[CAMP] Black Lands 1.2

[Undeceived]

F*** , guys, I forgot to remove a debug line in M8... That's The cause for that mess... SORRY, I'll reupload later today as soon as I get home...

Done - I reuploaded the campaign with mission 8 fixed. It should work normally now without strange cutscene behaviour.



Btw, sorry for the short replies - I'm pretty busy in RL atm... I'll answer soon.

[savedbygrace]

Finally made it through the string tables and corrected what I spotted. There was so much to read that I may have missed some things but for the most part it's looking good. There were some parts that I didn't want to change for fear of removing the meaning, so I just left them alone. At least this way, it narrows future efforts down a bit. These string tables were from the download version I played so it won't contain anything new that you've put in them(if you have at all). I'll be circling the wagons soon to run through the beta missions again, so it shouldn't be too much longer before I am able to provide more feedback.

I'll remove the zip file when you've grabbed a copy.

Later pal

[Undeceived]

Thanks a lot for your work, SBG, really! It's really appreciated!

I got the zip - you can remove it.


At the moment it's quite hard to get to editing - RL is taking all time and strength ressources. But I'll get to it! There are some nice and interesting missions yet to come (which of course will need a good amount of beta testing... ).

[savedbygrace]

I attempted to download version 1.1 and the file is no longer found. If you're in the process of updating again, I'll wait for your next version, otherwise, I'll grab it when you re-upload it.

[Undeceived]

I guess that the download expired due to lack of downloads. I reuploaded it again here: http://www.gamefront.com/files/22826933/UND_blacklands1_1beta.zip (also updated the first post)

Unfortunately I didn't work much on the campaign after the last update - RL is kicking my butt atm...

Thanks for your help, mate!

[savedbygrace]

Yeah, real life is having a grand time kicking all of us about. I'll get to it as soon as I can. thanks for re-uploading it.

[mathias_eichinger]

Hey, finally I am through with the older missions and can test this campaign.

Introduction I and II

As the others said, it's great cinema here, perfect angles and the sound fits the depressing theme of the intros, the whole action scenes are asthetic, and the somber scenes are worth of a movie.

Death camo upon me

This is more a cinema mission than a real mission, but bug-free, and very engaging as well. You could almost catch a depression while playing this.

[Undeceived]

Thanks a lot, mathias!

I hope that your emotional condition is alright.


Looking forward to your further impressions.

[mathias_eichinger]

Well, using your mission to be distracted from a relationship breakup was the wrong idea.  
But I am good again and so here are my impressions of

Awakening

This is a rather easy mission, but the nightly ambiance is great. As you have written in the first post, it is more of a cinematic mission, but the storytelling and camera as well as music is excellent. No bugs spotted.

Starting to inflame again

The bug with the missing action menu entry for the church door I reported via PM must be related with one of my myriads of addons and mods - disabling most of them did cure it.

Else, the mission is top notch - following the hooker in the backyard to kill the officer without being spotted was intense, and at the bar I really walked around for several minutes with no hope of doing this before catching my breath and remembering ArmA2's poor CQB AI. A close shave anyway, but I killed my victim, followed by a mad dash for the boat and a calm ride with a nice conversation.

The crawl to the men to be liberated was nerve-wrecking too, with enemy patrols all around, but a well made cutscene provided enough motivation to free them. After a short battle at the prison, they were free to go and we reached our hideout without intervention.

Great mission, no bugs and full of immersion.

Setting-Up time

I started to play this mission tonight and I am totally blown away by the hilarious conversation before you can steal the motorbike. Just great. Right now, I am stuck at the materials depot, which is very well guarded, but I think I have to try to sneak in from every direction before giving up (right now I was trying from the north, thinking that the side opposite the woods would be less guarded. But to no avail). Ok, tried several times to infiltrate that russian position, but they have guards on all sides on the building, an impossible situation. As for now I give up and try your next mission if I find motivation again.

[Undeceived]

Thanks, Mathias. I think that I have to tune down that part a little bit.

Approaching the depot from the east worked for me but of course it's not easy to run and gun at that part of the mission.



The next update will also bring the whole campaign eith all 19 missions. But it will still take a while (some weeks maybe).

[mathias_eichinger]

On with Martin's List

I have to say beforehand that I am totally unhappy with this mission, here's why:

All is well until I approach the small enemy ammo depot in my little van on an unpaved road. Driving that van on the road is already slow, but I am intercepted by an enemy UAZ full of soldiers. After dealing with them and the guards at the depot, an enemy squad instantly appears and has to be dealt with as well.

After these "small matters" I have a hard time equipping my squadmates (they shout "Negative!" when I order them to pick up stuff from the crates). So I get them weapons from the downed enemy squad. Meanwhile, the convoy is well past the ambush point, idly waiting in the middle of the road to the east.

A Tunguska, a T72, and some trucks together with infantry. All this without a squad loaded with AT weapons because the crates at the base could not be accessed by my men. My only salvation is going Rambo with Loki's Lost key. Afterwards, I discover that going by car is another suicide because there is an instant T72-response to the incident.

Going on foot does not help either, and with a (spawning?) APC  200 meters behind me, I cannot finish the mission - since it is dependent on the survival on my mates.

Suggestion:
* Add teamswitch
* Delay the enemy response
* Arriving at the weapons depot and equipping is time pressure enough - do away with the enemy response at this location.

The cinema is top-notch, but the mission needs a bit more fine-tuning.

[savedbygrace]

Might be a good idea to add team switch to allow the player to control each AI with precision when needed such as gearing up or getting set, etc.

[Undeceived]

Hello mathias. Thanks for testing and your feedback. I'll deal with those things you mentioned.

That UAZ on the dirt road is a bug. It should only come after you attacked the depot.

[mathias_eichinger]

Oh, that's not a bug but my tactic.

From the ammo depot, there is a hedgerow stretching conveniently to the dirt road. I stopped my van, let the precious team mates wait for me, and rushed the hedgerow upwards to take out the guards. Soon after I was back in the car and driving a minute, that UAZ arrived, much to my dismay because the clock was ticking.

On with Martin's List II

This mission also excels in the arena of scripting and story telling - plus it really keeps the player on his toes. Stealing the boat was a more emotional experience that I expected first, and the dialogue before trying to destroy the generators was interesting as well. I literally managed to run away with bullets kicking the dust around me, but I think that boat was a tad too close when I tried to drive away. I had to retry multiple times, which is something I do not like if I have absolutely no options to fight back. Anyway, I managed to reach the hideout and the outro was very well made as well. Top-notch mission which makes me want to play more of your campaign.
Remark: Kamil died during exfil and I used the CAMPAIGN cheat at this point.

Inner Abscess

I believe I have found the first bug of this campaign. I am now in the woods, after a 10 minute patrol around to find some bad guys, but now my lead has stopped patrolling and is just standing around looking dumb, no progress in the mission yet.

Alexej Pribotow

This mission was bugged as well, because my squad had no weapons when they exited the bus, so I had to use the Loki Lost Key cheat to equip myself and play the mission. Enemy reaction upon capture of the traitor is too swift, as in earlier missions. The storytelling and cinema is top-notch as usual. Might be the cause that using the cheat "CAMPAIGN" is doing all the bugs.

[Undeceived]

Hi mathias,

yes, normally the final script checks which weapons you and the others have at the end of the mission, but when you use CAMPAIGN due to showstoppers, this weapon check script has not launched.


7 Inner Abscess:

Where did the mission stop working exactly? Didn't the man from the village lead you to the truck with the civilian corpses??