(Review Completed) [SP] Facile Ground

[macguba]

Benchmark result    764

I don't do this for readme credits, I do it because I want to help people make better missions.

Response to your v encouraging response

Briefing - complete revamp is a bit harsh, it does (INHO) need a little work but don't get paranoid that its crap, even as it stands its a pretty good briefing

minefield - just lose the mines far away from the road, and also lost the distinction between the mines close to the road and those actually on it.  

Abrams repaired -  ;D sorry.    It does indeed need to be repaired, and in crap mission you would have got away with it.  Not here though.

Medic - I never saw one and never had need of it, however in general you can't have enough of them and you should seriously consider having one in Charlie squad.    I know its not realistic - the correct place for a genuine medic is Platoon level - but a) in the real world any other soldier can heal you do an extent (hey, with a morphine syrette round your neck you can heal yourself) and b) its a game and being wounded and unable to do anything about it just isn't fun.

FUP savegame - better too early than too late.

No combat ambience: I stand corrected and offer my apologies.

Radio callls during counter attack.    DO NOT make them more generic.    The problem was not the calls themselves, it was the triggers that fired them.    Make them relate more to the experiences of Charlie squad (i.e. you lose a couple of men and the "Overwhelmed" text is triggered)

Don't use any artillery, although its popular and fashionable its virtually worthless in the game.    If I could wave a magic wand and abolish all arty scripts I would (even though I've used them).   Always remember that the boys at BIS are smart and they excluded arty for a very good, and very obvious, reason.

I had no problems picking weapons for my squad.

If you need quotes for the ... I'll send you some.

And, for the avoidance of doubt, if you changed nothing it would still be a good mission by any standard.     And this, although I'm very keen on the idea of encourging peope, is not a statement I make lightly.      This whole thread is about turning a really good mission into a great one.

I liked the Hollywood effect of Echo in the open, with his weapon beside him   ... just put him next to a bush to make the gesture.    Anyway, if he was that well hidden he wouldn't be found at at, would he? ;D ;D ;D

Under the circs I think you should allow two LAWs at Gear selection .... but perhaps only a total of 4 or 5 missiles rather than 6.

@   Dark Angel I liked your test review and basically agree with it ... I'm hoping to take another crack at your desert mission in the next day or two.   (no promises)    An Abrams will almost always survive a mine hit in this game (although damaged) so its no surprise.   In real life an Abrams is like 20 tons heavier than a T80 and the extra is pretty much all armour.

Sorry, slightly disjointed post.     wtf.   hope it does more good than harrm.

[Sui]

oops... I seem to have given you the wrong idea there Macca (you don't mind me being an idiot and calling you Macca do ya?) ;D

When it comes to my own work I am an absolute perfectionist. When I said I had run the mine sequence probably about 250 times, I meant it.
If there is anything even slightly out of place, I want it fixed before I release the misson.

Hence the reason I love getting lots of feedback about tiny little nitty gritty points

I really appreciate your review, and had reservations about some parts of the mission (eg. the briefing) before posting it up. Getting even little impressions cofirming these reservations helps me make my mission that little bit closer to perfect (You can never quite get all the way there in my opinion ;D).
In my opinion the briefing is one of the most important parts of the mission... I always feel it's very important to get it just right.

Thanks for your input LCD and DarkAngel. You don't need to be an OFP expert to have an opinion, and I value yours for making my mission better. I've taken down more points after reading your feedback.

As far as the readme credits go, if you help me out I want to acknowledge that in some way... including a list of the people that helped me beta test the mission is a must as far as I'm concerned. (You won't get your name in really big letters or anything though ;D)

For me, the medic didn't say anything when i went into the M113 after the...accident.

The medic that Gameer refers to... seems like he's the only one so far who got that little sequence. There are a number of easter eggs in this mission, that being one of them. If you play it through again, there is a one in five chance you'll see what he's talking about

Anyway, I'm well on my way to getting an improved version out, correcting a lot of 'common sense' errors and generally tidying everything up a bit...
I'm still interested (as I always will be) in any more feedback

[asmodeus]

Hey there Sui!   (I actually read the readme and found out what that stands for!)    

Not sure if I can add much more, but here goes...

Readme

Good start!   ;D  (very detailed)  You know the person is serious when there's a readme in a beta mission...    

Overview:

VERY NICE!   ;D  That about describes it...  It's got all the touches... plus extra frills and chills!    I'd say it's up there with the best overview I've seen actually.  


Intro:

No intro, but no intro necessary with how you made it..  One thing about that design tho...  It makes the replayability factor not as good IMO...  Simply because a lot of people are impatient and want to be able to skip through cutscene type stuff at the beginning if possible..  (Even if it is really cool like this mission)...  

Now... I want to point out that I'm not one of these people.  I enjoy seeing how the mission designer accomplished certain things in the cutscene as much as playing the mission sometimes.  (especially in a mission like this)

Briefing:

Very good!  Very detailed!  

I felt as if I was reading a historical book of the preparations for a cool battle.  You've obviously done your research.    ;D

I did notice that I have another Officer in my squad?  By default he had binocs and I know from experience that they sometimes slow down a squad if AI has em...    (but, you have a nice weapons selection.. so it can be changed anyway)  

Also, IMO too many links to La Trinite..  AHHH!!  The linkmonster!!    

Misison

I like all the touches you've put in...  Little details are what makes missions stand out!  

Here's a few that I noticed:  (don't read this stuff if you don't want to spoil any suprises)

Civilians and details in towns  (well done, looks like living towns)
Traffic in base and everywhere adds to that further
Good camera angles on the cutscenes
Realistic and original orders given by commander


Other stuff I noticed:

I saw the M1A1 blow up.. then come back to life.  (like mentioned before I think)  

Too many tents

You should take away the "mine clearing" teams' rifles and give them handguns..  Looked kinda funny when he bent down and his gun was on top of the mine!    

Also, the engineers seemed to take a long time.. But I've only played it once so far.    

As a result of this, I was in the M113 when I got the order to mount it..    (that's just my fault for not following orders, I guess)

During the cutscenes that show the spec op, IMO it would be cooler if his HK was closer to him..  (I wouldn't lay there with my gun out of arm's reach!)    BTW, that was a nice touch how that all played out w/ him..  

It'd be nice to have a medic, but there were tents in the town..  So it's not a big deal.

You should mark "echo's" position on the map.  (unless I missed it?)

To answer your questions:

1.   No score yet

2.   The mission runs almost without any lag at all (a "tent reduction" might help..)  

3.   It's a good difficulty...  I was thinking it was too easy after the attack, then thought about the radio message from "echo" about them leaving that town...  Then it got difficult!    (so, I think it's good so far, I'll get back to you)

4.   I think if you want to go through the trouble to add voices, I'll go through the trouble to download it...    

So far, this is proving to be an excellent, orignal, well designed mission!  

:thumbsup:

Hope this helps some!  

Asmo  

Oh yeah, after my upgrade my Bencmark Result is.... 3714

P.S.  No need for the free PrOn!  Check this mission out people!   ;D

[macguba]

Macca works for me

I know what you mean about the 250 times, I'm the same ..... having real problems getting the force balance right in a take the village mission I'm making at the moment.   (Which has a mineclearing script in it, I can't tell you how cross I am you beat me to it  ;D)

Oh, and I was very pjssed when I wrote that post last night ... it was somebody's birthday and I wrote it when I got in ........ just relieved not to have been banned when I logged on this morning *inserts smiley for oh my head*

[kris]

Hey.

Im no beta tester but realy like this mission, 1 thing.......

clearing the town out and radio call told me that the captain (or something) was coming up, BOOM i blew up...hmm  "ok prolly some grenadier somewhere...ok try again, same thing diff place....right try once more, stayed abit away from the city but still cleared it. captain moved up, all is well, moved down to the city....booom. ¤¤&%&(¤%#/%#, are the mines n this or something?..lol

1 newbie thing, benchmark, do you all mean the #s coming up in the ofp pref program?

[Gameer_77]

• Airbase - sounds like there is a bit of lag issues going on for people... I think I'll make the dust script benchmark conditional, as well as about half of the tents. How did I get them there... cut and paste my friend ;D Notice how they're all in nice neat military rows...

Still, rather you than me...

• Abrams repaired - Yes indeed ;D I was hoping no one would notice... this is necessary due to the fact it needs to survive for at least 30 seconds in Larche... I'll see if I can be a bit more subtle

Blatantly obvious ;D

• The Medic - You were back in the APC when the medic came? That I hadn't thought of... I assumed the player wouldn't be in a vehicle. Thanks, Gameer, I'll put that possibility into play

Didn't know what to do after i'd marked out the mines. Just got back in to be safe.

• Save at FUP - I'll also change that to be conditional on distance or when all your guys are out of the M113. It's scripted, so I'll add a delay and make it less of an encumbrance

Do distance - You'd (I'd) be most likely to get out close to Larche.
 

• Difficulty - There's plenty of infantry for everyone, sounds like I need to get rid of some of the tanks though. Generally it all depends on the Abrams and the Platoon's AT attachment. If they all hit, then the tanks all die... still, I'll sort it out

It was hard for me cause of the lag on my comp (yeh, that's it). And cause of those damn grenadiers :beat:

One last big point: Lag at Larche.
Believe it or not it's a completely different mission if your benchmark is above 2000. More guys, more scenery/cover.
What I might do is make some of the stuff there conditional on having a benchmark over what... 1500 as well? Could you guys possibly post your benchmarks for me please so I can gauge an idea at what older comps might run at?

1150.

One last thing...
Gameer... the group tab didnt' include any of your men..

Do you mean you couldn't choose weapons for your squad?
Did anyone else get this ?

The squad tab in the briefing. Last one, furthest to the right. Y'know? :hmm: ;D

Gameer

P.S. When's all this gonna be fixed :joystick:

[kris]

got this at the end just before i failed  :'(

'(name (_this select 1)) ==|#| (name player)': Error name: Type String, expected Object

[Mandible]

hi,

Well, very nice everyting, overview, briefing, cutscene...started all well. a bit laggy the cutscene (benchmark 2419). the abrahams hits the minefield and I get the order to clear it.
Now, I don't want to be harsh on this on, but after the fourth time watching the whole cutscene it got annoying:

1st time, the m113 continues before I get out, it hits a mine - boom. (start again)
2nd time, I get off the m113 it continues into the mine field - boom (my squad is down)
3rd time, I get off, my squad gets off, Vulcan continues - boom (I was too close - start again)
4th time, idem, I'm far away, I don't get killed, I move into the minefield, the second Vulcan (or whatever) drives up and - boom (this time I'm to close)

The whole thing started that well, after the 2nd blow I quit the mission and started again, but still got the same flaw. I d'ont know if it was intentional, but it really,really,really annoyed me So now i'll go to my university, calm down a bit while listening to my teachers, sleep a bit, then get back to the mission and hope this time it'll work.

Besides this flaw, I can only congratulate you on doing great work with everything else.  *thumbsup*

Am I the only one that got this flaw??? Then it might just be my comp that wants to get a bit of sleep as well *bad comp*

Mandible

[LCD]

@ kris - i already pointed dat out    ;D

dere was eror dat kept comin up - (name (_this select1))=(name player): error name expected object string or somin like dat

;D

:cheers:

LCD OUT

[Gameer_77]

The medic that Gameer refers to... seems like he's the only one so far who got that little sequence. There are a number of easter eggs in this mission, that being one of them. If you play it through again, there is a one in five chance you'll see what he's talking about

Aah...I was wondering why no one else had commented on it.

And it's quite big for an easter egg too

Where are the others? ;D

Gameer

[KTottE]

Damn you Sui!!1
Made me all excited with that topic title, and fer what?

*rolls back into corner*

[macguba]

If you have easter eggs (which is a good idea) I'd have a higher probability than 20% .... I mean if you've put all that work into creating it you want people to see it.      At 35-40% you'd still have to play the mission at least 3 times to have a decent chance of seeing everything.    

[LCD]

i just playeda gain and i found very big bug  :-X i almost won (i saved lil after all da tanks were destroyed) and dere was no1 near da city - so i started 2 run around trin 2 c y da mision didnt end - den i was kiled by som1 and wen i loaded i didnt have control  :-X - it looks like u r disabling da players control somwere and i didnt get it back - and i didnt win cuz of dat cuz i cudnt do nothin

dis time i was ready 4 da attack and it wasnt dat hard ;D - i kiled 3 tanks and da rest died from choper and oder ppl ;D - and cuz i was ready wid sniper rifle da soldiers didnt get dat close 2 da city and it was prety easy (but den after we finished dere were soldiers KMs far and da mision didnt end - later i got disabled ;D) u realydont want us 2 win ?

LCD OUT

[LCD]

k i got out of da mision and resumed from my save ;D

and im addin anoder 2 bugs 3 da mision 2 minor and major  

1) minor - wen da mission acomplishes da first scene in da cuter - shows me only sea
2) minor (me thinks) wen da black out started it gave me strange eror saing - (countside groupname)+(countsid groupname) etc <12 - da eror is dat u forgot 2 put west countside b4 ;D
3) major - da mission is not ending  :-X - just black out-u have 2 black in if u want da misin 2 end   ;D


LCD OUT

[Sui]

Thanks for all the extended feedback everybody

The revised version is now available (check the first post in this thread). For a full list of changes, please check the Version History section of the readme file. To name a few of the major ones:

• Three tier benchmark system implemented, to reduce lag
• Briefing swapped around and random extra spaces deleted (I really do need a new keyboard ;D)
• Minefield marking sequence revised (you'll need to work a bit harder at the minefield now
• Counter Attack restructured
• Win/lose conditions tweaked
• Misc. bug fixes

A few of the reported bugs have me a bit stumped... Ba ha! No they don't ;D
Turns out there was a major bug preventing the mission from finishing... I was feeding countside a group instead of an array... thanks LCD. Also, no intro yet... I'm getting there though ;)
Weapons disappearing... I've noticed that too. I have no idea why that happens sometimes.

Mandible... I'm sorry mate, that sounds really nasty :( As soon as the first tank takes any damage (rolls over the mine) the entire column is told to halt... in no uncertain terms. I'm not sure why they continue, my only hope is that this doesn't happen the next time you try to play (if you want to play again :P). Having sat through the start cutscene many, many times I can understand how you're sick of it...

As far as the easter eggs go... there are a couple more around, one particularly you might have to go out of your way to find.
I like the 20% chance, it means not many people will see it. It's only a 20 line script, not that big a deal ;)

Anyway, Thanks for playing everybody. I'm keen on anymore feed back anyone has to offer