Prisoners ?

[ricnunes 0]

Maybe if their hands were in zap straps and you began to systematically blow them away you would be court martialled.

Yes, I agree. A similar thing happens in SWAT3/4. If you shoot a surrendering suspect or terrorist you'll loose some mission points but if you shoot one of those surrendering suspects or terrorists after being cuffed you'll loose your mission. I agree that in ArmA such a mission failure could be due to the player being court martialled.

[Spitfire23rd 0]

Very bad idea! Imagine this: You slaughter a squad of russians apart from one, he surrenders? what do you do you with him? There won't be any realistic options like : Move away from your weapon! or Get down on the ground. What will you do with him? If your a decent soldier would you spend an hour in a jeep taking a single prisoner to a POW camp and to return to find out your squads just got mashed by a bmp? All I'm trying to say is, it is pointless having prisoners if you have nothing to do with them, might aswell put a bullet through his head and stop the misery, or even better, not having him surrender at all. Edit: As for the interogation, I don't think a Russian can speak English very well let alone a normal soldier knowing battle tatics.

[GBee 0]

Very bad idea! Imagine this: You slaughter a squad of russians apart from one, he surrenders? what do you do you with him? There won't be any realistic options like : Move away from your weapon! or Get down on the ground. What will you do with him? If your a decent soldier would you spend an hour in a jeep taking a single prisoner to a POW camp and to return to find out your squads just got mashed by a bmp? All I'm trying to say is, it is pointless having prisoners if you have nothing to do with them, might aswell put a bullet through his head and stop the misery, or even better, not having him surrender at all. Edit: As for the interogation, I don't think a Russian can speak English very well let alone a normal soldier knowing battle tatics.

Minor point, the enemy aren't Russian in Armed Assault.

As far as the rest of your post, I think a simple menu option to 'Secure the prisoner' when an AI/Human surrenders would be enough. An animation for binding their hands (and feet?) and then just leaving them on the battlefield would work. It would also be very easy to implement and wouldn't interfer with either your mission or gameplay in general.

It can be suggested in-game and/or in the manual that when leaving a secured prisoner on the battlefield one of two things happens: they are taken back to base by support troops following behind you OR after completing the mission you go back for them. You don't have to see this happening or do it yourself, it will just be implied. Things like interrogation are taking it a little far IMHO, that will be part of Game 2 but not Arma.

A possible added gameplay twist would be that secured prisoners could be rescued if they are found before the mission end.

Surrendering needn't be something that happens frequently, it might be that you play a dozen missions and only see it once. Though for AI the chances of nearby soldiers surrendering if one of their friends does might increase for example.

[sniper pilot 36]

Maybe discussed before, but I dont think Prisoners would work in the mission system like this. But it maybe, could work in CTI or a more dynamic campaign?

The game would have to go on for longer if you'd want prisoners to work.

[itim_tuko 0]

Would be a shame when the prison camp I saw in the north wouldnt be populated .

[AussieYank 0]

Again, we come to the question of fun verses realism. While throwing in EPWs would be pretty realistic, dealing with them is slightly less fun. Once you've got them, you've got to detail at least 2 people from your squad to secure, search, and silence them, as well as safeguard them.

You've then got to get on the radio back to your platoon/company/batallion HQ, arrange for pickup at the EPW collection point (typically in your assembly area, though you can arrange to have it on or just off the objective if you need to). You've got to then drag these guys back to that area, wait for friendly units (either another squad in the rear or a detatchment of MPs) to come by, round them up, take down the information they need.

Tactically, its a realistic hurdle. Von Clausewitz used to call stuff like this friction, the unexpected stuff that slows individual actors on the battlefield from accomplishing their part of the plan in the timeline you planned for. For instance, if your platoon was moving as a larger part of a Company-level attack on an enemy position, and you ran into a group of surrendering EPWs, thats going to slow your movements down, since you've got to run through all the 5 S's with them (SEARCH, SILENCE, SEGREGATE (officers from enlisted), SAFEGUARD, and SPEED (to the rear)). You would probably just pass them off to one of the trail platoons and have a detatchment from them move them back down the company trail of movement, or maybe leave a fire-team to keep an eye on them until the last trail unit picks them up, something like that.

Again, realistic, but fun for somebody that wants to just pick up a game and wants to go shoot something? Not so much. I mean, thats why I'm always an advocate for a .mil nerd mode, and a mainstream-fun mode in these games.

[CsonkaPityu 0]

I think this can be solved by the mission maker. Give a squad a support waypoint and maybe they can automatically secure POWs if there are no enemy units within a range of 200 meters or something...

"Zulu will be waiting for your all clear signal (radio code 0-0-1) to move in and secure POWs and provide medical aid and supplies. Do not call in Zulu until you cleared the area, they do not have the firepower or expertise to last in an engagement."

If the player is tardy and doesn't tell zulu to comein and secure then he will soon find that the POWs escaped and have taken the town (or hill, or whatever) back while he moved on... Then once zulu is done they radio you that they are available for further assistance. IRL there usually is back-up available if something goes wrong anyways, so it would be a nice addition if solved smartly. Maybe put a "this allowSurrender 0" into the init line of the commander if you don't want them to surrender.

[AussieYank 0]

I think this can be solved by the mission maker. Give a squad a support waypoint and maybe they can automatically secure POWs if there are no enemy units within a range of 200 meters or something...

"Zulu will be waiting for your all clear signal (radio code 0-0-1) to move in and secure POWs and provide medical aid and supplies. Do not call in Zulu until you cleared the area, they do not have the firepower or expertise to last in an engagement."

If the player is tardy and doesn't tell zulu to comein and secure then he will soon find that the POWs escaped and have taken the town (or hill, or whatever) back while he moved on... Then once zulu is done they radio you that they are available for further assistance. IRL there usually is back-up available if something goes wrong anyways, so it would be a nice addition if solved smartly. Maybe put a "this allowSurrender 0" into the init line of the commander if you don't want them to surrender.

Well I mean one of the most common syles of engagement for a mission in a real medium-intensity conflict is a Movement to Contact. Basically, you move in platoons and up, so you have one squad followed behind by another squad followed by another squad, then a gap and the next platoons squads start following.

The best way of securing an EPW is just telling one of your squad leaders to stay behind with his squad or leave a fire-team to keep an eye on them as the other platoons either take up defensive positions around the objective or the whole big show keeps moving. Your joes wait behind for the MPs to show up so the EPWs can be bagged and tagged.

[CsonkaPityu 0]

Exactly! The player now can control a maximum of 60 soldiers so it would be totally plausible to seperate your troops. This could add a whole new layer of strategic depth to the game. If the player stretches his 60 soldiers too thinnly then his men would become vulnerable to a concentrated assault/flanking/harrasment and the player would find himself surrounded. On the otherhand if the player manages his troops smartly his platoon would move fast and secure.

Managing these things could be so much fun, far beyond your avg flashpoint experience. Think of being on the other side of all of this, harrasing and thinning out northern sahranian troops, trying to free captured south sahranian soldiers to fill your ranks for the next mission. It would sit well with the campaign too, since from what was told the campaings inital phase will be about the americans hunkering down and trying to withstand a greater force.

Ahwell, maybe for game 2?

[TrevorOfCrete 0]

all the stuff being mentioned is going to be great for game 2, not armed assault.

[GBee 0]

Again, we come to the question of fun verses realism. While throwing in EPWs would be pretty realistic, dealing with them is slightly less fun. Once you've got them, you've got to detail at least 2 people from your squad to secure, search, and silence them, as well as safeguard them.

Why does it have to be that complicated? I'm a realism fan so doing it properly appeals to me but for the sake of a more realistic aspect (e.g. Surrendering) I'd be willing to accept a much simplified semi-realistic approach to handling prisoners. As I've stated the idea twice and it seems to go over peoples heads here is the idea in sentences of no more than three words.

Enemy Surrenders. => Approach Enemy. => Open Menu. => Select "Secure Prisoner". => Animation. => POW tied up* => Leave 'secured' POW

That is all that is needed!

You could have 'secured' POWs follow you via another menu option so those wishing a more realistic approach could actually deal with them. Having a second team to take them away etc Those who aren't interested in such things can just leave them on the battlefied.

* Plastic ties before anyone asks

[AussieYank 0]

Again, we come to the question of fun verses realism. While throwing in EPWs would be pretty realistic, dealing with them is slightly less fun. Once you've got them, you've got to detail at least 2 people from your squad to secure, search, and silence them, as well as safeguard them.

Why does it have to be that complicated? I'm a realism fan so doing it properly appeals to me but for the sake of a more realistic aspect (e.g. Surrendering) I'd be willing to accept a much simplified semi-realistic approach to handling prisoners. As I've stated the idea twice and it seems to go over peoples heads here is the idea in sentences of no more than three words.

Enemy Surrenders. => Approach Enemy. => Open Menu. => Select "Secure Prisoner". => Animation. => POW tied up* => Leave 'secured' POW

That is all that is needed!

You could have 'secured' POWs follow you via another menu option so those wishing a more realistic approach could actually deal with them. Having a second team to take them away etc Those who aren't interested in such things can just leave them on the battlefied.

* Plastic ties before anyone asks

Because, even IF they're tied up, you don't want a whole bunch of enemies to your rear. Sure, they're tied up, but they can still get their restraints off or crawl/walk away. I mean, wouldn't you?

If they're following you, thats the LAST thing you need. You're trying to move tactically with EPWs trailing you like an elephant trampling through the woods.

Beleive me, I've seen other people leaving EPWs behind to be "collected later," even when I was moving like 100m away. It never ends well.

If you're not going to TREAT them like EPWs, then whats the point of having them exactly? Might as well just focus on combat.

[franze 196]

Hasn't anyone here played ECP and witnessed it's POW implementation?

If you haven't, you should.

[the unknown 0]

It whould be cool to have it but I gues most people dont like being delayed.

speaking for my self there is a big chance that I whould gather all the POW's i captured and reconstruct that scene from battle of the buldge where the american pow are gathered and shot to pieces by the germans.

The Unknown