Hi & that was fun & questions

[Mike [MDS]]

Hi everyone, and thanks for a fun session!

Clearly I struggled a bit getting used to the three-layer comms system (because as usual I was too lazy to read the instructions and figured "I'll figure it out")... I will know my place next time

I was having so much fun that I forgot to be disappointed we didn't get to use any air vehicles until after the session had finished!

Do we (can we) ever play missions with air support or air insertions/extractions? :3 What attracted me to ArmA was that on top of tactical infantry combat it has such great support for vehicles and gives you the space to use them. (Full disclosure: I'm obsessed with planes and helicopters)

Ummmm... ok thanks

Mike (or MDS when there's already a Mike!)

[wolfenswan]

hey mike, glad you enjoyed the show and welcome to the party.

Personally I'm not the biggest fan of putting airplanes and attack helicopters in my missions. For me, Arma2 is first and foremost an infantry combat simulator with everything else built around that. I enjoy being a grunt and working with my squad and maybe the occasional light vehicle or tank as support.

Most of our missions don't feature revive and tend to be short-ish, so often the area of operations is so small that there would be no need for dedicated air support. Furthermore a good pilot can make the mission very, very boring for the rest of the players as he annihilates any resistance. At the same hand a bad pilot can ruin the mission just as well by crashing a transport helicopter (and killing a dozen players in the process) or loosing a crucial air asset. It's just very hard to balance our type of mission properly with air assets available. Most toy-heavy missions (like xenu's domination or warfare.) feature a form of revive of some sort. That said, we have a few missions that use transport helicopters (both AI-controlled for an automated insertion or player controlled). Another problem is that air roles are very attractive to a lot of people thus they try and secure that single spot, ignoring the regular classes which can sometimes be a bit annoying when trying to slot a mission.


Obviously this is just my point of view. A lot of people in ARPS and Folk enjoy air assets and play the occasional session of domi from time to time. Your best bet might be to linger in the RPS steam chat or ask in the RPS arma subforum.


Edit: And obviously, you could always make your own missions! It isn't nearly as complicated as one might think and with the newly released mission stub you don't have to worry about much more than dragging some units across the map and placing a few more baddies.

[fer]

Comrade MDS, I'm very glad to hear you enjoyed your first Folk session

On the comms front, please have a read of Getting started with TeamSpeak 3 (for ArmA2) and An illustrated guide to Folk comms.

To answer your question about air support: historically, the focus of most Folk missions has been infantry (and non-BLUFOR at that), although we are starting to branch out into more BLUFOR and combined arms missions as our session playercount rises. As comrade Wolfenswan points out, it's always very tricky striking the right balance with powerful assets (such as attack jets, helicopters and tanks), particularly in our missions - which do not feature respawn.

However, that's not to say that we don't have missions with air assets. Actually, after reading your post, I thought it would be interesting to do a quick review of our missions list, and pull out the ones that feature fixed and rotary wing elements that are either player or AI-controlled:

• fkoa_co42_swept / fkoa_co28_swept_LE /fkoa_adv58_swept_LE (insertion by AI-controlled Mi-17s)
• fkoa_adv25_hunt_for_azim (player-controlled Mi-17)
• fkoa_co36_moonless (player-controlled Mi-24)
• fkco_co24_czech_mate (insertion by AI-controlled Hercules)
• fkco_co13_donkey_sanctuary (player-controlled aeroplane)
• fkco_co14_stary_sober (player-controlled AH11 Wildcat)
• fkoa_adv22_the_take_down / fkoa_adv22_the_take_down_alt (player-controlled Littlebirds)
• fkoa_co4x_fritz_frenzy (player-controlled A-10)
• fkoa_adv50_warlords_inc / fkoa_co12_warlords_inc (player-controlled Littlebirds)
• fkoa_co24_mail_man (player-controlled Hueys and Littlebirds)
• fkoa_adv78_milk_run (player-controlled Littlebirds)
• fkco_co28_valley / fkco_co28_valley_RE (insertion by AI-controlled Hueys)
• fkco_co34_flask (insertion by AI-controlled Hueys)
• fkco_co47_ride_of_valkyries (player-controlled Mi-17s / Mi-24s / Attack Jet)
• fkco_adv46_hunterhunted (player-controlled Mi-8)
• fkco_co51_vanguard (insertion by AI-controlled Mi-17s)
• fkco_co46_OfNeedlesAndHaystacks (player-controlled Littlebirds and a Chinook)
• fkoa_adv74_greenola (player-controlled Chinooks)

Almost needless to say, we can always do with more missions, and if you have a concept for one that bring air assets into the mix whilst retaining the Folk 'feel' to mission structure and length, it would be great to see that translated into something we can play.

If you're interested in trying your hand at mission making, a great place to start would be the thread: It doesn't have to be complicated II. If not, perhaps post some ideas here and you may be able to get one of our more established mission makers to collaborate with you.

Looking forward to seeing you next week!

[Black Mamba]

Well. I heard you, Mike! That is why I came up with a mission, which I humbly called fkco_co42_blackfolk_down_v0. You'd get your share of choppers in there (mainly transport, plus two AH-6. I chose the AH-6 because the pilot feels like the terminator, but the guys on the ground know he's useless. Plus he gets shot down during the first five minutes anyway).

So the thing is basically combat ready, but i do have a problem of balance. I usually play with ACE and 97 other addons (yeah, i'm like that), i'm not really sure how to properly balance the gameplay on vanilla.

Anyway, if anybody's interested in testing it and giving me some sort of feedback (even if it's just editor-related), just throw me a message, i'd be glad to send you the pbo file.

Now that i've written this, i realize this probably isn't the proper place. 2 messages, already spreading chaos in there. I'm just warming up.

[fer]

Comrade Black Mamba, please could you upload your mission to dropbox or simlar, and drop me a forum PM with the URL? I'd be very happy to have a look at this and help you arrange some testing on the server.

[Mike [MDS]]

Thanks guys, I have been thinking of how to include "toys" in ways that don't ruin everyone's fun / put everyone's fun at excessive risk, and have asked in another thread for some advice.

Thanks again,

Mike

[Variable]

Furthermore a good pilot can make the mission very, very boring for the rest of the players as he annihilates any resistance.

Limit the plane's ammo!

[wolfenswan]

Furthermore a good pilot can make the mission very, very boring for the rest of the players as he annihilates any resistance.

Limit the plane's ammo!

That's def. an option.

We have at least one mission where the gun and hydras and were removed from the A10 (to great effect).

[fer]

During the mission called Arrival on Sunday, we experimented with the following approach:

• A player-controlled Apache was provided to the platoon for air cover
• All of the weapons on the Apache were enabled
• The Apache had special ROE: it could not engage targets near civilian structures
• The Apache was used primarily for spotting - it had to get permission from the CO to engage valid targets (out in the open)

In practice, these ROE meant the Apache was not able to fly around the map effectively completing the mission by itself - but at the same time it was an integral part of the platoon's approach: providing the CO with great intelligence and still engaging infantry and armoured targets that threatened our position at the airfield.

You can expect to see this approach to using air cover more often in future Folk sessions.

Note: We also applied the ROE to the AGL weapon mounted on the HMMWV SOVs, which prevented grenade-spamming from obliterating EIs in the villages before the infantry could arrive to clear them out. Again, this is likely to become a practice we use more often.

[mort]

I would like to see more of these sorts of missions where support weapons are available under ROE with the proviso that if you take that slot you need to be damn sure that you have the situational awareness and discipline to use the power of the weapons platform judiciously.