[SP, Co-op] Fight Back! – Battle Survival Rougelike

[bloodborne24 1]

Hey, I don't post often but I wanted to say this is a fantastic SP mission. Well done SP dynamic missions like Pilgrimage and OPEX are my favorites. I've noticed that sometimes if you have a rescue captives mission right at the beginning, they seem to get executed before I'm able to get close and cause a mission failure. I wasn't exactly sure what the repercussions where either. But this only happened a couple times and I've also had starts where it was fine. Look forward to the updates!

[madrussian 347]

 

On 7/23/2019 at 7:24 PM, froggyluv said:

Good tips Mad - inspires me to fire up Arma again. I like missions that are really tough -oh yeah, keep going with that full nation battle Meta map. Hopefully you've worked out a fully working Auto-calc algorithm that factors in units skill level. Matter fact, i expect no less from you!

 

I hope you can get out of your A3 drought (you mentioned on PM), if hasn't happened already.  I get the exact same feeling sometimes and leave for a while, but just like you were saying something clicks and I always come back and everything is fresh again!  Maybe Contact release is just the ticket. 👽

 

On 7/23/2019 at 7:57 PM, johnnyboy said:

Love that hex map. Reminds of first war games I ever played (board games by Avalon Hill:  Afrika Corp, DDay, Anzio, Battle of the Bulge, Stalingrad....f*** I'm old!).  MR, you have huge ambitions and the impressive mind to get it done.  Rock on.

 

Good deal, for A3 board game idea I bet you in particular have some great ideas when the time comes. 🙂

 

Once I solve this crazy 0xC0000005 Status Access Violation I'm getting, ready to dive back into finishing our conquest of building interior mapping!  Hopefully we can get that working like a well-oiled dream-worthy A4 prototype.  Then onto my crazy meta map idea.  Wish I could clone myself about 15 times.

 

Btw - Curious, anyone playing with high resolutions (higher than 1920x1080) getting that error while playing this mission with certain IFA3 factions?

 

On 7/31/2019 at 2:16 AM, bloodborne24 said:

Hey, I don't post often but I wanted to say this is a fantastic SP mission. Well done SP dynamic missions like Pilgrimage and OPEX are my favorites. I've noticed that sometimes if you have a rescue captives mission right at the beginning, they seem to get executed before I'm able to get close and cause a mission failure. I wasn't exactly sure what the repercussions where either. But this only happened a couple times and I've also had starts where it was fine. Look forward to the updates!

 

Awesome, thanks for playing.  Nice to be mentioned in the company of such well crafted missions. 

 

OK just to clarify, there are two Civ-related objectives:

• "Save Captives":  The civs should be safe until you or your friendly forces approach their enemy captors.  There are a handful of things that get the captors shooting the civs and a handful of things that get the civs running.  This was a careful balancing act, and the result is it's usually best for players to try and complete this obj themselves, rather than simply order friendly AI in via map.  Unless you have lots of friendly AI to order in, and in that case try and order them so they all arrive at the same time.
• "Assist the Colonists":  Usually a pretty easy objective, provided you get there in time (and importantly after enlisting, release them from your group, and order them to head to home base).  But be advised, currently these civs are 100% vulnerable from the very beginning.  So based on where the colonists are located, players should weigh priority of this obj as compared to the other Major Objs.  If the colonists are near the enemies spawn area or potentially along one of the enemies main routes, you'll probably want to go rescue them sooner.

^ Regarding "Assist the Colonists", currently seems there are perhaps edge cases where there is simply no possibility for players to rescue the colonists (in which case even if players hop in vehicle immediately and make a B-line, etc, they still won't get there in time).  Ok, I have added to my ToDo list making colonist safe for perhaps 5-10 minutes, so players always have an opportunity to save em.

[johnnyboy 3795]

3 hours ago, madrussian said:

Once I solve this crazy 0xC0000005 Status Access Violation I'm getting, ready to dive back into finishing our conquest of building interior mapping!  Hopefully we can get that working like a well-oiled dream-worthy A4 prototype.  Then onto my crazy meta map idea.  Wish I could clone myself about 15 times.

no hurry on my end.  broke my wrist and had surgery, so one handed typing for awhile, too hard to code.  keep up the good work tho.

[madrussian 347]

Oh man that sucks!  How'd you injure it?

 

 

[johnnyboy 3795]

18 minutes ago, madrussian said:

Oh man that sucks!  How'd you injure it?

mtn biking, tumbled down rocky embankment.  maybe i should find a mtn bike sim instead haha

[froggyluv 2136]

2 hours ago, johnnyboy said:

mtn biking, tumbled down rocky embankment.  maybe i should find a mtn bike sim instead haha

 

 Your other hand will learn and become master of coding. In its newfound strength it will be your new best friend -with benefits..

[madrussian 347]

10 minutes ago, johnnyboy said:

mtn biking, tumbled down rocky embankment.  maybe i should find a mtn bike sim instead haha

 

Wow, good thing it was your hand and not your skull.  Even playing on computer has gotta be tough too, which also sucks.  Anyhow, I wish you a speedy recover & well deserved break.

[johnnyboy 3795]

3 minutes ago, madrussian said:

 

Wow, good thing it was your hand and not your skull.  Even playing on computer has gotta be tough too, which also sucks.  Anyhow, I wish you a speedy recover & well deserved break.

thx buddy.  yeah cant play on computer yet.

19 minutes ago, froggyluv said:

Your other hand with learn and become master of coding. In its newfound strength it will be your new best friend -with benefits..

fluv man, u never disappoint, haha.  btw oxy is my new best friend...may become a yabahead yet

[VariousArtist 19]

On 7/3/2019 at 9:10 PM, madrussian said:

Hey thanks for the feedback.  I made it for myself and I kinda figured it wouldn't be for everyone.

 

At some point, you will encounter enemy attack vehicles, and some of them will be armored.  The enemy starts out with 0 and can build up to a max of 6, but it takes them quite a long time to do it.  You won't always have AT weapons, but there are plenty of ways to counter armor.  First off, when you complete Major Objectives, you'll get supports including lots of Bombers which can be targeted to hit enemy vehicles.  You can also gain supports by taking back flags.

 

Remember you are a resistance force, so you'll need to adopt "hit and run" tactics.  I regularly avoid enemy vehicles and hit the enemy somewhere else, unless I've got something to take them out.  Btw- None of the Major Objectives are guarded by anything other than foot soldiers.  Also, there should be plenty of AT weapons to take off dead enemy soldiers, as I upped the ratio of AT enemy soldiers to non AT enemy soldiers (to help give you a fighting chance against armor).

 

One more thing to think about.  The enemy transports are normally unarmed trucks, but about 25% of the time these unarmed trucks get replaced with whatever armed transports are available.  If the Nyx is a troop carrier, that might help explain things on your (unlucky?) runs.  Anyhow, I could always make the "armed transports" bit optional if people want.

 

Anyhow, my 8 year old nephew (and 73 year old dad) and I can beat it in co-op regularly, so it's not impossible or anything!  And sometimes they can win it without me.  Btw- We get our asses shot off plenty too, but we always have a good time!

 

 

Most of what you said is probably true and sound, but Im playing solo, and with that you have a very different timing because you also have to handle the dreaded Arma AI.

Means:

You have to rush and gather some more fighters which usually dont fit into the pickup so you cant get all of them in time to the next target. Also with some mission layouts the enlist missions can be very unfortunate so you already have to spent at least 5-8 on a single one.

By the time I have enlisted 1 or even 2 groups Opfor already starts to rush their territory claims. Way faster than its possible to cope with it.

From there on (with "relaxed" settings) its an uphill battle vs. an enemy thats rolling downhill over me. Theres barely time to pick up stuff, like ATs, and/or at least outfit 1-2 soldiers with some better, looted armor.

Even when I managed to solve 1-3 goals the base defend mission triggers at around ~30-35 mins. So far I havent seen a result that a base defend mission can be won so you can return to attack?!

And hit and run? Sure, I know about that option, but again: Im playing solo with AIs... and those usually dont disengage witout being slaughtered. So its not really an option. Sneaking and stalking? I found out that its no option too, because of Opfors mad land rush speed.

 

In general I think that the general timings of the enemies could need more room for solo runs.

 

Btw, on Tanoa Vanilla I just encountered a Gorgon without having destroyed any vehicle. Gorgon vs. 6 footsoldiers? Hm...
 

[madrussian 347]

@VariousArtist Welcome back, good to see you gave it another go. 🙂

 

Sounds like maybe you like the concept, but are still finding things far too challenging.

 

Based on everything you're saying, maybe set up your difficulty settings like this:

• Overall Enemy Power: Classic
• Enemy Soldier Deployment: Extra Relaxed
• Enemy Attack Vehicle Deployment: Extra Relaxed
• Enemy Minimum Power Timer: Extra Relaxed (70 min)
• Allow Enemy Armed Transports: Off
• Extra Lives Awarded: 2
• Enlist Fighters Awarded: 1 scaling upward to 2
• Allow Player Targeted Bombing: On

^ In the next update I plan on adding relaxed setting(s) for "Overall Enemy Power" too.

 

^ Please note, the "Allow Enemy Armed Transports" option is a bit bugged currently.  Picking "Off" should turn armed transports off completely but currently only delays them by 15 minutes.  Sorry for that!  I fixed this in the upcoming update.  Also added options to delay armed transports by up to 40 minutes (up from 15).

 

On 9/6/2019 at 2:44 PM, VariousArtist said:

Btw, on Tanoa Vanilla I just encountered a Gorgon without having destroyed any vehicle.

 

Trust me, play with CUP or better yet RHS units first.  I developed this mostly using CUP, RHS, and IFA3.  I hardly ever play vanilla, mostly just because I like playing with these mods.  But I'm keenly aware of just how much more difficult playing this mission with vanilla is.  And again trust me, vanilla is far tougher!  Like night and day tougher.  Plus this may also be exacerbated by "Allow Enemy Armed Transports" OFF option being bugged currently (see above) (as it probably disproportionately affects vanilla vehicles).  Vanilla vehicles are particularly super vicious, and unfortunately I didn't really balance the mission difficulty with vanilla vehicles in mind.

 

On 9/6/2019 at 2:44 PM, VariousArtist said:

You have to rush and gather some more fighters which usually dont fit into the pickup so you cant get all of them in time to the next target.

 

I recommend only taking the men you can fit in your given vehicle.  Release the other guys into their own group and order them via map control from there. <- This is actually a great strategy, as it keeps you super mobile (and eliminates distraction from those extra guys yelling "where are you?" as you drive off, etc).  More importantly, if your squad gets wiped out you've got some fall-back guys.  Old hints about this (previously inside a spoiler):

 

Quote

• Leave some squad AI guys behind as backups, periodically using the "Release" commands (via OPTIONS -> CONTROLS -> CONFIGURE ADDONS -> "MRU Group Command").  You still get to take over as these released guys (upon you dying), so if a tank manages to surprise you and "take out your whole squad", you'll still be OK.  Consider ordering your backup guys into Stealth first (via regular ArmA3 squad command system) and use "Release (Hold Fire)" so they are super stealthy/survivable, and then order the newly formed Teal group to a good hiding place, like behind a building (or inside a walled area) to keep them safe.
• Also, use the "Release" commands to ensure you've always got the perfect number of units in your squad, based on your current vehicle.  If you're driving around in a 4-seat Jeep, release everyone except 4 guys!

 

^ And yes, you will have to hustle no matter what. 🙃

 

On 9/6/2019 at 2:44 PM, VariousArtist said:

Even when I managed to solve 1-3 goals the base defend mission triggers at around ~30-35 mins. So far I havent seen a result that a base defend mission can be won so you can return to attack?!

 

To win, most of the time you will have to complete at least 4 of the 5 Major Objectives, simply because you'll need that much man-power to succeed.  Sometimes if I'm playing like a mad banshee, I can win only completing 2 or 3, but that's usually pretty tough.

 

The good news is, you have direct control over when the base defense will trigger.  As long as your side controls at least one flag, your base will remain hidden.  A good strategy is to alternate between completing Major Objectives and taking back flags.  This will keep the enemy off balance as they traipse back across the map towards the flags you just took.  Meanwhile you have moved on and wiped a bunch of them out somewhere else & taken another flag.

 

Make sure you order your Green groups into key positions as soon as you get them.  <- Not doing this will put you way way behind!  Quite often, I order the Green guys to advance on more than one enemy controlled flag (in sequence), so they help tie up the enemy and again hopefully put enemy off balance by taking a flag or two.  At the end of their WP sequence (after the flags they are suppose to take) I make their last WP somewhere safe (as opposed to guarding a flag), so they will be ready for more orders should they survive.  Only leave them guarding a flag if it's surrounded with buildings or similar.

 

Is this mission hard?  You bet!  Anyhow, think of this as the ultimate squad control trainer, and use the provided MRU Squad commands.  Keep at it and you will become a cool calculating squad controlling enemy killing machine. 

[Voronwe 4]

First off, thank you so much!

 

I've been playing this mission in SP almost every night since I discovered it about a week ago and I FINALLY beat it!: 

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k43dZMmFn_tvHUbVPdoKfNysmYjbaePa/view?usp=sharing

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OuVfGax4NejebWixMAwyW4PTht-Op9Mg/view?usp=sharing

 

...Wow, just wow!  This is probably one of the most fun Arma 3 missions I've ever played!  The moment when you've been more or less peacefully driving around completing missions and then hear your AI units run into the lead elements of the invasion... wow.    It was on Kunjari and I was playing as RHS USMC Recon troops against the Syndikat.  Fortunately I managed to spot their T55 early on and called in an A10 strike on it.  The match ended with us defending this small settlement, with hostile foot soldiers swarming over this jungle ridge.  Desperately suppressing the ridge while waiting for the artillery I called in to splash, and then that feeling of relief as the rounds started to land.   Realizing I was down to my last AI and hopping into my truck to desperately rush for reinforcements.  Our base had been discovered and I waiting for it to be overrun.  The moment when our "allied force" finished off the enemy just in time.  Amazing!  

 

The AI were set to 100 movement 50 aim IIRC.  All the mission settings were set as easy as they could go lol. 

 

Anyway, I like how it goes from a SOF style campaign to fighting a major combined arms engagement.  (I prefer to think of it more as special forces being inserted to organize a resistance in preparation for an allied invasion, sort of like how Norwegians were trained in the UK and then dropped into Norway during WW2)

 

I'm absolutely hopeless at anything to do with scripting and mission making, but if there's anything I can do, like play testing new maps or whatever, let me know!

 

[madrussian 347]

@Voronwe

Wow, very nice review & thanks for playing!

 

13 hours ago, Voronwe said:

The moment when you've been more or less peacefully driving around completing missions and then hear your AI units run into the lead elements of the invasion... wow.    It was on Kunjari and I was playing as RHS USMC Recon troops against the Syndikat.  Fortunately I managed to spot their T55 early on and called in an A10 strike on it.  The match ended with us defending this small settlement, with hostile foot soldiers swarming over this jungle ridge.  Desperately suppressing the ridge while waiting for the artillery I called in to splash, and then that feeling of relief as the rounds started to land.   Realizing I was down to my last AI and hopping into my truck to desperately rush for reinforcements.  Our base had been discovered and I waiting for it to be overrun.  The moment when our "allied force" finished off the enemy just in time.  Amazing!

 

Really great description, that totally sums up how I feel playing it!

 

14 hours ago, Voronwe said:

The AI were set to 100 movement 50 aim IIRC.

 

Curious, are you talking about the in-game Skill and Precision settings, or something else?

 

14 hours ago, Voronwe said:

Anyway, I like how it goes from a SOF style campaign to fighting a major combined arms engagement.  (I prefer to think of it more as special forces being inserted to organize a resistance in preparation for an allied invasion, sort of like how Norwegians were trained in the UK and then dropped into Norway during WW2)

 

Awesome, yep that's exactly what I was going for.  You totally nailed it.

 

14 hours ago, Voronwe said:

I'm absolutely hopeless at anything to do with scripting and mission making, but if there's anything I can do, like play testing new maps or whatever, let me know!

 

If you had genie & 3 wishes... what would you add?

Next update will definitely include LAMBS compatibility and a number of new maps, including Cham, Virolahti, Winter Hellanmaa, and more.  (Playing with LAMBS now slows the enemy to a crawl, because the enemy keeps going off track, but I know how to get them more fluid again.)  Update is taking a long time, because I got distracted by a Bigger Fish.  Plus most everything here working great already, so no huge pressing bugs, etc.

 

Also, I checked those beautiful victory screenshots.  Well done!  Haha I noticed you left so many supports on the table (inc 3 bombers).  My dad always does that same thing when we win.  Btw- Have you played in co-op yet?  With those limited lives and having to rely on each other to survive, it can get pretty intense.

 

[Voronwe 4]

Quote

Curious, are you talking about the in-game Skill and Precision settings, or something else?

Yessir!  My bad.  (and I lied, they were set 75 25 lol)

 

Quote

If you had genie & 3 wishes... what would you add?

Support for GOS Gunkizli and GOS Dariyeh.  I don't know how the guy does it but his maps are both some of the best looking and best preforming maps I've ever played. (in mission on Leskovets I get from 45-70 FPS with most of my graphics on high/ultra.  Running a RX580 with 8gbs of vram, a Ryzen 2600x, and 16 gigs of DDR4@3000) Gunkizli is an Indian style map with large wetlands (which look amazing) and Dariyeh is a bunch of scrub brushy hills with villages and a massive desert.  I'm going to try some of his other maps tonight.  I would've asked for Virolahti, but you've already got that one the list.  You already did Beketov, so that's pretty much all my favorite maps  🙂

 

I'm a bit undecided on this one but maybe the ability to change your kit at the beginning?  Kind of like DRO, but WITHOUT the ability to access the arsenal.  On the one hand I like the idea of having to make do with whatever you get, but when you spawn as an ammo bearer and non of the AI have MG or AT kits...

 

This last one isn't directly related to the mission, but those MRU commands really are wonderful...Maybe release them as a separate add on?  (if that's even possible)

 

My only real issue isn't an issue with the mission, it's with my driving lol.  I keep hitting trees or rocks going 80 and killing my entire crew 🙄

 

Quote

Haha I noticed you left so many supports on the table

On my earlier playthroughs I'd use all my supports too early and/or waste them.  I'm trying to use them only when needed now.

 

Quote

Btw- Have you played in co-op yet?

Only once.  I only have one friend who plays, and he just got the game.  I'm going to see if he's up for a round tonight actually. 

 

Anyway, thank you so much for taking the huge amount of time this must've taken to make.  I always feel a bit like dead weight in the community, my computer skills are kinda nil, so all I can do is offer feedback. 

[madrussian 347]

 

On 2/10/2020 at 10:16 AM, Voronwe said:

Support for GOS Gunkizli and GOS Dariyeh.  I don't know how the guy does it but his maps are both some of the best looking and best preforming maps I've ever played. (in mission on Leskovets I get from 45-70 FPS with most of my graphics on high/ultra.  Running a RX580 with 8gbs of vram, a Ryzen 2600x, and 16 gigs of DDR4@3000) Gunkizli is an Indian style map with large wetlands (which look amazing) and Dariyeh is a bunch of scrub brushy hills with villages and a massive desert.  I'm going to try some of his other maps tonight.  I would've asked for Virolahti, but you've already got that one the list.  You already did Beketov, so that's pretty much all my favorite maps  🙂

 

Sure thing, hadn't tried those two terrains yet.  OK, I checked them out and yep very nice indeed.  Looks like GOS Gunkizli will work, but unfortunately not GOS Dariyeh because it doesn't have any roads.

 

At present, mission only introduces enemy onto roads (in trucks & transports), so if a particular map is (even mostly) devoid of roads, it probably won't work very well.  At some point, I'd like to give the enemy helicopters and air transport ability (mostly to mix it up with the current ground transport, but also for road-poor maps).  Anyhow yeah the whole "only on roads" thing was kind of an oversight on my part, because there are some really great wilderness maps out there.

 

On 2/10/2020 at 10:16 AM, Voronwe said:

I'm a bit undecided on this one but maybe the ability to change your kit at the beginning?  Kind of like DRO, but WITHOUT the ability to access the arsenal.  On the one hand I like the idea of having to make do with whatever you get, but when you spawn as an ammo bearer and non of the AI have MG or AT kits...

 

I hear you.  Personally I like getting thrown into the mix and having to make due.  Because when I'm given the ability to pick, haha I simply can't help myself and go for the best weapon out there.  Let me spend a bit of time and see how easy this is to add, though it would probably be more for like a special modded version.

 

On 2/10/2020 at 10:16 AM, Voronwe said:

This last one isn't directly related to the mission, but those MRU commands really are wonderful...Maybe release them as a separate add on?  (if that's even possible)

 

Good wish!  I'm glad someone finally asked.  So I happen to be in the middle of an absolutely massive (& hopefully transformational, definitely cryptic) project, but after finishing/releasing that one (with a little help from my two best A3 buds), perhaps trusty old MRU Squad Commands can be next.

 

For now you might be in luck.  That system (voiced squad commands) is super portable.  So I could give you some relatively simple instructions to add them to whatever mission you are playing.  It's basically just copying the "MRU_GroupCommand" folder into your mission folder and adding a line or two to the mission's "init.sqf" file.  So yeah, let me know if you want to try it.

 

On 2/10/2020 at 10:16 AM, Voronwe said:

My only real issue isn't an issue with the mission, it's with my driving lol.  I keep hitting trees or rocks going 80 and killing my entire crew 🙄

 

Haha, I drive like a maniac (in this game) too.  And I waste my supports all the time, wishing I had them back.  On the flip side, the moment my dad sees an enemy he gets this total tunnel vision, and completely forgets his supports.  The only time I can get him to use them is when the enemy are just standing there oblivious & extremely far away. 

 

On 2/10/2020 at 10:16 AM, Voronwe said:

Anyway, thank you so much for taking the huge amount of time this must've taken to make.  I always feel a bit like dead weight in the community, my computer skills are kinda nil, so all I can do is offer feedback. 

 

Hey thanks for saying.  I'm glad someone is enjoying it as much as I do.  Yeah it did take forever, but I learned so much in the process.

 

On 2/10/2020 at 4:29 PM, Voronwe said:

Could you put the missions into a collection on Steam?  As of right now I just type "Fight Back" into Steam and subscribe to which ever I want to play, but if they were all in one spot that would be amazing. 

(^ from his PM)

 

Collection is a good idea, let me look into it.  I actually wish I combined all the missions into a single addon, because it would be soooo much easier to do an update.  At present, I have to upload 52 times to Steam.  It might be a gigantic effort to combine all of them though.

 

Important - If anyone is having trouble posting here, please alert me via PM, b/c Voronwe's last post (now seen above) somehow needed mod approval (and took a few days to pop up).  Plus I have the same issue everytime I update the 1st post.  Anyhow he reached out to me via PM and I've been able to answer his questions, etc that way.

 

About that next update...

 

I've already added a bunch of important fixes (internally).  The ones I think people will find most useful are:

• "Allow Enemy Armored Transports" setting was way busted (i.e. not in the player's favor), now totally fixed with options for "On", "Off", and "On" with 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, & 40 minute delays.
• "Restore Weapon Cursors" optional setting (mostly for playing with IFA3 b/c they omit all the vehicle weapon cursors) was causing the new cursor to jump around.  Now fixed!

If anyone would like a current update (with those 2 important fixes above plus partial LAMBS compatibility), tell me which map(s) and I'll upload you the partial updates asap (like hopefully within a day or two of your request).

 

Once I get the rest of the intended fixes in plus total LAMBS compatibility (which is perhaps 1/2 finished as we continue to play test), I'll update all 52 maps, though no ETA presently on that...

 

Also if you want new terrains, just say so and I'll have a look.  @Voronwe Just finished up Virolahti, check your PM. 🙂

 

[Mackov 5]

Well done mr. MadRussian this scenario is splendid!

 

Does AI squad-enchancing mod C2 breaks your scenarios AI by any chance?

And does ACE screws the mission up too bad?

 

Otherwise it is great, really hard but great. Nice for a quick session

[madrussian 347]

@Mackov

Thanks, glad you like it!

 

19 hours ago, Mackov said:

Does AI squad-enchancing mod C2 breaks your scenarios AI by any chance?

 

I just watched a couple videos, looks to be extremely useful & powerful.  Should be OK, since seems it only affect your own squad.  The only part that might conflict would be its markers overlaid on the main map might look strange on top of my markers.  Anyhow, looks so useful I'll probably try it out myself tonight.  Also if you try it out, please let us know how it goes.

 

19 hours ago, Mackov said:

And does ACE screws the mission up too bad?

 

I recall someone on Steam pointing out some hick-ups playing with ACE.  Seems like they had to die once at mission start to be able to do specific things (like re-enlisting fighters? or perhaps enlisting them to begin with?)  They talked like it was a minor annoyance, otherwise fine.  So I didn't worry about it too much at the time (b/c busy fixing other important bugs, etc).  Anyhow, feel free to playtest with ACE and report back anything you find, and I'll see what I can do.

 

Yes in terms of achieving Total Victory, mission can be pretty hard!  After playing hundreds (perhaps over 1000?) times, we win often now (perhaps 3/4 of the time), but in the beginning it was more like seeing how long we could last.  Early on, setting yourself more achievable goals is probably more fun, like drive enemy's "Overall Power" down more than ever before.

 

Also, quick hint for anyone who might be intimidated by enemy's starting "Overall Power" (~190-200):  You don't need to get them down to 0.  Their breaking point is far far above that!  Trust me, fight hard enough and they will break. 
 

[Mackov 5]

On 2/16/2020 at 3:35 PM, madrussian said:

@Mackov

I recall someone on Steam pointing out some hick-ups playing with ACE.  Seems like they had to die once at mission start to be able to do specific things (like re-enlisting fighters? or perhaps enlisting them to begin with?)  They talked like it was a minor annoyance, otherwise fine.  So I didn't worry about it too much at the time (b/c busy fixing other important bugs, etc).  Anyhow, feel free to playtest with ACE and report back anything you find, and I'll see what I can do.

 

After playing some more times on different maps I concluded that fast-paced scenario like yours and ACE don't really click. It's much better on some long-term persistent scenarios or some hand-crafted zeus missions.

If you would to do another scenario someday maybe you should consider doing something about defending your base and holding the line with similar supply system like you have here I think you would execute something like this masterfully 🙂

 

As of C2 it seemingly plays along fine, it kinda messes up your HC map controlls and you can only throw orders to blue squares HC squads via the C2 menu. I hope you give this mod a chance and tell how you see this playing along as you are the expert on this mission after all 🙂

 

Cheers and blesses

[madrussian 347]

@Mackov

All that sounds really good.  Hoping to check out C2 soon, and yes would like to create more scenarios (where players can win or be defeated)!  Deep inside the guts of my mission right now trying to gets LAMBS to play nicely.  Their "Hide" order (behavior?) is great, but it's really bogging the enemy down here, so working on a remedy.  Also finding some brand new ways to keep the enemy moving (inc setBehaviourStrong command, which is really proving it's worth).

[Mackov 5]

@madrussian

 

Please do! Some things are executed perfectly, support system is so satisfying, although I cannot really find out how to consistently target armored vehicles with the supports.

Although I love watching plane bombardments, sometimes I wish i had like 10 to spend on a mission just to look at it 🙂

[froggyluv 2136]

Waiting for the Lamb supported version 🐏

[madrussian 347]

16 hours ago, Mackov said:

support system is so satisfying, although I cannot really find out how to consistently target armored vehicles with the supports.

Although I love watching plane bombardments, sometimes I wish i had like 10 to spend on a mission just to look at it 🙂

 

Thanks, I spent a ton of time on those Bombers trying to get them perfect.  Or at least perfectly believable. 🙂  (Pretty surprised, but you might be the 1st one to mention them.)

 

OK to target an enemy vehicle, it should be pretty straightforward.  Get your bomber support ready via 0-8-X.  Then simply put your reticle (or whatever you want to call it) on the vehicle, and press 2 to "Call via LOS".  This can be kind of challenging when the target is moving and/or at a distance.  Binoculars can help.  Also, you do have to have "Allow Player Targeted Bombing" enabled in the difficulty settings, or they will just target the ground instead.  (Also to see the reticle, you need "Show Support LOS indicator" on in the Client Settings.)  Or did you have another issue making it work?

 

Btw- These bombers will try and hit moving targets too!  Once I got this ability up and running, I had to tone back their accuracy on moving targets somewhat, because they were just too dead on. 💥  Now they can miss too, depending on a number of factors (mainly how hilly it is).

 

16 hours ago, froggyluv said:

Waiting for the Lamb supported version 🐏

 

Hopefully not too long now frogman. 🐑

 

Details:

Spoiler

I'm getting a handle on what's slowing them down.  Started out disabling Lambs on all important groups (collaborator, captives, colonists, etc) plus random 50% of enemy & friendly groups.  This works pretty well and improves fluidity, but the Lambs guys really stall out once they go into Lamb's "Hide" mode.  So now I'm refreshing the Lambs portion periodically to AWARE state (along with a few other tricks to actually get them moving again), and hold them in AWARE for random amount of time, before letting them back into desired behaviour (usually they want to go straight back to COMBAT).  Need to play test this in the coming days to fine tune it.

 

Also as of the latest update Lambs put out, I'm having an issue with the Lambs disabled guys when Lambs is running (which should behave like vanilla but don't seem to).  Unfortunately, group leader is getting way out in front, while his subordinates are in slow-walk mode.  I think this is somehow part of Lambs attempt to make the walkers "shoot more while moving".  Otherwise this could actually be a vanilla thing, but I've never noticed it before.  So more experiments required.  Anyhow this definitely needs some improvement, because the leader really leaves his guys in the dust.

 

Also slowing related -

 

I have a provision where injured guys with no ability to heal leave their group and withdraw from the battlefield, so they stop slowing down their groups.  In the past this worked extremely well.  But now I'm seeing that often, even though they could heal (b/c they have a health pack, etc), they often don't, so I probably need to -either- eject them from group immediately upon injury -or- join them out of the group and right back in, so at least they are last in the group and no one is following their slow-ass anymore.

 

 

[johnnyboy 3795]

Love this mission!  I highly recommend everyone try it.  I held off trying it because I was intimidated by the description and thought I would have too much to learn to play it (I'm too lazy to read manuals).  But you can jump right in no problem.  Lots of action, replayability and tons of features and depth you can learn as you go along.  You can tell alot of smart work and thought went into creating this.  I am very impressed.

 

Try it, you will like it!

[kremator 1065]

@madrussian ... would it be possible to put the mod, and standard BIS maps onto something like googledrive please?  Steam isn't very happy on my dedi, dealing with workshop files, and I'd like to host it.

[madrussian 347]

@johnnyboy - Thanks man!  Glad you like.  Yeah I recommend new players just jump in and leave any reading or whatnot for later.

 

@kremator - Sure thing, I think I can manage that later today.  Look for a PM.  In my experience, everything works great on DS. 🙂

 

Quick Lambs update

 

So I created an internal version a while back that works as well as possible with Lambs, and the verdict is... sorry bros it's just not going to happen.  I absolutely love Lambs for most missions (and many thanks to Lambs team for their wonderful work), but here it simply disrupts the flow way too much.  So my advise remains the same for now, please enjoy this mission responsibly... with no AI mods just yet.

 

But there is a silver lining.  I am midway through creating my own AI mod which (by design) will work splendidly with this mission.  (Btw - No ETA, there is still a ton to do.)  Thanks @froggyluv and @johnnyboy for all the ideas and technical expertise so far on that endeavor.

 

[kremator 1065]

Cheers mate !  Wanna get that onto my dedi asap 🙂  Also looking forward to seeing this new AI mod ... happy to test.