Looking for ideas for small-scale missions with varied tasks

[thirith 27]

I play with a small group (usually 4-8 people), which is fun because we all know each other and can communicate (reasonably) well - but with most of the missions I've seen, it also means that we usually get fairly similar gameplay: small group of infantry units either attacking or defending. A lot of the gameplay you see in videos of large groups (e.g. Shack Tactical) - combined infantry, close air support, helicopter pick-ups and drop-offs - simply doesn't tend to happen.

 

Which is why I'm looking for ideas for missions that offer slightly different experiences - nothing epic and huge, but stuff that could be fun and varied, with different kinds of roles. Unfortunately I don't have all that much experience with mission making, so I'd need to know from the experts if these are feasible, if they think they could be fun, and what to watch out for.

 

One idea I've had, which isn't particularly fleshed out yet, but please bear me out:

• Most of the playable units are individual soldiers in a city under siege. I'd imagine they start off in buildings or other places where they're concealed. I'd probably take away their maps and compasses as well.
• At a nearish airfield, there's a helicopter pilot (and, optionally, a co-pilot) and a Hummingbird.
• The city is surrounded by enemy troops (mostly stationary), and some enemies may search the city for the survivors.
• The mission is for the surviving troops to be found by the helicopter team and returned to the base. The survivors must find a good place where they can be picked up, either individually or as a group. They might find a place that's more easily accessible for the Hummingbird and try to meet up there, so they can defend it together, or they might think it's safer to stay hidden and separate - but then it may be all the more risky for the helicopter to pick them all up safely, due to the patrolling enemy units.
• Potential problem 1: If the helicopter picks up the units one by one and takes them to the airfield, that'd make it boring for those players. Alternatively, they could stay aboard the helicopter and help spot enemies and guide the other survivors from the air.
• Potential problem 2: This might be a bit boring for the helicopter pilot, unless they enjoy the 'eye in the sky' role.

 

Anyway, other ideas and feedback on the idea above would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[Grumpy Old Man 3540]

You could just think outside the box. Scripting allows for some diversity in mission design.

You don't have to create your run of the mill defend or capture missions.

Make a mission that tells a story, a group of military investigators searching for evidence in an old factory complex, keep this going on for 10-15 minutes so your players get involved in the mission but not bored yet, then let shit hit the fan.

You could also set up a mission where 2-3 players are disguised civilian assassins tasked to take out your other players by any means possible (think explosives).

 

Some things to consider:

Place AA units throughout the area, 2-3 should suffice, just enough to make it an additional challenge for the players to take care off before the chopper can start picking up people.

You can also have an AA vehicle that has to be blown up first, with the new sensor mechanics you can actually sneak up to armor and drop a satchel near them. This also allows you to make your players locate and secure some explosives first, which can be another challenging task.

Also you could add an enemy unit that will call in reinforcements after n minutes, unless he's been killed. Make him wear an officer cap/hat so he stands out.

Work out a trigger that sends all remaining enemies towards your players, as soon as all your players are close to each other and this is being observed by the enemy.

 

Place dead civilians around the city and add burning/smoking vehicles and/or make the enemy shoot at civilians and make it visible to your players, ambience really adds up, especially under pressure.

 

And most importantly, carefully pick the location and daytime/weather.

Location can be important in terms of where to place enemies, good overwatch positions for enemies can make missions incredibly difficult to resolve with only a few enemy units, which is good for performance.

Having the sun in your back or in your face can make a huge difference.

There's many missions out there that could stand out way more with a refined weather/daytime.

 

Cheers

[Spatsiba 89]

Use zeus? This would spoil it for one person but that doesn't matter since the mission creator is still going to know everything. 

 

If you're still working on this I'm in a similar position. Hit me up with a PM? :)

[thirith 27]

I'm not currently working on it - too many other things on my plate - but once I get back to it, I'll see that I can post again. Zeus is definitely an option, but for me it does make a difference whether I put together a mission beforehand but can then still concentrate fully on playing it or whether I'm basically doing two roles at the same time, namely player and Zeus. Might be different in practice, though.

[Midnighters 152]

I personally hate the way players use Zeus. I think it's become too much of a instant gratification tool. 

[Spatsiba 89]

10 minutes ago, Midnighters said:

I personally hate the way players use Zeus. I think it's become too much of a instant gratification tool. 

I agree on most cases. MY way of zeusing is pretty decent though. 

 

OnT: Maybe just search up "Side missions", "Side mission script", "Side mission pack" etc etc with the suffix "ArmA" and gain some inspiration? 

[Midnighters 152]

2 hours ago, Spatsiba said:

I agree on most cases. MY way of zeusing is pretty decent though. 

 

OnT: Maybe just search up "Side missions", "Side mission script", "Side mission pack" etc etc with the suffix "ArmA" and gain some inspiration? 

Maybe limit Zeus's powers and add more progression to it?

[dlegion 98]

I made a ctf kind of mission, but with many features and a simple gameplay with random positions every round, contact me if youre interested !

[R0adki11 3945]

4 minutes ago, dlegion said:

I made a ctf kind of mission, but with many features and a simple gameplay with random positions every round, contact me if youre interested !

Sounds interesting - care to elaborate further?

[dlegion 98]

Sure.

Basically you have a downed osprey (well...the futuristic BIS version ), near it a suitcase (the flag ), and both teams have to take it and bring it to extraction point.

The special part is that everything is random, you just place a marker in editor for the suitcase, and everything will spawn at distance with random factor (spawn included ), so every round will be unique !

At every score (suitcase to an exfil point ) everything will restart, choosing a random point and addind random values. Plus, as reward, scoring team gets credits for the factory (located at base where you respawn ), and with that you can buy vehicles to use. At base there is always an arsenal too.

Sometimes random factor put you or exfil on the sea, adding interesting gameplay.

 

Optional, and independent from mission itself, i added many features, like attach explosives to everything (even underwater ), drag&drop, melee, secondary primary weapon, selectable force on grenade throw, logistic on every object (unwanted objects or category can be excluded ) and many other little fix to gameplay.

both teams are in situation of scouting, attack (the suitcase or the enemy-defended exfiltration point) and defend (again, the suitcase or the defended enemy exfiltration point) with many gameplay variations based on location (forest, desert, sea, mountain, urban ecc...). a marker will update suitcase location every 3 minutes, to give a bit of mistery around its location, but exfiltration points will always be showed to both teams.
as far as i tested it it works good for little teams. i played a lot with just 1 friend (1 vs 1) and it was still fun. for sure an higher number of players will be more fun, and at least in theory there's no upper limit for this mission.
i optimized at my best, to the point that it actually run on my PC at the same FPS as the empty island in editor.

 

Contact me if interested, i can put a server up and let you try it !

[thirith 27]

That sounds like a cool change from coop, and I'd definitely be curious to try it out. Is it available for download anywhere? Does it require any mods?