Bahger

I'm working on a promising hostage rescue mission. I'd like to accomplish the following in setting up the placement of the hostages: i. Place them inside a building at the start of the mission. I've tried doing this, in an "inhabited" shack, as accurately as possible but in the 3-D world of the mission, they are always outside. I suspect an init script is needed... ii. Randomize placement, if possible, so that they might spawn inside any one of three locations. Can this be done? It's not mission critical but it would be great. As always, Editor ninjas, I throw myself at your mercy. Thanks.

I'm looking for an "alarm" trigger that will bring enemy reinforcements to the scene. This is a SpecOps infiltration mission so I want to reward the player for accomplishing quick, clean kills but punish him by bringing in those reinforcements if he makes too much noise or gets into a protracted gun battle with alerted defenders. I do not want a trigger based on the player's squad's position; he should have freedom of movement. What I'd like to know is how to fire a trigger based on some kind of measurement of either the length of the engagement, the defenders' alert state, noise, or some such disruption. Is this possible?

3/25/2013: Mission adapted for .052 update, re-uploaded, re-titled to reflect playable slot number, link updated below. Here is my first mission for ArmA 3 Alpha. My interest is in creating fun but realistically-scaled tactical missions. For this reason, there will be no respawns and my missions will require less than an hour to play. They will provide the player with the means to survive and win via appropriate infantry and/or small-unit tactics. This is a no-frills mission with none of the cinematics; I didn't see the point of giving it this level of polish when future iterations of the Alpha will invalidate the programming through changes in unit names, etc. However, the mission is thoroughly tested and plays out well. Shrort briefing: Assault and take the village of GIRNA, approaching from the south, with two infantry/AT squads and the following assets: - Indirect fire support: mortar (accessible to Group leaders, 3 tubes, 6 rounds) - Mobile vehicle HMG overwatch (AI) left and right, via radio triggers (see map) Enemy defenses: 2+ infantry squads, 3+ HMG vehicles, some clustered at the TOWN CENTER. Loadouts: All BLUFOR loadouts are vanilla except for the group leaders, who have a custom loadout including a LAW launcher with four rounds. Tactical considerations: The element of surprise is available to you, should you wish to use it, Lieutenant. Indirect fires can be plotted from Map view but are more effective when targets have been sighted. Victory conditions: The players will receive a message when all enemy forces have been eliminated from the town. Try to accomplish this with minimal friendly losses. Notes: If you wish to deploy mortars, make sure you select one of the two Group Leader slots. Use both the indirect fires and overwatch radio orders wisely. Good luck and please post comments. Mission download link.

My beautiful mission is now unplayable since the update, as some element has been removed or replaced. I can't even open it in the Editor. Can anyone advise me about how to troubleshoot and fix this (in the source file data, I imagaine)? It's a very simple mission, the only equipment being HMG Hunters Ifrits (HMGs and Transports, the likely culprits, I reckon) and basic infantrymen with standard loadouts plus TOWs. Help much appreciated, making the thing took me a while.

Please note: I have updated my mission to enable it to be played in the Alpha 0.52 update.

Thanks, Variable. Sorry about not adding the playable slot number. Every squad member of each squad is playable, so that's 20. It can work very well with only two players, as each squad leader ("Group Leader") has access to mortars. All other roles are essentially in support. Please let me know how it plays for you guys and I will integrate all your feedback into future missions. So for example you might want longer missions (this one is about 20 min), multiple tasks (I will have to learn the how to make task briefings) or vehicles, for example. In this mission I chose to use two decent-sized infantry squads rather than 4-man teams because that's what would make the mission realistic as an infantry exercise. I realise that this means that, without the majority of the slots being filled, there can be some hand-holding of AI, always a PITA in ArmA. However, AI survival instincts get a little better every time and even though they are still useless at finding cover in the open, they can take good care of themselves in built-up areas. Using squad/hold while the AI is not in enemy LOS to preserve the element of surprise while the player spots for a mortar attack on the vehicles is a good idea, as this will prevent a firefight from breaking out before you want one. ---------- Post added at 10:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:55 AM ---------- NEWSFLASH: Today's update broke the mission. I need to troubleshoot and fix, I can't even load it in the Editor. Grrr. ---------- Post added at 11:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:09 AM ---------- 3/25/13: FIXED, re-uploaded, link reset.

Got it, many thanks.

Here's the thing: I played my own mission with a friend this morning. It's only a small mission, nothing like as sophisticated as some of the elaborate, sandbox respawn missions available in the Arma series, yet, as I led my squad to the objective and saw the enemy tracers arcing towards us, I heard the HMG I had called up to overwatch my movement into the town. The sound of that big gun banging away at targets in my path was hugely reassuring because I knew that it was finding enemies that would otherwise turn their attention to me. The HMG was tipping the odds in my favor where otherwise I'd probably die. The fact that there was no respawn made that possibility -- and the ability to avoid it -- so much more meaningful, and as "real" as most of us will ever get to the experience of being on a battlefield.

Here's the link to my mission, gents. Please let me know if you'd like to play it in coop with me. And thanks for your support and encouragement in the matter of n0-respawn missions!

NVM, found the .pbo in Steam files, will post soon.

Partly thanks to your encouragement, I've finished my no-respawn coop mission, "Overwatch" and it works very nicely. I'd like to post it on this site and on Armaholic -- and link it in this thread -- but I'm embarrassed to say I can't find the thing. Are ArmA files no longer called *.pbo? I exported it as an MP mission from the editor, so where might it be? There's a folder with my filename in My Docs, but it's empty...

There's a very good video tut , although I can't say I've wrapped my head around it entirely yet...

That's it, really. I'm wondering if the whole team piles out, or if it's a bot more tactical, with the gunner remaining embarked to man the gun.

I know this is a simplistic question, I'm just trying to confirm something: If I have a trigger zone calling for Red to advance when Blue enters, is this "Activated by" Blue because their presence fires the trigger, or is it "Activated by" Red because the trigger cues a Red action? A definition of "Activated by" would be useful, many thanks.

Many thanks. So even if a trigger is activated by Red observing Blue's presence in the zone, "Activated by" Blue is still the right option?

Thanks, I knew it had been changed.

I'm wondering if this is WIP. I cannot seem to select my entire squad -- I might have forgotten the hotkey -- and many of the orders seem to be missing. I'm also finding the orders tree a bit funky. Can anyone advise?

Could you explain to me how to apply a spectate script, and what this would be? I appreciate it, I'm a very experiencec mission designer but not in this engine.

I'd like to set a trigger declaring the mission a loss when >50% of all Blue forces are dead before the victory trigger fires, which is that no OPFOR remain in the "Victory" trigger zone. I assume I'd put this code in the trigger condition window of "Lose" type trigger. I don't want the mission to end, necessarily, I just want to send the player a message, unless there's a better solution. Can anyone advise?

Interesting. How does "Group respawn" work in the Editor?

Well I appreciate the encouraging response. The mission is very winnable but the Blue c/o needs to exercise proper use of mortars to thin down the enemy HMG units before senduing his infantry into the objective. Does anyone know if you need to be the host to be able to access the artillery menu? I hope not. Here's a follow-up question: I'm thinking of making the MP version a 4-player coop, with each player controlling a squad of 4 AI. How do you feel about being in command of AI, is it a hindrance or a decent way to populate the battlefield realistically when there are only four human players? In testing the mission I have not had to do too much hand-holding, but, as I say, I have to use my mortars before having the grunts go in.

Very encouraging and helpful responses, glad there's interest. To minimize frustration I've changed my enemy precision settings in the base config profile as recommended by MacScottie: precisionFriendly=0.65; precisionEnemy=0.2; I wonder, will this affect all clients if these are the server settings? I've already noticed a huge improvement; if you are going to get killed, it won't be because you were headshotted from 300 yards, while running, by an AK. The mission is probably about 45 minutes long. Obviously this way of playing is best suited to clans with Teamspeak comms, etc. If any of you would like to play it in an organised way, i.e. with Teamspeak, let me know, it'll be ready next week in both SP and MP versions. I'm very proud of it, it's not graduate-level mission-design but it's a good scenario involving classic infantry tactics and fire support via the artillery module.

I have 3 transports holding. They have "Get out" WPs plotted further downrange and I want to send them there by activating "Radio Bravo". Each "Hold" WP is linked to the "On Bravo" activation trigger and Bravo shows up in my player's radio menu. However, the trucks will not move. I must have missed a step; what can it be? Should the "Hold" WP be a "Move" WP because the trucks will stop there if there is an unfulfilled trigger applying to the newx WP for ach of them? If not, how can I stop them holding with a trigger? I'm scratching my head. As always, forgive the novice question and many thanks.

This worked perfectly, thank you. I assume the "Switch" logic applies because the group was not present in the trigger zone at the beginning. I'm very grateful that a developer took the trouble to respond to such a little matter, thanks again.

Thanks so much for your help.