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Beta 1.2 Video

A very low production value video showing off some of the features of beta 1.2.

The video is available streamed in low-quality by Google Video here.

Or download the WMV format (~37 MB) here.

User Interaction Reborn

Relying heavily on the dialog template produced by Dr Eyeball, TG Domination features some of the most developed and effecient interfaces ever created for Armed Assualt.

Domination Control:

Domination Control is both the hub and single entry-point to all the on-demand dialog interfaces available in the mission. Domination Control is accessed via the player's action menu or via the player's radio command. As the hub, the Domination Control interface displays vital information such as the current game mode life cycle, current battle statistics, respawn countdown time and provides command buttons to open these dialog interfaces: Zone & Objective, Command & Control, Rank, and Help & Rules.

Zone & Objective:

This dialog provides vital information on the all the scenarios and missions available in TG Domination. It is recommended that all players visit this dialog after a zone has been selected to obtain all necessary breifing details. During the voting portion of the life-cycle, if the player is on the voting enabled team, they use this dialog to cast their vote for a specific zone/mission/objective/challenge to activate. A TG Admin may also use this dialog to force activate a zone (or zone reset), as well as to grant a zone to a particular side.


Tactical Gamer Command & Control (TGCC):

This dialog is simply the heart and sole of organizing the soldiers on the TG Domination battlefield. This dialog, mildly styled after BF2, provides the ability for soldiers to create and group into both squad and fireteams. Unlike the built-in squad functionality, this dialog provides feedback to all team-members about all the squads operating on the island. Players in the same fire-team will be joined using the in-game squad function to allow the fireteam leader maximum control in directing his/her units. (Note: At this time it is highly recommended that all players participate in squads and in a specific fireteam, to encourage this players will not be shown in the Squad Feedback panel if they do not belong to a fireteam.) From this dialog the team's commander is also selected and given specific abilities to manage the battle (under-development).


Rank:

This dialog is available to all players to view their assigned ranks. At this time ranks are assigned by the team's commander (as selected in the TGCC and is currently employed only when the commander has elected to limit requisitions by rank. By toggling this ability on, a verification step is added to any requisition that checks the player's rank against the a table of vehicles and their ranks.


Help & Rules:

The mose simple of the dialogs is simply a means to display information that can help orient a player to TG Domination and also convey important rules and regulations specific to the Tactical Gamer server.


Requisition Interface:

Available by interacting with computer terminals in the main base, the requisition interface is populated with all vehicles or units available to that terminal for the currently active zone.

An Overview of TG Domination

TG Domination is above all else, just a framework for many types of scenarios & battles comprised of two essential components: the game mode life-cycle and the scenarios and battles themselves. Each battle is intended to have a definitive beginning and end that translates back to the persistent world as a specific result (i.e. a win or loss for that team). While the accumulation of victories provide the "end-game" each battle is independent and balanced according to just that mission.

Game Mode Life-Cycle:
TG Domination uses a life-cylce to provide structure to its persistent world in the default game mode. The life-cycle proceeds as follows: Vote -> Tabulation/Selection/Loading -> Battle Prep -> Battle -> Battle End/Team Victory -> Battle Reset -> Victor Team Votes ||
The current state of this life-cycle is shown at the top of the Domination Control Dialog. There is an alternative life-cycle available via the server parameter settings before the mission has started. The toggle allows the admin to set the mission into "Event Mode". With this mode selected, an admin will replace the voting process and will direct the selection and loading of the battle.

"Event Mode" is a truly revolutionary method of running a structured persistent world. With a TG Admin at the helm, the players can be guided through a series of specific missions. The admin also has the ability to award any zone to either side at anytime. This allows a reoccurring campaign that might spawn many weeks or months to be played out with the admin simply recording and then restoring the zone states.

Scenario's & Battles:

Within TG Domination, the island of Sahrani is segmented by territory into zones (currently 17) and each zone has a specific battle type assigned to it. The battle type's currently available are Build Objective, Defend Objective, Sector Control, Armor Battle, and Infantry Battle. From the TG Domination Control Dialog a player is able to view each zone's characteristics and battle type. Zones are the primary focus of TG Domination and the only determining element for the ultimate winner of the island. However, recognizing the unique opportunity afforded by the TG Domination framework and life-cycle, alternative scenario's have been provided and will be expanded on throughout the continuing development of this project. These alternative scenarios are presented in three categories: Missions, Operations, and Challenges.

1. Missions are one-sided contests where one team is working to complete a set of objectives while the other team is working to thwart their timely completion.
2. Operations are more coop inclined, featuring more hostile AI forces and do not anticipate a significant hostile player force.
3. Unlike Zones, Missions or Operations, Challenges are included for some variety and light-hearted entertainment. They can be played seriously and competitively or can be played in a more relaxed or even "stunt" oriented environment and are perfect for low population play.

An Overview of TvT in ArmA

It is probably about time for me to explain what TG Domination is and why I think it is so special to Tactical Gamer and the ArmA community. The fundamental flaw with almost every TvT mission I have every played in the OFP or ArmA environment is that they suffer a burden presented by one of ArmA's greatest strength's, the shear size of the Island. Thus far, we have seen from mission designers two approaches that are successfully, but not IMHO not optimal at leveraging the island: Unstructured Persistent Battles & Structured Non-Persistent Battles

Unstructured Persistent Battles:
A traditional persistent mission such as "Capture the Island" (CTI) does nothing to address the size of the island and it is not uncommon for players to spend hours "fighting" hostile AI forces and never actually encountering enemy players as the battle rages over the entire island. It is not uncommon to see nothing, but whack-a-mole happening for hours on end (see this OFP description). Most of these mission types also utilize a resource allocation model that grants additional benefits to the team in-control of strategic portions of the island. While this is "strategically" interesting, it creates a huge practical burden on the combatants, especially those joining in an unfavorable position. There is nothing inherently wrong with a blended COOP and TvT approach (in fact Domination includes enemy AI as well), but the lack of structure presented by this open ended mission style does not best serve the interests of a tactically oriented community like Tactical Gamer.

Structured Non-Persistent Battles:
On the flip side, a non persistent mission such as any "Berzerk" mission limits the players to contested area roughly equivalent to that of a battlefield 2 map, ensuring player on player battles in a balanced environment, but removing the scope of battling over the whole island and the benefits of "persistence". While ArmA is a fantastic military simulation platform, it doesn't lend itself well to the BF2 play style and as such doesn't deliver (nor should it) the experience presented by that flagship franchise. There is also significant overhead in playing a mission to conclusion and then having to exit out, select a new mission, get organized again and learn all the different features incorporated from the next mission designer.

I'll go on a tangent here, but my belief as to why Evolution has been so successful? It presents a structured persistent world that is able to be played night after night and once learned rarely requires the players to think about "how" to operate and interact with the mission. While TG Domination will also require a GREAT deal of learning, I'm hopeful that how to operate the mission will become second nature to the majority of players and they can then focus on execution inside the game without the fear you currently have that the next random mission loaded up on the server will utilize a totally different set of interfaces and scripts.

That leads me to the style of play that TG Domination presents, a structured persistent battle. This hybrid approach combines the benefits of a persistent world with the "tightness" and balance of a structured TvT battle. TG Domination does this by segmenting the map into zones and limiting the objectives to that zone. While players will certainly be operating anywhere on the island they deem necessary, only the active zone will present objectives that will grant them victory. At the conclusions of a battle, the zone will be awarded based on the victory criteria and the entire island will be reset with the only difference that that zone is now controlled by one team.

The Genesis of TG Domination

Despite the availability of two server instances, there has been both a growing level of boredom and dissatisfaction with the missions currently available and in particular with "Evolution", a persistent mission widely run by the greater ArmA community and available nearly 24/7 on the Public server here at Tactical Gamer.

I started the initial development of TG Domination in May of this year with three primary goals.

1. To bridge the gap between the competing community interests for the four popular and competing styles (COOP vs TvT and Respawn vs Limited-Respawn Play) mentioned above
   
2. A recognition that only a home-grown TG mission would satisfy the level of play demanded by our members
   
3. A realization that ArmA provided the necessary flexibility to achieve a dream shared by fellow TG members and BF2 TacMod Developer's Asch and Duke for a "meta" or "RISK" style game experience.

Some of the details of the initial concept work shown here have proved technically impractical (such as capital cities), but the jist of the concept is well on its way to being realized in the current and first open beta version now being finalized and prepared for release. At this stage of early testing, it appears I am well on my way to achieving my three primary goals.

Introduction to Armed Assualt

TG Domination is an extended engagement or persistent mission in the game Armed Assualt (ArmA). Armed Assualt is well documented as the leading gaming enthusiast's "military simulation". The developer or ArmA and its predecessor Operation Flashpoint, Bohemia Interactive, produces game engine variants (VBS2) that are utilized by various national armed forces around the world including the United States Marine Corps. For more information on Armed Assault please visit the following resources: Tactical Gamer, SimHQ, ShackTactical.com and the Official Website.


ArmA is set primarily on the island of Sahrani. Unlike most FPS games, this island is massive (Driving time from end to end is a roughly 30 minute investment) and the island is 100% available throughout the mission using a "streaming" technology developed by BIS that loads only the portions of the island in the vicinity of the player onto the GPU and CPU. The breadth of the island and its varying terrain presents both unique tactical opportunities and real game-play challenges.

At the heart of ArmA gameplay, there are four popular and competing styles (COOP vs TvT and Respawn vs Limited-Respawn Play) and the Admin team at Tactical Gamer has spent a great deal of time learning about how to balance these among the community utilizing the three available server instances. At this time, it is not uncommon to see both an intense veteran style COOP game running on the COOP server and a well coordinated, but more open-ended COOP game running on the Public server.