It's hard not to comment your feedback on the sub plots. 
Don't want to spoil anything.
Ok, now I think I know what you meant by this. Thanks for not spoiling me.
For some reason I had Blind Guardians'
And the Story ends playing in my head all day long. Felt quite fitting.
So...
Where is SergejHoly Moly, what a mission. Undeceived, you're doing your magic again!
You had mentioned somewhere that you greatly expanded this one and turned it into a massive hunt. But damn, this exceeded all my expectations, by far. I'm totally in awe of what you have created here. Although I failed at finding Sergej, I had a real blast at playing this. Just Wow!
As I suppose there are different ways to complete this, I'll write down all the steps I took and see what's what.
The first difficulty was to select the right equipment for the task ahead. I went with the G36 from the
Picture mission and took an extra SVD in my backpack just in case. Actually I wanted to put some additional gear in the car, but as a approached the car, the cutscene kicked in and I found myself all the way in the east. Not a big problem, as I found more than enough equipment during the mission. That alone was very satisfying.
Talked to the guy sitting on the road, who turned out not to be Jacek, and with the other guys down the road, who pointed me towards Solnichniy. Didn't see much activity in the town but somehow the road leading to the quarry caught my attention, so I went there to investigate. Meet the three guys and talked to them. When going further into the quarry, I heard them mentioning Orlovets and their pal at the train station.
Went there but the guy was too drunk to be of any help. I heard the gun shots and went to investigate. Found the dead guy in the shed and the computer. How awesome was that PC animation? Reminded me a lot of the first mission from
Underdogs, but much better. I couldn't figure out the password however, and no clues to help me were to be found. So I continued to the old factory.
Took out the Red Star guys hiding in the factory building. The guy at the top of the staircase was a bit tricky, as he could take me out before I could target him. Took me several tries. Eventually found the officers' note, which pointed me back to the quarry.
When entering the quarry for the second time, Tomas mentioned the guys from earlier left their drunk friend just lying there, however there was no one to be found. The dead goats where really disgusting. Poor Tomas. I found the clue and went for the house in the south. But only found the dead guy and no further clues around. Seemed to be a dead end, as Tomas mentioned. While driving back north I heard distant gunfire, but I couldn't determine from where exactly it came.
Drove through the forest straight to Orlovets. Meet the old man repairing his car, who pointed me towards Jaceks friends at the barn. Talked to them and finally got some useful information.
Going back to that construction site however had a very uncomfortable feeling to it. Somehow I expected something bad to happen and I spent quite some time observing the area before I entered the compound.
Of course it happened what had to happen and I was knocked down from behind. Poor Tomas... again. However, the guy turned out to be quite helpful, as he eventually took me to meet Jacek. I really like that the guy took my NVG and GPS, and later Tomas demanded to get his stuff back. Great little detail.
After Jacek had told me about his family and his cousin the Secretary, I went back to Orlovets to talk to him.
The scene I found inside the building was almost hilarious. It felt a bit odd to carry some equipment inside (quite a lot equipment, that is), just to prove that I'm trustworthy, while Jaceks' family (and therefore the Secretarys' family as well) was in danger. As I couldn't threaten him, even by killing his buddys, I had to do as I was told and carry all the stuff inside. The good thing was, that afterwards I could freely take everything I needed from the crate without anyone caring.
While talking to the Secretary again, he was constantly turning and aiming at something outside. It felt a bit unfriendly.^^ I noticed that the conversation didn't show up in the log. I later would have liked to re-read it for any information I might have missed.
After the Secretary told me about Vojtech, I traveled north and searched the marked area. Finally I found Vojtech in a barn and he told me about his brother, their company and eventually told me the password for the computer. So back to Solnichniy. I logged into the computer and found the file, pointing me to the hidden camp. When the computer had the bsod, an error message appeared:
Error in expression < "pictures\bsod.jpg"];
pc say3d "bsod"; sleep 20; saveGame; }
>
Error position: <sleep 20; saveGame; }
>
Error Suspending not allowed in this contextFinding the entrance to the camp was a but tricky and the boobytraps where really nasty. Clearing the camp with NVGs equipped and the gun laser felt really SpecOp-y, I thoroughly enjoyed that part. It took some time to find the intel, with all the clutter lying around. But there was also a lot of really useful gear to be found. However, the intel didn't seem to provide any further hints as of where to go next, except that it mentioned a Stash B-6, but I couldn't figure out what was up with that.
While traveling back north to talk with Vojtech again, I came across the resistance fighters in Nizhnoye, who were preparing to fend off some Red Star guys coming from the north. I decided to help them and together we quickly took out the attackers. Then I talked to the leader, and Tomas asked him if he knew where to find Jacek. That felt a bit odd, as I had already found him. As he didn't have any other useful information, I continued to talk to Vojtech. But he didn't have any new information for me as well. So I went back to Orlovets to talk with the Secretary again, be he too didn't have anything to say.
At this point I was kinda lost as of what to do next. As it was already late and I was tired, I decided to call it a day and go to bed.....
Day 2:With new motivation and still no idea where to go, I decided to go to Berezino, as I hadn't been there before, to check out what I would find there. I meet the three guys in the town center. When talking to them, Tomas again asked where to find Jacek. Slowly I had the feeling that I had somehow screwed up the mission and something wasn't working as it should.
The rest of the town was dead empty and so I went to check all locations I've previously been to, to see if I had missed something. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything helpful at all, no one wanted to talk to me anymore. No new clues, no hints, nothing. After driving all over the place for more than an hour, I eventually gave up and returned to Martin...
So far this has been an more than overwhelming mission and I believe I have so far only scratched the surface. I don't know what to say, you really did an outstanding job with this. I'm truly impressed.
Some things I noticed while playing:
Over time the briefing was quite cluttered with all the additional entries. There where two 'Notes' sections containing the different pieces of intel. On that note, something I had thought about in earlier missions, too, the 'Revive Teammates' and 'Adjust Brightness' could be combined into one 'Info' menu. And maybe those should only be in the briefing when relevant for the mission. I don't need the info on how to revive my teammates, when I'm alone on the mission.
Some of the conversations didn't show up in the log, like the one with the Secretary and some others, too, I think. Overall there where some discrepancies between what some of the characters actually said, and what was written in the log. Like Jacek talking about his wife and daughter, while in the notes it said his wife and son. There were some others as well, which I can't remember right now. (There was a lot of text in this mission.) Not a big issue though, just felt a bit off.
What I did like was the dynamics of the mission. Like when re-visiting an area, new people showed up, or others I had talked to before where gone. That made the world actually feel alive. Very well done.
Also the fast travel was a really helpful feature.
I also liked the background music playing from time to time. It added a lot to the atmosphere, although if it was me, it could have happened more often.
As I said, I'm sure I have missed quite a lot in this mission, and I didn't manage to find Sergej. I will definitely give this one another go soon. Really an outstanding mission.
Dimitri SladekAlright, as this one is completely new, I had absolutely no idea what to expect.
Tomas' nightmare was intimidating, another well made cutscene and I had a really bad feeling of what was to come. When going outside, I didn't notice the letter at the door. I searched the surroundings of the house, went down the road and into the village. But no sign of life anywhere. I went back to the house, checked the back yard again and was just about to go back inside, to see if I could just go back to bed, when I finally noticed the letter.
As I expected to meet Dimitri at the barn for the final standoff, I felt quite uncomfortable going there completely unarmed. It felt odd that the leader of the resistance movement didn't have a single gun in his house, especially with his arch enemy still around. At least you could place a pistol somewhere on a table to take along.
Finding Sergej in the barn was not that much of an surprise, but what followed caught me completely off guard. Damn, I'm running out of superlatives to describe my thoughts about that scene. I'm really a fan of stories with tragic endings, and this one was one hell of a blast to watch. I literally sat there with a huge grin on my face starring at my screen. That scene in the church, with Pribotow disappearing - just Wow! And Petja, I knew I shouldn't trust him.^^
I remember when I stared playing Black Lands for the very first time, this was pretty much the kind of ending I had expected. It was pure epicness. Heck, if it were me, I would scrap the other ending and go with this one as the final conclusion of the story. It's just perfect. And, it leaves room for a continuation of the story. I'm so looking forward to playing
Black Lands 2 in like 15 years or something.
Seriously, I don't know what to say. Thank you so much for all the work you must have put into this. Really impressive.
OutroAs I'm still totally in awe, I don't know what to add anymore. The outro is beautiful to watch and it concludes the story very well. I particularly liked the scenes of my friends which I had met and lost during my journey. And the final scene with Tomas sitting at the lake. Just wonderful. You're the master of melodrama - and I love it.
There is nothing to criticize about the outro. But when I'm totally honest here, after the journey I've been through, and I guess it's just that you raised the standards for immersion by far, the ending felt a bit too short. What I mean by this is, that I'd like to see more of the aftermath regarding the other men who joined me along the way, like Kamil and especially Tomek, as he was still alive in my playthrough. It would have been cool to see how his life would continue after the war was over. Just some food for thought, if you ever get bored.^^
Overall this campaign was one hell of a ride and I know why I fell in love with this back then. Probably the best campaign I ever played. You really can be proud of what you have created here. Thank you so much for this and for bringing it to Arma 3, and even better than the original one.
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I really laughed when you wrote that:
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