Operation mercury

[KingN 251]

Greetings,

So here's a new special operative campaign for ofp resistance made all by myself, Operation Mercury. Don't even ask how long have I've been doing this, there has been long breakes but anyway the time spent on this campaign is long. The campaign is about defending island Nogova again, fighting against invading Russian forces as Nato special forces.

The campaign consist of 16 missions with various tasks including evacuating, saboteuring, assassinating, destroying, sniping, rescuing, scouting etc. You will play as a special operative named Robert Ryback through all the missions. There is also custom addons (all included in the zip) to bring something new to the playing, includes modern firearms such as M4A1 variants, M249, SIG 550 and it also includes the F-16 fighter plane. The addons might seem a bit out-of-date but that's because I started making this a long time ago. All the radio transmissions are made with a good text-to-voice engine and edited to have cool radio disortion effect. I also tried to get more atmosphere to the campaign by making a lot of (wellmade) cutscenes. The plot of the campaign's story is quite decent (I think) so it should be easy to understand what going on. Big_D helped me a bit with language errors too, many thanks to him. Well... I think that's all I have to tell about this campaign. Ask if I missed something.

Missions: 16

Type: Spec Op Campaign

Custom Addons: Yes, all included with the zip

File size: 22mb

Recommended OFP version: 1.90

Time spent on this campaign: Too much

Other features:

-Lots and lots of cutscenes to give atmosphere

-Player's role is a special operative Robert Ryback

-Audible radio transmissions

-All missions are properly done, but bugs might still be found

Download Links (extra hosters would be greatly appreciated):

EDIT:Version 1.1 is out! Some missions made a bit easier and bugs fixed

ofp.gamezone.cz - Campaign & Addon Pack, at http://ofp.gamezone.cz/

EDIT:(Sometimes it doesn't want to start downloading, just try several times)

The Avon Lady's The FAQ

Campaign

Addon Pack

Get it asap and tell what you think about it! Would be very much appreciated.

[kroky 1]

Download links are down. I mean they lead to nothing. Please check again. Thanks

[kroky 1]

Maybe I was too quick. Now it works fine. Downloading.

[FSPilot 0]

What did you have the enemy AI skill set on? The missions were way too hard, I didn't complete a single one without using the cheat. I'm usually pretty good with OFP, but these missions I just couldn't do. Maybe it was the large numbers of sniper-MGs, but it was just too hard.

[KingN 251]

What did you have the enemy AI skill set on?  The missions were way too hard, I didn't complete a single one without using the cheat.  I'm usually pretty good with OFP, but these missions I just couldn't do.  Maybe it was the large numbers of sniper-MGs, but it was just too hard.

Too hard, eh? hmmm... I set the skill of the spez natz almost to the max but every other soldier is a normal ai dummy, from a bit lower than the middle skill through a bit higher than the middle skill I think. A friend of mine played this through twice before publishing for beta testings and he said that one of the missions was way too hard and I fixed that, but he also said that the other missions was just ok for him. Do you have 'super ai' set on? I can't think of anything else that could make it too hard...

[FSPilot 0]

No I don't think I have super AI on.

I think it's just too many AI verses too few friendlies.

The last mission I tried was the one where you destroy the AA nest so an F-16 can come in and take out a base, then you go in to mop up. It was just too many AI, that were pretty highly skilled if you ask me, verses 3 spec ops, two of whom didn't do much besides get shot and call out when their friend got shot.

If you want my advice, increase friendly AI skill, decrease enemy AI skill.

[RED 0]

Your campaign is looking good so far King Nothing, but I do agree with FSPilot about the enemy skill, it is far too high.

I depbo'ed the campaign and all the soldiers that attack you on the first mission have their skill set to max, that is far too high. I only just completed that mission by the skin of me teeth.

Great camera and sound work though, I will play the mission more later on.

RED

[KingN 251]

Ok, I guess you're right. Some of the mission might be a bit too hard at the moment. I could make those harder mission easier but uploading and asking it published to ofp.info was a quite difficult procedure. I'll wait for a couple of days for any possible bug reports and make a newer verison of it where it is made at least easier. But I still highly recommend this campaign for non-newbies.

[FSPilot 0]

i did love the intros, they were very well done and really added to the depth.

this campaign has good potential. it's very exciting, just too hard.

[KingN 251]

By the way, was the second mission, the one where you are a hostage too hard? Because FSPilot, you said that you used the endmission cheat on every mission. That mission should be quite easy after you know what to do. I think I'm not going to make that one easier.

[FSPilot 0]

The first part was easy, for me at least. I just time lapsed and watched how he was patrolling, then ran and grabbed a 74 while his back was turned. Quickly took out the guards and moved on to the other base. Got waxed, learned to attack from the forest, took out that camp. Then I finally met up with my friends and started that walk back to the base with them. We eventually hit a patrol who first killed me (i restarted, re escaped, re took over the bases, and redid the whole walk) and then killed my whole squad the second time. I ended the mission before he killed me.

The enemy's are just set too hard. Scale it down and you'll have an excellent campaign on your hands.

I'm getting better at this though. I finally beat 2 missions on my own (what an accomplishment). The sniper mission was pretty easy, but I had to go down and go through the city on my own. Then the Velka Ves (I think) mission was a load of fun. Those silly Russians left an unlocked T-80 right next to some great concealment.

[FSPilot 0]

One word: FUN!

I've been playing this campaign more and having more and more fun while I'm at it.  I loved the mission where you blow up a supply cache of trucks in some city.  It was moderately hard but still doable if you did it right.

Also, the beach patrol mission.  I've got a picture to show you.  I was getting as close as I could to that beach and found a Russian patrol.  I've never been this close to an enemy who didn't know I was there.  Eventually I got close enough, fell back and called in the arty and infantry, then started a fight (and lost).  I figured I should bring a LAW along with me and my friend so we could take out those BMPs instead of getting torn to pieces by them.

Anyway, I got some LAWs and started to crawl into the camp.  I got as close as I could (even touched the barbed wire! ).  One of the patrols got uncomfortably close to me.  I sat and held my breath while the patrol stopped, looked around, then began to turn around and walk away.  So I grabbed this pic so I'd have a few bragging rights when I got back. the picture (yes it's very dark, turn up your brightness. i play OFP with the brightness up by default so it looked better to me )

Anyway, here's my problem.  I got as close as I could, up to that barbed wire and I didn't set off the trigger the second time.  Am I doing somethign wrong?

[FatWombat 0]

I'm only halfway through the second mission but I must say, so far this is one of the best quality campaigns I've played. Intros, overviews, briefings etc all top notch. But like FSPilot & RED already said- the ai skill is too high...extremely difficult It took me over an hour to pass the first mission. Other than that though I recommend this to any ofp player, great work King Nothing, hope to see more stuff from you in the near future

[theavonlady 2]

Started playing. Very nice!

However, indeed way too hard. I wish me and my 2 buddies in mission 1 could simply head for the hills up north. Unfortunately, they're dead, leaving me against a squad plus of Ruskies. And they are skilled to kill.

Suggestions about correcting/making changes to the campaign.

1. Move the required addons into a separate ZIP file or give explicite links to them elsewhere. That way, folks don't have to download them over and over again.

2. That still leaves you with a hefty-sized campaign file but that's much the lesser of 2 evils. If you want to reduce the campaign file's download size even more, separate the sounds that you use and move them to AMORE files. You'll be left with just updating a slim and trim campaign file, whose PBO size will be quite low when you upload revised versions.

3. Remember to always update the version number on the bottom of the campaign overview page so we folks are sure we've got the latest version.

[Poet 0]

Great intro and Cutscenes, really nicely done.

Still not got past the 1st mission, wasnt sure which chopper to get onboard ( there were no instructions ) so picked the one on the right, fly off to a town, "ecavuated" all the hostages and 3 times now when I return the chopper is upside down bouncing around.  

Edit : I had my Terrain set to "Low" , I changed it to "v.Low" and the chopper still slid down the hill, but it didn't crash, took a while for it to stop moving and the last guy to get in though...

[KingN 251]

Hey thanks for all for the feedback!

I'm going to make the campaign easier. I'll set the skill of the enemies down a lot but making them less could become a major problem because in most part of the missions all of the names of the enemy units are linked with triggers to monitor if player has defeated the enemies in certain area, running away or dead. I takes a lot of time to remove a part of the enemies and also their names from all of the monitoring triggers and then test the mission if it works and to do this with all the missions. But anyway I'll do all the mission easier that's for sure.

@Poet, lol sometimes the chopper does funny things that it's not supposed to do. I cannot do anything about it. And if there was a typo like that I'll correct it.

@Avon, The reason I included the addons with the campaign is that I myself hate to seek and download separate files to play a custom campaign. That's what I usually have to do when getting others' campaigns. I think it's just better to get the whole package in one .zip. And I think few people have any of these addons. And yes the version will be updated naturally.

@FatWombat, Actually I'm making a new campaign "Malden Crisis" featuring many BAS addons and if it completes some day It'll be at least as good as this one but only shorter, maybe less than 10 missions but at the moment I'm having a break of making it, just don't have much interest at the moment.

@FSPilot, yeah I have experienced that couple of times that the enemy come that close, lol. But your problem is that you have to use the 'reveal' action (default right mouse button) and locate all the bigger targets at the beach. I recommend to find a good position from a hill to do this.

And a note to everybody, like it was mentioned once already, you are able to select your gear at the briefings in every mission. The gear amount and variety increases while you proceed on the campaign.

[theavonlady 2]

I'm going to make the campaign easier. I'll set the skill of the enemies down a lot but making them less could become a major problem because in most part of the missions all of the names of the enemy units are linked with triggers to monitor if player has defeated the enemies in certain area, running away or dead.

Then maybe you shouldn't change the quantities but just lower the skill levels to make it balanced.

Quote[/b] ]@Avon, The reason I included the addons with the campaign is that I myself hate to seek and download separate files to play a custom campaign. That's what I usually have to do when getting others' campaigns. I think it's just better to get the whole package in one .zip. And I think few people have any of these addons. And yes the version will be updated naturally.

I think a compromise is in order. OK, don't make the players search for addons individually but at least separate the addons from the campaign. Otherwise, everytime you put out a new version, everyone is going to have to download the same 12MB of addons again for nothing.

[KingN 251]

I think a compromise is in order. OK, don't make the players search for addons individually but at least separate the addons from the campaign. Otherwise, everytime you put out a new version, everyone is going to have to download the same 12MB of addons again for nothing.

Ok, I know what you mean . I'll discuss with the mission hoster of ofp.info about this. I think I could get it so that the addon pack can be downloaded separately.

[RED 0]

I have played up to the sniper mission. The only mission I would suggest a difficulty change to is the first mission, I had to replay it quite a few times to take out the trucks.

I jumped out behind one of the trucks, shot all the men inside and then ran and hid in a building

RED

[KingN 251]

I have played up to the sniper mission. The only mission I would suggest a difficulty change to is the first mission, I had to replay it quite a few times to take out the trucks.

I jumped out behind one of the trucks, shot all the men inside and then ran and hid in a building

RED

That's what I think too. The first mission where you have to whipe out the convoy is very hard, I admit. The skill of the enemies was left at max by accident, they was not supposed to be so hard. When I was testing it, I finished it with 3 tries because I knew how it's done easily: Wait at back yard of the three houses in the middle of the village. Select the nades you probably still have. wait 'till the first truck stops infront of you and throw two nades at it and all the passengers should die. After that the enemies from the other truck comes back the corner of the nearby house and take them out one by one.

Anyway this mission will be easier in the next version.

There is about three other hard but yet easier missions than this one in the campaign I think.

[FSPilot 0]

@FSPilot, yeah I have experienced that couple of times that the enemy come that close, lol. But your problem is that you have to use the 'reveal' action (default right mouse button) and locate all the bigger targets at the beach. I recommend to find a good position from a hill to do this.

Really? I didn't have to do that before. I just got close and the trigger went off. i'll try it again once I get home from work (noon, for once I'm glad we're getting paycuts ).

[KingN 251]

Really?  I didn't have to do that before.  I just got close and the trigger went off.  i'll try it again once I get home from work (noon, for once I'm glad we're getting paycuts ).

Actually it works that way too, All you have to do is see or hear all the bigger targets. You see, I used knowsabout function in that mission to know if player has seen or heard all the needed targets and when you have sensed all the needed targets the objective will get completed. Reveal action only tells the game that the player has seen the target. That helps locating the targets you want.

[FSPilot 0]

Oh ok. I was wandering all around on my belly looking for a place where I could use a "reveal" action but never found it. All I have to do is look at them?

[RED 0]

If you have binoculars look at them and rightclick, if not just right click on them and it should work.

RED

[FSPilot 0]

Finally got it, thanks.

I just completed the campaign too. This is a really good campaign, just tone down the enemy AI and we'll have a great campaign. This one's a keeper.

I think I found one bug though. In the mission where you car bomb the enemy soldiers, every once in a while a number would pop up on my screen. Once I cleared the enemy base "obj_3" appeared. Could be a bug in a script?