CMcD SP Missions

[CameronMcDonald 146]

A thread dedicated to whatever small input I may have re: the A3 SP scene.

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Drawdown 2035

 

The NATO drawdown on Stratis drags on. Even after almost two weeks of continuous work, only half of the assets on the island have been decomissioned. As equipment shortages and frustration mount, the situation is ripe for a miscalculation... or worse.

 

Features:
- Plot events occurring in parallel with the original ArmA III campaign (The East Wind).
- Fully voiced by members of ShackTactical.
- Approximately 20 minutes in duration.

 

Technical information:
- No mods required.
- Stable build recommended.
- Low performance friendly.

 

Thanks:
- Bohemia Interactive
- ShackTactical
- Zipper5
- Celery

 

Miscellaneous:
- Feedback and constructive criticism welcomed.
- Please enjoy.

Update: 11 Aug @ 9:57pm
- Holliss now drives the Hunter through the LZ a little bit faster.

Update: 10 Jun, 2016 @ 5:09pm
- Fixed a wandering helicopter on mission start.
- Fixed (hopefully) LZ Connor failing to prepare itself after withdrawing from the intersection.

Update: 15 Dec, 2015 @ 6:39pm
- Fixed crash due to 1.54 patch.

Update: 4 Jul, 2015 @ 8:28pm
- Rationalised Gajewski's vest loadout - who carries magazines with one round in them?
- Further stomped that issue with Holliss being stubborn. Fixed now, I hope.

Update: 3 Jul, 2015 @ 9:19pm
- Tweaked a couple of voice samples. Hopefully a certain villager sounds a little less shouse.
- Hopefully fixed an issue where Hollis would refuse to get back into the Hunter.

Update: 10 Aug, 2014 @ 4:31pm
- Re-recorded Verga's dialogue, no more broken subwoofers and far better quality.
- Performed a general cleanup of sketchy audio.
- Minor StringTable changes.

Update: 9 Aug, 2014 @ 11:40pm
- Fixed: further prevention of unfavourable MH9-Hunter interaction towards the end of the mission.
- Changed: SGT Lee now wears a TF Aegis patch.

Update: 7 Aug, 2014 @ 10:05pm
- Fixed: unfavourable MH9-Hunter interaction towards the end of the mission.
- Fixed: players could damage the civilian's Zodiac and get away with it.

Update: 3 Aug, 2014 @ 8:31pm
- Added delay before playing music at intersection.
- Visibility changed to public.

Update: 3 Aug, 2014 @ 7:57pm
- Added completion key (more troubleshooting required, apparently).
- AAF CFF occurs earlier.

 

Please give the mission a go, rate it on Steam (very important) and leave feedback if appropriate! :)

Available here.

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Silence

Spoiler

 

In October 2009, militant members of the Chernarussian Movement of the Red Star (ChDKZ) prepare to plunge the province of South Zagoria into civil war once again. After the ChDKZ secretly advise the Russian government of their intentions, Russia decides to covertly deploy members of the 22nd Guards Independent Spetsnaz Brigade to support the insurgency and secure Russian interests.
 
Features:
- Plot events occurring just before the start of the original ArmA II campaign (Red Harvest).
- Fully voiced.
- Approximately 30 minutes in duration.
 
Technical information:
- Requires RHS mods (Escalation, GREF and SAF) and CUP mods (terrains, units and weapons).
- Should (!) work with ACE.
- Stable build recommended.
- Low performance friendly.
 
Thanks:
- Bohemia Interactive
- QuakePhil
- Pan Samogon
- BTR
- CareFactor_0
 
Miscellaneous:
- Feedback and constructive criticism welcomed.
- Please enjoy.

Update: 9 Aug @ 9:55pm
- Fixed crippling intro bug (oops).
- Differentiated completion key.

Please give the mission a go, rate it on Steam (very important) and leave feedback if appropriate! :)

Available here.

 

Required mods:

RHS

CUP

CBA

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[stlassen 16]

Hi,

Great beginning. I love how well it ties into the official A3 campaign.

Some feedback.

Intersection

I fail big time at the first intersection. 6 times the mission failed because Cpl Holliss got killed.

Where do I put that SLAM? This is very unclear.

The enemy car drives up to where we are in hiding, soldiers jumping out, starting shooting wildly around... and "Mission failed".

Two times the car stopped far down the road so it became a fight over distance.

7th try and finally placed the SLAM the right place. I don't know... Maybe make it clearer where to put it?

First time around I put the SLAM at the intersection. The car didn't even get near it.

Second time it was up the road, but the car stopped 150-200 meters from us. ??? Maybe they saw me, I don't know.

Then a couple of times where they just didn't hit the mine and drove right up to us and killed Holliss.

Then... I don't know where they stopped, but well over 500 meters from us.

Then again they drove up to us and killed us, still not hitting the mine, but at least this time I saw where they turned off the road.

And finally I knew where to put the mine and it destroyed the vehicle.

To be continued...

I love the end. Great story despite the above. ;)

Cheers

[daoud 1]

Pretty awesome, though it took a few tries as Cpl. Hollis would love to die in combat.

[Brainbug 10]

Would you mind putting up a proper download outside of Steam Workshop?

You know, it's not a good idea to become too dependent from Steam, what if they go bankrupt in two years or just delete old stuff? All those missions will be lost, like tears in rain... :don 13:

And we should support community sites like Armaholic (Foxhound just bought a new server^^) etc. instead of starving them out (they still have e.g. your 7 years old Screaming Eagles for A1 available for download, you really expect that from Steam?).

On a more personal level, I also dislike the surveillance and privacy invasion by Steam, they don't need to know when I played what mission and how long it took me etc., I hate being profiled. It's already bad enough that I have to install this trojan called Steam on my comp to play Arma3, but I don't intend to give them more info than absolutely necessary.

If you do let me download it elsewhere, I'll promise to give feedback and report any bugs and shortcomings I come across :)

[Wiki 1558]

Very nice mission, really professional - just like "Resist".

Will you make a campaign out of it? You definitely should.

Anyway, I'm playing it right now and here is one feedback: when the player is in the HUNTER, the dialog shouldn't be in sideRadio but either vehicleRadio or directSay, as they're not talking to every NATO unit on the island.

Keep it up!

---------- Post added at 09:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:43 AM ----------

Also, in the dialog after the attack, instead of "GR", you maybe should use "Golf Romeo".

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Thanks for playing, and commenting!

@stlassen:

Where do I put that SLAM? This is very unclear.

Regarding the SLAM, the exact placement is left up to the player on purpose - I didn't want to hold the player's hand for this, leaving it up to them to judge where they should leave it based on Holliss' chosen position. You should definitely use it, however - successfully hitting the AAF vehicle (provided it's a surprise!) causes them (via a simple script) to take 50% casualties if the vehicle is unable to move on, and causes the survivors to flee after debussing. If you manage to destroy the vehicle outright, well, even better!

Two times the car stopped far down the road so it became a fight over distance.

The enemy AI are made (via a simple script) very sensitive to BLUFOR's presence (the AAF vehicle does have thermal sights, after all, and you can bet that the FTL has his eyes glued to it on approach). If they see you, they will debus early and engage you from range, taking advantage of their AR's range overmatch and the FTL's optics.

First time around I put the SLAM at the intersection. The car didn't even get near it.

Yeah, they get out a bit early to avoid exposing themselves too much to the distant LZ to the SW. Once again, I placed trust in the player to gauge the SLAM placement based on Holliss' position.

Then a couple of times where they just didn't hit the mine and drove right up to us and killed Holliss.

If the SLAM is placed in certain locations, this happens. Quite terrifying when you get run over by the AAF vehicle, isn't it? :D

@Brainbug:

Would you mind putting up a proper download outside of Steam Workshop?

Sure!

Please see the first post.

@Wiki:

when the player is in the HUNTER, the dialog shouldn't be in sideRadio but either vehicleRadio or directSay, as they're not talking to every NATO unit on the island.

I specified sideRadio on purpose, as vehicleRadio and directSay don't get the uber awesome radio noise and squelching effects. It also aligns with how Adams and Lacey chat in the vanilla campaign.

Also, in the dialog after the attack, instead of "GR", you maybe should use "Golf Romeo".

Well done - you spotted a RATEL slip-up (there's another one in the mission, see if you can identify it)! Originally, I should have specified to the voice actor that the contraction "GR" is actually read "grid reference" in full when delivered over the net. Note that is not read phonetically (e.g. "Golf Romeo") to avoid any confusion with contractions. I decided not to chase the actor up because I'd been collectively pushing them quite hard to deliver, and I'm thankful for their work.

Cheers once again for giving Drawdown a tilt. :)

Edited August 7, 2014 by CameronMcDonald

[Wiki 1558]

No problem, it's quite awesome.

However, didn't answer the question: will you make a campaign out of it? And will you submit it to MANW contest?

Thanks

[CameronMcDonald 146]

However, didn't answer the question: will you make a campaign out of it? And will you submit it to MANW contest?

Sorry about that!

Firstly, yes, I'd like to make at least a series of missions out of this.

Secondly, after a long period of contemplation earlier this year, I decided not to enter the MANW contest. Part of this was due to real life pressures, but I also didn't want to burn out my editing enthusiasm.

[stlassen 16]

So nice! Your explanation for why it is as it is, is good. :)

Sooo... Accepted! ;) :D

Cheers

[Brainbug 10]

Sure!

Here you go.

Thanks!

It's great, I just need to play MORE of this! Really great, it's so fast paced, but without giving me the uneasy feeling that I overlooked something. And I also don't get this unimmersive feeling that the world will wait for me as long as I don't trigger the next step and can collect all kinds of weapons meanwhile. Other missions often have that opportunity (that I always seize because I'm such a die hard collector lol), but not here because on the one hand there is no stuff to collect (not "low on ammo" as in "it's not enough to equip a battalion for a year but still more than you will ever be able to use up in the mission" but "low on ammo" as in "basically nothing") and on the other it just doesn't give me a break. I hope you can keep up this feeling in the upcoming missions.

I didn't think the SLAM placement was so tricky, with enough Arma experience one should get the idea to put it where the road is narrower. Only problem I had were the civilian cars spawned by the TPW addon, they sometimes triggered it early if I didn't manage to stop them early enough. But I guess that's an issue for everyone putting down a roadside bomb in reality, and actually improved the gameplay. But if you wanted to improve here, you could instead put an explosive charge in the trunk that allows for remote detonation.

I've played it with dev build and a bunch of various addons (TPW, TMR and a lot of other stuff that doesn't interfere anyway), but no problems whatsoever.

Edited August 7, 2014 by Brainbug
typo

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Thanks for the feedback, mate.

Only problem I had were the civilian cars spawned by the TPW addon, they sometimes triggered it early if I didn't manage to stop them early enough. But I guess that's an issue for everyone putting down a roadside bomb in reality, and actually improved the gameplay. But if you wanted to improve here, you could instead put an explosive charge in the trunk that allows for remove detonation.

Interesting - I use TPW's mods in my SP set too, but keep civvies disabled, so that's a pretty valid point you've got there. I might add the variable that disables TPW's vehicle traffic in the mission's script spine for the next update, as I'm working on the assumption that the AAF's lockdown would probably limit civilian traffic too.

[killjoyau73 359]

Good job mate, found one bug which happened at the end. WARNING BUG REPORT IS AN END SPOILER!!! Probably one in a million but...

So i mounted up into the little bird and the fastmover shot us down, then after it fades to black the helicopter crash landed on the Hunter that i drove there and failed the mission. Purely by chance that i parked the car in that particular place but yeah maybe disable the Hunter damage end trigger once you get into the little bird or something. Guess i was supposed to park and dismount sooner rather than park pretty much next to the little bird though lol

[big 0]

Any option to add a non gamefront link?

They blocked Spain among other countries and i cannot download anything from there.

Thanks

[corporal_lib[br] 396]

Any option to add a non gamefront link?

They blocked Spain among other countries and i cannot download anything from there.

Thanks

Ditto here, Brazil is on Gamefront blacklist... HUEs faults maybe?

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Good job mate, found one bug which happened at the end. WARNING BUG REPORT IS AN END SPOILER!!! Probably one in a million but...

So i mounted up into the little bird and the fastmover shot us down, then after it fades to black the helicopter crash landed on the Hunter that i drove there and failed the mission. Purely by chance that i parked the car in that particular place but yeah maybe disable the Hunter damage end trigger once you get into the little bird or something. Guess i was supposed to park and dismount sooner rather than park pretty much next to the little bird though lol

Hah, awesome! I'll change that for the next version - well spotted.

Any option to add a non gamefront link?

Ditto here, Brazil is on Gamefront blacklist... HUEs faults maybe?

Heh, OK - let's try again... please see the first post.

Edited August 7, 2014 by CameronMcDonald

[corporal_lib[br] 396]

Heh, OK - let's try again... here!

It worked! Thanks CameronMcD! =)

[CameronMcDonald 146]

A minor update released. Please see the first post.

Edited August 7, 2014 by CameronMcDonald

[alky_lee 279]

Tried this mission today and the quality is top notch. The only disappointment was that the mission ended when I wanted more, so when's the next episode coming out?

I did encounter a few bugs:-

1. At one point CROSSROADS announces that air support has been sent. I didn't have a sound file play for that

2. After defeating the incoming enemy, my partner wouldn't move back to the vehicle. I was waiting there for him and couldn't enter the vehicle. I went to try and encourage him back to the vehicle but he was non responsive, until a mortar round took him out. After that another mortar round landed on my head and that was the end of that.

3. Also the slam mine only detonated intermittently.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Thanks for the feedback, alky_lee.

1. At one point CROSSROADS announces that air support has been sent. I didn't have a sound file play for that

That's a strange one, because a C/S CROSSROADS doesn't exist in the mission and I certainly don't remember putting him/her in there - are you using any mods?

2. After defeating the incoming enemy, my partner wouldn't move back to the vehicle. I was waiting there for him and couldn't enter the vehicle. I went to try and encourage him back to the vehicle but he was non responsive, until a mortar round took him out. After that another mortar round landed on my head and that was the end of that.

Ah, I thought I'd squashed that one. I'll take another look - I'm afraid your only recourse is to reload the autosave and give the ambush another whirl. Apologies!

3. Also the slam mine only detonated intermittently.

Remember that the SLAM is a directional weapon. It's not meant to be driven over in A3, rather, you should place it beside the road, facing perpendicular to the road's direction. As the vehicle passes by it, the SLAM will detonate. Further info here.

[alky_lee 279]

Thanks for the feedback, alky_lee.

1. At one point CROSSROADS announces that air support has been sent. I didn't have a sound file play for that

That's a strange one, because a C/S CROSSROADS doesn't exist in the mission and I certainly don't remember putting him/her in there - are you using any mods?

I have reveiewed the footage and can't see it in there so it must have been before I turned off my mods, most likely culprit was TPW Skirmish

2. After defeating the incoming enemy, my partner wouldn't move back to the vehicle. I was waiting there for him and couldn't enter the vehicle. I went to try and encourage him back to the vehicle but he was non responsive, until a mortar round took him out. After that another mortar round landed on my head and that was the end of that.

Ah, I thought I'd squashed that one. I'll take another look - I'm afraid your only recourse is to reload the autosave and give the ambush another whirl. Apologies!

**It happens.

3. Also the slam mine only detonated intermittently.

Remember that the SLAM is a directional weapon. It's not meant to be driven over in A3, rather, you should place it beside the road, facing perpendicular to the road's direction. As the vehicle passes by it, the SLAM will detonate. Further info here.

Having checked the footage, the first one didn't go off because the Strider turned off before it reached it. The second one that didn't go off was positioned at the side off the road, and I can't explain why it didn't go off. The third one that didn't go off was probably my fault because I angled it incorrectly. At the end off the day, there's always a bit of guesswork as to where the vehicle will actually go. Strangely enough, the one I placed in the middle of the road did go off.

The thing that impressed me most about the mission was that the AI didn't crash when driving. How did you manage that?

[CameronMcDonald 146]

The thing that impressed me most about the mission was that the AI didn't crash when driving. How did you manage that?

Picked a simple route and tested it a million times. Road signs occasionally fall victim to their depredations, sadly. :) Thanks again for the feedback.

[Wiki 1558]

I'd like to make at least a series of missions out of this.

So, are you working on other missions? Or will this remain an orphan mission?

[ineptaphid 6413]

So, are you working on other missions? Or will this remain an orphan mission?

i think we have to assume ,Wiki that this is the end....A real shame as this was really cool.

[Variable 322]

Nice mission, thanks for making and sharing it!

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Resurrect!

 

I'm working on a scenario involving spetznas doing spetznas things in Chernarus, circa 2009. The mission is 99% finished, but I'm in need of some Russian voice actors for the dialog. Of course, said actors will have to be able to translate my English into Russian.

 

 

If anyone is interested, please get in touch with me through forum PM. I'll provide the lines, context, etc via that medium. :) I've got about 4 more parts to fill.