[center]PMC-Ops
a proposal by Obi[/center]
I am currently doing my best to learn the ins and outs of MCC and mission making in general. While I am doing this, I am going to try and run a handful of mini-ops to cut my teeth a bit. Those mini-ops will run as part of a connected story-arc involving US forces supporting the AAF against militant Rebels to the north that are being (Spoilers) aided by Russian forces. Eventually, the US forces will be forced to pull back from the AO into a defensive demeanor (how bad things are left will be up to the outcome of the missions). Following this withdrawl from those areas, Public Opinion turns against the US forces being in the country. Given how hard they’ve been hit, and lacking support due to conflict on the Mainland, the US forces pull out of Altis.
To fill in the gap, the Altis Government hires on a relatively new Private Military Company “Carpe Noctem Solutions”, a Mercenary force made up of soldiers coming from a variety of nations and military experience. This PMC will do its best to support the AAF and fill in where they cannot due to increasing rebel activity and Russian involvement. Jobs for Carpe Noctem will have them defending secondary locations that may be prone to attack, performing ‘lite’ recon activities, providing security for VIPs, and occasionally joining AAF task forces or civil resistance forces in pushing the Northern militant out of towns.
Unlike regular military forces, the PMC will not have access to unlimited equipment. Instead, the teams will have access to a very small number of assets and inventory and will have to use them wisely throughout jobs. Upon successful completion of a job, the PMC will receive a predetermined (and negotiable) amount of ‘Credits’ (to simplify from using cash, just think of it like this: 4 credits is enough to get an unarmed Offroad, 20 gets you a littlebird…I am basing this a bit off of DUWS’s system of price-ranges just to get a base to draw from). Failure in completing a job will yield only 1/4th the credits (to cover expenses). Any assets lost on a mission will need to be reacquired using credits (though I will most definitely replace stuff due to Arma error or if the situation in which the asset was lost was just plain dumb or unfair).
Each time I plan on running one of these PMC ops, I will post to the forums and provide three ‘job offers’. The community can then discuss and vote on which job to take and that will be the mission for the week. If time permits, a second job can be taken as well. Some jobs will persist week after week if not chosen, others will be taken down. Credit pay out will be listed as well as job details.
The standard flow of the mission will start out at the PMC’s base with whomever is playing the PMC CO that week meeting with the Contact offering the Job (A part I will play via Zeus). During this ‘meeting’, the other players will get set up via Virtual Arsenal (Highly recommended to save profiles for speed of access) and equip based on the requirements for the job. Minor items and basic weapons will be provided without worrying about ‘credit costs’, though everything MUST adhere to the CNTO rules and regulations (No scopes over x1 magnification, etc). The Commander can negotiate with the Contact about the credit payout and the contact may offer some unlisted secondary objective or something to yield higher payment. After that, the execution of the mission will be completely up to the players.
Notes about weapons: Only RHS and a handful of others (read: Contemporary) are approved for use following a similar set up as our standard loadouts…ergo, only one AR per ‘fire team’ and so on; everyone can’t just grab 249’s and go all out on the OPFOR. It’ll be up to the CO to rein this in, but please be respectful of the intended difficulty of the missions. Assume, too, that the PMC is spending money to acquire these weapons and gear: Not every merc would have GPS, heavy body armor, a GL, AT, or Ars because that really wouldn’t be cost effective. Just stick to a reasonable loadout and everything will be groovy. I will work on putting together a list of ‘approved’ gear, but I think you guys can be trusted to keep to the immersion. It is advisable to load up the arsenal and create a loadout before that you can save and then double click on and, boom, you’re ready.
Roles: Roles will vary from job to job. Leaders, don’t expect or feel as if you need to stick your guys in the roles based on the default selection. Some jobs won’t have you running AR, so having the AAR lug around ammo for a gun that’s not in play would be crazy. See the ‘roles’ for the job capacities they provide. The AAR counts as a team’s ‘second in command’, AT guys could double as explosives experts, grenadiers, or maybe even UAV operators if the job doesn’t call for AT to be carried. During the ‘pre-briefing’, based on the details of the contract and the ideas of execution, have your guys switch to gear and equipment that fits the day. Example: The job requires a meeting with a Civilian Resistance cell and cannot have attention drawn to it, one team provides ‘overwatch’ and back up while the other team’s loadout is just civi clothes with holstered pistols. In that case, Roles wouldn’t matter other than first and second in command. Prerequisites for roles such as minimum ranks or qualification tests still stand, though this is up to Clarke and the guys if we can bend the rules a bit for this…though my vote is we stick to them.
At the start of the first mission, the PMC will not have a base. The first mission will begin with them arriving on the Island and setting up for their first job. This job will lead into them establishing a base to operate out of and store their assets. After this mission, the base will be the primary starting point for the PMC. Militia forces, if hit hard and enough times by the PMC, may start to seek out this base. Expect the unexpected in the form of a base attack if you guys put enough of a hurt on the enemy.
Public Opinion: As a PMC you guys won’t be required to adhere to many of the rules, regulations, and standards that a regular military would be held to. That being said, acts that constitute war crimes will not be tolerated and such acts could result in the immediate termination of the contract and the arrest of the offenders (a fun idea for a mission in itself, though). Other actions that might be perceived as malicious or harmful will diminish a percentage based rating called “Public Opinion”. This rating can have a number of positive or negative effects. Positive effects could be something along the lines of Civilians allowing a team to hide in their homes from an overwhelming enemy force or use their homes to set up a mission. Helpful reactions from the AAF could be a result of positive Public Opinion. Negative reactions might include Civilians sending word to Militia forces of your movements, hostile confrontations from civilians to outright aggression, or maybe even hostility from the very AAF forces you are there to support.
Negative actions that might effect PO rating could be anything from causing civilian casualties, collateral damage, pointing weapons at civilians, disregarding or disrespecting their property, commandeering or stealing their vehicles, or anything else that could be seen as negative. Remember: In the context of this story, you are foreign mercs moving through their towns, fighting around their homes, and putting stress in a conflict that effects their homeland. PO might not seem important, but there is a definite edge by winning ‘hearts and minds’. Also: Though I won’t be spawning a TON of civilians in an effort to keep server FPS steady, assume that all cities and towns you are going through are populated and the civilians are watching you unless otherwise noted in the job.
NOTE ON RESPAWNS: Unlike the regular armed forces we normally play, the PMC does not have an unlimited supply of operators standing by to fill in for a fallen man. This does not mean there will not be any respawns, no, what this means is there will be a limited number each mission. At the start, there will be one additional respawn/reinsert for each player with a minimum of 15 (so, if we have 10 players that’s one for each +5, and so on). Additional respawns can be purchased with Credits, effectively ‘hiring’ new operators to join the contract on Altis. If you die and have no respawn, from a story perspective you will be taking on the role of one of the base’s admin staff (armed, but not a field operator) and be ready to provide support if needed when the teams return (such as medical help) or feel free to log off. Given how numbers normally go during operations, I don’t foresee respawns being a problem, but here’s the info on them anyway.
Additional notes: Remember, you guys will be playing Mercs, not volunteer soldiers of a nation. Immerse yourselves in the roles and try to take a break from the usual. I’m not saying play without thoughts to SOP tactics, that would be silly, but rather come up with callsigns, go about things in unconventional ways, and don’t be afraid to say “Eff This!” and back away from a job if its too rough. I fully intend on these missions to just be some fun from a different perspective and to offer a different set up to how we go about the usual Ops.
As always, this is just a proposal and subject to the approval of the community administration and the desires of all you guys. Think it would be fun? Show your support. Think it would be a dumb waste of time? Let me know right here! Have an idea how it could be better? Let’s discuss it. If it seems like this is something we want to do, I’ll go ahead and write up a couple of jobs and get a “Catalog” with purchasable assets and their credit prices written up so you guys know what you can shoot for.
Thank you for your consideration,
-Obi
PS: I am gladly accepting help from anyone who wants to contribute on this project. Could be anything from writing up mission idea, to running a mission one day (so I could join in on the fun), to, well, anything you can think of that would help.
