(Review Completed) [SP] Combat Episode 1

[mcnorth]

After tinkering around in the editor I finally finished something. Actually it started out as just an opportunity to shoot up some ai then morphed into an exploration of intros, briefings, objectives and other editing aspects. Any constructive criticism is appreciated.

And thanks to the guys here that helped with the parts I couldn't figure out.

http://www.4shared.com/file/19925553/806c52b6/Combat_Episode_1_v_105.html
Link updated 7-15-07 (version 1.05) File had been removed due to inactivity on my part.

[Cheetah]

Combat Episode 1

Package

Could you write a readme with the general information about the mission and any addons needed, then zip the file before uploading it somewhere. This will probably be one of the requirements for the upcoming mission submission system (no readme = no review) so it won't hurt to start with it already.

Overview

enemyy -> enemy

Other than that it's fine, nice border and good text combined with a clear image. Overall, fine. You might want to add some contact information and a version number. A version number can be used to distinguish the different versions from a mission in the mission folder and/or shows the player that he has correctly updated the mission.

Intro

You might want to consider checking the text in the intro, I noticed a few errors. Other than that the intro has a some good camera angles combined with music, which in my opinion doesn't really fit in the atmosphere.
The setup of the intro is well done, men are correctly placed behind sandbags, although a bit crowded and the action is shows pretty good. I think that you're using a soundpack to simulate the gunfire, it's okay well thought of but adds up to the decibels and can be confusing as you hear sounds while no one is firing his gun. It adds up to the atmosphere though which is good.

I like the 'narrator' point of view you're using for the intro, well done although, as I wrote before, you might want to alter some pieces of the text a bit. The intro is a bit long which might not be appreciated by some, I like it though but was glad to actually do some work myself.

Briefing

First thing upon seeing the plan, please use paragraphs. Now, it's just a large shunk of text the player has to go through, please organize it in smaller fractions. Don't know for sure if I get what the intro has just shown, think that I get it though. The objectives are clear and the player is offered a choice (LZ). The map missed a bit of text at the Carmen defense, which you might want to add.

The notes section is good.

You might want to simulate us being on the retreat, so force us to use a smaller selection of weapons. Right now I'm halfway to heaven with all these guns available in the briefing. I'm going to use the SAW as I like it against an overdose of enemies. That combined with a M9 and a couple of grenades. Finally, I delete the binocular of #2 as I don't want him looking through it in combat.

Mission

We start out and I see an ammo box, I don't like it if mission authors opt for an ammo box in the middle of nowhere, well it's not in a base so I don't find it very realistic to have one out here. And, you should be punished for selecting the wrong weapons, by either just going on with them, restarting the mission or getting whatever weapons of the enemy you need. But, the mission author has to give information to the player about the enemy's strength in this case (if it fits the mission that is).

Anyway the enemy starts its attack. My men are prone in a line firing away at the enemy squads approaching our position. I thought that it was going to be really easy when I read that we'd have to defend our position against a squad but I think that there were more of them. Not a problem though, it adds more of a challenge. After the fire ceased out, no-one got hit I move forward to spot any leftover SLA soldiers.

Turns out that there is probably one soldier hiding, can't find him so we're doing a bit of a search and destroy in and around Carmen. The squad composition is a good one by the way. Well done. You should look into the first objective not getting completed immediatly though as no one (?) likes the last loon hunt. What I find weird is that there's a dead enemy soldier at the back of the cafe? Don't think anyone of my team shot him.

Okay, to hell with the first objective. I'm moving out towards the evac zones. Naturally, I go for the LZ probably most crowded with enemy's, or the closest, Xray. Takes a while to get all my guys back at the farm where we started out as I ordered all of them to a position in the town but once they were all back in line we moved out.

In a staggered column we move south first before following the road to the LZ Xray, that's because I don't like steep mountains. After a long walk we reach the mountain range and head west, the route which will take us right at the LZ. Just a few seconds before wanting to say that it's a long and boring walk I come across a large squad patrol. Nice, but one earlier wouldn't have hurt either. The problem is that I left my squad searching their own way towards the base as they were too slow which means that I'm on my own, well with me SAW.

Poor bastards, with 100 bulllets I struck as a lightning bolt and got them all before they could even fire back at me. My squad is still lagging about 500m behind so I'm going in on my own. There are a lot more enemies now and I manage to eliminate a huge number of them, I get hit though so I'm going to wait for my squad, well for my medic to arrive. I suggest that you add a few more patrols on the way towards the LZ, that walk was just too easy.

Ah, my squad is too slow so I move out on my own. I order evac once I arrive at the village, I want to time it exactly right. There were a few more enemies, nothing to worry about. My only worry was my team not arriving on time. Oh yeah, my squad was just on time to get in the blackhawk. I saw a BMP arrive in the town but he couldn't spot the blackhawk, luck on my part. Good happy music when I fly away over the sea. Saw a BMP in the sea, don't think you want them to do that, you should look into that. BMPs in the water are quite useless in my opinion.

The mission doesn't want to end after the cutscene and hint that I've completed the mission. We fly towards an island, and land there, nothing happens. Maybe because obj1 still hasn't been completed.

Conclusion

At the end all of my men were still alive, mostly because of their good fighting in the beginning and my lone fighting at the end while they could just walk over the bodies. Overall a pretty good mission but needs some slight adjustments.

[mcnorth]

Cheetah, These are all good tips. I appreciate your taking the time to share your perspective with me in detail.

I thought I had licked the problem of one lone ai guy wandering off and surviving. I used a script that is supposed to make him follow the player so we get another chance to kill him without having to search every bush on the island. I either have to find another way to implement it or perhaps just kill him off after the player leaves the area. If you know of any other techniques for resolving the lone survivor issue that would be helpful. Unfortunately there's a hidden objective that wasn't shown as a result of objective 1 not completing.

The initial combat should have been against only 1 squad. If another patrolling squad wandered into the fight it will need to be fixed. Perhaps I used the wrong kind of waypoints.

I've tried to stay away from using enemy patrols off the beaten path because I don't see them as very realistic. Trying to balance that with the boredom of long walks is a challenge but I may have an idea.

Was that BMP in the water just offshore of Xray? That coast road is heavily patroled and he must have strayed from his patrol route.

Thanks again!

ps - You're right about the failed ending due to objective 1 not completing. I hate it when that happens.

[Cheetah]

"Was that BMP in the water just offshore of Xray? That coast road is heavily patroled and he must have strayed from his patrol route."

Yes.

About the last loon hunt, well there's not much you can do. One option is to check when there are one or two guys left and then doMove them to the player's position of the starting position of the player (there is a marker you can doMove them to). There are a few other methods, but none are fail safe I'm afraid.

[mcnorth]

Just uploaded version 1.01 which addresses the following issues.

1.  Fixed (hopefully) an issue with having to hunt down a lone ai guy to complete the first objective.
2.  Fixed a placement issue with an enemy squad wherein one of the guys would fall from a building and die at mission startup.
3.  Broke briefing into paragraphs to make it more readable.
4.  Removed ammo crate from mission start location.
5.  Added a little something to break the boredom if the player walks into a dead zone. We'll call them pop up targets.
6.  Limited speed of patroling BMP. Hopefully it won't drive off the road and into the ocean before it can meet a more explosive end.

Now there's a readme included in the archive. It's basic but tracks the changes.

Next I'm going to try to shorten up the intro.

[mathias_eichinger]

Overview

Very good, it had quite a dynamic picture and the text was good.

Briefing

I liked it because it was good to read, and contained much information. Even a weapons selection was there, which I did not use because I feel one would have no choice of weapons while being on the run.

Intro

Very long and telling the story nicely. The music was a bit too relaxed for the situation, but I did not pay much attention to the text (I am no native speaker), maybe it is about war or something like that. The camerawork was very good tough.

Mission

Very unbalanced in my opinion, which I will explain. First, I defended the village where I was situated in, had a bit of "last loon" problem with an officer lying in a garden and don't moving anywhere.

You might want to use the line

{!Alive _x} count units NameOfEnemySquad >= 0.7 *Count units NameOfEnemySquad

where a trigger activates when 70 % of the enemies are dead in this example.

Afterwards, I ran towards LZ Xray but got a new mission in which I had to liberate some US soldiers. The way to the LZ and the soldiers was very boring because it was a long trek with absolutely nothing happening. A few patrols here and there would make life more interesting  (Ok, you had one tank just before the soldier objective).
Then I discovered that the soldiers were in some ruins, a place where my squad would not follow. They got completely wiped out by the massive onslaught. Right then I accidentally hit the "leave building" action for the prisoners and they met the same fate. The place was swarming with commies. I managed to run away and got a leg wound, but was completely alone by then.
A long boring trek followed towards LZ Xray. I descended down from the hills and just as I tried to figure out to tackle a full squad of enemies alone, the first rounds hit me.
Due to a bad savegame choice I had to abort the mission at this point, but I think I have some valuable input.

Recommendations

*Split the number of enemies involved between patrols that would keep the player alert on ingress and egress to the objective and the response at the objective itself (I see no method to conserve my squad at the ruins)
*Reduce the number of guards at the LZ Xray (and probably at other LZs) to cater for inavoidable losses at the second objective

Cheers

Mathias

[mcnorth]

Thanks Mathias. I appreciate your taking the time to share your thoughts with me.

I'm reluctant to trigger the first objective complete with a percentage of the enemy squad being dead. My concern is that if there are troops remaining that are not hiding they still need killing. What I've done with this latest version is to add a small script that continually sets their behaviour to "aware", assuming that there is some sort of behaviour change when they hide. Unfortunately it's hard to test because I can play it 20 times and not have the problem.

There is one patrol south of the first objective and further yet a chopper drops troops on the players squad. Since you're the second guy to head south after finishing the first objective I made a change where the hidden objective pops up a lot sooner. I've also moved the paradrop so it occurs closer and added one on the north trek.

The guys that need rescuing are in the heart of indian country. I don't really want to change that but it's apparent I need to make that more clear to the player. A recon of the area makes it clear that a stealth approach is more likely to succeed than combat. That's why the guys pop out of the building with orders not to shoot. In version 1.02 I re-wrote the objective to suggest the possibility of a solo stealth approach. With that said I had some great solo firefights from the ground floor of that bombed out buliding darting from window to window. As a side note the idea for troops in the building came from an account of a British soldier in Arnhem (I think) during Market Garden. He was trapped in a bakery for days before eventually making his escape.

The enemy troops at the LZ's are not overwhelming most of the time. I've been able to secure all three LZs with a squad of 5 and I am not a very accomplished player. There are however patrols that come through those areas and at those times the resistance is a little more heated.

Thanks again for your help 

version 1.02 upped 5-15-07

ps - anyone else using the US release? Damn near impossible to get your hands on the exported pbo.

[johnnyboy]

mcnorth, this is an impressive first mission, imo.

Intro
====
The intro is quite good.  Love the music.  Is that the Animals?

First Contact
==========
Deployed my squad well, and took out pursuers without losing a man.  No last loon problem here.  But last loon objective tick-off can be funky.  Maybe if there is one or two left, and X minutes expired, you can hint that its time to move on and tick-off objective, or last loons flee if X minutes expired.  I had no problem here though.

Objective 2
=========
I also had no idea that a new objective appeared, and was winging it for the coast.  Then happened to check map and discovered new rescue objective.  I think you need a radio message text informing player of new rescue objective, or better yet voice messages. 

Enemy chopper sequence was great.  It dipped its nose to get a good look at me right before it passed over.  Then out came the paratroopers.  We ran to next treeline, and set up, and took them all down.  My whole team was stil intact.  Feeling pretty cocky...until...

...the ruins...

I tried taking my guys into the two ruins buildings, and lost them all.  I tried leaving them in the forest, and most of them would die anyway, evnethough I was doing my best to waste commies from within the ruined building.  This was a great fight--lots of CQB near the ruins.  But I hated losing six guys to gain 3.  Tried several times.  Seems a bit too hard.  I'll try again.  Leave my squad further back maybe, with Watch Direction orders setup for better defense.

I finally moved on with one original squad member, and the 3 rescued dudes.  We went a ways, and a tank croaked me in the next little town.

Will pick this up again later and give more feedback.

I really like the mission.  Great intro, great first contact, great chopper/paratroopers sequence...rescue a bit hard.  Could also use First Aid script maybe...I lost my medic.  See the Tiptoe Boys mission for a great First Aid script if you are interested.  Up to you, as perserving your medic is a tactic, and makes you think.

If you want some voice acting, I'd be willing to help (I'm no pro...but you can check out my mission Last Tango in Bagango, and see if my voice would work for you...besides, I could really use some feedback on it).

[mcnorth]

Thanks johnnyboy, I appreciate your feedback.

The intro tune is Quicksilver Messenger Service. I think it's off their Sons of Mercury album circa 1968.

Where the last loon problem is concerned I made the assumption that there is a behaviour change that occurs before the enemy soldier runs for cover. To stop this and make him serve as fodder I implemented a small script that sets behaviour to aware every couple of seconds. I hope that will solve this issue but if it doesn't I think a combination of your suggestion and mathias' will be my next try. ie Counter starts when a certain percentage of enemy squad is dead, after elapsed time with no contact trigger objective and move on. Thanks for the idea, I've been running out of them.

You're right about a better notification of the added objective or maybe I should just say to hell with it being hidden from the start. I'll have to think on that but a change is needed.

Balance between too hard and too easy seems to be the hardest part of editing. The patrols around the ruins do not follow waypoints but use the urban patrol script. Somtimes they are there and other times they aren't. Sometimes it's fairly easy to sneak in and other times it's tough as hell, or reconning and waiting them out is really boring. Maybe the answer is in mathias' suggestion to break them into smaller patrols. It's worth a try.

Free time is not in as much abundance since I started building a house last week but hopefully I'll have some down time over the weekend to implement these changes and I'll take a look at Last Tango In Bagango along with the first aid script.

ps - after first contact what direction were you inclined to travel?

Thanks again.

[LCD]

i think ill beta dis.... 1st mision im gonna play on da game... b back 2 u with answers

LCD OUT

[johnnyboy]

better notification of the added objective

Its pretty simple to SayRadio a line.  Or add a voice.  If you haven't tinkered with voices, Goldwave is a great free tool for recording .WAV sound dialog, saving to OGG format.  And you create lipsynch files (.lip) using a wav2lip program.  Search these forums for wav2lip and google goldwave.

The patrols around the ruins do not follow waypoints but use the urban patrol script.

OK.  Maybe a hint to recon and evade the enemy would help.  I tried multiple times from a savepoint before the trees near the ruin, and every time wave after wave of enemies came by the ruins.  Didn't feel like patrols, but like a triggered wave of waypointed enemies.  I wonder if my savepoint was so close to the ruins that my random urban patrol script was no longer random for me, i.e., the patrol variables were set, and executed the same each time I tried.

Free time is not in as much abundance since I started building a house

Brutal.  Your arma time is now history dude.

after first contact what direction were you inclined to travel?

Due west for the coast, i think.

[LCD]

after 1000s prob wit da code and d/ling 600 MBs of updates i finally got 2 testing dat mision... now note its da 1st mision i play in Arma and i didnt play ofp in years so i fight kinda lousy even tho it did get beter wit time

so heres a quick explanation of wat i did

1st try :- i waited 4 da attack from da west instead of east  got killed in 5 mins

2nd try :- my soldiers killed da whole group while i was trying to remember how 2 aim i den started heading west... after dat i headed north got some paras on me and died... i didnt save da whole time so.... restart

3rd try :- fought off 1st attack... finaly got one killed... had 2 hunt for a MGunner but it didnt take too long, traveled west den north, my squad killed da paras while i still was on X4 time mode... i forgot to turn it down ... i continued to da city killed da BMP and crawled and killed all da squads dere, it took me 1/2 hr to find my lost m8s got every1 in URAL and we traveled twards extract point yankee... i run over 2 squads and da 3rd squad (waiting in da LZ, nasty bitchez) RPGed me... i pressed retry instead of load  so i didnt finish da mision but i stil have some nice feedback

[feedback]

Overview -
1) nothing i can comment about

Intro
1) camera been little laggy but it was also like dat while playing b4 i turned down my graphics... so i think its my comps fault
2) in da fight screen deres part where da cam looks at my soldiers and den stops and moves to other way, da turn is too sharp i think but its something to do with how u like dat stuff

Breifing
1) 2 links names "Advancing your position" or something like dat r not working
2) Link da LZ names in da sec objective
3) i dont know if de soldiers start like dat or you did it but some of da soldiers are not fully equiped at start... if its intentional den u need 2 remove all da weapon selection if not den maybe have selection lil more limited... were not suposed 2 b soldiuers going fresh 2 battle i think ?

Mision
1) da 1st objective is lil 2 easy... my squad killed em all w/ no casualties b4 i remembered how 2 aim
2) fix da need to look for da missing soldier b4 finishing 1st objective... its not really bad but its still not dat fun
3) Have some radio chater betwen player and HQ b4 givin new objectives... actually have some chatter 4 everyting dat happens (eg. after finding da lost soldiers)
4) have savegame points at end of objectives and before aproaching big fights... it helps ppl who forget 2 save
5) da MI-17 and paras is nice touch... but it cud have been lil sooner... i actually got bored from running b4 it arrived
6) maybe spread some jeep patrols on da way 2 da city just to keep player alert
7) da BMP dere is in realy hurry somewhere... i took some shots on it w/ LAW... hit w/ da 3rd shot nd it didnt even stop 2 take me down ? its fine u dont want it around in fight but if da player tries to kill it it shud react
have some firefight between pinned soldiers and russian squads upon players entering da city... even if you just fake it (some bodies, firefight sounds) da player wont b able 2 tell... and it will help da player belive dere some soldiers fighting 4 their lifes out dere
9) tell us da our friends r hiding upstairs... it took me alota time 2 find em
10) hide da call extraction radio bottuns till they shud b used... dat will keep player from calling extraction to all positions or 2 call extraction 1000s miles outa LZ... i didnt try it but it cant b good

i didnt get 2 finish da mision so i dont know more hope dats helpfull

LCD OUT

[mcnorth]

Its pretty simple to SayRadio a line.  Or add a voice.

I did a little voice stuff once with OFP. It was a voice briefing and took forever. Never finished the mission. I think I'll stick with the radio message but still need to learn a thing or two about that.

every time wave after wave of enemies came by the ruins.

Hold the phone. I think you found a bug here. I went back to my test version and ALL the patrols in Eponia (town next to the ruins) seem to know about and respond to a contact with one patrol. I'll look at that some more and find a way to deal with it. Thanks ferreting it out. By the way, I eat my words about waypoints. There is one patrol that uses waypoints. There are 3 or 4 others in Eponia that use the random patrol script. I put them there so if someone goes looking for transport they'll have to steal it. Nothing's free.

Brutal.  Your arma time is now history dude.

Nothing like a daily beating, eh? It will be much worse if I don't get the outside stuff done before winter.

I think I can take care of this on Sunday. Thanks for all your help.

[mcnorth]

Ah... LCD! I remember you from OFP days. What I remember most is that missioms that regularly kicked my ass were childs play for you.

So you rolled into the "rescue the guys" objective, killed everything in sight and stole the Ural for transport? I rest my case.

da turn is too sharp i think but its something to do with how u like dat stuff

It has nothing to do with how I like that stuff and everything to do with what little I know about that stuff.

1) 2 links names "Advancing your position" or something like dat r not working
2) Link da LZ names in da sec objective

This is good. I'll fix both of these.

3) i dont know if de soldiers start like dat or you did it but some of da soldiers are not fully equiped at start...

I just plugged in the guys from the editor with default loadout. Considering the unbalanced odds I think my pick will to be load them to the max.

7) da BMP dere is in realy hurry somewhere... i took some shots on it w/ LAW... hit w/ da 3rd shot nd it didnt even stop 2 take me down ? its fine u dont want it around in fight but if da player tries to kill it it shud react

Isn't this a function of ai? Or is there a way I can control that?

2) fix da need to look for da missing soldier b4 finishing 1st objective... its not really bad but its still not dat fun

Where was this guy? What was his behaviour? Was he hiding, advancing, retreating? This has been hard as hell to fix.

have some firefight between pinned soldiers and russian squads upon players entering da city

I know what you're talking about here. I played some OFP missions with the ambiance created by these kinds of effects and they were among the best. I'm reluctant to implement it in this mission though because it negates the players option for stealth. Who would consider sneaking into a firefight?

9) tell us da our friends r hiding upstairs... it took me alota time 2 find em

Good point!

10) hide da call extraction radio bottuns till they shud b used...

How do I hide those? And yes, it would be bad if the evac chopper were called into a landing zone swarming with enemies and got shot down. On the plus side he can be RTBed anytime and called again later. If he's called to one LZ and then another, he'll abort the first destination and proceed to the second.

3) Have some radio chater betwen player and HQ b4 givin new objectives... actually have some chatter 4 everyting dat happens (eg. after finding da lost soldiers)

I think this would do a lot for the overall feel of the mission. Another good tip but I'm not sure I know enough to make it happen.

Thanks for all your help. I'll bet I could do it all in about a month (slow learner)

[LCD]

It has nothing to do with how I like that stuff and everything to do with what little I know about that stuff.

Bah... cam is always hard stuff... dont blame u on dat... its not dat critical 2

Isn't this a function of ai? Or is there a way I can control that?

it depends on da type of da WP u gave it... i think also depends on its behaviour type... set it 2 danger or something

Where was this guy? What was his behaviour? Was he hiding, advancing, retreating? This has been hard as hell to fix.

I think he was w/ em but behind  i think he just lagged behind em or something... cuz i killed every1 and went 2 da medic... nd suddenly he started shoting @ me... luck 4 me my soldiers got him fast  

I know what you're talking about here. I played some OFP missions with the ambiance created by these kinds of effects and they were among the best. I'm reluctant to implement it in this mission though because it negates the players option for stealth. Who would consider sneaking into a firefight?

Donno... i didnt sneak... da BMP looked 2 yummy  ... but u can say dey provide "distraction while we hit em from behind... cuz i dont think its possible 2 get into da building w/o bneing seen before ?

How do I hide those? And yes, it would be bad if the evac chopper were called into a landing zone swarming with enemies and got shot down. On the plus side he can be RTBed anytime and called again later. If he's called to one LZ and then another, he'll abort the first destination and proceed to the second.

2 hide use dis command :- 1 SetRadioMsg "Null" -  dis will hide alpha channel... 2 will hide bravo and so on
2 show em again just set oder msg :- 1 SeetRadioMsg "Learn" - will show da word learn

Have some radio chater betwen player and HQ b4 givin new objectives... actually have some chatter 4 everyting dat happens (eg. after finding da lost soldiers)I think this would do a lot for the overall feel of the mission. Another good tip but I'm not sure I know enough to make it happen.

Ist simple command... its called sidechat eg. (playername sidechat "I learn Fast")... will make a radio like dat apear on screen

take ur time and make it count

LCD OUT

[mcnorth]

Updated today with version 1.03. The following changes have been made.

1.  Reduced the size of the patrols at the ruins

2.  Added a radio notice when the hidden objective is revealed. Hidden objective is also revealed sooner.

3.  Added a radio notice that a chopper is headed your way.

4.  Briefing now lets the player know the soldiers needing rescue are on the 2nd floor.

5.  Added a suggestion about how to approach the ruins.

6.  Mission now starts with all units fully equipped. Can still be changed at start up if player is inclined.

7.  Fixed two links in the briefing.

8.  Added a couple of save game points.

9.  Slowed down the BMP that shows up around the ruins.

[_spitfire]

Nice one,

No problems encountered.  I like the freedom of how to complete it amongst other things.

The enemy patrols are all in wedge formation and moving very quickly even before they are aware of my presence.  Maybe you could slow them down and set them to SAFE until an alarm has been triggered.

Also liked the chopper inserting enemy soldiers.(attempting to in my case, I shot it down.)  Perhaps another one later on in the mission would be nice or even a patrol by an attack chopper or two.

I really like longer missions and I came across a proper officer in between yankee and zulu.  Maybe you could make this guy another objective.

Good job.  Can't wait for episode 2.

[LCD]

ill test dis mision 2day hopefully

LCD OUT

[LCD]

ok run it again.....

comments

1) da 1st objective is not so bad now... try usin da allowfleeing command if ur not already (fin in da comref) cuz im not sure if da last 1 was fleeing or just tryin 2 flank us
2) i still think u shud hide da radio msgs till da other squad is resqued... so no player just run away nd leave em dere
3) u have 2 savepoints 2 close... lewave just da 1 b4 da chopper
4) da chutes parachuted 2 far from me so i actually didnt look 4 em nd continued... makin em nice eyecandy but prety useless
5) da BMP came really late into battle dis time (actually suprisin me b4 enterin da truck... killed 1 squadm8 b4 i got it
6) i think u shud add a medic 2 da friendlies waitin 4 us... cud help ppl dat lost deirs (i did 1ce)
7)u have extra space in 2 radio option "LZ  yankee" (triger radio bravo)
8 ) dis time i decided 2 go around nd went thro wilderness 2 LZ nd got on a cliff disembarked from truck but cudnt convince my soldiers 2 go down cliff w/ me... so i went back alone nd finished da mision... i think u shud make me wait 4 em or somin

no outro

all in all its quite fun mision

LCD OUT

[mcnorth]

@ _spitfire:

Can you give me some insight how things played out around the ruins? Did you assault it or stealth it? Too easy? Too hard?

The enemy patrols are all in wedge formation and moving very quickly even before they are aware of my presence.  Maybe you could slow them down and set them to SAFE until an alarm has been triggered.

That makes sense. They should be casually patroling until contact is made.

Perhaps another one later on in the mission would be nice

There is another one that triggers when the player goes into a different section of the map. Maybe I need to move the trigger so that it's more likely to get used.

I really like longer missions and I came across a proper officer in between yankee and zulu.  Maybe you could make this guy another objective.

There are a number of roadblocks like this one on the map consisting of an enemy squad with BRDM, an officer with driver and UAZ. Actually there are a lot of targets of opportunity, many guarding boats and other ways off the island. I'm afraid if I make any one of them another objective it will steer the player to a specific LZ and keep the misison from playing in a variety of different ways.

Thanks for your insights.


@ LCD:

1) Allowfleeing at 0 is one of the many ways I tried to avoid the last guy hiding. Another way is that he follows a script that gets the position of the player and sends him there every so often. There is also another script that continually sets his behaviour to aware, on the chance that he switches to danger or stealth when he hides. I'm really hoping that problem is solved for certain. It's been a headache.

2) I tried messing with hiding the radio messages. I tried to set it where the one for Xray would only show when you were close to Xray, and the same for Yankee and Zulu. The radio then had blank spots above or between the call for extract message and the RTB message which I thought looked kind of crappy so I left it alone. I'm sure there's a way to do it and make it look clean with scripting but I take forever at that sort of thing. As for leaving the guys in the ruins maybe a stripped of rank and admonishment ending. I really want to leave the player with as many choices as possible, saving his own ass and leaving the others to die being one of them.

3) Agreed, the first savepoint is a goner.

4) The para drops use a random factor for getting your position and dropping. Sometimes closer, sometimes farther away. (within limits) In any case the dropped squad should assemble and then hunt you down but It sounds like that didn't happen unless you just out ran them. I'll test this a bit more to see if they are doing as they should. Thanks for the tip.

5) The BMP is on a pretty long patrol circuit. He isn't sitting off somewhere then triggered into action which may explain why he surprised you. To me that's good news because he's less predictable which is just what I wanted.

6) Excellent idea with the medic!

7) Good catch.

Steep terrain is a pain in the ass in this game.

No outro - I'm not doing those yet. I thought I was pretty lucky to get this far. 

Thanks for your input.

mcnorth clear

[mcnorth]

version 1.04 upped on June 2, 2007.

changes are as follows.

1. Patrols are set to safe so they don't act like they are alerted before they even see you.
2. Deleted a save game point. It was pretty pointless.
3. One of the units needing rescue is now a medic.
4. Corrected a text error in one of the radio commands.
5. Radio notifications are no longer text, now they are voice.
6. Added another enemy paradrop that you may or may not encounter depending on how you play the mission.
7. Added a US weapons cache. (I think I did that in 1.03 but forgot to mention it)

cheers

[Cheetah]

Combat Episode 1

Package

Please add a nice picture for advertising (review picture).

Overview

Looks good.

Intro

Some lag on my PC. Like the content.

Briefing

Fine.

Mission

The radio sound warning the player of the incoming chopper needs text. Don't know why there is a 5th radio option "kill 1st squad"? Why would the player use it?

No voiceover of the text at the extraction. Radio triggers are set at "repeat", which means that you can call the chopper in multiple times (well, you get the radio conv. a few times).

Nice optional objective. Adds up to the difficulty and possibilities. Good that I could find an Ural at a village called Tagdal (or something like it).

45 minutes - 15160 points

Outro

None. I suggest that you think of one, it's worth it.

Overall

Sorry for the short report, but I couldn't think of more points and wasn't in the mood to write a whole report on my movements. In short: 1st obj without casualties, optional one - headone fight - lost one guy, evac at Yankee.

The mission feels as if almost complete and ready for review, well done.

[mcnorth]

Please add a nice picture for advertising (review picture).

Is there any criteria for size, borders, etc.?

Don't know why there is a 5th radio option "kill 1st squad"? Why would the player use it?

Damn!!! I was supposed to disable that. I use things like that to bounce around the misisson and test various elements. (Kill off a squad, warp to different places, etc.)

Radio triggers are set at "repeat", which means that you can call the chopper in multiple times (well, you get the radio conv. a few times).

This is intentional. If you call him in and he starts taking ground fire you can send him back, kill the enemies then call him in again. If He's on his way and another patrol jumps you before he gets there, you can bug out if necessary, RTB the chopper and then call him to another LZ.

Re: Outro
Good advice. I'll give it some consideration. Back to camera stuff. Ugh.

[mcnorth]

1.05 (interim) just upped. There was a stupid mistake in 1.04. Other changes are as follows.

1.  Included a screenshot in the package.

2.  Added radio text to radio voice overs where it was missing.

3.  Added radio voice overs to the evac chopper communications.

4.  Disabled some cheats that I use for testing but forgot and left in the last version.

    (still no outro. Just drawing a blank on ideas)

[Cheetah]

Is there any criteria for size, borders, etc.?

For size I recommend 256x256 px, take a look at the reviewed missions board to see what pictures are used (for example how the default one looks).

[johnnyboy]

McNorth, I've been giving v1.05 a whirl.  Here's some more feedback:

1. Still dig that Quicksilver tune.  This time in the intro, the defenders toward the end don't fire much, if at all (eventhough the ambience fire is there).

2. I like the new radio voice overs. 

3. Not sure about need to tell player about inbound enemy chopper.  I prefer surprises, but its no big deal either way.

4. Since I was hinted to stealth my way to the ruins, I chose to leave my squad (minus a few dead), in the trees just south of tee road intersection south of ruins.  I proceeded to trees behind ruins, and timed entry to ruin to when BMP wouldn't see me.  Still had trouble here.  Often spotted by many of the patrollers, but when truly careful, could make it upstairs unspotted.  Good tense moments when patrol in column formation walks between ruins right by the front.  When too impatient, I would try to shoot my way out, which is dumb.  Using cover of ruins, you can take down many opfor, but there's too many.  Best to wait til mostly clear, and order new friends out (after stocking up on silenced pistol, etc.).

5. Don't like the teleporting of the guys to the back, as it breaks the immersion.  But I understand your problem.  I am familiar with that building class, and trying to get AI to move through the building to the rear on their own may be impossible.  I think they only like exiting via the front, which would expose them to fire.  This is a good mission, so this isn't a show stopper.

6. Would be good for ruins guys to greet you on arrival upstairs.  "We're sure glad to see you, man...this place is crawlin' with commies!".  Or, "There's only ONE of you?  Oh man, we are SO screwed!".  Currently, these guys are statues.

7. Unfortunately, my original squad I left at the tee, got into heavy firefights while I was at the ruins.  Even with several retries, and sending them further south, they kept getting wiped out.  Probably better to leave them at edge of woods immediately south of ruins, but I didn't want to go back that far save-game-wise, so I lost them.

8. Took my new 3 pals thru the woods west.  Then across open ground to next spot of trees, etc.  Great fun covering them, and bringing them to cover, then having them cover my next move forward.  Dropped the BMP, lost a man, and commandeered a UAZ with MG.  This gave me mobility to haul ass.

9. I chose to ignore LZ Xray, and head to Yankee.  Jammed to lip of Passo San Andres.  I dismounted to try and scout over rim and look down road thru pass, as I figured it was a chokepoint and logical place for guards.  But never got to scount, because second chopper with paras arrived.  There's only 3 of us, so I didn't risk engaging and decided to blaze down pass road to Yankee LZ.  Soon as we hit bottom of pass I took a hard left to lower terrain by water (good move as there was a squad or two on road).  Saved game.

10.  Had a helluva time taking out squads at Yankee with 3 guys.  Best approach was to leave gunner in UAZ toward the beach so he was below line of sight from road.  The medic and I then covered different directions, and I used commander view to see when enemy would come over rise at us, and direct fire.  After many re-tries, finally took them all, and called for evac.  ARMA AI is quite good at flanking!

11.  Evac chopper at Yankee pissed me off.  This has been an intense run-for-your-life mission, and I'm ready to evac.   Often the chopper never landed, he circled and split.  Twice he touched down, and the took off right before I could get on board.  Once I was able to get on board, but he left my medic, and then flew into some trees.  So Yankee never really worked out for me.  Note that he was taking some light gun-fire part of the time (probably from squad at next rise to the west on the road).

12.  OK, time to try for Zulu instead.  Now I blaze west on road (leaving Yankee squads un-engaged) to find a squad just over the rise by the road.  Surprise them and drive right through them (but take fire and lose my gunner).  Rip past the BMP coming up the road (he never fires on me), and on into next populated town with the chopper.  Get ripped up here.

13.  Tried taking this a few times more stealthily, once from overlooking coastal mtn top, but sharpshooter AI got me.

So I haven't beaten this yet, but I do really like the mission.  It covers alot of ground, has a definite "on-the-run" intensity I like, and you have total freedom how to approach it.  I was only really bummed by the Yankee chopper extraction not working out.  Perhaps because he was taking some fire (i.e., I didn't secure the LZ well enough).  Any hint on how to get Yankee chopper to extract me properly?

And how about some ammo in the chopper's MG so I can help fight our way out?

Bottom line is this is enjoyable and addictive mission.  My time is limited, so I wouldn't have persevered if I didn't find it worthwhile.

Speaking of time, how is the house coming along? 

I understand about writer's block for outros...that's the only thing holding me up finishing Last Tango in Bagango....

[mcnorth]

johnnyboy,

First and foremost, my apologies for taking so long to get back to you. I don't know if email notification failed or it was lost among an overwhelming  amount of garbage email.

Quicksilver did some pretty cool stuff (some weird stuff too) and is probably best known for Fresh Air. Strange how some music is timeless.

I don't know how to account for various approaches to the ruins. Personally stealth is the only consistent way I can accomplish that objective. LCD on the other hand just blows in, kills everything then heads out of town in the truck. (Incidentally there are a number of trucks scattered about)

I like your idea about interaction when meeting the guys at the ruins. In fact I think that is a shit hot detail that needs to be added.

With exception of the paras all of the patrols pretty much stick to or around the road system. It just didn't seem realistic for patrols in an occupied territory to beat the bushes unless they are in pursuit. Consequently you can leave your squad hunkered down in a brushy area and they'll survive until you return, provided they don't try to kill someone.

Your experience with the evac at Yankee is something I spent countless hours on. The bottom line is that the LZ has to be clear. If one of the road patrols engages the chopper he will abandon his assigned task and do other stupid things. The mini gun ammo was removed in one of the many efforts to prevent him from deviating but, like everything else, it didn't work. I should add it back. The chopper can be rtb'ed if the LZ isn't clear and recalled after it is. So if he's engaged he can be sent back to base, the player can either kill the enemy squad or let it pass and then recall the chopper. I just couldn't find any way to get that chopper to land in a hail of bullets.

The house (actually it's a duplex) is finally past the paperwork stage. There was a 7 week holdup on design which is an agonizing loss of time when you're talking about Alaska's short construction season. The footing should be ready to pour by day's end and hopefully the stem wall a week later. Getting out of the dirt and onto a deck will do wonders for my mental outlook. No ifs ands or buts, the shell has to be up, closed in and finished on the outside before the snow falls. For one guy that's quite a lot of work. So I hope you'll understand why I don't get to updating this mission for quite awhile.

I played Last Tango some time ago and thought you had some excellent creative ideas. The guy in the outhouse caught me by surprise. I missed the tell tale clue. It's those little things that seem to make a mission stand out from the norm. Nice job!

[schuler]

I've got this one, please mark as in progress. 
cheers schuler

Review Completed].

Feel free to start the after-review discussion.