Coop 37 Defend Corazol by Strag

[Strag]

This is the follow-up mission to my first Corazol-based mission. It's still fairly rough, but it's coming along. The general idea is that a somewhat large force of enemy infantry and armor launch a countterattack on Corazol, and a smaller friendly infantry force must hold a defensive line east of the city until help arrives.

Originally I'd planned to give the friendly infantry access to artillery, but so far this has proved buggy. If I can't get the artillery to work, I'll probably use some kind of CAS instead.

More to come.

[BHack]

Helos?

[Strag]

Doubtful in this mission. I'm trying to develop a series of missions within an overall plot, and right now the story is still in the initial stages. The "first strike" has taken place (the first mission), and now there is a counterattack (the second mission). The friendly side isn't sure at this point how serious the situation is, so, in an attempt to keep the conflict fairly low in intensity, they're unwilling to commit big assets like armor and air. That will change as the story progresses.

This series of missions probably won't appeal to folks who don't like to read briefings or "get into the situation." For folks who just like to hop on the server and kill things, there are plenty of other missions available. But, for folks who want something a little more in-depth, I'm aiming these missions at you.

[boudreux]

Consider me incredibly interested. I have my 505 version, and I'm ready for some intense, overly complicated co-op.

[Strag]

Originally Posted by BHack

Helos?

Actually, BHack, the CAS almost certainly would be helos, but not player-controlled helos, and likely only AH-6s with miniguns. I'm trying to keep the playable roles confined to the ground at this early stage, and then will expand those roles into armor and air assets as events develop. Don't worry, I won't forget our pilots; there will be plenty of air action coming.

[blackmain]

Sounds good. Can't wait for the .5 patch so i can actually play.

[Strag]

I have an organizational question regarding this mission.

Right now, I have three friendly playable squads, along with an officer attached to one of the squads. The officer would serve as the platoon commander, assuming someone wanted to play as that role. Otherwise, he'd function as the leader of his squad.

I'd like to pull this guy out into a separate group (a small headquarters squad?), but I'm not sure if this is the way to go. Any ideas or input?

[Strag]

Thanks to those who playtested this mission a bit last night. For the most part, the arty seems to work correctly in multiplayer now. Also, I figured out why the guns stopped firing after all those fire missions -- they were out of ammo.

[boudreux]

a headquarters element might make sense. Give them a blackhawk for observation, or keep them on the ground with a arty spotter, ammo/repair truck, APC ambulance.

Little off-topic. I'd love to see the game allow almost instant healing, so you're almost never out of the game, but only through med evac. Think of how awesome it would be to have dedicated Med squads, and all they concentrate on is getting people back to to the hospital at home base. Also, if your squad is engaged, you are trying to get your injured squadmates to safety. It'd be amazing. End rant.

[Strag]

Originally Posted by boudreux

a headquarters element might make sense. Give them a blackhawk for observation, or keep them on the ground with a arty spotter, ammo/repair truck, APC ambulance.

Hey now! I really like the idea of having a roving HQ unit in a HMMWV. It could include the platoon commander, a couple of medics, and ammo in the vehicle. Good stuff, boudreux, and thanks.

Originally Posted by boudreux

Little off-topic. I'd love to see the game allow almost instant healing, so you're almost never out of the game, but only through med evac. Think of how awesome it would be to have dedicated Med squads, and all they concentrate on is getting people back to to the hospital at home base. Also, if your squad is engaged, you are trying to get your injured squadmates to safety. It'd be amazing. End rant.

You could have this fairly easily. Have a Blawk Hawk full of medics on standby somewhere, available via Radio Alpha. Once you (as Squad Leader) made the call, the chopper would come to your position and you could have your guy(s) heal at the medics. There would need to be a means to get the chopper to leave once healing was done, but I imagine this could be accomplished without much trouble.

[boudreux]

That would be kinda fun, having an AI medic squad, but I am wishing for a human medic squad. The game mechanics that would have to be changed would be these:
1) Medics can still stop bleeding, but if you are dead, you can only be revived/respawned at "hospitals" which would hopefully be few and far between, or only at your base.
2) You can pick up bodies and carry/transport them.

I think this would make medics a more exciting aspect of the game, and also allow respawning while maintaining the intensity and suspense of the classic Opflash gameplay.

[Grunt 70]

Strag et al, sounds awesome...I'll have to polish off my Arma and jump back in. I was put off by the endless CTD's and needed a break....This thread fires me up for more....hope the patch helps.

[Strag]

I made more updates last night. I added the Headquarters squad (Platoon Commander and three Medics). All that really remains is to complete the friendly loadouts and have the friendly armor show up at the end of the mission. A few other tweaks are needed for polish, but it's getting close.

The latest version is on our ArmA Coop server.

[Strag]

More questions. (I ask these because I'm making these missions for play at TG. I want to know what YOU guys want.)


1. Currently, each Squad Leader and the Platoon Commander can call in artillery via a radio command (0-0-1, also known as Radio Alpha). Is this desired, or should only the Platoon Commander be able to call the artillery? I can imagine a Squad Leader requesting arty from the Platoon Commander and then placing a map marker where he wanted the rounds to impact. The Platoon Commander would see this marker on his map and call the artillery strike on those coordinates. The Squad Leader would then need to delete the marker. Lather, rinse, repeat.

2. I should be able to create multiple artillery batteries and assign them to different radio channels. This would give a leader the choice of using Battery One on Radio Alpha, Battery Two on Radio Bravo, etc. So, if the Platoon Commander was the only leader with the capability of calling artillery, he would have multiple batteries at his command to direct as he saw fit. Is this desirable?

3. As an alternative, it's also possible to make the artillery request an action and put it into a vehicle or an external radio, so that a user would have to walk up to the vehicle or the external radio to make the artillery request. Would this be a preferred alternative from using Radio Alpha?


What do ya'll think? These sorts of things can really enhance the level of teamwork and coordination required in the mission (in my opinion), but I don't know if folks are interested in this.

[boudreux]

Personally, I would like for the platoon commander to have to call in the Arty. This would push for coordination, and make the asset more limited. Otherwise, if I'm SL, i'd call it in everytime I saw something.

Can you call in air assets, CAS, that is AI controlled?