[SP] Pilgrimage

[alky_lee 276]

Clothes fits, as far, as I can tell for low res textures, only partially, headgear not, for me brother's body every time has a hat and no glasses (is not randomized, it is Hunter (Green) class of unit, this you can check by pointing on it, like on the first picture below), and there are heavy blood stains, so still it may be also accidentally died AI from civilian ambient (the only, but good explanation of disappearing). If that near church however was checked, and gave no red mark on map, then this should be the place. Perhaps the proper body is also near it, but it isn't that one? Expected situation and brother's look:

brother found 1

brother found 2

Rest I said in the Workshop comments. BTW "no sound" issue was added to the "known issues" section in the first post, as something, that happens, and can't be fixed from my side.

Obviously a case of mistaken identity. I don't know whose body I found, but it was very strange. Perhaps Phil killed him before he was killed as well. I have markers on for all bodies and clean them up manually, so if killed by ambient combat the body should have had a marker, but didn't. I clean up bodies as I leave an area. I will have a good look around the town in the daylight to see if Phil's body is around. Latest intel is to move West.

I have started a new mission using 1.8c. With ambient combat on low, there was no lag at all on mission start. With 1.79c and ambient combat on medium, that was when I had the no sound and severe lag problem. The only problems I have now are a UGV and static GMG and I haven't even got to a single church,

[pvt. partz 248]

I love this style of mission. I played it a few times, starting over because I get killed, but I never get an option to save. If I understood previous posts, there is no autosave?. Has someone stated that saves can take place after checking a church or am I not understanding? Please steer my sawdust skull.

It's a little frustrating to play for three or four hours (lots of exploring), only to die and have to start all over.

Thanks very much

chik

[doc. caliban 34]

I love this style of mission. I played it a few times, starting over because I get killed, but I never get an option to save. If I understood previous posts, there is no autosave?. Has someone stated that saves can take place after checking a church or am I not understanding? Please steer my sawdust skull.

It's a little frustrating to play for three or four hours (lots of exploring), only to die and have to start all over.

Thanks very much

chik

Hello!

A few ways to save:

1. You can go into the game difficulty settings and enable unlimited saves.

2. The mission auto-saves when churches are checked, you find intel on a body that eliminates some churches, and when you get intel from a base commander. (2 airbases and 2 strongholds, locations for which are randomized)

3. There is a brand new feature that allows you to enable autosave every 20 minutes: Hit 0 then 8 to get to the "supports" commands. On of them will enable / disable the auto saves.

Have fun!

Rydygier,

Are AC-spawned troops finite in quantity? I have been in the same area for several hours scoping out an airbase, but am greeted with AC troops pretty regularly. I'm thinking that they are all spawned but cached at the start of the mission and should eventually stops showing up. Is that correct?

- Doc

Edited May 12, 2014 by Doc. Caliban

[neofit 65]

I'm usually playing with AC at LOW

Could you try a whole mission with AC at MED then at HIGH? I've played a few on LOW, a couple each at HIGH and MED, and that's what I observed. Of course this is not a 1000 playthroughs sample and may be just the RNG playing tricks, but here goes:

LOW:

I barely noticed anything. About once an hour I hear some cannon fire outside my visual range. Sometimes I see some checkpoints and hideouts cleared out by spawned AC troops, before I even reach them. It seems I see more patrols, but more likely it's AC spawned troops looking for trouble and who find me instead of the real enemy. I'm lucky if I see once or twice per game day some helicopter shooting at a checkpoint or a lone Strider being shot at from somewhere, not much ambient war besides that. It is probably as it should be with a LOW setting.

MED:

I haven't noticed any difference with LOW.

HIGH:

I played twice with this setting. A few minutes after the mission is started, when I reach the first village/town, there is a HUGE surge of AI war. Only thing I can do is hope that someone with an AT weapon dies by the house I'm cowering in. Then one side wins (the bugmen so far), and 2-3 tanks start camping around the house I'm in. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, I'm lying on the floor, the infantry leaves but the tanks stay. (btw you may want to limit the 3 Varsuk groups to 1 tank maybe?)

Then if I am reckless enough to try and crawl out of the city, after 15-20 mins on my belly, the mission returns to the way it was with the other settings. Definitely more patrols, and I am seeing it clearly with the Realistic Loot settings where I must stay longer at the spot of a battle to loot them all and sell, I usually keep attracting other groups one after another before I'm done monetizing my previous kills. I may hear the sounds of a distant battle a couple of time per hour instead of once as with the other settings. But after the initial WW3 in a pocket that I am seeing in the first hour of the mission, I never see anything like that again, it seems that spawned AC groups find me way more often than they find each other, and I am standing in the way of their war. I am not sure that this was intended with the whole AC thing, the same thing could have been achieved with just raising the number of patrols.

If I'm not mistaken the goal of AC is to see combat, not just hear it from 1 click away or see the aftermath. Some suggestions if I may.

1. From my observations, and without any knowledge of the way it is coded, I believe that the mission spawns patrols in a radius around the player, who then must meet somehow to start fighting. I've seen something like the following happen many times. I see some AAF patrol with AT weapons for instance, I want that, shoot the patrol and start looting and selling. Before I'm done, I start getting shot at, it's some bugmen coming from the *North*. They are killed, then either before I'm done with this second group or even the first group, some AAF patrol comes from the *South*. Then maybe another from the East, etc. Sometimes I have to put an end to my greed and run away leaving unlooted bodies if I ever want to continue my mission.

So maybe, instead of spawning them in a radius around the player, it is possible to spawn them in a radius + angle, like 1000m + ( between N and E in a 90 degrees angle), so they have more chance to meet each other before stumbling upon me?

2. The initial WW3 in a pocket is nice to experience all around you. Maybe this can be reproduced later on? Again, I don't know what triggers there are and so on, but what if:

* when the player enters a town, with a probability of n% the assault timer would start. You don't want to make it happen too often either. And one wouldn't be able to survive if caught in the open.

* if the timer reaches 1 minute or something (e.g. the player is not just driving through), then:

* 2 warring groups spawn on opposite sides of the city with the goal of seizing it. Maybe 2x2 groups to cover all four directions.

* quickly switch to your teammates to hide them properly and enjoy the show

Do modern armies still use flare guns to coordinate assaults, with every soldier having comms and being linked to a global grid? It may be a nice touch if they did though. Like "uh-oh, it's about to hit the fan"

Please no 2-3 MBTs per group if possible, even 1 should be rare. And after the fight has ended, the winning side should not stay there forever, effectively camping the player, but go home to celebrate :).

Maybe this can happen once even at a LOW setting?

[alky_lee 276]

Could you try a whole mission with AC at MED then at HIGH? I've played a few on LOW, a couple each at HIGH and MED, and that's what I observed. Of course this is not a 1000 playthroughs sample and may be just the RNG playing tricks, but here goes:

LOW:

I barely noticed anything. About once an hour I hear some cannon fire outside my visual range. Sometimes I see some checkpoints and hideouts cleared out by spawned AC troops, before I even reach them. It seems I see more patrols, but more likely it's AC spawned troops looking for trouble and who find me instead of the real enemy. I'm lucky if I see once or twice per game day some helicopter shooting at a checkpoint or a lone Strider being shot at from somewhere, not much ambient war besides that. It is probably as it should be with a LOW setting.

MED:

I haven't noticed any difference with LOW.

HIGH:

I played twice with this setting. A few minutes after the mission is started, when I reach the first village/town, there is a HUGE surge of AI war. Only thing I can do is hope that someone with an AT weapon dies by the house I'm cowering in. Then one side wins (the bugmen so far), and 2-3 tanks start camping around the house I'm in. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, I'm lying on the floor, the infantry leaves but the tanks stay. (btw you may want to limit the 3 Varsuk groups to 1 tank maybe?)

The first time I played with AC on low, the only AC I noticed was in Kavala after about 4-5 hrs. On medium settings I encountered quite a bit of AC and got caught in the middle of it twice, including coming face to face with armoured infantry in a Marid. I also encountered 4 Kumas coming down a valley I was moving up to avoid being seen. On high AC settings I encountered two lots of AC before I got to any buildings.

Like everything with this mission, it's just random and leads to a random experience. For an example, here is a mission I started yesterday with AC settings on low.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z79BDbB7Ks

[Rydygier 1302]

Are AC-spawned troops finite in quantity? I have been in the same area for several hours scoping out an airbase, but am greeted with AC troops pretty regularly. I'm thinking that they are all spawned but cached at the start of the mission and should eventually stops showing up. Is that correct?

Nope. AC is dynamic and will spawn groups constantly, the only limitation, depending on intensity setting, is amount of groups present at a time and average distance from the player to spawn them. So you basically can't "wait out" the ambient combat. It is constant element of the landscape, thus in fact AC is a bit hardcore setting and turned off by default. HIGH setting, as I mentioned few times before, is IMO only for some insane maniacs with death-in-the-hard-way-wish.

Differences between intensity level of AC are substancial and undoubtful but, as said, it is highly randomized feature, so it is even possible once per 50 times, so you get more AC on LOW than on MEDIUM by rare chance. By setting intensity player sets chances for something, not certainty.

If I'm not mistaken the goal of AC is to see combat, not just hear it from 1 click away or see the aftermath.

It is to provide war activities around. No more, no less. It is about what you hear, what you see, what you encounter. It may be shots in the distance once per hour or so, it may be some bodies lying at the road, maybe smoke columns on the horizon, additional enemy patrols, small and big battles. Everything, you may expect during travel through the land plunged into war. What AC does is spawning certain amount of groups around the player with looped patrol routes an giving a good chance for them to encounter each other and/or some non-AC forces.

to spawn them in a radius + angle, like 1000m + ( between N and E in a 90 degrees angle)

No, too artificial feeling this will generate. War has to be around you, not ahead of you only. Plus, between spawn and possible, but not certain mutual enounter of two AC groups passes time, where player anyway may look in another direction or even go somewhere else and see nothing anyway. Player should be thrown between blind cogwheels of war machine and should not ever get suspicion, so this machine in any way cares about him a bit, so this is "for real", serious, no just an imitation, a show or illusion put before his eyes to provide convenient circumstancies for carefree looting AC bodies. If Alex under your control is crazy enough to try loot battlefield in the middle of raging unpredictable war instead of stealthy get around widely whole this deadly mess, like wise people do, if preffers to go, where he hear the shots instead of avoid such areas, then OK, but if so, he will be faced with logical consequences of such choice of actions. That's how the freedom of choice works here. You may and must decide, what to do, but consequences you can only predict sometimes. Key thing for immersion.

2. The initial WW3 in a pocket is nice to experience all around you. Maybe this can be reproduced later on? Again, I don't know what triggers there are and so on, but what if:

* when the player enters a town, with a probability of n% the assault timer would start. You don't want to make it happen too often either. And one wouldn't be able to survive if caught in the open.

* if the timer reaches 1 minute or something (e.g. the player is not just driving through), then:

* 2 warring groups spawn on opposite sides of the city with the goal of seizing it. Maybe 2x2 groups to cover all four directions.

* quickly switch to your teammates to hide them properly and enjoy the show

AC does not work in the way, that could be tweaked to such form. AC is simple in principle, and all complexicity of situations, it may generate, appears as pure statistical chance depending on circumstancies. That's the beauty of this solution. Something complex and unpredictable from simply rules. Not AC code is here a director of the show, no cool or hard situation is predicted and prepared deliberately by AC "for the player". All about player's experience of AC happens because of probability, complexicity and random chances, no one knows, what situation next time you encounter, no one controls this, including me.

Like "uh-oh, it's about to hit the fan"

Sometimes you are warned by gunshots or you may spot enemy from the distance, if you plan your path, so you have wide field of view, or even predict some shit, before it hit your face, sometimes you'll be completely surprised. This way it's meant. And that's why I often repeat: "use AC with caution and think well, before you do. Chaos of war is blind and ruthless". Again, it is war around of you, not a show prepared to give you directed-to-be-cool-but-harmless appearance of war.

Please no 2-3 MBTs per group if possible, even 1 should be rare.

Kinda agree, I'm just using predefined in the config groups, but perhaps I could intervene into group spawn code to limit amound of the tanks to single machine per a group. Maybe not in 100%, but often.

And after the fight has ended, the winning side should not stay there forever,

True, and it is scripted, so should be on the move constantly - every group has several SAD waypoints spread around and looped, so if some group stays in one place forever, it is some game's AI bug or anything, that prevents resume of the patrol route. For example, from my experience, statistically sooner or later every AI-led vehicle on the move, especially armored, will hopelessly stuck on some wall or another obstacle. Can't do anything about. Arma devs should.

[neofit 65]

No, too artificial feeling this will generate. War has to be around you, not ahead of you only.

Exactly, but what I am trying to say is that there is very little war around me. North +- 90 degrees was an example, me staying at the location of the last battle was an example too. Since groups are spawning all around me they have more chance of bumping into me than into each other, whether I am staying for 5 minutes at the same spot or moving. So I am seeing more separate patrols that are attacking me than groups fighting each other, they usually die before meeting an enemy, so there is not much war around me and this may as well be called "Extra Patrols" instead of "Ambient Combat". My suggestion to spawn enemy groups in the same quadrant was to generate more Ambient Combat as was intended, instead of just more separate patrols for me to loot.

AC does not work in the way, that could be tweaked to such form. AC is simple in principle, and all complexicity of situations, it may generate, appears as pure statistical chance depending on circumstancies. That's the beauty of this solution. Something complex and unpredictable from simply rules. Not AC code is here a director of the show, no cool or hard situation is predicted and prepared deliberately by AC "for the player". All about player's experience of AC happens because of probability, complexicity and random chances, no one knows, what situation next time you encounter, no one controls this, including me.

It wasn't a question whether AC can work that way, but more like a suggestion: if AC is enabled, is there a way to add an artificial big battle around the player in a town, with some extra code? Like the ones I have seen during my first hour on each of my two playthroughs on HIGH, but never after that?

Now that am thinking about it, both times it happened in the same village near Athanos, south of Neri, the first one you reach if you spawn on the farthest SW point, in an isthmus. Since I don't have a car yet nor any equipment, I am staying a long time in that area, looting and waiting for a TPW car to spawn, and since it is on an E-W shoreline, half if not more of the AC spawn circle around me is in the water. I have no doubt that there is code that prevents AC from spawning in the water, so units have about twice the probability of spawning in the same half and see each other, hence the reason I am seeing huge battles in that area, and nowhere else when I start moving inland.

Like "uh-oh, it's about to hit the fan"

Sometimes you are warned by gunshots or you may spot enemy from the distance, if you plan your path, so you have wide field of view, or even predict some shit, before it hit your face, sometimes you'll be completely surprised. This way it's meant. And that's why I often repeat: "use AC with caution and think well, before you do. Chaos of war is blind and ruthless". Again, it is war around of you, not a show prepared to give you directed-to-be-cool-but-harmless appearance of war.

I don't have a problem with warning or planning or protecting myself or anything. I can live through almost anything in Arma, I have thousands of hours since OFP, online and offline and bla bla bla. This was an extra suggestion for the proposed huge artificial battle in a town that I described in the paragraph above. You are in a town, merrily jumping from lootbox to lootbox, without a worry in the world, then all of a sudden you see a bunch of flares coming up on one, two or three sides, and go "well, better find a good place to hide asap". For immersion. And then many groups of armor and infantry converge on the town and start tearing each other apart.

[Rydygier 1302]

My suggestion to spawn enemy groups in the same quadrant was to generate more Ambient Combat as was intended, instead of just more separate patrols for me to loot.

OK, I see. Personally never complained about too little war around me even on LOW, but truth is, most probable area of meeting for the AC groups is close to the player. I should be able to change that, because indeed, perhaps player is too much involved in ambient combat currently. This will be still possible, but less likely.

if AC is enabled, is there a way to add an artificial big battle around the player in a town, with some extra code? Like the ones I have seen during my first hour on each of my two playthroughs on HIGH, but never after that?

Good thing about the scripting is, with additional code you can get many things. Such "artificial battles" too. Question, I must answer to myself is, if I want code such thing. So I'll think about, but for now I'm not convinced to that idea, but if this will be very rare event, then possibly... Technically it is easy to do, as long you only want to spawn around several groups of opposite sides, when player is in the town, all with SAD waypoint at the same point, without any special placements, settings nor behavior except those flares.

alf if not more of the AC spawn circle around me is in the water. I have no doubt that there is code that prevents AC from spawning in the water, so units have about twice the probability of spawning in the same half and see each other, hence the reason I am seeing huge battles in that area, and nowhere else when I start moving inland.

Yes, that sounds correct. I suppose, better would be not to seek for new positions until it is on the land, but do not spawn the group, if first chosen position will be located on the sea. This way we could avoid such "coastal compaction effect" and keep constant density.

This was an extra suggestion for the proposed huge artificial battle in a town that I described in the paragraph above. You are in a town, merrily jumping from lootbox to lootbox, without a worry in the world, then all of a sudden you see a bunch of flares coming up on one, two or three sides, and go "well, better find a good place to hide asap". For immersion. And then many groups of armor and infantry converge on the town and start tearing each other apart.

Hmm. In fact I start to like yours idea. :)

Edited May 12, 2014 by Rydygier

[ebarstad 18]

I came across a potential bug in 1.79 yesterday:

The Stomper started attacking me and my AI companion and every time it hit my companion, he would yell, "One, cease fire!" as if I had been the one shooting him. Perhaps there is something strange going on with whatever side the UGV is set to. On that note, I have no idea how my AI companion was able to survive multiple shots. Will the AAF or CSAT attack the Stomper or vice versa?

I noticed that patrols are running rather than walking now. Is that because of ambient combat? Prior to 1.79, I would see patrols but they would typically be limited speed, safe behaviour. Now they all seem to normal speed, aware.

I also wanted to say that I love the ambient combat. On low it's just about perfect for me. One of the highlights was watching a patrolling AAF Strider disappear around a hill, followed by a burst of gunfire and a huge explosion. Sure enough, there was an OPFOR roadblock around the corner that I hadn't known about. That's exactly the type of scenario I had hoped for when you introduced AC.

[Rydygier 1302]

Stomper will attack every human beeing and manned vehicle in range, choosing closest first. It is by default BLUFOR unit, so despite I, via script, made him renegade side (highly negative rating), seems, for the game's feature of friendly fire response it is still same side, as Alex' companion. Can't do much about it, just ignore. How your companion survived all these shots is mistery also for me. Khem. Could you try to kill your companion just for testing purposes?

[Rydygier 1302]

Today implemented most of latest requests and ideas, also I have own idea to add - reputation based mostly on kill count, also perhaps on other things, preceding Alex in form of rumors/gossip. This factor should have real impact on gameplay by altering chances for useful intel from civilians and maybe efficiency of interrogations too. From the other hand, if because of player some civilians will die, there may be higher risk of no useful intel or even more chance for pointing false directions. Apart from that there may be small immersion addition in the form of 3D text comments displayed over civilian's head, similar way to exclamation marks, that civilians may sometimes deliver when see the player. It may express indifference, enthusiasm, kindness, resentment, fear, admiration or some random thing...

So, soon possible 1.81 beta.

Edited May 13, 2014 by Rydygier

[Kommiekat 11]

Playing 1.8c, again.

I have a suggestion, but it will require a complete overhaul of what you are doing now.

Possibly could be done, but release date around summer, depending on how much time you put into it.

Suggestion:

1. Get rid of the ammo/weapons caches/boxes. Just not realistic.

2. Replace the boxes with Pawn/Bar shops selling weapons and ammo (black market) in various towns, or just one town.

3. Have a character named "The Contact". He is the guy who contacts Alex by phone to do side missions to gain money/credits for buying information and ammo/weapons and hitchhiking.

So, Alex needs money/points. How does he get them? Buy running side missions or just missions for "The Contact"

Contact calls Alex by phone to give Alex a list of missions to do or just that one mission, one at a time. Some harder than others, therefore more reward in money/points.

4. Or, just have the Pawn Shop owner or Bar Keep guy to give Alex missions.

Missions themselves:

1. Take over a camp

2. Steal an armor vehicle

3. Get info from a camp

4 Assassinate high ranking officer

5. Clear area of bad guys so new pawn shop/bar can open up in town

6. Dive to a sunken ship and retrieve something

7. Clear mines in a mined enemy bay

list goes on and on and on......................

You can include Air and Sea missions as well, not just land/infantry/stealth stuff.

Use what arma has offered you.

Alex can head on over to a local Pawn Shop and purchase ammo/weapons and Information.

Think about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Series.

Remember "The Bar" and the bunker?

Something like that. Can go there to purchase and trade.

Also, Alex can still recover weapons and ammo from dead units.

Bars/Pawn shops can be heavily defended zones that NO enemy can get into. A place where Alex and rest and shop.

Or, they can be mildly defended and he has to sneak his way in........

Again, like STALKER.

This suggestion of mine is a bit more realistic then having boxes all over the map.

Don't know how you can do this and how much time to make it, but perhaps if you ask some of the players in this thread, they can make and donate a few missions for you, saving you time while you script them up into a working method.

Don't even need "The Contact".

Just have Bar Keep give missions out.

Also, this will eliminate this whole phone thing system you have going. Actually, without sounding too bad, this phone system is a bit useless.

"The Contact" gives it some use or game functionality.

Just my ideas.

As I said, playing this for the 3rd time.............

[Rydygier 1302]

That's set of very nice ideas. What you described is more concept for wholly new thing, than way for improving Pilgrimage. As you said - this requires complete overhaul, left is only core platform. And I would say - why not. I also think, Pilgrimage could be something more, than just a single scenario, basing on it may be created many different missions and types of gameplay. Still, I like also Pilgrimage as is currently and I'm not intended to change it into something else. Instead, some day, I would try to start new project(s) based on Pilgrimage code eg something as you described. Yes, Stalker was/is a great game.

[ebarstad 18]

That's set of very nice ideas. What you described is more concept for wholly new thing, than way for improving Pilgrimage. As you said - this requires complete overhaul, left is only core platform. And I would say - why not. I also think, Pilgrimage could be something more, than just a single scenario, basing on it may be created many different missions and types of gameplay. Still, I like also Pilgrimage as is currently and I'm not intended to change it into something else. Instead, some day, I would try to start new project(s) based on Pilgrimage code eg something as you described. Yes, Stalker was/is a great game.

For what it's worth, I like how Pilgrimage is a search for the brother -- that's what ties it together and keeps my interest. I like Kommiekat's idea (a freelance PMC/STALKER type of game mode) and I think Rydygier is one of the few mission makers who could pull it off, but it would ultimately remove any need for finding the brother and change the feel of the whole mission. On the other hand, Rydygier, if you ever decide to make the kind of mission Kommiekat has described, I'll definitely play that one, too. Especially if you could make it portable to other maps.

[neofit 65]

reputation based mostly on kill count, also perhaps on other things, preceding Alex in form of rumors/gossip.

That's a nice idea. OTOH, like with any reputation system in any game, how would some civilian know that "hey, there is this dude who appeared on the island 3 hours ago, he already killed 239 people, including 2 civilians, now 241 people, 245, oh and and btw here he is" ;). In short, I just appeared a few hours ago, how do they know what I did and how do they recognize me? :) Those darn iphone15 satellite cameras!

I never reloaded when one of those silly civilians walked directly into my vehicle and got killed, now apparently I will have to or, meh, be more careful. And AI teammates will never ever drive again.

And I suppose we'll need a way to gauge our reputation, just like they know everything we do, we also instantly know exactly what they think about us. After a couple of hours of play, the Map>Statistics window becomes difficult to read. Maybe the menu option that show us our total ff amount could be expanded to give a short summary of infantry killed, vehicles destroyed, civilians killed? Maybe per faction?

Especially if you could make it portable to other maps.

Kommiekat's suggestion for a totally new mod is awesome, a dynamic version of the M.E.R.C.S. campaign, but I'd really love it if before starting on some new mission, Ryd could port the existing Pilgrimage onto some other maps. I am beginning to even learn the villages names on Altis :).

A Stratis version would be nice for shorter playthroughs. In Takistan it may be a little difficult to find churches.My favourite map is Taliana from Arma2, but I don't see it as a download for Arma3, looks like it never existed outside of the DayZ mod.

[Rydygier 1302]

Haha, yes, is assumed, information spread is nearly instant thanks to internet, cellular phones etc. gadgets. Of course I'll try to make it fairly reasonable, technicaly I can even implement any delay or influence range limit of gossip spread based on distance from the event changing the reputation, also statistically selective, so one will recognize you (cause eg he just spoken with a friend from the village, where you was earlier), while another in the same town has no idea, who you are, chances for both dependent on certain factors too. If this is not enough, I can even give each civilian own personality, so each will be influenced by given events in different degree. It is all doable, I think.

Edited May 13, 2014 by Rydygier

[doc. caliban 34]

Nope. AC is dynamic and will spawn groups constantly

Ah, that explains it. I think I will pass on AC during my next play through then as one of my favorite realism aspects of the mission is the fixed number of enemy ... the "every kill counts" factor.

While I like the extra atmosphere of AC and the chances of getting more supplies and info (I play with loot disabled and rely on what I can find on enemy casualties), I like knowing that an area that's been cleared out will stay mostly cleared out to a somewhat predictable degree when planning a larger attack on an airbase or stronghold. I play with AC on medium right now, so maybe I'll try low before disabling it.

Thanks for the reply!

- Doc

Edited May 13, 2014 by Doc. Caliban

[Evanw1256 10]

Hey! This is a really great mission, but I wanted to know if there was any way I could play this Co-op? Been wanting to play this with a friend for quite a while, if its not yet Co-op I would like to make a request for co-op!

Thanks for the great mission!

[Rydygier 1302]

There was numerous request to make it coop. I'm getting quite skilled in optimizing an answer for that question. :)

- Pilgrimage is SP only, no coop;

- theoretically doable, but making code of this mission MP compatibile seems time consuming and complex task, while I'm focused on SP, do not know well nor interested in MP generally and MP scripting particularly, and no really interesed in learning that;

- possibly I could try if/when all other Pilgrimage development aspect will be closed and nothing better to do, but:

- there is also design problem: how gameplay of that length fits to the single MP session?

[kremator 1064]

Any chance of coop? Just kidding! In time, in time will be soon enough.

[L3TUC3 32]

Just got done finishing the mission. Here's a shot:

My starting position was pretty neat, at a rocky outcrop jutting from the island. I made it to the town and looted some things and got some intel. The biggest surprise was the abandoned Ifrit HMG. This made the mission a bit easy, but I was still glad I had it. I killed a few AC patrols including an AA one. I took stuff I could use and ditched what I didn't need. Gradually made my way east by road, asking questions at every town I stopped and all kept pointing the same direction "East". Eventually I had to go by the International airport and the big military outpost on the hill. I attacked the outpost and pretty quickly got engaged by a Kajman!

Thank goodness for the AA launcher I took, the Kajman went down right away and crashlanded off the hillside.

There was a 4-man Strider motorized AAF patrol at the outpost and two of the men surrendered, while a CSAT AT team deciding to fight. As I killed the last CSAT guy, the helicopter gunner decided he had enough and I saw his icon pop up down the hill. He didn't know anything though.

http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/433780719274430259/EDA036B3D0BF3C9AECBCBBC8219975C3C48A6AD9/ (514 kB)

I suppose I could have fixed her up and used it as my transport, but with the rate I as finding AA teams I decided against it.

The rest of the trip was zeroing in on the right chapel and eventually it turned out to be the one almost furthest east. I actually really liked the location, it was pretty scenic with a great overlook over the sea. I don't know if it was intentional, but Altis Requiem was playing when I loaded up the body, which was pretty fitting. Then I went cross-country back to the boat.

Next time I'll be severely lowering the amount of loot (there was a bit too many icons in every town I visited) and turning off AC. In one town I was accosted by multiple squads and that was a bit too hard for me.

This is definitely a must play though.

Edited May 13, 2014 by L3TUC3

[Evanw1256 10]

There was numerous request to make it coop. I'm getting quite skilled in optimizing an answer for that question. :)

- Pilgrimage is SP only, no coop;

- theoretically doable, but making code of this mission MP compatibile seems time consuming and complex task, while I'm focused on SP, do not know well nor interested in MP generally and MP scripting particularly, and no really interesed in learning that;

- possibly I could try if/when all other Pilgrimage development aspect will be closed and nothing better to do, but:

- there is also design problem: how gameplay of that length fits to the single MP session?

Okay, sorry for asking again, I didn't know other people requested this... Thanks for the answer however! Maybe I can help you with the design problem.

If you mean the gameplay is too lengthy for a single multiplayer session, then just add saving! I am pretty sure it is possible, I got a zeus mp mission from the steam workshop that is apparently saveable, however I have not tested it out yet. I will test it out and let you know the results! :)

---------- Post added at 21:27 ---------- Previous post was at 20:26 ----------

I am gonna post this just to show how cool this mission is, basically I was playing the mission and was in the middle of no where, heading up towards Oreokastro, with a companion.

We were moving in a valley when I caught sight of a trail, it was 3-4 infantry moving north, while Viktor and I were moving North-East. We searched an abandoned house and found a pistol, sadly with no ammunition, then I caught the smell of smoke. I guessed this was a battle between CSAT and the guerrillas, so I kept moving NE. About a minute later we were on the right side of the valley, pretty high up, when I caught sight of an AAF camp, there were 2 infantry there. I decided to take them out, so we moved into position and ambushed them, after we took out the 2 infantry another man popped up from behind a crate, we immediately engaged. After a bit of firing the solider seemed to surrender, and we began moving up on his position. We were about 10 feet from the soldiers position when Viktor spotted an MRAP behind us, I quickly turned around and spotted a strider. We took cover behind a rock and while we did so I heard fire from a rifle, so I guessed the strider had an HMG not a GMG, but when I started scouting it out I saw an AT infantry had unloaded and was firing on us, so we took him out and quickly discovered the strider actually was equiped with a GMG. Viktor used his grenade launcher to disable the strider but was killed, so I attempted to take cover in the camp (viktor had no more grenades), I was hoping the weapons crate we spotted had an AT missile launcher, but I was killed when I was attempting to take cover.

Over all it was a fun experience, and I will continue to play this map! I highly recommend this map!

[pvt. partz 248]

First I want to thank Doc. for answering my call regarding.......

A few ways to save:

1. You can go into the game difficulty settings and enable unlimited saves.

2. The mission auto-saves when churches are checked, you find intel on a body that eliminates some churches, and when you get intel from a base commander. (2 airbases and 2 strongholds, locations for which are randomized)

3. There is a brand new feature that allows you to enable autosave every 20 minutes: Hit 0 then 8 to get to the "supports" commands. On of them will enable / disable the auto saves.

.......however!? .......please don't get mad:pc:

I did exactly as the quote instructs. I even saw in the top right corner that "autosave is enabled". Incidentally, I am playing the standalone version as I saw earlier that this might help with the save option dilemma.

I just played for about two hours when I was ambushed and ended up getting killed. There were no save options to restart from. During my game play I was watching the clock and I never saw any indication that the game was saving.

If I ever found a map/mission that I wanted to play it is definitely this one.

Thanks chik

[Rydygier 1302]

The only thing, that prevents autosaving, if indeed enabled, is the rule, so autosave may occur only, when it is safe, to avoid "it saved 1sec before I died!" situations. So, if player knows about any enemy or vice versa, autosave will be delayed until that knowledge is gone. So, if you spent those 2 hours on some fighting, or just spotted by some enemy all the time (eg vehicles may be spotable from far distancies), then lack of autosave is expected. Otherwise - it isn't expected. It works for me though. In general, I strongly recommend get a habit of regular manual saving. That's in fact the only reasonable option, to save the progress in the middle of battle.

[alky_lee 276]

Obviously a case of mistaken identity. I don't know whose body I found, but it was very strange. Perhaps Phil killed him before he was killed as well. I have markers on for all bodies and clean them up manually, so if killed by ambient combat the body should have had a marker, but didn't. I clean up bodies as I leave an area. I will have a good look around the town in the daylight to see if Phil's body is around. Latest intel is to move West.

I stayed in Chalkeia overnight and did a complete sweep of the town in the dark with nothing. I did a methodical sweep of the town again at first light and still nothing, and still no mark on the church. There was another chapel to the west which hadn't received a mark either, which I hadn't stopped at because a UGV was steaming down the road at me at the time and which then chased me for miles. When I got there again, Phil's body was lying on the beach. I had driven right past it before, although I was obviously distracted at the time. It probably didn't mark the church and autosave at the time because it wasn't safe. I did notice on the way back that enemies continue to attack the vehicle with the body in it, even if you get out. Also the Stomper gets shown as a friendly kill, even if it was nothing like friendly when I killed it.

This was an epic mission for me taking over 10 hrs, dying 36 times and going from the south coast to the west coast to the north coast and very nearly to the east coast. If you look at the map (https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/108396495895212158241/photos?pid=6013222289762756722&oid=108396495895212158241), you can see it would have been a relatively short journey by boat although I probably couldn't get close enough to the body, with the boat, to load it. More than a couple of times I found myself as the meat in the middle of an ambient combat sandwich, which accounted for a large number of my deaths, especially trying to take on a Marid and squad of armoured infantry. If I had succeeded, I would then have had to deal with an unknown number of AAF infantry who were wandering into town for their bit of AC. I even died a few times in my hiding spot, upstairs in a house lying prone, but the AC going on just downstairs was awesome. I can see how some might be tempted to turn off AC, but I would recommend that you try it a few times with your missions but no higher than medium, and probably best on a low setting, as it can be quite hairy if you do get caught in the middle.

I think the quest for the body is the thing that keeps this mission together, and it is an integral part that you go into towns to look for loot and intel with the higher risk of meeting enemy groups in town. I only have some markers for loot set rather than for all loot boxes. It helps to avoid having too many markers in towns and sometimes you find loot/intel when you are not expecting it. Whilst some players only want loot in camps and strongholds, that would completely change the nature of the mission for some players. I love just wandering round the countryside trying to find the body, popping into towns occasionally and taking on a few enemies when I feel like it, or have to in order to get out of a sticky situation.