(Review Completed) [SP] Abandoned Armies

[macguba]

0.3 net is a bit mean.  It wasn't the time from the second one to the bang that was the issue, it was the total time.    I think you need at least a whole second extra there, maybe 1.5.   Don't forget that the player has to remember/figure out how to drop his weapon.

mikero is right of course.    I suggest a bullet zinging into the ground near the player's feet as a warning.    I've a feeling doTarget won't actually work but definitely worth a try.  Although on my real approaches to this area I've never actually seen who was talking to me, which is why it's not a big deal.

[THobson]

I'll play with the timing some more.  It 'felt' okay - but then I know what's coming.

Although on my real approaches to this area I've never actually seen who was talking to me,

For real, it is dark and foggy.  You are maybe testing it in broad daylight, that's where I do a lot of testing.   They should face you, I will look at doTarget or maybe a combatStand.  A bullet into the ground near the feet is putting a lot of faith in my geometry  I am sure it can be arranged.

[Goettschwan]

I just returned to internet and playing, and i started, albeit slowly, to look at the last version.
First thing i noticed : playing the first cutscene with tatyana reinitializes the weather, which means that with me the mission starts with a measurable time of good weather, before starting to rain heavier and heavier.
This is okay, but the cutscene stopping apparently initializes your randomizing of the weather, after tatyanas death the weather is clear,sunshine, with the occasional thunder out of nowhere. after about the time the two guys need to laugh the rain starts again, but there is ample time to kill them without the rain.
Is this planned like this?
 

[THobson]

You will have noticed that there is now no fire in the house to give any illumination.  This makes the rain inside the house very visible, which looks stupid so while in the house I stop the rain, but not the fog.  After the cutscene I re-start the rain.  I cannot explain what you are describing.

with me the mission starts with a measurable time of good weather

It should not start with good weather anyway.  I cannot remember - do you have any weather influencing addons?

[THobson]

Get v1.32 here

Okay here is 1.32.  Again the list of changes is too long to show in full.  Mostly a lot of tidying up and a few bug fixes.  I have changed slightly the way in which groups are committed to the war in an attempt to spread them out a little.  I also think I have fixed the OFP ‘feature' that sometimes allows the player to drive around safely while running over soldiers.  I only think I have solved it because it is so difficult to test.  I have also made some further improvements to the end scene.  However the main change has been the inclusion of some different voices.  Macguba has taken on another part plus SpikeTennyson and Sui have also joined the cast.

In the absence of any faults or serious problems this is the one I will be submitting.  I now have a new job that will need to take a lot of my attention, and anyway the level of improvements are now hitting the laws of diminishing returns in a big way.  Especially with those damned cutscenes where behaviours seem to change for no apparent reason.

I have made a lot of changes suggested by you all, but I have not made them all.  Some are a matter of style and so if you have suggested something and I have not incorporated it please don't feel ignored.  There is almost certainly something in the mission that each one of you has suggested.

[Planck]

I'll wait till tomorrow to download it, I should have my broadband connection by then.  


Planck

[THobson]

Excellent.  You will love it - broadband I mean.  Will you be getting a machine that breaks above 10 fps as well? ;D

[Planck]

Emmmmmmm....no, I'm stuck with 2-3 fps for a while longer yet.  :-\


Planck

[tudders]

Included in the zip file are several pictures and sound files, am i right in guessing these aren't needed in the pbo?

Congrats if this is the final version.  I think i started with v1.2 or possibly v.1.18 (if it existed  ;D) and thought it was the greatest mission playable.  Since then it's improved immeasurably, BI will have a hard job doing better with Armed Assualt.

I don't know if anyone else likes the idea but in the final release i wouldnt mind seeing v1 included like macguba did with his un-impossible mission.  It would be good for first time mission builders to see how the original concept can evolve into a top class mission.

[THobson]

tudders:
You are correct.  The sound files are for the amusement of the beta testers only and are not needed by the pbo file - I may include them in the pbo file of the final release for de-pbo-ers to stumble across.  The pictures are there for the new requirement to include advertising pictures in the zip file.  Again - not needed by the pbo file.

Thank you for your comments.  It has been a joy (and a pain) making it.  I still have all the old versions, but I was embarrassed about v1.00 (as I called it) even while it was being tested.  I am not sure I would like it to see the light of day again.

[Mikero]

The advertising pictures (bar one) are great Thob. Surely to goodness whoever puts your mission up on their sites will enjoy choosing one of two of them.

I thought the ogg files were a very nice touch. A sort of amusement, and, a rather clever piece of advertising in it's own right. Some of the phrases just make you want to get in and find out what on earth that was all about.

well done, Imho.

[tudders]

Is there an easy way to play the ogg files or do i can i only play them through the mission editor?

[macguba]

I use a free programme called Goldwave for such things.   The default windows stuff can't handle ogg.    There are many sound editing programmes which can.

[THobson]

This is also a free ogg (etc.) player:
http://www.winamp.com/


Mikero:
So you don't like my dawn through an abandoned wire?  I think it looks great at the original size but I must admit it loses a lot in the shrinking.  Or is it another one you object to?

[Mikero]

Niggle niggle niggle.

Overview says version 1.31
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General re-organise.

i'm stopped and no longer leader if i re-organise IN a truck. I think you need to put a crippler in so that re-organisation cannot occur player is in a vehicle. If others are in vehicles or machine guns they simply aren't afterwards, but player is a special case it seems.

Also, squad appears to be in something other than stay alert after any re-organise.

During re-organise, game play continues. This makes it sometimes 'interersting'. I re-organise as soon as I got Sergei (I like to keep the big boys right up front). In the meantime the soldiers came down from the top road and slaughtered u as soon as i 'finished'. Repeated the sequence by checking that soldiers were about 700 meteres away, re-organsied, and they were about 30 feet !

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The new 1st cutscene at lodge is much much much better for me. I wet myself trying to get rid of my weapons.

After cutscene am left with handgun. Fine by me.

yuri visek injured, a nice touch to force me to use medcabinet.

Ditto Sergie.

When I hit the radio, and get 'Visek I know him, he's a good man' theres no-one speaking (no visual). I thought in other veriosn there was?

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Disembarking from ANY civilian vehicle causes weapon to be shouldered. The first instance of using a military vehicle
stops this (including subsequent use of civilian trucks). This would a appear to be an ofp 'feature'.
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I met the Avon Lady at least twice around larche. Lots of fun.

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Pow camp: The dialog mentioning lack of food troubles me, as does the non-opening gate if my original medic is alive.
What I'd prefer to see (and its imho only) is the gate is opened and I tell that medic that he can now go outside and get food from the soldiers truck, house camp or whatever. I don't like the inability to 'free' the prisoners. They remain in effect locked in, and still prisoners.

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Had some absolutely weird stuff happneing this version.

Weird #1.

If I used the ural at Dourdan, it had ghosts. It behaved excactly like the civilian rescue where If i got out, they got out. And in this truck, if I got out, my squad got out. If I got my medic to drive it around HOUDAN. He went in the OPPOSTE direction. Eg north was south, south was north. It was wierder than weird. I eventually abandoned it and used by trusty civil. But I didn't check whether the area around Houdan was the problem, as well as the truck, or just the truck.

Weird #2

I spent a very long time around Chapoi. I elminated everything. I had also (previously) wiped out all southrons in all other towns including the ones without flags.

At a certain point, Godzilla and his friendly BMP wannabe appeared. Afaik, this has only every happened before AFTER i kill stamenove. Maybe not. But it seemed to be a threshold trigger. I'd wiped out everything else.

On my final assault to the HQ. stamenov appeared behind a tree !!!! near the repair and truck depot !!!!

No amount of lead would kill him so I ingored him and went for the 'real one'. I shot him, and then nothing. No voicover, nothing. I went back and blew him up with a satchel (he ended up blown out of his house and hanging on the top of the barbed wire fence. Nothing. I put everyone near the flagpole, hoping for a flag message at least, nothing.

So, sob, I had to stop.

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Had a spectacular fire fight in and around T3. Reminiscent of some Chapoi northron/southron firefights. Tnaks blown everywhere choppers going ballistic, one of those 'scenic views' sort of things.

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Another problem I have is I have persistently started the war too early in most later versios. I am severely aggressive. I take on anything that twitches in Vigny and La P, then wait for the Jeeps and attack them, then wipe out the one or two squad coming via arudy with the police jeep. All in all, this seems to always cause a war, and as a result, I suffer from lag quite badly. It *might* be that even though in earlier versions you set the barrier quite high to start the fight, it was the correct way to do it.

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noticed only two soldiers guarding Tatyana.
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Up to the point where I couldn't continue, the mission remains as wonderful as ever Thob. The only real changes I noticed in this mission were enriched voiceovers. They really are great and the various accents wonderful.