Task Force Noctem - Special Forces

Arma Lounge
1

As teased in the Status Report thread, I made a new "faction" which can be thought of as a detachment of the TFN faction, performing special (as in - unconventional) operations.

The TFN faction itself is (if you haven’t read it elsewhere already) based around the idea of a neutral "nation", with generally democratic ideas, but with no obligations towards the US or NATO, focusing more on the "independent" nature of missions. Original discussion here.
The SF part then focuses mostly on covert operations.

Why the SF separation? Can’t we just get better gear?
This goes way beyond gear change - I tuned various engine-level values to make the SF (especially night op) units much harder to detect for AI, gave medical/engineer/etc. training to more than just one role, and overall designed the element cohesion to center around very specialized roles in the team. To be refined further. :slight_smile:

I also didn’t want people to just go wild with Arsenal as - while that might be fun - it kind of ruins the cohesion and team effectiveness (players can easily pick inferior equipment, like a sniper rifle for CQB).

While the units use some equipment we normally don’t (ACOGs for marksmen, high-powered snipers, etc.), it is still very balanced - no thermals-for-everybody, with generally limited ammo, very limited medical supplies, etc.

I’m kind of going for this Commandos/SAS feel, aiming at smaller teams of skilled soldiers performing surgical strikes and getting out before the enemy gets a chance to fight back. My ultimate goal is to mix these into the "combined arms" concept, into bigger missions.

So what’s in the store?

  • CQB Specialist - rapid-fire SMG, lots of flashbangs, handcuffs, this guy is the master of close quarters combat
  • Grenadier - rifle and UGL specialist, providing generic 6.5mm firepower, GL’d smoke/flares/HE and recon using the HuntIR parachute-based grenade-launched cameras
  • Marksman (AT/Utility) - sentry removal agent with his M14 SOPMOD, though he’s a very versatile guy - bringing law with the M72 LAW, repair toolkit, wire cutters, etc.
  • Demo Expert - the expert of all blow jobs, C4 for stationary targets, SLAM mines for moving ones and even some IEDs to blame the other guy and mask SF presence
  • Support Sniper - armor piercing 50cal-er, can provide long range overview and single-shot many vehicle-mounted turrets or crew inside armored vehicles! … assuming he can deal with advanced ballistics
  • Support Gunner - where single bullets won’t do, this M60E4-equipped 1200rnd beast does the job … mid-range saturation (of enemies, with lead) is his thing
  • Missile Master - likes to throw a poker face at the Demo Expert and kill off armor from a distance

Intrigued?

I plan to explore some more possibilities with laser designators / thermal "binoculars" / AA specialist / UAV guy / diver and paratrooper units, etc., but for one reason or the other, these weren’t easy to implement into the current system.

How to use them (for MMs)?
Probably for miniops for now, there are no pre-designated groups, compositions or anything, just units - you group them according to the mission at hand (though the loadouts focus more on urban combat), naming the groups however you like.
I recommend disabling ACE unconsciousness for AI (as they can report while unconscious) and turning on advanced ballistics for snipers (high powered optics) only, to not affect performance.

I made an example sandbox mission for impromptu miniops using this faction (players are expected to group themselves ingame), it’s now on the server (tfnsf-sandbox.Altis) - feel free to check it out! … I also enabled per-unit instead of per-group blufor tracking.


PS: If all goes well, there might be other kinds of specop units (thinking of some daytime civilian support, terrain recon / denial, etc.).
PPS: There are more cool things to discover about this "faction", like the ability to hide bodies, etc.

2

This is some top-notch shit… I really, REALLY appreciate your work Freghar. Can’t wait to see them in action :slight_smile: .

But about seeing them in action. I assume we want them in regular OPs some day. How is that going to look like? They seem badass to me, I’d say even overwhelming for the enemies since 12 M4’s and 4 M249’s seem to do the job quite good.

Are they going to be like 1 tiny team with few people when the rest of guys move on with their mission so they will kinda work like… hmm… support? They go in, they go out and the rest of us takes the positions? :slight_smile: You know this makes you think how cool they can be :slight_smile: .

Anyways. Can’t wait to see them, love it, especially the marksman. I love the aspect of ballistics in arma and since our rifles just come down to aiming a little bit above and a little bit to the side. I’m happy for those M14’s.

Since you had a talk about qualifications for some roles(I don’t remember what was the conclusion of this conversation if there was any) I will ask if you will need a qualification to play as one of those experts?

P.S. I’m not sure if "the expert of blow jobs" was intentional pun but it made me laugh haha :slight_smile: Good dick joke is just good.

3

I’m not sure how you could insinuate such a thing about Goodsir Freghar!
Besides keeping up morale is an important job…

4

[quote user_id=“16434735” avatar=“https://assets-cloud.enjin.com/users/16434735/avatar/medium.1655480570.png” name=“Tropical”]But about seeing them in action. I assume we want them in regular OPs some day. How is that going to look like? They seem badass to me, I’d say even overwhelming for the enemies since 12 M4’s and 4 M249’s seem to do the job quite good.
[/quote]
That’s really up to the mission maker / GM … "doing the job quite good" is only a result of GM making the gameplay balanced in some way. IOW it is possible to counter the enhanced capabilities in many ways.

That’s really open to possibilities - they can play a recon/sabotage miniop prior to the main op, they can support other elements (infantry / armor / etc.) on a "regular" mission by ie. blowing up AAA deep inside enemy territory, … basically don’t think of them as "the main part" of the mission - they should be part of it, not the main focus of it. Like tanks, helicopters or jets. Thinking of them any other way would promote unhealthy "elitist" altitude.

The truth is that they are really meant to be a support role - they can’t "take on" a bigger infantry force, they’re not an area-clearing element, that’s why regular infantry is arguably more valuable. However they fill a niche "use case".

(Really wanted to make that clear.)

[quote user_id=“16434735” avatar=“https://assets-cloud.enjin.com/users/16434735/avatar/medium.1655480570.png” name=“Tropical”]Anyways. Can’t wait to see them, love it, especially the marksman. I love the aspect of ballistics in arma and since our rifles just come down to aiming a little bit above and a little bit to the side. I’m happy for those M14’s.
[/quote]
I’ll have to scrap that M14 unfortunately, it’s very weak compared to the 6.5mm and the role overall doesn’t fit very well into the closer-quarters element. I’m aiming for the more modern split of CQB + support and the M14 is somewhere uncomfortably in the middle.

That being said, I really, really wanted ASP-1 Kir for the marksman, originally. But The Biggest Issue is that it’s Marksmen DLC. RHS has the AS Val / VSS Vintorez which I’ll probably use, but it needs some config tuning.

The idea is to specialize the marksman role more into single-shot subsonic sentry removal specialist rather than a generic mid-range support role. That makes the 6.5mm rifleman/grenadier more valuable for mid-range fights which is good as he’s currently the least interesting unit (aside from HuntIR).
This will also leave ACOG-like scopes only for the long range support team, which also eliminates any looting, looking for corpses of marksmen to get the ACOG for the CQB SMG (eh, people do weird stuff).

[quote user_id=“16434735” avatar=“https://assets-cloud.enjin.com/users/16434735/avatar/medium.1655480570.png” name=“Tropical”]Since you had a talk about qualifications for some roles(I don’t remember what was the conclusion of this conversation if there was any) I will ask if you will need a qualification to play as one of those experts?
[/quote]
I was never really "for" the qualification system (certainly didn’t have a talk about it), but I don’t want to lock these roles behind bars. However it might be needed, we’ll see. The problem is that players need to be on top of their game - they must not misfire, must not miss, must not get killed, must not get revealed and must coordinate all movements in a decentralized fashion (individuals rather than elements), possibly with an external UAV operator.

This creates an enormous amount of pressure, requires above-leadership-level of situational awareness, and has a huge potential for failure, so some training (more likely experience) will be needed. But I really don’t like deciding who can / cannot play the roles. :frowning:

Maybe limiting them to one-life only would make people think twice if they feel skilled enough to play them (on bigger ops, miniops could be much more free-form). I don’t know, don’t want to anger anybody.

Well, it’s really the sniper who has 50cal armor-piercing Deep Penetration rounds.

5

I was also trying to make the 9mm rounds subsonic to allow some very close range silent encounters (and make the CQB specialist more valuable for the role), but doing so vastly reduced any armor penetration and I had to waste basically a full magazine (20-30 rounds) into a regular CSAT soldier at 5m range. Imagine how many magazines would a regular RHS Russian take.
I could increase the damage done by the bullets, but that just feels like cheating and would make them super powerful on unarmored targets (competing with the subsonic .50cal of the ASP-1 Kir), which is also bad.

I don’t know, I’ve reduced the audibility with vanilla 9mm/6.5mm silencers further, to hopefully help with that overall. I also needed to tune the AS Val as it had bullet whizz/impact detection area too wide (for a subsonic round) and it was very hard to take out a guy on the roof without alerting guys on the ground.

On top of that, ACE3 screws it up - Medical alerts nearby AI on hit/kill · Issue #4215 · acemod/ACE3 · GitHub .

Also, turns out ACOG zoom is enough to make it a "sniper" scope for ACE3 and apply advanced ballistics on. So I’ll need to either send patches to ACE to fix it up or just not use advanced ballistics at all. :frowning:

These problems, oh these problems …

6

This kind of units give me ideas for some replayable dynamic (or even static) missions of a ‘breach and clear a site’ kind. Like a 30 - 60 minute long session where a % of excellence would be calculated based on different parameters like, casualties, stealth, etc… measured during the mission. May be not CNTO official material, but definitely stuff people can become addicted to. You know the kind of missions you play again and again until the execution becomes perfect.

7

I think I solved the laser designator / uav role, introducing:

  • Scout - light recon support element, watching over and guiding the strike team

The scout has a very light loadout unfit for most engagements (PDW) for an emergency self-defense, but due to its light loadout (~15kg, IOW 1 stamina bar chunk out of 5), it can easily and quickly get high ground to directly observe the AO.
From there, he can use (primarily) the laser designator for observation and target marking (for CAS or laser-guided artillery) or the MX2A thermal monocular to help identify hidden targets (isn’t really OP - the zoom is bad and it’s a "binocular" device, not a scope).

He also has Vector 21 for its advanced functionality and a microDAGR device to link with the Vector and provide general enhanced GPS functions like waypoint tracking. Both of these combined can ie. get exact terrain elevations for a mortar team.

In addition, he carries an UAV terminal, so he can double as an UAV operator when an UAV is available and high ground is unavailable. This means ie. coordinating movement of the strike team to avoid enemy patrol patterns.
Alternatively, he can drive armed UGVs as a fire support or unarmed ones for rapid personnel or equipment transport.

Regarding agility of concept - he can also serve as a spotter for the support sniper (if one is necessary, ie. due to tracking multiple targets) and he shares the same 9mm ammo (for the PDW) with sidearms of other members as well as the CQB specialist’s main 9mm SMG ammo (which is not the Sting default ammo), so his light loadout can be resupplied if in a group.

8

I also thought about a hidden agent in disguise - technically doable, but I would rather delegate this to somebody, maybe [user avatar=“https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.enjin.com/821401/site_logo/small.png” name=“Xander”]12587882[/user]?

My notes:

- concealment / disguise functionality
- would require re-doing all uniforms to be usable by all sides (already planned anyway, doable)
- hook InventoryClosed EH, Put/Take EH is not enough, player could have used weapon from backpack
- look into the uniform's ItemInfo and get side of the linked (source) soldier
- also check that soldier's class for other matches, like
- headwear (helmet), vest, backpack, weapon (and weapon's class parent, isKindOf, for GLs?)
- this limits usability somewhat (ie. might not disguise if the linked soldier is different from the killed one)
- not generally a problem, .. and kinda realistic / balancing
- maybe, instead of checking just the source soldier, check if anybody in the source soldier's faction has the items equipped
- this would allow wearing a backpack/weapon/launcher/etc. from that faction if at least one soldier class does
- instead of comparing items, compare full soldiers to make sure the player isn't ie. sniper with a launcher
- also go through any extra items the player might have (ie. launcher if none is used by the faction)
- always setRating to -1999 (TODO: test if it doesn't automatically flip over -2000) if changing to non-own side
- do it only if current rating is greater than -2000 (to prevent re-disguise renegade cancellation)
- keep track (list) of disguised sides, ratings within them and last disguised time for each
- switch between ratings on uniform switch
- cancel the renegade state for any side after a while of not wearing their uniform (30min?)
9

[quote user_id=“13633351” avatar=“https://assets-cloud.enjin.com/users/13633351/avatar/medium.1434890353.jpeg” name=“Freghar”]I also thought about a hidden agent in disguise - technically doable, but I would rather delegate this to somebody, maybe [user avatar=“https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.enjin.com/821401/site_logo/small.png” name=“Xander”]12587882[/user]?

My notes:

[code]

  • concealment / disguise functionality
  • would require re-doing all uniforms to be usable by all sides (already planned anyway, doable)
  • hook InventoryClosed EH, Put/Take EH is not enough, player could have used weapon from backpack
  • look into the uniform’s ItemInfo and get side of the linked (source) soldier
  • also check that soldier’s class for other matches, like
  • headwear (helmet), vest, backpack, weapon (and weapon’s class parent, isKindOf, for GLs?)
  • this limits usability somewhat (ie. might not disguise if the linked soldier is different from the killed one)
  • not generally a problem, … and kinda realistic / balancing
  • maybe, instead of checking just the source soldier, check if anybody in the source soldier’s faction has the items equipped
  • this would allow wearing a backpack/weapon/launcher/etc. from that faction if at least one soldier class does
  • instead of comparing items, compare full soldiers to make sure the player isn’t ie. sniper with a launcher
  • also go through any extra items the player might have (ie. launcher if none is used by the faction)
  • always setRating to -1999 (TODO: test if it doesn’t automatically flip over -2000) if changing to non-own side
  • do it only if current rating is greater than -2000 (to prevent re-disguise renegade cancellation)
  • keep track (list) of disguised sides, ratings within them and last disguised time for each
  • switch between ratings on uniform switch
  • cancel the renegade state for any side after a while of not wearing their uniform (30min?)
    [/code][/quote]

Something like this?
Would you describe a use case for this? is it a zeus action, editor variable/function?

10

[quote user_id=“12587882” avatar=“https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.enjin.com/821401/site_logo/medium.png” name=“Xander”]Something like this?
[/quote]
Yeah, but something much more lightweight and optimized, not like

while {true} do {
enemies = player nearEntities Man", 500];
...

just for adding the interaction action to everything around.

I guess having something more feature-rich like those script could be nice, with whistling distractions, etc., especially considering the other units on the team are super sneaky and can move literally 3m behind the distracted enemy, but I don’t want something bloated, complex and prone to errors (like most of the scripts in the link above, none of them account for sudden player death during animation changes/sleeps).

[quote user_id=“12587882” avatar=“https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.enjin.com/821401/site_logo/medium.png” name=“Xander”]Something like this?
Would you describe a use case for this? is it a zeus action, editor variable/function?[/quote]
Function, called with a player unit from that unit’s init EH.

You don’t have to do it, it would be more of a quirk I guess.

edit: As far as using enemy uniforms, there’s a much cleaner and native way of doing it than a custom menu action, you just need to overwrite the modelSides[] for the uniforms - would be "hard work" for all uniforms we have, but the config generation can be pseudo-automatic (won’t go into details here).
https://github.com/CntoDev/cnto-units/blob/master/addons/multiside_uniforms/config.cpp

11

If you go with a subsonic 9mm smg, make sure the enemies aren’t armoured or we’ll get our asses handed to us. Otherwise for armoured targets we’d do better with an accurate, arc-firing, subsonic, large calibur gun like the ASP. Doesn’t mean that we won’t have a use for the 9mm guns if we’re fighting militia.

As for weapon choices, the M60 is kind of dated, probably a hand-me-down. I like stepping into weapon territory we don’t usually use. As a batshit fictional nation, (Owlistan? Owlkraine? Owland?) it might make sense for us to use the CSAT iranian rifle, It’s based on a real life chinese knock-off, of a chinese knock-off of an M4 with aesthetic and configuratory inspiration from a chinese type… something gun (its in apex dlc) which may or may not be a knock-off, and a modern (czechoslovakian?) sub machine gun.

As special forces we get the best gear, so our regular ground pounders must be armed with old soviet Ak47s

I look forward to using more UAVs/ UGVs optics and sneaky stealthy tactics.

12

The M60E4 is not the vietnam-war-era M60 we use as the US faction. See M60 machine gun - Wikipedia .

I tested it against the CSAT Zafir and the NATO Mk200 and it beats both of them by having 7.62mm rounds and accurate automatic fire up to ~600m when set up. Where the Mk200 has stable sight but big spread, the Zafir sights jump all over the place with huge recoil. The M60E4 strikes a balance by having the recoil mostly "upwards" and well controlled, so you can accurately spray a ~2m area with full-auto from a distance.
In my loadouts, I equip it with the M145 scope ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/251079648727 ).

Trust me, I tried just about every other MMG we have in the game. :slight_smile: … I also wanted to avoid DLC content altogether, which is why I rather tuned RHS AS Val instead of using the Mark DLC ASP-1 Kir.