[SP/MP] Dynamic Whole Map ArmA3 Missions by SaOk

[CSLALUKI 30]

Nice work , and nice civilian conversation system. ;)

Good luck with your project SaOk ! :popcornsmilie:

Edited August 8, 2013 by [CSLA]LUKI

[SaOk 112]

Thanks you both, :) sorry I had forgotten to update the first post info even the dropbox-link already had the latest version. I updated the 0.999 half hour ago with new keys set for village/camp purchase to player can now look around and change stance near those location without entering the dialog. Also made sure, dialogs cant be opened twice at the same time.

1.Player team have a demolition man, you can order him to set teh charge via action menu (unit-> 6 -> usually in 2. action page). You can buy more demolition mans from camps. I will add also a way to receive wanted gear.

2.Mortars can be dealt with mortar team, bought from camp. Leave your vehicle to the village between LZ Connor and the mortar, sneak to good position and give target for the friendly mortar team.

3.The camp alarms make nearby AI groups to head at the camp. I could remove it for vehicles.

4.Patrols generate around player with about 700m radius, they arrive randomly with vehicle or are random spawned directly unless player is moved near or over the position recently which makes blacklist trace over that position. Then the patrol team is brought with vehicle. It depends on difficult level how often new patrol team is created after there is room for them (some old patrol team have been killed or deleted by distance check). Randomly the max amount of patrols also change and in future the tasks may alter the max value too (had that in A2 mission Zub, but currently that isnt yet included in this).

5.The armed locals should join for the attack unless they have stucked inside the building. The other village seem to be less stable for their behaviour.

[bac9 1]

Thanks for your answers! Managed to bring down the radio tower.

Couple more questions, if you don't mind.

• What are the contents of the gear support drop and how it looks? I have requested it, received an area marker on the map after a while, but unfortunately couldn't find anything in the area (grassy hillside). It's something like a small box, right? Could have missed it in the bushes then. Obviously it would be too easy to replace that with a direct target marker or add a light source to the drop, but is there something I can look for to find the drop reliably? For example, is the script creating it somewhere instantly? Or it's being created in the sky with a parachute that you can spot? Or some other way to see it? (Obviously it's never a problem with dropped vehicles)
  
• What are the secondary tasks to pick up a vehicle and equipment after capturing LZ Connor about? I have never reached those points myself yet (dying right after capturing LZ Connor seems to be my favorite pastime, haha), and I'm wondering if it's worth it to spend time to reach them. Are the places marked in those tasks essentially identical to gear and vehicle drops you can request yourself later, i.e. they are acting as a demonstration of what to expect from those support calls? Or they are something unique?
  
• What exactly is "HC" counter (next to prestige) on top of the screen showing?
  
• I have encountered a squad of neutral/friendly fully equipped soldiers (haven't looked like civilians from the camp) that wasn't marked on the map, on the SE coast in the middle of nowhere. Noticed them from afar because they had orange and blue flares around. What are those and what were they doing sitting in place for hours? Are those some sort of reinforcements that will be used in the scenario later?
  
• I have encountered a CH-49 Mohawk helicopter roaming around and landing somewhere out of sight on the coast. It wasn't belonging to an enemy faction and wasn't mentioned on my map. What was it doing? Dropping another yet inactive neutral squad?
  
• I have encountered a squad of neutral soldiers steadily moving from SE to LZ Connor. At some point they were detected and entered a firefight with the enemy there. Who are they? Again, they haven't looked like civilians that help you on the first task (unless there are civilians with pants instead of shorts too). Not sure about their faction, couldn't discern whether they are NATO or Independent (Green). Probably the latter - it was on the same playthrough with the CH-49 Mohawk sighting. Maybe it dropped them?
  
• How can I force AT specialized squadmates to attack vehicles? I know how to do it with selection & map view, but the teammate never actually moves to the target and attacks, staying near the player. Maybe that order only works when the target is in immediate view of a soldier? Seems a bit counter-productive to drag your whole squad out into the open to make that action available, if that's the case. Obviously it's not your issue but a question about ARMA3 squad control in general, but maybe you know the answer.
  
• Are enemy vehicle spawns completely random or dependent on your progress? I have just had a BTR and Mi-48 Kajman attacking LZ Connor simultaneously right after the capture, with Ifrit HMG parking shortly from the opposite side. Obviously the team has nothing to counteract that yet, so everyone just dies over the course of few minutes unless well hidden. Other playthroughs were a bit more tame (only a squad of enemy troops attacking LZ Connor immediately after the capture and avoidable BTR patrol encountered right after starting the mission), but still, I'm a bit puzzled what to do in a situation like that.
  
• Are enemy attacks on LZ Connor (and other capturable points later, I guess) just targeted at your squad and insurgents, or they can culminate in the point being recaptured? Is there any system in place I should be aware of (beside results of the initial alarm that attracts everyone around) that e.g. spawns regular enemy raids to the points you have captured?
  
• What village specialization means? I saw anti-air listed at the village my contact was at, for example. Does that mean that they have some people with AA launchers to hit that pesky Mi-48 harassing my squad? Looking for ways to solve the problem with the gunship, you see.
  

Edited August 8, 2013 by bac9

[SaOk 112]

1.The gear drop is crate with random content + AT-launcher. Its dropped with big parachute. I will add smoke trails to it and maybe gemlight. Should also add those + marker for vehicles purchased from camps.

2. From the vehicle pick up task, you can receive free vehicle with weapon and random other vehicle. Those can be powerfull and usually the trip to the drop-point is quite safe since its behind usually blacklisted locations (a trail player have created). The equipment crate brings wetsuits if player want to visit the commanche site under water. There is also wetsuits in enemy boat yard camp.

3.HC counter is for available AI groups that you can order via Ctrl+Space menu, the same way that team-mates.

4.There is much random spawned AI groups patrolling and camping around the map, those are just to offer random backup. They random throw gemlight and smoke when in danger.

5.The chopper brings patrols and reinforcements which you can also command via the Ctrl+Space, else the behave following their waypoints. Usually heading to know enemy positions.

6.There is armed civilians guards in villages that are friendly or hostile at you.

7.Activate the AT-soldier team-mate with F1...F10, press 2 to show targets and choose the vehicle in that list. Or just active the units at click the mouse cursor over hostile that. If doing once, it uses it as target, else even engage. But find best position for AT-soldier, activate the units and click on ground where you want him to move. To make him return squad, press half-key to activate whole squad and press 1 twice.

8. Enemy vehicles come randomly depending on different things. Those are challenging but there is various ways to deal enemy vehicles. Best is to take cover first, and avoid walking on road. Then you can use own team-mates, get help from villages that have AT-team specialty, you can create guardpost with AT-team, using construction truck (can be bought from any friendly camp).

9. Enemy may recapture randomly camps back, there only accidentally attack there and most likely if player is near the camp. I could add random attacks, but the mission balance is not ready for that without the playing turning into annoying.

10.The village specialization spawns the displayed AI team to the village if its friendly towards you. Thats a good way to bring enemy chopper down. Basically the same idea than with guardpost but villages can offer help for free. The speciality is random, but you can change it wanted in village menu.

---------- Post added at 19:26 ---------- Previous post was at 18:04 ----------

Reuploaded 0.999, with fortress functions rewritten to follow markers instead of location variables. First try to beat mysterious slowdowns. Got debugged that there was 2400 vehicles (could be fireplaces/crates....) suddently on map. I continue searching for the cause, but big mystery. Sometimes all work great and then not. Havent changed the mission that much from days when I could play it through without problems.

[trblmkr 10]

I remember playing through the whole mission without the slow down problems around version .7 or .8. There was one upgrade, I think in .8, and then it started happening. I wish I wrote down what version it was when I first saw the frame rate slowdown occur. Anybody else here remember what version it began in?

[SaOk 112]

The ambient fortress script may have come near that point and now after the changes to it, mission have worked so far smooth for me (got pass camp maxwell without any bigger stutter), but need more testing. Also hoping that vehicle spam dosent come back. That could separate rare bug.

[Apex5 10]

When I attempt to reload a save game of WLS version 0.999 I get a message saying "You cannot play/edit this mission; it is dependent on downloadable content that has been deleted.ad_editor_f"

I am running the Dev branch version of Arma 3, am I the only one encountering this problem?

edit: Never mind it seems to be related to a issue with the integrity of my game cache, its fixed when I ask steam to verify and reacquire the missing files

Edited August 9, 2013 by Apex5
problem solved

[alrevis 10]

After taking the first camp I see a solider obviously surrendering what do I do with him as i am unable to interact with him also I heard you could purchase gear and mortar teams and the like how is this done and if I have any more probably FAQ where do i look?

[SaOk 112]

Good, that you got it working. :) The surrendered units are just deleted when player is far from them. Could maybe add some more function for those units in future. Player could question them or maybe escort for pick up to HQ. Then receive more intel or something. Gear drop can be called by pressing 0-0 and the gear support number (was it 3?). I may tweak that feature too. I plan to add all the support behind one dialog that could be opened with short key too. There could be better ways to receive wanted gear too. Mortar teams can be get from captured camps. You need to be near the camp and press shift + 1m then choose the team. There is also team-mates, construction/minefield-truck, empty armored vehicles to choose. All needed info can be found in the briefing too. To enter it during player just open map with m-key.

There might be new dev-version coming today that fixes the resume issue for missions downloaded from steam workshop.

Edit: Resume bug still there, but hopefully next week. :)

Edited August 9, 2013 by SaOk

[Xuxu 10]

Hey!

Any chance for an updated version of the CooP-Mission?! :-)

[SaOk 112]

I will try to work on it again at some point. If I hope to get rid of red chain issue while new AI units are spawning. Will start by replacing the old ambient fortress script.

[trblmkr 10]

I had the fps slow down with the new version. Right after I did the destroy the mortars mission and before taking Maxwell.

[SaOk 112]

I continue looking for what could cause that. For start I reuploaded the 0.999 with much nil-check added to mortar/chopper/land transport-scripts.

Edit: Reuploaded with more tweaks to try prevent the slowdown.

Edited August 9, 2013 by SaOk

[froggyluv 2130]

Hi, last upload/download reads only 1.79 MB on Dropbox -don't seem right?

[SaOk 112]

Its right size (or 1566k), I removed custom voices for steam (since I want to check that the actors okay if I upload their voices there. Also need to remove all unknown author voices). But once game get next official patch. I will prepare 1.0 version for it with the custom voices for armaholic. Played now ~1hour without the slowdown, still cant say if its gone or not, but else mission works very smooth now for me.

[froggyluv 2130]

Ahhh ok -have to say that is bar none, my favorite Arma3 experience to date. Haven't played since an early version but it's really amazing how you've kept adding, refining everything and everything that comes out with each update. I've literally only played up to maybe the 4th assignment over and over but it's always different experience and tends to lead me to exhilarating conflicts and for some reason always a good dose of LOL's. The custom voices are great though on my last romp I got caught in a fireplace (while under fire invery close proximity) and was using TPWFALL mod -my guy kept falling and screaming trapped in a permanent Shwarznegger scream effect -it was so funny and odd that even enemies just looked at me as I was stuck in this cycle for maybe 3 minutes.

The overrun of animals brings a nice touch of abandoned and wildlife gone wild especially with the absence of real civilians to give that dynamic life feel. Plus there's just so much I haven't even delved into yet such as Support points/creating defences etc...

Really enjoying this and hats off to ya :)

[John Kozak 14]

Tried the mission just now... Unfortunately, ArmA just hang (deadlocked?) just at the start. No pretense, though, I guess it was dev branch problem.

However, at the start of the mission I've got an error about undefined expression (see attachment). Forgotten "waitUntil isNil <....>"?

Screenshot: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/57455736/2013-08-10_00001.jpg (434kb)

[SaOk 112]

Game also hanged today once for me when trieing to load savegame. Else mission should start normally. That error seem to be from BIS function, I havent seen it before. Dont know at least currently why it was displayed. I reuploaded 0.999. This time noticed that when resuming the mission, custom keys to open minefield/construction-dialog and other stopped working. Added 60sec reset loop for those. For camps/villages, you currently need to move away (until the hint for key dissapears and come back). Not sure if that is game bug or intentional. I may try to add detection of loaded game at somepoint.

Edit: Thanks, froggyluv. :)

[SaOk 112]

Re-uploaded 0.999 again. AI transport choppers should land now succesfully more like, there was distance check that caused the chopper to wait for player to move away before landing. Should have solved also the issue finally with US reinforcements for player team.

[Windwalking 18]

First of all, thanks for a great mission.

However, the game crashes after capturing the main camp the first time. It always crashes no matter how many times I resume the mission. This is the Dropbox version 0.999 on dev build. It is the latest version you have uploaded.

Also on steam there were some mission resume problems from steam work version. Are they fine now?

[SaOk 112]

Thanks, :)

that is strange. I havent got crashes for long time. Do you have any mods enabled? The mission shouldnt crash, only maybe fail in other ways. :) Any crashdumps could be sent for BIS, you can find bidmp, mdmp and rpt files in username -> appdata (you may need to change settings to see it)-> local -> ArmA 3. Send the matching three files packed to e.g. dwarden(at)bistudio.com with headline starting with [CRASH] and computer specs. Sending the dumps could make the game more stable for you specs.

The steam resume fix isnt yet there. Today's patch didnt include yet the new exe. Once that is updated the resume bug should be gone.

[Windwalking 18]

I do have a large number of mods. I am guilty of that :)

It just that I never got a crash with any other mission but with this mission. I will try it again with no mods and see if that's the issue. Thanks for the help and keep adding to this great mission. I hope you have great plans for when Altis is available.

[SaOk 112]

Steam workshop resume issue is now fixed. Mission work correctly now with that service too. I also reuploaded the 0.999 version with parachuting infantry fixes. Now the guards for camps and invisible zones are correctly brought with chopper (randomly) and never should spawn instantly to guard the zone.

[cateye22 10]

Small question.... how do I activate the Guardpost & Minefield Creating System. I bought a Mine & Contruction-truck but i don't know what to do next?

[SaOk 112]

You need to be under 50m away from it to build guardpost, under 250m away to send team-mates to create minefields. To do that press Shift+C or Shift+L. There is more info also in the briefing that can be read anytime on map view (M).