sproyd

I'm putting together a basic Editor Guide as I see a lot of people on these forums looking for something like this. Yes, there are other comprehensive (300pg) guides and videos out there but I thought I could add some value to beginners through my written English and presentation skills. I thought I would post this in the Arma 3 - General section rather than Editor section as most people in the Editor section already have a good base knowledge of how the Editor works. The guide is in plain English and assumes no prior knowledge - it will hopefully help a lot of people with a step-by-step guide on how to create basic missions which they can then on expand on by delving into the trove of detailed information available elsewhere. I want to gauge interest and feedback on my writing and presentation style (from both English-speaking and non-native speakers) to see whether I am on the right track. All feedback is appreciated! V0. Armaholic Link Dropbox Link

I am very pleased to present to you my fourth published mission... Chain Reaction WARNING: The video below contains spoilers. Features An atmospheric and lovingly crafted mission using many sophisticated mission making techniques You are inserted as an undercover black ops operative in the dead of a stormy night and your mission is to blow up the Solar Power Plant Optional objective of taking out an enemy outpost Fairly high degree of difficulty 4 music tracks including music from Deus Ex and Frozen Synapse soundtracks and The Glitch Mob Dynamic Tasking Multiple save checkpoints Custom Scripts (including an awesome explosives script at the Power Plant and a radio script that will tell you how far away a character is to the nearest 50m) Custom Actions Multiple Endings A rich story and in-game dialogue between characters (text only) Known Issues - Alexandros can take a very long time to meet you at the Rendezvous Point. You can check how far away he is using the Radio. If his distance doesn't update for a minute or so, he may be stuck and you might need to revert. This is really a BIS pathfinding issue, it should work fine most of the time though. Releases v1.5 23/11/2013 - Permanent fix to the mission-breaking bugs introduced by new BIS patches. - Added quad by the explosives. Use at your own peril. v1.4 22/11/2013 - Fix: Mission breaking bug introduced by BIS patch - Fix: Reinforcement script - Added: New complexity to the extraction sequence - Should now work on both Stable and Dev Branch, a permanent fix is incoming that should minimise the incidence of game-breaking bugs due to new versions of A3 (caused by ID indexing changing) v1.3 13/11/2013 - Changed: Radio Script now uses the Communication menu complete with icon and popup box. - Added: Custom radio sounds upon using radio script. v1.26 11/11/2013 - Changed: Establishing Shot to NVG - Added: Fail mission if you shoot Alexandros - Tweaked: Extraction task description to clarify that you have to drive yourself. v1.25 09/11/2013 - Added: Establishing Shot v1.2 08/11/2013 - Overhaul: Optional objective now much more realistic, good base feel, tweaked AI skill level (one-shot headshots at night, in the rain from 200m is not cool!) and new reinforcements script - Tweak: Hopefully fixed a rare bug where the plant was blown up by the time you get there. I can't replicate. v1.1 05/11/2013 - Fixed a bug that some Steam users were having whereby the insertion car just drives straight to the Rendezvous point instead of the insertion point. I was unable to replicate the bug but a user experiencing the issue reports it is now fixed (please let me know otherwise). v1.01 01/11/2013 - Updated for use on Stable branch (post release of Survive Campaign) - Minor tweaks to save points and text. v1.0 27/10/2013 - First public release - My fiancee nearly killed me given how much time I spent on this, so I hope you enjoy! Prerequisites None, however I recommend optionally; - a sound mod such as JSRS2.0 or SpeedOfSound. I prefer SpeedOfSound as the explosions sound amazing. Download - Now on Steam - Download via Dropbox - Armaholic mirror

Is there anyway to hardcode into a mission a custom item - in this case a Snickers bar? So I basically want a Snickers Bar Item to spawn into a car's inventory at a trigger. I'd like to have this as part of a mission file rather than a mod. I don't need to have a 3D model, just the name and preferably I could make an image icon in inventory.

keep up the good work Little Axemann!!! Really love what you have done so far and looking fwd to release. great job

Hi Rydygier Just want to say I finally finished the mission woohoo!! I had a great time playing and wanted to say thanks!! Feedback I really enjoyed in particular the "hunt down this guy and kill him to prove your loyalty missions" I think you should build in more of those but just with smaller rewards to keep things balanced. The final drive the body back to the boat part was a bit tedious and annoying when I got HMG'd / GMG'd without the chance to have periodic saves which is what you get with the church saves (a very nice feature by the way and means you need to stick to the objective). AAR Highlight for me was when I found a Hunter which was the perfect balance of speed and armour and I unwittingly hurtled into an enemy attack helicopter's attack range. The helicopter started blasting my Hunter and I managed to escape before it circled back around and knocked the vehicle out permanently. Then I took shelter until it went back to its base. I then stumbled upon a Titan AA and two rockets, and while on foot the AH came back for me... this time I took aim and the AA missile went off course due to counter-measures. The AH started to fire and I hid behind a building. It circled around and I fired with my last rocket, disabling but not destroying the helo. The helo desperately tried to swing around to deliver a death blow to its would be attacker but slowly lost altitude until I heard a satisfying BOOM from behind the building I was cowering behind. Great Arma moment! Mods I played the game with the following mods bCombat 1.7 (essential to avoid frustration at super-AI - both super-dumb and super-good) JSRS Blastcore

@StrongHarm Haven't managed to beat the mission yet, some feedback - When starting, I opted for a long take-off (turn left) despite orders. Unfortunately there is a bloody plane right in the taxi lane that I crashed into. Can you move this plane back slightly so its not blocking the taxi lane? - Couldn't hear any music - Everything seemed to work well but I always run out of cannon rounds from strafe runs before the SF troops start moving for extract. And then subsequently fail the mission although UAV is only showing 3 enemy troops alive in the grove. Q: What is the trigger to get them to move? Is it time based or once enemies have been taken out? Or once I'm out of ammo? Should I be saving my strafe runs for when they start moving? My thoughts are: if the SF troops are hemmed in and I've only partially eliminated the enemy force why would they start moving towards the extract choppers if the situation is still dire? In theory they could stay put, wait for me to RTB, re-arm and then take out the remainders. Also it would be really cool if there was fellow AI CAS although I can't imagine how you would programme the strafe run and make sure that they don't complete the mission for you. Overall its pretty great but just a few things that I think need clearing up.

babe midtex does stratis and altis... although I prefer the look of this one I think it is stratis only sadly - unless anyone can confirm?

A new StrongHarm mission? Thank you Easter bunny!! Been waiting for something like this from you and was just thinking yesterday how I was missing a good A-10 A-164 CAS mission in my life. Will come back with feedback/bugs.

Can I post an ad to sell my TrackIR 5? I figure this will be mutually beneficial for me and some lucky community member? I wanted to ask before posting in case its a no-go. I couldn't find a BUY & SELL forum on BI only OFFTOPIC

Well you're part of the EU so the wEUrld is your oyster... see what I did there. Come to London we have jobs or so I'm told...

For some reason, my oldest mission - made back in the Alpha days and updated multiple times since - has bugged out due to a BI update. The bug is really weird, whenever the player ejects from the boat (which they start the mission in). They are just frozen in the water. They can ascend/descend but can't move. The AI units under the players control, can eject and move. I can't figure it out... I've tried a different boat, scripted eject, manual eject etc. Its a really weird bug. Here's the mission - any ideas? http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=170448148

and... today fixed in stable.

fixed in dev build now... still bork in stable

One of my pet peeves is gun feel. I wish the small arms felt more realistic. I really love the gun feel in Insurgency - recoil handling etc seem to be great - I'd love to see that in A3 (unrealistic I know seeing as I understand A3 is all in real 3D so hard to tweak these things). TMR goes somewhat to fixing this but MP is where it's at and the vast majority don't permit TMR anyway. FYI: For those that haven't checked out Insurgency on Steam you definitely should. Its basically CS with a focus on reality so realistic bullet damage (better than A3) and tactical gameplay. Its by no means perfect and is based on the Source engine but its great for a quick drop-in game.

you mean like setpos below the water?

okay that's a good idea. This is an A3 bug, which was not present in prior versions. If I enter the water from the land the problem does not persist. Very annoying Please vote up this on bug tracker http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=17243

The whole mission is built around the TAVOR... and has always worked before? Also if I move into the water from the shore with this weapon it works... Can you think of a workaround which doesn't involve the shitty SDAR as all of hte combat is actually on land

I've never seen that error - try again? also if you are playing on dev branch please don't report errors as they may be dev branch related.

Okay so I've been playing a lot of campaign with v0.15 on Stable branch. Overall, its game changingly good. Whenever I die its like - "oh I see the tactical mistake I made there", not "WTF AIMBOT!!" One comment; My Group doesn't tend to break cover when in 'follow/regroup' particularly when in Combat mode. What I mean is if I run across a field, they will tend to stick to cover near our starting point and not cross the filed under any circumstance (I sped up to 4x and left for a minute to check). However if I give a move order next to me, they will come. Any idea why this is? Also, not sure if its mission design but they (& I) get stuck in combat mode, can't set to relax or aware.

EOD Squad 1 Features You are a member of an active EOD squad tasked with maintaining an explosive-free MSR Work under time pressure with a deputy to disable mines ahead of an advancing convoy Command an assault support unit in case you come under fire Polish: 2 Part mission, dynamic briefing, dynamic tasks, dynamic mine placement, time change, multiple possible outcomes, radio, supports I thought I'd make something a bit different and technical for my 3rd published mission and so I thought the concept of an EOD squad would be pretty cool! I've had great fun making it although with a few technical difficulties which should now be mostly ironed out. Thanks to Larrow for his help with some of the scripting. Rather than copy pasting the briefing here, just check it out in-game. Its fairly self-explanatory. Things to please report If any of the Tasks don't have a destination, please let me know. The destinations won't kick in until you've completed the prior task (intentional). If the enemy sets off any explosives please let me know. This shouldn't happen. If the convoy gets stuck (for more than a minute) then let me know where/why If you have deactivated all mines but the task doesn't complete If the task completes but you HAVEN't deactivated all mines in the area I've ironed out most of the bugs so none of the above should happen but then again, I'm playing it my way and you may uncover other bugs. Upcoming Features Better fail detection (won't fail all tasks) Better enemy AI behaviour CHANGELOG V1.7 - Released 01/10/2013 - Tweaked: mine zones - Tweaked: part 2 (UAV part) - Tweaked: music - cruising volume now available - Tweaked: other various V1.6 - Released 24/09/2013 - Fixed: Tasks now continue to other playable characters - Added dynamic music - plays while in the car only and at a certain late-mission event. - Added radio options to turn up/off the music coming from the car radio - Added to Steam, link below V1.5 - Released 22/09/2013 HUGE UPDATE - Part 2: A completely new task, once the main objective is complete... Hint: it involves UAV and mortars - You can now radio in for the convoy to stop/go in case they are moving too fast or you want to take your time. This also uses side chat in-game. No recorded sounds yet. - Added: a small interception force on the MSR. I'd recommend unloading your assault guy at each checkpoint. - Tweaked: ranks for playable characters to ensure you takeover from the other EOD guy if need be and can still control the assault guy. - Fixed: Task completing before all mines deactivated at each checkpoint. - New Known Issue: Tasks from Part 1 don't carry over to Part 2. Working on a fix. V1.1 - Released 02/09/2013 - Made it so that enemy aren't visible (setCaptive) to friendly AI (i.e. at the air base) until shot at and damaged by player. - Added mines to enemy ATV cargo for realism - Added tip in Briefing to indicate that mines only need to be deactivated not collected V1.0 - Released 01/09/2013 Steam Mission Link http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=181119048

I can confirm that using the damage multiplier has unintended consequences that can break SP Campaign missions. I think what is happening is that BIS are setting damage on some units and/or vehicles in order to make them look distressed, but when the damage multiplier is applied to that set damage it is causing the death/splosion of that unit. This happened to me on both Survive and Adapt campaigns, primarily in the base sections where Miller would die therefore breaking the mission. @Fabrizio - is it possible to link the damage multiplier to specific small arms ammo rather than overall damage? Like have 9mm, 45, 556, 762 etc do double damage specifically?

great job, can't wait for the update ---------- Post added at 19:28 ---------- Previous post was at 19:25 ---------- V2 and the Hotfix links are all down....

Had the same issue - I think its dev branch related but yet to verify. Just turn off bcombat at Maxwell and then turn it back on for the next mission (Tipping Point I think).

Yeah could be just a mission issue... I am running DEV so it could be that - anyone care to confirm? PS God am I struggling with the last part of Tipping Point (the final Survive mission)!!

@fabrizio - really great so far. I would suggest one of your goals should be that this mod is compatible with the SP campaign because it really adds so much to the experience. I'm playing through the Survive Campaign at the moment from the very start with bcombat 0.16. A lot of the time I think I've encountered a game breaking bug, but its just some enemy prone in a building somewhere hiding that I can't find. I've found only two game-breakers so far; Wet Work - after leaving the submersible, the other 3 divers just stayed static in the water. Restarting the mission fixed this issue. Maxwell (after Crossing Paths) - this is the scene where the camp is busted up. Completely broken with bcombat - the cut scene doesn't play out and the surviving NPCs are dead. Task menu and map can't be opened. I had to disable the mod to get past this mission.