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Author Topic: (Review Completed) [SP]The Tiptoe Boys  (Read 12105 times)

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Offline sharkattack

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(Review Completed) [SP]The Tiptoe Boys
« on: 12 Mar 2007, 13:31:17 »
FINAL VERSION ( fixed)
========================
tips
===========
search the dead
check out the jailhouse
shoot an engineer ... see him jump
when you have data  airstrike becomes available
it should be safe to remain next to cpu ... use it to pave a way to escape ..
guards work in pairs !
====================


THE TIPTOE BOYS  part II
=================
mission author
shark attack
--------------
mission type
SINGLE PLAYER
--------------
mission requirements
ArmA V 1.5
NO ADDONS REQUIRED
--------------
many thanx to all listed for there reports , sugestions and assistance with scripting :good:
==========================================
mathias_eichinger ...
BensTooCool ...
mandoble ...
Cheetah  ...
rhysduk ...
jow  ...
BLANCO ...
LCD  ...
LEE  ...
johnyboy ...
charvel ...
liongreek  ...
Matt  ...
101
=================================

situation report
=================
We suspect that our Operational Command structure has been successfully infiltrated by enemy intelligence agents..
It would seem that we have lost the element of suprise, someone is tipping off the enemy in advance of our actions.
Recently several top secret special forces missions have met with fierce resistance from enemy forces resulting in the deaths of many of our finest soldiers.
You are to infiltrate the enemys  Intel HQ,  locate the onsite cpu system,  steal the data stored here and see if our mole is revealed.
In an act of retribution for the deaths of many of our finest you are also instructed to assasinate the head of Army intel the notorious General Silva

OFPEC Download
« Last Edit: 19 Aug 2009, 22:11:07 by hoz »
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Offline mathias_eichinger

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Re: phoenix project single play
« Reply #1 on: 27 Mar 2007, 00:25:04 »
Hi Shark!

Here's my report:

Overview

Definitely needs a pic, but that's already on your "to do" list. I would like to read just a bit more than a single sentence.

Briefing

A bit sparse, I mean it told me everything that I needed to know, but a bit of background to your mission would have been nice. Oh, good to have a weapons selection :-) I picked a SPR sniper rifle

Intro

I really liked the tune of it, I mean the gentle camera path, the lighting and the nice custom music. The only complaint: Please make it possibly to skip it.

Mission

First attempt:

I land at the east coast of Ramadi and mark my boat. Tried to access it from the beach - but I could only drive it or sit in it. I did not find the weapons you mentioned in the pop up message.  (I never found these weapons in further attempts too).
Ok, I advanced from the east, killed everything in my way (UAZ, outpost with tent). Then I started sniping the soldiers and fixed defense positions to open up a way to enter the base and find the officer.

Unsurprisingly, this triggered a rescue attempt...but boy was it fast... I had not the slightest chance to fight my way inside the base and get the officer before evactuation. The closest I came was with a hijacked UAZ where I raced into the base and overran the guy  :D.
Suffice to say, it was impossible to get out alive. Then I tried the airstrike before my assault. But to no avail - no officer dead, but base alarmed.

Second attempt:

I tried to land from the north with the shortest distance between the shore and the target person, to beat the tight time limit on evacuation.
A fruitless effort, got wasted just as I disembarked.
NOTE: It seems impossible to get close without triggering the rescue. This would make most of the weapons selection pointless, and the use of a sniper rifle appears to be mandatory.

Third attempt:

Again from the east, but using stealth and "hold fire", avoiding every patrol. Assumed a position south of the "tent outpost" without alerting them. I finally shot the officer from 500 m with the SPR. I turned back and raced towards the boat, not trying to waste much time with fighting. Result: My squad had been eliminated but I was able to make it to the open sea alive.

Suggestion

Leaving much more time before the rescue attempt is triggered would leave much more options to the player.

Conclusion

This mission has the potential to be great, the base has a good layout and it is well and realistically protected. Now it is up to you to decide if you want this mission to be realistic (pulling out the high-value officer as soon as possible) or more "playable" leaving much time for the player to enter the base and make outpost alarm quite insensitive.
As is stood for me, my only option was to snipe from great distance and get the hell out of there. Playing time: 12 minutes.

Cheers

Mathias




Offline sharkattack

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Re: phoenix project single play
« Reply #2 on: 27 Mar 2007, 18:06:42 »
thanks very much mathias for feedback .. :good:

i was contemplating using this mission as one of the latter in a small pheonix-project campaing
you raised some very interesting points .. the mission is designed to use the long shot/stealth approach
Quote
Ok, I advanced from the east, killed everything in my way (UAZ, outpost with tent). Then I started sniping the soldiers and fixed defense positions to open up a way to enter the base and find the officer.
the airstrike is to attack outpost defenses and alert the base then flush out the officer ..
i agree rescue is launched quickly but he is an important asset to the enemy ..
but i will experiment with longer delay before rescue ...  

again thanx for feedback ... nice one mate ..
let me know if i can return the favour sometime !!     :good:
« Last Edit: 29 Mar 2007, 19:36:43 by shark attack »
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Offline Cheetah

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Re: phoenix project single play
« Reply #3 on: 30 Mar 2007, 11:18:09 »
Phoenix Project

May I suggest that you rename the topic to: [SP] Phoenix Project, looks better in my opinion.

Overview

Could use a picture and a bit more text. Why, where etc. Don't like the all caps title, but that's a matter of taste. Another thing, you might want to consider to put the version number in the overview instead of in the mission title. Phoenix project-v1 as a mission name sounds / looks weird to me.

Intro

No intro. Will you include one in a future release? If you ask me, every SP mission needs at least an intro (no outro is okay..).

Briefing

Good to see that my team is all expert, always nice to have men who listen to me.

The plan section looks pretty good with the ------ stuff. You spelled the briefing title wrong, now it says "PHEONIX blabla".
You might want to check the briefing for spelling mistakes, sometimes you miss the inverted comma ('), for example I saw a lot of youre, they have to be either your or you're. You might want to include marker links in the objectives.

Notes, august -> August please. I suggest that you check the whole briefing for missing capitals. Good to have information on the radio. So well done.

The gear selection is pretty good. I select the M136, M24 and M9, missed a silenced pistol though.

Mission intro

You surprised me with this one. Well made, the music fits the intro albeit it's a short one it's a good one. Good that you give yourself a bit more credit. Is that Good, Bad & Ugly music? Reminded me of western music anyway. The intro didn't give too much information on the enemy, but enough :).

Mission

The hint isn't required, voices are nice, did you take them from the campaign or make them yourself? About the hint, the player can select weapons in the briefing and later on the beach he can find them himself, so it's in my opinion overdone to add the hint. Might be useful for some players though.

As I have the GPS turned off it's pretty hard but challenging to mark the position of the boat on the map. I suggest that you change the hint to something more subtle. Let's say, uhm, a radio message telling the player that he has to use this boat to return home or something like that maybe? Better than a hint if you ask me, improves the atmosphere.

The save game feature doesn't work by the way, or didn't work for me.

Well, I moved west as I hit the beach, saw a UAZ MG jeep, they didn't see me. Ordered my men to go prone on a hill overlooking the enemy outpost. Myself and #2 are overlooking the base, #3 and 4 are covering our back. You never know if a jeep suddenly tries to shoot from our six. Good to see that you spent time on the patrol jeeps and base layout by the way. Anyway, ordered the air support before being in position at the hill to let it arrive as soon as I'm ready to shoot.

Worked pretty good, the bomber came after a 30 seconds of waiting on top of the hill, scanning the vicinity and base.
Nice airstrike by the way, would look even better if you could let the plane drop more bombs. But this brings up a question, why not let two planes do the job? With the bombs they can level the whole village including the target, why insert me then? You might want to use a bomber script I saw somewhere in the editing forum.

I save the game (with the game save), shoot a two men patrol coming towards me - 20m. Still haven't seen the officer, don't know what to look for, maybe add a picture of him in the briefing? Oh and there was a message "rescue attempt" what was that?
My god, the hills are crowded now, well done. This makes it a lot harder for me, I don't even know where the officer is hehe.

Damn that rescue attempt, well done I die trying to shoot down the chopper with my M136, took too much MG fire. Saw the officer though, problem was that I didn't manage to hit him with my one bullet left in the magazine before he embarked the chopper. Know where to look for him the next time, as I saved pretty close to this point.

This retry I got him with one shot in the head, hehe nice. Trying to make my way towards the boat now, again a good radio message don't know if you made it yourself. I take out a UAZ MG on our way back towards the boat, one of my teammates takes out an especas. The waypoint directs me back towards the boat, I don't know if you do that dynamically?

Debriefing

16 minutes, 2500 (silver ball)
youre -> your

All objectives ticked off.

Outro

None.

Conclusion

I enjoyed the mission, it was pretty hard to spot the officer, the rescue meant his death, how ironic. Nice smoke by the way (when the chopper comes) you might want to make it a bit denser though. Well not much else to say, good job on the mission.
Like missions? Help with Beta Testing! or take a look at the OFPEC Missions Depot for reviewed missions!

Offline sharkattack

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Re: phoenix project single play
« Reply #4 on: 30 Mar 2007, 16:55:51 »
*EDIT* 30TH MARCH
---------------------------

guys please if possible take a look at second draft
listened to youre advice ... have tried to make mission a longer affair .. no air support
also escape is more of an event than before ...
player now has to locate and secure a (randomly placed) method of transport to escape (win or loose)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
thanx guys for feedback ...
i can start correcting things now ...

cheetah ...
i will work on my grammar ( never a strong point)
the overview is causing me probs cant get a picture to fit (yet)
voices were taken from the campaign but edited to suit my mission
music is indeed form the man with no name trilogy (well spoted)
nice tip about silenced pistol� totally overlooked that!
hints will be edited if not removed all together no need to mark location of boat
as waypoint is given when time to extract ..

cant thank you and mathias enough ...cheers lads :)
can now begin to sort it out ...
will update new version when done ...
==============================
let me know which version to go with for singleplay ...
maybe this one is more challenging ...?
thanx for youre advice guys   :good:
« Last Edit: 30 Mar 2007, 19:03:39 by shark attack »
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Offline sharkattack

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Re: [SP]phoenix project
« Reply #5 on: 30 Mar 2007, 18:54:54 »
ahhh .. double post .. sorry  admin  please delete !   :whistle:

let me know which version to go with for singleplay ...
maybe this one is more challenging ...?
thanx for youre advice guys   :good:
"HOLY SARDINE" - see Shark-Attack meet his match

Offline jow

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Re: [SP]phoenix project
« Reply #6 on: 31 Mar 2007, 15:09:24 »
About the new version (didn't try the old one)

Overview
There was no Overview - not even a text?!

Briefing

First I got a strange message (see attachment)

I don't really like the style of the Briefing, but it tells you what to do and that's ok!
I liked the possibility to change my weapons but I would have never found out about that without reading the previous posts!
Also missed more silenced stuff.

Intro
I think the Intro was quite nice! Just the scene with the officer is too short and too far away and teh oh-so-important officers name would also be interesting. (mabye briefing or note)

Mission
I started the Mission a few times and had to start at completely different positions all the time?!?!
One time i had to start at the airstrip and I think the mission was completely impossible from this position.
Best position was a few meters away from the tents.
Left my man behind - sneaked to the hill - went in position - killed the officer - attacked the tents - ran to extraction

Overall
I like what you made out of that village on rahmadi and the mission has a lot of potential, but it still needs some fine-tuning!

Offline sharkattack

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Re: [SP]phoenix project
« Reply #7 on: 31 Mar 2007, 18:24:08 »
mmm .. dont know why yore getting error message ? .. will look into it
Quote
and teh oh-so-important officers name would also be interesting. (mabye briefing or note)
?!?dont quite understand youre point ...

overview and intro is on my to do list

but thanx all the same for reply ..

starting from different location is something i want to happen
hopefully add to replayabillity of mission
overview has me beaten for the min but i will fix it

thanx again for youre feedback:good:
will return the favour if possible

« Last Edit: 01 Apr 2007, 11:22:52 by shark attack »
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Offline jow

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Re: [SP]phoenix project
« Reply #8 on: 01 Apr 2007, 13:47:38 »
Quote
mmm .. dont know why yore getting error message ? .. will look into it
maybe because i have 1.04 not 1.05

Quote
and teh oh-so-important officers name would also be interesting. (mabye briefing or note)
?!?dont quite understand youre point ...
-> The objective is to kill an important officer and I would like to have some information (like name, position in army) about him before I have to eliminate him :)

Starting from different locations is fine, I just think that when you have to start in the flat zone at the airfield is too difficult compared to the start at the tents!

Offline sharkattack

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Re: [SP]phoenix project
« Reply #9 on: 01 Apr 2007, 17:27:31 »
fair comment  mate ...
now i get ya ...
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Offline mathias_eichinger

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Re: [SP]phoenix project
« Reply #10 on: 13 Apr 2007, 23:03:40 »
Hi Shark, here is my take on the second version!

The intro was a bit longer and featured an insertion sequence with paradropping from a Black Hawk, very beautiful and now I know why the map already positions me on the island.

One word to the Briefing: I think you should mark the position of the boat on the map, it would be a bad idea to have the extraction so unplanned that the soldier does not know where to find his boat.  :D

On the mission itself: Approach to the target and the kill were just the same as in the previous version, nothing bad about that. But there is something bad about the mission I have to say... a bit later on.
Well, I lost my squad again on my way to the boat and ended up alone with my unwieldly M107 sniper monster.

Discovered the boat right before some enemy encampment...I suggest to put the boat elsewhere as I don't think the enemy would happily walk by my extraction device and doing nothing with it.

Now to the nearly annoying part of the mission: The enemy noticed me driving away and shot me...ok, this has to be expected. I killed a few soldiers, but there were always a few to fill the void. I think you are working with a respawn script here. The only thing that makes the end annoying and not just challenging as you intended is the small amount of time between the respawns. There is simply not enough time to kill the 1 or 2 especas or soldiers, run towards the boat and get to a safe distance. You are always shot while still riding the boat.
I tried it close to 10 times to no avail. So I strongly suggest to double the time of the respawns and the mission will be great!

I hope I am not too harsh on this one... :whistle:


Cheers

Mathias

Offline sharkattack

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Re: [SP]phoenix project
« Reply #11 on: 14 Apr 2007, 12:41:17 »
hi mate ...
the exfil isnt planned ... you have to improvise
it mentions in the briefing  that the only way
off the island is to locate and capture the enemy gunboat ...

it is a mission objective ...to locate and secure enemy gunboat ... read the briefing it explains in there...
not using any respawn script either  all enemys start on the map..
tip ...
have a recce of the island .. before begining assault ..
the gunboat can be in one of four places ..
like you said it is a bad idea to launch an attack without knowing where the exfil is..
the escape is more of an event than the assasination ...
also the boat has a crew of four who will be camped at its location
it will be one of these that shoots you on escape ... be sure area is secure before boarding the boat
what i do is board as gunner  and let ai drive ...

thanx for comments ...   :good:

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Offline BensTooCool

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Re: [SP]phoenix project
« Reply #12 on: 15 Apr 2007, 00:50:42 »
Overview
As everyone has said it needs a picture

Briefing
Briefing I think could provide a bit more intelligence about the mission and the size of enemy you facing.

Intro
Damn you for using the good, the bad and the ugly music, I always wanted to use that in one of mine  but begrudgingly a good intro

Mission
My first attempt I started from the West and I headed east towards the airfield but came across a UAZ which I dispatched quickly but the base was still alerted and by the time I made it to the airfield the target had been rescued.

My second attempt I started from the Northeast and this time I left my team behind and went solo, I made into the centre of town without being detected, I then did a head shot on a enemy soldier from behind but the base detected me anyway even though I was so stealthy my shadow didn't know I was there and the next thing I knew someone shot me from somewhere.

Bugs
When I loaded the missions I got a message telling me I couldn't play the mission it was depended on some downloaded that had been deleted? but I seemed to be able to play the mission fine.

Improvements
  • I'm not sure how you have it set up but you could make it harder for the player to be detected, it seemed to me that anyone I killed no matter how stealthy would alert the base of your presence.
  • Adjust the targets rescue time, once his rescue was on the way you had no time to do anything.
  • The base/town was perhaps a little too well guarded, or more to the point had too many patrols which makes it really difficult to sneak in alone let alone with a team of AI soldiers.



Offline sharkattack

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Re: [SP]phoenix project
« Reply #13 on: 15 Apr 2007, 12:17:21 »
hi ...
i spent some time playing this yesterday
and i agree with the points raised ...
have begun fixing ... rescue is too quick .. !!
have added a 15  min delay to new version
and reworked and reduced the enemy ai .. 
also added a bonus objective to encourage the player to enter the outpost
and not just shoot from a distance ...
have also removed the random position of gunboat and random start point
and to be fair it does seem to play better that way ...
will test it today  and update  new version ... i have  one question guys??
do i go with an option to call in airstrike  or  like cheetah correctly points out
if an option of an airstike is available why send in black ops ...

                                                       many thanx guys ...

ben re error message ...  you have v 1.05 ?
"HOLY SARDINE" - see Shark-Attack meet his match

Offline BensTooCool

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Re: [SP]phoenix project
« Reply #14 on: 15 Apr 2007, 13:02:03 »
I actually like the random starts in missions it makes it a little more interesting but I wouldn't use Airstrikes it would just kill the game. The errors message probably is due to the fact that I dont have 1.05 I took it off because the performance hit I got made it unplayable :(