(Review Completed) [SP] The Sahrani Run V2.0 - An Epic Mission

[Arkon]

Hi, Everybody

Thanks to all the beta testers that have given us valuable feedback for the campaign. We now feel that the time has come to invite reviews.

A Couple of points :

1) When played as a campaign there are issues that are beyond our control. These are documented below.
Preferably read all the notes or if you wish to skip them, make sure you at least read the following section :
  
++ Armed Assault bug - commonly known as SAVE GAME BUG? ++

Alternatively you can play the campaign as two separate missions. (Just download the two mission filies and the ReadMe file) RECOMMENDED

2) Reviewers please note that the Campaign is quite long and will take some time to complete.

********************************************************************************
UPDATES - THIS SECTION IS RESERVED FOR UPDATES AND NEW INFORMATION LINKS
********************************************************************************
In order to keep this first post from growing too much or getting too confusing we'll be using this top section to point to discussions on problems and solutions as they are found or fixed. Once you've read the main text below you just need to check the top of the thread for anything new.
IMPORTANT: Please make sure you've read and understood all the Save / restore and beta notes on this page first!!

*********************BEGIN UPDATE SECTION***************************************

1) The SAVE RESUME question is really a problem that seems to be something that BIS need to look into. We are now going to try to get them to look at this problem. Watch this space.

2) Cleaned up the text below to include generic information. This update section now will contain anything new.

3) WORKAROUND for Part2 load bug
Ok, we have done this workaround for anyone that may have a problem when trying to load a savegame in Part 2 which isn't fixed by the usual RESUME/REVERT in the workaround suggestions below. Of course you can restart the mission or go back to one of your part 1 saves.

4) NEW!! An alternative -  A MISSION VERSION!

We've also provided a way to run the whole Campaign as 2 separate missions.
You won't have what you had when you crossed over between the 2 Parts (we don't know that ), some weapons and some sandwiches will be provided.

*********************END UPDATE SECTION*****************************************

THE SAHRANI RUN

The Sahrani Run - this is a very long mission, so long it has been split into 2 parts and made into campaign format:

Its been running for a while now so reviews are welcome...
Please report any Bugs/Suggestions etc...

Overview

The Sahrani Run V2.0 (single player) gives players a chance to try their hand at a stealth mission (sniper with M24). You are Major Mark Fullagar, a British special operations officer, brought in to do an important job for the Western Alliance on the island of Sahrani. The mission is long and involving, featuring a well-developed storyline that includes elements of RPG and Adventure. This is not the usual run-of-the-mill mission and offers something a bit different for players - give it a try and see! And let us know what you think.

Please read "IMPORTANT PLEASE READ" and "SAVING, RESTARTING & BETA TESTING NOTES" BEFORE starting the Campaign.


No addons required
Armed Assault 1.08

Features:
Dynamic gameplay and Storyline
Healthpacks and Healthchecks

INSTALLATION

Although this mission isn't a Campaign as such it needs to be run as one, therefore to install it you need to unzip the files into the campaign folder. Ie. drive:\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA\Campaigns

++++++++++++++IMPORTANT PLEASE READ+++++++++++++++++++

++ Armed Assault bug - commonly known as SAVE GAME BUG?

This has caused countless problems for players in the past and for us when trying to debug our Campaign!

Firstly this should be referred to as a "LOAD" bug and not a "SAVE" bug because we've established that there is nothing wrong with the saved files in most cases (although the SAVE bug is also known to happen occasionally), in our tests at least. That includes all three types of saved files : the autosave, the exit save and the manual save.

There are two scenarios that appear to happen when resuming the campaign after starting the game;

1) Corruption of Variables, states, AI state etc (who knows what else)
2) Crash to the desktop on resume

The culprit turns out to be some kind of bug that affects a RESUME after the game is fired up. Although one may initially think that the SAVEGAME file itself is corrupted, this is not the case. In our tests the problem does not happen once the saved game is loaded in a particular way:

WORKAROUND for 1)

Run the game, select the campaign, then RESUME. Immediately after it's loaded (error or not) you can either back out to where you will be offered a RESUME again or a RETRY or simply hit escape and choose LOAD (if you made a manual save).

WORKAROUND for 2)

Crashing to the desktop (particularly in Part 2) when using the RESUME after running ArmA for the first time is a big pain because you won't be able to do anything about it other than use the technique we've outlined below for beta testers. (we are trying to get some answers from BIS on what is going on and how to fix this problem).

OK, we reckon the best thing for now is to use this workaround...
Fire up the game, (you will need a saved game of some sort to make Part2 available on the menu) - load the mission (part 2 - REVERT NOT resume). That will take you to the beginning of part 2. Press ESC once - Then Alt-Tab to windows, copy the save files in, go back to the game and hit ESC 2 times more - Then use LOAD. This should work 95% of the time. A bit long winded but the best solution for now - Remember to make multiple save points as you go along and put them into separate folders.

THE BOTTOM LINE !!

To Sum up: Never play a resumed campaign after starting Armed Assault. Always get into the habit of reloading after the resume using any one of the 3 saved files. Autosave.ArmASave, continue.ArmASave or save.ArmASave
(We believe that following the above advice is relevant for all misions/campaign's)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

SAVING, RESTARTING

Particularly for beta testing we've found that it's a good idea to follow a few rules to save having to
replay the whole mission or part. Here are a few suggestions :

Get into the habit of making putting your saved files into separate folders after you save at key points in the campaign. This way you'll have a saved game at many intervals during the game. This will allow you to go back if necessary to any part of the campaign without having to to restart.

Replaying Part 1: from a saved game after having started part 2.

Either start the campagn again or select part 1 and REVERT. Once it has loaded, pause the game (ESC) then ALT-TAB to windows, copy the saved files from your save folder. ALT-TAB back into the game and press ESC twice. You should then select the LOAD.

Replaying part 2:

Part 2 is more simple but as a precaution you can do exactly as above, it's best to Save part 2 as soon as it starts.
However, restarting will work ok but do not use ESC / RETRY. ABORT the campaign first then select part 2 and REVERT.
This will read the object.sav and the player vehicle state and should put you in exactly the same position as you were
when you crossed the border.

Restarting the Mission from the beginning (god forbid)

There is one thing that does need to be done. The Object.sav file may cause problems in part 2 so it must be manually
deleted from the save folder. Better still if you are restarting delete everything in that folder. This is an ArmA oddity which only causes a problem when transferring vehicles and states from one mission to another.

Also don't forget to observe THE BOTTOM LINE !! (see above) when starting up Armed Assault.

   Sahrani Run - Changelog

   V 1.01 :
      Corrected spelling mistakes
      Fixed bug where heli pilot got out of heli when the player got in
      Fixed various small bugs

   V 1.02   :
      Fixed sqs error "Actionarray.sqs"
      Fixed ambulance sometimes not arriving
      Fixed Health pack problem
      Fixed problem with Drako's picture
      Tweaked sound/music volumes

   V 1.03  :
      Fixed gear problem moving from Part 1 to Part 2
      Fixed various small bugs
      
   V 1.04  :
      Fixed view staying black until the camera starts at begining of mission
      Added new cutscene in Part two
      Added new action in Part two
   
   V 1.05  :
      extended trigger size around ambulance base
      added auto save games
      Fixed bug with taking gear into Part two
      Fixed various small bugs

   V 1.06 :
      Fixed various small bugs
      Added new Actions to Part two
      Fixed major bugs at Ambulance Depot
      Fixed bug with taking vehicles into Part two
      Tweaked Part two to improve FPS

   V 1.07 :
      Fixed various bugs
      fixed heli pick-up
      Fixed bugs at Ambulance Depot
      Fixed some objectives
      Added weather variation
      Fixed car bomb text
      Improved AI of some groups
      Grammar corrections

   V 1.08  Hotfix for getting stuck on Map at the start

   V 1.09  Added vital information regarding SAVE GAME BUG (how to avoid)

   V 2.0   Fixed loads of bugs: including heli pick-up at end
      Added some more sounds
      Added extra way to get to Part2 of mission

NOTE
Do not use old saved games with new versions

Arkon

OFPEC Review

[firecontrol]

Awesome, a new mission. Sounds fun!

A word of advice though, maybe remove the "please review" from the subject if you want to get beta tests. Add "review please" when you want one of the OFPEC reviewers to do an actual review of the mission.

I'll test this soon.

Looking through the package: I love that picture that you included with the .zip! The mission folder should be in .pbo form though. Save to single player missions from the editor then include that .pbo maybe?

[Arkon]

Hi firecontrol,

Thanks for the quick response and tips - i did think that in Campaign format the files could be as they are
but if it is essential I will PBO them.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the Mission,  It may not be to everyone's taste but it took six months to complete so I hope there
are enough people who do like it 

Regards

Arkon

[LCD]

if ur sure u dont wanna beta test it 1st....

ill review dis

LCD OUT

[Arkon]

Hi LCD,

Um...

Yus, it needs beta testing first cos it is a very long mission - sorry did not realise - I will remove the
"review please" - but do test it if you have time to.

Thanks

Arkon

[LCD]

beta test 4 ppl.. nd ppl wil test 4 u

ill beta tesxt dis wen i have time.... not promisin nythyin tomorow tho

also u may wanna read dis tips 4 new authors (also edit ur 1st post acordingly)

nd also dis

tips 4 new betaers

have fun

Cheetah: corrected link

[DarkAngel]

Hi Arkon, I'll give this one a look later today if I get the chance.

edit:

Package should contain a .pbo, not the mission.sqm and scripts. Export it properly and repost the package properly, then I'll take a look.

[Arkon]

Hi, DarkAngel

Thanks for your post.

Don't know how to PBO a Campaign, as the format seems a bit different from single missions.
Maybe its as easy as firecontrol suggests "Save to single player missions from the editor then include that .pbo maybe?"
But I am not sure of the directory structure etc... eg. one of the description.ext and overview.html file has to be outside the mission folders in a campaign and there is a also a scripts folder too.

Anyways, I will try to find out and check out the format in a campaign thats already been done.

Is there any reason why you cannot play the game as it is?

Incidently, macguba's Offical tips for NEW MISSION AUTHORS states that "The mission must be in the form of a zipped .pbo." but it does not in any way refer to a Campaign being treated in such fashion, allthough obviously a Campaign usually consists of a number of missions. But either way I'll do me best to sort it out.

Perhaps you know how to do this?

Regards

Arkon

[LCD]

im not sure how ArmA handles da pbo dis tool creates but try it nywayz

click on da red link try it nd get back 2 us

LCD OUT

[firecontrol]

As far as I know a campaign saved (to .pbo) as a single mission works just fine as long as it's installed into the "campaigns" folder by the end user. I'd be more than happy to test the functionality of the overviews and whatnot for ya.

[Arkon]

Hi LCD/Firecontrol

I downloaded the PBO Util - then PBO'd the campaign files and put the PBO in the The Saharani Run folder -
but when I went to run it it sent me to my desktop with "error in campaign structure"

Not that I think it is why the error occurs but I don't think you can just bung everything in the PBO.
So the question maybe what goes in the PBO, what is the directory structure and where do the campaign description.ext, readme and mission jpg go?

firecontrol

As far as I know a campaign saved (to .pbo) as a single mission works just fine as long as it's installed into the "campaigns" folder by the end user

The Campaign is 1 mission split into 2 parts (missions) (its only a campaign as it was to big to fit into one mission) - not sure how you can save this as a single mission!

EDIT:
From looking at other Campaigns - the current non PBO structure I am using fits with them

>Campaign folder
                     >The Sahrani Run folder
                                                    >Folder with missions (folder) campaign description.ext, readme and mission jpg.
                                                                         >And the missions in the mission folder, that's it.

I believe this is the correct structure, so it seems like its what to PBO and where to put it.

Regards

Arkon2

[smoke52]

still playing it but heres what i have so far. ill update as i go.

package
needs to be PBO'ed

update (playing v1.04): the readme has no contact info and version still says 1.0. also you should give links to this post (or any others) so people can go and check out the latest version or give you feedback.  all of this not too terribly important though 

intro
intro was good, i knew what was happening and didnt see anything wrong.

briefing
 

mission
first bug was when i first boarded the heli the pilot jumps out, runs about 20 feet away from the heli then gets back in and takes off.

the insertion ride in the heli is kinda long, maybe find a song to play during that time

next bug was when me and the press guy made it to the second ruined house and he tells me he saw Draco. after all that a script not found comes up, called actionarray.sqs.

i liked the SLA chopper doing a missile strike, but it hangs around doing nothing after that, maybe get it to fly back to base or do more strafing runs.

after alot of running i made it to the arcadia town and ran into a camp fire with 15 or so guys all standing around. i tried to engage them and died, which is where i found another annoyance, i had to start all over again. add some savegame commands after the "action bubbles", like after talking to the press guy.

update (playing v1.04): just some suggestions:

when the map first starts you start in the eyes of a troop for a split second, i guess to spawn the camera. if you could some how get it to stay black until the camera starts to point up to the stars.

take the night vision off the players character when he talks to the officer then gets in the heli. he could grab them when he boards the heli

the music is fine, i just had it turned down in my options. my fault...

something i forgot to mention and i dont know if it's intentional, but i can hear the enemy heli off in the distance, get him to start off the ground or start farther away. it gives it away that the enemy heli is going to come and do something before or after you meet your contact.

when i made it to arcadia i followed a fence line close to the top of the mountain area i was running along, then the cutscene kicked in. i suggest having the screen go black before it says "Meanwhile...". also at the end of the cutscene i was expecting to see draco driving away in his truck on the road, i think it would make it more dramatic if you see him driving away.

went into town, saw the two vehicles and grabbed the motorbike, on the way out of town i saw a civilian just standing outside of the town, dont know what hes doing there. i went on towards my objective and ran into a small squad of guys at the oil field. i took care of them and continued on with a UAZ. killed a bunch at the gas station then made it to the town where i died from a tank i thought was empty. wish i had some satchels >

anyway next load i grabbed the bike again and this time didnt see the civilian. made it to the town again but ran into a second tank. i will play some more later and update this as i go.
outro
none yet
summary
the mission is looking good so far.

Project Beta Approved

[Arkon]

Hi smoke52,

Thanks for the comments:

needs to be PBO'ed

Working on this - a bit tricky as its a campaign and the structure is different from a normal mission

first bug was when i first boarded the heli the pilot jumps out, runs about 20 feet away from the heli then gets back in and takes off.

Yus, I think he went for a last minute leak - Fixed

the insertion ride in the heli is kinda long, maybe find a song to play during that time

There is a soundtrack playing - have u got yer sound turned up enough? Maybe I need to turn up the volume!

next bug was when me and the press guy made it to the second ruined house and he tells me he saw Draco. after all that a script not found comes up, called actionarray.sqs.

Yup - happens a few times - has no effect on game - fixed in V1.02

i liked the SLA chopper doing a missile strike, but it hangs around doing nothing after that, maybe get it to fly back to base or do more strafing runs.

The chopper is supposed to be doing a Seek & Destroy, I'll take a look though

after alot of running i made it to the arcadia town and ran into a camp fire with 15 or so guys all standing around. i tried to engage them and died, which is where i found another annoyance, i had to start all over again. add some savegame commands after the "action bubbles", like after talking to the press guy.

Presume the save game is related to the difficulty level that you have selected - but looking at incorporating a save game option soon.

Anyways thanks very much for your input - do me best to correct things you have pointed out
Please keep me up to date with anymore issues you come across

Regards

Arkon

[DarkAngel]

Hi Arkon,

No worries - just followed your installation instructions and seems to work fine so far. Campaign overview looks fantastic. A small thing - your campaign folder spells Sahrani as "Saharani".

Mission 1

Intro

None

Briefing

It's all clear and makes plenty of sense. Some links to markers might be good though, eg where you say to meet your contact on the South Island, or if you want to keep that secret till later, perhaps just noting where the President and resistance might be hiding. This would give a sense of the situation on the island from the beginning. Also, large chunks of text can be quite hard on the eye, particularly if you're playing on lower resolutions, so maybe insert some line/paragraph breaks in your briefing.html. "part 1" - the P should be capitalized.

Mission

Opening cutscene is good. The pace is quite slow but I think that works. Then the mission begins, inserting to Estrella and opening my sealed orders. The new objective and marker work fine. The soundtrack is pretty quiet relative to the sound of the chopper - maybe bump the volume up a bit? The message about being blown off course comes on and I drop off to my LZ. All working fine so far, and I like the realism of the drop-off snafu.

I skirt round the outside of Estrella and meet Saltzman. Flare goes off. The second Saltzman hint gives his first name as John, the first as Harry. The flare goes off and we escape to San Peregrino where he tells me about the other contact. He leaves and the KA-50 turns up - great touch. I head towards Arcadia to meet Draco and find his red Skoda. A GPS would be helpful in navigation, and so far there's quite a lot of running in the mission so more vehicles might be a good thing.

I walk to Arcadia, avoiding the campfire that smoke52 had trouble with, and see the Draco cutscene. No sign of him in town, but I do come across his red car which blows up in my face. There's a handy motorbike nearby which I hop on for the long drive to the buoy. Passing the oilfields and Cayo I run into a whole load of SLA but no-one fires their weapon at me. Finally as I'm crossing the Dolores bridge a sentry takes aim at me - and I'm dead. Due to the lack of savegames (if playing in Veteran mode you only get 1 savegame per mission) I'm back to my only saved point, just before the Arcadia cutscene. I'd follow Smoke52 in saying you should add savegames after each encounter or cutscene. Having to go back miles through the mission if you're playing on Veteran could end up being a real turnoff to the mission.

So far though, I enjoyed playing it - it seems very different to the normal run of ArmA missions. There's a real sense of a story unfolding - this will be even stronger once you add voice acting. Keep up the good work - but please put in those savegames otherwise the mission could become very frustrating!

Project Beta Approved

[Arkon]

Hi DarkAngel,

Thanks for your time.

It's all clear and makes plenty of sense. Some links to markers might be good though, eg where you say to meet your contact on the South Island, or if you want to keep that secret till later, perhaps just noting where the President and resistance might be hiding. This would give a sense of the situation on the island from the beginning. Also, large chunks of text can be quite hard on the eye, particularly if you're playing on lower resolutions, so maybe insert some line/paragraph breaks in your briefing.html. "part 1" - the P should be capitalized.

Trying to go slow with pace early on but still give the players enough story to get there teeth into - its a very long mission that starts to hot up towards the end of Part one. The story unfolds quicker in Part two but this is partly to do with the story itself (without giving too much away) - split the Briefing up a bit - Can't find the "part 1" P you are referring to.

The soundtrack is pretty quiet relative to the sound of the chopper - maybe bump the volume up a bit?

Tweaked the music volume up to 0.9

The second Saltzman hint gives his first name as John, the first as Harry.

Well spotted - this was because of a name change half-way through development.

there's quite a lot of running in the mission so more vehicles might be a good thing.

There are a number of vehicles scattered about and we have tried to make the mission as much non-linear as possible.

I'd follow Smoke52 in saying you should add savegames after each encounter or cutscene. Having to go back miles through the mission if you're playing on Veteran could end up being a real turnoff to the mission.

Iv'e added three save games to Part one and will do the same for Part two.

Well, thanks again, your appraisal has been brilliant - please carry on if you can find the time -
its great to get such good constructive feedback after 6 months hard slog not knowing if you are wasting your
time or not.

Regards

Arkon2