[ALiVE, SP/COOP 1-12] October Skies

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

The Russian Military goes head-to-head with Ukraine in a land grab over Chernarus.

 

This mission is designed for SP and COOP play. Although single-player play is encouraged, the mission should only be run in LAN or a local hosted server. 

 

Features include: 

 

CAS, logistical and artillery support

Ambient animals and civilian traffic

Auto-tasks

A shooting range with Virtual Arsenal

Vehicle and helicopter refuel and resupply points (provided by Xeno)

Multiple bases to choose from for respawn

Dynamic weather

Zeus Game Master for Admins

 

You are a member of a VDV recon squad for the Russian Armed Forces, tasked with taking Chernarus away from Ukraine. Designed as a long-term persistent campaign, this is a full-map battle, with auto-tasking enabled to help guide you. 

 

Mods:

CBA*

ALiVE*

Spyder Addons*

RHS USAF*

RHS ASRF*

RHS GREF*

CUP Terrains Core and Maps*

 

Note: * means I'm currently using the Steam Workshop version of the mod.

 

Saving your progress: This mission uses a local saving feature, which is accessed in the esc menu and initiated by the "server save and exit" function. To continue your save, simply act as if you're starting the mission over again and your data will load automatically. To start the mission over, change the PBO name or execute "call ALiVE_fnc_ProfileNameSpaceClear" in the debug menu. This mission should only be played on a local hosted server, even if you're playing alone with AI. If you want to play the mission on a dedicated server, for now, unpack the mission, open the Data module, and change the local saving option to "cloud."

 

Download Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qkjws29y9q42zdy/October_Skies.Chernarus_Summer.pbo?dl=0

 

Workshop page: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=963737272

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Ok, so for anyone that's never tried, here is a link to the ALiVE wiki which contains a list of steps to follow to get a locally hosted dedicated server up and running on your own PC using the community made TADST tool (steps written by Brawler, added to the Wiki by SavageCDN):

http://alivemod.com/wiki/index.php/ALiVE_Data

And the TADST tool: https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/101123-tophes-arma-dedicated-server-tool-tadst/

Here's a link to ALiVE's War Room where you can register and setup your server for persistence: http://alivemod.com/user/login

Note: The server will then need to run @aliveserver, which is to be placed last in the mod line. Clients never run @aliveserver so put it on the server only.

[tourist 617]

Hey, cool! Congrats to the release! 

 

Nice idea to make a "How to play" Briefing entry for those not familiar with ALiVE - should make the mission more accessible for casual players. 

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Hey, cool! Congrats to the release!

Nice idea to make a "How to play" Briefing entry for those not familiar with ALiVE - should make the mission more accessible for casual players.

Agreed! ALiVE gives players so many tools to accomplish their goals, there are probably tons of ways I haven't even thought of. :) It's a magical mod. What I write is how I generally go about it but there are lots of ways to win this war (patrolling, UAV recon, joining AI teams, generating tasks from the commander tablet, player flown CAS attacks, laying your own charges on the road, and on and on and on).

[Mordacai 38]

Do I need LAN to play it SP?

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Do I need LAN to play it SP?

You really should play it in online environment.

It's not like your computer would explode or anything if you tried launching it in SP, but saving and loading (which I've disabled in SP) wouldn't really work. ALiVE stores so much data if you tried to load a save like this in SP mode, it would very likely crash.

I've designed this mission, and all my missions, to be playable alone or in groups. Lone wolfs have access to AI recruitment centers so you can go to battle with a squad size that makes sense.

LAN or a dedicated server is recommended. Saving and loading is done with a dedicated server registered to ALiVE War Room. I have instructions for how to do this with TADST in the second post.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Oh I pushed through a minor update last night. Intel will show up in low levels on the in-game map now. Nothing major but worth noting regardless. Changelog updated.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Update. Some support choppers weren't showing up in the commander tablet. I also lowered the virtual AI profiling speed.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Update. Highlights: I added a third RHS Russian base and added an on-screen prompt to all boats that automatically teleports grouped AI aboard (at high docks, AI had a hard time finding a place to board from. Provided by Spyderblack723). Zeus Game Master has been added for admins and all helicopter callsigns have been redone to make it easier to know who is who. Changelog updated.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Update. General optimization and performance improvements.

[8LacK5naK3 192]

Seeing occasional hitching in this one (same as the problem with the Oasis mission before it was fixed). Hitching is the same distinct quarter to half second pause as it was on Oasis of Marah, just not as frequent. I mention it since I get 2 warnings in the chat text each time I start this mission mentioning too many objectives (usually between 83 and 89 for both - it recommends under 80).

 

Cheers.

 

 

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

6 hours ago, flyingpig said:

Seeing occasional hitching in this one (same as the problem with the Oasis mission before it was fixed). Hitching is the same distinct quarter to half second pause as it was on Oasis of Marah, just not as frequent. I mention it since I get 2 warnings in the chat text each time I start this mission mentioning too many objectives (usually between 83 and 89 for both - it recommends under 80).

 

Cheers.

 

 

Yep, agreed. Will fix ASAP. The only reason I haven't is because, believe it or not, all of the Russian RHS factions are "broken" in ALiVE right now.

 

This has been fixed internally and *should* be included in the next ALiVE release. Once that goes live, I will fix the hitch and update this mission (I didn't see any sense in fixing it when the MSV faction wasn't working properly).

 

Thanks for all the feedback @flyingpig ! It helps me a lot.

[drdetroit 77]

This is a really good campaign - one of your best IMHO!  It took a bit to get use to the Russian verbiage, vehicles, weapons etc, but it's very well executed and just a blast (literally).  Although, it's kind of difficult to differentiate the Russian forces from the Ukrainian forces, since they use nearly the same gear.

 

I notice a few things, as the campaign progresses, that I'm a bit perplexed about.  For example; there are markers that pop up in the map that show when a town is captured, however, the markers disappear after a few minutes.  What is the best way to check what towns are held by the Russians/Ukrainians?  

 

Also, sometimes I see a light green marker on the map that shows 'KIA'; what does that indicate - who is KIA?  When I investigate the area there is nothing at the marked spot on the map.  

 

What is the best method to hold a town?  Do I simply call in reinforcements via commanders table, or is it that there should be manned static emplacements setup around the city?

 

One more thing; sometimes it seems as if enemy emplacements respawn in the same locations upon entering a saved campaign, even after cleared previously.  Is this because I hadn't cleared the entire area the first few times?  

 

Thanks again for the wonderful work HaV!  Fantastic stuff!

 

Good day,

DrDetroit

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

3 hours ago, drdetroit said:

 

This is a really good campaign - one of your best IMHO!  It took a bit to get use to the Russian verbiage, vehicles, weapons etc, but it's very well executed and just a blast (literally).  Although, it's kind of difficult to differentiate the Russian forces from the Ukrainian forces, since they use nearly the same gear.

 

Ha! I totally agree. I don’t play with RHS too much so differentiating between the factions is tough for me too, especially from a distance. Not sure I can do anything about that unless I change the factions to something else.

 

3 hours ago, drdetroit said:

For example; there are markers that pop up in the map that show when a town is captured, however, the markers disappear after a few minutes.  What is the best way to check what towns are held by the Russians/Ukrainians?  

I’ll have to look again how much intel I allow the player to see. Pretty sure I set it to full, meaning what you see is real time and the max of what players are allowed to see. Fairly certain a captured objective just tells you it’s captured the moment it changes sides (don’t quote me, but pretty sure to be completely held or to “change sides”, one side has to outnumber the other side by 2-3 groups. So 7 vs 4 would mean the 7 side holds the objective, I think). Regarding whether your side is at a place, I allow the map to display friendlies within I think a 5000 meter radius of where you are. I can make that number higher. Let me double check.

 

3 hours ago, drdetroit said:

Also, sometimes I see a light green marker on the map that shows 'KIA'; what does that indicate - who is KIA?  When I investigate the area there is nothing at the marked spot on the map.

Fairly certain that means an enemy has been reported KIA (killed in action) by your Commander. KIA generally means there’s a high probability of combat in the area. About a dead body at the exact marker location, not sure but pretty sure it doesn’t work that way,  I never took it to be an exact dead body position (mainly because the dead profile is virtualized and not in the game space), but more as a reflection of profiles fighting somewhere nearby.

 

3 hours ago, drdetroit said:

What is the best method to hold a town?  Do I simply call in reinforcements via commanders table, or is it that there should be manned static emplacements setup around the city?

See above. 2-3 groups at the objective should be enough to consider it held. Yeah I usually call them in with logistics, but you can also “clear waypoints” and assign new waypoints to groups on the map using the Operations menu. And honestly, yeah that’s an EXCELLENT idea calling in static emplacements with logistics and setting them up around the objective too! Never thought of that! Fairly certain they will man them too (when spawned). Try it!

 

3 hours ago, drdetroit said:

One more thing; sometimes it seems as if enemy emplacements respawn in the same locations upon entering a saved campaign, even after cleared previously.  Is this because I hadn't cleared the entire area the first few times? 

You’re talking about CQB statics, right? The ones that spawn on rooftops and stuff? CQB should clear I believe in 100 meter radius’. Marceldev89 actually has a diagram somewhere for how he set this up. It used to be you’d need to clear an ENTIRE objective for CQB to be considered cleared, but recently they changed it to smaller sectors, with I believe are 100x100 within each objective. So assuming you aren’t forgetting to kill dudes or missing them somehow, you should be fine. 

 

But the weapons themselves, hmmm? Let’s say you clear an area, when you come back is the area filled again with enemies manning the weapons, or is it just then weapons there by themselves unmanned?

[drdetroit 77]

2 hours ago, HeroesandvillainsOS said:

You’re talking about CQB statics, right? The ones that spawn on rooftops and stuff? CQB should clear I believe in 100 meter radius’. Marceldev89 actually has a diagram somewhere for how he set this up. It used to be you’d need to clear an ENTIRE objective for CQB to be considered cleared, but recently they changed it to smaller sectors, with I believe are 100x100 within each objective. So assuming you aren’t forgetting to kill dudes or missing them somehow, you should be fine. 

 

But the weapons themselves, hmmm? Let’s say you clear an area, when you come back is the area filled again with enemies manning the weapons, or is it just then weapons there by themselves unmanned?

 

Thanks for the reply HaV.  Much appreciated.

 

What I'm referring to is when I take the city of Chernogorsk, for example;  when it's in my armies full control, as well as fully occupied by Russian forces.  I then head north and take over/occupy several other towns and smaller cities.  However, when I do a seemingly successful  local server save, and enter the save-game later, none of the towns are in my control any longer.  I have to take Chernogorsk again, and every town I've previously occupied.  Almost as if saving locally is not fully saving the status of the campaign and any progress made previously by occupying new cities/towns and territory.  

 

Hope that is a bit more clear on my part.   Taking a town a large as Chernogorsk is challenging and time consuming, it gets a bit tedious having to take it back every time.  Qurious is this is a quirk with Alive, or maybe a misapplied setting in one of the Alive modules.  

 

Thanks again Hav!

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

@drdetroit Well that is not good! I definitely need to get to the bottom of this.

 

Hey, what are the chances you could do me a favor? Could you clear a town (ghost and teleport if you have to to make it a quicker process), debug the virtual AI module, and take a screenshot of the map so I can see the profiles, then save.

 

Then load, debug virtual AI, take another screenshot of the map and post the screenshots here?

 

This will allow me to see if profile positions are being saved properly. 

 

I can test myself if you can’t, but it might be a couple days for me to test it myself. And yes the first thing I will check is persistence settings in the modules (if you happen to have the mission open in the editor, don’t be shy to let me know if I forgot to enable persistence somewhere).

 

I’m thinking what’s happening is the Russian Commander is sending troops away from the objectives you’ve taken on his own, THAT, or the Ukrainian side is sending troops back to take it back after they lose it and you are taking losses and losing control. Large objectives like Cherno will probably be fought over a lot, but I’ll have to spend some time testing to see if this ends up not being a persistence issue.

[drdetroit 77]

I will try to take screen later this evening or possibly tomorrow, not sure if I'll be jumping on tonight.  I'll also try to peek at the Alive modules and see if there is a missing setting somewhere as well.

 

2 hours ago, HeroesandvillainsOS said:

I’m thinking what’s happening is the Russian Commander is sending troops away from the objectives you’ve taken on his own, THAT, or the Ukrainian side is sending troops back to take it back after they lose it and you are taking losses and losing control. Large objectives like Cherno will probably be fought over a lot, but I’ll have to spend some time testing to see if this ends up not being a persistence issue.

 

Not sure if either could be the issue.  The last time I did a save (this afternoon), I had taken Chernogorsk, then patrolled around the city for 45-min or so to make sure the city was cleared and firmly in Russian control, then promptly did a local save.  Once I jumped back into the game after lunch, and Chernogorsk was firmly back in enemy control.  Same enemies, located in pretty much the same location, aside from the troop running into town from the north.  Russian Command controlled armour units just making it back to the outskirts of town by the time I got there

 

In any event, I'll see what I can find out as well.

 

Thanks again HaV!

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

@drdetroit Ah man bummer. I only had enough time right now to just open the mission in the editor and check persistence options in all the various modules, and sadly, I have them setup correctly. So yeah, whatever is happening will unfortunately take more in-depth investigating. 

 

I really would love to see some before and after screenshots of virtual profiles from clearing Cherno, then loading the save and comparing. Profile positon absolutely should be persisting correctly (meaning they should be EXACTLY where they were when you saved when you load). And I have a suspicion this will be the case, and this may somehow be related to CQB in some way. I'll need to set aside some time to look this over. If I have a chance, there is a slim chance I might be able to look later (if I do I'll let you know so we don't investigate the same thing), but if you are bored and have a chance that would help me out too. No worries either way and thanks for the report.

 

Also, I see I have map intel set to medium and revealing friendlies set to 5000 meters. For the next update (when ALiVE updates), I'll change it to high or full, and extend the friendly markers to as much of the map as I can (so 20000 meters I guess). The next ALiVE update will also improve some tasks I left out (transport troops, CSAR, etc) so I'll probably add those too. But most importantly I need to figure this issue you reported out. AGH its always something lol. 

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

@drdetroit Ok so I started a fresh mission, cleared Cherno completely and saved. Screenshot: 

 

 

Loaded the mission. Screenshot: 

 

 

Everything seems to be persisting properly, including both regular profiles and CQB. My best guess is, seeing as this is a major major priority city, after you left and came back, Ukraine sent more troops there which is normal behavior.

[drdetroit 77]

On 11/9/2017 at 10:25 PM, HeroesandvillainsOS said:

Everything seems to be persisting properly, including both regular profiles and CQB. My best guess is, seeing as this is a major major priority city, after you left and came back, Ukraine sent more troops there which is normal behavior.

 

 

Hey, thanks for checking it out HaV.  You are probably correct.  I will be playing today, and will also do the screen shots to confirm.  

 

Again, thanks for the heads up.

 

Good day!

DrDetroit

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

1 hour ago, drdetroit said:

 

 

Hey, thanks for checking it out HaV.  You are probably correct.  I will be playing today, and will also do the screen shots to confirm.  

 

Again, thanks for the heads up.

 

Good day!

DrDetroit

Yeah man let me know. Keep in mind Cherno has a ton of action on mission start. I counted over 40 Ukrainian units in my test. 

 

I’ll be updating October Skies when the new ALiVE releases, giving higher intel coverage and extending the BLUFOR friendly display range, also probably adding in some more tasks. Let me know if there’s anything you want or that I need to edit.

 

I’m also building an Altis mission like this one (full map, auto tasking, etc), with vanilla units kind of as a test bed, but also because Altis is a map I do really like just never really play. I may release that too.

 

Hey do you happen to know offhand if the game has a vanilla mobile/portable respawn object? I sort of want to only build a base or two to start (with all the normal bells and whistles), but encoursge players to build new ones with logistics as they take territory (then players would recruit AI with logistics at these places rather than with Spyder Addons Recruitment, which I will still use at the main bases), but without a way to add a respawn point mid game that would sort of suck.

[drdetroit 77]

5 hours ago, HeroesandvillainsOS said:

I’m also building an Altis mission like this one (full map, auto tasking, etc), with vanilla units kind of as a test bed, but also because Altis is a map I do really like just never really play. I may release that too.

 

Hey do you happen to know offhand if the game has a vanilla mobile/portable respawn object? I sort of want to only build a base or two to start (with all the normal bells and whistles), but encoursge players to build new ones with logistics as they take territory (then players would recruit AI with logistics at these places rather than with Spyder Addons Recruitment, which I will still use at the main bases), but without a way to add a respawn point mid game that would sort of suck.

 

I have no suggestions regarding October Skies, you did a fine job on that one.  Again, one of the best Alive missions, IMO.

 

Am October Skies mission type mission on Altis sounds like a great idea.  I'd love to give it a try once you've completed it.  I'm also very fond of that map as well, a lot of character and variety on Alits.

 

In any event, I'm not sure about portable respawn objects in the vanilla game.  I've played a huge DUWS type mission, I forgot the name, that allowed the player to build encampments and checkpoints in order for you and AI hold captured towns.  I'm sure that mission had tons of custom scripting though.

 

Good luck with the Altis mission HaV!

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

A dude named Fetzen helped me out on the mobile respawn. Apparently there are backpacks in the editor called Camp (I guess?) that offer deployable tents for individual and group respawn. Apparently that’s all you need is the backpack then you’ll get an option somehow to create a new respawn point. I’ll have to verify but nifty if true.

 

Thanks for the kind words @drdetroit I have to decide how many bases I want to build on Altis and do that whole song and dance again. I have one already (nothing fancy) but the map is so big I probably need to make some more within the BLU TAOR. I figured I could just have one and then encourage players to just make their own with logistics and the camp backpacks but maybe I should just make a few more around the map so loners like me can still recruit AI with Spyder Addons and not have to just ask Logistics to send more and then have to wait for them to come and join the player group (which can take while). We’ll see.

[mike187 13]

Yes the backpacks work just fine in the vanilla game for mobile respawn tents. There are few backpacks from Zeus update and another since Malden update in the Arsenal. Just play any Combat Patrol MP mission ie. the teamleader has the backpack equiped by default.

[drdetroit 77]

The mobile respawn would be a real nice feature.  Seems my troop are gaining ground inland, i'd love to be able to setup a mobile HQ and spawn from there at game startup.  Would save a long walk, as most of my transports are not in camp or destroyed.

 

If you haven't added this yet HoV, I'd like to see if I can get it to work for my solo play.  Is it just an entity that I would have to place via the editor?

 

 

On 11/11/2017 at 4:39 PM, HeroesandvillainsOS said:

Thanks for the kind words @drdetroit I have to decide how many bases I want to build on Altis and do that whole song and dance again. I have one already (nothing fancy) but the map is so big I probably need to make some more within the BLU TAOR. I figured I could just have one and then encourage players to just make their own with logistics and the camp backpacks but maybe I should just make a few more around the map so loners like me can still recruit AI with Spyder Addons and not have to just ask Logistics to send more and then have to wait for them to come and join the player group (which can take while). We’ll see.

 

Looking forward to this!  I too am SP only, so having multiple bases would be an advantage.