Liru's Golden Rule of Zeusing/Mission Making for Arma 3 

So the beginning feels like liru is 66 and drinking whiskey while telling war stories to his grandchildren. XD

I’m part of the player base in TSB and yes when it comes to common knowledge, it needs to be explained quite a bit because well, we’re pretty brain dead in all honestly XD. Some more than most but however, this community is one of the best communities I’ve personally been in. There’s so much fun happening all the time, and I absolutely love it. Liru and other Zeuses in TSB actually listen to the player base feedback and it’s great!!

Strange how a lot of these tips could and should be applied to most team based games especially tabletops. I as a DM use these a ton when it comes to balancing games and ensuring player fun. Keep up the good work Liru!

I really enjoy this style of videos, I got into arma by watching people Zeus on RU-vid, and I now Zeus for a small group of friends, so being able to hear advice from people who have been doing it for so much longer than I have is super helpful!

New Zeuser for a casual, small community. Thanks for putting this together to go over some rules you follow! I can see some examples in what I do that are both "bad" and "good," and you putting those into words do help me understand further. Love the content, keep it up!

Thank you Liru for all your hard work eh. You inspire many people to look at arma that never would have otherwise, while bringing entertainment to many that already play the game. Many people owe you a beer mate, so cheers from Canada!

Thanks for taking the time to do this little video. Honestly, 20 minutes for just broaching such a topic is not surprising to me. I Zeus for 4-5 close friends and that is pretty much it. It's pretty easy to tailor content to them, since I know them pretty well. I would mention, as a person whos day job involves dealing with the public, common sense is no where to be found in large enough groups. Trust me, it's not just Arma 3, or even video games, it's everywhere. It being the lack of common sense. Or, to be more correct, it's not that they lack common sense, it just isn't used. People don't really think a whole lot. To put it into Arma terms, packing a crap ton of nades for a mission, and not using any, or just 1 or 2. An asset unused it an asset you might as well not have. Honestly, I can more relate to being Dungeon Master for D&D. It actually involves a lot of the same things. Including preparing a lot of content and the players somehow sidestepping all of it. I find a that something to keep in mind, is that the job truly relies on others having fun. You can have fun in your own way, seeing how someone or some group approaches a problem, but really, they come first. That can be very, very hard sometimes, especially when they (the playerbase) do something particularly stupid. A common scenario is, how would I react, keeping this story immersive and real, but not kill them all for stupidity? Leaving a way out for them is what I find to be the best option. Making sure they know they can back off. Make a point to not cut off their escape routes. That sort of thing. This can be as simple as letting them know, they can just simply surrender. I then take them to an interrogation area they can escape from, or a badly designed holding area. This can also be as complex as letting them hide. Making sure enemies don't agrro on hiding people. That sort of thing. With D&D, it wouldn't be the first time I've ignored a good roll of the dice on the part of NPCs so that the group isn't demolished. Really, you do a pretty good job. I do find with Arma that people don't think open-minded enough, if only because they aren't sure what is or isn't allowed. If the mission is to dress as a civie and distract a guardpost/checkpoint, they will do that, but they would never think of it on their own, even if there was civilians they could get clothing from. (This is tailored from my own experience with a smaller group though, where I can interact with the players as an NPC(s) much, much easier.)

Just wanted to say awesome work on the ops and video man , keen to see more 👌👌

I recently discovered your channel and been enjoying a lot of your videos, especially the older ones.

Nice video keep it up. For the nxt video try using examples from you streams or other videos that shows what you did good/bad as a zeus and what you learn from them or what feedback you got from the playerbase.

I had a flashback to an milsim unit I was in *Won't name it* where I was running in an engineering squad. Any op we did, we just sat in the back of the trucks waiting for stuff to do. I recall going two or three ops before quitting and then later to hear they dissolved the engineers and spread them into the infantry fireteams. They "tried" to give us stuff to do after we complained, like demoing stuff or clearing routes of mines but what actually happened is the armored assets would roll through and do it instead, which was something you mentioned of the support doing the work and everyone else playing walking simulator. They're still around, and I don't know what has changed but it left a taste in my mouth that's kept me from trying communities again. That and work has made it near impossible to find a group that does things when I'm actually free instead of when I'm at work or asleep haha!

tell the whole story, where the biggest Zeus at the time, fell!

Eyyy liru I’ve been watching your channel for a while and you’ve inspired me to Zeus and I’ve wanted to for a while. Thank you. I would Zeus if I had the computer to do it.

I'm really glad you're making videos like this one, This video has helped me think about what to think of when making a mission and what to do when hosting. I look forward to more videos like this one.

Great video very informational would love to see more

im glad for this vid i cant wait to see more i might bring some thing s up to my zues

Liru, I started watching your videos and being blown away by how cool Arma 3 was, the missions, the tactics, the zeus. I've been playing ever since I first say you back in 2016. All i want to say is thank you. Can't wait to see the rest of the Zeus Encyclopedia.

I am really interested in seeing how you would handle certain scenarios in Zeus. I heard a while back on how you and your viewers had really good Zeus ideas but the playerbase was so braindead you couldn't do it haha. I'd love to see it!

i don't play Arma but i love have your zeus videos in the background, stay sane my favorite Arma youtuber

The Ops you make are Epic, and I love watching Drum (Jester) Heller, he makes your ops fun to watch and the way you always seem to come up with a twist to the tail is brilliant, keep up the good work, I hope I can become as good as you some day

I just recently started Zeusing for my unit, and this was definitely helpful. I think I stumbled on to a few of these things by pure accident because I spent so much time on the ground with the unit that I just got a sense for what they like, so ... yeah, I'd definitely say that spending time on the ground with your players is *essential*. Disclaimer, I am -- again -- a new Zeus, so ... take my opinion with the appropriate pound of salt.

I love watching your vids and you always give me something to do when im down keep up the amazing work from thrbeno on twitch

Honestly I've used this video to give advice to DM/GMs for non-ARMA RPGs. While in this video you're focused on ARMA a LOT of this really applies to those other games too.

Good video!

just listened to it as a podcast while making a mission. nice to listen to

I only play ARMA 3 as a player, but all this is very good advice for running Role Playing Games as a Game Master. Talking to your players, finding out what they enjoy, and getting that to them is key for designing campaigns that people want. Some people may want in depth story and tightly scripted events, others may just want to fight goblins in a cave, and one style of gameplay that works for one group won't work well with another, and feedback is the only way you'll be able to tell if you're hitting the right notes or not. It's an informative and useful video regardless.

Well said Liru. Well said.

I Zeused an op this week was probably a bit hard, playes said they had fun and at the end I wanted to tear gound command, 2ic and the RTO a new one.

Nice video.

good info for zeusing. I will reccomend this for my friend who zueses

Liru, as a Dnd DM, i wholeheartedly agree with what youve said here. Its really easy to get upset or railroad the player choices and fun in order to push the narrative or script of an op or (in my case) dnd campaign that youve spent hours on. And at that point you have to put player fun over your fun and not hold it against them.

For the support assets and infantry portion, along with not having support assets take over the mission I ask zeuses try to spread the action across the infantry units. Its frightingly common for one squad to get all the action across the entire op, while the other squad/squads see nothing and only hear distant gunfire. Its also common for this to persist across multiple ops as well. I see it a lot where for 5 or so ops a single squad will be in constant gunfire from start to finish, while the other squads are sitting and chatting. Maybe the zeus will send an enemy team to take potshots and ultimately die in a minute, but for a two hour long op that's not enough. Not only does this make it boring for the squads sitting around, make it seem like your favoring that one squad, but can it also tires out the one squad getting all the action and make it no fun for them as well. It may be difficult but just the attempt to draw back on that one squad, and send more to the others would the op loads more fun for everyone. I have another essay about my gripes with the playerbases and their attitude towards zeuses and their ops but that's more directed at a specific few.

Yay 501st footage as a current 501st SL this makes me happy

1 tip of mission making Do not leave vehicles that players are to destroy unlocked, many a helicopters were stolen

I think I just want to repeat your point that you made in the video, but in caps. TALK TO YOUR PLAYERS. We have a language for a reason, use it! Tell your players what kind of Op you want to run and ask them if it will be fun for them. If not -- tweak it or scrap it if it doesn't fit the bill at all. This is very important part of Op creation before you even get to creating it.

Man that streamer note of prioritizing the community fun over your stream fun just reminds me of when i was with this one arma community. Been trying to find a new semi-realism arma group to join .

This video is quite simillar to Rimmy's "ArmA 3 is not real life". I really like it!

I must ask, how do you maintain getting feedback after an OP if you feel a sort of negative vibe? In my case I ask around for both positive and negative, but I rarely get much in debrief. :)

Feedback: Good Video End Feedback :)

Are there more of these? or a playlist or something?

Only thing i can add to this as a small community Zues, is realize that your mission can change based on the number, and composition of your playerbase. If you build a mission that is already meant to be difficult/tackled by 15 people, and you only get 6 or 7 one day, the mission in terms of enemy strength and composition can change. It doesn't have to be set in stone, and go "oh, theres only 6 of you, good fuckin luck" and throw them to the wolves. its on of the huge advantages of actively Zues'ing, use it

Are you guys still taking people to join the Ops? I've been itching to do a giant Op like you do. I host small sessions with friends and zeus for them here and there, but the manpower is just lacking. Great video btw, I do like how this dually kinda works as a viewpoint how to see Arma. One of my buddies hate Arma because the game isn't like Squad or Battlefield, but it's only because he doesn't understand the greater scope of the game. With how it isn't just one sole thing, it's what the little community wants. Surival, Rp, Halo, Star Wars, WW2, Vietnam, Coldwar, ect are all routes you can have. Or just do them all at one point, Arma is truly a amazing sandbox game.

Now we know the correct way to Zeus.

I am coming from a German community and i am zeusing since i got into there a year ago. I made a lot of well balanced missions but not a really good or great one till i changed my "angle of attack". I started to include the method of giving the Players a set in which they can move however they want. E.g: We did a Zeus op with only six players and i went on the server one hour before the players just to prep the mission. What happend was that the players outmanouvered my entrenchments and walked around them. Not what i have entended but it was a good move so what i did was nothing. They ended up assaulting the main objective and did a good job overall. So here is my hint: Just be reactive. If you built a template and the players manage to outplay what you did and what you built dont punish them. Praise them in the briefing and let them roll. Edit: www.sol-diers.com/

I've recently been getting some of my friends into arma, so I have been zeusing operations for them. Its a much smaller group than the scale most of your ops are, but this video has still been a good help. Are you still working on making more?

How do you feel out about how much the players can handle, mission by mission? It's easy to overestimate, "they have 3 AT ammo, they wont miss ALL of them" and end up with an unkillable tank. The opposite being a definite possibility as well, leading to boredom

Common sense is rarely common in ArmA community. I couldn't agree more.

Thanks for the Video. I have one topic: Please try to keep the number of Addons to a minimum. Not each Detail needs to be correct, if it saves me downloading 10GB of AddOns

On a semi related note.. what do you do if you are learning to zues, and you have fun making mission.. but you dont have a playerbase or community to share it with?

Where are good places to get inspiration for mission ideas?

Oddly enough, Luetin actually now gets more views reading Warhammer fan fiction for people too lazy to look it up themselves. His old ops were educational. I'm sure he's finally happy. If anyone wants to stalk the swamplands with aliens, feel free to try this. Quick little mission I made. steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2116505210&searchtext=alien+outsiders

Who does he refer to as his predecessor? What’s that story?

I've never played with anyone else on arma but I'd say I'd be a decent zeuse because of my creativity and the way I prefer air not being able to hit their targets easily even if its a armed vehicle.

So in my experience dming and zeusing are the same thing. Make the op simple enough for a child to understand trust me the players will make it seam harder. And have good pacing. Good pacing with simple missions in my experience = the most fun.

Liru when you say 506th do you mean 506th IR

god reading the twitch chat on the side made me realise what kind of fucked up stuff we talk about

First

eVerY sIngle oNe?

Test: if you do read every single one. respond to this.

Thank you for your services 🫡