[SP/CAMP] Black Lands (resistance campaign)

[Undeceived 392]

 

Black Lands


>> Read a review at
The Abandoned Workshops (April 27th, 2014)

 

 

 

Version: 1.2 (beta)
Author: Undeceived
Required game version: Arma 2: Combined Operations (v. 1.62)



Features:

• Story-driven resistance campaign (19 missions + cutscenes) with an enthralling plot about a group of men struggling against their enemies
• Custom music (including some self-composed titles)
• Many cutscenes, intros and outros
• A mix of linear, straight-forward missions and wide and complex ones with many tasks
• Weapon pool (weapons and gear are forwarded and available in the next missions)
• Squad management system (get to know the background story of your men and chose your group for the next mission)

 

 

 

Description:
After the Russian army takes control over Chernarus, Tomas Cerny and his best friend Dimitri, among other war-survivors, form up a resistance movement. At first, the group is able to cause harm to the Russian intruders, but little by little, Tomas sees the strength of the movement crumbling and deteriorating. As eventually Dimitri is killed in an Russian ambush and Tomas, all at once, loses everything he loves and cares for, the resistance fighter finds himself all alone, devitalized and a broken man. In his darkest hour, Tomas is suddenly contacted by an agent of the U.S. intelligence, who is able to light up a small flame in the young Chernarussian again. Tomas learns that there are still people who want to rise up against the Russians. He is able to find new courage, meets new friends and goes on the most difficult journey of his life. He passes through adventures and defeats, experiences friendship as well as betrayal and faces survival and death.






Beta status (read!😞

• Please help me with the English translation! 🙂 (I'm not a native speaker and many expressions might sound a bit strange. Please give me suggestions and corrections!)
• Bug reports are much appreciated

 

 

 

 
 
 
Download:

All required addons + installation instruction are contained in the download.

                       Black Lands 1.2  (beta)

 

 

 

[tom3kb 15]

Congrats on the release. I was waiting for this campaign. Still remember For the life of a friend. ;) One of the best mission that i played. Im sure this campaign will be great to. :)

[Kommiekat 12]

Hi, could you kindly consider uploading to Media Fire?

I found them to be quite good.

Having problems downloading from GameFront, beside, they suck chicken McNuggets.

Looking forward to the campaign!

[nettrucker 143]

Hello Undeceived

I'm getting an error and can't download the campaign. I've normally no problems with the download but here it says to me file not found. Looking forward to it. I've been waiting a long time for this to get released after "For the Life of a friend" I've become really curious what you were cooking up in your magical kitchen. I was patiently waiting after reading some in the beta testing topic on OFPEC. Couldn't help with the testing due to lack of time and the fact that I rather love to play the complete campaign which was not available before. I love cutscenes and if they are long even better. LOL :D

Hope someone gets a mirror running soon.

Cheers

[tom3kb 15]

Yes, please upload this campaign to another mirror. Gamefront is blocking some of the countries (for example Poland, Spain-i remember that Big from Armaholic can't download from gamefront), we have the file not found message. You should also send info about this campaign to Armaholic ;)

[Undeceived 392]

Hi guys sorry for the late reply - was on a trip and didn't have internet the whole day. :)

Couldn't get in touch with Armaholic yet, but with Armabase. Here's the link:

http://www.arma2base.de/include.php?path=download&contentid=6087

Sent from my RM-821_eu_euro2_248 using Tapatalk

[Polygon 11]

Hi guys sorry for the late reply - was on a trip and didn't have internet the whole day. :)

Couldn't get in touch with Armaholic yet, but with Armabase. Here's the link:

http://www.arma2base.de/include.php?path=download&contentid=6087

Better add this to the first post. BTW, going to try your campaign! The concept sounds great and I'm sure the execution is solid.

[Kommiekat 12]

Couldn't get in touch with Armaholic yet, but with Armabase. Here's the link:

Now hold on just a dog gone moment here! Your German right? That web site is German right?

You belong to that site right? Yet THEY GET THE GOOD download site and we get the crappy one??!!

This is racist! I'm calling the police!:eek:

[nettrucker 143]

C'mon buddie. We Germans are no racists . . . it just . . . that we hate everyone with no distinction. LOL :D

:681:

Played yesterday the first mission so far. Great story telling I love the detailed explanation of how everything evolves.

Also the custom songs are a huge plus which gives the campaign definitely a very individual touch.

Can't say more since I've just started to play.

Will have to go on a bit more of that.

thanks for your hard work and effort.

cheers

[Undeceived 392]

...

:D As I said, I was not at home yesterday since early in the morning and when I arrived home at night, the only thing I managed to do before falling asleep was to copypaste the link here with the smartphone. :)

Going to catch up on everything today.

Have fun with the campaign, mate! :)

EDIT:

Btw. someone (wasn't me) uploaded and announced it at Armaholic already. THANKS for the one who did it! :)

Edited October 20, 2013 by Undeceived

[Tonci87 163]

Oh my god it´s here

[ataribaby 54]

So far so enjoyable and excelent campaign. There is some odd situations that's are not handled like killing agent on meet but only ill-brained will do this. Well I just made it for testing purposes :) I like open world nature of missions. I think if you do something stupid that breaks mission flow, mission should fail with explanation why, like killing your agent contact is no no. Killing your squad mates is no no and so on.

Edited October 20, 2013 by ataribaby

[Kommiekat 12]

:D As I said, I was not at home yesterday since early in the morning and when I arrived home at night, the only thing I managed to do before falling asleep was to copypaste the link here with the smartphone. :)

Going to catch up on everything today.

Have fun with the campaign, mate! :)

I was only teasing you.

But hey, I have encountered a problem and cannot continue the mission, unless I am missing something:

Chapter One

Tomas has to kill the Major in the bar.

The SF soldier at the door tells him to empty ALL weapons at the truck.

I go to truck, empty the pistol and Knife, go back to front door, but SF soldier will not move out of the door way. He stands there and turns to face (dialog is finished).

I can't use the side nor back entrance either.

Edited October 21, 2013 by Kommiekat
spoiler

[ataribaby 54]

@Kommiekat

Hmm strange, I normaly entered pub by main entrance directly to beer stand and nobody checked me. Shoot major and run back behind beer stand where i killed SF standing at doors to courtyard and run as hell to boat. All was fine. Did you changed uniform from that pig brass that your friend in "chick undercover" convienced to go with her?

[Kommiekat 12]

Of course I could be missing something. Killed the horny officer and his guard. Working Ho ran off. Put on uniform.

Walked to Bar, was confronted with SF at main entrance to put weapons in back of truck. ALL entrances have SF guarding it.

[Undeceived 392]

Kommie,

you can hide / holster your pistol via the action menu. That way the door guards won't say anything. If by holstering the gun you are "unarmed", you can walk in the front door between them both.

Or you ask the rear door guard for some cigarettes (using the SD pistol as well.... :) ).

[ataribaby 54]

@Kommiekat

Ahh yes I holstered my SD pistol.

[skuzapo 10]

Undeceived

I must say, this is an excellent campaign that really captures a cool somewhat real type guerrilla warfare feel while still giving some opportunities to do some really awesome actions... However, I have also experienced some glitches as others have mentioned including on Chapter 1 where:

The Spetznaz guarding the bar refused to let me pass dressed as the officer, even after holstering my weapon or putting all my weapons in the truck... I just got past this by taking out a guard in the back, grabbing his Bizon and then I sorta took it to the extreme by shooting up the bar gunman style, leaving only the barkeep standing :cool:

Getting past that, I really dig the responses you have built in...

Any time you create chaos on the first few missions, the fact you have to get out of dodge really fast before the BTRs/APCs show up really adds to the tension and makes you perform quick hit and run attacks

However, once I get to/past the mission Inner Abscess it seems to have some conflicts with the COWarMod (had to shut it off to get past a few situations, not sure if related to the health system or what)

In Inner Abscess, After the woman comes up to me and requests help dealing with terrorists, we meet up with her husband and he leads us through the woods to show what the terrorists have done. Halfway through the woods my group just stops. To get past this point I extracted the campaign pbo and then looked at the mission... I didn't see what trigger could be missed, but noticed that there was a ural in the clearing further on. Decided to check it out, and when I got in the truck as the driver just to see what would happen.This then made my group continue on and I was able to proceed with the mission but at the next cutscene where the terrorist executes 2 civilians, instead of shooting them with his makarov he began knifing one (due to the added bayonet with this mod I assume?)... Then the cutscene kind of just sat there playing forever, and the first victim just kept falling over and getting back up. This one I had to remove the mod in order to continue past. The mission following it, when using COWarmod, it cannot be played since for some reason right at the beginning the rest of the guys spawn outside of the car, all laying prone. So anybody using this mod should probably turn it off after the first few missions.

[Undeceived 392]

Thanks a lot for the good feedback.

Yeah, it's always better to test without mods first, as stated in this sticky:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?137388-Providing-feedback-to-mission-creators

Anyway, thanks for playing, skuzapo! :)

[Brainbug 10]

great campaign so far, very elaborate with an eye for details, and immersive atmosphere. Feels a bit like an RPG, with getting quests etc., very cool.

issues found so far (I'm not very far yet):

- loading screen does not load, only a grey square visible.

- mechanic script doesn't work correctly, after using it several times I had "residues" in the action menu from the dialogue options. And the mechanic ran away from the vehicle towards the camp, but after a while the vehicle was repaired nevertheless. Not gamebreaking, but kinda weird. The script might needs some more work to make it foolproof.

- in the mission where you have to rescue the two prisoners near Bor, the russian outpost in Pavlovo (may be true for others, too) had US static weapons (M2) and weapon crates, so I could get M4 with ACOG+M203 etc. from there. Does not make sense from a gameplay perspective.

- not really an issue but a suggestion: If you use the weapon pool to carry over collected weapons, tell the player exactly where and what will be saved. For example, I interpreted the sentence "don't save weapons in the motorbike because it is bugged" so that I thought I could save weapons in other vehicles, which would also mean that those other vehicles would also be saved (like the fuel truck that was expressively supposed to be saved for later missions). So I spent a lot of time collecting half a dozen tanks around the camp and a great deal of weapons, but then in the next mission briefing I saw that the game only saved what I had on my personal gear and in the camp crate. BTW, the motor bike might not really be "bugged", its cargo space is just too small, it cannot hold a weapon, and only 5 magazines or hand grenades.

[Undeceived 392]

Hi Brainbug, thanks - I'll check the points you mentioned.

And... :D I never went to that base near Bor while playing, haha :D Nice to hear something my mission which I didn't know. :)

Good tip with the motor bike. I only remember it "eating" rifles but I'll test it with grenades too.

[tom3kb 15]

I have Polish version of A2CO and all texts in cutscenes and in briefings are in German. For me its not big problem (ich verstehe Deutch). But maybe in future you can add english text for Polish ver of Arma (in stringtable), if its not a big problem and dont cost you to much work. In Polish version we can't change language in game options. Did not play to much but great work, very nice cutscenes:)

---------- Post added at 04:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:08 PM ----------

Almost all texts in cutscenes are on the middle of the screen. I think that text in cutscenes look better when you put it on bottom of the screen. You can see then all the action in cutscene. ;)

---------- Post added at 04:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:15 PM ----------

Ok, text in the middle of the screen was only in first few cutscenes. ;) Now is on bottom as i like. ;)

[Undeceived 392]

Hi tom3kb,

actually, almost all text (except some parts in the intro, which are meant to be that way) were put at the bottom of the screen. At least I used the respective command. :)

About the Polish strings.. Yeah, I thought about that already, but didn't consistently do it from the start. In my other Mission (For The Life Of A Friend) I implemented this (for Russian version too), but for the campaign it will be a bunch of work, due to the HUGE amount of text. :)

Hopefully I'll get to it soon...

[Kommiekat 12]

Enjoying the Camp very much.

Chapter Two can be hard without AT weapons because of the little surprise you put in there chasing our asses all over the map.

Other then that, moving along well.

Noticed, though not a complaint, you did not use Voice acting this time. I understand it is time consuming and difficult to get everybody together on this.

[Brainbug 10]

Good tip with the motor bike. I only remember it "eating" rifles but I'll test it with grenades too.

Well, it doesn't "eat" them, they just fall out and are littered around behind it, like with every other vehicle. Just a truck does reach its capacity ceiling later than smaller vehicles (a Vodnik holds less, a UAZ even less etc.), and the motor bike is really the worst in terms of storage space. Take a look: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?107661-Vehicle-Cargo-Capacity-Chart

I'm a die hard collector in any game, just can't help it^^ I remember collecting so much stuff in Stalker 1 that the crate area in the middle of the map took 2 minutes to load, I had some ten thousand bullets in each caliber, hundreds of bread and vodka bottles etc., crazy. Of course I never need that much, which is really a pity lol.

In this case here it was kind of funny to hear the dialogue, when I came back with the medical supplies to the camp, one of the guys moaned "how shall we fight, we have basically no equipment at all", and we were standing beside fuel truck, a Vodnik PK, a BTR90, two BMP3, a T72 and a T90, all filled with KSVKs, M4-ACOGs, PKPs, Vintorez, AK107-PSO1 and so on... hehe

At least some stuff came in handy:

Chapter Two can be hard without AT weapons because of the little surprise you put in there chasing our asses all over the map.

You mean the pityfull tank group that unfortunately ran in front of my T90's barrel?^^

It is great that you can have hand grenades on you and still be regarded as civilian, you can even throw them without being shot at. That way I wiped out each and every Russian in the mission, with enough hand grenades you can even damage a T90 enough so that the crew bails out.

all texts in cutscenes and in briefings are in German.

hmm, I had everything in English (my game is set to English), I didn't encounter one German word (at least in the first few missions).

EDIT:

In Polish version we can't change language in game options.

ah, that explains this. I suggest that you set English as default language, so that the Polish game will display English (still worse than Polish, but from a recent holiday in Poland I got the impression that more people understand English than German).