Real war campaign

[SpecOp9 0]

Well I have come to the conclusion most of us here are extremely into the whole realism thing.  One thing that really dissapointed me about the official campaigns was the way it was setup.  When you complete a mission,  the game pauses and you are greeted with a briefing book slapped in your face.

I had a recent idea, but want to check with community members first just so I don't start making something everybody hates.

First the new campaign will be HIGHLY realistic.

Each mission will be a full 24 hours.  Sometimes you might not even have any mission objectives, somedays you might not see any combat at all.  But to keep the day more interesting, there can be specific events, for example...

2:30 PM -  Assault on Montignac

5:00 PM - Commander arrives at NATO base

7:00 PM - Beer party

These events you can go to and see if you want., or if you choose not to, that's fine.  Each day has it's own unique events.

I really want to drive out the realism factor in OFP, and make this one of the most believable campaigns to date, and I feel this is the exact way to do it.

Of course sitting at your computer for 6 hours does'nt seem like fun, so I could add a skiptime feature that warps the time to where you want it.  Or if you choose to explore your area a bit you can do so. There can be little mini events you can do also.  Maybey if your bored you can walk over to a commander, and he will give you simple orders you can do.

This brings me to my 2nd attempt, the ability to communicate with the AI however you want.  If an AI talks to you, you can select from a list what you want to say to him.  Different things may happen depending on what you choose.  FOr example...

Tom :  Hey [playername], would you like a cigarette?

Your selection bar:

[sure]

[sorry, I don't smoke]

[Get out of my face you idiot.]

If you choose "get out of my face" you could be introduced with a fist to your face for being a smartass..and then your Commander will punish you accordingly, taking your gun away, and handing you a mop to clean up those floors.

Enviorment changes.  The commander orders you to setup a camp at {wherever}.  And you gotta get the necissary items in order to do it, for example you may need to run into the woods to get a few logs to start a fire.  If you forget the rocks to keep the fire under control and secure in one area, the camp might catch on fire and burn down.  And your CO wont be very happy.

You may also meet a girl that you can get "involved" with if you want to have a relationship with somebody on the Battlefield.

As you can see the possibilities are endless.  I really want to bring out the simulation aspects of this game in a huge glorious campaign.  Hopefully if all goes well, a Multiplayer version of this could be made for OFP2 using the new JIP feature.

Any suggestions comments?

Do I have a green light?

[KingN 251]

This kind of campaign calls for a buttload of work.

Anyway, this could be a fun and interesting campaign. Thumbs up! How many "missions" are you about to make? How about realeasing your campaign mission by mission, in other words you make a long one day mission and realease it and then start making a mission about the next long action-full day, release it and so on? I mean this kind of campaign as a whole would surely take a lot of work.

[SpecOp9 0]

It probably will.  

Quote[/b] ]How many "missions" are you about to make?

A crap load likely.  You won't skip a single day.  January 1st, 2nd 3rd 4th 5th, all the way to the 31st.

Each mission should'nt actually take too long to make.  With enough people to help I'm sure things would go by pretty fast.  Hopefully.

Quote[/b] ]How about realeasing your campaign mission by mission, in other words you make a long one day mission and realease it and then start making a mission about the next long action-full day, release it and so on?

Well I don't really want every mission to have action..I also want the player to have some downtime, just to make things that much more realistic, and the feeling you are truly on the battlefield.  So if I release a mission that has no action..people may not like it too much.

[quicksand 0]

I like the way Operation Flashpoint missions are.In the end it`s just a game ,sure everyone likes realism but you have to make some sacrifices here and there for it to be fun.

And it`s nice when you finish a mission to see the notebook. I watch my score,my kills,my casualties,think of what could have been done better and restart the mission until I am satified.

And what you are suggesting sounds like alot of tedious work that might not have a worth while result.

If there are enough talented people out there to do this kind of campaign with the advanced scripting,I hope they would actually concentrate making a classic campaign using the hundreads of great addons&islands out there still left without missions.

[Maddmatt 1]

I think its a good idea, but its a hell of a lot of work.

Release them one at a time and use some good addons. Try not to make it too boring as we don't want to just stand around all day.

[SpecOp9 0]

Right now I'm working on the first mission... basically it's a 5 minute flight to the main NATO base. Uses the AEC island which has Everon, Madlen, and Kolgujev all in one map.

You start out with nothing. No map, watch, compass, notebook, gun, or anything. Hopefully I can simulate a "Boot Camp" before you actually are sent into the battlefield.

So basically when the chopper drops you off, you pick up all your gear, ETC. It's pretty darn cool.

Quote[/b] ]Try not to make it too boring as we don't want to just stand around all day.

I'll be putting in a "skiptime" feature you can activate in your action menu. So incase your bored you can skip 15 minutes until an event, or if you want to get the day over with and move onto the next.

[ZiRo 0]

I'd just like to say - i don't really think this will be a huge hit.

People would rather have realistically planned missions than being able to ask for a cigarette to be honest.

OFP is a military battle, full action engine, thats why war cutscenes work and ones of people relaxing in their yard or the pub dont.

-ZiRo

[Doc. Zaius 0]

Sounds like an interesting idea, SpecOp9.

Certainly, it will be a lot of work to acomplish a mission of this magnitude, and it will need to be well-executed in order to carry some level of suspense.

Perhaps you could intergrate the the 'sleep' script used in this mission if you need to bypass time. Or perhaps add in cutscenes to show a transition in time - Especially if you can take advantage of the naturally occuring effects in Flashpoint; show a rapidly rising/setting sun, etc.

At any rate, regardless of the execution, the concept intrigues me.

[andersson 285]

I want a campaign like that!

But be careful so you dont try too hard... Asking for cigaretts, having a relationship is a bit too much I think. Put your effort into war-scenarios instead. And random events at random time so you never now when something, or what, will happen. It make you more alert and its easier to accept downtime because that way you never now if its going to be a boring long wait or if there will be full war next minute.

If you are on watch (guardduty? dont know what its called in english..) then maybe it would be possible to use the skiptime if the player and an ai are taking turns looking for the enemy? So when the ai are responsible for the next 10 minutes you can either help him or rest (skiptime). If you skiptime when its your responsibility and the ai are resting there can be a big surprise when you wake up?

Transportation is also downtime. I personally think that its nice to just sit back in a truck or at the door in a chopper watching the landscape. But thats me ;)

Best wishes in making this campaign.

[4-Eyes 0]

It sounds like an excelent idea. Hope it succeds. Thumbs up SpecOp9.

[mrturncoat 0]

why would my commander punish me for getting punched in the face wtf

[NeMeSiS 11]

sounds really cool!

good luck mate!

[AdmiralKarlDonuts 0]

Mmmmmmm, that's good mission idea

A few quick things:

- if you don't want to put up with killing time (ie beer party at 7), there's always guard duty

- relationship-building is fine if you keep it to a very small group of people.  In my experience (which is pretty substantial when it comes to stories and plots), over-dependence on interpersonal relations in OFP just doesn't pan out.  Often there's too much going on to keep things straight, or people just don't want to sit through idle banter with a guard.  While having those relationships with your squaddies often increases the immersion factor and gives the player a real sense of belonging in the story, guys have a tendency to randomly get their heads blown off and so as I said it should be confined to a small group of people.  

Okay, so now on to the more complex suggestions

1.  Ideally the missions should last from 0:00:01 to 23:59:59.  If it's humanly possible, the whole day should be simulated.

2.  However, I know that this will be a pain in the ass for some people, so what you can do is include a feature I saw in the "unscripted war" mission - accelerated time, sort of like Grand Theft Auto.  This way each day wouldn't be a full 24 hours - you could speed it up so that it's shorter.  It's really a neat effect that was implemented in a Vietnam setting - I started offensive operations or patrols at first light, continued through the day, and then consolidated my positions at sunset in preparation for the long night.  I don't remember exectly how long the "day" lasted but it wasn't long.  I'm sure you can find a reasonable time.

3.  Spawning enemies are almost vital to this campaign, in my opinion.  As in the "unscripted war" mission, enemies would randomly roam the territory and if several groups were in relatively close proximity, they'd attack any fixed positions you held.  Naturally you'll want to depend on set-piece engagements for the "meat and potatoes" of the missions but in order to liven things up a little, random enemy patrols of a few men or recon teams probing your lines would be great.  They wouldn't be large groups and certainly wouldn't attack in force, but if they spotted isolated convoys or small groups of soldiers, they'd attack of their own volition.

4.  Organization is going to be a bitch.  It will be very difficult to plan things out beforehand, ie Russian attack defeated + enough US troops in the area = US counterattack.  What I mean is that getting a "flow," or making it seem like things are happening on the spur of the moment, will be very hard.  Then there is the question of adequately populating the islands to make it seem like there's a war on - I mean that if you destroy an attack and then set out into enemy territory, you should encounter plenty of other guys still out there.  This entails hundreds of units, including all the really detailed stuff like MASH units, HQs, supply columns, etc.  Spawning guys should be easy enough - with a distance condition or something - but setting up defenses or objects in each town to get the right atmosphere will be tough.

5.  Missions.  It's pretty much assumed that the main action will be set-piece battles, and as long as you can time them properly so that things occur when you want them to there should be no problem here.  The problem might come in when the battle is over and there's nothing to do.  How will you be able to set up mini-missions like escorting a convoy from point A to point B (though I'll point out that most of these will be dull and uneventful)?  What about recon missions?  What will set these off?

6.  Autosaves - again, something used in the "unscripted war" mission.  It will be absolutely necessary to make the game save every so often (30 mins game time, 60 mins game time, 10 mins real time, whatever).  You can't expect people to die at 10pm and have to start the whole day over again, so this feature will have to be included.

So basically what concerns me the most is how you'll populate the islands and make it so that things will occur as you want them to.  We all know that controlling the OFP environment is a daunting task and that some unforseen event can ruin a whole mission that hinges on some small detail.  

I think it's doable - at least in the most basic form - but polishing it to near-perfection is going to be a hell of a feat.

If you want a hand with any writing aspects of the campaign, give me a shout and I'll be glad to help where I can

*edit - I'm already thinking up missions you can throw in...hehehehe*

[general 0]

I must play this!!!!     GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN

have eny1 seen the movie PLATOON? the platoon is spliting up in two halves (a civil war in the platon) the half is supporting Elias and the rest Burton.

[SpecOp9 0]

I think the BAS addons would fit good for this type of thing.... Or maybey the Wargames addon pack...

(no addons at all would be somewhat boring)

[AdmiralKarlDonuts 0]

Depending on the time period you want to place it in, you could use the new HYK Modern US Soldiers...they're regular old grunts but they look sharp.

[Maddmatt 1]

Quote[/b] ]Or maybey the Wargames addon pack...

But then the people on 56k modems wont be able to play it