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Author Topic: (Review Completed) Marine Expeditionary Force  (Read 4091 times)

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Offline Kendo J

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(Review Completed) Marine Expeditionary Force
« on: 29 May 2006, 17:59:16 »
Kendo's USMCEF Beta v0.9 as of 10/04/06 12:00 GMT+1 British summer time
Addons needed are

OFPR v1.96

Marine Assault Pack
http://www.mtco.com/games/downloads/usmc/go.html

Editor update 102 (or newer)
http://www.ofpbase.com/pafiledb/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=760

snYpers support pack
http://operation-trident.net/downloads/spt_pack.zip

CoC UA http://www.thechainofcommand.net/UA/CoC_Arty_100.zip

CoC Mines
http://www.website.thechainofcommand.net/CoC%20Mines.htm

Jam3
http://www.ofpbase.com/pafiledb/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=740


----------------------

This mission utilizes group link 2 script by toadlife and KeyCat. This script allows the enemy AI to call for support and react to your gunfire, remember suppressed rifles and pistols have lower detection ranges. GL2 can make the AI very tricky in this case the AI will only call support if your group rating is above the group spotting you.

TACT hit effects provided with E ans S Marines has been disabled because the author can't seem to add bandages to your weapons load out. Even though they are avaliable in crates.

General Barron has provided a nice little script that allows the AI to call CoC Unified artillery. CoC does not spawn shells but fires them realsiticly, the guns are on the otherside of the island so you may, hear the whistle of shells watch them hit before you hear the guns.

Apart from CoC UA, CoC have also provided mines, the only ones used in this mission are the Mon-200 Russian style claymore and the Standard NATO Claymore. These are used to protect bunkers and aproaches to strategic positions.

snYpir's support pack allows you to call for air support. Most affective is the airstrikes, you will need these to destroy your primary targets. Amoung other things you get Evac calls and resupply missions.

Your squad marker and the medic markers move on the map, their colour and number denote the unit(s) call sign. You are Foxtrot Blue the USMc recon OP is Hotel Blue, your company HQ is Hotel Green. The medics are also Green, ALPHA and BRAVO.

Quite a few updates have been added to this mission since editing began, most of all once each radio tower is destroyed the Platoon holding it will 'form up' and secure a perimeter around the enemy HQ. This makes the second OBJ more difficult the more towers you destroy.

Regards
Kendo


CREDITS, Please all kneel and praise these Gurus of Operation Flashpoint!


The authors of CoC unified Artillery, and Mines are
dinger (dinger@thechainofcommand.com), jostapo (joel@ostapowich.com), denoir (denoir@thechainofcommand.com), bn880
(bn880@thechainofcommand.com), selectthis, gen. carnage , jonno, and Frandsen.

Infoshare, CoC AI artillery & editor update
By General Barron
aw_barron@hotmail.com


toadlife and /KeyCat for Grouplink II

Marine Assault Pack v1.0
WEBSITE: http://www.digitalgrenade.com/boom.php?usmc
Small Arms -Earl (earl@baconbomb.com) (http://www.baconbomb.com/modworks/)
Soldiers -Suchey (suchey@digitalgrenade.com) (http://www.digitalgrenade.com/)
Effects -Tactician (tactician@virtual-wars.com) (http://www.virtual-wars.com/index.php)
Sounds -Jocko FLocko(jockoflocko@rocksraiders.com) (http://www.rocksraiders.com/)

JAM Dudes:
Coding by Eviscerator and SelectThis
Scripts by Rom
Sounds by Katerina, Suchey, Flocko Jocko, RHS, Eviscerator, SelectThis,
Earl, Nagual, Vipersheart
Pictures by Suchey, Eviscerator, SelectThis
Beta Testing: BAS and Digital Grenade

Last but no least the awesome SnYpirs support pack

Also if you Have STT malden then thanks to selectthis

Here it is.....

http://operation-trident.net/xmb/viewthread.php?action=attachment&tid=148&pid=590

here is a desert version using STT desert Malden
Sorry no link avaliable
anyone can help provide one would be apreciated

http://operation-trident.net/xmb/viewthread.php?action=attachment&tid=148&pid=596

« Last Edit: 13 Aug 2008, 02:00:18 by Denz »

Offline Cheetah

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Downloading addons right now so expect a review of this mission and your other one soon.

USMC MEF II

Briefing
As before your missions are highly realistic, thus your briefings are too. Nice detail in it, I know what to do.
Oh and a nice twist with the destruction of the tower in the no-fire zone, I'm looking foward to it.

Now the part I like about these missions: selecting my gear.
I use the M4/M203 ACOG SD with a SMAW, seven magazines SD ammo and one AT missile.
The standard pistol Glock 17 SD is used as my backup weapon.

Okay, so a briefing without errors for me, as in your previous missions.

Mission
The mission starts with a nice comm check, I hope you're trying to get some voice actors, because that would look it even more realistic. After the comm check I'm waiting for the SITREP and I'm using this time to check the surroundings using my binoculars. After recieving some information on patrols and marking them on my map I make my way towards the first signal tower. The one in the no fire zone.
In staggered column formation we move out.

While carefully watching the horizon and using my binocular often, I make sure that there are no unexpected enemies in my proximity. After double checking I save the game by using the radio and am planning to use the AT rocket.
While putting the launcher on my shoulder the recon reports a patrol only 50 metres from me. So I guess that I've to wait before making my next move. After a bit of waiting I decide to take my shot after saving again. My shot missed so I had to retry, only taking one AT rocket is full of risks.

I decide that I have to see if what I'm shooting at is actually the signal tower or just some bunker way infront of it. So we move further north without being detected. Damn, appears that I was just shooting at a bunker, so I'm going to try and take it down from grid Dh80. Tower D7 destroyed, now proceeding to the next one, moving east towards Cancon.

I though that I heard some noise in a distance, was clear to me pretty soon after when there was this sound like a whistle, artillery incoming. Good for me was that the artillery was aimed 100 metres behind me, so the only thing we could do was move and do it fast. We're moving out towards the recon position to avoid Cancon and get to the next signal tower.

After a few minutes I arrive at the small town near the sea, not much happened, some artillery behind me, nothing lethal luckily. Only thing is that the OP got compromised and evacuated. Probably because of an enemy infantry squad closing in on it. Things don't look too well for me now. There's enemy squads in the east, west and most probably in the north too. But no visuals right now, my plan is to stay at this little village for a while to make a decision about what to do now.

After being in this position for about 45 seconds, with #2,3 covering west and while #4 is covering east there was the ural truck closing in on the village. Was already expecting it to come there sometime, but not this fast. Eliminating them was pretty easy, I took out the gunner and another guy in the front. While #2 opened fire with his M4 killing the other dude in front of the truck. #3 ensured that the truck wouldn't drive by using a grenade to destroy it halfway, about eight soldiers disembarked, but got killed by gunfire and another grenade. The downside of this is that my position is compromised, I don't want any artillery coming back in, so we're moving out to the east. Just to get into a safe position.

After moving 75 metres east I see an enemy squad approaching our position and order my team to go prone and look at a specific direction. The firefight was a oneway fight easily won by us, they didn't have a chance in it. But we were to move on as fast as possible to get in safety of the enemy artillery. I'm planning on destroying the signal in the north with aircraft, it will safe us some time. But to do it that way, I'll have to spot the tower somewhere near Sainte Mariei.

We're prone in the bushes south of the radio tower right now and we're about to attack the site. I'm about to let my men open fire so it's be a bit messy from now on as were doing some pretty close combat now. It's good that we're still undetected here. Oh, one thing I noticed was an AP mine, thank god that I saw it.
Well, that one will be taken care of later, first holding our position. There was a firefight three of them got shot down without even noticing it. I wasn't going to risk anything so I ordered two Napalm strikes and tried to roast any survivors so I could get to the tower without much harm.
I let the mine explode without getting hit so we could move a bit further towards the tower. I set up a perimeter after checking if the site was clean of enemy soldiers and was having some trouble deciding how to disable the tower.
#2 has to drop the AT he carries and I use it to blow up the tower, we're now moving towards Chapoi, hopefully there's no enemies there, but just in case were going to move just a bit more east around Chapoi to look if it's safe there.

On my way there I notice something like an enemy camp, probably the enemy HQ. I'm not going there until the remaining radio tower is dealt with. Chapoi appears to be clear so I'm going to use it as a fall back position just in case. I've spotted the radio tower on the hill and I'm planning on taking it out with the remaining two rockets that I got from my teammate. But I don't think that hitting the tower from Chapoi is possible, so were going to move in closer. I'm now at the shed a bit northwest of Chapoi and I think that I can take out the tower from here. So I'm going to save the mission and try, just to save my air support for the enemy HQ. As I was aiming down my sights there was an Ural driving through Chapoi towards Sainte Marie. I'm glad that they didn't see us. After my two shots it seems like that bunker is in the way so we're going to move a bit northwest now to get into a better firing position, of course after loading the game. Taking my shot from Ed71 now. It didn't work, what I'm thinking right now it that these ATs aren't strong enough (the previous one was stronger) so I'll have to use a precision bombardement. I guess the position of the radio tower by using the trees as a guideline and my compass for the direction and let a bombardement be executed. Primary objective complete.

After this there's an enemy squad coming towards our position, but they're dead in a minute or so. So I'm going to check the enemy base and order some Napalm for them. Southwest of my position, near the road there's about two squads that are engaging me. Hopefully we can take them out without casualties. I saw an enemy BMP ambulance coming down towards the position of the enemy so I see this as my chance to take out a few more of them. Damn, from the north there's coming one too, they're in the need of a lot of help it appears. I chose not to take them out, for the fear of more armour that can hurt me later on. Looks like there's about one and a half squad in my southwest left. And one truck just came to Chapoi and let out about nine soldiers there, they were quickly disposed of. Looks like that the remainder of the guys to my southwest is going to attack me right now, #2 was in the need of some ammo so I give him a mag and #3,4 are running low with one and two magazines left. But hopefully the skirmish is over pretty soon and we can move towards the enemy HQ. Okay, we're done here, I let the BMP Ambulances alive and proceed towards the fuel station. I'm trying to do this fast now, I don't want my guys to run out of ammo. Oh, the skirmish took place near Ed70.

We're about 50 metres north of the fuel station now and I'm going to wait here, there's too much movement in the camp so Napalm is needed, got two strikes left, hope that it'll be enough. Hmm, damnit, a no fire zone over there, what a nice surprise you have for me here. Okay, this will get a pretty hard fight then. Moved a bit towards Chapoi to get to the truck that had about nine men in it. Let #2 take an AKM and #3 an RPK and #4 gets a mag from me. I remember that I can use a resupply drop so I let it drop some mags for us to stock all of us on M4 SD mags, so #2,3 take back their M4 and after the little rearming we're closing in on the enemy camp from the northeast. I let my men go prone and order them in a line, before luring the enemy by shooting one of them down. Hopefully they will catch the bait.
They did and we had it quite easy there, almost got hit though, an enemy grenadier managed to shoot one grenade in a hurry but missed. I have enough of this and advance with my team taking care of an officer, and several other soldiers, including spetz natz.

There are more squads closing in on us, because there's smoke to the west and a truck, can't see infantry movement but I know what we've to be fast. So I take a satchel from the depot and use a timer of 120 seconds after that I regroup and we head to Chapoi where I ordered our pickup. 20 seconds left to pickup, and the fuel depot blows up. Oh even better timing, I see an officer coming and shoot him. Can't wait to get in the chopper. I wait until all of them get in before I get in and we leave.

Debriefing
Duration: 1 h, 18 minutes
Score: 11000 (five stars)
Objectives ticked off.

Please check your debriefing for typos etc. there's some of them that you'll notice right away.

Conclusion
A mission I did REALLY enjoy, that's why the report is kinda long, sorry about that guys:-\
But Kendo I hope that you can do something with this beta report, a fantastic experience it was, going to play the other missino tomorrow I think. To me it looked like there were no errors, but you may have noticed some things not going the way you wanted them to go.
« Last Edit: 02 Jun 2006, 02:07:27 by Cheetah »
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Offline Wolfrug

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Right. What to say, what to say?
Veteran Mode. ECP mod activated.

Briefing/Overview

Looked very good and professional, a nice template for all kinds of realism-striving missions I'd say. Told me everything I needed to know and more. I am curious about how they knew the exact weapon loadouts and numbers of the OPFOR forces though, or why in fact there would be a need to list them. In that case they would probably have known the location of the enemy HQ as well, no? Interestingly I think the briefing at some point mentioned that there's a NATO no-fire zone over the ammo dump, due to it being close to a civilian fuel station. :P didn't take too long to find the only civilian fuel station inside the operation area, and thereby the enemy HQ as well. Might want to mark the no-fire zones on the map beorehand (I didn't try, but I suppose the cities were no-fire zones as well, right?) so that the player can make his own conclusions about where he can use precision bombs and where he can't. Anyway, I pick my weapons (giving the machinegun to #4 as heavy support, in case there's need) and head off!

Intro

No such thing. A pity, really. Maybe show the Marines landing the night before, setting up camp, und so weiter? Maybe show a "sattelite feed" of one of the radio towers, if for no other reason than to show everyone what exactly the tower is supposed to look like. But it's no biggie, I suppose.

Mission.

Ahh. Here we go. Radio chatter would be nice if it were actual radio chatter, but I know how hard it can be to get voices and such. Question : is there an actual script running, or does it simply repeat the same phrases over and over again? Since throughout the times I played the mission, I never got any other co-ordinates than the same three (the motorized patrol, the two radio towers). Or maybe it did, and I just didn't pay attention. :) So, I mark the locations given on the map, and head off. Soon, I find one of the radio towers off in the distance, the one in the no-fire zone. Playing it safe, I take the SMAW off #2, save, and get to shooting. Amazingly, I actually manage to hit, and the tower goes down in flames (only time I managed to blow it up from 700 meters in a single shot). Happily, I continue on in search of the enemy base, avoiding the Ural patrolling the road. Suddenly, I'm under attack. After a couple of moments of fruitless combat (my SD weaponry useless at that distance), I die.

Retry.

I go through the forest, on the way, I spot some tents through the trees. Creeping up, I determine it's the enemy camp. Somewhere in there is the ammo dump. I try attacking it a couple of times, fruitlessly. I'm really not the best OFP player, and at those distances an enemy with non-HD weapons numerically superior and with backup just a phonecall away, me and my three grunts really don't stand much of a chance. I try from a bunch of different directions, but it all really leads to the same : I get asskicked by the guards, or if I survive, I get asskicked by the reinforcements. Also, I failed to bring satchel charges, and since the ammo store didn't have any, I sort of stood there, looking at the bastard crates and unable to destroy them. *sigh*

I tried precision-striking the other two towers, and that is quite easy. In particular since you can save, try, watch if it misses, retry if it does, ad infinitum. And staying out of the way of patrols isn't difficult, thanks to it being daytime and the terrain being so open.

Finally I admit to having finished the mission in a rather cheap way. First, I ambushed the motor patrol, killing everyone in a matter of moments. A little while later, the BMP ambulance drives up, and I kill everyone in it as well. Then I commandeer the ambulance, and simply drive straight into the enemy HQ and over the crates, destroying them. I then proceed with driving straight up to the base of each tower and ordering a precision strike on my location (except for the first tower, which I blow up with a SMAW). Ordering an extraction back at the southern tip by the lighthouse, I fly home, victorious and unharmed. Thanks to the weaksauce JAM RPGs, my ambulance could withstand several glancing hits without going up in flames. It also seems they really can't aim with them things, and I only got hit once by accident. And since there are no tanks, and the altillery is far too slow, there's really nothing they can do about my advance. Yay.

Comments/suggestions

This mission was a bit too hard for a crappy OFP player like myself : I just can't do what the previous reviewer did; kill off several full squads with just my four man team and walk off victoriously into the sunset. And the assault on the HQ has to be a very quick in-out deal ; get in, kill everyone, plant satchels, get out before reinforcements arrive. In theory it sounds good, and I'm sure someone more skilled than me could pull it off. But I myself when I try to overcome the enemy AI usually have the strategy of slooowly crawling up to the enemy position, sniping off all those prone, stationary bastards that are just waiting for you to stand up and charge, until it's all clear. With the GL script, a slow assault just isn't possible. The only alternative to a slow advance is altillery or air support, of which there was none in this case. Which makes the HQ objective far the hardest, in my opinion. Maybe with another bunch of tries (such as mapping out the exact location of every single guard) I could have hacked it, but I just didn't have the patience.

How to fix? Don't know, really. I believe it was just my own lack of skill that led to failure, but hm. Make the ammo dump closer to the wood (makes sense, anyway : it needs to be camouflaged from air attack), position  a few guards around it, and let the player slip in from the wood, kill the guards, place the satchels, and run off before the rest of the HQ has time to react.

What else? Hm. The SD weapons -> quite useless in my opinion. I don't know if actual such MEF expeditions prefer supressed weapons on these kinds of raids, maybe they do ; but from a gaming point of view they're really not useful. They are inaccurate and have less damage, making fighting at long distances (which most of the fighting is in OFP) harder. Also, the detection range might be shorter, but once the enemy has spotted you, the GL2 script kicks in and you'll be hunted wheter you've got SD weapons or not. The only time these weapons could be useful is when you're planning on ambushing and killing either a "safe" mode patrolling squad, or stationary guards. Then, if fast enough, you'd have the chance to kill everyone before they have time to radio for help. I suppose it's an engine thing though : you can ambush and kill an entire squad two hundred meters from another, but as long as the other squad doesn't actually see you, you'll probably be safe.

Hm.

The airsupport works fine, as does the extraction. GL2 is a bit unnecessary really -> if I remember correctly, it awards you points depending on what kind of weapons you have. A LAW soldier gets 10 points or so, while a normal guy gets 1 point. Ergo, if you bring a SMAW, you're considered a roughly 13-man team, which means that any group seeing you will ALWAYS call for backup anyway. One way of making GL2 useful though is to have a couple of BMPs/tanks standing by somewhere far off. That way, the player really has to stay on his or her toes to avoid attracting too much attention. You're not -supposed- to engage every group you see, right?

Oh, and on the radio towers -> you should mention someplace that the best way to kill them is to hit the little building next to them. Hitting the tower itself might just be impossible as far as I know (I tried...a lot), but a shot to the building will have it crashing down real soon. (you can weave this into the briefing by adding a note about "how it is imperative the transformer building is demolished, as the tower structure itself can always be repaired..." or somesuch.

Conclusion

A polished mission, with no bugs as far as I can tell, everything from start to finish seems to work just fine. The altillery works alright, although it is famously slow to respond (should take a maximum of 30 seconds for a mortar team to shoot off their first shells from the moment they get the co-ordinates. Sheeze.), snYpir's support pack looks and feels a charm, and GL2 does indeed force the player to stay on his toes at all times. Just a bit too hard for someone like me, I suppose. I suggest moving the ammo dump closer to the edge of the wood, and maybe adding some late tank-support (if nothing else to deter from killing sprees/mad BMP ambulance driving). Add an intro and outro, and you've got yourself a package. Nice work!

Wolfrug out.
« Last Edit: 07 Jun 2006, 13:47:10 by Wolfrug »
"When 900 years YOU reach, look as good you will not!"

Offline mathias_eichinger

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Hi, here's what I experienced with the mission!


Overview

The text is quite good but I would like to see a picture.


Intro

None present. I think every mission profits from an Intro so it would be good to see one in the next version.


Briefing

Simply perfect. One could not expect more from a briefing than you have done here. Very good job!


Mission

I liked the comm check and the sitrep with the OP. I advanced trought the forest northward towards Delta Seven. Managed to destray it with the AT missile and it took 3 tries to run away without losses.
Now I am running eastwards towards Echo Seven. Suddenly rounds are coming down right behind me. Really awesome!
I fight with and eliminate one infantry patrol.
I work my way in prone position from the south trough the forest at Echo Seven, kiling OPFOR as I advance. After I cleared the hill I run northwards and take a distance to call an airstrike. It successfully destroys the tower and I get an appropriate radio message that I destroyed the objective (as for D7 as well).

Running towards the road I encounter another patrol and 4 gets wounded in the firefight. I decide to call a  medic who arrives by heli and fast ropes down. What a cool effect! Oh, and I did like the chopper dust script you used.
The chopper has attracted unwanted attention and the medic gets killed by a troop from the south. I run towards the road and Foxtrot Seven but a truck patrol intercepts and kills me. Running brings you the warm welcome of the infantry + BMP which are still there. So I take a long jog southeast and cross the road much farther east. I can hear gunfire in the distance and have no idea who is fighting there...

I head for the mountains where I have a wonderful overview of the area. I spot the F7 tower and my guess on its location on the map was accurate (It does not appear as an object on the map) - airstrike successful. Because I did not want to sting into a hornet's nest before I completed the primary objectives I attempted to destroy the ammo dump only then. A bad idea and I only tried it once....seems impossible to me after the destruction of the three towers.
Anyway, I put some distance between me and the radio tower by climbing farther north towards the mountain and I call the helo extract.

The helo arrives, lands on a plateau between tow peaks but it would not lift off after 1-2 minutes on 4 x speed. People waiting on normal speed would easily endmission this. I don't know wether this is a bug or not.
It finally does and I drop off at the home base.
But despite I got the appropriate radio messages, I failed the mission and the objectives did not tick off (the first one should as I destroyed all towers). Please look into this, it is the only bug I encountered.


Overall

An excellent mission due to its realistic setting and the use of Snypirs support pack. You really feel hunted and it keeps you on your toes all the time. A feeling one rarely experiences in "Black Op" mission. But I would keep out the artillery. It seems highly unrealistic that someone would hunt for a 4-man team with artillery.
The inclusion of an Intro and Outro and the clearing of the Objective-tick-off-bug would make this one a nearly perfect experience. Keep up the good work

Cheers

Mathias

Offline Denz

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This mission has been reviewed by schuler
Further discussion is to take place in the comments section of the MD.
« Last Edit: 08 Jul 2008, 06:31:53 by Denz »
I've got 'em right where I want 'em - surrounded from the inside!
Jerry "Mad Dog" Shriver, SOG Recon One-Zero
24/09/41 - 24/04/69