Gamemode: Coop_Operation

What I am proposing here is my idea of the “ultimate” cooperative gamemode. In my mind this is the next iteration of what Checkpoint/Stronghold should evolve into.

Goals of this gamemode:

  1. Properly utilise the enormous maps. It’s taken months to create each, we need to play in every building and on every street, not fight the same fight between the exact same handful of points. The game gets stale otherwise.

  2. Each firefight needs to be unique. After a few rounds you know where the enemies will be coming from, you know where to put the MG to mow everybody down. You know where to call arty to vapourise them on the spawn. This isn’t good gameplay, this gets stale.

  3. Reduce tedium. The defences are tiresome, they have long periods of waiting holding angles. If you lose a few times, you may only play Spawn-A-B on a map three times in a row, doing the exact same thing between the exact same pieces of cover vs enemies in the exact same locations.

  4. Create an experience which is dynamic. We as players should be responding to the environment around us as a team. Rather than having swarms of AI, we need to be hit from multiple angles. The tempo of the game needs to be constantly changing, not one wave at a time as each point is captured.

How I propose to achieve these goals:
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As you see above, there are 17 objectives marked on the map. Some should be capture points, other should be caches.

  • Upon setting the server up, the game chooses a spawn point at random. The game then chooses a point at random which is no closer than X distance from the spawn point which is objective 1. The game then chooses a point at random which is no closer than X distance from objective 1 which is objective 2. The game then chooses a point at random which is no closer than X distance from objective 2 which is objective 3. The game then chooses… you get the idea. Up to around 8 objectives.

  • Additionally, some objectives should be grouped with each other like in Day of Infamy, where you have the choice of which order to assault them.

  • Any objectives which do not have a human player within X distance function as spawn points for the AI infantry. Any objectives which are selected as the “next” get a triple-strength wave of AI defenders.

  • Any roads leading to the edge of the map function as reinforcement spawns for enemy technicals.

  • Enemy reinforcements may arrive on the battlefield at any time (not just when points get captured). They move toward the contested objectives and engage the players.

This makes full use of the maps which a lot of development time and money has gone into. This ensures firefights are unique. No more will you be contesting Obj A on farmhouse with a choice of field or buildings knowing exactly where the enemies are. You’ll be moving cautiously with your team as you could be ambushed from any point. When forced to defend objectives, you’re going to be in alien buildings engaging opponents from a wider variety of directions. If you still have a whole squad standing, half the squad can go blow up a cache while the other half defends a point. This reduces the tedium and increases tactical choices. This whole gamemode is designed to increase the chance of those spectacular moments when something unexpected happens and you have to improvise. When your push suddenly gets pinned down by an unexpected technical and you have to flank it or when you get a massive contact rear. It’s designed to create those moments which go away as you learn to expect them.

Damn good shit dude, really needs more attention.

Love it. I want to play this game.

arma 3 has a similar way to accomplish this, especially effective with a few mods like ALIVE and LIBERATION where the bots are only spawned on a radius trigger for obvious reasons as the maps are massive. the rest of the action out of sight is cpu based calculation

the problem with this could be huge performance hits, especially if our 8 players decide to roam off separately or even in pairs which would most likely be the case as teamwork is not very common unless playing with friends, where as now the gameplay is quite tunnelled the spawns are like you said in a samey preset manner, if you factor in firefights possibly map wide i can see problems especially with servers taking a hammering. not to mention bot path finding on randomising objectives

but im no expert on u4. i have made a few custom maps/missions on arma 3 with said mods and the random pattern mission type gameplay and boy it can go to shit quickly heheh

i hate to say it but the battlefield series map wide multiple objective all out war works well considering the amount of players and the ton of things going on but on the flipside of that the game is very anonymous gameplay where as insurgency has a much better personal feel to it

last edited by b4ndo

@b4ndo

I haven't suggested any increase in AI volume or expanse of the play area. If the current situation can be rendered on screen just fine, moving the locations of some objectives and spawn points isn't going to cause any performance issues.

(I used to be a game developer. Although my area of expertise was Unity not Unreal, I guarantee what is suggested here is reasonable to implement from a complexity/cost/performance perspective.)

This would be real epic

@whitby

perhaps i misunderstood what you meant, if you mean same entity count but randomising objective locations then yes thats a good idea. the game definitely needs more dynamic scenarios, i suppose it just depends on how the ai copes from a pathfinding perspective. i am pretty sure when the mods start landing it will most likely be done

@whitby This is a good-ass idea IMO. Almost makes me wonder if this was what NWI actually wanted to implement with the Operation gamemode they talked about a long while back.

@marksmanmax said in Gamemode: Coop_Operation:

@whitby This is a good-ass idea IMO. Almost makes me wonder if this was what NWI actually wanted to implement with the Operation gamemode they talked about a long while back.

When my grandchildren ask me: "gran pa pa, who was Whitby?", a single tear will roll down my cheek when I remember this day: the day he saved freedom; the day he saved justice; the day he saved... America.

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bumping until devs see.

bump.

This is excellent suggestion!

bumping until devs see.

bump.

bumping until devs see. bump

@Whitby do it on steam too. Some of the folks have said they read those forums more often for some reason.

bumping until devs see. bump

Hello ! Thanks everyone 🙂
I'll forward this to the devs. I can't guarantee anything for the moment but the team will have a look at it.

last edited by Raibi

@raibi

Any thoughts on this from the devs? Having a gamemode like this would be a pretty major thing for us.