[SP Campaign] Bell Tolls - A Sequel to In Our Time

[zimms 22]

I also have a quick question:

I'm on the raid mission and just found the AAF APC at the crash site. Do I have to drive it back to base to get its equipment, or does it get saved once I find it and my character says something.

[TedHo 53]

I also have a quick question:

I'm on the raid mission and just found the AAF APC at the crash site. Do I have to drive it back to base to get its equipment, or does it get saved once I find it and my character says something.

Once you find an ammo cache its contents are automatically transferred to base. The idea is that Hawkins is there to mark ammo caches that his comrades would help him carry back later.

---------- Post added at 01:33 ---------- Previous post was at 01:31 ----------

Quick question. I am on Blinded Eyes. I am trying to do the optional task by setting the diversion. I am running ace, RH, HLC, RHS, blastcore, and jsrs dragonfyre. I pick up the explosives and the M57 detonator, but once I go to set the bombs it give me to option to detonate the bombs. Nor can I place bombs down in the interaction menu. I can in the ACE interaction menu, but when I do I still can not detonate the bombs. Thanks!

With ACE 3 placing and triggering explosives are all done in the ACE (self) interaction menu. Also the M57 clacker has a limited range (~100 m?).

[zimms 22]

Thanks a lot!

[Morgenstern 10]

Hi, folks!

Ted told me that the lines for Bell Tolls were released, so I decided to link up with the community and introduce myself. I provided the voice for CPL “Nomad†Walker in Ted's previous campaign, and I was delighted to return as CPT Kerry, COL Yusuf, and some of the local color in Bell Tolls. It was an honor to assist Ted with his campaigns, and I hope the you enjoy playing them as much as I did contributing to them.

Ted is an outstanding producer, and I jumped at the chance to work with him again on Bell Tolls. As a former army officer, I respect leaders like Ted who pay close attention to the details of projects with military themes. Ted always goes the extra mile to ensure that his scripts and characters are honest and plausible, which makes my job of selling tactical scenarios to an astute audience so much easier.

If you have not played Ted's campaigns yet, then I encourage you to give them a try. The quality of Ted's work is remarkable, and he is committed to delivering experiences that rival those supplied by the official developers themselves. The entertainment value of these campaigns is off the charts, and the fact that they are free to download is a blessing for gamers who would rather not spend a fortune on new content.

I also want to offer my services to anyone in the community who needs voice actors for their projects. This is something that I have done for years, and I have been fortunate enough to be featured in a variety of commercial and independent productions. If you have characters on paper that must be conjured before audiences, then I encourage you to visit my website at morgensternproductions.weebly.com or send me a private message.

With Sincere Appreciation,

Morgenstern

[TedHo 53]

Hi, folks!

I also want to offer my services to anyone in the community who needs voice actors for their projects. This is something that I have done for years, and I have been fortunate enough to be featured in a variety of commercial and independent productions. If you have characters on paper that must be conjured before audiences, then I encourage you to visit my website at morgensternproductions.weebly.com or send me a private message.

If mission makers are looking for a professional and dedicated voice actor for their projects, I would recommend Morgenstern in a heartbeat. He is one of the most talented voice actors I have ever had the pleasure of working with. The different voices/characters I asked him to do just sounded amazing, and his professionalism and attention to detail made my job a whole lot easier. So please feel free to reach out to him. You will be amazed

[Coflash 10]

This is a great campaign. Enjoying it much more than the official one so far. The objectives and optional missions that pop up are very good. Excellent stuff.

[AKM 0]

Phenomenal work on In Our Time, and Bell Tolls is very good as well. Have yet to complete the latter.

Two questions: Mod support for Bell Tolls, is that dependent on running all of those mods together or will the campaign select from the installed mods in any combination and run what is available accordingly? I've been running HLC/RH but not the RHS mods - not that RHS isn't brilliant, it is, I just didn't want the additional overhead loading when I went to play the campaigns and having two varieties of AR15 pack was enough without adding the RHS ones. At the moment, the campaign features RH optics but not the weapons.

Second question: For the free-roaming raids, am I meant to be able to organize raiding parties that include more than just me, myself, and I? I have yet to find any way to attach AI to my group. Secondary to this is that when you reach the cache sites, the caches at base overfill after two out of the three available recces, and makes it difficult to swap equipment out without making a mess of the ground with magazines laying everywhere. I saw in the thread here that the idea is to go out and mark the sites for the friendlies, but that's not made explicitly clear: I thought I was leading actual raiding parties and carrying back what I could to the encampment.

[inlesco 233]

Hey Ted! Finally had the time to play this awesome campaign and I felt being a beta-tester for once would be an interesting experience, so I wrote down a lot of notes and suggestions for improving the following:

• realism
  
• mission flow
  
• mission logic
  
• player restrictions
  
• etc.
  

Hopefully, the stuff below will help you. I've covered everything mission by mission. Keep in mind - I throughouly enjoyed the campaign. Sorry if some of my notes sound rude :D. I didn't mean it that way.

Empire of Dirt.

EMPIRE OF DIRT.

• When in black screen, player can shoot, throw grenades, etc because player hasn’t been assigned an animation. Fix this.

• Add an autosave after the initial assignment [from Miller] cutscene.

• Add a delay for ‘Disarm IED’ success. Because if the player dies by stepping on it, it shows that ‘Disarm IED’. You should first trigger player’s death and call him a noob :D.

• Miller says ‘We’ll be behind the schedule if the device spotted causes trouble’. But why does everyone seems so calm? Shouldn’t Hawkins be in a hurry to report in to Miller for an immediate assignment? Logic not found.

• Player can fire when driving on the tank mounted.

• I feel the additional camShake was way too inconsistent with APC’s movement.

Tower clearance sequence.

Tower clearance seq:

• I thought they’ve just cut off the bottom of the high wirefence. The broken part of the fence is way too unrealistic, considering AAF are guarding the tower.

• Units in the tower are very unresponsive to the player’s assault.

• Officer at the top floor is SITTING on a chair, disregarding the danger. AAF unit in the second floor is clipping through a wall after going prone. Troublesome.

• They’d better wire the doors, so player must disarm them to enter, or drop down grenades through windows for enemies lurking on the ground, or wait at the door. When they’re opened, lay down extreme suppressing fire and expect for a deadly hit.

• Top floor. Enemy laptop on the table. When attacked, I think it’d be wise to hide / destroy / disable / corrupt any devices holding sensitive information, so the enemy doesn’t use them.

• How come the AAF nearby with the offroad truck are in ‘SAFE’ mode? They didn’t hear the shots? They don’t check in with the tower periodically to make sure all is OK? Tower didn’t inform all units to be alert of hostiles?

• And even if AAF came in to check the tower and we hide on the top floor, it’s all too thin to believe.

• Player’s NVG are removed when Spam is on board in the offroad. Why?

• When driving and ordered to ‘keep the lights on to blend in’, shouldn’t player also stay on the road? Because ‘driving drunk’ without orders is suspicious too.

• Driving through the road of an AAF’s secured base? Unwise. It ain’t marked as an ‘abandoned’, so too much risk involved. Take an alternate route for safety.

• There’s too many artificially-placed-and-not-yet-removed wrecks on the roads. It’s like they were left on purpose. They block movement in an AAF movement. Realistically, AAF would’ve already put them aside.

• If you put lots of wrecks on the roads, populate the sideways too. ‘d look more natural.

• I’ve killed several bunnies by accidentally grenading them together with the enemy :/. Ambient life should be off :/.

Blinded Eyes..

• Nice beginning scene! But player can toggle headlights of the offroad and AAF won’t even notice (they’d notice IRL, even if they drove past already).

• Let theplayer toggle headlights only after cinema borders are hidden. Also, unless you can make AI reactive to car horn by the player, disable it entirely. IMO.

• The first waypoints to the dirt road takes too long to be ‘completed’. Player can get messed up thinking where to go now. Realistically, you passenger-commander should evaluate the situation and inform you of his intentions, plus, directions, way before you reach that particular position to prevent critical slow-downs.

• Group radio channel isn’t disabled during doctor’s first cutscene. Player sometimes screams stuff.

• When ordered to locate chemists, and everyone departs, maybe player could be able to ask Doctor a few questions for guidelines? Where to get civilian clothes, etc.

Doctor knows about meds and hospitals on Altis best, yet we didn’t ask him anything remotely useful. Weird.

• Athira base. Soldeirs guarding it. Why they don’t get suspicious on an unidentified offroad passing by or approaching from the distance? IMO, player should be warned not to be there before Infiltration task.

• IMO, AAF surely has the budget to put up huge lamps for much better illumination in dark bases. Why not do this with Athira, making things more complicated?

Current small headlamps look absurd, considering this is a military operating.

• Why there’s nobody on Athira base tower overwatching the area? With a spotlight to warn the intruders or something.

• Also, you can easily notice an offroad with headlights approaching AAF-guarded ‘hospital’, so, for max safety, player should be ordered to park up before the town and infiltrate that area on foot. Because when you see a patrol of yours might get into trouble after an unknown approaches them in a vehicle, you send in reinforcements or ask to report in.

• After you alert AAF, since Athira town is secured by them, I think it should have an alarm too.

Infestiona sequence.

• Why is the offroad in Infestiona unlocked?

• The entire sequence of ‘Who are you? What are you doing here?’ is unrealistic as shit. Who stays calm standing like them when they spot a stranger approaching from the distance in the middle of a night? Makes no sense. Solutions?

When player enters a radius, an unknown contact warns him about the restricted area. If he doesn’t disembark and drives further, he gets sniped. If he follows the orders and identifies himself, it’s all good. Peace.

• That barrel illuminating the whole town. Makes for some perfect targets for AAF snipers. Unwise.

• How do we know guy’s (Costa’s) with a pistol name when he didn’t introduce yet?

• Order player to put out all the barrels in town to make ambush more effective.

• Ambush is marked ‘Completed’ after only two of the leading vehs are STOPPED (not destroyed). But there’s much more left in the convoy. It’s buggy.

• Make offroad veh in Infestiona locked by default. If player stops the convoy, guerilla, if any of them survive, will donate the keys as a gift. If all of them die, player can loot them for keys.

Or player can always BREAK THE GLASS and open the door.

• I wouldn’t believe locals telling me all medical supplies in Infestiona are gone. They need meds for themselves, a perfect reason to hide meds and lie.

• 1.48 update broke the animations in Church.

• Make it so player can’t treat ‘the brother’ in Church.

• Weird that AAF haven’t checked that downed truck with lots of rucksacks near their roadblock. What they’ve been doing, masturbating the whole time?

• If you eliminate AAF checkpoint BEFORE Church sequence, the objective won’t tick off as ‘DONE’.

Toll Booth.

• Why not report in to Miller you’re coming from some direction so they don’t mistake you for an enemy? It’s that simple to avoid a clusterfuck.

• You can destroy 4-wheels under the bridge and nobody will say anything to you.

• Make Miller and others killable at least for under-the-bridge sequence. You can place bombs and all other kinds of shit and have otherwise illegal fun :D

• Why not make the strategic map open automatically?

• HILLS CONVOY POINT. Who places an offroad in the open on the hill? Hide it somewhere.

• After ordering all callsigns to ‘disengage’, convoy ‘Ambush’ objective ticks off ‘completed’. Wot?

RAIDS - after leaving the camp.

• Add a ‘Report in’ after player captures / spots / retrieves something? So the friendlies can come in immediately and take a look.

• CRASHED GUNSHIP: Why is nobody standing at the actual gunship’s wreck location? There’s only patrols wandering pointlessly.

Truck is full of supplies, but player can’t drive it?

• If all objective of ‘Raid’ are completed, some bonus for the player when he returns?

Hidden Agenda.

• AAF General talks like an idiot. Idiot accent, idiot lines.

• Meeting point. Main building. Who leaves some phones and laptops on the tables? Hide them or smth.

• Why Kerry didn’t ask for HQ to verify MRAP’s location at true Col Akanteros hideout, so Hawkins’ story checks out? Kerry should be much more careful believing a CSAT ‘s remote hostage.

• The little bird transporting us behind CSAT’s hill… Makes too much noise. Design mistake.

• Hahaha! Nice joke by the US!

• Come on… After a CAS hit like that in such a small radius… There shouldn’t be a piece of guerillas and CSAT left.

• Maybe come up with a quirk like ‘Some of the guerillas managed to bug out in time before the CAS’.

Clear Skies.

• When Stavrou gets killed by NATO, player can walk whenever he wants and the sequence doesn’t initiate until player is close to Kerry.

• When you stop with two choices – flee or surrender – you can switch weapons. Kerry doesn’t give a fuck if you point a goddamn rocket launcher and put a missile at entire group standing in the open.

• That was a fun explosion.

• Debrief window. Text overflows its parent. You’d better make a cutscene explaining the situation and everyone’s motives.

OVERALL.

• Player can shoot / throw grenades in all black-screen sequences.

• DRIVING SEQUENCES. Give player NVG and force him to disable headlights

• Warn player if he fires his gun in the middle of a calm night. For ex., shooting inside Doctor’s crib. Miller could send a little hate to the player.

• Roadblock AI behavior. Any way to make roadblock 4-wheel vehicle crew not to bail after at least 2 tires are gone? They handle a static weapon and they leave it behind. Wtf.

• Unskippable cutscenes ïŒ

• Any way to make RAIDs more enjoyable so you can assemble a team?

MINOR.

• MISSION 1 – AT THE BEGINNING -You can open backpacks of other people who are on your side, but not on your team. You’re a thief!

• Execution part was way too messy. Nobody said anything. Nothing was clear. And my character, after taking the pistol, walks like a granny with a stick between her legs.

That's all for now. Contact me if you want your next campaign to be tested ;) I'll help if I've got time!

Edited July 20, 2015 by Inlesco

[IndeedPete 1038]

Played throught this one and its predecessor during the last few weeks. Solid, straight-forward entertainment. It doesn't spend much time on characters or more complex game mechanics but it delivers some decent action. Grab a beer, fire up Arma, and have fun for a few hours.

Thank you!

[Rob606 1]

I really like this and previous installment many thanks for a well thought out campaign.

[AZCoder 921]

I really did like this campaign, but I have been unable to complete it because of what appears to be an old bug with Clear Skies.

I sided with the CSAT guys earlier on. When I get to the castle, Akhanteros never shows up. Since the debug console is enabled, I checked for him and it appears he is 1000m above the castle. I have played this mission from a complete reverted start at least 3 times. It's disappointing to play through such good missions, and not be able to complete the campaign.

[OMAC 254]

As reported many times on Steam forums, Strategic Map isn't available in Toll Booth mission when you are with Miller under bridge or in Hidden Agenda mission with Kerry, killing immersion and preventing mission progress.  Solution:

1. ESC to enter Debug Console
2. Enter "IOT_strategic_open=true" in Execute area, press return 

 

Also, bug in Clear Skies prevents ending of mission and campaign:

Spoiler

If player sides with NATO in Hidden Agenda, Akhenteros cannot be killed after castle is clear in Clear Skies.  He and some NATO men are standing near statue at castle.  They are all invincible, and mission will not proceed or end.  Using A3 1.68 stable, no mods other than Bell Tolls.

 

Clear Skies and campaign did end properly if player sides with CSAT.

 

[Wiki 1558]

On 02/04/2017 at 4:12 PM, OMAC said:

As reported many times on Steam forums, Strategic Map isn't available in Toll Booth mission when you are with Miller under bridge or in Hidden Agenda mission with Kerry, killing immersion and preventing mission progress.  Solution:

1. ESC to enter Debug Console
2. Enter "IOT_strategic_open=true" in Execute area, press return 

 

Also, bug in Clear Skies prevents ending of mission and campaign:

  Hide contents

If player sides with NATO in Hidden Agenda, Akhenteros cannot be killed after castle is clear in Clear Skies.  He and some NATO men are standing near statue at castle.  They are all invincible, and mission will not proceed or end.  Using A3 1.68 stable, no mods other than Bell Tolls.

 

Clear Skies and campaign did end properly if player sides with CSAT.

 

 

How to open the console?

I'm playing the mission right now and when I press "esc", there is no console (unlike the one when I am in Eden).

 

Thanks

[AZCoder 921]

You could try FHQ debug, just to get past that spot in the mission.

 

[Wiki 1558]

Thx for the tip

[adg 10]

I'm a little late to this awesome campaign. Quick question -- How does one start the raids at camp? When I venture out too far away, it reads, "going on patrol" then fades to black, then boots me to Arma 3 menu. Is there something in debug I can send to avoid this?

[Kalle M. 103]

Is this campaign ever going to be updated to newer versions? I couldn't find a copy of the FHQ debug addon so I'm stuck with Miller's map 😄

[honger 110]

13 hours ago, Kalle M. said:

Is this campaign ever going to be updated to newer versions? I couldn't find a copy of the FHQ debug addon so I'm stuck with Miller's map 😄

Don't ask for updates, it is impolite and discourteous, not to mention that if you have checked author's profile you would see he's been gone since 2017.

 

What do you need the FHQ debug for? You can use any mod that gives you access to debug console, there are dozens of them on Workshop with Simple Single Player Cheat Menu being the most popular. Download it and start the campaign with it, paste the code into the debug menu shown in Esc menu and done.

[Kalle M. 103]

11 minutes ago, honger said:

Don't ask for updates, it is impolite and discourteous, not to mention that if you have checked author's profile you would see he's been gone since 2017.

 

What do you need the FHQ debug for? You can use any mod that gives you access to debug console, there are dozens of them on Workshop with Simple Single Player Cheat Menu being the most popular. Download it and start the campaign with it, paste the code into the debug menu shown in Esc menu and done.

Thanks for the tip mate.