[Sun] 05 June 2011 (yep, RPS are still here)

[fer]

Missions:

• The Takedown
• Valley RE
• Incohate Spatula

Comrades, we ran out of space on the server after Valley RE, and had to switch to the RPS server for our final mission because the playercount was in the mid-20s. Staff at the Bureau of Server Capacity Planning will be ... liquidated. On the other hand, it was a hell of a turnout, thanks largely to the comrades from RPS, and some good fun was had by all, I think.



P.S. Given that tonight featured more revive/CASEVAC functionality than before, I would love feedback from the comrades as to how this influenced (or didn't) their enjoyment.

[fer]

The Takedown

- Aziz: Jo

After last week's experience with this mission, we decided to give BLUFOR a grace period at the start of the mission, with comrade Joseph/Sulphur holding station at his starting point for 2 minutes before setting off for the city. Our plan was simple: Jo would drive up to the south of the city, then switch places with comrade Headspace, who would drive the car around as a decoy target. Things well for us. For BLUFOR ... not so much.

One of the sympathisers in the city (Liqourish?) had spawned without a weapon, and I was on my way to meet him and check that his clothes would allow him to pass as a civilian. However, before I could make the RV a BLUFOR Littlebird touched down in a compound to the north of the Mosque. One of our chaps was already on the scene, and as I got into a nearby firing position I could see 3-4 BLUFOR soldiers prone on the ground immediately around the stationary bird. With my unknown comrade drawing their fire, I had ample time to execute them (and to be fair, I needed it, since my MP5 appeared only to wound on the first hit). We had taken out at least 50% of the BLUFOR force, and in the meantime Jo has made it to the safety of the Mosque. Teas and cakes were served in whatever the mosque equivalent is of a vestry.

[fer]

Valley RE

- Delta FTL: Stranglove
|- AR: Mort
|- AAR: Fer
|- RPG: Egg

Valley was made with the mission stub from the current competition, but I had changed the location to the wonderfully rocky Naygul valley in the north-west of Takistan. Grizzly had stepped up to take CO and his plan was simple: the platoon (which was at full-strength with four full fireteams and complete CO and DC elements) would advance down the valley in a wedge formation. My FT, Delta, was tasked with being the left-most element, up high on the side of the valley. Stranlove led us on, and from the moment we entered the valley proper, we were engaged.

The funny thing about the valley is that, despite being chock full of boulders and pools, there are actually very few distinct features to use as reference points when calling out contacts. So it's hard to impart the details of each separate firefight, because they all merged into eachother. It was like being on a slow-moving conveyor-belt that carried the platoon down the twisting valley at about the same speed as an airport baggage carousel. The firing rarely stopped, though I suspect things were more intense for the elements at the foot of the valley. At one point some JIP'd players flew a Huey right down the valley, but mistook smoke marking an enemy position for a safe LZ. Unaco bought the farm there before the mistake could be rectified, so there was a distinct push halfway through the mission to recover his body! The site of the Huey in flight below our level was very cool to watch.

For us, our main challenge were the small patrols that appeared further up the slopes or, on one occasion, popping up in front of us from a defilade position with murder on their minds and at least on grenade in their hands. Thankfully we never sustained a KIA in the FT, but comrade Mort did need patching at one point and Stranglove lost his mic temporarily - leading me to take command of the FT for the latter half of the mission (although Stranglove remained very effective, just silent). A change of CO also happened at the platoon level, with Grizzly dropping out a third of the way down the valley, a victim of ArmA/PC crashing issues. Comrade Headspace stepped up and led us, eventually, to victory.

[fer]

Incohate Spatula

- Bravo SL: Fer
|- Washington
|- Nullkigan
|- Car00ke
|- Wolfenswan
|- Xenu
|- Watooce (2C)
|- Grizzly
|- ???

At last we had the playercount to attempt this RPS legend, and in fact the playercount was so good we had to switch to the RPS server (though we stayed in Folk's TS3 for comms). Comrade Bodge stepped up to lead the operation, with comrades Headspace and Tigershark taking Charlie and Delta.

Bravo was first ashore, with an uncontested landing at the LZ marked on the south-west corner of the island. Sadly, our friendly transport chopper was unlucky: after dropping us off safely and climbing away, it was hit by an AA munition and exploded. Because we're all hardened combat veterans, we stayed focused and bravely confirmed that the first RV point (near the lighthouse) was indeed completely clear of enemies. That, and we knew the chopper and its crew would respawn. Anyway, Bodge asked us to clear two hills to our east, the second of which was marked as containing 'fortifications'. In fact, both hills had large bunkers atop. Forming the squad into a line, I advanced us to within 20m of the first bunker, and then enjoyed watching our grenadiers clear it with several M203s. When we reached it nothing was left alive, so we went firm and waited for the rest of the platoon to land. The second bunker would prove to be a little different.

Once the rest of the platoon was down, Bodge asked us to take the next bunker. I split the squad into assaulting and supporting halves, and we opened up on the target. Things seemed to be going okay, even to the point at which both halves were reunited at the western-edge of the bunker. We cleared it fine, but came under fire from the east and/or south-east. Slowly but surely, over the next few minutes we sustained several casualties. With yet more men (and women) soaked up with the business of carrying or being carried to the CASEVAC point at the lighthouse, Bravo was soon combat ineffective.

Again, computer issues robbed us of an overall CO, and with Bodge unable to continue I asked Nullkigan (in my squad) if he'd mind stepping up and taking overall command. Usually, in a Folk mission, the next-in-line would have taken it (which probably would have been me, as there was no Alpha infantry squad); but I asked comrade Null to take the reigns as he knew the mission and he gamely agreed. Now Bravo really was ineffective, with just 2 of us left at the second bunker and enemy infantry flanking us to the south-east. Thankfully, the Apache granted us a fire mission, and after one adjustment poured a lot of effective rounds on the open area where our persecutors were hiding. Things went quiet for a while, with more than half of Bravo being or helping CASEVAC'd; but things were not quiet to our north-east, where the rest of the platoon sounded as if it was getting chewed up at the Motor Pool. Xenu and I moved forward to an overwatch position to see if we could help.

I couldn't say what happened, but our forces at the Motor Pool must have recovered their own situation, because Xenu and I didn't really engage anyone, instead moving off to a position north-east of the airfield. A little while later the rest of Bravo returned, patched and re-supplied, in the Wildcat, touching down at the Motor Pool itself. The squad soon reformed, and we crossed the valley to the wooded slopes just north of the northern airfield. As we were moving to new firing positions, I saw a small bunker to our left in the woods and asked for it to be checked out. Mistake. In moments, two of our number (now reduced to 5 with disconnects and AFKs) were incapacitated. I managed to get the two remaining OPFOR in the bunker (my own guys had done all the damage and now pinned the enemies in with their own bodies), but Bravo was once again ineffective. With comrade Car00ke acting as our guardian, Washington and I set off for the Motor Pool with bodies slung on our backs.

There was now a reasonably long wait for the our wounded to be CASEVAC'd and returned, during which the objectives appeared to fall at a terrific rate. By the time Bravo was reformed (for the third time), we were in a race to reach the last objective: Strelka. We raced south to the coast, then turned east and hugged the shoreline. Wolfenswan peeled off to satchel the southern-most AA point, but otherwise our run was largely unopposed. By the time we reached and began to sweep the woods south-west of Strelka, the mission had been completed.

Very well done to all comrades!

[StrangLove]

Well, that was a blast. The valley mission in particular was very good fun, despite all the lag issues players were experiencing (to say nothing of my faulty comms, the mic manufacturer has been executed for incompetence). I personally didn't kill anyone, but it was great fun to scream 'FIRE MORT, FIIIIRE!'.

Spatula was also extremely good, Delta operated admirably in securing some low scale agricultural emplacements (Barns) and eliminating big, angry looking tanks. Even when we were reduced to two players on the ground, we still managed to punch a hole in the (non existant, thanks to precise Apache fire) defensive lines and link up with FAC operator Iceraiser, who then shot Mort when he tried to dress up as a takistani.

All in all, good ARMA.

Strang.

[Grizzly]

As for revive...

I don't really like revive on folk. It's fine on RPS, but i did join folk because I wanted a more tactical experience. I somehow find waiting to be revived less fullfilling then be eternally dead (or atleast, untill the mission ends). Although CASEVAC was a rather good system, I did miss the 'oh god, I must not die' feeling for most of this night. It felt more like an RPS session then a Folk session (not there is anything wrong with RPS, but I wanted 'Folk Style' tonight)

Mabye, for those bigger missions (like Spatula), one can limit the number of revives. 10 is waay to much.

oh, and I really felt awfull commanding. I geuss I am one of those shy not so very confident types. But then again, I never even lead a squad, and then I decided I shoudl command an entire mission. THen again, we survived, although I now do think that we should have put up with a line or a V formation instead of a wedge formation, and put the deputy commanders with Bravo and the commanders with Alpha.

[fer]

A few thoughts on last night, to reflect some of the feedback that's come my way so far:

On The Takedown: this needs some tweaking still. Personally, I think part of it is the tactics: BLUFOR landed in a trap, which was partially bad luck, but perhaps also a little bit over-aggressive. Just after the mission, Tigershark speculated about adding an armed helicopter into the mix, and I think that's worth exploring. An LB with guns could be used to keep the sympathisers in check, although it would mean changing the overall objective to 'capture Aziz' instead of killing him (b/c otherwise the armed LB could just head south and strafe all cars). I hope comrade Tigershark will get some time to explore some of these ideas with an edit.

On Valley RE (and revive): Nullkigan observed that this was a touch long, and I know what he means. My preference is not to use revive or respawn, but last night's session was (in part) about exploring that mechanic. It strikes me that with revive, it was always unlikely that we would lose the mission, but the lack of perma-death meant that things never got too urgent for us. So long as we maintained a slow pace we would always be more or less at full strength. I think that robbed us a little of challenge/achievement - I'd like to see that mission replayed at some point, but in its non-revive form (called just Valley).

On Incohate Spatula (and the CASEVAC mechanic): I'm really glad we got to play this with everyone from RPS and Folk, but I have to say it's slightly outside the envelope for Folk sessions. As comrade Nullkigan has observed on the RPS forum, combined arms missions are really hard to write, because there are few tasks that require infantry and attack helicopters to work together: either things happen sequentially (infantry removes an AA threat, then the helis move in to kill everything), or the helis can pretty much do the job by themselves. However, the CASEVAC mechanic was my real issue; as an element leader I spent a lot of time asking the living to wait around on the dead. The fact that we always got our helicopter assets back meant that the only real consequence of failure was that more time was added to the mission, and by the end I was exhausted. So whilst I'm glad we got the chance to experience this, I don't think it will be a Folk session staple - and that's not a criticism, just an observation that the Folk sessions have a slightly different goal from the normal RPS Saturday night session.

On comms: Firstly, a mea culpa, because at the start of Valley RE comrade Mort and I spammed the TS channel with chat about a book and were rightly shouted down. However, in general the comms were too chatty. Personally, I'm not a fan of overly serious servers or mil-sim radio etiquette, but there are a few things that are worth adopting (at least in spirit):

• At slotting, pipe down and follow the host's instructions for when to slot; it's not useful to try and make the case for why you should take slot X or Y: just wait until it's up for grabs and compete in the click-fest!
• Element leaders give orders, others listen; the element leader might ask for thoughts or feedback, but it's his/her call.
• If you need to convey something to the overall CO, alert him/her but wait for the go ahead to deliver the full message as it allows a useful degree of 'traffic management'. So: "Command this is Charlie." ... "Go ahead Charlie." ... "Charlie has found a cache of wine and is combat ineffective. And drunk."

Overall, I enjoyed the session and really love playing with the the RPS comrades; but I'd also agree with comrade Grizzly (and others) in saying that we stepped a little bit too far from the concept of a Folk session. It's a subtle thing, but next week I plan to turn the dial a notch back towards shorter missions and more perma-death. Ideally, the degree of 'organisation' (not mil-sim) should range:

Saturday RPS <---> Tatical Tuesday @ RPS <---> Folk <------------------------------------------> Mil-Sim

Please chime in with your own thoughts and observations. I'm cross-posting this to the RPS ArmA2 thread (btw, I urge all non-RPS Folk comrades to register on the RPS forums and say hello there).

[Tigershark]

I will look further into the Takedown. It doesn't seemed to have scaled nicely with more people which is mystifying but goes to show that making good missions is not just about putting units down and hoping for the best. They need nurturing.

Not sure if the armed helicopter is such a good idea as spotting people of rooftops whilst moving is not easy. Would demand a copilot for spotting which ties up a combat slot on BLUFOR.

Some ideas worth toying with though. Quakephil suggested a time limit on Aziz in the mosque. For example, 2 minutes prayer time. This would change the dynamic of the mission to attack/defend rather than Search and Destroy. This brings in other complications though. BLUFOR could just wait until Aziz is in the mosque. Whilst we can have gentlemen's agreements I would like to design a mission so that it doesn't need them explicitly.

Also, the mosque is out of bounds so I would need a mechanism that would allow entry to the mosque by BLUFOR when Aziz is there. Not difficult but a change nonetheless.

We could perhaps allow a UAV. Although this would quickly give away the position of Aziz with the thermal camera.

I am open to ideas, but please critically analyse them for the effect it will have on the gameplay.

[wolfenswan]

We could perhaps allow a UAV. Although this would quickly give away the position of Aziz with the thermal camera.

Aziz spawns with his man servant, so there are already two targets to follow if both get in seperate cars. In the city itself there are civis around; how distinguishable is aziz when he is walking and dropped his gun?

How easy are little birds to take out with MP5s (or whatever it was OPFOR spawns with)?

[StrangLove]

MP5s have very poor range and penetration, they shoot 9x19mm parabellum, which is pistol ammo, so a ULB will be pretty invincible.