Lack of jungle based OPFOR

[Geo]

Hi,

Been messing around in the editor, working my way on creating a mission for the addon server.
Technically we are pretty solid on the opfor / independent / blufor department for mission making for the addon server, for the most islands.

I do not count the vanilla units, because:
A) Vanilla units are always used for server 1 anyhow, therefor I prefer to avoid them for the addon server.
and
B) My personal preference for making missions is using currently actively used weapons/equipment/units, or the ones in the past.

I am in the process of creating a mission on Tanoa, but I seem to not have many options in that area for the OPFOR (or Independent). What I mean is, Tanoa is representing the average tropical island in the pacific, it is a bit immersion breaking to have Russians walking there as baddies. Although I guess you could make a story for it, it doesn't make a lot of sense to for me for obvious reasons.

The only one coming close to what I would like, is the Syndikat. I count them, since their weapons are actually not futuristic. Sadly, their unit config is very lacking. They do not have any APC or Tanks, neither do they have any military helicopters or military planes. This has led to some problems for what I want to create: a full scale jungle side that actually makes sense on a tropical area. Even the Chinese would make much more sense to me (not CSAT, because their arsenal is futuristic).

Any thoughts?

[Cobra.]

Looking on Armaholic there is a lack in Jungle Russians in general. It's a very niche market since the mods we use are focused on Realism and I don't know of a single Russian deployment in Asia so naturally no realistic mods have followed, the only option I see is the PLA mod but even thry are focused on temperate climates.

Basically most mods are focused on the Cold War era anf jungle warfare was not a major feature ( in the end of thr cold war not including nam) even in these modern times its all arid fights, Tanoa was brought in for the A3 story which is in the future.

[Wombat]

Some of the RHS Russian and Cherno factions include uniforms, vests and backpacks which ,although not designed for pacific jungle, their camo still blends into the Tanoan environment somewhat.

If you want to avoid using CSAT you could hand pick some of these uniforms, vests and backpacks and customise the OPFOR faction with this gear. Downside is if you want to use some AI spawning scripts such as DAC or LV. You would need to do extra custom scripting to make these scripts spawn the AI with your custom OPFOR loadout.

[StRiKeR]

For a believable OPFOR opponent on Tanoa or similar maps you have two choices the way I see it.

First, is that cartel/militia type that Syndikat already represents. The only thing that they are useful for though are the uniforms. Everything else toss away and deck them out with RHS soviet era equipment. Same for vehicles.The UAZs and Urals mixed in with other civilian vehicles to form a patchwork carpark work quite well. Generally, dont use the BIS stuff here or their weapons, especially not their RPG-7. RHS weapons are better designed and configured.

Second, you can mix together some kind of 80s/90s latin american armed force using the DeltaHawk uniforms and vests. Using the uniforms in ranger green and vests depending on their allegiance or supply source, can make a nice believable opponent of that type.

You have have some choices by adding bips and bops from different sources together to dress up your opponent. Come up with the background of the mission first, then the scenario, then the mission, and you will know by then what you want.
As it is right now, any faction that is gonna inhabit these islands right now as an opponent is gonna be somewhat low tech.

Lastly, you are right, there is no perfect jungle warfare faction available right now other than the one you make yourself. Like Wombat said, if you use spawn scripts, youre gonna have to make that equip your soldiers aswell.

Likely gonna stay like that. I do agree though, technically some PLA would be nice and fitting... *Cloak engaged*

[Geo]

Yes, mixing the faction with different equipment, uniforms etc. is my only real option at this moment. But sadly that does indeed mean, like mentioned, I can't ideally use things like ALiVE. The ORBAT tool is useful, but doesn't help. Since it only works if added in a .pbo if I believe. Which in fact is just a mod in itself.

If I could, I would change the Syndikat faction with RHS weapons, RHS vehicles, and some uniforms like the DeltaHawk, perhaps. But my scripting knowledge is bare minimum, I don't think there is an easy way of getting it to work with ALiVE that way. ORBAT is out of the question I think.

I guess, for now, I have to live with Russians being on Tanoa.

@Cobra: True, Tanoa was brought in that way. But ArmA 2 had tropical maps aswell (Lingor island for example, which also is for A3). So I don't think it's totally out of the blue.

[Tom]

Ditch alive!
Its easy to set up with the modules but if you want any controle over your mission, use something else.

Dac has custom faction options for example