Not reporting NAPA weapons cache but NAPA still refuses to escort Razor Team?

[Hanzu 10]

[Harvest Red missions Manhattan and Bitter Chill]

How many of you have decided to not report Manhattan mission NAPA weapon cache in Gorka and in Bitter Chill missions NAPA fighters appearing to bombed FOB Manhattan have offered to escort you to red hatchback which Razor Team can enter and a NAPA civilian driver will drive them near Novy Sobor?

However right now I suspect NAPA fighters will always refuse to escort Razor Team with A2 CO patches 1.54-1.59 no matter if you report weapon cache or not.

Edited June 5, 2011 by Hanzu

[Hanzu 10]

Yes it is a bug that has been there atleast in all the patches between 1.54-1.59

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/20227

So if there is anyne who decided not report weapon cache and got NAPA escort then please provide what patch version you used?

Edited June 5, 2011 by Hanzu

[xALIENAx 10]

I have found that if i run the game as Arma 2 only it works (latest Version)

If i run combined ops it does not

(i use retail version NOT STEAM)

[Hanzu 10]

Thank you xALIENAx this was important information. Can you also tell what A2 version you used when you saw it work last time. Does it still work with A2 V1.09?

Now I also know it is not because I played it on multiplayer side with Combined Operations (assuming you played on singleplayer side on both A2 and CO ).

My very weak theory of the bug:

Maybe the bug is somewhere where CO saves information about choices made in Manhattan. When playing Bitter Chill it tries to load this information which is not found and because of that it defaults to choice one which is "1 I must report it".

[xALIENAx 10]

Arma 2 Build V1.09.78183

CO Build: 1.59

I have never played them as MP only in campighn so i cant speak to that.

[OMAC 254]

To me, and I expect Hanzu also, this is the worst kind of bug possible. It is probably easy to fix, yet inspires a strong lack of confidence in A2, and is ABSOLUTELY VITAL for gameplay. Is it really worth it to play A2 if one is not sure that basic game choices and consequences are working properly?

BIS, PLEASE game test A2 campaign and fix this and all similar bugs regarding triggers/choices! Hanzu probably knows them all - consult with him!!!!

[Hanzu 10]

Thanks OMAC.

Lets not forget we can also vote for the issue to get higher chances to get it fixed. I see you are registred there too OMAC...

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/20227

BTW did you notice we have new "Thanks"-function button on bottom right of every post (not including our own ones ofcourse). I already used it for 2 of your posts that helped me.

Edited June 21, 2011 by Hanzu

[Jezuro 452]

Taking a look at this right now.

---------- Post added at 12:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:20 AM ----------

So playing CO, I reverted the campaign to Manhattan, helped Fyodor, continued to Bitter Chill and the NAPA guys took me with them. I can't imagine what could go wrong there, all the variables from Manhattan got transferred ok.

Is it possible that you simply "replayed" the mission instead of continuing from Manhattan? Because in that case, your previous decisions aren't loaded from the campaign variable space and defaults are loaded. And by default, Fyodor is not friendly with Razor.

[Hanzu 10]

Taking a look at this right now.

---------- Post added at 12:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:20 AM ----------

So playing CO, I reverted the campaign to Manhattan, helped Fyodor, continued to Bitter Chill and the NAPA guys took me with them. I can't imagine what could go wrong there, all the variables from Manhattan got transferred ok.

Is it possible that you simply "replayed" the mission instead of continuing from Manhattan? Because in that case, your previous decisions aren't loaded from the campaign variable space and defaults are loaded. And by default, Fyodor is not friendly with Razor.

No it is not possible. I do not replay missions, since I have immediately noticed savegaming is not working ok in replay mode.

The first time I played this mission was 1.54 and I decided to not report weapons, but I took some grenades from their weapon cache boxes. Could mission script be so clever it noticed that? Even if yes. Why would that decision not be overwritten when I started over and played from mission one with 1.59.

So next time I played with 1.59 and started the whole Harvest Red campaign from starting with prelude mission called "Start". This time again not reporting weapons and not going even near those boxes.

I have reproduced this twice and xALIENAx has confirmed it too. There must be something wrong with it. Also I don't see anyone else here reporting they got it working with CO.

Both times I went to Gorga to check weapons cache as one of the last 3 objectives could that be the reason and should that be one of the first things to do in Manhattan to make it right?

The most importantly did you try using my savegame attached to CIT report. It starts near Gorka with all objectives completed so all you need to do is to talk to Fyodor and then travel to FOB Manhattan?

Edited June 21, 2011 by Hanzu

[OMAC 254]

Hanzu, I voted for your bug to be fixed.

I have only played through Harvest Red once in SP (using CO), and that time I did report the weapons in Gorka. I left in the chopper with Razor in Bitter Chill, ignoring help from NAPA guys at FOB Manhattan - in fact, I had no idea what was going on when NAPA suddenly started attacking the base, so I quickly got on the chopper and split the scene. Only later (from you, I think) did I find out that one could talk with the attacking NAPA and get escorted to the red car. I chose to go the NAPA side after chopper crash - the guys I met in Novy Sobor scolded me about taking Fyodor's weapons before telling me where hidden NAPA hideout was.

The complexity of Manhattan in terms of choices is very intriguing, but appears to be bugged, so I will wait to replay it until you (and hopefully BIS staff) give the good Thumbs-Up that everything is working properly.

However, doesn't the fact that Jezuro apparently experienced the correct behavior for this issue contradict what you are saying? Jezuro, are you playing SP within CO?

[Hanzu 10]

in fact, I had no idea what was going on when NAPA suddenly started attacking the base, so I quickly got on the chopper and split the scene.

Thanks OMAC.

Actully NAPA fighters coming from east of FOB Manhattan are not attacking, they run, but they are there just inspect and see who we are. When they hear who you are, depending on NAPA weapon cache was reported or not, in Arma2 (but apparently not Arma2 CO) they should either offer help to escort or just give some tips and then say good bye. Even if reporting guns they can be followed on their long journey to NAPA safehouse where they stay until the end of the mission (and sometimes get killed there or on the way there by enemy patrols).

Jezuro told me he could not reproduce the issue in CO. It is still unclear if it is because using some developers god-mode to clear Manhattan mission enemy main camp and 4 sentry camps which are required for mission completion. Apparently he did not (yet) use my 1.59 multiplayer savegame which includes Manhattan with all objectives completed and it is located right next to Gorka church so you can make either decision to report or not. The fact that it is MP savegame should not make any difference since xALIENAx reported earlier in this thread that he has only tested singleplayer and it happened to him there too.

So my best guess is that bug only happens if weapon cache objective is completed as one of the last ones in Manhattan (like I have done twice, I left is last one before Report to Cpt. Shaftoe (for second time).

My second best guess could be that the way how we play Bitter Chill start before FOB bombing changes something that bugs weapon cache decision.

In Bitter Chill start I have always avoided russian contact in Spykayev's house (I go there before 7-10mins of mission starts and russians arrive to house only after 10mins) also I go around Chedaki patrol in FOB Manhattan frontpost (road leading down from FOB Manhattan). Instead I climb to FOB Manhattan on northeast part of the hill (without visual to Chedaki). So this could result me beeing to fast in returning to FOB Manhattan.

So what we should test next would be to play in SP (so it is easier for Jezuro to use that savegame) and go to weapon cache as the first thing and then do only main camp and 4 sentry points.

I'm afraid I have not time to do all that again, but if I do in following weeks, I'll report here what happened.

Meanwhile if you have anything new to tell, let us know. Thanks!

Edited June 21, 2011 by Hanzu

[OMAC 254]

Why do you avoid all the enemy contact? The Chedaki grouped below FOB Manhattan provide one of the real tough spots of A2, and you can take out the bad guys near the guy's house with the documents using the Hummer MG.

[Hanzu 10]

Why do you avoid all the enemy contact?

Because after Manhattan mission which requires a lot of enemy contact to complete (4 sentry camps + 1 main camp = approx. 40-50 kills) I enjoy the fact that Bitter Chill can be completed without firing a single shot.

I think I saw in mission notes that we should avoid conflict with Russians, so that's why I don't want my Humwee gunner to automatically shoot them just because they come to Spykayev's house to get same documents out HQ wants. It was implied that avoiding conflict with OPFOR could help diplomacy with OPFOR (Russians) in Dogs Of War. And killing them just for some documents that can be grabbed before seeing them is just not my decision.

I used to take out Chedaki pickup west of FOB Manhattan, but I got tired to doing it over and over, when I had to restart Bitter Chill multiple times when I was playing it with very unstable V1.56 patch causing save corruptions and out of memory errors. So I switched to tactic just leaving them there and let NAPA fighters take a shot on them when they come down from FOB Manhattan.

I have started to think Bitter Chill is boring mission where everything is just supposed to go wrong too much and I hate the fact that there are so many autodeath zones in south, making it much less sandbox style mission, so I just drive to CDF lines to end it fast.

In Badlands and Dogs Of War there are enough action to compensate the fact I never fired a shot in Bitter Chill.

[OMAC 254]

I see. Now that I think of it, I agree with your decision to just grab the documents, blow the house, and scram without killing the soldiers. I had forgotten they were Russian - avoiding conflict with them is always a wise idea. I do like Bitter Chill in that sexy girls are often seen on the streets of Krasnostav.

[Hanzu 10]

Still happened to me with 1.60 BETA and Multiplayer.

EDIT

Jezuro has verified there is an issue of decisions not transferring between missions and said it is Multiplayer only problem. Programmers have been informed and it is now up to them if they manage to fix it. http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=2039860&postcount=22

Why same issue happened in singleplayer to xALIENAx who says he has never played this mission on multiplayer is a mystery.

Edited October 22, 2011 by Hanzu
In progress

[Hanzu 10]

85876 beta contains fix for this issue and I have now tested and can verify that the issue has been fixed.

So 1.60 final patch will also include the fix.

[OMAC 254]

So the OA beta patch contained A2 HR content fixes? Does that mean that 85876 contains the fixed Freedom Fighters? I'll test that now.

Edit: using beta, FF still starts at 5:20 am, not 3 am, so I don't think Jezuro's fix is in there.

Edited October 30, 2011 by OMAC

[Hanzu 10]

So the OA beta patch contained A2 HR content fixes? Does that mean that 85876 contains the fixed Freedom Fighters? I'll test that now.

Edit: using beta, FF still starts at 5:20 am, not 3 am, so I don't think Jezuro's fix is in there.

OA beta patch contained at least two multiplayer engine fixes that resulted resolving at least six CIT tickets. So even though those tickets seemed to be content and mission related they were actually engine related.

I'm afraid we need to wait a little longer for those real content fixes.

[OMAC 254]

Got it. Thanks.