"The Thing" - community developed mission

[SpecOp9 0]

I had two ideas recently, and I hope the community is willing to participate.

First idea is a mission called "The Thing" based on John Carpenters 1982 "The Thing". I have created the general setup for the mission, but unfortunately, code is an alien language that I have not yet absorbed into my brain yet.

For those of you who don't know the film, a strongly suggest and highly recommend that you see the film. (Not the prequel)

The premise of the Multiplayer mission is this:

• On mission start, someone out of the 12 Airfield workers is The Thing - and nobody but The Thing knows who.

• The goal is to survive and get off the Island by repairing the helicopter - The Thing has sabotaged it

• Only the Team Leader starts with a weapon, everybody else does not

• There are only a handful of medics and engineers - and they are vital to mission success

• Weapons are scarce. Only a handful of players will have access to weapons

• Radio chat is disabled by default, only proximity chat works (unless you repair the radio tower)

• There is only one working vehicle in the mission

• The Thing can sabotage generators to send your team into disarray

• A blood test can be performed on players before major decisions are made (like who gets the guns)

• The Thing attacks when you are alone - and it will imitate you perfectly (YOU become The Thing)

• The only way to tell someone has been infected, you will hear both a human and The Thing scream in the distance

This creates some very interesting situations for players. They will argue about where the Team Leader sends them - and with who. They will suspect the Team Leader of being The Thing, who will have to relinquish his leadership role (and weapon) to ease other players concerns. The Team Leader must be very cautious and very aware of where all his team members are at all times. All of you must work together - even when you cannot trust who you're with.

The second idea involves the community. As I have said previously, I cannot script, and clearly this is something that requires some scripting knowledge. So I have decided to upload a template of the mission and see where the community takes it, if anywhere. I hope others also see what an interesting mission this could be.

Download the mission template here: http://www.alienoutput.com/arma3/MPmissions/TheThing.zip

There are only a handful of things I have setup. Audio, scene setup, markers, and a random player chooser code thanks to sxp2high.

I'd be very interested to see if the community takes this idea and runs with it.

[Leaulux 2]

It's a great idea but I have noticed since ARMA 1 that the the Modding Community has cut down on Custom Content relating to Horror / Science Fiction Addons in favor of billions of M4 Reskins.

It honestly appears that we have two options,

1. We can sit around and wait (could take YEARS) for someone to make Aliens / Zombies / Etc for us.

2. We can start working right now, and the Newbies can dive into Modding and post our findings on the fourms.

[Viper_Sniper 1]

Whoa. I will be keeping my eye on this, it sounds amazing!

[Lil_rimmy333 10]

Well, I had a look at it, and it seems very well designed so far. I used to code a LOT in old ArmA 2, which got me into scripting which then led to me making games as I am now. I am currently buggering around in the Alpha, trying to make a 4 player co-op mission involving surviving on Stratis after a failed invasion etc.

So, I believe that with your permission, myself, you and a few others could form a temp team to finish this gamemode. It really does seem like an amazing gamemode. It's not like Trouble in Terroist Town kind of games, as it actually has tension and objectives, if you just jump around waiting for a traitor to do something the tension disappears, but like you said, being the one with the gun also makes you the one most likely to be "accidently" run over.

Anyway, are you up to it mate? It's always better to work as a team. I'd love to see this released as a full on map. My gawd, the tension!

EDIT:

Straight up, I have an idea. I am going to try and code three things. 1. Medics doing blood tests. 2. Repair Specialists repairing the helicopter (aka requiring parts) 3. Explosive Specialists working on the generators. I don't believe there is much use for explosives in a gamemode like this, although you may want one or two as a very rare spawn.

Edited March 18, 2013 by Lil_rimmy333

[SpecOp9 0]

Yea I'd love to, I really would love to see the game mode myself, I think it would be a pretty intense mission. The trick is to keep players busy, keep them on the move and to force the team leader to split people up. (If they did everything as a group, The Thing would have no opportunity to attack)

So I'm absolutely up for it.

[meshcarver 12]

Sounds amazing, I'd help but am smack bang in the middle of doing my own island mate- but it's a location that'd be perfect for your idea..!

[sxp2high 22]

Really great idea!

Unfortunately I got too much on my plate right now to commit, but I will help out with code snippets if needed. :)

[Selei 1]

Well, if this is still going on, I would most certainly like to offer my assistance as well.

I don't know much about scripting, and have mostly just been working with modifying existing scripts to do what I would like them to, but perhaps there might still be things I could assist with.

Its a great idea, and sounds really fun to play.

Regards,

Selei

[SpecOp9 0]

I could probably make a flamethrower too now that I am pretty good in 3d modelling these days.. I just can't see this working without the classic weapon from the film.