fa_c40_holdtheline

[Eagle_Eye]

My first mission for FA, ( and my first for a large group of players ), so lemme have it. All criticism welcome.

Some stuff I can tell straight away that is problematic.
- The static HMGs are far too observant, im thinking a drastic takedown in ammo supply might be in order, or just straight up deletion.
- When the town is secured, there should be a hint, both to inform the attackers to turn and dig in, and also to let the reinforcements join. Im not sure if this actually worked.
- A timer on the counterattack would be nice, I was just rushing the end of the mission. (Basically you need to hold the town until Nato shows up - 15-20 mins).
- Would like to hear from someone in Bravo squad. It seems the attack on the town went ok. Was it too hard/easy, and when the counterattack started, was it too much too soon.
- Some of the counterattack timers should probably be tweaked, so that there is time to regroup and rearm once the assualt is complete.
- I completely overlooked the fact that the enemies would mercilessly gun down the paratroopers. Maybe there is a way to sort this. One Idea I had was to bring in the reinforcements by boat.
-FIA HAT should probably be MAT, since the HAT tripod bugs out a lot.

Obviously bearing in mind that alpha squad should have been able to join bravo in the town, I thought the defense seemed to go well.

Things I liked:
-I think the town and approach is pretty cool in and of itself. The time of day and fog give a cool atmosphere. The NATO shelling is maybe just confusing, and could be removed. It was really just a test in my head to give a bit more happening outside of the players control.
-Infantry should probably have binocs/scopes, because there is a recon element needed on approach to the town.
-Im relatively pleased with the placement of roadblocks/garrisons, but obviously numbers might need to be tweaked.
-I like the idea of the CO being able to choose the RV point at the beginning of the mission, as it opens up the AO and gives some different stuff to try. However each approach probably needs to be balanced in difficulty.
-The general aim of the mission is to have an infantry assault to begin, with quite a difficult counterattack that will require some good AT shooting from the players, so bear that in mind.

As I said, let me know any and all thoughts, no matter how minor. I am still getting used to arma editor/folk house style, so even if this mission is a complete bust, it gives me something to work on in the future.

[wolfenswan]

Something managed to break SWS and in extension the spectator script but I'm slightly puzzled what could have caused this. Also, not all players had their parachutes when HALOing.

The only scripting issues I've seen are:

• manOp.sqf does not have a locality restriction (if !(local _unit) exitWith {})
• taskLand threw a scripting error on the server. Might want to check the parameters

Furthermore, this would be a better way to do the faction-split mapClick teleport and save you from maintaing seperate files:

Code: Select all

f_var_mapClickTeleport_Uses = 1;					// How often the teleport action can be used. 0 = infinite usage.
f_var_mapClickTeleport_TimeLimit = 0; 			// If higher than 0 the action will be removed after the given time.
f_var_mapClickTeleport_GroupTeleport = true; 	// False: everyone can teleport. True: Only group leaders can teleport and will move their entire group.
f_var_mapClickTeleport_Units = [];				// Restrict map click teleport to these units
f_var_mapClickTeleport_Height = 0;				// If > 0 map click teleport will act as a HALO drop and automatically assign parachutes to units
[] execVM "f\mapClickTeleport\f_mapClickTeleportAction.sqf";

if (faction player == "blu_f") then {
 f_var_mapClickTeleport_Height = 800;
};

Should be self-explanatory. When the Units array is empty the script will add the action to all units or all group leaders (if GroupTeleport is true). I'd suggest applying these fixes/changes and then run some tests to see if SWS is still breaking. There's also the chance that it was a one-off freak error.

FIA HAT should probably be MAT, since the HAT tripod bugs out a lot.

The upcoming version of F3/FA Template (shortly after DLC release) will give HAT the mobile Titan launcher. But I think given the terrain any Titan might be a tad too powerful.

The static HMGs are far too observant, im thinking a drastic takedown in ammo supply might be in order, or just straight up deletion.

I disagree. They forced us to be careful on approach and prevent players from sniping AI from up the hill. Maybe place a number of Wreck-objects or similar as cover.

I completely overlooked the fact that the enemies would mercilessly gun down the paratroopers. Maybe there is a way to sort this. One Idea I had was to bring in the reinforcements by boat.

Or divers.

Some of the counterattack timers should probably be tweaked, so that there is time to regroup and rearm once the assualt is complete.

ws_fnc_taskConvoy could make the reinforcements a bit easier to manage script-wise.

When the town is secured, there should be a hint, both to inform the attackers to turn and dig in, and also to let the reinforcements join. Im not sure if this actually worked.

You could also use the task modules if the hint-locality is a nuisance.

[Eagle_Eye]

So, updated to version 2 this evening. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/267 ... .Altis.pbo
Testing on LAN and the mission testing server, SWS seems to be working for me. Not sure how to check the spectator script without having 2 people in the server.

The only scripting issues I've seen are:

manOp.sqf does not have a locality restriction (if !(local _unit) exitWith {})
taskLand threw a scripting error on the server. Might want to check the parameters

Fixed the script, and the other error was because I forgot to name a helo. Having some problems with taskLand doing what I want (leaving people in the helo, people jumping out at 50m height, helo landing and instantly taking off again), but I feel these are due to the Arma AI, not the function.

Other fixes/changes:

-Fixed the trigger hints, as well as provided a timer, both at 50 and 75% of objective complete.
-Made the NATO reinforcements into an assault boat force north of the town. They should be safe to assault the town now.
-Re-ordered the timing triggers, now once the town is captured, players have a couple of minutes to set up their defense.
-Removed AI thermals from the defending forces.
-Added some Cover for the approach to the roadblocks.
-Enemy counterattack is still pretty unwinnable (a bit more spread out, with progressively tougher enemies) , but I kinda like the idea, its more of a survive for as long as possible kind of thing.

[wolfenswan]

Looking good!

A few minor things:

• Locality for the triggers spawning taskLand isn't restricted. An && isServer should be sufficient.
• NATO Delta groups don't have markers or IDs. Easiest way to fix this is by turning them all into Juliet (using search&replace in mission.sqm to turn DSL into JSL etc.) as Juliet is already configured in F3.
• There's a NATO littlebird right at the town when the mission starts, I guess a testing remnant?
• Not crucial but generally you want to avoid single or two-men groups. Groups with more members are easier on the server.
• You're using setBehaviour from unit init which can be iffy due to locality (would be set every time a client connects), a waypoint right on top of the unit is usually the better method.
• An easy way to get AI into statics is synchronizing the unit with the empty static and put in the init:

  Code: Select all

  this moveinGunner ((synchronizedObjects this) select 0)

  Saves you from naming them all.

[Eagle_Eye]

Sweet, good looking out wolfenswan. v3 hopefully fixes those issues. I think its pretty much in a playable state now I feel, I suppose if it gets another playtest I'll see about changing the actual units and positioning and stuff.

Did you see why SWS ended up breaking? It seems to be working from what I can see. But I did revert the changes to the teleportOnClick, so that may have fixed it.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/267 ... .Altis.pbo

[wolfenswan]

We can do a test with multiple players on Saturday or Sunday before workshop.

[wolfenswan]

Spectator was still broken in v3, very strange. Also, NATO didn't have a briefing and NATO_MAT2 no group marker.

Other than that, was a blast.

[Eagle_Eye]

Great stuff. Kicking myself I couldn't be there to try out the new version. From the AAR it seems that things went better this time around.

The spectator stuff I think i will try to fix by porting my mission.sqm to a new F3 copy, because i must have messed something up in the init or functions.
The map markers are an easy fix, and I will add a very brief briefing to the NATO reinforcements.

It seems like the boats were more successful this time around. The town was captured, and the counterattack timing/difficulty were not too hard. Would be nice if anyone had suggestions for these aspects, or just confirmation that its working well.

[Sparks]

Spectator was still busted I'm afraid (glad to hear it's not just me) and the framerate (at least for me) was down to 3-5FPS at the end. And that killed me finally (it's hard to point-blank an Ifrit with a launcher when you're doing 2-3FPS).
How much of the framerate is down to the mission and how much is down to my now quite old and modest games machine however, is up for debate...

Other than that though, had a blast and saw no major malfunctions in the mission (and nailed my first vehicle so that was cool )

[wolfenswan]

The spectator stuff I think i will try to fix by porting my mission.sqm to a new F3 copy, because i must have messed something up in the init or functions.
The map markers are an easy fix, and I will add a very brief briefing to the NATO reinforcements.

New version of the FA template should release shortly after 1.42 goes live so you can hold off on that for a bit.