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[size=1.45em]co@14_foehammer

[/size][size=1em]well, it almost worked xD

after bringing Alfa to their LZ I started hovering near devils castle to have my doorgunners fire at the enemys. When I came under fire I pulled back towards the LZ to wait for further orders. After a while I came under fire here and pulled back even further before I was called in to take over the CAS role circling the area so my door gunners were able to support the ground teams ( while I kept reporting the advance of the hostile vehicles (or spamming the radio xD since I had nothing else to do.. well except for fling circles). When the teams made their escape  via the eastern walls of the castle I was called In for support and then for extraction bringing the team back to the base.
so far so good
but we had to got back to destroy the downed chopper. flying in from the north I started circling the crash site while the left bank tried to destroy the wreck. after two circles which I flew too high I went for a lower altitude and we took some critical hits. due to the low altitude and a lack of open area  crashlanding was not possible so we just crashed .

whats the linkt for the video ?  Smile

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[size=1.45em]co@18_second_breakfast[/size][size=1em]"The breakfast steak is the most important steak of the day" - definately true xD

As Manuel said in his guide handling the raven is somewhat strange at first, but at the third objective I had most of the controls figured out.

On the way to my first OP I was attacked and after (seemingly) all of the enemys were killed I was assigned my own medic to keep me company (and alive of course). after assembling the UAV and launching it it was really just a matter of sending it to the AO and marking things on the map. the UAV has a mark on map function which really is helpfull, but unfortunately only marks the users map.
marking stuff for the teams and guiding them on enemys was a piece of cake then.
when stick and I moved out towards the street after lindt was clear we were attacked by one struggler left from the ambush before, but he was killed quickly an we then regrouped an d moved on with the rest of the team.

the other two objectives were mostly a repetition of the first one, spotting being easy for me thanks to the thermal imaging mode and the marker function, which allowed me to mark some positions for myself before marking them on the global map with description. I probably should try to remember cleaning the map up on the go, but I was too fixed on trying to find new dangers to remember that while the objective was still not cleared.

I dont know weather that would be usefull, but I think a second man to a UAV team would always bee a good thing since he could help with clearing markers and keeping the operator safe

might also be A good Idea to set an extra chanel for the UAV operator since at times I was feeling like I was spamming the radio with information I thought might be usefull for some but not for all (probably wouldn't work the way I think an probably has its own drawbacks).
maybe like a secondary chanel for the squad leaders to listen to
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Shhhhhhh UnNamed, we don't talk about that last part. It never happend  Wink
Foehammer
A new version of a glorious mission that we had already played a few months ago.

Unfortunately, I flew the Apache way too aggressively and let us get in the fire of 3 BMPs, downing us almost instantaneously.

You can see in the video Variable posted this morning, he tells us to keep moving as we are stationary and under fire – at this moment I pushed forward, towards enemy armor and certain death.

Lessons learned – I will be spending time in the editor to get more flight time.


Second Breakfast
Our second try of Manuel’s mission. I really enjoyed it as target confirmation was paramount, our last try being unsuccessful because of too many civilian casualties. We managed to make it through without any civilian down as far as I know (I think you are allowed one or two perhaps?). Key is that we didn’t use the Mk19.

Our dear Etzu became quite intimate with an RPG at the very beginning – I didn’t even realize when it happened – which put me in command. It was tough switching from channel to channel, but I realized later on you could switch channels using the NumPad.

My team did a hell of a job, with Unnamed and Stick on the UAV, and Misha and Maverick with me on point. Not a single death, only flesh wounds.

I do have to say that the use of the M240B bipod was very problematic for me. I found myself stuck for minutes at a time, not being able to do anything but look through the scope and shoot. Inventory, movements and actions were all unavailable. I think this happened when I ran out of rounds and had to reload while resting on the bipod.

It unstuck after a minute or two. Still, not a pleasant experience.


Kudos to Variable on leading this one. Communication was not easy.

On the mission itself, I loved the callsigns. I think it could do with just one or two objectives that can be randomized, instead of all three – it added to the mission length without necessarily providing brand new tactical situations.
Foehammer

Well, that degenerated quickly.

I should have inserted closer to the castle, but I was expecting more resistance near the castle itself so I opted for an LZ a bit further out.

The loss of the Apache basically screwed up all of the plan I had for this mission (which was mostly go in-shoot a way out of it with Charlie, and have the Apache blast a path for us). Still, we managed quite well, and I think it was the right call to try and go to LZ Bravo. I was shot by a couple of Russians when I got out of the castle, exactly the type of thing that shouldn't have happened with the Apache still up.

Bottom line, I think the plan was solid, and the fact that we (mostly) got out in spite of losing the chopper.

Hazy Harbor

A leadership nightmare for sure. We lost the first Wipeout pretty early, which made the mission harder. For whatever reason, the lock-on didn't work, so we had to manually guide the bombers. At one point, the constant wall-clipping AI really had me getting annoyed, and when I took over the lead, I was determined to get this done.

And we did.

Second Breakfast

I liked the mission, even though it was pretty long. It never really got boring. Having just a red-dot sight, I wasn't very effective I'm afraid, and using M203's was mostly out of the question, so I shot relatively few shots.

VR Jump

I died pretty early on. I have no idea how the AI could shoot me so quickly, they seemed unnaturally reactive to me. The glitchy environment made things difficult too. I liked the idea, and the castle-in-the-sky stuff reminded me of Unreal Tournament a lot Smile
(04-13-2015, 12:36 PM)Alwarren link Wrote:VR Jump

I died pretty early on. I have no idea how the AI could shoot me so quickly, they seemed unnaturally reactive to me. The glitchy environment made things difficult too.


Could you leave technical feedback/criticism in my missions thread? I'm aware it would most likely be glitchy, I toyed with the concept for a while before making this mission because of that. Did the action to fix the freefalling work on dedicated?
(04-13-2015, 01:43 PM)Outlawz7 link Wrote:Could you leave technical feedback/criticism in my missions thread? I'm aware it would most likely be glitchy, I toyed with the concept for a while before making this mission because of that. Did the action to fix the freefalling work on dedicated?

Yes, it worked. It was mostly at the start, later things went fine. Nothing that you didn't expect already in your "Known issues" section.
Foehammer
I was the gunner of Maggot ( ;D ), so I could expirience the whole debacle first hand. And to make it clear, by debacle I don't mean the flying skills of my pilot, no complaints there, I mean some tactical decissions and procedures on our, the crews, side.

The greatest mistake as far as I can tell was to fly very close to the enemy and directly above them. In other words, when we play infantry we usually try to take it slow and play tactical, but in airial vehicles things sometimes get a little... Michael Bay-ish. Part of the problem in my opinion is the game itself (Arma doesn't really offer enough area and view distance to allow for procedures I would use in DCS, i guess the other DCS players here know what I mean :Smile ), but I think we could have prevented the loss of Maggot if we had played it a little bit safer and more thought out.


Dyslexi (i know he writes it different) has a great video on basic heli-tactics (maybe somebody already postet it here, but can't hurt to see it twice)


It's very long, and he goes into great detail on the AH-1, but the basic concepts apply for the RHS apache and probably the Comanche (or Black Foot...) as well. And the part about tactics is very good and universal.

After talking to my Pilot after the crash I learned that he didn't actually know what the gunners view looks like, that would have made it easier for us to coordinate, he would have had an idea on how to bring me into a good firing position. Just passing over the hill as we did doesn't really give me much time to find, identify and prioritise targets, so all I could do was fire some rounds on the first infantry squad that came into my scope...

If anybody else has interest, I gues we could make a little heli training-mission. Just to try out some procedures from Dyslexi's video without the pressure of having infantry on the ground waiting for help.

Second Breakfast
Glad to hear you liked it. I misjudged how long it would take to clear all 3 villages to be honest, I thought it would be shorter. I'm sorry that the crates at the FOB were broken, I used wrong commands to fill them (addStuff instead of addStuffGlobal  :Smile , I don't really understand why both of them since they do the same thing except for one of them not working in mulitplayer/dedicated ... anyways, my bad). If it had worked there would have been scopes too...

VR Jump
I wish I would have survived long enough to get to the jump, but watching Misha rambo-ing the crap out of the compound made up for it Big Grin
Guys, if you have problems with the crazy formatting bugs we have on the forums, just edit your post, select all text and click the "remove formatting" button (second from the right). Then re-apply any formatting you need.

Foehammer
(04-13-2015, 08:31 AM)UnNamedGER link Wrote:well, it almost worked xD
Nice writeup Unnamed! That was a very exciting mission, I loved every second of it. We (Charlie) started by scouting for targets from the tower and opened fire when we were spotted. When we came down we found Alpha heavily engaged in the courtyard with Russians in close range. When realizing that Alpha lead is dead, I took command over Alpha as well, requested minigun support from the Blackhawk and tried to follow the initial plan, of getting out from the castle's perimeter to the north east. The resistance at the north eastern exit was so intense that I decided to exit from a different angle, which proved itself. When exiting from the north we had the blackhawk suppressing the enemies that attacked us and we boarded safely and extracted while laying down suppressive fire on the guys that attacked us at the north eastern way. And then I lost my memory Tongue .

(04-13-2015, 12:08 PM)SPhoenix link Wrote:Unfortunately, I flew the Apache way too aggressively and let us get in the fire of 3 BMPs, downing us almost instantaneously.
(04-13-2015, 11:58 PM)Manuel link Wrote:The greatest mistake as far as I can tell was to fly very close to the enemy and directly above them. In other words, when we play infantry we usually try to take it slow and play tactical, but in airial vehicles things sometimes get a little... Michael Bay-ish.
That. 80% of our gunship losses is a result of charging the enemy and getting too close. My mistake regarding the AH-64 was that I didn't ask it to take out the Blackhawk wreckage first thing. We paid dearly for that overlook...Next time (and oh there is going to be a next time!) the Apache will keep its distance and use Hellfire missiles against the wreckage and the BMPs and move in close only when the BMP threat is removed.


Second Breakfast
(04-13-2015, 08:31 AM)UnNamedGER link Wrote:spotting being easy for me thanks to the thermal imaging mode and the marker function, which allowed me to mark some positions for myself before marking them on the global map with description.
Another lovely mission. Great job Unnamed using the UAV, that was really an even breaker in that mission. Also great job everybody, and especially Den and SPhoenix that had to put up with my impatience and wanting to get things going quickly!
(04-13-2015, 12:08 PM)SPhoenix link Wrote:Our second try of Manuel’s mission.
Great write-up SPhoenix, I'm always interested to read other team's point of views, especially for missions that I lead.
(04-13-2015, 08:31 AM)UnNamedGER link Wrote:might also be A good Idea to set an extra chanel for the UAV operator since at times I was feeling like I was spamming the radio with information I thought might be usefull for some but not for all (probably wouldn't work the way I think an probably has its own drawbacks).
maybe like a secondary chanel for the squad leaders to listen to

Assuming both the UAV operator and the squad leaders all have LR, what you could do is:

1) Assign a secondary LR freq. to each squad (i.e. squad 1 - 300Mhz, squad 2 - 400Mhz, etc), which they set as their additional channel on Ch.2, to receive comms from the UAV operator and to reply.
2) Have the UAV operator set the main LR freq (e.g. 152Mhz) on Ch.9 and set that as his additional channel, so that he'll always hear it and be able to transmit on it by pressing Y if he needs to broadcast to all squads.
3) Then he can set his LR Ch.1 to 300Mhz, Ch.2 to 400Mhz, etc and quickly switch between them with the numpad so that he can broadcast just to one squad (using the transmit on LR key) and they can reply (using the transmit on LR additional channel key).

As the UAV operator will be switching his main LR freq, he won't necessarily hear a squad trying to contact him on the secondary LR freq. assigned to that squad, so if a squad needs to initiate comms with the UAV operator, they should do so on the main LR freq. as he'll always be able to hear that.

The problem is that the Raven controls also use the numpad and even if they could be remapped to RCtrl+Num, etc that would probably be too awkward when controlling it, so it might be better to remap the TFAR keys to RCtrl+Num instead but I'm not sure if that's possible. I can't check at the moment as TFAR isn't showing for me under Configure Controls - Addons, even with v0.9.7.3 and CBA v1.1.20.150408.
The Raven's operator need to be able to hear the LR frequency so he could know when he shouldn't call the mission leader, and when he speaks all team leaders need to be aware that he is speaking so they won't interrupt. Regarding the numpad keys used by TFAR, everybody needs to unmapped those anyway, it was a bad call to have channel swap keys assigned there by default anyway...
(04-14-2015, 04:40 PM)Variable link Wrote:Guys, if you have problems with the crazy formatting bugs we have on the forums, just edit your post, select all text and click the "remove formatting" button (second from the right). Then re-apply any formatting you need.

Second BreakfastAnother lovely mission. Great job Unnamed using the UAV, that was really an even breaker in that mission. Also great job everybody, and especially Den and SPhoenix that had to put up with my impatience and wanting to get things going quickly!Great write-up SPhoenix, I'm always interested to read other team's point of views, especially for missions that I lead.


No problem. It was a good mission and it went well. Coordonation between the teams was good and had minimal (if any?) casualties.


Also my professional driving hit the humvee in front accidently and due to the sleep hill we were on we tumbled all the way down and ended up like a turtle on its back.  :-[


Also, when I'm leading, I press CTRL + Caps to say 'Affirmative' or 'Roger' for orders but sometimes, I think I press it for too shortly or say it before it's transmitting. It does show LR on the bottom corner so that's why I think you heard it. I know, you not hearing it, happends very frequently but I'll try to say it after the transmitting notification is fully on. Sorry about that.


Edit: Also can someone tell me for AI, do 'insurgents' have 'poorer' shooting compared to a 'military trained' foe? I felt that the AI in the mission were missing alot of shots. Or are they identical and just feels differently due to new patch or something?
(04-14-2015, 10:14 PM)Den link Wrote:Also, when I'm leading, I press CTRL + Caps to say 'Affirmative' or 'Roger' for orders but sometimes, I think I press it for too shortly or say it before it's transmitting. It does show LR on the bottom corner so that's why I think you heard it. I know, you not hearing it, happends very frequently but I'll try to say it after the transmitting notification is fully on. Sorry about that.
A lot of TLs do that mistake. Guys, what Den is raising is important. After pressing the PTT wait for half a second before talking, and release the PTT Half a second after you finish talking. It will be really helpful for everybody to install Alwarren's TRAR sound effects replacement. First, it's awesome and it replaces the shifty default sounds of TFAR. Secondly, when pressing the PTT in LR you hear a longer (and realistic) 'bop' sound. Waiting for it to finish will ensure your message comes through. You can find the files on the Lobby channel on Teamspeak.
(04-14-2015, 08:04 PM)Variable link Wrote:The Raven's operator need to be able to hear the LR frequency so he could know when he shouldn't call the mission leader, and when he speaks all team leaders need to be aware that he is speaking so they won't interrupt. Regarding the numpad keys used by TFAR, everybody needs to unmapped those anyway, it was a bad call to have channel swap keys assigned there by default anyway...

The UAV operator would be able to hear the general LR frequency, that's covered by 2) but yeah, the other team leaders wouldn't be able to hear him when he's speaking to a specific team and know not to interrupt, although if proper radio discipline was maintained they should just be sending "UAV, this is Bravo" and waiting for a "Bravo go-ahead" or "Bravo hold" response, so that wouldn't necessarily be a problem.

I don't understand why you think it was a bad call for TFAR to use the numpad keys though. I've found them quite useful and I don't think anything else was using them before TFAR and as that's been around for a while and is a very popular addon, I'd have to say it was a bad call for RHS to use the same keys as TFAR.
(04-15-2015, 03:17 PM)doveman link Wrote:I don't understand why you think it was a bad call for TFAR to use the numpad keys though. I've found them quite useful and I don't think anything else was using them before TFAR and as that's been around for a while and is a very popular addon, I'd have to say it was a bad call for RHS to use the same keys as TFAR.
I don't know what other uses people have for the numpad keys but I know Zeus was reluctant to switch to TFAR for a very long time just because of that, so at least one big community was bothered by that. I don't think there's a need for quick-channel-switch, as changing a channel is something you rarely do, and having a such a prominent part of the keyboard dedicated for that will more often than not lead to operating errors, even if not used by other functions. These keys should be kept for stuff exactly like UAV control, as they serve as arrow keys. In my eyes it's a common case of an author that "sees" only his own mod and not thinking forward how to accommodate his mod into the game as a whole.
I'm inclined to agree with Doveman on this one. I mean what's wrong with having the controls centered around WASD? And you know IRL a UAV/Drone is mostly flown with an xbox controller, so there's that.

Furthermore I've never understood why we have all the teams on the same channel but different frequencies by default. Seems to me that we are not utilizing the potential of TFAR.

For example. Team A, B and C are on channel 1,2 and 3 respectively. Let's say team B gets almost wiped out with only two surviving members. The Operation leader can not reach the leader of team B any more. He presses a button on his SR radio (NUM 2) to get in contact with the survivors and instructs them to switch to channel 3 and join team C.
That to me is a far better solution than having people fiddling with frequencies in the midst of battle.

I'm also not sure I like the whole concept of everyone listening in on the LR. I think it takes away a bit of responsibility from the team leaders in a way, and some times causes people, not to do as their leader says but to do what they heard over the LR. I don't know I'm just not sure I like it. I kind of like the feeling of conversations between leaders being private and then having the respective leaders brief their teams. Maybe this is a discussion that doesn't belong in the debriefing thread anyway  :Smile