[ALiVE, SP/COOP 1-8] Oasis of Marah

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

After the Iraqi government collapsed two years ago, ISIS has had a stranglehold on the province of Diyala. The Pentagon has intelligence their support is weakening and has decided now is the time to strike.

 

This is a mission based on the ALiVE conventional warfare template, however, it's a bit different because it utilizes the built-in Auto Tasking system for people that want to get right into the action. You can of course ignore these tasks, and strategically go patrolling and try to choke ISIS out of Diyala too if you wish. How you play is entirely up to you.

 

What I've done is created playground, where as a member of the US Army, you have access to all sorts of RHS weapons, vehicles, APC's, tanks and even some unmanned helicopters you can fly. The Auto Tasks can occur anywhere on the map, so choose your tools wisely and be advised ISIS has heavy machinery of their own, and the further west you go, the more dangerous things can get.

 

Although solo play is encouraged, the mission should only be played in LAN or on a local hosted server. 

 

Features include:

 

CAS, Logistics and Artillery support

Auto-Tasks

Ambient civilian traffic and animals (provided by Spyderblack723)

Friendly AI Recruitment Centers

The Muslim Call to Prayer

Loadout Managers where you can customize and transfer gear

Vehicle and helicopter resupply stations (provided by Xeno)

Multiple bases to respawn from

Hand-crafted ISIS compounds and camps

Zeus Game Master for Admins

Headless client support

 

Mods:

CBA*

ALiVE*

Spyder Addons*

RHS USAF*

RHS AFRF*

Project OPFOR*

CUP Core*

Diyala Province, Iraq*

 

Note: * means I'm subscribed to the Workshop version of the mod

 

Saving your progress: This mission uses a local saving feature, which is accessed in the esc menu and initiated by the "server save and exit" function. To continue your save, simply act as if you're starting the mission over again and your data will load automatically. To start the mission over, change the PBO name or execute "call ALiVE_fnc_ProfileNameSpaceClear" in the debug menu. This mission should only be played on a local hosted server, even if you're playing alone with AI. If you want to play the mission on a dedicated server, for now, unpack the mission, open the Data module, and change the local saving option to "cloud."

 

Be aware that Diyala is very FPS heavy. Also, the water canal on the map can cause some issues with AI but I've done my best to at least mark where the crossings are. In the event your AI teammates can't get across some sections, use the Commander Tablet (app key by default with a laser designator in your inventory) to teleport yourself and the AI over.

 

Download link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ykz9akdk7051jzw/Oasis_of_Marah.DYA.pbo?dl=0

 

Changelog:

 

04/10/2017

Tweaked: Rebalanced the mission due to a new index of the map

Tweaked: CQB percentage has been lowered from 5% to 2%

Removed: AuTigerGrad's ambient sounds have been removed

03/29/2017

Tweaked: All custom and handcrafted objectives have been replaced with ALiVE generated objectives for balancing and performance purposes

03/19/2017

Added: Manned CQB turrets and mortars have been added

Tweaked: Additional performance improvements have been made

02/27/2013

Added: The squad leader now has a Combat Support Tablet in his inventory as a failsafe due to reports of Commander Actions not being available with only the LaserDesignator in his inventory

Tweaked: Fixed issue with ALiVE initialization breaking on the first attempt to load mission

Tweaked: The US Army now has one additional Armored group by default (instead of two)

02/23/2017

Added: The US Army now has two additional Armored groups by default

02/22/2017

Tweaked: CAS support now have one respawn each. Transport choppers now have infinite respawn.

02/20/2017

Tweaked: The RG33 MRAP's have been replaced with M1232 and M1237 variants

Tweaked: Approximately 100 frivolous objects have been deleted to increase performance

Tweaked: Virtual AI spawn distance has been reduced from 1100 meters to 1050 meters 

Tweaked: AI Commanders will now only attack 5 simultaneous objectives instead of 7

Tweaked: CQB density has been reduced from 10% to 5% in an effort to increase performance

01/31/2017

Tweaked: Updated to ALiVE 1.2.9 standards

01/28/2017

Fixed: A bug causing persistence to fail has been fixed

Tweaked: Preplaced ISIS roadblocks have been set to "low" instead of "none"

01/25/2017

Added: The Muslim Call to Prayer has been added

01/24/2017

Removed: Real Weather has been removed and replaced with "Arid" due to persistence issues

01/19/2017

Initial release

 

[Mariscal1972 2]

 

Update OPFOR Version: 0.2.3 and the error, when starting the mission is:

 

Bad version 73 in file "po_vehicles\lr\kw_lr_mg.p3d"

 

My OPFOR was out of date, however the error persists.

 

Maybe it will be my system ...

 

Thank

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

@Mariscal1972 One of the moderators just did me a favor and played Oasis of Marah for around 20 minutes just to see if there was a problem with my mission(s). It worked absolutely fine for him.

 

One of your mods is out of date. I have no doubt in my mind. Please subscribe to all of the mods on Steam Workshop or my missions won't work, because clearly one of your mod downloads from where ever you are getting it from is either corrupted or not current.

 

It is not your computer. It is one (or several) of your mods not being the newest version. 

[Savage_Donkey 243]

On 1/29/2017 at 9:23 AM, Mariscal1972 said:

 

Update OPFOR Version: 0.2.3 and the error, when starting the mission is:

 

Bad version 73 in file "po_vehicles\lr\kw_lr_mg.p3d"

 

My OPFOR was out of date, however the error persists.

 

Maybe it will be my system ...

 

Thank

Usually when I get that error its because I was running an older version of Arma 3.  Are you sure you're running 1.66?

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

1 hour ago, Savage_Donkey said:

Usually when I get that error its because I was running an older version of Arma 3.  Are you sure you're running 1.66?

Thanks for the reply. You would be correct. I had PM conversations with both people talking about these kinds of errors in my missions and they were both using out of date mods or game versions.

[Mariscal1972 2]

Hi

 

Upgrade to version 1.66 and found all mission!!!

 

The new game drop FPS, it is normal in the new version??

 

Thank for you help!!!

 

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Yes it's normal. It's the map. Diyala is really tough on FPS. I'm hoping once 64-bit releases, we'll see some improvements on maps like this one. If not, I'll edit the mission further and do my best to optimize it more.

[Savage_Donkey 243]

 Would you consider replacing the RG-33 with the new RG-33L?  IMO, it looks better and actually protects occupants from IEDs (DUKE antenna).

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

9 minutes ago, Savage_Donkey said:

 Would you consider replacing the RG-33 with the new RG-33L?  IMO, it looks better and actually protects occupants from IEDs (DUKE antenna).

Yeah sure I'll take a look. I have a plan to update this mission, but I'm waiting for 64-bit to see how much I need to focus on performance related tweaks.

 

If anyone has any additional requests in the meantime, I'm all ears.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

11 hours ago, Savage_Donkey said:

 Would you consider replacing the RG-33 with the new RG-33L?  IMO, it looks better and actually protects occupants from IEDs (DUKE antenna).

Ok so I was bored and figured I'd just go ahead and push a quick update. I didn't see an RG-33L, but I assumed since you basically were asking for a more IED protectant 6x6 MRAP, the Army M1232 and M1237's would do.

 

I actually like these a lot better than the smaller RG33's I was using so thanks for the suggestion. 

 

I'm just packing up the PBO as we speak so I'll bump the thread and update the changelog here in a sec once the update is live.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Updated. Aside from the MRAP change made in the post above, I've also implemented some minor performance adjustments. Full notes are in the changelog.

[froggyluv 2135]

Best fun Ive had in a long time good job man. Those little RHS buggies are too bad ass doing little hit and run missions with. Also such a great map, overall nice showcase of all of this + Alive.

 

PS:This map looks way better with a darker contrasts imo, BI seems to have overbrightened everything which takes away some of the mood.

 

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

14 hours ago, froggyluv said:

Best fun Ive had in a long time good job man. Those little RHS buggies are too bad ass doing little hit and run missions with. Also such a great map, overall nice showcase of all of this + Alive.

 

PS:This map looks way better with a darker contrasts imo, BI seems to have overbrightened everything which takes away some of the mood.

 

Haha yeah man. When RHS added those buggies I knew fate had stepped in. :)

 

I'm glad you're having fun and thanks for the feedback.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Quick update. I had forgotten during the last edit to give CAS support a respawn each. I had meant to do this but it had slipped my mind. Considering the mission is designed to take awhile, I felt there was way too much pressure on keeping you 4 CAS vehicles in-tact, especially if you were unfortunate enough to lose one early on.

[Savage_Donkey 243]

I've noticed that there's an imbalance concerning armor.  While I've seen multiple T-72 platoons capture the main airport and other objectives, I haven't seen any American armored vehicles, leaving only Javelins and other AT for the infantry squads to defend themselves.

 

Also, could you consider adding a support tablet to the player's inventory at the start?  

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

2 hours ago, Savage_Donkey said:

I've noticed that there's an imbalance concerning armor.  While I've seen multiple T-72 platoons capture the main airport and other objectives, I haven't seen any American armored vehicles, leaving only Javelins and other AT for the infantry squads to defend themselves.

 

Also, could you consider adding a support tablet to the player's inventory at the start?  

The way ALiVE profile spawning works, a lot of what spawns on mission start will be semi-randomized, and this is by design. For example, just now I tested this, and on attempt one, the US Army started with 8 Armored groups (so quite a lot!). On attempt two, we had 3 motorized and 2 armored groups, so I guess I can definitely sympathize that it would certainly suck to get "short straw" like I did in the second example.

 

As a failsafe, I went ahead and updated the mission and manually added (and virtualized) two additional, four-tank M1A1SA groups which will immediately be available to the player. So now no matter what happens, you will always start with at least these and potentially quite a bit more. Though be advised, with the nature of the simulated battle speeds, which can be quite quick depending on a few things, you *might* lose these armored groups early on depending on what ISIS spawns with. But keep in mind, since I've virtualized them and added them to the overall force pool, you will definitely get them (and probably more) back when logistics replenishes your killed friendlies. So anyway, this update should help.

 

If you're not happy with this less invasive approach, and you still feel like there's an imbalance, I can shift the overall scaled weighting of the US Army spawns so let me know what you think.

 

Regarding combat support and combat logistics, I have tied them to the item "LaserDesignator," which the player one (squad leader) slot has in his possession already by default. So you should have access to both of these without having to visit the Virtual Arsenal at all. Is that not the case for you? It should be. I just checked. 

[Savage_Donkey 243]

28 minutes ago, HeroesandvillainsOS said:

Regarding combat support and combat logistics, I have tied them to the item "LaserDesignator," which the player one (squad leader) slot has in his possession already by default. So you should have access to both of these without having to visit the Virtual Arsenal at all. Is that not the case for you? It should be. I just checked. 

Usually to call support, I hit the alive key (delete) to bring up the commander tablet thing, which then I can use to call CAS, arty, or transport.  Is there a better way of doing this?

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

53 minutes ago, Savage_Donkey said:

Usually to call support, I hit the alive key (delete) to bring up the commander tablet thing, which then I can use to call CAS, arty, or transport.  Is there a better way of doing this?

That's really the only way that I know of. The default key is "app menu" and not "delete," but yeah, we're talking about the same thing. In all of my missions, I tie access to all of these options to the possession of a laser designator being in your binoculars slot. So on mission start, because I always give the lead player a laser designator, "commander actions" should always appear. At least for the "squad leader."

 

Is commander actions showing up in the tablet for you? 

[Savage_Donkey 243]

It doesn't show up on the menu until I go to the arsenal and add a support tablet to my inventory.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

14 minutes ago, Savage_Donkey said:

It doesn't show up on the menu until I go to the arsenal and add a support tablet to my inventory.

That doesn't make sense. I just tested this. Not only did I look at it in-game but I verified the item defined in the modules too (class name 'LaserDesignator').

 

I'll investigate. Thanks for the heads up.

 

EDIT: Are you selecting the Squad Leader #1 slot? I mean, a laser designator is on you when you initially spawn in, correct?

 

 

[Savage_Donkey 243]

Yes, there's a laser designator in the inventory and I'm squad leader, but no commander actions.  The only other mods I have loaded are cba, JSRS, Enhanced movement, Spec4gear, MGP, and bcombat; I'll try to verify it tomorrow when I can without those mods loaded.

 

Should I have the laser designator equipped in my hands, then access the menu?

 

Update-  Okay, I downloaded the new version and tried it out and it works fine I guess. I'll try and experiment with the balancing later.  

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

1 hour ago, Savage_Donkey said:

Yes, there's a laser designator in the inventory and I'm squad leader, but no commander actions.  The only other mods I have loaded are cba, JSRS, Enhanced movement, Spec4gear, MGP, and bcombat; I'll try to verify it tomorrow when I can without those mods loaded.

 

Should I have the laser designator equipped in my hands, then access the menu?

 

Update-  Okay, I downloaded the new version and tried it out and it works fine I guess. I'll try and experiment with the balancing later.  

It's possible you may have downloaded the version where I just added the combat support tablet to your backpack as a failsafe. Lol. Not really sure why just having the designator is not working for you (it should), but it's easy enough for me to add the tablet to your backpack too. So for now, it's updated with both items in your inventory.

 

However, I just caught what I'm assuming is a rare bug, which I'm going to figure is causing your balancing problems. I have noticed a highly unusual issue, which has plagued me in certain ALiVE missions for months now, where suddenly on mission start, some units will not spawn until you try to play the mission again. It's weird and it happens suddenly.

 

Long story short, if you don't hear gunfire immediately after spawning into the mission, something went wrong and the US Army will not have spawned the correct number of profiles (which could easily account for your opinion that you don't have enough armored units).

 

I've opened a ticket with the ALiVE devs and I'll post back once I find a solution. Again, I think it's a rare bug (potentially really rare because I haven't seen it in awhile) but it's definitely there so thanks for bringing it to my attention.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Ok, sorry for the delay. I couldn't do much until CBA updated, which they just did.

 

I've fixed the issue with ALiVE not initializing properly on the first attempt to load the mission (which was severely lowering the amount of friendly groups around the map), and also gave the Squad Leader a Commander Tablet in his backpack by default as a failsafe due to a report that the LaserDesignator wasn't giving access to Commander Actions on mission start. 

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Update. Manned CQB turrets and mortars have been added. General performance improvements have also been made. This ALiVE update also fixed an issue where the mission wasn't initializing properly, which was impacting game balance.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Update. All handcrafted and custom objectives have been replaced with more performance (and random) friendly ALiVE generated objectives.