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Offline SpecOp9

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Developing a great mission
« on: 08 Aug 2003, 16:00:42 »
There may be plenty of certain individuals who are striving to get an extremely high score for their created missions.  So, I am going to give small little helpers and hints on creating a great mission to submit at OFPEC.

1. Developing a mission idea

This first step, is one of the most important from anything else.  Everything in your mission revolves around step one.

First, believe it or not: try looking for some music.  Beggining with music can be a huge helper.  When you listen to music you can hear the specific mood it has inside of it.  This mood is something you can use, and think of a way to incorporate into your mission.  This can be extremely helpfull for your cutscene also.  
So try gathering some great music and finding a way to implement it into your cutscenes.

Now you need to think of something more important.  Music is basically the symbol for your entire mission.  In other words, your music must instantly give the player a in-depth feeling of what your mission is going to be about.

You dont want 'Let the bodies hit the floor" when it's supposed to be sad.
----

So now I am going to pick a song from a mission I am going to make.  
I have all my music and I have found myself a mission idea.
"End of Days" theme song will be our current example.

The music sounds very mystical and yet severe.
So I decided to change this into a large chaotic religious battle.

Terrorists have invaded the Skye island.  They believe that this island is a "holy land" and that they can do whatever they please.  The gods of this island will make them un-destructable, while they attempt to turn the island into a nuclear arsenal to devestate places around the world.
---

Now that we have the basic situation of the mission under control, and we have good music, and a moody feeling to our mission,
it's time to work on charactor plot.

This is a mystical yet severe type mission remember.  Along with the music.

You need to balance both of these when creating your mission.

Sending 60 troops vs. 60 troops is not part of the mood idea, and it will completely ruin your entire mission.

So, we will take both these things and think of something.
I have made it so there is only one character who does most of the dirty work, and there is also a small squad taking an airfield.
You play as the lonely black op.

His son is sent on the mission with his dad, however is in a different area of the map during the map.  We will get into the mission later.

The Black Op cannot be called a random joe shmo from Idaho.
 If you noticed, OFPEC looks for specific things, like character plot and development.  Give the Black Op a backstory, give him a name, give your player a solid understanding on the character he is playing as.

By now we have a basic understanding of what we will be creating.
We have our mood, and plot so far.  

This may be the most easy part, however it was the most important.

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2. Development of your cutscene

All cutscenes are best when they are scripted cameras.  If you don't know how to script cameras, I suggest you either contact somebody for basic camera scripting help, or check the numerous tutorials here.

The music we have aquired for our mission, no doubt should be used
in-game somewhere along the lines.  In this case, we will use the intro.

ALWAYS put the music inside your mission before you start anything with cameras.  Now, lets think of something...  Mystical yet chaotic... using the "End of Days" theme song.

Download the song if you are having trouble understanding what I will be talking about:

The beggining of the theme song sounds mystical, and then to the end it turns into something evil and chaotic. Maybey even scary for some people.

The music sounds like something odd.  You would'nt normally use it inside a motion cutscene.  This is a great opportunity for something that would help your mission greatly!  "PROLOGUE"

Normaly this is the preface or introduction to a literary work.  
But we will bend the meaning of PROLOGUE to fit our mission,
an introductory or preceding event or development.

Great!  Now lets have a bunch of random scenes.  For the mystical side of things, I made a few addons.  This includes sacred things like shrines.
I had my first couple of scenes show mystical things, such as Churches, graves, shrines, people making prayers in a graveyard, the cross of jesus, ETC.

Now you need to keep visualization in mind.  
The things you hear in the music MUST fit with the visualization onscreen.
So now, I am going to change the appearance of the enviorment.  I will leave it day time, however make it cloudy and rainy.

The prologue is up to you.  The greatest prologue is always when it comes from your own mind and your own ideas. Always.  But always make sure it has SOMETHING to do with the following events of your mission, and a basic understanding of everything.  Basically it's letting the player know what your mission revolves around.  "The Pearl" novel believe it or not, is a great example of this...

Now we have our first half of the prologue done.  All mystical and wierd and crap.

Now the other half of the music changes into something very evil and chaotic.
These scenes I had a sudden change of heart.

The music goes
from:
"OoooOoOoO AhhhHhhhHhhh"
to:
"Omg! Get it away! AHHHHHH!!!"

So now, I had the time change to a darker color, with nothing but a red skye and silhouettes of stuff everywhere.  Now I put the terrorists  marching down the airfield "chaotic" type. as if something is about to erupt.
I used the magic words:
ANIMATIONS, AND CUSTOM ANIMATIONS <--MUST USE!

Remember, the prologue can show the future of things.
Now that it popped in my head,

TERMINATOR 3 is a PERFECT example of what I am talking about.
You hear Jhon Conor at the beggining talking diddle smack about a bunch of random evil robots wanting to kill mankind for no reason at all.  You see scenes of the machines taking over Earth ETC.

Ok great.  Prologue is over with. -kick-
-cutscene ends-

NO!  If you ever made the cutscene end there, you would have just screwed everything up.

Now we gotta have it Fade out.

Fade into a town or something.  Ever so happy place, with people running around and animals barking and birdies chirping about. (fag)

OK, so now we need some more music.  keep your new music true to the mood of your mission.  We are gonna have a new moody song now!
What fun!

I choose another main theme for my next couple of scenes.  
Sleepy Hollow theme song.

These scenes I showed numerous US troops flying in with helicopters and setting up shop somewhere totally deserted. a small little military base where they can track happenings globaly around the Island. Simple.

Have a bunch of crap of them landing, reloading, looking at monitors, dropping off the small mini squad, and most important: The main character, and his son, maybey the commander... people... stuff... anything you feel is important to introduce because it will be used in your mission.

Now we have the EVIL terrorists people make there way to the Island.

But how did the US know about the terrorists, and make it to Skye island before them?  I dont know, elaborate, thats your job  not mine :P
Always think about stuff like this, it will cause confusion to the player.
Personally, include it in your briefing is what I would do.

SO anyway here come the bad guys ever so tough...  I habe a new song now....  Metal Gear Solid 2 - The Big Shell - .

The terrorists embark to the Skye island by boat.  Floating away ever so tough and confident. cooOOooOOol.  

Bad guys always seem to be the most interesting characters in everything we see.  So in this case, lets create a main character bad guy, only no backround in-depth story behind this menace.  You can if you want, but include everything in your briefing rather.
 (which would be best to give a good score on briefing section)

Alright neat.  This took one hell of a long time to make.  But in the end, after confusion and complete annoyance, it's a solid working intro, filled with all sorts of important things.

Your intro is only supposed to be a backround of your mission.  
We went beyond this and gave the backround behind EVERYTHING inside the mission.
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3. The Briefing

Simple huh?  Lets just give a bunch of letters and words and markers everywhere. Right?  Wrong!

There is only one way to create a solid briefing.

I love including sounds in my briefing.  If you ever played Ghost Recon where the man reads everything to you, and you just gotta sit back and listen, it's a huge help for your mission.  Believe it or not, mentally, the player does'nt need to be annoyed by the every day read this paragraph bull SH*T.

I barely read Briefings because they are so pathetic and boring.

Add some COLOR to these.  Give IN-DEPTH information about Skye, the terrorists, the situation.
Give realistic Photos, pictures, Satalitte photos, ETC.  
Give time of day, year month, even tempature for god sakes!
And most importantly, organize every single display page.  Some of you may not know the html stuff for Briefing, so Un-PBO a mission, and look and see how everything was done.

Notes section: Do whatever you please here... Honestly the notes section is No Biggie here..  At least I would'nt worry too much about it.

WEAPON SELECTION:

OFP has many guns, lets face it.

Some people absolutely hate the HK, like me.
Some people rather use a Bizon, like me.

Now if I am forced to keep a craptastic HK, then honestly that kinda sucks.

So ALWAYS, include weapons selection.  Everybody loves it. Fact.

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4. The Mission side of things

This is something that makes me throw my head down in sadness.

Never does anybody seem to realize that the mission is what makes the ENTIRE mission great.

We need to focus around a few things.

Always include animations.  Have terrorists talking, have them walking around, looking at a map on the table, sitting down, doing stuff that involves REALISM.
I hate sneaking into an occupied hostile area, and seeing EVERY SINGLE enemie being on patrol...standing still...guns on back...standing... walking....standing some more... some more walking...some more standing....

Get these AIs to act like human beings.  Give some scripted events.  For example, I had a rather funny moment where there was 2 guards talking to each other.

There was a man on patrol using his binocs scanning the horizon at ease.
As he walks he trips and falls behind the 2 chatting guards.  The one facing the opposite direction of the falling guard takes a quick head check to see if it was anything hostile, and then the 2 chatting guards both laugh.

This wasnt even scipted for god sakes, a simple use of switchmove commands makes this moment something original and unique.  I'm sure you can think of many others.

My mission is about going from area to area.  Players choice on how to do things.

After completeing certain missions, specific things happen.  For example, I kill everything inside a town, and clear out the place of terrorists.
INGAME CUTSCENE.  First thing you should do is use markers.

name a marker "playerpos1"  and then use the command when the mission has finished for him to warp to that location.  And then no matter what, the camera will always focus on the character of choice.

The cutscene is him letting home base know "City is secured, advance the squad South to attack the airfield"

Cutscene of the squad assaulting the air base.

Do this numerous times, with different situations each time.  it keeps the player interested, and wanting to keep playing more and more.

Now lets set up an interatable enviorment using scripts.

POP! You get shot in the legs yet manage to live, and there is no Medical Tent.  Who you gonna call?
MORPHINE INJECTION SCRIPT!

Not sure about an enemie occupied area.
Take out a monitoring base, and take control of the enemie security cameras.
Via: CAMERA VIEWING SCRIPT!

Need a better view around the island...  Satallite Script!

Bridge is blocked off by guarding tanks that can rip your head off.
Instead of being sneaky, be a grunt and blast into the radio center, blow the radio mans face off, and pretend to be the radio man and ask the tanks to pick somebody up by fooling him.  Allowing you to get across the bridge no problem.

These simple things make the mission something incredible play.  OFP can be used in so many ways. Time to start using them.
Think of a few on your own, they are probably easily possible.

Also, I made a few mini games inside my map.  Mostly for replay value.
The mini games was : Find the 10 shrines
You may have seen my post about how to set that up if your a common thread opening Ofpec freakazoid ;)

Make it so you can interact with civilians who are completely freaked out, or who have seen a convoy drive by them recently.

Who knows, maybey you can learn more about this convoy.
Learn that it does a specific route,
learn that it it is transporting weaponry.

Hmm... 2 things combined = ASSAULT THIS MOFO AND STEAL THE WEAPONS FOR YOUR OWN USE!

These are all examples.
Making your mission fun to play is simply by switching things around.

Go here, Attack this, Blow this up, gets very boring.
Give your player his own decisions he wants to make.
Let the player infact create his OWN mission.
This is what makes a mission great.

Sudden plot changes can also be used.  
For example:

OK, I deactivated the power.  But ohh SH*T!  The backup generator activates laser sensors for possible enemie threats!

You trigger one of these mofos, and it's POW time for you.
How do you escape?  Thats your decision.

Instead of something amazing happening, like a random idiot comes and frees you,
make it so you find a rock on the ground, and you can pick it up and knock the guard out to happy land.  Hes dead, activate a addaction script
"Pick Up Keys from guard"  Ok, new addaction, "Unlock POW gates"

TADA!  Now your unarmed!  Aww shit!  And picking up an AK and firing a single shot will but the entire base on complete lockdown and guards would be guarding every single nook and crany of the POW camp.

Thus, it's time to sneak out of the POW camp. Hop in the back of a cargo truck, sneak out, and VOILA! your home free.

Again, these are all ideas you can use.  
 Enough with that. ;)

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5. Ending

The final step. Sad but true :(

Your outro can be anything.  I choose the main characters son getting KIA.
A sad ending for the entire mission.  
After the whole entire night mission, the sunrise is the main character bending over to his sons grave, promising to avenge his death.

I also made it so the evil main character slips away and becomes a most wanted criminal.  Thus leading to part 2, a completely new mission.

Main Characters revenge time ;)

This obviously had sad music....  
So I choose the Gladiator ending theme song.

What is part 2?

Before you start making part 2, see what comments your mission gets.
What did they like about the mission?  What did they dislike?

Use this as a guide for part 2 of your mission.
(if you plan to do so)

This wraps everything up.  I hope this is used by many people around the community.

With all those Multiplayer maps in the pending list...
Somebody is gonna get a heart artak ;) lol!!!!!

Offline Jahve

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Re:Developing a great mission
« Reply #1 on: 08 Aug 2003, 17:11:52 »
To follow on. This is a good example of a background story for your super-hero-type yet realistic character. (dont blame me for the name, it just happened that way  :P)

"At the age of 18 he joined the US Navy, where he studied at Annapolis Naval Academy for 4 years.
At the age of 22, at the rank of Chief Petty Officer, he was assigned to service on the USS Truxtun,
where he was the senior security chief of the ship. After serving on the Truxtun for about 2 years,
he went back to Annapolis to study the techniques required to be a Navy SEAL. Fast forward, 1,5 years later, he was approached by lieutenant commander James Greer.
LCT Greer introduced him to the SEAL program, where he was Seal Team 3's silent-takedown expert. His missions were many during the cold war and gulf war.
His faliures were known, his successes were not.
He receieved several medals, among others the Distinguished Service Medal,
wich he was awarded in a sub-level in the Pentagon.
His actions for getting this medal was so secret,
he did not even get to take the medal home. It was framed and put in a high-security lock-up
in the vault beneath the Department of Defense's headquarters,
the Pentagon, where he could come freely to see his medal in a glass frame.
Around 1993, just after the end of Operation Restore Hope,
the humanitarian mission to restore order and deliver aid to the starving people of Somalia,
he found himself in the office of the Deputy Director of Operations at the Central Intelligence Agency, in Langley, Virginia.
He had been confronted by a recruiter and offered a position to be revealed
if he went through the CIA special operations training center, efficiently known as "The Farm".
After he passed his "Piece of cake" training after all his expirience as a SEAL,
he was reported to have died in a freak car-accident on Highway 50,
heading north, a drunk truckdriver got into the south-bound section of the highway and had a
front-colition with a small Ford. The driver and two passengers were reported to have died instantly
in the impact with the huge 18-wheeler. But the truth says something else.

This is where the man died. He took a new name. He had been given a list of first and last names he could combine to a name of his choise. He chose "John Clark".
What Clark's real name was before the "accident" is only known by a handfull of people, and the records of him existing as someone else was permanently whiped off the face of the earth.
"

The John Clark BG-story © Jahve
« Last Edit: 08 Aug 2003, 17:15:59 by Jahve »

Offline SpecOp9

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Re:Developing a great mission
« Reply #2 on: 08 Aug 2003, 17:26:37 »
TADA!

And there is your character.  Well made character, and Jahve made it all up easily.  Include that in a mission, and wham bam Thank You Ma'am.

Great example of a character backround :)
With all those Multiplayer maps in the pending list...
Somebody is gonna get a heart artak ;) lol!!!!!

Captain Winters

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Re:Developing a great mission
« Reply #3 on: 08 Aug 2003, 18:07:41 »
Wow! O.O
That is some VERY usfule info there bud. Great work!
Remember bout STO? lol yup. good fun.

Tanks! 8)

max_killer_payne

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Re:Developing a great mission
« Reply #4 on: 08 Aug 2003, 18:24:41 »
John Clark . . . . . . hmmmm Rainbow Six???  ;D lol

Offline SpecOp9

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Re:Developing a great mission
« Reply #5 on: 08 Aug 2003, 18:25:43 »
heh, ok forget John Clark..

Maybey... Moby Dick...  very very original name :)

-------

lol,

It changes DI©K into thingy...
thats funny...
« Last Edit: 08 Aug 2003, 18:30:48 by SpecOp9 [RN] »
With all those Multiplayer maps in the pending list...
Somebody is gonna get a heart artak ;) lol!!!!!

max_killer_payne

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Re:Developing a great mission
« Reply #6 on: 08 Aug 2003, 20:03:04 »
lol

Offline Messiah

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Re:Developing a great mission
« Reply #7 on: 09 Aug 2003, 01:46:18 »
it used to change 'cock' into thingy... so when you wrote 'cockpit' it became 'thingypit'  ;D
Proud Member of the Volunteer Commando Battalion

m21man

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Re:Developing a great mission
« Reply #8 on: 09 Aug 2003, 02:00:58 »
Always remember that atmosphere! The weather definitely changes the mood of the mission. You'll notice that a lot of missions take place in broad, unfoggy daylight. Try changing weather, time, and fog levels to create a truly unique atmoshpere for your mission. My favorite mission that I made based on this principal was one where you had to fight off enemy attacks. Sounds familiar? This version was on Winter Kolgujev (It's really hard to see white uniforms on the snow!), on top of a hill, in the middle of the night, with thick fog and pouring rain. Since the visibilty was terrible, I sometimes realized that there was a Spetznatz 3 meters away :o.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!!!

Offline Jahve

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Re:Developing a great mission
« Reply #9 on: 09 Aug 2003, 11:41:31 »
John Clark . . . . . . hmmmm Rainbow Six???  ;D lol

Not only.. He's one of the main characters in the Tom Clancy books, but nm.. could be "James-Johnny Bakersfield" for that matter  ;)

Offline KTottE

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Re:Developing a great mission
« Reply #10 on: 09 Aug 2003, 22:18:20 »
Hmm, no offense or anything, but this doesn't really tell anyone how to make a good mission :-\

I mean, how am I supposed to interpret this:

Quote
The music goes
from:
"OoooOoOoO AhhhHhhhHhhh"
to:
"Omg! Get it away! AHHHHHH!!!"

I will try to write something a little more in-depth later, but this is the general approach you should use for developing a good atmosphere in a mission:

  • Come up with the general idea/style of the mission
That is to say, do you want a mission where you sneak into an enemy base and blow stuff up, or one where you pilot a chopper, or a normal ambush mission etc.
  • Come up with a plausible reason for the mission.
"The enemy has been using this road for resupplies for the past couple of weeks, and we need you to halt their movements along that road. We can't afford them to bring more supplies to the frontlines"
or
"We need you to go on a Long Range Recon Patrol, because we believe that the enemy has a supply depot somewhere in the area, but none of our aerial reconnaissance planes has been able to spot it."
  • Assign a plausible number of troops, material and weapons.
If you're going on a stealthy LRRP, you would go in with a single squad, say 6-8 men. No vehicle support. No chances of resupply.
If you, however, are taking part in a massive all out assault on an enemy fortified position, you would be bringing an entire platoon (2-4 groups of 5-10 men/group), as well as have some sort of support. Be it two M2 Bradley IFV's or a mortar battery.
  • Make the enemy presence plausible.
If it's a small listening post out in the woods, there would be nothing more than a tent, a handful of guys (say 5) and perhaps a UAZ.
But if we're talking about a firebase, they would have emplaced machineguns, sentries, the whole shebang.
This also goes for support. A small listening post would not be able to call in mortar fire on the player, a firebase however, could.

Now, as for the actual story of the mission, make a good realistic idea. Then you can add in character development, much like we saw in the official campaigns.
"Hey Armstrong" etc.
Trust me, more people will enjoy a mission that is realistic over one that has a hollywood plotline to it.
This is, after all, a soldier-sim, and the people who play it play it because it simulates military life.
If you want to make a more RPG-esque plotline such as the blackop's son going in on the mission as well, that's fine by me, but you should not try to convince people that making a plotline like that is needed to make a great mission.
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'WOW What a Ride!'"

Mr_Shady

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Re:Developing a great mission
« Reply #11 on: 10 Aug 2003, 00:46:15 »
I think a good plot is neccesary, as it gives you a reason to be there. Think of all the times you've played missions that go "Sneak into the enemy base and blow up the Shilkas." It reminds you you're playing a game. It's a lot better experience when you're told why you're going in.

For example, an MP mission I threw together for my squad was a simple (relatively) catch-the-baddie mission, where we had to arrest a general. Instead of "Arrest the General," I came up with a background story, which explained why we were there in the first place (intervention during a civil war on Kolgujev), who the general was (mass-murdering loon), why we had to bring him in (aformentioned mass-murdering), why we were doing it (big international stink about the other peacekeeping forces on the island).


On the weather note, I find that a storm in the early hours is good for a commando raid, since every flash of lightning could be a grenade blowing up the guy who's covering you with his machine gun, and every clap of thunder could be a tank firing at you... Plus, it makes it harder to concentrate with the constant pitter-patter.

Offline SpecOp9

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Re:Developing a great mission
« Reply #12 on: 10 Aug 2003, 04:52:54 »
 Of course KTottE ;)

Everybody has there own tips and tricks on how to do things, and everybody makes mission their own way.

I just gave a few of my own on how I get started ;)
With all those Multiplayer maps in the pending list...
Somebody is gonna get a heart artak ;) lol!!!!!

Offline KTottE

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Re:Developing a great mission
« Reply #13 on: 10 Aug 2003, 10:33:23 »
Quote
  • Come up with a plausible reason for the mission.


"The enemy has been using this road for resupplies for the past couple of weeks, and we need you to halt their movements along that road. We can't afford them to bring more supplies to the frontlines"
or
"We need you to go on a Long Range Recon Patrol, because we believe that the enemy has a supply depot somewhere in the area, but none of our aerial reconnaissance planes has been able to spot it."

^ Kooky ;)
Your points would fall under that. As opposed to going "Wes don't like dem darned russkies, so yous gotta kill them " you go (in your case) "A russian general has done this and that  to those, and HQ are sending us in to capture him. This is some serious shit lads, there is a chopper standing by to fly this cat straight to Haag after we return him to KOLFOR HQ, the brass isn't wasting a second on this" (Added some bits of course, not that your briefing sucked ass or anything ;))

That's the plot/storyline for that mission. Then you have your actual briefing: 'The uber-l33t lads of the Royal Silver Falcons will be flown in by the allmighty Supacrash. We will be divided into two teams, Cover and Snatch. Both teams will set down here and take up positions along this ridgeline, from there Cover team will provide covering fire to keep the enemy forces at bay while Snatch team move in and seize the general. " etc.

Here are some very good pointers by snYpir. It doesn't give you much on black-op style missions, but I always thought they were too unrealistic in OFP to tell you the truth.
Would three MP5 equipped men sneak in to take out three Shilkas (as seen in the original campaign)?
Not likely.
Would a squad (say 5) of Rangers armed with automatic rifles and laserdesignators move in and paint the Shilkas for high-altitude precision bombing?
More likely.

Still working on my How-to-make-teh-l33t-missions-yo as far as planning, briefing, plot and atmosphere goes.
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'WOW What a Ride!'"

MasterSniper

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Re:Developing a great mission
« Reply #14 on: 10 Aug 2003, 22:34:36 »
Yeah, but in the original campaign they didn't exactly have the resources for a ranger team, and high precision bombing now did they?

;)