The Fighting TTLGers present: Arma 3 (a TTLG Coop Saturdays spin-off) - by Thirith
Thirith on 9/2/2020 at 10:10
Update: I discussed this with the people on yesterday's session, and we're adding a couple of mods. I've already added them to the modset ((
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=877349651)), but here's a complete list of the new mods.
FHQ Firearms and Weapons Pack
FHQ_Accessories
RHSAFRF
RHSUSAF
RHSGREF
RHSSAF
The first two are a relatively small collection of weapons, scopes and the like. The last four are pretty big (it all amounts to roughly 15GB), but they add a lot too. They're high-quality fan-made factions, complete with weapons and vehicles, and they're in use by many of the Arma clans. More than that, though, they're used in a fair number of interesting missions available for download.
If any of the Arma crowd don't have the space for these mods, let me know; we have other missions to choose from whenever you want to join. I definitely don't want anyone to stop playing because of a bunch of mods.
Anyway, the easiest way to get the full list of mods is to subscribe to the modset linked above. Don't forget to activate them in the launcher!
Thirith on 9/2/2020 at 10:17
And here's the date for the next session:
Quote:
The next Arma 3 coop session:
Date: Sat, 22 February 2020
Time: 3-6pm UK timeAs always, I'll be online a bit before 3pm to set up the server and check who's online.
Thirith on 22/2/2020 at 17:41
Never mention that
Arma worked without any technical hitches, because you'll jinx it... though today we mainly had problems with connectivity rather than with
Arma.
We mainly spent today on one mission generated dynamically (the mission type is called
TRGM2, Treendy's Randomly Generated Missions 2), on the Zargabad map. Our task was deceptively simple: we were supposed to find an informant and get intel from him. Already on the Littlebird flight from HQ to a compound near the informant, henke was wounded, which proved indicative of much of the mission. There weren't many bad guys, but they were aggressive and they were clever. We got stuck under enemy fire at a nearby gas station; Malf died first and respawned at the base, while henke, Dema and me re-enacted the Alamo at the gas station. While it never degenerated into the kind of meat grinder that we've had in the past, it was still grinding us down. When henke, Dema and me got killed around the same time, we decided a different approach, prompted by Malf (who by now had respawned in a group of his own). As we were crossing a nearby dam and getting under enemy fire, we met up with Malf again, and after henke took out the enemy sniper that had us pinned down, we finally got to the compound where the informant supposedly was. With the help of some automated UAVs, we finally spotted him in a nearby field, got the intel, and henke flew us back to base. Mission accomplished - with many a respawn...
Since we couldn't play with the new mods in the first mission (we tried, but it ended up with Malf running around in his underwear, which was perhaps not the safest sartorial choice in that particular environment), we then wanted to test the game with the mods (as Malf had downloaded them in the meantime), but that's when the connectivity issues struck: first dema, then henke. We did briefly start a mission in Takistan without henke (Dema had been able to rejoin by then), but we quickly got wounded, so we pulled the plug on tonight's session. The first mission, while brutal, was fun though, and I'm looking forward to playing again in two weeks. Till then!
Quote:
The next Arma 3 coop session:
Date: Sat, 7 March 2020
Time: 3-6pm UK timeAs always, I'll be online a bit before 3pm to set up the server and check who's online.
Thirith on 7/3/2020 at 17:16
Yeah, tonight wasn't entirely successful - though we did win one mission! Mainly, what happened was a combination of these things:
* When we spawned, the one vehicle that was spawned with us was already pretty much dead at launch, smoking, burning and unable to drive.
* When we spawned with two vehicles, they somehow spawned inside each other, which resulted in them blowing up the moment we were in the mission.
* Jeshibu got one of the DLC weapons by accident where he didn't own the DLC, which ended up with him getting visual noise spamming his screen.
* It was a night vision, we were supposed to take down a helicopter, but the AA launcher didn't have night vision and wasn't able to lock on automatically.
* Incidentally, Jesh's sniper scope didn't have night vision either.
* On that mission, dema was kicked by the game and didn't even get far enough to get killed horribly.
* The one mission where everything started okay, my leadership got everyone killed within five minutes.
On the plus side, it was fun hanging out with henke, Jeshibu, demagogue and PigLick. And yes, we did win Combat Den (Malden), where we were asked to locate enemy weapons caches. We ended up with dema and Jesh dead, but we did destroy the caches - in the end just by firing our guns at them, because we'd used up our explosives. And I got to take out an MRAP, so... yay!
Anyway, the next Arma 3 coop session will be in two weeks. I'll confirm in a couple of days. Thanks for the game, gents!
Thirith on 8/3/2020 at 09:37
The next Arma 3 coop session:
Date: Sat, 21 March 2020
Time: 3-6pm UK time
As always, I'll be online a bit before 3pm to set up the server and check who's online.
Thirith on 21/3/2020 at 17:42
Tonight was a mixed bag, but it was still great to spend some time shooting, being shot at and having the game be all buggy'n'shit with henke, Jeshibu, Malf, Demagogue and Al_B.
The Gods of Dynamic Generation weren't on our side today, when first we played Combat Den: Sahrani, which promptly generated an ambush for us. Our vehicles were shot to bits (though the machine guns still worked - more on that later) and then we came under mortar fire, so we headed towards the north, where the mortars seemed to be. About two hundred metres further, we were suddenly greeted by the sight of enemy units popping into existence right in front of our eyes... Thanks to generous respawns, we managed to get through two such waves of respawns, at which point Jesh took us back to the starting point, thinking that perhaps that's what the mission makers wanted us to do: hole up, defend ourselves and wait for rescue. (How fitting...) This meant that we no longer caught the enemy in the act of spawning, but they nonetheless pinned us down and whittled down our 16 respawns for the mission... In the end, only Dema was left, cowering in the grass and taking potshots at the enemy, until HQ gave him an exfiltration point... about one kilometre away. We the dead took pity on his poor legs and ended the mission before he ran those 1000+ metres. Huzzah!
Mission 2 was another dynamically generated one, Dynamic Recon Ops (Takistan). We've had a couple of very good games using DRO, but today it began by spawning the helicopter right in the middle of a tent, where it began to burn (because of the mesh colliding with the tent) and then blew up. Since the targets were all several kilometres away, I had DRO serve us up another mission. We won that one, but not for lack of trying, let me tell you! The whole thing turned into something of a Benny Hill routine, with Malf driving a jeep with me in the gunner's position around an enemy encampment (and, incidentally, the one civvie that we were supposed to get some intel from) at high speed, while the others took out enough enemies until Jesh got the High-Value Target that was our main objective. Malf and I then got back into the (by this time three-wheeled) Humvee, while the others hopped into the shot-up but still functioning helicopter, and we got the hell out of dodge.
We finally ended on Jump in the Fire (Altis), which had us do an early-morning parachute drop near a town where two friendly teams were pinned down. This was the mission that worked best, all in all, and gave us the least of an Arma headache. Henke led us into town, Jesh took out an MRAP, and we slowly made our way towards the friendlies. Dema and myself, we died on the way (I was in the process of being revived by henke when I bled out), but the others saved our allies and took out most of the remaining enemies, including a second MRAP. And then the long, drawn-out guerilla war began, as the surviving team went looking for remaining enemy units, of which there were a handful. Dema and I watched as henke went after an enemy medic, almost taking him down but finally getting shot and incapacitated - and then the medic went up to henke and riddled him with bullets. I've often seen Arma AI be weird, sometimes even smart, but never this cold. The mission continued for about ten minutes, probably because the heli exfil script was broken, but then we finally called it. Henke remained unavenged, since the medic in question just ran away. I hope he feels really bad about himself and what he's done.
I expect to run another session in two weeks. Will confirm very soon. (It's not like I'm going anywhere...)
Thirith on 21/3/2020 at 19:36
For what it's worth, the guy who makes the Combat Den missions is on it, so for another time we shouldn't get enemy troops transporting in from the
USS Fuck Your Shit Up in front of your eyes:
(
https://github.com/dpottavio/CombatDen/issues/74)
Thirith on 23/3/2020 at 09:15
Okay, before I announce the next
Arma date, I wanted to briefly say something about the frustrations we've had with the game. We had a very good one or two sessions with dynamically generated missions recently, but I let that fool me too much into thinking that they're the best way to go for our sessions - and the result was that the last two sessions were partly, if not largely, frustrating, because the missions generated for us weren't much fun for one reason or another. I don't want people to put aside the time to join the
Arma games and then come away thinking that they've wasted their time.
At the same time, we did have some great sessions with Dynamic Recon Ops and TRGM2 recently, so I don't want to drop them completely.
So what I propose is this: I'll play around a bit more with these missions to see what works well and what doesn't. But I'll also make sure that we always have a list of non-dynamic missions that we can play that shouldn't have the same frustrations (though, this being
Arma, they may have different frustrations on offer). Next time we're four, five or six people, we can return to the Sigma Quadrant series of missions that we've usually enjoyed a lot.
Even when the game is being stroppy, I still very much enjoy hanging out on Altis, Stratis, Takistan, Chernarus etc. with you guys, and when a mission clicks, it's great. I'll see what I can do to increase the chances of us having a good time while getting shot to bits. And any feedback from the gang on how I could do this is much appreciated. Cheers!
So, without further ado, here's the announcement for the next session:
Quote:
Date: Sat, 4 April 2020
Time: 3-6pm UK timeAs always, I'll be online a bit before 3pm to set up the server and check who's online.
Malf on 23/3/2020 at 23:00
Saying that though Thirith, I think my most memorable ARMA 3 games have been procedirally generated Sigma Quadrant ones. That always seem to work pretty well, and is very lenient with the respawns.
I must admit though, more and more recently I've found myself wishing that Konami had just given us a co-op version of the normal MGS5 missions, as I think that game does a lot of what I enjoy in ARMA 3, but with more polish.
I know, sounds weird, but they both tick a lot of the same boxes for me.
Thirith on 24/3/2020 at 06:31
The Sigma Quadrant missions aren't dynamically generated, though. They pretty much just plonk down units and send you there to kill them, which is why by and large they work better than other missions that are more ambitious with scripts and patrol paths etc., but where the risk that they were broken by one of the game's updates is considerable. That's really the main challenge here: finding missions that (still) work. I've also greatly enjoyed the Sigma Quadrant missions, but I think they suffer from two things: 1) the setups are really pretty static, i.e. you're going to run into enemy posts or camps that are exactly where they've always been and where they'll always be, and after a while you know how the guy who did the missions places his enemies, and 2) Too. Many. Damn. MRAPs. I definitely want to get back to them, though.