SP The Green Zone

[-Snafu- 78]

I was inspired to create this mission after reading some accounts written by British troops who fought in Helmand Province in the late 2000s/early 2010s.

 

Set in March 2007, command a troop of Royal Marines with an attached Fire Support Group as 3 Commando Bridage takes the fight to Taliban territory. You will lead the troop in a mission to clear a section of the Green Zone to the designated Limit of Exploitation. A battery from 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery will support you.

 

Can you develop a sound plan and make effective use of supporting assets to get your troops home alive?

 

Download:

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hwFt4VrPZG57cZQCJ1FEKRKEbsjhOOcJ/view?usp=sharing

 

Features:

 

- Blackblood's UK desert troops

- PUKF weapons and Landrovers

- CoC's artillery and mines

- Reno's Afghaneveron

- Kenoxite's squad control

- Platoon command

- Basic intro with custom music giving some historical background

 

ReadMe:

Spoiler

 

Welcome to the readme for the Operation Flashpoint/Arma Cold War Assault user created single player mission 'UKF Greenzone'.

Version 1.0

INSTALLATION

Copy the mission pbo file into your missions folder, which is somewhere such as:

C:\Program Files\Codemasters\OperationFlashpoint\missions\

This is an unofficial mission - you know the drill!  Use at your own risk.

MISSION DETAILS

This mission is inspired by the battles fought by the British Army in the years 2006-2007.

You are in command of a troop of Royal Marines with supporting attachments and are tasked with clearing an area of the infamous Green Zone.

Can you succeed in some of the toughest battles experienced by the British Army in Afghanistan and get your Royal Marines home?

Created in OFP v1.99 Mac port by -Snafu-.  Please contact me on the official forums or on the OFPEC forums if you have any questions, problems, comments or words of congratulation.

Official Forum thread:

https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/topic/215111-sp-the-green-zone/

REQUIREMENTS

UK Desert Troops - http://ofpr.info.paradoxstudio.uk/8157-uk-desert-ed-troops-bleed-by-blackblood.html

AfganEveron Pack - http://www.ofpd.org/afgan.php

CoC Unified Artillery - http://ofpr.info.paradoxstudio.uk/9860-coc-unified-artillery-1-11-hotfix-for-cold-war-assault.html

CoC Mines - ftp://ftp.armedassault.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/COC_Mines.zip

JAM - ftp://ftp.armedassault.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/JAM3_FIXED6.rar

PUKF Addons - http://ofpr.info.paradoxstudio.uk/9310-project-ukf-big-release.html

USMC Markers - ftp://ftp.armedassault.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/USMCsymbols12.zip

CHANGELOG

N/A

TO DO

N/A

CREDITS

Many thanks to everybody at OFPEC and the BIS Forums throughout the years who helped me with mission editing questions and contributed to topics or written tutorials that have helped me complete my missions. Without them I would not have the skills or knowledge to create missions.

28 May 2020

 

 

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

The Op begins

 

Due to my idiocy, two members of my platoon walk into mines I failed to spot and die from the explosion

 

An AH Mk1 provides cover

 

Contact

 

The AH Mk1 engages the enemy

 

 

[-Snafu- 78]

I haven't touched the mission in around one month, but I picked it up again at the weekend and made some progress with it.

 

It took a bit of time for me to decide how to use the enemy AI. Initially, I wanted to use scripts to make it as dynamic as possible but it proved tricky to get right. Instead, I opted for waypoints and switch triggers in concert with some variable AI numbers and placement. Hopefully, this gives the mission some degree of replay value as the enemy AI deployment and reactions should change with each play.

 

I added a basic intro and added two custom music tracks. There's also some radio chatter, and I tried to make the briefing seem realistic in its layout and use of British military terminology. I'm sure it's not 100% authentic, but I hope it does help to immerse the player in their role as a platoon commander and the responsibility they have for the lives of the soldiers under their command.

 

It's near impossible to make the player care about their AI without character building, which is beyond the scope this mission. Instead, I have a condition where if you sustain more than four KIA, the mission will fail. Therefore you cannot throw your AI into battle without recon, planning and caution. It should make the mission challenging. Due to this condition, I've limited the number of artillery shells available to the player, so they don't simply plaster everything with HE.

 

Everything is in place in the mission editor, and it is now at the testing stage to check if everything works as intended. If anyone wants to test before I post the mission for release, send me a PM.

 

[-Snafu- 78]

Mission released, see first post for link.

 

I had bigger ambitions for this mission, I wanted the player in charge of a platoon fighting against a dynamic enemy similar to the HETMAN artificial commander system for A2/A3. There's DT available which has a somewhat similar system but it would have required a lot of reverse engineering to include it in this mission and I wasn't 100% certain on how to get it working.

 

Nevertheless I took this evening to polish up what was done and get it out. I hope that the mission proves a challenge and conveys some of the concerns a platoon commander faces.

 

As ever, I would appreciate constructive feedback and bug reports.

[faguss 65]

User from Discord had an issue with installing addons so I've added a mod to the OFP Game Schedule website so that it can be downloaded automatically with Fwatch.

 

Backpacks seem to lack texture. Am I missing any addon?

 

Edited February 4, 2021 by faguss

[-Snafu- 78]

Try adding in the PUKF DPM troop pack - I think I used the Clansman radio and forgot to mention it in the readme.

 

http://ofpr.info.paradoxstudio.uk/6665-dpm-troop-pack-1-released.html

[zwobot 22]

I've recently played your mission and enjoyed it. Not too much addons required, most of them I had readily available already. Passing the minefield and the Squad Control quickly annoyed me though. AI squads frequently were killed by the mines and thus failing the mission. Also the Squad Control was reliably spamming error messages when ordering them to follow. Most of the time it was making the respective squad completely unresponsive. After half a dozen restarts I extracted the mission and replace the Squad Control with CE lite which is even more simple.

More often than not I could seize the observation post / attack position completely unopposed.

Initial resistance in the village was only a better sized fire team. For the initial advance into the village the FSG supported from the military crest facing the village while two infantry sections cautiously advanced in line abreast into the village. The third infantry section was kept in depth close to the FSG. Myself as the platoon commander was advancing together with the two sections into the village.

I climed the mosque for better overview, soon several enemy squads supported by technicals could be spotted advancing towards the village from the LOE while the two assault sections were still combing the village.

The FSG was ordered forward to the platoon's right flank outside the village and assault sections went firm in the cover of the houses to destroy the enemy reinforcements. Once the initial enemy counter attack was destroyed the section which was kept in depth was ordered to the village entrance so that the three infantry sections were arrayed in an elongated V formation.

The advance continued towards the LOE with the FSG continuing to support from the right wing. A couple more enemy squads were destroyed without too much effort until we reached the LOE and the radio traffic was triggered announcing friendly reinforcements to be sent forward together with a helicopter. Neither ever arrived (not sure if physically exist in the mission), I noticed that the objective concerning the village was not achieved so I ordered the platoon back for another sweep of the village and indeed a lone survivor was quickly mopped up and thus completing this mission objective. But I think the triggers went out of sequence and the mission never ended so I declared it a win and happily aborted the mission.

 

So all in all a nice mission with an immersive briefing and atmosphere, thanks Snafu.

[-Snafu- 78]

Thank you for the feedback zwobot. I want to revisit this mission in the near future so your feedback will be put to good use. I would love to have it like I originally intended with the AI dynamically to your movements.