Prarie Fire discussion

[Private Evans 498]

10 hours ago, Beagle said:

So basically ma question from oen week ago answered itself... no... this CDLC is nothingn like Vietcong was. No SP value at all....and I have doubt about any long term MP.

 

If you mean throwing in some enemies and civis and then do some random missions or patrols on your own together with an AI unit...you are right. This will drive you insane as it is the case on for example the FoW Burma terrain.

Tanoa also had no SP for reasons and it did not even come with rivers and rice paddies etc. This is nothing we can blame the Devs of this dlc for, they did an outstanding job creating a perfect Vietnam experience !

But Arma 3 is so limited and outdated when it comes to friendly AI and pathfinding that there is simply no chance for more. Sp missions have to be thought and scripted through and through and even then only work for friendly AI on a suitable terrain. Rolling Hills and fields with small villages and towns , no rivers no bridges, no narrow passages no rock formations, no dense woods, no fences...sounds familiar ??

For players doing coop with this dlc a dream comes true though....

 

 

[NightIntruder 710]

I can't help but smile seeing the excitement among players :) Just shorten my hospital stay to get the DLC in my hand and check it out. Screw diseases gents, Vietnam war is back! 😂

[Private Evans 498]

1 hour ago, Valken said:

Can someone advise the TOTAL HD SSD space with this DLC installed? I need to figure out if I have to get a new SSD or not! My ARMA drive is full!

 

Arma 3 including all dlc's 94 GB

[furia 10]

I am trying to create a local server to play with some friends the Mike Force Mission but I do not see it listed on the missions available for the scenario as host. However I see a lot of servers with the Mike Force Mission.

Can somebody provide some light about this? How to create a server with the Mike Force mission?

Thanks

 

Disregard, I just found out the mission in the Steam workshop and subscribed to it.

Edited May 7, 2021 by furia
Found the solution

[froggyluv 2136]

The trailer is really well done -so much so that i almost broke my own rule of supporting anything new from BI (or DLC) that doesnt address fundamental single player issues. After reading the steam reviews 350 so far with still a Mostly Positive rating -the 50 or so negative ones almost uniformly state the same problem - you call it a SP/MP experience but literally give NO AI the player as squaddies!?!

 

This is like saying chess is a one or two player game -you can simply keep switching the board around and playing both sides. But it is not a fleshed out single player experience by any means. So the slippery slope continues since APEX - rather than focus on terrain  and AI that can work hand and hand with each other, create a terrain that maybe the AI can navigate - maybe they cant but if they cant, "well you really should be playing with friends anyway."

The series has become tone deaf to what made the original franchise great -excellent singleplayer campaigns.

 

There was a post on these boards by a worried potential customer curious if the map was tailor made to handle AI and he was hit with some criticisms "Of course it will the map maker is well known and you shouldnt expect anything better than BI could do anyways..!'. Well apparently this fear had good reason as the AI cant seem to navigate areas properly. Now the DLC creators have taken BI's lead of neglect of the singleplayer in favor of the much easier to control and contain multiplayer/co--op.

 

The slippery slope continues...

[Cochise333 18]

I've got it running with TPWS and while not perfect the AI seem to navigate the terrain for the most part. I think where you're right is that certain commands and scripts in mission building will be a bit more challenging for them to handle.

[ebud 18]

The fact that someone made a SOG "game" was enough for me to support them. It may not be everyone's cup-o-tea, but I couldn't pass it up. Reading all the SOG and SEAL nam books over the years always had me hoping for a game that recreates the experience. YMMV.

[neofit 65]

Shame there is no SP. No-buy for me.

[sixt 26]

You can make your own sp missions, using systems like alive and hal. I use them all the time, took me about 1 hour to set an simple hal mission up with the new cdlc, the are alot of tutorials on youtube how to do it 🙂

 

Do any one know if there any read me how to use the different new modules, from this great cdlc, in the editor?

Thanks 🙂

 

Sixt

[Private Evans 498]

Well I did some more testing today and I have to say this map provides an incredible amount of awesome locations for all kind of scenarios 🙂 

But back to pathfinding ...

jungle and urbain terrain works overall solid (being still Arma 3), infantry traverses the big bridges very well and even uses the small rope bridges (can hopefully be improved, soldiers are walking in the air above the bridge which looks pretty weird),  the big wooden piers ( mekong delta village markets) also seem to have the same problem with collision, but the biggest problem are the rice paddies as I wrote before...AI is not able to traverse their borders..not that practical for a Vietnam map xD

In this regard, fences are also a natural enemy of AI pathfinding ! It would be very cool if there would be more gaps, which would allow AI better navigating in villages and backyards 🙂

 

cheers 

[stburr91 1009]

On 5/7/2021 at 4:05 AM, Valken said:

Can someone advise the TOTAL HD SSD space with this DLC installed? I need to figure out if I have to get a new SSD or not! My ARMA drive is full!

 

The CDLC alone is a little over 24 gigs.

[froggyluv 2136]

19 minutes ago, Private Evans said:

Well I did some more testing today and I have to say this map provides an incredible amount of awesome locations for all kind of scenarios 🙂 

But back to pathfinding ...

jungle and urbain terrain works overall solid (being still Arma 3), infantry traverses the big bridges very well and even uses the small rope bridges (can hopefully be improved, soldiers are walking in the air above the bridge which looks pretty weird),  the big wooden piers ( mekong delta village markets) also seem to have the same problem with collision, but the biggest problem are the rice paddies as I wrote before...AI is not able to traverse their borders..not that practical for a Vietnam map xD

In this regard, fences are also a natural enemy of AI pathfinding ! It would be very cool if there would be more gaps, which would allow AI better navigating in villages and backyards 🙂

 

cheers 

 

Thats good at least about the bridges -they were always a frustrating aspect of infantry. But these Rice Paddies -i dont get it what is blocking the AI's path is it fences you say? 

 

BI should have introduced fence vaulting years and years ago at the same time they introduced crawling underneath fences. It was right around that time they made the internal decision to forgo any new AI pathing maneuvers, animations or techniques -an utter shame. One need only look at VCOMAI to see that it is highly achievable and should be in game by default without question as it utterly frees up many many AI pathfinding issues and is a gold standard in any infantry RTS game for essential movement.

[Private Evans 498]

Spoiler

 

 

To clearify...AI can not traverse the borders around the flooded paddies (little walls or whatever you would call it) 

[Fluit 13]

I'm having troubles loading the single player campaign.

After clicking "PLAY SOLO" I end up on an empty role assignment screen, unable to select a side or role.

After clicking "OK" I get the message "No player assigned!"

I have already verified my files in steam.

[bigshot 64]

12 hours ago, Private Evans said:

For players doing coop with this dlc a dream comes true though....

 

Coop = PvE, How much Coop then is actually in this dlc? Which MP modes can be played where its human vs AI (w/ no PvP at all), and can you play some of this alone on an in-game hosted LAN or is it too difficult? I want to know if this is only good for when there are lots of players online, or can you play the mp coop modes just as well alone?

[Valken 623]

6 hours ago, bigshot said:

 

Coop = PvE, How much Coop then is actually in this dlc? Which MP modes can be played where its human vs AI (w/ no PvP at all), and can you play some of this alone on an in-game hosted LAN or is it too difficult? I want to know if this is only good for when there are lots of players online, or can you play the mp coop modes just as well alone?

 

There is already an ESCAPE mission ported! You can play it with a good team on Outkasts or other clan server!

 

Or SP by hosting the ESCAPE mission on LAN yourself. I recommend to play with a good coop team.

 

PS: I just bought it! I looked at the MAP and contents, and I felt it was worth the full price, just like Tanoa! I pickedup all the other DLC I didn't get or needed just to support the other cDLC teams. In these times, I felt ~ 20 USD is a small price to pay (compared to movies for enjoyment hours) and to support the people and their families!

 

 

 

[nkenny 1057]

Quick review

First thing that strikes me is that all vehicles and weapons look outstanding. Especially the Armalite variants and Huey helicopters have clearly had good work put into them. Overall there is a nice selection of kit without overwhelming the arsenal/eden with useless variants. Especially like the inclusion of tripod mounted MMGs, which are sorely missing in vanilla Arma3. The big stand out feature to me is the  weapon animations which are fantastic. With the one exception of the oddly slowed AK/type-56 reload animation, all weapons handle wonderfully. These are probably the best I've seen out of any Arma3 content. As others have noted, the inclusion of melee is cool. Again, one of the best implementations I've seen in an Arma mod. I would have preferred to see this be handled by binding a button rather than relying on cycling fire-modes, but I haven't really tried it in practice. Perhaps it works better than anticipated.

 

For the bad. I am no audiophile, but I found the sounds to a be a little samey. Shooting a AK sounds about as violent as shooting a tank cannon. On the issue of sameness, the terrain is quite big and has generous stretches of jungle, but some of the towns seem a little off. Perhaps it is the mixture of too familiar Arma assets or some other X factor.  There are definitely better jungle terrains created for Arma3. What I do appreciate is the generous use of furniture throughout the terrain. This brings back fond memories of Takistan and is quite immersive. This is something I wish other mod packs did too. Creating more missions on the terrain may bring more positive experiences.

 

Overall this is a pretty decent mod pack. Erm, I mean CDLC. I am sure it will generate new interest in Arma3. Already youtubers are gushing over the potential. The presentation of it is certainly very well done and the use of well known and respected military advisers is also a selling point. It is interesting that this CDLC seems to have generated more positive interest than Global Mobilization did. It might be timing. It might simply be that the Vietnam era is cooler and more high-speed. 

 

TL;DR

+ Cool setting and assets
+ Amazing weapon handling animations

- Weapon sounds

- Terrain 

 

Buy it to support the content creators and Bohemia and to have some cool missions to play. 🙂

 

-k 

 

[Private Evans 498]

@bigshot

The main camapign is made for coop up to 16 players. You can simply hop on one of the active servers or play with a handful of friends and host the game yourself..I think at least 4 or 5 players should work fine. You can play it solo but meh . Also the campaign missions seem to provide a really good replayability.

There are also all the established coop missions like Domination and Escape as well as mods like Dynamic Recon Ops etc.. Same again you can join a server or host your own. Beside Domination most of these these missions can be played with just a very few players.

Then there is all the Alive, MCC or Socom mission generator stuff. Combined with the dlc's modules you can easily make your own missions which even can be played solo with an AI team. 

I guess we will also get TPW version soon that will bring the map to life with civis and stuff. 

I would go that far and say this is the most immersive Arma game / map / world / scenario I have ever played. So if you love to play COOP/ PVE and like the setting this is absolutely for you.

 

I don't know if there are some of the devs around ( Icebreaker), but it would make the whole thing really perfect, if they could revise the map regarding AI pathfinding 🙂

 

 

[geoffrey@pixel_architecture.com 0]

Hello,
you know where to find the classnames to use with DAC ?

[Valken 623]

I'm only 2 hours in, server was slow to download off steam, and I can say full price was worth it for the map alone. Playing escape with 10 players. 

 

Map is ~ 3x times Tanoa, but quality has improved immensely! 

 

Completely worth it.

 

[spooky lynx 73]

I've briefly tested the "Compatibility data" of this CDLC, so here's my five cents:

- the aviation assets should be given more attention (one "Charlie" Huey model is painted as all other 'short' models, the same goes to F-4);

- Mi-2 helicopter had never been in the NVA's inventory;

- stationary guns such as D-44 and M101 rotate with the carriages instead of having limited horisontal aiming angles, reloading animation with spawned from nowhere shell looks a bit magical😄;

- AFAIK RPD machinegun had never been mounted on any kind of the tripod;

- recoilless rifle mounted on NVA's patrol boat should have limited aiming angles due to gases exhaust (or better removed at all);

- guns' animations are great, that's really great job;

- BTR-40 model should be upscaled, now it's too small (ZPU-4 may be installed in its hull).

 

[Valken 623]

So I ended our 3+ hour escape mission.

 

Comments:

 

My teammates suck. Some made it to the EVAC but refused to hijack the heli to pickup the rest of us 5 clicks out!  Going back to known servers instead of random servers.

 

Good:

 

The map is entirely worth the full asking price. 3x the size of Tanoa, details galore and I still have only seen maybe 10% of it. It reminded me of the remade Chernarus maps such as Redux, CUP 2020 version, and A3S Survival versions with more details added. That is my overall impression vs Tanoa, which I gladly paid full price as well.

 

I found the secret entrance, I think, but since we were in the middle of an escape mission, I marked it for later review in the editor or another session.

 

Gear - great modeling and texture details. Really good in terms of "feel" and a sense of the era.  Weapons looks and feel good.  Iron sights were good enough to take down enemies in short burst modes. 

Clothing - I love it. Some were simple such as the straw hat, the NVA and VC gear seems more polished than Unsung if you have to make a comparison. Texture details up close looked very good.

Sound - This was a weird one for me as the gun fights were awesome. But the ricochet cracks and lack of "whistle" sound during a mortar bombardment could have been improved as I could not tell which direction where it came from. I think Dynasound or Cup did a better job at the cracks and whistles. The actual gun fire was amazing though... Talking about Battlefield type polish here. I would look to tweak the mentioned sounds or use a third party sound to supplement.

 

Voice acting - great job overall. I can only add one comment and that may be a engine limitation, but would be nice to have a variable pitch added to break up the same voices per squad.

 

SFX - Explosions - LOVE IT! Definitely turned up for both fire effect and booooommm sounds! I am wondering if I should even add Blastcore, but to me, more is more in that Michael Bay style. It is never enough!

 

Lack of NVG... brings me back to CWC days! Scary. Literally sitting in the dark hearing some chatter and footsteps in the dark. ALL AROUND ME.  CANNOT SEE A DAMN THING. 

 

I did not have a chance to sit down and review the models in EDEN yet, but I am sure the bug reports will be noted and fixed.

 

Overall, I would rate it a must by for jungle warfare fans, especially on a COOP server. It really brings that immersion in spades. I hope someone ports  or updates the Vietcong campaign from Steam Workshop to this cDLC or at least Unsung Redux so we can have the best of all worlds.

 

My only question is will the upcoming shared content require us owners to ALSO download it or do we just load this mod in its place for missions that use it? I know GM has the cDLC and shared content so would this be the same? Just load cDLC instead of shared content to enable missions that use shared content? My SSD is actually full! Thanks!

[stachu_d 0]

18 godzin temu Fluit powiedział:

Mam problemy z wczytaniem kampanii dla jednego gracza.

Po kliknięciu „ZAGRAJ SOLO” znajduję się na pustym ekranie przypisywania ról, nie mogąc wybrać strony ani roli.

Po kliknięciu „OK” pojawia się komunikat „Brak przypisanego gracza!”

Sprawdziłem już swoje pliki w Steam.

Coraz wyżej i wyżej. ktoś pomoże?

Dzięki.

 

Problem solved. It was enough to wait more than a minute. 🙂

 

Edited May 8, 2021 by stachu_d
Solved

[bigshot 64]

@Private Evans Hi... thanks for the info. I understand that there are other 3rd party missions that will be or have already been ported over to use the SOG assets and terrain...I have my own mission which I can do the same with (D.U.W.S. Modified).

 

But what I'd really like to better understand is what exact MP coop mission/s which can be played alone (other than the SP campaign which from what ive been reading is not fun for one player) is included "out of the box"?

 

Also, has anyone played a large island-wide dynamic AI based mission yet (like Duws for example or any other)..and if so how the well or not does the AI traverse the terrain during long distance treks in vehicles? Can they get around the map on their own accord pretty well while in armored vehicles for example, or are they inconsistent at best? Considering the expansive amount of mountains and trees I would think there are too many things to slow them down or trap them making long distance treks in vehicles too slow and not very reliable in such missions where this is a requirement?

 

Thanks!

[bigshot 64]

6 hours ago, Private Evans said:

I would go that far and say this is the most immersive Arma game / map / world / scenario I have ever played. So if you love to play COOP/ PVE and like the setting this is absolutely for you.

I do...i ONLY play coop (never PvP)...but most of the time I end up needing to play the Coop missions alone so Im mostly interested in playing coop mission where you can recruit friendly AI to play alongside and are not too difficult to complete for 1 person and a small team of dumb AI 🙂 If it had this sort of a dynamic AI mission out of the box I think Id be more interested. The campaign sounds like it's half way to being like this except that it doesnt offer AI team mates and is likely too difficult for 1 player...doesnt sound like theres much to do by yourself in the dlc.