(Review Completed) [SP] Abandoned Armies

[lilwillie_WI]

ok, few days of playing.

Arudy, cleared, for the most part. One lone gunman hiding in the buildings. I was about to go in and take him down the hard way (up close and personal) but the jeep patrol came threw. I entered the town and put a bullet in my last man, began loading the truck with weapons and the call came in "T-80 12' o'clock 200 meters." Oh boy. laid low, they cruised into town and setup to the SW. I low crawled out and went back to base.

There, headed by bike south along the road, found more bodies. After that my russkie was calling in tons of action at La Trinitte. I headed back to base, then west. Ran into a tank platoon setup on the ridge. Went around them and off to the woods along La trinnite. Then north. Checked out the fuel station.

That's when I could here a ton of action. My home base trio called in a patrol north of the base. I hauled ass back just in time to see a 5 man patrol move threw the base. I left my crew to guard and followed them, staying 150 meters back. We got close to Arudy when I saw smoke, and they hit the dirt. I thought at first someone spotted me but then witnessed two Abrams coming chasing out thrashing each other. WOW, they both put kill shots on each other, crews bailed and some small arms fire exchanged with the patrol I followed. Not to be left out I smoked whoever was left over. Low crawled to the rocks north of Arudy and watched some action. When things felt slow I moved back to base. Where I am now. It is 12:15pm and wondering what I can do to have more fun ;D

Alot of dieing threw all that, which was fun, and alot of trying things, which was fun. I am so hooked on this mission.

zero play bugs to this point, maybe I am just not as picky checking things over. I just play as I think it is the best to play it. Which is snoop around, attack when I have a overwhelming advantage, and do little raids harrassing both sides. I can't believe the AI's reaction to it's surroundings. Bravo on scripts and triggers or whatever you did. Now I'll catch up on reading I missed in here and hope to report back more later.

[wcrvieira]

THobson   :cheers:

Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great MISSION!!!!!

I only played it until I must go to the mountains after Tatyana died...
For now I am loving it!
Too bad i cant play much or my graphics card can fry... too hot in Portugal to play PC (almost 37º).

So when I finish it (if I ever do), which is hard because I play in Veteran and with Super AI ill tell ya what I think!!!
It is my pc or this mission is a bit laggy sometimes?

Cya
NBR

[THobson]

Lilwillie_WI:
I am glad you are enjoying it.  What you are doing is exactly what I had in mind for the player to do, don't rush, just think about what you would really do.  There are of course other ways to play it.

Ptnbrvieira:
Yes there is some lag, but I would have hoped not much at the point where you are now (apart from the first 20-30 seconds that is).  Why was it not 37C when I was in Portugal on holiday a few years ago?  Best of luck and let me know how you get on.

ALL:
Is anyone getting CTDs?  Mikero mentioned one, and I have had a couple.  I do have some problems with my video drivers I think.  The two CTDs I have had were:
1. Shortly after killing Stamenov
2. Shortly after destroying the last army (Andropov's)

The first one repeated a couple of times.  The third time I did not kill the last loon before entering the building and it worked fine (I don't think this was because the last loon was not dead, just that something was different).  I have not yet attempted to repeat the final CTD.

As you will appreciate a lot of the testing I have done on this mission has been by simulating events.  For example I use radio commands to kill the leaders, and to kill all or most of one or both sides.  That way I can play the endgame without having to play the many hours that precede it.  In all that simulated testing the mission works fine, but I am wondering if the act of playing the mission through is causing some problems.

It may just be my video drivers or it may be something I need to look at in the mission, so I am very interested to know if there are any patterns to the CTDs.

It is now about 23:00 in my full run through and I am wondering if the length of mission might be an issue

[Mikero]

@plank

For me, I 'discovered' I was better off leaving most trucks exactly where

they were for much later game play when I really needed transport frome there

<> there

I have *never* found the 3rd civilians. Am assuming now from all the reports

that only those who played 1.0 'know' where they are. Thob might want to make

that a little easier for non 1.0 players.

@Thob

>Chapoi lag

I have never experienced lag here *except* with large vehicle concentrations

(Tanks > 4). I have never experienced lag from large quantities of loon, not

ever, afaik.

I hope you don't remove your rocket loons. For me they put back balance for

those players who want to use armor. Without them, I shredded the airport

with a Godzilla. Rocket loons make it 'fair'. Also, I need them as dead

bodies in my early attempts to defend ourselves against the tanks.

Your AA loons are Goldilocks standard, just enough, if you need them.

>NVG and Rain

this then would remain consistent, rain in morning darkness, rain at night.

But rain during daylight gives loons a 5->30 meter visual advantage against

us. Unlike lag, where we can win by getting round it, there's no way round an

Mgunner / sniper / tank  who can see you on zoom and you can't see him.

@lillwillie

loved what you wrote. The intelligence of the AI drops my jaw too.

@Thob

>ctd

fairly certain it's a combination of drivers and video card my end. Greatest crashes for me were around outro time.

>Mission is too long

nonsense.

[THobson]

I have never experienced lag here *except* with large vehicle concentrations

(Tanks > 4). I have never experienced lag from large quantities of loon, not

ever, afaik.

If that includes dead tanks then that would fit with my experience at Chopi.  Although killing the loons there did help somewhat it was still pretty laggy around Chapoi.  There were about a dozen dead armour units in the area.

I agree on the rocket loons.  They force you to keep a distance even if you are in an Abrams.

Third civis - well the second civis are in a hut on the edge of a wood, they mention the other groups as being in the wood east of LaT.  Perhaps the edge of the wood is a place to look first.  Anyway I don't want every player to find everything, so I am okay with it as it is - there is a throwaway comment that the player may pick up on or may not, and if they pick up on it they my find them or they may not.  Perfect.

[wcrvieira]

OK this is totally off-topic so please moderators don't shoot me!!  

@THobson

You came to Portugal? Nice... Well here is hot because I am in a valley in a middle of 3 mountains...If you go to the beach it isn't so hot.
And now I am sleeping in an attic so it means I cant sleep so hot it is...

@Topic
Well the lag is not too big... and for now I love the ambience and environment.
The intro was great, briefing too, notes idem idem...

Well Ill get back to game when pc gets a bit colder!
OFP makes my pc work at high temperatures...

Cya
NBR

[Planck]

I changed my M21 for a Bizon and headed towards Houdan.

I crossed the road to Arudy and continued on towards Houdan.
I noticed a group running about near Dourdan to the east, so I took a few shots at them, but they were too far away really, I only succeeded in annoying them, I gave up eventually and carried on with my journey.

I decided to visit the small group of cottages and farm building west of Houdan first, just to check it out.
There was 3 or 4 guys walking up and down the road in safe mode, so I made them even safer.
There was also a T72, T80 and a Bradley sitting here.
The T80 caught my interest, as the crew were turned out, I decided to shoot the gunner.
At 2 FPS there was really no chance of shooting all the crew, anyway I shot the gunner and the rest turned in, then all 3 moved off further up the hill, searching
I left them to it, and trotted down to Houdan to search for these women.

Ok, so I found the russian soldier instead, cutscene played ok and he joined me.
I got him to pick up his gun.
I now know all about the 'trading' in La Trinite.
I search the house with the infamous ladder, even though I have never been told to look for this woman in the attic.
I wanted to see if I got the option to climb the ladder.
And.........I can, the option appears for me just fine.
I've been up that ladder twice and nothing.
My character merely says "This woman is resting, I better not disturb her" whilst looking at an empty space on the attic floor.
Then I warp downstairs, and lo and behold there she is lying downstairs.

I give it up and me and my new buddy go back to the lodge where I re-arm him and put him with the rest of the group amongst the trees.
Another trip to La Trinite is in order thinketh my character.


So, off I go again alone.
As I got the tripwires, AV and AP mines last time I was here, this time I picked up some satchel charges and mined the southern approach to La Trinite with carefully placed AV mines.
I was going to do the northern approach also, but I could hear vehicles coming from the north, so I jumped in the repair truck and headed back to my vehicle park.
After parking the truck with the rest of the trucks I took a small soujourn to look at Larche from a safe distance....on top of the mountain.
I didn't see much, a guard group moving about on patrol was about all I could see, visibility was rapidly deteriorating.

I minced my way down to Arudy again to see if anyone else had turned up, but the place was deserted still.
I now decided it was time to return to La Trinite to see if my traps had caught anything.
Visibility was pretty bad, and so I was able to get quite close to La Trinite and hid myself in a bush just outside near the southern end of town.

My traps had caught a bradley, no other vehicles were in sight, they had obviously left again.
There was a group of southern soldiers running about near the Bradley and many bodies scattered near it also.
I decided to wait and see if fighting was ever going to start.
I waited a good 30 minutes and nothing was happening.
I had just decided to leave again when I heard the sound of gunfire.
The northern convoy had arrived and they were getting attacked by the southern troops.
Eventually the southern troops retreated south of town closely followed by the northern troops.
The southern troops were eventually all killed and it went quiet for a time.

I sneaked into town to watch any further developments at a closer range.
I found a nice bush near the church to watch from.
In due course some armour from the south arrived, a T80 and a T72.
They cruised around the outskirts of the town picking off northern troops when they saw them, but eventually the T72 was destroyed by a volley of RPG's or LAW's.
The T80 was hit as well, but it was not badly damaged.
The arrival of a T72 and an Abrams from the north finally put paid to the southern T80.
They were joined by a northern T80 after a bit.
It went quiet for a while till the armour started pounding something out of my sight in a southern direction.
I guessed they were dealing with approaching armour from the south.

The T72 was destroyed by LAW's. meaning southern troops were about somewhere again.
The remaining armour stood firm and used their machine guns to polish of any troops they saw.
I didn't see the troops they were shooting at, but, the T80 was hit by several LAW's, it was not destroyed, but, had its turret badly damaged.
I imagine all the troops were dead now because it went quiet for a long time.

A Bradley arrived from the north and positioned itself on the southern approach to the town, very close to the church, it found one of my AV mines and was destroyed.
Ok, it is very quiet now nothing is happening at all.
I go to the huts and grab a couple of satchel charges, intending to place one beside the damaged T80 and destroy it.
However, once I get there I am able to board the T80 as the crew is dead.
I very very quickly depart with my damaged tank, heading back to base.
If the Abrams noticed, he didn't do anything to stop me, I suspect he didn't notice as he was on the other side of town at the time.
I didn't take the tank back to base I hid it in some trees about half way there, intending to get it later and repair it.


So, the war has started and I will probably come across many more battle wrecks on my journey.
I head back to my group on foot.

Part three sometime soon  



Planck
 

[THobson]

My character merely says "This woman is resting, I better not disturb her"

Well he would.  He doesn't know about her yet.

whilst looking at an empty space on the attic floor.
Then I warp downstairs, and lo and behold there she is lying downstairs.

Bugger.  This doesn't happen to me, but I had better make sure it doesn't happen to you either.  It is now on the list.

As every - a great read.  Thanks.


EDIT:
When you say you warp downstairs - could be a bit more explicit about what happenes and when.  Is it during the cutscene or after?  I cannot replicate this problem so anything you can remember would be of a great help.

[XCess]

~SPOILERS~

And a lil more linearity reveals.

I continued from my save behind one of the buildings on the south side of Le Port. Moved out a lil... and what do I see? A damn Abrams not five feet away. I run quickly back into the bushes, cap two loons in the road and set a BMP looking for me.. I the the BMP drove off through the walls of the big house on the West. I snuck on to the road and placed my mine. Wwent back to the southern building and Mr Abram was gone into thin air. Shot the guard in the tower and move to the fuel station on the east to see if there was any ammo around.. hoping for some LAWS.
Nothing.
So back towards the camp on the north side, shot the guard at the gate in the back, crawled foward a bit more and shot the last remaining loon in the town, a guard at the roadblock. Started cutsene and noticed the medic opened the gate himself... not much of a prison... So.. we jumped in my Jeep and headed on the long drive for the lodge. When I arrived.. I was blown to pieces by a Kozlice shel and about 1000Ak rounds  

***EDIT***
Just to remind you.. I skipped the Tatyana scene at the beggining.

[THobson]

Of course he can get out.  The gates are not locked - that would be too much trouble for the guards.  But the place is guarded.

Just to remind you.. I skipped the Tatyana scene at the beggining.

I noticed that when you first posted about this location.  I thought - should I change the dialogue for the one in a thousand delinquent player that doesn't follow what is after all a very light plot.  And then I thought naah - I'll just kill the bastard instead.  ;D

Bye the way, your comment about the Abrams vanishing into thin air - I can't explain that.  I had something similar with a T80.  It was hit several times by my team mates, it didn't explode but I couldn't find it.  It was dark and I was having to deal with a Bradley and its infantry at the time so I didn't look too hard.  Odd.

[XCess]

And then I thought naah - I'll just kill the bastard instead.  

Evil bastard  

[Planck]

so anything you can remember would be of a great help

When the cutscene starts the screen fades out and then back in for the cutscene.
When the cutscene finishes it fades out again and when the screen fades back in I am on the ground floor instead of the attic and the woman is lying there.......about where she would be if she was in the appointed position in the attic.    ;D ;D


Planck

[THobson]

Planck:
Making a cutscene on anything other than the ground floor of a building is proving to be an astonishing pain.  The ladder works for you but no one else, but you get this wierd stuff happening but those that somehow manage to run up the ladder don't.  

Once you find out about her and the full cutscene becomes available I would be interested to know if you get the same problem.  

Are you happy with the ordering of your group by the way?

XCess:

Evil bastard  

You are not the first to say that.

[Planck]

Are you happy with the ordering of your group by the way?

Ummm.......I never changed it, it is still as it was from the beginning.
I didn't use the reorder thingy yet.  
I'm too busy wrestling with 2 FPS.....hehehehe



Planck

[wcrvieira]

Well I recently used fraps while playing your mission and saw I played it around 10 FPS...
The problem is I can't play OFP because If I do so I must shut the laptop down before it melts... due to the heat...

But again... this mission is great...
And I wanna finish it... btw is there in the mission any G3A4 around?

PS: An advise for all players of this mission, put FPS to the minimun in video options...it helped me a lot!

Cya
BV