Gambit

Mission Name:
PMC Ops Kunduz Week 2 
 
Server Details:
IP: 136.243.150.72:
Port: 2302
 
Mods Required:
Arma 3 Preset PMC OPs.html
 
TS address: ts.ahoyworld.net
TEAMSPEAK MISSION BRIEFING FOR ALL PLAYERS WILL BEGIN AT 17.30 UTC
Expected Mission Length: 120+ minutes (may go over or under expected mission length)
 
Player Slots: 30 (4 Teams of 6, command, Phoenix Medivac and vortex )
 
 
Situation
Following a meeting with local tribal elders an American unit was ambushed in open ground on the way back to base. They struck an IED which was followed up by RPG and MG fire. The survivors are currently pinned down and under fire. However, due to an ongoing operation elsewhere the US have limited response elements to deploy and have asked that we, as the closest allied forces,  provide assistance. US command is scrambling a QRF force but they are at least an hour out. We need to insert create a perimeter and push back the insurgent forces until the American QRF force arrives from the South. 
 
 
Assets:
1 x MH-6M Littlebird
1 x AH-6M Little Bird
1 x UH-60M
Various ground transport and support vehicles
 
Friendly Forces:
US Army 
Afghan National Army and Police forces
 
Enemy Forces:
Insurgents and non allied tribal fighters 
 
Civilians:
Civilians are concentrated around towns and villages.
 
Mission
 
 
Provide support to an embattled US force and ensure their survival until US forces can mobilise.
 
 
Execution
Objectives:
Secure the immediate area around the US forces
Defuse the insurgents assault 
Ensure their survival until the American relief force arrives.
 
 
Movement Plan:
At Commanders discretion
 
Rules of Engagement:
Armed personnel may be engaged on sight.
Civilians are present in the area so collateral damage is to be kept to a minimum.
Only buildings clearly being used for a military purpose may be engaged.
Civilian life must be protected (Hearts and minds)
 
Optional Tasks:
Provide any necessary support to civilians in the area.
 
Admin & Logistics
 
Resupply:
At the commander’s control, assets are available at base to facilitate this.
 
Reinforcements:
Unlimited
At commanders discretion, transport assets are available.
 
 
Command & Control
 
Command:
Overall command lays with codename "Overlord" who will set objectives and ROE.
Operational control on the ground lies with the Platoon Commander.
 
Communication:
Radio channels are set for each element and can be viewed as part of the Diary accessible through the map . Platoon has limited discretion for change but structure is to be maintained.
 

Mission Name:
PMC Ops Kunduz Week 1 
 
Server Details:
IP: 136.243.150.72:
Port: 2302
 
Mods Required:
Arma 3 Preset PMC OPs.html
 
TS address: ts.ahoyworld.net
TEAMSPEAK MISSION BRIEFING FOR ALL PLAYERS WILL BEGIN AT 17.30 UTC
Expected Mission Length: 120+ minutes (may go over or under expected mission length)
 
Player Slots: 30 (6 Teams of 4,  command, and vortex )
 
 
Situation
Newly arrived in the area we have established our main base of operations known as "the Warehouse". We are primarily contracted by the US DOD to operate in the region. They will provide tasking for the company when needed, we may also avail of any open contract on insurgent leaders as we see fit. While finalising our readiness in theatre we get word that a trail has been found for a local mid level insurgent leader, "Ahmad Zubair Kuhestani". Intelligence has placed members of his immediate family in the area, it is therefore likely that Ahmad is nearby. You are tasked to search the area and find where Ahmad is hiding. HE is then to be captured alive and brought in to be handed over to US forces.
 
 
Assets:
1 x MH-6M Littlebird
1 x AH-6M Little Bird
1 x UH-60M
Various ground transport and support vehicles
 
Friendly Forces:
US Army 
Afghan National Army and Police forces
 
Enemy Forces:
Insurgents and non allied tribal fighters 
 
Civilians:
Civilians are concentrated around towns and villages.
 
Mission
 
 
Using the intelligence gather search known locations of Ahmad Zubair Kuhestani's family and find any trace of his location. Use this information to track down and capture Kuhestani.
 
 
Execution
Objectives:
Finalise mission readiness
Search identified area for signs of Ahmad Zubair Kuhestani
Find and capture him alive
 
 
Movement Plan:
At Commanders discretion
 
Rules of Engagement:
Armed personnel may be engaged on sight.
Civilians are present in the area so collateral damage is to be kept to a minimum.
Only buildings clearly being used for a military purpose may be engaged.
Civilian life must be protected (Hearts and minds)
 
Optional Tasks:
Provide any necessary support to civilians in the area.
 
Admin & Logistics
 
Resupply:
At the commander’s control, assets are available at base to facilitate this.
 
Reinforcements:
Unlimited
At commanders discretion, transport assets are available.
 
 
Command & Control
 
Command:
Overall command lays with codename "Overlord" who will set objectives and ROE.
Operational control on the ground lies with the Platoon Commander.
 
Communication:
Radio channels are set for each element and can be viewed as part of the Diary accessible through the map . Platoon has limited discretion for change but structure is to be maintained.
 
 
 

So as we have only one week left in the Vietnam missions, it's probably about time I finally put up this post.
 
The next campaign, starting either the 17th or 24th April will be a PMC style campaign.
We will be playing as a small PMC outfit, in a modern setting, operating in contemporary conflict zones, completing various missions for different national and non national bodies.
The idea is that using the same modset (save for the map) we can complete operations in different theatres, on different continents using different gear against different enemies. It gives us a large scope for mission design and allows for the more small scale PMC style operations.
 
Needless to say we will not be seeking to engage in pitched battles with the enemy but will favour small unit tactics, emphasis will be on executing the task quickly and extracting before the enemy can fully mobilise against us.  
 
First Deployment Setting
We will first be starting in Afghanistan using equipment easily available in that area. Equipment will be mainly western in origin, with items from America, Britain, Belgium and others. While not limited to these items, they were the most accessible in this region. 
 
 
Modlist
The attached HTML is the current modlist. This is 99% confirmed but is still subject to change based on final testing.
Arma 3 Preset PMC OPs.html
 
As always if you have any questions, comments or suggestions let me know, happy to answer.
 
Midnight
 

 

you were saying?

Lead by example. @Lindi : "nobody said it cant be a bad example eh?" 

dont you worry, i wasnt asking how you do it, rather asking for the why. A lof of the situations you describedw can be solved with out of trim cutbacks, and it is even faster.
 
 
 
Sadly, no. First off, you dont have to meet my standards. Being on top of a leaderboard in a ranking system that has absolutely no correlation with the scenario we are playing on AhoyWorld sadly doesnt prove anything. Im not the one to be convinced here. FYI, ive been flying on a 2.5-3 hours zeus op, without losing a heli. Does it matter? Sadly, no. Gotta do it a thousand times, then it might start to matter.
 
 
your opinion, but here is mine :     give it time my friend, just give it time.
 
 
 
In regards of your 30 min video, i watched the first takoff-landing-egress so far (will watch it in the foreseeable future), and i can see a few flaws. You rely on luck, take unnecessary risks and disregard others. LZ was cold, EZPZ, anybody could land in that space with a little bit of practice, and there was no problem with it so im gonna skip it over. On the other hand...
 
The ingress, you opened the map while mid flight, low altitude with significant speed and lingered on the map for more than 10 seconds. Trees, lamp posts, heck, even bushes are a threat at that altitude, yet you didnt give a fck about it.
 
Egress, another hummingbird heading your way, with speed, low altitude, close distance. Your evasion was to overfly him. At that split second, you gave up control. What if the other pilot's reaction was the same? What if you would have taken off of your lz a second later? Luckily you scared the other pilot into indecision. That save wasnt skill, it was pure luck.
 
 
I dont want to spoil the rest of the footage for myself, since i dont have enough time to watch its full length now, but if you want to go over it either in private or in public, i am willing to share my critique, maybe point out what you doing right and what you could improve on. It would be nice to share some of it with the others, they might learn from it too. (Maybe we can do it private first, then pick and choose what you are willing to share) or you know, just say no and ill leave it at that.
 
Oh and if you want to keep schooling me about how to land a helicopter and explain how and why a J-turn landing is done, i suggest you go over my transport heli 101 (on this very forum, if you need i can send the direct link to it - which is about to be expanded on, as soon as i am finished with polishing the material and got it peer reviewed), really basic stuff, just so you dont try to teach me things i already know about.
 
I hope you dont take this wall of text as picking on you. You might see your skills as the best, and im not here to race. Being a pilot is serving, one might say self sacrifice. I think you get the point.
 
Anyway, offer still stands, if you want i will try to help you transition your koth experience into a bigger scale and longer mission environment. 
 
Have a good one

In I&A you would have been dead on approach, you would have lost your main rotor at least twice, blown up about 6-8 times. Hitting the fence is wonky, sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. The very first landing you did, you tried to use the buiilding as cover, yet you still landed on the far side of the compund, exposing yourself.
In KOTH these might work, but AI is far more efficient with lock on missiles and everything else.
 
And just curious, because i dont really like compilation videos, how many landings didn't make into this video. How many ended up in flaming wrecks. Skill is one thing, but consistency is the key. If you blow up 10 times then make it once and record the one to show it off as skill, well, in I&A and ovarall anywhere, wont get you good pilot status. Doing one extraordinary stunt is not as impressive as doing the less extraordinary but still hard to do stuff all day every day.
 
What about the 99% J-hook landings? There are far more landing types out there for every situation. Barrier landing, out of trim cutback, etc. Every situation requires to use the appropriate landings. Flying is so much more than just speed. Starts from picking the LZ while doing a map-recon. Fisinhing it with getting back to base intact. Reliability is key here, on a long OP like I&A or zeus ops, players prefer a pilot who gets them to the fight, every. single. time. And not in front of an enemy squad to get instantly moved down while the heli leaves riddled with bulletholes forcing the players to watch the respawn screen and hop on the same heli just to repeat this process fr about 5 times more until one day, finally they get to fire at least one bullet and take down an enemy with it.  
 
Being overconfident, disregarding the environment factors (big difference between KOTH player accuracy and available weapon systems and I&A AI behaviour) makes you less of a reliable pilot, hence they will mock you, until you adapt to the environment and needs of others. In I&A infantry wants to be on the ground, in cover, not immediately under fire while landing. In KOHT, they want to get next to the other guy just to shoot him and tbag him. Big difference. A good pilot takes these into consideration, not just trying to do the best airshow. Entertaining yout passengers is one thing, but you have to know when you can do a barrelroll to entertain, and when you have to switch to serious mode and place your passengers' safety above everything else. And by safety i dont moean get them disembark and whatever happens to them afterwards is on them. No. You are resposible for that. That would be like, here, im gonna drop you in a pond filled with piranhas, if you die, its on you.
 
If you accept an advice, slow the approach, pick safer LZs, and take the humble approach. Be consistent, They want to get there, they want to fight. Help them achieve their goal.
Either they trust you to do safe landings, getting them close to their goals, being consistent, every single time, or they will find another pilot and mock you when you say you are the 3rd best pilot in the world. Because in their eyes, you are fulfilling your goals (flashy, dangereous, unnecessarily extreme landings just to flex your skills) and not helping them achieve their goal (get on the ground and fight, not hopping on a helicopter, taking part in an airshow then die on approach).
 
Good luck

im surprised by the fact that @Xwatt ran to the god damn blackhawk's copilot seat (left side) every...single...time to get in, then run around to the right side
 
https://www.twitch.tv/ahoyworld/clip/OriginalFairLlamaOhMyDog

1. Saving PVT Gravity, next mission has to happen
2. Bad intel from the top
3. That bastard
4. M113s needs hugging too, dont judge, its *insert current year here*

1. Saving PVT Gravity, next mission has to happen
2. Bad intel from the top
3. That bastard
4. M113s needs hugging too, dont judge, its *insert current year here*

im more scared of a 5 man team ambush on the road then treating the wounded for 30 mins type of scenario

im more scared of a 5 man team ambush on the road then treating the wounded for 30 mins type of scenario

im more scared of a 5 man team ambush on the road then treating the wounded for 30 mins type of scenario

A Collection Of Screenshots From Malden Reprisal (Week Nine)
 

Mission Name:
[EU2] Zeus Operations - Malden Reprisal [Week Nine]
15:00 UTC
 
Server Details:
IP: 136.243.150.72:
Port: 2302
 
Mods Required:
TFAR_Beta
CBA_A3
 
TS address:
 ts.ahoyworld.net
TEAMSPEAK MISSION BRIEFING FOR ALL PLAYERS WILL BEGIN AT 15:00 UTC
 
Expected Mission Length:
150+ minutes (may go over or under expected mission length)
 
Player Slots:
60
 
Brief Description:
We have put NATO on a complete backburner now, and This week, we will completely wipe them from the mainland of Malden, leaving them with no land on mainland Malden, with only an airfield in the North West that they can claim as their own.... For now. This week, we will start by attacking an abandoned military base that NATO have garrisoned, in a last ditch effort to attempt to keep us from total liberation. After this, we will then attack the small town of Lolisse, the last presence of any NATO forces on the main island of Malden.
 
 
Friendly Forces
Guerrilla Forces - can be called in by Platoon Commander to assist friendly forces
 
Assets
1x AFV-4 Gorgon 2x Zamak Transport 1x CH-49 Mohawk (respawnable upon request) 1x Hellcat (DAR and 6.5mm) 1x Hellcat (20mm and Scalpels) 1x Gryphon (AA Variant) 1x Nyx (AA) 2x K40 Ababil -  (Scalpels) Variety of transport vehicles 1x Slammer UP 1x A164 Wipeout  
Enemy Forces
NATO
 
Civillians
Expect a civillian population in the town of Lolisse.
 
Mission
AAF Continue their Reprisal of Malden. This week AAF endavour to take a NATO garrisoned abandoned military base and the town of Lolisse.
 
Execution
 
Objectives
Liberate Abandoned Military Base Capture Lolisse  
Movement Plan
At Platoon Commanders discretion.
 
Rules Of Engagement
Armed NATO personell may be engaged on sight Expect a civillian presence in Lolisse Expect a civillian population. Collateral damage should be kept to a minimum. Only engage buildings used for a military purpose  
Admin And Logistics
Resupply
Callled in by Platoon Commander. Supply crates at FOB can be airlifted in.
 
Reinforcements:
Unlimited At Platoon Commanders discretion, transport assets are available  
Command And Control
 
Command
Zeus by the name of "Overlord" can be contacted for mission related  issues/enquiries Operational control on the ground lays with platoon Commander  
Communication
Radio channels are pre-designated for each squad, and can be viewed on the map in-game. Platoon Commander has limited discretion to change this but structure should remain. Only use Side Chat for emergencies.
 
 

Updated the document with crew roles and resposibilities (few pages, section 7.), bumped up the version number to 0.4, the pdf is not updated, so grab it from the link.

Updated the document with crew roles and resposibilities (few pages, section 7.), bumped up the version number to 0.4, the pdf is not updated, so grab it from the link.

A collection of screenshots from Last Sunday's OP (06/10/19)

Well both really, for now stuff that we can do on server, and once I get a bit better at the whole zeusing thing then game nights and or campaigns 😁

Hi folks,
 
I recognize that a lot of the development work on IA4 is kind of done in a black void, so I thought I'd share some data on optimization generated over last Friday's beta test.
 

 
This graph shows server performance per minute, relative to the number of players connected and the number of AI units present in the mission.  If you played on Friday you noticed that performance really began to tank at around the two hour mark.  Your first instinct might be to think, "well, the mission's been running for 2 hours, there's probably a lot of clutter, lots of units running around, it's probably making the mission slower".  But in fact, that's not the case.  The key metric that's slowing down the mission...?  The number of players connected!
 
Arma's actually quite efficient when it comes to running units, the trouble is when you have a mission that is running any kind of custom script (as both 3 and 4 do) in order to manage how the mission plays, and to give any special instructions to the AI units.  In the case of 4, there's one special script called opforAwarenessDaemon, whose sole purpose is to give instructions to patrolling AI units based on their knowledge of player units.  Put another way: if you're shooting at the AI, the script will let the AI respond to your shots rather than just sit there and take it.  It'll have them change their patrol path, call in support from other units, or even call in air support.
 
Here's another version of the chart that's a bit easier to read when it comes to player count / FPS;

What we're seeing in the graph is that when the player count is below 30 players, everything is working fairly well - average server FPS (the green line) hovers between 20-47 FPS, which is excellent.  And it's doing so whether the number of AI is low or high. But when we get over 30 players, server performance tanks quickly (see the chart between the 100 and 150 minutes mark).  This is because with more players, there are more enemy units, and they're taking longer to do their opforAwareness check.  And since Arma's internal design philosophy is that if the program can't complete a script in a certain amount of time, it gets bumped to the next cycle, which just pushes the problem further down the line... until eventually the program crashes.
 
(the spikes, if you're wondering, are generally when new AOs are spawning and a bunch of new AI units are populated.)
 
So, how does one address this?
 
1. Less AI units?  IA4 scales the number of enemy units to the number of players, so that there are plenty of targets for the players to engage and make the mission fun.  If I reduce the number of units, I'll hear more feedback of "I just got the AO and it ended".  And since on its own, Arma is pretty efficient at running units, that's not the preferred option.
2. Optimize opforAwarenessDaemon?  Definitely the preferred direction.  Data like this helps me identify methods for improving the efficiency of the code in question.  In the script there are a few factors to be decided in figuring out what targets the enemy AI units will prioritize, as I've laid out in this decision tree: to summarize, every 20 seconds, an enemy group leader will assess their known targets, and decide whether one of them is a threat worth leaving their patrol route to attack.

There are certainly things I do (ie., corners I can cut) which give similar results to what I'm looking for, that are more efficient in doing so. But the long and the short of it is the same.  If there are more players to assess, and more enemy groups to do the assessing, then that's more work being performed by the server.
 
3. Cut opforAwarenessDaemon?  It has to be a consideration; while the intent of IA4 is to create a more intelligent mission, if the performance requirements to do so exceed the playability of the mission, then it's just not worth it to pursue, and maybe it'll have to go back on the shelf and await a more capable engine (Arma 4, here we come?).
 
So that's a look at how the sausage gets made - if you have comments or suggestions, I'm always happen to discuss.
 
- R

The point of the Zeus squad is that it's intended for Staff players to deliberately recuse themselves from gameplay.  You don't show up on the map, enemy AI won't target you, and you get a whack of reward points that you can use to reward individual players.
 
Not being in the Zeus squad in no way impairs staff's ability to use Zeus powers.  It's tied to your UID, not your squad.  So if you are playing, and you need to pop into Zeus to fix something, you are able to do so.
 
 
If someone - anyone - can point me to anything that prevents this issue - namely, all Zeus users being kicked at random intervals - I'll gladly implement it.  We've asked Bohemia, notable coders, everyone's stumped.  Yes, there are some drawbacks with the system I've implemented to get around that - namely, that a Zeus module is dynamically generated when you ask for one - and you've hit the main one, that when you leave Zeus, your module is destroyed, along with the links to items that you've spawned.  That said, there's nothing that stops you from using Achilles to add objects in Zeus to bring them right back into your interface.
 
 
It's to clean up the interface, following a theme of simplicity.  Also, putting it in the admin menu gives me a lot more flexibility to do things like respawn specific vehicles, sent hint messages to players, etc.  Stuff I can't do within the context of the scroll menu without several layers of sub-menus.
 
 
See above
 
 
Feel free to elaborate.  We've already eased a whole lot of restrictions we started with based on feedback, and if you can point to specific things, I'm happy to discuss them.  Many of the things people do complain about (long spawn times, role-based gear restrictions) are there for long-debated and resolved reasons, but if you have new points to consider, don't hesitate.
 
 
Please elaborate... I find the paperwork comment very confusing
 
 
As of ... two versions ago?  This is no longer the case.  All role-specific purchasable weapons are now by default "purchased" which means they can be armed straight from the arsenal.  Based on a discussion we all had, no less...
 
 
It's never been my intention to force people into absolutely predetermined squads, that's why I have the custom squads functionality.  It's not something I can test on my own for obvious reasons, so every beta test I am responding to how it chooses to break (and it almost always does).  Custom naming of squads had led us into more than one ban situation thanks to people's creative choice of naming, or using the names for advertisement, and apart from the lolz, I can't see a great reason to have something which is just one more thing we have to enforce.  If people don't want to play here because they can't name their custom squad D1CK BOIZ I'm not sure we're worse of without them.
 
 
There's no great way for me to determine who's "participating" in the mission or not, apart from their proximity to the bad guys.  And generally, if they're sniping targets or destroying vehicles from over a kilometer away (the current threshold for when you are participating or not), you're outside the AI's capacity to engage you back, so I don't know if that's worth rewarding.  You'll still get points for kills, you just won't get your share of the mission objective reward points, which frankly, aren't going to be as much as vehicle kill points anyway.
 
 
The part that says Beta test is there for a reason... optimization is where we are right now, and it gets a little better every version.  This is a long discussion but suffice it to say I don't want 4 running at lower frame rates, the whole point here was for better performance by culling old/bad code, and if it's a matter of streamlining / removing features to get back to good performance, than that's what happens.
 
 
See above... by default, all role-specific gear is considered purchased at mission start.  Gear like non-faction weaponry still needs to be purchased at this point, but I suppose if there's overwhelming demand that you should be able to leave the NATO base decked out in complete CSAT gear and weaponry, well, we can go there.
 
 
I'm not an expert with UI, and Arma doesn't give you a ton of options.  If someone's got a better flair for it than me, I welcome the assistance to overhaul it.  What I'm most concerned with is creating an interface that is easy to understand and intuitive.  I clearly have not gotten there, because we get the question every session, how do I join a role? despite several layers of hints, suggestions and tooltips.  Remember that the whole point of this system is so that people don't have to go back to the lobby to take a different role, which is a major perk in my opinion, as well it is a bit more stable (in some ways) than Arma's stock system.  (and yes, much more unstable in others, I will fully concede).
 
 
Well, this is the hardest part of balancing the mission, I've got Xwatt saying we need to not punish players for being outside the AO, and you suggesting we need to reduce the reward for players being inside the AO   Neither of you is wrong, it's just a matter of balancing how to reward players.  I welcome your suggestions.
 
 
Ah yes.

Awesome gamenight ! Really enjoyed it !
Took more than 2hrs so I had to leave at the very end but it was greatly carried during the entire operation.
 
See u next one ! Cheers !!!