fa3_c40_ghosthawkdown

Help make Party-approved missions harder
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Eagle_Eye
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fa3_c40_ghosthawkdown

Post by Eagle_Eye »

Already got some feedback on this from the AAR, so thanks for that. Audiox recommended I add a few more slots, since sometimes we can be approaching the 40 player mark on a sunday. An attachment for Alpha (who have 2 spots in the helis free) and Bravo (who can have an MAT attachment in the truck maybe) will add 4, and maybe a second fireteam for charlie can be added as an overflow team in case there is a lot of people playing.

I have to admit my ignorance of the difference between the "Orca" and the "Orca (Black and White)" seems to have caused some frustration for people. I have flown the orca multiple times, and I would have bet money that every time it had an unguided rocket pod. I see now the difference, so apologies. (Although those 50. cals were provided by the party for a reason. Carson, our differing philosophies strike again).

The other comment people made was along the lines of what do we do once the primary objective was complete. Well on this one, I really thought it was a little bit self explanatory. The main objectives are to blow the chopper and kill the HVT. The extra objective remains to evac charlie team and get everyone out of the town/back to base. Maybe this needs to be stated more elegantly in the mission briefing? I sort of dislike using a mission end trigger here, since that can lead to some anti-climactic endings for stragglers waiting to evac while the rest of the team has escaped. Again maybe it just needs to be made clear to the host in the admin briefing.

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wolfenswan
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Re: fa3_c40_ghosthawkdown

Post by wolfenswan »

Eagle_Eye wrote:I have to admit my ignorance of the difference between the "Orca" and the "Orca (Black and White)" seems to have caused some frustration for people. I have flown the orca multiple times, and I would have bet money that every time it had an unguided rocket pod.
It doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere, even the field manual only mentions unguided rockets for the armed variant. Still, Orca has DAGR.

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Eagle_Eye
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Re: fa3_c40_ghosthawkdown

Post by Eagle_Eye »

Yeah, the only place I could find the right listing was on the arma3 assets page. It correctly lists the two variants.

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Ferrard Carson
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Re: fa3_c40_ghosthawkdown

Post by Ferrard Carson »

Eagle_Eye wrote:I have to admit my ignorance of the difference between the "Orca" and the "Orca (Black and White)" seems to have caused some frustration for people. I have flown the orca multiple times, and I would have bet money that every time it had an unguided rocket pod. I see now the difference, so apologies. (Although those 50. cals were provided by the party for a reason. Carson, our differing philosophies strike again).
It's an easy and understandable mistake to make - there is no earthy reason why a transport helo should be mounting ATGMs, but for whatever insane reason BIS came up with, that's what we've got. I've a feeling that whoever created the Orca (Black and White) asset actually forgot that Orcas had DAGRs and thought, "Orcas have unguided rockets, right? That only makes sense!"

I will say though, that .50 cals are not the answer to choppers with guided missiles. The very first sign that we had DAGRs deployed against us was when BSL's .50 cal Hunter brewed up with him and his medic inside it.
Eagle_Eye wrote:The other comment people made was along the lines of what do we do once the primary objective was complete. Well on this one, I really thought it was a little bit self explanatory. The main objectives are to blow the chopper and kill the HVT. The extra objective remains to evac charlie team and get everyone out of the town/back to base. Maybe this needs to be stated more elegantly in the mission briefing? I sort of dislike using a mission end trigger here, since that can lead to some anti-climactic endings for stragglers waiting to evac while the rest of the team has escaped. Again maybe it just needs to be made clear to the host in the admin briefing.
It wouldn't have been much of a problem except that I was referring to the "Mission" tab as a newly crowned acting-platoon leader instead of the guy who started the mission in command. I looked to the mission tab for "wat do?" guidance, and saw that we had already completed all the listed objectives.

As a rule of thumb, I'd suggest refining the "Mission" tab so that someone can look at it as a checklist of "Did this, did this, need to do that, and then the mission will end one way or another." I'd also suggest including the exact victory condition in the "Administration" tab (e.g. "Victory is achieved by having the truck within Gerald's Garage for 12 minutes AND keeping the town clear of AAF forces. Mission fails if the truck is destroyed or 90% of FIA dies")
"Take a boat in the air you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turnin' of the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurtin' before she keels... makes her home."

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fer
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Re: fa3_c40_ghosthawkdown

Post by fer »

Did somebody say 'Writing mission briefings'? Comrade, step this way.

:science101:

Seriously, though, if you're planning to refine a briefing please read this thread and take a few moments to absorb it; good briefings save lives. Mission makers' lives. Because I don't have them executed.

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Sparks
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Re: fa3_c40_ghosthawkdown

Post by Sparks »

Loved the mission. Hated my computer for BSOD'ing me out of it half-way through but the AI saved the AH9 and I was able to jump back in.
General thoughts:
- :dance: Awesomesauce :dance:

- Not sure that having both initial MH9 pilots RTB simultaneously is the best course of action - having one RTB immediately to bring the AH9 CAS on station, yes, but the other transport helos are just big unarmed targets for most of the mission and the other MH9 might be more useful.

- The pilots need to be on their own channel, probably with command. But I always think that about every mission. Actually, let me digress here for a moment. I use an orbweaver which has a thumbstick hat switch thingy that I use exclusively for comms. Pull it up for general VOIP PTT (the channel being set manually and usually to group), push down to the table for teamspeak, pull back towards me for teamspeak CC, and push forwards away from me for VOIP PTT on direct channel. As infantry, I set my channel to group manually, and as pilot, to vehicle. So as infantry, it's up for my guys, down for the other FTLs & SL, back for SLs & CO, forward for that guy right in front of me who's not in my squad. And as pilot, it'll be up for everyone on the helo, down for ... well, you get the idea. Joystick hatswitches can be set that way as well, and in a pinch most mice have enough keys to give you four comms options. So for missions that involve pilots, I think it generally makes sense to have all your helo pilots on a seperate teamspeak channel than everyone else. It keeps comms operations relatively easy, which reduces pilot workload, which reduces the frequency of controlled flight into terrain, and allows for things like letting the helos coordinate themselves in flight independently.

- Speaking of pilot independence, anyone who's flown more than one hairy mission for Folk will ask in the briefing or just do it without asking, but please remember, your CO's dot of an LZ on the map in the briefing is just a suggestion. Pilots need final discretion and may not know what they have to do until they're within sight of the LZ and if you don't remember that, you may wonder why your helo is landing 50m away from where you thought it was going to go. And for any new pilots reading this, though Fer may need to take you to the dascha afterwards, if you stray from the dot and get your chalk down safe, that's better than a burning wreck and eight corpses on the dot :D This doesn't mean land anywhere you want to, btw, just that if the LZ is hot, have an alternate in mind. And it's better to have picked an IP to run into the LZ from so you know where the alternate is going to be if you need it fast. And if your CO puts the LZ dot in the middle of a large forest, land in the sheltered clearing 40m south, don't try to pinnacle on an oak tree and have your chalk climb down :D

(actually, for this mission I kindof think Charlie should secure the LZ and the land-on-damn-near-anything ability of the MH9s could be used to put Alpha right on top of Charlie - looking back, I think I could have put the guys on the ground ten metres from the building Charlie was in and used the building to shield my approach, landing and running away, because for whatever reason there wasn't much enemy activity between the coast and Charlie's position).

- Digression aside, I think CAS was underused in this mission. And that was with Ferrard as CO. And you know what his thoughts are about bringing ammunition home. Not that CAS would have been of much use here, mostly it was CAP rather than CAS that I wound up tasked with, and the AH9 is woeful at CAP, even against Orcas, but especially Orcas with DAGRs that have a 3km lock-on range...
guns.ie ● stochasticgeometry.ie ● weak.ie

Don't tell mom I'm a pilot, she thinks I play piano in a whorehouse

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Peasant
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Re: fa3_c40_ghosthawkdown

Post by Peasant »

Would it be possible to mix this one up a little by having either alpha or bravo in gunboats, or would that be a separate mission?

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Ferrard Carson
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Re: fa3_c40_ghosthawkdown

Post by Ferrard Carson »

This mission already has three different transport methods as it is. A fourth would make logistics even worse.

~ Ferrard
"Take a boat in the air you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turnin' of the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurtin' before she keels... makes her home."

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Sparks
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Re: fa3_c40_ghosthawkdown

Post by Sparks »

*mental image of a squad charging full-tilt at the landing spot on a beach, just as the AH-9 does a CAS rockets&guns of the treeline ahead of them...*

*has a little moment*

Might be a bit much for this mission, but hell, we need to build a mission with that moment in it :)
guns.ie ● stochasticgeometry.ie ● weak.ie

Don't tell mom I'm a pilot, she thinks I play piano in a whorehouse

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