(Review Completed) [SP] Un-Impossible Mission

[macguba]

Not really, I'm not a big addon man.     The standard by which all addons are measured are those produced by Ballistic Addon Studios (BAS) but with the addons depot down they are hard to find.   BAS's own site closed under the weight of popularity.     Their best known units were US Deltas and Rangers and a number of helicopters.     They also produced an island, called Tonal, which is very nice but too demanding on memory to make anything except small missions.

Talking of islands, the two that keep coming up are Trinity and Sarugao.     You can probably get them at ofp.info, which has the biggest store of addons.   (They don't check or rate them though, unlike the addons depot, so you don't really know what you're downloading.)

Other decent outfits include a Finn called Kegetys, Red Hammer Studios, Everon Cartel.    

There is something called FDF mod, which stands for Finnish Defence Forces.  It is both a mod in the ECP sense, and also a mod in the sense that you get a comprehensive set of new units to play with.   It's a huge download (400 meg I think) so only if you have a fast connection.

Lastly, it's not an addon, but at moments like this I always recommend the Retaliation campaign.     Excellent, and no addons at all.

[Sophion]

@Sophin-Black

Will you please not edit your posts out of all recognition.  It makes the subsequent replies look stupid.

<THobson>HA... oh wait, oops.

<#> Hey, I got to '5,7 target 5t truck' ;D Then it crashed, but oh well I tried.

my kills were only:
soldier x2
MG

Is that good?

[Sophion]

Da** no Russian language avalable!?

@Macguba
The tips didn't work, hopefully i'll catch your next mission.

[macguba]

OK well never mind, thanks for trying.

I've posted some screenies from the mission (all from cameras rather than gameplay) over on the official forums.   The release version will be posted this week, all being well.   The changes from 0-64, the version Artak's is hosting, mostly involve cosmetic stuff and minor improvements to the start position attacks to make them less random.  I'd post what I 've got but tripod are still being crap so I can't upload it to my site.     The pics worked though, in fact there are a couple that aren't on the forum.

[THobson]

Thanks for the information on the add-ons I will have a look.

I tested the lose end of mission (or loose as it is spelt in the game).  Very good.  I have not seen that done before.  Two comments:

- After the de-briefing the scene has the ubiquitous  "Wait a moment" message.  How about something else?  For example: "Later..." or "The Civilians get their retribution"  or something.  I think even a blank screen might be preferable.  I realise you may be trying to make it a surprise.  I make my comments even with that in mind.

- I am not sure about the guy on the bike.  He is a bit unsteady and creates dust even when he is hardly moving.  He is also leaving the scene.

OK so it is three comments

- it looks like a lot of thoughtful work for something almost no one will ever see.

[macguba]

Actually it wasn't too much trouble ... it was only a couple of hours work, apart from getting him to swing convincingly, which was another couple of hours.   I can't remember enough about simple harmonic motion to do it right, so it's a pretty crude compromise but its better than nothing.

Nothing to be done about the "Wait a moment" text unfortunately.... you can change it in description.ext, but it is the same as the onloadintro text and it's real tough to think of something that will do in both situations.  The Wait a moment is not just a game default, I wrote it in.   I tried it with just blank but the delay at the start of the intro is too long .. you start to worry that the game has crashed.

Loose is not the same as lose.    It's called loose because it fires on a loose trigger ending, which is fundamentally different from a numbered ending like End#1.     Numbered endings fire only if ALL triggers of that type have fired.    Loose ending fires if ANY loose ending trigger has been fired.   In this case, it's not really an issue, it just gives the extra outro.    This is blatent pointhunting I have to say.   ;D

I added the bike loon in because the shot was too static without him, it needed something.    I'll try something else.

[THobson]

Loose is not the same as lose.

Indeed, loose is the opposite of tight and lose is the opposite of win.  Another case of BIS doing "dammage"  to English spelling.  Or do you really think they meant to call it a 'loose' ending as opposed to the 'tight' endings given by the numbered ones?

Nothing to be done about the "Wait a moment" text unfortunately

Pity.

The Wait a moment is not just a game default, I wrote it in.

I noticed, and wondered why.

Actually it wasn't too much trouble ... it was only a couple of hours work, apart from getting him to swing convincingly, which was another couple of hours.

That is a lot of work in my book.  In the remaining life of the galaxy you will probably have spent more time watching it than the sum total of the rest of humanity

This is blatent pointhunting I have to say

Go for it.  All you need now is a reviewer that is able to complete the mission!! (I have had a couple of missions reviewed that can be done quite easily - so long as you think about it, and all I got was "ridiculously hard at times".  Goodness knows what they will make of this mission!!)

Edit:
I had a look at your harmonic motion.  I cannot figure out how it works in the script, but it looks good on the screen.
(I think direction = a + b*sin (c*t).  where t is time is how I would have approached it.)

[macguba]

Loose is correct I think.   (Unlike dammage.)

I am concerned by the review, which is why I've been pointhunting.   It is now as clear a 9 as you will ever find - I just hope that whoever reviews it figures that out.   If if just pisses them off I could find myself staring at a 7 which would piss me off.    The cheats that you have doubtless discovered in init.sqs are designed to help - at least they can see all the cutscenes.

On the SHM, that was just the sort of thing I couldn't remember.     I have a bloody physics degree for goodness sake, its a disgrace.

The script just decreases the speed of rotation as you get close to the endpoint, and speeds it up as you move away from the ends.    The numbers are all just trial and error, that's why it took so long.   I thought it would take 10 minutes ....

I've changed the bike for a motorbike.   The puff of dust looks more convincing and he drives off across the scene in a convincing way.   And, as you say, only the people who shoot the woman or get caught out by blowing up a civvy truck will ever see it.    And the reviewer of course.   ;D

I am happy to announce, that as of when I started to write the post, the Un-Impossible Mission is finished.     I need to give it a final run of tests, to make sure nothing has been screwed up, and then it is done.  The "to do" section, miraculously, is empty.

Many thanks again to all my beta testers.    Not only did you find mistakes, and make literally hundreds of good suggestions, but your enthusiasm and stories kept me going when I felt like chucking it in.    I really appreciate all you have done.  

[THobson]

Best of luck with the review.  

I am not sure what I am going to do with all my spare time now.  

Oh, I see Rome - Total War is now out....

[macguba]

 ;D  I ordered it today.

[THobson]

Me too  ;D

[macguba]

Oh, if you think of anything else, comments and suggestions still welcome.     I won't be ready to submit for another couple of days at least.    

[THobson]

Only a few thoughts of the type:  I wonder if he....
- fixed the mission name truncation in the list of available SP missions
- made sure the second chopper does not run out of fuel
- got rid of the clicking sounds in the voice dialogue
type of thing.

I do think you might wish to look at using the sine formula for the swing, it should results in less of a jerk at each end of the oscillation, but who the hell will see it and will they notice anyway?

Are you absolutely sure there can be no re-occurrence of the stuck vehicle?  That would be the killer.

[Sneaker]

Wow, Thobsons been well into this  

Ive been pretty busy recently so havent had much time for flashpoint, but will get round to trying .64 or whatever the 'finished* version is , problably at the weekend.

*congrats to mac, i hope u can draw a line under this, and have fixed everything u want to (and dont worry about tiny things that might come up), well done

[macguba]

Lol THobson, I was kinda hoping you would come up with a list of things I  might have forgotten about.

1) Un-Im... or UnIm....   I know it is slightly truncated in the list of missions and I don't like that, but I experimented with various forms of the name when it was changed from Impossible mission and that was the best one.    I considered changing it but the name appears in so many places I would be bound to miss one, so I'm going to leave it as it is.

2)  The second chopper now appears 1.5 - 2 hours into the mission and does not run out of fuel.  (The first chopper doesn't run out of fuel either.)   Both choppers make a trip to an outlying island to the north to simulate going somewhere to refuel, though they don't land or anything.

3)   Yesterday I completely re-recorded my voices for the cutscene, the new ones being marginally less crap than the old and virtually click free.    The girl doesn't live locally so hers will have to stay for now:  I've editing them in Goldwave as far as my limited abilities will allow so they are better than they once were, but there is still the odd click.   The tinny echo effect has been eliminated.

4)  The swinging body isn't worth more work, it's intellectually unsatisfying and if it was important I'd fix it, but .....  it is one of the many remaining imperfections in the mission.    The trouble is my whole bloody life is on hold till I finish the wretched thing so I'm keen to get it done.

5)  I'll never say never, particularly about tricky things like stuck vehicles, but the mission is much more robust than it was.     The jeep that caused all that bother was working under just a couple of triggers, which on many, many test runs worked fine about 3 times out of 4.   So you were slightly unluckly.   As you know, the script had already replaced the triggers when your incident occurred:  since then, under your advice, the script has been improved several times.     On a fair few test runs there have been no incidents of stuck vehicles.   I will make a test with a jeep roughly in that place check that it works.

6)  I checked the beta testers names, and in the latest version there are no squiggly lines above them.


Any more thoughts like that very welcome.  I did a quick run through the last few pages of the thread but I could easily have missed something.


The final version, nominally 1.00 but in reality 0-66, (0-65 is a backup version) will hit the missions depot in a couple of days and certainly before the weekend.    Things will continue to come up, so I expect to make a 1.01 before the review is done in a month of two's time.    With a mission of this complexity there is no sharp line between "final beta" and "first release", but 1.00 will be something I'm happy to put my name to.