[SP/COOP] Operation Yellow

[Behemeth]

Hello everybody,

I currently am trying myself on creating missions. I begun my first and wanted do some kind of Sneak, Seek and Destroy.
Even though this sounds hardly finished I want to release this as a v0.3.
Especially because I'm rather new to ArmA and I think I do need help regarding the balancing: So I would really appreciate feedback.

Mission Description:
After a traitorous ChDZK soldier leaked the location of a ChDZK undercover base to the CDF a raiding troop wiped this base and acquired incriminating intel.
Though the traitor was brought to justice, the CDF is planning to provide the intel to US forces.
Currently a diplomat named Vaclav Novak is on his way to meet US representatives in the city of Emita.
Unfortunately the Island as well as the city of Emita itself are out of the reach of ChDZK, which means that the intel is practically in US hands.
After an informant provided us the location of Vaclav Novak our only chance is to send in a Speznas unit to assassinate Novak and return the intel.
Your unit will land at a Parking Area near the Stadium and has to reach Emita Elite Hotel as silently as possible.
Due to recent events the city is in alert and large CDF presence is to be expected.
The outskirts are patrolled by heavy armor while in the city streets CDF soldiers are patrolling and road blocks are established.

Changelog:
v0.1:
- Initial release

v0.2:
- removed bug which caused premature triggering of mission targets
- fixes to trigger and marker placement
- some tweaking of enemy presence

v0.3:
- added HALO insertion
- adjusted team classes (there is a team leader now) and equipment
- some more tweaking of enemy presence

Mission Requirements:
- ArmA II CO
- CBA
- Emita Island
- An-72 Coaler

Mission Link: (most recent v0.3)
Armaholic mirror:
- Operation Yellow Co-04 (@) (v0.3)
Mediafire mirror:
- http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?h478z6i9882dzi0 (v0.3)

Thx for the Armaholic mirror!

[Variable]

Thanks Behemeth! Sounds like fun, I will give this a try

[luizsilveira]

Thanks for sharing! I've played it with 2 friend and I'll post my impressions.

First off, disclaimer: we played with ASR+Zeus+pieces of SLX for the AI. So that can of course influence the playability quite a bit.

tTo start with, the mission has a great atmosphere and for those who like sneaky infiltrations this is bang on. After reading the briefing I was expecting an actual HALO insertion though and was a bit disappointed to start on the ground. Maybe something you can add with time, I'm sure it might not be that easy but there are some scripts around

*WARNING* From here on there are many big spoilers, read at your own risk.

Spoiler:

show spoiler

We had a good time making our way to the hotel, and trying to infiltrate it etc. Nice stuff. We could shoot a soldier or two without drawing attention as long as we shot it dead. If we shot it wounded hell would break free.

We made into the hotel and searched it throughout. More than once. Opened the map, confirmed the location, searched again. It was only after a few attempts and by noticing the map mark was NW in the hotel that we tried to get in the room - which then released the trigger. We didn't get in the room because one can see from the door, leaning, that it's empty but that doesn't trigger the objective. So my suggestion is the trigger area should be slightly bigger, including the door of the room, as that's enough to "clear" the room.

We made a mistake on the way out and were a bit confused by it all so we decided to restart. This time we went up the apartments on the west to peek into the room and make sure the target was not there (i.e., it could have escaped when we infiltrated the hotel, since we did so a bit nosily). This is the most important bit: to our surprise, when we *looked* from the roof across the street into the hotel room, the objective completed and we gathered the intel Looks like a bug. (I loved the autosave though)

We got the hint of looking for an armour (although we hadn't fired a shot) and saw one inside the police parking lot. So there we went, and it was a bit disappointing that we could go all the way into the armour by crawling around. We could pass right by the soldiers and they wouldn't notice... I guess an AI limitation, even with the mods. We made it to the armour only to notice it was all disabled/damaged so we decided to go on foot. And there we went.

In the end, we completed the mission without getting into the hotel or anywhere else, and without firing a single shot :P

I'm only reporting so you can fix and tweak the possible bugs and the like. Overall it was nice, a nice atmosphere and creative and entertaining ideas and mission. We had a really good time planning and executing it - although it felt a bit like DayZ at some point as we were crawling a lot and avoiding the patrolling AI passing by. :P

Keep them coming, much appreciated!

[bracer]

Nice to see another mission for Emita!
Cheers!

[Behemeth]

Hello luizsilveira,

thank you very much for testing and letting me know the issues!

Spoiler:

show spoiler

We made into the hotel and searched it throughout. More than once. Opened the map, confirmed the location, searched again. It was only after a few attempts and by noticing the map mark was NW in the hotel that we tried to get in the room - which then released the trigger. We didn't get in the room because one can see from the door, leaning, that it's empty but that doesn't trigger the objective. So my suggestion is the trigger area should be slightly bigger, including the door of the room, as that's enough to "clear" the room.

The target was to reach the desk to search for intel since the target was not there - yet this was not obvious as you mentioned. I added a event when the player looks through the door telling to search the desk for information. I hope that helps. Also the task target marker was not on the right height. I changed that as well.

This is the most important bit: to our surprise, when we *looked* from the roof across the street into the hotel room, the objective completed and we gathered the intel Looks like a bug. (I loved the autosave though)

This was a bug indeed. Thanks for helping me find that one!

We got the hint of looking for an armour (although we hadn't fired a shot) and saw one inside the police parking lot. So there we went, and it was a bit disappointing that we could go all the way into the armour by crawling around. We could pass right by the soldiers and they wouldn't notice... I guess an AI limitation, even with the mods. We made it to the armour only to notice it was all disabled/damaged so we decided to go on foot. And there we went.

I think I leave the triggered armour information since without the bug it should not be such a quiet mission. Without the mentioned mods I was detected, when entering the prison area. But I will try to tweak the AI skill a bit - maybe that helps. Actually there is an additional task between leaving the hotel and entering the prison which's target is to lure those massive amounts of soldiers out as my plan was to make it near impossible to get inside with all those soldiers - it seems I failed . This second objective sadly never triggered for you due to the bug.

What do you think of the part driving back to the exctraction point in the BMP? Was it OK or should there be more enemy presence trying to stop you?

After reading the briefing I was expecting an actual HALO insertion though and was a bit disappointed to start on the ground.

Yes I'm sorry - this is still the plan for later versions as soon as the actual content reached somewhat acceptable quality

Thanks to your information I generated a v0.2 which can be found now found at the initial post.

[luizsilveira]

thank you very much for testing and letting me know the issues!

No problem!

Spoiler:

show spoiler

What do you think of the part driving back to the exctraction point in the BMP? Was it OK or should there be more enemy presence trying to stop you?

I don't know. We never found a BMP! Like I said, we walked all the way. Which was fun as well.

Yes I'm sorry - [the actual halo insertion is] still the plan for later versions as soon as the actual content reached somewhat acceptable quality

heh, don't worry and don't be sorry No problem at all.

As a suggestion, in the future you can use expressions like "you have been inserted by halo" or something like that. It's totally ok to start on the ground and by using such expressions you don't create the expectation

(in our case, we had one chap on the team who had never done it, so we went through the whole explanation with him on how to do the halo to find the landing area and land close to it etc before clicking "continue". Then it was a bit of a "whaaat" when the mission loaded lol. But again, no problem mate, it was fun )

[Behemeth]

As a suggestion, in the future you can use expressions like "you have been inserted by halo" or something like that. It's totally ok to start on the ground and by using such expressions you don't create the expectation

(in our case, we had one chap on the team who had never done it, so we went through the whole explanation with him on how to do the halo to find the landing area and land close to it etc before clicking "continue". Then it was a bit of a "whaaat" when the mission loaded lol. But again, no problem mate, it was fun )

Thanks, I will keep that in mind.
In the new version I added the HALO insertion which seems to work quite well at least for SP. I was not able to test it with more than one player yet.

Currently the jumping out of the aircraft is triggered when a certain area is reached. Would it be better to just say "10 seconds" and then "go" to let the players do the "Jump Out" by themselves? This could maybe lead to a splittered group if timing was not perfect. But that could also add some kind of fun - to reunite the team first. What do you guys think?

[luizsilveira]

I like the possibly-scattered group having to get together. Adds a lot to the immersion and demands skills from everyone (not only on HALO jumping but map/navigation skills etc.).

I'd just just watch out for the AI :P

In the "Blood on the Sand" campaign there is a very nice HALO jump in a mission called something like "Preemptive attack", can't remember properly but you'll probably find it. It's SP though so I don't know how to translate to coop. Shouldn't be difficult, and the AI jumps and lands perfectly every time there. Also, there are IR strobes on the ground to guide landing - which helps loads of course.