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HeroesandvillainsOS

[ALiVE, SP/COOP 1-20] Operation Prophet [Insurgency]

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Traditional missions? If yes, then I wouldn't mind checking them out.

By traditional missions do you mean something with a set task that can be completed in like an hour or so from start to finish? If so, sorry to disappoint you. The missions on FATA and Takistan (and eventually Diyala) are pretty much the same as Prophet, just on different maps.

If you're looking for something a little more straight forward, I have a hostage rescue mission called The Contractor which is in my signature. I haven't had many players on that and I enjoy it so feel free to give it a go and let me know if it needs work. It's not easy but you can probably beat it in 60 minutes or so. I have another shorter mission coming too but I need more time with it (though maybe I could send you that one! Not a bad idea actually).

But all-in-all, my priority is making and polishing full-persistence, full-map ALiVE battles ATM. It's the kind of thing I most enjoy playing.

If by traditional you meant an ALiVE persistent battle but where you can fly helicopters and drive tanks and stuff, like a Conventional ALiVE battle, well yeah I have one of those too. It's on Altis and has auto-tasks enabled by default. That one's fun because I let the player use any vehicle or weapons their heart desires and I also added things like boats you can ride.

Either way, let me know. I have plenty that can use a second opinion. My plan is to release them all. :)

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Yeah i mean like normal non-terrorist type setups. Just because I dont do persistent type things yet so I couldnt correctly test one. 

 

I will check out the items in your sig. 

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Setting up a server on your local computer is really really easy. I have a link to a guide that will teach you how do it (check the second post of this thread). Although I enjoy these insurgency missions just fine in LAN without saving/resuming, you'll definitely get more bang for your buck and enjoyment out of utilizing ALiVE's persistence feature. You feel like you're accomplishing something that way. When you're ready, shoot me a PM and I'll help you if you get hung up setting the local server up.

So other than The Contractor, I have a shorter multi-task based mission on Isloa Di Capraia that I'd love someone to try. The mission has 5 tasks basically involving assassinating a set of HVT's and blowing up their communications and weapons resources and can probably be completed in a 2 hour window I'd think. I'll PM that to you at some point if you want.

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Thanks for the mission, even though I didn't play it really :D

 

I just upgraded the CPU, so can finally really play Arma since Arma 1.

 

Decided to start with your mission, so I have a few noobish questions, but hopefully someone can help me here.

 

After spending some time I think I was able to run the mission on local dedicated server(the game got logged at Alive WarRoom). Is there any way to check if everything initialised correctly within the mission?

A more important question is how to use this Commander Tab you mentioned at the start of this topic? I've seen some video on youtube with different menu buttons on the left hand side(Edit: it seems it was the video with editor) on Alive when the map is opened. But I have nothing like this.

 

EDIT: I think I need to find our how to run an Alive Action Menu. ANy help?

 

That is all for now I guess.

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That menu should open in this mission of you hit your "app"-key/right windows key .then a screen pops up where you can choose " commander actions". If you select one of those, it should be shown on that nifty tablet.

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Thanks for the mission, even though I didn't play it really :D

I just upgraded the CPU, so can finally really play Arma since Arma 1.

Decided to start with your mission, so I have a few noobish questions, but hopefully someone can help me here.

After spending some time I think I was able to run the mission on local dedicated server(the game got logged at Alive WarRoom). Is there any way to check if everything initialised correctly within the mission?

A more important question is how to use this Commander Tab you mentioned at the start of this topic? I've seen some video on youtube with different menu buttons on the left hand side(Edit: it seems it was the video with editor) on Alive when the map is opened. But I have nothing like this.

EDIT: I think I need to find our how to run an Alive Action Menu. ANy help?

That is all for now I guess.

Hi Yupi! Thanks for downloading the mission.

Yeah, the commander tablet can be a little confusing if you've never used it. I actually go over how to use a few times in this thread, so read through it, but post #42 on the page 3 in this thread would have the most information on the subject. If you have any questions though, don't ever feel shy in asking here or PM'ing me directly.

When asking if the mission is initializing correctly, were you talking about War Room persistence working or the mission itself working properly? If you're asking about the mission initializing properly, you can turn some of the debug features on using the tablet underneath the module setting options. There's admin options too so on a dedicated server, make sure you login as admin.

Basically if you're unsure if enemies or friendlies are spawning, turn on the Virtual AI module debug. Open the map and you should see blue and red marks. If so, you're good to go. If not, there's a problem.

Regarding War Room working for persistence, I have it set up so time of day and your physical location saves. So "Server save and exit" when on a dedicated server. Start the mission again and you should now spawn where you saved at the correct time of day.

If you need instructions on 'how to play,' in the briefing tab I have a small write up and in this thread I go into much more detail. Skim through the resources I've provided and let me know if you have any more questions. :)

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This is the best mission I have played in Arma, and I've been around a while (see my join date).

Thank you HeroesandvillainsOS.

You mentioned help setting up a server for singleplayer only

I only play singleplayer so I would be grateful for a step by step tutorial or YouTube video on setting up ALIVE WAR ROOM with persistent saves using TADST tool and LAN.

Never played an ALIVE mission before so this would help no end. I have read the ALIVE resources listed but still pretty clueless.

Thanks again for a perfect mission,

 

Cub 1

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Hey thanks for the kind words, Cub1! You can pretty much thank the ALiVE Devs, Spyderblack723 (an ALiVE dev as well who's mod makes this possible in SP) and AuTigerGrad with his awesome sounds and inspiration for the mission being what it is. I sort of just put it together but I'll shut up and enjoy the compliment. :)

On the first page of this thread, in the second post, are some resources for getting a dedicated server set up on your own PC. Take the first link to the ALiVE wiki and scroll towards the bottom. SavageCDN was very nice to share some TADST setup instructions which are listed in a very easy to understand way. It's the guide I used and I liked it so much they put it on the wiki. They're a sweet bunch.

In the same post I have another link to the actual TADST tool, as well as the ALiVE's War Room page that you'll need to register on to get persistence working. If you get hung up throughout the process, feel free to post back or shoot me a PM. It's a relatively straight forward process and you should be up and running in no time.

Just be aware that Workshop mods which you'll need to direct TADST to should be found under Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steamapps\Workshop\Content and will be in a folder that matches their Steam Workshop URL. If you don't see the one you want right away, open some of the steam folders and you'll find the mod you want.

Example: Massi's NATO Russian Weapons will be a folder called 500929500 which is the numbers at the end of its Workshop web address: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=500929500

So just read through the instructions and follow the steps carefully. Then, register on War Room and enter your server details. If you need any additional help, let me know.

EDIT: And just remember, when in doubt in the mission, look at the map. I've tried my best to mark everything that you'll need to have success. For instance, when you spawn alone on the map, walk over to the seismic map (which is labeled Recruitment Center) and recruit some AI. All of the bases you spawn at will have a place to do this. Sometimes I add the action to a flagpole.

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Regarding finding the workshop mods, there is another option. If you don't mind spending some disk space on duplicating mod folders, you can find the mod in the launcher, press the button with "..." and then "copy as a local mod...". Choose your arma directory and the mod will be copied there. That's how I did it.

 

Also, important that the ports should be opened if you are behind a NAT. For me that was a bit of an issue as my PC is connected through router that connects to another router :)

 

HeroesandvillainsOS, thanks for the tips and hints. Sorry for missing them. Will take a look now.

 

One thing that will make the mission much more interesting for me is some sort of economics(support, units, vehicles have a cost for you). I understand that for some having the sandbox is better but having an option with a limit of what you can have makes it more interesting in my eyes. You will have to make some interesting choices then. Don't know how complex is it to implement though.

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An economic or points system is actually possible with advanced scripting but that's a little out of my league. I wouldn't be opposed to researching it (I know people have tried this on the ALiVE forums) but I've never seen one implemented in practice. I also try not to add anything to my missions unless I feel 100% comfortable with it, mainly because ALiVE is meant to be run on a server and stability is very important to me. Nothing is less fun than desyncing or CTD's.

If anyone has an example where it is done well I'd certainly take a look though.

I know this is sort of half related to the point, but for instance, I only allow the player to call in 6 CAS choppers total. And each time one is destroyed, there's a 30 minute respawn time. Once you lose 6 of them, that's it, no more CAS. Similarly, Taliban fighters should be able to deny your resources simply because they have launchers that can shoot helicopters down, but that said I'm not opposed to limiting things further or making the system more engaging if anyone can come up with some ideas or if (preferably) anyone can point me in a direction shown to work with ALiVE.

Regarding the location of Workshop mods, I thought I read a BIS dev saying they advised against copying or moving files but I can't be sure he wasn't taking about just moving them. For new users it would probably be safer to just find the folder with the number matching the URL (it's not difficult to find them that way) but if anyone has more advanced computer know-how and feels any workarounds are safe to try, have at it. Just know I won't be in a position of offer help for avenues I haven't traveled.

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An economic or points system is actually possible with advanced scripting but that's a little out of my league. I wouldn't be opposed to researching it (I know people have tried this on the ALiVE forums) but I've never seen one implemented in practice. I also try not to add anything to my missions unless I feel 100% comfortable with it, mainly because ALiVE is meant to be run on a server and stability is very important to me. Nothing is less fun than desyncing or CTD's.

If anyone has an example where it is done well I'd certainly take a look though.

I know this is sort of half related to the point, but for instance, I only allow the player to call in 6 CAS choppers total. And each time one is destroyed, there's a 30 minute respawn time. Once you lose 6 of them, that's it, no more CAS. Similarly, Taliban fighters should be able to deny your resources simply because they have launchers that can shoot helicopters down, but that said I'm not opposed to limiting things further or making the system more engaging if anyone can come up with some ideas or if (preferably) anyone can point me in a direction shown to work with ALiVE.

Regarding the location of Workshop mods, I thought I read a BIS dev saying they advised against copying or moving files but I can't be sure he wasn't taking about just moving them. For new users it would probably be safer to just find the folder with the number matching the URL (it's not difficult to find them that way) but if anyone has more advanced computer know-how and feels any workarounds are safe to try, have at it. Just know I won't be in a position of offer help for avenues I haven't traveled.

 

I'm not sure how the mission is setup but your faction's forcepool limit set in the military logistics module is already a form of economics for players to keep in mind. It's also been heavily improved by Tupolov for the next update, including the ability to see remaining forcepool..

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I'm not sure how the mission is setup but your faction's forcepool limit set in the military logistics module is already a form of economics for players to keep in mind. It's also been heavily improved by Tupolov for the next update, including the ability to see remaining forcepool..

I have it set to infinite. I generally expect Britian and America to win these wars. :)

I actually gave this a lot of thought, I originally wanted to use Dynamic but I was finding (in extremely brief testing) that with just a few objectives held, BLUFOR would get a very large amount of troops above the initial spawn, far outnumbering OPFOR early on while OPFOR started their insurgency. I was guessing a good player would dominate the map in a matter of hours so it was not what I was looking for (ideally I want people to play this mission and the upcoming missions for days or weeks. Not a night or three).

Again, that was just with a brief look-see; not a legit scientific test.

I also considered limiting the players to a set number but without OPFOR having a set number too (since they recruit from civs), I didn't want to chance the player feeling cheated after a large time sink in the event they had no more reinforcements and OPFOR was still taking objectives.

So I settled on infinite reinforcements, justifying to myself countries like Britian probably wouldn't just stop sending in troops IRL. I have reinforcements set to packets as well (to new players this means you'll get reinforced at 75% of your initial spawns) so at times, you'll feel out numbered and OPFOR could have the upper hand for a bit while BLUFOR regroups.

Though I like where it looks like you guys may be heading with expanding the features so this is all of course subject to change.

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Hi Guys,

I have setup my server, TADST and Alive to play this mission in multiplayer but alone (singleplayer). In TADST I have set a password to join server and the same password for me as admin.

I can join and play mission ok, but ALIVE wont save and exit when I click SERVER SAVE AND EXIT in the ALIVE esc menu.

War Room shows that I have played this mission in its stats so it must be connecting but cannot do a persistant save.

Any thoughts ? Just about ready to give up...lol

Also I have added @Aliveserver to my list in TADST but not in Arma 3 Launcher as it wont load as it does not contain a .pbo file, is this correct ?

 

Cub 1.

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Hi cub1. Yes you have the right idea. @aliveserver goes on the server only.

So your profile is connected to War Room and is being recognized when you play the mission. That's a good thing. Can you tell me exaftly what happens when you click server save and exit?

If nothing happens. Like, nothing all, in my experience that means you are not successfully logged in as Admin. I know you said you are but that's the exact behavior I've come to expect when I think I'm logged in but actually forgot (I'm not suggesting you forgot. Just giving you an example of when it's happened to me).

If something does happen when you click server save and exit, can you tell me what you see?

The best way to really troubleshoot this would be if you posted a link (to Dropbox or something) of your server report from a session where you tried to save. This will be located in your TADST folder in your Arma root, with a timestamp from when you were playing.

I'm not particularly adept at reading them myself, but I can try poking a dev for you. If your profile is loading, the solution here would be very simple. Persistence is definitely enabled in the mission so we'll figure this out. :)

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Hi HeroesandvilliansOS,

Success !

The reason I couldn't login as admin - didn't put a hashtag before login in the chat box. I have a UK keyboard so my hashtag is actually left off the RHT Shift button labelled as ¬

All working now, thank you so much for your help  :)  

Cub 1 

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Just use the arma 3 launcher to setup the server. It is much easier and no need to mess with setting up mods. if you pick mods in the mod manager in launcher it just uses the same for the server.

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Just use the arma 3 launcher to setup the server. It is much easier and no need to mess with setting up mods. if you pick mods in the mod manager in launcher it just uses the same for the server.

Unless you're on Dev Branch and something has changed, this is not possible when you're hosting your own dedicated server (which is needed for persistence with ALiVE's War Room). That is the correct process for doing a non-persistent LAN session though (and possibly using steam.cmd which I'm not familiar with so I apologize if I'm wrong on this)

At least that is not the way to do it with TADST, which is the tool I'm recommending to people new to this. It's also what I use when I host from my own PC.

Everyone...

I just pushed through a quick update. It's nothing significant if you're already in the midst of a persistent campaign, I'm just streamlining this one to match my upcoming releases.

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I have a relatively important update coming later tonight.

Since I'm pushing one though, I can do some additional tweaking if anyone wants. Specifically, how are you guys feeling about the balance? I'm debating on increasing BLUFOR strength a bit.

Also, if anyone is noticing their 3CB troops are or aren't getting replenished after you take significant losses, please let me know what you're seeing. What's supposed to happen is, after you take a lot of virtual casualties, the military commander will request more troops to be paradropped in. What's important to know is, if you don't have control over any major objectives, the commander look for less efficient objects to reinforce from, and I think will not give you your replacements if nothing is held. So keep in mind, holding objectives is a goal you should consider as the battle progresses.

From the ALiVE Wiki:

Dynamic - LOGCOM chooses the best insertion point from available friendly held objectives. High Priority objectives such as airfields and military bases with heli pads are preferred. If there are no suitable locations, LOGCOM will look for low priority military establishments or marine civilian locations (sea ports). These have a significantly lower logistics capacity than major military bases and resupply will take longer.

If you call in troops yourself and want them to hold something, use the "static defense" option. This should keep them in the area.

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I just pushed another an update through.

This one focuses on trying to make you feel more like a member of the British Royal Marines, rather than just a spectator of an ongoing conflict. Players will now have more units to fight beside, and also a larger radius and more frequent map intel to explore. I want people to get a sense for what's going on around them better, and in turn, this should making planning your tactics much more fun and also get you into the action a little bit quicker.

Consider this a quality of life update. I feel the changes are sensible but as always, I take feedback very seriously and can definitely expand upon these changes further, or revert them back a bit depending on what you guys want.

I also deleted a redundant CQB module. Although I don't think it caused issues, I'd still recommend getting the update rather than continuing any older versions, just to be safe.

The next thing I'm looking into is battle casualty replacements for BLUFOR (whether they come often enough, etc).. So I may have another update here soon if anything jumps out at me that could stand being changed.

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I just pushed through an update to bring Prophet up to BIS 1.62 and ALiVE 1.1.1 standards. Full changelog in the first post.

Highlights include the ability to slingload with all transport choppers (beware this feature is a little buggy and will improve over time as ALiVE continues to update), audio sounds for logistics confirmations, some sensible adjustments to all bases and outposts, and the removal of infinite battle casualty replacements (3CB now has 10,000 BCR's).

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Hi Folks,

I'm intrigued - time to start downloading - thanks Hero...

Regards,

Scott

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Hey Scott. Thanks for downloading the mission.

If this is your first time with an ALiVE insurgency, let me know if you have any questions on 'how to play' or how to use the ALiVE functions (etc).

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Hi Hero,

Seems like you are everywhere I post... I'm pretty familiar ALiVE although I've never played anyone else's mission with it - I've just built my own sandbox stuff... ALiVE is great that even when you build your own missions - you really don't know what's going to happen and I've been surprised by events many times... Will do - probably won't get time to mess with this until the weekend...

Regards,

Scott

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Haha. Yeah, I make the rounds. :) I agree man. ALiVE is a great framework and really makes full map battles a breeze to put together. I counted yesterday, and although I've released 3, I think I have 8 or so in the works. LOL!

Oh, just a note to everyone: Slingloading is a HIGHLY WIP feature. Consider my update on this aspect more of getting the framework together for future ALiVE updates rather than something you should use. I recommend it only to people curious amd that feel like messing around and not something to use during a session that means a lot to you.

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