'Cipher' - full dynamic [SP & MP/Coop] with unlimited replayability

[erazor]

My apologies if this has been suggested before, but i can't get myself to read 20ish pages .


You are obviously teh man, wiper. So I was wondering if you have any plans of expanding the mission to give the player even more option. I don't know if you recall, but there was a mission in ARMA1 based on a desert map where basically you spawned at a base, you could get custom loadouts, customize your squad, talk to an NPC mission giver, and choose your method of insertion (like take a helicopter ride, drive a APC, get AI to deliver you etc..). It also had different missions .. like 'patrol area', 'take out target', 'defend location', 'take prisoner', etc..


What i'd personaly love to see for your mission is something like that. Maybe set up the base at the same hill where it is in the manhatten mission. Enable the buy menu where you can customize your equipment and squad. Drop down a Helo & some vehicles so the player can choose his method of insertion. UAV terminal? Maybe have a "fast travel" option towards a point near the Area of Operation for those who want to get there faster without helicopters but don't want to spend time driving. Set up an NPC mission giver .. etc. I'm sure you understand by now .


Comon.. whaddya say?

[Wiper]

OK folks,
version 1.31 uploaded, see Change Log below, download on first page, as always.
I've let the v1.30 link alive as well as I'm currently not sure if all works well with 1.31, particularly the helo insertion gave me lots of headaches in MP environment.

Speaking of "headaches" I needed to make a decision for the mission this time and probably will not add or drop any more basic features.
Believe me or not, this mission concept effectively holds a biest under the hood that isnt even funny to wake it up each time you want to feed it (read: "ourself" with another tiny little fency feature, lol).
I'm not speaking of the AI "engine" here and even not of the dozens of workarounds needed to fool some of the game engine quirks. The problem is the multiple game modes combined with the randomness for the gameplay, particularely for the start, combined with all possible MP conditions: Gameserver, dedi server, JIP, teamswitch.

So at the end I did not even had time to consider alternative vehicle transport options but had full workload in just fixing what already worked prior to the chopper insertion.

I'm sorry to say, but in a similar way like many others who eventually got forced by distrubuting mechanisms I needed to decide here for myself to break off any further "tweaking" and concentrate finally on polishing what we have now.
Yey you guessed it, we have to live with that old clunker I'm afraid

Anyway, I think if the overall gameplay suited yourself well it still will and maybe even a touch more with some small new features.
Have fun with it, and if some glitches show up I'm always glad to fix them, so please dont hesitate to point them out here !

v1.31

• added: insertion by helo and rendezvous for all mission modes.
• added: ammo crate at rendezvous point in Task Force mode.
• added: reintroduced & improved default weapon and gear load out.
• added: automated revealing function for the suitcase location depending on difficulty and player superiority.
• improved: code fetching and radio activation takes some seconds now emphasizing the intended challenge of that task under certain conditions.
• tweaked: briefing texts and briefing updates edited also to reflect latest additions.
• fixed: black screen on clients after reload of MP missions

---------- Post added at 08:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:17 PM ----------

erazor:
thanks for the flowers, but I'm afraid I'm not "the man"
I think I know what you mean with that conception of a really great mission, but all those features brought together with a highly dynamic, unpredictable and randomized concept that I'm going for is stuff that surely needs to be done by a team of enthusiasts, not to mention the workload of testing that cant be managed by just one or few persons.

If I understood your personal priorities for such a misison right, the 'Warefare' system seems to be the best starting point to add more dynamic AI stuff in step by step.

Personally I'm trying to go a slightly differnet way (favouring AI / SP modes f.e.) but we will see what future brings.
Currently I'd like to finish off Cipher as best as possible, and hope to get some free time and energy for a completely new mission/plot plus I hope for some fixes by BIS that I'm eagerly waiting for, most importantly the broken convoy road behavior, that in turn would be a backbone for great concept that already proved very well in the past :-)

[Greg]

I think you've matured this mission to the point it should be, so limiting changes to bug fixes and minor polish is the right thing to do.

Looking forward now to your whole new mission. Perhaps something involving an ambush

[Wiper]

I think you've matured this mission to the point it should be, so limiting changes to bug fixes and minor polish is the right thing to do.

Absolutely, and thats why the next version just got uploaded

v1.32

• fixed: insertion chopper sometimes didn’t land
• fixed: on dedicated servers enemy Hind didn’t continue movement sometimes.
• fixed: BMP3 additional gunners disembarked under contact.
• fixed: added further buildings to the buildings blacklist
• fixed: added further areas to the positions blacklist
• fixed: removed “open suitcase” to avoid odd sat phone placements
• improved: task assignments step by step.
• changed: briefing texts adopted to new tasks / flow.

linky in first post

Have fun !

[Desiderius]

Hello Wiper,

nixe work again. Ist really a great mission. I would aks if its possible to add an Respawn Function as an Option ? I read your description and understand you but it would be really nice to have it as an option.

Greetings
Jack

[zeep]

Man this mission is a great arma2 training tool. I almost solely play this!

Seeing how diverse and challenging Cipher is, i'm looking forward to your next creation!

[WallyJas]

Wiper top stuff mate, this has to be one of the best SP missions I have played.

I noticed that you can play with a full 10 man SF squad or by yourself, is there any option to play with a smaller SF team, of say 3 or 4?

Cheers,

Wal

[Greg]

Latest version (1.32) is great!

I noticed during heli extraction the pilot repeated over and over in both voice and text "Target APC at 33", to target a vodnik. Not sure if this issue is mission or general ARMA2 related. I mounted the extraction chopper as door gunner.

By the way, the new chopper, squad join for story and briefcase operations were excellent and all worked smoothly. The objective location system looked great also, though I did accidentally find the objective as the first building I searched and only noticed the new map UI later, a nice change for me.

[Scrub]

Thank you Wiper. Really great mission system you have created here. I've not had all that much time to play Arma II, but this is the mission I play when I need a fix. Been quite a while since I've updated, can't wait to see what you've improved.

Cheers

[WallyJas]

I have had a few more chances to play this mission and it really is excellent, heaps of variety and the AI seems to be top notch. Can I offer a couple of my thoughts please Wiper?

1 - As has been mentioned before it would be great to have a little more mission variety. Instead of just capturing the suitcase each time, it would be great to have to extract a prisoner or other scenarios that have been mentioned.

2 - I love the intensity of the enemies within and when close to the mission area but the rest of the map seems very sparse of enemies. I can ride my bike from the insertion point to almost right on top of the mission area without any challenge (of course that changes once in the mission area). To make it seem like I am behind enemy lines it would be great to have more enemy road patrols and maybe some kind of enemy presence in each town (truck and squad or checkpoint). This would make me go around the towns more rather than just going direct to the mission area.

I think if the above two were implemented then this mission would last longer in players minds and be even more playable.

Thanks again Wiper, it's been brilliant playing to date and I know I'll keep playing it for weeks to come, can't wait to bring my Father in on a mission.

Cheers,

Wal