(Review Completed) [CAMP] Perpetua

[Planck]

Don't know what "semper fi" is, it's a line displayed towards the end.

Semper fi is a shortening of "Semper Fidelis" and is Latin for "Always faithful."


Planck

[mathias_eichinger]

Hi Bardosy, I was able to give this a final test :-)

I liked the intro with the officer fleeing in his Uaz; but the short one directly before the mission was a bit dark. Maybe you can redo it with NVGs?
In the beginning of the mission I began quite some hike towards the objective with much to read to avoid boredom.
The fight in the village was just right, I had to be careful and there were not so much enemies that it would have been impossible.
I cleared every house and barn, even the one with the sniper and the cows ;-)

When I was close to the village center (close to the pub) my squadmates managed to kill Ninja and I had to reload. I cleared all the cleverly placed enemies from all houses and did the same with the pub.

When I captured Ninja, a dramatic change of fate occured...but I was able to escape the Americans. Only #4 and #10 got stuck somewhere and werd killed.

I really liked the story twist and the outro of your campaign! Well done, and I hope to see more of your work!


Greetings

Mathias

[bardosy]

@Cheetah

Don't know what "semper fi" is, it's a line displayed towards the end.

"Semper Fidel(ity?)" It's a USMC warcry. But I will replace it, because I could extract the Mickey Mouse Club song from the Full Metal Jacket movie. And I want insert it into the marsh of USMC.

weird that instead of taking the APC the communist leader takes the jeep

Well. If I think for a communist leader, I imagine a fat boy. The fatboys hate the APCs...

Don't like the length, for me the camera moved too slow when it moved towards the summit.

I want protect the player to climb up the hill with stupid AI and I made this intro... Thanks your suggestion, I will shorten it.

Some special ops are moving into action, suspicious...

SpecOps are the Pajaro's bodyguards...

Oh, the conversation with the officer should kick ina bit later, right now I can't read it as it's on the background of the radio chatter.

My problem is: I must stop the action until cutscene (chat and briefing change). I disableAI to all enemy and friendly units and I slow down the time (0.7) to gain time to expiant he player what happened. So I have short time. And I couldn't explain enough the 'house where rose died' tricky positioning codeword, because the time shortage.

they all get out but are an easy prey for my SAW. Only 20 bullets left after killing all of them though.

Well, so it was not a challange...
But I will remove the pistol form officer (he use it, but he had an M4). And I will pop up their skills to highest. Maybe...


Thank you for testplay!

[Cheetah]

Well those CIA guys weren't really a challenge indeed. I saw where the helicoper wanted to land, moved over there and started pumping bullets into the chopper. The pilot and copilot didn't survive that and all the men in the cargo disembarked and but didn't shoot me as my team was at the crash site as well.

The campaign is fine, if you could get the voice actors... 

[bardosy]

Cheetah, I removed the ammo from blackhawk to avoid the massacre... But maybe I reload the minigun and the player will avoid to close the landing site.

Voiceover: Once I really tried make voiceover (for my german campaign) but it comletly failed... I think it's a huge work with oranising the actors, who delay or forget... For a mission it's not so big problem (fewer actors, fewer lines), but for a campaign... unbelievable. For this reason I volunted to you for voice acting for Royal Security. I want steal technology and tricks, how you will do it...

[Trapper]

v0.5

Capriccio
The RACS Sniper model without a helmet would better fit this stealth mission.
I couldn't finish the mission because I was injured/crawling and couldn't board the boat.

Dead End
Intro: Ibanez is the only one with a rifle in the tent, that looks strange.
The BRDM crews do disembark in the ambush, too. Or is that just because the BRDMs are effected by small arms fire?
For me the "small attack" on the enemy base before extraction is unlogical. The real mission development cancels it anyways but why should we fight our way through an enemy base with the vulnerable truck, if an extraction at the radio station is possible? (Maybe 1.Radio Station 2.Ambush 3.Truck to Radio Station 4.Black Hawk 5.Attack on Base 6.Black Hawk Evac)
I don't know if there are always enough cargo places in the Black Hawk, but I would place a third crewmen on the copilot seat to block it for infantry.

Nicest
Delta Team wasn't much of a help. I didn't know that the radio command called them only once and only to my position. Instead it should work unlimited and with onmapsingleclick.
Outro: Typo "right side is clear"

Long Knife
Briefing: The first time I was looking for them... is it possible that there are no grenades in the gear selection over the whole campaign?
Cutscenes: All cutscenes (mountain, black hawk) were to dark to see without nightvision.
Could you reduce the execution to three or four shots or at least one magazine? It looked overacted.
I'd like  this mission much more than Ghosts. Either Perpetua and Patch 1.05 finally got me into ArmA gameplay, or nightvision advantage and lower grass did it.

Really a campaign like it should have shipped with ArmA.  The number of "static" missions is ok like this.

[bardosy]

The RACS Sniper model without a helmet would better fit this stealth mission.

Great idea! I'll do it!

I couldn't finish the mission because I was injured/crawling and couldn't board the boat.

If I will a timer sript (if player not in boat in 1 minute after he arrived the extraction area, 'player moveInCargo boat' happen), it could help or it's too violent?

Ibanez is the only one with a rifle in the tent, that looks strange.

I found only two talk animation: one without weapon (I used it for Wolfsteiner) and other one with weapon (I used it for Ibanez). In the campaign outro, I used the same talk anim for two person and it was strange...

For me the "small attack" on the enemy base before extraction is unlogical.

I know, I did not explain it in the briefing, but: RACS have no blackhawk and they couldn't extract heavy cretes by LittleBird, so they choose the boat extraction... Finally the CIA goy 'handle' an american extraction with BH. (and this and the heavy counter-attack cancelled the boat extraction). I thought this, but I will thinking about a better way. BTW, I packed the first relased version (1.0), so I will do this change only in 1.01.

I don't know if there are always enough cargo places in the Black Hawk, but I would place a third crewmen on the copilot seat to block it for infantry.

Thanks! I did it in the Long Knife, but forgot here... Thanks!
And I made a script (just for fun) when player arrived with ural, he can unload cargo (a crete) from ural and when BH start extraction, crete attached to the chopper...

Delta Team wasn't much of a help.

They follow you to everywhere. (But AI can't climb in the slope and they are very slow). They didn't go where you call tham, but follow you until they reach the highland (fortress), then they stop (they can shoot the enemy) and they replace your squad (eg. if you lose 3 men, they give you 3 men).

is it possible that there are no grenades in the gear selection over the whole campaign?

Is it possible. Usualy the soldiers bring their original equipment with grenades and I didn't give the player additional grenades. Should I?

All cutscenes (mountain, black hawk) were to dark to see without nightvision.

Mountain OK, I'll. But Blackhawk... I used NVG for this cutscene, but you can't see the half of this cutscene, because the NVG starting process (blind) it happened for a long time (becuse I slow down the real time for get enough time to explain what happened).

Could you reduce the execution to three or four shots or at least one magazine? It looked overacted.

I'm affraid not. If I give him only one clip, he will run for ammo to the jeep.
I just use doFire command and it cause this. The command 'fire' do nothing here...
Have you any other suggestion? (I think you are better in scripting, like me)

Really a campaign like it should have shipped with ArmA.

Thank you very much!!!

[bardosy]

@Cheetah!!!! Help me!

Your problem (no thicked objectives) infect my campaign...
Now in my PC also not thicked.

Very strange: in the mission everything is fine. If I change to the map, I see the objectives: thick, fail or hide... But when the mission ends, in the debriefing:
- no thicks
- hidden objectives seen

Addition: I use setIdentity to main characters. In the mission it works, but in the debrief seen my real name, not the main character. (see the attachments!)

Have you same in your campaign? (In editor preview and single missions works, only in campaign not)

[Cheetah]

Hey bardosy,

Yes I'm experiencing the same strange stuff, I don't know what's causing the problem, because the BIS campaign has the problem with the objectives too.

And as you may have read, the setIdentity works okay for the player but gives some issues to overwin when using it on a friendly officer.

The problem is that I have no idea how to solve this, will have to look deeper into it. I might find a clue by doing that.

[bardosy]

If is this a bug, can we inform BIS?

I mean, the players inform BIS about general bugs, but only us know this (campaign editing) bug...

[Trapper]

I couldn't finish the mission because I was injured/crawling and couldn't board the boat.

If I will a timer sript (if player not in boat in 1 minute after he arrived the extraction area, 'player moveInCargo boat' happen), it could help or it's too violent?

A blackout-ending when the boat reached the coast would be less violent.

For me the "small attack" on the enemy base before extraction is unlogical.

I know, I did not explain it in the briefing, but: RACS have no blackhawk and they couldn't extract heavy cretes by LittleBird, so they choose the boat extraction... Finally the CIA goy 'handle' an american extraction with BH. (and this and the heavy counter-attack cancelled the boat extraction). I thought this, but I will thinking about a better way. BTW, I packed the first relased version (1.0), so I will do this change only in 1.01.

Delta Team wasn't much of a help.

They follow you to everywhere. (But AI can't climb in the slope and they are very slow). They didn't go where you call tham, but follow you until they reach the highland (fortress), then they stop (they can shoot the enemy) and they replace your squad (eg. if you lose 3 men, they give you 3 men).

Looks good to me now, all these explanations just have to be added to the briefing.

is it possible that there are no grenades in the gear selection over the whole campaign?

Is it possible. Usualy the soldiers bring their original equipment with grenades and I didn't give the player additional grenades. Should I?

Yes, as the player never had grenades in his equipment IIRC and they are a common weapon. At least three times in the campaign I would have liked to have on without looting enemies.

Could you reduce the execution to three or four shots or at least one magazine? It looked overacted.

I'm affraid not. If I give him only one clip, he will run for ammo to the jeep.
I just use doFire command and it cause this. The command 'fire' do nothing here...
Have you any other suggestion? (I think you are better in scripting, like me)

First I thought about the eventhandler fired in combination with removing all magazines from Ibanez and setdammage Ninja 1. But getdamage ninja >= 1 or eventhandler killed should be more realistic.
But I don't know if Ibanez still will run for ammo then.
EDIT: Clearmagazinecargo Jeep doesn't prevent him looking for magazines?

[bardosy]

Looks good to me now, all these explanations just have to be added to the briefing.

There is no place I found some bug in ArmA: If I wrote a long briefing, there is no arrow link to the 'next page'. The additional text vanished.

Grenades: is it enough if I'll add 30 grenades to the weapon pool and player can pick up it in weapon selection?

[johnnyboy]

Bardosy,

I finally have time to get back to your campaign.  I downloaded the latest version.

Ghosts

- I like the intro (no more NVGs looking at fires...thanks!).
- I took an APC and a 4WD, and headed toward ambush point.  Nice to run into a few enemy on the way to keep the drive from getting boring.
- I love the placement of guards on high ground above the enemy base.  My first attempt I went there first instead of ambush point.  Most missions leave high ground around bases unguarded, which is dumb.  This was refreshing to see high ground above base well guarded!
- I loved the ambush and artillery.  It was challenging to get timing right, and the trailing vehicles gave me trouble.
- I found Ixel difficult.  Like Trapper, I don't like so many staticly placed defenders.  Some always make sense (like MG placements, snipers, and HQ defenders).  But otherwise I found myself memorizing positions of static defenders, one by one, as I replayed mission.  It was hard to use my team AI effectively...I mostly used them as bait to discover static enemies.  You can't please everyone, and this is an excellent campaign, so change it only if you want to.  Now that SETUNITPOS "UP" is fixed in latest patch (I think), maybe a few of the statics could be in windows, with simple scripts running to setunitpos them "DOWN" and "UP periodically.  Or simple scripts to send them from window to window. 

Stop for a Minute

I love missions that make you feel you are a small part of a bigger war, and this was that kind of mission.  I did little personally to complete this mission, but it was still intense.

- Good intro with many enemy, which builds expectations for a big fight.
- Nice to have an APC to fight with.
- I made bad choice of taking big sniper rifle (my problem, later picked up an M16).
- Nice artillery finish.
- Great mission, no problems to report.

Capriccio

I only had time to play the Intro, and it is very good.  I like it when an Intro shows you starting in or near a location of where you comleted last mission, as this helps with "continuity" of the campaign.  Also the UAV aerial intro is a very clever way to orient the player to the mission.  Having the sophisticated UAV video being presented by the newly introduced CIA character makes sense, as the CIA has the better technology.

Can't wait to play the mission!

[bardosy]

I took an APC and a 4WD, and headed toward ambush point.

WOW! I'll lock them... I want the player walk...

I love the placement of guards on high ground above the enemy base.

I want prevent the player attack the base.

Good intro with many enemy, which builds expectations for a big fight.

Had you 'downloadable component missing' error in the intro?
I had, and I don't know why.


Thank you for test! And I really need a report about "Dead end" mission with version 1.0, because yesterday I played it again and extraction faild, because the Black Hawk did lot of stupidity... Earlyer version had no this problem.

[alex75]

Hi Bardosy  I played the first 4 missions of your campaign "Perpetua" and I liked It!

Interesting:
-artillery script
- very nice intro/outro
- I in particularly like the landing with the helicopter in the night at the beginning of the campaign
- I like snipers on the roof, and on the towers! It's realistic!
- but maybe (it's only my opinion) there are too much enemies round the houses or inside: my A.I. squad had difficulties in spotting and killing them, so I often did the job on my own. Only a few times my A.I. squad spotted and killed enemies inside houses. Other times they were killed when I sent them inside. By the way it's realistic that enemies hide themselves inside houses.
- I really like the briefings and the notes: they add depth to the history of the campaign.

Well in my spare time I'll continue to play it! Compliments!

Alessandro T.