Comrades in Arms Discussion Board

Since I have been a part of CiA I have been made to feel extremely welcome and I have been supported incredibly well while I have gotten back into the groove of mission creation, for that I am very grateful.

So, why am I posting? There have been several discussions around Combined arms missions and their viability and from a personal standpoint I love them, but their main drawback is usually the numbers of players required to make them a success.

Having spoken to many of you there is clearly an appetite for trying such a thing. But how?
I have given this a lot of thought and I am going to outline a potential way to do this, but I wanted opinions thoughts and feedback.

Combined Arms Mission

The purpose is to create a large-scale battlefield where the players are dropped into differing roles to fullfil specific tasks in a larger engagement.

Requirements

Offer differing options and roles for all player preferences. (these are ideas and not an exhaustive list) CiA is made up of players who enjoy differing play styles yet you all compliment each other so well in each game/mission whether large or small.)

·         CAS (Helicopter or Fast Jet) – Players can fly and fulfil CAS roles.
·         Infantry role - The players are apart of a player group. (This can be standard infantry or Special forces with a key objective)
·         Officer role – Commanding a player group or if desired commanding groups of AI soldiers for simple tasks that the AI can handle. (High command for instance) EG Capture that hill provide support to that player group etc..
·         Armour Role – The players are apart of a mechanised unit
·         Support role – Providing medical or other support roles to support the battle.
·         Perhaps more that I have not even thought of..?

Execution

Over the years when I have done something like this before it has been heavily reliant on clever server-side scripts to spawn enemies in when closer and complex chain of command systems. These worked well but this was before the advent of the Zeus.
·         2x Zeus – Critical factor is that both Zeus understand and architect the scenario for the enjoyment of the players on the ground.
·         One responsible for the BLUFOR non-player controlled AI and supporting the players.
·         One responsible for the OPFOR AI
·         Mission is set up with this large scale in mind where objectives can be set to meet the differing player roles ensuring everyone has a good immersive time.
·         Player commanders could well be briefed in advanced (if people so choose).
 
This is still very much a concept but personally I can see a huge amount of potential when using Zeus it just has to be done in a manner that fulfils the mission and ultimately provides the players a fantastic time playing ARMA.
I would love your thoughts opinions on this.

Those who I have already spoken to have already expressed a serious interest in this idea so I know at least there are some of you who think this idea has merit and may work.

What do you think?

I would very much welcome combined ops scenarios. The AI can take the major part of the activity while the players fulfill specific tasks to support them. This can remove the need for large player groups without even resorting to HC.

For example:

1. Friendly AI is conducting a wide scale armored attack and the players support them. Something like one player team with Heavy AT , one team with sniper rifles, third flies CAS.

2. Friendly AI conduct aerial operations and the players support them by taking out AA positions.

AI unpredictability would make it hard to measure players success criteria, so just avoid that by making the success of the AI attacks optional, and add another objective afterwards which is more traditional in nature.

I could see a mission where one player acts as overall leader to AI and players, with the HC'd AI teams making up the bulk of the force, then players making up the attachments being a fun mission. Say an AI infantry platoon, with a single tank, some form of CAS and then a specialist weapons team as players.

So Mjolnir, Skarin and I did some testing this afternoon on the above concepts and they came out really well.

Standby by for some really interesting and new mission styles in the near future!

Looking forward to it. Good luck!