(Review Completed) [SP] OPERATION RATTLESNAKE V2.1

[Gruntage]

Thanks very much for your feedback Aldo.

I've decided to halt the review process (for now), while I make substantial changes to the gameplay (your ideas will be taken into consideration)

Regards,
Gruntage

EDIT: Some new changes have now been added to the mission (see changelog). These new features need to be tested before the mission is submitted for review again.

EDIT2: Download link has been changed to Rapidshare, due to the shutting down of Megaupload.

[Gruntage]

New version (v1.6) is up for download. Anyone for testing it?

[Aldo15]

Hey Gruntage. I've tested your v 0.6 from your mission, and I must say it's so nice. 

I didn't see bugs in the intro. In the mission, well uff! I liked 'disembark\embark view' I chose point number one. I also liked you put those shilkas in ramdom places, so it's better. About your 'detect dead bodies' script, I'm not sure if it's good, well it's good, it works when I tried in the mission editor when a demo mission made by me, I made two and I tried two, and I must say two script (yours and mine) works perfect, but in your mission it didn't work, so I killed a enemy troop and another units walk over him and they won't change their behaviour, maybe you leave some soldiers without that script. I think it'd be better if some units appear from a point when I'm leaving the town, to make mission more interesting and more difficult to complete. In the outro I don't remember I've seen bugs, just a question did you remove choppers scene?

Well it's a good mission. Great Job my friend
Best Regards
Aldo15

[Gruntage]

Thanks for the feedback Aldo.

There might be a slight chance that the bodies script I made doesn't apply to all the troops in the village. I'll have to double check that.

And yes I did remove the chopper scene from the outro. It didn't really serve any purpose, it was more or less put in there for the sake of making the outro longer.

Possibly you left the mission area very quickly, so you didn't get chance to see the Mi17 full of troops appear. But I will consider adding a few more.

Regards,

Gruntage

[Aldo15]

Hey Gruntage

I understand you, maybe your script needs some arrangements, about chooper scene,it doesn't matter, the outro is still good without it. Maybe I can't see your Speztnazt soldiers because, I destroyed the shilkas when I was like 200mts from the town.

[Gruntage]

Final version is up and ready for review. Made the couple of changes that Aldo suggested. As far as I'm aware the mission is bug free 

[Aldo15]

Hey Gruntage, I've tried your final version. 'Detect dead bodies' now works fine, well and the Mi17, I'm not sure if it left its spesnatz, because I didn't see them, even I was wating for them, but I had to lie on the ground, so a enemy tanks is coming to my position.

Gruntage you'll be thinking I'm a boring boy, but just a suggestion: If you added those fire,smoke and explosions effects in the outro, Why don't you add them to the mission, Well if you want, it's optional, but for me, It'd be better if these shilkas have these effects. Don't you think?

Well, I think this mission is ready for review, I didn't find any bug in it,.

Cheers,
Aldo15

[Gruntage]

They were added in the mission lol. All tanks have the same explosion effect, even the shilkas lol. I didn't use the 'fuel explosion' type because it could cause a lot of lag.

As for the Spez Naz, I'm surprised they didn't find you. Guess they weren't looking in the right place   

[savedbygrace]

Played again with CWA 1.99 on veteran.
Overview
Still great
Intro
The button press to change the scene should play before the camera swap rather than after the @camcommitted command. Other than that it looked good.
Briefing
I had the feeling that it was way crowded this time around BUT I strongly believe that it was due to my repeated replays of the mission. So for a first time play, it would be fine.
Have you  considered adding more satchels and ammo for each weapon to the briefing area so that the player can carry four satchels from the start?
Mission
The landing choices are a nice add but not game changing enough to justify the extra work. Always good to see some randomness though. I chose LS3(The original) because it makes the most sense by sea. I also chose, like a fool, hardest again. I enjoy trying to sneak through the patrol routes. I used the exact same tactics from my previous attempts and it worked fine as usual. I didn't notice the detect dead body script working in action but I did experience some confusing situations where I was hidden and out of sight and was somehow detected. I did see a Spetznaz patrol walk directly atop a dead body with no consequence and the BRDM drive over one with no reaction. So, I have to reason that it does work but with special circumstances or a delay.I liked the added sandbags and fences to provide more cover or concealment. There was one ammo crate that was out of place to the outer perimeter and would probably look and feel better inside or around one of the open buildings in the town.

There are a couple of things that I don't like about the mission and have not liked since the first test. One, are the player hints that he has been detected. Two, is that you send the enemy to the players positions even when he has not been spotted. The latter has always been a peeve of mine since I feel that it is a cheat for mission designers. You still use it after the alarm has been set off and it could potentially ruin the evac. With that said, it wasn't until after I was in that boat that I noticed allied response to the area armor. Had I read the briefing a little slower, I would have probably waited around some to watch the fireworks and contribute some my self.

Outro
It was great to FINALLY view the outro. It certainly made me eager to play more missions by you. You did get the particle effects credits wrong though. Babylon's barrel fire script was only used in the KC intro and then tweaked for medic tent fires in the mission. Vitja3000 was the author of those particle effects. Also some of those sounds were gotten from soundsnap.com. All that aside, your cinema efforts were great. Something else to look forward to in future missions. Do you plan on working on more missions?

Overall
Even with my negatives, this is still a complete package and really declares much about your dedication to improving your work. I truly look forward to delving into more creations by you in the near future. Change that credit mistake and we can review this one.

[Gruntage]

Good to see some feedback from you SBG, it's been a while  

About the deadbodies script. Somehow I must have forgotten to apply the script to the units you mentioned. I'll get onto that straight away.

EDIT: Hmm, the deadbodies scripts are proving to be more difficult than I thought. I need the scripts to detect whether or not an entire dead group has been hidden, and if another group happens to come across them, the alarm timer will start. The only resources I have found are for individual units. I think I may have found a solution, but as always, assistance is welcome  

Come up with a temporary solution, just testing it to make sure it works.

Extra satchels. To be honest I hadn't considered that a possibility. I think I must have wanted the player to interact more with the resources available to him during the mission (namely his teammates and crates in the village). I also didn't think it was possible to complete the mission with only two magazines of whichever weapon is chosen. But, I will certainly consider making it an option.

EDIT: Player now has option to select at least four satchel charges

About the intro part. When you say wait after the @camcommitted command do you mean just before the 'mission title' part comes up? I think that was the only instance where I used '@camcommitted'. In any case I will make that improvement.

I understand now what you meant about the intro. I'll make the changes you suggested.

The ammo crate. Think I probably meant to put an M2 there at some point but changed my mind. I'll move the crate elsewhere.

EDIT: Ammo crate has been moved

Now, about those two other things (the hint etc). Think I read on a similar mission that you think hints should be kept out of the mission. A fair point indeed. Now that I think about it, the player doesn't really need the hint (he has the alarm siren). So yes, I'll remove the two hints (the 'you have been detected' and the 'alarm has been risen').

EDIT: Hints have been removed. Though I was contemplating having them only in cadetmode, and perhaps doing this for the alarm countdown as well. Not sure at the moment though, depends what others think.

As for the troops going to player's position, I'll tweak that so that they don't go to the exact position of he player (maybe 200-400m away perhaps).

EDIT: Fixed this (at least I think so). The reinforcement groups will not go to the player's exact position, but more to the approximate area of where the player might go (in other words, about 200-300m from the evac sites)

As for the credits, yeah I'll fix that  

EDIT: Fixed

Hehe this is probably the first time you've seen the outro. Allowing the player to finish the mission has been a problem that I was trying to fix for ages. Good to see you were finally able to finish it lol  

I'll make the changes you suggested, and hopefully it'll be ready  

As for more missions. I do have a sequel of sorts on the line up. I suppose I could divulge a little information about it. It'll be part one of a three part story. Hopefully it'll be finished by late Feb or early March. I wanted to focus on getting Rattlesnake finished and up before I focus my full attention on my other project.

I should have the things you mentioned sorted out this weekend and hopefully it'll be ready by early next week.

Thanks for the extensive and excellent feedback SBG  

Gruntage  

[Gruntage]

The final version is now up and ready for review. All changes suggested by SBG have been implemented.

The last week has been spent applying finishing touches (the changelog shows these changes). The deadbody detection scripts have proved to be quite difficult to improve. But, they are now functioning as they should (I hope). It's possible now for every group (within the village) to detect other dead party members of other groups (within the village), unless the player hides them. So, the player has to now....'clean up' his mess 

If any error messages pop up, or if there are still inconsistencies with regards to the dead body detection scripts (such as groups not detecting deadbodies for whatever reason) then let me know.

Other than that, it's ready.

Time to resume work on my other project 

Many thanks to the beta testers who have played this mission to death  Some of you are probably sick of the sight of it lol 

Regards,

Gruntage

[ofp addict]

I will test your mission today and give some feedback a.s.a.p. This will be my first time testing op rattlesnake so Im expecting a shiny polished creation which is always a good thing..

Some time later

ok Here is my test results of your mission creation. Operation Rattlesnake

Intro:

This has very good camera work... Along with the grid screen your camera effects do simulate a UAV recon operation. The text, font & sounds are a refreshing change & a credit to your effort.

I dont know much about UAVs but what I do know is that they are drones controlled from spies on the ground. Miles from harms way.. I know of one kind of UAV named the predator. The predator is U.S military hardware & its advantages are used against a poorly equipped opposition. The predator I think can deliver a payload of two maverick hellfires or stingers maybe four.. I'm not entirely sure but maybe an LGB.

I wonder are satellites included under the abbr. UAV ?

Anyway my point is. What is this UAV doing flying sorties in a sky heavily defended from A-A. Perhaps you know more things about UAVs that I'm not aware of. Or shilka's for that matter. Could a UAV simply destroy the priority targets in question?

My guess is that this drone can fly at altitude distances safe enough from ground threats.. Therefore unable to attack these specific targets.
If this is the case it might be an idea to elaborate some info about the UAV in the briefing.

If I have highlighted a problem here then my suggestion would be to have a strela or shilka destroy the UAV in the intro...
Example; You could end the camera footage with a ZSU or missle firing in the general direction of the camera logic, Terminating the footage.
This would look asthough the UAV has gathered enough intel to begin a black-ops mission.
You wouldnt have to remove any of the great camera content...

Overview:

Typical overview, Good in-game picture present, mission name. It does what it does..

Briefing:

A well written briefing & feels military authentic. Explains the objectives clearly. (Idiot-proof) 

Mission testing duration:

Test runs = 1 hour
Easy    = 13 minutes
Normal  = Approx 20 minutes
Hard     = Approx 30 minutes

Preference:

enquistor NVG \ LLaumax sky pack
Veteran \ Super AI
Easy    = Landing site 1
Normal = Landing site 3
Hard    = Landing site 4
 
Mission recap:

Easy Mode

We disembarked & sprinted to Houdan. I left my team on the outskirts of the village (under cover mode). I got from the coast to the sandbags unoppposed, no detection. This could make sense as with good intel a black-ops team would exploit this weakness for the insertion.
Anyway after a 4 man patrol had pass my position I moved in and primed my first charge. Maintaining stealth I crawled off to the next target and eventually I had primed 3 charges over 3 targets...
On my way to the 4th target I returned to an ammo crate I'd seen earlier... Took a satchel and moved on to the final ZSU. Once all the targets was sabotaged I decided to shoot my way out in an attempt to flee the area.. To my surprise I seen that the detection was quelled by the fact I killed a whole group before the timer run down. (Nice scripting\triggers etc) Though soon enough we tripped the alarm..
I ordered my team to move closer with weapons-free to cover my escape but they was quickly cut down by a panicked soviet patrol. My team was K.I.A so I proceeded fast to the extraction. When I was well clear of Houdan I turned around, Touched-off my charges. And watched the amazing display of destruction. The particle effects are a nice addition and modernising. 

Anyway I carried onwards to the extraction with the increasing sound of T80's coming fast. I felt like my legs couldnt carry me fast enough... It was a relief to hear then see the strafing A10....
I boarded the zodiac and we departed.. The mission ended once we was clear and the outro was excellent.. Time in the mission took 13 minutes and was easy, as was selected...

Normal Mode:

this time I took my squad into Houdan and we went with no mercy or stealth. Weapons free we cut down anything that moved and lasted a good 3 minutes before detection.
The alarm sounded & tanks poured in from all sides, My squad was k.I.A...
I sabotaged my targets & blew them up one by one.. I did this to inflict casualties in the blasts.
With many open buildings in Houdan I was free to move around with plenty of cover. I killed many soviets which seemed like a one way fire-fight. I was swift and efficient exploiting the abundant cover. I even aqquired an RPG and took some BMPs out on my way to the extraction..

When I reached the extraction I was greeted by a destroyed BMP and a single dead black-ops (day) on the water-line. I'm Assuming the BMP destroyed the Zodiac and then the A10 came along and destroyed the BMP. I didnt complete the mission because it didnt end, no debriefing and no outro to see... Again too easy

Hard mode:

Cautious this time I brought my team close to Houdan & left them on the perimeter. I brought them simply to cover my escape route and bearer-ammo...

During my stealth sabotaging a soviet infantry patrol discovered my carelessly placed team. I left them to hold fire and by the time I ordered them to shoot back I had lossed 3 men.
I sent the remainding team member back to the shore line ready to depart.. Now detected again I still finished my objectives (eliminating the ZSUs) and sprinted off to the extraction. enroute to my extraction tanks and infantry came up close and personal so I quickly hid in some bushes.. I was swamped by infantry that didnt budge so after a few minutes I started to pick them off. Until I ran out of ammo.
By now I had learned the AI even equipped with NVG was rediculously easy to kill. There was a couple of situations in the fight where the a.i had seen me but didnt open fire...
While I was reloading one AI had already spotted me, aimed at me for what seemed like a long time, then I glocked him..
After realising the AIs lame attempt to infiltrate my extraction I just got up and ran to the zodiac, In plain view of T80s, BMPs , infantry. Also I was concerned about the A10 busting the tanks right on my position

Anyway I boarded the zodiac along with my waiting last man... But the boat didnt turn around and leave the area.. Instead two T80s arrived and we all just sat there looking at each other..
The zodia seemed to be having difficulty making a 180 degree turn.. It was trying to but kept bumping the sandy shore.. again the mission didnt end

Problems \ bugs

take into consideration I did some test runs to comfirm my suspicions of these problems

*Ammo crates in the shed float slightly off the ground

*The Zsu dont engage on contact.. I danced in their headlamps, shot HK rounds upon them. And even tried to get anothers attention by cutting troops down with an M2 machine gun. Also if you destroy them one by one they dont seem bothered theres a breach..

*the enemy ai seem to be more stupid than normal. I dont know whats causing this.

*Problems at the extraction as explained in the recap

*Repeating voice.... I killed a group of soviets... After each kill in the group a trigger of some kind repeated the same voice, saying the same words in Russian

Suggestions

*create an alternative extraction, Plan B in the event of disruption

* Do somthing about the difficulty modes.. ie removing cross-hair\3rd person view etc for hard mode... Theres just not enough difference in the modes apart from that theres more infantry and random positions for the ZSU.

Outro:

Absolutely fantastic. A real treat that makes you feel like the objectives endured was an important accomplishment. The cinematics are satisfying and also points towards a sequel..   

Overall: 4\10

The mission is certainly a quickie. In and out and the jobs done. The insertion with a zodiac and your team crouched low in the craft give the impression of a much needed stealth approach.. Sadly it turns out using stealth is not absolutely crucial to the success of the mission.

I can see gruntage youve put alot of effort into this mission and are eager to see it reviewed final. But it still needs editors attention and tuning

I would like to give this mission a permanent place on my [SP] missions list but for now I will just have to wait for the next version. Good luck with this and happy editing , hope my beta test has been of help. !

[Gruntage]

Wow very interesting indeed.

I find it quite surprising (and most unsettling) that so many bugs have appeared once again despite many tests; back with a vengeance I guess. The tanks moving to the zodiac's position is a particularly annoying bug that I cannot solve. It seems that, because the tanks have, well, a max skill level, they will go to where they think the player is. This is probably enhanced through the usage of super AI.

I will consider moving the zodiac elsewhere, though it's my guess that the tanks will still go to the zodiac location.

About the UAV. That's actually satellite footage, so no they wouldn't be affected by Shilkas. UAV of course means 'unmanned aerial vehicle', so yes I would imagine that some satellites would come under that term.

I'm quite surprised that the shilkas didn't engage you. During my tests they would often open fire (it was almost impossible to enter the base during one test). So I'm at a loss as to why the IQ of the AI suddenly dropped. They should be at their maximum skill level. So I don't know how this could be solved.

Repeating voice. The sound clips are chosen at random from a (large) selection, with a random amount of time between each clip. If sound clips repeat then that's just a result of the randomness. This will not change.

Seems like I have a lot of work to do. Though I'm still surprised that so many bugs appeared at once after not making an appearance for so long...

Thanks for your test


EDIT: Have decided to rebuild the mission from scratch (basically strip it down and eliminate bugs that way). Review process halted. As frustrating as starting again may be, I feel that it is the only solution. Hopefully a rebuilt version will be up soon. With so many bugs appearing again, many of which cannot be solved through simple editing, it seems that I have no other choice. When this mission is next up for testing/review, it will have had an extensive makeover. Mission will be moved to the boneyard for the time being.

Thanks to all those who have tested my mission this far

[Gruntage]

A rebuilt version has now been uploaded and is awaiting testing. Details on what has changed has been included in the first post of this thread.

Constructive feedback is needed 

Have fun!

Gruntage

[NightJay0044]

@Gruntage     ..



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INTRO:
Very Well rounded intro. Love the camera angle and the information that is given to the player. Great!!

MISSION:
Before I get into it here are my points
**> Selection of landing spot great.
**>Selection of difficulty great.
**>Alarm system from each enemy patrol, really good. It gives you time, while still being in stealth mode.

I started at landing zone 4 and started south-east of Houdan. My buddy and I walked up the beach and camped for a second. I scouted area to see patrols.

First patrol that came across of 4, took them out less then 20secs. Entered in the base, another patrol of 2, took them out! Placed 1st satchel by Shilka1. Which was entering the base/town directly South-East. Shilkas in my opinion were easy to find and blow up.

Went off north to the other shilka, found placed satchel. Went off west to the other shilka, placed satchel. Since I didn't want to run the risk of my fellow AI's giving me away, I told my other guy to drop his satchel and I grabbed it so I could use it for the remaining shilka.

I grabbed it, ran back into town. Came in from the east again and moved to the road which was in center of town. Took out single patrol guard, also another 2 patrols that were there.

As I came up to the road, a patrol of 4 spotted me, oops  . Took them out with 1second to spare!! Nice....Then moved west to the last shilka, planted charge. Then set out for extract.

I took my fellow soldier with me and ran like crazy and blew off all 4 satchels. As that happened I ran east of the road along coast line to extraction point which was the way south of Houdan. I ended up saying heck with waiting for my AI buddies as they would of held me up. I made it to the extract, but lost 2 AI's and the other's were MIA.

Great mission, only took me about 20mins, of course that was just first playing on easy mode just to test my beginner skills. Next time I'll have to put it on hard.  

Overall good mission.