(Review Completed) [SP] Abandoned Armies

[THobson]

One thing that is alarming me right now is that engine 'bug' where you can't get your people to grab the last magazine, or the last, rocket from a dead loon weapon. I don't know if you've 'corrected' this quirk, but if not, and for other players benefit, the solution is to pick up the weapon yourself and empty the 'contents' on the ground.

I didn't actually see it as a bug so the only thing I did to fix it was to ensure that the dead loons had an extra magazine over what I originally intended.  Basically I see it this way: the dead loon is (or more accurately was) carrying a weapon with a magazine in it, and several spare magazines.  When you get to him you can pick up the spare mags separately, and the weapon.  What you can't do is get the mag out of the weapon without picking up the weapon.  I think that is realistic.

The 'execution' far more visually realistic,

I use real bullets this time.  I have also made a few other small changes, the hung woman now swings more obviously for example.

I haven't changed the briefing, other than to fix the things you spotted last time.  A warning about using the boat is a good idea.  I'll see what I can do.

The initial selection:  I fought against doing this for exactly the reason you mention.  You are brought immediately out of the game, but I really do need a way for the player to make this selection.  I did not want to make it for them using benchmark.

Tatyana is buried in the bed and persistently bobbing and wobbling during the cutscene. I caught a brief glimpse of her from outside, doing similar.

This happens sometimes but mostly not.  I played this version through all the cutscenes before uploading it and that was not happening.  I really am at a loss as to how to fix it.
Vigny fire:  I take your comments about the lack of light.  On balance I think the impact of a dark Vigny out weighs the loss in the cutscene.  Let's think on it and see what others think.

I'd shoot first, ask later

Then the mission would end and you would have come up that hill again. ;D

Would you consider moving her to halfway Vigny<>Pessagne

That sounds like a small change - but it isn't - believe me.

Noticed that none of the bodies now have voicovers (except Tatyana). Am sorry to see the rustling the corpse action dissapear but it was a good decision.

That's because you went to the bodies after talking to Tatyana.  The reason for removing the fire was so that that new players (not the old hands) would explore Vigny and might find them.  After the cutscene the voiceovers were, I agree, incongruous and so I took take them out during the Tatyana scene.  If all I was doing was removing the voiceovers I could have kept the fire.

Of the perhaps 5 loons that were foolish enough to come into my town, 3 of them had red flags

Not simultaneously I trust.  This is the flag moving to the new group leader when the old leader is killed.

La Pessagne:  I have taken away the dope they were smoking in earlier versions. They should now give you a warm welcome.

Tatyana's bed has moved from wall somewhat and that part of the scene is poorer for it. A sort of vacant camera view to half-nothing.

Bugger.  Well I didn't move it!

Tatyana herself is not bloodied. V1.23, she was, slightly, and subtly.

In the earlier versions I killed her with a setDammage 1.  Now I use real bullets.  Did you see the splash of blood when she copped it?  You can often see the entry wound in her chast as well.  I think using real bullets is more realistic.  I liked the result.  

Btw, have I ever mentioned to you how much I like this mission

I believe I do recall you mentioning something about it. ;D  Thanks, it good to be appreciated.

As ever - I really enjoy your stories.

EDIT:

Okay I have now done the Tatyana cutscene a couple of more times.  I think I might be seeing a pattern to the agitated Tatyana

[Mikero]

>it's good to be appreciated.

you mean in that special way right, where I'd like to plunge a dagger into your black heart?

I should have checked bodies before  rescued Tatyana, Oh well, I'm sloppy but enjoying myself too much.

I agree, newer players will approach Vigny very differently. Removing the fire was a brave decision.

------
Took off in my favorite ghost truck to rescue 1st civils.

Just at turn off to dirt road we are all blown to pieces by a T80 that had parked itself at the hut with the two dead res soldiers. 2nd try, the T72 that crushed me earlier took us out from somehwere near the T80 but other side of road.

restart again, and refueled motorcycle loaded Irena on back and left everyone else at home.

No enemy loons at any time. neither tank spotted us. All went ok, cutscene happened. Drove back on cycle to base camp uneventfully, cutscene happened. On to the 2nd civilians.

I am so badly armed, rocket wise, i decide to walk us across the mountain ridge. Scenery spectacular no evidence of loons anywhere. No lag at any time.

cutscene kicks in and the medic shuffles off with civilians while we walk thru forest to sniff at Trinite. I was torn between these civilians and detouring towards Goisse instead. Am playing this mission straight down the middle at moment, because this weapon buisiness has wobbled me. I figure it's "safer" to follow along until I get a hang of what's where.

At this point i reorganise team to get my strongest people up front.

I come out too far north, walk the road to T3, the Northron convoy is mincing about, splatted by vulcan. Retry.

Splatted by vulcan again, and, we are defenceless against it or the bmp. So any thought of taking on either convoy is gone. Circle T3 to south come at it directly via dirt road. No evidence of either convoys. End up in ammo stash area and manage to arm every non-soldier with M21's. Nothing else useful in crates other than a bizon.

Ordinarily, I wouldn't venture into T3 this early, but I'm desperate for mines rockets or satchels.

There was no incident, we race back out of there towards mountain on foot, the medic joins us and I head him off for his own M21 alone. #2 has machine gun. I forget how I got that. But so far, we've not fired a shot.  There is no lag, and surprisingly for me, this is the first time I've ever got out of T3 alive in any version. I forget the reasons why i sent 3 and 4 back for different guns but they and the medic are around the ammo cache when hell breaks loose on them, definitely southrons. The rest of us are watching from the mountains 800 metres away. Somehow, by sheer good luck i manage to move them into the forest and finally up to us without deaths occuring.

Change my mind at least 6 times going back to lodge. I finally settle on looking at Larche. Look only. Doesn't turn out that way. There still has been no lag. trying out differnt squad formations at these lower ai levels. At moment, they respond better in columm. They can see each othjr ! and manage to keep on track.

Crawl up into larche from it's western (Goisse) side. Am happy not to rush things and take long walks. Partly to see what patrols we might encounter (none) and partly to have time to think. I figure we may have caused too much interest via east and our backs are unprotected T3 side. My squad are rookies, we've got nothing against armour and I've no choice but to progressively try and build their experience up while capturing some goodies if I can. I would have preferred Arudy, but this lack of lag has me curious. I know that Larche was the 2nd worst on the list, so I'm going there.

Three restarts involved in our attack, but the squad are doing well. What appears to be a 4 man sentry group, and unfortunately for us a 7man on patrol take all our energy to stay alive. But, Larche is temporarily ours. Irena isn't being a bad girl yet, she's still too novice, but I've kept her in her favorite position #5

What appears to be single loons, and plenty of them, occaisonally making an attack on us from Trinite direction.

Another few retries involved, one, where we load up into truck to scream out of there and get clobbered by the chopper. I never even got my foot on the pedal. Next try sees us splattered halfway up the mountain (by chopper). So, I change tactics and arm up all who can carry, with rocket stuff while i lay mines in road. Just in time, we're out of there on foot, Godzilla and his friends are coming for us from the WEST. Oh man.

I know it's useless taking on that bugger, but my guys do so anyway before I can stop them. To our cost of course. Next retry, I head away from it EAST, and run smack bang into horrible things that cut us to pieces in the road. Machine gunners everywhere. So, we're in Larche, cant drive out, nasty things block both our road exits, I send all the non rocket people to lodge on foot while the rest of us hang around the tent area (got a nice flag change here). Seems enemy ai is much more interested in us than a few grunts scrabbling over the rocks to the Lodge. Tanks can't get at us because of buildings, and the odd loon or two doesn't survive coming anywhere near us. But it's a stalemate. I start sending individuals from our squad, and, good guess, they make it. Then i sneak away as well. Sore that none of the armour tripped a mine. Best news though is we're all alive and _heavily_ armed.

Sure enough Godzilla and his friends come after us. The chopper is constantly circling us too.

Bad mistake for Godzilla, we're in mountains and he's at a severe disadvantage. Five rockets later, he's not in any sort of advantage. He's burning. Always interesting to see that no matter how big the explosion, the 'commander' always escapes. I'm ready for the bugger and get him before he chucks his grenade, another thing they love to do.

In the meantime, the T72 and the Vulcan are doing their best, but hopeless against the boulders. The Vulcan is wrestling with a tree, and the T72 keeps rolling back downhill in it's frontal assault. We have the upper hand here. The chopper can't get at us either. I tell my guys that still have rockets to attack the T72 and I pop the vulcan. A vehicle almost as vicious as a godzilla. Everything ends in smoke and tears for them. But not without incident. A good party or three of loons are down in the valley keeping our heads down firing up at us. Sort of wing and a prayer popping up to fire a rocket, but it all goes ok with a few wounds to everyone. I try the trick again and start sending my little team up towards lodge while I hold the valley loons back with hunter rifle.

It worked too well. Just as I enter camp to get everyone healed, the loons attack us, at the lodge. Restart

Chased the buggers all over the mountain side. Nine of them in total. We still have the advantage because the smoke from the three vehicles is causing trouble for them and none for us. Grenades finish the last three off at base of our mountain peak. I just kept hurling grenades over the top.

get into camp, and STILL we can't heal. Another squad from the NORTH road for gods sake (Goisse way) come over the far mountain. #2 that I always, unconditionally, arm with a machine gun, specifically to protect me, takes them out. But now wounds are severe, at least three of my people can't fire usefully at anything and are crawling. I get them in behind ruined building to protect them and #2 just keeps splattering away covering our retreat. Some lucky shots wing me, but the group behind the building spot the direction of the fire and take the last two loons down. A very close call. I aint losin a single one of my people this mission.

Finally some rest. And now, we really do have a stockpile. I start looting all the bodies grabbing Gustavs's and AA launchers into the truck.

The war has started. How, I don't know, but that chopper lost interest in us after the Vulcan got hit and there's that beautiful sound of armour going bang towards Dourdan. This is really bad news, exposing our Lodge, but the war starting means less trouble for us.

Have plans on Goisse and just general loot and terror for awhile. I intend heading back towards the T80 that was so rude to us a little earlier. Plan is to take over the west, and keep it.

Mist is clearing, negligible at top of mountain. Occaisonal wolf sounds, some bird chirps. And zero lag. A certain, small amount of heaviness at the hardest parts of Larche, but nothing like nothing as bad as any other version. Admittedly I haven't been in anything seriously vicious yet. But, by this time in all other versions, lag always kicked in for often no apparent reason. (the reason was, anything that could crawl was either looking for us, or on it's way looking for the other guys).

Only other heaviness occurs when mosquito jeeps are in vicinity. But, it's not that noticeable and only in conjunction with something else occuring, like a chopper or a tank.

[lilwillie_WI]

Bad mistake for Godzilla, we're in mountains and he's at a severe disadvantage. Five rockets later, he's not in any sort of advantage. He's burning. Always interesting to see that no matter how big the explosion, the 'commander' always escapes. I'm ready for the bugger and get him before he chucks his grenade, another thing they love to do.

Please excuse my ignorance, but when you refer to Godzilla, I am assuming it is the Abrams? I ask because I have a brother who is a Abram's crewman in the Marine Corps, and he would get a kick out of knowing it is nicknamed that if it is indeed the Abrams/Godzilla.

And, it never amazes me to see any crew get out of a Abrams when it is taken out.

A very interesting piece of hardware I got to see first handand, OFP is exceptionally accurate in the detail of it ;D

[macguba]

Gozilla is indeed Abrams.

[THobson]

Yes indeed.  I believe Mikero gave it the name what he first encountered one as an enemy in v1.10.  Now he knows better than to pop at them with a puny RPG.

Mikero:

you mean in that special way right, where I'd like to plunge a dagger into your black heart?

Now if you keep making these lovey dovey comments people will begin to talk about us.

Removing the fire was a brave decision.

It is not a decision yet - but it is close.

but this lack of lag has me curious

This is good news, I did do a bit of streamlining in addition to giving the player the option to drop the environmental stuff.  Good to see it might have had some effect.  I am not counting chikens yet.  Let's see what happens when the action really does start.

The war has started. How, I don't know

My guess (and hope) is that it was something to do with what happened at LaT.  

I felt like I was there - wonderful!

[macguba]

Here we go again.    Isn't that a Velvet Underground track?


Readme

Good.   Consider having a table of contents.    Say it's for Operation Flashpoint.    Put your email at the top.


Overview

Try:-

Hungry US and Soviet soldiers are terrorising the population.

Your father is dead.  What's left of your family - your mother and sister - is desperate:  wet, cold and starving.   Your lonely errand is to find help.

                                                                 THobson


Intro

All these little changes have really made a difference, it's much better.   I know the timing is critical but if you can steal a second or two later on to slow the text at the start it would help - it's a little too fast.  

Few suggestions about the text.

Consider "Then . . . silence . . " rather than "Then nothing..."  

"A nervous world - a nervous Malden - was on a knife edge."

Replace "Cut off from the outside world" with "Isolated, leaderless and frightened"

"from other gangs of abandoned soldiers"

"Any that did not join them were murdered."

"One group was led ..."

Replace "previously Malden's" with "the infamous Chief of Police"

"Unable to destroy each other [comma] an armed"

"The losers are the local civilians."

"Those not killed have been taken captive for the amusement of the soldiers, or driven from their homes to perish in the coming winter."

"One family sought refuge on a long deserted island."


Briefing

Plan - second para should be "Now I must get to Vigny and find my Uncle Nikolai".

Background - Stamenov wanted to run the island.

Otherwise good.


Mission

Dialogue - "environmental features" is too vague.     And turn the whole text round since the default is on and the question at the top is "lowspec?"

Select 'Reduced Features' to turn off some of the ambient sounds, eye candy and other environmental features in the mission.  This is suitable for lower spec computers.\n\nSelect 'Full Features' for higher spec computers.\n\nThis does not affect gameplay.

Add the stuff about the radio into the dialogue.  Lose the hints, or replace them with titletext in a silent blackin.

Set off in the boat and headed north but was wasted by a Vulcan.   I think you're too harsh on the fuel, given that you have the chopper.  

When you retry the dialogue appears over the actual scene.  Add a blackout if you can.

Change the hint to something like "This mission is intended to be emotionally intense.   Consequently, accelerated time has been disabled.    Beta testers who completed the mission were happy with this."

[Mikero]

Goisse or bust

I get everyone on board civil truck and head in the general direction of Goisse. I'm looking for that rude T80 and it's wannabe cousin.

Uneventful journey all the way to bottom of valley. No visible signs of enemy but the slightest of heaviness, periodic. Am well aware of how different much of my current journey would be if I did not know this map so well. And I only know it _that_ well for one reason. ;D. Regardless, I occaisionally still get severely disoriented, There's no lateral vision in this fog. marvellous stuff.

Park up at last boulder before Goisse everyone on hold fire. Two sentries near tent, a suggestion of movement at back of Goisse. Detect sound of jeeps very far away but know we have to work quickly. I fear those things. Open fire and 1st two  sentries go down. Jeeps appear fairly soon and stop at intersection. Sniper rifle takes care of first, but we're outnumbered when jeeps (3) split up and come at us from both sides and middle.

retry. Put my people into wedge formation and get them all to 'stay back'. Things go much better. The surviving jeeps get past me, but not past the squad. They're begiining to react the way I expect them to. Checked later, sadly, after flag change and we're all vets. Not sure how long it's been that way. Scan my people and see they're in splatter formation meaning they're not fussed over any particular direction, so safe to move, probably.

We have a small arsenal in the civil truck, but I race towards tents hoping to rearm and medic whatever's necessary. Spend a little too long there making sure everyone gets fresh ammo and the sounds of battle come close. Noises get louder on North road. Mechanised armour (northrons) have detected southron troops and are dealing with them. Chopper making scrunchy noises somewhere back near St Louis (I guess).

Finally a T80 turns up and my Gustav is useless against it. Several other rockets hit it, and we only have time to see it go bang when it's friend, a Godzilla comes up over the south ridge, silently, and deadly. A fearsome sight when it's headlight is in your eyeball.

It doesn't see us, we're too close range. It just crushes several of us instead. A T72 AND a godamn vulcan are behind it. Holy crap. Restart. I know now, you didn't do this deliberately Thob, but i'd still like to blame you if you don't mind.

Relaod, Race down and make mines my priority. I rearm squad while I'm dropping mines liberally. Race away, one or two of the horrible things blow up but that Vulcan is vicious. We're slaughtered at some 600 meters on the mountain. Rethink.

Do the whole thing again and get squad out of there. I spend 3 x 3 mine laying operations in the entire area I know they have to come through. They're very keen to get up the valley and that bottleneck is our only chance. This time, they all go bang, eventually, but escaping crew kill me. Retry.

More or less the same, but I'm out of there fast, we hole up in valley neck and just let the explosions do their thing. A lone blackened T80 comes out of the smoke, the Vulcan had landed on top of it at one point. The Godzilla took a double hit of mines blown from one straight into another.

We are armed to the max with missiles so I deal with the very very few crew coming out of that wreckage, and my squad safely deal with the T80. Just another best episode THobson, another one, among many. From the entry into Goisse, until the smoke cleared was adrenalin. You never knew what came next. It will of course, never be repeated the same way. It will be repeated, the same way, somewhere else. It's wunderbar.

Board back on truck, convinced more is on the way. The chopper comes in and deals with us. We frighten it off with an AA. But most of us injured, sigh. I managed to scream in between the buildings before the tracers hit. So we survived. Just. It lost interest in us, and I drove south dirt road to Vigny.

Vigny was clear of mist, and enemy. Drove to La P. Same thing. The usual feelings in this mission kicked in, seeing past battles and just being amazed. Flag went up, and we took off towards Arudy. My destination is Sergie, with carnage in between.

Got to bus junction and met 2 x Jeeps. the survivors of I don't know. Two drivers and a single loon passenger they were badly beat up and ingored us. We, didn't ignore them.

Cleaning them out was trivial, they sorta had half hearted fits and starts driving to Pessagne, and stopping and starting. In the meantime, several, perhaps as many as 6 or 10 individual loons started appearing in same vicinity (1st civil area). They were easy pickings and made no real attempt to attack us. I think they were more interested in each other. Red Vs Blue. This is the only section I have ever encountered where ai appears dumb. It was an impression only. I don't think they were, just appeared to be. (btw, yes, La P is completely different, they are no longer drinking vodka and were quite unpleasant)

Arudy was nasty. Only 5 loons max, but two of them were evil things, The one stuck between tents particularly so. (voiceover at Arudy and La P).

Changed trucks at this point from our splintered wreck of a thing (the chopper made a real mess of it) to that lovely open truck full of goodies. Drove on to Dourdan? and passed one single broken jeep on way. Several dead bodies surrounded it, looked like Southrons also. I suspect a chopper. Not a pleasant sight at all.

Continuously on the lookout for AA weapons now. So far only spotted two. (Larche and Lodge)

Dourdan was another bitter fight like Arudy. Several of the loons were easy pickings The nasty ones hid inside the tents and bushes. We took the town on from the Arudy side which made spotting two loons in the camoflage net a lot easier. Of course, stupid me open fire before *really* scanning the horizon, and sure enough a 5 or 6 man squad came at us directly on our flank from lodge-mountains. I never saw them. You can guess who did. Irena. And, she turned nasty. By the time I got a clear view out of the shrubs, it was all over. Seems like #5 position just suits her fine, and, their is a definite difference in the modelling for the female, She twitches and handles the weapons differently. The body motions are different too and this, i think, combined with a 'good' position, make her lethal. (I reported this before when driving an open truck, the russian vs the civilians vs the resistance troops, behave very differently in body movement)

Another flag goes up, and we head for Dourdan. I 1st checked the building and got a small and agreeable cutscene. Voiceover at bodies.

Arrived in Doudan. Met Sergie, cutscene fine. Swung round and looked up small round. Sure enough 3 man loon patrol firing at us just as we board truck <sigh>. Finish them off, give Sergei a rocket and head back towards Hoydan/Dourdan? Getting tired.

My plan (ha bloody ha) is to investigate T3 again and take on St Louis. St Louis will be unpleasant for sure.

There has been no lag so far. Not even with FOUR armoured vehicles on our tail, and a chopper.

Because of the ranmdomness and the changing dynamics, it's hard to say , but, there hasn't been a lot of retaliatory activity. tanks came sniffing at us at Larche and Goisse but there's not been that overwhelming continuous rush of enemy troops coming in to investigate. A patrol here, a squad there, some stragglers and singles, but not the legions. This is marked contrast to earlier versions. Larche was a lethal deathtrap in those versions. The sense of terror is still there though, the same overiding urge to get the hell away, fast.

From time to time, there's the smallest of staggers when, I suspect, the engine's working overtime at the airport and chapoi.

Oh, and in case it needed mentioning, i read the readme carefully and took the option of to hell with you, no way am i going to miss out on my wolf sounds. Performance or not. This was very cleverly done by you Thob, a very wise way of implementing it.

I shall now go off and dream some dreams of running the Westron Kingdom. Where's my harem.

[macguba]

You may recall that I hadn't actually started the mission ...

The steep climb spat me out behind the church - it really pays to keep east.   It's MUCH better without the fire.    Not convinced by the two covered bodies, not consistent with the sound files over the other bodies.   Give the soldiers an extra magazine - you can't pick up any mags which is confusing because you expect to be able to.   The player has a tough time in this mission and that little twist is too much this early on.    You're still coping with no 4x, no fire, and just finding the bloody village in the first place.   I had no problem with not shooting the girl - she was obviously a civvy from my spot in the doorway.

Shot 3 guards, cutscene, shot 2 loons.  Collected weapons and put them in the jeep.   Waited for the patrol then put their weapons in the jeep too.    I could have sworn one was carrying an AA missile but I couldn't find it.    Couldnt' unload hand grenades into the jeep, which was an annoying feature.  Caught by Bradley when I was too slow.

[Mikero]

Houdan -> St Louis

Drove truck back to Dourdan. Raced into building, same cutscene. good.

Reorganised Sergei up into the strength dept. Irena now at #7 as I'm convinced she's protecting that flank.

Karl Danek is my #2. Hadn't used him in that pos before. Since the episode at the lodge as Mgunner, he's staying there, forever.

put the medic as #8 because it is less likely to be the firefight side and Danek is likely to cover him.

Sergei gives me the news, all other textovers are appropriate to the characters but no whinging at this point that I should visit the woman. Hardly surprisng.

<bug>
Into building cutscene happens and EEK

woman us fine, i am not. Each time Alexei speaks it's the shot of a khaki wall.

go up ladder again, and next cutscene is appropriate.

all are experts including Sergei, I think he got a merit badge becuase of this cutcene. Not sure.

Larche suits me. It will be after T3 and probably after St Loius where' I'll double back.

Flag has not changed from ours. This surprises me. Am having a feeling here that enemy activity, this version is less.

Wrecked Vulcan and a troop truck on road to T3, evidence of chopper splatter rather than tank. Truck is collateral damage.

Stop outside T3 south. I want to look in toy box for more AA.

M21's are now gone replaced by other things. Made a mental note here that I thought Sergei should have been slightly wounded when we met him.

Am convinced a Northron convoy will make an appearance. There's the suggestion of wrecked vehicles to north side but I don't trust it. Decide to give Sergei an AT launcher. I really want any stray armor dead and buried. Mental notebook to come back here for AA stuff. I have not accounted for any real Southron armour yet, particularly that rude T80, and need to check how much is left of both convoys. At least one jeep patrol is gone, but now I'm getting nervous. Things is a little too easy. I attacked two Northron Godzillas overall, and haven't accounted for anything by the south. Deeply worried. Am forming a plan to trap them in the mountains, beach side, of Dourdan. If I have to.

There's an empty troop truck and a empty ammo truck, North T3. Did not check for damage because, of course, what's not empty is a vulcan hiding on north buildings. Sigh, restart.

#4 takes him out with his AA. That always annoys me, get him re-armed and for some reason, still suspicious, still not knowing enough, we walk it towards St Louis. A squad of 9 northrons come over top road ridge, we've enough time at sniper range to deal with them, and walk on. I have squad in line formation. I wanna know anything and everything that twitches. There are no real sounds (apart from excellent wolves whenever i go near T3). The vaguest hint of a chopper. Mist is quite unpleasant and time is 10:30 or so.

A dead troop truck and a bmp at entrance to St Louis. Jumped out of my skin as I looked left. Seven loons just standing there. We attack of course, no choice. but not at any time did they fire at us, just kept running away further into St Louis. This is very strange and similar to my encounter with loose singles near the 1st civils. They were parked up near a dead T80 that I didn't spot and there's no indication which side they were on.

Wolf sounds kick in at a highly charged moment.

The sound of a lone M2 jeep whizzes trhu St Louis toward airport. We move into St Louis. Fair bit of carnage, a dead SOUTHron T80 is up against the flagpole having crushed the Mash tent. Singles, total of around 6 come across our paths east and west, every impression that they're on opposing sides and they can't make up their minds who to fire at. Having reasonable success with squad in line formation. They're covering backsides and in danger mode not too keen to rush at things.

Very happy about moving Larche way. St Louis is a magnet for airport attack and we're the dummies in the middle of it. The north appears to remain quite strongly entrenched. I'm going to clean out larche one more time to cover our flank then move down to Arudy. Arudy will give me an indication of which enemy side is the stronger.

A single dead loon is in gas station before Larche, there's a furious battle between a vulcan and a chopper. I think from Airport, not sure.

End up in husband's house, voiceover fine.

Glorious sound of a chopper's engine dying. Nice bangy noise follows. If I looked, my squad would be grinning.

One loon comes at us from direction we came from. Medic gets him. I suspect it's a pilot but saw no parachute. Flag change to us again. We're off to Arudy.

A rather nice bird sound stops me getting in truck. I scan the buildings for peeping civils, see none. Now however there's the sound of Mosquito jeeps. I fear them almost as much as Vulcan's We wait in ambush. Reasonably convinced they're doing a circular route round airport. By the sounds, there's more than one. I had assumed, wrongly, only one was left.

Left it far too late and too close to pop off enough rockets, two of their number finish us off and drive on thru.

next time, i'm ready, three come down and just lobbing rockets anywhere near them is enough. They scatter or tip over or do whatever, and that's enough time for my squad to react to these (formerly) very fast moving vehicles. They're finished because they slowed and stopped. Big mistake loon, big mistake. I leave Irena to cut their tongues out.

At no time is there lagginess still. And, so far, the 'unfairness' of mist is not there. Nor has it been at any earlier time.

There's a heaviness to the mission, warning me to get the hell away. I've stirred something 'orrible.

I do a wide looping circuit to Arudy by first checking on La P, and then Goisse. It pays. La P has kept our flag, it means the concentrated attacks are not this way.

Driving through the now fog cleared roads, is a joy. The old sensation of passing past battles relived. We're in control now, the two main 'cities' might not be, but the countryside is ours, and, we are a force to be reckoned with, we've done awful damage. For the fist time, I feel safe enough to be distracted with the CD player. As we drive back up towards Goisse, there's one of my mad woman (pinkish), centre of road, and I swerve to avoid her. I means good things. It means others, playing this at a 'normal' pace, will have ample time to spot her, sooner, or later. By 'normal' I simply mean with no clear intent of what to do next. Taking time on this mission pays big dividends in small ways.

There's a switch to testosterone music coming out of the CD and there's a sensation oozing out of the truck. Don't even think of messing with us.

Goisse turned out to be a lucky break. I hadn't noticed my people had used up their rockets at the mosquito jeeps. We change that, quickly. Goisse was re-occupied by Northrons at some point, we change the flag, and I'm not a happy commander. This means I'll be taking this north dirt road to the airport when I return. Something's up ahead I want to know about. One thig for certain, at this stage of the game, I refuse to do the predictable (follow the north dirt road). We've created a wave of havoc behind us and nasty things are sure to be closing in.

took the opportunity to do a little sidestep to a place I'd never visited. A small hamlet off road from Goisse to main junction. All the buldings were destroyed. DF36

Got into Arudy and the flag hasn't changed. This is troubling me. Most of my damage I thought was aimed at the Northrons. I want to know where that T80 is.

As I suspected Dourdan has had it's flag changed back to the south. This means the route is the main one, north south, and I'm now off to the pow camp to do maximum damage along the way.

Took the opportunity to tell woman about her husband. Wish I hadn't. Nothing but nothing will now come up that corridor and live. Not one single one of them. I will chase them if needs be.

[macguba]

Briefing - correction to my earlier post - second para should be

Now I must get to Vigny and search for my Uncle Nikolai

I think its important to have "search" somewhere.

Anyway, after Vigny I headed straight for the lodge.    The wrecked bus roadblock is excellent, really starts to emphasise the boundary.   The second, fence only roadblock is crap and pointless.   (Yes I know you wanted to create the "space" of no man's land, if that's important then do it better.)   If you really want to keep it as it is, switch them round so that the bus is second.

There is a soundfile missing from the cutscene, the shot over your uncle's grave.

Use two different angles for Ruslan's sister, one from each side.  On really focusses on the radio and the other on the medic pack.   At the moment they are too much in the background.  

Missing word in text - you actually say "how can we hurt them the most"

I hate the hint and added savegame, it's completely pointless.    If you're going to ruin the atmosphere briefly with a hint, do it for something more important than one poxy savegame.    If you're going to add them during hte mission (and I think you shouldn't) then add them at least six at a time.  

Add a comma in the text after "oh well, " (I'd better not let them down.)

The vehicles at the lodge are too close together.   The AI would never get that car out.     The interior of the ruin is the best its ever been.

I think you need some new voice actors for the minor characters:  add some more variety.   I'm volunteering.    

Picked up the first lot of civvies nae bother.   It's not all that clear thta you are supposed to take them back to the lodge.

After the long lodge cutscene (no problems) Irena was on "stop":  give her a dofollow.

These wretched "you have another savegame" hints are really getting on my tits now.   The reward is an extra man and his weapons and information.

Houdan "search" marker should be moved slightly so you can see the text.    You could use two, one symbol and one for text, or just lose the symbol.

Wolves are quite scary when you know what they are.  If I hadn't I'd have wet my pants.   Somewhere in the mission it should tell you what that noise is.    Heard them again while clearing Arudy from the south.    Like the "this place is clear" it just helps moves things along.   There is a problem with NVGs being removed:   I ordered Irena to pick some up, which she appeared to do, but then she didn't have them and they were no longer available.   Wait, Ruslan has them ... maybe I just screwed up.    Didn't hang around to load up the lorry with mags, I know what happens if you try to be too cute like that.   It's 07:45.

[THobson]

Wow.  Thanks.  

I can't respond to everything so I'll just pick a few points that are open, seem relevant or just catch my eye, every thing you mention will go on the list even if I make no comment here.

Macguba:
I had to google Velvet Underground to understand the question.  So no it's not them.  (Does this mean I am an old fogey?)

Thanks for all the suggestions.  It does help to have fresh eyes - I had completely forgotten about the furore caused by the removal of accelerated time.  I think something in the readme would be good for that also.

I think you're too harsh on the fuel, given that you have the chopper

This is an interesting one.  I deliberately put the fuel very low to try and discourage the player from spending anytime on it.  So it is not low to stop him getting anywhere it is low to stop him wanting to try - and I really do not want to lock the boat.  It was neat that the Vulcan got you.  If you had headed for the island to the NW you would have been out of his range.  Bye the way for reasons of variety the chopper is a Hind if you go north and a Cobra if you go south.

When you retry the dialogue appears over the actual scene.  Add a blackout if you can.

Will do.  In fact even when you start a new mission the actual scene is behind the dialogue, it is just that the actual scene is a dark mountain side.  Thank you for the suggested wording I did have some discomfort over the current wording.

You may recall that I hadn't actually started the mission ...

;D  In deed, a whole screen of comments and you had not set foot on the side of the fjord!

The reason I hadn't spotted the mag problem here is that I just collect all the weapons and put them in the jeep.  The mags then become available individually.

I could have sworn one was carrying an AA missile but I couldn't find it

They should be just standard grunts plus a medic - possibly.

Couldnt' unload hand grenades into the jeep

That is a real bummer.  You can't with mines either and that is even worse later on.



Mikero:

Checked later, sadly, after flag change and we're all vets.

That doesn't mean the skills are all 1.0, but it is close.  Did this feel too fast?  You had done quite a bit by then and quite a lot of damage.

I know now, you didn't do this deliberately Thob, but i'd still like to blame you if you don't mind.

;D Please feel free.

Jeeps

they sorta had half hearted fits and starts driving to Pessagne, and stopping and starting. In the meantime, several, perhaps as many as 6 or 10 individual loons started appearing in same vicinity

What I think has happened is that a couple of jeeps have been damaged and cannot be used but the crew were not all killed and so are now travelling in foot.  The remaining jeeps will then press on up to a point and then they keep waiting for the crew of the other jeeps who are now travelling slowly.
I plan to leave this - it is not unrealistic for the jeeps to wait for their team mates, it just looks a bit crap.

is a definite difference in the modelling for the female,

There is indeed, there is a lot more to it than a different body and clothes.  I can't put my finger on it (perhaps an unfortunate use of words) but there are lots if little things that are different.

Because of the ranmdomness and the changing dynamics, it's hard to say , but, there hasn't been a lot of retaliatory activity

You mention this later as well.  It bothers me.  The only things I have done to the enemy since the previous version is:
1. Several armoured groups now have a randomised initial starting point
2. I changed some probabilities of individual loons to help re-balance the two sides.

neither of which would explain this.  I hope it is just random.

woman us fine, i am not. Each time Alexei speaks it's the shot of a khaki wall.

What an absolute bugger.  I played this on exactly the same pbo file you have and it was fine.  It wasn't a special test either where I start the mission with the appropriate parameters set and then go straight into the building, no I played the mission from the start up to this point and it was fine.  Fixing this will not be fun - real hit and miss stuff.

all are experts including Sergei, I think he got a merit badge becuase of this cutcene. Not sure.

Sergei starts off with quite a high skill level representing the fact that he is recently out of a combat unit.

Flag has not changed from ours. This surprises me. Am having a feeling here that enemy activity, this version is less.

Same comment as above.  Maybe the two sides did a lot of damage to each other.


Macguba:Just seen your new post.

The second, fence only roadblock is crap and pointless.  (Yes I know you wanted to create the "space" of no man's land, if that's important then do it better.)  If you really want to keep it as it is, switch them round so that the bus is second.

Now don't beat about the bush - tell me what you really think ;D  I am indeed trying to create the no mans land feeling.  I presume the second was an anti climax after the first - but I take a different route to the lodge and so see the northern one first.  I can't really swap them round because it is the southrons that do the real murdering of civis and it would feel odd without the northern one.  I think about what to do here.

There is a soundfile missing from the cutscene, the shot over your uncle's grave.

Now this really is strange.  In the previous version several people reported this.  I assumed that they had the volume on their pc a bit low and as Ruslan who was saying this sound file was some distance from the grave they could not hear him.  I moved the source of the sound closer to the graves on this version (using playsound resulted in the it being too loud), and I have checked all the scenes individually and by playing them through from the start.  This problem did not occur for me, though I did notice that most of the sound for this speech comes from the right speaker.  If you have a save position from before the cutscene it would help me if you could go through that scene again with the volume cranked right up.  Otherwise all I can think of doing is t o move the source of the sound closer still.

Missing word in text - you actually say "how can we hurt them the most"

Thanks - I thought I had found all of these - I must have gone bogeyed checking for this sort of thing.

I hate the hint and added savegame, it's completely pointless.    If you're going to ruin the atmosphere briefly with a hint, do it for something more important than one poxy savegame.    If you're going to add them during hte mission (and I think you shouldn't) then add them at least six at a time

Another example of where fresh eyes help.  It does take away from the immersion I am trying to create.  I can't give 6 at a time - nothing is worth that much, I was trying to provide some positive feedback to the player to encourage them to complete their objectives.  I take you point.  I will up the number the player starts with and leave it at that.

I think you need some new voice actors for the minor characters:  add some more variety.  I'm volunteering.  

Thanks.  Who would you like to be? - I have in mind Karl Danek or Yuri Visek).  I must admit I think I did damage to my throat trying to make my voice sound different.

You asked elsewhere what niggles do I have remaining.  There is one around here.  Immediately after the radio message Karl Danek tells Alexi about the hut and his fathers role etc.  It doesn't fell right to me.  Comments and suggestions welcome.

Picked up the first lot of civvies nae bother.  It's not all that clear thta you are supposed to take them back to the lodge.

It is in the ‘more…'information for that objective in the briefing.  I suppose I could have Karl make a suggestion about it if you think the briefing is not enough.

After the long lodge cutscene (no problems) Irena was on "stop":  give her a dofollow.

This is one of the little ways that women differ from men.  She does have a doFollow, as do the rest of the team, she just ignores it!  Options here are to end the scene as currently with her on Stop and all the others with nothing, or to have all of them on Ready.  Perhaps all on Ready is better.

Just realised I am late for a meeting.  I will proof read the above later.

As I said at the start everything is going on the list - even if I have not mentioned it.

Thanks again

[macguba]

Fuel in boat is very small issue as very few players will even notice the boat is there.     I've always felt there should be enough to get to back to the island where you came from, although I appreciate that it is arguable.     I trust the chopper has max skill:  I'd give him a reveal command too.

The AA launcher must have been a combination of my imagination and the mist.  There was a medic in a squad of  ... 5 I think.

Don't use a fence for the northern roadblock.  Use a slightly damaged, fuel-less lorry, or something else improvised to make it interesting.    One static object on its own rarely looks good.

My speakers are on their last legs and there is nothing coming out of the right one at present.  So if the file is right channel only that would be the problem.   The master volume was quite high so its nothing to do with that.

Starting with 42 savegames or whatever is much better.

I don't care who am I.  Just send me the script.  

I didn't notice anything particularly odd about being told of your father after the radio message.   You are trying to cram a lot of plot into a short space (so it isn't too slow) so I suspect tis fair enough.

I'd missed the "more" about teh civvies, totally my fault.   Reading  now ... yes that's perfectly clear.    The "more" text for the T3 civvies needs redoing.

I had a feeling Irena was being shirty!

Anyway that's me for now.    I've collected the first lot of civvies and cleared Arudy and am now heading for Houdan.   I'm not intending to play this to the end btw, but I am planning to do all the early "plot and collect" stuff.


Edit:  the biggest problem so far as have been the lack of variety in the voices.   I know  you've doen your best but its just not the same as having one for each.  Stick an ad up on the recruitment board and your sig line or ask some people.

Oh yes, and wolves should run away while there is shooting you'd have thought.

It may be too late but I've never liked the use of names Andropov and Stamenov.  This is my third time and I still can't remember which is the police chief and which is the northrons.    Change one to a name which has fewer syllables and doesn't end in ov.

Restarted from an abort after lunch and go an error message immediately script convoymonitorW not found.   Clicked OK and mission went on fine.   Drove through a squad and ran over a couple but the LAW got us before I could get to a fold in the ground.   Loaded cheat savegame and got sound wolf3 not found:  the wolves had been singing when I made that save.

There's no briefing either .. _cur_sp this is completely screwed up ...

OK got it back I think ... it was something to do with having a .pbo and also a mission folder in the Missions list.   Usually its fine but not this time.  Heard a wolf sound instead of an error message so panic over.

Picked up the Russian in Houdan.   The cutscene didn't start till I was well inside the room consider doing it earlier - you don't want the player to shoot him.   Got the message from him during the reorder.   Some of the loons got into the our lorry during the reorder, which was a bit odd.

Well the old dear will still be warm this afternoon, so I'm going to head down to Le Port where I've been trying to get to since v1.     Put the radio on and headed south.   Mars should be on the playlist since we've had it already.    The guards at the VCP didn't have time to react as we drove past.

Cleared the town from the NW ... what's this?   Well well well.   Cutscene has two flaws:  he mentions "too sick to move" then claims nobody needs medical help, then he opens the gate from the inside.

Reorg.  Everybody seems very keen that we should rescue the old dear but it's not an objective.  It probably should be, since everything else is.   Somebody said should when the text was must, or vice versa.  I found an excellent spot for reorg in the western nuik of the hill NW of le port... sadly two loons ran 100m away to get in our truck.   This is no good.   Why on earth are they getting into the lorry?    It could just get them killed.

Not that it mattered because a few minutes later we were all mulched by an armoured group of T80, T72 and Vulcan.   ;D

While waiting for that armour to mooch off I'll tell you how we are.   No casualties.      I have a hunting rifle and 3 LAWS.   The two sergeants are at 2 and 3 with PKs and hand grenades and the private is at 4 with 3 grenades.   Medic at 5 and then the three civvies, all four of them with a long and four mags.    No pistols except me.   I have binocs and NVGs, 2 has binocs.    

We ran into the one magazine thing again at Le Port.  I'm all in favour of short ammo but I think you should rethink this slightly.   Its very frustrating seeing a weapon on the ground, and one of your loons is short of ammo, and you can't get the mag out of the weapon.     As I've said before, this is a long mission and it needs to be very slick:  this is unslick.   If you are concerned that this gives us too much ammo, then rethink again.  Remove the odd loon and up the skill of the others, or have some of them with only pistols "pretending" to be officers.  It would be perfectly natural for camp guards to have only pistols for example.   And perfectly natural for guards off duty to be unarmed altogether.     Or give some of them obscure weapons like FALs or M4s or AK47s.    This is an undisciplined army, each man carries what he likes.    (Although I know you're reluctant to introduce extra weapon types for lag reasons.)    My point is that you should be more sophisticated about restricting ammo.    And it's not that big a deal because we will end up with enough anyway.

At the lorry scene Fg59 put the soldier further away from the lorry, as if he had been moving towards the threat to allow the civvies to run away up the hill.

Our open truck from Arudy ran out of gas shorlty afterwards.  Shame.      Need a sound file here saying "out of petrol".

Ran north, came over a fold in the ground and ran straight into a bullet.   I've said this before, but it is extraordinary how often into this mission that you are randomly running around the countryside and run slap bang straight into a patrol.   I think I'll stick to the roads from now on, they're safer.

[THobson]

I trust the chopper has max skill:  I'd give him a reveal command too.

You trust correctly, on both points.  It works a treat I have tried it several times.

So if the file is right channel only that would be the problem

I will try and move the sound source so it uses both speakers to help those with geriatric systems.

Oh yes, and wolves should run away while there is shooting you'd have thought.

Damn that's true.  I can think of a way to do it involving {fired} Event Handlers - but that could get ugly.  I will need to soak on it, perhaps they are brave wolves.

It may be too late but I've never liked the use of names Andropov and Stamenov.  This is my third time and I still can't remember which is the police chief and which is the northrons.    Change one to a name which has fewer syllables and doesn't end in ov.

AGGGGH!

Problem with the missing scripts etc. spooked me.  I didn't understand the problem but providing it will not happen to a normal punter I am okay.

Some of the loons got into the our lorry during the reorder, which was a bit odd.

This is an utter pain.  The solution, which I mention in the readme file, is for the player to give them a disembark instruction (even though they are not in a vehicle).  I think the problem is this:
- The player tells them to get in the truck before heading for the 1st civis.
- On returning to the lodge in the truck the team need to be got out for the cutscene.  I do this with an unassignVehcile instruction.

So their leader has told them to get in and a script has told them to get out.  I thought at first that these would cancel each other out but they seem not to fully.  All is well so long as they remain part of Alexi's group, but part of reorganising the team involves them each joining grpNull.  It is at this point they seem to remember being told to get in the truck and so head off to get back in.  If the player had subsequently (after the civi1 cutscene at the lodge) told them to disembark while they are already disembarked then all is well (I think).  I will play with this some more to see if I can make it work differently, but it will be a real pain to test.

Cutscene has two flaws:  he mentions "too sick to move" then claims nobody needs medical help, then he opens the gate from the inside.

Good catch. On the too sick to move - a silly slip.  On the other I had in mind that the gate is not locked, just guarded - saves the guards time when they had to throw in new prisoners.  Out of his feeling of duty for the prisoners Viktor earlier took advantage of this to sneak in to help them.  I suppose I could make Alexi open the gate for him - but then why can he do that in the scene and not in - I nearly said real life, gee this is getting to me! - the mission.  Others have mentioned this also.  It needs a rethink.

Reorg.  Everybody seems very keen that we should rescue the old dear but it's not an objective.  It probably should be, since everything else is.

Preferably I would do away with most of the individual objectives, this is meant to be an experience not a military mission with a clear series of objectives.  I use normal objectives at the start because that is what people will expect but am trying to wean the player off them.  So Dourdan is not an objective, in the normal OFP sense, just something the player needs to do.  Then I got concerned that the player would forget where she was, or that Sergei might subsequently be killed.  Hence the reminders from your team mates.

Our open truck from Arudy ran out of gas shorlty afterwards.  Shame

Those southrons a sloppy lot, they leave their vehicles in all sorts of conditions .  I would prefer a fuel gauge.  Out of fuel sound is good idea.  

Shortage of ammo.  I take your point about it being unslick.  It is a new feature that has not been subject to any sort of beta testing scrutiny.  I like the idea, I just need to calibrate what a ‘low level of ammo availability' looks like.  Obviously more than you are currently getting.

I've said this before, but it is extraordinary how often into this mission that you are randomly running around the countryside and run slap bang straight into a patrol.

I play this mission with my teeth clenched and my guts tight - permanently.  There is no safe place.  I think that is a realistic feeling, though I know from your earlier posts you are not keen.

As always - comments on my thinking greatly appreciated.

Gee and I though I had nearly finished .  

[macguba]

Wolves - they turned up during a subsequent firefight in the country and there it didn't feel so odd.    If possible, make it so you don't hear them when you are too near a town with enemy soldiers in it.

If you had a stringtable changing one of the names would be a pretty straightforward job ... apart from the  sound files of course.  ;D

I don't think you need to worry about when it screwed up - I don't believe its a mission issue.

The funny thing about the reorg and the lorry is that it is a different lorry.

Fuel in the lorry:  I thought it was not enough.   It only ran from Arudy to LePort and half way back to Dourdan - in other words barely enough to get to Chapoi.   Fuel is not in particulalry short supply, it's just highly controlled.   Having it short is fine, but that's a little too short.

There's no problem about the amount of ammo I was getting.    If anything, I'd be happy to see even slightly less ammo available.   The problem is the slickness thing.

You have nearly finished.  This is mostly pretty detailed stuff.

Anyway, I dealt with that squad eventually, but of course the armoured group comes and sits where they were which is overlooking Dourdan.   Buggeration.  

Had one crack at them but we don't have enough missiles to deal with an Abrams, never mind the BMP and at least 3 squads of infantry.  Run away!

Went back to the lodge to find the building repaired:  a voiceover "Good, they've repaired it.  They'll be safe in there" would be nice.    Heading to collect second group of civvies now.

[THobson]

If you had a stringtable changing one of the names would be a pretty straightforward job ... apart from the  sound files of course

…and the briefing, and the intro, but it is the sound files that's the killer.  The name is in a #define line in description.ext, so change it there and it should change most places, except as noted above.  It is not the effort that bothers me it is the possibility that lurking somewhere out of sight and out of mind is a reference that gets forgotten.  How about a mental rule as a memory jogger, something along the lines of: alphabetically the names run from north to south; or: S is for South and S is for Stamenov?

The funny thing about the reorg and the lorry is that it is a different lorry.

That is stunning.  I wonder if my theory still holds any water.  What I currently do is get them all join grpNull at the start of the reorganise script and then as they are selected they join Alexi.  Maybe I should keep them all with Alexi but create an array of their new locations and do a join grpNull followed by a rapid series of join Alex instructions at the end.  It would save having to figure out the vagaries of the unassignVehicle instruction.

On the ammo: the only way to make it so the player can pick it up slickly is give the dead loons more, which means that the savvy player could get even more by picking up and unloading the weapons.

Fuel in the lorry:  I thought it was not enough.  It only ran from Arudy to LePort and half way back to Dourdan - in other words barely enough to get to Chapoi.  Fuel is not in particulalry short supply, it's just highly controlled.  Having it short is fine, but that's a little too short.

The fuel is random, within limits.  The truck you stole had as a minimum enough to get to the fuel station beyond Chapoi (I know I drove it several times), so your estimation is correct.  As a maximum it had... well  not much more.  Trucks in the north have more fuel, and more re-fuelling opportunities.  I blame the discipline in the southron army, having no officers really impacts in lots of little ways.  I am happy to change it, but you should know my reasoning for it being as it is.

You have nearly finished.  This is mostly pretty detailed stuff.

Apart from redoing the voices that is, oh and the ammo , and the reorganise script, not to mention fixing the camp cutscene - you were not meant to go there that early by the way.  If you arrive when you already have a medic Viktor stays in the compound until your first medic (Pavel) is dead, if you then visit him again he will join you.

Anyway, I dealt with that squad eventually, but of course the armoured group comes and sits where they were which is overlooking Dourdan.  Buggeration

Life's a bummer sometimes.