Question: Really long MP missions with campaign feeling. Are they wanted???

[laggy]

Hi,

I've always missed some kind of campaign/save function in MP. Am I the only one?
I remember "Sinews of War" talking about MP-SAVE being possible... What happened to that ?
For OFP I made some MP missions that kind of gave that "campaign" feeling (I think).

Please stick with me as I try to explain my topic.

The one mission I think of was a really long MP mission that had three separate parts.
It was called "Operation Underdog".

Part 1. During night, as Delta Force units you had the objective to attack and take control over an airfield (on Tonal Island). The airfield had to be seized to enable an invasion force to land. When the airfield was taken a cutscene started where you saw U.S Chinook helicopters advancing on the airfield, music and texts saying that the airfield was now your camp of operations. A briefing scene followed, with an officer describing the next mission/objective.

Part 2. Time now switched to day. The airfield is now completely converted into a U.S forces base. Now you've got the new mission/objective to take out an enemy convoy that is transporting insurgents through Tonal. You had to plan an ambush in the desert and succeed. New cutscene with briefing and info after returning to base.

Part 3. Time switched to dusk. In this last part your task was to kidnap a "warlord" that was the source of all the problems. You had to infiltrate a town, find and kidnap the badguy, then take him back to base. If succeeded... Mission Completed.

In this three part, quite complex mission you also got your group filled up after every part, static objects were deleted and added to give the impression of time passing. Several scripts to add gameplay, as well as a lot of sounds.

My question is this:

Does this "concept" sound interesting to any of you as a MP mission, even though the total time for completion would be at least 1.5 hours ? Is it too long to be of any interest ? I personally prefer these kind of "story driven" MP missions, that keep you busy half the night. In MP I loath anything but "group respawn", but I have no clue what the general opinion is.

Before spending weeks on designing such a mission I would like to hear your feedback.

Thanks for any comments,

Laggy

[savedbygrace]

Considering that warfare and evolution can amass the hours quite qucikly and many seem to love the coop environment, then time would more than likely not be a factor so long as the mission works and is entertaining. If the cutscenes are long and boring, the objectives bland and the overall gameplay non random, it may not attract a heavy following. My opinion is that people always want something new, with a story but there are not many willing to invest the labor or time to build one, especially since warfare and evolution are so random already. But regardless of how well you do your mission or how long it takes you to finish it, if it does not have the randomness that the two afore mentioned styles have, it's hype will be short lived.

[eegore]

  Personally I would play a 1.5 hour long mission. 

  I couldn't say I would do it more than once if these things happened:

Long cutscenes.  My definition of a long cutscene is one that exceeds 90 seconds. 

A single objective that takes more than 20 minutes to complete.  An example would be a 2 minute drive to the DZ, then a 5 minute walk maybe ecountering some scouts, then a 10 minute wave of enemies followed by an extraction method that exceeds 3 minutes.   All that just to Secure an Airfield would consist of excessive downtime. 

Repeated methods of insertion, or objective types would make a long mission boring real quick. 

A perfectly layed out mission or series of missions is not enjoyable for me.  I think if its an hour plus mission I would like a twist or two involved to test my adaptability. 

  Those things have made longe missions hard for me to get into.  As for things I enjoy I would say brief to the point camera work, diverse enemy actions/reactions and most important for MP is simultaneous actions.
  I always make my MP missions include objectives that require two or more units to act in unison in seperate locations now since I have recieved positive feedback on those tactics. 

  Anyway, yeah I'd hammer out a 1.5 hour mission as long as there wasn't too much sitting around.