[Sat] 07 Oct 2017 (Always wear protection... pull out)

[boberro]

Mission list:

• Point Break
• Vseleniye
• Siniy I
• Lightpool
• Su casa es mi casa

More words to come.

In a meantime, please share your experiences, doubts and suggestions below.

[fer]

For this AAR thread, I would be particularly grateful for feedback on a specific aspect of the mission Siniy I (which I hope is Russian for Blue I). In that mission, I actually created a much larger company-level action conducted by AI, and then placed our mission within it.

That means two things: we cannot dictate the pace of action completely, and the disposition of friendly and enemy forces changes around us dynamically.

Personally, I really, really enjoyed the mission - especially when Kefirz had us join the main action and we passed through the remnants of that AI-only combat: fighting stragglers from the enemy and hearing Obscuristani survivors exchange fire with the enemy to our south-west. I also think it cranks up the atmosphere when you can hear nearby units engaging and being engaged, and know that it isn't just an ambient sound effect.

However, it might not be your cup of tea, or you could have really wanted some aspect of it to be different. So before I write more missions like this, I'd like to hear from you. Thank you.

[SuicideKing]

I finally got to play a session when it wasn't way past midnight in my timezone, so I remember enough to actually write one of these...

I had fun as Alpha Medic in Siniy 1. Running around from rock to rock finding and reviving the wounded, while bullets pinged - rather cracked all around me, was quite intense. Of course, since when have Folk/ARPS medics not been calmly suicidal?

I also got to shoot a few dudes between my medic-ing, glorious AKS74 didn't disappoint, being highly effective within 400m. I tried to act as the rear guard when I could.

As an observation: I would request that people be a bit more proactive in directing medics to injured soldiers, since without a GPS or F3/ACE3 nametags, it can become a bit hard to find downed players when its dark or an area with a lot of grass. Since direct voice is more reliable with ACRE2 than vanilla, it's also useful if downed players shout periodically for a medic/help.

As a secondary observation (which is something that i noticed the last time i played) - I don't hear many contact reports, just gunfire...which is both good and not so good . Maybe it's just me not being used to ACRE2, or being a medic in the last two sessions and thus missing intra fire team comms?

However, it might not be your cup of tea, or you could have really wanted some aspect of it to be different. So before I write more missions like this, I'd like to hear from you. Thank you.

Well I for one have been trying to work friendly AI into missions all the way back to the time I made Feint! Parry! Riposte! in 2016, and more recently in the two From Russia With Love missions for FA.

While my missions tend to be a bit too taxing on the server (with AI tank platoons fighting it out), at the scale you chose it works well, and is more atmospheric than just mere effects like tracers and gunfire in the background.

[Kefirz]

As a secondary observation (which is something that i noticed the last time i played) - I don't hear many contact reports, just gunfire...which is both good and not so good . Maybe it's just me not being used to ACRE2, or being a medic in the last two sessions and thus missing intra fire team comms?

There might have been contact reports, but they probably were on a comms net that you weren't part of. The reason for splitting up in channels was that mainly MTR team would have a lot of chatter between themselves, so I wanted to avoid having that on the command net. And since they would effectively have to talk on a 148, then I just organized it so that all element leaders would talk on 148.

I liked Siniy I, especially the part where we all broke contact and retreated in good time, without anyone sitting around and shooting when they should be running. And I think the concept of a support platoon or a squad supporting the ground pounders with some toys is a mission style that merits more exploring. You can get a bigger variety of weapon systems to play with while achieving a bigger objective. Where you are just a small part in the big machine that is a company or a battalion sized unit.


Now just imagine Fer, having a defense in depth mission, but the RoF squad is mounted in four SPG-9 UAZ'es (2 man crew with a Driver/Commander and a Gunner). And the mission is situated like that Wolfenswan's (?) mission in Chernarus, where we had to advance down a mountain road with a tank and there were EI's in the treelines, bunkers on the road, AAA guns and ATGM's.
Only this time we would be defenders and would basically have to use shoot 'n scoot tactics and use like 4 defensive lines as we use our defense in depth tactics. And of course friendly grunts would battle it out against enemy grunts.

[Teizan]

Point Break had a medical issue I'm still trying to chase down - I'm not sure if revive failed because FAKs were used accidentally on the damage-heal (when you needed them to use the 'First Aid' action to revive. I've been releasing updates that have removed that requirement for now) Otherwise, happy with it.
After a Mi-24 roared overhead and scared people into hiding, we split up into two groups (many weapons were traded). The Glorious Leader (Fer) lead the first group to a high-ground overlook, and Pobiega lead the second group (including me) into a low-ground compound - aiming to pincer attack the Soviet Checkpoint.

I don't know what happened to the first group, but the second one got bogged down and constantly shot at until a BMP with accompanying infantry came up from behind and 'gifted' the last man alive with a hail of bullets. Looked a little like this:

Vseleniye, where a Military Police action took place, was fairly good - if easy. I discovered the single darkest place on the map (A ladder in the Mosque), and then we attacked and shot a few AI - and then we started building clearing in the dark without flashlights. A bit sad the AI were all dead already, actually - there would have been deaths if one had stayed hidden in a shadow somewhere.

In Siniy I, where we served as a Weapons group laying a lot of bullets in the enemy's general direction - I was the leader of the two-man group named MAT1. Unfortunately, we missed motionless M113s with every single rocket we had - and then some more. It was a bit embarrassing.
Good mission style, though. Not laggy so the amount of AI was fine.

Lightpool, the convoy ambush mission, for once, went absolutely perfectly. Nobody stuck their heads out until the enemy were well and truly doomed against a variety of satchels and rockets.