(Review Completed) [SP] Un-Impossible Mission

[Planck]

With regard to my squad when I played this mission.

I lost 1 man at the very start, however, I carried on and made it to safety with the rest of my men.

I got a replacement man when I visited the civvies in the south.

Now, I tended to keep my men holed up in a safe location whilst I went out and dealt with things like snipers and the odd enemy squad.

I used my men to help only when I thought I might need them, but on the whole I tried to keep them safe.......after all........the leader tries to look after his men.

They were very handy if I needed more ammo, but this didn't happen often as there was a good supply in the barn near the hill summit.

I lost my second man at the old base.
We had cleared the base, everthing was quiet, no enemies about that we could detect.

But a lone sniper crawled into the base and killed my man, before he was also despatched by me.

It was a surprise, I really thought we had them all, although I was wondering why I hadn't yet got the base clear end of mission message......and retry update.

Immediately after the sniper was killed, I did get the base clear message and retry update message.
So, the sniper was the last enemy near the base.

And it didn't take too long to hunt down the remaining 8 enemy soldiers, to get my easter egg.

I was happy enough to have most of my men alive, although writing to the wives of the two casualties was a harrowing enough experience.  


Planck

[THobson]

Plank: Only 2 casualties and the first one at the start which hardly counts - as we have all been discussing.  I am impressed.

Having captured the tank I am finding it a liability.  There are still far too many loons with AAs and LAWs.  The BMP is a death trap.  I did use the tank to pound the trees on the side of the hill with HEATs and was pleased to see as I crawled up later some dead snipers as a result.  I am begining to think that mac could make the mission completely impossible by having a fully armed empty Abrams waiting at the civilian village!  

I must be able to find a better way of using it.  

[macguba]

LOL!

The BMP is actually a deliberate trap.   Perhaps I should add a second to really lure people in.... or a T55 or T72 ... hmm .....

I played with an Abrams yesterday and you're right, it's not nearly as handy as you expect it to be.    Sneaker used it in a huge melee around the Base near the end and I think that - plus bombarding the Hill - is possibly the best use for it.  

Virtually every squad has the possibility of a LAW or AT loon.   AA is not every squad but is still pretty common.  

[THobson]

macguba:  So you got it working?

Edit:

The 70% probs are the ammo & UAZ are a mistake - they should be 75% like the others.  I mean I probably missed them out when increasing everybody else to 75%, not being on the circle that start position does get forgotten sometimes.

The probabilities of individual loons are also lower here.  Very many at ~32% or so.  Elsewhere they are areound 50%+

Edit2:
Actually BMP Ambulance & BRDM is where I got clean away - hows that for luck?

[macguba]

It is working though I haven't had time to play with it yet.

I'm obviously going to have to go round these probabilities again.    It's no surprise, they've been mucked about with so often.

3 peaks is not, as you say, a big deal.   It offends my sense of elegance more than anything, it doesn't have an effect in the mission that the player could possibly notice.

[Planck]

@THobson

Armour is not very useful on this mission, unless it is to bombard the hill with heat.

There are just too many AT soldiers about.

Like you I captured an Abrams.
It was not my intention, but thats the way it went, I also had a Bradley, and the bmp.

But this really was ok, because by this time, there were only 8 americans left to kill and they were all snipers.

Otherwise I doubt I would have continued to use the armour.


Planck

[THobson]

Yeh.  Here I am with a powerful long range gun and I keep getting into melees with infantry.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist (but I had to sleep on it)....

Plan is: circle the hill at a distance and HEAT every movement (and many trees) to see what happens

Sorry mac this doesn't help you with your beta testing now you have made capturing the tank nigh on impossible, I am playing this bit for fun ;D

A few more comments on the mission.

I had thought my tactic of getting a secure firing position would draw most of the enemy into the killing zone around me and so make the rest of the mission simple.  Well it did draw quite a few loons - but really only a fraction of what is there.  So congratulations on having enough groups on guard  to make life difficult, and enough doing other things that I now need to go after them.   I honestly thought that with the casualties I had inflicted and capturing the tank it would be a breeze

The scenes after the player gets killed are great.  I like the scene from the view of the person that did the killing and I think it is really neat that at the funeral you show his name.

Bye the way.  I just realised I am happily rearming my US weapons at a Russian Ammo Ural.  Is this a feature of OFP or of the mission?

Plank: Capturing a Bradley must be much more difficult than getting an Abrams.  I am even more impressed.

[macguba]

Planck's Bradley capturing story is excellent ... its in the thread somewhere.

Capturing the Abrams is still perfectly possible so your play is valid.  Anyway, you're having fun so keep going.   The Russian ammo Ural is presumably the one you found at the civvy village.   It is indeed loaded with US ammo.   This is to save you the tedium of loading them from the ammo crates nearby by hand.    One of the principles of this mission is that there is plenty of ammo.    That lorry has two weapons and 20 mags for every weapon in the game.   The ammo dumps all have both kinds:  this is because the Base has to have both kinds, or at least at did once upon a time.     It is a bit unrealistic to have both ammo types present at the same place but the Briefing does make mention of "a mess" and capturing supply convoys.    However this is one small example of the extra suspension of disbelief that you need to enjoy this mission.   (Far bigger is the absurdity of the underlying plot.  )

Glad you liked the onplayerkilled scripts.    You get a random choice from four:  the two BIS ones, a funeral by me and a gunsight view by Sui.

There are obviously some groups on guard at the start of the mission.   Some of the loons you shot in that bit turkey shoot position were just the local groups wandering around that part of the countryside.    However, other groups switch from patrol to guard under various circumstances, so you never get everybody on guard at the same time.     Since you haven't been up to change the flag yet you still have a long way to go.    

[THobson]

I think you might be able to make the start fairer.  I have had another look in the editor (I am trying to do this only to look at specific things I have thought of so as not to spoil the mission) .  All of my squad are 'In Formation' and facing north.  If you changed the 'In Formation' to 'None' and had them looking in different directions would it  help deal with:

BMP Ambulance is still too hard because most of the attacks are from behind where the player can't help.

Well I have done one round of 'The Hill' with my Abrams and dealt with 5 or 6 infantry groups, plus several snipers - the HEAT really makes them fly!  I have decided I really like having the Abrams.  Capturing it should be very, very difficult.  Perhaps you should make it impossible.

EDIT:  I was hit so few times that even a T72 could have coped with it

Still I am not going to give it up on this mission.

You asked me to let you know if mining the roads had caught anything.  On my way round I saw that the mines at Ammo & 3 bikes had caught a Bradley.  That explains why at the road block north of the civilian village both an Abrams and a Bradley turned up but when I set the trap south of 'The Hill' that caught the Abrams, the Bradley was absent.

EDIT2:  Even though I am safe in the Abrams I keep hearing the ping of a sniper's bullet bounce off the armour. Who are they trying to kid?  Or is there a chink through which they might hit us?

[Sneaker]

Sneaker used it in a huge melee around the Base near the end and I think that

Lol i wouldnt quite call it that, wasnt till the loon count was lower i even dared to get in, and i spent ages to get it to the top of the hill , and killed 2 half squads around the base and another few guys and a sniper or 3 before i took it back to the village. (when we , ahem, accidentally went down the side of the hill..)
-

from behind where the player can't help

, dunno about that...
I also had people die at the start,  two. - most of the rest of my squad died around the flag area, even in an so allround defence they started getting overrun by people i couldnt see until they were right on top of me lol, just repeating the start of the mission effectivly. damn, sweating just thinking about it.
the russian that joined me later was killed in the engagement to the south of the hill, so all russians except me died . Although civvie made it to extraction.
The familiies of the dead were told it was a helicopter accident.

[THobson]

I am certainly impressed about the way you were both able to deal with all those infantry mostly on your own.

macguba:
A couple of points of detail about the mission.
- when I arrived at the firing point I used south of The Hill there was a US fuel truck parked just north west of the hollow where the ammo crates are (around Dg/Dh54).  I took this out with a LAW, keeping a tree between me and The Hill before I let my guys go weapon free.
- when I was doing the round trip of the base of The Hill in my Abrams I saw (at a distance) two more US support vehicles.  1x fuel and 1x ammo I think (they were some distance away and I was too busy taking out the infantry squad that seemed to be supporting them).  Like the first support truck, they were just parked in the countryside for no apparent reason (they were west-ish side of The Hill).  I left these vehicles alone as I might need them later.

On the analysis program:
I said the output was "ugly but it works".  If you delete the lines (or use // to make them into comments)

Code: [Select]

   for (count=0; count < 30; count++)
      printf("\n%d  %d",count,Occurrences[count]);(these lines are very near the bottom of the program) and replace them with:

Code: [Select]

   for (count=0; count < 10; count++)
      printf("\n%2d  %6d  %12d  %6d  %12d  %6d ",count,Occurrences[count],count+10,Occurrences[count+10],count+20,Occurrences[count+20]);The output will be a bit tidier and easier to read.

[THobson]

Later:

I could not have done this with a T72.  As I circled the hill and took damage I returned to my base south of The Hill to rearm and repair.  The infantry followed me so as soon as I was ready to set off again there they were nicely lined up coming over the brow of the hill.

I know I have not finished yet, but it is progress.

[THobson]

Later still:

I changed the flag (I liked the gate) got back in the tank and drove down.  I saw one sniper on the way and my gunner got him.  Went back to my base south of The Hill to rearm - just to be on the safe side.  headed for the Old Base.  I heard a few explosions when I was enroute so my mines clearly caught something.  Met some infantry near the wood south of the Old Base.  Went west a bit so I could look down into the base.  I saw then that my mines had caught 2x Abrams and 2x Bradleys.  You evil man!!

The base was full of loons - and my satchel charges too remember?  Well it did me no good.  I had no action to detonate the charges!!  I was annoyed about this.  But sitting in an Abrams overlooking these loons was not too bad an alternative.  Later when I disembarked the tank I got the action to detonate the charges.  I elected not to do so being in the base myself by this point.  I still had the action even after getting back into the tank - so there is some sort of OFP 'feature' at play here.

I disarmed the mines at one entrace to the base where there was a crewless but not yet dead Abrams.  Back to my own base.  Got everyone into vehicles for another convoy:   Hospital BMP; Ammo truck, Repair truck and BMP2 with me in the lead.  Back to the Old Base.  I am now brining the second Abrams back into action.

Oh and a few snipers have turn up at the base.  I am currently outside so I may get to use my satchel charges eventually.

It is now about 17:30 game time

I liked the snipers in the towers - everywhere I look there is great attention to detail.  

[macguba]

All of my squad are 'In Formation' and facing north.  If you changed the 'In Formation' to 'None' and had them looking in different directions

Good point.   I hadn't thought of that.   I'll have a think.

Capturing it should be very, very difficult.  Perhaps you should make it impossible.

The only way to make it impossible is to take it out.   I have - and am still - considering it.    I'm hoping the new trigger/waypoint arrangement makes it virtually impossible.   Normally when you sneak up to armoured vehicles they don't know you're there, but now, once it loses contact with you, it runs off back to its secret loitering point.   If you find that of course you're laughing, but that's a risk I'm willing to take.

Still I am not going to give it up on this mission.

Good!

Here's a question for you all.   If, when you're in an Abrams or any tank, you get hit by a LAW, do you usually take out the LAW soldier before he hits you a second time?    The reason I ask is because I could replace the LAWs with ATs.    The AT missile is about twice as powerful as a LAW, so if you usually drop the loon before he fires a second time I will replace them.    On the other hand if he normally gets two shots off then the LAW is better, since if he misses with the first he still has the second, and the third.

On my way round I saw that the mines at Ammo & 3 bikes had caught a Bradley.  

Lucky you!  Except it wasn't luck of course.

I keep hearing the ping of a sniper's bullet bounce off the armour.

I didn't realise "absurd optimism" was hardcoded into those loons ....

d**n, sweating just thinking about it.

The familiies of the dead were told it was a helicopter accident.

I always tell them it was on a death-or-glory secret operation, which they can't be told about.

when I arrived at the firing point I used south of The Hill there was a US fuel truck parked just north west of the hollow where the ammo crates are ...... I saw (at a distance) two more US support vehicles.  1x fuel and 1x ammo I think

There is one support group for West.   It has a random composition of vehicles (though there is always at least one repair and one ammo I think) and some dismounts.   It starts at a secret location and mostly just has support waypoints.   It's behaviour is consistently weird:  the other day I found an abandoned repair truck which neither I nor my loons could board.    I think the support waypoint is fairly fucked up if the truth be told.     However, it doesn't really matter:   the West armour can repair successfully with it, which is the important thing, and these guys add a lot of fun to gameplay because they have a knack of turning up at the wrong place at the wrong time.   It caused a lot of trouble for the extended ending of the mission, which is now fixed.

I said the output was "ugly but it works".

I haven't had time to play with that yet but I'll make the changes.

I could not have done this with a T72.

Well that's some consolation for me!


Nice pic .. it's no small matter to get the tank up there even if nobody is shooting at you.

(I liked the gate)

Bloody nightmare that was.    It turns out that

gate1 setPos getPos gate1

makes the bugger move.

I saw then that my mines had caught 2x Abrams and 2x Bradleys.  You evil man!!

Lol you've won now.   Since you have already cleared the snipers around the base they (and a bunch of infantry squads, but you won't have any trouble with those) were the last obstacle.  

so there is some sort of OFP 'feature' at play here.

I think you're right.   Some actions are disabled when you are in a vehicle, but you beat the system be getting out and in again.

I am now brining the second Abrams back into action.

Shouldn't be long now, then.  

It is now about 17:30 game time

15 hours pluse retries .... and you're doing it the quick way.   It's not bad, is it.

I liked the snipers in the towers - everywhere I look there is great attention to detail.  

That's how it's supposed to be.


Many thanks again for all that, keep it coming.  

[Planck]

I think it would be a mistake to get rid of any of the armour.

At the moment, the fact that there is armour about forces you to be extremely careful.

I didn't really plan on capturing any armour, but I took the opportunity when it presented itself.

At one point, whilst searching for the last 8 loons, I had the abrams, the bmp and the bradley all sitting on top of the hill........it took ages for the AI drivers to get their vehicles up there, but eventually they made it.

Going back down again was fun, but the AI nearly always refused to come down....I suppose they judged it as too steep.  I had to go up again on foot and bring them down myself.  The AI are just a bunch of cissies at times.

My original intentions towards the armour was to destroy it, but as I said, when the opportunity for capture presented itself, I took it.

On the question about LAW soldiers.......If I was able to locate the LAW soldier after he had fired, I would take him out as quickly as possible.

If I was unable to locate him quickly enough.........I ran..........got repaired and came back.


Planck