(Review Completed) [SP] Operation Backstab

[mathias_eichinger]

You are right LCD, since tuesday, I am a Master of Natural Sciences! WOOHOO!!! 

Thank you for your extensive feedback, I still have a few comments/questions:

) shud thank beta testers in da readme

This is intended for the final version, in order to thank ALL beta testers at once. 

2) da notes part were u explain how 2 use da choper... u say when in veteran mode ? seems 2 work good on regular mode too

Oops, did I say in veteran mode only? Never intended to be used in veteran mode only. However, once in veteran mode, it would be easier to select "Call Chopper" because for "Set LZ" you need to know your own position quite well.

3) have da medics starting weapon also silenced... no sense in sending him w/ a regular AR

Have you noticed the weapons selection? 

u shud realy improve da choper script thingy... im not sure exactly wat u can do but w/ some work it cud b awesome

Would you care to be a bit more specific on what to improve? Or could you help me with that? The "Chopper needs two land commands to REALLY land thing" is something I have no idea of. And as Bardosy has suggested, merging "Set LZ" and "Move to LZ" into one radio command does not work. 

Thanks again LCD, this is by far the most detailed feedback I received so far!

Cheers

Mathias

[johnnyboy]

I am a Master of Natural Sciences! WOOHOO!!! 

Congratulations Matthias!  We salute your achievement.

[mathias_eichinger]

Thank you Johnnyboy!

@all: I have already done about half of LCDs suggestions, will completely update the mission this weekend.

Cheers

Mathias

[megz]

Package
Good

Overview
Good, although the pic looks a little stretched

Intro
Good, however it seems drawn out in some places, you could lessen the time the script stops to smooth it out.

Breifing
Good, very informative with all the background, nice help in the notes and good choice of weapons.

Mission

Liked the insertion, headed along the coast to the boats, killed some enemy, then a SLA soldier with no weapons ran past me and got cut down, killed some more men, i like how they come in waves. Anway killed about 4 squads and blew the boats, got close to LZ and called in chopper then some trucks came but i just stayed in the shadows, heli came and landed. It turned its engines off until we all got in, which is not good. Then i was heading home and got the message to kill the general. So far this mission is good an i'm likin it. So i plant the satchels near on the road and boom general is dead, then i get a message about some pilots had been shot down. The briefing then said rescue farmers, rescue them from what, thats the first i heard about farmer, only when i went to the officer did i know the pilots where holding them hostage. I killed them and the mision ended.

57 Min
kills
33 men
1 army 4x4
8 RHIBS
1 Casualty

Outro
None

Summary
A very nice mission i enjoyed playin it, needs tidying up a little though.
Some points:
Adding voice acting would make it better
remove that guy with no weapons at the start
make it more clearer in the briefing about rescuing the farmers from the pilots
change the script so the heli doesn't turn its engines off
the briefing says fly back to base to end mission but it ended after i killed the pilots and checked the objective off.

Thats all i can think of, other than that it was a very nice mission. 

[mathias_eichinger]

Hi megz! Thank you for your test!

Some answers:

*You are right about voice acting, have never looked into it before tough and would need a spanish-accented voice actor.
*Guy with no weapons at the start? Huh, never seen one, but I will do another test with LCDs suggestions soon.
*Unclear Hostage Rescue has been corrected now in the Briefing.
*Already tried the helicopter to keep hovering, but the land "GET IN" command has the effect of letting the helicopter slide around, flip over and crash about 9 of 10 times. 
*I don't think players want a dull ride home, so I let the mission end rather immediately.

Thank you for your time!

Mathias

[mathias_eichinger]

Bump!

Mission updated, 4th Revision already, enjoy!


Greetings

Mathias

[bardosy]

Intro: it's shorter and poor

Briefing: Bajo Valor still visible in the begining.
Weapon selection: could you give us more hand grenade?

Mission:
It's defeneatly harder then before. Good alarming system and replacements. Did I see correctly, if I spend time for reorg while chopper are comeing me, a RACS truck come with a squad? It's a very good feature: force the player to react quick.
Thanks for more ammo in chopper. It's not your fault, I couldn't rearm my men in chopper and I coundn't use the ammo, because I had to change my AK for an M-16 near the boats.
A Vulcan defend the airport? It's good... But it started shoot us very far from airport (at Somato) when I tried to land the Mi for catch the general. And Mi touched the ground and that moment fly up again (because it was affraid from the Vulcan fire). I think it's OK, but maybe in an other mission, you can try Mando Missile for AA defence. It could be triggered and don't start shooting over the range (eg. in Somato).
But very good feature the Danger Zones: I have to manouver by Mi to back Bajo Valor.
The last scene is very nice - I mean, the scene is nice: nice lights, trees, farmhouse, UAZ... etc. I like it!

Outro: Nothing movement... too simple. NVG is necessary? It's weird...

Overal: It was a little harder, but still enjoyable!!! Good work!

I don't want suggest you nothing...(this mission is complete) just one tiny trick I hear explosition in the begining from Corazol. It was great, the player can imagine the war is near...
But I hear very few explo... It could be a very simple sqs to create random shells over Corazol in random times during the whole mission time.

[mathias_eichinger]

Hi Bardosy!

Many thanks for your second test. Hm, I have never shortened the intro, just used prepareCam.
Thank you for pointing out the Vulcan problem, I think I will solve it with setcombatmode, because it seems very illogical for me that missiles should have a way shorter engagement range than small caliber AA artillery.
And nice suggestion with the random explosions (I hope there is a script for this out there, don`t know how to script it myself ATM).

I don`t understand what`s weird with the intro, ist just shows the effects of your mission, although it is admittedly rather static. Due to nighttime, the soldiers wear NVGs.

Thank you,

Mathias

P.S.: Does a non-working Briefing link prevent the mission from being reviewed or does it lower the score? I am asking because this means that a tiny part of the mission is non-functional...

[Cheetah]

Could lower the score. Review will only be stopped when the reviewer encounters a severe bug/showstopper.

[bardosy]

Agreed with AA fire! You're right!

Intro/Outro... It's nothing... I just try to mention... Errr... this is not the best outro what I have ever seen. But it's OK. Just not to moveistic...

I never wrote a review in English, but if you don't mind I will test my capabilities with your mission and I'll try to write a review from Backstab.

[mathias_eichinger]

Hey Bardosy,

You joined the MD staff? Great, will ease off Cheetah`s workload! I know, I suck at making cutscenes, basically my intro and outro are there because they are a requirement. Maybe I get the hang of it someday.
I think this mission is close to review state anyway, will let you know when I am done.

Greetings

Mathias

[bardosy]

Oooops! I'm not joined... But I thought not only stuff member can write review. 
I'll ask it from Cheetah.

[mathias_eichinger]

Hi again!

I have now done what Bardosy has suggested, corrected the link and there should be no showstoppers anywhere. Therefore I ask for a review.

Greetings

Mathias

[Pergite]

Overview

I liked the background to the mission and it makes sense with the indirect approach strategy to tie up the enemies forces. Most mission just gives objectives but dont tell the player why this is important. The commanders intent, or if you like the purpouse with a mission is just as important as everything else IMO.

Intro

Its serves its purpouse of telling the player how the situation looks overall in the war. Its not a cinematic masterpiece, but who am I to complain. (check out my submitted mission and you will know what I am talking about )

BriefingMissionBug
The helo script is not bad, but the chopper refused to land one time but did so on the second try.

Outro
Its not particular grand, but it gives the picture of what the RACS has to do becasue of ones actions. I would have skipped the second part of it, and instead used a shoot of a RACS column heading home from the front or something, with a better explaining text of the aftermath. But what do I know (se above about own movie skills)

Overall
Great mission 
I fought a real battle around the boats, I scored 49 infantry kills in total during the mission. I was fearing an armoured reinforcment or at least that the boats would head out to see if I took to long in completing my first objective. That would be my suggestion to increase the realism/difficulty somewhat. Besides that and all above I have nothing to add. I spent 1 hour and 6 minutes, and I enjoyed every minute of them. Keep up the good work!

[mathias_eichinger]

Hi Pergite!

Many thanks for your detailed test and kind words. I was thinking about the escaping boats as well, but I dropped the idea as probably too frustrating, since you really cannot time a developing gun battle. I locked the boats because somebody complained they were not. 

I will return the favour of your beta test for sure in the coming weeks or days!


Thank you

Mathias