[SP] Hog's Breath v1.2 [Review Complete]

[HailStorm]

Updated to v0.944 beta.

Changes:

- Fixed radio chatter to proper 'cfgRadio' format - radio calls will now not overlap or play with time acc. on. It does however annoyingly add that 'double beep' noise to the end of each and every friggin' call (breaks the immersion for me as a pilot, anyway).

- Added two difficulty levels - regular difficulty features less shilkas over the target, Intercepting aircraft have all of their AA missiles removed (but still uses their guns very effectively), and the ingress part uses the higher altitude cap of 150m.  

Veteran difficulty essentially stays the same as it has always been, except you now have to fly lower than 100m to get to the target.

- Added repair/re-arm point at the western end of the airfield. Unlimited reloads on regular difficulty, a single re-load on veteran. To re-load, use the action menu option when you're parked on the taxiway out the front of the depot. To repair, have to manually taxi up to the back of the repair truck.

- Tweaked trigger positions and added new radio clips to improve mission immersion and resilience (some radios calls now trigger every time you do something applicable, e.g. on approach to land, etc.).

[savedbygrace]

I dropped into this one again today.
This time I was nearly rear ended by one of the inbound crafts with callsign Hazel as I was cleared for takeoff. You may want to consider inserting a variable that is declared true when Hazel reaches a certain waypoint and add an additional conditional check for the radio command which prevents the radio message that clears the player for lining up on the runway if they have reached that waypoint.

I guess I was use to the altitude warning although it seemed you lessened the distance that I have to travel under that restriction, which is better in my opinion because the other craft did not seem restricted by it.

Upon approaching the AO, I was intercepted by enemy air units(obviously you know this) but I did not know since it is a new addition. Okay after being smoked repeatedly, I finally figured out that the inbound smoke trails were coming from the sky and not from ground units. Oh my! Okay..no problem, I'll just adapt my stategy to include those contacts first, except that they have auto lock missiles and I do not and since their are two bogies on my tail combined with fierce ground AA, I have to take the fight to the sea. I was frustrated that in such a sophisticated tool of technology I did not have some sort of warning system that identified air targets from ground targets, no beep or buzz to indicate a missile lock. This seriously just ramped up the difficulty(veteran btw).

After attempting several different tactics of engaging those bogies in dogfights it became very apparent that an air asset designed for use against ground targets was no match for an opponent designed specifically to remove his presence.

I tried blasting through the AO and distributing my payload as quickly as possible and then exiting the AO and sweeping back around toward Paraiso to line up for another run but no matter what I did, their auto guide missiles always and without mercy found my wings and smoked me out of the sky

High, Low, it didn't seem to matter how I maneuvered because once they locked on, I was toast. I just couldn't shake them. I became frustrated fast and was trying to figure out how you yourself beat this mission. In fact, I would be delighted to know your own strategy.

As it stands, I would reconsider those bogies. Or at the least, delay their arrival until the hog has had some time to make a pass or two before having them respond to his threat. This way he would atleast have a chance to achieve his objective before he is forced to eject.

Please...give the player unit a rifle of some sort and put him in safe mode at the start. That will prevent him from aiming at the guy at the start and also give him a weapon when his boots inevitably hit the ground. I had to engage a uaz and half squad with that pistol( I was going to nab the uaz and chase down the convoy) but again was outgunned. I took out the gunner but his cronies got me while I tried to scoot back into cover.

I'll keep trying but I don't forsee myself overcoming the challenge of the interceptors.

[CH]

Since I like flightsims I felt obliged to try this one out.

Briefing
I think understand what you're trying to accomplish with the briefing but most players will probably not read all of it.

Intro
The aircraft is the star in this mission so it makes sense to introduce her properly.

Mission
I haven't flown fixed-wing aircraft in ArmA before, so it took me a while to get familiarized. However, I followed the instructions I was given via the radio and didn't encounter any problems during takeoff. Once over the target area I failed to identify the interceptors as hostile. I just assumed that AWACS would inform me of any airborne threats heading my way, luckily the game was auto saved just before I was engaged, so I replayed from that point. This time I knew what I was up against so I immediately went into action and downed two bandits.  During the dogfight I think I spotted a third fighter but I was unable to find him again after my second kill. Even if the AI is stupid as hell you might want to reconsider the number of hostile fighters, since engaging in a one vs two, possibly three, dogfight almost requires that the player is using Track IR and a joystick (witch I did).

After the dogfight I had some serious trouble locating the convoy. If the waypoint could track the lead vehicle it would have been better in my opinion. After several attempts I was able to locate and destroy the trucks. The AAA didn't pose much of a threat as long as I kept my speed up.

If the first objective was to hard the second was almost to easy. I didn't fire a single shot at the helos but all three went down anyway. I fired a couple of rockets at the boats but I don't think they caused any damage. It was someone else that took care of them, don't know who.

After that I went back to the airbase. I used the autopilot to land my plane and parked it in the hangar.

Outro
Short but I liked it

Summary
I think this mission is very immersive with great attention to detail and good voice acting. In my opinion it's just the gameplay that needs to be tweaked a little.

[savedbygrace]

You're a better pilot than me pal. I tried repeatedly to shake those bogies but their missiles always found their target. I don't know how you managed to shoot em down without them ripping you apart first. I was able to get behind one and fire couple hundred rounds at it with the nose cannon which did some real damage but the other had already circled and fired his auto guides before I could disengage. One day, I will get myself a trackir but until that day, the keyboard will have to do.

[HailStorm]

Hey Guys, thanks for giving this a go again.

@savedbygrace: that's wierd, those interceptors have been there since version 1 of this mission - i've been tweaking them constantly since.

a good thing to try out (that's new with this version) is to give it a shot in 'regular' difficulty - a lot of the problems you ran into are made significantly easier. for example, the interceptors don't carry any Anti-aircraft missiles in Regular.

"veteran" difficulty is just what it says now - this level is for proficient flyers. this a whole new ball game, so being a 'veteran' soldier or tanker won't mean much here!

my tactics? i stay as close as to the interceptors as possible - the one advantage the A-10 has over the Su-34 is it's ability to fly much, much slower - stay at about 200, and those interceptors fly right by - then blast 'em up close and personal with the cannon.  i do take a few hits from them at the start, but there's really not much you can do about it (ArmA1 & ArmA2's missile physics are far to simplistic to do much - most BIS missiles WILL hit you once you are locked on)

another trick is that you can lead those interceptors back over Paraiso airfiled, or overhead the small army base to the north of arcadia (Ea63). both these sites have parked vulcan cannons, which make short work of any fighters on your tail.

re. the rifle. i probably won't give the pilot a rifle, simply because no combat pilot has ever gone into battle with one. they get an M9 strapped to their chest for self defense, that's about it. it's even a bit of a stretch allowing the player to choose a silenced one at the start, TBH.

if you were looking for a vehicle to drive around in, there are quite a few empty ones dotted in practically every town in south sahrani - i put these here just for that purpose. be careful though, vehicles like UAZ's may belong to a nearby foot patrol... although there are also lots of abandoned civilian vehicles in places where you'd expect to find one, as well. Also, if you're on foot, give the army base at Ea-63 a look in. there might be some... toys to play with there.



@CH, well done for completing it. the trouble with the second objective was that i had no way of working out how much ammunition the player had at this point, and thus no way of working out how many enemies to use. in the end i just decided to use as many as it took to make it fun, but have the soldiers on the island 100% capable of fending for themselves - which is what you saw, they shot down the helicopters, and also shot at the boats when they got close enough. that way i figured the player can go and rack some more kills up if they have the ammo, but if they didn't it wouldn't mean they failed the mission.

when it comes to spotting fighters, it isn't really necessary to use trackIR - the radar in the top of the screen has more than enough info to tell you if there is a jet in the sky or not - if it's moving at peculiar angles and seems to be moving much faster to other blips - it's probably something airborne. stuff like this is why the radar is so hated in the engine - it just makes hostiles far too easy to spot if you know what you're looking for.

adding the ability for the Destroy waypoint to follow the lead convoy truck is a great idea - i'll work on it next.

this mission seems to me to be pretty complete, so i'll try and get these things done and get it out for review pretty quickly.

[savedbygrace]

that is weird about the interceptors being there since version 1 because I have no recollection of them at all.

The m9 is great. I'm just a lonewolf type infantry player who loves to accept challenges with far greater difficulty when as a pilot, I should be evading and hightailing it to predetermined pickup spot.

An idea though...place a trigger which detects if the player is not in a trigger area at the airfield(the size of the airfield and slightly larger) and not in the plane. repeatedly

Code: [Select]

Condition: ? this && !(player vehicle == plane1)     
OnActivation: player addmag "M9"; player addweapon "M9"; player add mag "M9"; etc.
OnDeactviation: removeallweapons player
That weapon and mag type may be incorrect.

I enjoy veteran status but have to admit when and where to use it. I'll give your idea a go on your next version.

BTW, check into adding that variable which clears the player for runway lineup when Hazel is on approach(in a trigger area) That was the only flaw in the cycling assets I think.

[HailStorm]

yep, the four interceptors launching from pita have been there since day one. it's always been the penalty the player gets for busting the altitude cap, as opposed to simply failing the mission. they won't take off if you get to the target by successfully flying under the radar.

(oh, btw, don't try flying anywhere near pita - you'll get a nasty surprise in the form of Kamovs with 1.14 killer AA missiles. Thanks, BIS, for that one... go ahead and break every Airborne mission with a kamov as an adversary, why don't you?)

With the M9, i'd love to do something like that but i see a problem with it, as A) the player has the option of choosing what handgun to use before the mission and b) it provides an possible exploit that would give the player unlimited ammo (though i'll admit if someone is relying on this, they're doing the mission wrong).

if someone can give me help as to how to 'save' that status of the player's weaponry (i.e. whether they have a silenced m9, normal m9, how many smoke grenades and clips they have) and can then constantly remove and give back those weapons to the player depending where they are, i'll certainly stick it in.


the Hazell jet: there's already a trigger setup around the airfield that prevents both the player and the other harriers from getting a clearance to taxi onto the runway with another aircraft on finals (about to touch down) - with the player they simply won't get the "line up" radio order, and the harriers get a sandbag barrier placed in front of them, just under the ground. this tricks the A.I into thinking something's in the way, and they just stop, as opposed to trying to taxi around it. i found it works very well - AI planes will stop, and any that got though just in time have enough time to take off without getting a harrier up the jacksy. it also means that the harriers also won't taxi onto the runway when YOU are trying to land.

problem is, i haven't found a way to tell a landing jet to disable their landing autopilot and fly away if something IS blocking the runway. so this means if any thing is in the way (like the players' jet) a landing plane WILL crash into it. this also means that the player has to pretty much take off immediately when ordered to, but since that's a pretty normal thing to do with operating aircraft, it's only a small problem. Ever wonder why air traffic control is considered the world's #1 most stressful job on the planet?

there's this joke that goes around the flying circles:

what's the difference between a pilot and a controller?
when a pilot screws up, the pilot dies.
When a controller screws up... the pilot dies.

[CH]

the radar in the top of the screen has more than enough info to tell you if there is a jet in the sky or not - if it's moving at peculiar angles and seems to be moving much faster to other blips - it's probably something airborne

I guess someone who knows what to look for can detect bandits in that way, but in my opinion it's pretty hard.

the one advantage the A-10 has over the Su-34

The A-10 ??
I've tried the mission  (v0.944) in both "veteran" and "regular" mode but the waypoints  always led me to an AV-8B.

I just assumed that AWACS would inform me of any airborne threats heading my way

I guess I wasn't paying attention...
...but one additional warning once they are within weapons range would be a welcome addition for confused pilots like myself.

[savedbygrace]

...but one additional warning once they are within weapons range would be a welcome addition for confused pilots like myself.

Wow, that is an excellent idea and could increase the immersion tremendously. Aside from that, it would be easy to do. When the bogies get within a certain distance of the players position, alert goes off like, "Warning aerial threat detected" OR "Incoming" Or perhaps a high pitched blip that signals every second and speeds up the closer the bogies get.

I can't remember if you did or not but a mention that staying at a certain altitude would prevent your detection by radar would be helpful. I know I broke that altitude barrier in one of my last tries over the AO but never encountered the bogies.

[HailStorm]

The A-10 ??
I've tried the mission  (v0.944) in both "veteran" and "regular" mode but the waypoints  always led me to an AV-8B.

Hmm, there are actually two versions of this mission you can download in this thread: "Hog's Breath", which will sit you in an A-10, and "Harrier Breath" which i've substituted in an AV-8B with the A-10's Weapons. the A-10 version can be downloaded from the first post, the Harrier one is in the seventh or so. you probably just downloaded that other version, and i'd recommend giving the proper A-10 one a go. (just be careful, the A-10 is a fair bit underpowered and a lot more unforgiving)

I just assumed that AWACS would inform me of any airborne threats heading my way
I guess I wasn't paying attention...
...but one additional warning once they are within weapons range would be a welcome addition for confused pilots like myself.

that is a brilliant idea.  I'll work on that one too.

I can't remember if you did or not but a mention that staying at a certain altitude would prevent your detection by radar would be helpful. I know I broke that altitude barrier in one of my last tries over the AO but never encountered the bogies.

there is only a small part where you're altitude is restricted - between when you take off, to when you're about to re-cross the coast at Arcadia is the small sector where you have to try to stay under a certain altitude. at any other point you can fly higher and not have a problem.

you can tell what your altitude limit is by reading it in the briefing, or alternatively, the air traffic controller will announce what altitude you have to stay under as you are taxiing prior to takeoff.

he'll say something like "cleared waypoint 1 to 6, not above XXX metres above ground level" - thats what altitude you have to stay under. it changes depending on what difficulty you're in.

if you haven't been cleared yet, you'll get that "warning:altitude" audio track when you're approaching the limit. if you don't hear that, then you don't need to worry about breaking it and calling the fighters.

if you manage to stay under the limit till waypoint 6, the controller will lift the restriction (he'll say something like "your altitude restriction is canceled"), and you can then climb higher without triggering the fighters.

from a technical aspect, the whole radar altitude bit is dictated by one script which loops every 1.5 seconds and checks if the player's aircraft is below 100m for veteran and 150m for regular. if the player gets within 30m or so of breaking the limit, it starts the audio warning, and if the plane further climbs and breaks the limit it fuels and makes airborne the four fighters parked on the runway at pita. the script keeps checking until either A) the player breaks the limit or B) they fly past waypoint 6, where it will then play a radio track to tell the player they can climb freely and the script will disable itself.

[savedbygrace]

Thats what it was then. The first time I tried, I remember having a problem with the altitude height(why I couldn't climb above but choppers could) and so I maintained the correct height. It all seems fair enough. I have yet to try it on normal though.

[CH]

i'd recommend giving the proper A-10 one a go.

I will definitely play this mission again, but since you've already announced that you're making changes to it, I think I'll await the updated version.

[haroon1992]

Just played this mission !
I admit that this is the FIRST mission I've EVER played SMOOTHLY...!

Your mission is somewhat GREAT!
I like it......
Keep Up the good work............ 
I'll be waiting for your next release.......

[HailStorm]

Thanks haroon1992, it's good to know, - I've constantly been trying to keeps this mission as bug-free and as smooth as it can, given what i know.

and now for an update: V0.945 is now available from the first post.

Sorry that it takes so long to get updates like this done, but between work and the missus, there's hardly time to get a few days in to just sit back and diagnose how a bug is happening, what I can do to fix it, and eventually enacting those plans. But I've taken all the new feedback and gone and worked on it all:

- v0.945 beta
   - Added new script that makes the 'destroy convoy' waypoint lock onto any surviving ural trucks.

this one took the most time, but now works perfectly as advertised, so now you shouldn't have trouble finding those trucks! it'll scroll through any surviving vehicles till you've taken them all out, and can move on to the next objective. I have made it so that it's only available on regular difficulty, however, as Veterans should by now know how to rely on the MKI eyeball!

   - Added new radio call warning the player when intercepting fighters are within 4KM (roughly two miles)

This one by CH's request. you'll now get an additional warning by Paraiso operations that will tell you that the interceptors are two miles away. However, I'm not sure if 4Km is enough distance though, as by the time the radio conversation ends, those interceptors are practically on top of you already thanks to their speed.

   - FIXED: properly Removed the R73 missiles off 2 interceptor jets.

Just a bug fix that I thought I had already done. Removes the missiles off 2 of the four Su-34's. these jets will also be the only ones you encounter in 'regular' difficulty only, as that difficulty also will delete the other, fully armed, Su-34's (there are originally 4 in total)

   - rejigged some trigger parameters to enable the mission to be able to be completed using alternative vehicles (like an AH-1, if you can find it...)

   - waypoint text now uniformly changed to capitals (OFP style)

   - edited a frame in the intro movie to get a better front-on shot of the A-10

what can I say, guess I'm a bit of a perfectionist

[haroon1992]

Okay and sounds good...
Downloading.....










Haroon1992......................................