Hey AnimalMother. Nice to see another mission from you. I gave it a go just now, and here's my report:
Crash and Grab
By AnimalMother - v1.1
Played with:- ArmA II v1.05
- Required AddOns
- Regular difficulty modified to Veteran settings (allows more than one save game)
Package:Has everything it needs. The mission file, a readme, and a promotion picture. One thing I would recommend is that instead of using spaces in mission names, use underscores _ . It's more appropriate, in my eyes, when naming files. However, it's not necessary.
Overview:None. Since this can be played in SP, I'd suggest adding one in the future.
Intro:None. Again, it would be nice to have one.
Briefing:I found the briefing to be under-detailed for such a mission. It only gives you a paragraph in the Notes section about the mission, and two short descriptions of your tasks. There's an AA site marked on the map, but I am not told anything about it. I'm also not told about any enemy units in the area. There was also no gear selection, which is always useful for SF missions. Perhaps a few changes and additions could be made in regards to the briefing.
Mission:We came up to the LZ and, to be honest, I was disappointed that you didn't use you fastropes that ADuke's helicopters have. It would have been very cool, and a first time for me seeing them. Since you didn't use them, the requirement of ADuke's helicopters seems relatively unneeded. But, perhaps it makes more sense to have a SOAR Blackhawk taking you in instead of a USMC Seahawk. Still, perhaps you could look into the fastroping option for the insertion.
I decided I was going to clear the AA nest. However, I was surprised by a patrol I hadn't seen and was gunned down. Might I recommend adding a save game after you're inserted? I forgot to do so myself, so I had to restart the mission. On the second try, I flanked far around to the west of the AA site and came at them from that side. Threw a grenade in which killed 3 of the 4, and then gunned down the last one. From there, I continued towards the pilot.
One thing I did notice is the lack of any ambiance. One reason for this is that ACE2 seems to have disabled the noise rain makes, but another is that there are no animals apart from the occasional rabbit, and no patrols until you get close to the pilot. It just doesn't really seem that we're all that "behind enemy lines" in the mission. Nonetheless, we got close to the town near the pilot. And that's where the shitstorm began.
We noticed a group of Russians by a BMP wreckage in the town, and I flanked around and killed them. Suddenly we had fire coming from everywhere. I ordered my men to move in Danger mode to the waypoint, and told them to Engage at will. The firefight lasted for the good part of 10 minutes, since it was very hard to make out enemy units, especially the snipers. I was very surprised at the end of it to find the pilot still alive given the number of bullets flying around. I took one casualty, "2", but the firefight eventually subsided, and the pilot took his place when I got close to him.
From there, we moved towards the extraction zone. Again, due to the lack of patrols, we encountered no more resistance from there on in, which felt kind of odd. Alas, we reached the extraction zone and got a hint that the extraction helicopter was en route. Waited for a few minutes and the Blackhawk appeared and landed. I got everyone in, but the pilot got stuck behind the back fins. Once I pushed him out, I got in, but, strangely, the mission ended without the pilot in the chopper. Might want to look into that, because it seems as though the player could complete the mission either with the pilot dead, or with not having picked up the pilot at all.
Debriefing:Completely fine. Nothing to change.
Outro:None. But like the intro, it would be a nice inclusion.
Overall:You need to include an overview and the briefing could use some work, but overall it became a very intense mission at that one part, taking me, apparently, 33 minutes to complete. Perhaps you could add some extra ambiance like animals and patrols, as I mentioned, and fix that bug with the pilot, but overall, I had fun. I don't really see why it requires ACE2 and the helicopter pack other than allowing you to play as US Army instead of USMC. The helicopters nice fastroping ability isn't really used, and no other real features other than the eXtra units for ACE2 are used or noticed. But, it's your choice, of course.
I look forward to any updates to this mission, and any new missions, that you make in the future.