My first campaign

[Cyper 18]

Yes!

I have begun to work on a campaign. I have created two campaigns before but I have released none of them. I plan to release this campaign. The plans I have for the campaign is not 100% clear so I'm not going to go into detail to much at the moment. What I can tell so far is that:

- The campaign will feature a lot of cutscenes

- There will be written dialog with voice acting (if and only if I find voiceactors willing to help)

- The campaign will follow a special unit.

- The mission design will be quite ''casualized'' compared to typical ARMA campaigns. No, this isn't a trend I would like people to follow and it's generally a trend I don't like. But there is two reasons for this. The first reason is that I want the campaign to be aimed at new players. But most importantly of all, the more complex the campaign is, the more work there is. I want this campaign to be solid and I want it released. Therefore, I'd rather make it simple and well than huge and sloppy. Because if I don't get happy with the end result never release it.

Tell me what you think, and I would really, really appreciate if some experienced mission/campaign makers would drop some suggestions and give me some feedback on this one!

HERE IS A SHORT TEASER (STRONGLY RECOMMEND TO WATCH IN FULL SCREEN IN HD). Maybe not a very fancy teaser. FPS drops like hell when I record with fraps and the only editing program I have available is windows movie maker..

+1 if you know where the music in the beginning comes from. :p

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Cutscene demo

Edited November 23, 2014 by Cyper

[sic-disaster 311]

I'd be willing to do some voice-overs if you need them, just send me a PM.

[mistyronin 1181]

Sounds interesting, I hope to be able to play it soon.

[sekara74 11]

Looks interesting - keep us informed of release dates :)

[Cyper 18]

Of course.

I study right now so there is not always much time for me to work on the Campaign. Another factor that plays a role is the current lack of content in ARMA 3, aswell as lack of general information such as classnames for weapons.

[lexx 1363]

What exactly means "casualized"? Heavily scripted / railroaded in the missions?

[saetheer 9]

If you need Norwegian I can assist on this part.

[Cyper 18]

Just wanted to say that I’m working with the campaign and that things works well. So far I have made 8 missions with cutscene and dialog. I have tested the missions and they should work just fine. I expect the campaign to have about 15 missions. The problem that I tend to encounter is AI issues though. Because most missions is very scripted and railroaded for an arma game.

About the story:

You’re playing as a part of a US elite team. You’re on of the first teams to invade Altis on a secred mission. Your team have been ordered to capture a special person responsible for crime against humanity. But things does not go down as planned.

Main characters: Carter Hamilton, Brown Norris, Chang Lee, Brian Holmes, James Cooley (player), Jack Dixon, Joseph Henderson.

Some pictures:

[corporal_lib[br] 396]

Waiting anxiously for this... right now, only you, Cyper, and MistyRonin are developing actual campaigns (I see lotsa SP missions with same name/theme, but they aren´t really interlinked)... nice atmosphere in the third screenshot ;D

If you need a playtester, count me in =)

[Cyper 18]

Thank you... feels encouraging!

I have used special saturation for every mission.

I finally feel comfortable with camera editing so I don't encounter any problems with it. The hard part is the AI. I have never created missions that are so scripted and ''railroad'' like this and I have noticed that it is difficult because everything has to run perfectly and that more or less always depends on if they AI do exactly what it is supposed to do.

I can PM you as soon as I think im ready for testers.

[corporal_lib[br] 396]

I´d be glad to help you, I´ll try to give you as much feedback and suggestions I can have ;)

I bet you´ve done some interesting cutscenes and triggers =)

[Cyper 18]

I'm still working with the campaign.

There is 13 missions so far. There is probably going to be roughly 15-16 missions.

The campaign is about a group of special forces that gets inserted on Altis. But as with most of the U.S units that gets inserted, things does not go down well at first. Their goal is to find a special person, and in order to do so, they'll have to search, destroy, assassinate, and infiltrate on enemy territory. They will encounter both CSAR units and insurgents.

Two new screen, two different locations, two different atmospheres.

http://i.imgur.com/WFJ60Io.jpg (269 kB)

http://i.imgur.com/Q0iTaeK.jpg (426 kB)

Edited February 6, 2014 by Cyper

[corporal_lib[br] 396]

Great to hear that Cyper! ArmA3 needs more campaigns (only the Survive/Adapt and Misty Ronin´s campaign are available, there should be at least 5 or 6 by now - almost 1 year after the release...) and we´re craving for it =) Nice shots by the way!

Cheers!

[jonstyle 49]

Agree! Looking forward to this!

[Cyper 18]

Yeah, the game need more campaigns and other content! It's encouraging that I get responses.

Right now, I'm working on the last mission. It's mission 15. Briefings, objectives, cutscenes, most dialog, music, saturation, various triggers, enemies, animations.. is all in place in every mission.

What's left is to ensure that the mission flows well and smooth which is time consuming because I have to put a lot of time to make the AI act properly. Then I have to write down all dialog for all characters and (hopefully) find people that are willing to do some voiceacting work. The last thing I tend to do is to add details to the missions, such as clutter, fire effects, smoke effects, sound effects, civilian life, gaurd routes, random animations, just to make the world feel less empty.

[corporal_lib[br] 396]

Definatly good news! Looking forward a lot to play your campaign... about your concerns on sound effects (ambient radio???), randow animatiosn and animal and civilian life could be provided by TPW mods, just suggest the players to use it... I use it ever and, thou it caused some odd effects, I even played the Survive campaign with it on and it was mostly a gratifying experience!

cheers!

[zipbox 10]

Campaign looks great so far!

Just a quick question:

Are we going to need to install lot of addons or is it all vanilla?

[tom3kb 15]

Really waiting for this campaign.

One question do you plan to release first version when all misiion are ready (version only with subtitles etc) or we must wait when you find all people for voiceacting etc. Im asking becose this can take a long time ;)

[Cyper 18]

First off, sorry for late answer. I study and there is not been any time for me to work with the campaign lately.

Campaign looks great so far!

Just a quick question:

Are we going to need to install lot of addons or is it all vanilla?

No.

I have decided to keep addons to minimum. The only addon you will need is a mod called ’’Naval Special Warfare Units’’ by ltsThomas.

Really waiting for this campaign.

One question do you plan to release first version when all misiion are ready (version only with subtitles etc) or we must wait when you find all people for voiceacting etc. Im asking becose this can take a long time ;)

Well, there is still things to do in the campaign. Mostly small details. For example, I have to figure out how to make a trigger fire off when the player reach a certain height. All this has to be fixed before I release it.

I think its a good idea to let people play it without voiceacting, but I'm not going to release the campaign for testing to the whole community. Instead I'd just let a few people test the campaign and give feedback.

I also think its a good idea to make the player completely immortal to any damage in the testcampaign just to make it possible for people to play through it as quickly as possible.

[Cyper 18]

Hello!

I just wanted to say that I am still working with the campaign. The campaign is not abandoned. I have had some spare time from my studies, and here’s what I’ve done:

WHAT'S DONE

• All 15 missions have been tested various times

• New dialog text have been added

• New cutscenes have been added

• Structure for certain missions have changed to due to AI issues

• New music scores have been added

• Overview text have been added

• Overview pictures have been added

• Mission objectives have been added

• Unit ID (voice, accent, look etc.) have been created

• Unit ID added have been added to every mission

• BIS ‘Mission Completed’ have been added

• Dust effects have been added

• Various sound effects have been added

WHAT’S LEFT TO DO:

• Add animals to certain missions

• Add stationary civilian units and vehicles

• Add moving civilian units and vehicles

• Random enemy camps, units, and vehicles

• Fix various problems with the AI, for example, teamleader get stuck inside a house on mission 1. The AI issues takes up most of the time and some missions

• Fix cutscene timing at mission 14

• Add dialog sound to the dialog triggers

In general, the campaign is almost ready for testing. I am not going to release the whole campaign for testing though. Those who are interested will receive the campaign as scenarios to make it possible to choose missions to test freely.

There is unfortunately a lot of problems with the AI and I have been forced to change the structure of certain missions.

This is just a short and simple demostration of the second mission. The campaign itself starts off where the ARMA III campaign ends. NATO have decided wage war against CSAT. U.S Special forces is first out to commence an attack on the island. Their task is to disable CSAT main defenses.

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[corporal_lib[br] 396]

Great news, Cyper, I am anxious to play your campaign!

Add animals to certain missions

• Add stationary civilian units and vehicles

• Add moving civilian units and vehicles

TPW mod would take care of those immersion details as a charm (I use it everytime) ;)

• Random enemy camps, units, and vehicles

Rydygier has some good scripts for random enemies, camps etc in his mission Pilgrimage, you should ask him some guidance!

Count me in for playtesting, Misty Ronin can atest my eagerness lol

cheers!

[Cyper 18]

I'm glad to hear!

What takes most of my time is the damn AI.

In one mission the AI teamleader couldn't lead the team without standing still on one place forever, or drifting off (it happens because of high enemy presence), in another mission AI teamleader gets stuck in a house, in a few other missions the AI crash a vehicle until its totally wrecked, in another mission the AI refuse to drive away with a boat that is used for an escape, and in another mission (stealth mission) the AI does not react the way it should to make the mission work properly, in another mission where you are supposed to escape AI gets distracted by enemies around (despite all scripts that I use to prevent it). So I have to use all sorts of scripts, test them, change them again etc. Its a pain, and it takes a lot of time and effort. This campaign is quite much 'on rails' for an arma campaign, and there is quite a lot of scripting involved.

But I think I'll focus on making the missions playable, by fixing AI issues. I have done a lot of testing myself and any problem is any mission more or less always boils down to AI issues.

So I'll focus on the AI issues, and I will lend the campaign to you.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Cyper

[Cyper 18]

The campaign is ready for testing!

[sic-disaster 311]

I wouldn't mind testing the missions! And what about voice-overs, still in need of those?

[corporal_lib[br] 396]

We all want to test your campaign, but we need a download link ;)