[SP @I44] Northern Wind

[h34dup 148]

[i44] Northern Wind

Type: SP Scenario

Island: MCN Neaville Winter

Author: Alex / HeadUp (h34dup.com)

Version: 0.90 beta

Submitted: June 11, 2013

**Requirements**:

ArmA2 & OA (or Combined Ops) 1.57 or later

Invasion 1944 (I44) mod - http://www.invasion-1944.com

Community Base Addons (CBA) - http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?103871-CBA-Community-Base-Addons-for-A2-OA-and-CO

Download:

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Download from ARMAHOLIC

Download from H34DUP.com

Overview:

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Bear the brunt of the last German offensive of WWII, loosely based on Operation Nordwind. Direct mortar fire against the incoming German onslaught, scout the overwatch position ahead, and hold the line until reinforcements arrive.

Features:

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* Intense action on a large scale, you'll need all the firepower you can muster!

* Call in unlimited mortar support adapted from JW Custom's mortar script!

* Pull up to 6 men at a time off the line to assist you in your tasks!

* Immersive detail from the snowfall and foggy breath (via TPW's script) to the various set pieces

* Randomized enemy unit strength and weather, for a different experience each time

* More than one strategy can be used to complete your tasks, tackle it your way

Known Issues:

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* Hardware strain becomes evident on some lower-end machines as the mission continues, will continue to try to reduce this, suggestions welcome.

Legal:

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a) This scenario is distributed without any warranty, it may work or even not. If you encounter any bugs feel free to report them at http://dev-heaven.net or at the above-linked forum thread.

b) This is NOT an official release supported by BIS. The use of this scenario is entirely at your own risk.

c) ABSOLUTELY NO COMMERCIAL OR MILITARY USE OF THIS CAMPAIGN OR PARTS OF IT! NO EXCEPTIONS SO DON'T EVEN ASK.

Thanks to:

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- The Arma2 editor community for providing so much documentation

- McNools, JW Custom, TPW, Celery, RCMW, and the community at large for their amazing addons

- Kommiekat for pre-release testing and feedback

- Armaholic for file hosting and being the portal to the wide world of Arma modding

- Bohemia Interactive for giving the hardcore mil shooter fanatics the game of their dreams

Screenshots:

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Edited June 11, 2013 by h34dup

[domokun 515]

Looking forward to testing this.

Any chance of a coop version?

[h34dup 148]

Hope you enjoy, domo, please feel free to share your experience, impressions, or any issues you run into.

I've never done a coop mission before. Maybe this could be a two-player coop, I'll have to look into it. Task Force 42 is the main focus for now though, so likely not for a while. But if someone wants to port this mission to coop, just post here to let me know and have at it!

[Gunter Severloh 4065]

Now hosted on the MR http://www.missionrepository.com/apps/blog/show/28158254-i44-northern-wind-added

I've never done a coop mission before.

if someone wants to port this mission to coop, just post here to let me know and have at it!

Coop missions aren't to hard to do, the tricky part is setting up the respawn to work with the mission.

For the player aspect of coop all you need to do is decide on how many players you want to be able to play at the same time and then add new units

somewhere most likely where the player start already, and then make them playable.

You have 2 options with coop:

1. you can make it one life mission like in sp

2. you can setup a respawn, or use revive, if for 2 players then you want to make sure at least one

person is alive otherwise 2 guys wounded, well revive is useless then.

Basic Respawn

With a description.ext script in your mission folder you can decide what respawn type you want, these are

very basic and are only a matter of setting up via the script using the number/word of the type of respawn.

the code for this type of respawn goes like this:

[b]respawn = base[/b] (see listed spawn types below)
[b]respawndelay = 10[/b] (10 is the number of seconds before a player respawns)

0 or "NONE" - No respawn

1 or "BIRD" - Respawn as a seagull (used for spectating)

2 or "INSTANT" - Respawn just where you died.

3 or "BASE" - Respawn in base (marker).

Requires a marker named:

respawn_west

respawn_east

respawn_guerrilla

respawn_civilian

Add markers named with the prefix 'respawn_west' with any suffix (eg: respawn_westABC, respawn_west1, respawn_west_2, etc)

for multiple random respawn points. Similarly for east, guerrilla and civilian.

Vehicle respawn in base requires a marker named:

respawn_vehicle_west

respawn_vehicle_east

respawn_vehicle_guerrilla

respawn_vehicle_civilian

4 or "GROUP" - Respawn in your group (if there's no AI left, you'll become a seagull).

arma 1.08.gif

5 or "SIDE" - Respawn into an AI unit on your side (if there's no AI left, you'll become a seagull). With this respawn type,

team switch is also available to any AI controlled playable units.

=====================

I would recommend either base, group or side respawns.

Better yet:

Mobile Respawn

Mobile Respawn

Theres also an option to use a mobile respawn, where you have a car/truck, and you can drive that car anywhere,

and you would respawn at that car after you died.

[Kommiekat 11]

Glad you got it released.

Fun mission. Found those Half-tracks real intimidating as hell. Nice job!

[h34dup 148]

@Günter

Thanks for both the hosting and the explanation!

I can easily add this sort of functionality, and will do so soon, perhaps with an update to the SP version, if anyone reports any issues. I was considering making a Neaville summer version of this, which would allow for a lot more combinations, perhaps a British variation as well. These are easy to do.

What about the if !isServer exitWith stuff? I have seen it a lot but am not sure what exactly it does, or the overarching issue behind it. I'm aware of it but don't get it enough to be able to type it out in a proper question.

@Kommiekat

I'm glad too, I wanted this to be a really quick project without too much involvement and I believe I got that done, I hope people enjoy playing it as much as I did making it. I was inspired after playing the "Taking Neaville" missions.

The halftrack used to be a lot tougher when you tested it than in the release version-- now it's just the halftrack crew, no extra units which would just rotate into the MG positions whenever the previous gunner was killed, which made them incredibly tough, especially without competent AT units or any AP mortar. I fixed that by giving mortar strikes a mix between AP and HE, perhaps in a future update I'll add the two separate options of AP and HE only strikes.

[-Snafu- 78]

Great to see another release h34dup, I've enjoyed your previous mission!

About MP, some scripts may need to be tweaked or re-worked for MP usage on a dedicated server as some stuff might only be broadcast locally. There may be other issues but I am out of my depth when it comes to this MP stuff. Adding in respawn is the easy bit! :)

[azz_er 10]

Gonna try this out!

[h34dup 148]

Hope you enjoy azz_er and Snafu! Please feel free to post up your experience and let me know if you run into any bugs.

I started working on a Neaville (summer) version of this mission, and plan to do versions for US Airborne, US Army, along with British (summer definitely, possibly winter) and possibly even a German version.

May make a more tank-focused version too if people are interested.

[azz_er 10]

I will do!

Regarding the i44 patches, I use this mod on Six Updater. Any idea if the mod on Six Updater includes all these patches or do I have to download them all and install manually?

[ProfTournesol 956]

I will do!

Regarding the i44 patches, I use this mod on Six Updater. Any idea if the mod on Six Updater includes all these patches or do I have to download them all and install manually?

I'm using PlayWithSix and nothing else is necessary.

[h34dup 148]

Yeah, I use PW6 for UNS, I44, and some of the other bulkier total conversion mods like CWR, you should be fine in this case. Let me know otherwise!

[azz_er 10]

I seem to be having real trouble getting the AI to follow my orders (Or even to just follow me!) they just seem to want to stay on the defensive line. Weird. :(

But first impressions are that its going to be a great mission. I really like the level of detail you've gone into regarding the briefing and the conversations between the men. Only thing that would make it better is voice acting but I know how long it can take to get that done haha! Really good stuff so far, you should do an i44 campaign! :D

Edited June 19, 2013 by azz_er

[h34dup 148]

I'm pretty sure the unresponsive AI is actually part of the I44 mod... I've noticed in almost all other scenarios I've played (which I admit are relatively few), when engaged or in "danger" mode, the AI squad mates pretty much do whatever they want, they tend to move a lot slower and more cautiously.

One thing I did notice makes some difference is the Hand Signals module, which I have included in this mission. Press the Windows key to bring up the menu, maybe try playing around with some of those commands and see if things work better.

Did most of the conversion work in the editor for the summer Neaville version, which uses regular Airborne (I am sticking with the tan uniforms as opposed to the greener M43 uniform, which has the same insignia). This time, the scenario references the Battle of Bloody Gulch (as seen in the Carentan episode of Band of Brothers). The player now goes up against a mix of Fallschirmjager and backup from the Waffen-SS with Stug Assault Gun backup. Since there was naval artillery involved, I've added a devastating Naval Gun action that basically uses 3 rounds of a larger ordnance (I'm using the ole LGB for now, if anyone knows of a more accurate round to use for simulating this kind of barrage, please let me know!), in addition to the mortars, which I may end up splitting out to AP and HE fire missions.

Once things are mostly in-place with the Winter and Summer versions, I'll release a couple subsequent versions that switch up the units, as mentioned earlier. I plan to do these releases one at a time, and casually, as I need to switch focus back to finishing off TF42.

Anyway, summer version should be out soon.

[azz_er 10]

Just played through most of it and its a really good mission. My PC performance towards the end got pretty bad for some reason (I checked and my GPU usage dropped to like 5%?) and then ArmA crashed haha. But good mission regardless :D

I'm looking forward to playing your new stuff :)

[h34dup 148]

Thanks azz_er -- glad you enjoyed what you were able to play smoothly.

Does anyone else notice an overall performance drop while playing I44? I'm wondering what portion of the CPU strain is due to my scenario and what might be due to I44's maps, units, modules, etc.

In the current release, I randomized the unit numbers to reduce the AI on the field at once (it's still pretty high, but not much higher than other missions I've done outside of I44), I implemented dead body removal, and trimmed as many non-essential details as possible-- like only giving foggy breath to certain troops.

There might be something with the post-processing filter modules I'm using (I44 blue and I44 random snow heavy, combined with vanilla movie grain and movie night). All enemies are sync'ed and not on the move, there shouldn't be any issues until they move out. Other than that, I'm thinking there's got to be something in the I44 mod that causes strain.

[azz_er 10]

Yeah I'm not sure whats causing it. I can play through the majority of other missions in Vanilla without any problems at all and for it to suffer so much in i44 is weird.