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[SP] Up to No Good

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h-:
Author: h-
Version: 1.45

Required Addons:
None.
Although Marksman DLC owners get some DLC specific stuff (new ghilies, new sniper rifle), but not required..

Mission Description:
"We have a target to go after, codename Ouranos. We will proceed to one of the OPs to observe Oreokastro, find the target and take him out using a precision artillery strike.
It is imperative that we stay hidden until the arty shells hit. If our positions are compromised we will be in trouble.
Which we will be anyway once the target is down.."

Features:

* Your main target is in randomly chosen building (chosen from 3 possible)
* All enemy patrols outside the main target town are randomized (use no pre-set waypoints)
* A lot of the other enemy presence is heavily randomized
* Some AI specific behaviours enhanced (not too artificially, just hightening the engine's own features)
* Absolutely awesome robot-speech spoken dialogue..  ::) New since 1.2:
   
* Fatigue modded to have a 'adrenaline boost' -> When fatigued enough to slow down and unable to sprint you press down alt or ctrl and forward movement and you will get boost of fatigue 0 (kept for a 10-20 secs).
Note that each time you use this the wait time for being able to use and the how long the fatigue is kept at 0 is affected and eventually you will not get the boost anymore.
The 'activated' boost is indicated by a fast heartbeat. When the heartbeat ends the boost is over and you return to normal fatigue accumulation with some initial fatigue (which is also accumulated by how many times you use the boost).
It takes a couple of minutes to be able to boost again, and this wait time also gets longer the more times you use it.
Very close known enemy targets make the 'keep fatigue 0' time longer and give you less initial fatigue after boost is over.
Stranger gets this same boost with you just make him keep up better..
* Enemy choppers fastrope/land Spec Ops out to hunt/track you (they will find you if stay still too long)
* If you have the Marksmen DLC you have a assault rifle in your (weirdly BIS designed invisible) backpack (only for the DLC users because otherwise you already get a AR rifle of sort). Note that when you select it you drop your long gun so don't forget it.. ;)
The way this works is that when you open the inventory and drag the AR from your backpack to the primary slot the previous primary weapon is dropped on the ground (as usual). You get a marker on your map pointing to it which disappears only after you pick up the weapon. When you drag the AR back to the backpack if you are at picking distance of your rifle it gets picked up automatically. So the ideal way to change back to your rifle is to go within picking distance of it, open inventory and drag the AR back to the backpack.
Also, if you drop your backpack you get the same marker on it.
Obviously this also adds to your fatigue due to added weight.
* ..
DOWNLOAD (v1.45)
DOWNLOAD REMOVED, AWAITING A NEW VERSION.

ChangeLog:
Version 1.45:
- Fixed: code for "player hunting" was completely clusterf'd.. Should actually work now..
- Fixed: Some minor clusterf'd stuff in the random patrol stuff..
- Fixed: modded fatigue was hindered by nearby known enemies instead of the opposite it should've done (I really suck at this coding stuff...) :facepalm:


Version 1.41:
- Fixed: two scripting bugs..

[spoiler=previous versions]
Version 1.4:
- Fixed: couple of debug hints removed
- Fixed: secondary primary weapon stuff had doubled eventhandlers on the first use..
- Fixed: minor bug in the patrolling chopper 'player detection' code
- Fixed: minor logic/design flaws in some functions/scripts
- fast roping/landing choppers should no longer have all lights on when doing so..

Version 1.3:
- Fixed: Taking secondary primary weapon from backpack didn't get it's attachments linked automatically
- Fixed: Waypoint to dropped backpack or rifle didn't show up due to some really weird stuff going on with the game -> removed. You only get a marker on the map instead.
- Fixed: dumb bug causing ambient flyby script to fail and error.
- Fixed: minor errors in some task descriptions.
- Fixed: a very weird massive bug where all the intro content had copy/pasted itself about 100 times over causing the game run at about 0.01 FPS when trying to view it...
- Fixed: one silly debug hint..
- Added: You have to bury Stranger if he dies.

Version 1.2:
- Fixed even more (hopefully): idle groups after target down..
- Fixed: custom knowsAbout 'eventhandler' given for enemy AI wasn't functioning properly.
- Fixed: rain made patrolling chopper see the better the more it rained :facepalm: :D
- Added the version number to the mission name
- Rain is handled by the game engine randomly (full overcast, rain on auto, overcast clears towards the end)
- AI infantry vision should be more affected by rain, provided they're looking through a NVG device. Vehicles excluded because it may make them drive even worse than 'vanilla', if that's even possible.. There's not much that can be done via scripting though, AI's spotting distance and time to recognise target, as well as skill to acquire target, are hampered by rain via a script now.
- Exfil changed to choosable by the player (out of two possible)
- Spotting Ouranos is no longer automatic, you have to actually spot him (right-click right-click right-click...).
- Ouranos is clearly visible in target building window now so you can go one shot-one kill on him if you dare. Note that if you miss your shot he gets spooked (as he hears the bullet impact/sonic crack) and escapes the town..
- Time of the mission changed to 'oh dark thirty'
- If you have the Marksmen DLC you have a assault rifle in your (weirdly BIS designed invisible) backpack. See details in feature list.
- patrolling chopper now drops spec ops to hunt you: 50-50 chance of either landing them on ground or fastroping them. If a pre-set landing spot is too far from player the chopper will fly to near player's position and fastrope the sepc ops down.
- patrolling chopper covers much larger area now.
- Another chopper comes to fastrope more spec-ops on your tail (Heli DLC owners get the DLC chopper, others get vanilla stuff)..
- Fatigue modded to have 'adrenaline boost', see features list for details.
- Seems that the Nightstalker optics have zeroing now (dunno if intentional or not so it may change yet) so briefing edited to reflect this and the task related changes. Sniping now super easy..

Version 1.1:
- Fixed: Idle enemy groups after target down (they do stop to their waypoints for random times though)
- Fixed: Some minor timing things on some conversation
- Fixed: Patrolling enemy chopper damage resistant... :facepalm:
- 'Herder' removed as obsolete...
- Enemy roaming random patrols now home in their random patrol waypoints towards known/suspected enemy. The higher the knowsAbout the tighter the homing-in..
- Patrolling enemy chopper made more spottery
- Above mentioned chopper may get a UAV patrol as a company (more randomness, 35% change)..

Version 1.0: init[/spoiler]



This was meant to be a first mission of a sniper/sabotage campaign (something like 5 missions long) which I never really got off the ground. The mission was made back in the day A3 was still in Alpha phase but the release of the Marksmen DLC rekindled my interest in this thing. The mission I mean, pretty sure the campaign will not happen..
This is my first publicly released mission in like a decade so be gentle.. :P

Should probably mention that if you're a rivet counting fanatic this mission is not meant to be some epitome of realism..

If you for some reason want to use some scripts/functions/code from this mission file structure, ask first (mainly because I have not written them to be used anywhere else so for example MP compatability is nil, also they may not be bug free, they're not commented/some headers are outdated..).
You are not in any circumstance allowed to upload this mission or any part of it (original or modified) to Steam Workshop or any other hosting site.[/list][/list][/list]

savedbygrace:
Cool, I've been browsing the steam workshop for missions and it is darn difficult to find good stealth missions.I'm thinking about running another mec for stealth missions. I'll offer the DLC bundle as the prize and I'll be the judge. I'll test this one tomorrow evening.

EDIT: Played this one through. Short and sweet for sure. The toughest part was crawling back to exfil. Those robot voices were awesome. I couldn't understand why a herdsman was out in the pouring rain with no light, trying to watch livestock he couldn't see  :dunno: I attempted exfil twice in two different directions. The first time, I stuck to the trenches and ended up running into a patrol. My second attempt, I just crawled like the worm that I was, all the way to exfil. Passed within 100 meters of a full patrol standing in v formation and not actively searching for anything.
Good work h-.

h-:
Thanks.


--- Quote ---I couldn't understand why a herdsman was out in the pouring rain with no light
--- End quote ---
???
He should have a lit fire next to him..

Would be interesting so hear more details as to which OP you used etc. :)

You talk about the herdsman, I guess you went to OP1 which is the easiest (and oddly the 'randomness' seems to favor 1).
The mission however is built so that only one of the target buildings can be seen from OP1 and the rest from 2 and reaching and then exfilling from 2 should be a bit harder.


--- Quote ---Passed within 100 meters of a full patrol standing in v formation and not actively searching for anything.
--- End quote ---
Probably some of my scripting bugging out somewhere, will look into that..

EDIT:

--- Quote ---Those robot voices were awesome.
--- End quote ---
And it took huge effort to make them work as BIS_fnc_kbTell is not too clever (doesn't handle mixed-group conversations properly or if one of the "conversators" has died prior to/dies during a conversation)..

EDIT2:
Well oops  :P

No wonder you spotted an idle group, all enemy groups change to "guard" wp once the arty hits so they stay still unless the chopper that comes about spots you and dispatches the groups on you..
No wonder the mission turned to way too easy at the end; I lowered the chopper's spotting capabilities as it was just insane before (scripted, not engine, a bit introquet thing which the end-user doesn't even notice*) thus no idle groups because once the chopper flew about within 400 meters of you you were revealed a bit to everybody making the chopper come closer and once it flew over you it was pandemonium..

*There is a few minor things in there I really don't wanna list unless you really wanna know. The mission should have replayability due to the randomness. At least two due to the random target location.


Anyhoo, a fix is on the way. If I just wasn't so utterly bored of playing this mission for the 1 853rd time...
If I could just decide whether I should make the chopper a bit more 'spottery' or not..  :hmmm:



Also, got all excited about mission making so already realizing the plan I had for one other mission for the intended-but-now-abandoned sniper campaign. It should maybe be a bit more snipery..
So more of this Ghost & Stranger pair might come up.

EDIT3:
Absolutely love this, just your one test led me to find a huge bug in what is basically one of the corner stones of the whole mission, the random patrol stuff..  :clap:

It actually was completely broken limiting the patrols into a 200 meter radius of where the group starts in mission init.. And the whole thing has been broken since I wrote it in Arma1 (except it wasn't .fsm back then)  :D :D  :facepalm:
So yeah, a bigger fix inbound...

savedbygrace:
I gotta say..."Bring it bitch!" I'd love to see more of these two guys. I might have to volunteer my smart ass voices if you'd like? I can do at least 2 that sound somewhat different. Make one black and I could infuse some off color remarks and/or comments between them as well. Its quite comical how 2 guys of different races can throw in off the wall conversation bits just to fill the downtime.

Anyways, I didn't bother going into my usual beta test rant because I wasn't sure if you wanted to do anything further with it. Here goes...

Played with Vanilla Arma3 on veteran(I think; I'll have to check that).
[spoiler=Play Test Detail Spoiler]
At the start, I measured the distance to each OP and compared to the towns distance. If the town was closer, I was going to chance infiltrating it alone, find the targets base and mark it before getting far enough away to call in the arty. It was close between Op1 and the town and so I chose the town. After closing the distance, I decided that Op1 was the safer bet since it was not within the nest(so to speak). I planned on also withdrawing and Checking Op2 if I couldn't decide on a solid target.

Once the decision was made, I decided to stay put at start and observe the patrolling APC to discover its route. I would mark all of its stopping points and times on the map before moving in. It climbed the hill and circled around to OP1 where it stopped. It didn't move again and I recall the comment on the forecast and so decided to take my chances, thinking that avoiding it would be easy if we crossed paths in the urban setting. That of course changed when I altered my first way point to OP1.

I reached the gully at the base of the hill and that's when I altered my way point, followed it up the hillside toward OP1 and crawled when I reached the open field. The herdsman did indeed have a fire going BUT, With the NVG's, the light was so magnified that it lit up the whole hillside and when I removed my night vision to check how dark it truly was, I couldn't believe he would be out on a hillside away from the paddock, in the rain and not have very good vision to lookout out for flock predators(just my sincere opinion, don't remove him if you like him there, he does not affect the mission, to be honest.)

While crawling the field toward OP1, I decided not to go to the actual Observation point, my feeling was that even if there was one or two units standing guard, it was too dangerous to endanger the actual mission. So, I instead crawled to the bushes at the top of the hill across the road from the point. This gave me a decent view of the town without having to cross the road.(I planned on circling toward OP2 if I didn't spot the target and would occasionally glass the town on the way anyhow). Before I could reach the bushes, the APC moved off somewhere else but I didn't worry over it since it was moving away.

My damn spotter wouldn't shut about all the patrols he was spotting and it became annoying, but I endured and absorbed the distances he was calling out with them to ensure none were within 100 meters of our pos. That was actually helpful. I carefully scanned the town, and noted one building where there was a set of two guards at the front door. Not desiring to fail for an assumption, I keep carefully scanning. Before I could make a thorough observation of the town and it's surroundings, I get the call with more Intel. Before the call, I could have sworn that the actual target house had no guards positioned outside. I compared the target house with the first house that I suspected was the target and decided that the first target house guards looked more natural, whereas the second target house were using forceful animations to make them look at ease. That's when I figured you "might" have just set-posed them there after the Intel. But regardless, I laze the roof and call in the order. After the splash, I begin my crawl toward exfil.

The damn Arma3 fatigue system sucks horrible ass. I follow the gully along the base of the hill and rather than cross the open field with a circling helo, I decide rather to follow the gully around the hill toward the smallest gap where wooded areas are separated. That's when I was engaged by enemy and was KIA. I think the helo had spotted our low crouch beneath the lite wooded canopy down hill after the field. Because I did notice his circling patterns getting tighter and moving with us.

I reload from the manual save game before the splash down and this time, crawl the entirety of the exfil. It was slow but the pay off was worth it. Rather than follow the gully into the waiting arms of what may have been there again, I decide to cross on the outer firelight of the herdsman's retreat, which brought me over the hill and within 100 meters of the Guarding patrol.

My next play through, I decided to mark the target house on the map, and then withdraw far enough out of the AO to a safer zone before lazing the target and calling it in. Just so you know. That will probably change since the AO will change.

If I am right about the targets house(setposing the guards after the Intel), Have you tried having patrols circle the house only, perhaps move them to those balcony spots and back out again? Just a thought.

Regarding the Helo aggressiveness, What if you allowed it to be aggressive but only have them spot the player if he is within 200 meters and the player is not prone? It IS very easy to spot targets from above especially with night vision at night. If the unit is prone and not moving, it becomes a guessing game rather than a sure thing. It would also force the player to rethink his route and movement stance and speed while those hawk eyes are close. If he doesn't, he is being downright careless and deserves to be hunted.
[/spoiler]

h-:

--- Quote ---My damn spotter wouldn't shut about all the patrols he was spotting and it became annoying,
--- End quote ---
I guess that's because he has the range finder or whatever and the AI still likes to constantly scan it's surroundings with any kind of binoc if it has one..


--- Quote ---The damn Arma3 fatigue system sucks horrible ass.
--- End quote ---
Really don't see any problem with it anymore, other than it's really annoying as it affects the AI too and it can't counter it as good as a human player can, which is why I had to write a counter measure for that so that the mission wouldn't be about waiting your buddy to catch up with you due to being overtly fatigued (he still does but he recovers faster)..

Keeping your weapon lowered lessens the fatigue accumulation for example.
IMO it's too harsh when crawling though.


--- Quote ---If I am right about the targets house(setposing the guards after the Intel),
--- End quote ---
Your not, they're there from the beginning of the mission, and the target building visible to the OP1 is very clearly guarded by standing sentries. The other two building locations aren't that obvious at all.
But the detection process is automatic so basically you don't even have to know yourself if you are looking at the correct building as if you point it long enough the detection conversation kicks in.


--- Quote ---perhaps move them to those balcony spots and back out again?
--- End quote ---
It's a bit hard to get the AI to navigate inside buildings.
Besides, the target person is in the top floor so they don't wanna disturb him :P


--- Quote ---Regarding the Helo aggressiveness
--- End quote ---
It actually uses a system that makes the chopper scripted spotting only happen within 400 meters of the player (or his buddy, both are treated separate) and the distance from to chopper to target, target's stance, location (in forest or not), is the target in a roofed building or not, how much it rains, does the chopper actually have a LOS to the target are all counted in (opted out in the movement speed for some reason though, maybe should put that in too).
All of that is factored in a knowsAbout multiplier that is then used to reveal the target to the chopper.

It then feeds this information to all enemy groups, I actually wrote a system there that I can fully control the AI's knowsAbout, as in I can reset it to 0 or set and keep it as anything I like.
There how ever is a 'forget target' also in place but that shouldn't kick in if the chopper knows enough about the target. Of course it can be bugging out too :P

But, I'll raise that knowsAbout multiplier stuff for the next version, see what happens then..


--- Quote ---I decided not to go to the actual Observation point, my feeling was that even if there was one or two units standing guard, it was too dangerous to endanger the actual mission.
--- End quote ---
You can kill some of the enemies, you just have to do it fast enough for them not to spot you. Once they for example fire at you have a few second window to kill them or the whole place knows exactly where you are.

Back in the day I was planning on writing up a system which would wait a few minutes after a group was killed and dispatch someone to come and start looking for the missing patrol and if it was found things would go like they do after the arty hits. Because someone should probably care why there was gun fire but nothing reported..
Maybe I just should put that in too while I'm at it (see, this is why I never get mission finished because the features just keep piling up :D ).


--- Quote ---I might have to volunteer my smart ass voices if you'd like?
--- End quote ---
Not a bad idea, I'm personally really annoyed by the voice I chose for the player as he talks too slow :D
But that sound was like the only one that didn't have that much issues pronouncing words..

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