[SP/Campaign] Dying Ember (resistance campaign)

[Undeceived 392]

 

Dying Ember

Author: Undeceived
Version: 1.8 (updated June 24th, 2017)

 

 

 

 

Note:
Please note that the following second and third chapters of the campaign won't be released anymore.
Of course the first chapter with its 10 missions will stay here. If you want to play it, give it a go - if you like story based and cinematic campaigns, you could have some nice hours with it - after all it has 10 missions. I'd be happy to get feedback and I'm still up to fix (critical) bugs. But be aware that there won't be a continuation of the story/campaign, which means that many open questions won't be answered and the end might feel like a teaser that never ever will be satisfied. 😄

For those few who liked the first chapter and were waiting for the story to continue - I'm sorry, guys... 😞 The thing is that I simply can't bring up enough motivation to get on with it, even though some missions of the next chapter are already in a somewhat playable status and even though the whole plot itself is more or less set up - including some nice twist and stuff.
Thanks to all who played and provided feedback.
I'd appreciate it if you'd try out my other missions/campaigns.

 

 

F E A T U R E S :

 

• Prequel to the official Arma 3 campaign "The East Wind" by Bohemia Interactive
• Story-driven SP resistance campaign
• Full voice acting (German)
• English or German subtitles (change Arma to the corresponding language in Steam)
• Many cutscenes, intros, outros and dialogues to absorb you into the story
• Multiple plots, interwoven in one overall storyline
• A mix of linear, straight-forward missions and wide and complex ones with many tasks
• Weapon pool (weapons and gear are forwarded and available in the next missions)
• Custom music (self-composed titles) + music from Arma 2 and Arma 3

 

 

 

 

D E S C R I P T I O N :

 

"Dying Ember" is (or rather was) was a SP campaign-project for Arma 3. As a prequel to Bohemia Interactive's "The East Wind", its plot is embedded into the Arma 3-universe and its timeline. The project was supposed to consist of three chapters, of which the first one (this one here) was a finalist in the "Make Arma Not War" contest.

 

This first chapter contains 10 missions. It portraits:

• The Kavala coup d'etat in 2026
• The following establishment of a military dictatorship by the Altis Armed Forces (AAF)
• The beginnings of a resistance movement

 

Pavlos, the main character, and his best friends experience the 2026 Kavala coup d'etat and fight the following totalitarian military regime, in order to get back their and Altis' freedom. They experience the fall of the democratic government and start resisting oppression and non-existent freedom of opinion, even though at first they have only themselves and almost no equipment.

 

The second and third chapters (which were cancelled) would have been set in the Altian civil war and the time of the Jerusalem Cease Fire of 2030.
 

 

 

 



C H A N G E L O G :

 

 

Version 0.2 (beta):

• First release with missions 1 to 4 (of 10)

Version 0.8 (beta):

• Missions 5 to 10 were added, plus some nice cutscenes
• Weapon pool added (restart of the campaign is needed!)
• Take equipment to next mission
• Many many bugs were fixed in missions 1-4
• Feedback to the player was tweaked (guidance, next steps, short summaries, etc.)

Version 1.0 (beta):

• Dubbing added
• Outro cutscene added
• Bug fixes

Version 1.2:

• Bug fixes
• Final preparations for the MANW contest

Version 1.3:

• Minor bug fixes and adjustions

Version 1.4:

• A number of bug fixes and tweaks

Version 1.5:

• Trying to fix the nasty and unreproducible weapon pool bug (gear disappearing in certain briefings)

Version 1.6:

• Hotfix as Bohemia changed the IDs of the editor objects in the Arma 3 Nexus update (1.54), which broke some triggers, which caused some showstoppers
• Some small bug fixes

Version 1.7:

• As the weapon pool bug (no weapons available in some mission briefings) still was there, I implemented a (more or less dirty) workaround. Should be fixed once and for all now.
• Some more bug fixes and optimizations

Version 1.8:

• Fixed bugs introduced by Arma patches
• Also optimized some parts, e.g. tuned down the enemy AI a bit and added animations here and there

 

 



D O W N L O A D S :

 

                    Dying Ember v. 1.8

 

 

                    Dying Ember v. 1.8

 

 

Please note:

If you like my missions and campaigns, please give feedback in form of comments and rate them! The biggest motivation comes from reading how you liked them and what I can improve.

 

 

 

[Pierre79 10]

Thanks for this campaign! I've played your excellent campaign "black lands" and I'm eager to pley this one. Sadly I don't have the time now. Why is it 0.2 beta? Are there missing missions? And will you compete in Make Arma not War?

Sorry I haven't seen the little text : 0.2 beta because there is 4 missions so far

[Variable 322]

Oh my gOD! An Undeceived campaign for Arma 3!

People, this guy is one of the best mission authors out there. His Arma 2 "Black Lands" campaign is probably the best SP campaign. If this campaign is anywhere close to that campaign, it's a must have.

Edited August 21, 2014 by Variable

[Undeceived 392]

Thanks! Well, these expectations of course increase the pressure! :icon_mrgreen: :icon_mrgreen: But I gave my best and there are 7 more missions to come.

At the moment I'm still struggling with the Steam Workshop. But I should get that sorted soon. After that I will set the MANW contest page up.

Have fun!

And THANKS @ Armaholic (Big) for the mirror! :)

Edited August 21, 2014 by Undeceived

[Undeceived 392]

I was pretty tired yesterday night, when I released it. I rewrote the whole campaign description in the first post - I suggest, you read it again. :D It's much more informative now. :)

[Brainbug 10]

in mission #4 the guy I'm following is stuck at a waypoint in 037128 after he crosses the street, walks up a hill and is supposed to turn left. He will either only walk on the spot like being on a treadmill, or walk up and down in a one meter small loop endlessly. Probably something to do with the rock that is close to that spot, you might want to move the wp a little, as this small hiccup stalls the whole campaign.

[Undeceived 392]

Thanks a lot, Brainbug! I'll change its position.

Does it ALWAYS happen?

If you want to continue the mission: I enabled the debug console in this version (press Esc). Type in: call { [] execVM "scripts\ZSgespr.sqf"; }; and it will continue at a later point (not far away from that buggy position).

[Brainbug 10]

I restarted the mission several times, with and without addons (I had feared that some AI-changing addon like TPW interfered, but no), and the guy always got stuck at the same spot.

I could fix it when I opened it in the editor and moved the wp to the south by a small bit, just a meter or so, then all works as intended.

BTW, I'd suggest to change starting position and angle, because the player will miss the scene you put behind him (civs and soldiers walking around, the Fennek etc.), if he just walks straight forward when the mission starts.

As a funny side note, when you turn around at the start immediately, you can run towards the Fennek that stops for 2 or 3 seconds and grab a rifle, which you can then use to gun down the AAF squad. But the rifle was useless to fix the bug, I couldn't "persuade" the guy to keep walking. *lol* With that and the TPW ambient vehicles, theoretically I could have mounted a car chase at the end, if the mission hadn't ended...

[Undeceived 392]

:D There's always a way to set the world on fire! ;) I'll take that equipment out, thanks for the hint!

[wiggum2 31]

Hey !

Do you use any script to get rid of the ludicrous accuracy of the AI ?

Cant stand the default ArmA "instant headshot with a AK from 400m distance" AI... ;)

[Variable 322]

Hey !

Do you use any script to get rid of the ludicrous accuracy of the AI ?

Cant stand the default ArmA "instant headshot with a AK from 400m distance" AI... ;)

Wiggum, what's your skillAI and precisionAI settings?

[wiggum2 31]

I use 0.5 for Skill enemy and 0.2 for precisionAI.

Still, without additional reduction of the aimingAccuracy skill i fell like the AI is far to accurate.

[Variable 322]

I use the following and it feels fine even in Vanilla. Have you tried using ASR AI? It makes the AI more human like in all aspects, including precision.

skillAI=0.69999999;

precisionAI=0.45000002;

[Undeceived 392]

Hey !

Do you use any script to get rid of the ludicrous accuracy of the AI ?

Cant stand the default ArmA "instant headshot with a AK from 400m distance" AI... ;)

Hi Wiggum, no, not really. Did you change something already and hopefully get better results?

Edited August 24, 2014 by Undeceived

[Brainbug 10]

Wiggum, you should use some AI enhancing addon(s). I use TPW which is great to increase AI reactiveness in close quarters, but with it I also don't experience the infamous 500m-headshot AI, they rather shoot a lot of bullets and hit much less often with it, so it is more realistic.

[IndeedPete 1038]

Hey, I've had a rather quick glance at this project today. Looks good so far, intense atmosphere and an interesting story / introduction. A few observations (may contain story spoilers):

• The cutscenes are really well-done (especially the rapid cuts) but sometimes feel too long and there are just too many. Would be good to have some interactive parts in between.
  
• Objects in cutscenes are popping up / rendering late. I must admit I'm running Arma on rather old hardware but still - pop-up objects and loading textures are crippling the atmosphere. Check the preloadCamera command - it's exactly what you need.
  
• Some lip movement couldn't hurt and would make it easier to identify the speaking person. Plus it makes the characters look more alive. Check the setRandomLip command.
  
• The protest scene was a bit too silent in my opinion. Some background noise couldn't hurt. Mumbling people, police sirenes - something like that.
  
• When I found the recently shot guy in the house I assumed it was the guy I was supposed to pick up. Since there was not much feedback on what to do now (or I've missed it) I simply ran towards the protest and around town until I - more or less randomly - entered my buddy's house and the mission continued.
  
• Some typos here and there, nothing major. Maybe an English native could cross-read your texts.
  
• I didn't know that I had to protect the other guy in the mission where you have to blow up the trucks and barrels. So I ran my usual selfish tactic (putting the AI between me and the enemy) and of course lost because he died. I've stopped at this point and will continue next time. ;)
  

Keep up!

Edited August 27, 2014 by IndeedPete

[Undeceived 392]

Thanks, IndeedPete! Good feedback! I'll take a look at the points you mentioned.

If you have examples of typos, please let me know.

And you showed me some nice commands I didn't know about! Thanks! :)

[IndeedPete 1038]

So, I've played the rest and there's little to bitch about. As usual, some observations:

• New Firepower: One of the guards didn't move; even when I opened fire on him. Probably just some Arma AI blackout.
  
• New Firepower: I've completely stuffed my team's backpacks, stolen AAF vests and uniforms but the task to steal stuff was still unchecked. I was unsure what to do now and when the APC showed up I panicked and fled to the boat. But the mission continued anyway so I was doing right I guess.
  
• New Firepower: There were some weapons in the post-mission cutscene I didn't steal. (Hey, I love details! :P)
  
• Do vests / protection gear get saved as well? I took an AAF vest in the sabotage mission and didn't have it equipped in New Firepower.
  
• Loved the pursuing mission, very atmospheric, especially with the custom music.
  
• Didn't notice any new typos. However, some sentences feel a little bit off. I understand what you're saying but I think it could be done better / in a more elegant way. Again, I'm not a native (German as well...) so I don't really have a qualified opinion; it's just what it felt like. It's not a problem in most other user-made missions but since you're focusing on a well-told and deep story with lots of dialogues and texts I think it does matter. Maybe some of the Brits or Americans here on the forums could have a look at your texts?
  

Looking forward to the full campaign!

Oh, and if you allow me to ask one question: I'm using your campaign PBO version but I saw you also have a steam workshop / addon version. Are there any problems / differences regarding hardcoded file paths between the two versions? And how much work is it to transfer it from the campaign PBO format to the addon version? I'm asking because I haven't uploaded my project to the steam workshop yet as to this day the game is not able to handle the Publisher's "Campaign" tag correctly; means the only way to publish a campaign on steam is as addon.

[Undeceived 392]

THANKS, Pete, this is a lot of helpful information!

Yes, the campaign PBO is different from the Steam Workshop download! The folder / file paths (and respectively the campaign description.ext) make the difference. If you want, you can subscribe to it, open it and check the difference. After getting the addon pbo ready, you have to upload it with Publisher from the BIS tools (this is how I did it at least).

If you have questions, just PM me.

[johnnyboy 3797]

Hi UD, Great to see you entered the contest. Based on the quality of your past work, I think you have a real shot at winning. Here's a little feedback:

- Great job on the elaborate cutscenes. That was a ton of work to take on.

- I assume voices are coming later. The German voices in your past work were very effective (even though I don't speak the language). Voices will add much to this effort.

Destroy Trucks Mission:

- It was probably my fault, but maybe the player instructions should be clearer. I totally messed this mission up, but the mission let me mess it up, so you might want to help foolish players like me. The recon team went off on their own, and I thought I was to move to the truck depot. So I go there, but I'm not getting any feedback from the Recon Team or anyone else. I creep around entire compound, but see no hole in the fence. I see the trucks in back, and a few guards inside compound. Still no feedback from teams. So I creep to front where there are 3 guardsin front and one guard behind gate. They are mostly statues, so I felt there was something wrong with the mission. So I crawled in compound even though I knew they could see me. They spotted me so I ran inside. They didn't shoot. I ran through buildings, placed the charge, back to building, blew up trucks, took guns from dead guard, killed remaining guards, all still with no comms with my teams. Then I proceeded to meeting place near depot, and finally some dialogue occurred with regards to attacking the depot. Obviously this dialogue did not know I had already blown it up.

Anyway, I know i missed an instruction, and the recon team was probably going to create a diversion to get guards away from gate, but it never happened for me. My recommendation is track where player is going, and if he moves too far off your scripted plan, add radio dialogue to bring him back to the plan.

I am working on a single mission to enter in the contest, but doubt I have time to finish it due to RL. :(

I voted for your mission of course!

Good luck to you sir!

[Undeceived 392]

Great to see you around, Johnnyboy! :) And thanks for the feedback and support over all these years! :) Yeah, the player is supposed to tell the attack team that he's ready (via the radio menu), but this seems not to be clear enough. I'll check if the player did it and will remind him if not (or will let him say it automatically).

Looking forward to read more from you! And to see a continuation of Last Tango In Bagango for tue contest!! :D (legendary mission! )

[Undeceived 392]

Hello everyone!

Finally I can release the next version of Dying Ember --> Version 0.8!

The download is in the first post.

The Steam Workshop update will follow soon (tomorrow I think).

Important note (v. 0.8):

Due to the implemented persistency stuff (weapon pool, take equipment over to next mission, etc.), a restart of the campaign is needed in version 0.8!

Changelog:

Version 0.8 (beta):

• Missions 5 to 10 (of 11) were added, plus some nice cutscenes
  
• Weapon pool added
  
• Take equipment to next mission
  
• Many many bugs were fixed in missions 1-4
  
• Feedback to the player was tweaked (guidance, next steps, short summaries, etc.)
  

Known problems:

• Weapon pool inconsistencies (due to Arma 3 bugs and in the weapon pool system and dirty workarounds... --> PLEASE VOTE HERE: http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=20792)
  

Edited October 4, 2014 by Undeceived

[IndeedPete 1038]

Ah, will try as soon as I have time!

[Undeceived 392]

Thanks!

Also, could a native English speaker cross read the dialogues, looking for strange expressions, etc.? :) This would be much appreciated!

[Undeceived 392]

Guys, could you help me with one thing, could you please vote for this ticket here?

http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=21026

Publisher doesn't update my campaign on the Steam Workshop, which is pretty annoying.

Thanks a lot!