(Review Completed) [SP] Last Tango In Bagango

[johnnyboy]

Last Tango In Bagango
Arma Single Player Mission
Version: 1.O Final  (Edit: Re-uploaded August 28 to remove stupid addon)



Scenario:  With help of civilian contact "El Cojon", find and destroy supply caches in Bagango.

Style: Fast, action oriented mission.  You play as Northern spec-ops, raid the town, destroy three objectives (whose locations vary each time you play).

Addons:   NONE

Features:
- Custom voice interactions
- Intel available dependent on player actions
- Over 100 custom voices and sounds
- A few surprises
- Objective Locations chosen from pool at mission start, so varies each time you play (better replayability)
- Fun intro and outro movies
- Over 30 scripts

Thanks a million to all you beta testers!

OFPEC Review

[bardosy]

Hi Johnnyboy!

Sorry for the late test! I left my memory stick at the office...
But yesterday evening finally I could play with Tango.




Intro:
Wonderful intro! I loved it! Funny and - I know - it could be a hard work.

Briefing:
I got an error message. See the pictures! (I used v1.05)
Anyway it's OK.

Mission:
1., How did you do it: the player's team start in Delta formation? It was cool!
2., Please use subtitles! It could be more understandeble for a non-English speaker.
3., Let's give us more time to exemine the map! I almost miss the funny scene when civilians got the weapon from tractor.
4., Damn BIS civilians! They are very stupid. They stucked in the town.
5., Nice scenery! But a little bit block my men... I know, it's a compromise.
6., Thanks for the Ambulance!
7., I really suprised the secondary expositions in the 2nd objective. Great!

After the 3rd explo, the mission become a nightmare... Everywhere are enemies and my men stucked in the town. Finally 3 men and me could reach the house where the garage guy wait us and we escaped with the red Skoda. The mission was completed, but 3 men was in Bagango... But I was thankful when mission ended and I had not to go back for my men.

Outro:
None...
I hoped I could saw a funny outro too...


Overal:
very good story! Funny things. And damn good urban fight.
It's not your fault, but the BIS AI is not the smartest in urban area...

[bardosy]

Other pics...

About the nice syamian twins...

About the first objective...

And you can see on the map how my men lost in the urban area...

[bardosy]

Oh, and I almost forgot:

Advise...
It's up to you to save your mission as addonfree or...
But I made a mission with armed civilians and they was blind and dump and stupid... I hate them.
And I found an armed civilian mod (it's not a real mod, I think it's just config files in the pbo, because it's few KByte).
And you can put armed civilians who smart as a normal ArmA soldier. The difference is HUGE! this tiny addon save my mission idea.

[johnnyboy]

Bardosy, 

Thanks a million for your feedback and time.  I really appreciate it.

Wonderful intro! I loved it! Funny and - I know - it could be a hard work.

Thanks.  I am going to publish in the scripts section some fully functional outhouses (an outhouse is the outdoor toilet) later.  I have multiple fun modes for them.

Briefing: I got an error message. See the pictures! (I used v1.05)

Thanks.  I think my init scripts must be creating a marker from the mapfact addon.  Will fix.

1., How did you do it: the player's team start in Delta formation?

No secret here.  Just set Formation to Delta in first move waypoint.

Please use subtitles! It could be more understandeble for a non-English speaker.

Understood.  I will fix this.

Let's give us more time to exemine the map!

This I'm not sure about.  I'm worried the player will get bored if there is too long a gap.  Maybe I will add a few seconds here.

Did you play through the civilian conversation more than once?  If so, you would have noticed that the 3 objectives are in different random locations each time you play (3 locations chosen from possible 9).  I'm hoping this adds to replayability of mission.

5., Nice scenery! But a little bit block my men... I know, it's a compromise.

I don't understand this comment?  Please explain further.

., I really suprised the secondary expositions in the 2nd objective. Great!

Excellent.  I am worried that it is overdone.  Should I tone this down a little?

After the 3rd explo, the mission become a nightmare... Everywhere are enemies and my men stucked in the town. Finally 3 men and me could reach the house where the garage guy wait us and we escaped with the red Skoda. The mission was completed, but 3 men was in Bagango...  But I was thankful when mission ended and I had not to go back for my men.

It is a tough urban fight.  Eventhough I have played it a 1000 times, I never survive with more than two guys.  I know its not realistic to leave guys behind, but for now I let the mission end when player makes it to exfiltration point.

Outro: None...   I hoped I could saw a funny outro too...

I know I  need a funny outro...and I have been trying to think of one.   It will probably be about how "El Cojon" got his name.

About the nice syamian twins

I love this siamese twins pic.  Too funny.  Never happened to me.

And you can see on the map how my men lost in the urban area...

The AI does have a tough time navigating in town.  The civilians often run off to crazy places, but I can usually herd my soldier AI pretty well from objective to objective.  But holding their hands is distracting and gets you killed!

I'm thinking of making this into a coop mission.  Human players could cooperate and clear much easier.

And I found an armed civilian mod (it's not a real mod, I think it's just config files in the pbo, because it's few KByte).
And you can put armed civilians who smart as a normal ArmA soldier. The difference is HUGE! this tiny addon save my mission idea.

Thanks for the advice.   I was afraid fewer people would play if I used an addon.   I would like to make the dumb civilians smarter.  I will see what other beta testers think about this...

Once again, thanks very much for the detailed reviews and pics.  Taking a pic of an error message is the best way to communicate those.

I am going on vacation for 6 days today.  My  wife won't let me bring the ARMA computer!  What kind of vacation is that, dammit?  But I will work on this mission as soon as I get back.

I will be reading the forums however, and look forward to more feedback from beta testers!

[bardosy]

johnnyboy,
I wish you a nice holyday!!!
I salute to all of ours wives, because they are so nice to tolerate the time what we spend with ArmA.

Just set Formation to Delta in first move waypoint.

There was a WP to the player? I didn't notice it. I never use WP to the player, but I will try to set the player's formation in the init. Thanks for the tip.

If so, you would have noticed that the 3 objectives are in different random locations each time you play.

WOW! I didn't notice it. I will do an other try then...

5., Nice scenery! But a little bit block my men... I know, it's a compromise.
I don't understand this comment?  Please explain further.

OK. The ArmA mission designers always have to make hard decisions: withouit addon and a little bit dumb or smarter with addon. It's a difficult question. And when I set up a scenery: fences, sandbags, fortress, barbedwires, warning signs.., I have no free hand because the AI (even the soldiers) blocked, stucked in this object. So I want make a nice scenery, but I have to reduce the object, to avoid the AI stuck... E.g.: I made a mission when the player must accross a river on bridge. And the other side I set up a checkpoint (I didn't block the road, but) I set up MG nest on the side road and barbed wire and warning sign. And the player's men stop at the middle of the bridge and didn't want accross. So I must delete the whole checkpoint.
Well! I mean it's a hard decision to set up fences in a town. It's nice but it's blocked the AI. I don't want suggest to reduce the scenery! It's OK. I just mentioned it...

Excellent.  I am worried that it is overdone.  Should I tone this down a little?

Of course NOT! It was wonderful! First time I lost half of my squad in the secondary explosition...

It will probably be about how "El Cojon" got his name.

I love this situation/story/feeling... Don't you want to make a campaign with this setup?

I was afraid fewer people would play if I used an addon.

Yes. This is my opinion too. I just planning a campaign where I need this addon. And I thought the players could DL a tiny addon for a campaign. But - I know - not for a single mission.


Have a nice holyday!

[johnnyboy]

Well! I mean it's a hard decision to set up fences in a town.

I see what you mean.  The sidewalk fences in town are built in to Bagango.  I did not place them.  In fact I at initialization I have code that destroyed some to get them out of the way.  Maybe I should do that for all the sidewalk fences in Bagango.  It will make it easier for the Player to cross the street.  I don't know if AI will be any better though.

I have campaign ideas, but not sure I have time.  How many hours did you put into Perpetua?

[bardosy]

The sidewalk fences in town are built in to Bagango.

No. I found normal fences in near the second objective: the ammo cache was in a building and around this building was fences. But not the nice fences, like in a normal garden, but ugly one. I thought you put these... But now I will check it in a pure map.

I have campaign ideas, but not sure I have time.  How many hours did you put into Perpetua?

It's hard to count it.  But I guess: about 2-4 evening per mission. Beta tests and debug and script writing and cutscenes inclueded, but voiceover exclueded.

[101]

Hi johnnyboy!

I tried your mission today! The "Last tango in Bagango" very exciting mission: varied with unexpected episodes and action-packed! The mission is difficult...to me!   For mission to taking many manoeuvres and tactics: really challange and battlefield the "tango" mission! I have to like excellent enemy placement.

I have one problems in the mission: the dialogues! The (character) voices a little bit low, many times in gameplay it is hear scarcely audible!

Any pics your mission:





HMWW wreck and fire arms cache after detonation...

   

In advance of fuel cache attack...



...and after. We are victory!

   


Really great job johnnyboy, go on like that, I'm waiting for more from you!

P.S.: I like it a RACS soldier in farm house latrine...



 


             

[johnnyboy]

Hi 101!

Thanks much for the review and all the great pics.  The pics are a great way to see how you approached the mission.  It also shows that you are skilled at squad control, placing your units to "watch direction" for good cover fire.

The (character) voices a little bit low, many times in gameplay it is hear scarcely audible!

I plan to add English text along with dialog to help with some of this. 

Artillery support

There is no artillery support, so that was likely the secondary explosions from destroying the arms cache (scripted by me).

Glad you liked the placement.  Note that the 3 objective placements are randomly selected from a total of nine possible locations (with six placements randomly deleted at mission init).  So each time you play the mission, you would have a different combination of objective placements, and likely take a different route through the town.

P.S.: I like it a RACS soldier in farm house latrine...

Thats my favorite part too!  Did you notice the clue to him being there?

Thanks again for taking the time to try my mission, and mark up the screen shots. 

I plan to add a good outtro cutscene to this.

[Cheetah]

Last Tango in Bagango

Package

You might want to include a picture for advertising purposes / for the review later. Readme is fine.

Overview

Please cut it down to one page. I can't even get to the second page, the arrow isn't working. Maybe you could add a border to the picture? The picture is cool.

Intro

In the beginning there's a bit of lag, not too bad though and it disappears after a few seconds. I'd like to see a voice over here. Other than that the intro is very enjoyable, well done. You're doing a good job at telling the story. Well scripted too. It's probably pretty hard to get the guy in the latrine with his eyes above the door and the Los pantalos to get armed and walk through the building.

Briefing

Error: marker... already reported.

Good story, I like the details you give. Yes, I wonder how El Cojon got his name. I like the notes about friends / foes, well thought of that stuff johnny!

I'd like to see other ranks. Right now the highest is a Colonel, lowest a Corporal. You might want to have a Lt, Sgt and a few corporals or whatever you like most. I noticed that there is no medic in my squad, would've liked a medikit script or medic. There are a few M113 Ambulances around, but I got injured in the beginning of the mission, quite hard to heal in that case.

Mission

I like the beginning, nice twist with the guys over there. Amazing how you thought of the guy in the latrine, with the rifle against it. Well scripted. Text accompanying the voices are a must however.

Good amount of action at the beginning of the mission and towards the end. I had to look for the 2nd ammo cache and the fuel myself. Probably messed up somewhere so I didn't get the information. Maybe too trigger happy . The after - ammo explosions are cool, but in my opinion the script lasts too long. Right now it continues to run I think, you might want it to end after 5 minutes.

Like the emplacement of the sniper and a few guys in the buildings. Most of the move though the buildings, I like that dynamic element. Adds to the replayability.

Good that you order reinforcements to move towards the town, think that there was a truck coming towards Bagango and later on a few M113s. Evaded them though as I moved out of the city towards the extraction point.

Ending the mission went well. All objectives ticked off. Refreshing idea with the hintc to give the mission completed signal.

Overall

Well crafted mission, has a lot of extras, probably missed a lot of them. The mission is replayable because of the objectives randomly chosen from a pool. Felt as if the mission is almost ready for review, just a few more things to be fixed and new things incorporated. Keep the good stuff coming!

[johnnyboy]

Cheetah,

Thanks much for the feedback.  I know you are busy with many formal reviews right now.

[LCD]

just how long is this mision ? cuz w/ ma amount of free time i need 2 rearange my time table 4 ny beta testing during weekdays 

nywayz ill try testing it thid week...

LCD OUT

[sharkattack]

hi  johhny
had  a look at last tango   ... nice  work ..

overview   
======
nice pic   ...  text  is ok  a little long
======
intro
======
up there with the best  nice camera  work  ...
shame about the music ...
======
recieved an error messgae upon  main briefing page
no entry bin config.bin/cfgmarkercolours.map_marker colour red1  ?

briefing  is well laid out .. all markers work ..  no weapon selection   

mission
======
enjoyed  playing this   ...  however  i struggled  to hear  voice acting  at times ... maybe subtitles
nice   scripting throughout   and  unit placement  is spot on ...  nice ending  all  were ticked ...
found  the  gameplay  choppy at times  ... maybe lower the view distance

[101]

Thats my favorite part too!  Did you notice the clue to him being there?

When we killed the RACS soldiers in the farmhouse, then I see the latrine. I have suspicious M16 weapons, that to staying near latrine! Come up to latrine, open the door and I see soldier...I have to surprised! And kill him...

Good idea, interesting script, I liked it...!