Republic of Folk

I've been pondering with ideas for a mission for a while now and after viewing a video posted by dsylexci on his YT page on a run of a mission called Dark Business, I thought I'd attempt to re-create it for FA. I've spoken to Wolfenswan about it and we both weren't sure whether it would work how it's intended to so I thought I'd see what other people thought of the idea before I truly commit to it. I've begun work on it already with the basics laid out.

For those who are unaware of the scenario:

Independent Takistani Guerrillas have captured 2 US soldiers and have arranged an exchange with the Russians for an Ammo truck who in turn will attempt to sell/exchange the hostages back to the US forces (the latter not included in the mission). Meanwhile a small US force of 6, accompanied by a Littlebird or a Blackhawk (limited ammo) depending on whether the commander wants speed and agility or extra firepower, will attempt to rescue the hostages by intercepting them before or after the exchange.

Independents main objective is to secure the ammo truck and get it back to their safe zone (with/without hostages?). Russians main objective is to get the hostages to their safe zone (are they really willing to give Indies ammo?). US forces rescue the hostages and get them to their safe zone.

Are you guys still following me?

This may sound rather boring, but I'd imagine that neither side will want to finish the game with less than what they started for which could lead to an interesting exchange. The main problem would be communication between IND and OPFOR - decide the destination for the exchange at briefing? And also making things interesting for every player - a simple swap of resources is going to be rather boring for all players involved. But then the hostages are free to cause trouble by running away etc etc.

My view is to have it at night with the US the only guys with NV due to their lack of numbers and the others get flares.

Do you guys think this is a bit ambitious for the FA sessions? Too long? Too reliant on player interaction?

Suggestions/Feedback....talk me out of it? I'm thick skinned so opinions are welcome!

[DvtS]Wilson wrote:My view is to have it at night with the US the only guys with NV due to their lack of numbers and the others get flares.

IIRC, the original OFP:WGL version of Dark Business only featured NVGs for BLUFOR players (who also had silenced carbines).

Another feature the original mission had was a system of (moving) map markers for every single person on the island, which was visible only to BLUFOR. The markers didn't distinguish between INDFOR or OPFOR, or between players and AI (there were plenty of AI groups scattered around the map). The marker positions updated every few minutes, and BLUFOR would look for concentrations of markers (blobs) that were moving across the map. By working out which blobs belonged to INDFOR and OPFOR, the BLUFOR players could work out where the likely meeting point was, and get into position for an ambush.

See you know more about it than me .

Perhaps it's too ambitious for ME ha.

[DvtS]Wilson wrote:See you know more about it than me .

I miiiiight have played it, back in the day

[DvtS]Wilson wrote:Perhaps it's too ambitious for ME ha.

The marker system shouldn't be too hard to make, actually. In F2, you could copy and modify the ShackTactical Fireteam Member Markers component, and only run it locally on BLUFOR players' machines.

Stepping back a little, if a mission idea feels too ambitious, make a note of the concept, make something simpler (ideally using one of the ideas), and come back to it later. The more missions you complete, the easier it becomes to write others - for all sorts of reasons.

Also if you have a concept, but feel lmited by some scripting, either chose something simpler or call for help. I'll be happy to help regarding scripting issues, and you can find a ton of help either here or on the BI forums.

Now, regarding the Dark Business mission, it's quite simple to make actually, but if it does work well in ShackTac, they don't play with the same numbers either. And it does look good when Dslyexci's flying alright, other than that, i think we have one or two mission that are actually quite the same already.

I'm confident in my ability to actually make the mission. I mean F2 includes everything that is needed. I'm just not amazing at the scripting side of things and don't really want to put effort into making a mission if it's not what people would be interested in playing.

As for Dark Business within Shacktac they benefit from large numbers, which is probably what would hold the idea back for FA. I think the concept would be fun with or without an amazing pilot though and there is a number of ways to go about the style that is used in the mission, even without a chopper and smaller team etc. Just wondered if it would suit FA at all.

[DvtS]Wilson wrote:As for Dark Business within Shacktac they benefit from large numbers ...

ST was playing DB back when its playercounts were much, much lower than today. Again, this is just from memory, but I think DB was perfectly playable with squad-sized elements on INDFOR and OPFOR, and a half-squad-sized BLUFOR (so the ratio was around 2:2:1). I think something along the lines of DB could be added to the list of adversarial missions used in Sunday/Tuesday rotations, assuming its been tested and tweaked (note: the more ambitious a mission concept, the greater the likelihood of requiring more tweaking/balancing).

I can definitely see this being more fun to play with smaller player-counts - it's something I've noticed with ST - as their player-counts skyrocketed, for a while their content seemed to "devolve" into "sweep across this map like a ravenous, all-consuming horde." Lately they've re-introduced variety to the mix though, so kudos for adapting.

I'd fully support this mission notion - love asymmetrical adv's. If we want to simplify it, maybe just pick different terrain from Goose Chase and make another hostage-mission?

~ Ferrard

Can we rely on arma's von to work? The direct chat feature seems to malfunction far too often.

I have a faint recollection of there already being a fairly well fleshed out ARPS Dark Business clone out there, maybe by Ivan Sidorenko? I never played it but I remember people talking about it. Anyone know more?