WCG

OK, I tried the latest version, and it worked great. Still lots of fun! It seemed harder than the other times I've played it, but I liked the map changes. (The second time I tried it, I won the match without dying even once, which is a near miracle for me!) Keep in mind that I usually play this as a single-player game, or with one other person (which is how we did it yesterday). And I'm also a complete newbie, so that might make a difference. But I like the mission as quick practice or as a change of pace when we've been playing co-op. What would I like to see? Well, I'd really like to see random maps, if that's possible. That's one reason I enjoyed the new map, I think - because it was new. If it's possible (it might not be), I'd like to see differences each time I play it, so I can't get too comfortable with a particular map. Also - and this might just be me - I'd like the option to set the penalty for death a little higher. I think dying should be significant, so I'd like to see us lose two points when we die, not just one. But I know this won't be universally popular (even the guy I play with will hate it, probably - heh, heh). Anyway, thanks again for this. I have no interest in death match games in general, but this is really nice! Bill

GribTavish, thanks for the reply. I've sent you a PM. Yukmout, note that I was talking about regular co-op missions in Arma 3. You don't have to buy a gun in those. Wasteland is a mod, basically, and deathmatch is a different game mode from co-op play. It's all a matter of personal preference, of course, and many people play all of these. But my original offer here was just for casual co-op play. As I noted, I'm a newbie, myself, and just looking for practice - and maybe get to know other players with a similar play style to my own. I'm not ready to join a group, so I was thinking just a casual game of co-op. Bill

Another123, I just wanted to say that I've been skipping missions, for now, which require add-ons. It just seems hard enough already to get things working, with the game still in alpha. But this one looks good, because I need missions for a small number of players (there's normally just two of us). And as I run out of vanilla missions to try, I'll definitely come back. I've made a note of the link. Thanks, Bill

OK, we played 2a finally (again, the "easy" version, supposedly), and it was a lot of fun. But the AI is crazy in this alpha version of Arma 3, isn't it? Again, there were just two of us, both newbies. We tried this as an infantry mission first, and it's just nuts. The minute you open fire - at night, under good cover, with a sound suppressor on your rifle - the AI just kills you. We can hide from them until we take a shot. Then we're dead. They can apparently see us anywhere, and they're all crack shots. Then I noticed that one of the trucks at the starting camp had a machine gun on it, so we drove that into the enemy base and killed them all. As tough as they are on infantry, the AI seem to be absolutely hopeless against vehicles. Half the time, we'd be right next to them and they'd be looking off in some other direction. The worse thing we faced were flashlights. When we ran out of ammo, we just grabbed one of their trucks - which they didn't have sense enough to use themselves. Anyway, between the two of us, we killed 66 enemy soldiers. That's the easy version of the mission? I can't imagine how many are in the difficult version! :) As I say, it was a lot of fun, even though it felt like cheating, since the AI was so inept. But without that one truck (the only vehicle available which had a weapon), we would have given up very quickly, I'm sure. Anyway, thanks for the missions! Bill

Indeed, I think it might be one of my favorites, now. But one thing I forgot to mention: I played as a medic, but I didn't get a medic kit. (Just a first aid kit, like everyone else. And only one. I used it to heal an AI character, and then found out we couldn't revive players without a first aid kit. Doh!) I don't care about about the revive issue. That's up to you. But a medic is pretty useless without being able to heal. Still, it was lots of fun. I'll be playing it again. Thanks! Bill

OK, I tried it, though it didn't go well. :) I think that's just because I had trouble seeing anything, even with night-vision goggles. In some circumstances, night-vision goggles seem to work fine, but this whole mission was just very, very dim. Of course, that might be my eyes. But I really don't enjoy peering at my monitor, trying to figure out what I'm seeing. At any rate, one of my guys died immediately, right when we landed, because they didn't spot any enemies and I didn't either, not until after he was shot at close range. The remaining two of us made it to Agios loannis, right outside the building where the hostages were supposed to be, and I tried to sneak around, but we didn't get very far. My AI buddy died quickly. I didn't last much longer, because the AI could see me better than I could see them, even though they weren't supposed to have night-vision goggles. Well, I was able to shoot a couple of them, but then someone shot me. Basically, I had two problems with the mission, but they might both be a matter of personal preference (so other people might not have the same problems). As I said, I don't enjoy peering at the screen, trying to make out dim shapes. My eyes aren't that great, I suppose, and it's just not any fun for me. The second thing is that I really don't enjoy long journeys cross-country without anything happening. I play a lot of missions like that, where you have to walk, or run, for some time before you can get to where something is happening, but I never enjoy it. In this case, I'm sure if we'd taken the wrong route, something would have happened (something unpleasant, likely). There was a reason to be stealthy, I know. But we didn't actually have to sneak, because visibility was so bad. We just had to bypass obvious locations of the enemy. So it was just something which had to be done to get to the good parts. I'm sure that wouldn't have been so bad if we hadn't been killed so quickly at Agios loannis. But it seemed like we'd be facing a similar journey if we'd been successful in rescuing the hostages, too, and I wasn't looking forward to that. I'd rather be inserted closer to our destination, so we could avoid the tedium of foot-travel. (Or give us off-road vehicles, so we could drive there.) Again, that's probably just personal preference. I understand that this is a stealth mission, and I suspect it's just not my cup of tea. I suppose I could change gamma settings and try it again, but your other mission just suits me better, I think. (I really did enjoy that one.) Sorry to be such a downer! Bill

OK. I just didn't have a clue what was going on. We seemed to have people scattered across the map, and it was harder to manage any of them than normal. (And I'm pretty bad at managing them in any case!) Playing it backwards would have worked better, I'm sure. The problem with getting explosives from the AI is that they're usually dead by the time we get where we need them. :) I don't know. Maybe it's just me, but convenience factors really help in a mission. It's simply annoying to need explosives and not have them, and if you've got crates of ammo lying around, why not a convenient crate with explosives, too? What about the task not completing when we blew up the tower at the Kamino firing range? Was there something else we were supposed to do there to destroy communications? Thanks, Bill

OK, we gave this a try - just two newbies, so take this with a grain of salt. :) This was very similar to another mission I've played a few times (not your fault, I know), but in this one, the AI apparently respawn when killed. But I don't know where they respawn, because they ended up strung out across the map. Frankly, it was very confusing, and I'd recommend not respawning AI at all. Also, there weren't any convenient vehicles (which is always a nice addition to a mission, if you have to travel and there's no real reason otherwise). But even more important, there weren't any convenient explosives, even though we had to take out communication towers. There were ammo crates, but that's all we could find. It's just a lot more fun when you can find explosives where you need them! Finally, we couldn't get some of the tasks to complete. The first, landing at the beach, wasn't a big deal. But after blowing up the communication tower at the Kamino firing range, that task still stayed unfinished. We didn't get the last task completed at all, because we didn't have enough explosives (so we just quit then). We tried using rockets, but without much success. I don't mean to seem overly critical. If you just add some handy explosives and stop the AI from respawning, that would make a big difference. It is a lot like other missions, but Stratis is a small island, isn't it? :) Thanks, Bill

SP_Operation Hashpoint and SP_Operation Hackpoint? I played the former (several times, in fact), but I almost overlooked this one, due to the similarity of titles. I'll try this sometime, but you might think about renaming it. :) Bill

Personally, I don't want anything but to thank you for this. It's lots of fun, especially when I need a break from co-op missions (or just a break from life). Thanks! Bill

I don't know, but I do the same thing in Windows 7 and it works fine for me. I'd double-check that you put them in the MPMissions folder, rather than the Missions folder. I suspect something simple like that. (They were Arma 3 missions, right? Not Arma 2?) Also, note that MP Missions won't show up under "Scenarios" in the game. That's just for SP missions. However, they should show up when you start a new multiplayer game yourself (using either LAN or Internet). If not, try a few more missions. It might just be a bad file. Good luck!

This was a lot of fun, though very tough for two newbies. We didn't get very far, mostly because I lost all sound in the game (an intermittent problem I'm having), so I had to close Arma 3 and start it up again. We weren't expecting the landing site to be so dangerous, and with just the two of us, we couldn't seem to use the gun on the boat. Then we respawned into the center of the enemy fort, which was quite exciting (but also unexpected). :) When we tried to push up the road, we found enemies everywhere, all crack shots. And there were supposed to be minefields on either side, so we couldn't flank them very well. (I don't know if there really are mines there, since I ended up wandering quite a ways into one of the minefields.) But as I say, it was fun, and we would have continued if it hadn't been for my sound problem in Arma 3. We'll give it another try some other time. Thanks! Bill

OK, that was a lot of fun! We tried it again, just us two newbies, and it was challenging, but fun. I was the lone survivor of the entire squad, and we actually rescued one hostage (the other was shot after we released him). The only issue we had was that the mission didn't end. But I didn't take the boat all the way to the ship (according to the map, at least). After awhile, it just didn't seem worth our time to sail any further, so we ended it manually. (As I say, it was only me and one hostage at that point.) Thanks! Bill

FYI, I just played this again. I blew up the two helicopters and the building, with no problem. The task was completed, and the new task showed up fine. PS. The first time I played this, I checked out the building and my guys followed me inside. Then, I had a heck of a time getting them out of the building again. I had to lead them each individually, and I still couldn't remove a couple of them. So I just blew them up. :) This time, I kept my guys well away from that building!

OK, that makes more sense. :) Thanks. I still haven't had time to try the mission, but I will. (And I'll switch to the latest version.) Bill

Thanks! I finally had time to try these. (Sorry, I can't remember the names of the individual missions.) I was surprised to find in the first two missions, with squads, that I wasn't the leader of the squad. Unfortunately, when an AI is the leader, they all just rush ahead and get killed, leaving me on my own. Maybe that was the point? At least, they all died very quickly in the first mission I tried, with the small squad. And I didn't get to the end of it. (I didn't much like the weapon I was given, although I did shoot down that helicopter with it, which kind of surprised me.) In the mission with the larger squad, most of them died very quickly, but there were two AI still alive by the end of it. Still, in both cases, I would have much preferred being the squad leader. (Don't get me wrong, I still had fun.) The third mission, trying to steal that armored car by myself, was really neat. I tried it twice (since I died rather quickly the first time), and I was pleased to find that the time of day and insertion point changed. I'm sure the location of the car is randomized, too, isn't it? I must admit that it was a bit frustrating, since I searched the town over and over again to find the vehicle. I was almost out of ammunition, and ready to give up, when I finally found it (and got too anxious, so I was shot and killed right then). My frustration, though, was mostly because I didn't realize I had to search the whole town for the vehicle. I wasn't expecting that, or I would have searched from the beginning, starting at my insertion point. So I'll definitely play this one again. Oh, one request: Could you give us a scope for our rifle? That wouldn't be as useful at night, maybe, but it would have made a huge difference during my first attempt, during the daytime. Anyway, I did have fun with these. Thanks! Bill

SF? Science Fiction? Probably not, huh? :) Sorry, this is probably a dumb question, but I'm just a newbie. I've downloaded the mission (haven't tried it yet), but I don't have a clue "SF" means. Thanks, Bill

Nice. Is this going to be single-player or co-op? I'd be interested in both, but I'm always looking for co-op missions I can play with just a few people (there have only been two of us, so far). Good luck!

This was a lot of fun. Thanks! Two of us (both newbies) tried the morning mission first, since I like to see what I'm doing. :) We found that pretty tough (we died all too often), but lots of fun. I would have much preferred scopes on our rifles, since I hate those red dots. And a daylight mission would seem made for snipers, right? (I tried scavenging a rifle from an enemy corpse, but then didn't have any extra ammunition for it.) More importantly, we couldn't use grenades until we rearmed at an enemy corpse. But I've seen that problem in several missions, not just this one. It's probably an Arma 3 issue. Then, last night, we tried the night version, and that was a lot easier (although the grenade problem showed up here, too). I'd swear that there were far fewer enemies in that one. Or maybe it's just that we knew where they were? But no, I remember killing a guy in a particular, distinctive building, and there wasn't anyone there, this time. Also, we could see enemies in windows easier at night, so that helped. Bottom line: This was a lot of fun! It was one of the few missions we were eager to try again (which is why we went back and tried the night version). However, it wasn't quite as much fun the second time. That's probably normal, but maybe you could randomize things a bit more? Even put the target in different locations, maybe? Also, it would help to have patrols throughout the town. Actually, that seemed to be the case in the morning owl mission, but not in the night owl one. But that might be just the way it worked out that time. I don't mean to sound critical, since this was a fun mission - and we really need more short, simple missions for two players (at least, until we find more people to play with us - heh, heh). I really liked having enemies in buildings, because you couldn't just ignore the buildings that way, and you always had to worry about being shot from windows. With a little more randomization, and the potential for enemies everywhere in town, we'd definitely enjoy playing it again. Thanks! Bill

Thanks for the list, KNG. We tried "Operation Spartan Star" last night - lots of fun! There were just two of us, and the two AI who came along kept getting killed, so they'd respawn back at the beginning. Thus they spent most of the mission walking cross-country to rejoin our party. :) But they weren't missed (except, maybe, for the medic, occasionally). With the mortar, and the scope on my rifle, it was just about right for us - easier than your later missions. In fact, it's the only mission we've actually completed. (Again, we're just two newbies.) Thanks for another enjoyable mission! Bill PS. In your later missions, enemies can be almost anywhere, it seems. I mean, they're not restricted to certain locations (or, if they are, there are lots of locations). That makes them harder, because you have to stay on your toes throughout the mission. (I remember trying to flank one location, far to the east, only to aggravate soldiers who wouldn't have been anywhere near the action, otherwise.) But I like that,... even though I really don't need harder missions! I just like that I can't walk through the countryside completely unconcerned until I get close to the target. (I also like random elements, so we can play a mission more than once without getting the same experience.) This mission - your first, apparently - was more like the typical mission in that respect. I'm not criticizing it, because it was lots of fun, and it was something we two newbies could complete without dying too often. :) No, it's just that I think you've improved on your mission-development abilities since then. As much as I enjoyed this mission, there are features in your later missions that really add to the experience. In those, you can encounter patrols almost anywhere, so you can't just idly run from place to place. (So far, we haven't played any of these more than once, so I don't know how they vary on replay.) Edit: Oops, I forgot a couple of things about the mission: (1) That first enemy base was almost completely undefended. I'm not sure if that was intentional. (2) The enemy helicopter apparently crashed on its own. At least, we completed that part of the mission without doing anything, and we never saw it again.

No, the flares worked fine. I'm just piss-poor at spotting people, especially when they're trying to shoot my head off. :) I could see just fine with my scope - just not quickly enough to avoid the steady stream of bullets coming my way from multiple locations. Bill

It was more that, with just one person at a location (with the other watching the opposite side), a ton of enemy shoot at you the minute you lean out and give them a target. They're not easy to spot in the dark, so I wouldn't be able to do anything before I was shot. Of course, I find the AI to be crack shots, anyway, and able to spot us no matter how well hidden we might be (while I really struggle to see them). So that isn't unique to this mission, not at all. Yes, I got that. In fact, I stayed alive well enough just hunkering down on the second floor, away from windows, covering the stairs. But my teammate ran out of respawns before the helicopter event (I guess he got stuck respawning right in front of the enemy), so it wouldn't have been much fun for him if I'd continued with the mission. We'll try it again sometime. And now that I think of it, maybe we should be playing these on 'Recruit,' rather than 'Normal.' I don't know what difference that makes, but we're definitely just recruits. :) Thanks, Bill

OK, that makes sense. And it sounds like a neat idea. As we recruit some more old farts to play with us, we'll have to give this another try. Frankly, as newbies, we just need the shooting practice, and this gave us plenty of that anyway, so we still had a good time. KNG, how many missions have you created? I've become a big fan of the missions I've found so far, but I'm not sure how to search for others. Is there a link to a single location that at least lists the Arma 3 missions you've made? Bill

Two of us (both newbies) tried the co-op mission today. Despite the fog, the AI spotted the boat before we ever got to the landing point. And even on land, they seemed to have no problem spotting us, even crawling in the grass, even in heavy fog, while we couldn't see them at all. But the biggest problem was that the pilot escaped before we were anywhere close. I don't see how we could have gotten there in time, even if there hadn't been any enemies and we'd run all the way. Frankly, I don't have much interest in trying it again, because we failed the mission when it had barely begun, it seemed. I mean, it wasn't even close enough to encourage another try. Of course, as I say, we were both newbies. And I don't, myself, tend to like missions with time limits. So it's probably not my kind of mission in the first place. I hate to sound so negative. Four skilled players would certainly have done better than the two of us, and they would have more positive comments, I'm sure. Thanks.

We just played this (two players, both newbies). It was fun, especially at first, though we never found anything to ambush in that first task. I'm not sure what was supposed to happen there. We armed ourselves at the virtual ammo box, and then went up the road towards the town, killing the enemy (and a couple of trucks). But that armored truck never moved, so I still don't know what we were supposed to ambush. Note that the AI was completely broken in some cases. We couldn't kill one guy at all, even walking right up next to him and blasting away. But he didn't react to us in the slightest. Others would just let us shoot their companions, and then them, without reacting either (though those enemy would die). And we'd see soldiers spawning right in front of us and instantly falling over dead. But there were plenty of enemy who did shoot back, especially for just the two of us. That was a lot of fun. But after awhile, we got tired of walking back from the spawn point, so we just quit. (Note that we did find two trucks we could take, not too far away, but it was a long mission, and we got further and further away all the time. Still, I enjoyed it. I still like Operation Fallen Star the best, but this was fun. And if we'd had more players with more experience, we probably wouldn't have died so often. (With just two people, it's harder to revive one of us without the other dying, too.) Thanks!