The lost lion v2.1

[Asmodeus 0]

Greetings!

I've been working on The Lost Lion since 05/2003 and am finally almost out of beta stage! (Thanks to all the wonderful beta testers over at OFPEC so far who have helped)

I need your help to finalize the beta testing, I've changed a few small things and want to make sure they don't cause any problems. (I'm almost positive they won't, but hey... you know how these things can go sometimes) ;)

The Lost Lion

Description:

You are part of a Ranger Team chosen to make contact with a spy that has secured the release of our hostages taken in operation City of the Dead. You must then escort the hostages to the evac point. Good luck!

Author's Classification:

*EDMF* (Extremely Difficult Mo-Fo)

Author's note:

This mission is classified *EDMF* for a reason.. It's very involved and can take quite a long time to finish. However, just playing through the first part should be fun. **Look for playing tips and hints at the bottom of the readme if you get stuck.**

Addon Requirements:

BAS Delta/Rangers, ECL_Barracuda, ECL_Safe, ECL_Documents, KEG Editor Addon 111, lampost.pbo (included in .zip) and OFP V1.85+

Bas Delta/rangers can be found at: (why don't you have them yet?)

http://www.ballistic-studios.com/ (just updated this link in the readme)

All things with the ECL tag can be found at:

http://www.everoncartel.com (go to downloads section)

KEG Editor Addon V1.11:

http://ofp.gamezone.cz/index.p....&page=2

Lampost.pbo: (If anybody knows who made this, please tell me)

In the .zip file!

OFP Patches and other great official stuff can be found at:

http://www.flashpoint1985.com

Players role

Ranger Rescue 1 Squad leader

Island:

Malden

Stuff mission has:

Overview

Intro

Outro

Briefing

Mission (duh) ;)

Surprises

High Difficulty rating for most people

Optional Objective

Land, sea and air battles!!

You can get it here:

http://home.earthlink.net/~asmodeus213/TLL1_7.zip (151 kb)

Any and all feedback will be greatly appreciated!

Asmo

[Acecombat 0]

D/lding now i played the one at OFPEC beta depot but never finished it

[Poet 0]

Ditto!

Though I dont think I've actually completed any of Asmodeus' missions except the Vietnam mission ( was that ever completed and released Asmo? ), just too hard for me.

Always damned good high quality stuff though.

How come you're posting here tho? Is the OFPEC Beta forum that bad now. ( Just gone to read the LL post, 7 days with no response )

I know I stopped going there because of lack of feedback, which is NOT to put down the awesome work of the hardcore testers who do make an effort, and without whom lots great of things would never have happened, but I suspect too many people just go there to find new missions to play and not bother to give even a few minutes to give feedback.

I know the first time I ever Beta-tested anything ( for the Quake3 mapping God and Super Nice guy Jax_Gator ) I was wary because I was just unsure of what to say. But having been in the position of map/mission maker myself, I now know that ANY kind of feedback, however seemingly insignificant is always welcome.

Feedback to follow.

[RED 0]

I am getting a missing addon message: bas_repairh

Any ideas what this is?

RED

[Asmodeus 0]

@ Acecombat

Thanks!  

@ Poet

Hey there!  Long time no type.  

Yeah, that's the thing man... Some people say my missions are too hard, some say they are too easy, and some say they are juuuuuust right.          

Quote[/b] ]Always damned good high quality stuff though.

Thanks a lot, I appreciate it!    

I'm posting here because:

A.  I'd like to get some new points of view to make sure that the mission makes sense to someone who's never seen it.

B.  The beta board at OFPEC does seem to be slow lately...  That's the most time consuming part of my mission making process lately!

C.  I was forced to post here by Plutonian Purple People Eating Llamas!    

I totally agree, any feedback is good feedback  

Thanks,

Asmo

P.S> The Killing Fields was never released officially.. I just wasn't happy with the outro. I do plan on finishing it though, especially since I've learned good combinations of different camera scripting lately.

*edit*

@ Red

Thanks for testing it.  I don't know what that is!     I believe it comes with the Blackhawks maybe?  

I just double checked the .sqm and there's no miscellaneous addons that I saw.  Everything required should be listed.

I'd recommend removing the Blackhawks from your addons folder and see if that helps.  Let me know what happens please!  

Thanks again.

[Poet 0]

Edit : Asmo beat me to it . But I had the Blackhawks loaded and had no problems.

@Asmo :

I'd like to test more often, but theres so much good content out there ATM, and I get so little OFP time, that theres just too many missions/campaigns I want to play ( and of course editing, when I get round to it    ).

But, after an hours back-breaking work ( Why do I ALWAYS have to spend more than 90% of the time on my stomach with NV's on in your missions?    ) :

Great intro as always, some nice cam angles, and truly horrible use of the Masterkey.  

Didnt spot one error in the extensive Briefing/Notes, nice layout and easy to use.

Mission :

1. The lag during the Ambush was incredible, I could barely move my mouse let alone give orders. Could the enemy's be cam_created earlier ( i.e when you see the Spy ) so the lag isnt so bad when you first encounter them?

2. Should the "Transport" be an Objective? I never went there the first few times I played the mission ( just legged it X-Country with 4x speed ), but theres plenty to do ...

3. On way back to Arudy, after FINALLY beating the Safe sequence    I parked up to do some map reading, and saw a random stray enemy stood at the back of my truck, I ran him over and the High Ranking Officer objective completed. I thought "WTH is he doing out here." but all became clearer as I approached Arudy and saw the aftermath ( very nasty Asmo, I like ) but was surprised that my character or no-one else commented on the scene ...

4. My teammates wasted ALL! their Ammo shooting at the empty MG emplacement ( edit : in Dourdan ) after I'd shot the gunner   . Leaving me with only a clip and little chance. Did you add a manned MG ( which the AI will always shoot ) or did you create an empty one and use the MoveInGunner command?

I'm off to give myself a shoulder rub now  , more later.

[RED 0]

@ Red

Thanks for testing it.  I don't know what that is!     I believe it comes with the Blackhawks maybe?  

I just double checked the .sqm and there's no miscellaneous addons that I saw.  Everything required should be listed.

I'd recommend removing the Blackhawks from your addons folder and see if that helps.  Let me know what happens please!  

Thanks again.

Yeah I have the blackhawks installed, I am just downloading them again to make sure I don't have an old version. If that doesn't work I will remove them and give it a go.

RED

[Asmodeus 0]

@ Poet

Thanks!

Quote[/b] ]But, after an hours back-breaking work ( Why do I ALWAYS have to spend more than 90% of the time on my stomach with NV's on in your missions?

LMAO It's because I like to make the AI positioned well when they are in defensive positions.

Quote[/b] ]Great intro as always, some nice cam angles, and truly horrible use of the Masterkey.

Thanks! I try to catch people by surprise... Sometimes a masterkey used that way helps!

Quote[/b] ]Didnt spot one error in the extensive Briefing/Notes, nice layout and easy to use.

Cool! Yeah, that briefing is a monster.

About the missions:

1. Strange.. I'll have to take a look at that, but I didn't camcreate any soldiers at that part.. Maybe I'll stagger half of them with one trigger and half with the next.

2. I'd say not. It's not essential to your mission and the objectives in this have many different ways you can achieve them, which I personally prefer.

3. Yeah, this is a little "tension creator" that I threw in there.. I think it's a good idea to add some comments in there from some guys on your squad, thanks! I'll do that. (somebody else mentioned this too, I think)

4. Ahhhh, that sucks. Yeah, I'll double check that, I've never proved that setting up the MG's that way fixes that problem. I'll change it next version.

Thanks a lot for the feedback!

@ Red

Thanks, I hope it works for you!

Asmo

[Acecombat 0]

Ok my gripe how do you crack the safe?

I have the code but how do i activate the code , i wrote it on the calculator type thingy that pops up but how do ENTER it....

The militia were oon to me by this time i couldnt crack it and had to bust 2 BMPs and some infantry becuse of the safe didnt crack.

[theavonlady 2]

Did you type in the asterisks as part of the code?

[Acecombat 0]

Ahh no i didnt i thought they werent part of the code

[benu 1]

I am getting a missing addon message: bas_repairh

Any ideas what this is?

RED

bas_repair.pbo is broken and has missing addon dependencies. If you remove that addon the error will go away. bas_repair is causing this error with some/all missions using an ah64.

[Asmodeus 0]

@ Acecombat

Yep, that's it! I can see how you'd think they shouldn't be included though.. I could always change the code if more people have this problem or care about it!

Other than that, what did you think?

@ Avon

Thanks!

@ benu

Ahhh, makes sense. Thanks for the info!

Asmo

[Poet 0]

So, I'm doing ok, lost most of my squad taking Dourdan but soldier on towards the next WP and the Boat. As I approached I was given the option of calling in reinforcements, which I did.

- I couldn't find "Hill 203" that they quoted, I had to ask for one of their status to locate them, maybe give their co-ordinates rather than the Hills height?

Reinforcements now at my side, I start moving towards the beach and the boat, taking care of the armour and squad, then I get a message that the Ruskies have called for backup and I need to get going.

However, I had no idea that half the Motherland was going to arrive in what appeared to be less than a minute!  ( maybe just a tiny bit excessive Asmo? ) so a predictable slaughter ensued, with many a retry failing to improve the situation.

So I go away for Dinner, and come back, load up OFP again and instead of clicking "...resume" in the Mission menu, I accidentally double-clicked the mission itself! Taking me right to the start of the mission again WITH MY SAVEGAMES DELETED!!

Talk about miffed.  

- spotted no errors, or problems and the game was playing great until the mass invasion.

It's gonna take me a while to get there again, and finish off the feedback.

[Asmodeus 0]

Thanks Poet!

Quote[/b] ]- I couldn't find "Hill 203" that they quoted, I had to ask for one of their status to locate them, maybe give their co-ordinates rather than the Hills height?

Ahhh, makes sense. I usually make them come to me, so I never had that problem...

I'll put some "general" coordinates in there, thanks.

About the beach, that's how I've planned it.. So far everyone has been able to get out of there in time, I'm trying to time it to where you can barely get away. I'll add a couple seconds to the time you have, but did you hurry when you got that message?

That really sucks about your losing the savegames!

Quote[/b] ]- spotted no errors, or problems and the game was playing great until the mass invasion.

Kool, I really appreciate the feedback!

I have a feeling you'll make it to the boat next time, and like I said before I can certainly add a slightly longer pause before the horde comes at you.

Thanks again,

Asmo

[Acecombat 0]

Ok Asmo played this and loved it wished i hadnt passed this one over from OFPEC

My experince so far i havent ended it , but still.

In the beginning the rain and night are just too much , i couldnt see anything the AI did all the killing i just sat and watched , on to the priest and then the cabin , was easy going all this time while i cracked the code the AI made a meal of the enemy. Then on the way i noticed all the civvies were dead ?? (on purpose ?? if so then pure evilness ).

Made my way too dourdan scoped out the land and all i had to say was all this security for a fu**in key ? Anyway killed them all with no loss to my team , got some M-4 mags too (that was nice) and then on to the Boat , now this was a bit of a surprise i got a message if i wanted too i could add more members by calling them but i didnt since i hadnt lost any and only had room for 3 more (but it had me wondering what if i called them in ?? what happen to the other 3??) ..

Anyway the shit hit the fan there onwards it was a 'bit' tough then but i did one good thing accidently while climbing on the boat i got in as driver and drove like crazy the AI commander bgan yelling to the gunner and it was fireworks then we made toast of 4 ships plus one heli whil i called in the backup then , they started with the backup on the shore ..(this part was hell but at least i didnt had to do anything ).

Anyway made it to the shore and i saved the game and then i got killed by a bloody sniper for the first time...so i decided to reload unfortunately i took the wrong load and then saved over it which meant ilost my saved game on the hostage island so i am back on the boat place , will let you know how it will go from there again.

But plz try and get sound files for the mission it was too hard trying to keep up with all the fighting around i missed many messages ...

[Acecombat 0]

Ok heres a complimentary screen from me ... i took it while shooting this poor fella off his rocker

And dont worry i upped the pics contrast and brighteness in PS so that the pic was visible because this was taken at night nothing was visible in the original pic.

[Poet 0]

Those NV's obviously did him a lot of good then!

[Acecombat 0]

No his problem was that he couldnt rotate that much , i think he had seen me because at one point he rotated towards me but couldnt rotate enough to get a shot at me

[bonko the sane 2]

Congrats Asmodeus...i started playing the mission yesterday and im still going at it today...not much time to play ofp nowadays...

Really good (a bit laggy for me) intro, sets the ambience from the start, got myself killed twice already...but praise be to that triple 0 retry function

Today ill get the code for that boat and hopefully finish the mission.

Great!

[Acecombat 0]

Jeez you guys getting the key was the easiest part for me

Just sit back out of town near the entrance with your squad , HOLD FIRE ... then you go in a bit close indentify targets n thn shoot out the Mgers towards you , then OPEN FIRE ALL and watch ass the Rangers kick ass... ...they finished the battle in 50 sec for me..i cleared the town of a few odd buggers and gt the key no problemo.

[Asmodeus 0]

@ Acecombat

Thanks! If you like this one, I think you'll like pretty much all of my newer missions. (I'm about to release another new one soon)

The night and rain were too much you say? And you were using your NV Goggles?? Ah well, at least the AI helped you past that part.

Yes, the civvies are dead on purpose. I'm going to add some small radio messages about them finding such a thing to add to the "ambiance". (I guess I am evil)

Yep, all that security for a key! It's a top secret boat, and one of the few they own after all! (besides, you said it was easy for you anyway, right?)

If you had called in the backup when you didn't need it, I think I've made it to where it'll just add the correct # of guys and the other one just stays put. (not sure though)

Quote[/b] ]Anyway the shit hit the fan there onwards it was a 'bit' tough then but i did one good thing accidently while climbing on the boat i got in as driver and drove like crazy the AI commander bgan yelling to the gunner and it was fireworks then we made toast of 4 ships plus one heli whil i called in the backup then , they started with the backup on the shore ..(this part was hell but at least i didnt had to do anything

Cool! The last part worries me though, you were the driver and you didn't have to do anything??

That sucks that you lost your savegame! That seems to be happening to a few people... I swear I didn't curse the mission!

Soundfiles, huh? I can do them, the key is getting good, fast, easy to find voice actors.. Know any? (I know about 2-3 maybe)

That screen is cool, I thought they could swing that M2 around 360 degrees??

@ Bonko the sane

Thanks!

Too bad the intro was a bit laggy, what's your benchmark? (I've benchmarked this mission with tiers starting at 900 and going up to 4000, so it should cover everything...)

Glad you liked the ambience, I always like hearing that! Yeah, the triple 0 is always good in my missions.

Quote[/b] ]Today ill get the code for that boat and hopefully finish the mission.

Great!

Thanks! Good luck soldier!

Asmo

[ruff 102]

i really think u should use deltas instead

i mean rangers are just raiders, their an assault group and i dont think they would specialise in guarding but taking over airports and air fileds

i really believe the deltas suit more in this mission than the rangers, since deltas are used by cia and are more covert

rangers are just a assault group that specialise in taking over airports, i reckon deltas do more of contacting and recovering spies and can shoot better than rangers

[Asmodeus 0]

Thanks for the feedback ruff!

I see your point and that does make sense. You don't seem to be too sure of your suggestion though. Is this based on research or general knowledge?

If necessary, I'll find out for sure when I have time.

Thanks!

Asmo

[ruff 102]

ive read in books and in news reports though im not trusting the news reports too much

but deltas were in lebanon dressed as american civillians which were to act and gather intelligence on lebanese terrorists especially hezbolla but the government got scared of more attacks so i think they didnt do much but u neva know

they were using israeli uzis

in colombia they trained the paramilitary police force that were tasked to capture pablo escobar

were in bosnia to help capture war crims, protected a general in some country that i forgot

u can research lots of their missions in www.specialoperations.com