(Review Completed) [SP] Abandoned Armies

[Mikero]

Chapoi

Fortunately I had a major savegame preserved immediately after Stamenov bought it. It was one of the better ones. The one you 'know' is 'right'.

I raced around a bit in the knowledge I had some time (or thought so). A repeated sequence T72. 2 x vulcans blah, and it turned out, only a single M2 nest stood between me and a change flag so that hide 'n seek crawl-in had done some pretty major damage. Raced back to mountains. My confidence of dealing with tanks has increased a lot. Larche mountain taught me that, and a previous encounter with T80's on the Dourdan Beach side mountain.

We got away just in time, 3 x squads were flooding in, 2 bmps and 2 godzillas. I saw vague shadows of troops also coming from South, south east. This reminded me that any attack on the fuel station generally triggers this, and the fight for Chapoi then becomes close to impossible.

Some retries involved but the bmps, not the tanks, were the key. They disgorged too many nasty troops to be ignored and the BMP2 could shoot far more accurately than the abrahms. Forced to use up our precious AT's on the Bmp's, but AT doesn't seem to have all that big an impact on godzilla anyway. Perhaps a pun intended there.

A small squad of Northrons came over mountain. We and they got the same surprise, but we won. Gave us a few more precious rounds. My M21 was nearly empty, and most of the squad had emptied a lot of cartridges. Sort of seat of the pants stuff getting them re-armed while avoiding 2 x abrahms which were struggling through the terrain badly. Managed to annoy them severely with all our remaining rockets and they weren't too keen to follow us, but tried. Stragglers came out of Chapoi to assist the tanks, but they appear confused and easily shot down.

Thought about the fuel depot. With that quantity of loons entering town, what happened at the depot? By this time godzillas had hunted us into forest behind mined town, and a very clever, albeit corny, tune was playing from one of the buildings. Someday, one day, I wont get lifted off my feet going in there, but today isn't it. 2 of me wounded in column formation straying too close, but preferable to being squashed and run over.

Circled our way to Fuel station. Which, surprisingly, was totally empty, including M2 nest.

While this was going on, not only was a quite fierce gunshot battle going on in Chapoi central, the tanks were being plastered by the Northrons with rockets. A few whacks, M2 fire from tank, silence, a few whacks, and so on. Made me wonder why we bothered!

Inevitably (or perhaps not) the glorious sound of exploding armour. One down, one to go, and it was still being pelted with rockets. Northrons saved me the bother

At this point a 9squad came up from Chapoi to deal with us (for no reason I could see). I'd got into the m2 nest as the safest zoom option. Better than sniper, that one.

Knocked them all off in one's and two's and not sure if last tank went bang because what appeared to be unarmed soldiers coming up road towards us. That, made no difference to me.

Let one of my people go forward to grab a rocket. He went too far and was splatted by Northrons in the town. Had to restart this section and it was the most pleasurable restart I had because I got to shoot them all again. Nothing, but nothing is coming up that road alive, and no-one, is walking home to mum.

Waited awhile then crawled in towards Chapoi again. Lot of Northrons running accross towards south. For a little time, I used the spare T72 south of Chapoi, but, it was a magnet for every loon in the area. Blown to bits a few too many times, so just did it the hard way. Best position was between Fuel station and chapoi, and eventually, we took the flag again after vicious fighting. They just wouldn't stop coming at us for awhile.

Last four or five loons held up near repair depot area and were a tough pack of mongrels to dislodge. Found some southron armored crew, who also, weren't getting fed in the coming winter.

need to mention now, that the 'mist' issue has gone away. At no time was there an 'unfair' advantage. It often resorted to pea soup stuff, but not at any time was a loon in a better visual than we were. Exception being tanks vs other vehicles, but I accept this as being part of their InfraRed.

The sky is clearing to something sunny. There's no 'heaviness'. While there is no lag and never has been, my 'actions' are now looser, more fluid, easier. The only lag type i have detected so far is the classic where are you's when the engine's working overtime on everything except the video.

We re-arm and basically get trim taught and terrific. I've got lots of options. At this point many players would switch to armour, there's any amount of them available and it would make good game play to finish the airport off. But I never enjoy them, I get severely peeved at drivers who can't, so I'm walking. Regardless, what a marvellous choice for players to change their battle tactics 2/3rds into game. What a reward. The cleverness of it is, you'd get the same 'reward' attacking airport first.

Final comment for now is there are NO signs of burning wrecks. There never was an armored battle here, north vs south. First time ever, and I caused it by depleting everything that crawled in Goisse. I remember now, that this is the direction these buggers come (west into chapoi). I have yet to spot a chopper wreck anywhere on the map (mist is probably too soup) and there has been no sound of choppers since Larche. Minor correction that armoured hulks *might* exist in the pea soup but i very much doubt it.

There are no bird sounds, wolves or otherwise. This is a shame. I'd be firing a symphony off at this point in the game.

[THobson]

My comment about blowing the vehicle up was a piece of expectation management.  I really wouldn't want anything that crude.  I can get it to join the convoy fine (and then leave the convoy when back at base), but as you say if it is stuck in the town it could seriously screw up the convoy.  It would look so much better if it did though, so I haven't quite given up on that idea yet.

My only reservation about the loon driving it away independently of the convoy is that it would not then be included in the collision avoidance stuff I put in to stop the convoy colliding with the jeeps.  But it is only one journey every once in while and if the drivers are stupid enough to hit each other (they are) then so be it.

tudders:
I don't think anyone has selected the reduced features option yet.  The Chapoi escape costs one group of 11 loons and one trigger, so it is not too expensive.  The problem is that none of the additional features are separately very expensive, it is just the cumulative effect.  It can easily go back in and it is part of the story.

Mikero:

unarmed soldiers coming up road towards us. That, made no difference to me.

Gee you really were upset at them.  Even after they had dropped their weapons and were running away.

So the northrons occupied Chapoi - did they have armour?  You didn't mention any so I assume not.  You must have done them a lot of damage earlier.

There are no bird sounds, wolves or otherwise. This is a shame

In Chapoi?  Are you sure you are alone - you and your team?  I will look at it.  You didn't mention the electricity generator.  I found that really spooky when I was crawling in and around the town alone - but it was at night (I am a lot slower than you)

[Planck]

I have now downloaded version 1.30.

I won't be playing it through, I just wanted to see how it ran with the new ECP.

So, I will give it a bash and let you know if the save game bug still crops up.


Planck

[macguba]

Good news on flags.  When I tried this in the mission editor there were flags at the huts in LaT, and also on an Abrams I test-started next to.

Remove the danger signs at LaT, they aren't doing anything except flag up that that's the right corner of the town, and if you think that's a problem we can fix it in a better way.    The four lots of barrels don't look great.    Two or three would be better, or perhaps some replaced by single barrels.  Do you know the capacity of a barrel?   Does the 4xbarrel have four times the capacity of a single barrel?

[Planck]

There are 4 different single barrel models and they all have:

transportFuel=100;

The 4 barrels on a pallet however has:

transportFuel=400;

So, it holds 4 times as much fuel.

As a comparison the fuelstations have:

transportFuel=50000;


Planck

[Mikero]

Chapoi ->Airport

Moved back up to mountains where I'd parked the decrepit Ural truck. Took a bit to find it (should have used target marker). I like these unplanned walks. They give me time to think. My options, all dismissed, were to travel back Chapoi -> Le Port turn off and run anything over that had it's hands in the air, look for any signs of convoy from curiosity, or, go sniff at the other towns further south again for curiosity. What was nagging at me though was Goisse. There was a lot of firefight north of there. I've winded the Northrons, I think they've holed up. So I'm going west back to La P.

La P has it's flag changed back to north. Ok. Goisse it is then. I have no fear driving these roads, I am as happy to double back to Chapoi as move on north. There's always a little something I never noticed, and always an enjoyable memory flash of some last battle. Took opportunity to refuel my truck at the little fuel stash in La P, and off we go.

Goisse remains in our hands, and an uneventful journey occurs thru dirt track to Northern lighthouse. No sign of firefight, it must have been in mountains. Am happy to drift along on any whim that takes me. No sign of enemy at any of the 3 building structure locations (hamlet, lighthouse, T junction). Throughout the journey, there's a slickness, a quickness to the way the mouse responds, the reduced enemy count is the cause I guess, but it fits the mood perfectly, We, are winning.

Disembark near fuel station and come at it from wide open area where it's "best" in pea soup fog. Only about 8 loons in area, most try and take the M2 nest back as we knock out whoever's in it. Occaisonal bug where my people fire at it when empty so i solve the problem with an rpg.

Ditto gun on other side.

Pull back out and dissappointed there's no rocket or any other ammo type crates or vehicles. We're going to need them.

Decide to attack the airport from northern fence. I want to keep away from those sniper hills.

Stumble over an M60 and his friend deep in shoreline. I want nothing coming up our backsides in the long runway attack.

M60 surprisingly blows up with a single law to it's turret. The T80 doesn't respond, but I know better than to ignore it. It takes four rockets to deal with it, and I've learned with these heavy armor tanks to be the last one to fire in the squad.

Start column formation along the northern beach fence. T72 very vague in distance. 200 meters max visibility, time is 3.pm. #3 half misses the bloody thing with an AT, but I finish it off with a law. (my team are HOPELESS with AT) Suspect trouble and start snaffling remaining rockets for myself and get hit by a sniper. The team tank him out. Just enough time to heal and a Vulcan appears 100 meters away, from direction of Fuel Station. Wow. Get him in a desperate shot while being healed.

So far, not overly concerned. We're in a very good sheltered hill, nothing behind us and nothing too unpleasant coming at us. But, all our rockets are gone. Fool that I am, I didn't swap trucks for something useful. I figure at best, there'd be armor other side of airport and it'd be unlikely to come for us. Any sign of trouble though. I'm retreating back to Goisse.

I'm tempted to go in alone, but for now, my team have a great field of fire.

Used last rocket against Vulcan on beach.

Steady crawl in. We are extremely well protected. The Runway banks away down to the fence allowing us crawl space and great sweeping fire range.

There's nothing beach side, and fairly certain one of us would spot it if there were. Steadly knocking off gunners and prone soldiers, bit denser in prone loon count as we move in. Blackops present no real problem other than they are much more alert. Eventually, my squad empty all their rounds, everything, at an empty m2 nest. So I back up to a savegame just before (16 retries left) and go in alone.

A few retries involved, but the bank crawl space brings me up to Andropov's tent, and I use a satchel on him from black op. <>

Quick save and retreat turns disastrous. I get back to my squad but they're slowly eaten away with charging enemy (not _that_ many), mostly the M2 nests that they sometimes ignore.... and then the same problem with those M2 nests when empty. So I hit retry and leave them where they are. The HK does all the work as I steadily and stealthily, crawl bush to bush in between barracks. The enemy are in rush rush mode, I am not, and as they sweep past in singles, they get a message.

Soon after I clean out all the m2 nests in south. There is NO ARMOUR at any time.

I get into M2 nest furthest away from hills, snipers would otherwise kill me. What's left of any prone loons scattered south and east on runway are easy meat. Eventually a few desultory runs by the hill snipers, but I progress from M2 nest to M2 nest conveniently located every few yards.

It's all over. They give up. And, they give up relatively quickly with relatively few attacks on me or the need to kill too many (probably 20..25 kills max)

A *very* different story I think if armour had given them courage.

I do not know the remaining enemy count. I never really went near St Louis again nor the southern runway at all (a shadow glimpse of an upturned Apache only). I had the impression that there could have been many of them. Perhaps not. The Fuel depot was not as heavily manned as I normally encounter. (but I tend to make a lot more noise most times).

Game crashed for me just before outro, 99% sure its my ram sticks. So I can't tell you ending changes if any. None of my people dead.

many technical things I should have done better THob, as a tester, but this run through for me was more about making sure the magic remained. It did so in spades. At every flick of the mouse the outcomes could have been entirely different. That's, the magic.

----

All in all Thobson you've done it again. This time, the lag is better than at any other time any other version I have played. It simply didn't exist. The airport and Chapoi are always my ultimate tests to the 'mist' problem. There isn't one.

My impressions were there were far less enemy around, or far less sweeping patrols, or random incidents that could surprise me with bullets. Just impression. I never witnessed loon on loon firefights, at T3, Chapoi or the airport. The Dourdan Houdan corridor held no surprises and nothing 'orrible frightening me all the way to the beach. I'm putting it all down to that random flick of the mouse that vectored me off, just like every other time I've ever played this mission, into a completely different scenario and outcome. My new found confidence fighting tanks, and my desperate priority for ammo has a lot to do with that.

However, and certainly, Larche, which has always been a pig to attack, ending in tears, was a far better, 'fairer' experience.

Also, something twigged with me at the immediate start of the intro. There's a nuance there which wasn't there before. A sense that you're finished with this mission in the nicest possible way, that you're already thinking of the 'coming winter' and planning plans. Just a sense that you're moving on to develop the next episode. A finality about the intro (and the mission) that I picked up on. Doesn't mean there aint patches to patch, but I think you've shifted ground.

Please thank your family for me for those marvellous voiceovers they did. Can't be easy putting up with "Dad's Passion" but they made such a difference for us all.

[macguba]

Looking at the map ...

Put a proper roadblock SW of Larche, and disused roadblocks just north of Dourdan and south of Saint Louis.    Also SW of Goisse.   That's if you really want to create the sense of no man's land, which I think would be a good thing.    By roadblock I don't just mean a singe fence.    (Perhaps a scap of fencing and a danger sign just north of Arudy and south of Larch too.)

Layout of tents in Goisse makes it look like a southron town, not northron.

[MrN]

Benchmark 6410, ECP 1.085, Vet mode, no super AI

With OFPEC being down and a lack of motivation with my current mission this seems like a good time to finally try and run through this. Typing as I play so this may be a bit stream of consciousness, ie a load of balls.

Climb that hill and sneak around a bit, get 1st bunch by house, have a quick scout around get a message by some bodies and the flag-taking sound-effect, bit odd. Move to house and get cutscene for Tatyana, rain stops. Her subsequent death seems a bit arbitrary but hey-ho. I get her killers and gather up the ammo.
 
Head directly north-east to get to the lodge, have a brief moment when I thought I'd busted the jeep by crashing into a bush whilst map-reading. Cross a road and then slam the brakes on because I see a house, good job because now I hear a chopper in the distance. Get out, have a nose around the houses and all seems at peace. Wait for chopper to pass and get back in jeep.

Finally find the lodge, orienteering was never my strong point. The plot thickens. Don't yet grasp the reorganising team thing, I'm guessing it'll make sense at some point.

Just for the crack I save the game and head directly east on my own to have a scout round and see what trouble I can kick up. Get to the road between La Trinite and Dourdan and there's a convoy of what looks like a BMP and 4 trucks, can't see anything else because I'm too busy trying to get off the bike and get in a bush. The convoy isn't moving. I get myself in a bush and watch several Spetz get in the BMP and the convoy moves on. This was quite cool. Headed east to the coast then north. Due to my lack of navigation skills and this damn rain I get disorientated and run straight into the fuel depot north of Andropov, I get sucker-punched. Ack. So, not much trouble at all.  ;D

Back to the plan. I listen to the radio and get another objective so I go to the civilians. Navigation is a pain in the ass with all this rain but I get there in the end. Nice touch that when I get out of the truck (if I hear a chopper) the civilians get out too, they also get back in with no drama.

Next cut scene and I notice that more decisions are starting to come my way. Could be my imagination but lag seems to be building up a little.

Decide to rescue the civilians at DE35, end up getting lost again and end up at FB31 by the fuel station. Two things at this point make me jump: first thing is a jeep with MG bombing down the road (fortunately I wasn't in the truck and leapt into the nearest bush); second thing is the wolves, scared the crap out of me at first. After a while though, to me it started to grate a bit, the overlapping of the sounds just didn't quite work for me.

Get to the civilians eventually and get an update of story. I have to run after the medic for healing because I've crunched the truck several times. Lag is starting to kick a little bit. I'm using the DXDLL FPS counter and it's gone from 20-25 to 15-20. Still, nothing dramatic, just noticeable.

Head south to Houdan. It's impossible to gauge distances with this rain and I end up getting too close it seems. A Vulcan picks me up and introduces me to the Grim Reaper. I try again and skirt around to the west more. I still end up getting picked up, but this time I survive although he's destroyed my truck. Bast, he'll pay for that.

All this time I opt to go it alone. I move quicker that way. But I end up with the AI from the 2nd civilians.

I end up in the house, which I recognise from the intro to the west of Houdan. Contemplate my options with the Vulcan, I don't fancy my chances with 2 M16 rounds and 3 grenades.  :-X I leave 7 looking out over the area and sneak around the outside of where I think the Vulcan is, on my way back in I see a guy with an AK stood around. I get my trusty pistol and cap him from about 100 yds, I then hear an engine start up and 7 reports a T80. Damn. Have a very tense moment of Cat and MrN while the tanks move around the bush I'm trying to make myself very small in. At one point the T80 was staring straight at me then just popped over the brow of a small hill enough for me to get to another side of the bush, so when he came back he couldn't see me. Tense stuff.

Get to Houdan after diving into another bush near the road because of another jeep driving past. Meet the soldier in there and he joins me, I have to tell him to pick up his own weapon after the cutscene though. . Quit at this point.

--------------------------------
Load up my savegame and after re-orientating myself I remember that things are a bit messy. No transport, 7 on his own up near the Vulcan and another AI to babysit. I decide to head to Dourdan and see what's going on with the idea of heading up to La Trinite for a nose around.

Get near to Dourdan and notice 3 loons standing around near a tent, decide I'm going to have to get stuck in at some point. It then dawns on me that the normal tactic of blowing a mission to pieces on my own isn't going to work, I need pack mules. Ammo, ammo, ammo.

Start the fight by taking out the 3 stood still, the place goes berserk. Full details escape me but I lose 9 when I tell him to pick up a PK. Quite a tense fight this, very Resistance, ie having to conserve ammo, having to make quick little dashes around to pick up more ammo. I manage to acquire a LAW launcher though so I'm a little happier. 3 Jeeps with MG's barrel up the road south to north, have a sniff around but because we are hidden they move on. A T80 does the same. I'm really quite relieved he moved on! Re-inforcements seem to be mainly coming from the North but they're running straight into my sights. Sort of, I got injured at some point so my efforts at conserving ammo are proving to be a bit tricky.

Dourdan is peaceful at last. Me and number 7 deserve a cuppa after that! I'm curious to find out what these guys with flags are all about. I want to nick the flag that's there but there's no option. Booo. I have a rummage around Dourdan and notice an undamaged house. I have a peak around. Get to a ladder and get a cutscene about a woman resting, I shouldn't disturb her. Weird. For a start there's just been a major firefight by the house so she would have woken up and I would have thought that it would be a good idea to get her up, about and back to the lodge.

Just as I'm getting my stuff together and getting 7 sorted for ammo, a T80, T72 and a Vulcan come for a visit. These must be the bastards from Houdan. 2 RPG's and I get the T72 from the comfort of the cutscene house and the Vulcan also tastes a rocket. Revenge for taking out my truck. An M2A2 also shows on the scene. The T80 fires his MG at something and it wasn't me or 7. Hmmm. Oh, it turned out to be 7. Just me here now.

Then, the shit hits the fan even more as the convoy turns up. Being as I've already stirred up a whole load of trouble I decide I may as well carry on. I shoot the driver of the Ammo truck and it rolls to a stop right in front of the house. To say the place was teaming with loons is an understatement! Fortunately I am still in the house and a few of them, an RPG guy included, stray into the house and get a cap in their head. Bit of a Saving Private Ryan moment. So I have Ammo. Oh, the bravado of retries.  

I then have a moment of luck when, after waiting 5 minutes or so, most of the loons get back in the truck and the truck moves just enough for me to get to it with an RPG launcher. It goes up nicely and blokes pour out the back on fire screaming their lungs out. Heh, heh. Serves the evil bastards right. I manage to sneak out to the truck and stock up on mines and RPG's. I also manage to get out and plant a mine when another M2A2, 5tn Truck and Vulcan convoy turn up. I now start to wonder about that situation you warned the player about in the readme about getting yourself into an impossible situation. Oh well, at least I have an ammo truck on my doorstep!  

I have to retry at this point because I shoot the house doorway trying to hit the M2A2. I do another quick dash and lay a couple more mines, grab an AT4 launcher and hide. The convoy turns up. Damn, I don't have the RPG anymore. . I crawl to the truck and pick one back up, head back and the M2A2 hits one of my mines. It goes up as well as the truck and the T80 takes some damage. As do I. That was a little warm.

Then as I'm looking out the doorway I see a guy with a flag on his back runs up to MY ammo truck and try to get in. He definitely gets taught the error of his ways. The T80 is pre-occupied with trying to run this house over so while he's doing that I crawl out and get to the field hospital, I get hit with one of my Flashpoint bugbears: get healed then stand up. Just at the time 3 guys come running down the hill from the north. I fire off a few rounds very aware of the fact I only have 15 rounds left, they hit the dirt and I leg it back to my house while the back of my neck was very exposed.

A couple of retries involved here , I mainly had to concern myself with that bloody T80 that was not going away and was doing a good job of avoiding any mines that I had placed. A combination of AT4/RPG and M16 fire up his backside to get him to move was involved in then end. As soon as that sucker was out of action I grabbed MY ammo truck and hot tailed it out of there, driving past another guy with a red flag on his back. I left him to it, I just wanted to get MY ammo truck back to the lodge. I now notice that the rain has cleared and was clear for quite a while. Didn't notice, too busy kicking up trouble resistance style.

And all this time the woman was still resting upstairs. One time when I was fighting I got too close to the ladder and the cutscene kicked in, when I crouched down I got a bullet in the head, not best pleased about that.

Just as I get back to the lodge I hear the sound of a chopper. I manage to get to the back of the truck, take a Strela launcher and get in position for when it flies past. Lock-on, woosh, bang. I trust that every bad guy I take out is having consequences somewhere along the line. I definitely feel like I've stirred up a boatload of trouble.

We should be pretty stocked up now and whoever the Red Flag dudes are, are going to be licking their wounds for a while as well as putting my picture on a few dartboards.  

I make sure I've updated my savegame and my retry position and quit.

------------------------------------------------

Load up and scratch my chin about what to do next. I decide that I've already given the guys from the south a good pounding so it's time for the guys in the north to take some punishment. Larche seems like a convenient target.

As I'm getting 2 & 3 loaded with ammo, the wolves start their howling again. It's further away this time so they sound better.

One thing I have noticed is that every time I get out of a vehicle I put my gun on my back.

Decide to go on foot to Larche to try and steal more vehicles and I don't want to risk the truck getting blown up. I fought too much for that! Move off towards Larche, get about halfway and the loons that I left back at the lodge start reporting enemy, thankfully they also reported that they got killed but that means the guys from the south are obviously a bit peeved with my antics. I put the loons into a better defensive position and move off again.

Get to the edge of Larche and I can only see 1 loon standing guard. I just know it's not going to be that easy though so I head around north after putting my 2 in a firing position. Get whacked by a lone machine gunner who by the time the deathcam gets to him is standing nonchalantly with his MG on his back. Right, he's my first target.

Load up and put the loons at the lodge in a better position in case the sneaky basts try it again and head off. Get to Larche and try to be in a more tactical location. All hell breaks loose when I identify a target in town and haven't told my team to hold fire. The place starts erupting with activity including a 3 Jeep with MG convoy, M1A1, lots of patrols and to top things off the guys at the lodge start taking fire.  I put up a brave fight but get whacked again.

This is obviously a BAD PLAN and with the day I've had at work I can't be arsed with the stress so I quit.

To be continued...

[macguba]

I agree that the cutscene in Dourdan starts when you are too far away from the ladder.    One of the many things I forgot to mention.

I suspect that the wolves sound is randomised and that you may just have hit a poor combination that time when it sounded a bit crap.

The rifle on back thing is an OFP game issue, it's nothing to do with this mission.   It's just that there is something about this mission that makes you notice it more.   I believe THobson has looked into it and there isn't really much that can be done.

I also agree that the reorder squad thing could probably do with some more documentation somewhere.  (Possibly in the readme.)   It is actually perfectly straightforward, but it does take a moment or two to figure out what is going on.

[MrN]

I suspect that the wolves sound is randomised and that you may just have hit a poor combination that time when it sounded a bit crap.

Agreed. I've heard it sounding more like mooing cows too.  

The rifle on back thing is an OFP game issue

Forgive me if I'm being an eejit here, isn't it just related to the players/units behaviour setting? I just went into the editor and placed a player unit and a jeep. Get in, get out fine.

Put "this setbehaviour safe" into the init line and I have to put the M16 in hand. Then when I get out of the jeep I have the gun on my back. Just a thought that the player may need setting to aware after cutscenes if he's being put to safe at any point.

Just a thought...

EDIT- I was an eejit and posted combatmode instead of behaviour

[Mikero]

Cat and MrN

BARAGH!!! ;D

In my case, tigers.

Great story to read MrN. Loved it.

>rifle on back

I believe you're correct. It has *never* happened to me in this mission any version. I believe that to be the case because I *always* 'All, stay alert'. Just guessing on this, but always wondered why it was 'ok'.

[THobson]

At last!  A couple of weekends ago I was busy doing other stuff, then late on Sunday I got to ofpec to read and comment on some of the most recent posts and prepare a to-do list only to find it wasn't there.  Since it came back I have only had the odd snatched minute.  Now I have a bit more time.

One problem with the delay is that I have so far been unable to thank mikro for yet again a wonderful story.  It is encouraging to see people experience this mission in the way I had hoped but hardly dreamed possible.

I have been busy:

1. Delayed the north convoy by 3 to 4 minutes giving a bit more time for the player at LaT.  This does make the cycle longer so instead of the north convoy arriving 6 minutes after the departure of the south convoy in a 35 minute cycle, it arrives 9 to 10 minutes later every 40 minutes.  All times are approximate.

2. Empty vehicles left in the vicinity of LaT will now be captured by the next convoy to visit the town and will be driven to the relevant base.  If the vehicle is not a tank the crew will then disembark.  Captured tanks will remain fully crewed and could cause a problem to the player later.  This applies for any vehicle from a bicycle to an Abrams to a chopper.  Getting it to work for a chopper was a bit of a pain, for reasons I wont go into here, but was necessary as there is a very small chance that the player might capture a chopper during the mission, and an even smaller one that the opposing convoy is still running.  In doing this I noticed some interestingly different behaviors of several vehicles.  The M113 Ambulance and V80 chopper were a real pain to get right.  The fact that I spent time on them even though these vehicles do not feature in the mission is testament to my current level of insanity.  Several vehicles (bicycle, motorcycle, jeep) sometimes will not make it to the base.  Despite my best efforts depending on their location they may try to go through LaT.  If they do they often hit one of the wire barricades there and become disabled.  This is still not a bad result.
In determining how far from LaT an empty vehicle must be to be captured I have used the then current level of rain and fog to estimate the likely visibility.

3. 5% of all southron M16 and AK74 carriers now have a Kozlice instead.  The southern ammo trucks now carry Kozlice ammo.

4. General improvements to towns, barriers into no mans land, civi huts etc.  Improved dialogue at the start, a bit more fuel in the sourthron trucks.  A road block is created north of Dourdan as soon as the southron convoy is dead.

5. I looked at creating a dynamic travelogue type of objective for the briefing.  To do this justice I would need 312 (or at least 156) different contents tables each with their own objective.  I don't know if OFP would handle this many objectives - and I have no energy to try it.  A pity - this was a neat idea.

6. Re-made one of the background monitoring scripts that keep the vehicles on the road. Now instead of 4 instances of a script running permanently, it only runs once for each group of vehicles every 5 minutes.  This should help with lag and the large savegame bug.

7. Less ammo available in the crates and trucks, but more with the dead loons so you can pick up individual mags from the corpses without having to pick up the weapon first.

8. Fixed the reorganise bug that resulted in the loons getting back in their most recent vehicle.

9. Much improved endscene.  (I think anyway)

10. Not planning to change the shots of Irena to make the radio and medial cabinet more obvious.  I like it that the player has to stay alert.

In my recent testing I did something I knew was theoretically possible but had never managed before.  I captured a chopper.  It was badly damaged and had no fuel but I soon fixed both of those and then I was airborne and heading for a whole new experience.

Twenty seconds later I was in a parachute and what was left of the chopper couldn't be salvaged.


I still have to prepare my to-do list, but let's just catch up on recent posts.


Mr. N
Wonderful story, thank you.  

The wolves do sound a little odd sometimes.  I used the OFP wolf sound files (there are three) and randomised them.  More realistic howling would be better.

Your reaction to the reorganise team is very helpful.  Most here were reading the thread when the idea was being discussed, having someone come to it new is really helpful.  Yes more documentation is needed.  For your own benefit I suggest you might try it.  You will get a list of the people that have joined your team and are still alive.  You can then select where in your squad to place them.  The first one you select will be number 2, the second will be number 3 etc.  Did you say Sergei was dead?  If he died before you reorganise your team then the woman at Dourdan will remain a mystery I am afraid.  She will be permanently resting.

Weapon on back when you get out of the vehicle:  This must be an OFP issue.  It either always happens or always doesn't - without me doing anything.  I think some pob versions of the mission have the problem all the time and some don't, but I have not investigated it fully - too much other stuff to do.  I have just read mikro's latest.  If he has never experienced it then it can't be true that some pbo files suffer from it some not so it must be something to do with the initialisation of the mission.  Mikero: I am always at least AWARE in this mission and it still happens to me sometimes.

Forgive me if I'm being an eejit here, isn't it just related to the players/units behaviour setting? I just went into the editor and placed a player unit and a jeep. Get in, get out fine.

No not an eejit.  What you say makes perfect sense.  One of the puzzling things about this mission though is that somethings that may work in small short mission do not always work in this one, or if they do they don't continue to work throughout the mission.  I have seen getout waypoints work for a while but then fail the 7th time the units get there. etc. etc.  Rifle on the back is just such an issue.  Sometime it will happen right through the mission, another time it will not happen at all.  I will put it on the list of things for me to have another fiddle with.


The cutscene starting at the bottom of the ladder is a compromise.  Originally I had it starting at the top, the problem with that is that after a few hours and few saves (I am not sure which of these is the most significant) the ‘climb ladder' action is not available.  Another OFP issue.  I can certainly make the detection radius smaller.



Mikero:  You got he impression I had moved on.  Not really but I do want to get my life back.  The things about the mission that irritate me are now fewer and less irritating than before.  The only significant one now is something raised by Mr. N's run through.  Should the player ever find out about the woman at Dourdan if Sergei is killed before having the ‘reorganise conversation' with Alexi.  My original intent was that no he shouldn't, and I don't do anything to protect Sergei from the player either.  If he kills him then he will have a different mission.  As I am writing I am persuading myself that the current set up is fine.  So no I have not moved on, yet, but it is close.  I need my son back from his holidays so I can re-do one of the lines in the dialogue at the concentration camp and then I am done, give or take the odd re-wording and stuff in the recent posts that I couldn't remember fully when ofpec was down plus some tidying up - but that can go on forever if I let it.  Macguba and sui have offered their voices for a couple of the parts.  Putting those in and getting the volumes and timing right are the next (and I hope the last) big thing.  I am hoping for a mid October submission of this mission and as I will be a way on business ¾ of September that isn't very long.

Having said that there is one lingering concern.  It is the lag.  It continues to feel like a threshold issue, stay within the threshold and it is okay, go beyond the threshold even slightly and performance collapses.  I have put quite a few items in the next version to make whole areas look more realistic, this might have tipped it over the threshold - if indeed such a thing exists.

As ever.  Thank you all, everything is going on the list - even if I haven't commented on it here.

It's good to be back.

[Dagon]

Have been trying the mission; benchmarked 8000 or so. Love the idea and the execution, but there's a few niggles (more OFP-related than mission related) where I'd die from enemy fire way, way, way beyond the fog; at least 200 metres into the fog.

Also, TBH this mission makes "The Un-impossible Mission" seem tame in comparison. If I so much as even fire a bullet it seems like the entire army of any given area i'm in decides to stroll by and vapourise me.

[Dagon]

.....For example.

I 'try' to take over a town, with 9 teammates in tow. About the same second they encounter and enemy, 4 of them die to a grenade. a few seconds later, the rest die from AK fire. When I clear the town, it's revealed that there's in fact only actually 3 soldiers in the whole town. Great.

And then a whole column of t-80s comes by and kills me from 1 kilometre away with it's machinegun.

[THobson]

I don't know I would ever describe The Un-Impossible Mission as tame.  To me it was a seminal piece of work.

What I have tried to do here is to make an environment that was as realistic as I could.  I did not think - now what would/should the player do here, I thought, how would this really be.  The result speaks volumes for the quality of the OFP engine, it reacts with a realsim that is sometimes spooky.  I, and I believe others, have found that to play it successfully it is necessary to adopt a different form of game play.  It really does require a hit and run approach.  It is easy to forget the run part of this, but in this mission you will be punished if you do.

About the same second they encounter and enemy, 4 of them die to a grenade. a few seconds later, the rest die from AK fire. When I clear the town, it's revealed that there's in fact only actually 3 soldiers in the whole town. Great.

And then a whole column of t-80s comes by and kills me from 1 kilometre away with it's machinegun.

 ;D  Of course the hit and run bit doesn't apply here, just a bit of bad luck I think.

If I so much as even fire a bullet it seems like the entire army of any given area i'm in decides to stroll by and vapourise me.

This is where run part of hit and run is important.


EDIT:

Okay.  I have just spent the last 3 hours re-reading all the posts since v1.30 was put up, and collecting a list of more things to do.  I now see I had remembered a lot less than I thought.  Still quite a lot to do.