Radar Ghost

[Master gamawa 0]

This must be some sort of bug, but I did not make this topic to complain, hence I posted this in the general disc.

It's just something amusing that happened last night.

I made a custom mission, set on this bunch of islands in northwest Sahrani. The mission was to destroy 3 scud missile systems and clear all enemy presence on the islands.

I set the mission during moonlight because it looks cool and of course...provided the players with silenced weapons.

Me and a friend started playing and we had a great time until we decided to head north, through the forest to reach the lighthouse on the top of the hill.

At some point I remembered that I had put a few wandering enemies on the side of the hill and told my friend to keep low as I was checking the map for any indication of their position.

A red arrow appeared a dozen feet behind us.

"BEHIND US! GET DOWN!" I yelled to my friend expecting to be shot down immediately.

We both hit the dirt and shuffled around in the darkness to see where the enemy was.

I didn't see him anywhere, neither did my friend, so I opened my map again - DAMN THERE HE IS! BEHIND THOSE TREES UP AHEAD"

I shot a few rounds in the thick bush and hit the dirt again. Nothing!

What kind of enemy moves so fast? Wait, I thought, I only opened my map for a split second, maybe there are two enemies... One on my rear and one behind the trees ahead of us.

I found cover inside a bush and used my map again.

And then I saw it. The enemy mark was right behind us, approaching really fast. For some reason I thought I would die and didn't bother closing the map. And I saw the enemy marker walking right between me and my friend. I had flashes from the AvsP game.

DO YOU SEE HIM? SHOOT HIM! HE IS WALKING BETWEEN US! I yelled. I CAN SEE HIM ON THE MAP! ON YOUR LEFT!!! SHOOT ANYTHING YOU SEE ON YOUR LEFT!

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT DUDE, THERE IS NO ONE HERE! my friend said bewildered.

CHECK YOUR MAP, I SEE HIM!

WAIT! YEAH! THERE HE IS! BEHIND YOU!

NO HE IS NOT BEHIND ME, HE IS on your right? HOW MANY ARE THERE?

At this point I am actually scared. I clicked out of the map and looked around. Dead silence. Ok there was no one there. I slowly turned around zooming here and there and it was evident that there was no one near us. I moved around a bit, looked behind trees and shot in a few bushes.

Nothing.

Ok that must have been a bug. Let's move on.

I clicked on the map again to get my bearings and THERE HE GOES AGAIN! This time the red enemy marker moves fast and without any clear intentions. It looks like it's floating around us in a random course.

At some points he stands RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME and I can't see him. I click in and out of the map constantly trying to understand what the #@(& is going on.

I panic because I can't see anything and really... THERE ARE DAMN GHOSTS IN THIS GAME!??

I start screaming and laughing doing a stupid Arnold imitation:

"AAAARGHH! COMME AOUT! WAT ARRE YOU WAITIN FOH! I'M HERE!"

While we both shoot around in a frenzy.

I killed my friend by mistake.

Yeah ghosts do that...

Now I cannot trust my map radar anymore. There are things in there... Things that shouldn't walk amongst the living...

Ps: has anyone encountered ghost markers that move around before? Also after I turned the game off I got a message that "there is an IP conflict on the network" and I am wondering: Could an IP conflict possibly make the game think that there is some sort of presence in game? I have 5 pcs connected to the same router. Just thinking aloud here...

[Dallas 9]

Did any of you accidentally shoot a friendly or some civilians durring that mission?

[Shadow NX 1]

Scary story, i will use it next time when we sit at the campfire and tell each other ghost stories

[96D 0]

Sometimes when visual contact with a unit that is on the move is established and then lost, the game will predict the unit's movement on the map based upon the direction and speed it was last "known" to be heading. Often, the markers will drift quite a ways before either disappearing or being reestablished at the correct location—it looks like the marker "teleports" when this happens, but really ArmA is just moving it to where it needs to be.

Seeing as how you were in a forest, contact is gained and lost very frequently considering how often the trees will obscure units, and each time the marker will drift in a new direction and at a different speed.

In short, ghosts are not a part of the simulation.

[whisper 0]

I think I know : you inadvertandly killed a butterfly on your way, hence all the ambient life turned ennemy!

[Buzz 0]

I've had this happen to me in MP also

[Master gamawa 0]

@ Dallas

No we left the rest of the team in the insertion point, to use when we die. I cannot find an easy way to implement a respawn function for my custom missions, so my solution is to put a lot of playable units where the mission starts. That unfortunately concerns the other players of my LAN because I usually 'play' as the server and if I disconnect to play another character, the game ends.

@ 96D

Thanks for the info but unfortunately I cannot verify this, since we stopped playing after I shot my friend (in panic) and couldn't tell if there was an enemy near us or not.

I am not really looking for a solution. It happened only this one time and I kind of like that. It's a mystery!!!

----

You know,I was thinking, what is the difference between Arma (or Operation Flashpoint) and the rest of the FPS War games?

Arma creates real memories. I can remember things I have been through in Arma, because the damn game is SO GOOD! I can remember details from past games because there is a certain feeling of BEING THERE... in that situation.

It's a game that creates unique stories rather than random and identical action segments.

I play other games... you know like COD4 and I hardly ever tell my friends "Oh, I remember that part where everyone was SHOOTING AT ME FOR HOURS!"

That's all it happens.

But in Arma (and Ofp) things are different.

I remember being left injured in Nogova and crawling on the ground for an hour to get to the evac point. I remember trying to find the rest of my team after a tank chased me away from them in one of my first games.

I remember so many amusing and terrifying scenes I could write a friggin book about it.

As much as I enjoy a good game of COD4 I never had the chance to change the course of what is happening or INVENT ways to survive.

Here is another older example of what makes Op Flashpoint and Arma the greatest games ever made.

It was after a short conflict and I was left with three of my men. Our next objective was to kill a few dudes in a village so I decided to leave my squad back and check things out my self. I am protective of my squad, I don't want them to die...

I told them to stay put and approached the houses from the back side. I crossed though a farm and entered the back door of a destroyed house. On the main road I could see a few enemies and the window offered me a good 'camping area' from which I could kill at least half of them without trouble.

So I did.

I killed four of them and run to hide in the back room to reload.

That was my mistake. A few bullets ripped the air around me and injured me bad. I fell down and crawled under a staircase to think what to do next. I couldn't stand up, I couldn't fire well enough to protect my self and I was terribly outnumbered. What is left to do?

My men!

Now there is where this game shows it's potential.

I studied the map and there were a few areas around that could offer a chance of survival.

I told my men to separate, check those areas out and I waited under the staircase while the enemy surrounded the house I was in.

I didn't know whether the AI would come into the house but I hoped for the best.

After a few minutes one of my men reported

"Unknown vehicle at 11 o'clock"

I checked my map to see if the vehicle would turn red and It didn't! It was an empty m113. YAY! I told my man to get in as a driver and then guided him towards the rest of my men that I had sent to search in other areas.

They all mounted the vehicle and waited for my orders.

COME AND SAVE ME DUDES, I said as I directed the driver to enter the village and stop in front of the house I was trapped in.

The M113 came in machine-gunning everything that moved. I couldn't see the action but I could hear it. The screams, the running...The enemies died one by one a few feet away from me. It was glorious. The CAVALRY! MY BOYS SAVED ME!

I started laughing with pure joy.

Finally I crawled slowly out and got in the vehicle.

Driver...(go to.. that building) take us the hell out of here! I am buying everyone a beer tonight. Let's go home.

Now this is an example of creative gaming. I can't think of another game that allows the player such a degree of involvement with HOW the action is going to be played out.

And this is the reason I like Arma.

I love Arma.

Yes I do.

[NeMeSiS 11]

Maybe its the 'percieved enemy position' (Like when you get the target rectangle which isnt always on the right location and what the AI uses for locating the enemy). Especially when using the guard waypoint this position may differ from the real position by a few 100 meters.

[biggerdave 56]

Maybe it was the ever elusive Kolgujev Bigfoot?

Yeah, I know, it isn't Kolgujev, but ArmA isn't based on the OFP engine? I'm sure a lot of stuff in the Northern forests are directly inheriting stuff written originally for Kolgujev.

One day I'll find you Bigfoot! One day!

[baddo 0]

In me own words...

http://www.amazon.com/Me-Own-....&sr=1-3

Maybe what you saw is explained in the autobiography...

...or how about I Not Dead...

http://www.amazon.com/Bigfoot....sim_b_2

You obviously didn't hit when you fired shots into the bushes.

[andersson 285]

I start screaming and laughing doing a stupid Arnold imitation:

"AAAARGHH! COMME AOUT! WAT ARRE YOU WAITIN FOH! I'M HERE!"

While we both shoot around in a frenzy.

I killed my friend by mistake.

Yeah ghosts do that...

I also know exactly what you mean with that avsp comment, I still play AvsP Gold edition besides arma. OFP/arma and avsp ge are the only game I have real stories from

[Master gamawa 0]

Oh yeah although I didn't have the guts to play it more than two times. The Marine missions were psychic torture. I loved that game and I don't remember having a good time with it! I was always asking my self "why am I putting my self through this? this is not my idea of fun!"

And of course I have to add two more to the list of "games that you can tell interesting stories about"

Thief Series

and the glorious Mount and Blade.

... which is completely off topic but I haven't seen another ghost since last night...

[-Puma- 2]

Oh yeah although I didn't have the guts to play it more than two times. The Marine missions were psychic torture. I loved that game and I don't remember having a good time with it! I was always asking my self "why am I putting my self through this? this is not my idea of fun!"

And of course I have to add two more to the list of "games that you can tell interesting stories about"

Thief Series

and the glorious Mount and Blade.

... which is completely off topic but I haven't seen another ghost since last night...

i chickened out half-way of marine mission

[berghoff 11]

Hahaha very funny post . Maybe it was the predator with cloak activated =) stalking you from above in the trees.

[Master gamawa 0]

the Predator?

I cannot believe this never occurred to me.

Am I right thinking that a coop game vs the goddamned Predator would be awesome in Arma?

Walking around the jungles and forests, following bloodtrails in the thick bush...

I would play that.

[Second 0]

That *ghost* is very common sight when playing with regular difficulty. 96D explained it correctly, that is the case.

One thing: Look position in which the text of that marker is and you'll find your ghost usually there (this might be one additional bug)

ArmA with the Predator... Noooooo. I don't want the idea of predator to be ruined. Btw. You gotta love the idea of creature with over 200 kilograms of weight jumping so lighty and silently from tree to tree in South American jungles (great hollywoodism... again)

[evilnate 0]

My theory is that you must have disturbed a seagull's nest.

Did you guys happen to look up?

[-ZG-BUZZARD 0]

That *ghost* is very common sight when playing with regular difficulty. 96D explained it correctly, that is the case.

One thing: Look position in which the text of that marker is and you'll find your ghost usually there   (this might be one additional bug)

ArmA with the Predator... Noooooo. I don't want the idea of predator to be ruined. Btw. You gotta love the idea of creature with over 200 kilograms of weight jumping so lighty and silently from tree to tree in South American jungles   (great hollywoodism... again)

Well, it already exists for OFP...

Check it out...

[Second 0]

BUZZARD @ Mar. 06 2008,18:05)]

That *ghost* is very common sight when playing with regular difficulty. 96D explained it correctly, that is the case.

One thing: Look position in which the text of that marker is and you'll find your ghost usually there (this might be one additional bug)

ArmA with the Predator... Noooooo. I don't want the idea of predator to be ruined. Btw. You gotta love the idea of creature with over 200 kilograms of weight jumping so lighty and silently from tree to tree in South American jungles (great hollywoodism... again)

Well, it already exists for OFP...

Check it out...

I noticed this few years back, but because of mentioned reasons... I think i will pass

No offence but i doupt ArmA or OFP AI can act like it. I'm not so much about being predator as i'm into being target of (beliveable) predator.

[Master gamawa 0]

I am all for realism too but sometimes I like to get silly with some aliens or a zombie hunting mission.

You know, I was thinking that Arma (and Ofp in its time) is the only game that is completely serious but at the same time allows you to be extremely silly.

I mean, a few years ago I set a mission up called "Evel Knievel".

I put two big wooden ramps in the desert and filled the gap with buses, side by side. Night time, clear sky.

I put a lot of people around, a few street lights and a two big searchlights to light the ramps.

Then I got on a bike and tried to jump this gap.

I think I managed to jump 5 of them in a row before I started falling to my bloody death.

Now tell me another game where you can do that in a second using what is aleady in the game.

And don't get me started with the addons. That stuff is like heroin to me...