Addon Free, campaign mission 1 Battle Cry.

[The-Architect]

From my upcoming campaign. Mission 1 Battle Cry.

The campaign will see you playing as Victor Troska, in an alternative Nogova vs. The Soviets setting.

Mission 1 (Battle Cry)
A short introduction to the campaign and a starter mission. No weapons, no fighting.

0 Addons needed.

Single Player Mission.

1.96 Resistance


Feedback will be welcomed.

Get the mission here,
http://www.freewebs.com/ofpbob/battlecryprogresspage.htm


Edit: This mission is available from the Missions Depot.

[dmakatra]

Will play when I get time.

:beat: *Gets Shot* :beat:

[GI-YO]

A hoy hoy matey! This is my first BETA review so its probably naff but here it goes.

OVERVIEW - does it job, maybe the picture could be bigger.

INTRO - I liked the typing effect that was very good. My only critism of the intro was the battle scene on the hill at the end, i felt that the camera was placed to far away and so I couldn't realy see what was happening. Maybe you did this to show the whole battle? I dunno. The last little bit where they talk to vicor all works but he doesn't take much persuading, maybe this could be expanded.

BRIEFING - All the links worked, notes explained the feeling of the player. The "go straight through" links appeared at first to all link the same place but they infact are all different, maybe you could change the links to barrier 1, 2 etc etc.

MISSION - I got on the motor bike and sped through the first 'barrier', a couple of soldiers and an empty BMP, maybe you could of had a barrier in the road to avoid? Got to the next barrier and wreck the bike ramming the Ural. I run away but no shots are fired so I restart and go in the car, run some poor guy over at the second barrier and hear a few shots but nothing gets me. Take the turn fine and run the last bit into the camp, ends fine.

OUTRO - none, maybe a little one just for all that driving.

score 0
6 mins

COMMENTS - As this is only an intro mission to a campaign its not going to change the world but I feel it needed something to make it a bit more exciting, where was the people who were suppose to be chasing me, maybe an SU-25 to force me into a bush to hide. The reds didnt seem to concerned about me zooming through their checkpoints, could you find a way to get them to fire warning shots over you forcing you to run 'em down. The few civvy vechicles were a nice touch. Overall a good mission which I think needs a few tweeks to be very good, i will have to D/L the rest of the campaign and give that a BETA test as well.


GI-YO out

edit - Just one question is there a mission 2 in your campaign or just 1, 3, 4?

[dmakatra]

OVERVIEW:
Didnt really like this much. The text was not very exciting and short, the pic was, well, not good. It just showed a screenie from a weird angle. Nice border and shadow though.
INTRO:
The fighting scene was kinda dull and a bit long (and acording to the official missions the resistance had no tanks untill Scrap) but the rest was good. Especially the text and sound combination you had there. That was cool. I have a suggestion though, since it felt like a typewriter, couldn't you make it like a report or something? And end it with "Requesting that NATO Forces Launch an Aid Operation. James Gastovski, Major, 3rd Special Operations Batallion."
BRIEFING:
"Get Ready...", remove that
Rest was OK.
MISSION:
Screw checkpoints, Im taking a different road. Went south. Nobody there. I didnt see a soul for like 2 kilometers. Took off, finnished the mission.
OUTRO:
None.
SUMMARY:
OK, this worked in the official mission 'cause it was much more detailed and everything was new and cool and you loved the new island and the bike and all. But here it didn't work 'cause it didn't have the same interaction and the same story build up as the official. Besides, we've ridden the motorcycle, we've seen the island and we know it as our own pocket, we've seen the high resolution textures and the (compared to what we had before) detailed models, we've heard that russian official voice billions of times before, etc. Now it's more of a challange trying not to hit a tree with 4x speed as its just borin riding for that long i 1x. Oh darn, drove into a tree. Retry.
No hard feelins right? I'll play the other missions when the 2nd has come out so I'll play em in order.

:beat: *Gets Shot* :beat:

[The-Architect]

Thanks for the input guys.

I'll address a few of the issues.

Its an alternative campaign. So if I want the resistance to have tanks its ok. From the intro you'll see that the Resistance were fighting before Victor is aked to join them.

Victor putting up a struggle to join is from the BIS campaign. I don't want you guys to confuse mine with the BIS one. Ok, it has the same characters and island etc but that's as far as it goes.

The checkpoints are just checkpoints. There are guys manning them just like any invading force would do. Just because you are Victor troska and you run a checkpoint, doesn't mean the baddies will send a Frogfoot after you. I will add some more though incase other people want to take a different route. One thing I do need to fix is the problem you encounter if you break the bike or car. Any ideas?

You are right about the "been there done that" feeling of the mission, but that won't be changed. Its only a very short mission and once the rest of the campaign gets under way, you'll soon forget about it.

The overview is only there for the benefit of the Beta Testers. Remember that once its in campaign format, they'll be gone.

Mission two will be a convoy attack very similar to the one in the BIS campaign but after that the similarities stop and the other missions are more original.

Cheers guys.

[dmakatra]

The checkpoints are just checkpoints. There are guys manning them just like any invading force would do. Just because you are Victor troska and you run a checkpoint, doesn't mean the baddies will send a Frogfoot after you.
Yea, but something might happen, and then you have to talk your way out (with actions in action menu maybe), that'd cool.

The overview is only there for the benefit of the Beta Testers. Remember that once its in campaign format, they'll be gone.
Incorrect.

:beat: *Gets Shot* :beat:

[macguba]

The basics have already been covered so I won't repeat them.   I liked the "go straight through" link.    You definitely need a checkpoint on the southern route.

Don't say in the Briefing take the car or the bike.

The fade to black at the end starts to soon and is too slow.

If the player crashes the car that's his fault.    Leave some spare vehicles lying around or create an action that makes him do an animation and fixes the vehicle.

There is a bit of a discontinuity between the intro and the mission: why is Viktor in Modrava?

I thought the overview pic was fine.

There are in my view two general problems.   One is easy to fix and one is hard.

The easy one is the look.   The checkpoints are too hard to see when you are zooming past.    Time it nearer the middle of the day so the light is better.    (I know that low sun is nice but keep that for a walking mission.)    Put yellow danger signs 100m before you get to them (from all directions).    Have more loons moving around and/or use the red striped barriers.  (I know you want no addons but editor addons - I recommend General Barron's - don't really count.)    Sandbags.  Oil drums.  Whatever.   You're trying to create atmosphere here and you don't have long to do it as the player is moving so fast.    Maybe lose the car, keep the bike and have lots of birdsong in the woods.

The 3rd checkpoint appeared to be a fairly pointless group of stationery soldiers by the side of the road.    Or was it the stationery tractor?   It looks a bit daft with the loon inside it - I went past twice - so maybe lose him or replace it with a haystack.



The hard one is the checkpoint story.   What's the point of VCPs if you are allowed to zoom through?   I got something at Bludov (I turned right) and they did fire one burst at me when I came back later.    It's ok that they don't chase you but perhaps you should be shot at at all of them automatically once you have run the first.

Or maybe give the player something illegal to carry - satchels rather than a gun - and tell him there are no checkpoints.    It needs a little thought anyway.

This is a long post for an apparently simple mission but its the first in the campaign and consequently unusually important.

[Peter haroski]

Ok, I tested this also
Overview

Fine, I can't say anything to this

Overview picture

Well, nothing to say, tells enough from the mission

Intro

I got addon missing error "Bas_opfor",   and I saw no inro

Briefing

Good briefing, I liked that "go straight  through"

Mission

Quite simple, there should be more action, i mean talking.
And, one more thing, there is that Brdm, it should be locked. I took it, killed all soldiers around, took grenades and blowed the BMP. then I drove to the first checkpoint. because of that stupid ural driver my car crashed, I took AK and shooted urals driver, and ran to the camp, easy. What is my point? Those idiots didn't do nothing, they just watched when I killed whole squad.

[The-Architect]

The Basopfor thing is at your end. I've got literally no addons on my hard drive at the moment.

From your feedback guys I think that I'm gonna revamp the entire mission. I'll maybe keep it as a cutscene so there's not fannying about.

The other two missions here are better than this I assure you. I've just had some problems with getting the ai to shoot at a civvy and not being able to get a car to chase the player.

I'm actually quite embarrassed that the mission is so buggy.

I'm working on it though.

[macguba]

Don't through out the baby with the bathwater.    There's no problem about the idea behind the mission, and having a relatively straightfoward, low key mission is a good way of starting a campaign.   Apart from anything else it really  makes you feel you are playing a campaign rather than a mission.     Having it as a cutscene is all very well, but then you lose the immersion of playing it.

The hard thing is that really what you are trying to do is create atmosphere.    Ideally you'd have a really tense conversation at a checkpoint but I appreciate that brings acres of voice file problems.

How about this.   At the first checkpoint there is a guard in the middle of the road.   If you stop he just steps to one side and waves you on.    If you keep going they shoot at you.     Maybe you could have a gate across the road that swings back - I have a wee script for something like this that you could adapt if you want it.


Edit:  check the mission.sqm manually for addons that should/couldn't be there.   I've had addons that I've never even downloaded appear in a mission.sqm.