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[SP] Operation Hellfire (Review Complete)

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Krieg:
Operation Hellfire

Author: Krieg

Description: War with Soviet Union is ongoing. Recently Russians have occupied island just 300 miles from shores of United States. Even worse, it has airfield on it! Last thing Pentagon wants is Russian bombers on it's doorstep. Be a part of large naval invasion, and make NATO decent foot-hold in Morton!

Island: Everon

Side: West

Version: Final

Version of OFP: Resistance 1.96

Addons: None

Known bugs: None

Size of .zip: 3.33MB

Change-log
Beta 0.1 - First ever version released to public for beta testing.
Beta 0.1 Hotfix - Fixed number of issues I encountered: Grouped M1A1 to rest of the tanks, added some AT weapons to Law squad, and now your team-mates teleport to same spot you do... if they are still alive.
Beta 0.2 - Fixed addon bugs (extreme thanks for this to Walter_E_Kurtz).
Beta 0.3 - Fixed some briefing issues, added some "tactical markers", added a savegame once player reaches the shore, added a Russian squad after the Camp, made tanks at the camp a bit smarter, once you clear the Morton you must signal it manually, added little cutscene one you signaled that Morton is secure.
Beta 0.4 - Fixed some more briefing issues, added larger and better gear selection, corrected spelling in the briefing, fixed Pitbull issues, added "removeAction" to each flag script, once troops are unloaded, boats will turn around and go back to the ships, fixed the never ending cutscene issue, improved the outro, medical tents should not be destroyed by tanks now, and ships should not explode now.
Beta 0.5 - Re-remade the outro, now you do not teleport after signaling that Morton is secure,added "SITREP" scripts to both Puma and Pitbull, added random cover at the beach, added random anti-tank barriers after enemy camp, added random patrol in the forest.
Beta 0.6 - Fixed some SITREP scripts issues.
Beta 0.7 - Improved the briefing, added ammo truck after morton is secure, fixed joining the Foxtrot, fixed gear selection, hopefully reduced lag.
Pre-Final - Conducted voice acting, added intro (at last), added .lip files for voice acting, revised briefing a bit, now you start with a bit more fog and clouds.
Final - Did mostly polishings.

To-do list:
Discover how to fix and fix addon bug.
Add some medic tents.
Fix some briefing issues.
Add tactical markers
Add more mags and pistols in gear selection.
Add some savegames.
Add a new cutscene.
Add intro.
Add outro.
Improve overview.
Add more Russians after Morton.
Group M1A1 with other tanks.
Add anti-tank weapons to Law squad.
Teleporting your team-mates if they are still alive.
Fix medic tent issues.
Fix never-ending cutscene.
Fix never-removing addActions.
Improve outro.
Fix issue of boats exploding.
Fix issue of objectives never completing.
Remake the outro.
Add SITREP scripts.
Add more randomness.
Personalize the mission a bit.
Fix SITREP scripts.
Voice acting.
More voice acting.
Polish the mission a bit.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All beta tests are appreciated!  :good:

The Review

savedbygrace:
My test...Today. Resistance 1.96 / no mods / veteran
Overview
I attached a corrected Overview.html (just needed "The" at the beginning)
Great image! Nice summary.
Intro
None
Briefing
First off, Captains do not lead Infantry into amphibious invasions, that is reserved for Sgt.'s and Lt.'s(to my knowledge)
Second, you stated that the player had joined the Navy but he was reassigned to a Marine division. Not sure what you were intending to say but Naval personel,unless trained for it(S.E.A.L.S), do not lead assaults on land. Yes they are coupled with Marine Task forces at times but it is the duty of the Marines to be the first to fight and highly trained in amphibious invasions. The Navy provides the transport for all logistical assets needed by the Marine division as well as fire support from sea and Air. With that said, you may want to revise your story a bit.

The gear section did not contain an adequate amount of ammo for supplied weapons. I would recommend at the least, enough to fill every slot of all players for each type so that the player can outfit his team accordingly.
I would also like to request a pistol to accompany the sniper rifle if the player chooses that route.

All else was there, I have attached a corrected version of the Briefing, so read through it as I have changed some words to sound more American.

Cutscene
Decent cutscene, although a few of the ships would explode on the approach to land. I doubt it was enemy firing at us since their were no discernable muzzle blasts from shore before the explosion. I did notice the ships rubbing together at times while crossing paths which could result in damage.

Mission

* A savegame would be great once the player's boat touches land to prevent from having to replay the cutscene repeatedly.
* A good fight in Morton, although I would recommend allowing the player to enter the city with a countdown trigger to symbolize a clearing of the town.
* Afterward, rather than blackout and in and setpos the players group to bring in the armor, I would create a brief cutscene of the carnage while displaying the radio messages that the town was cleared, just before you exit the cutscene to return control to the player, you could show a scene of the armor moving inland from shore.
* I would recommend either a medical tent in Morton or a medic with a support waypoint with this setcaptive true in his init. I would also recommend a medical tent at the camp. Just in case my medic is KIA and the support medic is inadvertantly blown up.
* I would recommend an opportunity for the player to rearm before pushing further inland as well.
* Upon passing through the wood, I passed the specops and never knew why they were there. You were unclear as to where the group would meet the player. They did not join my group until I was close the camp.
* The camp went well with the exception of the enemy not responding well to my presence. At times, their men would simply pass me up and not fire.

* From here, taking Figny was easy enough. Perhaps add a final objective to place some satchels near the road and then add an outro with the armor column going up in smoke.Outro
none.
Overall
Once you add sound, the radio messages will be harder to miss and the immersion will increase. It was a great first test as there were no real bugs. Can't wait to see the improvements though.

Krieg:
Thanks for the test, savedbygrace! I thought the project was dead, but then, out of nowhere, you came in!


--- Quote ---Overview
--- End quote ---

Glad it does it's job! And thanks for fixing!


--- Quote ---Briefing
--- End quote ---

I am not very into how Navy and Marines co-operate, so thanks for correcting me. Will fix the rank issue too.

And also add more ammo!

And I will read the edited briefing!  :good:


--- Quote ---Mission
--- End quote ---

Will add the savegame!

I will change the trigger so it says "Town seems to be clear, everyone move in and secure the area!", and then hint player to call 0-0-1 in order to report that town is secure.

This will be included in next release. Good idea!

I will add few ammo crates in the Morton, and add a sideChat "It seems that Ivan had entire ammo depot here! If you are out of ammo for your gun, just grab a Ruskie gun, 'cus you've got a ton of ammo here."

I will add a medics with "this setcaptive true" in initial landing, and also medic stipped down of his weapons with "this setCaptive true", so he'll be something like a pacifist  :D and not help player too much in actual combat. So he will be some sort of Red Cross worker. Although, I am not sure how much that would be respected in actual combat, and plus he might get KIA accidentally.

I will get a waypoint for player to join the Law squad, because they might head to Morton accidentally before joining you. This might be because they are headed to last know player's position before he setPos'd. I will also add marker showing their position, and add text in briefing about them.

I do not know is the "ignoring" issue solvable. This might be AI bug, since it has been noted in harron1992's "Battle for Rush Land".

I will add it. Also, should be Figny a bit harder to take? And also, I may do some Russian voices in the outro, since I speak a bit of Russian.


--- Quote ---Overall
--- End quote ---

I will add sounds once I buy new headphones, since my mic is broken on my current ones. I already tried computer-generated voices, but I find them annoying.

One question, though.

I know that scores are not everything, but how much approximately does it earn for now, and how much in it's current mission form it can hypothetically earn?

Again, thanks for the test,
Krieg

RKurtzDmitriyev:
Hi Krieg, I don't know if you're going to finish this one since it sounds like you're already working on Red Grinder II. But it's actually a pretty good mission, I just played it. (Got killed at Figari!)

Package

Nothing to complain about, except for the rather amusing typo "please repoty any bugs." Yes, I always like to urinate on any bugs I find at least twice. :D

Overview

Looks good.

Briefing

Numerous typos, but I could make out what you were saying, except for one part. The Order of Battle says

"Alpha - 30 men, launched from USS Carolina, 5 boats (your squad)"

The way it's written, it sounds like all 30 men are under my command, and that's too big for a squad. Try "platoon." Also, I didn't see any radio chatter that would identify the player as a squad/platoon leader.

Or if you meant that your squad is part of those thirty, then make that clear.

Gear selection needs attention, as savedbygrace pointed out. In particular, you're missing pistols, and you have 2 G36s but only 3 mags for them.

Your map could use some markers showing exactly where the landing points are.

"Law squad" could do with a new name. Is it supposed to be a Light Anti-Tank Weapon squad? Then maybe call it LAW Squad and make this clear.

Since your men start inside of a vehicle, I can't see what their experience is by clicking "Group." I don't know if there's a way around this.

Mission

savedbygrace already pointed out most of the things I was going to tell you about. I didn't see any ships exploding, though. But I second the need for a savegame when you hit the beach, and perhaps one after clearing Morton or the camp as well.

I don't understand why you setpos the player to a location in the forest. It didn't save me any time because I wanted to go back to Morton for more ammo anyway. Also, the black ops go back toward Morton rather than toward the camp. ??? Then when I get control of them, I have to use "report status" to find them, as savedbygrace pointed out.

But the biggest issue is that the blackops start out with a few LAW Launchers and a Carl Gustav Launcher, but they don't have any rounds for them! Making AI loons pick up weapons is very tedious, so some AT rounds to start with are in order. I had to go back to Morton and supervise their rearming. Even then, one of them managed to die from drowning--so much for "expert" AI. :banghead:

After this rearming, while still in Morton, I heard what sounded like a small tank battle. Some enemy infantry also decided to move southwards. I met them around the forest and killed them all fairly easily with some patient crawling. Camp was also fairly easy to clear. The enemy didn't react in any organized fashion.

Savedbygrace noted that "at times, their men would simply pass me up and not fire." I'm not sure what he means. I didn't notice any enemies refusing to shoot at me, but they didn't act intelligently. They looked like they might be low-skill, and my men had silenced weapons making them hard to detect.

One factor that may be contributing to the "ignoring" issue is the fact that AI groups in vanilla OFP don't communicate with eachother. Each group has to detect the player on their own, or else they'll just sit there and watch their buddies die. That's why the infantry at the camp can get slaughtered while the T80s just sit there. "Guard" waypoints and "Guarded by east" triggers may be a fairly easy solution here.

Finally, having an addaction for replacing the Soviet flags with American ones, like in Red Grinder, would be a nice touch. :)

Overall, this was fun to play. In particular I liked the huge beach landing. Hope you can finish the mission sometime. :cool2:

savedbygrace:
First of all, the medic issue...Give him a weapon but with no ammo so that he runs faster. I will also note that if you decide to use a support waypoint, you will have to prompt the player with a distance trigger so that when he is done healing from the medic, he is reminded to report that he is done so the medic can be used again. OR just place a medic tent at every engagement area. I actually had to crawl to the last objective, thankfully it was not far.

To clarify the part of enemy ignoring me... I mean that I had two enemy infantry at two different times at the camp pass me from behind and cross in front of me while I was looking the other way. I think they walked through a tent or something. Increase their skill level at least and give them all Guard waypoints. It is not necessary to place guarded by triggers because the guard waypoints act as Hold waypoints. The groups will respond to enemy presence where ever the threat is at on the map until the threat is no longer known and then they return to the Guard waypoint. But keep them at move waypoints until the player has triggered that area to prevent them from becoming involved in the first objective.

Regarding a score.... :). I have always been rather adamant about the score never truly doing justice to the project. The primary reason being that the scoring category is unbalanced and needs revision in order to be fair. The secondary reason is that the score is merely an opinion of taste and since everyone has their own, it is difficult to determine what is a truly good project. Some like action, others like cinema, some like realism and others like fun factor. You understand.........As it stands though, your briefing needs much work(no links, tactical markers, gear is inadequate, story unclear.) you have no cinema to speak of, replayability is low since their is not much randomness. Some gameplay flaws currently affect the mission flow(not the OFP AI ignorance mind you...that is taken into consideration) immersion is relatively low as a result of all of the mentioned shortcomings. SO, considering all, you're probably looking at a very low score. But that score will certainly increase significantly with the fixes you intend to implement. We basically look for a complete package. Overview, Intro, Briefing,Replayability, Fun factor, Immersion, Outro, bug free. Many editors refuse to add cinematics but all it takes is a few short camera angles to setup the story. And if you move it to the Intro and Outro areas, you reduce your use of objects, variables, and other lag inducing features and free up more space for creativity in you mission area. You also eliminate any frustrating cutscenes that play at every restart.

Your mission is a good one so far. It's just lacking some of the essential bones to complete its structure as well as the polish to make it shine.

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