OFPEC Forum
Missions Depot => Mission Discussion => OFP - Reviewed Missions => Topic started by: greg147 on 17 Mar 2005, 23:07:32
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Hi all,
This is a tank mission with a difference ;)
It plays on Everon, and you take the role as a M1A1 .50 cal Machine gunner.
The problem is theres not much freedom, as you can only go where the tank you're .50 cal is mounted on to goes. :P
It requires only two addons, one of which (M1A1 w/ MG) is included in the zip. The other is editorupdate1.02.
Editor update 1.02 http://ofp.gamezone.cz/index.php?showthis=2542
Edit: Use either General Barron's (http://www.ofpec.com/ed_depot/index.php?action=details&id=157) or Mikero's (http://www.ofpec.com/ed_depot/index.php?action=details&id=158) Editor Updates.
Also, unless you edit mission.sqm yourself, you will need 88.pbo from Bunker Pack 4 (http://ofp.gamepark.cz/index.php?showthis=2596).
I used OFP v1.91 with it.
This was my first mission that had a scripted intro aswell ;D
But I'd like to be able to improve it.
Any suggestions would be great ;)
http://www.freewebs.com/gregneath/crushed.eden.zip
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=71).
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The addon .rar file is damaged, is there anywhere else I can get it from? Can't really find it using google.
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Ok, I decided to play this mission with a difference. I have to say I sure was different! The player's role is an interesting one. When I came across this addon, I had hoped there would be a mission for it, now there is. :)
I got an error message on start up, it appears I'm missing cbt-crew. I think this is an addon error, and has nothing to do with the mission.
Intro:
Couldn't see it, as the error caused the mission to skip the intro.
Briefing:
Good enough for me. I'm not too picky with briefings.
Mission:
We started out, and I soon realized that this addon is difficult to use. It was difficult aiming the machine gun, especially with the turret moving around. We clear the first objective, and move past the observation post. We don't stop to clear it, and leave a few men alive. We attack Lamentin. All goes to hell very quick. Tank fire erupts, and a fierce firefight ensues. In the end, every other Abrams but mine was destroyed, and all the Soviet tanks were destroyed or disabled. At the end of the fight, I got this error message:
script: erase.sqs not found
It didn't seem to effect gameplay, so I continued. I soon found myself the commander of the tank, and my squad leader, I think, was the driver (don't ask me how that happened) ::). There was no gunner, so it was tedious trying to destroy the counter-attack with the main gun in a fixed position. I finally accomplished this, however, and the mission ended.
Debriefing:
Score: 13200
Duration: 16 min,
All objectives were accomplished
Kills:
T72
BMP
5 x Officer
3 x RPG Soldier
11 x Machine Gunner
2 x Grenedier
4 x Crew
15 x Soldier
Casualties:
10 casualties.
Comments:
Everything but the erase.sqs script seemed to work. I wasn't able to view the intro, so you will have to wait for someone else to comment on that. The mission was fine, but the awkward handling of the M1 machine gun was frustrating at times. This, however, is not your fault.
The mission name is a little long, it does not fit on my missions list, nor does it fit in the briefing. You may want to shorten it.
I really liked the idea of the player being the machine gunner! :thumbsup:
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Thanks for the comments! :)
I thought I took out all the units with erase.sqs in them, but I must have missed one ::)
I'll look into it and change the missing addons stuff aswell. ;)
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OK, the new version is avalible to download above. The intro should work now, and the last 'eraser.sqs' guy has been deleted. ;)
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Thank you wildebeast!
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Oh my god! Hilarious! The addon has stuffed up, or something. Pressing 'eject' somehow launched the turret off the top ot the abrams into outerspace, with me on it...
Except, by moving the mouse, i can guide the trajectory of the turret...
Now i can fly, like superman!
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Oh my god! Hilarious! The addon has stuffed up, or something. Pressing 'eject' somehow launched the turret off the top ot the abrams into outerspace, with me on it...
Except, by moving the mouse, i can guide the trajectory of the turret...
Now i can fly, like superman!
The same thing happened to me. The cool thing was that you were the "driver" and a loon was the gunner. Moreover I couldn't play the mission at all. When you start you start in the tank, but like I said another guy is gunner. You are standing inside him. The turret of your tank has some errors too. Since you were unable to fire I tried to eject and levitated away.
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Ah you see, I know where your going wrong now.
Wildebeest, could you delete your post with the abrams link? Its the wrong version. If you use the correct version (the one i gave a link for), then it will work fine.
In the version you gave, you cannot start as gunner. In the one I gave, you can. ;)
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Aight, sorry. Didn't think of that. But the effect of the wrong addon was kinda cool anyways :)
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Yeah, I might even get the old version and try it. ;D
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Twas ;D Sorry to go so off topic, greg, but i have to mention this:
Movement in the flying turret:
Prone: You can guide the flying turret in the direction you face; you travel at the same speed as a tank. You can also fly up/down by looking
Standing up: You gain altitude quickly, but don't move forward much. Good for when ground troops start trying to shoot you down
Kneeling: You rise but more slowly, this is the best method for accurate shooting. Plus, of course, you have the machine gunner.
If you touch the ground, you 'stick' to it. Standing up now allows you to walk round normally, pick up weapons, etc. To re-launch yourself into the air, grab an rpg or law launcher, and select it. Voila! Airborne again.
Anyway, sorry for the OT, i will get the addon and test seriously... :P
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You could make a whole new mission out of this ;)
The Russian army has developed a top secret floating Machine gun turret. HQ wants you to go in, steal it, and fly it back to base undamaged.
;)
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;D ;D ;D
Edit: You know what it put me in mind of? Those drones that the USA gets in C&C Generals, like the Spy and the Repair/Assault drone. You knid of orbit the tank, scanning and elimintating any concealed AT soldiers... :P
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I still don't get it. What may allow an addon to fly away like that? It's funny. ::)
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Anyway, back on topic, anyone else want to give it (the mission, not the flying MG) a test?
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It's funny but I haven't tested it yet. I will as soon as I find some time, I promise. It seems really fun. You can go ahead and test my mission too if you feel like it: La Delivrance. Look for it on this board. :)
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Aight, here's my review:
Overview
Nice, the text makes you want to play the mission, since the concept seems different. You might want to pick a shorter title for the mission though. You can't see all the words in the mission list. The photo is nice but I would like to have seen it in passpartou, that is to say with a white "frame". And perhaps the photo should have been that of a real M1A1.
Briefing
You get a good idea what to do. It's short but everything you need to know is in there. Some grammar mistakes and such though:
"Will a attack", should be "Will attack"; in "Then, move onto... then along" you should consider replacing the second "then" with "continue", since repetitions are never nice; "linking up" should be "to link up" since it's not proper grammar; "thisroute" should be "this route" and also a "," after "route".
I liked the notes section because the personal letter gives you a feeling of realism.
Intro
Just a quick zoom in on your tank. I don't care much for intros but it's nice to see yourself in the gunner position.
Playing the mission
Aight, I'm in the tank. I play in super duper veteran mode so I can only use the iron sight of the M2. We get a silent radio message that we are moving onto the objectives. Aight, here we go. The tanks roll on at good speed. You feel the power of the vehicles!
We approach Le Moule and before I can see the village the tanks open fire at the enemy. We then advance farther into the village. I MG down some bastards crawling around, but there's never any real danger of dying. At first, I had some problems hitting anything. I then discovered that the sight of the M2 wasn't like other iron sights: you need to aim lower.
Again I feel the furiousness of the vehicles as they blow the whole village to shreads, sweet! :gunman:
We proceed toward the observation post and I MG most of the guys lying there. I think this was a little strange. Why were they just lying there? And why didn't I see any RPG guys there?
All the tanks open fire at the MG and miss, over and over again. Trees fall and the sound of the shells is like thunder. Finally the MG explodes, we get a radio message to move on and the tanks do this.
We join up with the infantry and await the others.
The assault on Lementin becomes a massive one. Ruskies are flying everywhere from shell blasts and I must honestly say I was having problems hitting anything. My tank wanted to do all the killing itself so it was not easy to aim. It became like an eager battle horse. I yelled "Wooohaaaa" and stuff but it didn't help much. I've never ridden a horse. ;)
My computer is an AMD 1800+, 256 RAM, Radeon 8500. The lag was horrible in Lementin, hence preventing me from making a just estimation of the scene.
Anyway, the battle was over quite fast. No friendly tanks had been destroyed that I could see, and I was still alive. We now moved up on a hill to face the rest of the Ruskies who were to make a counter-attack. This was my favourite part, since the tank stood still. I MGed most of the guys coming from the forest and suddenly the mission has ended.
Outro
None, which suits me just fine, although I like outros better than intros.
Debriefing
Told you that you had won and that some M1A1 tanks had been destroyed or damaged. I don't know if you had other debriefings for different outcomes but I don't care much for debriefings anyway. This one was nice.
Conclusion
I had fun, even though I experienced lag and difficulties with aiming. I think the mission was a little too easy. It could have been longer too. You should considering putting some more attackers at the end, trying to get Lementin back. Since you got a vulcan a helicopter could have come and attacked you and dropped some guys off. It would have been fun to MG parachutes, hehe.
Overall I had fun. The power you felt having that tank underneath you, sometimes blowing smoke in your face, was great. Keep up the good work.
Cheers 8)
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Thanks for the review. ;)
I'll take a look at the breifing and change the mistakes you pointed out. 8)
As for the name, I suppose it is too long :-[ Shame really. What do you think of just 'Crushed'?
Before I released the mission here, I did have a pair of hinds attack your platoon, hence the vulcan. But it was too hard to shoot them down with the tank moving and all. Also, the choppers tended to stay out of sight. There should be some tell-tale remains of my former plan in there somewhere, such as the vulcan and some AA guys in the town. ;)
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Hehe, OK. Well, some kind of nice surprise towards the end would be cool. Like "omg, we're gonna die!" and then you probably won't. :)
"Crushed" sounds like a nice title. The tanks really crush everything.
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OK, I've updated the mission. I havn't changed much of the gameplay itself, but i've changed the mistakes in the breifing and changed the name to 'crushed'. Download from the same link on the first post as before. ;D
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Aight!
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I can't download the right addon. It says I don't have permission to download from the server.
I'd like to try this to see this new idea for a mission. ;)
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Have you tried clicking refresh when on that 'acess denied' screen? That works for me ;)
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Got it, cut and paste...
Test soon. ;)
Edit: No full review yet. But I wanted to point out some things.
-overview pic is blurry
-using the m2 is very difficult, especially when the turret is swishing back and forth
-I can't get rid of all the infantry fast enough. I run out of ammo and get shot, either by some rifleman or the M2 east 500m away. Plus reloading kills me.
-Why are these infantry lying down? I'd be in and out of town, not sitting on the dirt going, "ooo big bad abrams. Look at that."
-I like this new POV though. Its fun. :)
Edit2: Soz I haven't reported back. I haven't played it in a while. All I know is I'm the biggest bl--ping target on the map. ;) ;D
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Thanks. ;)
I'm not to good at overviews. The only way I can make them work is to get a picture and in 'paint', make it EXACTLY 128x64, otherwise I get a lot of errors, and have to start again. I have no idea how to change the blurryness. :-[
Maybe I should add some guys running away from the first town. It would be realistic. ;)
The idea was that they were pre-occupied by the US squad approaching from the East. I'll look into the mission and change some more stuff 8)
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Okay, I still haven't finished. I've been away from the comp for a day or so without OFP.
overview: I honestly can't remember, if something was wrong it'd stand out. ;)
intro: none
briefing: Good, just little spelling irks. Got the info across
mission: The mission jolted to life suddenly and some radio pops up quickly. Off we go...
I get within sight of town and the big guns open up. I see infantry and open fire. I kill a lot and finally the other gunners are firing on the enemy. After getting pasted by some bloody M2 way off someplace I put all my lead that way first upon retry. I kill him and just shoot infantry at leisure. Then out pops some T72s behind the houses. What a trick, I didn't see them till we drove around the house. :o
We proceed to the outpost. A few quick shots clears the place. We then set up for Lamenten. We rush Lamentin and I fire madly as the crap is flying. The soviet tanks are sitting with their backs to us...
The abrams lay into the armor and I hit a few infantry. Our grunts haven't been seen yet. ???
Then we park right where the enemy tanks were parked before. And my tank is sitting in a fallen tree and my Machine gun is useless. We won't move for 3-5 minutes and nothing happens so I jump out and shoot 4 ppl before getting a rifle grenade landing next to me. That's where I'm stopped.
Comments so far: Emplaced guns are a pain the arse. Infantry are laying down which is unrealistic. The enemy placement in Lamentin should be rethought. Otherwise I can't think of much else. :P
More later...
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Thanks for the review. I'll get right onto changing some stuff. ;)
You said intro: none
There was an intro though. ???
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right i played this but not all the way through
overview
picture is blury
intro
shows player before the intro
briefing
fine gave me enough info i dont really care alot for briefing as long as it tells me my objectives
mission
this is the annoying part we killed all the infantry and all tanks but one t72 that was flipped upside down somehow but then we got to the edge of the town where the westerns couldnt see the t72 and therefore did not attck
so i got out and looked for an RPG found one t72 destroyed
oh wait where are my abrams going they were 500 metres ahead then i got to the save point. then i ran straighn into lamentin to get my abram back
am i going to make it only 80 metres left oh wait maybe not it accelerated. then again i was close damn i was injured shot in the legs and couldnt run so i tried to crawl to the tank but no i got shot
at that point i thought iw ould not bother trying the rest so if you could change the waypoint abit closer to the town so you could see all tanks.
even thought that happened it was still a good level i liked that adon aswell
keep up the good work
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I think the idea is to not get out of the tank ;)
I'm already making an update, with a chopper in the counter attack and some other stuff. I'll look into your suggestion. 8)
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@intro: Now I remember why I didn't see any intro. I get a missing addon "cbt_crew" I'm assuming COMBAT crewmen?
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Damn. OK, I have deleted the CBT_crew from the intro part of the mission.sqs ( ::) ;)), and I will release a new version as soon as I have finished testing the new one myself :gunman:
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Update ;D
v1.2
Find it here:
http://www.freewebs.com/gregneath/crushed.eden.zip
Copy and paste the link, don't just click it
New features
Outro
Better Overview pic
Less lag in the city (hopefully)
Hind in counter attack
I've also done my best to get the tank to move less. I've put some of its waypoints as 'limited' and lowered its skill ;)
Any comments would be much appreciated :cheers:
Thanks
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Hey greg147,
I get the same error as GuiltyRoachKillar, even with the new version. I took the liberty of removing CBT_Crew from the mission.sqm, but when the intro came up, it gave me this error:
No entry: 'config.bin/CfgVehicles.CBT_comm_base'.
Some CBT addon is required for the intro.
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>cbt_crew
http://operationflashpoint.filefront.com/file/APC_Crew;35571
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Hmmm......i'm looking into it now. :-\
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OK, I have fixed the CBT_crew bug. Thanks for reporting it ;)
The problem was that both CBT crew and normal crew are both named 'crew' under west-units. I had used CBt ones instead of the normal ones :-[
Should be fixed now though :)
Download the new version from the same link as above ;)
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Umm....anyone at all? :-[
I just need one more person to test it for bugs before I release it in the missions dept...
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Sorry. I've yet to test it properly, but will do so at the first opportunity I get (maybe next 1-2 days)
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Hey greg147,
Overview:
Fine
Intro:
Use the fadesound and fademusic commands at the end of the intro so the music and sound don't end suddenly. Also use a black out.
Briefing:
Fine
Mission:
The tank behaved better this time, and it was easier for me to gun down the enemy soldiers. There were a few problems, though. 12 seemed to have gotten stuck back at Le Moule. It may be because of the M2 machine gun at the OP. Even though the gunner was dead, the tanks still wanted to engage it. Because of the lack of support from the other tank, we were outgunned and I wasn't able to finish the mission. Also, I received an error at Lamentin during the battle:
Enviromental sound not found: AECombat 3
As I said above, I wasn't able to finish the mission due to the lack of support from the other Abrams. It may have been a freak occurence, so I intent to test the mission again later today.
Overall:
A good improvement from the other versions. It was easier to aim the gun because the tank didn't move so much. Knock out the sound error and fix the M2 problem, and this mission will be ready for the missions depot.
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Thanks a lot ;D
I'll get right on it ;)
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Had a really bad time getting the addon. Multiple attempts.
consider including it in the mission rar.
showstopper
missing addons SA8-M1
(i have your addon in a mods folder. not ~/addons per se)
Intro:
Good, good orientation of who I am, and, how many I have.
1985
this is, the only time a yeardate can be used. All others are nonsense. What you've done here is given me a situation awareness of where this mission fits in. Well done but never be so crass as to use a yeardate anywhere else, any other time.
Overview:
Double titled. The centred text title is un-necessary, you want to attract my eye to the piccie.
Briefing:
smacked me straight away that it was a good one. Wasn't reading, it just didn't jar, how it all laid out.
Notes:
sorry, forgot to look.
Weapon Selection:
Not relevant on the assumption we stay in tank. And probably inappropriate as gun crew that we could select anything else.
Mission:
Consider dropping bits off the briefing, they're repeated here in radio messages and are a lot more authentic and interesting. Be that as it may, the briefing was very concise, precise. having now played the mission, I dont think, despite the effort you went to, that we need much briefing. I'm never in command, and basically just follow orders.
"At all cost"
sigh, awful.
Music during battle:
dreadful. Kiddie stuff. BUT, i was immersed in game play so didn't notice it till it irritated the crap out of me.
Enjoyed myself immensely in the tank. You scripted well. All I was, was a poor little gunner who would get blown to pieces if you had NOT choroegraphed it so well vs the other tanks. Well done here. Extermely well done, tank battles can be pigs.
Showstopper
Missing addon "AECCombat_3" ambient sound.
Loved the savegames.
Visually great, a very enjoyable ride in one of these things.
Mission began to fall apart, in Lamentin. You did really well here with your scripts. Really well. Eventually I'm told to get out of destroyed tank. The hint is *very* good, normally i hate them.
I'm wounded and have no hope of participating further, there's a counter attack going on, and a nasty chopper, but the AA I crawl to is empty. I'm guessing, there *might* be a mash tent other side of town, dissapointed if you didn't provide one because it's inevitable we'd get hurt. I accept that really, I shoulda dun better and kept my tank alive, but, beta testers will test the what if's, wont we? ;)
Game stops abrubtly while something exciting is going on from where we'd just driven from, chopper I think is still around, not sure on that. Get the feeling you just had to end this, somehow.
Overall.
One of the very, very few tank missions I've enjoyed. I was happy to be sub-private grunt and let it all happen. The enemy ai, what there were of them in first episode were doing what they all do when tanks are about, looking for contact lenses. I think it just comes with the territory. Considering these are Leviathan Abhams: modified, you could introduce a lot more rpg into it. This IS why i'm there isn't it? A repair truck in the background would not hurt one little bit, and could be active in the pause to lamentin.
You underplayed this so that I could get used to my new toy, but I really needed to fight for a living and protect my tank. A few splats wont kill me.
Detest the music, and the end was, well, a "god, how do we stop this thing". But, exciting to play.
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veteran mode, benchmark 5639, cheatsaves, no previous posts read.
on running flashpoint, "Addon 'SA8_m1' requires addon 'psy_mcar'"...
overview - pic acceptable, although you needn't repeat the title within it. border is a wee bit jagged. get 'on' the tank? 'in' surely?
intro - fine, standard flyover, with a wee bit of camera flip at the target switches. i'd suggest stopping the camera, panning to the next swoop, then continuing - much smoother that way. the last shot of the driver could do with being a bit lower and closer, give more of a feel of "hey - that must be me!"
fade the music out - it stops abruptly.
briefing
plan - comma out on next line after "along this road".
lamentin doesn't really need to be linked so often. i can see why you have, and i'd keep the links in the objectives for quick reference, but since the map's not scrolling out of that general area, lamentin is pretty much visible all the time. no need for the last link in the paragraph.
i would also provide a link to the fuel station mentioned, since the route the secondary team will take is linked.
that last objective is a bit awkward. use "hold the city at all costs" or "be prepared for possible counter-attacks".
notes - 'gunfire' is one word isn't it? is it? i dunno. could be both, i'm just used to seeing it as gunfire. otherwise dandy.
and irritatingly enough, no spelling errors - so far :P
mission - phew, pretty bouncy up here. and quite exposed, as the notes pointed out. killed on the first attempt. hmph. can i turn in and hide? nope.
tricky to aim, especially with the main barrel throwing up a cloud of smoke each time it fires. but we're progressing well. take the first town with no casualties. up the hill, take out the group lying there. it strikes me that there are no rpg loons firing at us.
over the hill, typo in the titletext - "here comes our infantry boys..." should be 'here come...'
we start on lamentin, my view of an enemy uaz (which has been marked and not attacked by any of the tanks told to blow it up by the group leader) is nicely obscured by the trees, music starts and we roll down the hill - error box "Environmental sound AECombat3 not found". doesn't crash though, so on we roll.
i'll retract my previous comment about the lack of rpgs - they're flying around like midges here. my tank is toast and i clamber out, peep round a corner and am sent skyward by a bmp.
another retry and we get the bmp (and i ping half the russian army despite the guy in my turret doing something like a samba in there) and then zip, a tank gets me. cha cha cha.
fast forward to about 10 retries later, and the same tank keeps getting me. no-one seems to take him on, and not being in command, i can't do anything about it, except maybe jump out prematurely and leg it away. which is no fun, but here goes...
i jump out, view the carnage from relative safety, friendlies dropping like flies, everyone down. so i think hmmm, what now? i know! i'll take them on myself! banzai! have to rearm though, so i think right, retrace my steps, maybe get something around le moule. so i leg it into the woods only to find myself confronted by a rather large squad of nasties.
luckily they didn't spot me (even though i almost ran straight into them), so i prone it away to the other side of the woods. WTF?! another patrol standing there waiting, as if they knew i'd be going that way. from this distance they could be friendlies... but with no binocs i can't tell... please please always give the player binocs...
meh. let's save the game and find out if they're friendly.
they are. and they're just standing there. ho hum. i should tell them about the squad in the forest, but can't.
over to le moule, searching for an officer... binocs, binocs, my kingdom for some binocs... got them, now for some rpg action... none to be had. so i grit my teeth and decide to take on the squads in the woods. and here's a funny thing. i went right up to them and not one of them shot me. not one. i danced, i pranced, i shot each one of them in the head as they lay there. no rpgs to be had here either. hmmm. i wonder if i'm setcaptived...
soon find out.
exit the woods, and find a ruined chopper. cheatsave just in time, as it transpires i am not in fact setcaptived.
i take the coast into lamentin, pop the guy lying beside the jeep, round to the church, ping another guy, up into the bell tower to see what i can see. not much. back down, search the bodies and finally find an rpg with one single round left.
luckily there's a heavily damaged tank round the back of the house i hid in. i take it out and get a message that the russians are retreating, there's a counterattack coming from the east - could that be the bunch of guys in the woods i just massacred - and reinforcements in the form of a vulcan. eta 5 minutes. i think i can hold on that long...
nope. i can't. after a few more retries i realise i'm outnumbered and beginning to tire of picking off loons one by one from miles away in a town from which the enemies were supposed to be retreating. i could run away (again) but there's limited fun in that. i may finish this later on.
overall - pretty fun, up to lamentin. lots of trees to block my line of sight, a gunner with involuntary spasms, and friendly loons who seem to be useless at firing at other tanks.
i suspect the squads near the woods were reinforcements and suchlike, but you could perhaps allow for the player blundering into them as i did, maybe enable joining their squad and triggering their waypoints?
and finally, an indication of some sort of starting base would be nice, so that if all else fails, the player knows that s/he can get back there to restock and rearm and try to complete the mission as a one-loon army. i realise in a small-ish mission such as this you don't really need to indicate the whole story behind why the tanks are there in the first place, but as far as the mission logistics goes, i had no rpgs, no transport - unless you count a ruined tank over which i have no control - and no medical/repair assistance. a temporary outpost behind the start position would solve all this.
all in all, pretty good. although i'm not really sure what the tank machine gun addon is adding to this other than a bouncy way of getting shot. ;)
EDIT - went back to it, cleared the entire town, took out the chopper hovering out at sea, there's one solitary tank left, i've thrown all my rpgs at it, i've scooted back to the friendly squad near the forest only to find them still there and lacking any law launchers... bedges wonders to himself how many grenades it'll take to blow the tank and whether or not the mission will even end once it's gone...
went back to a previous save giving me that one last rpg back, blew the tank and completed the mission. whoopee.
outro - again, standard flyover. quite a sight? hmmm. some more movement of engineers and cleanups and suchlike might have been nice. the music ends abruptly again too. a good few seconds of both intro and outro are spent flying through trees, which can be atmospheric so long as it doesn't last too long, which in this case i think it does. just my opinion though. all in all, a good romp. :)
http://www.tumeric.co.uk/mrb/flashpoint/debrief2.jpg
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Hey greg147,
Considering the player can't do anything about enemy tanks, I suggest you lose most of the tanks, and instead add more RPG and AT soldiers. That way the player will make a difference in the mission, not just watching as his tank gets blown up from under him.
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Wow, thanks for the tests everyone :)
@mikero
The problem with the Sa8_m1 has troubled quite a few people. Bearing in mine its only a few megs, I will consider adding it to the zip file. ;)
@Bedges
Damn, I think you ran into the counter attack prematurely. They didn't shoot you because they were on a waypoint of 'hold fire', to stop them RPGing your tank as you approached Latamin. I was trying to camcreate them there after the attack, but didn't have much luck. :-[
@Student Pilot
I see what you mean. I added tanks to make it seem more of a key town, but I could lower their skill to minimum so they hardly shoot at all, just eye candy really ;)
So, thinks I will change for the next version:
Music
The ambience sound has already been removed on the version i'm working on now, as is the fademusic in the intro and outro.
Change the last objective.
More AT guys
Supply base at the start
Ammo and medic tents in the town
I was thinking of adding a 'kill player' trigger that activates if he walks into the forest where the counter attack is. An AK74 sound and setdamaging him 1 kinda think. But maybe not :-\
Intro change.
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Greg, it struck me that you're in deep trouble if a quality commentator like Tarados picks up on the intro.
It means all the work you did there wont be seen, noticed, by Joe Grunt.
The problem for us is our antena go into overdrive to pick up on theme, content, howto, because we expect the briefing to be not quite right, we expect something to not be explained properly, so we look for any clues we can find. We miss, (well i certainly missed) the obviousness of how UNDER done the intro was. One glance told me what I needed to know, which was dead wrong of me. Tarados got it dead right.
You need to run that camera up the soldier's underpants and a final switchback to see what he can see.
To quote Macguba, exaggerate the little things, understate the big stuff.
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I still can't get at the addon. What am i doing wrong ??? - the .rar file still says 'archive damaged' - and i cannot find the addon anywhere else. Most other people seem to have it, so culd someone explain? Thanks
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The only way i achieved this miracle was to go the the base website in a browser, and then manually type in the rar, and then hit refresh when it all wouldn't happen.
you can't use accellerators, that much i know.
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Thankyouthankyou mikero! It worked, although I've no idea why. Sometimes I don't understand the internet at all ???
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Ok my turn now
Overview
Nice picture and text
Briefing
Good, the briefing is functional, and accurate, and summarises the situation nicely. There is a notes section. "I can't help feeling bad about this. The mg position is so exposed to gunfire". This will later prove to be true :)
Intro
Since the title now reads 'Crushed', you might want to change the text in the intro to reflect this, unless you still mean to have 'crushed under our tracks' come up as titletext. Otherwise, a decent intro, nothing spectacular, but decent ;)
The action
The little pre-intro is probably unnecessary, but I suppose it gives a little situational placement.
We begin. So, this is what the addon is like! I can now gun, which is an improvement. Our tanks roll towards the first town, opening fire almost immediately and tearing apart a t72. My tank starts machinegunning some unseen infantry, and a moment later they pop into view. I add my gun to the tank's. A second piece of armour of some description is decimated, and by now all 6 of our machineguns are firing at once. Infantry units are snubbed out before they can unprone and flee for their lives. I almost feel I am unnecessary, but it's early days yet.
1st objective is completed without a scratch.
We move off to our left towards the next objective, Things take a turn for the worse as one of the turret gunners goes down in a hail of bullets. Our leader takes a couple of laws to the front and sides. I'm shoot at the culprits, and get some of them, but my gun keeps twitching - the main gunner accounts for most of the rest. I notice a rusky in the tower; he looks back down at me but seems disinclined to do anything. He quickly dies. One interesting consequence of the turreted mg is that the survivng enemy troops atempt to grenade us as we hurtle past. Nice effect; it makes 'em look desparate. Which they are; if this was meant to be an ambush, it was pretty ineffective. Perhaps have the ambushers start further back in the forest, where they are not immediately obvious? Either way, we clear this obsticle.
2nd objective completed, minor casualties.
We meet up with 'our infantry boys' and prepare to assault the last town. Our tank gets stuck behind some of the ground forces, which later turns out to be a blessing. The others move on up. After a short interval, fighting breaks out. Bullets flying past. Tanks firing up ahead. Our infantry clashes head on with the enemy forces. Several rpg soldiers appear on the road, but they're too busy with the infantry to bother with us. I gun them down. More battle noises coming from up front - but our tank seems to be determined to avoid even the chance of getting hit. I'm shooting at the occaisionaly soldier that pops up now and then, but am conscious that I'm not doing a hell of a lot. Further ahead, the others abrams have run into what seems to be the main body of the enemy forces, and are stopping a few rpgs. Our leader loses his main gun, and goes 'status red'. My tanks crushes a tree and suddeny the enemy is exposed to me. I'm firing non stop, don't know how much I'm hitting, but it seems that in conjunction with the main gunner, the firepower our tank can produce is quite fearsome. Unfortunately, I cannot keep up this rate of fire and, somewhere around 2 thirds of the way through the assault I run out of ammo. So I sit back and get a lovely view of my abrams going to work. Soon the heat dies down a bit, and I chance a walk outside my tank. I Manage to score a few kills on foot, as the russian soldiers are too preoccupied with the abramses and the remainder of our infantry. After a short while I judge it wise to return to my seat. A final squad hiding to the north? of lamentin is eviscerated by the M1 that's still in good repair. And the mission ends, abruptly. We've taken the town.
3rd and final objective completed, moderate casualties, one abrams disabled, 2 crew deaths. And a whole heap of our grunts, by the looks of things.
Outro
A wide angle of the city. Some comments about the view and the carnage. Decent camera work. But there's definitely room to expand here.
Overall comments. Well, I want more! playing as a tailgunner as it were was a new experience, and surprisingly fun. But the mission was short! I think Lamentin should be the half-way point, with a rearm/repair, and some replacements, then we move on North east. I'd like to see the player have a wider variety of experiences if possible, perhaps some minefield clearing a la facile ground, or fighting off an AT soldier ambush. Something that puts more emphasis on the player's gunning skills, as opposed to leaving the work up to the player's tank and/or supporting infantry. I never felt as though I was in any danger, sitting in my confy m1a1 (despite the other two tanks taking somewhat of a beating). I'd like to see the ambush (if it was that) between the first and second towns reworked. I think several people have mentioned this already. BUT: the mission has found a niche! Most, I would say the large majority of missions see you as a frontline soldier, tank commander, blackop or combat pilot, and suprisingly few see the player in support roles, ie engineer, medic, or in this case, tailgunner. Some of the most enjoyable missions (for me) involve this aspect to some degree, which is why I liked Crushed. Keep it up Greg!
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Thanks for the review :D
I havn't worked on the mission much as I was away this weekend, but now i'm back i'll finish the updates and release a new version. ;)
As par of Fragorls comment on it being a bit short, I was thinking of another part, but its hard as by then the MG is out of ammo, and there is already lots of dead bodies all over the place which cause lag. (I tried a delete bodies script, but that failed. See the first few reviews ;) )
Oh, and the area between the towns was not ment to be an ambush ;)
It was just ment to be a checkpoint type thing, so I may add some stuff there to make it more obvious, like a barrier and maybe a hut. 8)
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Ah, I see. Well, in that case a 'surprise' ambush would be great, at some stage (would need to fill the mission out a bit though).
As for ammo, if it's impractical to bring up an ammo truck, or if this won't work for rearming the mg, perhaps you can constantly setpos some sort of ammo thing inside the tank, let the player rearm that way? Of course, if I stop and think about it, that might prove to be impossible. Well, I'm sure there must be some way.
And I forgot to mention - that hind that strafes the tanks towards the end of the mission, I was able to bring him down, but that's what really finished off my ammo :P. Perhaps consider a Ka-50 instead? Or several of them even - there's nothing like the thrill of downing a chopper with just your machine gun. If the player was russian, i'd suggest a swarm of oh 58s, and maybe one cobra - they're certainly a real threat to tanks, but if the player shoots right, they can take out the pilot, causing the heli to crash. This comes back to the 'give the player more to do' theme. Unfortunately, apart from the hokum, the russians don't really have any easy-kill helicopters. So inconsiderate of them, plastering armour all over their aircraft ;D
EDIT: there's an addon, i think it's the Mi-2, that would suit the role of cannon fodder well
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I might try the KA-50, but I want to stay on the idea of a gunship. However, I do have the mi-2 addon on my PC right now, so it won't hurt to try it out ;)
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Well, it took some time, as I was away a lot lately, but heres the new version. The addon is now included in the zip file, to save people the bother of downloading it. ;)
http://www.freewebs.com/gregneath/crushed.eden.zip
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Update on the mission, v1.5 I think. Same link as above (if anyone wants to download that is ;) )
Acouple of bug fixes, aswell as a few more enemies in the first town.
Should be good for the missions dept after this. 8)
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OFP 1.96, bench 5895, no super ai
Readme:
very nicely done.
Showstopper
on starting flashpoint
"addon SA8_m1 needs psy_mcar"
Overview:
Get rid of the title in the overview and increase the font size of the red, Crushed. It's noisy as hell with both titles. You can easily cut n paste some blue sky and re enter the text.
Apart from that, very nicely presented. Consider reversing paragraphs, they read far better for me other way round.
BUG
missing editorupdate102.pbo
it's not mentioned as being required
Briefing/notes/group
very, very, nicely done. Very polished, pleasing to the eye which automatically means, readable.
Mission:
slight bug.
you are moving on past Outpost, no matter what. There are still loons there despite your radio msgs to the contrary and there's an annoying target i'm told to hit that I cannot. Get the loons to flee, or, get the tanks to stop and clean them up properly. You don't need to rush this bit, nothing else will happen, gametron wise until we reach the meeting place.
I appreciated the savegame when it came.
I liked the hint
I retried instead and this time we got the town and they were surrendering.
I hope you can do something about that huge radio msg i could not read it because too much traffic noise. What you need to do (i think) is delay the counter attack for as long as it takes to knock out any remaining loons in vicinity, ie, until the tank commands, go quiet. You can easily fix hiding loons by using flee scripts.
It went a little buggy after attack, the chopper damaged us and we all got auto ejected (no hint)
then I get told to get back in tank, which I cannot, it's locked
i die from chopper
retry from cheatsave
no chopper visible, there was a call out once that it was 'somewhere'
this time i remain in tank and totally clean out attackers after my tank goes off to get healed at mash tent.
then some repair trucks arrive and we do ditto, all good stuff.
lastly, I get ejected, this time for no reason I can think of, and get told to get back in as the commander, i attempt to and it's mission complete.
Overall
much better. The briefings and all bells and whistles are polished very nicely, very nicely indeed, you deserve a LOT of credit for that.
there's a bit of a mess at endings on counter attack, I think it might be some scripting issue where you're being a little too clever deciding for me when i should eject. This is my opinion, perhaps you're doing nothing of the sort, but the hint, makes me suspicious. Let me decide when to get out, and it all may come good. If you are play testing this mission, stop trying to kill things youself, you'll catch yourself out by being too good. Play like a Joe Grunt instead, or never fire.
This mission will not recieve a rave if released because of the messy ending, but players who like tanks in this way will hit that retry button over and over to get the end 'right' for them.
fix up the missing addon issues, and release it if you wish, it will be recieved well, probably a 6 rating, or try and work thru the mess just at the end.
Edit:
ooops!
Outro
again, I just plain liked it, the music was great, the title texts perfect for me. I would however make those beasties smoke, they were a little dull just blackened as they were. Smoking, well THAT would be 'quite a sight'
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Thanks for the quick review ;D
OK, so i'll make the tanks stop at the OP for some clearing up, instead of leaving it for the guys that come up behind ;)
When your tank is destroyed, I used the aP unassigncargo "tank1" so when you get out, you're leader doesn't keep saying '5, board M1A1 turret' over and over. That would get annoying to some people, but then I suppose not being able to use the turret again would be too. :P
I'll change that around so you have the choice to stay in it.
When the radio message comes up, I could disable the radio so no more messages come up, and then enable it after 20 seconds or so, so the player can read the message without being disturbed by other messages.
I really don't know how I could improve the counter attack much. Its not that it couldn't be improved, but I don't know what parts to change. Which bits are most annoying?
Oh, and I was also thinking of adding a BMP to the counter attack (http://dynamic6.gamespy.com/~ww2ec/forum/html/emoticons/apc.gif)
Any more ideas of what I could change? 8)
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>pausing at op
I think that is a good idea(tm), the mission plays a little too breathlessly, as in rush rush rush. Let me, the player: enjoy this new experience, test firing the gun, getting used to the buggers underneath swivelling me about :o
That' s not meant to be a criticism btw, you keep it as you see fit, i'd just like it slowed down a little. For instance, as a player, it's not evident that the counter attack is, a counter attack, it's more just a continuous battlefest. Some like that, some do not.
>a choice to stay in it.
I would just prefer to let me decide when i get out, if i dont and get cooked, who's fault is that?
>disable radio msgs.
try it and see, sounds good. I'm not commander, the msgs rarely apply to me.
>annoying counter attack.
I didn't find it annoying in any way, it flowed along quite ok, I would have preferred some delay before it all happened, but the issue of being ejected isn't part of that, nor is my inability to do much about the chopper.
I would, if you haven't done so already, plunk an ammo box somewhere that I can snaffle an AA if I get out of tank, just in case stuff.
One thing you could try is using T80's to bang us out of the tanks so that we have a fistfight with the enemy loons, and exchnage their chopper for one of ours to destroy the T80's.
These are just suggestions greg, the mission played fine for me as it was (with bugs noted)
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you should make sure your not told to get out and get back in the tank as something else you should keep as the gunner after you have taken the town unless this has been done i havent plyed a very recent version
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@mikero:
I guess a minute or 2 between the attack and the counter attack would make the level more realistic aswell. After all, they have just lost a key town, so wouldn't have tons of troops just sitting there after an attack. ;)
There are a few AA guys both in the infantry attack force (alpha) and the enemy have some who started dead, so they are always in front of the church. However, adding Strela launchers in ammo crates (or even just on their own, proped up against a wall) would be a good idea if you ask me, so I'll put it in. :)
The thing about the T-80s killing us:
That would work quite well in a way. But from earlier reviews, people said that I should reduce the amount of enemy tanks, as the player can't do anything about them. However, I could make it so if all 3 tanks are destroyed, friendly choppers come into the action to take out the hind and other tanks, while you battle it out on th ground. :gunman:
@456820:
Ah, but you see, if you are an expirianced tank crew member, and your commander/driver is killed, you would be told to take over his position in reality, as it is more important than the machine gunner. 8)
Unless you mean something completely different that is ;D
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>AA
I mentioned an ammo box *only* because the first version of this game, i crawled to an AA guy only to find the thing used and no chance, my part to fix that. If you've covered it in other ways, that's fine too.
wouldn't have tons of troops just sitting there after an attack.
this is the point where you, the author, are changing from getting a mission to just work, to work properly by developing themes. The basics are put to bed (and they're never 'basic'), and now you have the opportunity to sit back and look at the theme and storyline.
Ridiculous, isnt it, that we bring down hell and firestorm to a town with enemy just waiting a few poetic meters away.
But, you can change that by ambushing us BEFORE we get to the town. As in, well yes, all our nicely laid plans suddenly go splat.
You could, then, add a counter attack from a very long way away, eg, it would 'make sense' that even though we survived the ambush, and even though, we took over town, THEN of course, these other buggers are on their way.
You'll never finsih this btw. Once good foundations have been put in, as they have been, there's always extra bits. A uaz racing out of town to alert the garrison 2 kms away, an Apache stopping T80's before they even get there.....
The central theme was the use, by the player, of this new toy. You haven't quite got that part of the foundation right with ejecting scripts. Ejecting scripts aren't evil, they just haven't been modified by you for all situations.
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OK, I have made hopefully one of the last updates.
AA launchers added to ammo crates in the city, BMP added to counter attack.
Counter attack changed slightly so it has a small break
I managed the radio trick so there are no other radio messages interupting the important ones after capturing the city.
Stopping at O.P
The eject problem has been solved, but the leader still likes to tell you to get out. :-[
Some other stuff ;)
Anyway, I'm not sure I should add much more. Theres quite a bit in it already, and I was hoping to release it and get it review before this comes out:
http://ofp.gamezone.cz/index.php?showthis=8269
So, same link as before. Hopefully 1 more beta tester can give this the final test :thumbsup:
(if I had a muffin for every time i've said that on this topic, i'd have about 3 muffins)
Thanks
http://www.freewebs.com/gregneath/crushed.eden.zip
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Hey!
Outstanding mission Greg147! I have just 3 suggestions for you. For starters: after the first town was alledgidly clear my squad wouldn't move. "Strange", I though. Until I saw that T72 that was disabled, I was planning on getting the marshmellows out! So I had to get out, find an RPG, kill the tank, chase my M1A1 up to the command post in order to board it again. I think this is down to the 'east not present' trigger, not sure though :)!
Sound would also be nice in this mission. I didn't really bother reading the text. It'd be more interesting if the radio chatter was in BLOCK CAPITALS LIKE THIS just like in the old BIS missions :)!
Even though I defeated the mission on the first attempt I would be bugged by having to watch that 'zoom in' scene. A simple 'saveGame' trigger is in order here!
Otherwise, it'll be a great mission! Probibally earning in the region of a 6 to 7! Good job :)!
ProudPotter2490 :afro:
PS: Here are my stats, just in case you want them :)!
Score:-
6200 - 4 'Pearls'.
Time:-
11 minutes.
Kills:-
T72
2x Officer
5x RPG Soldier
3x Machine Gunner
Grenadier
6x Soldier
2x Crew
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Thanks for the review ;D
I will change the radio messages to capitals. ;)
I'm not sure about the problem at the first town. You're the first who's noticed that. I'll see what I can do about it though 8)
Which 'zoom in' scene did you mean? The one right at the beginning? If so, I may get rid of that, and just have a black in scene.
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Hey Greg127!
Lol. The 'first town' problem can be cleared up with a simple '(count units thisGrp == 0)' trigger :).
Lol. Well I am pretty funny when it comes to radio messages with capitals... Don't ask, i'm a little weird ::)! If you add sound it'll be great too. You don't even need a microphone. Just use some text-to-speech programs. "Robot-sound is better than none" I always say :)! Not sure about everyone else though ;)!
The one right at the beginning?
Yep! That's the one ;D. Just add a saveGame trigger and it'll be great. It'd be nice to see some saveGames scattered about the mission too :)!
ProudPotter2490 :afro:
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Ok, i'll get onto it later. Been busy with other stuff recently, so I havn't had a change to work on the mission ;)
@the idea of voices
I do have a text-voice program on my computer, but I was wondering wheither to use it or not. I guess it would be good.
I would buy a microphone and use my own voice, but a 15 year old Brit doesn't sound like a 30 year old American tanker ;D
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>I do have a text-voice program on my computer
name please. It will go in the information vault.
>but a 15 year old Brit doesn't sound like a 30 year old American
all the more reason to give it a go.
play, play, experiment and twiddle. above all, have fun.
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>I do have a text-voice program on my computer
name please. It will go in the information vault.
Well, I found out it got uninstalled from my computer. As you can see on the page, it was only a 30 day trial (although I didn't know that at the time ;) )
Anyway, here it is
Visual Text To Speech MP3
http://www.visual-mp3.com/text-to-speech/download.html
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OK, new and hopefully last version. ;D
Radio messages have been changed to capitals
Begining cutscene changed.
As these are only very minor details, i'm not sure this need that much testing. But if you want to, feel free to ;D
I'll put it on the missions dept later this week if all is OK ;)
http://www.freewebs.com/gregneath/crushed.eden.zip
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this mission, this version, is now also available at
http://andrew.nf/OFP/Missions
for people unable to get it from freewebs
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Thanks Mikero ;D
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=71).