Home   Help Search Login Register  

Author Topic: (Review Completed) [Campaign] The Magnificent Eight  (Read 20133 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline hamis

  • Members
  • *
  • I'm a llama!
Re: [CAMP/QG] "The Magnificent Eight" Part I - beta
« Reply #15 on: 19 Feb 2009, 12:33:50 »
Quote
@hamis:  Sorry for being late. Maybe i had to change something for testing... I'll have a look into it
Well,have you found anything?

Offline gambla

  • Members
  • *
Re: [CAMP/QG] "The Magnificent Eight" Part I - beta
« Reply #16 on: 22 Feb 2009, 12:36:06 »
@hamis:

Sorry,
i'm missing the email notification...

I've checked it now and it works as it should. The mission (should) end when you are back on the island and  with the condition that obj. 2 is met (free the hostages). The message you heard:

Sorry,i have to be even more clear.I mean mission is ending before i get to boat.About 10 sec from start i hear something like "2,3 follow 1" etc and mission ends.


means, that the trigger is instantly hit by you /"West" ?

What is your Arma-Setup like, version, addons etc. ?
Which date is the mission-file ?

______________________________________________________________________

@savebygrace:

Thanks for your test so far, hope you had some fun. Some things are always a matter of personal taste, editor-skills of the author and so on - i'll consider all of it anyway. But now let me just comment some issues:

This however proved time consuming because the AI refused to use the southern slope of the island.

-ok, changed in the next version

PLEASE make that dang alarm to where we can deactivate it by addaction in that command tower or by approaching a section of the building where it is coming from?

- How can i do this please ?

Returning to the start point was a good idea BUT......the second missions start point nullified any immersion created by the first because why return to the southern island when the actual camp is on the mainland? why even start from that island? I would move the start and finish point to the mainland where mission 2 picks up OR in the water half way between the two.

my thoughts were:
1) The player starts at this island because he monitors the guard's numbers, behaviour etc.. He also believes that the POWs are in very poor condition and need some first aid and rest at his camp.
2) He doesn't move directly to the mainland as this would be the most assumed escape route by the enemy. 

Intro
I already do not like the cutscene at the beginning of each mission. It is not needed.

-This Intro is needed to give Arma some milliseconds to delete your dead AI ("deletevehicle"), otherwise you first see their dead bodys and then see them disappearing. And this way, the dead AIs are not displayed in the roster (what is it called) on the screen bottom.

Briefing
All links work, text is good but the plan does not specify that the player must grab the correct truck. 

Ok, need to change this. What can go wrong, goes wrong... :)

Taking eponia was easy enough except that there were no ammo crates by which to grab a satchel or mine to combat that BMP-2 that shows up when your kicking butt. There are a couple of rpg units but if you don't get em, then you are stuck tossing grenades.

Take a look at my introduction ("About the campaign") - you need to care for weapons and ammos, and, one main feature is to transfer them to the next mission (weaponpool). You may find some satchels in Hunapu...

Problem #1 Do you have to be exactly where the marker is to end the mission or can I pull the truck into that church and end the mission.

Always be on the marker, this could be important.

#2 It did not give me the ammo truck in the next mission that I worked so hard to attain. It gave me the ural back. I was upset.

Ok, need to think about it. Maybe i change it all and let the Player keep some more vehicles.
« Last Edit: 22 Feb 2009, 16:38:23 by gambla »

Offline savedbygrace

  • Intel Depot
  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Be swift to hear...slow to speak...slow to wrath.
Re: [CAMP/QG] "The Magnificent Eight" Part I - beta
« Reply #17 on: 23 Feb 2009, 14:01:33 »
I'm usually heavily opinionated when it comes to mission suggestions but as you see they are just thoughts and ideas that you can choose to use or ignore, I don't mean to sound as though your mission is not good.
Quote
How can i do this please ?
To make it so that the player can deactivate the alarm if he searches for it. Within the condition field of your trigger which detects the player or his group and sounds the alarm, add a variable such as "alarmon"to the already existing condition. Then...in the Init.sqs declare that variable true "alarmon = true". Now create a trigger in the location where you would like the switch to be, with a radius like 1 meter or so, activated by the player only, Condition: this and alarmon, Onactivation: player addaction ["Deactivate alarm","cutalarm.sqs"]. Create a script called cutalarm.sqs and within it write this..
Code: [Select]
alarmon = false
exit
That will make the action appear only when the player is standing in front of the throwswitch. And give the player the option to turn it off or leave it on. If you prefer to have it inside the raised tower you could do it in a couple of ways. #1 setposition an object of your choice in the tower and add the action to it. Although it is attached to the object it may still activate while the player is below it on the ground.
The other way is to add another condition to the trigger that detects the height of the player i.e.
Code: [Select]
(player modelToWorld (GetPos player)) select 2 >= (objectname modelToWorld (GetPos objectname)) select 2that will ensure that the player is within the radius of the activating trigger and at the same height as the objectname.
You could also have an object say the sound so if it is destroyed, it will also silence the alarm...i.e insert one of those lightpoles with a speaker and name it alarmspeaker and rather than play the sound file have alarmspeaker say the sound file.
And as another suggestion....you could add another trigger which sends another response squad if the trigger stays active for a certain amount of time. My first thought was to silence the alarm as soon as I heard it.
[NEXT TOPIC]
Quote
my thoughts were:
1) The player starts at this island because he monitors the guard's numbers, behaviour etc.. He also believes that the POWs are in very poor condition and need some first aid and rest at his camp.
2) He doesn't move directly to the mainland as this would be the most assumed escape route by the enemy. 
Well, it's your mission. But I would recommend adding something within the notes to help explain it such as....We were able to evade the patrols and return to the southern island until the frenzy calmed. We departed from that location under cover of darkness and barely made it to the mainland before the boat run out of fuel
[NEXT TOPIC]
Quote
-This Intro is needed to give Arma some milliseconds to delete your dead AI ("deletevehicle"), otherwise you first see their dead bodys and then see them disappearing. And this way, the dead AIs are not displayed in the roster (what is it called) on the screen bottom.
I understand. But perhaps you could make the camera productive by perhaps showing an objective or nearby patrol in relative position to the player?
[NEXT TOPIC]
Quote
Take a look at my introduction ("About the campaign") - you need to care for weapons and ammos, and, one main feature is to transfer them to the next mission (weaponpool). You may find some satchels in Hunapu...
I considered this and though I appreciate the strictness of having to manage your weapons, it would be a better idea for you to insert some additional ammo somewhere for several reasons...perhaps my aim as a retired veteran is not what it used to be or worse yet, I drive my truck into a patrol which blows my surplus to smithereens. In any case, adding a weapons crate within the confines of the Eponia compound is realistic. Besides, you could always be creative in it's placement.
[NEXT TOPIC]
I attempted the mission after Eponia. I left my guys at the start point because thats all they are good for really(Arma AI) and took the truck myself up the mountain until I encountered a patrol. I ran them over, pulled over and cleared the area and then moved on up the mountain on foot, leaving my truck at the edge of the woods off the road out of harms way. Half way up the hill I'm about to remove the BMP threat with my launcher when they start shooting at my empty truck. I didn't think much of it because it was empty due to the fact that I had loaded all my weapons and ammo into one of the other trucks in the third mission only to be given the ural that I took that was empty, and not having the ammo truck that I retrieved from mission four, I was left with no surplus so I didnt care if it was blown up. Anyways, they destroyed it and the mission ended. Then I could not restart because I'm guessing it saved that data and every time I retried it would end the mission because the truck was dead?

If keeping the truck alive is an objective for that mission, then I missed it.

Offline gambla

  • Members
  • *
Re: [CAMP/QG] "The Magnificent Eight" Part I - beta
« Reply #18 on: 23 Feb 2009, 19:28:57 »
Thanks again for your review! Any thoughts and comments are always appreciated. Pleasebe aware that it's very important to let us mission-editors know what in the campaign is fun and which parts you don't like that much. So all testers shouldn't not forget to mention the good parts of the mission, too, what they really liked.

One issue is right, that i need to put some more background information in the briefings to make things more clear. On the other hand it will give the player a little more story too.

[NEXT TOPIC]
I attempted the mission after Eponia. Anyways, they destroyed it and the mission ended. Then I could not restart because I'm guessing it saved that data and every time I retried it would end the mission because the truck was dead?

If keeping the truck alive is an objective for that mission, then I missed it.

This should be mission "Sitrep" ("Conquer a SLA Radio Base and make contact with the USMC Headquarter") ? Keeping the truck alive was indeed an object in all previous missions. Think i forgot to mention it in this missions briefing. Anyway, i asap check the reload issue, this shouldn't be a showstopper.

Hope you ended this mission with the "endmission" cheat and have fun with the last one ?
« Last Edit: 23 Feb 2009, 19:41:48 by gambla »

Offline savedbygrace

  • Intel Depot
  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Be swift to hear...slow to speak...slow to wrath.
Re: [CAMP/QG] "The Magnificent Eight" Part I - beta
« Reply #19 on: 23 Feb 2009, 20:18:38 »
Well, I did not use the end mission thingie(didn't know it existed for arma) But I did revert back to the previous mission"The Map" and it seemed to hold onto the fact that the truck was still dead because it spawned the truck where it was suppose to be but it was a charred version and then the mission ended. So I reverted to the "Hanupu" mission before I actually acquired the truck, completed it again, and when "The Map" mission started..it ended for no reason but the truck was not charred. Got me. I'll try again when you update.

Offline hamis

  • Members
  • *
  • I'm a llama!
Re: [CAMP/QG] "The Magnificent Eight" Part I - beta
« Reply #20 on: 24 Feb 2009, 07:53:23 »
Quote
means, that the trigger is instantly hit by you /"West" ?

What is your Arma-Setup like, version, addons etc. ?
Which date is the mission-file ?
Arma 1.15.ECS-mod,gdtmodhdr,Six_tracers,others mostly replacement stuff.The mission date is 22.12-2008.

Offline gambla

  • Members
  • *
Re: [CAMP/QG] "The Magnificent Eight" Part I - beta
« Reply #21 on: 24 Feb 2009, 10:38:14 »
@hamis:
Ok, the mission date is correct. Obviously it seems that you are currently the only one with that start-problem. I'm not an Arma expert but it's first to recommend that all other Addons should be disabled. Then, if needed, backup all your personal mission-saves of the folder ArmA/Saved/missions/x and delete all save-files after that (i'll explain this later). Then just try again. I changed from 1.14 to 1.15 beta and it seems not causing this issue. Good luck, i think it's worth playing !


@savedbygrace:

Simply reverting in this campaign is not possible as it uses "saveStatus" and "weaponPool" (see also Readme of PMC's "First Fight"). I'll add this issue to my introduction on the first page and my readme-file.


Workarounds:

1) Use the campaign cheat: (see picture below)
In the campaign menu press SHIFT and - keys (on the numpad), then type "campaign" and it unlocks all the mission. For testing purposes: To end a mission anytime, just type "endmission" and it ends succesfully.

2) simple backup-procedure:
Use a backup-proggie like "Cobian Backup" and let it copy the Arma-User-folder e.g. every 5 minutes or just copy manually whenever you like.






« Last Edit: 24 Feb 2009, 11:04:28 by gambla »

Offline schuler

  • Contributing Member
  • **
Re: [CAMP/QG] "The Magnificent Eight" Part I - beta
« Reply #22 on: 25 Feb 2009, 03:32:46 »
hi gambla for me the AAfix required the zu23 and zu23m from this addon too
http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=1816

Comeback:
The map really came in hand with no NV. Went to the main gate got injured and took an AK47. needed to be quit stealth and that was enjoyable. Wiped out the men by the fire with grenades.
Got POWs . lose #4 got some ammo. All objs ticked off.
Nice start!

Escape:
#2 is injured #3 is fine #4 is dead. I have NVG and Boncs, that was a plus.
All hold fire and strat are way, MI17 and one silhouette of a soldier.
Then ran into patrols of 3 or 4 men. Took evasive actions made to the camp.

Hunapu:
starting now
 
Over:
Nice briefings, gear change over. Maps a clear. :yes:
Semper Fi

Offline gambla

  • Members
  • *
Re: [CAMP/QG] "The Magnificent Eight" Part I - beta
« Reply #23 on: 25 Feb 2009, 12:44:32 »
@schuler: Thanks for the info. I've added it to the "needed addons".

Have fun playing.

@savedbygrace: I'll take out the objective to keep the "Team-truck" alive, this too much of a showstopper and not a "must have".


Offline savedbygrace

  • Intel Depot
  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Be swift to hear...slow to speak...slow to wrath.
Re: [CAMP/QG] "The Magnificent Eight" Part I - beta
« Reply #24 on: 25 Feb 2009, 15:37:55 »
Thats probably best. Besides, the penalty for losing the truck would be the loss of weapons and ammo accumulated anyhow. That alone would be more than enough reason to protect your time investment of gathering and loading it.
Thanks

Offline gambla

  • Members
  • *
Re: [CAMP/QG] "The Magnificent Eight" Part I - beta
« Reply #25 on: 27 Feb 2009, 11:58:31 »
Anyone finished the Campaign yet ?

Offline bert

  • Former Staff
  • ****
Re: [CAMP/QG] "The Magnificent Eight" Part I - beta
« Reply #26 on: 28 Feb 2009, 01:09:50 »
Right, I've played the first couple of missions..
I'd better point out that I'm using the ACE mod so it may have played out a little differently, no show stoppers though.

Overview: Nice picture, no complaints.

Intro:The camera work was simple, but not painful to watch which is fine by me. I didn't feel that it really told much of a story though. I just saw a bunch of wounded unarmed men. Should I have seen matey die at the beginning?  I felt the last 20 or 30 seconds where the camera panned out before the the title dragged a bit as well

1) Comeback:
No complaints about the briefing. The mission details and background all fit in for a first mission. Speaking of the background, I thought that the story (or part of it anyway) could quite nicely be told in the intro.

Mission: Getting to the landing spot was simple enough. Rather than going straight for the camp, I headed for the lighthouse. Spotted a couple of men coming down the track and sneakily shot them in the back.
After this I decided to do a quick recce of the 3 central buildings but saw the lights of the UAZ before getting there. I hid behind a bush and took out the driver with my pistol as he passed.
I headed to the camp and shot up everyone that I could see from about 100m from the gate. I moved up to the camp and mopped up a few very dopey guards which didn't react to my presence. Once in the gate I worked my way around the western fence taking out guards as I went. It didn't take me much longer to mop up everyone else.
I'd like to echo savedbygrace's suggestions of the AI auto equipping themselves and being able to kill the alarm.

All in all it was a simple mission for a one man army. The balance felt just right. :good:

2)Escape:
Briefing: I didn't see the point of echoing the mission background bit from the first mission. No complaints about the rest of it though.

Mission: To start with, I didn't see the point of the cutscene. I understand your reason, but please make it a bit more engaging.
I found the first few minutes very tough going. The combination of heavy cover, little room to maneuver and a the quick emergence of the reds ended up with me being killed quite quickly on the first few attempts.
Eventually I got going properly by hugging the coast and keeping my men down. I got lucky by destroying the UAZ with a GL and killed the few troops quite quickly after that. At this point the hip pilot coked up and hit the mountain. No complaints there!. After scavenging a machine gun a kept fairly close to the coast and slowly made my way to the forest. It was easier going along this section due to it being more open. With two mgs in the squad things worked out quite well. Once at the forest it was easy getting to the camp.
Two things struck me as strange in the mission. The first was the inclusion of the uaz in such a tight and inaccessible spot. True it could have been dropped off by helicopter, but for what practical reason? From the edge of the woods to where the mission starts its only about 500m or so. The second oddity was the pre set up camp at the end of the mission. I would imaging an ex SF guy would know better than to set up such a perfect ambush point!

I'll play the rest in the next few days and I'll let you know how I get on in due course.

bert




Offline savedbygrace

  • Intel Depot
  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Be swift to hear...slow to speak...slow to wrath.
Re: [CAMP/QG] "The Magnificent Eight" Part I - beta
« Reply #27 on: 03 Mar 2009, 16:14:41 »
Okay finished this one out by reverting to the start.
Sitrep
The first time I played this mission I travelled south to the road and followed it. At that time, I noticed you had some foot patrols keeping an eye on things in the forrest. I also noticed a uazmg patrol as well. Once I took out the foot patrol a T72 responded along with some other sparse infantry units in the area. You did well guarded that approach.
This last time, I decided to climb the hill to the East and approach the back way. There was a foot patrol near the driveway entrance of the comm base but they didn't patrol far enough north to threaten my back door approach. However, you have placed your units well around the base because all of the units seem to guard one another. Between the snipers, armor, responding chopper and several infantry, this objective is defended quite nicely. It does have a major setback though. Once the cutscene takes over to radio for assistance, the camera shows a view of the sea with nothing in sight nor does it ever move from this position. The text is also filled with grammatical mistakes. I have the thought that this is unfinished so I won't dwell on this part. Once the cutscene is over, you put text on screen telling the player "lets get out of here" but there is no objective to tell you were to go. I had to re read the plan to discover that I needed to get back to my camp.
Resurrection
First I have to disagree with the location of this meeting. You go from one end of the island to the other, crossing enemy infested lands, that happened to be patrolled with helicopters and armor just to get a crate of weapons and ammo that is easily obtainable from the enemy's crates and 3 more men? Can I suggest that you move the pick up to the small airbase to the South east side of the mountains.....Start the convoy At the large base in the north and have them move to Corazol?
Anyhow, this one starts out with a fresh objective that I have not seen before. But why do I have to get to the shore first...then go back and get the truck and bring it? I just drove the truck to the load zone and left it.
The convoy was heavily guarded as it should be and I was shocked to see so much protecting the investment. It made the ambush preparation hard to figure for and thus took me several times to get it right. It is very hard to guage the damage on the scud carriers and so disabling them without destroying them is tricky.
Overall
Mission difficulty progression was handled well. The enemy numbers were just right, each base or objective was guarded well and responded to accordingly, although in "The Map" mission; I was surprised to see so many enemy still lingering in the western base while Eponia just got hammered. I like the use of helicopters responding to intruder presence..it increases the difficulty that much more and prevents the player from camping and picking until after he can take the heli out. I would say definitely do something different with that cursed starting cutscene. Having to keep that truck alive is one thing but its destruction affecting the remainder of the campaign is terrible.

Offline bert

  • Former Staff
  • ****
Re: [CAMP/QG] "The Magnificent Eight" Part I - beta
« Reply #28 on: 04 Mar 2009, 22:19:43 »
3) Hunapu
Briefing: Once again, that background section needs removing or changing, I can understand why you had it there when you released the missions individually. Perhaps you could use them to tell some of the pow's stories?

Mission
Rather going in right away, I held my squad back and checked out the objective from the hills. Due to my squad being low on ammo and not in tip top health I decided it would be best to do most of the work single handedly. I left the squad in a position covering a small part of the town above a likely route up the hill towards me.
I was able to kill a good amount of infantry and the crew of the uaz by machine gunning them from the rocks in the wood above town. Once it was quiet I moved in and mopped up, found the right truck (I think you should be more specific and suggest not nicking an ammo, fuel truck etc..) and collected a bunch of equipment from the crate and various bodies. A patrol made a half-hearted counter attack which caused a hairy moment as I only one rifle magazine and a pistol at the time, I was in the process of retrieving some belts for my mg at the time. Well done on the inclusion of the fuel and repair trucks. The truck ended up with a puncture, it would have been a pain having to restart at this point.
After blowing the hip and healing/rearming my men I took one man in the uaz and had the second pair follow with the truck. I saw the hip on a hillock and blew it up to stop it becoming a nuisance later on.
Further on, I left the truck waiting before checking on the blockades with the UAZ. The second put up a fight due to the men being dispersed, but the first was a massacre. They saw a 'friendly' vehicle and ignored me. I just parked on the hill and waited for all of them to be in the open and just cut them all down with the 50 in under ten seconds :D.
Due to me going in to 'resistance' mode and really trying to conserve my men and making a methodical search for equipment I spent just over an hour on the mission. I quite enjoyed it although I did find parts of it too easy. The force in the town was very easy to single handedly take out. Simply having a small squad move indirectly to where the player is detected (several spots could be defined easily with triggers) would make things a lot easier than just sitting in the hills and blazing away with a machine gun.

Probably the strongest mission so far, but still a little rough around the edges.
bert

Offline gambla

  • Members
  • *
Re: [CAMP/QG] "The Magnificent Eight" Part I - beta
« Reply #29 on: 12 Mar 2009, 15:36:48 »
Thanks bert and savedbygrace:

It does have a major setback though. Once the cutscene takes over to radio for assistance, the camera shows a view of the sea with nothing in sight nor does it ever move from this position. The text is also filled with grammatical mistakes.

> I had this cutscene-bug before, will correct this. The gramma-mistakes shouldn't be a problem either. Would be kind if one native speaker could correct the faults in my english. Anybody volunteering ?

First I have to disagree with the location of this meeting. You go from one end of the island to the other, crossing enemy infested lands, that happened to be patrolled with helicopters and armor just to get a crate of weapons and ammo that is easily obtainable from the enemy's crates and 3 more men?

> I don't agree for followiong reasons: The team has no fixed AO yet and according to the story, an immediate extraction was an option. The enemy got a strong AA defense and both coasts are close enough for resupplying by boats. The supplied western weapons are much better and they are experts on these (even they are trained on most every foreign weapon).

But why do I have to get to the shore first...then go back and get the truck and bring it? I just drove the truck to the load zone and left it
.

I just gave my best to do it as realistic as i could. So, hiding the truck as long as the boats are on the way and not ready for a quick transfer of the supplys was a realistic behaviour as far as i know. I think there are a lot of issues in missions and campaigns where people have different opinions and/or knowledge about realism ?

I would say definitely do something different with that cursed starting cutscene.

Ok, it's not perfect but you just have these five seconds only once at the start of the mission ?
Let me spend the time in creating more missions...
« Last Edit: 12 Mar 2009, 16:17:29 by gambla »