Game On / Kerry's War

[Hardly 8]

First a little background: As I wrote in another thread, I really enjoyed the scouting parts of Survive and Adapt which extended Arma's campaign from maybe 20 hours to over 100. I also enjoyed Win as a stark contrast to how technology changes war. That said, Win was short and the last mission "Game Over" really had me quit Arma for almost a year, simply because I enjoyed Kerry as a character, especially over Adams/Miller due to his flaws and BI announcing that "That was it." for the East Win campaign really disappointed me, especially when they bring James back to life magically.

So, after a year I dug around in the mission files and enabled savegames on Game Over. While I'm not good at editing missions, I did set some personal rules to make the last mission much more difficult and yet interesting:

 

1. Kerry becomes group leader and decides against evacuating Altis in favor of running a guerrilla war to help FIA.

2. NATO is in retreat for the period of the mission, lasting 7 days.

3. Assume Kerry can't fly a helicopter and the rescued pilot refuses to do so due to the likelihood of getting shot down.

4. Assume all smaller boats are too small to cross the ocean, and Kerry, being responsible, insists on finding a decent sized patrol boat (or two) that will hold everyone.

 

A. The main goal is to eliminate as many CSAT/AAF forces as possible running scorched earth, stealing what vehicles you can and removing everything else from play.

B. Mission Complete is when the shelling by the 3 CSAT artillery pieces stops and all major military installations are scouted/cleared.

C. Kerry can choose to setup a base camp if an area is scouted to be safe and not of military origin (I.e. No tops of hills).

D. Half the team must stay to defend the camp/rest at all times unless the camp is being moved.

E. Acquire as many weapons as reasonably possible and outfit any captured vehicles for resistance use.

F. Repairing vehicles takes time even though the truck does so instantly.

G. To set up a camp where you can save, you need a fuel truck and a repair truck.

H. No using CSAT vehicles for extended periods of time, lest NATO dronestrike you by accident.

 

 

There are a few bugs in the Game Over mission that do make this too easy:

The first is leaving an area with enemies(by 2km?) causes them to despawn. Thus no running far if enemies are in the area. 

The second is you have to work on the honor system. Certainly it's easy to open the mission files and see where everything is.

Third, enemies never respawn which is slightly unrealistic considering it's supposed to be a giant war. However, it's reasonable to assume that AAF forces are already weak and decimated and CSAT will need time to get more equipment to the area.

Finally, it's way to easy to save and reload when something goes wrong, so I only allow saving when outside of a conflict zone/in a safe area/camp and loading only if the game hits a technical bug(My AI teammates driving through a wall for no good reason.)

 

An easy way to calculate points is by collecting glow sticks and also by the score board.

 

After 2 weeks of playing, I'm really enjoying Arma again. (I'm on hour 30 of mission gameplay.) I cleared most of Northeastern Altis and am working my way down the coast. I often set a timer to see how long I can go without dying/reloading my game. It's really satisfying to know you've played 5-6 hours straight without getting killed.

 

My list of found/captured vehicles is ridiculous:

 

2 NATO MRAPS

2 AAF MRAPS

3 Fuel Trucks

2 Repair Trucks

2 Moras

2 Kumas

1 Panther

1 truck with 50 cal. HMG

 

(I'd post screenshots of my kill count but I just noticed it no longer renders in the map screen. Too many kills I guess...)

 

 

Things I would like to see:

 

An actual way to set up a camp in game. Even if its just a few camping lights / chairs / table and a map.

Real-Time objectives: Repairing a vehicle takes time based on how damaged it is. Tires/Treads are quick, engines take hours + half your squad.

A way to save the mission state so if BI updates the game my saves aren't rendered useless.

A way to sleep for a few hours. I'm not too worried about eating and other stuff because its reasonable to find a few days worth of rations here and there.

Timed paratrooper drops / boat landings at docks so the danger is slightly more constant but not 100% random/unreasonable.

Smarter AI (that would hop in a vehicle and defend a position without burning up all gas in a vehicle and asking me where I am all of the time.)
A way to meet up with Nikos and deliver what extra weapons/vehicles you've found and don't need for bonus points...or something.
 

 

[drebin052 324]

11 hours ago, Hardly said:

BI announcing that "That was it." for the East Win campaign really disappointed me, especially when they bring James back to life magically.

 

You're not the only one disappointed by Win's length, but Game Over isn't a canon ending (and it's easy to see why BI did not choose this as a canon ending) so anything that happens in the lead up to getting this mission does not apply to the events of Apex Protocol, James' "death" included.

 

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An actual way to set up a camp in game. Even if its just a few camping lights / chairs / table and a map.

[...]

A way to sleep for a few hours. I'm not too worried about eating and other stuff because its reasonable to find a few days worth of rations here and there.

 

Kerry isn't trying to set up a new resistance movement. You can play in this style naturally but his goal is to get out of Altis as soon as possible

 

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Repairing a vehicle takes time based on how damaged it is. Tires/Treads are quick, engines take hours + half your squad.

[...]

Smarter AI (that would hop in a vehicle and defend a position without burning up all gas in a vehicle and asking me where I am all of the time.)

 

These are more of an engine thing and not so much the mission itself. Most people do want more responsive AI and more realistic repair times for vehicles (according to Arma logic sticking a morphine syringe in your knee can repair a vehicle's engine...) but this is up to BI themselves to add; if it ever does get added, that is.

 

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A way to save the mission state so if BI updates the game my saves aren't rendered useless.

 

Same with the above; it's an engine issue. I don't think this will ever get "fixed" unless Arma uses an entirely new engine.

 

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A way to meet up with Nikos and deliver what extra weapons/vehicles you've found and don't need for bonus points...or something.

 

Nikos himself is either dead (implied to be along with the rest of the FIA's group leaders) or has fled Altis altogether in Game Over. He's not sticking around to get caught up in the crossfire and get blown up by NATO/CSAT.

[Hardly 8]

I understand all that.

 

I wrote my ideas on here so if someone else wants to try and develop a mission like this or point me to the tools to make it happen.

 

I think it would be a largely unique scenario, unlike Altis Life or Wasteland or any of the other "die, respawn, die" mods out there...

 

Either way I'll probably just keep playing it this way. Maybe if enough people aren't happy with the way Win ended, I can get the right people together to make a scenario that will let us end the war that feels "satisfactory."

 

 

[Hardly 8]

I wanted to write in to anyone that's interested that I've started working on a mission to accomplish some of the goals above, however, first I want to mention that I finished my first playthrough of the mission as it stood.

 

In spoiler tags for those who haven't finished the campaign or played Game Over.

 

 

Spoiler

Some points I want to note are:

 

96 hours of solid gameplay with only a few slowdowns/lag on the original map due to overspawning entities. (Near the airfield and Telos.)

 

1 month, roughly, of playing/saving/loading the same Arma mission with no file errors. (Good job Bohemia!)

 

Finally got to see all of Altis without getting killed for stepping over an invincible barrier.

 

It was nice being able to requisition and make use of ammo trucks, repair trucks, and medical trucks.

 

It was also nice seeing the weather change from day to day and really made for a memorable 4 day experience.

 

Additionally, being able to use boats to get to Southern Altis and attack CSAT from the rear using captured artillery was awesome.

 

Destroying 3 artillery pieces and capturing the hospital/freeing Kavala from CSAT were very memorable, even if "temporary."

 

I finally ended the mission after all major roadways were patrolled once, and most minor towns were scouted for enemy presence.

 

I think this mission, if planned right, could actually be accomplished in as little as 24 hours, but it needs 72 hours to be somewhat realistic.

 

The most important thing is, even if it's not the *real* end to the campaign or the official end to the campaign, the extra 4 days of gameplay at the end of "Win" make Arma 3 feel worthwhile.

 

That, for me, is what really matters. Not online, not mods, not multiplayer co-op, not jets or karts or marksmen or whatever. 

 

 

Lastly, the best part was probably killing so much stuff that the statistics page in the map screen broke...

 

 

I hope to bring this experience to other people soon.