The FortressPackage / Addons It's good that you included the editorupdate, although I suggest using mikeros one (editorupgrade103), I find it a bit better than the others. I already had the other two addons (Jam2, but I'll be using Jam3), and DeRa, but I noticed that the download links were not working. Might be a problem with my computer, but I suggest that you find their links on the BAS website, or on ofp.info maybe. But again, I don't know if it's a problem with my computer.
The package misses some pictures, always good to add a few nice ones and it's necessary if you want your mission to be reviewed by OFPEC.
Your readme is okay, but I suggest that you include a more specific release date, so also include a day and add a version number to the readme and your package. This way we, beta testers, can see what version we're testing and if there's a new one released.
The rest of the briefing is fine.
Overview A good and clear picture with a border.
Intro In my opinion an intro is a good addition to any mission, so why not make one. Doesn't have to be a long one, and I think that there's plenty of stuff you can show for a mission like this one. But it's still what I think and you must do what you want
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Briefing Please remove all the dots in the first line, it looks bad. You can start a new line, or use a comma or a dot, but please not a whole bunch of dots.
I miss a link to the insertion point on the objective page, it can be handy for the player to know this and get to the spot on the map with one click in the briefing, without using a link to another page and then pressing the link.
The plan is clear, a well written detailed orders section. The only thing that you might want to do is to remove the text on the last page or at least make it so that there's not two lines on one page. Doesn't look good.
Don't get the TEXT at the end of the notes section, is it a special word or..? The weapon selection is fine, though you might want to equip us with LAWs as default equipment. Just in case someone forgets to take a LAW (or/and for his spotter).
The others guys of my team just get the default stuff, only one gets a Carl Gustav launcher. I'm not sure if it's going to work out good, leader/ spotter and squad will be separated after a while, well probably. From what I read in the briefing.
Oh, and you might want to remove the binocular from #2. I find it highly frustrating to see my teammates looking through their binocular just when bad luck strikes and there's a full squad attacking.. ouch. I prefer not to have those binoculars on AI teammates.
Another thing, you might want to lower the ranks of myself and my team a bit. Five LTs in one group commanded by a colonel, well it looks pretty weird. But I'm glad that they're all experts.
Mission The mission starts and I put everyone except #2 and myself in team yellow, so I can get easy access to #2 and I don't have to bother with the others. The ammo box at the start is well though off, but I think that it has a too wide range of weapons. The satchels are good, but only a law launcher is enough on top of the sats.
Anyway I leave with the PBR with #2 as a gunner. He reports an enemy boat and starts shooting at it once we're close enough. Their gunner shoots back and injures my teammates. Luckily he gets both the gunner and the driver pretty fast and we get on shore right behind the fence to make sure that I don't have to blow something to pieces.
We're now at Bi38, which means that I'll only have to head south to get close to the base. The problem is that there's an enemy squad in combat mode in my way. I'm trying not to engage, but it can turn out in a firefight. I'll give them a few minutes to get away.
Oh, there are two bmps coming down the hill from the base, going to move a bit further west to evade them as good as possible. I hope that I don't have to engage. Ah damn, no way there either, there's a bmp and a boat in the sea. So I can't head west. I'll have to wait how this will turn out. I prefer not to call in my squad as I can't see in what situation they will get / are.
I'm thinking of saving the game and using our LAWs to take the Bmps and the boat out, but this would leave us without rockets (only four being carried by #2 and myself). Well, I can always try it, but only after saving.
At the last moment I told #2 to hold fire as I saw that the bmps were going away. This meant that I had a clean (almost) way towards the base. I ran with my spotter towards the rocks at Bi42 and we lay there awaiting the enemy movements as the alarm had been raised. Probably by us, but I'm not sure about that. I didn't see an enemy, the only thing I heard and which may have something to do with it is a rocket impacting about three minutes earlier. It wasn't a guy of my team, so it'll have to be a fellow american soldier of another team. Or maybe a russian seeing our tanks? Don't know. Now moving on on my own, because I want #2 to cover my route back.
After some crawling I have a pretty good view on the base, altough limited (cannot see the ground in the base, only objectives that are high enough). What I suggest is that you remove a few of the lone M2 positions, or let them be guarded by a few solders. A lone M2 looks bad, especially without any form of static protection. The shilka posts look good and the tank patrols make it harder for me too. Which is good.
I see scuds and order the radio. There's a weird message about three soldiers on Bb40? Don't really understand that one. Might be that I missed something. And you might want to make it impossible for the player to use the radio (scuds one) until the player can actually see them. It's always nice to have a few M1A1s helping you out to advance.
Anyway the tanks are moving in and I let my squad come to my position. Enemy tanks are about 50 metres away from me, I see a few spetz natz and a lot of enemy infantry as well as some shilkas. This will be a tough battle, but I'm sure that I can win this one.
The MG, sniper and a few guards in the towers are all sitting ducks for my sniper. I'm moving in with my #2, he's covering my back and I'm getting as close as possible. A few things: you might want to make sure that once I attack everyone gets aware at least, there were still a lot of guys in safe mode, not good. Another thing you want to do is to send a few patrols out to look for me. It's pretty dangerous and enemies going nothing are easier for me to kill than walking guys.
Oh and I think that you should warn people that you need two rockets to destroy a shilka or bmp (with the M136 launcher).
Anyway, took a dragunov, saw two pallets flying? Killed a few soldiers and I'm wondering why the friendly tanks take so long to assist me. I'm going to stop for now, going to sleep. Will continue tomorrow (probably).
...CONTINUE...
Okay, resuming play.
I get a radio message that the friendly tanks, bravo squad, are down and that I have to cover the retreat of the crew members. But the problem is that the abrams tanks didn't shoot a thing. So there's still a lot of soldiers, a lot of tanks and only #2 and myself. Because the rest of my team has a long walk to go, they only ran 200 metres until now. So they'll be at my position in about 10 minutes, which is a bit too long for me to wait for.
I'm going to try and disrupt most of the base, only attacked lone units until now. Saving the game with a cheatsave (I think that it's okay to do, because the abrams didn't come even close). A UAZ came close and I used my M9 pistol to take care of the four passengers. Spetz Natz with good weapons, but not for my this time.
There's a full squad at my position (back near the rocks where #2 is) and they don't detect me so this allows me to pick off a few units (notice only now that the heavy shaking is caused by an arm injury, from the boat fight probably). My M9 and sniper are enough to kill most of them. As I'm killing some soldiers there's a mission update, a new objective has been added.`
Seems like bravo ran on a minefield and I have to try and rescue a few of the surviving crew members. First I'll get rid of the scuds, then I'll get back to my boat and I'll pick them up before returning to the evac point.
The area is full of spetz natz and normal soldiers, as well as several tank patrols. This will be tricky, I managed to get a RPG launcher, this will help me take care of shilkas and bmps more easily. My squad has almost reached my position, I hear them firing. I'm glad that I can finally push a bit more, I'll need the AT stuff. But, they're not at my position, yet. My #6 takes down a bmp from the other side of the valley. I order #2 to take out the T72 that's left of this tank patrol. While I'm going to take out a few remaining soldiers in my vicinity and that of #2. Before I do this I notice that the M136 rockets #2 fired (two of them) weren't enough to destroy the T72, he probably didn't hit one of the rockets that good, but anyway I killed the crew that jumped out.
Killed a few soldiers at long range with my sniper and destroyed a shilka that was on my side. Looks like that my team yellow is having trouble getting to me, probably because of the fence. Took down two bmps, the other patrol with two satchels, which I found on the body of a dead spetz natz. Going to use another satchel to blow a hole on the fence to let my teammates come through. Good that I blew those bmps, because there were some regular soldiers in them, better to get rid of them this way.
Used two satchels to blow the fence and took care of the guards in the towers. Heard a machine gun (m2) firing and saw some tracers, but I don't know from what unit (friendly/enemy) they come from. Six, my medic, had some problems with getting back in formation, pretty frustrating.
Got to him and healed myself and let #2 heal. Saw a friendly crew walking 100 metres away from me, at bi42. Don't know what he's doing here? Anyway, we continue our way towards the base.
Took out a few spetz natz arriving with a BRDM, lose #3 as he's trying to blow a shilka, he uses two rockets and it doesn't blow. Damn, I hate these AT weapons of the weapon pack (always did). Have to blow it myself then.
Destroy the shilka and a brdm with rpgs, go to the fence and place a satchel, timer 60 seconds. Want to blow a hole in the wall to get in faster and easier. I have set up a defensive circle near my rock position which my squad will defend, each teammate has an own direction to guard. It's my fall back position, in case there's a bit too many soldiers chasing me down when I attack.
I take out a sniper on a hill before he finally kills me, took three hits. Pretty lucky that I'm alive. Take out a few soldiers, the satchel explodes and blows a hole in the fence, killing a few guards too. Destroy a T72 and with it a number of trucks (probably fuel / ammo ones) go up in the air, blowing a huge portion of the wall. Now out to destroy the scuds.
Destroy them with my rpgs (thank you for the ammo truck/crates), nice sounds coming from the radio.
Objective 3 completed. Now going back to the boat with my team, I'll let them walk back to the evac zone, might keep a few in the boat. But I think that I need a lot of the places, might be not though. But it's nice to have at least a gunner.
Damn, my boat is gone. I order my men to walk back to the extraction point while I get towards the point of the crew. (4x speed).
Lose a lot of my men this way, only #2 survives and he isn't even behind the fences. It's quite frustrating that they can't find their own way through, or well not a good way.
After a lot of problems, I manage to rescue the soldiers (crew) with a truck.
Debriefing 57 minutes, 26920
Conclusion A pretty entertaining mission that has a few problems.
The addon you use has some law launchers that are weaker than standard ofp ones. You should mention this in the briefing (maybe) to let players know. There's a large number of tanks you may have to destroy in the mission, you could reduce this amount. Starting with the shilkas seems like a good idea to me, that many shilkas aren't needed, I suggest you remove one or two of them.
Another thing you have to fix is the amount of soldiers in safe mode after you start fighting, put them in aware mode once the fight starts. It's weird to see safe soldiers near the sea after destroying the whole base.
One of the most important things might be the fence you have to get past. For a player this isn't much of a problem, for the AI it is. They just wouldn't go through the hole on the way back. Wouldn't it be better just to send the player in with an observer, and have a squad, that the player can call by using the radio, to assist. This way you can script them blowing a hole in the fence. Of course this takes away a lot of fire support near the player, but you can always let the squad coming to aid go towards the player and provide a base of fire or whatever.
Hope that I didn't forget something in this summary, it's a good mission but it needs work.