[SP/A2CO] Sabotage: Shapur v1.12 (REVIEW COMPLETE)

[janat]

This is the first Arma 2 mission I've released, although a heavily updated version of it. Change log in readme file.

Author: Janat
Version: 1.12
Required Addons:
- Arma 2 Operation Arrowhead required
- Arma 2 OA: BAF Lite required
- Arma 2 OA: BAF DLC recommended
- Arma 2 Combined Operations recommended (you can still play the mission without A2CO, but you may get some error messages and have less weapons to choose from in briefing)

Mission Description: You are a lone contractor with one mission: infiltrate and sabotage Shapur oil refinery area.

Key features:
- A full single player night time sabotage mission complete with different kinds of objectives
- Choose your gear in briefing
- Most voice acting done (but it sucks )
- Many possible endings
- Overview.html complete with mission image and description
- Briefing and debriefing
- Atmospheric music from ArmA 2 OA
- Cutscenes
- Lone wolf style infantry mission - no AI subordinates to worry about
- You can go stealth or rambo style - though stealth is strongly encouraged
- Somewhat open ended - you can finish objectives in almost any order
- It takes about one to two hour to complete the mission
- Automatic save points
- Dynamic weather

Known Issues: Characters may say some things a few seconds earlier than intended if animals get on the way before drop off.

ChangeLog:
beta v0.60:
- Tweaked enemy placement
- Added some enemies for more difficulty
- Tweaked objectives
- Tweaked intro and outro
- Tweaked enemy behaviour
- Subtitles with better grammar
beta v0.70
- Added more cover
- Tweaked AI waypoints
- Dynamic weather
- Added first aid simulation
beta v0.71
- Zip archive now actually comes with beta v0.70 instead of beta v0.50
- Removed player invincibility which was present in beta v0.70
v1.00
- Czech translations added
- More weapons to choose from
- Jukebox module in jukebox version of the mission
- Added AI surrendering
- Alarm system implemented
v1.10
- Intro tweaked
- Added ambient animals
- Added civilians
- Tweaked enemy placement in airfield
- Some more minor changes
v1.11
- Added automatic objective updating
v1.12
- Minor bugfixes
- Dow Enrique Jones' waypoints during mission start tweaked

[Wolfrug]

Hey there!

I know you said this is your final version, but may I come with two small suggestions:

The second objective, "steal flight logs", is completed by entering the helicopters: this is never actually pointed out anywhere, meaning I first shot the pilots (my first two kills in the mission!) to see if they were carrying them or somesuch. Maybe add a note in the description saying something like "Enter the chopper to pick up the logs!".

I completed the final objective by hopping in one of the hinds and blowing up the airport, probably much like you intended (since the objective completed even when I still had my own chopper alive). When I flew to the extraction though, I think I must have flown through at least five separate autosave points, which was maybe a little unnecessary? Not a big issue, but still an issue.

I must say though, that this mission was great fun overall! Aside from the carnage at the airport, I only killed the two pilots and was never spotted - this was probably thanks to the AIs phenomenally poor spotting skills in darkness though rather than anything else. It was fun sneaking in, planting explosives and sneaking back out. And at the very end, when I was hovering over the extraction car, there was suddenly a missile warning and my hind was hit! I bailed out and survived in a parachute while my chopper hit the ground next to me in a ball of flame. Good stuff 

I never did find the caches though, nor did I bother looking for them. I guess if I had though I could've blown up the airport too without as much of a show.

A nice little mission though

Wolfrug out.

[janat]

Thanks for playing the mission Wolfrug, it's great to see that you enjoyed it The AI is almost blind in the darkness, but it actually adds to this mission. You can walk down the street, then suddenly hear footsteps, turn around and see a patrol running towards you 20 metres away, and still have enough time to get away unharmed. I think it feels awesome If they do spot you, you're screwed unless you react really fast.

About your suggestions:

I could add a note telling you the exact location of the logs but I like to think that these contractors don't have that info. Maybe I'm just lazy, but in my opinion the lack of that information actually fits the story.

The final objective can indeed be completed by hopping in a chopper or plane, wrecking the whole place and fly away with it leaving it intact, and that's how I usually do it. You can also destroy the airport on foot, as there may be weapons caches containing satchel charges in the airport. On route to extraction point there are many save points, as you may have blown up all the planes and choppers. I felt those save points are needed when you are on foot, especially so if the enemies have been alerted. I could make it check if you're on foot or not, but I feel it isn't necessary.

May I ask you how long did it take for you to finish the mission?

[SaOk]

Hello, I played this through in about 20-30minutes. I liked the atmosphere and difficulty level was suitable. Here is some issues and thoughts I listed while playing:
- Voices are very low both in intro and mission, I cant hear them almost at all.
- The targets in intro are hardly seen, not sure if my 1800m visibility affected on that.
- As small flaw the actors in intro stand too close each other (weapons go through bodies).
- In Briefing there is no ammo for G36C SD.
- Also as small flaw, they left computer alone to starting point.
- Guards on airfield, all standed still in weird formations. Some could patrol. Rest maybe standing at camp fire, few near chopper...
- "Extraction"-task wasnt marker as complete in briefing.

Else the mission ran smooth and it was nice to play it, the jukebox module also fitted great in this mission. I destroyed the choppers and planes with captured GL-UAZ which was very fun moment. What I like to see would be more ambient life like animals, rare traffic, maybe some oilfield workers, people at camp fire...  And maybe some radiochatting after each task.

Edit: I dont know if people are tired of me offering my scripts. But just in case, I created earlier a handy performance friendly spawning script for animals where animals are spawned near trigger when player is close and removed when far. There is much parameters to set it wanted way and it allows fast copy/pasteing. You can find it here if interested:
http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=120439

[janat]

Thanks for playing the mission. I've made some changes based on all the feedback I've got. I've attached the new version of the mission to the first post. I'm not sure if the alarm script works in this new version, but anyway it should be better than v1.00. Couldn't do anything about low voice volume as it would've taken too much time.

I'm pretty sure this is the final version, please review.

[SaOk]

It would be easy to edit ogg-files with Audacity (I have version 1.3). You can open them straight from the mission folder, rise the volume with few clicks and save. Setting amblitude at 0,5 or little over is what I have been useing. I will test the new version soon.

[SaOk]

I played to the airfield, this time with version 1.1, but didnt yet beat it. The changes look great, the airfield is much more interesting now. Only negative aspects now are the weak voiced voices, objectives dont automatically update to next one when completed and also there could be more background/radiochatting for the objectives.

Code: [Select]

task1 settaskstate "SUCCEEDED";
_nul=[objNull, ObjNull, task1, "SUCCEEDED"] execVM "CA\Modules\MP\data\scriptCommands\taskHint.sqf";
sleep 5;
_nul=[objNull, ObjNull, task2, "ASSIGNED"] execVM "CA\Modules\MP\data\scriptCommands\taskHint.sqf";
player setCurrentTask task2;
Btw. How many different endings there are? And how they differ from each other?

Overally the mission is at good state. Once you dont want to update this mission anymore, I can review it (unless some other staff here would have wanted to do it).

Edit: In readme, it says beta v0.7 on second row. Remember update that too for the review version.

[janat]

Ok, I think I'll do some more tweaking during the next few weeks.

There are two different endings, and one of them can end in three different ways depending on player's actions and AI behavior. So there are four possible outcomes.

[janat]

I've attached the latest and final update to the first post. Voiced voices aren't of great quality anyway, so I'll let them stay the way they are. The only thing different to v1.1 is that the objectives now update automatically via a semi-intelligent fsm script.

Also, there's not a lot of radio chatter but there's a good reason for that. As the mission is a stealth mission, contractors try to be as covert as possible, and the enemy could intercept their calls. That's why they don't have a lot of chit-chat.

This is the last update, time to move on to some new project. I'd like you to review my mission.

[SaOk]

Okay, I will review this (unless I spot some new gamestoppers). Could take few weeks to finish it.

EDIT: You have mixed the files. Sabotage_shapur_v111.zip comes with proper readme, but with "Cut the Power"-mission.

[janat]

Great... Thanks for telling me. I attached the correct file, you should be able to download it now

[SaOk]

I am working on the review, but there is still few error messages popping out that would be good to be solved. Even those arent breaking the mission.

This repeats few times when near the airfield:

Code: [Select]

Error in expression <leteVehicle _snd4;
deleteVehicle _snd5;
deleteVehicle _snd6;
deleteVehicle _snd7>
  Error position: <deleteVehicle _snd6;
deleteVehicle _snd7>
  Error Generic error in expression
Error in expression <leteVehicle _snd3;
deleteVehicle _snd4;
deleteVehicle _snd5;
deleteVehicle _snd6>
  Error position: <deleteVehicle _snd5;
deleteVehicle _snd6>
  Error Generic error in expression
Also first time when I started the mission, there was a task error showing from that your fsm script. It works else good, but I believe its sometimes launched too early when the tasks dont yet exist (briefing code isnt yet completed). E.g. you could make the fsm lauch only after few seconds from mission start.

[janat]

Those errors are nothing gamebreaking, in fact they don't affect the mission at all. I'll release an updated version next weekend, as the errors don't really look too good.

[SaOk]

I agree, those are not gamebreaking at all. But as convention here, we prefer reviewing only error-free missions unless its some ultra rare error or coming from game.

But great, I keep working on the review and after testing the corrected mission version, the review will be published when ready.

[janat]

I believe those errors have been fixed now. Also, the NPC contractor now stays in the camp after he's dropped you off and only goes to the extraction point after you've called him via radio menu. Updated version has been attached to the first post