mercenaries and Blackops).

I did have to choose the smallest number of groups for OPFOR due to my computers weakness, but the fact that the Mali islamists IRL don't have any air units led me to cancel air units altogether for them which helped to save system ressources. After reading in the net that the Mali armed forces actually have an Airforce, I allowed to create it for my side. That played out like a dream: with the entire country including all the airfields controlled by the enemy, the pilots of the Mali airforce got airborne minutes before the last airfield was overrun and then they had their finest hour, sacrifying their lives like their national anthem demands:

À ton appel, Mali,

Pour ta prospérité

Fidèle à ton destin

Nous serons tous unis,

Un peuple, un but, une foi.

Pour une Afrique unie

Si l'ennemi découvre son front

Au dedans ou au dehors

Debout sur les remparts

Nous sommes résolus de mourir.

And thus, they were unintentionally buying time for Feldwebel (=german for SGT) Tim Nack so he could find and organize what was left of the Mali armed forces and the Police and the western advisors to form resistance!

Before establishing contact with friendly forces, he heard via the "passively working radio" you start with and partly witnessed himself from a distance how one jet and one Iroquois chopper (That was the entire Mali airforce in my game, but hey, better than nothing, isn't it?) fought valiantly until shot down. Meanwhile, the clever AI groups had made a fighting retreat into a town in the east where they repelled an attack. In pitch-black night, Feldwebel Nack searched various settlements looking for a vehicle with radio until he accidently learned that a SPG 9 static weapon counts as vehicle, too... Then he found a Lada Miliz and used that for collecting some weapons and ammo and for punching with top speed towards the friedly town which was already supportive (about 25+) to the secular and democratic resistance! On the way, suspicious houses were searched and partisans were recruited after a fierce firefight in a formerly idyllic and remote holiday resort where Feldwebel Nack assisted by a Mali army technical defeated a six men patrol of enemy SF.

There, the surrounding camps were manned via HC commanding the groups; a perimeter patrol was set up by detaching five men in their technical (pickup with PK machingun in this case) for this task. At the same time, Feldwebel Nack took the five Bundeswehr infantry soldiers that were not attached as crew to the Gepard AA tank and did some deeper recon, leading to the discovery of... the crashed, but repairable Iroquois chopper! Hurra, time to sing

"Flieger, grüß mir die Sonne, grüß mir die Sterne und grüß mir den Mond!"

Now, it was time to check out the news about POW's received earlier on. This is where I'm at now; while failing to find POW's at the places where the icons appeared, I discovered a Podnos mortar in a fortified camp deep within enemy influence area. In a nighttime raid consisting of Feldwebel Nack with two germans as gunners in the chopper, the other three germans in an Ural truck to load the mortar on and the re-attached Mali army technical patrol as the ground forces element of our "combined arms operation" we have now killed or driven out the enemy special and regular forces guarding that town. Now, I will have to be quick with landing the chopper and dragging the mortar into the truck before reinforcements arrive with tanks... Heey wait, some of my BW soldiers have AT launchers and AT mines since they are pioneers! Hmmm, make a fast retreat or try to set up an ambush...

The various APOCALYPSE features work great together with my ACE stuff: If a truck is damaged, I can either replace it's tire via ACE if that's the problem or repair it altogether with your repair kits. Also, while the ACE medical system is fully working, I can take a shortcut and use your medkits on wounded soldiers for a quicker healing. But it is quite rare to find these kits, so I'm glad the ACE medical stuff has spawned rather plentyful in one Pinzgauer truck I found around the friendly town. No M.A.S.H. found to be in a safe place yet. In ACE,you need that M.A.S.H. or a Medic AND in both cases an ACE Medkit for "final healing" to make a limping/lame soldier walk upright again or give back steady aim to a soldier who has wounded arms, but for some patching up and easing the pain there is enough ACE stuff there in my resistance camp.

Finalizing this excited happy posting, I would like to know how exactly it is determined how enemy units are made visible as HC icons if that option is turned on. I had the impression you see all of them, so I disabled that option as unrealistic once the friendly airforce was down. Or is it determined by some variables like friendly unit LOS or supportive towns reporting; but that reporting seems to happen still like it was in the old LOST code by showing little red dots only and I am talking about how the HC icons visibility is influenced. And also I am unsure what "Special actions" means in the comms menu. Last to ask for today: what options are there to control other teams or switch to certain units? I could not find all those options like "make HC leader and switch to" from the old LOST code.

Keep up your amazing work, Mark!

touristo

[BlackADD3R 1]

Hi Touristo!!!

thanks for understanding my approach, and yes I have been hunting/gathering for the perfect game.

MarkB, it has been consuming my every waking hour (I am serious) to perfect your mission.

I wanted to tell you that tonight, for fun, I decided to play your original LOST missions to compare my fps optimization tweaks that I have been trying to apply to Apocalypse.

I noticed via a fps counter that the old, original LOSt, runs on my machine at 60-100FPS, all settings high. Truly amazing.

However Apocalypse (and Apoc LOST mode) run at 16-20 FPS. The MAIN thing I noticed is that there is 0 ZERO activity from my GPU (video card)...I have diagnostic programs running on my second monitor. My graphics card is not being used at all in Apocalypse, it's all from my CPU!!! And its playable mind you even at 20 FPS. Still, I spent tons of cash on my video card, I wish it could share the load. Why is this happening?

I think I have reached a breakthrough here for me!! I am excited to figure this out...is it something at my end??? All other missions max my GPU at 90% while yours gives 0% activity and temps near idle (57*C). btw card is Sapphire HD 6870.

Cheers.

[BlackADD3R 1]

...so I've been reading up on this in other threads/forums.

Apparently its a common problem with our game.

Basically, the more AI, the more CPU usage as it tends to take over from the GPU...but why? when the industry is pumping out such fine GPUs. Is it and ArmA2 optimization issue?

At he start of the mission, when I am solo, or before any para drops all is fine with my graphics card, but as soon as reinforcements or enemy are spawned, the GPU ceases to contribute.

[markb50k 1]

...so I've been reading up on this in other threads/forums.

Apparently its a common problem with our game.

Basically, the more AI, the more CPU usage as it tends to take over from the GPU...but why? when the industry is pumping out such fine GPUs. Is it and ArmA2 optimization issue?

At he start of the mission, when I am solo, or before any para drops all is fine with my graphics card, but as soon as reinforcements or enemy are spawned, the GPU ceases to contribute.

Interesting analysis, I like it! Hopefully we can figure something out to assist you..

[doveman 7]

...so I've been reading up on this in other threads/forums.

Apparently its a common problem with our game.

Basically, the more AI, the more CPU usage as it tends to take over from the GPU...but why? when the industry is pumping out such fine GPUs. Is it and ArmA2 optimization issue?

At he start of the mission, when I am solo, or before any para drops all is fine with my graphics card, but as soon as reinforcements or enemy are spawned, the GPU ceases to contribute.

Yeah, it's the same with me as I recall (been a while since I tested) and we've both got AMD CPUs. It seems that ArmA just doesn't work great with AMD CPUs and therefore they cause a bottleneck with certain missions (generally online works much better as the server is handling a lot of the AI and other stuff that the player's PC has to handle in SP), preventing the GPU from being able to be properly utilised.

markb50k, see the comments from Fireball here: https://dev-heaven.net/issues/59932#note-17

[markb50k 1]

Hi Mark, Finalizing this excited happy posting, I would like to know how exactly it is determined how enemy units are made visible as HC icons if that option is turned on. I had the impression you see all of them, so I disabled that option as unrealistic once the friendly airforce was down. Or is it determined by some variables like friendly unit LOS or supportive towns reporting; but that reporting seems to happen still like it was in the old LOST code by showing little red dots only and I am talking about how the HC icons visibility is influenced. And also I am unsure what "Special actions" means in the comms menu. Last to ask for today: what options are there to control other teams or switch to certain units? I could not find all those options like "make HC leader and switch to" from the old LOST code.

Keep up your amazing work, Mark!

touristo

First of all touristo, THANK YOU for your in-depth description of your game play, I find it really rewarding to see how people are utilizing my mission. I hoped that its open-ended design allowed people to construct all kinds of scenarios with it, and you are proof... Thank you, it makes my work worth it..

as for your questions..

enemy units are only visible if any friendly units have a "knowsabout" level greater than 1. This is similar to how the standard MARTA/HC rules apply, so I am not giving you any more info than you would normally get. when you have friendly aircraft you get a much better view of the enemy, but those enemy icons only show up if you have actual in-game knowledge of them. i try to keep it somewhat realistic in this regard..

HC icons are not affected by friendly town sightings. only through this "knowsabout" level that the game-engine keeps track of

Special Actions: if you give your troops first aid kits or repair kits, etc, you can have them repair or heal other units by ordering them to do these special actions. the code will detect whether anything is needing healing or repairing in the vicinity of the ordered unit. so, its a way of allowing you to send troops out and search for vehicles to repair and capture without you having to be there.

I removed all team switching capability from the mission, hardly anyone used it, and it was a coding nightmare to make it work properly with all the features i give to the player. so, the only option you have to take on another character is to die and respawn as a random unit type.

[BlackADD3R 1]

Check this, he's testing with Apocalypse

https://dev-heaven.net/issues/59932

[markb50k 1]

Version 5.03:

- new : in MISCELLANEOUS menu (0-8-6) option to 'unstick' stuck AI. sometimes AI just wont move lots of time due to either being stuck in a pistol holding animation or sometimes after emerging from water. I've seen this in the vanilla game as well. now you can go up to an AI and select this and the AI will be 'unstuck'.

- new : for other AI, code will attempt to unstick AI periodically on its own in the background

- tweak : LOST mode - when loading cache on vehicles, better handling of loading back on vehicle it was just unloaded off of.

- numerous small bug fixes

Edited November 26, 2012 by markb50k

[humvee28 10]

Hey Mark!

Could you please add Meatball´s new MARSOC Units to BLUFOR in the next Release?

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?121991-MARSOC-Marine-Special-Operations-Team

Greets

[markb50k 1]

yup already working on it

[Gunter Severloh 4054]

Hi Mark, is Invasion 1944 still supported, I dont see it listed on Armaholic page?

[markb50k 1]

yup, still supported.

[Gunter Severloh 4054]

Ok great, thanks. Will update what I have then.

[BlackADD3R 1]

updated and testing tonight.

[BlackADD3R 1]

Hi Gunther...

Thanks for finishing up COWarModACE. I use all of your work. I tested it just now for a few minute with no other mods, just CBA and ACE of course. I noticed that on some scoped weapons you cannot zoom in through the scope but you get an iron-sight regardless of the zoom on top of the actual glass lense of the optics. It doesn't happen on all the weapons but I saw it on the BAF ones for now. Is it for realism? Or is there something I didn't set up properly? like I said I just tried it briefly, excuse me if I didn't read all the 'read mes" thoroughly, I just skimmed through it. I hope I didn't mess up the folders.

I am also enjoying your COWarModSM (your own sound mod), remember? you sent it to me a while ago, it wasn't even released.

anyhow thanks,

oops...

figured it out sorry

I believe the default key binding is to Numerical Keypad "/" to switch between scope and backup sight when you are in the weapons sight view (after you click the right mouse button).

just read this in the Anzins read-me

The additional weapons_x.pbo causes the sighting modes to be reversed so that

the CQB sight comes first (before the full scope) both for the weapons above

and all the OA weapons already equipped with a CQB position.

Is that the issue maybe? my bad?

Edited November 28, 2012 by BlackADD3R

[BlackADD3R 1]

Mark, i am getting random CTDs with version 5.0.3. Does it require a game restart again?

Btw the mission is pretty fluid now, no issues related to low fps or anything.

[holyorangejuice 2]

Hello everyone,

I am a long time lurker of the bistudio forums and I must say this looks promising. I have been searching through page after page on how to play this mission. I have played since arma one and have made excellent editor missions privately but I have never played any of ARMA online warfare or scenario gametypes. I thought for sure there would be some detailed walkthrough or explanation on how to play somewhere but I have been unable to find it. When I go in game I notice the notes for setting up the game and the notes when you bring up your map but that wasn't enough to get me to understand.

A few questions:

What is the overall goal of this gametype?

What is your role while playing this gametype?

How do I command my troops if I am the one in charge?

How do I get into the fight if I so choose to?

I have spent several hours messing around trying to figure out the basics. From my point of view I get in game and have no clue what to do. I have myself and one other squadmate and a stryker for an HQ vehicle. I unpack it and try to use anything and everything to understand how to operate troops but to no prevail. I call in reinforcements that paradrop next to me and then run off without even saying hello. I really wish I understood what was going on so I could play this.

[markb50k 1]

Mark, i am getting random CTDs with version 5.0.3. Does it require a game restart again?

Btw the mission is pretty fluid now, no issues related to low fps or anything.

well, good to see that the FPS issues on your machine have abated, good news. As for random CTD, i have been playing a long-term mission over the last couple of weeks and have been taking the updates just as you guys are and I havent had a single CTD. so perhaps you are using a new beta build? or maybe a mod is causing it. i cleaned up all my mods writing fixes into them for my personal use, so its possible its a conflict with one of your mods.. let me know which ones you are using and i'll see if any of them were problematic for me.

---------- Post added at 22:17 ---------- Previous post was at 22:02 ----------

Hello everyone,

I am a long time lurker of the bistudio forums and I must say this looks promising. I have been searching through page after page on how to play this mission. I have played since arma one and have made excellent editor missions privately but I have never played any of ARMA online warfare or scenario gametypes. I thought for sure there would be some detailed walkthrough or explanation on how to play somewhere but I have been unable to find it. When I go in game I notice the notes for setting up the game and the notes when you bring up your map but that wasn't enough to get me to understand.

A few questions:

What is the overall goal of this gametype?

What is your role while playing this gametype?

How do I command my troops if I am the one in charge?

How do I get into the fight if I so choose to?

I have spent several hours messing around trying to figure out the basics. From my point of view I get in game and have no clue what to do. I have myself and one other squadmate and a stryker for an HQ vehicle. I unpack it and try to use anything and everything to understand how to operate troops but to no prevail. I call in reinforcements that paradrop next to me and then run off without even saying hello. I really wish I understood what was going on so I could play this.

Well, first, i put together a FAQ that discusses many of the points that you bring up. I would definitely check that out. theres a link to it on the first post.

I'm guessing your playing in the default gamemode where you start the game coming in on a boat or a plane, yes, so my answers will go off that assumption.

The objective of the game is to take all camp markers and make them blue, and have them be blue ALL at the same time. if any are enemy controlled (red/green) or non-controlled (black) you cannot win.

your role is a subordinate unit within your side's forces with the ability to take on additional troops.

when you start, you have no subordinate squads and no squadmates. you can gain them by earning support points by taking camps, or killing enemies, or searching house, or taking intel of off of enemy leader's corpses. when you gain enough points you can order certain unit types from your REINFORCEMENT menu, 0-8-2

I am guessing that you know how to order reinforcements since you say you already have a HQ. Unless you chose to start with the HQ in the beginning? Please let me know which.

if you chose to start with a HQ, my guess is that you havent gained enough support points to request anything. Perhaps the reinforcements you see dropping in are not your reinforcements at all, and are AI controlled. You will KNOW they are yours when they join your squad. if they dont join your squad they arent the troops you ordered.

So please confirm that you are really requesting reinforcements properly through the REINF menu 0-8-2 and you see your support points being taken away when ordering them.

Also, please realize that you have to use the "High Command" functionality that comes with the vanilla game to control subordinate squads. You can keep all troops that join your squad in the same squad with you, but it gets a bit hard to control all of them. you can use the High Command functionality to assist you. This involves splitting off soldiers from your squad into their own squad and using the CTRL+Space buttons to enter high command mode.

WIthout me wasting anymore time with explanations, please let me know if you are following me so far and let me know if some of my assumptions are true that 1) you are unfamiliar with High Command and 2) you may not be ordering any reinforcements properly. Those are the most logical explanations to me why you may be having such difficulty with the mission.

Dont hesitate to ask more questions, its my pleasure to help.

[holyorangejuice 2]

Wow that clears alot of the issues up. A few things to answer and ask.

WIthout me wasting anymore time with explanations, please let me know if you are following me so far and let me know if some of my assumptions are true that 1) you are unfamiliar with High Command and 2) you may not be ordering any reinforcements properly. Those are the most logical explanations to me why you may be having such difficulty with the mission.

1) You are right. I have little to no experience using this but from the FAQ seems easy enough.

2) I think i was ordering support units and from my understanding those are AI controlled only that go and fight where they want?

3) How do I build an HQ if I don't make the game start with one?

4) Explain to me how you play the game. Everyone has their own way of playing.

5) So basically, jump in, fight as a one man army, cap stuff, earn points, buy reinforcements, blah and capture the entire island right?

[BlackADD3R 1]

ya i'm using latest beta, always forget. I'll try it without that.

[markb50k 1]

Wow that clears alot of the issues up. A few things to answer and ask.

1) You are right. I have little to no experience using this but from the FAQ seems easy enough.

2) I think i was ordering support units and from my understanding those are AI controlled only that go and fight where they want?

3) How do I build an HQ if I don't make the game start with one?

4) Explain to me how you play the game. Everyone has their own way of playing.

5) So basically, jump in, fight as a one man army, cap stuff, earn points, buy reinforcements, blah and capture the entire island right?

Calling support as you suspected doesn't let you control another friendly but it does make them go to a specified location you select on the map. It's cheaper to do this than order reinforcements but you have less control over what the support does. I hardly use it. Rather I save up and just order reinforcements that I can control.

Like other reinforcements you can order a hq unit when you've earned 1000 support points. Other unit types cost various amounts

Currently what I do since I like a challenge is I set friendly forces to 0 on the initial dialog and go lone wolf and try to win by earning points and bringing in my own reinforcements. I search every house I can and try to capture enemy vehicles and put friendly troops in them. Then I use a feature called 'releasing' to basically give up control of the group back to AI control. When you do this you can gain bonus support points pretty quickly. When I gain several thousand points I bring in a bunch of reinforcements at one time and go on the attack. I also normally only get a small number of he upgrades usually just the static aa upgrade so i have something to take out enemy air which I find to be my worst enemy.

[BlackADD3R 1]

These guys would make an excellent addition as friendly/partisan side to any US scenario.

Afghanistan's ANA...for the realism.

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=14173

[MAVEN 1]

Hi Mark.

Excellent mission, by far the one that supports most mods and terrains of all :D

Is there a chance you add support for I44's winter terrains and perhaps a unit count selector (instead of percentages) for each side so that there's more control over units spawned in mission? Thanks in advance.

Aplocalypse is well made, I recommend it to everyone :)

[Choki 10]

Nice job! What mods I need to use south american Troops?

[benouyt 20]

Hey hey, i tried this mission again this week end, after long time to not playing ArmA II, but its unplayable, i remember have smooth game after some tweak, but now there is horrible stutter all 2 seconds, i dont know where the problem come from and if somebody else got it, i love this mission so its sad ><