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Offline h-

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Re: Operation Black Dragon Beta Tester wanted.
« Reply #15 on: 04 Apr 2017, 18:00:56 »
Oddly enough I have not had any problems with my own AI squad much, at least nothing that wouldn't be familiar from OFP. I do have the friendly AI skill set way higher than enemy in effort to try to muffle the AK sniping a tad so maybe that has something to do with it :dunno:
Enemy tanks are quite pointless though, in Force Majeure a BMP drives up and does absolutely nothing, not even when my AI guys fire all their LAWs (or whatever it is called) at it(missing it every time even though only 200m away, so it just sits there engine running. The AI only friendly squads rarely survive enemy contact for more than couple of minutes, etc..
One thing that really annoys me about the AI is that they fire their AT at infantry so usually have to carry AT myself to take out actual armored targets.

SBG, I think you're understating the AI changes considering the AI changelog for A3 is at 5 pages on BIF...
They have finally taught the AI to not use telephone poles and wire fences and such as cover (actually done within object models) which makes them look less daft, but they really should teach the AI to prioritize cover when getting fired at/making contact instead of kneeling/proning/standing on open area trying to find the target to shoot at. Would go a long way making the AI appear less dumb.
Obviously it is impossible to mak ethem act like humans but prioritizing cover would at least make them appear that they actually care about surviving the contact..

Anyhoo, back to topic, Force Majeur went without a hitch, although I got my ass handed to me a couple of times. Guerillas in the Mist went fine as well, liked the detail of the patrolling guard talking to the one(s) in the towers (amused me that the tower guards never even acknowledged the guy).
There was a couple of bugs in the outro cutscene though:
- when the Russian leader talks to the Spets Nats guys (or whom ever) in the first leader POV (behind right shoulder) the camera is inside the leader's head making only some parts of the head show up from inside out or something.
- In the end when the two US soldiers talk the first voice-over is not audible, only text appears on the screen.
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Offline savedbygrace

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Re: Operation Black Dragon Beta Tester wanted.
« Reply #16 on: 09 Apr 2017, 04:30:50 »
I've calmed down since typing that last crazy post. In the past, I have always compensated for the AI by placing them out of harms way to utilize the command view feature as a counterbalance to the games unfairness. Just as you h-, I pack my own AT usually and make some of the non AT members carry spare rockets for me. I'll approach the mission with more caution next time, leaving the squad away from the contact zone while taking a humvee for extra firepower for myself.

Sorry if I discouraged you Architect. I'll keep plugging away at it, albeit as time permits.

Offline h-

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Re: Operation Black Dragon Beta Tester wanted.
« Reply #17 on: 14 Apr 2017, 10:00:11 »
I have to say though that I can mirror SBG's annoyance over the friendly AI sometimes.

In Grosbeak Extinct I had to drop to regular difficulty in order to have the enemy AI skill dropped low enough to survive, same seems to be the case for the next one because it seems that forest somehow confuses the friendly AI as they don't seem to realize to fire at the targets they see, they just report them and do nothing until half of them are dead and one or two may wake up from the forest-transe :dunno:

Also, really starting to get annoyed by the completely useless "voice-on-selecting-page-on-notebook" stuff on the briefing, some of them are pretty unintelligible even..

EDIT:
:D :D damn the AI can be retarded at times:
Enemy soldier is firing at them from 50m away ->
- one hits the ground and turns facing away from the target
- Another kneels and aims at the target for half a second, the just runs off somewhere
- the rest run circles around trees
- none of the AI seems to even know about the target because they don't report a contact even though they get fired at, only after I reveal the target they start firing at it

Anyhoo, Half a Thousand ended before I could even reach Gulan, in debriefing the extract and hold Gulan objectives were both ticked green.

EDIT2:
Judge, Jury and Executioner went without a hitch, apart from a bug when I get close enough to the ammo dump: some elevator music starts playing (I'm assuming it's radio or something in the base?) and it continues playing 'in my head' right up to the end of the mission.
Could be Arma sound bug though because everything sounds like happening right next to you (like enemy soldiers getting hit always making me think some of my guys got hit).

Also gotta love how for example road cones count as civilian kills  :facepalm:
« Last Edit: 14 Apr 2017, 11:33:54 by h- »
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Offline h-

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Re: Operation Black Dragon Beta Tester wanted.
« Reply #18 on: 16 Apr 2017, 19:19:30 »
Ok, first "game breaking"  bug (which worked in my favor though), in Knaves and Kings the mission ends in glorious success if you do the objectives in reverse order; thought I'd burn the night away doing something useful.

So instead of waiting for first light and the convoy I first went to investigate the grid, and was in middle of blowing stuff up when suddenly the mission ends right after my guys pepper some enemy soldier who was hiding somewhere. "Mission complete. Good Work" and only the 'investigate the grid' is ticked green..

So I never got to attack the convoy, and was in the middle of taking targets of opportunity when the mission ends.
« Last Edit: 16 Apr 2017, 19:58:12 by h- »
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Offline The-Architect

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Re: Operation Black Dragon Beta Tester wanted.
« Reply #19 on: 06 May 2017, 15:58:53 »
That shouldn't have happened. You are meant to do the objectives in reverse order (although that is never stated) because if you wait for the convoy, you'd have to recce the enemy base in daylight. I'll certainly fix that. The mission is mega hard if you take the targets of opportunity seriously. I tend to just hit a couple of things and then leave but I know some players are hardcore and will want to kill everything. Good luck to them.

The following is in no particular order.

The elevator music is really annoying. I put a playmusic command in there that loops the track, and then in the init, had a playmusic zero command. It obviously isn't working. That really is annoying.

Going back into some of the missions, I'm finding whole passages of text not being audible. I will address this. You guys may find more moving forward. I have. :(

Grosbeak extinct is supposed to be nails. You're in enemy territory and surrounded. There is an angle you can take that has minimal resistance. You need to go fast North North West and kill a couple of bots. Then keep moving into the treeline. The mission is completed y a enemy unit counter. You will need to kill quite a few.

Apologies about the voiceover on the briefing screens etc. They're a cute little feature that BI put in and I thought I'd use them. If they're super annoting, I could easily remove them.

Camera cutscenes are super annoying as ArmA seems to be completely random with how it deals with unit placement. One time a unit in a playmove can be right on his mark, the next he can appear five feet away from it. There seems to be no cure.

Sanbag fix is a ghost from somwhere. I'm not using any 3rd party sandbags. I'll investigate.

I really do appreciate that you've given me time you'll never get back. I know the AI is a pain in the rectum but I can't help that more than I have. Through playtesting myself, I've come up with a few coping strategies, but they're just that. Often I just lone wolf with them providing overwatch from somewhere.

If you can give me just enough patience to see it through, I'll be very grateful.
James Andrew Wilkinson 1977 - 2005 R.I.P.
"If it ain't the friggin' incoming it's the friggin' outgoing. Only difference is who gets the friggin' grease, and that ain't no friggin' difference at all."

Offline h-

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Re: Operation Black Dragon Beta Tester wanted.
« Reply #20 on: 06 May 2017, 20:34:59 »
I have really enjoyed the campaign. And that you have pulled off this quite bug-free stuff is quite a triumph given how broken the game itself is.
Just haven't had the time to continue further.

It's possible that playmusic could be one the borked things (I modded the game for number of years (way too many) and there's probably more broken stuff than working stuff in it).

About the cutscene dialogue stuff, can't remember the mission name right now but the either the outro cutscenes in Knaves or the intro cutscenes in the following mission (or both) have dialogue that extends way over the time the speaker is on camera, can be almost whole sentences overlapping into the next scene.

Quote
Grosbeak extinct is supposed to be nails.
Btw, one bug I failed to mention was that there was somewhere (can't remember the heading though :( ) a enemy group visible near the edge of the viewdistance just standing there, I'm assuming waiting their turn to get triggered to move.

Quote
They're a cute little feature that BI put in and I thought I'd use them.
I guess I might have over stated the 'annoyedness' of those, was probably pissed of by something else and those just stuck..

Quote
Sanbag fix is a ghost from somwhere. I'm not using any 3rd party sandbags.
It seems to be some sort of fix for the AI to be able to fire over them, IIRC there was same thing for OFP as well.

Quote
Often I just lone wolf with them providing overwatch from somewhere.
That's what I tend to do as well, done that since OFP..
It's still a valid approach in A3 as well, the AI would need more autonomy to be more useful. Otherwise you basically have to take yourself out of the combat and just concentrate babysitting them onward.

Part of why I get annoyed by the AI is my own folly though because I'm not satisfied completing a mission until I can do that with no or absolutely minimal losses. :P

EDIT:
In Liberation of Corazol at one point I get an order to move to a farm house and almost half way there when my character suddenly reports that 'the building' has been destroyed. Not even sure what building he's talking about but I assume it's the farm house. As to who supposedly destroyed it I have no idea.
I go there anyway because the objective was not ticked green and there's an enemy mechanized unit parked there so no-one actually destroyed anything :dunno:
The radio coms seem to indicate that I destroyed it with the CAS :dunno:

It's also a bit confusing as to what friendlies are being painted from that farm house; it's like 20km away from the main target (at least it feels that way :P, I'm supposed to have transport but I have no idea what/who and where), which is obstructed by terrain..

EDIT2:
Things go fud if I get hit.
First, you get an action to apply first aid on yourself which of course doesn't work, because you're hit.
You can't order any AI to heal you either unless you first try to nudge it close enough to you so that the action 'bleeds' into it's action list. Even then the action has to be called twice.

After that I can no longer order the group around as a leader, first if order return to form the order is 'All, follow 3.', then after that it's either 'All, follow all' or 'All, follow 2' both of which makes the group not respond because I guess the game thinks I'm dead :dunno:
So the only way to have them move around is to order move commands to 2, which is really annoying.
Gladly that is solved by healing myself on the ambulance BMP.

Confusingly my guy reports the farmhouse clear after killing all the enemy there so no idea what building he was talking about earlier  :hmmm:
While clearing the farm house I hear a low thud and my character reports that all enemy armor has been destroyed, which I of course did not do because the CAS went down within minutes.

Then after clearing the farm house I get an order to move to a building and about 30 seconds later the mission ends in success.
« Last Edit: 07 May 2017, 21:20:02 by h- »
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Offline The-Architect

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Re: Operation Black Dragon Beta Tester wanted.
« Reply #21 on: 19 May 2017, 01:13:05 »
Liberation of Corazol is a bit of a drama because of the AI pilot being a moron. The ghost uilding you're talking about is the one in the town that your friendlies report taking fire from. You should get a message giving you an in depth target indication on to it with friendlies marking it with smoke.

Once the building is destroyed, the friendlies move forward again and then get targeted from the enemy CP location off in the distance. Killing that will end the mission.

Your transport is located off the hill to the north ish. It is mentioned in the briefing with a link I believe. The missions get a more hairy from that point on. Bare in mind that the only way you'll beat Mala Fide is if you draw back. You can fight until you run out of ammo but you'll eventually need to get back to the farm buildings.
James Andrew Wilkinson 1977 - 2005 R.I.P.
"If it ain't the friggin' incoming it's the friggin' outgoing. Only difference is who gets the friggin' grease, and that ain't no friggin' difference at all."

Offline h-

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Re: Operation Black Dragon Beta Tester wanted.
« Reply #22 on: 20 May 2017, 10:01:08 »
Quote
the only way you'll beat Mala Fide is if you draw back
Can't even do that because within 30 seconds to maybe a couple of minutes even my whole squad, including me, is slaughtered by the enemy that seems to come from everywhere; basically the AI guys die before they even can report the enemy they see.
Tried now several times at veteran and regular difficulty and seems to be completely impossible, even if I immediately head back when the radio call about the the plane being tracked comes in I still get slaughtered.. I suck at playing the game though. :P

Another thing annoying in Mala Fide is the fact that it starts way way way too far away from the patrol area, which forces you to run at 4x speed for minutes. While it might be realistic it doesn't really make a good gameplay   IMO :hmmm:
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Offline The-Architect

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Re: Operation Black Dragon Beta Tester wanted.
« Reply #23 on: 27 May 2017, 22:11:09 »
There should be a savegame in there.

To beat Mala Fide, you don't fight. As soon as you enter the village, and radio back that you're doing so, it triggers the enemy counter attack. That's your cue to bug out or hide. The mission is the enemy's only consolidated effort to push the Americans back. They throw a good half of their assets at you so you should really get an ass kicking. You should manage to limp back, after crawling through bushes and long grass, with very few of your men left if any at all.

I wanted to bring back some of the feeling from the old Flashpoint missions where you were really struggling to stay alive and where you had that feeling of impending doom every time you ran from bush to bush.

That's all well and good if the game doesn't want you to throw yourself out of the window though.

If you skip, you miss a cutscene. If you're happy to skip a cutscene then do it. That's why I released them as single missions.
James Andrew Wilkinson 1977 - 2005 R.I.P.
"If it ain't the friggin' incoming it's the friggin' outgoing. Only difference is who gets the friggin' grease, and that ain't no friggin' difference at all."

Offline h-

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Re: Operation Black Dragon Beta Tester wanted.
« Reply #24 on: 08 Jun 2017, 19:21:51 »
Well, finally made it through with Mala Fide.

What I did I hid with my guys in a farm house, and after the waves of enemies had passed (killing 4 of my guys because they can't keep their fingers off the triggers) we then headed back to base following the coast line, encountered an enemy patrol which took out 2 of my guys in the firefight.
Then it was just running to home, no enemy to be seen apart from the plane circling above doing nothing.
I did hear sporadic MG fire every now and then which then turned out to be a lone RACS tank taking pot shots at the circling plane.

The city was a ghost town, didn't see any indication of anyone ever being there (apart from the smoking armor wrecks on the way there) which is a bit weird considering that there was some fighting going on (I presume). :dunno:

EDIT:
Naked Flame was a cakewalk, we boarded the armed Humwees and executed dare I say beautiful attack on the gun site, took probably less than minute to take it out.
There was a moment of confusion though before I remembered that the guns don't have destroyed models, or if they do they really don't look destroyed..

I knew it was a huge risk for frustration to have AI drive vehicles but for some reason it was basically flawless. Wonders never seize..  :P

EDIT2:
Seems that Op Psionic is a bit fud  :hmmm:
We come to the LZ (at the beginning of the mission) and the chopper door gunners start to engage something (UAZ, something else too I guess). The chopper touches down and we start to get out but only two of us make it out of the chopper until it lifts up fast so the rest of my guys fall to their deaths (the second one out after me also gets wounded)..
Then I got shot by someone somewhere so I helplessly laid on the ground watching a dead SEAL pile grow as the guys dropped out of the chopper.

This an age old problem with AI choppers, I think it still exists in Arma3 too.

EDIT3:
I have tried this a few times now and the mission is fud, either the above described happens or some variations; like the chopper trying to land, then rising up again and trying again and suddenly my guy shouts "Go go go!" and automatically jumps out of the chopper to my death because we were like 30m in the air still.

Hot LZ is something that is bound to fail in any Arma..

You could try settings the chopper (and it's crew) to allowFleeing false because IIRC some BIS AI dev said the reason why choppers retard out in combat is because they want to flee.
What I don't get is though that since they know why that happens why the hell don't they fix it, because the chopper AI is still a complete retard in the most recent Arma3..  :scratch:
« Last Edit: 14 Jun 2017, 17:42:56 by h- »
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Offline The-Architect

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Re: Operation Black Dragon Beta Tester wanted.
« Reply #25 on: 05 Aug 2017, 01:16:07 »
Folks, thanks for our support. I am porting this campaign to ArmA III. Obvs there will be quite a few changes but the conceptis still sound. I still believe in the project and have found that ArmA III isn't all that different. It has quite a few challenges in the porting but most of it is straight forward.

Keep an eye out.
James Andrew Wilkinson 1977 - 2005 R.I.P.
"If it ain't the friggin' incoming it's the friggin' outgoing. Only difference is who gets the friggin' grease, and that ain't no friggin' difference at all."

Offline savedbygrace

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Re: Operation Black Dragon Beta Tester wanted.
« Reply #26 on: 07 Aug 2017, 03:26:45 »
Good news!

Offline h-

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Re: Operation Black Dragon Beta Tester wanted.
« Reply #27 on: 07 Aug 2017, 06:10:08 »
Indeed, good stuff. :)
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Offline The-Architect

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Re: Operation Black Dragon Beta Tester wanted.
« Reply #28 on: 03 Oct 2021, 00:59:04 »
 A few years ago, I created an 18 mission campaign for Armed Assault. I finished it ut never releaased it.

 

The fully voice acted campaign followed a Marine amphibious landing on the island of Sahrani to defeat a Russian invasion. The player followed the main characters of Rudy Lamb, a Marine Squad Leader and Scott Fuchs, a special forces team leader.

 

Lots of innovative scripts were added. The eagle eyed amongst you will see flocks of birds flying up when startled, soldiers urinating, enemy sections throwing smoke and bugging out when they drop below a certain strength, players being able to insert ear defence and much more. Thanks to all the people who have released scripts to the community. I managed to complete all the missions, briefings and cutscenes and the campaign was put in single mission format so that players go back and play their favourites. It wouldn't be ArmA without bugs though and the final product lost one or two lines of recorded dialogue (the subtitles remain) and one or two error messages pop up during gameplay.

 

The community stopped playing the game in favour of ArmA III so nobody really got to fully enjoy Operation Black Dragon. Therefore, I've put all of the cutscenes together to make a movie from it. The briefings are kept so that you can see what was supposed to happen in the missions and the missions are summarised in text format between the scenes.

 

I hope you all enjoy the movie, and if any of you would like the actual campaign to play again, let me know and I'll send it to you.

 

Thanks for your time.

 

https://youtu.be/QYw_QZWuX-E

 
James Andrew Wilkinson 1977 - 2005 R.I.P.
"If it ain't the friggin' incoming it's the friggin' outgoing. Only difference is who gets the friggin' grease, and that ain't no friggin' difference at all."

Offline Inlesco

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Re: Operation Black Dragon Beta Tester wanted.
« Reply #29 on: 10 Jul 2023, 11:31:04 »
Quote
The-Architect wrote:

Folks, thanks for our support. I am porting this campaign to ArmA III. Obvs there will be quite a few changes but the conceptis still sound. I still believe in the project and have found that ArmA III isn't all that different. It has quite a few challenges in the porting but most of it is straight forward.

Keep an eye out.

Hello there, Architect! How's the port to Arma 3 going? This really looks like a solid campaign to me, would love to try it out with the modern Arma experience!