[SP][Campaign] The Magnificent Eight II - beta testers needed

[gambla 10]

Hey guys,

six years after my first campaign for ArmA, i proudly present my campaign for ArmA 3:

The Magnificent Eight II

>> for beta-testers: if you encounter any game-breaking issues, just radio 0-0-1 to end mission

Details:

[sP][Campaign]

Title: The Magnificent Eight II

Author: gambla

Version: 0.5 beta - 15.06.2015

Type: SP Campaign

ArmA3 version: 1.46.131175

Addons req.: none

DLCs req.: none

Role: Team Leader / Sniper

Difficulty: Advanced / Veteran (increasing)

Map: Altis

Overview:

The scenario is what i love to play most: deep behind enemy lines, outnumbered and outgunned, surviving by escape & evasion and fighting by hit & run

against an overwhelming enemy. You don't start with the best gear and weapons, everything is hard-earned. Inspired by books like Bravo-Two-Zero (SAS) and

about the famous LRRPs ("Lurps") in Vietnam (today's USMC Force Recon).

You are Steve Faulkner, Leutnant (ret.), Force Recon, USMC. You were working as a military adviser, then enjoying

life after retirement. After the invasion, CSAT and AAF forces are now in control of most of Altis. You were caught

off guard by their full-scale attack and since hiding in your house, waiting for a chance to escape.....

Features:

- 10 full classic missions

- Variety of mission types: escape / protect / stealth / ambush / capture / liberate / terminate

- Open world, free roaming: no fixed, linear way to achieve goals

- Simple story, but more to play

- Play as Lone Wolf or Team Leader

- Team health status transferred to next mission*

- Team / Storage weapons/gear status transferred to next mission (micro management)

- Large enemy numbers and types for a good balance

*Player health is reset every mission, but not for team mates. If a team member dies, the mission fails. Unfortunately, this is due to the problem that if you want to revert back in

the campaign, the team member's status variable would remain on status "dead". My original plan was to use permanent death but there are just too many issues and my scripting

skills are very limited.

What it is:

A classic low-tech resistance campaign, classic mission types, driven by a simple story.

Less story and cinematics, but much more to fight.

What it is not:

A high-sophisticated campaign with many scripts, a complex story and superb cinematics.

Download:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cizrz1ipe4ntccy/SP-Camp-TM82.pbo?dl=0

How to install:

Move pbo-file to folder: "yourdrive\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\Arma3\Campaigns". If it doesn't exist,

just create one.

Known issues:

- Mission2: Beach: Player "jumping" up in the air while disembarking boat

- AI : not moving w/o weapon

- AI : doesn't enter camp

- AI : may be difficult to access storage boxes

- AI : sometimes difficult to enter boats

- Storage boxes show content "Ground" (issue with load-/save-status)

Beta testers:

tba

Changelog:

21.06.2015 - version 0.55 - uploaded

Intro

Script errors: unknown, no solution found

Added: fade out sound

Mission 1 The Escape

Added: more AI on guard

End of mission: fade out black

Mission 2 The Friend

Script errors: unknown, no solution found

Fixed: Diary: link "pyrgos gulf" not working

Arma3 bug: Beach: Player "jumping" up in the air while disembarking boat

Fixed: Mike's house: More time until Opfor arrives

Fixed: Attackboat east: AI not moving to beach

Fixed: Hideout: no progress, no final waypoint

.

.

.

Edited June 21, 2015 by gambla

[corporal_lib[br] 396]

Great to see new campaigns popping up! I´m about to finish a private betatest for Cyper and I´ll playtest yours for sure! =)

cheers!

[gambla 10]

Excellent, really appreciated, thanks man,

enjoy !

:)

[Undeceived 392]

Sounds good, gambla. I'm gonna test it too, if I find time soon.....

One smart-ass question before I even started :p

Team health status transferred to next mission

When the player (or a team member) can only crawl at the end of a mission, what happens with him at the start of the next mission? Will he be able to crawl only?

:outtahere:

Looking forward to play it!

[Wiki 1558]

Trying ASAP

[broduz 71]

This looks really interesting. Will start play-test ASAP

[ice_age0815 37]

will test to as soon as i have more time on the weekend

[gambla 10]

Sounds good, gambla. I'm gonna test it too, if I find time soon.....

One smart-ass question before I even started :p

When the player (or a team member) can only crawl at the end of a mission, what happens with him at the start of the next mission? Will he be able to crawl only?

:outtahere:

Looking forward to play it!

Thanks Undeceived,

very good question. The player's health is set back to full. Just doesn't work otherwise. But not the team members, they keep their injuries and need healing. Good point, need to update the original post.

[mason05 10]

looks very interesting, we'll try it soon definitely.

[gambla 10]

thank you all guys !

[Undeceived 392]

I had the same problem, this is why I asked. :)

There's that great command here:

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/canStand

You can make a while-do script that checks if the unit can't stand and then removes a little amount of damage (e.g. 0.1) everytime the loop finishes, until canStand becomes true.

The result is that the unit is injured but can walk (which prevents him from messing up the mission).

I have this in code form, but I'm not home atm, will get back to you later.

Edited June 17, 2015 by Undeceived

[gambla 10]

No worries about that, but good find. Nice and simple. I'll think about it, not so sure atm. On the other hand, it would be quite realistic and add more depth if the player needs to organize transport for wounded team mates.

[Undeceived 392]

Yeah, just in case, you decide to use it:

[color="#FF8040"][color="#006400"][i]//damage_unit is the damage you have saved in the last mission.[/i][/color]


[color="#006400"][i]//init.sqf:[/i][/color]

unit [color="#191970"][b]setDamage[/b][/color] damage_unit[color="#8B3E2F"][b];[/b][/color]

[color="#006400"][i]//this is the code I talked about. If it is so high that the unit can't stand, then the loop reduces the damage until the unit can stand again. It can stand, but still is badly injured and needs medical assistance.[/i][/color]
[color="#191970"][b]while[/b][/color] [color="#8B3E2F"][b]{[/b][/color][color="#8B3E2F"][b]![/b][/color][color="#8B3E2F"][b]([/b][/color][color="#191970"][b]canStand[/b][/color] unit[color="#8B3E2F"][b])[/b][/color][color="#8B3E2F"][b]}[/b][/color] [color="#191970"][b]do[/b][/color] [color="#8B3E2F"][b]{[/b][/color]damage_unit [color="#8B3E2F"][b]=[/b][/color] damage_unit [color="#8B3E2F"][b]-[/b][/color] [color="#FF0000"]0.05[/color][color="#8B3E2F"][b];[/b][/color] unit [color="#191970"][b]setDamage[/b][/color] damage_unit[color="#8B3E2F"][b];[/b][/color] [color="#8B3E2F"][b]}[/b][/color][color="#8B3E2F"][b];[/b][/color][/color]

Made with KK's SQF to BBCode Converter

Edited June 18, 2015 by Undeceived
can -> can't in my comment line

[TedHo 53]

Hey gambla,

This looks really neat. Will definitely play it.

Unfortunately, this is due to the problem that if you want to revert back in

the campaign, the team member's status variable would remain on status "dead". My original plan was to use permanent death but there are just too many issues and my scripting

skills are very limited.

I met pretty much the same issue with one of my campaigns. I think the trick is to make sure the status variable have mission-specific names. Like "player_state_m02", "player_state_m03", etc., so the game doesn't use newer variables when you revert to an earlier mission. Hope this helps!

[flatbear 19]

looks interesting, I will be sure to check it out

[gambla 10]

Thanks for testing Flatbear.

Mission 2: The Friend

I think i found an issue with a trigger not working correctly. That may prevent you from getting the last waypoint to end the mission. (of course that never happened in all tests before)

[Undeceived 392]

CAMPAIGN MENU:

- There are no overview texts in campaign menu

MISSION 1:

Briefing:

- While loading the first mission, this error popped up:

Btw., do you edit / testplay with the game parameter -showScriptErrors enabled? If not - you should do it. It shows a lot. See info here:

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3_Startup_Parameters

Intro:

- Another script error at the end of the intro.

- Use fadeSound at the end of the intro to fade out the sound before ending the cutscene. It's "ugly" otherwise. :)

Mission:

- Nice atmosphere

- Maybe send a fireteam as reinforcements to the harbour, if the player kills soldiers there. Other than that everything is there: Patrols, flares, vehicles, choppers, dead civilians :D . Cool stuff!

- Fade black at the and and fadeSound would improve the mission's end

Debriefing:

- Everything seems fine here - objective was set to green, good job. :)

MISSION 2:

Briefing:

- Again, script errors at mission start

- "As soon as i've found him" - Throughout the campaign you write I with an i (which, if I'm not mistaken is a spelling error :p ). But nevermind, I didn't find anything else.

Mission:

- A script error in a loop (something with friend and then hideout, if I remember correctly) accompanied me the whole mission. :D

- I had another boat than the one I stole at the harbour. Stole the civilian boat. I know you're saving stuff from one to the next mission (was glad to have my equipment), maybe you could save the boat too.

- As I disembarked at the beach, I suddelny flew up 20 meters and died crushing on the ground. Not sure if this was an Arma bug as I never experienced this. Didn't happen again though.

- Nice idea with the other boat! Tenseful!

- Something I don't like at all but see over and over again in campaigns is that the author throws us back to the main menu, when the mission is failed, which means we can start the WHOLE mission over again. What I would suggest is to start a camera script showing the island from a high position (or the player or the dead buddy) and to make this "cutscene" endless, so that the player doesn't have another option but to load his last saved game. Maybe with a text showing up, like "Mike was killed, mission failed. Load your last saved game", or something like that.

- If you want, you can use TitleText ["Text","plain down"]; for the dialogues and thoughts of the player. It shows the text on the bottom of the screen, not in the middle of it.

- After "We have to kill them all" there came no task. I killed all enemies I could find, but nothing happened. Then I took a boat and headed south, but nothing happened. This part was a bit unclear, thus I finished the mission using a cheat.

Good job so far! If you'd spend more work and time on it, improving these things and fixing the script errors, it would become a solid campaign! I really liked it so far. Hope I can continue soon.

Edit:

Oh and... coming back to our earlier topic: I was wounded in mission 2. I now would expect to start wounded in mission 3 as well. ;)

Edited June 19, 2015 by Undeceived

[gambla 10]

CAMPAIGN MENU:

- Something I don't like at all but see over and over again in campaigns is that the author throws us back to the main menu, when the mission is failed, which means we can start the WHOLE mission over again. What I would suggest is to start a camera script showing the island from a high position (or the player or the dead buddy) and to make this "cutscene" endless, so that the player doesn't have another option but to load his last saved game. Maybe with a text showing up, like "Mike was killed, mission failed. Load your last saved game", or something like that.

Thanks man,

i'll check every issue listed. I'm aware that the "throwing back to main menu" is confusing but this is an Arma issue. It indeed looks like you have to replay the mission but you don't have to !

You get two options:

1) "Revert"

2) "Replay"

Of course you have to choose "Replay" but you actually don't have to replay the mission. It loads your last SaveGame and that's what we want.

[Undeceived 392]

Yes, I pressed revert, as AFAIK "Replay" does only repeat this single mission of the campaign and then return the player back to the menu.

Does it really continue with the next mission after having "Replayed" it? That would be nice. :)

[gambla 10]

As i too wasn't happy about the jump back to the main menu, i've tested it several times. The wrongly named "Replay"-button actually won't restart the mission (as we might expect) but loads your last savegame. :)

[gambla 10]

I've identified the no-progress-issue for mission 2. It's nearly impossible to get reliable AI waypoints for entering and disembarking the speedboat. You couldn't kill all enemys as they weren't even present on the island. Working on it.

Edit: I had to remove the notalive-opfor-trigger, now it's foolproof.

Edited June 21, 2015 by gambla