WGL Missions of the Month

[crashdome 3]

Over at Sinews of War: Development Center website, we are preparing for Armed Assault but thought it might be a good idea to kick in some simple OFP and OFP:Resistance ideas to keep the community active for the time being.

One of our members came up with a simple, yet good idea.

A "Mission of the Month" campaign!

The idea is that every month we pick a theme in which we allow everyone to produce a simple mission around that theme. There are NO rules except a few simple guidelines (see below). If you want to post a mission without a briefing.. you can post a mission without a briefing (we don't recommend it as you will become less popular). You can post a complicated mission, a Multiplayer mission, a co-op missions, etc.. etc.. whatever you want!!!  

This is NOT a contest or competition and is not regulated as such. You post if you want to share your mission. That is all.

We did decide to expand the idea a bit and include TWO themes per month for those that can't wait or don't like to be limited to one choice.

GUIDELINES:

Who can submit a mission/download a mission?

Any person registered over at the Sinews of War website. We only want registration to track who is uploading and to monitor bandwidth.

Are there any rules to the mission?

None. Any type of mission and any complexity level is OK. Please be descriptive though so others can determine without having to download.

What about AddOns?

Any addons allowed but WGL must be used primary**. We determined that using WGL covers most aspects without the need to require excessive downloads. (Which means don't use only one WGL unit and 1800 other addons.) However, using an island or a few vehicle/weapons/units to cover something that WGL doesn't provide is acceptible.

**We apologize if this offends other addon makers, but the truth is that we must impose limits to prevent excessive addon use (and thus less usability of missions) and to limit to strict BIS units only would be unpopular. We chose WGL simply because that's what we use regularily at SOW and does not mean it's 'better' or 'more popular'. If enough people request an alternative otherwise, I could easily expand our concepts to include other alternatives.**

Website (requires registration):

Sinews of War: Development Center - Missions of the Month

There is already one mission available and know of atleast two more on the way soon!

[The-Architect 0]

Takes longer than a month to make a good mission.

[crashdome 3]

That's the type of crappy atitude we are trying to un-brainwash from people.

I would go so far as to say the missions we play most at SOW (both SP and MP) are probably 95% complete and involved only a few weeks worth of work. And they have no more bugs than most missions.

In fact, I've thrown together missions in 5 hours that we've replayed more than a mission that might have taken 5 months or longer.

Alot of work and effort into a mission is good, but what worth is it when it's played for a few days and discarded?

[EDIT] or perhaps you can't handle the challenge

[.kju 3245]

Well in my view, good and light/non (!) story missions can be build quite easily.

Place all units, give them orders, define a objective and finally write a briefing.

Adding dynamic AI elements as AI infoshare / DAC helps a lot

in making a mission living by itself.

[Shinbusan 0]

Some (most) reviewers says that the good missionhas to include great intro and outro, plenty of custom scripts and this kind of crap. Sure, there are some missions (mainly SP) which uses them in proper way, but most of the time it is waste of the time of mission maker and player. For example my friend makes simple intros in les then 30 minutes and they are enought, not to long, simple and shows what is most important, an atmosphere. I the second hand, I almost never do intros for missions (only coops / pvp). I prefer to add some randomness to mission, to make it repeatable (BIG THX for DAC, as now it is much much easier).

[igor drukov 0]

Being working on a mini coop MP campaign using WGL5 and Chain Of Command's Unified Artillery (5 missions out of 8/9 ready so far), I'm highly interested in this initiative, but I can't seem to register to the forums.

Is there an unusual delay to the reception of the confirmation e-mail ? My username would be the same as here.

Thanks !

[AgentFox2 0]

Takes longer than a month to make a good mission.

That's what we're hoping to disprove!

Everyone keeps complaining about the lack of missions, but everyone has this preconceived notion that every mission has to be an extravagant tech demo with tons of scripts and nifty gadgets.

But it seems like the most fun to play are the quick ones we make in the editor, just simple firefights or small scenarios.

I'd like to stress that is what this is about; not necessarily full missions or campaigns, just small, quick 'n dirty scenarios that are interesting to play through. A quantity of small, quality scenarios that add up to huge collective quality. The TDGs linked here are a good example of what I mean by "scenarios".

The problem with making missions is that you sit there trying to think of the kind of mission you want to make and you can get a sort of "writer's block". The end result is usually another canned black ops mission or another "attack and hold this town".

This initiative tries to solve that by giving a slight nudge in the right direction. The thought is that by "restricting" the criteria for the mission you actually focus it, allowing for a better creative process and more diversity in concepts. Thinking outside the box is easier when you can actually see the box.

It's a bit like the old game where a group of people pass a whispered message down a line. By the end of the process, everyone has a wildly different version of the same message. In the same way, even missions based on the same concept or theme can come out totally different based on individual interpretations.

The other problem is the crazy amount of separate addons one has to download to make or play a decent mission. By setting an addon foundation of WGL we cover a lot of ground with one standard package, without making a "hard" restriction against a few extra addons that WGL doesn't cover.

Take care and have fun!

[crashdome 3]

Being working on a mini coop MP campaign using WGL5 and Chain Of Command's Unified Artillery (5 missions out of 8/9 ready so far), I'm highly interested in this initiative, but I can't seem to register to the forums.

Is there an unusual delay to the reception of the confirmation e-mail ? My username would be the same as here.

Thanks !

Check your PM.

@Everyone else

Thanks for the support so far!

One of the things we are trying to avoid is harsh reviews and hard standards (mission name, etc..) as those are the most intimidating to newcomers or the biggest reason a perfectly playable mission is not uploaded somewhere.

[Drongo69 117]

This is a great initiative. As for all the bells and whistles, I personally prefer missions without cutscenes.

I'm gonna have a crack at this.

[crashdome 3]

*Bump*

(There was alot of moved threads above this )

[AgentFox2 0]

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that so far we have three missions up for grabs for this month!

There's still a lot of time left for those finishing up their scenarios. Remember, don't dig yourself a hole by making your mission too complex! Make a simple scenario, even just one small firefight or engagement ala the Tactical Decision Games.

Have a good one!

[Trapper 0]

Is it overcharging to publish the current themes without forcing a registration?

[AgentFox2 0]

Is it overcharging to publish the current themes without forcing a registration?

Good idea! I'll get in touch with Crash and see what we can do.

For reference, the current themes for July are:

Hasty Ambush

&

Mechanized Attack

[crashdome 3]

Is it overcharging to publish the current themes without forcing a registration?  

[EDIT] oops misunderstood [/EDIT]

Yes, I will put the themes on the front page or some other public area.

[Edit] General Page is now public. Missions list, submission form, and forum area are still restricted.[/edit]

[Jinef 2]

I can make a pretty decent cooperative in like 5 hours. If using a template I can make one in like an hour

I can make an A&D scenario in like 2-4 hours. If using a template I can make one in 20 minutes.

Those are pretty much the only type I make.

Can I submit missions which I made a while ago and don't have much publicity? If needs be I will update them enough to make them new

[AgentFox2 0]

Can I submit missions which I made a while ago and don't have much publicity? If needs be I will update them enough to make them new

If they fit at least one of this month's themes, and use mainly WGL and at most a couple of other (small) addons, I don't see any reason why you couldn't.

[AgentFox2 0]

Is it overcharging to publish the current themes without forcing a registration?

Update:

Guests can now view current and past themes. Anonymous users still cannot download or upload missions due to the need to monitor bandwidth usage.

Refresh

[crashdome 3]

Absolutely

The rules are very simple like that.

Our goal is really just a multitude of missions.

[crashdome 3]

UPDATE:

Well, we are getting to the end of the month and have seen zero contributions from anyone outside of our own group. I am a bit disappointed. I guess I don't care about the leeching as the bandwidth for missions is soooo tiny it's insignificant, but I would really like to see a few people on the outside submit a few missions.

The original plan was to make this non-public, but the idea was just to entertaining to keep to ourselves.

I just would like to ask if there is anyway to make this more attractive or easier to submit a mission? Are the mission suggestions not attractive? Are the rules to restrictive?

And more importantly, if I listened to your suggestions would you actually submit a mission?

[.kju 3245]

well there are quite a few squads actively playing WGL5 and building missions - actually for their own enjoyment. so

a) they dont know about the topic

b) they just want to make their own style of missions

c) they dont to "hassle with the work" involved to submit the missions

d) they dont like the idea

overall if you look at the overall number of missions being presented here, you can see that the chance is quite low to get submission if you take into account other reasons which might make people not submit.

i think you should approach WGL squads directly and discuss the idea with them.

[Jinef 2]

I cannot get access to my real PC atm. So mission making is impossible. However when I do I am sure I will contribute.

[igor drukov 0]

Just want to re-express my humble but strong support to this initiative, and also briefly explain why I didn't submit anything whereas I implied in a previous post I would.

When I first saw the thread I was already deep in a series of MP missions using Unified Artillery and WGL5. I now have nine of them ready, but they don't exactly fit in with this month's scenarios (regardless of the fact I'm not much into armored stuff, but that is another story).

Now, I really find this idea of short missions excellent, and as soon as I have made the last mission of my "campaign", I'll definitely give a go at this.

Now, here's my 2 pence as to why there were so few submissions.

The Architect's reaction ("Takes longer than a month to make a good mission. ") is typical of the true, dedicated, hard-core mission-designer, whose reward for hard-work is still smaller than that of the add-on maker : after all, many people often think, if unconsciously, that they, too, if they had wanted, could have made such a good mission. Addons are more easily awe-inspiring.

Now, your idea is half-way between committed mission-designing, mostly made up of hardcore, talented people like the Architect, and cheap tweaking with the editor.

It doesn't look like it, but the simplicity you rightfully advocate requires sacrifice from über-scripters on the one hand - because they have to forfeit the opportunity to show off their skills and give life to their wildest ideas -, and some sort of skill and knowledge from the editor-tweaking beginners on the other.

Now, I'm sorry to hear you had no submissions, especially as WGL5 is... well... so top-notch, so I won't let yet another excellent initiative related to mission-making go down the drain like I did in the past... I'll get back to you

P.S.: as Q said, a lot of squads now use wgl5... now what missions do they play ? And how about creating a pool of those squad-missions ?

[crashdome 3]

@Q

True. Standard response according to marketing is 1% to 2% meaning to get one person I should try and pester atleast 50 to 100 people. In that respect, I suppose it is not un-expected.

@Igor

You've really hit the nail on the head I think. If it grows even with internal submissions, I think at some point it will gain enough attention that more will contribute... and as more do, the competition to "show off" scripting skills within a month's timespan will also increase.

In any case, I am still disappointed but I'll just go wallow in the pity pond for awhile and be OK tomorrow.  

[edit] ...and it wasn't even my idea![/edit]

[knochknight71 0]

I just didn't like the themes for this month. Thought about making a mechanized feint kind of mission, but realized that it would require so many players that i'd probably never get to really play it. I'm not the artist type, so I don't make things just for the creative expression or whatever. Maybe next month.

If you want to see better results, give lazy, selfish people like me some motivation. Host some awesome coops of your own with enough players to make a game like WGL was designed to be. If I saw a genuine oppurtunity like that, I'd probably contribute.

[igor drukov 0]

Here we go !

I've uploaded a mission on your site. It shouldn't be faulty *crosses fingers*, and I had a lot of fun designing it. Gimme gimme more scenarios like this !