Showcase Review

[lev 21]

I've played through all the showcases now and I'd like to go over their strengths and weaknesses and hope BI takes note of this for any future showcases.

-------------------------------------

Infantry Showcase

The good: mission concept is solid.

The bad: the mission execution plan and AI behavior.

The main reason the showcase is a pain is because your friendly AI tends to have subpar accuracy and spotting skills compared to the enemy. Enemy fire rapidly takes out you and your squad. The problem is only made worse by the mission execution plan defined in the briefing. The plan has your squad running through an exposed valley while enemies engage you from superior positions on the hillsides or waiting in the valley to stop you with superior firepower. Instead of sticking with your squad, you are forced to abandon them and counter attack from the hill as well. This kills the immersion of the scenario the devs tried to setup in the first place. Autosaves are very sparse, sometimes causing you to have to start the mission from the beginning because of an AI error or a few misplaced shots.

-------------------------------------

SCUBA Showcase.

The good: cool scenario and allows for multiple strategies for completing it.

The bad: slight bugginess on sabotaging the boat (you can overcome this by sighting in with your weapon and then trying again).

Overall pretty decent showcase. Does its job of showing off the SCUBA abilities and presents a decent challenge without having a frustrating amount of enemies. Would have been nice if SCUBA was more of a focus than the on land portions though.

-------------------------------------

Vehicles Showcase

The good: straightforward scenario without many potential failure points. Good autosave points.

The bad: not much to complain about here.

For a vehicle showcase, seems like an odd decision to start the player without a vehicle. Could have easily done a similar showcase by having you support a friendly squad using a Hunter.

-------------------------------------

Helicopters Showcase

The good: fun showcase demonstrating most of the aspects of piloting the helicopter.

The bad: not much to say here. Its a pretty good showcase.

-------------------------------------

Combined Arms Showcase

The good: interesting concept.

The bad: the execution is very bad. All the combined arms elements do nothing to impact the mission at all. CAS does a single run that has little to no effect on the enemy (depends on whether you take out their vehicle or the CAS does). APC gets destroyed almost instantly without doing anything. Once again the squad is pushing through a valley instead of taking superior fire positions from the hillsides. Once again, friendly AI seems to get devastated by enemy AI fire.

This showcase is supposed to show off the intersection of armor/air/infantry combat and how they work together to accomplish missions. Instead this showcase just demonstrates how incompetent or useless vehicle AI can be. Instead of the friendly APC staying at a distance to engage enemies using superior range and firepower, it drives right up to the enemy and gets blown up right away (I've tried this mission like 10 times and never has the APC survived to do anything). Similarly, the CAS has 0 effect on the enemy. It does make a single pass but besides hitting the enemy vehicle (which you can easily do yourself as an AT soldier), it does nothing to the enemy infantry. Once again the scenario places your friendly squads in tactically disadvantageous positions. The main advantage to an approach from the valley is concealment and stealth, however, the chopper landing quickly gives that away and your squads do not get close to the enemy base before being engaged. This disadvantage could have been used to demonstrate the power of combined arms tactics (yes you engage from a compromised position, but your CAS and APC turn this around!), but as explained above they have 0 impact and turn the combined arms showcase into an infantry showcase at about 3 minutes in.

-------------------------------------

Commanding Showcase

The good: not a bad idea having a showcase where you learn to manage AI.

The bad: your squad AI tends to suck and fail leaving the player feeling dissatisfied or feeling like they need to micromanage every little action the AI takes.

The scenario is better thought out with the mission plan suggesting the player take an advantageous position on the southern hillside. However, once the action starts, the friendly AI's inability to react to threats usually messes up any positional benefits. My primary issues with the AI are:

1) they don't spot enemies fast enough - even when I start shooting at them they do not seem to notice, and this in turn causes the enemy to focus their aim on me.

2) they get distracted - I had a plan to have the AI stay on the hillside mostly facing away from the bay to avoid fire from the assault boat. However, early on the AI catch a glance of the speedboat and from then on they seem to turn to face it a lot or take potshots at it. They have failed to spot or engage the enemy several times because they were distracted by the speed boat. I cannot order them to ignore it either.

3) they don't have a good concept of cover or overwatch - if you order them to take cover, the are likely to end up bunched together in a spot with some cover and all facing the same direction (usually the wrong one too). Or they can end up out in the open but prone, or they could end up in a place with a lot of concealment where they can not see the enemy. My best solution to get around this was just to have them stay in line formation and ordered them to hold position. My manual positioning gets some of them into cover and makes sure they all have LOS on the approaching enemy.

A lot of these problems stem from large AI issues but that being the case, the devs should probably make an AI worth commanding before making a showcase for it.

-------------------------------------

Night Showcase

The good: cool concept.

The bad: equipment/loadout is totally messed up. It is not very dark for a night.

This could have been a really cool mission but instead it leaves the player feeling disgrunted.

1. For a night and stealth mission the player is not given a silenced weapon at all. This doesn't help the fact that nearly all the points of interest have enemy presence that need to be neutralized.

2. It is very bright for night time and it just feels immersion breaking when they enemy appears to be unable to see you despite it being pretty light out, and with a lighthouse shining on you.

3. Flashlight is useless. See 2) and also it has very little range on its illumination which makes it barely light up anything even when it does.

-------------------------------------

Supports Showcase

The good: good concept, fun mission, well executed.

The bad: not much to say here.

This was a very good showcase. All the elements of the showcase are successfully demonstrated and the showcase is pretty fun to run through. The has enough assets to never feel like they are facing an impossible challenge and there are enough enemies such that the player has something to do as well.

-------------------------------------

You'll notice that most of the showcases that were well done featured:

1. Solo missions - no friendly AI to deal with

2. Sufficient firepower/assets to deal with enemy threats

3. Sufficient enemies so that the player feels challenged

4. Good strategy on the mission makers part (player starts in a tactically strong position; mission plan does not force the player to do stupid things)

5. Good introduction and coverage of showcase themes.

For the bad showcases, the opposite points of 1-5 hold true.

1. Dealing with friendly AI is usually more frustrating than fun since they are usually incompetent.

2. The player is heavily outgunned and facing impossible odds

3. Bad mission plans. Player's squads have to do tactically stupid things that get them killed

4. Bad interaction with showcase elements (e.g. combined arms showcase that offers little combined arms support, night showcase that offers no stealth weapons)

[toiletguy 1]

Well said on the AI. The only showcase that i've finished in beta are the Night and Support one. The commands showcase is too impossible to complete on the veteran difficulty. The introduction and tutorials on how to command the AI is well written in theory but it's not practical at all to command a huge squad. I'm always make a mission without too many squad members since they're too frustrating for a player to enjoy commanding them. This game will be the best game of the year if they could improve the AI only. The last thing to do in this beta is polishing on the AI in my opinion. They must overcome and improve the AI.

[purepassion 22]

The commands showcase is too impossible to complete on the veteran difficulty. The introduction and tutorials on how to command the AI is well written in theory but it's not practical at all to command a huge squad.

Have you tried getting your squad with you up on the hill, setting each of them behind some cover, tell to "hold fire", watch NW and as soon as the enemy is in a vulnerable position, assign each target to a soldier and them have them all engage at the same time with the "open fire" command? I find this showcase to be very easy actually and I haven't encounteres any problems with the commanding so far :) Only the GMG on the boat can be a pain in the ass ^^

Though it would be nice if the hotkeys for the commanding interface could be customized as I think some of the higher priority/more commonly used options should be more to the left.

[toiletguy 1]

Have you tried getting your squad with you up on the hill, setting each of them behind some cover, tell to "hold fire", watch NW and as soon as the enemy is in a vulnerable position, assign each target to a soldier and them have them all engage at the same time with the "open fire" command? I find this showcase to be very easy actually and I haven't encounteres any problems with the commanding so far :) Only the GMG on the boat can be a pain in the ass ^^

Though it would be nice if the hotkeys for the commanding interface could be customized as I think some of the higher priority/more commonly used options should be more to the left.

The process of getting each squad members behind the cover is pretty frustrating for me. I've set each of them behind the rocks and trees. After i've finished setting them up, i ordered them to find cover (1-8) then all of them abandoned their cover and flock into a single or two spots. The AI could use an improvement without micro-managing. Sure, micromanaging each squad member to fire at the specific soldiers is satisfying but not for some players (me). The positions in the building could be improved as well. It's hard to order an Autorifleman to take a specific spot in the houses. This conclude the problems in Arma so far, the AI.

The AI is a #1 priority for a fan base who plays single player most of the time in Arma (Me). I've got 252 hours in Arma 3 and i'm sure that out of 252 hours i've only played the multiplayer less than 20 hours. I'm sure more than 40% of players in Arma series plays alot of single player instead of multiplayer.

[byku 13]

I finished all of showcases without much problem, in combined arms my apc(which helped a lot) and squad(at least most of it) survived till the end of the mission, just fyi. Although i have to say i played a bit with enemy ai: 0,6 and friendly 1,0.

The ai behaviour and tactics is all about the mission creator, he decided that it would be "fun" to be in a valley.

[purepassion 22]

That's the problem. The "find cover" command is a completely different command and will result in them regrouping and moving to a different place. If you don't want to micromanage them to synchronize shots (which I find very satisfying :p) you can just set them to "danger" mode and don't tell them to hold fire. They will engage autonomously. You can even use the flank left/right commands and they will do their thing alone. :)

Navigating them in a house is very troublesome though...

Regarding the mission critique, I also find it very painful having to watch the squad advance in the bottom of the valley during the infantry showcase.

If possible, the starting points of the mission should be kept more realistic as well. Meaning you shouldn't have the feeling you were teleported right in the action (as it is with the infrantry showcase).

[aoshi 1]

Night Showcase need silenced weapon,or flash hider

I found it strange to have only lighthouse to bring down and 3 charges (with only one lighthouse blows) (gives to blow some trucks too). or enter into a ifrit go up the side of some enemy stick with the driver's side secured get out and plant the explosive, run and explode LOL (did it totally not tactical).

they say to make hell, so it might be bad a silenced weapon. perhaps more use of flash hider (not yet implemented will it be?)

and has many enemies to allies wells (solo mission) is not that difficult but it is annoying.

Combined

bem eu uso o AT no infatary, então meu apc não explodir, então ele matar todos os contra-ataque sozinho (ir em frente Eu não sei porque) esta é a minha segunda corrida, em primeiro lugar o meu apc explodir como "normal"

Edit:use scan horizon and watch direction. on comand helps( i think)

by google

[nikiforos 450]

How many FPS did you guys have while playing Combined Arms? Minimum and average?

[Sniperwolf572 758]

...Regarding the mission critique, I also find it very painful having to watch the squad advance in the bottom of the valley during the infantry showcase. ...

It's five men against a village of superiorly positioned enemies. The waypoints for the AI set trough the valley are very strange considering doing a straight line from the position of the dead marksman to the village which is the objective would provide more overview, cover and high ground to engage the village from. Plus fighting in forests is neat.

[Tonci87 163]

I didn´t have any problems with the Command SHowcase either. You take your guys on the southern hill into that little forest, place them in neat spots, tell them to lie down and to hold fire. Wait until the enemy forward group is in nice open ground then order everyone to open fire. The enemy will be dead within a second, immediately order hold fire again so that they are not shooting at the boat. Wait until the main force arrives on open ground, open fire. Pretty simple.

My only Problem with that Mission is that the AI still has this extremely stupid bug to sometimes open fire on their own, ruining the ambush!

[lev 21]

What difficulties are you playing with? Maybe my settings are making the game too hard.

I play on Elite using 1.00 for friendly AI and 0.85 for enemy AI. However, my AI still are worse shots than the enemy even sometimes when spotting them first (i.e. on command one). On this setting even from a concealed position, if you do not hit the enemy AI within 2-3 shots they will detect and kill you right away. So even when the ambush goes right it is hard to survive because if you or your AI miss you start losing forces. The other issue is the distance at which the game detects you, the player, "spots enemies". Sometimes it is very good and "spots" them as soon as you put your crosshairs on them, allowing you to give orders on the target. For me, when the main force arrives, they are almost charging fully down into the valley before my character "spots" a few guys. Even though I could clearly see them ~20s beforehand they are not always "spotted" and I can't perform orders on them. I find it strange that the AI isn't coded to respond to you shooting at something as well.

[St. Jimmy 272]

When I play I use 0,2 enemy AI because they are so dam accurate that I have to compensate it somehow.

[royaltyinexile 175]

Thanks for the lengthy review, Lev! Interesting reading your impressions. The funny thing about the Showcases is that everyone has missions they really like, and one's they're not so keen on. For the Alpha, for example, almost every developer found that there were two they loved, and two they didn't like, but it was always different. The same happened for the Beta.

I think this says something about the diversity of gameplay and diversity of players. Arma means something a bit different to everyone that plays it. With the Beta missions (combined Arms, Supports, Commanding, Night), we tried to learn a bit from our experiences - and I think they're probably a better set of missions as a whole - but we still wanted to deliver that range of experiences/play styles.

However, I hope that you found a common thread/ unified vision running through them all: give the players an objective (assault the camp, capture the airbase, defend the town, create a distraction), give player some tools to complete it (AT launcher, supports, squad memebers, explosives), and let players find their own way to complete the scenario. Sometimes it's more directed (e.g. Combined Arms), and the other extreme gives the player basically no plan (e.g. Night).

night showcase that offers no stealth weapons

True, but the mission wasn't really positioned to be a stealth mission, as such. the point is to go loud. If you wanted to take a stealth appreach, you could do it without firing a shot and just using your charges to blow up key objectives, though.. :cool:

as explained above they have 0 impact and turn the combined arms showcase into an infantry showcase at about 3 minutes in.

I've got to disagree here, too. How many times have you played the mission, I wonder? Sometimes the Heli gets shot down before he can even engage the enemy armour and, if he does, that can present a big challenge to the players against an aggressive Marid. Other times the BLUFOR APC survives the whole way through, and it totally changes the complexion of the mission.

Combined Arms is one of my favoured scenarios because of this; it's not too carefully choreographed and scripted, so the mission can play out differently. Sometimes it can depend on the player, other times there is nothing the player can do to control how the events unfold, which - although it can make life difficult - is one of the things that makes Arma distinctive compared to other games.

Best,

RiE

Edited June 26, 2013 by RoyaltyinExile

[Sneakson 1]

Combined Arms is impossible on Elite until proven otherwise.

I cleared the enemy camp with a single AI ally remaining and was ordered to retreat the moment the second wave of enemies started coming.

In my extensive experience of Infantry your AI buddies also usually get dead really quick but other than that it's a very solid showcase.

The Support showcase was terrible. It took me like 20 minutes before my infantry finally had reached the center and I went down to clear out the remaining enemies myself with guns taken from dead guys.

Anyways I haven't played the news ones too much yet. Night was pretty fun but not having night vision was a big pain because all I could see was the enemies’ flashlight lights instead of themselves.

[royaltyinexile 175]

Combined Arms is impossible on Elite until proven otherwise.

I cleared the enemy camp with a single AI ally remaining and was ordered to retreat the moment the second wave of enemies started coming

...and what if you disregard the order to retreat? :cool:

Best,

RiE

[Derbysieger 11]

I would recommend to play the Combined Arms Showcase in MP. It's much better imho

[dale0404 5]

...and what if you disregard the order to retreat? :cool:

Best,

RiE

This is a video of my Combined Arms Showcase runthrough:

You can find other videos with total different outcomes etc.

[St. Jimmy 272]

Only showcase I don't like that much is the vehicle showcase but I haven't tested command yet. I pretty much agree with lev. There's maybe bit too many AIs in Vehicle, SCUBA and Night showcases because it feels like I'm all alone against lots of enemies and that way it doesn't feel that realistic. I could give that sorry in Nigh Showcase if I had a silenced rifle.

[instagoat 133]

I finished the commanding showcase. In fact, that was the only one I managed on the first try.

I agree that from a military planning standpoint, both Infantry and Combined arms are completely stupid. One reason why I found Infantry no fun was that the only thing you´re doing is charging down a funnel into the machinegun fire of massively superior enemies, both in numbers and positions. It´s like the kobayashi maru test of infantry combat.

The Combined arms adds to the same situation the inabillity of the AI to use vehicles in the same fashion a human would (fight from a distance, OODA cycles instead of randomly barging in, they do not -ever- use terrain to their advantage, ie use hull down positions, move where the water flows, etc.). It is simply not enjoyable.

I set up something -much- more fun using the hillside below Camp Maxwell, without helicopters at all, because they are also useless because they do not know how to not get shot down.

Attack helicopters do not do attack runs at 10 ft altitude directly across the target. We did that in WW1 until people started shooting back. Ever since then, we have been using techniques like slashing attacks, terrain masking (which is impossible to do with any AI, so I am not even asking for it.) and using distance seperation and speed.

Vehicle AI needs a workover, much like all other parts of the AI. I´m currently trying to summarise my thing that I´ve tried to do two months ago. Life´s been keeping me from doing anything else but short tests and notes, but I think I can finish a page to put up here for community consideration.

*about Combined Arms*

I've got to disagree here, too. How many times have you played the mission, I wonder? Sometimes the Heli gets shot down before he can even engage the enemy armour and, if he does, that can present a big challenge to the players against an aggressive Marid. Other times the BLUFOR APC survives the whole way through, and it totally changes the complexion of the mission.

Combined Arms is one of my favoured scenarios because of this; it's not too carefully choreographed and scripted, so the mission can play out differently. Sometimes if can depend on the player, other times there is nothing the player can do to control how the events unfold, which although it can make life difficult - is one of the things that makes Arma distinctive compared to other games.

Best,

RiE

The freestyle evolution of the mission is also one of the big things for me, it´s the reason I play Arma.

However, the problem with the Vehicles is that they do not act very cleverly with regards to the terrain. I have noticed that they are more careful in advancing now, sometimes even halting in cover until a specific threat is eliminated (I at least hope this is a feature, not a bug that´s occured during ongoing tweaks), but they still tend to be useless in a situation where they do not have prior knowledge of the "shape" of the battlefield.

The reason why I found the AMV not being much help is that there is basically two alternatives, either it spots enough enemies to become an effective combatant, or it gets blown up before it notices anybody at all. The same goes for the helicopter, which charges in (which makes for nice cinema) and then just flops about trying to find targets. By the time it finds something, it´s flown directly across the hottest parts of the battlefield twice and is so damaged that on the third (actual) attack run it nosedives into the hillside.

I do not think these vehicles need advanced anti missile systems or artificial bullet shields DR style, but they need a course in vehicle tactics. For example, staying behind the infantry or in front of them depending on their role (maybe as a waypoint setting), and a way to check wether or not they are hull down in relation to three randomly chosen known enemies within their frontal 90° arc.

Their spotting is good, however, at least that of the Marid, with my settings (.80 skill, .26 precision).

It is heading in the right direction. I am trying to put together something helpful, so we can get the rough edges on a single page, and get a word on from your side what can be fixed, and what requires too much assets/time to be done, so we know what exactly we can expect.

Cheers

InstaGoat

Edited June 26, 2013 by InstaGoat

[lev 21]

Yes, I agree the sandbox nature of the Arma missions is what makes it interesting and fun.

I tried the combined arms showcase again today and that brought my count up to about 20 or so times on the combined arms showcase. I did manage to see the APC survive once but it was a combination of a lot of lucky factors. My squad was particularly good that time at eliminating enemy infantry early on and some squad members ended up going prone on the road which delayed the APC and allowed it to engage from a further distance with infantry support it in front. I am not sure that was intentional since usually the APC will drive up to the mound just south west of the camp. It is strange though because I feel the AI has a decent understanding of how to use terrain. After securing the camp, the APC actually used some of the hills to get elevation on the enemy targets coming in from the west and also managed to out-maneuver the enemy APC. However, the in the early portion the APC seems to prefer rushing up to the enemy still and ignores the sense it displays later in the mission when it survived. I feel like this is the major issue most players have with this mission. The APC is a HUGE asset when it comes to securing and defending the camp. Without it, the missions becomes incredibly difficult. If only the APC preferred using its range early on, it would make the showcase much easier.

Regarding the helicopter in the combined arms showcase, in my experience with the showcase, the CAS heli usually survives. I've only seen it shot down maybe 2-3 times that I've played but usually it does a very short run before leaving. Also it seems to depend on whether the enemy APC is taken out by the infantry at the beginning or not. When the enemy APC is alive, usually the CAS makes a single run to take it out and sometimes a second gun run on some infantry before leaving. If the enemy APC is taken out, the CAS seems to make a gun run before leaving the AO. However, the gun runs are not very effective usually so I have not been able to depend on it very much.

Overall though, I'd say most of the showcases were pretty enjoyable and they all pretty much serve their purpose.

[quantenfrik 10]

the combined arms showcase was incredibly frustrating for me, even on recruit with friendly ai to 1 and enemy to 0, but maybe im just a noob? after capturing the outpost, bot apc and choppa were gone, and about 5 of my squad left, with the enemy able to get precise shots from 300m with the standart reflex sights. and once the enemy car showed up it killed the entire friendly ai within seconds cause they were all standing all together in his view, lockon with the at-weapon was also bugged/didnt work...

i finally beat it by using only the grenade launcher from behind cover and shooting the ifrit when it drove directly to me (lock-on still didnt work), but it was really frustrating

[toiletguy 1]

As i noticed from my perspective, most of the players said the word "Frustrating". I hope BI eliminate this word out of the arma-verse completely. For the sake of glory PC master race.

[HKFlash 9]

The Infantry Showcase needs tweaking. Your squad (or should I say fireteam?) is outnumbered and outgunned and attacks an enemy force three times its size which is also much better positioned.

Zipper5 your missions for ARMA 2 were great and then i get this... noooooooo! :(

[Smurf 12]

I had the same impression of the Combined Ops. I had some surprises with the Comanche (deal with it), Marid and Marshall (which always end up destroyed in the hill at the right if he manages to get there) and from there on the mission mostly plays the same everytime. I only finished it once (too hard, may be related to lack of supression and AI getting some lucky shots from their optimal positions), alone, and had to retreat.

IMO, as an example of the main plate of Arma, this one should involve a greater AO, multiple direction attacks (maybe a battle ocurring elsewhere, which you could glimpse from your LZ, before the joint attack), multiple vehicles and , of course, an extraction with helos in the middle of smoke grenades. :cool:

All others, won't discuss their believiability afterall they are showcases, but they were fun. I really liked the night, scuba and infantry ones. Support could be better with the adition of bipods.

All in all, I'm eager to see what's up with the campaign.

[five_seven5-7 56]

One thing that i´ve learned from OFP, it's never to trust friendly AI. The first time played the Combined Ops. went wrong in all aspects.

Restarted the mission and went on the front, took advantage of the supressing fire, i´ve killed most of the AT soldiers to protect armour vehicle and granted a successful mission.

The most difficult to me its the helicopter mission never ended, not got used to the controls of the helicopter even with analogue joystick controls, first half of the slider does nothing most of the time resulting in crashes