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Author Topic: (Review Complete) [SP] The Cause Campaign  (Read 7911 times)

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Offline Rejen

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(Review Complete) [SP] The Cause Campaign
« on: 29 Oct 2008, 04:56:04 »
This is a campaign I made a year or more ago for Arma.
It was the first 5 missions I ever made in full for Arma and it seems to have received alot of positive feedback so I thought I'd chuck it up.

I was going to make another 2 or so chapters but decided to discontinue this campaign and revive it for Arma2 when its released. The campaign is far from perfect but it may be of some fun for players wanting some middle-hard challenging missions. The player is never alone to fight the battle and everything builds to climactic battle in Corazol which features random squad waypoints with squads radioing where their going etc. The campaign was build with atmosphere in mind.
Hope you enjoy and hopefully I will be able to release The Cause 2 when Arma2 comes out.

Just a warning to those who may be patriotically sensitive: Its a campaign that slightly mimics some events in Iraq but its still fictional and character opinions don't nessecarily represent my own.

Title: The Cause Campaign
Author: Rejenorst/Rejn/Rejen (I go by a few of those nicknames)
Mission Version: 1.0
Download:

OFPEC DownLoad
http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=1624&comments=1

Gametype: SP
Role: A man with a cause who joins the SLA :)
Island: Sahrani
Side: OPFOR
Required Game/Patch: ArmA 1.08 or higher

Story:
The story is set a few months after the initial SLA invasion and begins with the aftermath of the RACS invasion of Corazol which has left the SLA's 4th Armoured division (fighting near Cayo) cut off from their native North Sahrani. The story does not revolve soley around the player. The player is more a product of the story. The player sees life through the eyes of a lowly SLA soldier for the most part of the campaign. This Chapter is set along the west to south west coast of North Sahrani.

One night the player sees his family killed by a U.S. recon patrol for reasons unknown which sets the story events in motion.

Features:
-Cutscenes
-Introductory/storyline Cutscene
-Voice acting: Full
-Composed music (nothing special but hope you like it anyway)
« Last Edit: 24 Jan 2009, 15:02:50 by Cheetah »

Offline Wolfrug

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Re: [SP] The Cause Campaign
« Reply #1 on: 29 Oct 2008, 22:25:41 »
Ahh, a real classic. I've obviously already played this, and enjoyed it, quite a lot - I recommend it for anyone wishing a solid, cinematic ArmA experience throughout. No addons required either!

 :good: glad to see you submitting it here!

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

Offline Rejen

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Re: [SP] The Cause Campaign
« Reply #2 on: 30 Oct 2008, 03:30:16 »
Thanks Wolfrug :) Im always surprised that it got as much attention as it did :) over 3000 downloads woot.
Its nice to be able to make something that others can enjoy  :good:

Offline Zipper5

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Re: [SP] The Cause Campaign
« Reply #3 on: 30 Oct 2008, 13:26:51 »
The Cause 1 - Vengeance by Rejen
From the campaign "The Cause"
v1.0

Intro:
Man, I tell you - these are easily some of the best parts of your missions. This one was just excellent, and the voices are very well done. I'm quite impressed that you did all the voices yourself and also manually coded the cinematics rather than using camera.sqs.

Briefing:
Short and simple, no mistakes.

Mission:
So many small, intricate details are in these missions of yours. This one is no different. As with the intro, the voice acting is great. Even when we were running towards the town the music kicked it which was at the same tempo as our legs as we were sprinting towards it. Very nice.

The town itself also presented a fair challenge. The units were well placed and that HMMWV came out of no where for me, guns blazing. I lost the majority of both groups but still managed to clear the town at the end. Can't really think of anything for you to add to this.

Outro:
Like the intro, this was very impressive. All manually coded again and the voices were still great. It was a satisfying ending to the mission and got me prepared for what was to happen next. The music is also very good.

The Cause 2 - First Patrol by Rejen
From the campaign "The Cause"
v1.0

Intro:
Again, excellent. I don't think I really need to include sections about the intros and outros for the rest of this as they are all fantastic.

Briefing:
Informative and simple. Nothing to change. Don't really need to include this either as they're all very well made.

Mission:
This is probably my favorite mission of the campaign. I liked how you explained that the SLA was made up of people not just from Sahrani but from places all over the world. The amount of accents you seem to be able to do is amazing, heh.

The progression of the mission was very good and uninterupted. Slower to start off with but setting the tone, until you get into full blown battles at the different towns. There seems to have been a lot of thought put into the unit placement in and around the towns. One of the things that made me enjoy this mission a lot was the immersive radio messages being played as we were fighting or moving to fight. It was all very well paced out and fun. Nothing to change here either.

The Cause 3 - Battle of the Hedge by Rejen
From the campaign "The Cause"
v1.0

Mission:
This mission has a very logical progression. You start off at the place you ended at in the last mission and you continue south to a row of hedges to defend against an incoming US force. The actual RPG soldiers opening fire on the tanks really startled me as they were loud and close together, but they just pounded the M1A1s into pieces. The voice acting again was great and so was the music. Great mission.

The Cause 4 - Operation Pickpocket by Rejen
From the campaign "The Cause"
v1.0

Mission:
Definitely one of my favorites in this campaign as well. The title is fitting since we're outflanking the enemy and coming at them from another direction. Like all the missions they progress logically, starts slow and then gets right into the thick of the fighting. I must admit - that hidden RACS Vulcan really gave me a headache until I found it. Thankfully I did and felt very satisfied when I finally saw it explode. Defending our positions against the counter attack really was very hectic as I was constantly having to fire and move, though it was very immersive - especially since were fighting within a forest. By the end of the mission I had actually lost my legs and my arms were also hit, so that's just an example of how much fighting actually went on.

The Cause 5 - Back to Corazol by Rejen
From the campaign "The Cause"
v1.0

Mission:
Easily the most complex of the missions. The scripting that went into this mission is only really believed when you unPBO the file and look at it. Surprisingly enough it ran completely fine for me. I have always hated missions in towns due to ArmA's AI, but I should have played this one with some AI enhancements. For the sake of testing, however, I did not. It was still a good mission though, just large numbers of my squad were cut down quickly and the enemy AI sometimes stood and stared at me while I pumped led into them. However, there was never a let up in action and it was very hectic the whole way through. Obviously, this was a test for another mission you had (have?) planned. It was a very good way to end the campaign. Too bad there's not going to be a Chapter 2 until ArmA II, but I'm sure it'll be worth the wait.

Overall:
This is my favorite campaign for ArmA, easily beating out the competition. End Point is also shaping up to be pretty awesome too, so I'm really looking forward to it as well. I look forward to seeing the story possibly being continued in ArmA II but until then this and End Point will serve me just fine. Great job on this, mate.

Offline Rejen

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Re: [SP] The Cause Campaign
« Reply #4 on: 30 Oct 2008, 15:55:07 »
Awesome feedback there :) Thank you very much I quite enjoyed your mission by mission approach  :D

Yeah I do a bit of voice acting here and there, I've done a few for some commercial games:

Warlords Battlecry 3 did about 12 voices for that apprx.
E5 Brigade Jagged Union did about 3 voices for that.
Mount and Blade did the voicework for that, if anyone play that I suggest getting the official vocals soundpack from the mods section, as I added and edited alot more death screams which were never used cause of keeping the game rating lower.

Id love to get my voice into a few more commercial games but most of them have their own studio hehe.

Offline savedbygrace

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Re: [SP] The Cause Campaign
« Reply #5 on: 03 Nov 2008, 06:01:40 »
Again, I cross paths with your work Rejen. It is becoming obvious to me that your great love is in storytelling and acting as that is what stands out most in your missions so far. This story began as you would expect it to, a civillian being forced into a situation of vengeance, you did well at conveying your view while creating the mood. The sound files helped maintain that mood throughout the missions as you were directed as a noob from time to time. The radio chatter was also superb, as usual, and some of your camera angles were creative(to express in the least). I have always enjoyed participating in missions where the results were not dependent on my involvment alone, whereas I played a part in a larger picture as the battle evolved around me wether I was getting the kills or not. Being attached to the group without having to command and delegate for such ignorant AI, is always pleasing to me. I find it rather refreshing to enjoy that attribute in all of your missions. The battlefield across the plains of Mercalillo were laid out well. Markers indicating additional forces provided the feeling of belonging to something greater, a combined force of like minded warriors(if you will). The implementation of many seperate marker icons as the frontline helped me imagine a continuously changing line. And though the objectives were average and not very creative, the approach was well planned and helped with the immersion factor. I have only just complete the hedgerow mission but intend to complete this shortly. I feel that if you could conjure some rather creative objectives to compliment your Cinematics, Sounds and storytelling, your missions would be even more memorable. Keep up the great work guy.

Offline Rejen

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Re: [SP] The Cause Campaign
« Reply #6 on: 03 Nov 2008, 07:44:04 »
Hi Savedbygrace,

Thank you very much for your great feedback!
I have to agree with you that my missions suffer from bland and somewhat unrealistic objectives and this is something I definately need to focus on in future missions. Much of the action in my missions is highly concentrated which is actually not realistic in modern warfare unless we're talking ww2 tactics (I think I am to in love with the ww2 themes hehe). In most modern military engagements units are fairly spread out let alone due to the danger of concentrated artillery barrages.

Some constructive critique I have received over time is to vary objectives and perhaps focus less on constant overwhelming action but more on mood and smaller engagements which will mean that you won't always loose your friendly AI within the first few minutes of combat.


In future I hope to follow your advice by playing around with more creative objectives that might be more realistic in terms of small nation combat. Im not sure whether I will be back home before Arma2 and opflash2 are released but I am so looking forward to Arma2's AI improvements.

Once Arma2 is released I will most likely make The Cause Campaign for it and there will hopefully be loads of posibilities  for AI interaction and unique mission objectives like recon and interrogations. :)

Thanks again for playing my missions and taking the time to give me some feedback. I am always glad that people can enjoy the missions I make and it makes it all the more worth while making them :)

 



Offline mathias_eichinger

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Re: [SP] The Cause Campaign
« Reply #7 on: 05 Dec 2008, 20:00:28 »
My feedback for The Cause, Mission #1:

Overview

Now that's a creative Overview pic. I have not seen it before.

Intro

The Intro is a bit long-winded, but the voice acting is superb. It is obvious that you are very much into storytelling ant it is really interesting what will follow during this campaign.

Briefing

The Briefing is more of the good storytelling, but there are some typos, I recommend a spell check.

Mission

Your mission really has the right mood and difficulty. The voice acting is excellent, and the difficulty is alright, not too difficult but not totally easy. I like how the music is used to dramatize the mission and I am really looking forward to the rest of the campaign.

Outro

A bit better as the intro, since it is not so much on the long side, and very nicely voiced.

Offline Rejen

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Re: [SP] The Cause Campaign
« Reply #8 on: 06 Dec 2008, 08:01:32 »
Thank you Mathias :) Glad you enjoyed the campaign. I will post any future work here as well.

Offline schuler

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Re: [SP] The Cause Campaign
« Reply #9 on: 08 Dec 2008, 01:02:45 »
Quick little beta test for ya
Excellent voice acting! Nice cut scenes. Good battles. Nice story line. Fun to play. Good job all around.
I like the way you slowly move into front lines, its kind suspenseful. Showing the front line movement thought all the missions and not using links "IMO" was tastefully crafted. 
  The irony was uniquely done, good politics between the Racs US and Slags.  Some good one liners in there. Pres. Bush clips, Scottish, French, southern draws, Russian,  Spanish I have to say I am a fan. The theatrics are so good. Your probly quit the raconteur too.
I found the "you shot a superior officer" script too lol. Good on ya!
Nice use of updates, radio, and game play. It was nice to play a foot soldier instead of an officer.

This is a nice campaign for every skill level of any gamer, much recommended.
Semper Fi

Offline Rejen

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Re: [SP] The Cause Campaign
« Reply #10 on: 08 Dec 2008, 04:31:56 »
Thank you for the kind feedback Schuler :) and the raconteur compliment hehe I do love a bit of story telling and I really enjoy the attempt at creating atmosphere.


EDIT: If any of the OPEC staff would like to review the campaign then please feel free as I am no longer doing any work on The Cause campaign until Arma 2 where I will revive it for Arma 2.

Thank you.
« Last Edit: 08 Dec 2008, 05:19:22 by Rejen »

Offline Zipper5

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Re: [SP] The Cause Campaign
« Reply #11 on: 08 Dec 2008, 13:30:41 »
If you'd like someone to review it, Rejen, you should add (please review) to the end of the thread's name. Thus it should read [SP] The Cause Campaign (please review). I'm sure someone will be happy to review it. ;)

Offline Rejen

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Re: [SP] The Cause Campaign (please review)
« Reply #12 on: 08 Dec 2008, 14:10:24 »
Done and done. Time to add this one to the shelves I guess :)

Offline savedbygrace

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Re: [SP] The Cause Campaign (please review)
« Reply #13 on: 09 Dec 2008, 04:25:46 »
I'll be happy to do the review but first I would like to clarify that it a single player mission and not a campaign as it is missing the many attributes of a campaign. Am I correct in this presumption? If so, I'll begin reviewing Unless of course another staffer had his heart set on this one, then just PM me.

Offline schuler

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Re: [SP] The Cause Campaign (under review)
« Reply #14 on: 09 Dec 2008, 06:53:09 »
Quote
I was going to make another 2 or so chapters but decided to discontinue this campaign and revive it for Arma2 when its released.
good point savedby, It is basically incomplete without another chapter. but its is set up like a campaign. up to the author i would say.

edit I do this one
« Last Edit: 11 Dec 2008, 22:37:16 by schuler »
Semper Fi