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Author Topic: (Review Completed) [SP] Abandoned Armies  (Read 214680 times)

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Offline THobson

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Re:Abandoned Armies
« Reply #75 on: 04 Feb 2005, 17:43:50 »
I searched for all sorts of objects to use as a case.  In the end I used a light fitting buried so that only the top shows.  But I couldn't delete it with the code I use to create it.  I like the idea in the script of requiring the player to carry a grenade.  Much more realistic.

I made the AV and AP mines as much as an exercise as anything else, but found little use for them when playing the mission apart from putting the odd AV mine on the road behind me to: 1. alert me if a vehicle was approaching, and 2. to make sure that, unless it was heavy armour, that it didn't reach me.

I contemplated putting a few ap mines down and then luring the loons in - but eventually realised that droping them with HKs was safer and more effective, especially with my deliquent squad to worry about.  Scattering them around 3 will guarantee a lot of kills - but those guys would be taken out by the opposition anyway.

Yes the north group is in the woods to the NW and south group in the woods to the SE.  Either could cause a probem if the player gets lost looking for the respective civis.

djackl

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Re:Abandoned Armies
« Reply #76 on: 04 Feb 2005, 18:24:06 »
Ok just attempted the ambush. The m2a2 was demobilised by the AV mine I set, however the Vulcan (which clearly doesnt get affected by fog :D) shot my squad and then I got overwhelmed by the infantry that disembarked from the trucks. Will try a new plan :D

Offline rado1265

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Re:Abandoned Armies
« Reply #77 on: 04 Feb 2005, 19:06:59 »
For the end I dePBOed your mission and, WOW :wow:! You surely will beat one of the records: the number of scripts per mission.

Good luck with the mission!

karantan out
« Last Edit: 04 Feb 2005, 19:11:19 by karantan »

Offline macguba

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Re:Abandoned Armies
« Reply #78 on: 04 Feb 2005, 21:31:40 »
You left me overlooking the airfield from the south.   I made one attempt to go round to the right, just for fun, but there is no cover and thanks to my wretched 2 we were spotted.    I abandoned the firefight halfway through.   Attempted then to head west, with a view to clearing St Louis and then coming at the airfield from the west, a more promising angle.   The comp started to feel  heavy and I suspected a few baddies around.   Sure enough there are.   There were a couple of attempts at this because I kept being interupted but the most entertaining was when a convoy of two trucks and a vulcan came past when we were just too far away to ambush them.   The trucks stopped just as my loons started calling a patrol to our right.   I thought - wrongly - that the trucks were disgorging men so I took my lot off hold fire and attacked.    We took out half the convoy but one truck got away up the road to our left, where it did disgorge troops.   Another patrol - at least one - turned up to help and we were surrounded on three sides.    Armed all with bizons except my M21 we gave a good account of ourselves, and the firefight finished with all my loons dead and me skulking around some bushes finishing off the remnants of the last patrol from a few feet with my trusty silenced Glock.   I nearly went on, but decided for testing purposes I needed some squad.

Picked up the savegame and sent 2 back to my little base since he is only a liability.    He thinks his squad position is about 20m in front of me and he is quite happy to stand up to get there.   (Everybody else is in the right place.)     We advance cautiously towards the road and cross it behind the convoy leaving one AV mine and two APs sited up and down the road to catch any infantry bailing out of a damaged lorry.     Move on and hear many explosions up on the La Trinite plateau.    Then suddenly the screen freezes as the computer has a serious crash.    Power off and on the only option, which makes if feel like a comp crash rather than a mission or OFP one.

We move into St Louis, place AV right on the crossroads and attack the little base there which turns out to be empty.    While I'm putting the fire out (the fires should all go out when it's light enough) a jeep/mg patrol rolls into town.   The first three are all damaged by the blast and I snipe the survivors.   I don't know if there is another and am wondering whether to move when the fourth comes round the corner and I drop the crew.    Check there were no survivors then leg it north - I don't want to hang around for the comeback, though I'm not even sure we were properly detected.    

Got to the woods and turned east to head back towards the airfield.   Found a vulcan in the trees on the outskirts which I toasted with a satchel, then as we regrouped a woman civvy ran from the direction of the airfield right past us.   I caught up with her but she didn't feel like chatting and kept moving.

Settled into my bush to do a bit of sniping and discovered that I was sharing it with another sniper to whom I gave the good news.   Borrowed his Dragunov and started looking around.   1 squad of about 4 standing near the west gate;  1 squad of about 7 lying in the middle of the field, near a single bloke;  a sneaky sniper in a bush on the far side; a few loons lying around, mostly facing south; a Russian chopper hovering over the whole;  what might be an empty tank off towards the north;  what I thought was a brad at the fuel station is in fact a vulcan, possibly damaged.

Got popping.   Took down pretty much all the loons listed above although a couple ran out of my line of sight.    Many of them were 500m away so no comeback.    I had my own loons behind be watching all directions on hold fire.    I was just looking for new targets and wondering whether to switch position or leg it while we had the chance when an Abrams drove up to the fuel station.   Hmmm, thinks I.   Then some new infantry start running around - new targets thinks I.   I'm just lining up on a chap when he unshoulders his LAW and starts pumping rounds into the Abrams!   Who-hoo!   This must be an attack by the Southrons!

At this point I am reminded of another point.   Nobody has any way of telling the Northrons from the Southrons, since they are mixed up.    Choose a couple of nice flags from the flag pack - there are several non-national ones or just enjoy the prospect of a fight between Greenland and Bhutan - and scatter them around a bit.    If you can make vehicles carry them, or make them appear on the sides of vehicles (I think you can do that, or maybe its arm patches) it will help the atmosphere a great deal.    Flagpoles in towns and bases that change as required of course.    The civvies could even have a flag, which they could raise whenever the get the chance.
« Last Edit: 04 Feb 2005, 22:37:49 by macguba »
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Offline THobson

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Re:Abandoned Armies
« Reply #79 on: 04 Feb 2005, 21:41:28 »
@djackl
Lol ;)

@karantan
Yes but they mostly quite small.

@macguba

Quote
but one truck got away up the road to our left, where it did disgorge troops.
It should have done that earlier, in fact shortly after it noticed you - I am sure you remember the code.

Quote
sent 2 back to my little base since he is only a liability
Is that something I can do anything about?  That is Ruslan, he is just a normal civi grouped to a resistance soldier (Karl) when you find him, just the same as Erik and Irena.

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Then suddenly the screen freezes as the computer has a serious crash.    Power off and on the only option, which makes if feel like a comp crash rather than a mission or OFP one.
Oh dear, well I hope it is not mission related.

Quote
.... this shouldn't take long.
I believe you said this a few posts back ;)


I am puzzled by the loons being in combat mode in the base.  Could some of Stamenov's lot (the chopper maybe) have got to them first?  

EDIT:
Roughly how long in game time is it since you heared the "...we seem to have got them fighting..." message?


At the moment I am trashing towns on behalf of Stamenov.
« Last Edit: 04 Feb 2005, 22:05:22 by THobson »

Offline macguba

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Re:Abandoned Armies
« Reply #80 on: 04 Feb 2005, 22:40:21 »
New post to keep things in the right order.

I first arrived at 3 at 08:00.    I took that screenshot shortly after 8.30 so the "fighting" message was probably about 8.40.   It's now 09:50 and the battle has been on the airfield for a few minutes.   Call it an hour and change after they started fighting each other.    I've seen no evidence of fighting between them anywhere between 3 and here.

The attacking infantry came through the gateway roughly due east of the fuel station btw.

If you haven't done anything to Ruslan (it is him) then I don't know what it is.    For a while I suspected it was something to do with all the joining and unjoining:  when some of a group of 4 civvies have left your group, and some haven't, you get funny things happening in your group as you probably know.

I havne't spotted a field hosptial on the airfield - there should be one, unless you that building with a red cross on the roof can heal you.     Although there has been an attack on the airfield I don't think the Brad and T80 haven't come out from behind the buildings, although they may have left before I got round to this position.    There is a Vulcan beyond the fence on the far (eastern) side and a chopper flying around banging away.  

That woman comes running past us again, this time from the south.  Or maybe a different one.    I start to move position slightly and somebody calls contacts at 100m.    One or two squads in combat mode are approaching from the northwest.     We drop them.... actually I allowed myself a second attempt, as in the first the medic was the only casualty (why is it always him?) and I was wounded, which would have make things tedious.    

There is a burning tank to the south of the airfield, it could be a T80.   There are still soldiers around the fuel depot:    the attack squad I think settled in the east of the airfield, out of sight of the loons on the west side of the fuel station.   I shot a couple of the attack squad as they just lay there and the rest ran off.     In other words I suspect that the attack has not been either completely successful or completely repulsed.   Still it was fun shooting that LAW soldier after he'd run out of rockets.  ;D

We're in the shit now:  they know where we are we're partly covered by the M2 and other loons at the fuel depot.   I drop the loons and we start to move, but a T80 appears to our west.   It is dealt with by my boys and possibly a Russian chopper which flies over us.   It looks clear and rashly I save.   Unfortunately we are caught in the crossfire of two snipers on the airfield - I'm totally stuck.    The problem is that there is also a Bradley bearing down on us.   The chopper is too far down the list to be an issue.    However, I could be in real trouble here.   :-[ :(
« Last Edit: 04 Feb 2005, 23:49:20 by macguba »
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djackl

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Re:Abandoned Armies
« Reply #81 on: 04 Feb 2005, 22:43:51 »
At the moment I am trashing towns on behalf of Stamenov.

Forgot to mention, I keep getting stuck in the destroyed buildings of La Trinite thanks to OFP's awful collision detection not allowing me to move within a few feet of a broken building  >:(. Doubt there is anything you can do about that though  :(

Offline THobson

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Re:Abandoned Armies
« Reply #82 on: 05 Feb 2005, 00:18:46 »
@djackl

Just hit the deck and crawl for a while.  Thank goodness it doesn't seem to catch the AI units or it would be a mess.

@macguba

I have always dreded saving just before getting the bullet.  I hope you get out of it okay.  Glad to see the southrons got to the base - they don't always.  There is some symetry - if you stick with it long enough to get to the south base there may be a northron wreck or two there as well.

Great to see you spotted the woman.  A little joke of mine.  I have never seen her!!

Flags  - what a great idea.  Arm-bands and on vehicles - gee where to start on that!?

I spent quite a while positioning those snipers.
« Last Edit: 05 Feb 2005, 00:21:49 by THobson »

Offline macguba

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Re:Abandoned Armies
« Reply #83 on: 05 Feb 2005, 00:45:25 »
Yeah the lady was fun.   ;D  


setObjectTexture

I believe - I've never used it.


For flags, create a flagpole on an offshore island and give it a flag in the usual way with setFlagTexture.  Then give that flag to somebody somebody with a setFlagOwner command.    They will carry it and if they get in a vehicle it will appear on the vehicle.    A simple looping script assigning it to the leader of the group will keep things straight.   You don't need one for every group of course.   This is all theory btw, I haven't tested it.

I know how long it takes to place these snipers, and the ones I saw were done right.    They are a bit sneaky and unrealistic though.    I'm pinned by two who have left their original positions and are on the body of the airfield:  I'm still next to the bush in Ga23.     Consider taking one or two out - the mission is hard enough already.   Althuogh of course having fewer makes it harder to find one which means its less likely you'll know they are there ....
« Last Edit: 05 Feb 2005, 00:50:49 by macguba »
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Offline THobson

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Re:Abandoned Armies
« Reply #84 on: 05 Feb 2005, 02:10:02 »
Quote
They are a bit sneaky and unrealistic though
I was not trying to be sneaky, any base will be covered by snipers and I just made myself into a sniper (or several) and then thought about where I would find cover.  And when I couldn't find cover I used General Barron's editor addon to make some. ;D

Quote
I'm pinned by two who have left their original positions and are on the body of the airfield
I gave them all a doStop.  Maybe I should also do a disableAI move or something to keep them in cover.  Just to add a little to your discomfort, they are all in the same group so if one knows about you, they all do.  Don't get killed.  The weather might change. ;)

I am really (my kids would say 'totally') warming to the idea of these flags.  That's what's great about you mac, you open up so many more possibilities than I originally think of, so what starts out, in my mind, as 'nearly finished' becomes embarrasingly embrionic.  I am long past wishing I had done more work on it before posting this mission.

Bye the way I have tried to arrange things so the second base (whichever you go for first) is a different experience.

Quote
Yeah the lady was fun.
She is not so much fun now I am afraid - she has a man friend.  SEAL84 will know what I mean ;)

Bye the way, the building with the big red cross on it is a field hospital on steroids.  Tanks can't run over it and the odd misplaced rpg will not do too much either.

Just re-reading some of your posts.  This is a concern (thanks for spotting it):
Quote
Although there has been an attack on the airfield I don't think the Brad and T80 haven't come out from behind the buildings,
« Last Edit: 05 Feb 2005, 02:25:49 by THobson »

Offline macguba

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Re:Abandoned Armies
« Reply #85 on: 05 Feb 2005, 02:41:38 »
doStop only works until the enemy is detected, or something.  I had this problem in unimpossible.    Can't remember exactly what the answer is but check out some of the snipers there for the code in their init fields.   Them being in the same group is probably why it's so hard at present.    

Glad you like the flag idea.   :)   Also glad the field hospital is there and works.

I have, in reasonably close succession been attacked in my current spot by a T80 (deceased) and Bradley (part of the current problem), which may be them.   I doubt I'll be able to check soon because I'll have to leg it when I get out of this mess.   They twice came to get us when we were spotted failing to sneak round the southeastern corner of the airfield.

All beta missions seem to "go backwards" when the first public version comes out.  That's why my sticky post bangs on about when you think its finished, its ready for beta testing.
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Offline SEAL84

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Re:Abandoned Armies
« Reply #86 on: 05 Feb 2005, 04:25:39 »
She is not so much fun now I am afraid - she has a man friend.  SEAL84 will know what I mean ;)

Funny that I saw her in La Trinite during the major combat there...she just ran down the street, right by my hidey-hole.

I take it this is the same woman we spoke about earlier, Thobson?  Heh heh heh...
« Last Edit: 05 Feb 2005, 04:25:56 by SEAL84 »

Offline THobson

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Re:Abandoned Armies
« Reply #87 on: 05 Feb 2005, 09:11:18 »
@macguba
You mentioned the camp at Saint Louis being empty.  I also think that was after you had attacked the airbase.  In which case it is okay.  Empty camps are what you will now find if you go looking.  You have given Andropov a problem, he has two fights on his hands and by now all of guys on the island should be involved with one or the other.

Bye the way I like your comment about needing to be subtle about obvious things and obvious about subtle things.  After trying my hand (or should I say mouth) at the voice acting bit I have taken to watching how real actors behave.  Their behaviours are much more extreme than I had realised before.

I had left all that 'flags on vehicles' stuff to the makers of multi-player missions.  A whole new area for me to research. :-\ :)

@SEAL84
Spot on. ;D  I am jealous that two of you have seen her and I haven't.  Anyway I have had my joke.  She will not feature in the final mission, there is a danger her behaviour would be unrealistic.


@djackl or XCess or bedges or Tarados Queng or 456820 etc.
If you have all gone to do other things with your lives, then thank you so much for trying my mission and for the comments you have made.  They will help me with the next version.  I hope you enjoyed this one enough to try the next version when it comes out - but don't hold your breath there is a lot I need to do to it first.

But if you are being put off by what has become almost a dialogue between mac and I then please don't.  Not only are his stories fun to read, they also tell me a huge amount about how the mission is behaving.  From his story about Saint Louis I know that the loons there seem to have done what they were meant to and I also learned something about the mg/jeeps.  I also know I need to look at how the snipers behave and perhaps their number, I need to look at the behaviour of the Southron attack units when they hit the camp, and maybe even look at their number if only an Abrams got through etc. etc.  There is a lot of randomness in the mission that makes testing it all myself pretty much impossible.

So thank you for your help and if you are still trying it it would be helpful know what you are seeing.


EDIT:
mac.  I had another look at Un-Impossible.  The snipers are pretty much the same, we have both used doStop.  The only differences are:
- yours have a conditonal probability of existing, I did do that then put them all back to 100%.  It seemd a shame to spend all that time figureing out where they each should go knowing that they might not exist anyway.  Maybe I should revert
- we both seem to be giving them NVGs and binoculars
« Last Edit: 05 Feb 2005, 10:12:48 by THobson »

Offline XCess

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Re:Abandoned Armies
« Reply #88 on: 05 Feb 2005, 09:21:26 »
Actually, I was just off to restart in a clean version to avoid lag. And yup, surely did experience the ECP savegame bug but I've been experiencing it with pretty much everything after the fresh install.
Recently I've just been watching the thread prgress and gettin all excited but not actually gettin any time to play.
« Last Edit: 05 Feb 2005, 09:22:33 by XCess »

Offline THobson

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Re:Abandoned Armies
« Reply #89 on: 05 Feb 2005, 09:42:16 »
@Xcess
Lol.  That's fine.  Thanks.

I am struggling to keep this mission away from the large savegame bug even with out ECP.  The idea of putting markers down to show the areas controlled by each side could well signal the end of my mines :'(.  Each marker needs its own name and the number of names used appears to be a component of the problem.  I will need to do a drastic review of the names I use in this mission and cut out all those that are not necessary (If only I had known about this at the start).  I hate making changes like this, it is so easy to miss something, take out an important name and so create a bug.

Bye the way:  Is it true that the workaround of renaming (or moving) the save file, restarting the mission and then alt-tabing to get the save file back always works?  It has for me but I don't know if it can always be relied on.

@SEAL84
I am still trying to figure out what happened to the Southron convoy.  Were you in the town when it arrived or did you sneak in while it was there?


EDIT:
Bye the way - my other half has insisted that I take some time off this weekend - and she doesn't mean from my job either.  I will look in when I can.
« Last Edit: 05 Feb 2005, 10:17:10 by THobson »