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

[madrussian 347]

Blasting away the limitations of classic Group Respawn, taking mission dynamics and customization to the next level, I proudly present “Fight Back!”

 

My goal was to create a dynamic mission that would completely surprise on every playthrough, and I got a little carried away.  Fast forward 3 years... Well long story short, please try it out and let me know what you think!

 

Major Features

• Battle a vicious & cunning enemy AI, hell bent on your destruction.
• Customize your playthrough with easy & flexible Start Menu.
• Locate and Enlist Fighters who join your group and give life to your cause.
• Strike Back and complete Major Objectives, awarding you essential Assets & Manpower.
• Build a small army (if you can), and marshal your forces in a desperate struggle against the odds.
• Command your newly acquired army via a simple & intuitive map-based system.
• Optimize your own personal squad with essential Voiced Commands (optional).
• Call in devastating Supports, including brutal WW2 style Bomb Runs.
• Win a stunning Total Victory or suffer a crippling Total Defeat.
• Wage the entire epic battle (playthrough) in one sitting (~50 min or less).

 

Minor Features

• Play in SP and MP (works equally well in SP, Hosted Server, & Dedicated Server), all with a single mission file.
• Defend your hidden base.  Lose your base, and all is lost!
• Activate the Home Guard, which will defend your base to the last man.
• Engage in Asymmetric War.  The players and the AI enemy have surprisingly different objectives, creating a dynamic and deadly battlespace bursting with possibilities.
• Survive (if you can) with Limited Lives using my custom flexible Group Linked Respawn system. 
  Spoiler

  Similar to classic “Group” Respawn but with some twists. Works in SP, takeover not limited to player’s own group, lots of customizable options!

• Engage a fully integrated and voiced Custom Supports system.  Importantly, your supports persist upon your death and takeover as a new unit (even if you were killed mid-way through calling them!)
• Track, locate, and dispatch a quick and wily collaborator who will run like hell.
• Free civilian captives & rescue vulnerable colonists, who will gift you important vehicles.
• Steal enemy supplies, and transport them home for base defense.
• Experience a dynamic & fluid enemy AI with direction and purpose.  Fight Back and defeat the blitz (or die trying).

 

This mission is similar to CTI (on a smaller scale), only you “build” by winning.

 

Please read through the briefing 1st time before playing, as the respawn system is pretty ground-breaking (in a positive way) and probably quite different from anything you’ve played before.

 

This mission plays better with content mods!  It’s geared for CUP, RHS, IFA3, FOW (supplemental to IFA3), Unsung (including Unsung’s DSAI), and OPTRE.  Update: Global Mobilization fully supported!  When playing with GM, please see notes below on how to properly select support faction, to ensure your air assets are as “era appropriate” as possible.  All of these mods & DLCs are optional of course.

 

It should work with any unit and vehicle mods (as it scans the configs for unit and vehicle types), but if you’re having an issue with a particular mod, please let me know and I’ll see what I can do.  Also, it might have issues with mods that use the custom radio script commands (mere speculation based on my use of those commands).

 

ATTENTION – Please do NOT run with AI mods installed.  I love AI mods too!  But this mission relies on completely fluid AI and every AI mod I’ve tried has caused big problems.  If you’re not convinced, please read this:

 

Spoiler

If you run with an AI mod the end result will be that you (and other players) get very bored, because the enemy will not get to where they are suppose to be going (nearly fast enough).  I cannot stress this enough, I want you to like this mission so please don’t do it.  Having said that, if there is an AI mod you’d like me to evaluate, please let me know.  I will check it out and report back.  It’s possible if there are one or two favorite AI mods, I can make several important tweaks to the mission (for compatibility with AI mod) to keep everything running smoothly.  But as of this moment please consider all AI mods as completely mission-breaking.

 

Once johnnyboy finishes his “JBOY AI Scripted CQB Path” and we have most of the buildings in the game mapped out, I definitely hope to include the combined system here in this mission (maintaining AI’s fluidity, etc).

 

Porting to New Terrains

 

Again, this mission relies on completely fluid AI.  It takes thorough playtesting and knowhow to set this mission up for particular terrains.  It works beautifully on certain terrains (once set up), while on other terrains it simply does not work at all.  I have a very good handle on which are which, and have this mission working on 50+ terrains so far (certainly more than I have released), and can always release more.  Also, some were quick to set up (~3 minutes), while some took forever.  For instance, latest Lingor took me 10+ hours to set up and is bat-shit crazy to look at in the editor, but it sure works great now!  If you’re curious on whether this mission will work on a terrain or not, simply ask and I’ll do my best to let you know.

 

Anyhow enough talk, please try it out!  Have fun and if you have feedback, I’m very interested in hearing!

 

Gameplay Screenshots

 

"Choose Your Adventure"



 

"Catching Some Air on the way to First Objective"

 

"Say Hello to my Little Friend"

 

"Nazis, I hate these guys..."

 

"Truck?!?  What truck?"

 

"On the Move"

 

"Here Come the Bombers"

 

"Knockout"

 

"Lone Survivor"

 

"Quick, he's getting away!"

 

"You can run..."

 

"But you can't hide."

 

"Ambush"

 

"All Quiet on the Western Front"

 

"Hold the Line"

 

"Let's get these civilians to safety"

 

"Did someone order Napalm?"

 

"War is Hell"

 

"Inside Dante's Inferno"

 

"The Bitter End"

 

 

The Briefing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Required Addons

 

1. Community Based Addons – Don't forget this one!

 

2. MRU Mission Assets – Contains all the sound effects (plus small ammo type the bombs need to work properly)

 

 

Highly Recommended Addons (Optional)

 

1. Flashpoint Music Pack – Gotta love that old OFP music!  Don’t know about you, but every time I listen it speaks to my very soul.  When this addon is detected, a random track will automatically play on mission startup (customizable in Start Menu)

 

2. MRU IFA3 Revert Soldier FOVs – Re-adjusts IFA3 soldier FOVs back to vanilla levels.  This mission was created and adjusted for difficulty prior to IFA3 introducing limited soldier FOVs, and this addon helps restore mission difficulty to intended levels.

 

3. MRU IFA3 Reduce Soldier Armor – Same thing as IFA3 “Revert Soldier FOVs”, but with soldier armor protections.  Imo, makes this mission more enjoyable & fair.  Of course, to each his own!

 

4. MRU Animation Fix – If you have your ArmA3 keybinds setup like mine and try to go from stopped and kneeling with rifle directly to sprint with rifle, you’ll see a broken animation transition.  This addon fixes that!  (CUP used to fix this broken animation transition, but not anymore due to one of their recent updates, so I created this little fix addon.)

 

 

Mission Downloads

 

Subscribe on Steam, with 52 terrains now and counting!  Note - For the best initial experience, consider playing first on a BIS terrain or the excellent Isla Duala.  These terrains have towns & buildings mostly spread out evenly and always make for a great run.  Note - I developed this mission on Chernarus (Summer).  Here are all the mission links (by terrain):

 

Altis

Chernarus (Summer)

Chernarus (Winter)

Malden

Takistan

Tanoa

United Sahrani

Zargabad

 

Aachen Outskirts

Afghan Villiage

Aliabad

Anizay

Bariga

Beketov

Caribou Frontier

Crossroads Bocage

Fallujah

Fata

Hazar Kot

Hellanmaa

Helvantis

Ihantala

Ihantala (Winter)

Isla Abramia

Isla Duala

Kranorus

Kujari

Kunduz

Leskovets

Lingor

Lingor (Desert)

Lythium

Napf

Napf (Winter)

Neaville

Neaville (Winter)

Palau

Panthera

Panthera (Winter)

Pecher

Porquerolles

Roche

Ruha

Saint Kapaulio

Summa

Summa (Winter)

Thirsk

Thirsk (Winter)

Trava

Vidda

VT5

Zarzibash

 

[madrussian 347]

Game Settings

 

Very Important!!! – Prior to playing this mission, please go to “OPTIONS” -> “GAME” -> “DIFFICULTY” -> “EXTENDED MAP CONTENT” and turn off “FRIENDLY”.  This will disable the game-generated friendly unit markers, which will otherwise clash horribly with my friendly group markers.

 

Also within “EXTENDED MAP CONTENT”, I recommend turning off “ENEMY”.  In this mission you can often infer where the enemy is operating, by simply glancing at the main map to see which friendly group markers’ COMBAT indicators are lit up.

 

Difficulty Settings

 

The mission will automatically detect SKILL and PRECISION in your game settings (displaying these in the Start Menu), and sets AI sub-skills accordingly (along a carefully selected scale).  Simply adjust these to your liking (via “OPTIONS” -> “GAME” -> “DIFFICULTY”), start the game, and hopefully win a big victory!

 

I usually play this mission with SKILL and PRECISION both set at 0.5, except sometimes I when I want to relax and have an easier time (or playing in co-op with a rookie friend) I reduce both to 0.3 or so.  When playing with RHS, I set SKILL to 0.5 and PRECISION to 0.65 or so (because RHS AI aiming can use some help).

 

If you’d like ultimate control over setting the AI skills, please open “Mods\_Reference_ExampleMod.sqf”, look for BUB_Mod_DL_OccSkill and BUB_Mod_DL_ResSkill, and fine tune the AI skills to your heart’s desire.  Note – By default, the mission sets AI skills for every enemy and friendly man, including all crew.  Using these modified functions will replace default skill settings (still impacting every enemy and friendly man, including all crew).

 

Use MRU_FSC_GetFinalSkill and MRU_FSC_GetSetSkill to convert from finalSkill to setSkill and vice versa, like a champ.  Hopefully, all this makes adjusting AI difficulty a breeze.

 

Global Mobilization

 

This mission supports GM!  You may have noticed that presently, GM has no air assets of it’s own.  As air assets are a big part of this mission, I’ve included a provision where GM will borrow it’s air assets from CUP.  Thus when playing GM, it’s best to have CUP loaded as well.  (Otherwise your air assets will be pulled from vanilla ArmA3.)

 

When playing with GM, simply remember two things: 1. Have CUP Vehicles loaded, and 2. On the Start Menu, select a GM faction as your Support Faction.  With that combination, your supports will call in (borrowed) CUP air vehicles, and dropped crates will be filled with GM equipment.  This is as “era appropriate” as we can get until GM releases it’s own air assets.

 

Performance, the AI’s Basic Intelligence, and Dedicated Servers

 

I’ve gone to great lengths to optimize this mission, and it runs extremely well in SP on my PCs (i7-7700K and i5-2500K, both with 16GB RAM).  Never-the-less, the AI can get a little dumb near the end when everything ramps up, when playing on certain terrains.  The AI losing some of it’s intelligence is normal in ArmA3 when there’s a lot going on (like there is here), as CPU gets spread out to cover the AIs.  Thankfully, this mission runs like an dream on a Dedicated Server.  For players with 2 capable PCs, even if you are playing by yourself, you can get the AI 100% up to full smarts again by simply adding a DS.  Trust me, its worth it!

 

If you notice any AI dumbing and don’t have extra capable PCs laying around, playing on a simpler map will help out quite a bit.  United Sahrani runs particularly well, along with all of Icebreaker's stunning creations (Isla Duala, Panthera, Lingor, etc).  All the maps in the “Old but Gold” pack are super-AI friendly, and there are many other excellent possibilities to choose from as well.

 

Credits

 

mbrdmn – Many thanks for his ground-breaking mission “Dynamic Recon Ops”!  I borrowed his Start Menu GUI (visual format only), plus his Start Menu camera script (both with his kind permission).  I was struggling mightily trying to get CBA Addon selections to work for faction selections (which was kinda crazy looking back), until he showed me just how Start Menus are done!

Kju and IFA3 team – Hats off to this amazing mod team.  Thanks for all the inspiration and help with technical matters!  I built this mission to be playable in any era (based on what factions & map you select), but at least 50% of the time we play it with your awesome WW2 mod.

 

All the modders & mission creators out there – You folks spend so much time and effort making ArmA3 great.  Please keep that fire burning!

 

Play-testers – My dad (who played co-op with me more times than I could possibly count!), my nephews & niece (inc KillerElmoX), froggyluv, & kju.  Great insight on what worked and didn't, and help rooting out some of my toughest bugs.  Thanks so much guys!

 

Sounds – Many thanks to these jingle creators who donated their works (on www.freesound.org).  They really make this mission come alive (when completing objectives, taking flags, etc):

https://freesound.org/people/LittleRobotSoundFactory/

https://freesound.org/people/joshuaempyre/

 

BIS – Without this astounding game, what would we even play?  You have my eternal gratitude.  Now please fix up that vehicle and indoor AI path-finding, for ArmA4!

 

 

Random Notes (not covered above):

 

Please don’t read this section too closely until you’ve played a few times (otherwise much of this probably won’t make much sense).  Aside from the 1st item, which everyone should read.

 

1. Attention new players:  You may wish to select CUP, RHS, IFA3, Unsung, or GM for Enemy Faction early on, rather than vanilla factions or OPTRE.  Playing against vanilla units in particular can be significantly more difficult because they are more bullet-spongy, and have vicious vehicle weapon turrets.  The exception is vanilla Bandits, who are unarmored and inherently quite fun.
2. This mission is quite moddable!  Please see “Mods\_Reference_ExampleMod.sqf” and mod away!
3. Currently, Saving and JIP are disabled.  Mission usually only takes about ~50 min to play, so hopefully neither of those are too big a deal.  If anyone particularly cares to have either, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.
4. This mission has it’s own custom respawn system (MRU Group Linked Respawn) by intent, and almost certainly won’t work with any form of Revive.
5. When certain 3rd party mods and DLC (CUP, RHS, IFA3, FOW, Unsung, OPTRE, and GM) are present, appropriate asset borrowing will take place.  For instance:  When CUP Units or IFA3 are present, the collaborator will be a black suited man, whereas without either of those mods loaded he will be a blue-shirted vanilla civ.  When Unsung faction is selected for civs and CUP Vehicles is loaded, freed civs will steal an era appropriate CUP pickup (vs vanilla pickup).  When RHS is selected as the support faction and CUP Vehicles is loaded, some CUP warplanes will be included to supplement the RHS ones (again based on what’s appropriate).  There is lots of such appropriate borrowing is going on, more so than I can probably recall.  Note the GM asset borrowing described above in “Global Mobilization”, which has special instructions so (if playing with GM) please read that section carefully.  In all other cases asset borrowing is just for fun and simply a bonus.
6. In MP, rest assured that all assets (not just the borrowed ones mentioned above) are always reconciled between the server and all clients.  In other words, all machines must have each asset loaded in order for the mission to use it.
7. When calling LOS supports, having binoculars or a rangefinder can be useful (but not necessary).
8. When playing on Lingor, in the Start Menu options, please select a Date / Time of Day combination with a particularly low tide, to avoid AI having trouble with the water crossings.  One such Date / Time of Day combo is June 9th at “Dawn”.
9. When playing in MP with FOW, if you want "[JP] Imperial Army" as a faction selection, you must be running a PBO version of the mission.  Running MP from the editor will simply automatically omit "[JP] Imperial Army" as a faction selection.  This is a workaround, due to use of a custom texture for this faction and setFlagTexture command being bugged (when running in MP non-PBO mode).
10. Unsung mod (which in and of itself is awesome), completely wipes out Persian and Greek speakers (rendering them mute).  Thus anytime you have Unsung loaded, make sure you are playing only with Unsung factions.  Conversely, if you are not playing Unsung, don’t load it.  If you ever end up with a mute speaker, this is likely the culprit!  (Another reason not to load Unsung unless you are using it, is that DSAI takes a lot of CPU resources.)
11. When playing mission from the editor, when restarting always quit back to editor and start mission from there (instead of pressing “Restart” on the Escape menu).  This will avoid an issue with IFA3 (as far as I can tell) related to getting into a vehicle that freezes your controls once the mission restarts.  I have confirmed this issue is unrelated to this mission (occurring outside this mission as well).
12. To help with players’ situational awareness, Group Icons on the map in combat will be surrounded with a Red mark.  Those fleeing (detected via fleeing command) will be surrounded with a Yellow mark.  For some reason, sometimes an AI group is considered fleeing but will still respond to it’s commands (move to WP, etc).  Quirky command (and/or engine?) I suppose.
13. Quick advise on whether to show Player Group Icons (optional via Start Menu "Server Settings") :  Most of the time when playing other people's missions, I don't like my location pinpointed.  Most of the time, it's fun to try and figure out where you are... and immersive to be able to get lost sometimes!  But in this mission I always show Player Group Icons, for a couple of reasons.  First, you'll always be seeing Group Icons for friendly non-player groups.  So it may not make much sense to hide your own.  Second, when you die you take over as another unit, sometimes these takeover units are clear across the map, which can be quite disorienting without Player Group Icons to rely on.  So again, in this mission I prefer showing Player Group Icons, but I knew some of you would like to play without, so I made these entirely optional.
14. When mounted units are released with intent to send Supply Truck home, it’s best to send only one unit (the driver), because otherwise the non-driver units will disembark to shoot at people along the way.  [To learn more about releasing units, please see “MRU Squad Command” in the briefing.]
15. When releasing mounted units from your group and you want to keep a vehicle moving (such as when sending a truck full of Colonists), use the “Release (Hold Fire)” command, instead of the “Release (Open Fire)” command.  This will help avoid the driver stopping to allow men to disembark, upon contact with the enemy.  [To learn more about releasing units, please see “MRU Squad Command” in the briefing.]
16. Upon winning or losing the mission, in the debriefing you will see your tracked kills (on kill tracker tasks, as a specific feature of this mission).  Those paying attention may note minor inconsistencies between the mission’s tracked kill counts (in the task list to the left) vs the game’s tracked kill counts (on the right).  I know of two things that cause this.  First, when you are driving a vehicle with an AI gunner and he gets a kill, the game counts that as your personal kill, while my mission kill tracker does not.  Also, I’ve noticed the game can count destroying the Destroy Truck as multiple kills, but my mission kill tracker correctly counts this as one kill.
17. MRU Squad Command supports all vanilla speakers, plus speakers added via CUP, RHS, IFA3, and GM mods and DLC.  If playing with unsupported speakers (added via unsupported mods), using GC voice commands will simply result in no speech (but players will still see the associated chat messages).  If players have a radio when using GC voice commands with unsupported speaker, they will get a single error message about it (one single time per mission), and may continue to use GC voice commands without error.  (In other words, command is still functional and units will still obey command, you just won’t hear it.)  If you’d like to see support added for currently unsupported speakers, please ask and I’ll see what I can do.
18. Here’s a more thorough explanation for the MRU Squad Command’s “Last Resort” option (sorry, bit wordy as it’s somewhat complicated):  In this mission, when you die you take over as a new unit (provided one is available).  This respawn system is called "MRU Group Linked Respawn” or GLR for short.  Upon death, GLR will select a unit for you to take over playing as.  Normally, GLR will select the closest AI in your own group (for takeover).  If you have no AI left in your group, GLR will select an AI in the closest player-led group (for takeover).  If that fails, GLR will select closest AI in non-player led groups (for takeover).  If that fails, it’s Game Over.  Sometimes, you might have an AI in your group that you would like to avoid taking over as (upon your death).  It might be a mortar man very far away (perhaps back at your base).  In this case, you can designate him as “Last Resort”.  Then upon your death, GLR will skip over him and move on with it’s takeover selection process.  In fact, the “Last Resort” option has made him the very last man GLR will select as your takeover unit.  The “Last Resort” option also goes a bit further, and upon dying and taking over as your new unit, the mission rejoins this “Last Resort” man to your new group.  (So you again have group access to your mortar man, etc).
19. Please be aware of a serious ArmA3 game bug that affects backpacks and vehicles described here, that can ruin your assembled weapons and turn your player unit into a crazy looking demon thing: 

    Quote

    “With a backpack on your back, taking a backpack from a full (or near full) vehicle or crate results in a bugged duplicate backpack (SP and MP). If another player picks up the bugged duplicate backpack, both players see glitchy jumping backpacks (MP). If original player then drops backpack, both players see 2nd player model stretch into bizarre pattern (MP).”

     Be advised, vehicles in this mission will often be completely full or near full (after you use the “Transfer Contents to Vehicle” option), so you must be particularly vigilant.  The workaround is to step away from the vehicle and drop your current backpack first, and then move back to the vehicle and take the desired new backpack.  Also, you must remember to do this even while under fire, which can be a bit tricky.

 

In Closing

 

Thanks for your interest.  If you have any feedback and/or questions, please don't hesitate.  And please do report in if you manage to beat this monster, as I hear it can be a bit challenging.  Have fun playing and good luck!

[Godis_1 63]

Absolutely amazing work!

 

Like I already said on Steam, there is no ability to save. Is it intended?

[madrussian 347]

@Godis_1 Thanks for the kind words. 🙂

 

Yes, saving is disabled by design (currently), but I think I should be able to re-enable it again.  Let me run some tests and get back with you.  (I'm using numerous instances of disableSerialization, so I don't want to break anything by re-enabling saving without checking everything thoroughly first.)  As mentioned, play time is usually less than 50 min (so hopefully not too big a deal for now).

 

Btw – Curious, what terrain/factions are you playing with and how are you and your men faring?  (That question is for everyone playing!)  Also if anyone has questions about anything (and doesn't want to read my giant wall of text right off the bat etc), please ask away.  I'll do my best to answer.

[Godis_1 63]

Playing with RHS/Project Opfor right now. But I'm still learning about everything and got killed quite often xD

I'll report back after a while.

 

Regarding saving, I just read your answer on Steam. And I got it that one playthrough is considered pretty short (about 50 mins). Well, I'm usually more the type of player who plays long, campaign-style missions, preferably dynamic/random stuff. I like to plan and set up everything slow and thoughtful. This mission requires a little bit more speed when it comes to playstyle. I have to change my kind of thinking on this first :)

[froggyluv 2130]

 

 Highly replayable buncha popcorn missions - good fun. The production values are nice with satisfying audio effects and a pretty saavy AI to deal with -they REALLY want your base. Dont be intimidated by the Rain Man level instructions by The quite MadRussian author, you dont have to read it all but you'll want to after a certain point to learn shortcuts to better operate such as creating and maneuvering HC squads that youll need for various purposes. Totally configurable and well polished.

[johnnyboy 3741]

Congrats on the release you mad man.  Looks amazing.  Wish it supported more maps though...  haha.

[johnnyboy 3741]

I want to try this mission, but I am unclear on one point...to be rouge-like do I have to wear rouge while playing it?  I'm not necessarily opposed to that, I just want to be sure I'm doing this properly.

[madrussian 347]

@johnnyboy

Spoiler

Haha wear what you like, go “commando” or whatever and have at it!

 

Back from a bit of (unplugged) Florida mini-vacation.  Of course by Rouge-Like I mean perma-death survival games rooted in those classic ASCII dungeon-crawlers like Nethack and Rogue, or in modern times the huge explosion of such semi-random perma-death games spanning many genres like Spelunky, Neo Scavenger, Nuclear Throne, etc.

 

[VariousArtist 19]

Tried this mission 3 times so far. 2 times a Nyx rolled in after I cleared my first target. And before I could get my hand on anything AT it wiped out my whole team. Gave up on this. Cant see the fun in this. Sorry.

[madrussian 347]

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

 

Quick advise.  Sounds like you maybe just had a couple of unlucky runs (wrong place at the wrong time).  First off:

Quote

You may wish to select CUP, RHS, IFA3, Unsung, or GM for Enemy Faction early on, rather than vanilla factions or OPTRE.  Playing against vanilla units in particular can be significantly more difficult because they are more bullet-spongy, and have vicious vehicle weapon turrets.  The exception is vanilla Bandits, who are unarmored and inherently quite fun.

 

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!

 

[madrussian 347]

Update (July 2019)

 

Based on feedback, added a bunch of difficulty options (now on their own page).  You can now slow the enemy advance significantly, delay or disable the enemy's armed transports, give yourself more Extra Lives per Enlist Fighters objs completed, give yourself more Enlistable Fighters per Major Objective completed, and more!

 

^ Thanks [GS] Danny for helping me brainstorm these options!

 

Hopefully everyone can make events out on the battlefield super manageable & fun now, no matter your skill level.  Please let me know if all these new options go far enough.  I am definitely listening and open to ideas for improvement. 🙂

 

Quick hints for those who still chance upon an enemy armored vehicle before they are equipped to handle it, which can happen (but should be much less likely with the new "Relaxed" and "Extra Relaxed" settings):

Spoiler

• First of all don't panic!
• Sneak or run away and live to fight another day.
• Hit the enemy somewhere else, and fight that tank or whatever later, once you're equipped to handle it (via AT weapons, Bombers, satchels, etc)
• Most importantly: 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!

 

In other news, based on positive MP feedback:  I enabled 4 players on all terrains!  When playing with 3 or more players, I strongly recommend increasing your "Extra Lives Awarded" and "Enlist Fighters Awarded" settings (as shown above).

 

I also enabled Debug Console for Hosts (and logged-in Admins), to provide more flexibility while playing.

 

That's it for now.  Have fun playing if you have any ideas for improvement, your feedback is most welcome.

 

[MrStregatto 31]

Played a bit the mission, it's very funny but here my two cents:

- I still don't understand what you can do at the base, from what I can see, it is just the spawnpoint and the place where the player can secure the hostages;
- you can keybind the MRU commands only when the mission is on, it's a bit weird but useful
- in the high command I don't understand how to delete a waypoint
- Sometimes seems that the enemy overreact  about the completition of the missions, bringing armors over the base, but it happened just once

Overall it's funny, even played solo.
Maybe if it is possible, to increase the players number to 6
 

[lordfrith 401]

update looks good thanks!

 

I've been really enjoying this mission, the change of pace from other missions caught me by surprise at first but its great fun. 😄 ta

[madrussian 347]

 

Hi, glad you guys like it. 🙂

 

On 7/16/2019 at 4:12 AM, MrStregatto said:

- I still don't understand what you can do at the base, from what I can see, it is just the spawnpoint and the place where the player can secure the hostages;

 

I agree, base is pretty basic looking at first, but keep playing and watch what happens:  Every time you complete a Major Objective, more and more Home Guard (AI) will move in to defend it.  Bring the Colonists home, and they will build a small camp.  Get the enemy supply truck home, and the supplies will automatically be off-loaded and accessible (“made available” by the Home Guard).

 

Of course you have to defend your base from the enemy.  Once the enemy finds your home base, the Home Guard will release a 2nd set of supplies, appearing in those same supply crates (provided you stole them from enemy and brought them home).

 

On my ToDo list, is having the Home Guard automatically build some ad-hoc defenses, kind of like the camp the Colonists build.

 

On 7/16/2019 at 4:12 AM, MrStregatto said:

- you can keybind the MRU commands only when the mission is on, it's a bit weird but useful

 

Good to hear you are finding my squad command system useful.  For me it streamlines vanilla squad command by ~300%, and when it’s gone I miss it dearly.  It uses CBA’s keybinding capability, and to make it show up outside the mission, would need to make as a stand-alone addon.  If there is enough interest, sure I’d like to release this system separately.

 

On 7/16/2019 at 4:12 AM, MrStregatto said:

- in the high command I don't understand how to delete a waypoint

 

There are two different ways:

1. Hover over the WP you want to delete, then hold “ctrl” key and right click.
2. Set up “Add Waypoint”, “Delete Waypoint”, and “Clear All Waypoints” keystrokes.  Then hover on the WP you want to delete and press the “Delete Waypoint” key.

 

On 7/16/2019 at 4:12 AM, MrStregatto said:

- Sometimes seems that the enemy overreact  about the completition of the missions, bringing armors over the base, but it happened just once

 

Turns out, the enemy enter the Area of Operations and advance, independent of you completing (or failing to complete) any objectives.  Your only impact on them is (hopefully) to stop them!

 

Very rarely, depending on how your base, the enemy spawn area, and all the flags in the AO are located, the enemy can come through your base while it is hidden.  This will not impact your base's “hidden” status.  The only way the enemy can “find” your base is by raising up and holding 5 flags.  If you manage to hold at least one of these (non-base) flags, your base will remain hidden indefinitely, safe from takeover.

 

^ Considering how these mechanics work:  I recommend trying to complete your Major Objectives quickly to get your friendly force numbers up, ordering your Green groups and Armors into key positions the moment you get them, and taking back flags as you go.  This will keep the enemy off balance, and also earn you extra Supports (which will help tremendously in taking back those flags).

 

On 7/16/2019 at 4:12 AM, MrStregatto said:

Maybe if it is possible, to increase the players number to 6

 

Based on the "limited lives" and limited number of enlistable fighters out there, mission becomes far more difficult with >4 players.

Spoiler

Currently, if any player dies with no Extra Lives remaining, then it’s game over for everyone.

I hope to eventually include a Death Cam (Spectator) and Return to Play option, which will make larger number of players more feasible.  Would work something like this:  If player dies with no lives remaining (or no unit to take over as), he enters death cam and can spectate (watch the living players).  Then if a living player enlists some new AI fighters, the dead spectating player has the option to take over as one of the new AI fighters (aka "return to play").

 

OK, so for now how about we make a deal.  Win it with 4 players, then we’ll talk about increasing to 6 or more. 

 

In reality, if anyone really wants to increase player number beyond 4 (prior to addition of death cam / spectator):

Spoiler

Mission was written to accommodate this.  Simply follow these instructions (originally in the briefing):

"To add more players: De-PBO the mission and open in the Editor, find the player units (which should be the only units in there), select one guy, copy and paste him as many times as desired, make all the new units playable, and then add them to same group as the original players. In other words, all playable units should be of type "I_G_Soldier_F", and all in one group. Please remember that if *any* player loses all their lives, it's Game Over for *everyone*, so you probably want to keep this somewhat limited... Max of 3 or 4 players perhaps?"

 

^ Also if you need any help with that, simply ask and I’ll help you sort it out.

 

 

Quick Tip of the Day #2:

 

Save big time, by sending the Colonists and Enemy Supply Truck home in their own groups.  Don't escort the Colonists back to base personally, or drive the supply truck home yourself.  Let the AI walk and drive themselves!  To do this, use the "Release" commands to create Teal groups which you then control via the map.  For the Supply Truck, first order your a squad AI guy in as driver (just him).  When sending units home, use "Release (Hold Fire)".  Released Colonists groups will be labeled "Colonists", and released Supply Truck groups will be labelled "Supply Truck", to help you keep it all straight.

 

(Note - Only drive the supply truck yourself when you absolutely have to, like when your base is the middle of the woods.)

[MrStregatto 31]

Hey thanks for the reply!

I will test more when possible.

 

[Arfour 31]

I've just played a few rounds and had a lot of fun.

 

The use of enemy armor is a bit much though. Even on "relaxed" I run into the first APCs or MBTs within the first 15 minutes. I've just captured the first town just to get the enemy to roll over me with two T-72 almost immediatly. Since you don't even get AT from the supply truck (I couldn't access the unloaded crates, where would I go to actually get the supplies?) your only real weapon against tanks are the support elements, but there is way too much armor rolling around to use those properly.

 

Also I don't really understand the "danger meter". It rises really fast but I don't know how to effectively lower it. Even after my CAS Helo fucked up a tank patrol it didn't go down a bit. The number below went from 180+ to 160+ but it still said "MIGHTY". Am I misinterpreting it?

[Godis_1 63]

I've used the setting "relaxed", and they did grow significantly slower. I was able to finish three tasks and shot a lot of enemies with the first character. The amount of enemy units went down to 80+, and it wasn't shown as "mighty" anymore. All together I used CAS for two times and died once, then I was able to finish with a victory. Seems to work fine. Great fun!!

[madrussian 347]

Awesome, good to hear you guys are having fun & nice reports. 🙂

 

On 7/20/2019 at 11:09 AM, Arfour said:

I've just played a few rounds and had a lot of fun.

 

The use of enemy armor is a bit much though. Even on "relaxed" I run into the first APCs or MBTs within the first 15 minutes. I've just captured the first town just to get the enemy to roll over me with two T-72 almost immediatly. Since you don't even get AT from the supply truck (I couldn't access the unloaded crates, where would I go to actually get the supplies?) your only real weapon against tanks are the support elements, but there is way too much armor rolling around to use those properly.

 

OK, for those curious here's the basic formula I'm using to dispense new enemy troops + attack vehicles to the battlefield:

 

First, all enemy attack vehicle assets are divided into 3 categories:

• Armed Cars and MRAPs
• APCs and IFVs
• Tanks and AAs

Enemy gets 5-6 vehicles in each category and the whole mix is shuffled.  These vehicles go into the enemy's Reserve (not yet present on the battlefield).

 

Spoiler

If you are playing WW2, enemy instead gets 5-6 Armed Cars and MRAPs, 3-4 APCs and IFVs, and 8-9 Tanks and AAs, again shuffled and put into the Reserve.  (Enemy gets less attack APCs for WW2 because many truck transports are replaced with APCs, in order to balance things out so there are not a plethora of APCs out there.)

 

Enemy starts with one troop transport (truck) filled with men, and zero attack vehicles (of any kind).  That truck is already headed somewhere to a random destination to unload its troops.  Then on a cycle (based on your "Enemy Soldier Deployment") setting, more troop transports enter the Area of Operations (AO).  Here are the main cycle delays:

• Classic = 425 seconds + (random 200)
• Relaxed = 445 seconds + (random 200)
• Extra Relaxed = 465 seconds + (random 200)

So on "Classic", every 8 minutes and 45 seconds (on average), enemy dispenses another truckload of men.  On "Extra Relaxed", every 9 minutes and 25 seconds (on average), enemy dispenses another truckload of men.  <- That's the Main Cycle part.

 

Enemy Attack Vehicles are dispensed in conjunction with the Main Cycle, as follows.  Enemy has a Vehicle Progress value that starts at 0, and at each Main Cycle, enemy adds to its Vehicle Progress like this (based on your "Enemy Vehicle Deployment" setting):

• Classic = 0.73 + (random 0.24)
• Relaxed = 0.65 + (random 0.22)
• Extra Relaxed = 0.58 + (random 0.2)

Every time enemy's Vehicle Progress passes 1.0, a random enemy attack vehicle is unleashed (along with that Main Cycle's regular truck / truckload of men).

 

So if you are playing "Classic", the enemy will send an attack vehicle in conjunction with ~ 8 of 10 Main Cycles.  If you are playing "Relaxed", the enemy will send an attack vehicle in conjunction with ~ 7 of 10 Main Cycles.  If you are playing "Extra Relaxed", the enemy will send an attack vehicle in conjunction with ~ 6 of 10 Main Cycles.

 

Thus, note that technically enemy attack vehicle deployment rate is affected by both "Enemy Soldier Deployment" and "Enemy Vehicle Deployment" settings.  Whereas enemy troop transport deployment rate is affected only by "Enemy Soldier Deployment" setting.

 

Spoiler

Now, some mods (and maybe some vanilla assets) allow tanks to carry troops.  By default in each Main Cycle, there is ~25% chance for an armed transport to replace the regular unarmed transport trucks.  (For WW2, this chance increases slightly.)  Maybe your T72s were possibly capable as troop transports?  Btw- You can now delay or disable these armed transports entirely via the "Allow Enemy Armed Transports" setting.

 

I do appreciate your comments about "too much enemy armor", etc.  If we do the math here, I must say it seems highly unlikely though to meet up with two T72s in the first 15 minutes.  Recall (from above), the enemy starts with 0 attack vehicles, after avg 8 minutes and 45 seconds enemy gets 1st attack vehicle, and after another avg 8 minutes and 45 seconds enemy gets 2nd attack vehicle.  And as only 1/6 enemy attack vehicles should be tanks (or 1/3 enemy attack vehicles should be tanks if enemy has no access to AAs).  Then those attack vehicles have to travel to their destination which may or may not be where you are or are headed to.  I believe you, just struggling to understand / explain it!

 

Anyhow, maybe put both enemy deployment rate settings on "Extra Relaxed" and see how it goes?

 

On 7/20/2019 at 11:09 AM, Arfour said:

Also I don't really understand the "danger meter". It rises really fast but I don't know how to effectively lower it. Even after my CAS Helo fucked up a tank patrol it didn't go down a bit. The number below went from 180+ to 160+ but it still said "MIGHTY". Am I misinterpreting it?

 

OK, the colored portion indicates enemies actual presence on the battlefield (aka spawned live enemies).  This can go up as the enemy deploys more forces to the battlefield, and down as you slaughter enemy and destroy / knock out their vehicles.

 

The numbered portion is their Overall Power, both on and off the battlefield.  This number only goes down, never up.

 

Regarding how the Overall Power went down by 20 points all at once (due to your helicopters wiping out tanks) but "MIGHY" not going lower.  My guess is you were entering the "end game" portion of the mission, which kicks in on a cos curve near the end of 60, 65, or 70 minutes (based on your "Enemy Minimum Power Timer" setting).  This mechanic basically ensures players get an exhilarating end game, by establishing a minimum power the enemy will have fielded (again which increases the longer you've been playing).  So your helicopters were killing them, and new enemy guys & vehics were showing up as reinforcements (on a truncated cycle) to replace them.

 

If your helicopter strike happened earlier in the mission, that "MIGHY" would have gone down and stayed down for a while.

 

@Godis_1

You are the first I've heard from (outside my immediate family) to beat this mission.  Well done!  

[Arfour 31]

Thank you @madrussian for your detailed answer! First of all: Your mission might be hard as coffin nails, but it is also really great fun!

 

It is just a little frustrating if you get mauled on the easiest settings by single tanks or APCs because you have nothing to fight them. I did a couple more missions yesterday and based on your explanations it might have been just plain old bad luck for all I know. It did get noticably better after I set everything to extra relaxed, disabled armored transports and fought against insurgents rather than the russian army (I am using RHS). I lost though. Every time. 😉

 

So I did misunderstand the rating. Good to know!

 

After reading your posts about how the mission progresses made me focus more on conquering terrain. But I noticed that you can't take them first before the enemy. You can re-take them but that is considerably harder. And it makes it really hard to defend an objective. Is that intentional?

[froggyluv 2130]

Gotta get back to this mission and I agree -its hard as S*T. I would agree that somehow add a chance at more AT weapons being available if enemy AT are on the map -even if you have to go thru hell and highwater to get access. Or maybe an AT support team. One of my biggest pet peeves of Arma is the AT soldiers inability to really fight armor and the kinda dead zone reactions that infantry AI have toward armor in general. Many strategy games have a units potentiality or non-potentiality towards armor as a hard coded stat so they react accordingly if no help is nearby. Feel like BI dropped the ball on that one and its kind of a depressing feeling knowing your up against something you have no counter for.

[Arfour 31]

I agree, the really borderline stupid reactions by the AI makes fighting armor even harder. 9 out of 10 times they try to fight MRAPs with their rifles (at least in RHS, something I've noticed in other missions as well) and get gunned to pieces in the process. Another time they fire their launchers at groups of infantry. Meh.

 

Edit: We tried again on Altis in MP, 2 Player Coop. I went in and told my friend that we'll have lots of fun but it isn't really likely that we'll win the mission.

 

We did though. 😄 🎉 Finished after establishing a chokepoint where we shot the incoming enemy until they were in disarray and fled. This was even after they uncovered our base. I was quite surprised since up until this point I didn't even know how to win the mission, to be honest. But to be fair, it was on easiest settings. But it was a blast nonetheless! Thanks for this mission!

Edited July 22, 2019 by Arfour
We won, who would have thought?

[madrussian 347]

22 hours ago, Arfour said:

We tried again on Altis in MP, 2 Player Coop. I went in and told my friend that we'll have lots of fun but it isn't really likely that we'll win the mission.

 

We did though. 😄 🎉 Finished after establishing a chokepoint where we shot the incoming enemy until they were in disarray and fled. This was even after they uncovered our base. I was quite surprised since up until this point I didn't even know how to win the mission, to be honest. But to be fair, it was on easiest settings. But it was a blast nonetheless! Thanks for this mission!

 

Way to go guys, well done! 👻

 

Now try racketing things (settings) up a peg or two and give it another go.  (Also for added fun try in different eras, like with Unsung or OPTRE.)  Now that you've got the hang of it, I bet you can start winning again and again.

 

22 hours ago, Arfour said:

Your mission might be hard as coffin nails, but it is also really great fun!

 

Good deal!  Yeah, think of like a squad control trainer.  The more you play, the better you'll get at commanding those AI.  Especially if you make use of the voiced "MRU Squad Command" quick-keys (which I really should make into a stand-alone system).

 

22 hours ago, Arfour said:

After reading your posts about how the mission progresses made me focus more on conquering terrain. But I noticed that you can't take them first before the enemy. You can re-take them but that is considerably harder. And it makes it really hard to defend an objective. Is that intentional?

 

Yes the enemy "raising up" the flags is intentional.  I do this to maximize mission dynamics.  Notice how player's perception of the battlefield shifts every time a new flag pops up on the map.  Things would be quite static & dull if all the flags were marked/capture-able from the get-go.

 

Quick tip on taking back flags - Get close enough to an enemy flag (while hidden if possible) to see if infantry or vehic is guarding.  Then if you have appropriate strike supports, use them to quickly eliminate those enemy, so hopefully you don't even have to fight them.  Sometimes, you can take back two or more flags in a row this way, as taking back each flag gives you a new support!  Also sometimes you may want to release an AI or two from your group to guard the newly taken flag, as you move on to do more conquering.

 

22 hours ago, froggyluv said:

One of my biggest pet peeves of Arma is the AT soldiers inability to really fight armor and the kinda dead zone reactions that infantry AI have toward armor in general. Many strategy games have a units potentiality or non-potentiality towards armor as a hard coded stat so they react accordingly if no help is nearby. Feel like BI dropped the ball on that one...

 

I completely agree.  It's pretty sad, but I still have high hopes for ArmA 4.  (And yeah I've been duped a time or two before, haha.)  At a absolute minimum, I hope BIS will address the AI by opening up the AI mechanics completely to the mod community.

 

22 hours ago, froggyluv said:

...its kind of a depressing feeling knowing your up against something you have no counter for.

 

Here, think of armored vehicles as something to avoid / run away from, especially early on.  You can often win without even fighting them, just by hustling!  A few more quick tips regarding enemy armor (not just for you froggy, as you've played a bunch and likely know most of this already):

 

Let go of any completionist feelings that you have to destroy every enemy asset here.  Your mission is simply to smash the enemy until they retreat.  There are effective and ineffective ways of doing this.

 

In general, detect and avoid those armored vehicles.  Keep your vehicle in good condition, and keep it well hidden when you park to get out, so you can always move fluidly from point to point.  Importantly always mark your vehicle on the map when you get out, so you can find it again.  Whenever you're driving and think you hear enemy armor, you can instantly be sure by simply cutting your engine briefly.  Focus on the Major Objectives early on because that's what will get your army marching (and as these objs are not guarded by enemy vehicles) and move with haste.  Also once your army is on the move, all those friendly AI troops out there will often slow down the enemy armor, sometimes even panicking the enemy armor (even if your boys ultimately get cut down by it).  Keep your base hidden and keep the enemy off balance by taking back flags as you go, using your gained strike supports to quickly wipe out the enemy forces guarding those flags.

 

In this mission, your speed will ultimately save your own life and the lives of your men.  Here, you have to fight quickly and fight hard.  You have plenty of time, provided you keep hitting them, winning small victories here and there.  But in the end time is not on your side, and if you wait too long the enemy will come crashing down on your doorstep.  Finally once you get the hang of it and everything clicks, you will be a well-oiled squad control machine, and you should be able to string together a series of stunning victories!

 

Btw- My long term vision for this mission is something with a Meta-Map and Turn-Based component as well, like in the Total War series.  Here's my prototype:

 

 

^ Picture a bunch of Troop and Vehicle Icons that you order around (and Factory icons), like in Axis and Allies.  This results in a handful of Battle Icons that pop up, and you resolve those battles in Real-Time (each battle somewhat similar to the current mission).  So mission alternates between Turn-Based and Real-Time.  Capture Territory to gain Resources, which keep your Factories humming along, building you more war assets.  Order Strategic Bombing Raids on enemy Factories, attempting to cripple their economy.  Protect your own Factories by building AAs defenses, etc.  Control so many Victory Cities and you achieve Total Victory.  (You definitely don't have to take over the whole map, which would be tedious.)  Of course the enemy AI side(s) (possibly optionally controlled by other players) can capture Territory and Victory Cities too, and defeat you!

 

[froggyluv 2130]

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!

[johnnyboy 3741]

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.