CO14 - Operation Sky Sweeper

[Raddik 10]

Operation Sky Sweeper is a dynamic and air combat focused mission that can by played solo or with others. It includes many unique features including a custom aircraft spawning script and steam catapult system, both of which I'd originally written for this mission. If you love air combat, this is the mission for you!

Click the spoiler button below to view the mission briefing/details:

Mission:

Soon the 1st Marine Division will be landing on the shores of Chernarus near the town of Komarovo, and it's up to us to clear the way of OpFor air threats and armor. Our 1st primary objective is to eliminate all OpFor air assets. This includes the several dozen SU34s we know of and other unknown fixed wing aircraft. Again, the enemy is on standby so expect a quick response to the initial attack from reinforcements. Use extreme caution and make sure your aircraft is in tip top shape.

Our 2nd primary objective is to defend the single MLRS we have in the town of Komarovo at all costs. With the losses we've suffered recently, this is our only chance at taking out the Russian command center to the North. It will take one hour for the MLRS system to be ready, we must defend it while it's being deployed.

The final detail is the tricky one. We only have 60 minutes to complete this mission, or the ground forces coming in behind us will be pummled. That means both shooting down all OpFor aircraft and defending the MRLS system in that timeframe. Failure of either will result in a mission failure as a whole.

Intel:

Intel has told us there is a significant OpFor aircraft presence on and around Chernarus. There is believed to be several dozen SU34s and some other unknown aircraft in the area. As a less significant threat, we also expect some OpFor anti-air assets, supply trucks and other support vehicles, OpFor radar installation and more. Enemy is on standby and related alert levels are extremely high. Using satellite recon, we have spotted various armor units and convoys already en route to Komarovo, there is potential for these units to be in excess of 10 tanks and 20 APCs. Finally, we have some support from a dozen or so locals who's objective will be to help us defend out MLRS system on the ground.

Equipment:

We will be using a US Marine LHD as a base of operations. This will provide us with 12 F35-B aircraft, 2 AH1-Z helicopters, 2 AH64D helicopters, and 4 experimental carrier friendly A10s. All aircraft will be outfitted with heavy anti-air loadouts to maximize their damage capabilities. We have set up a repair, refuel and rearm area on the grass airstrip near the town of Balota...check your map for the location.

Features:

• BluFor only Co-op gameplay for up to 14 players
  
• Support for Mando Missiles
  
• 3 BluFor AI controlled respawning F35B aircraft
  
• 1 BluFor AI controlled respawning A10 aircraft
  
• Fully functional & custom made steam catapult system for deck launching
  
• Scripting that creates 50+ enemy aircraft placed randomly around the map, with only 12 alive at any given moment.
  
• Dual Primary Objectives include destroying all OpFor aircraft & protecting a vital BluFor asset
  
• Full featured LHD base with respawning resources including:
  
• 12 custom outfitted F35-B aircraft with 8 Sidewinder missiles, 2 Maverick AG missiles, and 600 rounds of GAU12 cannon ammo
  
• 4 custom outfitted A-10 'Warthog' aircraft with 2 Sidewinder missiles, 6 Maverick AG missiles, and 1200 rounds of cannon ammo
  
• 2 custom outfitted AH1-Z 'Cobra' helicopters with 6 Sidewinder missiles, 8 Hellfire missiles, 38 Hydra missiles, and 1500 rounds of M197 cannon ammo
  
• 2 custom outfitted AH64D 'Apache' helicopters with 16 Hellfire missiles, 38 Hydra missiles, and 1350 rounds of cannon ammo
  
• Fuel, Ammo, and Repair trucks on BluFor friendly grass airstrip in Boalta
  
• AI guerrilla warfare team set to protect BluFor missile asset
  
• Full 3D clouds w/4.5K meter draw distance (supports up to 7k)
  
• Dynamic menu system for player controlled view distance and grass
  
• All scripting is dedicated server friendly
  
• Full briefing.
  

Change Log:

V 1.0 - 12/26/09

• Initial Release
  

V 1.01 - 12/30/09

• Added – New version with support and tweaks for Mando Missiles v2.4.
  
• Added - 3 BluFor AI controlled respawning F35B aircraft to support players.
  
• Added - 1 BluFor AI controlled respawning A10 aircraft to support players.
  
• Added – (2) AH-64 Longbow helicopters.
  
• Added - Player-controlled view distance/grass settings.
  
• Removed – (1) AH1Z Cobra helicopter.
  
• Fixed - Spawn height issues with aircraft.
  
• Changed – Updated catapult system to lock player in vehicle until launch is complete.
  
• Changed – Reduced OpFor aircraft total count to 50.
  
• Changed – Moved BluFor MLRS asset away from building, on occasion it would self-annihilate.
  
• Changed – Loadouts on all vehicles to balance gameplay and encourage team work.
  
• Changed - Starting view distance to 4500 meters.
  
• Changed - Major overhaul of underlying scripting for BluFor aircraft loadouts, respawning, and positioning.
  
• Changed - Complete retooling of AI aircraft spawning scripts…they have been reduced to a single function. This adds a 5-15 fps increase over v1.0.
  

Operation Sky Sweeper | v1.01 - Armaholic.com

Thanks in advance for trying this out. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Raddik

Edited January 4, 2010 by Raddik
Update - v1.01

[Raddik 10]

Can someone comment on the performance of this mission on their local machine or dedicated server?

[neokika 62]

Can someone comment on the performance of this mission on their local machine or dedicated server?

Im gonna try it now, ill give you some feed later on...

_neo_

[Turk182! 10]

A couple friends and I played this for 5 hours last night on a server and we had no issues.

This was a major improvement over the last air combat mission. We had a blast! It was also nice to have an objective that required us to pay attention and work together. We did have some issues with the opfor AA units until we realized where they were...guess that's really not a mission issue. Maybe you could mark their positions on the map as potential AA sites?

Finally, you've really refined the catapult launching! It was so awesome taking off on the deck and flying up into those clouds.

[kremator 1065]

Yummy .... gonna try this out with MandoMissiles :) Will be superb !

[Raddik 10]

Turk, I can do the map additon for potential

AA...thanks for the idea.

Kremator, I tried this with Mando Missiles and since the OpFor (ai) aircraft are created with a script o couldn't figure out how to limit their range/radar to that of human players. Maybe I'll send Mandoble a pm later asking for help.

Cheers,

Raddik

[kremator 1065]

Loving the mission...... but to make EVEN more fun would be for all the AI to take part as well !

The skies would be full then.

[Raddik 10]

Kremator,

We're currently working on a script to do just that. It would allow the AI to use the deck launch system! We'll update everyone on the progress when we make some.

All, below is our server if you would like to play this mission w/o having to download and run it locally.

[kremator 1065]

If you sort that mate it will be amazing! I just love the deck launch system. Have you found about using mandoble's missiles within this brilliant mission?

It SHOULD just be a case to replace all default missile classes with his plus naming the aircraft that need to use them.

If you need a beta tester for the AI version then let me know.

[Raddik 10]

Still working on Mando Missile integration, but I'm making some serious headway. Going to spend a significant amount of time on this tonight to try and finish it.

[neokika 62]

Still working on Mando Missile integration, but I'm making some serious headway. Going to spend a significant amount of time on this tonight to try and finish it.

Great mission you have there, if you can make it MandoMissile compatible thats just perfect! Also, a F-16 IMO would be great also...Thanks a lot for sharing.

_neo_

[kremator 1065]

Your dedication is very much appreciated. I'm really loving this mission. The full use of ai will make this really intense.

If you need any beta testers then let me know.

Edited December 28, 2009 by Kremator

[vengeance1 50]

Raddik, if I want to change the position of the LHD to 230 degrees from 90 how do I get the Launch HOLD feature to work? It doesn't seem to work if you rotate LHD and move.sqf?

[Raddik 10]

@vengeance1 You need to edit the direction in the stop.sqf script as well. The particular line of code is:

BL1 setDir 90;

This sets the direction of the invisible wall (what holds you in place). One would think that since we're simply flipping things 180 it would still work, but it won't. Make sure you change it for both the A10 and the F35B.

@All Going to release a mission update tomorrow morning with some new features and improvements.

[kremator 1065]

Can't wait for AI release. This is my second fave mission after Bennys Wafare. Good work.

[vengeance1 50]

@vengeance1 You need to edit the direction in the stop.sqf script as well. The particular line of code is:

BL1 setDir 90;

This sets the direction of the invisible wall (what holds you in place). One would think that since we're simply flipping things 180 it would still work, but it won't. Make sure you change it for both the A10 and the F35B.

@All Going to release a mission update tomorrow morning with some new features and improvements.

Thanks, I tried that but no good, might be because I am using it on the LHD in FDF_Isle1_a could be that altitude on deck on LHD is not the same as your scripted one. Guess I need to look at that more.

[Raddik 10]

Just posted a version update, see first post for details!

[kremator 1065]

WOOT !!! Checking it out now mate ! THANKYOU !

Will give feedback.

FEEDBACK EDIT MMA VERSION !

At startup I'm ending up in the water. Is there a problem with the deck height? Also the aircraft seem to be jumping on the deck. Mandomissiles is BRILLIANT with this now ! Can you get all of the AI active and flying the aircraft? They aren't moving currently (or perhaps that is my fault for not getting them to get into the aircraft!) When there is an AI commander the AI still don't move however.

This is REALLY shaping up to be a FUN FUN FUN mission! Keep at it mate..... almost perfection.

FEEDBACK FURTHER EDIT MMA VERSION .....

For infor have tested with ACE2 + GL4 + ZeusAI + WarFX and without everything (except MMA of course!) - same results

The Apache isnt under MMA influence. AI still not moving under any conditions. Still testing :)

Edited December 30, 2009 by Kremator

[vengeance1 50]

For what it is worth you guys I have done a lot of missions using the LHD either the pbo, the moveable pbo and the script. I have created my own LHD Domination, added it to missions by other etc. I always found deck height to be a problem as it can work fine first time in editor, next time everything blows up also problems with MP Mission Restart.

Time of Day can change deck height issues as well. Bottom line is I don't think it is a mission maker issue it is excecution time to build LHD, before placing objects. I think the ideal way to do it (although I don't know how) would be to create planes etc. after LHD has been built and mission started then create/place objects. I have tested a lot using Utes and the new FDF Island with built in LHD and all these issue go away.

For what that is all worth. ;)

[kremator 1065]

That's pretty useful info vengeance1. Can this be done Raddik?

[Ebden 10]

Tried with 8 people on my home machine via internet-cross Atlantic connections (non-MMA version). Pings all 350-450, crippling.

I normally hosted these guys at max 180ping.

We're going to try with a EU connection now. From what I saw at the start, this looks like a laugh (a good laugh).

[kremator 1065]

Only tried the MMA version so far so cant comment on pings but the distance probably isnt too surprising.

Oh and it IS a great laugh !

[Ebden 10]

Host issues on my end from the earlier noted high pings. The other EU server (2 legitimate trys) ran smooth.

A couple traffic-jams with player coordination at the deck launcher-if more than one person selected deck launcher then the stack-up is a bit crippling (though I think the launch-effect still works, my A10 took off facing the ship's port side).

Most frustrating was Opfor's quick takedown of the MLRS. It happened within 2 minutes each of our two tries today. We identified a couple T90s moving close at the starting gate. It created a bit of a mad rush the second time when we realized what had happened. I like the need for quick-response, I haven't seen a mission yet that legitimately can end that quickly, but it can also be a big turnoff to other players to lose that fast.

I wish I remembered which pilot slot I used the second try. On my first spawn I was glitched into the carrier wall and had to die and respawn before continuing to play. Given how quick the round can lose, wasting a respawn at the start is bad mojo.

[kremator 1065]

You have to make sure that some people are on CAP duty and others are on CAS duty. I normally take up the apache first to waste the close T90s then go CAP.

[Raddik 10]

@Ebden, thanks for all the input. I'm already addressing the proximity of the first T90's in the next release.

@All, my GTX 295 graphics card bit the dust yesterday, so I'll be unable to do anything with the mission for a week or so. :( EVGA should ship my new one close to this next week's end.

Please continue giving feedback as you have it.

Cheers,

Raddik