Scripted Saturday - replay!

1st – Trouble in Paradise …again

So we went for ‘Trouble in paradise’’ -again. It’s a great mission, don’t get me wrong, but we have done that every time I think. Also we went for the Hotel, again, which is a pretty bad place to defend as it still can be seen from all around and too many entrances to cover. DBFoster’s and Fred’s fireteam went ahead of the planned defence spot a bit and got a nice flank on BLUFOR. I fucked my position by moving out, killed one, but didn’t see the other guy right next to him so I fucked myself. 

BLUFOR won by a big margin and I am an avid supporter of ‘No defenders advantage’, but in that we also did play pretty badly so maybe not this time. 

2nd – Death Stranded

The map Proving Grounds is incredibly good map for this mission. The BMP-1 spot was fair I felt so as to not be too OP. There is also plenty of cover and approaches for the attackers. 
I was able to carefully approach the tank, happened to found Alex with our teams explosives and managed to get under the BMP before getting shot. Also managed to set the explosives, but couldn’t arm them is it gave the interaction for the BMP I think, but that is just Arma, so nothing to do about that really. Fred made an excellent attempt on distracting the enemy when I was planting, but then we lost too many people and lost.

I don’t know how the balance was in general, but we had a good change to get near the BMP, but took time and care. If possible, maybe add a random civilian moving in the area just for a little immersion and to make BLUFOR have to think a little before firing on everything that moves. Just an idea, not sure if it would work in practice. 
Approaching the BMP gave me that heart bounding winding scare I love TvTs for, so for that I felt this was the best mission of the day. 

3rd - diving thingy

The atmosphere was great on this one and the idea is something new. Also it was fairly fast one as a longer one would have maybe been a bit of a drag for the last people alive. Also I felt that the map could be a little smaller and maybe add some concrete things higher as well for a little elevation? Not sure if it was the guns or the users (usually it’s the users), but there was maybe some problems/differences in the guns as some seemed to kill farther off?

4th - Tank thingy
The tank thing looked great on paper and that had a lot of potential. The mission itself was maybe not as fun as I anticipated, but would definitely give it another go. Especially as it was a fast one. I believe I got friendly fired twice taking out my wheels and finally killed by Benji as I managed to miss my 2nd shot. Area of Altis seemed to fit well as there was enough nice tall bushes to hide our movements. Though I got my wheel damaged by one of the small rock walls in a Rhino and I wasn’t moving fast. No effect on driving but might be a problem in the future.

As possible improvements: Is it possible to add extra wheels and tracks into the scripted tanks, so that if you go immobile, you have more of a change to get going again and the mission doesn’t drag because of it. Maybe 3-4 wheels and 2 tracks or even more.

Also is there a possibility to remove thermals? Not sure if in general that would make it easier for there being no need to turn them off to PID (if not sure on thermal) or harder to have to spot things, but I feel visual spotting would be more fun. 

As discussed, was wondering if it is possible to make the tank clearly identifiable as the different sides, while still keeping it balanced? I see the problems especially in regards of trying to balance different assets, but it would lessen the FF which always causes a lot of salt (both the vocal and non-vocal kind) in TvTs. 

General

In general we got a good turn out again and there was no cheating, metagaming or trying to get any advantage other than one little suggestion of using some Arma game mechanics to hide from the enemy for a while. Just in general, please, please, please don’t try any of this kind of thing ever in a TvT because that will just ruin it for everyone. Also please do not try any sort of memeing as that ruins it for the people trying to take it seriously. But as said in general people behaved very well, so thanks for that.

 
Also if you are new, just listen to the more experienced people as there was again some tactics used against AI that DOESN’T work against players. Some of us have played A LOT of TvTs, so we know what we are talking about.
 

4 hours ago, Conga Line of Neckbeards said:

BLUFOR won by a big margin and I am an avid supporter of ‘No defenders advantage’, but in that we also did play pretty badly so maybe not this time. 

This is the most lopsided victory for the attackers I have seen so far.  I put this down to the plan more than anything.

When I first made this mission I envisioned the village as the main fighting point, but people always move in to the hotel, leaving themselves be easily surrounded with no means of escape.  They give up their advantage.

 

4 hours ago, Conga Line of Neckbeards said:

I don’t know how the balance was in general, but we had a good change to get near the BMP, but took time and care. If possible, maybe add a random civilian moving in the area just for a little immersion and to make BLUFOR have to think a little before firing on everything that moves. Just an idea, not sure if it would work in practice. 

In practice I found the balance to be extremely good as both sides did almost equally well in terms of numbers - losing the same amount in terms of ratio.

As for the civilians, the attackers in that mission ARE the local civilians, as the Chernarussians have broken down in bandit country after trying to RTB from a battle elsewhere.  I get your point, but doesn't quite fit the existing theme!

4 hours ago, Conga Line of Neckbeards said:

Not sure if it was the guns or the users (usually it’s the users), but there was maybe some problems/differences in the guns as some seemed to kill farther off?

In my times playing this mission I have found the guns to be incredibly inconsistent.  Nothing I can do really as mission maker, ArmA just has awful water-based stuff.

4 hours ago, Conga Line of Neckbeards said:

As possible improvements: Is it possible to add extra wheels and tracks into the scripted tanks, so that if you go immobile, you have more of a change to get going again and the mission doesn’t drag because of it. Maybe 3-4 wheels and 2 tracks or even more.

Also is there a possibility to remove thermals? Not sure if in general that would make it easier for there being no need to turn them off to PID (if not sure on thermal) or harder to have to spot things, but I feel visual spotting would be more fun. 

Both of these are easily doable, but I'm not sure how it'd play out.  For fixing I'm loathe to add more parts as the mission is meant to be quick and fast-paced, meaning if you get hit that's it.  (For example getting tracked and being stuck while the enemy finishes you off).  

Thermals also presents the interesting dichotomy of PID, so that's why I left that in initially.  Unsure what to do with this for now, but I'll keep both these points in mind for sure.

4 hours ago, Conga Line of Neckbeards said:

As discussed, was wondering if it is possible to make the tank clearly identifiable as the different sides, while still keeping it balanced?

This is what I attempted with the current setup.  Brown/beige coloured vehicles for OPFOR, and green coloured vics for INDFOR. I understand it may be awkward to tell at range, but I could not think of a better solution than this while still keeping teams identical.  (I will one day make an RHS tank based version of this though, we'll see how I approach balance for that one when the time comes).

Trouble in Paradise.. so ye my planning was fucked. I remembered the mission to be a lot darker and wanted to use the bushes and rocks to hide in. My memory was off and hiding was nearly impossible.