Heard you talkin about ur idea on the forum somewhere else before. sounded like a nice concept then. I'll give it a try.My only concern now is that people will have too high an expectation.
Report on go. OFP ver 1.96 ECP; benchmark 2419Thanks
In a word: confusing.It was meant to be intriguing. Yours and other comments have persuaded me. I will change it.
In a word: wow!!!!Thank you
the camera angles could be improved slightlyI am new to this - do you have anything specific?
theres a bit of jerkiness in some camera movementsYes and sometimes it is worse than others. I am not sure I can pan more slowly. This is something that is irritating me.
but the custom music (great choice) and narrative text bring you into the mission amazingly.Thank you again
Liked the briefing. Notes were just saying what had already been said in the intro, change it for a personal diary or something. Give the layer a feel for your characters day to day life.Again this is something I will change thanks to your and others comments.
Voice was a nice touch, although the tone of his voice was a bit too bright for the subject I thinkI understand your point. I will try harder. I am not an actor though. Having done the sounds for just this one mission I now have much greater respect for real actors.
Too much rain!!! ……Rain addon still thereThe rain is deliberate, I put it in. It is meant to add atmosphere. Don't you like it?
Your voice acting needs more empathy. The girl's just been raped but she doesn't seem to care, she sounds like an everday person going about her routines.. or maybe it is routine... Also "i just killed three soldiers in the other room hohum lala". Empathy! You need empathy!!!!You are absolutely right. See my comments above. We are trying (my 16 year old daughter and I) but this is new for us.
I run through the wallThrough the wall? I hope it was through the window, anyway it is a standard OFP house I can't fix that!
NVG from the start wud be nice methinksI am sorry I can't give the player NVGs at the start. It would ruin the whole atmosphere I am trying to create. Wait till you see dawn with your bare eyes.
Goody goody goody! *bounces up and down in chair*Well I only hope you are not disappointed
Benchmark 5660Vet mode obviously, and cheat savegames..5660!! If you get lag I will need a new mission! Cheat save all you like. How else can you test the various alternatives
I know Overviews are meant to be short. For some reason I think this one might get away with being longer. . The third page …Lol nicely put. It was meant to be intriguing. I am bowing to your and other comments and will change it
Very goodI appreciate that thank you.
I nearly used Mars for Unimpossible.I liked your choice. You might find it hard to guess my choice for the final successful scene - but if you hear it you will know.
The biggest problem is setting up the story… How can you keep something secret just by abandoning the soldiers there?I recognise the weakness here and will do something about it.
we just need a little more of it.The length of the music is a limitation. I will look at this.
In detail it's all pretty good.Thank you.
At the start you don't have total blackout. If necessary put the player unit somewhere dark, make it night and use skipTime just before the fade in.I had not spotted that. Thanks.
the whole offshore island scene is very weak. Zooming into nothing, music stopping dead, people buring stuff right next to graves, no shot of the hero, no sense of what this spot is, no decent shots while your mum is talking. Bin the lot and start again, sorryThat is fine thanks. I will see what I can do.
Just fade out the music.This is a real pain. I originally had voice over for the whole of the text intro, but I could not hear it over the music. To hear the people at the end of the intro I fade it. The instruction I use is 10 fademusic 0.005 !! and it still sounds like I just suddenly switch it off.
The woman who is about to be raped and shot is too calm.I had in mind that she was unaware of what was to happen - but I suppose she could guess.
Have the trio stop halfway, one guy goes to aware and aims at her, she waves her arms a bit and then they continue.I will need to get a longer music track.
Put a bed in the barn to emphasise the point.Good idea.
The armoured force on top of the hill looks stronger than the one at the bottom. Maybe thin it out a little to create a stronger stalemate impression.They are actually identical. I think it is that one is seen side on and one face on. I will make them ‘appear' more balanced.
Maybe have both sides turn and drive/march away from each other.Another good idea - if I can spin the music out long enough.
Put a couple of lads behind the General. Three guys don't usually surrender to one. Use worse weather - baddies traditionally have sturm und drang. It's all pleasant spring throughout this description of hell.More good ideas. Thank you.
I'm used to Nikolai with an i rather than a y at the end but perhaps that's just me.I used a global e-mail directory as well as looking at the names in the OFP config files. All names are real. My little comment at the end of the Intro was not just to make people smile.
Put the "this is fiction" text in a different colour and in the middle of the screen to differentiate it from the story text.Okay
Re-record the sound files - you speak too fast. All that public speaking stuff about your granny at the back of the room applies here too. And try to sound a bit less cheery about the whole thing. Is that voice (I assume its you) going to be the narrator or the player's character? One voice per part. If you're short of actors (everybody is) make it clear that the player is also the narrator.Yes it is me. I am Alexi throughout. I had not realised how difficult it was to put feeling into this sort of thing. I now have even more respect for ‘real' actors.
Plan - Say that the armed truce has existed for a while, to explain the shortage of food and fuel and the longage of ammo. Why are no supplies getting through? Is there a blockade? Are the governements deliberately trying to starve everybody to death? If civvies are caught in the middle how did the police chief get to be in charge? Notes - what Resistance? I thought we were just fleeing civilians. Why don't we just join one group or the other? They may be nasty but at least we'll live.Some more neat ideas for developing the story. Thanks.
Map - If the "outlying island" really is an outlying island, tell us which one it is.There is a problem here - but I will look at it. The problem is that I want the player to start off where he does, but all the outlying islands on the map would not result in that landfall. People were not supposed to get so involved!!
No lagI hope not with your benchmark. Perhaps I can fill the mission out.
but the combination of steep ground, no 4x and pistol make the start a little tediousOh dear! The next part is worse!
Found the occupied house easilyGood I was worried that it might be too difficult to find
I think I'll stop commenting on the high quality of the acting and sound filesPlease don't, not just yet - Lol.
There should probably be two soldiers coming up the road - one looks a bit incongruous - but why on Earth don't you team up with the girl? You are both looking for the same man after all. Or at least say something like "you get the car while I check these bodies." She should scream or moan when she dies.Again, very valid comments. Thanks
d**n, shot in the back while moarning, that'll teach me to be sentimental.Sentimental is a bit of what this is about - that and staying alive. you seem to have one out of two :)
You know, I knew you had promise as soon as I played the start of Defensive Strike for the second timeI appreciate that. Thanks.
For simplicity's sake, I think macguba's idea about the nuclear war "everywhere but here" would work well in this situation. Knowing that the parent countries are no more would probably lend more credibility to the idea that US and Soviet forces would cooperate. Also, the fact that the outside world is no more is probably more likely to cause someone to get the bright idea to control the entire island.I am warming to that idea as well.
a 1.5 ghz processor,. No lag detected.Excellent. That means I have scope to expand the mission should it need it.
I crawled around and picked the binocs and CZ75 mags off the dead policemanNice one. It is easy to miss that.
Found the house, gathered and armed my friends,Wonderful. I had thought the place might be too hard to find.
I didn't see it but it sounded huge. *shudder*Just be glad it didn't see you.
Love the atmosphere. Everything from the weather to the constant overflights of unseen choppers to the fog creates the incredible sense of dread. You did a great job with the sound and I have to disagree with macguba about re-recording the briefing soundThank you. That was the exact feeling I was trying to create.
Methinks this mission could also serve as a template for all kinds of other special operations-type missions, from what I've seen and heard anyway. Sneaking around on your own on an island under the total control of hostile groups....this is something I've hoped was possible for a while. With some tinkering, I bet this mission could be adapted for all kinds of special operations missions.The mission as it stands completely ‘uses up' the island, but you are right, my original intent was to create an island in which several missions could be set. I still think it might be possible.
...methinks I need some more recruits and heavy weapons.Go looking.
benchmark 5050I think mine must be driven by steam!
this has all the hallmarks of a cracker of a missionI hope so, but there is a long way to go yet.
the hanging idea.... mmmmgeniusI cannot claim credit for the idea just the execution. The idea was macguba's in his Un-Impossible mission.
"Winter is almost upon us.Very helpful thanks. This is certainly something that will change
The war on Malden is seemingly over, but with their respective governments denying all knowledge of the war, those remaining on both sides have come to a grudging truce in order to survive. With the loss of support from their military superiors however, discipline has broken down. Civilians are now caught in the middle of a desparate struggle for food and fuel to see out the harsh Winter months.
As Alexi Forgotsurnameov, you must somehow save your family from starvation."
panning between the forces arranged in that wee valley - there's a LOT of ground to cover, filled with trees and bushes, and on either side, bush-sized tanks.I need to do something about this it can be a bit jerky.
excellent use of character animation, as seen throughout in the cutscenes too - eg. where tatyana briefly turns to the bed and says "what d'you think they keep me here for?" - that is subtle and poignant. great work.Again, thank you.
the hanging - how on earth did you get them to swing so slowly?! superb.It is just some simple harmonic motion. A = b + c*sin(t) type of thing.
i liked the fact that you had a voiceover reading the sections, a most pleasant surprise.Good, it was meant to be.
the voice acting - i would leave it, unless you're prepared to do all that work again with more actors, greater variety of voices and more empathy. it would indeed contribute more to the overall atmosphere, but as it stands it's fine.I will think about that. It does sound a bit naff.
, if you use "leftover" in the briefing, don't use "left over" in the intro. that, annoyingly enough,You make an excellent beta tester. That is exactly the sort of thing that needs to be picked up. Thank you.
third paragraph "...each controlling a part of the island one led by..." - between 'island' and 'one' you could do with a semicolon, just to break the sentence a bit.See above. Thanks.
but honestly, drat you folks who can spell, spoilin my funSorry.
one minor point about the map, and i'm not sure how this would look - you've indicated the ends of the island being controlled by the respective sides (using colour, thumbs up) so perhaps a coloured dotted line to demarkate? a semi-transparent elipse? would this give too much of an idea where to expect enemy troops?I tried all sorts here and could not get anything that didn't look crap. I even tried the markers addon and while that could have worked I did not want to require people to have any more addons that absolutely necessary.
as an aside... while playing many missions i get the impression that the designer has placed an enemy squad simply because they know the player is likely to pass that way. i've done it myself. but i got the impression about ten minutes into this, that's not going to happen here. this is less of a mission, more of an experience.Thank you, thank you , thank you. An experience is exactly what I want this to be. There is a lot of randomness and random relocation of waypoints, I made the mission but 10 minutes in I would not know where (within the occupied areas) is safe to go.
but just to balance that compliment, i feel i must slap the back of your hand sir. taking a function of the game away from the player is a cardinal sin in my opinion. by all means use 'reality' to constrain the player (availability of weapons, fuel, medics, etc.) but when it comes to the way the software works, leave well enough alone. as a player i don't see any benefit of removing the accelerated time function, quite the contrary.It would annoy me too. But I really wanted this to be an experience not something people could wiz through to get to the exciting bits.
vigny works; i've tested all (?) scenariosSounds like you got them all. As I said you make a good beta tester.
got shot the first time around for not stopping quickly enoughWere you in a vehicle? In a vehicle and not in a vehicle are different....
the radio... it is something which a player might missActually no it is not. If he misses it when he is near the ammo crate, when he gets > a certain distance from the lodge one of his team mates activates it for him, with an appropriate comment.
it's just one of many sub-missions. however, you could develop the radio a little more to include reception of enemy transmissions too. perhaps that comes later onI am now getting worried that I might have built up peoples expectations too much. You will soon get to a point where you are on your own and have to decide on your own sub-missions.
along with 2, i've collected the first group of civilians to the east, and have returned to the shack to find all in order - phew - and that's where i've saved thus far. more anon.I hope so. You are very thorough
atmospheric, detailed, thorough. i can see this being most enjoyableAgain I hope so.
Arms and ammo are still scarceThis is deliberate. What I gave you in the ammo crate at the mountain lodge is absolute crap, but I think realistic crap in the cicumstances.
the vehicles provided are no good cross-countryWell I have tried to be realistic in what you get. Those guys got to the lodge with whatever they had available.
I look forward to getting some more time in later tonightI hope you do.
I might have built up peoples expectations too muchbut it would really be worth it considering the huge amount of ground that has to be covered during the mission, which brings me nicely onto my next point.
@SEAT84This is deliberate. What I gave you in the ammo crate at the mountain lodge is absolute crap, but I think realistic crap in the cicumstances.
Have you been tempted to use the hints yet? Should I take them out. Given the progress you are making I think I should.Well I have tried to be realistic in what you get. Those guys got to the lodge with whatever they had available.I hope you do.
I'm not too knowledgable on the technical side of this, so I'll just say what I thought while playing it.That is all that is needed.
though if you could get ropes.....If only I could. In the Overview picture I was able to paint them in. Here the best I can do is to ensure the scene is only on screen for a short space of time. I think the weather doesn't help here. macguba suggested worse weather for the intro and that might also make the lack of rope less obvious.
Story - I echo Macca's points, the story sounds farfetched, yet it could easily (with a few script changes here or there) be completely believable, the last people on earth idea sounds good, yet you have to wonder maybe they would at least try to get back to the mainland? Maybe include that in the story somewhere: 'An expedition was launched to the mainland to search for help...they never returned'.I always recognised that this was a weakness, and like all good ideas I now wonder why I did not think of this at the time - the answer is that I was busy think about other things of course!
Very slowly managed to get up to Vigny (That d**n pistol makes you walk the whole way )I did try to give you the shortest possible journey from somewhere realistic to Vigny.
and stumbled upon a Policeman where I found an extra few clips for my gun and some binocularsI am impressed, I expected this to be a rare find.
except at this point where you happily go 'I just killed 3 people', you might as well add a 'woohoo!' on the end of that seeing as the character seems quite happy to have done itLol yes acting is not my forte.
The next bit also surprised me, she just seemed to run out into the street and get shot without any warning! I think also the patrol should be at least two people, otherwise it looks a bit strange.... The idea of having her tell you to get the car would work, it's just I didn't have any particular feeling when she died, either through the abruptness of it, or whether I hadn't had time to get to know the character I do not know, I wasn't too bothered reallyWell I can't do anything about whether or not you are an empathetic person, but I can certainly try to do something about this scene.
I didn't see much, but I did see a fire next to a church (?) west of the lodgeIt is actually a farm house. There are in fact two of them. Remember the barn scene in the intro where a captive is being led to a barn? One of these is that barn, if you go there you will find that the unfortunate captive suffered the same fate as her predecesors. I put the fires in to try and help the player navigate to the lodge.
if I had travelled on the road I guess I would have had problems )Possible, but not certain.
(As a sidenote, the voice scared me s***less when it said 'HALT', although I guess that is what it should do really )Well you are a stranger approaching some frightened and nervous people in the early hours of the morning!
Although the voice acting can't be knocked, it would add a personal side to the people (considering they are meant to be civvies with normal lives) if different voice actors were used for each person. I admit it's hard to find voice actors (I know, I'm really struggling to find some for my movie) but it would add a personal touch, and maybe then some conversation could be added in which would generate a bond between the characters, I know I know :The voices at the lodge are one of my son's (Ruslan), my wife(Irena) and me (all the rest). I am no star but I did all the remaining voices so it became a complete mission. I am still looking for other voices for the final version.
the lack of AccTime really detracted from the experience for me, as when it came down to rescuing the civvies, and doing any amount of significant travelling, it just really tended to drag on. It was just like ' Find Civvie A and take to B, then Find C and go to B again, then D' etc etc, I just felt that something needs to either speed up or spice up the endless truck journeys back and forth. Maybe include a Tape player on the truck so that you can listen to music on the way to places. Failing that, just put AccTime back in, or just ignore me and listen to everybody else shouting that they don't want it back in .You make two important points here:
This is where I finish for the moment, I have just picked up the second load of civvies and am preparing for the long slog back to the Lodge. Wish me luck!I certainly do. And thank you
The soldier first just watched me, so I thought he wasn't hostileI have found that the loons do have limited ability to detect you when it is is dark/rainy/foggy, and here it is all three.
Getting back to it later, perhaps.I hope you do. I appreciate the comments and thanks.
Then I explored a bit the village. Didn't find anything special, no sign of my uncle, who had solutions for every problem I had. Yeah.
Well I can't do anything about whether or not you are an empathetic person, but I can certainly try to do something about this scene.
First off the hanging civs didn't swing for meThey swing very slowly, mainly I think because the camera is up close, in fact they can be seen to jerk about a bit. I was going to take out the code that makes them swing to stop the jerking but then thought what the hell these could be death throes. It is variable, sometimes it is there and sometimes not.
For the scene looking at the corpses in the barn before tatyana is raped i would have done several shots of the corpses faces with camCommit 0 and then another one going to look at tatyana (camCommit 0) again. I really didn't like the way the camera pan to the right, stopped for a bit then panned to look at TatyanaI have a lot of work to do to change the intro, all with one constraint being the length of time the music runs for.
I second thirds whatever it is now the idea of removing your setAccTime restriction,I am hearing none in support of keeping it so it looks like it will go. Pity I thought it was neat. I just need to check on how the vehicles will all behave at 4x.
give the player a kozlice instead of a pistolThat would certainly help with the journey up the hill.
remove the two russians in the first building they just kept spinning round and round and roundI will try and stop them spinning first.
Got pretty lost looking for the lodge (am I the only one) unitl I stumbled across an uninhabited Larche which took a bit of immersion awayI had feared this would be a real problem. I have put in some fires near farms west of the lodge to help guide the player. No one else has mentioned a difficulty here though. Larche was uninhabited!?? Mmmmm?
... lower the volume a bit I don't wanna be killed by an OFP missionLol. All the volumes will need to be looked at. Of course every time play it I am expecting it, feedback from people for whom this is a surprise is helpful.
(I agree they should be put into one)Any specific reason?
They were all experts which is strange since none of them have any battle experience as far as I know.This another problem. If they are not experts they can behave is rather stupid ways, but as you say, they should not be.
I have been experiencing a LOT of lagSo it looks like 2500 to 3000 is low end of the benchmark range for this mission.
were americans running around the village.. ones that killed me on a previous attempt - I recognise the Stinger. Would it be possible for you to add another script using deleteVehicle when ur not near the enemy (also remember their positions, status etc to u can camCreate them back when ur closer) It'd be a hell of a chore but well worth it.You are right. This gives an insight into something Alexi could not possibly know. Rather than delete and camCreate I might just setPos them far enough away so away so they don't get back until after the scene is over.
More later.Thanks
That's not my uncle', 'No, him neither' or something like that, and then you would know, rather than me looking at them and thinking, "Have I bypassed a script that should have kicked in showing me that he is the uncle or something?"A totally neat idea. Thank you. :thumbsup:
was that it just happens out of the blue and suddenly somebody you think is crucial in the story turns out to be a throwaway character (like the majority of the cast in AliensVsPredator the movie)I know what you meant. I did not mean to give the impression I was trivialising your comment. It is meant to be a bit of a shock though.
@SEAL84
Why nay to the kozlice?
@SEAL84
You are very determined and patient. I am impressed. Have you had any sight of any road traffic at all?
I was wearing NVGs so it was all greenBlast. This is a case of, I never have NVGs at this point so it never occurred to me that someone else would.
The opening shot was of my legs, the camera was in the wrong placeI cannot count the number of times I have seen the cut scene and I have never had this problem. I think I will move the camera further away. I don't really want to setPos Alexi to a specific point, but I might have to. But it would look strange if he arrived in a vehicle.
wife/daughter had no music and something sad would have been niceThere is something. I will turn up the volume.
There was a new enemy squad around her body, which looked a bit odd - clear them out for this.Another trigger. Oh well if I stop blocking the 4x that will give me one back.
The graves are not in the right place (whatever that means.)Yes what does it mean?
The graves are not in the right place (whatever that means.)
Yes what does it mean?
But I assumed the purpose that wretched squad was to give me NVGs.Actually no, the purpose was to fulfil Tatyana's promise that more soldiers were coming and give you the incentive to get the h out of there. I suppose it is a measure of my (lack of) skill that it just never occured to me anyone would take them on on their own. And then SEAL84 goes back all on his own with just the old man's pistol!! You are all raving lunatics.
If you want to be pickyYes I do. Ha'peth o' tar and all that.
there's at least a platoon of guys still guarding the area even though the convoy leftShouldn't be. Have you had any contact with them or have they seen you recently?
this type of mission would not be enjoyable to everyone.
I'm not too knowledgable on the technical side of this, so I'll just say what I thought while playing it.That's all you need for beta testing.
However, I did think there was something amiss with those soldiers. There is one 5-ton truck with a crew and soldiers in cargo just sitting there near a building, and another crewed but empty truck next to it. There's a squad of infantrymen on the southern road that leads into the town just standing there in aware wedge formation, in front of another empty truck I assume they rode in on. There is also a Vulcan next to them that seems to just be driving back and forth from the 5-tons to the infantry squad over and over again.For the south convoy there should be a Bradley(cargo - one group of infantry), a 5t truck (no cargo) an ammo truck, a ural (cargo - one group of infantry) and a vulcan. On arriving at La Trinite the infantry should get out, one group should go to aware at the other side of the town (they are meant to look like guards) and the other group should zig-zag (search) the town. The searching group then boards the Bradly the guard group then board the ural and the whole thing goes back to base. The north convoy is the same with a BMP instead of a Bradley.
In any event, I plan on planting a crapload of satchel charges, then HK'ing the infantrymen, luring the Vulcan to where the satchels are, then blowing it sky-highThat would certainly put the mission back on track if you could also ensure that any misplaced trucks are killed also. The other side's convoy will not leave its base until this convoy has either left La Trinite or had all its vehicles killed/disabled.
On the problem with SEAL84's mission. I have just remembered that some of the code I use to keep these d**ned stupid vehicles running does not cut in if the player is within 200m. Now that SEAL84 has made his escape they may well all get sorted out on their own.
You will note that my civvies are fireteam green and the soldiers red. I don't know why, it just seemed like a good way of keeping track of things.I find I am a bit protective of 5, almost as much as I am with the medic - is something you have noticed or is it just me?
I have no intention to mess every time with the mission saves file to get the mission going againThis is not necessary if you don't have ECP. I don't even know if it is necessary with ECP I just suspect it might be.
Will the autosave option (0-0-0) permanently stay in the mission, or is there only to ease the work for the beta testers, and will be removed later? I suggest you to do so, and place the autosaves on strategical placesThe problem with building in the autosaves is that after a certain point I really have no idea what the player will be doing. I am warming to the suggestion by macguba that I just have a limited number of saves that the player can choose to use when they wish.
@SEAL84
Can I just check I have got the symptoms right:
There is a Bradley, a 5t truck (with a crew and infantry in cargo?), a couple of urals (one is an ammo truck) and a vulcan. The urals do not have any loons in cargo. There is a squad if infantry on the south of the town (facing south?)
It would help me if you can remember where the vehicles are in relation to the church (first building on the left as you reach the town from the south), and if there are any vehicles actually in the town or north of the town.
The mission is designed so that even something like this will not prevent it from being completed. It just means that the north convoy will not move south until this convoy is dead/completely disabled or frees itself.
Honestly I have set this running before going away for several days and it was all well when I got back. With the information above I will see what else I can do to prevent this happening again.
Didn't see much but after a minute or two got "hmm they're fighting each other".Each of the loons have a killed EH that detects which side killed them, if a north is killed by a south or vice verca then after some random delay you get the '...they're fighting each other message'
Used the retry to investigate this a couple of times - I didn't fully understand what was happening.
The place should have been empty of Northrons and although I can't swear nobody arrived just at the moment I didn't see any evidence of it. Unless they came in immediately by the west road, which I have no chance of seeing.I am surprised they arrived so quickly, it is a fair way from the airbase.
I'm not thrilled by this massive improvement in the weather.Is this a comment about the design of the mission or about the implications of this on your state of health?
Oh, here's another idea. The player finds a transistor radio and picks it up. Whenever he likes he can listen to it. There are several channels. Music of course, for long journeys. Maybe you could have two stations, one for CWC tracks and one for Resistance, and give the stations funky names. Then there is the weather channel, which gives weather forecasts for the next hour or two. They need not be 100% accurate but they should be generally right, allowing you to plan your day:
Found a shedload of Ammo, trucks and heavy weapons, and no soldiers. Have I missed something?La Trinite is visited alternately by the north and the south. There are periods in between when it is empty, so no you have not missed anything. If it remains loon-free for more than about 15 minutes then please let me know.
I hope you do get chance to have another go at it.Sorry, I can't :'(. I'm busy making the campaign, it was just couriosity when I dl your mission (I feel this is not for me anyway).
There are two Bradlies in the Northern base?! I take it they're all friendly to each other?Yes. One was near the fuel dump, alone, and I would not absoluely swear that it was a Bradley. (I was over 1km away.) The other definitely was, and was with a T72/T80 (I think) near the main (default) buildings in the east and appeared to come after us as a guard group (with infantry) when my no.2 fucking told them where we were.
I'm not thrilled by this massive improvement in the weather.Both. ;D It does my state of health no favours, but also (and more importantly) I think it does the mission no favours. I appreciate that you are trying to create continously unfavourable weather (foggy when you want it clear, clear when you want it foggy) and of course there is nothing wrong with that. However, I think this change fails on two levels: firstly it is not realistic (the coincidence of the front passing and daylight arriving does indeed happen in RL, but more often the two do not coincide); and secondly you are throwing away the interest and advantages that an intermediate period - light with bad weather - can provide. In the good weather I have done all I needed to do, namely start the war and make it to the airbase, where I anticipate no problems in trashing most if not all of the defence, all I'm saying is that it would be more difficult to decide what to do, and therefore more fun, if the weather gave you choices. The good weather only took away choices from my situation, it did not add anything. But it's just another detail, not a huge deal either way.
Is this a comment about the design of the mission or about the implications of this on your state of health?
I've only vaguely digested what Seal84's problem was. I am a vaguely concerened that I have seen groups just kinda standing around without doing anything, but I've never watched them long enoug without killing them to suggest that they shouldn't have been doing that. As I said before, I'm very happy to set off to try and replicate difficult circumstances if that might help.
If Andropov is brutal but professional, and Stamenov is just evil, then you need to bring that out more. I know I've been told that, in amongst a whole bunch of other stuff, but I haven't really absorbed that. If you really want to get it across you need to embed it in the mission: for example Andropov towns have a few whole buildings and lots of graves: Stamenov are ostentasiouly different: trashed buildings, evidence of rape and robbery, and bodies rather than graves. If you want to bring this out, do not attempt to be subtle: this is a subtlety, therefore it must be handled obviously. (Things that are obvious should of course be handled subtely.)
My limited experience of La Trinite is that you don't have even as much as 15 minutes between bad guys turning up: I entered as soon as one lot had left and after several retries really only had time for a cursory rearm of my squad, to give them all longs rather than just pistols, and for me to drive three vehicles as far as the burnt out tank to the east before the other lot arrived.
"benchmark" is a tool included in the game to help mission designers. It is a measure of the speed of your computer. Big benchmark implies a good, fast comp. Click on Start-Programmes-Codemasters-OperationFlashpoint-Flashpoint preferences to discover your benchmark. My old PII benchmark was about 750, which was just and only just adequate to play Resistance. Your comp is probably over 5,000.
but one truck got away up the road to our left, where it did disgorge troops.It should have done that earlier, in fact shortly after it noticed you - I am sure you remember the code.
sent 2 back to my little base since he is only a liabilityIs that something I can do anything about? That is Ruslan, he is just a normal civi grouped to a resistance soldier (Karl) when you find him, just the same as Erik and Irena.
Then suddenly the screen freezes as the computer has a serious crash. Power off and on the only option, which makes if feel like a comp crash rather than a mission or OFP one.Oh dear, well I hope it is not mission related.
.... this shouldn't take long.I believe you said this a few posts back ;)
At the moment I am trashing towns on behalf of Stamenov.
They are a bit sneaky and unrealistic thoughI was not trying to be sneaky, any base will be covered by snipers and I just made myself into a sniper (or several) and then thought about where I would find cover. And when I couldn't find cover I used General Barron's editor addon to make some. ;D
I'm pinned by two who have left their original positions and are on the body of the airfieldI gave them all a doStop. Maybe I should also do a disableAI move or something to keep them in cover. Just to add a little to your discomfort, they are all in the same group so if one knows about you, they all do. Don't get killed. The weather might change. ;)
Yeah the lady was fun.She is not so much fun now I am afraid - she has a man friend. SEAL84 will know what I mean ;)
Although there has been an attack on the airfield I don't think the Brad and T80 haven't come out from behind the buildings,
She is not so much fun now I am afraid - she has a man friend. SEAL84 will know what I mean ;)
t80, what looked like a t72 and i think an m113.Quite right. The m113 is a vulcan, deadly things :)
(the fires should all go out when it's light enough)I did have that in mind but it means they each need to have a name!. I will follow your advice and get it all working the way I want it and then start losing things to get rid of the bug and reduce lag.
You mad fool - leave the woman in. All you need to do is add a sound file (and ok just one more trigger) so that she screams "Get away from me! All of you get away from me!" as she runs away.Lol. Okay. I will lose her man friend though.
I am totally thrilled .No more than me.. I'm in awe!! I had to literally pull myself out of my flat to stop playing this after my failed expidition to La Trinite.. next time I'll let the patrol return to the North and set up and ambush... and wait.
The "TARGET" section of the AI is likely different than what you would think. Normally, when an AI group is standing still and sees an enemy, the group will break formation and start moving towards the enemy. If you disable the "TARGET" AI, then the AI units will stay where they are at.
Even if you disable the "MOVE" AI, the units will still move out to attack the enemy, unless you disable the "TARGET" AI.
Disabling both these AI sections is useful when placing units in defensive positions. This way, you can have them stay behind their cover, and not run out into the open.
Don't waste time to make the woman in your group speak with a higher voice,Actually I already have! I went through all the voices and a whole range of pitches. I made a little missionette to do it, In the same way I have checked all the faces and all the expressions. If some one needs a missionette that shows all this I have one.
I've tryed them all at all pitches and they all sound sh*te.I agree. What I chose (voice = "Boris" pitch = 1.1) sounded quite feminine in comparison with the alternatives, but in isolaton I agree it sounds crap.
Do you get any more loons for your squad or is that it?You have all you are going to get I am afraid.
Also, I've noticed my squad won't follow me, they follow other 3 or 6 when i tell them to fall in.It sounds like though you are the group leader you are not the formation leader. I have no idea how this happened. I noticed formLeader in comref. It tells you who the formation leader is, but I have not found any way to chane it.
It seemed to me that La Trinite was your best betI am begining to wonder if having the treasure trove at 3 is too much of a spoiler. SEAL84 and XCess seem to have had great fun scavaging for weapons.
Also, I've noticed my squad won't follow me, they follow other 3 or 6 when i tell them to fall in. I've got stop written all over my unit icon in big letters so I'd guess this is the problem. This was one of the reasons I was killed by the north patrol.. as well as firing my LAW late. I spent so much time F**kin around with em I didn't notice three russians run right up to me.
If you have made missionette with faces and voices I suggest you tart it up slightly and submit it to the Ed Depot.Done
Then I head over to that machinegun jeep (which is still just sitting there, manned), crawl nearby, and HK the crew. I jump in and sure enough, it's out of gasDamn. That didn't happen in the rehearsal! In soak testing those jeeps keep refuelling at their fuel station, forever. Obviously with all the other action going on they get distracted, take detours and so run out of fuel. One full tank will get them round their patrol route just less than twice.
By this time the sun has set and it's twilightStrewth!! I am deeply grateful that you have spent so much time on it.
I would be interested to know if you have any strong opinions about these early topics.
Also you can still place the mines while in some vehicles. This means the mine poppi up under the vehicle and ur characte popping out the top because of the switchMove.Another good catch. Thanks. Now why didn't I think of that!
My new objective is to snipe out Arudy from the northGood luck
on this new attempt from an Abort save (the Retry was just too hard) you get an awful lot of trouble coming your way. You can get out of it because you have infinite savegames. I'd rather have fewer savegames and a slightly easier mission.How far back did you have to go? Prior to starting the war?
In poor weather you'd have a chance but not in this sunshine: armour can whack you from miles away.I was begining to think that the weather gets too good and was thinking of increasing the minimum settings for overcast and fog. It limits your ability to snipe but perhaps improves the game play.
When you get spotted, as I did in Saint Louis on this new attempt from an Abort save (the Retry was just too hard) you get an awful lot of trouble coming your way.A lot of trouble is certainly possible, but it is all pretty much spread out so it should take a while to arrive. Hit and run is a good tactic, but I guess that keeping doing that might bunch up the groups looking for you so that instead of arriving individually they could all be getting to you at once.
The town was littered with bodies and wrecks...infantry of all types, a Vulcan, a Bradley, an Abrams, and a couple of others, plus the Hind wreck. At most there were a dozen men left alive in town.It looks like the northron attack group got through then. ;D They don't always. Sometimes you have do the whole damn base yourself!
Saint Louis, right outside the airfield, probably didn't help.Not really that far from 3 either, units on their way there might have been diverted to deal with you. I am using less than 30 groups per side, but looking at the map in the area of 3 and the airbase - that could result in quite some concentration!
Are the convoys hourly? I was waiting about 40minutes i Dourdan for it.No. This indicates there must be a problem with it. It is about 15minutes from Chapoi to La Trinite, add a few minutes for it to realise the north convoy is no more and maybe a few more minutes while the jeep patrol moves up the road 25 to 30 minutes would be the max timeframe I expect.
I'm likin this so far Thobson.I am glad.
I just ran my truck through each jeep, all being tossed about like a matador being hit by a bull.I never tried that!
I've rescued the civvis near Vigny, but am unsure as to what is supposed to happen when I rescue them. Do they join me or something?Should I do something about the briefing? So you went into a firefight with them?
maybe I can shoot the heli down later. I heard it following me.I know it feels like it but they are not actually following you.
;MasterScript.sqs - call with this: [numberofscript,param1,param2,param3...etc.]
Goto format["script%1",_this select 0]
;----------------Script 1----------Whatever.sqs
#script1
_s1param = _this select 1
_s1param2= _this select 2
; Your code here...
exit
;----------------Script 1----------SomethingElse.sqs
#script2
_s2param = _this select 1
;Your code here...
exit
... and so on.
North to clear the fuel depot base: to my surprise it is completely empty.Me too! That certainly needs to be looked at, maybe the reinforced the base too soon.
I still haven't had a message of the two sides fighting each other.That is because of the south convoy going AWOL. You set it up nicely at La Trinite with the northrons ready and waiting, but the south convoy never showed. You need to get some of the southrons there. I have looked through the scripts several times to see what might be the problem. Killing disabling or capturing the convoy vehicles should release the other convoy on its journey. I suspect the convoy is at its base in Chapoi. If you find it there please let me know as it will help me understand the problem. Well it is only a problem in the sense that it is not what I designed. But it is not a problem in that this might happen anyway - problem in La Trinite so the convoys stop. I hope it doesn't spoil your enjouyment.
One addition I'd love to see is an inventory weaponI am not sure I understand what you mean.
therewas another thing to do with conversation I'd though of.. reports f some kind but I forgot what it was (an idea not something in the mission)If it comes back let me know. All ideas very welcome.
Mon dieu! So many posts in 5 days!Is it really only 5 days!!
Ok, pretty much all the stuff I'm about to say has been said before, but what the heck i'll say it anywayGood. It lets me get a feel for where there is a general consensus.
One thing I didn't like was the setdammaging of those three guys; it might have looked better shooting themI agree but shooting to order is murder. I wrote that before I realised what I had said Lol. I mean it is very difficult.
There is a definite gap between when you increase the acctime, and when it is reset, but im guessing this is unavoidable.If it is avoidable then I have not found a way.
So you're Alexei, eh? Putting your a** on the line. Good on you!Thanks, but actually it is more to do with the fact that I can't get anybody else than with any aspirations of my own.
Sure enough I spot a radio (maybe I was told to check it, i dunno, but i remember i was surprised when i found it ). Cue pleas for help.It will be in a better place in the next version. Also, if you don't find it and then head off as you are leaving the area one of you team will turn the radio on for you ‘it might be important'
At what point did Alexei become such a leader?Cometh the hour cometh the man.
it is a long drive to do three times, from each pickup point to the mountain lodge.I agree something will e done about it.
Perhaps something like a randomized patrol or road blockBut probably not that. This is in no-mans-land.
They refused to join my group (I HAD let off the other civilians, so I certainly had space for these guys in my group) however after a few seconds i got an 'objective complete' message and a check in the 'rescue third lot of civilians' box. Having 'rescued' the third set of refugees...nothing happenedSo let me get this right. The third set would not join you even though there was space for them, and instead of joining they gave you an objective completed green tick, but stayed where they were in the hut!? Which hut was this?
Alexei should get something for traipsing about the countrysideI had two intentions here, give him something to do to set the atmosphere, and to help augment his team. At each hut you should gain an additional soldier for your team, one of which is a medic.
A truck hurtles past me, then another, and an m2a2, and some other kind of tank. I grit my teeth and weave in and out of the convoy, through the armored vehicle, fully expecting at any moment to be blown sky-high for my stupidity....yet nothing happensThey are all armed and ready to go, darkness, fog and rain seem to impact (realistically) their ability to see you so you clearly surprised them and got away before they could react. You should make sure you get well away before stopping in circumstances like that
Instead of having a whole heap of scripts, have you considered rolling some (or even all) of them into a single .sqs file? I think Sui and probably others mentioned this beforeI am not sure of the benefit of doing this.
One little tip you should try and include somewhere is to remind players that they can double click on the map and place a markerActually I didn't know that!
No green tick since we haven't destroyed his army, but in spite of the nice voice file there is a bit of an anticlimaxGood point. I was wondering about that
I shoot a couple and a whole group of snipers appears of out nowhere and take me down. Again. They appear as if by magic from behind some trees. But the third time they don't appear.Well I do have snipers, but they should all be scattered about - that is until the base is sufficiently weak that all forces are called into the base. Anything special about the third time?
5 snipers all curled up together, almost like kittensWhere is this?
It's 12.26 game time.That is very quick.
Well I do have snipers, but they should all be scattered about - that is until the base is sufficiently weak that all forces are called into the base. Anything special about the third time?That is probably what happened. The opposition was 1 M2 gunner, 1 loon (sniper?) in the hospital square, 2 out the back of the village (1 sniped, 1 caught in the final clearup), 3 or 4 blackops near the boss's tent, the boss himself of course, a couple of loose runners, the mad sniper coming in from behind us, and 5 snipers in a bunch just outside the sandbag fence a few yards east of the north gate. All followed by 2 late arrivals at the goodnight vienna ball.
It then made a number of very low passes (in both directions roughly east-west) right over the repair yard while I dug out the Strela. If you scripted those passes they looked great - don't think I've ever seen a chopper come so low.I can't take credit I am afraid. At this stage of the mission the only instructions of mine that the chopper has is a flyInHeight and a Guard waypoint.
lose the pallets and the boxThe pallets cover the fire, to give the latter a non-standard look. I quite liked that. The box comes with the building I am afraid.
(You have to crawl to get in, which isn't ideal.)Say more. This is the ruin with the rescued civis? What is preventing you from waking in?
if your squad numbers are low perhaps one or two of them could join you.Neat idea.
Try and avoid using too many red markers, since that is the colour of the player created markers.Holy-moly, back to the drawing board - again!
If you press + as fast as you can you do actually get roughly 3x time acceration.I have to have a small delay in the trigger that detects acctime othrwise it will not work.
It is advisable to switch the sound off temporarilyIn what situations. I don't follow.
About the civvies, they didn't do anything. I ran into their cabin (these civvies nearest Vigny) and ran around them, nothing. Then some voice comes up saying "good civvies rescued" or something, then they sit their going about their existance. For some reason I thought they would join me.There is something wrong with these guys, but not always. They have been fine for me but you are not the first to have this problem. Also my son played this yesterday and when he got to the lodge the resistnace solder their was as dead as a do-do. The whole civilain thing is to be re-done. Sorry :-[ Was this the first group of civis you visited?
It is advisable to switch the sound off temporarilyWhen you are banging the + repeatedly. ;D Don't worry about the delay, its not worth the trouble.
In what situations. I don't follow.
The door for the ruin is on its west side. I soak tested the movements of the vehicles for days on end, but not the movement of the buildings!! I suppose I could periodically setPos it back (at the cost of another name). It plays a more significant part in v1.01 than it does in the version you have.
It would help to know if other beta testers that have a long mission time (I think particularly of SEAL84 who has I think the longest so far) have notice anything like this.
Any suggestions on where that pesky last loon might be?Having experienced this myself ;) I was quite paranoid about the scriping to deal with this.
What would happen stage 1 and 2 had occurred correctly and there were 12 loons left. All are on foot, have been wounded in the legs when there were 13 loons left, have fleed repeatedly and are scared witless, and none of whom have detected the enemy for ages?Every 5 to 10 minutes any that cannot stand are repaired until they can and are given a doMove to the base. I should also have said they have allowFleeing set to 0 at the same time.
Similarly if there were 8 left. My thinking is that maybe stage 4 has not fired because it has not been reached. Maybe 1 and 2 worked ok but loons have been injured - or more importantly fleed - since the early days of the script running.Well the script loops every 5 to 10 minutes
What would happen if there was 1 loon left, healthy and on guard wp, less than 500m from the base but hidden somewhere?Well the joinup script should put it in Andropov's group that is on hold just outside his tent.
but you simply would not believe how much work it took to make all these tiny changesI damn well would! Just getting some fencing to line up an be an hour or two!
4.5 months to go then.I can't see it being less than that, I amnow back to soak testing again
have 4 guys including me. And I'm the only one who can carry AT stuff.You get one resistance soldier at the lodge and one each at the civis so you should (if it all works) end up with 4 soldiers + you in the team that can carry AT stuff. The civis have the same capacity as medics.
the loose women should end up crying over these bodies to get them out of the way.Loose as in un-attached I presume. ;) Good idea. I have given them a domove instruction to make them seem like they are running away, but all the wire around the enclosure confuses them and they just stop after a while - even with the domove instruction being repeated periodically. Another case of "Why didn't I think of that!"
A small favour: I tried to create this but it kept going wrong. Could you create a version with player start and Tatyana and civvy locations all moved to very close to the lodge?run away but all the wire around the enclosure confuses them eventually.I am in bed with flu but will look at it soon. This may take a little time as I am now near the maximum allowed on my webpage. In the meantime:
DeBug = false
_setEnvironment = trueChanging setEnvironment to be false will turn off the weather - I presume that is what you have done.#DeBug
[] exec "reportOnPatrolsnConvoys.sqs"If you comment out the second line it will turn off most of the messages - these don't make much sense now anyway because you will see that further up I have commented out a lot of variables that are only used for de-bugging and are used by this script. (I needed to reduce the number of names.)I am in bed with flu but will look at it soonOch, flu is such a bore. Get well soon and all that.
SEAL84 and Xcess, if you have not been put off by all this I would be interested to know of any similar experience you have had, SEAL84 was last heard of a whisker away from hitting Stamenov, with an empty T80 nearby.
Those two variables are the critical ones.They certainly are. If a text file could wear out from usage then mine would look like:
hints "East phase 1 pass 4".That indicated the northrons have entered the endgame and are defening their base. Killing Andropov is enough to cause this.
Never saw an East phase 2 messageThere must be > 20 northron loons still alive
3 civvy kills, I believe Stamenov and his two whineesStamenov is west. I guess you blew away the two women that were with him. The only other true civis are 2x lunatic women that run up and down the island and Tatyana. Could she have been killed? The debriefing screen would have said something about it.
Neither of those seems to have happened. I am now totally confusedForget it. I suspect what happened was that I was killed and my flatmate move the screen on when he wanted the computer for something.
Even though Stamenov is west, I think he must show up as civvy in the debriefing.I suppose he must, but other civis that are grouped with east or west show up as belonging to that side
Are there any other police on the mapOnly the dead one at Vigny - err a bell is ringing in the back of my mind. In Saint Marie or where ever I put the mine field there is a police vehicle I think. I need to check if that is the case and if he starts off setdammage 1 or whether I leave the mine field to do its work. That would explain why in de-bug mode the mission starts with a hint telling me someone is in the minefield. I will check when I get home.
This mission make take me weeks to completeThat was my intention. I want to create a place that people can go back to, not to repeat the same mission but to progress the existing one.
did you tell the fog to leaveYes
Looking at the convoy they seem to be struggling to negioate around the houses instard of going straight though the middle of them and down the road,Do you recall the specific place this is happeneing?
Do you recall the specific place this is happeneing?
is a new version expected soon?Short answer - No.
cause its so d**n addicting;DThat is what I hoped it would be.
I wonder how this would go as a MP mission?MP would be a neat idea, but you would need to get your mates together for a weekend fest. I would also need to change the story otherwise it would be pretty boring for the likes of Ruslan, Karl etc at the Mountain Lodge not to mention Pavel, Yuri and Marek in the hut with the civis.
I am trying this missionI am glad you are. Thanks. This is a mission that takes tenacity and patience. I thought about how you dealt with mac's Un-Impossible mission several times when considering if anyone would like this mission.
2 - 3 fps playing speedYou exagerate I hope.
The save file is well over 10Mb.They are about 5Mbt without ECP. I am guessing that ECP adds the rest.
Quote:
2 - 3 fps playing speed
You exagerate I hope.
As far as I can tell there is no downside to this.Well if they get killed you get a red cross and also you wont get any hints. Not much of a downside I admit. As soon as I saw you were popping the civis after you had got them safe I realised there are loop holes in all this that you can drive a coach through. Hence the re-think.
You're carrying an awful lot of mines which is obviously unrealistic.macguba had a good suggestion for this. It is all on the growing pile of things to do.
looked like Stamenov had been attacked fairly hard.I am not sure I have this bit right yet. Sometime the attack doesn't strike home and others it seems to pulverise the base. I am inclided to leave it and put it down to the vagaries of war.
Then a big infantry AT squad jumps into our lodge area!This happens sometimes. It is not scripted.
leave everyone in the lodge where they don't get shot at nor do they shoot back. Seems to work cause the enemy infantry just pass by.That shouldn't happen
my T80! I stock it with HK and AT weapons/ammo and I go visit my civ buddies and take 2 of them to crew my tank. I leave the others to be picked up laterWell done. I had hoped that with all the armour about some of it would be serviceable
I drive to Dourdan and find an empty camp.Quite right too. The loons don't just stand around waiting for you. They go looking.
Oh yea and I destroyed the fuel in Dourdan but it didn't explode nor could I refuel there.The only fuel stations with fuel are guarded by the soldiers and are shown on the map
I got to the top of hill by the fuel once more. Save. And I died a few more times as an abram and a BMP2 came up the road behind meProbably Andropov's attack striking home.
Then boom, boom, boom the infantry is killed. Grenades or mines?Mine field. Explosions caused by grenades - so both.
I visit the western civs again, but they haven't changed.I have just re-written all the civi stuff.
I'm enjoying myself immensly,It sure sounds like it.
I do need a repair truck to fix my T80 but I feel like I'm gaining control.It is a good feeling when that begins to happen
Why is there so much unused ammo in La Trinite? I would think one side would just take it and obliterate the other.This is meant to represent what they are trading - in part. It is a case of Mutually Assured Destruction if any one side starts anything.
Mines, had to restart one time when I accidently placed an AV mine under my T80 when trading guns...On the list
Maybe a deactivation action?
Noticed a Cobra went down east of my lodge. I think I hear a Hind, isn't that kinda unfair?I have worked hard to ensure that each side is well balanced.
Cobras= 1 AA hit
Hind= 2 AA hits
AH64= 2 AA hits
though I dunno how that would affect the mission.
The cities south of Chapoi are totally desolate of life? Could you explain that?The are not significant places in the context of the northern front. In later versions these towns will show signs of destruction and pillage.
And why some infantry didn't leave 1 or 2 mates behind to guard camps in Dourdan, Arudy, and La Pesaagne? Unless they were killed of course, but no bodiesI would like to, and may still do - but that will mean extra groups and so increased lag
Why does it seem the northerons are always the tougher oppoenent? They seem to be winning cause they are kinda in control of La Trinite except for the odd Southie infantry patrol that invades north territory, but they don't last longAs I said I have tried to balance the forces numerically, but the northrons have a geographical advantage in that their base is closer to La Trinite so they can concentrate their forces there more quickly. It is surprising just how powerful that is.
Stamenov's base was pretty coolI liked it. But I like the new one better!
why do the Northeron forces go straight for Stamenov's base? I mean if it were that easy to go for the general, I'm surprised it didn't happen before I arrived on the island.MAD - Mutually Assured Destruction. The northron attack on Chapoi is actually a reprisal for an attack by the southrons on Andropov's base. The attacks don't always get though - part of the fortunes of war.
And I've just read about some woman in La Trinite, never saw herA little joke of mine - actually there are two of them running up and own the island.
The only real civvies I've seen were at their hideouts when I tried to rescued themYou have probably realised that these aren't civis, they are resistance bods that just happen to look like civis. There are actually very few civis on the island.
I drive back no resistance and come back to find my little lodge has sunk or risen or something. It moved and I'm sure of it cause half my people were under the floor!This is a total pain!!
Larche is empty, not a person or tent in sight. (i would add a few bits and bobs because this town it the key to the vally to the north west).This also relates to a comment made by GuiltyRoachKiller. There is a group stationed at Larche, but they are on guard and so have left by now. I need to re-think this.
Does the heavy rain and super close fog ever dissapate?After 2 hours I expect the weather would begin changing. It is random but by now it should have started to change. I forecast clear skies and only a very light mist (for a while anyway ;D).
really wouldn't use a HEAT shell. They are much too weak. Use Shell120 or Shell105. Just a suggestion, when you place an AV Mine it puts a real OFP tank mine thereActually due to a 'feature' of OFP if you ask for a Shell120 you get a HEAT (try rearming an empty tank to see what I mean - addmagazine "Shell120" and you get a fullload out of HEAT). That is what I am using on the mission you have. I quite like it. It takes out anything less than a Bradley, and it disables a Bradley so the crew get out but it is repairable - so long as you don't have another explosion near by like Planck did :). A real OFP mine will only explode when it detects armour. I want somthing that will take out anything from a motor bike upwards.
With my fancy mines idea, it was never the intention that the actual explosion should be the same as the item you placedNo, but I thought it would be elegant to do it that way - I was also quite pleased with myself for camcreating LAW and RPG explosions. I think I will go back to the explosions in v 1-00.
ACF, I've only had time for a very quick test but it appears you are correct. Good thinking!Well that's a relief. I was wondering how I was going to fix a problem I have not seen.
the fixes would be to find a flatter or less rough spot, or force SetTerrainGrid.The lodge is at a saddle between two peaks so it is about the flattest land available for miles. It looks like I will have to try setTerrainGrid. It would help me to know what settings people have for their terrain detail and whether or not they have experienced the 'sinking lodge' so I can home in on an appropriate setting.
This shouldn't have surprised me - its a function of the road and village network, but it does mean that the northrons have the advantage of concentration and short lines.This really is a practical demonstration of the power of short lines of communication. I have been scrupulous in balancing forces. And then laying them out in a reasonably realistic way. At first I thought the northrons were exposed having their base so close to the front but it turned out differently. In the version I use for de-bugging I have markers to show the location of each group, and for the convoys, patrols and choppers the location of each vehicle (I have removed these from the version I posted because they consume valuable names and so contribute to the large savegame bug). It is fascinating to see the battles progress by watching the map. Northrons really are able to get their stuff to La Trinite much more quickly. For some reason I also always seem to target the southron convoy so they are already weaker by the time the action starts.
but the northrons did come out on top when I played. When I arrived at the southron base the northrons still had at least two armoured vehicles to the southrons none,I think I will down grade one or two of their T80s to T72s, nothing too drastic.
And I hope you dont feel like you have to kill yerself to make any changes you have decided to add, a mission this size I am sure took many months to get this farIt did! but I am now very consious of its shortcomings so I want to get them fixed But at the same time I want to take time and savour the improvements.
Very pleased to hear somebody else has finished it.I make it three now. You, Planck and Mr.Pibb. I am not sure how I feel about that. When I was putting it together I had envisaged something that would take weeks.
I had no problems getting my loons to do what I wanted in the tank.I was puzzld by that too. I have not chance to check it out yet.
spotted one on the small road that leads to the coast to the north, which winds down a hill.Do you have a map reference. I can't place it.
I make it three now. You, Planck and Mr.Pibb. I am not sure how I feel about that.
It had hit a road sign and had a puncture....amazingly the road sign was still standing.This sort of minor damage is a pain, the loons get out and walk! I now have it that something like this will result in the jeep being repaired and the loons getting back in to continue their patrol(It is not unreasonable to expect a solder to change a tyre after all!)
I got the impression that the women I met on the road were the 2 from further north.I think you are right. The women in Stamenov's tent are told to leg it to towns south of Chapoi.
atmosphere, (though it's kind of tough with the fog because the AI can see YOU but you can't see THEMI am coming to the conclusion that fog does effect AI, but rain doesn't, though I don't have a lot of data. I have had AI lie down next to me when it is foggy and not notice me up to and including when I put a bullet in them. Rain seems to pull visibility right down for the player - but I suspect (I don't have a lot of data on this) that it has a smaller (no?) impact on AI.
I don't have ECP though.Oh dear! I thought I had fixed that problem. I am glad you are enjoying it though. So which fuel station were you at when this happeneing?
Perhaps when you rescue the first batch they tell you about the others
what i would do is have the scene take place at night with the family sitting around the campfire, as i think the contrast of their firey faces and the darkness around them would look moodierThat's a neat idea.
dont remember if the mission editor can adjust viewdistanceI can set it in the script that runs the intro. What setting would you recommend - this is not something I ever change myself.
i would spend more time in cutscenes emphasizing the tenuousness of the truce; you could have the first guy you meet talk about how the truce actually only exists in the minds of the two leaders, and how the only thing keeping the two sides from erupting in warfare is the fact that the soldiers have been ordered to patrol areas well clear of the other side by their leaders (hence the "no man's land"). you could also explain how the "trade" in la trinite is more of a product of the leaders' desires than that of the soldiers, who are just following orders and would in fact prefer to be as far away from their enemy as possible, as they have no illusions about the state of the "truce". this, i think, would make the soldiers' willingness to fight more rational to the player.Good thoughts. Perhaps for the version after next.
their was a way to make those guys who sit in wreckage do somethingThe problem is I don't put the wreckage there, there is largely unscripted battle and I leave the OFP engine to do what it wills. Does it really look odd?
women on the road, had a few close calls, are they a joke?I just gave a couple some random, and randomly moving, waypoints to see what would happen.
they sat with backs to the south and were quite a ways away from the airport.It sound like they had returned from somewhere.
the northeron base needs some "bulky" defensive feel to it.In hand but I am concerned about the large savegame bug and about lag. It will be a balance, but I hear you.
they should go to the nearest city or something and surrenderThe whole end game thing needs to be looked at.
Oh dear! I thought I had fixed that problem. I am glad you are enjoying it though. So which fuel station were you at when this happeneing?
the fuel station just below the Malden airfieldThat certainly would attract a lot of attention :)
spec ops are lying down in the base not doing anythingThey are Stamenov's body guard. I think it will be more obvious with the changes I have made to the southern base.
I feel bad for your printer...I did it at work.
well make that like 500 nowWell 450 to 500 is about what you have to deal with (it is random).
There were countless scenes like this going on; I dont know how many of them were deliberateWell the fact that they fight is deliberate. Getting them to fight at La Trinite was down to you. (I have not managed to get them fighting anywhere else I would add). How they fight is entirely up to them, and one thing I really like about it is that it is different everytime.
Having a blastI am really glad to hear it.
Handguns in your squad make life really tedious. More Kozlices and fewer pistols at the lodge please.
please put the lodge more accessible.
@current status: still waiting in the fog for those last infantry peeps to show their ugly mugs...I hope it won't take long. I have changed the weather model to give better weather later on. In fact I just tested it and I think I have over compensated so I have just wound back a few parameters.
For example with my no.2 who thought his formation position was 30m ahead of me;D
some undefined location where they vanish in a puff of setPos.;D
I must have been drinking again. Never trust a post made by me after 1am. Or rather, trust only those since I'm pissed and therefore writing what I really think.;D ;D
a first aid tent would have been good at the lodge as wellIn fact I have already put a MASH first aid box on the wall inside the ruin. It works just like a Field Hospital. It is next to the relocated ammo crate (out of the rain) and is clearly visible behind Irena in the cutscene - so there should be no excuse for missing it.
Actually by this time the 2 sides are fighting each other and all the little camps at the various villages will be mostly deserted.Indeed. Actually it is all.
If I recall correctly most, if not all those camps had a hospital tent.
If the newer version has a guard still in position in these villages you will just have to 'pop' him off first.;DSingular? ;)
I am not yet with the idea that they should go somewhere else, after all this is meant to be a refuge and I have just got them there, perhaps getting them to lie down clearly hiding, or perhaps have someway they can interact with the player later in the mission, or maybe they can head for the first base that the player manages to clear. Hmmm worth thinking about.No guarantee that this is worth thinking about, but why not an objective to move the assembled civvies (who don't want to stay and fight) back to your 'boat' so they can reach your island? It gets them out of the way and may provide opportunities to develop some characters a bit. Maybe there could be consequences if it's not dark/foggy.
This fog is hindering play cause you cant see a thing and you drive right into the arms and tracks of the baddiesThis is now fixed. The weather pattern remains but the maximum level of fog is lower and it changes more slowly. The frequency of rain coming and going is pretty much unchanged (it is a showery time of year), but maximum overcast level, fog level and rain intensity all reduce as the mission progresses.
Is rescuing the civvies world-creating or mission making?That is a good point and now I think about it I remember having a little discomfort over that at the time, but not any more. So it looks like this is going to be a mission - I will save the mission free world another day. Maybe when I retire.
but how to show it to a player who simply blasts the soldiers as soon as he sees them, and then thinks, 'oh well, another bang-bang-shootemup mission' ?I don't know if any of you enjoy cooking. I do sometimes and what really gets me is, you spend ages deciding on what to make, choosing all the bits, putting them together, cooking them, laying them out and the the family comes in and it is all gone without a second thought. I felt like that when I was puting together these convoys - the player will never see what is going on here and without it being contrived I am not sure they ever will. But in a way it doesn't matter. If people have fun that is fine and I hope that the behaviour of the convoys is sufficiently dynamic that if they player does somethign different they should respond appropriately, but even there I have some problems. If a convoy detects an enemy then onboard infantry gets out and deals with it. Once the enemy is dealt with the infantry get back in and continue on the their journey. There are two things that hide this: 1. if the enemy is the player then once dealt with he will not see what follows; and 2. Before the infantry can respond the APC of the Vulcan will have usually done it for them. But should I bother about that. I have tried to make each behave realistically and then just left them to it. As a result I hope that if the player does something totally unusual then he will get an approriate response without me having to predict that behaviour.
My suggestion? Scrap the briefing.That is worthy of very serious consideration.
that must've been the ugliest colour you could find.I liked it :'(
You can clearly see you used a setdammage now since the girl was all bloody.I thought that was okay - she has just been shot. I will add that to the list of things to be looked at.
Might even a bit of MapAnim or something.Now there is a good thought. It fits with a suggestion macguba made that I like but have not been able to do anything about yet and that is showing the offshore island I have supposedly just come from. The list grows.
I'm not playing cadet but are those n00bies having GPS? First of all, that sucks because a civvie should be the last one to carry one. And this I reckon is a mission where you get something out of knowing these islands better than your own pocket. I grew up with these islands, they're my childhood homesIf you have GPS I didn't give it to you. I might be misunderstanding your point.
Way I figured it, there's bound to be a lot of traffic on the La Trinite road, although I waited for half an hour and didn't meet any.Oh dear. If you waited that long there could be a problem. Let's say you might have just missed the south convoy heading for Chapoi, 15 mins there, a bit of turnaround time and 15 mins back. They should be with you soon. If you are south of Dourdan you should also get 2x jeep patrols in the same time frame so a 30 minute quiet period there would be a serious problem.
Oh, and yea, I'd like to see westies carrying AKs and easties carrying M16s, it'll look like they really scavanged the place.Neat idea.
You've inspired me for my next project btwThere is not much praise better than knowing someone else feels inspired to do something similar, thanks
when Frontline Commander is done of courseSo I should look out for it about the time we are all playing OFP 3 then. ;)
If the player is able to kill a lot of men and vehicles (like me) on one particular side, it would be nice for the other side to attack, to relieve pressure off of the player. And I think this would be a realistic reaction. One general, seeing the other has been weakened, attacks, expecting to have the upper hand.I thought about this for a long time. I decided - no what the hell, let the player take the heat. I may still add a: the enemy is weak let's attack them scenario. In fact the more I think about it the more I like it. As it stands the player has a difficult way to finish the mission (get them fighting at La Trinite) or a very difficult way (don't get them fighting at La Trinite). Having one side attack because the other side is weak would really help reduce the linearity. Jeez beta testing is wonderful - I wish I had done it for all my missions.
It's kinda crappy ain't it. Was like made ages ago, when I first learnt dropA couple of points: no it is not crappy, and I have not yet learned drop. I just got the default rain working well enough that I was happy. Also I knew from the outset that this was going to be a big mission so lag could be an issue so: smallest island, minimal use of non-standard stuff, and apart from General Barron's editor upgrade - absolutely no addons.
So I should look out for it about the time we are all playing OFP 3 then.I was refering to the mission you say mine has inspired. I naturally assumed that the one you have been working on for the last 37 years is nearly finished. ;)
Actually it's ready for an early beta testing now... But I'm holding it on until the beta testing party.
Or perhaps have a setCaptive observer from each side at the other side's HQ. If the side he is visiting gets weak, he legs it. An appropriate distance away he gets setCaptive false and again, he either makes it or not.Now there is a really neat idea. Unfortunately units that are setCaptive will still cause guard units to respond. A real pain in the arse. I originally had La Trinite occupied by 'border guards' (setCaptive, never fire and all that) from each side. Problem was all the guard units from both sides turned up and started whacking each other.
repetion of the shots of the sea in between takesThe sea!! say more. I did not plan on it showing shots of the sea.
The mines that did not explode - were these my mines or standard OFP mines?They were your mines.
Could it be that some of the southron guard units were following you and you led them into the northron's area?This might be the case. After I had gone to my position on the hill, I decided to go back down and lay the rest of my mines. While I was doing this, I was killed, as I accidently had the sound muted at that time, I'm not sure if I was shot, or if I blundered into an already set mine (I think I was shot, as I was quite careful about not stepping on the mines I placed). My retry point was back on the hill, so I retried, and moved back down the hill to place more mines, this time the sound was up, and I was shot. The next time I waited in the bushes until the jeep convoy passed, then moved out. My best guess is that when I moved out, a few men might have followed me, and engaged the convoy.
The next time I waited in the bushes until the jeep convoy passed, then moved out. My best guess is that when I moved out, a few men might have followed me, and engaged the convoy.From my (the builder's) point of view this would be neat. It is a pity it is a puzzle to the player.
The lack of a civi boat is a problem - I just couldn't bring myself to use one of the military ones, I had no idea how on earth could I explain itYou don't. Just give it 3/4 fuel (to simulate the journey, it has to be more than half since you are planning on getting back) and bit of damage and little or no ammo, not that that really matters.
Malden is the biggest of the original islands.Okay I got that wrong. When choosing the islands small size was one requirement. Another was the ability to have two circular road patrols - one for each side. I forgot I had to give up on the first to get the second.
The shots of the sea were in between the other shots showing the destroyed building and villages etc. The camera was stationary and the sea bobbed up and down a bit. looks like what happened when i tryed to do a scripted cutscene, camera doesnt appear to have any target. And at the end it zoomed (real fast) across the sea and went to a blackout. Possibly becasue of the way it ended for me. And on the debrief screen my mission time was 4 minutes. I think i broke your missionGee it certainly sounds like it.
The other alternative of course is that fuel is very short and you land on the east coast in the Dourdan/Houdan area and go straight across the island via Arudy.I am now quite taken with the idea of eastward movement early in the mission.
You saw dead convoys at La Trinite - did you do anything that might have caused anything to happen there (Like putting a mine down. killing someone or even just being seen by someone)?I didn't try to make my presence known. I laid no mines there, and killed no one. I can't tell you if I was seen or not, but I would be really surprised if I was, as I took many precautions against being seen.
You had two snipers in the same bush! If one was east and one was west they might have been discussing politics, or they might have been talking about their mutual friend Dorothy, or perhasp they were just lonely - But I did not put them both there!lol, I didn't actually see the second one in the bush. When I went in the bush, I only saw the one I was laying next to. I quickly observed the base, and crawled out of the bush. As soon as I crawled out, I saw the other sniper in the open to the south-east, about 5 feet from me. He was crawling away, and I assumed he was in the same bush. He could have climbed up the hill to my right, and I probably wouldn't have seen him. If you say you didn't place two in the same bush, then you are probably right, and it was a coincedence I saw two in the same vicinity.
You mentioned taking down the first two and the last chopper. If that is it you might just find an empty undamaged Cobra somewhere (it is a long shot but it is just possible - and it literally could be anywhere with a slightly increased probability in the vicinity of Chapoi)Now that would be cool! :D I think I'll forget about ambushing the tanks as they come north, and try to find that helicopter (ambushing an M1, a T72, and a Vulcan might not be a good idea, anyway :P)
I thought the mission was quite good when I put it on here - I am now a bit embarrassed about crappy a lot of it is.;D That's why I wrote in the sticky topic, choosing my words carefully, "When you are convinced the mission is perfect, and have the results to prove it, it is ready for beta testing." I thought was in pretty good nick for a first beta of a mission of that complexity - simply getting no error messages or debug hints shows it was in quite a tidy state.
Hopefully I'll find that chopper, so I'll have the advantage of airpower when I defeat the northern tanksI deliberately designed the mission so the player would not get his hands on a live chopper. But having recently been testing the end game code for each side I realised it is just possible in very rare circumstances. Please don't take too long looking it is a very long shot, and as I said it could be anywhere
I found two snipers not quite in the same bush but very adjacent to each other.Near each other is okay.
BTW I've found that the lodge has shifted once more and the vehicles are either up 2 meters or underground up to their windshields. Doesn't matterIf you have not been changing the terrain detail settings then it matters to me. Have you been making any changes to it?
When I tried running people over later in the mission they blew me upThat's a relief! ;D
But don't put any AV mines anywhere near where one of your convoys is due to run. That has only one end.Especially as they can't be guaranteed to stick to the road.
Seemed pretty abandoned when I looked around there.If you look in the editor it is - a bit. If you look at the scripts you will see that that cannot be guaranteed. The waypoints of several groups of infantry are moved to random locations at intervals around that area. If that is what it looks like in mission - well it is a large area.
I thought the mission was quite good when I put it on here - I am now a bit embarrassed about crappy a lot of it is. Scripts working in the wrong order, people dieing for no reason (I am beginning to think that Malden is haunted), loons not turning up at the end etc.
folks, i'm keen to play this mission, am not keen to wade thru 25 pages to find the latest version. can sum1 point me 2 the right one pls? (1st page says 1.00)
Henderson - what time is it? The intensity of the fog does lessen as progress is made. I am really puzzled, I find the fog does help as a means of concealment. Now the rain is another thing the loons seem to be able to see straight through it but it really cuts the visibility for the player.
I hope it doesn't put you off.
At the moment I am stuck outside Arudy on a bare hillside in bright clear sunlight being picked off by snipers on the other side of the valley that I didn't put there wishing the weather would turn bad.
if ECP_initialised then {goto"ECP_is_loaded"}
.
;load custom burn scripts
.
#ECP_is_loadedI hear firing in the backround?Really? It wasn't me. I am collecting evidence that Malden is haunted. This is not my first data point.
I like what Alexi says about his father's uniform and not letting them down.I am glad you liked that. It seemed like a good idea but I had doubts when I heard it 'live'
I gave 5 a hunting rifle.Great, so you found the ammo dump. My son said he didn't see the ammo crate in the cutscene - I told him he was not supposed to. I was wondering if others might miss it.
I loaded up my whole squad, and drove to the civs only to find that three couldn't get on board.The civis are now quite different. They don't join you but they do follow you and they will get into the truck if you do and if there is room. I have never taken my whole squad to get them - I only take #2 (one of the benefits of beta testing). So with me and one other they all get in. I need to invetigate what is happening here. When you say three could not get on board is that 3 loons or number 3 loon? Did you get a message about the vehicle not being large enough for the civis? Did your squad all get out and was it them that were having difficulty getting back in or was it the civis that couldn't get in? Anything you can remember would be of real help to me on this.
Said I was unlogged when I went to preview,I am sorry. I don't understand this.
I'll tell you the rest of the events later. ;DGlad to see the smiley face. I look forward to it.
People who have already played this mission will miss it. The text pace is fast (thank God) unfortunately there's a quick passage surrounding "and then nothing". I missed it's significance, ie, i didn't take in the downed airliner, it and the entire passage, were too quick for the information content. It has considerable impact on the why / where of what you you are.Another thing that is striking is that all the things I feel a little uncomfortable with get picked up by beta testers. There is a lot of the story at his point and it is a bit of a rush. I want the music at the end to fade out as the scene fades out so there is a limited amount of time. I even start the text before the music which I am not happy about. What I plan to do is to shave the odd fraction of a second or so from each of the little scenes to help with this.
I have a jotted comment that "either of them" should be replaced with the word 'side'. It's probably because the sentence/paragraph repeats itself.Thanks.
There was some confusion with the initial civilians. Depending on what I did first they would / wouldn't get in truck. Would / couldn't get in car and eventually ended up walking (which was perfectly ok) but the vehicles (plural) loading was messy, random.This is where more information would help me. Henderson had a similar problem - did you take your whole squad with you? Following Henderson's comments I looked at the code again last night. It looks okay, but maybe there is something I am missing or perhaps there is another feature of OFP that I need to work around. I need to do something about that car, either kill it or remove it.
Trinite was laggy, very. In fact, anywhere larger concentrations of vehicle caused large lag. (tanks eg). I learned to avoid any built up areas in order to play the game at all. (3gig+ cpu, 512 meg ram).That is a worry. Do you know your OFP benchmark?
I learned to avoid using vehicles at all. My squad were mostly awol with this, no matter what i tried. That T80 i snaffled sure could have been helpful though.Again some more information on the problem would help me here. I avoid using vehicles in the middle of the game while there are choppers about for the obvious reason, but I have had no other problems. In my current run through I am about to attack Chapoi, I have a convoy of 1 Abrams; 1 T80; 1 BMP ambulance;1 Repair truck and 1 ammo truck. The only problems I get are when I allow the trucks to advance without first ensuring there are no AT soldiers about, and the damned northron Hind that is buzzing Chapoi itself.
At one point I wanted, desperately, to reach into the video screen and rip out that d**n ap/av mine. Every time i reloaded I would plant one and blow myself up. I have the impression this is a legacy issue, something you liked, and don't want to remove it even though you know it's not that good. The AP stuff is lethal. On a map of this scale i am garanteed to run into them myself at a later stage.Originally I had quite a lot of stuff that was meant to keep the player on their toes - like vehicles running out of fuel etc. Most of that has gone. My preference on the mines would be to have them lower down the list of actions but I don't think that can be done, as it is they do ensure the player has to be careful with the mouse wheel click. I have made it so you can't place one of these mines while you are in a vehicle, you do get a disable option and thanks to macguba you also need a specific item in inventory to place one. If you double click on the map you can place a marker to show where you have placed a mine, but also I like it that the player has to bear this in mind when placing a mine. I will wait and see what other feed back I get on this before deciding what to do about this.
Cutscene Storylines:I have been giving thought to this. One problem is in not knowing what the player is going to do. It is on my list of things to think about.
Simply wonderful. Immersive, intense. Some deal of dissapointment on my part that they began to taper off towards end of game. I wish / hope, you will liberally sprinkle them elsewhere.
Had the impression i was suppposed to attack Chapoi first (via storyline). Next game I'll go for the airport instead.Actually there is nothing you are supposed to do first, I tried to make it so there was no right way and no wrong way to do the mission. Attacking a base will generate a response, as a small band of fighters it might be better to take a less direct approach, or even to get others to do most of the fighting for you.
The game is so overwhelming in detail that no critqiue can do it justice. Only point that simpy must be mentioned is that at no time were the enemy looking for contact lenses. They were aggressive / ferocious. The few that were not were understandably so, for all the right reasons. Loved the re-arming machine gun nests. Loved the random waypoints. Beautiful.Music to my ears if I can use such a phrase about written text. You can certainly come again.
Readme:I didn't think it was out dated - I will check thanks. I certainly do not spawn vehicles, or anything else for that matter. My intention is that there is no trickery, it is meant to feel like a real experience. Everything you need to deal with is already on the map at the start.
I believe this is now inconsistent with V1.1, it did not appear to be relevant. I truly hope you did not spawn vehicles. I'm hoping for my game play I can go hunting them 1st, before they attack me.
Addons:I don't do them (it does limit my opportunities to do beta testing sometimes). The only exception I make is General Barron's Editor Upgrade. Any delay in releasing the mission will be down to my time spend fixing some of the problems.
@GRK
Thanks for the ECP stuff, that will be a real help.
I fear you will need more than a minute for the download. It is quite a bit bigger than the original. I use a higher quality of ogg for the voices in this one.
@Henderson
I am glad you are still talking to me after the fog and all. Really? It wasn't me. I am collecting evidence that Malden is haunted. This is not my first data point.
Did you check out any bodies at Vigny?
The only bodies I saw were the police guy's body, ("Glad it wasn't my uncle. ;)) and Tatayana's, I was too busy running to check for more, heh.
I am glad you liked that. It seemed like a good idea but I had doubts when I heard it 'live'
Great, so you found the ammo dump. My son said he didn't see the ammo crate in the cutscene - I told him he was not supposed to. I was wondering if others might miss it.
The civis are now quite different. They don't join you but they do follow you and they will get into the truck if you do and if there is room. I have never taken my whole squad to get them - I only take #2 (one of the benefits of beta testing). So with me and one other they all get in. I need to invetigate what is happening here. When you say three could not get on board is that 3 loons or number 3 loon? Did you get a message about the vehicle not being large enough for the civis? Did your squad all get out and was it them that were having difficulty getting back in or was it the civis that couldn't get in? Anything you can remember would be of real help to me on this.
I had my squad in the check, and once I got one, the civs started to get in after. But, it seemed 3 of them couldn't fit into the truck for some reason.
I am sorry. I don't understand this.
I was talking about the forums, hehe, when I went to preview my post, it said I wasn't logged in. :)
Sorry I'm not posting as much ThobsonAbsolutely no problem. When I put 1.00 up I was hit by so much in such a short space of time it took me quite a while to assimilate it. The current pace is more manageable.
But, it seemed 3 of them couldn't fit into the truck for some reason.So some of them got in but some didn't, and you did not get a message about the vehicle being too small for them. Interesting that is a good clue as to what to look for.
when I went to preview my post, it said I wasn't logged in.Oh I see. I now do a select all, Ctrl C before going to preview - I lost too many long posts this way in the past.
Also, during the cutscene I heard more firing in the backround…. As I'm driving I hear more explosions?This is baffling. Have you had the "We seem to have got them fighting each other" message? There are only two places where I use environmental sounds and that is if you approach either of the groups of civis before you know about them some environmental shooting will start and a few seconds later the player gets shot. All other sounds of fighting are real. Once you know about the civis the triggers that create the sounds are deleted (as is the one that shoots Alexi) so they cannot be firing by accident.
I drive right past a group of soldiers. They didn't make any hostile moves so I continued on.This is a pain I can do little about. If you are in a truck the footsoldiers seem to ignore you. Get out or go near some armour and it is very different.
I also like recruiting the Russian deserter to your cause, I knew some people still had morals!This has had a desirable effect on future game play. I want to create an environment where the player needs to keep alert, and remember what he has done. You certainly need to remember what you have done with 9, otherwise at some point you may see a Russian soldier coming towards you and the moment of hesitation while you consider if he is your guy can prove fatal. I know.
I hear Pavel's voice saying he's ready for my order. He must have a real strong voice.Maybe I should make it sound like a radio message
I disembarked my squad and now I'm planning for my next course of actionJust the sort of situation I was wanting to create.
which I think should be to get a truck that can carry everyone in my squad.I need to check that truck.
Having fun with the mission Thobson, best beta test mission I've ever played.I am very pleased to hear it. Thanks again for your comments.
This is baffling. Have you had the "We seem to have got them fighting each other" message? There are only two places where I use environmental sounds and that is if you approach either of the groups of civis before you know about them some environmental shooting will start and a few seconds later the player gets shot. All other sounds of fighting are real. Once you know about the civis the triggers that create the sounds are deleted (as is the one that shoots Alexi) so they cannot be firing by accident.
>what is your OFP benchmark.
Give me a clue. Where do i find it?
I didn't get the message, and I didn't engage anyone except those three guys, so I don't know what's going on either.Utterly weird. If there is shooting someone is getting killed and if someone gets killed by the other side you get the message. I was thinking of putting in some executions - but I haven't done that yet!!
Like others I 'suspected' the ai could see thru fog/rain. Am happy to report to them, and you, this is not the case (unlike smoke grenades/broken bushes).Interesting. Thanks.
The answer for me was to crawl, shoot, crawl, the ENTIRE length of the runway.Lol I spend a lot of my time in the same position, eyeball to eyeball with the grass.
There is a discrepency in the load game where fog may or may not be present.That is another thing I am not sure I can do something about. I presume after restoring the game the weather returns to something like it should be after a minute or so. If not I will need to have another look at the weather code.
Fate of soldiers outro:I have a dilemma. I wanted an outro that showed a sort of epilogue. But I like the ending the way it currently is and feel that something after the de-briefing would take away from what has gone before. What I have in mind is an unpleasant end for the surviving soldiers delivered by Mariana (Alexi's mother)
don't agree. You've already mentioned it in the outro, what WILL happen to them? Stay tuned.
Disarmed soldiers:A happy force of necessity. In version 1.00 there was occasionally some difficulty in finding the last loon - even though I do have some scripts that make them head for the centre of their base.
Have to mention, disarmed soldiers rather than find-the-last-bloody-loon = clever as hell.
You might have an 'undocumented feature' here. I couldn't tell if my loons were reporting these unarmed soldiers or real ones from the northI am afraid your guys will report the surrendered loons in the same way they will report the active ones. This is OFP and I cannot change it.
2nd niggle same issue. Vehicles my ppl got in were red, they should have turned green. Had a hard time targetting the 'real' red ones.OFP again I am afraid. I cannot fix this
savegame bug:Be happy.
dunno what that is.
Fighting each other:You get this message the first time one of the loons is killed by the other side. Subsequently all hell breaks loose and major warfare begins between north and south.
Am still at a loss what that actually meant. Couldn't determine if it was north fighting north (that's what I currently think)
Trigger ocurred around about houdan.I don't suppose you can recall what you might have done to cause this. It is several months since I had war break out spontaneously between the two sides but I am still very sensitive to it happening. It would ruin the mission.
Same subject, not sure if it's clever or confusing, that the north / south tanks battle it out at chapoi.This is one of the locations where a battle will take place after the truce between the two sides is broken.
You mention only four or so, it *seemed* like many more wereFour armoured vehicles target Chapoi, but there are others on guard. So if they are not otherwise engaged they may also have joined in. Stamenov also has some armour based around Chapoi, they will obviously have been fighting back.
In fact, this was the best lesson learned for my game play. I had to change my thinking and turn geurilla (sp). Not Resistance, Gorilla (sp). The rest of the game was hit, and run away as far as runny run run could take me. If I could run to other side of island, it wasn't far enough, but my tactic was very successful. My squad stayed alive. After two towns or so, I understood I was in deep doodoo if I hung around. No, trouble, just bloody exciting. The ai played fair, it didn't hunt me to extinction.Lol, wonderful thanks.
Civils:The three ‘scenes' in v1.00 were a bit crap to say the least.
you mention 3 civil scenes. How I wish you'd put one back.
1st civils. This is identical as reported by others. In my case i drove entire squad. Unless I got out (and it wasn't necessary to trigger cutsene, so easily fix that by trigger IN hut), the civils wouldn't get in. I get out, i order in, and everyone tries to, 3 fail.I have been thinking about the cause of this. I move some GameLogics into the vehicle that Alexi boards and if I can get enough in I know there is room for the civis. What seems to be happening is that the GLs are staying in the vehicle even after Itell them to get out and so are taking up space. That would fit the symptoms perfectly, the truck holds 12. You start with a squad of 5, I put 5 GLs in then 5 loons try to get in and 3 won't fit. It all adds up. I unassign the GLs from the vehicle and then setpos them elsewhere so I don't know what I am missing. I have only just thought of this as the reason so I will need to check the code when I get home. Your idea of having the truck run out of fuel is a neat one, fully in keeping with making life difficult for the player in a realistic way. I will look at that if I have no joy with the GL problem.
I try to get them in car, and messages to say we'll walk. Various scenarios follow but the basics begin with overflowing truck causing all later messages to be awol. Suggestion: Let the truck run out of fuel.
Ammo stash in haystack:I do show you the hiding place in the cutscene. "We do have some weapons, but not a lot I'm afraid"
With a kozlice as main armament, I'm gonna search high and wide. Keep it hidden.
Had the suspicion, that I could have missed the radio, hello are you there stuff. It triggered well away from _the_ radio, which I had just passed.As you realise this is an important potential bottleneck in the flow of the story. In v1.00 the radio was next to the clearly visible ammo crate and so was very had to miss. In v1.10 it is behind Irena - you can see it and a medicine box behind her in the cutscene. If you don't activate the radio yourself then I have one of your team activate it for you if you get too far from the lodge. Is that what happened for you? Were you too far from the lodge when it happened for it to feel realistic?
ECP and Lag:I don't use ECP. What is the super AI?
It might simply be a question of turning super ai off. It *might* not be required, I have no idea what I'm talking about, but it *would* appreciably chew up cpu cycles because celerons do not have this option as an option.
St Louis? / Minefield:
what was that about? I think enemy kept wandering into it (as did I), did it have other significance i missed? It's fine as is, I ask a curious question only.
Saint Marie is mined because:I made all this up at the time at the time of writing that reply. I really just wanted the exercise of making my own minefield.
- Stamenov wanted to make sure there was no possibility of civilians living close to his base.
- He wanted to prevent his soldiers from going there for R&R
- He wanted to prevent it from being used as a base by any enemy, but did not wish to station and soldiers there (his forces are mostly at the front or protecting his base)
- He has certain items that he wishes to keep safe locked away in the basement of one of the buildings there - sufficiently close to his base that they are accessible
- He had a childhood romance but lost her to a rival. They married and are living in Saint Marie (or at least they were living in one of the houses when Stamenov had his soldiers mine the place. Whether they have been blown up or simply starved to death no one knows)
Take your pick.
Females and Chapoi die:Yes
Is this intentional?
Is there any way to prevent it?No
I sure tried.You gentleman
If not, there was a stone tower I could not climb that would have given me a bead on the buggerI have been all over Chapoi with a sniper rifle trying to see if I could get my cross hairs on him. If there is anywhere I have not found it. I would have moved him if I had.
Same subject, something nasty about that church, one blackop hidden IN buliding wall, pinged me every time. Other black ops protecting big bad general could see straight thru most of it's walls and were murderous. I hope you can patch that up.I wonder if they can see through the walls because the building has been destroyed. I will look at it.
Dead Policeman:I think that is Stamenov. Even though he is actually a west solder looking like a civilian policeman OFP seem to report his death as a civilian policeman. The only other policemen in the game is the body in Vigny and the dead guy in the police vehicle in St Marie.
Huh? What where? I did no such thing. Did I?
>what is your OFP benchmark.Go to your game folder and instead of running the OperationFlashpoint.exe or whatever it is called, run the OperationFlashpoint Preferences.exe. This will display your benchmark.
Give me a clue. Where do i find it?
"... an overzelous, frightened or drunk US naval captain shot down what turned out to be a civilian Russian airliner with the children of several Politburo members on board...."In the Background I have tried to deal only with things that have really happened (apart from the nuclear exchange of course). I was thinking of the Iranian airliner that was shot down by the US Navy battle cruiser Vincennes in July 1988 killing all 290 people on board. Overzealous and frightened might fit, I can also go for incompetent but I can't go for drunk - sorry. I also chose a Chinese airliner because (my view) whatever else can be said of the Soviet regime it was tremendously pragmatic. If such a thing were to happen I think they would gain maximum capital out of it in the UN and then have got their retaliation in another way. Also remember the S Korean airliner shot down by the Russians in 1983 with a US Congressman on board. These nations can be very pragmatic. I felt the Chinese might be less predictable. This is not post facto rationalisation of the type I did on the St Marie minefield. I really did go through this thought process when I dreamt up the scenario. As always I am open to persuasion, any thoughts?
Don't put the civvy body so near the soldiersWhich body and why? There is the woman, the man the policeman and two covered bodies.
Briefing pic of uncle nic is good.I thought it might help the player to recognise him later
Light is good, is the mission a little later now?To be precise the mission starts 24 hours and 10 minutes later than v1.00. The 10 minutes is for the light (very well spotted) the 24 hours is so the Intro is not on the 10th. Even though it is December and not May I wanted there to be no confusion over whether I had changed the date from its default or not. In fact I don't think there is anything in the mission that tells the player the date - apart from the watch and that doesn't have the month - but I might change something later.
Didn't try anything fancy, I assume you have tested all combinationsMultiple times. But you still caught me out in v1.00. I have approached the lodge on foot and in a vehicle, I have stopped and not stopped and I have sat tight in the vehicle when ordered to get out. What I had not done was to crawl into the trigger area - that is why you got a shot of only your feet at the start of the scene.
With all the comings and goings I notice my loons are not in good shape.I am sorry I am not with you.
The AI shooting you through the fog is something you can live with to an extent - its just an annoying little "feature" in the game - but you are placing snipers to take advantage of it which isn't fun.Well I am not doing it deliberately. I am putting them where it feels like they should be, but if the feature is a problem I will get rid of these. It is meant to be difficult, but also realistic and fun
. How it is now is how you thought it was first time around, if that makes sense.It makes a lot of sense thanks.
Message triggers plural as I drive near bodiesNow fixed only the Tatyana lament can be triggered if Alexi is in a vehicle.
noticing message triggers (apart from woman) are inconsistent, they appear to be things i should have triggered before heading for campfire.I originally had it so these messages would not be played if the bodies were visited after the scene with Tatyana. Then I thought: Well he still does not know whether one of them is his uncle or not. Tatyana was kept prisoner and didn't know where here father is. Also I thought that most players would go for the house first and so miss them. If they feel illogical I will put them back as they were so that you get them if you visit the bodies before the cutscene but not after.
My logic was wholly based around what you might do.;D ;D ;D
The first group of civvies should shelter in the ruin until you leave: for me they just vanished, presumably into the lodge but they were supposed to be fixing itDuring the first part of the cutscene they should get out of the truck and go stand behind Yuri. Then Yuri tells them to go get some wood and repair the lodge. The next shot you get is a front view of Yuri with the civis running off in the background behind him - or at least you should. They actually do go to a wood and then come back, enter the lodge and it is repaired. They only come back when Alexi is some distance away so the player is unlikely ever to see then walking through the walls into the lodge and the lodge then magically being made whole again.
Sorry about the toughness of the Abrams. They are just standard issue, I have done nothing with them, but I could weaken them if the general consensus is that they are too tough.
One chopper each,I think it was something about each side having one chopper in the air all the time. Amounts to the same thing....at first.
The author is an evil man.;D
Have the impression enemy soldiers would form up into squads if only they could meet up. My troops never let it happen (it would explain why some enemy change course in mid-stream, and go looking for friends)Actually at this point there is a script running that is doing exactly that. Small groups are joining to form larger ones. That could be causing the change of direction.
It's getting quite personal, I care now, that they survive.Just re-read this. That is what it is like for me. Whenever any of them go down I remember who they are and where I first met them.
It's one of these red herrings of beta testing: people mention it becuase they are frustrated and annoyed at the time, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you should change anything.
For example I could move the mine instructions from being a radio command to being the top action of the players list.
Bye the way mikero. A lone Abrams is very vulnerable to a satchel charge, and if that is placed at its side it will get the crew out without fully destroying it, so with a rapair truck you get the tank for yourself.
F***!!!!!!!! >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(
tried running flashpoint today and it said summit bout invalid serial. Thanks to a reinstall of windows. Saw the disc the other day and there's a fat chunk taken out of it. Anyone wanna lend me a copy? lol
Inexplicably, one of the residue M2 jeeps with driver-only from Larche is there waiting for me. I shoot before thinking. Was this a defecting soldier?.At the mountain lodge - I have never seen that before. In the previous post you did say:-
load #2 in a now-empty M2 jeep and race for the mountain hideout.The only explanation I can think of is that the empty M2 jeep still had living crew that re-boarded the vehicle once it was unoccupied. A long shot but the best I can think of.
Every time I put #8 in an M2 jeep my squad kill him. I get in each position of both jeeps, finally #2 tells me he 'got' the AA guy, I load #8 again, all is ok.What a pain. I cannot think of anything I can do about this.
signposts are LYING. They are OUTRIGHT LYING. Jesus! The author is an evil man.Lol I may well be, but I am not fiddling with the signposts, it is the map.
I am reminded of MacGuba's comment that beta testers rarely report an error of fact. The Larche, and Larche only Abrahms had different characteristics to the Trinite and the Chapoi tankThis is a real puzzle. I have just used standard units and don't do anything sneaky in the background. Could it be where the tank is being hit? I know a satchel in front or behind an Abrams will kill it, but place it to one side it will force the crew out but will not kill it.
Couldn't get squad into any of these vehicles, (a bradley, a vulcan, a Godzilla) they flat refuse.The state of damage to the armour in for repair at each base is random. In some cases they will be so damaged the AI will refuse to board. If you repair them then all should be fine.
I am unhappy about the Godzillas which makes the game fantasticI gathered you were unhappy, it was the last bit that puzzled me.
Finally, I do have some contribution in 'ideas', I am building up a list of them, they're staying off this board until others get a word in.I would like your thoughts as soon as you feel able to put them up. What I find best is not to react immediately to ideas but to let them soak for a while, so the sooner the better for me.
having the SW standing up made him virtually invisible. Brilliantly done, however I'm afraid you have to take these guys out of the mission. You've gone to so much trouble to create the atmosphere and, even aside from the shooting through the fog thing, they spoil it. Not consistent. I was also disappointed to see they were both US. You don't need to be absolutely pedantic about every single pairing being one of each, but we need more mixing and matching. I'd have made this a Soviet sniper with an M21 and a Yank with a Dragunov - kindred spirits who swapped weapons.SW=?
having the SW standing up made him virtually invisible. Brilliantly doneIs this irony I detect?
Bodies behind tents: we don't need theme everywhere,This was my attempt at being obvious about something subtle - or whatever the phrase was. I take the point though that it should not look like a cookie cutter has been used.
On the basis of that session this mission may be a fraction too hard.Well I have taken out the Arudy snipers for v 1.11. The loons west of Houdan I felt were fair. One guy on look out, one guy at the lower farm and 2 or 3 walking between the upper farm and the outskirts of Houdan. The fact that they are all in the same group I think makes their behaviour more realistic. I have not tried to play the player I just tried to make an environment that is realistic with realistic things happening but as you say it is the obvious approach to Houdan and if the player is going to for the obvious then well… ::)
random ambushes are not easy.The location of many of the infantry groups is random, in the sense that that they have S&D/Cycle waypoint combinations that are moved around randomly. Each camp has only a small squad in permanent residence - ie they don't go off to fight the war they stay there until their base is in desperate need of their help. Similar pattern to the group W of Houdan, one group some stationary and some on patrol.
Anyway, long way to go yet. Hope the trip isn't proving too tiresome.Thanks. It was more fun than I expected.
having the SW standing up made him virtually invisible. Brilliantly doneNot irony, if it was delibarate it was very well done. Sad to see them go but its the right thing. SW = southwest.
Is this irony I detect?
Got to the civvies easily, I got back in the truck and heard them say to wait until they were aboard.. Unfortunately they did not board the truck, just stood outside, despite the obvious space in the truck.Sorry about that, I have some stuck GameLogics in v1.10 - now fixed.
text did not match the words at one point, when I asked where the traffic was headingI checked this so often I would have put money on it not happening. Thanks. I will check all the messages again.
When I click "Resume" it takes me back to before I was near Dourdan! At least 2 saves ago! I then click "Retry" and it takes me to Houdan, my latest saveI have no idea what causes this. If your run through is anything like mine the initial ‘Resume' will always take you to the same place. ‘Retry' and ‘Load' work okay for me though.
Then go North-West towards Arundy. I approach from the south, take out 2 snipers (both standing in bushes to the southThis is a touch embarrassing. I grouped the snipers with the small group that patrols the town. That group is set to Safe and so the snipers stand up! But that is more than made up for by the fact that if any of the loons on patrol know where you are then so do the snipers.
I noticed that the barn with the hidden ammo crate (which I have only just seen!) is floating a few feet up in the air, how strange (see screenshot).What a bummer! v1.00 had problems like this, but not so extreme. It seems to be caused by the level of terrain detail. This mission needs to be played at terrain detail set to normal. I set this in init.sqs and then I keep reminding it every 5 minutes or so in a housekeeping script. Having seen your screenshot I have experimented a bit.
All I can say is wow! Its great to have a "mission" like this. Its not really a mission though, more of a dynamic campaign, as I feel that I have complete freedom on what to do nextGlad you like it.
1) The snipers covering Arundy seemed a bit odd. It was a relatively quiet place with no obvious reason to have covert cover. Maybe they were rogues?These snipers are missing from the next version.
Welcome home matey!Thanks.
having the SW standing up made him virtually invisible. Brilliantly doneI originally had them lying down in a bush each. It took ages to get them just right, then I go and group them with some loons that are patrolling in SAFE mode so they stand up. I thought that would have made them more visible - hence my reference to irony.
Is this irony I detect?
Not irony, if it was delibarate it was very well done.
The location of base camp is , well, at worst! perfect.Thanks. In the earlier threads there was a lot of discussion about this also, mostly not supportive. Your comments help reinforce my view to go with my instinct.
What happens when I accidentally shoot my Russian? Do the rest of my squad/some of my squad desert?It is just the same as accidentally shooting anyone in your squad in any standard OFP mission. Do it too often and you get shot. Killing one of the civis you rescue though is different - killing one is one too many. Also killing anyone at the mountain lodge before the cutscene is also fatal. Otherwise I have just gone with standard OFP.
civils enter the area, why cant one/ two of them, start replacing my dead medic if I 'learn' to go back to passagne. (repopulating means dead ai can be put in graves and buried from cpu cycles)That is a tough challenge. I don't want just to have random people there, if I have them they will need to interact with the player. The closest I got was in v1.00 I had a couple of mad women running around the island. At the time I did not have the energy to make them interact with the player so took them out. I am certainly thinking of bringing them back. They seemed quite popular.
The Russian can't be alone. He's atoning for his sins, nursing badly wounded civilian, probably female. She can't speak till medic'd. She tells player the airport wobble, the thing to stop the Chapoi assault being a certainty. She joins the squad if numbers are 'right'. Civilian must be in crawl mode, transport needed. And, they can be safely left where they were found in mad rush for ambulance bmp at trinite (eg).Is a stunning idea. Thanks.
YesIf the yes refers to Tough - fine; if it refers to Too Hard - then not fine.
My conservative estimate is you would had to have played 100+ missions before this one to have any chance of 'understanding' what tools to use. Mgun vs rpg vs Snipe vs use terrain, vs vehicles. Buildings are both friend and foe. What do black ops really mean. You need to know what chopper + truck + clear skies mean. You especially need to know the differences between rpg/law/gustav and AA. You would not introduce a friend to ofp via this black hole.That is what I want. I started building this mission thinking there might be one or, if I was very lucky, three people in the whole world that would enjoy and finish this mission. I have been thrilled by how wrong I was.
But it is too tough. I met it at Larche, MacGuba at Arudy. All of us at airport / chapoi. The saving grace is that ai wont hunt you to extinction. When you 'learn' this, it's manageable.I have tried very hard not to play the player, not to make assumptions about what he will or will not do and to make it easy or difficult for him. I have just tried to create a realistic island and then give the player an impossible task. I mean - you arrive on the island that has two large and well organised armies (each with a head count of 280+ in v1.10) all you have is a pistol and a couple of magazines and your objective is to ‘kill them all' or as near as damn it. It forces the player to learn new ways of playing.
No updating of the briefing for the 'rescue the parents' sub-missionThe briefing should now have an objective to ‘Search Houdan' Houdan is where she said she lived. If not then you have stumbled on a big problem.
Civvies don't wanna get in my truck in the first sub-missionEntirely my fault. I use Game Logics to check that the vehicle the player is in has enough space for the civilian group. But as a result of a typo on my part the GLs are stuck in the vehicle. Now fixed for the next version.
Some civvies run to safety by foot in second sub-mission, but some of them are also in my truck. Objective completes while I've still got them in my truckAt the mountain lodge you are joined by one soldier and three civilians, after you get the first group of civilians to the lodge you are then joined by one more soldier, then at the second group of civilians you are joined by another soldier. So at this point your squad consists of: you, three soldiers and three civilians. The two groups of civilians are not of the fighting variety
I don't want to take civilians into battle with me....I suggest you do, they are all you have got. Reports from other beta testers are that Irena is particularly formidable especially as a sniper or as a tank gunner.
as I start pulling away, I notice an enemy squad about 50 meters away!That I cannot explain. I have had so many strange things happen in and around Dd46 that I am beginning to think the place is haunted.
This mission truly makes the most out of OFP, and I look forward to continuing it!Thank you. I hope you enjoy it.
and also Student Pilot also stopped when he saw Andropov still had one active.Yeah, the Abrams are tough. I am sorry I didn't complete it, though. I do intend to come back and test Abandoned Armies again, maybe when V1.11 comes out.
When you say don't hold your hand - do you think I am doing that?
the trouble is I really like my current (picture).
I have one (flag) at each base and one for the leader of each vehicle group. Too much?
Cutscenes:
deep ocean.
Cheatsaves:
Vain hope maybe.
Godzilla:
AV/AP:
Killing this that the other
Mad women
I do like your concept ...
Arudy
The way I see it there is only two sides....you and them.Exactly. That is how we see it, and that is the problem. There is enormous scope here for adding a really interesting aspect to the gameplay. "I can trash this convoy/base/squad, but I'n not going to becuase it's Stamenov's and I want him to beat Andropov." At the moment you don't think that, you just trash it.
small things needing to be overemphasised and big things played down
The author is British, his natural inclination is to understate everything.Lol. I can't explain it but I do observe an ‘understate for emphasis' characteristic in many of my countrymen and women, to the point of saying the opposite of what you mean on the really important stuff. Sometimes.
Many people prefer the pyramids un doctored.In this case I am the only one that can do the doctoring. Your comments have been exceptionally helpful in giving me insights into parts of the pyramid that I had not appreciated. Is your story true about someone making changes to real pyramids because he thought they were wrong?
I had not expected anyone to go as far as Goisse
to the point of saying the opposite of what you mean on the really important stuff
The jeeps change that. My opinion. They have to have a much shorter, eg more-often-encountered, appearance on those journeys to civils.From a game play point of view you are absolutely right, but the main underlying design premise of this mission is not to play the player rather it is to do what is realistic and then just let the player loose on the island - I wanted to see if the idea works. Like mac's Unimpossible mission - how hard can you make a mission that is fair but still do able, the concept I am trying for here is how realistic can you make a situation and it still be fun. When I started I recognised that my target audience was going to be very small.
My opinion, roadblock sentries at each intersection would make sense to me (gives player something to do in 'fair' contest), *providing* no reinforcements are attracted to noise.I have started putting some in, but: I am already concerned about the lag this is creating; having any obstacle on a road near any of the patrols or convoys can seriously screw up the AI's ability to keep to the road; and attracting reinforcements is something I do not want to turn off just for game play reasons.
Silent Knight:Sorry, my brain is slow this morning. What do you mean?
to the point of saying the opposite of what you mean on the really important stuffLol. Nearly - Durham in fact. You see I did it with my first word. An example of the confusion this can sometimes cause - it occurs in this thread. I hide snipers carefully lying down in a bush. I then in a quick edit group them with units that are SAFE and did not go in to see the effect. macguba reports seeing snipers standing up bushes. His comment was that this was billiant - I then had to check that this was not a friendly leg pull. It wasn't, it seems that snipers in SAFE mode in the middle of a bush are virtually invisible from more than a few feet even if you know they are there.
Then your mother is Australian.
Also incredibly clever, putting the ammo in the haystackThanks
Does that medikit on the wall actually workYes. But for it work on AI you have to get them inside the ruin first.
No savegame when reaching the lodgeI am re-thinking the savegames.
but to my dismay they merely follow me and don't join meHaving them join you in v1.00 created all sorts of problems, this is better in the long run. Sorry.
Why is the soldier in the civvy group in safe mode?Good point
The only thing that confuses me is why civvies are broadcasting their locations over unsecure radiosIt bothers me also - any ideas?
I'll butt inPlease feel free.
best 1. (you will hate this Thob, I can hear the screams now)Lol. As I was reading 1. I was thinking - does he know what he is asking from us novices?
we can't stick around any one spot, give player 10 minutes to get to themNice idea - a swine to implement
savegame bugSomeone needs to 'officially' tell my computer then. It doesn't know yet.
this was officially 'fixed' as of release 1.96
?!?!?!?!?!
Am I missing something or are we actually suggesting that the building is moving? :o :o :o
I can assure you, sirs, that it is not. I've been entering on the west side, on the right side of that wall...it appears to be a door that you can run through, although given that the building is on a bit of a slope, it is sunken into the ground. As we all know, buildings in OFP don't contour to fit the landscape, so it is a bit wierd when you're inside it.
I have suspected buildings of sinking during missions in the past, though I've never managed to prove it. I haven't got the energy to run back there and check at the moment, unfortunately. Even if it is happening to me that doesn't mean its happening to you.
I am not sure how much of it should be explained to the player.
so I'm going to nibble at his strength until he is sufficiently weak that the northrons attack him...I can't remember if you can start the war that way,There is certainly to code there to do make it happen but it will not be easy. I did not think - what would be a fair amout of damage the player could do to get this reward. I though what might be the numerical superiority that one side might want before contemplating an attack. All random of course.
The point is that the baddies are not equal to me - the southrons are worse because they have had more effect on me.I am currently working making this even stronger.
They spend about ten minutes in the area,That is unusual.
I remember reading something about being able to rearrange the squad but maybe that's wishful thinking or the next version.It is on the list of things to think about. I liked the idea for the reason you outlined. I didn't like the idea because I want the player to get to know these people and I do it by where they are in the list by when they joined me.
Can you give me a clue as to what roughly what amount of destruction might be required?It can be a bit complicated and it is random but assuming you only damage one side and not both then:
I only wanted to borrow a lorry.I laughed so much I had tears in my eyes.
It still has the southron flag but I like that.Interesting. The flag is 'attached' to the group leader. Do you happen to still have a dead commander in the tank?
From where would we get a flag to change it?I have a flag in mind, I just have not done anything about this yet. Jut so much to do - and at the moment I am still trying to earn a living.
Call it 90 assuming I've forgotten somebody. That should be enough to make a war possible.That is barely 1.5 to 1. I do like the idea of giving much more weight to the armour. I will work on that, also the reduction in the front line troops looks worth including as well.
Reduce the number of ammo crates at 3.Later if I have to. I wanted to create a feeling of super abundance and I have already gone from 16 ammo crates to 8. Let's say I went to 4, 2 in each hut. It would feel like arriving at a friends birthday party where the table was proudly laid with their best crockery but all they had was a couple of chipolatas and a bag of crisps - embarrassing.
A fire and some friendly faces would have been nice.
I only wanted to borrow a lorry.
where do we get a flag from?
resistance:The background in the briefing tells the story of the resistance movement starting when the Russians invaded and then being crushed by both sides once Andropv and Stamenov reach a stalemate. Could that do with reinforcement during the mission?
it's not clear why they're there at all. I think you fudged it. Can't figure out why they survived) why they aren't part of one of the army's). There doesn't seem a plausible reason for resistance troops being there at all. Think you should work that a bit.
Make sure there is no trivial way to start the war, for example by a player in the know just going to La Trinite and killing a convoy.I have failed on this. I spent a long time in the early stages of building this when a war would happen spontaneously, eventually putting a stop to that resulted in a war being very difficult to make happen. I now have, I hope, some realistic consequences for things happeneing. If a convoy is killed then that side will send an infantry group to La Trinite and occuppy it in retaliation and the next time the other side's convoy arrive they will have a warm welcome. If the player has wiped that infantry group out before then of course a war will not result just from killing a convoy and more will be needed. If I remember correctly Student Pilot started a war by having southons on guard chase him into a town occuppied by the northrons.
Could that do with reinforcement during the mission?Yes. The situation of the Resistance in the mission is currently not entirely satisfactory. The player at present is kinda expecting a little more resistance help: I know you were told they were squashed, but you have your dad's kit and the second person you meet is a semi-organised resistance leader. He has a hideout, people and weapons. Then you meet groups of civvies being led by the Resistance.
Abrams comment. Classic example of soaking and joining up. The comment itself is, as you say, not that important to the kind of player who is going to play, enjoy or complete this mission. However, it is ideal for developing the character of the loon in question. When you meet him, he gives you clues about running away from tanks. Later in the mission, if you give him a rocket launcher, he will complain. He is the non-anti-tank man. Give him a machine gun and he's happy.
Having stolen the ammo truck from 3, I really don't need to go foraging for weapons as I did before,I plan to lose the vehicles at 3
playing this mission for the third time seems a little...staleI know what you mean, and I agree.
Allowing the player to weaken one side manually and incite the war would make things a hell of a lot more interesting, that's for sure.This is my next big soak.
small groups of Spetznaz and Black Ops nearby monitoring things, since the two sides don't trust each other as it is. If I was one of the commanders, I'd want a recon team watching to see if the other side was plotting to ambush me when my convoy got thereThere are in fact groups like this - not special units just standard infantry - but to prevent the war starting spontaneously they are some distance away. Also I originally had north and south border guards at 3 to make it difficult for the player, but it didn't work - they caused a war. I will think on this more.
I did once think that 3 should have a permanent garrison of mixed, unarmed troops from both sides. Or perhaps pistols only. SetCaptive true, then perhaps combining against you when you appeared or something.I started the mission with exactly this. Problem is captive units trigger guard units so when I extended the mission to include others a war always started.
Ah! Remember I was whinging about the one of the bodies being too near the two loons who shot? This is what I meant.Fixed
I know it can't always be helped, but I do think you should try and reduce the random squads.If you meet them in no-man's-land they are guard units going somewhere.
I plan to lose the vehicles at 3That's quite a big change. What's the compensation?
That's quite a big change. What's the compensation?A longer mission that takes more thinking about. :)
Just tried the wee download. My, you have learnt dialogues quickly!Vektorboson's turorial showed me some of the posibilities, then razorwings18's dialog maker got me most of the way there and then back to Vektorboson for his superb Dialog Commands Reference. Plus natural talent of course ::)
You could make it slightly more beautiful- and somewhat less noisy. Have already made progress on both of these.
The best part is that, assuming you can use it througout the mission (no reason why not) you can take certain people with you in a reasonable formation, and leave others behind.It will become available as soon as you get a team and remain available to the end (I have added code that deals with the situation of all your team biting the dust). Your last comment is interesting. As I wrote it originally any team members that you did not chose were left out of your squad (you could get them back by running the script again), but then I thought - I would not want to leave people around that could not report back to me - so I made it add any un-allocated units to the end of the squad. As I write this (through a haze of red wine) I realise that this was a mistake. If the player chooses not to select everyone then so be it. He should get the squad he selects.
wouldn't a 100+ plus player know that.
And as for 3, maybe you could make it a little more dangerous since there's such a big prize?
lose the random squads against truck drives.
I am not yet sure I approve
The name Tokarev is used by BIS in the game config as well.I believe that is where I got it from. I couldn't face any more telephone directories.
after reducing MacGuba to a mere grunt;D
Having beta testers refer to loons as 5 (which you know is Irena) is part of the problem: the objective is a mission where the beta testers subconsiously refer to her as Irina.
>npc details
you're on the money, Mr Mac.
So you like the script to re-order the team
The nice thing about all this is it's Thobson's hell, not mineI admire your tolerance for my pain. ;D
Or, just 'learn' to avoid them.In this mission that has to be the answer. These are two big bad armies and you are small group of misfits. You will - realistically - run (or hide) like hell from armour. That is assuming you can 'hide like hell'.
Your squad can carry 15 rockets
Bit of a cockup in the armour model I'd say.
but I hope you don't dramatically reduce / remove this 'feature'. It was part of game immersion for meMy intention is to increase the impact of the fog but not to the serious level it was at in v1.00
St Louis was particularly powerfulI think the fact that the town had not been destroyed might have helped with this - another thing to separate the two sides. I will shortly be getting the contractors in to repair Larche.
know my benchmark is technically 3000 but its worth nearer 6000 for gameplay, assuming my old 5660 was right.
Stamenov's lot lose their weapons and run for a distant point when they get down to the last few, then that's a cool idea.That is eaxctly what happens. Andropov's lot do something better - but you won't see it because the final scene will kick in before it happens - they run into the base (unarmed) and then surreneder.
Transforms cutscene making.You're telling me. You would not believe how much of my long forgotten geometry I had to dig out before.
Where do the southrons go?Random locations in the wood at Dc80 - De82
there is a definite nortron force holding Chapoi now.This will be really interesting, I have not seen this before. Usually the northrons do a terrific amount of damage to the southrons at Chapoi but I have never actually seen them win. All sorts of possibilities open up - as others close.
Rearmed the wagons without even getting into themDoes this feel wrong? It seems that a tank that is out of ammo cannot rearm at an ammo truck. I have written my own script to rearm them and it is activated an 'Action' that I have added to each tank, so of course it becomes available as soon as the player is close. I suppose I could go the whole hog and make my script work exactly like the OFP standard (only work when you are in the tank and near an ammo truck)
How can 2, driving a T80, get stuck between two tents 500m from his route?
Rearming the wagons definitely feels wrong. I know its tedious but I would recommend replicating the normal procedureIt was a case of finding a solution to a big problem and then being happy with it without going the next step. I am quite pleased with my script for this. It detects what type of tank it is dealing with and re-arms it accordingly. I was so pleased to have any sort of solution to a very strange problem (see below) that I just moved on to the next problem, which if I remember correctly was your last loon not turning up in v1.00. That led the to surrender/run away scripts
If the zero ammo thing is the problem you could just leave a few rounds of mg ammo: that wouldn't feel particularly odd, even if you noticedThe problem is a strange one. Take an Abrams as an example: it starts with HEAT, Sabot and mg rounds. The HEAT and Sabots come in ‘magazines' of 35, so remove one magazine and all the rounds are gone - now here is the killer - any tank that has run out of HEAT rounds or Sabot rounds cannot get any more from an ammo truck!!. This is standard OFP!! Create a missionette and try it - I couldn't believe it. The standard OFP Rearm at Ammo Truck only tops up the ammo that is finds in a tank already. I mean… even my script is more intelligent than that. I will have a look at this if it feels wrong. The irony is that the better I make the script replicate what OFP does the more it looks like I have done nothing at all - I bet few people know about this rearming ‘feature' of OFP.
Everything in that area was fine except the repair truck which was totally trashed. It looked so odd I suspected you had done it deliberatelyNot me. The repair truck and the repairable tanks are meant to enable you to have a different experience for the next battle - should you chose to do so. But if anything gets trashed in the battles then, well, tough. I have seen the northron Hind attack the nearby M2, miss and completely destroy that whole complex. I was not amused.
Oh, and fuel truck right in front of the fuel station looks a little odd.I will look at that. It seemed logical at the time to have a fuel truck parked near a fuel station, ready to go as it were.
Oh yes, shot the POWs of course. Two went down but the other two, who had their hands behind their heads, stayed up in spite of being covered with blood. Trapped in their switchmoves, I suppose. Not a big deal. I'd have run them over if I'd really cared.Thanks. I thought I had dealt with all the places this could happen - but then I added the surrender feature.
In the twice that I've played this same version, i have never encountered the choppers. The perception for me is that there is only one of them, and it's always in the sky passing over mountain hideout.Interesting. Sometimes they are a significant factor and others they get neutralised early on in the war. I like that very much. In fact each side has one Hind and one Cobra, but there will never be more than two in the air at anyone time and often only one.
My gut tells me the reason why Chapoi was overrun was because of a chopper staying aliveI'm not sure about that. I frequently encounter a badly damaged Chapoi that is still in the hands of the southrons with the northron attack force completely destroyed - but with a northron Hind buzzing the town. From mac's description it looks to me like he might have sufficiently unbalanced the forces that the northrons launched an all out attack. The result I fear might be a pretty lame defence of the northern airbase when he gets there - this is clearly something I need to work on. I await his story about the northern attack with bated breath.
because a lot of sequences here border on illusionI am not sure I understand this. At one level the whole of this, and every game, is an illusion, but leaving aside deep philosophy - I am puzzled by the comment.
I wasn't aware southrons would surrender in that wayThis is force of circumstance giving a good result. Loons in the wire compound cannot seem to find their way out when ordered to do so, so any loons that are in/or near there when the army downs tools will surrender and not attempt to run away. I didn't think anyone would see this - I have never got Stamenov without first killing everything in the compound. I do not think it is realistic for the escaping soldiers to run past Alexi completely ignoring him so in the next version if any of those running away pass close to Alexi they will surrender also. In the north everyone surrenders.
Your description of tank vs tank is similar to mine.Sorry, but this is standard OFP - and I wouldn't know where to start to fix it.
The perception, true or false, is the author has made scripts to get round all sorts of issues with ai loons and not touched any tweaks to get ai-driving working 'properly'There are two really big issues I spent most of my time on in making this mission:
I do know that there will be plenty of infantry waiting for me.I hope so. I might have over committed the northrons in their attack on Chapoi.
If it was me, I'd probably use the ammo slider to leave a few rounds in.That would fit with the sloppyness I am trying to cretae for the southrons - leaving live rounds up the spout when a vehicle is sent for repair. Not sure it fits with Anropov's image though.
is where you see 3 soldiers on a ridge skyline and think there's 3 squads up there.
Repair convoy abandoned south of Saint Louis - was that you?Each side has a fully equiped support convoy: repair, ammo, fuel, ambulance - I think - I can't remember now if I kept in some probabilities of presence for some of the vehicles (certainly 100% for the repair truck). After the fighting starts I just let the OFP engine decide what to do with them. So in answer to your question: in part. They turn up all over the place, sometimes I never find them.
No prizes for guessing where you come from.
Are there still snipers in the woods overlooking the airfield?Fraid so.
There was a re-man script on the M2s which was very handyIt is handy, but it's not a script. I just grouped the M2 with an infantry squad and that is what you get. It's handy if you are in a tank - but it can be a real swine if you are on foot.
The biggest problem here has been the one hit wonders: I'm almost always killed by the first hit, and being lead tank of course I'm usually first hit. I'm dying almost every time the enemy fires.Even in an Abrams? As soon as I take a hit I get it into reverse and hope that someone is sharp enought to get the bastard that hit me.
So Andopov didn't over commit in his attack on Chapoi then?;D ;D ;D
This is a remarkable mission.You have made my day/week/month/year. Thank you.
one of the reasons the end was hard. It was the randomnessYou understand the benefits and the difficulties here. By this stage there has been an unscripted war between two large armies that stared off with randomly located groups each with a random make up of loons, and while the armies are battling it out there is also the irritation of a tiny band of lunatics plugging away at them and pulling their forces in different directions. But then I think: wouldn't it really be like that towards the end, the complete chaos of war? On the balance of the units - I will certainly look again at the law/rpg/at numbers. I think the AA is about right - sometimes the choppers play a significant role, other times they don't.
For me, it would have been a change of pace, theme, (which is done everywhere else in this mission), to clean out the airport using them.I was trying to give the player exactly that option should they choose to use it. I certainly wanted to avoid forcing :
a repeat experience of crawling my poor battered body through just-another, heavily armed camp.
For me, what I actually thought during game play was the author was a cunning man. Everyone rushes to these beasts to play them as if they are the answer to the universe, it's traditional gameplay. I thought the author had deliberately introduced a crippler to discourage me from doing so.Well as you now know - not so cunning I'm afraid. At no stage in this mission do I attempt to second guess the player. What I have tried to do is to create a realistic environment, have things behave realistically, give the player lots of options - and then just get out of the way and not interfere. (I adopt the same approach to my garden btw - though I now suspect my wife of paying people to come and work on it.)
I adopt the same approach to my garden btw - though I now suspect my wife of paying people to come and work on it.)Lol twice!
I think mikero and I are in agreement on this.
It isn't mission killer serious, it is only pain in the butt serious. You have the option of doing it on foot after all.
- The intention with this mission is to get the player to a point where they think: "Now what should I do?" and have plenty of options to choose from. Does it succeed in your view?Basically yes. The more you can develop the story and characters teh better from this point of view. The information the deserter gives you is absolutley critical: the script of that scene must written very carefully indeed, as it is the transition point from prescriptive play (rescue him now him) to imaginative (what will I do now?)
- Each side gives up when their leader is dead and they are down to a loon count of 10 or less. What does this feel like? Too many? Too few?Didn't really notice it at either end, so I presume its fine. At the airfield (when I went back after Andropov was dead) there were an awful lot of loons just milling around in the middle. Having them on two or three groups might be better.
I'm a bit off balance with no machine gunner in my squad,It is a real problem. In fact I had a machine gunner (carrying a satchel instead of one mag) for most of the mission but it occurs to me that in fact my squad didn't do much of the shooting, it was mostly me. With a normal squad of 8 or 9 you could easily carry what you need but with these three civvies you are very short. Consider having one of the civvies changing into uniform and becoming a soldier during one of the cutscenes. (i.e. replace one unit with another.) Preferably the girl.
I laugh when I see people complaining that the OFP limit of 63 groups per side is too small!So do I. Or rather I cry, since those folk have no conception of how powerful triggers and waypoints are.
I suspect at the moment your chaps just have a guard waypoint which is maybe moved from time to time, but that's it.Well actually it is a bit more sophisticated than that. Most of the roaming groups have S&D/Cycle waypoint combinations that get moved about randomly. Then under certain circumstances they switch trigger to a guard waypoint, and not all trigger under the same conditions. Some go to guard when any of their side are killed by either resistance or the other side; some go on guard when the war breaks out; and some only go on guard when their side is entering its endgame position.
Sequence of objectives is now fine.
I need to teak a break
I'm asking questions I know the answer to
insightful"Perceptive" dear boy, "perceptive". ;)
"Well let's start making our presence felt."
I had in mind that the dead policeman in Vigny was 'good and decent' he was trying to do what was right and that is why he got shot.
I suspect that fired triggers still poll
Actually I like the group leader changing the flagWell keep it then. :)
goes down nicely but never goes up. It just appears at topSome people are never happy. Going down the flag pole is more than you would get in most missions. ;) Going up would require some convoluted scripting and even then I am not sure I could get it to work. I don't think that matters, I remember as a boy scout pulling the flag to the top of the pole all rolled up and then pulling a cord to unfurl it at the top - so the whole combination is quite realistic.
setDammage 1 does nothing, driving through it (yes throught it) with a tank does nothing and multiple artillery rounds do nothing.
Intriguing side conversation - would I be interested?No ... it is not an interesting subject, merely a frustrating one. If you want to join in check the Ed Depot Pending list for a new tute by mikero. You'll wish you hadn't. ;D
I put 3 satchels on the flagpole and then gave upWell who wouldn't
:"M1A1, 6 o'Clock, 200". Thanks, ThobsonAn Abrams at the lodge - aren't you a lucky guy. ;D Nothing to do with me, he must have followed you - or maybe a little chopper told him where you were. ;) Can you recall what direction it was coming from? (It is surprising what details can be helpful)
'we have got them fighting each other'
I want to avoid the player being puzzled by the sounds of battle that then start up.Why? Let him puzzle. At least for a while. You may have seen another thread where I was talking about After Montignac being the best mission I ever played. Well I had a crack at it in the mission editor and before I was killed I heard two separate blue on blues. Boy do they add to the atmosphere.
I wouldn't mess with it.I just have!
the deserter having a radio on which you can listen in is a good idea.Neat idea, have a gold star.
What you have at the moment is just a debug hint in the form of a sound file.
Going to La Trinite before Houdan
By the time you get the instruction to go to Houdan, you are fed up of running errands.
Ideally there needs to be a break somewhere.
apologies in advance for sounding so dogmaticWhy chose now to start apologising? ;D
What's the big challenge?
In my view, this is central to the mission that you DO go to Trinite 'first'.
I'm no authority on mission making so maybe my opinion doesn't count for much
I'm no authority on mission making so maybe my opinion doesn't count for much- but that's the best overview I've ever seen.I think that's a pretty helpful remark. The vital bit is the qualification, which gives it context. An embittered old hack like me saying something is the best I've ever seen is one thing, and you saying it is another. Both would be helpful.
but the resistance guy walked in safe mode the whole way back.Bloody good catch on your part and bloody stupid of me. Next time take a truck with only one of your squad with you and all should be fine. In the next version I will make sure it works however you get there - even if you crawl all the way.
I got them all back to the lodge, but nothing happened. The objective didn't tick, no cutscene, nothing. I tried herding them into the house. Nothing
got a missing addon errorI do not do addons, in part so that I know my misisons will not cause this problem.
no entry at ‘/GameState/Variables/Item146/data.value'That is indeed the large savegame bug. There are two solutions
What's the big challenge?Not a challenge anymore - with lots of time on my hands with paper and pencil (an amazing user interface bye the way, you can take it anywhere, it doesn't need power, the memory is not volatile and with the optional addon 'erazer' you can reuse the display indefinitely - I am sure it will catch on in a big way) I now have an answer. I don't want to sound coy but I would rather not discuss it publicly. I am not sure why I mentioned it. Now I sound coy.
NON scripters are valuable people here. We are the only ones who can say "The Emperor has no clothes"Having been on the receiving end of suggesitons from mikero I have to say I whole heartedly agree, but for a different reason. If you are unaware of the constraints imposed by what seems to be possible in OFP you can make quite outlandish suggestions that can act as a challenge to the mission builder to think differently and to try something new.
I do not do addons, in part so that I know my misisons will not cause this problem.
That is indeed the large savegame bug. There are two solutions
- turn off all addons
- change the name of your save file, restart the mission from the beginning, when you are in the mission <alt><tab> out change the file name back to what it was, open Flashpoint and you should then be able to Resume from your save file.
I had a couple of mods running. I turned them all off and that bug seems to be gone now.Excellent. If you tell me what they are I could put a warning in the readme file. You mentioned FlashFX, is there another?
So you got the conversation about getting the civis to repair the lodge etc. but no scene and the civis are still following you.
Do you now have an objective to find a second group of civis?
You didn't use BAS_OPFOR or fml_civilians in your mission, correct?I have no idea what these are. Me and addons are like maiden aunts and sex. Holding hands makes babies right? I have a chastity belt on my hard drive.
What version of OFP are you running?
Is there a moment when the two sides will attack each other without my interventionThere should not be. I have let it run for nearly a week to check that it doesn't. So you have the southern convy at La Trinite and the northern convoy is approaching? That should only happen if the southern convoy has been badly damaged. I would be interested in any details on this that you can remember.
But due to a nice doubleclick on the missions name i had to play all the way againThat's happened to me a few times ... VERY annoying.
but the fact that he knows you are inside and targets you precisely makes me think the wall does not exist for him.It probably doesn't. There is a recurring problem in OFP of the AI being able to see through walls. There is nothing much you can do about this except to remember that it is very dangerous to be inside a building. I console myself with the the thought that this fault is the price we have to pay for the scale and openness of the game.
squad in company of some tank and a bradley is waiting on the south side of the cityI have been thinking about this.
Theory of mine is that if it was the strela soldier he was awfully close to the wall of the church, could it be he got stuck in the wall like it happens to me all the time in La Trinite ?The first of these cannot happen, and if it did the convoy would be stuck until the guy got on board - it would certainly not leave without him. I am with you on theory two.
Theory two, its the guard group en route to dourdan, and then when they arrived in dourdan the law gunner told them i was there, so they went to inspect.
some of the civies refuse to board my truck.My apologies. It was a typo on my part - fixed for the new version. The reason I did not spot it when was testing is that I only ever took one of my squad with me so there was plenty of room in the truck - even after taking into account the 5 game logics I inadvertently left there.
At this point, I saved and called it for the moment, I will most definitely go back and continue, so you probably haven't heard the last of me.I hope I haven't and I hope you enjoy it.
But anyway, so far I've loved every minute of it.Wonderful. Thanks
You have got another savegameIn the version you have this happens at approximately 90 minute intervals. This has been changed for the next version. In the next version you start with 36 savegames and then some more are added as objectives are completed.
exactly how many helicopters are in the mission?Actually he says
Because the man in Houdan said "each side has one", so , well , i shot one down, i think i heard the other go down, and now theres another one audible ? Maybe i didn't hear it go down and something else exploded.
can I have some ambient sounds please
flies around dead civilian bodies
the sound of a generator in a town any town that never got switched off? Could this be an invisible vehicle eg with it's motor on?
Radios in houses producing nothing but static?
can I have some ambient sounds pleaseYes! That's partly where the mad max thing comes from. It's too quiet. (I don't mean "It's quiet. Too quiet." I just mean "It's too quiet.")
Sergei's climbing in the sunken truck, not surrenderingThat's a relief. I feared he had spent the whole mission walking round like that.
I don't mean "It's quiet. Too quiet." I just mean "It's too quiet.";D
Then why just that town? - All for one radio and a bit of static.
never heard in ofp is the wood cracking you have inside forests, that would be nice, too.In deed it would, BIS could do it easily - they already have different sounds for the left and right foot on different surfaces. Dripping water is also a very cool idea.
just for reference, i might start building missions, tooI encourage you to do just that. It is the best fun you can have with your clothes on.
So your mission continually sets them but the setting in the pause screen remain as they didYes that surprised me when I first saw it. I think that is part of the problem that results in a cummulative effect.
It better be goodHe's got this far. ;) ;D
THobson, have you any idea when the next version might come out?I am aiming to beat the release of OFP2 :)
I have a strategy
have never seen so many units in an operation flashpoint mission, ever.Well I am a long way from the 63 groups per side limit and the size of most groups is random so not the full 12 units per group. Having two sides helps get the numbers up. If anyone wants to know how many loons you will be facing then IM me. Some people might not want to know.
more of a partisan/gueriila approach instead of an all out assault with 4 men vs. and entire army.Coincidentally you will find in the new readme file a warning about this exact point. In most OFP missions you can go for the jugular straight away. That could create a very frustrating result in this mission - you don't appear to have been frustrated, I think the mission was probably finishable from that point, but would not have been easy.
i saw the cobra actually land, and it's crew get outI can think of only one situation that would cause that to happen, and as you indicate, other factors would mean that the player's life expectancy under those conditions would be very short. Nevertheless I will now add to my to do list a need to look at the coding for the choppers, not to prevent the player from hijacking one if they are able (that is fair if they can get one they should be able to use it), but to ensure that all the other stuff works correctly in that situation.
the link 1.20 is dead, it says the page has been moved or is missingYes it is but it will be back up soon. I thought I had tested this to death, but a last minute change to fix a problem created another. That is now fixed. Version 1.21 will be here soon.
You did it just for that second decimal place didn't you!!Lol - If only.
confused at where the wolves are from thoughDid you not hear them or is the sound of them confusing?
Good thing too. We are all pleased to see pain has visited you early ThobYou are so kind.
Nice to see that v1.080 ecp has elimintated this problem altogether.But maybe at a price. Acecombat tried this mission with I think a pre-release of the upcoming ecp version and it ctd immediately. Now I know that is not because of any strange addons I might have - because I don't have any.
1.) Planck played through it fine if i remember correctly, without any savegame problems.
Base camp. After using civil truck to get 1st load of civilians. There's a mysterious driver (see jpg). Don't know who this ghost is but it renders truck unusable. I have then a long walk to 2nd lot,??? I am dumbfounded. Where and when did this happen? He is in the driver's seat? Seriously - I do the mounatin scene, collect the first civis, then just get back in the truck and go for the second lot. I have never seen anything like this. Anything you can tell me about where when what happened before this etc. would be of great help.
they keep saying were going to kill soldiers couldnt it be phrased a bit better they sound like 2 year olds playing armyI had hoped they sounded like desperate people cheerfully embarking on an impossible task. Last throw of the dice sort of thing.
The wolves were generally accompanied by a squad or three coming to greet me a little time later, gave another impression of radioactive mutation.Pure coincidence, but a neat idea.
move, ready, of #2 first surfaced, and looked like a monstrous bugNow fixed - all I needed to do was give the guy a final instruction of doFollow his leader.
As I got out, they got out, and etc. I think I may have got in-out several timesThe code should be fully capable of handling this, but taking the civis (that you cannot control) to a potentially hostile area might be seen as a bit risky. Nevertheless the problem should not have occurred. I really need more details on this one if possible. So you got in and out several times and each time you were the driver? When you got to the lodge you had a cutscene and Yuri joined you then you found his clone sitting in the driver's seat of the truck? Is that how it happened? And as far as you can tell the cutscene was okay - you got told about the other civis, and Houdan and your team mates disagreed about what to do next?
I can now spot if nasties have re-entered the town by this method.I like that too. Not just that it helps you, I think it adds to the atmosphere - and the indignation
I cannot recall anything strange or amiss EXCEPT there was no map when it was being discussed by my troops, just black screen voiceover and titles.I do not display the map, but equally I only have a black screen between scenes and apart from the "…how can we do them the most damage…but first we need weapons" I never have a voiceover on a black screen. I am totally stuck on the Yuri problem. I will resort to deleting him twice, checking if he is still there and doing it again. Not very satisfactory.
Am severely worried that I missed something in that fabulous cutscene dialog, something about 'other' civilians western side of T3. Hunted, but found nothing so far.Veterans of v 1.00 will have an edge on you there. I can just imagine macguba's heart sinking if he ever hears those words. He hated that third group. Don't worry, not mission critical. You heard about them you went to investigate but found nothing, you now have an uneasy fealing of having missed something. I suppose that is a pretty realistic result. ;D
It remains heavy whenever a tank is nearI have not yet experienced having a tank near, I have taken to leaving a few standard issue mines as calling cards when I clear any of the locations - with some success.
Spotted a civilian, a girl, when I cleaned out St Louis.In a house?
That group rearrangement thingo has to be the most wonderful new experience so far. The voicovers are fascinating.Thanks. There is some randomisation of the messages and as you have noticed (bleating about going somewhere) there is some context sensitivity as well.
Threw all this no play problems, no lag issuesThat is great to hear.
Meet some convoys and patrols but never engaged. Want to do some Recon first, see if I pick up on patterns and enemy weaknesses and sizeThere is no right way to play this mission, but this is the sort of thing I had in mind when I was making it.
I notice that they're in safe mode. This suprised me a bit, considering Tatyana had gotten away. Maybe they were too drunk to make the connectionThey are aware unitl the reach her body and then go to safe. Sloppy bastards these southrons, they probably thought she escaped while her guards were sleeping it off.
editorUPGRADE102.pbo goes in your standard Addons/ folder
Serious BUGLol - don't do that to me.
Irena won't marry me.
The uneasy feeling of having missed something.Lol again. By the way - you have. I said I didn't play tricks on the player.
Truly, thank you for that..
there is or was a 'black screen' at the point where towns are being discusssed. North, vs South. It 'looked' abundandtly clear to me you were doing a map scan, without the map scan.This is a concern. Was it in the first or second scene at the lodge? Could it be that it was just dark (did you turn the fire out?). Again anything you can do to narrow this down to a particular statement within a particular scene would be of real help.
Girl at St LouisCongratulations you have met your first mad woman.
was running south out of the town, not in house that I am aware of. Tried severally, to engage her in conversation
Another 'bug', you can't disable these mines or use them again. Have seen some missions where that's possible. Also no apparent means of putting satchels in trucks. You can only drop them.I too have seen missions where the standard mines can be disabled - I thought this was standard OFP and have done nothing to remove it. Also the satchel charges in trucks is something I also thought was standard. I wonder if this is falling into the same category as the ladder we can't climb?
Also, thank you so much for your advice to shoot YuriClone to use the truck, I was dead within secondsSorry. I had better check my code, I don't think I built this in - for him.
How diffiuclt would it be to supply a pool of civilians if player starts losing what he has?Possible - but not going to be an option I am afraid. You need to cherish these guys.
Got just enough up the ladder to see she was face down. Hmmm, maybe she is dead?How did you do that!? Not dead, just ill. Yes how did you do that?
letting your guard down in built up areasMy advice is don't let your guard down wherever you are. :)
I have YuriClone bug tooYou too! Well don't shoot him. :) This is just amazing. I have a script that checks to see if he is alive and if he is he gets a deleteVehicle and this code is unchanged from v1.1. I will fix this but it is going to take some thinking about.
You pass the three people we are all mentioning when you come out of Vigny with the police jeep.When I come out of Vigny in the jeep I do a sharp left and head off E.N.E across country. I had better have a look.
dissapointed couldn't put a flag upI thought about it but left it for the border towns and main bases only.
The 'mist' is an absolute pain, I have to tell you. It is bordering on dreadful. Ai can always see each other, I cannot. 20 meters is making all the difference. I hope you consider replacing it with rain instead.I think what is happening is that genuine fog impacts the ability of ai units to see, but the low visibility that comes with rain seems not to have the same impact on them.
After some very boring waiting, about 10minutes. Boring? - it took me 90 minutes to capture the ammo truck in the southron convoy and I spent most of the time terrified, nearly 30 minutes was spent lying beside a bush with my LAW ready to take out the infantry ural. Interesting experience. If the truck had come along at the outset I would have done it easily, but the longer I waited the more I thought about what I had to do and the more nervous I became. I only just got him in the end.
They're at war.. but no message or anything yetI was persuaded to remove that message, the problem was how would Alexi know, so I left it for the player to figure out. Have you reorganized your team lately? Did Sergei not mention it in the cutscene at Houdan?
How did you do that!? Not dead, just ill. Yes how did you do that?
It is my guess that my men reported the civilians in the house.That is my guess too.
That soldier in the house, was I supposed to kill him?Well you are allowed to. How close did you get to him? Please don't say you walked right up to him inside the hut - you should have got a cutscene.
Please don't say you walked right up to him.Yeah, I did walk up to him. I was probably within a meter or two of him.
Henderson: So you got up the ladder!!!! How? Planck's persistence or some other way?
But, something funky happened with the cut scene. Me and the lady suddenly warped down stairs when we had the convo, but the camera was still focused on the atticBollocks. I think I should just go away and shoot myself.
Bollocks. I think I should just go away and shoot myself.
To change the flags just clear the area and have at least one of your team with you. I am going to change this so you can change the flag yourself.
>You should see Irena telling youSorry. At no time in any of the scenes do I force the map, so the bit where Irena says: "Yes Andropov has control of the north of the island…." should have the camera looking at her the whole time
I did, then a brief switch to black screen. What you aren't saying to us, Thob, is whether there is, or isn't a map scene or not.
why couldn't I have had a little more time to save those civilians!Because in v1.00 I got a lot of complaints about having to take a third lot of civis back to the lodge. Well done. Glad you liked it. I suspect it is the triggers for these voiceovers that is killing the mission. I will try and use one trigger but move it about depending on where Alexi is, currently each trigger is a precise shape and size, of course I would lose that.
I had a crash to desktopThat concerns me. I would be interested in knowing at what point this happened if you can recall. Also I would very much like know if others experience anything similar.
Also.. I REALLY don't like the destryed buildings... they look like sh*t,I agree, but that is what OFP has decided destroyed buildings should look like - I have been looking at them for so long they have stopped being strange to me.
No play problems or bugs threw this time in the morningThat is very good to hear.
The fog makes fighting tough but challenging. I've learned to only fire a few rounds and seak a new OP. Fire again and move.The number of times that has saved me is incredible.
Don't know what the "Yuriclone" bug people are talking about is because my trucks are empty and never have had a problem with getting in or outWell I know what it is, I have never seen it. My guess is that something is causing OFP to miss a beat at certain points. Why exactly there I don't know. Anyway the next version already has the YuriClone removed.
The Russkie is turning out to be a great scout. He seems to pick up vehicles further out then the resistance soldiers. but maybe that's just me thinking up a reason to not off him.I like him, especially his baby face and big eyes.
after i seized any town, do the tanks and patrol simply spawn near and move in?? seemed to me in several attempts of the mission.Absolutely and utterly NOT!! All the units that come to attack you start off on the island in realistic places and travel from there to get you. I am not playing games or setting traps for the player. In the readme I warn the player that if they find themselves in an impossible situation, it is because they got themselves into it. Not that I set a trap for them.
Thanks Uber. you just gave me an idea to p*** THob offWhy is it that I attract such sympathy and support? :)
How about every so often.. hour or so? you get one extra person to optionally add to your squad.No way - sorry. This dates back to when I was beta testing macguba's Un-Impossible mission. I was very pleased to finish the mission with no casualties to my squad. He and others seemed indifferent to that, it was as if the survival of the player was paramount and the rest of the squad were just cannon fodder. In this mission I try to put a different angle on things.
Also it would be nice to be able to change your character's "clothes" into camo.. maybe steal a truck or raid a town and find uniforms...I would love to do that if I could have a female soldier - but I can't, and I am not going to upgrade Ruslan and Erik leaving Irena as some sort of second class soldier - she deserves better.
but i tried severally and convinced myself we had a empty re-arm issue. Still think that's true, and maybe just maybe, it is not.Tanks that are completely empty of ammo of a particular type cannot get more from an ammo truck - this is standard OFP!! There are some tanks that I have placed in the mission that deliberately have no ammo. I have also written a script for these units that will enable them to re-arm at an ammo truck. Does your experience contradict this?
Niggle: Beethoven is abrubtly stopped with switch to funeral music, for me, it jarred horribly. Suggestiion, fade out, fade in, with mixture of two sounds (if that's possible)I can't merge the sounds. The music you get at that point depends on how many casualties you took. You got funeral music because you took no casualties and so the scene only needed to show the player Tatyana and uncle Nik. If you took casualties in your squad then you are shown these also - where they fell (try it with a save game). That takes longer and so a longer music track needs to be chosen. I will look at doing a fade in and out.
It jarred for me that there was a body bag. This is inconsistent with the cutscene of my dead uncle. Think you should change it to a grave to re-inforce the message that we, not they, bury our dead. Particularly as my character keeps uttering surprises at all the bodies 'just left there' My character would insist it's buriedExcellent point. Thanks
Also, whenever we go back to lodge (which is the only safe and consistent place to do this) could we have a cutscene of burying any of our fallen? If we lose Sergei eg? Would be nice and consistent with the initial 3 graves.Another good idea. I won't be doing it though, sorry. The reason is that in the final scene if you have taken any casualties you get a shot of them where they fell. It can be quite poignant and powerful.
anyway i stopped when i could at the lodge i even swung my weapon on my back because i noticed i was told to 'halt' so i did after about 10 seconds nothing hapend so i stepped forward and then he said 'halt or ill fire' then the cut scene happendIs this what happened when you kept dieing?
NOTE - have the unit fire up in the air (without killing the player) to make it seem he means buisnessNice idea.
So i think that wasnt the best idea so im going to rethink my plan and restart later on todayLol ;D
Overall so farThank you
excellent
few things that could be added like some dead civillians in larceThe soldiers in the north are tidier than those in the south. They don't leave bodies about.
and also how about a few alive civillians in larche when its secure ??How do you know there arn't any?
How do you know there arn't any?i dont im just guessing
1) do you have a day script in itWhat is a day script?
2) Why didnt i see a single convoy on the road ?Maybe a different road. The convoys and jeep patrols are moving almost continuously.
3) what do the black arrows mean on the mapIn the briefing it is explained that these are the front line towns, the arrows show the direction the armies are facing at that point - and the direction they will move in of they attack
4) a good idea have an action to 'put crate in vechile'That is a good idea. Not difficult to do - but I think the mission is already too laggy. I am really looking to cut things out.
What is a day script?like a script wich makes the sun rise and sun set basically make the day go forward.
No. The day progresses at one second per second.really like that wow just like real life well i meant a slight bit faster so you can tell a slight difference but anyway again with the mission
Question why do i constant hear weird noises like tanks and people firing laws and m16 shots when none of my squad has fired a round yet ??I have no idea. Others have heard this as well. It was suggested that this is just some blue on blue. Unless you have done something they should not be fighting each other.
got some message saying put up the malden flag to show them weve arived, okay so i did how about an action like erm the medic one to make it look like your winching up and down the flag ?Well if you had not been in such a hurry and rushed to the flagpole yourself you would have seen one of your team mates do exactly that.
i noticed a mis prenounciation of chapoi look on the official campaign it has it thereI think in the official campaign they prounce the town names in the way soldiers the world over pronounce them. The people in the team are locals to the island, I prefer their pronunciation ;). Seriously - thanks for spotting this, but I am unlikely to change it. Before I started recording any of the voices I posted a question about pronuncialtions and no one really cared.
I posted a question about pronuncialtions and no one really caredi remeber that but i didnt know about the way they pronounce it on the official campaign
Is there not one other objective that might be achievable?there is but that would be very very hard to snipe one of the leader's actually ill take the hunting rifle and have a go i doubt i will get very far
It was suggested that this is just some blue on blue.
But anything I've spotted becomes clear and 'oh yes of course' a few hours laterThis is exactly the sort of thing I want to have happen.
Everyone asks this question, sooner or later. How do I?, can I?, trigger a war. I think you should change the dialog about "how can we hurt them most". I don't think you should give any clues away how to (and I was dissapointed as you know, when I found out how easy it was), simply a statement (in effect) that clearly indicates, you can. That's what a player needs to know, whether or not there's any point even trying to.It is now harder to start a war. Killing a convoy anywhere on the map is now not sufficient. (In earlier versions I had each side retaliate to the destruction of their convoy by occupying La Trinite). This is one of those things where I would like the player to wake up in the middle of the night thinking - "I wonder if I can get them to fight each other?" and then figure out how to do it. It is logical. Just get them to where they come into contact with each other, or (and the player is told about this explicitly by Sergei if they are listening) weaken one side so much that the other side decides to launch an unprovoked all out attack (this will be made a bit easier to do in the next version). How to get them into contact? - you could get some of them to chase you and lead them into the other side's territory - very difficult to do safely, but isn't it funny how when one vehicle in the convoy is killed or put out of action a group of infantry arrive to investigate and continue to search around the wreck? There are many ways to do this mission, getting the two sides fighting early on is only one of them and I don't want to point the player in that direction at the expense of them missing out on the other ways to do it.
there is but that would be very very hard to snipe one of the leader's actually ill take the hunting rifle and have a go i doubt i will get very farI had Houdan in mind.
both of them that is my team are now all experts even though they havent had any combat experience wich is kind of good but not real you cant gain combat experience if your getting driven in a truck from one place to anotherThey shouldn't be experts if that is all they have done - I will check. This is not a standard RPG where you get skill points for killing units - I still have in mind that I might add this. But they do increase their skill by accomplishing certain tasks, also simply spending time together helps the better ones to train the less skilled, and also increases general morale - all reflected in the increase of skill level.
This time i started a war *before* I got to the lodge!!! (not a bug). I took on a jeep from each of the sides on my way there and they chased me, then, each other. By the time I got to lodge there was scrunched armour everywhere near the 1st civilians. Made an 'interesting' journey to go get themNeat. I am interested in knowing what effect, if any, this had on the convoys. If you get chance.
Radation signs at T3 often prevent friendly ai from getting at the goodies. M21 eg. Or, they frequently get stuck because of them. Not good.Thanks. It is now on the list
I cannot open the big wire gatesYou can't. He can and will only do so when you need him (permanently)
At least one machine gun front entrance to airport is fired on even though it's emptyThis is a known OFP issue. To fix it here would consume CPU resources that I don't have
The two squads arriving at vigny are overarmed,Two squads? There should only be one - together or one after the other? Do you recall the approx size of each? Good point about them being over armed. I meant to do something about that and see it is still on the to do list. Incidentally I get out of Vigny as quickly as possible and so arrive at the lodge with only a few rifles.
They are less aggressive than in 1.1, it seems to me at leastMaybe - but I have done nothing to them other than cut down the number of units.
The next garrison was already mentioned to be smoking too much, you can run around in front of the guard with no reaction. The patrol will notice you after a while, thoughOn the list - though I am not sure what to do about it.
Your regroup script does not leave you with a two man group if you select only two men.An early version of the script did exactly that. I felt it better to keep the whole group intact - you can decide to park some of them somewhere - but you can still give them instructions.
Arriving at the lodge could you maybe add a "put that gun away". I would find a guy with an assault rifle pointed at me rather suspicious after having called a Halt.That is an excellent suggestion. The problem is that putting the gun away involves the player moving and that will trigger the kill him bit of the code. Did you arrive on foot or in a vehicle?
Roadblocks: They are really blocking the road ? I thought the point of a roadblock was some left space right positioning to provide a slowdown (some surpressing positions added in the middle), not a complete blocking?These are schematic road blocks I wanted to create the impression of a road block using the minimum of objects. Also - there is a pattern to some of them.
Or have i not yet noticed a pattern in the roadblocks?
Every time there are dead he sounds surprised,why is this?I was trying to mix in some anger and indignation - but the real problem is: I have absolutely no idea which of these the player will find first and in what order he will come across them.
I personally would not be so much surprised about dead in a war zone.There is more of a pattern to the bodies than there is to the road blocks.
Get the hell out of therevery good advice but i took that when i hear several tanks coming luckily my 5t truck wasnt blown to bits hehe
>YuriClone
You say you fixed it. I found the reason. It happens if ever you disembark with civils before getting to the lodge (and getting back in again). WomanClone remains in back of truck, she looks awfully like my girlfriend, #5
Found out that after they join you shooting one of them doesn't trigger any reponse from them, effectivly i shot the team one by one very slowly without any answer. Is this planned like this ?I had thought of making Alexi a renegade if he did this (set his rating to -100000 or some such). The problem with that is I can think of no way of distinguishing between Alexi deliberately killing one of his team and him doing it accidentally (for example by hitting a tank with a LAW when there are team mates about). So I decided to just use what standard OFP does. Try killing one of the civis though and it is a different matter.
the pk gunner always has his pistol out for some reason. DammitI give some of the resistance soldiers a handgun for effect, it is realistic for them to have some when you meet them. But for game play it is better the get the guys to drop their hand guns as soon as you can.
not so the northrons. Bmp and two troop trucks had got themselves totally 'stuck' just outside T3Convoys getting themselves into a mess was the bane of my life in the early stages of making this mission. Providing the player keeps away they will eventually sort themselves out.
and the crews of both had got out and joined their friends in the valley. They got lonely with your rejoin script. It was a marvellous scene.It is certainly true that in the end game crew will get out of their vehicles and join with other infantry groups. It is also true that there is not much in the way of organization in the south so you might find crew and pilots mixed in with infantry even at the start of the mission.
The two groups StG is talking about at Vigny: One is 'standard', aka it's coming up from La Pessage, the other is from the roadblock / 2nd civil area.This is another data point in my ‘2nd civi area is haunted' theory. There are no soldiers at the roadblock / 2nd civil area. I can't have them there becasue if the player engages them, guard units will turn up eventually spot the northron jeep patrol and a war will start.
I'd also knock out any chance of the player getting anything, other than from dead bodies.This is a major change. It would be realistic, but I think it would add significantly to the mission duration. I would be interested in hearing what others think about this: Basically: No ammo crates and no ammo trucks in the mission.
La Riviere inconsistently has 2 x undamaged buildings at water's edge. A small campfire with guard troops would 'make sense' rather than yet-more-damage.I did have some things in some of these, NW hamlet had bodies (not now consistent with the ethos of Andropov) and Cancon and La Riviere had small infantry patrols. They went to try and cut down on lag.
Ditto small harbour town or whatever it is halfway Le Port <> Chapoi. I would have expected an ambush roadbloack at the very least. Perhaps some scuttled boats here too.
Ditto small fort near Le Port, scuttled boats make nice eye candy.
Hut & house on small turn off to lodge is inconsistent, it's totally empty.
Extreme north west hamlet is empty, but this one 'makes sense'. (found where you parked the armour you evil man)
Is there any more hunting rifle ammo anywhere?No. The armies have no need for it. But it has given me an idea.
Basically: No ammo crates and no ammo trucks in the mission.This might not be a bad idea, although I think the convoys should still have ammo trucks. I think you should also keep a few ammo crates at Trinite, but then only put M16s or AK74s in them with only a few rocket launchers. I always thought Trinite to be a trading center, so any good weapons dropped off by one army would immediately be snatched up by the other. Also, removing most, if not all, of the ammo crates from Trinite should reduce some lag.
Btw, got anything special planned for the 1000th post(er)?Just their own personal satisfaction. :)
and frankly is marvellous. It is wasted where it is. The escape is not, but the voicover could probably go. Sadly.Sorry but I am confused by what you mean here.
Okay: I am listening. I started off by thinking the mission was already too difficult and so I felt generous to the player. Reducing the ‘stuff' that is freely available at LaT will significantly increase the player's desire to capture one of the convoy ammo trucks. I think that is a very good thing. A hell of a lot of design and development work and huge amount of testing went into those convoys but most players will not notice, they will just drop a few mines or hit them with a few LAWs and the whole thing is up in smoke. I think this is looking good. Thanks.
There are other ways of getting the ammo and weapons... small ambushes on patrols, town raids etc. It's not JUST the convoy that holds weapons, so do he soldiers.
if (_overcast >= 0.9) then {60 setRain 1;RainLevel = 1}
if ((_overcast >= 0.8) and (_overcast < 0.9)) then {60 setRain 0.75;RainLevel = 0.75}
if ((_overcast >= 0.7) and (_overcast < 0.8)) then {60 setRain 0.5;RainLevel = 0.5}Ugly I know. To:if (_overcast >= 0.9) then {RainLevel = 0.5;60 setRain RainLevel} I've been sitting in T3 for ten hours now for a little excercise that bloody author wants me to check;D Lol. Thanks. You can stop listening now. I suspect the problem is that triggers that generate sounds stop after a while. I have a solution to that.
it is wasted because so few will spot it.It is all part of trying to make the experience different every time. The down side is that some things I have spent ages creating will be missed - that's life I suppose.
@Henderson.
Thob is trying to reduce objects to reduce lag. Frankly, I'm surprised that static objects like ammo crates produce any lag at all. If they don't I'd keep them 'as is' to re-inforce the difference btwn north and south. But, as far as usabilty is concerned, they're useless. You can't stick around long enough to take advantage of them any more (or less) than you can stick around to collect from bodies. Time, and command wise (getting ppl to pick things up) is identical for both, so they aren't a bonus to player, just another lag object who's real purpose is to provide eye-candy.
To reduce lag further, some of the mobile ammo crates, eg the ammo trucks, *could* go. A compromise would be to still be able to access and capture the convoy ammo truck and remove the vacant ones at T3 (eg). Not much effort, frankly, is required to sneak in and race out with a T3 vehicle. Tough only once in ten attempts. (I should know, I've been sitting in T3 for ten hours now for a little excercise that bloody author wants me to check)
>But, if the player wants weapons quickly...
that's the point, some of us don't feel that's a 'good idea' (tm)
If there's dead soldiers how did they not stand a chance at defending themselves?Only two of them were armed.
even to the point where your scripts don't function as you expect them to.Hence 456 being shot and the YuriClone problem. It all begins to fit.
With your five thousand scripts, i'd say that whilst there may be little lagLol: Yes I have a lot of scripts, but I carefully spread them out. Instead of having most of them running all the time I have a master script that calls many of them at spaced intervals.
I have never experienced lag here *except* with large vehicle concentrationsIf that includes dead tanks then that would fit with my experience at Chopi. Although killing the loons there did help somewhat it was still pretty laggy around Chapoi. There were about a dozen dead armour units in the area.
(Tanks > 4). I have never experienced lag from large quantities of loon, not
ever, afaik.
My character merely says "This woman is resting, I better not disturb her"Well he would. He doesn't know about her yet.
whilst looking at an empty space on the attic floor.Bugger. This doesn't happen to me, but I had better make sure it doesn't happen to you either. It is now on the list.
Then I warp downstairs, and lo and behold there she is lying downstairs.
Just to remind you.. I skipped the Tatyana scene at the beggining.I noticed that when you first posted about this location. I thought - should I change the dialogue for the one in a thousand delinquent player that doesn't follow what is after all a very light plot. And then I thought naah - I'll just kill the bastard instead. ;D
And then I thought naah - I'll just kill the bastard instead.
so anything you can remember would be of a great help
Evil bastardYou are not the first to say that.
Are you happy with the ordering of your group by the way?
Out of three wolf occasions i got one that repeated endlessly, the other two worked.You mean it never ended or it went on for a long time? It is possible for some to go on for a long time, but they should all finish eventually. It is possible that two groups are there at the same time - could it have been that?
May it be that there is another error?
Your regroup script does not retain the commands like wait issued before, and a regroup will use fireteams according to the numbers, not the people.It wil not retain instructions. Basically what happens at the start of the script is all of Alexi's team leave the group and are only added back as you select them. Interesting about the fireteams. I am sorry but I will not be able to do anything about that. I have no way of knowing even if fireteams have been set up so I can't keep units in the correct team.
I find that ofp behaves strange : if the AI goes to the haystack at the lodge they will be luckily until their hips in the concrete. The russian actually left his hut by walking through the wall and reentering through the wall behind me. I suppose this is Ofp as it is. Hope this will get better with BISs new projects.If this were the worst of it I woul dbe Okay - it is the damned ladders that work and don't work, units that refuse to stay on the top floor of a building etc. that really annoy me. Even setPosing units doesn't work repeatably.
On the map screen my radio has one entry first line and then others at the bottom. The gaps in-between click as if there would be something to click, is this planned or just Ofp as above ?There are 10 radio slots 1 to 10 (you get the 10th by selecting 0). The first line is radio 1 (Reorganise team), then there is a gap the size of which depends on what you have available to you. But let us say you have already got the trip wires and fuses from LaT, then the next radion slot is 8 (toggle mines), then 9 (Mine Instructions) and 10 (save game). The empty slots are 2 to 7 inclusive ( under this scenario)
he medic calls to say he delivered everybody to the lodge; shouldn't this be radio talk and not an invisible voice next to me ?Yes. This should have been a sideRadio so the text of the message should have appeared as a coloured bar at the lower left of your screen and then faded out over time. Did it definitely not happen? Could you have missed it?
Thobson, i sure hope you are motivated and have enough timeThank you. I must admit to a sense of humour failure today when units that are setPosed to locations for a cut scene seem to go to different places as the mood takes them.
the more I think on this, the harder it is for me to reconcile that immense fragility we first encounter with a popgun and two magazines, against very rapidly attaining AT launchers or three. If Thob were to do anything here, I would immediately reduce the amount of ammo in the 3 loons killed at Tatyana, and continue from there, as in, ok, i get an m16 but it only has a single mag, and etc. Currently we have a very contradictory statement that 'each side doesn't have everything it needs'. Like hell. It's in abundance.You are quite right. I need to think on it.
I have a 3.2Ghz CPU and at one stage on my latest run through I got as low as 4fps at one point.Ah ok, hadn't realised how demanding the mission could would be. How about a version for lower end PCs without rain and tank fire scripts? ;)
I must admit to a sense of humour failure today
seem to go to different places as the mood takes them
THE BEST MISSION EVER
There are no buildings "east of the woods on the other side of Trinite"
There are no buildings "east of the woods on the other side of Trinite"
I must admit to a sense of humour failure todayYou are so kind. :)
good, you've made my day.
Sergei as you know is 'red'. Would it be possible to use a GCivilianFakeE to get round this? Or, do you like the thematic, the making player aware stuff, that he's got a mixed bag.I had not given this any thought. But now you mention it, I think I do prefer to keep it as it is.
I can drive all over the island and kill as many loons that suit me with the police jeep, they never respond. Big bad trouble however if the Vulcan or a Tank spot me. My road-kills are unceremoniously stoppedThis also applies to the civi truck as well. This is a pain in the butt.
Confusion with changing ammo contentsI think I will make the contents change totally extreme, a player capable of getting that far and wanting to go further (ie not your Sunday driver types) should figure it out. The thing I though might create too much confusion would be to have some soldiers come and investigate if the player steals too much ‘stuff'. The thing against this is that the player could start a war without knowing what they are doing. I might make it that destruction of the ammo crates would generate such a response. The player would then need to think about what they are doing. Keep collecting the goodies - or blow the stuff up and get them fighting.
I could be out in the real world if it weren't for this mission of hisShare my pain. I have not had contact with the real world since I started making this mission last September.
Yes we went to the Algarve on holiday a few years ago. We nearly got blown of the cliffs. The sardines were wonderful
Everybody is keen to know: What are your four?
Only 4 have that status!Which four?
How, apart ctrl/tab and copying the savegame somewhere else, do you go back three savegamesWhat I do is alt/tab out of the mission and change the name of the save file - you don't need to copy it anywhere, just change its name.
Noticed also soundwise that you can hear the shooting at the lodge if you are in arudy. Didn't quite register that before, but it sheds a new light on battle sound and the distance i think they are. Was way too close in my estimations every time.The physics of the game seem to be incorrect for sound attenuation. I have seen some comment that the sound volume is inversely proportional to the distance from the sound source, when in fact it should be inversely proportional to the cube of the distance (asuming no reflections). I have not been able to verify this but it would explain why you can hear things such a long way away,
I'm not sure if Thob could do anything about this, but it's tied up with the fact that all your convoy is 'red'. If that marker can be removed, as in side=2 in the scripts, then it would go awayI can think of no way to do this. I think it will have to remain a feature I'm afraid.
dependent solely on the merest twitch of your finger and a decision to move south not south east in earlier game playThis has been a wonderful revelation for me. I tend not to vary too much how I play missions but you guys are doing it in all sorts of different ways, and the results are great. I have deliberately not over scripted the behaviour of the soldiers and I am really pleased at how fluid the result is. If any of you are aware of Chaos theory I think this is a good example. There is nothing complicated in this mission, just lots of simple things that interact in simple ways but all combining to give a quite complex result.
Planck:
Reorganised your team yet?
The decrewed southron abrahms came twitching from Cancon
If it helps at all (which i doubt), I have played this mission from Vigny to ladder depbo'd and the results are same, = no ladder.Thanks. Actually it does help - a lot. It is consistent with my theory of objects moving over time.
I preferred low visibility, I found it helped me to get about better.
So, it has disappeared from my action menu altogether.Itis all falling into place now. Knowing the problem and finding the solution are two very different things - but at least it is a start.
or you could get them to arm themselves from crates at the village and defend themselvesOf the previously mobile variety?
Might it be that your game logic, or previously your trigger are in some way negating the climb ladder option.I don't think so. In the version you are playing the Game Logic is 999.8 m directly above the building. You have to climb the ladder to get close enough for the cutscene to trigger (< 1000). My way round the problem of not getting the action was to put the GL near the foot of the ladder.
would a car blocking entrance achieve similar?Not quite sure what you mean. Anyway the road outside the door is a part of the route followed by the mg jeeps so I couldn't block it.
The gain is so quick (imho) that most players? wont have noticed that they dont all start as expertsI agree. The trouble is that most of the things that raise skill levels happen early. It is on the list to look at.
I can think of no way that any LOD from the model can move away from the rest of the model, it just doesn't seem possible to me, it is after all one complete model, it just has several component parts for different purposes.Can you think of any reason objects would move vertically? Take care as you answer I have you covered - sorry wrong script. Just take a look at the picture attached to reply 487 first.
My money is on the cutscene trigger blocking the ladder action thob. .I don't think so. Let me tell you why. To get the cutscene to trigger only at the top of the ladder is not easy. In the version you are playing there is a trigger that fires when the player gets near the house and there is a Game Logic suspended 999.8 m above the house (in OFP terms this means 999.8 above the top floor) and all I do is fire the cutscene when the player is within 1000m of the GL. (Why so high? - so that the whole of the top floor of the house is contained within the sphere radius 1000). I ‘solved' the problem of having no Climb Ladder action by putting the GL at a BuildingPos that is located near the foot of the ladder - but this is in the version I have not yet uploaded.
Get rid of it for testing purposes. Or, if you tell me how, I'll test it for you while you do other thingz.Thanks. I have a test set up that I just need to run over night. At the start of the mission I move a GL to the required place and I have a radio trigger that reports on the location of: the building; the buildingPos that the GL was placed at; and the GL itself. Over time I expect the GL and the buildingPos to part company. One very simple test you could do is: in the Mission Editor go into an empty map of Malden. Put a single unit down in a town. Larche might be better than Dourdan as it has many buildings of this type. Check you can climb the ladders. Go back into the street, leave it to soak for a few hours and then see if you can climb the ladders. I predict you will be able to cliomb the ladders initially but not after time has passed.
and shortly to become very fatal) occurrences
Sergie can =WesternSpy / ResistanceSpyI did spot those - after I had put Sergei in. I decided to leave it because I have no idea what is going on in the background behind those units. For example Civilians with weapons seem to attack anyone that resistance is not friendly with - but they don't get shot at back. I was concerned there may be somethign smilar behind these spys so I stucjk with what I knew. On a similar vein I can't define it fully but there is something different about the way Irena behaves compared with some of the others. When I am testing she is often the odd one out.
I have other plans. I'm going to rescue Tatyana and marry her instead.Just keep taking those pills. ;D
btw im having loads of fun with this mission and it has inspired me to create missions because i never knew it was possible to get a mission of this quality made on OFP so thnks.No. Thank you. That is one of the best compliments you could give.
It seems to me that most of the armour was destroyed when Stamenov and Andropov went to war, otherwise it might have been a harder battle.
>fixing the outroI think the start is naff. macguba's repeated suggestions to show the family is a good idea I haven't got round to yet. All the static shots are of locations, and LaT features a lot. In my last run through nothing happened at LaT. I have in mind to use specific dead armour units as the focus for the camera. I might get some strange shots, but I would at least be showing where the action is. All very early ideas.
why? Apart from a minor, jarring switch of music, I couldn't see a thing wrong
Question: with only a Bradley and one Ural left will the convoy still operate? Or am I going to have to think of more creative ways to get the southrons to LaT?It may be unrealistic, but even if it is down to one serviceable vehicle the convoy will keep running.
Wow! you finally got the police jeep out of fuel? I've never managed it so far, you must have travelled *extensively*.
the gate's were open on the east side. But I was planning on running them down anywayMaybe I didn't close enough of them.
Maybe I didn't close enough of them.
all fuel stations on the island, except those guarded by the soldiers, contain no fuel.
Don't rearm them (see above) repair them and then drive away without refuelling.
I have found no way to fix this.
and they will talk to you while you do it.(It would be a good idea to do it at least once, to pick up verbal clues)
not true. LaPessage. Dourdan.Really?! They have their fuel cargo set to zero just like all the others. I will check.
Me: Expert.I actually set Alexi's skill to 0.1 at the start but the game ignores me.
Have taken my pillz and I'm going to rescue Snow White (Tatyana)That and marry Irena - I think I need some of what you are on.
Join up with them, listen to radio, tells me to go to the house in DD47 i believe? (just down the road some). I go there, get the civilians in the truck (im pretty sure), and drive back to the lodge. Get out, and nothing happens, the civilans and armed man still follow me around, I tried getting back in the ural and back out, even driving out a bit and coming back in, and disembarking. Tried going inside the lodge (ruined building with radio), and nothing.This is totally weird. Let me describe exactly what should have happened.
What is DXDLL
d**n I've given the author a 'safe' place) It wont be next version will it Thob.Well its like this... I have tried to put the loons where I think they should be, not where it would be convenient or inconvenient to the player. But as I know you are aware, nowhere can be guaranteed to be safe. If some loons know where you are other loons come looking. For example: Just east of Dourdan is a little valley where the road to the coast runs through a scattering of bushes and rocks. Safe? I had my group there while I started sniping Dourdan and we were taken out by an infantry group behind us that is they came from the coast side of us.
Nothing more boring than you can't do something again simply because it would be inconvenient.I agree. It only cost a bit of logic, one sound file and it means I have not been able to delete the trigger - a small price considering the alternative. Also for the XCesses amongst us: going there before you know about her is also possible, as Planck found.
Oh, and how do you re-organise the team? I bring up the menu and click on the list for a voice over but dont no how to do anything elseJust bring up the menu, select the person you want to be number 2 and press the Add to Team button. Then select the person you want to be number 3 and do the same. If you click finish or press escape then the remaining peopel on the list will be added to the team in the order they are in the list.
and Planck seems not to have the problem
EDIT: Incidentally, I was running DXDLL, I can't run this with post processing on or reflections on, I ran it only for the fps counter.
NB: There is a bug I cannot fix. If you collect the first civilians using a truck and Alexi is not the driver when you return to the lodge then OFP will have set some other member of your team to be the formation leader. I have tried but I can find no way of fixing this. This is a problem with OFP
This is totally weird. Let me describe exactly what should have happened.
-After listening to the radio at the lodge you drive off to the hut. It is actually at Dd46, but that doesn't matter.
-As you approach the hut you get a fade to black, and a cutscene with Alexi standing outside the hut.
-At the end of the scene the soldier and the civis in the hut start following you around.
-If you get in a truck then they will ask you to wait and then they will get in as well.
-Once they are all in they will tell you.They do this.
-You then drive to the lodge - on getting close you will get a fade to black and then you will get an overhead shot of the truck with people getting out.This never happens, i drive up, drive around, get out and the civis do too, get back in, drive away and come back.
-Then another cutscene will start during which the civis run off.
-At the end of the scene Yuri (the soldier from the hut) will join you.
So that is what should happen. At what point does your experience diverge from this? Did they tell you they were in the truck for example?
Did anything strange happen on the way back to the lodge (I am clutching at straws here - did you do a save and restore? exit the mission and come back in again?)
What is really puzzling about this problem is that the whole thing is done with one script, the code that gets them to follow you around is also the place where the check is made to see if you are near the lodge.
I will now go and ponder the code to see what could be happeneing.
What is DXDLL?
EDIT:
Can you remember if the destroyed wooden building was still there?
("Bastards! The sooner we rid the island of these soldiers, the better!"). My resolve against Stamenov heightened.I am glad, as the author I wrote it and said it and wondered if would be effective or just naff. I am looking for things to cut out to reduce lag and these voiceovers are on the list to think about.
I actually know them by name nowWonderful
tudders:
You have just been hit by the large savegame bug. Are you running ECP or somesuch?
The woman in the loft thing now works fine.About time too.
I have a civvy woman sitting in the civvy truck all by herself.I despair! If that is Houdan_WomanClone then she has survived an unassignVehicle, a deleteVehicle and a setPos [0,0,0] in that order. This will not be fixed in v1.23
Now I know why '7' keeps boarding the truck every time I use your dialog to speak to my team......off he goes and boards the truck......whereever we happen to be.......unless I order him back to formation
I predicted you would get some company at your ambush point.I hadn't appreciated just how close I was to a major base, until I went exploring.... :P
It is unfortunate that driving over the soldiers is so easy to do and so safe. An OFP feature that I am not sure I can do anything about. It happens mostly if you are in a neutral or friendly vehicle (the jeep will seem friendly to Stamenov's soldiers)Ah, this would explain why the jeep and repair truck were generally less noticed than my T80. Well well. I might use this information to my advantage when I attack Stamenov ;)
One thing puzzled me about LaT, why did you take the repair truck and not the ammo truck? Practicing for the later versions where there is no ammo truck?Naw, don't forget I was still a one man band at this stage , plus i was anxious to leave LaT as soon as possible (and rightly so as it filled up with soldiers on my way out), and I had no real need of the ammo truck yet.
I am glad, as the author I wrote it and said it and wondered if would be effective or just naff. I am looking for things to cut out to reduce lag and these voiceovers are on the list to think about. WonderfulI doubt the voiceovers are causing any lag, the only thing they'll be impacting on will be mission filesize surely? At any rate, they are sounding less and less naff, and give the game character. Preserve them in my opinion.
Interesting that you should make the depraved monster on NATO's side, not the Russians' as usually happens...
I doubt the voiceovers are causing any lagIt is the trigger to cause the voiceover. But since I have cut it down from one trigger for each voiceover to one trigger for all of them (I just move the trigger) I think you are right.
If that is Houdan_WomanClone
type 0 then 1
Bloody hell - you are really kicking up a storm. This is now an unusual scenario and I am interested in how it will play out. Both leaders are dead and (I think) a relatively small amount of damage done to each army. It might not be easy. I may need to make some changes as a result of this.
quite obviously behind the rest of you all
Well.....I think this woman is a blonde, the one in Houdan was.....I think dark haired.I'll check.
But my memory might be faulty.
#wait
~11.11
if (alive _carrier) then {goto"wait"}Changing this to :@ not(alive _carrier)Produced a small improvement.exitProduced a further small improvement.This is now an unusual scenario and I am interested in how it will play out. Both leaders are dead and (I think) a relatively small amount of damage done to each army. It might not be easy. I may need to make some changes as a result of this.I have made a subtle change to the way the armies behave, but will make none to the dialogue, after all if a player does it this way the people at the lodge will not know. The second civis and Sergei might have heard some fighting and they will already comment on fighting between the north and south it in the version you are playing. The subtle change in behaviour is one that might get them fighting each other (not the full blown all out assault), but might not. I fear that XCess will get no help whatsoever in dealing with each army, and I also suspect that lag might make the mission unplayable. This is the situation I referred to in the readme file.
for me, he's playing a fantastic play alone mode. Admittedly poor squence triggers in not collecting civilians and blah, but I started similar before I got savegame bug and I think, imho, your changes will need to be _very_ small. They might just need to be context switches of what the player has not achieved, rather than any dramatic change to game play. If we want to take on two armies by ourselves as Xcess is doing, let us
please keep the voiceovers IF you drive over them, rather than only if you walk over them. I prefer this in general, even at Vigny where you crippled it.I was getting bug reports about messages for bodies they couldn't see as they drove over them. Vigny is the only place where you only get the ‘bodies' messages if you are walking and not in a vehicle. Now I have one trigger for all the atrocities: Bus; Barn; Truck: bodies in towns: bodies in huts, I think this is now not an issue. I just keep moving the trigger depending on where the player is. What should I do to un-cripple it?
sorry, the civil truck test is, you load up 2 soldiers into truck so that they occupy the front, you get in back, and there she is.There has to be a logic explanation to this. I just can't see it.
Another 'interesting' feature of this is if you put your loons all over the map (I had some guarding the LaP crossroad with M2 Jeeps) they instantly come back to where you areI just re-read this. Instantly!?? I can understand it if they started to run in your direction after the reorgainse script, but not an intant teleport. Am I understanding this correctly?
missing addon or blahI built this using GB's editor upgrade. So why the hell would there be this error? (EDIT: I have an idea)
M16GrenadeLauncher.modelSpecial
This happens when i drive over the guy carrying one (relief squad of 6 coming up from LaP to Vigny).
Using Barrons upgrade102. It does not appear to affect gameplay.
noticed you took away nvg XMS guy, you rat.There were two crew one eastand one west in that group. I added them for effect. I forgot that I also added NVGs etc.
Also no PK at LaP, you rat.You wanted to have to scrabble for weapons. ;D
_because_ you say 'here, let me show you on the map', and _because_ it then swings to black screen with titletext 'we need weapons', it is here that I assumed, or thought, or think, that you are now trying to show us THE map, this time with updated arrows and things.I understand now.
this and v1.23 do not have, or they are no longer apparent, the 2nd relief squad coming diagonally to Vigny. Did you take them out, move them? Were they too close to 1st civils for comfort?I have made no change for this. Purely the game engine.
Armor no longer appears at LaP after prolonged exposure there. (I am busy busy collecting weapons, knowing I shouldn't stay this long) Has lack of flag changing caused less interest in LaP by the enemy perhaps?Almost the same point here about it being the game engine. I have made it so the armour is more likely to come - randomly.
My team changed from novices to veterans (almost experts). If this was due to kill count, ok, if it was timelapse (7:35 am), not too goIt won't be just time. There is now a lot of weight given to kills. I think I still have a bit too much on the objectives.
No flag changes . I think u should allow it from lodge onwards.I thought I had. I will check.
ZERO lag. Not a whisker.Weird - see below.
another swag of firefights and Barron firescriptsCredit where it is due. I use General Barron's fire script only in the first scene in the Intro. The fire embers and smoke you get when armour is killed is from Babalon. He did all the difficult drop command stuff. I just took that and made the fire, embers and smoke taper off over time.
Lag at the moment is simply terrible. 2-3fps non stop. This was since loading to go kill Stamenov. Also, I did all the lodge stuff just to get the ticks done and now the Andropov objective is un ticked.Lag I knew about, it is top of the list. Unticking Andropov - yes that would happen - sorry I didn't think of someone playing it in that sequence, this cannot happen in v1.23
for the purpose of testing, put a crippler in that prevents war starting.
Everon has Christmas trees at Christmasreally i didnt know that or notice it i did though on Kolgujev but i thought that was an addon
400 hours? I have not kept track of the time - but that would be 8 hours a day 5 days a week for two weeks.:o
im looking forward to more of your work in the futureLol: I can see no further than finishing this one at the moment.
Seems there are quite a few of us quiet types out there playing it.
By the way, the lag I got wasn't that bad. Someone tell me what a benchmark is and how I find it out and I'll tell you what mine is. I'll also do an FPS check next time I run through it.
I'm not a big fan of playing a beta again and again,Me neither, but I am fortunate that some people are.
My wife would kill me for something like this.
I've not encountered the phantom women yet but i have experienced a women who likes identical to the Dourdan women running through LaT.I will need to check on their identities, I don't want them all looking the same. Did you get into the back of the truck? - put two of your squad in first to fill up the drivers cab and then get in.
I will need to check on their identities, I don't want them all looking the same. Did you get into the back of the truck? - put two of your squad in first to fill up the drivers cab and then get in.
I too had worse lag in 1.23 than 1.21 at LaT. I think something is just tipping the mission over a threshold. I believe the lag is caused by multiple armour units in the area.
Minefield:
You could try your luck. ;) Have you spoken to the woman n Dourdan yet?
have 30 bullets for My M16Well each of the three loons has one mag with 30 bullets each (less what they have fired at you), anyway, 30 should be fine, there are less than 30 loons to deal with at that part of the mission ;) ;D
i ran out of bullets for my pistolEven including what you got from the dead policeman?
I witnessed one nasty still running without his arms upBut also without arms. The poor guy had dropped his weapons and was running for his life, and you slotted him. Ah well - it happens in the heat of the moment I suppose. In one run through I was in an Abrams machine gunning a group of infantry at the airbase when suddenly they started standing up and surrendering. They did it a lot faster than I could take my finger off the trigger. Strangely I felt a bit bad about the ones I took down that had their hands up.
No longer a pathetic group of resistance fighters, we are now armed to the teeth and ready for anything. With the skies cleared and most of the armor on the island likely damaged from battle our team has the iniative.Great feeling isn't it? Especially driving carelessly through all those places you crawled though so much earlier.
(day2) in DourdanA multi day mission. Just what I dreamed of creating.
Zero lag for meMe too. I think General Barron is right (a different thread) dead armour becomes static units with no/little lag after a time.
where did the inspiration come for this mission/storyline? A book, author, historic event, or your own imagination/thoughts?My own sick mind I'm afraid. I always wanted to make an open mission where it was up to the player to decide what to do and I liked the idea of being a small group of partisans fighting two large armies. Also I have always tried to take care of my squad, but noticed that others would play for their own survival over all else. I wanted a mission where the player felt attached to each member of his team. Military occupation is not nice and I wanted to portray it that way, some people may remember that about 9 to 12 months ago I posted a question about getting old people and children in OFP, I wanted to use them to create some emotive situations. I remember saying that I don't want fancy animations as they will all either be dead or in the process of being made so. The answer was that I can't get old people or children, so I made do with women instead. Eventually all these, and more, ideas joined together to form what you now see. This process was driven in very large part by challenges from the beta testers on why this and what about that, need more atmosphere, want music in vehicles, want to be able to reorganise the team etc. etc.
Maybe the other T72 was hauntedI have spent long enough on Malden to have seen some very strange things. I believe you.
tudders:
If you get in the back of the truck now is she there?
About changing flags.......
It sometimes takes a long time to change the flag myself.
I get the change flag message a few times, but, eventually it does change.
I've gotten the impression that if you shoot your teammates they retaliate, is that correct? Cos i was able to shoot my entire team without them doing anything bar the "1, cease fire".The player starts off with a rating of zero it goes up for killing enemy and down for killing friendlies. If it ever goes negative then everyone is after you. I have set it so that if the player kills certain individuals at certain times then his rating is set to a very large negative value. I think in an earlier version I did include his team in that list, but I took it out. The reason being that friendly fire can happen, a Law at a tank when one of your own is near the tank is possible. Because I could think of no way to distinguish an accident from a deliberate act I decided to go with standard OFP for this.
And why do av/ap mines not take up ammo?Are you sure about this. Placing an ap mine should take a hangenade out of your inventory. Placing an av mine should remove one of the following from your inventory: LAW, RPG, satchel charge, grenade, AT rocket, AA rocket etc.
How come you cant kill the surrendering soldiers? I decided to slaughter them (after updating my retry point, i just wanted to see if you got a repremand ) and down they went, but then they got back up and no amount of ammo could put them down againThis should not happen - I have a theory about what is going on here. I will have a look at it tomorrow. Thanks for spotting it.
just funny seeing a bunch of russians running around with Yorkshire accentsWell I suppose to them it will all sound like they are talking with regional accents - to us the Yorkshire (yes you are correct) accent is also a regional one, so in context I think it fits - also there is the fact that I have no option anyway.
Going over my missions/campaigns I've junked around with myself this inspires me to take one and expand it.That is one of the best compliments. Thanks.
He should at least have called contact though because they were right next to himThe game does have some random stuff like this. Movement is a bit of a givaway, so if they were stationary he migth had difficulty spotting them. It just keeps us on our toes I suppose. I am trying to figure out who they are and how they got there.
I am trying to figure out who they are and how they got there.I think that maybe a patrol spotted him as he went near one of the roads and followed him but lost him when he found cover.
Yo, first of all let me say i am a complete n00b at flashpoint. Having finally succumbed to the pressure from Hauk to buy this d**n game last week i went and bought myself a copy. This is my first beta test and i'm sorry to say THobson that you may have ruined my future beta testing experience completely (LOL). This mission is too bloody good and now will be the benchmark with which i measure all other missions. Hmmm....
Anyway, onto the mission.
Specs:
AMD 2800+, 32mb geforce fx chipset, 512MB RAM,
Benchmark 5112
AMD 2600+, 64mb radeon 320M, 512MB RAM,
Benchmark 3800
(I'm playing between my PC and laptop, transferring the savegame over as i go.)
Overview:
Pretty cool, could do with some re-wording to make it that bit slicker but otherwise good. Oh, and is the background supposed to be black coz i got a kind of dark green.
Breifing:
The voiceover is a nice touch. Briefing really good.
Intro:
Right so this is set in Yorkshire. Hmmmm... maybe not, its just funny seeing a bunch of russians running around with Yorkshire accents.(At least i think its a yorksire one)
Mission:
Land ho! Start on some beach, run, then walk, then crawl up the really big hill in kind of a vaguely SE direction. After a few hours (not really hours, more like long tedious minutes where all i did was press the W key) i make it to the top of the hill. Decide a stealthy approach is necessary so i crawl over to the building with the guards at the windows pop a few bullets in their skulls. Lay still for a minute no-one comes to investigate so i decide to explore the town. Nice touch with the voice when you see the bodies. Grab some ammo off the dead policeman and steal his binocs. I take the AK and the M16 and stick them in the jeep. Grab the other M16. Bugger all ammo, great. I have a look in the building, wehey!, cutscene. Its really well done but the girl's just been raped "No, Please not again" sounds as emotive as "Cleanup on aisle three" actually, there's probably more emotion in the latter. I realise this is just a beta and you'll probably change it later. Tatyana runs out into the street and gets shot. Great, I pop the buggers who killed her :gunman: and stick their guns in the jeep. Right, Patrol here any minute time to get out of Dodge. I hop in the jeep and head out ENE towards the lodge.
HALT!
Cr*p that was scary. I get out of my jeep and there's another cutscene. Everything was cool, except the line where he says "here's his grave" or something to that effect, had no sound. I've noticed in OFP that the sound diminishes relative on where the camera is to the source so if you had the guy talking inside and the camera outside thats probably why i couldn't hear anything. As i've said i'm a complete OFP n00b so I could be totally wrong and you could all be p*ssing yourselves at my expense. Yada yada yada, rescue civis, blah blah blah, onwards!
So after re-arming my squad with some of the nicked assault rifles from my jeep we jump in the truck and head for the first bunch of civis. Half way there i nearly crash into a tree, (i was looking at the map at the time) other than that the trip is completely uneventful. Another cutscene. A bit lost about the whole my father's cabin, this could do with a line or two to explain it in the objective notes but otherwise very good. I grab the civis and cart them all back to the lodge.
I decide to head to the second bunch of civis on foot, after a quick sprint we arrive at the farmhouse(or whatever it is). More cutscenes wehey! Only thing was when the soldier saluted all i could see was the back of his head.
Hmmm... More civis on the other side of 3 eh? Why not.
I head East to pass 3, then turn south. Search the smaller forest, nothing. Then I head further south, blundering around like a geriatric elephant on speed I walk straight into the middle of an enemy patrol. In the space of about twenty seconds i lose #4, #7, #3 and then i get shot.
Bugger.
Gave up there and watched CSI. I've saved just inside the first forest so i'll pick up from there tomorrow (actually this evening as i did all this yesterday and am now writing this in work.)
So far this mission is bloody good. Really atmospheric and slick. The voices ("Lets kill them all together, my friend" is inspired) while emotionless add to the experience and i'm sure the final version will be much improved.
Thats it for now.
Definitely more tomorrow.
-Wingless
>I hope whatever particular island you're on gets nukedLol. THobson, you really have a following here ;D
My sentiment exactly. The author is an evil man.
>I hope whatever particular island you're on gets nukedIts so nice to be loved.
My sentiment exactly. The author is an evil man.
Got up the hill, from a different angle and found the appropriate house. Its much lighter in this version, more sun I mean, or maybe its my moniter... :P
cheers
GRK
For the first time in my life I was afraid of fighting in a video game...Wonderful, not that I want to frighten you, just that it obviously is a pretty real experience.
Contimplated leaving her in the room to see if it triggered something different but decided to play it out.This is an option I have dealt with explicitly. It would not make for a great mission.
Did notice no voice over for the scene showing the gravesYou are the second person to mention this. I hope it is just because the guy that says it is some distance from the camera and so is quieter than usual. I will change this so the volume of that bit is higher.
I have had a bit of lag threw this version. Seems choppy at times and I have had nothing new in the PC since V1.21These comparisons are very helpful.
My brother downloaded this version but has run into problems. I imagine on his end. The save game in the radio isn't there and the cheat save won't work. Any other reports of that? Like I said, I imagine it is with his PC.These are strange things, no one else has reported them.
THobson hey whens the next one comeing out, ill be waiting hurry up and do it again, i spent about 5 hours just on my intro for the mission iam working on, ''so you know iam just joking,'' i liked the AV's and AP,s but my men didnt seem to be watching what i was doing and steped on them, well maybe i did!Lol twice.
>T3 ConvoysWell the version you are playing seems fine. In my run through I was in and around LaT up until around 13:00 and the convoys were running quite happily then. Well actually one problem I noticed was that they were not alternating, I would get about 5 from the north for every 3 from the south. No something happened in v1.24 that I am still working on. I think I now have it working, but I will need to soak test it a few times to be confident.
the biggest difference I know of around T3 is that you have put roadblocks in the town. Perhaps and maybe? the engine is calculating them into it's waypoint moves?
look like they are setdammaged and not shot. I think it'd look better if they were shot.You are quite correct. Maybe I could camcreate a bullet at their location. Does anyone know if this will work?
I dunno if it really matters having those in there. I can tell that something bad happened and the civvies are all left about. Plus the explanation later at the lodge seems to take away the right those text/voice messages had to be there. Also I inferred something was off as the dead soldiers were covered and the civvies left in the open. So what I'm getting at, is some of those voice overs about dead civvies are not really needed because the player either 1.) finds out on his/her own what happened or 2.) they find out the whole story at the lodge at some point.Good point. I think though that someone playing this the first time might find making that connection a bit more difficult. Happy to hear any other views.
I thought the bus warranted a voice over as there was a lot of death there, but nothing,There should have been. I will see if I can widen the trigger area.
they were still stuck in their go prone positions as I left themAnd I thought that I had taken care of every possibility. I do give them a switchmove - but not the setunitpos
Wonderful, not that I want to frighten you, just that it obviously is a pretty real experience.
So what I'm getting at, is some of those voice overs about dead civvies are not really needed because the player ...
Well I don't want him to take all of them out. Its really only in Vigny when there is a comment for every body.
the commander of the M2A2(he's got a crew uniform), is out of his APC and is running about with the footsoliders. I dunno why this isThat makes two of us. But it is an interesting development. ;D
Its kinda weird when you feel like the AI is planning something, but if only they knew what I have in store for them later. When all hell breaks loose...Would this be a good time to explain that although the grunts on the ground will attack each other given the slightest chance - there is at a high level some cooperation between the two sides, otherwise there could be no trade. That level of cooperation extends to scheduling the convoys. Knowing what their own soldiers would do if they meet up with the other side, the controllers ensure that no convoy leaves its base until the otherside's convoy has left La Trinite (or is dead). Does this have any impact on the predicament you are now in? ;D
THobson, if a crew member dies, do you replace them when they return to base?No, but they are healed. There are no replacements anywhere on the map so every loon you kill is one less to be dealt with later.
I placed an AV mine without the removal of a RPG I was carrying. I definately saw the little mine object there and later when I set another it did remove my RPG.This is a bug that only applies to RPGs and is fixed in the next version. Yes the phantom mine will explode.
is it intentional that I'm not able to pick up any extra M16 or AK magazines from the dead soldiers in the beginning?You can pick up everything they have they just don't have much. In the next version this shortage of ammo extends across the whole island.
is Alexei supposed to say anything when he encounters the cabin with dead civilians east of La Trinite?Yes, but in the version on the site now there is a bug that prevents it.
It was kind of a nuisance since he was a few km away and I kept accidentally including him in the orders to the group members who were actually with me.One of the challenges of leadership. Try using teams (9)
I didn't notice anything to kick somebody out.I took that feature out
Its really only in Vigny when there is a comment for every body. I think just having the soldiers under tarp comment would suffice for that area.
I really don't agree with you about the whole voice thing. The more the better. IMHO THobson should leave them as they are.I'm curious, why? Its good that beta testers cannot agree on everything. ;)
Tatyana and the civvie voices are not going to go well togetherNot if Tatyana comes first I agree
Did you make this hole or was it a coincidence or simply bound to happen after the war as startedNone of the above. One big problem that I can do little about is how poorly the AI soldiers react when being run over by certain vehicles. Nobody got into the base so easily using that technique before though. I am really puzzled by the small number of soldiers you seem to have encountered. There should be close on half a dozen infantry groups plus some armoured units that you would need to get past following the route you took. Even if you triggered the all-out attack (which I don't think you did) there would still be plenty of units to give you a warm reception.
I would also go a bit ballistic on the dumb arse that released your mission on BIS forums
I wanted to release it only when it was finished and not beforeYou have. What happens on the OFPEC Beta board isn't secret, it's in the public domain. It's unfortunate that some sites have taken your creation and reviewed and published it but just think of it as more Beta-testers!
And all this coming from someone who has yet to play it through
Hi LillWille
Generally the confusion comes from the way the ofp engine reacts to a RESUMEd game. It will always, first load, the game it saved when you aborted, if, you aborted. The way round this, is simply and immediately escape and click load, or retry, depending on whether you want to go back to the game YOU (not ofp) saved, or from the retry point that Thobson provided.
If lag is kicking in for 'no apparent reason' you have something like Norton Anti Virus running in the background. However, on this mission, and particularly version 1.23, if you get anywhere near tanks you're likely to wobble a lot.
The previous version included a subtlety in how the sides trade with each other that did not seem to get picked up, so just to give the old hands a clue: You might not wish to attack the convoys until you understand how La Trinite works.
Q: What direction was Mikero's ammo truck travelling in when he captured it?
One thing that is alarming me right now is that engine 'bug' where you can't get your people to grab the last magazine, or the last, rocket from a dead loon weapon. I don't know if you've 'corrected' this quirk, but if not, and for other players benefit, the solution is to pick up the weapon yourself and empty the 'contents' on the ground.I didn't actually see it as a bug so the only thing I did to fix it was to ensure that the dead loons had an extra magazine over what I originally intended. Basically I see it this way: the dead loon is (or more accurately was) carrying a weapon with a magazine in it, and several spare magazines. When you get to him you can pick up the spare mags separately, and the weapon. What you can't do is get the mag out of the weapon without picking up the weapon. I think that is realistic.
The 'execution' far more visually realistic,I use real bullets this time. I have also made a few other small changes, the hung woman now swings more obviously for example.
Tatyana is buried in the bed and persistently bobbing and wobbling during the cutscene. I caught a brief glimpse of her from outside, doing similar.This happens sometimes but mostly not. I played this version through all the cutscenes before uploading it and that was not happening. I really am at a loss as to how to fix it.
I'd shoot first, ask laterThen the mission would end and you would have come up that hill again. ;D
Would you consider moving her to halfway Vigny<>PessagneThat sounds like a small change - but it isn't - believe me.
Noticed that none of the bodies now have voicovers (except Tatyana). Am sorry to see the rustling the corpse action dissapear but it was a good decision.That's because you went to the bodies after talking to Tatyana. The reason for removing the fire was so that that new players (not the old hands) would explore Vigny and might find them. After the cutscene the voiceovers were, I agree, incongruous and so I took take them out during the Tatyana scene. If all I was doing was removing the voiceovers I could have kept the fire.
Of the perhaps 5 loons that were foolish enough to come into my town, 3 of them had red flagsNot simultaneously I trust. This is the flag moving to the new group leader when the old leader is killed.
Tatyana's bed has moved from wall somewhat and that part of the scene is poorer for it. A sort of vacant camera view to half-nothing.Bugger. Well I didn't move it!
Tatyana herself is not bloodied. V1.23, she was, slightly, and subtly.In the earlier versions I killed her with a setDammage 1. Now I use real bullets. Did you see the splash of blood when she copped it? You can often see the entry wound in her chast as well. I think using real bullets is more realistic. I liked the result.
Btw, have I ever mentioned to you how much I like this missionI believe I do recall you mentioning something about it. ;D Thanks, it good to be appreciated.
Bad mistake for Godzilla, we're in mountains and he's at a severe disadvantage. Five rockets later, he's not in any sort of advantage. He's burning. Always interesting to see that no matter how big the explosion, the 'commander' always escapes. I'm ready for the bugger and get him before he chucks his grenade, another thing they love to do.
you mean in that special way right, where I'd like to plunge a dagger into your black heart?Now if you keep making these lovey dovey comments people will begin to talk about us.
Removing the fire was a brave decision.It is not a decision yet - but it is close.
but this lack of lag has me curiousThis is good news, I did do a bit of streamlining in addition to giving the player the option to drop the environmental stuff. Good to see it might have had some effect. I am not counting chikens yet. Let's see what happens when the action really does start.
The war has started. How, I don't knowMy guess (and hope) is that it was something to do with what happened at LaT.
I think you're too harsh on the fuel, given that you have the chopperThis is an interesting one. I deliberately put the fuel very low to try and discourage the player from spending anytime on it. So it is not low to stop him getting anywhere it is low to stop him wanting to try - and I really do not want to lock the boat. It was neat that the Vulcan got you. If you had headed for the island to the NW you would have been out of his range. Bye the way for reasons of variety the chopper is a Hind if you go north and a Cobra if you go south.
When you retry the dialogue appears over the actual scene. Add a blackout if you can.Will do. In fact even when you start a new mission the actual scene is behind the dialogue, it is just that the actual scene is a dark mountain side. Thank you for the suggested wording I did have some discomfort over the current wording.
You may recall that I hadn't actually started the mission ...;D In deed, a whole screen of comments and you had not set foot on the side of the fjord!
I could have sworn one was carrying an AA missile but I couldn't find itThey should be just standard grunts plus a medic - possibly.
Couldnt' unload hand grenades into the jeepThat is a real bummer. You can't with mines either and that is even worse later on.
Checked later, sadly, after flag change and we're all vets.That doesn't mean the skills are all 1.0, but it is close. Did this feel too fast? You had done quite a bit by then and quite a lot of damage.
I know now, you didn't do this deliberately Thob, but i'd still like to blame you if you don't mind.;D Please feel free.
they sorta had half hearted fits and starts driving to Pessagne, and stopping and starting. In the meantime, several, perhaps as many as 6 or 10 individual loons started appearing in same vicinityWhat I think has happened is that a couple of jeeps have been damaged and cannot be used but the crew were not all killed and so are now travelling in foot. The remaining jeeps will then press on up to a point and then they keep waiting for the crew of the other jeeps who are now travelling slowly.
is a definite difference in the modelling for the female,There is indeed, there is a lot more to it than a different body and clothes. I can't put my finger on it (perhaps an unfortunate use of words) but there are lots if little things that are different.
Because of the ranmdomness and the changing dynamics, it's hard to say , but, there hasn't been a lot of retaliatory activityYou mention this later as well. It bothers me. The only things I have done to the enemy since the previous version is:
woman us fine, i am not. Each time Alexei speaks it's the shot of a khaki wall.What an absolute bugger. I played this on exactly the same pbo file you have and it was fine. It wasn't a special test either where I start the mission with the appropriate parameters set and then go straight into the building, no I played the mission from the start up to this point and it was fine. Fixing this will not be fun - real hit and miss stuff.
all are experts including Sergei, I think he got a merit badge becuase of this cutcene. Not sure.Sergei starts off with quite a high skill level representing the fact that he is recently out of a combat unit.
Flag has not changed from ours. This surprises me. Am having a feeling here that enemy activity, this version is less.Same comment as above. Maybe the two sides did a lot of damage to each other.
The second, fence only roadblock is crap and pointless. (Yes I know you wanted to create the "space" of no man's land, if that's important then do it better.) If you really want to keep it as it is, switch them round so that the bus is second.Now don't beat about the bush - tell me what you really think ;D I am indeed trying to create the no mans land feeling. I presume the second was an anti climax after the first - but I take a different route to the lodge and so see the northern one first. I can't really swap them round because it is the southrons that do the real murdering of civis and it would feel odd without the northern one. I think about what to do here.
There is a soundfile missing from the cutscene, the shot over your uncle's grave.Now this really is strange. In the previous version several people reported this. I assumed that they had the volume on their pc a bit low and as Ruslan who was saying this sound file was some distance from the grave they could not hear him. I moved the source of the sound closer to the graves on this version (using playsound resulted in the it being too loud), and I have checked all the scenes individually and by playing them through from the start. This problem did not occur for me, though I did notice that most of the sound for this speech comes from the right speaker. If you have a save position from before the cutscene it would help me if you could go through that scene again with the volume cranked right up. Otherwise all I can think of doing is t o move the source of the sound closer still.
Missing word in text - you actually say "how can we hurt them the most"Thanks - I thought I had found all of these - I must have gone bogeyed checking for this sort of thing.
I hate the hint and added savegame, it's completely pointless. If you're going to ruin the atmosphere briefly with a hint, do it for something more important than one poxy savegame. If you're going to add them during hte mission (and I think you shouldn't) then add them at least six at a timeAnother example of where fresh eyes help. It does take away from the immersion I am trying to create. I can't give 6 at a time - nothing is worth that much, I was trying to provide some positive feedback to the player to encourage them to complete their objectives. I take you point. I will up the number the player starts with and leave it at that.
I think you need some new voice actors for the minor characters: add some more variety. I'm volunteering.Thanks. Who would you like to be? - I have in mind Karl Danek or Yuri Visek). I must admit I think I did damage to my throat trying to make my voice sound different.
Picked up the first lot of civvies nae bother. It's not all that clear thta you are supposed to take them back to the lodge.It is in the ‘more…'information for that objective in the briefing. I suppose I could have Karl make a suggestion about it if you think the briefing is not enough.
After the long lodge cutscene (no problems) Irena was on "stop": give her a dofollow.This is one of the little ways that women differ from men. She does have a doFollow, as do the rest of the team, she just ignores it! Options here are to end the scene as currently with her on Stop and all the others with nothing, or to have all of them on Ready. Perhaps all on Ready is better.
I trust the chopper has max skill: I'd give him a reveal command too.You trust correctly, on both points. It works a treat I have tried it several times.
So if the file is right channel only that would be the problemI will try and move the sound source so it uses both speakers to help those with geriatric systems.
Oh yes, and wolves should run away while there is shooting you'd have thought.Damn that's true. I can think of a way to do it involving {fired} Event Handlers - but that could get ugly. I will need to soak on it, perhaps they are brave wolves.
It may be too late but I've never liked the use of names Andropov and Stamenov. This is my third time and I still can't remember which is the police chief and which is the northrons. Change one to a name which has fewer syllables and doesn't end in ov.AGGGGH!
Some of the loons got into the our lorry during the reorder, which was a bit odd.This is an utter pain. The solution, which I mention in the readme file, is for the player to give them a disembark instruction (even though they are not in a vehicle). I think the problem is this:
Cutscene has two flaws: he mentions "too sick to move" then claims nobody needs medical help, then he opens the gate from the inside.Good catch. On the too sick to move - a silly slip. On the other I had in mind that the gate is not locked, just guarded - saves the guards time when they had to throw in new prisoners. Out of his feeling of duty for the prisoners Viktor earlier took advantage of this to sneak in to help them. I suppose I could make Alexi open the gate for him - but then why can he do that in the scene and not in - I nearly said real life, gee this is getting to me! - the mission. Others have mentioned this also. It needs a rethink.
Reorg. Everybody seems very keen that we should rescue the old dear but it's not an objective. It probably should be, since everything else is.Preferably I would do away with most of the individual objectives, this is meant to be an experience not a military mission with a clear series of objectives. I use normal objectives at the start because that is what people will expect but am trying to wean the player off them. So Dourdan is not an objective, in the normal OFP sense, just something the player needs to do. Then I got concerned that the player would forget where she was, or that Sergei might subsequently be killed. Hence the reminders from your team mates.
Our open truck from Arudy ran out of gas shorlty afterwards. ShameThose southrons a sloppy lot, they leave their vehicles in all sorts of conditions ;). I would prefer a fuel gauge. Out of fuel sound is good idea.
I've said this before, but it is extraordinary how often into this mission that you are randomly running around the countryside and run slap bang straight into a patrol.I play this mission with my teeth clenched and my guts tight - permanently. There is no safe place. I think that is a realistic feeling, though I know from your earlier posts you are not keen.
If you had a stringtable changing one of the names would be a pretty straightforward job ... apart from the sound files of course…and the briefing, and the intro, but it is the sound files that's the killer. The name is in a #define line in description.ext, so change it there and it should change most places, except as noted above. It is not the effort that bothers me it is the possibility that lurking somewhere out of sight and out of mind is a reference that gets forgotten. How about a mental rule as a memory jogger, something along the lines of: alphabetically the names run from north to south; or: S is for South and S is for Stamenov?
The funny thing about the reorg and the lorry is that it is a different lorry.That is stunning. I wonder if my theory still holds any water. What I currently do is get them all join grpNull at the start of the reorganise script and then as they are selected they join Alexi. Maybe I should keep them all with Alexi but create an array of their new locations and do a join grpNull followed by a rapid series of join Alex instructions at the end. It would save having to figure out the vagaries of the unassignVehicle instruction.
Fuel in the lorry: I thought it was not enough. It only ran from Arudy to LePort and half way back to Dourdan - in other words barely enough to get to Chapoi. Fuel is not in particulalry short supply, it's just highly controlled. Having it short is fine, but that's a little too short.The fuel is random, within limits. The truck you stole had as a minimum enough to get to the fuel station beyond Chapoi (I know I drove it several times), so your estimation is correct. As a maximum it had... well not much more. Trucks in the north have more fuel, and more re-fuelling opportunities. I blame the discipline in the southron army, having no officers really impacts in lots of little ways. I am happy to change it, but you should know my reasoning for it being as it is.
You have nearly finished. This is mostly pretty detailed stuff.Apart from redoing the voices that is, oh and the ammo , and the reorganise script, not to mention fixing the camp cutscene - you were not meant to go there that early by the way. If you arrive when you already have a medic Viktor stays in the compound until your first medic (Pavel) is dead, if you then visit him again he will join you.
Anyway, I dealt with that squad eventually, but of course the armoured group comes and sits where they were which is overlooking Dourdan. BuggerationLife's a bummer sometimes.
On the ammo: the only way to make it so the player can pick it up slickly is give the dead loons more, which means that the savvy player could get even more by picking up and unloading the weapons.That's what I'm saying. A bit more ammo doesn't make much difference because there is actually enough anyway. When you find a useful weapon, it should have 2 mags, but half the time you shouldn't find a useful weapon.
No flags on poles.At LaT!! I don't do anything with them. I am concerned.
I'd rather not go through the Dourdan - Larche - back to Dourdan routine again unless its important. What happens when you go back to the woman?You get to explain to the woman about the loss of her family. Isn't that right Mikero?
Firstly, the fuel in the trucks is simply not enough, there must be more.The lodge and LaT have barrels, so too do the camo nets in the north. Choose where you steal the trucks from.
Dammit where are there empty ammo crates around? Why not just have the other hut empty?Thank you. Great idea
What would be really cool - but quite hard - would be if you left your lorry in the village while the convoys were coming and going, as I did, then one of the loons jumps in and drives it away. Now that really would piss you off.Well that would completely knacker my usual approach. It did always strike me as odd that I could leave my truck there and the loons would just ignore it. I will see what I can do. ;D
Can't remember if you do (suspect not) but you should say somewhere that your squad gain experience.Only in the read me. Sort of in passing. Another thing for the player to learn, an for me to explain more clearly.
You get to explain to the woman about the loss of her family. Isn't that right Mikero?
>missing grave sound file.So it happened to you too this time? And your right speaker is okay?
first time it has ever happened to me, along with jogging tatyana/ bed / and preg woman cutcsene bugz.
>AP/AV blurb in radio messageI am sorry I am not sure I understand this. Is this the radio option to get instructions on the mines?
get rid of it. Noisy nonsense. Not needed.
need the equally startling *difference* of a squad of nasties from the North at the earliest opportunity. Mac's roadblock comes to mindI would like to have some northron loons here (northern road block), problem is wars would then start too easily. I want the player to have to work out that he needs to start a war and then figure out how to do it.
objecive lists are a nasty train track style that shouldn't be put into this missionThat is where I am, but the problem is the player, because of years of being trained to, will expect them. That's why I start off with them but then I try to use different ways to remind the player what to do.
He has changed position slightly in this version.I would not have left the bed like that. I have just checked again in the mission editor and I didn't. These comments and the Tatyana bed thing and the lack of Alexi appearing in the Dourdan cut scene is beginning to make me think that some how, in your specific case things have been shifted slightly. It can't be translation problem from the mission editor version to the pbo version or I would have had some of these problems when I tested the mission before up loading. I can't explain it and I don't understand it. It just seems to be that way.
.
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bed is sticking out of wall somewhat and losing it's impact because of it.
Stamenov standing has got me curious, I crawl up the wire tower to get a bead on him instead. No chanceI have been all over Chapoi and into all the nearby buildings with an m21 just to make sure you can't.
Whew, it's almost as much work commenting on the other beta testers as it is on the missionLol. But you only need to comment. I need to decide what I want to change and make to do list (I expect that will take most of this weekend - what with it being my wedding anniversary and all). Oh yes and then I need to make the changes and test it all. I think my earlier estimate of getting this out before OFP2 is looking a bit shaky
Should the attacking squad at vigny have a flag?They currently should have. Based on Mikero's comments I plan to remove it so the flags are more difficult to come across early on.
My strong preference is for no hints/savegames in the missionI am getting there too. Sorry Mikero
I am in favour of a difference in the "safe" time at LaT depending on who is due next. However 6 minutes is just too short, given that it is about 35 minutes before that 6 minutes occurs again.I agree.
Maybe a little moreThat's all I want. The minimum should be something like Arudy - Le Port - the lodge. Plus a little extra for safety. It's reasonable to expect it to run out after that length of journey. It's not reasonable for it to run out before it's gone Dourdan - Arudy - halfway to Larche.
unarmed soldiers coming up road towards us. That, made no difference to me.Gee you really were upset at them. Even after they had dropped their weapons and were running away.
There are no bird sounds, wolves or otherwise. This is a shameIn Chapoi? Are you sure you are alone - you and your team? I will look at it. You didn't mention the electricity generator. I found that really spooky when I was crawling in and around the town alone - but it was at night (I am a lot slower than you)
I suspect that the wolves sound is randomised and that you may just have hit a poor combination that time when it sounded a bit crap.Agreed. I've heard it sounding more like mooing cows too. :)
The rifle on back thing is an OFP game issueForgive me if I'm being an eejit here, isn't it just related to the players/units behaviour setting? I just went into the editor and placed a player unit and a jeep. Get in, get out fine.
Cat and MrN
Forgive me if I'm being an eejit here, isn't it just related to the players/units behaviour setting? I just went into the editor and placed a player unit and a jeep. Get in, get out fine.No not an eejit. What you say makes perfect sense. One of the puzzling things about this mission though is that somethings that may work in small short mission do not always work in this one, or if they do they don't continue to work throughout the mission. I have seen getout waypoints work for a while but then fail the 7th time the units get there. etc. etc. Rifle on the back is just such an issue. Sometime it will happen right through the mission, another time it will not happen at all. I will put it on the list of things for me to have another fiddle with.
About the same second they encounter and enemy, 4 of them die to a grenade. a few seconds later, the rest die from AK fire. When I clear the town, it's revealed that there's in fact only actually 3 soldiers in the whole town. Great.;D Of course the hit and run bit doesn't apply here, just a bit of bad luck I think.
And then a whole column of t-80s comes by and kills me from 1 kilometre away with it's machinegun.
If I so much as even fire a bullet it seems like the entire army of any given area i'm in decides to stroll by and vapourise me.This is where run part of hit and run is important. :)
Wonderful story, thank you.No problem, thank you. That mini-war I had in Dourdan was some of the best Flashpoint I've ever played.
Did you say Sergei was dead?I didn't. I don't know, to be fair I have taken quite a few casualties (I'm not officer material :)) but I couldn't tell you who's alive/dead. I'm not used to paying attention to names.
She will be permanently resting.
The cutscene starting at the bottom of the ladder is a compromise.
That mini-war I had in Dourdan was some of the best Flashpoint I've ever played.Thank you. It is comments like that that provide the energy to fix what is left to be fixed. It did sound good. The reason you had so many loons to deal with is that the infantry in the convoys will get out to deal with you if you are detected close to the convoy. I never experienced them getting back in the truck though ( except in the death scene :) ). It means they lost contact with you.
Did you say Sergei was dead?Sergei is the Russian you picked up at Houdan. I believe he was your number 9 who got the chop at Dourdan. He had something to tell you, but he would only do it when you were reorganising. It is not mission critical, just a story diversion for atmosphere. If you enjoy the mission it might be a good excuse to try it again sometime to find out.
I didn't. I don't know, to be fair I have taken quite a few casualties (I'm not officer material ) but I couldn't tell you who's alive/dead. I'm not used to paying attention to names.
I'm definately favouring the red-flag guys for a good beating, whenever I go North I seem to eat lead at a vicious rate.This is fascinating. In lots of little ways I have tried to introduce a 'sloppyness' into the southern army and a tightness into the northern army, the southern army also have a larger area to defend and so are more disperse. Your comments are very helpful in seeing how this plays out.
Enemies won't attack you if you're in certain vehicles and go around running them over!
Enemies won't attack you if you're in certain vehicles and go around running them over!This is a real pain. It is an OFP issue and should apply equally to all missions. Others have found it and that is why I recently reduced the number of vehicles and fuel available in the mission. I have a couple of points on this:
Briefing: cannot load mission, missing addons: 'seanagen'. Gawd knows what that is.I certainly don't. I have no addons on my machine other than the GB Editor upgrade - and never have had on this machine.
I load up the misson and the lag is pretty bad but the mission has just started so I wait for a couple of minutes and it's gone pretty wellA lot of initialization stuff is happening in the first 30 to 40 seconds of the mission.
She wasn't bobbing up or down from what I've read before but there is a minor quiggle of mine which is that she's slightly off the bed. Ya know, sitting right on the edgeSometimes she is like that, sometimes she is sitting so far back her legs don't extent beyond the edge of the bed. I have made a change in the next version that should result in her being exactly where she should be
abort the mission which takes ages to get out of it.It has a large file to create and then save.
I can't afford a new one due to forking out loadsa money for a new guitar.Life is all about choices :)
have you considered in writing a book about thisLol. No I hadn't, but it did occur to me when making the mission that the process I went through must be very similar to that which an author goes through when writing a novel.
I hope these comments are useful, (despite you probably want to know how far people have got and what exciting things they've done etc. Not the likes of me rambling on about lagThey are indeed useful. Thank you. I certainly need to know about the lag and about where Tatyana is sitting, your views on the fire at Vigny, they all help.
@dantheman - what was your viewdistance set to? I had lag when it was turned up too high, but since I couldn't see more than 20 yards it was a bit pointless.
I'm glad you got it to work with ECP 1.085. Its a mystery to me
ECP 1.071 running - big mistake, read on for details...I can guess even without reading on.
but with names like Tatyana, Nikolai and the like - it stunned me at first to hear a British voice.Well I am British and so are my family. Also I recon that a Malden islander listening to another Malden islander speaking in Maldanesse will sound like a Brit speaking to another Brit in English. Just so long as the voices are a bit rustic.
The boat thing has been discussed many times before, so I won't go over that in too much detail.;DLol!! Did you find a chopper?
So, second time round
I watch in horror as the goon sneaks up behind me while I check dead bodies...No consolation to you now, but these bodies are not there in the next version.
a table that got shot up during the intial fight left the bottles of drink hovering in mid-air.Bugger. That should be easy to fix. Thanks.
The soldiers haven't seen me, but amazingly they walk past/through me and the walls of the house as I leg it for the police Jeep. They don't even shoot meThanks. I always get my retaliation in first so this has never happened to me. It will be fixed.
I get out thinking that a soundfile would play if I stand over the bodies, but hear nothing so I get back in the jeep and drive on.It should, but you are not the first to have problems with is. I will check.
Error: "\Users\Lean Bear\Saved\Abandonded Armies 1-30\continue.fps" - 'No Entry' at '\GameState\Variables\Item26\data.value.'That is the large savegame bug you might have seen some of us talking about. The only solution I know is
all the blokes pouring out of the truck screaming their heads offWhen you said that I thought you were using artistic licence. I must look at the new version of ECP. It sounds good.
When you said that I thought you were using artistic licence.Nope, it does happen, it's ace.
Don't you feel a tad guilty at all the chaos you're causing?Lol, it's either them or me. I didn't notice the action menu option "Use Diplomacy". ;)
So you are enjoying it then? 6-7 fps is not too bad in that situation especially given you are running ECP as well. Lower than I would have liked, but just okay I guess/hope.Yup. I wouldn't have written (so far) nearly 4500 words on it if I didn't. It makes a refreshing change to not know what the hell is going on for all the right reasons. The whole island is going crazy. I said earlier that my usual tactic is blowing a mission to pieces on my own, I just needed to find a way of doing it. :)
anything I should change
Even just what you did and what happened and what you saw. Often that is enough for me to spot something I want to change, even though the person telling the story doesn't realise it.
Lol, it's either them or me. I didn't notice the action menu option "Use Diplomacy".
Basically, after reordering my squad one time, I noticed that when we stopped running (while in formation). Evryone stopped and then turned around to face the opposite way to the direction we were just runing intoI have had some problems with the reorder process, but no one has mentioned this. The problems I have had involved them running off to get into a vehicle during the reorder activity. I have changed the way it works to avoid that happening. I cannot explain the problem you have found. What happens if you tell them to watch some direction?
Other than that it was a great couple hour's gamingGlad you enjoyed it. The fog and rain might just have started to lift by then. I don't think many people have completed the mission in significantly less than 10 mission hours. It usually takes me into the upper teens of mission hours to finish - but I am getting old and slow. So there is a fair way to go yet.
As far as whether a benchmark actually means something specific, the jury is in, it's a definite no but may have held some significance 5 years ago when game first appeared.I think that's the point. It may have been appropriate some time ago, but appears not to be now. I notice for instance that the script maxed out at a benchmark of 4000, but there were lots of ranges below that.
If you sprint-strafe SIDEWAYS up the hill, you will walk up at a normal speed rather than on your guts, which makes the start over twice as fast.It is incredible what you all find.
blowing a mission to pieces on my own:P
seems like I do have to use my squad.It is also more fun that way. I can't say the mission is not possible on your own - some have doe it that way. But I don't think I could
THobsons mission (he is a long-time friend of mine
THobsons mission (he is a long-time friend of mineGee it's great to be appreciated!
with this mission of his, he's no friend of ours!
look in a specific directionThis command is satisfied if the direction indicated is within the field of view of the unit. Since the field of view is reasonably wide (150 degrees?) units quite often do not appear to respond.
Addons for the sounds: I had not thought of that. Unfortunately there are quite a few changes to the sounds for the next version, so it would not have helped if I had thought of it. Sorry.
- There is a better reward for finding the third group of civis
You may already have viewDistance commands related to the weather. No point in having it over 500 (the minimum) at the start. I did this with Un-Impossible and frankly it was the secret weapon that killed the lag demon. I don't do anything with viewDistance. Maybe that is a silver bullet, though I find the lag really kicks in later when the weather is better. Still it can only help.
Is the damaged repair truck at Trinite a mistake? A catch 22 that to repair a repair truck we need a repair truck?No mistake. In fact it is not trivial getting a truck to be in that state of disrepair. In deed to get the repair truck, you need a repair truck, plus a fuel truck - but you don't know that yet ;D I wanted to have some static repair and healing facilities at LaT. It gives the player yet one more dilemma about starting the war as these will become unusable for a while after the war starts.
"it's very nearly very good.";D
MacGuba's voice acting has enriched the game further.Even better. He wrote his own words.
3000 sandbags alone on an island appear to create no lag because the engine can handle the visuals - after all they don't move. However it is putting hidden load on other areas, such as AI.I actually tested it with 30,000 and gave up trying to create lag, I just couldn't - but I didn't test for ai dumbness or for driving skills. It all starts to fall into a logical pattern
Thob, I think you should introduce a voiceover somewhere by the team that 'they think' attacking convoys is the answer. Perhaps on first spot of them, via sergie or the medic.This is a yes but. There are many ways to complete the mission and I want to avoid pointing everyone in the same direction. When I was first writing this I imagined that maybe a couple of people would finish it but no one would play it twice. I put some extensive hints in the first version as a result. Realising that there are people with the energy to play it more than once what I now want is for players who have finished to think things like: "I wonder if I really should have shot that Russian soldier in that hut?", "What if I had concentrated on only one side instead of wearing them both down at the same time, would the strong one eventually attack the weak one?", "Should I really have killed that convoy so early on? What was it carrying? Where was it carrying it to? Could it have been useful to me?" The last time I played the whole way through I killed the three loons at Vigny at around 06:30 ish. The next time I killed a loon was around midday, with some mines, and I had been busy all that time - with hindsight I had spent longer than I needed to have done but the point is everyone can make their own mission with this. What Spike has done is perfectly reasonable. Explore a bit then get stuck in. There are several things I am dieing to ask him - but the questions would just give too much away.
I was scrunched by a chopper.This is intriguing, for the reasons you mention. It seems some changes have come about simply by taking out some static objects.
Sainte Marie has a blue flag on it on the map view, not sure what this meansMe neither. It sounds like a bug, do you have a screen shot? In the editor it certainly has a blue flag on it because that is the symbol for a trigger, but it should not be visible in the game.
Which one is Viktor? I can never remember names! Can't remember who is Sergei either!Viktor is the medic in the concentration camp. Sergei is the Russian from Houdan.
I am probably not a good tester as I get too enthusiastic and engaged and just want to get on with the mission and see what happens next!You are doing great as a player and as a tester.
You mention a few times about the desire of not introducing new models (handguns/aircraft/M113 wreck). What is the background to this, especially the statics?I first encountered this when somebody quoted to me the example of BMP and BMP2. When you have them both in the mission the game has to load both models, movement characteristics, weapons and so on. It then has to carry these details throughout the mission. The more details (=the more models) the more the comp has to do, with predicable consequences. Same goes for weapons.
I have a solid bank of barracks and you take out every second one, with minimal reduction in the visual effect.In fact, if you had enough to start with, you could remove 2 out of 3 with no material effect on the look. And once you start doing things like putting them at right angles to each other ...
Ditto the snipers. Yes they are covering the bases beautifully, but why are they there in the first place? "Quick! We're, err, not under attack! What to do, what to do ... Yes! Quick! Send some snipers out to take ideal positions for covering the base. What? What? Facing outward? Don't be a d**n fool, nobody is attacking us, why would they face outwards?"Lol ;D
DownloadWhere would I put three pictures?
Include as jpgs the overview shot, a tall narrow picture that will go on the mission page in the mission depot, and a shot that placebo can use in Flashnews.
The readme should say near the top that the mission is designed for Vets and there are no waypoints in Cadet mode.In addition there is now a message (in the next version) that recommends the player change to Veteran mode if it detects the mission being started in Cadet mode.
If you can dig out the thunder sound from the depths of the game, have a thunderclap a few seconds into the mission. Help set the atmosphereI have the file I would use, I just didn't have then energy before. Also I don't want the sound to be predictable - but of course I can randomise the delay.
I know how much the bit about the magically appearing gate at Dourdan will have pleased THobson.It worked!!
Played the mission sans sandbags up to takeover of all outpost-towns.Jee… I thought I had spent a lot of time on Malden.
the lack of barriers in T3 caused a blue on blue.That would be a serious problem if it did. I spent ages getting it so that no war would start without player intervention. I even left it run for 100+ hours just to check (I was away for most of the week)
I have still to find my father's grave.AGGGHH. Of course! These ideas have got to stop. I have a life I need to get back to, if there is anybody still there that is.
PLEASE order him to drop his weapon. This small piece has irritated me a lot as not being authentic. MAKE ME drop my weapon, please.Good idea, but it is not as easy as it sounds. The player could arrive there with one or both rifle and pistol (most likely both). I can detect what weapons he has but not whether he is armed with it or it is on his back. Also at that point the player is not allowed to move after the second warning, putting the weapon on his back or on the ground constitutes a move. It really is a good idea, I will look at it, but it could be a bit of a pain to do. Much tougher than getting the loons to steal empty vehicles at LaT for example.
Group: imH it is not fully developed. For me, it is still coming on too quick, and for me, they shouldn't all be gaining at the same rate, little brother Ruslan eg. It is undeveloped because so much more (imho) could be done with it, without (i believe) lag penalties.Skill levels increasing more slowly and at different rates for different team members certainly would not be lag inducing. I have approached this one carefully. The last thing I want to do is to cripple the team.
It's alchemy. Give the engine more time to the ai, and it does just that and produces lagHoh good. ::) This argues for small changes not big ones. A big thank you for doing that test by the way.
also forgot to mention the Trinite huts. After the war starts (I think), the first one (south) dissapears! The ammo is left in an open area, but the hut is gone. I think it's the same hut that initially has no ammo in it.This should only happen if the hut has been destroyed - is that a possibility? Perhaps the repair truck blew up and killed the hut?? What a bummer.
There did not seem to be a possibility to get myself healed by the medic in the concentration camp as he disappeared after the cutsceneYep, that's true, Alexi tells him he is not needed because he has a medic.
Oh, and I like the finished house up at the lodge which is presumably full of happy civis.Well there is one way to find out. Get a few satchel charges and blow it up, then see what happens.
Slight lag as I drove through Dourdan, and only for a few seconds. Otherwise game is smooth.Now this is interesting. Do you know if there have been any tank battles and if so where? These usually do cause a problem.
I am just keen to delay THobson's return to the real world!Gee Thanks
although my pistol seems to vanish automatically which took me by surprise...This is to prevent:
when it magically appeared in my hand after dropping the M16,Being told to drop a weapon and then to start brandishing a pistol should get him shot so I take the pistol away. This will seem odd if the player arrives with just the pistol - I will change that.
Arrived, when told to halt I jumped out of the jeep before being asked. Script seemed to hang up - nothing else happened, I just stood there.Strange. I will have a look at that.
The gap between "halt" and get out of that vehicle is too long. Shorten it if possible.I will check the timings.
If I arrive with only pistol it is removed, leaving me weaponless which is a bit confusing. The "drop that weapon" command is not issued.I decided only to have the drop the weapon instruction if the player has a primary weapon (see the comment above) hence you don't get the drop weapon instruction - but I should not remove the pistol either in that case. Thinking about this now it might be better to get him to drop the primary weapon if he has one (and magic away the pistol), and if he doesn't have a primary weapon then get him to drop the pistol.
Thinks: didn't check that weapons were added back correctly after the cutscene.The pistol is added back with the correct number of magazines. The primary weapon is left on the ground where the player drops it.
but it needs obviously the map_editorupgrade ... which isn't mentioned in the readme AND it runs fine without this addon ... so it seems to be a relic in the description.ext ...You are correct that the mission runs fine without it, the mission does not need this upgrade. In fact I have never used that upgrade myself and there is no reference to it in description.ext or anywhere else that I know of. So I am really puzzled.
hide-and-seek/run/sneak missionExactly right. Hit them and then run, even if the hit is only one soldier it is one less to deal with later.
Only thing that scaries me are the 42 savepoints ... i'm not sure if i should say: "fine an savepoint for each decision" or "d**n, it won't last for that long"I am not sure from that whether you want it to last a long time or not. 42 saves is sufficient to save every 15 to 30 minutes depending on how quickly you are getting through the mission.
I should add that 42 is not a random number: it was arrived at following much experiment and calculution. It is about the right number for a good balance between keeping the fear factor up and avoiding tedium.All of that is true, it is also the answer to life the universe and everything.
I give the player the chance to shoot Segei and so play a different mission
Well each one is logical.Yes absolutely. There is no problem there. The problem is that at 3 of the last 4 locations you visited (assuming you have done all three civvies) a cutscene kicked in as you approached the place. (Always logically and correctly.) At this one, you are approaching a very similar building (if not the same) and you are subconsciously expecting the same.
The hut I use at Houdan for Sergei is not one I placed there, it comes with the island.Damn. You should still change where he is though. Place a building if necessary. Ideally, use one that looks a bit like the one at Vigny. The player's back brain will then say 'Ah, I need to go inside to make the cutscene happen'. Currently the backbrain is saying 'Ah, that looks like one of these buildings where the cutscene starts as you get close.'
I have not reorganised my team, as they are all experts now, will it make a difference?Just reorganise the damn squad! ;D Can't you take a hint?
I will spare you the logistical agonyThere were fuel, repair and ammo trucks close by, but I recall you captured some and took them away earlier - is that the cause of the logistical problem - or is it something to do with the layout of the base that I should fix?
base seemed to be swarming with soldiers! Assume these had come in from the other townsThat is correct. It is to avoid the problem you mention about trying to find the last soldier. That is also the reason for the surrender at the end - glad you liked it.
I would be happy to play again; knowing it will be a different and still interesting experience.Don't - yet. Yes you could play this mission in exactly the same way and it would be different. You could play it and have a conversation with Sergei when you are reorganising the team and experience a whole new addition to the story line. But don't. I am really serious about the next version being the last, save for bug fixes, and I need people to test it - especially the lag, if you are willing that is. The main hold up on that version is getting voices other than mine for some of the parts. No pressure on you to get the voices of Erik done soon though ;)
Can I go back to playing my other games now?Most certainly and thanks again.
When approaching equipped with pistol, but armed with M16, the pistol disappears and is replaced in your hands by the M16 in a curious but acceptable way.It is strangely acceptable. Just as well, this is one combination I can't detect from a script. It is also probably a very unlikely occurrance - but I bet some people will find it.
Although on my real approaches to this area I've never actually seen who was talking to me,For real, it is dark and foggy. You are maybe testing it in broad daylight, that's where I do a lot of testing. They should face you, I will look at doTarget or maybe a combatStand. A bullet into the ground near the feet is putting a lot of faith in my geometry :) I am sure it can be arranged.
with me the mission starts with a measurable time of good weatherIt should not start with good weather anyway. I cannot remember - do you have any weather influencing addons?
When I hit the radio, and get 'Visek I know him, he's a good man' theres no-one speaking (no visual). I thought in other veriosn there was?There never was a visual of the speaker. In the final version Karl will stop and face the player when he says it. Unless by visual you mean the text of the message on the bottom of the screen - that certainly should be there.
noticed only two soldiers guarding Tatyana.There are three but one of them seems to run away very easily.
Also forgot to mention that 'my little brother' Ruslan accrued experience far slower that the others, and was excellent. I know you did this deliberately. Would be good a) more disparity for the others, b) more points required to move from vet->expert (eg) than novice->recruit. Ie it takes longer and takes more than just 1 point= one more exp level. Ruslan's experience curve was (for me) about the right tempo for all of them (they accumulate too quick imho)Yes it was deliberate. I came to the same conclusion you have about having slower progression and more disparity. This is already in v1.40. When I first put this feature in all I wanted to do was avoid something looking illogical when the civis join you, but get them up to fighting skill as quickly as possible, now I see it as a nother piece of management the player has to deal with.
It is important to make the distinction between Abandoned Armies being a ‘Military Simulator' and not a traditional First Person / Third Person Shooter (FPS/TPS). Attempting to play Abandoned Armies as you would Halo 2 for instance will result in certain failure as ‘run-and-gun' tactics just don't work. As an accurate simulation of military combat, you have to play Abandoned Armies as if your own arse was on the line. When the rounds start flying you must get down low and get behind cover or you will soon find yourself dead. You can not survive many bullet or shrapnel wounds and on the harder difficulty levels, dying after only one shot is common…as in real life.
The realism of Abandoned Armies goes much further than not being able to withstand a 7.62 mm round to the head. There are many little touches that the "average" gamer may very well notice but not necessarily appreciate the significance.
and i think you've been influenced too much by us.That thought had occurred to me several times, but I am still happy with where I am.
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So far....very nice.
But, for "abandoned" amries they sure are well armed! :D
In the case of one side determining that it is strong enough to mount an all out attack on the other side it will use the following plan of attack (note that ownership of a town is determined by which flag is flying there):
Andropov (Northern Army):
Two infantry groups and an armoured group will attack La Pessagne. Once the town has been captured one infantry group will remain in occupation and the remaining forces will move on Chapoi.
Three infantry groups will attack Arudy. Once the town has been captured one group will remain in occupation and the remaining forces will move on Chapoi.
Six infantry groups and an armoured group will attack Dourdan. Once captured one infantry group will remain in occupation and the remaining forces will move on Chapoi.
A separate armoured group will attack Chapoi directly.
If the attacking army suffers significant casualties then up to four additional infantry groups will be released one at a time from the forces at the airbase to join the attack on Chapoi.
Helicopters will operate independently.
A maximum is placed on the number of units attacking Chapoi so as not to generate too much lag if they all arrive there at the same time.
Stamenov (Southern Army)
Ignore Goisse. Stamenov is not a military genius but he is probably right, if he has enough strength to attack then Andropov must be so weak that Goisse cannot be a threat - can it? In addition the airbase is a tough nut to crack, so Stamenov will need to concentrate his forces on this task.
Four infantry groups attack Larche. Once the town has been captured one group remains in occupation and the remaining forces join the attack on Saint Louis and the airbase.
Seven infantry groups (plus any coming from Larche) and two armoured groups attack Saint Louis. Once the town has been captured one infantry group will remain in occupation and the remaining forces will move on the airbase.
A separate armoured group will attack the airbase directly
If the attacking army suffers significant casualties then up to four additional infantry groups will be released one at a time from the forces around Chapoi to join the attack on the airbase.
Helicopters will operate independently.
A maximum is placed on the number of units attacking Saint Louis and the airbase so as not to generate too much lag if they all arrive there at the same time.
A Counter-attack
If one side initiates an attack as described above and either due to some misfortune on their part or the action of the player they suffer significant losses then the conditions may become favourable for the other side to initiate its own attack. If this happens there will be a counter-attack. In practice this is highly unlikely, but the coding of the mission will allow this to happen if the correct conditions arise.
Randomness
Note that the Northern attack on Chapoi and the Southern attack on the airbase use several groups that are also ‘on Guard'. These groups may be distracted from their attack to deal with the player and his team should they start getting involved or to deal with other enemy units that have been detected so the whole thing is quite unpredictable.
Made a trip down to the farm west of HoudanSo you found the barn from the intro scene!
Sound like the Northies were marshaling at Dordan to attack.They do wait around a while before moving on. I suspect that by now these forces are lying dead around Chapoi. Sometimes the more you kill the more you have to kill. Weakening the northern force attacking the south means that more of the southerners will survive and so be waiting for you. :)
Do crew of downed choppers/crew of disabled tanks get out and join other groups.Yes. But also some of the southern infanty groups start off mixed in anycase.
took them out I think with granades, but I couldn't find any bodies!Nothing to do with me. If you found no bodies then they weren't dead!
Quotetook them out I think with granades, but I couldn't find any bodies!Nothing to do with me. If you found no bodies then they weren't dead!
Is it possible to steal armor, or at least a repair truck, anywhere?Well yes it is.... maybe. There are many ways of skinning this particular cat. Just keep looking.
P.S. Just read your reply, my adivce is get full crew on as many tanks as you can, then when you get damaged, pull back, heal, and use the other tanks.
What an amazing job you've done here, THobson. This is really groundbreaking stuff. Heh, now get cracking on making an ArmA campaign to replace the awful SP game.
I'm sort of wondering what the ideal "process" is supposed to be.Well there is no ideal - though having said that I always play it the same way so I suppose there must be. You got some weapons from La Trinite, but did you notice that the type of weapons you get there depends on which convoy had last visited the place?
Also, I never checked any of the towns except the frontline towns marked on the map. Are the others occupied as well? I assumed they would have some markings if they were.You were wrong to make this assumption. There are units in other towns as indeed there would be in real life, but later on they return to their own base to help protect it so you didn't miss them.
I don't think I enjoyed the mission as much as I could have, but that's really more my fault. I sort of stumbled my way through, driving here and there at leisure and shooting at whatever I found.That is a perfectly acceptable way to do this mission. One comment I would make though is that shooting at everything you see is a normal way to play opf, in this mission observing and understanding before you start shooting can pay dividends. If you explore you will find more, if you reorganise your team they talk to you, and what they tell you changes during the mission. One of the things one of them tells you will open up a whole new story line. But it doesn't matter if that was missed, you cleared the island and made it safe for the civilians, the fact that other stories were playing out at the same time is not important. If you want to know if you missed anything:
now get cracking on making an ArmA campaign to replace the awful SP game.If by that you mean you are going to build one you have my best wishes. If you mean you want to play one, then have to admit I have not played Perpetua by Bardosy, but sometime ago I did beta test one of his missions and I was quite impressed.
:D There's also the case of Thobson's non-existent 3rd set of civilians 'somewhere near Trinite'.
Porting the mission to ArmA will not be easy. There will be little quirks
in the scripts that would need to be changed, for example event handlers in
OFP could have the syntax [{killed},....] but in ArmA thatr is not allowed
(or at least it wasn't when I was beta testing it) and this would need to be
changed to: ["killed",...]. Who knows what other changes have been made.
Also all the destroyed buildings are killed by knowing their object ID,
these would all need to be changed. Also to reduce the number of triggers I
made a lot of use of object IDs on the Malden map, again these would need to
be changed. But the really big killer is likely to be the road convoys,
jeep patrols and overflying helicopters. It took me several months just to
get these so they would continue working forever if left alone. Of course
you can see how I did that by looking at the scripts but it will still take
a lot of time. When I was beta testing ArmA before its release I tried to
get a convoy route working. Not successfully, some of the bridges proved
pretty much impossible to get an ai vehicle to go over. They may have fixed
this in the final release, but all this would need to be extensively
tested. The next big killer will be lag. Sahrani is a large island, that
creates lag on its own, but to give the mission the 'whole island' feel you
would need to have units all over the island. Also I understand there are
no female civilians in ArmA. That was an important part of my mission.
My suggestion is to use the ideas of Abandoned Armies (giving credit of
course :) ) and use the ideas to make a different mission, as Lee is doing
with Punishment Battalion:
http://www.ofpec.com/forum/index.php?topic=29984.0
If you want to know more about the workings of Abandoned Armies then have a
look at the download on the first post of this thread:
http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard311/ikonboard.cgi?s=76559db0e8588dafd0d5eb1f62c88d8b;act=ST;f=55;t=52120