What is Mike Force?
Mike Force is a gamemode that comes with the Prarie Fire CDLC. Its roughly similar to gamemodes like Antistasi where you need to takeover the map from a hostile force. In this case we are US forces taking over the CDLC map of Cam Lao Nam from the Vietcong
How to get it running
Best way to get it running to join on our server is via Steam. Subscribe to this workshop playlist Steam Workshop::CNTO - S.O.G. Prairie Fire and run via the Steam Launcher making sure to select these mods and the CDLC from the menu in the launcher. We’re running this on our normal server so normal server details as an OP (details in Private server channel in TS)
Teams
The gamemode has 3 teams (and a 4th planned) that each have separate roles and limitations. These are:
- Mike Force – Standard Infantry: Have nothing particularly special about them and are locked out of using heavier ground vehicles or air assets
- ACAV – FOB Builders and Ground Vehicle Drivers: ACAV Engineers can build advanced buildings for making FOBs and are able to drive heavier ground vehicles (trucks & tanks)
- Green Hornets – Helo/Jet Pilots: Are able to pilot Helos and Jets
By default you will join into Mike Force, this can be changed by walking up to the duty officer and pressing H to bring up your player menu, clicking on the Mike Force Logo and then selecting another team and pressing Apply. So everyone is on the same Squad Radar ground forces all tend to go ACAV since there is no real downside to doing this and pilots go Green Hornets
Specialisations
At the Duty officer you’re also able to choose a specialisation. These are
- Radio Operator- Able to call in Fire Support: Radio Backpack required to work, can call in Artillery/Air support via scroll wheel menu. We also tend to have them double up as having an ACRE long range radio to talk to Air Assets
- Engineer – Able to Fix Vehicles and if in ACAV able to build advanced FOB buildings: Toolkit needed to fix vehicles, Shovel needed to build buildings (goes in pistol slot) Press N to open build menu
- Explosives – Able to Defuse explosives: Toolkit needed to defuse explosives
- Medic – Able to full heal people: Medkit needed to full heal people
Loadout
Obviously it’s pretty important what you go into the field with, while there is a full arsenal to pick what you equip yourself with there’s a few rules that will be needed/be very helpful
- American Weapons/Clothing Only – Decreases the chance of friendly fire, both on the ground and from air assets seeing wrong coloured tracers
- Medkits – Are both useful for self healing and also able to be used to “Withstand” aka bring yourself back from being unconscious if you’re not killed outright. 4 Medkits are needed to Withstand so it is useful to bring more than that. 10 Medkits work quite well as this give you 2 chances to withstand with 2 for heals
- Grenades/Smokes - Lots of jungle fighting so enemies are hard to spot, grenades are useful to lob in the general vicinity of the enemy. Coloured smokes are also useful for marking Enemy/Friendly positions to other players and air assets
- Food/Drink - Mike Force has a Food/Drink mechanic so bring some is necessary to keep yourself alive. They’re found in the “Magazines” tab in the Arsenal. Most people take oranges as these are very light, take up little space and replenish both food and drink. 10 oranges should be enough to keep you going for a few hours
- Flares – In the Vietnam era Nightvision was very restricted so the best way to see at night is with Flares. These can either be launched from UGL’s, hand held grenade launchers such as the M79 and the M127 Flare Launcher that goes in the Launcher slot
- Explosives – Many objectives (will go into more detail further down) need to be destroyed, the M112 Breeching Charge is able to destroy most of these and isn’t too heavy so is usually worth carrying 1 or 2 just in case
- Ammo – Plenty of it. Any inventory space not taken up by the above should be filled with Ammo, you’ll go through it quick
How do I play?
The map will be segmented into different areas, shown with either a Red (occupied) or Green (liberated). Some Red objectives will have task objectives on them to destroy sites/weaken enemy presence. It is only possible to liberate areas with these task objectives in them. Sites (marked on the map with about 100m accuracy) consist of Artillery (mortar), AA (autocannon) and HQ (defensive site with enemy ammo cache) that need to be destroyed with explosions (either planted explosives by Infantry, player-controlled air assets or Radio Operator called in strikes can do this) Once all the sites in an area have been destroyed it will either become green or spawn a task to weaken enemy presence. In this latter case you will need to patrol the area and eliminate any enemy forces until the task completes
Quick Tips and Tricks
- Snakes – Are not just cosmetic in this gamemode, they are able to bite you which will cause you food/drink to instantly drop to 0. Try to avoid snakes and if necessary, kill them. If you do get bitten eat some food and drink until the bars stop flashing
- No modern tech - No NVGs (but some Night Vision scopes), not everyone has a radio and no GPS (with exception of Blufor tracking on the map)
- Getting Around - You are able to teleport in between the games 4 fixed bases by walking up to a map within the base and pressing 6 and selecting the place you want to move to. Most of our operations start from the Airfield (helo icon) since you need to be air lifted into the AO
- Withstanding - Sometimes when you get shot you wont die instantly, you’ll go into an unconscious state (that you can still talk during due to an ACRE bug) where you will have 300 seconds before dying. Best way to get out of this is to have a friendly revive you but if no one is available after 1 minute you can use 4 medkits to Withstand and bring yourself back. You also have the option to "Lucky Frag" If you can see enemies on your body this is guaranteed to kill you but might also take some of them with you. If you find someone unconscious you will need to stabilise them (scroll wheel option, will take a few seconds animation and 1 medkit) that will stop their death countdown timer, then you need to Resuscitate them (another few seconds animation and another medkit to bring them back). You don’t need to wait 60 seconds to stabilise/resuscitate someone and uses fewer Medkits so where possible it is always better to get your teammates up rather than making them withstand
- Dying - When you die you get a respawn menu that lets you choose where you want to spawn. Hopefully an FOB has been set up near the AO that will let you get back into the actin ASAP. Bear in mind when you respawn you do so with the equipment you died with as such you will likely need to resupply from a crate at the FOB/arsenal back at base
- Vehicle Locking - To save on server performance if a vehicle is unused for a few seconds it will "lock" and become a static object. To unlock any vehicle this can be done through the scroll wheel option
That should be enough to get you in and playing, carry on further for more advanced details
FOB Building
If you are an ACAV Engineer you are able to build various building to facilitate forward respawns, vehicle resupply and vehicle spawning. The 2 essential things to build are the Checkpoint (which enables people to respawn at the FOB) and the Situation Room (that enables a base to hold supplies for extended periods of time). For these to survive for any extended length of time the Situation Room will need to be loaded with Building Supplies. These can be obtains for 2 sources, Sandbags that are small enough to be carried in your inventory but will only supply the base for a short while or from crates that can be spawned back at base from a Supply Officer and carried into the AO either by Truck or Helo. Supplies are loaded in by going up to the Situation room and pressing 6 and selecting the relevant option to load supplies (Sandbags or Crate, note a Crate needs to be near the Situation Room for it to be loaded in). You can tell how long an FOB has until it runs out of supplies by looking at any building in the FOB and in the centre bottom of your screen you should get a popup telling you some details of the building including "Time to Decay". If this is low or already Decaying you need to load supplies into the FOB to stop it expiring. There are various defensive bunkers and trenchworks that can be built if you expect the FOB to be in a position where it may be attacked (which is basically anywhere, mostly comes down to whether you only build a few defences or lots). Other useful things that can be built are Vehicle Spawners (can spawn some basic vehicles like Jeeps, Trucks and M2 static emplacements, note that the icons for these don’t show correctly but mousing over the wheel should show what you’re about to spawn), Helipads and Refuel, Repair and Rearm stations and finally an Aid station where people can heal for free, note this should only be done if you expect heavy casualties and have few/no medic as the Aid Station takes up a large number of supplies per hour and will dramatically decrease the length of time your FOB can stay active.
Flying
The gamemode has lots of air vehicles to use, most of them are locked to Green Hornets only. Light Helicopters at the north edge of the airfield can be flown by people from any team. To Rearm/Refuel/Repair any helo back at base you are able to land either at the Rearm point at the south of the Airfield or south of the line of Helo’s and you should get a scroll wheel option for "Open Master Arm Menu". This will give you options to get your air asset resupplied as well as being able to change paint jobs and loadouts. It is possible to resupply in the field too assuming there is a FOB with Rearm/Refuel/Repair stations. To use these you must land near them, then from the pilot seat free look at the station (its a little buggy so look at/around the station) and you should get a scroll wheel option to rearm/refuel/repair as appropriate. Note this will take supplies from the FOB so if this is done often it will likely need a resupply crate to keep it going. Be wary of enemy AA. The default sites are 23mm Autocannons and they are surprisingly accurate and are quite good at taking out your tail rotor. As a member of Green Hornets you will have 3 main tasks. Close Air Support, Resupply and Reinserts.
CAS
Most of the armed helicopters are further down the east side of the airfield and are within easy walking distance. Loadouts can be changed through the master arm menu. There is also an F4 Phantom on the Western end of the runway. Try your best to coordinate any air strikes with ground forces to avoid friendly fire. Smokes deployed by ground forces can be a helpful way to mark enemy forces to be engaged
Resupply
Crates can be spawned in via the "Supply Officer" marked on map by going up to him and pressing 6. The most helpful of these will be "Building Supplies (Large)", "Ammo Supplies" and "Sandbags and Tools". Coordinate with infantry what supplies they need, in most cases it will be them requesting supplies from you
Reinserts
Pretty self explanatory and should be to a minimum if a FOB is set up. Bear in mind most of the map is very thick Jungle and hard to find LZ’s. Don’t be afraid to wave off an LZ if it looks to difficult to put down in. Better the Infantry walk an extra 500m than accidently clip a tree and everyone die
WIP More to follow