The Battle Of Zargabad - by SaOk
v0.6
Played with:
- ArmA 2: Combined Operations v1.54.72967 & the BAF DLC
- Regular difficulty modified to Veteran difficulty settings (allows more than one save game)
Overview:
A picture with a nice contrasting border along with some descriptive text and a version number. The only thing I'd say about the overview is the picture is kind of misleading, i.e. I originally thought I was going to be playing as Germans, but you actually play as the British. Might want to look into that. Also, here's (http://zipper5.armaholic.eu/stuff/arma2_overview_template.psd) a file you might find helpful if you want to make your pictures look like the official ones, and I also have a loading screen template (http://zipper5.armaholic.eu/stuff/OA Loading Screen Template.psd) if you want to do the same with it.
Intro:
The first thing I noticed about the intro was the text indicating where the scene was taking place was out of alignment. I presume that is because you play on a different UI size to me (I play on Normal). As for the rest of the intro it had some nice camera angles, slow motion and good choice of music with enough interesting stuff going on to keep me entertained and introduce me to the events of the mission.
Mission:
I'll start off by saying that the mission simply isn't ending for me. I've managed to wear down the counter attack enough so that it's told me to go looking for the last remnants of the forces in the city. I did do that, ran across some left over Militia holding only handguns, oddly enough, and then randomly more Takistani Army soldiers started to appear on the outskirts of the city, which the Apache and my team engaged. Now there are no more marker updates on the map, the Apache nor any other friendly units are engaging any enemy units, and the mission won't end. Plus, the counter attack task is still marked as incomplete. It's a shame it ends like this because, for the size and complexity of the rest of the mission, it ran very smooth.
(http://zipper5.armaholic.eu/pictures/ofpec/whatnow.jpg)
There were only two hiccups I noticed during the mission. The first was when we were attacking the UN offices and the objective wouldn't complete. I thoroughly searched within the red circle and didn't find anything. Eventually, outside of the red circle, I came across an enemy Militia (also only using a handgun, is this a feature of the mission?) and killed him, upon which the task was completed.
The other was when I came across two POWs and their guards on the way to clear out the statue surroundings. An error popped up once I had killed the guards:
'..._speedmode "NORMAL";
POWCOUNT = POWCOUNT |#|+ 1;
DONTDEL = DONTDEL - [_unit];
nul = ...'
Error Generic error in expression
File missions\__cur_sp.zargabad\takeweaponanddefpos.sqf, line34Other than those two errors, I didn't encounter any others until what I presume is the end of the mission.
I liked how reinforcements were often flown in and either given to me to command or went about their own business. Some parts were difficult, like one when I was going to clear the crossroads and a T55 and BMP appeared out of nowhere are started gunning us down on top of the Takistani Army troops already shooting at us. Eventually I made it through.
Now, the last issue I had was the start of the counter attack. When I got the notification about it, it told me to use the ammo truck. "Shit!" I hadn't taken the ammo truck with me at all and had left it back at base. So, I started to run as fast as possible back to the airfield to pick it up, and sent the rest of my squad to the defense position. Before I got it, music started up, and all I thought was "Damnit, the attack's started." and indeed it had. I should be reprimanded for forgetting the ammo truck back at base, I just didn't see a use for it up until the counter attack. However, I think the counter attack started a bit too quickly. The tanks had rolled in and it was well under way by the time I got to the defense position. Perhaps a bit longer of a delay is in order.
But eventually we fought off the counter attack to the point in which we were told to search for remaining survivors, and then the mission wouldn't end as I mentioned before. I think that rather than have us search for the survivors, the mission should end when the counter attack has dwindled. It was getting very tedious racing around the city to find and kill one enemy AI after the other. Just my opinion.
I'll skip the sections about the debriefing and outro because the mission still hasn't ended.
Overall:
A great and seriously long mission that kept me entertained the whole way through. It did have some minor and major hiccups, but that's to be expected with a mission of this complexity. I think it has huge potential to be something great once the issues I've mentioned have been ironed out. I also look forward to seeing it fully voice acted, and might I recommend changing the main characters voice to one of the voices included in the BAF DLC rather than the British-American one you have it at now? :P
You did an overall great job on this, and I look forward to further updates.