Looking for Testers: Development Snapshot - Mercenary Campaign

[IndeedPete 1038]

Hello fellow Armaholics!

You may have been annoyed by some threads of mine in the last few weeks related to campaign development:

Concept Question - Saving / Changing / Using Variables throughout Campaign

REQUEST: FSM Config - "campaignFSMA3.cfg"

Spin-Off Release: Simple Conversation System

This time I require your help and thoughts again as I have been able to create a working "snapshot" covering a small intro mission, a central hub, three small missions and one outro (I'm curious if you will find it. ;)). What I would like you to do is download the snapshot from the link below and copy the extracted folder to your Arma 3 dir (not missions - plain A3 dir) and then start the test campaign from the Campaigns menu ingame. I'm interested in any thoughts on what you will see there, but particulary I require feedback about playability (errors etc. as well as concept - do you understand what is asked of you?). Also feedback to the shop system is greatly appreciated. Lastly, I would like to know how you find the general atmosphere, especially in the hub.

Feel free to explore stuff and don't always go the obvious way. Try out the conversations created by the conv system, even if it requires some reading. But always keep in mind that this is an early pre-alpha snapshot and nowhere close to release. There are tons of stuff not implemented yet or simply represented by placeholders. Details, ambient stuff etc. is mostly missing within the relatively small missions (each maybe around 20 minutes play time). Just try it and share your thoughts, I would like to know if I'm on the right way with this. Spending your valuable time on playtesting and feedback is greatly appreciated and will be rewarded with a digital cookie - or a real one if you live close enough. ;)

DOWNLOAD

---------- Post added at 12:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:26 PM ----------

Oh, and it's all running testmode at the moment which means you will encounter some debug hints / markers and you are invincible.

Edited April 19, 2014 by IndeedPete

[fight9 14]

I'll try to give it a run later today. Sounds pretty cool. I haven't seen many campaigns for Arma 3 yet.

Since it wasn't mentioned, I'm guess its just vanilla Arma?

[IndeedPete 1038]

Yes, vanilla Arma 3. No mods required and honestly I don't know how it will behave with mods. Future plans however include to (optionally) add weapon packages and user made islands if there will be any good.

[das attorney 858]

You should totally enter the MANW contest with this mate ,suitably expanded of course, (before someone 'borrows' your hard work/ideas and enters them anyway!) - having some choice in the missions would be a big freedom compared to linear campaigns.

Edited April 19, 2014 by Das Attorney

[IndeedPete 1038]

Yes, I heard about the contest and the prizes but I'm not interested. I'm doing this for fun, a contest would only mean I have to fully commit to that and enter competition with other user's projects which I like and support. Like Kydoimos' campaing for example. Arma is for me something I do off-work, even if I call it "work" sometimes. As it is, I have phases (like now) where I like to spend a lot of time in the Armaverse and there are some times I don't touch it at all. I'm glad if you like what I do, that certainly helps to motivate me, even when I'm not in the mood for editing. So thank you for your feedback!

As for other people taking my ideas and work: feel free! Take every piece of code or every inspiration you see in what I do. I copy other users as well and I think it contributes big time to my own creativity to see what others did. Of course, I earn a mention in the credits if you take something from my code or concrete ideas! Which brings me to another important point: this snapshot also contains many scripts from other users. If you're one of the great, yet unaware contributers be sure that I will give you full credits in the proper release!

Lastly, Das Attorney still deserves a cookie for his feedback. And since England is not in the neighbourhood I have to deliver it digitally: *gives delicious chocolate chip cookie right out of the oven* :pet8:

[das attorney 858]

nom nom! :)

[SavageCDN 231]

I heard there were fresh cookies in this thread......

[Kydoimos 916]

Great to see this! I'll try and take out a moment to give it a blast!

[IndeedPete 1038]

I heard there were fresh cookies in this thread......

Only for those who commit their valuable time to a greater cause. ;)

[cobra4v320 27]

Stupid question here, where does the campaign folder go?

[IndeedPete 1038]

Simply into your Arma 3 dir as I said:

The Campaigns folder is like the Missions folder a dir to collect several Camapigns/Missions. If you would have it already you could merge mine with it. It won't override anything.

[Kydoimos 916]

Lol, hi Cobra - that's exactly what I asked in another thread! Yesterday! http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?176374-Campaign-Creation-Folder-Location

---------- Post added at 19:45 ---------- Previous post was at 19:42 ----------

And looking forward to your campaign, Pete - good screenshot too, I appreciate the time that goes into that! Always a nice touch!

[IndeedPete 1038]

And looking forward to your campaign, Pete - good screenshot too, I appreciate the time that goes into that! Always a nice touch!

Thank you, have an imaginary white chocolate cookie with caramel sprinkles on me! I'm a bit confused which screenshot you mean. I assume it's the one in the first post and not my A3 dir.^^

I'll have all screenshots reworked, I'm not happy with most of them yet. Have to get into photoshopping / graphic design anyway because of work reasons.

[warlord554 2065]

As soon as I hit download, it piggy backed a virus attached to your DL. Not your actual file but from the site, advise you use a different upload site

[IndeedPete 1038]

Hm, never had that issue with zippy. Changed the link to dropbox, was time for me to enter the cloud world anyway. Thank you for the heads up!

[kremator 1065]

Downloaded ... checking it now IP.

[cobra4v320 27]

Simply into your Arma 3 dir as I said:

http://abload.de/thumb/unbenanntu1ja9.jpg

The Campaigns folder is like the Missions folder a dir to collect several Camapigns/Missions. If you would have it already you could merge mine with it. It won't override anything.

I didnt even read your first post just immediately hit download. Got too excited. I will post feedback later tonight.

[surfer 42]

Looking excellent so far! Looking forward to continue playing it.

The story is great and is leaving a lot of room to develop your character. Could be a little bit more dramatic when the group arrived and got their welcome gifts. It unfolds nicely and the first mission is well told and fun. I could imagine having a first mission that you would have to complete without even having a weapon.

Technically it's all quite self explanatory, the laptop interface works well but I managed to break it: After confirming the first mission a second time the task dissapeared and couldn't be brought back. Reload helped.

Another small bugger: At the shooting range the one guy was shooting the floor in reverse direction.

After I completed the first phase of the daddy's mission and have seen the black & white screen the game crashed to desktop.

[IndeedPete 1038]

Looking excellent so far! Looking forward to continue playing it.

The story is great and is leaving a lot of room to develop your character. Could be a little bit more dramatic when the group arrived and got their welcome gifts. It unfolds nicely and the first mission is well told and fun. I could imagine having a first mission that you would have to complete without even having a weapon.

Technically it's all quite self explanatory, the laptop interface works well but I managed to break it: After confirming the first mission a second time the task dissapeared and couldn't be brought back. Reload helped.

Another small bugger: At the shooting range the one guy was shooting the floor in reverse direction.

After I completed the first phase of the daddy's mission and have seen the black & white screen the game crashed to desktop.

First, thank you for your feedback, greatly appreciated! *hands crispy bacon cookie - yes, this awesome shit exists*

I agree, I'm not totally happy with the opener / introduction as well. I will add some stuff. Maybe even let them shoot down the other civies in front of you. It all goes too fast in my opinion, the main character should be more resistent and confused - I'm not sure if the punch animation from A2 is still in the game but I could put it to good use. We'll see.

I'll look into the task thing. Normally, it should delete the old task and create a new one dynamically if you select another mission. I'm aware of the shooting range problem. It seems like dictating many targets in short time fucks with the AI. In the first few cycles the guy usually hits every target perfectly but then he starts drifting and sometimes even kills the rangemaster by accident. The script is quite simple as it basically just pics one of the six available targets and then says doWatch, doTarget etc. After a certain period of time the target is set to nil which causes the guy to put his weapon down. Then the cycle starts again. My guess is simply an AI / scripting command problem. It was hell to make him shoot at papertargets at all since doFire is broken in A3. I'll do some further testing or at least make the poor rangemaster invincible. :D

Hm, haven't had a CTD there. Was that when the mission ended, so when the establishing shot is supposed to come up? Did you use any mods or did you experience these problems also in the official campaign? Maybe you could even check your .rpt and post the error log here? I couldn't thank you enough!

[KevsNoTrev 44]

Great start so far.

Found that the conservation dialog had the Nikos speaker images from his perspective and not facing him at the beach/dock the image was flicking all over the place due to this.

Played to end of first contract and found no other issues. Will pass on any others I see.

I would love to see something like this as a co-op game mode. It would be great. Of course the travel from Stratis to Altis won't work but that's no real issue.

[cobra4v320 27]

• I noticed that if you take your civ clothes off you cant put them back on. I was running around during the first mission in my underwear. Sometimes I like to get naked in the middle of a mission dont judge me.
  
• I noticed the guy at range also he kept shooting the range master.
  
• I had a guy doing a patrol come into the little barracks where you stay and got stuck against a wall near the computer and just kept walking in place.
  
• When we bring back items from the missions can we sell them for money to buy other items?
  
• Weapons Pool during mission brief?
  
• Make the markers at the base disappear when at a certain distance like in the BI campaign. I know how to do this if you are interested.
  
• When I chased after the guys in the ransom mission at the stadium when I caught up with them they were just sitting in the car and never got out.
  
• The usual awesome driving skills of the AI crashing vans into walls.
  
• When we dropped the ransom money off the guy running up immediately sees me and starts shooting then stops then the mission kind of stopped. I had to restart, samething except the mission went forward this time.
  

I did enjoy this so far it has lots of potential. Still have a mission or two left to beat. The camp is also very well done. Not sure if you know this or if its intentional but you can get weapons, grenades, and ammo out of the large ammo box over by the mission brief area.

Edited April 20, 2014 by cobra4v320

[IndeedPete 1038]

Addition to the task problem: After doing some research I can confirm that if you've picked a task and then try to pick the same task again it will break the whole task but the briefing (mission start) is still accessible. It seems like the BIS functions behaved a little bitchy there. And additional check with exitWith seems to solve it.

Great start so far.

Found that the conservation dialog had the Nikos speaker images from his perspective and not facing him at the beach/dock the image was flicking all over the place due to this.

Played to end of first contract and found no other issues. Will pass on any others I see.

I would love to see something like this as a co-op game mode. It would be great. Of course the travel from Stratis to Altis won't work but that's no real issue.

Thank you, have some blueberry! Yes the attachTo point seems to shift in some animations causing the camera to show stupid things. I don't have an idea for a proper fix yet but I'll think of something.

Making it COOP playable would require to at least reconsider a lot of functions I've already wrote as well as severe changes to the mission flow. But maybe in a (few) spin-off mission(s) after the campaign. The shop system and its function package can be easily applied to any mission. So if somebody already wants to use it, feel free to take it and ask if you have questions on how it's working. I'd be happy to give you a quick run-down. Travelling between the islands would be possible if it would be a full COOP campaign I guess, not tested obviously.

---------- Post added at 03:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:00 AM ----------

• I noticed that if you take your civ clothes off you cant put them back on. I was running around during the first mission in my underwear. Sometimes I like to get naked in the middle of a mission dont judge me.
  
• I noticed the guy at range also he kept shooting the range master.
  
• I had a guy doing a patrol come into the little barracks where you stay and got stuck against a wall near the computer and just kept walking in place.
  
• When we bring back items from the missions can we sell them for money to buy other items?
  
• Weapons Pool during mission brief?
  
• Make the markers at the base disappear when at a certain distance like in the BI campaign. I know how to do this if you are interested.
  
• When I chased after the guys in the ransom mission at the stadium when I caught up with them they were just sitting in the car and never got out.
  
• The usual awesome driving skills of the AI crashing vans into walls.
  
• When we dropped the ransom money off the guy running up immediately sees me and starts shooting then stops then the mission kind of stopped. I had to restart, samething except the mission went forward this time.
  

I did enjoy this so far it has lots of potential. Still have a mission or two left to beat. The camp is also very well done. Not sure if you know this or if its intentional but you can get weapons, grenades, and ammo out of the large ammo box over by the mission brief area.

Thanks, I'm running out of cookies here. ;) Have a plain one with lots of Nutella on it.

I noticed that if you take your civ clothes off you cant put them back on. I was running around during the first mission in my underwear. Sometimes I like to get naked in the middle of a mission dont judge me.

-> If you take them off via vanilla inventory? Well, you can't change uniforms during missions as BIS prevented us from doing so. But even if you "lost" it you can re-apply it anytime in the shop system under "clothes". The civie clothes should be always there.

I noticed the guy at range also he kept shooting the range master.

-> Aware of that. *looking up a few posts*

I had a guy doing a patrol come into the little barracks where you stay and got stuck against a wall near the computer and just kept walking in place.

-> Typical A3 pathfinding problem I'd guess. They're set to SAD so they would wander around randomly. Nothing I would worry about.

When we bring back items from the missions can we sell them for money to buy other items?

-> No, I thought about it and maybe implement it in the future. That would require me to "mirror" all vanilla config entries to define prices. I did that already for all the stuff you can buy there. We'll see about that feature.

Weapons Pool during mission brief?

-> Might be an option once I figure out how to use the weapons pool (as the only method I know is config based and thus not dynamic) and tranfser stuff to it.

Make the markers at the base disappear when at a certain distance like in the BI campaign. I know how to do this if you are interested.

-> I'm not sure what you mean. Are you talking about the regular map markers showing shooting range, home etc.?

When I chased after the guys in the ransom mission at the stadium when I caught up with them they were just sitting in the car and never got out.

The usual awesome driving skills of the AI crashing vans into walls.

When we dropped the ransom money off the guy running up immediately sees me and starts shooting then stops then the mission kind of stopped. I had to restart, samething except the mission went forward this time.

-> Yes, putting the AI into a driving mission was not my brightest idea. Especially in this mission a lot of stuff can go wrong with those two nutheads in the car. I'm thinking of solutions, maybe even apply unit-capture. Also, the guy should be running away and not open fire on you. One way to fail the mission is getting detected too early but it's currently deactivated by testmode. I'll do some reworking and maybe change some parts.

Not sure if you know this or if its intentional but you can get weapons, grenades, and ammo out of the large ammo box over by the mission brief area.

-> Hm, seems like I've missed to clear that one. I have to admit I've copied large parts of the hub from BIS' hubs (thank you guys). They even had a generic function to clear boxes and cars of cargo. Maybe I should "steal" that too. ;)

Edited April 20, 2014 by IndeedPete

[KevsNoTrev 44]

I have noticed the ambient Civilians tend to pop into existence very close to player, I was driving to the first mission on a replay - just to try again - I almost hit a spawned hatchback before anyone was spawned to drive it. civilian pedestrians also popped into being within 50m of my location.

I was at the turn off near the make-shift soccer pitch on the way to the pirate hideout.

[cobra4v320 27]

This is what I mean with the markers. A really small example mission. This is what BI uses while in base. I thought it was neat. Once you are in game zoom in and out while using the map.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/82kk0h62zis3m3h/visible+markers.zip

[IndeedPete 1038]

I have noticed the ambient Civilians tend to pop into existence very close to player, I was driving to the first mission on a replay - just to try again - I almost hit a spawned hatchback before anyone was spawned to drive it. civilian pedestrians also popped into being within 50m of my location.

I was at the turn off near the make-shift soccer pitch on the way to the pirate hideout.

Yes, I know. I use the Civilian Occupation System by BangaBob. Though it's a good approach in populating the empty Altis with civies I'm not happy with it. First issue is what you've mentioned that they're popping up right in front of you. While you could simply run over a single guy standing on the road it could easily break your car if there's a huge truck spawning right in front you. And second at least on my machines this script has a vast impact on performance. As soon as you enter a city - BAM! - framedrop because the script spawns them all at once. I think I have to take a day or two to make up my own proper populating system. Or does anybody know another script-based solution that already exists?

This is what I mean with the markers. A really small example mission. This is what BI uses while in base. I thought it was neat. Once you are in game zoom in and out while using the map.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/82kk0h62zis3m3h/visible+markers.zip

Ah, I see, never even noticed that in the campaign.^^ I will do some testing and adjusting, maybe I'll include it, thank you!