CO14 - Operation Sky Sweeper

[Raddik]

Operation Sky Sweeper is a dynamic and air combat focused mission that can by played solo or with others. It includes many unique features including a custom aircraft spawning script and steam catapult system, both of which I'd originally written for this mission. If you love air combat, this is the mission for you!

Click the spoiler button below to view the mission briefing/details:

Spoiler:

show spoiler

Mission:

Soon the 1st Marine Division will be landing on the shores of Chernarus near the town of Komarovo, and it's up to us to clear the way of OpFor air threats and armor. Our 1st primary objective is to eliminate all OpFor air assets. This includes the several dozen SU34s we know of and other unknown fixed wing aircraft. Again, the enemy is on standby so expect a quick response to the initial attack from reinforcements. Use extreme caution and make sure your aircraft is in tip top shape.

Our 2nd primary objective is to defend the single MLRS we have in the town of Komarovo at all costs. With the losses we've suffered recently, this is our only chance at taking out the Russian command center to the North. It will take one hour for the MLRS system to be ready, we must defend it while it's being deployed.

The final detail is the tricky one. We only have 60 minutes to complete this mission, or the ground forces coming in behind us will be pummled. That means both shooting down all OpFor aircraft and defending the MRLS system in that timeframe. Failure of either will result in a mission failure as a whole.

Intel:

Intel has told us there is a significant OpFor aircraft presence on and around Chernarus. There is believed to be several dozen SU34s and some other unknown aircraft in the area. As a less significant threat, we also expect some OpFor anti-air assets, supply trucks and other support vehicles, OpFor radar installation and more. Enemy is on standby and related alert levels are extremely high. Using satellite recon, we have spotted various armor units and convoys already en route to Komarovo, there is potential for these units to be in excess of 10 tanks and 20 APCs. Finally, we have some support from a dozen or so locals who's objective will be to help us defend out MLRS system on the ground.

Equipment:

We will be using a US Marine LHD as a base of operations. This will provide us with 12 F35-B aircraft, 2 AH1-Z helicopters, 2 AH64D helicopters, and 4 experimental carrier friendly A10s. All aircraft will be outfitted with heavy anti-air loadouts to maximize their damage capabilities. We have set up a repair, refuel and rearm area on the grass airstrip near the town of Balota...check your map for the location.

Features:

• BluFor only Co-op gameplay for up to 14 players
• Support for Mando Missiles
• 3 BluFor AI controlled respawning F35B aircraft
• 1 BluFor AI controlled respawning A10 aircraft
• Fully functional & custom made steam catapult system for deck launching
• Scripting that creates 50+ enemy aircraft placed randomly around the map, with only 12 alive at any given moment.
• Dual Primary Objectives include destroying all OpFor aircraft & protecting a vital BluFor asset
• Full featured LHD base with respawning resources including:
• 12 custom outfitted F35-B aircraft with 8 Sidewinder missiles, 2 Maverick AG missiles, and 600 rounds of GAU12 cannon ammo
• 4 custom outfitted A-10 'Warthog' aircraft with 2 Sidewinder missiles, 6 Maverick AG missiles, and 1200 rounds of cannon ammo
• 2 custom outfitted AH1-Z 'Cobra' helicopters with 6 Sidewinder missiles, 8 Hellfire missiles, 38 Hydra missiles, and 1500 rounds of M197 cannon ammo
• 2 custom outfitted AH64D 'Apache' helicopters with 16 Hellfire missiles, 38 Hydra missiles, and 1350 rounds of cannon ammo
• Fuel, Ammo, and Repair trucks on BluFor friendly grass airstrip in Boalta
• AI guerrilla warfare team set to protect BluFor missile asset
• Full 3D clouds w/4.5K meter draw distance (supports up to 7k)
• Dynamic menu system for player controlled view distance and grass
• All scripting is dedicated server friendly
• Full briefing.
  

Change Log:

V 1.0 - 12/26/09

• Initial Release

V 1.01 - 12/30/09

• Added – New version with support and tweaks for Mando Missiles v2.4.
• Added - 3 BluFor AI controlled respawning F35B aircraft to support players.
• Added - 1 BluFor AI controlled respawning A10 aircraft to support players.
• Added – (2) AH-64 Longbow helicopters.
• Added - Player-controlled view distance/grass settings.
• Removed – (1) AH1Z Cobra helicopter.
• Fixed - Spawn height issues with aircraft.
• Changed – Updated catapult system to lock player in vehicle until launch is complete.
• Changed – Reduced OpFor aircraft total count to 50.
• Changed – Moved BluFor MLRS asset away from building, on occasion it would self-annihilate.
• Changed – Loadouts on all vehicles to balance gameplay and encourage team work.
• Changed - Starting view distance to 4500 meters.
• Changed - Major overhaul of underlying scripting for BluFor aircraft loadouts, respawning, and positioning.
• Changed - Complete retooling of AI aircraft spawning scripts…they have been reduced to a single function. This adds a 5-15 fps increase over v1.0.

Operation Sky Sweeper | v1.01 - Armaholic.com

Thanks in advance for trying this out. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Raddik

[Raddik]

Can someone comment on the performance of this mission on their local machine or dedicated server?

[neokika]

Originally Posted by Raddik

Can someone comment on the performance of this mission on their local machine or dedicated server?

Im gonna try it now, ill give you some feed later on...

_neo_

[Turk182!]

A couple friends and I played this for 5 hours last night on a server and we had no issues.

This was a major improvement over the last air combat mission. We had a blast! It was also nice to have an objective that required us to pay attention and work together. We did have some issues with the opfor AA units until we realized where they were...guess that's really not a mission issue. Maybe you could mark their positions on the map as potential AA sites?

Finally, you've really refined the catapult launching! It was so awesome taking off on the deck and flying up into those clouds.

[Kremator]

Yummy .... gonna try this out with MandoMissiles Will be superb !

[Raddik]

Turk, I can do the map additon for potential
AA...thanks for the idea.

Kremator, I tried this with Mando Missiles and since the OpFor (ai) aircraft are created with a script o couldn't figure out how to limit their range/radar to that of human players. Maybe I'll send Mandoble a pm later asking for help.

Cheers,

Raddik

[Kremator]

Loving the mission...... but to make EVEN more fun would be for all the AI to take part as well !

The skies would be full then.

[Raddik]

Kremator,

We're currently working on a script to do just that. It would allow the AI to use the deck launch system! We'll update everyone on the progress when we make some.

All, below is our server if you would like to play this mission w/o having to download and run it locally.

[Kremator]

If you sort that mate it will be amazing! I just love the deck launch system. Have you found about using mandoble's missiles within this brilliant mission?

It SHOULD just be a case to replace all default missile classes with his plus naming the aircraft that need to use them.

If you need a beta tester for the AI version then let me know.

[Raddik]

Still working on Mando Missile integration, but I'm making some serious headway. Going to spend a significant amount of time on this tonight to try and finish it.