Sci-Fi units in the jungles of Vietnam

[madrussian 276]

I got to thinking the other day…

As far as the Sci-Fi mods go, there seemed to be a decent amount of content (considering the level of interest), but not really a lot of suitable islands, per say.

From what I'm seeing, a lot of people who are interested in this stuff seem to want a post-apocalyptic desert with few objects (for small lag), which I admit has the potential to be quite remarkable.  However, vegetation makes things so much more interesting, imo.  And I can think up plenty of apocalyptic scenarios that don't involve deforestation on a massive scale!  

Indeed it would be quite fascinating to have those huge cities in ruins overgrown with foliage due lack of any maintenance for so many years after the "extermination"...

With OFP lately, I've been looking around for good maps to play with the new Sci-Fi mods, and I discovered something:

The jungle maps from the Vietnam mods are really great for sci-fi stuff, for numerous reasons.

First off, they work for many different eras, due to their "timeless" nature.    For instance imagine these Sci-Fi/Jungle scenarios:

Could be present day or a year from now when the aliens arrive and unleash their fury, the last bastion of humanity fleeing out of the cities and towns into the countryside... and finally making their way into the place that affords them the greatest chance to continue their meager struggle for survival undetected... the jungles.  Throw in some nukes and things can get really hairy for the humans!

Could be several hundred years into the future, with the mighty corporations battling for supremacy with their futuristic weapons and armaments.  All the Vietnam era scenery still makes sense here, because lets face it, these places are really in the middle of no-where!

Could even be during the Vietnam war itself!  Picture the movie Predator, only instead of Arni’s band of mercenaries, the Predator is hunting GIs…. and NVA alike!!!

Another reason that the Vietnam maps are great for sci-fi mods is that… they already exist and are ready for use.  No waiting required.  Also, there are a ton of them.  I think I counted 18 or so islands in VTE alone.  Some even have agent-orange built in.  Only in this case, instead of trees the "pestcide" could be there to eliminate people.

This Sci-Fi/Jungle idea didn’t really hit home until I fired up Burner’s new Space mod (check ofp.gamepark.cz), put up 10 Hunn vs. 10 Goth interceptors in the sky over the Bra and let em rip!  I watched the fireworks from the ground as a Terran infantry and lemme tell you, it was intense!

Having said all that, I’m not trying to curtail anyone’s drive to create the ultimate post-apocalyptic island, complete with the massive shattered remnants of destroyed cities, junk filled dumps, makeshift strongholds, and all that.  By all means, go for it!  [btw - Anyone aware of any such islands in production?]

Also, I should note the potential downside of using jungles, which of course can be lag, but sooner or later we'll all have an E6600 and a 512mb video card, right?

Anyhow, with the activity in Sci-Fi mods lately, and the potential for multi-turrets in ArmA (which will help with the futuristic mods many-fold), I’m quite excited to see what the community can come up with.

In the mean time, we’ve got a pretty good place for our futuristic/post-apocalyptic OFP units to do battle and/or and hunt down those remaining humans… in the treacherous jungles of SE Asia!!!

(Which btw would double nicely for Central or South America, or jungles anywhere I’d wager.)

[Note- For anyone wishing to use the VTE islands only from VTE 3.0 to minimize your footprint in memory, it’s only necessary to use four of the PBOs contained within, with Sebnam2, and I think Editor03.  Gotta get the mod order correct in your shortcut, but it works like a charm, without any addon missing, etc errors.]

Anyhoo, just thought I'd share this cock-a-memme scheme of mine, and see what any of you think.

[Sennacherib 0]

personally i need a semi-desertic island

[madrussian 276]

Dante, out of curiosity what's your biggest reason for desertic island?  Lag?  Or do you have a specific scenerio in mind that involves desert?

[Sennacherib 0]

click on my sig

[madrussian 276]

Dante, I've actually been following along on your thread for some time.  Guess I missed the part(s) where you detail your environmental locale.  No matter though, imo your models will look good in any setting.  And believe me, I intend to put them through the ringer in desert, woods, urban, jungle, you name it!  Great thing about OFP (and eventually ArmA) is everyone gets the units/islands they want.

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Back to topic of Sci-Fi/Jungle theme...

I've been thinking about putting together an unconventional coop/versus hybrid mission for OFP (or eventually ArmA when all the appropriate addons come out).  I haven't ironed out all the details yet, but here's the initial idea:

Present day...

An unidentified object has crash landed on a jungle island in the Pacific.  East and West forces descend on the island to investigate... Now of course this island is crawling with resistance forces which are hostile to everyone (powered by the DAC).  I've done some tests and I'm leaning toward using DMA Resistance.

Add in a downed spacecraft, an alien or two (who are also hostile to all), and a nuclear blast to the mix.  The mission could end up being a race to capture the "device" (similar to the doomsday mission, for those of you who've played it) and may involve captives, with four sides battling it out: east, west, resistance, and the aliens (potentially technically placed on the Civilian side).  The alien(s) would be very few in number but they would obviously have extremely lethal, advanced weapons.

Think Predator, but with a lot more people.

One requirement would be that you could play the mission in coop, or SP from any side if you wanted, but you could also play it in versus mode.

Anyhow, if this idea gets much interest, there's a good chance I'll give it a go.  

[Macser_old 0]

@MadRussian

Personally,I think that's a great idea.Even if it's

only for a bit of variety.Either type of map,could

be made to suit a sci-fi scenario.I'm a fan of the

jungle setting myself.

As far as lag goes with the jungle type maps,you

could always dial down visibility.Which should ease

the strain on a machine,and add some tension too,

as a side effect.Close vegetation and low visibilty

are a good recipe for intense close quarters action,

I'd say.

With the desert type maps you could then take

advantage of the increased performance,to engage

units on a larger scale.

[mr. Duck 0]

Yeah jungles are nice things to fight in, but I'm still recovering from my jungle fighting addiction. I used to play a lot in the jungle with SEB's nam pack... Those were some times (some hectic firefights in the grass with all those bullets wizzing by , almost felt like I was in a vietnam war movie)...

But ye need to HD the weapons though to make things more fun. But that ain't no problem... So yeah, I'll make a special section for HD units for jungle fights.

[Linker Split 0]

Try to play with HyK Units, my Jungle map, and some Predators, during night, with Fog set to 0.6-0.7, and DXDLL active... that is awesome!

I created such a Vegation like that, to meet your purpose!

[madrussian 276]

@Macser

Many wise points you make.  Indeed, good call on how the low visibility the dense jungle foliage provides to amp up the mission intensity!  I hadn't thought about it in those terms, but you've absolutely right.

@Mr. Duck

HD versions of your wonderful deadly Terran weapons would be very nice indeed!

@Linker Split

That's cool you mentioned HyK units... were you reading my mind?

(I'm thinking modern US ACU?)

I'll have to check out your jungle island too... sounds cool.

@all

I've been doing some further experiments with this sci-fi/jungle theme...

I'm looking into candidates for the alien.

So far I've come up with the Predator and the Terran infantry (who's obviously suppose to be a human, but looks alien enough to me anyway).

First of all, am I missing any potential addons I don't know about that might fit?

As far as the Predator goes, I must say, very well made unit.  However, does anyone know why the ai won't attack him?  I'm assuming because he's got way too much armor?

I'm really liking the Terran so far for this role...

He's got some extra armor, but it's nothing ridiculous, and fortunately the ai do shoot at him... not to mention he can really take out quite a few of them before going down.

Especially when you give him that grenadier weapon thingy- Man oh man does it really pack a wallop!

btw- Good to see the new islands coming out (already) for ArmA... mayhap we are really closer than I thought to jungle warfare there.

[mr. Duck 0]

AI not shooting at predator? That's strange, since the AI does shoot at the predator on my PC (and they are just standard BIS units).

Other aliens you could use are:

BORG

Hitcher aliens (watch out for the "plazma" rifle)

Zabrak (Might not look all too wel, but they're ok in my book)

Combine the Zabrak or the Borg with the Wanzers, and then you can create some mechanised scifi battles too.

[Kirby 2]

Links to the downloads? Im hunting but Im like a predator without a helmet while being clobbered over the head with a log, by Arnie.

[mr. Duck 0]

Here's the links for the aliens:

Borg + Federation Officers

Complete Space Invader mod (Hitcher's aliens)

Zabrak alien

Wanzer + gravity guns

edit:

I forgot about the predators themselves

[ProfTournesol 952]

@ Linker split : i've just downloaded your island, and it is SIMPLY BRILLIANT !!! I don't understand how i missed it...

@ all : you'll find some aliens, vessels etc. in the WH40K mod :

Here

[Major Fubar 0]

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