Large scale 24/7 mp mission suggestions plz

[T J 0]

Hey!

In anticipation of having Join in Progress ability for OFP, I am starting to hack together ideas for a mission.

Since OFP was released, my goal has been to create a perpetual war scenario, where players can join, do their bit, leave, come back, do a bit more etc.

There would be a win scenario, but it would be very difficult to acheive.

At the moment I am think a one sided, co-op type attack against occupying forces, almost like CTI's take the towns.

With strategic objectives along the way.

As this will hopefully be able to run 24/7 on a dedicated server, when the server gets quiet, I would allow for AI regrouping and retaking of various towns and objectives.

Obviously these plans are for the future, but i'd be grateful for suggestions etc now (serious ones plz, remember I am an old man )

So what do ya think?

TJ

[redliner47 0]

thats a very cool idea, much like an MMOFPS like Planetside but better because its with OFP

[thirtyg 0]

So what do ya think?

TJ

I think it is a fantastic idea.

Quote[/b] ]At the moment I am think a one sided, co-op type attack against occupying forces, almost like CTI's take the towns.

With strategic objectives along the way.

On a huge scale this would be awesome. You come along for an hrs, help capture or defend a few towns then go.

Maybe the mission could have a few twists in it, so that in some towns you capture, a script executes at a random time and you get some insurgents trying to kill you as well. That way you have to crush the uprising while trying to take the other towns.

[M9ACE 0]

I think it would be a great if you could pull it off TJ.

[docluvless 0]

IS IT REALLY POSSIBLE TO EVEN JOIN WHILE THE GAME IS IN PROGRESS?

[mads bahrt 0]

If you read the first post, you'll see that you can't, but it will be available in the future. More specifically OFP2 should give that possibility.

[T J 0]

Please keep the thread to ideas guys, like with ThirtyG's comment there.

Basically I want to know what are the coolest features of the big online games, including CTI for OFP, but also from other big online games.

Since OFP sucked me in, I haven't played another game, so am kind of out of the loop.

But all being well, and assuming in the future we can join a game in progress, (Big indication of this from the fact that you can on the Xbox version), I hope to set up a fast and powerful server dedicated to this style of mission/gameplay, where as suggested, you could hop on for a few hours, do your bit, then rejoin another day. Obviously all will depend on the abilities of the game that we recieve.

If nothing else then i'll think of my own version for existing OFP, with capacity for 30 players or so hopefully, but without the server killing code that comes with the big games like CTI at the moment.

So ideas, ideas, ideas please.

Cheers

TJ

[Uziyahu--IDF 0]

I'd like to see a "Tears of the Sun" mission, where SEALs (able to be reinforced by spawners who HALO or speed-rope in) escort the good doctor and her patients to a border, while enemies pursue using a tracking device.

Enemy spawners might be able to spawn in villages where they can commit attrocities or report the location of the SEALs and their package.

It would take a while for the slow-moving civilians to get to the border on foot, through the jungle.

[Koolkid101 0]

I was thinking, if you could get maybe 50 people toghter and replay the invasion of Iraq! It'd go on for several days and what not, now That would be amazing.

[minorthreat 0]

This is a really cool idea and when i read it i had a couple of

idea's come to my mind.

-Having random missions like; suppling soldiers at in the front, when a line breaks every soldier/group close by will be radioed to support the troops there to regain the line, Have recon troops/UAV's to keep tabs on enemy troop movements, have spies to sneak into bases and sabotage enemy vehicals and what not(be like a 007 thing lol), each person who plays has different roles like; armored crew, pilot, intel officer, soldier, special forces, etc. Have like the players that are in high command make up stratagies for attacks/operations(have like a special interface system were all the high command can look at a map and all the positions of known enemies and there teams units and make up plans and junk)

i like the idea of random insurgent attacks it would be cool if your leading a convoy to a town and out of no were bullets start flying and the lead vehical is blown up by a road side bomb.

Can't think of anything else now lol just imagining things that could happen with that sounds so fun.

[andersson 285]

You could have a "frontline" mission for those that want quick and easy action (think WWII trenches).

Have two sides with fortifications on own side of the "no-mans land". Let the ai and the players try to take fortifications and points in nomans land and if they have established themself let them continue to take the enemy fortifications (which would be VERY difficult to hold). And this would go on on a long frontline coust to coust (maybe a small island ) with both sides trying to take fortifications.

So this would be a quick and actionfilled attack and defend mission with fast access to action that would rage on as long as the server is up.

[Luso 0]

Hello

That’s a good idea TJ

Made me remember this:

Some time ago I used to play a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing game "The 4th Coming", but it was the Dungeons & Dragons kind.

The most important feature was the progress of the character (many weeks to the top), who becomes stronger with the experience (better weapons? or ranking climbing with AI's to command?) doing small tasks inside a global story, but the tasks where more and more difficult with the character progress or else it would be boring.

There was a huge recording of the entire characters situation at the server...

There was also some players the GM's (Game Masters) who could help other players, make AI spawning near them so they could fight and gain experience or be surprisely killed and so on.

Another feature with the tasks was that when you had to kill un AI or take something, it would spawn after some time so other players could do the same errand.

The chat was different from OFP only the players near by could speak to each other’s or it would be a mess with the different situations along all the island.

Cheers

Luso

[-)rStrangelove 0]

After reading the other posts i get the impression that a long lasting/looping mission is needed, with changing combat 'flow' for both sides, but without a side winning.

There can't/shouldn't be a winner, because:

- if there's no player on the server, the player allied AI could screw up and destroy anything that players had accomplished over the last hours. In other words: leave the server and all your 'work' is lost. Could be frustrating.

- no matter how good the opposing AI is, eventually players will find the typical 'save path' to win against this AI on this mission everytime. So it could happen that some players new to this mission are fighting hard for hours to accomplish something while another player joins the show who is familiar with this mission. He just grabs a chopper and a timebomb from a crate, goes off in one direction and 4 minutes later the mission is suddenly over. Now where's the fun for the players new to this mission ?

My thoughts so far, but this is surely one of the most interesting threads here atm. Hope i can post more later.

[Heron 0]

Basically I want to know what are the coolest features of the big online games, including CTI for OFP, but also from other big online games.

Since OFP sucked me in, I haven't played another game, so am kind of out of the loop.

But all being well, and assuming in the future we can join a game in progress, (Big indication of this from the fact that you can on the Xbox version), I hope to set up a fast and powerful server dedicated to this style of mission/gameplay, where as suggested, you could hop on for a few hours, do your bit, then rejoin another day. Obviously all will depend on the abilities of the game that we recieve.

Hey TJ, good to see you here - used to only seeing you in the newsgroup

Okay, well, having played some Far Cry on the weekend, I'd quite like to see the necessity for large-scale area assaults etc, plus the necessity for support roles.

Clarification...

I feel that a lot of the areas in MP games seem to be smallish, whereas it's quite nice to GET to the theatre of operation and THEN fight.

Likewise, it would be good to highlight the need for support roles, such as medics and MGers. You tend not to see many PC medics or MGers; MGers are important - the guns keep people's heads down, although true in FPSs people tend to ignore them and snipe instead.

I think less sniping - don't even put sniping weapons in the map. A lot of people won't like that, but they tend to dominate.

In summary, for my two cents... Less armoured vehicles, less snipers, more support roles and larger fields of play.

[bonko the sane 2]

This is an excellent idea, a massive "conventional" ongoing battle for the control of a huge island, and maybe the possibility of small specops sabotage missions (i.e: go and sabotage tank base, destroy arty, recon, etc,  the possibilities are endless)  

edit: blimey!!! I got 3 stars

[NedFox 0]

Great idea TJ.

Things popping into my mind :

Add lots of civilians in there, which may NOT be killed. (If killed, the player will go to courtmarchall).

Even so, once in a random while the civillians might start attacking friendly forces because someone destroyed a house, drove over a civvy or any trigger you might think of.

Then the kind of power you gain : start with simple weapons, and make certain towns have factories where you can make jeeps, planes, tanks, high-tech stuff like laser-guides for artillery, and make it harder to get those cities if the weapons are more powerfull.

Since UAV/Artillery is a deadly combination is should cost you a lot to get these..

I guess you should plan to make it 2 or 3 sides from start (maybe latent), to make it possible to get some human players on the OPFOR side to make the battle harder.. If this means there will be morons joining just to do that to ruin the game for everyone there must be a way to enable/disable it online.

[raniak-1 0]

My two cents worth...

Mission type: assault & defence ( well, sort of )

Island type:

3 big islands on same map ( like AEC ) where each side has a base island and the third neutral island has capture & hold points

Mission:

1. hold your own bases

2. capture hotspots on neutral island

3. capture enemys bases on their island

Requirements, ideas and thougt of problems:

- command structure ( COC, obviosly )

- someone has to be in command positionn all the time on each side

- commander assigning joining and respawning players to places which until then were controlled by ai

- it requires a lot of cpu since all the units are present from the start, the control of each unit can vary between human and ai

- ability to give a special squads special missions like sending special forces to enemy island to spot artillery targets(( infiltrate enemy island's western sector and find their hq for arty or air strike )), after that sending in planes to take it out

- needs a way to give orders in a memo type

- artillery would be nice but maybe since you can't find shelter from it

[mort 0]

Hi TJ

How about an ongoing Nam type counter-insurgency type mission over a whole island?

The insurgents could make up for a lack of tunnels to hide in by being able to spawn at random anywhere they choose including at times in areas secured by the security forces.

Could the mission be balanced in some way by allowing the insurgents to be more numerous but more lightly armed while the security forces are fewer number but with greater access to transportation and firepower.

[Heron 0]

Actually, something else just occurred to me. There aren't enough missions with consequences.

Way back when OpFlash was first touted, I seem to remember a lot of speculation about the islands being interlinked, or at least missions interlinked so there were consequences if you succeeded or failed a mission, such as better or worse resources, etc. Likewise I'm sure I recall something about the missions being (treating them as islands 1-left, 2-middle and 3-right, for example) 1-Allies, 2-Neutral and 3-Enemy. Missions giving more or less ground were included.

Bear in mind all of this was, IIRC, merely speculation by the players, but imagine if the game WERE like that. It would be great. Even just a series of half a dozen or so interlinked missions could have this effect, done right.

[Kango 0]

Think the Battlefield type maps would be good for this, with on going battles you could join in at anytime as re-inforcements, however some may have a problem with leaving the game and not knowing the eventual outcome of the battle, unless summary/stats of the battle where kept somewhere ,maybe on server, i don't know.

Seem to remember Unreal Tournament having some sort of collection of stats.

Been playing the Joint OPs demo aswell , something similar (OFP version) might work, however with OFP being more realistic  I doubt if anyone would get near another island!

[Heron 0]

Something else just occurred to me...

There's a mission type I have been trying to implement for ages, literally months, and never really managed it.

To explain it properly, you need to have read the book Bravo Two Zero or, preferably, seen the TV movie/adaptation.

Essentially you have a squad (the PCs) fleeing from the enemy. What makes it a good mission is that it takes a long time, with the enemy always chasing. It's not enough to simply have a chase, either, it has to be for the most part on foot (if not all), and there has to be real tension.

Basically the squad start at a location and have to get to somewhere a long way off by whatever means possible. They are behind enemy lines so there are tons of enemy troops around. Stealth could be involved, but the strong point is just to get the hell out. It could be that sacrifices have to be made, several members of the squad having to give their lives in holding actions.

The scene I am thinking of from Bravo Two Zero is where the squad are compromised and are fleeing across the desert for many hours, the enemy always in pursuit. The squad have to stop and fight every now and again, just to keep them off their backs.

If you could do this reliably, that would be a great mission.

[Koolkid101 0]

It might be like MMORG

[jakerod 254]

I always wanted something similar to CTI only you have a set amount of certain vehicles, because in war you really aren't making weapons as you take over (minus if u r stealing weapons from teh opponent). And with no money system where you would just take towns to keep supply lines open something similar to the old Close Combat Games.

EDIT: Something like the invasion of Iraq would be cool though as long as you dont get money, im sick of money its evil. Grenada or Panama would be pretty cool too. or do something similar to Grenada or Panama but on Everon or Nogova.