Arkon,
I thoroughly tested this mission off and on all weekend for you as I have read the threads in the other forums and don't see much feedback that gets past the first meeting with the exception of one or two guys. Those guys focused primarily on weapon weight and distance to travel being issues among a few others nit pick stuff but none have given you the feedback that is needed to find the errors and problems that are unknowingly induced into your mission while editing. That's why we test missions the way we do, to help you improve your project to a point of offering a solid playable mission for years to come.
In any case, I have played in recruit and veteran and restarted and retried many times, trying to test every area that you built up. I have yet to update to 1.07, so I'll give you feedback based on 1.05 right now.
Overview
Glad you plan on adding an image.
Mission
Skipping the insertion and meeting at the castle...
Travel idea(just an idea mind you)
I refuse to travel by vehicle in a stealth mission simply because it ruins the purpose of the stealth. If you had implemented some traveling civilians in big trucks that I could have secretly hitched a ride in the cargo area (while they were stopped at a stop sign) from one area to another without them knowing, I would have immediately taken advantage of it. (It provides an excellent way to recon under cover).
Draco?I avoided the chopper at the castle ruin and ran like heck toward the southwest. I was resting, prone between a tree and bushes when a lone officer ran by me on the road (near a town). I wondered what that was about till I read some of the other posts in the other forum threads. (I knew I should have put a bullet in that guy...he looked suspicious...why must I have a conscious?!!
)
Ahem, anyway. I make my way south, avoiding all towns and roads until I reach the edge of the woods at Electrozavodsk. I hear an explosion near the road @ 101123. One truck is on its side in flames with dead men spilled into the street while another is 50 meters southwest of the road upside down in a ditch but not damaged. After I have replayed this mission dozens of times and approaching from different areas, that same wreck occurs and there are always a couple of soldiers left alive. Was this your plan?
ElectrozavodskAfter my many plays, I have sniped that lone soldier on the pier southeast of Electrozavodsk without ever being detected, with the island waking, M107. But on my current playtest, I stopped at the Rog castle and re-equipped with a M4A1HOLOSD, HE grenades and a Strella. I made my way to Electrozavodsk again using my usual observe and move tactics, making sure there were no additional troops in town. I sneak up on the guy and am about 100 meters away before popping him in the head with a bullet from the silenced M4. A few seconds later (to my very surprise) the alarm at the Medical facility began to sound off. I thought..."What? Are you serious?! Surely that rooftop guard could not see me from across the city. Surely the dead guy did not hear that muffled muzzle and radio in before it made mush of his brain." A few minutes after that, I hear a truck arriving and stopping somewhere in the city. "Wait that never happened before, I've set that alarm off a few times and no one ever responded."(They must have been passing through when the alarm sounded because I have seen a transport full of troops pass through before) So, as a starving dog drawn to scraps, I was drawn toward that direction. When I reach the first house, I can see the troops running from that direction and they move toward the docks where I shot fast fingers Fred (who made the call as the bullet passed through his skull
). They checked it out and returned to the medical facility where I am now going to allow my curiosity to kill me. More on that later I suppose.
Medical facilityI know I am going out of order but I have played so many times that I am just sticking to areas.
The guards are good but they're two guys sitting on a motorcycle in the field west of the facility, trying to start it occasionally with no success. I was able to locate the missing fence section, infiltrate undetected, make my way around the east side(away from helo) shutting doors along the way and take out the front gate guard with no other eyes on me with my silenced M9. I attempted to hide his body but obviously the concrete was hard to dig up
. It still put the other guards in aware mode, though none spotted me. I call for medic and it takes about 3 minutes for the pilot to board the chopper. He exits the facility through the east wall I presume(since I had shut the door on that wall), runs around the north side of the structure before dashing across the yard and getting in on the opposite side of the helo. (Maybe rotating the chopper 180 would prevent this? I don't know). Anyhow, as he dashes across the compound yard toward the helo, I shut the double doors, obscuring the view of the other guard inside and am able to get on board while he is starting the engines. All this before the perimeter guard reaches the front gate again.(FREE RIDE!)More on this later...
LighthouseWorked right every time.
Skalisty islandWas bugged the first test through but has worked fine ever since.
The HunterSame here.
The FarmerI remember reading about how he likes his animals so I shot a few of them to see if there would be a penalty. There wasn't.
BoatyardI watched a 12 man squad walk right through the town and on north toward the next city. I took out the 4 men guarding the area and decided against getting in a boat at that point.
AirfieldThis one was more difficult than it looked. I used complete stealth in my approach, popped the guard in the linekeepers box at the entrance when he walked away from the tarmac and out into the field(away from all eyes and ears) Yet, the alarm still sounded immediately. Same thing for the sniper and spotlight on the roof at another retry. And also for the dog inside the door of the traffic control tower. The guy on the top floor spoke to me and then surrendered while I was on the second floor and he was on the top floor with he and the sniper outside were still armed. Perhaps you could make it so if the sniper is not dead, he won't surrender so easily? Also, once the alarm sounds, the spotlight shines on the players position regardless of whether or not he was actually spotted.
ChenogorskI was disappointed when the time remaining, suddenly leaped from hours to less than one when I got close to the city. That completely ruins the players planned attempts to infiltrate the city and get close enough by using stealth (AND PATIENCE).
Back to the FREE RIDE... When the helo from the medical facility landed (with me in cargo), I was skeptical of getting out. I just knew that I would disembark on the south side and that gate guard would empty his clip into my behind. If I happened to get out on the opposite side, I was sure he would spot my feet and open fire as well. I was surprised and relieved to discover that none of that happened. Once I was out, I hit the dirt and hoped that he nor the pilot would not spot me as I crawled toward the nearby building. It was nice to make it safely. BUT, I now had a shorter time frame to deal with. This was annoying since you completely loaded the city with objects, guards and patrols ready to shoot anyone that farted and the FPS dropped to a stutter. All those objects actually do lower FPS btw. I ended up making it through a portion of the city and having to kill only one corner guard with my M9(which did not set off an alarm, amazingly
) I made my way to a building south west of the heliport which had a sniper on one of the upper floors. I took him out with my M9 but not before he got a shot off with his rifle. That didn't alert anyone either. Whew. I was set and in place and was trying to locate where the dude was (this was my very first test...after the bug incident...and I never made it to the farmer to know about the antenna tower when I jumped onto the outgoing medical helo). Anyway, I heard the chopper start up, spotted the dust above the roof tops and sighted in the ridge line but the helo was too fast and I know I got a few shots on the fuselage but didn't even dent it. I hated the M107 at that point because even had I taken that pilot out, I would never had made it out alive with that big hammer in tow. Restart.
After that, I decided to avoid the medical facility altogether and try different approaches. The next one being by boat. I went far out to sea, and then used the ship to conceal my approach. Once I rounded the stern, MGs opened up. I was able to get away and to the next city where troop transport caught up to me and we had it out....I lost. Retry from last save.
I approached by foot from the farmers home and crawled to an abandoned construction site on the east side, took out a lone over watchman and attempted to crawl in through a gate on the southeastern road but was drilled by a tank. Retry from last save. I attempted a tower assassination but the helo again, was too fast for the recoil of that M107.
OverallI truly love missions that challenge my tactics and patience but I hate it when timers are applied to those missions. The two just don't go together. My suggestion is to never change the leave time of the colonel. Make it a set time(reliable intel), and allow the player to use his mind to adapt. If the player does not make it in time, its his fault, not yours.
Having the target leave early when the player is detected is completely reasonable but how can the player be successful when the death of any lone unit sets off the alarm? My suggestion for this is to have a delay for smaller bases, camps and compounds that symbolizes the other soldiers missing the dead soldiers radio report. For larger cities like Chernogorsk, not every unit will carry a radio and not every unit will be accounted for every hour of the night. They have to sleep with whores and gamble their wages away somehow, right? Place detection triggers only in certain areas, where communication is likely to be tight.
MG's, over watchmen, patrols, corner guards and lite vehicles with gunners are good, challenging defenses against a lone operative trying to practice stealth. Parking all that armor at gates is overkill, I think.
Your object placement is appreciated but I think you're going to have to rethink the way you've built things. Everything seems to be placed from the start, which slows all other areas down. Spawn scripts should be used to separate the population of each AO to prevent so much lag. That way if the player never makes it to a place, it never populates. The objects(trucks, fencing, and everything else) in Chernogorsk is pretty but does remove from the appreciation factor of your mission since it becomes frustrating to even be close to that beauty. I would advise removing the fencing and lessen the amount of objects that you have decorating the place. Also, I noticed at the boatyard and airfield that your barrel pallets were dubbed (two of each placed together). I'm not sure yet if this is the same in Chernogorsk. You may want to think about going through there and deleting the extras at the least.
ClosingI'm still testing it(right now at the medical facility again) and will figure out a way to infiltrate that city undetected aside from the chopper. I may have to lower my settings to get it to where it is enjoyable but I shouldn't have to do that. I'll update you on that later.
6 months or more is not such a long time on a project if your willing to make it the best it can be. And though you have had over 1500 downloads, you have had very little feedback. This is not something that you should use to dismiss the findings of others.
Topic: The Chernarus Run (SP) Version 1.2 - [Review Complete] (Read 13917 times)