The Fighting TTLGers present: Arma 3 (a TTLG Coop Saturdays spin-off) - by Thirith
Al_B on 4/7/2020 at 19:01
Good session - really enjoyed it. Probably the first time I noticed the AI being useful for healing and reviving - almost as good as Malf :) Sprinting to the villa in the second mission, holing and healing up before clearing out the rest of the map was particularly memorable. Always felt like we were on the edge, wounded and low on ammo but able to stumble on to the end.
Thirith on 4/7/2020 at 21:26
Yeah, I enjoyed it too. Even when it was gruelling, it still felt like we had a chance. It helps that there was a clear ebb and flow to the battle: our progress in between the compounds, our death crawl towards the villa, taking stock and bracing ourselves for the return, it didn't feel like just one-note carnage. And it definitely helps if the AI do their share and revive fallen comrades. But yes, they're no match for the mighty Malf! :D
Thirith on 5/7/2020 at 08:35
Okay, I'm in the process of adding the last couple of mods that I'd suggest for our sessions. I will add them all to the (
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=877349651) TTLG coop collection today or tomorrow, so if you're subscribed they should download automatically.
Please note that you will still need to activate them in the Arma launcher. They include a couple of maps and required add-ons, a faction mod (to keep our enemies more varied) and some AI and quality-of-life mods, namely:
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CUP Terrains - Maps 2.0 (483.6 MB): The CUP team is working on updating the old maps and bringing them up to Arma 3 quality.
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LYTHIUM (1434.8 MB): Gorgeous Afghanistan-style map.
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Roche, Germany (977.1 MB): Great German map with forests, villages and towns.
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Virolahti - Valtatie 7 (560.6 MB): Great Finnish map with forests, rivers, lakes and settlements.
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Project OPFOR (1706.9 MB): Adds various enemy factions.
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Jbad (1910.7 MB): Collection of buildings, needed for LYTHIUM.
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MBG Buldings 3 (80.6 MB): Collection of buildings from Arma 2, needed for some mods.
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LAMBS_Suppression (0.1 MB): Mod that tweaks the AI's reaction to suppressive fire, making it a more effective tactic against AI.
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LAMBS_Danger.fsm (0.7 MB): Mod that tweaks AI units so their behaviour is more varied, interesting and intelligent (without turning them into killing machines).
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FHQ_GroupInfo (0.3 MB): Mod that allows for better group management (e.g. leaving groups, taking squad lead).
You can also check out the
optional mods that I'm using in the collection (
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2154094306)
TTLG coop collection: optional add-ons. None of these are required, but IMO they add something to the game:
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DynaSound 2 (830.7 MB): A sound modification that redoes all weapon and many vehicle sounds.
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Enhanced Soundscape (102.5 MB): A sound modification that improves reverb in-game.
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MRB Voice Stop (0.5 MB): Disables the AI radio protocols. Puts an end to the constant chatter.
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Weedkiller for Altis, Stratis and Malden (0.2 MB): Reduces the ground clutter that gets in your way when you're crawling.
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Helicopter Dust Efx Mod (0.7 MB): Increases the helicopter downwash effect. Warning: May create unwanted cover for assassination targets...
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Enhanced Missile Smoke + Lighting Efx Mod v1.4 (0.3 MB): What it says in the mod name.
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Immerse (0.1 MB): Adds some subtle camera shake and twitching when there are weapon fire or explosions nearby.
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Align (0.1 MB): Adds some subtle animation to sights when taking aim; feels less stiff but doesn't actually affect your aim.
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CH View Distance (0.1 MB): On dedicated servers, the view distance seems to be turned down massively. This mod lets you set the view distance however you like client-side, allowing for different settings on foot, in vehicles and when flying.
Finally, when's the next session going to happen?
Quote:
The next Arma 3 coop session:
Date: Sat, 18 July 2020
Time: 3-6pm UK timeAs always, I'll be online a bit before 3pm to set up the server and check who's online.
And that's it for now! Let me know if you have any questions.
Thirith on 9/7/2020 at 08:06
A quick P.S., since I added a mod to the list of optional mods, namely CH View Distance.
I'd been a bit confused and frustrated by the view distance in our online games, since I'd set the server view distance to a relatively moderate four or five kilometres, yet whenever we'd hop into a helicopter it seemed like the world vanished into fog barely 1500 metres away from us. I've since found out that regardless of server settings, missions can set the view distance and many coop missions set it very low. While I understand why they do this (performance), it's still annoying when you play a mission that was made four, five years ago and in the meantime most PCs would be able to handle seeing a bit further. Which also makes a difference to my sense of immersion: Arma works best for me when I can see that there's a whole world out there, when the mountains in the distance don't all vanish into the fog.
CH View Distance helps with this. It overrides server and mission settings, added to which you can have different settings for terrain distance, object distance and terrain detail depending on whether you're on foot, in a vehicle or in a plane or helicopter. When flying, you can easily set your view distance to several kilometres while lowering the terrain detail quite a bit, so your framerate doesn't slow down too much. And it's relatively easy to play around with on the fly (no pun intended). Arma 3's performance is still a bit hit and miss, in particular with some map mods, but surprisingly you can often raise view distances by a fair bit without much of an impact on performance. For anyone who's been looking at Arma in coop and thinking that the terrain barely looks all that much better than Operation Flashpoint, tweaking the view distance beyond the maximum set by the server or the mission can help wonders. I'm very curious to see what a difference this makes next time I record a coop session.
Thirith on 18/7/2020 at 16:28
Thanks to henke (for the first hour or so), Malf, Dema and Al_B for a fun session! Well, I say "fun"... The first mission (Raiders, Takistan, some light compound clearing) started well enough - until I took out Al with a stray shot and he didn't get to respawn. Once we restarted the mission, we did well enough clearing the first compound, but at the second compound we were all taken out by grenades. We then moved on to Combat Den on Chernarus 2020, but first it bugged out when we all got into the transport chopper willy nilly, then it presented us with a nighttime meat grinder, and that's just not all that much fun.
The last mission, TRGM2 on the newly added Virolahti map, was much more fun, though, and pretty mellow. We took out an enemy officer, rescued a downed pilot and defused a bomb! Not too difficult, but after the murder and mayhem of the previous mission that was just what the medic ordered.
I'll try to put together a video of the session and will post it ASAP. Also, I should be able to run another session in two weeks, but I'll confirm in a few days.
Edit: And here's a snippet of Al's ignoble death, shot in the back by the one man he should've been able to trust: his team leader.
[video=youtube;5WE3zWrLp5w]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WE3zWrLp5w[/video]
Al_B on 18/7/2020 at 18:04
:) Definitely not a good idea to run in front of you at that moment - I don't think you can much of the blame for that one! Last mission was definitely the most enjoyable of the session even if it had you try to murder me again for coming in through a door unexpectedly. Perhaps there's a pattern after all...
Thirith on 19/7/2020 at 17:05
I did stop shooting you after the first burst, mind you, whereas you did the only sensible thing and well nigh emptied a magazine in my direction. Good thing Malf was around to bring me back from the brink of death! :p
And here's the video I made of yesterday's Finnish mission:
[video=youtube;CvvlcHfsgGc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvvlcHfsgGc[/video]
I was wondering in general: I've got a fair few missions that are likely to be well designed but they don't have respawn. How does the gang feel about playing these? Are you okay with them as long as they're not too long, so anyone who dies for good wouldn't have to hang around and watch the others make a pig's ear of it for two hours? Would you rather we only played missions that had respawn? Or are such missions okay under specific circumstances, e.g. the last mission of a session could be one without respawn, so people who die can decide whether to hang around or bow out?
Jeshibu on 19/7/2020 at 17:10
Personally, the first warning of enemies I have is often bullets whizzing by. I think we might have to rethink our play style in missions with no respawn, and they'd better be on the short side.
henke on 19/7/2020 at 18:02
Aww man I missed a Finland mission? Good video, Thirith. :thumb:
Thirith on 19/7/2020 at 18:15
Thanks! Does it look Finnish at all? We'll definitely return there when you're there - it's a nice map with a distinctly different feel from, say, Chernarus.
Quote Posted by Jeshibu
Personally, the first warning of enemies I have is often bullets whizzing by. I think we might have to rethink our play style in missions with no respawn, and they'd better be on the short side.
You're right, we tend to be pretty gung-ho. I wouldn't mind trying the occasional more dangerous mission and a more systematic approach, though as you say, ideally we'd do so with short missions to begin with. It's a bit annoying that I can't always tell if a mission is long or short if I play it on my own, because if you play a coop mission alone, it almost always ends the instant the one player dies. But I have a couple of missions that I suspect are on the shorter side, so we could prioritise those.