Arma mission makers, how much do you play?

[Tankbuster 1746]

Operation Thunderflash has been a labour of love. It's a MP Coop mission that has been rattling around in my head for a few months. Over the last few weeks, I've been up to my elbows in the editor, the BAS f framework and CHendersons ArmA edit have helped me along enormously. I've printed out a few choice snippets from here, from the biki and from one or two other website, Armaholic mostly.

I've been connected to my clans Teamspeak server, listening to my mates play while I've been editing. The other day, one of them asked me why I wasn't playing and wanted to know last time I've actually played Armed Assault. My reply; "30 seconds ago" didn't satisfy him. Apparently, previewing a mission to minutely realign that piece of Clinker Stonewall doesn't count as playing.

So it transpires I haven't played Armed Assault in a true shooty fashion in over a week. I'm not terribly good, so I'm sure my clan mates can get by without me.

All this has got me wondering; The rest of you chaps who make missions (or for that matter, make addons and scripts) do you actually get to play much?

[-duke- 0]

I've been working on my first mission for months now so I'm not sure if my input is a good gauge for the talented mission makers out there. I can say that I do play the mission a fair amount just to see how its progressing but actually making it through the mission is something I haven't tried to do for months now.

I spend more time viewing combat elements via camera.sqs as well as spawn in different areas just to see how the AI is working and if the immersion factor is there. I think the last time I actually played ArmA (really played) was last weekend when two of my buddies helped me BETA Test this mission.

Of course this is the first mission I've ever made for MP and I'm striving for as much of a warlike atmosphere as possible which so far has translated to almost 100 hours from start to BETA v0.5. What drives me is to finally release the mission and add a tiny piece to the ArmA Puzzle (assuming anyone likes what I'm doing).

Sorry if this doesn't answer your question; I just thought some n00bie input wouldn't hurt.

[loyalguard 15]

It's funny you brought this up because I was thinking about starting a similar topic.

I have only been scripting and making missions for about two months but since I have started I have spent dozens of hours working on scripts/missions and only 3-4 actually playing ArmA.

I have been fascinated by the all the possibilities that the editor and scripting language afford. The more I explore the more get sucked in!

I have a feeling we are not alone!

[operation madman 0]

LOL! I been stuck in the editor as well it is just mind grabbing that you can do anything!! And i fell in love with making missions that i dont play much.

[kmossco 9]

3 months :P

Last time I played was when 1.08 patch came out, and I retried some official missions. Since then I have been only making and testing missions :P I actually play in the editor :P

[Beagle 684]

I primary use ArmA for the missionmaker, like I did with OFP for creating an trying standard combat situation on a medium scale... nothing in terms of fancy scripted missions.

[Balschoiw 0]

Whenever I play Arma right now I end up playtesting my own missions. I always get lost while doing so. I want to finish editing on that missions but than I once more end up playing them until I realize that it has become terribly late.

[andersson 285]

I played the QG campaign 4 weeks ago.

I guess my playtime vs editing is about 0.98 vs 0.02. Missions and addontweaks takes alot of my time. And I always get distracted when making missions so I end up driving around sahrani in a UAZ or a AH6.. Beautiful island..

It was the same in OFP, editing took all my time.

[MehMan 0]

I spend most of my time editing ArmA than playing it. I do play it for real from time to time, ofcourse when I make my own mission. I like to skip all the fancy pancy camera stuff that comes with most missions and get straight to playing, plus I like my missions non SF. So I make myself some combos of stealth and just pure motorized infantry missions that satisfy my need for ArmA and I play them over and over again. It's not that they are super awsome, well to me they are, but they just get me straight to the playing part and I get to do what I want with ArmA and just have tons of fun. Ofcourse that gives even more time to the editing part, so the ratios are really small in the end. But hey, I'm having fun and that's what matters. Sometimes I even feel these missions could be good enough to release, but that means I'd have to make a whole lot of other boring things that I don't find crucial for the objective(which is mostly in the end: get 'em, or, don't let them get you)

[Tankbuster 1746]

Oh good, it's not just me then.

For all it's fault, the mission editor does draw me in, despite it taking half an hour to get a line of wall looking decent.

I am, deep down, quite a creative person and so I do enjoy making this stuff. It's very frustrating sometimes, having to use the spasticated map screen to put objects down. The symbols it uses doesn't help. I mean, a toilet shack is represented by a huge question mark, yet a large barn is represented by a tiny building symbol. Such fun but in spite of this, I keep going back to it.

[Balschoiw 0]

I guess the wish to have map symbols actually representing the real size and dimensions of an object go way back to OFP but I assume it would really take some serious time to implement it that way.

I got used to it at some point and can live with it. Thank god there´s copy/paste, especially for creating long fences and installations. I also tend to create presets for checkpoints, firing positions or other things that I can simply copy/paste into new maps. This saves a lot of time.

[The_Captain 0]

I work heavily on my own MP map pack, and don't generally play single player missions. Most of the time I play I'm tweaking or playtesting my maps. I do heavily play my own maps against AI opponents or one or two actual players, but that fits more under the playtesting category rather than actually 'playing'.

I usually check the server browser before I start my own local server, and if I see new maps that are well populated, I'll join to see what they're like. I usually join MP games once or twice a week to refresh my 'feel' for how players actually play during games, and for what's currently popular.

From this thread (and just observation in general) it seems that the people who spend most of their time editing enjoy arma for the editing, and are not dedicated "player" types... I wonder if that makes most editors (including myself) out of touch with the wants and needs of the dedicated "player" types.

My server joining mindset:

I generally won't join a server that's less than half full, and there are usually only one or two (sometimes up to a half dozen) well populated servers when I check.. Not much choice for me, and thus I don't join servers too often.

I usually won't join a map unless it has the "type" field set in description.ext (Team, coop, etc). To me, it doesn't seem like it will be a well made mission unless the designer has filled in the type field... Total bias on my part, but it's certainly there.

I'm always on the lookout for new maps on populated servers that have a "team" flag set in the desc.ext

OT:

I know about OFPEC's beta testing forums (though I frequented OFPEC much more in the OFP days), but IMHO there needs to be some sort of MP mission editing group (with its own server if preferable) that frequently meets to playtest each other's maps. That might help more MP maps gain visibility and get finished. We need new and fresh MP maps and modes!

I have a feeling many of us have half finished MP maps that could use some sort of organized playtest group...

[CameronMcDonald 146]

I can't play, because I'm too busy modding. The missions I make are usually "squad o' whatever you're working on up against 50 OPFOR grunts," sad as it is to admit.

[ArmaVidz 0]

I don't make missions, and I got into Arma because of the play. But %95 of the time I spend making vidz

[Ike_fin 0]

I try to play as much missions as i get because that way you get new ideas to your own missions and know what has been done. Also you get to know how missions actually work when many ppl play them.

Its also fun to play your own missions in a decent group and see how players react to your handwork.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Mission editing for me. Played a few official missions when 1.08 came out, and I'll probably do it again for 1.09. Have a few missions there I really enjoy. Also, I try some of my own missions and check how well they work with the new patches.

Other than that, I'm basically stuck in the editor. Never ventured into MP, don't think I have played any kind of MP since Unreal Tournament -- yes -- the first one I actually love ArmA singleplayer and the apparently endless possibilities available from the editor and scripts.

No, never released anything, I do this simply for my own amusement. Although I participate in some lenghty coop missions we setup about once every year or every second year.

[klamacz 448]

actually I have to say I'm not a good modder, there is my Kiowa Warrior to be finished and I have no time because of playing MP with my 8BZ clan

Therefore it looks like 99% playing vs 1% modding time :P

Well, of course I have a excuse, there are finals of ECL War Ladder still going on, in which we participate

[andersson 285]

From this thread (and just observation in general) it seems that the people who spend most of their time editing enjoy arma for the editing, and are not dedicated "player" types... I wonder if that makes most editors (including myself) out of touch with the wants and needs of the dedicated "player" types.

I think you are right, thats what kept me busy all this years. Its a kick to solve something and make it work! But to make it a finnished product... Thats frustrating. So many times I started "the ultimate mission" (for me) and made all the scripts and solved all different problems with addons and whatever. But when I have everything set I loose interest because I have spent all my energy. I know that now its mostly timeconsuming editing that are most of the time annoying because of things that come up that you didnt expect, and so on...

But when I finally play with my friends we can do it for a whole weekend!!

[Rune 0]

Since OFP came out I have gone through several periods of 100% playing and others of 99% mission making. As OFP matured I was around 95% editor for a couple of years until ArmA came out. With ArmA out I started as I had been going with OFP at 95% editing, but quickly got fed up with it...it needs some stable time after getting some bugs fixed, features added, a few addons to fill in some gaps as well as the community to realise that not all missions are supposed to be Evolution-killers - I miss the times when there was always something new and interesting going on for the small co-op crowd, or maybe I am just missing a good place to find missions... - anyway I am only a player these days, but one who really really misses editing

[Tankbuster 1746]

From this thread (and just observation in general) it seems that the people who spend most of their time editing enjoy arma for the editing, and are not dedicated "player" types... I wonder if that makes most editors (including myself) out of touch with the wants and needs of the dedicated "player" types.

I think you are right, thats what kept me busy all this years. Its a kick to solve something and make it work! But to make it a finnished product... Thats frustrating. So many times I started "the ultimate mission" (for me) and made all the scripts and solved all different problems with addons and whatever. But when I have everything set I loose interest because I have spent all my energy. I know that now its mostly timeconsuming editing that are most of the time annoying because of things that come up that you didnt expect, and so on...

But when I finally play with my friends we can do it for a whole weekend!!

I think he's right too. I've been playing ArmA since this time last year and have only occasionally dipped into the editor, but this month, my baby (the aforementioned MP coop) has made it through her first trimester and I've got a mate on board to help with the scripting and dull maths/logic stuff.

For me, the core of this is; the editor is slightly less bugged than the gameplay and that coupled with my creative streak, I'm finding editing more fulfilling.

[dznemesis 0]

with me its always both worlds: one time i play more mp, the other time i get an idea for a mission which sucks me into the realm of editing.

in the summer it was mostly editing (StratMode mission framework), now it is almost exclusivley MP (www.ic-arma.com army level battles)

[Tankbuster 1746]

And do you know what is going to be so hard? Playing the finished product for the first time with a few close mates who don't know all the traps, pitfalls and tricks I've put in without telling them. I'll just mute myself on teamspeak or I'll end up giving all the secrets away before they can discover them!

[Daniel 0]

I just polished off a mission yesterday from months ago and took it for a spin on the server.

It's nice if the mission isn't still fresh in your mind from building it.

"Oh sorry, forgot about that guy on the roof that just nailed you both in the back..."

[Tankbuster 1746]

Exactly!

I've partially got around that by having the secondary objective chosen from a pool of 10 possibles.

[Second 0]

Mission editor is (was) the only way to play ArmA. For OFP i had about 300-400 selfmade quick missions and in ArmA about 100. Missions i usually do are made in few hours (no cut-scenes hardly ever a briefing as they are made purely for myself), more than that and mission is ruined and i loose intrest to it.

In OFP i could make mission even a week, but usually those were the mission that i didn't like to play much if atall. More advanced the mission structure or scripts are, more dull it gets... Quite funny actually. Hour or two is optimal time to create good mission which i also like to play alot. Sadly already before ArmA i'd created pretty much every combatsituation i can figure out... I can't get that kind satisfaction from editor anymore as everything has been done in one way or in other. I could make those already tested situations more complicated with scripts and trigger-structures, but as i said i don't like complication and it requires more time so it ain't worth of a try.