(Review Completed) [SP] The Raid

[firecontrol]

Please review me. Thanks to all at OFPEC for your great work!

----UPDATE #5----



See intro here.

Name: The Raid
Version: 1.05
Type: Single Player
Game: Armed Assault v1.08 (non hotfix, should work w/ hotfix ok.)
Role: Squad Leader, 7 subordinates.
Island: Sahrani
Addons: - NONE
            - Modern War Sound Mod from here is 'required' for a better experience, as well as having the ability to clearly hear the beginning dialog. (HMMWVs are too loud w/o mod)
ZIP file size: 6.96MB

See readme.txt for changelog and other pertinent info. Caution: The changelog has spoilers.

This is my first mission, and would appreciate some beta testing as such. I wouldn't expect too much from the mission, as I am by no means a great mission maker, but I did have fun playing it.

Thanks to those who have tested already! I will of course test for you if needed and add you to the credits.


Be sure to remove the old version, or be sure which one you click when selecting the mission.

Since the zip is just over the attachment limit:
New Download: The Raid v1.05

This thread contains spoilers! Play before reading if you don't want to know.

Thanks guys/gals!
-FireControl

[Rellikki]

Overview
The overview was good. A fine description of the mission, author's details on the bottom... I also
liked the image. It did fit well in the overview area.

Intro
The intro was fine. Nothing special but it'll do. I liked the scene where the tanks were being filmed.

Briefing
The briefing was pretty good. Had a lot of useful information and notes. No spelling mistakes found.

Mission
I took myself an M136 and we headed to the town with hummers. We took position in the south and
eliminated some enemy armor. I tried to board one dammaged T-72 but I got a note that I can't use it.
Shame... After some fighting, we defeated the enemy. Then I got the radio message about the artillery.
We headed for it on foot. First we attacked the outpost east of the artillery position. Then we had
a little fire fight in the artillery position itself. After a couple of tries, we finally disabled them.
Then I got the radio message about the SCUD launcher. Damn, that squad is being hazed around a lot.
I took an ural from the outpost, which we first attacked, and boarded my team into it. We took position from the
hill north of the SCUD. I gazed up for some targets and spotted some friendly tanks in the west, but
how could I call them? I had a couple of tries but I couldn't go on. Not without the armor support.

Debriefing
Didn't complete the mission.

Summary
So far it seemed a very nice mission. Very challenging and should keep the player busy for at least
30 minutes. A very nice mission for your first one. You seem to have some knowledge about mission
making already. Keep it up!

[firecontrol]

Thank you very much for the test and the kind words! The tanks are 'called' when you meet them at the rally point, which is right there near them.

I'll have to try to make it clearer that you need to meet up with them. Let's see.. there was a radio message saying to meet them at the rally point and a map marker. Did they not fire for you? Any ideas how I can improve on that?

I agree that your squad gets hazed around a bit, poor buggers. But that's what happens when you're some of the only ones on the island! heheh.

Thanks again!

[Denz]

Overview
The overview was concise and I really liked the picture

Briefing
I liked the briefing, again all the info that was required was there.
No weapon selection though.

Mission
A few of my squad were without rifles (?), my No. 2 Sgt. Hill was only loaded with ammo- I thought we were in the middle of a patrol?. Anyway, split them in to two fire teams and boarded the two HMMWs. Arrived in Somato in the nick of time to stop the garrison being creamed - most of these guys were without weapons also. A brief fight ensued but was over fairly quickly. I then received the order to silence the artillery bringing down the barrage. I skirted the site of the Special Forces ambush to approach the artillery position from the South East. Got into a bit of a skirmish as I neared the artillery position and lost two men to the BMP2 skulking in the depot. The firefight around the artillery got pretty hectic and I got surprised by an enemy squad coming back through the depot I'd just cleared from the East.
I hit the same stumbling block as Relikki with regard to the M1s, when it came to taking out the SCUD. Although I came at it from a more North - North East approach (between Cayo and the SCUD's position) and just got swamped by T72s. It would have been nice to coordinate with the friendly tanks to take the pressure off my beleagured squad.

Summary
So I  didn't complete it either and as the time is now 0552 and I've got to be at work for 0830 I'll have to leave it there.
Pretty good mission though, I don't think it would take much to improve it.  

[firecontrol]

First, thanks for the test! Appreciate it much.

No rifles!? That's new to me. I've never seen that before, in any mission. The infantry should all be standard, as in I didn't mess with them via removing weapons. Very odd indeed. All soldiers on the map should have weapons. I can't seem to duplicate it either, any special circumstances? Mods, Addons, etc?

Oh yeah, about the weapon selection.. I opted to make an ammo box at the insertion point instead, and there are some scattered around as well (the opfor version.) Do people generally prefer to have the weapons available during the briefing instead?

Same problem with the tanks as Rellikki, damn. The player is supposed to actually meet up with the tanks at the rally point, I thought that was pointed out. Maybe I'll have to add a radio trigger as well, in case people come from a different angle and don't want to go to the tanks.

In any case, thanks for the feedback! Looks like those Abrams are a sticking point. Noted!

[Denz]

Ok I'll have a look through my addons folder although I always use mod folders a rogue file might have got loose.

[Rellikki]

I'll have to try to make it clearer that you need to meet up with them. Let's see.. there was a radio message saying to meet them at the rally point and a map marker. Did they not fire for you? Any ideas how I can improve on that?

Oh, must have missed that. Yeah, you should make it clearer for the player. Maybe add an objective where he needs to meet at the rally point.

[Gielovic]

Rellikkis template:D

Overview
I liked the overview. good image and contact information

Intro
I liked your camerawork, also the part where the officer is captured.

Briefing
The briefing was good. Think about a some gear. I don't like wasting my time on letting the stupid AI pickup some AT at the start of the mission. You loose to much time with that

Mission
I played the mission once till now, will try it again soon.
The start is a bit weird. You're on patrol, but with a big Ammobox on your shoulder, perhaps it's better to put the gear in the UAZ's.
I liked the way you arrive at the city. Death bodies all over the place, you have no idea where the enemy is. NICE:D.
Also the tanks seem to roll around and in the city which makes it extra challenging to spot. As soon as i finished the last T72 my team was completely whiped out (i'm no leader:() so i had to continue on my own.
Small min here, my mission plan was updated before the first shots arrived and the radio-message was shown. It would be better to set the objective 'active' after the radio message.
So there i was crawling injured towards the artillery. I killed 4 guys on the plain before the trucks. and moved further. Shot one guy at the house. I would love to see one guard sitting in it and coming out if you approach as a matter of surprise. One guy lay down under a truck so i demolished it.
This is the point where i stopped. You have to pass some enemy's and i couldn't make it on my own with only one legshot left for me to die.

Debriefing
Didn't complete the mission.

Summary
I liked the mission mostly because of the first part. Real nice setting. When i moved further on my own i noticed the AI of the soldiers on the plain does it's job, they are crawling so i couldn't hit them lying down. However they retreated with the 4 of them as soon as i started shooting.
Also the house where the UAZ's are could be better guarded. It's more realistic to have some guards at the gate than hiding in the bushes behind it.
Overall It's a nice one, haven't checked out further parts, but I hope to see the same quality there:D

[firecontrol]

Thanks for the test!

You're on patrol, but with a big Ammobox on your shoulder, perhaps it's better to put the gear in the UAZ's.

Yeah, very true. Putting weps/ammo in the HMMWV would be nice, I'll probably just go for the briefing selection, easier.

I liked the way you arrive at the city. Death bodies all over the place, you have no idea where the enemy is. NICE:D.

I'm a big fan of chaos! Thanks

Also the tanks seem to roll around and in the city which makes it extra challenging to spot. As soon as i finished the last T72 my team was completely whiped out (i'm no leader:() so i had to continue on my own.

Yeah, I was a little afraid of that. I usually track tanks by sound (nice 5.1 surround headset does wonders!) But if you think about it, the tanks are at a severe disadvantage in the town... they can't maneuver as well, you have plenty of cover to run between, pop out and fire, and disappear again. Once I got the hang of the anti-tank warfare in the city, they can't touch me now. hehe. Just make sure to keep your AI safe! They're not the brightest, I usually hide them.

Small min here, my mission plan was updated before the first shots arrived and the radio-message was shown. It would be better to set the objective 'active' after the radio message.

Very true! Thank you.

So there i was crawling injured towards the artillery. I killed 4 guys on the plain before the trucks. and moved further. Shot one guy at the house. I would love to see one guard sitting in it and coming out if you approach as a matter of surprise.

Ah yes, that was originally a progressive respawn spot for the MP version of the mission. I'll do some conversions. Make it seem a bit more checkpointy.

Thanks for the good info.

[firecontrol]

Updated with version 1.01.
See the readme.txt changelog. Caution: The Version History contains spoilers!

[johnnyboy]

Overview: Great pic. 

Intro: Good intro.  Music suited it well.  Told the story.  That officer was pretty dumb to drive up all the way to barricade.

Mission: This is a really good combined arms total action mission.  The towns and bases are well populated.  The place feels lived in...that's really good.  Playing the V1.01, and now ATs are a little more scarce  for the town defence.  Had a rough time until I figured out to put my whole squad on the hill with ammo and 2 Hummer/MGs.  Love the way mission changes dynamically...

Voice acting a little flat...but what the hell...we ain't pro actors...  The lines are all good and informative.  Flat voices might be masked/improved if blended with radio static (for the radio voices).

Cover alot of ground in this mission, but never get bored, because of varying objectives.

On scud takedown, the "Commence Abrams" dialogue was textual rather than sound.  I chose to deploy with my 3 remaining mates around low rocks on road north of scud.  It worked out pretty well...all abrams survived.  But lost my mates.  Sniper near town had a good angle on my rocks, and was quite a nuisance.

Plot twist was an excellent idea.  RHIB "landing" was superb (my favorite part).  I don't know if that happens the same way everytime, but it was wicked to watch, so I hope you planned it that way (don't want to spoil this with any further details).

By this point I was solo, and haven't quite survived the final cleanup.  Tense moment on beach hiding behind a pebble so 2 tanks don't see me (see attached pic).

I have a scoped AK, and am wasting boocoo infantry, but one always manages to flank me and I get popped.  Its late now and must crash.  Will try to finish it later to see the outro.

This is one hell of a fun mission, and I would love to play this COOP with friends.

Keep 'em coming.

Johnnyboy Out.

[firecontrol]

Thanks for the kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

The pic you attached reminds me of just about every time I've tested it. Although I've never been pinned all the way at the coast! Damn those tank crews! About that sniper... I just placed him up there randomly, but it's almost like he's in a perfect position to annoy the heck out of me. He always makes life hard for me when I've tested that part, and is tricky to take out.

Well, if anyone sees the credits at the end... I razz my voices a la "bad voice acting and crappy cutscenes by FireControl." Heheh. I really hate the radio messages, but didn't want to leave everything text-based. I'll have to modify them, or maybe even solicit some good voice actors at some point.

Thanks again for the feedback, much appreciated.

[LeeHunt]

hey Firecontrol,

I liked the mission too- i just gave it a try.  The chaos at the beginning is good, I definitely like the fog of war feeling and being thrown into a hasty action.  Very fun.  Here are my less positive constructive criticism points:

Intro-- the camera angles and movements are a bit dizzying.  I'm guessing you used camcommit 10 etc to move the camera around?  Maybe just move the camera from point to point, using left control click and camera.sqs? 

I could not find the ammo boxes right away, that seemed a bit random and unrealistic.  Plus there were no AT weapons in the ones i found, so i had to wait for my AT guy to die before i could pick up an M136.  By that time we'd been crushed.   Also in terms of realism the enemy infantry attacks first without armor support?  That seemed suicidal on their part.

But this is fun and i liked it, keep it coming

[firecontrol]

Thanks Lee.

Yeah, my cinematic skills are severely lacking. Even if I understand how to do it technically, I'm really not all that artistic.

As far as the realism goes: I am a huge fan of realism, but for this (what started out as an MP mission just for some kicks for some friends and I) I fell more to the side of fast action with some pauses inbetween. The briefing weapon selection should have a couple M136's for you to disseminate, too.

Infantry assault without armor: This was supposed to be a very impromptu assault, as the enemy had to do what they could to attempt a rescue. The armor was misplaced by the SLA leadership. The plot later in the mission explains some of this. I suppose this comes back to a bad intro... I need to add more of a background. The outro explains plenty as well. (Again, sorry for the cinematic nightmare in the outro! lol)

Thanks for the feedback Lee. Still have plenty of work to do on this one here it seems. (Love the blooper reels you made btw.)

[LeeHunt]

Glad you liked the blooper reel, gotta finish teh voiceovers for the second one then i'll put it up on the Mission Discussion Forum.

Played The Raid again up to the artillery, this time paying attention to the player loadout (added some M136's for me and the squad!).  Have to run out the door now but wanted to give more feedback on this Saturday when we have time to play around with this stuff!!  Definitely loved the chaos again at the town and lost most of my squad, ironically to the surviving crewmembers of the destroyed BMP and the T-72. But i liked also how the battle goes on even after you leave- sometimes missions feel too "complete" at each stage when really you are just disengaging from one crisis to head to another more important crisis.  That was cool. 

The sudden artillery barrage was great-- very realistic.  And I understand what you meant in the last post about the SLA attacking ad hoc with what they had at the time, combined arms or not.  I'm gonna have to de-PBO your mission and see how you got that going.  The artillery area was pretty cool too watching them fire repeatedly. 
I swung around the flank of the artillery and used my Humvee to batter down the fence.  But when I got close, with just myself and two squad members surviving, i realized only under nightfall or excessive saving and reloading could I beat the machine guns, Shilka and arty crews.  Maybe give the player some reinforcements if he's taken too much of a beating early on?  Or call in an air strike or something to help out?  If you decide not to though i understand, its my fault i let the squad get beat up so bad! 

I really think is a great mission, add in some more voiceovers and maybe a better intro and it would probably get a really good rating.  Those extra touches are really worth it and I think this mission is strong enough to justify the extra efforts    Will let you know more when i finish the rest...