This evening some members of the TG pathfinders conducted a test fo me of my new CoOp70 mission - THE SCIENTIST

Winchester to Command, Myself as a pilot and Gunner as Eagle Squad lead. Eagle squad also had Xmaster and Bamboo in the squad and LordMac joined in for the last few minutes as another pilot.

This mission has an unusual structure in that all the squad leaders, the Commander, the platoon Medic and the two pilots are all in one group and thus they have group comms between each other. Each player thereafter is an individual who is prt of a squad but not "AmrA Grouped" as such, so Group channel is of no use to them. The grunts on the ground can only use Vehicle chat and Direct chat, nothing else.

Side is left empty unless a squad leader is killed and then such message can be relayed and then the 2IC will switch to the back-up TS system.

This mission has Revive followed by respawn (x3) should the counter run out and the player/grunt arrives back a base. With only direct comms, the only way for that player to get into communication with his squad leader againis to wait for a human pilot to appear who is on the command net. The player then has to use the pilot to communicate messages to his squad leader and to decide where to regroup with hissquad. Alternatively the squad leader may "call" an AI airlift helicopter to come collect the soldier bu again this needs some co-ordination with the pilot.

The mission is quite a challenge and the commander and squad leaders must think very clearly about their strategy and this includes LZ selection in hostile zones. (Always better to select a safe LZ than a potentially hot LZ).

Once the testers understood fully how communications worked, Eagle orgaised themselves and the decision was made to take the MH6 LB to ferry Eagle co. to an LZ ready for their objective to meet the Scientist.

Once evryone was loaded we took off and headed Northeast to a small eastern village on the near the AO. While flying along the coast, the LB transport was spotted by a BMP and the helicopter took heavy fire. One casualty was shot from the helicopter into the wter below. The LB jinked left and right to avoid the fire and dropped off a couple of members of eagle at the LZ and the squad medic and command then tried to take off and rescue the injured player in the ocean. Under heavy fire again the call was made to RTB to repair and refuel.

Back at base it was clear the players injuries had been severe and he had just been released from the field hospital. The group then rearmed and made their way back to Eagle squad leaders marked LZ.

Unfortunately Eagle was overrun by a patrol and once the LB departed fom the LZ to base, the new reinforcements also found themselves in trouble.....

Many of the players then had RL issues to go deal with so the test was stopped with some interesting notes to change and tweak a few things.

The guys made a good effort at this with small numbers and it proved that even 6 people can play the mission. However the team did not get very far into the objective and a problem was noticed with standard weapons not firing? Anyone else discovered this in mission making? It is as if it takes 3 or 4 mouse clicks to fire one bullet? maybe a conflict between the old weapons and new ace ones?

Anywaya very interesting test and I am sure those who played will agree that this is a "Hard" mission and probably most suitable to veteran players of ArmA, but overall the test went pretty well.

BD1