(Review Completed) [SP] The Radio Tower

[greg147]

Hi all,
New mission for beta testing here  

Mission: The Radio Tower v0.90

Type: Single Player

Required Version: Built on v1.96, may work for other versions below, but no guarantees

Island: CATafganistan

Addons:

Afghanistan V1.2           http://ofp.gamepark.cz/index.php?showthis=8184
Generic Middle Eastern Rebels v1.21 http://ofp.gamepark.cz/index.php?showthis=8833
JAM3                              http://ofp.gamepark.cz/index.php?showthis=9369
LSRs Delta/Rangers       http://ofp.gamepark.cz/index.php?showthis=8329
Mikeros Editorupgrade103   Here

RECOMENDED: LSRs updated weapon pack 3.0   http://ofp.gamepark.cz/index.php?showthis=9813
The mission was designed with weapon pack 2.1, and so will work with both.

Storyline:  After the outbreak of a civil war, NATO forces have been deployed to a far Middle-Eastern country as peacekeepers. However, with the civil war over, an ever increasing percentage of the population feels the NATO presence is unwelcome, and several groups are rebeling against the peacekeepers. However, one group stands larger than the rest, a potential source of a large scale rebellion. Yesterday they raided a civilian radio tower, and are now broadcasting anti-NATO propaganda using the captured technology in an attempt to gain numbers for the uprising.

You are the leader of a 2 man sniper team whose mission is to bring down the radio tower and rescue
the chief engineer.

Points of intrest
I'd like some particular feedback on the auto saves (too many, too few, poorly placed), difficulty of the main objective with different weapons used and difficulty of the extraction.


Credits: See readme. Will be updated each version.

Get it here:

http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=other&file=3969The_Radio_Tower.zip

Thanks  

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

[yankme]

did you leave out the ED102_RadioTower object or some kind of editor obj. 102?

[Mikero]

ED102_anything is my editor103.pbo addon that replaces the older editor102 upgrades.

[greg147]

Sorry, I sometimes miss out editor addons  

Top post edited with link

[Igor Drukov]

Benchmark : 7389; No superAI; @ECP; v1.96 ; Vet mode

D/L ok, addons ok.



Overview

EXTREMELY cool pic. EXTREMELY cool.
Text : may be add something that'd enhance how tough the mishun is going to be, or how elite the snipers chosen are...


Intro

A bit unclear what it is all about : the truck is too obviously starting its engine in the middle of nowhere, then there's this guy shooting from you-don't-know-where at you-don't-know-who. At the beginning, the camera goes through the walls of the radio tower.
I'd say it'd need reworking .

Briefing

Situation section : typos=> "presumably", "chief". Neat section, although the big picture (what am I, when, fighting who... all stuff I have to say I like knowing) is not mentioned.
Mission section : consider adding links to the map when mentioning grid coordinates.
Gear section : typo, "alternately" ; why are ghillie suits unsuitable ? (yes I'm a pain ;D) May be describe the differences betwen weapons briefly, and say what ammo is needed for each... (I had to restart the mission several times to figure out the matching mags).

Mission

Cool anim on landing ! Seeing that LZ is closer to the spot where the hostage is, and being as meaningfully nagging as a beta-tester can be, that's where I go. I get an updated retry position... There's a truck patrolling... Eager to try my M82A1, I engage it. Loons unboard, bam bam, they're all dead. I then proceed to engage the guards in the village from the North (~500m.), bam bam, they are all dead. I order my loon to wait for me, and walk to the village... All dead ? Nah, I wish... Get killed a few times, reload, finally make it, free the hostage, leave him there, get in a truck, head north... oops, my loons have just spotted enemies coming from the west moving towards the village... get out of the truck, we kill them. Back to the truck, drive north, pop guys from the south in the radio station, climb on the mountains in the east, kill a bunch more, here comes a truck, I RPG it... Darn it, I'll soon be running out of ammo... Ok, back to the truck, where I had ordered my partner to go. We exchange weapons again (I had done so before walking to the first village), I move west, order the loon to follow me 100 m. behind me... Good move, as 6 enemies were trying to flank me... Cool piece of action there, as they were too close for my M82A1, so I kill some of them with my silenced handgun while n°2 finishes the rest... Move to the site, assassinate the few sneaky campers, blow the radio, shoot the two satellite phones inside the house, and they... disappear Anyway, the objective does not tick, so I look for other phones... there's none, so back to truck, retrieve my mates, go to the extract point and... nothing.
Is it because I didn't complete the objectives in the briefing order ? Are there more than two satellite phones on the site ?

Mission Uncompleted

My opinion

* What I liked : da weapons ;D ; the insecure feeling that grew in me as I realized I was running out of ammo (I "finished" the mission with 21 bullets left, counting my loon's).
* What I didn't like : the enemies never came from where I feared they might, that is, in my 6, from the mountains. Someone more patient than I was tonight could have walked around the sites for hours and snipe everybody without being threatened for real.

Anyway, that was fun, good job :thumbsup: !

[greg147]

Thanks for the review.  ;D

I'll edit the briefing and overivew, correcting the spelling errors and adding the things you said.

There were 4 satellite phones at the radio tower, but two of them were quite hard to find. They were in the building under the radio tower itself. The building can only be accessed by a ladder hatch from the roof, by the tower. Maybe I should make it clearer in the briefing as to where they actually are.  

The mission didn't end for you becuase the trigger that activates the extraction has the condition that all 3 objectives must be complete.

Unfortunatly I don't think I can fix the radios disappearing. Weither they are actually being deleted, falling through into the building below, or flying off into the air, it's the default BIS destruction animation. (unless there is a way to change the mass of an object without editing the config or whatever....)

I'll also rearange a few of the patrols. There was one rebel patrol walking about the top of the mountain east of the radio tower, as thats where I thought most people would go to get a good vantage point (although during beta testing it myself I found that the southern route was much easier.    )

[ruff]

i loved the mission havent finished it yet
suggestions

+the troops sound british why not use blackbloods sas units since the mission involves cqb and everyone willhave it and use the lsr weapons

+saving hostages are sas or sf type missions another reason for blackbloods units

i really like thismission though im gettin errors with the intro like missing classnames for the rebel addon is it the latest one?

cheers

[Conors]

I don't think the BLB troops have a sniper rifle so you could use P:UFKs Sniper

[greg147]

+the troops sound british why not use blackbloods sas units since the mission involves cqb and everyone willhave it and use the lsr weapons

Damn, is it that obvious?  ;D

This was my first attempt at voice acting, and as i'm British I didn't think it would sound quite right.  

@ the rebels problem

The one I used were v1.21, as far as I know they are the lastest version.

I suppose I could use the BLB troops. I'll think about it.  

EDIT: Currently I am adding a section to the briefing with short profiles of the weapons and a picture of each one, along with what type of ammo it takes.

[Igor Drukov]

Currently I am adding a section to the briefing with short profiles of the weapons and a picture of each one, along with what type of ammo it takes.

That's an awesome idea, I suggest you choose what unit to adopt before doing so, though... Laser's units and weapons kick *ss, you might just want to use SAS units for another mission ;D.

[greg147]

Yeah, I think i'll stick with Lasers units. They just fit this mission in my opinion  ;D

[greg147]

New version, v0.91, link at the top of the page.

Changes:

Readme updated with beta testers
Briefing typos corrected
'Avaliable Weapons' section added
More patrols added
Intro tweaked
Overview tweaked


The intro has't changed much (intros were never my strong point), but the camera no longer goes through the building, and some of the camera shots are zoomed out more in order to see more of the surrounding units.

Enjoy  

[greg147]

Sorry to bump this, but I could really do with the new version being tested acouple of times before I send it to the missions depot.  

[Igor Drukov]

Stand by, I'll try to give it another go by tomorrow (Thursday) night .

[Mikero]

OFP 1.96 vetmode 6896

Package:

one of the best presented readme's

Good use of addon inclusion. Everything easy and clear.

the use of penguinman's addon appears interesting and novel.

I suggest you call the generic middle east rebels jjr rather than juts generic. Most people know it by the former name) as it is this that comes up in scanners and missing addon blah


Overview:

Good presentation:

Intro:

Good use of music, good camera work on the whole. And one hell of an interesting sequence

It didn't quite do it for me. There appeared to be lazyman camera shots which spoiled the effect.

Three examples are:

a sideswipe view of the three civils talking at car where the pan goes too far accross, making them not centre of attention.

a further pan slide around to front where an over the top shot would have been more effective visually.

a final shot of the side of a mountain instead of the town itself.

The view of two nato? soldiers holding a prisoner is unexplained.


Briefing:

Everything presents well. Not noisy, good clear write up's and map.

Instant and intense dislike. It is not up to me to decide what weaponry to use. How the hell would I know?

Am half inclined to not bother continuing with this mission, but I select something, anything, and am disinterested in the outcome, which I know will be a poor one for me.

I went back and read the interesting info on each wepon type. But sorry, selecting 2 x guns and 2 x ammo packs is too tedious. If I want to play the mission again, and that is the point behind selections, I'll choose something.

Mission:

Nice sweep on parachutes. All parachute drops are good, this is no exception.

Pointless landing zone where the obviousness of saving the hostage is first. I have to detour 90 miles away from it to be sure I don't bugger up the author's choreography. Very poor choice of lz spot, poorly thought out.

The scenery is in the spectacular class, allowing me to continue the mission.

A retry kicks in and I can't see the point behind it.

An intensely iritating run and stumble thru the mountains before we get to tower miles and miles away.

Finally some action, and it was interesting action. Typically I have supplied #2 with a bipod M21 but no proper ammo for it so he's reduced to a spectator. This is very very poor.

Finally knock off everything twitching in camp and on buildings. Fortunately spotted nasties in a truck coming on my flank. But, it's all tedious since I'm the only one with ammo on our side. Eventually get #2 re-armed. Not so-easy run into base camp. Still a few crawly things about, but the enemy's GL gun is best trick. Tuff time getting on roof until I grenade the whole area.

Nice, and interesting climbs up and down and in building.

Blow tower since I had the brain to get at least a satchel in gear selection (did I mention this was a very poor design decision that's pissed me off greatly?). I read the readme again, and it's all there and mentions it.

Jump in uaz and take off. I'm no further use as a sniper since I was wounded falling off building. So I switch to standard ak.

A truck meets us halfway. I ignore it, it doesn't ignore me and shoots the vehicle from under us. We hide a bit and the truck continues on it's way to the radio tower. I decide to walk.

In the climb up down and around the buildings i spotted radio's in a rather interesting concealed area but didn't realise their significance.

Eventually get to next town, that LZ is still irritating me. Good tough firefight ensues but now convinced scenario is very unrealistic and non-immersive. No way are two mountain snipers going to take on what they have taken on.

Finally get my hostage clear. A pointless {you} to titletext, and probably a pointless titletext since he's told to join me anyway.

Get in truck and navigate to extraction a very very long way a way. Another, seemingly irrational retry save kicks in. I don't like these very long drives on CatAfghan, the map is overly large as it is. and the map rarely matches the actual topogrophy. You can't rely on the landmarks being accurate. No matter, some will like this driving stuff. It is after all, quite difficult to do.

I wait at x4 while reading briefing and realise I've missed the 2nd objective. Ok. my fault entirely, but it's infromative enough of what players will and wont do see and miss.

I decide to end mission there rather than go back.

Overall:

Nice, despite my bad mood about it all. I would give it a 7, even tough it irritated the crap out of me, because the troop positionings and general firefights made it worthwile. But, poorly thought out topography, it is.