Deep Sandbox (for Zargabad)

[dmos]

I'll upload an update in the evening. Tripled the amount of possible starting positions and developed the stashes system a bit. Now the randomly placed stashes will have random sets of equipment that will be specialized. This is the base of the stashes system. After that further development concerning stashes will be mainly just increasing the number of possible sets of equipment and increasing the number of stashes.

[SW1]

Good stuff look forward to playing the new version...

[PendragonUK]

I have played some, I found it a little confusing at first without an objective, anyhow. Is there any chance of a Coop MP version? I would love to host it on my server.

[dmos]

Uploaded update. Download from first post. Gotta run

[rscarrab]

I really liked Flashpoint Takistan myself. About to download this mission now, looks good.

If your looking to make those radar thingies upright you could add to the init's;

this setDir xxx.xxx;

I used RTE editor to place H Barriers around Sosnovka, took me fookin ages mainly because they didnt line up. They were all leveled, the same as the nearby houses.

Once i removed "this setDir 113.967;" (for instance), they lined up with the terrain they were on. Thus i was able to line them up and have a nice walled town.

Ever since then whenever i place something that i want level --so to speak-- i either leave in the "this setDir" or add it in, depending.

Hope this helps.

[dmos]

Just uploaded UPDATE 4.
This is a big one. Stashes system practically done. The whole mechanism is there. Just left to expand and improve the possible equipment combinations. Stashes are placed completely dynamically. Mostly next to buildings or in courtyards and very rarely in very urban areas (for example middle of the city). Made more changes and improvements. I just updated the first post and started the changelog. Check that for a bit more info. Download from first post.

---------- Post added at 12:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:22 PM ----------

I found it a little confusing at first without an objective. Is there any chance of a Coop MP version? I would love to host it on my server.

Hehe yeah understand why you might be confused

This isn't really a mission in the standard sense, because there are no objectives. Except maybe to have fun The idea is centered around freedom, dynamism, free roaming, exploring the game and different gameplay aspects as well as tactics.

And for MP compatibility -- I'd love to make it playable in multiplayer, but I have no idea how to go about it. I know nothing about the whole local vs synchronized problem and the whole multiplayer mission making business seems dark and scary to me. If anyone would like to take this up I would help as much as I can.

I really liked Flashpoint Takistan myself. About to download this mission now, looks good.

If your looking to make those radar thingies upright you could add to the init's;

I used RTE editor to place H Barriers around Sosnovka, took me fookin ages mainly because they didnt line up. They were all leveled, the same as the nearby houses.

Once i removed "this setDir 113.967;" (for instance), they lined up with the terrain they were on. Thus i was able to line them up and have a nice walled town.

Ever since then whenever i place something that i want level --so to speak-- i either leave in the "this setDir" or add it in, depending.

Hope this helps.

I'm not a fan of micromanagement Currently i'm using setVectorUp to make it completely upright, which is really easy and quick, but it does interfere with the terrain. I'm planning to write a quick script so that it would find a good position on its own using isFlatEmpty.

[Kneecap]

Im eager to try out this mission, however im a newbie when it comes to installing third party missions on this game. So um, this mission download comes with one pbo file (wich the readme says to put in the missions folder so thats ok) however, theres another folder called deepsand.Zargabad. Where do i put this folder?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[dmos]

Im eager to try out this mission, however im a newbie when it comes to installing third party missions on this game. So um, this mission download comes with one pbo file (wich the readme says to put in the missions folder so thats ok) however, theres another folder called deepsand.Zargabad. Where do i put this folder?

Thanks in advance for any help.

No problem What you described is an older release. You probably got it from Armaholic, right? Click the huge red DOWNLOAD link at the end of the first post to get the latest version.

I supply the .pbo and the code of the mission. I used to upload both together (thats what you have), but now they're seperate downloads. The already mentioned DOWNLOAD link gets you the .pbo which is all you need to play. And if someone is interested in the code, the link for that is there too (under the DOWNLOAD link).

Edit: btw enjoy the mission

[Kyle_K_ski]

Since yesterday, I've twice tried out your Infinite-Mission type mod.

To say that I like this mission a LOT is an understatement. It's very close to being perfectly brilliant. If you take my advice, it will be!

First, I certainly don't mind not having objectives, other than to stay alive and apply your tactical wits the whole time while doing so. I've only tried BI's official campaigns once, for a total of about 1/2 hour's time anyway. Anything else I've played has been using the excellent online Planned Assault mission planner, but I'm going to run with this tremendously engrossing work of yours for a good long time I think.

Some questions, and then some suggestions:

Where are the British units coming from? From the "Lite" version that BI released to everyone, or does your mission "look" through the mods that the player's loaded up, and draw units from there? If it's the latter that's VERY cool. It'll be neat to see some of the German units running about if that's how your mod works. If so, I'll be certain to add the PLA units too.


I really enjoy the option of being able to add BLUFOR to one's team whenever one desires to do so. This gives the player a lot of control of the size of the force he likes to command. This is a very thoughtful and well executed feature on your part.

What I'm also itching to see randomly placed are:
...debris piles
...defensive positions of all types, from a lump of sandbags to vehicle checkpoints
...blast craters that are big enough to be tactically useful

Am I correct in remembering that you have HK416s and their variants available at the ammo caches? If not, it sure would be nice if they were.

If the weapon caches could be setup so that a quick "Rearm" command can be given to the whole squad, who, upon receiving it, would automatically stock up on ammo for the weapon types that they're already carrying. It would also be VERY nice to have an option along the lines of "Rearm with suppressed weapons," at which point the units would select the best suppressed match to their class. Once a unit is carrying suppressed gear, there would be a command available at these ammo caches of "Rearm with non-suppressed weapons."

If I'm not mistaken, the loadout for the respawned player is randomized, yes? Yet every time I've respawned, I've only ever had smoke grenades. Could you make it so that out of the four grenade slots, two of them are frags? I've respawned (nice touch by the way!) and then after hoofing it a loooong distance to get back to the fight, encountered some OPFOR, ran like mad for the nearest cover, been so out of breath to not be able to shoot, yet not so out of breath that a frag grenade could've pulled my butt out of the fire--were it available on me. I'm only bringing it up due to the frequency of this type of encounter.

Would it be possible to include 2-3 randomly placed Red Cross/Red Crescent field hospitals to the map, staffed by 3-4 doctors? That way, if the player or one of his units are badly injured, they can be fully healed once they get there. To act as a penalty, I'd have the healing-procedure at the hospital take a good bit of time, like 2-3 min., based on the severity of the wound. I'd also apply a dizziness side effect whose duration is based on the severity of the wounds that were fixed up. The more severe the wound was, the longer the fully healed unit will suffer from dizziness, although I'd cap it off at 3 min, unless one desires to cause the player to vomit on their keyboard!

For every friendly wounded AI that the player applies first aid to, the player gets rewarded with $7 (a "lucky" number) to the Currency Counter. Now, talk about making it a hard choice for the player to ignore a wounded virtual comrade! Does the player risk his neck to save him, or not? Yeah, that would be evil.

I really appreciate having the randomly placed vehicles on the map, which caused me to think about wouldn't it be cool to also have an ambulance that would randomly drive about and park at a location for 10-15 min.? While there, the BLUFOR and the OPFOR could get fully healed as if it's a field hospital on wheels with flashing emergency lights!

Scatter around some terrified AI civilians, and add some rare encounters with domesticated animals. That would add a lot of ambiance, deepen the immersion factor, and potentially act as a penalty for the player, such as...
...dropping his currency counter by 6 (an unlucky number) and...
...bumping up the next spawn of enemy infantry by 6 for every civilian killed beforehand!
This would simulate the consequences of killing civilians, chiefly that of driving the locals that one's supposedly supporting right into the arms of the enemy.

Could you explain in a little more detail what the Currency Counter is capable of doing other than keeping track of partial/full kills?

Also, if it's not too much work, or a hit on the framerates, could you add small arms ammo as cargo that the player/AI can access if needed?

And then, after all of the above GREAT ideas (*hint-hint*) have been added, port over this great mission to other maps!

I love the idea of this Infinite-Mission type. BI should throw some money your way and integrate it into ArmA III.

Great stuff here. Thank you for your hard work, and sharing it with us.


You do this because we're so good looking, right?

Or is because I'm such a good dancer?

[Jedra]

Enjoying this very much, so well done. It's great just to pick up and play for an hour or so at a time. I am currently modding it for myself to work on the new Malden 2010 map (released today) whilst also making it more ACE specific. Then I think I will do one for Isla Duala when the next version arrives.

Excellent idea and execution. If people keep releasing stuff like this then I will never get my campaign built ;-)