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Author Topic: (Review Completed) [SP] Facile Ground  (Read 28702 times)

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Offline Sui

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(Review Completed) [SP] Facile Ground
« on: 24 Feb 2003, 02:42:45 »
(Edit: Originally this thread was titled "Free Pr0n!" - changed to reflect the true contents. Shame.)

Hey Everybody...

For a start, those of you looking for free pr0n won't be happy... that was just a cheap marketing tactic to get you all in here (though I think there are some pictures of Wolfsbane in a thong running around this site somewhere)... I think we've got enough mileage out of this lame arse joke... besides, apparently it's bad for email filters ;D

Anyway, latest beta of mine:

Facile Ground

Overview
The sequel to my last release, Airborne, this mission involves a mechanised Infantry assault on Larche. US forces are understrengh, and as such your elite Airborne squad has been temporarily assigned to supplement a Mechanised Infantry Platoon.
The pressure on Soviet forces can not be relaxed, they must be kept on the back foot so they cannot regroup!

Known Issues/Points of interest
Just one main issue remaining:
  • If playing in cadetmode please ignore the waypoints... Issue resolved. Waypoints now work fine :)
  • Issues with the Retry button: I have found that multiple retrys can have effects on the mission. For instance entire attack waves disappearing! If you have any wierd events (eg. the mission stopping) please give me details as to when/where it happened, and how many times you had retried. Thanks
Things I'm very interested in:
  • How well this mission runs (FPS wise) on your system
  • How difficult you think it is
  • Your opinion on whether I should add voices or not. As it is (without intro and outro) there are around 130 voice files needed. This means I estimate the download to be around 7-8MB. Too much do you reckon?

There is also the issue of getting voice actors...
[/list]
Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated, including criticism (constructive please ;D) and realism advice.

Beta Testing Complete

Release Version in the Missions Depot ;)

Requires OFP version 1.90 (Resistance).
No Unofficial Addons are required...
This will be the last beta version, the next version will be the final release. However I'm still keen to squash any bugs you find, and still would appreciate your input ;)

Just Note...
Please remove any previous versions (0.90/0.92/0.93/0.95) from your missions directory if you had them in there before trying to play this one. I had some interesting results when I tried it with a previous version in there ;)

Enjoy :)
« Last Edit: 29 Apr 2009, 05:10:11 by savedbygrace »

Nazul

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Re:Free Pr0n!
« Reply #1 on: 24 Feb 2003, 03:49:53 »
hi Sui,
i cant get into the m113...???!!! the waypoint marker is there saying to mount it, but no can do....
and im assuming the troops behind it are sposed to become attached to my group, that dosnt happen either..

Offline Sui

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Re:Free Pr0n!
« Reply #2 on: 24 Feb 2003, 04:06:54 »
Argh! Cadetmode... figures there was one aspect of it I forgot to test it on (I tend to play veteran).

I haven't set the waypoints up yet, so as such they will often jump ahead of where you are actually at in the mission. Please completely ignore them, and follow the instructions of your officers instead (ie. jump in the jeep and let that take you down to the APC's, then talk with Lt. Hogan)...

The M-113 is unlocked via a script, and will only be triggered if you first let the jeep drive you down, then talk to the Lt. (However, now I will be changing that).

Thanks, Nazul :)

* Sui adds Nazul to the list of beta testers for the credits

Offline LCD

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Re:Free Pr0n!
« Reply #3 on: 24 Feb 2003, 06:27:26 »
gonna test it 2day somtime ;D

LCD OUT
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Offline toadlife

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Re:Free Pr0n!
« Reply #4 on: 24 Feb 2003, 06:36:37 »
Quote
Free Pr0n!

Baaaaaaadd Sui!  ;D
"Whenever you want information on the 'net, don't ask a question; just post a wrong answer." -- Cancer Omega.

Offline Hawkins

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Re:Free Pr0n!
« Reply #5 on: 24 Feb 2003, 08:15:22 »
I'll try this out later today once I get back gome. ;)

Hawki

Offline Sui

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Re:Free Pr0n!
« Reply #6 on: 24 Feb 2003, 08:17:58 »
Baaaaaaadd Sui!  ;D

Oi! There'll be no sheep jokes in here thank you very much ;D ;D

We don't deserve it anymore...  ;)

Kaliyuga

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Re:Free Pr0n!
« Reply #7 on: 24 Feb 2003, 09:59:22 »
    Count me in.... downloading now.. probably report by Monday evening/Tuesday morning sometime  

no addons ...that's a nice change to see ;D

Offline macguba

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Re:Free Pr0n!
« Reply #8 on: 24 Feb 2003, 11:50:12 »
Right, as per usual I'll be writing this as I go along.   I haven't played Airborne, so I'm started from a position of ignorance.    I'll be playing in Veteran mode as I always do.


Download ok, mission starts ok

Overview - Sui, me ol' mucker .... you have toooooo much time on your hands  ;D     There's a typo on the first page, an extra space.

The black intro screen with the date needs some text, or the "..." to be deleted.


Briefing

Few extra spaces kicking around, have a quick run through it.   (Also in some of the dialogue titletexts)   Are we attacking Larche / La Trinite or La Trinite / Larche - be consistent, putting the first one first.

In the first page of notes put the italiced text first:   the player needs to know who is before getting into the detail.

There are a lot of unit names floating around and I had to read the whole thing twice before I figured out who was who.    There needs to be more structure eg one Plan page have something like


Operational Aim

Your squad of paratroopers will assist the 34th Mech in the seizure of ...

Participating units
  - Fox Company (34th Mech Inf Div)

Supported by
  - Dog Company (5th Armoured Div)
  - Charlie squad (58th Airborne Div)

typo in 3rd platoon Ops:  Forum up point

Too much green writing between Saint Louis and Larche, can't easily see what's what.   Use more colours.

Operations detail could do with a detailed ORBAT at the top:   it was surprise to find we had a tank, and I still don't know what vehicles A and B squads have.     Also surprised to see no mention of Platoon HQ.

Command and Signals - who are Yankee Green?  Is this Platoon HQ?

Gear selection - some of the numbers of mags/ammo are a bit odd, if it's not deliberate have a quick tidy.

As you will have noticed, all of this is just detail - overall the Briefing is very good, just what you want.


                       (aside)

                       @Asmo - my pleasure mate  ;)

Ahem, right, back to business.


Mission

Opening cutscene - excellent

Dialogue - excellent.    Minor detail: you can't see the Lt's face as he briefs you, he is looking at his feet the whole time.  

When you get out of the jeep Lt Hogan should be facing you ... took me a moment to spot him.

Lag issues:   I have a really ancient, decrepit and crappy computer (and to think we were all so pleased with the PII when it came out ....) and so far the mission is ok but a bit jumpy.    There's a lot going on at this point - choppers flying overhead, Chinook on the ground with rotors going and dust script swirling (which, due to the lag, didn't look that great) - and if you are concerned about that you might want to thin it down a little.

I've just got out of the APC now and I have to say that so far I'm very impressed.   This whole sequence of dialogue and cutscene is absolutely top quality.    Having decent dialogue really helps - its a rare pleasure.   The pacing is good too, and you have the correct music tracks.   Well done.

The titletext indicating mines is too slow to come up - it may just be the fade in, but it needs to be quicker.

Make the minefield smaller (I mean fewer in the fields) and have the engineers clear all of them, but only once you have found all of them.    The engineers had left and I was still finding mines, so I wasn't quite sure what was going on.

The Lt.'s jeep should be second in the convoy, not at the back.

The Abrams seems to have been magically repaired ... if there was a REME team I missed them.   Sorry, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.... in the British army they repair vehicles, amongst other things.  

Echo needs a better postion:  he should at least be beside a bush, if not in one.

The episode at the FUP is far too rushed.     There was an imprecise and out of character order from the Lt, the tank went rushing off into the distance, I was trying to get the dismounts into red team and the vehicle into green, at the worst possible moment (it felt) the retry hit.      

Slow the whole thing down a little.    The Lt should say Charlie dismount here, stay close to the tank etc, when you are ready call me, you've got two minutes.     That gives the player time to sort himself out, get orentated etc.    Give him the chance to radio: if he doesn't, then at the end of 2 minutes the Lt orders "move out" and the retry comes.

Well, we survived, ran desperately trying to keep up with the tank, managed not to blow up the civvy truck.    The tank took out the Shilka, I shot one guy, somebody shot another, moved into the village, shot one one and that was about it.    Saw very little of Alpha or Bravo.      I suspect you're using combat ambience sounds here, if so delete them - they are annoying in a combat situation.    The sense of confusion created by the fast radio messages was good - once the advance actually starts everything should be as fast and confusing as possible.      Village cleared, no casualties to Charlie.

There is an inconsistency in that the original orders stated that Charlie was to take a back seat, given that we had a weaker vehicle.  However, when it came to the bit we were ordered right up there in the main assault.   If that's deliberate, fine.  

Told you Echo should have been in a bush  :)

It might be an idea to send Charlie on patrol (without M113) to find out what happened to Echo.

The attack started:   I would suggest a little more time so that you can scavage for AT weapons.     I had time to grab a AT4 that was lying around but that's all.     The Abrams got blown up and a variety of radio messages came in:   at one time Alpha (I think) claimed they were being overwhelmed but I couldn't hear any firing and I couldn't see any enemy.     This persisted until the new wave of T72s came in, which I did see, followed by Guardian.     Infantry started to appear from the SW but the lag was too bad and I got killed.

Went back to the retry, bit better this time but the lag got me again.   Nice idea for the death scene.

The timing of the radio messages is not great - they are too strong too early.     I got one saying "Charlie where are you", well I was by the bus which is as close as you like to where I was supposed to be.     Alpha squad seemed to be advancing up the road to the West, which may account for it.  

I'm really disappointed not to be able to play this properly  :'(, it looks great.    


Time for the summary:-

  • Tighten up the Briefing a bit
  • Make taking the village a little more interesting
  • Sort out radio messages during early stages of the attack
  • Lag issues
Answers to questions

Did I find any bugs?            No
Did the M113 go slow?       No
Score                                  Dunno

How well this mission runs (FPS wise) on your system?     I have PII with Voodoo4 and 384meg of RAM, which is just sufficient to play the Resistance campaign on low settings.    It's tough but playable till the enemy tanks arrive, then that's it.

Voices:   I would say, in this case yes.     But make sure you get good people.    And if its going to be 7Meg, do it properly and make it 10.      You can easily publish a version without voices.    I recenly moved from 56k to broadband:  before I wouldn't bother with any mission over about 0.5M unless I had a very high opinion of the author, and anything over 2M was an overnight job anyway.     Now I don't care.    One of the many strengths of this mission is the characterisation, so for once it really would be worth having the speech.    As long as you get the right people ....

Difficulty - taking the village is probably just a little too easy.   Defending it I can't say, but my impression is that there are too many tanks - at one stage I saw four T72s just milling around to the SW.     In reality they would have sat there shelling the pants off the village.     More infantry and fewer tanks would probably make for a better mission.


That's it, well done Sui this is great.    :) 8)  The introductory phase (up till the minefield) is as good a non-combat phase as I've ever seen.

ok I really am finished no, forum clock 13:05
« Last Edit: 24 Feb 2003, 14:06:39 by macguba »
Plenty of reviewed ArmA missions for you to play

asmodeus

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Re:Free Pr0n!
« Reply #9 on: 24 Feb 2003, 12:03:37 »
I'll check this out!!

Just as soon as I get my OFP back to 1.91...   ::)  (Just upgraded and need to reinstall everything)   ;)

So...  Barring any techincal difficulties... I'll be playing this with my brand new high powered (somewhat) setup tomorrow or the next day!   8)

Asmo

P.S.  BTW, Macguba, thanks for posting that news tidbit on the Barracuda.   ;)   ;D
« Last Edit: 24 Feb 2003, 12:04:59 by Asmodeus »

Offline Hawkins

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Re:Free Pr0n!
« Reply #10 on: 24 Feb 2003, 20:34:11 »
Oke played a bit but not that much. Sth VERY strange happened so I decided to leave it and test it again tomorrow. ;D Just a few q's tho;

In the briefing (command and signals) the Charlie and Echeo links don't work? Is this supposed to be like this or...?

After I cleared the minefield there still were mines! The Abrams got hit and the other's went around it. They got killed by the mines beside the road. Since I was told to listen to the LT and he said clear the ROAD of mines I didn't mark the ones beside the road. :P ;D

That was as far as I got. I'll try again tomorrow tho. :)

The mission ran pretty smooth with my comp. A bit lag in the base but almost nothing outside the base. Here's some info:

AMD Duron 900Mhz
640Mb SDRAM (My motherboard doesn't support DDRRAM :'( )
Geforce 3 Ti 200 64Mb
Sound Blaster 128
Benchmark: 1802

Hawki

Gameer_77

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Re:Free Pr0n!
« Reply #11 on: 24 Feb 2003, 22:29:52 »
OK, i played this earlier and noted down some things as I went:


Overview -

Nice idea with the links. :)

Briefing -

*Again, nice but there is a few spacing problems, not just with the words - It was hard to distinguish paragraphs (Especially in the notes section), but I know there is the problem with fitting it on the page.

*Like how he (The guy writing a note in the Briefing) personalises the Officer.  :)

*Slight overuse in the links to La Trinite and Larche methinks  ::)

*Are the Charlie Green and Echo links meant to do something?

*The group tab doesn't include any of your men.

Mission -

Jesus, it must've took forever to place all those tents! And they sure slow it down, mebbe drop a few?

I like the way you create a real military atmosphere, what with all the guys talking and such.

*When your taken to the M113, and meet the Hogan guy, the titletext's sometimes go too fast. I don't know why, but one of them might flash on for only a second then the next comes up. :o

*You should put some full-stops at the end of the dialogue. And that big space gets a little more than irratating  ;D

*Small thing - the camera went right through the APC when they were setting off.

*Mines....can't we just go round them :P J/K, it's kinda fun to do, and  **Spoiler** I like how one goes off.

*For me, the medic didn't say anything when i went into the M113 after the...accident.

I presume he would've said something like 'Are you lot OK?', but still....

*When the guy at the OP looks through the binocs, all i saw was fog (VD = 500, Visual Quality 3.1-ish)

*Put a save point in before you get to Larche. I mean before cause I was already disembarked and being shot at when it saved.

*Nice onplayerdeath.sqs scene. :)

I lost 4 men alone by one stupid idiot with a grenade launcher, and i managed to save it right as a grenade came down on top of my squad ::)

Great!

So, i gotta cut it short, but i liked it so far.

Might get a chance to try it again, and i'll be sure to save it well before. ::)


I have a crappy Celeron 700, 512 RAM (133) and a extremely bad onboard graphics card.

With everything turned down in the options menu, and running on 640x480 with most of the options switched off in Preferences, it was...OK.

The base part was sluggish...travelling was OK, but when i got to Larche...my God was it hard to shoot.

I never managed to complete it...no doubt due to my poor frame-rate...  ::) ;D...ahem :-[

I thought it was difficult-ish, but if you keep at it you can win. It's just a matter of avoiding the damn grenadiers. >:(

If your gonna have voices, have one with and one without. :)

Hope this helps,

Gameer

Offline Sui

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Re:Free Pr0n!
« Reply #12 on: 24 Feb 2003, 23:51:57 »
Brilliant guys :) Thanks for all the feedback.

I now have about a page of changes to make (with credits to who did what attached of course), which is exactly what I was after... to address some of your points, in no particular order:
  • Overview - I blatantly stole the linking idea of Sefe :) He's the smart cookie that came up with that. I'll check the formatting again for extra spaces... thanks Macca ;D

The "..." are there on purpose... until I find a suitable quote. If I put something that looks like it belongs, I'll forget about it. So I put something really out of place so I don't ;)
  • Briefing - Looks like a complete revamp is in order. I'll lay it out far more obviously. The links to charlie and echo aren't supposed to go anywhere, I'll change them from links to bold text to make that obvious. Also, yes... Platoon HQ. Thanks, must have missed it (Yankee is most definately Platoon HQ)
  • Airbase - sounds like there is a bit of lag issues going on for people... I think I'll make the dust script benchmark conditional, as well as about half of the tents. How did I get them there... cut and paste my friend ;D Notice how they're all in nice neat military rows...
  • Minefield - Sounds like I need to make the player mark all the mines directly adjacent to the road too. When testing it I realised that it was possible for the convoy to hit a mine going through, but in about 250 runs, it had never happened. I guess assumption is the mother of all...  :-X

Anyway, I'll also make it more obvious that the engineers are just trying to get you on your way. They'll deal with the rest of the mines once you've gone through to attack Larche.
  • Abrams repaired - Yes indeed ;D I was hoping no one would notice... this is necessary due to the fact it needs to survive for at least 30 seconds in Larche... I'll see if I can be a bit more subtle
  • The Medic - You were back in the APC when the medic came? That I hadn't thought of... I assumed the player wouldn't be in a vehicle. Thanks, Gameer, I'll put that possibility into play
  • More time at FUP - Thank you. The other half of my mind convinced me that I didn't need to make more time there... you just managed to shut it up :D I'll fix that
  • Save at FUP - I'll also change that to be conditional on distance or when all your guys are out of the M113. It's scripted, so I'll add a delay and make it less of an encumbrance
  • There is no combat ambience used anywhere in the mission... believe it or not. If you hear a gun go off, that's because someone shot it. I'll either slow the tank down, or speed alpha and bravo up... ;)
  • Echo in a bush - Realistically, he'd be so cammo'ed up that you couldn't see him if you were right on top of him. However, for hollywood BS cinematic effect, he needs to be out in the open... :) I"ll see if I can find a compromise
  • I'll also give more time before the Counter-Attack....
  • Radio calls - There are times when the BMP's or the Abrams start scrapping from about 1km away... before anyone says anything. Then the "OMG We're under heavy attack" seems appropriate. Anyway, I'll make the calls much more generic, so it doesn't sound stupid if there hasn't been any action...
  • Difficulty - There's plenty of infantry for everyone, sounds like I need to get rid of some of the tanks though. Generally it all depends on the Abrams and the Platoon's AT attachment. If they all hit, then the tanks all die... still, I'll sort it out ;)
One last big point: Lag at Larche.
Believe it or not it's a completely different mission if your benchmark is above 2000. More guys, more scenery/cover.
What I might do is make some of the stuff there conditional on having a benchmark over what... 1500 as well? Could you guys possibly post your benchmarks for me please so I can gauge an idea at what older comps might run at?

My system is the same sort of thing as Hawki's (Duron 800 and GeForce 4), and I run it slightly jittery, but still playable.

Believe it or not I did have an artillery script in there as well, but I scrapped that due to complete unplayability ;D

Thanks again guys, this is very good stuff :D
I'm still keen to hear anyone else's opinion, or anything more you guys have to add :)

[edit] One last thing...
Gameer... the group tab didnt' include any of your men..

Do you mean you couldn't choose weapons for your squad?
Did anyone else get this ? :(
[/edit]
« Last Edit: 25 Feb 2003, 00:44:47 by Sui »

Offline DarkAngel

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Re:Free Pr0n!
« Reply #13 on: 25 Feb 2003, 01:34:38 »
Hi Sui and everyone

I'm not an expert but thought I'd download this and see if you wanted any newbie feedback! Really liked the whole opening sequence - cool to have your own name used in the mission, and a good sense of atmosphere at the airbase as you gradually build up to moving out.
Having the tank hit the minefield came as a surprise (having it survive miraculously was even more of a surprise  :)) and I was expecting to come under fire as we cleared it, but no, safe. Throughout all this I was really impressed by the sense of atmosphere.

The trouble started for me when we went in on the attack. I'm generally not too keen on mech inf missions as armor seems to behave in really wierd ways, and this was no exception. When the LT ordered me to follow the tank into the village I ordered the M113 to follow it and guess what, it turned round and went the other way. By the time I got the thing heading in the direction I wanted it to go the other squads were yelling at me for reinforcements. And the retry update happened bang while I was moving in the opposite direction from the village. The other two squads were calling the village cleared before I'd even entered it. Personally I'd have called the SaveGame just as the previous cutscene ended, giving the player a few moments to get his bearings before being sent in.

Really liked the cutscene with the LT on the radio and Echo dead, although the OP seemed a bit exposed. Then the counterattack. This time things kept blowing up and there was lots of panic, then for some reason I started to have lag problems. Really good sense of tension but, yeah, it was pretty hard to shoot anything. Or see anything. The first time I played it a tank got me; second time I ran around for ages trying to find someone, anyone, to shoot. When I finally did my lag was so slow I didn't have a chance.

My computer goes through things like this apparently at random so if I get a chance I'll try again tomorrow.
Specs: Pacard Bell Pentium III 128Meg Ram
NVidea GeForce 2 graphics card.

Cheers and good luck,
DarkAngel

"Moondark" in Beta Testing

Offline LCD

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Re:Free Pr0n!
« Reply #14 on: 25 Feb 2003, 02:05:39 »
kool mission ;D

i didnt finish it yet ;D but after 2 tries (1 time i died, sec time mision failed)

here is da erors i found (i didnt read oder ppls reports so i prooly repeat som things)

comments/bugs list

1) no intro (u prooly know dat :beat: but i wanna c da intro u gonna do ;D)
2) spaces in breifing
3) spaces in speech (u need 2 buy new keyboard  ::))
4) wen da officer talked 2 me (lt. hogan) he was smiling - sugest use setmimic command 2 make him look somwat else
5) camera passes inside M113 wen da moving starts
6) i think dat da speakin on da way (da romurs conversition) should b switchcamera thing not let da player free
7) da HQ talks as global chat, russian wil hear it :P, mebe change 2 papa_bear speaking
8) i played as cadet  :-[ (just 2 check dat WPs r alright cuz som makers screw everything wid WPs so i check it 4 em ;)) and da enginers are reg soldiers  ;D change em 2 b enginers ;)
9) da shilka wasn't on fire wen it was destrpoyed but wen da cutscene started it was on fire ? (late burning or somin ?)
10) @ da start of da counter attack destroyed 1 M2A2 (BMPS from da wast did it i think) - no1 reacted - onlylater wen da radio msgs apeared (enemy detected) dey started reacting
11) 2 soldiers in da jeep (lt hogans squad) stays in da jeep after da couter attack starts
12) dere was eror dat kept comin up - (name (_this select1))=(name player): error name expected object string or somin like dat
13) da first BMPS from da west dat com down r 2 slow i got em b4 dey were in ny1 elsesrange (on sec time after i knew wil come)
14) da weapons on da ground bugs da game  :-X - wen i load dey dont apear (only da 1s we took dont apear)  and den i can carry invisible weapons
15) dat wasnt fair dat da mision failed :P - dey lost all deir tanks and dere were only bout 20 soldsiers against me - and i stil had 2 men wid me (and i think i saw som oders not from my squad) wat is da condition of da mission failed ? (or dats da only thing ?)

answers 2 ur Q

Quote
Your score. I want to get an average to include in the .ext file

gonna finish da mission first ;)

Quote
How well this mission runs (FPS wise) on your system

runs kool ;D

Quote
How difficult you think it is

goes in 2 parts ;D
1) attack - 2 easy 2 b true ;) ;D
2) defence - dats hard - and lil unbalanced but its doable ;D - it makes it harder dat da mision can fail

Quote
Your opinion on whether I should add voices or not. As it is (without intro and outro) there are around 130 voice files needed. This means I estimate the download to be around 7-8MB. Too much do you reckon?
There is also the issue of getting voice actors...

2 version - 1 W/O and 1 wid voices ;D

LCD OUT

P.S - just read da report of gameer

Quote
For me, the medic didn't say anything when i went into the M113 after the...accident.

wat accident ?
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