Welcome to the Ghost Recon SubredditThe official Subreddit for Ghost Recon. Feel free to discuss and share content about any game in the series from the original Ghost Recon to Breakpoint.ALWAYS USE THE SEARCH BAR BEFORE SUBMITTING A NEW POST. POSTING RULES.If you encounter a bug or have another issue with any of the Ghost Recon games, please contact the Ubisoft support and open a ticket under.Please do not troll, harass or be generally rude to your fellow users. Keep comments civil and be respectful.All posts must be relevant to Ghost Recon. Media posts must include content from any Ghost Recon game.
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Story spoilers after release also have to be marked or will be removed.Channel promotions, blog-spam or creating multiple posts/comments about the same topic count as spam and will therefore be removed. This includes trades, giveaways or non-official events. If there is a post stickied, new posts about the same topic will be removed and discussion will be redirected to the megathread.Posts and comments containing personal or identifiable information such as names, faces, addresses, or phone numbers will be removed.Witch-hunting, accusations of cheating, or general call-to-actions that target specific users will not be tolerated. Please send any reports of cheating to.Looking for group (LFG) posts are not allowed, please use the or the subreddit.Moderators reserve the right to remove any post for any reason. Links.Social Links.Related Subreddits. Other than the fact that in GRW you find weapons and attachments, I can complete missions, hunt down and kill NPCs, steal cars, and use a flight model that actually works.On top of that, I can play on modded servers and enhance my experience.
I can customize the hell out of my character and the weapon systems I use. Also, I have direct contact with the guy that created the BMR Insurgency game mode.TL;DR, I play Arma 3 Insurgency and get more satisfaction than playing GRW.EDIT: I'm on mobile, please excuse the grammatical errors. Arma is also a best practice in placing additional content to make money and that satisfies the community, too. When was the release? Three years ago? And I payed for the Apex expansion and will also buy the new ones. Because it makes the game rich and keeps me being creative.If Ubisoft for example would hand out a 'Creators Edition' for GRW, with an ingame editor to place mission objectives, additional patrols and so on, I would pay for that.
Definitely.It's a waste of the game, it's open world and everything that could be, if they don't consider developing further. Why did we even q & a if the devs ddn't care (or imo personally can't entertain their consumer due to their skill levels as developers) about our questionable to lol it just seems like the community managers would pass our ideas down and devs were like what's the job as a community manager again? Sit down and the cm's decided they no longer wanted to be middle men to their decisions(Yes I actually feel bad for the community manage of ubisoft)(Yes I would like this opinion passed on to the devs, they deserve to know how I feel and maybe they'll step in and tell me how they feel lol prob not, they'll just have you sit quiet and give us a reply with no context)(Yes I feel like the devs team should get replaced by a whole new staff, with actual work experience). I wasn't referring to the game Insurgency, but the Arma 3 game mode.I think my point was more that, as much as Ubisoft tried to make GRW an open world shooter where the player can choose, BI did it better with Arma by allowing us to customize the missions, maps, weapons, and even the gameplay through modding. Arma 3 BMR Insurgency is very similar in gameplay to GRW, and we play on many different maps, against different enemies and scenarios.Yes, I know the base games are nothing alike, but the likeness of the gameplay was what I was referring to.
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A mod I’ve been making, with the goal of re-creating Ghost Recon’s CROSSCOM 2.0 HUD (The version in Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 1/2) in Arma 3, as well as a Ghost Recon Showcase mission being made alongside it, and eventually a Ghost Recon themed COOP campaign or series of missions. The mod will not be on Steam Workshop until I figure out how to upload userconfigs, but the missions will be on Workshop.Ghost Lead, Kozak, Pepper and 30K sweep through a European village with the CROSSCOM active. Allied squadmates are shown as Blue, while hostiles are Red, civilians white. The shape denotes unit type- infantry are diamonds, vehicles squares, with icon shape, size and color as close to GR’s as possible. The small feed in the bottom corner gives a real time grid reference (GRD) and time. (LMT)Here you can see some OPFOR units that have been tagged by the HUD- if the players lose sight of the units the HUD projection/ feed will show a broken outline at their last spotted location, before disappearing over a short time.A screenshot of some players moving through a mission built for the CROSSCOM mod- A Ghost Team deployed to the Mediterranean in order to find and eliminate an enemy BODARK recon team, who are supporting Militia units in the area.
Here we go, with the second blog post about my hopes, fears and ideas for Ghost Recon Wildlands! If you haven’t read Part 1, you can find it.
In this part, I intend to go over game choices, modding, and multiplayer, in what will doubtless be another wall of text! So grab a brew, pull up a pew, and let’s crack on. Where We Left ThingsIn the last blog, I basically implored the devs to remember the roots of the franchise and treat that as the reference, rather than their most recent effort, which was Ghost Recon in name only. Since then, I’ve been playing more Arma 3 (if you haven’t got it yet, I’d suggest it if you’re a fan of hardcore tactical games), and starting to consider doing some modding for it.How is this relevant?
Well, it got me thinking about tactical gaming more, especially as it’s a genre that is criminally overlooked. If I were to throw on my old man beard (and smoke a pipe), I’d say that the shift from tactical gaming to more casual ‘hop in and play’ started with Call of Duty Modern Warfare.
It took the idea of a modern military-themed game and turned it from being an ultra-serious endeavour like OGR, or Arma/OFP, or (at the softer end) even BF1942 (my introduction to MP shooters, via the Desert Combat mod) and made it much more accessible to a casual audience. Modern Warfare received much acclaim for the move and setting (even from the ever cynical!), and since then, most shooter genre developers have tried to ape the formula (for the massive piles of cash it generates), with varying levels of success.In my opinion, GRFS tried to bring in that casual market, not realising that by doing so they were taking out the very basics that made the franchise’s fans happy, and thus more likely to buy the next iteration. The basics I covered before, but like all fundamental ideas, they bear repeating: brutal firefights, one-hit kills, character perma-death, and freedom of choice. That last one is arguably the most important fundamental of the lot!Since then the tactical/milsim gamer has had few places to turn, with, and being the best of the bunch, though the last two are more geared towards multiplayer than single player, and I am terrible at MP! If there are any more, someone tell me so I can check them out!But I digress, let us now look at what I’d like to see as deeper game choices, and modding. Deeper Game ChoicesFirstly, what do I mean by deeper game choices?
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Basically, allow me the freedom to play how I want, but reward me for playing smart. The first game managed this with the Combat Points system for each Ghost and the Specialists unlocks, allowing you a certain amount of RPG-style upgrading that made your Ghosts better at certain things and with side objectives that unlocked specialists and their custom weapons.
Whilst this doesn’t have to be as deep as, say, Mass Effect, it would certainly add some incentives to keep your squad alive, if you knew that by taking your sniper (Jack Stone!) on another couple of missions you had enough points to upgrade his ‘encumbrance’ enough to allow him to carry that Barrett M107A1 without penalty. Make me care about my Ghosts without trying to force me to do so, via stock tropes and dull cutscenes. I saw this shot in the trailer (and shot – props to Rocky there). GRW Trailer Image. Note 30K on the notesThis made me groan out loud when I saw it, as I now fear that we’ll be forced to play as the same four insufferable dullards from GRFS, with their bullshit invulnerability and their inane ‘banter’. So much for diversity and freedom of choice But I digress from the direction I’d like to see Ubisoft go with Wildlands.This would tie into female characters, as if I had a fully upgraded Susan Grey, and a fully upgraded Henry Ramirez, I’d expect Ramirez to be able to carry more before he hit his encumbrance limit. It’s not meant to be a sexist comment, it’s just my experiences with fit men and women, doing lots of running, climbing, tabbing, etc.
Most would then ask; “why take Susan on your mission then?” The short answer is “playing smarter, not harder”. The long answer involves taking a scenario that was highlighted in the GRW trailer. GRW Example Scenario (highlighted in red).So, we have to steal some relics from this sanctuary (which sounds somewhat morally questionable)! There are many obvious options to getting them, assuming that the relics are guarded by drug dealers/corrupt cops/whatever, such as night strikes, suppressed takedowns, etc.However, I’d like to be able to do something entirely different: walk my female Ghost (called, say, GR2 fans) through the door, disguised as a local, steal the relics, and then walk out with no one outside being any the wiser.
Have it such that the local villagers make the trek to see the relics, and pay an ‘entry fee’ to the guards to see them. To make the theft even easier, have the rest of the team cause an incident on the road to the right of the Sanctuary (highlighted with the green line), which would draw the guards away from the Sanctuary at the crucial moment, allowing her to grab them and escape. If there are locals in the sanctuary at the time, they can spot her doing it and either keep quiet (if the Ghosts’ influence is high in the village) or call out to the guards (if the enemy’s influence is high in the village). If the guards are called then she has to escape by other means, which may involve a firefight and all that that entails.Olivia’s ability to carry out the task is determined by her Combat Point allocation.
If she has good Stealth and Intelligence levels, then she can easily pay her ‘entry fee’ and walk past the guards, as the Intelligence skill means that she has language skills and can also act like a local. If, however, her points got put into Weapon Handling or Encumbrance, then she can’t speak the local Spanish dialect and doesn’t know how to act around them, which tips off the guards and would lead to a shoot out and her probable death. Also, her gender lends itself well to making it easier to get into places unnoticed, as not many would expect a female SOF soldier.Option 2 for this example mission could involve suppressed weapons, going in at night, and silently eliminating guards. In this case, obviously, you’d be free not to take Olivia, but I would as it gives me more Combat Points to spend on her, to make her better at her Intelligence side, plus I’d expect a female character to be able to handle suppressed weapons as well as her male counterparts.Option 3, going in loud and heavy with weapons such as a GPMG, and I’d expect her to be able to carry the thing, but with a penalty to movement speed or fatigue level, unless she trains more into it, or carries less ammunition for it.
So, whilst it is doable to use Olivia as an MG gunner, it may not be the smart choice (even though she was a support gunner in GR2 fact fans), unless I’ve put her Combat Points in Encumbrance and Weapon Handling.This leads further into the RPG-esque element of Combat Points, that I’d like to see back in the SP game. If I was designing it, I’d have the following 5 categories:. Weapon Handling: Factor in how accurate the AI’s shooting is, and how much your sight picture sways when the weapon is brought up.
The sway is also affected by weapon attachments (foregrips, etc) and whether you/AI have been wounded. Encumbrance: Determines how much weight you can carry and how long you can run for before your weapon sway becomes unmanageable (fatigue level). If you rest, by slowing to a walk or stopping, your fatigue level decreases over time. Obviously, the fatigue level takes slightly longer to drop if you walk instead of stopping, but isn’t obscene like Arma. The gear determines how much you can physically carry, but the greater the weight, the higher factor in the fatigue calculation. Stealth: Exactly like it sounds (ba-dum tish!), this determines how quiet you are when approaching a position. Useful for covertly walking through neutral territory (local villages), though is modified by your gear’s stealth level.
Gear’s stealth level is determined by a table, that references the piece’s ID#, attaches a stealth value for the stealth calculations. The stealth value of the Ghost is part of the calculation for determining if you can carry weapons and such in clothing and not have them detected by enemies. Intelligence: Determines how easy it is for you and the AI to spot intelligence items in places (e.g. A map on the wall of a hostile building), and gather intelligence from locals and prisoners (via conversations or interrogations).
Is also a factor in the detection calculations for neutrals and enemies, as a higher level means the Ghost is more capable at ‘blending in’ to the population, and thus can carry covert weapons closer to the enemy before they get detected. There is also a gender flag here, that determines how AI actors treat the Ghost, depending upon their inclinations. Leadership: Determines how easily the AI ‘breaks’ when under fire. At the basic level, the weapon sway increases when under fire, and leadership determines how quickly that happens, for both human and AI. If the sway becomes too high, and the AI is still under fire, they break and extract back to hard cover. Once in cover, it takes a level of time to recover, based upon the Leadership value.
However, if a team member is within 20m (say) of another, and has a higher Leadership value, then the lower value is disregarded (the team mate is bolstering their comrade’s courage).In many ways, this is a simpler version of the stats that your team members had in Rainbow Six: Raven Shield (hands up if you remember that one nostalgia fans). Rainbow Six: Raven Shield Squad ScreenThe base stats for each of the Ghosts would be randomised to an extent, so that there would be some variation, as you’d expect from real life: not every SF type is a muscle-bound lunatic.
This means you could end up with a very Intelligence heavy Ghost that can carry a lot but has poor weapon handling, or someone who is great at inspiring their team, great with weapons, but can’t carry as much. Again, it feeds into making smarter, not harder, mission choices.These RPG-style ‘stats’ are predominantly for the AI team mates, and determine how they react when you’re not micro-managing them (i.e. Soul swapping), and instead just giving orders via your Tactical Map or via context sensitive orders.Speaking of which Context sensitive orders should be something that can be done, via a commo-rose or similar. The orders are modified by the RoE I’ve selected for the team. At its most basic level, Rainbow Six: Raven Shield had a version of this.
Raven Shield Context Sensitive Orders.Obviously this is as simple as pointing your crosshair at something or someone and pressing & holding the ‘Quick Orders’ key on your keyboard/controller. Your Ghost(s) respond with a quick line to indicate they have received and understood the order, then they carry it out.This may sound complex, but it can be made fairly easy, as shown to great effect by the post-E3 demo of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain:I skipped the video forward to the relevant part; where our demonstrator uses a whole series of context sensitive actions to perform some complicated moves with the AI partner. There would be an added level of complexity for having 3 squad mates (choose the squadmate before the action on the controller), but it’s something I think could be done. So, no excuses Ubi! If Kojima and his team can do it and make it look so effortless, so can you!
(As an aside, I do hope we can get a better outfit for Quiet; it’s hardly sensible, even for Shinkawa!)Now, given that Ghost Recon is designed to be a tactical game, I’m sure there’ll be naysayers decrying that my example relic mission above isn’t in the spirit of the game because it doesn’t involve shooting someone in the face or snapping their neck. I’d argue that this is just another way of being tactical about fulfilling the briefing. If I can complete a mission and not leave any evidence that it was me (but maybe plant something to show that it was another AI faction), then am I not being a true Ghost? Besides, the idea of a dynamic conversation system (for extracting intelligence from civilians/prisoners) is much more enticing and involves intelligent gameplay than this shot from the trailer.
GRW E3 2015 Trailer InterrogationOh look, it’s the Ghosts interrogating White Hat I use interrogate loosely as giving him a shoeing seems a better description. Also, as I recall, these enhanced interrogation methods don’t have a track record of being any good in the real world, with most prisoners saying whatever their interrogators want them to hear to make the pain stop So, bring in a gameplay element where you have to work out what makes the prisoner/civilian tick, and how best to use that to get the information you want. It may require you to do a side mission (kill this guy/sabotage these computers/whatever) to fulfill the terms they lay down to get the intel out of them. Some may decry this as being no different to a ‘Collect Ten Wolf Pelts’ fetch quest, but it would add more colour to the game, especially if you refuse it (morally questionable assignment, etc), don’t get the intel, then your next mission against that faction is harder because you didn’t know the combination to a safe/a keypad code for a door/whatever.But, how would you equip your team for each of the above options in the example mission? This is where your safe house comes in.
Using something similar to the Virtual Arsenal (shown below, with multiple mods loaded), you can create your custom loadouts, save them as presets for each member of your team, and then apply them. Arma 3 VA ‘Assault’ Preset.Obviously this is something you could only do at Safe Houses, and maybe as an upgrade to certain vehicles. Each item you equip would have an encumbrance value, and you could add magazines and other equipment, which would add to the encumbrance value, with your Ghost’s stats dictating how much they could carry without adverse penalities. As mentioned above, the items also have a stealth value, which determines how covert you can be in certain types of terrain (e.g. Jungle requires a value between 1 and 15, grassland between 10 and 25, etc). Weapons have a ‘concealment’ value, which dictates how easily they can be concealed beneath clothing, and thus smuggled past enemies or neutrals without raising an alarm.
Combine this with your Ghost’s own stats and, voila, you know whether or not your own plan of attack has a good chance of success.I suppose my short version of this blurb is: look at your competitors in tactical gaming like Arma, Insurgency, Squad, and MGS V (yes, I count this as a tactical game, albeit with a healthy dose of humour) for inspiration, remember what OGR fantastic, and give me options with my team, from it’s member composition to the way I clothe, arm and utilise them. And if a team member falls in the field, they are DEAD, not ‘incapacitated’ until I revive them!Anyway, I’ll stop there with my ideas for trying to break free from the same tired, dull, repetitive ideas that make so many games easily disposable after a few hours, as I’m sure most of what I’ve said was pretty much said to the devs during the community’s trip to Paris.
CO-OPThe elephant in the room for this particular thing is how easy it would be to do using co-op. IGOR in all of it’s glory!The simplicity of this tool inspired me to make my first mod!
It was hilariously easy (Ghosts walk from place to place shooting groups of enemies), but suffice to say that I was hooked on modding and have been active in the modding communities for every game I mod since!IGOR’s great ability, like OGR itself, was that it was simple to get started, but very deep once you started playing around with triggers, scripting, and so on. With the introduction of Island Thunder and the Blackhawk insertions, you could create better cinematic sequences, as IGOR received an update. Cue more cheering from the modding community.Around the same time (as I recall, though it could have been with Desert Siege) we got the necessary tools (and documentation) to export 3D Studio Max models as full.chr files to be put into the game. Custom Ghosts became a reality! And lo the community rejoiced, and the OGR modding scene thrived, and still continues to tick over! The same cannot be said for GRFS, which shipped with the square root of bugger all, and has remained that way ever since!In contrast to GRFS, Arma 3 has a built in mission editor, and ships with the necessary and to create anything and import it into the game, from custom skins to complete campaigns, via tanks, helicopters and so on. You could even mod in a family picnic set if you really wanted to, and have custom animations for the family to roll out the blanket, sit down and share out the goodies, with custom dialogue to ask if you could join them, with multiple responses.
In other words, a complete sandbox, limited only by the engine’s capabilities.Now, map editors are prevalent in games these days, with such titles as (Video on channel, along with loads of other FC4 vids), (Video on channel, along with more Forge tutorial stuff), and (includes official documentation from ). These three are just a sample, there are obviously more (like ). Far Cry 4 and Halo 4 in particular show just how powerful things are on the latest generation of console hardware.With this in mind, I would like to hope that we (as a general community) would be able to create custom missions, maps, etc and share them with each other, at a minimum. Whilst missions themselves could be easy to do, maps could be more difficult, depending upon how involved the map editor is.I would like to be able to take existing terrain, and add vegetation, buildings, signs, etc to it.
There is the potential that adding something to the map would conflict with another mod, but I would hope that some form of geo-marker would prevent that from happening with a pop-up warning saying ‘Another Mod is using this space’, or similar. You can use custom items and such when making your map/mission mod, provided the items are stored within the Mod folder you’re currently working on. OGR Mod Selection ScreenArma 3 has a system of getting you to select your mods before the game loads, but that may not work as well for consoles, and a unified menu structure would be easier to port between PC and consoles, so in-game mod selection would make the most sense.Extended ModdingI would love to see the ability to add anything to the game, and have other modders be able to use the assets (with appropriate permissions/credit) in their own projects.
Well, the first post of this shiny new blog, where I will hopefully talk about games (PC mainly, as I’m a PC-only player) that interest me and what I think about their progression. In this first post, I’m going to talk about a game franchise that is dear to my heart (as it was the first game I owned and started modding); Ghost Recon.Those who saw the Ubisoft E3 press conference will remember this trailer:Personally, I was immediately excited about the premise, and could see the potential in the concept! But, over the last week or so, I’ve become increasingly worried as I’ve read all the information I could get from those fortunate enough to attend the workshops at Ubisoft Paris.
Not that I don’t trust them to impart their views, but that Ubi may not ‘get’ what GR actually is to quite a sizeable portion of the franchise’s fanbase. Discussion has been spirited on the and the, with everyone having their own view as to what consitutes ‘Ghost Recon’. So, I thought I would throw my two-penneth into the mix, and explain what Ghost Recon means to me, and how I think Ubisoft could best entice disenfranchised players like me back to the game. (I’d suggest getting a cuppa for this, as it is a fairly long post!)HistoryBack in 2001, RSE (Red Storm Entertainment) created Ghost Recon (OGR) and it was glorious! Not as hardcore as Operation Flashpoint, but not as soft as Half Life, OGR managed to be easy to pick up, but very difficult to master and harshly unforgiving, as being shot (usually) meant that the character was dead, taking with them whatever custom equipment they had available (such as Susan Grey’s MP5SD, or Jack Stone’s L96A1 sniper rifle). At the time, the graphics were very good, and the game is as much fun to play today as it was back then, even before you add the vast selection of mods that people have made for the game.Briefing & Team SelectionPrior to even setting foot on the game map, you had a briefing from your unnamed CO, with high quality voice over, as well as text.
Whilst listening to the briefing you could look at the world map to see where you were, what the weather was at your desination, etc. And click the tab to change it to the Command Map, which cycled through the objectives and highlighted their locations on the command map in turn. Below are a pair of examples of this. OGR Briefing Command Map.The briefing was useful in planning how best to achieve the objectives whilst keeping your team alive, and which characters would be best for that mission (e.g. Using Susan Grey and Henry Ramirez for stealthy missions as they had access to the MP5SD).
Once you’d gleaned whatever information you could from the Briefing, you went on to select your squad.Squad SelectionThe game relied on the classic Rainbow Six method of setting waypoints for the (up to) 3 fireteams that you made by selecting up to 6 characters and assigning them to a team, with characters split into 4 general ‘classes’; Rifleman, Support, Sniper, and Demo. I’ve thrown in a screenshot of this process below. OGR: Creating Your squad.As well as selecting your squad and assigning them to their teams, you could select what weapons they used, from a limited selection (expanded by mods), and decide how to spend the RPG-element ‘Combat Points’ (N.B. The screenshot was taken from the first mission, so I have no points to spend).
The Combat Points were definitely an innovation at the time, as no other game rewarded you for keeping your team alive for the duration of a campaign in such a direct and beneficial way. The carrot was very much ‘keep them alive and they get better at shooting/running/etc’. It made you care about completing the mission with your entire squad alive as the Combat Points actually made them better, and weren’t just for show.As you completed missions you got access to the Specialists (usually by completing the ‘optional’ objectives as I recall). They were a group of 12 characters that had unique kits, looks, and Combat Point presets. In Desert Siege and Island Thunder you got less Specialists, but they still had their unique weapons and looks. Below is the list from OGR, and a pair from GR:IT to show you the unique looks (Jack Stone looks awesome). OGR Command Map.And that was it!
You took it slowly and carefully, as bad moves meant that you could be killed in one-shot by the AI with their telescopic X-ray vision. The only way you could generally find out where the enemy were was by the small ‘Threat Indicator’ compass at the bottom of the screen, and by seeing them in front of you.My own gameplay is really bad (fact!), so here’s a link to SideStrafe’s ‘Nostalgia Night’ piece where he talks about OGR and showcases some really good gameplay:As you can see, it was much more visceral than the follow ups (in my opinion), with minimal music, and more emphasis placed upon the environment, including birds, insects, and the sound of your footsteps (which changed depending upon the surface underfoot). He’s spot on when he says that the minimalist approach to the missions (i.e. No heavy scripting, no music) led to much more exciting gameplay than could be found in the likes of CoD or Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.Fast ForwardI’m fast forwarding at this point, as I realise that some people may be getting bored by now, to the last Ghost Recon ‘single-player’ (not exactly single-player, more designed for co-op with AI flung in as an afterthought) game; Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.I tried to like GRFS, but I just found it too simplified, an arcade game more than a tactical game. Gone was the briefing screen and squad selection, replaced by in-engine cut scenes and objectives changing on the fly. The Gunsmith was a nice way of allowing some customisation, as was the ‘create an operator’ in the MP menu.
Sadly, I could not do the same in SP.The gameplay was more of a generically boring and standard TPS corridor shooter than the immensely tactical game I had previously played (OGR). The ‘Sync Shot’ was a fantastic mechanic however, and one that was very nicely done. It certainly made it easier to keep stealthy, in those enforced stealth sections.
Speaking of which, I played OGR (and now play Arma3) because they give me tactical freedom. I’m not forced to play certain parts as a stealth game, then immediately expected to ‘go loud’ and shoot down an aeroplane (for example). There were technological gimmicks aplenty (Cross-Com, stealth camo, etc) that, whilst very shiny, didn’t do anything for me. The first couple of missions felt very much like they were showcases for the cool new toys, not serious operations against the bad guy/girl du jour. Other gameplay mechanics, like forcing me to guide the hostage NPC, with an infinite ammo pistol that shoots as badly as a BB gun, to an arbitrary point on the map for another heavily-scripted cutscene and action section.I’ll just put a few screenshots I took of my playthrough below as examples of GRFS, for those who haven’t played it. GRFS ‘Tactical Map’, with more clutter than a charity shop!Compare and contrast these shots with the previous ones of OGR.
Visually they’re much better (technology being better than it was in 2001), but the amount of on-screen clutter is much higher.To me this takes away a vast amount of the tension and, with it, joy of Ghost Recon; not quite knowing where your enemies are and forcing yourself to visually check the environment. Yes, you had help insofar as there was the Threat Indicator, but that only gave you the vaguest help in comparison to the diamonds and red outlines that swim over the environment of GRFS like so many acid hallucinations.The tactical map was entirely useless, as you never needed it; everything was either displayed on-screen in MASSIVE FONT (objectives), or in bright colours. Plus, given that you couldn’t control or give orders to any of the other Ghosts as you could before, its need felt more like a legacy item than anything else.In comparison to OGR, the controls felt sluggish, as though they had been optimised for a controller rather than a keyboard and mouse Strange thatAnother major bugbear was regenerating health, the bane of any military shooter game attempting to be taken seriously. It wasn’t helped by importing the ‘strawberry jam’ effect as seen in CoD, which is one of the worst effects I’ve seen for getting shot/taking damage. I expect a game that carries the “Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon” label to be a hardcore shooter, with one shot deaths aplenty.
I completed the first mission of OGR without having to change a magazine once, as each shot killed an enemy. Here, even headshots felt weak and the enemy NPCs were pure bullet sponges. So, the gunplay was very annoying.The characters were stock tropes, and I was so underwhelmed by them and their unskippable cutscenes that I took the time to go and do other things (make a cuppa, putting the washing out, etc.) every time I encountered one. Every time one started I longed for the (nearly) silent protagonists of the first game, where I could imagine what they did in their downtime between missions, as opposed to having it shown to me. It was made all the more annoying that I couldn’t swap them for anyone else, as I’d have preferred to bring in Jack Stone, Henry Ramirez, Dieter Munz and Susan Grey than one syllable ‘nicknames’ that I couldn’t care less about, as I knew they couldn’t die, and couldn’t be nurtured through missions to get better at doing their jobs.
They were merely AI pawns that followed me around as a Labrador follows it’s owner, killing enemies (fetching sticks) to impress me. I could not send one of them off to flank around the concentration of enemies to our collective front and provide support fire, so they felt more of a burden than a help.Where To Go From HereSo, what precisely do I want from GRW? So far you’ve heard me sing OGR’s praises and damn GRFS quite soundly. But, that’s not to say that both had good/bad points, e.g. Room clearance in OGR was abysmal, GRFS had the superb Sync Shot, OGR had peeking/leaning, GRFS had the terrible ‘sticky cover’ mechanic.In many ways I’d like a return to form for the franchise; emphasise that it is a tactical shooter, not a generic shooter, like Gears of War or Call of Duty.
Embrace the fact that Original Ghost Recon straddled the line between OFP/Arma and GoW/CoD; accessible but tactically deep for those that cared to learn how to play the game, and punishing for those who had no patience or desire to learn.So, starting at the beginningCutscenes/intros/BriefingsAs few cut scenes as you can get away with. If anything,I’d prefer cutscenes to focus on the impact we’ve had upon the enemies, not my platoon. Show the aftermath of my mission to capture a mid-level dealer with his/her gang being demoralised (those that are alive anyway), and maybe getting their arses handed to them by a rival gang that’s moved in to take their territory. If I take out a corrupt police chief in a village and leave their cops alone, show the cops either talking to their narco contacts about moving up in the world, or an honest cop team taking down the dirty cops in that village. Let me ‘make’ the characters of my Ghosts and their reaction to doing their job.When it comes to briefing me on the task I’ve elected to accept from the plethora that appear on the world map, give me a commander’s voice over, telling me what needs to be done and why, with a portrait of the Person of Interest (if applicable) and faux satellite images of the immediate area of operations.
“capture Hernandez, and his/her crew won’t last long, which should allow us to gain influence in the local town’s police department. They’ll be more likely to respond to gang-bangers in the area, which will make the villagers feel safer. If they know who did it, then they could provide you with some useful intelligence next time you’re in town.
If you can, take down his main enforcer too, as he’s wanted for killing a couple of DEA agents in Santa Cruz de la Sierra last year, kill or capture, it doesn’t matter.”The SquadNext allow me to pick my squad from my (half) platoon of Ghosts. In other words, an expansion of the Specialists from OGR. At the beginning of the game, have this roster fairly small (approx. 12), and allow it to expand throughout the game as either a direct or indirect result of my actions. BSPaladin on the official forums had a:For example, free a french merc from a underground detention facility and that player becomes selectable. It also unlocks a Famas.So, increase your roster by rescuing other characters as objectives, or by having them ‘unlocked’ by completing additional objectives in some main missions. Given that it’s part of the US Green Berets, make most of them American, but have maybe a third as ‘attached personnel’ from other countries (UK.
France, Bolivia, etc.). Allow me complete customisation of each of them, from armour and weapons through to tactical beards and sunglasses, in the same way that I can create this custom Arma3 character. Timberley, my Arma 3 character.For those that have never played Arma, the character customisation is fairly deep, but it’s something I shall return to later, when I talk about moddingAlso, to throw in something that throws caution to the hardcore approach to the game; give me female charactersas potential squadmates. I know it’s a controversial topic, but this is where the beauty of having a roster to pick from comes in; if you don’t want them, don’t use them. There’s history to this, as Rainbow Six and OGR had female characters before it became a bone of contention It’s amazing what the rise of the internet does to things. To keep it broadly within realistic expectations, have the female operators be members of the ISA, the DEA, or the FELCN (Bolivian Anti-narcotics Force), not Green Berets themselves.
Arma 3 Ghost Reconstruction
For example, bring back Susan Grey as an ISA operative.Let me put the squad mates into fireteams, or (assuming we’re restricted to 4 members) let me take control of each squad mate (soul-swapping). This should be possible, as OGR came out on X-Box and featured that mechanic, and I somehow doubt we’ve gone backwards technologically!Furthermore, if the mission requires me to perform intelligence gathering or covert capture/kill in a neutrally-populated area, let the clothing and weapons dictate how the populace react to my presence. For example, walking around town dressed like Sam Fisher in Conviction with weapons hidden would arouse less suspicion, and thus reduce the chance that the bad guys would be tipped off by worried neutral civilians, than going full tactical like my Arma3 character, which would incite panic amongst a neutral populace and cause the bad guys to wheel out the heavy weapons.Starting the missionHaving done that, allow me to choose insertion point(s) for my squad, in a similar way to the iDroid in MGSV. MGSV: The Phantom Pain iDroid Map. Original screenshot taken from (Reddit).Let me choose whether I want this to be the insertion point for all of the squad, or just one fireteam/character. If the latter, let me use my mouse wheel (thumbstick for controllers) to select the next fireteam/character. For added realism, if I choose one point close to my current location, have it take much less time to get into position compared to one on the far side of the objective (depending upon how they get there).
So, whilst I’m waiting for my other team mate to get into position (e.g. I walk 2km, they walk 20km), let time pass and have it reflected in the game world (night could become dawn, midday could become late afternoon, etc.).Bases/Safe HousesThis is a bit of an aside, but in a similar way to MGSV, give me a few locations that can act as my base of operations. Obviously have the first one I unlock be one of the first missions I undertake. Another break from reality, but once I’ve unlocked more than one safe house, allow me to select any member of my platoon for the squad, even if I left them on the other side of the map.
If there is a ‘hardcore’ mode, then make it take time for my selected squad member to make it to my current safe house.In-gameAs was showcased in the E3 Reveal, Wildlands is predominantly Third-Person, with a shift to First-Person when aiming through a sight. I’ll be honest here; I’m fine with that. I can live seeing my character in third-person, but then I also play a fair few RPGs, so I’m used to the viewpoint.Keep music to a minimum.
As I said in my retrospective on OGR, the main way that it held immersion was by making all of the sound environmental with birds singing, squadmates’ footsteps, trees groaning, incidental conversation between NPCs, brief radio sitreps from other squadmates, etc. Keep the music for cut scenes and briefings.Give me control over my AI squadmates with ‘soul-swapping’ and an enhanced version of the Command Map from OGR. Let me set local waypoints for them to go to, and allow me to dictate their RoE and stance when they’re on the move. Don’t have them just follow me around like so many sheep.
Basically; don’t force me to play co-op to get the most out of the game. Well, I keep irregular hours, so keeping a regular clan/squad is out of the question, and I don’t really want to play with randoms, as it’s a 50/50 chance that they’ll follow the plan. It’s one of the reasons I’ve never done the co-op stuff in any other game. If I want to play with/against other people, I’ll play adversarial MP.Keep the UI clutter to an absolute minimum.
I don’t expect to be handheld through using the controls with big flashy prompts and scripted sequences. If needs be, give me subtle prompts to perform flashy moves like stealth insta-kills and the like. Don’t keep reminding me of basic mechanics, and don’t bring up prompts that the enemy NPC is carrying a rifle: I can see he is by looking at him.
And if the enemy NPC spots me first, let them take a shot. If they kill me, they kill me. It sucks, but such is life. No flashy graphical overlay to show their position either; let me seek him/her out amongst the background.No sticky cover! It was one of the major bug bears of GRFS. I’d expect to be in cover if I’m behind a big rock or something; there’s no need to make me press a button to ‘get in cover’. Have it as a ‘behind the scenes’ thing, for hit calculation.One-shot killing and no regenerating health.
Bring back the hardcore element that got the blood pumping in OGR. If you really feel the need to handhold lazy people, allow for a timed revive mechanic, with a revive timer of, say 10 seconds, after which that squad member is DEAD.
If they’re only (miraculously) injured, make the injury location affect them, with leg injuries producing a limp and reduced movement speed, arm injuries making the sight wobble more, etc. For added fun, partially desaturate the colours, making everything more monochromatic, to show blood loss, not have the screen spattered with strawberry jam. Then, once the mission’s complete, have them removed from active duty for X days, thus temporarily depriving you of their skills, like it was in OGR.Post-MissionOnce all of the objectives for that mission have been done, let me take off into the distance with my squad, going straight to the next mission if I so choose. Obviously, at this point, my weapons and ammunition count from the previous mission will be carried over, so if I expended 50 rounds in the previous mission with my M4, then I now only have 250 rounds available. If I wish to refill my ammunition, then I’ll need to visit a safe house before proceeding. However, I can spend my ‘Combat Points’ on my squad in the pause menu.If I visit my safe house, then give me the option to undergo a debriefing, which will show what the consequences of my actions are, be it unlocking a new platoon member or unlocking a new safe house. This visit also allows me to swap out my squad and loadout (ammunition is refilled automatically), and save my game/log out.ModdingModding is a completely separate thing, that I’ll discuss in more detail at a later point.
Rotax engine repair manual. Suffice to say for the moment: YES!!! Bring back IGOR and the 3DSM exporters!!!Anyway, that’s enough for Part One, as I’m sure anyone who’s read this far is either asleep or wanting to counter/affirm my points, join me next time for Part 2: Deeper Game Choices And Modding!Tim.
ByIntroductionI remember back when I first played a Red Storm Entertainment computer game, it was the original Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six. I met many of my current online gaming buddies in Microsoft’s “The Zone”, a game matching service, playing that game in co-op. It was an experience that has continued to grow on me as the years go by and new cooperative games come out.I remember when we first heard about Ghost Recon, and how great it was going to be. I remember the day it came out, and how everyone of us in my new gaming group (over five years ago) immediately went out and bought it. That evening we connected on my Sidewinder Game Voice, (see how times have changed, now we have Team Speak), and we played all night long till something like four in the morning.
Arma 3 Ghost Recon Crosscom
I remember being off work that night, but had to start my work week the next evening. I remember coming down with a severe head cold, and having to call in for three days straight just so I wouldn’t miss any of the multiplayer action of this new and fantastic squad based shooter.Many years later, I still have Ghost Recon installed on my hard drive along with its two official add-ons, Desert Siege and Island Thunder, along with a number of mods and mission packs. To this day, it is still one of the best computer games ever made, and one of my classic favorites.In Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon, the ghosts, named for the ability to be unseen, mobilize to Eastern Europe to neutralize radical ultranationalists dedicated to bringing the former Soviet Union back to super power status.Ghost Recon wasn’t just a squad shooter, it introduced a number of new elements of gameplay. Like the ability to “take over” any person in your squad, jumping back and forth in “personal” or in “teams” to play all aspects of the game. It also introduced “points” that were rewarded to a soldier after a mission that could go into a number of stats for that character, making it kind of a role playing game in a way. Each soldier used would gain points, then you, as the gamer could assign those points in things like stealth, firepower, or leadership, (along with a few others).
Arma 3 Vs Ghost Recon
It also allowed the gamer to “unlock special characters” with new and special weapons by completing a task assigned in the mission briefing. The game also introduced a tactical map that was superbly well done, you could click on a fire team, assign waypoints, and even direct their cone of fire. You could control how that team reacted, if they remained stealthy, or if they should lay suppressive fire, or fire only when fired upon. For it’s time Ghost Recon was the bomb of squad tactical shooters.