(Review Completed) [COOP] 1-2 Operation Shining Anvil

[ColonelSandersLite]

Operation Shining Anvil CO 1-2

Summary:
     This mission is a full featured coop sniper mission for two players.  It
     is of the realistic open ended variety.

Features:
     Selectable Intro On/Off, Difficulty, Time of day
     Full featured briefing
     Randomised patrols which call for backup when in trouble
     Realistic reactions to nearby loud noises
     Multi weapon switching
     Voice acting
     Outro
     Dedicated Server Support

Compatibility:
     The release version has only been tested on 1.08.  Other versions of the
     game should work, but earlier versions may not.

Singleplayer/Multiplayer:
     These missions are multiplayer only. They can however be played solo.
     This must still be done in the multiplayer game area.

     This mission fully supports dedicated servers, however, it is a little
     silly to run a two player mission like this.  Since ARMA bases update
     frequency of non-local units on distance from the player, and the sniper
     is the player that actually needs this aspect to run smoothly the most, it
     is reccomended that the person playing the sniper hosts the mission.

Home Page:
     http://www.colonelsanderslite.armaholic.eu/index.html

Required Addons:
     None.

Hosting:
     You can host this anywhere you want, but if you let us know via PM we'll
     add a link in the download thread and let you know if we patch it.  We
     would also prefer if you included a link back the home thead, as that is
     where we'll be posting updates, answering questions etc.

Installation:
     Unpack the PBO file into C:\YourArmaDirectory\MPMissions\

Version History:
V1.0:
     Release

License:
     Unlimited rights (including editing and rereleasing) so long as it's non-
     commercial and adheres to the BIS terms of use. Any derivative works must
     credit the original authors and cannot be more restrictive than this with
     respect to what rights an end user has.

Credits:
     ColonelSandersLite                       - Scripting, Voice of Soldier B
     Special Ed                                   - Mission Design, Layout, Editor Work
     Lord Cornelius                              - Voice of Soldier A
     Ralph                                           - Just For Being There
     Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) - Theme Song: Crisis

Download:
     OFPEC Download
     http://www.colonelsanderslite.......Misc9

[ColonelSandersLite]

I'm posting this here for the benefit of Special Ed, who I just relised probably doesn't have an ofpec account.   It's quote of a post he made in another release topic.

Id like to add at little here -

 ColonelSandersLite and myself spent huge time on this mission to provide the most we could realistically come up with in varied content for a sniper type mission - the playing field is literally huge, with many options, and with a number of "unexpected" scenarios that transform during the mission as well. The environment is also very alive with activity, from random patrols through ColonelSandersLite's well done random patrol script, enemy camps scattered about, a huge enemy base alive with activity to enemy vehicles passing through the area, and more.

 Testing was also done intensively, lots of time spent changing things, testing, changing things, retesting, to provide the best overall gameplay results for this mission. The mission is not easy, nor is it designed to be, but it is designed to give a whole lot of freedom to players as to how they will accomplish their objectives.

 ColonelSandersLite worked very hard at the large number of scripted applications for the mission which turned out really amazing, including his hard work at just putting all the pieces of this puzzle together with the many scripts involved. Between the two of us I would say for sure he had the hardest job.

 I think were both glad to finally see this thing done and out as it turned into alot more work than I think we originally anticipated, hope you guys enjoy the final product here

 Please feel free to post comments of any sort here, the feedback is welcome and appreciated.

 Sincerely

 Ed

[Wolfrug]

I'd love to try this out some time, sadly I haven't anyone nearby with whom I can do coops Ah well. I know I'm not Mission Depot staff, but I got curious: do you want this mission reviewed or beta-tested or are you just submitting it for us to enjoy? A review would probably be cool, yes?

Wolfrug out.

[ColonelSandersLite]

A little beta testing wouldn't hurt.  I figured after a month or so without bug reports, I'll ask it be reviewed.  I wouldn't stoop to saying certain phrases that will jinx it, since I'm a little superstitious like that.  I can confidently say however that we have tested it pretty extensively ourselves.

But you know what? To me at least, that's all secondary.  Putting it out there for people to enjoy is always my primary goal .

[hoz]

I had a quick go at this last night. The intro and the briefing were really well done. My only disappointment so far was the limit of 2 players, it also makes for a nice single player mission. Anyways no errors or problems yet. I'll keep giving it a go. Nice job   


Edit:

Searching for another error I noticed in the rpt file this error which seemed to be related to your mission. If its not you then ignore.

Warning: no idc entry inside class RscDisplayMultiplayerSetup/controls/B_Side

[ColonelSandersLite]

I'll definitely look into that error in arma.rpt.  If I had to guess, it's an automatic caused by arma due to the lack of a playable east side.  I'll do some tests, confirm that it is our mission, and see if there's a way to suppress it.  Still, if that's all you've hit on an initial release, that means we did pretty well in the testing .  There's a few things we know we overlooked in retrospect though.

So far, we've noticed:
Several typo's still left in the briefing.
There's a stray guy in a bad position that we want to move/remove.
We never used setFace on the reconnaissance team to make them match the briefing picture. (Planned, but I forgot to do it)
Maybe a couple more things along that lines which I'm forgetting at the moment.

They will be corrected in a v1.1.  Since none of those issues are exactly critical, we're willing to wait a little while for more to pop up.  We'll put together 1.1 in a couple of weeks, baring no major issues that need an immediate fix.

As far as the 2 player limit goes, we've gotten that comment before in another thread.  I'll just quote our reply here for the sake of anybody that should read this thread.

We agree, that adding more players would dramatically alter the flavor of the mission for a number of reasons. From square 1, the whole concept has been to fill the niche of enjoyable 2 player action for when you and a friend want to just play a game without needing 12 people to get the full experience. Altering the number of players would not only invalidate that purpose, but also dramatically modify the balance of the mission at the very least. While we appreciate your opinion, we will not be adding more playable units to this mission.

[johnnyboy]

Hey CSL,

Its late, so I didn't get too far, but here's a little feedback:

Join Screen:  Thanks for the Intro on/off and Normal/Hard options.  That is thoughtful to the players.

Breifing:  Very thorough and well done.  Like the pics in the detail pages.  Here's a few spelling and grammar errors to clean up:

"this will our opportunity" => "this will be our opportunity"  (missing the word "be")

Vladamir Drukov Page: "chief of the all the" => "chief of all the" (remove one "the")

Obregan Defenses Page:
"Mg" => "MG"
"gaurd" => "guard"
"sourounding" => "surrounding"
"spead" => "spread"

Intro:  Well done.  Sets the stage.  I like the music and the scene change sound fx.

Spelling error:  "harras" => "harass"

That's all I have for now.  Too late to get into a sneaky black op mission.  Will report more later.  Looks good so far though!

Edit:  One more thing, you might consider making the AI spawn to group, so those of us that play this solo have a better chance of  finishing the mission (i.e. two lives!).

[ColonelSandersLite]

Cool.  I'll add those spelling errors to the list if you've caught any that we haven't.  I know I've seen some of them at the least.

[Special Ed]

 Hey all

 Nice to see the overall good responses, - the relatively small list of fixes at this point is pretty much complete which includes of course the things CSL listed, also to add to the list a few of the patrol groups running, due to some odd bug in Arma where occasionally even in safe mode patrols might start running, without 'limited' speedMode set. All of these bugs are quick fixes really.

 Primary concern is actual gameplay quality right now before putting up the new version, and then up for review. We could really use feedback on this, and on any various aspects involved with the gameplay - difficulty, 'fun factor', realism, immersion, etc  - Weve tested alot, personally Ive played through the mission time and time again solo as well and felt the gameplay overall quality turned out good, but I helped make the thing, and its hard to make that judgement call without feedback from others.

 As far as the option to have '2' lives if only one player, we'd have to look at that, as CSL is the master behind almost all the scripts in the mission, and I basically only know single player scripting, so it woould really be a judgement call for CSL wether it would be worth the effort or not.

 Anyhow thanks for the responses so far, hope to see some gameplay feedback as well

[Cheetah]

Review Completed.

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