(Review Completed) [SP] 'Nam: Mau Lat

[Hawkins]

Mau Lat
Version 1.0 Release Candidate
By Hawkins

What you need to play:
Jungle Fever mod - http://hawknam.net/forum/index.php?topic=44.0 (I link to this thread because the mod might get updated)

CSJ's Hueys & Medevac - http://hawknam.ofptf.net/Bunker/CSJuh1.rar
or: http://ofpnam.com/download.php?view.113

Editor Upgrade - http://hawknam.ofptf.net/Bunker/EditorUpgrade102.zip

OFP Res v.1.96
Game from the store and the update from:
http://www.flashpoint1985.com

Overview:
A recon team has gone missing in the highlands, in a valley called Mau Lat. Your team is sent in to find out what happened. On top of that, there is a rumour that the valley is haunted...

Includes:

• Intro
• Outro Win/Lose
• Briefing
• Overview
• Voices (Now with FULL VOICE ACTING!)
• Music

To be included in later versions:

• None

Other comments:
This mission isn't your usual walk in the boonies. It includes insipiration and ideas taken from Apocalypse. Now and R-Point, both good 'Nam movies.
Originally made for the Unsung mod Demo II, this mission was never released for it. It was originally tested by the Unsung team members. Many changes have been made to the mission since then, and I feel a new betatest is in order.
You can check my other 'Nam mission by going to my website, http://hawknam.ofptf.net
If the above link doesn't work, send me an e-mail, if you want, to see if the site is still up.

Here's the download link:
http://hawknam.ofptf.net/Missions/Mau_Lat.rar
~6.20mb
Mission updated 12/16/07, 2127 hours
Finnish time, GMT +2

All suggestions/comments will be appriciated!

Hawkins


Edit: This mission has been reviewed and is available, with links to required addons, from the Missions Depot.

[MrN]

Good to see you still working on JF 

The link to the mission isn't working mate, I'll have a pop at this over the weekend if I have a chance and you sort the link out.

Cheers

[Hawkins]

Damn, wrong file extentsion, should've been rar. Link should work now.

Yep, I just can't drop this project. I'm trying to pull myself together and make the next update really be the last, and finish off the campaign I've been making for it, and which originally started the mod.
Eagerly waiting for your review mate!

[MrN]

Sorry for the delay mate. I have to confess to not playing OFP for quite a while so this was a bit of a learning curve on how to play it again.

There’s one thing that will bring me back to OFP, ‘Nam. And on that Hawkins you didn’t disappoint. Fantastic atmosphere that still this game excels at, the claustrophobia of the jungle is very real as I can just see the black outline of a figure before it goes behind another bush. Thankfully my AI are much better than me.

Overview:
Nice work, bears a resemblance to the R-Point cover if I recall.

Intro:
Nice work indeed, very slick, sets up the story well, text and voices all good, the music is fab and that music fadeout when the chopper flies off was class.

Mission:
First attempt didn’t go at all well. I was looking at my map after landing, put the map away and noticed I was on my own. So did what any self respecting soldier does and runs straight towards the objective quickly moving into a hail of bullets.

Second attempt went slightly better, followed the dudes and got the message, proceeded down the trail, got shot by a bush. Meh…gives up.

Third attempt I get my jungle head on and creeped slowly down the trail, caught sight of 2-3 VC and just as I’d right clicked on them my squad had cut them down. Happy about that.

Carried on slowly down the trail and after a while thought I’d better double check the briefing, it was then I noticed I had a Juliet radio command. Double checked the briefing and deduced this must the sitrep option, nice touch but needs Sitrep instead of Juliet. So, worked out this was the savegame and duly saved at every footstep.

Got to a clearing that lent itself to something happening and checked my map, just as I did I got the next message. Took the map away and noticed a corpse at my feet, I must have walked right over it. Very petty typo in the message, “please advice” should be “advise”

So, moving on…

The next bit I don’t want to give away in any detail just in case someone wants to play it and doesn’t want any spoilers. Suffice to say it all worked, worked well, took a couple of retries and had a very creepy confusing effect. Good job.

On a technical note the dudes walked around the wall instead of on it, one of them made it once. Maybe use a setpos with a blackout to get them in position?

The LZ situation wasn’t good, bit predictable but had the right heart sinking effect.

Outro:
Cute.

I enjoyed this more than I thought I was going to, my first five minutes back in OFP felt like someone had shrunken me and squeezed the world in compared to AA, I kept right-clicking to bring the ironsights up and where’s all the colour gone? But the atmosphere got me again and creeping through the jungle wondering where the next bullet will come from was as creepy as ever!

Good job on this and the mod, it’s been my default ‘Nam mod whenever I fancy going back into the Jungle.

Cheers


^^^^^^^^
Love this smiley!

[Hawkins]

Sorry for the late reply mate, been away on entry exams for uni.

Thanks for the review! Glad to hear I got you back from the guts of the arma monster! Getting sucked that way a bit myself, but still coming back for OFP because of the 'Nam. But, just you wait what we have in store for you in the new arma scene.

I think the cutscene blackout might just be the thing that's needed. At first I had the rest of the team detach from the player, and go on about their own business, but I was adviced that some players want to have control over their men, so I removed that. I could place them along the wall, and still have them on the players team. I wonder if they would stay in place, and the player has to didi the area pretty quick once he is told to, and it makes me wonder  if the poor bastards can get off the wall without too much damage. Might be worth the shot though.

Thanks for testing mate! Be on the lookout for the sequel.

[Hawkins]

Just to keep you guys posted, I haven't stopped working on this mission. Been busy finishing the mod up. I've done some updating on the mission and will post a new version for downloading within the next couple of days.

[Hawkins]

Well took myself from the neck and did the small updates to the mission. New version uploaded, same link as before.

I added some more music into the mission, and removed the gooktalk soundfiles as they are now included in the Jungle Fever mod. There's some music that should add to te jungle athmosphere and eerie feeling. They came out rather well I think, but let me know what you think.
The players squad should now be placed on top of the ruin walls when "certain things happen."

As always, comments and feedback are welcome!

 

[Denz]

Finally got around to trying this mission.

Intro
That was an Intro! I was nearly off to the kitchen to microwave some popcorn.
It set the spooky atmosphere for the mission nicely.

Mission (just notes)
By the time I got to the ruins the eerie environment had me really tense, I was jumping at every shadow and cloud of mist and I'd only killed two Vietnamese I'd come across on the trail. Then I found Edwards... my heart was in my mouth and I was riveted. I am partial to missions with a good story and planty of atmosphere.

Typo> in the sentence where one of your men talks about the "skeletons with the new AKs" you need a space between "how" and "come"

Hit a bug> When given the order to head West to the LZ by the Marines the 3 remaining members of my squad were stuck.
After trying for a couple of minutes to bash the AI loons out, I gave up and preceeded to the LZ on my own. Where I promptly died in a hail of bullets.
So I didn't complete it, but man I enjoyed it.

[Hawkins]

Thanks for playig Denz! I'll check that bug with the AI. I tried to place them on the walls but it seems that wasn't such a good idea. I'll fix that ASAP.
Glad to hear you like the athmosphere. I've worked extensively to make the mission very enjoyable for the player.

Thanks again! Will fix that typo and the problem with the AI as soon as possible.

[Tyger]

Hey Hawkins, mate! How's life? Been quite a while!

I've been meaning to give this a try but the wireless is slow, so DLing addons has been a pain! But I plan to give it a wack tonight!

[Tyger]

A fantastic mission, Hawkins! I really enjoyed this one!

Just a few things:

• I could hardly see the overview links because of their color.
• At the temple, my chaps on the wall wouldn't fire. Period. Got two or three of them killed because of that too.
• I was setPosed onto the wall before the black out and it didn't actually black out. Just blacked in so it seemed to skip.

I have to say that this was great atnosphere. All of the hairs (quite litterally - i looked like a porcupine) were sticking up at the temple, and when the VC attacked us I was pretty well worried! I ran like hell when they told us to go. At the LZ all of my men got cut down, and I got a mission failed because my RTO died.

I retried the ending about 10 or 20 times () and I could never kill all of the VC... Can you actually win the end?

Great mission!

[Hawkins]

Hey Tyger! Life's good, starting uni this fall, and still trying to mod and play OFP (and ArmA sometimes) as much as I can.

I could hardly see the overview links because of their color.

I'll fix the overview link colours. Dunno of a way but I'll dig deep to find one.

At the temple, my chaps on the wall wouldn't fire. Period. Got two or three of them killed because of that too.

Yea I noticed that bug too after MrN's test. Has been fixed.

I was setPosed onto the wall before the black out and it didn't actually black out. Just blacked in so it seemed to skip.

Fixed. Good spot!

I retried the ending about 10 or 20 times  and I could never kill all of the VC... Can you actually win the end? 

Some people have said the ending is way too easy to win. I really don't know, since for me it has been ups and downs while testing. I was thinking of adding some more cover for the player in the LZ for him to duck in at. So yes, it can be won, end the outro win is a pretty mysterious one.

[Tyger]

I'll fix the overview link colours. Dunno of a way but I'll dig deep to find one.

If not, don't worry too much. My LCD monitor's colors are much different from my CRT's, and I just switched recently, so maybe it's just it'll take some getting used to.

Is the next version up?

[Hawkins]

Not yet, gonna update it today and upload the new version this evening or sometime tomorrow. I'll post again when the new version is up for grabs.

The link colours in the overview can also be because of dxdll. I've had some problems with it in the past, since it makes the game more bright at palces.

[Tyger]

The transparent water thing and all that stuff? If so, I don't run that.  I really just need to sit down and tweak the LCD colors sometime.

And looking forward to the next version then! JF is a great mod!