[SP/Campaign] Dying Ember (resistance campaign)

[IndeedPete 1038]

Gave it an upvote, my last ticket on the Publisher got assigned pretty fast. But posting somewhere in the MANW section reporting the problem again might get the devs attention as well.

[Ahlstroem 10]

Love your campaign mate, especially the way you provide a proper guerilla experience. Enjoy the side missions and the story aswell. I just have some feedback to make it even better:

- Perhaps its just my game or are the AI bodyarmor buffed up? Sometimes it takes 3 centermass 7.62 to bring them down close range and even more even at a range of 200-300 meters.

- Is there a reason not to be able to take real time control of your team after the first equipment raid. I think this is usefull afterwords aswell, especially with securing equipment but also for maximising your AT efficiency.

Just some thoughts, are still playing through 0.8.

Cheers

[Undeceived 392]

Hi Ahlstroem, thanks for the feedback!

The first point has to do with the unit's vests respectively with the armor values that BIS have set for them... It's annoying, but it's not even a bug, but a "feature". :)

On your second point... I thought about that but went with team switch only in certain situations. If I did it everywhere, I would have to think and work on many many more possibilities, depending on the players choices (e.g. record every dialogue sentence for every unit, etc.) Sure, it would be possible but I wanted to put the focus mainly on Pavlos, the main character.

If you run in a situation, where you definitely need team switch, give me a shout and I'll take a look at it.

Other than that have fun!

And please report any bugs, odd English expressions and last but not least: vote here :) http://makearmanotwar.com/entry/21P3SNGxMX#.VDYwLZvwCMY

Thanks!

[Brainbug 10]

here is what I collected so far (I've proceeded until the start of "the picture"):

An issue with the weapon pool is that the savegames of one mission are instantly deleted when you proceed to the next mission of the campaign, but only afterwards you see what made it in the pool. So in one mission I had put my beloved RPG in the wrong vehicle, and it was then gone and I couldn't get it back (except by completely reverting and playing the whole previous mission again). Some objects do not make in into the pool due to game bugs/issues (like vests etc.) So my advice to all players: Make backups of the folder with the savegames and the campaign files, then you can roll back to the last savegame from shortly before the mission ends, so that you can correct weapon placements if need be!

In the mission "contact", the weapon pool seems to be bugged, I did not get all the weapons I collected and staffed out my teammates and me with in the mission "a few weeks later" before, but instead I had the loadout with which I had started said previous mission. The same with the next mission "the picture", Zisis also got only the stuff that he started with into "a few weeks later" (i.e. what I gave him in "new firepower"). I doubt this is what you wanted, after all, what are all the stashes for that I had meticulously filled with all the goodies?

Another, more serious loadout issue in "the picture": I have no weapon, no items, I can only grab an empty zafir and empty bandolier from the pool, but no ammo. And there is an error message appearing that says something about "pavlos loadout m8" or something. Sure I can take away the weapon from Zisis and let him be unarmed, but I guess it's better to wait with progressing the campaign until you've fixed this.

And also in "contact", you should better call that area "peninsula", not island, as it is connected by a narrow land bridge. "Leaving the island" would be misunderstood as leaving Altis at all, so people would drive somewhere else with the boat, usually in most missions this means just driving out into the ocean to reach the end trigger. That is also a problem, the end trigger is only in the south, but the land bridge makes it relatively improbably that people would choose the way south to just get away, because they are on the north side, and there is no trigger, so people would actually endlessly drive around until the fuel is empty. Better would be to either make a circular trigger that you have to leave, or at least tell the player to reach a certain spot by boat that is in the south, so that he takes the extra work to drive all around the island.

typos:

- zs00intro2.altis, STR_perzaehlt2: "or course the government..." -> "of course..."

- 02pointofnoreturn.altis, STR_alttreffpunkt: "...auf der Karte markert." -> "markiert."

- and I remember another one in the cutscene "talking with Linos at the beach", couldn't pinpoint it though.

- in the cutscene in the Malden Bar, it once says "MANN" in the english version.

- in mission Grief Afterwards, the term "wirepuller" is a too literal translation from German "Drahtzieher", correct only in the technical sense, i.e. a smith who is heating a thick wire and pulling it thinner, but here you are looking for the term "mastermind" or "the man who pulled the strings".

[Undeceived 392]

Thanks a lot, Brainbug! Great feedback!!

Damn that weapon pool! I didn't expect that many problems with it. It was all great in A2... :(

And what the heck?? Did you have a Zafir and a bandolier once in the campaign?

I'll change the things you mentioned.

Why don't you just equip yourself via debug console with a weapon you had before The Picture and test the mission? It has only one objective (get the hell oit of there!) and I need some more impressions, especially regarding the difficulty balance...

Would be great!

Thanks again!

Edited October 14, 2014 by Undeceived

[ballard_44 11]

Had to post just to let you how how much fun this campaign is.

Really enjoy the story and all the 'cinematics' you have put in...any praise you receive is well deserved!

Here's some feedback...please understand that I know nothing about ARMA3 coding, so some of these could just be ARMA related.

weeks later -

Started off by grabbing the 'freebie' truck...proceeded to ambush the convoy.

Plan worked perfectly, killed the 'baddies' and proceeded to rescue the hostage.

Unfortunately, one of my guys 'glitched' inside a giant rock during the rescue and I didn't want to proceed without him.

So I reverted to a saved game that was a minute or 2 prior to the convoy 'arriving'.

This time around my AI AT guy blew up the transport..lol

Of course my guy realizes that they had a hostage and frets over his death.

I have no idea if it was important to save him as I didn't retry.

Did this effect my game later?

Is it possible to make the transport truck 'off limits' to AI fire?

I then proceed to finish all the rest of the tasks leaving the CSAT outpost for last.

I positioned my team about 600m to the South Soutwest behind some huge rocks and proceeded to snipe as many of the enemy as I could.

After some time my mate back at the hideout warned me that reinforcements were arriving and that we should get out.

I ignored him and had a blast navigating around enemy infantry and 2 tanks and in the end succeeded in getting the explosives and heading back 'home'.

What would have happened if I had heeded his warning and just left the explosives behind?

Is this an option? or would I have had to turn back and get the explosives?

contact -

I only completed this scene by pure luck...which is kind of the issue.

Quickly, agreed to help the fisherman and agreed to rescue the 'contact'.

I searched the house that the contact was at and the lighthouse.

I had my team hide near the lighthouse and continued to search the whole interior of the 'island' to no avail.

Realized there must be a boat.

Started near the Southeast shore and walked along the whole shore of the island...nothing.

By the time I had completed my shore search, I ran into some AAF and the heli (great idea, BTW)

Then proceed to start killing everything I could find.

Thought the road off the island looked clear...got about half way and got shelled..mortars???

Decided to swim. Swam south of the inlet road and right before I got to shore, all my teammates were killed?

There were no AAF around them and the heli had long since been destroyed.

Not sure what happened there.

Had the brilliant idea of taking the AAF APC that I had cleared of crewmen, loading up my teammates and heading off the island!

Hauled it all the way down to the south shore on 3 tires and my teammates refused to get in.

Switched to my teammates to force them in, but to no avail.

Maybe it was too damaged?

Left teammates at shore, took APC around the island thinking there must be a boat, but it just a little further of shore.

Foiled.

At this time I took the APC and headed to the mainland, but was north of the inlet road.

Figured I'd crossover and kill whoever was shelling the road!!! lol

Much to my surprise, I ran into a dock with 2 boats. HOLY SHIT!!!

Off course after 5 minutes off trying to 'push' the boats so I could get in, I started to cry.

Decided I might as well go kill the rest of the AAF even if that meant going to their base!

LUCKILY, I checked the first 'house' that was near the dock.

I'd finally found the someone who could help!

Anyways, this was bitter sweet.

Happy I had found a way to get off the island, but FFS, it wasn't very fun...just a lot of frustration.

Plus, according to Brainbug, sounds like I was lucky to head south to get off the island and end the scene!

contact part 2 -

So I agree to help the fisherman and go see the dude with his generator(?) or whatever it was.

IMO, the conversation with the other guy is quite silly.

I say this as I need to get my friends off the island. I am in a hurry, lives are at stake.

Why would I agree to take a letter to the fisherman and in return the fisherman can get his 'part'?

I would say, "Fuck you, I have the gun and will be taking the 'part'!"

They would say "Ok, don't hurt us! It's in my house'.

I goto the house and grab the 'part' and then just like you have it, they would proceed to attack.

This leads me to another problem...I killed the 4 guys who had the 'part', avoided CSAT who came to investigate and delivered the news to the fisherman.

What would have happened if I had avoided killing the 4 guys and just went back to the fisherman?

Would the game have continued?

I ask because if it is possible to avoid the 4 guys, what would the fisherman have said to me?

"You didn't get my part and those guys are just going to give it to me tomorrow?"

"Sounds more likely they are going to beat the shit outta me when I come for it!"

"Here are the keys to my boat. Thanks for nothing!"

the picture -

Like Brainbug, I was not at all aware of what was needed.

I thought because my cloths were different and my weapons gone, this is how I should proceed.

I didn't think to look at my teammate beforehand and see he was still armed with what he had in previous scenes.

When I did look at the 'inventory' before proceeding, I was missing alot of stuff.

I had maybe 6 to 8 things, all primary weapons. Nothing else.

Well I proceeded anyways and it wasn't good.

After trying 4 or 5 times to get my mate to kill so I could loot bodies, it just wasn't happening.

Running around in the dark, unarmed and with no NVG was difficult. LOL

Reverted the scene and this time I was going to be armed!!!

Except this time my inventory had 1 weapon. Hmm.

It was a 7.62 DMR! Fuck yeah!!!

But it had no ammo!!! Shit!!!

So I took my mates pistol and NVG and proceeded.

Lots of saving along the way and gearing up off bodies of the deceased.

We made it out.

Lots of fun, actually!

Finally, the weapon pool problem.

During the course of 'Weeks Later', I gathered and stored lots of stuff in the lock box at the hideout.

Figured I could use it later.

Well, before proceeding with 'contact' and 'the picture' there was little or nothing.

Unless I missed it somehow, I had no chance of changing my loadout on 'contact'.

I did have all the stuff I had from the previous mission, however.

And like I mentioned earlier, the stuff available in 'the picture' was WAY off and got even worse when I reverted the mission.

Getting that all fixed would be nice.

Anyways, a really fun time, man.

I really enjoy your story telling and missions!

[Brainbug 10]

I already shot 34 people in the scenario where the AAF shoot the demonstrators (I got a rifle from a Leopard, then shot every AAF guy), so I had helmet, vest, sniper rifle, nvg and pcml then. In the "new firepower" mission I wasted the CSAT forces in the north, so I got better stuff like a zafir, rpg etc. (but I unfortunately lost my RPG32 because it was in the wrong vehicle, which I only noticed when I couldn't reload that last savegame before the mission ended, DAMN!). I however didn't have a bandolier, that is below my standards, I only take real vests^^

btw., in "a few weeks later", I found a lot in the crate in the hideout beside me when I spawned, it just wasn't available at briefing time. I assumed I could leave this in the crate. But neither this stuff nor the stuff in the other three stashes was seen again.

Why don't you just equip yourself via debug console with a weapon you had before The Picture and test the mission?

too easy. I might start the mission without weapon and see how long my enemies survive, maybe get a car, drive someone over, get a grenade, waste more people etc. *evilgrin*

More to add: In the mission "contact", I didn't go directly towards the flashlight signal, but rather recon'ed the marked areas in the east, and I also found the convoy on the road in the south. It would have been less easy if the convoy wouldn't have been set to neutral (I just walked up to the Fennek and shot the guys out, afterwards I had a nice car to drive around) and if the CSAT guys in town weren't frozen with simulation disabled (shooting fish in a barrel is harder, as those at least move^^). Then when I was on the peninsula, no AAF forces were alive anymore to cut me off obviously, but your scripted HE shells forced me to use the amphibious feature of the "found" Fennek. I guess I've played this mission quite a bit differently then you had hoped for^^ Maybe it is better to spawn the convoy at the appropriate time rather than to put it there from start, as you should expect other players to take a look around first as well. And set the CSAT in town alive so they have a chance to fight back.

EDIT: I'm now done with "the picture", I did indeed start without weapons, just to see what happened... Without spoilering too much for other people here, I just grabbed the two grenades that Zisis had in his backpack, killed a two-men patrol with it and worked my way from there. In the end I killed pretty much everything in the map (including 6 armored vehicles), except for a few csat guys in the barracks that survived, couldn't kill them before the end trigger sat in. That was mean by you^^ The death zone in the center was a nuisance as well, that was hard (felt a bit like an anomaly in Stalker, invisible but deadly), but I managed to get the PCMLs and the Fennek out of it by letting Zisis take the stuff and drive a bit forward. AI pathfinding around that area is really silly³ *lol* And that all in aother mission where I'm probably not supposed to kill anyone :D

I found another bug in the cutscene afterwards, there were three times the line "you are trying to set an empty loadout" or something like that. Might be good to check that too, whatever that means (maybe it is just a loadout inside the sutscene and therefore not really an issue).

Looking forward to see the "98 percent fatfree beans" man being tortured, killed and then revenged by us :)

When the compaign is done, I'll play it through again, but with the least possible kills, see how that goes.

Edited October 16, 2014 by Brainbug

[CrazyChrisX 10]

Hello Undeceived.

So i have ran into a issue with the campaign, am on the mission called Something is not Right.

like everything loads up correctly, loading screen and so forth, my gear from the previous mission loads fine but the people with me, dosent spawn with their weapons their just standing there unarmed anyway, i head over to the convoy i clear it of AAF, i talk to the survivor that is hiding in the truck, i tells me to bring him to their base/camp, i head over there, nothing happens, i get out of the car order the AI's out of it, nothing happens, so i decided to continue with the mission and head over to our safe house, i arrive at the location and nothing happens either, i tell the AI's to get out, nothing happens, their just standing there unarmed with no weapons, and if 1 of them get shoot by the AAF, the mission dosent end either, which it dose on the other missions if 1 of your team members get killed it auto fails the mission and you have to re-start the mission...

i have restarted the mission multiple times and reverting to a previous mission in the campaign, but the issue is still there.

now before you ask if i use mod answer is yes i do use mods, like i use JSRS, CBA, Blastcore, ASDG_JR, TMR and so on (too many to list), but am not using any weapon mods nor replacement packs either.

regards

Chris

[Undeceived 392]

Hi Chris,

the comrades don't start with equipment in the briefing of this mission! You have to arm them from the weapon pool (the equipment you got in mission 3 (New Firepower)).

Thanks, I will make this clearer in the briefing of this mission in the next version.

However, the mission should definitely end (with a in-mission cutscene), when the player gets to the headquarters of the helping organisation... I never experienced a bug here. So it really might have to do with your mods - no idea...

If all fails, you can use the code endMission "END1"; in the debug console. The console is active in this version (press Esc). You won't miss anything, there's no outro (apart from the in-mission one) and also there's no intro for the next mission.

Good luck! Hopefully it works for you!

Brainbug and Ballard - Thank so so much for testing!!

A secret message for Brainbug:

Looking forward to see the "98 percent fatfree beans" man being tortured, killed and then revenged by us :)

:butbut:

:p :p :p Damn - Too obvious! :)

Edited October 16, 2014 by Undeceived

[CrazyChrisX 10]

Hi Chris,

the comrades don't start with equipment in the briefing of this mission! You have to arm them from the weapon pool (the equipment you got in mission 3 (New Firepower)).

Thanks, I will make this clearer in the briefing of this mission in the next version.

in mission 3 i did arm my teammates, they were fully armed, but is it different in the new mission? like is it a ammo box close to where you spawn or?

Never mind i found out.

Edited October 16, 2014 by CrazyChrisX

[Undeceived 392]

Did it work, mate?

[CrazyChrisX 10]

yes it worked, you were right it was some of the addons i was running that decided to screw the mission over.

[Undeceived 392]

Ah ok. Thanks for the feedback.

[Undeceived 392]

I gave it up waiting for a solution for my Steam Workshop updating problems and created a completely new entry at Steam Workshop.

The latest version (at the moment 0.8) is now ready for subscription at the following link.

PLEASE subscribe there and unsubscribe the old entry!

Download Dying Ember v. 0.8 (beta) @ Steam Workshop

Upcoming in the next version: :)

• Dubbing voices (no English though, but some great German voices)
  
• An outro cutscene
  

Edited October 19, 2014 by Undeceived

[IndeedPete 1038]

Ah, looking forward to the German voices! ;)

[Undeceived 392]

Hello guys,

here we go with version 1.3 (check the first post)! This is the MANW version, so thanks a lot for your support, feedback, criticism, bug reports and your votes (you can vote until end of October though ;) )!

There will be more updates - I have one last mission, which (due to the lack of time) I didn't add so far. But it will come with the next versions.

This is the changelog since version 0.8:

Version 1.0 (beta):

• Dubbing added (German)
  
• Outro cutscene added
  
• Bug fixes
  

Version 1.2:

• Bug fixes
  
• Final preparations for the MANW contest
  

Version 1.3:

• Minor bug fixes and adjustions
  

Edited October 28, 2014 by Undeceived

[IndeedPete 1038]

So, I've managed to continue Dying Ember. Had to replay the first few missions because I've lost my savegames from the ealier version. Didn't cause too much trouble as I haven't seen the voice acted version yet. Being German it's of course easy to understand and follow the story and the acting is fine.

Had some troubles with the weapons pool though. I've managed to steal quite a few guns and lots of ammo in the mission where you raid the AAF outpost. Next armed mission (taking on the aid convoy) I had all the guns but no ammo aside from three PMCL rockets and four mags for my MK18 (carried them in my vest, didn't put them into the box). My friends had fancy guns but not a single bullet. So I just used my ineffective team to draw fire and took out both the APC and the soldiers on my own. I completely missed the dialogue with the survivor because I was busy grabbing guns and ammo from the dead for my team. Since teamswitch was disabled I had to micromanage every damn AI (move to that body > action menu > inventory > grab stuff > next AI). Then the enemy reinforcements showed up and I barely made it to the organisation's base (still not knowing who the fuck that new guy was).^^

Next mission (Weeks Later I guess) I still had no ammo but my own few 7.62 mags. Gladly, there was a box at the house but then I had to micromanage that process again. And it was even worse this time because the AI refuses to enter the house. So I stuffed my bag with ammo and offloaded it outside, accessible for the AI. Did that walk a few times until the box was nearly empty and my guys had enough ammo to be actually useful. I'd recommend to enable teamswitch by default to speed up the rearming process in general.

First thing I did in Weeks Later after that rearm thing was to go for the car and then rescue those guys from the village near-by. Worked fine though I planned to take on the medical convoy and just had like three minutes left till 9:30. I wanted to get away, let my guys board the car but these rescued dudes kept talking and talking. I was like: "Yeah fine, nice story, bro. But I have to raid a fucking convoy now so finally shut the hell up! Write me a letter or so!" :D The second he finished talking about the stolen drone the convoy task failed. Not sure if it's impossible to ambush the convoy after that time - I thought it would just be past an ideal ambushing position after 9:30 but still able to raid. That's where I stopped and will continue next time.

I like the story line so far, really immersive, looking forward to the rest!

[giorgygr 61]

Guys i m stuck to a serious bug.

For some reason interactions with crates/vehicles/doors and items on ground are no feasible anymore (no more such an option in action menu).

It's probably related (for some reason) with the *custom revive because everytime i press "esc" and resume the game-i hear the *revive/heal sounds (also when saved mission loaded).

I m in nearly completing the mission "weeks later".

Also..i should inform u guys i m playing with CBA/bCOMBAT/JSRS/Enhanced soundscape/Blastcore

Is there ANY way i can reset scripts status and/or do something-because i don't really feel to go through all mission again.

Thanks in advance.

*ps I already tried to get injured so the medic will heal me again (and possibly reset status-with no avail)

*ps2 I also not having option anymore to heal/revive other comrades

Edited November 6, 2014 by GiorgyGR

[Undeceived 392]

Hmmm, that sounds weird, really... I'm afraid I have no idea how to help you, especially as you're playing with mods. I only played / tested completely without additional mods. :( The thing also is that in version 1.3 I disabled the debug console so no script manipulation is possible.

There's only the endmission-cheat, if you want to jump to the next mission. If you're almost at the end of the mission, maybe this would be the best way to get on. If you use this cheat, the exit script will launch nevertheless which means that your equipment should be transfered to the next missions.

To use the cheat, while in game (not in the menu) press the left Shift and the - of the numpad together, then type "endmission" (without the "").

Good luck. I hope you're enjoying the campaign!

Thanks for your feedback!

[giorgygr 61]

To be honest..there were numerous times i wish there was English dialogues/although i totally understand it is HUGE work what u already done with German ones.

There are of course some typos with the "Greek names" or in some cases names that doesn't really exists-but that's also totally acceptable because hey!..u are the writer anyway :)

*in case you wanna make any adjustments just pm me

I will urge you though..to investigate about this 'so-called-bug' i encountered.

It probably has something to do with the revive system.

(maybe doctor was hit the time he was doing his job/maybe an "autosave" occurred the time he was reviving/healed someone

...maybe-maybe...maybe...

[Polygon 11]

Oops...

Edited December 22, 2014 by Polygon
wrong thread

[inlesco 233]

I've just finished this. Nice work! Some feedback (with spoilers).

The ending was a bit unclear, though. I did expect more details on the situation.

'Glare-V' organisation scheme seemed a little forced and out of place. It's like the characters were misled by the superstitions surrounding 'Glare-V'. No effort of critical thinking in analyzing the information.

My suggestions below:

WEEKS LATER:

- at the factory of medical supplies, allow player to find keys to any of the Gorgons parked inside

- attacking convoy, realistic, should happen before you attack the compound. If compound gets alerted and overwhelmed, the convoy must be cancelled

- how Omiros spots us approaching when he's inside the building? I'd place him with a couple of others (hired recon units) to observe and warn the trespassers

- when dialogue sets up, player's position should be locked in front of his co-speaker. Otherwise, it's completely unrealistic with you running around and talking normal. All RPG games lock you when having a conversation.

THE PICTURE:

- honestly, I cringed at the plan protagonist came up to photograph the killer.

Why not creating an explosion far away (out of town?) and taking the picture being on a rooftop? Or hiring a local to do all the dirty work for a decent pay considering the risks involved?

I found "The Killer" element forced, too. Why couldn't he change his appearance when feeling something's not right? He's not an idiot. As a highly-influential person, he shouldn't even bother roaming Altis, getting himself into danger, dealing with locals. Instead, he could hire someone and make him appear his clone. Ever seen president of USA coming to Iraq to kill the local warlord? No. You know why.

Lack of realism in decisions is always an issue.

Consider Assassin's Creed, for example. A highly-secretive assassin roams the city dressed in white so everyone can spot him right away. Such superficial details ruin immersion.

I expected a longer campaign. Hopefully, there'll be more!

Any ETA for us, the impatient? :D

[Undeceived 392]

Many thanks, Inlesco. Yeah - some design decisions always are questionable. :)

The story about Glare-V will continue in the next chapters (I had to shorten a lot of the story to make it in the MANW contest)... It is... frightening................... :butbut:

No ETA for the continuation though. :) But I'm sure I will continue working on it. But not at the moment.

[Variable 322]

Wonderful campaign Undeceived. Thank you very much!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=363663976&tscn=1419726858

[Undeceived 392]

Haha Variable, is that the outro sequence??? :D Together with an effects mod? Got to try that out! Great screenshot! :)

Thanks!