[SP] Pilgrimage

[Rydygier 1302]

But I too think that someone who can afford a helo insertion and extraction into another country, at war, in the middle of the Mediterranean, is powerful enough to have sent an elite team of PMCs instead of risking his own life .

And for sure would have better gear... :) 3000 IMO is just enough to reach "civilization" or at least position close enough places with more ff to obtain from any starting postion.

Thanks a lot for ton of ideas, we are thinking similar way about the sequel. I'll consider all this. And I think, I have idea, how this should end - as described earlier, there will be at the some distant point "the end of the party" in form of CSAT return, that will put on test Altis (its defensive power) changed by player actions, so he could feel full responsability for his choices and deeds on the full, grand scale (and, of course take part in the war).

For sure it will be dynamic, not scripted-linear. My great secret is (do not tell this to anyone :) ), I'm more a scripter than mission maker, so dynamic gameplay is way closer to "my kingdom" than inventing mind blowing, complex story with many characters, tons of voice acting, surprising twists, suspense, directed carefully cut scenes... Others are great in that kind of stuff, I'm not. And, as always, I strongly preffer to do something fairly new, than repeat, what is already well or very well done by the others, like Whole Lotta etc. (if I'm repeating something done already, it is mostly because I had no time/opportunity to learn about that).

[rsoftokz 288]

or simply finding intel to point body out of the island, to the south on Stratis ( true or not , you might have the option to take the boat to land on Stratis to look for the body and find it/ or find intel to finally point the body to Altis where you'll have to go back ....

just a way to spend more hours on the mission.

;)

[neofit 65]

I found and fixed a 2S9 Scorcher and thought I'd try and use it in the mission for a change. Like try to bombard or drop mines on an airfield a few km away. But then I thought that I'd units there may be cached when I fire. At what distance from me do they really spawn?

[alky_lee 276]

Alex is quite happy to take on jobs and kill people for money. For a sequel, how about a warlord wants to get his hands on the mad Stomper to use it for his own ends, and is willing to pay Alex big money to get it for him. Alex needs to find the terminal in order to control it. Once he has the terminal, he then has to find the Stomper and a vehicle to transport it in, which would need to be a truck or a large transport chopper that could only be found at an airfield/stronghold. He then has to deliver it safely to the warlords stronghold to receive his cash. The terminal could be found in a certain type of building, whose location is shown on a map/laptop, that could be found at a solar station or research building. Obviously Altis would have the same political climate as exists in the first mission.

I did have an idea for my own mission where the player spawns unarmed at a semi-random location, and has to assemble a team to go and Kill the top man on Altis. He would have a range of randomly spawned friends/neighbours available to recruit who in the first instance will provide access to a vehicle and a weapons cache elsewhere on Altis. He could then travel with his team to collect from the caches. When the team is assembled and armed, they then make their way to the place where the top man is, in order to kill him. The player has to enter the building alone to deal with the HVT. While he is in the building some of his team turn renegade and all kinds of weird stuff goes on. When he comes out of the building into a whole new world. Mission complete. In this case the random loot wouldn't be required, as weapons would be from the caches which can be improved on from encounters on the way. I could certainly see a use for the rest of the Pilgrimage engine in this mission.

Just a couple of my thoughts.

[Rydygier 1302]

Just a couple of my thoughts.

Thanks a lot. :)

I found and fixed a 2S9 Scorcher and thought I'd try and use it in the mission for a change. Like try to bombard or drop mines on an airfield a few km away. But then I thought that I'd units there may be cached when I fire. At what distance from me do they really spawn?

True. 2000 for infantry, 4000 for motorized/mechanized/armored groups. Choppers, mortars and mad UGV not cached at all...

[pvt. partz 248]

I can't stop playing but this incessant rain!!! It has been raining for 9 hours!!! Still so much fun though.

Where in the Altis is he anyway?

[Rydygier 1302]

Where in the Altis is he anyway?

Each gameplay body location is randomized from the vicinity of every chapel and church, so you have >200 potential places, where the body may be located.

[neofit 65]

We receive an SMS in-game with coordinates of potential strongholds. I put them all on the map for later reference, as well as the locations of all the airfields. In all there are two strongholds and two airfields with strong garrisons and an officer. Hit them to get more circles.

I had one rainy mission too. Felt like forever, but when you think about it, it's just one rainy day.

[rsoftokz 288]

pouring rain, shining sun... alternate randomly it seems :)

rain sucks at night as it decrease sight quality with NVG ( rocks are hard to see between bushes and sometimes you'll need to spend FF to fix a broken wheel or engine when bumping hard on a rock )

for now I only met 2 strongholds on a game: that gives you the ability to hire a mercenary -if not killed when you are breacking the stronghold- to add him to your team (might be usefull to make a vehicle crew with gunner and commander )

[Rydygier 1302]

I set overcast on 60, dropping in time to 51 (minimal chance for short raining from time to time). Also fog is set to 1% (+ fading ground fog at init). No other alterations, rest is up to Arma engine or weather mods, if any used (like TPW's FOG component).

[rsoftokz 288]

personnaly I don't mind if it is rainy or sunny (OK sunny is more enjoyable with lights effects and always good for state of mind, especialy when you are living in a country where it is often rainy in RL )

Fog is quiet cool (like the one at dawn when you land on the island

weather is not a matter for me (I have to say fog and minimal sight distance is quiet exiting sometimes )

[Rydygier 1302]

1.81c beta updated:

- ADM car markers easier to spot now;

- removed items (watch, compass,GPS, map) from civilians;

- new action visible, when player has assigned armed vehicle close enough, to search for and transfer any suitable magazines inside near empty vehicles;

- if Alex will obtain UAV terminal, can "hack UGV" (added explanation in "to do" entry of Alex' Notebook).

Ammo transfer - works for any empty vehicles in 20 meter radius if player's vehicle is armed. Affects every found this way magazine, that can be used with player vehicle's weaponry.

Hacking - if Alex has an UAV terminal assigned in the GPS slot, knows about UGV and is close enough, two new actions will appear - to disable UGV (boom) or reprogram (so should attack only Alex' enemies). Reprogrammed UGV still may be "boomed".

Hacking progress is indicated via hints and takes considerable amount of seconds, where speed of the process is dependent on signal strength (distance and obstacles make the signal weaker). If signal strength is too low (distance above 100 meters or 80 if LOS is obstructed), connection may be lost and whole process must be repeated. So it is tiny mini-game by itself. Best progress speed Alex may get, when close and not obstructed LOS, but in the same time it is obviously very dangerous. Simple destroying the UGV may be safer solution, but if player hasn't good enough weaponry, and instead obtained in any way UAV terminal, hacking may be the only option. Alex will comment the success.

Edited May 19, 2014 by Rydygier

[rsoftokz 288]

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS !!! well done........

I just have to end my 1.79C, upgrape my arma and try the new version.

thanks a lot for all work done.

[alky_lee 276]

I could have used being able to hack the stomper on my 1.8c mission I started last week. My first enemy contact was the mad Stomper. I had to use both my SMG mags to try and disable it. I managed to take out two tyres and get away from it. I then found the body but didn't have a vehicle. Luckily I had found a couple of HVT jobs and they both have vehicles, so I have now liberated one of them for my personal use.

Meanwhile the Stomper is still active, judging by the increasing number of body myarkers near to it's last position.

All this is within a few hundred metres of the boat.

With the reputation system, do you get any credit for healing injured civilians? I've found quite a few so far in this mission.

[Rydygier 1302]

I could have used being able to hack the stomper on my 1.8c mission I started last week. My first enemy contact was the mad Stomper. I had to use both my SMG mags to try and disable it. I managed to take out two tyres and get away from it. I then found the body but didn't have a vehicle. Luckily I had found a couple of HVT jobs and they both have vehicles, so I have now liberated one of them for my personal use.

Meanwhile the Stomper is still active, judging by the increasing number of body myarkers near to it's last position.

All this is within a few hundred metres of the boat.

Usually it is considered extremely unlucky - to meet the Stomper so early. IMO you did great, so you not only survived, but even disabled two tires. :)

With the reputation system, do you get any credit for healing injured civilians?

No. For Pilgrimage I prefer to keep it simply from user side. Most probably this will be expanded with such nuances in the sequel.

[kavoriken 1]

- removed items (watch, compass,GPS, map) from civilians;

Wow, thanks for fulfilling my request so quickly. All items can be found only in houses now?

[Rydygier 1302]

All items can be found only in houses now?

Also randomly at some bodies of fallen enemies, but chance for any such item except a watch is low here.

[kavoriken 1]

Good stuff, gonna check it out right now.

One more weird thing i noticed when i just started the game: Whenever i play a fresh game it starts off with very low fps that drop even more when i move. Got like 36 fps when standing and 20 when walking. Saving and loading the game always fixes it for me and then i usually get 45-55 depending on the location i started at, so it`s not really a gamebreaking problem, just a weird thing happening on my side. Mods i play with: TPW and a couple of weapon mods (FHQ, NATO_RUSSIANS, FHQ M4). No AI mods though (AI functions of TPW disabled). Caching method used: D-R.

[Rydygier 1302]

Yes, save&load for some reason may fix such issues. Probably because of specificity of A3 "architecture" or something like that. Sometimes makes difference, if I start the mission just after "fresh" game launch, or rather after I load Altis in editor first (which also helps for some of such problems). Anyway, low FPS at init expected, but after 10-15 seconds, depending on PC, settings and place, should reach values, you mentioned.

[neofit 65]

Weird stuff. I don't need to reload the game at the very start, but every 2-3 hours my framerate suddenly drops to 15 and below, and a reload won't fix it, I need to completely restart the game and then I'm back to 30+. Also, about half the time I start Arma3, the framerate on the background little animation we have when looking at the menu is around 20 fps, and I have to alt-tab to the desktop and back into the game, then it goes to 50-something.

[alky_lee 276]

Usually it is considered extremely unlucky - to meet the Stomper so early. IMO you did great, so you not only survived, but even disabled two tires. :)

What I didn't say was that my only available direction to escape from the Stomper was towards an enemy position with static weapons. I know this because I was killed by a static GMG. I didn't record my escape from the Stomper but I didn't expect to survive, but it couldn't engage me because I was lying in a ditch and it was too close to me. I did record my encounter with the Stomper which is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z79BDbB7Ks

I went back there this morning and the Stomper was gone, so I went and got the body and took it back to the boat. I completed the mission this time in around 2.5 hours. I can now download the latest version to have a go at that.

[kavoriken 1]

About the map: I love playing with TPW enabled. Is it possible to remove the map/compass/gps from the TPW spawned civilians as well?

[Pruplethingz 1]

Awesome mission!

If I could make one request; could you change the "green circle intel" circles to outlines, rather than shaded? Currently, if you do a lot of HVT missions and get a lot of overlapping circles, they make it quite hard to read the map.

Alternatively, perhaps each new piece of intel could reduce the circle size slightly, rather than adding a new one?

[Rydygier 1302]

Reason, why it is half-transparent (shaded) is because this way you can more easy recognize common part of all circles (darkest), which is crucial to narrow area of the search. With outline it becomes too messy to find it for more than 2-3 circles. Reducing radius of the single circle instead of adding new one could be an acceptable alternative. Although I prefer current way, if many users will request such change too - I can do that.

Is it possible to remove the map/compass/gps from the TPW spawned civilians as well?

Technically possible (kinda), but this will be very crude, heavy and not elegant nor reliable makeshift, also I do not want to make my code intentionally and directly interfere with the work of another mod. It is never recommended. So I'll not do that, unless i find easy and reliable way to do so, must to try something. Anyway, I recommend to use for this mission rather built-in civilian ambience (pedestrians), than TPW's. Only for the inner solution some features are available. If however you want TPW's civs anyway - I recommend to ask TPW about such removal items option. Do not know however, how he'll react on that, as this is quite specific request, still, from TPW's side it is about few code lines.

EDIT: after some check - what I can do, should remove these items from any civilians around the player cyclically, which is enough in most cases, but not 100% reliable, and burdens CPU probably on acceptable level. Still much better is to implement this from TPW's mod side, at unit spawn.

Edited May 20, 2014 by Rydygier

[kavoriken 1]

EDIT: after some check - what I can do, should remove these items from any civilians around the player cyclically, which is enough in most cases, but not 100% reliable, and burdens CPU probably on acceptable level. Still much better is to implement this from TPW's mod side, at unit spawn.

Sounds like a pretty good idea. But i agree: Performance is the most important thing.

And it's not really the civilian module i care about that much when it comes to TPW, i care much more about the ambient cars and planes, as that helps a lot with immersion on my side. But of course the civs driving the vehicles have maps/compasses/gps`s as well.