Jackpine Savages' Home on the 'Net

I'm diving back into mission editing now that work has FINALLY settled back into some semblance of normalcy. Hopefully I'll have something interesting to play in a month or two. It may take longer just because I'm getting my feet wet again after having to lay off for almost a year.

I also haven't decided what exactly I want to build. More to come as I figure that out.

I'm still leaning towards developing an Antistasi/KP Liberation style scenario. It's likely to be heavily influenced by the evolving tactics, strategy, and geopolitical implications of the current Ukraine/Russian war.

That said, though, there's another option that I've thought about off and on for a long time. If I can ever figure out how,  I would LOVE to build a campaign based upon a series of scenarios in which the history of completed missions informs what happens next. The capability would appear to be baked into Arma's DNA going all the way back to the OpFlash SP campaign.

Although that campaign was pretty linear because it was mostly meant as a teaching tool, it actually had a couple of points where there were different impacts depending upon the outcome of previous missions.

One I remember in particular was a mission where the SpecOps character, James Gastovski, had to take out some attack helos sitting in an improvised forward air base that was hidden in a forest clearing. Your very next mission in the campaign was as the tank commander, Robert Hammer. If you didn't succeed in finding and destroying the helos, you had to face them in that mission. That sure made it a lot harder to complete! 

Anyway, the notion of that sort of persistence between missions really appeals to me. I think there are some interesting options that could be introduced. I would love to stretch the model out if I can figure out how to do it. For example:

• Maybe make a mini-mission where players vote on which scenario to play next?
• Build a high level map display so players can influence the operational tempo by picking different objectives?
• Force campaign progression down certain paths by limiting resource availability?

Not typically the kind of thing one finds on an Arma server, so maybe it's not doable. Either that, or nobody bothered to figure it out because it's a silly notion in the first place.

I'm a looong way from my home network at the moment so playing isn't really an option for me for at least a week. That said, though, I have enough of an Internet connection that I can at least do some basic maintenance.

Arma 3
IP: 216.105.171.156:2302
Name:
   =JpS= Jackpine Savages Llama is Reborn!The leading spaces should put it towards the top of the server list if you're just sorting by name.

• All installed mods have been updated.
• Currently running the default configuration so any default or loaded scenario can be voted on and played.

Arma Reforger

IP: 147.124.197.80:2001
Name:
!     =JpS= Jackpine Savages Llama is Reborn!Again, the exclamation point and leading spaces should put it towards the top of the server list if you're searching by name.

• Currently running the new Combat Ops mode on the new Arland map.

I'm also diving back into mission editing now that I FINALLY have some free time. Hopefully I'll have something interesting to play in a month or two. I'm just getting my feet wet again after having to lay off for almost a year, though. See my post in the Missions board if you're interested.

Good news: 2 servers up, one for Arma 3 (216.105.171.156:2302) and one for Arma Reforger (147.124.197.80:2001). 

Bad news: Work has been kicking my ass since last April. Outside of the LAN party last summer I have not had the time or the energy necessary to maintain them.    Fortunately, it looks like things are finally returning to a much saner pace.

I'm off for essentially the latter half of December. I'm looking forward to take some time fine tune both of them.

BTW, co-op options for Arma Reforger are improving quite a bit. In addition to the Game Master mode, there are any number of co-op missions in the Workshop. In addition, the latest release of AR has added a new albeit small island, a new official co-op mode, and what sounds like some pretty decent quality of life improvements to the editor. Hopefully those changes to the editor will make a lot easier to build and publish missions.

is there a server up, is anyone playing?

I finally got around to buying this game and I've been grinding through it. Made it up to level 21 as a gunner and thought, "This would be a lot more fun with a couple of people." Any time you see me on, feel free to join in!

It's currently running Conflict, the default Capture the Island mode. It's advertised as !    Llama, Home of the =JpS= Jackpine Savages clan. If you prefer a direct join, the IP address is 147.124.197.80  port 2001.

Don't forget to mark it as a favorite!

UselessFodder (love his handle, btw  ) has put together a basic tutorial for using the Arma Reforger editor.


He also includes links to a whole bunch of resources that he either dug up or created on his own as he was researching the topic. Well worth a look.

Still running map voting rather than a specific mission. I verified that the missions included with the DLC are loading. I don't own it, though, so I can't tell you if they are working correctly.

Woohoo! 

What is Arma Reforger?

Basically, it's a tech demo showing off where the development for Arma 4 is headed. Just one island, Everon, only basic infantry, a handful of wheeled vehicles, only two MP style modes, no SP modes, and some server issues at launch.

So why would anyone pay $30 for it right now? Why not wait until Arma 4 comes out with ALL of the goodies?

• It's frikkin' gorgeous!
• Plays reasonably well on older hardware.
• Many UI tweaks that make it feel much nicer than the Arma 3 UI.
• Mission and mod creation will be much easier once people learn the new tooling.
• Workshop is already getting filled with content to try out.
• MUCH better built-in VOIP.
• It's BI. Even if it's a tech demo with a limited shelf life you know that they're going to have awesome support.

Dslyecxi does a great job of discussing what Arma Reforger is and what it isn't. He has been one of BI's playtesters/consultants for quite a while so he is in a far better position than most to know what's what.


The Enfusion engine takes full advantage of all of the CPU cores that you can throw at it yet still gracefully degrades for older hardware. One commenter who has a monster 16 core rig that gets between 70-120 fps said that he fired up his old 2016 gaming laptop to see how it would handle the game. He found he was still able to get 40-50 fps reasonably consistently on that old hardware. IOW, you don't need to rush out and buy a monster rig to play this game.

My first impressions

I was partway through the tutorial when I decided to stop to post this. (Yes, I'm one of those anal types who actually completes tutorials. )

I'm already really impressed with what BI has accomplished. The interface Just Works and feels more intuitive than the old one while still retaining the default key bindings for PC players.

Oh, did I forget to mention that it's available for Xbox and PS5? Can't play PC vs console players but yes, they finally get to try out Arma (and Workshop content!) as well.

The tutorial includes a demonstration of logistics and base building for the PVP CTI mode. I realized that BI is supplying an amazing amount of capabilities right out of the box that I would have to write if I were to build similar ones for an Arma 3 mission.

I even found a mission creator, who is just learning the new editor himself, who posted a live session where he is learning how to build a mission from scratch while explaining what he's doing. Really interesting stuff.


I am going to stop mission building in Arma 3. It's time to learn the new tooling to prep for Arma 4.

Future of the Arma 3 server and the clan

I'm going to leave the Arma 3 server up for a while although I don't know for how much longer. A couple of people have asked to have the Prairie SOG DLC loaded on it. I'll see what I can do about that. However, I don't plan to be playing on it much (if at all) myself. I'll be too busy elsewhere.

I'll be shopping around for a Reforger server and I'll post when I get one up. In the meantime I'll be playing around in the new editor, experimenting with mission building.

In case you haven't guessed, I'm more than just a bit excited about this announcement. "The future's so bright, ya gotta wear shades." 

Looking forward to playing Arma Reforger with you!

I'm back in the Great White North for the summer! I have Discord and Steam chat open. Ping me if you're up for a game.