(Review Completed) [SP] Last Hope

[Cheetah]

Shark, mathias, thanks for your comments! I'll take a look at the bugs shark, thanks for mentioning them here.

So you didn't run into any new bugs mathias (other than those mentioned)? 

Glad that guys enjoyed it!

[MrN]

Regular, V1.08 FDFSounds, Trueview Mod

Overview:
Good but the picture is a bit too compressed.

Intro:
It’s good and informative. The SLA units look a bit too randomly scattered and the end animation of the west officer is a bit odd (his right hand) though.

Briefing:
Good

Map is simple and clear. No weapon choice which is fine given the situation.

Mission:
First go- Had a quick run around the base, stood near the outer sandbags while the artillery hit, mostly around the outside. Also, spotted a static group on the horizon.  I scattered my men around the base and stood around for a few minutes waiting for the action to start. Waited a bit more.

The west loons started firing at the enemy in the distance, so I joined in for a bit but the SLA weren’t coming anywhere near us. So I ran up the road quite a distance, knelt down and sniped away, got caught by a lucky bullet. Not so lucky for me.

Second go- same as first paragraph.

Mooched around for a bit while the Blufor AI made mincemeat of the attackers.

Get 4 loons join my group and a new objective.

Ran up the hill, got my loons to target a MG, took out 1 d30 while my and other loons took out the other 3. No guards on the artillery.

Kills:
Ural
D30
Rifleman

Outro:
None


Conclusion.
Sorry mate but my honest opinion is it’s a bit limp. All the mechanics are there but the attack, after the build up in the intro, feels like a couple of groups that seem to have a fairly low skill level slowly making their way to the base.

Now that I’ve played it I’ve read the thread to see what previous versions are about and it may be you’ve dumbed it down a bit too much. Personally I like my defend missions to be desperate attempts and should induce panic with the amount of loons swarming in.

May I suggest a few things:
Cut and paste the mission to Sahrani, it feels too cramped on the little island.

The artillery is mainly redundant after the first volley, make it continue but not as many rounds as there is at the beginning. Maybe every 60 seconds or so, a volley for example.

Ramp up the skill level of the attackers, set their speed to full and formation to line, make it a formidable attack. But, have them in waves and dependant on the preceding wave getting to 50% of their numbers to prevent the player getting completely over-run. Maybe, rather than the last wave getting blatted you could get them to retreat to the artillery position?

Sadly an almost sudden ending no outro

Indeed, needs Blufor reinforcements coming into save the day? Or transport coming in to take the player out. Just something other than a sudden end.


All completely my opinion, feel free to ignore. 


Cheers

[Cheetah]

Thanks for the test MrN. Hehe, the mission isn't one of high quality. Hope to improve it, however I'm starting to get a bit tired of the damn AI. They refuse to listen to my scripting commands in this mission.

Anyway, bugs noted, will try to improve the mission.

[MrN]

the mission isn't one of high quality.

I disagree with that, the feel, setup, briefing, mechanics (triggers) were all fine. It "felt" like a good mission, it just didn't quite play right. Maybe you're overscripting the loons. 

I know I came across a bit grumpy but that's the nature of beta tests and me really.

[Cheetah]

Nothing wrong with your report. To be honest, I feel that the current version of Last Hope beats the previous one, but still, it's lacking. However, I can't add the magical ingredient to make the mission feel good.

Overscripting? I script their retreat, loop containing a doMove and setCombatMode (hold fire, personal defense only). Guess that's not really overscripting. But the problem is that the AI can't make a decent strike on their own. Guess I'll have to add some magical stuff which throws the balance off and tips the scales in favor of the SLA. Have a few ideas on how to achieve that.

I find it hard to determine the right defenses for the artillery. Sandbags can't be used close to the artillery as they make the guns shoot at them thus killing the gunners. Stationary MGs are already there, but can be eliminated too. Guess my only option will be to play a bit with some infantry squads and limited the backup the player gets.

Anyway, I want to improve the intro and add an outro to add to the atmosphere of the mission. However, the search for the magical ingredient used in the mission will be continued .

Again, thanks for the test MrN! I appreciate your feedback.

[Nixer6]

Just finished it today


Nice intro.

Took me two times....the arty got me when I tried to take em out the first time. Got smarter and flanked em the second time.

Was fun and a very target rich environment. 

Good briefing, short and to the point.

As MrN says, the Ai did a crappy job of defending the guns. Maybe a squad or two using Kronsky's UPS???, guarding the guns.

Nice mission.

[Cheetah]

Thanks for the gentle comments nixer. Thinking about what to do in order to improve the mission, the biggest problem is getting the AI to do something smart .

Anyway, I'll try to produce a new version soon. Before the beta testing party .

[Cheetah]

Version 0.96 released!

The mission should be more difficult as 0.95 was too easy. The final four voices will be added in a future version.

[Cheetah]

Version 0.96b released. Should be ready for a, hopefully, final test.

Changes:
0.96 -> 0.96b
- full voiceover
- tweaked assault

[Cheetah]

Could anyone run a last check to see if things work?

[LCD]

sometime dis week

LCD OUT

[LCD]

ok i beta tested most of it 8-) but i have a prob... it seems every time i save (twice, both hapened after rienforcment arrived, when i was in hiding, didnt try @ oder timez...) da savegame becomes curropted... even dat savegame trick thingy doesnt help (export da save restart nd import it....)

but heres da rest of beta

package

1) u need 2 thank da beta testers

overview

 

Intro

1) @ da start da cam passes thro a soldier

Brief

1) my soldiers r privates but r expert skilled....
2) i sugest addin callsigns 4 da groups.... 4 da lil radio chater da hapens around

Mision

1) da AGS UAZ is a real killer... makes mision hard... but i did manage 2 deal w/ it in da end
2) it cud b nice if u add a shel shock effect 4 da arty part (in case a shell explodes near da player...) i know dere was 1 made 4 OFP mebe u cud import it...
3) make da UAZ driver go out of da vehicle when his gunner dies... else he stays driving around nd looks st00pid
4) both my soldiers r ineffective donno cant seem 2 find a post were deyll shot da enemy nd not get killed str8 from da start...
5) it cud b nice 2 have a medic or medtent somwere near da start... in case of getin hit by a arty shell
6) i donno y da rienforcments needed help, dere was nothing botherin em dere 
7) how do i make da help rienfocments tick ? dey all landed nd nothing hapened...
now dat i had som time 2 look @ da lay-out i wanna ask y my group is da only pl on da frontier of da camp ?
9) also deres 1 radio dat is only half voiced.... when da comander tels me 2 help da rienforcments everything after from corporal 2 da end is mute...

mebe som1 can tel me y da mision keeps on crashin... but right now dats wat i can give u

LCD OUT

[LCD]

ok i replied it some more... saves still wont work so i havnt finish it... but i got further (into da enemy pos that is...)

ill start from da rienforcments part

1) some of da rienforcment soldiers dont carry guns... they r probably unloaded inside the water by the boats... u shud fix that (ill send u a function if u want
2) the rienforcments advance really slow... give them an aware move WP into town and have them slowing down there...
3) the saves still wont work (even tho retries do work... mebe u cud make a check 4 da players name and if he is called nur bar give me a couple of retries over radio ? )
4) i just noticed that da captain is called captain 1... u can change it 2 just captain
5) it cud b realy nice 2 have a medic availble after thee rienforcments arrive (or actualy thro da whole mision mebe a med tent or somin...) cuz when the 1st objective ticked off i already got shot 3 times... hit by arty 1ce and a friendly M113 run over me 
6) have da f00kin enemy all retreat... most of em went away  but there was still a squad i had 2 clear off (da squad included a UAZ ags... it was hell....)
7) when da cpt sens me 2 disable arty it cud b nice 2 have couple oif soldiers from the rienforcments joinin me
actualy i think dat in da radio msg i was promised choper suport were is it ?
9) when i assaulted the arty i used the UAZ ags... made it alot easier i did get shot by a crewman from the BMP (i destroyed it w/ my ags) but most of tha soldiers were static... remember 2 fix tdat (a reveal command shud work)
10) i realy needed a medic

LCD OUT

[mathias_eichinger]

Hi Cheetah! My opinion on v0.96:

Intro, Overview and Briefing are still good.

The mission is even a bit more intense I think. Looks like the first wave has even more soldiers and the tank is also new, right? I found out that the only way to survive was to hide in a sandbag bunker and to snipe most of the enemies from there. It was still interesting and intense tough. Then I headed out for the additional artillery objective (completely missed the optional objective in the chaos). The arty was way more difficult than in the last version and that was not such a good thing, because I resorted to trial-and-error search of the right spot in the landscape where I would have just enough cover from cannons, MGs and UAZ-MGs while warding off enemy infantry. In the end, I managed to kill the guarding tank from the completely flat ground as I crawled to the western hills from the eastern hills in order to shoot the last cannon. That caused a massive secondary explosion, killing the remaining enemies at the base.

However, the mission would not end, and the cannon objective would not tick off. The only different thing I did was to kill the last cannon with an RPG, whereas I shot the gunner of the other three with my sniper rifle.

Hope this helps,

Mathias

[Cheetah]

So you didn't actually destroy the other three guns?