(Review completed) [SP/AD] Evil's Last Will (v.1.5)

[Undeceived]

Hey Mathias. Thank you very much for trying out the mission! Really thanks!


I have two quick questions in advance:

1) Did you use any mods (beside the required addons) for playing the mission? (because I'm experiencing serious bugs with some when testing. But I'm still not sure if they are causing them or if it's the mission itself...)

2) Did you play the mission in german (any problems with subtitles, etc.?)?

My ArmA froze twice and I had to shut down and restart the computer

Hm... This is sad... Can you remember in which situations this occurred? Because I never had a crash in this mission...

my character was set to "stop" and my squad did not follow me in line. Had to command them by clicking on the map

It wasn't the "2, follow 6" bug of ArmA which happened there, was it?
That's odd!
Anyway, I'll try to change the stop status of the player, btw. you just gave me an idea I never had thought about!!

Despite this, I had a lengthy conversation with the not-present resistance fighters in Hunapu, just before I went for the helo

OK, THIS is not good...
Dammit, I made scripts for all possibilities, but just asking again to be sure:
You lost all resistance guys and after destroying the convoy (when crossing the mountains again in order to get to Hunapu) Fuchsbau DID command you to escort the group to their pickup point?
Because normally there comes no order... But I'll check it again, maybe I changed some things for testing purposes and forgot it.

Again, thank you very much for this beta test!

[johnnyboy]

Undeceived,

This is a very good mission.  I haven't finished it yet, but thought I would report my progress thus far.

Intro: Good and atmospheric, but way too dark for me.   Could hardly see it.

Briefing: Great.

Mission:
- Excellent voice acting.  Especially the quiet urgency of the dialog during the enemy camp cutscene before player snipes the officer.  I don't speak German, but the voices still communicate intensity and emotion.
- The map is superbly populated.  Just the right amount of patrols and camps between starting point and first objective.  Adds to tension that you must avoid patrols, or take them on at your own risk.  Moving slowly through forest, and staying constantly alert is very important to survival.
- Good choice of addons.
- Music during cutscenes well chosen and add to the feel of the mission.
- Camera work on sniper target camp cutscene done so well, especially quick pan to camp entrance when radio contact reports a jeep arriving.
- When player returns to first exfiltration point, dialogue occurs telling player of new objective to go to Pacamac.  During this dialogue, the word "intervene" was wrongly spelled as "intervent" twice.
- Weather change after sniping is also very atmospheric.  Like the periodic high wind sound effect.  Did you add that in?  And the occasional wolf howling.
- Had to dodge a BMP and large patrols on return to beach, as well as shoot a few pursuers.  Very tense moments.
- On the way to Pacamac (about 1/2 way there, near the coast) ARMA froze up.  Are you doing a lot of scripting at this point to clean up previous objects, and to populate Pacamac?  If so, maybe add more sleeps to spread out the load of this scripting.
- Enemy camp well laid out.  Seemed alive.
- Intriguing story.  I have no idea where the story is going, but I am compelled to find out.

Suggestion:
- Soldiers in small camps before first objective are too static.  Give them an occasional animation or waypoint or a little voice dialogue to make them more life-like.  Animations, GlaceAt command, stand up and walk to fire, or walk to ammo box and rearm, etc...  Maybe borrow some Russian voices from the Stalker game (maybe that's where you got that one bit of Russian talking that's triggered near one of the camps).

This mission has it all:  Story, acting, intensity, action, atmosphere.  Well done!!!! 

I look forward to finishing it.

[Undeceived]

Thanks for this beta review, johnnyboy!!!

Like the periodic high wind sound effect.  Did you add that in? 

No, the wind sound is from Mando's storm script, I just added other thunder claps than the ones in the script. I loved this whole stuff from Mandoble!!!

On the way to Pacamac (about 1/2 way there, near the coast) ARMA froze up.  Are you doing a lot of scripting at this point to clean up previous objects, and to populate Pacamac?  If so, maybe add more sleeps to spread out the load of this scripting.

Thanks for adding the location of the crash, it helps me to locate the bug... But at the moment I have no idea, where this is coming from and no, there is not a lot of scripting...

@ mathias_eichinger
Can you remember where the mission crashed for you? Was it at the same part? Thx.

Thank you for your review so far, johnnyboy, I really appreciate it!

[mathias_eichinger]

Hi undeceived!

Your mission crashed twice, once on my way along the coastal road while I was still in the forest, and the second time just before my conversation with the rebel leader.

Oh, and the "team not following me" bug sounded like "all, follow 2". But 2 would not follow me, and my character was set to "stop".

[Manzilla]

That "all follow 2" thing is easy to fix. Just use zero on the radio to choose "Done". This has been mentioned else where, maybe previous pages, but I can't seem to find it.

[johnnyboy]

Here's my further progress:

0. Long walk to Pacamac, a bit too long for me. 

1. In Pacamac, I didn't see the leaders on first attempt, and missed front gate.  So I went past and walked by group of rebels (who ignored me), then healed at medic tent, and went to next group of rebels (who also ignored me) rearmed at a crate, and walked around until I finally found leader, and was challenged.  So for dumb players like me that miss the front gate, the AI acts very dumb and ignores you.  You might fix this so player is challenged by any of the 3 groups he encounters first.  Leader could then move to player to initiate cutscene dialogue.

2. When going to meet Falke at edge of woods, I get "Objective Completed", but I never see Falke.  This happened many times.  Seems like a bug.

3. Enjoyed raid on Venom dudes--thanks for the goodies in the crates.

4. Before convoy ambush, I attacked the roadblock to the south of ambush point.  I killed 4 men, and then noticed there were 2 hooded men in a UAZ parked in middle of road at checkpoint.  These 2 in the UAZ did not react to all their friends being killed in front of them.  They just sat in the UAZ and waited for me to shoot them.

5.  Loved the weather change to fog for the convoy ambush.

That's all for now...  Still loving this mission.

[Undeceived]

Thanks for finishing it, johnnyboy!

It helps me and I'll work on the parts that don't run smoothly yet... A LOT of work to do... Phew.........


@ mathias_eichinger

Yes, the solution that Manzilla postet also is contained in the readme, but I'll try to get it this way that the player is not set to stop after the cutscene...


Thanks to all for the comments!

[johnnyboy]

Now I actually did finish the mission.  Here is my final report:

1.  I lost all my resistance fighters at the checkpoint near the convoy ambush, so I finished the mission alone.

2. After destroying all vehicles in the convoy, I was told that convoy was destroyed.  But after leaving convoy area I got a hint saying I lose the game if the convoy reaches Mataredo.  I should not get this hint if the convoy was destroyed.

3. I took a long mountainous way to Hunupu, and encounterd no enemies.  Drove a UAZ.

4. Upon reaching Hunapu a conversations started between player and some resistance group guy, but the problem is ALL resistance guys were dead, so player was alone, and only the player side of the conversation occurred.

5.  I also got a radio message about Falke being killed.  I never saw Falke the entire mission.

6.  In Hunapu, I radioed for the chopper, and a sidechat told me at what grid the pickup was to occur.  I did not write it down or remember the grid reference.  I wondered around and got lucky and went the right direction.  Please add an objective with the grid reference in it so a player with a short memory will know where to go to get picked up by the helicopter.

Outro was very good.  Loved the flashbacks and professional credits.

Very good mission my friend.  Just a few bugs to work out.

[Undeceived]

Thanks, johnnyboy! A great beta test! It confirmed some bugs to me and gave me great suggestions for missing objectives, etc. So thanks.

[johnnyboy]

Undeceived,

A few more character related suggestions...

Since you made the effort to develop a few characters (which is a good thing), it would add more depth to the mission to add further plot for these characters.  A few possibilities are:

1.  Since Resistance Leader worried about his little brother, have some consequence of the brother living of dying (Leader thanks you if he lives, Leader curses you if he dies).

2.  The extra resistance guy with the SVD sniper rifle that joins the group has a bad attitude.  He could later act on his bad attitude (disobey an order, do something rash on his own, or just complain about the orders of the player).  Maybe he mutinies if your squad takes too many losses.

3. The little brother talks of his wishes to be a "special soldier".  If he does well in battle (gets some kills), player could praise him:  "Well done!  You will be a great operator some day!".  Or if he does not perform well:  "You should go back to farming..."

It's possible that you have actually built these plot lines in, and I missed them, since I got all my squad killed.  But if not, maybe you will find these suggestions interesting.

Although, I understand that many hours have gone into this project, and you probably just want to fix bugs and finish it.  That's how I felt toward the end of making  Last Tango in Bagango (http://www.ofpec.com/missions_depot/index.php?action=details&id=117&page=0&game=ArmA&cat=sp&sort=scod).   

Edit: Hey!  Thanks for the nice comments on Last Tango in Bagango!  I just noticed them...  I'm surprised you had time to play a mission while still working on Evil's Last Will!

[Undeceived]

Wow, these are great ideas, johnny! And no, I don't have none of them in the mission already.
But... Damn... I'm really thinking about making a new recording session with my friends that helped me with the voices... Although this is not easy because they live far from my town. But... I'll think about it!
And you're not the first to give me a suggestion about Mateas, the sniper that joins the team a bit later, so... I'll really think about it, it inspires me a lot!

But you're also right when you say that I want to finish this thing as fast as possible. But I also want to make it as good as possible... Hm...

Ok, enough of my thoughts and dreams... At first I need to fix the amount of bugs in the project anyway.

Thanks for the suggestions!

PS: About the comment @ L.T.I.B.:
Hey! You just don't know how I sat in my chair and just held my belly laughing, when I saw that outro!! This is just a legend!!
Well, in the last weeks I didn't work on my mission so much, I just had a small "burn out" - no motivation, so I had plenty of time to do other things. But now I am continuing to finally finish this thing! I'm working since October last year on it. And learned a lot of things!! (Actually all, I now so far).

[Undeceived]

(Spoilers)


Finally a new version -> V. 1.2


Hi!

I'm very happy to be able to release this next version of the mission today!

A lot of bugs were removed (many...) and some parts (like the long way to Pacamac) were optimized.




If anyone is so kind and tests this new version I would like to ask him for a favor.
I need to know some important things. Could you please have the following questions in mind while testing it or writing feedback?


1) Is the intro scene clear enough by now? (especially for those who told me that they were only seeing darkness in the previous versions...)

2) Some beta testers experienced ArmA freezes while on the way to Pacamac. In case this happens again (I could not find the cause for the crashes): If it's possible to tell - When, where and how exactly does the mission crash?

3) What do you (who played previous versions) think about the optimizations on the long way to Pacamac (in terms of tedium / suspense)?

4) For some testers Falke did not show up when he was supposed to. I tried to fix this but in case he does not appear again: Did you hear Falke talking? Does the "instruction" for the resistance fighters take place (at Falke's meeting point)? Does Falke join the team (even not being visible)?

5) In the case the resistance group (which comes with you) dies completely: Is there still a farewell conversation at the ending part of the mission? (this shouldn't happen...)


At the moment these questions are very important for me, so if you can give as much as possible feedback to me about them, it would be very very great! But feel free to write other stuff as well, of course!

Thank you very much for your time!!

[Undeceived]

Sorry for the third post in a row... Is it possible to edit a post and let the thread appear at the top of the forum?


A new update! V. 1.25

I continued working on the mission and among other things I implemented a cool script from Bedges (Shaky Cam) for a cutscene. There were bugs removed too and some other parts were optimized.
If someone could test this new version this would be wonderful! I think it is almost finished but I still need some help with testing...

If you test it, please consider some of the questions in my previous post. Thank you very much for your help, guys!!

[Wolfrug]

Sorry I didn't get around to testing the last version, been keeping a bit too busy >_> But I'll totally try this one here out and tell you if there's anything strange about it - although it might be a little moment. Sorry!

Great work on it though!  I'm sure it'll be ready for reviewing very soon!

Wolfrug out.

[Undeceived]

Thanks, Wolfrug. Good to hear.

Yes, I think that it will be ready for reviewing soon. Only a few problems are making me trouble yet...
Because of this I need some information (generally about all problems and questions in Reply #41 ).


I'm also looking forward to read your thoughts about the new chopper (etc...) after the convoy... I hope it all works!


Trailer:
A little video / slideshow about the mission.



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