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TomMack

[SP / APEX] Something More - An Arma 3 Campaign based on the official Story

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Something More - an Arma 3 Campaign. [Project DEAD - sorry, explanation below.]

 

 

Something More* is an in-development Arma 3 campaign based upon the official story-line and set after the events of the Apex Protocol.

 

It is a Single-Player campaign that takes advantage of the latest expansion, Apex, in an effort to combine the realistic, sandbox experience of the ARMA series and an engaging story.

 

 

Features

  • Prologue of Story based missions
  • Playable cut-scenes
  • Multiple playable characters
  • Piloting aircraft and drones
  • Civilian interaction
  • Decisions matter
  • Playable testing phase
  • Diving/underwater gameplay

 

 

Downloads

 

Download in a Campaign format here (preferred)... http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=750543820 (steam Workshop)

Download individual missions via the Steam Workshop here.

 

Created by Tom Mack.

 - I plan on posting about the development process on my "Tom Has Thoughts" site, if you wish to see how all this was made, then give it a visit.

 

 

Thanks to Kydoimos, Lexx, IndeedPete and Wiki and everyone who submitted their thoughts to the "What Makes a Good Arma Campaign" Thread. And thanks of course to Bohemia Interactive.

 

 

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Congratulations on the release Tom! I was closely following your work and I wish you the best with the campaign! (Unfortunately my computer hates apex and I get literal 10-5 FPS on tanoa alone so I couldn't play :( )

Nice job! Loving the fact you made underwater combat which is quite frankly rarely used.

EDIT: Moments before posting I realized it is altis with Tanoan assets... Screw my statement even though I uninstalled apex I'm still going to play it!

Il post my feedback ASAP!

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Congratulations on the release Tom! I was closely following your work and I wish you the best with the campaign! (Unfortunately my computer hates apex and I get literal 10-5 FPS on tanoa alone so I couldn't play :( )

Nice job! Loving the fact you made underwater combat which is quite frankly rarely used.

EDIT: Moments before posting I realized it is altis with Tanoan assets... Screw my statement even though I uninstalled apex I'm still going to play it!

Il post my feedback ASAP!

 

Thanks man, appreciate it. I doubt i'll be using Tanoa as it doesn't fit the story-line, but I am using Apex's assets and such. I was careful not to include the statement "underwater combat" and instead used "gameplay", it may work its way into the campaign at a later date though. Still a long way to go.

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Thanks man, appreciate it. I doubt i'll be using Tanoa as it doesn't fit the story-line, but I am using Apex's assets and such. I was careful not to include the statement "underwater combat" and instead used "gameplay", it may work its way into the campaign at a later date though. Still a long way to go.

No problem! That's nice that you won't use tanoa (for me?) I could live with the DLC icons splashing on my screen :)

Ah yes I saw your trailer had only little underwater gameplay but that was pretty clever to use the secret Easter egg! (I'm not gonna spoil it for anyone)

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Great trailer, will certainly have to try these out :)

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Okay so today i played about all the missions except Escalation (Apparently, I couldn't start it up. Probably cause i had to re-fund apex due to the fact i couldn't run it. Kinda sad i had to do it.) So heres my feedback

 

SPOILERS: (Could someone tell me the command to put a spoiler? I never used it somehow)

 

Around the first mission was nicely done, Didn't found any bugs but only a slight error, The 'Turks' is actually not part of C.S.A.T But its the Iranians, Not sure if this was intentional.

 

First/Second mission in which right after the Nikos briefing part was quite nicely executed and didn't found any bugs other than there is only a couple of A.A.F. Maybe there could be a Zamak transporting a fireteam? A couple of FIA soldiers trying to survive too?

 

The third one right after Thoronos briefing was done extremely well but the A.A.F somehow didn't reacted at my drone and it takes awhile for the player to swim, How about giving a wetsuit so it wont take a long time? Oh and the cave sequence was very unique and i haven't seen anyone utilized it in a long time, There are some clipping issue with the guy near the skeleton and Miller's gun is floating. Nothing much of an issue :)

 

Overall its a very neat start for a first campaign and i wish you the best on you future ones!

 

Cheers!

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Okay so today i played about all the missions except Escalation (Apparently, I couldn't start it up. Probably cause i had to re-fund apex due to the fact i couldn't run it. Kinda sad i had to do it.) So heres my feedback

 

SPOILERS: (Could someone tell me the command to put a spoiler? I never used it somehow)

 

Around the first mission was nicely done, Didn't found any bugs but only a slight error, The 'Turks' is actually not part of C.S.A.T But its the Iranians, Not sure if this was intentional.

 

First/Second mission in which right after the Nikos briefing part was quite nicely executed and didn't found any bugs other than there is only a couple of A.A.F. Maybe there could be a Zamak transporting a fireteam? A couple of FIA soldiers trying to survive too?

 

The third one right after Thoronos briefing was done extremely well but the A.A.F somehow didn't reacted at my drone and it takes awhile for the player to swim, How about giving a wetsuit so it wont take a long time? Oh and the cave sequence was very unique and i haven't seen anyone utilized it in a long time, There are some clipping issue with the guy near the skeleton and Miller's gun is floating. Nothing much of an issue :)

 

Overall its a very neat start for a first campaign and i wish you the best on you future ones!

 

Cheers!

 

Thanks for the feedback...

 

Damn, Escalation is the mission I'm most worried about but requires you to have apex because of the vehicle i think.

 

and yh "turks" was an oversight, but easily fixable. Glad I haven't started making the next mission as that is a key plot point.

 

The AAF soldiers at the start of the "part 2" of mission 1 are primarily just ambient units fighting FIA units, the main combat focus for the player is at the LZ.

 

I did consider wet suits but compromised the speed for the atheistic, but I think I may change that decision. As for the clipping issue, I will fine tune that; that part is made with a hidden chair placed precariously in the rock, so it's a bit dodgy anyway.

And I'll have a look at that floating weapon, thanks for the feedback.

 

As for the AAf not reacting to the drone, i'll let you in on a little secret, there arent any.... ;) i need to add some ambient ones, but they probably wont react to the drone still.

Edited by TomMack
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Kudos TomMack, loving what I´ve played so far... good to know we´re having some piloting missions too! This will be a truly campaign (to be played from Campaigns tab), so I expect there will be weapon persistency too, right? You´ve commented acknowledgement to InddedPete´s great works on MERCS campaign... there will be some interactive dialogs as his campaign, or you´re just inspired by his great character development and witty dialogs? I´ve loved a lot that mechanics but so far just MERCS and a long sandbox mission (can´t recall the name, was a little wacky and quoted Doctor Who/Terminator and stuff with ciborg soldiers, buggy but nice mission thou) had it, kinda miss it being used more =)

 

Anyways, great work and anxious to play the whole deal soon ;D

 

Cheers!

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Thanks for the feedback...

 

Damn, Escalation is the mission I'm most worried about but requires you to have apex because of the vehicle i think.

 

and yh "turks" was an oversight, but easily fixable. Glad I haven't started making the next mission as that is a key plot point.

 

The AAF soldiers at the start of the "part 2" of mission 1 are primarily just ambient units fighting FIA units, the main combat focus for the player is at the LZ.

 

I did consider wet suits but compromised the speed for the atheistic, but I think I may change that decision. As for the clipping issue, I will fine tune that; that part is made with a hidden chair placed precariously in the rock, so it's a bit dodgy anyway.

And I'll have a look at that floating weapon, thanks for the feedback.

 

As for the AAf not reacting to the drone, i'll let you in on a little secret, there arent any.... ;) i need to add some ambient ones, but they probably wont react to the drone still.

Ah that's nice that most of the issues are easily fixable! (Hidden chair?? Why haven't I thought of that!)

Yeah about escalation kinda bad that I missed a great mission but I was confused as heck when he said "sorry James" at the next mission XD

About the ambient units that makes sense I guess, this is directed towards new players right?

I guess I could agree with you with the ambient part as it's pretty cool diving and seeing the orange light swirl around the ocean. Loved that part!

Wait what? There wasn't a AAF? No wonder they didn't give a damn when I zipped right pass them! :P

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About the ambient units that makes sense I guess, this is directed towards new players right?

 

Most of the issues have now been fixed, hopefully... and I wouldnt say new players, but as I said in the "What makes a good campaign" thread, I wanted the prologue to be heavily story based and linear, quite the opposite to what arma should be... but would then open up in the coming missions. Im using the next mission "Kavala" to showcase what I have in store.

 

I am planning on adding a prologue mission to the prologue, where it would be a tutorial style, boot-camp like experience for new players to the series. But seeing as my campaign follows on from the official Bootcamp, EastWind and Apex protocol campaigns, i dont think its required as i assume you've gained skills from those.

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Kudos TomMack, loving what I´ve played so far... good to know we´re having some piloting missions too! This will be a truly campaign (to be played from Campaigns tab), so I expect there will be weapon persistency too, right? You´ve commented acknowledgement to InddedPete´s great works on MERCS campaign... there will be some interactive dialogs as his campaign, or you´re just inspired by his great character development and witty dialogs? I´ve loved a lot that mechanics but so far just MERCS and a long sandbox mission (can´t recall the name, was a little wacky and quoted Doctor Who/Terminator and stuff with ciborg soldiers, buggy but nice mission thou) had it, kinda miss it being used more =)

 

Anyways, great work and anxious to play the whole deal soon ;D

 

Cheers!

 

Weapon persistence is the plan, but the majority of missions dont take place right after the last, the plan is to add persistence but HUBs will usually offer a huge amount of loadout customisation. As for IndeedPetes work, a bit of everything. As I've stated before, I love storylines so character development is crucial, Ive scratched the surface with missions like Escalation and my writing is usually quite witty anyways, so im sure there will be some banter working its way into the dialogue but It's important to maintain the tone of the story too and not have it feel forced and out of place. You mentioned interactivity; This is my aim for HUB missions, make them feel seamlessly integrated into the main mission itself. When the time comes, A lot of emphasis will be placed on the player gaining intel for civilians and conversing with others to discover new things.

 

Thanks for the feedback... It becomes very inspiring for me to work faster, although the next mission is a big one.

 

I will be logging my creation of the next mission on my portfolio site; tomhasthoughts.wordpress.com, as a little reminder for me in the future to some cool editing tricks. Keep an eye on it ;)

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Most of the issues have now been fixed, hopefully... and I wouldnt say new players, but as I said in the "What makes a good campaign" thread, I wanted the prologue to be heavily story based and linear, quite the opposite to what arma should be... but would then open up in the coming missions. Im using the next mission "Kavala" to showcase what I have in store.

 

I am planning on adding a prologue mission to the prologue, where it would be a tutorial style, boot-camp like experience for new players to the series. But seeing as my campaign follows on from the official Bootcamp, EastWind and Apex protocol campaigns, i dont think its required as i assume you've gained skills from those.

True, A bootcamp wouldn't really be needed for now since the campaign of yours doesnt have any new "mechanics" (Not in a rude way btw, Maybe there is?) Some people might enjoy it for the immersion while others may get ticked off for it.

 

Oh and thanks for clearing out the issues!

 

Cheers!

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First mission, task says I'll have to get into the car, but it seems locked. Can't find a way to get into it. Also for convenience, maybe you should put the task marker on the car. I know there aren't many else around that could confuse the player, but I think it would be more in line with the vanilla stuff.

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First mission, task says I'll have to get into the car, but it seems locked. Can't find a way to get into it. Also for convenience, maybe you should put the task marker on the car. I know there aren't many else around that could confuse the player, but I think it would be more in line with the vanilla stuff.

 

I'll double check the car issue... It may be that you have to access it from the passenger side, as I have locked the other vehicle cargo slots so that the player is definitely in the passenger side. I've replayed the mission a few times to double check if this issue is persistent, but i cannot recreate it, it also doesn't appear to matter which side of the vehicle you're on (See image here)

 

As for the tasks, up to that point I had only ever used the "in-editor" module tasks, so the SimpleTask stuff is new to me. I've changed it so the destination is set to the vehicle not a system marker that updates when the vehicle stops, which is something I have done in the later missions, must have forgotten to add it to the first. Should be updated. Thanks for the feedback Lexx :))

 

Edit - added image for the car bug. and updated task marker.

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@TomMack The campaign is shaping up wonderfully-good job so far. I am really enjoying myself.

 

Also-Offtopic, but your portfolio site is very good. I just read your No man's sky piece and found it really well written and eloquent. I will be reading more :)

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@TomMack The campaign is shaping up wonderfully-good job so far. I am really enjoying myself.

 

Also-Offtopic, but your portfolio site is very good. I just read your No man's sky piece and found it really well written and eloquent. I will be reading more :)

 

Thanks a lot, Im quite vocal to my mates about some of the stuff I write on it and instead of arguing or saying the same thing over and over again, i thought I'd just send them a link. I've enjoyed writing for the first time in my life thanks to it, so long may it continue.. :)

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Mission 1 Part 2 worked pretty much perfect. Short and good pacing. Started Mission 2 - right at the beginning, can't access the equipment box via action menu. By accident I found out that it does work if I walk up to it, then go into my inventory (will then show the content of the crate)... but the car. Once again, I can't enter it. :>

 

Out of curiosity- are you create the mission with dev-branch or stable? I am running on dev-branch and no idea if that might influence this stuff (apparently nobody else has issues with getting into the vehicles?)

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Mission 1 Part 2 worked pretty much perfect. Short and good pacing. Started Mission 2 - right at the beginning, can't access the equipment box via action menu. By accident I found out that it does work if I walk up to it, then go into my inventory (will then show the content of the crate)... but the car. Once again, I can't enter it. :>

 

Out of curiosity- are you create the mission with dev-branch or stable? I am running on dev-branch and no idea if that might influence this stuff (apparently nobody else has issues with getting into the vehicles?)

 

I'm using the stable branch at the moment and have done since I began creating the missions. Once again, I've never had issues with accessing the cache's. I'll install dev-branch and attempt to re-create.

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You shouldn't.

When you're creating something, always remain on stable.

Dev Branch can cause issues - because on Dev.

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You shouldn't.

When you're creating something, always remain on stable.

Dev Branch can cause issues - because on Dev.

 

Of course, I meant just to simply recreate the issues. I planned on reverting back to stable for editing.

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lol ok ^_^

 

Sorry I misunderstood :( :(

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I'm always working on dev-branch, because then I can experience all the new bugs right the day they appear. :627:

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I've compiled the prologue into a Campaign format which is now downloadable from this link here (Google Drive).

This is the preferred format for new testers, as I can fix bugs based around campaign description.ext. But Steam Workshop files will be updated much more often.

 

Also as far as updates for new missions are concerned... I will be quietening down a bit now and working on the new missions, I also have college coming back up again, so progress may be slower. These mission have taken around a month to make for reference. I will release the next mission once i deem it playable for testing, but after that, I doubt i'll release more content until the entire campaign is ready for mass testing.

 

Thanks.

 

Bugs I have at the moment are; overview images not showing in the campaign menu.

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