(Review Completed) [SP] Abandoned Armies

[Planck]

@Mikero

I tried the next time getting in this T72 whilst my people stood about, then I got out again.........nobody shot me.

Next I got one of my guys to get in the T72........negative says he.

Ok, so I took this T72 for repairs, re-arming and refuelling.
I also changed to every position in the tank so any dead bodies were ejected.
I took it back and still they refused point blank to get in this tank.

There was another T72 near the west fuel station which I had disabled with my Abrams earlier.
I repaired, refuelled and re-armed this one also and made sure the seats were all empty.
They got in this tank without a murmur.

Maybe the other T72 was haunted.  :-X


Stamenov is dead btw

Just need to take care of his men.


Planck

[THobson]

lilwillie_WI:

I witnessed one nasty still running without his arms up

But also without arms.  The poor guy had dropped his weapons and was running for his life, and you slotted him.  Ah well - it happens in the heat of the moment I suppose.  In one run through I was in an Abrams machine gunning a group of infantry at the airbase when suddenly they started standing up and surrendering.  They did it a lot faster than I could take my finger off the trigger.  Strangely I felt a bit bad about the ones I took down that had their hands up.

No longer a pathetic group of resistance fighters, we are now armed to the teeth and ready for anything. With the skies cleared and most of the armor on the island likely damaged from battle our team has the iniative.

Great feeling isn't it?  Especially driving carelessly through all those places you crawled though so much earlier.

(day2) in Dourdan

A multi day mission.  Just what I dreamed of creating.

Zero lag for me

Me too.  I think General Barron is right (a different thread) dead armour becomes static units with no/little lag after a time.

where did the inspiration come for this mission/storyline? A book, author, historic event, or your own imagination/thoughts?

My own sick mind I'm afraid.  I always wanted to make an open mission where it was up to the player to decide what to do and I liked the idea of being a small group of partisans fighting two large armies.  Also I have always tried to take care of my squad, but noticed that others would play for their own survival over all else.  I wanted a mission where the player felt attached to each member of his team.  Military occupation is not nice and I wanted to portray it that way, some people may remember that about 9 to 12 months ago I posted a question about getting old people and children in OFP, I wanted to use them to create some emotive situations.  I remember saying that I don't want fancy animations as they will all either be dead or in the process of being made so.  The answer was that I can't get old people or children, so I made do with women instead.  Eventually all these, and more, ideas joined together to form what you now see.  This process was driven in very large part by challenges from the beta testers on why this and what about that, need more atmosphere, want music in vehicles, want to be able to reorganise the team etc. etc.

Planck:

Maybe the other T72 was haunted

I have spent long enough on Malden to have seen some very strange things.  I believe you.

[lilwillie_WI]

Haha, Andrepov's army is defeated ;D

Fantastic ending. I don't think Beethoven is rolling over in his grave. Your good there.

With all this armor at my dissposal I geared up with a Vulcan, Bradley and I in a Abrams with my medic in a medic M113 we stumbled on around Dourdan. Headed straight to the Airport. Nothing for resistance until we crushed the front gate. Then a barrage of anti-tank rockets from foot soldiers pounded on us by good old #2 in the Vulcan laid waste to anything within withing range. We started taking damage so advanced rearward(retreat is a evil word) and rearmed at Dourdan. Then decided to push west and up the west coast to the North. Nothing in the way of resistance, even at the fuel depot. Went back into the airport and finished off the defense and Andrepov took a Sabot round and was dead. Then my #5 called in armor from the NW, we spun and quickfired killed a Bradley. Then the call came. The war was over. 27 hrs and 59 minutes of play time. Could have played it longer but it was so fun after crawling around the first day to roll threw and lay waste to anything and everything on the second.

Awesome outro, very well done, upbeat but still a small part to remind you why you fought so hard.

Ok, I did allow myself one indiscrimate kill on the poor bastard running away, but hey, a few seconds before that he was pouring lead at my crew. So one little trigger slip is allowed

I love the multi day stuff. This mission really caught my eye when I was browsing the threads. Been a OFP nut since the game hit the shelfs, and always falling back on it from time to time. I was on a break for a few months when I got the urge to come again and this was a nice way to get back into it. I've played threw the PMC campaigns and islands. The CoC engine Campaigns and this one mission topped them all.

Now I've got the urge to break out all those old missions I've made and make them better ;D, or get V1.23 and start again ;D

Standing "O" THobson.

[THobson]

lilwillie_WI:
I am so glad you liked it.  I cannot recall - did you take any caualties in your squad?  If not you might want to go back to a late save, send some on a suicide mission and when they are dead then finish the mission - the end scene should be slightly different.

[tudders]

tudders:
If you get in the back of the truck now is she there?

Nope she still isnt there.  

But i have met my phantom women again this time on the road to the west of the lodge between the turning to goisse and the turning to larche (or possibly a little further up between the larche road and the st loius road.)  

I am pretty sure she is the same women as i saw before but not the dourdan women but i will go back and check some time.  If you want a screenshot of her i can send it to you (1mb compressed).

I've gotten the impression that if you shoot your teammates they retaliate, is that correct?  Cos i was able to shoot my entire team without them doing anything bar the "1, cease fire".

And why do av/ap mines not take up ammo?
 

[Planck]

Ok, I finished it again for the third time  ;D.

No casualties this time, everyone survived.

I have met the mad women a few times, I just let them get on with their 'thing'.

About changing flags.......

It sometimes takes a long time to change the flag myself.
I get the change flag message a few times, but, eventually it does change.

Earlier near Chapoi, once I had depleted Stamenovs men, I got my team to grab one of each support vehicle and head south into the woods with them.
Then they disembarked and went prone.

I went back to Chapoi and killed Stamenov, then I joined them again.
I was just approaching their location when they reported an Abrams.....I thought 'Silly sausage, its me'.
Then  they reported a BMP also, then I looked behind and sure enough there was an Abrams and a BMP bearing down on our location.
Then my team reported a Hind.

I got out and ran to the Ammo truck to get an AA weapon, or maybe a AT weapon, I wasn't sure which I should use first.
I opted for the AA weapon.

I was just lining up a shot for the Hind when it started shooting at the Abrams and the BMP.
Obviously the Hind was northern, because the Abrams had a red flag.
I let him carry on with it.   ;D ;D

Once he had destroyed them I shot him down, it only took one missile, so he was probably damaged already.

Just one of the many unique episodes that you experience with this mission.
I thought I was toast when the Abrams turned up, at the worst it might kill my team before I managed to kill it.

Partial debrief below.



Planck

[tudders]

About changing flags.......

It sometimes takes a long time to change the flag myself.
I get the change flag message a few times, but, eventually it does change.

To change the flag quickly yourself you have to stand next to the flag.  Of course if you already know this and theres something else stopping the changing of the flag feel free to ignore me  

@Hobson

How come you cant kill the surrendering soldiers?  I decided to slaughter them (after updating my retry point, i just wanted to see if you got a repremand  ;D ) and down they went, but then they got back up and no amount of ammo could put them down again  

EDIT: I think i may have the phantom women in the civilian truck - while driving it i was ambushed by stamenovs men and failed the 'rescue civilians' objective.

[THobson]

tudders:
I don't know where your phantom woman has got to - maybe you didn't get one for some reason.

If you see lone women running about - that is okay.  They are ‘mad women'.  Incidentally in all my game play I have never seen them, only when testing.

I've gotten the impression that if you shoot your teammates they retaliate, is that correct?  Cos i was able to shoot my entire team without them doing anything bar the "1, cease fire".

The player starts off with a rating of zero it goes up for killing enemy and down for killing friendlies.  If it ever goes negative then everyone is after you.  I have set it so that if the player kills certain individuals at certain times then his rating is set to a very large negative value.  I think in an earlier version I did include his team in that list, but I took it out.  The reason being that friendly fire can happen, a Law at a tank when one of your own is near the tank is possible.  Because I could think of no way to distinguish an accident from a deliberate act I decided to go with standard OFP for this.

And why do av/ap mines not take up ammo?

Are you sure about this.  Placing an ap mine should take a hangenade out of your inventory.  Placing an av mine should remove one of the following from your inventory: LAW, RPG, satchel charge, grenade, AT rocket, AA rocket etc.

How come you cant kill the surrendering soldiers?  I decided to slaughter them (after updating my retry point, i just wanted to see if you got a repremand   ) and down they went, but then they got back up and no amount of ammo could put them down again

This should not happen - I have a theory about what is going on here.  I will have a look at it tomorrow.  Thanks for spotting it.

Planck:
Time to change flags:  As tudders says after you have the message the flag should change as soon as you reach the flagpole.  If Alexi is the only person in the squad near the flagpole not in a vehicle then it does require Alexi to change the flag.  If one of the other members of the team are not in a vehicle one of them will do it.
Truly wonderful story about the hind and armour.  It makes me wish I could guarantee this to happen, but if it happened every time then it would not be so wonderful.

[Planck]

The thing with the flags....

I am usually standing next to the flagpole.......my team is in another town.

I get the message 'OK...time to raise another flag'.......long pause......no flag change......then the message again......long pause .....etc.

It does eventually change and sometimes I only get the message once and then it changes.
It may just be my low fps that is screwing it up  


Planck

[Mikero]

>ghost woman.

I hope it wasn't me sending anyone on a goose chase. I have not encountered her in the truck at version 1.23, but admittedly, on _that_ version, I didn't use the truck.

1.21 (yuri clone) _also_ had the ghost woman in the back, and my comment previously was simply how to test for her (loading 2 people in front). I may have given the impression that she's still around at 1.23, the answer to that is, I wouldn't know (even though I've looked for her). Either it's triggered by using the truck, or, the problem's gone.

>Flag change

I too experience a somewhat regular 'lets change the flag' stuff if I'm alone and if I dont go to the flagpole, and, if I tend to move about a bit in the village. (I think anyone sane tends to 'move about a bit' in this mission ;D). Initially annoying, once I understood it, I chose to rarely move to flag, and mostly ignore it because my backside was on fire or soon would be. It's just a really nice addition to gameplay Thob, that's all it is.

---
No one has yet mentioned the dramatic change from 1.1 to 1.23. The Godzillas have been reduced and at their current threshold are 'fair'. They destroyed gameplay in 1.1 (not just me saying that). Now, they're just a godamn menace

[THobson]

I am playing 1.23 and have the ghost woman in the back of my truck.  I have several theories about why she is there but as they all involve something strange going on in the OFP engine - they are little more than guesses.  She could either be HoudanWoman_Clone - which would mean she is in the truck despite being unassigned from the truck twice, been deleted once and moved into the middle of the ocean once.  She might instead be HoudanWoman, in which case instead of running off to find some wood to repair the lodge and then hiding in it she at some point gets back in the truck.  This would be puzzling as she has never actually been in the truck. In order to make her an enemy to both sets of soldiers I have grouped her with a resistance fighter that has condition of presence = false.  Standard stuff, but I noticed last night that in my drive for efficiency I 'reused' this same resistance soldier to make Sergei resistance as well, so she starts life in the same group as Sergei.  Maybe that is the problem.

On flag changing.  Once the message comes Alexi can change the flag, even if one of his squad is in the process of doing it.  BUT if he is alone in the town or the only one of his squad in the town on foot then he MUST change the flag, and he will keep getting the message until he either leaves the town of goes very close (6m I think) to the flagpole and the flag then changes.  As soon as I hear the message in those circumstances I head of straight for the flagpole so I don't get the repetitive messages.  Any suggestions?

You had a really torrid time with the Abrams in your run through.  I put that down to a random glitch - in the same way that macguba's squad kept driving their tanks to Dourdan and then get stuck between two tents.  Honestly I have done nothing to either the behaviors or the number of Abrams.
My immediate reaction to seeing an Abrams is to run and hide and start looking for satchel charges or mines.  Planck on the other hand calls in air support from the opposing army.

[tudders]

Placed both an av mine and an ap mine to check if they use ammo.

The av mine didnt use anything - i had a satchel charge and a rpg but neither of them were removed.

The ap mine did use the handgrenade.

[THobson]

Thanks.  I have spotted the problem.  A typo on my part.  What is being removed from your inventory is one magazine of
RPGLaunche
The missing r means that nothing is removed.  Very well spotted.  Thanks again.

[Goettschwan]

I finally get access somewhere to write a bit about progress, i am still 1.21 since i do not have internet at this moment due to having moved.

Progress until now was to counterclockwise clear the southron villages.
Found tanks in the direction of the lighthouse sw of la pessagne.
Cleared the two southernmost villages, did not encounter much opposition.

Started to approach the fuel station for a little mayhem, but finally it was not me who did the mayhem.
after making a first contact on the plain south of the fuel station i rapidly got surrounded by enemy troops. With the only direction open being the fuel station we took the station but had to leave pronto as an Abrams and a BMP joined the party from somewhere east. We achieved to destroy the two, but had to retreat west to our truck to get away from the rapid buildup of troops in the area.
As we were getting into the truck troops to our left side made an advance forward which i recognized as another attempt to surround. I took the truck the only other direction we could go rapidly : Chapoi.
We got full speed through the city and left off to st. whatsthename between the two mountains. From there, i went alone spiralling around chapoi.
I destroyed on my own a vulcan, two t80, loads of troops, some special forces and three snipers. The snipers changed positions depending on who saw me where.
Bad point here is that i found a sniper on the mountainside north of chapoi. I killed him , and in picking up his weapon i got shot on first attempt by a sniper whose position the death screen showed as the east
-west road in chapoi. Mind you, the fog level did not allow me even to see the road at the base of the hill and there was NO rain. This situation has happened in various permutations with snipers and the vulcans at least five times and it gets annoying ;-)
I started the assault on the fuel station with 25 savegames left. I am now at about 6. I recovered my team when i thought it was safe enough with all the enemies around, only to walk into a major encounter with two times about ten people arriving all the while i was attacked from 120° left by a sqad of crew and the m60 gunner mentioned below and from 120° right by one or two snipers.
Basically i never got out of defense or offense since i attacked the fuelstation. This type of action gets you sweating !
I will load version 1.23 to be up to date and restart, because (followers of this thread know my doubleclicking luck by now :-) i saved right in the beginning of the M60 gunner having a good view on me and giving the barrel a little detempering. Yeah. I already tried to get down, shoot him, everything, but the lag present at chapoi (around 4 fps sometimes. Normally i play this mission around 13-15.) does not help to do stuff.
I have seen the south at the exception of the SE corner of the island. I will now start with ugly northrons and walk a bit into (for me) uncharted territory.

[THobson]

Wonderful story, thank you.  The ai snipers and Vulcans do seem to have a bit of an advantage, but in 1.23 I have cut the rain a lot to help, but that's the best I can do I'm afraid.

I think you might find the northron airbase a thougher nut to crack than Chapoi. ;D

EDIT:
tudders:
Another well spotted.  Thanks.
I found the problem with the surrendering soldiers.  There is a script that gets them to stand up with their hands behind their heads and this is repeated periodically.  I was careful to give them a killed EH to ensure they fell down realistically if they were subsequently killed, but I failed to check to see if the unit was still alive before getting it to stand in the surrender pose.  So you did kill them and they were still dead when they stood up again.