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Offline NightJay0044

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Making Missiosn these days
« on: 14 Mar 2010, 02:05:42 »
Every since Bohemia's first release in 2001 until now 2010, the mission making has changed. I don't know why but it is not hard but not easy for me to create missions anymore.

Here is why:
I'm getting tired of the same old move in, blow em up and escape routine. I look at missions bohemia makes and it makes me wish I can make them like that.

Part of the reason why maybe I dont' make any missions any more is because my editing skills are lacking. I haven't made a mission for awhile last one was for OFP.

It is also because OFP had such good background to it, meaning General Guba and the soviet army verses the special forces and the U.S. Army and armstrong.


I don't really want to create OFP missions just Arma2 Missions for now. It was so easy to create OFP missions, I could just come up with a theme and say "Guba has built a shilka base, move in and destroy these." but it was so easy with that because of it's background.

It's like with ArmA2 it serves no background and meaning for me, it's all about insurgency and such and razor team moving in with the soviets. Unless someone can fill me in a on ideas for Arma2, it's jjust the meaning and background is what really gets me to not make missions.

thanks.
Who's hyped for Arma4, long live Arma!

Offline haroon1992

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Re: Making Missiosn these days
« Reply #1 on: 14 Mar 2010, 11:13:51 »
Yes, Guba and the US SpecOps..its a great background to make missions.

ArmA 2 has also many backgrounds,you know.
You can create a CutScene where the people in a village is living a peaceful life, and they have cow farms and chicken yards, and other things.
And suddenly something changed,the insurgents have attacked the villaged and killed many of them (only the player and a few other survived),the purpose of the insurgents maybe to make the village as  a stronghold or to rob the villagers or to warn the gourvernment that they need something or to kidnap the villagers and ask money to the officials..

Well,that's just one example.there are many many more possibilities in ArmA 2 you know.Although I don't like the way soldiers transit animations and the shooting,I love the Environment,the atmosphere that ArmA 2 have is nothing like any other games.

If you are out of idea and wants to create a mission,contact SavedByGrace,he's a good mission maker and his ideas are unique.
Regards,
Haroon1992
Very busy with life, business, and other stuff. Away from OFP for months. Not sure if I could get back onto it. :(

Offline savedbygrace

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Re: Making Missiosn these days
« Reply #2 on: 14 Mar 2010, 15:14:45 »
Thanks for the compliment Haroon, although I don't feel worthy. I have released only one mission before but have hundreds of attempts that never met my final quality standards and so they got scrapped. But through it all, I have enjoyed myself and the ability to learn my way through the editor and game. I still may never produce something that others enjoy but atleast I am having fun trying. I have no fear borrowing ideas from other mission authors to use in my own stuff(with proper credits of course) and so our missions do not have to be entirely original to be fun. Afterall, Fun is what it is all about. Not complexity or originality.

Its true that the landscape has changed as well as the mission making process(to an extent). But then, folks are always submitting new models and islands for use to the community and so the landscape does not have to be the same nor the story. Some try and recreate scenarios that they see in movies and some politics while others just follow the standard mission ops platform.

You can not compete with the resources that the BIS team has at their disposal so don't let that fact discourage you from making missions. I have often thought the same as you when pondering mission objectives. It seems that they have all been done before. But something to remember is that even in reality, those military operations have been done before time and again. The difference being that each occurance presented the operation commanders with new terrain and new enemy fighting styles to adapt those tactics to.

Ask yourself this, How many times have you seen OFP,ARMA,ARMA2 missions that are similar but in different areas, be fun to play?

Pick a mission type, then pick a location(whether that is a standard island or an addon) then try and build that mission type into the location using the terrain to the enemies point advantage. Put yourself in the seat of the enemy commanders and construct your base/defenses that would best ward off assaults. Try and think of every possible tactic that would overcome your defense and then implement countermeasures. Then leave it to the players to find the weaknesses. When they do, and they will, you will then have another tactic to consider defense against when you build your next mssion.

As a mission editor, you can not properly test your own mission. Because you already know all of the secrets. But others will not know those secrets and so something that seems ordinary to you may not be so to others.

Arma2 beta boards are being flooded with all kinds of missions which can cause your project to become lost in the boards and under appreciated. Don't get caught up in competition. Do it because you enjoy it and don't worry about if its been done before.

Some last words of encouragement? Don't let the awesome mission editing skills of others get you down. I have seen some truly simple missions from new editors but enjoyed them just as much for their simplicity and ability to allow me to just play something new. In the end, we're all in this addiction together, we don't mind helping you hash out details. Just ask.
« Last Edit: 14 Mar 2010, 15:19:31 by savedbygrace »

Offline NightJay0044

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Re: Making Missiosn these days
« Reply #3 on: 14 Mar 2010, 16:09:07 »
haroon1992 ~
hanks for the ideas too, since you said something about peaceful villiagers and stuff and insurgents coming in gives me ideas. I've already had the idea of having a mission where the preist is the objective now.  Insurgents vs villagers and insurgents vs CDF forces are just examples that can come to mind now. yeah the way arma2 engines and such can be laid out is great...thanks Haroon..

Savedbygrace~
Lots of good points you pointed out. new models and such are helping me be improved, like the panthera island and Isla Duala. Another one is to be in the production seat of the enemy commander. See his 3D Viewpoint of the operation/mission at hand, would he really allow this, that or these things happen? Then I think you will be more creative in your efforts.

Sometimes you may try to make missions to easy on your part these days that the enemy has not a lot of control over their plot on what they're going to do. Your right about BIS, they do have a lot of resources at their hands , which would make it hard for someone to be as good as they are. Although I say even the most experienced mission maker could probably come pretty close to the efforts.

I usually try to get off ideas from the games "Delta Force blackhawk down, ghost recon and other similiar PC games, also movies is a good avenue too. SOmetimes I just get so wrapped up in the movie how it is, it is almost impossible to create is like it is in the movie as it is in the game. TO duplicate a scenario from a movie to the in-game engine requires a lot of detail to attention and good editing skills to make it sufficience.

I've tried to see others compliment movies in their efforts, but sorry nothing has really come close to what it really is. The only thing that I have come close to see it being somewhat realistic is the movie "Rambo 2" I saw an author actually make that from Mapfact i think, he made it for OFP,it was pretty good. Beleive me it is possible to make any mission you want, you just got to have the skills/resources to do it.

Although like you said try not to get the skills and resources to hold you back from creating good missions. But it is nice to create a really good mission you'll love and other will love too. But yes you can create simplistic missions that are of the same type but yet be different in your own way.

It's just like writing books, novels etc, so many of the same idea but different ways of doing it. Thank for the advice and details guys...I know I wnat to create an Arma2 mission so that's what I'm going to do..
Who's hyped for Arma4, long live Arma!

Offline mathias_eichinger

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Re: Making Missiosn these days
« Reply #4 on: 14 Mar 2010, 18:47:01 »
Hey NightJay,

SavedByGrace and haroon have done both excellent posts. I just want to remind you of the addons that are out there. There is the Project '85 mod to be found at armaholic.com that features both cold war US and Soviet Armies, plus the Germans if you go for a "real WWIII" scenario. Or you can just add the Everon Island to that list and create OFP missions with that.

Or why not assume that all the OFP events take place 20 years later (the Russian forces are still formidable) and pick you favourite US army addon while still having that OFP background that many players are still familiar with?
I also believe that a different environment and different addons create a different feel for the mission. Imagine you are an Afrenian soldier, about to liberate a village on Isla Duala where you have never been.... instead of liberating Novy Sobor as USMC grunt again. 

Offline Zipper5

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Re: Making Missiosn these days
« Reply #5 on: 14 Mar 2010, 19:00:18 »
I'm currently enjoying creating an "atmospheric" forest fight for my WIP campaign. One thing I absolutely love about ArmA II is that the vegetation is, for the most part, incredibly convincing, and helps create an awesome atmosphere when some fog and color correction is applied, plus changing the time of day and weather. The AI also use them much, much better now. Makes for one really intense experience, and something that, nowadays, I find lost in OFP. But back in the early 2000s, the forest fights I played were the shit. That feeling has just moved on to ArmA II now.

I would say that making a good mission in ArmA II has indeed turned out to be more difficult than it was in OFP. Expectations seem much higher, and creating something unique is hard to do after 9 years of using the game engine and almost everything has been done before. What I've found works for me is to do what I want, regardless of if it's been done before. Granted that's meant a shitpod of unfinished missions that will never see the light of day, but I had fun making them to a point.

Offline Lone~Wolf

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Re: Making Missiosn these days
« Reply #6 on: 15 Mar 2010, 17:34:17 »
Y'know, what I always REALLY liked about OFP was how I never felt constrained by it, like I do with ArmA II and OFP2. I learned to edit by making standard campaigns of one-side-shoots-another-etc until my ideas started getting more and more lateral. Now I enjoy the freedom of 3 yrs OFP experience to take ideas never tried before and bring them to completion. My ideas focus mostly on that which deviates most from normal OFP gameplay (see attatchments below  ;) )

Anyway, please, make my day and don't be put off by the transparent constraints of plot and concept that the original game embodied (N.B. I greatly appreciate the original ideas of OFP, its just that they seem to recur in other people's ideas too much!).

Remember, this is OFPEC and in the true spirit, feel free to request any files relating to concepts that I have made.  :D  None of them use any addons at all except Resistance OFP.

These include (but are not restricted to):

- A variety of zombies ranging from those that throw people into buildings, to those that crawl and leap at people (check out ma first uploaded mission in the beta testing section of OFPEC)

- Superpowers (Shoop da woop, teleport, force push/pull, throwing giant rocks (needs ED_102 addon), etc.)

- Hovertanks and VTOL jets.

Good Luck,
  Lone-Wolf   :cool2:
Snarling creature, lurking in the background, still writing in .sqs

Offline NightJay0044

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Re: Making Missiosn these days
« Reply #7 on: 20 Mar 2010, 16:23:33 »
Quote
Y'know, what I always REALLY liked about OFP was how I never felt constrained by it, like I do with ArmA II and OFP2

LoneWolf~
This is what I'm talking about I always feel constrained by ArmAII, not really by ArmAI but I dont' have that game anymore but ArmAII i feel like there's nothing. I can so easily create missiosn for OFP I think I'm just going suck it up and stick with that because I can't find any motivation to create anything for ArmaII.. :clap:
Who's hyped for Arma4, long live Arma!