SP Campaign: Op Cold Rising - Episode 1

[oksman 37]

Operation Cold Rising

Episode 1, Episode 2



Situation / Story

Hellfish is a platoon in the AAF tasked with counter-insurgency, they fight for the wrong causes but alas the men of the platoon are honorable soldiers that follow orders, I would love to show another part of the war by following the path of the Altis Armed Forces and their ruthless activities against their own populace. However every soldier in the AAF does not feel completely right about the current state of affairs. Episode 1 is the first mission I've ever released on Arma 3 soil, thus the first glimpse of Singleplayer experience I wish to deliver unto you, the community. Follow 1-1 as the replacement second-in-command, fight through forests and towns and eliminate the growing insurgency, that seems to grow constantly even though the AAF have pushed their advantage and introduced COIN tactics.

Mission Features:

No Addons required

Auto-Saves

Night Firefights

Fully voiced mission (60+ dialogues)

Custom Sounds

Immersive Combined Arms action

Close Air Support

Aerial Insert & Extract

Counter-sniper engagements

Small Cutscenes to guide the story

References to movies and other things

On-Call Mortar strike (Use of Smoke grenades)

Reaction Dialogues (Triggers dialogues depending on situation)

Coordinated plans of assault and orders to follow

The use of Mines and other explosives

Sidenote:

I've created this mission and thought of entering the competition afterwards. I'd love the chance to prove my experience in Arma and release a mission for the community to enjoy. So far after 2 days it received a lot of great feedback and comments, reaching 2000 subscribers on Steam Workshop within those 2 days ensured me that I would work further to make the SP community happier.

Episode 1 - http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=238174989

Episode 2 - http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=323192330

A few Comments with Feedback from Steam Workshop

"Amazing mission! great work, well coordinated feels like orignal game campaign mission, WELL DONE!"

- donKASSIM

"I have no doubt that this is the best scenario i've ever played."

- Destroyer

"This is fantastic, the best mission I've played in Arma 3 and one of my favourites from the whole series. What I find interesting is that the gameplay is largely what one would describe as the "core" aspects of Arma: small unit tactics, non-linear approaches, immersion in the mission, yet a lot of missions just seem to lack that somehow. Can't wait for the next one!"

- nzflagtag

"One of the best Mission ive ever played in the Arma series....hope we get a second part....thanks for ur work"

- SaigonJinn

"A true masterpiece, and an honorable tribute to your father. Looking forward to more of your work. Good job Oksman."

- Variable

"I play Arma since OFP times and this was one great mission :)"

- Zirgs

"Without a doubt the best mission yet, great work1"

- Steven.turnbull

"The best mission ive played on arma! well done"

- Kaner-20

"Congratulation, very good mission. The war feeling is better for me then in the offiicial campaigne. Thank You for that great job!"

- tuzkov

"Great mission, just great. I have yet to finish it but It has been already loads of fun and challenging fire-fights. I play on novice AI level and the AI accuracy is just perfect: not too strong, not too bad. You got my upvote, keep it up!"

- Frank

"I just suffered from a MASSIVE jaw-drop. So good. Mission feels very authentic and was a great fun to play. Background, combat, objectives, mission flow, attention to detail, everything is perfect! This scenario blows my mind and can be compared with BI ones anytime. Thank you very much. I enjoyed it a lot."

- H.o.p

"That was amazing. I can only agree with tophercook, If didn´t know better, I would say this is made by Bohemia." - Revo

"This is an excellent "bohemia quality" mission, truly. The details were fantastic; the gravesites of the white raven upon reload after shift from day to night was sublime.. Great work."

- tophercook

"I havent even finished this yet and had to come here and rate up + favorite. Why isnt this 5 stars!!! Dude you guys are so awesome for taking the time to build something like this. I wish i knew how to put such an awesome mission together. Keep up the great work and once i finish this i hope to see episode two soon!"

- GigaS

Regards OksmanTV

Edited October 6, 2014 by Oksman

[13islucky 10]

Ooh, this actually looks quite good. There may be one problem though:

Custom Music (Jimi Hendrix, Buffalo Springfield, Creedence Clearwater Revival)

I do believe that there are issues regarding copyrighted material (including music) that may lead to... complications to its status is MANW.

[oksman 37]

Yeah I am aware, it won't be in the final version that I post on their site.

[Wiki 1558]

The best SP mission I played on ArmA 3 so far!

Much better than any BIS ones!

[barakokula31 10]

Just playing the mission as I'm typing this, the first recommendation would be to put an epilepsy warning, both in the mission itself and in this and the workshop. The intro is really flashy.

Secondly, the rangefinder is in the player's inventory instead of being in the binoculars slot.

When assaulting the mortar position, there were two riflemen on the ground and neither of them was shooting at me. I assume this is a bug.

The rest of the mission was great!

Just another thing I'd like to add is that I'd recommend removing some of the AI from the buildings, they're either too good or completely oblivious.

[oksman 37]

Just playing the mission as I'm typing this, the first recommendation would be to put an epilepsy warning, both in the mission itself and in this and the workshop. The intro is really flashy.

Secondly, the rangefinder is in the player's inventory instead of being in the binoculars slot.

When assaulting the mortar position, there were two riflemen on the ground and neither of them was shooting at me. I assume this is a bug.

The rest of the mission was great!

Just another thing I'd like to add is that I'd recommend removing some of the AI from the buildings, they're either too good or completely oblivious.

I added the epilepsy warning, I was fearing that it would be slightly flashy thus harmful, didn't come to mind first though but it's there now. Video might change because of this, but I've been unable to find a replacement just yet.

I've played with the rangefinder and tried getting it into slot, but assignItem doesn't seem to work for it. I'll look into it.

AI shooting back and being completely oblivious is sadly a fact of the game, I've spent most of the month trying to solve these AI issues with scripting to help the flow but I've been unable to solve every issue the AI has. And sad to say it's quite a lot, it took a lot of energy and time to solve those issues and it sucks that it still occurs here and there.

AI in buildings were a tough choice, adding letting them outside would just help tear them apart by the APC support, tough choice but I thought it were possible to use AI inside buildings but again, they seem sort of weird and buggy especially when facing the walls inside a house.

Thanks for the feedback! I'll look into it and perhaps change it in the next few days

Edited March 18, 2014 by Oksman

[L3TUC3 32]

I've played with the rangefinder and tried getting it into slot, but assignItem doesn't seem to work for it. I'll look into it.

That's because it's considered a weapon, same as binoculars and the laser designator.

unit1 addWeapon "Rangefinder";

AI shooting back and being completely oblivious is sadly a fact of the game, I've spent most of the month trying to solve these AI issues with scripting to help the flow but I've been unable to solve every issue the AI has. And sad to say it's quite a lot, it took a lot of energy and time to solve those issues and it sucks that it still occurs here and there.

I have the same problem with my night mission. The AI is really oblivious to the point the mission is not enjoyable as they don't fire back.

The only problem I had with the mission was the onLoadMission. "In absence of orders, go find something and kill it". It just really didn't jive with the overall tone of your mission, especially as your staff sergeant tells you not to make unnecessary casualties among the civilians right after the intro during the insertion.

The other nitpicky thing I found a bit odd was the enemy counter-attack after taking the rebel outpost. Coming in from the west it was pretty much directly from 1-1-A. location. Other than that it's very solid scenario with pretty ace voicework. Too bad about the friendly AI being invincible, it's pretty exploitable making the mission far too easy. It's also very long (took me an hour), you could've split it in two parts no problem.

[oksman 37]

Ah well about the Rangefinder I've not tested it yet but I'll give it a go.

About the OnLoadMission, it's not supposed to be descriptive as it's actually a quote from Erwin Rommel. It does not describe my mission

About the Counter-attack, I was very very limited in the terrain I chose and I realized that after making that event, so I planned 1-1A to move south along the flank of the assault up towards the town but in essence, yes it doesn't make a lot of sense.

About the time the mission takes, well it's sort of down to taste. I wouldn't have wanted the mission to be two parts as my previous missions were considered to small with 30 minutes. If you read the description of the mission you'll know that it wasn't planned to be tough and all the choices with AI and all that is mostly because of that & the story

Thanks for the feedback

[L3TUC3 32]

About the OnLoadMission, it's not supposed to be descriptive as it's actually a quote from Erwin Rommel. It does not describe my mission

It was never sourced ans seems highly unlikely. In any case, it would still be an idea to perhaps use quotation marks and include the originator to avoid confusion as the onLoadMission text is typically used to briefly describe missions.

"In absence of orders, go find something and kill it." -Erwin Rommel

[oksman 37]

Yeah came to mind. Doesn't fit very nicely though, I changed it to make it 1 line and more text will break that :)

[Kydoimos 916]

Hi Oksman - looks great! Word of caution though, on custom music: all those bands are under copyright. Not only would your entry be forfeited under the rules but you could get fined a huge sum of money (granted it's unlikely, but...). There's some excellent royalty free websites with some Arma-esque tracks. Maybe go for some of those instead?

---------- Post added at 11:38 ---------- Previous post was at 11:33 ----------

Sorry - just seen that you're aware of that! Good-o! Shame though, bloody copyright. Give me a shout if you like, I'll try and dig you out those music links.

[Kirill 1]

Very large crowding opponents. Looks very conditional. Better to remove from the blue lights on the gun.

[oksman 37]

Alright well! I've now applied the campaign on MakeArmaNotWar, feel free to show support by voting.

I've also removed custom music for the contest. Feel free to give your opinion of the mission.

I took a look back at what happen when I started editing this mission. And I dare say I was motivated and cheered up by the people on Steam Workshop who gave me endless support to create another episode in the Cold Rising Campaign.

I've added the feedback that came to mind to show you what others think of it. Directly quoted from the people at Steam Workshop, if you're around here. Thanks a lot for your support!

Cheers

OksmanTV

Cheers

Oksman

Edited May 4, 2014 by Oksman

[Kydoimos 916]

Hi, Oksman - how's the campaign coming on? You should give Wiki a shout and see if you two can organise a community interview to promote your entry. Also, it'd be cool to hear more about the project!

[albr01 10]

Great episode! Good work and I am looking forward for the next one.

When will you release it?

[oksman 37]

Heya! I've had some issues with bugs and I've been tasked with keeping COOP sessions up for my group. I've spent a lot of time sorting out bugs now for Episode 1 that miraculously appeared.

After I've successfully restored Episode 1 into playing shape, I will continue with Episode 2. Currently I'd say Episode 2 is worth 25-30 minutes of gameplay as of now, could be even more. It's splitt into 3 phases, first phase is complete, 2nd is close to completion and 3rd isn't planned yet.

I will try and solve those Episode 1 bugs and then move on to completing and testing Episode 2. With the editing style, I sort of have to spend a lot of time in looking for bugs, as my mission is quite strict and depends on flawless AI and trigger executions.

Anyway, I'll try and keep you guys updated but most of my attention go to Steam Workshop when corresponding with people who've played the mission

Cheers

OksmanTV

[albr01 10]

Heya! I've had some issues with bugs and I've been tasked with keeping COOP sessions up for my group. I've spent a lot of time sorting out bugs now for Episode 1 that miraculously appeared.

After I've successfully restored Episode 1 into playing shape, I will continue with Episode 2. Currently I'd say Episode 2 is worth 25-30 minutes of gameplay as of now, could be even more. It's splitt into 3 phases, first phase is complete, 2nd is close to completion and 3rd isn't planned yet.

I will try and solve those Episode 1 bugs and then move on to completing and testing Episode 2. With the editing style, I sort of have to spend a lot of time in looking for bugs, as my mission is quite strict and depends on flawless AI and trigger executions.

Anyway, I'll try and keep you guys updated but most of my attention go to Steam Workshop when corresponding with people who've played the mission

Cheers

OksmanTV

Sound great! I experienced a bug yesterday in your mission. When my squad should board the APCs they just werent there. The second squadleader (next to me) kept ordering his men to board the vehicle and they very stubornly kept on refusing this:)

[oksman 37]

Yes I'm aware of this, I've been working with clan missions and lots of other things so I've been really busy. Currently I'm working on a fix, we've actually solved that bug but. Well, it sort of created more issues. Currently I believe we're on the final mission to test, if it's good I will upload it as soon as I can confirm it's working

[albr01 10]

Great, keep up the good work:)

[oksman 37]

Put an update right now trying to solve those issues marked out before. I'm still confused as it sort of worked perfectly fine on my side but for everyone else it didn't work, which I find very mysterious, but anyway. Should be updated, if anyone is able to test it out that'd be great.

I'd love a confirmation that it works again, Episode 2 is now returning to progress

[uk100 10]

Just played for the first time. Very good but a couple of bugs I found in the sniper section:

- The LRPS sight doesn't seem to fit on the Lynx sniper rifle given, so I had to use an ARCO sight I think I picked up earlier.

- Eventually got the snipers, but I was told an enemy vehicle was on the way on the Southern road. Seemed to turn out to be a couple of riflemen instead.

[oksman 37]

Work on 2nd Mission is underway, expect release during this week.

[Wiki 1558]

Good news!

[oksman 37]

Delayed until Sunday or Monday, voice acting is not fully complete and bug testing is still underway. A cold has stopped my progress so I have to delay it slightly.

Edit:

Additionally I believe I've solved the issues in the first mission, sniper event with running fools instead of a vehicle should be fixed and the phantom voice during the night events.

I'm going to release the 2nd mission on Monday, today 06-10-14

Edited October 6, 2014 by Oksman

[oksman 37]

Episode 2 Finally Released right here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=323192330

I've tried creating a collection and putting that as the steam ID to Make Arma Not War, but It's broken and says I'm not the owner of the collection. Am I the first to get this or does anyone have this as well?