Setting up a Lan night need mission suggestions

[Fantastic MR Fox 0]

So I am organising a lan co-op night for me and some friends. None of them have played Arma before and only a few play tactical shooters in general. I feel Arma would be a great game to include because of the heavy teamwork emphasis and definate roles in a squad. I hope even the players that dont normally play tactial shooters will find they enjoy it too.

So I need a mission to run. Ideally it would take the form of an evo/campaign style centralised whole island misson with various types of mission to take on in different locations. It would utilise a friendly unit marker tracking system, and would contain norrins revive system. Also it would need to work with 5-10 players. Any ideas?

[BLSmith2112 0]

User Missions might not be the best place to ask.

Matt R's Warfare edit would be a proper way to introduce people to Armed Assault. Although there is not a touch respawn script.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Domination v3 with revive. Check the discussions on this page, I think there is a 3.02 betaversion. But you might want to edit the mission slightly.

UnPbo it, and locate the file x_scripts\x_setvehiclemarker.sqf

Change it so that it looks like this at the bottom:

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">while {true} do {

call XMarkerVehicles;

sleep 0.01;

// if (d_show_player_marker) then {

call XMarkerPlayers;

sleep 0.01;

// };

disableUserInput false;

if (d_weather) then {call XWeatherLoop;};

sleep 1.12;

};

The commenting, //, is the clue. Somehow setting this variable in init.sqf doesn't do anything, and we don't get the chance to enable it ingame. This will enable player tracking using arrows and names. Encourage the use of short names for your players.

Also, if you are just a few players, Domination may be impossible to do due to the heavy amount of armor at the main targets. So doing only sidemissions can be a solution to this. But also sidemissions can be tricky. Locate the file x_scripts\x_getsidemission.sqf and adjust the number theat spawns the armor. I.e. change (under case 2):

[code["shilka", 1, "bmp", 1, "tank", 1, _pos_other,2,100] spawn XCreateArmor;[/code]

into

[code["shilka", 0, "bmp", 1, "tank", 0, _pos_other,2,100] spawn XCreateArmor;[/code]

to remove shilkas and tanks from this sidemission to make it more playable for few players. You should mention how many players you expect to attend. I'm playing with a small gang, and we've found few missions scaled properly to just a few players, and realistic missions.

With these edits in place, re-pbo the file and check that it works.

Also, as suggested, Warfare might be a good timekiller; play solely against AI and you're up for some good hours. But again, you will also need to edit this mission if you want GPS capability for all players. I simply changed all playable units into squad leader class, and I got GPS. Squad leaders also made more sense I think.

Ahh, I suddenly remember. You should also download Dynamic Sahrani: Sabotage. It is properly scaled for few people even though it says coop12. We played 5 guys without almost no fatalities, so it is well scaled. Missions end too quickly though, should be a 3-5 minute delay until mission accomplished. It also has player markers as you want. The problem we faced was using airdrop that seemed buggy (could be our addons though), with people dropping out of their chutes to the ground. But it's well worth a try. It doesn't use the revive system though, but I plan to include it later in our own version of it.

Other missions we have tried have either lacked player markers or been completely off the scale regarding the force we are playing. 6-8 guys against 200 enemies is no fun for me if we are detected.

Hope this helps.

[Fantastic MR Fox 0]

Apologies if this is in the wrong place, could I get a mod to move the thread?

[Rmakowsky 0]

Quarantine is great fun with 3-4 players. The Zombies (Yombies) are well implemented and the amount of fear generated is quite high. It plays well with folks who work together to stay alive.

So if you have folks who are not highly versed in tactical gaming, it might be a good choice. They will immediately understand the value of staying together and shooting together.

At first you are using pistols and then build up some cash to get rifles. So it has a built in learning the game curve.

I would suggest that you do some single player first if there is time and that you read the briefing card on the map page so that you understand where things are and how they work.

Also suggest reading at least some of the forum posts on the game as there are some interface issues (ie you need to hit enter while looking at a flag-pole to get the bank or store to activate).

Good luck whatever you choose, Arma is great fun for this type of event.

Magic

[Fantastic MR Fox 0]

Ok thanks for the help guys. I took a look at Dynamic Sahrani: Sabotage it seems quite good. I'll take a look at the other suggestions over the next few days. Thanks

[bigshot 64]

IMO if these guys are new to Arma and a few have never even played tactical shooters before I would think that Arma isnt such a good choice to be honest, since it is very complex and takes new players forever just to get your command keys all set properly to begin with, then theres the clunky movements and long winded animations they'll need to adjust to, not to mention AI that can be very frustrating for a newbie.

Don't get me wrong...i love this game since the OFP days but its definatley NOT a good intro into tactical shooters for first timers.

If you're stuck on it however, id suggest using the easiest missions you can think of as a first run for them...dynamic sahrani sabotage might be good if you choose the easier settings at first and work youre way up...it also sports good fps performance. Id stay away from warfare unless all involved have good hardware.

[Griffon2-6 0]

Lol, yeah I agree. My first few weeks playing ArmA, I was pulling my hair out and screaming at the AI, both on my side and on the other. But once I learned how to play it properly (after a few weeks), I loved it.

I think Warfare is a good way to start them off if any of them have experience playing RTS. Commanding takes no knowledge of ArmA game mechanics itself, and players can be slowly eased into combat situations. At the beginning of a warfare game, all players are relatively safe as long as the commander builds the base, as several hundred AIs spring up and charge toward the nearest city. The players will be proteced by the AIs.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

We had a Sabotage session this wednesday, modded with other units, less weapons, and an attempt on added revive with mobile respawn. Revive didn't work out all that well, one player kept respawning as seagull Probably my own fault.

I will try to mod it to revive only, no respawn, and setup the modes to act with this better:

Easy - All can revive 20, back to full health

Medium - All can revive 10, but you're slightly hurt and need medic

Hard - All can revive 5, but you're badly hurt and need medic.

Although we had respawn, we didn't bring it, and we had zero to two casualties (six players) during the assignments. So I think it is easy enough, doesn't always involve heavy fighting, and it IS fully possible to come home without a scratch.

Hardness also affects what is available in the crates. Mission is fully possible to play with only one AT man with three shots if you're up for the challenge.

We also played Navy Seals which was loads of fun. Although this mission has insane amounts of units that will engage you, keeping two or three snipers will keep you alive for the most time. The enemy doesn't do any counter sniping, unfortunately. Cool mission with nice elements, but not what I call realistic in terms of enemy size for such few men. This mission has the revive setup I will mod into Sabotage now. A confident ArmA player should play the forward air controller - we ended up bombing the hell out of the hotel which we were supposed to secure