Operation Random Fury - beta

[T_Rex]

No, this isn't about my ex-wife.

I think the only requirement will be to have QG.

This is an attempt to create an unstructured, asymmetric combat simulator. The genesis of this idea was to have a kind of instant combat mission. Random generation of enemies and supplies.

What happens is that, at the mission start, troops are spawned in cities, and markers show the relative number of forces in the area of that town/city.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/ ... Map08a.jpg

The markers are updated dynamically, at random intervals.
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/ ... Map06c.jpg

The AI troops are generated in such a ways as to try to induce combat.
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/ ... Map09e.jpg

The groups themselves are a mix, though, of random individual troops.
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/ ... Map09j.jpg

During gameplay, items will spawn, indicated by smokeshells (of random color).
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/ ... Map07a.jpg

When vehicles spawn, if AI ar near, they may be loaded into the vehicles. Air vehicles may spawn with pilots.
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/ ... Map10b.jpg

Also, as noted in that pic, you can teamswitch to the leaders of spawned groups.

You start with a unit of your own (that you can also teamswitch to) and access to a Blackhawk and a Little Bird. After that, it is entirely unstructured.

In terms of betatesting, I'm interested in:
1) No script errors. I seriously doubt I've managed to script this without some errors. But, given the random nature of it, it is hard to really know for sure.

2) Balance. Whether there is too much or too little spawning of things and troops.

3) Gameplay. There is the potential for blue AI to get in "red" vehicles, and vice versa. Target identification will be very important.

There are hints to keep me apprised of what is going on, which will obviously be removed for release. (If you ever see an ammobox total of more than 3, something is wrong.) I also have some ideas for improvements (most notably, make it MP), but I am very open to new ideas.

Here is the link to the OFPEC betatesting thread, with download.
http://www.ofpec.com/forum/index.php?topic=32835.0

[Snake Man]

Thanks for letting us know, will try this mission.

Good choice also that you didn't hype it with Dynamic word as so many children does in OFP/ArmA community, even though they haven't had slightest clue what the word means

[T_Rex]

hehe

Yeah - you know me, though. F4 campaign = dynamic. This mission = random.

There is a difference.

I think there's potential to take this and make it somewhat dynamic, but at this point, it is just random violence.

Hope you like it.

Edit: sheet, sorry about the pics.

[Snake Man]

After 5 minute testing some initial thoughts.

It runs fine, no errors, good job

Briefing didn't mention anything about resistance/RACS affiliation, so I (made the mistake of) started shooting the RACS and uh oh, got some blue on blue incident right on my face. It might be worthwhile to mention this in briefing?

Also the first instance I saw RACS, I saw also US infantry... are they mixed up or did they just end up at the same city (at the exact same spot) at the same time?

I'll try to post more feedback after I play a bit more. Initial impression is good, I'm interested to discover more deeper what this mission has waiting for me.

[T_Rex]

Ah, right, I probably should mention that. I never played through the stock campaigns, so I wasn't sure. Imagine my surprise when I initially had the guerrilla side as opfor. Saw a guy carrying an M-16 in a group with a bunch of AK carrying guys! (And shooting at me!!) I will add something in the briefing about that, though. :thumbs: Oh, and yes, the groups are randomly generated. I kinda tried to create an atmosphere of confusion, as might happen in a sudden, unexpected attack by partisans. I have an array of western forces, and the group-selection routine just randomly picks classes from the array to be in the group. There are some odd arrangements sometimes.

And, I'm afraid there isn't a whole lot of depth. Alot of randomness, though.

I have some ideas about adding depth, and would be VERY interested in your feedback.

Thanks!

[Snake Man]

I played some more now. After I got my mission start squad leader killed because I did the 2x blue on blue kill and my team mates shot me, I started to look action from other locations using teamswitch. Honestly, at that point after several attempts to find real enemies and none found, it got really boring. Nothing to do with the mission being bad or so, but my attention span just ran out (I've been really restless lately).

So I can't give any feedback for any combat as I didn't see any.

Like I said before, it runs good, no script errors, no slowdowns, no hiccups. Its somewhat strange that the hint gives almost constant feedback about spawned reinforcements and stuff, is there really that much going on?

If I get more time, I'll try to sit down once again and start the mission over, perhaps not using teamswitch to keep the attention focused on the mission start squad.

Oh one thing, I think the mission name is... missing, please check that as it shows the name in briefing with a mission directory name instead of mission name.

[T_Rex]

I played some more now. After I got my mission start squad leader killed because I did the 2x blue on blue kill and my team mates shot me, I started to look action from other locations using teamswitch. Honestly, at that point after several attempts to find real enemies and none found, it got really boring. Nothing to do with the mission being bad or so, but my attention span just ran out (I've been really restless lately).

Hmmmm... do you use the map with the teamswitch dialog ("t") to find where there are some red circles? The red represents opfor. It is purely random, though, so you might've gotten a game where there weren't many red side units, or the blues systematically eradicated them.

Like I said before, it runs good, no script errors, no slowdowns, no hiccups. Its somewhat strange that the hint gives almost constant feedback about spawned reinforcements and stuff, is there really that much going on?

Yep. This is beta, and those let me see where things are happening... and to make sure they ARE happening.

If I get more time, I'll try to sit down once again and start the mission over, perhaps not using teamswitch to keep the attention focused on the mission start squad.

Either way. I've actually found it fun to go to some of the spawned groups and see what soldiers have been grouped together.

Oh one thing, I think the mission name is... missing, please check that as it shows the name in briefing with a mission directory name instead of mission name.

I will check. This is the first mission I've actually created for public distribution, so I'm still learning all the tricks.

[T_Rex]

Ok, updated to version 02b. And, it really plays more like a mini-campaign at this point - for good or bad.

Here's the link again:
http://www.ofpec.com/forum/index.php?topic=32835.0

The file in the first post there is the updated version.

Some of the changes:
Ver. 02b
- Eventhandler that inform when a civ has been killed in the area of the player
- Eventhandler that kinda allows cascading teamswitching; once the leader of a spawned group is hurt, another member becomes teamswitchable, too.
- (For Dogsbd) added a BH at the start point with the dual guns.
- (Also kinda for Dogs) added a medic ambulance near the start point for healing/repair. (I think this works. I didn't test it alot, because I think it is a lAm3r thing to do.)
- Added ability to add nearby troops to your group, after teamswitching.
-Hints that say total units on each side.
-Hint that points to city with greatest concentration of opfor.
-Mission end when all enemy units gone.
-Only spawn in 40-60% of the cities.
-Each city starts with a vehicle.
- removed debug hints
- created mission briefing

One thing that really helps: it may be in the settings, but enable the map in the teamswitch dialog. You can basically teleport to where the action is.

[Snake Man]

Thanks for letting us know about new version. I'll be checking this out when I get some free time. Looking forward to see what the briefing holds.

[T_Rex]

hehehe

Oops... you may be disappointed with the briefing.

I'm open to ideas on how to make it better.

[Snake Man]

I just had a try on it. This time it was quite bad... there was like complete halt on the begin of the mission, I would assume you createUnit all guys at once without anysort of sleep's which might cause that. After it started to run... it was very sluggish, to the point that it was unplayable.

I took a peek with a troopmon and there was like less than hundred guys on BLUFOR side and over 300 in OPFOR side, at least to my machine this is too much on sahrani as apparently many of the units were created on top of each other and started to fight right away.

So I cant really give any feedback except the mission start halting and too many units (fighting).

[T_Rex]

No no no - that's good. Any feedback is good feedback.

On my machine, the start is pretty sluggish. I'm planning on eventually using a cutscene at the beginning that will maybe improve that. I do use a sleep command (or few), but could probably stand to organize them more strategically.

I've not seen 300 to 100 ratio. Usually it is ~150 to ~150. My FPS are pretty reasonable, the only lag/low-res-LOD issues I have are after teamswitching to another group.

I'd only ask that you try it a couple more times and see if it remains. You may have gotten a random generation thing that made things REALLY lopsided, and everybody spawned shooting at each other.

[Snake Man]

On my machine, the start is pretty sluggish. I'm planning on eventually using a cutscene at the beginning that will maybe improve that.

It doesn't matter if it still brings your computer into a halt. Unless of course you have no music on the background and only display titletext on black-outed screen, but really... that is not the solution or correct way to createunit soldiers in mission start...

I do use a sleep command (or few), but could probably stand to organize them more strategically.

... but this is. Use sleep, its very easy and should cause absolutely no problems on mission start as this mission wont start anywhere near where you could see units created.

I've not seen 300 to 100 ratio. Usually it is ~150 to ~150.

Again I got 120 to 300 ratio. Hmm strange. Does your mission do any benchmarking to decide force ratios?

My FPS are pretty reasonable, the only lag/low-res-LOD issues I have are after teamswitching to another group.

Yes thats normal for anyone (with laggy mission).

I'd only ask that you try it a couple more times and see if it remains.

Tried it out and now it was better. Or perhaps I changed something in my ArmA, dunno really.

You may have gotten a random generation thing that made things REALLY lopsided, and everybody spawned shooting at each other.

Well there was still full fighting going on as soon as I get the mission running and teamswitched around. Sure its good for action lovers, but I wouldn't mind if there would be minute or two preparation for a fight and definitely you should never create units from different sides on top of each other, its just bad scripting.

On other notes:

The mission title still says just the directory name. You should add Random Fury into mission name so it then displays that in mission selection and in briefing too.

Whats the "combine groups." action menu? I'm sort of scary guy that I just dont go running features which I have no idea what they do

Some objectives (red markers) were difficult to clear, at least from air in helo you could not see anyone down there and still it was red (yeah I know, propably someone hiding inside a house or something). Also when doing some enemy searching by foot, it felt like the enemy was not inside the red marker, but around the area somewhere... of course there might have been one guy keeping the trigger up or something, it just felt like the red circle has no relation WHERE the enemy is, just that around this area there are enemies.

The ammo box dropping I find curious, who drops them, I see no helo/plane? Do you really need that much ammo on the field, well perhaps if you don't scavenge any enemy weapons, but I think everyone does that. I just feel that you really dont need those ammo boxes especially by them appearing out of thin air, as the mission is teamswitch action mostly.

And last, but quite important note... your mission really needs a goal / objective. I mean I also fall into this trap that I make nice random freedom for all roaming mission without objective, but it is really boring for a player who has no idea what to expect. It wont take much time when player lose interest when he just wanders around having no clue about anything. Nice objective really makes mission a "mission", otherwise its just 5 minute fun in mission editor. Even if the goal/objective is very very simple, there still has to be one. OK in this mission its stay alive and kill everyone, but hehe I don't exactly mean something like that. At least you should define what, where or how many is "all" etc. Anyways

[T_Rex]

Great stuff.

I did re-arrange my init and put a brief sleep to spread it around. Much better for me. There's more of a lag between when the troops spawn and it is reflected in the marker. Fog of war, I guess.

Regarding the red markers:
- I built in a lag between updates, so even if you do kill all the opfor, it may not show up right away;
- it really is a proximity detector, so if there's still red, it means that there is still an opfor somewhere within the radius of the search (generally ~400m).

Regarding the brief:
- yeah, I'm trying to come up with something. :/ It may be some sort of story directly related to a Tet-type offensive.
- is there a tut on changing that stuff in the briefing, like the operation name? I think I saw that someplace, but can't find it now.

Regarding the ammo boxes:
- I think you're right. I hadn't noticed but, as I play this more, I'm using them less and less. I may limit it to 1 per city.

I did start this out to be just a 5 minute kinda of arcade shoot-em up kinda thing. But, I guess it kinda has potential to be more. I guess I need to decide what it really "is."

Thanks for the comments!

[Snake Man]

Regarding the red markers:
- I built in a lag between updates, so even if you do kill all the opfor, it may not show up right away;
- it really is a proximity detector, so if there's still red, it means that there is still an opfor somewhere within the radius of the search (generally ~400m).

There is hint box notifying player about XYZ city needs reinforcements or still under enemy control etc... how about same sort of hint box, or radio msg from HQ (altough briefing said comms are down heh) when you clear a objective?

- yeah, I'm trying to come up with something. :/ It may be some sort of story directly related to a Tet-type offensive.

Well, not a story... but real objective. I mean I guess in a way a story would be okay too (but it would be case by case basis), the real objective would mean something, someone to kill or capture or task to fullfill, something real and concrete you must do to accomplish the mission.

- is there a tut on changing that stuff in the briefing, like the operation name?

Mission name, just double click the time/date thing in mission editor where you edit time/date, weather and RACS affiliation... there is mission name and mission description. Mission name is what you must add but mission description is only shown in multiplayer server, so if your mission was SP only, there is no point adding any text there.

I did start this out to be just a 5 minute kinda of arcade shoot-em up kinda thing. But, I guess it kinda has potential to be more. I guess I need to decide what it really "is."

Add the mission objective and I think it will dramatically change the nature how it plays. You could also make several objectives, activated all at once (as usuall) or one by one. If you need help making them one by one let me know as I have experience in that.

One idea that would come to mind right now is that there is helo shot down somewhere on the terrain, you must find it and rescue any survivors (they would join your squad or another helo would be tasked to extract them). Or hunting down enemy artillery site etc, lot of ideas.

[T_Rex]

Hmmm... I had actually toyed with the idea of attaching an "arrest" type trigger to a random civilian in one of the cities.

Ah... or how about a Saving Private Ryan type deal? There's one soldier you need to find, in among all the fighting. But, with the breakdown of communications and battle, it is very hard.

I see what you mean, though. A kind of greater 'context' to it. It would still appeal to someone who is just trying to shoot some stuff for half an hour, but it would also have a reason to keep playing.

(Oh, I think I failed to mention that the "combine groups" is so that you can recruit AI to your group as you encounter them. Up to 8 per group.)

[T_Rex]

Hey SM-

How about something like this:

Three weeks ago, United Sahrani Military intelligence units began getting reports of an imminent attack by regular and irregular units. The exact target and modes of attack were unknown.

Yesterday, United Sahrani Military Police sent a message that they had information regarding the whereabouts of a key intelligence asset of the insurgency who had direct knowledge of the pending attack. Due to the highly sensitive nature of the information, it was classified Top Secret, and only the highest echelon of leadership was aware of the asset. Even then, the details were sketchy.

The elite unit was going to conduct surveillance of the asset and try to apprehend him. However, with the loss of communication throughout the island, it is unknown where they are or who they were looking for.

This morning, the attack began. Finding the intelligence unit and their target has become a vital priority to the security of the new government.

Still rough.

I want to incorporate something that says other units have been dispatched to try to find the elite unit and the asset - which will explain the teamswitching ability. I'll have a separate script that creates the unit, and either places a civilian in the unit - as an apprehended unit - or at large in the city with the unit. When the player finds the unit, there'll be something to either transfer the asset to the player group, or hint that the player group should begin finding the asset. Also, if the asset is killed, the player will be informed.

Does that sound at all decent?

[Snake Man]

Sounds good to me. Now the player can still choose if he wants to just run it as action shooter, or he can become a recon-ninja who sneaks without fighting and observes searching the particular unit. Yep, sounds alright to me

[T_Rex]

I think it may be tricky gameplay to kinda lead the player to the unit... I mean, there's likely to be 10-15 friendly units spread out all over the map. I think a hint when the player is in the same city zone as the unit/civ, and then maybe another when the player is within 100m, then another within 50 or so?

This'll take some time to work out, though....

[Snake Man]

Its tricky indeed. Perhaps you can give hints that "Asset is traveling in blue civilian sedan car in northern sahrani." as if you don't have specific character to spot. Or could you use the SLA officer character which looks like captain of a ship (I can't describe him otherwise)?

It would be much easier if the searched asset was clearly distinctive from the other units. Also as you already mix spec ops etc, the unit which is looking for this asset is not easy to spot either.

Tricky indeed...

[T_Rex]

New version (02c2) available in the first post at this link:
http://www.ofpec.com/forum/index.php?topic=32835.0

Still very much a beta version - hints aplenty, stutters, things that need optimized and finished.

But, it is a good time to test what is there.

:thumbs:

[Snake Man]

Good, thanks for letting us know.

I'm not big fan of addons, the bird thing especially aren't that interesting. But we'll see how it all plays out.

[T_Rex]

Latest betatesting....

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/ ... urncar.jpg

So, there I was, Paraiso airfield, 6:15 in the morning. We'd just been briefed about a specops group that had gone out to get a civilian intelligence source.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/ ... amfoto.jpg

Problem is, no one is sure where they were going to get the source, or what happened to them. Comms have been hit-and-miss all over the island. No one really knows what's going on.

The attacks took us all by surprise - both the timing and the ferocity.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/ ... boteur.jpg

This source supposedly had information about the attacks. Towns had been left empty, but for a few remaining civilians.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/ ... _birds.jpg

I put my guys into our BlackHawk, and had 2 and 3 man the miniguns. I put a couple in a Little Bird, too, to give us more eyes.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/ ... _helos.jpg

The new-fangled digital map told me where the fighting was, so we went out to do our part to fight the insurgents. We were told we would be updated when more information was found on the specops group and the source.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c114/ ... marker.jpg

Started right near Paraiso, in the area of Chantico. We made a few sweeps of the area to help our forces. Air support will be minimal, since the comms ar out. But, we did what we could.

It didn't take long for that tell-tale line of smoke to reach up from the ground and take out the Little Bird. These guys have been well-equipped....

I decide to move what's left of my unit to another battle. I start heading to Corazol.

About that time, I got word that the specops group had recovered the civilian, but their BH crashed in the area of Pita. That's bad, since it is all the way to the Northeast. I turn toward that direction, and as we're passing over the bay on the East side of Corazol, we're hit by an manpad, too. I order my guys to eject, then I bail, too.

We actually all regroup, without weapons, on the North beach. I've got my 9mm, and that's it. We work our way North, and meet up with another group of soldiers. At least they have weapons. Unfortunately, I know there are some opfor in the area, too. I spot them across a ravine. I order my guys to take cover, as I make towards a woodline. I order the guys with guns to move around to the flank. I'm hoping they can take out a couple and we can get some weapons.

As it turns out, I succeed in sending my only weaponry around to the side of the line of advance of the enemy, while I place myself directly in the way. In what can only be explained by blind luck, I manage to take out 4 of the enemy soldiers with my 9 mike-mike, while my guys manage to take out the other 2. I grab an AKS, and re-arm as many guys as we can (one dude is left with a Makarov, which, while an excellent bit of kit, probably isn't going to be enough).

Unfortunately, I've been wounded. But, there's a medic nearby, who renders some aid.

We discover a 5 ton truck in the area, with a .50 mounted on it. That's some good news. So, I mount up me and my 5 remaining guys, and start heading North.

We run through a couple red-controlled towns and get a couple KIA, and one wounded.

As we go through one town, I notice an MH-6. I investigate, only to learn that it must've crash-landed right next to a building... so, no joy there.

We continue our trek....

Until I realize I've been playing an hour and half and it is midnight, and me and the truck are still probably half an hour away from getting to the intel source.

[T_Rex]

From a brief look by DM:

I decided to hop on over to the nearby town of Yoro, seeing as my map displayed pure red on that. I disembarked a couple of hundred meters to the north, and almost immediately found a crate then I went to the crest to see who I could plink at. I didn't see anyone but my crew did, and they took some out without me seeing them. After a while the calls seemed to have longer distances, and I reckoned that reinforcements were coming from nearby Pesto, which according to the map had a LOT of red, but now had rather less red, while Yoro had increased. So that was a nice detail. It was especially gratifying to see the enemy throw smokeshells (VFAI addon) when injured, and the JTD smokeshell viewblock made sure that the battle played out with appropriate pauses. I can recommend those two addons for extra atmosphere

After getting the radio call to move to Rashida I noted that the framerate was MUCH better and quite playable. Landing up the hill from Rashida I saw through my scopes that there appeared to be an amphibious landing craft of some sort on the waterline, and there were enemy spec ops standing about on the beach. I popped a few rounds off to agitate them and they started moving in. After a few minutes they started to come into the visual AOI of my crew, and again there was a very nice smokeshell-littered fight, not a total gunfest, but a very realistic firefight-pause-firefight appropriate to a bushy landscape. I myself found a few enemy crawling about among the bushes & dispatched a few. Also took out some guys manning some armed jeeps. As I circled about the town from the hills I began to take some grenade blasts, and after finding the culprit 300m away on the beach, I was just lining up my scopes on him when I saw the terrible puff of smoke that a grenade launcher has, then BOOM all gone

And, download updated to version 02d2 at OFPEC.
http://www.ofpec.com/forum/index.php?topic=32835.0

Ver. 02d2
developed story
robust briefing
some destructive ambiance in some cities
dropped the birds for now
minimized stutters
improved loading of init
improved AI waypoints, including long distance

[Snake Man]

I'll have to take a look at the latest version when ever I can squeeze in some time. Sounds good on the changelog level.

[T_Rex]

New version - 02e posted at OFPEC:

http://www.ofpec.com/forum/index.php?topic=32835.0

I would call this "late beta" quality.