OFPEC Forum
Missions Depot => Mission Discussion => OFP - Reviewed Missions => Topic started by: Pilot on 18 Mar 2005, 01:50:49
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Hi all, this is my first proper mission, and I have tried hard to make it work right.
From the overview: You are the commander of the Central Invasion Group in Red Tide, a three-pronged amphibious landing to take the eastern shore of Everon.
I realize I'm not going to get points for originality, but I do hope the mission is enjoyable, and functions correctly. I have done a lot of testing on this mission, and everything seems to work. Please post any bugs, suggestions, or criticisms. Also, I would like to know what the beta-testers think of the difficuly of this mission; whether it is too hard, too easy, or fine the way it is.
Edit: Red Tide has been reviewed and is available, with required addons, from the Missions Depot (http://www.ofpec.com/missions_depot/index.php?action=details&id=29).
Made in V1.96
Size of Zip: 371KB 358 kB
To download, right-click and select "Save Target as".
Features:
Intro and Outro
Overview with picture
Briefing
Weapon Selection
Accurate (I think) skill levels of team members
The option to surrender when half of you squad has been killed
Known Bugs/Issues:
No text for the loose debriefing
No custom sound
Addons Required:
General Barron's Editor Update - (Available from OFPEC (http://www.ofpec.com/ed_depot/index.php?action=details&id=157))
http://www.atwar.net/download.php?view.3523 (http://www.atwar.net/download.php?view.3523)
Author: General Barron
Size: 74KB
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thumbs up from me.
Good to great intro, in fact, in the best category as far as storyline is concerned. I think it WELL worth pointing out to anyone interested. 1 4 9 K
You're probably apologetic it's that big !!!!
Niggles small and large:
"But they were wrong"
get rid of "But". It's an ironic , well paused statement in it's own fade in.
I wont be vitriolic about your use of yeardate. Get rid of it, stupid. Try subtletly, you've already mentioned Cuba, let us do some thinking for ourselves. If you doubt me, ask yourself why yeardates almost -to -never appear in a mission, not ever. It must be because they don't know howto right?
Excellent choice of limited range of music. Most suitable for this mission.
Rain, kickoff, perfect. I immediately knew what i was in for, no need to brief me. Visually, the rain effect was superb. (again, for *this* mission)
I liked the subtlety of NOT ejecting from a boat. There they were, there I was, I needed no more. BUT, others, unfamiliar with map *might* have needed the orientation visual of coming in to land. I preferred it as was, others might justifiably criticise.
My name was too long. I didn't realise I was leader, the splat arrow was hidden.
My squad were refreshingly accurate. I asked them to hit things at a distance, and surprise surprise, they did.
I spent a LONG time being commander not super grunt. This mission made me use different attack formations at variouis stages, I dared not savegame on the basis the soldier i just lost would be too important later, this is good stuff.
The hordes pouring down mountains, and every other splot were just right for me. I really had to look after my people. A nice change, since they responded so well. The ammo was 'just right', not anywhere near enough, which is perfect. Because of my comments above, I dunno if I could have selected more machine gun, don't allow it. Make me earn my rank.
The timing and the direction of the re-inforcing hordes all made sense to me. Particularly the timing, well done on that.
Surrender:
the hell I will, but i tried <> No cutscene visible, just a stall of some sort. Fix it please. Very novel for me. I liked it. What a start to a campaign, different end)ing triggers right from the get-go. Marvelllous.
This is not my mission, I hesitate to suggest alterations to anyone's creative ideas, I would place a sniper in the trees where you kept one or two machine gunners?, and then again i woudn't because why would he be there. Obviously that last chundering splat of my squad from left field surprised the hell out of me. Nicely done, not too hot, not too cold.
There are no bugz I know of other than the surrender. My score seemed quite odd, I think about 90 with one star for 18 mins work. I was in this mission one hell of a lot longer than that, OR, you immersed me in something interesting. Scores have no meaning to anyone other than the mission designer, only you would know what 90 means.
Would I play this again? Yes. Definitely.
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Thanks for the reply, mikero!
"But they were wrong"
get rid of "But". It's an ironic , well paused statement in it's own fade in.
Ok, I see what you mean, I will consider this.
I wont be vitriolic about your use of yeardate. Get rid of it, stupid. Try subtletly, you've already mentioned Cuba, let us do some thinking for ourselves. If you doubt me, ask yourself why yeardates almost -to -never appear in a mission, not ever. It must be because they don't know howto right
Good point. Now that I think about it, I also have never seen a date in a mission. I will definately consider removing it.
I liked the subtlety of NOT ejecting from a boat. There they were, there I was, I needed no more. BUT, others, unfamiliar with map *might* have needed the orientation visual of coming in to land. I preferred it as was, others might justifiably criticise.
I'm glad you liked it this way. I never considered starting the player out in a boat. I guess I just placed the units and didn't give them a second thought. :P
My name was too long. I didn't realise I was leader, the splat arrow was hidden.
Yeah, I thought someone would say that. :P It is long, isn't it? lol, ok, I'll shorten it.
My squad were refreshingly accurate. I asked them to hit things at a distance, and surprise surprise, they did.
I'm glad to hear this. I spent some time trying to get the player's squad to be reasonably realistic.
I spent a LONG time being commander not super grunt. This mission made me use different attack formations at variouis stages, I dared not savegame on the basis the soldier i just lost would be too important later, this is good stuff.
I'm glad to hear this. I tried to force the player to rely more on his squad than on himself alone.
I dunno if I could have selected more machine gun, don't allow it. Make me earn my rank.
I have thought about this. In one of my tests, I gave several extra men a machine gun. This gave my squad a huge advantage in long distance fights. I will consider removeing the machine guns from the selection, but I may keep them so the player has a choice. I will wait and see what other beta-testers say.
The timing and the direction of the re-inforcing hordes all made sense to me. Particularly the timing, well done on that.
Thanks, this was also something I tried hard to do, particularly the last two squads coming from different directions.
the hell I will, but i tried <> No cutscene visible, just a stall of some sort. Fix it please.
No cutscene?! A cutscene didn't appear showing the player dropping his weapon and surrendering? What about the loose outro, did that play?
This is not my mission, I hesitate to suggest alterations to anyone's creative ideas, I would place a sniper in the trees where you kept one or two machine gunners?,
Feel free to offer any suggestions! I was debating about placing snipers near the base. I decided not to because: The two men in the trees are actually the two men who patrol the dirt road west of the base. When the alarm sounds, they run to that position and go prone. I was debating on whether or not to make the soldiers in the guard towers snipers, what is your view on that?
My score seemed quite odd, I think about 90 with one star for 18 mins work. I was in this mission one hell of a lot longer than that, OR, you immersed me in something interesting. Scores have no meaning to anyone other than the mission designer, only you would know what 90 means.
I didn't do anything in the description.ext to affect the score, so I'm not to sure why you only recieved 90 points. ???
18 minutes! The quickest I could complete my mission was around 22 minutes!
Would I play this again? Yes. Definitely.
Thank you! This is the highest complement you can give me!
Thank you for your beta-test, mikero! :)
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unreserved apology to call you stupid it was meant in the same sense as KiSS. I think ??? (hope) you took it that way.
Others may in fact argue that since your using a pre-1985 date it 'makes sense' and is appropriate. You are the author, I've had my 2 cents.
The terrain you used isn't touched often, for whatever reason, the only 2 i've ever come accross, charge down the hill. VERY nice to be receiving that charge for a change instead of the deliverer. There's a whole backdrop of desert beach. You are the 1st to (partially) use it. (afaik)
Snipers: I was stunned by those two soldiers in the 'woods', they effectively, snipered me. Opinion only since you asked, is my Idea is idiotic. It would make no sense to me what the devil one is doing there at all. Snipers cant sideswipe a squad as fast as those two did! In fact they added to my game experience, the damage that they did do.
machine guns:
one of the appeals to me, and there were many, was that I only had two, and I really had to keep them supplied, and or get some other poor grunt to pick up the cudgel. Clearly you tested and rejected this very issue.
loose outro.
I got the great image of hands in the air, then a black screen and waited and waited, and.....
90 pts one star
not remotely concerned. It could easily be because I shot no-one (till the end) I was having too much fun being the boss (for a change)
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Right click and save target as.
There is no such thing as loose Debriefing text. The workaround is to have a hidden Objective which appears only if the loose ending is triggered.
Veteran mode. Haven't read the previous posts. This may be a bit disjointed as it may be over several sessions today. (In other words I should be doing something else. :D)
Readme
Nice to see one with a proper name! :) Add the addon details and the date. Thanks for the credit: read snYpir's How to use Objectives and init.sqs.
Overview
Well ... there's nothing really wrong with it but the text is not very exciting. Make it clear which side the player is on: I assume the pic is of the defences. Add your name.
Intro
Well there really isn't much wrong with this. Staging post Everon then cut straight to "Kolgujev" doesn't make sense. Put the observing spetz natz in the bush, not 3 feet away.
If you wanted to make the whole thing classier (which is not necessary, its a good Intro) there are two things you can do. Firstly, read xenofane's font text tutorial and get some fancy coloured text. Secondly, increase the pace a bit. Pace is always a problem in OFP cutscene - its almost impossible to get enough. Consider adding a couple more shots of the same scene from different angles, to give the illusion of something happening. There is also a little too much black background: try and give us a bit more to look at. But as I say, these are all things to help move it from good to very good.
Briefing
Plan - good
Notes - good. Split into two paragraphs.
Gear - don't issue smoke grenades, they are useless - AI can see through smoke and you can't. I took the Strela and issued RPGs to everybody else with PKs for the loons a the back. Put at least two RPGs in the squad, there's no point in making the player do too much work.
Group - nice to see an intelligent rank and skill structure, though I'd like to see more good loons and fewer crap ones. Groups of 12 always make me suspicious: they are easy to spot and difficult to control and you almost always get heavy casualties early on.
Map - Gravette and Levie should have red flags. Mark the position of the LPD, just for fun. What, if anythng, is at Laruns?
Mission
Nice to see a boat leaving, a detail so often neglected. Have a couple of spetz natz running past you can getting into the boats. (Brief cutscene followed by savegame would be even better) You wouldn't land so close to an enemy base unless you were covered in some way.
Ran west up the gully and came out cautiously onto the road and dropped two two man patrols, one going in each direction. Brief siren. I know its right to turn it off, but you can leave it a little longer than that.
Left one man covering the road from Entre Deux and moved on SW to the bushes near the end of the track. That's one advantage of a large squad. Consider moving the medic in a couple of loons, and having loons at the back with mixed arms, maybe even binocs. Hint to the player that they can be left in tactical positions to cover your rear etc.
Anyway, overlooking the base. Oh for a Dragunov. Nice to see a properly defended entrance and a hospital but not nice to see no movement whatsoever. It's fine to have entrance guards standing still, but at least some of the others - particularly after the alarm - should be rushing around.
I was about to put my loons on hold fire to move closer when one of them opened up. We won the exchange but took a couple of casualties. PK ammo ran very low as the gunners tried to destroy the M2. (Don't place it as a unit, place it empty and put a gunner in. There is a re-man M2 script in the Ed Depot that you might want to consider.)
The over long player's character name is really starting to irritate me now. Change it.
Advanced a little and kept shooting. An M113 came down the track and we took it out. There were just a couple of enemy left when 8, who was watching our backs, called contacts. His directions weren't very helpful and while I was trying to figure out what was happening he got shot (unsurprisingly) and a squad appeared outside the base entrance. I was hopeful of knocking them all over but we were a but closer and our MGs didn't have the advantage they had before. Took some casualties and the surrender option came up.
Clicked and switched to cutscene. We stood up, hands behind heads but still with weapons, and were shot at. Use setCaptive true commands although they will not stop a unit firing that has already targetted us. You'll need to figure out a workaround for that. It would be tedious, although nice, to run a wee script on each loon to find out what weapons he has, remove them, and put them in weapon holders at his feet. Some titletext and sound would be nice too. Good idea though. Dig through the sound library in the triggers and see if you can find some appropriate remarks.
11m
860 *
5 kills
11 casualties but at least two of these were after the surrender
Outro
Fine but a little dull. These big overhead shots are fine for establishing the scene, but come in and give us a proper look. It appears you created a nice decent POW camp and a proper prisoner exchange or something, but we never got close enough to find out.
Suggest you show prisoners getting into a Russian chopper. Fade out and in. Prisoners get out of chopper, there is one officer - you. You are separated from the others. Fade out and in. Your face, pull back, firing squad FIRE! Just to make the point. ;D
Comments
I hope to play this again properly one of these days, it looks promising. All the ancillary stuff - Briefing and Intro and so on - is rock solid, which is surprisingly rare. I didn't really see enough of the mission itself to be able to make much comment, except that they defenses were much too static. Fewer loons with more waypoints and switch triggers would have been better.
I'm just reading through mikero's comments ... pretty much agree. The surrender thing seemed to work for me although weapons weren't dropped they just went safe.
The defences should not have any snipers outside the base. Snipers in the towers will make it noticeably harder, not least because sniper units are better at detecting the enemy. If you try it and its too hard, consider using ordinary units with M21s, though that will still make it harder.
The player's squad needs some long range weapons. Whether Dragunov or extra PKs is up to you. Tighten up the weapons selection a little: this is an infantry squad on an organised attack - they should pretty much be told what to take. (As a general principle of good mission design, the default loadout should be the best. There are exceptions.) Gear selection here should really just be available to allow the player to rebalance slightly to allow for personal taste.
Score = loons killed by you - casualties in your squad. There are other factors but that's the basic thing. You don't get points for enemies killed by your squad. Don't think anybody really cares, no need to mess about with it.
OK I'm done. :)
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@mikero
unreserved apology to call you stupid it was meant in the same sense as KiSS. I think (hope) you took it that way.
Don't worry, no offense was taken. I understood what you were saying. :)
one of the appeals to me, and there were many, was that I only had two, and I really had to keep them supplied, and or get some other poor grunt to pick up the cudgel.
Ok, I will consider removing them
I got the great image of hands in the air, then a black screen and waited and waited, and.....
It didn't end?! Damn! It worked for me when I tested it, I'll have another look at it.
90 pts one star
not remotely concerned. It could easily be because I shot no-one (till the end) I was having too much fun being the boss (for a change)
Oh, ok. That probably does explain your low score! Should I add points to the player's score if he complets the objectives, as a reward?
@Macguba
I will reply to your post when you have finished it. ;)
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Done
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@Macguba
Nice to see one with a proper name! Add the addon details and the date. Thanks for the credit: read snYpir's How to use Objectives and init.sqs.
I was thinking of you when I named it! ;) Will add the addon details, and will read snypirs tutorial.
Well ... there's nothing really wrong with it but the text is not very exciting. Make it clear which side the player is on: I assume the pic is of the defences. Add your name.
Your right about the text. I am not very creative with writing. I will try and think of something more gripping.
About adding my name: I thought I read somewhere that this was frowned upon?
Well there really isn't much wrong with this. Staging post Everon then cut straight to "Kolgujev" doesn't make sense. Put the observing spetz natz in the bush, not 3 feet away.
How should I change the opening scene to make more sense? The spetznatz is difficult to place properly. He is the same spetz natz that runs up the beach. If I place the marker too close to the bush, you can't see him, if I place it too far away, he's too far away from the bush. I'll try and see if I can't get him closer.
If you wanted to make the whole thing classier (which is not necessary, its a good Intro) there are two things you can do. Firstly, read xenofane's font text tutorial and get some fancy coloured text. Secondly, increase the pace a bit. Pace is always a problem in OFP cutscene - its almost impossible to get enough. Consider adding a couple more shots of the same scene from different angles, to give the illusion of something happening. There is also a little too much black background: try and give us a bit more to look at. But as I say, these are all things to help move it from good to very good.
I will try adding colored text. I agree the pace of the intro might be a little slow. It will be difficult adjusting though, because I am limited on time by the length of the music. Currently, when the mission ends, that's where the music ends, too.
Notes - good. Split into two paragraphs.
Will do
nice to see an intelligent rank and skill structure, though I'd like to see more good loons and fewer crap ones.
I have been debating this, and here is my view: Most of the Russian army is made up of conscripts. Also, the afghan war is still raging at this time, so most of the Soviet army is fighting over there. These two factors combined will mean the forces in this little island chain are not that great. Most will be recruits, with a few rookies, veterans, and very few experts. What is your view?
Have a couple of spetz natz running past you can getting into the boats. (Brief cutscene followed by savegame would be even better) You wouldn't land so close to an enemy base unless you were covered in some way.
Ok, that makes sense.
Brief siren. I know its right to turn it off, but you can leave it a little longer than that.
The siren I have automatically ends, I can't adjust how long it stays on
Oh for a Dragunov.
I intentionally did not give the player choice of a sniper rifle ;D, I thought it would make the mission too easy.
(Don't place it as a unit, place it empty and put a gunner in. There is a re-man M2 script in the Ed Depot that you might want to consider.)
I can't believe I overlooked that! I will do so immediately. Also, I do have a re-man script running, and it does work. It takes anywhere from 5-10 seconds for the next man to realize he's the gunner. Also, the script is only run for the men at the sandbag wall.
The over long player's character name is really starting to irritate me now. Change it.
Hmmm, two strong complaints on this name. I think I'll shorten it. ;D
We stood up, hands behind heads but still with weapons, and were shot at. Use setCaptive true commands although they will not stop a unit firing that has already targetted us. You'll need to figure out a workaround for that.
What?! I did use the setcaptive command! I guess I'll make the american's combatmode "BLUE" then, so they won't fire.
It would be tedious, although nice, to run a wee script on each loon to find out what weapons he has, remove them, and put them in weapon holders at his feet.
Currently, I give them the command to drop their main weapon. They don't do this?
Fine but a little dull. These big overhead shots are fine for establishing the scene, but come in and give us a proper look. It appears you created a nice decent POW camp and a proper prisoner exchange or something, but we never got close enough to find out. Suggest you show prisoners getting into a Russian chopper. Fade out and in. Prisoners get out of chopper, there is one officer - you. You are separated from the others. Fade out and in. Your face, pull back, firing squad FIRE! Just to make the point.
;D Very good idea's. I will try to get some close shots, but again I am limited on time by the length of the song. "Amen" is a very short song!
I didn't really see enough of the mission itself to be able to make much comment, except that they defenses were much too static. Fewer loons with more waypoints and switch triggers would have been better.
I have an idea on how to fix this problem. I'll try it out and see if it works.
I'm just reading through mikero's comments ... pretty much agree. The surrender thing seemed to work for me although weapons weren't dropped they just went safe.
Darn! I gave them the command to drop their weapons! I'll do some more testing of the script, and try to make it more reliable.
The player's squad needs some long range weapons. Whether Dragunov or extra PKs is up to you. Tighten up the weapons selection a little:
Ok, I'll tighten it up some. Do you think I should keep PKs in the selection? I don't want to add sniper rifles, I think it might be unrealistic, and would make it too easy for the player.
Thanks for the beta-test, Macguba! :)
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I was thinking of you when I named it!
At last, somebody listens! :D
About adding my name: I thought I read somewhere that this was frowned upon?
No, quite the contrary. My personal view is that having things like addons on a second page is fine, but not everybody agrees - it is a question of taste. Everybody agrees that the author name should be there somewhere. Everybody also agrees that crap like advertising your next mission should not appear in the overview.
He is the same spetz natz that runs up the beach
Fake it - use a different one.
How should I change the opening scene to make more sense?
"Already well established on Kolgujev, the Soviets decide to use Everon as a staging post" Or
"Kolgujev: Soviet Base. Preparing for the invasion of Everon."
Keep the music and the Intro length - its good that they end together. Add more shots and more movement within shots.
The whole skill thing is tricky because the balance of names is wrong: too many "recruit" and not enough "veteran". Forget the names - what really counts is gameplay, and with better units (on both sides) you get better gameplay. By all means have a few recruits, but hey - this could be an elite unit withdrawn from Afganistan for the even more difficult task of invading Everon.
Thought: the enemy in this mission should be the Resistance. Local Everon troops. If the US already held Everon, then an attack would be tantamount to launching a full scale war on the US.
You are correct not to give the player a Dragunov - it would make it too easy. Another reason for not having M21s on bodies outside the base.
I didn't actually notice you had a re-man script, though I was surprised at one point when there was still a gunner so I reckon it probably worked. You are right to limit the possible loons, it gets tedious otherwise.
setCaptive is not sufficient for the the surrender script, you will indeed need something else to stop Americans firing. We all had our weapons on our backs.
If the song is too short for the Outro, just play it again and fade it out at the end. It's nice to have the film and the score the same length, but its not essential.
Gear selection. If we don't need the Strela, lose it. If we do, give it to somebody. The maximum number of PKs should probably be four: I had four and that was fine. One was killed early on, thankfully, so he could be used as an ammo crate. Basically, figure out what you think is the best squad loadout (without being silly) and make it that, with one of each thing spare. Offer a handgun for the player, you might as well and some people like it. Also a few satchels and mines in Selection. As I approached the road I wished I'd brought a mine or two to lay on it.
Actually its gotta be something like:-
2 rpgs
2 pks
2 soldiers
2 grenadiers
player
medic
1 or 2 others: maybe pk and medic, or just AA
with 1 or 2 rpg, 1 or 2 pk and bits and pieces in Selection. Maybe the heavy grenade launcher for the player to take if he likes, with a handgun. (AI loons don't actually fire them very often.)
Thanks for the beta-test, Macguba!
My pleasure!
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v1.96, veteran, benchmark 5050
overview
'red tide' should really be in inverted commas as it's the title of something. needs a wee bit more info there, and the border on the pic could be tidied up just a little.
intro
not fully blacked out
'taken off of'... 'removed from' would sound better.
'the soviets still, after 20 years...' rearrange the sentence to read easier - 'after 20 years, the soviets still desired...'
initial shot along the ranks is too long. nice shot, definitely, but needs a wee bit of variation. i'd suggest focusing on one loon in the midst of the others and rotating the camera around from within the ranks; overhead from back of the ranks to officer at the front; over the front officer's shoulder...
odd tense change in the narrative text. you go from past tense, to present tense, even when referring to things which happen over time - "for the next week, spetz naz scout out the main objectives..." no biggie, just a wee bit odd. it does actually help to increase the pace a little as things start being described in present tense.
the spetz naz loon is away from the road, and yet his binocular view is looking straight down it...
shot of ship, bmps and boats could do with starting closer.
units are not really 'tasked to' something, they're usually tasked with something, and assigned to something.
last text should fade out with the blackout.
briefing
'this attack is three-pronged.' no need to call it an attack twice.
if you use a capital C for Comrades, always use it. try not to swap between Comrades and comrades. i tend to capitalise compass directions too, but that's down to personal preference.
'compose'... think of using 'comprise' instead.
see? you use 'tasked with' in the briefing :P
intel section typo - 'minimun'...
'two-man' rather than 'two man'...
you needn't link to the same marker more than once in any paragraph - chotain and entre deux. i would suggest linking once to the place, and perhaps links to separate pages in the briefing showing details about the type of vehicles - a picture of an m113 for example.
i would also rotate the 'start' marker so its arrow points in the direction the player will be taking.
'Our Comrades in the Weather Bureau expect this to continue...' sounds a bit better...
picky details perhaps, but they all add to the polish on the mission.
mission
more anon/
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not fully blacked out
Do you mean you could see ground? Or are you talking about half the screen being a dark grey, and the other half being black? If it's the latter, I'm not too sure what to do about that.
'taken off of'... 'removed from' would sound better.
done
'the soviets still, after 20 years...' rearrange the sentence to read easier - 'after 20 years, the soviets still desired...'
done
initial shot along the ranks is too long. nice shot, definitely, but needs a wee bit of variation. i'd suggest focusing on one loon in the midst of the others and rotating the camera around from within the ranks; overhead from back of the ranks to officer at the front; over the front officer's shoulder...
I agree, that shot is too long. Adjusting this scene in the intro is on my to-do list.
odd tense change in the narrative text. you go from past tense, to present tense, even when referring to things which happen over time - "for the next week, spetz naz scout out the main objectives..." no biggie, just a wee bit odd. it does actually help to increase the pace a little as things start being described in present tense.
This was intentional. The first part is describing something that happened in the past, an event that has lead to the mission. The rest of the intro shows how the russians prepared for the mission. If this changing of tenses is too wierd/confusing, I will make everything past tense.
the spetz naz loon is away from the road, and yet his binocular view is looking straight down it...
This is difficult to get right. The binocular rescource does not magnify the scene, so I had to place the camera close to the base, giving a slightly incorrect view. I do have an idea to make this look better, but it may take some time.
shot of ship, bmps and boats could do with starting closer.
I have done some changes to this scene already. I don't start the camera close, but I make it pan faster. I may still move it closer, however.
units are not really 'tasked to' something, they're usually tasked with something, and assigned to something.
I changed it, and it sounds much better, thanks!
last text should fade out with the blackout.
I have added custom text to the intro, and this is one of the effects I added.
'this attack is three-pronged.' no need to call it an attack twice.
I fixed this
if you use a capital C for Comrades, always use it. try not to swap between Comrades and comrades. i tend to capitalise compass directions too, but that's down to personal preference.
I made them all lowercase. Not sure if that's right, though, so feel free to correct me.
'compose'... think of using 'comprise' instead.
I changed this to: You and your men are assigned to the central landing group.
see? you use 'tasked with' in the briefing
lol, as I said above, I changed the intro to "assigned to"
intel section typo - 'minimun'...
Thanks, it's fixed now
you needn't link to the same marker more than once in any paragraph - chotain and entre deux. i would suggest linking once to the place, and perhaps links to separate pages in the briefing showing details about the type of vehicles - a picture of an m113 for example.
Ok, I'll remove excess markers. Not sure if I'll add details about the vehicles, though. A Soviet squad commander should certainly know the difference between American vehicles. If not, he does not belong in command.
i would also rotate the 'start' marker so its arrow points in the direction the player will be taking.
Thanks for this suggestion, it's done.
'Our Comrades in the Weather Bureau expect this to continue...' sounds a bit better...
Sounds better, thanks
picky details perhaps, but they all add to the polish on the mission.
Keep them coming, they allow me to improve my mission!
Looking forward to hearing the rest!
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here comes my review. i'll play and update as I go along. Looking forward to this mission.
OVERVIEW - nice picture and border. text is fine
INTRO - liked it, built up the story, then showed the many various elements of the attack force. (on a side note why is there no air power invloved, even high level bombing etc etc, something you would expect in an attack).
BRIEFING - tells what we are doing and what the other sqauds are doing, but doesn't say what will happen if we fail or another sqaud fails eg "we must take the base to stop reinforcements getting to the other groups etc."
I didn't think the etxt was very russiany, except for comrade, I would suggest changing this, so it sounds like a russian is writing it and not an american.
MISSION - here goes nothing....This mission tis a tricky one, after numerous assault attempts i get lucky (or skill) and manage to clear the base of baddies, but lose the whole squad in the process, i have an RPG and an M16, lots of bullets to share. I liked the gaurds going into the towers when the siren goes off. I destoryed the M113, the tick hasent ticked so i guess i have to defeat the conunter attacks on my own :o. As I type there is a huge barrage of bullets hitting the 50.cal, they must think itsd a baddie (hopefully they'll run out of bullets!).
Your part about air support sound greeeaaaattt, as tony the tiger would say.
EDIT - victory is mine!!!! This was one tough cookie to crush. leaving where i left off i died, so on trying again got the remaindre of my squad into the middle of the base and there they acted as a good base of fire covering all directions. a sqaud came from behind the base down the hill and they were taken care of. then a sqaud came down the road and i delt with them using the 50cal ;D. thena sqaud at 10 oclock coming out in the trees, and again the 50cal was used, and 10 the medic did me proud. some sidechat to HQ and mission done.
score 9540
kills 5 officers
4 LAW
M113
7 grenadier
medic
5 Machinegunners
2 crew
17 soldiers
and most my sqaud died :-[
OUTRO - Yer that russian flag sure looks fine, helicopter took an age to land but thats just the crazy AI helicopter control.
OVERALL - a good mission which is challenging but do-able, probably easier for people who are good at OFP :P. It had a good back ground story so gave me something to fight for. The base was well defended and the m113 reinforcement was good.
my suggestions I felt that having wave after wave of troops running at us wasen't making best use of this mission. I would have liked to have seen a helicopter flypast judgeing the situation, and possibly another armoured unit coming to evict us. and having a sqaud run down the road infront of the 50 cal isn't a sensibel thing to do, how about having them 'sneak' up behind the base and lob some grenades in, add a bit of spice. these aren't critsimsms just things i thougth could be changed.
very good stuff here :thumbsup: with the help of all the other BETA testers im sure this mission will be jolly good stuff once its finshed fully. Happy mission making
GI-YO
I also liked the surrender function, even if i did surrender by accident 8)
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Hi GI-YO!
Looking forward to this mission.
I hope you aren't disappointed!
(on a side note why is there no air power invloved, even high level bombing etc etc, something you would expect in an attack).
I overlooked this. I have decided to put the following in the briefing:
You will not have air support in this mission. All air assets are being used to neutralize the airfield.
Does this sound ok?
but doesn't say what will happen if we fail or another sqaud fails eg "we must take the base to stop reinforcements getting to the other groups etc."
Ok, I will add something
I didn't think the etxt was very russiany, except for comrade, I would suggest changing this, so it sounds like a russian is writing it and not an american.
Yeah, I'm not much of a Russian, am I? :P Any pointers you could give me to make the briefing/notes more "russiany" would be much appreciated!
Good luck!
EDIT:
@Macguba
Thought: the enemy in this mission should be the Resistance. Local Everon troops. If the US already held Everon, then an attack would be tantamount to launching a full scale war on the US.
Uh oh, I think you might be right. I will see how difficult it would be to replace the units. I may keep the mission the way it is, simply because of the effort involved to switch units.
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MacGuba
this is the 99th time I learn more from listening to you, than talking.
@pilot
thinking on the intro a bit more, it is overwhelming for a single mission. It's too much, and just right, for a campaign intro. (excluding all valid critiques on font, color, phrasing). It left me wanting to play the campaign. I knew I was gonna get called to re-inforce Levie, or whatever.
You might, possibly, consider stripping this intro out and making it the chapter cutscene, with a more directly "relevant" one for the issue at hand. If campaign is somewhere near your intention, then this one is a refreshing change from capturing the airport (again).
The way you've presented the storyline (for me) opens up large tracts of switched missions to different parts of the island. All happening 'at the same time'.
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@GI-YO
OUTRO - none
Are you sure?! I have an outro for both endings. Did it not play?
About the counter-attacks:
One squad is supposed to attack from Chotain. They are the first wave. Two more squads are supposed to attack from Entre Duex. I tried to make it so they attacked at the same time, from different directions. This is easier said than done, however. I think the problem is neither squad realizes there are bad guys in the base. I'll see if I can fix this with some reveal commands, and maybe a command that tells one squad to hurry up if the other is getting shot at.
@mikero
I'm just glad I was able to finish this one mission! I haven't even considered making a campaign yet!
Thanks to everyone who has beta-tested so far! Hopefully, if all goes well, I'll have a new version of this mission ready soon!
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sorry i did get the outro, i thought it came after the debrief, but obviously not, im nearly asleep mind you :-\ .
. my edited comment above
GI-YO
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tested again, thrice to *make sure*. The losing outro now works. There *is* a black pause between hands in the air, and ending etc, but last two tests they were small. First time was a black stall.
(ofp 1.96 pristine) NO addons allowed in addon folders\ other than editor (have been there, dun that)
Have to tell you, this is very well done indeed. More experienced technophiles willl correctly point to it's defects, but this storyline grabs me.
I was not shot at end, just a very agreeable storyline about losing the war and being set free. MADE ME WANT TO PLAY IT BETTER NEXT TIME. If at all possible the panning of my squad surrendering should be lengthened, shots of just me wasn't enough. It was cleverly done because it was in context to where the hell I gave up at the time. I wanted to see my squad positions too. This moment is tragic, and beats any amount of Rambo.
standard winning Outro was 'ok' but where was the LST?
Shots of captured Nato trucks are fine, but where are the body bags? The lack of detail here is not good enough, relative to the rest. You most definitely have the wits about you to improve this.
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standard winning Outro was 'ok' but where was the LST?
Don't tell me the LST wasn't there? ???
Shots of captured Nato trucks are fine, but where are the body bags?
BODYBAGS!!! Of course! I knew I was missing something in that scene, but for the life of me I couldn't figure it out. I will add bodybags immediately!
EDIT:
Nevermind my first comment. I didn't put the LST in. I got my intro and outro mixed up. I would assume the LST would stay out at sea, while the helicopter would ferry men in. I would be dangerous to send the LST in for two reasons: The water may be too shallow, and if the Americans attacked in force while the LST was near the shore, the results could be disasterous.
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Change the units. It's a boring half hour, but so what. Less effort than you think.
The binocular rescource does not magnify the scene
There is a command to magify the scene, which I'm too pissed to remember. 0.7 is normal, that much I remember.
@mikero: a very flattering remark, which is much appreciated. But keep talking, we all learn from each other.
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Change the units. It's a boring half hour, but so what. Less effort than you think.
Ok. *Goes off to spend a boring half hour*
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I gave it a whirl last night, but couldn't post til now.
Summary:
#Intro
Nice intro, good camera work, cuban missile crisis etc. Only one (minor) thing (for me) was a couple of camera shots had the camera changing direction quickly, causing a bit of lag. But not too bad at all. Sets the scene nicely.
Wording: 'The soviet missiles were taken off of cuban soil' (or something like that). 'off of' - not sure if that's correct, or if it should just be 'off'.
'The soviets still, after 20 years, desired to have missiles close to america' (or similar). Perhaps consider 'After 20 years the soviets still desired... etc'. But that's just a suggestion, it's ok the way it is.
Listen to me, trying to correct grammar :P Anyway:
#mission
I liked having the squad starting on the beach with the boat speeding off, no unnecessary time-wasting boat ride and then sudden teleportation to the shore. I think someone already said that. Ooh! A little piece of everon i haven't seen :) There aren't to many areas like that for me anymore. Guess I never spent much time near that base... oh well. My squad and I head along the coast, carefully avoiding those patrols the briefing warned us about. Having reached the base, i see it is not really feasible to sneak up from the coast; blast those two guards on the jetty, either they spot me or I'm forced to kill them and am subsequently cut down by the base's front defenses. Are those machine guns in the guard towers too? :P After some fatal experimentation, I find a good tactic: shoot the patrol on the road, ignore the alarm, set my squad in position at the top of the rise overlooking the base, flank round myself to the hilly eastern side of the base, order 7 to explode the quite useless m113, and then proceed to clean out the base. After a while a patrol comes down the hill to my right, and along next to the base's fence. Spotting them quietly with my binocs, my squad makes quick work of them in literally a matter of seconds :D Cue hurrahs and all-round congratulations. We patrol round the base, killing a few stragglers, and circle back to the front. I sit there, waiting expectantly for a well-deserved pat on the back from soviet hq, which is why the surprise american counter-attack, launched form the direction of my initial assault, catches us completely by unawares. A heads up would have been nice! Altough it does create tension :P. Catastrophic consequences for my buddies; 10 the medic, 7 the law soldier, and my machine gunners are wiped out in the first round of gunfire alone, and 2 and 3 fall before i've worked out where the attack is coming from and thought to take cover behind the fence-posts. I order one of the survivors to take up position on the mgun, and he gives a good account of himself before he too is tragically killed. 4 of us are left by the time we've repelled the assault. Not too good :-\
At this point nothing else happens; it could be last loon sundrome, but i see other people have got it to work, so i've missed something. Either way, it was fun! I surrender, for the hell of it. (Who to, i wonder)
#outro
The one I saw, with you as a pow, was great. Nice pow camp, good camera work, i liked the fact that i was just taken prisoner, the released later. Realistic! Those americans... (shakes head)
To conclude, I had fun with this one, I enjoyed the base assault and the fact that my tactics paid off. Eventually. I didn't do it in one go, as this post suggests, though. Oh no! The counter attack caught me completely unawares, but it was great that you could use the base (and m2) to good effect to stop it in its tracks. Please tell me what to do to complete the mission! :)
Fragorl
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heheh... ah gubes ;) the command is
camera_name camSetFOV n
where n is something like 0.7, which is the default as the merry gubes indicated. the lower the value, the closer the zoom. be aware though that it's not 'zoom' per se, more changing the field of view, so things might distort at high/low values.
my loons and i are currently attacking the base. more soon ;)
oh, and the not-fully-faded bit in the intro is out at sea. put the intro script call in the init line of a loon facing the side of a house or something, that works for me.
more anon/
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I had some difficulty downloading the file. Clicking on the link gave me an error. Anyway I now have it. I normally do not read what others have done before testing but as there has already been so much comment here would you like me to? Is there anything you specifically want me to look at?
I will start by not looking pending a reply.
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Red Tide
As usual, written as I go, and at least initially without looking at what others have written
Overview:
I guess from the title and the picture of static western forces on the defensive that I am going to play as east. It might be helpful to make this clear in the text.
Intro:
Loved it.
Two comments. 1. Read Xenophanes tutorial, or General Barron's more recent tutorial and get some coloured text in there with a different font. 2. 4 BMPs and 12 infantry seems pretty light for an invasion force. Could we be part of a much larger operation?
Briefing:
You and your men comprise, not compose. The text could usefully be spaced out a bit with a blank line of so. The marker for the start of the mission should be turned round to point south. To say we are to be landed sounds a bit better than to say we will be dropped off. The latter would be more appropriate for a helicopter insertion.
Intel:
We are landing at 10:20!. You don't need to put a link in every time you mention Chotain and Entre Deux. You could rearrange the text to make it a bit tighter and avoid so much repetition of theses names.
We are outnumbered 2 to 1 and I have 5 recruits and 2 rookies!!
I arm us all with: 5 with AK74s and PRGs and all the rest except the medic with PKs
Mission:
Okay so I go WNW into some woods. All loons on hold fire. South to Fb45 where I leave an rpg and an a PK soldier guarding the road. Head off east see a two man patrol of the dirt road between me and the base. Drop the both quickly. Leave a PK soldier covering the road and take the rest of the squad to the crest of the hill to the west and overlooking the base. All weapons free and I put an rpg into the M2. A few seconds later there was no living movement in the base. We stay where we are waiting for any reinforcements.
An M113 is reported by the guys at Fb45. Shortly after that an M113 arrives near us and one of my squad kills it. I cannot get any response from the guys at Fb45 now. They are both dead. I won't do that again. We are on the hill overlooking the dead base waiting for any reinforcements to turn up. Nothing can move in the base without us killing it from where we are. A full squad of infantry turn up from the south and my PK gunners drop them all before they know what has hit them. Other squads turn up frome various directions, all heading for the base and all cut down quickly. One of my guys gets injured a couple of times but there is no problem he has time to heal before the next lot of reinforcements turn up. Damn but those PKs are good!
Actually we had not killed everyone in the base, just everyone that was visible. There was one officer still alive as I found when I went down to investigate. I killed him and got a message about the Americans retreating. A few seconds alter the mission ended.
Outro:
Good.
General comments: I really liked it. I would have preferred it to be early morning say just after dawn and I would have preferred for the American response to have been stronger. More M113s and maybe a T60 or two. The reinforcing loons just ran straight for the base and got cutdown. Try having some groups on Guard including possibly a group in the base. When I got to the base (remember I had nearly a bird's eye view from where I was) the loons were just standing around doing nothing. You might want to have them doing something. Also the loons on patrol around the base - I did not see any go into the base or others come out representing a shift change.
I am damned annoyed I lost two men as this was a bit of a cake walk. I was prepared to sacrifice them to give us early warning of some armoured response - but to lose them for an M113 was not a good trade.
Toughen it up and this is a mission you can play time and again.
EDIT:
I have now read most of the other comments. It seems that I got lucky when I decided we should stay where we were for a while after attacking the base and not go down into it. It would have been difficult to deal with the reinforcements from down in the base. If you had units on guard it would have made my tactic less effective. I did have some of my guys guarding our backs and they never fired a shot.
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Wow, I go to bed, wake up the next morning, and find all these replies!
@Fragorl
I have already corrected the grammar in the cutscenes.
A heads up would have been nice!
I intentionally did not put one in. Who would give it? You are the first attack wave on the island. No one else can warn you of a counter-attack.
Please tell me what to do to complete the mission!
I have two conditions for this mission to end:
1)All the men in the base must be killed.
2)There are three squads in the counter-attack. When all but 4 men of those three squads are dead, the remaining men flee. When they flee, they make a boolean true. When the boolean is true, and the base is cleared, the mission ends.
@Bedges
I am looking forward to your progress!
oh, and the not-fully-faded bit in the intro is out at sea. put the intro script call in the init line of a loon facing the side of a house or something, that works for me.
I do have the script in the init line of a man, although he may not be next to a house. I'll check this.
@THobson
Two comments. 1. Read Xenophanes tutorial, or General Barron's more recent tutorial and get some coloured text in there with a different font.
This is already done in my latest version
4 BMPs and 12 infantry seems pretty light for an invasion force. Could we be part of a much larger operation?
It's acutally 4 mechanized infantry squads. 4 BMPs and 44 men. Anyway, I'll see if I can't make the operation feel bigger.
You and your men comprise, not compose. The text could usefully be spaced out a bit with a blank line of so. The marker for the start of the mission should be turned round to point south. To say we are to be landed sounds a bit better than to say we will be dropped off. The latter would be more appropriate for a helicopter insertion.
Your first and third suggestions are already implemented. I'll change "dropped off" to "landed". Please clarify your second suggestion, I'm not sure if I understand you correctly. Do you mean to divide it into paragraphs?
You don't need to put a link in every time you mention Chotain and Entre Deux. You could rearrange the text to make it a bit tighter and avoid so much repetition of theses names.
Ok, I'll try to tighten it
We are outnumbered 2 to 1 and I have 5 recruits and 2 rookies!!
I've changed this. Now you'll have no rookies, 3-4 recruits, 6-7 veterans, and 2 experts
More M113s and maybe a T60 or two.
I might add another M113. But don't forget the other two invasion groups have BMPs, so they will be the ones especially targeted by enemy armor.
Try having some groups on Guard including possibly a group in the base.
When I first made this mission, I had all the groups on guard waypoints. I ran into a problem, however. When a group on guard was alerted, he would go to where the contact was made, not where the base was. So I had some instances of these groups on guard waypoints ending up 200-300 meters away from the base, where the player couldn't see them. Should I add a sentry waypoint to groups in the base? (stupid question I have never found an answer to: What exactly does a sentry waypoint do?)
You might want to have them doing something.
I think I have partly corrected this in the latest version.
Also the loons on patrol around the base - I did not see any go into the base or others come out representing a shift change.
Well, it is 1020, you've only been on the island for 20-30 minutes, so I doubt you would see a shift change. But maybe I'll add a shift change at 1030, anyway.
Toughen it up and this is a mission you can play time and again.
You thought it was too easy?! Ok, maybe I should remove some members from the players squad?
If you had units on guard it would have made my tactic less effective.
Ok, I'll see what I can do.
Thanks for the beta-tests, Fragorl, bedges, and THobson!
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Do you mean to divide it into paragraphs?
Yes.
I might add another M113. But don't forget the other two invasion groups have BMPs, so they will be the ones especially targeted by enemy armor.
Okay, but still think about it. The mission is a pushover as it stands, a T60 would add some tension.
I had all the groups on guard waypoints
You don't need them all to be on guard, one or two groups should be sufficient, especially if one of them is in the base. It will add some randomness.
What exactly does a sentry waypoint do
A group waits at a sentry WP until it detects the enemy, then it moves to its next waypoint. It can be used to simulate a lone loon having to run back to base to raise the alarm.
1020, you've only been on the island for 20-30 minutes
True. Did you have a shift change that I missed?
You thought it was too easy?! Ok, maybe I should remove some members from the players squad
Well. Interesting question. Balancing a mission needs care. A group of 12 can be difficult to handle, so reducing the size does not necessarily make it more difficult. As it stands the mission could be done with the player plus 4 PK soldiers (5 to be on the safe side) and a medic or drop the medic and add a couple of RPG soldiers and is would still feel easy. With no PKs this mission would be very difficult indeed so you might want to limit their availability to say two or three (I shudder at the thought of only having 2). As for the enemy it is not the number of enemy so much as their behaviour that I think needs to be looked at. All these infantry groups running blindly to the base while I have my PKs on the ridge overlooking the base cutting them to pieces is what makes it easy.
My suggestion(it may not work so should be tested but it feels about right):
-Squad of 9
-Only 3 PKs available
-Put one of the existing counter attacking infantry groups on Guard
-Add one infantry group (say 6 to 9 loons) in the base and put it on Hold or Guard when the action starts.
-Add one T60 and one M113
I think that will be tough, especially if the T60 is grouped with one of the M113s
Bye the way, one thing that is very very good and quite rare about this mission is that the approach taken by the player - wait for the counter attack on the ridge or go down to the base to receive the counter attack - seems to have a very significant effect on the outcome.
As I said good stuff.
EDIT:
I forgot to mention. With all that Spetz Natz surveillance (I liked that as well bye the way) I think we could have more in the briefing about enemy numbers especially the size and makeup of the possible counter attack.
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@THobson
Ok, I'll divide the briefing up a little more
Okay, but still think about it. The mission is a pushover as it stands, a T60 would add some tension.
Heeding Macguba'a advice, I replaced the American units with resistance ones. In the process, I replaced the M113 with a T55. I may add the M113 back in, depending on how hard the mission is.
You don't need them all to be on guard, one or two groups should be sufficient, especially if one of them is in the base. It will add some randomness.
Ok, I will do what you suggested.
Thanks for the info on the sentry waypoint!
True. Did you have a shift change that I missed?
No
My suggestion(it may not work so should be tested but it feels about right):
-Squad of 9
-Only 3 PKs available
-Put one of the existing counter attacking infantry groups on Guard
-Add one infantry group (say 6 to 9 loons) in the base and put it on Hold or Guard when the action starts.
-Add one T60 and one M113
I have already limited the number of PKs to 4, I will further limit it to 3. I will put one of the groups on guard. I will also do the same to a group in the base. I may add the M113 back, depending on what other beta-testers say.
I forgot to mention. With all that Spetz Natz surveillance (I liked that as well bye the way) I think we could have more in the briefing about enemy numbers especially the size and makeup of the possible counter attack.
I'll add some more detail. I wasn't too sure how much detail to put in, but now it's obvious I need more.
I think I'll have a new version ready by this evening.
Thanks for the suggestions, THobson!
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Ok, here's version 1.1. Sorry for the late update. My adjustments took a bit longer than expected, and my internet is acting up.
Changes/Fixes:
Added addon details to readme
Changed Overview text and picture
Custom text in Intro and Outros
Adjusted opening text in intro
Adjusted the briefing
Changed direction of start marker
Tightened weapons selection
Changed all American units to Resistance ones
Removed the M113, added a T55 and BMP
Adjusted the response script, enemy units now respond quicker to an attack
Changed the direction of the final wave of counter-attacks
Added more movement to base
Shortened name of player
Added more veteran units to player's squad, removed rookies, and reduced number of recruits
Adjusted surrender script: Now the enemy units *shouldn't* shoot at your squad. (not fully tested)
To Do:
Add more shots to the intro and both outros
Add spetz natz getting in the boats at the beginning of the mission
Red Tide has been submited to the missions depot.
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well, there's the thing about taking so long to test a mission - another version appears in the meantime :P
'red tide' v1.1
flashpoint 1.96, veteran, benchmark 5050, cheat saves
firstly - rename your file, as the space is creating a bug. i needed to rightclick and 'save as'. use an underscore.
overview
typo - 'Politbure'
the border on the pic is still pretty rough. the text is better, although the 'central attack group' bit sort of begs for an explanation... perhaps use 'main attack group'?
intro
fully blacked out.
nice custom text. i shall have to figure out how to do that properly. i have attempted it before, but i couldn't get the text to fade out. want to share how you did it? ;)
otherwise, as you've indicated, some more work to do on the pacing and shot selection.
briefing
the shore in 'Eastern Shore' (in the beginning title) doesn't really need to be capitalised does it? it is only a shore after all.
have another look at the paragraphing. consider a line break after "eastern shore of everon". otherwise fine.
mission
well, i confess i've not tested the latest version. i took my time doing the last one, so i'll give a quick rundown of what i did.
because you stressed the reinforcement locations of entre deux and chotain, i decided to tackle them first. sniped a couple of two-man patrols on the roads. split my teams up into two smaller squads, left green just up from the beach and took red up to the farmhouses at Fb44. dealt with the squad there and rearmed with american weapons. nipped into the forest, just in time to spot a lone wandering officer on a very very long patrol. followed him to see how far his patrol would take him, aaaall the way to the farmhouses. put him out of his walking blues misery. called up green squad to flank the north of entre deux, while i took red up to the southwestern end of the town. took a few attempts, but sniping away the machine gunners and enticing enemy loons out of cover, we dealt with the lot, including the m113 and contents, and the outer patrol squad ringing the town. rearmed green squad.
then off to chotain. same scenario really, although attacking from the forest at Fc51, we had a clear run at the town and cleared it in minutes. then off to the base.
i tried arranging a duckshoot from the southwest hill, but lost too many loons that way, so i ended up taking 2,3 and 4 down to the flat area behind the base to cover the northern side while i sniped the tower guards, the loon on the harbour jetty, and dropped the base loons one by one as they ran around the southern side of the base. a couple of grenades took care of the loons left in the base. cue radio message and winning outro.
http://www.tumeric.co.uk/mrb/flashpoint/debrief.jpg
outro win
slow. very slow. a lot more shots needed here, all that's really required is different/dynamic views of the same stuff.
overall
great mission. as i can see from posts above, the player can approach this the direct way, attacking the base first and then dealing with whatever rolls down the hill afterwards, or the way i did things, slowly and exploring. it is a lot of fun to play, reminds me a great deal of the feeling i got playing the original flashpoint missions, trying various tactics, setting things up, rearming... all good stuff. i may try the latest version again, with a different tactic this time. it's a good romp. nice work :)
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I really hope to have another look at this today, but today is also the day I have several people (two actually) lined up to record some voices for me, and I am going to be out of the country all next week.
So let me just comment on the changes you have made in case I don't get chance later.
Just because you have changed to resistance does not mean you are limited the resistance vehicles. What I think you are trying to simulate here is some non-US but western friendly army. In that case they would not have BMPs but would have M113s
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@bedges
firstly - rename your file, as the space is creating a bug. i needed to rightclick and 'save as'. use an underscore.
Ok, I didn't know this caused trouble, I will rename the file.
typo - 'Politbure'
Darn! I thought I fixed all those!
the border on the pic is still pretty rough. the text is better, although the 'central attack group' bit sort of begs for an explanation... perhaps use 'main attack group'?
I'll see what I can do about the border. I will consider changing "central attack group" to "main attack group"
i have attempted it before, but i couldn't get the text to fade out. want to share how you did it?
It was very tedious. To make the text fade out, adjust the "duration" value. A low value will show the text for a limited time, a high value will show it longer. Ex: I used a value of 1.6 for a 5 second text
because you stressed the reinforcement locations of entre deux and chotain, i decided to tackle them first.
I was hoping someone would do this. Did the men from chotain come to Entre Duex? Or did they stay on Chotain? I scripted it so that if the player attacks Entre Duex or Chotain, the counter-attack would attack the player in the proper town instead of going straight to the base.
slow. very slow. a lot more shots needed here, all that's really required is different/dynamic views of the same stuff.
Yeah, you're right. I'm saving the camera work for last
great mission. as i can see from posts above, the player can approach this the direct way, attacking the base first and then dealing with whatever rolls down the hill afterwards, or the way i did things, slowly and exploring. it is a lot of fun to play, reminds me a great deal of the feeling i got playing the original flashpoint missions, trying various tactics, setting things up, rearming... all good stuff. i may try the latest version again, with a different tactic this time. it's a good romp. nice work
Thanks!
@THobson
I'll be looking forward to your test!
Just because you have changed to resistance does not mean you are limited the resistance vehicles. What I think you are trying to simulate here is some non-US but western friendly army. In that case they would not have BMPs but would have M113s
Good point, I'll change the BMP to an M113
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as far as i could tell, there was no counter attack from chotain. we went pretty much in a straight line from entre deux and met no-one. it might help if i give a run-down of what (i can remember) was in chotain:
machine gun emplacements at three points on the edge of the town, each with the gunner and 2 loons
a first-aid tent with 3 loons on guard outside it
aaaand, actually i think that was it. no armour, no circling squads on patrol that we saw.
as for the pic border - i've tried searching for the one i saw in a thread not too long ago, but without success. i've attached one of mine, should work.
just had a wee try of the latest version. you had to make them resistance didn't you... no more US weapons to play with... boohoo ;)
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as far as i could tell, there was no counter attack from chotain. we went pretty much in a straight line from entre deux and met no-one. it might help if i give a run-down of what (i can remember) was in chotain
What was the resistance at the base like?
as for the pic border - i've tried searching for the one i saw in a thread not too long ago, but without success. i've attached one of mine, should work.
I did use a template for my pic, but I will try yours as it might be better. Thanks!
just had a wee try of the latest version. you had to make them resistance didn't you... no more US weapons to play with... boohoo
Yeah, sorry. Macguba made a good argument. ;)
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base resistance... looked like a single 12-man squad with a few extra loons - tower guards, couple of loons hidden in bushes, the m2 gunner, the loons at the jetty...
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Can I repeart my plea for an early morning start? It will feel more realistic (to me anyway).
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That's strange. Maybe while you were in Entre Duex, the squad from Chotain arrived and you took them out without realizing it. You had to kill them somewhere along the way, as the mission won't end until you do.
Thanks for the reply!
EDIT:
@THobson
Can I repeart my plea for an early morning start? It will feel more realistic (to me anyway).
What time do you feel would be best? Sometime between 0600 and 0700?
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My guess is that somewhere around there. I am not familar with sunrise times in April. I imagine it light, but still pink. Certainly not NVG type of darkness, but not fully daylight eaither. Just a suggestion, experiement a bit.
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sorry havent been abel to download this ,,,,,jeff 2nd page is not working for me!!??
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Red Tide: (I am back from my trip)
(bye the way it was a bugger to download)
I had hoped you would have a pink dawn, M113 version ready by the time I got back.
Overview:
‘The Soviet Politbure in Moscow has decided to place missiles on Everon'
Three points:
-Spelling of: Politburo
-Where else would you find it?
-The wording is far too passive.
How about:
‘The Soviet Politburo is determined to place nuclear missiles on Everon'
You talk about resistance forces - resistance to what? I thought you were trying to simulate a non-US but pro-western army. Just because you select resistance units in the mission editor doesn't mean you need to call them resistance in the game. In fact it would be interesting to have a few US ‘advisors' mixed in with your western army - just a thought.
Have you changed the picture? I am a bit pissed but they look like US soldiers to me.
Why the exclamation mark after coast?
During beta testing it is helpful to put the version number somewhere around here.
more later.....
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Red Tide: (I am back from my trip)
(bye the way it was a bugger to download)
I had hoped you would have a pink dawn, M113 version ready by the time I got back.
Welcome back!
I'm using freewebs to host my mission, so that may explain the problem downloading. Also, I use a download manager to download files, and the manager I use doesn't recognise my files. ??? So if you use a download manager, you may want to disable it before downloading.
I'm sorry for the seeming lack of progress, but I have been busy behind the scenes. I am making a German translation for my mission (I'm learning German right now), and it is taking awhile, as my German skills are not that great! :-\ I hope to have my translating done soon. I have also changed the time of the mission, and adjusted the intro a little bit.
The Soviet Politbure in Moscow has decided to place missiles on Everon'
Three points:
-Spelling of: Politburo
That mistake is embarassing :P, I have already corrected it.
-Where else would you find it?
-The wording is far too passive.
How about:
‘The Soviet Politburo is determined to place nuclear missiles on Everon'
I'm not too sure if it fits too well into the intro. The line before it says, "After 20 years, the Soviets still desired to place nuclear missiles close to the United States", to say "The Soviet Politburo is determined to place nuclear missiles on Everon" in my opinion, destroys the flow of the intro, what do you think?
You talk about resistance forces - resistance to what? I thought you were trying to simulate a non-US but pro-western army. Just because you select resistance units in the mission editor doesn't mean you need to call them resistance in the game. In fact it would be interesting to have a few US ‘advisors' mixed in with your western army - just a thought.
Interesting idea. I might do that. What should I call the resistance forces, the Everon National Guard? ???
Have you changed the picture? I am a bit pissed but they look like US soldiers to me.
My most recent picture does show resistance units, although I may have updated the picture after I posted V1.1
Why the exclamation mark after coast?
I thought it would sound to boring without an exclamation point. Would you type "Destroy the base!" or "Destroy the base."? This is an overview, after all, and it is meant to portray the mission as an awesome, exciting mission. Putting a period might defeat that purpose. What do you think?
During beta testing it is helpful to put the version number somewhere around here.
I put the version number in the readme. Should I also put it in the overview?
Once again, sorry for the lack of progress! :-[
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No problem on the rate of progress - Who am I to talk anyway, I am still on v1.00 of my mission!
I'm not too sure if it fits too well into the intro. The line before it says, "After 20 years, the Soviets still desired to place nuclear missiles close to the United States", to say "The Soviet Politburo is determined to place nuclear missiles on Everon" in my opinion, destroys the flow of the intro, what do you think?
My comment relates to the overview not the intro. I had had a couple of glasses of wine too many by the time I looked at the intro. Also as the intro started I was pulled away for a domestic chore. All I remember is: I like that font, I used it in Defensive Strike, but the review did not like it.
I put the version number in the readme. Should I also put it in the overview?
I don't have strong feelings either way, but it does give the tester confidence they are testing the correct version.
I will pick up from the Overview later.
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Red Tide (Cont.)
Intro:
I mentioned I like that font, but others don't. You refer to an American Base on the East Coast. I though you had dropped the idea of attacking Americans.
The Soviet base has no buildings. The target base is flying an American flag.
I do not get a feeling of a large invasion force. You might wish to select the forces and then do a <Ctrl> C followed by multiple <Ctrl> V to replicate them into the distance.
The attack in on the east coast and you have the northern armoured attack group on the south side of the ship and the southern attack group on the north side of the ship. I would change them round.
Briefing:
Same comments about putting in some paragraphs as before.
I armed my guys as follows:
Me, 6 & 7: AK74 + prg
2, 3 & 4: PKs
5 & 8: AK74 (do I have two medics?)
9: AK74 + 3x Grenades
10: AK74 + AT4
11: AK74, 8 mags and one mine
12: AK74, 4 mags, 4 grenades and one mine
Mission:
Went WNW and put the two mines down on the road at Eh45 where the trees on either side should cause the armour to stick to the road.
Approached the target base from the west. Dropped two guys on patrol before they knew what had happened. I am now over looking the base. It still has an American flag.
I did my usual, all weapons free and an rpg into the M2. Much better!! Very neat the way guys appear out of the barracks and even start to climb the watch towers. I lost 2 of my 3 PK loons quite quickly.
A BMP and a tank turn up behind me and to my left and are destroyed without firing a shot, so much for my mines.
Soldiers are reported at 3 o'clock. Fortunately I have an all-round defence.
Later two squads of soldiers appear behind and to my left heading for the base following the route of the BMP and tank. I put my squad on all hold fire until they reach the base, then all weapons free. More carnage amongst the imperialist running-dog lackeys. Unfortunately I am taking a few casualties as well, 5 so far.
Nothing has moved for quite some time now. I go down into the base and crawl around, there is none there. I go to the flagpole. The US flag remains in place. I run around the outside of the base, still nothing alive. I climb into one of the towers - still nothing. I am beginning to suspect a total group present trigger.
I am wrong. All my squad is now in the base and still nothing is happening. Then I find a single soldier in a bush just outside the base, kill him and the mission ends. This last bit was a bit of a pain. I thought you had them run away when they squad size was small. If so something didn't work quite as planned here.
Outro:
Fine. I think the bodies could do with being closer together and the barrels should be tidier.
Summary:
A great campaign mission. I still think it feels odd doing a mission like this with anything other than elite troops. These are the first ashore to establish a beach head. I don't think I should have rookies and recruits in the squad.
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My comment relates to the overview not the intro. I had had a couple of glasses of wine too many by the time I looked at the intro. Also as the intro started I was pulled away for a domestic chore. All I remember is: I like that font, I used it in Defensive Strike, but the review did not like it.
Ohhh! Ok, I'm sorry! :-[ I changed the text in the overview, and it sounds much better, thanks!
I don't have strong feelings either way, but it does give the tester confidence they are testing the correct version.
Ok, I will probably add it somewhere in the overview.
I mentioned I like that font, but others don't. You refer to an American Base on the East Coast. I though you had dropped the idea of attacking Americans.
Darn! I thought I removed all the references to America! I will double check. As for the font, I think I'll stick with the font. I like it, and the red matches the Soviets Army very well. :P
I do not get a feeling of a large invasion force. You might wish to select the forces and then do a <Ctrl> C followed by multiple <Ctrl> V to replicate them into the distance.
Good idea, I will do that.
The attack in on the east coast and you have the northern armoured attack group on the south side of the ship and the southern attack group on the north side of the ship. I would change them round.
Now that's an embarassing mistake! I will change it immediately!
Same comments about putting in some paragraphs as before.
I thought I did this, or does it need to be divided even more?
It still has an American flag.
I could use some suggestions, here. What flag should I use for the resistance forces?
I did my usual, all weapons free and an rpg into the M2. Much better!! Very neat the way guys appear out of the barracks and even start to climb the watch towers.
Thanks! I thought it would be more realistic to have guys running out of the buildings, like they were just awakened. I'm glad you liked it!
This last bit was a bit of a pain. I thought you had them run away when they squad size was small. If so something didn't work quite as planned here.
I think I am having a problem with that script, it has caused me some problems. Was it the bush in front of the base?
Fine. I think the bodies could do with being closer together and the barrels should be tidier.
Ok
I still think it feels odd doing a mission like this with anything other than elite troops. These are the first ashore to establish a beach head. I don't think I should have rookies and recruits in the squad.
Ok, you've convinced me, I will remove all other recruits, and make them veterans, and I'll add an expert or two.
Thanks for the beta-test, THobson!
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Was it the bush in front of the base?
Yes.
A couple more thoughts:
I suggest you lose the second medic
To make the behaviour of the armour more realistic and more difficult to deal with I suggest:
Tank as group leader
APC grouped with the tank
6 infantry soldiers also grouped with the tank and their 'Special' field set to In Cargo
in the init field of each of the 6 infantry put:
this moveInCargo nameOfAPC
Put the whole lot on guard. (Don't worry about having waypoints that take them to the base or about having waypoints to get the infantry out of the APC. They will do both on their own)
I think you will be stunned.
I could use some suggestions, here. What flag should I use for the resistance forces?
I suggest you de-pbo flags.pbo in your addon folder and pick one. Guernsey is what I have in mind for the civis in my mission. Or you could just use a NATO flag. If you want to annoy macguba you could use Scotland. Botswana and Austria look fairly non-descript - apologies to any nationals of those countries reading this. Other possibilities are Czech and Chad. I thought this was to be a western sovereign country - not resistance.
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Was it the bush in front of the base?
Yes.
I believe the man is the one who runs up from the docks. The men guarding the base aren't told to flee when the counter-attack is almost destroyed. My reasoning behind this is they should already be dead. I will look into it, however, and change this.
I suggest you lose the second medic
In my latest version, I have reduced the player's squad to 9. Should I bring it back up to 12 and lose one of the medics, or keep it at nine where there is only 1 medic?
To make the behaviour of the armour more realistic and more difficult to deal with I suggest:
Tank as group leader
APC grouped with the tank
6 infantry soldiers also grouped with the tank and their 'Special' field set to In Cargo
in the init field of each of the 6 infantry put:
this moveInCargo nameOfAPC
Put the whole lot on guard. (Don't worry about having waypoints that take them to the base or about having waypoints to get the infantry out of the APC. They will do both on their own)
I think you will be stunned.
Ok, I'll try this and see what I get.
I suggest you de-pbo flags.pbo in your addon folder and pick one. Guernsey is what I have in mind for the civis in my mission. Or you could just use a NATO flag. If you want to annoy macguba you could use Scotland. Botswana and Austria look fairly non-descript - apologies to any nationals of those countries reading this. Other possibilities are Czech and Chad. I thought this was to be a western sovereign country - not resistance.
I decided to make a flag of my own. I took the english flag (white with a red cross), changed the red cross to green (resistance vehicles have a green cross on them), and added a dark green silhoette of Everon on it (I think there may be too much green, :P)
Thanks for your replies, THobson!
EDIT:
@THobson
I changed the armor, and what a difference it makes! Your change really increases the difficulty!
Also, because of the added difficulty, I made the player's squad a twelve man squad, again. Nine men aren't enough to complete the objectives.
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I believe the man is the one who runs up from the docks. The men guarding the base aren't told to flee when the counter-attack is almost destroyed. My reasoning behind this is they should already be dead. I will look into it, however, and change this.
This might help you.
http://www.ofpec.com/editors/resource_view.php?id=788 (http://www.ofpec.com/editors/resource_view.php?id=788)
I made the player's squad a twelve man squad, again. Nine men aren't enough to complete the objectives
It is your mission - but I would have 9 max.
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/Unsolicited advice turned on/ ;)
move on pilot.
this mission works, always has. v1.1. is 'better' (tm) but so was 1.0
all the tweaks were good ones, but I'd be a happier camper seeing your next creative idea than more twiddling. Put them into something new. The rewards are bigger (particularly for beta testers :P)
/unsolicited advice turned off/
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Sorry for my lack of response, from Saturday to Monday I was recovering from the flu (what a way to spend Easter weekend ::) ).
@mikero
Thanks for your advice. I have decided to heed your advice.
@All
In a day or two I will release my (hopefully) final beta. If there are no glaring problems, I will submit it and move on. I am very happy with my mission at this point, and I do not intend changing it any further (unless, of course, there is a big problem).
Thanks for the beta-tests, everyone!
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I am very happy with my mission at this point
That is all that counts. There never were any glaring problems that I saw - well apart from the armoured groups being on the wrong side of the ship - but then what the hell it doesn't effect game play.
I was impressed when I got to the other towns to see there was some defensive positions just for them that would never be seen by the player that just goes straight for the base. I like that it feels good.
Best of luck.
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Thanks for the input, THobson!
Hopefully I will have my latest version ready by this evening (unlikely) or tomorrow (much more likely). The german translation is taking longer than I expected. When I finish it I will post the mission on final time for the beta-testers. Changes will include:
Adding extra shots to the intro and outro:loose
fixing the binocular scene in the intro
fixing the armored groups being on the wrong side of the ship
Adding the infantry to the armor squad, like you suggested THobson
Adjusting the surrender script so everyone drops thier weapon
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Adding the infantry to the armor squad, like you suggested THobson
Bye the way. This was not my original idea - I just passed it on. I got it from macguba. I think it is totally neat.
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Ok, here is my latest, and hopefully last, beta version.
V1.2
Fixes/Changes
Red Tide has been submited to the missions depot.
It's now also in German! :D*
Changed flag and name of resistance army
Overview:
Adjusted the overview
Added version number to overview
Intro:
Added extra scene in intro
Fixed the binocular scene
Added two more LST's in final scenes
Briefing:
No significant changes (that I can think of)
Mission:
Increased skill of player's squad
Changes BMP to M113
Added infantry to armor squad
Adjusted player's voice
Adjusted surrender script: All units in player's group should now drop their weapon. Also, I added music to the surrender scene, and the camera pans through the remaining men in the player's squad.
Outro Loose:
Added extra prison camp scene
Added extra prisoner exchange scene
Outro Win:
The bodies are now close together
The barrels are more organized
*I am still learning German, so my translations are most likely not as good as they should be. If anyone who is fluent in German can correct my mistakes (and I'm sure there are many) and show me where I was wrong, I would be very grateful! :)
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Is there anyone who is fluent in German who can test this mission and tell me how me the German is?
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Red Tide v1.2
Really much better and much tougher. Minor points only.
Overview:
There is an unwanted space at the start of the line before the word As
Intro:
The early text is could benefit from staying on the screen for slightly longer.
You have the invasion force being brief the day before Spetz Natz spent a week on reconnaissance. Really the briefing would only be done just before the invasion. How about instead of: ‘The next day…' you have: ‘Ten day's ago…'
It might be good to meet up with these Spetz Natz at some point
Briefing:
You are starting a new line with a full stop. I still would prefer blank lines to separate paragraphs.
I see from the intel we are landing at 10:20
The objective is to Destroy the base. Don't you mean capture and hold it? Whenever I have played before I have not had to destroy anything.
Good to see a more experienced group
The initial weapon loadout felt a bit untidy - there were PKs and RPGs scattered about a bit. I reorganised to:
Me: AK + RPG
2,3,4: PKs (only 3 available now I see)
5 AK
6,7 AK + RPG
8 AK + AT
9,10 AK + grenades
11, 12 AK + mine + extra mags
Mission:
Cannot load mission, missing addons: bis_resistance
Clicked OK and I entered the mission.
I see the mission start is 06:20 - much better in my view. You now nbeed to fix the intel in the briefing.
I saw a guy running away. I thought he looked like a SpetzNatz - in the interest of beta testing I shot him and found I was right. It would be good to put something in the briefing about this guy.
Running WNW to the wood. Nice start time - a bit dark, perhaps provide NVGs to the leader.
I put a couple of mines in the scattering of trees between the road and the forest at Fa 44/45
Did my usual . Approached the base from the west. Dropped a two man patrol on the dirt track before they knew what hit them. I tried this s few times. The alarm is raised pretty easily at this point. If a loon spots you instantly before he is killed the alarm sill goes off. Got all my guys as I like them then hit the M2 with an rpg. My machine gunners did excellent work but eventually they were killed.
The T55 and M113 turned up. Where the hell should I have put the mines? The M113 was taken out as the infantry were disembarking and then the T55 went up. Somme clumsiness on my part here led to the death of one of my rpg soldiers. I could have done that better.
I got a couple of guys to take the PKs and after some good work they were both killed. I then left the PKs lie with the bodies of their owners. We were attacked from the same direction as the armour had come from, but my team took care of them. My squad was slowly dwindling. After a while a surrender option came up. I saved at this point. I was not going to surrender, but I wanted to see what would happen if I did.
I could see three loons just outside the base, two were standing looking away from us and one was in a bush. It was no down the me the medic a grenadier and an rpg soldier. I go the latter two to hold fire and take the PKs. I then crawled nearer the base and noticed a living rpg enemy on the way. I killed him then got the PK solders to take out the three in front of the base. I was just about to go forward when three more turned up travelling north just on the west side of the base. Once these were killed I got the successful end message. I did not get into the base this time which was a pity. I suggest you require the player to be in the base before the successful end. I think it would feel a lot better.
I did notice that the trucks in the base were of the FIA variety. As this is meant to be an army I don't think you should use resistance vehicles. In fact as they are a western army you could justifiably use 5ton trucks here.
Outro:
A little more speed on the part of the units involved might increase the impact.
Now back to my save game to see what happens when I surrender.
Surrender is neat. A few suggestions that I don't feel strongly about - it is already good.
Either get you and your team to move to the base before putting their hands up or (probably better) have some enemy run up into shot when you put your weapons down.
When looking at each of the team do not include the player - you have just had a shot of him blacking out and then seeing him again seems odd
Lower the camera when looking at the team, because they have their heads down you just get a shot of the tops of their heads.
Use mimics to put glum expressions on their faces.
You were taken prisoner and sent to prison camp message uses the word prison once to many.
The camp was good.
A month and a half seems far too short. How about - negotiations dragged on for a year and 6 months later they were released?
What happened to the player when he got home - could say something about that
General comments:
This is now a much tougher mission, mainly I think, due to the limited number of PKs and the use of groups that are on guard. I think this latter point adds a huge amount of realism to the mission. I suggest adding one more PK.
This was the first time I have played this mission that I was offered the option to surrender, and for a time I thought I might have to do just that. This surrender option is a very nice feature, and one the player has to be careful of as it sits on the top of the action item list.
I didn't really like the new flag. I may be wrong but I associate green with Muslim countries.
Overall - great mission. Some of my comments relate to obvious errors (time of mission for example) All the rest are suggestions for improvement that you can do with as you wish.
I am sorry I do not know German.
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Thanks for the review, THobson! I see there are still some things I have to smooth out. If it isn't one thing, it's another. ::) And my mission is relatively small, I can't imagine having to go through the beta-testing of a mission like Abandoned Armies. (sorry I haven't beta-tested more on Abandoned Armies, THobson, I got a little discouraged after I realized the Northrons still had an M1 :P).
There is an unwanted space at the start of the line before the word As
I don't see this on my computer (or I do and don't realize it). What resolution are you playing on?
The early text is could benefit from staying on the screen for slightly longer.
I'll see what I can do, I am limited on time by the length of the song.
Really the briefing would only be done just before the invasion.
I thought the troops would be briefed first, and then train for the mission.
It might be good to meet up with these Spetz Natz at some point
Please clarify, thanks!
You are starting a new line with a full stop. I still would prefer blank lines to separate paragraphs.
I'm not sure if I understand you entirely. Are you saying the paragraphs should be double spaced?
The objective is to Destroy the base. Don't you mean capture and hold it? Whenever I have played before I have not had to destroy anything.
Ok, I changed it to capture and hold
I see from the intel we are landing at 10:20
Darn, I forgot to change that.
Good to see a more experienced group
Glad to give it ;)
The initial weapon loadout felt a bit untidy - there were PKs and RPGs scattered about a bit.
I wanted to distribute the firepower of the squad evenly, which is why a pk and grenedier are near the front and back.
Cannot load mission, missing addons: bis_resistance
I've gotten this error before, also. I think it might be a bug with the handguns. Is this an error on my part, or on the game's part?
I see the mission start is 06:20 - much better in my view. You now nbeed to fix the intel in the briefing.
It's fixed
Nice start time - a bit dark, perhaps provide NVGs to the leader.
Should I add them only to the leader? Should I add them only to the leader but make them available to the whole squad?
I saw a guy running away. I thought he looked like a SpetzNatz - in the interest of beta testing I shot him and found I was right. It would be good to put something in the briefing about this guy.
Ok, I'll do that.
I did notice that the trucks in the base were of the FIA variety. As this is meant to be an army I don't think you should use resistance vehicles. In fact as they are a western army you could justifiably use 5ton trucks here.
Something else I overlooked. I'll change them.
Either get you and your team to move to the base before putting their hands up or (probably better) have some enemy run up into shot when you put your weapons down.
The first suggestion will probably be easier, as it is hard to tell if any bad guys are nearby. I could place a few guys in some forest somewhere, and then setpos them near the player.
When looking at each of the team do not include the player - you have just had a shot of him blacking out and then seeing him again seems odd
I was debating this when I changed the script. I'll remove the player when looking at the surviving team members
Lower the camera when looking at the team, because they have their heads down you just get a shot of the tops of their heads.
Good point, I'll do that
Use mimics to put glum expressions on their faces.
Yeah, I guess it doesn't look good if they're smiling. :P
I suggest adding one more PK.
I am thinking of not doing this, I think it might make the mission too easy. ;)
You were taken prisoner and sent to prison camp message uses the word prison once to many.
ok
A month and a half seems far too short. How about - negotiations dragged on for a year and 6 months later they were released?
You might be right. I'll lengthen the prison stay.
What happened to the player when he got home - could say something about that
I'll see what can do (once again I am limited on time by the length of the song)
I didn't really like the new flag. I may be wrong but I associate green with Muslim countries.
Really? *Goes to look at middle-eastern flags* Hmm, Saudia Arabia is green and white, Pakistan is green and white, Lybia is all green. Ok you may be right. I guess I'll change the colors. What colors do you suggest?
Thanks, THobson!
EDIT:
@mikero (if you are reading this)
I know I said I would heed your unsolicited advice, but what can I say. With some things I am an absolute perfectionist. :P (And some things I am the farthest thing from a perfectionist, but that's besides the point)
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What resolution are you playing on?
1024 x 768 x 32
I'll see what I can do, I am limited on time by the length of the song.
I have exactly the same problem
I thought the troops would be briefed first, and then train for the mission
Train first, then get breifed once they have no opportunity to talk to anyone.
It might be good to meet up with these Spetz Natz at some point
Please clarify, thanks!
You have almost done this. The Spetz Natz is on the beach when you arrive. You could go in with 11 and have him join you. Or you could see him board a boat and leave - or something. Just seeing him run off and not know where doesn't feel good.
Are you saying the paragraphs should be double spaced?
If that means a blank line between text then yes I do. Have you found the full stop at the start of a line?
Cannot load mission, missing addons: bis_resistance
I've gotten this error before, also. I think it might be a bug with the handguns. Is this an error on my part, or on the game's part?
I have no clue. Try editing mission.sqm and remove all references to the addon bis_resistance (there may be more than one)
Nice start time - a bit dark, perhaps provide NVGs to the leader.
Should I add them only to the leader? Should I add them only to the leader but make them available to the whole squad?
It's up to you and it's not that important. I just felt a need at the start of the mission when I was going through the woods. On reflection I would not bother with NVGs for anybody.
Either get you and your team to move to the base before putting their hands up or (probably better) have some enemy run up into shot when you put your weapons down.
The first suggestion will probably be easier, as it is hard to tell if any bad guys are nearby. I could place a few guys in some forest somewhere, and then setpos them near the player.
I think the second one is easier and would look better. Try something like:
{{[_x] join grpNull} forEach units _x} forEach [ namegrp1,namegrp2,namegrp3....]
{{if (alive _x) then {_x setPos [(getPos player select 0) + 10 + random 5,(getPos player select 1) + 10 + random 5,0]}} forEach units _x} forEach [ namegrp1,namegrp2,namegrp3....]
{{_x doMove [(getPos player select 0) - 3 + random 6,(getPos player select 1) - 3 + random 6]} forEach units _x} forEach [ namegrp1,namegrp2,namegrp3....]
You may need to adjust the syntax and some of the numbers.
I suggest adding one more PK.
I am thinking of not doing this, I think it might make the mission too easy.
You may be right.
On the flag - green is the colour of Islam. Reds and blues are safe. I did previously suggest a few countries that you could use.
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I am mindful of THobson's / MacGuba's combined comment to paraphrase: "The poor bastard fixes up all his errors, makes this tremendous effort, and no-one tests it".
I feel like a worm.
This is to tell you that I have tested it. The mission has always 'worked' for me. Am splattering this thread to let you know you are not being ignored.
I have nothing useful to add because of that. Sorry. I am most definitely in the wrong here.
>Machineguns
On this point I do disagree with Thob, from the get-go, mission version 0, it was the fact that I really had to scrounge around and use PK with intelligence that 'made' it for me. Apart from the outstanding intro and outros (outstanding in the sense of storyline and detail), the 'theme' for me was going to be, this is tuff, my short range weapons are useless in this rain . In >this< run through I stayed perfectly still where I was on top of hill, and decimated everything as they came into range by moving a single mgunner where i wanted him. I didn't need to get to the base. That, works for me.
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@mikero
I hope you didn't take my above comment the wrong way. Your past comments have always been good, and I appreciate your beta-testing my mision.
Thanks for your recent input. I have decided to keep the number of PKs where it is. If the player wants a third one, he can assign it to his squad.
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Ok, I decided to do this properly and start at the start, all bets are off. Others have shamed me.
Slap in the face, v1.2 belongs in first entry of first page of this thread. Ok, you mentioned it, so it's a custard pie, not a brick.
You're going places, aren't you. This wont be your last mission. Therefore, watch out what's happening on your well presented homepage. I could not download this version with DAP (I eventually used reget). I suspect mere mortals not using accellerators will not turn on 'passive ftp' in their browser settings either. Particularly true of 56k'ers. Another reason why you get low response? Look out for this because I'd be thinking tactical now, how you want to get your missions, plural, out there, particularly addons (should you choose to use some). Nice to see you only got caught out once with the naughty naughty %20 buisiness.
Put some message to this effect in your flashpoint page. You'll gain a wider audience for little effort.
--
Zip.
Of course. Think tactical, provide a rar file on homepage for those that prefer it.
Readme:
Descriptive_readMe_This_One are nonsense. A read me is a ReadMe.txt. Yes, Mr Mac. prepared to fite you on this one. It's like saying you can call desctription.ext index.html and mission.sqm anything you like.
Make 'single player' para the 2nd one.
I would put addons needed next. It is the primary concern of many players.
Install instructions next (and you forgot to say where to put the addon, it aint obvious to many, Charlie Brown)
Credits:
I dont find this cheesy. It's a nice touch, nice reward. But never glamorise us (you haven't), it is not, our mission. Glamorise OFPEC if you want.
Bugs/Issues.
yep.
Some like version history. I don't. Consider putting them in. It is polish, not plaster, if you do. But, big but, I do not like them one little bit. Get scared to death I've missed something in the blurb. Consider a separate dot txt if you choose to plunk them down. Trust me, yonks later, YOU will refer to them.
----
Overview:
Stay politically incorrect Pilot, much more fun.
2nd para is wobbly on 1024 x 768, the engine needs <p><br></p> to do it's thing.
why the exclamation mark!
I want 3 things in any overview.
version.
brief memory jog
author advertising
Note that piccie is not on the list. It's a waste of download on campaigns. I'm doing this beta properly, so will also comment that another picture-of-houdan never means much. Logos do.
Intro:
Just magnificient, isn't it. The music score was made for this mission. !!
Abort, retry, concentrate Mikero, let's have another go at this intro.
remove comma after gathered.
space needed btwn Objective: Everon
Finally. Full stop
last frame. "You are in that group".
Without it, i sacrificed two goats and a chicken to find out where I fit into all this. You forgot about ME.
Jesus Pilot played it back again, now understand why you are polishing so hard....
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Inconsistency with East Coast red text/ east coast briefing. Fix one, or the other.
-------
Briefing:
Plan:
Work is needed. You must fix up the para spacing. If you don't, impression is, oh yes, another one of *those* missions. Clutter clutter, toil and trouble.
the 'trick' is to insert <br> in paras. It's an engine thing.
airfield needs a target market to remain consistent with others.
Notes:
1020 is now wrong. Fix this permanently with the phrase "(early) morning".
paras slightly better, overall less jumble.
"Observations tell us that...."
otherwise how the hell do you know so damn much? (ok ok, in the intro, not good enough, is it)
Change the sense of this so that i'm not expected to go thump these guys as an 'objective', just be aware of what you're up against, LIEUTENANT and plan accordingly.
Gear:
I'm doing this beta proper. So will repeat myself from comments in other missions.
You must fit me out 'reasonably'. If you dont, *you* have no idea what your mission is all about. If you don't supply me nvg when I clearly have to have them, its -endmission there and then. My time's valuable too, bozo.
If you give me 50 of everything, I will choose none. You're lazy, so am I. I wont do the thinking for you. How the HELL would I know what to choose, I aint played your mission yet, and probably wont bother.
All tempered by any theme that needs contrary to above.
You dun good.
I choose the 6G-30 because I'm useless with them, and I don't plan killing much myself, ordinarily I'd RPG because I get frustrated with my ai. I choose a tokarov to make me feel safer.
Group:
made sense to me, we're not green are we. How could we be. Nice to see my best friends are in the same class as me (2/3). You could wobble it a bit (if you want). Weakening my left flank a little and perhaps, up to you.
Mission:
missing addons, bis resistance. Oook?
Dark. Dont like it because it removed that glorious rain effect.
2man patrol goes down before I even notice them. My squad is deadly.
I target up the shadows directly in the front of building 350m. Waiting for my squad to crawl up into formation (they're in danger mode). Two more come down roadish, left flank. bang, they're gone. thinking this is unexpected, another 3 (officer) come up over 2'oclock ridge. A bit of desultory firing from squad until they get into range, bang, another lot gone, and I'm frantically watching who in my squad's gonna do who in. I need to know. It makes a big difference to whether It's gonna be a frontal charge, everything happening on my flank is telling me not to go there mikero. Officer finally goes down in road to #4. THIS is what i needed to know. Not #2, #4, ok. I'm a happy leiutenant.
Thinking of a 9 o'clock crawl to corner of fort, meantime, wait it out mikero. See what else is at 3oclock.
Bloody hell! Squad is racing at me through the gloom 12 o'clock. I can only just pick them out 100m on binocs. Ok, this sort of mission is it? Where are my goggles, what an idiot i am.
My squad in hopeless spot semi behind ridge to do anything about them.
I switch to G30 and lob grenades, the enemy ai takes direct hits and just keeps running through it. NEVER touch this shit again mikero, one weapon in the permanent trash can for you old son. Tokarov and pray time.
Medic enemy comes at me, 10 meters, 5 meters, tokarov hurts him, bang, I'm dead.
retry:
Move forward a tad. squad formation: line, then they do their paycheck. Nothing comes out of that gloom any more 8).
Meanwhile, pissed at this G30 so I decide, accidentally, to use it up. A wild shot does a 350m drop smack onto M2 nest. Oook? Ok, try a bit more. Ook Ook, Ooook!
Overall drops are widly eccentric, no accuracy or predcitability. But god, I did damage.
Use binocs to see what, if anything happened, moment i do, squad takes out everything left moving in and around fort. They are lethal and the 'mist' issue is there. They kill what I cannot see thru. Maybe. It's not affecting game play in any real way, just adding drama.
Few nasties on left corner, bang. Few sentry towers, bang. Not necessarily the Mgunners doing it. Then oh yes of course, had to be, oh yes. oh dear, tanks in my rear. OH SHIT.
emergency cheatsave.
Wistfully thought they'd do what all well behaved tanky things do and just keep moving to the fort. They come up over my line formation, 3'oclock, My rpg'ers can't hit a barn door. Goodnight. thank you for playing.
retry:
several attempts later which involved fleeing, alert mode, a serious though of restart, one tactic worked, swing my group at them and charge.
There's now the sound of enemy ai behind tanks, jesus.
will post remainder 2nd reply but have to tell you Pilot, I underestimated why i had to play this mission again. Immediate thoughts are dont' stop it at fort, go for the two towns as episodes 2 and 3 and bring them in as hidden objectives. I'm humbled.
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Hey mikero,
Thanks for the beta-test! I enjoy reading your replies!
Slap in the face, v1.2 belongs in first entry of first page of this thread. Ok, you mentioned it, so it's a custard pie, not a brick.
*wipes custard pie off face* Ok, I get the point, I'll move the latest version to the front page.
You're going places, aren't you. This wont be your last mission. Therefore, watch out what's happening on your well presented homepage.
I have no idea if I am going to make another mission. The only reason I made this is because the idea suddenly came to me. (two years of playing OFP and this is the best idea I have come up with) ::) You looked at my home page?! I didn't think anyone would visit it! I put it up as a place to host my mission, not for people to visit. :P Oh well.
I have the same problem downloading with my download manager. For some reason freewebs seems hostile to excelerators and managers. I don't think it's anything I can fix.
Nice to see you only got caught out once with the naughty naughty %20 buisiness.
Yeah, I learned
Of course. Think tactical, provide a rar file on homepage for those that prefer it.
Ugh, I don't like rar files. They take longer to unpack, and you need a special program, and I don't really see the benefit of them, but I will see if I can do it, anyway
Descriptive_readMe_This_One are nonsense. A read me is a ReadMe.txt. Yes, Mr Mac. prepared to fite you on this one. It's like saying you can call desctription.ext index.html and mission.sqm anything you like.
I'll let you and macguba battle it out over this point :P
Make 'single player' para the 2nd one.
I would put addons needed next. It is the primary concern of many players.
Install instructions next (and you forgot to say where to put the addon, it aint obvious to many, Charlie Brown)
I've done everything but to say where to put the addon. I have two reasons for not putting addon install instruction in the readme:
1: Everyone should know by now where to put it
2: Those instructions can be found in the readme for the addon
Some like version history. I don't. Consider putting them in. It is polish, not plaster, if you do. But, big but, I do not like them one little bit. Get scared to death I've missed something in the blurb. Consider a separate dot txt if you choose to plunk them down. Trust me, yonks later, YOU will refer to them.
I have already found myself refering to a history I have recorded. I don't think I will include that in the readme, though
Stay politically incorrect Pilot, much more fun.
lol
2nd para is wobbly on 1024 x 768, the engine needs <p><br></p> to do it's thing.
I hate HTML (mainly because I don't know a thing about it), I'll see what I can do
why the exclamation mark!
I thought it would sound boring without one, I take you disagree?
Note that piccie is not on the list. It's a waste of download on campaigns. I'm doing this beta properly, so will also comment that another picture-of-houdan never means much. Logos do.
Now I have to make a logo?!
remove comma after gathered.
Done (I seem to use commas excesively)
space needed btwn Objective: Everon
fixed
Finally. Full stop
Are you saying I need a period after Finally?
last frame. "You are in that group".
Without it, i sacrificed two goats and a chicken to find out where I fit into all this. You forgot about ME.
Aww hell, you're right! I'll change this to include the player.
Inconsistency with East Coast red text/ east coast briefing. Fix one, or the other.
ok
Work is needed. You must fix up the para spacing. If you don't, impression is, oh yes, another one of *those* missions. Clutter clutter, toil and trouble.
the 'trick' is to insert <br> in paras. It's an engine thing.
I think I have cleaned it up a little bit.
airfield needs a target market to remain consistent with others.
Ok
1020 is now wrong. Fix this permanently with the phrase "(early) morning".
I have already fixed this. (I didn't use early morning, I wanted the time to be specific)
"Observations tell us that...."
otherwise how the hell do you know so d**n much? (ok ok, in the intro, not good enough, is it)
changed
You must fit me out 'reasonably'. If you dont, *you* have no idea what your mission is all about. If you don't supply me nvg when I clearly have to have them, its -endmission there and then. My time's valuable too, bozo.
If you give me 50 of everything, I will choose none. You're lazy, so am I. I wont do the thinking for you. How the HELL would I know what to choose, I aint played your mission yet, and probably wont bother.
All tempered by any theme that needs contrary to above.
You dun good.
Thanks, I have added NVGs in my latest version.
I choose the 6G-30 because I'm useless with them, and I don't plan killing much myself, ordinarily I'd RPG because I get frustrated with my ai. I choose a tokarov to make me feel safer.
I hate that weapon. I'm not too sure why I added it, although I don't plan on removing it from the selection
missing addons, bis resistance. Oook?
I don't know what's going on here. bis_resistance isn't even listed in the .sqm file
Dark. Dont like it because it removed that glorious rain effect.
Yeah, but I do agree with THobson: an early morning attack makes more sense than a mid-day attack
I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your beta-test!
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@pilot
>ftp freewebs and all
you have to mention this fact on your download page. It affects who's gonna bother. Passive ftp as a setting in the browser will 'get over' this issue. (afaik).
>don't like rar.
fine by me. No biggie by any means.
>addon
yes. fine.
>bis resistance
I will look into that for you. It's an editor upgrade / update issue i believe. I *think* it's fixed with objects1. will check later, much later.
>overview pic vs logo.
they don't 'do' for me what they're supposed to. What you have is just fine afaik. I mentioned it as a rounded comment on my ideas on overviews in general. I'm neither right nor wrong.
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On downloading the mission if I just click on the link it opens a new window but it points to the page I was already looking at. To get the file I had to copy and past the link into my browser.
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Episode 2:
Deep doodoo time
BAH! Shozbot. I'm in the worst bit of doodoo ever. We maul away at horrible things in the 3oclock region, squad is making noises about the fort, gah.
I use up the remaining G30 in panic shots, this is lamb dinner for me and the squad, we're being slaughtered one at a time, 3 at a time, it's hell.
I use my binocs what else could I bloody well do. I'm stuck on my favorite hill and this is not the way I intendend things to be.
--------------
Technical note:
my squad are doing what humans do, they fight and scratch. The ai is flanking, charging, hurting, crawling, waypointing away, coming back, the whole episode is what humans do. Both sides. WHY if this is the case does ANYONE use dumbed down troops, non-experts, non-seasoned troops, WHY would anyone use =0 instead of =1. I'm gonna die, but everything is working as it should, my squad aren't looking for contact lenses, the ai isn't going mute into hunt-the-last-soldier syndrome. It is so rare to get a ding dong battle going, This is, as the game should be. You've fallen or tripped over the g-spot of the ofp engine. I hope other authors rip through your mission.sqm to find out what it is. Normally, tanks alter ai behaviour for the worse. It didn't happen. What on earth can I say but bloody well done.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE authors, get into this mission.sqm and find out what the chemistry is. It's a magic number, it isn't some massive piece of scripting, it's just a 'balanced' number.
-------
I surrender.
The music, AGAIN, makes it. It really is tragic. *detested* the "all your fault" that is SO CRASS. Of course it is, it's BLOODY OBVIOUS. I'm feeling quite bad enough thanks, you tripwired here, changed me from wanting to try again, to ummm, should I? The sentence works even better (for me) if you just removed that remark. Dont change a single word if it feels wrong.
I'm not fussed about the timing of the release. Iraqi's during pinch-the-oil part1 were released about 2 weeks later, Germans in Russia weren't released until 1957/9 and some not till 1965. (most) Italians were freed the day Patton hit battle of the bulge.
The darkness spoilt it for me. It's not a black op mission, You can't see the surrender, You can't see the rain, No General is going to commit a full army in that.
various retries. All getting much better, and slippery when wet mouse controls surrender me again. Am not fussed. This is 'ok' But i end in a mess of a full retry. Mostly / entirely my fault, Sore that I wont re-create the hell I fell into.
----
Restart:
No sir, no G30 for me, not never again.
start much as before, 1st time i actually notice spetz running to boat, clever.
gloom dark not nearly as noticeable 06:20
This time I leave squad on alert and #2 takes out the entire fort unnassisted plus a few other nasties here and there knocked over be others. Nothing comes near us, #2 knocked everything away > 250 meters
Decide to change tactic (only because I've played the other way a bit too often). decide to drop down to beach. Thought in mind of facing reinforcements from fort. Knock off that nasty pair that would have tried to hide in bushes above fort, before they get the chance. Then of course, ratbag author has an AT soldier on cement block and I lose #2 because of him. Soon take revenge. Grab his rpg coz i know what's coming.
No sign of movement or enemy from 3 o'clock, nor really, anywhere else. That initial massacre did most of the work needed (so far).
Beach is considerably brighter than anywhere else. A single comes over the ridge and goes down, should have got suspicous but instead run smack into god knows how many in front of fort as i Turn the corner. Retry
Get to corner again, lie in bushes, I know from terrain most of squad are 'safe' lower down, and my attack angle. I did a dog's leg to force my squad in temporary opposite direction to me. Pick out three nasties at sandbags, undoubtedly more. Knock them off just as one of them fires launch grenade, it actually wizzes over my left ear before it hits the sea. (!!!!!) You never want to see one of those getting bigger as it comes. Had i charged up ridge that launcher grenade would've killed off most of me. I find swerve tactics gets a squad where I want them without move commands.
There's at least another 3 in the road direct front. Grenade laucher goes again and drops 20 meters? in front of me.
various retry saves in this corner. among which 1,2,3,4 soldiers rush out of fort, nasty bugger up where I originally started from, soldier - pair i thought i'd knocked off in bush were actually there, troops that i'd estimated at 3/4 in front of sandbags were at least a 9 man squad and were in the process of doubling back up road, since I had vacated their original objective, one baddie in sandbags swiped me. grenades not launchers dropping just a little short of me to spectacular visual, All great stuff.
Finally end up in M2 post just in time for M113 & Co to come spilling down roadway / hillside. M2 took a lot out and visually spectacular with tracers red and green going every whichway, #3 down #7 down,, 4,5 and we're overwhelmed. Retry
Decided to wait them out in my now favorite corner. Again stunning visuals through binocs as streaming enemy ai gets cut down by green tracer, M113 and T55 in shadows, target them, wham, their both dead from squad fire.
Zapped by god knows what coming around other front corner. whatever it was, was a lot of it, retry.
various battlefests all from this corner. I could, should have, tactically run away. I *would* have been successfull. But, the truth was I was enjoying myself too much, Each time I got knocked over (or over-run) I'd hit retry, just to see / watch what the ai was doing , both sides. tanks went boom / didn't go boom, etc. Got in nest again to devastating effect, eventually all of us ended in death trap near hospital tent with that 'other' squad coming down that hill. Tested out a few squad commands to check ai-lag during battle. Nothing detectable by me while i lived long enough.
My squad losing it a bit with tank close, but the effect was one of they pop their head up, they're shot dead.
Mist having a good effect. Barely seen nasties with their guns blazing (only way to pick them out).
Eventually 'won' with 2 squad members left, the medic and another, and called it quits. I could have done better by much, 11 man squad at start of blap fest each time. I was road testing too hard to be bothered with that. Issue being, you didn't make it too hard (afaik)
Two unpleasant tastes in mouth. Tank did what tanks do and climbed into bed with me. Sat near hospital tent and might as well not been in game. Waypoint him away, or something. I *know* he's not supposed to get that far.
2nd bad taste was: I won, mission complete, while nasties are still shooting. I hate that. please fix it, or make them flee.
Outro was fine, nice ending shot to flag which says a thousand words. Very smart, OF COURSE they would off limits the wrecked tanks, nice touch. Body bags far too orderly for my liking.
yet again pilot, a winner, only this time, it's significantly boosted in ferocity. Whatever you done, you dun good. God how I hope authors rip into your sqm settings and find out why these buggers were so unpleasant. It makes me cringe, the dreadful missions I've played that only needed this to make them a rave.
I congratulate you for another reason, you have that capacity to rip out what doesn't work. The M113 at front door was sacrificed and the benefit is plain to see.
You didn't need to end it here, you could turn it into Ben Hur and go after those two towns, they are, 'logically' pests being so close. As commander, I *would* order my troops up there because this fort has always been a death trap in every mission I have ever played it in.
Enough.
Thank you.
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downloaded - i shall test your german skills my friend ;)
might be a while (inbetween bouts of work) but it'll get done.
more soon.
EDIT - i've taken the liberty of dbo'ing the mission as there's no way near enough time between text flashes in the intro to check it ;) at first glance it all looks fine, just a few grammatical/spelling errors. might be the weekend before i get back to you.
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If you do try using the bit of code I put in reply#55 note that I have just made some changes to it. The syntax may still not be fully correct - but it is better than it was. ::)
-
Thanks for the replies, everyone!
@mikero
@pilot
>ftp freewebs and all
you have to mention this fact on your download page. It affects who's gonna bother. Passive ftp as a setting in the browser will 'get over' this issue. (afaik).
Ok. (what the hell is passive ftp???)
The music, AGAIN, makes it. It really is tragic. *detested* the "all your fault" that is SO CRASS. Of course it is, it's BLOODY OBVIOUS. I'm feeling quite bad enough thanks, you tripwired here, changed me from wanting to try again, to ummm, should I? The sentence works even better (for me) if you just removed that remark. Dont change a single word if it feels wrong.
Lol, ok, I will consider removeing it.
The darkness spoilt it for me. It's not a black op mission, You can't see the surrender, You can't see the rain, No General is going to commit a full army in that.
You may be right here.
@THoson and mikero
Would it please both of you if I make it 30-40 minutes later in the day? That way there is enough light to see, but it still has a morning feel to it.
No sir, no G30 for me, not never again.
Smart move ;)
start much as before, 1st time i actually notice spetz running to boat, clever.
I was hoping someone would notice that after I put him in
Two unpleasant tastes in mouth. Tank did what tanks do and climbed into bed with me. Sat near hospital tent and might as well not been in game. Waypoint him away, or something. I *know* he's not supposed to get that far.
Darn. The only waypoint I have given him is a guard waypoint. Maybe when he completes that waypoint I should give him a seek and destroy waypoint?
2nd bad taste was: I won, mission complete, while nasties are still shooting. I hate that. please fix it, or make them flee.
I'm going to have to look into my fleeing script. When the player kills enough bad guys, they are supposed to run to at full speed to Montignac and never look behind them. For some reason they are disobeying my commands.
You didn't need to end it here, you could turn it into Ben Hur and go after those two towns, they are, 'logically' pests being so close. As commander, I *would* order my troops up there because this fort has always been a death trap in every mission I have ever played it in.
I might consider this, but I fear it might add monotony to the mission. Each town is guarded by 2-3 M2 machinge guns, and maybe 10-12 men. If the player has just been in the fight of his life, I'm not sure he will be too keen on traveling the long distances to those towns. The traveling would be boring because there are no more patrols (the player took out most of the troops in that part of the island).
Thanks, mikero!
downloaded - i shall test your german skills my friend ;)
Uh oh. :P Don't expect it to be very good. Especially the grammar.
EDIT - i've taken the liberty of dbo'ing the mission as there's no way near enough time between text flashes in the intro to check it ;) at first glance it all looks fine, just a few grammatical/spelling errors. might be the weekend before i get back to you.
Yeah, I need to give more time for the player to read. I'll be waiting for your reply!
@THobson
If you do try using the bit of code I put in reply#55 note that I have just made some changes to it. The syntax may still not be fully correct - but it is better than it was.
Thanks! I'll see what I can do with it.
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@THoson and mikero
Would it please both of you if I make it 30-40 minutes later in the day? That way there is enough light to see, but it still has a morning feel to it.
It is your mission. I like it as it is but I seem to take longer over it than topgun mikero so it is fully light by the time I start any action. 30-40 minutes later will still be better than 10:20.
start much as before, 1st time i actually notice spetz running to boat, clever.
I was hoping someone would notice that after I put him in
I noticed him but was puzzled. I may have missed an explanation.
Maybe when he completes that waypoint I should give him a seek and destroy waypoint?
A guard waypoint is never completed. I am surprised at the behaviour mikero experienced. If it is on guard it should respond to any nearby sighting of the enemy (you and yours). The reason he and his companion come straight at the players position is because of the guard waypoint, don't loose that. What you might want to do is have a slow looping script (~30 or so) and if he is stationary give him a doMove to some nearby location. I wouldn't do this but it might solve mikero's problem.
2nd bad taste was: I won, mission complete, while nasties are still shooting. I hate that. please fix it, or make them flee.
I'm going to have to look into my fleeing script. When the player kills enough bad guys, they are supposed to run to at full speed to Montignac and never look behind them. For some reason they are disobeying my commands.
Try something like
{_x setCaptive true} forEach units group player
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I noticed him but was puzzled. I may have missed an explanation.
In the version you have, I haven't put an explanation for him. I have updated the briefing to include information about him.
Try something like
{_x setCaptive true} forEach units group player
I'll try that. I think the problem might be another script I have running at the same time, the one that tells the squads where to go. I think when I give the men a command to move in the fleeing scirpt, my response script overrides it and sends them back to the base. I'll have to add a condition that when the fleeing script is activated, it sets a variable to true, and that variable exits the response script.
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Well at least the player won't be shot at.
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@Pilot
30 mins later makes clear 'sense' to me. I was in same position as Thob, it was clearing to near visibility.
I can accept armies forming up in the dark, but not charging off in the night. It 'felt' 30 mins too early, 1 hour would be too much eg. However, Thob also makes a good point, we are battle hardened vets here, the probability is that a 'standard' player (whoever that is) would probably take it slower and appreciate the mood change as it does become lighter. Think Thob and I might have to take a back seat on this one. Seeing the enemy come at us from 3 o'clock (from the hill) at 10:30am was terrifying. Binoculars through the gloom was visually spectacular but not as frightening. Notch it up 30mins to satisfy every1. Final comment, because of the position you chose to start us, players are disoriented, It isn't clear, visually, to run over hills due westward, and no part of the intro 'lands' you in the spot where you are. (I mentioned this, version 0, i have no scenic clues to know where i am). The gloom adds to the clutter.
>T55
I didn't explain well. I played this part of the sequence over and over (i explained that well ::);D) I was intentionally looking for ai-lag (poor squad response). Once and once only the T55 made it into base camp. All the familiar fears of dumbed down tanks surfaced for me as a beta tester. It was twitching a bit, and may, possibly, have smacked something if it could see it.
>spetz.
yes. this confused me too, i actually did a restart to find out it's significance, it became obvious after the event, from the intro. msg txt saying "good luck guys, watch the road", or similar, will fix this.
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I will probably make the mission start 30 minutes later
@mikero
Final comment, because of the position you chose to start us, players are disoriented, It isn't clear, visually, to run over hills due westward, and no part of the intro 'lands' you in the spot where you are. (I mentioned this, version 0, i have no scenic clues to know where i am).
Respond if you think I am wrong, but the player should know where he's going from looking at the briefing. Once the mission starts, all it should take is a quick look at the compass to figure it out.
I'm not sure if I can do anything about the T55. It's on a guard waypoint, so I don't have much control over it
>spetz.
yes. this confused me too, i actually did a restart to find out it's significance, it became obvious after the event, from the intro. msg txt saying "good luck guys, watch the road", or similar, will fix this.
Good idea, I will definately incorporate it.
Thanks for the feedback!
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I'm not sure if I can do anything about the T55. It's on a guard waypoint, so I don't have much control over it
I think mikero has played a lot of missions where the author didn't make the most of the AI capabilities (haven't we all ::)). If it is on guard it is good and I suggest you don't mess with it. Occassionally it will look dumb - but it isn't.
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Ok, I won't mess with it.
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Please Pilot, consider opening this mission out more, and very fine by me if you don't. Here's what happened.
I put my eye patch on and three missing teeth. Of course I'm chosen as leader to this attack, this is where I got kicked off the island? I know all about that death trap of a fort to anyone who's in there. They can wait.
I went north towards Entre Deux, first village, armour met me, i met armour. Spectacular bangs and smoke, two of me dead.
Horrible nasty things North, NW, and later Swest visually looming out of fog. Deadly ai, taking cover in trees. Grenades by enemy ai as I've never seen them used before. WHAT DID YOU DO ???
Much closer, knife fight, than anything surrounding the fort.
All fair fire fights, my squad being just as vicious, deadly. Really really pleasing reief-effect to a scarred, bloodstained veteran soldier to see his troops actually fighting. Cannot tell you how pleasing this effect is after so much frustration with some few missions that should never have hit the streets.
Lost 3? more men, all goes quiet after what I think were at least 3 squads, possibly five, coming at me at realistically timed intervals. Unpleasant survivors taking whacks at us now and then.
Injuries all over, no mash tent. Fix this, I've lost my medic. Give me some hope.
Move up to Entre Deux, I want to explore this massive invasion you themed.
M2 gunner takes us on, all dead. retry, crawl in, knock off savage response, I am so grateful to you pilot, for this 'responsive' ai on both sides. They aren't in can't mode, and we aren't in won't mode.
Then the dreaded M2 bug. My squad attack an empty nest. This is a known script-fix. I stop it there, i don't want this mission ruined and my experience of it.
bis_resistance
cannot duplicate it. never appears again. It's obviously? a pre played game coming in here.
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Grenades by enemy ai as I've never seen them used before. WHAT DID YOU DO ???
I don't have any scripts running for the grenediers. What you are seeing is pure OFP. The only thing I can think I did is increase the skill of the enemy.
Injuries all over, no mash tent. Fix this, I've lost my medic. Give me some hope.
Look again. Both towns and the base have medic tents. (Maybe the medic tent was destroyed in the fighting?)
Then the dreaded M2 bug. My squad attack an empty nest. This is a known script-fix. I stop it there, i don't want this mission ruined and my experience of it.
I don't know why it's doing that. The M2s are placed in the editor as empty, and I moveingunner the gunners. I would very much appreciate it if anyone can offer any other suggestions.
bis_resistance
cannot duplicate it. never appears again. It's obviously? a pre played game coming in here.
The one time I got the error message, I had assigned a handgun to myself. Maybe this is a bug with OFP?
Thanks for the feedback, mikero!
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I don't know why it's doing that. The M2s are placed in the editor as empty, and I moveingunner the gunners. I would very much appreciate it if anyone can offer any other suggestions.
In addition: Have an empty M2 on some offshore island. When the gunner is killed setPos this one to where the first one is and then delete Vehicle the first one.
newgun setPos getPos oldgun
deleteVehicle oldgun
This is one reason I usually open proceedings in this mission with an rpg into the M2. The AI don't shoot at dead ones. Also you have a lot of loons near the M2 - the explosion of the M2 usually kills the lot.
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Good idea, THobson! I have already incorporated this into the mission. Hopefully this will work and I won't have to mess with the M2s anymore.
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@student
found it.
>Tokarov vs bis_resistance
following code snip fixes this, permanently
addOns[]=
{
"bis_resistance"
};
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Thanks, mikero!
I just checked the .sqm and found that that line was already in it. Strange, because it wasn't there before. Anyway, it's there, so hopefully that error will go away forever.
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Ok, here's version 1.3. Sorry for the delay, I was waiting for someone to correct my german translation, but real life got in the way, and they were unable to finish it. So the german translation is still uncorrected. This version will probably be the release version if no more bugs are found (haven't I said that before? :P)
Red Tide has been submited to the missions depot.
Fixes/Changes
Changed the flag again
Intro:
I tried to lengthen the text in the beginning, but didn't really succeed. What you get in this version is about as good as it will get.
Added text to tell player what role he plays.
Briefing:
Fixed time in Intel section
Added airport marker
mention Spetz Natz in briefing
Mission:
Start time increased by 25 minutes.
Added message from departing Spetz Natz
I believe the fleeing script now works, at least it did when I tested the mission.
Camera angle during surrender script changed, now you can see you men's faces
Made sure the men had sad looks on their faces during surrender
Player eliminated from the group pan during surrender script
Enemy soldiers now guard your men during surrender script
Changed the resistance trucks back to 5t trucks
The player, or a member of his group, must be in the base or near the entrance of the base for the mission to end.
Fixed the M2 bug
Outro Win:
Bodies are less organized
Added extra scene of BMPs.
Outro Loose:
Removed text "Because of you, the operation failed"
As you can see, there are many fixes/changes in this version. Hopefully, all of the bugs have been ironed out.
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I think there might be an error in the last hyperlink you posted, Pilot. ;)
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Hmm, I just tested it and it worked. Are you using a download manager? If so, turn it off. I use a download manager and it doesn't like to download files from freewebs.
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I am not using a download manager either but I always have problems with your links. When I click on them they just open another version of the current window.
The way I get round this is:
Right click on your hyperlink
Open Properties
Copy the shortcut
Paste the shortcut in to the address of my browser.
Then I get the file
I have no idead what is going on but this method does work.
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I'm an idiot with html, which probably explains why the links don't work so well. ::)
I have the same problem as THobson if I click the link. I get around this by right-clicking the link, then selecting save target as.
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Overview
INSTANTLY better
the paras now look good, not messy. Great spacing between (and yes, i do know how tuff that is to do)
Just great pilot in 'look' alone.
Much prefer the flag as it is now, even though it's politically correct.
It has the unfortunate side effect of being a base anywhere, but no biggie. IF you are moving towards a campaign, which smacks and smells in everything about this introductory mission, you've found the moniker. The logo for the rest.
It's actually a nice shot btw, quite different to the usual photo of Houdan skyline. Pity perhaps it couldn't be sharper (in the rain!!!!)
Nah, I alt tabbed, and alt -tabbed back here. that the ov is a beauty. well done.
Intro:
Wooo, must confess I was looking for it, but last sentence was a smack between the eyes wasnt it !!!
Bloody terrific, bloody good, packs a punch kiddo.
--
You are being analy retentive.
Ten days ago? Come on, you love your year dates and precision don't you. You'll get trapped.
"A few days earlier", or "The previous week"
followed by
"for the rest of that week," drop the preciseness you put there. Always always allow the players imagination to run, never, never, put forward YOUR version of how things are, you are only, the author. Never intrude on how a player 'feels'. The glove will not fit the shoe 9/10 times and you will take away a player's enjoyment. It's not your mission once the bell starts. You are, only the author.
Briefing:
Notes:
2 to 1 always reads better than 1 to 2, that jarred. You mean 1 to 2 servings, a teaspoon and a bit, or do you means odds of 2 to 1.
Plan:
beautifully presented, and easy to read. All links worked (my god!!) Tremendous lack of use of the word HERE, well done. Hear, hear.
Weapons:
you sneaky mongrel. You intentionally dropped the god-forsaken smoke canisters and intentionally kept the G30.
Group:
This is a technical decision on your part, I feel uncomfortable with everyone being a god-damn expert, made more sense to me, v1.2. The previous gave me the feel of my most trusted members being close to me (2/3)
Game:
'good luck guys..."
I was gonna say as follows
"another trap because many of us here have played this. First time grunts will be in shock and awe mode, trying to get a handle on where they are. They wont spot THE spetz"
so what do you do?
Eeep.
Started off in usual fashion, then...
Our people adored the trucks, they loved them so much they shot at nothing else, and finally, (what appeared to be) the dreaded M2 bug has now moved centre stage.
I surendered
showstopper
"_man = uints ... error divide by zero, game stalls to black half way through hands on head AND WE GET SHOT
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INSTANTLY better
the paras now look good, not messy. Great spacing between (and yes, i do know how tuff that is to do)
Just great pilot in 'look' alone.
Thanks
Much prefer the flag as it is now, even though it's politically correct.
Yeah, I do to.
Wooo, must confess I was looking for it, but last sentence was a smack between the eyes wasnt it !!!
Yeah, I guess so. :P But I wasn't too sure where else to put it.
Ten days ago? Come on, you love your year dates and precision don't you. You'll get trapped.
"A few days earlier", or "The previous week"
Yeah, I guess I do. :P Ok, I changed it to "the previous week"
2 to 1 always reads better than 1 to 2, that jarred. You mean 1 to 2 servings, a teaspoon and a bit, or do you means odds of 2 to 1.
Lol, I like the way you explain things, I'll change it.
This is a technical decision on your part, I feel uncomfortable with everyone being a god-d**n expert, made more sense to me, v1.2. The previous gave me the feel of my most trusted members being close to me (2/3)
I haven't changed the skill levels of the men in the player's group in this version. What skill they had in 1.2 they have in 1.3
Our people adored the trucks, they loved them so much they shot at nothing else, and finally, (what appeared to be) the dreaded M2 bug has now moved centre stage.
mikero, your OFP must be messed up! :P I haven't had a problem with my men shooting at the trucks in my tests. I'll look into it and see what I can do. (I'm not too sure what I can do, the trucks are empty, and are never crewed by anyone.)
and finally, (what appeared to be) the dreaded M2 bug has now moved centre stage.
Are you saying it is still there?! :o
showstopper
"_man = uints ... error divide by zero, game stalls to black half way through hands on head AND WE GET SHOT
*Insert long line of obsenities here*
*Insert a few more while you are at it*
I'm at a loss as to what is going on. I just tested the mission on my pc, and everything worked the way it is supposed to. My men didn't shoot at the trucks, when I surrendered there were no error messages, and the enemy soldiers didn't shoot us when we surrendered.
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>smacked between the eyes.
You misread me, i liked it very much. After a very long, very detailed intro, you need that dramatic lift to put the player back in control of where she is in all of it. It works. Well done.
>Your ofp
always possible. You can guess why. Addons.
>M2 bug
it was only a perception, it was possibly not there at all, my people were eating one of the trucks, direct line of fire to M2.
>div error
I was down to 2 friends, quite possibly they died at time of surrender and div zero would make sense (to me) if I was alone. You could easily put a script check bug in there to find out.
>rankings
you may not have changed their skill level (i know nothing about such things), you did change their rankings to all expert.
will hold off testing again until others report they got thru, sans errors.
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@mikero
You misread me, i liked it very much. After a very long, very detailed intro, you need that dramatic lift to put the player back in control of where she is in all of it. It works. Well done.
Thanks, I guess I did misread you.
@all
Ok, I have done some experimenting. I have only recieved the error message when the player dies during the surrender scene. I have added a line of code to check if the player has been killed or not, and exit the script if he is. The player should never be killed, however, if he has surrendered. I added this line of code for the remote possiblity he is killed. Also, I have made another adjustment to the surrender script. Occasionally, the dead men in the player's group would come back to life and surrender. Now, this should never happen. I also came across a situation that could cause an error in another script in the surrender scene. This has been fixed. Download the fixed version above or from the 1st page.
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Do you have something like:
{_x setCaptive true} forEach units group player
To set the players team so that no one will shoot at them after they surrender?
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Yeah, I have that line of code in the surrender script.
I also have a trigger with a size of 5000x5000 set to Resistance Present. In the On Activation line I have put: resunits = thislist.
Then, in my script, I have the line:
{_x setcombatmode "BLUE"} foreach resunits
So all the resistance units should have their combat mode set to blue, which means they shouldn't fire on the player's group even if the player's group wasn't set captive.
Do I have a syntax error with the trigger or that line of the script?
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Looks fine to me. I do it slightly differently but the result should be the same. I give the trigger a name and then use
list triggername in the script. Either should work.
In fact setting the player's group to captive should be sufficient so what you have here is belt and braces. A good approach. All the more puzzling.
My suggestion is this:
mikero got an error message. It may be that whatever caused the error might have killed the script before the setCaptive and behaviour BLUE bits were reached. I would concentrate on trying to find what caused the error message and I bet that will solve this problem also.
mikero's error mesage was :
"_man = uints ...
If that is literally correct then you have spelt units incorrectly. If it is a typo by mike then you need to check the code to be sure you are not accessing an array element that is outside the bounds of the array.
Without seeing the script I can think of nothing else.
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In fact setting the player's group to captive should be sufficient so what you have here is belt and braces. A good approach. All the more puzzling.
I did this because I heard an enemy unit will still shoot a captive unit if he was commanded to shoot the captive unit before the captive unit was catpive. (uh, was that clear to anyone?)
My suggestion is this:
mikero got an error message. It may be that whatever caused the error might have killed the script before the setCaptive and behaviour BLUE bits were reached. I would concentrate on trying to find what caused the error message and I bet that will solve this problem also.
That's the strange thing. The setCaptive and behaviour come at the beginning of the script.
As to the error message, I have checked and rechecked, tested and retested, and I have not found a typo, and the error message has only come up once.
I have added checks in the current version of Red Tide (you can download it above), so if the player is killed, the script will exit. I'm hoping that was the problem. I have only one time recieved the same error message mikero has recieved when I, as the player, was killed during the surrender scene. (I was killed by friendly fire) But seeing as two eyes are better than one, I will post the script I think is causing the problem.
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You have several instances of the type:
?_j == count units group player: goto "Wait"
?!alive player: exit
_man = units group player select _j
I think it is here that the problem lies - big clue is the error message extract from mikero.
There is a problem with count when applied to the units of a group. Well not a problem but something to be careful of.
Count units group player will give you a count of the number of units the player thinks he has. You know the problem - one of your guys gets killed but it is only a while later you get the "Oh no 3 is down" message. 3 could have been dead for some time. Count units group player would include 3 before you get the message but not after even though he has been dead for a while.
This may be causing the problem. It needs to be something strange for it to be intermittent.
I suggest what you do at the start of the script is to create an array that contains only the units in the players group that are alive, then use this array in the _man = … lines
EDIT:
I would also change your:
?_j == count ...
to
?_j >= count
I suspect one of the dead units gets recognised as such while the script is running and so makes _j or whatever index caused the problem to exceded the limits of the array: units group player
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Count units group player will give you a count of the number of units the player thinks he has. You know the problem - one of your guys gets killed but it is only a while later you get the "Oh no 3 is down" message. 3 could have been dead for some time. Count units group player would include 3 before you get the message but not after even though he has been dead for a while.
Yeah, I found this out in an older version of this script, the part that makes the men surrender. The men who died but weren't "known" as dead would come back to life to surrender. What a pain in the ass.
I suggest what you do at the start of the script is to create an array that contains only the units in the players group that are alive, then use this array in the _man = … lines
I have tried to accomplish this, but all my attempts failed, which is why I have written the script this way. Any suggestions on how to do this?
I suspect one of the dead units gets recognised as such while the script is running and so makes _j or whatever index caused the problem to exceded the limits of the array: units group player
The loop is instantaneous, there is no wait command. I wouldn't think the above situation would cause a problem because of this. Please correct me if I am wrong.
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I have tried to accomplish this, but all my attempts failed, which is why I have written the script this way. Any suggestions on how to do this?
An extract from one of my scripts:
_livingloons = []
{if (alive _x) then {_livingloons = _livingloons + [_x]}} forEach East_loons
The loop is instantaneous, there is no wait command. I wouldn't think the above situation would cause a problem because of this. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Please stand corrected. There is no such thing as instantaneous. Everything takes CPU clock cycles, and the CPU is not dedicated to running your scripts. If it were then nothing else would happen in the game until your script had finished running. The OFP engine shares CPU time across a number of different tasks of which your script is only one.
Anyway it is always good practice to use <= or <= rather than ==. The latter can cause real problems when you are using real numbers so I just get inthe habit of not using == even for integers.
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An extract from one of my scripts:
Code:_livingloons = []
{if (alive _x) then {_livingloons = _livingloons + [_x]}} forEach East_loons
Thanks THobson! I don't think I would have thought to do something like that.
Please stand corrected. There is no such thing as instantaneous. Everything takes CPU clock cycles, and the CPU us not dedicated to running your scripts. If it were then nothing else would happen in the game until your script had finished running. The OFP engine shares CPU time across a number of different tasks of which your script is only one.
I stand corrected, thanks for the clarification.
Anyway it is always good practice to use <= or <= rather than ==. The latter can cause real problems when you are using real numbers so I just get inthe habit of not using == even for integers.
Ok, I will do so.
Thanks for the responses, THobson. :)
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Red Tide has been submited to the missions depot.
Fixes/Changes:
Adjustments made to surrender scripts.
This version should be rid of the errors found in the previous version
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No bugs detected.
Mission:
No m2 bug, no trouble with trucks, squad did not attempt to eat one of them. All addons removed from computer (other than editor), but you did say you changed trucks, too.
All major play occurred on hill line formation - alert mode, I moved nowhere else except to get end game trigger in fort. Not a criticism, a definition of this-time-round game play.
-----------
@Thobson
Hard for me to tell if i'm dealing with true rain, or fog or mist, not sure which in some parts of this mission. However, the 'clue' is the rpg'er on the cement block. My troops, he, cannot shoot each other unless they can 'see' each other via iron sights. There's no mist bug here.
-----------=
armour was alone the squad I normally see with them was not present, and may, possibly have moved at angle to fort that i couldn't see.
Ditto reinforcements from NW? behind fort. Not seen, they appear in corner (a report, not a bug)
All enemy ai more or less concentrated dead center of opening and RIGHTside of walls
No ai coming at us from left side this time except straggler(s).
Cement block RPG is evil, so too is (a now single?) officer in my favorite bush topside.
Potentially up to three nasties in singles at 6 o'clock
one, maybe two additionals in road at 3'oclock, not the two guards killed earlier.
Usual squad attacks from dead centre.
All ai, mine included, remain totally vicious.
I sense that I got away with this by good management, one slip, and I'd have been in deep doodoo, wrong place wrong time.
Tested surrender by forcing my people to board truck at beginning, they never make it, cutcsene cuts in, i was expecting a bug doing this, none.
Preferred seeing squad surrendering to your current pointy guns bit. Personal choice, here.
One minor: sound of rifle fire during cutscene, nothing more. Suspect you switched surrender scene so that we wouldn't report 'seeing' one of us get shot. <grin> In fact, the former works for me, not all my squad would obey orders, not all the enemy would be nice and kind.
Outro.
Christ, I even look utterly miserable! How did you do that?
Because you knocked text out here, I would lengthen that very sad shot of me, looking devastated. Give player time to absorb the tragicness (sp). It's sort of like the silence on PBS when showing those snaps and details of those poor buggers, young and old, in Iraq. It's awful and player has a time to reflect.
Last shot of troops to chopper, something missing, i needed to see detail of who was who. wanted to see armed or unarmed nato (I suspect, appropriately, they were not menacing, they were not armed, no reason to be).
were they guard troops, or were they pow exchange? Either way, shot was too quick to absorb it. I wouldn't play the POW exchange theme, there's no scenario for it. The point you are making in this cut scene is that there was no reason NOT to shoot all the big bad Russians dead. And yet,,, voila. Humanity prevails.
Put shouldered weapons on nato (suggestion), or put me, the officer, standing among them, ordering my troops to the chopper.
Another tough one:
Many players will never see this cutscene! They'll retry first!!!
M2 and all that.
Thobson, (in an unusual flash of brillance for that evil man), gets his troops to remount the M2 gun. You might do similar?
Smallest of niggles:
for the next week
for the rest of that week
that, of course, is up to you.
Technical:
for your info I tried a replacement to the editor to get round this god damned Resistance/ shall we hide them/ shall we not/ which version 111 is really version 1.02 stuff .
I normaly use Barrons' 175 upgrade.
this time, something called LocMea.pbo (from Samson's doesn't take a hero campaign)
It only failed on the surrender outro, missing "newHut"
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No bugs detected.
I am very glad to hear that.
armour was alone the squad I normally see with them was not present, and may, possibly have moved at angle to fort that i couldn't see.
It could also be they were still in the M113
Cement block RPG is evil, so too is (a now single?) officer in my favorite bush topside.
Cement block RPG??? As for the single officer, maybe you already killed the other soldier in his group. I don't believe I have any soldiers by themselves.
I sense that I got away with this by good management, one slip, and I'd have been in deep doodoo, wrong place wrong time.
Good to hear that. I have had the same experience, but instead of succeeding like you, I failed miserably. One time I found myself with 3 of my men left facing the last 2 counter-attack squads. Definately a surrender situation.
One minor: sound of rifle fire during cutscene, nothing more. Suspect you switched surrender scene so that we wouldn't report 'seeing' one of us get shot. <grin>
Lol, when did the rifle fire begin, right after the cutscene started, or some time into it?
Christ, I even look utterly miserable! How did you do that?
This setmimic "SAD"
Because you knocked text out here, I would lengthen that very sad shot of me, looking devastated. Give player time to absorb the tragicness (sp). It's sort of like the silence on PBS when showing those snaps and details of those poor buggers, young and old, in Iraq. It's awful and player has a time to reflect.
Last shot of troops to chopper, something missing, i needed to see detail of who was who. wanted to see armed or unarmed nato (I suspect, appropriately, they were not menacing, they were not armed, no reason to be).
The last shot is meant to be a POW exchange. I will consider your suggestions, but am not sure how many I can incorporate. The song I use for the loose outro is quite short.
Thobson, (in an unusual flash of brillance for that evil man), gets his troops to remount the M2 gun. You might do similar?
Having problems with Abadoned Armies, mikero? ;) Anyway, about the suggestion. The M2 at the base is remanned by the troops at the sandbag wall. When the troops at the sandbag wall are all killed, then the M2 remains unmanned.
Smallest of niggles:
for the next week
for the rest of that week
that, of course, is up to you.
I think I will keep it as it is just because I don't feel like changing the German translation again. :P
From what you said mikero it sounds like the intro and mission are ok? And all that need to be polished are the surrender scenes and loose outro?
EDIT:
About the editor upgrade, I use General Barron's Editor Upgrade, and have no problems with it.
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Thobson, (in an unusual flash of brillance for that evil man
Bloody cheek! I don't mind evil - it is the unusual I object to ;D
Good to see this mission is coming on. I told you guard units would make a lot of difference.
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It could also be they were still in the M113
this would explain it for me, they were a very far away 300 meters +
quite surprised my people took it on rather than the T55 at 200 meters -
Btw, never knew you were than nasty, putting reinforcements IN the thing. Gasp.
>Cement block rpg
a lone loon on cement, extreme water edge front corner, fort.
will take snapshot if u need it.
but instead of succeeding like you
Unlike a poor author who lays his soul bare on each upload.pbo, we beta testers can use 'discretion' 8) when discussing our failures. Suffice to say pilot, in your mission, they were many, and varied ::)
>single officer bushes
2nd time i've encountered him alone, he's ordinarily front right of bushes and ordinarily has a friend of his far back corner (of bushes)
I suspect, but dont know (of course) that his mate comes up at us over that ridge 1 o'lcock.
Rifle fire began at very, very last section. Actually no, one soldier before there was that cut back to me (I think I had seven people left)
The M2 at the base is remanned by the troops at the sandbag wall.
Not at any time, in the many times I have now played this mission has that ever occurred. I am 200% certain of that because, apart from the armour, the M2gunner is the only impediment to me succeeding. I watch that spot like a leech.
There are however, always, one, to a few loons always behind the bags at the end, always looking for contact lenses. It may be an aspect of my game play that the slightest twitch or movement from that base means instant green tracer. I am so paranoid about those nests, any mission, that in your mission, I keep both my mgunners 'watching' 12 o'clock.
Suggestion: if you put two nests there, it would enhance my play and make it 'fairer' for them Ho ho.
And all that need to be polished
nothing needs polish, this mission has always worked for me since V0.0. The day you put a halt to it and release it is always going to be fine imho. Damn, did i *really* use the word humble? BAh!
Having problems with Abadoned Armies, mikero?
feel the pain.
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a lone loon on cement, extreme water edge front corner, fort.
Ok, I know what you are talking about, now.
Rifle fire began at very, very last section. Actually no, one soldier before there was that cut back to me (I think I had seven people left)
That's odd, I'll look into it.
Not at any time, in the many times I have now played this mission has that ever occurred. I am 200% certain of that because, apart from the armour, the M2gunner is the only impediment to me succeeding. I watch that spot like a leech.
Sometimes it takes awhile for the next gunner to realize he's gunner. So by the time he is ready to get in the gun, you may have shot him already. I'll see if I can adjust the script to make the reman go quicker.
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OK, I'll jump back into the fray at his late stage in the game ;)
New strategy for me; post as I play, don't try and remember it all afterwards. ::)
Ok, I downloaded v1.3, played some of it, got slaughtered numerous times, almost conquered the base, saw today that v1.35 was out. So I'll post on that instaed - I can barely remember v1.0 but I'll post as many comparisons as I can. Otherwise this is a fresh beta test/conglomeration between 1.30 and 1.35.
Intro
Text. Red - striking, I like it. Stands out very well. Placement of text throughout the intro is perfect. It's in the middle when in needs to be, down the bottom when it needs to be.
Still the "Soviet politburo in Moscow" - this may or may not be redundant, but maybe it serves to emphasize the fact. The Soviet politburo by itself would be fine as well.
"After a week of training" - doesn't seem like very much! Also, is it a week of military training, or a week of training for the invasion itself? Yes, I do know the answer to that. Just a nit-pick.
"You are the commander of the central invasion group" - good. Now I know exactly who I am, and what I'm doing.
Camera use. Fine, don't seem to have any more of those big angles which cause a moment of lag. Then again, maybe that's just my temperamental computer.
The Soviet base. It's impressive, seeing those ranks lined up like that, but otherwise the base looks a bit bare. Perhaps a few tents dotted around the sides, maybe an ammo truck, or something. I know there isn't a lot a room, but something to fill it out would be nice.
Briefing
I'm not particularly well qualified to discuss briefings, looks fine to me. I only include this as everyone else does. Speeling fine.
Oops - i just noticed - counter attacks from entre deux and chotain! That'll be why i was being shot at from my right flank playing v1.3. Teach me to skip over the briefing!
Mission
Radio says "Be careful of the roads". Is this new? Well, it's something I learned the hard way playing 1.3, so either it wasn't there, or more likely I ignore it. I is, however, good advice!
I lead my squad up the hill directly due west, to a rise near where the road curves. I ensure all my men are prone behind the rise, so that only their heads (and guns) are exposed. From experience (and the briefing) we scan between S and SW. A few soldiers safe it along the road; we open fire and kill most of them. The remaining few head for their base (smart). After a short while, a full squad advances on us from the direction of the base; the terrain actually works for us , and we are able to perforated them one at a time as they come into view. The worst they can do is toss a hand grenade, which thankfully goes wide, failing to injure anyone. The culprit is shot. Once again, the remainder flee down the hill, to the base. I'm sensing a pattern here; this is the kind of behaviour I'd expect.
No casualties - yet.
Still drawing on experience, I tell my men to watch up the hill, scanning all the time with my eagle eye (and pair of binoculars). We spot the m113 and t55 when they're little more than silhouettes. My 3 AT soldiers are all sighting down their barrels, and I gleefully anticipate the imminent destruction. A tree is blocking my view, I shift a little to my right to get a better perspective, and dash it all if my first AT soldier (who's now entirely exposed) doesn't take this as his cue to find a better position in the formation! I watch in horror as the m113 sees him, takes aim, and riddles him full of holes. The poor guy wasn't even looking at the thing! My two other AT men decide to fire, but- oh no! They've both targetted the t55, who explodes in an ecp fireball (always nice). M113, now thoroughly pissed, kills one of the remaining two, the other guy drops his gun and switched back to AK47 (he only hd one round). The m113 takes this opportunity to offload a full cargo (!) who proceed to immediately open fire. Fortunately the majority of my squad are still in good positions, and are able to return fire from relative safety. The troops, having been offloaded onto a steep hill, are extraordinarily easy to target, and all are down in no time. I grab the rpg off a fallen soldier and blast the m113 into oblivion. Then I assess the casualties.
4 down, all 3 AT soldiers, plus the medic. No idea what he was doing; I'd like to think he was trying to save the life of one of the mortally wounded RPG'ers. Each was killed because they'd left formation and mounted the risge, where they were easy targets.
4 casualties; normally i'd restart, but I haven't been offered a 'surrender' option yet and decide to keep going ;D. I revert to my old strategy of placing my men on the road overlooking the base, and circling round West of the base to spot for them.
<Savegame>
There are alot of soldiers down there :P. All are facing in the direction of my men. Any open assault would be foolish, as sheer weight of numbers would dictate that all my men would be killed. On a whim, I launch a couple of rpgs, the first into a thick cluster of men, the second right into that d**n m2 machinegun. I barely escape with my life, proning just in time. However, the effects were just what i was after - bodies fly through the air, and the machinegun explodes, maiming several soldiers around it. The survivors are in disarray, ceaseing the vigil on the hill north of the base. A group of soldiers split off from the main body and mount the hill in what i recognise is an attempt to outflank and kill me. Fortunately #2 is in a position to make them regret this move, and several downed soldiers later, the main force is in turmoil.
More as I play
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Ugh. And just to let you know, the ecp savegame bug rears it's ugly head again. Even in this mission, which uses (I'd imagine) comparitively few global vars. This is really starting to annoy me ;P
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Hey Fragorl,
OK, I'll jump back into the fray at his late stage in the game ;)
Welcome back, you test is much appreciated!
Still the "Soviet politburo in Moscow" - this may or may not be redundant, but maybe it serves to emphasize the fact. The Soviet politburo by itself would be fine as well.
You may be right. I will consider removeing in Moscow
"After a week of training" - doesn't seem like very much! Also, is it a week of military training, or a week of training for the invasion itself? Yes, I do know the answer to that. Just a nit-pick.
Well I figure the Soviet Army trains regularly anyway, so all they would need is some training specifically on beach landings. Also, the intro doesn't say this, but I always thought of this as being a rush job. The politburo decided to place missiled on Everon and want it done yesterday.
The Soviet base. It's impressive, seeing those ranks lined up like that, but otherwise the base looks a bit bare. Perhaps a few tents dotted around the sides, maybe an ammo truck, or something. I know there isn't a lot a room, but something to fill it out would be nice.
I'm glad you brought this up. When I first posted this mission, I was uneasy about the sparsity of the Soviet Base. During the testing, however, I forgot about it. Now that you have brought it up, I will take another look into it.
Radio says "Be careful of the roads". Is this new?
I believe I inserted it in version 1.3, so yes, it is resonably new.
Ugh. And just to let you know, the ecp savegame bug rears it's ugly head again. Even in this mission, which uses (I'd imagine) comparitively few global vars.
Darn, I didn't think my mission had enough global variables to set off the savegame but. I actually have quite a few global variables, especially for a mission this size.
*Counts how many global variables are in the mission*
I have 29 global boolean variables, is that a lot?
Thanks for your test, Fragorl. I hope the ECP bug doesn't discourage you from finishing this mission.
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Mission 2
Restart, using ofp lite (aka non ecp). I did pretty much everything the same, but was fortunate enough to repel all reinforcements, including the two armoured units, and sustain no casualties (aside from 2 who was wounded in the leg).
Attacking the base, I was a bit tricksy. I ordered all to prone, then stealthily crawled over to the egde of the hill, with my men in a line formation. I ordered all to hold fire, but spotted and assigned targets for all of them. Once I'd got the 'ready to fire' message from just about everyone, I stealthily crawled back the way I came, having ordered all to halt. I searched around for an AK47 + Grenades, found one, loaded up with 4 grenades and 2 magazines, circled round to my favourite spot on the hill, and cheatsaved. (I guess it's cheat saving? I aborted, then resumed. If I subsequently failed and wanted to restart, I killed myself and pressed escape once the end dialogue appeard. This allowed me to then resume from my original position.)
Once I was in position, I ordered 3 to attack the M2, and simultanoeusly shot off 3 grenades, and then proned and ordered all to "go go go". My first grenade fell wide, my second knocked off a straggler, but my third did some significant damage, taking out 5 or 6 men. Having thrown the base into confusion, and caused most of the prone enemy units to (try and) target me, they were hit with the full force of the main attack. The officer and machine gunners succumbed, and most of the rest of them were killed before they could react. A few survived long enough to return a few bursts before they were finished off.
Casualties: 4 total, all died in the main attack. M2 got one, a machine gunner got one or two of the others. No idea how the 4th died. Plus, a couple of injuries.
I am now standing in the conquered base, waiting to see what happens next. I seem to remember a final counterattack from the North...
EDIT: and about two seconds later, my mgunner opens fire and kills a final soldier. Mission ends. Hurrah!
Outro - win
Perfectly good outro. Some BMP's reaching the beach and offloading troops, an mi17 landing with good accuracy on the helipad, and offloading even more troops, the russians occupying the former American positions. Americans tucked away in body bags. T55 and M113 are off to the side of the base (not where I put them ;) - but perhaps they're being salvaged). My only gripe is the position of the body bags - the ideal spot would seem to be behind the base, in that flat patch of land. But then again, the bodies are probably only in temporary storage anyway ;)
Conclusion
Nice mission, exemplifies the entire 'capture the base' genre. Is reasonably hard, but not too hard. It's always a thrill when your tactics work out the way you mean them too. This mission is excellent officer training material. Done properly, it should be entirely possible to avoid more than one or two casualties (I didn't do it particluarly well, I just wanted to finish it). A vigilant (or at least experienced) commander will spot the infantry groups arriving from the base, and the tanks and reinforcements arriving from entre deux/chotain. As for taking the base, well, my tactic worked, but it was a frontal assault and I had to try it several different ways before I found one that worked. Even then, casualties were really unacceptible.
One or two ideas. Spare at least one group of reinforcements for later. I was pretty much attacked within two minutes of that first alarm going off- and it's pretty unavoidable. The player's focus should be clearing the base, maybe coping with one group of resistance from the western hill, and then be hit from the back by a surprise bunch of auxiliaries, as I was in v1.0 (surprise if you didn't read the briefing :)). Perhaps you could even fool the player by having a titletext like "ah, the base looks cleared", and in the briefing say "There's a possibility that troops stationed in Entre deux will be alarmed". But that's just an idea.
Well, I'm going to replay the mission with a couple of different strategies now: 1.) circling right the way around the base, destroying the back wall and launching an attack from 180 degrees the opposite way the enemy were expecting. I might have to 'borrow' some satchels off one of those spetznaz at the beginning.
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I have 29 global boolean variables, is that a lot?
Not in my experience. It must be something else. Do have a lot scripts running? All the local variable will also count if the script is running when the player does a save.
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@Fragorl
not where I put them ;) - but perhaps they're being salvaged
This is sort of the impression I was trying to create. I wanted to give the impression they were dragged off the battle field, to be scrapped at a later date.
But then again, the bodies are probably only in temporary storage anyway ;)
Yeah, it is only a temporary spot, which also explains why they are so unorganzied.
As for your suggestion, I will consider increasing the time between your attack and the resistance counter-attack. I shouldn't be too hard to do, and it would be more realistic. Maybe I'll even make the tanks empty, and force the crew to get in them.
Thanks, Fragorl!
@THobson
Not in my experience. It must be something else. Do have a lot scripts running? All the local variable will also count if the script is running when the player does a save.
Typically, there might be 4 scripts running at the same time, with an increase when certain triggers are fired.
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I will consider increasing the time between your attack and the resistance counter-attack
For me, the 2nd wave, the guys coming from extreme north?, ie not the ones associated with the armour, generally and almost certainly, end up on corner of fort, far edge and give the impression they're just part of that fort (maybe behind it, eg)
I only encountered them as I believe you intended, once, when I attacked the fort directly and moved into it. That game play is unlikely, given the ferocious attack from the armour people. The player probably wont twitch from the hill for awhile.
For me, the timing of the armour and it's squad was just right, I keep forgetting that I *know* about them, if you read fragorl? comments he didn't and they'e one hell of a surprise, so the timing there must be pretty close to perfect. I do remember my 1st run thru where they got me !!!
If anything, leave them alone, and change the trigger for the 2nd group so that they only make themselves felt as you close in. I think that is where the 'mistake' is pilot. You're firing off both groups simultaneously. Realsitically perhaps the 2nd lot wouldn't necessarily be alerted.
And, on the other hand, it also makes sense that these guys just make getting into the fort tougher, doing what they already do, they are great reinforcements for the fort, rather than of the fort. Your mission works on many levels, and one of them is illusion.
No slap at Fragorl, but the moment i saw the radiation signs, i knew what the burnt wrecks were, and why they were there. There's a richness to all of your cutscenes, all of them, we dont take all the detail in at one sitting. It took me 99 goes so to speak to notice the pow exchange.
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If anything, leave them alone, and change the trigger for the 2nd group so that they only make themselves felt as you close in. I think that is where the 'mistake' is pilot. You're firing off both groups simultaneously. Realsitically perhaps the 2nd lot wouldn't necessarily be alerted.
You're probably right. I will probably add a trigger that the player must be inside for the second group of reinforcements to arrive. The first group of reinforcements will consist of the armor group and the squad from Chotain, since Chotain is closer and they both arrive at the fort at the same time. They will come first. The second group of reinforcements will consist of the two squads from Entre Deux. They will come after the player is in the trigger. How does this sound, mikero, Fragorl, and anyone else?
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>How does that sound?
ABSOLUTELY AWFUL
that's the magic in your mission you touched there pilot. The magic that we DONT all get in fort and wait and know bloody well what's going to happen next, because it's happened in every other bloody mission out there.
Ho hum, yet-another counter attack thingo. Wash your mouth out.
eerk eaak, spew, throw up, kick fido, aaaargh. ouch!
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I will probably add a trigger that the player must be inside for the second group of reinforcements to arrive
I agree with mikero - avoid this sort of thing at all costs. Play it once it might be fine (except most players now know to expect this sort of thing). Play it twice it is predictable. A lot of mission builder seem to do this sort of thing and it really gets boring, or worse, the player feels like they are being manipulated, and it is puzzling - "Why did they wait until I did this before I they did that?", "Would they really have done that?".
My suggestion:
Put some random delays in the timing of the reinforcements so that sometimes they might arrive in a difference sequence. Then even you will not know where the next lot is coming from. You have reinforcements at specific towns - good. Once the alarm is raised they will reinforce the base as soon they can, but there might be a random delay while they get mobilised. Think like that rather than - what will the player see. Try to keep the underlying logic realistic.
Just a suggestion and my own personal view. Some missions play like an interactive movie and I am sure the authors (an maybe many players) love them.
On the savegame bug: four scripts is not a lot, but it depends on how many local variables you have in each. The problem seems to be caused by the number of names in the game. Each variable is a name but also every unit and every object that you have given a name will also be contributing to the problem. Unless you have given every unit a name I am really surprised this mission is hitting the bug. It just shows how much resource ECP gobbles up. To give you a feel for the scale of the problem - when my mission hit the bug without ECP the number of names in the mission was well into three figures. When I realised what to do about the problem I cut that drastically, but I guess it is still well over a hundred, and Planck recently reported that the big was there sometimes and not others so I am taking it that the mission was about on the borderline. Since then the numbers have increased again - but that is another story.
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Well, considering the emphatic response about this part of the mission, I won't be adding the trigger the player must be in to make the second group of reinforcements arrive.
@mikero
I was surprised to see your response the way it was. Maybe I misread an earlier post ???:
If anything, leave them alone, and change the trigger for the 2nd group so that they only make themselves felt as you close in. I think that is where the 'mistake' is pilot. You're firing off both groups simultaneously. Realsitically perhaps the 2nd lot wouldn't necessarily be alerted.
I thought what I suggested was what you wanted from reading this post. Could you please clarify for me?
@THobson
Put some random delays in the timing of the reinforcements so that sometimes they might arrive in a difference sequence.
I can do this to three groups. The armor group, the group from Chotain, and the two groups from Entre Deux. I don't want to seperate the two groups from Entre Deux, though. Currently I have it scripted so those two groups arrive at the base together. I think this is what can make the mission difficult at the end, but I also think this is realistic. If you have two groups from the same town, why make them attack seperately? Anyway, I will consider adding random response times.
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I hope you don't mind me posting this here, but the thread where you posed the question:
Commands are seperated by a semi-colon?! I thought any text after a semicolon was considered to be a note and not used during the processing of the script.
Has been solved so no more replies are possible there.
Anything after a semi-colon is treated as a comment if the semi-colon is the first non-blank character on a line, but where you have a block of instructions defined by {...} for example:
if (condition) then {list of instructions} else {another list of instructions}
or
while (condition) do {yet another list}
then if you have more than one instruction in the list you should use semi-colons to separate them (just as you would in the init field of a unit.
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@pilot
my post said that i was ambivalent about whether the 2nd group were ok as is or should be changed. Both work.
What worked for me 'better' was the one and only time I went to fort directly and was left, sea, corner, outside of it. I could SEE these buggers streaming down the hill. The effect, and response, was similar to that of the first group.
By an area trigger, i mean a tripwire closer to the fort, "as you close in", the position of that tripwire is where and when the player could see partially or wholly that hill they come from.
It would make sense to me, that these buggers appear and affect game play at around the same time as you are in, or move to, the fort. Rather than the very stale, very traditional, let's wait for the counter attack business.
If you tripwire a bit closer, then the player wont be able to wait them out, as I do, on the hill, and clean them up when the get into the fort.
There might not be any satisfactory tripwire that garantees a visual of them streaming down hill, so, (opinion), I would just try to ensure that it's mayhem for the player just when he's in or very close to fort, and that no amount of cunning devilishness on players part will prevent this from happening.
Put another way, I want to see mayem IN the fort rather than waiting for something to happen. Contrast that statement with the fact that what IS happening now, is also quite ok, the buggers give the impression of re-inforecments from behind the fort.
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You're probably right. I will probably add a trigger that the player must be inside for the second group of reinforcements to arrive. The first group of reinforcements will consist of the armor group and the squad from Chotain, since Chotain is closer and they both arrive at the fort at the same time. They will come first. The second group of reinforcements will consist of the two squads from Entre Deux. They will come after the player is in the trigger. How does this sound, mikero, Fragorl, and anyone else?
I agree with what mikero/THobson have said, in regards to the timing and spacing of the counterattacks. Here are a few extra suggestions:
- The random delay to represent the time it takes for the units to get equipped, plus, the fact that the two reinforcement groups are different distances from the army base, will combine to keep the player on his toes. To make it even more random, consider giving the reinforcements a few different sets of waypoints to attack by. This is done easily with a 'switch' trigger attached to the first waypoint in the second set, and the first waypoint of the third set and so on. Use an activation of random(1) < 0.3 or whatever you want the probability as. You may already know this :)
- There is an alarm which goes off (I think) once you have alerted the patrol on the road. How does this work? Is it simply an area trigger, or a knowsabout check, or a CombatMode check? If the former, consider one of the two latter. If you use one of the latter, then I am just clumsy and allow my men to be spotted too easily :P
- Once the relevant check has been done, I suggest having a unit run back to base before the alarm goes off, or at least a check to see if the sentries at base can see the patrol. At the moment, the patrol seem to be communicating telepathically with their HQ. And likewise with the reinforcements. The player should get a chance to avoid (or at least delay) the reinforcements somehow. Perhaps include a suitable 'communication building' (could just be an m113 in a camo structure ;) ) that the player has a chance to destroy in the main attack, provided they do it quickly - this could buy some time to prepare for the counter attack, but with a legitimate excuse.
- Alternately, there could be a motorcycle rider (why motorcycle? No reason. could equally well be a jeep) in the patrol who zooms off to alert Entre deux and/or Chotain. Although this isn't exactly modern age, it once again gives the player a chance to procrastinate the counter-attack by shooting the rider.
- Finally, and this is most definitely optional since it would mean a lot of extra work, have some way of relating back to the other units also involved in the assault. Recall there was a north, a central, and a south group. You could have a third (final!) retaliatory strike by the surviving members of the US/resistance forces, provided they defeat your comrades, otherwise none if they themselves are defeated.
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fragorl - far be it from to say you are clumsy.... but: the 2 man patrol west of the main base can be taken down without setting off the alarm. :) Nevertheless the comment about telepathy is a valid one. At the very least there should be a delay between being detected and the alarm being raised, and the alarm should only be raised if the detecting group still has a living memeber - to simulate some sort of radio message back to base. An alternative would be to have a guy (or two) at a sentry waypoint that have their next waypoint in the base and a trigger that detect when they are close to the base and activates the alarm.
Your last point reminds me of a concern I had the first time I played but then I forgot. This is meant to be part of a major landing. Where is all the noise from the other battles? Why is there no interaction between this battle and the others? Then I thought - it's a neat mission that is fun to play, leave it at that.
Pilot: You have options here.
- It is a fun mission, so just leave it
- Tidy up the alarm/base alert process
- Include aspects of the other battles
- Change the story so this is the first landing and the other battles are not happening yet.
The problem with all of these options except the first is the law of diminishing returns, and also you give everyone more time to get really picky.
The points that are now being picked up on are the things that flit through the back of your mind as you are playing but don't really detract from the fun. A bit like watching a Hollywood movie when things don't quite fit together properly - which, in my view is a lot of the time, but I am one of the worlds pedants.
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Your last point reminds me of a concern I had the first time I played but then I forgot. This is meant to be part of a major landing. Where is all the noise from the other battles? Why is there no interaction between this battle and the others? Then I thought - it's a neat mission that is fun to play, leave it at that.
Pilot: You have options here.
- It is a fun mission, so just leave it
- Tidy up the alarm/base alert process
- Include aspects of the other battles
- Change the story so this is the first landing and the other battles are not happening yet.
The problem with all of these options except the first is the law of diminishing returns, and also you give everyone more time to get really picky.
THobson has hit the nail squarely.
Yes, I'd have to say that as the mission gets improved, feedback becomes less and less about fixing up mistakes and more about what else you could add to the mission. My feedback is generally like that from the beginning, which isn't always helpful ::). From this point on, you're not writing the mission any more, we, the beta testers are are ;D
On reflection, my advice would be (from THobson's list) to go with: a lot of a.), a little of b.), and don't worry about c.) or d.) unless you really want. :)
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@all
>other battles
I accepted from the outset that all this mission was, was an intro into the campaign that Pilot had CLEARLY introduced for me with the very large and detailed intro.
I too wanted to 'hear' the other battles, and probably some, as you all say, 'interaction', but for me, i was expecting this interaction to occur in mission 2 with this stuff as a quick, get it over with, intro mission.
That's very different to saying you're all wrong, I'm all right, it's a perception of how this mission hangs together in something larger. If it is going to be 'something larger', then i think (opinion) it should be new missions with ALL of our suggestions in the brew. On the other hand, pilot might choose to go away and develop this one single mission into an abandoned armies style. In which case, he clearly has to include the interaction here. Both styles are valid.
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Sorry for may lack of response, I have been busy the last few days, and will remain so for the next few days. So if I don't reply right away, it's not that I have gone away, I am just busy.
The 2nd Reinforcement group:
I'm not going to change this too much. Right now, their actions are all scripted, and the script is quite large. Adding more conditions to the script would increase the size of the script considerably, and test my scripting skills.
@Fragorl
There is an alarm which goes off (I think) once you have alerted the patrol on the road. How does this work? Is it simply an area trigger, or a knowsabout check, or a CombatMode check? If the former, consider one of the two latter.
I use a knowsabout check
About the alarm:
I will probably do what THobson suggested:
At the very least there should be a delay between being detected and the alarm being raised, and the alarm should only be raised if the detecting group still has a living memeber - to simulate some sort of radio message back to base.
Why? Because it's easiest. ;) I don't want to do any more major changes to this mission if I don't have to, and adding a runner is, in my opinion, a pretty big change.
I don't think the beta-testers have noticed, but I do the alarm differently. I am not simulating a radio message from the base to the towns. In my tests, I played a resistance soldier in the towns. When the alarm went off in the base, I could hear it from both towns. Also, when the alarm goes off in the base or one of the towns, the alarm will go off in the other two places after a random wait period. This means the resistance don't need radio messages, they know to respond from the alarm.
Your last point reminds me of a concern I had the first time I played but then I forgot. This is meant to be part of a major landing. Where is all the noise from the other battles? Why is there no interaction between this battle and the others? Then I thought - it's a neat mission that is fun to play, leave it at that.
This is something I have thought about. I wanted radio messages from the other groups to Roman, telling of thier status. I haven't done this for one reason: I don't have the ability to do custom sounds. I am an American, and do not have a Russian accent, nor do I know anybody with one. Further more, the recruitment depot is down, so I can't go that route. Because I don't have access to custom sounds, I wanted to keep radio transmissions to a bare minumum.
- It is a fun mission, so just leave it
- Tidy up the alarm/base alert process
- Include aspects of the other battles
- Change the story so this is the first landing and the other battles are not happening yet.
I'll do a lot of A, and some of B. I want to include C, but have not for the reason stated above. And I deffinately don't want to do D.
I accepted from the outset that all this mission was, was an intro into the campaign that Pilot had CLEARLY introduced for me with the very large and detailed intro.
Mikero, you really want me to make a campaign, don't you? ;D
Thanks for the replies! If I get behind on posting responses, It' not that I am ignoring you, real life is just getting in the way.
-Student Pilot
EDIT:
@THobson
I hope you don't mind me posting this here, but the thread where you posed the question:
Quote:Commands are seperated by a semi-colon?! I thought any text after a semicolon was considered to be a note and not used during the processing of the script.
Has been solved so no more replies are possible there.
Anything after a semi-colon is treated as a comment if the semi-colon is the first non-blank character on a line, but where you have a block of instructions defined by {...} for example:
if (condition) then {list of instructions} else {another list of instructions}
or
while (condition) do {yet another list}
then if you have more than one instruction in the list you should use semi-colons to separate them (just as you would in the init field of a unit.
Thanks! I learn something new every day.
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@All
Currently, the reinforcement groups' movements are scripted. However, I have been thinking of eliminating the scripting and using guard waypoints.
Here are the pros as I see them:
1). The guard groups will attack wherever the player attacks, they won't just move to preplanned destinations.
2). Fewer scripts mean less CPU usage.
Here are the cons as I see them:
1). The reinforcement groups will not attack from different directions.
2). The counter-attacks may be more unorganized.
The reason I am considering doing this is as follows:
If the player attacks the patrols, and sets off the alarm in the process, the reinforcement groups may not attack the player. Instead, if the player is in the base sector, they will go straight to the base. If I change this by using guard waypoints, the reinforcements will attack the player where he attacked the patrol instead of going to the base. I am concerned about doing this, however, because (as I said above) the reinforcements will attack in a more unorganized fashion, and I think this would detract from the mission.
So, my question:
Would exchanging the scripting for the guard waypoints be something I should do, or should I leave good enough alone?
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I think you kinow my views on this. I suggested you do this sometime ago. The first pro on your list is the big one for me. I think if you do it sensibly you will avoid some the cons, for example by having a switch trigger that sends them to a guard waypoint that is close to the base. You don't need to do it for all the reincorcements either. It makes sense for some to head directly for the base to see what is happening and for others to be released to attack what is doing the damage.
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Yeah, I thought you would respond that way.
It makes sense for some to head directly for the base to see what is happening and for others to be released to attack what is doing the damage.
I was thinking of making the troops from Chotain go directly to the base, while the armor group and the two groups from Entre Deux attack the player.
Another question:
The reason I am concerned about using guard waypoints is because the groups on guard will go to where the player last was and stop. During my initial tests, I would find that a guard group could be over 1000 meters from the base after the initial attack. These groups would stay there for the rest of the mission unless the player made contact with someone. So, if I have "guarded by" triggers placed over the towns and the base, will they attract the guard groups, so the guard groups don't stop in the middle of nowhere and do nothing?
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In long missions you notice that guard units eventually return to their guard wayoint - but is can take along time. You could have a script that gives tham a doMove instruction if they get too far from the base, or you could setPos a trigger on to their leader and if they lose contact with the enemy then the trigger fires a switch trigger to another waypoint. Your imagination is the limit.
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Thanks for the input, THobson.
I think I will try using "guarded by" triggers first, and if they don't work I'll do something more complicated.
I've been busy lately, so I haven't been able to do much work on the mission, although I do have the detection script working. I hope to have a new version posted by the beginning of next week.
@The detection script
Currently, I give the player 8 seconds to kill all the members of the patrol that spotted him. Is this sufficient? Also, if the player is detected by soldiers in the base or the towns, he doesn't have the chance to kill them to stop a timer. The alarm will still go off.
How does the 8 second period sound, is it too short, too long, or about right?
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been following the thread in a lurky kind of way for a while -
the 8-second question... how long does it take to say "Squad delta to base, we're under attack, position H421..."
it all depends on how you want to rationalise the communications. if the enemy is well kitted out, they'll each have radio, just like the player and her/his squad members. if not, perhaps only one of the loons has a radio unit with which to contact base. in that case, kill the radio operator and the entire squad is fucked.
also, depending on how many loons are in a squad, 8 seconds may not be nearly enough. take an 8-loon squad as an example. one second to drop each? if they all stand in line and stay still, then aye, maybe adequate.
i think you may be making too many allowances for the player. i have a detection script which triggers as soon as the player is identified. so drop a squad from a mile away, and they don't know it's you. that's unrealistic too, as loons would report coming under fire regardless of whether or not they could see the culprit, but in gameplay terms it's down to the player to be cunning. if you want to test the player's speed and accuracy with a particular firearm, then 8 seconds is just fine ;)
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Thanks for the input, bedges!
Maybe I'll try to incorporate some sort of radio operator in the mission. Or I could give the player more time to take out the larger squads. I'll think it over.
if you want to test the player's speed and accuracy with a particular firearm, then 8 seconds is just fine ;)
Not a bad idea. ;D :gunman:
-Student Pilot
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Ok, here is Version 1.4 of Red Tide.
Red Tide has been submited to the missions depot.
To download, right click and select "Save Target as"
The biggest change in V1.40 from the earlier versions has to do with the patrols and counter-attack groups.
First off, the patrols:
Each patrol has a radioman. He is identified fom the flag he carries. If you are detected by the patrol, you have anywhere from 6-10 seconds to kill the radioman before he gets a message out. If you do manage to kill him in time, the base and towns won't be alerted. The patrol will then try to flee to the nearest town or base. If they are within 100 meters of the towns or base, the alarm will sound. If the patrol is eliminated before they are withing that area, the alarm will not sound.
counter-attack groups:
The armor group and the two groups from Entre Duex now have guard waypoints. This means, after the alarm is sounded, they will attack the player wherever the player attack, instead of going straight for one of the towns or base. The group from Chotain still has scritped waypoints, so they will head straight for one of the towns or base, regardless of where the player attacked.
Note:
The german briefing is not yet finished.
@beta-testers
Thanks for the beta-tests so far!
If you have any suggestions or comments on this version...keep them to yourself.
;D
Just kidding :tomato:, feel free to make any suggestions or comments.
-Student Pilot
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Boas!
Well I still havent found time to play your mission, but I posted here because our friend Mikero posted this in my thread...
>If anyone needs translation from Inglise to port o gal
head on over to "red tide" (student pilot)
Even a readme wont hurt
I look forward to your updated mission
So I wanted to know if a readme is needed...
Because I can translate yours from english to portuguese from a day to another!~
Cya
BV
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Right, here we go. I haven't read any of the thread at all so forgive me if I say something stupid. Glad to see you have updated the first post with the new version as well as posting it at the end of the thread. :thumbsup:
Vet mode, no mods.
Readme
Nice to see my campaign for named readmes is bearing fruit. Hmmm, it seems I have tested this before ... shit for brains, that's my problem. Add the date, otherwise its grand.
Overview
Good. Version number is correct in a beta but lose it for the release. It should go in the readme and the filename.
Intro
I remember this! Good. Minor points only. At the start, fade the text in faster and leave it up for slightly longer. Some non-native speakers, and indeed some some native English speakers, will struggle to read it. The rule of thumb I use is that you should be able to read it twice.
When the text appears at the bottom of the screen, consider making it slightly smaller. Don't refer to "weeks", use days. "8 days ago". Don't have a blackout with text between the base and the ships, go straight to the ships and put the text beneath them. If it is not too much work, change the term "invasion force" to "advanced landing force" or some other name that implies there will be follow up forces. You don't invade Everon with 3 squads, and if you do you don't need 3 LSDs to carry them.
Briefing
Plan - good
Notes - good. Separate the paras with a line. Perhaps add a third para making it more personal.
Gear - give the player his tokarev by default and add a couple of pairs of binocs since some players like them. Dish out more of the PKs and rocket launchers, there's no point in leaving them in selection. I took an RPG and put PKs at 2, 3 and 4. Remove the AK74SU, it's pointless.
Squad - I'd put the medic at about 7 since the squad is large. Otherwise good.
Map - good.
Overall, very good so far. Everything I've mentioned has been detail. You can really tell that this mission has already been beta tested and the author has taken note of the suggestions.
Mission
It's often a good idea to start radio messages with an indentifier. "(Spetz Natz) Good luck ...." Better, since you have only a couple of radio messages, hunt around the Ed Depot and find I think its toadlife's tute on how to use the few callsigns that BIS gave us.
Moved up the gully then left towards the corner of the road. On enemy loon spotted us and dropped 12 before he was shot ... I'd had everybody on hold fire but he just appeared on the skyline 20 years in front of us. Moved up onto the hillside and dropped one then another, but the second had seen us and the alarm - which was excellent - went off. We were in trees so I just stayed put and waited for the response. A small squad came up from the base and we gave them the good news.
Two more squads - front left and front right - went the same way then the armour came up our jacksi. The T55 went down at once but the M113 survived and took out half the squad before I could get there. The surrender option appeared in my Action menu.
My MG loons are firing at the M2 I think. This is a problem and it must be solved: I believe the answer is to use an empty M2 and move the gunner into it. If that doesn't work then use a trigger to detect when the gunner is dead and blow the gun up. I had to put a precious RPG into it but not before my loons had wasted most of their ammo.
Hit the surrender action to test. Got several very similar shots of me with my hands behind my head but not much else. :-\ Use a hidden Objective which appears failed when you get the loose ending. It's very easy. Read snYpir's tute on "how to use objectives and init.sqs".
Back to the mission.
We get taken from behind by I think two squads. Two of my four loons have no ammo at all and there isn't time to rearm, so we are screwed. I tried running away but we were picked off from the base. The M2 debacle (which is partly my fault for not stopping them sooner, but at the time I was dealing with the remnants of the armoured infantry attack at the back and didn't know what theywer shooting at) has proved terminal. Back to the start. :(
Outro
Loose - fine. There are too many tents for 4 prisoners.
Thread
At this point I'll skim through the thread.
If you want to annoy macguba you could use Scotland.
;D I haven't seen what you used yet. Actually that's a good point, rather than playing this again I'll have a look in the editor.
You've had a helluva lot of good advice here. I hope you are spending lots of time testing other missions. :)
This mission would be a good start to a campaign.
Never, ever make a mission which is "capture the base and wait for hte counterattack." Either is fine - its a military game so most missions are going to be either attack somewhere or defend somewhere - but we are all utterly sick to death of that particular sequence.
Re-read the whole thread again carefully and make sure you haven't missed anything.
Mission Editor
Just a few idle comments of things that catch my eye.
Add comments to your scripts. At least a line at the top saying what it does and how it is called. You'll thank me in a year's time.
Like the flag.
You don't really need that many waypoints for the patrol on the dirt road.
Given that you already have something there, add one or two more objects to the outlying villages. An empty vehicle or two; ammo crates and barrels; the odd tent. Keep it very simple obviously, but just a few more things will give the place a much better feel.
I'm very unconvinced by the base. Add a second med tent next to the first. Place yourself in the middle of the base as a group leader and use command view: you will see that the sandbags are on the wrong side of the entrance. (Look where the road ends.) Either make them along the line of the wall, or make them stick out more - the current middle ground is unsatisfactory. Consider putting the M2 in a small shed. Move the H away from the hillside and nearer the road. Try the flagpole in the middle of the square.
The guards are very badly placed. They are all just standing around looking stupid. Is this place on a kind of dawn stand-to, or is everybody just waking up? Or still asleep? It should be obvious.
Put in a delay of maybe 30s between alarm sounding and the groups coming out of the buildings. Will help build tension and might catch the player out.
There are two patrols around EntreDeux which get guard waypoints. What hosed me was that both of these arrived at the same time from the same direction. Separate them in some way either in space or time. That will make the mission both slightly harder (in general) and slightly more fun. Perhaps the second comes later, is larger and more poorly armed and includes civvies: it really is militia called out of bed.
Win Outro. Fine apart from the second shot which is dreadful. Suggest keep first shot, moving in, then keep the camera stationery and pan back and forth showing armour and choppers. Using camera.sqs will make these changes painless. Make the arrangement of guards and sandbags noticeably more professional than it was before: a real army has arrived.
Well that's it for now. It's going to be very good for a first mission.
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PTnbrvieira and I have been talking back and forth, and depending on how things go, he may do a portuguese translation for me.
@macguba
Add the date, otherwise its grand.
Ok, I will do that
At the start, fade the text in faster and leave it up for slightly longer. Some non-native speakers, and indeed some some native English speakers, will struggle to read it. The rule of thumb I use is that you should be able to read it twice.
Twice?! Damn, it's nowhere near that. About the fade, I don't think I can choose the fade length. If I could, I would have done it already. Any suggestions on this?
When the text appears at the bottom of the screen, consider making it slightly smaller.
Ok, I will play with it.
Don't have a blackout with text between the base and the ships, go straight to the ships and put the text beneath them.
ok
If it is not too much work, change the term "invasion force" to "advanced landing force" or some other name that implies there will be follow up forces. You don't invade Everon with 3 squads, and if you do you don't need 3 LSDs to carry them.
Yeah, good point
Notes - good. Separate the paras with a line. Perhaps add a third para making it more personal.
I'll seperate the paras, I forgot to do that when I was going through the briefing earlier. I'll try to think of something for a third paragraph.
Gear - give the player his tokarev by default and add a couple of pairs of binocs since some players like them. Dish out more of the PKs and rocket launchers, there's no point in leaving them in selection. I took an RPG and put PKs at 2, 3 and 4. Remove the AK74SU, it's pointless.
So your saying to remove the Pk and RPG launcher from the selection and add them to the squad?
I guess I'll remove the AK74SU.
Squad - I'd put the medic at about 7 since the squad is large. Otherwise good.
ok
Overall, very good so far. Everything I've mentioned has been detail. You can really tell that this mission has already been beta tested and the author has taken note of the suggestions.
Yes, I have had great beta-testers
It's often a good idea to start radio messages with an indentifier. "(Spetz Natz) Good luck ...." Better, since you have only a couple of radio messages, hunt around the Ed Depot and find I think its toadlife's tute on how to use the few callsigns that BIS gave us.
Ok, I'll take a look
My MG loons are firing at the M2 I think. This is a problem and it must be solved: I believe the answer is to use an empty M2 and move the gunner into it. If that doesn't work then use a trigger to detect when the gunner is dead and blow the gun up. I had to put a precious RPG into it but not before my loons had wasted most of their ammo.
This is really annoying me. I use an empty M2, and when the gunner is dead I move the M2 to an offshore island and replace it with another empty M2. Yet nothing is working.
Hit the surrender action to test. Got several very similar shots of me with my hands behind my head but not much else. Use a hidden Objective which appears failed when you get the loose ending. It's very easy. Read snYpir's tute on "how to use objectives and init.sqs".
How many men were still alive in your squad? The camera is supposed to pan through the remaining men in your squad, and then close with a pan out shot.
I'll take a look at snYpir's tute.
Loose - fine. There are too many tents for 4 prisoners.
There should be more than 4 prisoners. There should be a couple of groups of 4, and a few men sitting in front of the tents.
You've had a helluva lot of good advice here. I hope you are spending lots of time testing other missions. :)
I can't argue with you there. I have tried my best to beta-test other missions, although I haven't done as much as I should.
This mission would be a good start to a campaign.
Uh oh, first mikero, now you. I think I might have my work cut out for me. :P
Never, ever make a mission which is "capture the base and wait for hte counterattack." Either is fine - its a military game so most missions are going to be either attack somewhere or defend somewhere - but we are all utterly sick to death of that particular sequence.
Uhhh, you're not telling me to scrap the counter-attacks, are you?
Re-read the whole thread again carefully and make sure you haven't missed anything.
ok
Add comments to your scripts. At least a line at the top saying what it does and how it is called. You'll thank me in a year's time.
Yeah, that is something I should do, but what can I say, I'm a little on the lazy side.
Anyway, I'll get on it.
Like the flag.
Thanks
You don't really need that many waypoints for the patrol on the dirt road.
Yeah, there are quite a few, aren't there?
Given that you already have something there, add one or two more objects to the outlying villages. An empty vehicle or two; ammo crates and barrels; the odd tent. Keep it very simple obviously, but just a few more things will give the place a much better feel.
Ok, I'll see what I can do
I'm very unconvinced by the base. Add a second med tent next to the first. Place yourself in the middle of the base as a group leader and use command view: you will see that the sandbags are on the wrong side of the entrance. (Look where the road ends.) Either make them along the line of the wall, or make them stick out more - the current middle ground is unsatisfactory. Consider putting the M2 in a small shed. Move the H away from the hillside and nearer the road. Try the flagpole in the middle of the square.
Considering there are barracks there, wouldn't another tent look out of place?
Good point about the sandbags. I will move them to the other side, and make them even with the wall
I will look for a shed for the M2
I'll experiment with the position of the H
I thought the flagpole is good where it is. If it was in the middle, wouldn't it get in the way of the trucks moving in and out of the base?
The guards are very badly placed. They are all just standing around looking stupid. Is this place on a kind of dawn stand-to, or is everybody just waking up? Or still asleep? It should be obvious.
I was thinking some are asleep (the men in the barracks), while a few guards are keeping watch. What should I do to make it more obvious?
There are two patrols around EntreDeux which get guard waypoints. What hosed me was that both of these arrived at the same time from the same direction. Separate them in some way either in space or time. That will make the mission both slightly harder (in general) and slightly more fun. Perhaps the second comes later, is larger and more poorly armed and includes civvies: it really is militia called out of bed.
This has been bugging me for awhile.
I will try to make one of the groups come later, and I will add civil militia to it. I'm not sure there's too much I can do about the direction, as they are on guard waypoints.
Win Outro. Fine apart from the second shot which is dreadful. Suggest keep first shot, moving in, then keep the camera stationery and pan back and forth showing armour and choppers. Using camera.sqs will make these changes painless. Make the arrangement of guards and sandbags noticeably more professional than it was before: a real army has arrived.
I liked the second shot. :P I will see what I can do.
About the arrangement, the Soviets have only been there for a few hours, would the sandbags really be changed in that short time period?
Well that's it for now. It's going to be very good for a first mission.
Thank you, Macguba!
-Student Pilot
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Yes, I have had great beta-testers
8)
Uh oh, first mikero, now you. I think I might have my work cut out for me
8) 8)
(which is why I am concerned that your devoting all your energies to this one single mission)
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I have been looking at Macguba's post again, and have a question.
Macguba said:
Don't refer to "weeks", use days. "8 days ago".
Yet mikero says not to be that specific.
So, who do I listen to? :P
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How many men were still alive in your squad?
When I surrendered there were about 4 of us left. The shots may well have been of the 4 of us, but as they were all from below with sky as background they all looked the same. Make them from above and a bit further back, to give some context. There was no panning: we cut from one shot to the next.
M2s are a nightmare, it's not entirely your fault. Sometimes they just shoot at M2s. Forget the setPos thing and just setDammage 1 and be done with it. The player will never be quite sure what happened anyway.
Uhhh, you're not telling me to scrap the counter-attacks, are you?
No, no, this is fine. This is basically a capture mission, which is fine. If you do ever turn this into a campaign, the second mission must not be defend this base. The capture and hold scenario has been used too often. This is just capture and watch your back while your doing it, which is fine.
So your saying to remove the Pk and RPG launcher from the selection and add them to the squad?
Yes. The squad should be the strongest possible. Have a few regular AKs in selection to help the player balance the squad as he wishes, but basically the default loadout should be what you would want to take.
Considering there are barracks there, wouldn't another tent look out of place?
Possibly. The trouble is that one tent (or one of anything) always looks out of place too. Sometimes the best solution is two field hospitals. Just experiment a little. Same with the flagpole. I'm not convinced the middle is the right place, but I'm not convinced the current location is right either. Not that either of these is a big deal.
I will try to make one of the groups come later, and I will add civil militia to it. I'm not sure there's too much I can do about the direction, as they are on guard waypoints.
If you can't separate them in space, separate them in time. Give the second one a bunch of move waypoints after the synchroed move one, and before the guard. Make them walk around the houses collecting the militia so to speak.
I was thinking some are asleep (the men in the barracks), while a few guards are keeping watch. What should I do to make it more obvious?
Two loons in safe at the port. Two or three loons on safe next to the M2 which is empty. They are standing still behind the sandbags facing each other: the gate sentries chatting in the dawn before the officer appears on his rounds. (Use a hold waypoint and doStop commands but not for the group leader.) When the alarm goes one gets into the M2, the other two go aware. Inside the base, perhaps an internal patrol of two men on safe. Perhaps two unarmed men with waypoints who have been up all night fixing the trucks. Perhaps two unarmed medics chatting outside the med tent. All have waypoints to take them to get guns when the shooting starts obviously. The point is that for every loon you must think, "Who is he? Why is he there? What is he doing? If I was in that situation what would I be doing?"
the Soviets have only been there for a few hours, would the sandbags really be changed in that short time period?
Dunno, you had some changes anyway like the barrels. Either make it the same or more different, that was my point.
I liked the second shot. I will see what I can do.
The second shot was the one of the BMPs. It has four faults. Firstly, the BMPs were seen to start up in the shot - they should be moving before the camera gets to them. Secondly, the foreground was all just grass, which was very boring. Thirdly, the BMPs were not well placed in the shot, which made it even more boring. They should be about 1/3 of the way up the screen. Fourthly, they were just a bit too far away. OFP has excellent graphics at certain distances, and dreadful graphics at others. Your cutscenes should always take advantage of the sweet spots. Use camera.sqs to zoom in and out and find the best place. Remember what your primary school teacher said to you when you were drawing? Fill the page.
So, who do I listen to?
The one your are more scared of. ;D Nah, it doesn't matter. Very minor point, matter of opinion. Go with your own gut feel.
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So, who do I listen to?
both of us
::)
fluff anything that's storyline to give yourself the widest possble margins.
Be deadly specific and over the top obvious to minor details
Be understated and subtle to anything glaringly obvious.
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Just read the 'beta news' post. If you still need it, I'd love to test the new version. With any luck, I will get to it tonight.
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@Mikero
both of us
Darn, I was afraid of a complex answer like that :P
@Fragorl
If you still need it, I'd love to test the new version.
Feel free to test the mission. I'll welcome comments from anybody.
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Flashpoint v. 1.96
FlashFX and SANCANIM mods running
Cheat savegames
Downloaded fine, blah blah
Overview
Good picture. I like the "Everon Flag". Good summary.
Intro
First of all, on a personal note, I was pleased as punch that the Intro actually ran because of some OFP problems I've been having.
Second, the red text was fan-f'n-tastic. I've never encountered it before in a mission. It adds so much. Compared with this, that white s**t is just as ho-hum as can be.
Third, I thought all the camera work was excellent.
I could see the Russian camp was the base south of Levie on Everon, not Kolgujev, but some people won't and that doesn't matter anyway because I realize Kolgujev looks nothing like Everon and the Intro has to be on Everon, so forget I mentioned it.
I can only think of two small faults. The final line "You are the commander of the central invasion group" is a bit anti-climactic. I mean, the phrase "central invasion group" just isn't that….well, powerful or ‘charged' I guess. It just left me thinking, "Oh, hmm, the central invasion group, well I guess that's nice." What I mean is, maybe consider changing it to "The spearhead" or "The central assault", something with more muscle.
Also, I noticed that the Everon Army dudes where just standing alert with guns drawn by the sandbags. Why? Do they know the attack is coming? Does Everon suspect war is imminent? Why else would they have any soldiers out and about?
Briefing
Great briefing. All necessary information. I like how you explained why I don't have any air cover. Thoughtful. Not much else to say except that it looks very good.
Mission
OK I'm going to keep the "story" part of this review short.
Was about to attack base when it occurred to me that perhaps it would be better to attack Entre Deux since there are no towns/bases north of it from which I might be flanked. Left for Entre Deux.
Positioned myself on the hill just above the town. Killed a T55 and M113. Slaughtered two squads as they crested the hill. Waited for some outlying patrols to come running and killed them too. Went down into town, got shot in the shoulders or something. Killed some guys….got killed a couple of times by guy who shot me through the MASH tent. Was really pissing me off.
My guys are fighting them outside of town. I'm trapped in a house, with no ammo. An enemy guy walks in and spots me. I crawl up to his legs so he can't get me. It looks like I'm begging for mercy. I push him out of the door and grab a gun and waste him. God that felt so good. I emptied a whole clip into his body. It was therapeutic. This turned out to be a big battle- I think a lot of patrols came in from the countryside to fight- I saw a lot of guys with flags.
Comment: the aforementioned was really hard- and fun as hell.
Entre Deux is mine. I rearm and heal; no enemies in sight. I wait but no one comes, so I head down to Chotain to scout. I have only seven guys left besides myself, but oh well.
Easily wiped out the smattering of soldiers left in Chotain. Moving on the base at last.
I'm pleased with my decision to take Entre Deux and Chotain first, because now I can hit the base from the south, where I have the terrain advantage.
Attacked the base and annihilated them. Game over.
Final stats: Kills
Officer
Medic
2x LAW
4x Grenadier
4x Machine Gunner
23x Soldier
Mission comments: I have very little to say about this mission that isn't praise. The enemies seemed to be just the right skill level. It was hard, but in the good, not bad, way. There was no confusion about objectives, or destinations, it's very open-ended for the player and that makes for replayability. I really enjoyed it.
Outro:
Good. Liked the flag shot.
Final comment: Not much wrong with it. The things that are "wrong" with it are small and really just ticky-tack stuff. I'll be keeping this on my mission roster.
Thanks.
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Kolgujev looks nothing like Everon and the Intro has to be on Everon
There is nothing you can do, but its a real shame you can't put the intro on a different island. (I know you can fake it with a minicampaign.)
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@Sir Test-A-Lot
Thanks for your beta-test!
I could see the Russian camp was the base south of Levie on Everon, not Kolgujev, but some people won't and that doesn't matter anyway because I realize Kolgujev looks nothing like Everon and the Intro has to be on Everon, so forget I mentioned it.
That does bug me, but as you say, the intro has to be on Everon :-\
I can only think of two small faults. The final line "You are the commander of the central invasion group" is a bit anti-climactic. I mean, the phrase "central invasion group" just isn't that….well, powerful or ‘charged' I guess.
Huh, Mikero liked that last part :P I would prefer to use the words, central invasion group, because those words are used in the briefing, and I think using common terminololgy helps to tie everything in.
Also, I noticed that the Everon Army dudes where just standing alert with guns drawn by the sandbags. Why? Do they know the attack is coming? Does Everon suspect war is imminent? Why else would they have any soldiers out and about?
Good point, I'll put them in safe mode
You have approached this mission a little differently from most people, and I thank you for that. It confirms my mission works the way it should. No matter where you attack, the groups in Entre Deux, Chotain, and the guard groups at the base will attack you, and that is what you saw when you played it. Once those groups are dead, it is easy going. Just the occasional M2 and a few defenders.
Thank you for your comments, they are much appreciated!
@Macguba
Congratulation on your promotion. Does this mean you can lock my thread? :P
-Student Pilot
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Lock your thread, split it up into different parts, delete mikero's posts, ban you, EVERYTHING! Muahahhahahahahah ;D ;D ;D
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;D
I'll be sure to keep on your good side, then ;D
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Macguba will hunt you down and make your life a living hell!!!
HEHE!! ;)
He is a nice guy... he wont hurt a fly (I guess)
Cya
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@Pt
Macguba will hunt you down and make your life a living hell!!!
WHAT! did you get recruited too?
@Student
>Mikero liked it
So did testAlot, he was commenting on the phrase, not it's position, impact, or information content. 3 out of 5 players will hit the escape button and look again at the intro seeing that comment there. The next time thru they'll get an even richer experience of all the detail you put in.
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Hi there!
@mikero
No I wasnt recruited too...
I wasnt ever recruited I always work alone or for others that deserve as Student Pilot and Macguba... :P (in translations i mean!)
Btw @Student Pilot
Can you send me again the files needed? But this time compress them to a zip file... :)
The mail is (if you dunno) sub-zero_evolution_n4@hotmail.com or add me to messenger and send me by there whatever you choose for me its fine! :P
Take care you all!
And friday I am gonna play this mission...
BV
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@PTnbrvieira
Ok, I will resend the files
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Right, beta test v1.40
Intro/outro/briefing
Same as before. I stand by my earlier comments about the russian base in the intro, the soviet politburo in moscow still makes me uneasy, apart from that everything's fine.
Mission
I played through it a couple of times. As I said before, this one's a real exemplar of the genre, if ofp missions can be said to genres.
The first time, I did what I'd wanted to try originally, that is, circling underneath the base on the coast side, reaching the rear of the base, blowing the back fence wide open and charging the resistance from an unexpected angle, cutting them down before they had a chance to figure out where the fire was coming from.
Well, the first part of this went according to plan. I like the fact that you can take down the sentries on the dock and if you do it fast enough the base is not alerted. I did so on the third attempt, and in the process I notice that the watch-tower guards actually climb their ladders once you set the alarm off- i didn't notice that before. It's a nice touch.
After this, however, the plan went awry. I planted my satchel charge alright, but a base patrol had circled round the side of the base to the west, spotted my proned troops, opened fire and killed one or two. Cue alarm bells. I was forced to detonate my explosives prematurely, and order my units to charge in. This is where it really went wrong. The AI, instead of milling about and panicking as I had hoped they would, left the front gate in a steady stream and headed straight for my hole in the wall. Unbelievable! Sheer weight of numbers began to tell, as every 3rd or fourth enemy was getting some shots in before he was killed. Even worse, one set of reinforcements began to arrive from the top of the hill. They had the advantage of being able to see right over the entire base and fire on us in a direct line. I decided to surrender at this point.
Retry, this time I resorted to my old method of attack, which I have brought down to a fine art. I was able to kill the road patrol without alerting the main body of troops, get my men into position at my leasure, spot and designate targets, then quickly and effectively take down the first wave of defenders. I then retreated back to my favourite west-facing ridge, ready to see off the inevitable first wave of reinforcements, which I did. One casualty.
I adjusted my position slighly after this to get maximum visibility for the second lot of reinforcements. They showed up in due course and were dealt to. Finally, I was left with killing the remainder of the base defenders (could have been yet another lot of reinforcements that had arrived, i don't know). One final casualty (and nearly me too) as we approched the base - two units were hiding in a bush sniping at us.
Mission completed on entering the base.
In conclusion, this time around was quite similar to last time, with the difference that the reinforcements were a little more staggered, and one or two enemy waypoint structures were a little different to what I remember. Without dePBOing the mission, I can't be sure. From my point of view, there was only a little improvement in this version, but I may have overlooked something; keep in mind I only played it twice this time. And of course, the mission is all but completed. It's an enjoyable mission to play. Almost there, keep it up :thumbsup: :cheers:
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the soviet politburo in moscow still makes me uneasy
I'm sorry, I did mean to remove the "in Moscow" part, I will do that for the upcoming version.
You are correct about the waypoint structures. In the previous version, the waypoints were all scripted. In this version, I use guard waypoints for all but the one group from Chotain.
Thank you for the beta-test! I am glad you enjoyed it, that is most important to me.
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Hey!
I wanted to ask a thing... can any of you send me Red Tide 1.4 because I cant download from here and need to watch the dialogs to translate stringtable right...
Thanks in advance...
Take care
BV
PS::: If the .zip is smaller than 1MB please send it to sub-zero_evolution_n4@hotmail.com
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@PTnbrvieira
I believe I sent you the files, or did you want the whole mission?
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Hi again people...
Me resting now.. uff...what a routine I have!
@Student Pilot
Yeah you did and tomorrow morning around 7am I will start translating...
I really meant the whole mission because I cant download from this link you have here in the post...
Thanks in advance
Take care ;)
BV
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Hi there!
Damn good mission!
I loved it at least I havent finished it but it looks great...
It is a pleasure to translate your mission but the stringtale is getting on my nerves... but ill give his medicine soon! :P
Sorry I cant post a review, first I dunno how to review a mission really... and second is the lack of time... beside the stuff I told ya in the PM now is the training...
Cya
BV
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if you don't know where to start in reviewing a mission, there's a very handy rough guide by the (in)famous macguba - find it here (http://www.ofpec.com/yabbse/index.php?board=23;action=display;threadid=23534).
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yeah thanks I know that but I will try it some other time...
Now is the translation I wanna finish...
Red Tide in Portuguese...HEHE...
And I will only have 1 hour per day of leisure from tomorrow so I cant write something big...
But thanks anyway...
Well gotta go... tomorrow school 7am
Cya
BV
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Anyone needing an alternate site to get this mission can grab it from below
http://andrew.nf/OFP/Missions/Red_Tide_V1_4.zip
(I must learn how to use yabb links (http://links) properly)
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@PTnbrvieira
I'm glad you liked it
@Mikero
Thanks for the mirror :)
@All
I have been working on my latest version, and there are a number of changes I have made. Here is an incomplete list of what I have done
1: The sandbag wall has been moved to the other side of the entrance
2: The flag has been moved more to the middle of the base
3: The H has been moved closer to the road
4: All the men in the base have been put on SAFE mode
5: A delay has been added to the soldiers coming out of the buildings, now they won't come out as the alarm sounds
6: I spotted an error in the alarm script, now it is fixed
7: To those of you who didn't see the M2 reman script working: it appears you were right and I was wrong :tomato:, I have added a few lines of code, so now it should work properly.
8: Empty civilian vehicles have been added to the towns and houses in the country
9: There are now civilian militia in one of the groups from Entre Duex
10: After the alarm sounds, the group from Entre Deux with the civil militia will stop in the town and take on 4 more civil militia. Then they will proceed to attack the player
I don't yet know when I will be ready to release the next version. Real-life responsibilities seem to have caught up with me :'(. Hopefully I'll have it ready by the end of this upcoming week.
-Student Pilot
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Take your time StudentPilot!!
Not even God had time to make the world in one time... He had to rest!!!
Nice flying!!!
Cya
BV
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Not even God had time to make the world in one time... He had to rest!!!
Yeah, but I'm just making an OFP mission, He made the whole universe! ;D
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Yeah, but I'm just making an OFP mission, He made the whole universe! ;D
That's odd. I thought MacGuba never slept?
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Hi there!
@StudentPilot
Sorry the translation is a bit late because today is the final match of football championship and my team has 50% chances of winning...
Hehe just a draw or win left!! SLB!!!SLB!!!SLB!!!
So tuesday or wednesday Ill try to send the files to you...
The stringtable is a bit confusing but ill do it!
Cya
BV
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Good luck to your team!
Take as much time as you need for the translation.
-Student Pilot
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HEHEHEHEHEHE!!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
My team is Portuguese Superleague Champion!!
We are the best...
After 11 years we are again champions!
But well translation on the way...now are 14:43 then at 15:00 Ill continue studying german.
Well it seems I wont have geography test so saturday ill try to send you the translation...
Cya then...
BV
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Hey portuguese translation made!!!
Hope you like it!
Cya
BV
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Thanks PTnbrvieira!
@All
I am having trouble finding time to work on the mission. I am hoping to finish the German translation in the next few days. I think that is all that stands in the way of me releasing the next version.
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>I think that is all that stands in the way of me releasing the next version
that and UberFuhruer MacGuba
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Ok I Finnally get to Test your Mission out Thanks to Mikero's little help Site.
This will be quick since sooo Many have reviewed it.
Overview- Good
Intro- Oh WOW :o Man.... Great Job!!! I loved it.
Briefing-Everthing looked and seemed good to me.
Mission- Well I'm not marching right into the Base. Go West hit a Patrol make it up to hill looking over base. I line my guys up shot. Died. From behind. Urrhhaa!! Good one. Fast forward to 4th or 5th try. ERROR as I die on the road to base by a mini patrol. Error-' (grouploon select_1)knowsabout(_playerloon select_J).?#? 15' Error Zero division.???. It only did that once, because I started from the same place couple more times.
Fast Forward- took base down. Darn Hunter killer script must be, hide over hill shot, run and hide in the woods shot, finnally Hide in Base?? No-way I'll get chewed up spit out. It worked!!! Held base. :D End.
Stats-1760 19min game but really 45 min real time. Few E. Loons 1 peral.
Outro - Very nice! Really liked it. This is a good Mission :thumbsup:
Thanks Mikero for the little helper web site Again!! ;D
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Thanks for the review, sharkyjoe
Thank you for pointing out the error. I had forgotten about it. I think the error is caused only when the player dies before his group has been detected. I have now added a line in the script telling the script to exit if the player is dead.
I am glad you liked the mission.
Thanks
Mikero
for the little helper web site Again!!
Yes, I have to add my thanks here, too.
>I think that is all that stands in the way of me releasing the next version
that and UberFuhruer MacGuba
lol
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>Thanks Mikero
>for the little helper web site Again!!
trust me, to see you active on the board again because of that site is all the reward i need, but thank you anyway.
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Benchmark 6410, ECP, Vet mode, no super AI, cheat saves
Haven't read the whole thread so forgive me if I'm stating the obvious.
Overview- good, nice pic
Intro - Ooooooh. Nice one, a lot of care and attention gone in here.
Briefing/Notes- Briefing is all good and the Intel, this is getting interesting with the radiomen.
One thing that slightly jarred with me was the mention of counter-attacks from Entre Deux and Chotain. I would have preferred it to say something like " I have to watch for Counter attacks from…" as opposed to " hope I can stop the counter attacks from…" . I thought it implied a little of how this was made as opposed to how it plays. That's being very picky though in an otherwise perfect setup.
Mission- It is apparent that I've spent too much time in the editor and not playing this damn game. :-X This took quite A FEW retries. ;)
First time I decide to go west then south and have to resort to shoot and move tactics after one of my loons gets spotted and all hell breaks loose. Notice lookout posts being manned after alarm goes off, nice touch and I'm glad that alarm isn't looping.
Tanks come barrelling down the hill and take out most of my squad, an option to surrender appears. Nope. They'll never take me alive. They don't. I die.
Restart and head up the beach for a full on assault. Get spotted, lose a few, sneak round the back pinch some grenades from the trucks and fire up the base. Sneak back around to see the tanks at the base. Go to get my RPG ready and hit surrender by mistake. Nice little outro plays and I'm gutted. I was just getting into it, what about having surrender as a radio call instead? It's too easy to hit it in the action menu.
Same tactic next time but lose most of my squad on the way in. Not a noble strategy I know but I ended up hugging the fence on the southern end of the base and shooting from there. My entire squad has died. Finished off a few stragglers and mission ended. Outro played, nice one.
Slick and well presented are my impressions. It's quite tough and the loons have an uncanny nack of knowing where I am but that's a good thing! I don't know the history of this mission but this version seems pretty top notch to me.
:thumbsup:
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I would have preferred it to say something like " I have to watch for Counter attacks from…" as opposed to " hope I can stop the counter attacks from…" . I thought it implied a little of how this was made as opposed to how it plays.
Good point, I agree with you, I'll change it.
Thanks for the review, MrN! I am glad you enjoyed it.
@all
I am sorry for the delay. I have been busy with another project (http://www.ofpec.com/yabbse/index.php?board=12;action=display;threadid=23975)
I think once I am done with the translation, I will submit the mission to the missions depot. This mission's beta testing has gone on for a long time, and I think it's about time to move on. Thanks to everyone for beta-testing the mission!
-Student Pilot
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>I thought it implied a little of how this was made as opposed to how it plays.
wow! This is one of my pet hates, and I missed it. Good one MrN
:D :D
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Red Tide has been submited to the missions depot.
File size: 371 kb
List of changes includes:
1: Now in Portuguese! (Due to OFP's lack of support for the Portuguese language, I have had to make a seperate mission pbo to accomodate the language, hence the larger mission size)
2: The sandbag wall has been moved to the other side of the entrance
3: The flag has been moved more to the middle of the base
4: The H has been moved closer to the road
5: All the men in the base have been put on SAFE mode
6: A delay has been added to the soldiers coming out of the buildings, now they won't come out as the alarm sounds
7: I spotted an error in the alarm script, now it is fixed
8: The M2 reman script should now work properly
9: Empty civilian vehicles have been added to the towns and houses in the country
10: There are now civilian militia in one of the groups from Entre Duex
11: After the alarm sounds, the group from Entre Deux with the civil militia will stop in the town and take on 4 more civil militia. Then they will proceed to attack the player
12: Briefing notes changed from "hope I can stop the counter attacks from…" to "I have to watch for Counter attacks from…"
13: Comments added to some scripts
I didn't change the BMP scene in the win outro, and I haven't commented all the scripts. I will probably not change these two items, as I don't have as much free time as I used to, and all this mission adjusting is getting a little tedious to me with no really obvious benefit.
Note to any remaining beta-testers:
This version will most likely be my release version. If any of you test the mission, all I am looking for is to make sure no error messages show up. I am not looking for suggestions to improve the mission any further. If I get no replies to this thread saying there are errors in the mission, plan on me submiting the mission by Wednesday or Thursday.
Thanks to all the beta-testers who have tested the mission!
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>Due to OFP's lack of support for the Portuguese
I thought it was just a case of adding to the end of the csv strings?
If not, this is a seriously bad oversight to be restricted to 6 or so.
btw, that would not be true of the two html files, they would 'understand' html.whatever
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Well there is a way to put OFP recognizing Portuguese Briefings and Overviews... but I lost the post where Macguba said that (guess was him)...
OK! I will try this mission as soon as my tests are over and my ankle gets better! I cant sit because any movement I make my ankle hurts... ByeBye training!
Wish you luck with the mission, and any problem with the Portuguese translation just ask ok?
BTW how are your flight lessons going on? Hope well
Well cya lads..take care...me back to books!
BV
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I downloaded Macguba's Um-Impossible mission, and in his readme he said something like: For users whose language is not supported by OFP, rename the briefing and overview to briefing.english.html and overview.english.html, and then rename your language's briefing and overview to briefing.html and overview.html.
Of course, his exact words were much better than what I remember ::)
So in short, I did that for the player already. All the player has to do is install the pbo and play the mission ;)
I'll be sure to ask if any problems with the translation come up.
-Student Pilot
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Not too keen to tell you anythng further because you might change it again! ;D
liked the flag carrying soldier and the civilian militia enhanced this mission even further. That was a very nice improvement indeed. Soon as I saw them I then became much more aware of it being a russian invasion of an independent country rather than just-another them vs nato. Very nice indeed.
Only played it straight, and took the base etc. It remains a favorite mission of mine and I'm off to attack the towns first (but I'm not going to report how i got on)
elements of hunt the last loon at end, all my squad dead and last three loons were
one lying down behind machine gun east side, only reacted when i got near him
one in extreme sw corner standing as if he was in the lookout at some point
one on other side of the sw corner lying hidden in bush (there were two, but 1st was swiped very early in mission). these two 'normally' come round corner. They didn't this time. (safe mode?)
outro did no show any LST, that's up to you, and, my favorite bit with the parked wrecks and radiation signs was very short and very blurred. A shame.
As far as the portuguese is concerned, I would have fudged that and made it 'Spanish', so that it could remain as a single pbo. Most of them speak or understand the other's language enough to make it a slamn dunk integration for game play. You'd get a bit of huffing and pufffing from both sides of the fence but it would ultimately make it better integrated. It's not your fault ofp is primitive in this regard.
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As far as the portuguese is concerned, I would have fudged that and made it 'Spanish', so that it could remain as a single pbo. Most of them speak or understand the other's language enough to make it a slamn dunk integration for game play. You'd get a bit of huffing and pufffing from both sides of the fence but it would ultimately make it better integrated. It's not your fault ofp is primitive in this regard.
*cough* *cough* Well are you living in XX century?
Portuguese people dont speak spanish (only people next to the fronteers) and yes we understand as good as spanish people understand portuguese.
= 0 in military terms... ask a spanish guy if he knows how to say recon and all those things in portuguese...
Cya...just to say that!
BV
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Pretty much irrelevant PT in terms of integrating 'a' language into a common pbo. You could choose French for all I'd care. A single file to maintain, and a single comment in the ReadMe to say "if you want the Pongolian version of this mission, select 'spanish' in your config.
simple as that.
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yeah but Mikero thats my problem...
I dunno how to put portuguese in the config!!!
Cya
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elements of hunt the last loon at end, all my squad dead and last three loons were
one lying down behind machine gun east side, only reacted when i got near him
This guy usually survives the M2 exploding, so I usually take him out as I enter the base. If I don't he usually shoots me. I'm not sure why he was shy around you.
one in extreme sw corner standing as if he was in the lookout at some point
The idiot probably fell down ::)
one on other side of the sw corner lying hidden in bush (there were two, but 1st was swiped very early in mission). these two 'normally' come round corner. They didn't this time. (safe mode?)
Are you sure it was the sw corner?
THobson suggested something in one of his earlier posts, and I think I will implement it. He suggested a script that joins one group to another when the number of soldiers in the group gets low. I think I will set a trigger to fire the script when a certain number of soldiers are left in the base.
outro did no show any LST, that's up to you, and, my favorite bit with the parked wrecks and radiation signs was very short and very blurred. A shame.
I'll see what I can do to lengthen it
As far as the portuguese is concerned, I would have fudged that and made it 'Spanish', so that it could remain as a single pbo. Most of them speak or understand the other's language enough to make it a slamn dunk integration for game play. You'd get a bit of huffing and pufffing from both sides of the fence but it would ultimately make it better integrated. It's not your fault ofp is primitive in this regard.
I was thinking of originally doing this, but then I read the readme to Macguba's Un-Impossible mission. Also, do most portuguese people play with the Spanish settings, or the english ones?
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Jeez I'm good to you 8)
the only thing stopping you using Pongolian is the incredibly
simple problem that 'Pongolian' is not listed as a language in the OFP preferences gui
ALL you have to do is edit the flashpoint.cfg file in the main flashpoint folder with notepad and change
Language="Pongolian";
in this case 'pongolian' = Portuguese
simply name your overview and briefing as per .Pongolian.html etc etc
in the csv file (you are using a csv file n'est pas?) add the obvious
LANGUAGE,English,French,Italian,Spanish,German,Comment
=
LANGUAGE,English,French,Italian,Spanish,German,Pongolian,Comment
then, naturally, and of course, add pongolian to each of your strings.
no applause please, just throw money
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That's true, Mikero, but, then someone has to do a translation for every line in the stringtable.csv that is located in the bin folder. And that's a lot of stuff to translate. :P
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THANKS MIKERO!!!!!!!!!!
All Hail Mikero!!! \o/
Now I can use my own Briefings...in Portuguese. The most beautiful and wonderful language in this world!
Well yeah thats a lot of stuff to translate but not impossible, just assemble a team of translators and it's easy...
I guess ofp.brasil.com have translated that... to bad they speak portuguese but in a brazilian way that is different to the REAL portuguese...
Well again thanks... cya mates take care
BV
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Let's stay on topic, shall we?
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That's true, Mikero, but, then someone has to do a translation for every line in the stringtable.csv that is located in the bin folder. And that's a lot of stuff to translate. :P
fortunately that's not your problem :o, it's a project separate to red tide, but the engine will default to the first language string found if it can't find the equivalent. As far as your portuguese version stands all you have to do is copy/paste the already done STRN_ 's in the portuguese version back into your 'standard' pbo and you will get exactly same result as if just playing you're specialised language pbo but without the agony of maintaining two branches.
The bin csv isn't that big actually, it's mostly single words and only has to be done once, forever more. If pt wanted to do it (and he should), it's a separate thing but a nice touch for the future.
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Mikero, I am saying stop this stuff about Stringtables, it doesn't belong in this board!
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@MachoMan
Forgive me if I am wrong, but isn't Mikero helping me with a certain aspect of the mission? I do have a stringtable in my mission, and Mikero is giving me suggestions to make it better.
-Student Pilot
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@macho
of course it belongs here, it directly relates to Pilots use of TWO pbo's and a suggestion on how to improve it into a single one.
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This board is for suggesting improvements, short explanations perhaps, but not for page long discussions about editing. Editing topics go in the editing boards.
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@Mikero
The bin csv isn't that big actually, it's mostly single words and only has to be done once, forever more. If pt wanted to do it (and he should), it's a separate thing but a nice touch for the future.
Well translations for me... well NO WAY!!!! I have so many projects pending and now the biggest one (see signature)... its too big to translate IMHO!!
@Topic
Student Pilot as soon as I can Ill try to test this version... hehe :P
As soon my tests finish and I deliver all my paperworks Ill do it!!!
Take care lads
BV
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I'm backing out of this, Macho is the moderator and has to be respected.
I believe he's wrong because, as a moderator he hasn't time to delve into the mission proper but only glance, as he has to do, at the subject material of hundreds of messages.
If you need to Student P, we'll continue this via PM, but it probably isn't necessary.
No further comment please.
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Bit of over zealous moderating if you ask me.
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Ok, I am heeding Mikero's advice. He and I will discuss this through messaging seeing as this kind of help is not allowed here. :(
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You are always free to start a topic in the editing boards.
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Well I have been overruled, apearently you are allowed to discuss editing topics in here, so feel free to continue to do so, as long as it's in relation to the beta mission at hand, ofcourse.
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@Mikero
outro did no show any LST, that's up to you, and, my favorite bit with the parked wrecks and radiation signs was very short and very blurred. A shame.
I want to make sure I get this right. Are you talking about the opening shot?
All I have to do is lengthen your favorite scene and the next version will be ready.
-Student Pilot
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@Student
yes, the outro where bmps are landing from the sea. It didn't seem right that no large LST or three were sitting out there. It's very minor, pilot, others would argue it's unrealistic. The eye candy jarred for me without them.
The parked wrecks just looked so damn interesting, it was a nice touch which you always do so well.
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The 'undocumented feature' of an empty machine gun has reared it's head again three times this last few weeks on other missions. I hope you're providing a small tutorial to Ofpec on how to get round it.
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@LST
I didn't put the LST in the scene because, AFAIK, the landing ships are kept away from the shore. I always thought they would be 10-20 miles offshore. Someone correct me if I am wrong. Or, if more of you beta-testers feel the same way Mikero does, I'll add them in. It should be very simple to do so.
The parked wrecks just looked so d**n interesting, it was a nice touch which you always do so well.
I have been thinking about this. In the opening scene, how would you like it if I started the camera closer to the base, made it pan slower, and let it pan for a few more seconds so the player can see the wrecks and the base?
The 'undocumented feature' of an empty machine gun has reared it's head again three times this last few weeks on other missions. I hope you're providing a small tutorial to Ofpec on how to get round it.
Oh no, now you want me to write a tutorial? :noo:
-Student Pilot
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>Oh no, now you want me to write a tutorial?
anything that stops you fiddling with Red Tide is a good thing(tm) 8)
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anything that stops you fiddling with Red Tide is a good thing(tm) 8)
Lol, ok, I have decided to submit Red Tide to the missions depot. The changes in the release version are as follows:
1: I have added a script that, when the number of base defenders are less than 5, tells them to move to the flagpole. Hopefully this will stop the last loon bug.
2: I have found a strange error in OFP. Several times when I attempted to destroy the M2 Machine gun with a rocket, the rocket would explode several meters to the side of the M2. I found out the following:
When the gunner is MoveInDriver'd to the gun, the rocket explodes at the point the gunner was moveindriver'd from, or from his position in the squad, whether his special was set to "none" or "in formation", repectively. To fix this I set his special to "none" and set him over the gun in the mission editor. I then checked the guns in the towns and made sure they were all correct. I don't know if this is a common error or something wrong with my PC. But whatever it was, it is fixed.
Thanks to all those who beta-tested Red Tide!
-Student Pilot
@Beta Testers:
If I have not mentioned you in the readme, please accept my sincerest apologies and send me a message so I can add your name in.
Edit: This mission has been reviewed and is available, with required addons, from the Missions Depot (http://www.ofpec.com/missions_depot/index.php?action=details&id=29).