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Missions Depot => Mission Discussion => OFP - Reviewed Missions => Topic started by: gambla on 04 Sep 2006, 12:14:01

Title: (Review Completed) [SP] The Fortress
Post by: gambla on 04 Sep 2006, 12:14:01

Update 15.02.2007

Please get the latest version of the mission at:

http://www.gambla.de/TheFortress-Final-v21.zip

Edit: This mission has been reviwed and is available, with required addons, from the Missions Depot (http://www.ofpec.com/missions_depot/index.php?action=details&id=37).

REQUIRED AddOns :

editorupdate102   (05.02.04)   included !
BAS DeRa v1.55   (07.05.04)   @ http://www.gotf.net/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=26&func=fileinfo&id=7
JAM2                 (04.10.03)   @ http://www.gotf.net/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=26&func=fileinfo&id=30


Please report me any bugs and feel free to give me your personal thoughts and suggestions
to improve it. Your corrections for a good and realistic English is also appreciated.
A little intro is in progress too.

You play a Ranger scout-sniper and Teamleader with the task to do a CRT (close target recce) on a
well defended russian base. See yourself!

Thank you in advance.

regards,
gambla

Title: Re: "The Fortress" - beta
Post by: burroughs on 04 Sep 2006, 17:50:42

Cheers, mate!

 I found it a good attempt to mimic the real - life Ranger assignment and decided to give it a go.  :thumbsup: I'll write my report as soon as I beat the mission; as for the moment I run into an unfortunate starting position, ending up in a fierce firefights each time when I restart the mission from a save position and it's not on my ground ...  :confused: It's going to take some time this time ... Just to think it had supposed to have gone smoothly ...

Title: Re: "The Fortress" - beta
Post by: Cheetah on 04 Sep 2006, 22:48:14

The Fortress

Package / Addons :check:
It's good that you included the editorupdate, although I suggest using mikeros one (editorupgrade103), I find it a bit better than the others. I already had the other two addons (Jam2, but I'll be using Jam3), and DeRa, but I noticed that the download links were not working. Might be a problem with my computer, but I suggest that you find their links on the BAS website, or on ofp.info maybe. But again, I don't know if it's a problem with my computer.

The package misses some pictures, always good to add a few nice ones and it's necessary if you want your mission to be reviewed by OFPEC.

Your readme is okay, but I suggest that you include a more specific release date, so also include a day and add a version number to the readme and your package. This way we, beta testers, can see what version we're testing and if there's a new one released.
The rest of the briefing is fine.

Overview  :check:
A good and clear picture with a border.

Intro :redflag:
In my opinion an intro is a good addition to any mission, so why not make one. Doesn't have to be a long one, and I think that there's plenty of stuff you can show for a mission like this one. But it's still what I think and you must do what you want :).

Briefing :check:
Please remove all the dots in the first line, it looks bad. You can start a new line, or use a comma or a dot, but please not a whole bunch of dots.
I miss a link to the insertion point on the objective page, it can be handy for the player to know this and get to the spot on the map with one click in the briefing, without using a link to another page and then pressing the link.

The plan is clear, a well written detailed orders section. The only thing that you might want to do is to remove the text on the last page or at least make it so that there's not two lines on one page. Doesn't look good.

Don't get the TEXT at the end of the notes section, is it a special word or..? The weapon selection is fine, though you might want to equip us with LAWs as default equipment. Just in case someone forgets to take a LAW (or/and for his spotter).
The others guys of my team just get the default stuff, only one gets a Carl Gustav launcher. I'm not sure if it's going to work out good, leader/ spotter and squad will be separated after a while, well probably. From what I read in the briefing.

Oh, and you might want to remove the binocular from #2. I find it highly frustrating to see my teammates looking through their binocular just when bad luck strikes and there's a full squad attacking.. ouch. I prefer not to have those binoculars on AI teammates.

Another thing, you might want to lower the ranks of myself and my team a bit. Five LTs in one group commanded by a colonel, well it looks pretty weird. But I'm glad that they're all experts.

Mission :check:
The mission starts and I put everyone except #2 and myself in team yellow, so I can get easy access to #2 and I don't have to bother with the others. The ammo box at the start is well though off, but I think that it has a too wide range of weapons. The satchels are good, but only a law launcher is enough on top of the sats.

Anyway I leave with the PBR with #2 as a gunner. He reports an enemy boat and starts shooting at it once we're close enough. Their gunner shoots back and injures my teammates. Luckily he gets both the gunner and the driver pretty fast and we get on shore right behind the fence to make sure that I don't have to blow something to pieces.

We're now at Bi38, which means that I'll only have to head south to get close to the base. The problem is that there's an enemy squad in combat mode in my way. I'm trying not to engage, but it can turn out in a firefight. I'll give them a few minutes to get away.
Oh, there are two bmps coming down the hill from the base, going to move a bit further west to evade them as good as possible. I hope that I don't have to engage. Ah damn, no way there either, there's a bmp and a boat in the sea. So I can't head west. I'll have to wait how this will turn out. I prefer not to call in my squad as I can't see in what situation they will get / are.

I'm thinking of saving the game and using our LAWs to take the Bmps and the boat out, but this would leave us without rockets (only four being carried by #2 and myself). Well, I can always try it, but only after saving.
At the last moment I told #2 to hold fire as I saw that the bmps were going away. This meant that I had a clean (almost) way towards the base. I ran with my spotter towards the rocks at Bi42 and we lay there awaiting the enemy movements as the alarm had been raised. Probably by us, but I'm not sure about that. I didn't see an enemy, the only thing I heard and which may have something to do with it is a rocket impacting about three minutes earlier. It wasn't a guy of my team, so it'll have to be a fellow american soldier of another team. Or maybe a russian seeing our tanks? Don't know. Now moving on on my own, because I want #2 to cover my route back.

After some crawling I have a pretty good view on the base, altough limited (cannot see the ground in the base, only objectives that are high enough). What I suggest is that you remove a few of the lone M2 positions, or let them be guarded by a few solders. A lone M2 looks bad, especially without any form of static protection. The shilka posts look good and the tank patrols make it harder for me too. Which is good.

I see scuds and order the radio. There's a weird message about three soldiers on Bb40? Don't really understand that one. Might be that I missed something. And you might want to make it impossible for the player to use the radio (scuds one) until the player can actually see them. It's always nice to have a few M1A1s helping you out to advance.
Anyway the tanks are moving in and I let my squad come to my position. Enemy tanks are about 50 metres away from me, I see a few spetz natz and a lot of enemy infantry as well as some shilkas. This will be a tough battle, but I'm sure that I can win this one.

The MG, sniper and a few guards in the towers are all sitting ducks for my sniper. I'm moving in with my #2, he's covering my back and I'm getting as close as possible. A few things: you might want to make sure that once I attack everyone gets aware at least, there were still a lot of guys in safe mode, not good. Another thing you want to do is to send a few patrols out to look for me. It's pretty dangerous and enemies going nothing are easier for me to kill than walking guys.
Oh and I think that you should warn people that you need two rockets to destroy a shilka or bmp (with the M136 launcher).
Anyway, took a dragunov, saw two pallets flying? Killed a few soldiers and I'm wondering why the friendly tanks take so long to assist me. I'm going to stop for now, going to sleep. Will continue tomorrow (probably).

...CONTINUE...

Okay, resuming play.
I get a radio message that the friendly tanks, bravo squad, are down and that I have to cover the retreat of the crew members. But the problem is that the abrams tanks didn't shoot a thing. So there's still a lot of soldiers, a lot of tanks and only #2 and myself. Because the rest of my team has a long walk to go, they only ran 200 metres until now. So they'll be at my position in about 10 minutes, which is a bit too long for me to wait for.

I'm going to try and disrupt most of the base, only attacked lone units until now. Saving the game with a cheatsave (I think that it's okay to do, because the abrams didn't come even close). A UAZ came close and I used my M9 pistol to take care of the four passengers. Spetz Natz with good weapons, but not for my this time.
There's a full squad at my position (back near the rocks where #2 is) and they don't detect me so this allows me to pick off a few units (notice only now that the heavy shaking is caused by an arm injury, from the boat fight probably). My M9 and sniper are enough to kill most of them. As I'm killing some soldiers there's a mission update, a new objective has been added.`
Seems like bravo ran on a minefield and I have to try and rescue a few of the surviving crew members. First I'll get rid of the scuds, then I'll get back to my boat and I'll pick them up before returning to the evac point.

The area is full of spetz natz and normal soldiers, as well as several tank patrols. This will be tricky, I managed to get a RPG launcher, this will help me take care of shilkas and bmps more easily. My squad has almost reached my position, I hear them firing. I'm glad that I can finally push a bit more, I'll need the AT stuff. But, they're not at my position, yet. My #6 takes down a bmp from the other side of the valley. I order #2 to take out the T72 that's left of this tank patrol. While I'm going to take out a few remaining soldiers in my vicinity and that of #2. Before I do this I notice that the M136 rockets #2 fired (two of them) weren't enough to destroy the T72, he probably didn't hit one of the rockets that good, but anyway I killed the crew that jumped out.

Killed a few soldiers at long range with my sniper and destroyed a shilka that was on my side. Looks like that my team yellow is having trouble getting to me, probably because of the fence. Took down two bmps, the other patrol with two satchels, which I found on the body of a dead spetz natz. Going to use another satchel to blow a hole on the fence to let my teammates come through. Good that I blew those bmps, because there were some regular soldiers in them, better to get rid of them this way.

Used two satchels to blow the fence and took care of the guards in the towers. Heard a machine gun (m2) firing and saw some tracers, but I don't know from what unit (friendly/enemy) they come from. Six, my medic, had some problems with getting back in formation, pretty frustrating.

Got to him and healed myself and let #2 heal. Saw a friendly crew walking 100 metres away from me, at bi42. Don't know what he's doing here? Anyway, we continue our way towards the base.

Took out a few spetz natz arriving with a BRDM, lose #3 as he's trying to blow a shilka, he uses two rockets and it doesn't blow. Damn, I hate these AT weapons of the weapon pack (always did). Have to blow it myself then.
Destroy the shilka and a brdm with rpgs, go to the fence and place a satchel, timer 60 seconds. Want to blow a hole in the wall to get in faster and easier. I have set up a defensive circle near my rock position which my squad will defend, each teammate has an own direction to guard. It's my fall back position, in case there's a bit too many soldiers chasing me down when I attack.

I take out a sniper on a hill before he finally kills me, took three hits. Pretty lucky that I'm alive. Take out a few soldiers, the satchel explodes and blows a hole in the fence, killing a few guards too. Destroy a T72 and with it a number of trucks (probably fuel / ammo ones) go up in the air, blowing a huge portion of the wall. Now out to destroy the scuds.
Destroy them with my rpgs (thank you for the ammo truck/crates), nice sounds coming from the radio.
Objective 3 completed. Now going back to the boat with my team, I'll let them walk back to the evac zone, might keep a few in the boat. But I think that I need a lot of the places, might be not though. But it's nice to have at least a gunner.

Damn, my boat is gone. I order my men to walk back to the extraction point while I get towards the point of the crew. (4x speed).
Lose a lot of my men this way, only #2 survives and he isn't even behind the fences. It's quite frustrating that they can't find their own way through, or well not a good way.
After a lot of problems, I manage to rescue the soldiers (crew) with a truck.

Debriefing :check:
57 minutes, 26920

Conclusion :check:
A pretty entertaining mission that has a few problems.
The addon you use has some law launchers that are weaker than standard ofp ones. You should mention this in the briefing (maybe) to let players know. There's a large number of tanks you may have to destroy in the mission, you could reduce this amount. Starting with the shilkas seems like a good idea to me, that many shilkas aren't needed, I suggest you remove one or two of them.

Another thing you have to fix is the amount of soldiers in safe mode after you start fighting, put them in aware mode once the fight starts. It's weird to see safe soldiers near the sea after destroying the whole base.

One of the most important things might be the fence you have to get past. For a player this isn't much of a problem, for the AI it is. They just wouldn't go through the hole on the way back. Wouldn't it be better just to send the player in with an observer, and have a squad, that the player can call by using the radio, to assist. This way you can script them blowing a hole in the fence. Of course this takes away a lot of fire support near the player, but you can always let the squad coming to aid go towards the player and provide a base of fire or whatever.

Hope that I didn't forget something in this summary, it's a good mission but it needs work.

Title: Re: "The Fortress" - beta
Post by: gambla on 06 Sep 2006, 12:26:13

Thanks mates !  :)

I'm quite happy that you like it. Yes, the fence is definetly an issue. The AI "walking in" doesn't work for sure, i may add another boat for them, in case the player (like me) prefers to call them in later.... Ok, these days i'll go through your reviews and continue working on the mission.   :wave:

Title: Re: "The Fortress" - beta
Post by: burroughs on 06 Sep 2006, 19:38:35

Package/Addons:
   Fair enough as there's nothing special to complain with, but I do entirely agree that a resonable ammount of a certain self-adsvertisement would be a nice eye candy. I had all of the addons already installed in one of my sub-folders and therefore I can't be quite sure which of the editor upgrades I was actually using while playing, but the interface didn't require anything

Settings:
   OFP 1.96, ECP 1.85, Llauma sky, DMA animations, AshRealism Pack, NIM weather and Sanctuary pistol animations, lpswd_materials, -nomap (-nosplash

Overview:
   Clear, with a nice picture within the borders and good positioning of the entry description; that definitely reassured me that decision to play it was right. I like the care of details as it is often follows throughout the rest of the mission. :thumbsup: 

Intro:
I didn't see any and I think there's none. Not willing to restart the mission due to the reasons that follow a little bit later.

Briefing:
A decent one and I had no doubts to what and where and how I am supposed to fulfil the task. However, I didn't like the idea of maritime insertion. I was considering entering the AO headlong in a stealth mode, but - knowing the terrain and infrastructure details I came to the conclusion that I might not work for me that way this time. As always when I perform special operations behind enemy lines I appreciate the selection of weapons. :good:

Mission:
I had supposed that I was to operate in a two-man sniper team, performing pre-assault recce and combat assistance in preparation for an armour strike, but to my astonishment and disappointment I realised that we are accompanied by a small strike team. I didn't like the idea as it's not my favourite hard core real-life style, following the real-life Rangers tactics, but I might be wrong or perhaps have missed something.
I performed the infiltration and the insertion itself in a very safe manner, but first time we were picked by a Shilka of theirs and our boat got battered badly and unable to manouver with a few dead onboard. Restart. :confused:

Next time we were moving far offshore and landed safely, far enough from the main base to remain unnoticed. Anyway, we got in contact pretty soon and had to take one of the patrolling BMPs down. It caused a little unrest at the fuel station and the checkpoint nearby. However, we managed to escape the hasty ambush and the chase that followed. :laugh:

Nearing the base, I ordered the majority of the main force to wait for me under the cover of the trees in a hold fire mode whilst me, my spotter and the radioman were scrambling up the hill to get a clear view of the target area. There were plenty of them; grunts, snipers, SpetsNaz and the higher rank cadre. Plenty of armor and AA defence. I was accepting my teammates reports on targets in range, but they filed to traget the SCUDs and I had to make an assumption that I was to make the decision so as to whether and when call for the assault. It wasn't quite confusing to me as I was sure that the launchers had to be there and I saw them on the spot as soon as I've reached the hilltop. I assigned the targets, called for reinforcements and as we were waiting to join the fun, I started to receive strange messages - bad eneough that there were no voiceovers at all as it was a little hard to keep an eye for all that hostile movement downwards and read the text. I was puzzled how the hell that tank crew survivors got so fast to the other side of the island, taken POWs, if they have just started to push from the opposite side. Well, decided that my duty is not to consider but to obey the orders so we went in and got mowed down a few times; the strike team , even in the open fire mode, somehow resisted to pick up their targets ( maybe that ever present anti-war propaganda finally played on their minds... dunno ... ) so it didn't take long befor the OPFOR neared them and mutilated with several hand grenades. That was the most confusing part and I attempted many times to survive the unfortunate course of action - suprisingly even in the middle of a fierce firefight some of the guards were still calmly patrolling their route, looking round lazily and being snuffed one by one by me and my spotter. Needs some improvement on that one. By the way - I am not quite sure but I assume that you utilized some custom scripts in the base area as the stuff got blown up suprisingly easily inside the base even when the satchell charges were placed up the wall outside the fence. It really helped to get rid of that nasty T-72  when we were running out of anti-armour ammo. :clap:

After we finally took over the base, killed everyone in sight and destroyed what was in our way, I got my men loaded on a URALtruck and we headed westwards to rescue the survivors. Two dumb guards got driven-by before they realized what hit them, we secured the area and gave the tankers a lift. Once again we had to take down the checkpoint at the fuel station where the rest of the strike team got themselves killed and then me, my spotter and the cargo headed for the extraction point, passing by the leftovers of the tank battle. As soon as we raeched the extraction site and got off the truck, my OFP crashed to the desktop. Damn!! :banghead:

Debriefing:
(delayed)

Outro:
(delayed)
 :thumbsup:
Overall:
I have to delay the last three section due to the software failure that happens to me once in a while ... Certainly, I am not going to submit it as a formative beta test - I only wanted to provide as much support on improving the mission and the gamplay  as soon as possible as I am only able to ... Therefore I am planning to continue and complete it later on when I will  have come to terms with my equipment ect.
Got to close for now. Cheers and keep an eye for the update.

Title: Re: "The Fortress" - beta
Post by: burroughs on 06 Sep 2006, 22:16:02

   Allright, even if I am still having an issue with my gameplay and its smoothness in its technical details, it seems that I have managed to come to terms with it at least. Back to bussiness then with the remnants of my team. :wave:

   I used a cheat code at the beach hut turned int a makeshift prison. I loaded my teammates along with the tankers onto a truck and off we went to the extraction site, not bothered at by a BMP and a patrol boat passing by, but twice we got pinned down and blown up in an exploding truck by an OPFOR hunter - killer party.  :weeping:
Afer we took down a fuel station checkpoint again we headed for a safe zone and reached the extraction site where I unloaded my men and called for an evac chopper that came not later than in a few minutes. Onboard I chcecked the team and gave a signal to lift off and di di the area via pre - planned E&E route. End of mission. :clap:

Debriefing:
    Score: 26780, mission time: 2h 20 min. :-[

Overall:
   That's a good mission with room for improvement.
I didn't like the method of insertion: for the sake of that part of the mission I would prefer fully manned boat with a crew that temporarily falls under my command so I could order them where to go to.
The level of the alertness and certain behaviour of the units and squads in a safe or aware mode would be better; those lazy guard should become a bit nervous and react to danger when shot at or just alerted via alarm going off. I saw a squad from the hilltop, standing in the middle of nowhere  in an aware mode in a default formation - that didn't look good and didn't convince me neither.
I noticed that an assault didn't bother the base crew that much. Since it didn't even cross the fence checkpoint, maybe they decided that it's not worth treating seriously and remain calm ... Boy, they got that coolness.  :o

It's good that I was the one to decide when the evac chopper is to get going; too many times it turned out in the course of action that after I had secured the extraction LZ and loaded my team onboard, the heli took off immediately.
 I play in a realistic way  - secure the LZ, pop a smoke etc. - it would be great if I would choose more or less when and where the chopper is to touch the ground to collect us. Besides, the chopper landed far away from our position designed on the map to be the LZ for an extraction chopper and we had to run on full speed to get our ride home. That was frustrating and spoiled my gameplay - just a little bit because in such actions s**t happens and you have expect the unexpected, but  it could have gone better.
Right, that would be more or less what I felt about this mission. Consider it or not, thanks for the fun of playing, testing and reviewing anyway. Cheers, mate. ;)  :goodnight:
   

Title: Re: "The Fortress" - beta
Post by: gambla on 12 Sep 2006, 15:50:57

Hi burroughs and Cheetah,

once again, thank you mates for your time testing my mission, even when i hope you had some fun too. :) Until i've finished a little intro for it, if you like, give my updated beta another try:


http://www.gambla.de/thefortress.zip


To summarize it, i've worked through your reviews and hope to have sorted out the major issues ,but the little things too.
 :good:

cheers,
gambla

Title: Re: "The Fortress" - beta
Post by: Mikero on 14 Sep 2006, 07:50:19

Quote

Here's an updated beta

And, here's a clearer than clear example of why you need to introduce version numbers.

Having just downloaded this mission yesterday (I think), I have no idea if I have do do it again! Ok 153k is no big deal, but it illustrates where you will lose customers. Many will hold back and wait to see if this is really new new or what they have.


You should, change the zip number, not the pbo, that's fine.

change the readme if you haven't done so

put a version number in the overview.html. There are many of us, you included, who have at least three versions of a mission available in the ofp display screen, for many missions. Yes, we need to clean them out, but which one? do we clean out? differently named pbo's wont help us there.

---

I've had a quick play of this gambla, it's a tough mission and challenging. I like 'em that way. But for me, the lag is pretty bad, making it un-enjoyable. Sadly, you may have to reduce the eye candy. I understand choppers and ammo boxes (of all things!) cause most lag. Also, my experience, choppers cause AI to turn totally dumb.

The briefing and notes confused me, as i wasn't sniper and spotter, just a full team. Also, nothing *made* me get into that boat, so I didn't. Preferring some nasty stuff at the front gate instead. I think, for what you wanted to achieve, lone sniper and spotter, join script would be better. Or, some really good notes or readme to use your yellow white blue team abilities. Nothing's obvious there.


I never found the scuds, but could radio that I did, regardless. Some strange message about only three men left kicked in.

Somewhere later a squad of (i think) black ops joined me, all of them without weapons.


I also don't know how I kicked the objective one complete, it seemed to be a time thing, rather than a specific area I went to on the map, and confused me further.

All in all, no matter how this mission pans out, I am unable to play it satisfactorily with the lag.

Title: Re: "The Fortress" - beta
Post by: gambla on 15 Sep 2006, 16:21:50

Ok, i see the point, you're right. The latest and only version online is:

Version:    beta 2.0
Release:    September, 15 - 2006

This is already stated in the readme that is included in the .zip.

___________


If you have such a bad lag, please give me your sys-specs. Comparing with other missions, there isn't much
eye-candy in and i didn't use any big AddOns. By the way, i'm running it on an old Athlon XP 3200+ /
GeForce 6600GT  ? What's your view-distance ?

In the mission, you start as a Ranger-Sniper, Nr. 2 is your spotter. Beside this, you're the CO of the team that
supports you. AFAIK, a sniper and spotter are often escorted to their area of operation by other soldiers.
Please explain the confusion ?

- By the way, this is just one example of a player's choice how to play this mission.
I personally prefer missions with more than one straight way to complete it. -

I've rechecked the boats (2 PBRs in the latest version). I easily could enter them  as well as my team could ?
What can i do now?

Sure you can report the scuds without having found them ? But why should a player do this?

"Some strange message about only three men left kicked in.": I've corrected this now.

"Somewhere later a squad of (i think) black ops joined me, all of them without weapons.":
Did you receive the objective to rescue the tank-squad?

"I also don't know how I kicked the objective one complete, it seemed to be a time thing, rather than a specific
area I went to on the map, and confused me further." :

Objective 1 is to infiltrate the enemy's area. The trigger is area-based, not time-based.
Ahm, what is confusing here ?

Title: (Please review) >> Re: "The Fortress" - FINAL
Post by: gambla on 20 Sep 2006, 13:02:32

                                         Final version: "THE FORTRESS"


Please download it here:

    http://www.gambla.de/TheFortress-FINAL.zip

The zip-file contains:    TheFortress.cain.pbo, editorupdate102.pbo, picture, readme



REQUIRED AddOns :

editorupdate102   (05.02.04)   included !
BAS DeRa v1.55   (07.05.04)              @ http://www.gotf.net/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=26&func=fileinfo&id=7
JAM2      (04.10.03)                            @ http://www.gotf.net/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=26&func=fileinfo&id=30


Thank you! 

best regards,
gambla
 

Title: Re: "The Fortress" - beta
Post by: Cheetah on 20 Sep 2006, 13:05:46

Gamble, you have  to edit the first post with the (review please), not a reply. If you mod a reply, only the reply will have in the title "Re: (review please) the fortre.." you get it?
So you have to modify the first post and change it's title to let it show up with (review please) in the beta board.

You already did it while I was typing his reply. But could you mod it again, and remove the "re" and the ">>" please. That way it looks better :).

Do note that this reply doesn't mean that I'm reviewing it.

Title: Re: (Please review) "The Fortress" - FINAL
Post by: gambla on 20 Sep 2006, 13:57:21

ok, done. That was remodding the 17th...... Don't we love to edit and modify ?!  :laugh:

Title: Re: (Please review) "The Fortress" - FINAL
Post by: Jimboob on 21 Sep 2006, 19:58:23

Undergoing a review.

Edit: Check your PM's.

Title: Re: (Please review) "The Fortress" - FINAL
Post by: gambla on 19 Oct 2006, 19:11:52

Just replied again to your PM!  The first reply, weeks ago, didn't make it ? :(

BTW: "mfcti11" is part of WGL-mod... ???

Title: Re: (Please review) "The Fortress" - FINAL
Post by: gambla on 06 Feb 2007, 12:00:25

Help ! 
Can anybody get in contact with the reviewer please ? I'm giving up now that my mission will ever be released.  >:(

Title: Re: (Please review) "The Fortress" - FINAL
Post by: Cheetah on 14 Feb 2007, 23:32:07

I'll be reviewing this mission, if you could be so kind to provide a working download location?

Title: Re: (Please review) "The Fortress" - FINAL
Post by: gambla on 15 Feb 2007, 08:56:25

Hi Cheetah,
please see my first post. I've updated the download-link.

thanks  :)

Title: The Fortress by Gambla
Post by: Cheetah on 17 Feb 2007, 11:39:55

(http://www.ofpec.com/images/OFPEC_mission.jpg)

File: TheFortress.zip (208kb) (http://www.ofpec.com/missions_depot/missions/TheFortress.zip) Version: Final Requires: OFP:R 1.96 Author:  Gambla Score:  5 Type:  Singleplayer Addons: BAS Dera v1.55 (15.5mb) (http://www.gotf.net/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=26&func=fileinfo&id=7) JAM2 (6mb) (http://www.gotf.net/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=26&func=fileinfo&id=30) editorupdate102 (included) Description: Check the enemy base for SCUDS and provide support

Review: by Cheetah

Overview
With a border, shade and decent picture the overview picture is decent. The summary is short and sweet, but a version number and author's name are lacking.

Intro
It's good that this mission has an intro, the author shows that he tried making the mission complete. But he hasn't been able to hide his inability or lack of interest to make it a good one. For me, the intro was somewhat dark and there were a few errors. One was that the intro begins with the no-camera-follow-a-unit-with-crosshair problem. Even when the camera script kicks in the quality of the camera angles is lacking as well as what the intro shows. Just two units running around, I think that more could have been done with the intro.
Two examples: wouldn't it be better if you showed a cessna doing some recon on the area and get shot down. Or a US spy infiltrating to confirm the SCUD positions, but getting himself killed on his way into the base?

Briefing
There is a briefing with one special page for more mission details. This page gives the player all the information he needs for his mission. What I miss is a line to remind the player of the radio possibilities. Good were the reports of multiple armoured vehicles, thus the warning to take additional AT weapons. The objectives have the correct layout and there are almost no spelling errors. Your teammates are expert shooters, which will help you in your upcoming mission.

The weapon selection is moderate and gives you the option to use a lot of JAM2 weapons. What I don't like of them is that the AT weapons can't even take care of a BMP in one shot, well they can but are considerably weaker requiring a BMP to explode in ten seconds.

Mission
You start in a forest near several ammo boxes, tents and several boats. The ammo box offers the player some BIS AT weapons, which is probaly a mistake by the author because it opens up the possibility to not use JAM launchers. There's a limited number of options for the player, does he go by boat, on foot and on his own or with his team? It's up to the player to decide what he thinks is best in the given situation. Every route you take gives you some opposition and makes patrols divert to your position.

There are some bugs in this mission, for example two saves in a short period of time at the start of the mission. Another is that it's hard to get your teammates into the boats, they will take a detour because they won't crawl down the steep hill. It takes up quite a lot of time even on 4x speed. Smaller bugs are, an objective not ticked off at debriefing, some patrols on "at ease" mode even when the base is on fire, minor typos, and a yes-yes radio option everywhere everytime.

I liked the position of several snipers which can make your life a lot harder, it's hard to get them before you're dead. Not only the position of the snipers is good, but the position of soldiers in and around the base will make it hard to get a good read on the base. It's up to the player to tackle this problem. Once you make the wrong decision to trigger the alarm unprepared, you're in an unhealthy position.

The radio messages come in slowly, sometimes you'll have to wait for multiple minutes before you get the next objective. And not all objectives seem logical, but are hard to execute when unprepared. After flying away in the evac chopper I was glad to put an end to this tricky adventure.

Outro
No outro.

Special
A helidust script is being used in this mission, but you won't really see it in action as you'll play in the dark and there is only the helicopter extraction at the end of the mission. Even then you'll be happy that you survived and probably won't notice the sand going up in the air.

I consider the difficulty of the mission as a special feature, gambla did a good job with patrolling units. But, if you know how to tackle the enemies, the high difficulty fades away. More important is getting the right approach of the base, I found a pretty good one. This is a plus for the author, there are only a few angles fit for launching your attack.

Conclusion
It was hard to figure out the overall score of this mission, because there were some bugs but one can enjoy the mission to some degree. Of course this depends on your playstyle. If you want a lot of action, play this mission and don't get bothered with the bugs and lack of polishing you'll find.

However, if you want a mission that's decent and bugfree you can entertain yourself, but could get irritated by bugs. The intro and lack of outro make this mission not a good one for the cinematics lovers, reality seekers shouldn't play this mission as well as people who want more dynamics in the objectives.

In short: technically it's lacking, but the gameplay is good for certain people nevertheless. Consider this an bit better than the average BIS OFP mission due to the action, but worse in the polishing department.

Scores
Overview - 7
Briefing - 8
Scripting - 3
Camera - 3
Overall - 5/10

The beta thread can be seen here (http://www.ofpec.com/forum/index.php?topic=28301.0).

Title: Re: (Please review) "The Fortress" - FINAL
Post by: Cheetah on 19 Feb 2007, 12:41:09

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=37).

Title: Re: The Fortress by Gambla
Post by: schuler on 02 Jul 2007, 12:57:46

how do you take on a tank or bmp what ever it is, with a boat? i like the mission so far but have to ask? tank vs boat? sick of replays,  ;) schuler
   EDIT reading reviews for this now ,,,, mission scored a 5 and a 5 is good . just lost as to take to land and take out the bmp's  :dunno: have to see whats going on, interested!  :D schuler

Title: Re: The Fortress by Gambla
Post by: gambla on 02 Jul 2007, 13:20:26

who said you have to attack a tank with a boat ?  :dunno:

Title: Re: The Fortress by Gambla
Post by: schuler on 02 Jul 2007, 13:31:34

well ive been told to take a boat, but you have to do what it takes to get the job done,,,,,,  ;)  i'll kill them ALL!!!!!!

EDIT mission is going well . on land now. like the combat!  :-*
      :D
EDIT 2
very good combat, entering red zone, s%#t is happening, looking good so far , having fun! ,,, thanks for the mission,, :D
Schuler