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Author Topic: (Review Completed) [SP] Volatile Border - a SP desert mission on the East side  (Read 9683 times)

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Offline mathias_eichinger

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Hi folks!

After a long break due to real life commitments I managed to put another mission together.
It features a military we never encountered in OFP (as far as I know) - Tajikistan  ;)
You are a Border Guard soldier trying to contain Islamists who try to spill unrest over from Afghanistan.

Due to this setting it naturally needs a couple of addons:

Afghan Everon v2.0 and Taliban Pack v2.0
http://ofp.gamepark.cz/index.php?showthis=9811

Desert East by UCeFin
http://ofp.gamepark.cz/index.php?showthis=2655


Known Bugs

None to my knowledge.


Cheers

Mathias


EDIT :
The mission can still be found at http://rapidshare.de/files/25749538/Volatile_Border.zip.html

Edit 2: This mission has been reviewed and is available from the Missions Depot.
« Last Edit: 31 Oct 2009, 02:10:40 by Walter_E_Kurtz »

Offline greg147

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Re: Volatile Border - a SP desert mission on the East side
« Reply #1 on: 31 May 2006, 23:12:21 »
OK, sounds interesting, i'll give it a try  :)

Addons though, there is a newer version of both Afgan Everon and the taliban units. Consider using these instead, as they are more updated
http://ofp.gamepark.cz/index.php?showthis=9811

Overview
Pic could do with a border, otherwise it's good. Text gives me an idea of whats to come.

Intro
I find that to get the intro to end, I have to place a end trigger similar to what you would place to end a mission, for example in this campaign, you would place it so the intro ends when the BMP arrives at a certain point. There may be an easiler way, but thats how I do it  ;)
I know you said press space to end it, but I wasn't too sure where I was ment to. If it was where the camera ended and the shot went to the player in the BMP, then the shot before went on for too long, with not much showing but the valley and river. But I can't really say until I know where it's ment to end.
Also, the BMP starts facing the wrong direction, which looks a bit odd. Plus, when it is out of shot, it crashes into something quite a bit, making the metal-on-metal sound which is rather annoying.

Anyway, after this I got an missing addon error for ofpdtaliban, which is probably because I didn't remove the newer version of the taliban soldiers before putting the older pbos in. I may try again later, but I think more people will test this out if it used the newest versions of the island and soldiers  ;)
Royal Air Assault Battalion - [L/Cpl] Greg
RAAB

Offline mathias_eichinger

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Hi people!

I updated my mission using the latest iteration of Afghan Everon/Taliban Pack! Many thanks go to greg147 for introducing me to the art of ending an intro.  :)

Sooo.... if you are interested in "something else" than US vs. Russians please give this a try.


Cheers

Mathias

Offline greg147

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Overview
As I said before, pic could do with a border. Otherwise fine.

Intro
Didn't end again.
Also, there is too larger gap before and after the 'to protect your homeland'. Could do with shortening this bit.

Briefing
Missing addons error. It appears that 'talebmortar' and 'namortar' were still in the mission.sqs. They need to be taken out.

Anyway, I removed them, and continued.

Most things are OK here, the detailed orders arn't really needed, seeing as there arn't any  ;)

Also, there is a Luitenant in my squad (BMP commander), yet I, a sergeant, am in company of him. This could do with changing.

Mission
OK, we have 1 too many members in our squad to fit in the BMP, so I leave one behind, and get in a commander. We patrol down the border, and to be honest I had no idea which side was which country. Prehaps marking this on the map would make it clearer.
Anyway, we set off, and I see a squad sitting there on the other side, doing nothing. I guess they're ment to attack me, but consider putting a RPG guy umong them, so they do actually attack if the player is in the BMP. We eliminate them, and go mortar hunting. The mortar killed me at first, as I hopped out to get it on foot. When I tried again, it was in the same place. To make it harder to find it, you could give it a random position from a selection of, say, 5 posible places. After the mortar is destroyed, the radio messages that follow are right after each other, with no break in between. They can be set with a few seconds in between by having 2 triggers dececting when the mortar is destroyed, one with a 7 second delay or something.
So we take out the mortar, and approach the town. I radio the assault squad, but they just stop at the river and stay there. I press on, taking out the MG and RPG guys, then onto the town. I try radioing the assault squad again, and this time they begin to move very slowly towards us. I clear the town quite easily. Consider placing more emplacements etc, such as a few .50cals, and some enemies on rooftops, to make the place look more garrisoned. Also, some cars parked by streetsides would make it look more enhabited.
Anyway, by the time I've cleared it, I take a trip up to the airfield, the down to the south, and by the time I get back, the assault squad still hasn't reached up, and is going very very slowly. After about 10 minutes waiting on 4x speed, I give up, and end the mission.

Overall
Well, a few bugs here and there, but the basis of a good mission. Fix the slow assault squad bug, put a few more enemies in here and there, and maybe add a counterattack, and it'll be much better  ;)
Royal Air Assault Battalion - [L/Cpl] Greg
RAAB

Offline mathias_eichinger

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Hi Greg!

Many thanks for your helpful comments!
But two things still puzzle me: The Intro always ends for me (could do with a third opinion tough).
And there is already a counterattack, triggered by the death of the rpg soldier at the ambush. You should encounter several MG-Pickup trucks. You are sure they did not appear?

Again, many thanks for you hints and I will implement them once I am back at a PC with OFP installed.

Cheers

Mathias

Offline greg147

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Ah yes, the pickups came, by when I encountered them, they were moving very slowly out of the city. When I destroyed them, I ambushed them by the farmhouse south of west of the town, and that was about 4 minutes after I killed the RPG soldier and .50cal. I thought they were just a patrol by the speed they were moving.

Anyway, I think there should be more RPG soldiers in the mission. It's too easy if you do it all in the BMP  ;)
Royal Air Assault Battalion - [L/Cpl] Greg
RAAB

Offline Cheetah

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I'm going to test this one tomorrow, have just installed the mods and made everything ready so that I can start without having to do the nasty job of downloading mods and the rest of the stuff.


Volatile Border

Zipfile

A good readme and a picture included. Maybe you could use another picture, taken in a fight. Because this picture is there already in the overview. And it's not the best one you can take, I think. And it looks too wide.

Overview

The text is okay, but it looks like the overview picture is a bit too wide, did you make it larger in paint or something?

Intro

Well, I watched the intro and it was okay. Maybe a bit too long, could end earlier. But the biggest problem is that your intro doesn't end properly. Before getting out of the camera mode and destroying it, you should fade black in or something. Because right now the camera switches to the drivers point of view (BMP) and you see a waypoint. I was like "wtf never seen this kind of interactive intro.. uh oh wait I can't play".

Briefing

I'd remove the detailed orders part as it only makes the briefing larger and smaller is better in this briefing. If there's no orders that have to be given, let the player play the mission. And you want to make a bit more clear with some linked markers where the enemy is, where we start etc. Make it clear to the player which side of the line is friendly.
The rest of the briefing is fine.

Mission

Didn't see this in the briefing, but my rank is higher than #1, can't you make me #1 and him #2? That would seem a bit more logical.

Anyway, we walk a bit and across the river there's an enemy squad of six which are easily taken care of. Enemy artillery injures two of my teammates and we get in the BMP. #5 can't board, the BMP is full. You can just remove one of the soldiers in my team in your next version, to ensure that we all can get in. The enemy artillery should keep on going a bit longer, right now we're going to cross the river and there's no artillery that's making us sweat.

On the other side of the river, #9 gets healed and my medic stays injured, can't do much about it :). I order the BMP to pick up #5, because I don't want to leave anybody behind. There's a BMP on the road, don't know if it's supposed to help me, probably not. We lost four men during the fight to secure the mortar position.

I got in the BMP as driver and drove to the river crossing. After some time we moved on towards the city.
I used the radio to do this, but it was still available after telling him to advance. You should remove the radio after I use it.
After saving the game I move on but get wasted. Okay, that means that I've to proceed on foot for a while. The other BMP moved a little slow, you should get the men in the BMP to ensure that he drives at maximum speed (and that's what you want I thought to have written). The two men that move along with the BMP slow it, because they stay in formation.

Well, I take position northwest of the city in a small village or something waiting for the other BMP to start the assault.
There's two jeeps there that are easily taken care of and I can proceed in the city. A RPG aims at me but he didn't shoot, I was already to close and they don't blow up themselves. So threat eliminated. There's one more jeep of which I kill the drivers. I get eliminated by a rpg soldier deeper in the city, but I saved a few seconds before.
This clearing had to be done on foot and took one retry before the moment came that I couldn't find more enemies. So the mission didn't end, going to use a cheat. Or is there something coming later, like reinforcements. If that's the case make it a new objective. Don't think this is the case, because I see nothing at the horizon.

Debriefing
Duration: 26 minutes
Score: 5120 (one star)
Objectives #1,2 ticked off correctly. #3 wasn't ticked off but the mission didn't end.

No outro.
« Last Edit: 05 Jun 2006, 09:57:37 by Cheetah »
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Offline mathias_eichinger

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Hi Cheetah!

Thank you for your comprehensive review!

The overview picture is just a perspective thing (stood close to the BMP when taking the screenshot), could really be better, you are right.

I will put in more RPG soldiers and map markers in my next version, as greg147 has also pointed out.
My intention was to let the second BMP take the lead, get him eliminated by the RPG ambush and the ambush team would then be fully alerted when you move in. Will fix the intro too now that I know how.

I think I just need to remove 3 of the 12 soldiers in the BMP attack group and they would get in their BMP for the long treck towards Konduz.

I have used one of the infamous "resistance not present" triggers in Konduz, which take a while to get activated (game engine thing?). No reinforcements planned for the city, but that's a good idea tough. I will change the trigger once the OFPEC tutorials are up again and I can rediscover how to do it better.

Many thanks for your test, will implement the changes as soon as I have time.

Cheers

Mathias

Offline mathias_eichinger

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Hi lads!

I've just attatched the new version of my mission to the post.
The changes are as follows.

EDIT: Intro should end now, but greg147 still experiences a neverending one.

EDIT #2: * slow vehicle bug fixed
               * added markers for map clarity
               * counterattack after ambush
               * intro has been shortened

I refrained from putting more eyecandy and enemies into Konduz because of performance issues and the fact that I ended up alone almost every time in urban combat. (My squad was killed fast).

Cheers

Mathias

Offline Cheetah

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Volatile Border

Mission

It would be better if I could be #2, because right now it looks weird and I find it harder to control the BMP. Because I'm used to being #1 as a group leader.
In the objectives: "Cross the Border" -> "Cross the border"

Lost two soldiers thanks to the mortar fire and I must say that I liked the fight, the range might be a bit too long for an AK74, but we made it without casualties thanks to gunfire.
Nicely positioned soldiers on the mortar position. I'm planning to take out the mortar position on my own, to save my men, but got eliminated by a well placed soldier.

After eliminating the mortar position on my own I got inside the BMP and ordered the BMP to the river crossing. I suggest making a marker there and link in the briefing to it. So that people know where you want them to go to.

This time I made the ambush work out as it should have. By staying behind the other BMP and we moved towards the city  in the BMP. The enemy pickups were quickly taken care of by the 30mm canon manned by #4. After some driving we arrived at the city and I ordered all men to disembark. We were going to do this on foot.

We secured the town about five minutes after getting in and I used a retry only once. We lost #1 during the fight.

Debriefing
Duration: 19 minutes
Score: 5020 (one star)
Objectives ticked off accordingly.

Overall
A mission that could use a nice outro and might be too easy for some players. I suggest adding more units at the final objective, maybe a counterattack after you've secured the town. Or just about four more units (two of them RPGs) in front of the town to force the player to get into the town on foot. And then position a M2 on top of a house to reign terror on the player.
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Offline mathias_eichinger

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Hi all!

I managed to implement Cheetahs friendly suggestions today.
The changes are:
               
               *added more enemies to Konduz
               * added counterattack after you take Konduz
               * basic Outro added

This means that the difficulty is slightly higher (more enemies to tackle).
Hope you have fun with this latest version.


Cheers

Mathias

Offline Mikero

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Hi Mathias

I loved this, at least the very little I've seen of it so far!

You need to update your links at top of page to reflect the VERSION TWO afghan pack.

edit: oops, you have!


I downloaded installed, patched, fiddled and got things going only to discover 'missing addon blah'

Am downloading new stuff now, which (I think should also include the V2 taliban units?)

Initial impressions?

readme is just fine (allowing for new Versions please)

Loved the overview. Picture is great.

Niggle: try and centre the text paragraph (a very very small detail)

I like to see author advertising at bottom of overview, and a revision number, somewhere.

Intro:

beautiful.

A slightly jarring first effect as different camera angles snapped into place, but that is a wonderful intro and quite beautiful, you captured 'it' perfectly.

Wonderful use of limited range of music. Perfect. You _might_ want to change it to something more 'arabic' *yes, I know where Afghanistan is <grin>. Some sound tracks have emerged on other afghan missions and are very very 'authentic'.


Some suggestions on English phrasing.


that has been.. = which has been...

those times = these times. Past tense doesn't grip the player unless you really make the whole mission, past tense.


Looking forward to playing this.


Just say no to bugz

Offline mathias_eichinger

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Hi Mikero!

Thank you for your initial suggestions and help on English grammar. Arabic music is a good Idea. I just don't know where to get arabic music (no, I don't have kazaa). Any pointers where to start looking?
I am looking forward to your playtest if you find the time to do it.

Cheers

Mathias

Offline Mikero

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>arabic music

scan the beta testing forum for MrN's  "Dustbowl"

In fact, as I recall, almost all the missions here with an afghan theme have some in them. For many mission types added music can be cheesy and overdone, but  Aghan is the same as Tonal, you use them as enviromental sounds, rather than music.

---
as for your mission I can't get past your "missing addon OFPD_AfghanPack"

edit:

ok, started sorting out the confusion.

the link to the afghanpack 1st post is wrong, it is correct in the readme.

http://ofp.gamepark.cz/index.php?showthis=9811

--
you need to say something about putting anims in the anims folder for this 'foreign' island, otherwise player gets that peculiar active screen at end of mission (when he exits)
--

i think you develeped this mission from version1.2 of the afghanpaclk.

because of this, your mission.sqm contains non-existent addon requirements. Specifically

"talebmortar",
"namortar",

these were merged in version 2 into a single pbo.

you have to hand edit your mission.sqm to remove them in two locations because the ofp editor will not do that for you.
---
I played the mission up to end of Konduz, and got the hunt the last loon bug, couldn't find the bugger anywhere and so remainder of mission couldn't trigger.

This is a great mission, I love it. Your proportions to geography are terrific, particularly the river.

« Last Edit: 11 Jun 2006, 02:04:11 by Mikero »
Just say no to bugz

Offline mathias_eichinger

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Hi Mikero!

Many thanks for your helpful comments. I thought I already cleaned the mission.sqm, but thanks for your correction.
Will remove the "hunt the last loon bug" if I find the correct code snipped somewhere on the editing forum.
And I will say something about the anims folder in the next revison's readme.
I am glad you liked the mission gameplay-wise!


Cheers

Mathias