Mission ideas

[mickuzy 0]

would be cool if you had to train to open missions. so although the whole campaign you would be mainly a grunt. then the side missions (this is if there is no dynamic campaign) could be opened thorugh your training that you would only have to do once. so lets say your platoon is ordered to assault the town. You want to have armoured support, unlock it with the training ( and you may or may not have to do a side mission to relieve the tanks so they can aid your push.) You want air suppourt, chopper training. you might also have to do a side mission like ride in a convoy protecting artillery pieces to have artillery support.

then lets say you have done all the training, have all the side options open, you would only be allowed to pick a limited number of them more than one but not to many. so you could pick combos like artillery and armour or air and sniper or extra squads and special forces. but if you pick the maximum the enemy is more entrenched in the town. so lets say you chose to relieve the pressure on a fellow company, while you relieve the pressure on them the enemy has longer to prepare.

i know some of these features are already in armed assault but im trying to suggest a more evolved method of it. if all of this is already in armed assault i do apoligize.

[mickuzy 0]

What about a resistance hiring mission. ur a resistance leader and u go into villages in an attempt to bring people to your cause.

[churnedfortaste 0]

What about a resistance hiring mission. ur a resistance leader and u go into villages in an attempt to bring people to your cause.

Sounds pretty neat.

[smellyjelly 0]

Is the campaign going to be free roaming, where we can get asked for special missions, explore our base, go through training, and get requests for us join an on going battle (with no loading screens like Evolution), or is it going to be in chapters like Arma was?

I think if BIS adds a free roaming campaign to ArmaII it will really improve the gameplay and will make the series more popular. The game would be much more realistic, smooth, and enjoyable if we could travel from the kill zone to our base independently and without joining a mission. It would be cool if fighting outside a mission would actually make a difference:

Let's say, for example, that City A is kept dependent on the missions, but the smaller group of cities, B, are dynamic. So if we go to B and kill all the soldiers/guards, they will be replaced by the soldiers/guards from A. Then, when we join a mission, City A will have less reinforcements so the mission should be easier.

In Arma the missions were usually so forward, "just follow that street" or "kill the group of enemies standing over there". I'm hoping there will be larger cities, where the enemy will have set up positions on rooftops, bases, checkpoints, roads/alleys, ect, and we will have to fight them along with other squads. That way we have some nice background noise as they fight, we're not forced to do all the work, and if the AI is dynamic enough then every mission should end differently as the other squads take different paths or eliminate sections of the city. The missions shouldn't be perfectly balanced, like 25 guys on one side and 25 on the other, but rather 50 guys with only light vehicles on one side and 25 with light and armored vehicles.

Honestly, I'm hoping for battles that last a while, so it'd be nice to have a few checkpoints and more than one save spot to choose from when loading, preferably unlimited like in Oblivion.

Of course free roaming would have other advantages. Let's say that you're down a dirt road in the middle of a forest, when suddenly, a bomb next to your humvee explodes. Everyone escapes from the destroyed vehicle uninjured, but then you're ambushed from all sides. Something like that would have been expected in the Arma chapter-style campaign, but if it's done randomly when free roaming it'd be unexpected and surprising.

The idea behind free roaming is you'd have the kill zone, neutral zone, and a friendly zone. Obviously in the kill zone you're going to be fighting, in the neutral you're should be expecting the unexpected, but in the friendly zone, which I haven't really mentioned, there's not much to do. I'd say eating and sleeping, but I doubt most fans will welcome to these RPG features. Target training would work, as long as the so-called "skill points" is from the actual player and not tallied by the character.

So, what do you think? Since my ideas of free roaming are very similar to Evolution, I think this should be possible. The problem is, BIS may not have enough time, or just may not be up to it. If this is added though I think it could bring ArmaII from average to new and refreshing.

[Lou Montana 101]

What about a resistance hiring mission. ur a resistance leader and u go into villages in an attempt to bring people to your cause.

By the way, this thing makes me remember about Midwinter, an Amstrad and Atari game, where you are the fresh new leader of the resistance on an icy lost island, and where there is people in town.

You had to get people with you to fight better (each person had different abilities) but some guys/girls couldn't bear some others, so if you wanted the better sniper of the island, you had to get the boy from a village. You could also get the old lady, as anybody on the island had respect for her, she could make anybody follow you... and so on, the angry scientist could also pirat radio stations to contact people around, etc, etc

A nice game by the way  

[vilas 477]

to make not linear mission

in editor BIS should give logic gate "if yes than, if not than"

such logical gate should help to make not linear missions, which can end i different ways

for example if vehicle1 destroyed than next waypoint is A, when vehicle is good than waypoint B

but now there is no such possibility, cause every waypoint follow previous

logical gate yes/no can make from one waypoint, two possible waypoints depending of trigger/action

now in OFP/ARMA we have only possibility to loose or pass mission, but in real war there can be other possibility

for example you can ONLY make mission now like i remember from OFP

for example steal the car

when car was shot, broken, than mission fail, but with logical gate, we can have if UAZ is brokek, get UAZ2

or mission like free city from enemy, and than free another city

for example enemy in city 1 is too strong, your units took casualties, than just go back, recover troops and attack only city 2, and when you did that job, civilians from city 2 join you, and you can go with them to free city 1

now it is impossible without serious scripting, but such things in editor could be use full

as it comes to changes to the editor, i would like to see trigger, waypoint for artillery, withouts scrpiting, for everyone to easy make mission with artillery

triger like "fire area" and waypoint "fire at are"

than we can put such triggers near enemy position, start mission, wach artillery firing at enemy and run there, artillery can in waypoint have "how many shots" field

than you take position in attacked city

also sometimes there is a rpoblem without scripting to do parashooting soldiers

my proposition is to do "para transport" waypoint for airplanes

now choper lands to load out transport, i want easy waipoint in editor !

[smellyjelly 0]

I think the best campaign would be one like Stalker or Oblivion. If you've never played them, then it's basically free roam where you're given tasks to complete the main story, but you're also free to talk to other people and get side tasks from them.

ArmaII should have a modified version of that:

First of all, the goal should be to gain as high of a rank as possible and then take over the largest city in the game.

Let's say that when you first arrive to the warzone as a private your side has already conquered one large city and a small town. The large city would have your base where the officers will permanently stay. They will page or call for you to talk to them in person, and then ask you to perform the main missions at certain times and if you complete a few of these missions with a good score then you're promoted. However, if you're not with your squad when they leave, go missing in action, or fail the mission then you need to try another one. If you just keep on failing the special missions and run out then you're shipped back to your homeland and the game over (of course you should be able to reload and try again). As you complete the special missions more cities become safe for you to explore and you get promoted, so better weapons and vehicles become available.

Inside the cities or towns will be civilians or comrades who will ask for your help. Civilians will have simple and creative non-combat tasks ranging from helping a family find their missing son to destroying a car without trace to get rid of "evidence". The soldiers missions, however, would be a bit more realistic and most would include a small amount of combat. The cool thing about letting the player find and select their missions is that you could surprise them with amushes or car bombs because driving around the town or in middle of the forest wouldn't be irregular.

Enemy controlled cities should also be free to explore, but only at the players risk. I should be able to sneak in and steal some rare weapons or vehicles if I choose, that would be gone after the city is conquered. However, in order for the main missions to work it would be difficult to implement a way to freely capture the city, so they should be heavily guarded and impossible to clear.

Friendly controlled cities, however, can be attacked. A simple call of the radio informing us of the attack would be sufficient enough, and in order for this feature to not be annoying we shouldn't be forced to participate in the defence. If soldiers or civilians die, though, then they won't be able to give us side missions.

In order for this to work flawlessly I think these features need to be added:

-The ability to sleep so we can skip time.

- A place to store weapons and vehicles where they won't dissapear

- A way to quickly transport between cities.

- Realistic AI behavior, like sleeping at night or driving around the city.

[NoRailgunner 0]

I like to see much more interaction between players decisions and the storyline. Player should be more responsible to team eg. death of teammember, collecting gear, hide usefull stuff, break communication silence.... all these "little" things should affect gameplay and further missions. It will be great if campaigns have different endings!

[P226 0]

Well no offence smellyjelly but if you want a "STALKER" game stick with STALKER.

ArmA is a game, not a mod for STALKER. I might be wrong but the suggestions you made should be to the STALKER devs and ask them for a STALKER 2 with different location, weapons, storyline.

Just my opinion.

About the the topic now... About ArmA missions/campaigns they are ok. But it's not "immersive" enough to me. Not enough dialog. I feel like ArmA was half finished were OFP was a great campaign. More dialog and immersion.

Everybody remembers Armrstrong and Gastowsky's missions! For the time they were great. I remember the mission where you had to run away from Russians in the forest alone in the early begining of the campaign.

[smellyjelly 0]

But can you honestly say that Arma's format is preferred?

My idea isn't just like Stalker, I was just using that to help describe the free roam aspect. I don't mean to be obtrusive, but my idea has a lot of unique benefits that are rare among other games.

* The first would be the environment. With ArmaII's new building destruction, along with the ability to knock down trees and fences, the consequences of war would be evident. As long as buildings don't respawn, then I think this would add a sad or shocking atmosphere that is currently missing in Arma.

* Another advantage, one which I believe I've already mentioned, is the element of surprise. With Arma's current campaign, surprise attacks are almost impossible because they'd be too predictable. I mean, if there was a mission where you had to casually drive on an abandoned road, wouldn't you be a little suspicious? If ArmaII has free roam then driving would be very common, so you might be less cautious when, suddenly, a VBIED (aka car bomb) explodes right next to you. Your vehicle is disable and you start getting shot at from the distance by several enemy soldiers. At this point you take cover and realize your only chance for survival is to either call for backup or try to kill them yourself. Sounds fun, right?

Anyways, it's late and I'm having trouble concentrating at the moment. I'm not trying to start a flame war, I just wanted to explain my idea a little bit more in dept.

[P226 0]

I'm not trying to start a flame war, I just wanted to explain my idea a little bit more in dept.

That's what you did, perfectly. I don't think anybody could think that was anything else than a simple discussion!

I am sure BI are open for suggestions but asking them to move away from the milsim... Well people bought ArmA for what it was and the people from BI seem to love what they do. I am maybe wrong but it's how I feel. I doubt BI made that much money (compared to many other games we play or played) of it.

But I don't understand... If you like STALKER that much. Why do you want a "copy" of it by BI? For the ArmA maps? More "realistic"? What's wrong with STALKER?

I think ArmA's scenario wouldn't stick at all with a STALKER concept. Soldiers never free roam in conflict zones. When they go outside that's for a reason. You can't "copy and paste" a concept on any scenario.

I haven't played STALKER but I heard and read much about it. And as far as I understood I can't see this concept applied in ArmA without loosing the milsim aspect.

[smellyjelly 0]

I'm not trying to start a flame war, I just wanted to explain my idea a little bit more in dept.

That's what you did, perfectly. I don't think anybody could think that was anything else than a simple discussion!

I know, but I've seen other topics escalate too far when people get defensive.  

I think I understand what you mean though: In real life no soldier would realisticly go through all of that, taking over cities, doing missions for civilians, ect. I understand now how my idea could turn some of the original fans off, but trust me, that's definitely not what I want.

Although, I'll admit that perhaps STALKER a bad example to represent my idea. I should have said "a polished version of Evolution with:

* Realistic civilian behaviors. Most should drive at night, they should park there car and walk into buildings/houses, ect.

* The enemy should also have realistic behaviors, such as reguler patrols, traps, ambushes, ect. There should be "hot zones" in or near each city, where the base is located.

* There needs to be a General that will plan out the attacks and give them to your Officer. The officer will then lead you to battle and that would basically serve as a mission.

* I believe that BI already announced that there would be nonviolent missions, like getting some beer for your teammates. These, along with special missions (like stealthy) could add a bit of viriaty between the main storyline."

I'm sure if BIS did make a campaign like I described they would make it realistic. I understand that there would be some people who would hate if this was implemented, but I recall BI stating they were making four different campaigns, three singleplayer and one multiplayer. I'm sure everyone will be able to find at least one they like, and if not, then maybe ArmaII just isn't for them.  

[P226 0]

Now I understand better. Unforunately I doubt BI will work into that.

This concept could be great mainly for MP I think (thus making it less than likely BI will work on it). I doubt it's even possible to make AIs making smart ambushes. Imagine on the map AIs planning to block streets to push your forces toward a desired ambush point/area, and on a map scale (and we're talking BI's maps here! lol)... I'm not even talking about AIs managing several missions at once, adapting to a situation, coordinating air and ground forces (example: inf "painting" targets for airstrikes) etc...

I don't know anything about programming but making all this happen's got to be something hard.

Also I'm thinking about ressources required to make all this "world" live... I mean STALKER devs worked mainly on this concept. But this isn't the "core motivation" of BI I think.

That's a good concept for MP if considering the Evolution thing but on SP that wouldn't fit. And putting so much time on a MP "concept mission"... I don't want to be pessimistic but I doubt this is going to happend.

[Entelin 0]

Would I be alone if I said "who cares about singleplayer?". Personally, my interest in singleplayer goes about as far as putting a bunch of units down and watching them fight. Arma's largest failing was that it didn't have any polished multiplayer missions, as can be seen by the fact that nobody plays the default ones, its all evolution, or sahrani life, or others.

Almost inevitably singleplayer gets lame in about a day, regardless of the game, AI is nowhere near good enough in *any* game to be more than a tool to a real persons strategy. As such, there is no test for ones strategy more suitable than other humans.

Take a hint from other fps's and don't bother devoting much time to what will inevitably be a failed attempt to make an entertaining single player campaign.

Beating AI doesn't take skill, it's just a mater of time before you learn how to exploit its intelligence flaws. And when you do, its universal and without variance. Now I'm not saying AI is unimportant, its very important in a game like this in multiplayer so that you can implement large battles directed by numerous humans against each other. It has the potential of becoming the ultimate realism+rts+fps war game.

[Commando84 0]

Hi i have a idea for missions! Take spy photos! Special ops or agents sneaking and hiding around and taking photos with a camera and avoiding enemy patrols.

would be awesome! Im thinking of one of the old ofp mission on Kolgujev where you as a special ops had to spot some shilkas at a few bases and then return back.

I know in arma there is binoculars, radio, ak and other weapons but there should be a camera for the recon and spy missions.

Also i dunno where to put this put antiperson mines! its very evil but i guess its something that special forces of many countries would use in small numbers to setup a small defence line around a camp in the forest or something or for rebels to do with less high tech mines.

[smellyjelly 0]

Hi i have a idea for missions! Take spy photos! Special ops or agents sneaking and hiding around and taking photos with a camera and avoiding enemy patrols.

I like that. It reminds me of the Goldeneye Silo mission where you had to take a picture of all the machines.

If a camera is implemented, it should be used to take pictures and post them online with the consoles.

[Uziyahu--IDF 0]

I'd like to see some recon or 19D "Cavalry Scout" missions where you get points or accomplish something with each enemy unit you spot and identify, while avoiding combat.

One of the most awesome missions in one of the Delta Force games was where you had to hold the laser designator onto a target while your airstrike came in and enemy patrols were walked around you.

[baddo 0]

Would I be alone if I said "who cares about singleplayer?".

I'm not going to buy a multiplayer-only ArmA.

Maybe I will just go play OFP: CWC campaign over and over again... that would mean no more money for BIS from me so BIS better come up with good singleplayer stuff next time. I'm sure they are trying.

[dale0404 5]

It has the potential of becoming the ultimate realism war game.

Changed your quote a little for ya!

[gonk 0]

I still think a random campaign maker is what is required... like Falcon 4 or IL2.... Variety is the spice of a good game... or life..

[mr_centipede 31]

IL2 dynamic campaign in my opinion is not a "Dynamic Campaign" but rather a random mission generator.

Falcon 4/Falcon 3 on the other hand, is truly dynamic campaign. The map is truly alive with tanks, trucks, arty doin battle on the ground while aircraft above doing their things in the air or support the ground troops. No other game have done so much like the microprose team did for falcon 4 in terms of dynamic campaign. At least, as far as I know, no other game have truly dynamic campaign like falcon 4.

[[GLT] Legislator 66]

I hope the missions of the arma 2 campaign will be far more complex than in the arma 1 campaign. I'd like to see every kind of mission ... convoy missions, search & destroy, hold the line, aerial combats, tank battles, undercover operations, sabotage missions, assassinations, rescue operations, evacuation scenarios, ... I think there must be a good mix of it. Operation Flashpoint did it that way , but from today's point of view it was "very limited".

[wipman 1]

Hi, i'll like to be able of play the campaign in MP, not all the missions,

just as chained missions, 3 or 4 chained consecutive missions; for

avoid performance lag as much as possible; but be able of play the

entire campaign as a serie of consecutive missions will be very pimp

and will help to work (in MP) as squads assuming the role of the unit

that you've chosen to play as. Let's C ya

[zinc 0]

How about swimming into a heavily boat patroled enemy harbour, maybe plant time delayed explosives on a couple of enemy destroyers?

The other idea I had is for campaigns. How about three separate ones, Airforce, Army and Navy?

[dentist guba 0]

i am glad that BI have said that there will be short nonviolent missions, i enjoyed them a lot in OFP as they gave you the full picture of a soldiers life. They will also be important due to this game revolving around a team of deep characters and character development cutscenes tend to be less effective than interactive versions (Gamasutra article)-see page 4

Also these missions serve an important gameplay purpose. if a player is constantly bombarded with action they soon get accustomed to it (after all, adrenaline is a drug like any other). However, if you introduce "downtime" it makes the pacing closer to a sinusoidal pattern rather than a straight line and enhances the players enjoyment of the action sections, much like the difference between occasionally going on a rollercoaster rather than being an experienced fighter pilot. (for more info see all of above Gamasutra article).