Join, or Die. - An ArmA III Modification

[JPhillips 10]

JOIN OR DIE

An ArmA III Total Modification

SCENARIO

The year is 2020, Jonathan Woods is elected President of the United States of America – following Daniel Hamilton. Woods is the first third party (Progressive Party) candidate to be elected in decades. Promising hope and reform, Woods won the popular vote by a landslide – something the American people have witnessed only a few years before. This time, there would be real reform, but there would be no hope. “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of tyrants.†- Thomas Jefferson; 13 November, 1787.

The flint that sparked a wildfire...

...[8 February, 2020] President Woods enacts via Executive Order the Internal Defense Militarization Act [iDMA] which repeals the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th, and 10th amendments of the United States Constitution. IDMA also orders the capture and imprisonment of all U.S. Federal troops and agents who resist orders to enforce the IDMA. Under IDMA, the United Nations will be tasked to execute military action to enforce the act's laws. IDMA declares all citizens NATIONWIDE who fail to relinquish their arms enemies of the state.

...[9 February, 2020] President Woods enacts via Executive Order the United Nations Armed Assistance Act [uNAAA] which employs the United Nations to raise up to five brigades from the British Armed Forces. Under UNAAA; UN Soldiers are not required to wear any of the blue UN identification equipment whilst on combat patrol or military policing operations, but ALL blue UN equipment must be worn at all barracks stations, weapon relinquishment zones, and state borders. UNAAA authorizes the use of deadly force when met with armed resistance of any nature.

UNITED NATIONS GARRISONS

West Chester, Pennsylvania

Albany, New York

Washington, D.C.

Hartford, Connecticut

Chicago, Illinois

St. Louis, Missouri

Sacramento, California

First State in Contention: PENNSYLVANIA

The Pennsylvania Area of Operations will consist of: 1 UN Headquarters, 14 UN Outposts, 1 UN Prison, 5 Resistance Cells, 2 National Guard Armories, 1 Army National Guard Unit (28th Infantry Division).

List of Expected Weapons

RIFLES

AKM

AK-74

AR-10

ARM

ARMALITE M15

BARRET M107A1

BARRET REC7

BUSHMASTER ACR

BUSHMASTER CARBON-15

BUSHMASTER MOE RIFLE

BUSHMASTER XM-15

FABRIQUE NATIONALE FN-308

L1A1 SPORTER

GOLANI SPORTER

HK PSG-1

IZHMASH SAIGA AK

KELTEC RFB

ROCK RIVER LAR-15

ROCK RIVER LAR-47

SAR-8

SAR-4800

SIG SAUER 551A1

SIG SAUER 556

SIG SAUER 716

VECTOR ARMS UZI

...and many more!

PISTOLS

AMERICAN SPIRIT AR-15

BUSHMASTER CARBON-15 PISTOL

CENTURIONS 39-AK

GERMAN SPORT 552 PK

SPRINGFIELD XD-M

GLOCK 17

GLOCK 19

GLOCK 18C

GLOCK 20

GLOCK 25

GLOCK 29

GLOCK 34

KELTEC PLR-16

SIG P229

SIG P226

CZ-75

…and many more!

SHOTGUNS

IZHMASH SAIGA 12K

KELTEC KSG

...and many more!

LAUNCHERS

M72A2 LAW

AT-4

RPG-18

...AND MUCH MUCH MORE...

Join or create your own citizen militia, join the National Guard, combine militias in a joint effort, or just band together with your ArmA friends to take back your rights and earn what is inalienably ours – our freedom and liberty. Hell, play as a British soldier and do the fighting under the wish of the United Nations and US Federal Government. HAVE FUN WITH IT!

Questions you may have:

Why this idea? I just thought it would be something cool to have in ArmA, and I don't think a lot of people have tried much of a “Freedom Fighter†role in the game, and certainly not a “new†American Revolution setting. I feel that it would be very interesting and fun.

Factions?

BLUFOR – Army/Air National Guard per state, Civilian Militias, Irregular Guerrillas

INDFOR – Civilian Militias, Irregular Guerrillas, United Nations (UK)

OPFOR – United Nations (UK), Remnants of U.S. Federal Government

Why the British? I pitched the mod idea to my brother and we both kind of drew out what we think would be the most likely scenario in the event of a real-world revolutionary situation in the United States. We both agree that it would be easier for the UN to use British soldiers because Americans and Brits share the same language, which would give the UN an advantage in gaining the hearts and minds of the American people (kneebenders). This advantage might make the war easier to fight for the British. No, I didn't choose the British because we fought our initial revolutionary war against the British and this would be a chance to reclaim the United States under British control. No.

Terrains? I'll be quite honest here, I don't know a single damn thing about creating terrains for ArmA and I'm hoping I find someone who can guide me in the right direction (I'm not looking for someone to do all the work for me, but if you're willing to help me; contact me). Anyways, back to the plan; I plan on producing one State in Contention (SIC) probably every two to three months depending on size and detail. This will simulate the “progress†you should be making in the war whether you're fighting for the British, or fighting to restore your American rights.

So, the first map I'd like to be able to release is a region of Pennsylvania. That's where the brunt of the fighting will be done for a while. Band together with other militia groups or with your friends to re-occupy the state and kick the United Nations out or occupy Pennsylvania under Federal control as a British soldier.

This is all just an idea in the works... if you feel that something needs to be changed, and something includes ANYTHING in the idea, PLEASE CONTACT ME! I'd be very happy to hear your criticism, I'm very open minded. I want to make this better for all of YOU and your friends.

Thank you very much for reading, and thank you Bohemia Interactive for the opportunity!

- Joe Phillips,

ArmA Veteran since '06.

[kilroy the nerd 14]

Interesting idea. Do you plan on creating a small map representing a different area of each state or something of the likes, or what exactly? Besides Pennsylvania that is.

My only worry is that it sounds rather too ambitious.

Question about the Pennsylvania terrain: What will it be? Philadelphia, Amish farmland?

Also, when you say create your own citizen militia and what not, do you mean it'll be like DayZ or Wasteland in a persistant server kind of deal, where everything's gone wrong and you have to meet up with other resistance or search for rebels?

[JPhillips 10]

Interesting idea. Do you plan on creating a small map representing a different area of each state or something of the likes, or what exactly? Besides Pennsylvania that is.

My only worry is that it sounds rather too ambitious.

Question about the Pennsylvania terrain: What will it be? Philadelphia, Amish farmland?

Also, when you say create your own citizen militia and what not, do you mean it'll be like DayZ or Wasteland in a persistant server kind of deal, where everything's gone wrong and you have to meet up with other resistance or search for rebels?

Kilroy, thank you for asking your questions - I greatly appreciate it.

"Do you plan on creating a small map representing a different area of each state or something of the likes..." I will make a map representing portions of each state, yes. What I would like to do is divide Pennsylvania into maybe four regions, two of which would be a rural region, and the latter two would be more of an urban environment like a small city, or small towns with one big city (Mini-Philly maybe?).

"Question about the Pennsylvania terrain: What will it be? Philadelphia, Amish farmland?" Both, hopefully. (But separated into different maps to enhance performance on the player's end)

"When you say create your own militia" I mean create your own militia as a "Join or Die" dedicated clan/squad/unit, whatever you desire.

"...do you mean it'll be like DayZ or Wasteland in a persistant server kind of deal, where... you have to meet up with other resistance or search for rebels?" While this would be a cool idea, my answer is: not exactly. My idea of J.O.D. is to be played in MSO format with allied militias, or just your buddies - whoever you want to play with. A persistant server would be an amazing feature, but I lack the knowledge of running or establishing such a thing.

Kilroy, thanks once again for asking questions - they made me think a bit deeper. If I failed to thoroughly answer any of your questions, please ask again - DEMAND ANSWERS FROM ME! ;)

[alduric 10]

Almost all weapons are already rdy inmy Arma Samples Mod ;-) If u had any problems, u can pm me. GL

[JPhillips 10]

Almost all weapons are already rdy inmy Arma Samples Mod ;-) If u had any problems, u can pm me. GL

Alduric, you rock! I'll have to shoot you a PM soon, I've got just a few questions for you. Thanks for reading by the way!

[13islucky 10]

Very interesting. I do have a few questions though:

1. Is there a 'win' condition? Does it have any objectives to accomplish?

2. I noticed that the Brits are both INDFOR and OPFOR, is there a reason for that?

3. It seems that the Nasty Girls have gone BLUFOR, is there a reason for that? Shouldn't they be with the government?

4. How many of the firearms will be semi-auto only? I know that this is a big thing in the US, something about not being able to own a full auto made after 1986 (or something like that). Will there be a set of military and civilian weapons or were the civvies be able to purchase full autos?

I guess that's it. This is a really interesting premise, and somewhat relevant to current events. Can't wait to see where this goes.

[lesscubes 1]

Interesting idea, also one shockingly possible in real life.

In this scenario you'd see desertions in the regular army and national guard, with the potential of whole units going anti-govt if they were asked to disarm the populace. I'm assuming that's why NG are assigned to BLUFOR? About the English as the UNFOR, wouldn't the Anglo-American affinity be as much a problem for the process as it would a benefit? IE- Wouldn't an Englishman be the amongst the most likely to sympathize with the American's he was trying to disarm and control?

A suggestion on weapons- The two most common types of firearms would be traditonal Pump-Action Shotguns and .22LR Rifles. + Hunting rifles in .30-30 and .30-06. Surplus rifles- Garands, M1 Carbines, Springfields, Mosin-Nagants and Enfields would be ubiquitous. As would J and K Frame S&W's and M1911's. Civilians would quickly "acquire" better hardware from sympathetic sources such as rouge National Guard or Police Armories. (See the Athens TN. rebellion in 1946.)

Just some thoughts, interested in seeing how you plan to implement this in practice. Perhaps it'd make sense to use islands (with permission!) that could represent various areas of the US abstractly rather than specifically developing them for this? I think it's a good idea for a game type, you could probably run it with base ARMA items and islands. Like Chernarus- add some US flavor to it and it could look like backwoods America.

[skelig 27]

So are you an ideas guy or do you plan on doing the models and scripting

[kilroy the nerd 14]

Mmmm, some lever action Henry rifles would be nice. Not too unpractical either, with families keeping weapons as aerlooms or for collectors. That and the Mosin Nagants since they're real cheap, Lee Enfields, M1911s, various pump actions, S&Ws, and what not. No .22s, seeing how unpractical they would be against a soldier wearing armor. Also, "third class weapons" and armored vehicles would be fairly rare, probably being bought off surplus or captured.

Lastly, I think it'd be worth noting that under the circumstances, people might work with criminals to get weapons and such too. Likewise, the government would find loyalists somewhere to go fight for them or use as scouts.

[JPhillips 10]

Holy cow, guys! Thank you very very much for all of your interest - this motivates me even more to work! I'll answer all of your questions in one big reply; so here it goes. I'll try not to screw it up.

IN REPLY TO "13ISLUCKY"

1) "Is there a win condition..." Well, Lucky that's an awesome question... My idea SO FAR (subject to change) is that the militia's objectives will be to restore (or reoccupy) the states in contention. So, the literal mission objectives will be up to you and your squad mates and fellow countrymen (militia mates). I'm wanting to have sort of a scavenging kind of feature very similar to DayZ and Wasteland where you and your party may have to go get ammunition to resupply your camp, you may have to get food for your camp, etc. So those are objectives in themselves. With that being said I AM in fact planning on having a hunger/thirst=stamina system.

2) "Brits both INDFOR and OPFOR" Im planning it like this because I want there to be some neutrality between the Militia and the United Nations Forces... maybe to exercise a cease-fire at some point during the war? It isn't that much of a HUGE requirement for J.O.D. so if it doesn't make much sense, or if it doesn't work at all - it won't be very missed if it were to be omitted.

3) "Nasty Girls on BLUFOR" Well, like I said in my post I pitched the idea to my brother... I failed to mention that my brother is a Missouri National Guardsmen of six years (1138th SAPPER Company), and my father is also a Missouri National Guardsmen in the same unit (28 years serving). They both feel that in a revolutionary event in America, that the National Guard would support the local militias and resist any invading forces such as the United Nations. Plus, it just sort of makes sense for the State Guard to want to defend their home state.

4) "Semi-Auto Weapons" Very good question, and I'm disappointed in myself for not mentioning this in the initial post... Most of the civilian weapons will be semi-automatic, but there WILL be a handfull of fully-automatic AR-15's, AK's etc. that may be available... I would hope that the players would want more of a challenge, and maybe script these weapons into the scavenging system so that when your militia buddies go to a Police Station for ammunition, you may stumble across a Form 4 AR-15 (Full Auto). That's just an idea also.

Thank you very much for your questions Lucky, you rock!

IN REPLY TO "LESSCUBES"

1) Englishmen sympathy towards oppressed-Americans: I can see your concern, and thank you for your question... I do believe that there would be some sympathy for the Americans on the UN side, however - I'm thinking maybe due to a lack of firearm ownership in the UK might validate some sort of cause or reason for them to be following their orders and disarming the Americans? Like, "Yeah it worked for us, we might as well help the American Gov't do the same thing." Maybe. (Please PM me if you have more question regarding this, or maybe if you have a better idea - PLEASE CONTACT ME! :) )

2) Question on Weapons: *Penned in notepad* NOTED! Thank you very much for your suggestion, lesscubes! If you've got anymore, keep 'em comin! This is all for you guys!

3) Islands: Yes, it would make much more sense to give J.O.D. a test-shot on previously built islands before delving into terrain-creation. I agree.

Thank you very much, Lesscubes!

IN REPLY TO "SKELIGANDREW"

1) "So are you an ideas guy or do you plan on doing the models and scripting": All of the above, friend. All of it. :) Thank you for your question!

IN REPLY TO "KILROY THE NERD"

Nice to see you again Kilroy, you rule dude.

1) Everything you said is NOTED! Thanks! :)

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

I want to take this time to thank everyone for your suggestions, keep in mind that my team and I (just two people) will be working to make this to be better for ALL OF YOU! However, there are principles that I won't break to fit the mainstream ;) I want to thank Bohemia Interactive for the awesome chance to participate also. You guys rock, I've never been disappointed in any of your work.

Also, if I "NOTED" any of your ideas - you WILL receive credit once this is all created and finalized. I'm a Midwestern American, and I believe credit is due wherever owed.

Thank you all once again, you ROCK!

- Joe

[sakura_chan 9]

There HAS to be a mission where you take out the central banking system or a mint. Without these fake money factories the Gov couldn't feed their dogs. I hope this is epic! Even though there will be lots of guns, I hope you cover the more 'personal touch' associated with a civil war, ei brutal up-close slaughter with blood and chunks everywhere. Heads on spikes, knife kills, G-Men gassing nursing homes, the whole nine yards. Oh and there MUST be fat guys in there too! I hope there are some decent execution style animations in A3 so you could round up all the UN POWs in a baseball diamond and just go biblical on them.

[13islucky 10]

Oh my... I'm kind of embarrassed that I called the National Guard the Nasty Girls now that I know that. I'm sorry if I may have offended you.

[JPhillips 10]

IN REPLY TO "SAKURA_CHAN"

Haha, I love it! I'll put as much of a personal (realistic) touch as I possibly can. I don't want it to turn out like Fallout or something like that ;) I don't know about knife kills or G-Men ("Wake up, Mr. Freeman, wake up and smell the ashes.") gassing nursing homes. But I'll look into the heads on spikes :) Everything else is NOTED! Thanks for your suggestions, Sakura. Hahaha

IN REPLY TO "13ISLUCKY"

Yes, how DARE you! No, I'm just kidding. You didn't offend anybody, Lucky - my dad and brother actually thought the nickname was really funny. I thought it was hilarious. Don't be afraid to exercise those First Amendment rights, pal! That's what this is all about! ;)

[maturin 12]

Just a hint for you guys...

The Tea Party terrorist-wannabe wank-fantasy isn't going to get awarded anything.

[JPhillips 10]

What makes you think that?

[PuFu 4600]

i really don't want to cut your enthusiasm here, but i am just wondering if you two guys gather what you want to achieve in the next 11 months:

1. model and texture and config a ton of guns (yeah, there are some that are in the samples files)

2. model texture and config a terrain at least 10x10km in size (if not more)

3. model texture and config buildings

4. script the entire thing as per concept.

I gather you are neither working in this industry, nor have tons of addon experience (this engine or any other for that matter). You do realize the workload this would require, don't you?

[JPhillips 10]

i really don't want to cut your enthusiasm here, but i am just wondering if you two guys gather what you want to achieve in the next 11 months:

1. model and texture and config a ton of guns (yeah, there are some that are in the samples files)

2. model texture and config a terrain at least 10x10km in size (if not more)

3. model texture and config buildings

4. script the entire thing as per concept.

I gather you are neither working in this industry, nor have tons of addon experience (this engine or any other for that matter). You do realize the workload this would require, don't you?

Thank you for asking PuFu, my teammate and I are going to establish a tentative schedule of steps to accomplish towards our total goal of producing this modification. Once we have a general schedule, I will provide that here in the forum. However, I can tell you sort of a priority list for how we will be organizing our workload:

HIGH -> LOW

Content Models/Configs -> General Concept Scripting -> (Very very far back on the backburner) Terrains and Buildings Models/Configs.

I never said it would be a quick or easy job.

My plan is to take care of the Terrains and Buildings in the very last stages of production. To be quite honest, I AM participating in this competition, but even if Join or Die isn't finished by the time the contest has concluded I still plan to work on it because I still feel that it would be a new and interesting modification for ArmA. :)

Thank you very much for your questions, Pufu! Look forward to hearing more from you!

[skelig 27]

I think you should have produced some models or progress before making a thread

[JPhillips 10]

That would have been an idea. The only reason I made the thread before we did any work at all was to gauge interest.

[noubernou 77]

I'd totally play this if OPFOR is a playable faction.

Edited December 12, 2013 by NouberNou

[=kct=blackmamba 44]

U got my interest, but like Pufu said im afraid u wont pull it off in eleven months.

added to subscriptions ;)

Edited December 12, 2013 by =KCT=BlackMamba

[JPhillips 10]

I apologize for my delay guys, thank you very much for showing your support! It's really motivating to see an ACE Dev show support also! Thanks a lot Nou!

It will be a very challenging mission to finish "Join, or Die." in the eleven month time-frame, that's obvious. However, with your support and feedback, we will do EVERYTHING we can to bring "JOD" to you as quick as possible while still being a quality modification. Whether negative or positive, the feedback is ALWAYS appreciated. So let it rip!

I can't thank the community enough, you guys rock! We won't let you all down!

Thanks for subscribing, Mamba!

Thanks again!

[noubernou 77]

I still think this is a libertarian wet dream fantasy idea and pretty insanely offensive on a few levels, but yea, good luck. :p I just wanna fight against crazy right wingers. :D

[JPhillips 10]

Believe me, I'm not trying to offend anybody... and if I do - it's completely unintentional. I'm doing my best to make a modification based on a worst-case scenario in the United States. There is no bias on my side other than I'm a freedom-loving American, for all Americans. :) I support whatever reason you want to play this mod :P But yeah, the OPFOR faction WILL be playable.

And trust me, it's not that I dislike the United Nations or the British. It's just the options that I chose that would most likely be the case in that situation should it ever happen. I don't know for sure, and I'm not trying to piss anyone off. Just to be perfectly clear. :)

Thanks for replying again, Nou.

[disco.modder 116]

Hey how about a South American joint armed forces OPFOR force? Just like CSAT, but instead its contributors are South American nations.