OFPEC Forum

Missions Depot => Mission Discussion => ArmA - Reviewed Missions => Topic started by: bardosy on 06 Feb 2007, 11:11:05

Title: (Review Completed) [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 06 Feb 2007, 11:11:05
Perpetua campaign for ArmA


NEW, VOICE OVERED VERSION!!!


(http://lacko.pcdome.hu/ArmA/pic/Perpetua01t.JPG) (http://lacko.pcdome.hu/ArmA/pic/Perpetua01.JPG)   (http://lacko.pcdome.hu/ArmA/pic/Perpetua02t.JPG) (http://lacko.pcdome.hu/ArmA/pic/Perpetua02.JPG)

Story:

As a young CO of RACS, you will participate in the great war of Sahrani. You lead an elite squad as a spearhead of RACS troops. You are the first.

After the collaps of Soviet Union, the Northern regime of Sahrani started dieing. The commies had financial problems without the Big Brother and the Southern politicians had a dream about the reunion. They start negotiate and the Fist Secretary of Sahrani Communist Party didn't deny the negotiate. But since 2000 the negotiation stucked and the communists was stronger and stronger...



Features:
* Storyline - not just shootout
* Small, elite missions and huge battles
* Various objectives: attack, destroy, arty spotter, defend... etc
* Weapon selection
* Intros/outros
* scripts

(http://lacko.pcdome.hu/ArmA/pic/Perpetua03t.JPG) (http://lacko.pcdome.hu/ArmA/pic/Perpetua03.JPG)   (http://lacko.pcdome.hu/ArmA/pic/Perpetua04t.JPG) (http://lacko.pcdome.hu/ArmA/pic/Perpetua04.JPG)

Addons: None


Updated 16.05.2007:
DOWNLOAD (http://lacko.pcdome.hu/ArmA/perpetua.zip) v1.2

OFPEC Download (http://www.ofpec.com/missions_depot/index.php?action=details&id=6).


(http://lacko.pcdome.hu/ArmA/pic/Perpetua05t.JPG) (http://lacko.pcdome.hu/ArmA/pic/Perpetua05.JPG)   (http://lacko.pcdome.hu/ArmA/pic/Perpetua06t.JPG) (http://lacko.pcdome.hu/ArmA/pic/Perpetua06.JPG)
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: greg147 on 06 Feb 2007, 19:04:59
Looks interesting, I'll give it a try. :)

I'll write a review for each mission seperatly as I go, so they're still fresh in my mind

Prologue

Overview
Pic is good. OV isn't really too important in a campaign, but some text could be added later on, just a summery of the campaign or mission for each one.

Intro
Camera angles are good, I like the fact your using a main character. The ArmA campaign annoyed me because of its lack of a real storyline.
The line 'Lets go nice lads to the shooting range' sounds a bit weird. Prehaps changing it to something like 'Come on, let's get to the shooting range' or something might make it sound better.

Briefing
'Workout in the shooting range' could sound better as 'Practice at the shooting range' or something similar.
The situation link doesn't work.
Also, there are two spaces in front of the 'shooting range' link on objective 1, so the ! at the end is pushed onto the next line.
Other than that its fine.

Mission
I think starting in the tower, you should be in safe mode, rather than having your gun to your shoulder.
Also, your squad arn't shooting at the targets. Prehaps have them spread out a little, and firing at a few, once every couple of seconds. Since you arn't there for long, there shouldn't be any need for a pop-up targets script.

When I started shooting at the targets, the officer behind me drew his pistol and went prone, which I thought was a bit odd. I realise there isn't a setunitpos up command yet, but setting his behaviour to careless should work.
Same goes for the soldiers in the base, who were lying down as we drove past.

I think the journey could do with some quiet music from start to finish, as it can be a bit boring, especailly towards the end, where the conversation stops.

I like the idea of climbing the mountain. Wasn't expecting that. Although I noticed the squad didn't seem to want to go up the hill, the went north at a walking pace. Prehaps putting more, closer waypoints up the hill would make them head that way.

Other than that, a good overall starting mission.

Debreifing

Prehaps add some scores for completing each objective?

Outro
I noticed the squad walked through the M113 after the talk with the officer


Anyway, now i'm off to play through the rest of the campaign ;)
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: greg147 on 06 Feb 2007, 20:10:35
Cyro in Pita

Intro
Nothing wrong here I could see. Good camera angles btw.

Briefing
Situation link works this time. No typos that I could see, gear selection is a bit limited, but I suppose thats due to the RACs side not having too many weapons. I would add a few M16s in there, and prehaps a M21.

Mission
I liked the landing. Had a good feel about it. Prehaps using a 'black in' effect for the small camera shot at the start would work better to cover up the stationary choppers, or to set the scene well.
We actually got ambushed by the 2 BDRMs before taking the town. After capturing the UAZ and skirmishing on the outskirts, one came from in front of us and one came from behind. Took out half my squad before I found a RPG and took them out, so I liked that part. Served me right to start getting lazy ;)
The rest of the mission went smoothly, destroying both guns and the MG with about 3 guys remaining in my squad.

Outro
Fine, once again, good use of the camera angles.


A nice second mission. I didn't expect to be attacking the rear of the enemy, so some originality in there. Good work.  :good:
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 07 Feb 2007, 09:20:49
Hi greg147!

Thank you for testing Perpetua!

For first I must explain something...  The mission making things are REALLY different in ArmA like in OFP.
1., SetUnitPos "UP" doesn't work. (I used this command in first mission, but the soldiers go down prone)
2., setBehaviour "SAFE" work different: no weapon on shoulder.
3., Links in briefing work harder: some LAG or idunno, but if you click the "wrong link" more times, finally works.

But there is something what SAME in Arma and OFP:
In the briefing, break the ! to new line if the sentence are long enough and don't long too much... ;) Yeah: there is no space... It's just a bad Notepad. The only solution is make a little longer sentence. I will...


Ok, and now about the real problems:


Prologue:

1., Thank you for language fixes! I'll change it.

2., AI soldiers don't shoot to target: I made a newer try, and now they fire, but directly to the air!!! :) I can't script them to shoot to the targets... :(

3., AI mates don't go up to Bonanza: Yes, it's shame. The AI didn't like climb. I will try more dense WPs, but I think I will not change in the lazy AI.

4., Pop-up targets in the begining: OK, it's a good idea.


Gyros in Pita:

1., Weapon selection: M21 will be avaiable later.

2., Black in effect: I working on it, but it's completly different like in OFP... so I made a lot of test, but didn't work. I will examine other ArmA missions for this secret.

Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: greg147 on 10 Feb 2007, 21:10:49
Quote from: bardosy on 07 Feb 2007, 09:20:49
1., SetUnitPos "UP" doesn't work. (I used this command in first mission, but the soldiers go down prone)

Yes, but as I said, putting them into careless mode works to keep them standing.


Quote from: bardosy on 07 Feb 2007, 09:20:49
2., setBehaviour "SAFE" work different: no weapon on shoulder.

What I ment when I said 'weapon in the shoulder' was having the butt of the weapon to the shoulder, and having the barrel raised. Putting the player in safe mode will result in having the weapon slung across the stomach, in a more 'at ease' pose.



Anyway, next mission

Ghosts

Briefing
No errors here that I could see. Weapon selection is good.

Mission
Acouple of small nitpicks here

'Rogar that crossroad, over' should be 'Rogar that crossroad, out'
'very love these american callsigns' should be 'really loves these american callsigns'

Maybe add some ambience to the countryside whilst en-route to the ambush (it was very quite - except getting jumped by a MG nest ;) )
I wasn't quite sure how to use the artillery, if it was mapclick or anything. Prehaps add something into the notes saying that it will only fire on one area.

Also, I couldn't help thinking how much easier it would be to simply bombard the convoys starting base in the first place, instead of trying to ambush it.
I think changing the situation slightly would make more sence. Have something like the artillery not being yet ashore, and saying the player must go to the ambush spot just incase the arty does not get unloaded in time. Then have the option to call a strike just as the convoy leaves, so the player must use it whilst the convoy is en-route. It was very easy to simply press 0-0-1 constantly until the tanks were in its path, so prehaps also have only one strike avaliable.
Also take away the arty after the ambush. Once again, theres no reason it couldn't be used against the HQ.

During the radio conversation when the new objective is added, I think 'assets' would sound better than 'stuffs'

Took me quite a while to complete this mission, so that was good. Managed to capture a BDRM at the ambush, which made it a bit easier.
One last thing I noticed was that when I alerted the troops in the base, the BMP crew got in their BMP, and then drove up the mountain to the north. They probably would have kept going if I hadn't taken it out with an RPG.

Anyway, a pretty good mission. Got a fair few kills on this one.  :good:
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: Trapper on 11 Feb 2007, 21:29:07
Thanks for this campaign Bardosy, before it I thought Arma is doomed. Perpetua brings OFP's old charm to this strange game.
Though on the other hand the mountain soldiers hymn sounds like sarcasm to me.   :scratch:

Version v0.452

Author and version info is missing in campaign overview. Well, there's no overview text at all. :)


First Mission

I like more steady camera movements in intros/cutscenes. Especially targeting a hopping soldier with the camera makes me sick. ;)
Could you just use stationary cameras for scenes like this?

In my first try the officer falls from the watch tower when he goes prown and breaks his legs. When we want to leave with the Jeep it always drives back to the officers, and then they try to grab something it's trunk, over and over again. Had to restart.

In the second try the same thing happend with the officer at the US checkpoint, but he did it only once and I was able to continue.

Someone created an "Alive City" script for Arma I think. Maybe you could use it to make the civilians move around in the cities.


Second Mission

Don't forget some autosaves in combat missions. I didn't notice any.

Was there an animal home? There were way too many barking dogs, as you will never seen one of them in Arma.

I've sniped the MG Position from the hill behind the cannons and before the 2nd objective, so the conversation afterwards didn't fit to my situation/distance.

The outro forced me again to follow a hopping soldier.
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 12 Feb 2007, 09:18:52
hello greg147!

Quote
Yes, but as I said, putting them into careless mode works to keep them standing.

Yes, it's true until you don't shoot to the targets. When you start shooting, who hear you change their behaviour to AWARE...

Ghosts:

1., Thank you for English language fixes. I'll change it!

2., Really good idea the non-ready arty! Thanks! I will work it into this mission.

3., I don't want mapClick arty in this mission (it will be in the - momently - last mission), so I will inform the player somehow about the stationary arty pos.

4., I'm thinking about a score system: if you use once the arty support, get a lot of score, but if you use again, it will decrase the score and etc... Is it OK?

6., And I'll remove the radio call after the ambush.
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 12 Feb 2007, 09:35:52
Hi Trapper!

Quote
mountain soldiers hymn sounds like sarcasm to me.

It's very funny explain to a German, but the Hungarians was not the best soldiers in the 20th century. And I hear a WWII military march and it's about the most beautiful or most handsome soldiers of the World. And I LOL, because not the most powerful or most dangerous or best soldier, but most handsome. And I love this song :D. And I think Sahrani is a small country with proud people, but they can't sing seriuosly about the BEST soldiers, so they sing about the most beautiful... ;) And I think they are latin with a good sense of humor.


Quote
Author and version info is missing in campaign overview.

It's my fault, but I can't insert text in the campaign overview... If I put some info, it's clear the picture... :( So I can't use text and picture same time.

Quote
Could you just use stationary cameras for scenes like this?

I changed a camera to statinoary (for you) in the Ghost's intro... ;) But yes, I'll try change it in the first intro too.


Quote
and then they try to grab something it's trunk...

Weapon? If I clear the ammo cargo of the jeep it could be fix it? Or the officer want heal himself with the jeep?


Quote
Maybe you could use it to make the civilians move around in the cities.

I used the US checkpoint to avoid to see a big, living city. Because I want prevent LAG.


Quote
Don't forget some autosaves in combat missions.

It's strange. I remember, I used it. I'll check it and fix.


Quote
There were way too many barking dogs

All right I will decrese the dogs.
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: Trapper on 12 Feb 2007, 16:23:45
So maybe you have to shorten the campaign picture for some text? The single player mission overviews have smaller images. Or you could stamp it on  the picture.

I didn't see the officers with a new weapon afterwards. Three of them did it and only one was injured. Perhaps they want their removeweapon-rifles back?  ???

The civilian numbers are fine, but if the ones in the villages would just walk around a bit?

Maybe I just didn't notice the autosaves. I'm not used to Arma and was busy with cheat-saving.


EDIT:

Almost forgot. In the second mission (V0.452 or 4.6? Readme is contradicting.) was an error.
"cannot load texture ca\data\data\vlajka.paa."
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: greg147 on 12 Feb 2007, 17:47:42
Stop for a minute

Briefing
Only thing I could find was a small typo, of 'hold out positions' to 'hold our positions'

Mission
I liked this mission a lot. I couldn't see any bugs or problems, and can't actually think of any way it could be improved.
There didn't seem to be much of a defencive line in the town, but prehaps that adds to the situation.
I got a huge amount of kills on this one, after making good use of anything with a .50cal on it. Only thing I could mention is the US truck in the compound in the town, which looks a bit out of place considering the US are fighting in the south.


Capriccio
.
Intro
At the begining, the view is said to be a satillite photo, but then the camera move all over the place at different angles. Keep the angle the same, and move the camera horizontally, rather than tilting it aswell.  It will look more like a 2D photo then  ;)

Briefing
No problems here

Mission
Good atmosphere on this one. Although I think it would be very difficult to play it steathly, (I ended up killing everyone in the base after I was detected near the hole in the fence.)
I noticed that the reinforcements never showed up, and I couldn't see any occupation where the marker was. I think a global 'Aware' combat mode trigger should be activated once I've been detected by someone who raises an alarm (i.e., not the patrolling guys outside the base)
Also, the guys in the towers didn't seem to smart. Its probably the AI issue with ArmA still, but put the skill up, because they tended to put their heads down, forget I had just shot them, then come up later to get shot again. As said above, put some form of alarm feature in.

'Brainwashing camp' sounds a bit odd to me. I'm not sure how realistic the campaign is ment to be, but I don't think the player would have seen enough of, nor know enough about, the camp to be able to tell exactly what went on there. Its obvious that it's a prison camp, due to the double fences, so prehaps keep it as a prison camp? Seems a bit more believable that way.
On the same note, taking samples of the chemicals. It seems like you'd need a NBC suit to be able to handle hazardous chemicals like what could be used in weapons. It might be more realistic to have the player take pictures of the labels on the barrels, rather than take samples.

Those are just suggestions, something to think about maybe  ;)

Other than that, the mission itself is fine. I think the main issue is some sort of detection feature to make those reinforcements come.
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 13 Feb 2007, 08:31:06
@Trapper

Quote
So maybe you have to shorten the campaign picture for some text?

Good idea! I'll try it.


Officers: They have no rifle in default settings. I didn't remove any weapon from officers. I'm afraid this is a Arma version problem.
In an earlier version, the LMG guy run to the jeep for reload, because I added him wrong ammo. But the officers...? :(

civilian activity: I thought, when jeep is moving, it's OK a standing civil in the roadside and only in Bonanza village are civilians with WP... The other problem, if I add some WP to the roadside civilis, they will walk in the road, and AI driver will stop and do stupid things.

Autosaves: Sorry! I was wrong. Yesterday I added two saveGame to Gyros mission. (And I remove a lot dog-voice, and fixed the two last objectives text: now you can complete the MG first, if you want...)

Quote
"cannot load texture ca\data\data\vlajka.paa."

I know. Sometimes I got this error message too. "vlajka" is a checz-sound word. I have a checz verzion of Arma converted to English. I guess this is a flag texture. But I used RACS and SLA flags in all mission, but only in this mission got this message.
But can you play with this mission?
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 13 Feb 2007, 08:46:22
@greg147

Thank you for your ideas! Yesterday I rework the texts for Ghost by your advice: arty is not ready at begining, but later you can use it. I inserted the score-system for the arty too.


Quote
Keep the angle the same, and move the camera horizontally.

I want it, I WANT!!! But I really can't. :( I exemine a lot of SpySat script, but I didn't find the solution to moving camera without change the angle. Maybe I can rewrite the text from "satelite image" to "UAV image".


Quote
and I couldn't see any occupation where the marker was

Sorry, I don't understand what do you think. Can you detail it?


Quote
I think a global 'Aware' combat mode trigger should be activated once I've been detected

It's interesting... I used it. When the alarm triggered and flare shoot up, you see soldiers in SAFE mode? I'll check it.


Quote
Also, the guys in the towers didn't seem to smart.

I reduced their skill, because when they was smart, this mission was inpossible to me. (I tested this mission with stealth mode: only a few kill with SD weapon and lot of sneak.)


Quote
'Brainwashing camp' sounds a bit odd to me.

You mean the expression is strange or what you said later "he player would have seen enough"?
I accept the second one and I will rewrite it. But if you mean the first, please tell me how the English call these camps? (eg. in China there are camps where "live" people who don't like Mao-ze Dong, and finally when they leave the camp, they really (and seriously) love Mao and communism) In Hungarian language we call it "overteaching" camps and I really interested how do you say it in English.


Quote
It might be more realistic to have the player take pictures of the labels on the barrels

Good idea! I'll rework it!
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: greg147 on 13 Feb 2007, 20:03:26
Quote from: bardosy on 13 Feb 2007, 08:46:22
Quote
and I couldn't see any occupation where the marker was

Sorry, I don't understand what do you think. Can you detail it?

When I looked up towards the place that was marked on the map as 'reinforcements', I exprected to see a camp up there, like some patrols and guards, some spotlights and maybe a tank or two. It seemed empty to me  ;)


Quote from: bardosy on 13 Feb 2007, 08:46:22

Quote
'Brainwashing camp' sounds a bit odd to me.

You mean the expression is strange or what you said later "he player would have seen enough"?
I accept the second one and I will rewrite it. But if you mean the first, please tell me how the English call these camps? (eg. in China there are camps where "live" people who don't like Mao-ze Dong, and finally when they leave the camp, they really (and seriously) love Mao and communism) In Hungarian language we call it "overteaching" camps and I really interested how do you say it in English.


I'm not sure what we'd say in English. Prehaps 'psychological detention facility' would be more fitting.
My advice would be to keep the player unknown about what goes on in the camp during the mission. After all, if he had never been taken to one of these camps, how would he know what was going on there, especially if he hadn't been inside any of the buildings.
If the camp is important in the storyline, then prehaps you could have the CIA officer tell the player in the intro to the next mission, once the photos have been developed.
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: johnnyboy on 15 Feb 2007, 22:31:56
Bardosy,

Nice work.  I am enjoying your campaign so far (better than ARMA campaign, but that's not saying too much)...

Here is some feedback on first two missions:

Prologue
======

Intro: 

- Officers go to jeeps for ammo.  ARMA gave them only 3 magazines.  If you add one magazine to them they will no longer feel they need ammo.  I had the same problem, and that's how I fixed it.

Code: [Select]
this addmagazine "15Rnd_9x19_M9";
- I liked the troop placement in base.

- If you want the soldiers to shoot at targets, then use the invisible target addon (originally made by Lester for OFP, and converted to ARMA by Al Simmions and DeanosBeano).  Here's a link to the addon if you want to try it.  You place an invisible target in front of the real targets (adjust height as needed), and script the soldiers to target and fire on the invisible targets.  It definitely works.  Since SETUNITPOS UP isn't working, the soldiers will probably all go prone when you do this, but BIS says that will be fixed in the next patch.

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard311/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=70;t=57466

- I enjoyed  your text dialogue, singing, etc.  It allows us to like the character.  Maybe you can get some voice actors someday.

- If you want civilians to walk, but not in the road, you can use the playmove command.   Put a few TALK waypoints (not MOVE) on a civilian, and put this code in the waypoint:

this setdir 35; this playmove "AmovPercMwlkSnonWnonDf"

Setdir should be the direction you want him to walk.

This is such a small detail, it may not be worth the trouble.  The drive through town was fine as is.

Gyros In Pita
=========

Funny mission name.  It made me hungry!

- Problem in intro, where soldiers would walk through the M113.
- I liked having another chopper to right of my chopper on insertion so I could watch it.
- Did too many enemy soldiers in Pita have PKs?  Seemed like alot of PKs...
- Why was there tanks and helicopters in Pita with no pilots or crew?
- Taking the port was fun.  It was surprising and fun when Cannons turned and fired on me at short range.  But not very realistic.  I think cannon soldiers should dismount and fight like infantry, but it was fun as is.
- I loved that I started at night, and morning light came before I finished the mission.

Very good mission.

Is it possible to store the time of day that the player finishes the mission as a variable for the outro?  When the outro showed the M113s landing on the beach, it was much darker than when I finished the mission.  It would feel more real if the M113s landing occurred AFTER I finish the mission, which would be later in the day (more sunlight).

Ghosts Intro
=========

- Tank crews in Intro are looking into the fires wearing their Night Vision Goggles.  That would make them completely blind!

============

I will play more and report more later.

It is great to see a good campaign created by the community.  Keep up the good work!!!
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 16 Feb 2007, 10:13:16
Hello johnnyboy!

Thank you for testing!


Quote
I had the same problem, and that's how I fixed it.
Thanks! I'll fix it!


Quote
but BIS says that will be fixed in the next patch.
Yeah, I head that.
And thanks for the addon, I'll try it, but I want a no-addon campaign in first turn.


Quote
This is such a small detail, it may not be worth the trouble.
I always welcome these tiny tricks! Great!



Quote
Did too many enemy soldiers in Pita have PKs?  Seemed like alot of PKs...
OK. I'll change them to AK.



Quote
I think cannon soldiers should dismount and fight like infantry, but it was fun as is.
Great idea! I'll try script them...


Quote
That would make them completely blind!
Funny, I'll remove these Goggles.


Quote
Why was there tanks and helicopters in Pita with no pilots or crew?
Well... It's personal. ;) When I was kid I saw a lot of not-really-abandoned, but not working military stuff (helicopters, BMPs...) in military bases. This image is so communist-feeling for me.
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: johnnyboy on 16 Feb 2007, 18:15:02
Glad to help mate.  I plan on posting a mission soon, and hope others will beta test it...(hint, hint).

Quote
Quote
Why was there tanks and helicopters in Pita with no pilots or crew?

Well... It's personal. Wink When I was kid I saw a lot of not-really-abandoned, but not working military stuff (helicopters, BMPs...) in military bases. This image is so communist-feeling for me.

Very interesting.  You should definitely keep it then.  But maybe you could add some text to the story line for those of us who would not guess this.  Perhaps a trigger near these vehicles where the player says something like:

"Wow...rusting helicopters and tanks...  Communist maintenance is even worse than ours!  They do not respect the gifts from their Russian uncles!"

Or something like that...
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 19 Feb 2007, 12:39:32
@johnnyboy
It's a really good idea. I will do it!


@everyone
I updated the first post with a new version of campaign (v0.466) It's an improved version by your ideas.
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: mathias_eichinger on 20 Feb 2007, 23:00:09
Hi, a campaign better than the BIS one sure looks promising!

Mission #1: Prologue


Overview

The picture is a bit blurry, but otherwise very good.


Intro

Good camera angles and well done.


Mission

Totally different from any BIS mission. It describes the main character and the character of the army as well. Being from a small country (Austria) I can relate to the "our small and not-too-capable army" image. But I don't get the emphasis on mountain troops. These are considered elite in the countries who have them, I think. But nevermind.

Up in the tower I would have liked to have my weapon already in my hands. And the officer should be "CARELESS" to avoid hitting the ground and drawing his pistol once the shooting starts. I must admit that I did not pay much notice to the range because the Landrover arrived so fast.
A bit of music would have added to the immersion the conversation on the ride was building.

The idea of climbing the mountain is good, but I would have liked a real competition. Maybe it is an ArmA feature that the AI goes around obstacles and does not climb them.

Apart from this smaller nitpicks, this mission sets the mood for the campaign nicely.

Outro

As good as the intro.

Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: mathias_eichinger on 20 Feb 2007, 23:16:38
Onwards with

Mission #2: Gyros in Pita


Intro

Good mood and camerawork as before. Great job!


Mission

I encountered a bug on my first try: Choppers starting to climb before everyone was out and soldiers therefore falling to death. Retry, and everything worked as it should.
I advanced from the LZ towards Pita, encountering isolated soldiers on the way which were no problem for my squad.

Pita itself was a different story. Some well placed enemies and two BRDMs! The first one succeded to finish off my AT gunner and most of my squad in the process. Then I found a RPG and managed to kill the BRDMs.
Ok, onwards to the coastal gun emplacement,  me and my last two men. The soldiers there were very well placed and covered every angle.
This made that part of the mission bordering on being frustrating because BIS has left out the Killcam. It meant many retries before I had the base clear of enemy soldiers.

Now I was able to solve the last objective in an unusual way: By the power of a D30 gun!  :D
It made disposal of a distanced MG nest and sniper quite easy and rewarding (would have been downright frustrating else, because I was wounded and alone at that point).
After the D30s served their purpose they were blown up and I was pleased to watch a good outro.

Keep up the good work, you brought the "OFP feeling" back to ArmA!


Cheers

Mathias
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 21 Feb 2007, 08:01:45
hi mathias! Thank you for testing!

Can I ask whitch version you used? v0.46 or v0466 ?

"CARELESS" is better then "SAFE"? I use "SAFE", but when my men start shooting (to the sky), officers go prone... I'll try with "CARELESS"...


@greg147, johnnyboy: Are you busy with the changeing to EU version? (Me too... :) ) But if you have a little time, please test the the last two missions. It's funny, because nobody arrive to these missions. First time I thought Stop for a minute mission is so laggy, and all tester stop there. But greg could finish it. ;)
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: greg147 on 21 Feb 2007, 09:00:00
Sorry, i've been quite busy in the last few days, and havn't had a lot of time. Plus, since the 505 version of the game was released, my performance settings have dropped even lower, with me on very low for everything, and still getting about 15FPS in an open field. Has put me off ArmA for a bit to be honest  ;)

I probably won't be able to test the next mission taday, but I may have time tomorrow.
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 21 Feb 2007, 10:23:27
Thank you greg!

Quote
Plus, since the 505 version of the game was released, my performance settings have dropped even lower, with me on very low for everything, and still getting about 15FPS in an open field.

Really??? I heard this EU version (1.04) will be faster then old German/Checz... It's very interesting... :o
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: Wolfrug on 21 Feb 2007, 16:11:16
@bardosy

I'm not sure if this has been addressed already, since I'm not in possession of your latest campaign version, but if not, there's a slight "bug" in the Gyros in Pita mission. When I first played the mission I was still such an über-crappy ArmA player (argh! They shoot me!) that I simply couldn't survive a head-on assault on Pita, what with the BRDMs and tight places. Besides, the briefing says quite clearly the main objective is the coastal battery ; so I take my men around up in the hills, and attack it from the top of the ridge. I also take out the MG nest in the meantime, easy peasy. I've actually only killed a handful or so of soldiers at this point, mind. Since all you need to do to finish the mission is to sneak into Pita and touch your waypoint/trigger in the middle of it, and the whole dialogue with home base will start which will finish the mission. No need to actually clear Pita or the small base of enemy troops.

Might want to either make the clearing of Pita an actual objective, OR make the mission end with just the destruction of the D30s.

Good continuation!  :good:

Wolfrug out.
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: johnnyboy on 22 Feb 2007, 06:29:47
Quote
@greg147, johnnyboy: Are you busy with the changeing to EU version? (Me too... Smiley ) But if you have a little time, please test the the last two missions. It's funny, because nobody arrive to these missions. First time I thought Stop for a minute mission is so laggy, and all tester stop there. But greg could finish it. Wink

Sorry my friend, but life got busy all of the sudden. I probably won't get to testing your campaign further until next week.  But I will!  Your campaign is better than Arma campaign, so I will finish it.
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 22 Feb 2007, 10:59:07
@Wolfrug: Thank you, your report. It's a good tactics and I had no idea about player who avoid the fight in Pita. Thanks! I'll think about a better solution.

@johnnyboy: Sorry, I don't want to be unpolite or impatient. I was just affraid you stucked because the gameplay... Thank you for your work and I'll wait for your further reports! ;)
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: Cheetah on 22 Feb 2007, 11:30:43
Stop for a minute

Intro
Fine, although some soldiers seem to walk into each other, not a big problem though.

Briefing
Good.

Mission

1st try
We get into the two 4x4s and move towards Masbete, but get ambushed by SLA soldiers near the road. My gunner gets shot down and while trying to get out I get shot by even more men. Have to be more carefull next time and make sure that I take the best route towards Masbete.

2nd try
This time I'm the gunner of the first jeep and I make sure that we can pass with only one KIA, it's pretty hard to use the M2 as you can't zoom in on the targets. I'm now in Masbete and I just placed my units on the western side of town, lying behind the jeeps and buildings.

I just saved the game, because I have to be at work in 30 minutes. So I'll continue later, sorry.
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 22 Feb 2007, 12:25:37
Thanks cheetah, but I'm affraid you can't play with this mission, because of lag. So if you have any speed problem, just use the ENDMISSION cheat to continue the testing in the next mission.

But if you post here, I'm asking something:
I read your tutorial about the sqf and you wrote in it: sqf is faster... What deas it mean? The execVM is a faster script runner engine?
I'm not sure, but maybe this mission (Stop for a minute) is slow because script... I use a generate script and it generate 8 enemy squad, one-by-one after 80 seconds. And an other script generate 5 friendly squad, one in every 80 seconds AND I run a infinite loop and it's deleteVehicle the dead bodies in every 20th second.

Is it possible the mission is slow, because the enemy squads spawn very far and too many enemy units exists in same time...
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 23 Feb 2007, 10:19:31
@all

I updated the first post with new version.
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: Cheetah on 23 Feb 2007, 11:56:24
Continuation of Stop a minute - version 0.465

Okay, I'm with my squad at the western edge of Masbete, behind my two cars and a large house.
The lag is okay, I must say that disabling shadows and lowering terrain details helps a lot for me. Anyway, I lose a couple of guys and then decide that the offensive is the best defense, so I move towards the trees in front of me and meet a large force of SLA troops. Luckily I took a few additional hand grenades with me, six total now, which helps me in the upcoming fight.

After a while a lot of SLA troops are toasted, I'm on their right flank and my teammates together with other RACS forces prevent the SLA from entering Masbete. I'm a bit worried about their armour though, haven't seen friendly AT soldiers walking around and I don't know if I lost one during the ambush.

They are coming towards my position so it's getting a bit hot, which means that I have to retreat about 15 metres. Damn, about two squads are coming, one in front of me, the other is hitting the right flank of my squad. I lose about three of four guys, don't know, and have to use a lot of magazines in order to keep the enemy at bay. Pretty good battle so far, sometimes I even miss a pistol. Have to get more ammo for my G36 soon.

Okay, ammo problem solved. I took the SAW from one of my teammates, glad that there's plenty of ammo left. After running back to my old position I get a radio message telling me that there's artillery pounding at the enemy. I move into position to see a bit of it, on my way killing two enemies, and it's pretty rough there. Glad that it's friendly arty, one thing to mention though, the artillery sounds a bit too dense, you might want to spread the rounds over a longer period of time.

Have to move to Ixel, so I get my three teammates and myself in a 4x4 and we move towards Ixel. I take a look at the map and discover that we have about three squads, with limited to none casualties left on the western edge of time. Seems like my squad took almost all the heat, damn. I hope that I've got enough men left to capture Ixel.

On the way back there we catch some fire, probably a sniper and one other guy by judging the sounds. After a while I get radio traffic telling me that I'm almost at Ixel, but I find myself pretty far away from Ixel when I look at the map, oops wrong turn. So I drive through the landscape to reach Ixel ASAP, trying to attack the enemy in the back. I reach the town without spotting enemy soldiers, but I do catch some fire, which sucks because I'm already injured (happened in Masbete, couldn't find a medic).

Anyway, I let my soldiers disembark and get in the house where I find an officer on the floor, what a pussy. I manage to kill a lot of SLA troops, but we suffer a lot of casualties, my whole squad gets wiped out. It's time to check the perimeter of Ixel on my own, with my trusty SAW. I throw my two remaining grenades in the little bushy bush near the house and advance. Making my way towards the two houses in west Ixel, eliminating about four soldiers. The firefight gets heavier by the minute it seems, intense firefight sounds are echoing in my room.

Damn, I want backup, I'd like a few men from the Ixel guards under my control, or maybe a m113 coming to our aid, or artillery, yes I'm now a man in panic. There must be a squad coming around the corner in front of me, I'm lucky that I've got a SAW in my hands. Then things begin to settle down and the enemy seems to have lost most of its men so it's time to come into action myself, a one-man-offensive.

I try to get up the hill, looking left and right for enemy soldiers and then "incoming artillery", so I make my way back to my position near the two buildings in the west of Ixel and wait and wait. What a waste of rounds, there are no enemies left, well didn't see any when I moved towards the enemy position. Oh, seems like you have a script to clean up dead SLA bodies, good for reducing lag I think.

Damn, those exploding artillery rounds are beautiful in ArmA aren't they? :)
Hey, the mission seems over, I have to report to the officer in the HQ, or the house I used as my first firing position. Mission ends, whooah.

Debriefing
duration: 27 minutes
Score: 22540
Objectives [n]not[/b] ticked off.

Outro
"Why we don't attack" -> "why don't we attack?"
- More spelling errors in the conversation, I suggest getting it corrected

Outro is fine, strange though that Gomez, I, report 5 KIA but my whole squad has been wiped out.
Seems like it's going to be a good twist in the story.

Conclusion
One of the best ArmA missions I've played so far! Good atmosphere, it's just that I didn't like the way the artillery sounds (too dense). But a very nice attack, at least it felt good :).

Capricccio

Intro
Pretty interesting intro / video briefing, didn't like the script which turns the searchlights, you need to turn them smoother. Now they turn 30 degrees in one second, too fast.

Briefing
Missing vlajka.. flag thingy.
Fine briefing.

Mission
After moving to the east, I don't give a thing about the plan - sorry, I come across a spetz natz patrol and kill them. Get two hand grenades and one satchel then move on. I get closer to the camp, aware of the guards in the towers who can make things hot.
After a bit of crawling I use a headshot to take care off the guard in the tower and make a plan to enter the camp.
There is a double fence so I hope that the satchel can take care of both fences.

There's probably a clipping problem, because when trying to get as close to the fence as possible for the satchel I crawl through it. I plant the satchel and blow the fence, kill another tower guard, a two men patrol and make my way towards the factory.

Now something is going wrong with the radio, seems like I triggered two radio conversations at once :). One telling me where to go, the other telling my boss what I found. Anyway, objective completed, damn those cars aren't drivable which means that I have to run back to the evac... okay not I have to do something else.

So I make my way to the new target. I see a few patrols in the perimeter of the building, but not enough to stop me, I'm going in.
I get shot at by a sniper while running towards the building, he hits me arm, damn. Kill two soldiers near the building and get in.

I enter the building and see nothing, a few rooms deeper I see a dead guy. Don't know if it's a civilian, will check later after clearing. Yes he is a civilan and there's another. A conversation kicks in, completed get back to the evac.
Yeah, mission completed.

Debriefing
23 minutes, 3300 score, objectives not ticked off

Outro
Good angles, like the way the camera is locked on the boat, might be a bit dark for some people not for me, some typos in the text. Just a minor thing: "I" don't carry the weapon I used.

Conclusion
Pretty good, a bit above average.

Dead end

Intro
Nice angles, good animations. Again a briefing, this time without video. Fine. You have learned some new stuff about camera scripting, good.

Briefing
Hmm, some typos in the briefing, damn thought that I took a look at it. Anyway the plan, notes section and map are fine. Not too crowded and easy to understand. A HALO jump, interesting.

Mission
Going to stop here. Will continue later.
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 23 Feb 2007, 13:35:47
@cheetah:

whoooohoo! That was a very good and exciting report!!! I really liked it!

Stop for a minute:

Quote
the artillery sounds a bit too dense
OK. Here is not so important like in Ghosts, so I'll soften up.



Quote
After a while I get radio traffic telling me that I'm almost at Ixel, but I find myself pretty far away from Ixel when I look at the map, oops wrong turn.
I'll check it! I think I triggered the attack and the radio woth same trigger. And I must triggered the attack if you come any direction... Because you can arrive to Ixel and there is no emergency situation.



Quote
happened in Masbete, couldn't find a medic
In Masbete (and in Ixel) created RACS squads to support the defence and all squad have medic. But thanks for idea, I'll insert Field Hospital in both village.



Quote
Damn, I want backup, I'd like a few men from the Ixel guards under my control
A few RACS squad (fewer than SLA) arrive to Ixel to support. Or they must be arrive. There was no these support? (not your control, of course)



Quote
What a waste of rounds, there are no enemies left
:) I want kill the rest of the enemy and sign somehow the end of the battle.
The arty triggered after 2 minutes when the last SLA squad created.


Quote
Oh, seems like you have a script to clean up dead SLA bodies, good for reducing lag I think.
I really fear from Mikero. :) Do you how he is? When he try the ArmA down there...?



Capriccio

First thing first: there was an alarm when you choose the brute force?
(There is an alarm trigger if SLA side detected you twice, but sometimes not triggered)

Quote
when trying to get as close to the fence as possible for the satchel I crawl through it.
WOOOW! Typical checz-bug: in the Hidden and Dangerous series I used this bug to shortcut some mission ;)



Quote
Now something is going wrong with the radio, seems like I triggered two radio conversations at once
Yeah... probably. I didn't expect brute force entry with satchel... But thanks! I'll fix it somehow.



Quote
objectives not ticked off
??? Interesting! When I tested it (and Stop for a minute too) the objectives was ticked. I'll check it...



Quote
"I" don't carry the weapon I used.
I cant send information from mission to outro. But I'll change the outro weapon to SD MP5. It's not the perfect solution, because the player can choose other SD weapon in the begining...



Thanks a lot!
Good fighting in Dead end...!
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: mathias_eichinger on 23 Feb 2007, 21:35:37
Hi Bardosy, here is my report of Mission #3: Ghosts

Intro and outro

Great camerawork as usual.

Briefing

As good as always.

Mission

I had a long jog towards the objective and I managed to run fast trough the valley between the 2 MG nests losing only 1 man in the process.
At the amush point I had to retry several times to get the right moment for the barrage, and a single T72 escaped nonetheless.
I heard 3 distant explosions shortly afterwards, so I presume these were AT missiles, hitting the tank.

I moved onward to Ixel, cautiously picking the enemy from the distance. The eastern part of Ixel was rather easy to clear. The western part, however was a different story. You did place the units very good, but I had a good amount of frustration and retries where they were. I think I am beginning to hate BIS for removing the KillCam. Well, after I cleared each and every house and blowing up the radio tower, I finally managed to finish the mission. Quite a hard piece, but I consider the unit placement very realistic!

Cheers

Mathias

Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: mathias_eichinger on 24 Feb 2007, 17:55:21
Moving on with Mission #4: Stop for a minute

I picked up an M113, raced towards Masbete and arrived there just in time. I was able to occupy a house position and shoot from the windows. The assault was pretty impressive, but I managed to kill them all without losses to my squad. Then I was ordered back to Ixel. Wondering from where the assault would come, I took position in the center of the HQ. And then it came, tactically perfect over the ridge and trough the woods. My gunner and my squad succeded to finish them all, but at the expense of my squad.
I really like how you made the attackers in both cases taking advantage of the terrain!

Also, one happens to note the amount of detail you put into your base layout, the HQ with vehicles, bunkers, men and bodies feels very believable. And I did not encounter a single bug. Keep up the good work!

Cheers

Mathias
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: mathias_eichinger on 26 Feb 2007, 20:02:56
Reporting about Mission #5: Capriccio

Intro

Hmm...I did not quite get why the Americans are in need of Gomez to investigate the facility...why don't they send their own agents?
But it is a good twist to bring some stealth action to an "ordinary mountain trooper".

Mission

The boat dropped me off and I ran towards the base without disturbance. I tried to crawl along the fence on the south side, trying to solve this mission without violence...the vigilance of the tower guards thwarted my effort. I sneaked and gunned them until I reached the gate, and worked my way inside.

I killed several tower guards inside the base, when some unfortunate savegame-timing and your sniper almost made me giving up. I had just hit the save button when he was about to take aim. This tough and deadly guy added some difficulty and need for fast reaction to the guesswork of what guards I needed to kill and which way I had to go.

Very funny twist with the "beer factory", but should'nt it be a brewery? On a further note: I tried to exit the compound via the hole you mentioned, but I found none at the point marked on the map. Am I missing something?

I finally found the chemical weapons at the industrial buildung, and the spetznaz gave me the creeps until I found him! Good choice of unit placement! On my way to extraction I managed to bump into a patrol and had to retry again.

Bottom line: A very interesting mission that adds much to an already good campaign.


Cheers

Mathias
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 27 Feb 2007, 08:34:28
Hi mathias!

Quote
I did not quite get why the Americans are in need of Gomez to investigate the facility
The CIA didn!t want sacrafice any agent... ;)


Quote
I tried to exit the compound via the hole you mentioned, but I found none at the point marked on the map
It's not a really hole, but there is NO fence. I destroyed (with script) the fence on this point. Are you sure there is an intact fence there?


Quote
Very funny twist with the "beer factory", but should'nt it be a brewery?
Thanks! I'm not a well English speaker. But I usually like play with economy/tycoon games and I guess you're right! (Nobody can be more expert about beer, like a German! ;) )



Quote
A very interesting mission that adds much to an already good campaign.
Thank you!

When you fight with guards, they use their non-SD weapons? Had you strange feeling why didn't ring the alarm?
I need this information, because I used an alarm script if the guards detect you twice. But I'm thinking on change it to one time. But if the alarm start, the mission will be very hard...
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: mathias_eichinger on 27 Feb 2007, 14:55:32
Hi Bardosy!

Maybe I am blind, but to me the fence was solid. But keep in mind, I tried to escape from inside. Maybe your script destroys the fence as I close in from the east and outside?

Thank you for the compliment about my beer expertise  :D. On a side note, I am Austrian, not German which is not completely the same, at least not since 1945.  :D

Hm, I felt strange indeed because I did not rang the alarm inside very often. The guards always used normal Kalashnikovs, the only one with a silenced one was the Especa at the industrial site off-camp. It appeared to me that the alarm was seemingly connected to the sniper, but I think the tower guards just did not notice me before their death while the sniper did. I also killed a patrol of 2 and a lone patrolling soldier on the main road at the entrance (the patrol) and between the huts east of the main road (lone soldier).

On your "detected twice": Maybe it is a bit complicated. I had a retry where I tried to follow the main road and pick all the guards. That sounded the alarm bell because there were many soldiers close to me to notice me. On the other hand, the retry which brought me success lead me trough the huts directly to the east of the factory. There I killed the lone soldier without him noticing me (by taking aim).
The sniper however just leisurely walked past me, about 10 m away only to turn out of a sudden towards me and killing me, which looks like "hyper-sensitive-at-a-glance-detection".

I think I can follow up with a report of "Dead end" later today, so stay tuned.  :)


Cheers

Mathias
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 27 Feb 2007, 15:11:54
Quote
Maybe your script destroys the fence as I close in from the east and outside?
Not script destroy fence in the begining of mission, but I'll check it! Thanks for note me.



Quote
...at least not since 1945.
I have an oldie turist information book titled: Wien, Deutcheland... :D
By the way, I'm Hungarian, so every summer spent a week in Austria by bike.



Quote
Very funny twist with the "beer factory", but should'nt it be a brewery?
OK. I'll fix it!


You will be the first who test Dead end...
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: mathias_eichinger on 27 Feb 2007, 20:21:45
Hi Bardosy, I am able to give you a report about "Dead End"!

The Briefing says that we infiltrate by HALO which is to my knowledge starting at HIGH altitude with a Low parachute opening. It hast been quite popular on some OFP blackop missions and I was looking forward to this rapid descent in ArmA!
Well, it was just a normal parachute flight... But that's not your fault, I have not yet spotted any ArmA HALO script.  ;)

Onwards... the outpost was quickly taken and I advanced dowards the ambush position. Here I had to wait quite some time, but in the end the convoy appeared. I did not use so much time because I chose the AT rockets in the weapons selection. But one might need the time to look for the right Satchel charge employment and afterwards for a hiding place.

I had to do several retries and ended up with restraining my AT guys from firing. The rest suppressed the infantry very well and I was able to pick the BRDMs from a distance. That distance caused a little bit of stress because I had to salvage the truck under the menace of an advancing superior enemy force. Now I managed to do it and send my men back to the extraction point.

That's when I encountered the only letdown of this mission. A full enemy squad plus BMP right in front of me on my way to the extraction point. Huh? I mean, Papa Bear mentioned that they would be AFTER me. And the only road to the outpost has always been in plain sight, the outpost itself lying isolated in rugged terrain.  So...how can there suddenly be a BMP, "armagically" just before my extraction point?  ;)

I see where you want to go with this, but I would like to suggest to have some pure infantry force helicoptered in to take a look at the outpost. This way you can still have the player sandwiched in between and fighting bitterly at the last moment... without BMPs appearing out of nowhere.

Otherwise a mission just of the right difficulty that requires a good amount of planning to keep the Ural!

Cheers

Mathias
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 28 Feb 2007, 08:06:59
Quote
Well, it was just a normal parachute flight...
I know what did you feel. Sorry. But: I must insert the player to the right place is very difficult with a real halo. But a normal parajump from plane will alarm the outpost and other hostile forces, so I must explain why they are careless. And if you can imagine, this normal para flight is the end phase of a HALO. ;)

Quote
Here I had to wait quite some time, but in the end the convoy appeared.
I must create the convoy in a non-forrest place to the AI. And this place is a little bit far. But now the player get time to place a perfect ambush with pipebomb or mine...

Otherwise, if you cannot take the outpost very quickly, a revive unit (with BMP) attack you and you must fight down this unit and same time prepare for ambush.


Quote
A full enemy squad plus BMP right in front of me on my way to the extraction point.
In my first try of this mission, when you attack the convoy a very heavy enemy force (with tanks) come up from the village behind the Pass. And it could be realistic. But it was very slow. The player have a lot of time to extract.
So I insert that squad to suppress you and make a hard escapeing feeling.
When I tested it, I hurry to EP and I had no problem with that squad, just my men report it and I had fear, but they didn't harm us. And when the BlackHawk come, the BMP start shoot to the BH, and BH use her minigun against the squad and that was SO pretty.
I'm affraid if I'll relocate this squad, they will not arrive in time and the player will bore.



Quote
I see where you want to go with this, but I would like to suggest to have some pure infantry force helicoptered in to take a look at the outpost.
I'm affraid the helicopters will fight with each other and BH will not land for extraction...
A pure infantry squad can climb from the base to the nowhere and fight, but BMP not: it's your truth. But I need this BMP to shoot to BH. A pure soldier will not shoot.
Maybe I can replace the BMP to the road and come where the convoy was come, but it will stuck in the wrenck of the convoy.
OK. I will try without this BMP!


Thank you for your advice!
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: mathias_eichinger on 28 Feb 2007, 13:15:55
Hi, I've got some further notes on the mission

Quote
But I need this BMP to shoot to BH.
The BMP and the enemy squad appeared in a little forest patch between the crossroad and the outpost. In fact, I never saw the BMP. It just killed many of my men before one of my AT guys disposed it with a rocket. Keep in mind that your blocking force was some distance BEFORE the EP, I think I did not make this clear in my report.
As BMPs and oppsing side infantry squads don't tend to cohabit peacefully, it's most time either BMP OR player at the EP, not both. Sooo...if you appear at the EP it's most likely that you already killed the BMP and hence it could not shoot at the Blackhawk.

Quote
I'm affraid if I'll relocate this squad, they will not arrive in time and the player will bore.
Hmm...what if you base the helicopter with the blocking squad for the outpost nearby and start it as soon as the first vehicle or soldier of the convoy is down? The player is still busy with fighting the rest of the convoy and kidnapping the truck afterwards as he hears the menacing sound of a Mi-17 that flies to the outpost, drops off a squad and flies off long before the player can trigger the BH arrival...
Just a suggestion!

Cheers

Mathias

Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: mathias_eichinger on 01 Mar 2007, 01:02:27
ere we go...last mission: Nicest

I was thrilled by the prospect of mountain warfare but I must say that this mission impressed me the least. Why is that? Because of some bugs I guess...but more later on.

I hitched a civilian ural to the base and had a nice ride. Then I started climbing the mountain, and suddenly a well camouflaged enemy squad started firing. My squad hit the dirt and quickly fought them down. Oh, what's that?? Terribly accurate enemy artillery killing half of my squad. Ok, as long as I don't give away my own position I should be able to use my own artillery.

It was not to be, because when I set my squad to "don't fire" some of them would always refuse the command in the way of showing the proper icon and a second after being in fire mode again, and there's nothing I could do about it - strange bug.

So I "parked" them out of sight and firing range and guided my own artillery fire in. Despite looking good it was almost impossible to hit anything with my own artillery - terribly inaccurate compared to the enemy artillery. The mountainous terrain allowed for an unseen approach to the MG nests to pop up in the last moment. However, when the small enemy groups nearby started to call in artillery, themselves being less than 50 m away. I really think you should define a minimum distance to the enemy for artillery employment.

I worked this way towards the mountain top. Then I came closer to the mountain top base which had a really impressive layout. I suppressed it very much with artillery, but to a limited effect. As I discovered later, some of the artillery pieces on the left flank were destroyed, but I tend to attribute this to occasional AT shots from my and fellow squads. The ones on the right side could not be destroyed by own artillery.

Over the fence, as I entered the area, your over-accurate artillery and some MG gunners in medical tents cost me quite some nerve. As soon as I killed the MG guys, I got an artillery shell directly on my head. When I tried to sneak forward and kill the artillerymen up close the machine gunners got me.

In the end, I approached from the left flank where my tactic of closing to the artillery worked...only about 2 foot soldiers were to kill and strangely enough nobody lobbed artillery shells on me. When there was nobody left breathing I wondered why the mission did not end. Hmm... the briefing said something about C4. Luckily enough I brought 3 of them, and blew up 3 artillery pieces. Now I went for the ammo boxes which sould yield supplies of C4. Well...I got the "3 Bullets" symbol and the loadout screen did not appear. Looks to me as if they are all empty >:(

More of my luck, I found a full M136 launcher and was able to destroy the last 3 guns in this (sorry to have to say this) very boring finale.

Bottom Line

Please take a look into the Bug that does not led me set my soldiers to "don't fire", set a minimum range for enemy artillery employment, and make enemy artillery less acurate and own artillery more accurate. And please, leave the disposal of damaged enemy artillery to the engineers.
Sorry to sound so harsh here, but this mission simply is not as enjoyable as the others...

Cheers

Mathias


Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 01 Mar 2007, 08:13:01
Hello Mathias!

You are the first whe tested this mission, so I had no possibilities to improve it, only from my experience...

In the earlier missions - like Ghosts - I used my own arty script, but cheetah and others said: it's too unrealisticly dense and heavy, so I was looking for a more realistic script. I fould Mr. Murray's script and I implement it to this mission. I like it, because the shells not come from the nothing (like in my script), it's come from a real gun and if you destroy a gun, the enemy couldn't support their men in full capacity.

But I feel the same like you: my arty didn't kill anybody, but their arty kill half of my squad. I exemine the script and there is no any handicap for the enemy. So this feeling was/is wrong. Or(!) the enemy gun (D30) have a better ammo... (???)

When I tried first, I want modify this script, but later I changed my mind: I think it could add some more feauture to this mission: You must relocate your (and squad) position AFTER when enemy spot you, and you have no possibility to my usual tactics: when I see the enemy, let's prone and eliminate all hostile. Now I must move...

I'll exemine how can I modify this script to detect the minimal distance. (If I understand you correctly: If the enemy who spot you and you are less then 50m, the enemy not call arty)
By the way, when you reach the highland on the top, the script will not call arty to you, but in thet highland, the D30s can see you and shoot you with direct fire.

More info: the all enemy soldier in the slope can call arty for ANY RACS solders. Not only you are there, three other RACS squad advance on the slope andt the SLA soldiers call arty to them too. So it is possible, that you are ON the higland and guns started shooting to an other RACS squad in the danger zone (on slope).

This is my solution to your "hold fire" problem: Your men and an other RACS squad mixed and not your soldier started shooting. I don't know it is correct, but I can imagine it.

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Sorry to sound so harsh here, but this mission simply is not as enjoyable as the others...

Mathias, I'm really-really thankful for your help!!!


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Please take a look into the Bug that does not led me set my soldiers to "don't fire"
If your soldier denied your order, then it's an ArmA bug, IMHO.


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set a minimum range for enemy artillery employment
OK. I'll try it!


Quote
make enemy artillery less acurate and own artillery more accurate
Are you sure? I ask it again... Because there is no difference between the two fireing method.
I could add more dense to RACS fire method, but I1m afraid from cheetah... :)


Quote
And please, leave the disposal of damaged enemy artillery to the engineers.
Oh, I forgot: there is a lot of ammo boxes on the highland, so you have nearly infinit stachels.

What is your suggestion, when the mission ends?
- if all enemy destroyed? It could cause the "last loon problem" and it's bored too...
- When the guns can't shoot? (damaged or crew killed)
- or when the player reach a position?

Thank you for your help. Now I'm working on a new mission (the last one in the campaign).
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: Cheetah on 01 Mar 2007, 12:58:18
Dead end

"cannot load vlajka.paa" (in the briefing)

Mission

I miss the NVGoggles as default equipement, I like to use them occasionally in these situations, not enough light in darker places (forests etc). Anyway, I give some orders, line - engage - fall back into formation and begin my approach. Well placed enemies, they make it a pretty hard fight and I die twice (first time I catch a grenade, the second time I couldn't shoot, forgot that you can't shoot while giving orders - pretty frustrating ;)).

This time I let the enemy come to me, I shoot one guy in the radio tower and order my team to wait and get down. There are three enemies rushing towards us and they are easily taken care off. The man in the radio tower (the other guy) starts shooting but is quickly disposed off. I hate those tents, so I get a few grenades and throw a grenade on each of the tents, worked great. We move into the outpost and kill another soldier. I grab the NVG of a soldier in the tent, a few grenades and wait until the objective gets ticked off. It feels as if there is a too long timout before the radio kicks in and tells me what to do next. Maybe you could let this be a little faster, because I ran to every corner, tent of the camp before the trigger activated.

Good savegame and radio, we make our way towards the road. No casualties so far. I don't know if there are any tanks in the convoy, to be sure I lay a satchel at the T-junction and I let my men take up position at both sides of the road. No I change plan, I position my men in a U-form around the T-junction, hopefully the convoy isn't too long. Order them to get down and I wait. I've taken up position on the eastern side of the road, in the "deepest" position of the squad. What I mean by that is that I'm on our flank, probably will end up close to the convoy's rear, well that's my intention.

Then radio messages begin to show again. The convoy is moving, great, right on time. Hmm, now I'm asking myself if I set up my men into the right position, I don't know if the ural comes from the base or goes to the base. So I change my U-form to a both-sides-of-the-road ambush, don't know if I forgot the information from the intro (saw that a week ago), but I'd like to know where the convoy comes from next time :).

Those birds, the rain, and not knowing from what direction the truck will come adds to the atmosphere though. I hope that the truck comes from the south, probably won't do that though, my defense is worse versus a northern approach, bah.
Damn, forgot to put my men on hold fire, oops. Anyway the UAZ catches a rocketed and goes up in flames, I order my men back into formation and run towards the north, they came on the weaker side, damn. I lose one or two men, don't know and order my AT soldier to target the BRDM. In the meanwhile, I put some surpressive fire on the BRDM as there are a few soldiers coming out of it, while reloading the BRDM blows up.

I get a radio message soon after telling me that there's a huge hostile force coming towards me and that there is a new evac zone. The problem is, there was no truck in the convoy. Only one BRDM and a Machine Gun UAZ. I'm going to look for it, although I'll be up against multiple enemy squads, probably.

There are about two squads and a BMP moving towards my evac zone, I see them in a distance because I'm not using the road to get to the base, instead I go straight towards the base. I lose a couple of my men in a firefight, there are now multiple small skirmishes. My men are scattered, I order them to move towards the evac zone and move on towards the base alone. They all die and I move towards the base myself, I take out the BMP2 with an RPG I found and the T72 kills me, I load the savegame where I'm awaiting the arrival of the convoy.

Retry
I order my men to hold fire this time and wait, just got the message that the convoy is on the move, so I guess I have to wait about 5 minutes, that's too long in my opinion.

Takes a bit too long, so I move north. The leading UAZ drives a lot of road, are they in safe mode? Anyway, the UAZ and BRDM pass and I wait for more to come. Yes, finally there is the truck I'm after (I think it is that one). The problem is the BRDM driving behind it. So I wait for them to pass and order #2 to target the BRDM. A firefight starts, the leading vehicles return and make it a lot harder for my squad. Surprisingly I lose no-one, only some injured guys but everyone can walk. I get into the ammo truck and make my way towards the outpost, I order my team to the evac zone by using a mapclick.

Pretty strange that I have to look for a signal and suddenly there's a smoke grenade. The chopper lands and a BMP2 fires with the machine gun, no real damage. My team arrives and gets in, when they are all in I get in too and we fly.

Debriefing
Strange, the objective telling us to attack the base is active, none is ticked off, don't know if this is a general campaign problem though.
Time - 23 min, score 4300.

Outro
Fine. Although there are some errors in the texts.

Nicest

Intro
Couldn't follow the intro? The US soldiers escape?

Briefing
Okay, this one is clear. The notes section explains some stuff in the intro, but nevertheless I suggest that you show USMC soldiers arriving on Sahrani. What happens with the US CIA guys?

Mission
My men get ordered to go into the civil truck, that's what it is for. Good that there are no problems here.

Good conversation, well done with the destroyed armour. Upon arriving I get two RGO grenades from the truck and order my men to disembark. Orders: Formation stag. column and engage.

I look at my map, we're going to move southwest. The game saves and we start our march. Going to test the artillery as soon as possible. I take point and guide my men through over the mountain. A few minutes later I spot the first SLA soldiers waiting for me to arrive, lucky me spotted them first so I prepare an artillery strike. I miss the target, about three SLA soldiers and kill them before the 2nd round of artillery shells touches the mountain. We advance pretty fast until I spot a bunker and order an artillery strike, the artillery is off target and I order my squad to open fire. Suddenly artillery hits my position and kills two of my men. Good thing to know that the enemy is using artillery as well. If they would've used HE ammo instead of SABOT (I think they used that) we would've been wiped out completely.

We have a hard time advancing, enemy artillery, sand bunkers and squads coming over the edge of a hill. Nice. There are some grenades exploding and I don't know who's shooting at me, are there mines or something? Anyway after a retry we make our way pretty deep into their territory. So far I lost #2,3,4 which isn't that much.

I constantly request artillery fire in front of me, using the landmarks and #2 to get an idea of my position and estimating distance etc to pinpoint enemy defences as well as just randomly clicking on the map towards the SW. I lose #7,8 because of artillery and MG fire. There's a BRDM coming my way, the artillery just missed him, #8 died before he could shoot to I took the launcher and destroyed the vehicle.

Formation line, we're now closing in on the enemy lines. Damn, artillery incoming, lose two more of my guys. Request backup as I've only got two teammates left. With artillery I hit their defensive line, after a few more artillery strikes I move in. The backup still hasn't arrived, they must have waited for me in the base, damn. Seems like the artillery did well, their line has been severly weakened, only a few soldiers were waiting for me and got killed. I'm now using the artillery to smash their next line.

Good another squad is coming to help me, don't know if it's the squad that will join me soon. Probably not. Anyway, the artillery is useful, going to use it a great number of times before moving in. The other squad has a lot of KIAs, damn. I snipe a lot of SLA troops with my G36, still waiting for my reinforcements. The other squad got two men left, several shilka's are in our way. Have to use artillery to use them while I'm looking for RPGs as additional equipment.

I found a M136 launcher, got some grenades and move in on my own. My teammates will provide cover. I get hit multiple times trying to run to a field hospital, I make it alive, get healed and prepare my next move still using artillery. I kill the gunners manning the enemy artillery. Kill MG gunners and destroy the shilka.

Started to destroy some cannons, but then got hit by the shilka, destroyed it and had to crawl to the medic tent. Once I arrived there I was shocked to see four soldiers inside, shot them all and healed myself. Now I only had to blow up the remaining cannons / MG nests, damn that will take a while.

Well done, I don't have to destroy all of the guns / nests that saves me the awfull work of blowing them all.

Debriefing
Score 17000, time 30 minutes.
Objectives not ticked off, weird problem, during the mission they are.

Conclusion
Looking forward to the final mission of the campaign. I enjoyed the mission, it's not my favorite though. (that's the where I had to defend Masbete)
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 01 Mar 2007, 13:43:18
Quote
I miss the NVGoggles as default equipement
Give you NVG as default for whole squad?


Quote
It feels as if there is a too long timout before the radio kicks
There is a timeout for eliminate the outpost. If you can clear it before times run, you will be not punished; but if times run and the outpost is not clear, a hostile squad come for revive the outpost and waste your time for ambush.
Can I set shorter this timeout? (Can you easily clear the outpost without punishment?)
Or if you clear the outpost, skip this counter? (<-- I'll do this!)


Quote
The problem is, there was no truck in the convoy. Only one BRDM and a Machine Gun UAZ.
Ops! ??? Maybe stucked somewhere in the forest? The convoy is: UAZ, BRDM, Ural, BRDM.



Quote
I have to wait about 5 minutes, that's too long in my opinion.
Yes, I know. I used 4x time.
But you're right. I'll check how can I speed them up...



Quote
Anyway, the UAZ and BRDM pass and I wait for more to come. Yes, finally there is the truck I'm after.
Lucky bastard! :) When I tested it, I must fight with the whole convoy...
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 01 Mar 2007, 14:51:55
Quote
Lucky illegitimate person!
??? Thats funny! I love the forum engine!!! I wrote 'lucky b@startd'...


Quote
Couldn't follow the intro? The US soldiers escape?
Yeah, I finished it in the v0.47... No escape. ;)


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What happens with the US CIA guys?
In mission #8 he will return.


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If they would've used HE ammo instead of SABOT (I think they used that) we would've been wiped out completely.
Nope. They used HE... the D30 guns have only HE ammo = 30Rnd_122mmHE_D30, Sh_122_HE


Quote
There are some grenades exploding and I don't know who's shooting at me, are there mines or something
No mines. Maybe SLA GL soldier?


Quote
The backup still hasn't arrived
They come from the base where you get out from truck. And AI have a little problem with slopes, so it's take a little time when they can follow you. (Exactly they never join you, but follow you).


Quote
Once I arrived there I was shocked to see four soldiers inside
I saw it too.. :D The enemy AI use the hospital. These soldiers was hitted by my arty support and they go there to heal, but I don1t know why they didn't return to their position...


Quote
Well done, I don't have to destroy all of the guns / nests
Maybe it's not crear from the briefing: you must destroy only the guns, not the MG-nests.



And what's your opinion about Mr Murray's arty script? Did you feel fair or feel your support is not to accurate and deadly like the hostile?

As I read, you use a lot of arty support. Wasn't there ammo shortage? If the cannons use their all ammo (30) half of the guns (3) get an extra clip, but it reduces density (and inform you by radio).




Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: mathias_eichinger on 01 Mar 2007, 18:01:16
Hi Bardosy!

I 've got some further notes on "Nicest":

Maybe the accuracy of the cannons at the fort is due to direct fire. I recall being shot at and missed when still on the slope of the mountain. Also, your enemy groups are just 3 or 4 men in strength which are way harder to hit as a full 10-men squad spread out. It could be that the accuracy of the enemy guns is a misconception of mine.

On the "hold fire" bug...are you sure that it is an ArmA bug? It worked perfectly when I kept my soldiers from firing on the Ural truck just one mission earlier.

The ammo boxes: Yes, I noticed them. But on interacting with them i got the "3 Bullets" icon and the loadout screen would not pop up. Whereas you get an "M16" icon for equipment/ammo you can pick up, e.g. from a dead soldier. So I was forced to look for a rocket launcher.

IMO, the mission should end when all the cannons can't fire anymore (gunners are dead) since this is the reason for climbing the mountain and assaulting the base. Alternatively, you could make the reinforcement squad arrive via helicopter and have the mission end then.

Looking forward to the last mission too.

Mathias
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: Cheetah on 01 Mar 2007, 23:02:18
Mission: Dead end


Mission: Niceest
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 02 Mar 2007, 09:21:57
@Mathias

Quote
It could be that the accuracy of the enemy guns is a misconception of mine.
I made a contact with Mr Murray (autor of this arty script). And I will modify the enemy's accuracy. And he will work on your idea (distance 50m).

Well me too feel that misconception and I want rework it, because the enemy is regular or green, but we are the "most beutyful soldiers..." so veteran. And we can call a better the support; they are in panic and give wrong coordinates... I want simulate it. (If I can)


Quote
are you sure that it is an ArmA bug?
No. I'm not sure. But I didn't use any script on player's squad.
I usual use the hold fire command and I never saw that bug, so I don't think so this is an ArmA bug. But I don't know what. :(
Are you sure there is no other RACS squad mixed with your squad?


Quote
The ammo boxes
OK. Now I understand. I'll check it...


Quote
IMO, the mission should end when all the cannons can't fire anymore (gunners are dead)
It's a good idea. But I'm affraid the player fight through the slope and want FINISH this mission as a man :) And the mission ends very soon.
Eg: there is a few SLA soldiers hide in the bushes and everywhere. You can silent the gun and these are alive and mission ends... Now - when you must destroy the guns - you must eliminate the hiding SLA troops.

I'll thinking on it!



@Cheetah

Thanks for the advice to Dead end...

Quote
Are you going to change the intro or is the intro I saw final?
In v0.47 there is the final. But I think you played with an earlier... I remember I upload a version with a very short and not completed intro.
Now you must see this: dead SLA soldiers and twho allied officers speak about him, then the airport: lot of chopper come and go... US soldiers unboard from BlackHawks and board to Srrykers and trucks...


Quote
Do you know by the way, that the correct English is "Nicest" ?
Yes. I changed it too in v0.47... :) But thanks...


Quote
Good, I want to kill that CIA guy. No.. no I have something far worse for him in my mind
Spoiler... :D You will.


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The reinforcements might have been the squad attacking with me. Is there a radio mesage telling me that they are near me?
There are two other squad who follow you on flanks. They moving under the whole advance. And when you reach half of the slope, there is a trigger (with radio chat) and a new squad start to follow you, but from the base (far). And they need time to close up.
(I don't remember any radiochat about "they are near". But I will check it.


Quote
Don't try to do something to fix the hospital thing with SLA soldiers.
OK. I love to see them, when I call arty and they wounded and start going to hospital... ;)

Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: mathias_eichinger on 02 Mar 2007, 14:09:59
Hi Bardosy!

I am completely sure that my squad was not mixed up with any other RACS squad. Forgot to mention that I never called Delta squad for they would suffer the same "artillery fate" as my own squad, and I wanted to conserve precious RACS manpower  :D.

I understand that you consider ending the mission with some enemy men running around as only half-done. But I think you are asking for the "hunt the last loon" problem when you make the player hunt for everyone of them.
How about an ending with the arrival of another squad that relieves the player? He might want to rest and fight another day after this exhausting climb and fight?  ;)

Cheers

Mathias
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: Trapper on 03 Mar 2007, 12:07:30
An interjection concerning my frustration about ArmA. :dunno:

I've stopped playing the game in the meantime and finished the mission Ghosts when Patch 1.05 was out. Perpetua was still the old version from the time before.

I wasn't sure if it's about the new annoying grass or your enemy placement. It started in the harbor (Gyros) and got worse in the enemy base (Ghosts). Everywhere "snipers" are hidden stationary, turning the whole missions into trial and error shooting ranges without tactic gameplay.
BAS featured this in many of their missions and I think it can be overdone. Of course, it's realistic for defenders to hide and not to run around but it played bad in OFP and even more in ArmA grass, just frustrating because no fluid gameplay kicks in. If it's not the player getting shot around every corner, it's his squad lying around dead in the end.
Also such missions are missing replay value, because of the fixed positions.

Notwithstanding the hiding spots you selected in Ghosts are all nicely chosen.
I just want to remeber you that equal and fluid gameplay in ArmA only exists if the AIs on both sides run around like headless chickens. So please don't make all the missions so... realistic deadly?  :P
Sure, you have to check every corner in a village to survive, but does all this create realistic situations in OFP, ...ArmA?
The enemies always hits me with the first shot, and the damn avatar moves like a robot so I won't find cover in time.
You can't shoot around the corner for suppressing fire once they've spotted you because you'll die. And what for? You can't shoot while controlling an AI to flank the enemy at the same time. Well, still they don't even care about suppressing fire.

Oh, and I'm sorry. Was I supposed to retrieve something important from the base in mission Ghosts? I hope so, because if not this fucking artillery should've done my job.  ;)
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 05 Mar 2007, 09:18:53
To all:
There is a new version (v0.5) can download from the forst post.
This is an almost final version with the new (and last one) mission: Long Knife.
I will make a campaign intro/outro and improve the exists missions, but the structure is done.


@Mathias

Not only the Delta team follow you. Two other RACS squad (Bravo, Charlie) follow you on the flanks automatically. But I believe you... :) I found an other "interesting" bug in the new (Long Knife) mission. My teammates follow you in the village and onec they start "where are you". They stucked. I thought they stucked in a fence or house... and I got back and I saw a very interesting: they are stand in the middle of nothing and stucked. There was no any fence or other object, but they couldn't move. (I you test this mission too, use delta formation (or any other close formation) in the village to avoid this problem)

I checked Nicest at the weekend I found nothing about "hold fire"-bug... :(
But I found an interesting info: The enemy's arty (D30) have a little more powerful shell (60 damage point), like our arty (50 damage point). And RACS have no real own gun, so I will replace our gun to D30 and then we will have equal chance.
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 05 Mar 2007, 15:32:49

@Trapper

Your opinion is very interesting. Thanks for it! My campaign have a hungarian beta tester who is military person (captain) and he always send me brute detailed tactics report after all missions (I didn't understand everything :) ) And I thought he enjoy the tactics. The truth is: he also hate the grass.
From my side: eg. in Gyros. In the town the patrols are moveing, and when you start shooting a few reinforcement come from the base (they wasn't static too). But the rest of them hide and prepare for defend the base (yes, they are static). (By the way I soften up the defend of the town and made a harder defend of base by advice of my captain)

In Ghosts in Ixel they are static for defence. That's true. I really loved place them to good places, but when I test this mission I haven't big problem with eliminate them. And the other tester also said "good enemy placements". This hungarian captain adviced me only a sniper replace from a garden to a roof.
What is your real suggestion: can I leave a few enemy in static place (windows, roopfs, over a barricade...) BUT a few of them will be mobile force: they will running up and down in the village or make a counter-attack against you?

Quote
Was I supposed to retrieve something important from the base in mission Ghosts?

Errr... sorry! :) No. You must kill a VIP and capture Ixel. Later Ixel and Masbete will be your HQ...


Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: mathias_eichinger on 05 Mar 2007, 16:20:02
Hi Bardosy!

About the "hold fire" bug: It is an ArmA bug and it has survived Patch 1.05  >:(
I've noticed it in a mission I am constructing myself. But it is rather infrequent. Sometimes it is present, sometimes not.

Greetings

Mathias

Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: Trapper on 05 Mar 2007, 19:19:47
It's alright if there are not more "static" missions. The places are good and realistic indeed but it isn't much fun.
Did the captain use his squad in this mission or was it redundant to him? I would have to practice more if it's really possible to hunt such static enemys with them together. I always can't resist to use a team present in missions and frustrate myself endlessly when they're a millstone around my neck for the given task.


Stop for a Minute
A good mission.

Is it right that an almost defeated enemy triggers the artillery?
You can add a more realistic life of it's own to a mission world, if such an event is based on time only.
5mins after objective begin artillery strikes -> enemy always retreats at 60% casualties, no matter the cause -> artillery is cancelled if this happens before.
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 06 Mar 2007, 07:52:48
@Trapper

You will hate the last mission (Long Knife) :D
My captain use his teammates to break down the defend from a hill. You have not cleat the village!!! You must only capture the HQ, kill the office and destroy the radio tower... But if you arrive to the village from a wrong direction, you must fight through the village and fight with static positioned enemy.

Stop for a minute
I guess you loved it: there is no static enemy ;) But now they attack.
Artillery: it is triggered by time. There is a script, it made enemy squads in every 30(?) seconds. And after the 8th (or 10th) squad, script ends and wait a minute and then call the arty script. I want simulate: they have more soldiers, but the arty decided the fight and they stop attacking (and they will try an other attack in Ixel).


@Mathias
Thanks God! Ops, it's not good... I'm mean it's bad news, this is an ArmA bug, but it's good to not my bug. ;)
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: Trapper on 06 Mar 2007, 20:34:52
v0.5, Capriccio (I hope replacing campaign pbo continuing/reverting the last mission has no influence)

The hole is supposed to be only in the outer fence line?
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 07 Mar 2007, 08:04:30
@Trapper

If I know correcly, if you start a mission (in a campaign) and didn't finish it, when you replace the campaign pbo, then you will continue the mission (in the older version) but the next mission will be the new one.

(If CIA guy didn't correct the wrong-english "beer factory" to "brewery", you played the old one) ;)

Hole: Yes! there is only one hole in the outer fence. But you can choose between two direction to the inner part of the camp with this single hole.
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 07 Mar 2007, 10:49:27
Dear Trapper...

...you gave me a hard night. :) I thought about your "static(realistic) - dynamic(playable/fun)" paradox...

I think this is bigger, but general script... I want make it and use in the first Battle for Ixel (and later in Long Knife).

What's the concept? (please help)

1., There are a few static soldier (commander in a bunker, sniper on the roof)
2., Rest of enemy troops (riflemen, mg gunners...) will move under the attack.
3., Moveing/dynamic soldiers are individials (not in group), but they share information about us (about their enemy). (knownAbout/reveal)
4., The script know a lot of good defending position (markers in the field, and buildings' positions)
5., When script run, in randomly period pick up a random soldier and move it to a new position.

Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: Trapper on 07 Mar 2007, 21:19:38
I think it would make the mission even more difficult than before, though more realistic. Like ECP AI improvements did it to OFP missions.
The player will be busy with the few totally static enemies, while moving enemies are trying to dig him out deadly effective caused by the information sharing. The only weakness would be the elusive, random and less effective position changes of the temporary statics. They could run for a worse position in the wrong moment. ("pick up a random soldier and move it to a new position" - They'll have to domove, right? No setpos, which would give them another advantage?)

Easy:
Some groups with HOLD Waypoint in Ixel
Medium:
Like it's now.
Hard:
With the additional scripting.

Then I would prefer to struggle through the medium version.
Last time I took the hard way, following the road through Ixel, walking into every static enemy. It must have been the disturbing grass on the hills... when you told me about the Captain's strategy, I remembered using his strategy often in Resistance.

BTW, are you still looking for "satellite" pictures in the Cappricio intro?
-white 0.5sec
-create cam, first pic/position
-whiteIn 0.5sec
-show pic
-white 0.5sec
-destroy old cam
-create new cam at second position
-whiteIn 0.5sec
-show pic
.
.
.

Or just camcommit camera 0.5secs from position to position, together with whiteIn 1sec?
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 08 Mar 2007, 08:21:27
@Trapper

SAT photos:
It's a good idea to satellite photos! But not a satellite movie or an online satellite connection... (The units in the camp are moveing). I want move the camera horizontally, but I want force it to target directly to the ground (90 degree). But I couldn't do it.

Advanced defend:
Am I understand you correctly? Now you suggest me to leave the mission structure (with well-placed, static defenders) like it's now?
If this is your opinion, I agree with you, but now I want make experiment with this idea (dynamic defend). Meybe it will be failed (defender run from a better position to a worst one), but now I'm really interested it. (And it's a challange...) But now it's offtopic, so I'm open an own topic in Editing/Scripting area.

But please, if I disunderstand you, let me know!
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: Cheetah on 08 Mar 2007, 17:00:20
Outro

Spelling errors in the outro text. Camera is nice. Don't know what "semper fi" is, it's a line displayed towards the end.

Long Knife

Intro
Fine, but weird that instead of taking the APC the communist leader takes the jeep ;). Thought that I saw soldiers with backpacks in the jeep, looked like American ones, probably SLA and US ones are very similar.

Briefing
With the improved 1st person view in 1.05 this will be an even more interesting mission than it would be pre-1.05. It's the first time that I take a look at the gear selection, weapon: SAW.
#2 a LAW + G36. The other teammates get default gear.

Mission
Mission intro is a bit dark but I can see enough of what's going on, it's the insertion. Don't like the length, for me the camera moved too slow when it moved towards the summit.

Nice chatter going on, improves the atmosphere, but as always would voice overs be really good. Few typos though, like informations instead of just information. Anyway, orders: vee, don't fire. We move close towards the village and I move my men into proper firing positions. Four regular squads seems like a huge opposing force. We are prone in a line watch the village, with a few men watching the flanks. With me men into position I move towards the rocks / haystack don't know at the moment and order to open fire.

The enemy squads there out in the open didn't have a chance against my whole squad firing at once. I moved into position and helped me squad when a few more soldiers ran to defend the western edge of town. Four men are ordered towards the town, five wait at the previous position. Deeper into town I meet with a few more enemies and they are disposed off.

Some special ops are moving into action, suspicious :). Anyway, I move the rest of my squad towards the shed with the MG in front of it and prepare the other side of town for my squad taking out two more enemies. In the process I've lost a total of one soldier so far, which is a pretty good rate of KIA/kills. Some well positioned enemies in the barn with the cows ;).

I move my whole squad in from the right while I go left. We slowly make our way towards the hotel and other houses, taking no casualties but using up a lot of ammo of the SAW trying to supress the enemy soldiers. In the hotel I noticed enemy soldiers, a lot so I guessed that there was something there. Gunview on and let's take 'em on. After clearing them all I get a nice conversatino by radio and with the captured officer. Nice plot, but thought that something like this would happen. Oh, the conversation with the officer should kick ina bit later, right now I can't read it as it's on the background of the radio chatter.

Before the chopper can land I shoot the pilots so it crashes about 5m, no explosion they all get out but are an easy prey for my SAW. Only 20 bullets left after killing all of them though.

Damn, shouldn't have shot all the tires of possible escape vehicles, damn. Find a truck at the western side and move out. #3,9 didn't want to get in, ah well left them behind and moved on. So did the poet die there?

Debriefing
Regular problem, objectives not ticked off. Don't know what's causing that.

Outro
Some typos. Good music, text and camerawork. Nice end of the campaign, well done.
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: Planck on 08 Mar 2007, 21:19:48
Quote
Don't know what "semper fi" is, it's a line displayed towards the end.

Semper fi is a shortening of "Semper Fidelis" and is Latin for "Always faithful."


Planck
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: mathias_eichinger on 08 Mar 2007, 23:32:09
Hi Bardosy, I was able to give this a final test :-)

I liked the intro with the officer fleeing in his Uaz; but the short one directly before the mission was a bit dark. Maybe you can redo it with NVGs?
In the beginning of the mission I began quite some hike towards the objective with much to read to avoid boredom.
The fight in the village was just right, I had to be careful and there were not so much enemies that it would have been impossible.
I cleared every house and barn, even the one with the sniper and the cows ;-)

When I was close to the village center (close to the pub) my squadmates managed to kill Ninja and I had to reload. I cleared all the cleverly placed enemies from all houses and did the same with the pub.

When I captured Ninja, a dramatic change of fate occured...but I was able to escape the Americans. Only #4 and #10 got stuck somewhere and werd killed.

I really liked the story twist and the outro of your campaign! Well done, and I hope to see more of your work!


Greetings

Mathias
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 09 Mar 2007, 08:23:55
@Cheetah

Quote
Don't know what "semper fi" is, it's a line displayed towards the end.
"Semper Fidel(ity?)" It's a USMC warcry. But I will replace it, because I could extract the Mickey Mouse Club song from the Full Metal Jacket movie. And I want insert it into the marsh of USMC.


Quote
weird that instead of taking the APC the communist leader takes the jeep
Well. If I think for a communist leader, I imagine a fat boy. The fatboys hate the APCs... :)



Quote
Don't like the length, for me the camera moved too slow when it moved towards the summit.
I want protect the player to climb up the hill with stupid AI and I made this intro... Thanks your suggestion, I will shorten it.



Quote
Some special ops are moving into action, suspicious...
SpecOps are the Pajaro's bodyguards...



Quote
Oh, the conversation with the officer should kick ina bit later, right now I can't read it as it's on the background of the radio chatter.
My problem is: I must stop the action until cutscene (chat and briefing change). I disableAI to all enemy and friendly units and I slow down the time (0.7) to gain time to expiant he player what happened. So I have short time. And I couldn't explain enough the 'house where rose died' tricky positioning codeword, because the time shortage.



Quote
they all get out but are an easy prey for my SAW. Only 20 bullets left after killing all of them though.
Well, so it was not a challange... :(
But I will remove the pistol form officer (he use it, but he had an M4). And I will pop up their skills to highest. Maybe...


Thank you for testplay!
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: Cheetah on 09 Mar 2007, 08:38:30
Well those CIA guys weren't really a challenge indeed. I saw where the helicoper wanted to land, moved over there and started pumping bullets into the chopper. The pilot and copilot didn't survive that and all the men in the cargo disembarked and but didn't shoot me as my team was at the crash site as well.

The campaign is fine, if you could get the voice actors...  :)
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 09 Mar 2007, 09:28:09
Cheetah, I removed the ammo from blackhawk to avoid the massacre... But maybe I reload the minigun and the player will avoid to close the landing site.

Voiceover: Once I really tried make voiceover (for my german campaign) but it comletly failed... :( I think it's a huge work with oranising the actors, who delay or forget... For a mission it's not so big problem (fewer actors, fewer lines), but for a campaign... unbelievable. For this reason I volunted to you for voice acting for Royal Security. I want steal technology and tricks, how you will do it... ;)
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: Trapper on 11 Mar 2007, 20:10:02
v0.5

Capriccio
The RACS Sniper model without a helmet would better fit this stealth mission.
I couldn't finish the mission because I was injured/crawling and couldn't board the boat.

Dead End
Intro: Ibanez is the only one with a rifle in the tent, that looks strange.
The BRDM crews do disembark in the ambush, too. Or is that just because the BRDMs are effected by small arms fire?
For me the "small attack" on the enemy base before extraction is unlogical. The real mission development cancels it anyways but why should we fight our way through an enemy base with the vulnerable truck, if an extraction at the radio station is possible? (Maybe 1.Radio Station 2.Ambush 3.Truck to Radio Station 4.Black Hawk 5.Attack on Base 6.Black Hawk Evac)
I don't know if there are always enough cargo places in the Black Hawk, but I would place a third crewmen on the copilot seat to block it for infantry.

Nicest
Delta Team wasn't much of a help. I didn't know that the radio command called them only once and only to my position. Instead it should work unlimited and with onmapsingleclick.
Outro: Typo "right side is clear"

Long Knife
Briefing: The first time I was looking for them... is it possible that there are no grenades in the gear selection over the whole campaign?
Cutscenes: All cutscenes (mountain, black hawk) were to dark to see without nightvision.
Could you reduce the execution to three or four shots or at least one magazine? It looked overacted.
I'd like  this mission much more than Ghosts. Either Perpetua and Patch 1.05 finally got me into ArmA gameplay, or nightvision advantage and lower grass did it.

Really a campaign like it should have shipped with ArmA.  :good: The number of "static" missions is ok like this.
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 12 Mar 2007, 08:11:44
Quote
The RACS Sniper model without a helmet would better fit this stealth mission.
Great idea! I'll do it!


Quote
I couldn't finish the mission because I was injured/crawling and couldn't board the boat.
If I will a timer sript (if player not in boat in 1 minute after he arrived the extraction area, 'player moveInCargo boat' happen), it could help or it's too violent?


Quote
Ibanez is the only one with a rifle in the tent, that looks strange.
I found only two talk animation: one without weapon (I used it for Wolfsteiner) and other one with weapon (I used it for Ibanez). In the campaign outro, I used the same talk anim for two person and it was strange...


Quote
For me the "small attack" on the enemy base before extraction is unlogical.
I know, I did not explain it in the briefing, but: RACS have no blackhawk and they couldn't extract heavy cretes by LittleBird, so they choose the boat extraction... Finally the CIA goy 'handle' an american extraction with BH. (and this and the heavy counter-attack cancelled the boat extraction). I thought this, but I will thinking about a better way. BTW, I packed the first relased version (1.0), so I will do this change only in 1.01.



Quote
I don't know if there are always enough cargo places in the Black Hawk, but I would place a third crewmen on the copilot seat to block it for infantry.
Thanks! I did it in the Long Knife, but forgot here... Thanks!
And I made a script (just for fun) when player arrived with ural, he can unload cargo (a crete) from ural and when BH start extraction, crete attached to the chopper...



Quote
Delta Team wasn't much of a help.
They follow you to everywhere. (But AI can't climb in the slope and they are very slow). They didn't go where you call tham, but follow you until they reach the highland (fortress), then they stop (they can shoot the enemy) and they replace your squad (eg. if you lose 3 men, they give you 3 men).



Quote
is it possible that there are no grenades in the gear selection over the whole campaign?
Is it possible. Usualy the soldiers bring their original equipment with grenades and I didn't give the player additional grenades. Should I?



Quote
All cutscenes (mountain, black hawk) were to dark to see without nightvision.
Mountain OK, I'll. But Blackhawk... I used NVG for this cutscene, but you can't see the half of this cutscene, because the NVG starting process (blind) it happened for a long time (becuse I slow down the real time for get enough time to explain what happened).


Quote
Could you reduce the execution to three or four shots or at least one magazine? It looked overacted.
I'm affraid not. If I give him only one clip, he will run for ammo to the jeep.
I just use doFire command and it cause this. The command 'fire' do nothing here...
Have you any other suggestion? (I think you are better in scripting, like me)


Quote
Really a campaign like it should have shipped with ArmA.
:D Thank you very much!!!

Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 12 Mar 2007, 08:40:45
@Cheetah!!!! Help me! ;)

Your problem (no thicked objectives) infect my campaign...
Now in my PC also not thicked. :(

Very strange: in the mission everything is fine. If I change to the map, I see the objectives: thick, fail or hide... But when the mission ends, in the debriefing:
- no thicks
- hidden objectives seen

Addition: I use setIdentity to main characters. In the mission it works, but in the debrief seen my real name, not the main character. (see the attachments!)

Have you same in your campaign? (In editor preview and single missions works, only in campaign not)
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: Cheetah on 12 Mar 2007, 11:41:26
Hey bardosy,

Yes I'm experiencing the same strange stuff, I don't know what's causing the problem, because the BIS campaign has the problem with the objectives too.

And as you may have read, the setIdentity works okay for the player but gives some issues to overwin when using it on a friendly officer.

The problem is that I have no idea how to solve this, will have to look deeper into it. I might find a clue by doing that.
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 12 Mar 2007, 12:15:05
If is this a bug, can we inform BIS?

I mean, the players inform BIS about general bugs, but only us know this (campaign editing) bug...
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: Trapper on 12 Mar 2007, 19:47:48
Quote from: bardosy on 12 Mar 2007, 08:11:44
Quote
I couldn't finish the mission because I was injured/crawling and couldn't board the boat.
If I will a timer sript (if player not in boat in 1 minute after he arrived the extraction area, 'player moveInCargo boat' happen), it could help or it's too violent?
A blackout-ending when the boat reached the coast would be less violent.

Quote from: bardosy on 12 Mar 2007, 08:11:44
Quote
For me the "small attack" on the enemy base before extraction is unlogical.
I know, I did not explain it in the briefing, but: RACS have no blackhawk and they couldn't extract heavy cretes by LittleBird, so they choose the boat extraction... Finally the CIA goy 'handle' an american extraction with BH. (and this and the heavy counter-attack cancelled the boat extraction). I thought this, but I will thinking about a better way. BTW, I packed the first relased version (1.0), so I will do this change only in 1.01.

Quote
Delta Team wasn't much of a help.
They follow you to everywhere. (But AI can't climb in the slope and they are very slow). They didn't go where you call tham, but follow you until they reach the highland (fortress), then they stop (they can shoot the enemy) and they replace your squad (eg. if you lose 3 men, they give you 3 men).
Looks good to me now, all these explanations just have to be added to the briefing.


Quote from: bardosy on 12 Mar 2007, 08:11:44
Quote
is it possible that there are no grenades in the gear selection over the whole campaign?
Is it possible. Usualy the soldiers bring their original equipment with grenades and I didn't give the player additional grenades. Should I?
Yes, as the player never had grenades in his equipment IIRC and they are a common weapon. At least three times in the campaign I would have liked to have on without looting enemies.


Quote from: bardosy on 12 Mar 2007, 08:11:44
Quote
Could you reduce the execution to three or four shots or at least one magazine? It looked overacted.
I'm affraid not. If I give him only one clip, he will run for ammo to the jeep.
I just use doFire command and it cause this. The command 'fire' do nothing here...
Have you any other suggestion? (I think you are better in scripting, like me)
First I thought about the eventhandler fired in combination with removing all magazines from Ibanez and setdammage Ninja 1. But getdamage ninja >= 1 or eventhandler killed should be more realistic.
But I don't know if Ibanez still will run for ammo then.
EDIT: Clearmagazinecargo Jeep doesn't prevent him looking for magazines?
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 13 Mar 2007, 09:12:28
Quote
Looks good to me now, all these explanations just have to be added to the briefing.
There is no place :( I found some bug in ArmA: If I wrote a long briefing, there is no arrow link to the 'next page'. The additional text vanished.

Grenades: is it enough if I'll add 30 grenades to the weapon pool and player can pick up it in weapon selection?
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: johnnyboy on 14 Mar 2007, 05:19:14
Bardosy,

I finally have time to get back to your campaign.  I downloaded the latest version.

Ghosts

- I like the intro (no more NVGs looking at fires...thanks!).
- I took an APC and a 4WD, and headed toward ambush point.  Nice to run into a few enemy on the way to keep the drive from getting boring.
- I love the placement of guards on high ground above the enemy base.  My first attempt I went there first instead of ambush point.  Most missions leave high ground around bases unguarded, which is dumb.  This was refreshing to see high ground above base well guarded!
- I loved the ambush and artillery.  It was challenging to get timing right, and the trailing vehicles gave me trouble.
- I found Ixel difficult.  Like Trapper, I don't like so many staticly placed defenders.  Some always make sense (like MG placements, snipers, and HQ defenders).  But otherwise I found myself memorizing positions of static defenders, one by one, as I replayed mission.  It was hard to use my team AI effectively...I mostly used them as bait to discover static enemies.  You can't please everyone, and this is an excellent campaign, so change it only if you want to.  Now that SETUNITPOS "UP" is fixed in latest patch (I think), maybe a few of the statics could be in windows, with simple scripts running to setunitpos them "DOWN" and "UP periodically.  Or simple scripts to send them from window to window. 

Stop for a Minute

I love missions that make you feel you are a small part of a bigger war, and this was that kind of mission.  I did little personally to complete this mission, but it was still intense.

- Good intro with many enemy, which builds expectations for a big fight.
- Nice to have an APC to fight with.
- I made bad choice of taking big sniper rifle (my problem, later picked up an M16).
- Nice artillery finish.
- Great mission, no problems to report.

Capriccio

I only had time to play the Intro, and it is very good.  I like it when an Intro shows you starting in or near a location of where you comleted last mission, as this helps with "continuity" of the campaign.  Also the UAV aerial intro is a very clever way to orient the player to the mission.  Having the sophisticated UAV video being presented by the newly introduced CIA character makes sense, as the CIA has the better technology.

Can't wait to play the mission!
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 14 Mar 2007, 08:48:38
Quote
I took an APC and a 4WD, and headed toward ambush point.
WOW! I'll lock them... I want the player walk... :D


Quote
I love the placement of guards on high ground above the enemy base.
I want prevent the player attack the base.


Quote
Good intro with many enemy, which builds expectations for a big fight.
Had you 'downloadable component missing' error in the intro?
I had, and I don't know why.


Thank you for test! And I really need a report about "Dead end" mission with version 1.0, because yesterday I played it again and extraction faild, because the Black Hawk did lot of stupidity... Earlyer version had no this problem.
Title: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: alex75 on 15 Mar 2007, 22:57:27
Hi Bardosy  I played the first 4 missions of your campaign "Perpetua" and I liked It!

Interesting:
-artillery script
- very nice intro/outro
- I in particularly like the landing with the helicopter in the night at the beginning of the campaign
- I like snipers on the roof, and on the towers! It's realistic!
- but maybe (it's only my opinion) there are too much enemies round the houses or inside: my A.I. squad had difficulties in spotting and killing them, so I often did the job on my own. Only a few times my A.I. squad spotted and killed enemies inside houses. Other times they were killed when I sent them inside. By the way it's realistic that enemies hide themselves inside houses.
- I really like the briefings and the notes: they add depth to the history of the campaign.

Well in my spare time I'll continue to play it! Compliments!

Alessandro T.
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: johnnyboy on 16 Mar 2007, 08:12:55
Played Capriccio for two hours tonight.  This is a very well laid out base.  Like the double wire fence.

I'm finding this mission very difficult.  I enter base by shooting guard in tower near hole, and crawled in.  However I am unable to sneak my way to the factory tower.  Seems the only way is to crawl left until second fence opens up to right.  I then crawl down right side of small road into trees and bushes.  There is a tower guard looking that way but he does not have night vision so I make it to trees and bushes.  It is very tense when two roaming guards walk right past me there.

From this point, I try to sneak to the right, but before long the second story guard (not the tower guard) spots me and kills me.

I've tried shooting my way in (using same path) and got pretty far (killed first tower guard, tower guard toward center, and second story guard, and two roaming guards.  Then crawl right.  Snipe a few more perimeter tower guards along the way then get killed.

Question:  Is there a way to sneak in, or do I have to sneak around killing most of the guards?  I need a hint here...

Possible problem:   I went to old building first, before infiltrating camp.  Killed the guard, and took samples from barrel.  Now I am instructed to exfiltrate, eventhough first two objectives are not complete.  Is that right?  Could I finish the mission without ever entering the base?

Another question:  When the alarm goes off I hear alot of voices.  It sounds cool.  Is this a custom sound file you added?
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 19 Mar 2007, 13:24:45
johnnyboy,

Thanks to report the bug: if you avoid to entering camp, you can complete the mission in old building. I fixed it in the new (v1.1) version.

The base is originally laid in the map, not my work. But it's great, I agreed.
The shouting voice when alarm, it's a built in voice, you can triggered this environment voice.

I reduced the guards' skill a lot of weeks ago.
There is no utlimate solution. I usually used the hole in the fence and sneak between the double fence and kill the tower guards one-by-one. And I watched my 9 (wothing to left). There is a few alone guards... And I used the MP5, because the SD M4 was heard by guards... I didn't know why...
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: bardosy on 16 May 2007, 09:48:20
New version available!  v1.2 (see the first post!)

It's voice overed! Completly different feeling ;)

Not for betatest, just play!
Thank you OFPEC!
Title: Re: [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: Cheetah on 16 May 2007, 12:15:51
I'm reviewing this one.
Title: Re: (please review) [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: _spitfire on 20 May 2007, 18:24:56
Nice one mate.  A breath of fresh air to this ailing community.

No Serious errors.  I played v1.1.

I noticed two script errors appear in different cut-scenes (or intros) but they didn't seem to have any obvious effect.  Other then that, Great job.  Excellent work.  Wish it never ended.

Keep building,
Cheers!
Title: [ArmA] Perpetua (Campaign) by Bardosy
Post by: Cheetah on 27 May 2007, 13:13:37
(http://www.ofpec.com/images/OFPEC_mission_arma.jpg)
File: Perpetua.zip (12.6mb) (http://www.ofpec.com/missions_depot/missions/Perpetua.zip)
Version: Final
Requires: Armed Assault
Author:  Bardosy
Score:  7
Type:  Campaign
Addons:None
Description:As a young CO of the RACS, you will participate in the great war of Sahrani.

Review: by Cheetah

Overviews

Every overview is filled with a picture of the corresponding mission and it tells you something of what's going to happen in the mission. The pictures don't have a border or shading. There is no text in the overviews, but as this is a campaign it's not seen as a priority.

Cinematics

In a campaign the cinematics have to be at least average to make for an interesting campaign. In Perpetua the missions are connected to each other by intros and outros. Each cinematic shows something which makes sense, like a debriefing or a briefing video for the next mission.

Technically the cinematics are pretty good, there are no or minor errors in the camerawork. Everything goes smooth just as it should, the custom voices are well timed and add to the ambience of the cutscenes between missions. The artistic side of the camera work can be improved upon, right now most of the camerawork is a bit plain and without many special effects. Some camera angles could have been improved, or made a bit more spectacular. Right now most of the camera stuff feels a bit passive.

Briefings

The briefings all share the same layout, there is a general overview of the mission in the Plan section. In this overview, you can click Situation for a description of how the war is going. Every mission has the same build up of the briefing, which is something a campaign should have - consistency.

In the notes section you can find the opinion of Jorge Gomez, the main character in Perpetua. In a lot of missions, you will be accompanied by a squad of nine men, all carrying the rank of a Sergeant and an expert skill level. The high skill level fits in, after all we're members of the Mount Corps, elite soldiers fighting for the King. As for the ranks, you are a Lieutenant in command of nine Sergeants which is unrealistic and should have been avoided. It is often better to go for a more realistic approach when trying to simulate a war.

A small weapon selection is available at the start of each mission in the briefing. The weapon selection fits in with the mission and current situation of the player. In stealth missions you will find find a variaty of silent weapons and a G36, which opens up some possiblities. What was lacking from the selection were pistols, usefull in some situations.

Missions

Perpetua consists of eight missions of which the first is considered a prologue. Due to the many sound files included, eight missions, briefings and scripts the total file size is almost 13 megabytes. But this campaign sure is meaty, you will get a lot of playtime and a lot of good missions. Most of them are squad-based, only a few let you play on your own. There are a number of mission types in this campaign, assault - defense - stealth.

The missions are well crafted, and thanks to thorough beta testing there are no bugs in the campaign. What I missed was a bit of variation in the missions, some random elements to improve the replayability of Perpetua. Now you can replay it for the gameplay offered in some missions, not for the randomness of events. The gameplay in most missions is decent, thanks to well placed enemies you will find yourself in difficult, but enjoyable situations. There are enough enemies to form a decent opposition, but not too many to make the campaign unplayable. It feels as the difficulty gradually increases as more missions are completed, well done.

The technical aspect of the missions hasn't been overlooked, although is a bit lacking in some missions. A few missions feature an artillery script. What I missed were additional scripts, dialogs for the player to choose something, like the time of day he wants to attack a major objective or generally more options for optional objectives. However, in the mission Capriccio there is a nice detection script.

Most scripts used in the missions are for the numerous conversations present in the campaign, all the voices are timed well. Objectives are triggered when they should be, helicopters land wherever and whenever they should - something which is hard to achieve.

Sometimes I missed additional AI squads to help me out on objectives. The atmosphere could have been improved by adding more AI units which actually help the player.

Story

Campaigns should have a good story which sucks the player right into in and lets him go only when the campaign is finished. Perpetua has a story which opens a bit casual, with a conflict between the US an RACS on one side and the SLA on the other. Bardosy did a good job towards the end, adding a twist or two to the campaign, making it more interesting and less like other campaigns which feature the West vs East war. In some cutscenes or during the mission you can enjoy dialogues full of humor, sarcasm and irony.

The non-English voice actors of the RACS add up to the atmosphere, by not having a perfect pronounciation of the English language, they present themselves as an unprofessional army.

Conclusion

Perpetua features a good story, enjoyable missions, cinematics and custom voices. It should keep you busy for 10 hours, which is a lot. Remember that the 13mb download gives you a total of eight addonfree missions to play.

What does Perpetua lack? Additional scripts, for example to improve the AI, especially the friendly AI as they were a handicap in some missions. The cutscenes could use better camera angles and a few more action scenes.

This campaign should be enjoyable for everyone who likes the Singleplayer Mode of Armed Assault and thanks to custom voices really comes to life and has a good atmosphere waiting for you.

Scores
Overview - 7
Briefing - 7
Scripting - 5
Camera - 6
Overall - 7/10
Title: Re: (Review Completed) [CAMP] Perpetua
Post by: Cheetah on 27 May 2007, 13:19:00
Review completed (http://www.ofpec.com/missions_depot/index.php?action=details&id=6)

Feel free to start the after-review discussion!
Title: Re: [ArmA] Perpetua (Campaign) by Bardosy
Post by: bardosy on 29 May 2007, 09:20:13
Thank you Cheetah for your review!
I agreed with your score.

Please let me note, I'm really happy to make a campaign whitch the community like.
I made a few campaigns for OFP and I never got so nice messages, as I got about Perpetua.


Quote
As for the ranks, you are a Lieutenant in command of nine Sergeants which is unrealistic and should have been avoided.
Agreed. I hoped the AI soldiers will be smarter if I rank them as sergeant.

Quote
What was lacking from the selection were pistols, usefull in some situations.
Sorry, I didn't understand this. You wanted to get pistol from the weapon selection?

Quote
Sometimes I missed additional AI squads to help me out on objectives.
I always try to add friendly AI groups, because I don't like the Rambo-like missions. But I agrred, I missed it eg. in the first battle for Ixel. But later only in the Spec Ops mission there was no friendly support teams.

Thank you for your nice words about the voiceover and voice actors.
I think, the voice over project was harder then made the whole campaign. And my actors was great! Eg.: Sabar (as major Ibanez) study to pronaunce the English words as a Spanish, but he is a Hungarian, like me...

And I have to say thank you to OFPEC community - and you Cheetah -  to beta testing this campaign!
Title: Re: [ArmA] Perpetua (Campaign) by Bardosy
Post by: gambla on 22 Jul 2007, 16:02:46
Good job! I like it.  :good:
I don't care for cinematics and i would score it separately. Anyway, the 7 is a good and fair score.
Still in action, the campaign runs well and no bugs seen so far. What i always like is when the enemy is giving me a hard
time and prevents me from simply sniping them one by one. The SLAgs are well placed and this evil new feature called "grass" ;) is just realistic.   
Title: Re: [ArmA] Perpetua (Campaign) by Bardosy
Post by: ltn.adahn on 31 Jul 2007, 11:40:54
Very good campaign IMHO  :good:

havent finished it yet, but nevertheless the first missions quite made an impression on me  :D ;)
Title: Re: [ArmA] Perpetua (Campaign) by Bardosy
Post by: gambla on 31 Jul 2007, 11:56:47
In the mission "dead end", i can't shoot the truck driver without failing the mission ? But i'm not quite sure if this is it. Is it possible that something else causes damage to the truck when they stop and fight ?
thanks
Title: Re: [ArmA] Perpetua (Campaign) by Bardosy
Post by: bardosy on 06 Aug 2007, 13:34:18
hello gambla:

The truck driver is a chicken ;) is you knock out the first jeep or any BRDMs, he will stop and run away... So you get it  without scratch. Just be cautios if you use satchel to stop the convoy. I usually use satchel and I had to place it to avoid harm the truck.
Title: Re: [ArmA] Perpetua (Campaign) by Bardosy
Post by: Willus_Killus on 27 Aug 2007, 13:38:05
good campaign, played it all the way to the end, took me a while ^^