weaponsfree

Important question first : Can you give us the rig stats for the machine that was running the map for your 3 videos? It seems to be pretty smooth sailing in the videos, and I'm curious what kind of rig it takes to get that level of smoothness. (been through the entire forum post, and pretty sure they were stated previously). Viewdistance seemed to be in the 4k range as well? Important gushing praise second : I have no idea why I never came across this project before now. But it is simply amazing. Hands down the best map I’ve seen (at least with screenshots) in the Armaverse since FDF Podagorsk. Hopefully it is relatively playable and not just a proof of concept / prototype. Keep up the great work guys.

Sounds amazing. Will be keeping an eye on this one!

OPERATION DARDANELLES Updated for BETA. This is a 6 mission campaign for Stratis. It is intended to be an introduction to an eventual full campaign on Altis. You play as Voodoo squad (in some missions you can play as an alternative squad) taking part of the invasion of Stratis. The focus is on action, and the difficulty is high. There is a mix of behind enemy line missions and full company sized operations. The former require very focused player action, and the latter play out mostly on their own, but will most likely fail if the player is not actively pushing the objective. They are all offensive missions, as I preferred to keep the action focused on taking/destroying objectives instead of defending them. They are all playable in either Coop (some missions allow for more players, but at least 4 for each level is good) or SP. Coop is recommended for many given their difficulty. A quick breakdown of the missions : Preparation - Stratis is held by an enemy battalion. In order to prepare for an amphibious assault on the southern edge of the island, your squad must take out a recon helo to avoid it being used to detect the attacking NATO force. Invasion! - Several squads will hit 3 separate beaches to take and hold the southern edge of the Island. Consolidation - NATO forces must take Air Station Mike to neutralize OPFOR's long range air radar, and to secure the high ground at the center of the island. Sabotage - In order to weaken OPFOR's ability to resist, your squad will insert behind enemy lines and take out an ammo dump, then ambush enemy motorized infantry. Knock Down - The enemy HQ is located inside the fortified village of Agios. Break through the front line, and push deep into enemy territory to take out the HQ. Rout! Enemy Forces are in full rout, using boats and helicopters departing from the airfield. They have a strong fortified bottleneck protecting their egress, so a sniper team will seize the heights overlooking the airfield, and track and kill the OPFOR battalion commander before he escapes. There is of course no campaign system in the game yet, so you'll have to play the missions individually and in order if you want the progression. Features : Playable in SP and Coop (4 players, 8 in bigger missions) Instant respawn after 60 seconds. I tend to prefer this over group respawn so all players make it to the end, the long wait time should be the needed deterrent for overly aggressive/stupid actions. If feedback on this is negative, I can change it. Uses on screen objective update system Random enemy placement and patrols when possible (last sniper mission has a lot of randomness for your target location) Full briefing with map icons VAS in starting vehicles Respawn with kit Changelog: v102 Added =BTC= Revive script Few minor tweaks v101 VAS added (Thanks to Tonic-_-) Check insertion vehicles for the ammobox. Last mission doesn't use it, snipers only. Respawn with previous gear (aeroson scripts) Updated for BETA v100 First public release Download https://www.dropbox.com/s/tp5vne6useqk3or/Operation_Dardanelles_v102.rar Armaholic mirror : - Operation Dardanelles [bETA] v1.02

Thanks for the detailed feedback Mathias. I have yet to get SP feedback for the mission, so it is much appreciated! I have to admit I am not too surprised though, I do have a disclaimer regarding "recommended for coop", but I admit if I am to release it saying SP or Coop, it should be doable solo. Regarding the in-briefing loadout, I totally agree, but last time I checked it's problematic in A3, but I should check it out in more detail. More generally, I would tend to prefer some BLUFOR tweaks (arty support, air support, additional friendlies) instead of cutting out enemy waves and reinforcements. Mission 2 and 3 I think are the worst. The BLUFOR assaults burn out without enough of a dent put into the enemy position. Then enemy counter attacks pile on the pain. So I agree a BLUFOR boost would be helpful for those two. For mission 4, I'm afraid I think it is best as is. The objective, in solo or in coop is to get in and out asap. Preferably without being spotted on your way into the base (being noticed will generate enemy reinforcements before the cache is destroyed). And preferably with the explosive charge already in your kit to avoid wasting time getting the charges set. The ensuing clusterf**k is part of the experience. Escape, hide, ambush, relocate your way to victory. You may be able to tell I'm proud of mission 4 :) Glad you like mission 5. It's actually pretty random. Sometimes BLUFOR gets all the way in and is very effective at aiding you take out the HQ. Other times you end up all alone. Mission 6 is intended to be what you got from it. Glad it delivered. It has random starting positions for the target, so you can replay it a few times and still need to pay attention if you like. If you're still with me, got a some questions if you don't mind : - Mission 1 end game boat extract you ok? - Mission 2 boat insertion work ok? All 4 (or at least the one next to you on the main beach)? Cheers!

I seem to also have had the "leader only" issue on a mission recently. Did not have the problem previously, so I'm assuming it's a recent bug/modification.

I am thinking of updating my campaign with custom music. However that tends to make the missions larger, and require download time for joining players. So I have two questions for the community : Does a 1-3MB mission make loading times uninteresting for multiplayer? Or is some custom music worth the extra load time? Also, given this is not for profit, I don't think music copyright applies to missions released to the public. Or should I stay away?

Thanks for the feedback. I'm aiming for 1 or two tunes at about 800k each, so should not be too heavy. As for being proper, I have very specific songs in mind that I find fit the theme and atmosphere of the missions. So may not be able to remain proper :S. I guess a private version for me and my friends, and use royalty free music version for public release. Too bad, cause I have some cool ideas for music to create desired atmosphere.

Thanks for the pix. Definitely "pops" less than current version. Can't wait to try em out! Arid pix would also be appreciated.

Very cool guys! Looking forward to using them for some nice special operations type troops. Good luck for the launch.

I've been making improvised Special Forces-like units by mix and matching some of the CADPAT equipment. Only issue I find is that all the clothing and vests are in such pristine condition, not a speck of dirt. Looks fine for regular troops, but felt that special forces teams that have been behind enemy lines, or in theater for a long time would look better with more dirt, sweat, and general wear and tear. But been loving and using them anyhow. Been in plenty of my missions, and my pre-saved go-to unit that I use is a custom special forces CADPAT soldier. Great work!

Thanks jungleNZ2. I know that boat is often destroyed. Can you tell me if the enemy chopper had managed to take off before? Or was it destroyed while on the ground? In other news, I started the Altis campaign which is a direct continuation of the Stratis one. The first mission is almost done. I'm planing to do episodes (like BIS I guess :)) of 3-4 missions each. I also finished (except for respawns n such) a Bonus mission for the Stratis campaign, but not sure it's actually all that fun, so debating if I will polish it up for release or not. Feedback and thoughts on the Stratis campaign are still always appreciated! Otherwise hope you'll try out my Altis campaign when it's done.

Got it! I will try to remember adding it to the next release. But no problem if you want to extract the mission and add it to a custom version for your personal use. Hey Kommiekat, glad you enjoyed. Regarding the scopes on the sniper rifles, I had that bug before, but no idea what causes it. I've tried the mission a few times (from the editor and through MP hosting) and I get the scope. Might be SP related, not sure. Regarding the explosives soldier, yeah I neglected to set him as playable. Switched him to playable in the editor, will be playable for next release. For that reverting to not moving death. That is strange, I wonder if it's related to the revive script. I don't play much in SP outside of the editor, but I'll check it out. For intro and outros. I'd like to, but I tend to prefer working on actual mission content. I'm working on a bonus mission for the Stratis campaign, and aim to have it continue onto Altis. That being said, I want to make it as close to a real campaign as I can with my limited time/knowledge. So we shall see!

Armaholic mirror (also on front page) : - Operation Dardanelles [bETA] v1.02 Hey Jblack. I'll double check, but I have not been getting that error. You sure you have 102 of my campaign and the latest BETA build (not a dev branch)? I had some unit name issues one or two beta updates ago, but I ran a script to replace them all. I ran mission 2 (Invasion!) recently without issue. But otherwise, I'm glad you enjoed the campaign.

@Byku : Thanks! And yeah, the boat AI has been a thorne in my side. BI has been tweaking it recently, I was hoping it would help, but it's an issue I've had since Arma. My previous solution was to place the boats real close to the coast, and use a setvelocity command to literally launch the boats straight onto the beach, but I found it didn't generate the proper feel for the mission start. Invasion should still be completable with a boat or two not landing properly, and you can restart the mission a few times to get a proper landing of AI boats.

Took a while, but after getting some pretty consistent feedback on wanting a revive system, I added =BTC='s revive system. I have to admit it's more fun than 60 second respawns. Front page updated, and new link here : https://www.dropbox.com/s/tp5vne6useqk3or/Operation_Dardanelles_v102.rar

Not to shamelessly heap more praise on Bad Benson, but he deserves it. Can't play without this mod, and been sending it to all my buddies. Thanks again

No respawns? Well, are you playing in multiplayer? Sorry for the dumb question, but I ask just in case since the respawns only apply for MP. As for putting the missions in a folder, I've been looking at ways to make a genuine campaign. There is a way to create it as an addon, which should add the campaign button in the UI, but I have to get down to making it work. In the meantime, I think your suggestion is a good idea. Hope the laughs were laughs of joy and wonder :) And yes, revive has been asked a few times, so I'll be adding some in next version. Checking out the options out there (BTC and INS mostly).

I have yet to play around with revives, but sounds like a good suggestion. I am not sure which are best. INS_revive seems like one that's regularly updated. Any other suggestions? @Hoobie7 : That destroyed extraction boat in the first mission seems to be a recuring issue. But I prefer keeping it as a viable extraction point even if the chopper is not destroyed. It's the same with the 4th (Sabotage!) mission, which you can extract from at any point to end the mission. The reason being that I've enjoyed many failed missions, being forced to sprint wildly to the extraction boat while being chassed, shot at, etc (regular occurance on Sabotage if I am not fast enough in completing the objectives and my position gets swarmed). I find that more fun than having a mission failed prompt the moment an objective is failed. That being said there is surely a way to keep the boat from being destoryed. I'll either do a spawn upon the player getting close to the extraction zone, or do some testing to see who is destroying the boat and make some corrections. And thanks for the positive feedback :). You mention good mission in singular. You tried the other missions in the pack?

I figured the 60 second INSTANT respawn would not be popular with everyone. My buddies and I tend to prefer it to avoid players being killed within 2 minutes of the start, then being out of the game for 45 minutes. I sometimes impose a 120 second cool down to further force players to reconsider rambo style action. I'll consider making a seperate version, but it's extra "paperwork". So for now I think the 60 second INSTANT fits with these kind of missions (high enemy/friendly ratio). If others want to chime in, it will help me decide if it's worth removing respawn (I don't think GROUP respawn will work because the player squads are small to begin with)

Thanks for the positive feedback 3instein :) @Cvirtuoso and Geraldus : Thanks for the bug reports, and yeah, that first extraction boat gave me trouble before. I think it's destroyed by the recon chopper if it takes off before you can destroy it. As for it refusing to extract, I'll check it out. The move to BETA may have caused a few issues (for example, in mission two, I think some of the other insertion boats don't land properly anymore) As for the AI precision, I noticed the same thing. Again I suspect the switch to BETA, since some of my playthroughs since have been met with some pretty insane enemy accuracy at range compared to when I first built the missions. The enemies are already all set to zero skill in the editor, so I'll have to look for some other alternatives. Cheers

Little bit of self promotion, but I made a 6 mission campaign. Works in BETA : http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?157159-ALPHA-Campaign-OPERATION-DARDANELLES

Updated to 101. https://www.dropbox.com/s/4tvg7vhfbxsltzx/Operation_Dardanelles_v101.rar - VAS added (Thanks to Tonic-_-) Check insertion vehicles for the ammobox. Last mission doesn't use it, snipers only. - Respawn with previous gear (aeroson scripts) For now I have not been able to setup a campaign system, but if it is possible, will down the line.

Thanks guys. At work now, but will take some time to look at the configs. Would be ideal!

I did a quick test with AI, and my first impression is that they don't react differently to ghillie units. Although human players will have more trouble spotting a ghillie unit (as Kuskov has pointed out). It's even harder with a midrange texture replacement like Bad Benson's : http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?150645-midrange-terrain-texture-replacement So now we have human players having trouble spotting a ghillie unit, and AI not having that handicap. Roles reversed!

Very nice. Any idea if AI detects these units less than others?