Ghost Recon: Island Thunder in Arma2

[DaiSan]

Played tonight with 6 people and I must say Lighty, I enjoyed it immensely. It is VERY reminicent of Island Thunder and forces you to play in a very different manner than Domination.

 

There are a few issues I will raise, some are surmountable, some are an ArmA game engine problem and have been an issue since the game was released.

 

From a mission standpoint we had problems with the Medic not having extra revives, is this correct?

 

Also on the first mission I had to manually set the active task to find the first package after completing the Farm objective. Also the mission ended suddenly after getting the "Secure the perimeter" message even though we were quite far from the LZ.

 

Apart from that it was very enjoyable mate.

 

Mission 2 was good, we only made it as far as securing both Outposts before our TL got taken out at long range by the camp and the mission was a failure. This brings me to the Game Engine problem.

 

Reducing the draw distance using fog etc definitely gives the game a GR feel and the map suits Island Thunder to a tee. BUT... The Enemy AI are not limited by either of these factors so the tall grass AND fog give the AI a real advantage when playing Co-op. As several people have already commented, in SP they felt they were along for the ride as it turned into more of a battle between the Friendly and Enemy AI with the PLAYER rarely seeing any targets. This is greatly multiplied when you have no Friendly AI and just human players, often you are pinned down with absolutely NO idea where the incoming fire is from due to either the grass obscuring your view or the enemy being in the fog.

 

I realise that this is a game engine issue and is going to be hard to balance, but one way might be to drop things like the RED DOT weapons etc and giving the players more suitable scopes and weapons. Nothing crazy is required like TWS etc as this will take the GR feel away but more ACOGs or the MK16 CQT type of thing.

 

All in all I hugely enjoyed it though mate and will be organising more nights to continue through the campaign. Great job.

[KalXen~SPARTA~]

One option for the Fog/grass balance issue via AI, you could change the AI's accuracy rating down quite a bit. That way they may have to close quarters with you as well.

[custard~SPARTA~]

Kit loadouts was good but please give all players more frags and smoke would help, altho frags are not as usefull as in GR with practice they do help when pinned. Good missions Lighty I'm well impressed mate.

[Watchman~SPARTA~]

I enjoyed tonight, 2 good missions with a good team. Dai's covered the problems and if they can be overcome the missions can only get better.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

I think it was great, but I was in a bad mood.

 

I will reinstall GR on this PC and play the original.

 

Increase the view distance and give us the option to reduce the terrain detail.

 

The AI do not have the view distance limitation, the rain acts like a mist but at least it affect both humans and AI.

 

Add more kit

[Lightspeed~SPARTA~]

thanx for the comments guys - glad you're enjoying but also really happy to hear the feedback so i can make important changes and improve the gametype.

 

i intend to produce the next GR campaign at some point so i want to continue to tweak it to improve the GR-feel.

[Forrester~SPARTA~]

I still got the problem with a file thats to short ebad.pbo.... Zeno helped me a while ago, but its still fooked. Anybody know hat to do???

[Lightspeed~SPARTA~]

just so you have an idea of what will change -

 

i will swap the FR out with Special Forces.

The helo will change to one of ADukes.

I will be using FastRoping on at least one mission.

Enemy numbers will be tweaked, as well as, probability of presence.

More weapons will be available during the insertion phase - about a minute or 2 while the chopper inserts fex to allow players to change several weapons - there will be a choice of 3 RPG styles, a few rifles, a couple of heavy machineguns, more smoke n frags, a few sniper rifles etc. This should mean the classes should still remain fairly in tact but you can still do some customisation.

Medic to be fixed - not giving multiple heals in MP from what i am hearing.

What else?

Oh yeh, general feeling in SP that you are along for the ride bcoz your AI spot the enemy b4 you see them bcoz AI see through grass. Similar problem in MP whereby you are getting sniped at by AI that you cant see through the grass. This is an engine limitation and may result in me removing grass completely which I tested and does not really reduce the immersion factor but does mean you can see them when they can see you - its a fair fight.

reduce fog.

reduce or remove grass.

fix up mission endings.

add new missions.

see about packing everything into 1 pack not all over the place.

 

More things to do but this is a list so far.

[Watchman~SPARTA~]

Lighty, on the Medic issue, I was able to perform multiple heals, when guys were hit but like everyone else, the Medic only had one revive. That's the problem.

[T_1]

Apologies for not making it along last night. Felt like S**t.

[Watchman~SPARTA~]

Apologies for not making it along last night. Felt like S**t.

 

See, I said it was T-1's fault we didn't finish! ;)

 

I'm up for another round mid-week, Wednesday at 20:00, who's up for that?

[IDAN]

Great job first mission it was a blast.

[DaiSan]

See, I said it was T-1's fault we didn't finish! ;)

 

I'm up for another round mid-week, Wednesday at 20:00, who's up for that?

 

Count me in mate

[Lightspeed~SPARTA~]

Lighty, on the Medic issue, I was able to perform multiple heals, when guys were hit but like everyone else, the Medic only had one revive. That's the problem.

 

hmmm interesting - so possibly i have the Medic on 1 heal and others on 8 - need to switch that round.

 

but actually, looking at changing the revive and also possilby switching to Ace 1.8 and using their revive and injury system.

[custard~SPARTA~]

hmmm interesting - so possibly i have the Medic on 1 heal and others on 8 - need to switch that round.

 

but actually, looking at changing the revive and also possilby switching to Ace 1.8 and using their revive and injury system.

 

If you make your missions ACE compatible you can have my next born.

[DaiSan]

Keep ACE out of it, your already asking people to use enough mods without adding more mate. I can feel GR slipping away.

[custard~SPARTA~]

Keep ACE out of it, your already asking people to use enough mods without adding more mate. I can feel GR slipping away.

 

 

Boooooooooooooooooooo

 

We will have to agree to disagree bud, I think ACE missions rock lol.

 

If any ACE stable version is used I will help ppl with the instal.

[Lightspeed~SPARTA~]

lol i can see issues with using ACE - 50% for 50% against.

 

someone just said to me in BIS forums - unless there are serious changes you want to implement by using ACE2 then why use it? food for thought.

[Watchman~SPARTA~]

hmmm interesting - so possibly i have the Medic on 1 heal and others on 8 - need to switch that round.

 

but actually, looking at changing the revive and also possilby switching to Ace 1.8 and using their revive and injury system.

Lighty, maybe a terminology thing but our problem related to bringing people back to life, using correct game terms reviving them.

We started with the assumption that the Medic had 8 revives but no one did. We all just had the single revive. As the Medic I could continually heal wounds but after my first revive that was it.

If by heal you mean revive, okay but no one had 8. Hope this helps?

[DaiSan]

lol i can see issues with using ACE - 50% for 50% against.

 

someone just said to me in BIS forums - unless there are serious changes you want to implement by using ACE2 then why use it? food for thought.

 

Exactly. I am not against ACE, if people want to use it then fine. But i see NOTHING in ACE that will help bring the GR experience to ArmA II. Seeing as this was your original remit then I just think you are setting yourself up for hassle by including it.

 

If you want to do ACE based missions then that would be great, but for GR then Arma II has more than enough weapons, options and bells and whistles.

 

Finally, all I will say mate is K.I.S.S

[Watchman~SPARTA~]

I agree with Dai, these missions don't need ACE. They are as close to OGR as this game engine will get you, if anything they already have more realism. Adding ACE will only detract from the fun.

For me, switch the red dots to ACOG's and give every one frags / smoke and that would be enough.

[Forrester~SPARTA~]

guys got arma II OA running,a anyone give me the PW for the server I'd like to play some

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

To play the missions you need lingor 1.1 and lingor units, to play on the public dom server you need combined ops (no password).

[Lightspeed~SPARTA~]

Lighty, maybe a terminology thing but our problem related to bringing people back to life, using correct game terms reviving them.

We started with the assumption that the Medic had 8 revives but no one did. We all just had the single revive. As the Medic I could continually heal wounds but after my first revive that was it.

If by heal you mean revive, okay but no one had 8. Hope this helps?

 

 

that helps a lot thanks - i will check it out and figure it out.

 

in terms of the ACE stuff - i am checking out some variations someone has done - big GR fans back in the day and they have made some tweaks which could be really good, as well as, some different weapons loadouts etc. if it looks good i may implement it but yes i agree with KISS.

 

in the end, i will find the best solution to create the best GR on this new engine.

Edited February 22, 2011 by Lightspeed~SPARTA~

[Forrester~SPARTA~]

To play the missions you need lingor 1.1 and lingor units, to play on the public dom server you need combined ops (no password).

I got in the public domination server yesterday, but lost track of controls etc. Might need to have a Sparta session to get me bavk on level.

Hoot showed up, still miss ya bro, sad I couldn't communicate well (don't know the key for in screen texting) Really look forward to gaming with you spartans again, friday nights still hold a special place....