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koroush47

I had a question about the Multiplayer in ARMA 2?

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So is it possible to make missions like

You have to assassinate some NPC giving a speech to a bunch of citizens while the other team protects him? and if you shoot a citizen you lose or something?

or

a bunch of marines are stuck in a town being held hostage and the other marines must free them without them getting shot? And put scripts or triggers that make each side win or lose depending on the outcome?

If yes I think I'll explode at the epicness that arma 2 is going to be.

Only like 33 more days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi koroush47

I have actually played both those missions in ArmA I.

The first one as a PvP on Zeus. So one side was protecting the General making a speech and the other was trying either to assassinate him at a distance with a scoped weapon, or they had to get up close in the crowd and pull a hidden pistol, an action menu option.

The second as a Coop also on Zeus but instead of marines you were IDEPENDENTS fighting OPFOR, you ambush a convoy to get better weapons in order to rescue civilians in a stockade in a OFPFOR base, if you get killed in the ambush you spawn into one of the prisoners in the stockade. Once you have rescued the prisoners; you all have to escape across the border to BLUEFOR controlled territory. Changing it to BLUEFOR rather than IDEPENDENTS would be a fairly simple matter.

Kind regards walker

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Considering OP asked specifically for multiplayer, I'm not sure I would put so much money on this bible (in case of attempts to get him to edit straight away :)). Although it appears fine to get you started, the sheer scope of this project means it has some serious flaws. Such as mixing sqs and sqf (can be very confusing the the beginner, and a bad practice due to sqs 'dying'), and script examples that doesn't work well in multiplayer environment.

Scripting for multiplayer can be extremely tricky concerning locality (difficult concept to understand), script execution order, statuses of events during initialization, many adding up to the concept of JIP.

Making an easy multiplayer mission, is not something I would consider easy, especially if you have to learn the scripting syntax, editor concepts, and spend most of your free time on the biki along the way.

That is one of the drawbacks of having such a free and open sandbox system to 'work with'.

Edit: It's been a long time since I checked the bible out. It might have matured since then.

It's not really THAT hard. I first started off playing round with the mission editor when I was ten years old, and begun scripting a few months later. It's pretty logical, and if you've ever done a little math it's pretty much the same kind of thinking.

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Koroush47: OFP, arma and arma2 is sandbox games. You have a world where you can play out military scenarious as you wish. Anything is possible. It can take some time to achieve what you want, but its possible. One thing is certain, if you like BIS games ALOT of your time goes into it. I gave up other games as I found what I wanted in BIS military games..

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Does anyone remember a game called Tornado? As a quick recap, it had a campaign mode that took place on(if i remember correctly) a 64 square mile map, and there were like, 2-4 airfields per side, and full of roads, railways, bridges, fuel dumps, civilian targets, command bunkers, etc. You commanded a squadron of about 10 Tornado strike fighters, and basically, the more efficient you were at using your squadron to take out the enemy's resources, the more likely you were to win. Your choice of targets and the ability to hit them all was how you won. It had an ubor mission planner in which you could set waypoints and specific targets, time on target, all on a per plane basis.

this was, of course, a single player thing. And the only thing that interacted with you was enemy AA/SAMs and aircraft. You could destroy enemy armor columns as part of your target choices but they were stationary. I always took the path of first mission ALARMing their SAMs, then blasting their airfields, then destroying enemy armor, and I generally always used laser guided bombs because, if you loaded dumb bombs, you couldn't load as many or be as accurate, IIRC i think you could hit 3-4 targets with dumb bombs or you could drop 6-8 LGBs at a time and if you hit the target each time that increased your damage efficiency.

Anyway...I've always wanted to play that kind of campaign with and against real people...as I said, I never played ArmA....is ArmA2 going to be able to even approach doing this kind of detail? If not how many years until we get a game that does? I suspect a game could come close or do SOME of these things, but some additional details that were modeled in Tornado's campaign that might not be doable are fuel resources and choke points(supply lines), somehow I think those are not going to be modeled for a while in a multiplayer game.

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Koroush47: Just to add another view on the MP mission ideas.. I have recently played a "Nogova Virus" campaign (OFP1 with some "Zombie mod"; ArmA has virtually the same missions too) and I must say it was quite an experience. It is a set of COOP missions that fit in a story (well, you know what a campaign is). You are a part (or a leader) of commandos (humans and/or AIs) sent to investigate a disaster on the Nogova island.. to find out that most of the population has been turned to zombies :-) The atmosphere is dense, the weather is usually foggy and rainy, the number of zombies is HUGE and you have usually very little ammo and there are only very few places where you can restock.. so every bullet counts and teamwork is required.. lone Rambo-style players are usually the first to get eaten. If you like zombie movies, especially 29 days / months later, you will be quite pleased ;-)

In short again: In BI games you can do anything you want.

If anyone scared you off mission editing I must tell you, that mission editor is quite intuitive and you can do BASIC missions with only a little effort (by basic I mean objectives like "Search and destroy") not to mention the "Mission template" option (you can select from a number of predefined single/multi - player game modes ranging from "Capture the flag" to "Air strike" and only place the friendly/enemy positions on the map).

After you familiarize yourself with the editor and with the game itself (if you haven't played either of OFP or ARMA it may take a while.. the difference in gameplay compared with BF-style FPSs is no less than significant) you will want to start scripting.. and that's what internet is for, you can find a lot of mission tutorials and examples just by trying google.

So, I am looking forward to playing some of your missions soon :-)

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And I'll cheat and throw in another one which is probably a dumb question once I play...what do ArmA servers run as a default when they aren't running a carefully crafted mission that's been set up in advance with people to play...deathmatches? Or are there servers set up that offer more quickly resolved types of missions so that everything you join doesn't commit you to a weeklong war?

Servers are not owned or operated by BIS so there is no really default maps. Well maybe at first there will be the bis MP maps when there isnt a whole lot of custom maps but I was just thinking that was what your trying to ask. The servers are fan owned. You could even own your own server.

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Hi Koroush47

People keep throwing the "sandbox game" thing at you and it occurred to me you do not know what it means.

When you were a small child, did you have a box of soldiers, or cowboys, or star wars figures?

If you did you maybe played with them in the garden or you kiddies sandbox making hills and putting block bricks for buildings. The army does the same thing to rehearse battles, you may have seen all the soldiers gathered around a sandbox in D Day films and the like with the officer pointing out objectives with a stick.

Well ArmA is kind of like that but the little toy soldiers will all move on their own.

The editor is as easy to use as your kiddies sandbox.

In fact the editor is how BIS makes the missions for the campaign and missions in the game.

I often just throw together a mission in the editor in 30 seconds and it will play great, but it has no end notice, or objectives marked and because people cannot read my mid they will not know what to do.

If I like the mission and think others may too; I will then take a few days to refine it so others can play it. I will add a briefing and markers on the map, maybe add some scripts I made myself or I will download some other persons to pretty it up, and add some triggers to end the mission on. Or I might use a ready made mission template I made myself or that I downloaded that does most of it for me.

Then I will save it to mission form and along with the editor form so other mission designers can see how to do it, and a readme saying how to install it. I will zip it up and post it here as a user mission for others to down load and enjoy.

It is a relatively painless task, hence why there are more missions and game forms in ArmA than any other game you will play.

Or I might just throw together a mission in thirty seconds and play it; a few OPFOR sections with Guard waypoints once I made one group just select them with the bounding box, and use [Ctrl] C and [Ctrl] V to copy and paste them where I want them to start, one or more guarded by OPFOR trigger where I want them fight. And stick my own BLUEFOR squad or my helicopter or my Jet or me and my tank or sniper rifle in and then fight.

Like I said making a mission takes just 30 seconds.

Kind Regards walker

Edited by walker

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I was of course, thinking about this post again. Now, I understand that virtually anything can be done...for reference, consider a BF2 conquest match takes probably 15 minutes max if the map is full of players(due to everyone killing each other, ticket count goes down faster) or maybe 30 mins or so if there are less players. Has anyone seen, or has an idea for, a mission that should last a little longer(60-90 minutes), and yet still be suitable for a best of 3 competitive match between, whatever you wish to call them, clans, squads....

Remember I never played ArmA so feel free to give me known ArmA mods I could look up for comparison. Just to mention, I know a lot of people on this board are wondering "What can I mod", but since I only know how to push buttons and play the games, I am here from a "What kind of mod are you guys making for me" stand point :bounce3:

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I was of course, thinking about this post again. Now, I understand that virtually anything can be done...for reference, consider a BF2 conquest match takes probably 15 minutes max if the map is full of players(due to everyone killing each other, ticket count goes down faster) or maybe 30 mins or so if there are less players. Has anyone seen, or has an idea for, a mission that should last a little longer(60-90 minutes), and yet still be suitable for a best of 3 competitive match between, whatever you wish to call them, clans, squads....

I haven't been playing ArmA multiplayer much, but even in the original Operation Flashpoint there were missions called "Mini Battlefield." Two teams, two bases and some number of "capture points." You'll hold the position for some time, you'll score one point for the team. You get killed, you'll respawn either in your base or on the currently held "capture point." There are vehicles of course.. cars, APCs, tanks, choppers, you name it.. You are able to select whatever weapons you like of course, there are no predefined sets you have to select. You can have sniper rifle, light antitank launcher and a bomb at the same time, the limitation is only in the size of your "backpack."

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@walker: I consider that doing a test, not a mission. A mission to me is something worth uploading, with briefing and preferably some kind of intro. With a clear instruction for others how to play it and what features the mission have.

I do this testing a lot myself (not in 30 seconds though), especially now just trying to pass time until Arma2 arrives. Last night I played a 'test mission' involving deep recon with lots of randomness. Took about 5 hours to complete with a 7 man team. Only 3 made it back, unfortunately.

However, this is still just 'messing around in the editor'. As it's not finished enough to be uploaded and never will be, I'll never call it a true 'mission'.

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Yes how many times does it have to be repeated? You can make ANY DAMN MISSION YOU CAN THINK OF in ARMA. ok?! :) YOU can do this. YOU can create a campaign if you want. YOU can drop a few AI in and start with your unit behind them and just massacre. And with scripting (ARMA2 contains some drag & drop scripted functions wich ArmA1 didnt have) you can even throw in video sequences and voice acting to synced moving (animated) lips and, and, and, and, and, and... You have FULL control to make ANY mission you like. Extremely simple or extremely complex mission that takes a month to finish. All up to you. You have the power.

Phew. Everyone understand now?

Alex

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Hey im pretty new to ArmA, i was just wondering if you can edit the models of the soldiers? or like edit weapon skins and stuff like that? is that possible? sorry if this has already been posted i havnt seen anyone asked so far lol

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Hey im pretty new to ArmA, i was just wondering if you can edit the models of the soldiers? or like edit weapon skins and stuff like that? is that possible? sorry if this has already been posted i havnt seen anyone asked so far lol

not really ingame like changing gun skins in COD4 but you can mod ARMA/use a mod in ARMA and change whatever you like ;) even design new islands :yay:

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