Share your thoughts, experiance, fabulous moments and any related feedback to mission "Innuendo" by Highway and Argon.
My internet connection dropped at the end of the mission and I missed the debrief, I apologize for that.
I’m sorry I didn’t enjoy this mission, A2 might have been a bit unlucky having to patrol a sector in which nothing really happened for a good hour. We then flew off to the airfield where we waited for about 20 minutes and finally moved to assault a town (for a reason I didn’t get); at first the coordination between the elements was good and Alpha got to provide cover for Bravo but when we moved back to resume the planned assault things started to mess up, the coordination within the squad was difficult due to the radios not working properly and also the coordination with PLT and BRAVO went missing, leading to a very chaotic assault on the town itself.
I liked the idea and I’m sure it’s not easy to manage 25 people playing in such an unusual environment with civilians and rebels, but in the end from my perspective the turnout wasn’t too exciting unfortunately, also due to the final assault which consisted in more waiting time than else, at least for Alpha.
Thanks for the mission anyways, it must have been a daunting task to micromanage all the AI, so thanks to the GMs, I appreciate this kind of experiments.
P.S. [user avatar=“https://assets-cloud.enjin.com/users/1171274/avatar/small.1413819128.jpeg” name=“Abuk”]1171274[/user] mission is from Highway and Argon
ye right Henrik, sorry for that, got tired 
Had some serious frame rate issues that made the mission unplayable about half way through, so I sadly didn’t get a chance to take part in the assault at the end.
I actually rather enjoyed the patrol segment, but then I did see quite a bit of action compared to most people, I think. I encountered two grenade throwing insurgents, and one more who accidentally(?) blew himself up. I enjoyed the casual strolling around with my fireteam, and the way it steadily escalated.
Seems like the issues that people had with getting bored in this mission are down to pacing problems. As a GM, you should be aiming to have all players experiencing the same level of intensity throughout, and for that intensity level to slowly climb into a big finale moment, and then come back down into a short rest period for the players to gather themselves, before the intensity starts climbing again, and the cycle repeats. The hardest part of doing that is trying to make sure that all players are equally stimulated (wink). Maybe by having the enemy act a little bit smarter, and attacking from multiple angles. This should also be the concern of the platoon and squad leaders. When formulating a plan, they should make sure the plan is entertaining for all players, perhaps even moreso than making sure it’s effective.
As I said, I did enjoy the beginning. I thought it was paced very well, but of course, I can only speak for myself. I’d be glad to play another mission like this in the future with some adjustments to help out the pacing issues, or maybe even a third GM to help out (Now that we’re getting such excellent player numbers, I think we could afford to have a third GM helping out.)
Thanks to the mission makers and GMs for this one, and Berenton for the impromptu mini op afterwards too.
I very liked the idea of patroling streets (no house checks) in city and the WP plan for FTs. Just there was not enough opposition fighters or demonstrators. Some the civilians or enemies could be armed with knifes, axes or some non-usefull non-lethal guns, which doesnt kill on first hit for some thrill.
I did not know where is the president at all. (was it the police guy ?)
Maybe we did not need NVs but instead have a night with full moon and use flashlights, hand flares.
I would like to see some similar night mission without NVs for us, but for AIs yes, in Kavala, but with fighting some badly equiped rebels and some guarded checkpoints/baricades and enemies not in houses but patroling on streets too, trying to "outsmart" us by flanking to really make the FTs cover each sides. Something like supress open uprising in city mission.
Few times I had strong feeling like two FTs + PLT bunched up too close to each other looking for non existing enemy, while Pyrgos is not so small city.
I did like the mission and would like to see some more fighting continuation. What I did considered unrealistic were the 2 MGs on the hill and no infantery, trenches. Overall I had fun
I want say too, that Zscribe was leading team very nicely all the time :thumb:
I was in bravo 2, and I didn’t really enjoy it… it was kind of dull, we spent a lot of time walking around, and back tracking at the beheast of our sl. We were sent to somewhere did nothing and then doubled back time and time again and it got annoying. Not really used to that. I think I spent under a mag the whole mission, but I saw comparatively more combat than some. I’ve had missions where I never fired a shot and still enjoyed more because there was more movement, or I had a role to to fulfill.
It was missing a certain spice… the finale was too slow, the civilians were sparse and dumb and nothing was really done to make the atmosphere that of a rioting citiy. Sound effects, car alarms, tracers, focus gameplay on a specific location (for example the government compound), use the civilian script here http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=32139
[quote user_id=“8061610” avatar=“https://assets-cloud.enjin.com/users/8061610/avatar/medium.1616680218.jpeg” name=“Henrik”]I’m sorry I didn’t enjoy this mission, A2 might have been a bit unlucky having to patrol a sector in which nothing really happened for a good hour. We then flew off to the airfield where we waited for about 20 minutes and finally moved to assault a town (for a reason I didn’t get);
…
I liked the idea and I’m sure it’s not easy to manage 25 people playing in such an unusual environment with civilians and rebels, but in the end from my perspective the turnout wasn’t too exciting unfortunately, also due to the final assault which consisted in more waiting time than else, at least for Alpha.
Thanks for the mission anyways, it must have been a daunting task to micromanage all the AI, so thanks to the GMs, I appreciate this kind of experiments.[/quote]
Cheers [user avatar=“https://assets-cloud.enjin.com/users/8061610/avatar/small.1616680218.jpeg” name=“Henrik”]8061610[/user] , yes you can definitely understand the pain. I’m sorry for lack of action but it’s more down to poor luck you had. Every civilian had to be micromanaged (remote controlled) because, obviously, civilian AI doesn’t throw flashbangs, smoke grenades at anyone. Making these kind of missions would be more feasible with improved civilian AI which we’ll likely never get.
That’s actually not true, GMs role is not to count the number of AI sent anyone’s way, it’s not possible nor immersive because it almost always ruins the story. Sometimes having no action is better than having a poor mission. I know all about "tension and release" concept and think it was well done in this mission. Tension doesn’t just come from being fired at or by firing the weapon.
Of course we strive to give action, but not at expense of the story.
Conclusion: This was a stability mission. That means more patrolling and dealing with civilians than usual and very little shooting. Next mission related to this one will be a lot more spicy, more on that in the aftermath post.
It was a fine mission but the RP style is unfortunately not my cup of tea.
The first part of patrolling streets and looking for civilians throwing flashbangs was pretty fun for a change. Then we suddenly was tasked to retreat and then on top of that we were sent to attack some town that was never mentioned in the briefing. It’s these "story turnaround" points which just confuses and ruins missions that seem fine. It feels like we’re ditching the storyline.
What I hoped for this mission would be that things slowly escalated until we were all sat around or in the palace defending the president. I never felt the president was threatened which from the briefing was the whole point of the mission.
I think it is very important that as a GM you stick to the chosen plan in the briefing. These "Oh shit we just got intel that we now have to attack this place…" just doesn’t work in Arma. They feel forced.
I also had some fps problems but I think that’s mostly down to my outdated system.
In the end these kind of missions are really really hard to pull off and I think these first part was pretty good so well done there. 
[user avatar=“https://assets-cloud.enjin.com/users/4259784/avatar/small.1400079666.png” name=“Anders”]4259784[/user] - read the briefing again. All of that was planned and there were hints in the briefing.
Aftermath
After Altis president moved to safety in the (NW) part of the island where majority of his supporters live, the capital is still under government control thanks to decisive and resolute action by Russian allies. Forces loyal to the president have liberated and burnt the town of ABDERA as retribution for rebel actions.
Only pockets around PYRGOS and (NW) part of ALTIS remain under government control. Altis dictator is going to need a lot more help from his Russian allies to take control of ALTIS once again. As we speak, Russian army is assembling for a full scale invasion of the island.
TO BE CONTINUED…
This is very dependant on what you like about Arma and our style of playing. If you think the beauty is the GM unfolding a story around you then you’re totally right, but to be honest I think most people play for the fighting and tactics first and then the story comes second.
As a GM you’re there to make the guys on ground have fun. You can very rarely do this by story. You have to give them something to engage themselves in. Planning, fighting, thinking and so on. You have to give them the possible to build their own story and the best missions are the ones that end up evolving around the player.
I must say that in many cases for many players a poor mission can easily come from no action. Sometimes you are there to count AI as a GM. More importantly you are always there to give the players a possibility to make their own story by giving the stuff to plan on, shoot at and think about.
Well I take that back then, Pyrgos is meantionen in the briefing. The part in the mission was still a bit confusing though. 
[quote user_id=“4259784” avatar=“https://assets-cloud.enjin.com/users/4259784/avatar/medium.1400079666.png” name=“Anders”]This is very dependant on what you like about Arma and our style of playing. If you think the beauty is the GM unfolding a story around you then you’re totally right, but to be honest I think most people play for the fighting and tactics first and then the story comes second.
As a GM you’re there to make the guys on ground have fun. You can very rarely do this by story. You have to give them something to engage themselves in. Planning, fighting, thinking and so on. You have to give them the possible to build their own story and the best missions are the ones that end up evolving around the player.[/quote]
Player driven stories vs Traditional stories of progression is a long long debate. I can only recommend this book if you’re more interested in it.
Just to hint it - next missions will be very much player driven.
Guys thanks for the feedback. We actually succeeded in making you care, even if you hate the mission it’s much better than "meh". 
I thought the mission was interesting. It was very different from what we usually do & it involved other challenges with a strong emphasis on communication & situational awareness with leaders (at least in my case) far away from the action. It’s really too bad that A2 was a bit "left out" but I suppose it’s to be expected in missions where the primary focus is not violence (the assault on Abdera gave quite a contrast in that regard).
As an element leader, I spent my time looking at the map trying to direct FTs towards the locations where Nightbird spotted activity so I never got bored.
Communication over Platoon net was fairly clear I thought even if a bit busy at times. Some contact reports came a bit late but it was the same on my end simply because FTs had a bit of a tough time identifying where grenades came from I believe. Overall, I never felt like I didn’t know what was going on around me.
Regarding what [user avatar=“https://assets-cloud.enjin.com/users/8061610/avatar/small.1616680218.jpeg” name=“Henrik”]8061610[/user] said during the debriefing, the final assault was a bit complicated due to radio problems in Alpha squad. I have no idea what was causing it (at some point dropping my radio on the floor & picking it back up seemed to have fixed the problem, briefly) but messages wouldn’t go through & so I couldn’t always keep a good coordination between FTs or relay information from Platoon net.
Anyway thanks a lot to the GMs for the mission & for trying something new & thanks to everyone who joined, the turnout was awesome !
Creating and conveying stories in a game with as many players as we have in our ops is, understandably, very hard. If you have a big story moment, where, for example, the president is killed, only the players that are actually there at the time will experience that part of the story. Of course, the players will communicate and tell each other what is going on, but simply having your FTL tell you "Okay, the president died, so we’re retreating" is nowhere near as engaging as actually being there and witnessing the story moment yourself, and once again, you can’t really have every player all in one place to witness that, pretty much unless it’s an explosion, which obviously draws attention, and is visible from a long distance.