OFPEC Forum

Missions Depot => Mission Discussion => OFP - Reviewed Missions => Topic started by: bardosy on 04 Nov 2005, 08:03:45

Title: (Review Completed) [CAMP] Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 04 Nov 2005, 08:03:45: Campaign name: Yankie Stalker
Islands: Nogova, Kolgujev, Freya
Side: NATO

Delta Force campaign in 11 missions, used the gregorous LASER's Deltas MOD.

Tom Shelter is an American Dream: young, smart, strong and he belive in the democracy and free world.
He use his talents to defend his dream from the Commies and he join to the Special Services and became a member of Delta Force. This is his story...

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Features:

* Exciting storyline
* Intros and outros in the missions, sometimes cutscenes
* If you get a nice weapon, you can use it in the next mission...
* If the story enable: choosing weapon from pool
* Beautiful Addons: LASER Deltas, Red Hammer's Naval Infantry, etc...
* Scripts: Guarding enemy, new action menu features... etc

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Needed AddOns:

Freya Island (bardosy's site (http://lacko.pcdome.hu/Opflash/AddOns/FreyaIsland.zip))
LSR DeRa (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/LSR_Delta_Rangers_200.rar)
LSR Weap (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/LSR_US_Weapons_Pack_200.rar)
LSR DeRa 2.01 patch (http://ofp.gamepark.cz/index.php?showthis=8373)
RHS Naval (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/_hosted/mapfact/rhs/RHS_Naval_v1.00.rar)
RHS Naval patch (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/_hosted/mapfact/rhs/RHS_Naval_Patch_v1.01.rar)
RHS GRU (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/RHS_GRUPack_v1.00.rar)
RHS GRU patch (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/RHS_Inf_Patch.rar)
RHS Weap (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/_hosted/mapfact/rhs/RHS_Weap_v1.01.rar)
C8x (http://lacko.pcdome.hu/Opflash/AddOns/YankieSmallAddons.zip)
SFM Ural pack (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/SFM_URALS.rar)
CBT HMMWV 1.0 pack (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/CBT_HMMWV_V1.0.rar)
CBT Misc 1.0 (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/CBT_MISC_1.0_RC1.rar)
BAS BlackHawk (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/BAS_429_BAS_Blackhawks1_SOAR2_JAM1.zip)
JAM2 (ftp://www.ofpr.info/ofpd/unofaddons2/JAM2.rar)
Patrol boat (Mikero's site (http://andrew.nf/OFP/Addons/mirageboat.zip), bardosy's site (http://lacko.pcdome.hu/Opflash/AddOns/Miraj.pbo))
Sub Target (Mikero's site (http://andrew.nf/OFP/Addons/cwkSubTarget.pbo), bardosy's site (http://lacko.pcdome.hu/Opflash/AddOns/cwkSubTarget.pbo))

See the YankieStalkerAddOns.jpg to full list of needed files.

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UPDATE: 11.10.2006

YANKIE STALKER 1.08 (http://lacko.pcdome.hu/Opflash/YankieStalker.zip)

(http://lacko.pcdome.hu/Opflash/YankieStalker.jpg)

Edit: This campaign has been reviewed and is also available from the Missions Depot (http://www.ofpec.com/missions_depot/index.php?action=details&id=42).

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Known bugs:

1., I use the Freya Island, and this island have no Anim/Intro and if you step back to the OFP main menu, you'll see the last picture from the game. And if you step back to the main menu when the campaign finished with a cutscene (into/ourto) and the last picture was a black screen, you will see noting in the main menu.
I try to contact with the original author of the Freya Island, but unfortunatly he doesn't want reconfigure the island's cpp config file for Anim.
If you are a veteran Island maker and can modify the island cpp config file to insert an Anim/Intro, please send me a PM.

2., In the Mission #9 (Airborne) your men (AI) can't enter to the SF Base on foot. Solve: get in the full group to the HMMWV and drive into the base and then get out the group.

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Ask:

Please test this campaign and report the bugs here! Thank you for your attention.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 04 Nov 2005, 09:15:00: I hope the moderators dont mind this, i think it's directly relevent to this topic, perhaps not.

anims

to fix this you need to grab an innocuous anim that already exists and reference it into freya island. Ther criteria being the anim itself doesn't use anything unpleasant (another addon) I suggest you
use kegetys' island1_anim from his Winter Everon package.

copy that anim folder into your mods\addon directory (you DO use mods folders? right?) the _same_ directory anyway where freya island lives

depbo Freya Island

use notepad to edit config.cpp

look for CfgWorlds

where it says class freya : DefaultWorld add the following line somewhere in it's {body}

cutscenes[]={"..\addons\island1_anim\intro"};

re-pbo the island.

voila
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 04 Nov 2005, 09:45:56: Thanks! I'll try it!!!
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 05 Nov 2005, 02:44:12: OFP1.96, vetmode, no superai , 5685

First let me congratulate you Bardosy on several counts:

You have always been a good, even great, storyteller, with compelling reasons in your stories to WANT to play your missions. (Hungarian uprising eg). This campaign is one only you could tell. It's been done well.

What I haven't liked about your missions in the past is your inability to think as a player, see things in our perspective. You place us in silly start positions and unrealistic conditions, because we need to be 'there' to make your mission 'work'. So far, the two missions I've played, all this has gone. Your mission 'feels' like you have actually played it. This hasn't been the case before.

The other achievement is to use updated models (addons). The list is huge, but, the lag isn't there. And, the models work, everything about these missions is 'right' in terms of updated weaponry, improved candy, and improved scenario. The only other, let's say 'campaign pack' that comes anywhere close to this achievement is the WW2 mods, where everything in them, is consistent with the missions they can be played in. You have done really well here glueing it all together.

I think by far the best thing here is this campaign is upgrading a FIVE YEAR OLD ENGINE with items that would be put in if it were sold fresh today.

Package:

Everything *except* some advertising pictures. We need them and you do too, a picture please first topic, first post.

I found your jpeg of addon pbo requirements more useful than your list of urls. You need both, but since I do in fact have all these addons (often named differently package wise) the jpeg list was *excellent* It saved me heaps and heaps and heaps and heaps of precious time. It was also accurate. It told the truth. Such a list has no value in terms of getting them via url, but it's such a good idea, it should be mandatory as a model to list this as "what's required in your mods folder". I'm going to develop this theme in Beta News, because it really is, very good. I think a list like this is mandatory for missions needing MORE than 3 addons.

The addons

It's huge. With MrN's Super Soldier each addon was in fact upgrade-patches to the earlier ones. I can't say if this is the case for yours. However, I think we all have to get used to the fact that in order to keep ofp alive and kicking as a 2006 game, we have to live with ever increasing addon requirements.

Overview:

A single picture, no titles, no text. Not good, lazy.

Intro:

Good. Spelling *is* difficult, luncher = launcher. The important bit is to get any showstoppers out of this version and then go back to the spelling, it does need fixing.

The intro was very good. It did all the right things in setting the mood and scene. The soundtrack of course was 'just right'

Top Secret

Briefing:

Will make no further comment about spelling and grammar *unless* it deliberately misleads.

This briefing is fine. It is concise and clear. The objectives are clear and straightforward.

Mission

The chopper would not leave it's stationary orbit (after I disembarked) until a retry.

There is a technical collision in the action menu between 'lower goggles' and NVG, both achieve same result.

I was not expecting this level of ferocious defence at the first camp (jeep) I am very pleased.

I did not look too hard but didn't see any means to heal myself if wounded (mash eg).

Got in jeep, retry kicks in, drove to 'officer' hq and ran over two standing loons in road, drove straight thru barricades and the soldiers there ignored me. Have every impression that if I tried this 'trick' again, i would fail.

Disembarked in hedges near lit up fort. Sounds of gunfire at me, behind me, not concerned about them. I think they'll go back to sleep.

Retry kicks in as I approach fort, and so I assume by this I was indeed supposed to attack the barricades first. No trouble.

Crawl into center. lots of armour, tanks are locked, loons are very difficult to shoot with sd, they take quite a few bullets with their body armour. They are somehwat dumbed down. Two sentries at HQ tent, one goes down and the other does nothing at all. This is in direct contrast to the first phase of the mission where loons were alert.

Have no means of destroying bmp. accidentally shoot officer hidden in tent. No message to me, that I stuffed up. Crawl into tent and cutscene hits. VERY GOOD, but killing officer is a BUG you need to fix.

Good outro of course, good intro to next mission. Am left with feeling as a player, not a beta tester, I would go back and try this mission again.

MISSION2

THE CHANGE

this grammatica MUST be fixed because it misleads into believing I have changed to a spetz thru interrogation. you need to alter it to THE EXCHANGE.

Quick check of mission plan, all seems good.

Mission:

At this point Bardosy, I am going wow wow wow, what a story, what a great way of introducing Freya, via the FIRST mission. This, is excellent stuff.

Truck conversation about trade is excellent.

We're ambushed by resistance someway along. I quickly realise that _because_ we're tagged civilians, neither side will shoot us. I grab an AK47 anyway solely so that I can move a bit quicker. All titletext wonderful, except of course the spelling.

Making us part of the resistance squad was an excellent choice. To attempt to follow them any other way trhu a forest is a disaster. Am beginning to suspect now that the 'proper' way to play this mission is in cadet mode (for waypoints). Spot resistance camp and head on in, my officer no doubt will make his way there in due course.

Mission ends as I move into camp with EXCELLENT eye candy of WOMEN civilians. A small detail that made every difference in the world to where I was and what I was doing and who these people were. Well DONE!!!

Am looking forward very much to continuing this campaign.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 05 Nov 2005, 12:02:44: Mission 3 Borderline

Absolutely fine and compelling play.

Small niggles.

My officer leads me off into forest due north AND expects me to fight (target or engage) all the nasty stuff coming into camp (south) at same time. I can't do both, eg follow him, and, attack.

I eventually opt for attack and do quite well. I think the rest of squad are cut down, shot, I don't know, but eventually a cutscene (and retry) kicks in where the officer and I split up . Him west, me east. Only real annoyance is we are now 'conveniently' at extreme north of forest. I think you should change this to FORCE me north and use the fact that I am, indeed, north, to trigger the cutscene. It's messy as it stands.I am not sure what if anything happened to the other ex-US pow's and would have liked more made of it.

As far as play was concerned it was fantastic and fierce. I really really had a bad time in here with lots of bruises to my ego and a few cuts.

I tried escaping east and was cut down, often. Tried following the officer instead and shot dead, tried goin gback to camp and was murdered. Eventually though, it seemed to me I was pathetically weak in arms. So, I opted to SNEAK back into base. I doubt the author ever wanted me back here, but he made it TOO HARD to walk my way to the town.

A minor annoyance is the word 'jeep' on the map. It needs to change because the perception is that I'll be able to use it (the T72 blew it to pieces in first seconds of mission but most players, me included, wont notice)

After a really nasty horrible time with direct southern assaults, I circled round to come at the camp from the open (warily watching the twitchy T72). Only real success I had was to take out loons at great distances. If I got too close they just over-whelmed me in nastiness. Finally survived (from memory) three separate assaults by extremely alert squads who shot at every single bush in the valley (and almost always got me). But, I really had no choice here, I was looking for and never found nvg, but I desperately needed binoculars. I couldn't do the mountain walk without them because squads were crawling all over them. So, I just plundered everything available, found by good fortune a dragonov. killed the T80 (not used to these new weapons, had to spend many a time testing what each did). The grenade launcher was pleasantly lethal, unlike MrN's Afghanistan one.

All the time during this hunt of mine for looting bodies, more loons would show up and give me a terrible time. Found that the grenade launcher set them into flee mode which suited me.

Although not necessary, am dissapointed there was no means to heal. Inevitable to get badly wounded.

Did the mountain walk, with all sorts of horrible things bumping into me. But, I was in command now, with dragonov, a fully loaded RPG7 against the chopper, and mountains with no horrible forests to trouble me, the loons had no chance, and I ended up in the safe house after a long adventure. This island is magnificient. Jaw dropping stuff clinging to mountain ridges, watching that lake in middle of Island, and etc.

Cutscenes cut in , intros started up again, and, for my money, one of the best missions played. Very very hard, but, I loved it. Absolute priority to try and survive.

In the intro, i think girl was supposed to be holding telephone, there was no evidence of that.

Looking forward to next mission.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 05 Nov 2005, 13:22:46: Mission 4 Revenge.

Please change the intro so that I'm not pointing my rifle at 'tom'. Put me in safe mode.

Great intro. Everything clear to me. Can't really follow the notes and plan, am enjoying playing the mission too much. *Really* good weapons carry over. Best thing I did was go back to my old camp last mission and grab what I needed (despite the ferocity)

OOOPS. nearly got back in car with Helga, then noticed I was supposed to follow Gregor, lost him in forest, would prefer you put me in his team for these sorts of things. (please).

Eventually I lost him and I have memories of you making missions where you forget all about how the player PLAYS the mission. Eventually find him at the place indicated where the freedom fighters would be. He's telling me to go look for them. Fine, what's not fine, is he stands there. You need to add a message that he'll wait here in case they come this way.

Yeah well, big deal, I spend x4 racing all over map, couldn't find them and then discover them only 100 meters away, and custcene/ retry kicks in and we're positioned in a very different place. Not sure I can be bother with this Bardosy, you haven't actually played it.

Rest of mission went fine, if, a little laggy. Particularly when bmp and re-inforecment trucks turned up.

Eventually made it to radio, the pows I was supposed to save got shot. Small bug with radioman in that he wouldn't (couldn't? die). Eventual escape into forest and not at all bad as a mission with plenty of sniping to do, and a little slugishness on part of enemy. I never udnerstand why, if shooting is going on, some of the sentries remain as sentries and dont do anything. Bit of a turkey shoot with them.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 05 Nov 2005, 13:26:55: Mission 5 Good Bye

truly. Good bye, not interested, won't do it. -endmission. don't even want to know what happens. Immediiate -endmission. Distasteful.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 05 Nov 2005, 14:20:03: Mission 6, Report

Not really interested in this campaign with it's hypocrisy. The *Russians* are training terrorists? Big deal, what am I? Oh thats right, usual blurb, 'proud to serve' and a 'professional' soldier. Doubt it. I guess the nice cute resistance I was with were 'intellectuals' and not terrorists, right? Vomit.

Drive is good, as is the titletext. The music cuts in, and more importantly, cuts out, just at the right times. That's well done.

A retry kicks in and it's now 'obvious' why we went on a long drive to get 'here'. I, have to get back!

Very very good terrorist ambush. Rarely done _this_ well. This was very very well executed. Won't spoil it for others. Played it thru three times. The last time, no-one in our convoy was hurt. 8)

Cutscene kicks in. No showstoppers.

Mission 6: Report

excellent. Absolutely remarkable. Really good, very very well executed. Dramatic, fierce. scared to death, loved it. No showtoppers. Somewhat unrealistic sentries STANDING in HQ towers. Usual hypocrisy now about *their* snipers being murderous. Distasteful double standards making me wish I was in fact on *their* side, not this one. Very much doubt this is what you intended but I'd shoot everything on my side if I could.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 05 Nov 2005, 15:29:27: Mission 7 Close combat.

This is a terrific mission. But, you haven't actually played it yourself because it's rarely possible to 'win'. The colonel or whoever he is almost inevitably dies from stray bullets and you have a very, very frustrating retry all the way from the beginning of this very long mission.

There is no indication he needs protecting, and after the third attempt of him dying despite my best efforts, i was about to give this mission a miss when it, suddenly ended (even though a few loons remained). The colonel dies around this time at very end of mission , so, it's just luck of the draw, and not worth the agony of playing it because of that. Be that as it may, as gameplay, it's fantastic.

Whether colonel dies or you win, the outro remains the same, and you end up very confused. Especially considering, not only do you have to start all the way at the beginning AGAIN, you have to watch the outro AGAIN.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 05 Nov 2005, 16:24:44: Mission 8 Airborne

Pretty good, I avoided a red civilian trabant early on which I'm convinced tried to ram me. Wasn't taking any furhter chances after a previous mission.

Drove thru uneventfully. Great eye candy. Lots of activity, good use of civilians in towns. Retry kicks in. I attempt to run one million of them over and charge for the base, but am eventually hit each time by an rpg, so I take it slow and begin my attack from behind them Mission turns to mud because of that because there's a senseless trigger in the base thay I and all my remaining squad must be IN the vehicle and enter the base to make it happen.

What I did do was progressively eliminate all the enemy, ran around the base nothing happend. Found a lone loon on north wall, retry kicked in, ran all around base all around commander, nothing happened, got my people in jeep drove them into base, nothing happened. got my self in jeep drove me into base, nothing happened. Retried, got ALL of us in jeep, entered base, 2nd attack started. Very poor.

2nd attack wasn't anyhting wonderful. Loons were pretty stupid and the defending troops were worse. Sirens going off everywhere but most of them WALKING in safe mode for god's sake.

Took em all out (with a few retries), and mission ended with me alone. All the squad dead, but they were close to useless to begin with.

Allthough the candy is good, having ammo boxes full of mines and satchels makes player thing something entirely different will happen.

Noticed that the towers and the vehicles were all locked, couldn't get in, or up, anything.

Not a bad mission for a firefight, hordes and hordes of the buggers, but a bit lame because they were so stupid, and the silly trigger buisiness with the jeep made no sense at all.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 05 Nov 2005, 18:16:42: Mission 9 yankee stalker

not a bad mission idea but a few immediate gotcha's

the chopper (like the first mission) remains hovering in place unless you use a retry.

Also, there's a 'bug' when using cargo rope scripts that soldiers exit in engage mode, they immediately charge off to thier deaths. You need to issue an all disengage.

The start of the mission went fine, but truing to get anyone over bridges is hopeless. Especially as it turns out, FOUR of them. It just doesn't work without a lot of tears and pain. Only practical way to force this is to use a vehicle but it would mean altering mission substantially.

Everything turned to mud at the last, most northen island-town. Heaps of soldiers and lag was shocking making the whole thing not worth even trying to play. I perservered a little, but, for the short periods the lag wasn't there, the ai was dumber than dead on both sides. No-one able to shoot anyone at 5 meters distance (face to face). You could I guess play this mission by leaving your squad behind, and frankly, this *is* the only way to achieve it. You need to greatly reduce the lag monsters. Ships, tanks.

A good idea, that got me very curious, great mission theme, I did find one sub,before i had to stop.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 06 Nov 2005, 03:36:45: Mission 10 Free Horvath

don't know the ending of the previous mission but, it certainly sounded interesting and cleverly done with a nice twist.

Far too much nonsense in the ammo crates, it's hard enough know which is what with these newer weapons to have 3 varieties of rpg, possibly four is silly when at least one of them is air-only and there are no choppers in this mission. It's fine to include such a thing in a mission to keep player guessing but here, it needs to be removed because of the difficulty for player knowing what on earth to use. There is, just too much of everything.

Start position us exceedingly strange. I wouldn't have put us that far back as there's a long uneventful walk involved.

town was fine, if the loons a little sleepy. Some were happy to have bullets fired at them and remain in safe mode. There did seem to be the right 'balance' here in the quantity of loons to attack. A squad less than 12 of us would also have been quite ok, but it's a nice over the top device for the author to use occoaisionally where we overwhelm everything.

The M2gun bug breifly showed its appearance, but, knowing this problem, I move in quickly to close range so my people can see it is empty, duh! It generally costs a few lives to do this and my other alternative is to hit it with rpg.

Had to wait quite a long time for convoy to arrive, 'spy' messages were good. I'm guessing here that the convoy isn't triggered, its on a time delay and you're giving us plenty of time to clear the village first. Have impression I could have as easily just remained in hills taking out village and convoy.

Since I got in M2gun there wasn't much to it destroying troop trucks but a few anxious moments with only a single rpg'er against a bmp. My experinece of my squad in general is they'll always miss, given half a chance (any mission).

You might want to rethink the weopon load outs. Such a large squad WOULD have two anti tank people.

Odd conversation with major Howarth, who could not, of course, join us in a squad of 12. I was led to belive from the map indicators, and the obectives, that getting him would be separate to killing the convoy, but it all happened all at same time.

raced direct north and mission ended appropriately, but, the extermely short journey to the 'extraction point' emphasised the very long, rather senseless, walk from the start position.

There may or may not have been a few loose 4 man squads hiding in forest areas east and west but if there, they got caught up in the general attack on the town, and, the long wait before convoy arrived.

I don't like convoy ambushes as they go so horribly wrong most times, but this one went ok. No showstoppers.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 06 Nov 2005, 03:52:22: Campaign ended abrubly on this 10th, not 11 mission, campaign, checked pbo to make sure there were no more to play.

I assume this campaign hasn't finished yet, and this is, as far as you've got so far. Clearly, some sort of ending needs to happen. (there was no outro cutscene either). All of which is fine as a work-in-progress.

Overall

Campaigns are very difficult animals to test, let alone report on. Most comment can rarely do them justice as the work involved for the author far exceeds what can be said, in a test.

So, for this run thru, I've concentrated, best as can, in just making sure there were no showstoppers, followed by no really confusing wrinkles, everything else taking a lower priority.

What hasn't been commented on is atmosphere, 'terrificness' or anything else to encourage the author to continue. Damn shame. It's part of the volume of writing needed for EACH mission, where campaigns can miss out on this stuff.

For most of these missions Bardosy, you have got over that terrible habit of yours of forgetting all about the player. Some missions though, you haven't actually played yourself. Tested, yes, but never played them thru as a player, because they don't work. These ones aren't huge in number. Some missions, large in number, are just fabulous. Anything to do with hunting terrorists is, to say the least, clever as hell. I've rarely played missions this imaginitave.

There's one mission I will not play, period. It's dripping with unwritten hypocrisy and makes all other titletext in other missions John Waynish and crud.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 07 Nov 2005, 11:46:49: Dear Mikero!

Thank you very-very-very MUCH! I saw you spent your weekend with my campaign. Thanks again and again.
I'll fixed the bugs you found. And the others:

Double standard: please don't spoile the end of the campaign... :-) Of course this is the final outro. You'll see it.

Play missions: I really don't undestand what you want. Of course I tested all of missions. (eg. in #5 the bugs maybe from this test, because I tested well the first part of mission and I triggered to go to the end of the mission. Shame... ) I can finish #9 too. I had problems too with my mates in the bridges, but I press them trough this bridge... A little bit I understand you, I can't play with these missions like someone who play with these first time. Of course I know what triggered what and from where they comeing and I can't play like a loon, because I think the players are more experienced in OFP gameplay like me and I want createing challenges for them. I think the beta testing is the perfect way to know how reacting a normal player to a new mission.

Don't misunderstand me: I study a lot of about your comments (not only from these, but the comments on Revolution 1983 too). I try to write short, but clear briefings and marking the map not too short, but not too confsed too.

And again: thank you for your attentions and your tips and your this weekend.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 08 Nov 2005, 03:12:40: @Bardosy

I am *astonished* at the fiercenesss, the intelligence, of the AI in almost all of the missions. The only one that is poor as mud in that regard is the one where we have to defend against 2x attacking hordes in the fort on the peninsula. If you could concentrate on the *difference* between it and the others you have a winning formula. What I suspect is you have too many civilians and other animate objects in the towns surrounding which chew up cpu cycles and turn the enemy dumb. By which I mean, that you don't have too many civilians because they're bloody clever, but the engine has too many civilians. Perhaps and maybe, one answer is to remove them from the game AFTER i drive thru, or perhaps many of the dead bodies on first assault. Obviously not a 'good' solution but it's this faulty mission Bardosy where YOU will get the biggest bang for buck in fixing it and consequently all other missions you ever make.

There are very few missions out there, let alone campaigns for heaven's sake, that make me work as hard as I had to in this one. It's remarkable. Your general twists and turns in using terrorist troops, their disposition, and 'quirks' are the best I've come across for gameplay.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 08 Nov 2005, 08:00:23: @Mikero

a little off topic: it's a good idea to pin your location in the map. You are in the exact other side of the planet :-)

Quote
10 missions only, not 11
Wrong. You think this because you dePBO the campaign and the last mission name is freefreya10. But I start the numbering with zero (It's and old C-programmer's trick)

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Mission 'Good Bye' endgame
Can you help me? I tried it at home and it's working fine for me. What does it mean endgame? There is no intro? (when Gregor said you must execute the three russian POW). There was briefing? And very important: there was DEbriefing? How did you skip to the next mission?

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campaign isn't finish
Partially true. There was no campaign outro at the end, but there are no other playable mission. I fixed it, and finished the campaign outro and I put it in the fist post.

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Please stop wasting our time as beta testers with this sort of stuff
Mikero, I respect you and your opinion. But please don't tell this. Because the other reader of this forum respect you and nobody will test my campaign. And belive me: I tested all of missions before, but I need comments from guys like you. But if you tell something like this nobody will help me. Please.

Quote
showstopper
What does it mean?

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retry kick
What does it mean?
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: MrN on 08 Nov 2005, 23:15:23: Progress so far:

First mission: Top Secret

Interesting choice of target for the scud! Chopper didn't disappear after the insert but the rest of the mission went ok. 1 retry required at the base, they reacted quite well but there was one dude left standing by the officers tent even though I filled him with bullets.
Got to the officer and the story continuesÃ¢€Â¦
Feel slightly robbed at the end of this but I see the need for the story to progress.

Instead of the scud mission, which is doubtful, why don't you just have "capture the officer" as the objective?

Second mission: The Change
Nice atmosphere in the truck and well setup ambush. Note, you used the player in the cutscene first then another character in the cutscene after the ambush. This is ok unless the player uses a custom face, then it looks a bit obvious there's a difference.

Third mission: Border Line
Wondered how you were going to pull this mission off reading the briefing and then find out you don't. Oh well, here's hoping.

Russian attack went to plan and on my way to the house it took a few retries due to several patrols around this area.

Fourth mission: Revenge
One of the timings is too quick on the titletext, just after Gregor says you are a professional.
Base reacts well and has taken me a few retries so far. :)

So far so good. No showstoppers and a story that has potential.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 09 Nov 2005, 02:21:43: >>10 missions only, not 11

my bad, I commented on two missions in one reply and therefore lost count

>Mission GoodBye

I won't play it. Period.

> But if you tell something like this nobody will help me

comment removed entirely.

>showstopper

slang. It means basically that its a serious bug. It can take the form of

mission wont end
crash to desktop
missing addon.

It's intention is to say, this is more than a niggle, or a minor bug, but something that stops game play. It should never be used in personal opinions. Items stopping people wanting to play, are not, showstoppers.

>retry kick (in)

A short form expression to say at this point in the game, an automatic retry save was encountered. Ie, the device you use as an author to save the game for the player at specific points without them having to.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 09 Nov 2005, 08:58:36: @MrN

Thanks for testing my campaign!!!

In the first and the 3rd mission I want trap the player. Like in the "real life". You plan, but God execute... (of course in this situation, the mission maker is the God.) I hope this is an advantage for the feeling.

OFF
This is the counterpart of Call of Duty 2: Did you play the Point du Hoc mission? In the History the soldiers fought for destroying the guns, but these guns wasn't there. But in the game there are. >:(
ON

It was frustrate you as a player?

I'll check the quick titletext...

Thanks again!
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 09 Nov 2005, 09:06:07: @Mikero

Quote
I won't play it. Period.
Very strange... ???
I played the campaign from begining to the 7th mission and Good Bye is working fine. I'm really sed you couldn't play this mission, because this is a great shooting!

Chopper problem.
I use a 3rd party script to chopper missions and I also saw the chopper doesn't want go back UNTIL I watch directly him and click the right mouse button. I don't know why. I'll check this script, but if I remember well: He (I don't remember his name) use the standard BAS fastrope script, which include in the BAS blackhawk's PBO.

And Mikero, thanks for the tiny english lesson!
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 09 Nov 2005, 13:02:49: Quote
standard BAS fastrope script,

watch out for this, I think it was Planck who alerted me to a real nasty with it. The script sets the units into engage mode.

It means that whatever you tell them to target, they 'engage' eg attack. Probably not a good idea at any time :D
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 09 Nov 2005, 14:07:32: Can I set off them from engage mode after the landing?
setCombatMode "YELLOW" is OK?
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: MrN on 09 Nov 2005, 21:04:59: Quote
Call of Duty 2: Did you play the Point du Hoc mission?
Nope, first game put me off. :P

Quote
It was frustrate you as a player?
No, I was interested how you were going to make that mission. As soon as it started I realised things were going to be very different!
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 10 Nov 2005, 08:43:53: @Mikero
Quote
The script sets the units into engage mode.
I inserted a setCombatMode "yellow" and I think it's fine. A little bit poor the "engage at will" and "disengage" commmand in very short period, but I didn't want modify the BAS blackhawk.

@MrN
Could you continue the campaign?
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 10 Nov 2005, 13:24:38: >A little bit poor the "engage at will" and "disengage" commmand in very short period

far better that, than you getting hate mail because the player's squad massacre themselves

:D

am looking forward to playing a revised version Bardosy (no hurry), some of the best missions I've played are in this campaign, you deserve a lot of praise.

edit:
>You are in the exact other side of the planet :-)

that's odd. Most people tell me I'm OFF the planet.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: greg147 on 10 Nov 2005, 22:45:46: I've been playing this campaign for about a week now (sorry I havn't posted any reviews. To be honest I couldn't see much worng with any of the missions, plus I completely forgot ;) )

Anyway, I've reached the mission 'Free Howarth' (I think thats the name. Not sure.) Anyway, its the one where you have to ambush the convoy to rescue the major. Upon completeing the mission, I get the debreifing, then the game goes to the main menu (but the mission continues in the background as the island has no anim) When I do the endmission cheat the same thing happens. When I tried the 'campaign' cheat, the missions unlocked up to that one, which remained the same.

Is this the last mission? It didn't seem like it as we still have to attack the training camp etc.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 11 Nov 2005, 03:49:17: Top secret

chopper remains suspended in air, you need to fix that.

an annoying double-up of actions with raise/lower nvg, and put on/off nvg. Something wrong here.

2 x sentry at officer tent are un-realistic. If I shoot at any of the tank crew, most of them spring into action. (one did not, the bmp driver i think). All of the camp in fact go alert except these two sentries who just stand there.

Move the officer into clear view still sitting down, but well away from tent sides. He tends to bleed out and is therefore shot by me. He needs to be center of tent so that he is clearly, visibly, unarmed. (the ammo boxes in tent current disguise him. You cant move the boxes, you can move him.

I don't know these weapons too well, but, if AKS-74 means silenced weapons (and ammo), then that is silly. These ground troops would have standard issue unsilenced stuff.

A black op *always* has binocs. It's not good that I don't have any, this is not realistic for what is expected of me. You should remove the M21 for that reason.

Also, suggest you remove the law from gear selection (and anywhere in mission). A player can make a real mess here if you let him. They will, take on the T80's and general disaster will happen as a result. You want me to sneak in and not make too much noise, so, remove the LAW ability altogether.

Have provided a briefing html for you that fixes the grammar without changing one word of what you meant to say.

Edit:
also included is a stringtable.csv to fix up the various titletext spelling errrors in multiple sqs files. ONLY those text that needed correcting are inside.

reccomend you use a single csv for your campaign so that these are easy to get at.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 11 Nov 2005, 04:45:12: The Exchange

please fix the title to above (or similar) 'change' is wrong.

Have provided corrected briefing and csv similar to 1st post.

If I don't grab a weapon, the cutscene shows me as if i were holding a rifle. Change me to safemode eg.

I got into driver's truck and drove away, you might want to do something about that 8)

also. The theme isn't developed enough for WHY we were 'freed'. You say so, but don't show so. Suggestion. Disembark us instead as if we were going to be shot. Ie some sort of 'turn off here' and stop, something clear, we aren't going to the american zone, then, introduce the resistance, rather than them just ambusing us. Just a suggestion.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 11 Nov 2005, 07:47:24: Mikero, please download the newest version from the first post. This is the 1.04. And overwrite the YankieStalker.pgo in your campaign folder.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 11 Nov 2005, 07:53:37: Quote
Is this the last mission? It didn't seem like it as we still have to attack the training camp etc.

@Greg: Thank you for playing with my campaign!

Sorry for the v0.9. 'Free Horvath' is the last playable mission. After this, there is the campaign outro. (spoiler) the BIG wise - Mikero guess it - there is no training camp, because who terrorist for someone, he's freedom fighters for someone else... ;)

If you download the newest version (from the first post) and overwrite the campaign pbo and choose the last mission (free horvath) and 'continue' button and finish the last mission again, you can see the outro.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 11 Nov 2005, 08:10:34: @Mikero
Thanks for your ideas and great help with english texts!!!!

Top secret

Quote
chopper remains suspended in air, you need to fix that.
I can't. I think this is the BAS blackhawk bug. I do nothing just run that AIfastrope.sqs, that in the BAS pbo. If you look back to the chopper with your scope, it's start back... ???

Quote
an annoying double-up of actions with raise/lower nvg, and put on/off nvg. Something wrong here.
This is the LSR RangerDelta MOD's problem. I can't fix it.

Quote
2 x sentry at officer tent are un-realistic. If I shoot at any of the tank crew, most of them spring into action. (one did not, the bmp driver i think). All of the camp in fact go alert except these two sentries who just stand there.
They are guarding the tent. Is it enough if they setbehaviour "AWARE" but don't run anywhere?

Quote
the ammo boxes in tent current disguise him. You cant move the boxes, you can move him.
:) This is an original BIS tent, I did'nt put these boxes there. These ARE there.
I fixed if you 'accidentally' shot down the officer, the mission fail...

Quote
These ground troops would have standard issue unsilenced stuff.
The guys who capture you, aren't regular GIs. They are spetzNaz and they waiting for you. They are 'more professional' then you... ;)

Quote
A black op *always* has binocs. It's not good that I don't have any, this is not realistic for what is expected of me.

OK. I'll fix it!

Quote
You should remove the M21 for that reason.
I don't understand why? This is a scoped rifle...

Quote
remove the LAW ability altogether.
OK. I want give free choice to the player, but you have right!

Thanks Mikero again!
And please download the last version (1.04)... please.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 11 Nov 2005, 08:21:58: The Exchange

Quote
please fix the title to above (or similar) 'change' is wrong.
I think I fixed it.

Quote
If I don't grab a weapon, the cutscene shows me as if i were holding a rifle.
It's interesting. I'll check it. In the cutscene you are you and I didn't put weapon in your hand.

Quote
Change me to safemode eg.
Errr... maybe not. Because they are not in safe. Near to the road... maybe come a reinforce or something patrol. I want suggest: we are not in safe.

Quote
I got into driver's truck and drove away, you might want to do something about that

I hope the players will be smart and follow the resistance leader.

Quote
The theme isn't developed enough for WHY we were 'freed'. You say so, but don't show so. Suggestion.
In that mission, there is a LoseOutro. If you get a weapon and figh against the resistance and all resistance fighter is dead, the alternate ourto begin: the truck arrived to a marsh and the russian soldiers execute you and your mate. I hope this is a 'Suggestion' ;D
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 11 Nov 2005, 10:17:28: Oh I almost forgot...!!!

Mikero,
yesterday I played the whole campaign and I have no any problem in ths submarine mission with bridges. I set the formation to column and they follow me like in the kindergarten... ;D

And I inserted a new feature, if you taken a picture about a sub, an X mark in the map where was this sub. And you can count how many founded from the 5.

In that mission there is a patrol squad. They rest in a base defended by MGs and if any russians in the area detect you, they get in Ural and drive where you detected last time. They have NVG and elite experience. If they found you, it's a little bit hard(*). But if not, they get in the ural and drive back to the base until any russian detect you again.

(*) = yesterday I shoot down the ural's driver in the middle of a bridge. The "elite" russian guys get out, but the AI didn't use the bridges fine and we can kill them all like a turkey. But some days earlier they shoot me many times (there is a guy in the partol with a Dragunov and NVG, he made me mad)

And Mikero, I inserted a Hint in the briefing (in the Note section) about AI blackops and the bridges. Please check it if you'll arrive to this mission.

Sorry for this post, but I like this mission ;D
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 11 Nov 2005, 11:52:43: @Barodsy, ok, will do.

these are the breifings and csv for mission02 which are unilkely to have changed much
--edit---
>setbehaviour "AWARE"

yep. afaik. they are, after all supposed to be sentries, so staying there is good, standing there, is not (after all, shooting started)

>>remove M21
>I don't understand why? This is a scoped rifle...

it's fine, it, AND binocs shouldn't go together since they are effectively same thing for vision. So, being black op (strong imho here) you either give us binocs, standard, or, you force us to use M21, but not both. Ie, you would feel 'better' about it if you _really_ didn't want to give me binocs if you set me with M21 immediately. But, it shouldn't be selectable, by me, if binocs are there.

gear selection is about personal preferences. Worst thing you can do, is put a heap of stuff in there and expect US to select it because we HAVE to. Generally speaking, it's up to the author to equip a player 'reasonably' in the first place, and leave gear selection to personal favorites, a SMALL bonus. but nothing should be there that isn't already on the players body, IF, that weapon is essential. Put yourself in a players position Bardosy, and imagine how it feels for them if they're told their stupid because they couldn't play (finish) a mission because they selected the WRONG stuff. HOW WOULD THEY KNOW??? You don't say anyone is stupid, just imagine how stupid, a player feels.

>remove Law

only a suggestion, it's your mission, if you want players to attack the T80s that is precisely what WILL happen if they have law. You dont want them to? no law. They have no chance in hell if they do attack the tanks, but, attack them they will. It's your mission, you just have to decide if that's "ok" by you and then suffer the complaints from them that YOU didn't give them ENOUGH law !!!!!!

>you have right!

no, i most certainly do not. It's your mission.

>I hope the players will be smart and follow the resistance leader.

think like a player. Would you? just because author wanted it? Or, would you be deeply suspicious of the resistance and fully expect them to shoot you in the forest? Think like a player bardosy, not, how you want the mission to happen. The border is just 'over there'. I am going home, no matter what you wanted me to do. You can't have it both ways, because many of your missions are tricks. We wont follow orders because of it, you have to make it difficultnot to, *because* you trick us so often (a good thing). Believe me, if i really was 'smart' no way in hell would i 'follow the resistance leader'. _that_ really is smart.
---
small niggle with mission 02 at it's very beginning. There's an awful lot going on (a good thing), it is inevitable player will miss some of your titletext or even the hint, I think you really need to keep re-inforcing on the player to follow the officer INTO the forest. just keep belting him with titletext until he does. It's important for your storyline that player does, in fact, get to north of forest, and he wont, without strong strong strong, messages from you.
I keep getting contradictory messages (not your fault) to target the enemy. Kepp over-riding them with titletext ordering me to run, run, run.

whoops another edit

just spotted my notes on border line they read as follows:

Quote

Borderline

suggest you change the title to above (no space) it reads better and has a double meaning.

BUG

I don't know the reason for it, it's an 'engine feature'

missing addon lsr_uswp

this, because an lsr handgun in selected in my equipment (Mk 23 SOCOM md). You have to *manually* enter this required addon in addons[]= in your mission.sqm
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 11 Nov 2005, 12:53:46: Quote
The border is just 'over there'. I am going home,
Wow, now I undestand! Great!
What's your opinion about this: if the player doesn't follow the resistance guy and start advance to south (to the border line) triggered a Loose end and come the LoseOutro with execution and can experiance the hosality of soviets. Then - after retry - the player will follow the resistance. It's OK?

Other theme but it's linked for this:
The big urban combat (when terrorist fight in a big city) you said: it's terrible if the major died you must replay the whole mission. I understand you, but OFP engine generate this. Because I force save the game after the fight begining and I save again in near the half of the battle (and if you use the Load menu after the major died, you can retry not from the begining). But if you didn't use the load menu quickly after major died, End#2 triggered and the campaign structure lead to restart mission:
End1: next mission
End2 and Lose : same mission.
There is no way to use in the campaign structure a LOAD command. Or there is? Have you any idea how can I load the last saved position if major died?

This is the same problem here: if the player escape from the resistance and I triggered a loose end, he must restart the mission from the begining after the LoseOutro.

Quote
M21
If I put a binocular to the player's pocket and not he/she choose it. I'll force him/her to have a binocular. It's OK? Because I love M21 in this mission. MP5 doesn't a good weapon in LSR addon, it's weaker then original BIS's MP5.

Quote
missing addon lsr_uswp
Mk 23 SOCOM in the Borderline mission? It's interesting. These KGB guys doesn't torture too hard if I can hide a SOCOM... ;D
OK. I'll check it.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 11 Nov 2005, 13:07:42: > if the player doesn't follow the resistance guy

that would work for me because the mission isn't a biggie, so easy to restart. I would

make me die in a hail of bullets (you can artificially cause that) don't do anything cheesy like just dying coz i left a zone, put some atmosphere in by killing me with lots of lead (I don't have to know, or see, where it came from)

I would, add a titletext saying 'follow us now! Americans. you are in great danger", or simply, "follow us now Americans or we will shoot you dead."

Now that, I would take notice of. That would make me hesitate. 8)

>Horvath dying.

You know the great thing about being a beta tester and not and author Bardosy? It isn't my problem, it's yours ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 11 Nov 2005, 13:28:27: Quote
make me die in a hail of bullets

Did you check the LoseOutro? If you depbo-ed the campaign, you can watch it. It's not exactly same what you wrote. But the russians execute you...

All right, I try not use this loseoutro if player doesn't follow the resistance, and I made a cutscene like you wrote.
And thanks the titletext idea, it's great! I'll do it.

Quote
It isn't my problem, it's yours ;D ;D ;D
OK. I understand... ;D
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 11 Nov 2005, 14:59:57: Revenge
missing addon lsr_uswp

as before. this is a handgun issue and needs to be manually inserted into the mission.sqm

intro cutscene was odd for two reasons. Helga isn't holding a phone.

Helga tells me "we must go" and promptly sits down!!!!

2nd cutscene faulty.

there are TWO soldiers in it.

the trigger to follow leader only happens after i move out of walled compound. It should be immediate.

3rd bit not good where we attack base. This new position is not indicated on map HE29?. I don't know, where I am to start.

attack part.

I took your briefing advice and attacked hard and very fast, Took out anything that moved or twitched inside the base. Shot radio guy, used radio (although it was _very_ hard to get the 'use radio' trigger for some reason)

I couldn't free and didn't see, the prisoners for a very long time, i raced all over the base and eventually found, by luck, a soldier half buried in a building. I think you have him, and one other close to front entrance tower, but he's buried. It was confusing, because the radio objective ticked, but the prisoner one didn't. Then, after finding this buried soldier, prisoners were freed. All the time of course, the re-inforcements were getting closer and we everntually had to deal with some of them.

As soon as prisoners were freed, last objective happens, but mission WILL NOT END.

We and the prisoners get to the place indicated, they stay stationary, indicating that's where you want them to be, but nothing happens.

I HATE this ending bit. It's too cheesy, too, 'convenient'. Basically just race into forest to end mission. I'd prefer a run up the mountain, or a move to town, or some much clearer, longer, race. (I hate trying to find some small, crappy trigger target in a huge forest)

The mission would not end. I'm entirely guessing that a prisoner or two remain stuck somewhere. I wouldn't know.

Although there was the sound of armour, and trucks, they made no attempt to come into the camp.

typos and things in zip
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 11 Nov 2005, 15:26:22: Quote
the trigger to follow leader only happens after i move out of walled compound. It should be immediate.
It's not too easy, because the AI guy (Georg) can't exit from this garden and I must use a trick: if the player leave the garden, I setPos Georg outside the garden and then he can run...

Quote
teleport before the attack
Most of player hate the wandering on a big map. In the first part of mission the player must run a kilometer and I want frutrate tham to run an other kilometer before the fight. I titletexted the "a few minutes later" and repos the whole team to near to the base. But not too near, and player can choose good position to attack.

Quote
Prisoners free
There is a trigger in the inner part of base (front of the barracks) if there is no enemy, the prisoners are free. And they started to run to the forrest without your permission.
If a russian soldier hide somewheer in this tiny place you must find him to liberate the POWs. I don't want use a trigger to calculete if only one russian is in this place... because, this place is tiny and when I played this mission, this place are free from russians, but there are a few red soldier outside of this place and prisoners liberate and the russians kill them all.

Quote
NOt end
Not the prisoners activate the end. Your team (all of your soldiers) must be there. The prisoners doesn't care...
I don't know what could heappen. ???
I think the reinforce BMP doesn't arrived normaly, because this triggered the 'RETREAT' titletext and the objectives of retreat... and the set to true the logical variable that triggered the END. I'll check it and fix.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 11 Nov 2005, 15:27:39: @Bardosy (and others)

PATCHED freya island can be found here (http://andrew.nf/OFP/Islands/MikeroFreya.zip) (7meg)

it contains a simple anim

miraj.obj is also available on the beta hosting site here (http://andrew.nf/OFP/Addons/mirageboat.zip) (1meg5)

and cwk's targets can also be found on the site, here (http://andrew.nf/OFP/Addons/cwkSubTarget.pbo) (500k)

this should drastically ;) change your file size for the next revision of this campaign as there'll be no need to include them again and again while in beta, at least.

edit:

Quote
teleport before attack

no trouble with that, i liked it. *The* trouble was where did we teleport TO !!!!

edit edit: breifing 5 and etc's attached.

Report

'choose a vehicle'

there is only one I can choose, the hmmv

I arrived back at airport in civil truck, the cutscene showed my hmmv
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 11 Nov 2005, 17:36:33: Hunter

Missing addons, rhs_weap
missing addons rhs_rpg

wired into mission.sqm. Problem went away
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 11 Nov 2005, 18:04:00: Close Combat

(I think I got a missing rhs_weap some point in this mission, can't remember because the fighting was intense :D )
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 11 Nov 2005, 18:49:35: Airborne

missing addon rhs_weap
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 12 Nov 2005, 00:30:34: Red Submarines
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 12 Nov 2005, 00:54:03: Ambush

all done (some final cutscene text corrections also in this 1)
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 14 Nov 2005, 07:57:30: Wait a minute! You couldn't play with Good Bye again? ??? ???
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 14 Nov 2005, 08:09:06: >You couldn't play with Good Bye again?

I will NOT play it. Not cannot, will not.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Cheetah on 15 Nov 2005, 22:26:25: Played the campaign, but was too lazy to give comments by the way so I'll do it now, after completing the whole campaign. Well, to be honest, I didn't play the whole campaign, skipped 1.5 mission. The mission with the submarines was too laggy after a while, but I didn't have much of the mission complete (two submarines), so I decided to quit. The other mission, Good bye, wasn't finished completely. I was about halfway (objective wise), it was because of a problem which I'll write down later. First things first, let start with downloading all the things.

Addons:
You use a large amount of addons in your campaign, the addons itself are pretty good if not the best out there. Downloading them (well only had to download three addons, the rest were already in some modfolders) went quite fast. The problem was that CBT_misc was missing. After looking good into the readmes of all the addons, including the humvee (CBT addon) I downloaded, I noticed that I'd need the misc pack. It should be mentioned on the addons list, to make it easier for the BETA tester. At least that's what I think of it :).

Missions:
I'll only comment on the things I can remember (yeah I know I was lazy, but I wanted to enjoy the campaign rather than having to type all the time) from my play. Grammar will be skipped, because Mikero has already fixed all of it. The style of my report will be as if I'm playing the mission again in my mind.

1. Top Secret:
After selecting my gear, a silenced M14 with six magazines and some hand grenades. I'm ready for action as I get fast-roped out of the helicopter. In the town I spot a jeep and several soldiers. A few of them are already running away (did they see me? I don't know for sure, probably) while the rest is just sitting near the fire. One magazine is needed to get rid of them, pretty good for the first action of the day. More headshots will have to follow later ;).

Some driving up north and a quick skirmish against about three enemy soldiers, a roadblock or something. They're taken care of quite easily, looks like they don't really want to kill me, all of them were killed with headshots. Why? They didn't move into combat mode fast enough, even after one of their mates got killed.

I'm planning on approaching the enemy base from the south, using the trees to conceal my movement until I can almost smell the Russians. The first time I get killed by a tank, oops they saw me. This serves as my warmup and the second time all of the enemies got killed, except ofcourse the spetz natz that disturb my little party in the tent... well done.

2. The Exchange:
Nothing wrong with this mission, I really believed that I could get back on American soil :(, carrying a M4 or M14, but no fate or God, decided something else suited better. No bugs were encountered during our run back towards their base, more of an intro mission probably. Nonetheless the atmosphere was good in this mission, well done.

What I miss so far is the sound, no screaming Russians, no yelling Resistance soldiers just gunfire. I'm looking forward to more voices, they will make the campaign better, they will improve the atmosphere, greatly.

3. Borderline:
The Russians are coming to finish us off.. ouch pretty heavy stuff coming our way. I manage to follow the officer without being shot, the downside is that I feel pretty guilty leaving all those other soldiers there without helping them. On the other side, I don't see a sh*t without NVG so it's a good choice to conserve my ammo. After a while we split and I go east, planning to use the lake as a navigation point.

When I arrive there I use my savegame and try to take the most direct route towards the town at first, it's only a matter of seconds before I'm killed. After a few retries I managed to find a way that worked, I crawled my way towards the road in the east. Crossed it and followed the sea towards the village, from here on it wasn't hard to find the house. A silent voice.. quick! Well done.

Pretty strange that the girl doesn't have a telephone in her hand. It seems that I have to go towards some kind of a meeting, well whatever is will be, I'm ready for it!

4. Revenge:
It's 10:00pm right now so I'll stop for now. Might do more tomorrow or later this week, don't really know when I've got the time. School is making sure that there's not that much time left for OFP, you'll hear from me ASAP.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 16 Nov 2005, 08:32:30: @Mikero

Quote
I will NOT play it. Not cannot, will not.

Wow, I undersand you finally!!! (I didn't in first time)
Sorry and congratulation! I'm an old guy and reviewer of a gamer magazine and I always try to explain to the young gamers: don't play with everything! (but they didn't understand). I undestand you and I agree with you. E.g. now I must write a review about T-72 Balkans on fire game, but I'll not. I never help to the serbs (even virtually) kill croats, because the serbs executed a lot of my relatives.

And I understand you: You didn't want execute three unarmed, inocent russians. And this is what you always said: I can't see with eyes of players from other contonent. Here - eastern europe (where the OFP made) - the russians can unarmed, but never inocent! ;) I bet, they never occupied your country, but in my country they raped 2 million women one by one 10 or 20 times. And the time is not too far when they left us alone. You guess why in all checz games (OFP, Hidden&Dangerous...) the russians are not good.

I absolutely agree with you in that questions of moral, but we have other viewpoint. ;)

Other: Thanks the language corrections!!!
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 16 Nov 2005, 08:36:07: @Cheetah

Thanks for playing and testing my campaign!

I'll fix the slow reaction of the roadblock in the first mission!!!

Phone in the girl's hand: I know this is not the correct topic, but how can I put this bloody phone to the girl's hand? I couldn't.
;D ;D ;D I know - Mikero said - it's not the beta tester's problem. But maybe if you know...
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Cheetah on 16 Nov 2005, 16:10:46: 4. Revenge:
Okay, let's continue with this stuff as I have some free time.
The mission starts with me going towards the meeting point where the resistance leader will wait for me. After a while we arrive at the walled cemetary (?) and the conversation starts. All is going fine, the setpos doesn't go unnoticed, but I can live with it. Searching the resistance guys is quite easy, they're not in the forest where I came from and upon entering the forest I immediately get the cutscene. What you should do is add: setacctime 1 to change the time back to 1x speed when someone uses 4x sometimes (I thought I had to do a long search, in the end it was a quick one). The cutscene starts and after that we are in a position to attack the base.

When playing in Veteran mode, there's no radar so I had to spend a minute or so looking at the environment before I knew where the enemy base was. It took me about five retries to get to the base and have a safe spot behind a building. The enemy soldiers in the watchtowers are well placed, but I don't think it's all that realistic. Why not? It's not wartime so the enemy isn't really prepared for a resistance attack. Quite hard to spot the enemy soldiers in the dark, high watchtowers without NVG, but I manage to complete the objective of conquering the base and realising the prisoners. A small note about the prisoners, they came out of the building way (!) too early. There were still about five Russians in the vicinity of the building and all of them got shot before I could protect them.

The radio conversation was okay, < radionoise >, should really be replaced with real sounds, but that's something for later. A bigger problem is that the mission didn't end. I don't know what happened, maybe a bad trigger or something. But the mission wouldn't end (all the objectives completed, except of course the last one) in the forest. One by one I moved all of the teammates to the position in the woods and followed them there (to find the position myself). Tried running around a bit and different things with my teammates, but was forced to use -endmission here. Could be caused by something I missed, but I think it has something to do with a trigger.

5. Good bye:
Of course the beginning is pretty strange, the execution of three soviet prisoners. I decided the play the mission, to help the author and because it's a game. After this took place the Russians came and we were told to get to a town. Our leader told me to embark a vehicle in the beginning, I did so, but it didn't move while our team was engaging the enemy in the forest about 200 metres from my position. I decided that I could come back later and helped my team out a bit, by eliminating three enemies. After that I went towards the town to soften up it's defences. On a road in a distance I saw a squad of Russians coming towards me. With my Dragunov I managed to eliminate about eigth of them. Two managed to get away, I saw them too late and they disappeared in the forest.

There were several enemy soldiers around the town, maybe two even in the town, but I managed to 'hold' it. In the meanwhile my team was having several skirmished in the forest, didn't see much of it. Only the standard 'Soldier 12 o'clock', '3, target enemy soldier..'. It took me pretty long, about half an hour, with two casualties (pretty low) before I decided it was enough. I did this because when my team came in the town and it was cleared of the enemy we were supposed to get in a vehicle which I couldn't board. Maybe because of the old order to board the vehicle in the beginning of the mission, but certainly not because of it being full. Too make sure this wasn't the case I shot two of my teammates, it didn't work. -endmission

The feeling I got in this mission was a double one, the action is okay. But I had trouble following my team and because of the starting problem (the vehicle I had to board but didn't do a thing) I didn't get in the mission. This resulted in feeling quite lonely in this mission, I felt separated from my teammates. Especially because I cleared most of the town for them, it was my own choice, I know.

6. Hunting:
There was probably a pretty big part of the previous mission that I missed. I've probably been evacuated and now safe in US territory, however safe might not be the word to use.. I had to drive a bit towards my superior and get back after that. Not much was going on, but I was aware of an ambush. Why? In a cutscene there is some text about the terrorists.
The ambush took place and I was surprised, well done, really! The second time (had to retry) the car proved to be safe enough to drive back without seeing any action (some bullets on the windows, not really much that could kill me). Going back proved to be pretty cool, I was suspicious right now, Mikero will probably know what I mean. A truck is coming, pfew, it's a western one carrying troops. Next up, a civilian car, no I didn't trust it and shot it's tires. Probably shouldn't have done this, the car explodes at a safe distance (20 metres) and the civilian is still alive.

A strange thing is that even though the car isn't damaged we all have to get out and walk towards the possible terrorist base. Well not all of us were in for this kind of a walk, two of my team stand next to the car and don't move.. hmm this is probably not what the author had in mind.. retry.

This time things work out as they should've have, we drive on but there's a few teammates injured and the windshields are all damaged. We engage several enemy soldiers, but they are no match for our superior firepower. A few minutes later we continue on foot and there's some action, not really much going on. I kill maybe three more enemies the second time, erghm the first time my CO died.. oops. Well the second time I took point and cleared the way, made my way towards the base with the squad following me. There was a short cutscene showing some sniper action from the terrorist and I found her fast and she was killed with two bullets from my M14 rifle. We got back to the base and the mission ended, I saw a MP5 with aimpoint that a dead soldier had carried, but didn't take it with me. Maybe the M14 would be better (or was it the M4, no probably not) for the next mission.

7. Close Combat:
When I knew what had to be done I regret my choice for not taking the MP5 with me. In the end it proved to be a good choice keeping the M14, there was not that much close combat (in ofp real close combat is very rare). The M14 proved to be accurate and handy, a MP5 might have lacked the penetrating power at these large distances. Just a thing I had to write down before stopping for now. I have other things to do, but will certainly continue with my report on this mission when I've got the time for it.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 16 Nov 2005, 16:28:53: @Cheetah

Revenge:
1., I'll setAcctime 1
2., I'll mark your new position in the map after the teleport
3., In my country the guards always stay in the guardtowers near the military barracks (in peacetime too) :-)
4., Hmmm... no end... Very strange. Mikero said the same and I checked this, but I couldn't find any bug. I'll check again.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Cheetah on 16 Nov 2005, 17:13:18: Quote
In my country the guards always stay in the guardtowers near the military barracks (in peacetime too) :-)

Well, about every guardtower is occupied, but the good thing is that it makes the assault harder for the player. The bad thing of it is that you can hardly see the enemy guards.

About the telephone in the hands, hmm to be honest, I don't know how you can fix it. Maybe you could take a look in the official (CWC) campaign, Gastowski is having a conversation there via the phone.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 17 Nov 2005, 07:56:30: @Cheetah

Good Bye:

I can imagine what happened in your game... Generally I finish all of the russians in the town, but once I coldn't and my mates did the same like in your: runing go and down in the forrest. I retry and works... But I see it's not a good solution.

In the town there is some waypoint to the leader (for found all of russians) and finally a getinWP to the ural. But all of prev WP is swiched if there is no russians in the town. I can't imagine how order the leader you to the ural in the begining of town-fight.

Have you any suggestion to solve this problem?
Maybe if there is no russian in the town region, set the mate for what: SAFE, holfire, or (unrealistic) moveinVehicle...? Or any idea?

Hunting

How the american say, IED? After the IED, sometimes happened like in your game: the blowed car block the bridge and the Hummer (or if it wounded and siembark, the mates) can't go through the bridge (AI problem). There is a little hint (maybe you couldn't recognise) if the car blocked the bridge you can PUSH IT into the river. (you must go close to the car and the a new command (push) added to the action menu. And if you clear the way, the AI mates can follow the trip.

Close Combat

I belive you, this is not close combat. Have you any suggestion to change the mission name? Maybe Urban Combat? Or something...
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Cheetah on 17 Nov 2005, 17:59:10: Quote
I can't imagine how order the leader you to the ural in the begining of town-fight.

Have you any suggestion to solve this problem?
Maybe if there is no russian in the town region, set the mate for what: SAFE, holfire, or (unrealistic) moveinVehicle...? Or any idea?

The leader didn't order me into the ural in the beginning of the mission, he ordered me in the Civil truck that's near the starting position. I don't know what happened here, but about the other thing. Well you could make a short cutscene that shows dead soldiers and in the meantime places us in the Ural.

Quote
There is a little hint (maybe you couldn't recognise) if the car blocked the bridge you can PUSH IT into the river. (you must go close to the car and the a new command (push) added to the action menu. And if you clear the way, the AI mates can follow the trip.

Yes I tried doing this, but it didn't work. Might be because I did it too late (half a minute after the car blew up), but my teammates (two of them) walked on after I pushed the car off the bridge. The two others just stand there, pretty strange, they looked to be stuck in the vehicle even though they weren't that close to it (hummer).

Quote
I belive you, this is not close combat. Have you any suggestion to change the mission name? Maybe Urban Combat? Or something...

Urban Combat is good, close combat sounds a bit too close.
Hope you can do something with these suggestions.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Mikero on 18 Nov 2005, 01:06:45: Quote
There is a little hint (maybe you couldn't recognise) if the car blocked the bridge you can PUSH IT into the river. (you must go close to the car and the a

This is an example Bardosy of where you don't think as a player. I get into vehicle as the Mgunner!!!! I would never have expected to DRIVE the vehicle since I am ordered by my officer to board it. Indeed, I don't think I can drive the thing, so pushing the other vehicle off the bridge only confused.

regardless, it's a bloody clever piece of editing by you, i loved this section of the mission.
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 18 Nov 2005, 08:32:17: @Cheetah

Quote
he ordered me in the Civil truck that's near the starting position
It's never happend to me... ??? I think I'll lock that truck!

@Mikero

In the real life ff a car stucked, all passenger EXCEPT the driver, get out and help (push or something) to the car. Even the mgunner too... ;D
Title: Re:Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Cheetah on 20 Nov 2005, 10:02:09: 7. Close Combat:
Well, let's continue with this..

After driving towards our position and getting ready for the attack I get hit quite early in the attack. Can't find a medic soon enough so I'll just attack, I want to be in the point of the attack, to reduce casualties.

There was not really close combat going on, the enemy squads were mostly comming from the forest outside the town. Didn't have a problem with this however. It didn't took me long before all was cleared in the town, there were no casualties in my squad, so pretty good I think.
The mission doesn't have big bugs imo.

8. Airborne:
Thanks to your actions, I've developed a 'civilianphobia', so I evaded all civilians and didn't drive through the town. Was thinking that I should maybe take the longer way, because I didn't find the shortcut safe. I did choose the shortcut and it was a good choice, I was frightened when driving through, I was alert, but nothing happened there.

A retry kicks in and I know that there will be some action soon. I drive into the camp while the firefight is going on and my hummer is hit several times. My #2 is injured, not that much of a problem, he can still shoot. We disembark and I order them to go prone and fire at will. Thanks to several grenades we don't make it. To me it seems a bad choice to drive inside the compound, the next time I'll just attack in their back.

And so it goes, we attack, with the four of us in the back of the enemy forces. After three retries we make it and the enemy is eliminated, the first wave is. I try to find the officer in the camp, but don't manage to find him. Even after driving through the whole camp, I read Mikeros post and drive out and back in the compound. Now I manage to find the officer and the second wave attacks. They are a bunch of stupid AIs, I can take them all down with just one retry. The mission ends after the second attack.

You might want to improve the enemy AI in this mission.

9. Yankie Stalker:
The mission with the laggy subs. Only played this mission for about five minutes to get close to the subs, but from then on it started to lag a bit too much for me and I wasn't feeling like to continue playing. The beginning was fine for me, but after that I used -endmission.

10. Free Horvath:
What a long walk to the town, wow really long. You want to make it shorter probably, it was quite boring, a bit too boring. Putting us closer to the target is a must.

Oh my god, that M14 Leupold thing really sucks for this kind of mission. Managed to find another gun pretty soon, an AK74 lookalike. Taking the town proved to be pretty easy, only one retry was involved.

I put my forces in an ambush, so prone and on engage / fire at will. Ordered #2 to man the M2 and used 4x speed to make the convoy get towards me. You should really let the convoy come earlier, I mean much earlier. About five minutes maybe, to make this mission really fast.

Lost about half my squad in the ambush, but it proved to be a success. I managed to safe Horvath, although I didn't even see him, except in the extraction point. The convoy wasn't worth that much, cost me two retries to be able to survive it.

This time the mission ended when I went to the extraction point, the campaign was completed.

Conclusion:
A really enjoyable campaign with several bugs that should be ironed out fast, but I'm sure you'll be able to do it. If all the bugs are removed the story of the campaign makes the player want to play it to the end, just to see what happens. Even though I'm not a great fan of SF missions where you go on a mission on your own, I entertained myself with this campaign. Well done bardosy!
Title: Re: please review: Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 13 Sep 2006, 14:14:45: please review this campaign.
Title: Re: (Review Please) Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Cheetah on 15 Sep 2006, 08:16:55: This campaign is being reviewed.
Title: Re: (Review Please) Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Cheetah on 16 Sep 2006, 13:36:12: Mission not ready for review.
1. An error messages comes up in the briefing.
2. The addon list isn't complete.

Bardosy, please reply to my IMs.
Title: Re: (Review Please) Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: bardosy on 18 Sep 2006, 11:22:13: I updated the first post. I hope the addon list is complete now.
Title: Re: (Review Please) Yankie Stalker (DF campaign)
Post by: Cheetah on 21 Sep 2006, 16:20:51: The addon problems have been fixed (afaik) so the campaign is under review again.

Edit: This campaign has been reviewed and is available, with addons, from the Missions Depot (http://www.ofpec.com/missions_depot/index.php?action=details&id=42).