Best immersion setup for missions?

[mech 3]

Hi, I'd like to get a few comments on "immersion". When I play with friends I normally create the missions and it's enough for our group. I'm not really good at scripting but I love immersion and I want the players to get a feel for the environment.

What do you guys do to increase immersion in ArmA3? The setting and missing details make it quite hard sometimes.

My best experience so far:

@ALive

Roadside IEDs

AI Addons (@AISS, @ASR_AI)

COS (Civilian Occupation Script) or @TPW

Only real units and no science fiction stuff (Marines, hmmwv, caf aggressors, russians,...)

Why ALive:

Creating a planned and real environment of a running big battle and the player inside of it, seems to be the best Immersion to me. If you start at an airport for example where your Evac chopper is located, you can't guarantee that it will still be there after a few hours of gaming. Maybe you succeed with your mission but your homebase is taken over? Plan B? Even for me as mission designer these missions are fun to play as I don't know a lot more then anybody else.

Details:

I think it is very important that the mission designer works very detailed in the preparation. If the players come to the usual Altis with clean houses and empty streets, you can kiss any hopes for immersion goodby. Give the players a chance to "feel" the environment. At least in the beginning. Place some details around or simply reduce visibility (or get them inserted by chopper or stuff).

What do you guys do to increase immersion?

[barbolani 198]

First: Ramdomness. The less predictable situations are, the better. War is allways unpredictable. UPSMON is good on it.

Second: AI using features like smoke. Smoke in real combat is extremely useful. Vanilla AI does not use it. AI tweaking (UPSMON again or some other scripted smoke) gives more inmersion. Mines would be a fine addition too.

Third: Ambience. I allways place units fighting (no ambient combat, real units placed with different results in combat) in the surroundings, you feel, like master Bardosy says, "A small but important part of the battle".

Fourth: Good defensive positions for you and specially for AI. Watching AI fighting in the middle of nowhere is something that fucks this game. No human being would stand in the middle of a Street or field without coverage in combat situatons. When I design a city / base assault, I allways place carefully some deffensive / static AI in obvious positions like towers etc..

Fifth: Inter-Arma. Inf vs Inf or Tank vs Tank is boring and unrealistic. Arty, air superiority for one side, assimetric fighting, logistical needs, and as you say, not allways available, are good additions.

Sixth: TEST TEST TEST TEST

[eXpouk 10]

Its a little bit more difficult to create immersion in MP sessions due to decreased performance and some useful commands not working in MP properly (animations etc). Like Barbolani said having the AI use smoke is good and also fill the mission area with wrecks, civilian cars, dead bodies, broken buildings etc.

Play your mission through yourself and pretend you don't know what's going to happen. If you're not happy with how it "feels" and how it plays out, think about ways to change it until you've got something you're happy with.

[Belbo 461]

All those things mentioned are adding to immersion obviously - but in a more extrinsic way. My scope always has been an intrinsic approach to immersion. Immersion is about breaking down the walls that remind you of not actually being present in the game world and not only about creating this world.

One big part of being immersed into Arma is not being held back by the limitations of the game:

Addons that reduce movement limitations (like adding a jumping animation or gestures) and those that add necessary features that aren't present in the game (like weapon-resting, placement-adjustments for static guns, magazine repacking and so on) are one way to achieve that (and a cheap way too, as those addons mostly aren't larger than a couple of kB, and can be nicely placed in a single modfolder alltogether (as long as no licenses are being infringed)).

Missionwise this means implementing scripts that give players the possibility to solve each problem in every way thinkable - just because Arma3 doesn't allow you to attach explosives to vehicles, you shouldn't be able not to do it - or logistic-scripts, repair of vehicles, even stuff like group joining scripts are necessary for this.

The player should have the biggest sense of freedom possible. If the player hasn't got the feeling that he's playing a game and isn't being held back by the limitations of said game, he can truly immerse himself into the game world.

[Alpha-Kilo 36]

Barbolani and pergor mentioned very important factors which contribute the very general term immersion. I would add civilian and animal life to ambience, especially if the mission does not tolerate "collateral damage". It's great if you have armed civilians, or rebels, that mingle with harmless people.

Another interesting factor is fear of life. Play the same mission with unlimited respawns, limited respawns and without respawn. I am sure that in the latter case your players will be immersed deeply. Restrict healing, so that players try to avoid getting hit instead of doing "recon by fire".

You may also want to consider limited equipment for your players: A night mission without NVG, for example. But the enemies may have them. The hope to find useful loot will add to the immersion. If only a few players possess navigating equipment the squad will stick together. Think compass for everyone, maps for fireteam leaders and GPS for squad leaders. Use your imagination: Create a mission where the players think they get equipment to their heart's content and destroy it early in the mission. Instead of armoured vehicles with guns, thermal sights, spare ammo, they are reduced to a mere foot patrol in a hostile environment. They have to outsmart an enemy they cannot outgun. This can be extremely immersive, especially if the situation is unexpected.

Good and efficient communication is also part of the immersion. Ask players to communicate only relevant information during the mission. Players who talk about their favourite pop group tend to kill the immersion for others who would rather transmit a contact report. A compromise: Create one chit-chat radio channel for those who must have such a thing.

The weather: Many people comment that the typical sunny and cloudless Mediterranean setting feels too much like a summer holiday, too friendly for war. This is not true because terrible things happen in beautiful countries but fortunately we are talking about a game where the mission maker may change things to please the players. Create a gloomy atmosphere by choosing dawn or dusk, an overcast sky, maybe even rain. Suddenly Altis looks very different.

[surfer 42]

I agree with Pergor that the player should have the feeling of freedom and options how to achieve the mission goal. On the other hand I also think it's important to set the boundaries of a mission. I do this by limiting visibility through obstacles, darkness, rain and fog. Finding an interesting spot for a mission is most important to me.

In GreyOps, one of my missions, there's a swampy river covered in fog you'll want to follow. Sure you can walk on the open field but there's no cover there and more enemies. In other missions I'm setting up a pitchblack night and then add some lights here and there so it's clear where the action is. Removing NVGs also allows you to stay hidden until you want to start the fight.

And then there is setting up the skills and armament. I'll usually have the spotting distance at around 0.2 and weapons without scopes. I was so tired of fighting pixels at 400 m distance, not it's man vs man.

Last but not least the immersion is coming with additional sounds. Nothing which is important for the mission, just a barking dog here and a nightowl there. You can grab them at freesound.org

I would like to continue but I have to get back to the editor ;-)

[barbolani 198]

Hiya! Just a comment about the freedomness and stuff limits.

Arma is probably the game that allows the most freedom around the scene.

But giving the player a whole map to play is not a must, it depends on the mission you are making.

For example: Domination / Warfare etc.. of course, limiting the scenario ruins the misión.

BUT: in the typical "Assault the Beach" mission, you may sacrifice that freedom (the APC / Chopper drops you and just go forward, kill everyone, conquer the base) and spend your time on improving things like defensive positions / AI, atrezzo (planes passing by, wrecks etc..)

Regarding equipment limitations: I disagree. Limit your equipment may make the mission interesting (lights vs NVG, for example), but not necessary inmersive. May make the MP more cooperative, but it doesen't mean inmersive too.

Limiting things like GPS... well... 80% of people has a cheap one on his car / Smartphone, so, why it is not present in your 2038 (or 2014, who cares) war? Except captive situations, I couldn't get inmersed in a mission which lacks of GPS while I am an american soldier, something I won't beleive...

Same about weapons without scopes... damm, this is not Flashpoint 1985.

Another VERY IMPORTANT thing I forgot: VOICES. 99% lack of them. I suppose people is shy and don't wan to act. Understandable. But for me, are a must if you want to make your mission inmersive (and good)

[Von Quest 1161]

1. Good atmosphere/occupation mods (@ALiVE, @TPW, @JSRS, @TASK/ACRE Radio, etc)

2. NO HUD! Get rid of 'helpers'. No Crosshairs, Waypoints, Map Info, etc.

3. NO Respawn!!!! One Life! Psychological/Sub-conscious. Extremely important!

4. Randomness! No guarantees. Mission, AO, CAS, Supply, Time, Weather, etc.

5. No 'scripted' movie-style (console-esque) type of Mission; get simple orders, move out...

[Belbo 461]

5. No 'scripted' movie-style (console-esque) type of Mission; get simple orders, move out...

That's a good point: I completely discard tasks in my missions. Firstly it's pretty annoying to do, especially if you want to provide jip compatibility, and secondly, with tasks players don't have to figure something out on their own.

If they get a radio message: "Prophet reported a huge explosion at 123-567, investigate the surrounding area and try to find out, what caused the explosion!" they should open up their map, make markers, try to find a way and so on. If they want to know what the task was, they should take notes - and not rely on an entry inside a map menu. A couple of markers preplaced in the mission (like the player's HQ, possible areas of enemies, routes for patrols and so on) help the players to look about - but the rest should be up to them and a well written briefing.