(Review Completed) [SP] Abandoned Armies

[Henderson]

After a while, I gave up on Dourdan, but not before taking out a Vulcan and Abrams from the Northrons, and a BMP and another Abrams the Southrons sent up. I made sure neither side made any headway in Dourdan.  ;D I got into my driving ammo dump/ural, and drove just south of Larche and got out. I got out my sniper rifle and looked into the town. There seemed to have been no fighting there, and the soldiers were in safe. When I took aim at one, it seemed he looked right at me and went into Combat. Heh, I still blew him away. :gunman: I sniped the rest of the soldiers with no return fire, then moved my squad in. Right after I heard one of my people say, "Let's change the flag," I heard the Northron jeep patrol coming! I told my people to wait safely out of town, then moved in. I saw the lead jeep come up the main road and Larche, so I readied my Law, fired, and hid. Hilariously the lead jeep flew into the jeep behind it blowing that one up too. Two jeeps down. I then got a M16 from a dead soldier and gunned the people in the last two jeeps down.

After that I got my people together and changed the flag. Then I saw some soldiers moving in from the North. Using my last two laws to help out, my squad and I took down the whole twelve man squad. Larche was mines. I then investigated the house, good dialogue there.

[THobson]

Xcess:

Also.. I REALLY don't like the destryed buildings... they look like sh*t,

I agree, but that is what OFP has decided destroyed buildings should look like - I have been looking at them for so long they have stopped being strange to me.
Yes they are destroyed by a script

Well even the un-modified rain seems to be causing problems on its own.

lilwillie_WI:

No play problems or bugs threw this time in the morning

That is very good to hear.

The fog makes fighting tough but challenging. I've learned to only fire a few rounds and seak a new OP. Fire again and move.

The number of times that has saved me is incredible.

Don't know what the "Yuriclone" bug people are talking about is because my trucks are empty and never have had a problem with getting in or out

Well I know what it is, I have never seen it.  My guess is that something is causing OFP to miss a beat at certain points.  Why exactly there I don't know.  Anyway the next version already has the YuriClone removed.

The Russkie is turning out to be a great scout. He seems to pick up vehicles further out then the resistance soldiers. but maybe that's just me thinking up a reason to not off him.

I like him, especially his baby face and big eyes.

I am interested in knowing how your plan for an ambush at Arudy goes.

A boat trip heh?  Should be interesting.


Mikero:
I need to understand some of the things you found.  Are you running any add-ons?

[THobson]

Henderson:
You were posting while I was typing the previous post.  It is quite incredible how differently people play this mission.  Your description makes me realise there is a possible problem with the flag changing, but it didn't seem to effect you.  Your guy says he is going to change the flag and then some enemy turn up.  I think he will continue changing the flag even with enemy near - possibly with fatal consequences for him.  I will check this.  Glad you liked the house.

[Uber-Pea]

Guess Im doing something wrong. Lost about my whole squad in the first fight I did. Engaged Larche from eastern direction. carefully positioned my squad a huge distance from the town itself.
at first i infiltrated, stole mines and placed them on the streets...unfortunately only one turned out to be well positioned, it destroyed a vulcan some time later.
the infantry was taken out without probs. the tanks moving in after decimated my men to 4 including me. I got a truck full of ammunition, carl G.'s, everything i need...but the squads too small to go on. i forgot to do the standard save at the lodge; it would be most rational to restart the mission right?

oh btw, i took a lot of m16s and AKs from the first 5 enemies, and the patrol and guards at the checkpoint. also m60 and law i  could get, killing them easily all alone (AK-AutoFire ). so my squad was well-equipeed engaging. i myself used the hunting rifle and an law during the assault on larche. guess i should begin with the smaller towns ^^.

Questions:
Will there be personnel-reinforments during the game? i had an idea sth like this: after the civilians have repaired their hut, you can go there and resupply your squad w/ human personnel ^^ . quit irrealistic, as theyre noncombatants though.

after i seized any town, do the tanks and patrol simply spawn near and move in?? seemed to me in several attempts of the mission.

those tanks are tough...goddamn...nice mission
oh yeah, what i absolutely dislike is the fog. cause the enemy units arent affected by it as much as you are. they still kill you from 1-300 metres, you hardly see em at 50'. was pretty strange when my loon, "covering" me infiltrating the town, shot an enemy just before my eyes...being 179 metres behind me...

[XCess]

Thanks Uber. you just gave me an idea to p*** THob off with  ;D
How about every so often.. hour or so? you get one extra person to optionally add to your squad.. and have an extra res person stay back to train them with the use of a rifle.. ofcourse you have the option to use that res member but then you don't get any extra troops.

Also it would be nice to be able to change your character's "clothes" into camo.. maybe steal a truck or raid a town and find uniforms... or have uniforms at the civil hut east of Trinite. Would be a problem with the women though.. but it would solve the problem of not having enough ammo slots for your ppl and keep the idea of them being civilians.

[Henderson]

This is the situation in my game, from what I've seen and heard.

After I left Dourdan I heard and saw the Southron jeep convoy get amubushed and destroyed. Must of been the northrons on the way to Larche. After I began the war at La Trinitie there was lots of firing, but it all seems to have died down. I think all the helicopters are destroyed on both sides, I saw two go down my self and heard some others get destroyed by AA fire. I also think armor has become a non factor. At first when the war started I could hear tank tracks and tanks firing, but after a few trademark explosions, they went silent. That's not counting the other armor I destroyed in Dourdan. Neither side from what I've seen has launched an all out attack.

With the northron jeep convoy down, the war should be nice and even, just like I like it. Hopefully in the infantry slugfest I might be able to take a few more targets.

[Mikero]

Crash to desktop is almost certainly me. Have had a devil of a time getting the right mix of ram sticks up to 1 gig at the correct speeds and blah. Solved all issues with them and your mission is the only thing in last month that has found a hole, but it's your mission doing the testing for me, I doubt it's you're problem.

>Tank repairs.

Yep, went back and grabbed a sorrowful Godzilla at Larche (he hit 'several' mines) repaired just fine. Immediately hit another mine (umm do you think I might have over done my hatred a bit?) and he repaired ok again. Hit another mine.... But a great way of testing, right? Had brief flashbacks of how much this author hates me with his devilish twists. Saw myself repairing all the way to St Louis I think we can successfully say Thobson that tanks are repairable.

>Flag changing specifically at Chapoi

spotted your time delay, pole changed to a glorious St George without 'assistance'. Very fine by me. By this time in game, player has seen looked watched so many times before, she probably wont notice the fiddle.

>Tanks refueling.

my specific issue was a Bradley. It ran out of benzine, game over for it. I must admit that I could have tried several more different approaches by the refuel truck, i know there's a limited target zone, but i tried severally and convinced myself we had a empty re-arm issue. Still think that's true, and maybe just maybe, it is not.

>MacGuba had a different experience with tanks at Airport.

You reduced MacGuba to a mere grunt. He was put off balance in this mission, like the rest of us ;D. Nah, to be fair to that grizzled Scotsman, he had to deal with OTHER armour. I had none against me, just an unoccupied T72. I have zero doubt that with that bloody 'mist', had armour been watching us, we'd be in deep doodoo.

I even LET a law hit me. Couldn't care less, no way they could hurt TWO Godzilla's and a Bradley firing from behind us. In fact it became humorous, the bradley was waypointing behind our two massive godzillas and poking it's head out to splat anything that twitched.

>Well done

In fact Thobson, I've approached this missiuon from the arse end. I'm in the wrong here almost totally because I've treated it as if it was simply version 1.1 with no changes and gone about looking for more bugs. Perception wise it is just 1.1 with 'things' I never noticed before and am reporting them as if they were part of 1.1. But in truth, it's a whole new mission that I should have approached with awe and wonder and reported on it with a good deal more respect.I've obviously tripped over and ignored some changes that I didn't notice, part of, yeah yeah, been there last time, it wont have changed. Like hell.

But, you have a serious issue with 'mist'. And for what it's worth, I think the reverse of you, that rain is 'ok' and fog, is not.

Shock and horror, am going to hack your pbo and get rid of the mist script to see how it plays. Wish me luck and a thousand curses.

[Mikero]

Unbelievable. Do you folks realise what you're reading here?

I've looked at the posts and there are THREE separate missions described on Larche, each a mission in itself, each one an entirely different experience for the player with entirely different outcomes. And this is *only* Larche. An insignificant oupost. Jaw dropping, incredible.

@Thob

Outro: Outstanding, magnificient. You just watch and watch and watch. Please see attached, 'interesting' civil casualties. The play time indicates my abysmal performance on this, should have taken me twice as long as this, not your fault.

Niggle: Beethoven is abrubtly stopped with switch to funeral music, for me, it jarred horribly. Suggestiion, fade out, fade in, with mixture of two sounds (if that's possible)

@all

damaged buildings.

from the first time I ever played, as a young teenager with my dad's pistol, I peeked my head over that cliff and saw the damage, instant evil, i wet myself. I have loved that sceneric ever since. Are you all just 'complaining' about the difficulty of extracting yourselves from them? Visually, they are 'just right' for me.

[XCess]

>Destroyed buildings

All? I thought it was just me?   My main problem is clipping.. getting stuck on them, especially in Trinite, and that damn annoying time in Houdan.. My number two managed to kill a whole truck full of soldiers, except 2 or three, I was near one of the destroyed builsings and decided to throw a grenade at the survivors.. the grenade hit a clipping error and killed me.. sending me back to my save at the lodge.
Also I have the view it causes lag.. but that could just be my mind playig tricks on me.. it does that a lot...  

[Mikero]

@Xcess

think this is personal choice stuff. There was a discussion about this 1.1 where it was estimated you'd need to have played god knows how many missions just to be aware of this 'feature', let alone extract. For me, as annoying as it can be, the eye candy visual is too good to remove.

@Thob

YuriClone, 2nd run through missin, whole new start.

There are clones, or ghosts, in back of truck. I loaded 2,3,4 in front so I'd be forced to mount, rear, and sure enough, Yuri was there along with my precious girlfriend Irena.
If you've just deleted him, then I guess this 'problem' will appear with a different ghost at some time. (You haven't had much luck with this vehicle have you Make it run out of fuel.

> 1st civilians.

It jarred for me that there was a body bag. This is inconsistent with the cutscene of my dead uncle. Think you should change it to a grave to re-inforce the message that we, not they, bury our dead. Particularly as my character keeps uttering surprises at all the bodies 'just left there' My character would insist it's buried. (Opportunity for a triggered cutscene if I see the body?)

Also, whenever we go back to lodge (which is the only safe and consistent place to do this) could we have a cutscene of burying any of our fallen? If we lose Sergei eg? Would be nice and consistent with the initial 3 graves.

[THobson]

Uber-Pea:
You are doing nothing 'wrong'.  I suggest you don't think of this as an OFP mission where you can just wade in and slaughter the enemy.  There are a lot of them and you are weak.  Have you checked the skill levels of your team?  They are pretty inexperienced at the beginning, but they do become more skilful as progress is made.  My tactic at that stage of the mission is - kill a few and run like hell - and if the few is only one then it is still one less to worry about later.  Actually that is my tactic for most stages of the mission.

after i seized any town, do the tanks and patrol simply spawn near and move in?? seemed to me in several attempts of the mission.

Absolutely and utterly NOT!!  All the units that come to attack you start off on the island in realistic places and travel from there to get you.  I am not playing games or setting traps for the player.  In the readme I warn the player that if they find themselves in an impossible situation, it is because they got themselves into it.  Not that I set a trap for them.

Thanks Uber. you just gave me an idea to p*** THob off

Why is it that I attract such sympathy and support?

How about every so often.. hour or so? you get one extra person to optionally add to your squad.

No way - sorry.  This dates back to when I was beta testing macguba's Un-Impossible mission.  I was very pleased to finish the mission with no casualties to my squad.  He and others seemed indifferent to that, it was as if the survival of the player was paramount and the rest of the squad were just cannon fodder.  In this mission I try to put a different angle on things.

Also it would be nice to be able to change your character's "clothes" into camo.. maybe steal a truck or raid a town and find uniforms...

I would love to do that if I could have a female soldier - but I can't, and I am not going to upgrade Ruslan and Erik leaving Irena as some sort of second class soldier - she deserves better.


Henderson:
Keep up the good work.


Mikero:

Good news (for me) about the ctd.

Thanks for the repair test

but i tried severally and convinced myself we had a empty re-arm issue. Still think that's true, and maybe just maybe, it is not.

Tanks that are completely empty of ammo of a particular type cannot get more from an ammo truck - this is standard OFP!!  There are some tanks that I have placed in the mission that deliberately have no ammo.  I have also written a script for these units that will enable them to re-arm at an ammo truck.  Does your experience contradict this?

If you de-pbo the mission:
In init.sqs near the top is a Boolean called setEnvironment.  It is currently set to true.  If you change that to false it will turn off the fog, the overcast, the rain and will not set the time of day.  If you want to keep the time of day then leave that variable alone and just kill the scripts weather.sqs and fog.sqs.  Either put an exit instruction as their first line - or just delete then from init.sqs.

Civilian casualties:  Did you kill a fuel station?  The Policeman is Stamenov, even though I have him as a west soldier OFP still counts him as civi for the purposes of the de-briefing.

Niggle: Beethoven is abrubtly stopped with switch to funeral music, for me, it jarred horribly. Suggestiion, fade out, fade in, with mixture of two sounds (if that's possible)

I can't merge the sounds.  The music you get at that point depends on how many casualties you took.  You got funeral music because you took no casualties and so the scene only needed to show the player Tatyana and uncle Nik.  If you took casualties in your squad then you are shown these also - where they fell (try it with a save game).  That takes longer and so a longer music track needs to be chosen.  I will look at doing a fade in and out.

All (but especially XCess):
Damaged buildings.  Getting stuck in them is a pain.  The first time it happened to me I thought the whole idea was down the toilet, but if you hit the deck and crawl forwards or sideways you can always get away.  Not realistic, but it is only a game, and there are some limitations we have to live with.  I like the impression of mayhem that they create.

Mikero (again):
YuriClone.  I need to be precise about this.  There are actually two clones.  One is Yuri and the other is the woman that tells you about Houdan.  When you got back in the truck the only person you did not expect to see there was YuriClone?  There was no additional woman right?

I introduced YuriClone to solve a problem.  I have now solved that problem another way and so have completely removed YuriClone from the mission.  I had better check HoudanWomanClone though

It jarred for me that there was a body bag. This is inconsistent with the cutscene of my dead uncle. Think you should change it to a grave to re-inforce the message that we, not they, bury our dead. Particularly as my character keeps uttering surprises at all the bodies 'just left there' My character would insist it's buried

Excellent point.  Thanks

Also, whenever we go back to lodge (which is the only safe and consistent place to do this) could we have a cutscene of burying any of our fallen? If we lose Sergei eg? Would be nice and consistent with the initial 3 graves.

Another good idea.  I won't be doing it though, sorry.  The reason is that in the final scene if you have taken any casualties you get a shot of them where they fell.  It can be quite poignant and powerful.


One  again.  Thank you all for the time and effort you are putting into this.  It is really helpful.

[LukieTee]

wow im new to ofpec and i though what the hell i'll beta the mission   I get up the hill with slight lag, knock off the soldiers in the house (in my trigger happy moment i cap the girl in the head)

restart

kill em all then talk to her. watch her get shot like a muppet and take an m16 and gun down the laughing soldiers. I have to say the way that you speak about the bodies really buit my enjoyment of the game. got in police jeep and drove off. i accidently run over a few soldiers heading to Vigny and the one at the nearby town and get to the lodge. i follow the game, get the civvies then i thnk lets kill some soldiers (ill get the other civvies later so i get in truck and head south 2 look 4 a patrol. i find one and cap em all as they ran away then wolfs started howling   sh****g my pants i lay down and tell my women to walk around a bit BANG
"4 is down"
a group of 12 runs out of the mist guns blazing at my squad. i cap the leader and my squad finish the rest with a few stolen m60's. slightly scared i run away to the lodge. i get their and yet again more howling??? right beside the ruins another group of 12 come running past like cannon fodder and add a few extra pieces of ammo to the cause. Then scared that more would come i saved and quit but so far no bugs a few destroyed buildings getting a bit strange but i have not even seen Yuriclone or anyother man oh and the fog adds more realism to the game and a challenge i think that it evens out the ai to my beautifull aiming so ive got to think of where im going .

so far VERY VERY fun i would say its probably one of the best games out their keep up the good work and i hope theirs gonna be a sequel  ;D  ;D

[Mikero]

>i hope theirs gonna be a sequel  

There sure is.

Larche, Arudy, Goisse,  St Louis, Doudan, Houdan,......

And if you ever finish those sequels, you might, just might, start the REAL mission halfway thru.

Then of course there's the epilogue of Chapoi, perhaps the airport,,,

ok ok I'll shut up.

<slap>

[456820]

hey Thobson ive decided that i will restart this mission well i decided a while a go but my brother kept telling me to get of the computer so ill test very soon hope the problem doesnt happen again

[THobson]

456820:
I hope so too.  I can see what must have happened - even though it should not have.  It cannot happen in the next version.  Try stopping as soon as you can when you ate told to at the lodge.