Escape Chernarus (Mission Release)

[Dark SudoNix 1]

Been having a lot of problems with the revive. I have been playig it since the release as well as the update... sometimes, the revive button wont show up at all... We fixed it by transferring server admin rigts to someone other than the host and it would work perfectly all the time but it was a gamble... but when you die, you cant hit the map to go to the server control button to switch the server admin... Also, have you tried AI First Aid Support by DAP? I believe it is smoother and runs better than Norrins IMO... maybe do away with the whole, lay there wounded and spawn out in the middle of nowhere... DAPMAN's First aid allows the player to lay down wounded where they were originally hit... without having to switch cameras and go to an alternate triggered spawn.... Also, in your brief, you say soldiers were on a reconaissance mission... These are Marines, not Soldiers... Maybe change the briefing up a little... I'm a former Marine ;) (pride). Also, is it possible to change the Playable units to the actual Razor team itself from the single player campaign? I feel as though they would better suit a Pre-Invasion type Area Reconaissance mission seeing as how that is MARSOC/SEAL specialty ;)

[engima 327]

Thanks everyone for the positive and useful feedback! It inspires me to continue working with the mission. I will try to address the problems you have described here. I didn't know about DAPMAN's First aid, but I will definitely check it out to see if it can be a useful alternative. The still little instable mission start will also be improved until next version. I also didn't know about the player not detected in civilian vehicles problem. I'll try to reconstruct it and find a solution. I just have not encountered it myself yet... Thanks for all help and suggestions about how to solve that btw!

[Zak1984 10]

Great mission, i have hosted it on my Dedicated server for you guys to play, i'll be on most of tonight playing just search virtual warriors.

Scopes

[fleepee 10]

And a little typo in the intro text: "Engima presents".

Should be Enigma?

[tophe 68]

And a little typo in the intro text: "Engima presents".

Should be Enigma?

[NeoArmageddon 957]

@Engima

Yesterday we played an altered version with BAF units and rucksacks and it "felt" much better. OA units are great for this type of missions.

But there are some things I have to complain about:

• Classnames are spread over most of the scripts, it would be great to but all classnames in one file (in seperate arrays).
  
• Could you add an Param to change _showIntro in multiplayer? The 9 second black screen is annoying (your name, etc can stay^^).
  
• Please remove handgrenades from prison guards. A grenade exploding in prison directly after looting the deadguard is annoying too.
  

[ck-claw 1]

Cracking mission - end of!!!!!

Plz keep progressing with this! :)

[Tavish 41]

@Engima

Yesterday we played an altered version with BAF units and rucksacks and it "felt" much better. OA units are great for this type of missions.

But there are some things I have to complain about:

• Classnames are spread over most of the scripts, it would be great to but all classnames in one file (in seperate arrays).
  
• Could you add an Param to change _showIntro in multiplayer? The 9 second black screen is annoying (your name, etc can stay^^).
  
• Please remove handgrenades from prison guards. A grenade exploding in prison directly after looting the deadguard is annoying too.
  

I agree with Neo here. Very good points mentioned.

Although I'm not fussed about grenades on the guards, how common is it for prison guards to carry frag grenades? Probably not very likely.

Backpacks - Big +1

Classnames in fewer (or single) files - yes please +1

Edited February 14, 2012 by Tavish
typo

[Dark SudoNix 1]

I agree with Neo here. Very good points mentioned.

Although I'm not fussed about grenades on the guards, how common is it for prison guards to carry frag grenades? Probably not very likely.

Backpacks - Big +1

Classnames in fewer (or single) files - yes please +1

Well, seeing as how it is a hasty holding cell, and they are uwaiting the interrogators to get there, it is probably members from the squad that captured them, that are guardig them... SO yes, they would have grenades, because they would have had a combat load to be on patrol in th first place. I have never had a grenade fly into the cell...? I have had a grenade land near it and only after i started killing the guards... If I were them, i'd toss a grenade in there as well!?! It's just part of the randomness and I love it. Maybe, instead of complaining cause you happened to get merced right from the start, you should be a little more tactical in your decision making upon killing the guards in the first place. As long as you time it right, the guards all pass by the front, and most of the time if you wait long enough, they will almost all be towards the front, so you can crouch and blast them without even leaving the gate ;) you need grenades anyways if you are going to ambush a patrol, or anything like that. Backpacks would be nice. although, this is nice to be vanilla arma2 as not everyone has OA. I still think you should either use "Assault Rifleman" class, or use the Razor Team from the actual game. Plus, 8 people is MORE than enough. but an option for more is cool.

---------- Post added at 22:07 ---------- Previous post was at 22:05 ----------

@Tavish;

not directed at you. srry in advance.

[ceeeb 147]

I just loaded this mission for the first time, and my starting point is stuck inside a non-enterable building!! On restart I started out in a open field.

I guess its very unlikely to start like that but it would be worth adding a check against that to the initialising scripts.

17 Feb Edit: Great work, this is a very immersive mission! I am playing solo and am spending a lot of time feeling lost and vulnerable, which is really quite fun :)

After too many solo deaths, I have evened the odds after escaping once more by giving myself a few unarmed AI team-mates (using debug console). Now I'm struggling to provide them with any kind of weapons without getting killed by the response forces. It feels quite realistic and balanced and I realise I need to plan my ambushes a little better (I've played too many other games/missions where the AI just do not respond to attacks, making me lazy). Vehicle traffic is neat but all seems to all be heading in one direction (AI driving probably makes this a wise move).

I am also seeing player sidechat messages about search groups moving, searching, engaging etc. I don't know if this is by design or some left over debugging info. If it is intentional, it seems a little unusual to be able to hear only some fraction of the enemy communications, and it would make more sense if they came from another source.

Edited February 17, 2012 by ceeeb

[Dreadnought1 10]

Still having heaps of fun with this, even when playing solo...

Any chance of having a version of this where a solo player can have a few 'AI' mates?

Cheers,

Dreadnought1

[Dark SudoNix 1]

Still having heaps of fun with this, even when playing solo...

Any chance of having a version of this where a solo player can have a few 'AI' mates?

Cheers,

Dreadnought1

Dread, you don't think AI would be too much of a hassle? Iwas wondering the same thing but then I realized that it would be more like baby sitting the entire time... Although at least 1 AI guy would be cool to watch your back and spot patrols you happen to miss... I couldn't imagine having to babysit 7 other AI though...

[My_Shortcoming 0]

Posted on your Armaholic page but echoing it here, bloody excellent mission and 6 of us had to have a few cracks to get it done.

We made the end a bit easy by hijacking a BMP-3 and dishing out pain across the map to the extract point. We did play with ACE and ACRE and this may have caused some issues but unsure at this time.

Keep up the good work

-Cpl Taylor - 16AA

[Dreadnought1 10]

Dread, you don't think AI would be too much of a hassle? Iwas wondering the same thing but then I realized that it would be more like baby sitting the entire time... Although at least 1 AI guy would be cool to watch your back and spot patrols you happen to miss... I couldn't imagine having to babysit 7 other AI though...

Don't need to have more than one or two.

Even just having a medic tagging along would help. You can always tell them to go stealth or just copy your stance...

Cheers,

Dreadnought1

[Dark SudoNix 1]

Well, the enemy have to be able to detect you in civi vehicles because I got blasted by a tank from like 500 yards away... And that was after I had been cruising around for like 20 minutes and definitely did NOT attract attention... Just randomly, I got hit by a tank shell... They definitely knew I was enemy

[NeoArmageddon 957]

Because you were driving the vehicle. In Scruffy and my case, a civilian was driving and we were in the cargo.

[Dark SudoNix 1]

Because you were driving the vehicle. In Scruffy and my case, a civilian was driving and we were in the cargo.

But, Why would you WANT he enemy to see you if youar hitching a ride from a civilian AI driver...? Isn't it kinda "cool" that you can sort of go "undercover" by riding in the "backseat" of a civilain driven vehicle and move about unseen? Why wouly you NOT want that?!? i can see the difference between riding in the back of an opened truck..? but, still the general concept would be that you are hiding...? or you could even pretend that the civilian is hiding you in his trunk and sneaking you around town...?

Now, if your saying that the AI driver ran over an enemy while you were in it, well, thats just the games AI engine...? Not mich you can do there?

---------- Post added at 21:15 ---------- Previous post was at 21:12 ----------

I dont understand why people insist on bitching about miniscule things that dont matter at all...? the grenade being thrown into the jail cell?!? Well, thats just a case of bad luck dude... it' has happened to me once now... and again, i was shooting the guards too quickly so it was my fault that i killed my other players... And as for hiding in a civilain vehicle, you dont think that is "realistic"? What if you were in the back seat with a blanket over you??? use your imagination dude...? It's a game...

[a wild goat 0]

I really like this mission, it's tons of fun to play with friends, really can get the adrenaline pumping. My friend recorded us playing your mission about 2 nights ago, here is the vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pv1ZTyWcO4

The first 2 minutes is us messing around in VTS, sorry about that. Also let me warn you that there really isnt a serious moment in the video at all.. ;)

[NeoArmageddon 957]

But, Why would you WANT he enemy to see you if youar hitching a ride from a civilian AI driver...? Isn't it kinda "cool" that you can sort of go "undercover" by riding in the "backseat" of a civilain driven vehicle and move about unseen?

I think you got something wrong: I have never complain about not beeing seen while driving in cargo in a civilian vehicle. Its a great game mechanic and I just said it was very "funny", because an enemy looked directly into my face :P

Scruffy took some videos yesterday (Scruffy will post em soon). Some of them are very funny:

Escaping prison, get in a bus (in cargo), let the civilian drive, run into a enemy group, didn't get noticed by AI because civilian vehicle, driver decided to get out of bus, shoot by enemy patrol... we loled^^

Since then we always try to get a bus ride to the next ammodepot.

Here is a vid:

BIS fixed the bug, in which AI will detect you in any vehicle frome any side instantly some thime ago, and it was a great fix! (Captured BMP ftw).

[Wolfenswan 1]

We played it yesterday with a group of 8 and had a great time. A video of our exploits full of girlish screams and delightful panicking is below. In our first attempt we manage to steal satchels from our guards, use them to make the BMP3 bail that appeared a few minutes later and went on a rampage until an angry T-72 took us out. The second try we ran away like the manliest squad of headless chicken and then killed civilians for their vehicles :S

I second the notion to remove grenades from the prison guards. We had one lucky grenade take out our whole squad at the beginning which is a bit cheesy. I added _unit removeMagazines "Handgrenade_East"; in the init_server.sqf which should be sufficient?

Due to our relatively high playercount (easily more than 8) I found it a bit problematic to start with no weapons at all, respectively one rifle and one pistol from the guard. I added a parameter to optionally give each player a pistol + 1 mag at the start (they are spec ops they sure can hide it *somewhere*) and remove the check for a player weapon from the init_server.sqf. To counterbalance that missing check I added an eventhandler to all Player units that triggers when they fire a shot and thus switches the variable for the started escape to true.

Additionally I'm thinking of adding this function for some form of body-armor while reducing "revivability" at the same time.

Btw. I love the structure of your scripts, folders, varnames etc. It's extremely easy to change and adapt things, very well done. As people have already pointed out if you could centralize the class names for all units in a single script that creates the global arrays used by other scripts it would go a long way in making the mission even easier to edit/adapt.

oh and this happened once:

and on a less serious note:

Maybe add BTR-40s to the list of patrolling vehicles? No matter that they are Takistani, they are obviously the most charming rolling deathtraps.

Edited February 20, 2012 by Wolfenswan

[Dark SudoNix 1]

Ok I see what your saying now about being a passenger with an AI driver.

Grenades are random. They don't always have grenades on them. So you want to get rid of grenades but have satchels?!? Ok, so start chipping away at the randomness, the replayability, and basically the structure of the game, so that you can have what you want when you want it... I'm pretty sure that's NOT the point of it and not what Enigma had in mind while creating this awesome mission?!? I think it's fuckin awesome as is, just a few scripts need to be changed. The revive script needs to be worked on or changed and maybe how the holding cells are spawned. Maybe there should be some set positions where it will spawn in at... Alot of random positions, but not where it is goin to spawn half way inside a building or a swamp/pond... With all these people whining about it, lol, you can just hit restart!

Enigma, don't cave to the bitchers and whiners! they can make there own if they don't like yours ;) I love it as is! As do many many many other people!

[engima 327]

Please let me announce the release of Escape Chernarus version 1.5. This version contains a lot of improvements for many different things (se changelog). I have also tried to balance it so the Few enemies option is "difficult but possible" for 2-3 players, and that the A lot of enemies option is challanging enough for 7-8 players. However, I have not had the time or possibility to test all different ways to play it, so I hope it's good. Feedback is of course always welcome, and if there is still things that need to be fixed I will release future versions.

---------- Post added at 12:04 ---------- Previous post was at 11:54 ----------

@Engima

Yesterday we played an altered version with BAF units and rucksacks and it "felt" much better. OA units are great for this type of missions.

But there are some things I have to complain about:

• Classnames are spread over most of the scripts, it would be great to but all classnames in one file (in seperate arrays).
  
• Could you add an Param to change _showIntro in multiplayer? The 9 second black screen is annoying (your name, etc can stay^^).
  
• Please remove handgrenades from prison guards. A grenade exploding in prison directly after looting the deadguard is annoying too.
  

Since I try to keep with the "Chernarus story", I don't think the BAF really fit in.

I agree about having class names in one file. I started the work, but had not time to finish it before release of 1.5 (I have a lot in RL in the closest future).

The start text is there for a reason. I want to hide all ugly initializing, when players are spawned, buildings are being rendered, scripts are initializing (especially on hosted).

The hand grenades can sometimes raise the level of difficulty in the beginning, but as someone else stated, why should they not have hand grenades when on patrol? When I play I want to have some too. And prison guards throwing hand grenades into fence is quite rare.

[icebreakr 3100]

Great job Engima, too bad we didn't have time to test it yesterday in our squadnight.

One more question: since mission is heavily scripted, are you consider porting it to other interesting(*g*) islands? :)

[engima 327]

I just loaded this mission for the first time, and my starting point is stuck inside a non-enterable building!!

After too many solo deaths, I have evened the odds after escaping once more by giving myself a few unarmed AI team-mates (using debug console).

It feels quite realistic and balanced and I realise I need to plan my ambushes a little better (I've played too many other games/missions where the AI just do not respond to attacks, making me lazy).

I am also seeing player sidechat messages about search groups moving, searching, engaging etc.

Sorry about the start in the non-enterable building. But funny! Maybe the enemy squad really understood the risk of keeping you in the open. :) The start position is a true random position, so I don't know exactly what can happen. The problem you mention is however dealt with and is hopefully fixed.

I haven't had single player in mind for the mission. But I have thought about, so maybe in the future I will try to fix that to. But right now it is not in priority.

The realistic responses of enemy units is something that I have worked with in all scripts.

The sideChat messages you mention is debug information that I left accidently in last version (1.1). Sorry about that, but it's now fixed!

---------- Post added at 12:27 ---------- Previous post was at 12:17 ----------

Ok I see what your saying now about being a passenger with an AI driver.

Grenades are random. They don't always have grenades on them. So you want to get rid of grenades but have satchels?!? Ok, so start chipping away at the randomness, the replayability, and basically the structure of the game, so that you can have what you want when you want it... I'm pretty sure that's NOT the point of it and not what Enigma had in mind while creating this awesome mission?!? I think it's fuckin awesome as is, just a few scripts need to be changed. The revive script needs to be worked on or changed and maybe how the holding cells are spawned. Maybe there should be some set positions where it will spawn in at... Alot of random positions, but not where it is goin to spawn half way inside a building or a swamp/pond... With all these people whining about it, lol, you can just hit restart!

Enigma, don't cave to the bitchers and whiners! they can make there own if they don't like yours ;) I love it as is! As do many many many other people!

Thanks HeAvY TrAnCe! You read me quite well!

I can see people complaining about the revive script. In all my games with friends it has worked without any problems. Can someone be a little more specific? What are the experienced problems, and when do they occurr?

---------- Post added at 12:33 ---------- Previous post was at 12:27 ----------

Great job Engima, too bad we didn't have time to test it yesterday in our squadnight.

One more question: since mission is heavily scripted, are you consider porting it to other interesting(*g*) islands? :)

The plan for myself is that I will release an Escape Takistan sometimes later. For now I hope the mission will somehow port "itself" to other interesting islands. That should be fairly easy to do, and anyone having questions about it is welcome to ask me about basic things in the mission's structure.

For now I can tell you that there is at least one person planning to port it to your wonderful Lingor Island! Hope it doesn't take long! :p

[NeoArmageddon 957]

Since I try to keep with the "Chernarus story", I don't think the BAF really fit in.

We had not in mind to change your story, but BAF are the only woodland units, which are able to carry a rucksack. That was the only reason we added them. The Takistan version will make this unnecessary (OA units, yay).

The start text is there for a reason. I want to hide all ugly initializing, when players are spawned, buildings are being rendered, scripts are initializing (especially on hosted).

Yes, I know. We stripped the intro and watched ourself. But on our dedicated Server the initialisation is much shorter than the intro. Whole initalisation ~ 4 seconds, intro ~20.

My idea: Introtext and credits and the black screen should be seperated. You keep all sleep's in the text-part and you link the "black-in" with a script-synchronisation.

So everyone will see the text, but people with fast server and clients are not forced to wait.

Guards throwing grenades into prison seems to be directly linked to enemy difficulty. Since we lowerd enemy strength, it never happend again (in 20-30 rounds).

The "instantly killed on startup"-bug is not fixed, but Scruffy an me found the reason:

If you die while moving, the respawn script seems to lock your keys. On next start, you will move in the same direction as in the moment you were killed, even if you don't press anything. If the prison is not initialzed yet, you character will move outside and you become hostile, before the screen fades in. If you enable shacktack-HUD you can see the issue very well.

BTW: We will test the new version ASAP (this evening). Bug report will follow.