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New Mission: Flank Guard


MBot

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After a good 20 or so hours of work (I almost can't believe it) I finally managed to complete my first Black Shark Mission: Flank Guard

 

http://cid-f33d8b1019e6f4ac.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/FlankGuard.miz

 

Alternate: http://www.virtual-jabog32.de/index.php?section=downloads&subcat=64&file=1005

 

 

Some features:

-Large scenario of roughly battalion vs. company sized forces.

-Detailed and (hopefully) realistic ground operations. Recon units will remain covert until under fire, then return fire and disengage. Some tanks will fight from hull down positions, then retreat under terrain cover to their next battle position, maximizing their effectiveness. Artillery will provide fire missions.

-Radio communication of ground forces (copyright by Microprose's Gunship!)

-80 Triggers

-Some light randomization. The mission can be won or lost regardless of player input, but player actions highly affect the chances of a certain outcome.

 

 

Here is the mission briefing:

 

 

attachment.php?attachmentid=22989&stc=1&d=1230418300

 

 

attachment.php?attachmentid=22990&stc=1&d=1230418317

 

 

Your squadron of the 45th Helicopter Regiment has been deployed to support the operations of the 14th Tank Regiment, 4th Guards Tank Division. You are currently based at FARP Torba, 15km behind the forward lines of the Rgt.

 

This morning the 14th Tank Rgt. has taken the villages Gurijskaya and Tverskaya after heavy fighting with screening cavalry units of the 3rd US Armoured Division. We managed to establish positions along phase line (PL) WOLF west of the river Gojtkh.

 

Later this morning the Rgt. will resume their push to the west. The 1st Tank Batallion (callsign STONE 6), reinforced with elements of the 1st Motorized Rifle Battalion, will execute the operation against the village of Imeretinskaya (objective HAMMER). STONE 6 units will depart PL WOLF along two axis of advance once all participating elements are in position. The southern axis will take the village objective SHIELD, then procede to secure PL FOX in concert with the northern axis. Once PL FOX is secured, second echolon elements will cross PL FOX and assault objective HAMMER. The operation will end once objective HAMMER is secured. Because of limited recon, all units are to remain east of PL DOG. The operation is expected to last for about 25 minutes.

 

A battery of 152mm artillery (callsign SLEDGE) as been allocated to support the operation.

 

1 to 2 cavalry troops of the 3rd US AD are expected to be present on our OA. Enemy forces are likely to conduct a mobile defense and delaying actions against our advance.

 

 

Your mission is to lead a pair of Ka-50 to guard the northern flank of STONE 6 during their operation. Your primary goals as flank guard are:

 

-Recon approaches into the flank of the main force.

-Destroy or drive away hostile recon units and prevent them from commanding artillery strikes and reinforcements.

-Prevent enemy advances into the flank of the main force.

 

The ground operation starts once you cross PL WOLF. You are to guard the area between PL WOLF and PL FOX while staying north of PL HOUND. Once STONE 6 units cross PL FOX and begin their assault on objective HAMMER, you are to shift your attention to the west of PL FOX and cover the northern approach to objective HAMMER. Because of IFF and fire deconfliction you are to remain east of PL FOX at all times. In order to not interfere with operations of other Regiments, your are not allowed to cross PLs of the Rgt.

 

You are expected to encounter M3 Bradley and M1 Abrams armored cavalry units. Be aware that hostile forces might be hiding and holding fire in order to avoid dedection and generaly try to disengage when under fire. Cavalry units will try to hold contact with our main force in order to command artillery strikes and reinforcements. Carefully observe your OA and persue to destroy enemy forces in order to keep your flank secure.

 

The 3rd US AD is covered by Hawk SAM, so remain below 100m AGL. Expect Stinger MANPAD among enemy concentrations.

 

 

Some comments:

 

The mission is designed to be played with trees enabled. I understand that trees provide no cover and are "fly through". Still, trees and especially forests provide a important division of the battlefield and provide cover for ground forces against the players sensors. Visual reconnaissance is a important aspect of this mission. For the best fun, it is also recommended to fly as if the trees would be solid.

 

For me the wingman was quite useless. He can't fly NOE enough and eats Hawk SAMs quite often and is unable to attack inactive units, which a lot of the recon units initially are. I still left a wingman in for atmosphere. Perhaps someone with more experience in wingman control gets better results.

 

The mission is quite unit heavy, so some people might get fps problems. On my machine it is playable on maximum settings.

 

Because of the nature of the mission, you might not see lots of the ground action that is taking place. I still included it as I like the feeling that it would be there if I checked. People interested in that aspect might want to check it out separate (fly to PL WOLF to initiate the ground operation or watch the track after the mission). I would suggest to follow the southern axis with some time compression in lush phases.

 

Since I am not yet very experienced with Black Shark, difficulty balancing might not be that good. Comments, criticism and suggestions are always welcome.

FlankGuardFlightplan.jpg.c867d8ae4c05d9b41c1aa1c35b5611d5.jpg

FlankGuardBriefing.jpg.ed9187721d86a8469e1d22f8c430281d.jpg


Edited by MBot
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It took me 4 attempts, only after learning the hard way how

to keep away from SAMS :huh: and other suprises!

 

While returning to base after completing the mission, i did experience

1 glitch?, the radio kept repeating Two Rejoin...Two Regoin... could be nothing.

There is also a lot of stuff going on, artillery, tanks tanks tanks,

sams, explosions ... my fps took a few big hits.

 

Very fun though! keep it up!

 

:thumbup:

Athlon 64 X2 5000+ @ 2.84ghz on ASUS M2 Crosshair M.B. OC'd

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Well right off it won't load. Just sits at the loading screen.

 

AMD Phenom 9950BE @3.0GHz stock HSF

ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe mobo

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 4870 1GB

8GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 PC6400

SB X-fi ExtremeGamer

OCZ 700W PSU

WD 250GB SATA2

WD 320GB SATA2

LG DVD Burner

Vista Ultimate x64 SP1

WinXP x32 Sp3

DX 10

CH Pro Throttle, Fighterstick USB, Pro Pedals

TIR4 Pro with Trackclip Pro

 

I know this is OFF Topic but just curious. What good is 8 GB of Corsair RAM on your system when XP can only handle 3.25 GB?

 

MBOT, thanks for the mission. I will give it a whirl.

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Nice work, MBot. I flew it in singleplayer and then modded it for MP and flew with a buddy online. You have a very good presentation of ground operations and the supporting role of the helicopter. That Kiowa was especially cool. I enjoyed the change from the COIN missions that I usually prefer in Black Shark. When playing single player, I tend to keep my wing in combat trail with a "Cover Me" command on assignment. If safe, I have him recon. Until you know how to better take advantage of your wingman AI, a conservative approach tends to be both useful and safe. He did score a couple of kills and was quite useful in calling out missile launches. Not a bad play for a wingman. I will be looking forward to more form you or even better, a campaign, maybe? Let's see, 20 hours per mission, x 4 missions, x 20 phases...

 

...never mind. :p

 

My only suggestion would perhaps be to take some kind of advantage of target points. I would imagine that recon/intel assets in the field would provide you with some idea of where expected enemy forces/your targets may be and these are great to have available in the briefing map. Also, in case you didn't realize, when a Target Point is selected in the INS, it will provide a nice square symbol on the ABRIS, which is a great reference to start your sensor search. Otherwise, you are largely reliant on eyes only.

 

EDIT: I also noticed you did not take advantage of mission goals.


Edited by EvilBivol-1

- EB

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The Parable of Jane's A-10

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80 triggers!!!

 

I tried it once tonite. Frames were great. Loved the comms. My wingy was up ahead. I took out a stinger team and two bradleys on the flank. Was just in time to see the m1a1s in full charge, quite a sight---but they were slaughtered--not by me. I went down, then grabbed another ka and started back, but hammer had been taken. I took out a bunch of artillery.

 

It all happened pretty fast. I will go again for sure---sounds like a number of variables.

 

Nice to see those open country tanks really rolling----in open country.

 

Thanks so much for all your work---hope we see some more mission in the future.

E8600 Asus P5E Radeon 4870x2 Corsair 4gb Velociraptor 300gb Neopower 650 NZXT Tempest Vista64 Samsung 30" 2560x1600

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I am glad you enjoy it so far. I would actually love to do a campaign in the style like this, where you are supporting your parent regiment over a advancing front line and where each mission has a direct relation to the last. I still have lots of ideas I would like to do (for example artillery vs. the player if he spend too much time in a battle position). I would also like to include UK and German forces, those Marder, Leo-2, Warrior and Challenger 2 models simply look fantastic. But I also realized that the time required would be immense. Of course it would be less for subsequent missions, but still...

 

I first thought about using target points to mark the main avenues in your OA. But I then planned to do multiple templates of forces setup with a random selection at mission start, which would have made too many target points useless. In the end I could not do it, because you can't randomized the appearance of inactive units (which I used as units doing recon). So in the end I forgot about the target points. I will remember them the next time.

 

Would mission goals actually be useful in a single mission? The way I understand it they are used to determined your success in campaign missions and your further path in the campaign. Since the debriefing does not allow custom text and does not announce success of failure, mission goals would not do anything in a single mission. Or am I missing something? What I did to judge the player is a final transmission of Regiment HQ at the end of the operation about success of failure of the ground operation.

 

Are there any problems in multiplayer in a mission like this? Are adjustments needed for the triggers?

 

By the way, 80 triggers might sound like much, but in the end there is a lot of multiplication because the trigger system lacks various syntax options. I would have liked to do some more stuff :)

 

Did you notice that the Kiowa will actually call in artillery when hovering at certain spots? Killing it will spare your ground forces of some incoming fire, cutting losses and generally improve the chances that objective Hammer is assaulted successfully.

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You're correct in your understanding of Mission Goals. They are not really necessary for a single mission, although I suppose some people will enjoy seeing the "100%" score card (apostrophe key?). However, I think they can be useful in adding flexibility to the mission assessment by allowing for partial success/failure. For example, if all of the designated units reach the objective and the player flight is alive, 100%. Only some of the units reach the objective and the player flight is alive, 75%. Objective is not reached and/or player flight member is dead - 0%.

 

The only problem in MP was an immediate success call over the radio at mission start. Otherwise I believe everything worked fine.

- EB

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Nothing is easy. Everything takes much longer.

The Parable of Jane's A-10

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Very nice work Mbot. You implemented the feeling of the player being just a part of the bigger picture very well and it added to the feeling of immersion greatly. I will enjoy playing this more times.

 

Great job :yes:

"The only thing a chopper pilot should do downwind is take a leak" - CFI

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You implemented the feeling of the player being just a part of the bigger picture very well and it added to the feeling of immersion greatly.

 

Thanks, that is always the main goal of my missions and I am happy that it worked for you.

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had a quick play mate, looks good

 

can u elaborate on how u've made the ground units behaviour realistic.

You say they will move to BPs hull down and pull back once under fire, what rules and triggers did you use to do this type of thing.

 

edit:

ah ok i just had a look at some of the blue units in the editor. So correct me if wrong or i missed any steps but to simulate a unit holding at various positions youve put in wps with speed 1kmh and made the wp a distance that equates the required EET in position. The eet in position is synchronised (manually by comparing red v blue units eets at various points) so that its movements mimic what a ground unit would do (BPs engage then relocate etc.) to produce a sort of tightly scripted ground choreography of movements.

so the behaviour isnt ai related in any manner rather just written by you using timings and speeds and distances on wps.

Gotta say thats some neat thinking with the slow Waypoint legs to hold units, good thinking out of the box there.


Edited by jimiC
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Absolutely correct, and it took a hell lot of patience to get right :)

 

In case you wonder how the recon units work:

The group is inactive but tagged as visible before start. For each unit in the group I wrote a trigger that activates the group if the unit is damaged. I also added a trigger that activates the group if the player closes X meters to the group leader. Once activated I added a 1 km/h waypoint some meters in front, so the unit would stay in position some seconds once activated, then move at best speed to the next waypoint. This way units will first open fire, then move away once the player starts attacking the group (only the player, as the AI wont recognize inactive units). As the next waypoint I often let the units escape into forest, and perhaps let them reemerge at the same place and take their old position some minutes later, or let them move to a new place further back. I often spawn some infantry once Bradleys arrive at their final waypoint to simulate they dismounting their infantry. It is also nice to spawn a guy with a Stinger (as from a Bradley Stinger Fighting Vehicle), which will further punish the player for letting units escape.


Edited by MBot
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I also added a trigger that activates the group if the player closes X meters to the group leader.
I know that's a tricky one to judge, but from my experience playing the mission, you may want to extend this distance further. I was able to close in to just about a mile from the Bradley units close to the power lines and was just hovering there watching them right in front of me.

 

Another idea, going to back to assigning AO's, may be to give the player a more specific idea of where to go and not go so as to better control what the players sees in regard to the AI. I understand though, the more you script, the more likely it is that something will go off script. I had battled with this dilemma myself when building my missions.

 

BTW, also forgot to commend your effort with the ABRIS lines. Great detailing.


Edited by EvilBivol-1

- EB

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Nothing is easy. Everything takes much longer.

The Parable of Jane's A-10

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MBot, every time I play your mission, I am impressed by the job you did. It really makes you feel like you're just a small part of a much bigger battle. With missions like these, who needs dynamic campaign anyway? Great Great job Mbot and I look forward to more missions from you.

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I know this is OFF Topic but just curious. What good is 8 GB of Corsair RAM on your system when XP can only handle 3.25 GB?

 

 

If you noticed, I also have Vista Ultimate x64 which utilizies all 8GB. Besides after the rebates this 8GB cost me a total of $50.00. I have a dual boot system, one drive with XP and the other with Vista x64. The XP drive is used by my roommate. She is computer illiterate. Email and Jeopardy is pretty much it for her. Plus I have XP If I need it. But, I spend most of my time in Vista x64.

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I am going to give this a whirl in the next few days as I believe this type of mission to be the primary mission and right in the wheel house of the gunship. Wish me luck. If I like it, I will switch it to a MP mission and fly it with the Buddy Boys and the Arctic Knights. Great job on the frag order too.

Dusty Rhodes

 

Play HARD, Play FAIR, Play TO WIN

 

Win 7 Professional 64 Bit / Intel i7 4790 Devils Canyon, 4.0 GIG /ASUS Maximus VII Formula Motherboard/ ASUS GTX 1080 8 GB/ 32 Gigs of RAM / Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog / TrackIR 5 / 2 Cougar MFD's / Saitek Combat Pedals/ DSD Button Box FLT-1

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Mbot,I hope you don't mind but I took you mission and made it into a 4 player MP mission for our group with all the credit to you for making the original mission. Thanks again for your hard work.

Dusty Rhodes

 

Play HARD, Play FAIR, Play TO WIN

 

Win 7 Professional 64 Bit / Intel i7 4790 Devils Canyon, 4.0 GIG /ASUS Maximus VII Formula Motherboard/ ASUS GTX 1080 8 GB/ 32 Gigs of RAM / Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog / TrackIR 5 / 2 Cougar MFD's / Saitek Combat Pedals/ DSD Button Box FLT-1

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Thank you sir. We'll report back on how it went. I made it a 4 player mission.

Dusty Rhodes

 

Play HARD, Play FAIR, Play TO WIN

 

Win 7 Professional 64 Bit / Intel i7 4790 Devils Canyon, 4.0 GIG /ASUS Maximus VII Formula Motherboard/ ASUS GTX 1080 8 GB/ 32 Gigs of RAM / Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog / TrackIR 5 / 2 Cougar MFD's / Saitek Combat Pedals/ DSD Button Box FLT-1

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Very nice mission Mbot, I really enjoyed this one a ton! The radio transmissions, battles going on everywhere, tanks rolling across the plains, the feel of very realistic ground troops in action and repositioning, etc. Recon work was a big plus and the immersion was intense.

Amazing work to say the least!

 

On my 2nd try of the mission, I got a mission success, 12 kills, including a Kiowa, but lost my wingman. I also got the badge for Courage. Excellent mission and look forward to any more that you may share with us.

Thank-you MBot!!


Edited by Talon

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I love NOE - to me that's what helicopters are made for - below the radar and out of sight. Unfortunately (as became only too evident when watching the track) when launched from treetop level, missiles will strike the ground just short of their intended target more often than not, wasting a lot of ordinance. Going up high defeats the purpose and leaves you a sitting duck. If there is high ground nearby you can make good use of that, but if the terrain is flat as in this mission you have no option other than to go higher.

Bring on the Apache with LOBL :pilotfly:


Edited by Jack57

"The only thing a chopper pilot should do downwind is take a leak" - CFI

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CPL(H). AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ @3.3 GHz, 2GB Corsair DDR2 667, nVidia GeForce 9600 GT 1 GB, SB Audigy 2.

Logitech Extreme 3D Pro modified: no centering springs, extended shaft. CH Pro Throttle; vertical chair mount.

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