(Review Completed) [SP] Facile Ground

[Gameer_77]

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

Just got a chance to play through it quickly before I leave -

The briefing is a lot better now I think. Better spacing, etc.

And, I can't remember, but did you take some of the annoying 'Larche' and 'La Trinite' links out? :o

I didn't get to any combat, but i did find one problem:

When you get in the jeep with the guy, and arrive at the place, it takes a little longer for him to say anything. So, i just got out and when i did he started talking. By that time i was over at the guy by the m113 and i noticed you added some more talking between the driver and the player.

This creates problems because when he's done talking, and your standing next to the guy by the m113 then he doesn't start talking to you. :-\

Don't know if you get what i'm saying here. But if you were to lock the car until the player and the driver stopped talking then it would work like clock-work. ;D

I'll try it again later, but i also gotta do some other things tonight too ;) (LCD knows what i mean :P)

Gameer

[Sui]

And, I can't remember, but did you take some of the annoying 'Larche' and 'La Trinite' links out?

Yeap... I stomped on the link monster

I know exactly what you mean with the jeep... I didn't add any more dialog in, it was there before.
I think you ended up running up to the Lt. very quickly (in the last version this is), which is why you got flashing titletext up very quick (two scripts running at once, both trying to display dialog). I've fixed it now so that can't happen. I'll make the dialog from the jeep driver happen a bit quicker

Thanks for trying it out again, Gameer

[Gameer_77]

Yeap... I stomped on the link monster

I know exactly what you mean with the jeep... I didn't add any more dialog in, it was there before.
I think you ended up running up to the Lt. very quickly (in the last version this is), which is why you got flashing titletext up very quick (two scripts running at once, both trying to display dialog). I've fixed it now so that can't happen. I'll make the dialog from the jeep driver happen a bit quicker

Thanks for trying it out again, Gameer

Lol  ;D

The dialog was there before? Oh, right.  

Yeh, i got flashing titletexts before. It doesn't happen this time, this time he doesn't talk at all until I walk away from him and come back (That's only when i run up to him early, i think).

As i said, mebbe you should lock the car so you can't get out and have to listen to the guy.  :-\

Try it fully tonight.

Oh, and i'm not sure, but the benchmark system seems to have made it worse. :-X

I don't know, it might've been something I had running and it was probably just me. Or maybe it's my memory going (in my head, not on my computer ). If i think it is, i'll try them both and compare FPS and tell you then.

Gameer

[Gameer_77]

Uh-oh - Major problem!

When you get to the part where you disembark, and you get 2 minutes to wait, well after the 2 minutes is up, still nothing happens.

I've had it on 4x speed for over 5 minutes and still....nothing.

I tried the whole mission twice to confirm it and it happened twice.

Mebbe it's something i've done wrong...?  :-\

Gameer

[asmodeus]

The same thing happened to me last night!

Except, the engineers did come over there for me, it's just that they didn't do anything!  The just stood there!

I'll try it again and make sure for you...

 ;D

Asmo

[Sui]

Thanks guys...

Bah... looks like this is the type of beta where I've fixed heaps of problems and added some more brand new ones!

Anyway, I'll definately address those problems quick smart, and get an updated version out soon

[LCD]

@ sui - should i try dat 1 ? or wait 4 new ver ?

LCD OUT

[asmodeus]

I just tried it again to make sure and the same thing happened.    :-\

I know exactly what you mean about fixing certain bugs and new ones surface!  (kinda reminds me of this game I used to play as a kid where you hit the "moles" on the head with a hammer and they just pop up somewhere else!)    

I do have some feedback for you on the parts leading up to the engineers..

Gear Selection:

I want a G36!!    Or does it not fit in this mission for some reason?

During the cutscene while leaving the base, I noticed that theres a nicely positioned squad at attention (or at ease or whatever) and it's a great detail, but when I saw it their commander was turned sideways, not looking them in the eyes and yellin at em.    (he wasn't walking or anything)

Minefield scene:

I was thinking it would add to the "ambiance" of this great mission if the tanks "scanned" the horizon while you mark the mines.  I'm not sure if it's too much of a pain since they have to be in "safe" mode to drive worth a s#*t anyways..  

Also, since my whole squad is ordered out to search for the mines, can you make it to where my squad memebers can mark them too??  (then you can just use formation and sweep the area quickly)    

I was also thinking it might be better to have a different way to indicate to the engineers that you're done marking the mines...  Have the player and his squad get back into the M113 when they're ready.  ??  Just a thought.  

I also noticed that the M1A1 stayed hurt this time (so far), which was cool.  

Oh yeah, a very funny thing happened to me this time while playing...  The engineers were just sitting there, so I decided to blow up the M1A1 w/ my LAW..  BOOM!  

And then that disturbed the rest of the convoy, and they moved onto the mines slowly!    And now for the really strange part:

http://home.earthlink.net/~jehning1/topoftank.jpg

Check this pic!  I would have got a better view of it w/ binocs or something, but he jumped off of it right after I snapped the screeny!    (it's soo cool that I can take screenies again, btw)      ;D  

(that's the tank commander that jumped out while a 2nd mine blew up his tank after the first mine threw his tank into it!)    

L8r

Asmo

[LCD]

LOL @ asmo - funy pics ;D

i think ill wait 4 newer ver

LCD OUT

[Sui]

Haha! Good analogy about the mole game Asmo, that's exactly how it is ;D

Some good suggestions there, I was thinking along similar lines for a couple of them myself...

The G36... I feel it may unbalance the mission a little. The 'effectiveness' of the player is very, very different when you compare a player armed with a G36 to one armed with an M16 (or even a Dragunov if they decide to pick that up). I think it may unbalance the mission a bit...

Your whole squad marking mines... this one I have been considering for a while. I may be able to get it going, the main problem being that a loop to check which of the squad has found which mine may take too long to be reliable.
I could always execute the detection script 8 times (once for each squad member) and have global arrays... anyway I'll have a bit more of a think about it

The Engineers stopping... are you sure you've marked all the mines near the road? There are 3 on the North side, 3 on the south side, and 4 on the road itself. You need to get all of these before the engineers get to work.
Anyway, I may revise that to make it more obvious to the player

THanks for the input, I'll hopefully tackle a couple of the little bugs and release a (slightly) updated beta later today... hopefully I'll get time...

[asmodeus]

lol

Thnx

I agree about the G36.  That's why I wanted it..  

I tried this again in the mission editor this time.  (I wanted to see exactly how you got the benchmark to work cause it hasn't for me)  

This time, the mine part worked correctly!  I made sure to mark all of them and it was all good.   ;D

But..  :moon:  (there's always a but)  The attack at the town didn't go down!    I got out of the M113, got in position, waited the 2 mins and longer.. nothin...  So I attacked the town w/my squad and got killed a couple times.   ;D  (love the death camera btw)  

So...  Hope you see this b4 the new version!  The mole strikes again!    

Asmo

[Sui]

But..  :moon:  (there's always a but)  The attack at the town didn't go down!    I got out of the M113, got in position, waited the 2 mins and longer.. nothin...  

Yeap... I've gotten this error too

Anyway, new version out soon!
Very soon... I need to hit these moles on the head ;D

[Sui]

Right, new version up (at last).

Grab it from the first post in this thread.
Changes include:

• Any member of your squad can now mark mines
• Fixed the critical error stopping the mission after the minefield
• Fixed the critical error stopping the mission at the FUP

This time, let us hope no more other bugs decide to rear their ugly heads

If anyone is still interested in playing, I'd appreciate any more feedback

[LCD]

im interested ;D but itll take time ;D

LCD OUT

[Gameer_77]

Just tried new version -

The bit with the Sgt. Hogan and the jeep driver is fixed now, i think.

Done the whole clearing the mine field thing, didn't get the easter egg though

Then it was the cutscenes then it came to me taking Larche.

So we de-bussed, and setup behind the M1A1. After the 2 mins, the guys started to go and we followed behind. It was difficult, but this time i was killed only once buy the damn grenadiers! ;D

So, we took the town...right down to the last officer hiding annoyingly out of sight.  

The next cutscene started up - Must've put a lot of effort into this one, very good  

Then the counter-attack started so I hopped into that half-truck/half-MG contraption  

I saw a few BMPs come down the road so i started on them with the HE. That ran out quick so I pointed out all the enemies to my squad and they took care of them.

So...bla-bla-bla...everyone was dead...air-support arrived to help a little (Although on the previous try it was re-assuring to see the BMP2 blowin' into the ground with a hellfire  :wow: :help:)

I got that error LCD mentioned before, but not on the try I completed it with (I died in the try the error came up).

I found it kinda funny that Hogan called in reinforcements after the counter-attack.

Oh, and the thing were all the squads report in - very cool. ;D

Nice ending cutscene and a very nice mission.

Your 4 questions -

Score

Hmm.....I had to run it on 640x480 so it's not that clear. I've attached a screeny so you can decide yourself but i think it's 4880.

FPS

Not too bad, actually. When everything's turned down, it runs at about 10-15. Which is good for my obsolete hunk-a-junk.

Difficulty

Varies - If you take out the grenadiers, it's easier.

It takes a few attempts, but it can be done...even for a not-so-good guy like me.

Was playing in Cadet Mode.  

Voices

Have two versions, i'd say.

I noticed you already added the 'say' code into the scripts and such, so it shouldn't be too hard to implement.

V. Good mission I think. These are the kinda missions OFP was made for...joint-OPs.

Well done.

Gameer

Btw, i didn't remove the old missions and there was no problems