OFPEC Forum
Missions Depot => Mission Discussion => Topic started by: SEAL84 on 19 Jan 2004, 19:20:02
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Welcome to my workshop. I figure I'll use this thread to post up all the worthy ideas I get for OFP - feel free to take them for your own use.
I'm an ex-story team leader looking for work ;D so if you need such a position filled, lemme know.
Anyway, here are some ideas I've had bouncing around since the dawn of OFP time....
1. Terrorists sieze heavily fortified missile silo in 1988, US National Guard/Delta Force troops must sucessfully take it back before the terrorists start WWIII.
2. A squad of US infantrymen (average grunts) is cut off from its company during an operation gone bad - they must survive several days alone on an island. This would be a free-form series of missions.
3. A US paratrooper company drops on an enemy-held sector of an island in order to cut the enemy defenses in two and allow a Marine assault to land sucessfully.
4. A resistance campaign (posted elsewhere).
5. You're a Nogovan federal agent investigating a possible coup attempt by a Nogovan general - I'm thinking that the superpowers would be absent from this one. Lots of interrogation (maybe using dialogues!), car chases, commando raids, and gunplay with pistols, shotguns, etc. This one might take some elements from the resistance campaign like sabotage, riots, etc.
And many more.
Post if you're interested and I'll divulge all the details :)
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#2 sounds really good. Now the details..?
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Of course ;D
I warn you: I'm thinking up what might be the longest single mission in OFP history. I thought about it a little and figured it would work easier this way.
The basics: The time and place of this scenario doesn't really matter as it is one of those "timeless" scenarios. I had envisioned it as taking place in the Philippines at the present time - the US has SF advisors already there helping the government fight the Abu Sayyaf. It's reasonable to extrapolate advisors into commitment of conventional units - I picked the 1st Cav because it seems the best suited to this mission.
US involvement is light - the 1st Cavalry and some Marine units offshore would be it for American forces. Philippine government troops could, but don't have to, play a part in this story.
Essentially the situation is similar to Vietnam - search and destroy concentrations of rebels. One particular day, your company is tasked with a sweep of a remote section of one of the numerous small islands of the Phillipine group.
You play a corporal, Average Joe as it were. You aren't in command of anything (yet). You are inserted via chopper to your LZ - it's quiet - and you saddle up.
*Start gameplay*
Your squad moves with the platoon up the side of a hill. You get to the top and find nothing - suddenly, an ambush. All hell breaks loose. The rebels who have been waiting for the platoon far outnumber you and have LMGs - your group isn't the primary target and the rebels attack the sides of the platoon. Air strikes are called in and you're just trying to stay alive at this point.
The rebels should win this round - your team is cut off and you hear reports that the rest of the unit is being decimated. You decide to make a run for it.
A cutscene would show your team heading for higher ground to try and establish contact with choppers to get you out of there - they're tied up trying to evac the rest of the company and none can get to you. For the moment, you're forgotten. The sergeant (an experienced leader) says not to worry, he'll get you out of there.
Gameplay:
Your sergeant leads you to a nearby village - about halfway there a sniper kills him - this would be scripted. The sniper flees (or tries to) and you inherit command.
What happens next is up to you.
As your team of eight decides what to do next, the rest of your company is dead or has pulled out entirely. Your team should start with a medic but whether or not he makes it this far is random. The island is crawling with bad guys - poorly trained compared to your team but armed to the teeth and nearly suicidal (set them to no retreating!)
Many of them should be hanging around near where your company's PZ - there should be camps nearby for them to linger. Small groups (4 or 5) should be wandering around the area looking for stragglers. They should be using Bremmer's AI script and should have mortar support (CoC or scripted, and not much of it). If they run into something, they should call their buddies who will swarm the area.
Small camps holding a small team of rebels should be scattered around - they should be stationary unless one of the patrols sees something. I don't know if Bremmer's script does this, but when called, they should look around randomly in the area, and if they find nothing within a minute or two they should give up and go back to their camp.
So the enemy forces are pretty numerous but not that smart or skilled. They're wandering and don't know initially that you're out there.
You are free to roam the island at your own discretion, but you should be given hints as to possible courses of action. A PRC radio is a must-have addon here - a secondary weapon that can be taken or dropped but does nothing. Possession of this radio will help - one of your troops might remind you that high ground is good for radio signals and you might then decide to find a high place.
Or, one of your men might suggest going into a town and seeing if they can help you - a few towns should be randomly garrisonned, others not. Those that aren't can be friendly or unfriendly - they might offer ammo, medical treatment, or a radio, or they might (literally) run and find the closest rebels.
The end of the mission is contingent on your having a radio or finding one. You would make contact with the Marines at a totally random time (they're busy fighting elsewhere) and they would tell you to get to a random PZ for extraction. You could make it totally random or you could have randomized predefined spots. Depending on where the PZ falls, they could come by PBR or chopper to get you out.
Ideally, some kind of variable should be established for CONTACT TIME. This would be totally random (with a minimum and a maximum of course). If you start the main part with a radio, the timer works towards this variable.
If you lose the radio, the timer is stopped and a new variable is computed. When you get one, the timer starts towards this new variable.
What's the point, you might ask? Well, you need to stay out of trouble long enough to make contact. With all the bad guys and the various needs of your squad, that may not be easy. They might need ammo or medical care.
THE SQUAD
Your men's ammo is fairly easy to deal with, and some people might not care if their loons get hurt. There should be a damage script in effect - soldiers hurt past .5 damage would slowly continue to take damage. This would only effect your men for simplicity's sake. So, if a guy gets hit, eventually you will need to get him to a medic or a village with a doctor willing to cooperate.
Some people might take the "I'll just hide" approach. Well, how about adding other variables? Stamina would be good - each man would have a length of time he could walk around before he got tired and needed a breather (it's hot, the terrain is rough, etc). Tough guys might have 45 minutes to an hour, weaker guys might have half an hour to 45 minutes.
When they approach their limit, they'll start to bitch at you and might even take a temporary skill deduction. At that point you need to find a nice quiet place to take a timeout. Five minutes should "recharge" everyone. There should actually be an item in your menu called "rest," which sets them to safe and sits them down. "Move out" should get them on their feet again, feeling better or not, so if you run into trouble and need to move, you can.
So, you have to consider your team's need and all the guys walking around who will chase you with backup if they see you. You need to consider that villages could be occupied, hostile, or friendly and may or may not have what you need.
Now for my reasoning: The handicaps on your team will give you something to do so you won't just be walking around aimlessly. The patroling enemies present a threat that will keep you on your toes. The radio and variables that go with it will keep the replay value high.
OTHER STUFF:
- If you meet an American straggler, you should be able to have him join you.
- You should be able to stand and fight if you want - in some cases it might work since the bad guys aren't very bright.
- There are no vehicles besides a handful of beat-up trucks and tractors.
- You have no friendly units helping you - the rest of your company flees or dies (script if necessary).
- If you go back to where the company made its stand, you will find weapons, gear, and maybe some stragglers, but also plenty of enemies.
Pros: Hasn't been attempted AFAIK, good replay value, tense and engrossing.
Cons: Needs some slick scripting, won't interest the people who want nonstop action, could last for hours.
POSSIBLE ENDINGS:
1. You meet the Marines and evac - hurray!
2. Your entire team is killed.
3. You're a real bad mutha and manage to kill the hundreds of bad guys on the island - at that point the mission should just end with you still stuck there, no better off than you were before.
I'm done ;D
(this is the part where you tell me it's not possible ;))
*EDIT: OTHER OTHER STUFF:*
- unlimited saves in the action menu
- you're not told what to do, you just have to figure it out for yourself (with some hints).
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Because you invisioned it in the Phillipines, I recommend Tonal, partly because I can't think of another island that looks really good (maybe SEB Nam?) As for the enemy's, I suppose someone could figure out how to determine if someone in the player's group(including the player), could see a certain position on the map, then spawn units there. There could be multiple spawn points, so the player would never really run out of enemy's to kill.
There should probably be multiple mission endings. The part about air support reminds me of "We Were Soldiers", where they declared "Broken Arrow". If someone wants to make this mission, I think it has the potential to be one of the best missions out there.
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Well thanks :)
As far as more endings go, I agree that there should be more....I sort of ran out of steam in that department. I figured that would be the best way to get out of there, but maybe something like stealing a civvie boat (one of those various sampan addons) could work...I dunno. Storywriting is an ongoing process.
Regarding the stamina script, I'm told it's quite possible and I'm going to start playing around with it today.
Respawning enemies sounds like it could get brutal on a CPU, even though there will be very few military vehicles and I imagine you'd want to deletevehicle all the Cav troops who get evacuated.
SEB Nam might do the trick, though then I think you'd have to make the full conversion to a Vietnam mission - that might have two effects:
First, people without the Nam pack would be out of luck. Second, it would fit extremely well into a Nam atmosphere (the part about the different reactions from the villagers anyway).
Anyway, I'm off to class for the next couple of hours, then it's stamina script time!
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mission name:
Operation Stay Alive
Mission Impossible
Mission Terminable
Operation Terminate
Operation Snake Code
Operation Code Delta
Operation Oops
Mission Code Bravo
Mission Code Samson
The ( ) Event
The ( ) Crisis
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What about adding a time limit(an hour or two)untill the marines leaves the area for good? That'll surley teach campers who'll just wait out the enemy.
:beat: *Gets Shot* :beat:
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I like the fifth idea about the investigation. It's more police ish. You could use the cops and robbers addons since they're packed together and people probably have them anyhow. It'd be a good idea. I'd be glad to help on that one.
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What about adding a time limit(an hour or two)untill the marines leaves the area for good? That'll surley teach campers who'll just wait out the enemy.
It's a possibility...it would force you to think on your feet, that's for sure! I can see players panicking when they realize that they're really on their own...it's boat stealing time!
As for Idea #5, yeah, non-military missions are something we have very few of. It would definitely require some resistance police addons for the Nogovans, and possibly some Nogovan military units assigned to the east for the missions (to represent the bad guys).
There would be more civvie interaction, though - a long time ago I was treated to a beta glimpse of a dialogue-driven story. I never heard another word about it and can't even remember who sent it to me - but some of the civvies were defined as VIPs so that you could talk to them in dialogues. It was far from perfect but it was a start.
It would also require some good small arms addons so you could have crazy firefights in some of those Nogovan factory complexes ;D
Obviously this would be a highly story-driven scenario and it might play out like a movie.
But these are all just ideas. I know how this board usually works - a handful of people look and very few of the ideas are ever completed. I'd like that to change.
I led a story team for the OFPEC campaign of lore (bet you never heard of it :P) and I've worked with some very good people, cranking out stories and mission outlines and handing them over to the editors for the technical work. Now, that system might sound too complex but we did have some great results with people like Messiah and Wolf.
So I wonder...every so often people post about not having any ideas for stories. Well, what if there was a team of guys who just thought up stories for editors? It could be a standalone story team: we'd just think up ideas and post them on a website for all to see and take if they wanted to.
Now, this story team could would act totally independently of anyone or anything else. But let's say a mod team wants people to help them write - the members of this story team could be assigned to mods and stuff to help them out, and then when they were done with that they would just go back to brainstorming with the rest of the bunch.
Think about it - an independant team of professional storywriters! Think of the plots and the stories you could cook up like that, under no pressure whatsoever to meet deadlines and stuff! The quality of OFP missions, even your average single mission, could go up with that kind of thought put into stories, backgrounds, scenarios, and the like.
I dunno...maybe I'm just rambling again, but I think that there are plenty of talented writers out there who can't edit to save themselves but still want to contribute something to the OFP community. People who might have detailed knowledge of real-life military units and operations, people who can make your missions more real and more believable for you.
It would give people a chance to collaborate on story ideas (like these ;D) and then offer them up in a much more refined way.
Does that sound cool, or does it sould like a complete waste of time?
*ahem*
I know that's way off topic, so feel free to ignore it and continue batting around these ideas I've listed ;)
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Excellent idea. You've got a PM. As for the Marines, I'd say it's a good idea to have them leave at a certain time, as they would be under attack as well (real or simulated over the radio). With the spawning, if there's a way to detect what the player and his team can see, you could run a "delete dead bodies" script that way, to there aren't dead bodies magically disappearing.
Possible Endings (Some of which are repeats)
1. You meet the Marines and evac - hurray!
2. Your entire team is killed.
3. You find a small boat and make your own way out.
4. You locate one of the US advisors, and you join him until you can find a way out (either actually help him or end the mission there, up to the maker).
5. You hold out until there is support from your side, then you can evac out. (maybe airstrikes. I'm not totally sure whats around the Phillipines, as far as US allies go. It's been a while since Geography.)
6. You find and secure a semi-safe location. A helo is sent for you, and on its way, it encounters mechanical trouble and has to set down. You have to quickly get to the chopper before the enemy kills the crew. After getting there, you hold off the enemy until the chopper can be repaired, where you fly out safely.
Well, thats it for the moment, I'll try to think of some more.
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As for the Marines, I'd say it's a good idea to have them leave at a certain time, as they would be under attack as well (real or simulated over the radio).
Yeah I think the reason for the delay in their contacting you would be that they are committed on the ground somewhere else in the island chain (not on your island).
With the spawning, if there's a way to detect what the player and his team can see, you could run a "delete dead bodies" script that way, to there aren't dead bodies magically disappearing.
Maybe just go by distance from the player's squad?
3. You find a small boat and make your own way out.
I like...you might have to raid a village for this.
You locate one of the US advisors, and you join him until you can find a way out (either actually help him or end the mission there, up to the maker).
Mmm...maybe a small SF team loitering in a friendly village.
You hold out until there is support from your side, then you can evac out. (maybe airstrikes. I'm not totally sure whats around the Phillipines, as far as US allies go. It's been a while since Geography.)
I was thinking that the Marines chopper in with gunship support to come get you. Maybe this ending could involve Philippine government troops or friendly partisans.
You find and secure a semi-safe location. A helo is sent for you, and on its way, it encounters mechanical trouble and has to set down. You have to quickly get to the chopper before the enemy kills the crew. After getting there, you hold off the enemy until the chopper can be repaired, where you fly out safely.
I like it ;D If the Marines are tied up in combat, this would be a great way to end it - making an Alamo-like stand around a chopper as the crew tries to repair it.
This is the part of OFP that, IMO, is the most fun ;)
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If you can detect a player's view distance, then it'd work good that way.
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Check PMs ;)
I looked through the command reference and I didn't see a way to detect viewdistance. I don't know if you can play around with the benchmark command towards this end.
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One idea is to have a small marine base that is on the other side of the island. The only catch is you don't know if the Marine are still there(make it randomly set at the beginning of the game:occupied friendly, empty, or occupied enemy). Also if you get to a radio or finally are able to use yours you can find out if it is still occupied(maybe an intercepted communication that tells you that the base is being over run). This can happen maybe when you are half way there or happen at a random time in the game(maybe you find out but you were trying another idea). If you reach it and there are soldier you might have to help defend the base or get evac mission over(this would be randomized). At the least if the base is empty you will find ammo and a fortified position that you can try to defend if it is not crwalling with the enemy. If you can and do decide to defend the empty base you can get an evac by air or sea in there if you have a radio that works. Also lets say the base is over run and prisoners are taken. You can decide to try and free them. Beat the enmeny and then evac. I think the best part of this idea is how many random parts you can put into it. There will be so many combinations. I jsut hope this gets made.
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This idea sounds f**king amazing if you ask me. I don't think a single mission editor/scripter could do this alone, there would just be so much work. A team of two or three would be needed. I'm happy to apply for a place making this mission. It sounds great.
Btw, Seal your idea for independant story writers is also excellent. I run short of ideas a lot whcih is very annoying when I've got an urge to make amission. Also I prefer to work in a team when doing OFP work. I think you should build a site, where people can apply to make a mission thought up by one of the writers,then the writer and editor work together very closely, contacting through MSN and e-mail to get the mission done, and done well.
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So, I think its time to organize a few of these idea's. Would we spawn enemy troops or have them set at the beginning of the mission. The only problem I see with having them set is the amount of lag that could be involved.
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This idea sounds f**king amazing if you ask me. I don't think a single mission editor/scripter could do this alone, there would just be so much work. A team of two or three would be needed. I'm happy to apply for a place making this mission. It sounds great.
Btw, Seal your idea for independant story writers is also excellent. I run short of ideas a lot whcih is very annoying when I've got an urge to make amission. Also I prefer to work in a team when doing OFP work. I think you should build a site, where people can apply to make a mission thought up by one of the writers,then the writer and editor work together very closely, contacting through MSN and e-mail to get the mission done, and done well.
1. Then I entrust this mission to you ;D Now we need to get another editor or scripter, maybe one of each, and this thing can start rolling!
2. Yeah, set units would probably be lagland. It would be better to have them spawn. Of course, when your company gets hit, the Cav troops who are left should be deleted - you won't be needing them anymore, save for a handful of individual stragglers maybe.
3. I'll draft up a new post with a condensed version of the stuff we're considering including, just so it's easier to keep track of it all.
As for the writing team....
My thoughts exactly. Of course, when we're not busy helping people out directly, we could be coming up with odds and ends that people could look at on the website - sort of an ammo crate full of ideas that people could take if they didn't want to enlist our full services ;)
Gotta run for now...back in a bit.
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Okay, we need to find a decent respawn script, as well as a delete dead bodies script. If anyone can point us in the correct direction, that would help a lot.
Now, I was thinking about what addon's and islands to use:
Of course we could use BAS's Tonal Island, mainly because it has the Phillipine feel, and also because it has the OPFOR pack, which obviously resembles a militia. The problem lies in the fact that the addon pack is very large, so if you didn't have it, your out of luck.
I would also aviod using SEB Nam. I believe we should develop this as a modern conflict, not as an older conflict.
Soldiers:
We could use the standard BIS troops, but their quality isn't the greatest. I'm not really sure what quality US Army addons there are, but I'm sure someone does. As for the Marines, we have to decide how important they are in the mission, and if they warrant another addon, or if we should just use the BIS troops. If we decide they are important enough, E&S MARPAT Marines will work.
Helo's: More decisions to make. Use the standard BIS Blackhawk, or use a nice helo pack, such as the BAS Blackhawks. Is there a nice Huey addon or pack anywhere??
Islands: As mentioned before, Tonal would work well. I'm not really aware of other tropical themed islands that are high quality and not beta.
We need to consider using high-quality units and islands to do the mission justice. If it's a good mission that uses bad looking units, it'd be a waste. If it's a good mission that uses unneccesary unit's, it would, again, be a waste. We have to determine what to use.
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Islands: Tonal is indeed very large and people with slower PCs will have problems with it - though we do get HD weapons with those militiamen, which helps. That jungle area to the West should be where you're located - though at that point the player might just walk out of the jungle and be in a desert, which would be wierd.
Units: Here's an idea....make all the US units Marines. That way we can use one addon for all the troops, unless it would be better to mix Army/Marines in the mission. I don't see that it makes a lot of difference :)
Helos: If we made them all Marines, they'd ride in on Hueys. I haven't seen a good USMC Huey (theirs are grey while the Army's are usually green). We could use Scorpio's Sea Stallion addon though....maybe....
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Good point about Tonal. I don't see any problems with making all the units Marines. The MARPAT pack has Recon, so that covers our advisors. I'm not sure about the Sea Stallion, as I haven't tried it before. Do you know what choppers the Marine's use?
EDIT: If you want just HD troops, you can download the latest version of JAM from the Ed. Depot.
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Instead of you being an Army soldier, the player could be a Marine. The problem with the lack of Marine Corps. helo's would be solved, as you would have to meet up with the Army and use their helo's, which are much more abundant in OFP than Marine ones.
Me and SEAL84 decided it was best this way, so we need your opinion. We also decided to use BAS's Blackhawks and Earl and Suchey's Marines.
We still need to figure out what island to use, and what to use for enemy troops.
Thanks. ;D
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Trinity Isle is good.
Planck
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Is it tropical?? Can you provide a link to download it??
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I wouldn't say it was tropical........do you really really want a tropical island?
Try here:
http://ofp.gamezone.cz/index.php?sekce=islands
Planck
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Well, preferably tropical. If you know of any we haven't mentioned, it'd help. :)
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It's panzerfaust island in the future. You are a detective for the St. Lucy police Department.
There was an assassination attempt on the mayors life but you foiled it years ago. The precinct
gave you a new car for it, you were living good. The chief's daughter took a liking to you and
ya'll began going out. The sniper was caught and thrown in jail for life. It's years later and the
mayors elite safety unit, the panzercops is responsible for dealing with a rise in crime and
shootouts. The sniper you busted three years ago has busted out. He was a prominent member of a
crime ring and you're going after him.
Meanwhile, your girlfriend has become friends with the wrong crowd: biker boys. High tech
motorcycle clubbing guys. You're a Detective now still up and coming for the FBI of panzerfaust
island. Your girlfriend has become involved with the leader of the biker gang. She's cheating on
you and she just won't settle down and get married. She's torn between the good path and the bad
path but her heart is loyal to you she's just unsure.
So you go to find her one night because you find out that her boyfriend is a goon for a criminal
entity known as the THREAT or something. You know they use motorcycles to do crimes and run errands
for the THREAT so you come to bring her home to daddy. He holds you responsible for her while he's
sick. It's not only personal now its a family obligation to her family. A note on her fridge says
she's at a certain hangout and when you get there you find out she's only hanging out with the
biker dudes because her best friend goes out with one of them and she tags along.
All of a sudden disaster strikes. News reports say a killer robot is looting the bank in St. Lucy
so the panzer cops come to keep everyone at the club and safe for fear that the robot might use gas.
It's really the evil mayor's secret plot to loot the bank using the robot. He formed the
panzercops so that the wise FBI wouldn't know. The mayor even paid the THREAT to throw the party at
that club so that they wouldn't know while the robot was robbing the bank. you sneak out of the
party to find the robot and notice that nothing is taking him down. You go to headquarters and its
empty except for the weapons guy Dan. you're all what are you doing here, he's all i was staying
for a case when this robot came. He says he has a secret. He's scared because he had that robot
made for the mayor. He doesn't know what to do now. He gets a call from the mayor who sends the
panzercops to keep you there. Before they come he shows you a weapon that can destroy the robot.
You quickly grab the weapon and escape the panzercops protection. The panzercops shoot the weapons
expert. You then go to the mayor about the panzercops shooting Dan the same night.....
He has you arrested but the biker boys come help you and set you free.
You find out that the leader of the biker boys is thee one whom you arrested for trying to kill the mayor three years ago because
he knew that this was going to happen.
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What?? Wouldn't that go better as a seperate topic?
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For the different units we could just use the BAS Rangers and give them different tags.. I do think though we should use the MH-60k for the extraction. Instead of having Marine's though I think a Ranger task force located a mile out to sea on a carrier would be better. We could then also have F/A-18s for a couple of airstrikes. We could use a cutscene for one of them to show one of the places where you can find a civilian boat. The timer for mission failure could be the task force being pulled back.. which i guess it would be anyway.
Sorry if half of this don't make any sense.
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Wow guys, this is amazing. It sounds really good. If you guys still need help, I will be happy to assist.
I think the marine idea is a good one. Its a high quality addon that it will add to the mission. Same with the Blackhawks. High quality and adds to mission.
The Rangers and F-18 are also good, but too many addons might turn people away.
For the enemy infantry you could probably use regular BIS units. The resistance units look good enough, and again you probably want to keep the amount of addons low.
And do you still need a delete bodies script? I could come up with one if you can't find any.
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The Marine Assault Pack looks like a good MArine infantry addon, but I don't have it.. yet. But I still think it would be a good idea to have a Ranger Task Force instead of a coupla platoons of Marines. We should also make a addonless version - except for the terrain we use obviosuly.
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The ranger addon is alot smaller then the Marine Pack, so if you want to make this mission using smaller addons, you should use Rangers. The addonles version is a good idea. But it might take away some of the atmosphere of the mission
Edit : I finished a delete bodies script, if you haven't found one yet ;)
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But it would also give people who don't want to sit downloading for ages a chance to play the mission. I think we should mainly stick with BAS addons, definately the MH-60k, I think that helo would look great doing a "hot evac".
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I agree. We should stick with the BAS Blackhawk,it is such a suberb addon and would look good in game. Now you have to decide what infantry to use.Either Marine Pack or Rangers. The Marine pack has more units, and I think is more suited to this mission. But its a big file (almost 40 mb). People using 56k will have a hard time downloading it.
BAS Rangers are much smaller, but I don't think they fit the mission type.
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If we're using the BAS Blackhawks with the 160th we'd be better off using Rangers, just for a bit of realism. I think they'd suite quite well and having to download TONAL already... the extra 40mb for the Marine Pack is a bad idea. Most people have the Ranger pack anyway. I think the MH47 would be good for the insertion and the MH-60K would suite extraction, maybe a roof top extraction using the rope ladder.
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You're probably right, must people already have the Ranger addon. And 40 mb is alot. But the MH47 is not needed.People already have the Black Hawk addon, and I don't think it would add anything to the mission. The Blackhawk can be used for that. And once again, too many addons turns people off.
But is Tonal is going to be used??? If thats the case, I cant help you guys. I have 56K, and I don't want to download over 100 MB. It would take me like 10 hours. I'm not willing to take that much time to download Tonal.
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Download a program like D/L Express, i downloaded a 40mb file with that, on 59k in about 40mins to an hour. It would only take acouple of hours to download TONAL, and from what I've heard it's worth it. Although it's another one i aint got, but im gonna d/l it in the weekend.
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Ok, I'll get it and download Tonal. Thanks for the info! (I wish I had known about this earlier!)
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Welcome aboard 8Ball ;D
About the Ranger pack - I think we could save some time and aggravation by doing two things. First, we make all the American units appearing in the mission Rangers. Second, we reduce the size of the force you start off with and set up your initial mission as a raid or something. That will also reduce the number of loons and make things more managable.
It would make a little more sense to use the MH47 if it was a platoon-sized raid on a supply dump or something, so that's how we can set it up.
Then, whenever you make contact with the offshore units, another Ranger team swoops in with BAS Blackhawks to get you out of there.
Thus we would use only one addon and fewer units. What do you think of that?
Now, about Tonal...I'd like to keep this mission in the jungle setting - only some of Tonal is tropical. Do you guys think that's going to be a problem with players possibly wandering into the desert?
And finally, for the download-challenged, I think we could make an addon-free version but I doubt it's going to be the same experience.
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Yeah, the Official Army units don't play a large role in the mission, except if you make them, so requiring a 20 meg or so addon just for them may be excessive. Then again, I think nearly everyone has them by now. As for the F/A-18's, we should decide how important the airstrikes will be.
If their duration is sustained, then we could decide to use them. If they are used once or twice, and once in a cutscene, they aren't too incrediabally valuable.
EDIT: I didn't realize there were two pages. ;D So I suppose all the units could be Marines. The only thing you have to consider is the fact that I think everyone has all the BAS units.
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I think it would be a better idea if we dropped the Marines entirely and went with all BAS Rangers.
That would satisfy the grunt-chopper compatibility and mean one less addon for people to have.
Now about the Hornets....I don't think air strikes work very well on infantrymen, unfortunately...I was thinking they could come in with iron bombs but the AI will probably refuse to cooperate.
Perhaps sticking with Apaches or Cobras for air cover would be better ???
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I don't know man, those F/A-18's rolling in would look mighty fine. I'm sure it could be done with a small amount of scripting (I'll make a topic). We could have helo's too. Oh man, more ideas!!
Okay, another mission option. The more we include, the more there can be.
A F/A-18 is moving in to provide support, when all of a sudden, a missile strikes his plane and he has to eject. You have to try to make it to the pilot before he get killed or captured.
Guys, I hope your good mission makers, there are a heck of a lot of ideas!! ;)
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Okay, I think I figured out a way we can use the F/A-18 to gove us air support. We just need to figure out the F/A-18's name, instead of "A10LGB". Then we run this script, which I convinently found in the editor's depot (by Skumball):
;Airstrike (map click) v1.2
;by Skumball (simongoddard4@yahoo.co.uk)
;
;Thanks to Viriato for making the bombs fall correctly and LCD for incorporating the script into the radio
;
;Requires:
;OFP v1.85
;1 Pilot named "strikePilot"
;3 Markers ("spawn","safe","target" all set to 'empty')
;1 Trigger (Activation: Radio Alpha, Repeatedly. Text: Air Strike. On Activation: onMapSingleClick {[_pos] exec "airstrike.sqs"}; strikePilot sideChat "Give me a target")
;
;Have a look at the sample mission to see how it works
;Change the value of _num, *0.2 and ~0.2 for different results
onMapSingleClick {}
1 setRadioMsg "Null"
_pos = _this select 0
"target" setMarkerPos _pos
"target" setMarkerType "destroy"
strikePlane = "A10LGB" camCreate (getMarkerPos "spawn")
strikePlane setPos [(getPos strikePlane select 0),(getPos strikePlane select 1),(getPos strikePlane select 2)+800]
strikePlane setDir 180
strikePilot assignAsDriver strikePlane
strikePilot moveInDriver strikePlane
strikePilot doMove _pos
strikePilot sideChat "On the way"
@ unitReady strikePilot
strikePilot sideChat "Target aquired"
_num = 4
_i = 0
#loop
_bomb = "laserGuidedBomb" camCreate [(getPos strikePlane select 0)+((random 10)-5),(getPos strikePlane select 1)+((random 10)-5),(getPos strikePlane select 2)-3]
_bomb setDir (getDir strikePlane)
_bomb setVelocity [(velocity strikePlane select 0)*0.2,(velocity strikePlane select 1)*0.2,(velocity strikePlane select 2)*0.2]
_i = _i + 1
~0.2
? _i < _num : goto "loop"
strikePilot doMove (getMarkerPos "spawn")
strikePilot sideChat "Heading back"
"target" setMarkerType "empty"
@ unitReady strikePilot
deleteVehicle strikePlane
strikePilot setVelocity [0,0,0]
strikePilot setPos (getMarkerPos "safe")
strikePilot sideChat "Ready"
1 setRadioMsg "Air Strike"
exit
I think that would work for us. Only thing is we need to figure out a way that only allows the player to call that in again after a certain amount of time had passed.
EDIT: I think I solved that problem. Where it say's "1 setRadioMsg "Air Strike", put a ~50 (or however many seconds we would need), then it has to wait before the radio message is available again.
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About not ussng to many addons. Why don't you make two versions: Full and light. This benefits everyone. Some people don't want to download so many addons and other may have computers that cannot handle all the addons. All you would have to do is switch rebels to resistance, BAS Rangers to BIS US soldiers, etc. This would make everyone happy. I for instance don't mind addons as long as they can be found. I hope any addons will be bundled with or be an extra download for the mission. To me the more addons the better the game play as long as they are good quality.
In relation to which addons to use or not use, I think we need to figure out the basic story line first. Because the addons you choose are directly related to the story. I had an idea about on possible escape, by making it to a Marine bas that may or may not be occupied. Others talked about "running" into US SF advisors. Which ideas are we keeping and which are we leaving. I personally want to see planes(F-18) launch from an aircraft carrier.
I had an idea if we wanted to add urban combat. How about an option of heading to a large city that has a US Embassy/Consult that is guarded by Marines. Again it would be random if the embassy was evacuated or not.
About the island to choose that is a difficult question. If we use existing islands especially, most people well probably know the map pretty well. This makes the game some what less exciting(i.e. knowing the best places to defend or the best places for ambushes.) Using a lesser know map would solve this but the map would probably not be such good quality. Final salution someone volunteers to make a new map. Any one interested.
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Some good idea's there. I don't think we can launch F/A-18's from a carrier at this point, as a quality carrier doesn't exist, especially a Nimitz Class.
Your idea about different versions, sounds pretty good.
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I agree with Homefry, we should scrap the idea about the Marine Pack. It's way to big and the rangers are a good alternative.
The F/18's are a good idea. Adds that element of air support. I also like the idea of the guy ejecting and you having to find him. Maybe if you find him alive, you get some sort of reward for helping him. And if he gets captured,maybe some sort of consequence will accur, or maybe nothing will happen. We'll have to think about that.
The urban setting is a good one. You could probably use regular BIS units instead of Marines.
I still think the MH47's are not needed. Even though mostly everbody has them, they won't add much to the mission.
The Full and lite version thingy is also good. But I think we should focus on getting most of the ideas down and in game before anything else.
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Yeah, good point. Have you gotten Tonal yet?\
EDIT: Pertaining to the airstrike script, I got took another look at the Support Pack. It's actually really easy to set up, so we can use that instead.
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Im downloading it right now. I should have it by tommorow.
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Alright, are you familiar with the SPT Pack?? Have you and Xcess talked about working together on this?
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Yes. I have the SPT Pack. It will be fairly simple to set up.
No, me and Xcess haven't talked about this mission yet. Except for the earlier posts. I guess we should.
EDIT: You can also use the SPT Pack for the Blackhawk extraction. That way you can be picked up from anywhere on the island. More realistic that way
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Hi,
if you need some help with the SPT package (eg. making a template for BAS, F/A 18....) please contact me, if have done a lot of work with the SPT package for my Nam Mission.
I must say you can do magic with this pack. It is heavily underrated.
Greatings
Kuro
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Okay, thanks for the help,Kuro. Greatly appreciated!
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Any of you dudes got MSN? I think it would be a good idea to discuss this in real-time instead of over a forum. We don't want people knowing every surprise in the mission now do we? I'm gonna be on-line again later when I'll d/l Tonal and the Hornet pack.. so we could talk bout it tonight if you guys are on-line.
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The airstrike script and the chopper pickup script definitely need to get in there - using that script would make the extraction so much easier.
I'll draft up a post with all the ideas that are on the table...I think we're starting to push the limits of how much we can actually fit into this mission.
I've got AIM at the moment but I'll see if I can grab MSN.
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i'm back online now... if any of you guys are online and have MSN add me, my email is: xcess35@hotmail.com
im d/ling v1.3 of Hudsons F/A-18C Hornet Pack.. http://ofp.gamezone.cz/index.php?showthis=4543 (http://ofp.gamezone.cz/index.php?showthis=4543)
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BTW I want it to be confirmed that we're using TONAL (if we do) before I d/l it. I don't want to d/l 100mb for nothing.
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Well, it won't be for nothing. It's a really nice addon, probably the best island out so far. I'll try to find MSN, or if you guy's have AIM, we could chat using that.
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Man, I just thought of a suitable island!! Xcess, I'd still download Tonal, it is and EXCELLENT island.
The island I am talking about is Ebud's Jungle Everon. It has new huts, and those nice tropical tree's. The mission could probably work there too!!
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I dont have Jungle Everon, but ill go and check it out. But if we use that, then we'd have to decide what units to use for the enemy.
I currently have AIM, but'll see if i can get MSN.
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If the addon depot lets you download, I know for sure you can find it there. Good point about the units, I think UCE has some rebels we could use. Any suggestions anybody??
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Okay, ill see if I can download it. I know the units you are talking about. I don't have them, so maybe one of you guys can download it and see if it will work
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I'm d/ling Jungle Everon now.. I'm not gonna d/l TONAL unless i need it, I could get one of my friends to d/l it from his mother's house when he goes there next cos she's got broadband... SHould only be a couple of weeks.
Finally got AIM... when you guys gonna be online? remember GMT offset... I'll be back at about 2200GMT+0
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I already hate AIM... It seems to slow EVERYTHING down... Adding buddies is about 2x more complicated than MSN.. sending messages is a lot more complicated too. BTW I've added you SEAL, what are ur AIM names Homefry and 8Ball?
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Jungle Everon was good for its time, but its time was long ago, and it's pretty low quality by current standards. Get a download manager and download Tonal. I've downloaded AA 2.0 on a 56k while using Getright, so Tonal should be easy.
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Please, please, please use the MARPATs. I downloaded them in one afternoon on my 56k, it's quite possible to do. Plus the M4s are much better than the BAS M4s ;D . The texturing is better and there are a lot more M4 varients.
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Well, m21man, this is where we ran into a problem. If we use the Marines, then we need to use the MARPAT Marines, as well as the BAS Rangers. The Marine's don't have a decent chopper in OFP yet, so we need the Ranger's so we can use Army helo's.
If you have any suggestions, let me know.
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Okay, here's the problem: we all like the MARPATs and would like to use them, but for accuracy's sake it would be better to use (nonexistant) USMC helos. The Sea Stallion isn't all that great of an addon and that's pretty much the only Marine chopper.
So...
Maybe we can bend the rules a little and just use the Blackhawks anyway, because it's pretty clear that this one stipulation is screwing everything up. While it would be nice to keep it as realistic as possible, it occurs to me now that most people aren't even going to notice the difference :-\
So I put the question to you guys - Marines or Rangers? I think we should just pick one and use it for all US units. Rangers + Marines is a roughly 60mb download.
I'll post a summary post of all the stuff that's under consideration in a bit.
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I'd say Marines. I don't think many people would notice.
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I say marines. It is a better addon
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Updated stuff...
LOCATION: Western part of Tonal - "Philippines"
TIME: Present
SITUATION: Abu Sayyaf rebels have been getting larger, more organized, and more deadly in recent months. The Philippine government has finally relented and allowed US ground troops to assist them in the war against the seperatists. USMC units are on the ground and are conducting offensive operations against the rebels.
Today, a Black Hawk helicopter was downed somewhere inside Abu Sayyaf territory. A Marine platoon has been dispatched to locate the pilot.
WHAT HAPPENS: A Marine platoon makes a beach landing via M113s and proceeds inland to find the crew of the chopper. Shortly after you're inserted, the Marine firebases in the region come under attack by infantry and mortars. For the time being, you're on your own as all available assets are fending off the attacks.
You're instructed to lay low for a while until Marines can be dispatched to extract you - nobody knows when that will be.
You are left to evade the rebels - but the various needs of your team will probably require you to go to various villages in search of first aid, ammo, or a means of transportation (if you choose).
RANDOMIZED STUFF: Time of chopper extraction, status of villages (occupied, friendly, etc), enemy spawn points.
ADDONS: Tonal, USMC Assault Pack, BAS Blackhawks, F/A-18C Hornets.
SCRIPTS: Remove dead bodies (check), stamina (check), airstrikes (check), enemy spawning, chopper extraction (check), removal of enemies far away from the player.
We'll probably change or amend things as we move along; this is a rough outline.
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SITUATION: Abu Sayyaf rebels have been getting larger, more organized, and more deadly in recent months. United States civilians have recently been targeted by the rebels. The Philippine government has finally relented and allowed US ground troops to assist them in the war against the seperatists. USMC units are on the ground and are conducting offensive operations against the rebels. United States civilians have recently been targeted by the rebels.
RANDOMIZED STUFF:Â Time of chopper extraction, status of villages (occupied, friendly, etc), enemy spawn points. Mission objectives. Marine firebases survive/over-run.
I'm sure there is more, I just can't think of it.
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I don't know if this is being checked much any more.
I would like to say that it is important that we show some kind of ships in the mission(marine deployment ship or aircraft carrier). This is realistic, especially in the phillipines. Today opertaion like the one we want to make launch from ships. Someone said earlier that there are no carrier. Here is a beta of a USS Nimtiz.
http://ofp.gamezone.cz/
I know it is beta but still it looks good and will be finnished soon. You could have a personl story to go with the story where to guys talk before they deploy from the ship.
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We could certainly use a carrier addon, though I wonder how much "screen time" it would get. It's something to check out :)
Also, I was thinking....maybe we should also use the Tales of War AAV7 addon rather than M113s....I bet the ES Marines would look good riding around in those ;D
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I agree. The M113 is out-dated. The AAV7 is a good idea.
I know everyone is afraid of having to many addons. Personally I don't mind misson with addons. I just hate having to search for them. So I hope for this mission we keep track of the addon. I hope that the addons will be offered in a sperate single download pack.
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Downloaded the Nimitz. Looks good. And its a small file. But I need a link for the AAV7.
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more addons... >:(
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I really don't know if we need the carrier. Can the F/A-18's even take off from it, and will it look professional?? If your a Marine in the mission, your not going to see the carrier, and a LST could easily look just as good.
As for the AAV7, I don't have the addon, so I don't know much about its quality. If it's a nice addon, I suppose we could use it, but we have to be careful about the addons we use.
Too many addons make me avoid a mission all together.
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I don't know if the AI can use the Nimitz, and I don't think we'll be seeing it enough to merit a download.
AAV7:
http://flashpoint.gamezone.cz/_hosted/awol/files/rar/AAV7v1_1.rar
or
http://flashpoint.gamezone.cz/_hosted/awol/files/zip/AAV7v1_1.zip
Both are roughly 1.75 megs.
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I was thinking what is the intro cut scene going to be. Is the player going to be in transit or launch from a land base or a ship. That is why I was saying it would be nice to show a ship or two. Marines do depoly from ships.
In relation to Marines not seeing carriers, it is not out of the ordinary for Marines to be stationed on aricraft carriers and deployed from them. These units are usally small crisis teams, but they are there. Marines are the land-based fighting force for the Navy.
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I think we should have a long intro showing the beginning of th assault, and the squad being cut off from the rest of the platoon. I like long cinematic intros.. and it would be easier to cause the squad to split off that way. The player won't want to retreat if we just set it out like it's going to be a normal assault mission so we either do it trhough intro or a cutscene.
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I think a cutscene is a better idea. Have a nice, decent lenghted intro, then let the player disembark, walk around a little. Then have a cutscene, and make everything happen from there.
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*edit* Hmmm on second thought splitting it up and having the separation in a cutscene would probably keep players interested. There's a tendency to zone out during long intros.
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I'm d/ling the AAV now and then I'll start work on the intro, show you my style. O'm gonna use Tonal 1 if thats okay. More jungles and no desert.
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Actually I think I'll do that tommrow.. I'm tired
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Good thinking about Tonali 1...I didn't even realize that it had no desert!
Sounds like a plan ;D
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GOD DAMN!!!! Can't upload the file. I made an intro ion the main Tonal island.. but it wont upload. sh*t
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Xcess,
Calm down, read the main page (http://www.ofpec.com) and you'll see why.
You'll also see when uploading will work again...
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I just wanna show off my shiny new intro :P
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Only 4 more days... ;)
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4 days too many :( Can't wait till OFPEC's back up. I'm starting to really hate opflash and ofp.info.. i miss good ole' OFPEC
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lol....
You could just email us the files, right?
But not until tomorrow - gotta watch the super bowl later ;D
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I've emailed u a zip containing the beginning of the mission and the intro
they're not very clean at the mo.. the intro doesn't even end properly
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Recieved and played ;)
I was busy chewing my fingers off (as usual) watching the Patriots last night 8) ....funny how it always comes down to a field goal... :P
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what u think of the mission?? Sound like u don't like it :( u didn't put any comments...
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:P
Take 1:
Well, the intro was pretty good, though I had to restart it a couple of times because some putz with an AT4 kept firing his rockets into the trees right in front of himself - seems like it didn't want to move on until that BRDM was kaput.
Then we pan over to a Pavehawk for a few seconds and some AAV7s sitting alongside an LST...one drove away and the other two just sat there....so I ESC'd to the mission.
So I check my map whilst sitting in the back of the AAV7 and I assume I'm supposed to blow away the comms post and make it to the Ranger camp. We come ashore, disembark, and half my team goes down without me having any idea what's going on.
Turns out there were a bunch of gunmen laying in some bushes, blasting away but only hitting my men occasionally - the music made it impossible to tell where the shots were coming from, and one of those machineguns was alive long enough to do some damage.
So we move inland. I've got four guys left alive - Rangers with suppressed weapons, so I figure we're okay. We're walking through the jungle and all the rest of my guys get dropped somehow (the AI are really bad shots, I have no idea how that happened), so it's just me left - I've got plenty of ammo and I haven't been so much as scratched. I take out the squad walking around the post, I walk into the post and shoot those guys up, then take out the radio and start legging it over to the Ranger camp.
I didn't see a thing during my trip but I got a message that enemies were moving towards an LZ, but I had RL stuff to do so I called it a day.
I think the intro could stand to be longer (if that shot of the LST is where it's supposed to end) and my loons could stand to be a little smarter (but don't we all wish that).
Anyway I'm going to play it again and see if it plays any differently.
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Take 2:
Intro plays the same, only this time none of the AAV7s budge.
We come ashore and the APC is blazing away at people on the right side, mowing them down by the dozens with both the machinegun and the Mk19, but we roll to a stop, I order my men to disembark, and we're shredded by an emplaced machinegun at 11 o'clock.
Not once, not twice, but three times. There was no way any of the people over there had LOS on us because they were about 50 yards back in thick brush, but they killed us all within ten seconds.
As the camera pulls back from my shattered body, the bodies of my entire squad are piled up on top of me - nobody made it more than 5 feet from the back of the APC.
Hmmmmmm.
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Works fine on mine.. i mean the bit with the BDRM works perfectly every time although sometimes they miss.. and the bush part is a lot easier for me, although maybe i should add a marker telling about the MG post. After the radio camp i need to carry on.. that's as far as I got. and the intro does finsih at the LST although now I've switched it with the USS Nimitz and put some F/A-18 fighters on the deck.
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Might be that I upped my game to Super AI :P Figured I'd give it a go with some serious badasses gunning for me ;D
As for the Nimitz, I'm not sure what the final word on it is...I'll have to check with Homefry about that.
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Well, if I can find a download link I'll get it and check it out. What exactly are you going to use it for?
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Just use the site search in opflash.org (under news) and you'll find it.
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Alright, will do.
Does anyone else have new ideas about the mission??
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best wishes with your project guys looking forward to it ;)
But what I want to see is a mission or a campaign from the movie Tears Of The Sun.
Could be your next project guys ;)
The Nimitz is avaible, the Seahawks are avaible, the BAS Tonal island is a good map to make this mission/campaign only thing that is not out are the Seals but you can use some other soldiers as place holders ;)
what ya guys think about it ???
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Yeah, would definetly be a possibility. I think the Covert Rangers from BAS look a lot like SEAL's anyway.
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Okay a couple of things to sort out...
1. So we're using the Nimitz now? How and where?
2. US units - played the mission as a Ranger. Is that a placeholder for the USMC addon or are we switching back to regular Army troops now? I think we should pick one or the other and stick with it because there's no sense in having two huge soldier addons if we can avoid it.
Being a Ranger would also mean there's no need for the AAV7 and we could have you inserted on the beach via Pave Hawk or something.
I think we need those things straightened out before we get too far into the editing and such.
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1. Nimitz? I would like to see it with a cut scene showing F/18 launching from it and then going on a bombing run. Becasue you are making this a long(meaning endless possiblities) mission you have to add things like that to keep people interested. Game play is going to be great, but I like to sit back sometimes and watch action and intead of leading it. And the Nimtz does not have to be only for the F/18. If we chose to use the USMC soldiers they can deploy by chopper from the carrier. I like that to becasue it has not been done. You could still use chopper idea if it is rangers just don't say they are rangers.
2. Units? Adding to what is allready said, we first need to pick what kind of troops. If you just say Marines what do you mean. Are they Force Recon, regulars, special forces, etc. We can really pick either unit addon as long as you tell who they are in. You could say that the BAS ranger addon soliders are the US Army's 10th Mountain Division or Marine's 1st Recon Battalion.
If you going for reality currently there are US Army Rangers acting as advisors in the Phillipines. BUT it depend on the story we have. If US is sending a rapid force to help the Phillipino Government it would be the Marines(look what we did in Liberia). They deploy faster and have shorter deployments. That is the job of the Marines. They are at the discretion of the President and can be deployed anywhere, at any time without Congress initial approval.
We need a basic outline of the story before we can decide on units or any of the other big decisions I think. It does not have to be set in stone, we just need to make sure everyone is on the same page. That is what I would like to see. Post it here or if you don't want to ruin the mission PM me what you have so far.
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Okay, the Nimitz is alright, the best out thus far.
As for the units, I say lets use MARPAT marines. They are of better quality, at least until the BAS ones are updated.
Orange, we had already established, your a normal grunt, fighting after you get cut off.
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Right, I envisioned this as a regular Marine infantryman and his buddies lost in enemy territory - no Special Forces or anything. If I meant you were an SF trooper I would have specified that.
As Homefry said, this was worked out earlier but for some reason or another we had our wires crossed - an amphibious force is the most likely American intervention force - as I understand it the advisors aren't actually going on operations with the government troops.
I asked about that because at the moment Xcess has used the Rangers.
But it's official now - USMC Assault Pack is in, Rangers are out.
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Thanks for the clarification. So the Marines hit the beach with AAV7's and move inland. One gets cut off and the other have to pull back. The player is on there own from there on out with events/action happening around them.
ok
I was just saying that we need general story line so we have an idea of the stuff we want in the mission. See if certain addons are worth it or not.
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I'm d/ling MARPAT now on my 56k :( so annoying..........
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It's definetly worth it.
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Agreed, definitely worth it. Pretty much everything about this pack is better than the BAS Rangers/Delta packs (sorry guys :P)
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Finally finished the D/l gonna test it
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Agreed, definitely worth it. Pretty much everything about this pack is better than the BAS Rangers/Delta packs (sorry guys :P)
Until the update comes out, then watch out MARPAT.
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With all the new BAS addons coming out, should we rethink anything??
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Hmmm sorry for letting this go dormant fellas...
As far as addons go, I think we're locked in...unless one of these addons is like the Second Coming of Christ or something, we're good to go with the MARPAT dudes.
BTW I've been batting some ideas for the site around with Radio - he and I came up with a good one and if I run into you on AIM I'll fill you in.
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You never know, the BAS Delta Ranger updates are gonna be sweet.
As for the mission, I was thinking about another possibility. What if the player finds civvies, maybe they could give in intel on enemy positions and stuff.
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Lol we'll see...I hear the Delta/Ranger update is the last one they're releasing (and hopefully they're saving the best for last....stupid Scud....j/k).
As far as civvies go, I figured we could implement that in the "friendly" villages...that would be part of the help that they offer you in addition to ammo, first aid, etc.
/me wishes BAS would just release more kickass addons instead of taunting us with lousy OPFOR :beat:
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The OPFOR pack isn't bad, but thats for the BAS thread. How would we get aid from the civvies, like how would we find ammo?
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Well, simply put, friendly villages would be open - you could just walk in and look through their ammo crates, use their MASH tent, whatever.
if we could set it up right, you would be able to talk to certain civvies who would tell you what they knew about enemy movement and positions.
Hostile villages would either shoot at you right away or call for backup, so you wouldn't be able to take anything unless you killed everybody.
Neutral villages just wouldn't have anything worth taking - that's the simplest way to distinguish, I think.
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Alright, were gonna have to have a lot of scripts running though. What I was thinking was, maybe they will have a hand-gun, you can talk to them and they will give it to you, or an assault rifle on their back. Just some more ideas.
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Okay people, the Ranger's/Delta's have been released, what does everyone think. Use the new units, or keep the Marines??
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Sorry guys, been on break for the last week and I just got the update today.
So far I see no reason to switch, but I'm going to continue to play around with these guys tonight.
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If ya still want any of my input.. i'd say MARPAT.. much better addon imho. Surprised to see the thread come back to life.
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The Rangers are great, pretty nicely made and all, but after reading some of this thread, I'd say go with the Marines. It would be nice to get some "grunt" missions/campaigns, since pretty much all are somehow Spec Op related. So my vote is for the MAP. ;)
And g'luck with this. It sounds good. :)
Hawkins
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Has anyone tried the Modern US infantry? It's standard army grunts, and the uniforms are extremely nice looking, the only problem is the weapons they use, standard BIS models, with JAM sounds. Maybe use this in conjunction with the MAP?
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Why don't we just use the Marines since our mission is about Marines in the Phillipines. Yes you could use other addon's and say they are Marines, but why don't you just use MARPAT's Marines instead.
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Yep, the modern soldiers do look nice, and I've actually been giving them MARPAT weapons anytime I use them, but I think we'd be better off sticking to the Marines.
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Alright, I was just throwing ideas out, so you guys could consider them. The MARPAT is the one, then.
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I hope you guys are still rolling on this project, it sounds awesome. I have been thinking about the radio. It is simple, but very powerful. It could build tension, be a method to give 'hints' (which is just motivational info),moderate the timeline of the mission, and just plain nudge the player to do your bidding (more subtle than a piece of text or a change of objectives).
Also, (not sure how realistic this is) have multiple freq's to try contacting naval, air, and close inf groups to join up, or request support. If you can make contact, the party on the other end of the line will try to arrange evac... it might take some time, while you're waiting, could you call in that pesky milita HQ for bombardment? or give the player a coord for shore pickup, or give info on enemy/friendly activity. either way trying different freqencies would allow for more options on the radio. new menu options and such.
Examples:
1. Build tension -
When the player wrongly tries to make contact (wether it's too early, wrong position, just not time to finish mission, etc.), Have a few low bitrate recordings of a choppy, static filled message where the only clear part is to change position and try again "You're bre..(static) Signal wea... get to hi.. ground and try again.. we.. located at...." this will help motivate them to move around and not camp.
Also, getting emergency chatter from local troops being attacked would add atmosphere, and hope. Imagine, you hear faint requests for help over the radio, amidst gunfire, of course, and one of your troops says (text) "I have their position, its.. (variable for map position of just spawned friendly and enemy units)" you might be in time to help, or join up, or stay clear of activity.
2. Give Hints - You Radio your status.. Low ammo, injuries. Based on the (now known) random factors in the mission, the contact you have might be able to mention that: a group just cleared this village and there was a medical facility, or there was a battle at this position-scavenge weapons and ammo. (all spawned as needed by the master random event script).
3. Adjust Timeline: Being full of options, and as you already stated, a good amount of randomness, the radio might be found and conditions favorable to use. And barring the set time-of-activation I read about earlier, you might consider having problems that actively get in the way and need to be solved, or circumvented to complete the mission. (in other words, 'storied' excuses to extend the time of the mission)
This just inspired me for some ideas on a seperate thread. Thanks, and good luck. Sounds like you guys have a masterpiece in the works!
Scrub
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Okay well, here's a status update for those who are interested...
This mission is pretty much on the back burner...it's gone nowhere and I'll take the heat for that.
BUT...
We now have a website for our story team, and we're going to start knocking walls down and building additions ;D No other details until we're done, suffice it to say that this happens to be the old website of another visionary OFP storywriter...just who, you'll have to guess :-X