ps4 Operation Nightfall

[Protocawl 2,971]

Operation Nightfall

2 team LTS for 6-30 players

Time limit per round: 8 min

Starting weapon: Pistol

Weapon pickups: RPGs, Miniguns, Assault Rifles

Vehicles: Valkyries (without cannons), Sanchezes, Manchezes

 

A group of rebels have set up numerous weaponized outposts on Mt. Chiliad and thus have gained complete control over the area, especially over all air traffic. The U.S.A.F. has sent out a team of Spec Ops pilots to deal with the situation in the cover of night.

Edited November 20, 2017 by Protocawl

[no_snacks 3,345]

This played out surprising well, Proto. 

 

Initially I thought the Savages would easily destroy the ground team, but it turned out to be very balanced.

Because of the large open terrain & night time setting, you couldn't tell exactly where the ground team was while piloting the Savage.

You had to get close enough to see their red ID's, but that meant you were now within range of their RPG's.

 

The ground team had just enough cover & RPG's to get the job done, but they didn't have enough to simply camp in one spot & spam rockets at the Savages.

If they wasted too many shots, they had to use the Sanchez to go searching for more RPG pick-ups, which brought in another intriguing element to the game.  

Now they could be locked onto by the Savages.  Do they choose the Sanchez & risk being locked onto, or go by foot and risk being caught out in the open.

 

Each round played out slightly differently each time, so I think it's quite a well made & balanced LTS.

Also, It should be easy to keep this LTS balanced over time.  

If you notice that one team starts to gain a regular advantage over the other, all you need to do is increase or decrease the amount of cover and/or pick-ups & things should even out again.

 

Really enjoyed testing this with you guys.  Can't wait to play it again. 

 

 

 

[Beez 5,091]

I felt under armed as the ground team. I think we should start with assault rifle and there should be more pick ups. Maybe some heavy sniper & mini gun as well as more rockets. Also maybe a Technical that's locked in position with props as an anti-aircraft gun.

 

Take my suggestions with a grain of salt though because I suck. After I died each time I watched Mousey and she was at least able to live longer than me and retaliate against the choppers better.

 

I didn't realize that the rockets in the Savage only lock on when you are in a vehicle so now I know that.

 

I would definitely play it again though because it was fun and I want to get better at both flying Savages and firing rockets at them.

[nicolabellamy77 441]

at first i thought the savages would have a big advantage but after being in a savage its hard work getting the people on the ground without getting yourself killed lol on the ground i'd say maybe a couple more rpg's but other than that i think its really good

[Protocawl 2,971]

Thank you for the feedback, I'm also glad that you all enjoyed it!

 

Beez, if I implemented these changes then it wouldn't be the same LTS anymore. Sorry, but you're asking for too much assistance - it's not meant to be easy and Assault Rifles are available in 2 places. They're really powerful from close range against Savage pilots, I killed someone yesterday like that. Besides, you wouldn't want the Savage pilots to have ARs from the beginning as well, trust me. Instead, I've made some simpler improvements, all requested by the players.

 

UPDATE:

*Added more Sanchezes and RPG spawns to starting points for the mountain team.

*Shortened the intro, or at least tried to, but thanks to our beloved WORD FILTER, I had about 5 different useful intros denied. It took about 20 mins to come up with those. Great waste of time. I'm working on a new one.

[G37 3,444]

I'm sitting in the opposite camp on this one. It's far too experimental to be a success as it stands at this point IMO.

 

There's a number of things that just aren't working. It takes the idea of Skyscraper LTS (which has its' own flaws) and expands upon that in an open setting.

 

First let's take a look at the terrain. Those that are on the ground are posted awkwardly on various mountain sides. This actually is to their disadvantage despite having a Sanchez to work with. There's very little room to move about and if you do board the Sanchez, it is a life or death battle up or down hill where your impeded speed makes you a sitting target, literally. The starting weapon on this team is also a Pistol which unfortunately serves zero purpose.

 

Let's take a look at the air team. They're equipped with the Savage. Think of it like a slightly less maneuverable Buzzard with at least a 1.5x fire rate on rockets. Oh, and then there's explosive rounds which means your opponents are tissue paper. They have complete freedom of movement and it's only a matter of time before they divide and conquer you, or flat out swarm you.

 

So there's definitely some crucial balancing issues here. While I like the idea in theory, it's just not executed very well. Is this job without hope? Absolutely not, but as it stands it needs further consideration. Maybe it's a different location, maybe it's different weaponry, maybe it's different air craft. That's up to you but IMO it just doesn't work as is. One team is far too favorable.

[no_snacks 3,345]

Hey Proto.

We played this on PS4 today with about 13-14 players.  Unfortunately It didn't play out the same way it did on PS3 the other day. 

Today the Savages completely dominated each round.

Because of the larger amount of players, once 1 or 2 of the ground team were taken out, the Savages could then "gang up" on the remaining players.  

By the end of each round, it was basically 6-7 Savages v's 1-2 ground players.  They had absolutely no hope.

 

I think the ground team could do with a bit more firepower like Beez mentioned, but I'm not sure what weapons though.  You'll  have to be careful, as you don't want to make it too easy for them. 

They definitely need alot more cover for this to work consistently though.  Not just some extra crates or boxes, but significant cover like trees, large rocks and other big props.

 

Some of the starting points have natural cover like trees, rocks & little ridges in the landscape, and they seem to work reasonably well.  Maybe just a couple more props and some extra pick-ups is all they need.  

However, there are at least 2 starting points on the Sth side of the mountain that are very exposed & only have a few crates for cover.  That cover offers little to no protection from the missiles & explosive cannon rounds.  

You could put dozens of extra crates there, but it still wouldn't make a difference.  If you're in cover behind a crate and it gets hit by a missile, you're going to die.  A player needs to be able to stand back from a large piece of cover (like a tree) to get any protection from it.

I started on that side twice, and tried to use the ridges & valleys for extra cover, but the terrain was quite steep in that area, so my character would often slip & stumble while I was moving around.  Even the Sanchez struggled there, so when I used up all my RPG's, I really struggled to get back to the pick-ups for more.

 

It's such a hard thing to get balanced, as the outcome has turned out differently both times I've played it.  I think it can be done though, but it's not there yet. (even though it seemed to work the other day)

I would definitely remove/move those start points on the Sth side for a start though.

 

Looking forward to seeing any changes you make. 

Edited July 18, 2015 by no_snacks

[Protocawl 2,971]

Thank you very much for the info with a larger group of players - that's what I never got the chance to test, never got enough people to join. I think there are 2 options for me here: 1) I reduce the number of maximum players for this job, make it like a 10 player map, or 2) try to find better spots with cover, change some spawn points, add more powerful weapons to the ground team and basically make it a larger scale map, like minimum of 10 players. I'll see what I can do in the creator and then make a decision based on the possibilities.

 

Thank you again!

[Protocawl 2,971]

I finally got around to making the changes to this LTS, so here's what has changed:

 

UPDATE:

• Removed the southern rebel spawns and the helicopter spawns from the road, which means that it's now a 12-player job instead of 16.
• Removed/repositioned/added some Sanchezes on the mountain.
• Added 3 Minigun pickups and a few more RPG pickups, changed some other pickups.
• Changed the starting weapon from a Pistol to an Assault Rifle.
• Updated the OP with more information.

[Protocawl 2,971]

It seems that the heli team is still too OP due to them having Savages. I'm going to have to get this tested with Buzzards and Valkyries. My fear is that Buzzards are too small and nimble and Valkyries' co-pilot cannon is also too powerful.

 

I can't add any proper cover (like containers and such) for the mountain team either, the ground is too uneven in most places. And it would actually probably pinpoint their locations for the heli team as well, since those huge containers would be easy to spot and if someone is near them you'll know exactly where they are.

 

AHHHH!

Edited September 10, 2015 by Protocawl

[djw180 6,833]

I was going to put this in my half of tomorrow's PL. But as it was run yesterday I'll pick something else. I do want to have a go at this sometime soon though.

 

So having not played it I can't comment too much. But could you give the Heli team something without rockets or big guns and just have the passengers using heavy MGs,  maybe the Annihilator?

[Protocawl 2,971]

I was going to put this in my half of tomorrow's PL. But as it was run yesterday I'll pick something else. I do want to have a go at this sometime soon though.

 

So having not played it I can't comment too much. But could you give the Heli team something without rockets or big guns and just have the passengers using heavy MGs,  maybe the Annihilator?

Good luck aiming those little dots on the ground at night in the Annihilator when they're hiding behind rocks!

The passengers would need to be brought relatively close to the ground and the heli would have to be quite steady for them to have any chance of hitting the ground team. The heli would also have to be sideways basically and it would just make it a sitting duck. Trust me, hitting it with an RPG would be way too easy. The ground team would be OP then. Even if I gave them only assault rifles, they'd still have auto aim and rocks to hide behind, where as the passangers in the heli would have to rely on so many other factors.

If you haven't played it - I can understand the suggestion and I've thought about it before, but... ^ ^ ^ The ground team will hit you with rockets too easily then, since you can't see them from afar in the air, you'll have a difficult time aiming, so will the passengers, you'll need to get closer to them and that's when you'll get shot down easily. And when the ground team gets on Sanchezes.. good luck hitting them then as well.

 

The relentless explosive cannon of the Savage is basically causing all the headaches here. The explosive radius of it is just too much, but hitting someone with the heli's rockets is more challenging. Basically, if I could lock the weapon available in the Savage to the rockets, all should be fine. The Savage is also big and less agile than other helis (it seems and feels like it at least), which makes hitting it with rockets more possible. Even now it's very possible if you have good aim with the RPG (and Minigun, since those are on the map, too), but the continuous stream of the explosive cannon fire is just too OP (when the pilot has even slightly good aim).

 

Also about the passengers - they'd run out of ammo quick in the air and after that they'd have to jump down with a huge risk of falling to death or getting killed by people from cover. Or they''d just sit idle in the heli. Just seems a bit too complicated to work well.

 

I don't want to give up on this general idea of the LTS, so I'll keep trying different things, I'll copy this job a few times and make different unpublished versions, then test them out as much as I can. I have to make this work!

[djw180 6,833]

Yes do please keep trying. The concept is great.

[Protocawl 2,971]

UPDATE:

• Released a new version of this LTS & added the new link to the OP.
• Reduced the amount of Savages to 3, so if there's more than 3 players per team, the rest will have to hop in the co-pilot and passenger seats and later possibly parachute down to attack the ground troops.
• Pistol is once again the starting weapon.

All feedback is very much appreciated!

Edited January 18, 2016 by Protocawl

[Protocawl 2,971]

UPDATEd a while ago by now:

• Increased player cap to 30.
• Savages replaced with Valkyries (no cannon).
• Tweaked weapon pickups.
• Added Manchez dirt bikes in addition to Sanchezes for mountain team.
• + other small changes/tweaks.

I'm now waiting to see how the Hunter will work in this job once R* decide to make it available in GTA:O and the Creator. There's potential for the Hunter to be the perfect helicopter for this job.