[SP] Operation Scotch Lass

[nichevo 2]

Operation Scotch Lass

Stealth/spec-ops single-player mission.

Infiltrate enemy territory to locate a captured UAV and fly it home.

Mission Features

• Requires no addons.
  
• Randomised enemy placement, load-outs and numbers. Shouldn't play out the same way twice.
  
• In addition to the regular enemy patrols, encounter harder and rarer "special enemies" -- armoured vehicles, attack helicopters, and spec op squads with silenced weapons
  
• The UAV control terminal you need could be in any number of places. Search building-to-building or look for enemy documents that pin-point the location. Just watch out for enemies inside.
  
• Select your gear from a wide range of NATO equipment.
  
• Want to take more gear than you can carry? Two crates will be smuggled into the mission area before you. Load them up with whatever extra ammo and equipment you might need.
  
• Choose what time of day to begin your mission.
  
• Your choice of deployment -- parachute from the air, swim from the sea or get driven in by road.
  
• Your choice of extraction -- let friendly civilians smuggle you out by truck or by trawler, or swim out to sea for pickup.
  
• Autosaves after several mission objectives split this mission into bite-sized pieces.
  
• Feel like a greater challenge? Try to accomplish the mission with some or all of the optional "bonus" objectives:
  • No autosaves. Manual saving, as per the game's difficulty setting, will still work.
    
  • No night-vision goggles. Stealth becomes harder when you have no perception advantage over your enemy.
    
  • No weapon suppressors. You'll have to think before you pull that trigger.

Feedback

I am particularly interested in how hard or easy you found the mission. Did you try the optional "bonus" objectives?

Download

• Steam Workshop (latest version)
  
• Armaholic Mirror (latest version)
  
• Direct Download (latest version)
  

See Also

For more of my missions, please click here.

Edited July 15, 2014 by nichevo
updated mirrors

[codarl 1]

How on earth is this thread empty?!

This is my favorite mission till now! There are many variables for an immense replay value! However, the "enemy airfield" , doesn't really feel like an airfield. I tried sneaking there to covertly blow up the buildings before squad upon squad would storm out, only to find they aren't there? No reïnforcements either.

Still, it makes for a nice game of cat-and mouse. 7.62 is your friend.

[nichevo 2]

This is my favorite mission till now!

Only saw this reply just now. Thank you. :)

How on earth is this thread empty?!

There's a bit more activity on the Steam Workshop page.

However, the "enemy airfield" , doesn't really feel like an airfield. I tried sneaking there to covertly blow up the buildings before squad upon squad would storm out, only to find they aren't there?

I hope you ruled out the possibility that the UAV terminal was in one of those buildings first. :crazy_o:

Soldiers randomly spawn inside the airfield buildings, generally with less equipment to represent their indoor duties. But you're right in that these buildings aren't the source of reinforcements. They come from elsewhere. ;)

No reïnforcements either.

There are... assuming you get spotted. It varies because some elements of the reinforcements are random.

I put a bit of effort into making sure being spotted was being done fairly. Even if you are spotted, the enemy don't psychically know where you are; it's possible to lose them.

[nichevo 2]

This mission has been updated.

More information here.

All links in the original post are up-to-date.

[OrLoK 20]

Hello there

Ill try this out now as replay value is my friend.

Just one thing, should the title not be "Scots Lass". I can see those of "Scotch" Origin getting grumpy. :)

Rgds

LoK

UPDATE:Im being regularly annihilated by ASR_AI but im having a blast!

Edited March 4, 2014 by orlok

[Xqi 10]

One of the best SP missions there is currently, more people need to see this thread and try the mission. There are so many ways you can go about things, there's just so much freedom and choice and challenge, just awesome!

[teoleo 2]

how i load the crate?

[nichevo 2]

One of the best SP missions there is currently, more people need to see this thread and try the mission. There are so many ways you can go about things, there's just so much freedom and choice and challenge, just awesome!

Thank you for the kind words. :)

how i load the crate?

Grab stuff from the big crate in the center using the Virtual Ammobox System. Then go over to one of the two green crates and put stuff in them in the usual manner. Repeat if necessary.

It's not anything special or unusual. If you're unfamiliar with how the ArmA 3 inventory system works may I suggest checking out a tutorial like

.

---------- Post added at 12:06 ---------- Previous post was at 12:03 ----------

Just one thing, should the title not be "Scots Lass". I can see those of "Scotch" Origin getting grumpy. :)

The title is a reference to something; something other than a young Scottish female.

UPDATE:Im being regularly annihilated by ASR_AI but im having a blast!

Glad you're enjoying yourself. :)

[nichevo 2]

I was excited to test out the new 'Virtual Arsenal' stuff, so I picked this mission as my first to have its Virtual Ammobox System replaced with the new Arsenal.

(Tonic's Virtual Ammobox System served wonderfully for all these months; but I am pleased we have an official solution.)

I also took the time to fix up a few other, minor things.

[troymcc 12]

Hi.

I dont have a virtual Ammobox in the middle Box...

Arma is 1.26..

[king homer 1]

Hi.

I dont have a virtual Ammobox in the middle Box...

Arma is 1.26..

Same for me, can't access the middle crate.

[mathias_eichinger 64]

I tried this one today, and it really kept me on my toes. Took a Ghillie suit and a non-silenced MX rifle, and also the car insertion, but I could not find any option to skip the time? Where at the starting location would that be?

Combing the villages was just great, really awesome, and very challenging. I opened up any crate I came across, but none contained an UAV Terminal. It's true. Once at the airport, searching the many crates in the barracks was a major disgrace and the only letdown in the mission, save for not finding the UAV terminal at all. So sad.

Bottom line: Would I have come across the UAV terminal, this would have been a great mission!

[harvardguy 0]

Hey too bad you couldn't find that UAV terminal.  It is in the barracks as I recall.  You missed a room.  Two other things that are useful.  There is a TWS scope - white hot, high magnification - best scope in the game.  I think that is also in the barracks.  There is also a rangefinder - unbelievable magnification - best binoculars in the game.  That is in the little town where there is a patrol, plus guys hiding in rooms, and there are 3 more quad cycles in addition to the one at the gas station.    

 

This scenario has to be maybe the very best one in the entire game.  I probably have over 100 hours in this one alone.  

 

The only thing that I missed was that once you kill every single enemy on the map, you can't find any more - they don't respawn.  So I would guess there are about 40-50 enemies in all, including at the airfield, at the base in the hills, out marching around the countryside, and in the two towns.  

 

The scenario is an awesome sniping scenario, once you find the TWS gunsight.  Somebody said there is a virtual ammo box - but I must have missed that.  The great thing about having the UAV terminal, is that you can use the drone to loiter around the map for a couple of hours before it runs out of gas, and you can use that to spot patrols.  Then once you get familiar with the map, taking your bearings from the friendly house with the red getaway truck, you can use the quad to get quickly to the patrols, either in front or in back, and take out an entire 11-man patrol - two patrols that have linked up.  That is a very hairy encounter.  When one or two guys escape, the drone will help you spot where they are so you can pursue and kill.  

 

For a long time I could not figure out how the guys at the base - I left as many alive as I could so they could pursue me - maybe about 6 left alive - I couldn't figure out how with their marksman scope, they were virtually as deadly snipers as I was.  But six months after playing the scenario, I found out that you hold the ctrl key, then hit the scope key on certain scopes, and THEN you do have high magnification, like 10x magnification, instead of 2x which is normal.  

 

I have posted extensively, with many screenshots about this awesome scenario, on afterdawn forums, especially here: http://forums.afterdawn.com/threads/the-official-graphics-card-and-pc-gaming-thread.647383/page-477.  I have a couple of posts on that page about Arkham Asylum, and Far Cry 3, but the one you want is #9540 dated August 7, 2015 which includes about 20 pages and maybe 10 screenshots about this scenario.  It also explains how to set up your own save system, for incredible replay opportunity.  

 

I used to get on the mountains up above a main trail, and use the TWS scope to find the patrols.  When I realized that the drone could help me find the last guys who were sniping me, I also started using the drone to find the patrols, and I show in drone images how I killed off a full 11-man combined patrol.  

 

I don't know if the scenario has been updated.  

 

I play Arma3 single-player, and I still have about 50 scenarios I haven't played yet.  When they updated Arma3 two years ago - they do it often every 3 months or so - I lost all my saves.  

 

So I don't let steam update it.  I play offline, I disconnect my internet, or if I have to be online to activate a new game, I catch steam and pause the update, and then I delete the content from the steam update folders, and I have a copy of the present major exe files in case I slip up and steam does its thing.  

 

I also have great saves from the Combined Arms showcase.  I can play the counter-attack close-in as a grenadier, or behind the magic main rock as a machine gunner with the zephyr, with the MX-SW with 100-round clip, with the enemy Katiba, or long-range with enemy katiba grenadier, which is hairy because they are coming down the hill to my left, and if I don't take them out with the grenades, I will be forced to move around the rock to my right, and then the later troops coming down the valley will kill me.  Sometimes I run forward, grab a zephyr, then go prone in the back near the two mraps, and hold that position 3rd person with zephyr.  That also is very hairy.  I try to throw smoke in back to protect the sarge and the one other prone guy if I can.  

 

I also play most recently with enemy high-powered scope once I learned the ctrl + scope trick.  

 

I usually save after destroying the oncoming mrap - to get that out of the way and ditch my rocket launcher, and keep it only as an infantry counter-attack challenge.  

 

And more recently I have started appreciating the advantages of playing in 3rd person, which compensates for the advantage the AI have in being able to see through tall grass.  Playing in 3rd person lets me look up over my prone body.  It comes in very handy sometimes.  You can look over walls too.  When you scope in you have the same scope view as 1st person.  

 

You can take cover behind the little rock outside the FOB near the side entrance, and take them out as they come along the wall.  If you try this in first person it won't work as well.  But in 3rd person your cursor is on their head, and most of you except for the tip of your rifle is behind rock cover.  I usually throw smoke to protect the sergeant down in the mrap gulley.  I try to keep him alive to call out enemies for me.  I won't save a counter attack that does not have the sarge in that gully - otherwise he gets killed off immediately.  And I have played many many lonely hours by myself, finally winning, but that's not as much fun.  If I keep thowing enough smoke, sometimes I can keep one or two more of my teammates alive.  Some of the counter-attacks have me left with only a total of a 5-man team, but we usually survive as a 2-man team, me and sarge, or sometimes 3 of us.  Those counter attacks are intense!    

 

Truly Arma3 is one of the greatest, if not the absolute finest gaming experience available today.  In my book it is the cream of the crop and I salute Bohemia!!!

 

And a shout out to the creator of Scotch Lass - nichevo.  Dude, you are a friggin genius!!!  My hat off to you man!!!

 

Good playing guys,

Rich