Altis Resistance (SP)

[b00tsy 28]

I noticed that I havent published this mission on the forum yet, so here it is.

As I am most likely disabling the steam workshop all my missions can now be found here and on good old armaholic.

The story:

You are Staveros. You have lived your entire live on Altis with your familiy. You always have lived a simple, but happy live.

Things changed for the worst soon after the Iranians invaded Altis. Just recently they have killed your brother when he tried to pass an Iranian checkpoint and they are terrorizing and killing dozens of other Altisians everyday.

You can't sit there any longer doing nothing! You can't sleep knowing what the Iranians are doing against the people of Altis!

After a long discussion with your closest friends you all decided to stand up and do something about it. You and your friends will resist the Iranian occupancy and fight them with every means you have.

One of your friends just called you and told you that they are ready to plan the first attack against the Iranians. He has left a car for you at the docks near the church. Go to the car and pick up all your friends.

It's go time!

Mission details:

As the mission description states, you are a local civilian that can't stand any longer being supressed by the Iranians. You will start out alone and without any weapons. You will locate and pick up your friends first and one of your friends might know a special location where you can arm yourself. I am not going to say anything more about the objectives, it is more fun to find out for yourself. This mission requires strategy and tactics to complete.

Features:

- Custom town sounds, environment sounds (finally hear some seagulls close to water!) and music

- Cutscene intro

- Difficulty progression

- Custom and decorated locations

- Civilian traffic and ambient civilian towns

- Lightly story driven

- Auto-save points

- Challenging objectives

- Designed AI routes and behaviour (meaning: no inferior spawned AI positions and behaviour (doing random stuff))

Tips:

This mission does not contain 'tasks'nor 'briefing'. You will be guided through the mission with dialog texts, hint and dynamic map markers. The opfor locations usually contains weapons crates, you need the crates to upgrade your gear for the next objectives. Once you have picked up all your friends they will become playable units. If you want to customize their gear at a weapons box it is the easiest to switch to the unit and do it yourself (press U). Let your AI buddies hold fire whenever you can. That way you can get closer to opfor loctions, better tactical spots and stay unnoticed longer.

Update v.1.23

- added more auto-save points

- updated ammobox (1st objective)

- 'friends' will become playable at the right time now

- created a new video intro

- optimized performance

Download: Click

Armaholic mirror:

- Altis Resistance

Edited April 20, 2014 by B00tsy

[Variable 322]

Sounds great. Will give it a go as soon as I get the chance. Thanks B00tsy!

---------- Post added at 16:29 ---------- Previous post was at 15:59 ----------

I gave it a go but ran into a problem, I reached the first friend after refueling my vehicle but nothing happens. I checked the map and I saw no new markers. I was, however, able to switch to play my friends, but I don't suppose that's the way to go?

I run these addons, none of them is an AI modification mod:

@CBA_A3;@tao_foldmap_a3;@VTS_Weaponresting;@BaBe_midTex;@JSRS2.0;@Blastcore;@Blastcore_Tracers;@Refined_Vehicles

[b00tsy 28]

Hi Variable. I just tried it and it is working fine on my end. Good chance it is one of the addons that messes it up for you. At the gasstation you stop at the arrow, the game will auto save and then the marker of the first friend you need to pick up will show on the map. You are right about being able to switch units already (not intended), I forgot to add something so they are to early playable now. Will fix that :)

The first friend is on a compound a few hundred meters after the gas station.

Edited January 28, 2014 by B00tsy

[Kommiekat 11]

As I am most likely disabling the steam workshop all my missions can now be found here and on good old armaholic.

May I ask why? Just curious.

[blackland 26]

Is cool, is great, is fine, is fun - thanks B00tsy!!

[Variable 322]

Hey B00tsy, I gave this another try. Here's a short review:

I like the mission concept! Love resistance missions. I got to the boat part but couldn't move it away from the pier because it seems like Arma 3 boats cannot move around their axis, and since this boat was adjascent to the dock, I couldn't drive it away from it.

The objectives were nice. I have some suggestions:

• I think a different time of day and weather will be better. This sunny day isn't really fitting such a guerrilla operation. Less light, and harsher weather will be more immersive in my opinion.
  
• The last auto-save game I had was on one of the earlier objectives, I don't remember which one unfortunately, but you might want to check that. I'm pretty sure I didn't get auto saves after a certain point. It's a problem for whoever plays on Veteran difficulty that allows only one manual save.
  
• I suggest adding some patrols on the roads.
  
• Maybe some reinforcements to some of the objectives. It's pretty easy now, and it will be harder if you have to hurry up and split before reinforcements arrive.
  
• I suggest limiting the weapons and ammo in the objectives. Being able to equip with just about everything makes it less challenging, and less immersive.

Looking forward to more missions from you! :)

[b00tsy 28]

As I am most likely disabling the steam workshop all my missions can now be found here and on good old armaholic.

May I ask why? Just curious.

Because I am done babysitting my missions there for a 14 year old player base. A crowd that rates missions down and rants for something silly as not having VAS in a mission (It has no VAS, because I setup the loadout myself for a mission). And kids whining because a mission has a 3 minute respawn (thats very long for ADHD kids), while I intentionally already dumbed the mission down (to plaease the crowd) by adding respawn in the first place. I am done with whiners there that bash over 'free' content.

On the forum are still people with the old ArmA mindset thank god :)

---------- Post added at 11:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:22 AM ----------

Hey B00tsy, I gave this another try. Here's a short review:

I like the mission concept! Love resistance missions. I got to the boat part but couldn't move it away from the pier because it seems like Arma 3 boats cannot move around their axis, and since this boat was adjascent to the dock, I couldn't drive it away from it.

The objectives were nice. I have some suggestions:

• I think a different time of day and weather will be better. This sunny day isn't really fitting such a guerrilla operation. Less light, and harsher weather will be more immersive in my opinion.
  
• The last auto-save game I had was on one of the earlier objectives, I don't remember which one unfortunately, but you might want to check that. I'm pretty sure I didn't get auto saves after a certain point. It's a problem for whoever plays on Veteran difficulty that allows only one manual save.
  
• I suggest adding some patrols on the roads.
  
• Maybe some reinforcements to some of the objectives. It's pretty easy now, and it will be harder if you have to hurry up and split before reinforcements arrive.
  
• I suggest limiting the weapons and ammo in the objectives. Being able to equip with just about everything makes it less challenging, and less immersive.

Looking forward to more missions from you! :)

Very helpful pointers Variable, thanks :)

I recently trimmed down the mission a lot because it was pretty heavy to run, I might have deleted some auto save points accidently. It is a bit on the easy side yes (for us) (on steam players request), I will make it more hardcore again :)

I thought about adding some patrols, but it will have to be on a road that I know the player will drive over otherwise it will be waste of resources to have AI on the map that does not interact with the player (dont want to use spawning AI), but now that there is a working cache script for armA3 I will add patrols and reinforcements to the mission! The boats at the dock are a bit trcky indeed, small boats, very high docks. When I order the team to get in the boat they do that, they walk to the edge of the dock and then 'magically' pop up in the boat seats. I am not happy about that transport point either, i'll see if I can find a better spot for it (or I will build a small dock).

---------- Post added at 11:35 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:34 AM ----------

Is cool, is great, is fine, is fun - thanks B00tsy!!

Cheers! :)

[Variable 322]

B00tsy, about the dock -

You can simply workaround the problem by placing the boat in the same spot, just rotating 90 degrees to the left. This will allow getting into it, and leaving the pier without the problem of sticking to the walls of the dock.

[Kommiekat 11]

Because I am done babysitting my missions there for a 14 year old player base. A crowd that rates missions down and rants for something silly as not having VAS in a mission (It has no VAS, because I setup the loadout myself for a mission). And kids whining because a mission has a 3 minute respawn (thats very long for ADHD kids), while I intentionally already dumbed the mission down (to plaease the crowd) by adding respawn in the first place. I am done with whiners there that bash over 'free' content.

On the forum are still people with the old ArmA mindset thank god :)

Haha!!

So the kids are like this-------->:lecture:

And you're like this-------------->:aa:

[b00tsy 28]

Haha!!

So the kids are like this-------->:lecture:

And you're like this-------------->:aa:

The finger yes, but not mad. Just got tired of the steam day care center, so f them. Maybe I will activate the missions again at some point, but not likely :)

+ that the workshop still is not working without issues.

---------- Post added at 06:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:21 PM ----------

B00tsy, about the dock -

You can simply workaround the problem by placing the boat in the same spot, just rotating 90 degrees to the left. This will allow getting into it, and leaving the pier without the problem of sticking to the walls of the dock.

I will give that a try.. though I can also create something at an other spot. I will work it out :)

[lugiahua 26]

I think it's a glitch, but I don't have a autosave nor manual save. I have to complete the whole mission without able to save at all!

Without saves, I would say it's a quite difficult mission.

By the time to assault the airfield, I only have two men left, and AI was a crappy shot compared to the enemy.

(which is reasonable consider we are just armed civilians)

Other than unable to save, I also encountered some glitch.

- The first time I played it, I couldn't find one of the friends, and was stuck at that point

- One of the helos on the airfield was invincible, I couldn't destroy it with any weapon, bullet just passed through it without damage it. I have to use a SP cheat mod to destroy it.

- The radio tower was very difficult to destroy with only explosive sticks(I used more than 6), maybe you can replace those with satchel charges in the ammo boxes.

[b00tsy 28]

I think it's a glitch, but I don't have a autosave nor manual save. I have to complete the whole mission without able to save at all!

Without saves, I would say it's a quite difficult mission.

By the time to assault the airfield, I only have two men left, and AI was a crappy shot compared to the enemy.

(which is reasonable consider we are just armed civilians)

Other than unable to save, I also encountered some glitch.

- The first time I played it, I couldn't find one of the friends, and was stuck at that point

- One of the helos on the airfield was invincible, I couldn't destroy it with any weapon, bullet just passed through it without damage it. I have to use a SP cheat mod to destroy it.

- The radio tower was very difficult to destroy with only explosive sticks(I used more than 6), maybe you can replace those with satchel charges in the ammo boxes.

Thanks for the feedback. I haven't had the time yet to update the mission so there are auto-save points missing later on in the mission. Depending on your difficulty setting you should be able to save manually (normal setting is unlimited saves).

I personally have no problems destroying the choppers by using a satchel at every chopper. The same for the radio tower, 1 or 2 satchels will destroy the tower. At all main locations are explosives boxes with satchels!

And as for the friend that you could not find, you probably did not stop at the marked position at the garage so the trigger of the 'friend' did not activate, you need to stop at the arrow when refueling. I will make that more full proof when I work on the mission again. I'll see if I have some time this weekend :)

[remus 11]

Hi all,

Love this mission, I can't get it to auto save at the second objective. Once I kill the officer I'm told to attack helicopters at airfield. But it never auto saves. I have game set on recruit but I only get one manual save, the it's greyed out. Hope you can help. Ps this mission would be awesome with some zombies

[b00tsy 28]

Hi remus, I have an update of this mission ready, just need to look over a couple more things. I'll see if I have some time to finish it today/tomorrow. Though in recruit mode you should be able to save unlimited times already, I haven't disabled that. The upadated version does contain more auto-saves!

[b00tsy 28]

New update is out! (see OP)

There is still some things I want to change and add such as a video ending, balancing available weapons/ammo and maybe adding a few side missions. I will work on it more at a later time :)

[remus 11]

Thanks bootsy

Will download in the morning and try it out

[Alex72 1]

Very good mission. Thanks for sharing. :)

One issue though (like always with this), arming your pals isnt the easiest thing in the world. Best but most annoying way is to pick up gear and walk outside building or enclosure and drop it and then tell them to pick it up. Its not so cool either to maybe always place ammo boxes retard friendly as that might look stupid. I guess theres not much to do about it. Wish BIS came up with something better when it comes to arm squaddie AI's. Like if your a team leader and you walk up to a crate you can see tabs or similar that is your AI, and thus arm everyone in one go.

Anyway, great mission. So far just taken care of the radio tower on the hill. 1 pal lost in that fight. On to the strip now rearmed and ready in our hawaii shirts, shorts and flip flops. :D

Thanks.

[b00tsy 28]

Thanks Alex, glad you like it so far! :))

Getting AI to use ammo boxes can be a pain indeed. Thats why the friends are set to playable and switchable units when you arrive at the weapons stash location. The easiest way to gear up AI is to take control of the AI (switch to) and load up the gear yourself for the unit. The other way of pointing at the ammo box and then give the AI the order to open gear often fails, specially when there are multiple ammo boxes. It would be nice if BI can come up with a better system for that.

Hope you make it through the aifield part with already one down! :)

[remus 11]

Thanks for making more auto saves, I can still only make one manual save

[b00tsy 28]

Thanks for making more auto saves, I can still only make one manual save

Check your difficulty settings, you must have disabled unlimited saves.

Oh and a small update notice: the boat transport can only hold 3 units, it used to be 4. Noticed that to late unfortunately, so you have to make 2 trips atm. And it is possible that the boat is slightly damaged, it probably bumps the dock after spawning. Will fix that in next update.

[neofit 65]

This mission does not contain 'tasks'nor 'briefing'. You will be guided through the mission with dialog texts, hint and dynamic map markers.

This is not a very good idea imho. I was busy arming my guys after the first firefight, something flashed on the screen and I missed it completely. I have markers for a comms tower and an officer, but I'd like to have the details that I missed too.

[neofit 65]

Nice firefights, but I ran into some other issues:

The boat is red. No engine, and none if my guys has the capacity to fix it, even with a looted toolbox. So I'm stuck. It would have been nice if one of the guys was a medic, after a normal bandaid my guy is in constant pain and is not fun to listen to.

The AIs behave strangely. I am trying to keep a semblance of order, "Formation Line" or "Formation Wedge" with constant "Back to formation". Yet they run to flank, they bunch up in front of me or behind and manage to shoot each other. Keeping formation is probably the only thing the Arma3 AIs are good at, so I'm surprised that they are so poor at it here. I'm playing with bCombat, it has worked OK in other scenarios so I don't think it creates these problems, but who knows?

[b00tsy 28]

This is not a very good idea imho. I was busy arming my guys after the first firefight, something flashed on the screen and I missed it completely. I have markers for a comms tower and an officer, but I'd like to have the details that I missed too.

I am planning to do the dialogs in an other way, I agree that the current texts on your screen is not ideal. I acually want to do little gps video's with conversations, but that is not working in arma 3 (works fine in arma 2), maybe I will do little cutscenes or do it in a hint format.

---------- Post added at 05:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:25 PM ----------

Nice firefights, but I ran into some other issues:

The boat is red. No engine, and none if my guys has the capacity to fix it, even with a looted toolbox. So I'm stuck. It would have been nice if one of the guys was a medic, after a normal bandaid my guy is in constant pain and is not fun to listen to.

The AIs behave strangely. I am trying to keep a semblance of order, "Formation Line" or "Formation Wedge" with constant "Back to formation". Yet they run to flank, they bunch up in front of me or behind and manage to shoot each other. Keeping formation is probably the only thing the Arma3 AIs are good at, so I'm surprised that they are so poor at it here. I'm playing with bCombat, it has worked OK in other scenarios so I don't think it creates these problems, but who knows?

Yeah I already mentioned that a post back, the boat most likely spawns to close to the dock and gets damaged (I could still use it). I need to change the boat for an other type anyway so will probably release a new update tomorrow.

I don't have much issues with the AI, but they can have their buggy moments. When I notice it I always let them hold (1,6) (wait) and then I switch to every unit and then back to player character and then they behave normally again. It is probably, because you group to the other units later in the mission instead of from the start. I might actually create a feedback ticket of this, because I noticed some buggy AI moments in an other mission as well that had JoinGroup command in it.

I don't know how others play this mission, but I play this (and most SP missions where I can control an AI team) as an RTS. Meaning that I most of the time not have the other units with me in a group formation when I attack a location. I always switch to the units and set up their position and stance myself (with the order stop and hold fire). Once I have placed all the units at good attacking/overwatch position I look for a good spot for myself and then letting them open fire, resulting in a pretty effective surprise attack.

[neofit 65]

I don't know how others play this mission, but I play this (and most SP missions where I can control an AI team) as an RTS. Meaning that I most of the time not have the other units with me in a group formation when I attack a location. I always switch to the units and set up their position and stance myself (with the order stop and hold fire). Once I have placed all the units at good attacking/overwatch position I look for a good spot for myself and then letting them open fire, resulting in a pretty effective surprise attack.

First I try with them in a line so they provide support. If they start having a mind of their own as in this mission, they are ordered back into the vehicle and I do it all myself rambo-style. I'm not sure how to use them with "switch to unit", usually when I switch away from #1 he starts giving orders, and I don't need the extra aggravation :).

[b00tsy 28]

To do it without out issues is to order them to move a position (right in front of you or something) then give the 'stop' order (and hold fire - optional). Then you can switch to the units and setup their position anyway you like. Something has changed with the AI commanding compared to arma 2, you now as a leader first need to tell them to stop before you switch or they will keep doing unexpected things. This was already the case when arma 3 was still in alpha.