(Review Completed) [SP] Abandoned Armies

[THobson]

Bonko:

Thank you.  That is helpful.  I have always tested this cutscene by starting Alexi just outside the building, but what seems to be happening is that locations within the building move over time relative to the building (I don't know if this is exactly what is happening yet but it does explain all known facts) so some of the re-location stuff doesn't work correctly later in the mission.

Do you recall at what point the cutscene moved from the attic to the ground floor?

[XCess]

First play through I don't think anyone will take my approah, unless they're dedicated to finding holes in the mission. I'm finding my approach fun anyway, and last night was the greatest piece of spec ops I have ever done.

>Andropov voiceover
The strange thing about it is Alexi hasn't heard about him yet... but then I didn't talk to ANYONE by that point.

I'll backup my save before I see Tatyana and go back after I've completed the mission and do it without any contact  of the lodge people.

[THobson]

It's a good test.  I did ask for someone to deliberately try to break the mission and you have found a couple of places I need to make some changes.  Many of the dialogues are dynamic in that they are different depending on what has or has not been done, but there is a limit to my energy to extend this to deal with the occasional delinquent player. So for example when collecting the second civis or talking with Sergei the dialogues will be different depending on whether the player has visited LaT or not and whether north and south are fighting or not.  These are reasonably likely possibilities.  Killing Andropov or going to the concentration camp before talking with Tatyana and visiting the mountain lodge are likely to be very rare (and shortly to become very fatal) occurrences.

[Mikero]

and shortly to become very fatal) occurrences

aw shucks, you didn't have to do that just for me. Eep!

btw, could you take out the code fragment that says

if mikero then Irena=isMarried;

edit:

>red tanks

found one thing that might interest you, Sergie can =WesternSpy / ResistanceSpy(eg)

[THobson]

Sergie can =WesternSpy / ResistanceSpy

I did spot those - after I had put Sergei in.  I decided to leave it because I have no idea what is going on in the background behind those units.  For example Civilians with weapons seem to attack anyone that resistance is not friendly with - but they don't get shot at back.  I was concerned there may be somethign smilar behind these spys so I stucjk with what I knew.  On a similar vein I can't define it fully but there is something different about the way Irena behaves compared with some of the others.  When I am testing she is often the odd one out.

I reall am sorry but Irena is spoken for - but if Erik gets the chop you might be in with a chance though.

[Mikero]

>Segei

as you know, I am no scripter and never intend to be. But you also know I'm taking a deep interest in the addons, how they're knitted into the classes. I can tell you that spywise, they point to a 'russian' picture model but have the characteristics, eg side= set to west east or whoever they really are.

Broken down, the derived class between a western soldier and a western spy is solely the model picture and, that they are only 'visible' to the editor via editor102 because it unprotects (unhides) them.

have had no luck changing a bmp to the resistance, dynamically, because I don't the commands to do so mission.sqm wise, but made a small 6 line addon that achieves it. Not what you want or need tho.

>Erik

I have other plans. I'm going to rescue Tatyana and marry her instead.

[LukieTee]

lol go for it so far ive been able to last quite long but i hang around after killing squads quite a lot so i keep losing half of my team.  

btw im having loads of fun with this mission and it has inspired me to create missions because i never knew it was possible to get a mission of this quality made on OFP so thnks.  ;D

[Planck]

It was time to move north to deal with Andropov.

But first I went to Sainte Marie, nobody here except a few dead troops, a dead policeman and a police jeep.
I had just started back towards Chapoi when I got the message about all these civilians running from Chapoi.
Now I had forgotten to mention this in my previous posts.
I had killed all the m2's with heat shells previously and also killed a lot of the troops in town in a similar manner, I was then charging about crushing troops, when I got this message for the first time.
And indeed there were civilians running about and leaving town, I just left them to it.
I don't know why I got this message a second time, a redundant trigger maybe?

I ordered the other 2 tanks to go to the junction near the roadblock to Le Port.
I took my tank over to where the repair truck and the destroyed ammo truck were hidden amongst the trees SW of town in order to pick up 7 and 8.
I had just stopped when I could here tanks approaching.......yes, it was my other 2 tanks, instead of going where they were ordered they decided to follow me instead.
I ordered them again to go to the junction, this time they actually went.
I picked up 7 and 8 and we set off for the junction also.

From there we went to Houdan......clear still.
Next stop was Dourdan, the flag needed changing again so we hopped out changed the flag and hopped back in again.
We went to Arudy next, I dropped 7 and 8 off here so they could grab the repair truck and ammo truck I left here previously.
My flag was still flying here.
I left everyone here whilst I checked La Pessagne.
I observed it from the mountain south of town......my flag was still flying here too.
I next ordered the other tanks to the road junction for Goisse.
I made my way there also.

A word here about ordering.
I hardly ever tell others in my group to fall back into formation in order to get them to follow me, reason being, if you go too fast they nearly always get left behind and you get the constant 'where are you's?'.
I usually order them to a location then go there myself.
Similarly, if you don't tell your soldiers to 'wait for me', they will also keep asking 'where are you?'.

Once we all got there I ordered them to wait, I wanted to scout out Goisse.
I started out for Goisse but I hadn't gone more than about 200 metres when I could see lights coming up from below, so I pulled off the road and waited in the bushes for whatever was coming, whatever it was it wasn't going slow, so I suspected a truck or possibly a jeep, maybe two.
I switched to HEAT.

It turned out to be 4 jeeps.
I destroyed 2 of them and killed their occupants with heat shells before the other 2 drove off the road and the crews got out.
I merely switched to machine gun and dagadagadagadga.......dagadagadagadga........they were all dead.
I carried on to Goisse, I also ordered the other tanks there.
There were 3 or 4 of a garrison there which didn't take long to clear and everything went quiet.
After a while the silence was broken by a LAW hitting my tank, so there was a guard group about somewhere.
My other tanks arrived about this time, and they spotted a few and took care of them.
I eventually found the rest, including the officer and ...emmm......crushed them all.

We all waited for a little while, but nothing else happened.
I got 4 to disembark and I got out and we searched about the town, then I got the change flag thing again.
I had 5 flags now.
Whilst here I ordered 7 ahd 8 into the repair truck and the ammo truck, respectively, and ordered them to the Goisse junction.
Me and 4 got back in our tanks and we all went back to the junction too.

I knew it would take 7 and 8 ages to get there so, we carried on northwards, destination Larche.
At the Larche junction, I told the other tanks to wait and I went off to take a peek at Larche.
About half way down the hillside I found a nice vantage point from which to observe.
I didn't see anything much, no armour, 1 ural truck, and a handfull of soldiers.
I gave the soldiers a heat shell and steamed on into town.
I ordered the other tanks to Larche as well.
Cruising around town I found one soldier, prone, so I made it a permanent condition.
I couldn't find anyone else and by this time my other tanks had arrived.

7 and 8 reported 'ready', so I next ordered them to go to the lodge.
I and 4 disembarked and very soon after I got the flag change thing again.
Of course, the next town is St Louis, very close to the airfield and Andropov.
I had second thoughts about 7 and 8 so I changed their orders I told them to go to St Louis.
I would surely have it cleared long before they ever got there.

As I usually do I went off to scout out the town first.
It was a little disappointing, there was only 3 soldiers there, it only took seconds to crush them.
I suspect any other soldiers had gone off to fight elsewhere previously and maybe got killed.
I ordered the other tanks to St Louis and sat and waited.
When they arrived we disembarked and got the change flag thingamajig again.....7 flags now.

I checked the map to see how 7 and 8 were doing.
Instead of taking the junction to Larche and then on to St Louis, they had elected to carry on north and loop round the top and come into St Louis from the north.
This was going to take a while.
I went off to make a sandwich, some coffee, and have a fag or two.
I could have switched them to 'safe' mode and they might have stuck more to the road, but I left them as they were.

I positioned the other tanks to watch the east whilst I had my coffee and sandwiches......nice cheese.
7 and 8 arrived after about 40 mins and I got them to park and disembark and go prone.
I repaired my tank and re-armed.
I decided to go and check out the small hamlet on the far north eastern corner of the island.
I didn't expect to find anything, but you never know with THobson.
I turned left at the junction with the coast road and carried on towards the hamlet.
About halfway there...........whuuuuump......someone was shooting at me, and missed.....a tank.
I carried on.......whuuuuuump.....another miss.
I was just entering town when.......cruuuunch.....the third shot hit a building.
I slide to a stop in town and turned to wait, switching to sabot.
Nothing happened, no tank appeared after 5 mins.

I left town again and went south to climb the hill for a better view, I suspected it was near the coast somewhere, probably near the lighthouse.
I followed the hill tops eastwards for a bit, then crawled slowly north to peek over the edge.
Boooom......I was hit this time and my gun was slightly damaged, but I now knew for sure where he was.....the lighthouse.
I backed off again and went back the way I had come.......and back to town.

I now went north to the coast and follwed the coastline east towards the lighthouse.
Once I got close I noticed a Bradley also, so the tank wasn't alone.
I gave the bradley a sabot, but it didn't destroy him, probably only damaged him.
He started spewing forth troops.
I charged in and started crushing them.
I was chasing one when I noticed the tank, it was a T80.
I gave it a sabot and carried on chasing the soldier.
I crushed him eventually and turned to give the T80 another shell.
Immediately after he was hit by a LAW, probably intended for me, but it missed and hit him instead.
I gave him another shell and he blew up.
I was hit by 3 LAW's or RPG's before I managed to crush the AT soldiers.
I took care of any other soldiers then turned my attention to the Bradley which was attenpting to run.
One sabot took care of him.

My tank was a bit ragged round the edges now....it was time to get back to St Louis for repairs and re-arming.....I was also injured.
My gun was almost dead and one track was badly damaged.
I made it back to St Louis and got repaired, re-armed and healed......in that order.
I joined my other tanks watching east.

Next objective.......the airfield.



Planck

[Planck]

I'll be interested in your results for your building tests THobson.

Buildings that are embedded in a .wrp file shouldn't be able to move about like buildings placed via the editor.

But I await what you find out anyway.  ;D


Planck

[THobson]

Mikero:

I have other plans. I'm going to rescue Tatyana and marry her instead.

Just keep taking those pills. ;D
 
LukieTee:

btw im having loads of fun with this mission and it has inspired me to create missions because i never knew it was possible to get a mission of this quality made on OFP so thnks.

No.  Thank you.  That is one of the best compliments you could give.

Planck:
I love it.

EDIT
Now I am totally stuck.  I put a game logic at the buildingPos that is atthe bottom of the ladder.  I created a radio hint message that reported on the position of the GL, the buildingPos and the building itself.  I noted these postions at the start of the mission and then waited about 11 hours - and they had not moved.  What is more when I got the ladder I got the action to climb it and the cutscene started.  

Maybe the fact that I stayed in the vicinity of Dourdan was the reason.  Next test I will not start there but will arrive as I would in the real mission.


EDIT: EDIT:
Got it!!
If you exit and then resume the mission the location of buildingPos will have changed in fact they could be a looooong way away.  I was going to test it with a save and restore - but the buildingPos I was moved to was over in one of the open tents at Dourdan (yes that far away) that just happened to be occuppied by soldiers.  Now I know the problem I can fix it.

[THobson]

[size=10] *****Get v1.22 here*****[/size] [/b][/url]


Main changes from v1.21 to 1.22:
Bug fixes:
-YuriClone problem removed.  Houdan_WomanClone - pre-emptive action taken to prevent a similar bug.
-Dourdan, do not need to climb the ladder.  Changes made to try to ensure that Alexi and the woman stay on the top floor.
-All continuity problems (doing things in the wrong order) should now have been resolved.
-Resolved issues with certain environmental sounds.
-Fixed the bug that very occasionally would kill Alexi after the first cutscene at the mountain lodge.
-Alexi can now change the flags even when he is on his own.
-Flags cannot now be changed by a defeated army.
-Chopper scripts now operate correctly even if one of them has been captured.

NB:  There is a bug I cannot fix.  If you collect the first civilians using a truck and Alexi is not the driver when you return to the lodge then OFP will have set some other member of your team to be the formation leader.  I have tried but I can find no way of fixing this.  This is a problem with OFP


Improvements:
-The contents of the ammo crates at La Trinite and the contents of the ammo trucks in the convoy change to reflect the trade that is taking place between the two sides.
-There is less in the way of weaponry for the player to pick up at the start of the mission.
-Changed the weather model to significantly reduce the rain level after the initial wait period.
-Changed the parameters that determine whether one side will launch an all out attack on the other.  This is now easier to accomplish.
-Made some changes to the behaviour of the infantry garrison at La Pessagne to make them more attentive.  My first test of this indicates these changes have not done much - I am still thinking about his one
-Moved the signs at La Trinite to prevent AI getting stuck on them
-Reduced the number of triggers by using the same trigger multiple times and moving it according to where the player is.
-Increased the fuel in the tanks in for repair (from 0.001 to 0.005)
-Changed various parameters relating the creation of the sound of the wolf packs.
-The player is unlikely to get shot coming out of the concentration camp cutscene.
-Many of the soldiers now have incomplete weapons load out.
-Ammo truck at La Trinite removed.
-Reduced the fuel in the boat from 0.55 to 0.05 to discourage the player from using it.


Still to do:
-The main thing is to make a new endscene.
-Re-look at the weapons available in the ammo crates
-Re-do some of the voices: especially for the flag change and the voiceovers at Chapoi.
-There are many other environmental changes to be made of the type suggested by Mikero relating to the some of the buildings in the south.
-Change the story line around the civis in the concentration camp.


Things I am particularly interested in knowing about:
-How is the infantry at La Pessagne?  I think unchanged.  This maybe something we need to live with.
-How does the availability of weapons feel now?
-Are there now any problems with the Dourdan cutscene?
-How is the rain now?
-Any comments on environmental sights and sounds?
-Is anyone getting any crashes to desktop (CTDs)?  If so where and when and is there a pattern.
-If you are suffering painful lag then knowing your fps would be of great help.  There is a free download from fraps.com that will display your fps.
-Any other comments about what you like or don't like.
-The usual war stories.

Thanks again for testing.

I am trying hard to keep the list of Beta testers up to date (Readme File and endscene credits).  If you see any error please let me know.

[Planck]

I left my group in St. Louis and headed south, intending to swing round and approach the airfield from the south.
I made for the right corner of the perimeter fence crash through and stopped.
I scanned around for soldiers, there was a bunch over near the western perimeter.
One of them was getting ready to fire a LAW or RPG.
I gave them all the bad news and continued scanning for more.
There were a few more in the opposite corner from me, I gave them a heat shell and continued slowly north.

Two soldiers were near that lone building near the main entrance, I took care of them with the machine gun.
I continued slowly north taking out the odd one or two soldiers I came across with the machine gun.
Then I saw lights, 2 m2's hove into view.
A heat shell each took care of them.
I continued, another 3 m2's, I could only see 2 of them well enough to fire at, there was a BMP ambulance blocking my view of the third one.
I took care of the first two, the third one I got later once I had moved my position.

I could now see a Bradley behind the tank garage and fuel station, there was also a T72, a fuel truck, a repair truck and an ammo truck parked there.
It looked like they were in for repairs and re-arming.
I destroyed the Bradley with a sabot, but I couldn't see the T72 well enough to be sure of a good shot.
A couple of the support vehicles blew up shortly after the Bradley.
It was the repair truck and the fuel truck.
The ammo truck was still intact, so, I destroyed it.
The T72 was empty anyway, so I left it.

I started just cruising around crushing any troops I came across.
There was another m2 position on the other side of the complex, which I destroyed with a heat shell
I went to check out the T72 closely, there were a few troops lying on the ground there, so I used the machine gun to kill them.
Then I got hit from behind by a LAW or RPG.
I turned around he was near the airport buildings, I chased after him and hit him but he survived and ran off between the buildings.
I knew he was making for the hospital so I intercepted him via another route.
Unfortunately I also crushed another soldier in the process, then I got the message that Andropov was dead.
I hadn't actually intended to kill him that way, but never mind, thats the way things happen sometimes.

I had completely forgotten about my other tanks, so, I ordered them to my position and then went cruising for more victims.
I was just returning from the north area of the airfield when I was hit by a sabot.
It was the T72, someone had got into it and was shooting at me.
Two shots from my gun and he lost interest.
There was a hind wreck and a cobra wreck sitting side by side on the runway.
I presume they had collided at some point earlier.
My chaps arrived and we cruised about looking for victims.
I was hit 3 more times with LAW's or RPG's.
The other two tanks were hit as well but we survived.
I admit I was worried about losing the T72 as it isn't particularly strong.

We went over to the fuel dump north east of the airfield and took care of any troops there.
There were two m2's here as well, which were destroyed.
Also here was a fuel truck and a repair truck.
We all got repaired and then went back to the airfield.
We continued dealing with Andropovs troops as they arrived, they were mostly snipers by now.
After a few more minutes I got the message that the remaining troops had surrendered.

Mission complete.........game end........roll the credits


It seems to me that most of the armour was destroyed when Stamenov and Andropov went to war, otherwise it might have been a harder battle.
I'm sure I could have completed the mission without using the tanks, it would just have taken a little bit longer.
I didn't give anyone any weapons other than a primary weapon.......no AT weapons at all.
This was deliberate, I wanted to see how far we could go without AT weapons.
I admit I used an AA weapon, but that isn't quite the same, besides I wanted to save my tanks.

Speaking about the AA weapon........I notice from my statistics (attached below) that there is no mention of the hind I shot down.
I know I shot it down, it took 2 missiles, but I was not credited with the kill.

Flag changing.
Flag changing happened ok as long as you and someone else were not in a vehicle.
The flag change message came up and that someone changed the flag.
If you were the only one disembarked, the message came up, and a while after that the message came up again and then the flag changed by itself.
Other than the double message it was all smooth (not counting my 2-3 fps).

In the briefing, on the third page of 'Background' there is a minor typo:

'putdown' rather than 'put down'


I enjoyed playing this version just as much as the first version, this version in similar (of course), with added bells and whistles and improvements.
One of the very best missions I have ever played and definitely in a class of its own.
It is a different mission every time you play, it all depends on your actions and when you decide to do them.
There will always be people who try this mission and treat it like any other mission they have played, and they don't understand that it isn't like that at all.
There is no real set objectives that must be completed in any certain order.
You decide what objective you wish to do, if any, and when to do them, any consequences of your decision then follow on from that.
Some have complained about all the troops you keep spawning to throw at them, not realising that they aren't being spawned, they are all there on the island from the start.

All in all a great mission, I await the next version.

Ahhhh......no need to wait.....new version is here already.
I may take a small holiday first though.



Planck

[Planck]

And......emmmmm......Statistics: Part 2 and Part 3 and Part 4 ....all combined into one picture.  


Planck

[THobson]

Planck:
Well done.  Take all the holiday you want.

22 hours and 40 minutes!  So it was about 05:05.  You didn't feel like waiting for the sunrise then?

Thanks for spotting the typo - more like a spelling mistake on my part.

On the Hind you killed.  The only thing I can think of is that the two hits damaged it enough to stop it flying but it was only actually killed when it hit the ground.

Flag changing.  In the latest version the flag will change if Alexi is the only one there - so long as he goes to the flagpole.  I had better have a look at those multiple messages.

Thank you for the very full and enjoyable description and for your kind comments.

[Planck]

The pleasure was all mine.  


Planck