Jump to content
IndeedPete

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

Recommended Posts

It is possible but really tough without drawing some attention.

I did it, inserted by boad at night and brought a redbreather. Dived like one or two kilometres (that took some time...), placed a charge on the freighter (without detonating it yet), then dived like 500 metres to the west, where I made my way from the beach to the western side of the scrapyard, carefully dodging the patrols. Found a hole in the fence, shot one patrolling guard with my silenced gun wirthout triggering the alarm and made it below one of windows. Then popped in a frag and ran for my life same way back to the beach, only returning fire when I had to. Went into deep water again, triggered the freighter detonation and dived all the way back to the boat. Takes some time but it's possible provided you're careful and patient.

When doing it undercover I usually bring some claymores I place in the Captain's room. The range is big enough to make it to the harbour without detonating it. Then I steal a boat, blow up both charges at the same time and hope the guards won't hit me before I'm out of their combat range. Last time I did it that way I actually made it far enough but then I ran into a patrol boat which kicked my ass.^^ Another way would be to take a squad with you, let them wait at a good covering position, detonate the charges and then let them cover you on your way back. But I've never tried a frontal assault, not sure how that would turn out. It could work if you get hands on the APC standing around unlocked at the AAF maintenace depot, never tried though... ;)

Yeah, it's that supid Seized By trigger. There are sometimes OPFOR who still think they're controlling the area even if their base is burned down and all their friends are dead. I've already lowered the size of the trigger but still, it seems to cause some nasty seek & destroy action for the player in some cases.

---------- Post added at 02:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:02 PM ----------

Oh, and Surfin' R.o.A. also has a different alarm system. It's pretty heavy on the scripting engine because every unit constantly evaluates if there are enemies near by and if so, it can trigger the alert after a few seconds. But with so many AI it stuffs the slow scripting engine. Doesn't really affect the overall performance but it seems to slow down script execution. Never used that approach again but I just don't like the detected by trigger because once an enemy sees you it doesn't make sense if you take him out immediately - the trigger will fire nontheless. This kind of makes real stealth missions a bit annoying.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I did bring one of the smaller explosive charges apart from the satchel, because I didn't know how much I would need to bring down the boat. So having it as spare, I planted it in the room with the captain, I went to the east with the intention of triggering in the border of the possible radius (~295 mts) and then run away. But I saw a civilian little semi I could drive nearby a enemy strider. So I got it, I drove over the nearby soldiers to avoid them firing me once the alarm would trigger, then I triggered both charges, and drove east, with the car hull protecting me from some shots.

edit: god I could swear the AI drives tanks not better, but worse than in Arma 1/2.

---------- Post added at 14:07 ---------- Previous post was at 12:38 ----------

I lost an expensive TWS scope, 2 PCML missiles ($800 each), several magazines and a sniper scope with the stash. Not funny. :(

---------- Post added at 15:44 ---------- Previous post was at 14:07 ----------

A question. Is there any incentive to do the optional objectives like the mission with the A10 or the tank mission where you also can destroy the AAF base?

And the whole encryption thing... 95% of people are going to google it up...

Edited by Turin Turambar

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah, tanks love to get stuck on these little walls. I think this has been on the feedback tracker since Beta or so?

How did you lose it? What happened?

You actually named two objectives which are there "just for fun". There's no real gain except from maybe more / better loot and just more time spent in a vehicle. I find it hard to construct really long vehicle missions, especially with planes or helos, because they are just made for rather short support / attack scenarios. You can't just land a helo and use a few mags from your dead enemies to reload or refuel it. Hence you always need bases or make the missions short enough. So, the objectives are just there to generate (optional) playtime because the current reward system doesn't allow bonus payments.

Most likely. Though it's something unexpected and based on the messages I've received some people just instant panic when seeing a mathematical function or binary numbers. Quite amusing to see how different people approach problems, largely based on their background. The task is pretty simple: I give you a function and some numbers to fill it. The only "hard" part is the modulo as many people are not used to operate within finite fields - but the rest is just a subtraction, stuff we all do on a daily basis. There's no transfer, no rearrangement or derivation of the function (which was the original idea). Also, the numbers are static (a dynamic approach was the original goal) because I feared people would not get it. Problem is - as it mostly is when tasked with something - that people don't read carefully. Quite an interesting experiment.^^

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

What I noticed is that now the sandbags are indestructible. It seems tanks can go and topple brick walls, fences, trees etc, but they get stuck on normal sandbags with a waist-level height. Bohemia...

I lose that stuff the same way I mentioned it before, it seems the script that stores and retrieves your equipment when you return to the hub has problems with the mounted accessories of the weapons (magazines, scopes, silencers, etc). Sometimes it counts 1 less than it should, so you pass from 3 magazines to 2, or from 1 scope to 0.

I know binary, and modulus... and subtraction! :P

But somehow I forgot about the i thing in the text, and I was trying to somehow substract or use modulus in the entire numbers. Except, of course, the values that I was obtaining were senseless. You are supposed to decrypt every digit individually, oops.

Enforced cooperation. A mission with several options, nice, but I have to say it was a bit weird because if the mission was kidnapping him, I expected for the npc to join my squad or at least follow me, like in the previous mission where you have to contact the spy, and here he just stayed where he was while I ran 1 km and then extracted myself alone.

Ah, and the npc, the Spanish guy who works on the research facility shouldn't say pendejo, Spanish people don't use that word (is used in Sudamerica), but cabrón or gilipollas or capullo.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, as said, I can't retrieve mounted scopes from weapons inside the box. Same goes for already loaded mags. Don't know how the engine handles that but weapons are no objects, you can't perform commands on them. You can only get attachements of the currently equipped weapons. Weapons are just classnames. Frankly, it seems when BIS introduced these modular weaponry they didn't change the lower systems. A gun is now modular with all the attachements but the classname can only represent one version of the gun. When it's inside the box that's the only thing I get. Works the other way round as well. When a classname points to a gun with stock attachement, you can detach it, sell it and put the gun back - next time the attachement will be there again, mounted on the weapon. Gear adding problems occur when one part of your clothes, vest or backpack is fully stuffed. Mainly because the one magazine that is "too much" was in your gun before. And guns are being added after the magazines to ensure they're loaded, otherwise it would be empty and the mag still gets lost. I use a third party function set for that, might as well write my own at some point. Just to sort out these bugs.

Yeah, most people seem to ignore the index, I should point that out more. But as you said, with some trial and error one can see that the wrongly decrypted coords would lead nowhere. With Arma's text formatting you can't put in a proper mathematical term. Maybe I should take a picture of some text programm. oO

Could swear I changed that. The doctor was joining the squad because the follow script fails as you noticed. Weird, must be a copypaste mistake. Horrible, if you develop on two machines and need to sync all that stuff every other day.^^

Thanks for the heads-up, will change that to capullo! Though I'm not sure yet if he will stay Spanish or I'll change his nationality again.

Edited by IndeedPete

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm near the end, the defence mission.

Smash and grab goals worked fine, I did it from the "infiltration" stand point. Well, "fine" in quotes, the framerate fall sometimes in the mission to 10fps, and I have a good computer :S. But that's Arma 3 for you in any big infantry fight in a complex.

I was thinking now there was no chopper mission in all the campaign, even if you got to put a tank mission and a plane mission :(. And also, tangentially related: the chopper you can buy is super expensive and it's barely worth it, it would be good if you give it to the player as the rest of vehicles and he can fly it and try to land wherever he wants, instead of being just automatic insertion point. Hell I already had a chopper to insert me in some missions in the first hub and it was free :P.

And this sounds counter intuitive but... it's punishing to have only a mission where you defend the base. Why? Because since the second hub you invest most of your funds on the base, having only one mission where you benefit of that investment isn't enough "reward". I was thinking that it would be better if in the middle of the second part of the campaign there was an earlier defense mission (with less troops of course) where one of the two armies discover the base and attack, and you have to defend it (at that point you should have a pair of defense upgrades but not everything). Not that you can create it with a snap of fingers of course.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yes, the framerate is a major problem. It's like 150 AI (both sides together), and you're landing right on top of them covered by volumetric smoke. I knew it would cause framedrops but even with my new machine I'm down to 15 FPS or so. When the smoke clears and some enemies are dead already it gets better. Second push is when the holograms disappear, because there are two or three holo squads in total. Funny thing, if you're taking the supporter insertion framerates are way better, even if the same stuff happens at the base. Seems distance has some impact after all.

Well, there is one ending where you can fly a helo but only to extract. Problem is that Raif is just not able to fly a helo, hell he was Staff Sergeant in a third world country's army, it's a miracle that he knows how to drive tank. At some point I'd overstretch this character's borders. Of course, there could be another workaround with another character but I've decided against it. With the upcoming helicopter DLC I hope there will be more flying missions on the market and I might just produce one by myself. So, Raif flying by himself is a no-go and there are one or two missions who support BI's dynamic helo taxi thing, but as it is, it's pretty much crap. The helo instant crashes or is landing totally off the marked LZ or just takes off when there are still squadmates on the ground. So I chose to use unit capture in the second half of the campaign. All flights are actually captured by myself with my crappy flying skills. (Like 35 tries to finally land on top of that f*ucking military HQ...) And it's not for free because the original helo crashed, so you need to buy a replacement first. ;)

Once again, you're following my thoughts. It was actually intended to have more or less random attacks during the campaign (i.e. when returning to the hub). But since I haven't built sidequests or stuff outside the second hub yet, it's still on my to-do list.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm stuck on the third phase of the defense mission (when they say to defend the seaside). I destroyed a number of troops, choppers, boats and even one plane but it doesn't want to advance. :/

Do I need to kill everything?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

No, there's a ratio of 25%, I've actually raised it with some update lately, maybe some are stuck. Sometimes a tank is coming later. Try to make your way back to the checkpoint where the attack started. One time, an APC actually managed to drive into the sea...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Awesome campaign, man, really enjoyed it!

Here are some issues and some questions...

ransom demand

After failing 2 or 3 times I finally realized there was a car for me to 'steal'.

Unfortunately, the engine was bad and it wouldn't start...lol

So I 'cheated' next time up.

I hid behind a building that was just off the road and waited for the transaction to go bad.

Once the bad guys got into their car, I just stepped out from behind the corner and shot them while driving.

They didn't get 30 meters and the car stopped right in front of me. Mission completed.

Problem was I was credited with 'observing' and I'm not sure this is how you want this to play out in general.

Also, how does a heli lose the car in pursuit?

If it takes players too long and the guys get away, perhaps a message from the heli saying they are taking fire and need to stop pursuit? Mission failed.

sauerland express

You just have to press through the attack and not stop.

Not sure if this was intended, but it makes it a little easy.

riot control

The bad guys run away if you pursue them.

Seriously, I approached a few of them on foot and they immediately turned and ran.

Not unrealistic, but it was quite the chore finding the guys afterwards.

Also, if you kill protestors are you punished? Like mission failed type of punishment?

protection money

Are AAF always an enemy in this mission?

I took the 4x4 with the HMG because it had the spy copter thing.

I assumed the AAF attacked us because we were armed.

But what if we had taken the non armored version or went on foot?

Bigger problem was one of the AAF patrols in an armored car.

I decided to attack during the HVT's first trip out of the complex.

I set my mate up off the road about 30 meters behind some trees and near some old buildings so I could get the copter up.

While we waited, an armored car on patrol came around and my mate called them out.

I had him holding his fire as he would shoot anything that moved if I didn't.

Nothing happen (or so I thought) and the patrol came back and forth a couple times, easily within 50 meters.

Anyways I got lucky as once the HVT did come down the road, my mate lit them up and only killed the guards.

Strange as he was still on 'hold fire', but...ARMA.

Grabbed the HVT and got back into the offroad.

But before I got in, I noticed the offroad had taken fire.

And once in, sure enough, the damage meter said it had.

Completed the mission, but it was strange that the AAF didn't finish off my mate while we waited???

panzerfaust

Accidentally shelled the shit out of an AAF squad that was helping the assault.

No penalty for doing this?

hereford calling

Is it possible to completely heal Drazen?

Or is just enough to make it so he is not left behind the only option?

CQB

Pretty easy to slip into city to get to the HVT.

I took the ATV, flanked left and didn't get shot at until I decided to take out the guys who took out the original extraction point.

diplomatic incident

The tanks and apcs at the checkpoint are terrible.

I know this is probably an ARMA thing, but I attacked from the Southeast(???) coming up behind the hill.

I took out the the 2 APCs first, then the tanks.

Not once did the turrets of these vehicles move.

Perhaps they are not occupied?

enforced cooperation

Really difficult to get scientist to follow you. Really difficult.

If I got more then 10 meters ahead, he would just freeze and do this weird robot movement type thing.

Perhaps make him a squadmate so you can control him? Or perhaps this was on purpose?

Also, as long as you go right down the middle of the checkpoints, you are never noticed.

Just need to watch out for the armored patrol.

Perhaps a heightened sense of awareness from the AAF after you assault the house?

meet and greet

One of the faction shot up my ATV while in negotiations.

Made me laugh, but a little strange.

smash and grab

I couldn't use the ATV, truck or heli for insertion.

I had lost my ATV on a previous mission, but was still able to buy a new one.

I was able to enter the vehicles, but the only way to actually continue was by 'foot'.

Maybe I was doing something wrong.

I'm trying to find and play all the possible endings and I'll comment more on them later.

Edited by ballard_44
speeling

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
No, there's a ratio of 25%, I've actually raised it with some update lately, maybe some are stuck. Sometimes a tank is coming later. Try to make your way back to the checkpoint where the attack started. One time, an APC actually managed to drive into the sea...

I walked all over the perimeter and I only found a single soldier in the NE hills, I killed, but nothing. Is there any debug command to know what's happening?

I have my save too.

---------- Post added at 22:11 ---------- Previous post was at 21:50 ----------

Some comments inside, in bolded

Awesome campaign, man, really enjoyed it!

Here are some issues and some questions...

ransom demand

After failing 2 or 3 times I finally realized there was a car for me to 'steal'.

Unfortunately, the engine was bad and it wouldn't start...lol

The car was fine for me, maybe you found another one and not the good one. It was parked on the left side of the stadium.

So I 'cheated' next time up.

I hid behind a building that was just off the road and waited for the transaction to go bad.

Once the bad guys got into their car, I just stepped out from behind the corner and shot them while driving.

They didn't get 30 meters and the car stopped right in front of me. Mission completed.

Problem was I was credited with 'observing' and I'm not sure this is how you want this to play out in general.

Also, how does a heli lose the car in pursuit?

If it takes players too long and the guys get away, perhaps a message from the heli saying they are taking fire and need to stop pursuit? Mission failed.

sauerland express

You just have to press through the attack and not stop.

Not sure if this was intended, but it makes it a little easy.

One of the enemies has a AT and can blow up one of the trucks, so it's a question of luck. I stopped and fought, at least the ambush part that was in front of me, after that I mounted again and drove.

riot control

The bad guys run away if you pursue them.

Seriously, I approached a few of them on foot and they immediately turned and ran.

Not unrealistic, but it was quite the chore finding the guys afterwards.

Also, if you kill protestors are you punished? Like mission failed type of punishment?

Good question, I killed a pair by mistake. I supposed there is a threshold of failure? In my case, I discovered a "secret ending" in this mission going out of the AO searching for enemies so the goal could be completed, lo.

protection money

Are AAF always an enemy in this mission?

I took the 4x4 with the HMG because it had the spy copter thing.

I assumed the AAF attacked us because we were armed.

But what if we had taken the non armored version or went on foot?

I think AAF is always the enemy, it's part of the mission.

Bigger problem was one of the AAF patrols in an armored car.

I decided to attack during the HVT's first trip out of the complex.

I set my mate up off the road about 30 meters behind some trees and near some old buildings so I could get the copter up.

While we waited, an armored car on patrol came around and my mate called them out.

I had him holding his fire as he would shoot anything that moved if I didn't.

Nothing happen (or so I thought) and the patrol came back and forth a couple times, easily within 50 meters.

Anyways I got lucky as once the HVT did come down the road, my mate lit them up and only killed the guards.

Strange as he was still on 'hold fire', but...ARMA.

Grabbed the HVT and got back into the offroad.

But before I got in, I noticed the offroad had taken fire.

And once in, sure enough, the damage meter said it had.

Completed the mission, but it was strange that the AAF didn't finish off my mate while we waited???

Your mate, the tattoo guy, is actually immortal, he can't die, I think. I had more or less the same experience, in that I attacked the vehicle, but in the firefight with the guards which I won, they damaged my vehicle so I had to return back on foot. Thanks go for x4 time.

panzerfaust

Accidentally shelled the shit out of an AAF squad that was helping the assault.

No penalty for doing this?

In this mission, the AAF attack should start 40 seconds later than they do right now. The tanks and troops move the moment you get out of the base, so you don't have enough time to catch up with them and attack on unison, and much less on climbing the hill and observe where you should drop the mortars if you choose to do the hill.

hereford calling

Is it possible to completely heal Drazen?

Or is just enough to make it so he is not left behind the only option?

I think it only matters to have an ending available in the last mission.

CQB

Pretty easy to slip into city to get to the HVT.

I took the ATV, flanked left and didn't get shot at until I decided to take out the guys who took out the original extraction point.

diplomatic incident

The tanks and apcs at the checkpoint are terrible.

I know this is probably an ARMA thing, but I attacked from the Southeast(???) coming up behind the hill.

I took out the the 2 APCs first, then the tanks.

Not once did the turrets of these vehicles move.

Perhaps they are not occupied?

Oh, I got shot several times. I finally did the last objective, but the second tank full of the no name crew was killed.

enforced cooperation

Really difficult to get scientist to follow you. Really difficult.

If I got more then 10 meters ahead, he would just freeze and do this weird robot movement type thing.

Perhaps make him a squadmate so you can control him? Or perhaps this was on purpose?

Also, as long as you go right down the middle of the checkpoints, you are never noticed.

Just need to watch out for the armored patrol.

Perhaps a heightened sense of awareness from the AAF after you assault the house?

I think they are already more aware once the shots starts, I wouldn't raise the difficulty of this mission. The scientist doesn't even have to follow you, when you extract the game doesn't check where he is located. He may be surrounded by enemies in his house, lol.

Ah, in this mission one of the "named" mercs died, but strangely he was alive when I returned to base. Weren't their deaths permanent?

meet and greet

One of the faction shot up my ATV while in negotiations.

Made me laugh, but a little strange.

smash and grab

I couldn't use the ATV, truck or heli for insertion.

I had lost my ATV on a previous mission, but was still able to buy a new one.

I was able to enter the vehicles, but the only way to actually continue was by 'foot'.

Maybe I was doing something wrong.

I also lost my atv on a previous mission, and had to buy another one.

I'm trying to find and play all the possible endings and I'll comment more on them later.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

@ballard_44:

Awesome campaign, man, really enjoyed it!

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks!

ransom demand

After failing 2 or 3 times I finally realized there was a car for me to 'steal'.

Unfortunately, the engine was bad and it wouldn't start...lol

Might have been a ricochet, will place more cars anyway.

Also, how does a heli lose the car in pursuit?

If it takes players too long and the guys get away, perhaps a message from the heli saying they are taking fire and need to stop pursuit? Mission failed.

Well, the helo came with time, it really is more a game mechanic than anywhere near realistic.^^

sauerland express

You just have to press through the attack and not stop.

Not sure if this was intended, but it makes it a little easy.

Intended and supported tactic. Not that easy though if they manage to pull out a rocket launcher in time or the buddy gets stuck.

riot control

The bad guys run away if you pursue them.

Seriously, I approached a few of them on foot and they immediately turned and ran.

Not unrealistic, but it was quite the chore finding the guys afterwards.

Also, if you kill protestors are you punished? Like mission failed type of punishment?

More civillian deaths = more FIA showing up. Playing only with smoke grenades you can avoid any conflict whatsoever. Just noticed that their fleeing instinct was still active, that's why they're doing weird stuff.

protection money

Are AAF always an enemy in this mission?

I took the 4x4 with the HMG because it had the spy copter thing.

I assumed the AAF attacked us because we were armed.

But what if we had taken the non armored version or went on foot?

Bigger problem was one of the AAF patrols in an armored car.

I decided to attack during the HVT's first trip out of the complex.

I set my mate up off the road about 30 meters behind some trees and near some old buildings so I could get the copter up.

While we waited, an armored car on patrol came around and my mate called them out.

I had him holding his fire as he would shoot anything that moved if I didn't.

Nothing happen (or so I thought) and the patrol came back and forth a couple times, easily within 50 meters.

Anyways I got lucky as once the HVT did come down the road, my mate lit them up and only killed the guards.

Strange as he was still on 'hold fire', but...ARMA.

Grabbed the HVT and got back into the offroad.

But before I got in, I noticed the offroad had taken fire.

And once in, sure enough, the damage meter said it had.

Completed the mission, but it was strange that the AAF didn't finish off my mate while we waited???

Don't know what happened, AAF is only friendly to OPFOR. Seems like AI in cars can't be told to hold fire. My buddy always starts shooting the patrol helo, even when put to stealth and hold fire.^^

panzerfaust

Accidentally shelled the shit out of an AAF squad that was helping the assault.

No penalty for doing this?

Not apart from the rating malus you could get. However, the gunner that shot the deadly rounds is still an AAF mortar guy. Shit happens I'd say.^^

hereford calling

Is it possible to completely heal Drazen?

Or is just enough to make it so he is not left behind the only option?

It's the only option. Basically his temporary paralysis is just a narrative reason to keep him out of future missions and let him safe the day at the end. ;) You can let him die as well, will get you a nice promotion, just saying... :devil:

CQB

Pretty easy to slip into city to get to the HVT.

I took the ATV, flanked left and didn't get shot at until I decided to take out the guys who took out the original extraction point.

Depends, if you walk straight through you might get caught right between the front lines. And the arty shells going down are not just eye candy, they can kill you or the HVI.

diplomatic incident

The tanks and apcs at the checkpoint are terrible.

I know this is probably an ARMA thing, but I attacked from the Southeast(???) coming up behind the hill.

I took out the the 2 APCs first, then the tanks.

Not once did the turrets of these vehicles move.

Perhaps they are not occupied?

They're manned and have a hold waypoint, so they should defend the area. Seems like they're just too slow/stupid. For the size of the Kuma it's surprisingly weak compared to the BLUFOR MBT. I'm more afraid of AT soldiers.

enforced cooperation

Really difficult to get scientist to follow you. Really difficult.

If I got more then 10 meters ahead, he would just freeze and do this weird robot movement type thing.

Perhaps make him a squadmate so you can control him? Or perhaps this was on purpose?

Also, as long as you go right down the middle of the checkpoints, you are never noticed.

Just need to watch out for the armored patrol.

Perhaps a heightened sense of awareness from the AAF after you assault the house?

That's a bug I thought I had fixed but there must be something going wrong - he actually should be in your group. It's just a detected by trigger, if they see you once they'll call in a QRF and that's it. With some sneaking skills and if you stay away from the checkpoints it's really doable.

meet and greet

One of the faction shot up my ATV while in negotiations.

Made me laugh, but a little strange.

Did you open fire on another faction before? Any mods running?

smash and grab

I couldn't use the ATV, truck or heli for insertion.

I had lost my ATV on a previous mission, but was still able to buy a new one.

I was able to enter the vehicles, but the only way to actually continue was by 'foot'.

Maybe I was doing something wrong.

Again, any mods? Just tried the helo, works for me.^^

@Turin:

(({side _x in [independent, east]} count allUnits) <= IP_WinAmount)

That's the condition for winning the scenario. If you put the single parts in the lower bars / variable checkers you can see how many are left and how many the game considers as rest. Might as well trying the following for getting tracking markers for each group:

IP_TESTMODE = true;
{[(leader _x)] call IP_fnc_track} forEach allGroups;

Not sure why a "named" merc survived his death but it might be some savegame issue. They have killed eventhandlers on them and maybe that one was somehow removed or so. The "secret ending" is actually running away from combat and can be triggered in every mission of the first part (until you've paid your debts).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

http://i.imgur.com/LVbVv38.png

See the 6? It was a Kuma with the full crew and passengers. I destroyed it, mission done.

What was he doing him there? Who knows. And let's not talks of the solitary men even further away. God I think AI is even more glitchy than in Arma 2 times.

Now to see if I get other endings.

---------- Post added at 07:43 ---------- Previous post was at 07:02 ----------

Case of Defence - escape with Stavrou version: he won't move. He joins my team but he seems blocked, he always stays between the building and the tempest. I tried move orders, action orders, and general "return to formation", nothing. I restarted the mission and tried 4 times, both stable and dev version.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah, the 1s are most likely airplanes but that Kuma in the middle of nowhere? What the hell? It's not like it's spawning there, the vehicle spawnpoints are on the road for a reason...

Heard that and saw it for by myself already, again pathfining. The AI goes through walls in every onther mission but once it would be useful they get stuck! I've managed to get him moving when parking a vehicle right infront of the entrance and then ordered him inside. However might be easier with the debug console for now (when the player is already in a vehicle):

IP_Buddy moveInCargo (vehicle player);

I will most likely script a horribly ugly workaround by porting him to somewhere...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Meanwhile I stealthed surfing ROA, and yeah it's doable, the west side is much more empty. Using again a second satchel you can do it perfect, with the alarm sounding only when the two objectives are done and you are chilling in the water already.

edit

Yeah I solved it parking the atv at his side and then ordering to mount.

Right now I'm seeing the ground zero end XD.

Edited by Turin Turambar

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ah, did the buddy ending work as intended? I recall Corporal_Lib[bR] had some troubles.

Ground Zero is actually the only mission where you can fly a helo, just saying... :D

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I thought Ground Zero was just an ending cutscene, not a mission. I just completed it :)

genius to kill the main character and then go on playing with the hacker.

Now I will try the buddy one again, I was "interrupted" because I wanted to blow up the damn truck as I made my escape, that's how I "discovered" Ground Zero :P.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh, that truck blowup thing is working as well, great!^^

Yeah, I will most definitely use <username> in some other projects again. He's become my favourite character I must say.

Don't know if you saw it already but I've created a M.E.R.C.S. flowchart for people like you who whish to discover more than one ending. It just shows how the campaign works and how to achieve a certain ending:

mercsflowchartr7k53.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Once I got Drazên in the atv, escaping from the base and into the woods worked perfectly. In fact I played it twice without problem because the first one I clicked by mistake in "replay" not in "revert".

Goodbye Altis also worked fine, I almost think it lacked a bit more of action: if you are doing this, it means you also skipped the final defence mission and you just drove away, and the Nikos men were easy to kill with my scoped lmg, so ideally if you could have another firefight maybe when you find the boat it would be perfect.

spoilers

Payback, Canton protocol, Liberty, all are variations of the same mission or are really different? wait, the hostage could be alive?? how? she was dead days ago. and she could change one end? romance end? XD

Edited by Turin Turambar

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ah, okay, that's true. I might add some more enemies.

No, they are different endings. Payback is from a Black Arrow / Deep Space Engineering (btw. this is actually a faction from my favourite deep space classic "Freelancer" xD) point of view. Canton Protocol and Liberty are from CSAT respectively European perspective. They play a bit differently and in different locations. Of course the European and CSAT endings have some similarities as both factions are after the same thing. Nontheless, the outcomes can be different.

The real hostage is actually the guy (Ben Kerry) you've encountered in the shack in Hostage Down. If you saved him he will show up and save your life in Return On Investment, otherwise you will bleed out and die there.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Uhh I could swear Ben Kerry was alive in my game, we escaped fast, I did that mission without problem. And I was killed on RoI. :(

---------- Post added at 13:26 ---------- Previous post was at 12:47 ----------

One of the DSE guards in the meet & greet mission reaaaally hated tmy atv and opened fire against it. Lol.

---------- Post added at 13:29 ---------- Previous post was at 13:26 ----------

terrorist thread should be terrorist threat (euroforce dialog). Also, are you conscious that some dialogs aren't shown entire in your dialog window? The longest ones appear cut and I don't see any scrolling functionality.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If IP_MERCS_HostageSaved is true than you saved him, otherwise he died or didn't make to the extraction.

They're OPFOR but the player is setCaptive as long as he holds fire. Due to Arma's faction / side limitations (we have still OFP...) I was forced to use nasty workarounds in this mission. Player's BLUFOR and so is the EUROFORCE detachement, AAF are INDFOR, DSE and CSAT are OPFOR. So, if the player shoots one faction his rating is set to -10000 or so which basically means he's a threat to everyone. That would also mean that your own guys at the camp would fire at you. But if you shoot at one faction and return to the camp the rating is set to normal again (so your own guys don't kill you). Really clunky approach to get around the stupid faction / side restrictions. But I wanted to make it possible to assassinate all contacts. Every contact's death closes one possible ending (except the AAF ending, the catastrophe is always possible, even if you don't have the task) but it also reduces the amount of enemies you face when fighting against the faction. For example, if you take out Alexander Engel and Jackknife there will be two squads less to beat in Smash And Grab. Killing the AAF Colonel and OPFOR leader will make Case Of Defence a bit easier and so on. Taking out the BLUFOR leader only makes sense if you join Black Arrow / DSE afterwards. So, there's actually a mechanic behind killing these guys even if I've never pointed that out in the game. ;)

Oh, and if you refuse to listen to the AAF Colonel's offer he will actually send in armour to destroy the device in Smash And Grab. However, if you hear his offer he won't send troops until Case Of Defence because he is hoping for your assistance.^^

Ah, thanks for the heads up, another 4am dialogue.^^ Yeah, I've been pleaing to BI to finally make scrollbars in structured text fields possible but it's still not working. Problem are the five different interface sizes, the text gets adjusted but it's not perfect. On what interface size do you play?

Edited by IndeedPete

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
or didn't make to the extraction.

Well, you should clarify this point to the player. How does it work, the hostage has to be close enough to the player when he calls extraction? Then maybe Raif should comment "I have to be sure the hostage is with me when I call for extraction". Or something like that.

I really like how the interlocked endings work, great job there.

You can attack with the Knights, with several options, or betray them and go with DSE, steal it, destroy it, etc and as you say the mission are different enough. I noticed how you can even double-cross! You can betray the Knights for DSE and then destroy it and go for AAF. Though you don't have the option to capture it for the Euroforce. And nice detail that, I didn't think you could kill the enemy squads in the briefing mission to make Smash and grab easier.

I'm playing S&G with the DSE now and the AAF general sent tanks and paratroopers, and I talked with thim. Though maybe they are EF forces and not AAF? I'm not sure lol. edit: yeah they say "blueflag paratroopers" and "greenback armor on east". But more importantly, again I had to cheat and reveal the enemies to complete the first objective (defense), as there were a 4 stragglers here and there. In fact, the goal didn't check until 100% of the enemies were killed (as I could see them in the map). In fact I had to get out of the base to kill them all, and then the paratroopers appear and land on top of me, and I can't survive because I'm in open terrain, and the autosave doesn't save me, lol.

What happens in you help AAF, is another variation of Ground Zero?

I play with the interface in small, in 1920x1200 res.

Edited by Turin Turambar

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Just checked, he needs to be alive and within 50 metres of the helo. Well, what should I write? "If you don't save him one possible ending will turn out differently!"? It's a hidden thing players usually trigger or not trigger by accident, I like it that way.^^

Yes, from a DSE point of view the AAF will always attack, though their numbers are influenced by the Colonel being alive or not. Let's just pretend the Colonel heard about your betrayal against ION and fears you will betray him as well. The paratroopers can get ugly, especially if you lost many people in the first attack. Their LZ largely depends on wind and where the helo pilots are flying. But AAF and BLUFOR are hostile to each other as well so they will open fire on each other. This time there's just a not present trigger area to clear and the enemies are allowed to flee, though they sometimes stuck or just hold their positions. Not sure why, doesn't make sense, their orders are clear. It's really annoying if a helo goes down above water because it's virtually impossible to kill a swimming unit. I've tried firing a few MG mags at units in water and they didn't get a scratch. That's something that most definitely needs fixing.

No, there are no variations of Ground Zero. Originally I wanted to make zones, objectives, locations and the start point partly random and based on the origin of the explosion but then I thought it's just an ending many players won't reach anyway so I saved the time for something else. Smaller RAD zones are still placed randomly (apart from a few whitelisted areas). It's actually a simplification of a hazard zone script Surfer and I are creating for a COOP mission based on a STALKER like radioactive zone.

Not sure if you noticed but you can also trigger Ground Zero by messing with the device itself. If it's still assembled in the research dome you can approach it and "talk" to the machine, then push random buttons and it will go haywire.^^

Strange stuff, can't reproduce 1920x1200, I'm running 1920x1080 in small. It was one of my biggest issues in Alpha that text windows were messed up. Horrible that the game doesn't autoscale GUI elements, you have to do the calculations yourself. As said, finally having some scrollbars in structered text fields would be helpful as well. But fortunately the conv system should create conversation logs so one can still look up the text if something's messed up. Plus in that map / briefing screen is actually structured text allowed and it has freaking scroll bars...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Just checked, he needs to be alive and within 50 metres of the helo. Well, what should I write? "If you don't save him one possible ending will turn out differently!"? It's a hidden thing players usually trigger or not trigger by accident, I like it that way.^^

No, no, I was talking about the 50mts condition. Given how slow is the AI, do you think people wait until the soldiers with him get to the player position to extract? God no, unless they have a good reason, they extract and imagine the rest of the soldiers also come with him, even if it isn't shown. That's why I was saying you have to warn the players.

The second objective in the DSE defense, the same as the first. Objective isn't complete until all the enemies are killed, and again there are stragglers that don't attack. In every big firefight there are always some stragglers or people who run away or whatever. You have to search a way to control these objectives better, it's the fourth time it happened to me in the campaign.

Payback was a cool mission, intense cqb in the storm. But, there is an oversight! It seems the enemy AI isn't activated (or at least they moved but they didn't fire back) until you go to the center and read the "note". Because it seemed an obvious ambush, I went up in the hotel and looked around with my thermal scope, killing most enemies before reaching the center.

How is the last mission if you do the AAF and destroy the truck? I was thinking that if explodes, it produces a similar scenario to Ground Zero, that's why I asked. I already played S&B a pair of times and it's a long mission, I don't have motivation to do it again xD.

I didn't have the CSAT officer in Meet and Greet, I thought I didn't kill him in CQB.

Overall impressions.

Once you squash some bugs, it's the best campaign for Arma 3 for now, with difference. Hell, once it's more polished and finished, it's one of the best campaigns done for the Arma series, including past games and official campaigns. Also there are some features that are promising but he still has to work a bit more in them. But well, it's a beta.

There is also a pair of missions where I would adjust the difficulty, there were too easy or too hard.

But overall I liked the plot, the variety of missions in gameplay, how the pace and scope is handled properly in the campaign, the inventiveness in the missions (from infiltrating the aaf army to get codes to kidnap people to scare a client to the encryption puzzle, to rescuing a hostage, etc) and how it all ties very well to the plot and themes, the feeling of progression in your status and equipment and the base, the idea of hiring mercs in exchange of sharing the profits, the several endings and the extra stuff like duels or side jobs clearing Stratis.

My feedback to improve it even more:

-Squash bugs, plan around shitty AI in some cases (it sucks, but what you gonna do), be sure all goals can be completed even if some ai soldier doesn't respond, allied or enemy.

-Another pass to the missions:

*Explain the objectives a bit better in some missions (like in Ransom Demand)

*Recommend the mine detector in the missions with mines (like Very important Pickup), even if it isn't "realistic" for the player to know he is going to need it. It's just frustrating to blow up at random.

*Recommend explosives if you choose Infiltration in Smash and Grab, it wasn't mentioned you would need it.

*Eye for an eye: Put the mortar hidden inside the peninsula in the location you recommend to use it, just say a Black Arrow defector left it there for you. That way the mission can't be completed at 2 kms away.

*Force Recon: maybe add another enemy squad after you pick the armored car. It shouldn't increase the difficulty a lot, because you are protected.

*Close Quarter Battle: lower the skill of the paratroopers, or at a minimum, make them jump in a more distant point ~100m away, not on top of you.

*Give the player an extra $1000 for the optional objectives, so he is at least rewarded a bit.

-Lower the price of the chooper from $25K to $20K. Or make it more useful.

-Your idea of putting tales in the firecamp that indicate treasures in the island is good, put it when/if you have time.

-The duel and the blackjack games are original ideas for an Arma game, so it's a pity they disappear once you reach the Knights hub. Even if it doesn't make sense given the Knight's personality, try to put it also there.

-Destroy the bandit outposts task. Finally, balance it when you have time. Give them poor weapons, and put a few ones also in Altis, which is where the extra money can be nice to unlock the vehicles earlier. You also could put a warning you won't be able to return to Stratis, but it wouldn't be very realistic of course.

-somehow insert a chopper mission played by your lost twin brother :P

Edited by Turin Turambar

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now

×