Night (showcase)

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Sample Arma 3's enhanced night-time operations. Infiltrate enemy territory, create a distraction, and get out of there. Mission Description

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Night
Time	07:45 PM
Date	10-07-2035
Location	Off the coast of Stratis, Republic of Altis and Stratis

Night is a playable showcase mission in ArmA 3.

Overview

The player controls U.S. Army infantryman Sergeant Franklin, callsign Fox. A vital asset, codenamed Archangel, has been captured by CSAT forces on Stratis. Intel suggests that CSAT are making preparations to transfer Archangel from Camp Tempest to an interrogation facility deep inside enemy territory. Needless to say, this cannot be allowed to proceed.

Under the cover of darkness, SGT Franklin must infiltrate the southern half of the island and cause enough havoc to draw enemy forces from Camp Tempest. Once a distraction is created another team, callsign Bishop, will enter the facility and retrieve Archangel.

Role/class:

• Infantry / Team Leader

Default loadout:

• Primary weapon: TRG-20 (9× magazines)
  • ACO (Red)
  • Flashlight
• Secondary weapon: P07 (8× magazines)
  • No attachments fitted
• Equipment: Explosive Charge (3×), Binoculars, RGO (3×), Smoke Shell (Blue) (4×), Chemlight (Blue) (4×)
• Backpack: Assault Pack (Sage)

There are no alternate pieces of equipment to choose from.

Objectives

Primary

• (1) Create a Distraction
• (2) Exfiltrate

Optional

N/A

Mandatory

• Franklin must survive
• Avoid collateral damage/friendly fire
• Do not take more than 30 minutes to complete the mission
• Remain within the combat area
• You must not take more than 4 minutes to regroup with Rook

Walkthrough

Primary 1: Create a Distraction

While Rook transports you to the insertion point, ditch your chemlights, smoke grenades, flashlight and sidearm into the boat's inventory. You don't need any of these and the latter is especially unnecessary considering how much of your stamina that it consumes. Suffice to say, you will never get into a situation where you need to make use of the pistol's eight magazines...

Once Rook drops you off onto the beach the main mission timer will begin to count down. You only have 30 minutes to assault various targets scattered throughout the island and accrue a total of 1,000 "chaos" points:

LEGEND
Red: Sentry spawn points (randomised)
Pink: Sentry patrol routes (randomised)
Orange: Potential targets
Violet: Enemy reinforcement spawn point
Green: Extraction points (proximity-dependent)
Blue: Insertion point (You)

How much "chaos" you cause is based on a hidden internal value that each of the targets have (as well as most objects throughout the mission area). For instance, blowing up a parked truck or MRAP is worth significantly more "chaos" points than a bunch of ATVs. Clearing an entire camp of CSAT soldiers on the other hand, will award you a chunk of points in one go:

Target type	"Chaos" value
Lighthouse	400
Medium vehicles (Zamaks/MRAPs)	100
Small vehicles (Quadbikes)	50

Excluding the random sentry patrols, each of the sites consist of the following compositions:

• A - Camp: 5× infantry, 1× truck, 1× ATV
  • Killing all enemy soldiers at this camp will increase the "chaos" threshold by 200 points.
• B - Camp: 3× infantry, 1× truck, 2× ATVs
  • Killing all enemy soldiers at this camp will increase the "chaos" threshold by 150 points.
• C - Lighthouse: 3× infantry, 1× truck
  • Killing all enemy soldiers at this camp will increase the "chaos" threshold by 150 points.
• D - Anti-Air: 6× infantry, 1× MRAP, 1× ATV
  • Assassinating the officer will increase "chaos" by 75 points. Killing all other enemy soldiers at this camp will increase the "chaos" threshold by 300 points.
• E - Roadblock: 5× infantry, 1× truck, 1× MRAP, 2× ATVs
  • Killing all enemy soldiers at this camp will increase the "chaos" threshold by 200 points.

With regards to the targets themselves, MRAPs are impervious to small arms fire and the trucks require wasting too much ammo to feasibly destroy them. Additionally, since you only have three demo charges at your disposal, you will need to plant your explosives strategically to avoid "overkilling" targets.

As such, you will need to either steal an RPG or Titan ATGM launcher and use those to blow up the larger vehicles from a distance once you run out of demo charges. How you obtain one is up to you, but the missile specialist stationed at the camp (grid 026-012) is a good place to start off with if you don't want to travel far at the start.

Be aware that once you hit the halfway mark (500 "chaos" points), the behaviour of CSAT forces across the island and all remaining outposts will be changed. An armed MRAP and a fireteam's worth of troops will be dispatched to randomly patrol between each of the outposts. Pre-positioned sentry teams will also have their patrol routes altered from their usual pattern. Lastly, a scout helicopter will begin loitering above the area's skies and will attempt to strafe you if you are detected by its crew.

Primary 2: Exfiltrate

You must now rendezvous with Rook's boat to get off the island. It will be randomly assigned to one of three fixed locations depending on your proximity to it at the time of the objective being triggered (e.g. staying in the north-west will have it set to grid 021-013).

Once you are within a proximity of 20 metres or less to Rook's position, the mission will end in victory. As before, how you get there is entirely up to your individual playstyle, but keep in mind that you only have 4 minutes to complete this objective (you will be left behind if you don't get there in time).

Tips

• You can take full advantage of the low-light conditions (and the AI's cut vision range without NVGs) to avoid being spotted until you initiate a firefight.
  • No enemy units aside from the reinforcements have access to night vision goggles. Sentries will also always have their flashlights activated even after the halfway mark is reached, so you should have no difficulty circumventing around their patrol routes.
• You do not have access to a sound suppressor so it's in your best interests to avoid firefights whenever possible.
  • If you absolutely insist on fighting, consider salvaging one of the CSAT helmets and body armour if you manage to locate one.
• Avoid sprinting if possible whenever you are within 100 metres or less around enemy units. They can still spot and hear you at this range even with the poor lighting.
• As your time is limited, you should only aim for high value objectives instead of picking a fight with every CSAT patrol that you encounter.
  • That being said, you need to be aware that while HVTs like the lighthouse will instantly net you 500 points, it will simultaneously trigger the arrival of CSAT reinforcements.
  • It might be a good idea to plant a charge at the base of the building and then clear another target of your own choosing that nets you another 500 points. Once that target is emptied of threats, blow up its vehicles/structures and the lighthouse at the same time to instantly reach the threshold and therefore trigger the extraction sequence.

Trivia

No Man's Land from ArmA 2: PMC.

Night Percussions from ArmA 3.

• The intro theme ("Night Percussions") is a slightly remixed iteration of the second track ("No Man's Land") from ArmA 2's Private Military Company DLC.
• Night was originally added in ArmA 3's Beta phase of development (as part of Game Update 0.70).
• The entire mission is reused as a basis for the main campaign's Attention Deficit storyline mission, but has been drastically changed both gameplay and setting-wise:
  • The showcase's backstory being altered to better suit the campaign's narrative (i.e. Archangel replaced by a storyline character, the player's faction being FIA guerillas as opposed to NATO recon operatives, etc.)
  • The opposing force's composition consisting of a mix of CSAT forces and (mostly) AAF as opposed to exclusively CSAT
  • A generous time limit of ~ 45 minutes rather than only 30 minutes to complete the main objective
  • The choice of selecting between four insertion points instead of being limited to a fixed location
  • The player starting with a team of guerillas to support them rather than being forced to complete the mission solo
  • Having four "chaos" thresholds as opposed to only two in Night
  • A higher "chaos" point target of 2,000 instead of Night's 1,000 points
  • More targets of opportunity to attack (such as aircraft and ammo crates)
  • Most objects adding double or more value to the "chaos" meter
  • The extraction sequence in Attention Deficit allows the player to time out instead of failing the mission (they are allowed to swim to the extraction point)
• In the briefing menu's loadout menu, the player can "modify" SGT Franklin's loadout, but it will be completely different to that of his starting loadout once the mission commences (his loadout is actually removed and replaced by a different one via scripting).
• Curiously, the mission's preview image depicts Rook's boat ferrying at least two other operatives alongside SGT Franklin (with at least one of the operatives having a pair of NVGs mounted onto his helmet). In the final version of the showcase, Franklin operates solo and does not have teammates to support him.
• Night was first previewed in the E3 2012 Stage Demo by (former) Bohemia Interactive developer, Jay Crowe, who presented footage of project lead Joris-Jan van 't Land playing through the mission briefly.