(Review Completed) [SP] Un-Impossible Mission

[macguba]

Yes I thought you'd like that link.   ;D  

If you need the latest version (the one Planck played)  grab it here.

Remember, it's a very open mission.    You can do it any way you like.      


Edit:  Planck, I bet that chopper crashed because it ran out of gas.  I'll need to do something about that.

[Planck]

Hey Macguba.

I think you are correct about the cobra, it may indeed have run out of gas.

As a matter of interest, where did you start?

I started around about the bicycles, it is hard to tell exactly..........it was very foggy.

The chopper should have had a little fuel.  Did you try to fly it?

I did try to fly it.....but it wouldn't start 'Out Of Fuel'.
I even tried to get one of my guys to fly it......same result.

Do you notice/how did you deal with the snipers covering the Base?

I took out a few snipers round the base myself including the one in the tower.  The tank and bradley dealt with any others that turned up.

you must have killed virtually every unit in the game yourself.

Not quite, the rest of my team got some.  I mostly kept them out of harms way.
My total tally was:
262 soldiers of all the various kinds.
2 5t Trucks
2 Repair Trucks
6 Bradleys ( I ended up switching my men back to the BMP whilst looking for the remaining 8 enemy loons.  So I destroyed the Bradley we had)

But don't get the wrong idea.....I did die a few times.....I didnt manage to do the mission without getting killed a few times.

I was killed twice by falling down steep slopes on the hill.
I was killed once by a tank, which shouldn't really have seen me, but it might have had my position reported to it by another unit.
And I was killed once, by a sniper.......I crawled right past him...then he shot me......like I said.....I'm half blind.    

Ohh........and I lost 2 men.


Planck

[Dubieman]

Being half blind and completing this mission is no small feat. Imagine what you coulda done with those 26 hours....  

[macguba]

Sounds like I cocked up on the chopper fuel, sorry.    The new version has a slightly different arrangement anyway.

Bicycles it would have been - it's arguably the best place to start.     The start positions are actually very different so once you know them (and boy do I know them) its very easy to identify them.

I have come across the chopper crew wandering around a couple of times.   They run out of gas but if they survive the crash (or land, I don't know what they do) they continue working their waypoints on foot, brave fools.

There are up to about 6 snipers overlooking the Base, (in tree towers and the high ground to the east) not counting the ones on The Hill.   They are all on probabilities of course, so you may have been lucky, but the tank would naturally negate them anyway.

Glad to hear you died falling down the Hill - the mission was placed here precisely because it was the most difficult ground on any of the islands.  (I think Resistance had just come out at the time though I didn't have it.)

The tank that got you must have been lucky.   I can't tell you how much I've wanted to put some kind of info sharing script in this, but I've been true to the original principles and there isn't one.

Overall though, that's a very impressive record of not being killed.   Near the top of The Hill in particular can get very sticky with dozens of the blighters all around you.   It gets like a Highland midge attack sometimes.

2 casualties is the way to go.   Your squad mostly just draw attention to themselves and get killed.   Even if they inflict casualties at a ratio of 5 or 6 to 1 it's not really helping you that much.     Better to keep them out of trouble and use them when you really need them.

As I said before, bloody amazing effort and very much appreciated.   Thanks again.

[The_Mark]

Great mission. Atmosphere is excellent, even I'm missing the intro - AllI can see is the Un-Impossible Mission title and a shot of some vehicles for about a half a second, then it jumps to the briefing. BTW, nice music  ;D
A small glitch in the briefing: you will presume (well, it is probably explained in the intro - I never saw that) that you start somewhere near the drop zone, which you don't. And the briefing will be, in any case, shown after the intro, which, I presume, explains why you're not even near the drop zone, so it might be good to add some P.S. style info to the briefing that you missed the dz, and some large area marker showing "you're somewhere in this area". It wouldn't give away the players position, and since you can always tell your loons to report in and tell their position... well, it's your call.

The mission itself is excellent, deserving its name..
The random starting positions are finely made, and after the first try the player will be on his toes.

Anyways, I've still got to change the flag... BTW the "living room" up there was a nice touch..  ;D

[macguba]

Thanks m8 :thumbsup:

That's odd about the Intro, I have no idea what it could be.     It's supposed to start with a dark screen, then some text, then a shot of a chopper on the ground with vehicles.  Most people seem to be able to play it without any problems.    

The Intro does suggest that you don't know where you are and the Briefing mentions that navigation will be difficult because of the fog.    The intention is to create a sense of confusion for the player and originally there were no clues at all - not being at the DZ was a complete surprise.    However that proved to be unpopular, hence the hints.    Discovering where all the start postitions are is part of the adventure so I'm not going to put an area marker, but thanks for the suggestion.

Glad you liked the living room.   ;D   There's a toilet up there too.


Oh, Planck, I figured out what caused that big explosion.   The chopper got low on fuel and headed for the fuel station:  unfortunately the AI isn't smart enough to land and refuel, it just hovers there until the gas runs out and it crashes on the fuel station BOOM.    The new version has refuel routines for the choppers so it shouldn't happen again.

[The_Mark]

Well, if you'd put the area marker in with a radius of, let's say, about two clicks  ;D
But maybe it isn't so good idea..

Another thought crossed my mind: what if the player would, after some twenty retries, mysteriously start at the DZ..  
Of course with the attack as per other starting positions..

@ the chopper mess: I think that BIS didn't design the AI to survive 26 hours of hide-and-seek ;D A brand-new tactic to deal with AI vehicles - wait until they run out of gas!

I figure Planck is glad for having a toilet ingame...

[Planck]

Hey Macguba

I figured it might have been trying to get fuel, it was too much of a coincidence that it just happened to land on the fuel station.

@The_Mark
Actually neither I or any of my men saw the chopper at any time in the mission before it had crashed, so it didn't bother us any.
The first time I saw the chopper was after it had become an ex-chopper.  


Planck

[macguba]

Right, you can grab the latest version (v0-60) here.[/url][/b]    Everybody has a chance to refuel and there is a refuel routine for the chopper(s).    Most of the changes are a consequence of Planck's epic triumph.   No more can you wait for the enemy to run out of gas, or for it to get dark .... full details below.   All that's left to do (hmmm, where have I heard that before?   ) is the Outro.

Using the DZ as a rare start position did occur to me at one point and has many attractions:  if I wanted to do a lot more work on this I'd probably do it ....

The chopper doesn't bother you in the fog unless you're daft enough to get in a vehicle.  Then it picks you on radar and you have a TOW up your jacksy before you can fart.



Changes from 0-59 to 0-60.   Overall the new difficulty level is probably very slightly harder.


Making it easier

Removed dismounts from heavy armour group
Added conditional (group <= 8 ) extra loon to your group after civvy cutscene


Making it harder

Increased number of LAW soldiers slightly
Added 50% chance of second Abrams in heavy armour group
Issued NVGs to many enemy loons
Removed Cadet waypoints


Making it better

Added fuel station at main junction
Added fuel barrels at road end start position
Added refuel routines for choppers
Added fuel truck to West support group
Fixed units crawling up Hill at end
Improved Chinook setup
Exchanged a damaged jeep for a damaged jeep/mg
Replaced morphine script with better First aid script
Added voices for the extra loon joining conversation
Added voices for new first aid script

[LCD]

YO ;D

hat sounds topkool ;D

ill test it i need 2 make new record... so right now i invite armsty 2 play this again (new ver new record ;D unless ny1 elkse broke his 1 ?)

friday is ur day im tellin ya ;D (dats if me good comp is back by then )

LCD OUT

[macguba]

Armsty has been knocked off his perch by Planck, who is the current Un-Impossible Champion.     He is the only person who has beaten the current versions (v0-55 - v0-60, which are all substantially the same difficulty).        

The earlier version (probably v0-50) that Armsty (and Kali and one or two others I think) beat was significantly easier.    This is because every time somebody does well I amend the mission to nullify the method they used.  ;D    But there's not much I can do about Planck's technique.  :booty:

[LCD]

wat did plack do ?  

nywayz.... he betta b carefull cuz im right behind him ;D

LCD OUT

[macguba]

Planck is the only person to beat the current version ... post #161 on page 11.... and yes he did post a screenie of the debriefing screen as tradition demands.

[LCD]

yeah but wat was hes tactic u cant do nythin bout ? xept playin till all the AI soldiers gpt bored + sleepy and suicide

LCD OUT

[macguba]

Lol that was pretty much it.   ;D

I discovered two small bugs in the version I posted.     Play it anyway, they're not a big deal.    New version coming soon.