Combined Arms Engine

[Drongo69 117]

Combined Arms Engine beta 0.1 Released

From the readme:

Quote[/b] ]CAE is a single-player dynamic campaign for OFP. It puts the player in the shoes of a US infantry platoon commander. Before each mission, the player's CO will brief him on the status of the campaign and give the location and type of the next mission. If there are replacements available, the player can add these to his squads.

In the mission, the player will have control of 3 infantry squads and his small command element. Also, there is a chance that up to two sections of armour and a range of fire support will be placed at his disposal. The aim of each mission is to kill enough of the enemy force to secure the mission objective. However, the player must take care to preserve his force, as only a limited number of replacements are available between each battle.

The orders menu:

Download: > CAE beta 0.1 <

Required addons: WarGames League 5

To do:

Quote[/b] ]- Implement taking control of a squad

- More mission types

- Varied enemy forces

- Varied enemy tactics

- Random empty civilian vehicles in towns (possibly)

- Editor's guide

- Enemy support

- Intros and outros (possibly)

- Voices for orders (possibly)

- Improve skill of units with each battle (possibly)

Please post your bug-reports and suggestions. Also, if anyone can contribute some good (fairly short) intros and outros, please PM me.

Cheers

[Shashman 0]

I like the sound of this! Shame I just deleted WGL from my laptop Needed the HD space and wasn't using it enough, so it got the chop.

Any chance of a non-WGL version?

[colligpip 0]

just had a quick go really enjoyed it been waiting for a mission like this.

Completed 3 missions before I have to go to sleep

thank god for air support was swarmed by loads of enemy ai.

[Greg147 0]

Just played through the first mission, and it was pretty good. I don't know if the objectives are random or not, but the target was Lipany. Some good firefights, but I was left with the 'hunt the last loon' bug, and after a long time searching, had to endmission it.

The second mission appears to be exactly the same though. Same target, same enemy forces, same allies (3x 9 man squads, despite taking 2 loses in first mission)

The campaign screen showed it as a new mission, but it had the same name.

Is this ment to happen, or is it just a strange coinsidence?

[Drongo69 117]

Just played through the first mission, and it was pretty good. I don't know if the objectives are random or not, but the target was Lipany. Some good firefights, but I was left with the 'hunt the last loon' bug, and after a long time searching, had to endmission it.

The second mission appears to be exactly the same though. Same target, same enemy forces, same allies (3x 9 man squads, despite taking 2 loses in first mission)

The campaign screen showed it as a new mission, but it had the same name.

Is this ment to happen, or is it just a strange coinsidence?

The campaign is dynamically generated. The first battle location and the campaign posture (defensive, offensive, fluid) are random. However, the same location should not happen twice in a row.

The "Battle" mission will have the same name every time, as the battle is generated in the same mission file every time. The campaign uses SoW and a variety of scripts to save the campaign status between each mission. So even though the name of the mission is the same, the conditions of the battle should be generated each time. The three actual mission files in the campaign .pbo are:

- cae_start (Campaign Briefing): preps the campaign

- cae_hq (Mission Briefing): shows the briefing before each battle, lets you assign replacements. Ending this mission leads to cae_main.

- cae_main (Battle): Spawns the friendly and enemy units, resolves the combat. Ending this mission leads to cae_hq.

As for the 3 x 9 man squads, forcing an endmission will cause this, as the campaign saving procedure will not happen. Try playing again, each mission requires a different amount of dead enemy loons to win.

Quote[/b] ]Any chance of a non-WGL version?

Depends on the feedback I get. If enough people are interested, I'll work on a BIS version with an editor's guide.

[honchoblack 2]

I already liked the very early work version of the CAE, embeded in a campaign structure this should be even better.

I would also love to see a BIS only version of the principle, since it would enable people to play it with their favorite mod, and also to easily port it to other maps.

[cornhelium 0]

Sounds very impressive as usual tacrod. I'll be giving this a go as soon as time allows.

Cheers,

CH

[Zendjir 0]

Quote[/b] ]I would also love to see a BIS only version of the principle, since it would enable people to play it with their favorite mod, and also to easily port it to other maps.

I second this, please make a BIS only version.

[twisted 128]

Quote[/b] ]I would also love to see a BIS only version of the principle, since it would enable people to play it with their favorite mod, and also to easily port it to other maps.

I second this, please make a BIS only version.

bis only as well. please.

[xawery 0]

Bah, you don't know what you're missing! WGL5 roxorz my soxorz:)

I'm having a great time with this campaign. The command system is simple and intuitive. I have a few comments/requests though.

One flaw of all dynamic campaigns is that the player rarely has the idea of being part of a larger conflict, a cogwheel in a complex machine, if you will. The dynamic missions, while great fun to play, always feel as isolated engagements. It would do the immersion a lot of good if there were some ambient battlesounds in the background. Perhaps even an actual shootout between AI, somewhere else along the front? The engagements are relatively small, so putting some more AI on the map shouldn't add a lot of lag, I reckon (although this is a wild guess).

It would also be nice if the enemy AI was actually doing something, i.e. patrolling or something similar. Right now there are just a few groups spawned near the objective, standing still and doing nothing.

My last point isn't very important perhaps, but I'd love to see it in-game. When one of your soldiers dies, you get a MAN DOWN! message in the upper left corner. The problem with this is that if e.g. three soldiers die quickly one after another, you can't really tell. The message just stays there. What would be really cool in my opinion is if the squad commander would actually yell 'man down!' when his squad takes casualties. Of course, it could get complicated: what if another soldier dies before the commander finishes yelling 'man down'? Perhaps another soldier could yell, or it would be ignored altogether: after all, war is chaos and getting real-time updates on your losses isn't very realistic.

Just a few suggestions. Now I'm off to play some more:)

[Drongo69 117]

Those are all very good ideas Xawery. I think the most important one of them is that the AI should do something other than just stand there. Some ideas I have:

- different formations (eg. 2 squads up/1 back; 1 up/1 back/1 far flank, etc).

- making defending squads lie down (as your own troops do when they reach an objective).

- Ideally I'd like to make the AI actually use cover (perhaps something like the VME close combat troops?). I'm not sure how to do this though. Anyone got any pointers?

The ambient combat sounds should be pretty easy to do without much performance hit. There is already a little bit of distant shelling in the HQ mission.

I totally agree with the aural man down report. Ideally I would like to have all orders/reports play as sounds, it would really add to the immersion.

Hmm, maybe a PBO with the necessary sound effects would be the way to go...

Anyway, thanks for the feedback and I'm glad you enjoy the campaign.

If anyone can help with these (or any other) improvements please post here or PM me.

[honchoblack 2]

I encountered DAC generated units hidding in bushes and actually laying an ambush on me and my squad. This happend during MP play with Silola and the Mapfact people, so I asked him/them how it was accomplished, he told me the AI behaves that way when given a stealth order.

[Metal Heart 0]

Nice stuff. I don't get the idea of 'report to CO' missions though and why I'm retreating after a successful defend mission. Hold command for 2nd squad doesn't work.

[Drongo69 117]

@ Metal Heart

The "report to CO" missions are largely for technical reasons (much more efficient than deleting and respawning). Also, it makes more sense to receive and allocate replacements at the HQ, rather than in the field.

As for retreating after a successful defence, this is because CAE tries to reflect a single platoon in a larger campaign. Even though the player may win a defence mission, this has only a slight effect on the overall campaign (perhaps the enemy has greater forces in theater, or perhaps another unit failed to hold the line).

So, win enough missions and you will go over on to the offensive. Lose enough attack mission and you will be forced on to the defence.

@ Honcho

When I get some time, I'll mess around with this order and see what happens.

If anyone has ideas for alternative mission types and enemy behaviour, please post them.

[froggyluv 2136]

Cool digs

This finally forced me to give WGL a chance- I love it! Realism=fun, for me anyway.

I didn't fully understand what I was supposed to do (besides kill the enemy) and I wasn't really sure when the mission was over- but I fully support any 'platoon' type commanding (CoC?), and love random enemy AI!

Keep it up!

[xawery 0]

Hi Tacrod,

I'm glad you liked my suggestions. I am a firm believer in aural effects as immersion/atmosphere enhancers. Incidentally, I did notice the ambient battle sounds in the HQ missions. Still, the stock 'ambient battle sounds' sound very different from actual combat sounds in OFP. You can always recognise whether the sounds come from an actual firefight somewhere on the island, or just a sound trigger. Again, I don't know what impact this would have on performance, but it would be nice if other AI were fighting elsewhere on the map. Perhaps friendly AI would be defending the objective you took in the previous mission against an enemy counterattack? That would be awesome.

With regard to the aural commands: that sounds (no pun intended;)) like a great idea. It would also be nice if the platoon commanders would report in if under fire, or when enemy is spotted. Perhaps I could assist you with the sounds. I have access to professional-grade recording equipment, and if need be, I (and some friends) could record some standard messages.

Regards,

X.

[mazza 1]

I am enjoying this ..very nice. Have gone I think 3 missions. Latest mission mission has me retreating hehehe got no CAS not ARTY

Thanks for the mission

[Metal Heart 0]

It was a cool but a little repetive and not so many features.

-In the last mission my armor teams were stuck in the forest and I had to shoot the commander of one tank to get them out.

-Crashed to desktop after last mission with error message "Error in campaign structure"

-I think armor shouldn't be in safe mode at any point because you can cheat by "stealing" tanks and in night missions they have the lights on even if they have already engaged enemy at some point.

-The randomness of the friendly armor is not very nice... 1st try at some battle I had two bradleys. Then I died by some l33t nade launcher hax0r AI, press retry and woot!? Start same mission with four MBTs.

-Because there's not much else going on the map you can do some pretty crazy flanking maneuvers.

[mazza 1]

Quote[/b] ]It was a cool but a little repetive and not so many features.

Yes and no, was repetative but each did played out a little different.  I have not yet done a dynamic mission that was not repetative.  I guess that would be a challenge make one which is not.

Quote[/b] ]-Crashed to desktop after last mission with error message "Error in campaign structure"

I got the same error

Quote[/b] ]-The randomness of the friendly armor is not very nice... 1st try at some battle I had two bradleys. Then I died by some l33t nade launcher hax0r AI, press retry and woot!? Start same mission with four MBTs.

Same happened to me.

Are the supports random in there availability?  In only one mission (the last), I was able to call and airstrike.  When I replayed the mission, an airstrike was not available.

I got to say tho the WGL gameplay with the CAE is cool.  I found myself running backwards with tail between legs crying for a medic quite ofted with mortars whizzing over my head LOL

As I said befored a very enjoyable    

[Drongo69 117]

@ Xawery

That would be cool if you could record the sounds, but I can't promise when I'll be able to get around to adding them. As for the ambient sounds, I actually had such distant AI firefights included, but removed them to make the missions as performance friendly as possible. I may try adding them again.

@ Metal Heart

Thanks for the feedback. I agree that the missions are too repetitive at the moment. Do you have any ideas on how to improve this?

Armour sections are randomly generated for each mission, but it would be easy to make this something that happened at the HQ.

@ Mazza

Quote[/b] ]Are the supports random in there availability? In only one mission (the last), I was able to call and airstrike. When I replayed the mission, an airstrike was not available.

Yes, as with armoured support, fire support is generated at the start of every mission.

I'm not sure about the campaign CTD problem though, I'll look into it.

Anyway, what I really need now is suggestions on how to make each battle more unique.

[froggyluv 2136]

Do missions end after you've completed objective ie. Defend, or are you supposed to notify HQ to end mission after "Enemy Broken".

I've never seen a mission state "complete" so I always end it myself. After about 5 mission I was told we were defeated? Did I do something wrong? What determines if you get a defensive or offensive mission?

Overall, I love the idea of this Dynamic Campaign and am sure when fine-tuned, will be the way of the future.

[colligpip 0]

Really enjoying this campaign. Could there be a way of notifying what assets are available I quite often scout ahead to call in arty or whatever without knowing what is available it is difficult to plan my strategy - or is this intended. Would it be possible to have some missions where you command whole groups of tanks choppers etc or Multiplayer version?

Brilliant work keep it up.

Do you know what I would really like is something like this but if you get killed you respawn as the next in command down to the last man as well as this the mission to keep going and advancing to the next objective with resuply happening in real time from a base at the rear- perhaps too much to ask.

[Drongo69 117]

@ froggyluv

Yes, you have to manually report in after you receive the "Enemy broken" message. The mission should end shortly after that.

I don't know why you lost the campaign if you won most of those missions, must be a bug.

Quote[/b] ]What determines if you get a defensive or offensive mission?

From the readme:

Quote[/b] ]The campaign is based around two values: campaign_posture and battle_location.

Campaign Posture

0: Lose

1-5: Defensive

6-10: Fluid

11-15: Offensive

16+: Win

Winning missions increases campaign_posture, losing decreases it. Winning when the posture is fluid or offensive will also increase the battle location by 1. Winning while on the defensive will increase the posture by 1, but the battle_location will still decrease by 1.

Battle_location is used to select the game logic marking the location for the next battle. These locations start at 1 on the west side of the map, moving to higher numbers on the east side. If battle_location falls under 1, then the campaign is lost, if it goes over the highest number, the campaign is won.

Defensive will only give defend missions, offense will only give attacks and fluid will randomly choose one of these.

@ colligpip

In the next version, you will be informed about friendly armour and fire support in the HQ section.

The rest of that is probably beyond the scope of my motivation though, sorry.

[Metal Heart 0]

Quote[/b] ]I agree that the missions are too repetitive at the moment. Do you have any ideas on how to improve this?

Maybe some special missions every now and then in between 'battles' would do the trick. The usual stuff like 'attack base or fortified position', 'destoy radar', 'ambush convoy' etc. And have more variation in the enemy forces. Of course, creating the missions would be a lot of work and it could cause some awkward moments when you jump around in the campaing structure.

Will you make a multiplayer version of this campaign? I reckon it would be great for 2-5 players on LAN, or even more if both sides were playable. Isn't it possible to also transfer information between multiplayer missions?

[colligpip 0]

I have finished and I won. They must have retreated rapidly as one misison i had no enemy then on the last two encountered a massive counter attack but i managed to push them back. :->

how do i port this to other islands do i just un compress it copy each mission over and then put it into a campaign i have no idea? Could somebody point me to the right tools to do this if possible.

Tacrod would you be able to use this system of multiple squad management in your coin 2? I think it would be fantastic if you could.