Operation Candlestick | Episode 1

[sergeant rock 3]

I'm happy to release my first mission for ArmA3 Beta. This is my first complete mission since back in the OFP days and it took me a bit of time to get reacquainted with the syntax and the idiosyncrasies of the engine. This is a simple, quick into the action mission for a small group of players. Though the mission is short in scope relatively speaking, it is fully realized in content, context, and completion.

Mission Name: Operation Candlestick

Mission Type: COOP

# of Players: 1-4

Time Of Day: Night (Changeable in Parameters)

AddOns Required: None

Support: Limited UAV assistance

Revive: None

Background: The economy of the small island nation of Stratis had been in deep recession for years. As unemployment and inflation continued to rise, the locals on Stratis began blaming foreign investors and imported labor for their ongoing problems and hardships. As the economy continued to spiral out of control, the blame also shifted to the government, seen as an American puppet, and peaceful protest gave way to rioting and conflict.

Out of this conflict arose the SDL. Mostly young, mostly unemployed and disenchanted, but certainly all angry, the membership of the SDL continued to swell. Their methods turned more confrontational and violent as the radical elements of the group, lead by Col. Firouz, seized control of the leadership and its message. What started as disorganized marches and civil disobedience devolved into rock throwing, bombings of government buildings, and more recently organized, armed attacks and kidnappings.

The central government, known as the People’s Democratic Republic of Stratis (PDRS), has not only been severely weakened by the bad economy, but more recently by the defection of many military members to the SDL. With its grasp on power weakening and the people on the edge of revolt, the PDRS has reached out to America for economic aid and military assistance in fighting the SDL.

The Americans, not eager to publicly get involved in yet another conflict, have instead assisted with intelligence and logistical support. However, every once in a while, small Special Operations Forces are called upon for highly critical missions. None have seen more action than the secretive and elite D.A.R.S team.

SDL: The Stratis Defense League (SDL) is paramilitary group who has its origins in a highly nationalistic hate group whose main goal is the cleansing of all foreigners, through intimidation and violence if necessary, from the island of Stratis. In recent time, and with the emergence of the mysterious Col. Firouz, their goals have expanded to complete governmental overthrow.

DARS: D.A.R.S. is the acronym for the elite Special Forces teams that specializes in Destroy, Assault, Rescue, and Sabotage operations. They normally operate in fire team size elements and are highly trained and specialized, able to operate in any combat environment. More of a scalpel than a sledge hammer, these small teams bring asymmetric warfare and tactics to an increasingly asymmetric enemy.

Briefing: Recent intel was uncovered showing that a dangerous sale of a shoulder-fired AA missile launcher was underway between members of the SDL and a known arms dealer who goes by the name of Massoud. Unfortunately we deciphered the intel too late to capture both Massoud and the weapon he was selling, but you still have time to destroy the AA launcher if you hurry.

Your D.A.R.S. team is located on the USS America, an amphibious assault ship located about a kilometer outside of Tsoukala Bay on the southeastern coast of Stratis. This America-class ship is a 45,000 ton fighting machine. Carrying over 1,500 Marines, support teams, and a wide array of weaponry and vehicles, including both helicopter and fixed-wing assets, the USS America is capable of projecting extreme force wherever and whenever necessary.

Mission: Your mission is to insert via SDV to the insertion point indicated on the map. From there you will depart and swim, undetected, to the shoreline. Once on shore, coordinate an assault on the objective. The objective is a small fishing village on Tsoukala Bay consisting of 5 ramshackle buildings. Find and destroy the AA missile launcher that Massoud has just sold to the SDL.

Download Mission: Operation Candlestick v.1.8.8 BETA

Armaholic Mirror:

- Operation Candlestick Co-04 [bETA]

Since ArmA3 is BETA I will keep the BETA tag on my mission as changes made by BIS may break the mission. I also reserve the right to delve back into this mission and add some additional tweaks or content based on feedback.

Constructive feedback is appreciated. Even though this mission has been tested in an MP\Dedicated Server environment over and over again, sometimes things in ArmA just don't work right, whether it be bad latency or some other uncontrollable reason, or intentionally finding ways to break the mission. I've tried to account for everything I can think of, but I'm sure folks out there can think of plenty more.

Lastly I'd like to thank the many scripters. mission makers, and others whose work has got me through this mission. A special thanks to Kronzky for his UPS script and Engima for his Dynamic Weather script.

Edited July 18, 2013 by Sergeant Rock
Updated Mission Version

[rocksy 11]

played great bar one thing, trying to get your AI (if any) back to the SDV from the insertion point can be tricky, instead of running back along the beach the head up over the hill. You can also pot shot the enemy from the shallows by the end of the pier and they just run around not shooting back. I put those down the the herp derp AI though.

[dale0404 5]

Will try this out tonight on my server.

[Gwynbleidd 28]

I don't play arma 3 coop yet since AI is not that good, to put it mildly, but figured i'd give your mission a shot, since you had it well thought out with background story etc. I tried it with a friend, can't get him to spawn with me, doesn't matter which slot he chooses. He always spawns 2 km south, and slightly east from objective (all ai spawn with me normally, close to shore).

Anyway since im tired of night vision, and night missions in general, and the game looks nice without it, we tried dawn/noon setting. My suggestion to you is to ease up on the fog. Not sure if fog has any effect on AI, but sure as hell it doesn't seem so. I got up the hill, and from that distance, i couldn't see any one of them, even though i knew their exact location, but as soon as i went from prone to standing, they 1 hit killed me without missing a shot.

[sergeant rock 3]

I'll look into the spawning issue. Not sure what is happening there since we tested this dozens of times and hadn't experienced that issue. Does your friend have high latency or is he far from the dedicated server?

The fog is completely random and is not something I've hard-set in the mission. I use Enigma's Dynamic Weather script which is controlling that. It should be different every time you play. I suppose I could make it possible to disable the dynamic weather and instead have a clear day/rainy day/random selectable in the parameters.

As far as AI is concerned, ArmA AI has notoriously been ridiculously deadly. I recommend this mission is played on a dedicated server with the Zues Server Skill mod running. It improves the AI a great deal and allows you to set things like aiming accuracy, aiming speed, and aiming shake among others. When tweaked right, this results in an AI experience that is more survivable and realistic.

Thanks for the feedback Gwynbleidd, I appreciate you taking the time to comment.

[sergeant rock 3]

I've updated the version to 1.8.8 in the original link.

Changelog v.1.8.8

1. Changed the way players spawn to compensate for possible latency induced spawning issue.

2. Added the ability in Parameters to turn off Dynamic Weather.

3. Fixed an issue which could cause tasks to appear out of order in the task menu.

[Gwynbleidd 28]

I've played a great deal of ARMA 2 coop, didn't really have an issue with the AI, i mean they were deadly and challenging (that's why I liked it), but didn't felt like they are cheating, like the AI in ARMA 3.

Anyway I played it in lan, so latency should be close to non existent (though there was no dedicated server, I hosted on my pc). Dynamic weather is actually a good idea, but it seems i had some bad luck, because I started it like 5-6 times, and everytime it was so foggy, you could barely see 10 meters in front.

Tested the updated version, spawning works properly, fog can be turned off, and the mission is really well made with a nice backstory to it.

Thanks for the quick update!

Edited July 18, 2013 by Gwynbleidd

[KingoftheSandbox 10]

Me and my friend just tried the mission, but for some reason the AI is in danger mode without having seen us. this makes the mission VERY hard. i tried to edit it and saw that you set them to careless. dont know whats the problem;-(

Overall it would be a great small mission!

[sergeant rock 3]

We noticed that bug during testing and were never able to pin it down exactly, but we believe the cause is UPS. Other editors have reported a bug that caused the OPFOR to be agitated if a BLUFOR unit existed anywhere on the map, even if they exist on the complete other side of the map. Since Kronzky has no intention of updating his UPS script until the final release of ArmA3, I'll hold off on updating this mission until then. Hopefully that will fix it. If anyone else has any ideas, I'm all ears.

[frankfranconi 24]

It's really great seeing a well made mission with good briefings and a debriefing. Thank you, I've had fun!