'Cipher' - full dynamic [SP & MP/Coop] with unlimited replayability

[domokun 515]

Our team really like this mission but we seem to have a problem with wounding, i.e. when our members are shot and injured, they don't seem to take damage. The only mods that I'm running are Zeus AI, GDT (HDR & RPG sights) & JTD (Fat Rain & Flies).

Anyone else experience this?

Any ideas on how to fix this?

[Profanwolf 10]

I tried making this into an ACE mission, with the right wounding system and all. But it just ends up desyncing horribly , blacking out the map, and then crashing us.

[Tonci87 163]

Could someone make this Mission MP with Revive?

[JuggernautOfWar 1]

That would be nice...

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Revive/respawn would make this mission far too easy. Lower the AI skill instead. The mission is a pretty good "be afraid" mission. Revive would just spoil that, imho.

[ladlon 10]

Probably a really stupid question, and I appologize if this was answered already...

I played my first session of Cypher (...very nice, btw)... but one thing that confuses me.... I started with a 4 man squad, yet I run into tanks and APCs (which I am supposed to take out).... yet, I can't figure out exactly how I'm supposed to do that, seeing as I just have 4 guys with only machine guns. No one (I think) has any anti-tank weapons, and we can't call in any support (as far as I know)... so how exactly am I supposed to defeat them?

Maybe I'm missing something... But, I figured I'd ask and end the suffering. :rolleyes:

[madrussian 347]

Did you happen to see a truck and crate near where you started? :)

Not sure why you might have had only four guys though... did you choose the spec-ops option perhaps?

[ladlon 10]

Saw the truck... probably saw the crates too, but figured we were fully geared up, so didn't bother to go to them. Okay, I'll check that.

Why aren't we set up with anti-tank gear from the beginning, if dealing with armour is a part of every mission?

The four guys was my doing... In the options, you could set how many people are in your squad. I just kept it low for simplicity, but figured that I'd have at least one anti-tank guy. I'm not big on the large team thing, as it bogs down my CPU sometimes, and I prefer the small group anyway. Looks like I may need them, though! I got completely swamped on the first mission, once I got into the danger zone! 8 guys, an APC and a tank (that basically liquified me as I tried to hid behind a rock).

Why no support options (airstrike, artillery)? That a conscious choice, or you didn't get around to coding that?

[madrussian 347]

One thing worthy of mention is Cipher's brilliant Difficulty scaling. Try lowering if you keep getting your clock cleaned. This is hands down the best mission I've seen yet for ArmA2... Good luck!

[ladlon 10]

Ya, I had a much more satisfying session last night... Did quite well (had a band of 10 guys this time, plus got myself a rocket launcher.... and was surprised that I hit and destroyed the enemy APC first try!). Ya, everything was great until the enemy copter came by and started mowing down my guys. It ended up just me (and one guy who I think was half dead in a tree, as he didn't follow me, trying to get towards the center of town, as the copter kept swooping by. I finally killed one of the soldiers that was eluding me for most of the game, but then looked up to see that copter pointed at me, and two missiles headed my way.

Almost made it!

So, one question (...and I suspect this is more of an Arma2 question than specific to your mod... but here goes)... How would I get some of my teammates to get a rocket launcher or other specifc weapon?

I didn't want to be the only guy capable of dealing with tanks... and in retrospect, a way to deal with the copter would have been very helpful (...I tried firing the rocket at him, but knew that was virtually pointless).

Again, I'm surprised that some of your guys aren't (by default) set up as anti-tank and anti-aircraft, seeing as you are assigned to destroy armour and aircraft in each mission.

[ladlon 10]

Ya, I'm liking this!

One question... While outside the danger zone, can you still run into enemies? If not, I would suggest less of a distance to the zone... or having (more?) enemies outside the zone.

Is there a way to 'hardwire' it so that I start with a scoped rifle every time, without having to re-gear?

[madrussian 347]

How would I get some of my teammates to get a rocket launcher or other specifc weapon?

I didn't want to be the only guy capable of dealing with tanks...

Is there more than one SMAW in the crate? I can't remember.

and in retrospect, a way to deal with the copter would have been very helpful (...I tried firing the rocket at him, but knew that was virtually pointless).

Now as far as AA goes, I am almost certain there is exactly one AA launcher in that crate! :p

Again, I'm surprised that some of your guys aren't (by default) set up as anti-tank and anti-aircraft, seeing as you are assigned to destroy armour and aircraft in each mission.

You could always bust out the editor and just swap out some of the starting friendly soldiers. That should be pretty quick.

One question... While outside the danger zone, can you still run into enemies? If not, I would suggest less of a distance to the zone... or having (more?) enemies outside the zone.

Yes, you can definitely run into enemy outside the marked “mission areaâ€. In fact, you can start having enemy encounters not far at all from the insertion location. :D

Kind of cool: When I was poking around in the editor, I seem to recall he has three different trigger areas that appeared to correspond with increasing degrees of enemy as you got closer to the objective. Like a circle inside a circle inside a circle. All I know from playing the mission is that the effect is brilliant!

Is there a way to 'hardwire' it so that I start with a scoped rifle every time, without having to re-gear?

Should be easy to do in the editor. In case you are unfamiliar, download something that can unpack PBOs like Eliteness and then open the mission in the editor. Change the main playable unit to a sniper, anti-tank or whatever you like. Then walla! Click preview mission and have at it! ;)

(Since this mission is highly dynamic, it may be slightly more complicated than that, as in he may be updating control from one unit to another or changing the loadout upon startup, but try to simply change the unit type first.)

Have fun!

[HyperU2 11]

There is one SMAW and one Stinger, but you can get one more of each at the second ammo drop point. If you can get there. :)

[ladlon 10]

Hi, guys. Just playing a session now that is quite a bit of fun so far... I am at a factory just outside of the danger zone, and am perched up on the roof (3 stories up or so) with my scoped rifle. Already took care of two patrols (...the same type of guys that, up to now, had suddenly appeared ahead on the road as I was just approaching the danger zone! Argh!). So, that was great fun taking them out with ease. I'm just about to enter the zone now.. away from my nice safe rooftop hideout. I sense death in my future... :butbut:

Ya, I'm not very well versed in my weaponry, so I'm not always sure what is what (AA and Anti-tank, etc).

A shame that the Gear interface doesn't have hot tips (or whatever those are called) when you hover over things, so you can see what their names are, and get a sense of what is what by eye. Same with the ammo... Without knowning what ammo is for what weapon, it's a bit of a puzzle. I'm sure there's a wiki or something out there... but it's odd that the Gear interface doesn't list the names on the images (of the stuff you are holding) as a popup, and an indication of what ammo it uses.

I'm doing a single man mission now... so I'm not sure how I would deal with both vehicals AND aircraft, since I (rightfully) can't carry both a AA and SMAW, along with my beloved scoped rifle. For now, I'm just praying that a copter doesn't come by!

BTW, when the armed jeep (....sorry, I don't know all the names of vehicals and weapons... I'm an animator... :rolleyes:) came by (2nd patrol), and the guy in the back jumped out, the frame rate (at least of his running) was pretty nasty... Not sure why. There were only 2-3 guys, I think. Two guys from the jeep (I killed the driver first), and a civilian on the road nearby. It was almost like a lag thing... about 1/2 second for each 'frame'... but just for a few seconds (...well, I shot him, so it's hard to say how long that would have gone).

---------- Post added at 10:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:12 PM ----------

Hrmmm... There's a second ammo crate? Good to know!

Still not sure how you get one of your teammates to take a specific weapon (...like if I wanted one of my guys to grab a stinger, since I can't get one if I grab the Anti-tank thing). Not a thing specific to your mod, but I figured I'd ask.

Cool that you can get attacked anywhere. I was worried that each trip to the danger zone would just be an exercise in 'getting there', and not have any real adventure to it.

Hrmmm... Ya, the editing of the gear loadout sounds a bit over me right now. I did some stuff in the editor before, but I kind of cringed when you mentioned 'open a PBO file'. Okay, I'll just hit the crate for now.

Edited May 4, 2010 by ladlon

[ladlon 10]

[A bit later] Cool... I finally got to the suitcase. Man, that was a chore! I kept getting shot at by seemingly invisible guys, wondering 'Who the hell is shooting at me!?!'. But, I finally found a clear path from those guys hiding in the trees all around me, and got to my destination.

Now (after uploading the code), I have to worry about the guys surrounding the building as I try and make my way to the extraction point!

Ha! Great fun. Excellent work on this mission/mod! This one is currently my favorite. Guerilla Warfare holds second place (because I think it needs a few tweeks, which I think will appear in the next version).

[ladlon 10]

Question... You are using triggers for enemies? (I'm not fully familiar with them... I get the basic idea, though... just not the details)

If this is so, does that mean that some enemies 'don't exist' until you reach a certain radius of them? If that's the case, does it mean that even if I scope an area (with my sniper rifle), and it's clear, the enemy can 'suddenly exist' as I approach that area?

Also...

Does the extraction helicopter leave after a while? Mine was hovering up near the extraction area (but not in it) after initially landing there. I think it got into a fight with an enemy soldier, so it took off and battled with him... but didn't land after that. I remedied that by having him go to a secondary landing spot (which meant I had to travel a bit further.... so not ideal, but usable).

Edited May 4, 2010 by ladlon

[HyperU2 11]

For extraction I generally try to make sure I'm far from the target zone before calling the helo, they react oddly around opfor. Definitely my favorite single player mission, still hoping for an update. ;)

[ladlon 10]

This happened well outside the zone. The copter ran into a soldier at the extraction zone, battled him, and then hovered just outside the extraction zone (but I couldn't get him to land again, until I asked him to go to another landing spot).

But, I know what you're saying...

Only issue with waiting until you are out of the danger zone is that you may leave the zone in the opposite direction that the extraction zone is, and then have to either go through the zone again, or go all the way around!

[HyperU2 11]

I've always had the extraction zone come up near me, no matter which direction I extracted.

I love this mission and play it most often. Thanks again.

[ladlon 10]

Found a potential issue...

I got all the way to my target zone, and realized that I had no ammo for my SMAW! So, I restarted the mission (where I saved it at the dropoff truck), and went to load up on missiles (or whatever you call SMAW ammo). Turns out, there's no ammo to be found! Only thing there was amo for an RPG.... but there's no RPG! So, a bit of a problem if you're wanting to blow things up! Truck had the same issue.

Am I missing something here? (...aside from, apparently, something to fire out of the SMAW!)

[ladlon 10]

Two questions... one old, one new...

1) You are using triggers for enemies? (I'm not fully familiar with them... I get the basic idea, though... just not the details) If this is so, does that mean that some enemies 'don't exist' until you reach a certain radius of them? If that's the case, does it mean that even if I scope an area (with my sniper rifle), and it's clear, the enemy can 'suddenly exist' as I approach that area?

2) Does the numbers of enemies reduce if you choose a smaller team than the full 10... or do you face the same number of enemies (...and therefore, it's a lot harder)?

[NaxPain 10]

hi, great mission, but i have a problem with the objective "find the suitcase". It does not mark as successfull when i find it, decipher the code and finally extract. In the debriefing the objective "find the suitcase" is grey, all others are green.

[domokun 515]

Is anyone encountering problems with the wounding system? I'm not sure why but whenever my buddies and I play this map in coop we become practically immune to enemy fire. Obvious this "cheat" pretty much ruins this otherwise excellent mission. Any ideas on how to solve this?

[zeep 3]

Never had that happen. Although sometimes it would have been very handy.. ;)

[Stagler 39]

Wiper, is there gonner be a Cipher Takistan?