[Sun] 16 Sep 2013 (Never mind the new toys)

How we died
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wolfenswan
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[Sun] 16 Sep 2013 (Never mind the new toys)

Post by wolfenswan »

ARMA 2:
Big Fish (COOP)
Cacheola (Adv)

ARMA 3:
Sweeping Up (Adv)
Came from the Water (Coop)

First of all I want to say a big thank you for all the comrades that stuck around for our first run of ARMA 3. As it was expected things didn't go perfect but thanks to all the comrades that stuck around for testing we got good insight in what was causing low server performance (and what isn't)*.

The session kicked off with Big Fish on Coop, a mission by the late Mr. Wilson (RIP) that saw her Majesty's finest engaging irregular forces to the South of Zargabad. Unfortunately there might have been a teeny tiny intelligence cock up and the number of insurgents was slightly outnumbering us.

This was followed by an all-time classic, Cacheola. Again the insurgents demonstrated to a high-tech force what sandals, AKs and a lot of motivation can accomplish. Of the US troops send out to blow the caches none survived.

The ARMA 3 part of the session was overshadowed by technical hiccups and poor server perfomance but we still managed to play a big adversarial in Sweeping Up. After the second run of tests (thanks again to everyone who stuck around) we ended the session with Came from the Water.

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dancemoox
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Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 11:48 am
Location: V+ Museum & Sanatorium

Re: [Sun] 16 Sep 2013 (Never mind the new toys)

Post by dancemoox »

Comrades I bring exciting news! The politburo is pleased to announce the return of V+ sessions starting Friday 20th September. Sessions kick off 7pm GMT (8pm BST).

More information and links to help the befuddled are contained in this helpful announcement.

I shall see you all on on Friday Comrades! :hist101:
ramming speed!

Syn
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2012 8:30 pm

Re: [Sun] 16 Sep 2013 (Never mind the new toys)

Post by Syn »

I missed big fish, on account on what appears like an extreme hangover but totally isnt.
Short AAR. I died a lot.


Cacheola! I spawned, hid in a building, exited it, and got shot. I died.

In arma 3, someone dropped a grenade near me. I nearly died. I waited near some rocks, got shot at, got into the town, where i got shot at some more. I saw a squad on the road, and tossed a few grenades at them. They had the same idea. I died.

On a serious note, i can´t believe how beautiful arma 3 is. I found myself just staring at everything like an idiot more often than i´d like to admit. Really cant wait to see what missions we can make with it. Some foggy forest shootouts, a night time operation near the solar fields in the rain, illuminated by the lightning. Want!

Medic Eugene Roe
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Location: Texas, United States

Re: [Sun] 16 Sep 2013 (Never mind the new toys)

Post by Medic Eugene Roe »

Good times. I accidently pressed Alt+F4 some how right at start of Cacheola, but the rest was nice.

The one with boats sure didn't go very well. One by one we were slowly wiped out.

The Arma 3 adversarial was surprisingly fun, though I didn't shoot anything.

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dancemoox
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Re: [Sun] 16 Sep 2013 (Never mind the new toys)

Post by dancemoox »

It may have been mentioned in TS at the end but as this is the place for such things to be noted.

Carson in Came from the Water mission for A3 as an AR I had about 10k rounds of ammo, lots of ammo is nice as it means I can shoot lots of bullets at the enemy town (giving Bravo something to go ooooh pretties as they attacked) but it also meant I was the most asthmatic out of shape soldier that's ever hit the front line :D

Also Bodge on your mission as AT I didn't have a rocket to go match my fancy future tech RPG, the scope allowed me to do some spotting tho ;)

Anyway onto the real reason you are here; to read the exploits of last night and find out how many belly rubs I gave and how horribly I died!

Big Fish - Charlie Medic - Fer CSL

Fer had me drive Charlie out of the airfield and after a few stop starts we ended up at the end of the road. Getting out and moving on foot I held back with the second fireteam to bound across. We didn't take any fire until we hit the oil pipeline. I took cover behind one of the pipe supports and engaged targets to the south, popping up to fire then down to reload. When we wheeled around the pipes towards the oil vats I pushed with the first team as some harder cover is always nice for keeping the insides inside on the way I took a bullet but was helped on my feet by Fer. I patched up some Charlie guys on the outside of the compound wall, clearly Alpha who had pushed through the area had paid for the compound with blood as two dead bodies were sprawled next to the wall. With two guys healed up we withdrew into the compound. I saw C2 AR climb onto the top of one of the vats and a few minutes later saw him tumble off - going up on those things is suicide! I grabbed his AR as medics with automatic weapons are a hobby of mine, also C2's AAR was already dead so it might as well be put to some use. Fer was organising our movement out of the compound when he was shot from the west, a single shot and he was dead. I tried to drag his body inside the wall but couldn't find his carry handle. Doing the only thing I could I set about looting his body for all things helpful. I had already scored a sweet AR and M9 from the dead AR and I upgraded my loadout with rangefinders and a GPS. After a few false starts Mamuto our new SL had us moving out, between Fers death and the attempted movement of Charlie to the west I dashed out to heal up some Alpha guys I could see flopping around all bloodied and sick looking. Once I returned we pushed out towards the gas station, there I did my best moving between cover healing guys up, laying down fire and generally being the most badass medic in Charlie. A vehicle contact was reported east along the road, I whipped out my rangefinders to take a look, spotted it was a SPG-9 technical and went took a knee, calling it in on TS I pressed b to put away my acquired optical gear, to my horror I hit V and did a little dance as the technical turned the corner. Thankfully I was able to sort myself out, hit the deck and let rip with my AR, the gunner was down first then I put 25-30 rounds into the windscreen - the technical swerved to the left and wasn't a threat any longer. Soon after we were taking fire from south as well as west. More people were being wounded or killed outright. We pushed into compounds south of the petrol station, I healed up more of our guys. We had contacts across the street in buildings as well as in the green zones around us. Slowly our numbers were whittled down, I tried an old payday trick to heal up one guy in C1 who had been wounded on the other side of the compound wall. Unfortunately it seems the patched out the magic healing hands through a wall trick so I found myself healing him up on the decidedly hot side of the wall. Six or so seconds before I was done healing him another technical crept in, as soon as I was done I hit the deck and fired the entire loaded belt into the driver and gunner. I was wounded by more of the EI nearby but was able to crawl back inside the compound. Mamuto was wounded for the fourth or fifth time, I healed him up and deciding I'd lived quite enough for one day I took a ladder up onto a building roof, I fired on contacts the other side of the road when I ran out of AR ammo I switched to my M9 but was wounded soon after. Thankfully the rook I was on was low so I was able to crawl off and get healed up. Once I was up I found Charlie had been reduced to three, Tigershark, Mamuto and myself. Seconds later it was just me and Tiger. I killed another guy through the south archway with my pistol. Took a chance to grab an L85 from Mamuto and was shot again, tiger killed the AI that had shot me and healed me up. I jumped onto CC and requested some orders. I was greated by Bodge saying "perhaps we'll just leave Charlie" telling him I'd heard that we got orders to pull back to the gas station and hold firm. It was maybe 50m to the gas station from where we were. I grabbed as much ammo as I could from corpses around me and started to move out. Alpha were holding firm around the burnt out wreck of the Jackel, I said to Tiger I was just going to Leeroy it across - he said "you crazy" but I was already away, serpentin'ing for my very life. I made it to the gas station, shot two more EI and was able to deduce Tiger didn't make it across. I was the last of Charlie, and shot from somewhere. I made an attempt to crawl up to Alpha but was shot by the AI on the way across..

<placeholder for some moon moon tv>

Cacheola - Indie CO Medic

More medicine, it's not like I've got a morphine problem just so long as I keep taking the stuff right...

Fer went all rain man during the planning. He arrayed his credit card and favourite lottery numbers across the map in a random aray. He then dispatched me with Alpha 'squad' (ABC fireteams) under the command of Super. When we got into buildings I followed Alpha but decided to relocate as the building was quite crowded. I moved across the road to the north and found a nice hovel to set up as an operating theatre. There I waited for news of wounded, thankfully a move order was given before I was forced to remove kidneys for the black market inside a mud hut with rice storage in the corner. I regrouped with Alpha and when Charlie made contact with the enemy I ducked inside a building. M2 fire does tend to make you seek cover. I took up a position on the stairs looking west, I saw wounded Charlie members on the ground and a Bluefor Imperialist Bastard moving through the vennel right next to them. I raised my AKM and fired, he was wounded and fell back behind the corner. Someone in Charlie took my fire to be the enemy and peppered my window with fire. I decided to overlook the friendly fire incident and moved in to heal them up. Once Charlie were fighting fit and a kidney shorter each I attended to the wounds of SuperU and moved to heal Draith who was doing his best to avoid my healing hands. Mid Draith heal Super was wounded, then seconds later dead. Bravo were taking casualties so I pushed towards them, met some Bluefor along the way and ducked a building. Turns out the fold map is great so long as the enemy are not behind it ;) I stuck my head out and fired on the Bluefor bastard but he hit me first killing me outright.

What happened next is a lovely haze, I was transported to a land of the future, where VON sounds like TS and confusion is caused by it. First mission try we launched I made it into the game and was alive for 3ms before melting into the floor dead. Eventually I dug myself out from the ground and found myself as an AT gunner under Bodge in Opfor Bravo 1 in Sweeping Up. We held a half constructed house for a long time. Bodge showed us how lovely things look, and that the tall grass is a nice place to hide. I showed off my muttonchops and more rampant facial hair, as a side note my moustache hairs clearly violate the grooming standard :zoidberg: when we pulled back into the town we did some bounding and I fired on some guys on the hill then fell back further. Finding every building I entered to be useless in terms of visibility I kept moving eventually pushing south of the Bravo hold crossroads and setting myself up inside a building facing east. I spotted an enemy fireteam and fired through the window, one darted south two fell back and the fourth ran inside the shed shack thing. The two fallbackers fled and I made it my mission to harass the poor guy inside the shack. Firing through a window made my fire inaccurate, he'd appear at the doorway and I'd slot some rounds around the doorway to keep him in. Then at the window. After two mags he made a dash for it and I set off in pursuit. I met up with B1 and we cleared a house. Inside were two dead guys one Opfor the other Enemyfor :confused:. Once the building was cleared I returned to the dead friendly to grab some ammo, an enemy walked up to the open door and shot me once in the head.

Came from the Water - Alpha 3 AR - SuperU - Daf and another :confused:

We hit the beach in the worlds loudest boat, I confused Super with my clear VON speak and we pushed up the hill. I averted a friendly fire incident when I reminded Daf that targets to our south east were Bravo. Targets up hill however were very enemy looking. I dropped to the ground and let rip - controlling the recoil was a challenge, short bursts on each of the enemy fireteam and they were soon all dead. A1 and A2 were moving into the depression and taking fire, we moved in to help clear, smoke was used to mark friendly positions, a nice touch I must say. We set up around one of the windmills, picking targets. I still need to fine tune my video settings as bushes look like bad men depending on the distance they are. That or I need my eyes tested. I found it hard to get a position behind the wall in cover that still had eyes on the enemy town. Eventually I found a spot and got myself set up. I loaded a tracer belt and waited for Carsons grenade to go off signalling the attack. A long few seconds between boof and explosion followed, right on the impact I lit up the EI on the road, seeing the *need to learn vehicle names* moving right to left onto the road I shifted my fire onto it then onto more contacts in town. I'm sure Bravo had a lovely view as they assaulted the town. I wasn't low on ammo as noted above so felt happy suppressing the town, when we moved up to a low wall something called 'real life' called to Super and he had to depart. Nobody saw me murder his AI for the shiny gear it was keeping to itself.. A3 was the last to push off the hill, I hit the town and made for a building to catch my breath in - making it to the door and laying my hand upon the handle a grenade exploded throwing my now dead body into room. I watched with some amusement Daf trying to decide if it was my body he'd followed through the explosion into the building..

See you all on Tuesday, then V+ on FRIDAY!
ramming speed!

Terminal Boy
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Location: London

Re: [Sun] 16 Sep 2013 (Never mind the new toys)

Post by Terminal Boy »

Perhaps we can allow people that have never fired up the MP interface for A3 before a lit more time and consideration next time.

In my excitement to fire up A3 I managed to launch 2 instances of the game which Steam didn't care for at all and promptly crashed, so I arrived on the server later than most who were in TS at the end of the A2 session.

Now, when you're trying to figure out the brand new MP interface and the host is busy figuring out why the server is reporting that it's full and not letting Comrades in; constantly telling people to "Take it to Side Chat" on TS ins't very helpful as it was the only means I had to report the server messages I was seeing.

Alas, when the server issues were fixed and finally connected, myself and serveral others found all the slots had been filled and were rebuked with "Should have slotted faster then.." when we pointed this out.

Thoroughly underwhelmed and deciding that sharing my full and frank opinion of the proceedings so far wasn't going to improve matters, I then logged off and took out my frustrations on the aliens in my XCOM campaign.

Not exactly the FA A3 experience I'd been looking forward to all these months..

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Tigershark
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Re: [Sun] 16 Sep 2013 (Never mind the new toys)

Post by Tigershark »

Not exactly an AAR person so I thought I'd post some pics I took during last night's A3 mission.
Image

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Sticking feathers up your ass does not make you a chicken.

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wolfenswan
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Re: [Sun] 16 Sep 2013 (Never mind the new toys)

Post by wolfenswan »

Terminal Boy wrote:Perhaps we can allow people that have never fired up the MP interface for A3 before a lit more time and consideration next time.

In my excitement to fire up A3 I managed to launch 2 instances of the game which Steam didn't care for at all and promptly crashed, so I arrived on the server later than most who were in TS at the end of the A2 session.

Now, when you're trying to figure out the brand new MP interface and the host is busy figuring out why the server is reporting that it's full and not letting Comrades in; constantly telling people to "Take it to Side Chat" on TS ins't very helpful as it was the only means I had to report the server messages I was seeing.

Alas, when the server issues were fixed and finally connected, myself and serveral others found all the slots had been filled and were rebuked with "Should have slotted faster then.." when we pointed this out.

Thoroughly underwhelmed and deciding that sharing my full and frank opinion of the proceedings so far wasn't going to improve matters, I then logged off and took out my frustrations on the aliens in my XCOM campaign.

Not exactly the FA A3 experience I'd been looking forward to all these months..
Sorry to hear you feel that way.
First of all, we didn't expect to get nearly twice the number of players that show up for regular sessions to appear for the A3 party. Knowing that the netcode had issues the missions designed in advance were smaller in scale to take it easy on the server and also there was a slight confusion in the only big coop we had between slots indicated and slots actually available. With about 50+ players having already slotted and initially a rather annoying comm discipline I had no interest whatsoever to do the whole slotting part again, just so a few stragglers could connect. I can imagine this and being told to wait being annoying but it doesn't differ wildly from the way we do things in the A2 sessions, i.e. ask people to get their stuff sorted out on time and connect in advance.

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Bodge
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Re: [Sun] 16 Sep 2013 (Never mind the new toys)

Post by Bodge »

One thing that is more annoying than teething issues is when people are making it difficult to run a session. Please have consideration for who is running the session when shit is starting to go wrong, dealing with server issues is a pain in the arse and chatter and similar makes it rather difficult to problem solve in TS.

With regards to the slotting business the mission was slotted three times with the third being the one with all slots open, if you were not able to slot in the third time that is regrettable but I am sure Wolf really didn't want to hold things up any more now we had a mission that worked.

This definitely wasn't the desired experience but the issues that cropped up couldn't have been expected when nothing of the sort had appeared in Beta or the release testing that went on.

Terminal Boy
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Location: London

Re: [Sun] 16 Sep 2013 (Never mind the new toys)

Post by Terminal Boy »

Gents,

I completely appreciate that both the high turn-out and the technical issues were utterly unexpected and didn't help comms discipline on TS.

I aslo appreciate that had I not double-launched A3 and broken Steam in the process, I may well have go on the server before the initial 48 player limit problem made itself known.

However, there is usually a little more leeway in A2 slotting for people that are in TS, but having to re-start A2 etc.

"I can imagine this and being told to wait being annoying but it doesn't differ wildly from the way we do things in the A2 sessions, i.e. ask people to get their stuff sorted out on time and connect in advance."

How are players expected to connect in advance when we have a split A2/A3 session? Unless I've missed a key piece of Steam functionality all these years, I can only have one game running at a time..

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