Tonight's self-criticism session saw 34 comrades participate in many a battle of which they will tell to their interrogators grandchildren.
AA2: Sofia offensive
Gamey mission
Salt Riders (premature after-party)
Generally negotiable
HELICOPTERS (actual after-party)
Shipping Problems (after-party)
Shipping Problems Zubrs-only (after-party)
As always, comments are most welcome below, especially with regards to new missions for ideas to improve existing missions and make shiny new ones. Also, if you have a nice story be sure to tell it. Videos are always much appreciated, and will be appropriated by our propaganda department if you tell us about them.
If you think commanding seems like fun, yet hesitate because you worry that you won't come up with a reasonable plan on such short notice, then check out our leadership programme.
If you want to test out an updater/launcher for all your mod needs look no further than our Comrade head's marvellous contraption.
Did you notice that some vehicles/players had way cool FA Tractors on them tonight? That's because of the power of our squad tags. Get yours whilst stocks last.
Fun night! Aquarius: The mission is on FAMDB. It should be right at the top (it's title is "AA2: Sofia Offensive" to keep them all together.) Sorry for that misunderstanding.
Videos to come, since the editor is working for me again
I had fun watching the combined arms going on in this one. I felt like it was to the point where the infantry had enough to do, but the vehicle support really moved things along. Maybe that's just me - it did go a lot longer than I expected, will fix that next mission. I did want it to have the feel of gaining ground though since it is technically an invasion series.
Also, when the medic says he is down, he should probably be the first one to be healed also there is a specific marker just for me, no need to do any navigation. I wouldn't be so bitter about it if I hadn't bled out while someone was healing me.
Sorry to those of you that died early (BSl and BM I Think) That must have been a very long wait
Gamey Mission: NATO engineer scrub (also the idiot driving around in the truck after contact happened)
Who dropped the curly wurlies again?
I don't think I fired a single shot this mission. UGLs on the other hand...
I love UGLs because they are directionless, if done right the enemy will have no clue where the fire is coming from. I fired about 20 of them late mission - I was eventually sole survivor of NATO and used that to my advantage. I was doing mostly inaccurate fire at any vehicles I came across (if you were driving around and heard UGLs it was me) And I almost hit an OPFOR fireteam as they were moving down the north hill to the objective. UGLs are fun.
I actually survived this... I was on my way to UGL Indfor when the trigger fired.
Generally Negociable: A1 FTL
Very well made mission. Our FT got into some heavy shit in the gully, and I lost three guys, one of whom bled out in my arms. Sorry fireteam, I made some shiite decisions there. Ah well, the meeting went well (lots of trying to sell people things, including manservants. Huh.) and we got out of there in a very cinematic way.
Also, afterparty: This happened:
Last edited by Ralian on Wed Sep 16, 2015 4:53 am, edited 5 times in total.
There are only three things I hate in this world: Ranting, Lists, and Irony.
I'm planning on a better write up later, but a quick shout-out to whomever designed Generally Negotiable. Absolutely fantastically written mission, just what I think an ARMA mission should be. Perfect length, clear objective that works really well, solid AI defense and triggers that fired right. Absolutely loved it.
I can be mean about Gamey Mission because I wrote most of it, and comrade Eagle Eye was coerced into helping. So ...
For those comrades that made it through all the missions, last night offered a bit of a master-class in how to do mission making right ... and wrong. Comrade darckChozo nailed the short-coop with Generally Negotiable, which had all we could ask of it:
Infantry focus, with a light smattering of interesting attachments to add flavour but not dominate
Small, but interesting AO that allowed us to focus on fighting not foot-slogging
Nice mix of initial defenders and - later - incoming enemy QRF units
Unambiguous, straight forward mission objective
Time-bounding baked into the mission narrative in a very credible way
Imagination and creativity gave the mission a twist, but the whole show wasn't predicated on a fancy script or set-up
I'd wager that it didn't take weeks and weeks to develop this mission, but it was superb work that demonstrates how nailing the basics and adding just the right amount of garnish is what makes a great FA mission.
In contrast, Gamey Mission was a multi-layered cake that took far too long to make, and then collapsed under its own weight. Thinking of the amount of time I spent Party engineers spent scripting, messing around with gear scripts, writing a briefing that attempted to convey the complexity as quickly as possible ... I am frustrated. Because I might have Party engineers should have churned out 2 solid coops for the same investment - and they would have been 'core session' material too, instead of something that now sits firmly in the after-party bucket.
There is some merit in trying things like Gamey Mission, and some of the little mechanics from it will likely pop-up in future coops that I write created by Party engineers. However, I tip my hat to comrade darkChozo for reminding me reminding us all to love the basics.
Comrade Eagle Eye will now be held solely responsible for the fiasco of Gamey Mission and detained. Commence Operation Scapegoat!
Call me crazy, but I enjoyed Gamey Mission (and it was a lot better made than my cooperative.) It was an interesting prospect, maybe not intuitive at first, but it was an interesting cross between a coop and an adversarial if I understand correctly. The only thing I could really recommend changing is instead of having three friggin boats, why not just have one boat and a context menu option to deliver the device? (blufor, opfor, or both.) Ah well, I thought it was fun.
Videos today or tomorrow.
There are only three things I hate in this world: Ranting, Lists, and Irony.
Haha, well, thanks for the praise everyone. Not much to say other that I'm glad that it went well.
It's also really hard to not metagame when you know exactly how a mission ticks. I'll admit I was a little scared when our initial plan involved sauntering out in the open where I knew infantry was sitting, but it worked out.
Ralian wrote:Call me crazy, but I enjoyed Gamey Mission (and it was a lot better made than my cooperative.) It was an interesting prospect, maybe not intuitive at first, but it was an interesting cross between a coop and an adversarial if I understand correctly. The only thing I could really recommend changing is instead of having three friggin boats, why not just have one boat and a context menu option to deliver the device? (blufor, opfor, or both.) Ah well, I thought it was fun.
Videos today or tomorrow.
Gamey Mission struck me as a good mission that had been overdesigned. Like, the basic idea of teams cooperating to take down a base while secretly conspiring against each other actually worked really well, it was all the other stuff that didn't seem to add much and just made things confusing.
Missed the first mission, but playing Gamey Mission was a very interesting experience, with enemy guns pointed at you, knowing they could fire any moment.
I would be glad playing it again, especially since the different paths to success failure are near endless.
fer wrote:Comrade Eagle Eye will now be held solely responsible for the fiasco of Gamey Mission and detained. Commence Operation Scapegoat!
Im going to go back to making more Rebel Alliance missions and keep my head down. Just you see, i can make a mission 100 times simpler and more creative and perfect than Chozo... I'll show everyone
