[CAMP] PIROG [Review Complete]

[bardosy]

Guys, this is my new campaign:

P I R O G

* No SpecOps missions
* Infantry-focused missions with medium and huge battles
* Briefings and radiochats (sometimes twists)
* No ADDONs

DOWNLOAD v1.0 (last update: 07.05.2010)

[Bahger]

Bardosy's "Chesty Puller" campaign is the best user-made series of missions I've ever played in ArmA 2.  I can't wait to try this new one.  I am truly amazed at what some of you guys can do in the A2 Editor.

FYI, I have offered to convert his non-native English into fluent prose for briefings and dialogues if he wants me to.

[mathias_eichinger]

Hello Bardosy, here are my experiences with your campaign.

Overview

The picture is an interesting one, with soldiers seemingly checking their weapons before going into action.

Intro

The intro does not tell a story per se, but it is very impressive what you did with the scores of marching soldiers. A sight to behold.

Briefing

I liked the Briefing very well, it contains a wealth of information, and finally some background story.

Mission

The mission was quite good up to the assault on Krasnostav, but even at the inital assault on the airfield I noticed extreme slow responses by your subordinates when performing an action, e.g. healing a team mate (medic) or picking up a new medic took AGES! The same effect ocurred on the assault on the hill, but it was still bearable.

But the mission really came down during the assault on Krasnostav. See, I was pinned down at a group of trees, by what must have been just 2 or 3 enemies. But what happened was that about 40+ rifle grenades rained on my squad, and nearby, they never seemed to stop. So it was a constant battle of administering first aid, nothing else, and I would still doing it if I had not ran out of patience.
I swear, this is probably the first Bardosy mission I quit in frustration.

Sorry, but please look into this bug.

Cheers

Mathias

[bardosy]

Hey Mathias!

Thank you for your feedback!

Medic: I asked around all forums on ArmA2 "Is it possible that Russian medic is much worst then Marine corpsman?" But everybody found it impossible. I hate my medic in this campaign!!! He's LT and max skill, but he behave like a dumb with IQ 10. I don't know how can I solve it. I found some woodoo (not mathematically proofable fact), if I replace his short AK to a AK-107, he - maybe - works better, but not so far as American counterpart. Have you any suggestion?

Krasnostrav: As Bill Gates said: "it's not bug, it's a feature". That rifle grenades "simulate" a CDF light mortar. There is a trigger near the village and if you are there, the script localize your position and strike it with rifle grenades abou 50m radius (very unaccuracy). But if you move out, the strike don't follow you! It's a little "hurry up!" motivation.
A few people from BIS forum test this 1st mission and found it too easy. You found it too hard. What can I do?

If I insert time limit in rifle grenade "mortar" script, is it solve this? Eg: if grenades fall only 1 minutes, is it good?

[SaOk]

That medic bug is a game bug. I cant wait BIS to fix it and the group commanding which also is currently bugging really bad since groupmembers ingore commands in battle. I am going to test this campaign soon more. I only played the first mission which seemed very nice. There was one bug - The first transport chopper for AI group didnt unload them. The chopper landed but just stayed on ground with engines on.

I also noticed the almost endless grenades exploding on hill which also led my team to that medic madness. I ended up healing the teammates myself because the medic wanted to run wild and free.

[Katrician]

Your WIP campaign is impressive! better than Chesty Puller so far; as others noted Medic management is a nightmare, not your fault anyway, the first mission on the airport was great and well balanced. The second when the Russian convoy is under mortar fire is very difficult, I mean silencing the mortars on the hill; I tried many "tactics" and it is frustrating not being able to see the hair of the enemy and being wiped out in seconds! I did gain the upper hand after 10 or 15 tries, ending with 3 men and supposed to continue to spot tanks in the village down hill etc...

We have a great disadvantage over AI in the fact they spot us behind trees, vegetation whenever we go stealth... Maybe we could have more support troops or else; again the first mission at the village was well balanced and fun. When adding objectives en route would you mind to provide us replacement troops, it would add realism, because attacking enemy squads at two is not much fun.

[bardosy]

Katrician, many thanks for your feedback and suggestion!

better than Chesty Puller so far;

I always learn from the feedbacks! The most feedback about Chesty Puller said, the main feature of ChP is the Infantry Battle.
Well, in my next campaign I focused for this: no more one squad missions.
Is it what you thougt it better as ChP?

mortar fire is very difficult, I mean silencing the mortars on the hill; I tried many "tactics" and it is frustrating not being able to see the hair of the enemy and being wiped out in seconds!

You are not alone! Other guys also feedbacked this.
I really don't uderstand, because I force the enemy AI to stand or kneel. They cannot lay in the ground, so - theoretically you have a chance to kill them.
I will rework that top: eg, I'll remove one of the two AA gun and the other will be weaker (less skill).
And I will add one more, AI leaded Russian squad to the attack. (Currently there are two squads to support you in attack on the hill. Maybe you didn't wait for them? If not, I can add radioChats and suggest the player to attack WITH the othre squads.
But I'm in difficult situation, because other beta-testers said, the airport was too easy, because the other Russian squads clear the airport and didn't left targets to the player.

Maybe we could have more support troops

If you capture the top of the hill, you got two more support squads from the hill, and three BMP-3 (with infantry squads) from the road from Krasnostav.
This support troop can easily eliminate ALL enemy in the village Khelm without you. (If you use SADRAM on enemy armors, but it can be from safe distance.)

provide us replacement troops, it would add realism

At weekend I worked on mission #5, it's harder and I lost the majority of my squad in tests. And I thought about what you mentioned, but I'm sure it's not realistic.
A regular infantry squad will never reinforced by replacements in middle of a battle. They could remove from battle, but not repleaced.
The most realistic way (but it's not, but the most) is if the player walk back to Krasnostav and requre more troopers in his squad. But it's also not fun.

[Katrician]

Well, in my next campaign I focused for this: no more one squad missions. Wink
Is it what you thougt it better as ChP?

One word that comes to mind is immersive, you feel to be part of a brigade invading Chernarussia, you never know what to expect, kind of fog of war. The airport assault is awesome with the green smoke guiding assault helicopters, squads going to their objectives, sporadic enemy fires, and you asserting the situation in this mess.

(Currently there are two squads to support you in attack on the hill. Maybe you didn't wait for them? If not, I can add radioChats and suggest the player to attack WITH the othre squads.
But I'm in difficult situation, because other beta-testers said, the airport was too easy, because the other Russian squads clear the airport and didn't left targets to the player.

Yes there is two squads assisting to conquer the hill, I just did not talk about them in my first post; for me they got killed within seconds... About a way to help the player without too much modification would be adding hand grenades and/or GP25 grenades, adding another squad or too much radio talk would kill the idea at first. The two squads could attack from different angles, and start their attack at the same time of the player by synchronizing them to us.

If you capture the top of the hill, you got two more support squads from the hill, and three BMP-3 (with infantry squads) from the road from Krasnostav.
This support troop can easily eliminate ALL enemy in the village Khelm without you. (If you use SADRAM on enemy armors, but it can be from safe distance.)

By the way I noted a little "bug", when objectives are cleared, I mean done it often rest one remaining enemy in the vicinity that kill you or hurt you when you just start to rest/reorganise 

After having cleared the hill, I have no more reinforcements, or you talk about the two squads supposed to help you to clear the hill? Near Khlem I spot one friendly BMP3 with some troops, but it acts at his own as I understand. The arty support is too long to take place, and absolutely not accurate (for today arty capabilities), I wanted to use it in an emergency situation, but my squad was dead by the time of hitting the target, and was 300 meters away from the designated spot.

At weekend I worked on mission #5, it's harder and I lost the majority of my squad in tests. And I thought about what you mentioned, but I'm sure it's not realistic.
A regular infantry squad will never reinforced by replacements in middle of a battle. They could remove from battle, but not repleaced.
The most realistic way (but it's not, but the most) is if the player walk back to Krasnostav and requre more troopers in his squad. But it's also not fun.

I would say send in the administrative personnel and the cooks, on a more serious note why not make replacements troops as rookies and only riflemens, or locals so that the player don't count on replacements like a machinegunner for a machinegunner etc...

I tried the 3th and the 4th missions inside the editor (to speed up things  ) and it was a good surprise, all I like! I won't go into details not to spoil the fun, it all goes allright for me, your campaign will be a merited success. Keep up the good work 



 

[bardosy]

awesome with the green smoke guiding assault helicopters

Very funny, but those green smoke grenades was putted for debuging (because helis land in wrong positions - there are invisible landing pads there) and I wanted check how far from the landing pad they land. But finally I found that smoke very good mood, so I left it in the mission.

Yes there is two squads assisting to conquer the hill, I just did not talk about them in my first post; for me they got killed within seconds... About a way to help the player without too much modification would be adding hand grenades and/or GP25 grenades, adding another squad or too much radio talk would kill the idea at first. The two squads could attack from different angles, and start their attack at the same time of the player by synchronizing them to us.

Actually the player has 6 pieces GP25s and two handgrenades. Plus he can select more handgrenade in the briefing.
The two other teams was (and are) syncronised with the player movement. When they reach a probably safe zone front of the hill they stop and wait for the player and when he arrived (there is a small chitchat) and start to attack.
The other angles is a VERY GOOD idea! Now they attack next to the player. But I hope, if I remove one AA gun, they can handle it easier. I guess the Zhu-gun destroy them in a second - what you experienced.

By the way I noted a little "bug", when objectives are cleared, I mean done it often rest one remaining enemy in the vicinity that kill you or hurt you when you just start to rest/reorganise

Yes, it's not a bug, but a feature.. The objective is to stop mortar bombarding. So when the three mortars stop firing, the objectives will be done. There is no "no enemy presence" trigger on the top. I hate "no enemy presence" triggers, because always left one single stupid enemy hide somewhere (probably because of an ArmA-bug: eg inside a not open building) and it's stopped the mission. So I try to avoide this trigger.

I have no more reinforcements, or you talk about the two squads supposed to help you to clear the hill?

Nope. There are. They spawned on the top of the hill, when you start to climb down from the hill to Khelm. And they start to climb down to and fight for Khelm. This two teams are not the same as initial two.

The arty support is too long to take place, and absolutely not accurate (for today arty capabilities), I wanted to use it in an emergency situation, but my squad was dead by the time of hitting the target, and was 300 meters away from the designated spot.

The arty is SADRAM, not HE. So it search for armors. This is why you found it unaccuracy.
But you're right, it's delayed realisticly. In my idea, the player use it from distance: when you climb down from the hill, you have visibility to Khelm, use your binocular to detect enemy armors in the village and use the sadram. Without CDF amors, they have no chance to defend that village.


NEWS!!!!


I just updated the first post. New version available!
New, 5th mission added and several small things fixed or developed in the old ones!


@Katrician: I removed one AA gun from the hill and if the two support teams was executed, player get a new support squad.

[Katrician]

I did a quick replay of 2nd mission and it is still difficult but largely doable, removing of the ZU23 gives more breath.

Check your PM 

[bardosy]

NEWS!!!!


I just updated the first post. New version available!
New, 6th mission added and several small things fixed or developed in the old ones!

[Katrician]

Many thanks bardosy for the test mission you kindly sent me, I have not tested it yet but will check it carefully.

In the mean time I tried your 6th mission, it was good but I did not expect the American encounters, and the patronizing tone of the US team; at least for a campaign on the Russian side.

- Good Points :

- Excellent starting point with clear view of the village.
- Supportive squads clearly synchronized with the player movement.
- APC support ( I would preferred two BTRs)
- Random planes/UAV.
- No bugs.

- To Think About :

- Tasks seems a bit repetitive "take the village".
- American encounters similar to official campaign original plot.
- Russia Strong 111!



- Overall Campaign :

It starts very well and it is addictive, the 5th mission lacks tempo in the end or plot; the 6th becomes a repetitive mission, and the idea that the war is over is depressing for the player  Cheesy.

To me it lacks what I could label as "SecOps" like BIS call them, and were very present in OFP campaign, eg patrolling a forest, assisting or commanding a truck support column, searching for a specific guy in a village etc..

It would fill the slots between "take the village objectives", it always cool to have an easy mission after a hard one, an adds immersion.

Here are some ideas I got that could interest you :

Cпецназ clear the forest of insurgents, the player is positioned at the forest border and must intercept fleeing insurgents. The forest is cordoned by infantry.

Player relieve another squad at a firing position, off course sometimes after comes a counter attack.

Player must ex-filtrate a VIP who is assigned to residence. The VIP is in a home, surrounded by Police (cars, policemen), in a town filled with some insurgents. The payer makes its way into the town/village eliminate hostiles on its way, kill the police, exfiltre the VIP to a rendez-vous point, wait for a chopper to grab the VIP.

A Cпецназ team is surrounded and call for help, the player must break encirclements relive Cпецназ and rejoin friendly lines. The Cпецназ to be relived can't die "setdamage false", some already wounded, and some dead for scenery.

Checkpoint, the player is manning a checkpoint, cars advance slowly trough the checkpoint, then radioHQ chat indicate an intel about a car bomb coming and the color/car type/passenger in it, let two to five minutes waiting before the car bomb appears, so the player sweat a bit  Tongue the player has to kill occupants before it explodes, there is no need for real explosion, the plot is to get the player attention checking cars.

If it is not too difficult to implement a menu saying OK/NO to let vehicles passing, telling the player to search for a specific person; to busy him e.g. search a man in a suit, then while he checks every car passing for the man in question inject radioHQ chat about the car bomb.

The man in suit would be preferably in back seat, some cars with four persons inside to make the player really looking at who are inside vehicles. Ideally two or three cars waiting and some horns buzzing to put the player on nerves.

A bus is in hostage situation, the player patrolling the town is told by a civilian running to him about a bus being taken hostage, the player radioing HQ, who said to him to take position at safe distance from the bus, then tell him a МВД team is enroute to take charge. The МВД arrives and goes to the site and kill opponents and free hostages.

The player position "safe" from the bus allow him to see the upper part of it and not its surroundings, if he decides to advance beyond HQ orders to stay simply hostages are killed; the МВД has just to eliminate some insurgents, adds some smoke and one or two grenade explosions, the player then is invited to the scene and can guide free hostage nearby.

Transport, the player and some men drive trucks point A to point B, squads mount at point A and dismount at point B, with two or three squads it must be possible to make them run outside player view after dismounting to point B then run back to point A and wait for the player etc...

No needs for opponent.

Enemy helicopter crashed nearby player location, player asked to check for survivors, found documents on crash site, based on documents he searches for an arm cache or whatever.

Chasing Razor team, Russian sub HQ is attacked and report unknown special forces, radioHQ chat orders player to search and destroy Razor team, at some point player got visual contact but Razor team elude, (dunno if commands exist that makes AI elude, like AI can follow you), the player is unable to catch them but see Razor team exfiltred by helo at safe distance from player fire; maybe Razor team unkillable and the helo too, point is to get player exchanging fire and be a bit frustrated.

 Cool2

[Kommiekat]

My Load out: 
-nosplash -mod=@CBA;@extra_units_and_vehicles;@HiFi_Air;@HiFi_SFX;@HiFi_Vehicle_Weapons;@HiFi_Weapons_Long;@JTD;@LandTex3;@replacements;@WarFXParticles;FFAA ARMAS Arma2 v 1.2

Hello Bardosy.   Glad to see another campaign by the main man himself

Start/Prologue

No one can forget the Chesty Puller Intro film.
Nice you have one here as well.

Recommend:
A bit too long.  As soon as the camera zooms away from the boots, it should hoover in the air over the Regiment. The Regiment should be in a continuous march, showing their williness for war, then zoom on over to the General saluting. 

To me, that is more than enough.

Briefing

A very informative briefing. Nicely done

Recommendation:
English!  You seriously need to get someone to correct your English grammar and spelling before the final version is released.

I'm proud of your English as a second language, and nothing personal, but this must be corrected.
Most of your players, I am assuming, are native English speakers.

Missions:

Day of Victory-
Nice attack on the airport.  Glad to use the AT weapon strapped to my back.
No problems or bugs.

Spearhead-
The mortar strike was a surprise!  Died the first time, so just restarted.
Liked the fire fight on the hill.
Nice to see some help with other AI's taking Kelm.

I used my binoculars at the top of the hill to call for Artillery support.  Is that what you were aiming for in the mission?  I feel any closer down the hill, and there would be no way of see the armor vehicles.

Recommendation:
I feel a revenge mission is better than using an Air strike/Artillery strike on Kelm.
As soon as my squad takes over the hill, have them jump into the mortars and rain mortar shells on kelm (though, maybe the distance would be a problem).
I've never done a mission using Mortar and found that idea unique and fun!

Liberation-
I had problems with this one.

First was the truck transport.  It was way too slow.  I disembarked about 500m before the meeting and just ran the rest of the way, getting there before the transport truck arrived.

HC.  Hate it.  I don't care for HC.  Better to make them A.I. and let them take care of themselves.
I need more time keeping an eye on my own squad.

Did not know where to start on the village.  North? South?
Better to put an arrow on a map to show the best incursion for the village.

Also, be sure you understand that if there are armed vehicles like tanks and jeeps with machine guns, I am going to use them to help me out sweeping out the village and the next part of the mission.

If you don't want the player using vehicles, then disable them somehow.  When used, the rest of the mission is just too easy.................think about it.

Berezino-

Sorry, but I am just starting this mission.  I will copy and paste all of this in a later thread when finished with the missions.

Hope this helps.









Recommendations

*Spawn a home base for the soldier with a marker, an area which he has to reach to end the mission.
* Cut down on the quantity (number of soldiers) and quality (T90 + 2 Vodniks + enemy squad against a single infantry squad ....WTF?) of enemy forces.

Cheers

Mathias

[bardosy]

@Katrician

Random planes/UAV.

Ugh. There is no random planes and UAV in the mission #6.
But there is in mission #5. It's was interesting, because UAV was in mission #5 when you wrote me to add more air traffic, and I just wondering how you missed that UAV. It's an easter egg, but you can use that UAV... Find out how!

Tasks seems a bit repetitive "take the village".

Thanks! I'll do that.

- American encounters similar to official campaign original plot.
- Russia Strong 111!

Errrr... I don't understand these... Can you explain me?

and the idea that the war is over is depressing for the player  Cheesy.

It's an old experience: every war has an end...

To me it lacks what I could label as "SecOps" like BIS call them, and were very present in OFP campaign, eg patrolling a forest, assisting or commanding a truck support column, searching for a specific guy in a village etc..

This was the goal of this campaign.
The players who enjoyed my previous campaign (Chesty Puller) asked me to create similar one on the Russian side. The point of this campaign was to avoide the SpecOp (or sec op) missions and focus on regular infantry with regular tasks: attack and capture large objects like towns or enemy base.


The ideas what you suggested is great.
I created campaigns with these tasks (or similars) for OFP/ArmA1. But for ArmA2 are a lot of mission like these, because the base-story (Razor) is very similar. And it caused a missior-situatlion: there is a lack of big infantry battles. Err, there are infantry battles, but - as you mentioned - with minimal scenery and story and twist.
Now I tried to create a campaign what is a conventional infantry battle, but lot of additional script to keep it interesting.

And - of course - I have a inspiration to do what you call "sec op", did you remember in Berezio mission (#4) you have to arrest a CDF VIP... But I try to focus on regular infantry's tasks.







@Kommiekat

Thanks for the detailed feedback!

About my English: the funny thing, it's not second, but third or more language. I never study English (I studied Spanish and Russian), but the World works in Englisg, so what I heard and read from movies and internet, I learned. I know a lot of words, but nothing grammar.
I promise you, I'll send it someone to correct it.

Is that what you were aiming for in the mission?  I feel any closer down the hill, and there would be no way of see the armor vehicles.

SADRAM is good, because it "see" instead of you...
There are armors (BMP, Shilka and T-72) in Khelm and without your SADRAM strikes, it's not so easy to capture.
But I tried to make the armors hard to spot (eg. - it's spoiler - the T-72 waiting fare away from Khelm, but when you arrive to there, he just (counter)attack Khelm... And SADRAM come in handy that time.

As soon as my squad takes over the hill, have them jump into the mortars and rain mortar shells on kelm (though, maybe the distance would be a problem).
I've never done a mission using Mortar and found that idea unique and fun!

SADRAM don't kill the human enemy, just armors, and I want more fight in that mission.
Your idea was implemented in my previous ArmA1 campaign 'Estrella Roja', when you capture an enemy battery, your friends occupy it and you can use them as support later in that mission.
Errr... it's not exactly what you say... You mean the player targeting with a mortar, is it?
It's good enough at the end of a mission! I memorized it and will implement in a next project!

First was the truck transport.  It was way too slow.  I disembarked about 500m before the meeting and just ran the rest of the way, getting there before the transport truck arrived.

Interesting. I experienced the opposit side: the truck driver - against the usual BIS dumb AI - drive nice and fast to the meeting point. Your trucks was stucked? Or just drive slowly?

HC.  Hate it.  I don't care for HC.  Better to make them A.I. and let them take care of themselves.
I need more time keeping an eye on my own squad.

Roger that! As I wrote in BIS forum, I'll avoide to use HC in the future. I found it handy (maybe I'm stupid to love the micromanagement... ).

Did not know where to start on the village.  North? South?
Better to put an arrow on a map to show the best incursion for the village.

Tonci also suggested to mark exactly the targets. But I thought, Chedaki is not a trained recon and their information is not exact. You have to solve this task with limited info.
Doesn't matter if you start at North or South. You have to liberate people on both end.

Also, be sure you understand that if there are armed vehicles like tanks and jeeps with machine guns, I am going to use them to help me out sweeping out the village and the next part of the mission.

That's great! As I'm a veteran mission maker, I always keep in mind what the player can do. Maybe it's easier with a MG UAZ, but not necessary. Why you found too easy the rest of mission 3 with a captured vehicle?
Eg.: in mission 6, I need you out of vehicles, so I closed all "scenery" vehicles. But in this mission, I found it fun. (Confess me, you used vehicles in mission 2 when cleard the top of the hill?! )

1, Spawn a home base for the soldier with a marker, an area which he has to reach to end the mission.
2, Cut down on the quantity (number of soldiers) and quality (T90 + 2 Vodniks + enemy squad against a single infantry squad ....WTF?) of enemy forces.

It's my fault, but not really understand these.

1., The endmission trigger is always different. Sometimes I used what you said, but sometimes it's not enough. Eg: in Khelm, if you entered the town and mission ends, it's annoying, because a few enemy is waiting for kill by you.

2., Dou you means in mission Berezino? Or generally?
I love huge battles (but try to keep the CPU performance with deleting the dead or not necessary units). And I always try to balance the sides. Where did you saw T-90 against just infantry? Always are enemy armors there, if you have one.


Thanks! And of course it helps me!

[Kommiekat]

Mr. Bardosy,

See this part here:
The ideas what you suggested is great.
I created campaigns with these tasks (or similars) for OFP/ArmA1. But for ArmA2 are a lot of mission like these, because the base-story (Razor) is very similar. And it caused a missior-situatlion: there is a lack of big infantry battles. Err, there are infantry battles, but - as you mentioned - with minimal scenery and story and twist.
Now I tried to create a campaign what is a conventional infantry battle, but lot of additional script to keep it interesting.

And - of course - I have a inspiration to do what you call "sec op", did you remember in Berezio mission (#4) you have to arrest a CDF VIP... But I try to focus on regular infantry's tasks.


I copied and pasted from Mathias in another thread because he has a good template going for critiquing missions.  That part above I failed to delete. I also sent you a PM shortly after posting.
I sent an email to the admin asking them to please put in an "Edit" button and giving members a reasonble amount of time to edit post, in cases like mine.

Again, please disregard that portion last portion..........

Question:
You've updated your mission.  Can I download it, drop it in my missions folder and continue the game from mission #4?  I don't want to have to start over again........
Thanks.

[bardosy]

Hahahaha   It's very funny. I was wandering why you say goodbye same as Mathias, and your name is Mathias too. (Mathias and me are old buddies, we met once in real life too.)

You've updated your mission.  Can I download it, drop it in my missions folder and continue the game from mission #4?  I don't want to have to start over again........

Theoretically yes. (of course not in mission folder but campaigns).
But when I did it once in the near past, ArmA said some error with structures, but I just click to Revert button and mission works fine.

If you cannot do this, Restart the whole campaign, but use ENDMISSION cheat in missions 1-4. Do you know the endmission cheat? Hold Left Shift and then Num -, and then release these buttons and type: endmission
Mission is ended as same as you win it and the next mission start...
It's not nice, but very handy to test.

I really need feedback about mission #5 and #6, because I have shotage on it.



NEW POST (but double post is prohibited): I tried the 2nd mission and after you eliminate the battery at the top of the hill, you can use the mortars to shot a few ammo to Khelm... So your idea was implemented without I knew...

[mathias_eichinger]

Hey Barodsy,

I found the time to try your campaign again and I re-played the first mission.
This time around it is a perfect experience. The medic is lazy only at the beginning at the airport, and the difficulty is easy, as it should be for the first mission of a campaign. I am wounded several times, but I am never killed and my medic is always able to save me. There are several firefights and I am glad that you decreased frequency and amount of enemy grenades as Krasnostav. Now they really do as you intended. They keep you running but they do not kill. Krasnostav itself was easy too, and that was in line with the "superior russian numbers of troops" that one would expect in such a scenario.

I like this mission now, good job!

[SaOk]

I played first two missions trought and I liked those much. I had some bad moments with medic but finally I managed to complete the second mission too. I didnt see any bugs but in second mission I didnt know how to give targets to artillery. They often seemed to miss the targets with over 10 meters. Should I have a laser-pointer or am I just missing something?

I dont have much to say for these two missions since they feeled very great and finished already. Maybe there could be some few reinforcements for player group if he losses his men already on the artillery hill.

Time to continue playing third mission...

[bardosy]

Mathias, SaOK! Thanks both of you!

I thought no one wants to test through my campaign more, and I tested it well enough and export the text to stringtable and send it to native Englisg speakers. Now I'm waiting for them and then - I thought - releade the campaign. But if you're testing it now, I can wait a few more days. 

[SaOk]

The third mission is really great too. But at start it was little confusing to talk with the insurgents - there was no waypoint to them and the activation area around them was too little. At least you could increase the trigger sizes so you dont need to stand on their toes to start the conversation. 

I will continue testing this but I cant promise how fast I will complete rest of the missions (with the current AI). If the rest of the missions are as good as the first three then I would see this to easily be ready for the release. I will play this throught sooner or later anyway when I am not editing my own projects.

[bardosy]

Thanks for the trigger suggestion!
I'll fix it!


What is you opinion about High Command? Many people left testing my campaign when they found the HC driven missions.

[SaOk]

I think it fits great in these "capture the location"-missions. HC is easy to use (with the same "number combination"-shortcuts as in single group commanding), you can have control in larger battles and it allows player to use more tactics. E.g. In 3rd mission I surrounded the enemy from different angles and also used the HC groups as cover when my group was full of injured.

Your campaign actually made me planning to use HC more in my mission too.

[bardosy]

Your campaign actually made me planning to use HC more in my mission too. Cheesy

Funny. Those comments inspirated me to stop using HC in my next campaigns...

[SaOk]

Very challenging fourth mission feels great too. I am currently heading to harbour after long fight at lumber mill. I would guess that you are using UPSMON which seems to make AI behaving great in urban combat. After I met the russians at marker before the harbour task, the enemy was spawned too visibly. I saw one group spawning 100m ahead me near the harbour and my group that I left too much behind was killed near the lumber mill very suddently. It would be better to spawn them immediately when player gets near the russians meeting place. Also you could spawn them more far where they would walk slowly to their patrol area.

The mission is also so huge that there could be some few reinforcements for the player. Like at lumber mill a script could count player group and bring more men to the group (4-5 more men or less to keep total group size 10 at most. And the first soldier could be a medic).

Edit: The rest of the mission was quicker and easier than I thought. Reinforcements could be unnecessary.

I captured the first village in fifth mission. Looks goods again but the pre-made waypoints for 2 non-HC infantry groups feeled a little backstep when you had control of more groups in 4. mission. I couldnt advance as slow as before since the friendly AI groups ran in to the first village. Finally I just ingored them and worked together with my tank squad. I am still far from the second village but I already hope that I could command also the 2 infantry groups.

[bardosy]

Thanks for the feedback!
Your spawn suggestion is valuable! I'm not sure what can I do, but I'll try to rethink it. The problem is the random action of players... But you know this.

I used an older version of UPSMON, but for only static (design time) enemy units. The spawned (runtime) units didn't use UPSMON. I read something in the news, the new UPSMON is able to called for spawned units too, but I didn't apply it in this mission.

The WP driven AI teams wait for you before the main objectives. If you are slow, this is the better way, because the fast players left the AI teams behind (because they are not so fast). And I cannot speed them up, but I made them wait for the players in WPs in front of the objectives (villages).

I also found HC handy as you, because it's not to hard command them, but I can use them in my style. But players complains me and BIS about HC is too complicated. I guess in HC you can command in very complicated way IF YOU WANT, but it's not necessary.
But - as you know - we (the mission designers) are for the players... So I love collect opinions and research the demand of players. Of course, your opinion is also important!

[kju]

Good job bardosy  

I am into mission five now; while I confess playing with invulnerability.
The style of the campaign is pretty good.  

I cannot think of any good suggestion or feedback other than good job and thanks for the effort.  

Well next campaign in Coop mode with norrin revive and a community made world
like Namalsk or many other great to chose from. That's all.  

[SaOk]

I finished the last two missions in the campaign. I liked it much but maybe there could have been more variation in mission types. E.g. there could be some "defend a position"-missions instead of just assaulting  everytime.

Bugs/Flaws in "Doglarukiy"-mission:
-I saw the AI shooting unmanned static weapons. Its a game bug and not a very serious one, but you could prevent it by destroying the static gun with a trigger when the gunner is dead.
-After I captured Polana, I was standing next to friendly AI group which suddently deleted few squad members and spawned some new members. I am not sure what exactly happened, but if you spawn new soldiers then its a good to have two possible positions where the units are spawned. If player is near of one then the units would be spawned to the other position.
-In Dolina there was a CDF counterattack but it was beaten in notime. There was no challenge at all but still the game was automatically saved. Friendly chopper seemed to destroy all threat in less than minute.

In "Race"-mission I first shot the whole american group in forest when I thought they were CDF. The dead leader started to talk to me and I thought it was better to load a savegame. Second time I saw the cutscene and I finished the mission. I think the cutscene would maybe be better to start already when player isnt spotted the american himself. The whole encounter could be shown in the cutscene instead. But with some tweaking the event could also work in the current way everytime.

[bardosy]

SaOK, thanks for the bug-report, especially about the spawn and the cutscene...

I thought the cutscene could be a problem, but my beta-testers said, it's OK. But I was afraid what you did: the player will kill the americans... I put a trigger (activated: bluefor detected by opfor) to warn the player: don't kill americans. But this trigger never fire, because bluefor and opfor switched to CAPTIVE (prevent AI kill each other) and somehow the captive bluefor is not bluefor (for the trigger).
Well, I'll redefine that trigger, fire by "player knowsabout specific americans" and I hope it will warn the pleyer in time to don't shoot.

[SaOk]

If "knowsabout" dosent work right then you could use the "distance" as condition between player and american leader. And to prevent them dying there is a "allowdamage"-command. Examples:

Code: [Select]

player distance sfleadername < 200

Code: [Select]

{_x allowdamage false;} foreach units sfgroupname;

[mathias_eichinger]

Hey bardosy, I had the time today to play your "Spearhead" mission.

I have to be honest, I was gravely disappointed about it. While I was tasked to attack Khelm, HQ diverted me to take out a mortar battery on Hill 324, and then the annoying part of the mission began.

First of all, the mortar battery was heavily defended and I had no own support. Sorry, I played the beginning of the mission a 2 weeks earlier, so: Why can't I have an airstrike on that position? Can't my own artillery work a bit faster? My own forces are depleted... any reinforcements?

In the course of my battle, my squad was reduced to me and just one mate, and then the medic tent on site was listed as enemy, so I could not use it! After I killed the mortars, I was tasked to do artillery targeting in Khelm, but I do not remember that the Briefing told me to bring a laser designator. When a squad of enemies encountered my lonely pair of soldiers in the forest towards Khelm I could not take it anymore and gave up.

Sorry for the rant here, I am used to top-notch quality from you, and did not expect bugs in a mission of yours.

[bardosy]

Hey Mathias, don't worry and thanks for testing this mission too.

The hill (the enemy mortar battery) is defended by AA guns - in the newest version only one AA gun, because the two guns was extremly hard - so the airstrike is not an option in the story (in the game, it would be too easy to call a strike). In the story the artillery is in move in a new setup position (when you capture the top of the hill, the arty is available on next tartget).

You have infantry support! There are two in-map squads, advancing with you, climb up to the hill and waiting for you if you late... And when you are close top the top they attack with you. (If you was too fast, they could be late). And there is two more (spawned) units, if the two in-map units eliminated, they spawned and advance to the top to help you.

When you capture the mortar battery and got the new objective to capture Khelm, these support squads advance to Khelm too. And a few minutes later two spawned units also advance to Khelm from the top of the hill and a lot of supporting squads (BMP-3s and infantry) advance from the original starting position (Kransostav?) to Khelm.

Your arty support don't need laser designator, you can use the simple mapclick to positioning the arty strike, but it's a SADRAM strike (effective against armor, not infantry), so you have to eliminate the enemy armors with it to defend your BMP-3s and - if you are very weak - let your support teams to finish the job.
To complete your objective, you have to enter Khelm, but you have not to participate in this fight, if you don't want.

[mathias_eichinger]

Hey Bardosy, looks like as if I did not get all that your mission has to offer... one thing is certain though, I ended up alone with my squad atop that mountain with the AA gun reducing my squad without mercy.

[bardosy]

Is it possible. Attack the top is not easy. But for your nest objective, you will get support again.

A little cheat: I'm not a big warrior too, so I left a russian APC in the village where you start. It was put for the testing, but finally I left it, because the hard warrior players didn't use it, and I want to help to the smartass players (like me). So, with that APC, you can reach easily the top, but fight is still hard, but not so hard as in foot. I usually order my team disembark (only two of them remain in the APC to operate it) and I take the gunner position. My mates support me in foot, and I give the enemy everything, what can come out from the barrel.


Good news: Kommiekat helped me to finish the text proofing, so I'll release PIROG soon. But now I'm working on a Army campaign for Takistan (Op Arrowhead).

[Zipper5]

I'll review this for you, bardosy.

[bardosy]

Thank you!

[Zipper5]

Hey bardosy. I just want to let you know that I haven't given up on reviewing it, I've just had tons of important end-of-year exams between when I posted that and now. However, my last one is today and then I'm on summer holidays, so I'll be able to finish the review for you. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Edit: Hm, can't double post. Damnit. Well, hopefully you'll be able to see this.

Finally, I'm able to present you with the long overdue review. You can find it here. Good job on this one, bardosy!

[bardosy]

Zipper! Thank you VERY MUCH!

You're absolutely right! In the last times - in ArmA2 - I left the good stories, and focuse only for action. And it's not good. But I experienced, I sepnt lot of hours to develop story by good cutscenes and BIS release a very new game... . I had two unfinished, but very developed campaigns for ArmA1...
Additionally, I did Chesty Puller and it was success - very popular - without a deep story.
But Pirog is not as good as Chesty - I know - and you were too kind in your review, because you had the right to write "it's boring", because it is.

Now I'm working on an Arrowhead campaign (us army, bradley supported infantry), but currentley (5th mission) it's has no deep story neighter, just an another country to invade by US. OK, it's just a campaign for me, to test the new country and new units... But through your review (an othor comments) I have to rethink what I want to do as campaign editing.

Thanks for your review again!

[Barbolani]

Bardosy,

I'm playing right now PIROG.

It's great, as all your other works (I still remember Comandante Pajaro in ArmA )

I wish BIS had the same enthusiasm making campaigns.

Just a tip: If you are not improving the missions with voices, some kind of sound (the hint one, for example) should be placed anytime some radio chat happens. So we won't miss any important info.