(Review Completed) [SP] Abandoned Armies

[THobson]

Question why do i constant hear weird noises like tanks and people firing laws and m16 shots when none of my squad has fired a round yet ??

I have no idea.  Others have heard this as well.  It was suggested that this is just some blue on blue.  Unless you have done something they should not be fighting each other.

got some message saying put up the malden flag to show them weve arived, okay so i did how about an action like erm the medic one to make it look like your winching up and down the flag ?

Well if you had not been in such a hurry and rushed to the flagpole yourself you would have seen one of your team mates do exactly that.

i noticed a mis prenounciation of chapoi look on the official campaign it has it there

I think in the official campaign they prounce the town names in the way soldiers the world over pronounce them.  The people in the team are locals to the island, I prefer their pronunciation .  Seriously - thanks for spotting this, but I am unlikely to change it.  Before I started recording any of the voices I posted a question about pronuncialtions and no one really cared.

Is there not one other objective that might be achievable?

[Mikero]

>there are no bodies at Larche

It's fascinating to read how we all, automatically tune our antenna into bug mode, looking for the inconsistencies and 'errors'. things that don't gel. We just assume, almost 100% rightly that if it don't look right, it's an oversight by the author. In *this* mission nearly all those apparent inconsistencies are intentional, it's only later, the light goes on, AAH! now, I get it, The more towns you visit, the more, subtle differences kick in. Sometimes they glare, and look like newbie author bugs, they aint. Sometimes they're very subtle and we think we've spotted something Hobson hasn't. And mostly, I miss them all. But anything I've spotted becomes clear and 'oh yes of course' a few hours later.

@uber_pea

at a Benchmark of 5000 and 2gig6 you should be 'ok'. The 'trick' is, the moment you detect 'heaviness'. Run like hell. As in get the hell out of there because almost for certain, two armies are on their way to your position. Even without lag, you would not survive.  While the lag is not Hobson's deliberate choice, one of his many 'methods' of tackling this mission for the player is to hit and run as far away as possible. At no time in this mission will you ever survive as Rambo.

@Hobson.

Everyone asks this question, sooner or later. How do I?, can I?, trigger a war. I think you should change the dialog about "how can we hurt them most". I don't think you should give any clues away how to (and I was dissapointed as you know, when I found out how easy it was), simply a statement (in effect) that clearly indicates, you can. That's what a player needs to know, whether or not there's any point even trying to.

[456820]

I posted a question about pronuncialtions and no one really cared

i remeber that but i didnt know about the way they pronounce it on the official campaign

Is there not one other objective that might be achievable?

there is but that would be very very hard to snipe one of the leader's actually ill take the hunting rifle and have a go i doubt i will get very far

also when i have rescued the civillians both of them that is my team are now all experts even though they havent had any combat experience wich is kind of good but not real you cant gain combat experience if your getting driven in a truck from one place to another

[qqqqqq]

It was suggested that this is just some blue on blue.

Flat wrong.    

It's red on red.    ;D       (think about it)

Common as muck in OFP btw.

[456820]

i just thought of something both of the main bases will be heavily secured with tanks, men, 50cals and other things so how would only 12 of us men experts or no experts be able to attack both of these bases with having enough men left over if you attack the south base it will be very unlikely to find more fighters as the south just kill all the civillians but the north is an air base bigger so it will need more defense so well find that harder im basically saying it will be nerly impossible to attack these 2 bases and survive unless you have one of those multiple squad control scripts ?

[THobson]

But anything I've spotted becomes clear and 'oh yes of course' a few hours later

This is exactly the sort of thing I want to have happen.

I am not sure benchmark is a good measure of a machines performance.  Benchmark can be quite different for machines with different specs - but with the more powerful machine scoring the lowest.  Macguba has some recent experience of this but I can't remember the details.  My benchmark is 4000 by the way.  CPU 32.GHz.  I run Windows XP Pro with two users permanently logged on and one of them running a background program that is matching molecular structures of possible drugs to protein from cancer cells - part of one of these massive parallel processing schemes involving large numbers of private pc's - but I get off the topic.  With that set up v1.21 is on the heavy side of what I would like and so some trimming back is needed.

Everyone asks this question, sooner or later. How do I?, can I?, trigger a war. I think you should change the dialog about "how can we hurt them most". I don't think you should give any clues away how to (and I was dissapointed as you know, when I found out how easy it was), simply a statement (in effect) that clearly indicates, you can. That's what a player needs to know, whether or not there's any point even trying to.

It is now harder to start a war.  Killing a convoy anywhere on the map is now not sufficient.  (In earlier versions I had each side retaliate to the destruction of their convoy by occupying La Trinite).  This is one of those things where I would like the player to wake up in the middle of the night thinking - "I wonder if I can get them to fight each other?" and then figure out how to do it.  It is logical.  Just get them to where they come into contact with each other, or (and the player is told about this explicitly by Sergei if they are listening) weaken one side so much that the other side decides to launch an unprovoked all out attack (this will be made a bit easier to do in the next version).  How to get them into contact? - you could get some of them to chase you and lead them into the other side's territory - very difficult to do safely, but isn't it funny how when one vehicle in the convoy is killed or put out of action a group of infantry arrive to investigate and continue to search around the wreck?  There are many ways to do this mission, getting the two sides fighting early on is only one of them and I don't want to point the player in that direction at the expense of them missing out on the other ways to do it.

there is but that would be very very hard to snipe one of the leader's actually ill take the hunting rifle and have a go i doubt i will get very far

I had Houdan in mind.

both of them that is my team are now all experts even though they havent had any combat experience wich is kind of good but not real you cant gain combat experience if your getting driven in a truck from one place to another

They shouldn't be experts if that is all they have done - I will check.  This is not a standard RPG where you get skill points for killing units - I still have in mind that I might add this.  But they do increase their skill by accomplishing certain tasks, also simply spending time together helps the better ones to train the less skilled, and also increases general morale - all reflected in the increase of skill level.

Multi q:
You are absolutely right.  I hope they don't kill all of themselves 456 needs someone to play with. ;D

[THobson]

456:
We were posting at the same time.  You are absolutely correct about how dangerous the bases will be - good thinking.  No multi squad scripts - just you, your father's pistol and your little band.

[456820]

lets search houdan hopefully those women will have a few fighters or know of any were with a few
anyway by any chace is it possible to select a certain save game ?
anyway im no where near houdan bacuase half my squad crawled down a hil
and is it possible to make it so you can drive an m1a1 abram and the rest think its an allied patrol ? so you can become undercover
i wait for the others to catch up but one of my men report a tank 200 at 12oclock so i order my law soldier not to fire and target the tank incase it becomes a trouble then it sounded like the chopper attacked the tank ?? i though these people are ment to be allies.
We come across a jeep about 300metres from any road so whats it doing there ? luckily it didnt notice us so we slipped past and carried on to Houdan
Okay i get to houdan and meet a russian i put a bullet in his head and an objective ticked okay no one to be seen apart from him what a dissapointment so i get my squad into formation and set of home

Now i wish i brought something to come in but no i had to decide to walk all the way on foot
Okay i get back and no cutscene of me telling that girl that her mother is not there
now i need to re think my plan

[Uber-Pea]

Maybe you shouldnt have shot that guy that fast...i wont spoil anything but i can say he will not attack you.

[456820]

i know he wouldnt attack he had no weapon.
and let me guess i have to start that bit again dont i he tells me some info, hopefully i can get to the right place by any chance are they near one of those roads that come of from houdan ?

[Mikero]

Had another crack at this amazing mission.

This time i started a war *before* I got to the lodge!!! (not a bug). I took on a jeep from each of the sides on my way there and they chased me, then, each other. By the time I got to lodge there was scrunched armour everywhere near the 1st civilians. Made an 'interesting' journey to go get them  

Am just suggesting Thob that via cutscene, you confirm for the player that she can, if she wants to, start a war. It's not obvious to a player that it's possible. Considering it could take forever to start one, they need reassuring that thier efforts wont be wasted. But I wouldn't give any clue 'howto'. When I played this mission 1st time ever, I thought you might have designed it with scripts to prevent a war (wasn't aware of blue on blue etc)


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Small irritations with engine.

Police jeep. You can load everything into this vehicle *except* a pk
Ditto you can put an AT4 shell inside, but not, the AT4 itself. All other weapons went in 'ok'

I cannot bury (hide) bodies. No action to do so. This is a bit distressing because I hoped by doing so the war going on 200 meters from the lodge would not spill into us.

Radation signs at T3 often prevent friendly ai from getting at the goodies. M21 eg. Or, they frequently get stuck because of them. Not good.

For the 'easter egg' I cannot open the big wire gates. This leaves them trapped. (unless I run thru the fencing)

At least one machine gun front entrance to airport is fired on even though it's empty (from memory there are 4 that side). Unable to tell which of the four it is.

[tudders]

Just a word on starting the war - why not have it so that you can pick up a Stamenov or Andropov flag from a dead soldier and then kill one of the opposing soldiers - resulting in a war?

I dunno if this is possible or if anyone else likes the idea but this was my first idea on starting the war but it kinda went out the window when i cudnt pick the flag up  ;D

EDIT: Of course i realise you're in a resistance uniform so the idea kinda breaks down, unless the russian (sergei?)  in you squad carries it.

[THobson]

Mikero:

This time i started a war *before* I got to the lodge!!! (not a bug). I took on a jeep from each of the sides on my way there and they chased me, then, each other. By the time I got to lodge there was scrunched armour everywhere near the 1st civilians. Made an 'interesting' journey to go get them

Neat.  I am interested in knowing what effect, if any, this had on the convoys.  If you get chance.

Burying bodies - I wonder if the OFP turns things off deliberately when a mission is consuming a lot of resources.  

Radation signs at T3 often prevent friendly ai from getting at the goodies. M21 eg. Or, they frequently get stuck because of them. Not good.

Thanks.  It is now on the list

I cannot open the big wire gates

You can't.  He can and will only do so when you need him (permanently)

At least one machine gun front entrance to airport is fired on even though it's empty

This is a known OFP issue.  To fix it here would consume CPU resources that I don't have


456820:
It sounds like you have started the war somehow.  And as for the Russian - there is a saying - Don't judge a book by its cover.  I wondered how many people would do this, surprisingly few in fact.

EDIT:
tudders:
It is possible and is in fact a neat idea.  It is just more coding and more pressure on the cpu.  I will now need to slim the misson down rather than add new things I'm afraid.

[456820]

okay now im kinda stuck in this game there arent any objectives i could complete or any towns i could destoroy a convoy but i wouldnt see hoe i would gain from this my men are already full skill and i cant find those women as i shot that russian so by any chace could you just give us a hint on what to do ??
great mission though, but i would hate to start again

[Planck]

Well..........there is no set 'what to do'.

It is a completely open mission, you are free to do what you want whilst working towards the downfall of the enemy.

This is not a standard mission type...

Do this objective
Now do this objective
Good boy.....now do this objective and go to extraction.

You are free to do whatever really.


Planck