Dynamic USMC mission

[toecutter 0]

I have released a dynamic mission/campaign using MARPAT Marines fighting terrorists on Mungari Island. It features:

- 6 mission types

- Air/fire support

- Randomised mission allocation

- Randomised enemy forces

- Jungle, desert and urban missions

- Technicals

- Medevac

- Civilians

Latest version:

http://hx3.de/files/ofpc/hosteddownl/2004qua4/Counter-Insurgency.zip

The mission is currently playable but I need your feedback to improve it. Required addons:

OFP: Resistace 1.96

Marine Assault Pack:

http://ofp.gamezone.cz/index.php?showthis=5544

OR

http://www.mtco.com/games/downloads/usmc/go.html

Edge's Retextured Guerrillas

http://ofp.gamezone.cz/index.php?showthis=5319

UCE Middle-east Resistance 1.1 (JAM)

http://ratatosk.dyndns.org/~jw/uce_kuffiya_11jam.rar

OR check this thread:

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....5;st=15

PFLP Troops

http://ofp.gamezone.cz/index.php?showthis=1551

BAS Tonal and Opfor

http://ofp.gamezone.cz/index.php?showthis=5155

PATCH 1

http://ofp.gamezone.cz/index.php?showthis=5210

PATCH 2

http://ofp.gamezone.cz/index.php?showthis=5351

Mungari Island (and necessary addons)

http://ofp.gamezone.cz/index.php?showthis=6548

F/A - 18C Hornets Final Pack V1.3!!!

http://ofp.gamezone.cz/index.php?showthis=4543

JAM 2 (should be included in TONAL, but anyway...)

http://www.ofpec.com/addons/JAM.php

Snypir's SP/MP support pack

http://www.ofpec.com/editors/spt_pack.php

ARAB FACES

http://www.edgefiles.com/files/15514.html

or check this thread:

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....;st=300

BAS Helos

http://ofp.gamezone.cz/index.php?showthis=5792

http://ofp.gamezone.cz/index.php?showthis=2533

http://ofp.gamezone.cz/index.php?showthis=3998

Please post any bugs, suggestions, etc.

Cheers.

[General Barron 0]

...links to addons?

Sounds interesting though, but I don't think I've got time.

[mr burns 131]

im interested in playing this mission, it sounds really good.

unfortunately i wont have the time to test it excessively

but i could upload it for ya so more people can download and probably test it

[rekster 0]

This may be a stupid question, but are the missions SP or MP? I assume SP. If they are MP, I can check with my squad about testing. This is something we would like to play as coop.

If SP, I not sure how much time I would have to play, so I would not waste your time.

They do sound great. Hopefully someone will host a link for you so others can just down load and try.

[toecutter 0]

It's only SP, but if there's enough interest I could try to make a COOP version.

As far as testing goes, I'm not looking for anything too serious, just general impressions, recommendations, criticism, etc. Play it once and post your feelings. No need to write an essay.

Cheers.

[Placebo 29]

If you can get the next version hosted somewhere I would post it on FlashNews, unfortunately the initial version doesn't have a URL, if you do get it hosted and I have a couple of mins spare I can sneak it into the latest FlashNews

[mr burns 131]

the mission is now available Here  

[cornhelium 0]

Thanks Toecutter & Mr. Burns. I'll give this a go at the weekend.

Cheers,

Cornhelium

[mr burns 131]

i just gave the mission a try and i must say it´s damn fun  

exactly the kind of mission i´ve been searching for, i can only recommend it to everybody..

a coop verison would be nice too  

[AdmiralKarlDonuts 0]

Hey, pretty cool mission, though I can't believe you didn't put any save points in anywhere. Next time I play it I'll have to add my own save trigger.

I got an ambush mission way the hell over in the western jungle islands by a brige - funny because we reached the ambush site and 2 technicals were camcreated right in amongst my men. Since I had them all on 'hold fire' all I had to do was walk up to the occupants and shoot them in the head. Simple, but strange. Then I saw the enemy infantry coming towards me from the other side of the bridge, but rather than cross it, they walked down into the river and most of them drowned. My Marines picked off the last of them and we RTB'd.

On the way back, I was crossing the main bridge north of my base and to my surprise there were a bunch of civillians laying along it, blocking the road for my Humvees. Clever little bastards, those civvies. I was tempted to plow through them but I realized that would be bad for our image, so I selected RTB and left the Humvees where they were.

The second mission was an attack south of our main base, but the foliage was so thick that my men started getting separated. Despite that we approachd the castle ruins and started taking out the perimeter sentries, but as we neared some random dudes started knocking a couple of us off. Why is it that my medic is ALWAYS the first man to die in a firefight?

So I got shot in the head and restarted from the very beginning, but since it's late and I have to register for my next semester's worth of classes in like 6 hours, I figured I'd wait a bit before trying it again

I like it though; I was a big fan of Thruyersternum's Unscripted War so I think this is pretty cool.

BTW you didn't list the BAS helos as addon requirements but I had to download them all before the mission would load.

[Placebo 29]

the mission is now available Here

Splendid thanks, I've added it to the latest FlashNews

[toecutter 0]

I'll add a save point to the next version. Using the "Rest" option also saves the game, but I forgot to mention that in the readme

I actually put the hummers in as eye candy for the base. I always use "Move out" to save travel time. However, I've fixed it so that RTB now moves the hummers back to base and repairs/refuels them.

As for the other issues, I'm looking into them. The "peaceful protesters" in particular have me scratching my head as there shouldn't be any spawn points near that bridge.

When I figure out the spawn problems I'll release an updated version. Thanks for the feedback

[AdmiralKarlDonuts 0]

Some further play-testing reveals that the UAZs almost always spawn incorrectly. Every ambush mission has them spawning about 20 feet behind me, and the rescue missions have them spawning right on top of the downed chopper - those poor SOAR pilots are dead as soon as I insert.

I also noticed that you need to add NVGs to the troops' loadouts, because there are none to be had anywhere.

Lastly, I think you should drop the line that puts your men in hold fire mode whenever you deploy. It doesn't seem to serve any purpose as-is.

You've also made me appreciate the double-edge sword of using brutal tactics a bit more - in order to crack a couple of those rebel strongholds I had to resort to carpet-bombing the living shit out of the place before we went in on the ground. Sorry civvies, we had to destroy the place in order to save it

That's all for now...still monkeying around with it.

[mr burns 131]

a new version is up for download,

toecutter said he has fixed some bugs and added one or two new things

Download

[bonko the sane 2]

finally i have 2 days off work, ill try it tonight.

btw: great choice on the island, its one of my favorites.

[AdmiralKarlDonuts 0]

Excellent...will test tomorrow

Very cool that you added a "leave no man behind" penalty - I was going to suggest something similar.

[toecutter 0]

Thanks for the upload Mr Burns.

Changes in the new version:

- Fixed technicals spawn (now spawn at their squad leader)

- Added a save point at base

- Added an abort mission function

- Added links to the briefing/plan to make it easier to find the current mission objective

- Added NVGs to the marines

- Medevacs now reduce the support penalty of marine casualties

- Changed RTB to return the hummers to base as well as repair and refuel them

- Moveout tweaked to allow moving directly to mis_obj in defence/ambush missions

- Hopefully improved the randomness of mission/location choice

- Moved Navy Corpman to Fire team 1

- Modified civ spawn

- Modified civ movement

Thanks for the helpful feedback SEAL84. Please keep it coming!

[AdmiralKarlDonuts 0]

Played some more this afternoon...points in no particular order:

- technical spawning is fixed...rescue missions are now possible

- you fixed all my other little nitpicks about hold fire and all that stuff.

- Sometimes on the ambush and defend missions, the enemy spawned immediately. It looked like they spawned right on top of the objective marker - obviously this gives me no time to set an ambush or defense. This didn't happen all the time though.

- the triggers fire based on percentages of enemy killed - I would get "mission complete" updates in the status window even though I was still engaged. I realize that's the whole point - you must kill most of them - but perhaps at that point the rest of them try to break contact and flee? I dunno how this would look ingame as far as appearing strange in the middle of combat, so it's just something to consider.

- then there's this:

This pops up when I play for a while, save, leave OFP entirely, then come back and try to resume the mission. In some cases it has been "item87" or "item89" as well. Something isn't saving properly?

Okay, now for some suggestions....

- switch to voice files for your CO instead of just text. You can very easily swap the titletext commands for "say" commands in your existing scripts; if you want to do that I can record the necessary lines and send them to you. Actually I could do all of that myself and send you the updated stuff if you'd rather concentrate on bug-killing.

- Add some manned .50 cals in those towers around your base. 4 more units shouldn't be a problem, and you can just add something into your existing scripts that will replace the gunner if he's ever killed. I had one mission where the terrorists actually attacked my base, so it would be nice to have some help.

- What happens if the CO dies? I only wonder because the rebels were right outside the perimeter in one mission.

And in general, when you get this current system working smoothly, do you have plans to broaden the scope at all? By this I mean adding more units of all types - friendly, enemy, civvie - and possibly adding bigger one-time-only missions to complete?

[Placebo 29]

- then there's this:

[ig]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v422/seal84/error.jpg[/img]

This pops up when I play for a while, save, leave OFP entirely, then come back and try to resume the mission. In some cases it has been "item87" or "item89" as well. Something isn't saving properly?

Are you using ECP or Y2K3? Sounds like the ECP save bug.

[toecutter 0]

It would be great if you could do that voice stuff. Also, I was thinking, maybe it might be cool to add voices to some of the fireteam orders, "Down!", "Everyone up!" etc. Might get repetitive though... what do you think?

Planned changes:

- add manned .50s to the base

- add a respawn script to the CO

- make the enemy retreat when broken

As for expanding the scope, adding in a few unique missions is a good idea. To improve replayability, it'd be good to have a pool of 6 or more with 2-3 occurring each time you play. What kind of missions though? I was thinking:

- Major assault: Join some AI squads and maybe some tanks etc in attacking an enemy city. Maybe use respawning to reduce lag

- USMC Base defence

- Maybe change Raid missions to a special mission

- Rescue a pinned-down AI squad

- ?

Adding more units shouldn't be a problem, but what kind do you think? I don't really think it fits for the terrorists to have air or armour. For that kind of combined-arms platoon-level stuff I'm working on another project (about 20% complete).

Other things I was thinking about adding:

- adding a helo to moveout for cosmetic effect.

- adding missions where the USMC must protect civilians from the terrorists

- changing the BIS hummers to community ones with MGs

- COOP

So my questions are:

What kind of extra units should I add?

What kind of missions should I add?

Finally, I have absolutely no idea about that reload bug.

Has anyone else tried this mission? Impressions?

[rekster 0]

One possible mission you may wish to add is a sniper mission. Would only be good for 2 marines, (so a full squad would not be used) since one would be the spotter, and the other the sniper. (Could even add HALO to it) Targets for the sniper mission could be enemy leaders, which would help reduce the support rating for the terrorists. The marines have some of the best snipers in the world, so this would not be out of the scope for the Dynamic USMC Mission you are developing.

Another possible mission is a recon mission to see just what is in a particular area/zone. Be cool of you could use the radio to report in enemy concentration to the area. This could lead to having the Commander radio back with a new objective. I realize this would require some complicated scripting, but if it can be done, could be very cool.

I like what you have done so far, and look forward to further developements. Good work. One thing I may have missed was when I went to the ammo crates to rearm, I only get one type of weapon? Is it possible to change out weapons for others? Is it possible to change loadouts for the other squad members? If not, is it something that may be added later?

Also look forward to implementation of respawn. I can see a lot of potential to using this for MP Coop.

[toecutter 0]

There is a USMC weapons crate next to the big pile of crates, stocked with shotguns and all kinds of goodies. You can order your marines to take weapons from this crate. However, the rearm script only works with M16s and SAWs at the moment. This should be fixed in the next version.

Thanks for the mission ideas. I'll try to implement them over the next few days.

Cheers

[AdmiralKarlDonuts 0]

- then there's this:

[ig]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v422/seal84/error.jpg[/img]

This pops up when I play for a while, save, leave OFP entirely, then come back and try to resume the mission. In some cases it has been "item87" or "item89" as well. Something isn't saving properly?

Are you using ECP or Y2K3? Sounds like the ECP save bug.

Nope, I haven't used ECP in months now...I'm waiting for the next version, which I hear fixes most of the bugs and includes lots of cool new stuff. It's not even on my HD anymore.

Anyway, as far as more terrorists go, true they won't have armor or air or any of that stuff....it just seemed to me that there were very few of them in some of the missions. Others, on the other hand, were total bloodbaths. Perhaps I was thinking along the set-missions mindset, like a big terrorist training camp with tons of baddies and stuff...in retrospect I'm not sure.

I think a sort of sniper/recon mission where you get dropped off via chopper somewhere and are told to stay out for a while seeking bad guys would be cool - if you run into something big you can call in an additional squad or two, but primarily you'd just be stalking bad guys.

Finally, as far as the voices go, General Barron used that idea in his latest mission - I can pull up his scripts and see how he randomized the samples. If things go well this weekend I can record the lines, update the relevant scripts and write up the description.ext stuff.

[Homefry 0]

- then there's this:

[ig]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v422/seal84/error.jpg[/img]

This pops up when I play for a while, save, leave OFP entirely, then come back and try to resume the mission. In some cases it has been "item87" or "item89" as well. Something isn't saving properly?

Are you using ECP or Y2K3? Sounds like the ECP save bug.

That was my first thought.... however it could just be an OFP problem, when saving a mission with many arrays and variables, the save game often will not work... which is why I believe the ECP bug was so common.

In this missions case, it would sound as if there is a lot of information being saved. While not really something that can be truly fixed... I believe that is what is causing your problem.

[toecutter 0]

Just a thought... at what point are you saving your game? After a getting a "mission complete" from the CO, it may take 20 or 30 seconds to purge the dead units and exit the scripts associated with them. If the delays were shorter, this should clean stuff up sooner. That should mean less stuff to save. I'll try that in the next release.