[SP/@] Battle for the Slopes 0.3 (RWO)

[mathias_eichinger 64]

Battle of the Slopes

Inspired by: The Battle of Hill 875 in November 1967 during the Vietnam War

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dak_To

Required Addons:

Unsung Vietnam War Mod 2.5

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=12267

Community Base Addons

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=6231

Overview

This mission is about the experiences about an anonymous PAVN (NVA) soldier in the Battle for the Slopes around Dak To. As a tiny screw in the PAVN war machine, he has to help defend that hill from the invaders his political officer is talking all the time.

Status

First playable Beta. This mission features overview, loading screen and briefing, but no cinematics. Yesterday the Unsung team broke the news that their mod version 2.6 will break the classnames. So I post here what I have done so far to check if the core gameplay is liked by the community. Placing any additional units (e.g. tweaking the mission itself and doing the cinematics) will be done once the mission is re-constructed using 2.6 classnames, but feedback on this one is more than welcome!

Known Issues:

Wide range of difficulty I have not found out yet to control. Sometimes hordes of enemies appear at close range, topped off by a CAS helo ripping through PAVN ranks with machine gun fire. Next try, the helo does not engage or appear and the fighting rarely touches the player. I need opinions of fellow mission makers on this fact.

Without nettruckers editing support, the mission would not exist today the way it is.

Download link to version 0.6

http://www37.zippyshare.com/v/34209699/file.html

Armaholic Mirror thanks to Big

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=23491

Enjoy the mission,

Mathias

EDIT: The mission comes with added cinematics now, plus the CAS support has been changed to an observation helo. The Version number is now 0.6.

Edited February 3, 2014 by Mathias_Eichinger
New mission version up

[tom3kb 15]

Hi, i just want to write that yesterday eggbeast in Unsung v2.6 thread write that the old classnames will be left in v2.6 so there should be no problems with missions made on v2.5. :)

[Kommiekat 11]

This is good news for Mathias, nettrucker, you and myself who have missions/camps coming out.

Congratulations Mathias! Downloading now!

[mathias_eichinger 64]

This mission has been updated to version 0.6, adding cinematics and toning down enemy helo support - looking forward for feedback.

[Kommiekat 11]

It's not an easy mission at all. I run for the bunkers and stay there until I can see the enemy when they come close, then shot at them.

Most of the time, I can't even see the enemy, but that's the same for most all Unsung missions.

This is not a complaint.....just a comment.

[mathias_eichinger 64]

Hey KommieKat,

does this mean that the mission is too hard to beat? Or rather just very challenging?

[nettrucker 142]

Hello Mathias

haven't played the new version yet only downloaded. I started to play the first release and yeah the mission is challenging and I couldn't beat the mission. I've always ended up taking command after nearly all units in my squad were wounded so I tried to heal them but than I always get shot myself in the process when healing them and that's the end, because no one in my squad is able to heal each other anymore and we are bleeding slowly to death.

I will give the new version a try asap and revert

cheers:)

[savedbygrace 2]

I just played 0.6 beta version this day.

Overview

You could lose the links, that stuff belongs in the readme that "should" accompany every mission. As always, I prefer editors to provide an in game image of the mission, but this particular image provides that historical feel.

Intro5

The start was great. Your static cameras seem to focus too long on one object, with little to no action in the fore or background. Then there is the drifting camera which starts at one point and swiftly soars at break neck speed to the next point, blurring the view and ruining that segment.

Briefing

All seemed fine to me. Except the first task to "Conduct close combat". Should it not be "Defend the hill"?

Mission

Quiet start and then suddenly, every unit on my side began speaking simultaneously. oh,do bo san ti ahn mai or something like that. I suspect that this is the mod rather than your efforts, though I am not certain. After their initial urge to blurt out our positions, the speaking slowed but remained consistent. This was good for immersion but bad for tactical warfare(more on that later). I was already blinded by the jungle, and could only guess at what the AI were seeing, so as others had stated, I sprinted to a bunker and watched the trees for American G I. That became boring and after seeing several medic symbols flopping around with no help forthcoming, I decided to help however I could. So, I made my way to each one and healed them. There. I felt as if I contributed something to the battle. From that point, I just kept moving about seeking the trees while the battle raged on around me. I was seriously out of my league here because I could not see squat. At one point, I heard an American speaking one of those Hollywood lines in English, something like "Let's take it to em boys" I think. Anyhow, I just pointed in the general direction and gave it back before they could bring whatever it was they were going to bring. I didn't hear anymore arrogant comments so I assumed I took care of those actors.

I was running Ace along with the mission(sorry about that, I don't usually do that for testing as it becomes difficult to distinguish what efforts the authors implemented) but I heard American radio transmissions and followed the sound to a dead RTO unit. Thought that was great for immersion, but again, probably part of the Unsung mod or the ACE mod. Not sure. The helicopter soaring overhead was good for immersion, the occasional mortar round churning up soil was also good. After perhaps 10 or 15 minutes, the gunfire slowed to silence and we stood around on the hill for too long before I heard a single shot, followed by the orders to fallback to Sanctuary. My group insisted on sticking around the hill, and so I followed another group through the jungle before it ended halfway there.

When I mentioned earlier about the audio being bad for tactical warfare, there never seemed to be a break in it and thus no warning for which direction the Americans were coming from. It would be great to have a single shout in the direction of each approach, just to allow the player to at least look in the right direction of the action, if possible.

Outro

Started out nice, but the slow camera creep again, progressed the scene far too slowly with little to no action. When the camera finally focuses on the group of Vietnamese prone in the grass, I could see one unit sprinting away through the jungle as if running for help? And the others nearly broke their backs while aiming at the incoming war machine(Cobra). The next scene was awesome, as the Cobra blasted by the camera, dipped a convex arc to follow the jungle floor contour and promptly crashed into a tree. I thought for a moment that it was part of the show until the camera angle never changed and the next scene showed the burning fuselage in the weeds. I had to abort to end it. The next play through of the outro, the Cobra made it to the last tree(tallest one) of the jungle edge before crashing. In either case, the camera seems to stay in that one spot for way too long.

Overall

Wasn't too bad for my first foray into the Unsung Jungles but certainly needs improvement. Hope my feedback is helpful.

[mathias_eichinger 64]

Hey SavedByGrace,

this feedback is definitely valuable, but the ambient chatter is part of the mod, so I am afraid, THAT part cannot be changed. But thank you about the feedback of the outro, I need to improve that as well!