(Review Completed) [SP] Last Hope

[rhysduk]

Every mission is technically still "alive" within the BETA boards.

They just need "reviving". Go ahead and bring some threads back to life LCD. #

Rhys

[LCD]

i guess i can play medic on dis mision

i run thro it and its nice till da retreat... after dat jus boring... i get in da bunker and wait (w/ X4 time acc on) till choppers come nd help me... i think it cud b beter idea 2 really prepeare a position (sandbags... M2s... etc) nd have da soldiers return nd fight dere...

nyways notes....

intro
1) da intro starts w/ zoom on da soldiers nd den a black in... u shud start it in black den black in 2 soldiers

mision
1) wen da arty strikes it cud b nice 2 see some of da other soldiers crouchin or laying low.. not only standin still
2) u forgot da enemy ratio hint turned on
3) change da last part from standin in bunker 2 actually fightin
4) some of da soldiers dont retreat (dey keep fightin around da village)

outro : none

btw da 1st d/l link doesnt work

LCD OUT

[Cheetah]

Thanks LCD for testing Last Hope, it's a pretty buggy mission right now. Forgot to turn off the hints and there are a few errors in the waypoints of the choppers and others friendlies.

Hopefully I'll find the time to correct all of these sometime.

[Gielovic]

Hi Cheetah, don't know if you still want this to be tested, i see a red warning on top...hasn't been posted in for 30 days
Anyway...a short review

Overview
Good enough...pic could be some higher resolution

Briefing
Clear..the purpose of the mission is clear, text is good, i would have liked to see weapons-choice because you say there is enough ammo in the intro.

Intro
Nice intro, except the SLA-shot. It would be better to see a temporary-base, some artillery, some tents, walking soldiers etc.

Mission
I liked the Artillery-barrage only it takes a bit long and i got hurt even sitting in the shed:( So i had to crawl the rest of the mission, which wasn't nice. Almost all my teammates were killed, but the one who weren't didn't defend :. They just stood there waiting for the bullet. Also i saw a ratio-counter in left-top corner. I guess you forgot to remove it?
When the choppers came they killed some infantry, but not all. I was doomed to die with my MG. The SLA nicely moves around the village trying to enter it. I would have loved to have some MG-teammates guarding the entrance-roads.
Also some critical-point. I couldn't enter the MG2-guns:(.

Outro
Haven't seen...i died too early:(

Conclusion
I liked the radio-messages and voices. The scenery is great, the village is the perfect place to bomb:D. Also there were no bugs and the mission feels to be without any errors or problems. There were however some points i didn't like that much...so here are some hints:
- I got wounded during the artillery, which is realistic but no fun. So a medic/medictent or immunity for the artillery is a              good idead
- I would like to have some teammates fighting with me.
- The enemy-ratio counter wasn't that obvious, if i have to kill all SLA-units i would love to see some kind of indication how many i have still too kill (unrealistic, but searching for them while crawling all the time isn't that much fun)
- Artillery could be in a cutscene, so you can see the explosions and stuff as you only can wait till it's over. Then when it's finished a nice shot of the player with an angry face:D and the assault.

[Cheetah]

Thanks for beta testing so far. New version uploaded, for download links check the first post.

From the readme:
v0.95
-added reinforcements
-added review image / screenshot
-removed hints
-removed numerous soldiers
... & more!

[sharkattack]

looking  forward to  playing  new  version
will post  comments  ...
 

[Gizzy]

My hat off to Cheetah for his warm welcome here at OFPEC.

I played your mission two times.
You already told that in the intro something is to fix.
The intro starts for a second, black screen for a second and then allright.
Good intro and the explanation is good even for me that I fight everyday with english language.
I like the voices too.
Briefing: clear (defend and stay alive).
Mission:
Good voices speaking to take position and warning for artillery strike. (I hit num pad "." to see the effect from the artillery hoping not to be killed).
The attack begins.
I have to say that the defenders are much more effective than the assaulters.
At first try could not go North to see the landing as I followed the message in yellow "Defend the base".
Two new men joined my squad after a while.
Advanced to the artillery positions and after a little fight I took 5 satchel charges from the ural and BOOOM!!. No more artillery.
Mission complete.
The briefing in the map was always updated correctly.
Second try I went to the beach and saw the landing troops from zodiacs and the M113. All seems ok the only thing was the yellow message "Defend the base" that never changed
This time three men joined my sqaud and then all we went to destroy the artillery.
The yellow message never changed. Always "Defend the base".
The mission is good (at the end one in daylight for me) but a little short because of the strong defence that easely kills many enemies.
The sentation is that the defenders are a lot more than the attackers.
Could be that I don't understand well english, but a yellow description different from "Defend the base" never happened.

P.S: when I destroy the artillery there are always friendly forces that I kill too near the cannons.
So the mission ends with red XXX (do not misinterpret)  .

Thank you for let me enjoy this test.
See you
S!
G.

[Igor Drukov]

Haven't posted in this site in years, and I'm so glad to see it keeps running, especially the beta-testing section. Hats off to you all 


Ok, now for my review:


I played it in Vet mode, with standard settings in my profile (skillFriendly=0.750000;skillEnemy=0.750000;precisionFriendly=0.750000;precisionEnemy=0.750000;).


Overview
Good idea, I'd say the pic' itself could be worked a little bit more.


Intro

My gripe is that the custom voices fail to create a real atmosphere. I suggest some music in the background, close shots on faces, and I'd remove the shot on enemy forces, as there's no reason why BLUFOR should get that sort of information (unless there's an FO hidden somewhere). I think the idea is to get the player to identify with someone in the platoon, and the camera should help by adopting their point of view.


Briefing

There's a "Notes Section" feel to the first two paragraphs. I'd inject some impersonal military data into it.
No weapons selection, no typos. I lead three men, an expert, a vet, and  rookie.


Mission

I position my men hidden in a small yard, a voice tells me about incoming arty, and indeed arty's incoming. I see explosions not too far away and decide to make a move around the village anyway. Find a spot scan horizon and oops? What do I see? A 30-odd flock of enemy loons 300m. South of the village, standing there in this unique way BIS loons have.
Then there's the voice message, the savegame, and obviously, the loons start to run towards the village. Smells like sinch'ed WP a little bit too much for me, tbh.
Then there's the fighting, which is real fun, I focus on the Southern and Eastern fronts, trying to mount MGs but to no avail, I get the message about them sending another comapny, us needing to hold fast because there's backup on the way, but eh! i know better, it's the army, so I keep on fighting, huge explosion behind me up North, but I stay hidden behind my sandbags, killing enemies, then I make a move to that soldier with a PK 25m. away, go back to my previous hiding position and then the shredding starts... but not for long, because the enemy is announced to be retreating. I don't know where the CO got that info from, though, because at that precise moment, an enemy soldier (walks through) jumps over the sandbags, tries to flank me...


The next part of the mission was a walk in the park, with occasional stray infantries in the open, two unreactive machine guns and the four arty guns.

Duration: 19 minutes
Score: 22120 (five stars), 45 infantries and three D-30s.


My opinion

I found the difficulty of the mission overall well-balanced. If you are cautious, you can survive and put up a great firefight. I'd say the strength of the "Last Hope" formula is in its simplicity and efficiency. If you're up for some quick hold-your-position mission, then 'Last Hope' is for you.



Good job, Cheetah!

[DarkAngel]

Hey Cheetah, really enjoyed the defend the base element of the mission but was a little confused by some of the radio messages. While I was defending the base, a radio message came from the officer saying "Corporal, escort the reinforcements from the port" or words to that effect - but my waypoint still pointed to the original defend objective. I ran down to the port to see what was happening (on my own, my team members didn't follow me for some reason) and saw the boats and M113 come in, then headed back to my objective. The action was fast and furious - not my usual kind of mission but I actually liked it even more for that. Then the officer came on the radio again telling me to go south and take out some artillery. I thought, this is a bit harsh, I've only got one other guy in my team, the savegame came on and ArmA crashed to desktop about ten seconds later. I've only had time to retry a couple of times since but occasionally it's crashed again, about 10 seconds after reloading from the saveGame. No idea why - doesn't display any error messages or anything like that.

Up to this point, though, a really enjoyable mission. I think Igor makes some good points about the intro, and obviously you don't have radio sound yet for the orders within the mission. I think you need to clarify the player's objectives during the mission - the radio messages and waypoints contradict one another - and my only other concern was that the radio message saying well done, we'd defended the base came as we were still surrounded by SLA. Maybe use a script to pull them back and have the LT say something like well done, they're retreating? Might be a good oportunity for the player to rack up some kills.

Anyway, will retry later from the beginning and hopefully avoid the CTD. Lots of fun so far though.

[Cheetah]

Thanks for all the comments so far, good to hear them! 

Anyway, I'll take a look at all the bugs / stuff mentioned. What I hate, there is a retreating loop with doMove and "disengage" for the enemy. Sadly, they don't listen too well as everyone has noticed .

Will look into it. Glad to hear that there are no real showstoppers (apart from the CTD).

[LCD]

u cud try 2 put some of em on never fire... dey shud b more happy 2 disengage dat way

LCD OUT

[firecontrol]

Hello! Nice little mission here! It's nice to have a defend mission every once in a while.
v1.08, Normal (cadet) mode.

Overview

Nice enough.


Intro

I liked it. Kinda like a plan of action. Only part I didn't like were all the SLA guys standing around in that random bunch... looked kinda wierd to me. Some minor bugs: It flashes in and out a couple times right at the start. The second voice file stepped on the first one.. maybe add a little longer delay? The officer near the end had no weapon, but his hands were holding an invisible rifle.


Briefing

It does its job! Informative, to the point.
In the notes section: "then" -> "than"
I have some crazy waypoint line on the map, and all friendlies are shown. Odd. See pic below. (That pic is from later in the mission, but it was like this in the briefing, too.)
No weapons selection.


Mission

Arty barrage didn't seem to bother anything, all seems well. Me and my guys took cover in that metal building.
The lack of voices for the radio made it easy to miss, since I was focused on shooting at the enemy. That's already been addressed tho.

We fought off all the incoming SLA, I spent most of the time trying to organize my men the way I wanted, so I didn't do a lot of killing myself.  All the bullet dodging made it pretty intense though! Running from cover to cover, good stuff. I wish the enemy would attack a bit smarter, but the AI is really hard to get to do that, if even possible.

The arty objective popped up at the end of that funny line on the map. My waypoint never changed from "Defend the base" though. Even though I stepped right through it.

Easy enough, I sent half my team head on up the little hill to shoot down on things, and the other half came with me to flank around the right side of them. Along with all the other AI friendlies, they went down quite easily. Took four satchels from the ammo truck, and put the guns out of commission. End!

Outro

None.


Summary

I liked it! A fun little action packed mission. Given some polish, maybe a little new content, and a few fixes here and there, and it could be really fun! Nice work so far Cheetah.

[Cheetah]

Thanks for your report firecontrol! Will address as much of the stuff mentioned in the next version. I see that you've posted a new version of your mission, will give you a report soon - to repay the favour .

[sharkattack]

Intro
======
Sets the story nicely.A good narrative by the author.
My  only  concern  is the enemy attack force.
Maybe have them doing something or show the actual landings
60 + static soldiers standing looking at each other is not very entertaining.
Oh  and the music volume towards the end  overwhelms the voice ...

Briefing
=========
Well  laid  out.
Objective is easy to understand,however no weapon selection will in my opinion affect replayability.

Mission
========
First thing i notice is squad of static AI. Just as i am about to engage the enemy arty  stike begins.I decide to keep my head  down.Maybe hide them over the brow of the hill ?



Any way i survive the arty barrage and after a quick dammage assesment to my amazement i find  not  one single american casualty  (a few  token  dead  guys  please and some screaming would be nice or that  would be the most inaffective arty strike in history)
The attack begins and  the static  troops  begin to move.The action when it arrives is  thick and fast and  fun to play.spend  my time between  the  M2s.
Take  care of the  first  company  easily  and  am advised  that a second  is on the way.Am also  advised  to  move to the port and  assist  with reinforcments.
Waypoint  remains  at the village centre.I decide  not to risk it  and opt to remain in the  village  for better  cover bullets  are  flying everywhere.
I can see  reinforcments  moving  in  via  the  map.Weyhey  the enemy  has  had enough and  begins  to retreat am told  that  we have  defeated  them  despite suffering numerous casualties this prompts me to search the dead for a more effective weapon again i find not one casualty .

Mission plans update

A new objective and some fresh meat joins my team however the waypoint remains at defend village.
Still a lot of skirmishes so i decide to let the reinforcements establish themselves.re equip with satchels in order to destroy the arty .
finally there is a lull in the fighting . Re group my team and  head  for the arty.Soon realize  my  selection of satchels is a mistake  take a direct hit  from enemy arty ..
RELOAD
=======
re equip with rockets  head of to arty - killed by direct hit
 
RELOAD2
=======
re equip with rockets  head of to arty - killed by direct hit

RELOAD3
=======
re equip with rockets  head of to arty - killed by direct hit

RELOAD 4
========
Send in the  ai memebrs of my team i take up a position  overlooking  arty  and  quickly  pick of the crew ..
Find some satchels in one of the trucks Bingo




SUMMARY
=======
A well made map nicely presented no bugs to report other than the waypoint for second objective.Really misses a choice of weapons player will soon get bored.Also consider opening up the rooftops maybe adding more defenses.




Sadly  an almost sudden ending no outro

  

[mathias_eichinger]

Hi Cheetah!

I was just courious what this updated version contains...
Intro is still good with the guys (BLUFOR and OPFOR) standing in the mist, the briefing is not very detailed, but so is the mission. 
Now I head off for some frantic defense, it was as good as the last time.
New was the task to look for the artillery. I liked it alot and it was well balanced. Took the artillery head on on my belly and my squad managed to take it out with the artillery just dropping short  .

Still a nice mission with a nice addition. Keep up the good work.

Cheers

Mathias