(Review Completed) [SP] Abandoned Armies

[macguba]

That's cool for the medics.    You can keep them safe or have them in your squad.

Picked up the second lot of civvies and went for the third.  Don't know how I would have found them if I hadn't known, you're only told "east of 3" and there's nothing in the briefing.  I reorganised the squad anyway, but I would have done it to see if the new guy gave me more info.  Anyway went there to find bodies.  I think there should be a prize here, consisting of a dead Resy soldier (the other civvies had a soldier so why shouldn't they) armed with a hunting rifle and plenty of mags (they're only 6 rounds each).   If you've been hunting for this place for a long time you'll be pretty fed up to find only bodies.   Actually have two soldiers and a medic, making it a real sickener ... "if only I'd got here in time I would have a much stronger squad."   Oh yes and maybe there is a weaponholder with M21 but no ammo at all.

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.

That's what I'm saying.   A bit more ammo doesn't make much difference because there is actually enough anyway.    When you find a useful weapon, it should have 2 mags, but half the time you shouldn't find a useful weapon.

Approached Dourdan alone from the west and shot the 5 guards.   Jumped into the truck and drove downthe street, passing a T80 coming the other way.     Leapt out and managed to get to the woman's cutscene.   Sound files too mostly too quiet, although it may be my right speaker again.   The larche map is just showing off.

I like the non-linearity of the plot.    One thread being the civvies (linear) and the other being the 2 women, leading to the Russian, the woman and now her husband.   It makes a big difference having a choice of places to go.

Oh yes, lag.  None.  Well I had a little on arriving at the lodge the first time but my viewdistance was 2000.   Since then it has felt a little heavy occasionally but nothing major.   Mind you I haven't had a major battle or anything.

Went to Larche and found the empty house.  Thought I'd cleared the town but there was one left and he hits me one millisecond after the save, so I'm stuck.   The town looked good - you couldn't possibly be in the southrons area.  The contrast you were striving for has been achieved.   There was no flag on the pole and it struck me that I have seen no flags on vehicles or units.  It's not impossible that I've missed them but very unlikely.   Environmental effects were set on high, although I suppose its not impossible that the cockup affected that.

Anyway that's me done for that run, sadly.  I wanted to return to Dourdan to see if the woman had anything to say and then to La Trinite to observe events there.  After that it was just a case of starting the war and clearing the island.

Oh no, wait, I can pick up another kind of save ... yes, I can visit la trinite.  I'd rather not go through the Dourdan - Larche - back to Dourdan routine again unless its important.  What happens when you go back to the woman?

On to 3.   Southrons left and 6 minutes later northrons arrived.   They only stayed a minute or two, but returned about 8 minutes later again staying only a minute.    I feel they shouldn't be visiting twice in a row without the other lot turning up.   About 17 mins later the southrons appeared again and staye for about 9 mins.

No flags on poles.   Rather a lot of barrels given fuel is otherwise so tightly controlled.  Three crates might look better than four.  I presume you've tried mixing in some of the white crates for variety.  (Different number of white for each side obviously.)    There have been lots of changes here since the last version I played - lots of vehicles gone.    It would be kind to have a damaged, fuelless ambulance:  too damaged to move, but still ok to heal if such a thing is possible.   Preferably wedged between two damaged buildings somewhere so you're never going to get it out even if you repair it.    

No ammo truck is probably right.   You have to bring your own but this raises two issues.  Firstly, the fuel in the trucks is simply not enough, there must be more.    (I had one run out on the way from Dourdan to Larche.)   You need those vehicles for slickness purposes.    Fuel should run out after two or three trips up and down the island, not halfway to your first destination.   Secondly, we all know how vehicles take damage just from driving around.    So far I haven't seen any way to repair them.   You shouldn't have to take Base to get a repair truck.   Maybe there are some and I just haven't found them, but then maybe a clue would be helpful.      Perhaps make Ruslan, Kark, Erik or Irena a mechanic by trade:  with proximity, an order from you and a suitable animation they can fix wheeled vehicles as long as they are not too badly damaged.

The mines dialogue is good.   "Check tripwires" should be "Count tripwires".

(On the ammo in weapons, why not have the occasional soldier with a kozlice?  Or just hand grenades?  If ammo is that short, some loons would have to take what they can get.   Particularly at places like the Le port.   You have a lot of towns to take in this mission, and there's plenty of difficulty kicking around: there's no harm at all in making some places easier.)

After the southrons left I had only 6 minutes again before the northrons arrived - this really is too short.  They stayed for about 10.  It's possible that hte previous double arrival was in fact them shuffling about in the mist - I was long way off.   You can't put satchels to the lorry either, which is boring.

Dammit where are there empty ammo crates around?   Why not just have the other hut empty?

What would be really cool - but quite hard - would be if you left your lorry in the village while the convoys were coming and going, as I did, then one of the loons jumps in and drives it away.   Now that really would piss you off.

[macguba]

New post, because this one is purely in response to mikero's story.

Tatyana was sitting beautifully on the bed, no bother.

Lack of fire does remove warmth from the scene and hurts the raison d'etre of hte guards.   They should probably all be asleep or something.   But the lack of fire is definitely right, it makes you search the village.

I too considered "fighting" my way to the lodge but it just can't be done.    Remove the law loon from la pessagne.  You should be totally vulerable to armour.

No trouble achieving voiceover at bus crash.

Dialogue at the start does take you out, but not sure what you can do.

Can't remember if you do (suspect not) but you should say somewhere that your squad gain experience.

Sergei.   I also had an unconscious thought that he should be wounded, but of course he shouln't be - he's a deserter.  I also though that he should ask for food, but that opens up a whole can of worms, pun intended.

Never saw a peeping civvy, but then I forgot to look.  Also been almost entirely in the south, where there are no buildings from which to peep.

No mad women for me.

[THobson]

Okay, look (now does that ring a bell?).  Not red wine tonight.  Spanish cava, and the other half thinking visibly that I should not be here.  So I am typing slowly (cava) as quick as I can (other 1/2).

Some great ideas here.  A few comment, more sober ones to follow:

No flags on poles.

At LaT!!  I don't do anything with them.  I am concerned.

I'd rather not go through the Dourdan - Larche - back to Dourdan routine again unless its important.  What happens when you go back to the woman?

You get to explain to the woman about the loss of her family.  Isn't that right Mikero?

Firstly, the fuel in the trucks is simply not enough, there must be more.

The lodge and LaT have barrels, so too do the camo nets in the north.  Choose where you steal the trucks from.

I love the idea of a damaged ambulance at LaT.

Occassionally there are two visits of the northrons for every one of the southrons.  I thought I had fixed that, but clearly not.  After the southrons leave I give myself 5 minutes before I get the hell out of Lat.  Once the southrons leave I allow myslef 10 - 15 (it is a longer journey).  I could put in a delay for the northrons, or I could alllow the player to learn.

Dammit where are there empty ammo crates around?  Why not just have the other hut empty?

Thank you.  Great idea

What would be really cool - but quite hard - would be if you left your lorry in the village while the convoys were coming and going, as I did, then one of the loons jumps in and drives it away.  Now that really would piss you off.

Well that would completely knacker my usual approach.  It did always strike me as odd that I could leave my truck there and the loons would just ignore it.  I will see what I can do. ;D

[THobson]

You posted while I was writing.  Must rush (reason explained above)  

Can't remember if you do (suspect not) but you should say somewhere that your squad gain experience.

Only in the read me.  Sort of in passing.  Another thing for the player to learn, an for me to explain more clearly.

[Planck]

You get to explain to the woman about the loss of her family.  Isn't that right Mikero?

When I played the last version, I went back to the woman when I found the house in Larche was empty, but she was 'resting' and my character didn't want to disturb her.


Planck

[THobson]

That was the last version.  It is a little different now.  

[Mikero]

HI :wave:

Mac is that breath of fresh air, that newcomer to the game (even if he isn't) that pops a few fuses and points out the faults we all can't see.

@Thobson: S.O.B. Like other versions, you've introduced a new element to this mission that I can't mention from spoiling it for others. So, You and Mac were discussing how to differentiate the sides. You finally, found the key. It's personal now, isn't it.

just quickly.

>Mac's 2nd road block.

The problem is the lack of eye candy relative to the bus. Use rusted wrecks from a battle long ago. Not destroyed hulks, they'll confuse player. Rusted wrecks.

>missing grave sound file.

first time it has ever happened to me, along with jogging tatyana/ bed / and preg woman cutcsene bugz.

A bit of word crafting required, you developed this theme on the fly. "Sick OLD woman" is no longer appropriate.

>boat.

I like it exactly as it is. I drowned once, trying to use it. Don't touch.

>skills?

no, i took the decision not to check this, this playthru. Too much else to do.

> x4

Mac is right. Readme needs altering. This has always been a whinge.

>AP/AV blurb in radio message

get rid of it. Noisy nonsense. Not needed.

>Hints

Player needs feedback. Don't touch. I *hate* the thought of you DARING to give me YOUR opinion of how many savegames i deserve before i start. How arrogant. Reward me when I do good, and leave it at that. The mix you have now is right. About twice as many as I need. They don't pull you out of the game sufficiently at the times they occur, to warrant removal. Leave them alone or get a smack.

>objectives.

I'm against this. These are tangential objectives. Having them added to the list would be fine (because it doesn't take you out of game immersion, you do that yourself). But, I love the free-wheeling any option is a good option style of play. The nagging feeling I haven't found all your hidden secrets. In a subtle way objecive lists are a nasty train track style that shouldn't be put into this mission. You're whammed and slammed across this entire island in this mission. Confused, dazed, often wounded, and much of the mission is about pissing the player off with desperation. To give her solid anchors in a sanity list might be a bad idea. I'm against it, but Mac is right also.

>Fuel

I LOVE the randomness. The not knowing which vehicle is a good vehicle. I LOVE being pissed off running out of fuel when I desperately didn't want that to happen. Leave it alone. I dont want the certainty of being able to drive a -> b. that's the point of everything that happens to you this mission. You just don't know. Like life. I have my little staging posts of refuel areas. I, me, the player, took the trouble to notice where they were. I have a small arsenal of FUELED vehicles because of that. Leave it alone. Let me go back and play this mission again and try and do better next time.

>Red flags

Just remembered how much trouble I had in earlier releases figuring out who was who. The introduction, early, of RED flag carriers solves this. You need to now counter this with an equivalent startling visual to the Northrons, I am smothered in Red things for a long time in the mission. I need the equally startling *difference* of a squad of nasties from the North at the earliest opportunity. Mac's roadblock comes to mind. The flagpoles hold no significance in this regard until AFTER, i get my team mates.


@specifically Mac

>wolves and pants wetting

too bloody right. First time encountered was at T3 in the forest. Where I disagree with you is the magic happened _because_ there were loons around. I was convinced the unpleasant things coming at me WERE wolves or worse, mutations of wolves in human form. Nuclear war and all that.

>still too much ammo and it is a slickness thing

agreed on both counts. I particularly agree with slickness. It is slick, to grab an extra magazine, it is not slick to jump left knee over toehold trying to empty the last mag out of a weapon. 2 mags required please. Or, yes indeed, utterly useless crap like kozlice's. Either way, this is a late development in THob's theme and the mission is better for it, one of those hindsight things. just needs polishing. There is still, too much ammo, or, just enough. It's close.

>loon drives vehicle away pissing player off

BRILLIANT

Any player who hasn't learned to put (some of) his people on sentry duty is going to learn real quick. (and develop a whole new game play method for themselves)

>no campfire at Vigny

Reluctantly have to agree.

[Mikero]

Dourdan ->south

Have just left the Woman at Dourdan.

we turn off at Houdan for a small diversion up mountain. I want the south to attack us now. I'm baying for blood. Sentry on dirt road get's riddled, as does the rpg guy at 1st hamlet. He has changed position slightly in this version. All buildings destroyed this hamlet. Run up road to barn which is oddly undamaged and walk inside. Have no memories of this from previous missions, 4 murdered woman, and the impact of the south is *now* beginning to hit home. Prior to this mission, it wasn't personal.

<bug>

bed is sticking out of wall somewhat and losing it's impact because of it.

I'm coming back this way Sisters, first, I'm going south, but, we will be back, and we will be taking Chapoi on from the mountain ridges. God help the defenders.

Drove into dangerous valley neck near beach turn off. This time stopped at ural. Voiceover, carnage more shocking than I remembered. A trail of sickening bodies escaping. Oddly, two loon soldiers nearby. I'm guessing the resistance took them out.

I'm willing any Southron to come anywhere near us now.

Get to Le Port turn off, take out the 4 sentries, and a silent bmp, which I suspect was looking for us back at Houdan (wrong about this) kills our medic. Restart. Took four sentries out, no sign of bmp. Will chase him in a minute or two. We drive on down to Le Port, I'm willing anything to try potshots at us.

No real issues with Le Port sentries. A Mgunner wounds me at 30 meters but I stand my ground, literally.

Cutscene kicks in. Nice touch giving a name at the end. The very first time I encountered this, the back walls were inexplicably destroyed after the cutscene. Now, all the prisoners appear to simply dissolve into the buildings. Have never encountered the gate opening. Also, cannot climb steel tower. Not bugs, just a report.

I'm after that bmp.

I turn off to lighthouse island on a hunch. Truck is splatted on peninsula by the bmp's friend. Retry.

drive our way towards where i think they are, splatted.

walk our way. Every attempt, bmp and Godzilla go bang, but so do we. My troops just aren't accurate enough and are taking too many wild shots. I give up for another time. We'll meet again. I know when. And I 'approve' of their holding positions. I should never have been allowed a scenic drive onto the peninsula island without penalties in earlier versions. This is likely to scare the bejesus out of players. In a different mood, I'd take these tanks on in a better crafty way. In a different mood, i would have driven back for satchels and perhaps I will, but right now, my mind is set on overlooking Chapoi. I want blood, and lots of it.

Drove what I thought was a cunning North West angle up mountain ridge. Can't be certain, but reasonably sure the parked T72 took one shot at us. He didn't need to fire again. Sigh.

All in all, I've stuffed up. I've got the wrong vehicle. It has no ammo, tempted to go back for my open five tonner (which was a gorgeous present, thank you), but fury spurs me on,

Snipers go down, one, two, three, four, five. It's my squad doing the hard bits. We're crawling, lie down mode, my rocket guys have had their rockets taken from them, specifically, and we're all in stealth. Most snipers dead on last 10 meters before them. The are twitchy, they are alert, my squad is twitchier.

Crawl on in. Mist terrible. Get to vantage point to just see outlines. Few loons pay in blood. Then a 7squad kill us all from the direction we crawled from. Cannot detect if they are Norths or not.

Retry, confuse myself and end up at mined town. re-orient and head back to where we started (last major tree clump on mountain close to Chapoi). Same loons waiting for us. bang, we're dead.

Retry, get to forest faster. Loons coming up at us (suggesting Southrons). Bang. they're all dead.

Start crawling in. No overall purpose. I know this fight, learned earlier mission play. In mist, stay in widest possible open areas, inch forward. I want these buggers charging me. If I have to, I'll switch tactics and hit the fuel depot. But snipers are my priority, anything to attract them suits me.

1st couple of attempts aren't too good. We're closing in on the vehicle area. It's a bad choice. Too much cover for the individual nasties hiding in / around sandbag walls. A change of tactics brings us near the umm, sand dune thing? and we crawl directly towards HQ. We're doing well from occaisional loons coming up our way, but getting injured. #6 (Ruslan) is an excellent spotter he exceeds the others for whatever reason. But he's too keen on some damn m2 nest at west (fuel station side) entrance. It's always been a tuffy that, or the ones direct east towards mountains if you attack from the fuel station side. The bushes/trees between, give 'unfair' cover to them. I get my squad back and put them in the road towards mined town. A vulcan is there Sergi is hopeless with his AT launcher it's the 99th time he misses something (Abrahms near Le Port before). Several restarts involved because we're very close to buildings trying to get away. Occaisonal loons coming up at us and I can't see the Vulcan only Sergei can (and Ruslan). Eventually crawl them to road, get them down and waiting. There's been NO Northron loons afaik. I think my squad's safe here but I get them, 'scan horizon'. Have decided to finish Stamenov by myself. Wasn't in awful spot, just decided to pull my people out, and that, was an adventure in itself.

Crawl back in and just take my time. Edge at a time, picking off black ops particularly. A few retries but much less than expected. I recall if you attack the town directly, there's far less enemy activity. What is there, is generally stunned. The T72 I can't see, can sure hear him though. Several sporadic, nasty things come my way but not in hordes. Clean out more snipers as they come chasing and am pleased. These guys, the snipers, are very alert and always chase you. We're in a lethal position with a T72 and a Vulcan covering most of our escape options, but Chapoi never kicks into high gear, so they wont actively look for us.

See dead civils near their prison. For whatever reason, this trigger occured well well before we ever got here.

No signs of dead northrons, no signs of burning hulks. Reasonable guess, that if I went anywhere near the fuel station, hell, would break loose, so I don't.

Finally end up in HQ area on game of cat 'n mouse that I've done (surprisingly) well with. Race into HQ shoot Stamenov who's standing up !!!. Race out, shot dead by sniper near T72. Retry.

Stamenov standing has got me curious, I crawl up the wire tower to get a bead on him instead. No chance. Race in, kill Stamenov (officer voiceovers remain, good) race out. grab satchel and hk, race-dodge into buildings hospital etc, near T72. Surprised by loon, dead. Retry, ditto. Shoot loon another loon another loon. All three were 'buried' within building, or at least, hiding in there. HK is a nice weapon<>

Got sniper, and casually walk to T72. His interest in me, all missions, is sporadic. I made the terrible mistake once, of ignoring him.

Up he goes, savegame, call my squad in because it's VERY quiet. Move to prison yard to get voiceover, decide to take on Vulcan. retry involved because Sergei is totally hopeless. Pop him, maybe 30 secs later ANOTHER Vulcan hits us from South West (Le Port direction). Christ! Thobson.

Eventually sort that mess out and generally standing our ground. Choice to do so is the almost lack of enemy loons. (soon to change, but that was the choice)

The awful, the silent, the deadly, Godzilla makes it's appearance. I was kind of expecting something but not the deadly way it approaches. (Took the time to check the cfgModel earlier) the profile's accuracy is a little higher than other vehicles meaning it's harder to detect. I found this out at Goisse, earlier. Everyone can spot the bmp's and vulcans and T80's, but not that mongrel thing. I have everyone armed as best as they'll ever be, so it's time to take a stand against it. If necessary, I'll trick it into the mountains.

Couple of nags that you can do nothing about. The presence of this Godzilla, and / or the 2nd vulcan have made my squad go stupid. I cannot get them to arm up with anything, collect anything, keep up with me. Lots of where are yous. I suspect the mist. I think, the engine is working triple time, at detection levels.

We move to fuel station side of Chapoi and hide in good cover. A LOT of enemy come down road at us, a very big LOT (probably 3 squads). Taking great pleasure in killing them all. Our squad is lethal. The enemy is pretty ferocious too, and we're taking wounds, but 3 squads never make it.

Briefest of pauses, then the soft sound of a Godzilla. Good, I think time to finish him off. Convinced he'll make his appearance on south side, we wait. He blasts us to pieces from north side (mountains).

Retry, swing about, wait for one of my people to fire, then I do. What's this? a bmp. Bugger.

WHATS THIS!!

TWO #$*)(*_$#@_ GODZILLAS

Hobson you are a total )(*_*@#A$_*_*$@_

I've been in very bad situations in all mission versions. I've never once lost every single one of my people within 30 sceonds.

You sir, are a swine, and I hope you get gout.

[THobson]

I am still nursing a bit of a hangover so I am a bit bleary eyed.
Mikero:

>missing grave sound file.

first time it has ever happened to me, along with jogging tatyana/ bed / and preg woman cutcsene bugz.

So it happened to you too this time?  And your right speaker is okay?  

>AP/AV blurb in radio message

get rid of it. Noisy nonsense. Not needed.

I am sorry I am not sure I understand this.  Is this the radio option to get instructions on the mines?

need the equally startling *difference* of a squad of nasties from the North at the earliest opportunity. Mac's roadblock comes to mind

I would like to have some northron loons here (northern road block), problem is wars would then start too easily.  I want the player to have to work out that he needs to start a war and then figure out how to do it.

objecive lists are a nasty train track style that shouldn't be put into this mission

That is where I am, but the problem is the player, because of years of being trained to, will expect them.  That's why I start off with them but then I try to use different ways to remind the player what to do.

Bye the way, the place you found was there in the last version just no one found it.  Did you recognise it?  (Cast your mind back to the intro)

He has changed position slightly in this version.
.
.
bed is sticking out of wall somewhat and losing it's impact because of it.

I would not have left the bed like that.  I have just checked again in the mission editor and I didn't.  These comments and the Tatyana bed thing and the lack of Alexi appearing in the Dourdan cut scene is beginning to make me think that some how, in your specific case things have been shifted slightly.  It can't be translation problem from the mission editor version to the pbo version or I would have had some of these problems when I tested the mission before up loading.  I can't explain it and I don't understand it.  It just seems to be that way.

As ever I love your stories.  You describe how it feels to live the mission and it is the sort of thing I barely hoped would happen when I was putting it all together.  So with you and mac I get a wonderful balance.

Two Abrams!   Well is has always been possible.  I haven't added any.  

Good luck. ;D

[macguba]

Whew, it's almost as much work commenting on the other beta testers as it is on the mission ...  ;D

Flags on poles.  I am concerned too.  I will create a fresh game and check.   Should the attacking squad at vigny have a flag?

As a general principle in mission editing, never reward the player with one savegame.   He needs that savegame to save immediaetly, to protect the acheivement for which he has been awarded the savegame.    In other words, to make it a real reward, you must give at least two.

My strong preference is for no hints/savegames in the mission - you start with some and that's it.   If you are persuaded otherwise by that false prophet mikero, then give several at once.

Objectives.    I propose a new system which will be better but a little tedious to create.    The Objectives will be search vigny then the 4 for the armies and leaders.    The only other one is called "check my notes" or something and links to a page.  This page is effectively a contents page for the non-objective objectives.    This contents page is dynamic and gets changed (or rather the check my note objective gets changed) to allow you to see what you have discovered.   In other words you have about ten different contents pages, each one carrying the links to other pages reminding you of what to do.   This gives you the information written down in the Briefing without them being objectives.

Fuel.  I'm all in favour of wagons running out of it, I just think - for slickness reasons - it happens a little too soon.  

Wolves and pants wetting.  I think mikero's right.   I though they were odd near a town because I knew they were wolves.  If I didn't know, it would be even scarier.

mikero and I agree on the ammo thing.    So it MUST be right.  ;D

I am in favour of a difference in the "safe" time at LaT depending on who is due next.   However 6 minutes is just too short, given that it is about 35 minutes before that 6 minutes occurs again.

@mikero - when I went to Le Port I also had trouble getting out of the peninsula.    At first I tried to take out the VCP guards, who we had missed on the way in.   In the end I just pointed the truck NNW and pressed the E key as hard as I could.   We got lucky.

[Planck]

Ok......Where is this version 3.0 that Mikero is touting on the main page?.....Hmmmmmmm?

I want to play this advanced version, it should be even better than version 1.3.


Planck

[Mikero]

@Planck

Bum. Nice spot.

@Macguba

>appending objectives to notes (or similar device)

you sir, are, a genius.

This is *defineately* a beautiful solution if THobson's up to the hard labour involved. A sort of travelogue.

[THobson]

Stamenov standing has got me curious, I crawl up the wire tower to get a bead on him instead. No chance

I have been all over Chapoi and into all the nearby buildings with an m21 just to make sure you can't.

Whew, it's almost as much work commenting on the other beta testers as it is on the mission

Lol.  But you only need to comment.  I need to decide what I want to change and make to do list (I expect that will take most of this weekend - what with it being my wedding anniversary and all).   Oh yes and then I need to make the changes and test it all.  I think my earlier estimate of getting this out before OFP2 is looking a bit shaky

Should the attacking squad at vigny have a flag?

They currently should have.  Based on Mikero's comments I plan to remove it so the flags are more difficult to come across early on.

My strong preference is for no hints/savegames in the mission

I am getting there too.  Sorry Mikero

Good idea on the objectives in the briefing.  There will be a lot of permutations and I would hate to get it wrong.  I will need to think about this - once I have finished thinking about the loons stealing the player's truck.  That really is neat.  It would look best if the truck then joined the convoy, at least until it got back to base - but those convoys took a lot of setting up.  There is also the collision avoidance with the jeep patrols to deal with.  Maybe I will just get them to blow it up.

I am with you on most things, but not yet on the fuel.  Maybe a little more in the south but not much.

I am in favour of a difference in the "safe" time at LaT depending on who is due next.  However 6 minutes is just too short, given that it is about 35 minutes before that 6 minutes occurs again.

I agree.

[macguba]

Maybe a little more

That's all I want.     The minimum should be something like Arudy - Le Port - the lodge.  Plus a little extra for safety.  It's reasonable to expect it to run out after that length of journey.     It's not reasonable for it to run out before it's gone Dourdan - Arudy - halfway to Larche.

Don't make the truck join the convoy, that will end in tears.    (For example if it is an awkward corner in the town.)    Just get the loon to drive to his base in his own time.    Driving it away will be MUCH more effective that blowing it up.   You can't use setpos tricks (the player will probably be watching, at least as best he can) so maybe he can blow it up if he gets stuck.  But that may blow up the huts .... I told you it was tricky.    Maybe they just empty it, drain the fuel and damage it a bit.

[tudders]

Not had a chance to play the new version but it sounds like there's been a few changes that add to the atmpsphere.

The option to turn off some effects to reduce lag is a good idea but im not to keen on the escape from chapoi being removed as well.  I thought that this was a great part of the other versions, adding atmosphere to an already great mission.  Made me feel as though i was making a difference but causing enough of a disturbance in stamenovs forces to make security lax.

Still no-one else seems to have complained so what would i know