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Author Topic: (Review completed) [SP/AD] Evil's Last Will (v.1.5)  (Read 32698 times)

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Offline Undeceived

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Re: [SP/AD] Evil's Last Will
« Reply #15 on: 15 Aug 2008, 19:45:29 »
Wolfrug, this was a BLAST of a beta review!! Thank you very much, I really appreciate it, guys! And good to know that the mission worked for you finally, hehe... :)

Ok, I think I will need some time to answer to the last posts... :)
And I noticed... There is plenty of work to do! :goodnight: But I'm going to make it, hopefully.


__________________


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DePBOed the mission and came across the radio message that was played twice: STR_NachConvoy_03F
Is this bug reproducible? Wolfrug, did you experiment this too? 'Cause I never had it.

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in the outro I could see the units getting setPossed, not sure if you addressed that with the release of the new version
But you are not meaning Luchs, when he's walking towards the colonel or Jegor (the guy that is sitting and watching the sunset), do you? Because these setposses were intended, hihi :D Like a "cinematic eyecandy" :) Maybe I should review it though. Or did you mean other units?

[The next quote is about the resistance fighters still being running through the forest while the player sometimes already has reached the house (farewell)]
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Maybe a fading out and setpos and fading in... Don't know.
That is indeed an option, there aren't many I guess, maybe someone else comes up with something good
How about activating the trigger only when the whole group is in its area? This could take some time (until all fighters arrived) but after all it's them, who the player has to escort to safety. What do you think about it?

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Have been thinking about adding motorcycles, a vehicle that gives you a ride (fade out) and stops 1 click south of the evac village before a checkpoint, giving the player another bit of action but that all doesn't suit the mission too well I guess
Sorry, I didn't understand what you are trying to say. :)


About having to return to the extraction point after the colonel: I will make the trigger come earlier so the player does not need to go almost the whole way back.

_________________

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although you finally get the point of the mission's name as well as the point of the picture at the end, it's a little fuzzy from the beginning.
Yes, it was the intention that the player doesn't get the sense of the name by just looking the picture or reading the name... I put many thoughts in the name, didn't want to name it like "Too late" or somthing like this.

At your intro review (Wolfrug):
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I mostly just heard a chopper all the time, and some random (non-subtitled?) voices.
Are you speaking about the intro here? Because this would then be a bug. All voices (there are only 2) are to be subtitled... This is different in the outro, there I put the voices like it was a memory from the past, where you hear the voices in your head... I didn't subtitle this part, it was simply impossible. It would be way too fast.

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I think the "flashing pictures" didn't work out that well for me

Are you refering to the pictures in the outro, too?

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Might need some tiny English grammar corrections

If you find some part, please let me know. It's hard not having English as native language. But thankfully my girlfriend helped me a lot already!! :)

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"what's that stench?"
Should I better use this sentence instead of "What is it that stinks here..."?

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I don't know what would've happened if I'd've shot him, but I guess nothing much (except Fuchsbau, that bastard, would've been angry)

Hehe, yes, he would be angry! And the mission would be jeopardized and finished! :D But try it out the next time! ;)

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I decide to head towards Pacamac using the right side of the road (closer to the sea) and head that way...no traffic, no patrols, no nothing, so a little uneventful I must say
Well, this is strange... Didn't you see some vehicles with resistance fighters within driving in direction of Hunapu? If not, probably the motorcycle didn't make it again (it sometimes fell on its back while trying to drive up a tiny mountain). I removed it and replaced it by a blue car in the last patch, now it works fine. I also set the fire near Hunapu, which is mentioned by the resistance leader.
But anyway, I will probably have to add some more stuff to that long way.

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I was planning on going north, and then straight east into the big M to avoid the question marks on the road and such, and kind of wandered into their camp
Hm... Maybe I should remove the question marker at Passo Paradiso. And I think I will either remove the whole camp and setpos it there later or just let it empty, like as B.V. still was on its way... Good ideas, mate. Thx!

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the cutscene where the 17-year old joined the group, although I think I was in the wrong place since they spoke of canyons and things (I was in the middle of the forest someplace),
If all went right, the boy did join the player with the other res. fighters at the meeting point. At this cutscene the crude sniper joins the team.
Normally the player should go to Mataredo near of the road... Maybe removing the "?" will help.

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Weird bug: once the cutscene was over, one of my men had the "Mount" order and was running into the forest.
Did you or anyone of your group mount a vehicle before that?
Oh man... This "mount the vehicle" stuff really is annoying. But I hope that it's ok now, I have unassigned them all from vehicles in all cutscenes and significant points

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note: you need to spiff up their AI, currently when attacked they'll just hit the dirt and not move

Ok, I'll do that! Didn't know this method yet.

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I was ordered to find Falke, but I failed. Where the heck is he? I went to the location, and the objective ticked off, but there was no cutscene or anyone joining my group or anything.
??? Hm, I don't know what might have happened there... After Mataredo, Falke is setpossed from an island right to the edge of the forest at EJ21. He is set right beside of a small tree.
Really strange that one with the ticked objective and noting more... There has to come a conversation right after the meeting with Falke (but it's not a cutscene), it's just a "last instruction before Black-Venom." that Luchs gives to the resistance fighters. Then Falke and the rest join Luchs. Really weird...

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Phoie - long mission!
Do you think that the mission maybe is too long?
I personally see it as a mini-campaign without loading screens and briefings. What do you think?

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feuer frei
Hehe, nice one! ;)

About the camp:
There are two guys patrouling and two other guys "waiting for an attack", just to spread out in the forest and flank the players group. I think that your grenade attacks erased them before they could hit the bushes. :) But I will review this point again, the idea with the S&D waypoints and more units running in the bushed is good. Thx!

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Annoyance: By this time I've used up all of the three saves I get at the start. How about giving us some more?
Rgr, I will definitely do this! Thanks for the instruction, I'll try it out! What does Op:DH mean? I would like to check it out for the savegame issue, if it's allowed.

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and then drove off - only to drive off a cliff and die stupidly inside the car trying to get to Hunapu through the mountains. Arrgh.

LOL :D Good one! :D

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Oh, about the convoy ambush
Question: Do you think that the convoy is too easy or is it ok?

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Drove back to Hunapu, got the last chatter (the resistance soldiers left my group, exited the UAZ, entered it again, had a conversation with me, and then exited it again. Oh well).
I think this is one of the major problems... UAZ and the farewell (do you call this farewell or somehow else in english?) do not combine... The player must not drive there and many many thanks for this great idea with the MI-17 after the convoy!! This will prevent the player to go there by car! Thanks! :good:

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Didn't get any special mention for saving the 17-year old brother
Yes... You're right... Do you guys have an idea how to recompense the player for it without having to record new voices? :confused:

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Then I moved over to the extraction zone and waited for the chopper - note, I had to take option b)
Hopefully this bug is fixed in the last version.

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the mission ends - extraordinary success!
Great job! ;) The best score possible! :)

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the quick scenes really worked this time around, no problem with LOD shifting or anything!
Well, this is a thing I really hate in ArmA! You say you didn't have any problems with LOD? Despite trying to use preloadcam more than often I don't get rid of this! There are always ugly textures that take a while to get loaded... :(

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for instance you could've mostly omitted RHS's russian troops addon (changing the story only slightly
I fear that this is not possible, because of the recorded voices speaking about russians, and so on...

_______________

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Finally, the ambush point. I'm not sure if it was a coincidence but there was really bad weather when I had to take out the convoy
The weather at this point is scripted, yes... As all storms in the missions are (you heard the thunder, didn't you?). I used Mandobles storm script (aaah, *feared* I didn't give him credits................ Sorry, Mando! Will be contained right in the next version!!!)

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Thought those comments could be handy for you in analyzing bugs and coming up with fixes.
Yes, they really are! Thx, mate! This is what I need.


Thank you for your time!
« Last Edit: 16 Aug 2008, 00:55:57 by Undeceived »
Current project: Black Lands (Arma 3)

Offline Wolfrug

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Re: [SP/AD] Evil's Last Will
« Reply #16 on: 16 Aug 2008, 12:22:30 »
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Is this bug reproducible? Wolfrug, did you experiment this too? 'Cause I never had it.

Nope, no radio messages were played twice. Only radio-related bug was in the end when Falke was suddenly dead (even though I hadn't had him with me during the whole time). *shrug*

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intro

I just rewatched it, and you're right - there were subtitles, no problem. :) The problem I had was with my gamma correction - everything on my screen is always a lot darker than...umm...it is on other peoples screens, I guess. Basically night = PITCH BLACK. So half the time I heard the chopper and saw the green-glowing instruments, but nothing else. So that's why it was a little "unimpressive" to me - but you can't help the fact some people have weird gamma and brightness settings!  :) The intro also made a lot more sense now, so yay! No problems with flashing pictures or anything, it was fine.

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Should I better use this sentence instead of "What is it that stinks here..."?

If you want to. :) "What is it that stinks here" is a main clause followed by a subordinate one, which is a bit too elaborate for the simple message you want to convey: "it stinks". But you should use whatever corresponds to the German, I suppose (and I know German tends to like run-on sentences :D)

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vehicles with resistance fighters within driving in direction of Hunapu

This is the risk of a game like ArmA, where making scripted things like this happen in a natural way isn't as easy as in corridor-shooters. :) They probably drove past fine, I just didn't see them since I was too busy looking at the map/trees/sky/whatever. A little note: just to test things I went up to the two guys by a car next to a house to see if there'd be any reaction : none whatsoever. But at least you had made the car have no fuel in it, so you couldn't just drive off with it :D Hint: if you want, you could have the civilians panic and hit the dirt or something like that if they spot the player (heavily armed soldier coming in!) - I think some of the last missions in the original ArmA campaign have some civilian voices (like "help us!" and such). Just an idea.

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If all went right, the boy did join the player with the other res. fighters at the meeting point. At this cutscene the crude sniper joins the team.

You're right, it was just the sniper. I though they said there'd be two more though. What happened to the other guy? There was always something there, something about the way the sniper talked that made me think "traitooor!", but nothing ever happened. Would've been an interesting developement...

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Did you or anyone of your group mount a vehicle before that?

I tried getting into the car with no fuel next to the civilians at one point, but that was before I had a group with me, so I can't imagine that'd been kept. I have no idea. O.o

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Do you think that the mission maybe is too long?

Not at all! Just the save-game issue (not enough of them ;)) was sometimes annoying, but it's a credit to your mission that it never had me want to give it up entirely! Very nice with a long mission with many objectives and such, had a blast. :)

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What does Op:DH mean?

Hehe. Operation Dawning Hope, one of my missions, available Here. You don't need to check it out to be able to create the same thing, just do what I suggested:

Trigger (repeatedly)
Activated By: Radio (whatever)
Condition: savesLeft > 0
On Activation: savesLeft = savesLeft - 1; (radioNumber) setRadioMsg (format ["Saves left: %1", savesLeft]); saveGame

Then whenever you come to a point where you want more saves to be available, just do something like:

savesLeft = savesLeft + 1; hint "You now have one more save to use!"; (radioNumber) setRadioMsg (format ["Saves left: %1", savesLeft]);

Just a little bit more work, but worth it I think :) Just set the savesLeft variable to something in the init.sqf, and set the original text of the trigger to reflect that (say, you have 3 saves from the start, you just make the Text of the radio trigger "Saves left: 3")

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Question: Do you think that the convoy is too easy or is it ok?

Considering I was doing it with no more saves, I think it was okay :D It was so late in the mission I don't think anyone'd've wanted a super-hard "boss battle" any more - just get it done with, and get home! The atmosphere with the rain and fog was superb, just waiting for the explosion as the first tank hits the mine...if you could add the chase afterwards, with the chopper in the dark and everything...aahhh...  :good:

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Yes... You're right... Do you guys have an idea how to recompense the player for it without having to record new voices?

Not really :-/ That is a problem, always, when you have fully voiced missions and can't get in contact with your voice-over makers. Oh, by the way: a solution for both the UAZ and the farewell-talk is to make it happen in Pacamac instead. Basically return all the resistance soldiers to their "home base", where you can have the little talk, and then you can be driven/drive/take a bike/whatever up to Hunapu. Just an idea.

Anyway.... -> great mission, looking forward to the next iteration of it :D Great job!

Wolfrug out.

"When 900 years YOU reach, look as good you will not!"

Offline Undeceived

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Re: [SP/AD] Evil's Last Will
« Reply #17 on: 17 Aug 2008, 22:39:34 »
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I though they said there'd be two more though. What happened to the other guy?
In the cutscene the sniper tells to Jegor that the other two men went to Hunpu to their families. Btw. didn't the cutscene work for you? It's the one, where the boy tells Luchs that he wants to be a "special soldier" one day and kill many enemies...


About the "recompense" for the player, because of the 17 years old boy:
Well, unfortunately I can't record new voices now for a possible conversation between the leader at Pacamac (the brother of the boy) and Luchs, it really would be a very good thing! Damn... I didn't think about that one... :( Sorry!
But I had the idea that I could (when the boy is "delivered back" safely) make a ticked objective coming up that says: "(Side objective): Bring the young brother back safely!"
And if the boy dies in action immediately there comes the objective, but failed. I think that making the ticked or failed objective appear only when the boy's back home or has died would be a special recompense for the player (if he made it). Better than giving him this objective right after the big brother asks Luchs to do it...



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something about the way the sniper talked that made me think "traitooor!"
No, he's just frustrated and full of anger. That's the motive why he is speaking this way. :) But he's ok. Just a little... strange! :)


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great mission, looking forward to the next iteration of it
Thx, mate. I'll work on it!
« Last Edit: 17 Aug 2008, 22:49:10 by Undeceived »
Current project: Black Lands (Arma 3)

Offline bert

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Re: [SP/AD] Evil's Last Will
« Reply #18 on: 20 Aug 2008, 00:46:41 »
Although I'm not yet finished, I have to say that I'm really enjoying this mission so far. So far I've shot the Officer, met the resistance leader and I'm currently snooping around Mataredo with my band of rebels safely hidden away.

I'll post a proper beta report when I'm done.

bert  :good:

Offline Zipper5

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Re: [SP/AD] Evil's Last Will
« Reply #19 on: 20 Aug 2008, 12:39:32 »
I've started to beta test this mission, and I must admit, it's very good so far. I've always had a fear of thunder, and the custom thunder crack sounds you use make me jump every time I hear them. Plus, the whistling of the wind, and the part where the fog set in... Jeeze... This is going to take me longer as I'm constantly walking slowly rather than jogging/sprinting, hehe. Expect a report sooner or later, though! :D

Well, I finished it, and here's the report:

Evil's Last Will by Undeceived
v1.11

Played with:
ArmA v1.14
Required AddOns
Regular mode modified to Veteran settings. (Allows more than one save game)



Package
Contains everything it needs: 3 promotion pictures showing aspects of the mission, a readme in English and German, and the mission file itself. Nothing to add here.

Overview
Has a good picture showing Colonel Valesh Wissarijan with the name of the mission included. Underneath is a brief plot synopsis that entices you (at least, it did to me) to play it. Nothing to add, again.

Intro
Very good camera angles, good music, excellent voice acting. Not at all rushed either. Makes you wonder what the mission is about and entices you to play it. Perfect.

Briefing
Fairly detailed with multiple sections with working links between them outlining different subjects. Includes reconnaissance pictures/photographs of the camp and target. It also outlines the objectives, though it's obvious that there will be more. Eventually, when these other objectives are activated, they spill on to a second page. Not such a big deal, however, as at least the information that makes it do this is useful and needed to complete the mission. It also has a section detailing how to use both of your weapons (great feature to use).

Mission

I just want to say that I found this mission to be incredibly good. Probably one of the best, if not the best, missions I've played so far for ArmA. The voice acting, cinematics and mission design are all really well done and make the mission a joy to test. Obviously, there were some English grammar and spelling mistakes, but the author's first language is not English so it's understandable. Plus, even though they are there you still understand what's being said.

After killing the Colonel I picked up an enemy weapon in my Secondary Weapon slot instead of the MP5SD. Thankfully, this didn't break the mission in any way. In fact, when you finally contact the Resistance I advise you do take a weapon from the crate as you'll need the ammo to wipe out the Black-Venom camp. There were actually only a couple hitches in the mission:

1) an error popped up at the beginning of the mission (pictured below).



2) while the cutscene before you execute the Colonel happened, you could see a muzzle flash on the Rsc you used (picture below).



3) when I met up with Falke at the edge of the forest, at first I couldn't find where he was. I sped up time, expecting that he would come running from somewhere, but he didn't. I recommend cutting immediately to a cutscene or something similar with him already there. I found him, eventually. He was just well hidden in a bush. Once I did find him, however, the mission continued fine.

4) when I attacked the convoy, only a T72 and Shilka showed up. We took them down (where I had my only casualty) but nothing happened (pictured below). I sped up time, waiting for more, but nothing came. I walked down the road they came from, still nothing. So I just retreated south into the forest again and Fauchsbau said I only damaged the convoy, not destroyed it. I presume more was supposed to be there but for some reason it didn't show? Anyways, the mission still continued fine.



At one point, close to the beginning, I ran into an enemy camp with a BMP patrolling it. Basically I said "f*** that!" and sprinted around it. Now, shamefully, I resorted to the age-old art of beach walking to avoid the enemy. I don't know how, but I ended up taking a really long walk along that beach. Mainly because I had no idea what I would find on the road or in a town. I'd recommend placing some patrols on the south side of the road heading east from Hunapu as then it won't be a way to exploit the mission, I suppose. "Bypass" what's supposed to happen.



I didn't see the Resistance get in the truck, because I completely forgot to watch it. But the mission moved on ok. Now, I was expecting something to happen at the extraction, but much to my relief nothing happened. Eventually, the MH6 came and took us away. It didn't order us into another vehicle either. And that was that. Mission completed.



Outro
This was actually still part of the mission. It showed stuff that happened during the beginning of the mission and related back to the intro. After watching this, you realize that the intro was actually a flashback of what happened. The credits were so well done and in a really cool style that they were just fun to watch. Good cinematic angles, transitions and effects. Nothing to change here either.

Overall
A truly excellent mission, very highly recommended by myself to those who want a challenging, well-made mission. The voice acting was superb, the cinematics were great to watch and the mission design was relatively flawless. Even though the addon requirements are fairly large, they're very well-made and well-chosen. Plus, they add a lot of quality to the mission. If you refuse to download this mission because of the addon requirements, you are nuts.

Very well done, Undeceived. :D
« Last Edit: 20 Aug 2008, 16:06:43 by Zipper5 »

Offline Undeceived

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Re: [SP/AD] Evil's Last Will
« Reply #20 on: 21 Aug 2008, 02:56:33 »
Hey guys!

Thank you for your answers!


@ bert
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I'll post a proper beta report when I'm done.
Great! Thanks for trying it out!


@ Zipper5

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Well, I finished it, and here's the report:
Evil's Last Will by Undeceived
v1.11
Good that you still catched the last version to play! ;)


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Obviously, there were some English grammar and spelling mistakes,
@ all: If you can find time or remember where the worst mistakes are, please contact me! :)
One thing I and the guys that recorded the voices with me weren't sure is how "Venom" is speaked out! ::) Especially the "e" of it. Is it pronounced like an "e" as in "test" or "gErman" or is it like an "e" of "bean" or "speed"??

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1) an error popped up at the beginning of the mission (pictured below).
Yes... This is an error from the EditorUpdate_V102 but I don't know what's wrong in there... I also could not establish contact with the author. Does anyone know by coincidence who the author is and how I can contact him?

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2) while the cutscene before you execute the Colonel happened, you could see a muzzle flash on the Rsc you used (picture below).
I think this is an ArmA "bug". I noticed it in other missions too. It always appears, when it's getting darker and you're looking at a certain angle of the sun...
Can anyone confirm this?

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I recommend cutting immediately to a cutscene or something similar with him [Falke] already there.

Hm, ok, maybe it really is too hard to find him. I think, I'll better make him come to the player. I'm not planning to make another cutscene because there already are plenty of them in the mission. :)

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4) when I attacked the convoy, only a T72 and Shilka showed up.

The convoy consist of one T72, one BMP2 and one Shilka. I think that the BMP did have problems in finding the path... Damn!
Before the player gets to the road to set up the ambush, Fuchsbau tells to Luchs that if he's not able to destroy the convoy completely, he and the squad should pull back to the south. I will make this clearer in the briefing, thanks for the clarification!
And I'll check what happened to the BMP and how I can improve the way of the convoy... The road is pretty curvaceous...

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I'd recommend placing some patrols on the south side of the road heading east from Hunapu as then it won't be a way to exploit the mission, I suppose. "Bypass" what's supposed to happen.
Phew... :) "Bypass"? I didn't get it. Can you explain it again for me? Thx!!
What I can tell so far is that I've put some more life into the walk from Hunapu to Pacamac. It still was pretty empty and boring... But it should be better now.

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The credits
Thanks mate!
I have a question here: How was the timing of the cuts with the music? Especially when the scenes changed (for example from Luchs and Colonel to the Speznaz and the resistance guys at the road OR from the trees to the sunset where Jegor is sitting and watching. Was it ok? 'Cause in the previous version the cut and the music didn't always fit together. If you notice something serious here, please let me know.


Thanks for this great beta review, mate!
I'll continue working on it!
See you.
Current project: Black Lands (Arma 3)

Offline Zipper5

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Re: [SP/AD] Evil's Last Will
« Reply #21 on: 21 Aug 2008, 06:39:56 »
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Can you explain it again for me?

Sure. What I mean is I took a different route to get to Pacamac than you designed the mission for. Instead of going up north to the mountains and forests, I went south along the beach. Nothing was actually in place over there, so it was kind of a long, uneventful walk. Granted, I felt I shouldn't have gone that way in the first place, but perhaps you should add something there as a surprise to those who wish to test every possibility of the mission.

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@ all: If you can find time or remember where the worst mistakes are, please contact me!

I can try to find a few. Here you go:

Briefing
1) Situation on Sahrani -
- russian instead of Russian
- Especially in the mountains where the enemy could establish itself
- by surprise attacks

2) Task -
- russian instead of Russian

4) Execution of task -
- it is his order -> it is his job

Information about the shooting position -
- russian instead of Russian

7) Sahrani - A report -
1st Page:
- ... despite of being... -> ... despite being...
- No one of us knows... -> Not one of us knows...
- ... russian residents... -> ... Russian residents...

2nd Page:
- ... that russian troops... -> ... that Russian troops...
- ... number of russian troops... -> ... number of Russian troops...
- ... and we in the middle of it... -> ... and we were in the middle of it...

3rd Page:
- ... the Russians had lacks of security... -> the Russians had a lack of security...
- No one of them survived. -> Not one of them survived.
- But the russian occupying forces... -> But the Russian occupying forces...
- ... also german soldiers have... -> ... also German soldiers have...

Mission
When Falke informs Fuchsbau that Black Venom are killing everyone via radio:
- Requesting permittion to intervent! -> Requestion permission to intervene!
- I managed to persuit the special unit along the street. -> I managed to pursue the special unit along the street.
- ... russian road block... -> ... Russian road block...
- I request permission to intervent, -> I request permission to intervene,

When Luchs gets told to go to Pacamac via radio:
- Welcome at the slaughterhouse, buddy... -> Welcome to the slaughterhouse, buddy...

When you find the Resistance group in the mountains:
- Listen, that weren't simple Russians! -> Listen, those weren't simple Russians!

When Fuchsbau orders you to go from Mataredo to destroy the Black Venom camp:
- Luchs and Falke, your order is... -> Luchs and Falke, your orders are...
- ... , so let it bang and hit hard and surprisingly! -> ... , so hit them hard and use the element of surprise!

That's as many as I caught. Hope that helps.
By the way, it's pronounced Venom as in test. But, when I first heard it, I thought it was just the German accent. :P And yes, the intro was fine. I didn't notice any parts that were out of rhythm and it ended when the music ended. Don't think you need to change anything there.
« Last Edit: 21 Aug 2008, 06:42:18 by Zipper5 »

Offline Undeceived

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Re: [SP/AD] Evil's Last Will
« Reply #22 on: 21 Aug 2008, 16:25:53 »
Cool!!  :D

Thank you very much, Zipper!!!! Of course it helps a lot!
Current project: Black Lands (Arma 3)

Offline bert

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Re: [SP/AD] Evil's Last Will
« Reply #23 on: 23 Aug 2008, 02:47:16 »
Well, I finally finished. What a mission :clap:

I played using ECS, True gameplay mods and Durgs Vegetation fix.

Package: No issues, read me and pictures all in order.

Overview: No problems once again.

Intro: To tell the truth I can't really remember the intro and I'm writing this on a computer without ArmA installed so theres no chance of me firing it up and watching. I scribbled a few notes and apparently the camera work is decent but a few spots were a bit dark. Sorry for being vague.

Briefing: The briefing was above average and pretty long. I've been put off by long briefings in the past, but this didn't strike me as overly long. Everything was relevant, good use of pictures. The bit written by a Sahrani native was a nice touch. Gear selection was nicely balanced and not over the top.

Mission: I took an indirect route to the position over the base. I looped up around the forest and crawled by the guys around the fire (reported as a sniper pos) and most of the way up to the position. I was fairly worried that the two soldiers patrolling  near the north of the wood would stumble across me. Well done on giving the player some time to set up before the cutscene initializes. The cutscene ws very nicely done by the way, although there was a dodgy looking muzzle flash in the optics view at this point. I saved at this point. Eventually I got the go ahead to shoot the officer so I took him down with one shot. After this point, my tactic was to run like hell as I was expecting a major reaction.
I ran several hundred meters in front of a BRDM (I think) and headed up a hill only to have a sniper miss me from very close range. I killed him with the mp5 and swapped the M-24 for his SVD (was expecting lots of action) and 45 or so seconds later got killed by a crewman. As I new of the sniper at this point, I decided to follow the same route to get his SVD again. That crewman was up there again and nearly had me a second time. Beggar came out of nowhere both times.

After recieving the orders just before getting to the extraction point (could it be made so this happens a bit earlier?) I made my way slowly through the woods. I ran in to some kind of patrol or blocking force and decided to due to being vastly out gunned. The treck over the mountains was pretty uneventful except for the bad weather that made for an excellent atmosphere.
In the woods in EA22 something odd happened. Some kind of very fast unknown vehicle showed up on the map, came right up to me and then shot off somewhere at high speed. I also noticed that I happened to turn in to a civilian. I don't know weather this was intentional or not, but it didn't seem to   affect the gameplay in any way. It was odd though and I did for a moment think that I had run in to a patrol.
I saw the fire by the road which to me seemed sinister, so I slunk off from that very carefully, its funny how these things affect how you approach the mission.

Once in the vicinity of Pacamac, I used the woods to conceal my approach and felt pretty smug when the boss practically repeated my plan. I saved before entering the village (good move as I hesitated and got shot by the resistance). The dialog here was all top notch and very believable.
I didn't take up the resistance leaders offer for equipment as as I was still well stocked at this point. I took a fairly quick route up the mountain and met the resistance fairly quickly.
To get to Mataredo I took a path between the wood west of  Passo Paradiso and the big wood. Rather than attacking the town straight on, I left my troops in two groups in different gulleys (better for their survival if they ran in to a patrol) and took a look at the town. Since the patrol on the road was predictable, I ambushed them out of sight of the main part of the village using my MP5. I then crept out of the village and moved in to some rocks overlooking the village. From this point the SVD was used to kill two men in Mataredo and a guy on the hill on the opposite side of the pass. I then moved in to town and mopped up the rest on the enemy. My resistance guys were positioned overlooking the town and did most of the hard work. I then spent 5 minutes hunting one last man who was eventually found in one of the houses.

After the very good cutscene I ran from the town and avoided a group coming out of the woods before meeting Falke. I found him pretty easily as I guessed he would be at one of the bushes from an editor update that showed up on the map.
Rather than storming the camp, I set up my resistance guys in an arc NW of the camp. I then took Falke up to the high ground near the middle of the the forest and found a very good vantage point that let me see 4 or 5 bad guys just stood around. I manged kill 3 men before they could react and soon added a fourth. I then my squad the weapons free order and they added another couple or so kills. A few of the black venom guys proved very difficult to track down. One nearly got Falke and myself but ended up gifting me a very handy VSS sniper rifle that replaced my SVD. Since He kept getting left behind, I ordered Falke back to the high ground. The wandering enemy SF was a major headache so I ended up pulling back and looping around to hit the camp from the rear which paid off fast as there were several bad guys clearly in view but looking to where the attack had come from. I took them out and then got lucky as my wandering mate chose just the wrong moment to come back home. This particular part of the mission was very tense, I loved it.

After getting the orders to hit the convoy, I oredred Falke and the nearest resistance guy in to the camp and picked up half a dozen or so mines between us. I also swapped the MP5 for the val and stocked up on 20rd mags so I had common mags for both weapons. We got to the road and put all of the mines down plus Falke's satchels. Since I was only required to damage the convoy, I ordered most of my men way back in to the wood and got to a good vantage point. All 3 vehicles hit mines and the bmp my well have ended up in the sea. I gunned down some crewmen before pulling back to the camp to restock. Just after leaving the camp we ran in to trouble, some unknowns killed one of my guys and injured me to boot. We manged to clear the woods without further incident and managed to kill our pursuers as they left the woods behind us.

Not a huge amount happened from this point on. The Resistance all boarded their truck, bar one man who stayed by the road, and Falke and I reached the extraction point sharpish. The pick up went without fauld although I was disappointed to see Falke get left behind.

I don't think that theres a massive amount you need to improve the mission side of things. The helicopter suggestion is a good one and perhaps a random patrol or two could be included out in the mountains. Thats about it though. You've made a real gem of a mission here.

I finished with a score of 21600 and 26 kills.

Outro: I can honestly say that the outro was one of the best I've seen in ArmA. Thanks for sharing it! I did get a bit of LOD switching which killed it slightly, but thats not your fault though. Seems to be a problem with ArmA 1.14.


This is definately one of the best ArmA and Flahpoit SP missions I've played yet.  The story was good, I got to know the characters and the voice acting was some of the best I've heard.  I'll definitely give any following versions a run through.

bert

Offline Undeceived

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Re: [SP/AD] Evil's Last Will
« Reply #24 on: 23 Aug 2008, 17:48:03 »
Hey bert, thank you very much, mate!!

I almost can't belive it that the mission is getting such good reviews... Wow!! I really didn't expect that. :)

I have one important question for you:
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To get to Mataredo I took a path between the wood west of  Passo Paradiso and the big wood.
Did the cutscene work for you in which the 17 years old boy comes to Luchs and asks him about his training and where later the ice cold sniper joins the team?




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After recieving the orders just before getting to the extraction point (could it be made so this happens a bit earlier?)
Yes, this is one thing I'll do for sure!


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I also noticed that I happened to turn in to a civilian. I don't know weather this was intentional or not,
Yes, I put some civilians to be running in the forests around Hunapu. The "unknown vehicle" must have been a BMP2 that patrols over there...

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so I slunk off from that very carefully, its funny how these things affect how you approach the mission.
THIS is what I hoped!! :) Yieeha! Cool!

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I did get a bit of LOD switching which killed it slightly, but thats not your fault though. Seems to be a problem with ArmA 1.14.
Yes, it seems so... :( That's really sad. I tried to work with camera preload but it does't work right... For one player it is ok, for another there are LOD problems... Hm...


Thank you for this great review, bert! I'm working on it and hope that I can upload the next version soon (I have to work a bit for the university until the end of August... But I'll find time in between for the mission).

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I'll definitely give any following versions a run through.
This is great!!!!!!!!!!!! :D Thanks!
Current project: Black Lands (Arma 3)

Offline bert

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Re: [SP/AD] Evil's Last Will
« Reply #25 on: 23 Aug 2008, 19:52:39 »
Hi,

I forgot about that sniper joining me, the cutscene worked fine.

As for that unknown vehicle, I don't think it was a bmp as I was on a steep, wooded mountainside. I couldn't see anything either. The 'unknown' (yellowish with a '?') map icon came right up to me and then shot off somewhere. It may have been some standard ArmA map silliness. What made it standout to me was the fact my icon on the map turned blue to indicate that I was a civillian. Not that it mattered though, the Russians quite happily shot at me after this.

Keep up the good work

bert


Offline Cheetah

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Re: [SP/AD] Evil's Last Will
« Reply #26 on: 23 Aug 2008, 20:25:46 »
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I almost can't belive it that the mission is getting such good reviews

Beta reports still, the review might follow later ;).
Like missions? Help with Beta Testing! or take a look at the OFPEC Missions Depot for reviewed missions!

Offline Undeceived

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Re: [SP/AD] Evil's Last Will
« Reply #27 on: 24 Aug 2008, 23:29:19 »
Beta reports still, the review might follow later ;).

Hehe, yes of course, I meant beta reviews! ;)
Current project: Black Lands (Arma 3)

Offline yesterdayon

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Re: [SP/AD] Evil's Last Will
« Reply #28 on: 28 Aug 2008, 09:17:50 »
Looking good, will take a while to download the addons but expect a beta report .

Offline mathias_eichinger

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Re: [SP/AD] Evil's Last Will
« Reply #29 on: 15 Sep 2008, 23:24:36 »
Hey, just tried the mission.

I must admit that I am totally awed by it, and I really hope that ArmA2 is like your mission! Definitely one of the best missions I played to date. I won't repeat a whole walkthrough and complete compliments that have done by others because it is already late. I will just list the points I did different and the bugs I encountered.

  • Took the route over the mountain ridges to get rid of well camouflaged russian regulars in the valley that always got me.
  • Transition between objectives was very uneventful, probably needs a few helicopters or some very small patrols to create a sense of menace
  • At the very beginning I got an error message about "...not a dedicated server"
  • My ArmA froze twice and I had to shut down and restart the computer
  • Just before the village with the carnage, when the sniper joined our group, my character was set to "stop" and my squad did not follow me in line. Had to command them by clicking on the map
    • Lost all my squad in the ambush
      • Despite this, I had a lengthy conversation with the not-present resistance fighters in Hunapu, just before I went for the helo
      Keep in mind that these are only minor distractions of a very great mission! Well done! :good:

      Mathias