(Review Completed) [SP] Abandoned Armies

[THobson]

Actually that might not be a bad idea for a whole new mission.  

But believe me looking for one loon on a large map is no fun.

[macguba]

 ;D Yes I suspected you would.

Good news - it looks as if the trigger fired as there were several loons and one Vulcan who clearly headed for the right place.

Bad news - after that trigger had fired there were still loons in La Trinite.

I've checked 3 again and nobody there, although there are so many wrecked buildings I could have missed somebody.    It is dark and raining.    Nobody at Chapoi, which I thought was a clever idea at the time.    I'm just checking the roads now.   No sign of life.   The other good news is that I haven't seen any stuck convoys anywhere.    

It may not be a last loon problem per se.   It could be an end trigger problem.   In other words I could be looking for a loon that isn't there.....  

Burnt out tank at Ef26.

At Ed12 the placement of the wreck and body are unconvincing.

OK that's it, I've checked all the main roads.     The only roads I have not checked are:

- little spurs
- those around Goisse
- ditto Cancon
- ditto La Riviere
- ditto Le Port

Wearing NVGs to drive I did occasionally forget to check streetlamps but I didn't see any that were on.

If there's anywhere else worth checking I'll do it but in the absence of bright ideas I'll call it a day for now.   Endmission cheat to bring up the debrief screen.

[macguba]

I was going to attach a pic of the kills but its 3 pages

110 kills
1 civvy (police - probably Stamenov)
1 military fuel station (I couldn't resist putting a law into the one on the airfield)
Mi24
T72
4 Vulcan
M2A2
2 Ural
Ural fuel
M2 mg

The civvy page I have attached because it is odd.   I finished with 3 squad members alive.    soldier 3, Elena at 5, and 7 the medic.    There were only ever 8 in the squad so the numbers don't add up, unless some of these guys were civilians.    Presumably one of them was called "2x".  The third group (from east of 3) were all killed.

The mission time is also wrong.    I didn't check towards the end so it was actually more like 12 hours.    This may be a consequence of the endmission cheat.     I didn't use any other cheats except a savegame one as already mentioned.

No Outro, though that may be endmission.   I'm looking forward to opening this in the mission editor anyway.



Summary

Buckets of good stuff here.    For example the way that the two main bases are so different.  I never got a chance to enjoy life in the villages and convoys, but from the experiences of others it seemed to be good.    No error messages, which in a mission of this size and complexity is an achievement in itself.     No crashed convoys.     No problems at all in fact, except at the very end.

I've written a lot about this mission already and I'm not going to try and summarise it.    There remains little to add except for the one overriding problem that the mission has.   You'll laugh when you read this.  No, you will.

It doesn't have enough atmosphere.

It is a measure of the quality of the mission that it can have so much atmosphere and yet still not enough.    An example of what I mean is the voice acting.   The reason there have been so many complaints about what is, by OFP user mission standards, pretty good voices is that the atmosphere has been created so well that a very high standard of acting is required to keep things going.

All the connecting things I was talking about earlier come together here.    The pistol/long thing at the start, time acceleration, the anticlimax when you shoot the baddies and so on.     The problem is that creaky or slow mechanics cause frustration, which destroys atmosphere.   Normally that doesn't matter because you have 4x to get past it and there isn't that much atmosphere anyway, but here it really matters.

This mission needs two things.   Firstly, a magic wand of slickness waved over it.   Everything has to be as smooth and quick as possible.   It is a very big mission, therefore the mission designer must help the player to get through it as quickly as possible.   No matter how fast you go - and frankly this is a mission to be savoured, not rushed - its still going to be a big mission.   You have already done a great deal in this regard but we need more.    Slickness trumps atmospherics.

The second thing required is more story.   At present the story basically stops once you have brought the first lot of civvies back to the lodge.    The other two lots are just a chore and don't add anything to the tale.    You already have characters, so develop them.    There's no point in getting too carried away because they can get killed, but for example you could have the occasionaly line or two of dialogue between you and Ruslan.   Or maybe some of them cry out something inspiring when they die.    You need to care about them more.      

We also need more plot.    Cutscenes are hard to arrange in the midst of battle its true so some lateral thinking is required.    At the extreme, maybe you have to capture one or both baddies, bring them back to the lodge and hang them.     Certainly you must make more of the lodge:  it's a hugely important place at the start, and then never really comes in again.

Having said all that, its important not to lose sight of the most important point.    This mission attempted to achieve two very difficult things.   Firstly, to create a "whole island" experience.   I didn't actually see a great deal of that, due to the way I played the mission, but insofar as I did it seemed to work.  (Although the little bases in the towns were too similar - make them look more different.)     Secondly to create a genuinely triangular war, where the other two sides fighting was relevant to the player and not just something that could be better handled by a cutscene.    In this regard the mission is already an outstanding success.     I don't think I've ever seen it done better.  :thumbsup: :toocool:

[macguba]

Problem with the second debrief pic uploading.   I'l try again.

[GI-YO]

Right then here comes my BETA, i'll play a bit and write a bit so I dont forget whats happened.

OVERVIEW - Nice pic (how was the hanging done?). Gives enough info without ruining everything, tension building...

INTRO - Awesome song that go's real well with whats being showed which is cool. I liking the story so far something totaly new, never been donw as far as I know. All the camera stuff is awesome but the voices at the end seemed a bit monotone and lifeless. just a thought.

BRIEFING - Ahh its talking to me, madness. clearly designed for the lazy player who cant be bothered to read all the text  ;D. Objective seems simple enough. on with the mission

MISSION - looks a bit dark and a bit wet, perfect night to sneak on to an island! make my way slowly up the hill with the pistol heading southeast, walk into a fence and floow it along until the shadows of the village come into view, im feeling the tension and it looks quiet out there, too quiet....I save and then clear the house with the ruskis and the yank, weird to see them being buddys but hey there all bad today. I pick up an AK and 6 mags and some grenades, cue cutscene and more information about my uncle who now is miles away, then my cousin gets shot. dam. I shoot the yank who shot her then jump into the jeep and head due east towards the big mountain, my plan being to avoid the roads and baddies, just resting on a hill for a cup of tea  .I drive across a road and then drive around on the hill side for a bit trying to find this mountain hut, eventualy i find the road on the top of hill and then find the hut using that, i think i need some more map and compass practice. The story deepens my uncle is dead and all these civis are stuck in the middle and they need my help. This mission gets better by the minute, they all join my group and then cues the autosave and i'll be back later to continue the BETA, looks awesome so far!!

[THobson]

mac.  What can I say.  I have not yet had chance to read fully your post, as always I expect it will be full of tremendous advice.

What is the endmission cheat?

There is not outro - but there is an end scene that should show the mayhem you have created.  Any outro would mean me having to guess what the player had done.  If you have any interest and are willing to give up even more time for this the link below is to a file that is exactly the mission you have played but it includes several radio commands.  One to assemble the team, one to kill several of the team, one each to kill Stamenov and Andropov and one each to kill each army.  If you get chance your comment on the end scene would be very much appreciated.

The mission takes about 20 odd seconds to initialise everything so wait that long before activating the radio commands.  Also remember that Tatyana will not be dead in this version - unless of course you flog all the way up the hill again.

Link Disabled 27 March 2005
Cheat version

I think the civi you killed was the woman from Stamenov's tent.  Stamenov is actually a west soldier.

I am hugely thankful for the time and effort you have put in to testing this.  As I said before once I have a way of doing something it is hard for me to find another.  It is really helpful for other people to come onto my island and make a mess of it.

I must admit to not focussing much on the de-brief screen other than to check the objectives were correct.  It may be that all the joining and leaving caused a problem.  There are certainly names there I do not recognise.

I am not sure how to check what happened here with the end game.  There is a script that checks the same array of loons as I use in the radio command mentioned above.  Also the end game script has several levels, the last level (5 loons or less) results in them being setPos-ed to near to Andropov's tent if they are more than 500 m away.  I thought it was fool proof!  It is essentially the same logic for both bases.

For the next version I will not require everyone to be killed,  I will get it down to a small number and then have all the remaining survivors surrender or run away.

Off now to cry in a corner and then to come back and read what you have written

[macguba]

Having had a quick look in the editor I have two main observations.

1)   It's your static objects that are giving the lag.    When I tested the laggy version of Umimpossible I found that the version with all the objects and no units was more laggy than the one with all the units and no objects.    I've had a quick look round though and it will be easy to reduce the number significantly.

I would advise against using prob of presence for statics.   If its just a little campsite somewhere it will look best with three A tents and a fire.   There is no virtue in placing four with probabilities.  It doesn't make any difference to gameplay and the absence of change is in fact is one of the things that make a re-play more fun.    Humans (most animals) like to recognise things.   Only the important stuff should be different.


2)  Difficulty.     The spot where I had trouble - northwest side of Saint Louis - is clearly the hardest corner of the map.     No wonder I felt they were coming in from all angles at the same time ... although if I'd known I could have legged it southwest.

The other difficutly problem was of course in the bad weather.   I think this must be rain related - I don't recall problems as bad as this with Unimpossible which has no rain, only fog.    You did get zapped by people you couldn't see occasionally but only by a few yards.    Here I was being hit from 200m when I could see only 50m.

Other than that the difficulty level was about right.    If you didn't have infinite savegames I'd say it was slightly too hard.    As it was I used many of them.   However I would consider limiting the number.    The absolute minimum is about 12 and it's hard to see how you could really need more than say 48.    So lets say about 32.  It's not so much to limit the number of saves, just to make the player feel that they are valuable.     Most of the times I was killed it was because I was being too cavalier, knowing I had just saved.   It's more fun if the game makes you do things properly.

Edit:  was writing as you wrote yours.   d/l cheat now.   There were no loons in the immediate vicinity of the airfield buildings - I ran around them with a small squad several times and when I went walkabout I left a loon on guard.     Given how carefully I know you will have done it, my theory is a trigger problem caused by the way I played it, in some unobvious manner.

Endmission cheat is well known.   Press the shift key and, while holding it down, press the keypad -.    Release both keys.    Nothing happens, but if you now type endmission the mission ends and takes you into debriefing.     This is also how you work the savegame cheat.


Outro

You are right of course that this has to an end cutscene rather than an Outro.    I did laugh at the music, I hate it myself but it is utterly appropriate and the performance had sufficient gusto to raise a smile.

Couple of general points.     The cutscene consists mostly of stills, which is fine, but remember you are taking a photograph.    Attention to composition, and backgrounds in particular, will repay the extra effort handsomely.     Overhead shots of mayhem are good, but no more than three of one area, two if you can get away with it.    This is an easy area to play with depending on how long the credits turn out to be and so on.

At the start use either plain or plain down, don't mix them.   Better still use proper coloured text.     The "at a cost" change doesn't quite work.   Either go straight to the bodies without comment or make more of the change.   Don't be afraid to change to some stock music.

The opening shot of the credits is no good:  "Abandoned armies" needs a much stronger shot and one that in some way relates to the armies of the title.

If you really want to make it a tearjerker, then have a little scene of a mixture of Soviet and US troops being captured by some civvies.   They are disarmed, and the troops and civvies shake hands to indicate that the few remaining soldiers on the island have decided to throw in their lot with the civvies.

You must include the offshore island and your mum in the cutscene in some way.   (Basic rule of novel writing - never mention a character once.)

Consider using Mars from the credits section.  Not sure if that would work but worth a try.

In other words, its basically fine and if you wanted to you could leave it as it is, but it feels like a little bit of a placeholder.  

Oh yes, and typo on Ludwig.    And I loved "You have achieved the impossible."  Ah, there's nothing like an in-joke.

Don't have the live squad members just where they are.   You have changed the time of day and weather, so change the location.   Film it where you like.    Pull the camera back a bit from the dead ones, you don't need to be that close.   Also shoot them from lower down so you get some sky in the shot.   They will always be a bit awkward of course, since you don't know where they will be unless you change it to where they were taken after the fighting.

The civvies at the lodge should not still be shut up in the building - they would have started to go home.

If I was doing this I would shoot the whole thing as if it was a few hours after the fighting finished.  That gives you teh excuse to change the light and weather and put everybody somewhere good, but there hasn't been time to clear up the mess.    Evening sun would be best, since it's believable whenever the mission finishes.  (Either that evening or the next, if you ran into the night.)


Thought:  at the end it may be that they haven't even got down to the 5 left.   What are the preceding conditions and numbers and consequences?   (The southron army was ticked as being destroyed and there was nobody in Chapoi when I looked.)

[THobson]

I thought the savegame cheat was saving the game, alt tabing out, renaming the file and then saving again!  You can see I learned a lot of my basic stuff by trial and error.

I was using the probability of presence as an easy means of putting down the same camp but it not looking the same.  I will custom make them.

Glad you liked the impossible reference

Ok the logic for the end of each base is the same.  There is a script (DefendBaseX.sqs) for each base and it is run when one of the following event occurs:
- faction leader (Andropove or Stamenov) is killed
- resistance is detected within a small area near the leader (I think I will lose this or make the trigger area wider)
- loon count for that side is <= 30 (each side starts with 220+)  This is checked about every 5 minutes

At this point a switch trigger will fire for several groups that send them to guard the base.  Most other groups are already on guard by now.

Key elements of the DefendBase script are:
It start running a script that finds all the loons that are on foot and joins them up into larger groups, with preference being given to putting units in the same group as the faction leader.  This runs about every couple of minutes.

Sends each mgJeep to an assigned location in the base

Gets the crew out of the support vehicles, gives them a Move instruction to somewhere in the base but this is really only temporary, next time the joinUp script runs it will pick these guys up and start joining them with other groups.

Sends each of the convoy vehicles and choppers to an approximate location in the base.

Then loop the following every 5 to 10 minutes:
Phase 1
Loons that can only crawl are repaired just enough so they can stand, they are made AWARE and told to run fast.

Loons that are not in groups that have waypponts in the editor and are not in a vehicle are given a doMove to somewhere in the base

Loons that are in a vehicle with a problem (cannot move, low fuel, driver not of correct side) are got out of the vehicle.  They are not given a doMove at this time but will be picked up next time through the loop and also by the joinup script.

The only loons not considered by now are the two groups that are riding in the convoy, if any are still alive.  All the waypoints for these two groups are moved to the base.

If loon count < 20 then now drop into:
Phase2
Any vehicles that are occupied and that are > a specified distance from the base are given a doMove to the base.  This distance starts at 1000 and reduces each time through the loop to a minimum of 200

If loon count < 10 then now drop into:
Phase3
Any loons that are in vehicles that either have a problem (as specified above) or is greater than the specified distance from the base are got out of the vehicles and setPosed to in the base (If all the code above works there should be none)

The snipers are recalled to the base (this should happen sooner)

If loon count < 5 then now drop into:
Phase4
Any loons still in vehicles are got out irrespective of where they are and what state the vehicle is in.  If there are any loons still in vehicles after the first time through this code (how can there be any?) they are setPosed out of the vehicles into the base.

The finally any loon > 500 from a specific point in the base is setPosed there.

The list of loons all the scripts use is created as follows.  Triggers covering the map fire at the start of the mission.  A script then runs that creates an array of the loons in each side - these are living loons, even those in vehicles are picked up individually.  Subsequently when I need to know how many are still alive  I count the number of living loons in this array.  I did it this way so I can deleteVehicle the triggers (but I have not done that yet)

You can see there is a tonne of redundancy here and it could do with some tidying up (it grew as my paranoia about this sort of thing happening grew) but after all that how on earth does a loon go AWOL?

For me the killer is the join up script.  Even if I have forgotten about some loons that might have waypoints miles away, eventually the join up script will hoover them up and stick them in the leader's group.  

[macguba]

Well, that's pretty thorough.    There are two obvious possibilities.   Either there really are no loons left and it is a trigger problem that is preventing the end.   Or DefendBaseX.sqs has been screwed up in some way by my approach.    I killed Andropov in the north first but did not attempt to destroy his army at that point - in fact I legged it.    He still had significant forces actually on the airfield, I had sneaked in due to the weather.

I think phase 2 worked because the vulcan that was at 3 came in.


What would happen stage 1 and 2 had occurred correctly and there were 12 loons left.   All are on foot, have been wounded in the legs when there were 13 loons left, have fleed repeatedly and are scared witless, and none of whom have detected the enemy for ages?

Similarly if there were 8 left.     My thinking is that maybe stage 4 has not fired because it has not been reached.    Maybe 1 and 2 worked ok but loons have been injured - or more importantly fleed - since the early days of the script running.

What would happen if there was 1 loon left, healthy and on guard wp, less than 500m from the base but hidden somewhere?

I don't think its a vehicle problem because if the vehicle was on a road I would have found it.   I know they don't have to be but ....



Good point about labour saving bases.  I wasn't suggesting they didn't look ok, it was just a thought to save objects while still looking good.

Edit:  Argghh!! I've just restarted the mission by mistake.  Damn damn damn.

[THobson]

What would happen stage 1 and 2 had occurred correctly and there were 12 loons left.  All are on foot, have been wounded in the legs when there were 13 loons left, have fleed repeatedly and are scared witless, and none of whom have detected the enemy for ages?

Every 5 to 10 minutes any that cannot stand are repaired until they can and are given a doMove to the base.  I should also have said they have allowFleeing set to 0 at the same time.

Similarly if there were 8 left.    My thinking is that maybe stage 4 has not fired because it has not been reached.    Maybe 1 and 2 worked ok but loons have been injured - or more importantly fleed - since the early days of the script running.

Well the script loops every 5 to 10 minutes

What would happen if there was 1 loon left, healthy and on guard wp, less than 500m from the base but hidden somewhere?

Well the joinup script should put it in Andropov's group that is on hold just outside his tent.

Having said all that.  That is assuming I have made no stupid typing errors (but I have checked it before) and also assuming the mission is not stretching the OFP engine.  I recall that a few people have had civis say they were rescued and were still at the hut!  This should only betriggered when they reach the lodge.

What I plan to do is to completely re-write the defendbase code with sufficient robustness that the odd loon or several getting lost will not prevent the end game.

I can now rearm the empty armour in the bases by the way.  I still can't find the sound file that OFP uses when it rearms/repairs a vehicle, but I will keep looking.

What is astonishing to me is that this mission took over 5 months to get to this stage (I do play around a bit inside my worlds!) and it now looks as far from finished as is was when I started.  Mainly because what constitutes finished has moved.

[macguba]

Comes back to my original feeling .... there is no last loon.    Its academic now I've zapped the file ... really cross about that I wanted to find him.    Are there any ruined buildings less than 500m away?  (Beyond that he'd be setpossed in.)   I don't suspect typos because there were no error messages.

I think you have the right plan, just make the whole problem go away.    Well done on the rearming.
..

That is the problem, you keep moving your own goalposts.  I gave up on Unimpossible several times becuase I was bored with it.  The last time I took it up was because I thought it would be quicker to finish than my other 99% finished mission.    6 months later ....

The oldest version of unimpossible that I have, of the one set on Kolgujev, looks much the same as the current one if you glance at it in the mission editor.   It's true there are many more scripts, but you simply would not believe how much work it took to make all these tiny changes which add up to a really big improvement.   This is much further on now than that was then .... but I've never heard of a beta of a really good mission that was much past half way when the first public beta came out.    4.5 months to go then.  ;D

[THobson]

but you simply would not believe how much work it took to make all these tiny changes

I damn well would!  Just getting some fencing to line up an be an hour or two!

One thing you didn't mention that was bothering me (everything else that was bothering me was picked up - and more) is why is Stamenov's tent in a repair yard?

By the way there was some evidence of his evil ways round the back of his tent if you noticed.

4.5 months to go then.

I can't see it being less than that,  I amnow back to soak testing again

[Dubieman]

Hey Thobson!

I know I'm not that far along, but back from where I was....

Scavenged TONs of weapons at Vigny. Finally left as another big squad came to check everything out. I went over and dropped off my mates to defend the villa/house. Went on and freed the civvis nearest to me. Left them in the truck and took a car to check out La Trinite and cause some trouble by myself. Now I get in there and since there's so much fog, I jump out in the middle of town. Stupid I know. Then see a big ole convoy pull up. Guys jump out...

Crap, run run, hmmm, Law the M2a2 and hide in some wrecks. I finally back off then go across town in hope of doing something to get the two sides in their at the same time. I found a glitch in a destroyed building. I lied down and killed 15 soldiers in the space of 3 min. now I lay there, they for some reason walked in, and cause of clipping or something couldn't shoot or see me. So bang bang and I killed part of the convoy guard. This infuriates them more so ppl and vehicles are all over the city. Then I hear armor. Vehicles, lots of them. ;D

"hmm they're fighting each other...."

Yay, the northerners arrive and the sh!t hits the fan. I run away looking for the third group of civs. Some serious fighting is going down. ;D

The third civ group has the same error as the ones at the first place, except no voice or hint saying I rescued them. Is it cause the 2nd group is still in my PV3S? I don't know. I steal the car and drive back to see how the fight is going. Hmm, empty ammo truck, knicked driver.... Steal the ammo truck and run using the fog to my advantage. Figures I have to leave the ammo truck at the 2nd civ place cause they won't drive it, nor will any driving situation work. :-\

But that's okay, I'll come back later. Get the civs in my PV3s and back to base. I encounter 4 coming to me, then some infantry mate shoots my truck with a LAW. Reload/retry at my good savepoint about 2 min before. This time I pick my guy up and head towards the cabin. I guess I lost my 3 & 5 group members cause all that action plus the crap I pulled warranted 2 infantry squads ramapaging through my camp. Then as I arrive the armor support drives through. :noo:

I'm really scared now, T80, T72, and a vulcan. Got my ppl to cover and no one died. The vulcan gave me a mean look and a lucky warning shot and they left. Right after they started down the hill to La Trinite, a Cobra blows them up with FFARs all over. Only 70m from my cabin area! ;D

Well that's where I'm at now. The tension is building so much...

The civs are a real odd thing. They join you or ignore you, or a voice comes up but nothing happens.  :-\

Well, I guess my plans now are to head south and hit La Pessagne, then see if I can hit the little idiots who drove me from Vigny. Only problem is I have 4 guys including me. And I'm the only one who can carry AT stuff. :tomato: So I'll prolly visit the civs east of La Trinite to see if any want to join...:beat:


Edit: Oh and I must add that before taking cover in the glitch house in La Trinite, I was hiding in a field. I jumped into a big bush and didn't move. 2 infantry sweeps went around me. Their officer only 4m away! But it was prolly the fog, cause it didn't seem right, but I was lucky there, then I found that house.....

[macguba]

I thought I'd complimented you on the bodies behind the tent, sorry.... I did say (or thought I did) that the loose women should end up crying over these bodies to get them out of the way.

I considered the possible oddness of the tent being in the repair yard and decided it wasn't odd.   Firstly, there is nowhere else in the Base for it to be.   (I considered mentioning that the area enclosed by the sandbag fence was too big but then decided you probably needed it for vehicle turning.   His tent would be no better out there.)   Secondly, it is to some extent in character: he is a a base and practical man and he would not find it odd to put his tent in such a practical place.    Thirdly, the position reflects the encirclement of the tent by the hospital at the airfield.   The proximity of the buildings creates a sense of closeness which is effective in relating the two bases to each other, while keeping them very different.

If I had a complaint about that whole setup, other than those I mentioned at the time, it is the repair building at the end of the track.   It feels very odd, stuck in the middle of that space.   It's also a bloody nuisance, although it does contribute to the closeness thing just mentioned.    I would have been tempted to lay a little more track and place it further in.   (With the famous tent somewhere else of course.)    I wasn't thrilled by the closed tent either to be honest.   In a sense what is much odder is that he is not in one of the houses.    If it could be made to look OK I'd have put him in an enterable Nogova church, or a graveyard.  If he's going to be evil lets emphasize the point.


Little idea for the lodge.   When you first arrive there are not graves, there are bodies.    After you bring the civvies back, while you are away, the bodies are buried.


Unimpossible is pushing on for 3 years now, if that's any consolation.   On and off.   Since the original Goisse version.


A small favour:  I tried to create this but it kept going wrong.   Could you create a version with player start and Tatyana and civvy locations all moved to very close to the lodge?

I tried it but it kept going wrong:  I was teleported back to Vigny, or shot on approaching the lodge or something.   I managed to make it daylight with no weather and 4x allowed and I can add setCaptive and kit galore myself.  

I can then run speedily through an approximation of what I did (without the need for altering triggers or anything) and see if we can replicate the problem.  It could be a variable in one of those early cutscenes so we can't just bypass them.

[THobson]

@GRK

Glad to hear you are still at it.  I think I figured out the problem with the civis being 'rescued' but still being in the hut. It looks to me like a couple of scripts running out of order,  I will fix that be getting one script to call the other when it is ready. Why it works sometimes and not others I don't know.

The problem you had with the latest lot is dfferent.  There are 5 of them, so they cannot join you if you have a squad > 7, which you probably have if you still have one lot with you.  Get the first lot back to the lodge and they will leave you.  You should then be able to pick up the last lot.

have 4 guys including me. And I'm the only one who can carry AT stuff.

You get one resistance soldier at the lodge and one each at the civis so you should (if it all works) end up with 4 soldiers + you in the team that can carry AT stuff.  The civis have the same capacity as medics.

I really need to rework the whole civi thing.


@macguba

the loose women should end up crying over these bodies to get them out of the way.

Loose as in un-attached I presume.  Good idea.  I have given them a domove instruction to make them seem like they are running away, but all the wire around the enclosure confuses them and they just stop after a while - even with  the domove instruction being repeated periodically.  Another case of "Why didn't I think of that!"

A small favour:  I tried to create this but it kept going wrong.  Could you create a version with player start and Tatyana and civvy locations all moved to very close to the lodge?run away but all the wire around the enclosure confuses them eventually.

I am in bed with flu but will look at it soon.  This may take a little time as I am now near the maximum allowed on my webpage.  In the meantime:  

You would be teleported back to vigny, to reduce the number of names I changed from using markers and GLs to absolute addresses for things like the camera and player position.

Also:
In Init.sqs:
near the top are the lines

Code: [Select]

DeBug = false
_setEnvironment = trueChanging setEnvironment to be false will turn off the weather - I presume that is what you have done.
Changing DeBug to true will enable you to approach the lodge without having to do the vigny cutscene.  It will also turn on a whole lot of messages as well as allowing 4x
Further down Init.sqs are the lines

Code: [Select]

#DeBug
[] exec "reportOnPatrolsnConvoys.sqs"If you comment out the second line it will turn off most of the messages - these don't make much sense now anyway because you will see that further up I have commented out a lot of variables that are only used for de-bugging and are used by this script.  (I needed to reduce the number of names.)
As for moving the civis closer I think if you just select everything at the hut (civis, loon, trigger) and physically drag the stuff nearer the lodge it should work.

As for moving Alexi.  You can see where he starts.  There are 4 empty markers close by that he is grouped with .  Ungroup them and just drag him to where you want to be.  Presumably just outside the triiger area at the lodge

I will do this, but as it involves doing some housekeeping on my web site it may take a while - and I only got out of my sick bed to call the office to say I will not be in, check the mission I have soaked over night to try and replicate what happened with Xcess' convoys (I can't - not yet anyway) and check here for messages.

Thanks for still being interested.

SEAL84 and Xcess, if you have not been put off by all this I would be interested to know of any similar experience you have had,  SEAL84 was last heard of a whisker away from hitting Stamenov, with an empty T80 nearby.