Arma 3 Catch All

Ok, I created a simple airbase assault mission for us to play. It's set at 6 players, but I can add more if need be.

Would love for people to test it, and see what they think.
You are tasked to assault an airbase. There are no waypoints so as to keep it open.

It's my first mission, so be gentle!

http://www.mediafire.com/?qknk4vlivs...

I'm a total newb to Arma. I read the field manual, I fired up the alpha and joined a server running something called "dynamic warfare sandbox". I rode on some helicopters, got shot a lot. This was supposed to be co-op, but some asshats showed up and were tk'ing at the spawn. It was night and I was able to escape on a buggy. I drove around for a long time in the dark. Finally I hooked up with a squadie who had a pickup truck. We drove around a bit, until some asshat in a heli crashed into us. I managed a few more heli rides and got killed a few more times. It was amusing in a "new experience" kind of way, but I didn't actually accomplish much.

So, I have a few questions.

I figured out that squad mates are marked with a hexagon. Is there a way to find out how far away they are? Is there any other way to identify friendlies, people from other squads? Do they normally show up on the map? People were telling me "join on me" but I had no idea where to go. When I was actually with other people, I'd turn around for a second and then suddenly I'd be alone and lost again. People were using VOIP but I had no idea how to correlate that to an onscreen avatar. I always felt like I was on my own. That was the most frustrating part.

Every once in a while, I'd see an enemy for a little while before I got killed. Is there a quick way to call an enemy target out? It seemed like other people were doing it. Is it the same "`" menu, middle button click?

How can you make the context menu go away without selecting something?

Sometimes there was an asterisk looking icon near my crosshair. What the heck does that mean?

This really isn't a question; there seemed to be some kind of bug where I couldn't get into a heli a lot of the time. It seemed to be fixed if we blew the heli up and let it respawn.

All in all it seems like something I'd ultimately like. I doubt I'll ever be good at it but maybe I can play with you guys sometime and you can show me the ropes.

Anyone up for some co-op tonight?

Msg me on steam.

Jarpy wrote:

I always wanted to play ARMAII, but couldn't handle the input latency and generally slow performance. I did persevere with DayZ for a while, because it's an amazing game trapped in a sludgy

I think this is part of what kept me from really diving into Arma II. I know with the initial few months there was also an issue with either having too much regular or graphics RAM that would force the settings to override and go super low.

Good to hear that things are better now though! Is there any word on when the alpha pricing window will close?

Syndicate, I can answer a few of your questions.

Hold right click to call out contacts to your squadies. I use right click to quickly close the action menu. Backspace works as well, I believe. The asterisk may be an indicator that you can heal via the action menu, or by just hitting space while the symbol is on screen. Similar to opening doors by just hitting space when the door icon is on screen.

Gunner wrote:

Is there any word on when the alpha pricing window will close?

Not that I know of.

Do you want an "Alpha-Lite" key to try out the new engine? "Steam me" if you do.

EDIT: No longer an "Intern". Yay

Thanks for lite key, Jarpy. Ran through the Infantry and Vehicle showcases and am about ready to upgrade to the full at this point. Love the feel of the incremental stance changes.

Druidpeak wrote:

Syndicate, I can answer a few of your questions.

Hold right click to call out contacts to your squadies. I use right click to quickly close the action menu. Backspace works as well, I believe. The asterisk may be an indicator that you can heal via the action menu, or by just hitting space while the symbol is on screen. Similar to opening doors by just hitting space when the door icon is on screen.

Excellent, thank you. Looking forward to having some time to try it again.

A new patch dropped for the Alpha, today. It includes various optimizations, bug fixes and crash fixes. It also includes this little doozie.

Fish should be less inclined to travel on land
Tkyl wrote:

A new patch dropped for the Alpha, today. It includes various optimizations, bug fixes and crash fixes. It also includes this little doozie.

Fish should be less inclined to travel on land

Hahaha! I just came here to post that. However, I didn't read anything about preventing snakes from opening doors.

Went & bought myself the Arma 3 Alpha earlier, looking forward to getting to grips with this one. It looks like its a fairly deep game with the gameplay mechanics, the tutorial video about the shooting & movement sold me 100%, from the looks of things this game has major potential. One of the positives from getting the alpha, moving onto the beta & then the full game will be you get to see the progress the game makes & get used to how the game plays, the U.I etc. I'll not feel like a helpless newbie come release!

Got one lite version left to gift out to someone, who is also up for some co-op. Post in here & I'll gift it across later once I get in from work.

Spikeout: Lite cannot participate in Multiplayer, only SP.

I would be up for hosting some co-op either this evening or Wednesday evening, if there's interest, at ~10pm EST. Who is in?

I invited a few people into the GWJ Mud Movers Steam group. It's our group for combat flight sims, but I often post when I'm playing Arma 3.

I'm primarily interested in playing on wasteland servers

Tonight, I'm planning to run the first of a 3-part co-op mission; while Wasteland is fun, I'm leaning towards more traditional missions, with specific plans, waypoints, and squad-based tactics.

If you're interested, we'll run with the game at 10pm EST. We'll use in-game VOIP, and I'll lock the server to just GWJ folks. Filter for a server named "TheHipGamer". The password will be "stanlives".

This is why there are steam groups guys.
Side note: Arma 3 steam group when I get home!

boogle wrote:

This is why there are steam groups guys.
Side note: Arma 3 steam group when I get home!

Is it for some reason not cool to use the forum to plan games? I don't watch Steam during the work day, and don't even run Steam unless I am just about to jump into a game. This seems like a reasonable place for chatting about when/where to run a game, especially since we're not all in the same Steam groups.

El-Producto wrote:

I invited a few people into the GWJ Mud Movers Steam group. It's our group for combat flight sims, but I often post when I'm playing Arma 3.

OK, well, game at 10pm, if anyone is interested.

TheHipGamer wrote:
boogle wrote:

This is why there are steam groups guys.
Side note: Arma 3 steam group when I get home!

Is it for some reason not cool to use the forum to plan games? I don't watch Steam during the work day, and don't even run Steam unless I am just about to jump into a game. This seems like a reasonable place for chatting about when/where to run a game, especially since we're not all in the same Steam groups.

The forums don't push events/announcements to your desktop or integrate with steam friends lists for last minute invites. I'm arguing for using both.

I've been watching Spikeout play this for a few. It looks amazing. The depth to the gameplay and the controls is a little bit intimidating, though. I've always been a fan of games that are difficult to master, because the skill required keeps it interesting, but most of all because it keeps degenerate young pups from playing because they cannot recapture their Call of Duty kill/score streaks.

Have just got my ass absolutely handed to me in one of the scenario's, this will require some getting used to. YouTube tutorials here I come! Was speaking to my brother (who I gifted the lite version) & he mentioned about co-op not being accessible in the lite version, thanks for the heads up anyways TheHipGamer!

boogle wrote:
TheHipGamer wrote:
boogle wrote:

This is why there are steam groups guys.
Side note: Arma 3 steam group when I get home!

Is it for some reason not cool to use the forum to plan games? I don't watch Steam during the work day, and don't even run Steam unless I am just about to jump into a game. This seems like a reasonable place for chatting about when/where to run a game, especially since we're not all in the same Steam groups.

The forums don't push events/announcements to your desktop or integrate with steam friends lists for last minute invites. I'm arguing for using both.

That makes sense. I read your comment as "please don't do this here", and wondered what breach of etiquette I was committing. I'll certainly jump into El Producto's group once I'm not working, and will send around an announcement of event via that group if allowed. Cheers!

Not seeing anyone online - will nix this tonight, and try again Wednesday. Alas!

ranalin wrote:

I'm primarily interested in playing on wasteland servers

/\ This, but I would also like to try Escape from Stratis, I've played the Arma2 equivalent on Chernarus and it is tough.

El-Producto wrote:

I invited a few people into the GWJ Mud Movers Steam group. It's our group for combat flight sims, but I often post when I'm playing Arma 3.

Invite Please, steam tag is in my sig.

I know many of you probably play MP most of the time, but for those who don't, I found out about VAC (voice activated commands) over on the BI forums. Using this software and a profile that you can either download or build yourself, you can control your squad with voice commands. It works pretty well, too, and adds a little more immersion into the single player game.

(There's also a profile for SWAT 4, which I tried out. "Blue Team. Stack Up. Bang and Clear." So Cool.)

ebarstad wrote:

I know many of you probably play MP most of the time, but for those who don't, I found out about VAC (voice activated commands) over on the BI forums. Using this software and a profile that you can either download or build yourself, you can control your squad with voice commands. It works pretty well, too, and adds a little more immersion into the single player game.

(There's also a profile for SWAT 4, which I tried out. "Blue Team. Stack Up. Bang and Clear." So Cool.)

Oh, I might have to give that a try. One of my biggest complaints with the SP is that it can be tough to control your guys. This would make it very useful. I remember using such a tool for Rainbow Six. Made a world of difference.

Tkyl wrote:
ebarstad wrote:

I know many of you probably play MP most of the time, but for those who don't, I found out about VAC (voice activated commands) over on the BI forums. Using this software and a profile that you can either download or build yourself, you can control your squad with voice commands. It works pretty well, too, and adds a little more immersion into the single player game.

(There's also a profile for SWAT 4, which I tried out. "Blue Team. Stack Up. Bang and Clear." So Cool.)

Oh, I might have to give that a try. One of my biggest complaints with the SP is that it can be tough to control your guys. This would make it very useful. I remember using such a tool for Rainbow Six. Made a world of difference.

Yeah, it works surprisingly well -- keeps me from looking down at my keyboard all the time.

---

To try and learn the editor, I'm working on a mission now for a squad of four BLUFOR [SP/COOP]. You start randomly on one of three beaches and are tasked to destroy a Comm Tower, meet an Iranian spy to collect intel on the location of a General, and then kill the General who is randomly placed in one of five locations. After all tasks are completed, you have to meet a chopper at an LZ on the southern part of the island.

I'm using the Sites module to populate the main bases on Stratis with OPFOR and I've placed a number of enemies throughout the heart of the island, all of which follow a randomly chosen patrol route.

I've beat it once and it can probably be done in an hour (give or take), depending on how careful you are and whether you managed to grab a vehicle. If anyone wants to give it a go, let me know and I'll clean up the tasks and try to figure out how to export the mission.

ebarstad wrote:
Tkyl wrote:
ebarstad wrote:

I know many of you probably play MP most of the time, but for those who don't, I found out about VAC (voice activated commands) over on the BI forums. Using this software and a profile that you can either download or build yourself, you can control your squad with voice commands. It works pretty well, too, and adds a little more immersion into the single player game.

(There's also a profile for SWAT 4, which I tried out. "Blue Team. Stack Up. Bang and Clear." So Cool.)

Oh, I might have to give that a try. One of my biggest complaints with the SP is that it can be tough to control your guys. This would make it very useful. I remember using such a tool for Rainbow Six. Made a world of difference.

Yeah, it works surprisingly well -- keeps me from looking down at my keyboard all the time.

---

To try and learn the editor, I'm working on a mission now for a squad of four BLUFOR [SP/COOP]. You start randomly on one of three beaches and are tasked to destroy a Comm Tower, meet an Iranian spy to collect intel on the location of a General, and then kill the General who is randomly placed in one of five locations. After all tasks are completed, you have to meet a chopper at an LZ on the southern part of the island.

I'm using the Sites module to populate the main bases on Stratis with OPFOR and I've placed a number of enemies throughout the heart of the island, all of which follow a randomly chosen patrol route.

I've beat it once and it can probably be done in an hour (give or take), depending on how careful you are and whether you managed to grab a vehicle. If anyone wants to give it a go, let me know and I'll clean up the tasks and try to figure out how to export the mission.

Would love to help playtest this. I've made a few missions in the ARMA 2 editor, but haven't touched the ARMA 3 stuff yet.

Don't forget, there is my rudimentary attempt at a mission.

Would love some comments.

http://www.mediafire.com/?qknk4vlivs...