Need Recommendation : Coop Mission for Sceptical Battlefield 4 players

[weaponsfree 46]

So every once and a while I get some COD/Battlefield friends to agree to try some Arma coop. Most often, they get shot from 100 meters out, never saw the bad guy, shoot wildly at friendlies, complain, quit, and I have to wait a year before they're willing to try again.

 

I have some custom made missions that I can use where I reduce the enemy AI accuracy (let's face it, vanilla accuracy is a little insane) and remove their chest plates, which helps, but I'm wondering if the community has any recommendations for introducing new players that's not too hard, but also showcases some of Arma's strengths (combined arms, support modules, sandbox type action, open areas, large scale operations, etc).

 

I've never tried Alive for example. Some custom setups ideal for new players maybe?

 

Or some great coop missions?

 

I like Into the Fog myself, but it kicks my ass, so I doubt it's good for newcomers.

 

Any ideas welcome!
 

 

[ineptaphid 6413]

Try "Into the enemy forest" it's a short-ish co-op mission on Stratis so the BF4 people won't get scared by wide open spaces ;) )  http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=250654252&searchtext=into+the+enemy+forest

 

Any of Navarre's missions-they are all amazing - http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197971950685/myworkshopfiles/?appid=107410

 

or any of Iron Duke's stuff-these are also always good fun,but a little harder-enemies are a bit more accurate. http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198003141510/myworkshopfiles/?appid=107410

 

Also look for things where you are playing long range Sniper/Spotter teams as then they can take a bit more time with controls etc without being in scary CQB situations. Same goes for Attack helo Pilot /Gunner combos.

[weaponsfree 46]

Try "Into the enemy forest" it's a short-ish co-op mission on Stratis so the BF4 people won't get scared by wide open spaces ;) )  http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=250654252&searchtext=into+the+enemy+forest

 

Any of Navarre's missions-they are all amazing - http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197971950685/myworkshopfiles/?appid=107410

 

These look great! Thanks

It's too bad Harpoon Delta is only single player. It's a fun accessible little mission.

[war_lord 934]

I'd recommend something with a lot of constant low intensity combat. Chances are a diet of twitch first person shooters hasn't taught them the value of building tension.  

[bad benson 1733]

try to find a good version of insurgency for some longer sessions. something with a good spawn/respawn system. insurgency tends to be open but easy to follow, not implying your friends are dumb just that arma and arma missions tend to not have the best presentation. and it has a feeling of progress with the red markers being cleared out and stuff.

 

also i liked this mission a lot. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=433613841it's straight forward and the opposite of what i described above. uses 3d markers and stuff. make sure to make them open the map. it has pictures of the targets there and stuff. i think this guy has more missions on the workshop too. can't remember how good AI was though.

 

also, if your friends not all have great, and i mean GREAT, PCs, make sure to find more missions like the above one that perform well. sadly there are, from my experience, more badly made missions out there than well made. that's just due to arma having a mission editor. it's very easy to get started but hard to master.

so what i did always before coop nights was look for some missions and make sure to have a lot of them ready in case one sucks.

it can be down to a shit respawn system combined with shit balance and all the fun goes down the drain. IF you play something hardcore, make sure it's actually well crafted and make sure your buds are in the right mindset for it. managing of expectations and stuffs.

 

like look for key words like revive, spectate etc. anything that keeps you from going to the lobby and returning as a seagul or some other bullshit that just will boggle the mind of a non arma player in a really bad way. like i personally would play more non-respawn missions if the creators would actually bother to handle after death spectating properly or at all.

 

also revive in general is a good thing. i found that it's often mentioned when people talk about why arma is different. like dragging your friend out of line of fire. unique experience and takes the focus from being 100% on the kills and the shooting.

 

 

 

 

another more versatile solution would be using serverside AI addons like this one: https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/143462-zeu-serverskill-serverside-ai-skill-setting-addon-with-userconfig-configuration/

 

something that automatically fixes the ridiculous default AI settings no matter what mission you play. gives you more freedom of which mission to play.

[weaponsfree 46]

Welp, I already had the test session, and went pretty badly. Mostly because of a broken respawn system. I think an old BTC revive version became wonky after the last few Arma updates. So we were all eventually killed, and couldn't respawn.

This is after spending at least an hour going over gear selection, key remapping, stance tutorials, etc.

 

I had another mission as a backup, but I seems it was using the same BTC revive version, so we suffered the same fate twice. As you say bad_benson

 

it can be down to a shit respawn system combined with shit balance and all the fun goes down the drain.

 

(no offense to BTC, It's a great system, just seems I didn't have updated versions)

I've noted all your suggestions for missions next time I try. Navarre's missions were a great discovery (I played them solo afterwards). But my own two cents from having converted a few modern FPS fans over the years is :
 

- Cool cinematic insertion (counteracts the otherwise bland Arma presentation)

- Lots of bad guys (like modern shooters)

- Enemy accuracy reduced (forgives noob tactics)

- Remove AI chest plates/helmets (quick kill satisfaction when they FINALLY spot a bad guy)
- 30 second instant respawn (less finicky)

The idea is not so much pushing them to "get" arma all at once, but more to give them what they expect from high action shooters. Then they start to get a feel for the range, the pacing, the tension, the on-the-fly planning. You can move on to more mil-sim type experiences from there.

 

I didn't use my own missions this time because I wanted a fresh experience, and my buddies were understandably upset at the idea that I would know where the bad guys were.

Hopefully they'll give it another shot. But for now it's back to Rainbow 6 Siege (which is pretty awesome PvP I'll admit).

[ineptaphid 6413]

Speaking of Rainbow6- http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=603264006

[weaponsfree 46]

Speaking of Rainbow6- http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=603264006

 

Hahaha, yep, the true successor to the Rainbow 6 games.