After editing some excellent insurgency missions over the last few weeks (Brawler and Autigergrad, you're amazing), I'm thinking of taking a crack at making my first ever mission. I'm thinking maybe something on Sangin or Fallujah or Zargabad but whatever on that for now. I have a basic question on the initial strength of the OPFOR forces.

My goal is to create a basic asymmetrical insurgency mission. The goal is that the mission should start off real slow going around and interrogating civilians for Intel on enemy locations. I want suicide bombers and IED's/VIED's to be the real threat over the first few hours, but have it possible for OPFOR forces to get out of hand if I don't handle the civilians properly.

If I set the initial Platoon size to the lowest setting (30), but civilians on extreme, will it be possible for the enemy faction to grow exponentially past the initial platoon setting? I've played some missions with these settings (civ and mil) with "Company 100" and enemies populate the map a little too much right from the get go. I'd like for it to be possible for it to become this populated, I just want to prolong some peace and quite as I patrol at first.

And for my purposes, what's the difference between military and civilian objective in regards to the AI Commander for insurgency missions? I see I have the initial unit strength options in both modules.

Thanks for breaking that down for me. Just a quick correction, I plan on making civilian population extreme, not hostility. I'm placing it a low for OPFOR and Medium for me (BLUFOR).

So I take it, even with a small OPFOR platoon size of 30 for each mil and civ, based on your explanation the enemy forces can multiply to large numbers just simply by not intervening on the AI civilian objectives quickly enough? That sounds like exactly what I'mlookong for. Using company size 100 or even platoon 60 at the beginning on debug makes the entire map crawling with enemies. Again, I'd like for it to be possible to turn into that, I just want it to be relatively "slow" in the beginning so I can patrol.

I'm still kind of mulling over a few things for the initial settings. I'm trying to replicate the war in Afghanistan from a couple years back and I'm still debating on certain settings; specifically how I want support and Command/Control Logistics to implemented.

I like the idea of only having ground support like Silentghoust mentioned above. I think it would really make me very cautious and meticulous. But with the IED threat being so high (and with ARMA driving AI being so terrible), I'm still debating on limiting myself to CAS and air transport only, including air support only also for reinforcements.

I'm also not sure if I want only one FOB/TAOR or not. I'm thinking two would be most realistic on a large map (Sangin) so I can say patrol between the two bases but I also don't want my BLUFOR's initial strength to be too high either.

Not sure. I'm editing/porting a buddy's mission right now and it's proven a much harder task than I had expected. Not only on just the balancing things I'm talking about here, but the physical task of not making mistakes on the initial setup either (having heli's not explode on mission start, base building, module settings, classnames, etc).

Yeah it takes a lot of fine tuning to get a mission just perfect. Welcome to the addiction :)

Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.

So two quick questions for you guys regarding Assymetrical:

1. In practice, is it recommended to have multiple duplicate civ/mil placement modules or one of each with a higher platoon/company size? I currently might place one civ platoon at 30 and another at civ platoon at 60 covering the same AO (placed on different civ objects). Would it be cleaner or recommended in any way to just place one but have the company size be 100? I know 90 and 100 are not equal, just using this as an example where the figures are close. I guess I'm just not sure how well distributed profiles are made around the map with only one module. This is why I place several, to make sure most of the areas have activity. Is that bad practice?

2. What do you guys like to do on smaller maps? Specifically I'm making a mission on FATA which basically has to cluster all spawns in the center of the map. I'd say it equates to a 5x5KM radius. Maybe less. I'm finding it difficult to balance the modules to spawn enough enemies for each encounter, versus spawning too many profiles all at once and killing my FPS when in this radius (I'll get 60 FPS when off the grid at my base but 20 or under in the towns where the modules are).

Could someone give me an example for how they like to set up the modules for maps like this? I currently have two civ modules with Platoon 60 and one mil module with platoon 60, and the Virtual AI Active Limiter at 20 which seems too much for my performance because of the cluster of spawns. However, when I reduce the initial platoon size to 30, the enemy groups seem a little thin and encounters are a little too easy.

Would I be better off having maybe two modules only (one mil and one civ) with Platoon 60 and just living with the small force size hoping it may increase after they recruit some civs?

For a map like FATA (smaller). I would do this (I'm actually designing one w 75th rangers on FATA now)

1. I'm setting Opfor to one Civ module objectives only. No mil module. I'm manually placing Opfor starting units myself to better control starting strength.

2. Blur or I set to one military module, platoon 60 size. No vehicle spawns. I'll manually place some hummers, etc. little to no air support.

3. Sync the blufor module to the Opfor commander. I don't sync blufor to the Opfor Civ module.

I do this for a few reasons. One...it keeps US forces in military installations and allows the actual civilian patrolling to be done by my player forces. It's not a big map and I want my players to have as much "action" as possible. Also, I don't have "overkill" in the amount of firepower I can drop on Taliban strongholds...keeping the combat in line with my goal...intense man to man firefights.

That's my general strategy for 5x5 size maps with insurgency missions.

@AUTigerGrad For a map like FATA (smaller). I would do this (I'm actually designing one w 75th rangers on FATA now)

1. I'm setting Opfor to one Civ module objectives only. No mil module. I'm manually placing Opfor starting units myself to better control starting strength.

2. Blur or I set to one military module, platoon 60 size. No vehicle spawns. I'll manually place some hummers, etc. little to no air support.

3. Sync the blufor module to the Opfor commander. I don't sync blufor to the Opfor Civ module.

I do this for a few reasons. One...it keeps US forces in military installations and allows the actual civilian patrolling to be done by my player forces. It's not a big map and I want my players to have as much "action" as possible. Also, I don't have "overkill" in the amount of firepower I can drop on Taliban strongholds...keeping the combat in line with my goal...intense man to man firefights.

That's my general strategy for 5x5 size maps with insurgency missions.

That's a really cool approach for this map! I use a lot of your missions as a guide for me but FATA has me stumped. Thanks for the advice!

So you only have one module per-side right now? One Mil for BLUFOR and one Civ for OPFOR? What are you setting the initial force size to for OPFOR? 100?

Also, how are you approaching populating the hills and valleys? I have two Custom obj modules now, both set to spawn medium HQ's. It makes creeping around the hills pretty scary at night! :) Are you manually placing units in these areas or was that just in the cities?

Opfor initial size doesn't matter because I'm setting their module to objective only and manually placing the starting Opfor units. Those forces will grow after recruiting from the local civilian population. What that also does is allow me to control the size of the initial groups. Using my "go to" Taliban/Al Qaeda unit pack of CAF Aggressors I am starting with a few 4 or 6 man teams spread throughout the map. I also have 3 different custom objectives set up at specific locations to represent Taliban remote camps in the mountains. I also added a few technicals to add some extra "spice" to the mission.

I sync the Taliban commander to know about the US Army Military locations..but I don't sync the US Army to the Taliban modules because I want there to some mystery as to when and where the Taliban are operating from.

Close Air Support on this map is overkill as is Close Air Transport in my opinion. With a map that is only 5x5...it plays better and flows better if all transport is ground transport. So I'll supply my player FOB with appropriate Humvees and light armored vehicles.

I'll use my typical complimentary mods/modules such as ACE and Spyder's Addons for vehicle/recruitment spawners. I'll also add my Middle Eastern ambient sound pack as well.

I've also created some of my own custom compounds to use as Taliban headquarters complete with Jihad propaganda, etc. Then I'll set those as Taliban custom objectives for my forces to raid.

That's my setup. Should be a good time for a 4-15 man coop night.

A night I look forward to. Let me know when it's up. As if the custom sounds you're using aren't amazing enough. Yeah I can't wait to see the compounds. :)

And thanks so much for the detailed response. It makes perfect sense now. It's a great map and I appreciate you sharing your mission making expertise with me. It'll make editing what I have much easier now.

Quick question: How do you limit the BLUFOR mil obj spawns from patrolling and obliterating the heck out of most of the city before you and your team have a chance to thoroughly patrol? LOL! I put a lot of your principals in place (the mission is much better), but my (mil obj platoon 60) side just wiped the floor with the first wave of OPFOR spawns. The city was nearly empty other than civs after about an hour. My player squad didn't do much.

Just to note, I have the BLUFOR mil obj not synced to the OPFOR OPCOM, with OPFOR OPCOM synced to the objective, and have limited my side to infantry only via the the placement and Logistics modules. Are you blacklisting their spawn area at all or having them ignore small objectives (etc)?

Great great advice Incontenenetia!

Earlier on you mentioned finding units in hills and mountains. A really good way to get this is to place OPFOR units using a military placement module with random camps set to high and no filters, then blacklist out all the areas you don't want camps to appear. This keeps some element of mystery if you play your own missions.

Yeah, I manually placed 4 camps around the roads near the mountains but it's a real buzzkill knowing exactly where the enemy camps will spawn. I didn't realize "random camps" literally meant random. I thought they relied on objects so this is really good information. And if I'm reading you right, you've pretty much blacklisted the urban areas and areas with civ/mil objects which makes sense seeing as you want them in the mountainous areas only. Good idea man! Being surprised is a big part of what I'm looking to do. I will do this immediately!

One way around this is to create low(ish) priority custom objectives that don't spawn any units, place them over BLUFOR bases that you want the Taliban to eventually attack, then sync them to the Talib OPCOM only (not BLUFOR).

I'm actually not using a BLUFOR Military Placement module at all. I have only one BLUFOR Placement module and it's a Civilian Placement module set to Platoon 60, placed on the southern most portion of the urban area, in an attempt to keep my friendly spawns as far away from the city center as possible. Unfortunately, due to lack of any objects on the map that's really the only place I could think of putting it. Do you think I should use a Military Placement module instead?

To paint you a picture, my main base is the one on the southern left most area of the map. Though it doesn't actually show up as a military object. This is why I placed a BLUFOR Civ Placement module on the southern-most part of the city. So my guys would spawn as close to me (the south) as possible and the southern-most area of the map would be "under my control." With middle, north, east and northwest being under OPFOR control.

What's happening now is that even though I don't have this module synced to the OPFOR OPCOM, it still feels like they must be aware of OPFOR objectives because my units are immediately attacking the city center, wiping enemy forces clean. I have to wonder if where I'm physically placing this module is what's causing my issues? My guys are pretty much spawning directly on the OPFOR right now. Do you think I should use a Military Placement module instead and/or try to find a place to put it that's farther away from the center of the map?

If I'm reading the quote above correctly, I take it doing this would be done in an attempt to keep my side on their toes and bunkered down more, and held closer to my base, because the base itself would be under attack more? It's a great idea.

Another option is creating an Objectives Only civilian placement with an "ignore small and medium objectives" filter (do check this first - it may not pick anything up on FATA!) synced to the BLUFOR so it will clear large towns autonomously but leave the smaller areas for the insurgents.

I like this idea a lot too. That's exactly what I'm looking to accomplish. I want my spawned guys focused on the big stuff with the outskirts and shacks being all mine. :) Brilliant! Thanks for this.

And I appreciate the detailed reply!

You should have Blufor w a Mil placement module. There are several depots, factories,and FOBs on FATA that Blufor would spawn in. I'd do that and only use a Civ placement module white listed for the 2-3 largest towns. That will allow the more remote towns to build up insurgent strength.

@AUTigerGrad You should have Blufor w a Mil placement module. There are several depots, factories,and FOBs on FATA that Blufor would spawn in. I'd do that and only use a Civ placement module white listed for the 2-3 largest towns. That will allow the more remote towns to build up insurgent strength.

Will do.

The way I want to attempt getting this mission going is with modules pretty much exclusively (I like modules over manually placing units because I like the randomness and surprise of how the units spawn). Though I do have some manually placed units in the north with RPG's to keep me honest and not flying around at my heart's content.

I want to keep both side's inital spawns low. Right now I have OPFOR only spawning 60 units total, with 3 Civilian Placement modules to keep their ability to recruit high.

So if I place one BLUFOR Mil Obj module, and one BLUFOR Civ Module blacklisted to just the largest cities, what would you say is a good spawn amount? Platoon 30 for each, infantry only? So 60 total units on my side, and 60 total units on the Taliban side; with a shit ton of civs for them to replenish their forces. And random camps. How does that sound? Is that too light for OPFOR?