I&A 4 Beta Test Feedback

[Ryko]

Thanks Sentri, I have added fixes for all four of your notes.

For the new clear vehicle inventory action, you need to be in the driver's seat for that action to appear.

[Ryko]

Beta version 051 is online, and I hope to run a beta test tomorrow.

Changes:

051
---
1. Added 0.5 second cooldown to spotting mechanic to prevent misuse.
2. Blufor map tracking can now not be toggled on or off (previously coupled with toggling player name tags).
3. Enemy artillery / mortar smoke signals are returned to RED colour. Enemy units who have red smokes in their inventory now dynamically have those replaced with basic smoke. Blue smoke products now returned to player arsenal. Red smokes will dynamically change to green smokes in player loadouts, should they somehow exist.
4. Tweaked TK determination (players were getting TK notifications if they fragged themselves).
5. Fixed error where player attempts to paradrop into base, gets denied notification but loses the reward.
6. Tweak player group joining to fix cases where to Privates were marked as group leader. The first person to join a squad is the group leader, unless a higher-ranking role joins the squad.
7. Reduced enemy paratrooper reinforcement spam, was spawning 1 squad per 10 players, now spawns 1 squad per 20 players, maximum 3.
8. Default setting for enemy reinforcements is scaled to players (cap is 64 players, at that point it's almost 100% chance that enemies will be reinforced when their force in an AO drops below 50%). Previously the reinforcement check was made every 30 seconds, now it's made only one time. Should result in fewer enemy reinforcements.
9. Tweak to enemy counter attack secondary mission (previously didn't complete)
10. Added medical tent to main base.
11. Tweak to blufor tracking in attempt to solve issue of markers disappearing over time.
12. Tweaks to compass direction, especially for vehicle gunners.
13. AI Soldier has been removed for the time being as he was severely bugged.
14. Found and solved issue where inventory was spontaneously disappearing.
15. Tweak to compass UI: bearing direction is now pink (captive colour) when you are in base, and white when you are not in base. This affects things like whether you are targetable by enemy AI, whether items near you will be automatically removed from the cleanup script, etc.
16. First attempt at restoring purchased player rewards after disconnection / reconnection.
17. Set default weather to no rain.
18. Reward vehicles can now be locked in base, and have the default actions (repair, despawn, etc) and default inventory attached to them.
19. Added clear vehicle inventory function to vehicles - must be at service pad, action is available to the driver.
20. DRAGGING IS OFFLINE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE AS IT IS BEING VERY DIFFICULTY AND TEMPERAMENTAL
21. Normally, players may only purchase reward weapons inside the base zone. If they pick up an enemy weapon and they have the points for it, and the type of weapon is available to their role, they may purchase it in the field to remove the walking limitation.
22. Slashed prices on many reward vehicles.
23. Tweaked enemy reinforcements. Also added enemy armor reinforcements.

[Lindi]

Nice looking forward to the test!

[Walk'N]

I've got just 2 suggestions:

  1) Marksman should have access to MRCO without needing to buy it, it's just RCO but better (esthetic and working aspect)

  2) Marksman may have access to better optics than the MRCO. (I know marksman are part of a fireteam/squad but if they can spot EI from distance, they should be able to take them out from distance)

 

That's all

 

I love the fact that you can choose the loadout of flying objects...

[Ryko]

5 hours ago, Walk'N said:

1) Marksman should have access to MRCO without needing to buy it, it's just RCO but better (esthetic and working aspect)

Well technically the MRCO is the optic used by the AAF, and I'm trying to stick to the lore in this mission (it's also the default optic for AAF loadouts).  It's also only 200 reward points, so it's something to aspire towards.

 

5 hours ago, Walk'N said:

2) Marksman may have access to better optics than the MRCO. (I know marksman are part of a fireteam/squad but if they can spot EI from distance, they should be able to take them out from distance)

I believe the default optic of the Marksman is the MOS, which is a higher powered magnification scope compared to both the RCO and MRCO.

[TheScar]

late feedback,i apologize - i couldnt get myself in the mode,so i quickly checked today before "work"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

On 2/6/2019 at 1:33 AM, Ryko said:

7. Reduced enemy paratrooper reinforcement spam, was spawning 1 squad per 10 players, now spawns 1 squad per 20 players, maximum 3.

pls not make this permanent for every AO,í´d like to have this randomized or preferably for city AO´s

 

 

On 2/6/2019 at 1:33 AM, Ryko said:

17. Set default weather to no rain.

meh (in test phase i assume)

 

 

On 2/6/2019 at 1:33 AM, Ryko said:

19. Added clear vehicle inventory function to vehicles - must be at service pad, action is available to the driver.

great stuff

 

 

 

For a start,i´d like to enhance the AO perimeter equally to side missions perimeter.

Currently,AO will count points 50m off AO circle while side is currently at 200m (roughly estimated,not actually cared to range it out correctly)

On low player count the amount of enemy presence is way under my estimations comparing to I+A 3.

I finished the first AO in about 18min,the second in about 8min.

AO´s feel anticlimatic.

House combat not happening,as all AO forces are on patrol around the AO.

After finishing both of those AO´s i had roughly 2500 bonus points and i feel they r mostly useless as once you purchased your stock gear (inf) comfortable (mrco,AK12) there´s no need for those points anymore besides using em for paradrops to get anywhere quickly if you cba to drive.

I havnt looked into point distribution/action yet,but i assume its off any effort (inf kill =1 point,Sniper kill=2 points,Officer kill=5 points,MRAP kill=6 points,MBT kill= 10 points) but i need to digg myself deeper in that later.

Another thing i really want to happen is randomisation of AO´s to step up the effort for pilots (infiltration,exfil,logistic) and prevent chainkilling of certain roles/individuals.

I want distance between AO´s preferably a early make use of the full terrain offered.

Also,cut that spawn Fake10/BF - i´ve played several times facing both VIPER and RAVEN(?) being used to sit out far off and barrelshot shit while nearly no one was in AO.

I´m a big fan of the new way enemy AI engages - thats a major step up,good work there.

 

 

That being sad,i feel like this is more of a new mission with very few connection to the used I+A spirit.

It lacks goals to achieve to make people strive for AO quickly (radiotowers,HQ,caches) and therefor is more like a "pickup if you feel like it" or "why bother,i got better things to care on than searchign that big red empty zone".

The side missions feel cold too as the major motivation for people going after those is the possible reward they can turn in,which now isnt happening anymore (see above my point talk).

In general,the mission feels like more of a EU3 breed mindset than as my beloved war chaos on EU1.

I dislike.

 

I´ll end it here for now,i must head out - altho i m sure i missed out some minor stuff i was going to mention,but cannot remember now.

Don't get me wrong, I approve the work done, but (currently)  (to me) it somehow lacks the certain addiction factor that thrieves me to play continues.

Meh,later maybe more

 

 

additional content (replaying afternoon) :

 

• side mission "enemy UAV"  >> capture progress circle vanishes after 10sec,total capture process time 1min
• side mission "mobile Transmitter"  >> as i arrived i only found the truck @ mission,engine off and cold on thermals,no option to retrieve any data,destroying the truck failed the mission
• rejoining the server in the afternoon,i found massive fog all over the island,doable for inf and mobile units,but a pain for the air 

[Stanhope]

3 hours ago, TheScar said:

On low player count the amount of enemy presence is way under my estimations comparing to I+A 3.

For reference: the amount of units spawned by I&A 3 currently:

Spoiler

switch true do {
	case (_amountOfPlayers <= 10):{
		_MBTs = 1;
		_AAVics = 1;
		_IFVs = 1;
		_Cars = 1;
		_mainInf = 3;
		_AAinf = 1;
		_ATinf = 1;
		_recon = 1;
		_helis = 0;
		_jet = false;
	};
	case (_amountOfPlayers > 10 && _amountOfPlayers <= 20):{
		_MBTs = 1;
		_AAVics = (1 + round (random 1));
		_IFVs = (1 + round (random 1));
		_Cars = (1 + round (random 1));
		_mainInf = 5;
		_AAinf = 1;
		_ATinf = 1;
		_recon = 2;
		_helis = 0;
		_jet = false;
	};
	case (_amountOfPlayers > 20 && _amountOfPlayers <= 30):{
		_MBTs = 1;
		_AAVics = (1 + round (random 1));
		_IFVs = (1 + round (random 1));
		_Cars = (1 + round (random 2));
		_mainInf = 5;
		_AAinf = 2;
		_ATinf = 2;
		_recon = 1;
		_helis = 0;
		_jet = selectRandom[true, false, false];
	};
	case (_amountOfPlayers > 30 && _amountOfPlayers <= 40):{
		_MBTs = 1;
		_AAVics = 2;
		_IFVs = 2;
		_Cars = 3;
		_mainInf = 6;
		_AAinf = 2;
		_ATinf = 2;
		_recon = 2;
		_helis = 0;
		_jet = selectRandom[true, false, false];
	};
	case (_amountOfPlayers > 40 && _amountOfPlayers <= 50):{
		_MBTs = 1;
		_AAVics = (2 + round (random 1));
		_IFVs = (2 + round (random 1));
		_Cars = (3 + round (random 1));
		_mainInf = 7;
		_AAinf = 2;
		_ATinf = 2;
		_recon = 3;
		_helis = 1;
		_jet = selectRandom[true, false, false];
	};
	case (_amountOfPlayers > 50):{
		_MBTs = 2;
		_AAVics = (2 + round (random 2));
		_IFVs = (2 + round (random 2));
		_Cars = (3 + round (random 2));
		_mainInf = 8;
		_AAinf = 3;
		_ATinf = 3;
		_recon = 4;
		_helis = 1;
		_jet = selectRandom[true, false, false];
	};
};

 

 

[kman]

1) if you are AT soldier and run out of ammo, you cant properly use enemy RPG-ALAMUT - it says restricted weapon and you cant run with it.

I understands its opfor weapon, but AT specialist should not be punished from picking it up.

 

2) fog, fog, fog.. once it appears it seem to never lift (maybe after many real time hours?)

 

3) there is a CRV hanging around helicopter spawns, which pilots cannot move (as they are not tank crew). however I have seen pilot crashing quadbike into it, and it flipped (superior ARMA physic) onto one of the heli spawn points - and pilots cant move it..

Frankly, i see no point for the CRV to be there at all, if pilots cant move it

[Ryko]

9 hours ago, TheScar said:

pls not make this permanent for every AO,í´d like to have this randomized or preferably for city AO´s

I'm still tinkering with the balance, the note actually is a repair to the previous situation where there were around 8 paradrops guaranteed per AO, and they seemed to happen when the AO started rather than after 50% of the enemy force had been eliminated.  This brought a major lag to the server while those troops spawned, as well as general chaos.

 

The new program is that by default, there's no guarantee of enemy reinforcements; rather, it's a scaled chance that reinforcements appear based on the number of players (in a full server, it's almost 100%).  Reinforcements are chosen from ground (mechanized infantry coming in APCs or transports), air (paradrop from enemy air vehicles) or armor (multiple armor units moving into the AO zone).  Though in last testing it appeared only enemy air reinforcements were working reliably...

9 hours ago, TheScar said:

On 2/5/2019 at 7:33 PM, Ryko said:

17. Set default weather to no rain.

meh (in test phase i assume)

It'll probably stay this way in EU1, as most of the time when it rains or is in any way cloudy people ask zeus to make it sunny and clear.

9 hours ago, TheScar said:

i´d like to enhance the AO perimeter equally to side missions perimeter.

Currently,AO will count points 50m off AO circle while side is currently at 200m (roughly estimated,not actually cared to range it out correctly)

For main AOs, the red circle marks an area of 1000m radius; that's the exact distance of the zone wherein players will get credit for being in the engagement zone (if they're in the circle, they'll get points). This was increased from 800m. For the secondary objectives, the red circle marks an area of 500m radius, but the credit radius is still 1000m.

9 hours ago, TheScar said:

On low player count the amount of enemy presence is way under my estimations comparing to I+A 3.

I finished the first AO in about 18min,the second in about 8min.

AO´s feel anticlimatic.

House combat not happening,as all AO forces are on patrol around the AO.

I take your point, and I have heard it from other players - the AO's finish too quickly. I am still tweaking the numbers.

Balance is a tricky thing. If I populate the AO with too many enemy units, it makes it more of a challenge, but if it's too much of a challenge, the players give up and leave the server, making it more difficult for everyone else.  If it's too easy, the players complain (rightfully) that it's not much of a challenge, get lots of reward points and then go on a tear for each ensuing AO.

Part of the problem is that I add enemy infantry squads, rather than additional soldiers. With the scale-to-players option set, the current formula for an AO is:

* 1 enemy infantry squad per six connected players

* 1 enemy anti-air team per 3 enemy infantry squads (1 per 18 players)

* 1 enemy motorized unit (ie., armed Ifrit) per 3 enemy infantry squad, as anti-air

* 1 enemy APC unit per 10 players

* 1 enemy Tank unit per 13 players

There's also a rounding in effect for the APC and Tank that occasionally adds an additional one of those units.

 

This means that in a small-pop server (six players or less) you'll get: 1 regular inf squad, 1 anti-air team, 1 armed car, and a 60% chance of a APC, and a 60% chance of a Tank.  I do add additional units if the AO is a military strongpoint or an airport: 1 extra infantry squad, anti-air team, car and APC.

 

Every other infantry squad in a town area will garrison a building.  Obviously in 6 players or less, you will only get 1 infantry squad, so there are no garrisoned soldiers. My philosophy on these numbers is creating an enemy force that the players can reasonably handle, that doesn't bring the server to its knees. It's a tricky balance on multiple levels.  People have said that anti-air is too easy over the AO, so I might build in some code that populates a guaranteed Tigris (or more) if there are multiple Vortex, Viper and Reaper units online. The problem is if there is no appropriate support, a Tigris will make meat of regular infantry.

 

Adding 1-2 guaranteed infantry squads might increase the balance just enough to make the AO last longer.  Anyway, I welcome the thoughts here.

9 hours ago, TheScar said:

After finishing both of those AO´s i had roughly 2500 bonus points and i feel they r mostly useless as once you purchased your stock gear (inf) comfortable (mrco,AK12) there´s no need for those points anymore besides using em for paradrops to get anywhere quickly if you cba to drive.

Well, donate them to other players who need them. I'm not sure you're the best player to look at as an appropriate example of how points are accumulated, as I believe you start off the AO using a Titan to destroy vehicles, and those are (relatively) big points generators.

9 hours ago, TheScar said:

I havnt looked into point distribution/action yet,but i assume its off any effort (inf kill =1 point,Sniper kill=2 points,Officer kill=5 points,MRAP kill=6 points,MBT kill= 10 points)

Enemy infantry: 25 points

Tank: 300 points

Heli / Plane: 500 points

Other ground vehicle: 150 points

Main AO completion: 400 points (scales 25% per 30 seconds you're in the AO, so 100/200/300 or 400 points)

Secondary AO completion: 800 points (again, scales per 30 seconds)

Revive a player: 250 points

Heal a player with medkit / FAK: 150 points

9 hours ago, TheScar said:

Another thing i really want to happen is randomisation of AO´s to step up the effort for pilots (infiltration,exfil,logistic) and prevent chainkilling of certain roles/individuals.

I want distance between AO´s preferably a early make use of the full terrain offered.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by this?

9 hours ago, TheScar said:

That being sad,i feel like this is more of a new mission with very few connection to the used I+A spirit.

It lacks goals to achieve to make people strive for AO quickly (radiotowers,HQ,caches) and therefor is more like a "pickup if you feel like it" or "why bother,i got better things to care on than searchign that big red empty zone".

You raise an interesting point; there are actually subobjectives in the main AO, but they're not marked well. There is a random chance of a mortar team, and a random chance of a command and control center (and I have templates as well that aren't implemented for a vehicle repair centre and an ammo depot). I need to explore how BIS implements sub-tasks as I feel that would be the best way to showcase that.

Is that all that's missing from - as you put it - the used I+A spirit?

9 hours ago, TheScar said:

The side missions feel cold too as the major motivation for people going after those is the possible reward they can turn in,which now isnt happening anymore (see above my point talk).

The main motivation for moving away from reward vehicles to reward points was to solve the problem of people "stealing" reward vehicles. Reward vehicles were given to the team for completing a side mission, but then they are taken by players who didn't participate in the side mission, leading to hostility.

I'm open to additional motivation for people to participate in this or that mission, but I'm kind of hamstrung by this factor, as well as other factors. For example I would *love* to have an opportunity for the AI to perform an effective counter attack, but AI driving makes that a bit of a joke.

9 hours ago, TheScar said:

In general,the mission feels like more of a EU3 breed mindset than as my beloved war chaos on EU1.

I dislike.

I'm not sure how to respond to this unless you give me some more detail.

 

13 minutes ago, kman said:

1) if you are AT soldier and run out of ammo, you cant properly use enemy RPG-ALAMUT - it says restricted weapon and you cant run with it.

I understands its opfor weapon, but AT specialist should not be punished from picking it up.

Every player is "punished" for picking it up - it's restricted because it's an OPFOR weapon. In previous iterations, you would have been forced to drop it. Now you can use it in an emergency. In the latest revision, if you have the reward points, you can purchase it without being in base (actually, that might not be possible right now as I don't think launchers are included in the reward list - but they will definitely be in the next revision) - and this will remove the walking limitation.

13 minutes ago, kman said:

2) fog, fog, fog.. once it appears it seem to never lift (maybe after many real time hours?)

The intention is on EU1 on default settings there should be no fog. I think it starts off with fog 0 but then arma over time does its own thing. I'll build in a regular reset to 0.

13 minutes ago, kman said:

there is a CRV hanging around helicopter spawns, which pilots cannot move (as they are not tank crew). however I have seen pilot crashing quadbike into it, and it flipped (superior ARMA physic) onto one of the heli spawn points - and pilots cant move it..

I don't recall putting one in, but it might have been left over from testing something - if so, I'll remove it.

 

By the way, thanks to you both for your comments.

[ansin11]

9 hours ago, TheScar said:

That being sad,i feel like this is more of a new mission with very few connection to the used I+A spirit.

 

9 hours ago, TheScar said:

In general,the mission feels like more of a EU3 breed mindset than as my beloved war chaos on EU1.

I dislike.

This is exactly my opinion on the matter as well.
I really shouldn't be talking because I have never played I & A 4 further than the point at which I was first asked to select my role through an ingame custom menu. But what the hell.

 

The point is that with I & A 4 you've merged Invade & Annex with a (reward) point system somewhat similar to that of other Arma 3 gamemodes (e.g. Exile, Life, KotH) and elements from EU#3 and the result appears to me like something that cannot convey the I & A spirit and feeling that I am used to.

 

Over the years, Invade & Annex has developed its own sort of... culture, spirit, concept, way and character.

When I connect to EU#1, I'm looking for that experience exclusive to, well, the AhoyWorld EU#1 server. It's easily accessible to all players, with only lightly restricted freedom and (thus) ordered chaos. Arma is a huge sandbox and I & A preserves some of that sandbox even during the live mission, especially with Zeus.

 

Spoiler

 

• You are new to Arma 3? - No problem, you can play I & A with just the most basic knowledge.
• You are an Arma veteran? - I & A is a relaxed, large scale, dynamic, live sandbox for you. It even has its own meta to work with and optimize for.
• You want to be alone? - No problem. Just make your very own private group. Or stay out of groups altogether. You can even solo a vehicle if you want. Or a (side) mission. If you can.
• You want teamplay? - Entirely possible, you'll just have to find people who also want teamplay. That's probably the more difficult part on EU#1.
• You don't have a lot of time? - No problem, the I & A gameplay is not even split up into matches or rounds, join and leave as you please. And you can still play any role, gear or vehicle you like, you don't have to unlock it first. It just needs to be available.
• You want to experience some of Arma's possibilities? - Sure thing, you can fly aircraft, use tanks or provide fire support with an OPFOR sniper rifle. It's all there, on one server, in one mission.

These are just some very basic aspects, there are others. Let's use that annoying @ansin11 dude for illustration:

Ansin knows a lot about Arma 3, it's just that he's inherently bad at it. Well, no problem, on EU#1 he's not playing PvP and he can also just do his own thing. For example, he likes to fly in Arma. Since his skills are not abysmal enough to ruin the fun of other players, he qualifies for an EU#1 pilot slot. So the only limiting factors for him flying are wether he wants to fly or not and wether there's a free pilot slot or not. You might ask: "Why doesn't he just fly in the editor?" - Well because its quite boring. The environment doesn't change, the situation doesn't change, the AI doesn't care about you flying them somewhere and so on and so forth. EU#1 offers that unique experience where you can pretty much do what you want (with your aircraft) plus it also offers that interesting dynamic situation where you get shot dead by enemies if you make stupid decisions. This makes flying a whole lot less boring. EU#1 also offers passengers, making ansin's flying less pointless and more engaging. During the routine and easy parts of the flight he can chat with some of the regulars and witness people on EU#1 being... people on EU#1. Overall, quite entertaining.

Bonus feature: ansin can ragequit when he's had enough and nobody is going to care. No matchmaking ban. He doesn't even lose any XP. Nice.

 

 

On EU#1, you can do whatever you want. The only restrictions are the arsenal restrictions (to provide some basic form of sense and immersion) and the very loose rules designed to preserve that freedom to play any way you want to for all players equally.

 

Like I said, it's a big sandbox. You can crashland your helicopter and suddenly half the server joins forces for a rescue effort against the evil Zeus. Unlikely, but entirely possible. Or you can just blow the bird up and respawn. Which is technically against the rules, but in more than 90% of cases nobody is going to care. That is the amazing and unique potential I & A offers.

 

Something new, change and innovation are necessary and should not be stopped by people like me, but, in my opinion, some details of the I & A 4 concept seem more like proofs of concept, technical gimmick and showing what can be done. There sure are missions where all these things would be very cool, but as for Invade & Annex, I am afraid that these changes restrict the ease of access and the freedom I & A offers, even though they should actually only add to it.

 

That's why I am not happy with what's being developed here and why I don't want to support it.

[Lindi]

Question/Suggestion:

 

What are opinions on letting Viper fly transport while the attack choppers are offline?

 

[Ryko]

2 hours ago, ansin11 said:

I really shouldn't be talking because I have never played I & A 4 further than the point at which I was first asked to select my role through an ingame custom menu. But what the hell.

Indeed.

2 hours ago, ansin11 said:

The point is that with I & A 4 you've merged Invade & Annex with a (reward) point system somewhat similar to that of other Arma 3 gamemodes (e.g. Exile, Life, KotH) and elements from EU#3 and the result appears to me like something that cannot convey the I & A spirit and feeling that I am used to.

The whole point of the points system is to adjudicate the fact that reward vehicles got stolen by players who didn't participate in the mission they were rewarded from, leading to huge strife on the server. Yes, the reward vehicle is given to the "team" to use in the mission, but there is definitely a sense of propriety from players who participated in the successful mission that resulted in the reward. So much that it lead to team kills and hurt feelings. With reward points, you can buy whatever you want or feel is appropriate for the next phase of the mission.

 

It's not like players don't understand the idea of points, in fact, we are seeing some really amazing examples of teamwork where players share and pool points for specific uses.

2 hours ago, ansin11 said:

On EU#1, you can do whatever you want. The only restrictions are the arsenal restrictions (to provide some basic form of sense and immersion) and the very loose rules designed to preserve that freedom to play any way you want to for all players equally.

Let's examine how I&A4 is more restrictive than I&A3.  For me I think it would be the group/squad system, in that in 3 you run roughshod over the default groups and make your own squads through Bohemia's dynamic system. Meaning that there is no cohesion on which squads are doing what. While this flexibility does allow for more freedom to the player the downside is that newer players don't necessarily know how to fit in or what to do.  The system in 4 is indeed more structured, but offers all the same in-role flexibility (if not more) - and I believe the strong advantage in that if you want to do something else, you don't have to go back to the lobby to reconnect in a different role.

 

Feel free to add your examples.

 

2 hours ago, ansin11 said:

Like I said, it's a big sandbox. You can crashland your helicopter and suddenly half the server joins forces for a rescue effort against the evil Zeus. Unlikely, but entirely possible. Or you can just blow the bird up and respawn. Which is technically against the rules, but in more than 90% of cases nobody is going to care. That is the amazing and unique potential I & A offers.

The scenario you just described is in no way made any different in 4, than in would happen in 3.

2 hours ago, ansin11 said:

some details of the I & A 4 concept seem more like proofs of concept, technical gimmick and showing what can be done.

So... shouldn't do it then? Is that what you're saying?

2 hours ago, ansin11 said:

I am afraid that these changes restrict the ease of access and the freedom I & A offers, even though they should actually only add to it.

I am genuinely interested in examples that exemplify this.

 

I should add that the next version of 4 will include the capacity for players to make their own custom squads, which has been a requested feature on the list for some time. I just need to finalize the locking/unlocking and invite mechanics.

[Ryko]

1 hour ago, Lindi said:

Question/Suggestion:

 

What are opinions on letting Viper fly transport while the attack choppers are offline?

 

I'm on the fence, technically, would you make the same suggestion about Reaper? Now you've got 5 trans squads.

[Lindi]

You have a point, also 3 Vortex at the moment seem to be more than enough.

 

So maybe give Vipter the pawnee with the camera for co-pilot then, to give Viper something to do while the blackfoot spawns?

[Ryko]

Well the Pawnee is available to purchased by Viper for 5,000 reward points.   I figure that in addition to 3 Vortex units the players can fill in the gaps by themselves with paradrop.

 

I also considered yesterday when implementing vehicle paradrops that you could load a bunch of players in a HEMTT Transport and vehicular paradrop that into the AO, saving a gob of reward points on paradrops... but you do run the risk of the vehicle being blown out of the sky.

[ansin11]

Don't mind me, I was just trying to express how I feel about the situation. It doesn't necessarily make too much sense. It just doesn't feel and sound like the Invade & Annex I know anymore.

 

What I forgot to mention in my original post is that I really like that one can now play a different faction than just NATO everytime. The downside here of course is that the gear is restricted to the current faction, but I think that's an appropriate tradeoff.

[Ryko]

I think I get where you're coming from. My objective is not to remake invade and annex, otherwise, we could just keep going with ia3. There are various things that don't work with 3, and things that we've decided to go ahead with in 4 as technical advancements. My hope is that some of the new framework elements make an equally but differently enjoyable experience. If it strays too much away from the desired experience I am completely open to modifying the mission to accommodate people's desires - I don't have an ego to bruise. 

[JJ Cakes]

I'd just like to note that when I&A4 started beta testing, I wasn't totally on board.  Now that I've had a chance to play it more I'm always happy when 4 is running on EU#1 and prefer it to 3.

[Ryko]

There probably won't be a beta test this week as I'm a bit swamped IRL, and there are some new features coming into 52 based on player feedback.

 

Here's the change log for 052 thus far:

 

Spoiler

1. Ear plugs now properly reset to the desired state after death.
2. When in gunner optics in a vehicle, maximum spotting distance raised to 5,000m (could spot targets, but they wouldn't show as spotted in world/gunner view
3. Notifications tweaked for size (especially on reinforcement notifications).
4. Default color for name tags & names in player squad changed to green. It will be green despite the faction chosen (was: different shade of Blue/Red/Green for NATO/CSAT/AAF respectively). To recap: other players in your team show up with green tags.
5. Refinements to vehicle locking:
  5A. You can only lock one vehicle at a time: any vehicle you previously locked will be unlocked.
  5B. You must be the leader of your group, or the purchaser of the reward vehicle, to lock a vehicle. (Note that a group leader is different than a squad leader: the first person to join the squad is the group leader, by default)
  5C. You can lock a reward vehicle anywhere, but default spawned vehicles cannot be locked in base. Reward vehicles start locked to their purchaser, by default.
  5D. If a vehicle is left unattended for 5 minutes and there are no players within 400m of the vehicle, it will automatically be unlocked.
6. Laser Designator added to NATO/CSAT armor commanders.
7. Fixed ammo drop reward.
8. Added Vehicle paradrop reward. Cost scales with the weight of the vehicle to be paradropped (between 750 and 3,000 points).
9. First pass at custom squads.
10. Vehicle nudge action should also pop embedded vehicles out of the ground.
11. Added notification for when player is incapacitated or killed, with information about the side that incapacitated or killed the player.
12. Purchased reward weapons and gear are now automatically saved to the player's loadout.
13. Added vehicle ammo boxes for larger transport helicopters. These boxes can be loaded at service pads (all spawned helicopters automatically start with a box loaded). A loaded ammo box can be deployed in the field either when the helicopter is flying, or landed. The ammo box contains a collection of common ammunitition types for the player's faction. Parachute will automatically deploy at 300m or less.
14. Overhaul of main AO sub objectives, which now show up as sub tasks, and 10 main AO sub objectives are now available.
15. Reward points for unit kills are now modified by the skill level of the unit.

 

Point 14 deserves a bit more elaboration, based on TheScar's comment (Another thing i really want to happen is randomisation of AO´s). My initial thinking in IA4 was to remove the concept of priority objectives, but then I realized that doing this (while improving performance) does make each AO a bit of a "rinse and repeat" operation. Up until beta 051 there have actually been two random sub objectives, but they're not very well noticed. I have dramatically expanded on this concept, and now they are very much a thing, and they are randomized for each objective:

 

 

There are six types of main objective zones:

Airport and Stronghold - only five extra Airport zones exist on the whole map, as the players' base is one (and there 6 on Altis). Strongholds are military installations, of which there are only a handful on Altis. An airport or stronghold objective has a buffed up enemy presence, and will have a guarantee of two sub-objectives, and a 50% chance of a third.

Capital - large urban areas (there might only be one on Altis, but I haven't checked and it's not immediately google-able). Guarantee of one subobjective, a 50% chance of a second, and a 25% chance of a third.

City - urban area. 50% chance of a subobjective, 50% chance of a second subobjective, and 25% chance of a third.

Village - small urban area. Up to three subobjectives, but a 25% chance of each.

Industrial or Special areas - these are factories, big hill tops, and other areas of strategic importance. 33% chance of a subobjective, 33% chance of a second subobjective, and a 25% chance of a third subobjective.

 

What does all this mean? For some areas there will be at least 2 if not 3 subobjectives, and for some areas there will be none. There are a total of 10 different sub objective types which I'm not going to reveal just yet (obviously, from the screenshot, there are at least 3 - destroy an enemy mortar team, eliminate an elite squad, and destroy an enemy command & control center).

 

A sub objective adds 1-2 small squads, and/or a vehicle, and sometimes an objective that must be destroyed. It's not mandatory to complete the subobjectives: if you clear out a majority of the enemy presence in an AO, the main task will complete and close out the sub tasks. But since the troops added by the subobjectives are considered in the overall enemy presence, it's likely you'll be engaging the sub objectives.

 

Other noteworthy points: I've made a first pass at custom squads, where a player can create their own squads and add/remove roles as they like. Up to 8 roles can be assigned, but these exclude special roles such as pilots, armor operators, and sniper/spotters (custom squads are infantry squads). The first mandatory role is a Squad leader, you can add as many basic riflemen as you like, but after that you can only add one role from the other types (medic, autorifleman, rifleman AT, etc). You'll be able to lock a squad and invite other players to join. Squad names will be fixed (NATO phonetic names from Foxtrot to Romeo).

 

Next beta test will be next week, when 052 is ready, and probably after we're done the latest Steam Free Weekend for Arma

 

- Ryko

[TheScar]

On 2/8/2019 at 5:23 PM, Ryko said:

 

On 2/8/2019 at 7:31 AM, TheScar said:

Another thing i really want to happen is randomisation of AO´s to step up the effort for pilots (infiltration,exfil,logistic) and prevent chainkilling of certain roles/individuals.

I want distance between AO´s preferably a early make use of the full terrain offered.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by this?

 

My intention is to make use of the pilot rule properly - that means i expect my pilots to insert and exfil forces as it was back in early versions of Invade + Annex.

I luved the idea  of mass exfils with a full loaded Huron,marked by smoke and gathering 8-12 people on a spot (that includeded secured LZs in annexed AO´s at once.

Due to the lack of a maplist (AOlist,obj list,w/e) in a long time even before I+A 3 was released AO´s got spawned close/next to each other to cope the shite pilot point and make it convinient for people and avoid travel times.

This was clearly wrong !

Ever since that the role of pilots has decreased to a simple 1 way mule attitude.

Transport chains,supply RTB´s,exfil and reinserts has been mostly history since.

In order to revive that spirit i applaude a certain distance between new AO´s to conquer,for example why not take Lakka,then have Frini,then Stadium,then Pygros then ... you get my drift.

This requires the infantry to make use of the transport/supply concept and also stops AO campers (insert Sierra or any AT Rifleman with Hunter here) while keeping the pilots busy and not abusing the CAS over the transport part.

How is this not obvious ?

 

 

 

On 2/9/2019 at 3:42 AM, Ryko said:

There are various things that don't work with 3, and things that we've decided to go ahead with in 4 as technical advancements. My hope is that some of the new framework elements make an equally but differently enjoyable experience.

 

Yea,it def is different.

And yea,its enjoyable.

But it is off to previous I+A´s

no blame there,just stating a feeling here

 

 

 

On 2/9/2019 at 3:42 AM, Ryko said:

If it strays too much away from the desired experience I am completely open to modifying the mission to accommodate people's desires

 

Alrighty then.

 

 

 

9 hours ago, Ryko said:

There are six types of main objective zones:

Airport and Stronghold - only five extra Airport zones exist on the whole map, as the players' base is one (and there 6 on Altis). Strongholds are military installations, of which there are only a handful on Altis. An airport or stronghold objective has a buffed up enemy presence, and will have a guarantee of two sub-objectives, and a 50% chance of a third.

Capital - large urban areas (there might only be one on Altis, but I haven't checked and it's not immediately google-able). Guarantee of one subobjective, a 50% chance of a second, and a 25% chance of a third.

City - urban area. 50% chance of a subobjective, 50% chance of a second subobjective, and 25% chance of a third.

Village - small urban area. Up to three subobjectives, but a 25% chance of each.

Industrial or Special areas - these are factories, big hill tops, and other areas of strategic importance.

 

but there are no consequences added to them,right ?

It rarely does matter if you care on those objectives or you just clean the city janitor style ?

Wreck shit up,kill anything that moves,flatten area,job done,move on,amirite

In I+A2x and 3x radiotowers spawned enemy air,making air transport and ground movements alot tougher and once the radiotower was out you had a more chilled time on before mentioned things.

action > consequence sort of.

In 4 there s a high chance of continues air threat no matter what state or sort of AO is live or what obj is active in that current AO.

there´s no connection between actions and consequences anymore,at least not that i noticed.

That´s what bugs me alot,the lack of necessary strategic and tactical pre plan needed.

 

 

 

Last but not least,i appreciate the thougts.

[ansin11]

@Ryko according to Arma 3 lore, Kavala used to be the capital city until Colonel Akhanteros and the AAF took over in 2026 and made Pyrgos the new capital.

[Ryko]

Thanks for your feedback, both.

11 hours ago, TheScar said:

Due to the lack of a maplist (AOlist,obj list,w/e) in a long time even before I+A 3 was released AO´s got spawned close/next to each other to cope the shite pilot point and make it convinient for people and avoid travel times.

This was clearly wrong !

There are a number of factors at play here.  The first and foremost is that I&A is meant to accommodate drop-in, casual gameplay, and having to organize a huge exodus to get people to an AO on the other side of the map runs kind of contrary to that (hence, IA3 added unlocked FOBs, so players never had too far to go from a main base).  IA4 doesn't have unlockable FOBs, but the AOs are sequential so this strategy tries to mitigate these two competing interests.

 

It's possible to have a pre-planned and marked sequence of objectives, but there are a grab bag of issues inherent with doing that (player goes to the next AO, it spawns on top of them, being the first).

11 hours ago, TheScar said:

but there are no consequences added to them,right ?

It rarely does matter if you care on those objectives or you just clean the city janitor style ?

Actually there are some consequences, again, they were fairly buried and not immediately obvious.  The Command & Control sub ojective, if destroyed, pushes the timer on the OPFOR CAS significantly back.  Destroying a mortar team should be fairly obvious as they can ruin your day while they operate.

 

The other objectives I'm still fleshing out, but yes, the intention is that they do have an impact on current or future AOs.  But they're not mandatory to complete if the players don't want to, if they just want to go and shoot stuff up, they totally can.

11 hours ago, TheScar said:

That´s what bugs me alot,the lack of necessary strategic and tactical pre plan needed.

Well - this is also pub play we're talking about, from what I've seen you can plan all you want but you need a certain amount of cooperation and buy-in from the players to actually make it happen.

 

9 hours ago, ansin11 said:

Kavala used to be the capital city

Thanks - so that means there is at least one NameCityCapital, could be two.

[JJ Cakes]

OK, so if I get downed, the "Press Space to Respawn" keeps nagging me as I lay in state.  But if I respawn, and I'm back at base, once in awhile that nag keeps happening every few seconds with no way to make it go away except as far as I can tell to back out to the Abort screen and start over.

 

The first phase should be easy enough to replicate, the second phase I think you can replicate by murdering a player where they can't get revived by a medic and pressing Space before the hint happens.

 

Sorry that's not more helpful, but the best I got to debug this.

[Ryko]

No problem, I'm aware of that bug and am taking steps.

[TheScar]

Vehicle despawn timer / respawn timer

 

 

this is a picture of a side mission near Kavala engagement point i took ... quite a few times ...

First,this are all "stock" vehicles available on base that are free to use to everyone.

I started with the Hunter HMG,got send to incap by a T140K commander canon and returned using the Prowler,got incap´d again by the same T140K commander canon and returned in a HMTT truck and ... you may guessed it ... got incap´d again by the same same and returned in the med HMTT this time and ended that canon drama.

Now,what observations does this lead to?

For a start,there is a need to divide between respawn time (vehicle got destroyed and misson restricts respawn untill a certain time passed) and despawn time (vehicle despawns once no alive player is in <500m to its position and will respawn instant back on stock spawn place in base).

I do agree that despawn time can be abused for several reasons i dont need to digg deeper in it as it doesnt really has a mission effectin factor.

But as seen in my above example the time values are way off to be comfortable and it will def get worse with raising player count using the current values.

Also,the amount of enemies invovled in side missions should be a fixed one,not scaled to player count.

I had several sides that varied from 12 to 90 units (not counting the reinforcements) with up to 5 BTR´s,3 FriTs and some minor offroads on a HVT mission - that s just  tad to much considering this is a side mission not a full sized AO.

I m aware BETA isnt about tweaking finally,but consider employing a fixed amount of enemy force for certain side missions.

Side missions are quite dull too imo,compared to the challenging ones from before I+A´s (Secure Intel,Prototype tank,etc) (yet).

 

 

A thing i find to be a improvement is the notice telling you what got you killed,altho i assume its hard to catch

(as the message gets displayed quite short) and i assume it isnt working in all possible events (killed in chopper,mission time,etc.) is this :

 

 

 

 

 

I focused on side missions in the past 2 tests mostly as i cba to compete (and yea,this is the right word for it) in AO barrelshooting with Reaper,Viper and that UAVname,Hitman,Dodger,whatever in order to kill a handfiull of enemies that are barely a threat to our force.

For real,the times i see CAS pilots surfing the AO regulary without any massive risk against them is breathtaking.

 

I call the decicion to add stock vehicles to certain roles (A10,BF,Slammer,Greyhawks,Sentinel)  that respawn on the regular a bad one.

Everything is given to you in I+A 4 were you had to work for in previous I+A versions.

Nothing is precious anymore.

This is also another main division between I+A before and now - apart from the side mission change and the points over rewards - that really puts me off alot.

And no,it doesnt enhance cooperation alot,at least not that i got knowledge on.

It just leads to jet pilots doing CAS runs in AA jets with customized armanments and a free_to_shoot_everything attitude while i get shot by a jet on the other side of the map and no pilot cba to take it out ...

Raises 2 questions to me :

• how many AA specialists you saw playing in our ranks yet?
• with all the smart(er) AI now,i wonder why a 115mill $ jet is engaging single ground forces in a area way off the main action?
• (and why didnt our AA jet take care of it to begin with?)

 

 

I realise i got offtopic quite abit here ... but hey

And ofc there s good things in I+A 4 but icing the cake was never my thing.

I nodd gently if i approve/like something, i appreciate the work and effort taken to achieve this stage of mission.

But i m just better in pinpointing flaws and issues than i am good at pleasing other people s feelings.

That´s just the way i am.

Heads up,tho.