(Review Completed) [SP] Un-Impossible Mission

[Sneaker]

About Law soldier question.

At the old base i got destroyed once i didnt see from where as it was the more damaged side i got hit so i died, - he probly would have got a second off anyway , and the time i survived i got hit once on the less damaged side but managed to locate him while he was reloading.  
Perhaps to balance it out you could have half or 1/3 or 1/4 etc of squads have an AT soldier instead of law, but i wouldnt remove them comlpetely , cause as you say, if they miss...  

There are a lot of ammo crates that were mostly useless to me

I actually thought this was meant to happen, cause it meant i would be swapping weapons betweeen my squad, and picking up american weapons (a few fresh HK's from blackops were a godsend - since the lack of ammo was evident even at the old base)  and so mean sometimes things got really desperate and even changing to the good ol' M16 was on the cards at some points.

[THobson]

Mac if you do get chance to find my loon here is a saved mission.  2, 3 and 6 are standing around at the top of The Hill, their Abrams is there also.  The mission is now the next morning - I let it run over night.  I have checked... no better not tell you, I may have missed something, but I feel like I have checked everything.  Take a look at what the satchel charges did to the old base.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/trevor.hobson/Operation%20Flashpoint/Un-Impossible/save.fps

Another point.  When the mission appears in the list of missions, before you even get to the Overview its name is truncated slightly.  It might help to lose the hyphen in Un-Impossible.

Loons changing behaviour or an extra chopper would not be allowed

Well it would be realistic for them to behave differently if they knew we had got one of their Abrams

Also, I am with Sneaker on the ammo thing.  I thought ammo management was meant to be part of it.  Until I found the ammo truck.

[macguba]

OK, I'm in.   There are only about 2 undestroyed buildings in the whole Base ...

Anyway, if we were smart we'd figure out a way of using a spectator script on this.

[macguba]

Did you find the chopper crash sites?   There are one or two Cobras and the loon could be trapped in one of those.

I'll update this post with any thoughts or questions.    No luck yet, obviously.

[THobson]

Well I found where the chopper I killed crashed.  It is upsidedown.  It didn't occur to me that he might be in there.  It is just west of the forest that was behind my base south of The Hill.

 I went to all the possible starting locations and shot up any closed vehicles and, I think, went in all the buildings I could.  Is it possible that he is on a very steep part of The Hill and unable to get up?

EDIT:  I went back to the chopper.  The crew were both dead.  My guy in the chopper keeps reporting a car - could this be one of the civilian trucks?

[macguba]

There are two civvy lorries driving about, which are usually reported as cars.   Don't shoot them, you get a mission failed.

I've done a fair bit of running around - probably covering a lot of ground that you have - and I checked the offlying island to the north.    I don't feel I've finised yet but I have a suspicion that something weird has happened and that, in the ordinary sense, there is no loon to find.    I'll check the chopper later.

The secret ammo dump has gone.  Vanished.   That must have been one hell of a bang.   On my second visit I found the remains of an ammo crate, which let me have a LAW, but it was half buried and didn't look like an ammo crate.  

[THobson]

The chopper isn't the problem.  The crew are all present and correct - and dead.  I did nothing to the secret ammo dump - it was ok when I left it!  I will go and have another look.

I once had a guy start off inside a building that had no exit.

I told you I give the kiss of death to missions.  Imagine what it like testing my own missions when I attract so many gremlins.

[THobson]

That is strange.  I start from the same file that you have and go back to the secret ammo dump and it all seems to be ok!

(We are talking about the same place - in the hollow south and slightly west of The Hill?)

[Planck]

@THobson

Your man is somewhere in the area of the Ammo dump.

Something like DJ44........Dj45......Ea44.......Ea45.

EDIT
Just tried it again to try and get an exact fix.
I found a JeepMg with 2 american soldiers in it at map reference.........Di43

Both are still alive and although I am parked with the Abrams beside them, they don't seem to care at all.



@macguba

You are evil

btw.......I Laughed

[macguba]

[size=10]HOORAY![/size]

Di43 it is.     It only says 1 loon remaining because that's how the game counts them.  When they die the mission ends correctly..... although the Outro is screwed up.  (That bug is also fixed.)   I take it, Planck-the-Magnificent, that you assumed that THobson and I had covered the ground inside the ring road thoroughly so therefore, by a process of elimination ...

I know exactly what's happened too, its the standard problem although this lot were paticularly hard to find.    They get the end mission orders, start out, but something distracts them and they forget what they are supposed to be doing.   They are highly scared, and although they got an allowFleeing 0 command they probably saw the Abrams and did a runner.

I am also relieved:  this problem has been solved by the new script which is already in 0-64, the version that will be published as soon as bloody Lycos/Tripod fix their bug.    

Thanks Planck.  

@macguba

You are evil

btw.......I Laughed

;D    At what in particular?  

[macguba]

New version 0-64 up.

I'm having trouble with my site, or rather Lycos/Tripod are having an "error on page" party so Artak has kindly stepped in to help.

The big differences are

• Outro Loose added
• Outro Win player dead bug fixed
• New script for sending loons up the Hill at the end of the extended version (much better than the old triggers we've been having so much trouble with)
• More/better/fixed dismounts for the Bradleys
• New waypoints for the first Abrams group so it's harder to capture it
• More LAWs
• HK (and other obscure mags) now in ammo crates

Changes list from v0-63 to v0-64

Overall the new difficulty level is slightly harder


MAKING IT BETTER

Added Outro Loose
Improved credit titles in mission accomplished cutscene
Improved Intro slightly
Second and Fourth Objectives reworded for clarity
Fixed singular/plural problem in count hint
Improved dirt road on hilltop

Replaced triggers with script to send loons up Hill at end of long version
Consolidated some triggers to reduce lag
Reduced area of fog off trigger
Fixed ammo shortages
Removed redundant ammo crates

Removed benchmark command from second chopper
Fixed medium armour group dismount bug
Fixed spinning civilian



MAKING IT EASIER

Made gate open action available to all loons, not just player
Reduced probability of a start group from 75% to 50% (offsetting Bradley increase)
East present in the Base end trigger area enlarged slightly
Removed loon in execution barn



MAKING IT HARDER

Increased probability of third Abrams to 67% (from 50%)
Restored conditional dismounts to heavy armour group
Increased probability of Bradley in medium armour group from 75% to 100%
Restored probability of second chopper to 67% (from 35%)
Added LAWs to blackop groups
Added couple of extra blackops at execution barn
Revised waypoints of medium and light armour groups (controlled by switch triggers) to keep them moving

[THobson]

@Planck
 
Thanks I will have a look tonight.  I know there was one jeep with mg at the ammo dump.  I had previously hit it with a heat.  I guess this is another one close by.  I must have visited that place several times in my search.  I did assume though that if I got out of the tank and run about a bit any loon nearby would start shooting.  Not a good assumption it seems.  Anyway by that time I had spent so long in front of the screen that my eyes were hurting, my head was hurting and was getting a bit fed up.  What a bugger - it has made the end quite an anti-climax.

@macuba

I had a strange problem that might be related - more OFP than your mission.  After one of my forays with the Abrams I got back to my base to repair, rearm and heal.  I got 2 and 6 (the medic) to get out of the tank, I kept telling 2 to heal at the medic he said he would but just never moved.  In fact the only instruction he would actually do anything with was to get back into the tank.  I Aborted the mission so as think about what to do.  Next time I went in I saw him in the process of being healed and everything was ok then.  That solution did not help with the last loon problem though.  I guess it is features like these that have kept the BIS campaign missions rather simple.

I still claim the prize for completing the mission with my squad fully intact.

In the latest version did you decide to leave the infantry group probabilities as they were?  The Ammo and UAZ starting point seemed a bit out of line with the others.

[macguba]

The prize has to be split:   Sneaker did it in a much faster time but with loads of casualties ... I wouldn't care to opine on the virtures of speed versus losses .....  

I've seen weird stuff with the medic tents in the Old Base on more than one occasion.    The other day I had an Abrams basically in the same position as the tent:  just the back of the tank was sticking out of the tent.    An adjacent loon could not detect the tank.     So far as I could see the tank was not damaged (though I couldn't see much of it) but one LAW blew him to eternity.    Nothing to be done, sadly, its just one of the "features" that make this great game a bit frustrating sometimes.    

That jeep had the luck of the devil.   I had loons run over a whole area right next to him:   I was once on my way to that area when my Abrams hit one of your mines and I was killed:   and I cleared the woods to the SE of him so I was probably no more than 150 yards away (with a full squad) but nobody saw him.

In 0-64 I have not deliberately played with the starting group probs - that is a task still before me.    The to do list is:-

Fix wounded civvy (done)
Increase LAW and AT loons in four groups (done)
Improve cutscene voices
Setpos trick for stuck loons at end
Check and improve start group probabilities
Consider player's loons start directions
Bradley dismounts get back in ?
Adjust timings/waypoints of second chopper to make abrams more difficult?

[THobson]

Lol - So we are still someway off the final version then.

I didn't think there was only one prize.  Planck got there first, Sneaker the fastest and me the safest.  We should all get prizes.

[macguba]

Lol yes, prizes for everybody.   I think you're all bloody heroes, I haven't even attempted this version.   I virtually did 0-50 I think it was, about Christmastime, but the new sequence (starting at 0-55) I haven't even attempted.  

I think it was 0-62 that I posted as the real, final, release candidate.....