(No respawn) Tactical Vignette #2: SpecOps Night Insertion

[Bahger 11]

The Mission:

An allied pilot ejected over eastern Stratis last night. Intel sources indicate that he has been captured by anti-NATO militia and is being held in the abandoned fishing village of Tsoukalia. We need to get the man back before the militia trade him to the Iranians.

You will lead a four-man SpecOps team, inserting by boat south-west of the village. Your team will assault into the village, locate the POW and liberate him. A helicopter will be standing by to extract him.

Expect determined resistance. However, your training, NVGs, body armor and night optics should give you an edge against more numerous but less well-equipped militia forces.

Features:

No re-spawn; the mission is short, replayable and very winnable with proper tactics. My missions strive for tactical realism and are extensively tested to eliminate needless imbalance and/or frustration.

The POW's location within the village is randomized within certain parameters (i.e. he will always be located somewhere that makes sense.)

Certain enemy positions and movements are randomized.

The SpecOps team has a custom loadout including laser optics and suppressors. The defending militia also deploy custom loadouts and equipment. They are not equipped like regular Iranian army personnel.

Mission tips & gameplay:

To complete all mission goals (i.e. to take command of the POW unit) you will need to play group Leader, or have a human take that role in MP.

To enable AI laser optics, select team/team members and place them in combat alert state.

The option to bring the POW under your command will appear in your HUD interaction menu when you are within 5m of him. IMPORTANT: Use this option to bring him onto your team and issue him with a "Stop" order as soon as possible (i.e. even before you are clear to extract him). This is because when all enemies are dead, the POW's movement AI is reactivated and he tends to run around like a headless chicken and you will have to chase him in order to bring him into your control. If you "Stop" him as soon as you have encountered him and put him under your command, you'll be able to find him when the firefight is over and order him to move where and when you want him to.

When you discover the POW's location, you will call for the helicopter to fly in for extraction. You will see a comms message to this effect in your HUD. The process is fully automated.

When it is safe to do so and the helo has arrived and is hovering over the village, order the POW to board the helo, which will land in the village and take the POW on board. Issue "Radio Alpha" to command the helo to depart and extract. The helo does not have sufficient passenger space to extract the POW and full SpecOps team. The mission will end soon after the POW is airborne.

Mission editor's notes and acknowledgements:

I realize that hostage rescue missions are dime-a-dozen so I have sought to make this a good one, with extensive randomization, AI IR optic enabling and top-to-bottom custom loadouts for combat personnnel on both sides. I am proud of the standard of execution of all of the above, and of the helo extraction. I must thank the following ArmA script gurus, in whose footsteps I aspire to follow:

- Kylania for this really elegant hostage rescue script.

- Shuko for this fantastic way to randomise unit start positions.

- Jester (MacScottie) for his indispensible series of Editor tutorial videos.

- Everybody in the BIS and Armaholic Editor forums who has shown such patience with a newb. I'm an experienced wargaming scenario designer but I'm relatively unfamiliar with this Editor.

Download links

I'm happy to say the the mission plays very well in both SP and MP.

Singleplayer

COOP 04 MP

Please comment and/or rate on Armaholic when uploaded there. I'd really appreciate feedback, both public and private.

Edited April 2, 2013 by Bahger

[Variable 322]

You rock! Thanks a lot for this.

Have you tested it on a dedicated server as well? Hostage rescue missions could be problematic on dedis unless specially designed for them.

Comrades in Arms website

Try my SP/COOP mission: Bitter Memories

[Bahger 11]

Thanks, Variable. Re. dedis, I'm no expert but I think the scripting I used to make the hostage rescue mechanic work was designed for dedicated server play. I think... I'd be happy to test it with you on your server if you can suggest a day/time...

---------- Post added at 10:07 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:05 AM ----------

Here is the link to the mission page at Armaholic for SpecOps: Night Insertion. As always, thanks to Big, and all at Armaholic.

[ak1287 1]

So, this might sound odd.... But in the mission, I somehow have mags for a 7.62 weapon... But I have the MXC. Which doesn't fire 7.62.

Am I doing something wrong, or did I just go completely insane?

[Bahger 11]

There are two loadout types within the four-man SpecOps squad. Here are the ammo/rifle combos for each loadout:

this addMagazines ["20Rnd_762x45_mag", 5]; 
this addWeapon "arifle_MXM_F";

this addmagazine "30Rnd_65x39_case_mag";
this addweapon "arifle_TRG20_F";

Pairing a rifle with the wrong ammo in the loadout init would cause that weapon to be useless in the mission, which was why I was alarmed when I first read your post. However, as you can confirm from this weapons class list, the MXM_F is a Designated Marksman Rifle that does indeed shoot a 7.62mm round; two of the operatives are equipped with this gun. The other two deploy the TRG20_F, which shoots 6.5mm rounds, case mag.

I wanted a long-range assault rifle for two of the operatives and because there is no SR yet, folks in this thread recommended the MXM_F.

I'm not an expert in mil-grade weaponry and ammo types but I do not believe I paired either of these rifles with the wrong ammo, at least as far as the sim is concerned.

[ak1287 1]

There are two loadout types within the four-man SpecOps squad. Here are the ammo/rifle combos for each loadout:

this addMagazines ["20Rnd_762x45_mag", 5]; 
this addWeapon "arifle_MXM_F";

this addmagazine "30Rnd_65x39_case_mag";
this addweapon "arifle_TRG20_F";

Pairing a rifle with the wrong ammo in the loadout init would cause that weapon to be useless in the mission, which was why I was alarmed when I first read your post. However, as you can confirm from this weapons class list, the MXM_F is a Designated Marksman Rifle that does indeed shoot a 7.62mm round; two of the operatives are equipped with this gun. The other two deploy the TRG20_F, which shoots 6.5mm rounds, case mag.

I wanted a long-range assault rifle for two of the operatives and because there is no SR yet, folks in this thread recommended the MXM_F.

I'm not an expert in mil-grade weaponry and ammo types but I do not believe I paired either of these rifles with the wrong ammo, at least as far as the sim is concerned.

Actually, the problem wasn't that I thought the weapon was using the wrong ammo, it's that the game wasn't registering that there were any magazines at all.

But then I realized that I'd forgotten to switch from the dev build.

[Iroquois Pliskin 0]

Here's my take, no casualties. :D I don't like having to rely on AI in ArmA, but the whole op went very smooth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGGx0wCsy3Y

[Bahger 11]

Ha! Nice movie!

You have pinpointed my interest in ArmA mission design, which is to construct scenarios that do make it possible to work with the AI. It's never been easy, either in mission design, or in mission play, to overcome its limitations but it gets better with every version of the sim. Your mission demo shows how to get the AI to work with you without excessive handholding; did you manage to get your AI squadmates to kill both guards in the building on the right hand side of the village without your ever having to enter the building yourself? If so, kudos.

I have a couple of questions:

- Did you un-PBO the mission to change your loadout? I'm curious; why select a gun with iron sights and no laser optics for this night op?

- I never saw you put the POW on the helo and use "Radio Alpha" to send it on its way. How did you trigger the end of the mission?

Maybe I'll make a movie of my own playthrough now, just for contrast. I'd have approached it very much like you did, but the default loadout makes it possible to hit the patrol and a few of the guards from long range, while prone.

Thanks for doing this, and posting it.

Edited April 3, 2013 by Bahger

[Iroquois Pliskin 0]

did you manage to get your AI squadmates to kill both guards in the building on the right hand side of the village without your ever having to enter the building yourself? If so, kudos.

Well, you can see all of my 4 kills there; The AI squad annihilated at least 3-4 tangos in the initial engagement: one on the shore, 2-3 by the house on the right.

Funny thing, actually: I ordered them to "Advance" as I was healing myself, and two of them them went uphill to my left & started engaging from there, securing the East part of the village. You can see them regroup with me, when I find the pilot in the shed.

- Did you un-PBO the mission to change your loadout? I'm curious; why select a gun with iron sights and no laser optics for this night op?

Nope, it's your standard load-out, I just took off the ARCO scope once we landed; didn't use the IR laser. I prefer ironsights to aimpoint while wearing NVGs.

- I never saw you put the POW on the helo and use "Radio Alpha" to send it on its way. How did you trigger the end of the mission?

Heh, I got the message that helo was on standby to extract the cargo, brought him into my squad, then heard a helo flyover and activated Radio Alpha - not sure if the helo was supposed to land. LOL