The scheme.

[audiox]

So.
As some of you may know i occasionally make some missions. Whether you think they are groovy enough or not is not something i really know, but alas, thus is the world.

Point is.
I've found it a bit hard to sit down and spend the required amount of time to actually put together everything that makes up a mission. Its, honestly, at times quite hard to jump-start a mission.

Which means.
I need a scheme that makes me actually push out some missions.


Which is where you brave comrade(s) enter into the picture.

Allow me to explain.
I like world building, and have to an extent done that in role playing games. I also rather like finicky stuff like making missions work and the like.
Part of the problem, as i see it, with missions in multiplayer arma is that they end up so disjointed. You play one mission one time, then you're somewhere completely different the next time doing something that has no relation to what you were doing previously. I tried to counteract that a bit with a narrative structure for my Topolia missions (now horribly broken and out of date... ), and i felt that was fun. I just didn't really know where to take it after the last mission i made, so i started bumbling about a bit.


This is where you come in, brave comrade.
I'd like to set up a dynamic campaign, of sorts. The outline would once again be "FIA rebels make it big", but other than that i'd really like some input as to the who the what the where and the whys.
What i want to try to set up here is a nice conversation about the first mission. Then i set that up with your input taken into consideration (though not always acted upon), we talk it over, perhaps throw some tests around to see if it seems right, then we play it.
And then we either :
1. Kill this idea, pour gasoline over it, and dance on its grave. Or 2 : Figure out what the next mission in such a venture should contain, then i sit down and make that sort of work. (In my own, hilbilly-mission-making style.)


Point here is. I'm feeling that we kinda miss the experience of being invested in a narrative around here nowadays, and i'd like to try to have us all build one (for at least some of our missions).
If that sounds groovy, then please check the post below with some general guidelines. All of this is up for discussion.

[audiox]

Things generally not up for alteration.
1. It will be "FIA". Though i am very much up for making FIA named something else than FIA, suggestions much appreciated.
2. They will start as raggedy rebels. (Though by all means, the long term plan can be to work them into a domineering force in the landscape.)
3. They will for the most part be lightly armed. (For now).

------------------------------------

Things up for debate.

1. Where are they? (Consider where you would want a mission "hub" of sorts to be if you were a gang of raggedy rebels.
2. What would be their immediate goals?
3. Are they after CSAT, AAF, both? NATO? All of the above?


So i'm thinking.
1. We need a name for these lads.
2. We need a place to start them out.


These are the two most pressing matters, and then we can work our way outwards once those two are in place.

[Mabbott]

For a name depends on their objective, if they're trying to overthrow the government a "freedom fighter" name may not be a bad idea.

The objective itself could be to instill the glorious Party to power, or it could be to keep themselves financially independent from CSAT. The fun part about small insurgent groups is they can be logically fighting for anything, hell our group could be fighting for neutrality. As for who we're gunning for that again depends on the objective.

Something neat could be a independence movement in Stratis trying to break Stratis away from Altian control. As you go through the "plot" you could have IAS (Independence Army of Stratis) (temp name) rise up with some low level gear, pistols, basic clothes, some old rifles (the M14 could work for that). The first mission could be ambushing a AAF/NATO/CSAT convoy then the next mission there could be a few assault rifles going around, the odd rocket launcher, ect. Then it's assaulting towns, military bases. Maybe we gain control of a port and make boat raids on Altian sites so we don't have to stay on Stratis the entire time.

I don't know, just thoughts.

[Netkev]

I cannot possibly stress how much I would love to see this happen. I would absolutely be up for helping make some of these hypothetical missions as well, I have needed an excuse to really get into the nitty gritty of scenario making for a long ass time.

I would suggest somewhere like the church south of Sfaka, it is remote and gives the perfect excuse for a base location. "We went to church and decided to free the island in a fit of inspiration (from god(s))"

[Kefirz]

My 2 cents about this,
The idea sounds great, but I want to talk a bit about the logistics of it..
Making and polishing mission is quite a process and it takes time. What that means is, there would be considerable gaps between missions for a variety of reasons, however I would say that ideally there should be 1 dynamic campaign mission each week.
This might sound like I am making unreasonable demands and making you work on missions, but why don't we use Zeus?

There have been discussions about this also and you can read them somewhere, but TL;DR is that in mission making phase you pre-place objective markers, sometimes an objective (AAA battery for example), units that will be in the play and some possible reinforcements. I cannot stress this enough... possible reinforcements. If things are going really smoothly, ok sure, transport an additional platoon of men to the field, but if they are going quite badly already, I see no reason to add enough reinforcements to finish us completely.

So in a game the Zeus would only use the tools that are provided and he would not spawn in anymore guys.

We would need 2-3 zeuses per mission, I think.

P.S I probably had more to say but I have to run

[fer]

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, there was this group known as The Third International Fighting Brigade of Takistan in the name of Che Guevara. Operated as far as field as Chernarus, from what I've read. Some say they went off to found an socialist agrarian utopia, and that even now they ride around in heavily armed tractors.

[fer]

Something I have seen work very well in similar schemes is the concept of the 'mid-week mini-mission' which has an impact on the main session. Here is a real example from a campaign created by comrade Lor at ST many years ago:

Mid-week: A small mission, is run by a single host for 4-6 players. The primary objective is to rescue a lieutenant who has been captured by the enemy and is being transported by road between two villages. The secondary objective is to spot heavy assets (like MBTs, SPAAGs). The players ambush the enemy jeep, but manage to kill the lieutenant in the process; however, they do manage to spot and mark the locations of several enemy IFVs.

Sunday/Tuesday Session: One of the regular missions is an assault on the same area by the whole platoon. The IFVs are marked on the map already, but because the lieutenant died before being able to pass on any information, the briefing contains vague (or even inaccurate) information about the composition and location of other enemy forces.

[Nigal]

I would love to see something like this happen.
I really loved the resistance parts from OFP and OFP/r (who were also called FIA if i remember right).
I like the idea of using zeus and the 2d editor too, as it will probably result in more dynamic gameplay, whilst still feeling fairly structured.

I like the idea of raiding convoys for weapons/fuel and stealing vehicles to use in the next mission.

So basically I like the idea and I cant wait to see where you take it!

[boberro]

Personally, Kerry is a fan of Woodstock-era music. That's only thing he remembers about his past. Apparently he used to be a soldier, but he can't remember on which side. Sometimes he dreams of warplanes and that THUM sound from Transformers trailer.
One day he woke up on Altis, washed up from the ocean, and started asking people around about things he remembered. God only knows how desperate civilians of Altis had to be, to take this ramblings as promises and prophecies...
Today Kerry is a leader of his own religious cult. He, and his followers are trying to fly Jeffersons Airplane (maybe even a starship) into Electric Ladyland (no one on Altis knows what this "ladies" are though) and in the meantime, to create their own commune of peace and free love.

I imagine Followers not as a part of FIA, but as a background thing (angry locals shooting at everyone getting near their village, force that steals fuel trucks before FIA etc.) and anti-FIA in adversarials (Aziz/Azoz thing).
And I hope that one day, they'll be able to create their own micronation all along the watchtower on Chelonisi island (north of Pyrgos)

[audiox]

Lots of fun feedback here! Thanks to all that have chimed in.

I'm thinking as follows. I like the Church of Kerry, but they seem so... ambitionless. Which brings me to an idea. Lets say that Kerry through some form om divine intervention gets it in his head that his followers need to liberate a colonel that has been shacked up on a certain island off the coast near that city whose name i temporarily have forgotten.

We have had a mission that was approximately like that (Black Island), so it will be something of a remake of that. The setup (unless we manage to accidentally kill our dear colonel) would be to turn the CoK into something that struggles between the "divine grace...." of Kerry and the agrarian socialism of everybody's favourite colonel. I think thats a setup that will allow us to be serious when we want to and silly when we want to, all in the same coherent narrative.


As for your idea about Stratis, Mabbott. I really liked the idea of having a base on Stratis and then doing a bunch of boat raids in to Altis. But i think i'd rather want to do that as a "Pirate Cove" type thing. Who knows, maybe Kerry and Aziz will be driven off Altis over the course of this campaign and be forced to set up there, but i won't start it out there.


I don't have my big computer in front of me right now, so i can't start with the map-things. I'll make a new post for the first mission. Feel free to use this thread for further ponderance of the logistics of it all.
As i'm thinking now.
1. New thread for each mission.
2. Missions affect one another. For instance, if we mess up rescuing aziz from the island we'll have to make a mission #2 where we try to ambush a prisoner transport or somesuch.
3. The implications of missions are up for debate, and what happens next is something we should have lots of fun discussing.