(Review Completed) [SP] Abandoned Armies

[macguba]

Made my way back towards the airfield.    Managed to disable the Vulcan in the trees by placing an AV mine right next to it, to catch it when it swivled, then legging it out of range before it did swivel.    Badly wounded, I shot the two crew after the jumped out and called the medic.    An Abrams appeared onthe skyline to the south, and was blown up by something.    Returned to my old sniping position, borrowing the Dragunov as before.   A few changes since my last visit.   There is light fog this time, making it hard to see targets on the far side of the field.   Two of the squads I took out before are missing:  I suspect I destroyed one or both at Saint Louis.    I know one was of 5 men and we destroyed one of that size.    

There is is the chatter of an M2 but not at us.   I start sniping.   Targets include a running blackop.    Very few targets.   It all goes quiet.    I have shot a sniper down near the gate on the road going north, and want to see if he has M21 ammo.    There is a squad in the area of the Vulcan, which probably responded to its death-throes.   I snipe them out one by one, without them figuring out where I am.    Move down the hill a little and take out a couple of remaining targets but the visibility is falling and the sky overcast.    As I continue to move it starts to rain.  

It's 10.15.    I'm picking up M21 when there is a brisk firefight - I  had left my lads where they were.   6 is killed but I'm fed up of fighting firefights twice so we pick up his one remaining bizon mag and move off.


/more

[THobson]

@SEAL84

The town was littered with bodies and wrecks...infantry of all types, a Vulcan, a Bradley, an Abrams, and a couple of others, plus the Hind wreck.  At most there were a dozen men left alive in town.  

It looks like the northron attack group got through then. ;D  They don't always.  Sometimes you have do the whole damn base yourself!

@macguba

Saint Louis, right outside the airfield, probably didn't help.

Not really that far from 3 either, units on their way there might have been diverted to deal with you.  I am using less than 30 groups per side, but looking at the map in the area of 3 and the airbase - that could result in quite some concentration!


Vigny cutscene now has two loons-a-walking.  It does look a lot better.

[Dubieman]

Well to tell you the truth I haven't "really" searched the cabin out. I was short on time so you get that rush to find or finish something even though you know you won't.... ;D

But I'll prolly do some more advanced searching, its too hard to play in the day, too much sun.  

[XCess]

Statuis of the northern convy:
Killed the driver of the Ural ammo and drove it off.
Destroyed the BMP.
Destroy the 5t.
Destroyed the Ural.
I think all infantry from the Ural and BMP were dead. Not 100%, but two full infantry squads did come in afterwards.. although I'm guessin they came to investigate like the armor in Dourdan.

[THobson]

OK so the northern convoy has been killed or captured.  Very neat getting the ammo truck by the way :thumbsup:

So the south convoy should be released and be on its way, my guess is it should be a few minutes after the jeep patrol you took out.  You definitely killed the jeeps at Dourdan?

[XCess]

Are the convoys hourly? I was waiting about 40minutes i Dourdan for it.

[Dubieman]

Well I've progressed further now.

I've rescued the civvis near Vigny, but am unsure as to what is supposed to happen when I rescue them. Do they join me or something?

Well I've stocked many weapons up and I drove around in the PV3S. After losing the road for a bit, I came up north and intercepted the jeep mg convoy going for the civvis (i think they were going there?) and well didn't get out. I just ran my truck through each jeep, all being tossed about like a matador being hit by a bull. ;D

The first jeep blew up and I turned the truck around and my group killed the survivors who jumped from the destroyed jeeps. Too bad I can't take them now. ;D Maybe a repair crew might hook me up....

So I stole their weapons and got an AA launcher so maybe I can shoot the heli down later. I heard it following me.

Now I'm assualting Vigny now, the troops seem everywhere with the fog so thick. But a few grenades have settled the score and I'm now the proud owner of a pair of NVGoggles.

Though I think there are a few little bastards hiding in the wreckage right now. But I can say my civvi pallies are good shots, the chick with the sniper rifle put a bullet in this officer who I'd just ran into around a house. I came around the corner, and whoa! Officer in front of me! Then BOOM, and whack, bullet from the hunting rifle goes into his head... ;D

Okay time to scavenge weapons and get out of there. I'm aiming for La Pessagne next, I've got some RPGs too, so the guards at the fuel station won't know what hit them.
Then I should help the civvis to the middle of Malden, they might already be dead now...

I'm likin this so far Thobson. :thumbsup:

[THobson]

@XCess

Are the convoys hourly? I was waiting about 40minutes i Dourdan for it.

No.  This indicates there must be a problem with it.  It is about 15minutes from Chapoi to La Trinite, add a few minutes for it to realise the north convoy is no more and maybe a few more minutes while the jeep patrol moves up the road 25 to 30  minutes would be the max timeframe I expect.

Looks like something is amis I will investigate.  Thanks, and sorry.

@GRK

I'm likin this so far Thobson.

I am glad.

I just ran my truck through each jeep, all being tossed about like a matador being hit by a bull.

I never tried that!

I've rescued the civvis near Vigny, but am unsure as to what is supposed to happen when I rescue them. Do they join me or something?

Should I do something about the briefing?  So you went into a firefight with them?

maybe I can shoot the heli down later. I heard it following me.

I know it feels like it but they are not actually following you.


@macgiba
I am giving thought to your comments about how difficult this is.  It is meant to be difficult but not unplayable.  My reflections so far:
This is not a mission where you take out one group of loons and then move down the road to find the loons there are sitting with their feet up playing cards and having a cig.  I don't use reveal or knowsabout, but I have tried to make it so that each side responds as if it is under some sort of intelligent control.  So attacking the main base is going to meet with quite a response.

I can think of only one way that you could have made this more difficult and that is not to have started the fight at 3.  Then you would have had no help whatsoever in dispatching your loons.  Your idea about having some sort of dialogue/musing about what to do should help me warn the player off the direct approach.

There is quite some randomness in the mission that never cease to surprise me.  I have never seen the southern base in the state SEAL84 describes.  It seem the northrons really caught them napping.

[XCess]

Arudy
Took the jeep south of Arudy and parked up by some trees. Moved in closer and scped the area out with the SVD. No signs of threat so I took the jeep and went to the north side. Still no sign of enemy so I stole the 5t and drove it home. Came back from my jeep and ti ra out of fuel on the way back home.

So now a new objective. Find a few truck. I think I'll heck Chapoi, see i f i can see the convoy too.

Other
I still haven't had a message of the two sides fighting each other. it's around 1300now I think.
I haven't really experienced too much difficulty so far.
I've also found my squad to be pretty useless, I've only used them for marking my position on the map apart from the convoy ambush. I think I'll save them for a nice base ambush at some point.
One addition I'd love to see is an inventory weapon. I lost track of the weapons I had in after the second squad in Dourdan.
therewas another thing to do with conversation I'd though of.. reports f some kind but I forgot what it was (an idea not something in the mission)

[Fragorl]

Mon dieu! So many posts in 5 days!

I haven't had a lot of time to play this, bar the first evening when I got it, but let me chip in to add my thoughts/feelings. Especially considering how much work must have gone into this (reading 'A long run...'). Ok, pretty much all the stuff I'm about to say has been said before, but what the heck i'll say it anyway in agreeance/disagreeance with everyone else. :-\

*Searches for his list*

1.) The Intro. I like! Yellow writing immediately stands out and shows that the mission is unique. That and 'To Vigny...' after the cutscene show effort in the small details as well as the big picture I've no experience in cutscene editing, so I can't remark on camera work or anything, but I was quite engrossed. Mars from the planets - interesting choice of music, made me grin, but strangely quite suitable, or at least not unsuitable. Russians and Americans united for the common bad! I can't say I noticed details like the balance between Andropov's and whatshisname's armies, I was too absorbed with the spectacle of T80/72's and M1A1/2A2's lined up together. Cool. One thing I didn't like was the setdammaging of those three guys; it might have looked better shooting them, but meh. Minor gripe. The cutscene progresses. Those poor civvies. Then it switches to Alexei and his family. Suitably outraged, I am ready to wreak bloody vengeance upon anything sporting a military outfit.

2.) The Briefing. By all accounts good. I liked the custom voiceover...

3.) The start. Enough has been said on the pistol/hill theme. Suffice to say I got up the hill by hammering the (+) key, which gave me accelerated time of a sort. There is a definite gap between when you increase the acctime, and when it is reset, but im guessing this is unavoidable. I hope I didn't interfere with the various scripts which seemed to be getting hung up in A long run, but the amount of time was so short... Anyway, managed to scale the beast, bumped into a Rusky standing guard inside the house behind some barbed wire. Did not shoot straight away, but gave him a chance to explain himself. He doesn't seem inclined to talk, instead unslinging his rifle. I shoot him mercilessly. Continue round to front of house, killing a couple of americans. Enter house. Cutscene.

4.) The Voices. So you're Alexei, eh? Putting your a** on the line. Good on you! The voice acting could perhaps use a bit more emotion, and seem a bit more involved, but having said that the voices were clear, firm, the quality of speech/diction was excellent, and so was the quality of the recording. None of that whooshy, crackly noise that so often accompanies poor voice recording. Again, I'm no expert, but I like!

5.) The Environent. I don't care what anyone says, fog and rain are good. Heightens tension and all that, but I also think that operation flashpoint looks at its best in mornings, evenings and with weather. Dunno why, but it seems to gain an extra something at certain times of the day. I did something I haven't done in flashpoint since whenever. I rolled my jeep. Twice. Not to mention on another occasion crashing and killing myself. Ouch. I'd have to blame the bumpy terrain/rain and fog/trying to read the map to figure out where the d*mn I'm going combination. Not, of course, that my terrible driving had anything to do with it. Anyhow, had a laugh and reloaded.

Having added to the road toll on Malden several times, I finally made it to the lodge. I met whatshisname, and the others. We swear to take our revenge on all the soldiers on the island. Considering the gravity of the situation (Alexei has lost his cousin, and the man his wife), more emotion (ANGER!!) would have been appropriate, but nevertheless. They join me. A motley crew! With scarcely a weapon between us, I begin to wonder how we 5 are supposed to reclaim the entire island. If indeed that is what we are supposed to do. I order the others to get in a handy pv35 civil, and decide to take a last look around the place before setting off to cause mischief, to see if the mission designer has left any surprises for the inquisitive player. . Sure enough I spot a radio (maybe I was told to check it, i dunno, but i remember i was surprised when i found it ). Cue pleas for help. I decide to temporarily set aside my mission of destruction to rescue these comrades in misfortune. Hmmm. At what point did Alexei become such a leader? He's gone from a simple lad searching for his uncle Nikolay to a man commanding armed militia, and coordinating civilian rescue attempts! This could perhaps do with some elaboration. ('Ever since he was a boy, Alexei had shown all the signs of a natural born leader...')

The pickups go off without a hitch, apart from the unsettling sound of a chopper. Fortunately nothing comes of this; after all, the fog is thick. The only thing I will add here is that it is a long drive to do three times, from each pickup point to the mountain lodge. And each was quite uneventful (for me). Perhaps something like a randomized patrol or road block would be good (having said that, I drove cross-country for the pickups. The pV35 is good in that way ). Something odd happened with the third set of civilians, however. They refused to join my group (I HAD let off the other civilians, so I certainly had space for these guys in my group) however after a few seconds i got an 'objective complete' message and a check in the 'rescue third lot of civilians' box. Having 'rescued' the third set of refugees...nothing happened. Perhaps a small reward for the player might be in order...or does that come later? Either way, Alexei should get something for traipsing about the countryside...

On the road again, I head for the original destination: the trading post at La Trinite. I decide to chance the main road. Driving, I watch the gloomy countryside pass by. Malden could be uninhabited for all I see. I admire the pastoral setting. Suddenly headlights loom from out off the pea soup. I swerve, nearly sending my jeep upside down for a third time. A truck hurtles past me, then another, and an m2a2, and some other kind of tank. I grit my teeth and weave in and out of the convoy, through the armored vehicle, fully expecting at any moment to be blown sky-high for my stupidity....yet nothing happens. The last of the convoy has passed, and i pull over and quick-save. One final aspect-i like being able to save without having to press more than one type of button. Hurrah for 0-0-0. I look forward to seeing the conclusion of this mission.  :thumbsup:

EDIT: having now read most of the thread, i see i am only a smalll way through the mission. Golly!

Instead of having a whole heap of scripts, have you considered rolling some (or even all) of them into a single .sqs file? I think Sui and probably others mentioned this before.

Code: [Select]

;MasterScript.sqs - call with this: [numberofscript,param1,param2,param3...etc.]
Goto format["script%1",_this select 0]

;----------------Script 1----------Whatever.sqs
#script1
_s1param = _this select 1
_s1param2= _this select 2
; Your code here...
exit

;----------------Script 1----------SomethingElse.sqs
#script2
_s2param = _this select 1
;Your code here...
exit
... and so on.

[macguba]

One little tip you should try and include somewhere is to remind players that they can double click on the map and place a marker.     As a rule I don't bother, in a normal mission its no trouble to remember everything.    Here I'm doing it quite a lot:  for example I mark everywhere I place a mine so I don't run into them myself later.

I gather my squad near the disabled Vulcan and plan the next move.   The weather has deteriorated very quickly and its now heavy rain.  

(Regarding difficulty, I suspect I've been both punished fairly and unlucky.     I made a nuisance of myself in the most difficult spot, in the most difficult weather, and it just happened that the cavalry all arrived together.   Plus I'm not the player I was once.    And it has to be remembered that I came through with no casualties in the end.)

I decide to take a huge risk and go onto the airfield, the idea being that the weather will protect us.    Thanks to good navigation we make it to the fuel station - which you can't see from the road -where there is one loon alive:  fortunately he is facing the wrong direction.    Contacts are called to my right:  I can't see them.     My loons are calling victims.   Suddenly I am shot, by a sniper in a bush outside the base - far, far further than I can see.     Ah well, I didn't really expect to get away with it anyway.    

Back to Plan A.    North to clear the fuel depot base:  to my surprise it is completely empty.    East across the airfield then south.     At the very least we'll thin out the defences on our way back to the stores base, and maybe if we get some luck we'll take out Andropov's HQ.

Visibility is so low that as I step onto the runway I can't see the other side of it.    We come up behind the T72:  I'm wondering if it really is empty or not when 8 bangs a missile into it.    We finish it off quickly and continue.    Almost at once we hear tracks and a Vulcan is called.  Ah yes, just outside the fence, I'd forgotten about that.    The Vulcan appears, 3 zaps it and I am shot by another tank which is way, way across the other side of the airfield somewhere.

Being a slow learner, I'll give it one more try.   ;D  But having the vestiges of animal cunning, I turn the viewdistance down to 500, the minumum.   We sneak up and kill the tank.   Easy.    Vulcan is called but no sign of it.    Incredibly, the weather gets worse.    I cannot see my whole squad:  on command view at max zoom out you can't see anything at all.    At times the line between ground and fog disappears in the rain and on one occasion I became completely disorientated.    (This is wonderfully alarming:  I have real life experience of navigating in visibility of 5 feet - you can't see the ground - and this is not very far removed from it.)    

We crawl forward by the compass.   A bush looms up, then a building.    No opposition.    The hospital.    To my disappointment there is an empty M2 right beside the hospital, but to my pleasure behind it there is a black op who hasn't seen me.   I drop him with my GlockS and take his HK.   My buddies call out a couple of blackop contacts.  I see a spetz natz lying beside a tent, hit him with the HK and ta-da, Andropov is dead.    There is an officer in the tent too, so I shoot him.    A couple more contacts called then silence again.     We rearm:  you may recall my whole squad has bizons and HKs, a lesson I learnt from playing Unimpossible.

No green tick since we haven't destroyed his army, but in spite of the nice voice file there is a bit of an anticlimax.    The tent is well hidden and it is of course in character for him to hide beside the hospital but we need more furniture:  something in the tent.     Maybe also something to build the suspense, perhaps a voice file when you get close.    I didn't know it was him I was shooting, that's the problem.

Consider splitting the two Objectives into three or four, making each leader's death a seperate Objective with perhaps "Clearing the island of their followers" being another.

Was so tempted by the UAZ and jeep I gave it a go even though I suspect there is a vulcan lurking nearby.    Tremendous trouble getting everybody in for no particular reason, you know how the game can be arsy like that:  I knew it was taking too long and sure enough a Hind came and burnt our ass just as we left.    From the retry we just legged it, leaving the airfield by the gateway beside the buildings and heading south.     The plan is to go back to my little base at the third civvy collection site, pick up the vehicles and move them somewhere more central.

Had a brainwave on saves btw.   I alternate both the radio retry and the savegame cheat which gives you a "load" savegame.   Cheating I know but will avoid a repitition of that unfortunateness I had earlier.

Well it all worked out.   It was hard work finding the vehicles in the fog - I must have passed no more than 30 or 40m away the first time - but as soon as we did we leapt in (picking up 2, who you might remember was posted here as sentry for being a naughty boy) and drove south.   The rain stopped as we found the wagons and I suspected there wasn't long before the weather cleared so I took the risk of going by road.    There was nobody in Houdan and we ran south without seeing a soul.   I would have liked to have picked up a fuel truck at the airport to complete the set (we have the ambulance, ammo and repair trucks from 3) but here wasn't time and anyway they were covered by the all-seeing sniper.      We arrived at the little village port at Fi72 as it really started to get sunny again and rearmed.     We are in good order and at last I feel I'm making some progress.    The idea, in case you hadn't guessed, is to have a go at Chapoi.

Just seen that you've posted so I'll stop here.

[THobson]

All tremendous stuff from all of you.  I cannot respond to all of it but it will all be used in making changes for the next version.  One comment I would make though is:

North to clear the fuel depot base:  to my surprise it is completely empty.

Me too!  That certainly needs to be looked at, maybe the reinforced the base too soon.

[macguba]

North then west from our new depot, to approach Sainte Marie from the east.   I'm going to be sniping at Chapoi and I don't want to be taken up the jacksi while I'm doing it.   What's this?    Danger?    This can mean only one thing - a spot of beta testing.   I run around the village:  when my loons cut across to get back in position bang bang bang.   I go in myself and bang.     The jeep wreck is good (move it back 5m so it can been seen from the side between the two bushes) but you could lose the pallets (if you placed them, not sure) and possibly the truck.    You could at least halve the number of danger signs.    Consider adding something attractive to the jeep wreck to tempt the player in.

Back to the savegame.  Its a few minutes before noon and visibility is up to 250m.    Actually no its much more once I put the setviewdistance back up.    The whole village and base open up before me.    The first impression is good.   There are a few bodies scattered around, the odd burnt out vehicle, and a few lyings lying around on guard.   There has been a battle here.     I shoot a couple and a whole group of snipers appears of out nowhere and take me down.    Again.   They appear as if by magic from behind some trees.   But the third time they don't appear.

I form fire teams:  the real soldiers stay with me covering all angles.   The civvies crawl forward to the next layer of bushes.   There is an exchange of fire:  one is killed but I suspect the sniper is too.    I crawl forward myself, and sure enough there are 5 snipers all curled up together, almost like kittens.    One is already dead.   I shoot the other four.      Pause.   Quiet.   Savegame.    

Then a moment of madness.   A sniper is called, 3 shots and my three proper soldiers are dead.   WTF?    Eventually I sort it out.    A sniper has run in from behind, exactly from the direction of Sainte Marie.   (Was I right or was I right?)   He is seen by the sentry, but having a longer ranged weapon he just blows away my fireteam.    This I cannot tolerate, not least because I need loons alive at the end to test the conditions.    At last I find a spot where I can run to, get a sightline (he was hidden behind bushes) and drop him before he drops us.

All the while, the Hind hovers above the base.    I ignore him - in accordance with the hints I've left the choppers up to deal with each other's armour.

We sneak into the base.    I love the wire fence, the place has an original feel.    Peering through the fence I can just see a policeman lying down in a tent.   That'll be him.   Yup.   ;D   Voicefile.   There are two women running around so I shot them:  got a Damn damn damn for the first and a red crossed Objective.   Nothing for the second althoughh they were in close succession.  I picked up the savegame because I wouldn't really have shot them, it was just for testing purposes.   Always nice to see a consequence.

Checked that the town was clear by using the old recconaissance by death technique.   It wasn't.   ;D   Went up to clear the fuel station but nobody there except more burnt out armour.     A few bodies.   Came back into town to find two new loons which we shot.    Got the "Thats the last of them, lets head north message" which explains both these two and the manic sniper problem - the last few are being mustered here.   It's 12.26 game time.

I brought down the chopper with a Strela but the next 15 minutes were very frustrating.   It was very hard to get the armour refueled and repaired because there is so little space and the support vehicles are facing the wrong way - you need to get behind or alongside them for them to work.      Eventually I managed to get things sorted out, but this is the sort of thing I'm talking about when discussing the 4x question.   Everthing else in the mission must be really slick and at the moment this isn't.    

There is also no sense at all of their being an HQ here - the big evil boss just has a tent in the corner of the convincing but badly overcrowded repair yard.  I couldn't even get loons to collect stuff from the ammo truck.     (The two women are still running around btw:   get them to go to that nice pile of bodies and do some weeping animations.)    You have all this open space outside - I suggest a minor rethink of the layout.   The support vehicles under the trees did look good from a distance.    

However the big problem was that I could not rearm the armour.    I was sure you could rearm an Abrams at least from an ammo truck, and it is a US ammo truck if that matters.     I was really looked forward to charging up north with a little armoured column to throw my weight around, which would have made a nice change from being scared all the time.

One enemy loon turned up in the middle of all this and was shot by one of my chaps.   Dunno who he was or where he came from.  Green tick for Stamenov btw.

We took a fuel truck and abrams, bradley and vulcan and headed back to our original wagons.   There everybody refueled and repaired everybody else and we rearmed.   Much as before except I took a Strela.   After some thought I put two men in each armoured vehicle and we ran north up the road, to see what we could see.    Met two or three infantry coming south at one point, who through grenades at us while I ran them over.     We got separated - you know what vehicles are like - and instead of reorganising I just pushed on, meeting nobody till we got to 3.   There there was stuff going on:  we met infantry in the town and I heard the rattle of a chain gun.    I've just noticed you've posted again so I'll end this post here.

[THobson]

@ Xcess

I still haven't had a message of the two sides fighting each other.

That is because of the south convoy going AWOL.  You set it up nicely at La Trinite with the northrons ready and waiting, but the south convoy never showed.  You need to get some of the southrons there.  I have looked through the scripts several times to see what might be the problem.  Killing disabling or capturing the convoy vehicles should release the other convoy on its journey.  I suspect the convoy is at its base in Chapoi.  If you find it there please let me know as it will help me understand the problem.  Well it is only a problem in the sense that it is not what I designed.  But it is not a problem in that this might happen anyway - problem in La Trinite so the convoys stop.  I hope it doesn't spoil your enjouyment.

One addition I'd love to see is an inventory weapon

I am not sure I understand what you mean.

therewas another thing to do with conversation I'd though of.. reports f some kind but I forgot what it was (an idea not something in the mission)

If it comes back let me know.  All ideas very welcome.


@fragol

Mon dieu! So many posts in 5 days!

Is it really only 5 days!!

Ok, pretty much all the stuff I'm about to say has been said before, but what the heck i'll say it anyway

Good.  It lets me get a feel for where there is a general consensus.

One thing I didn't like was the setdammaging of those three guys; it might have looked better shooting them

I agree but shooting to order is murder.  I wrote that before I realised what I had said Lol.  I mean it is very difficult.

There is a definite gap between when you increase the acctime, and when it is reset, but im guessing this is unavoidable.

If it is avoidable then I have not found a way.

So you're Alexei, eh? Putting your a** on the line. Good on you!

Thanks, but actually it is more to do with the fact that I can't get anybody else than with any aspirations of my own.

Sure enough I spot a radio (maybe I was told to check it, i dunno, but i remember i was surprised when i found it  ). Cue pleas for help.

It will be in a better place in the next version.  Also, if you don't find it and then head off as you are leaving the area one of you team will turn the radio on for you ‘it might be important'

At what point did Alexei become such a leader?

Cometh the hour cometh the man.

it is a long drive to do three times, from each pickup point to the mountain lodge.

I agree something will e done about it.

Perhaps something like a randomized patrol or road block

But probably not that.  This is in no-mans-land.

They refused to join my group (I HAD let off the other civilians, so I certainly had space for these guys in my group) however after a few seconds i got an 'objective complete' message and a check in the 'rescue third lot of civilians' box. Having 'rescued' the third set of refugees...nothing happened

So let me get this right.  The third set would not join you even though there was space for them, and instead of joining they gave you an objective completed green tick, but stayed where they were in the hut!?  Which hut was this?

Alexei should get something for traipsing about the countryside

I had two intentions here, give him something to do to set the atmosphere, and to help augment his team.  At each hut you should gain an additional soldier for your team, one of which is a medic.

A truck hurtles past me, then another, and an m2a2, and some other kind of tank. I grit my teeth and weave in and out of the convoy, through the armored vehicle, fully expecting at any moment to be blown sky-high for my stupidity....yet nothing happens

They are all armed and ready to go, darkness, fog and rain seem to impact (realistically) their ability to see you so you clearly surprised them and got away before they could react.  You should make sure you get well away before stopping in circumstances like that

Instead of having a whole heap of scripts, have you considered rolling some (or even all) of them into a single .sqs file? I think Sui and probably others mentioned this before

I am not sure of the benefit of doing this.



@macguba

One little tip you should try and include somewhere is to remind players that they can double click on the map and place a marker

Actually I didn't know that!

No green tick since we haven't destroyed his army, but in spite of the nice voice file there is a bit of an anticlimax

Good point.  I was wondering about that

I shoot a couple and a whole group of snipers appears of out nowhere and take me down.    Again.  They appear as if by magic from behind some trees.  But the third time they don't appear.

Well I do have snipers, but they should all be scattered about - that is until the base is sufficiently weak that all forces are called into the base.  Anything special about the third time?

5 snipers all curled up together, almost like kittens

Where is this?


It looks like the recent adjustment I made to the northron attack group might have been a bit over the top.  It shouldn't (well it was not planned to) be so easy at the south base.

Where is the hind at this point?  The hints are fine for when the other side has armour

It's 12.26 game time.

That is very quick.

Go mac go!  You are nearly there!

[macguba]

Well I do have snipers, but they should all be scattered about - that is until the base is sufficiently weak that all forces are called into the base.  Anything special about the third time?

That is probably what happened.     The opposition was 1 M2 gunner, 1 loon (sniper?) in the hospital square, 2 out the back of the village (1 sniped, 1 caught in the final clearup), 3 or 4 blackops near the boss's tent, the boss himself of course, a couple of loose runners, the mad sniper coming in from behind us, and 5 snipers in a bunch just outside the sandbag fence a few yards east of the north gate.   All followed by 2 late arrivals at the goodnight vienna ball.

I suspect all that happened the third time was that for some reason they didn't react:  maybe I wasn't detected, or the sound of the shots didn't carry in the wind.    Now that I know who and what they were, I don't think it was anything weird - just the game engine.     They were very close together, actually more like sardines than kittens.

When I arrived overlooking Chapoi the Hind was hovering above the western end of the village.   It mooched about abit but never went far away.   It started shooting at us very shortly after the "army is dead" message, but didn't hit anything.  It then made a number of very low passes (in both directions roughly east-west) right over the repair yard while I dug out the Strela.    If you scripted those passes they looked great - don't think I've ever seen a chopper come so low.

The pic is of 5 dead snipers, lying in a row.    When I went back to Chapoi (from my savegame at my base by the jetty) there was were 7 or 8 loons actually inside the repair yard.   They looked like one squad and they were trying to stand still - they weren't seeking and destroying or anything.