Porting ArmA 2/OA Single Player Scenarios to ArmA 3

[sulman 12]

Hi all,

 

A quick question, and I think I already know the answer. I really love some of the single-player scenarios in ArmA2, specifically 'Village Sweep' and OA's BAF Single Missions, and I wanted to see if anyone had ported them to ArmA3 using CUPS or AIA, but no dice.

 

So, using the @bardosy incredibly useful guide  (and object dictionary), and using CUP assets, I set about learning to do it myself. So far I have 'Village Sweep' working with one or two scripting quirks (replacing some secops scripts) left to fix.

 

My question is, could I share these via Armaholic or the Workshop? I suspect it isn't allowed, but no harm in asking, right?

[bardosy 158]

36 minutes ago, sulman said:

 

 

My question is, could I share these via Armaholic or the Workshop? I suspect it isn't allowed, but no harm in asking, right?

 

You mean copyright?

I saw a lot of official OFP missions (prted to Arma3) on Workshop. If I remember correctly, some years ago BIS add a giveway about his old stuff, if you dont ask money from it.

[sulman 12]

2 hours ago, bardosy said:

 

You mean copyright?

I saw a lot of official OFP missions (prted to Arma3) on Workshop. If I remember correctly, some years ago BIS add a giveway about his old stuff, if you dont ask money from it.

Yes, I played a few of them, I think they were more like reboots on Altis using a similar briefing, but crucially, often used original sound files which I think is  a grey area.

 

I think it would be nice for people to have them but I don't want to piss anyone off.  

[bardosy 158]

Maybe we found different missions on Workshop, but what I found are the exact copy of original OFP/Arma missions. They even use the original voiceover files (if something is copyrighted, Im sure it is) from the original missions. And they use the original maps (with CUP) and original stuff.

Of course they have to rework the scripts, but whole mission is similar as in the original game.

I just played the Cold War Crisis campaign, but I saw the Resistance campaign too a few days ago.

So I think you can upload your converted missions to Workshop. If BIS has any problem with it, they will notify you. They did to me when I posted a too low-poly level video on YT. So we discussed and I removed it. They are nice.

[sulman 12]

3 hours ago, bardosy said:

Maybe we found different missions on Workshop, but what I found are the exact copy of original OFP/Arma missions. They even use the original voiceover files (if something is copyrighted, Im sure it is) from the original missions. And they use the original maps (with CUP) and original stuff.

Of course they have to rework the scripts, but whole mission is similar as in the original game.

I just played the Cold War Crisis campaign, but I saw the Resistance campaign too a few days ago.

 

You know, I'd never thought to search for OFP stuff in the workshop; and of course, there it is! Now I've got even more distractions...

 

That's good to know, I'll playtest some more and I'll publish some. Thanks for your help, and for the guide, I would not have been able to work it out otherwise.

 

I wrote a little Python script to do what your Notepad++ plugin script does with your CUP class dictionary (I'm a Linux user so needed something different); I will publish it once I'm happier with it.

[sulman 12]

I've practically finished two, I'm just in a black hole of endless tinkering and testing now.

 

• 'Village Sweep' was quite straightforward; outside of the class name substitutes there was only one piece of Arma 2 code that didn't work.
• 'An Eye For an Eye' is superficially very simple (played many times down the years, a nice 15 minute mission) but on looking there is a lot going on. Many lines of dialogue, and it took me a while to understand that ArmA 2 single player still runs 'initJIPcompatible.sqf'  which contained the majority of the mission scripting. init.sqf by contrast was a zero-length file.  There were also numerous calls  (I think around 60-70) using 'MPframework' which does not exist anymore, so all the tasks and kbTell dialogue had to be converted to remoteExec, all of which is totally new to me so it was an interesting if frustrating exercise.

 

The other thing is ArmA 3 plays a little differenty, with more aggressive AI, longer spotting distances, and no revive for single player (this is a big second-chance giver) so it makes me think about some balancing, but I've decided to completely leave it alone and unchanged. A single AH1Z included in Village Sweep can win the mission for you singlehandedly, it was never such a killing machine in ArmA 2. 'An Eye For an Eye' has an end trigger if you lose a single squad member, which seems harsh to me and indeed I tested it with a more tolerant limit, however there is so much dialogue with 'waitUntil'  dependent on squad members script would not execute when they were dead, so I'm leaving it. I think this was the motivation for this constraint in the first place...

 

I'll try and get these released in the next few days, then I will do some more.

[sulman 12]

An Eye For An Eye is up:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1231810893

[domokun 515]

4 hours ago, sulman said:

An Eye For An Eye is up:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1231810893

Nice one mate.

I'll test the COOP this Wed with my squad.

I'll provide feedback afterwards.

Personally I would love to replay A2 missions, particularly A2 campaigns in COOP.

They just feel more authentic...

I'm looking forward to Village Sweep but you're right about the AH-1 being OP.

So maybe have it be shot down by the AA after taking out the APC?

[sulman 12]

2 hours ago, domokun said:

Nice one mate.

I'll test the COOP this Wed with my squad.

I'll provide feedback afterwards.

Personally I would love to replay A2 missions, particularly A2 campaigns in COOP.

They just feel more authentic...

I'm looking forward to Village Sweep but you're right about the AH-1 being OP.

So maybe have it be shot down by the AA after taking out the APC?

Village Sweep should be up over the weekend, just have to tidy up the Objectives and debrief.

 

Going to do a few of these, they're quite good fun. I'm also going to mail some old Armaholic favourite authors to see if they'd let me port some, or point them to these threads if they want to do it themselves.

[Wiki 1558]

Oh great!

Although An Eye For An Eye is not my favourite, it's great to see your work!

If possible (of course), I'd like to see Laser show and Hike in the hills ;-)

[sulman 12]

3 hours ago, Wiki said:

Oh great!

Although An Eye For An Eye is not my favourite, it's great to see your work!

If possible (of course), I'd like to see Laser show and Hike in the hills ;-)

On the list!

 

 

[Wiki 1558]

1 minute ago, sulman said:

On the list!

 

 

Great!

[sulman 12]

Village Sweep is up:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1232739180

[sulman 12]

I've started attacking OA's 'Hike in the Hills', which has considerably more complexity than the others (a lot of FSM and the usual initJIPcompatible.sqf malarky legacy calls), but I think I have a handle on what I need to do.

[sulman 12]

I saw the other chap has ported quite a few since; Interestingly Hike in The Hills took me a while to get working properly as the mission flow is quite complex and uses a considerable amount of FSM with some legacy a2 functions. I think I'll post my version anyway when I'm happy with it. The other person's version didn't have weapon cache trigger (when I tried it, at least) possibly because this trigger is handled in grpMain.fsm which needed a fair bit of editing.

 

The other issue is that in ArmA 3 it plays differently; victory condition is no enemies (or enemies fleeing) within a 450m radius of the village. The problem: Engagement and spotting ranges are way higher in A3, so some enemy units will camp /wait / snipe around 400-500 metres, thus leaving the player to find them.  I've not decided on the best solution; I will either include a support unit (a single gunship) allowed after a certain time, or I will change the trigger conditions. Also, default loadout in A2 was MK16 with Holo sights which aren't ideal for this kind of fighting (after initial fight in Village you'll be having 300-500m exchanges of fire) Reluctantly I think I will make some changes to balance it out and bring the flow closer to how it was in A2.

[sulman 12]

Hike In The Hills is up: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1237992488

 

Very few changes. The original missions has the Opfor units move on a trigger and immediately switch to a 'search & destroy' waypoint positioned near the centre of the village, however in A3 this doesn't work very well, Ironically because the AI has got smarter; they will hunker down and find positions as soon as they know about you, which is almost immediately. This led to firefights in the 400-500m range, and the end mission trigger rarely working because there was some pixeltruppen hiding behind a rock somewhere in the hills, so I moved the initial waypoints up a little. Now they move more readily into the fight, like the original.

 

 

[sulman 12]

BAF 03 Seek and Destroy is up: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1242980777

[sulman 12]

'Tankbusters' is up: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1253176502

 

The vehicle AI makes this quite a bit harder than in A2, but still achievable as long as you use your supports. It's more of a command mission than anything else.

 

I plan to do 'Concrete Oasis' next as that is a hoot to play.