ARMA III Public servers

[=VG= Loz]

Does anybody remember when we first hosted ARMA III public servers? We had three servers that were highly populated, at least two of the three servers were full at peak times. Two of the servers were vanilla loaded with Domination and a basic Insurgency themed mission, the third server was a private community event server with ACRE. There has been many a discussion about generating more interest in our ARMA III public servers, I have a few suggestions and wish to hear peoples opinions and ultimately make this happen as a community.

After consideration I believe hosting a vanilla server with a few simple mission files (Patrol Ops? Domination?) and a modded server in the same vein as the current alive servers and certainly ACE when it becomes available. The majority of ARMA III players actively searching for a public multiplayer server will have no interest in downloading mods to play on a sparsely populated server, however if we promote a vanilla server (i.e we play and maintain it) we will likely have a larger player base willing to try something new.

I can see a bright future for ARMA III on Veterans Gaming, it will require us working together to achieve our goals. Making the most of technically capable (and willing) members, creative minds and eager players. None of us have the means to make this possible on our own, especially me (I can barely tie my own shoelaces) Which is why we are part of this great community.

Lets make something happen! Please share your own thoughts on this subject.

[=VG= SavageCDN (Inactive Duty)]

Thanks for posting this Loz I've been thinking about this as well. I would have no problems with having one vanilla and one modded server (like we do for A2 now).

So what do we run on this server?

[=VG= SemlerPDX]

That is a great idea. There are a number of decent vanilla missions for A3 so far, but which ones would lend themselves to a persistent server like Insurgency does for A2? Does A3 have Insurgency yet? Sounds like we need a list and some tests...

[=VG= Loz]

There are plenty of ARMA III 'insurgency' missions out there, but all of them are missing vital parts of what we call insurgency, most of them are just clearing red squares. PITN has been working on an exact replica of ARMA II insurgency for ARMA III (not sure how far done it is), Vetala has also worked on making a suitable Insurgency mission with some help from Ciro, unfortunately they hit a wall with it. We have had a few good ideas about how to update Insurgency for ARMA III but we're lacking know-how. If you could post suitable missions for consideration that would be wonderful, I'll have a look and see what I can find too.

[reV]

i played http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=23671 yesterday with some friends....
this seems to be a good public mission, dynamic tasks and some nice scripts inside...

what do you think about servers with smaller missions like escape (it will be co10 soon)?

and i dont think i need to say this but even if the server dont require mods it should support the typically client mods (jsrs, sthud, blastcore...)

[=VG= Loz]

Yeah client mods are a big yes reV, it would be nice to have a mission rotation and therefor smaller missions are ideal. This evening a few of us are going to test Patrol Ops for issues and things we would like to change. We don't have a set time yet but everyone is obviously most welcome, if you're interested drop into the TS.

[=VG= Gaz]

If your trying to build a bigger fan base wouldn't adding smaller missions be counter productive?

[Vetala]

You can use smaller missions to get populated and when these missions get near capacity you move on to missions that can have more players.

Some of us will be testing a patrol ops tomorrow to find out what we want to edit, anyone is welcome and hopefully we can have a fully working mission to =VG= standards.

[whiztler]

If it is just increasing your fanbase (numbers) you want then I reckon you put up one of the many RPG type gameplay missions such as Life, Wasteland, Whole Lotta Altis, etc.

Patrol Ops is probably the best mission for domination-type gameplay. Although it seems to slow down the server after a while (not sure if 86 fixed this in the latest version)

[=VG= Loz]

This isn't just about increasing our player-base, we want a server that we enjoy playing on that offers what Veterans Gaming is good at, if all we wanted was a large number of people playing we would just put a DayZ server up, or wasteland as Whiztler pointed out. The fact is most of our players don't enjoy this style of gameplay, we should aim to avoid becoming a clone of the hoards of full servers. Patrol Ops is looking promising and will be tested this evening (GMT). Keep the comments and suggestions flowing!

If we host it, they will come...

[=VG= SavageCDN (Inactive Duty)]

PO would be great but I think it sort of requires an admin-type person to be on the server (at least based on what PO for A2 was).. let's check it out but there may be better mission types for a purely public server (Domi, Insurgency, etc).

[Vetala]

I'm currently editing PO to remove the whole admin assigning roles to players and reduced it to five squads of 6 men consisting of TL, Medic, AT, MG, Grenadier and Explosives Expert. I've also made some other changes that Loz and I will be testing later on tonight to see what we think.

[Jager]

Patrol Ops is a pretty cool game mode, as it stands less than 10 servers run it.
It is also possible to do a "reboot" of the mission after a set amount of tasks has been completed.

[=VG= Loz]

That's encouraging Jager, it looks like we've found the right mission at least for now. I've still not had chance to test it but from what I hear it seems like the edited version is almost ready to use. We're still up for suggestions and can add missions to a rotation if necessary. Thanks guys let's keep the ball rolling!

[=VG= SavageCDN (Inactive Duty)]

I converted the port 2402 server to vanilla (it runs CBA, ASR_AI and MCC server-side) and set it up with the 3 'stock' Patrol Ops missions, and another random mission I found on the workshop. Anything else you want up there just let me know... or Loz do you want access to TCAdmin to stop/start the server and add missions?

[=VG= Loz]

Hey Savage that's wonderful news, TCAdmin would be very helpful for this. I'll hop on the server now, thanks for taking the time to do this mate. I'll make a more in depth post when I've had time to try it out and have a think.

[Jager]

So my findings so far after a couple of days of game play..

-Air patrols are evil.
-A simple task of transporting a radio antenna or supplies is not a simple task.
-A long running server is a unhappy server (AI will cease spawning and leave you a lot of hostile assets to use with no one to use them against)
-Markers for missions like destroy xxxx or clear mine field from location xxxx works in a radius of about 800 meters.

First task ( of the evening, server had been running for a few days ): Transport supplies roughly 10km north east
-> enter convoy mode, we load up with a hunter in front, truck follows, another hunter brings up a the rear and the last hunter roams along the convoy.

1.5km from base we run into contacts which we engage on the move with support from a AH-9.
The next 5km we engage patrols that pop up as we go along, make it to our designated safe town and clear the town while our truck hangs back with one of the hunters.

A sneaky Ifrit disables out lead hunter and our teams divides between the remaining hunters.
The last km is carefully traversed in low speed while scanning the road ahead for mines.

As we enter the town hostiles are already waiting and a fire fight ensues in close quarters, casualties are taken which gives the medics something to do.
The rear hunter engages in a game of "who-can-live-the-longest-under-gmg-fire" with a Ifrit, no one wins.

In the meanwhile our transport out of this area is navigating the hostile zones we've covered and picks up a few Kajman tails ( 5 in total ) they annihilate the Ghost hawk and soon turn their attention to ground forces, someone manages to unload the supplies from the truck or it simply is unloaded when the truck is hit.
Either way task complete, shortly after our ground forces are destroyed by the join venture of 5 Kajmans ( Hence, air patrols are evil ) Our Friendly AI controlled AH-99 is easily shot down by hostile forces or he was drinking on the job.

Next task: Destroy an enemy arty pos

Worried about our previous Air contact we man a AA tank and head off towards the ao and engage one Kajman on the way, No fucks where given and the Kajman keeps it's eastern bound patrol after popping flares while we keep heading south east.

Upon arriving in the AO ground forces has arrived in hunters and report in roughly 20 art pieces with T-100's, BTR-k's, Marid's and Ifrit's roaming the land.
A very long mission indeed but still no Kajman to worry about, still ground troops manage to scratch a lot of paint off the AA tank so we park it in a safe location.
10 minutes later a wild Kajman appears and starts engaging everything in visual range, casualties are taken but one of the ground forces is able to take the Kajman out as it circles low to drop off a fireteam.

Bullets, explosions, mayham and an uneasy extraction is made after all the arty pieces are destroyed.
Some of the vehicles and static weapons were not in use by opfor.


Next task: Remove a minefield
Nixxen joins in the fray and finds a bounding mine aaaand disables it with his face, a lot of time is wasted trying to find these mines going by the description that the task gave us.

It's not till much later that we expand our search radius to cover a nearby town that we actually find the remaining mines.
The first two mines being roughly 100m away from the marker, the rest almost 400m away so the only good intel we got from the task description was that the mines would be found on roads "nearby" the designated complex.

While we were clearing the minefield no enemies were spotted.

Next task: Capture a opfor general

My team halo drops into the zone and progress towards the target, no active contacts encountered, some nervous looking opfor officer is rounded up after some chasing and team lead welcomes him into the squad.

Officer is dropped off by the base, not a single shot fired.

Next task: Defend outpost

Again, being rather skeptical about enemy presence I halo drop into the AO alone and encounter a small Opfor recon team, the remaining forces arrive just shortly after to put an end to the remaining forces in the area.

The next 10 minutes are spent firing at empty vehicles that spawn in the area ( being islands a click or two off the coast of the objective ).
Decide to restart the mission and it works again, ai is being spawned in.

Overall I'd say there is still some issues to be figured out in terms of where AI spawn because if your in a coastal area the task can easily bug.
If your inland the task seems to be able to spawn the correct units.

Battlegroup Xtra is testing a restart after 12 tasks has been completed, 3 is no problem but depending on the tasks it might not even last an hour so 12 should be enough for at least two decent sessions.

[=VG= SavageCDN (Inactive Duty)]

Thanks for the great writeup Jager.

Anyone tried this mission before?

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?147768-SP-MP-Dynamic-Whole-Map-ArmA3-Missions-by-SaOk

[whiztler]

The Whole Lotta series is the pref mission on the official BIS test servers. The missions themselves are very stable. SaOK is quite active re keeping them up to date. There are several versions (no of slots).
They are fun. Mix of side missions and RPG elements.

[=VG= Loz]

Thanks for the writeup Jager! Really useful stuff there, I've experienced both underwhelming tasks and damn right outrageous ones, we'll have to organise a few more testing sessions to replay some of these missions. If anyone can give input on the way the pilot slots should be set up that would be great. The current idea is to have 3 pilot slots, only pilots can fly and all pilots must be on TS, a possible UID fly list could also be implemented. Thanks to everyone, as soon as slots and a shortlist of missions has been established we should open the server to the public.

[=VG= Wooz2770]

maybe a lock/unlock vehicle function for admins, and all high tier aircraft and arty vehicles start locked? (if there are any)

[Vetala]

After running some tests, I have found a nice camo for any mission we want to play on arma 3...




EDIT: Fuck image tags and the like. :)
EDIT x2: After some playing with colours, decided to play with textures and with some help from Liquid we made these...





[EDIT 3: fixed sizes/ratios -Sem]

[=VG= SavageCDN (Inactive Duty)]

Very sexay that will go well with my new helmet accessories.

Did you guys actually create the textures for the vehicles or were those in-game already?

[Vetala]

The second, third and fourth images are all flecktarn with the wrong image encoding using the setobjecttexture command, and the last one is flecktarn with the right image encoding.

Then the ridiculous suggestions came...

[=VG= SavageCDN (Inactive Duty)]

lol can I get a pony too?