New Co-Op/SP scenario - Dev Blog
We recently released Team Deathmatch, a PvP only game mode, and next up is a co-op and solo play focused scenario. The mode is simply titled Combat Ops, and the key goals are replayability and randomness. You're inserted into a conflict zone, sandwiched between two hostile factions and you'll be assigned randomized primary objectives and optional secondary objectives. You can choose to engage hostiles, or try to avoid conflict and let the factions fight each other while you tackle the objectives.
Image: new Bluestone PMC faction engaging hostiles
It's a war out there
Let's talk about the NPC conflict first. It's not meant to be the star of the show but to give a dynamic backdrop for your operation. Behind the scenes it plays a bit like a 'mini RTS'. To start with, the two enemy factions (let's just call them Red and Blue) both control an area of the map with a no man's land in between. Here's an example of the Red vs Blue territories on Mologa:
Then, scattered around the map are 'camps'. These are not necessarily literal camps with gates and guard towers, but areas of interest the NPCs will endlessly try to conquer and fight over. Both factions have a 'main camp' that periodically generates reinforcements and sends out assault squads to capture enemy areas. If you cause enough trouble, the main camp may also send out 'hunter squads' that are trying to find an eliminate you! Outside of the camps, you may also see enemy strike teams arrive by helicopter, so if you see an unknown Little Bird fly by, that's them!
Example image of a 'camp' - this is a neutral one with no sentries, and has a couple of spawn locations for potential objectives. Not every objective has to be in a camp, but you would expect an ammo cache is in a secure location and not in the middle of a forest.
Enemy forces are created inside the red/blue areas of control. Sentries stay close to their initial location, while patrol squads start roaming using the many patrol routes placed in each map (all modes use the same routes). Patrols don't perfectly follow the waypoints, it's more of a guide where they should go, and they can also at certain points branch off to a different route. The previously mentioned assault squads (capture teams) don't follow routes, instead they proceed from one camp to the next, engaging threats along the way.
Image: Example of patrol routes (the purple mess).
Regardless of their objective (patrol/sentry/assault), all squads respond to threats. At individual/squad level they react to threats they see and noises that they hear. At the strategic level, there's an 'alert' system, and the faction's AI manager will direct available squads to respond to alert locations if they are able. This ensures all squads can end up in a fight beyond their visual/audible range, different squads just respond to alerts at a different priority (sentries don't wander far from their initial area). We've never done a dev blog on the AI system in general, so if there's interest we definitely can!
All together, these systems create an ongoing NPC conflict. We don't simply play some fake 'battle' sounds around you, so if you hear gunfire it means someone is really fighting. That doesn't mean that ambient sounds don't have their place, for example distant sounds of artillery would be perfectly appropriate. In the same vein the 'warzone' feeling could be amplified by random events like jet fighters flying overhead, recon drones making a pass or a mortar barrage landing at a cluster of NPCs.
Objectives
When you start the mission, you don't yet have any objectives, but soon after landing you'll be given primary and secondary objectives. In the current dev version you always get two primary objectives and one secondary objective, but we can easily make this more dynamic and/or let you choose the amount. The system will choose objectives so that two of the same type don't spawn per mission.
Primary objectives have to be completed before extraction will be called, secondary objectives are more like targets of opportunity you can pursue for extra challenge. The secondary objectives could also have consequences, for example eliminating an enemy officer could disrupt the faction's mortar strikes in the area.
We'd also like to give you a score/evaluation at the end of the round (you're a PMC doing this for a payday after all) but this isn't implemented yet.
For tracking the objectives, the full screen GPS is your friend. This has existed in Exfil for a long time, but you may not have ever noticed since we don't particularly advertise it and it's not an integral part of the existing modes. If you hold down Tab (or simply press M in the new version - check your keybinds if it's unbound) the GPS will open in a full mode. the Objectives tab will give you a checklist of your goals, and pressing the ? icon will give you more details about your target. Objectives that may appear during the mission will be announced with a radio message and a blinking GPS icon.
Image: Objectives tab on the GPS
Challenges
Some technical and design challenges with this style of scenario is how we allocate the NPC forces. In Exfil the AI has always been dynamic and we don't simply spawn hostiles around you to ensure you encounter a perfect amount of combat per mission. The flipside of this is that sometimes you could go a long stretch without encountering anyone because the AI patrols never spotted you, or sometimes you witness excessive amounts of enemies drawn to one location. Overwhelming odds can be fun sometimes, but not when game performance suffers. We haven't had a chance to do all the possible optimizations yet, but there are several systems already in place. Enemy squads that don't have any players near them are 'throttled down' as much as possible, which includes reducing their animation update rates and network update frequency. 'Near' is of course a bit of a challenge when view distances and engagement ranges can be hundreds of meters, and multiple players could be operating around the map.
Can I play it yet?
The mode is still in development and we've only just started playtesting it. In the upcoming weeks you can expect the mode to be playable on all of our maps and with several more objective types. The sandboxy nature of this game mode makes it easy to expand, or to invent new game modifiers (for example, an option where you start with nothing but a pistol has been suggested). Our public testing Steam branch has a 'sneak peek' version of the mode on one map (Mologa) and with three objective types. If you want to give it an early spin, we welcome your feedback on any aspect of the mode! The best way to do to get in touch with us is our Discord.
-- [TL] Luomu
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