[SP] Pilgrimage

[tortuosit 486]

Ah great. I think "easter egg" is a good idea, maybe you should limit the spawn chance of this, so people will not start searching.

Oh yes I understand what you wrote about coding habits etc. But it's not solvable. Keep in mind we're all hobbyists with limited time. When I wrote a script for myself, to me it was clear I should have used arrays instead of multiple variables... but I didn't do it because of time. ArmA is so tricky, it takes soooo much time to find out why things do not work. Currently I'm puzzled why "hint format" sometimes displays "any" instead of the variable contents. And so forth and so on.

Yeah, script/addon compatibility with mods... e.g. my weather script on top of your init would not create fog, because in your mission there's setFog 2 times (ground fog is nice indeed), which overwrites it, so I had to delete it.

BTW I'm really happy you find that bug with that error message and bad fps at mission start. Because when that happened (the bad FPS) I thought it was bCombat. Now I can say bCombat works pretty nice with your mission, even with default options turned on.

[Rydygier 1309]

Ah great. I think "easter egg" is a good idea, maybe you should limit the spawn chance of this, so people will not start searching.

Yes, I think, I'll do. Let's say 10% for a treasure somewhere. If there is a treasure, player also can get rough location after completing first assassination mission insted of circle intel.

[neofit 65]

Teammate, what is that? The guy who usually dies within the first 5 minutes? The baby who needs all my attention? :D

You're not using them right ;). A teammate is an early warning radar. With them onboard I can concentrate on driving on first person and let them scan the horizon, they do it much better. Now that we have incognito warning you when you are observed it's less useful, but they still give you valuable information as to what and in which direction. It's also the guys to whom you tell "All, disembark, All stop" or "All, Find cover", go about your business, then come back to get 100% healed and your vehicle repaired if needed.

As for the easter egg loot chest, while it is fun to find one in the game, you can have a lot of them in regular games too. I don't see what it would give me that I don't already have 1-2 hours into the game. Just use the "African Conflict" mod, or just is pre-requisite "NATO SF and Russian Spetsnaz Weapons" pack. The thing with the stock Arma3 loot is that there are very few weapons in there since they put all attachments into separate items AND added a lot of other items to the pool. So with a normal dice throw, not weighted towards weapons, there is very little chance to get a weapon or ammo in a box, most of the time it's useless vendor trash. But that NATO/Rus weapons pack came from Arma2, and while all its weapons have been adapted for Arma3 by converting all their parts into proper Arma3 attachments, the pack is still comprised of one weapon for each combination as it used to be. For instance, in Arma3 we only have a Katiba + attachments. In the Arma2 converted pack for instance for the M16A1, we have the simple M16A1, then M16A1 + ACOG, M16A1 + red dot, then + holo, then + launcher, then + IR, then all possible combinations of existing scopes, launcher, silencer and IR. Not to mention I'd rather play with an ACOG and and RPG-18 rather than anything they gave us in Arma3.

This amount of weapons weighs heavily the global item pool towards weapons, and now it's the other way around, almost every box gives you something useful. About 1-2 hours into the game whether I am playing with Realistic Loot or not, I have filled my quadbike's Ryd-expanded inventory to the brim already. I don't know what else a virtualammobox would provide. If only more rpg-18 rounds, can never have enough of those, rare even on african rebels and governamentales you hunt specifically for.

[Rydygier 1309]

Stuff, that may be found in that "treasure chest" is hardcoded. No things from addons to find inside, because each possible thing was manually picked by me. What you possible can find there? Basically everything, I considered as most useful. Sniper rifles, launchers, few other rifles/MG, fancy optics, most useful items, mines, explosives, most popular magazines + magazines for possible weaponry... All this may be found in the regular loot boxes. This will be only an easter egg present in 10% of gameplays and hard to encounter anyway, so nothing, that should seriously affect gameplay (that's what an easter egg is to me).

As for loot statistics, here, as it works exactly for the normal distribution:

1. Stuff is divided by three categories: weapons, ammo, items.

2. Each element is equally probable, but only within own category. Adding more weaponry from the addons will not rise chance for any weapon in the box even a bit, instead addonas like African Conflict, with many useful weapons, will increase a chance, so if there will be randomized a weapon - will be chosen something useful. But, in the same time, if that weapon does not use vanilla magazines, chance for proper magazine found separately from that weapon is lower.

3. Each time loot box is filled, code "rolls a dice" for random number from 0 to 100 and chooses one of possible variants:

- if this is box of better loot (military) and number is > 30, box will contain: 1-3 weapon(s) of same kind, 1-24 magazines proper to randomized weapon, 0-1 random item. Otherwise:

- if number is > 90 there will be one weapon and 1-12 proper magazines. Otherwise:

- > 55 - 1-12 magazines of same, random kind. Otherwise:

- > 25 - random item + additional 25% chance for 1-6 magazines. Otherwise:

- single weapon.

Edited June 4, 2014 by Rydygier

[tortuosit 486]

You're not using them right ;). A teammate is an early warning radar.

Ha, my teammate is called "TPW Hud" ;)

[alky_lee 278]

My teammate is called eyeball mark 1. Not always reliable and works better with two

[vegeta897 13]

Is loading saves in this mission completely broken for anyone else? Whether it's a church auto-save or manual save, I cannot successfully load after dying. Usually what happens is I'm presented with the starting options window again, but I can't click anything. If I hit escape, the window disappears, leaving me to look at that starting camera view, and then I can't do anything. I have to end the process to leave the game. And when I go back in, my saves are gone.

After this happened a few times, I tried just starting a new game, then saving through the menu, and trying to load that. Upon loading, the mission immediately ended with a debriefing. I hit continue and am taken back to the scenario list. When I hit resume on the mission, after a second it just pops me back to the scenario list again.

I did not have any of these problems the last time I played, a few months ago.

Edit: Forgot to mention, I'm on the dev branch.

Edited June 5, 2014 by vegeta897

[tortuosit 486]

No problems here, but ArmA stable branch. Or maybe it's your mods?

[vegeta897 13]

Could be, but I'm pretty sure I'm using the same mods I was last time when it worked. Will test later.

[doc. caliban 34]

Back in the saddle.

Just finished moving across the country, which is saying something when you live in North America. :-)

Loaded up Arma, and BLAM! It started updating automatically, destroying my save game. (Gabe, I love ya, but this is the second time this has happened and I have auto updates DISABLED for this game in Steam. I'd say you owe me lunch at this point.)

I started a new mission with 1.82C. In the first hour I captured an IFRIT HMG (personal favorite); took out a 4 man patrol that resulted in some intel and an Atlas launcher and 2 AA missiles; shot down a responding SAD chopper (first missile missed, second hit hard enough to force them to land), took out the crew and captured the chopper with a full ordinance load-out but very low fuel; and found a fuel truck.

Off to a damn good start!

I have not used a companion yet. I love the idea of playing with a live coop buddy, but otherwise prefer the isolation of being alone. I looked into the TPW HUD mod but didn't care for the idea of automatic target spotting and marking ... seemed a bit too easy IMO. I understand the near-future premiss of that feature, but prefer the challenge of either spotting the enemy or not with my own eyeballs. (and I use the hell out of the thermal optics on captured vehicles) When playing games with a similar feature, such as GRAW, I always disable it. Just personal preference.

- Doc

Edited June 5, 2014 by Doc. Caliban

[neofit 65]

I only left the compass and the HP display on the TPW Hud thingy. The way it tags and follows enemies and friendlies is way too much magic. Yet I like to have teammates. First because I like to go find strongholds, and once you've liberated them, it's a waste not to get a companion. I need a doctor so I can heal to 100% and not hear the atrocious panting sounds. And before Ryd made the 1000ff repair option appear whenever we need it, I needed the repairman. Less reloading this way.

[Rydygier 1309]

Mission upgraded to 1.83c. Changelog:

- "Loot value" setting replaced with "Loot distribution" setting;

- reorganized "Difficulty" setting, added "underwear" mode (no any gear at start);

- Expected reactions of the locals on player walking in the underwear only;

- fixed annoying config error showing up at init from time to time;

- now empty vehicles may be also of civilian side (Karts excluded);

- various fixes and improvements.

[tortuosit 486]

Rydy, beginning from some of your difficulty modes, there's no hint on map about where you are. Boat marker is missing.

But it can be cheated by "Center map to player position" button top right of the map. You could also include code to get rid of that. Koffeinflummi has the code: https://github.com/KoffeinFlummi/AGM/blob/master/AGM_Map/config.cpp

I mean, if the cheat is there, I cannot resist using it, so you'd help me by enforcing me to do proper navigation :)

[Rydygier 1309]

Sadly, snippet, you linked, is for an addon only. No use inside the script/mission code. If I find a way to remove it from the script level - I'll do it. Meanwhile - improve your strong will. :P Or, if there exists such snippet, then perhaps someone used it for creating an addon? Then you can play with it. Best - ask author of that config for that.

BTW I think, this should be some day fixed in Arma 3, as this seems to be a plain design oversight (what's the point of high difficulty level disabling player marker if there is such thing).

Edited June 7, 2014 by Rydygier

[tortuosit 486]

Ah no, it's no problem for me to use the pbo only, it is in the AGM distribution, c:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Arma 3\@AGM\addons\agm_map.pbo

[alky_lee 278]

Just a bit of feedback on the reputation system. I have been running a long fighting patrol on the 1.81c version. At first I wasn't trusted and they just wanted me to go away. The intel I received was sending me W ,E & S. If they had said north I would have shot them because I was on the north coast.

Now after several days in, they are falling over themselves to give me assassination missions. I was in the middle of firefight with one target, when another target came up behind me and I was caught in a crossfire. Unfortunately I died and they killed my target.

Apart from that minor issue I am enjoying reading what they are saying. I still have another 2 assassination missions to do.

Still loving it.

[Rydygier 1309]

I was in the middle of firefight with one target, when another target came up behind me and I was caught in a crossfire. Unfortunately I died and they killed my target.

:D

There may still a need of small calibrations in reputations system (or not) and one small mistake to fix, but I'm glad, in general, it works as intended.

[Rojas 10]

I want to thank you for creating this mission.

It was the most introspective experience that I played in ArmA series.

Congratulations.

[vegeta897 13]

I finally beat this mission today. My god, was it challenging. I was lucky enough to find an empty Gorgon, but found that enemy attack helicopters were a big problem. I had to reload a dozen times before I both found the body and made it back to my boat.

The final stretch to the boat was the most difficult. I decided to adopt a strategy that involved driving along the coast the whole way to get to where I left my boat. This minimized exposure to any hostile vehicles on the land. In the last 10 minutes, the chopper appeared, and it was beginning to strafe me. Panicking, I unleashed all of my AP rounds, but only scored a few hits. I quickly switched to the AT and fired, desperately trying to guide the missile towards this death machine bearing down at me. The chopper looked like it began firing rockets at me, but my missile struck it an instant after, obliterating it. It fell into the sea and my vehicle was still okay.

I thought I was home free, but right as I reached the boat, I started taking fire from what seemed like a machine gun. Looking around frantically, my turret suddenly locked up. Damn! They disabled it. I jumped out and hit the dirt (well, the sand) and found what was attacking me. It was a static MG. I scoped in with my G3 and unleashed a barrage of fire. After downing the gunner, I took a few pot shots at the other men nearby (it was a camp) but decided to just finish this. I ran to the boat and loaded the body, and a wave of relief washed over me as MISSION SUCCESS covered the screen.

The whole play session was almost 3 hours, and it was totally worth it. Excellent mission.

Edited June 12, 2014 by vegeta897

[Rydygier 1309]

It's always great to to read such feedback, guys. Very important to me, as exactly this, providing good fun to people, makes for me whole mission worthy of every spent on creating it workhours, and there was many of them. :)

[tortuosit 486]

That last part reminds me of the excellent "Escape" missions from Arma II (there are Arma 3 versions as well) which I enjoyed a lot.

[vegeta897 13]

That last part reminds me of the excellent "Escape" missions from Arma II (there are Arma 3 versions as well) which I enjoyed a lot.

Yes indeed, Escape Chernarus was my favorite mission of all, and I've played it with my friends on Altis many times too. Pure emergent gameplay.

[tvamvarg 0]

Hello Rydygier, a question (sorry if it's been asked before, searched thread and could not find):

When I had loaded the body into a vehicle and made for the boat, I had my wheels shot out from under me, and then there was no way (at least that I could find) that I could move the body from one vehicle to another. So kind of game over there.

Not the biggest thing, just one fine adjustment to this great adventure! (at this time, I have more playtime on Pilgrimage than on all other Arma III combined...)

[Rydygier 1309]

Moving body from vehicle to another was requested once, but rejected after consideration as overcomplication not easy to implement. Instead, you can repair your vehicle for ff via "inspect vehicle" action, that should be visible, when you are close enough to your current assigned vehicle and there is no any enemy known to Alex (no enemy markers on map, so not possible in the middle of fight). "Game over" occurs however, if vehicle containg the body is completely destroyed. You can play further, but no way to complete the main task in such case.

[ashencross 10]

Hello Rydygier and hello pilgrims! Question, does the Pilgrimage mod have any built in AI behavior scripts? I play with bCombat, and the results are quite good. I was wondering if I should shut that off and let Pilgrimage do its thing, or if there are other AI mods that work nicely along with Pilgrimage. Any recommendations? :)