OFPEC Forum
Missions Depot => Mission Discussion => ArmA - Reviewed Missions => Topic started by: LeeHunt on 07 Aug 2007, 16:18:43
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Please Review (total package should have all necessary items & screenshots, I've uploaded addons separately for mission distribution later)
And of course, reviewer please take your time, I'm not concerned about how quickly this one gets reviewed (been working on the mission off and on since February!). Thanks :)
1) Download Total Package, addons & readme included (Recommended)
http://files.filefront.com/PB+Final+Total+Packagerar/;8957017;/fileinfo.html
Version: FINAL
Type: SP
Island: Sahrani
Requirements: ArmA version 1.08 (3 Add-on's included in download: Rellikki's Urban Troops, Solus's SLX People, Editor Update)
Installation: Put the Punishment Battalion PBO in your ArmA\Missions folder and the 3 Addon's in the Arma\AddOns folder. Don't forget to check out the very valuable PunishmentBattalionReadMe.txt document....
Thanks to great betatesting feedback on this forum and in many e-mails, I've hopefully improved Punishment Battalion dramatically for you and fixed the major issues, while adding some new features and more challenges. There is also one more addon included in the download package for those who've already played, please take note.
While there are probably over 150 changes/improvements/fixes, here are the major changes:
Car Radio in full effect, with all ArmA songs
Environmental Sounds script from Abandoned Armies now fitted correctly for PB, birds & crickets sing during the day, frogs, wolves & owls come out at night, etc
Fixed Carla issues (she can now only use one satchel charge, can only drive her car, and refuses to stay in tanks, machine gun trucks, BRDM�s etc)
Less rain after first half hour, weather system fixed and more variable
Bagango police attack works properly now
Difficulty level increased slightly, more counterinsurgency forces added, player has less weapons and AT weapons at the beginning
Finale cutscene now runs only once, not twice
Ambush scene at beginning made more realistic and shortened to one scene
Pita Base strengthened with some new exciting features (thanks Johnnyboy)
More voiceovers
Basically every change LCD suggested implemented
Resting & Healing now fades to black and then back in
Player changed to civilian uniform, but has first aid kit
Maria female civilian addon replaces character on beach
Saved game issues fixed, drastically reduced number of variable names to fix that
Floyd�s helicopter transfer works smoothly now
Briefing edited, shortened and separated into Mission briefing and Author�s Notes
AI movement issues with �dostop� fixed
Thanks Betatesters!!!!!!!!!
I have run through the mission many times and so far all the storyline and features have worked in 1.30 (at least for me), so i'm most concerned now about difficulty level (is it still too easy?), did anyone hear the environmental sounds that come in randomly around you every 10 minutes or so? Are there any other things you'd like to see? What can be cut? etc etc. Thanks :)
Overview:General Beria has put North Sahrani under martial law to exterminate a growing Resistance. Find and recruit the Resistance, rescue your girlfriend, destroy Beria's regime and bases. More details to follow. Choose your own strategy of guerilla warfare as you go from not even a weapon to master of the Island. Your judgment and instinct on when to fight, when to run and what strategies to employ will make more of a difference than your marksmanship (though you'll need plenty of that too).
(http://static.filefront.com/images/personal/l/leehunt27/105409/ybvvxgfyzy.jpg)
Mission length: 7 to 24 hours
Features:
Over 130 voiceovers from a dozen different actors
15 cutscenes
Nearly 100 scripts
Many underlying aspects of THobson's game "engine"
The "Mandoble Mortar"
SharkAttack's Airstrike
Unlimited Saves (you'll need 'em! I sure did)
A ruthless enemy counter-insurgency force
Rellikki�s SLA Urban Troops
Solus' SLX People
This mission has been many months in the making, and I'm really grateful to THobson for his patient advice on using a modified version of the Abandoned Armies game "engine." Like many other OFP fans out there, I loved Abandoned Armies and thought its structure could be used to create many more missions. Without THobson's groundbreaking work and the scripts, tutorials and forum posts of people here at Ofpec, I would not have been able to create this mission. 85% of the scripts & technical work are credited to someone else, so thank you very much everyone here!!
Though there are many scripts, the mission is not "scripted." There are no setpos tricks or snipers waiting for you in unrealistic places (though there are snipers in base guard towers where you'd expect them). Half the enemy force is randomized. The AI will respond to your strategies in different ways and except for the main plot and story, no player will have the exact same experience.
All that being said, this is a humble betatest, and I am open to people's ideas, criticisms & suggestions. Thank you for taking the time to play Punishment Battalion and I hope you enjoy it!!!!
Download the entire package (PBO, readme & 3 add-on's) here:
http://files.filefront.com/PunishmentBattalionV130Paezip/;8659192;/fileinfo.html
(http://static.filefront.com/images/personal/l/leehunt27/105409/ohmtzrjnzh.jpg)
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Sounds good.Links to the addons would have been better though, they are hardly obscure and it would cut the download from the whopping 34meg.
Take a look tonight mate.
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Understood Denz, was going for the "convenience" factor of a one click download. Will post another link to just the PBO and post the Addon links later (late getting to work as it is finishing this up :D!!) And looking forward to betatesting the surge of new missions this weekend!
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Hello Lee.
Nice to see my addons being used in missions. I'll give this a go later and write you a beta-report. :) By the way, SLX people are not Deadeye's addon. Solus is the author of it.
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Thanks Rellikki- sorry Solus, fixed that my bad!
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I have been playing this for the last week or so ...
enjoying it a lot ...
will post a full beta report when ive finished it ... :good:
Nice one Lee
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thanks SharkAttack - let me know when you finish. The finale cutscene is much improved in the latest version now on filefront, I can tell you how to de-PBO and watch the better one instantly when you are ready. Though it will be different depending on who survived and who didn't in your squad. Thanks again for testing it! :D
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Downloading now.
Sorry I'll be away for a month (maybe 2 weeks). Not much use as a Beta Tester this month.
I know I'll enjoy it, loved your little vid on U tube.
I may get get lucky and get occaisional Internet access. If I do I'll check in.
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Ah, the much awaited PB.
I'll do the whole beta report when finished, but:
Outstanding mission!!!
Even if people don't fancy beta testing, this is easily on the level of (or quite close to!) Abandoned Armies (One of my all time favorite OFP experiences,) in terms of gameplay and style. Once some of the bugs that necessarily come with a mission of this magnitude are worked out, it'll be perfect.
Holding off on getting this new version, don't think my savegame would transfer over. :)
Anyway,
By the time this is done with the beta process, methinks I smell a two digit number. ;)
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I can't quite believe that a mission of this magnitude and quality has been created so soon after ArmA's launch.
The player can choose to take many different paths through the mission and just about every circumstance that can be encountered has been provided for with a careful eye for detail.
To be honest, I'm not sure what to write here as I really don't want to give any spoilers.
Spotted one typo: shell > she'll
in the private conversation with Marco about his sister.
A minor criticism I know, but the information about saving the game, while valid and useful is abit over the top. The hint box and readme should be enough.
The couple of hours I spent last night playing this didn't even scratch the surface. This is already something to be savoured.
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Hi Denz, you made my day!! Thanks so much. I started this in February (bought the German version and got the English translater mod for it) and spent probably the first two months trying to understand how Abandoned Armies worked. I went through an entire notebook with little notes like
"Write script for what happens if player decides to RPG Marco inexplicably before they even meet"
or
"Make it so the player can take the bodies out of the truck at the beginning" (a process which took forever for noob scripter like me)
which led to more notes like:
"figure out how to get the direction that the truck is facing before the player removes the bodies, then make the new truck have the same damage and facing" etc etc. Many people on ofpec have helped me with these questions and I'm very appreciative.
I couldn't figure out in the description.ext how to make "she'll" show up versus "shell" when they spoke. For some reason those apostrophes didn't come through- if anybody knows how to fix that please post :D
Point taken on the save game, Firecontrol mentioned the same thing. I will keep it to a hint.
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I couldn't figure out in the description.ext how to make [...]
You aren't using a stringtable for the texts?
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no Cheetah, i've got to learn how to use stringtables. :dunno: everything's just in the description.txt. De-PBO'd Bardosy's Perpetua missions and can learn from there how....
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Ah well. It is not that hard to learn to use stringtables, you just have to understand it and you will keep using it ;).
Please check your messages Lee.
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Guess I'm the only one having trouble with this.
I loved Abandoned Armies for OFP so I was pretty
excited about this. Loaded up fine, SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
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So I managed to hook up with the American pilot, found another dude at a marked location
and proceeded to the abandoned safehouse to wait out the day. Saved through the 0-0-0
command. But now I can't resume.....it CTD every time I try to reload the mission. :( :( :(
Any ideas?
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Dammit.
Windows XP
Intel 4 MHz with 2 GB RAM
No addons except the ones
downloaded with the mission.
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This issue has been fixed in version 1.30 at the beginning of the post
UPDATED:
ISSUE WITH IGOR711 and SAVED GAMES TOTALLY FIXED. CHECK OUT VERSION 1.30 :D
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thanx lee for sharing that info on save game was having similar probs
BIS have gotta fix .. pronto .. its ruining the game
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Thanks Lee!!!
I'll try it out tonight.
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ok, so maybe i'm dense or something, but this didn't work for me.
1, 2 and 3 i understand. But when you say restart the mission
completely, do you mean to say i should start and in from the
beginning (when it tells you you'll be over-writing a saved game)
or do you "resume"...... i assume it's the former, because resume
is where i get the crash. but if i re-start as in totally re-start,
then try to copy the savegame.armasave file back in, where
does it say "load".....all it does for me is completely re-start the
mission....from the beginning. i'm obviously missing something.
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Package
Good readme. It has lots of tips and information about the mission - interestes me. I would have so much prefered
that you'd just have pasted the links of the addons to the post, instead of including the addons in the package
though.
Overview
Interesting overview. I liked it how you added a proverb in the overview, very original. A little space between it
and the "mission by Lee Hunt" would look better in my opinion.
Intro
The intro was pretty interesting... and sad. It added more "storyish feeling" when you disabled the sound from the
background. Good idea. At the end of the intro, I could see the "player" - better add a fade-out before destroying
the camera to avoid this.
Briefing
The briefing was fine. Some of the information that was told in the readme already was cut but this will do fine.
the "SLA Troops seen from truck" markers were a good idea.
Mission
The convoy got hit by the mines and the guards in the truck died, which seemed kinda weird though, because the
explosion was 100m away from the truck. When I tried to remove the bodies from the truck, the whole vehicle
disappeared... I followed the road to the UH60 crashsite and got a note of the footprints. I followed them down
to the place where the american soldier was hiding and I helped him (I wonder what would have happened if I didn't?)
I rested at this point. We then took the UAZ and I decided to head to the resistance camp to get some more team
members. Then I saw the suicide bomber on the road and got another member who joined me. Yay. I gave him my AK-74
which I grabbed from the truck at the beginning and took an SVD from one of the bodies for myself. I met with a
police in the resistance camp and he told me to bring the AK's to him. On that cutscene there were no voices.
I attacked Eponia alone. This took me a few tries but I finally managed to clear it and secure the pickup truck.
I rearmed my two team mates with some weapons from the bodies at this point. We then returned to the resistance
camp with the pickup truck and brought the assault rifles to the police and then he just started running down
the road. Shouldn't he take the truck with him?
We then headed to Marco's house and we met up with him and the other guy. I talked with Marco privately right
after meeting him and he told about his sister.
I was kinda confused at this point - so much options to choose, but which one? But I then chose to destroy the AA
site to make Floyd's rescue safe. We arrived near the island with the UAZ and I left my team mates to cover
it. I advanced to the island on foot and killed the guards at the bridge end. I'm damn glad the island wasn't
more defended - would have took hours to complete the objective without losing the team mates, I think. I succesfully
destroyed the shilka and the BRDM with my RPG I found from Eponia and I spoke to Floyd and he marked the excraction
point. Now to escort him there... I was excepting to defend the chopper from some hell-of-an-assault, but thank god,
no. I felt so happy after escorting Floyd alive to the chopper. The AT-guns that the americans left will surely
come handy. I equiped all my team mates with them and added some that we couldn't carry to the UAZ.
I now decided to head for the El Sordo's band but it was wiped out... Were the wolves necessary? :P I then headed
to Pablo's band, but before going there, I decided to attack Carmen, which took me several tries. There were more
enemies than I excepted and the armor, but we finally cleared it and destroyed the tanks. When I arrived to Pablo's
place, he joined me and I got a hint where it said that he respects me enough to join me. I suppose I was supposed
to kill enough enemies in order to make them join? Well I'm glad I already had done it. We took the truck with MG.
I then headed for the contact in Masbete. We killed a few patrols on the way. When I met with the contact, Augustin
got shocked and left us. That bastard... Same happened with Arnold while I was on the way to the safe house to see
if there's anything interesting. Do I smell or something? :( I got a bit bored, I had a look at Bagango with the
girl I recruited and didn't see much enemies, so I called the polices to attack it and so did we. All I did was
killed two especas guarding the gate and one UAZ and that's it... Didn't see anything else. Then I noticed that
he actually meant the Bagango base, not the city... shit... I missed the party and there were police corpses
all over the base. After several tries, we finally defeated the enemy there. We then took the BRDM-2's from the
halls and proceeded to the player's girl friend and rescued her. We got under attack by some SLA's at
this point and one of our BRDM's was destroyed. My game crashed at this point for some reason, and when I tried
to load the last saved game, same happened again. What a disappointment...
Debriefing
Didn't complete the mission.
Outro
Didn't complete the mission.
Summary
So far, it seemed a very nice mission. This is what I've tried to achieve and make people do with my addons -
A really good mission featuring them, so thank you for making it. I wonder why the game kept crashing after
rescuing the girl friend. Is it the mission's fault?
[edited by judge] 1st point on da Competition... well done Rellikki... it earns u a
Project Beta Approved +1
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hi igor7111,
Yep, you have to restart the mission, THEN put the saved game from a different safe folder back in and Load. Remember you can press Escape during the intro and Skip it. Its stupid but its Bohemia's fault. Your saved games will work.
hi Rellikki, thanks again for testing the mission and for your suggestions, I really appreciate it.
Couple quick points- I don't know why your saved game crashed, did you try the save game fix and backups in and out as I mentioned to igor7111? I'll doublecheck though and make sure there's no problems with rescuing Maria.
I put the mission in without completing the Eponia voiceover, only one. The truck should re-appears when you take the bodies out (i swapped out trucks using setpos to get an empty one in). Anyway, glad you liked it, please give the saved game backup a try as it should work. I did manage to finish without crashing, it could just be that file i hope.
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Ok, thanks for the advice. I finally managed to complete it with 132 infantry kills and several vehicles. Only one casualty : Pablo. I had to look for the general for a while, because I didn't notice he was in one of the hangars when I had cleared the Pita airbase. By the way, found one issue: The girl that wouldn't want to carry any guns could still be a gunner of a vehicle and shoot from there. Also, at the Pita airbase, the BRDM-2 at the fenced border was too close to the fences, so when it got destroyed, it jumped sky high. Move it a bit backwards and it should do the trick. The T-72 was fine.
It sure was a really great mission, got kinda messy at the end though because my A.I. kept getting stuck all over the island behind fences and houses and they were spread all over.
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Anyone struggling with saved game issues in Punishment Battalion, the latest version 1.01 should fix it. If you are using 1.0 please read my response post to igor7111. Your saved games are fine and just need a little reshuffling, they will work ! :) http://www.ofpec.com/forum/index.php?topic=29984.msg205224#msg205224
Wow! :good: Very impressive Rellikki! I'm excited you were able to finish ok and that you enjoyed it. :clap: I will start implementing many of your suggestions and fix various mistakes. I will send you an email back with questions about spoilers and the Finale cutscene etc.
I probably need to add another clue, but during the second conversation with Maria she reveals where Beria is. But if that wasn't clear i need to add it somewhere else as well.
Anyway thanks so much!!
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Hey Lee!
You might want to include a link to your reply to igor, that save people's time from wading through all the posts: http://www.ofpec.com/forum/index.php?topic=29984.msg205224#msg205224
I guess you aren't interested in answering the questions I sent to you?
Cheetah
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hey Cheetah, i never got a message in my ofpec inbox. i do want to answer your questions, can you resend to leehunt22@hotmail.com? maybe there's a problem with the PM? Anyway, thanks for pasting that link :)
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Okay Lee. I have been away and have just read this thread.
A couple of comments:
1) Stringtables – My views (but others may think differently)
Stringtables are absolutely essential if you are going to have a mission that is capable of being played in different languages. On they other hand if your mission is only ever going to be played in one language then string tables are an unnecessary complication. I prefer to have all the text in description.ext where it can all be seen easily in context.
2) Savegame bug
Oh dear, it looks like ArmA has the same problem that OFP had. While the mission is in beta testing it is okay to give instructions to players as to how to work round it (beta testers are a hardy bunch), but before you release the final mission you as mission builder must fix it. Not to put you off but this problem took me several weeks, if not months, to get round when making Abandoned Armies. If ArmA has the same problem as OFP then the cause of the problem is having too many names in the game. Naming objects, triggers, units, groups, variable names in scripts, names of strings etc. etc. (including names in addons) is the cause. To fix the problem I had to restructure the whole mission to reduce the number of scripts running at anyone time (so reducing the number of active variables when the game is saved). I also put some global variables into arrays. An array has only one name but can contain many variables. I also removed a lot of object names and instead used the nearestObject command quite a lot. Eventually I got it so that even users with ECP would not suffer the problem. Best of luck.
Bye the way. In the work around you don't need to take the savegame files out of the save game folder. Just change the file names, then change them back again when you want to use them (assuming ArmA works like OFP of course).
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hi Trevor & other betatesters,
Thanks for posting these comments.
1) Hmmm, maybe I'll come to stringtables if its requested otherwise I'll probably move on to #2...
2) I must admit I was secretly hoping the saved game workaround was something that Bohemia could patch :whistle:, but you're right- there are a ton of unit names & variable names in scripts currently in Punishment Battalion and it makes sense it would cause the same problem in both OFP and ArmA. In a way this is reassuring because I think the "Names" problem can be solved (I can cut a lot of names & streamline the scripts significantly)....
EDITED Later: OK, I've taken out about 70 unit names that were used in various scripts and categorized them more efficiently. I have used arrays for large groups and so far the saved games on my PC are resuming ok, but I'm gonna test it aggressively until I'm sure its alright, but looking positive......
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Well done. Things to think about are what addons or 'enhancements' are other player going to be using. These could well add to the list of names in the mission, so you might want to 'over do' the reduction in names, and also put a description of the problem and its work around in the readme file if you haven't already. Another thing to think about is what are the likely maximum number of variables that could be active when a mission is saved. This will depend on which scripts are running at the time of the save. Try to engineer such a condition (and perhaps over do it a bit) to see if the saves restore correctly.
I too thought BIS could/would/should fix this problem, however, here we are. The closest I came to giving up on Abandoned Armies was when I hit this bug. It took quite some research of the forums to get any idea what the problem might be, and a lot of trial and error to find some solutions (use of arrays for exmple).
EDIT: Another thing you could look at is using the 'nil' command to destroy variables you have finished with for a while.
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Hi Lee!
I just have noticed that the total package has a damaged archive. And where can I download the separate PBO? There is no link below the name of the mission, only links to the addons :whistle:.
Cheers
Mathias
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Saved games Fixed in new version 1.01:
August 27th Note: Version 1.30 coming out mid September, recommend new testers wait till then
(DOWNLOAD TEMPORARILY REMOVED TO AWAIT NEW VERSION 1.30)
Hi Mathias, i was just in the process of uploading a new version, give it a try now (as of 12:50 pm New York Time on sunday the 12th). Had a bad feeling somebody would try to download just at that moment! :dunno:
Anyway, I cut over 100 variable names and then reduced another 50 used in scripts to nil afterwards. I tried saving and resuming my game over a dozen times and had zero crashes, so hopefully that fixes it for everyone else as well!! (I'm praying so :whistle:)
Possible Questions for Betatesters:
Is the mission too hard? Too easy?
Did you want to see more or less of the characters/story?
Was the size of the mission (map, # of bad guys) too big or just right or too small?
Anything you would like to see? Thanks!
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Lee, based on your comments on the Abandoned Armies thread I take it you have static sound sources around the place. My suggestion would to only have environmental sounds if there is no fighting, also I would not have bird sounds when it is raining either. Imagine tramping through a filthy, foggy, rainy day and having some birds chirruping merrily at your side – spoils the atmosphere. Or image an intense firefight with birds happily singing above your heads – compare that with an intense firefight, at the end of which you are looking around to see if the enemy are defeated, then you hear some birds or a dog barking in the street. Completely different atmosphere.
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Yes, there are mostly static sounds. These are mostly cows and crickets around the countryside, and wolves in some key places. There are some dogs and birds in town but very few. Some of the private beta reports i got were content with the sounds when asked, but I would like to add more the way Abandoned Armies had it once I get the scripts figured out (probably once my long overdue August vacation is over). The problem is of course with the Object ID's and I'm trying to discover a decent solution (not just having a randomized sound appear every few minutes regardless of location, or only with certain animals based on distances from game logics etc). But you raise a very good point, thankfully no atmosphere killing sounds at present, but not enough atmosphere-creating sounds just yet... so more work cut out for me after vacation :)
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What is the issue with object IDs in ArmA?
Apart from using them to kill a lot of buildings I mostly just used object IDs as a quick way of specifying a location. You could instead use absolute coordinates. Of course this would mean finding those coordinates first. I did that by having a repeating radio trigger that was something like:
hint format["%1",getPos player]
or some such, my syntax is very rusty these days. You get the idea anyway, just move the player around and activate the trigger to get his current coordinates. This does raise the complication that the distance command did not work with absolute coordinates but it is simple enough to check the x and y coordinates separately.
On sounds - this is OFP now not ArmA: I found that sound objects could not be created, moved or destroyed and also that after a some time they just stopped making their sounds. It might be that ArmA is better than OFP. Worth checking anyway.
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Creating the sound candy was the last task for me to finish in PB, then i saw the upcoming Project Beta and threw in sound objects instead and figured I could add this bonus later. Mr. Peanut was helpful working through this, though i didn't quite finish. I think the problem is I don't yet know how to store an array like the one of all the locations & sounds-- so it doesn't create a massive lag each time it runs the sound candy check. That's my next job. This is where I left off, as you can see its similar to the move atrocities script but ArmA uses NearestObject (you can't just throw in ID's):
;Move Sound Candy by Lee Hunt, thanks to Mr. Peanut and Ofpec.com for the help!
;Bbased on THobson's MoveTriggers in Abandoned Armies 1.40
; The locations are the objects the player wants to place sounds near
_Locations = [getpos player nearestObject 1304,getpos player nearestObject 4019,getpos player nearestObject 4054,getpos player nearestObject 4022]
;The messages are the different sounds to be played at each location object, and can and should use the same sound to avoid having too many
; triggers on the map.
_Messages = [chicken,chicken,cow,dog]
;Find out which location the player is closest to, _atrocity is used based on Abandoned Armies
_GL = "logic" createvehicle [0,0,0]
_GL setPos getpos (_Locations select 0)
_atrocity = 0
_dist = player distance _GL
_i = 0
;Find out which location the player is closest to, _atrocity is used based on Thobson's Abandoned Armies
#mainloop
_atrocity = -1
_dist = 1e20
_i = 0
#loopfindAtrocity
if ((player distance (_Locations select _i)) < _dist) then {_atrocity = _i;_dist = player distance (_Locations select _i)}
_i = _i + 1
if (_i < count _Locations) then {goto"loopfindAtrocity"}
if (_atrocity != -1) then {(_Messages select _atrocity) setpos getpos (_locations select _atrocity)}
~5
if (alive player) then {goto "mainloop"}
exit
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Decided to edit this to suit the whole "project Beta" thing ;)
Package
Packaged just fine, as far as I could see.
Overview
Enjoyed the use of a quote. Made me smile.
Intro
Also good stuff. My graphics card is too slooooow to be able to load every new scene instantly, so I got to see at a lot of low LOD blocks for a couple of seconds at the start of every scene (same with outro). But oh well.
Briefing
Good stuff, generally. Nothing to complain about.
Mission
The start was nice, although it seems a bit weird how the explosion managed to take out specifically the guards, especially the ones in the back. Also, why did none of the guards have any weapons (unless the one AK-74 + mag found in the back of the truck is one of the guards')? I suppose just not to bathe the player in weapons right from the start, so it's all cool.
The first thing I did was take off to the American chopper-landing spot, and following the trail to the pilot himself (nice and RPG-like, likey). Note that I did this on foot since I didn't realise that you could steal the truck :-[ But that was all nice and well, anyway (couldn't've scaled that mountain with the truck as it were). Anyway, hired the pilot, drove off with the car, and got that other guy in the mountain pass. Note that the suicide bomber didn't manage to kill all the civilians, the guy with the dark shirt survived (although all bloody). Ah well. Got sniper rifle, drove back to the truck.
There was a biiig group of white-black soldiers close to the truck, but I just drove by them real fast-like into Eponia, where I took out the whole garrison there soldier-by-soldier (no reinforcements that I saw).
After that I stole all the weapons of the killed soldiers and drove up to the ? Resistance sign, where I met with the captain who told me of the cache of AKs (d'oh, I think, having just been there). Anyway, go and grab them, return them, and yes indeed, the AKs disappear from the trunk but the captain just runs away.
One note here: The Landrovers are the "trucks" of the RACS, consequently they're filled with phat loot -> lots of ammo, including M136 rounds. This also includes the police variants (which is just plain odd). Might want to consider removing the magazine cargo on all the police landrovers. Also, the crate contained four odd M4s -> considering the police force just wanted 12 AKs, one would think they could also want 8 AKs and then just grab the 4 M4s, or somesuch :P Point is, I mean, that there are four perfectly good assault rifles lying around in that crate. Maybe one old M16A2 or somesuch, but 4 M4s? I dunno...
Anyway, afterwards I carry on to Marco, get him and his pal and the directions to more places to go. I first head to the dead guys (lots of wolves howling - one lonely might be more effective), and then head straight south to Pablo's gang. I kill people on the way, and Pablo joins me happily, and I have a largish army with lots of equipment, including AT weaponry and the like, and that nice M2 truck as well. This time it's off to take out those AA units and get the promised American goodies, so it's off to the north again. Drivedrivedrive. For some reason there's no longer a radio option :( Also, the radio set up like in Abandoned Armies (random playing standard song) would be pretty cool as well, instead of just that one song.
The trip north is pretty eventless, and the resistance at the goal is not too dangerous at all, especially with the nice little Dragunov you've picked up. The Shilka and the BRDM are only guarded by one lone patrolman, and are easily taken out by me alone. MadMatt's effects = niiice and satisfying to see things go up in flames. :cool2:
It may be at this point noted I hadn't seen a single case of anyone chasing me down, which was a bit boring. Even with my super-slow AI micro-management (yarr, stupid buggers) there was never apparently time for any reinforcements or the promised elite troops to arrive. Oh well. We drop Floyd off (that was kind of cool, seeing him run through the fog and rain into the underwash of the copter blades while keeping a distance). Anyway, the promised crates were there, and I spent the next 10 minutes or so loading everything into the truck (amazing how they gave us like 4 man-portable Stinger AA systems + missiles...pretty heavy-duty stuff that!), and then after having rearmed all my men with American weapons I headed off again.
Back to..Carmen, I believe? (the place north of Pablo's base, where you kill the SLA in the pub with the car outside). Here I ran into trouble though - 2 T72s and a BMP with an X amount of beret-clad soldiers running around came zooming into the rainy city, right at us! Luckily I had just saved, although it took manymany retries before I managed to kill all the tanks and soldiers. This was the one point I actually had some challenge before me, although most of it was due to poor visibility and wanting to do things myself without endangering my somewhat-stupid AI companions.
Eventually they were all burning wrecks and we continued on, this time to pick up Albert and Carla and assault the airbase. Carla we picked up nicely (very cool concept!), and Albert I immediately suspected something with his dialog. Hmm! Ah well. M-17 arrives, I've just saved before it and go through a couple of save points until I manage to shoot it down over the ocean with a Stinger, causing most of its cargo to drop into the sea. Mwahah. Wonder if any of them managed to swim to shore...anyway, I shoot the traitor in the back after him having tried "running" (which amounted to dismounting from the truck, magically carrying different weapons, and then just standing there like an eejit until I shot his face off). After this I continue on to the Airbase...and here's the big niggle.
I moved in with Carla, and as advertised she wasn't attacked. I merrily went around planting bombs at the various tanks, blowing them up and continuing further into the base. (Niggle "0" : no-one seems to mind her walking into the base, putting a satchel in plain daylight behind a tank, walking a couple of steps away and detonating it ^^)
Niggle 1: Since the player has this unique possibility of seeing the insides of the base through the eyes of this "spy", making things look good should be prioritized. Just having people standing in the middle of the field doing nothing or having those static guns sit entirely unprotected in the open is a bit...lazy-looking. :) Adding vegetation, sandbags or the like is generally a cool thing, methinks!
Niggle 2 (the big one): Carla can drive a tank! Yes she can. And there just happens to be an empty one close to the hangars. And, seeing as she's SetCaptived, she can merrily drive off with the tank, put manual fire on, and gun down the rest of the base. D'oh. I'm sad to say I used the tank to take out the rest of the base, entirely unmolested, before returning to my peeps (who were under attack, and managed to get their truck wasted, but somehow still survived with 0 casualities! Nice work, guys)
Anyway, after turning back to Number Uno, I drive into the decimated base (getting a nice airstrike on the way in - cool thought!), and find Beria. I elect to have him incarcerated. The nice thing to do, yes? And then...it's off.
I finish the rest of the objectives with the help of the tank, and it was, frankly, a bit TOO easy: First I rescued my girlfriend, then I single-handedly attacked the base with my tank, killing everyone inside. After a little while, the mission ended.
Debriefing
Don't really remember the debriefing, guess it wasn't too complicated :)
Outro
For some reason, the cutscene started playing twice O.o Don't know if it continued more times after that, but I didn't check. It was a nice cutscene though, explaining what happened to the characters afterwards! :clap:
Summary
Atmosphere/story : Excellent! Loved it, quite a lot! Although did it have to rain THAT much? I mean...there's rain, and there's ridiculous... :D
Scripts/mechanics : No bad script errors or showstoppers, very professionally made! Except for the initial non-show of the elite reaction force (was it supposed to be the tanks? maybe they were just slow in that case!)
Cutscenes/voices/etc: Yay! Fully voiced! Alright, some small things to note here and there (for instance you didn't use the Say command very often, leaving people who were talking standing there with no lip movement), but overall very nice and very unique. Kudos to all your voice actors! Cutscenes were not amazing, but quite adequate :)
Gameplay : Also very excellent indeed, had a nice old time driving from place to place, picking people up, noticing the roadside events and the like. Although unfortunately the whole "resistance strike-hide-strike guerilla warfare!" thing didn't really manifest for me. I think this is partly due to the early availability of AT weapons, and the fact that tanks in ArmA can be taken out with one well-placed shot (instead of 3 to really-lots like in OFP. Tanks were naaasty then). Also, in Abandoned Armies the importance of your base was accentuated because you kept having to bring civilians and such back there -> in this mission you never really had the need to make a "base" for yourself, since all you needed was in the truck you drove around with. :) Also, there ultimately weren't that many enemies around. I'm not a very good ArmA player, I'll admit to that immediately, and the AI kills me very efficiently throughout...but overall I didn't actually get in all that many firefights I didn't know I'd win almost immediately. Maybe if I hadn't abused that tank...ah well. Also, I didn't do anything at night, despite the advice to do so. The AI enemy is even nastier at night, I've found :D
It took me several days of off-time gaming to get through this mission, and I enjoyed every minute of it! I heartily commend you for it, hooraah! Just don't be afraid to up the difficulty a bit : more tanks and APCs (patrolling BRDMs and the like) and less weapons (especially the American dropoff -> consider limiting the Stingers to one or two [missiles, that is]). The Kamov was a nice challenge when it turned up, but I already had Stingers by then -> make it appear earlier as well to harass you, maybe? The Mi-17 could be changed to the PK variant, and then have it involved in fighting you after dropping off the parachutists : the PK gunner is not TOO accurate (but accurate enough to be scary) and he sits in a pretty heavy piece of machinery that isn't going to be easy to drop unless you have AA, and he can harass you while the paratroopers land. :D
The odd end-game thing was...well, odd...but maybe that just happened to me! Dunno why. :dunno:
Anyway, thanks for this mission, a lot! Keep up the good work, mate.
Final score: 8.5/10 (for the various niggles mentioned above)
Wolfrug out.
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Lee,
The use of nearestObject in
_Locations = [getpos player nearestObject ...
looks very odd. I would check this part first. It would not work like that in ofp.
Also just a little puzzled as to why you based this on my atrocity voiceover script and not my environmental sounds script.
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Yes TH,
There are 3 flavours of nearestObject now.
The old one you know and love from OFP:
_myobject = nearestObject [player, "StreetLamp"]
and 2 others that are ArmA only:
_myobject = position player nearestObject 4567
Find object nearest to given position with given Visitor id.
and
_myobject = position player nearestObject "Building"
Find object nearest to given position with given type.
Planck
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Okay. I'll shut up. I'm getting old :)
Is there still a range limitation on nearestObject ?
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At the risk of highjacking this thread, I will briefly answer your question and hope I am forgiven.
The:
_myobject = position player nearestObject "Building"
flavour of the newer ArmA nearestObject command is indeed limited to 50m.
However, the other flavour:
_myobject = position player nearestObject 4567
will detect the object from any distance.
:whistle:
Planck
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Thanks Planck, for your comments here & before on the object ID problem before with Mr. Peanut-- still not figured out so please write here i need the help :D
Wolfrug,
Thanks so much for the great beta report!!!! Glad you enjoyed playing it, that kind of thing makes my day. Your insights into what’s good and bad are extremely helpful.
I’m really glad you pointed out these “niggles” and where things went wrong. You’re right about the tanks, maybe they are too easy and the difficult can be increased. A friend who fought in Fallujah and betatested the game told me that anti-insurgent “QRF” (quick reaction forces) were much larger than the 2 tanks & 1 bmp I put in the game, but I was afraid of making it too hard.
You were however, the lone exception so far on evading the QRF’s. Almost everyone else, myself included, has been hounded by them and had to look over their shoulder quite a bit. The nearest QRF starts in Carmen, perhaps I should add one between Eponia & the Shilka site. That will DEFINITELY make it harder.
What do you think would be a better way to start the mission? I had several prisoners & the guards get killed but couldn’t place the bomb too close without killing the player. So it does seem a bit weird, not exactly sure how to do it otherwise. Maybe have Pablo’s guys shoot the guards and then run away…
Niggle 1: Pita was tough for me to figure out. I wasn’t sure how most players would approach it and I wasn’t sure if I’d be overloading it with objects & sandbags etc, but this is good advice, I will take some time to make it look cool and daunting. I also need to make Beria inaccessible to for Carla.
Niggle 2: Yes, I must fix the issues with Carla. Should be easy to detect if she is in a tank or BRDM or whatever and have her run away “I don’t like to drive drunk!” she could shout or something. The next editing task is to make it so if she’s seen planting a satchel charge the SLA get mad! I’m sure I’ll be begging Mandoble for function advice on this… Pita is fairly difficult without that tank, lots of SLA from all over come running back to base.
Niggle 3: Don’t know how I bungled the cutscene playing twice, but I’ll check it out—so who survived in your group? Everybody? Was Augustin still on board? (he flaked out on finishing another voiceover line when I asked him so I flaked him out of the mission J) Who was your favorite character? The most helpful? By the way the voiceover actor for Marco is a longtime professional actor on Broadway and off Broadway (helps to live in New York, you end up friends with lots of actors over time). Several of the others have acted professionally as well.
Will fix the issue with the crates, they were supposed to be empty, as were the police land rovers. I will also add more radio songs to the vehicles. The guy with the bloody shirt survives the suicide bomber, but just remains shellshocked. Maybe I should make that clear why he is just standing there seeming AI stupid?
So far everyone has arrested Beria, which is good because I was planning a sequel “PB II: Beria Strikes Back” a la the second star wars movie. The sequel will be more mysterious though, with the player walking into many more unknowns and surprises and with many of the same characters returning. But lots of work to do on PB now! Thanks again Wolfrug!
Ok, still working on next version, but probably won't come out till early September so any other thoughts from anyone would be appreciated :yes:
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Playing the missions over the weekend, having fun! thanks for it Lee..
This is what I've found out thus far-
The guy (can't remember his name) that there are several hints that he is a traitor (lives in a fancy house, for example- nice touch) doesnt run off when the message says that he is not obbeying and running off. He just stands there doing nothing.
The other guy you recruit that freaks out and have emotional breakdown- he was the gunner of the 5T truck with MG when the message that says he snaps came. he just remained in the gunner position while dissapearing from my command interface.
When I drove the pilot to his extraction point the chopper was there, on the ground, with no crew manning it, with the supply crates next to it. I guess that's not how it is meant to be..
It says that Carla would remain in your team for 30 minutes. She has been in my team for more than an hour and a half by now...
General comments-
1. sometimes when there is talking going around (in the cases where there is no voice acting) I found that it hard to finish reading the whole sentences, would appreciate longer pauses so I would be able to finish reading (I'm not a native english speaker).
2. the Carla feature is great, but not that realistic. She can plant satchels under the nose of a squad and they will do nothing, not to say armour units. I got in with her to the Bagango arsenal base and planted satchels right next to the soldiers there. Needless to say that only the tower guards remained after the BOOMs. The russian mission makers OTK had a nice feature in one of their missions in which you play an undercover agent that plant satchels inside an enemy base- Although you were undercover, if someone saw you planting a satchel, your cover was blown. Maybe this script could be useful in Carla's respect?
3. The mission is great but not that challenging. more armoured patrols and more guards around the towns will add a lot to the challenge of this great mission.
Thanks for your mission and good luck with the last version!
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started 2 play it nd ive got coupl of comments (somin like 39:P but whos counting :D)
1st heres wat i did up till now (hr n half of play... nd i got only into 1 firefight :blink:)
mision start... i clear da truck from bodies get some arms (AK74 w/ 2 magz) drive all da way 2 da choper... get tracks.... try 2 walk downhill couple of times nd fall 2 death (cant belive da pilot got thro dere w/o snapling equipment) so i moved thro oder PB group... saw him explode got da oder d00d (joel) armed him w/ dragunov got 2 da choper decide 2 help him... take da UAZ nd move 2 da police pos (didnt see no enemies on da way) get some M16s 4 me nd my US friend... get da objective... it seems i got set 2 stop :( nd da group refuses 2 folow me nymore :P i have 2 order em 2 move around... get 2 da tower pos kill da roadblock easily (2 easily) get 2 da shilka nd BDRM both seem unresponsive take em both out (my group took out da RPG soldier) nd here i saved... i need 2 go 2 work soonish :P
ok so ill start from package nd go on from der
Package
1) direct d/l link (i already got da addons) doesnt include readme :P
2) name of pbo file mises da .sara. part... i cant get it 2 show da mision w/o it :P
overview
1) missing border 4 da pic
intro
1) i think u said im walkin w/ my G/F in da beach... but its definetly not a woman dere :P
2) i get 2 see da player unit (a US soldier laying in da forest i think) b4 da intro ends :P
Brief
i think da whole brief need some rework 2 make it more gamish feelin instead of a outside of game thingy... ill list sugested changes
1) dont say mision bounderies... say de black areas r mined :P cant move thro em ;)
2) also u may wanna change da find friend n rescue g/f into 2 diffrent objectives :D
3) da objective 3 shud b rephrased... da whole win da game line is a turn off :P
4) i think u shud add a authors note section nd put all author noptes dere... keep da briefing more inside mision feeling
5) u shud probably have som1 2 teach u how 2 use da arty 1ce available... not have da notes premade b4 da soldier knows how 2 use it
6) da name of da player unit has underscore in it (robert_jordan) u can remove dat :P
mision
1) i already have da radio options (sleep/save) while im in truck at start of mision... i think u may wanna use da showradio command nd have it apear lil later (player findin radio on SLA soldier after explosions or somin)
2) it says da truck is wreck but i can still drive it (its ok tho :P)
3) i think da whole explosionsd nd truck movin cutscene (1st cutscene) shud b of 1 part... right now it goes in 3 parts... cutscene - back 2 player view - cutscene etc...
4) if da savegame part is fixed... u shud remove da savegame curuption hints
5) da cutscene in da pass (oder PB squad... civie suicide bomber) is near imposible 2 watch at night....
6) da civie from da PB doesnt aproach my group... he aproach me (didnt have a group yet)
7) if im wearing a uniform when bein in a PB... y isnd oder PB wearing uniforms too ?
8 ) i think da rest action (hate playin @ night w/o NVGs) shud have a black out black in effect... not only a skiptime thingy...
9)da road de PB batlion is clearing doesnt lead 2 pacamac (im prety sure dey told em 2 clear da road 2 pacamac)
10) it cud b cool 2 have da tracks 2 pilot apear 1 by 1 (u have 2 folow da tracks 2 make next 1 apear) ull have 2 change da route tho... as player cant climb da mountain down
11) i didnt realy check (it was night) but dere shud b a dead crew in da choper or near it... i didnt see em
12) mebe have a UAZ also on da oder PB squad site (how did dey get dere 2 clear da road when deres no close base at all ?
13) lots of da text in pilot cabin is 2 fast 2 read... all da long 1s i mean... its disapears lots faster dan da voice...
14) were did da pilot droped his AR ? he seems 2 carry 2 magz nd only a handgun ?
15) also if u put some dead pilots in da choper... dey shud 2 have ARs :P
16) @ dis point i was thinkin... will it ever stop rainin ? :P
17) da sound of radio in cars is 2 low... i think u cud raise da volume lil bit (or add action 2 raise it)
18 ) have more dan 1 radio song... use random command... nd array dat includes all radio songz....
19) in da cop position also some of da text is 2 fast 2 read... some vioce actin wud b also nice :D
20) it seems da pilot has a selectweapon command on ? i gave him rifle nd he still walked around w/ handgun...
21) it seems im ranked as major... stil havnt join da resistance group nd im am major :good: u cud rank me as pvt or corp nd use selectleader 2 keep me leader at all timez :D
22) btw on meetin da pilot i told him im w/ da resistance... I cant qualify as resistance when i did nothing yet :P
23) 1 of da soldiers in da roadblock (near radio1) was standin on da fire... it seems 2 disable him shotin (arma bug) u cud try 2 move him from dere...
24) around here i noticed dat da group doesnt follow me (bb4 engagin i told em 2 return 2 formation....) but follow da pilot... i think its conected 2 da cop cutscene after wich i had stop writen over my icon in da group command menu... u shud remove da stop from da player
25) it seems dat at some point da pilot nd joel were set 2 captives... cuz i just sent em 2 da shilka nd dey killed da RPG man quite easily
26) i got da msg of "SLA has a radio tower nd shilka on dis island" after i killed da shilka... b4 killin da BDRM
27)i sugest usin more wav2lip (i think u do dat on most cases) cuz right now it doesnt hapen when i talk 2 da pilot after destroin da shilka n BDRM
28) u shud have an objective nd a link 2 da extraction point of da pilot
29) da BDRM nd shilka r very inresponsive... mebe have some group dere nd have dam both shotin at me :P
nywayz gonna continue l8r
LCD OUT
p.s u realy shud reply 2 my PM bout da baloper reel :D
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Intro
No problems, a longer intro would be nicer.
Mission
Excited about this one, helped the pilot and got the supplies, loaded them all into my civi ural so its a mobile armory, got the red pickup for the cops and deliverd it then i met marco - in this cutscene i couldn't hear what they was sayin. Also controlling the AI is something of an issue, i issue commands and they don't respond, i often have to repeat my command a few times or get them to do something else. went to el sordo and there all dead, so took the NVGs and headed towards pablo, thought i'd take out the troops at carmen so i park the ural some distance away the the 3 of us head for carmen. A t72 comes and we take it out, then i save, big mistake, a load of spec ops arrive, another t72 and a bmp2 along with some boots. Shit. Still playin and tryin to take these guys out without anyone in my section dyin - but again the ai refuses to do what i ask and are gettin wasted, i could retreat but i dont want to leave my armory and as soon as i get in it and finally get the ai to the bmp or t72 has spotted me and im dead. Managed to get the lads back to tabngo or watever its called, tryin to get my truck back :( will let u know how its goin...
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a few more comments:
The patrolling choppers crash into the ground. they both crashed in a difference of 1 minute, so i think maybe some script that kicked in made them crash?
The attack on bagango arsenal- I wasn't sure (again, because the subtitles went on too fast for me) if the policemen attacked the arsenal or the city itself. anyway, I attacked the arsenal and there was no sign for the policemen. I saw a couple of police cars right next to the arsenal's crossroad, but saw no policemen or any signs of combat (i attacked from the SW), no bodies no anything.
Floyd extraction- when i got the to the extraction point there was a blackhawk right there on the ground, engine off, no crew, and the supply crate right next to it. it gave the message about Floyd though and he was released from my command and just stood there. I got the message about the mortar but i didn't find the mortar itself. to be hones, i forgot about it but i don't remember seeing it in the gear menu.
The attack on the airbase was way too easy as well, I simply flanked from the lighthouse and crossed the water with the BRDMs, before crossing the water, i fired about 3 missiles on the static mg, and two tanks that came from the west., then got in with the brdm, cleared the infantry and got Beria.
The outro- it showed the outro but then when it said wait 30 seconds for your score... it simply started the intro all over again. I happened twice, in the first time i shot Beria and in the second I arrested him.
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Again, I am really appreciative of these great betatesting comments and suggestions!! Thanks so much guys, this feedback really helps!!! I am busy working on version 1.20 with about 100 changes/improvements, especially to the rain, Carla, the difficulty level etc. I am also adding some new features and strengthening the Pita Base defenses. A list of improvements to come later... :blink:
@Variable.
Sorry the English runs by so fast. The mortar is not in your gear, its actually just based on the keyboard. But i should make that more clear. I am working on fixing the Outro and ensuring Floyd's chopper has no problems. The Bagango police might attack later, i will check that too. Did you destroy the fuel dump? That may have made the choppers crash at the same time since they ran out of fuel. But I did revise the helicopter script to ensure they dont crash for any other reason.
@Megz
Not 100% sure why AI is screwing up. I think it might be the dostop command which i am removing from cutscenes. Will fix it. Hope you are having fun thanks for testing it :)
@LCD,
Thanks for your great list of improvements and bug finds. I've printed all these out and am about halfway through implementing the changes. These are awesome :)
Anyone else checking out this thread, please wait for version 1.20 to come out in week or two :good:
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Hello Lee,
I saw you had problems with the private messages, so I'm not sure if you got my PM, so I'll say it here. It's about this mission.
I will update my SLA Urban addon with totally new models and stuff, but unfortunally, it won't be compatible with the older version, because I had used a tag RLK for the addon, which appeared to be already taken. I have now registered a new tag to myself, so in the future there won't be compatibly problems anymore... I will send you a list of the new classnames for the units soon, so you can start replacing them on your mission, to make it up-to-date with my new addon. I'd also suggest you to remove the addon PBO from the mission package in case of any future updates, if you haven't already... Just provide a link to my addon, so the players will always get an up-to-date version of my addon to play your mission with. Here's the official page of the addon (http://www.rellikki.armaholic.net/slaurban.htm). I will always update that page with the most newest version and there will be always 3 different mirrors.
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thanks Rellikki for the heads up (and of course for the addon :yes:) I will make the suggested changes, look forward to the new models. ETA on the new classnames etc? thanks
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I'll get the new classnames by tomorrow. ;) I'm organizing the classes and... making one other addon which I will base it on (It's a secret). I'm sure you won't be disappointed.
Edit: Alright, I emailed them to you.
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1) Download Total Package, addons & readme included (Recommended)
http://files.filefront.com/PB+Final+Total+Packagerar/;8957017;/fileinfo.html
Version: FINAL
Type: SP
Island: Sahrani
Requirements: ArmA version 1.08 (3 Add-on's included in download: Rellikki's Urban Troops, Solus's SLX People, Editor Update)
Installation: Put the Punishment Battalion PBO in your ArmA\Missions folder and the 3 Addon's in the Arma\AddOns folder. Don't forget to check out the very valuable PunishmentBattalionReadMe.txt document....
Thanks to great betatesting feedback on this forum and in many e-mails, I've hopefully improved Punishment Battalion dramatically for you and fixed the major issues, while adding some new features and more challenges. There is also one more addon included in the download package for those who've already played, please take note.
While there are probably over 150 changes/improvements/fixes, here are the major changes:
Car Radio in full effect, with all ArmA songs
Environmental Sounds script from Abandoned Armies now fitted correctly for PB, birds & crickets sing during the day, frogs, wolves & owls come out at night, etc
Fixed Carla issues (she can now only use one satchel charge, can only drive her car, and refuses to stay in tanks, machine gun trucks, BRDM’s etc)
Less rain after first half hour, weather system fixed and more variable
Bagango police attack works properly now
Difficulty level increased slightly, more counterinsurgency forces added, player has less weapons and AT weapons at the beginning
Finale cutscene now runs only once, not twice
Ambush scene at beginning made more realistic and shortened to one scene
Pita Base strengthened with some new exciting features (thanks Johnnyboy)
More voiceovers
Basically every change LCD suggested implemented
Resting & Healing now fades to black and then back in
Player changed to civilian uniform, but has first aid kit
Maria female civilian addon replaces character on beach
Saved game issues fixed, drastically reduced number of variable names to fix that
Floyd’s helicopter transfer works smoothly now
Briefing edited, shortened and separated into Mission briefing and Author’s Notes
AI movement issues with “dostop” fixed
Thanks Betatesters!!!!!!!!!
I have run through the mission many times and so far all the storyline and features have worked in 1.30 (at least for me), so i'm most concerned now about difficulty level (is it still too easy?), did anyone hear the environmental sounds that come in randomly around you every 10 minutes or so? Are there any other things you'd like to see? What can be cut? etc etc. Thanks :)
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Basically every change LCD suggested implemented
lol... im flatered :P
gonna test it again soonish :P
LCD OUT
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Thought I'd give a small interim beta report on this, if for no other reason than bumping it. Well worth the play! :good:
Less weapons at the start and throughout the mission = works well. You really are left with very little from the start, but after a bit of scrounging around you've pretty soon amassed enough for everyone.
One thing is of course that once one of your soldiers has 4 mags, that will probably last him until the end of the mission. Why? Well...for one, you generally keep your guys carefully hidden and try to avoid getting them killed. So they don't always get to shoot very much. Second, ArmA AI are by default frighteningly accurate (I hate seeing an enemy shoot : almost always means that one of your own just went down -> retry), which means that in a firefight which in the real world would expend thousands of rounds, in ArmA you're done without reloading once.
Solution? Well...unless via a HD-weaponry mod, or somehow scripting it (or maybe 1.09 will bring full functionality to the setSkill array command?), I guess there's just no 'solution' to this 'problem'. One thing you do want to keep tabs on is the number of AT-rockets you've got available though, although I've never really been in danger of running out. Especially as in ArmA, unlike OFP, you only need one well-placed rocket to the rear of a T-72 to make the crew bail, so a standard load of 3 RPGs is enough to take out a whole fast reaction force (if used carefully. Then again, missing usually means a facefull of lead a second later :D)
Some notes: When rescuing Maria, be sure to unassign all vehicles from her (maybe disable her AI to be on the sure side) and such: I drove her to the safehouse in a stolen UAZ with a MG (with her as gunner ;)), and once there she got out, ran a bit to the side, waited, and then re-entered the gunner position of the uaz. I placed her on Alcazar to watch the road below :P
Speaking of: the Kamov was just hovering near Alcazar. Said girlfriend shot it down with her machinegun, and it carefully landed near the houses down there. Driving a repair truck + refuel truck (freely available from the base where the police are) to it repaired it fully - zhasam, you've got yourself a gunship! Doesn't make things -overly- easy (still Strela launchers and Shilkas around to worry you), but...well. Might want to consider making it a little harder to get the Kamov (for instance the pilot could place a satchel near it when getting out and then blow it up like 30 seconds later or somesuch: scripting that wouldn't be foolproof by any means, but it'd work sometimes?). Then again, it was probably a fluke the chopper was just hovering in such a friendly manner, and also luck it didn't explode when falling down.
Carla I've already PM'd you about, but in short: 10 minutes is a little too little. It really only leaves the Pita airbase to exploit her in, and sadly a single satchel someplace there won't do TOO much good. Speaking of : is there any chance you could make the effect of killing Beria before all his men a little more tangible? I assassinated him with Carla, but no-one really seemed to care overly much. Not really sure how that could be achieved though: a global decrease of "allowFleeing"? :D
You could possibly make the American weapondrop a LITTLE more rewarding: the Mando Mortar and the Stinger Launcher are both great, but the 4 M4s are a bit dry. I think what the group misses the most at the point where you feel strong enough to attack the AA site and so on is heavier weapons: machineguns, grenadelaunchers. Maybe add a M240 or a M16-M203 to the lot? :) Just to spice things up inbetween all these AK-variants. Also: the UH-60 just kept flying around the dropzone in circles after picking up Floyd. Dunno why. Suggestion: just script in something that deletes it after the player is X meters away: you can't fight the ArmA chopper AI, after all. ;)
More and faster response to your actions: check. They're everywhere. :blink: Although I've never tried playing at night, even though you keep recommending it. Partly because I've got weirdo glitches with my NV (it turns off now and then for no reason - probably drivers/GPU related), partly because I know the ArmA AI doesn't have a lot of trouble seeing in the dark (even without NV goggles). :D I should probably try it just for a more atmospheric experience.
Oh, btw: when Augustus panics and runs, he still doesn't get out of his transport. ;) Just sits there, cow-like.
And finally: when loading a retry after having flown around a bit in my Kamov (close to Pita airbase) I got myself a loadgame related CTD. I'm hoping I can still 'fix' my save (can't remember how right now, but it was doable, I think ^^), but yep. I have to admit though I've got quite a lot of mods running in the background (MaddMatt's, FDF, Hulk's Oggplayer..), so it might also be due to those. :)
Thanks for many hours of fun! If I find anything else to comment on, I'll be sure to do it here. :clap:
Wolfrug out.
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Oh boy, *looks around* gotta get in quick before another staffer does.
This one is most definitely MINE!!!
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Thanks Denz. Here's the update, sorry about that (had to take out Chammy's Sound mod). I knew calling it "Final" would reveal one tiny last thing to edit!!!!!
Updated Total Download Package:
http://files.filefront.com/PB+Final+Total+Packagerar/;8957017;/fileinfo.html
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hey there.
i've come across a wierd bug - i just saved after coming across the other punishment battalion in the north after getting the pilot, and every time a re-start from here, my no. 3 (the guy in the black shirt) just drops dead. it seems to happen to a LOT of other AI units, too, as i suddenly get a message telling me that i've wiped out most of the army, followed by instructions to mail you the codeword for such an event. then i get another message, telling me augustin has dropped his weapon and is fleeing. it's wierd, as at this stage i haven't even fired a single shot.
all i've done is gone and found marco, gone and checked out the helicopter, and gone and got the pilot, then driven around the road to the punishment group.
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that definitely sounds like a corrupted saved game file- i'm sorry that happened :(. I ran through it maybe 30 times and its been tested about 100 other times by friends and others on the site without that occurrence. That leads me to believe its something with that saved game specifically being corrupted, but i will check it out myself. The savegame issue had been fixed since version 1.01 but again, i'll take a look. Basically it sounds like all the enemies dropped dead instantly, somethign that is definitely NOT programmed in at any point into any script or trigger :dunno:. Could you try running around for like 10 minutes again and see if that happens on a new game? I'l look into it on my end as well...
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ahh it's alright mate. went back into that savegame and went and checked out the town to the east of my starting location - and was promptly shot by at least four soldiers, so not all addons (or infantry) are dead or anything. regardless, i've sent you the save file so you can have a look yourself.
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ok thanks Hailstorm. I did give the game an extra look and ran it for 12 hours overnight- no problems with the mission or reloading my saved game. Given the betatesting experiences so far I'm guessing its that particular saved game on your PC that got fouled up for some reason :(. But i'll try the save you sent me after work...
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This mission has been reviewed (http://www.ofpec.com/missions_depot/index.php?action=details&id=133).
After-review discussion is opened!