UNIT: Savage Game Design
TO: Arma 3 Creator DLC Users
OPSUM: Sneak preview of the upcoming S.O.G. Prairie Fire 1.1 Update
EVALUATION
Hello Arma 3 players!
The team behind S.O.G. Prairie Fire is excited to be soon rolling out our first update with many fixes and quality-of-life improvements, and new content to take you deeper into the Vietnam War Special Forces experience.
Right now it is only available on the RC-Branch for public pre-release testing, but it will be released to the main branch of Arma 3 very soon.
Find out here how to access the RC-Branch
WELCOME TO KHE SANH
This unique new terrain, designed by dev team member Temppa, covering 225 km2, enables players to design and run missions around Quang Tri Province, including some crucially contested locations of the war.
Featuring 2.7 million trees, buildings, and objects from S.O.G. Prairie Fire DLC, this large map is partly topographical and partly designed for gameplay. It features realistic scenery for Vietnam War fighting in Arma 3 with towering hills and deep valleys surrounding the Khe Sanh Combat Base.
To get you started we have included 4 new Zeus missions and will be separately releasing on Steam an updated Mike Force mission for the new terrain.
US NAVY SEALS
"The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday!" - so goes the motto of the US Navy SEALs. In Update 1.1 you can now play as one of the three primary SEAL groups that operated in Vietnam.
- The MACV-SOG Naval Advisory Detachment operating aboard heavily armed PTF Nasty Boats.
- The SEAL Teams operating mainly in the river deltas of South Vietnam, wearing denim jeans, dive shirts, and inflatable vests, and carrying experimental weapons including the formidable M63a LMG and Commando machine guns.
- The US Navy Underwater Demolitions Teams diving the coastal waters of Vietnam armed with the unique Mk1 Underwater Defense Gun.
The Navy SEAL faction features 51 new soldier classes, able to wear 9 new uniforms with 22 variants, 7 new vests, and a diving mask.
To expand the variation in other factions, there are also 5 new helmets with 8 variants to wear - netted pith helmets, the M56 and SSh40 helmets for PAVN and VC forces, and netted M1 helmets for ARVN soldiers.
SAIGON TRAFFIC
Update 1.1 features new vehicles to expand your gameplay options, especially in the urban areas of Vietnam.
- 4 new cars and 1 armed variant - these stylish Boheme car and van models (Bonn, Rodina, Kupe, and Krabice) are now fully driveable, featuring authentic gearboxes and engine performance that match similar vehicles of the era. An additional Krabice van variant has a DP-27 machine gun mounted for VC to use in urban fighting. All vehicles have multiple textures, fire-from-vehicle capability, and a working music jukebox to further expand your enjoyment.
- 1 new car variant - the M151 just got a late-war upgrade and can now carry the powerful BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missile launcher.
UPGRADED BASE DEFENSES
There are 4 new static weapons to improve coastal and base defenses:
- PAVN has added the devastating V11M Twin 37mm cannon in an armored turret and the Type 56 75mm Recoilless Rifle
- The US has added 2 awesome naval anti-aircraft weapons - the L/60 Mk3 40mm cannon and the L/70 Mk2 20mm cannon.
NEW WEAPONS
The 1.1 Update adds 9 new weapons, with detailed animations, realistic sounds, and melee features.
- Do battle as the US Navy SEALs with the M63a LMG, M63a Commando, and the MPU 9mm submachine gun with optional suppressor.
- Fight underwater, or surprise enemy coastal sentries with the unique Mk1 Underwater Defense Gun, capable of firing silent, lethal darts over 10m from underwater.
- US Army soldiers sometimes carried the M1928A1 or M1A1 Tommy, and now you can rock that old-school look.
- Viet Cong guerillas can now carry the M1A1 Tommy shorty version with the stock removed, and the formidable M1928 Tommy for close urban fighting.
- The elite sapper battalions of the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN), were sometimes equipped with the imported vz.61 Skorpion machine pistol, which you may find useful for lightning fast attacks on US airfields.
- The XM177/XM148 model has also been completely replaced. It now has a period-correct handguard.
DEVELOPMENT INSIGHTS
Since releasing S.O.G. Prairie Fire in May 2021, the team has been monitoring feedback from players, in our wishlist and especially in our feedback tracker and we are very grateful for all the detailed feedback, bug reports, and suggestions that have been submitted.
Although the Prairie Fire Multiplayer co-op campaign is not designed for singleplayer, in Update 1.1 progress saving has been added while exploring the campaign in multiplayer solo mode.
The team has completed approximately 200 feedback tickets in Update 1.1. There is a detailed list of the changes on here.
The team has been motivated and moved by the overwhelmingly positive feedback so far, and we have more updates planned, but we cannot confirm details to avoid any risk of broken promises!
COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS
The energetic Prairie Fire player community has been a constant source of inspiration for the dev team since release. Here are some of the highlights:
Spoffy has published a Mike Force roadmap, with quality of life, strategic, and level up goals for the popular game mode, and the much-anticipated Spike Team will be added in the coming weeks. Mike Force has also been ported to Khe Sanh ready for 1.1 update release day.
The community screenshot competition run by Ceb.Cin in July led to some outstanding artwork being created, the best 6 creators were sent personal awards by SOG legend John “Tilt” Stryker Meyer. You can view the amazing art on YouTube here. Well done to all who entered!
All episodes of The Siege of Dak Long graphic novel by D.J. Teo are now available for free download. The author, a longstanding beta tester and friend of Tilt, is working on more stories and we hope to publish them soon!
COMMUNITY MODS
Arma 3 wouldn’t be the success it is without the modding community. Most of Team Savage started out as mod makers. We’re pleased to see many players diving into Prairie Fire and creating mods for it, with about 40 scenarios now published on the Steam Workshop. Here are some of the most interesting addons:
The Unsung mod team has been hard at work since release day, optimizing their comprehensive Vietnam War mod, the inspiration for S.O.G. Prairie Fire. The result is Unsung Redux - a separate cut-down Unsung Mod which integrates Prairie Fire assets, sounds, and functions to add a lot of new content to the Prairie Fire experience. Major features are the Da Krong and Doung maps updated with Prairie Fire assets, and the new Dak Pek and Ba Long maps made with Prairie Fire assets by {E-Z}Johnny.D.
The ACE team has been busy since before Prairie Fire was released, and wants everyone to know that they are planning to release their Prairie Fire ACE compat mod with the ACE 3.14.0 update, planned for shortly after the Arma 3 2.06 update. You can monitor progress here. We can’t wait!
The popular ACRE2 radio mod has been released for Cam Lao Nam terrain, enabling their authentic radio simulation for players on the first Prairie Fire map.
NightIntruder and TeTeT’s USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA31) provides Arma 3 players with an aircraft carrier and its supporting ships from the Vietnam War era.
Edaly Projects Tiger has been causing a stir in the player community. Never get off the boat!
CLOSING WORDS
Please put Friday, September 24, 2021 in your diary!
The Military and Veteran Gamers charity (MVG) does some excellent work to offer peer-to-peer support for veterans who play games online. To support their work, Team Savage has partnered with our SOG veteran advisers and a group of awesome streamers to take part in the SOG Charity Jungle Run - a 24-hour live-stream of the SOG campaign, and playing the updated Mike Force mission on the new Khe Sanh terrain.
There are also several live Q&A sessions planned during the event with MACV SOG veterans, MVG’s directors and Team Savage developers. We will be discussing all things SOG, combat experiences, and how to improve stress resilience. All proceeds go to MVG charity and will be spent on supporting veterans welfare.
Please join us in showing your support for veterans by spreading the word and watching the SOG Charity Jungle Run - details of the event can be found here.
Rob Graham
Project Director, S.O.G. Prairie Fire