(Review Completed) [CAMP] Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)

[bardosy]

Campaign name: Yankie Stalker
Islands: Nogova, Kolgujev, Freya
Side: NATO


Delta Force campaign in 11 missions, used the gregorous LASER's Deltas MOD.

Tom Shelter is an American Dream: young, smart, strong and he belive in the democracy and free world.
He use his talents to defend his dream from the Commies and he join to the Special Services and became a member of Delta Force. This is his story...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Features:

* Exciting storyline
* Intros and outros in the missions, sometimes cutscenes
* If you get a nice weapon, you can use it in the next mission...
* If the story enable: choosing weapon from pool
* Beautiful Addons: LASER Deltas, Red Hammer's Naval Infantry, etc...
* Scripts: Guarding enemy, new action menu features... etc

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Needed AddOns:

Freya Island (bardosy's site)
LSR DeRa (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/LSR_Delta_Rangers_200.rar)
LSR Weap (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/LSR_US_Weapons_Pack_200.rar)
LSR DeRa 2.01 patch (http://ofp.gamepark.cz/index.php?showthis=8373)
RHS Naval (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/_hosted/mapfact/rhs/RHS_Naval_v1.00.rar)
RHS Naval patch (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/_hosted/mapfact/rhs/RHS_Naval_Patch_v1.01.rar)
RHS GRU (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/RHS_GRUPack_v1.00.rar)
RHS GRU patch (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/RHS_Inf_Patch.rar)
RHS Weap (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/_hosted/mapfact/rhs/RHS_Weap_v1.01.rar)
C8x (http://lacko.pcdome.hu/Opflash/AddOns/YankieSmallAddons.zip)
SFM Ural pack (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/SFM_URALS.rar)
CBT HMMWV 1.0 pack (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/CBT_HMMWV_V1.0.rar)
CBT Misc 1.0 (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/CBT_MISC_1.0_RC1.rar)
BAS BlackHawk (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/BAS_429_BAS_Blackhawks1_SOAR2_JAM1.zip)
JAM2 (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/JAM2.rar)
Patrol boat (Mikero's site, bardosy's site)
Sub Target (Mikero's site, bardosy's site)

See the YankieStalkerAddOns.jpg to full list of needed files.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE: 11.10.2006

YANKIE STALKER   1.08

Edit: This campaign has been reviewed and is also available from the Missions Depot.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Known bugs:

1., I use the Freya Island, and this island have no Anim/Intro and if you step back to the OFP main menu, you'll see the last picture from the game. And if you step back to the main menu when the campaign finished with a cutscene (into/ourto) and the last picture was a black screen, you will see noting in the main menu.
I try to contact with the original author of the Freya Island, but unfortunatly he doesn't want reconfigure the island's cpp config file for Anim.
If you are a veteran Island maker and can modify the island cpp config file to insert an Anim/Intro, please send me a PM.

2., In the Mission #9 (Airborne) your men (AI) can't enter to the SF Base on foot. Solve: get in the full group to the HMMWV and drive into the base and then get out the group.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ask:

Please test this campaign and report the bugs here! Thank you for your attention.

[Mikero]

I hope the moderators dont mind this, i think it's directly relevent to this topic, perhaps not.

anims

to fix this you need to grab an innocuous anim that already exists and reference it into freya island. Ther criteria being the anim itself doesn't use anything unpleasant (another addon)  I suggest you
use kegetys' island1_anim from his Winter Everon package.

copy that anim folder into your mods\addon directory (you DO use mods folders? right?) the _same_ directory anyway where freya island lives

depbo Freya Island

use notepad to edit config.cpp

look for CfgWorlds

where it says class freya : DefaultWorld add the following line somewhere in it's {body}

      cutscenes[]={"..\addons\island1_anim\intro"};

re-pbo the island.

voila

[bardosy]

Thanks! I'll try it!!!

[Mikero]

OFP1.96, vetmode, no superai , 5685

First let me congratulate you Bardosy on several counts:

You have always been a good, even great, storyteller, with compelling reasons in your stories to WANT to play your missions. (Hungarian uprising eg). This campaign is one only you could tell. It's been done well.

What I haven't liked about your missions in the past is your inability to think as a player, see things in our perspective. You place us in silly start positions and unrealistic conditions, because we need to be 'there' to make your mission 'work'. So far, the two missions I've played, all this has gone. Your mission 'feels' like you have actually played it. This hasn't been the case before.

The other achievement is to use updated models (addons). The list is huge, but, the lag isn't there. And, the models work, everything about these missions is 'right' in terms of updated weaponry, improved candy, and improved scenario. The only other, let's say 'campaign pack' that comes anywhere close to this achievement is the WW2 mods, where everything in them, is consistent with the missions they can be played in. You have done really well here glueing it all together.

I think by far the best thing here is this campaign is upgrading a FIVE YEAR OLD ENGINE with items that would be put in if it were sold fresh today.

Package:

Everything *except* some advertising pictures. We need them and you do too, a picture please first topic, first post.

I found your jpeg of addon pbo requirements more useful than your list of urls. You need both, but since I do in fact have all these addons (often named differently package wise) the jpeg list was *excellent* It saved me heaps and heaps and heaps and heaps of precious time. It was also accurate. It told the truth. Such a list has no value in terms of getting them via url, but it's such a good idea, it should be mandatory as a model to list this as "what's required in your mods folder". I'm going to develop this theme in Beta News, because it really is, very good. I think a list like this is mandatory for missions needing MORE than 3 addons.

The addons

It's huge. With MrN's Super Soldier each addon was in fact upgrade-patches to the earlier ones. I can't say if this is the case for yours. However, I think we all have to get used to the fact that in order to keep ofp alive and kicking as a 2006 game, we have to live with ever increasing addon requirements.

Overview:

A single picture, no titles, no text. Not good, lazy.

Intro:

Good. Spelling *is* difficult, luncher = launcher. The important bit is to get any showstoppers out of this version and then go back to the spelling, it does need fixing.

The intro was very good. It did all the right things in setting the mood and scene. The soundtrack of course was 'just right'

Top Secret

Briefing:

Will make no further comment about spelling and grammar *unless* it deliberately misleads.

This briefing is fine. It is concise and clear. The objectives are clear and straightforward.

Mission

The chopper would not leave it's stationary orbit (after I disembarked) until a retry.

There is a technical collision in the action menu between 'lower goggles' and NVG, both achieve same result.

I was not expecting this level of ferocious defence at the first camp (jeep) I am very pleased.

I did not look too hard but didn't see any means to heal myself if wounded (mash eg).

Got in jeep, retry kicks in, drove to 'officer' hq and ran over two standing loons in road, drove straight thru barricades and the soldiers there ignored me. Have every impression that if I tried this 'trick' again, i would fail.

Disembarked in hedges near lit up fort. Sounds of gunfire at me, behind me, not concerned about them. I think they'll go back to sleep.

Retry kicks in as I approach fort, and so I assume by this I was indeed supposed to attack the barricades first. No trouble.

Crawl into center. lots of armour, tanks are locked, loons are very difficult to shoot with sd, they take quite a few bullets with their body armour. They are somehwat dumbed down. Two sentries at HQ tent, one goes down and the other does nothing at all. This is in direct contrast to the first phase of the mission where loons were alert.

Have no means of destroying bmp. accidentally shoot officer hidden in tent. No message to me, that I stuffed up. Crawl into tent and cutscene hits. VERY GOOD, but killing officer is a BUG you need to fix.

Good outro of course, good intro to next mission. Am left with feeling as a player, not a beta tester, I would go  back and try this mission again.


MISSION2

THE CHANGE

this grammatica MUST be fixed because it misleads into believing I have changed to a spetz thru interrogation. you need to alter it to THE EXCHANGE.

Quick check of mission plan, all seems good.

Mission:

At this point Bardosy, I am going wow wow wow, what a story, what a great way of introducing Freya, via the FIRST mission. This, is excellent stuff.

Truck conversation about trade is excellent.

We're ambushed by resistance someway along. I quickly realise that _because_ we're tagged civilians, neither side will shoot us. I grab an AK47 anyway solely so that I can move a bit quicker. All titletext wonderful, except of  course the spelling.

Making us part of the resistance squad was an excellent choice. To attempt to follow them any other way trhu a forest is a disaster. Am beginning to suspect now that the 'proper' way to play this mission is in cadet mode (for waypoints). Spot resistance camp and head on in, my officer no doubt will make his way there in due course.

Mission ends as I move into camp with EXCELLENT eye candy of WOMEN civilians. A small detail that made every difference in the world to where I was and what I was doing and who these people were. Well DONE!!!


Am looking forward very much to continuing this campaign.

[Mikero]

Mission 3 Borderline

Absolutely fine and compelling play.

Small niggles.

My officer leads me off into forest due north AND expects me to fight (target or engage) all the nasty stuff coming into camp (south) at same time. I can't do both, eg follow him, and, attack.

I eventually opt for attack and do quite well. I think the rest of squad are cut down, shot, I don't know, but eventually a cutscene (and retry) kicks in where the officer and I split up . Him west, me east. Only real annoyance is we are now 'conveniently' at extreme north of forest. I think you should change this to FORCE me north and use the fact that I am, indeed, north, to trigger the cutscene. It's messy as it stands.I am not sure what if anything happened to the other ex-US pow's and would have liked more made of it.

As far as play was concerned it was fantastic and fierce. I really really had a bad time in here with lots of bruises to my ego and a few cuts.

I tried escaping east and was cut down, often. Tried following the officer instead and shot dead, tried goin gback to camp and was murdered. Eventually though, it seemed to me I was pathetically weak in arms. So, I opted to SNEAK back into base. I doubt the author ever wanted me back here, but he made it TOO HARD to walk my way to the town.

A minor annoyance is the word 'jeep' on the map. It needs to change because the perception is that I'll be able to use it (the T72 blew it to pieces in first seconds of mission but most players, me included, wont notice)

After a really nasty horrible time with direct southern assaults, I circled round to come at the camp from the open (warily watching the twitchy T72). Only real success I had was to take out loons at great distances. If I got too close they just over-whelmed me in nastiness. Finally survived (from memory) three separate assaults by extremely alert squads who shot at every single bush in the valley (and almost always got me). But, I really had no choice here, I was looking for and never found nvg, but I desperately needed binoculars. I couldn't do the mountain walk without them because squads were crawling all over them. So, I just plundered everything available, found by good fortune a dragonov. killed the T80 (not used to these new weapons, had to spend many a time testing what each did). The grenade launcher was pleasantly lethal, unlike MrN's Afghanistan one.

All the time during this hunt of mine for looting bodies, more loons would show up and give me a terrible time. Found that the grenade launcher set them into flee mode which suited me.

Although not necessary, am dissapointed there was no means to heal. Inevitable to get badly wounded.

Did the mountain walk, with all sorts of horrible things bumping into me. But, I was in command now, with dragonov, a fully loaded RPG7 against the chopper, and mountains with no horrible forests to trouble me, the loons had no chance, and I ended up in the safe house after a long adventure. This island is magnificient. Jaw dropping stuff clinging to mountain ridges, watching that lake in middle of Island, and etc.

Cutscenes cut in , intros started up again, and, for my money, one of the best missions played. Very very hard, but, I loved it. Absolute priority to try and survive.

In the intro, i think girl was supposed to be holding telephone, there was no evidence of that.

Looking forward to next mission.

[Mikero]

Mission 4 Revenge.

Please change the intro so that I'm not pointing my rifle at 'tom'. Put me in safe mode.

Great intro. Everything clear to me. Can't really follow the notes and plan, am enjoying playing the mission too much. *Really* good weapons carry over. Best thing I did was go back to my old camp last mission and grab what I needed (despite the ferocity)

OOOPS. nearly got back in car with Helga, then noticed I was supposed to follow Gregor, lost him in forest, would  prefer you put me in his team for these sorts of things. (please).

Eventually I lost him and I have memories of you making missions where you forget all about how the player PLAYS the mission. Eventually find him at the place indicated where the freedom fighters would be. He's telling me to go look for them. Fine, what's not fine, is he stands there. You need to add a message that he'll wait here in case they come this way.

Yeah well, big deal, I spend x4 racing all over map, couldn't find them and then discover them only 100 meters away, and custcene/ retry kicks in and we're positioned in a very different place. Not sure I can be bother with this Bardosy, you haven't actually played it.

Rest of mission went fine, if, a little laggy. Particularly when bmp and re-inforecment trucks turned up.

Eventually made it to radio, the pows I was supposed to save got shot. Small bug with radioman in that he wouldn't (couldn't? die). Eventual escape into forest and not at all bad as a mission with plenty of sniping to do, and a little slugishness on part of enemy. I never udnerstand why, if shooting is going on, some of the sentries remain as sentries and dont do anything. Bit of a turkey shoot with them.

[Mikero]

Mission 5 Good Bye

truly. Good bye, not interested, won't do it. -endmission. don't even want to know what happens. Immediiate -endmission. Distasteful.

[Mikero]

Mission 6, Report

Not really interested in this campaign with it's hypocrisy. The *Russians* are training terrorists? Big deal, what am I? Oh thats right, usual blurb, 'proud to serve' and a 'professional' soldier. Doubt it. I guess the nice cute resistance I was with were 'intellectuals' and not terrorists, right? Vomit.


Drive is good, as is the titletext. The music cuts in, and more importantly, cuts out, just at the right times. That's well done.

A retry kicks in and it's now 'obvious' why we went on a long drive to get 'here'. I, have to get back!

Very very good terrorist ambush. Rarely done _this_ well. This was very very well executed. Won't spoil it for others. Played it thru three times. The last time, no-one in our convoy was hurt.

Cutscene kicks in. No showstoppers.

Mission 6: Report

excellent. Absolutely remarkable. Really good, very very well executed. Dramatic, fierce. scared to death, loved it. No showtoppers. Somewhat unrealistic sentries STANDING in HQ towers. Usual hypocrisy now about *their* snipers being murderous. Distasteful double standards making me wish I was in fact on *their* side, not this one. Very much doubt this is what you intended but I'd shoot everything on my side if I could.

[Mikero]

Mission 7 Close combat.

This is a terrific mission. But, you haven't actually played it yourself because it's rarely possible to 'win'. The colonel or whoever he is almost inevitably dies from stray bullets and you have a very, very frustrating retry all the way from the beginning of this very long mission.

There is no indication he needs protecting, and after the third attempt of him dying despite my best efforts, i was about to give this mission a miss when it, suddenly ended (even though a few loons remained). The colonel dies around this time at very end of mission , so, it's just luck of the draw, and not worth the agony of playing it because of that. Be that as it may, as gameplay, it's fantastic.

Whether colonel dies or you win, the outro remains the same, and you end up very confused. Especially considering, not only do you have to start all the way at the beginning AGAIN, you have to watch the outro AGAIN.

[Mikero]

Mission 8 Airborne

Pretty good, I avoided a red civilian trabant early on which I'm convinced tried to ram me. Wasn't taking any furhter chances after a previous mission.

Drove thru uneventfully. Great eye candy. Lots of activity, good use of civilians in towns. Retry kicks in. I attempt to run one million of them over and charge for the base, but am eventually hit each time by an rpg, so I take it slow and begin my attack from behind them Mission turns to mud because of that because there's a senseless trigger in the base thay I and all my remaining squad must be IN the vehicle and enter the base to make it happen.

What I did do was progressively eliminate all the enemy, ran around the base nothing happend. Found a lone loon on north wall, retry kicked in, ran all around base all around commander, nothing happened, got my people in jeep drove them into base, nothing happened. got my self in jeep drove me into base, nothing happened. Retried, got ALL of us in jeep, entered base, 2nd attack started. Very poor.

2nd attack wasn't anyhting wonderful. Loons were pretty stupid and the defending troops were worse. Sirens going off everywhere but most of them WALKING in safe mode for god's sake.

Took em all out (with a few retries), and mission ended with me alone. All the squad dead, but they were close to useless to begin with.

Allthough the candy is good, having ammo boxes full of mines and satchels makes player thing something entirely different will happen.

Noticed that the towers and the vehicles were all locked, couldn't get in, or up, anything.

Not a bad mission for a firefight, hordes and hordes of the buggers, but a bit lame because they were so stupid, and the silly trigger buisiness with the jeep made no sense at all.

[Mikero]

Mission 9 yankee stalker

not a bad mission idea but a few immediate gotcha's

the chopper (like the first mission) remains hovering in place unless you use a retry.

Also, there's a 'bug' when using cargo rope scripts that soldiers exit in engage mode, they immediately charge off to thier deaths. You need to issue an all disengage.

The start of the mission went fine, but truing to get anyone over bridges is hopeless. Especially as it turns out, FOUR of them. It just doesn't work without a lot of tears and pain. Only practical way to force this is to use a vehicle but it would mean altering mission substantially.

Everything turned to mud at the last, most northen island-town. Heaps of soldiers and lag was shocking making the whole thing not worth even trying to play. I perservered a little, but, for the short periods the lag wasn't there, the ai was dumber than dead on both sides. No-one able to shoot anyone at 5 meters distance (face to face). You could I guess play this mission by leaving your squad behind, and frankly, this *is* the only way to achieve it. You need to greatly reduce the lag monsters. Ships, tanks.

A good idea, that got me very curious, great mission theme, I did find one sub,before i had to stop.

[Mikero]

Mission 10 Free Horvath

don't know the ending of the previous mission but, it certainly sounded interesting and cleverly done with a nice twist.

Far too much nonsense in the ammo crates, it's hard enough know which is what with these newer weapons to have 3 varieties of rpg, possibly four is silly when at least one of them is air-only and there are no choppers in this mission. It's fine to include such a thing in a mission to keep player guessing but here, it needs to be removed because of the difficulty for player knowing what on earth to use. There is, just too much of everything.

Start position us exceedingly strange. I wouldn't have put us that far back as there's a long uneventful walk involved.

town was fine, if the loons a little sleepy. Some were happy to have bullets fired at them and remain in safe mode. There did seem to be the right 'balance' here in the quantity of loons to attack. A squad less than 12 of us would also have been quite ok, but it's a nice over the top device for the author to use occoaisionally where we overwhelm everything.

The M2gun bug breifly showed its appearance, but, knowing this problem, I move in quickly to close range so my people can see it is empty, duh! It generally costs a few lives to do this and my other alternative is to hit it with rpg.

Had to wait quite a long time for convoy to arrive, 'spy' messages were good. I'm guessing here that the convoy isn't triggered, its on a time delay and you're giving us plenty of time to clear the village first. Have impression I could have as easily just remained in hills taking out village and convoy.

Since I got in M2gun there wasn't much to it destroying troop trucks but a few anxious moments with only a single rpg'er against a bmp. My experinece of my squad in general is they'll always miss, given half a chance (any mission).

You might want to rethink the weopon load outs. Such a large squad WOULD have two anti tank people.

Odd conversation with major Howarth, who could not, of course, join us in a squad of 12. I was led to belive from the map indicators, and the obectives, that getting him would be separate to killing the convoy, but it all happened all at same time.

raced direct north and mission ended appropriately, but, the extermely short journey to the 'extraction point' emphasised the very long, rather senseless, walk from the start position.

There may or may not have been a few loose 4 man squads hiding in forest areas east and west but if there, they got caught up in the general attack on the town, and, the long wait before convoy arrived.

I don't like convoy ambushes as they go so horribly wrong most times, but this one went ok. No showstoppers.

[Mikero]

Campaign ended abrubly on this 10th, not 11 mission, campaign, checked pbo to make sure there were no more to play.

I assume this campaign hasn't finished yet, and this is, as far as you've got so far. Clearly, some sort of ending needs to happen. (there was no outro cutscene either). All of which is fine as a work-in-progress.

Overall

Campaigns are very difficult animals to test, let alone report on. Most comment can rarely do them justice as the work involved for the author far exceeds what can be said, in a test.

So, for this run thru, I've concentrated, best as can, in just making sure there were no showstoppers, followed by no really confusing wrinkles, everything else taking a lower priority.

What hasn't been commented on is atmosphere, 'terrificness' or anything else to encourage the author to continue. Damn shame. It's part of the volume of writing needed for EACH mission, where campaigns can miss out on this stuff.

For most of these missions Bardosy, you have got over that terrible habit of yours of forgetting all about the player. Some missions though, you haven't actually played yourself. Tested, yes, but never played them thru as a player, because they don't work. These ones aren't huge in number. Some missions, large in number, are just fabulous. Anything to do with hunting terrorists is, to say the least, clever as hell. I've rarely played missions this imaginitave.

There's one mission I will not play, period. It's dripping with unwritten hypocrisy and makes all other titletext in other missions John Waynish and crud.

[bardosy]

Dear Mikero!

Thank you very-very-very MUCH! I saw you spent your weekend with my campaign. Thanks again and again.
I'll fixed the bugs you found. And the others:

Double standard: please don't spoile the end of the campaign... :-) Of course this is the final outro. You'll see it.

Play missions: I really don't undestand what you want. Of course I tested all of missions. (eg. in #5 the bugs maybe from this test, because I tested well the first part of mission and I triggered to go to the end of the mission. Shame... ) I can finish #9 too. I had problems too with my mates in the bridges, but I press them trough this bridge... A little bit I understand you, I can't play with these missions like someone who play with these first time. Of course I know what triggered what and from where they comeing and I can't play like a loon, because I think the players are more experienced in OFP gameplay like me and I want createing challenges for them. I think the beta testing is the perfect way to know how reacting a normal player to a new mission.

Don't misunderstand me: I study a lot of about your comments (not only from these, but the comments on Revolution 1983 too). I try to write short, but clear briefings and marking the map not too short, but not too confsed too.

And again: thank you for your attentions and your tips and your this weekend.

[Mikero]

@Bardosy

I am *astonished* at the fiercenesss, the intelligence, of the AI in almost all of the missions. The only one that is poor as mud in that regard is the one where we have to defend against 2x attacking hordes in the fort on the peninsula. If you could concentrate on the *difference* between it and the others you have a winning formula. What I suspect is you have too many civilians and other animate objects in the towns surrounding which chew up cpu cycles and turn the enemy dumb. By which I mean, that you don't have too many civilians because they're bloody clever, but the engine has too many civilians. Perhaps and maybe, one answer is to remove them from the game AFTER i drive thru, or perhaps many of the dead bodies on first assault. Obviously not a 'good' solution but it's this faulty mission Bardosy where YOU will get the biggest bang for buck in fixing it and consequently all other missions you ever make.

There are very few missions out there, let alone campaigns for heaven's sake, that make me work as hard as I had to in this one. It's remarkable. Your general twists and turns in using terrorist troops, their disposition, and 'quirks' are the best I've come across for gameplay.