[SP/CAMP] Black Lands

[Clayman]

No, I didn't hear anything suspicious. I approached the car from the forest (to the right of the car), exactly where the three(?) Red Star guys later showed up. That's probably why it felt so disconnected. I'll keep my ears open the next time I play the mission.

[Clayman]

So finally I found some time to continue playing...


The Picture
When you said you expanded the mission, I expected some smaller tweaks here and there, more activity at the castle or something. But damn, that was a pleasant surprise. Very nice changes overall. 
I particularly liked that you went with the KSK guys this time. Not only do they look badass, we have also met them before (and we have seen how badass they are).

One minor thing that felt a little bit weird was when Tomas returned to Devils Castle alone at the end, he suddenly used the callsign Lynx, while previously he was always referred to by NATO as Cerny, Chernarussian or Resistance. It felt a bit strange that it was changed during the mission kinda out of nowhere. However, the callsign being used by Tomas' group afterwards is consistent. It's just something I noticed. (or maybe I missed something somewhere.)

Although from a strategic standpoint it would have been better to bring the camera to a safe spot, I decided to go with the KSK to help the Czechs, because of more action and stuff. But probably I guess it doesn't make that much of a difference, as eventually I end up doing Martins task anyways.

Overall those where some very welcome changes that made the mission a lot more enjoyable. (And a nice way to get rid of that extraction helicopter.^^) Great work.


The Mole
Now this was a tricky one. I remember the last time I played this, I had severe problems taking out the officers and eventually the mission won and I had to give up. I do indeed like the idea of this mission, using the teamswitch as an design element. It's a whole different challenge, and a really welcome one. But at the same time it's really a test for my patience.^^
While I did manage to beat the mission this time, I still had some problems here and there.

After taking out the first officer, the three guys on the street on the other side of the building were in danger mode constantly observing the area where the officer has been. They stayed this way for the rest of the mission, however there was no alarm raised so I could continue. The second officer was probably the easiest one, but the third one I ended up taking out with the DMR from afar. Not very clean and stealthy, I wouldn't even have thought about that if you hadn't mentioned that in a future version you want to prevent this option, but it worked for now and I could finally move on. Probably have to come up with another tactic the next time I play this.^^

Probably it's me that I'm not patient enough to crawl all over the place through the complete village. But still I feel that the russians spot me a bit too easy. They also seem to hear my "silent" knockout from quite a distance. Also when they notice something suspicious, to a degree where they go into combat mode, I guess the alarm should be raised or at least they should investigate what's going on, instead of just staring at a house forever.  Overall I have the feeling that I have to follow a very specific path to successfully take out all three officers.

A whole different problem is that when distracting a soldier as the Mole, the soldier sometimes doesn't turn in my direction or turns back right away. Several times I had to walk away and talk to him again, until he finally kept looking in my direction. I guess this is more a problem with the Arma AI in general, but it is a bit annoying when it happens every second time you want to distract someone.

The rest of the mission worked flawless and I especially enjoyed the escaping the island part. The airport area however was rather underwhelming. You know, when you put a large, red marker on the map saying "keep out", I just have to go there. But all the vehicles where locked and nothing else of interest was to be found.

In the briefing, the marker link "administration building" doesn't seem to work correctly.
And a small quality of life improvement would be, when the "talk" and "knock out" actions only appeared when there actually is a unit in reach. Btw, I love the reaction of the Mole when Tomas tries the action on him. 


Three Valleys & Preparation
Alright, it's been quite a while since I last played the following missions during A2 times. Therefore I can only vaguely remember these. I can't say if there has always been so much substance to the preparation missions, with the expanding camp and the talk options for several members of my team. I thoroughly enjoyed the overall atmosphere and the music in the background was very well chosen. The group management is a cool feature, although with interface size set to small, the character descriptions where a bit hard to read. Also I feel a little bit more color would suit the menu quite well.

There were a few new members in the camp. While Jegor and his men where mentioned somewhere in a briefing, I didn't feel any connection to them. As you have scraped their story arch from Petrovka Strike, where I think they where originally introduced, I think it would be cool to see them in a cutscene somewhere beforehand. Nothing fancy, just a small shot of the refugees coming from Grishino and joining your group. For now it somehow felt a bit disconnected.

When talking to Martin, he mentioned the Spetsnaz which I had supposedly killed in Gvozdno. However, as I went for Grishino to rescue Tomek and therefore arrived to late in Gvozdno, I actually never killed anyone there. I did like how bitter Tomek was about the loss of Miroslav. Made me feel even more for my men.


The mission itself was pretty much straightforward. My team had a good starting position for the attack on the farm and I could clear the area without any casualties. Teams Wolf and Eagle however both were killed during the attack. At the beginning, the radio message "Copy Wolf. Wait for my signal." appeared twice.

I didn't expect the mission to be that easy and of course it didn't take long for the counter attack. The incoming artillery actually had me scared for a moment while trying to get my men away from the farm into the forest. As I expected enemy presence in Tulga I approached the village from the east. But no sign of the Red Star guys, only some angry civilians. The reveal that Sergej's mother had been killed was a bit unemotional. Somehow I expected a bit more drama. The US soldiers showing up at the end was almost hilarious and left a lighthearted feel to the mission. Oh, and there was a dead...  transgender person(?) lying in front of one destroyed building. Looked a bit weird.

So far I really enjoyed this mission. It's slowly shaping up to the grand finale. Hopefully I can find some time the next days to continue playing. I'm really exited to see what you came up for the final showdown.

[Undeceived]

Great, you're now in the phase of the campaign that wasn't released in the last version. Keep coming the good feedback!

These preparation missions are completely new. But there won't be so many conversations in the next ones.

Oh yeah, Jegor and his brother Lukas... Try to forget their story from the last version. They are rather supposed to come across as some mean assholes, making fun of some others, etc. So maybe the player wants to leave them behind in the camp. The "problem" is that Jegor is one of the most experienced fighters of the whole team. He might be the best after Kamil and maybe Ivan from team WOLF (who will only join later, if he survives the mission 14). Lukas is somewhat experienced too and he even is a medic. So the player has to choose if he wants these assholes in the team or not. If he/she leaves them behind, they feel so insulted that they leave the camp and are gone.

Thanks for your feedback on The Picture. I was looking forward to that. These were some major changes.
 
Btw., I'll try to adress all issues you are reporting. Ok, almost all. Keep them coming, even if I don't comment all of them, I'm taking note of them all.

[Clayman]

If he/she leaves them behind, they feel so insulted that they leave the camp and are gone.

Really? Haha, that's awesome. I guess I will have to try that. But as you said, Jegor is very experienced and Lukas being a medic is an important team member as well. I wasn't aware that this Jegor is a different one than the Jegor I met five years ago.  While they were a bit mean towards Johan(?), they didn't come across as assholes per se. I found the conversation to be rather entertaining.^^

So I read it there are chances for team Wolf to survive? Will have to try that as well. Having more men in my team might be helpful.


Continuing with Escalation (& Preparation).
I really like these preparation missions. Although rather small filler missions, they add a lot to the overall story. Especially the expanding camp looks great. While I still don't trust Petja any further than I can throw a piano, he does seem to do a good job as quartermaster.

When Martin(?) mentioned that Sergej would inform Ivan's wife, I was like "who is Ivan?". I then found out about him only in the group managers KIA list. It felt a bit odd to have a whole list of guys with their background stories just to realize they were all killed during the last mission. But as it seems they could as well survive and be available as new team members. Will definitely check that out.

Also I like how the subplot with the Spetsnaz is starting to unfold. Couldn't remember this one at all.
I have to admit, it would be cool to have at least some talk options with my team mates during these missions. It doesn't have to be anything too fancy. But it's an great opportunity to add more depth to the men and make the player care even more for them.


The mission itself is a rather long one. Like the previous one, I could only remember fragments from my A2 playthrough, so it felt mostly fresh and new.
The first thing I noticed was that Tomas' equipment from the preparation mission didn't carry over. I still had the stuff that I had at the end of Three Valleys. I had given him a few satchels which I expected to need to destroy the artillery guns and now they were missing. However I decided to continue nonetheless, hoping to find replacement somewhere along the way or, if not, use some RPGs to do the job. (There was everything I needed in the camp at the end, so no problem here. But it would of course be cool to have the correct equipment after having a preparation mission just for that.)

There occasionally was some weird AI behaviour throughout the mission, like my #7 (Lukas, the medic) having a move order displayed although I didn't order him to do anything. Or sometimes when giving orders, the game simply didn't register them and nothing happened. Not a big issue and I'm unsure if that's some new Arma feature. It just felt a bit strange.

There also was quite a bit of micromanaging of my group involved, which can become a bit of a hassle when there are more than 10 guys in your group.
After I had helped the Americans in Gorka, it wasn't that easy to get the survivors out of the village and to their pickup point without them running into the enemy, while at the same time trying to fend off the counter attack with my resistance guys. At the end, only two of the Americans reached their transport alive.

During the conversation there were some error messages:

Code: [Select]

Error in expression <elfen11";} else {
if (alive b2_1) then {b1_2 groupradio "STR_helfen11";} else {
>
Error position: <b1_2 groupradio "STR_helfen11";} else {
>
Error Undefined variable in expression: b1_2
File UND_BlackLands\Campaigns\missions\b_15escalation.chernarus\scripts\abschied.sqf..., line 10



Error in expression <fen12_2";} else {
if (alive b2_1) then {b1_2 groupradio "STR_helfen12_2";} else
>
Error position: <b1_2 groupradio "STR_helfen12_2";} else
>
Error Undefined variable in expression: b1_2
File UND_BlackLands\Campaigns\missions\b_15escalation.chernarus\scripts\abschied.sqf..., line 24



Error in expression <elfen14";} else {
if (alive b2_1) then {b1_2 groupradio "STR_helfen14";} else {
>
Error position: <b1_2 groupradio "STR_helfen14";} else {
>
Error Undefined variable in expression: b1_2
File UND_BlackLands\Campaigns\missions\b_15escalation.chernarus\scripts\abschied.sqf..., line 36



Error in expression <elfen15";} else {
if (alive b2_1) then {b1_2 groupradio "STR_helfen15";} else {
>
Error position: <b1_2 groupradio "STR_helfen15";} else {
>
Error Undefined variable in expression: b1_2
File UND_BlackLands\Campaigns\missions\b_15escalation.chernarus\scripts\abschied.sqf..., line 44
I'm not sure if I missed something during the conversation, but the two Americans stayed in my team while the truck stood there waiting. I was unsure what to do, so I boarded the truck with my men and it drove off to the north. As that was the wrong direction, I had to reload my last savegame and then headed off to Polana with the two Americans following me. Not sure how long they followed me, after talking to the woman they were gone however. Talking of the woman, I can shoot her through the window and when entering the house afterwards, Tomas still tries to interrogate her.^^

When at the barn and the Red Star guys came towards our position, I wasn't able to spot them. But apparently I had positioned my men quite well and they easily took care of the attackers.
I particularly liked Tomek's behaviour towards the woman and especially his reaction when Tomas denied him to kill her. That's a great example of what I meant with adding more depth to the characters. I felt so much for Tomek, his pain and anger. I could really understand his behaviour and I felt the need to help him somehow.

The reinforcements were very welcome, even though I hadn't lost any of my men so far. Unfortunately the parked UAZ was too small to fit my whole team, so I had to split my team up and take the other UAZ, which the Red Star guys obviously didn't need anymore. Having an AI driver to follow you of course brings the usual pathfinding issues, like hitting trees, hitting rocks, hitting buildings, you name it. Took me some time to reach Guglovo. At least there I found a truck I could use big enough to fit my whole team, which made traveling a lot easier.

It was really cool to meet Piotr again, although it's been quite a while.
But what happened to his awesome car? Showing up in that odd Lada was kinda meh. 

The rest of the mission went flawless and I managed to complete it without any casualties. It's cool to have some opportunities to reequip my men and grab some much needed weapons and ammo. While I found some AA launchers at the camp, I wasn't able to take out the helicopter flying circles over my head. I did however damage it so it stopped shooting at my men.

The marker link in the briefing "NATO Base" didn't seem to work correctly. And in the end cutscene, again I'm not sure if I missed something, but the officer talked to me like I hadn't been to Gorka in the beginning to help the Americans. Not sure if that was because the task didn't seem to complete (the two survivors staying in my group). I do think the task showed as complete in the briefing though.


Overall it was another great mission which I thoroughly enjoyed despite some smaller issues. Great work once again. 

[Undeceived]

Thanks!

It's hard not to comment your feedback on the sub plots. Don't want to spoil anything.

Yes, group WOLF can survive (as a whole or partly), but the player can only indirectly influence this, by killing as many RS as possible.
Hm, you're right, Ivan should not be mentioned by Sergej, as the player doesn't know him. I'll take that out.

The Americans staying in the group in Escalation is really a bug. No idea why it didn't show up in my test run. They should board the truck and drive away. I'm glad they didn't break the mission.

I have noticed the unwanted move commands too, not only in this mission. I hope this is an Arma problem, but I don't know for sure because it has been a long time since I have played vanilla Arma.
One Arma bug I noticed for sure is the AI getting stuck when the player gives him a move order while he's bandaging himself.
https://feedback.bistudio.com/T177333

But what happened to his awesome car? Showing up in that odd Lada was kinda meh. 

CUP didn't port it. That was 5 years ago though. I'll check it but again but I think it's still not there, unfortunately.

the officer talked to me like I hadn't been to Gorka in the beginning to help the Americans. Not sure if that was because the task didn't seem to complete (the two survivors staying in my group). I do think the task showed as complete in the briefing though.

Hmm, that's the question now... When the player has helped the Gorka unit, then the squad leader talks about that in the outro. When the player did not help, them the squad leader in the outro isn't the Gorka one (as he's dead) but the squad leader that comes to Tulga in Three Valleys.

It sounds like the helpedGorkaUnit variable was not properly transferred to the outro. Dammit... I think that the bug in the script, you experienced, isn't the reason.

One question: when you approached Visoky Kamen (the artillery), did BRAVO squad notify you that they arrived well and they offered shelter in the NATO FOB?

[Clayman]

One question: when you approached Visoky Kamen (the artillery), did BRAVO squad notify you that they arrived well and they offered shelter in the NATO FOB?

Hmm I'm not 100% sure about that. The FOB was mentioned at some point while approaching the artillery site, but I can't say if it was Bravo that reported it or someone of my team was talking about it.

[Undeceived]

I think you would remember it. Tomas asks the Americans (BRAVO team) for help with the artillery (after having saved their asses in Gorka), but they aren't allowed to, which makes everyone angry and Kamil and Tomek even start cursing.

Ok, thanks!

[Clayman]

Ah, now that you mention it, I do think there was a conversation like that.
(It's easy to miss something while in the heat of combat, or, as in this case, while approaching an enemy position and spotting for hostiles.  )

[Undeceived]

Ok.

[Clayman]

Alright, finally I found some time to continue playing. Not as much as I had wanted to, to really test these huge missions in depth. But my first impression so far was very good.


The Storm I & Preparation
The Preparation Mission started off with a very nice cutscene, setting the mood for the final battle that was about to come. Great atmosphere once again.

In the briefing / tasks section 'Get in position for the final attack' the marker link "move to our position" doesn't seem to point to any marker. During the actual mission(s) everything did work correctly, however.

After selecting my group members to equip them, in the team switch menu some of them didn't have their names displayed, but the group designation instead. So at times I had to guess who I was gearing up. Not a big issue, but it would be better to know who is who.


The mission itself seems to be pretty solid. I didn't notice any bugs at all. Of course such large scale battles always are a bit chaotic and it's quite likely that I missed something here and there in the heat of the battle. The overall atmosphere and feel of being part of an large assault was dominant and very well choreographed.

After Martin had informed me about the enemy reinforcements, I quickly went to Olsha and easily took out all enemies in the area. Then I moved to the AT position and cleared that area as well, including the first AA position. I used the static AT guns to take out some of the armor at the airport, trying to make it a bit easier for the Americans the take the airfield, while my men attacked the reinforcements coming from the north. But instead of being thankful, Papa Bear only could annoy me about the other AA positions which I should eventually take out. On my way I was thinking that a forest might not be the best location for an AA gun, with all those trees blocking the view on any helicopters attacking the airfield. However, I cleared both remaining AA positions and headed to the airfield. On arrival there weren't any enemies left, but the objective didn't seem to tick off.

The cutscene with angry Dimitri was very well made. But I was unsure who those guys were that he killed. Did I miss something?

Somewhere along the way I came across a damaged T55, which I tried to repair with the toolkit from my truck. But it seems Tomas is no good mechanic and Matai was nowhere to be found. So I took one of the Mi8s from the airport and headed towards the main base. I was thinking about informing Petja to prepare a helipad for our camp, but as expected, my chopper was gone at the start of the next mission.^^


The Storm II
This was again a very solid mission with no bugs to be spotted.
I remember the last time I played this, I could let the Americans do most of the work to conquer the camp, and due to how it was build, it was quite easy to take care of the incoming Spetsnaz. This time it was quite a bit more challenging. Overall the layout of the base felt a lot better. It was a great, intense fight to seize the compound and eliminate all enemies inside.

The scene with the Spetsnaz closing in was kinda intimidating and I had to hurry to get my men patched up, reequiped and in position to fend them off. However, after the very first wave of attackers, it seemed like the remaining Spetsnaz all attacked one by one, or in smaller groups of two or three men. While it was kinda challenging because they approached from different directions, once spotted it was easy to take them out. Making them attack all at once from different sides would make it quite a bit harder.

The ending cutscene wrapped the story up very well and I particularly liked Tomas' inner monologue ending with Chernarus was free. But...


Not over yet
Wow, that was unexpected. Another very well made cutscene adding a great twist and making me even more exited of what is still to come. 


I have to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of such large scale battles. But these where two very well made missions and a very welcome change to all the guerilla style missions we had so far. Great atmosphere, intense firefights and the feeling of being part of something bigger. I will definitely play both again to try some different tactics and see what I might have missed (or use to my advantage^^).

But first I'm off to see what Sergej is up to. Finally. Yep, I'm hyped... 

[Undeceived]

Somewhere along the way I came across a damaged T55, which I tried to repair with the toolkit from my truck. But it seems Tomas is no good mechanic and Matai was nowhere to be found. So I took one of the Mi8s from the airport and headed towards the main base. I was thinking about informing Petja to prepare a helipad for our camp, but as expected, my chopper was gone at the start of the next mission.^^

Haha, you're a specialist in finding these things. Thanks!

The cutscene with angry Dimitri was very well made. But I was unsure who those guys were that he killed. Did I miss something?

This probably is the officer responsible for the airfield defence who has f***** up. But you're right, maybe I should add a sentence or two to make this clear.

[Gruntage]

Finally had some time to play some more. IRL stuff has gotten in the way recently but I have a few hours to test some more.

Starting to Inflame Again I

This mission is actually the first time I've had to use the 'endmission' command because, my God, this was frustrating. The assassination of the officer feels far too difficult and I think I must have done around 30 attempts to a) kill the officer and b) get a distance of at least 25 metres away without getting sprayed by an APC and/or enemy troops. At that point, for me at least, the fun and challenge element ebbs away fast and the suspension of disbelief shatters. I'm quite patient with missions like this but this one it was too much.

I don't know whether the position of the officer is randomised within the bar, but for me at least, the officer was in the worst possible position and it took me a while to figure out where he was. I had to physically walk into the bar itself surrounded by enemies before I could even see him. Because of how insane the Arma 3 AI are, I would get shot the instant I fire a round off. Even if I managed to run out of the back, the enemy APCs are already on to me. It feels very unrealistic because these guys are are at ease yet they're able to counter a threat within one second.

On a few attempts I tried throwing a grenade into the room for the officer to hopefully die in the blast. A couple of times this worked, only to end up killing the barman in the process and getting a mission failed. On the rare occasions where I was able to kill the officer with the grenade, I would die before I could get a stone's throw away from the building despite having a headstart. The barman dying also caused functional issues as I when I tried to reload the latest save I would get a couple of 'fade-in's and be playing a completely different character somewhere else on the map. I had to reload again to an earlier save for the mission to get back on track.

So that's the gameplay side of things.

I have a few issues with the objective itself. Right now it feels disproportionately difficult and it's enough to pull me out of the story. I think asking the player to walk into a crowded bar to assassinate a target in full view of the bar occupants and then expecting said player to escape alive is too much in my opinion. I think it's made worse by the game's mechanics, such as the AI response time and accuracy. I think a mission like this would work so much better if stealth could be maintained throughout.

I think there are ways that this could be greatly improved to better the odds and make the mission less punishing. I'll list the points here for clarity.

- Officer Position

This is an easy fix; simply move the officer to a place where he can be shot from the back entrance of the bar.

- Involve the Barman in the plan

If moving the officer isn't working, then I'd suggest having the barman be in on the plan somehow. Maybe he will walk out of the bar through the back as a signal to the player to move in, thus removing himself from danger. Not only would this work narratively, but it would also make it easier for the player to manoeuvre into the bar to position himself to kill the officer. A plan like this requires multiple people to be in on it, in my opinion. It would be more realistic.

- Involve the prostitute or another prostitute

Another possibility is for the officer to go upstairs with a prostitute and for the player to stealthily move up there to deal the killing shot. This way stealth could be maintained and this would make a lot of sense. The challenge would then come from the player having to sneak to the boat without getting caught. Maybe the prostitute would then be a character who joins the resistance and would make regular appearances. I'm half joking with that but it's an idea.

Right now I don't think it makes sense for the player to be stealthy only to be forced to throw that advantage away at worst time and place. The key part is being forced since the player doesn't have a choice here. An analogy is James Gastovski sneaking into a base, dropping his satchel charges to destroy a tank and then for some reason detonating them whilst still in the base and having to fight his way out. The logical thing would be to detonate the charges when clear of the base and danger.

I don't think Tomas would be ok with having to execute this mission in the way that it is currently; it's too dangerous and risky, even with the uniform. Getting in is ok, getting out is the problem because the uniform at that point doesn't matter. So there's in-universe issues as well as meta ones.

So to summarise, as it stands, this is a mission that I just don't enjoy and I think unless changes are made, it's probably going to be one I skip on future playthroughs. Looking back at what I said on previous tests, it looks like I had difficulty with it then as well as now. I don't think the mission even requires substantial changes in order to better it so I'm not calling for a redesign necessarily.

I've been negative so far so let's change things up and list the positives:

- Very atmospheric and dark; helped by the music and the sound effects. The bar ambient sound is very good and it makes the bar feel alive and real.
- Great introductory cinematic (could do with a bit of extra lighting but that's a nitpick)
- Good attention to detail in the briefing; told me what I needed to know and how to execute the mission.
- Generally good positions of patrols throughout the town
- Realistic AI animations; it was enough to make me believe that these characters are real people.
- I appreciate the thought and attention that has clearly gone into the mission, I wanna be clear about that. It's just unfortunate that I have a real problem with the difficulty.

There's a great mission in here, and I don't think it would take much time to bring it out. A mission can be so easily killed by its difficulty...it's why balancing is extremely hard and not many people understand or appreciate it. There are missions out there that are sold on them being very hard to complete. MacGuba made one. Those missions I've found are love or hate. I'm digressing so I'll finish here.

That took longer that I expected so I'll come back to this one later.

[Clayman]

It's hard not to comment your feedback on the sub plots. Don't want to spoil anything.

Ok, now I think I know what you meant by this. Thanks for not spoiling me. 

For some reason I had Blind Guardians' And the Story ends playing in my head all day long. Felt quite fitting.
So...

Where is Sergej
Holy Moly, what a mission. Undeceived, you're doing your magic again! 
You had mentioned somewhere that you greatly expanded this one and turned it into a massive hunt. But damn, this exceeded all my expectations, by far. I'm totally in awe of what you have created here. Although I failed at finding Sergej, I had a real blast at playing this. Just Wow!

As I suppose there are different ways to complete this, I'll write down all the steps I took and see what's what.
The first difficulty was to select the right equipment for the task ahead. I went with the G36 from the Picture mission and took an extra SVD in my backpack just in case. Actually I wanted to put some additional gear in the car, but as a approached the car, the cutscene kicked in and I found myself all the way in the east. Not a big problem, as I found more than enough equipment during the mission. That alone was very satisfying.

Talked to the guy sitting on the road, who turned out not to be Jacek, and with the other guys down the road, who pointed me towards Solnichniy. Didn't see much activity in the town but somehow the road leading to the quarry caught my attention, so I went there to investigate. Meet the three guys and talked to them. When going further into the quarry, I heard them mentioning Orlovets and their pal at the train station.

Went there but the guy was too drunk to be of any help. I heard the gun shots and went to investigate. Found the dead guy in the shed and the computer. How awesome was that PC animation? Reminded me a lot of the first mission from Underdogs, but much better. I couldn't figure out the password however, and no clues to help me were to be found. So I continued to the old factory.

Took out the Red Star guys hiding in the factory building. The guy at the top of the staircase was a bit tricky, as he could take me out before I could target him. Took me several tries. Eventually found the officers' note, which pointed me back to the quarry.

When entering the quarry for the second time, Tomas mentioned the guys from earlier left their drunk friend just lying there, however there was no one to be found. The dead goats where really disgusting. Poor Tomas. I found the clue and went for the house in the south. But only found the dead guy and no further clues around. Seemed to be a dead end, as Tomas mentioned. While driving back north I heard distant gunfire, but I couldn't determine from where exactly it came.

Drove through the forest straight to Orlovets. Meet the old man repairing his car, who pointed me towards Jaceks friends at the barn. Talked to them and finally got some useful information.
Going back to that construction site however had a very uncomfortable feeling to it. Somehow I expected something bad to happen and I spent quite some time observing the area before I entered the compound.

Of course it happened what had to happen and I was knocked down from behind. Poor Tomas... again. However, the guy turned out to be quite helpful, as he eventually took me to meet Jacek. I really like that the guy took my NVG and GPS, and later Tomas demanded to get his stuff back. Great little detail.
After Jacek had told me about his family and his cousin the Secretary, I went back to Orlovets to talk to him.

The scene I found inside the building was almost hilarious. It felt a bit odd to carry some equipment inside (quite a lot equipment, that is), just to prove that I'm trustworthy, while Jaceks' family (and therefore the Secretarys' family as well) was in danger. As I couldn't threaten him, even by killing his buddys, I had to do as I was told and carry all the stuff inside. The good thing was, that afterwards I could freely take everything I needed from the crate without anyone caring.

While talking to the Secretary again, he was constantly turning and aiming at something outside. It felt a bit unfriendly.^^ I noticed that the conversation didn't show up in the log. I later would have liked to re-read it for any information I might have missed.

After the Secretary told me about Vojtech, I traveled north and searched the marked area. Finally I found Vojtech in a barn and he told me about his brother, their company and eventually told me the password for the computer. So back to Solnichniy. I logged into the computer and found the file, pointing me to the hidden camp. When the computer had the bsod, an error message appeared:

Code: [Select]

Error in expression < "pictures\bsod.jpg"];
pc say3d "bsod"; sleep 20; saveGame; }
>
Error position: <sleep 20; saveGame; }
>
Error Suspending not allowed in this context
Finding the entrance to the camp was a but tricky and the boobytraps where really nasty. Clearing the camp with NVGs equipped and the gun laser felt really SpecOp-y, I thoroughly enjoyed that part. It took some time to find the intel, with all the clutter lying around. But there was also a lot of really useful gear to be found. However, the intel didn't seem to provide any further hints as of where to go next, except that it mentioned a Stash B-6, but I couldn't figure out what was up with that.

While traveling back north to talk with Vojtech again, I came across the resistance fighters in Nizhnoye, who were preparing to fend off some Red Star guys coming from the north. I decided to help them and together we quickly took out the attackers. Then I talked to the leader, and Tomas asked him if he knew where to find Jacek. That felt a bit odd, as I had already found him. As he didn't have any other useful information, I continued to talk to Vojtech. But he didn't have any new information for me as well. So I went back to Orlovets to talk with the Secretary again, be he too didn't have anything to say.

At this point I was kinda lost as of what to do next. As it was already late and I was tired, I decided to call it a day and go to bed.....


Day 2:
With new motivation and still no idea where to go, I decided to go to Berezino, as I hadn't been there before, to check out what I would find there. I meet the three guys in the town center. When talking to them, Tomas again asked where to find Jacek. Slowly I had the feeling that I had somehow screwed up the mission and something wasn't working as it should.

The rest of the town was dead empty and so I went to check all locations I've previously been to, to see if I had missed something. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything helpful at all, no one wanted to talk to me anymore. No new clues, no hints, nothing. After driving all over the place for more than an hour, I eventually gave up and returned to Martin...


So far this has been an more than overwhelming mission and I believe I have so far only scratched the surface. I don't know what to say, you really did an outstanding job with this. I'm truly impressed. 

Some things I noticed while playing:
Over time the briefing was quite cluttered with all the additional entries. There where two 'Notes' sections containing the different pieces of intel. On that note, something I had thought about in earlier missions, too, the 'Revive Teammates' and 'Adjust Brightness' could be combined into one 'Info' menu. And maybe those should only be in the briefing when relevant for the mission. I don't need the info on how to revive my teammates, when I'm alone on the mission.

Some of the conversations didn't show up in the log, like the one with the Secretary and some others, too, I think. Overall there where some discrepancies between what some of the characters actually said, and what was written in the log. Like Jacek talking about his wife and daughter, while in the notes it said his wife and son. There were some others as well, which I can't remember right now. (There was a lot of text in this mission.) Not a big issue though, just felt a bit off.

What I did like was the dynamics of the mission. Like when re-visiting an area, new people showed up, or others I had talked to before where gone. That made the world actually feel alive. Very well done.
Also the fast travel was a really helpful feature.
I also liked the background music playing from time to time. It added a lot to the atmosphere, although if it was me, it could have happened more often.

As I said, I'm sure I have missed quite a lot in this mission, and I didn't manage to find Sergej. I will definitely give this one another go soon. Really an outstanding mission.


Dimitri Sladek
Alright, as this one is completely new, I had absolutely no idea what to expect.
Tomas' nightmare was intimidating, another well made cutscene and I had a really bad feeling of what was to come. When going outside, I didn't notice the letter at the door. I searched the surroundings of the house, went down the road and into the village. But no sign of life anywhere. I went back to the house, checked the back yard again and was just about to go back inside, to see if I could just go back to bed, when I finally noticed the letter.

As I expected to meet Dimitri at the barn for the final standoff, I felt quite uncomfortable going there completely unarmed. It felt odd that the leader of the resistance movement didn't have a single gun in his house, especially with his arch enemy still around. At least you could place a pistol somewhere on a table to take along.

Finding Sergej in the barn was not that much of an surprise, but what followed caught me completely off guard. Damn, I'm running out of superlatives to describe my thoughts about that scene. I'm really a fan of stories with tragic endings, and this one was one hell of a blast to watch. I literally sat there with a huge grin on my face starring at my screen. That scene in the church, with Pribotow disappearing - just Wow! And Petja, I knew I shouldn't trust him.^^
I remember when I stared playing Black Lands for the very first time, this was pretty much the kind of ending I had expected. It was pure epicness. Heck, if it were me, I would scrap the other ending and go with this one as the final conclusion of the story. It's just perfect. And, it leaves room for a continuation of the story. I'm so looking forward to playing Black Lands 2 in like 15 years or something. 
Seriously, I don't know what to say. Thank you so much for all the work you must have put into this. Really impressive. 


Outro
As I'm still totally in awe, I don't know what to add anymore. The outro is beautiful to watch and it concludes the story very well. I particularly liked the scenes of my friends which I had met and lost during my journey. And the final scene with Tomas sitting at the lake. Just wonderful. You're the master of melodrama - and I love it. 

There is nothing to criticize about the outro. But when I'm totally honest here, after the journey I've been through, and I guess it's just that you raised the standards for immersion by far, the ending felt a bit too short. What I mean by this is, that I'd like to see more of the aftermath regarding the other men who joined me along the way, like Kamil and especially Tomek, as he was still alive in my playthrough. It would have been cool to see how his life would continue after the war was over. Just some food for thought, if you ever get bored.^^

Overall this campaign was one hell of a ride and I know why I fell in love with this back then. Probably the best campaign I ever played. You really can be proud of what you have created here. Thank you so much for this and for bringing it to Arma 3, and even better than the original one. 

[Undeceived]

@Clayman

Thanks a lot, man! Glad you liked the mission (even though you played only half of it), I was looking forward to read the feedback. Yeah, this was quite a ride creating this mission. I don't know if you remember it from Arma 2 times. You would click on points of interest (like the quarry) on the map and would be setpossed there... And that was it, if you clicked on the right spot (which I won't spoil now), then the mission would end. This was a matter of seconds to finish it, but interestingly this kind of search was the starting point and inspiration for the mission like it is now. But it turned out to be the most complex mission of the campaign, due to its open gameplay. Therefore it's great to have some feedback, e.g. about Tomas asking around about Jacek even though he was already found.

Ok, so, you missed crucial intel in the RS hideout. But this is good because I'll add an extra hint for the player (or Tomas saying something) when leaving the hideout without having found the intel. It's in the back room where the ammo crate is, on the desk. Or at least it SHOULD be there! At mission start this one and other stuff in the hideout are hidden and maybe the hideObject false didn't work out?... Not sure now, to be honest.

But anyway - on the other hand this way you tested the other variant to finish the mission - giving up and returning to the camp, which is important as well. Thanks!

I'll check out if the intel is hidden false when the player gets there and will report back to you.

I have a question for you, regarding the RS hideout though. I have randomized certain things in this mission so that it's not too easy or predictable for the player when replaying it. The RS hideout however is not randomized. That means that theoretically the veteran player could head there right at mission start, skipping half of the mission. This is why I hid all relevant items and the RS guys too, until the player talks to the traitor Vojtech or so. Would you think this approach is better, or should I rather lock the entry to the hideout and unlock it later? Locking it actually appeals to me more at the moment, because then the player doesn't even know what kind of place it is.

And Petja, I knew I shouldn't trust him.^^

I really laughed when you wrote that:

While I still don't trust Petja any further than I can throw a piano, he does seem to do a good job as quartermaster.

Again, thanks for the feedback on this cutscene too! I wasn't so sure about it, if the surprises are so surprising at all, etc. Or if the "directing" / designing is ok.




On your thoughts about the rather quick outro sequence: Hm, I think, you're definitely right, some light on Kamil, etc. would be good. But again, I feel that the cutscenes again are very long already... Especially when "Dimitri Sladek" comes. No idea what to do here.


Again, thanks a thousand! This motivated me to keep on working on the next version.

[Undeceived]

Oh, didn't notice Gruntage's post above Clayman's. Will read it now.