Field of war [CTI] [SP/MP]

[Aquila (DayZ) 8]

More questions from me, now about side missions.

 

What are the rewards for side missions? For example, when I take a mission for killing enemy officer, and snipe him out from a distance — I get standard message about reward for killing an enemy. Side mission gets accomplished, there is a message for it. But I didn't notice anything about the reward (money, XP, etc.). Maybe I missed it? It would be nice to have a clear reward notice. Maybe even in the task list to see which side missions are the most beneficial to the player.

 

Another question — do side missions influence anything on the battlefield? For example, does the enemy radar destruction hide any vehicles from detection? Does intel downloaded or officer captured reveal anything? Killed officer — slow enemy progress in any way?

For example, there is a A3 MP mission called Dynamic Recon. I encountered such situation there — player has to destroy an enemy heli that is expected to land somewhere in the designated zone at some moment of time. If a player manages to gather intel (a side mission), the exact landing location and expected landing time is revealed, so the search narrows down and hunt becomes easier. It connects the dots and increases immersion, making more sense to pay attention to side missions.

 

Yet another pack of questions — does the enemy side get side missions when there are no human players there? Do the radars and officers spawn as targets for AI enemies? If yes, are these targets same for both sides, or unique for each side? Do AI enemies engage in accomplishing side missions at all?

Actually, which side do these officers belong to — Resistance?

 

Also, there were small bugs — I subscribe to a side mission to download data from enemy PC. The location gets under artillery strike, and PC is destroyed, the side mission gets failed. But the mission marker remains on the map, and in the tasks list, although now without any description.

Not something very important, just some minor inconvenience, of course.

 

Here is my experience from a couple of days ago about a side mission to destroy a radar. Radar tower got spawned somewhere with few soldiers around it. I was without vehicles, as usual :)) so I took an RPG, and wanted to take an explosive charge with me just in case I might need it. But there was no explosive charge in the gear list! Just Klaymore mine and APERS mine, if my memory doesn't let me down.

Okay, got Klaymore, took an airlift, sniped out all soldiers. Checked around the radar — there was no action to "plant explosives" or something like that. RPG shots didn't do anything to the radar tower, and neither did Klaymore. I called for an artillery strike — and radar remained intact. Well, artillery strike was something like a cluster bombing, with huge number of simultaneous explosions... Maybe radar didn't get a direct hit.

But there I really ran out of options and had to abandon the side mission.

I guess it takes some number of tank shots, or some rockets from a helicopter to take this radar down? Unmounted soldiers apparently can't accomplish this mission.

 

As for capturing an officer — I'm confused how to properly do it. I sniped out some enemies around the officer, and he was standing alone in the tent, no enemies in radius of several hundred meters. Got straight to him, and he started to run away from me. I tried to shoot him in the legs with a pistol, but at this moment more soldiers spawned around and quickly shot me down. How can I convince the officer to surrender? 🙂

[gc8 974]

4 hours ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

What are the rewards for side missions?

 

Money

 

4 hours ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

do side missions influence anything on the battlefield?

 

Nah

 

4 hours ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

Do AI enemies engage in accomplishing side missions at all?

 

Nope those are for players only

 

 

4 hours ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

Actually, which side do these officers belong to — Resistance?

 

civilian, unless "defender"

 

4 hours ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

there was no action to "plant explosives" or something like that. RPG shots didn't do anything to the radar tower, and neither did Klaymore.

 

yeah claymore is anti personal mine so it doesn't have much impact

 

looks like I forgot to put explosives to the gear shop 😕

 

 

4 hours ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

Got straight to him, and he started to run away from me.

 

weird, he's supposed to join your group

 

 

thx for your feedback 🙂

 

 

[Aquila (DayZ) 8]

12 minutes ago, gc8 said:

weird, he's supposed to join your group

I'll try again, maybe I missed something. Enemy spawns around really got me distracted, and I was killed soon enough to notice whether anyone joined my group or not. 🙂

 

12 minutes ago, gc8 said:

looks like I forgot to put explosives to the gear shop 😕

 

Please add in the release 🙂 Would an explosive charge be enough to take down the radar? Or is it impossible without a vehicle?

[Aquila (DayZ) 8]

If side missions are rewarded by money – are the rewards scaled with multiplier for player income?

[gc8 974]

9 minutes ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

If side missions are rewarded by money – are the rewards scaled with multiplier for player income?

 

The reward amount is affected by "Player money income multiplier %" parameter

 

 

[gc8 974]

Ok new version is here

 

What's new:

 

Carry more trait is no longer available if fatigue is disabled
Airlift now reports when he sees smoke
Airlift is now cancelled if the transport doesn't have cargo for a while
Airdrop plane should no longer wander off

Player now always receives a parachute when he jumps off from a aircraft

More accurate airborne landing
Fixed free vehicles mode that was broken

Fixed med tent and sandbags placing

 

I put this together quite fast so i hope everything works and I didn't break anything 🙂

 

(non-steam version later unless requested)

 

More discussed changes in the next release!

 

[Aquila (DayZ) 8]

Great news! Thanks a lot! I'll try and test over this coming weekend, report back how the fixes work.

[Aquila (DayZ) 8]

Old OFP MFCTI in coop versions had an interesting mission parameter — it was called "defend the base" (DTB). If turned on, enemy side got almost unlimited money (millions), knew location from player side base from the very beginning, and concentrated only on eliminating the player side base, ignoring towns and everything else.

Not limited by money, enemy AI quickly was building all factories, performing all upgrades and accumulating armor and helicopters, which were sent in waves to assault player side base.

 

It was a real challenge — players started with normal limited resources, and had very limited time to capture maybe 1 closest town for small income, organize base defences, and try to survive the inbound waves of enemies. MFCTI has an income source from salvaging destroyed vehicles, and players had to quickly salvage those between the waves, having the risk of being assaulted by the next wave.

So it took a really experienced and coordinated teamwork to defend the base, survive the assaults, collect enough money to slowly upgrade the base and vehicles and start to push back. A victory in this mode was something really rewarding.

 

A little easier it was if a human player took command of the team, because he could relocate the HQ and start building a base in a location that's easier to defend. Some castle ruins on a mountain, or something like that. Meanwhile, even if HQ was relocated, enemy AI commander still had the knowledge about its location, so the enemies didn't spend time searching for player base.

 

Sadly, in later CTI mods for Arma, A2 and A3 I haven't seen such game mod. Even BeCTI which resembles original MFCTI the most, still has it missing.

 

Have you tried this mode back in OFP days? Have you considered adding such parameter to your mission?

[Aquila (DayZ) 8]

Well, it got me to another question... What are the exact victory conditions in FOW, if there are no buildings on the base to destroy?

(I'm curious for two cases — when aircraft carrier is available for each side and when it's not present on the map).

[gc8 974]

5 minutes ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

Sadly, in later CTI mods for Arma, A2 and A3 I haven't seen such game mod. Even BeCTI which resembles original MFCTI the most, still has it missing.

 

Have you tried this mode back in OFP days? Have you considered adding such parameter to your mission?

 

 

yeah I played BECTI in arma 2. So fight between bases only? 

[gc8 974]

5 minutes ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

Well, it got me to another question... What are the exact victory conditions in FOW, if there are no buildings on the base to destroy?

 

When the defenders are killed of from the base the FOB get's removed. 

 

And the side that looses all it's towns looses

[Aquila (DayZ) 8]

2 minutes ago, gc8 said:

So fight between bases only? 

 

Well, players could capture some towns to get income when they could afford to get distracted from base defence for a while. Player side didn't have HUGE money source, and most of the income was coming from either rewards for destroying enemy armor/helis, or salvaging them after destruction — so some extra income from towns was really helpful to stabilize the economy. But in general players could afford to capture some towns either before the first assaulting wave arrives, or only later in mid-game when defence became strong enough.

From mid-game it was base against base, indeed. 

 

Initially, players could guess where enemy base could be located based on direction from where the assaulting waves were incoming. When an aircraft could be purchased (or in a very rare and tricky case, damaged enemy helicopter was abandoned by the crew, landed without crash, and then repaired by players between the waves) — players could fly around and find the enemy base. Once enemy base was located, it was easier. Mortar fire and resulting mess damaged the base for a while and interrupted the stream of assaulting waves, giving players time to build some forces and attempt an assault on enemy base.

 

 

11 minutes ago, gc8 said:

When the defenders are killed of from the base the FOB get's removed. 

And the side that looses all it's towns looses

In that case DTB mode cannot be recreated without adaptation. In MFCTI a side lost when all its base factories were destroyed AND mobile HQ (unique vehicle that allowed building factories) was destroyed too. 

Wait... can the carrier be destroyed in FOW?? What damage must be inflicted to it if that's possible??

 

[gc8 974]

8 minutes ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

can the carrier be destroyed in FOW?? What damage must be inflicted to it if that's possible??

 

It can't be destroyed. or even the carrier object could be destroyed the place still remains. but I think the carrier object is indestructible

 

[Aquila (DayZ) 8]

 

41 minutes ago, gc8 said:

When the defenders are killed of from the base the FOB get's removed. 

And the side that looses all it's towns looses

 

What if there is no carrier, and I wipe out all enemy FOB defenders, and thus enemy loses all his FOBs, but still has owned towns? The game will continue, but enemy will have nowhere to respawn and order vehicles? 

Sorry, I just want to understand the designed mechanics completely 🙂

[gc8 974]

4 minutes ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

 

 

What if there is no carrier, and I wipe out all enemy FOB defenders, and thus enemy loses all his FOBs, but still has owned towns? The game will continue, but enemy will have nowhere to respawn and order vehicles? 

Sorry, I just want to understand the designed mechanics completely 🙂

 

ugh that's actually a very good question, I think the players are then simply not be able to respawn. But I have to test that. This mission is still so WIP I haven't thought about everything yet

[Aquila (DayZ) 8]

Are you open for proposals for significant mission mechanis like that? I could spend some time to think it over and compose some potential design, trying to keep the mission style as untouched as possible.

[Aquila (DayZ) 8]

Btw, what was the reason for you to not use in-game arsenal mechanics, and design gear purchase menu from scratch? I'm sure there's some logic behind it, because gear selection interfaces are likely taking quite a while to code.

 

Yours is generally ok, although has some smaller flaws. For example, I cannot add items to weapon, the only way is to add them to the backpack, and then install the weapon items on the weapon itself manually in the inventory.

[gc8 974]

23 minutes ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

Are you open for proposals for significant mission mechanis like that? I could spend some time to think it over and compose some potential design, trying to keep the mission style as untouched as possible.

 

I'm always open for good ideas 🙂

I have thought about the earlier mentioned stuff my self but haven't decided on anything yet

[gc8 974]

9 minutes ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

Btw, what was the reason for you to not use in-game arsenal mechanics, and design gear purchase menu from scratch?

 

The arsenal didn't allow prices... so I made my own

 

10 minutes ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

I cannot add items to weapon

 

This should be possible. if not then it's a bug

[Aquila (DayZ) 8]

3 minutes ago, gc8 said:

The arsenal didn't allow prices... so I made my own

 

In Dissension mission there is an arsenal. I didn't notice the prices per item, but there is total loadout cost calculation, indication of player money and remainder if loadout gets purchased.

BeCTI missions also have custome gear selection inteface with prices.

[gc8 974]

Just now, Aquila (DayZ) said:

In Dissension mission there is an arsenal. I didn't notice the prices per item, but there is total loadout cost calculation, indication of player money and remainder if loadout gets purchased.

 

yes I recall someone pointed me there once but I just couldn't rip off their arsenal 🙂

 

[Aquila (DayZ) 8]

Made a brief test of the new release 0.9.36. Played on Stratis map, no BattlEye, no other mods.

 

14 hours ago, gc8 said:

Carry more trait is no longer available if fatigue is disabled

Works.

 

14 hours ago, gc8 said:

Airlift now reports when he sees smoke

Airlift is now cancelled if the transport doesn't have cargo for a while

Didn't see airlift pilot reporting anything about smoke. Just usual reports — "airlift inbound, ETA 1 minute" and "Clear the LZ, we're approaching".

Heli landed on the carrier without smoke, and didn't ask for it. Hovered above the ground when requested somewhere else on the land. I threw smoke and got an error in the chat that landing pad was already created.

Soon the heli flew away, just like this new feature describes, so the new cancellation part works. Called for another airlift, it approached and gave me the same error about the landing pad. After that I threw smoke, and nothing happened. The heli hovered for a while and flew away.

In another attempt I was standing right at the center of broad and clear yard of Mike-26 station, and requested airlift hovered above me for a moment (I ran out of smokes), and then flew to a mountain top 300m away, and soon retreated as unused. There was no chance to catch it.

 

Something is a bit broken in this airlift logic. I suggest to abandon this smoke idea and land just where player was requesting (with aim pointer or with a map click) because in my opinion, player should be able to call for airlift even if he has no smokes in inventory. Also, A3 grenade throwing is weird, you can't tell for sure where it's going to end up. Even if you throw a smoke grenade right down to your boots, it'll jump away in unpredictable direction.

 

 

14 hours ago, gc8 said:

Player now always receives a parachute when he jumps off from a aircraft

Ejected from an airdrop VTOL, received a chute, and had my backpack on me on the ground. Works.

 

 

14 hours ago, gc8 said:

Airdrop plane should no longer wander off

Tried a couple of times — didn't wander off, indeed. Works!

 

 

14 hours ago, gc8 said:

More accurate airborne landing

Haven't seen any difference. Requested airdrop on FOB, touched the ground about 600m away. Tried a couple of times again — still it drops me much later than actually flies over the target. Maybe there is a delay between flyover and eject script execution?

Nevertheless, now since player can eject voluntarily, this bug became less critical.

 

 

14 hours ago, gc8 said:

Fixed free vehicles mode that was broken

Works now!

 

14 hours ago, gc8 said:

Fixed med tent and sandbags placing

Medtent and sandbags placement now works. Curiously, medtents can be installed on the carrier and land, while sandbags appear only on the land, but not on the carrier.

Funny though that on a horizontal surface of the carrier medtent was installed as if there was a slope, and on the ground it was following the ground slope.

I suspect some weird internal A3 logic with handling carrier surfaces. Maybe the tent was actually following the slope of the sea bottom under the carrier, that wouldn't be unusual from my experience with BI series under the hood.

Btw, after some time played and some number of deaths — actions for placing medtents and sandbags are multiplied in the action menu (there can be 2 or more actions of the same kind, even 5). Also, these actions are not hidden when in a vehicle or even in a heli, where the medtents are apparently useless and even distract from meaninful vehicle actions.

 

 

Newfound issues:

• Frontlines appear on a GPS picture-in-picture, and since they scale with length, sometimes they are drawn very thick there, obscuring large part of mini-window. I suggest frontlines are not necessary in GPS mini-window, just on the map to see the bigger picture. GPS mini-window is useful for closest vicinity only.
• Ordnance request drops an empty parachute without boxes. A bit of a trollface bug :))
• Sometimes error appear that new FOB position cannot be found.
• Sometimes error about waypoints appear.
• When I change weapons on a heli and select something custom rather than a preset, the old weapons remain in the list with 0 ammo, so I have to scroll through them in combat.
• Also, had troubles with AT missile lock on a selected radar target, but I need more practice, maybe I was doing something wrong. Didn't quite get the idea of weapons assignable to pilot or gunner.

 

New questions, not necessarily issues:

• At some moment of time, when I Alt-Tabbed the game and was writing down comments here about test results — a couple of infantry squads appeared near me (our side). And a small camp with non-usable crate, a small tent, a fireplace, and laptop on the table with two chairs. There is no mission to download intel from it, I checked. I'm close to our FOB. What could it be?
• On Stratis, there are nice and fortified locations — Camp Maxwell, Camp Tempest, Air Station Mike-26, maybe more. However, they are not marked as towns. Why is that? They'd be interesting to capture or defend.
• What's the point in having two entries in the task interface for each side mission? One general and the other with exact mission location. When a side mission is cancelled, the general marker remains, although it's useless now.
• There are AT presets for heli, but no AA setups. I suggest adding one would be convenient.

I uploaded new pack of screenshots here — https://disk.yandex.ru/d/dUyWuMEj-kGfVw

 

I've a lot of comments about the gear selection menu, but it deserves a dedicated comment, I'll sum it up somewhat later.

[gc8 974]

2 hours ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

The heli hovered for a while and flew away.

In another attempt I was standing right at the center of broad and clear yard of Mike-26 station, and requested airlift hovered above me for a moment (I ran out of smokes), and then flew to a mountain top 300m away, and soon retreated as unused. There was no chance to catch it.

 

Sound like I gave it too short abort time (2 mins), so it flies away

 

2 hours ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

Haven't seen any difference. Requested airdrop on FOB, touched the ground about 600m away. Tried a couple of times again — still it drops me much later than actually flies over the target.

 

i meant the AI airborne guys dropping off. The player airdrop plane is still pretty wild. I was thinking of making it use same waypoint code as the airborne guys

 

2 hours ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

Curiously, medtents can be installed on the carrier and land, while sandbags appear only on the land, but not on the carrier.

 

Need to disable that over water locations 🙂

 

2 hours ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

Btw, after some time played and some number of deaths — actions for placing medtents and sandbags are multiplied in the action menu (there can be 2 or more actions of the same kind, even 5). Also, these actions are not hidden when in a vehicle or even in a heli, where the medtents are apparently useless and even distract from meaninful vehicle actions.

 

will look to that one, thx

 

2 hours ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

Frontlines appear on a GPS picture-in-picture, and since they scale with length, sometimes they are drawn very thick there, obscuring large part of mini-window.

 

This is bad, I'll see what I can do

 

2 hours ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

At some moment of time, when I Alt-Tabbed the game and was writing down comments here about test results — a couple of infantry squads appeared near me (our side). And a small camp with non-usable crate, a small tent, a fireplace, and laptop on the table with two chairs. There is no mission to download intel from it, I checked. I'm close to our FOB. What could it be?

 

do you have the test mode enabled? because that allow you to teleport... which happens even when alt-tabbing 🙂

 

 

2 hours ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

I've a lot of comments about the gear selection menu, but it deserves a dedicated comment, I'll sum it up somewhat later.

 

ok. btw you can add weapon items by first clicking on the weapon icon then the weapon item add button appears

 

2 hours ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

What's the point in having two entries in the task interface for each side mission? One general and the other with exact mission location. When a side mission is cancelled, the general marker remains, although it's useless now.

 

Sorry i dont get what's happening here, maybe a screenshot?

 

2 hours ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

On Stratis, there are nice and fortified locations — Camp Maxwell, Camp Tempest, Air Station Mike-26, maybe more. However, they are not marked as towns. Why is that? They'd be interesting to capture or defend.

 

well the more places the more lag

 

thx for your feedback, once again! 🙂

 

[Aquila (DayZ) 8]

2 hours ago, gc8 said:

Sound like I gave it too short abort time (2 mins), so it flies away

Yes, I'd increase the waiting time too. In fact, it was perceived as much shorter than 2 minutes. The biggest problem was not the waiting time though, but that heli didn't actually land, neither on designated spot, nor anywhere close.

The waiting time just helps to call it again, otherwise it would've been stuck hovering.

 

2 hours ago, gc8 said:

i meant the AI airborne guys dropping off.

Checked this one too. The airborne guys after drop reported their position 7 grid squares away 🙂 Added screenshot with name 2022-12-11_18-04-16.png to the same link.

 

 

2 hours ago, gc8 said:

do you have the test mode enabled? because that allow you to teleport... which happens even when alt-tabbing 🙂

Nope, and in that particular case I wasn't teleported anywhere, remained at the same location, just some allied soldiers with that suspicious camp appeared nearby.

 

2 hours ago, gc8 said:

Sorry i dont get what's happening here, maybe a screenshot?

There is a screenshot for it in the previous link, see file 2022-12-11-08-22-32.png 🙂 I'll try to explain.

For each side mission, there are two entries in the task list. One has the title of mission — "Capture enemy officer", or "Download data from enemy PC", etc. Under it there is 1, rarely 2 entries called "Target 1", or "Target 2" if there are 2 targets. Both mission-title-entry and target-entry have locations on the map, very close to each other.

Sometimes when a mission is failed or cancelled, "Target 1" entry becomes invalid. It can be assigned, but cannot be located anymore on the map (locate button is inactive, and there is no pinpoint for this target-entry on the map), however remains in the task list nonetheless. 

I suggest that it's redundand to have a title and embedded target entries (structure of 2 levels), flat task list is enough. And entries for cancelled/failed task must be cleared from the task list.

[gc8 974]

1 hour ago, Aquila (DayZ) said:

Sometimes when a mission is failed or cancelled, "Target 1" entry becomes invalid. It can be assigned, but cannot be located anymore on the map (locate button is inactive, and there is no pinpoint for this target-entry on the map), however remains in the task list nonetheless. 

 

this is what bugs me the most because I tested and it worked in my PC (The failed task got removed)

 

how are you running the mission again? dedi or not?

 

also do you have script errors turned on? 

 

thx 🙂