Signal Lost: Great Mission or Mean Spirited?

[froggyluv 2130]

The Great:

Ok let me start off that I come in here humbled with pie on my face as I am at about my 49th try on this mission. I thought myself a pretty decent Arma player until now but obviously most if not all have passed this and I live with FAIL. I have to say this mission starts off great, alone on a beach, cackling radio that you can somewhat hear and then fully hear when you pick it up -lovely! The locale is great, approaching the simmering town with vast urban/coastal landscape with helo action going off on the horizon. The streets are crawling with enemies and just when your about to go scavenging for some real hardware, an enemy helo lands right on your head with enemy spec ops jumping out. I love these kinds of missions! Snoop, hide, fire only when absolutely necessary and try your damndest to stay alive.

The Meaness:

Ok, alot of patrols can be fun to evade but it seems that literally every direction you try theres overwhelming enemy forces. Stealth is a tough feat to pull off but I had some success doing ALOT of crawling and waiting -haven't done this much since the allmighty After Montignac -a mission this on some level reminds me off. Another issue is that command says that there is pockets of fighting and we can use that to our advantage, how exactly? If ever there was a mission I could use even 1 or 2 friendlies it's this one! I haven't seen any but dead.

But I haven't gotten to the worst part as Im not entirely sure it's true but if it is *sigh* ...that being, multiple times I have gotten past the initial town sentry and although still constantly fighting and running from new found enemies -whenever I seem to gain some traction...I die... I just..die..? Apparently there are mines planted about and it seems like a mine explosion but Im not that far out of the mission spectrum at all. Its infuriating. Are these mines klilling me? Are they actually planted in that I can see and avoid or are they God mines aka Tipping Point mortars?

I don't want to believe the above. I want to beat this mission and also not take some exploit side stepping wide sweep pass -though maybe it's not possible due to these strange deaths anyway. Any tips would be appreciated.

[nicolasroger 11]

ok 2 tips:

-if you decide to crawl most of the mission, don't forget that you can speed up the time by pression the "+ =" button (not the on the num pad)

-personaly, i completed this mission by running as fast as i can on the left side of the road (near where the chopper will land). I didn't bother to go look for equiment because after a couple of try you know where you need to go anyway. So you will easily be able to avoid the chopper landing soldiers. I got a bit lucky when I reached the road as a convoy passed and shot a me, but I was able to take refuge in an house on the other side of the road. At that point I saved teh game and waited for ennmies to move. Then I decided to open the door and run for the hills while I was under fire. Luckily, I got only wounded again , but i didnt die ()turn left and right while running to avoid being shot too easily)

Good luck!

Edited January 23, 2014 by nicolasroger

[froggyluv 2130]

OK thanks man, Ill give her a go. Any idea whats killing me seemingly out of the blue?

[nicolasroger 11]

not sure. But if you approch the objective from the west, they say your team mate planted mines on that side.

They say to approch from the south if I remember correctly.

I forgot to add. I was able to kill a soldier with my pistol near the house. Wich allowed me to take a map and a weapon. Even though I didnt really needed them.

[froggyluv 2130]

Heh got it! Guess I was making it tougher on myself by trying to scavenge and diggin in. Best bet was just kill the first 2 sentries with the pistol -grab the map/gun and run like hell while chopper was landing. Still I know for sure I blew up once while being in the eastern part of town out of the blue -felt like a God mine :rolleyes:

Thanks anyways :)

[maturin 12]

Never try to kill anyone with a pistol.

You just need to waltz into literally the first house you get to, and there's a lovely 6.8mm machinegun lying on the floor. Then you can just fight your way through the mission.

Although really, there is cover almost all the very short distance to the hill, and smoke grenades to cover your dashes. This should not be a very hard mission. I only died like three times, and had lots of fun.

[froggyluv 2130]

I've gotten a few of those MG's off corpses but man it just felt like I had bad luck or just generally suck at evading patrols. Funny you say don't use pistol but that was the one time I actually made it. Previous I was grabbing those MG's and trying to hunker down inside houses but even the unmodded AI was getting good window angles on me. The first few times I tried the mission I did the 'just bolt down the beach' but always got shot on the run -sometimes by helos... That jaded me and made me get overly-tactical but in the end just finding the right path -slightly to the right of the road alongside the beach and then cutting in more to the East at the first house cropping. Only encountered 1 guy that way.

Overall, I suck but agree the mission is quite good, great even -though I still don't know bout those God Mines!

[lugiahua 26]

I blasted my way out in this mission in regular difficulty. Shot down all three helos, killed more than 40 enemies before reaching the obj.

After you reached the first hill, there is a small altar with a binocular inside. Right down hill there are two AAF sentries looking at the helo. You can easily kill them with the pistol from the back. Take their body armor, helmet and weapons. The best weapon here if you tried to fight the way through is a machine gun, either AAF or CSAT ones will do.

[[evo] dan 79]

I swear the beginning is supposed to be an easter egg to DayZ, you know the way you spawn with just a pistol and not a lot else.

[zimms 22]

And the beans in the wooden hut.

[laverniusregalis 10]

The first time I tried, I got flanked by the road patrol, they broke my legs, and then killed me. But, I completed the mission my next try by

quickly making my way to the ruins (I had a map that time - cool how sometimes you do or don't have a map), picking up a weapon, gunning down the entire patrol when they got out of the chopper, and stealing an Mk200 from one of them. Being one of my favorite weapons of course I'd take it. Then I just ran like hell crouched to the grid below the objective.

[Fergal 10]

I'm not clear on the instructions. Miller (??) mumbles something about being near a hill to the north with a radio tower on it. Facing north is just open water? He then says no not that hill, they are in fact at some other location. Not really a good idea to leave a player on a massive map without any clear guidance of what to do.

[lugiahua 26]

I'm not clear on the instructions. Miller (??) mumbles something about being near a hill to the north with a radio tower on it. Facing north is just open water? He then says no not that hill, they are in fact at some other location. Not really a good idea to leave a player on a massive map without any clear guidance of what to do.

Isn't there a giant blue flag on the map north of the city?

[Fergal 10]

Isn't there a giant blue flag on the map north of the city?

If you have a map maybe there is

[napalmi 10]

I'm not clear on the instructions. Miller (??) mumbles something about being near a hill to the north with a radio tower on it. Facing north is just open water? He then says no not that hill, they are in fact at some other location. Not really a good idea to leave a player on a massive map without any clear guidance of what to do.

Miller (or was it James?) says to look for a hill due north with a radio tower on it. When you spot it he says they are on the hill to the right of the radio tower hill. Hope that cleared it up :)

[zimms 22]

I guess James said something like: There are two big hills north of the town, one has a radio tower. They are at the other one.

[Electricleash 133]

While to me, James directions are fairly clear. I can see how using the radio mast as a landmark is not going to work for people with reduced view distance. Of course if you already know the map, this shouldn't be a problem but newer players might struggle.

[kilroy the nerd 14]

I think when it says there are pockets of fighters, it's referring to the ones who died, though that doesn't make much sense.

I only won by hiding, waiting, and shooting any AAF who came through. You especially have to hide when that convoy passes south of the hill. After that, I just ran and tried to dodge bullets until I got up the hill and at the post they had.

[froggyluv 2130]

While to me, James directions are fairly clear. I can see how using the radio mast as a landmark is not going to work for people with reduced view distance. Of course if you already know the map, this shouldn't be a problem but newer players might struggle.

Yes i think the fact that I really don't know Altis at all (was saving myself for this) coupled with the fact that I like to turn all map/objective/self markers off really had me disoriented. I was still aiming for a hill past the the real objective to the side of the radio tower....when I actually got there felt a bit silly as it really wasn't that far of a trot at all :o

[Eternal Seas 10]

Mission is a tad easy once you've figured it out.

To make it easier,

Once you wash up on the beach, just take his clothing, there will be a map attached. Afterwards, if you can, engage the 2 patrolling infantry, steal their weapons and gear.

Although one thing does strike me as odd,

I know that you lose your primary weapon and headgear and all of the other good stuck since you fell into the sea. However, what about your vest? How did you manage to save your pistol if there's no holster?

[Gryphonheart 10]

Can I review the dialogues somewhere? According to what I heard, I was running north, up that hill between the mountain with radio tower and the city itself. I got message about the landmines. Nothing there. I continued further on and still nothing. There are no enemies past the first hill. Third hill in a row - nothing. So I probably took wrong direction somewhere?

[LowFlyZone 10]

Dude you are waay out of the ball park... It's literally the first big hill you can get to after you head up off the beach and can see the town with the choppers, vehicles, boats and fighting. The hill is to the left and past the first 2 man patrol.

So get up off the beach, admire the view then head left (East). The hill is North of the town but East of you, they are on overwatch over the town. It's at grid 039 143... The hill with the radio tower is way further North and completely behind the hill you need to be at (in relation to the town).

Has anyone else also found the binoculars? I saw them first time round, just up the pathway overlooking the bay and the town.

[Gryphonheart 10]

Wow, they were hiding in some ruins.. found them at some 10th try, finally. :) Playing w/o the map, weapon and other gear is far the best.. still it's quite weird I met no enemies on my way there.. :)

[digitalcenturion 20]

I found the mission quite hard as well without unlimited saves, tried to hide around and snipe all the patrols with a Tar-21 I found in a house but always got shot by some unseen enemy, so I finally just Forest Gump'ed it and ran like hell. It was quite funny, probably ten soldiers were shooting at me and I almost got run over by a greenback MRAP while crossing the highway. I made it tho, zig-zag running for the win.

[oryang 10]

It's not a very hard mission to beat, if you're lucky. All you have to do is ambush the first CSAT helo troopers, and you have a nice array of weapons and optics at your disposal. My problem with the whole campaign situation is, I'm pretty sure Cpl. Kerry was supposed to be a maintenance soldier in Stratis, packing up all the scrap vehicles for the NATO withdrawal, and here he is single-handedly wiping out a whole platoon of enemies, just minutes after a very disorienting wash-up on the shores of Altis.