I&A 4 Beta Test Feedback

[WinterMute]

Oh, I don't think it's a problem exactly... I don't think it is something that requires fixing. It was an edge case scenario, it only happens when a major timezone realises it's late all at once, and only affects 1 AO. Future AO's spawn proportionate amounts of enemies. Same problem happens in reverse when a big lump of players descends on the server suddenly!

 

I wouldn't worry about changing anything gameplay-wise. Certainly don't mess with spawned enemies. Imagine if you were successfully sneaking up on an enemy and they went out of sight and despawned... you'd go crazy looking for them. Or in the other scenario, where people join the server and a cleared building behind you fills with enemies that shoot you in the back... yuck

 

I was just thinking out loud really - some way of indicating to a player whether the AO was spawned when the player count was much higher than it currently is. Either passively, like having the larger AO circle (related to MDCCLXXVI's idea) than the current server pop would normally see, or explicitly in a message like "Mission Update: Intelligence reports a high enemy presence at the objective." when the server population presently is less than a certain %age of the population when the AO spawned.

[Stanhope]

After spending a few hours in talon (from ~20:00 till ~00:45) I have a few suggestions.  But I'd like to start by saying that reaper, talon and viper have perverse incentives.  We don't want players in those slots engaging enemies unless called in yet they get rewarded for engaging enemies regardless of being called in.  As it is 'technically challenging' to detect which kills happened after being called in and which ones weren't I suggest we don't reward reaper, talon or viper for kills.  We instead reward them for being in the air in the vecinity of the AO or side mission if they're spotting things.  To keep network traffic down I suggest that the client keeps track of how many times the player spotted a vehicle in the last x minutes and that every x minutes gets some reward points if the player spotted more than y things. 

 

On a slightly related note: enemy air presence needs to be increased.  In the 5 hours I was in talon I had 1 engagement with an enemy jet, witnessed another engagement between viper and an enemy jet and got unconfirmed reports of 2 more jets.  These last 2 never seem to have done anything btw.

[MidnightRunner]

 

Supply cache side mission spawned at 0,0.  

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

[MidnightRunner]

Also, it appears that when Viper is destroyed and the 2 players are kicked from the role Reaper is also getting kicked. Had several reports of this today as well as at one stage having 5 vortex pilots, with two of the slots being double occupied.

 

Reaper also reported that when purchasing a different loadout the original weapons stay in the display but with 0 ammo.

 

Vehicle ammo box reward drop is not de-spawning as described 

 

All enemy ground reinforcements were spawning in the same spot regardless of where the AO was, is this by design? It was taking them several AOs in some cases to get to their destination.

Spoiler

Spawn point was 108105

 

I feel like the new mechanic of being revived injured if the reviving player isn't a medic, over penalises not being a medic. I think that the extra time needed was enough of a cost. Also the animation shows you being fully healed and then injured again. 
 

I had a few bits re Zeus but want to wait until the next update comes out and will come back to that since some of my comments will be out of date already.

 

[MidnightRunner]

Purchase of UGV is bugged, button is clickable in base but you get the "You must be more than 400m away" message, once out of base the button is greyed out.

[Aegis_RVIR]

Current feedback after some more playing:
 

• Jet pilots get moved to zulu squad mid air, killing them and making their jets crash. This is not fun nor balanced.
• Manpads, in the couple of days of me flying they have become infuriating to play against. A tigris you can detect and either preemptively destroy it, avoid it or outplay it. But getting spammed down by what feels like 3 zeus players lacks counterplay at all.
• the script that protects people in the base from pilots landing in spawn will also alert pilots who fly over spawn to get to their destination. 
• Buying and canceling paradrops still deducts the 500 points from your total
• Perhaps make the inactive timer a bit more lenient for pilots, sometimes people cant fly due to the SAM or simply not being called in for a while
• About the SAM, bring back the I&A 3 variant which had its own killzone but wasn't not nearly as powerfull as this variant. It is a giant finger to most airborne roles and it doesnt feel fair when you got yeeted into oblivion across the island from a missile you couldnt shake.

Still like I&A 4 though, needs a bit of work

[Stanhope]

53 minutes ago, Aegis_RVIR said:

About the SAM, bring back the I&A 3 variant which had its own killzone but wasn't not nearly as powerfull as this variant. It is a giant finger to most airborne roles and it doesnt feel fair when you got yeeted into oblivion across the island from a missile you couldnt shake. 

Comparison of AA missions from I&A3 and 4:

Spoiler

I&A3: Scripted range: 4km

I&A4: Scripted range: 5km

 

I&A3: Number of times scripted targeting happens per minute: 7,5

I&A4: Number of times scripted targeting happens per minute: 1

 

I&A3: Number of AA platforms: 3

I&A4: Number of AA platforms: 1

 

I&A3: Damage reduction for incoming fire on said platforms: 65%

I&A4: Damage reduction for incoming fire on said platforms: 0%

 

I&A3: Ammo replenishment: on every shot, instantly

I&A4: Ammo replenishment: every 5 minutes

 

I&A3: Effective ammo per engagement: infinite

I&A4: Effective ammo per engagement: 4 missiles

 

53 minutes ago, Aegis_RVIR said:

Manpads, in the couple of days of me flying they have become infuriating to play against. A tigris you can detect and either preemptively destroy it, avoid it or outplay it. But getting spammed down by what feels like 3 zeus players lacks counterplay at all.

Good, at least it gives pilots a reason to be cautious.  I've personally only once been shot down by a manpad on I&A4 so far. 

[kman]

1) picking up backpack from enemy will treat it as a weapon you dont have training for - making you only walk

please whitelist all backpacks by default, so we can take/swap from dead enemy

 

2) I like how AI is performing hunting missions for players now, but it does not work very well for VEHICLES.

today I destroyed vehicle in new AO with titan AT, being about 500m from the AO perimeter,

in about 2 minutes 2x technical rolled on me, followed by Marid, Tigris and eventually 2 MBTs

 

since I was hidden in bushes, they just threw a party, circling in very close proximity

 

Even when friendly Hitman arrived on nearby Hill and started destroying them, they ignored it completely, driving around trying to locate me

 

The "hunting" routine works ok for infantry, but needs to be tweaked for vehicles, because it makes them act rly stupid, congregating on 1 spot where they will get stuck, unless they manage to kill who they came for

- perhaps some time limit after which they return to normal patrolling pattern ?

 

[ansin11]

Went in for 25 minutes.

 

Gameplay felt good so far, I played on low server population though. I am impressed by the rework of the map, I like it. The additional hints are also nice; I'm not sure about the ping / spotting system yet.

 

It's no secret I'm not a fan of many of the paths you chose to go with I & A 4. At all. So no offense. It's merely my personal opinion that I really don't like a reward point system for gear. It's also just personal preference that I absolutely detest the UI design choices that have been made. And it's also my own trouble that a few features feel like they are just tech demos to me (tech demos as in "Yes, this can be done in Arma, it's possible. Why we should use it we don't know, we just did it. Look, it even works!").
But an aspect you really should rework is rebinding keys, especially keys that are already in use (Page Up, Page Down). That's just insanely intrusive and horribly bad practice.

 

Other than that, the mission works and I had fun shooting some OPFOR. A fine job well done gentlemen.

[Ryko]

53 minutes ago, ansin11 said:

But an aspect you really should rework is rebinding keys, especially keys that are already in use (Page Up, Page Down). That's just insanely intrusive and horribly bad practice.

Well, ia4 adds some custom features that I thought would not fit well as addactions. You can rebind these key assignments in the ia4 menu. Or do you have a better suggestion on how this can all be accomplished? 

 

Quote

Why we should use it we don't know, we just did it

You've mentioned this before, and the only obvious example is dynamic groups.  There are clear reasons why we've implemented this (so you don't have to go back to the lobby to change roles).  What other tech elements are you referring to?  I'm happy to discuss my reasons for including these if you like.

[Ryko]

15 hours ago, kman said:

1) picking up backpack from enemy will treat it as a weapon you dont have training for - making you only walk

please whitelist all backpacks by default, so we can take/swap from dead enemy

Yup, good call

 

15 hours ago, kman said:

2) I like how AI is performing hunting missions for players now, but it does not work very well for VEHICLES.

This is hard to fix because of how the AI is operating it's hunting protocol - with the Search & Destroy waypoint. Technically, they will return to their patrol routes when they complete their search and destroy waypoint, but that waypoint only completes when they determine there is nothing in the area to destroy.  So if they are always aware of you - and it's a bit generalized how the AI can become "aware" of you - they will constantly hunt.

 

Now, arma does have some intelligence about enemies responding to threats, however it is by no means perfect.  If you were an AT soldier, an enemy vehicle considers you a high-priority target, possibly on the same caliber as Hitman in an armored vehicle, and because you are closer, it may be prioritizing you.

 

TL:DR, arma has some funky dynamics about determining target priority that I can't easily override, and performance would probably suffer if I attempted to do so.

[ansin11]

Pause / Break for ear plugs is fine for me, spotting should be placed on the same key as the player uses for the vanilla spotting / targeting and U for the menu thing is also fine as this just replaces the vanilla squad menu. I don't remember the other custom feature, so maybe that's one of the... tech demos.

Also please allow players to not have any key assigned at all.

I don't know if binding the custom spotting to the same key as targeting can be done without unwanted side effects, but that really is none of my problems.

[Stanhope]

3 minutes ago, ansin11 said:

Pause / Break for ear plugs is fine for me, spotting should be placed on the same key as the player uses for the vanilla spotting / targeting and U for the menu thing is also fine as this just replaces the vanilla squad menu.

Then rebind them.  You've got the option to. 

[Ryko]

On 4/27/2019 at 7:03 PM, MidnightRunner said:

Reaper also reported that when purchasing a different loadout the original weapons stay in the display but with 0 ammo.

Yeah, either I haven't figured that out completely or Bohemia's functions for dealing with dynamic vehicle loadouts aren't really intended to work this way.  Either way, that's a known bug (in my view, so long as the new weaponry is there, at least it is working somewhat as intended).

 

On 4/27/2019 at 7:03 PM, MidnightRunner said:

Vehicle ammo box reward drop is not de-spawning as described 

Fixed in next version

 

On 4/27/2019 at 7:03 PM, MidnightRunner said:

I feel like the new mechanic of being revived injured if the reviving player isn't a medic, over penalises not being a medic. I think that the extra time needed was enough of a cost. Also the animation shows you being fully healed and then injured again. 

Yeah, I'm on the fence about this.  The intention was to make it more of an incentive to take the medic role.  I've decreased the non-medic revive time to 25 seconds as a compensation (still ~8 seconds as a medic).

 

On 4/28/2019 at 7:46 AM, Aegis_RVIR said:

Manpads, in the couple of days of me flying they have become infuriating to play against. A tigris you can detect and either preemptively destroy it, avoid it or outplay it. But getting spammed down by what feels like 3 zeus players lacks counterplay at all.

Well, nothing has changed in that regard (same number spawn). I think you have to assume that there are always manpads in the area.  People have complained about flying over Altis being too easy.

 

On 4/28/2019 at 7:46 AM, Aegis_RVIR said:

the script that protects people in the base from pilots landing in spawn will also alert pilots who fly over spawn to get to their destination. 

I think I can add some speed detection for that (say, if you're going less than 60 km/h, you'll get it) - should exclude pilots from this notice.

 

On 4/28/2019 at 7:46 AM, Aegis_RVIR said:

Perhaps make the inactive timer a bit more lenient for pilots, sometimes people cant fly due to the SAM or simply not being called in for a while

All you have to do is move your mouse or hit a key and you're not afk

 

On 4/28/2019 at 7:46 AM, Aegis_RVIR said:

About the SAM, bring back the I&A 3 variant which had its own killzone but wasn't not nearly as powerfull as this variant. It is a giant finger to most airborne roles and it doesnt feel fair when you got yeeted into oblivion across the island from a missile you couldnt shake.

Well this is kind of the point.  The presence of the SAM side mission is intended to limit air operations.  If players want to essentially skip the mission, it's not super hard to spend some reward points on a UAV recon mission to get the UAV over the side mission, and a strike mission to give yourself 2x Skalpels and wipe out the SAM.  Or any other number of methods.

[Ryko]

5 minutes ago, ansin11 said:

I don't remember the other custom feature, so maybe that's one of the... tech demos.

You keep on pointing to these tech demos, but you're not telling me what you consider them to be.

 

6 minutes ago, ansin11 said:

I don't know if binding the custom spotting to the same key as targeting can be done without unwanted side effects, but that really is none of my problems.

Shift-T is the default keybind for tactical ping, so now you're asking me to force players to use Shift-T to spot targets.  If players don't want to use the keybinds I've pre-assigned, they are free to rebind them to scroll lock or some other useless key.

 

The only "practical" keybinds I've put in place:

 

I&A 4 menu (Default keybind: U) - as you say, leverages the historical use of the U key to bring up a multi-purpose game menu.

Earplugs (Default keybind: Pause/Break) - also historically used for ear plugs, now can be rebound to any other key, especially useful for non-standard keyboards which don't have a P/B key

Spot target (Default keybind: Page Up) - new "tech demo" function which provides in-game spotting of targets which is communicated to other players within 1km and on the map to all players. Fades out quickly in-game, and within 30 seconds on the map.

Waypoint (Default keybind: End) - allows squad leaders / team leaders to place /remove a waypoint for their squad.

 

[ansin11]

I am well aware that one can rebind those keys, but you can't force people to fix their controls every time they want to play on a vanilla server. Like seriously, what kind of design philosophy is that?

I don't know about the new control schemes, but for me, Page Up and Page Down change weapon zeroing.

 

The onscreen compass is what I consider a tech demo. Disable the crosshair but add a UI compass? If pressing K is too much of an inconvenience for me and I want my HUD changed I'll download a mod. Disable it by default at least; making decisions for the user is, just like rebinding preoccupied keys, quite a dick move.

[Stanhope]

30 minutes ago, ansin11 said:

I am well aware that one can rebind those keys, but you can't force people to fix their controls every time they want to play on a vanilla server. Like seriously, what kind of design philosophy is that?

I don't know about the new control schemes, but for me, Page Up and Page Down change weapon zeroing.

 

The onscreen compass is what I consider a tech demo. Disable the crosshair but add a UI compass? If pressing K is too much of an inconvenience for me and I want my HUD changed I'll download a mod. Disable it by default at least; making decisions for the user is, just like rebinding preoccupied keys, quite a dick move. 

You're aware that most of those preferences are stored in your profilenamespace right?  As far as I can tell only the vehicle hud (the green name on the left hand side when you're in a vehicle) isn't.

[Aegis_RVIR]

3 hours ago, Ryko said:

I think I can add some speed detection for that (say, if you're going less than 60 km/h, you'll get it) - should exclude pilots from this notice.

60 km/h is a bit much if a heli were to just start up from the heli pads, perhaps trim down the height aswell? or add a timer that will only display the warning if someone were to be over the spawn for lets say 10 seconds

[Ryko]

5 hours ago, ansin11 said:

I don't know about the new control schemes, but for me, Page Up and Page Down change weapon zeroing.

You're absolutely right. My concern about binding it to T was that vehicle operators might run into the same problem when targeting vehicles, but if that gets spotting used more often, maybe that's not a bad thing.  And it makes zero difference to ground units.  So maybe I'll shift the default to T.

 

5 hours ago, ansin11 said:

The onscreen compass is what I consider a tech demo. Disable the crosshair but add a UI compass?

Well, the way I see it, in 2035 I am imagining that a compass is a bit out of date.  For game functionality, having it attached to every player's screen makes team play much more feasible.  Some players don't even know the compass exists.  This is all about bridging the gap between the ease of communication in real life, where I can just point to something and the guy on my left knows what I'm talking about, and in-game, where we don't even share the same context.  As for disabling the crosshair, I don't see that as being part of the same issue.  We also haven't gotten a single complaint about the crosshair being absent.

 

5 hours ago, ansin11 said:

If pressing K is too much of an inconvenience for me and I want my HUD changed I'll download a mod.

Most people will not do this, and again, not a single complaint about the compass.  Once you change your preference it's saved to profileNameSpace, ie., you won't have to change it again when you visit again.

 

5 hours ago, ansin11 said:

Disable it by default at least; making decisions for the user is, just like rebinding preoccupied keys, quite a dick move.

I'd agree with this if you didn't give the user tools to change their interface.  99% of the users will not explore beyond the default settings, and thus, wouldn't know that there was a compass to turn on, etc.

 

4 hours ago, Stanhope said:

As far as I can tell only the vehicle hud (the green name on the left hand side when you're in a vehicle) isn't.

Yeah, I have to fix that white whale.

[Aegis_RVIR]

Alright, 4 hour session in the bag and more feedback for now!

 

• Whilst I like the Platoon commander idea, right now the commander is an overglorified rifleman and can do little to prevent armor/CAS from turning the AO into a giant crater. Maybe give the Platoon commander more power (able to issue warnings RCON picks up on, ability to call in more powerfull equipement/ strikes)?
• VIPER, this slot is a problem. In my session today a pair of people disregarded everyone and just purged every AO they were part of AI, leaving very little remaining of the AO. If the people in VIPER are bad, a paper plane will do more damage than them.
• (insert generic complains about pricing)
• More serious thing about the point system, blowing up vehicles like Kamysh, T-100/T-140 or a Tigris feels like they reward not enough points to make them a target to go after really... Some AO's the medics make more by reviving than the AT gunner or the tank crews
• when jumping to vortex from another role, you cannot seem to be able to access the air channel

That is all I can come up with right now, maybe another time

[Ryko]

1 minute ago, Aegis_RVIR said:

• Whilst I like the Platoon commander idea, right now the commander is an overglorified rifleman and can do little to prevent armor/CAS from turning the AO into a giant crater. Maybe give the Platoon commander more power (able to issue warnings RCON picks up on, ability to call in more powerfull equipement/ strikes)?

 

When the squads mission parameter is different, the Platoon Commander's job is to create or unlock squads for players and assign them to those squads.  In the default layer, all squads are unlocked so yes, the platoon commander is not as vital.  However, the PC has the same rewards available as the Squad Leader, including the artillery strikes, UAV strikes, ammo drops and such, so they are useful in that regard: most especially, the PC gets 10% of all reward points generated, so they are a valuable asset in that they can use those surplus points to fill in the gaps of what's required by the team.

 

As for more power, we can't give a player equivalent power to an admin, as that's ripe for abuse. We've already had issues in the past with a player jumping into the slot, removing a player from a role (Reaper) and then taking that role for himself.

 

1 minute ago, Aegis_RVIR said:

• VIPER, this slot is a problem. In my session today a pair of people disregarded everyone and just purged every AO they were part of AI, leaving very little remaining of the AO. If the people in VIPER are bad, a paper plane will do more damage than them.

 

This is a general problem that's be in existence since the early days of I&A, and if a solution were available then, I'm sure it would be available now.  Unless people come up with a great idea, all we are left with is issuing warnings, kicks and bans if CAS players ignore the server rule.  I am reluctant to implement a system where, say, the PC has control over Viper and Reaper's ordinance, because in the majority of times there are no support requests and the mission is balanced towards the presence of Combat Air Support.

 

1 minute ago, Aegis_RVIR said:

• (insert generic complains about pricing)

 

You need to use your words here.

 

1 minute ago, Aegis_RVIR said:

• More serious thing about the point system, blowing up vehicles like Kamysh, T-100/T-140 or a Tigris feels like they reward not enough points to make them a target to go after really... Some AO's the medics make more by reviving than the AT gunner or the tank crews

 

This is by design.  The system is designed to give infantry players the primary method for generating points, to which they can advance into specialist roles if they want to buy specialized vehicles.  The intent is not to allow vehicle drivers a way to garner huge amounts of points so they can just buy replacement vehicles when they are killed.  Rather, we want an organic way for players to move between roles, so everyone gets a chance to play the rarer roles.

 

1 minute ago, Aegis_RVIR said:

• when jumping to vortex from another role, you cannot seem to be able to access the air channel

 

I'll have a look at this.

[Aegis_RVIR]

3 hours ago, Ryko said:

This is by design.  The system is designed to give infantry players the primary method for generating points, to which they can advance into specialist roles if they want to buy specialized vehicles.  The intent is not to allow vehicle drivers a way to garner huge amounts of points so they can just buy replacement vehicles when they are killed.  Rather, we want an organic way for players to move between roles, so everyone gets a chance to play the rarer roles.

Than I think the design needs some work. Currently people flat out jump into the Hitman or Gambler roles and start out with whatever the base gives them (so most of the time both the Marshall and the Slammer, sometimes the panther (which is horribly underpowered for its size)) and when these assets are lost they either jump into a normal inf role to kill the down time between spawns or just dc outright. This becomes even more apperent when you take the following into account:

 

3 hours ago, Ryko said:

This is a general problem that's be in existence since the early days of I&A, and if a solution were available then, I'm sure it would be available now.  Unless people come up with a great idea, all we are left with is issuing warnings, kicks and bans if CAS players ignore the server rule.  I am reluctant to implement a system where, say, the PC has control over Viper and Reaper's ordinance, because in the majority of times there are no support requests and the mission is balanced towards the presence of Combat Air Support.

So there isn't going to be a 100% uptime on CAS and armor support which is fine, some downtime is also fine and not having to worry about a friendly tank or clusterbomb is nice. However if you actively balance a mission around assets which do not have a 100% uptime there needs to be a balance. I have noticed the AI moving way more agressively and more hunting players down (expecially those who cause a problem, damn you Ryko for indirectly stopping my tank streak :P ), but there comes a point where the only viable strategy becomes just to employ russian zerg tactics and just throw bodies at the AO until it is over with. That isn't going to sit well with people and might make hill camping all the more attractive, just get a group on a hill with some gunning down infantry, others blowing armor to hell and the medics rezzing people whilst the AI keeps on pouring in.

Now this isn't easy to strike a balance with, but I do like to hear more about your thinking about this.

[Ryko]

I should add some more detail to help you out here.

 

The number of enemy assets present in a primary mission is generated according to the number of players on the server.  This is to address complaints that "the AO is over and I didn't even get there."  It is also balanced around the presence of excessive air assets (ie., Viper and Reaper are both in the air), where extra Tigris will spawn.  The number of units doesn't fluctuate in the AO if players join or leave the server, meaning an AO that spawns with 12 players will be much easier to complete when 20 more players join, and an AO that spawns with 32 players will be more difficult to complete when 20 players leave.

 

In addition, when players are in armored vehicles or combat air assets, there is are two separate scripts which occasionally spawn units to target them specifically.  This is a balancing measure to "fill in the gaps" from spawned units, and to provide challenge and threat to asset groups which might otherwise dominate an AO.  The rate at which these assets spawn is also related to the number of players online and difficulty settings provided in mission parameters.

 

So, when I say that the mission is balanced around the presence of armored and air units, that's what I mean; so if Gambler, Hitman, Reaper and Viper all lose their vehicles, there will be no additional assets that spawn to counter them.

 

9 minutes ago, Aegis_RVIR said:

the panther (which is horribly underpowered for its size)

The Panther is an APC, and people shouldn't be using it like a tank, which they are.  Then again, the same people tend to use a Hunter like a tank, so not much I can do there.

 

10 minutes ago, Aegis_RVIR said:

Now this isn't easy to strike a balance with, but I do like to hear more about your thinking about this.

The overall intention is to try and encourage more team play, but as you've pointed out, standard tactics of zerg rushing and hill camping still work, it's just a bit more difficult given I have intentionally created some scripting to counter these tactics.  The reasoning behind this is that inadvertently the players are exploiting the limitations of Arma by attacking targets from long distances; in a vanilla scenario, after a certain distance, enemy AI won't engage back.  Which makes it comparatively easy and boring to complete AOs with a standard attack of find a hill, and snipe the enemy from a distance.  Now, a couple of things will happen if the players try to do this:

 

1. Enemies will be alerted to the location of shots fired at them

2. Enemies on patrols that are closest to the identified targets will engage in search and destroy patterns to identified targets

3. Mortar groups will target players that are identified, and aren't moving

4. Enemy squad leaders will call in CAS on priority targets

5. Garrisoned enemies will leave garrison, so they won't just sit there and take it

 

There are additional assets in place to help players engage enemy missions: artillery, UAV strikes are reward-based, and obviously calling in player-controlled combat air support is another. If the players all decide to attack from the same direction, they're going to be met by enemies on the way; landing squads in different locations, for example, would be an excellent way to counter this.

 

After all, we're talking about an average of 20-30 players attack an objective that's filled with upwards of 100 enemies.  I'm not sure how players think they can run in there with a gun, a grenade and a first aid kit and emerge unscathed, except for the fact that they know Arma AI is a bit wonky.

[Aegis_RVIR]

10 hours ago, Ryko said:

The number of enemy assets present in a primary mission is generated according to the number of players on the server.  This is to address complaints that "the AO is over and I didn't even get there."  It is also balanced around the presence of excessive air assets (ie., Viper and Reaper are both in the air), where extra Tigris will spawn.  The number of units doesn't fluctuate in the AO if players join or leave the server, meaning an AO that spawns with 12 players will be much easier to complete when 20 more players join, and an AO that spawns with 32 players will be more difficult to complete when 20 players leave.

So, the AO is determined first of all by a "base" that is determined by overall playercount on the sever at the time that the new AO spawns, makes sense (although it creates one hell of a lag spike). About challenging Viper and Reaper with the tigriss, I see that vehicle go up in smoke within 1 minute of anyone arriving at the AO so I think there is some room for improvement there.

10 hours ago, Ryko said:

In addition, when players are in armored vehicles or combat air assets, there is are two separate scripts which occasionally spawn units to target them specifically.  This is a balancing measure to "fill in the gaps" from spawned units, and to provide challenge and threat to asset groups which might otherwise dominate an AO.  The rate at which these assets spawn is also related to the number of players online and difficulty settings provided in mission parameters.

The "base" is built upon as certain squads are filled to make it harder for one to steamroll the AO. Now, since I have the most experience in the armor roles, ill argue from their POV: One man army operating a tank is possible, but most of the time it is both more efficient and more enjoyable by having a dedicated gunner or even a dedicated commander in some cases. This is a crew of 2-3 which requires them to cooperate and listen to the people out on the field (dont want to find all the armor in the AO all of the sudden at your doorstep). The process stays relatively the same no matter if PM is online or not, but generally it is find hill, sit on hill, manoeuvre to evade incoming threats and take out any and all vehicles that we can see and are in range. Once that is done, we either pull back a bit to talk and crack some jokes or we go in if we see the inf struggling to make any ground. The point I am trying to make is that if you have a good crew together and you do your job well, the mission will spawn assets that are flat out custom tailored to take you down, you could call it flattery the AI calling in CAS or a gunship to take out a single tank, but I call it flat out annoying if you get smacked into the next plane of reality by something  you did not see coming nor you had a real chance of fighting back. Besides, if Hitman and Gambler ever were to be filled with people who talk and are willing to supplement each other, one will sit in the slammer and the other in a cheetah. I think we both know where that one is going.

10 hours ago, Ryko said:

The overall intention is to try and encourage more team play, but as you've pointed out, standard tactics of zerg rushing and hill camping still work...

 

10 hours ago, Ryko said:

After all, we're talking about an average of 20-30 players attack an objective that's filled with upwards of 100 enemies.  I'm not sure how players think they can run in there with a gun, a grenade and a first aid kit and emerge unscathed, except for the fact that they know Arma AI is a bit wonky.

It is more about making them run out of either bodies or bullets before we do :)

[Stanhope]

1 hour ago, Aegis_RVIR said:

(although it creates one hell of a lag spike)

It's the actual spawning of vehicles that causes that, not the determining how many there should be.  Also, it's way less of a spike than on I&A3

 

Some stuff related to the arsenal:

-Vortex spawns with ENVGs but they're taken away by the restriction script.

-6.5 tracers mags as well as 6.5 regular khaki mags are not showing up in the arsenal for the black MX. ("30Rnd_65x39_caseless_black_mag",
"30Rnd_65x39_caseless_mag", "30Rnd_65x39_caseless_khaki_mag", "30Rnd_65x39_caseless_mag_Tracer", "30Rnd_65x39_caseless_khaki_mag_Tracer",
"30Rnd_65x39_caseless_black_mag_Tracer", "100Rnd_65x39_caseless_mag", "100Rnd_65x39_caseless_khaki_mag", "100Rnd_65x39_caseless_black_mag",
"100Rnd_65x39_caseless_mag_Tracer", "100Rnd_65x39_caseless_khaki_mag_tracer", "100Rnd_65x39_caseless_black_mag_tracer")

-Tactical backpacks and bergens are not showing up in the arsenal ("B_TacticalPack_blk","B_TacticalPack_mcamo", "B_TacticalPack_oli", "B_TacticalPack_rgr" and "B_Bergen_mcamo_F", "B_Bergen_tna_F")