[MP | COOP 2-8 | WIP] Static Loop

[meatball 25]

Static Loop v 1.1

COOP 2-8 Players

by Meatball

Features

- Parameters available to change number of enemies (based on amount of players), enemy skill level, weather, time of day, medic personnel and required equipment.

- Unlimited Players revives, but player must be revived by other players within 10 minutes to avoid capture.

- Numbers and locations of starting and ending points, vehicles, supplies, and enemies, vary from game to game for re-playability.

Situation

The invasion is on! In an effort to destroy enemy communications and surveillance assets, your demolitions team has been inserted on shores of Stratis shortly after the start of the invasion. Your task, destroy all enemy transmission, communication and radar assets.

Changelog

v 1.1 (10/31/13)

- Tested and working with Arma III Official v 1.04.111668

- BI changed the amount of damage that towers can take. Instead of all towers taking 1 explosive charge to destroy, larger towers now take 3-4 explosive charges and smaller towers take 2-3 charges to knock down. Added lot's of extra ammo/explosive crates to the map to compensate.

- Weather and Time of day are now set to "Random" by default. They can be changed with the Parameters available at mission start.

- Tweaked weather script. Appears to be working correctly, but is still a work in progress.

- Removed SLP Spawn as it was not working properly.

v 1.0 (9/22/13)

- v 1.0 release, and first release to Steam Workshop. Tested and working with Arma III Official v 1.00.109911

- Weather, woot! Players can now choose starting weather and the weather will randomly change throughout the mission. Note though that this will NOT work if the mission is hosted on a dedicated server. Having trouble making that work with the new A3 weather system.

- Updated to the latest version of AI Spawn Script Pack (v0.90) by SpunFin

- Added in new vehicles and units from official release.

- Various minor bug fixes and code tweaks.

v 0.9 (8/28/13)

- Minor tweaks to AI skills levels. Lowered Normal, Hard & Extreme Levels slightly.

- Reconfigured triggers for destroyed towers/buildings so they should no longer break every time when the game is patched.

- Fixed a problem with Starting script that would sometimes cause the insertion helicopter to crash.

- Believe the BTC Revive error message is now fixed.

v 0.85 (8/13/13)

- Fixed broken triggers caused by patch (working on fixing it so it doesn't happen every time it's patched)

- Added a new parameter that allows players to choose who can revive, all players or only the Combat Life Saver. Default is Everyone.

v 0.8 (8/3/13)

- Fixed Random starting points. Players will now randomly start at one of ten starting locations.

- Enemy helicopter reinforcements will now randomly either land to drop off troops or air drop troops.

- Redid Intro/Outro screens for mission start and end.

- Updated to new AI Spawn Script Pack (.80).

- Updated to new SLP Spawn (3.43) scripts for AI player hunter groups and made some minor tweaks.

- Updated to latest =BTC= Revive script (.93RC).

- Fixed a problem with the Ambient Radio script throwing errors.

- Lot's of other minor fixes/tweaks.

v 0.71 (7/29/13)

- Fixed a problem with name of mission showing correctly.

- Fixed a problem with the first aid kit required for revive parameter.

- Fixed a problem with the mission name not showing up in the mission list.

- Temporarily disabled random starting points. Working through some issues with it.

v 0.7 (7/27/13)

- Fixed a lot of the undefined variable messages with the help of spunFin!

- May still be some bugs with the new patch and new functions.

v 0.65 (7/26/13)

- The latest patch (0.74.108135) really broke stuff in my opinion and makes the game hard to play in some cases. There's still stuff not working, and even though the scripts appear to be working fine, the engine continuously throws up tons of "Undefined variable" error messages.

- Fixed the end game triggers that the latest patch broke.

- Added Random extraction points! (May still be a bit buggy)

- Added Parameter to choose whether or not First Aid Kits are required to revive other players. Default is No.

- Added vehicles and enemy spawn locations to southern portions of island.

- Made enemy heli reinforcement arrival more variable.

Version 0.6 (7/22/13)

- Added random starting points for player team using Shuko's SHK-randstapos script.

- Tweaked the amount of 'hunters' so they will continue to spawn in longer games.

Version 0.5 (7/9/13)

- First 'Public' Release, tested on Arma 3 Beta version 0.72

- Minor tweaks to AI skill level and amount of hunter helicopters.

Credits and Addons

- AI Spawn Script Pack by spunFIN

- Ambient Radio Chatter by Clarkey

- =BTC= Revive by Giallustio

- CLY Remove Dead Script by Celery

- SHK-randstapos Random Starting Location Script by Shuko

- Tons of help from spunFin (AI Spawn Script Pack), Genesis92x (Endless Survival Mission) and everyone on the BI and Armaholic forums.

Known Issues

- None

Mods Needed

None - Tested on Arma III Official v 1.04.111668

Installation

Extract the .pbo file to your Steam/SteamApps/common/ArmA 3/MPMissions folder.

Download link(s)

Latest Version:

- Steam Workshop Link: Static Loop

- Armaholic Link (Thanks Big!): Static Loop

Edited October 31, 2013 by Meatball

[raws 0]

This is a great mission! I'm surprised you haven't received any feedback on it.

I've played v0.5 a couple of times now with a group of 3-5 friends on a dedicated server, and we've been enjoying it. The objectives are such that we can try different strategies each time we play, and the random AI offers enough variety that we get into entertaining tight spots no matter how we hit the targets. The AI difficulty/density params work well for adjusting the challenge based on how many people we've got. The teammate revive system and scarcity of usable vehicles really puts a focus on preserving your own life and your ride, which is rad. We've been able to get fun 4- to 6-hour sessions out of the mission, which sends you all over Stratis.

We actually finished all of the objectives for the first time last night, and although we got the extraction LZ marked on our maps and the extraction Ghosthawk arrived, it never took off when we piled in :p We ended up taking command of the chopper and crashing it into a cliff, which was just as good an ending as any :cool:

We've been wishing we could actually use toolkits scavenged off of casualties to repair our vehicles, because their tires seem to attract bullets, but either way, it's a ton of fun.

Great job!

[meatball 25]

Excellent, I'm glad you like it! I'll have to look into the Ghosthawk not lifting off. It's supposed to check to make sure everyone that is alive, but not captured is in and then take off, but the waypoints are a bit buggy at times, so I'll experiment with it.

Have you found the AI skill and numbers to be about right, or do you think they're too hard/too easy, or too few/too many of them?

I thought about adding in a repair script, but I thought it might make it a bit too easy if folks could repair up all the vehicles they find to full health. I found that I liked it better personally when you had to search for vehicles and hope the wreck that you found would get you to the next point.

Appreciated the feedback, and I'm happy you guys are enjoying it! If you guys have any other ideas or comments, feel free to toss them my way!

Edited July 22, 2013 by MeatballCB

[raws 0]

Excellent, I'm glad you like it! I'll have to look into the Ghosthawk not lifting off. It's supposed to check to make sure everyone that is alive, but not captured is in and then take off, but the waypoints are a bit buggy at times, so I'll experiment with it.

Have you found the AI skill and numbers to be about right, or do you think they're too hard/too easy, or too few/too many of them?

I thought about adding in a repair script, but I thought it might make it a bit too easy if folks could repair up all the vehicles they find to full health. I found that I liked it better personally when you had to search for vehicles and hope the wreck that you found would get you to the next point.

Appreciated the feedback, and I'm happy you guys are enjoying it! If you guys have any other ideas or comments, feel free to toss them my way!

Cool! Honestly, the ending is almost inconsequential compared to the real meat of the mission. I'd focus on expanding on your core concept, which seems to be a real winner.

We've found the AI skill and numbers to be a fun challenge. I like that there are some simple options to ramp things up if we start finding things too easy.

Also, I'm onboard with the vehicle/repair kit logic. I love how rewarding it is to be able to use a vehicle.

Finally, some ideas!

• A number of possible coastal starting positions in addition to the one near Kill Farm, so we don't take the same route every time. Even just two or three might make things way more interesting.
  
• Dynamic enemy attacks which are more situationally aware, e.g. the occasional enemy boat insertion if players are near the coast, or a paradrop. Just some variety to break up the constant stream of choppers setting down to release an enemy squad!
  

Looking forward to playing a bunch more Static Loop!

[meatball 25]

Cool! Honestly, the ending is almost inconsequential compared to the real meat of the mission. I'd focus on expanding on your core concept, which seems to be a real winner.

Thanks again! I really tried to make it so it would be something that could be replayed multiple times and players would get a different experience every time. I've played a lot of missions that once you figure out where things are, there really isn't any reason to play it again, because you just get into a pattern. I took a lot of inspirations from Enigma's Escape from Chenarus for A2. That really became our go to co-op mission to play with our group of players because every time we played it was something new. I was trying to capture that feeling.

Finally, some ideas!

• A number of possible coastal starting positions in addition to the one near Kill Farm, so we don't take the same route every time. Even just two or three might make things way more interesting.
  
• Dynamic enemy attacks which are more situationally aware, e.g. the occasional enemy boat insertion if players are near the coast, or a paradrop. Just some variety to break up the constant stream of choppers setting down to release an enemy squad!
  

Great ideas. This is my first go at mission making, so I'm still learning how to mod/script, but I'll see what I can come up with. :)

[meatball 25]

New Version Released, v 0.6 with some minor updates and tweaks including:

- Multiple random insertion points (over 10) for player team using Shuko's SHK-randstapos script.

- Tweaked amount of 'hunters' so they will continue to spawn in longer games.

Until the Armaholic page is updated, the new version can be grabbed on dropbox: Static Loop v 0.6

Looking forward, I'm still trying to figure out why the evac helicopter works sometimes, and other times does not. In the meantime, I've created a marker that will appear on the map when the chopper comes in so the players can fly there manually if need be. Beyond that I'm looking to add random extraction points and more variety to enemy patrols/units.

Let me know if you notice any issues or bugs!

[watarimono 0]

After the last patch I get a bunch of scripterrors and the mission starts with all tasks completed :(

[fawlty 30]

Yup roger that Watarimono

Was setting it up to run with a few mates on Saturday evening but got the same error msg's and all the targets destroyed. I guess the latest patch did a number on it.

[meatball 25]

Yeah, the latest patch jacked a lot of the underlying scripts. I'm working through them now, but to be honest, I think they have some sort of issue with the patch as a _lot_ of misions/scripts have become unplayable. Sorry, and I'll keep trying to figure out what's happening! I do have the targets destroyed piece fixed, and I'm working in some new additions (random extraction points anyone?) :) But until they fix whatever is messed up or tell us what the patch did, I can't seem to get rid of the black script error message popups. The game is playable with them, but it's annoying as heck.

Edited July 27, 2013 by MeatballCB

[fawlty 30]

Thanks Meatball,

From what I saw just entering in it looked like a great mission, good luck with it.

The joy's of beta

[meatball 25]

I've got a test version available if anyone wants to try it, but it's still pretty broken and I've not been able to test everything, but if anyone feels like giving it a shot, you're welcome to, just expect you're going to see some issues.

V 0.65 Release

- The latest patch (0.74.108135) really broke stuff in my opinion and makes the game hard to play in some cases. There's still stuff not working, and even though the scripts appear to be working fine, the engine continuously throws up tons of "Undefined variable" error messages.

- Fixed the end game triggers that the latest patch broke.

- Added random extraction points! (Still testing, so may be a bit buggy)

- Added parameter to choose whether or not First Aid Kits are required to revive other players. Default is No.

- Added vehicles and enemy spawn locations to southern portions of island.

- Made enemy heli reinforcement arrival more variable.

---------- Post added at 23:19 ---------- Previous post was at 23:05 ----------

By the by, there's a slight chance someone might have figured out the underlying issue with all this errors (has something to do with the scripts using 'nil' in them). If that's the case, that's awesome, because it can be fixed, but until spunFIN can dig through some of his scripts and fix them, there's not a lot I'll be able to do to fix them.

---------- Post added at 00:17 ---------- Previous post was at 23:19 ----------

Ah, whoops. Completely spaced and forgot to re-enable revival ingame. Updated the mission file at dropbox above.

I won't be updating again though until all the scripts are fixed for this latest beta patch. Apologize I can't get everything working, but a lot of these scripts are way above my head :)

Edited August 18, 2013 by Meatball

[meatball 25]

New Update!

v 0.70 Release

- Fixed a lot of the undefined variable messages with the help of spunFin!

- May still be some bugs with the new patch and new functions.

Still may be some outstanding issues, but I think I got the bulk of them. But since the new patch and a lot of new functionality, more testing will probably find more issues. If you run into anything, let me know!

Edited August 18, 2013 by Meatball

[raws 0]

Thanks, Meatball! We'll give 0.70 a whirl on our server this weekend and see what we can dig up.

[meatball 25]

Yeah, .7 has an issue. :) Appears the random start is only moving the first player and noone else...I'll get something new up when I figure it out.

---------- Post added at 22:58 ---------- Previous post was at 21:24 ----------

Updated and disabled the random start location for now. Same download link.

[dyndragon 10]

Hey, just trying to download and try this mission, but for some reason it won't show up in my missions list when starting a MP server. I put the .pbo file into \Steam\steamapps\common\Arma 3\MPMissions but it just won't show up in my mission list when starting a server. I've put many other missions in there and they all show up, but it's just Static Loop that does not.

Any ideas? Are there any preconditions that must be met in order for this coop mission to show up?

[meatball 25]

Hmm...you know, you're right. Try this link and I believe it should work. Appears that BI must have made a change that if you change the name of .pbo file (which I did to add the version name and have always done), it now shows up as blank in the mission list. If you look at your list you probably see a gap in the mission list that you can click on and gives you a generic mission popup, but that's the mission.

Regardless, the link above should have fixed that...Let me know if it doesn't. Sorry about that.

[dyndragon 10]

Hmm...you know, you're right. Try this link and I believe it should work. Appears that BI must have made a change that if you change the name of .pbo file (which I did to add the version name and have always done), it now shows up as blank in the mission list. If you look at your list you probably see a gap in the mission list that you can click on and gives you a generic mission popup, but that's the mission.

Regardless, the link above should have fixed that...Let me know if it doesn't. Sorry about that.

thanks, that did it!

[meatball 25]

New Update!

v 0.71 Release: Available on Armaholic - Thanks to Big!

- Fixed a problem with the first aid kit required for revive parameter.

- Fixed a problem with the mission name not showing up in the mission list.

- Temporarily disabled random starting points. Working through some issues with it.

[meatball 25]

New Update!

v 0.8 Released: Available on Armaholic - Thanks Big!

ChangeLog

- Fixed Random starting points. Players will now randomly start at one of ten starting locations.

- Enemy helicopter reinforcements will now randomly either land to drop off troops or air drop troops.

- Redid Intro/Outro screens for mission start and end.

- Updated to new AI Spawn Script Pack (.80).

- Updated to new SLP Spawn (3.43) scripts for AI player hunter groups and made some minor tweaks.

- Updated to latest =BTC= Revive script (.93RC).

- Fixed a problem with the Ambient Radio script throwing errors.

- Lot's of other minor fixes/tweaks.

Known Issues

- =BTC= Revive Script returns a "No entry 'config.bin/CfgWeapons' error on occasion when players get knocked out. =BTC= Revive author has been informed.

Edited August 4, 2013 by MeatballCB

[raws 0]

Woo! Thanks, Meatball!

[meatball 25]

You're welcome! :) Let me know if you run into any issues.

[CSLALUKI 30]

WooW :) Amazing ! ;)

[meatball 25]

Thanks. At this point I'm toying with adding in some civilians at some point and eventually would like to add in selectable/random weather, but I don't want to mess with that until BI gets rain back in. Only short term fix/change I'll probably do is fix that config.bin error in =BTC= revive once it gets fixed.

But as always, I certainly can't test stuff anywhere near as well as you guys will when you run the mission through it's paces, so if you find anything, let me know. :)

Edited August 5, 2013 by Meatball

[el_muerko 0]

Any chance of having some different optics in soldiers backpacks at the start of the mission?

[meatball 25]

Any chance of having some different optics in soldiers backpacks at the start of the mission?

Hmm, I probably could if a lot of folks want them. I never really worried about the initial soldier loadouts other than adding in NVG's/Binocs and some extra explosives because in just all the games I play we end up ditching the weapons and such we start with and picking up enemy gear and addons since it's a lot easier to find ammo for them.

Speaking of which, what does everyone think about the difficulty level and numbers of enemies? Games I've played it seems pretty close to being about right, but would love to hear what others playing it think.