[SP Campaign] M.E.R.C.S. - mercenary expendable ruthless covert selfish

[voiceofarma 24]

sorry I forgot to say which mission, above comment is about "ransom" mission.

so after I killed all guys include that in the car who killed our guys in stadium, the task won't complete.

[IndeedPete 1038]

Ah, okay. There should be an action either on the car or the dead passenger to grab the ransom. Taking that will allow you to finish the mission.

[voiceofarma 24]

I just tired that a lot but nothing did show up in action menu

[IndeedPete 1038]

Are you sure the passenger is dead and didn't run away or something? Any mods in use?

[voiceofarma 24]

surely he was dead I embty whole my bullets on his head! then get in his car so he dropped out of car and also checked his body, I played mission two times and it was same.

[IndeedPete 1038]

Any mods in use?

[kbbw123 115]

surely he was dead I embty whole my bullets on his head! then get in his car so he dropped out of car and also checked his body, I played mission two times and it was same.

it happens sometimes that the passenger does not hop in the car but stays at the station. so it might be that he is there instead of around the car

[voiceofarma 24]

oh thanks I was alway wrong to chase that car! because the man who never did get in car had ransom not that driver! so I completed mission much easier! seems that guy who has ransom never get in car I played mission for five times, seems need to be fixed.

thanks

[IndeedPete 1038]

Weird, he's actually being ported into the car because of that bug. I'll take another look at it, but I'm glad you can proceed for now.

[USTF 10]

One of the best campaigns not only for ArmA 3 but for the whole series. Small yet pleasant details, like markings on the helo or the Badass One's plane, animations, duel system and so forth, are just great. The storyline, though sometimes questionable, is interesting. I particularly like the 'private military contractors' setting, as it is an area of interest for me.

I've been playing the campaign for three days and still can't get enough. Grand job!

Some bugs occurred during the campaign but none of them were critical, though I had to restart missions quite often. The above-mentioned bug with the ransom guy has also occurred (he stayed at the stadium and I only managed to, let's say, convince him to give the ransom back by accident - wouldn't have known about him if I had chased the car as planned).

By the way, most of the times in dialogues McMillan is called "Miller". Brought a bit of confusion at first, as I thought he was somehow connected to the CTRG and the East Wind storyline.

Just wondering, is there an English translation of the phone conversation during "VIP"? Would be interesting to know what the German was talking about.

Thanks again for your job (: can't wait to see Contention Zone released.

Edited January 3, 2015 by USTF

[IndeedPete 1038]

Hey, really glad you enjoyed it! Sorry for the bugs thought - seems like every time I fix something another bug pops up. Pain in the ass to seek and destroy these bugs after every game update. I just don't have the resources to fully test the campaign after an update. If you can pinpoint some of the nasty ones I'll look into it. But I'm afraid there will always be something.^^

Well, McMillian's model is obviously Miller's hence he's named Miller when hovering over it. I can't even recall why I took him; guess I've just put him down "temporarily" and then forgot to change it. You could see M.E.R.C.S. as some kind of parallel universe, some characters from The East Wind are there but with slight differences. (Ben Carry has an appearance too.)

There is no "offical" translation of the German VIP convos as they're not really relevant for the story. (I just needed something to shorten the long ride.) But I've quickly made one:

(On the Phone) Yes? ... Altis, pretty run-down ... Yeah, hm. ... I'll arrive soon. ... Protecting our investment? What do you think I'm doing here?
(On the Phone) It was your idea. Against my advise. Remember, you- ... Okay, if you say so. I'll report in again once I know more.

(On the Phone) Is it done? ... Then tell him that I will deal with him if- ... Alright, I rely on you.
(On the Phone) I think you're well aware of what will happen to your son if your husband fails his task. Don't call me again until it's done.

(On the Phone) Hello? ... Yeah, I've got everything. ... We should meet. ASAP. ...
(On the Phone) It's very serious. The results are off the charts. ...
(On the Phone) Yes, I think it's likely that we're being intercepted on the way.
(On the Phone) The AAF can't protect me. These mercs will have to do the job.
(On the Phone) Understood. I've been in deeper shit before. Wish me luck.

[USTF 10]

Well, thanks for the translation, it's pretty interesting to read. Gives a better picture of this Engel and his character, too.

Some other thing showed up in my mind. I don't usually take NPCs with me on missions, but tried it a couple of times. So I took 3 or 4 of them with me (the TCR was, thus, 95%) on one of the earlier missions (with Drazen) and as soon as the mission started in the helicopter I got "Mission Aborted: you better run fast, traitor" sign or something like that. It immediately switched to "Renegade" mission with Raif near a lighthouse... well, at least it was a clear and painless shot in the head, yeah.

Is it a bug or what? What caused the mission's abort? If I go on the mission with just Drazen, it's all good.

And another one, regarding the mission with extracting an IT freelancer. I'd chosen inserting with 4 Brits via heli and they couldn't get out of it once the heli touched ground. Tried both "disembark" and "eject" commands, neither worked so the bird just flies away with them on board. Raif may also get some injuries as the script ejects him while the bird very quickly gains altitude after grounding. Had to take a pickup.

However, none of the bugs I've faced were critical or even annoying as it is pretty easy to just change my behaviour and it all runs smoothly. No need trying very hard to fix them as well, in my opinion.

[Perlesvaus 10]

First of all, I enjoy playing the campaign, you did a great work, good story telling, great immersion, and some missions are really good.

But I've encountered some bugs :

One of them I've managed to cheat my way through, in the mission where you have to capture the spanish professor, the helo touch the ground, get back airborne and then eject the player who dies from the fall, I used the camera function to teleport myself above the water and managed to survive.

The second is a gamebreaker, in the assault on Black Mesa, I've found that the first objective, regardless of what insertion you chose, doesn't validate. I've first played the assault part, and after hunting down every last enemy on site, and used the camera to check for hidden ones, the objective "assault black mesa" (or something like that) did not validate, so the mission didn't advance, also the truck with the device was not present on the base.

I've decided to change the method of insertion, and chose helo instead, but same bug, when I destroyed the generator nothing happened and the mission was stuck, also the device wasn't here

I'm using just two mods, TMR for ballistics, reduced body protection and resting weapons, and ASR_AI3 which improves the AI.

And I've seen a lot of page ago in the thread, that you said there wasn't a happy ending, but I find that when you choose to quit ION before the British Knight storyline, and then get an opportunity to shoot the human trafficker bastard in the head and get away with the money, that is a pretty good ending for this poor Raif

[IndeedPete 1038]

Yes, though I wrote it before really knowing where the story would go - and then forgot about it. :D

Hm, the Renegade thing is actually the first achievable ending, triggered by running away from the combat zone, i.e. betraying the mercs. It happens when yo leave the AO, not sure why aditional manpower would cause this behaviour. Do you recall in which mission this bug showed up?

Another guy reported a similar thing. Normally, every AI gets ejected automatically on touch down. My fear is that the heli DLC patch and its new features changed something and now the eject fails. Will have to investigate. Damage on disembark is sadly a thing that happens quite often (for me even on regular, i.e. unforced disembarks).

[USTF 10]

I forgot to mention that I'm using quite a number of mods, though most of them are just weapons/units addons, and only one of them - TMR - may somehow affect gameplay.

I think the mission was about scaring a client who turned down ION's protection and chose the Black Arrows.

One more thing, Perlesvaus above mentioned a mod which improves the AI, and I think of downloading it now. If I start using this mod in the middle of the campaign, may I face some problems or crashes? Is it better to start the campaign from the beginning every time I change my mods set?

Edited January 4, 2015 by USTF

[IndeedPete 1038]

I don't know what TMR does but use it at your own risk.^^

Thanks, I will look into that once I'm back home from Christmas vacation.

Well, AI mods can break something, especially when messing with pathfinding / driving. It can lead to unexpected behaviour (AI not showing up as planned etc.). Again, use at your own risk.

You should be able to activate a new mod and then continue the campaign. You might have to restart the current mission. Changes in your mod base will only become a problem if you own a mod weapon and then deactivate the weapon package - the game will try to place the missing weapon in your box and probably throw an error message because it can't find said mod weapon. Hence I advise to not remove a mod weapon pack mid-campaign unless you're sure you don't have any contents from the pack in your box / inventory. The shop doesn't care which mods are (de-)activated, it extra checks for every item if it's available anyway.

[USTF 10]

Well, thanks again for the campaign, it's great.

If any other bugs occur, I'll let you know.

Have a nice holiday (:

[USTF 10]

Was also looking at the campaign's scheme and it surprised me that the hostage girl could be saved. Both times I played she'd been already dead.

How do you get her out of there alive? Starting "Hostage Down" right after "Ransom Demand"? Can't remember in what sequence I completed the missions though.

[IndeedPete 1038]

Nah, it's not the girl which can survive, it's that beaten up sufer also hanging around in the shack (Ben Kerry). ;)

There's no girl in the campaign because - well - Arma sadly doesn't have any girls...

[Wiki 1558]

Was also looking at the campaign's scheme and it surprised me that the hostage girl could be saved. Both times I played she'd been already dead.

How do you get her out of there alive? Starting "Hostage Down" right after "Ransom Demand"? Can't remember in what sequence I completed the missions though.

According to the guy you find during the mission, the girl got raped, beaten and dismembered by the guys who took her.

@IndeedPete:

how to make the MH-9 replaced by AH-9 when I've bought one? As it's said an engineer can take the baskets off and replace them by weapons.

Plus, is there a way to take control of it and use it as CAS?

[IndeedPete 1038]

It's automatically available for CAS if you don't use it for insertion and the mission supports it. Usually, every mission that allows an insertion by helo allows CAS as well. The air strike itself is handeled by BI's support module.

[voiceofarma 24]

I just used campaign cheat code to see all of your missions and found and played some mission which occurs if player choose to bring device for euroforce and csat forces, but in that mission where "flashpoint" suggest me to choose on one them, I just found that only that german guy had a dialogue option in conversation, csat and euro force and aaf guy just suggested their reward but no there was no option for accepting them.

[IndeedPete 1038]

You don't need to accept anything. Provided you've heard their offers you'll get the task to steal the device for them in the next mission. Then you can decide what to do, e.g. play nice until you've got control of the device truck and then betray the Knights and leave for another offer.

[voiceofarma 24]

so after stealing truck where to go then?! no mark on map, for example for taking truck to aaf or csat or german guy? I just stole the truck and brits guys fired on me and i scaped but didn't know where to go

[IndeedPete 1038]

Do you have a task to deliver it somewhere else? (You only have these tasks when you heard the offers of the other factions and their representatives are still alive.) Then you can set this task as current and should get a destination. They should be marked on the map as well.