I've created a system called Athena that collects mission information from the server, uploads it to the web and then displays it on your Windows 8 PC, tablet and/or laptop. It provides near real time updates regarding friendly unit position, group leaders, group members, markers, etc. on a permanently displayed map so that keeping informed of unit movements is quick and easy. There's more information available at www.athenamod.com!

Some of you have seen that I've been playing Arma 3 but I haven't been on bus COOP. I've got something special cooking for those of you that have Windows 8.1 PC's and that something special has hit a pretty significant milestone in it's development recently. Such a significant milestone that the primary 'goal' driving all of this hard work is in sight and the initial results might start to make their way to the bus COOP server as well as the Windows Store in the next few weeks. More details to follow...

There have been a few changes recently and 1 potential but likely upcoming change:

1. I've replaced the BTC Revive system with Farooq's Revive. Part of the BTC Revive process is a dialog option that allows the user to respawn and then select the respawn destination. That dialog was not displaying for random users and working with each user to resolve the issue has proved to be too frustrating. The FAR Revive system is simpler to use and because it ties into the damage model in a different way than BTC Revive, it allows users to use the native respawn dialog to respawn rather than rely on 3rd party GUI components like BTC's Revive does. The only drawback is that BTC Revive created markers on the map and via the game HUD to make it easier to locate down players. I might have to manually include this functionality again but for now, we'll have to search for the bodies or rely on our 'dead' teammates to relay to us where their bodies are. Thanks to Stardog for the recommendation ;-)

2. The respawn delay has been up'd from 5 seconds to 30 seconds. I'm intentionally creating a penalty for intentional respawns.

3. I've added Aeroson's group manager script into each of the missions. If you walk up to somebody (or aim your cursor at them), press and hold "T", you now have the ability to invite that user to your group or to join their group. Each group leader can also lock their own group or control the invitation rules. It's subtle but pretty powerful. The idea behind this addition is that even though there's a recommended structure, some people based on slot availability are joining as pilots (or as infantrymen and then flying) and that's breaking up the groups and adding some additional frustration to the communication processes...this group manager gives us the 'in-mission' flexibility we need in order to resolve that issue. Additionally, if a TL wants to link up with a certain pilot, they can add that pilot to the group for easier coordination: attack, move commands and such.

4. It's getting a little old playing the same 5 missions. I'm working on new missions and the first of the new batch is COOP10_ZC_Abdera. The town of Abderia is situated in a valley in the northwestern area of Altis. There are 5 zones to be cleared (ZC): Abdera itself, a mountain pass leading into Abdera from the NE, a southern approach into Abdera, a Comm Station up on the mountain to the South and the enemy stronghold to the SE (Anti Air). The team starts at a small airfield to the north. They have 2 Hummingbirds, 2 Hunters and 2 Hunter HMG's available.

5. I am debating pulling all Pawnee's from the missions. The number of friendly fire incidents has increased while the number of positive instances has decreased. It's become a 'show boat' vehicle detracting from the infantry immersion and I'm tired of policing that role. I'm planning on removing the pilot slots, leaving 2 Hummingbird's where there is typically 1 Hummingbird and 1 Pawnee and perhaps introducing a command element in lieue of dedicated pilot slots. If someone can come up with a convincing reason to keep the Pawnee's and the pilot slots, I'm willing to listen but with the revive system...I just don't see a need for people to be transported back to the battlefield in numbers that require dedicated pilot 'slots'.

I've implemented =BTC= Revive in all of the missions but it's been problematic. The dialogs aren't showing up for a significant amount of players and it's causing a disproportional amount of frustration. Does anyone know of an alternate revive system that works well with VAS?

bus COOP is back up and running. I've been able to locate several of the missions and update them for compatibility with the latest version of ARMA:

1. Assault (Stratis)
2. Assault South (Stratis)
3. Civic Duty (Stratis)
4. Northern Sweep (Stratis)
5. Southern Strike (Stratis)

And I've added 1 new one:

1. Selakano (Altis)

If any of the members have copies of other original missions, please let me know so I can update and publish. I seem to have misplaced the copies I had. Otherwise, I'm going to start taking the familiar bus COOP 'Zone Control' template and creating new missions on Altis.