Body Grab v0.9 - Beta Mission

[Mamba Six 11]

Body Grab: sounds perverted, doesn't it?;D Well, its not :P

A few things first:

Version: Played and built on v1.96 Resistance, but should work with v1.90 and higher

Type: Single Player

Filesize: 3.11 Mb without addons

Addons:

-JAM2: OFPEC had it, but now it's down. If anyone knows where to get it otherwise, please say so.

-Laser's Deltas and Rangers

-Lasers Weapons Pack

-Unscripted War: Vietnam Grass

The mission can be downloaded here. (Rapidshare 30 day hosting)

I think the mission is a fair balance between hard and easy, so it should be quite playable. If anyone has any comments, that would be great. Also, you can pretty much ignore the Readme. It is unfinished but will soon be complete. Also, I'm not quite sure if the Outro-Win actually ends. The trigger to end it is there, but I'm having trouble with it on my comp. If anyone could report on that, it would be great. Other than that, this mission is should be complete.

Cheers mates, and happy playing

[j w 0]

JAM2 from OFP.info

[macguba 0]

Collecting addons ...

Readme

I appreciate this is a WIP.   Add your email and the date.   Don't make it a Word document - .txt or .html is better for a simple thing like this.   Name it BodyGrab_readme, not readme_Bodygrab.  Puts it in the same place alphabetically.

In the storyline, make it explicit which side you are on.  I'm not clear if I'm playing an American or a Nogovan.

More later.

Edit:  oh, I see .. it's rtf which my comp has opened in Word .. well I suppose that's fine.

On opening OFP I get an error message:-

No entry 'config.bin/CfgWeapons/M16GrenadeLauncher.displayNameMagazine'.

but when I click ok everything continues fine.

Overview

The picture is ok but open to improvement:  the soldier and the background are too similar.   Spread the text out a bit - do you remember your mother/primary school teacher saying "fill the page"?   Make the text more personal and dynamic and lose these horrendous abbreviations.  

"We need information ... we need prisoners.  Your Delta team must grab one."

Intro

Give us some decent onloadintrotext.  You have fine music but the scene doesn't reflect it at all.   I'd lose the whole first scene altogther and replace it with some low flying choppers swooping past (to reflect the swooping music) with the camera then swooping on the the reporter scene.   Have a few seconds of blackout at the start of the intro to get everything moving before the music and pictures start.

Introducing the soldier but not the reporter doesn't work at all.  

Fade the music under the speech if you can, and fade the speech out as the screen fades to black .. it's all far too sudden at the moment.

Briefing

The Briefing text must be MUCH more exciting than this.    "Sergeant, I have no idea how you're going to do it, but you must take at least a dozen prisoners.   Your orders are in the mission pack."    If you're saving space for hidden objectives, don't worry about it - hidden objectives are allowed to spill onto a second page if necessary, and anyway it is sometimes appropriate to remove some completed objectives to make space for them.

Having an image in the link is great, but an image of a mouse pointer is a disaster - I though for a second that I had some kind of weird crash on my hands.

vicinity

The start of the Op ord is no good, we need some idea of who this is from and who it is to.  (Remember, we don't know.)    What does SFOD-D stand for?  (Never use an abbreviation without explaining it.)   Why do we need 12 captives?   Tighten up the first paragraph to make space for this stuff.   Check spelling and typos, there are several.

12 prisoners is not a realistic goal given the size of the force we expect to encounter.  2 or 3 would be believable.   We should have information (perhaps in notes) on how the capture will be effected in gameplay terms.    Or maybe hints "We think they are low grade troops, so if you get up close and point a weapon at them they may just surrender".

Notes -  First line is good.  The rest, as you well know, is rubbish.  Scrap the lot and start again.   Don't repeat information that is elsewhere in the Briefing.

Gear - remove the pistols from everybody except the player and put them in selection.  (The AI use them at bad moments.)   The squad arrangement is incomprehensible.    Do something like this so that the player can see and understand at a glance what what and where his firepower is

2+3: MGs

4+5: AT

6+7: grenadiers

8+9: radio and medic

10,11+12: ordinary soldiers

If the radio is irritating "eyecandy", remove it.  If it is important, we need to be told.    I hate all delta missions because of this pointless and confusing proliferation of gear, so I will assume that the default loadout is the best one for the mission and press on.   Do we have a medic?   Or is everybody a medic? Remember that most players will not know the subtleties of the addons and that many, like me, actively dislike this childish "super-soldier" mentality that Delta addon makers in particular tend to have.  (That's enough bitching about the addons - Ed.)

Group - glad to see my squad is decent quality and has a rank structure though I'd lose the lieutenant for a sergeant or corporal.   Groups of 12 depress me though, they are hard to control and attrack casualties like a fly to shit.

Map - a little bare.  Where is the front line?  Where is our base?   How and where do we insert/attack?   We need some context here.

Mission

Where are we?   How did we get here?   A lorry, chopper or boat disappearing into the distance might be appropriate.   Anyway, figuring out where we are is not hard.

We run north up the hill and come over the crest bringing the village into view.  Before I can stop them somebody starts firing.   No response from the enemy though.  I can see a squad just standing there.    I mark targets through my binocs and 6 does the business.  Another squad in column on safe wander from left to right into our long range killing zone.  At this stage I'd say we were winning.

I have to go an tend the barbeque so rush job: leaving 2-6 pumping rounds into the village and lead 7-12 left flanking.    We take and inflict casualties on distant soldiers before suddely getting and objective complete hint - an MG is down.  This should not be an Objective, must less a hidden one:  if you want to tell us about it do so while it is alive, not after its dead.   Anyway a sniper on that hill gets me so that's the end of that.

More later.

Second attempt

I put 4, 6 and 12 on top of the hill as a fire support base and they pop away merrily as we head north towards the MG nest.  We shot some poeple - but no hint - and turn in towards the village where I come up behind a sniper.  This is very bad mission design.    Nobody, in the whole history of warfare, has placed a sniper in a place like this until I did it in the Un-Impossible Mission.   That was a study:  this is meant to be a pseudo-realistic mission.   The MG nest on the hill is fine but this is not.   Be more realistic and more sophisticated in designing the defences.   Although I'm grateful for the Dragunov.     I didn't even bother firing with the useless rubbish with which I've been issued.  I hate HD weapons even more than I hate Delta missions:  it is true that the original weapons were unattractively accurate, but the HD weapons conpound the fault by being too inaccurate.

Anyway I'm too pissed to do much good with the Dragunov (and kind of self imposed, and much more amusing HD) and we take some casualties.  I feel very snug in the long grass, I like that.   In the distance there are some loons just standing around.   I suppose I could try and take them prisoner rather than shooting them, but I don't know how.

Another squad appears on safe.  An error message:  something about

_gunner .... closestunit

while I'm worry about taht somebody shoots me.   Pick up savegame and try again.

I've just collected the Drag when I see this and manage to hit the screen shot button on time.   I'm at the sniper position and the units in the picture are about 200m away: none of my loons are closer than me.

Hang on .. can't figure out how to attach the screenie ... Err, no I really can't see to attach something.   Can anybody help me out?  

Anyway its a shot of two loons with their hands behind their heads.

Got that error message again.  Error zero divisor.   _unit select _closestUnit it might have been.   Anyway distant unit surrenders but I've lost track of what happened to the original pair:  I think they ran off and were shot.   It's all a bit of a shambles to be honest:  loons in safe in the middle of a firefight, while the loon next to them is surrendering.  The loons who have surrendered mostly seem to run off after a bit.  I get killed again because I'm concentrating on all this rather than the battle.

Got that error again, immediately after shooting an M2 gunner by the road at the southern end of the village.

Cleared the village and a loose squad between the hilltop MGs and the road.   Went into the village and ran around a bit but nothing happening, which doesn't surprise me given the problems that have appeared.    With no clues from the map and no vehicles I can't go hunting so after a final look around its an endmission job.

The village itself is very bare.  Why are all these soldiers here?  What are all these MG nests protecting?

32 mins

10 kills

4 casualties

3190

4*

Outro

Well it did end, but other than that the less said the better I think.  

Comments

For what is to all intents and purposes a first real mission this is not a bad start at all.   The Intro and Briefing are 3/4 there and just need a bit more attention - there are no fundamental problems here.

The mission itself does have fundamental problems, but they are all fixable.   Firstly, what is this mission really about?  What's going on in this town?  Why are we here?   Why are the enemy here?   How did we arrive?  How will we leave?    Have a good think, put yourself in the shoes of the local Soviet commander and then get to work with GB's editor addon.  (Or mikero's new one, I haven't had a chance to look at that yet.)

Secondly, there are clearly problems with the scripts.   When we arrived in the village everybody was dead, with the possible exception of one or two that had managed to run away successfully.

Thirdly, the enemy placement and reaction was dreadful.   Go back to the questions raised in my first point, and consider their answers in relation to how the enemy might react.   Then add in lots more switch triggers.

I suspect that the underlying problem is that you have concentrated on the scripting and not given enough thought to the mission.  However there is nothing wrong with the location or the basic idea and the mission is at just the right stage for beta testing, so hopefully my harsh words will be helpful.  

Mission Editor

I improved this firstaid script for Un-Impossible:  borrow the version from there and record your own sound files if you don't like my crappy acting.

Ah, you've got the switch triggers but you've forgotten to make behaviour aware in the final waypoint.

I see what you're getting at with the other hidden objective, and its the right idea.    However you need to support it with background.    Make the village a proper billet:  unarmed soldiers yawning outside tents, or perhaps a morning parade going on - lots of unarmed soldiers who have to run to get their rifles when you attack.    Make much more of the hillside HQ, it is also very bare.

This is a cut above the normal first beta because it has the scripting, even if there are some problems.   However, once the scripting is fixed it will still suffer from the classic first mission fault of lack of thought over unit placement.   At the moment its just a few patrols slapped down - it needs to be much more complex.   (Never, ever use the Groups button for creating groups for a real mission.  That button is for test missionettes only.    Look at Lamentin in the Tutorial Mission to see the kind of thing I'm getting at.)   When it is, this will be a nice wee mission.  

Good start.   Apologies if this sounds a bit negative, beta tests usually do.   And Deltas with HD always puts me in a bad mood.  

Edit:  Outro Loose looks fun!

Difficulty was the easy side of medium - I was beta testing not playing properly.   You certainly don't need a squad of 12 for this, 9 (since they are Americans and I believe that's the standard) would be much better.

When OFPEC is back up read my tute "Creating good missions" which has some handy tips for situations like this.

[Mamba Six 11]

Okay, an update will come soon.  

Oh, and no worries about sounding harsh. I knew what you were going for

[Mamba Six 11]

Here we are, Body Grab v0.95.

Mkay.

Quote[/b] ]No entry 'config.bin/CfgWeapons/M16GrenadeLauncher.displayNameMagazine'

Thats an addon error for the Laser troops. Don't worry about it.

Overview:

I added a new picture, but the edges are crappy due to the slightly angled 3D view of the notepad. Redid the text.

Intro:

Reworked the intro, and added a cutRsc bit to it. Fading the music is a bloody nightmare, but I tried. We'll see if it works.

Briefing:

I put the OPORD on the page - no links now. The objective still runs over. Removed the abreviations in everything. Reworded the breifing itself.

Replaced the notes with Author's Hints.

In the gear changed all of the HD mags to regular mags, removed the pistols and added an M21 to the gear selection. The squad has been hacked down to 9, a medic was added, all of the firepower was shifted forward, and... eh, moving on.

Misison:

Several more MGs added to the HQ, and reworked the squads and patrols. The snipers are removed, and I added a crap load of barrels, pallets, tents and vehicles.

[action man 0]

.Tyger, your mission is ok! In the readme that came with your latest version you say the mission ask's for the addon "prim" but you don't know what this is. Now if my memory serves me right the addon prim comes with the Czech  version of the game,and the addon i think is a church. I know because a few years ago i had a similar problem with a mission i downloaded and it took me ages to suss it out. Can't think why your mission would ask for it if you made it with the English version.O K hear is the edit:- the mission is not ok it is kin A1, brill ,ace, excellent, i personaly have not enjoyed such a mission for a long time! I got to the top of the hill were their is an option to capture the two officers the phone rings and (i'am not tellin you)

[Tannethal 0]

To be honest i haven't tested that mission yet but just the review of macguba was worth the visit of this thread, that sure as hell was entertaining. If it helped to improve the mission so much the better. Will see after i tried it out.

S!

[macguba 0]

The new version is noticeably better. I tried it and gave comments directly since I happened to be chatting to Tyger at the time. New version needs a proper playthrough though - I just had a look in the mission editor.

[Mamba Six 11]

<s>Body Grab v0.95 updated is now up here.

Also, I removed the "prim.pbo" requirements. It was irrelevant and it was an auto-addon.</s>

EDIT: I spoke to fast.

I actually just discovered that "Primitiva" is a barrel replacement. There's no difference in between it and the "Barrels" under the Empty-Objects menu. Also, that mission still requires the prim.pbo addon. The true and manually fixed one will be up as soon as it uploads.  

[Mamba Six 11]

@Actionman

Yes i was waiting for someone to find that . Glad you enjoyed it.

About prim.pbo... That is kind of strange . Don't know where I got it or why, but it's not needed anymore. Thanks for the help.

@Tannethal

Anything Mac says is entertaining Even when he's raving mad and yelling at you best he can over MSN, is bloody hilarious

[Mamba Six 11]

Here it is. Body Grab v0.95

[macguba 0]

Quote[/b] ]Anything Mac says is entertaining Even when he's raving mad and yelling at you best he can over MSN, is bloody hilarious

I aim to please.

[mattxr 9]

JAM3 is available now

[Placebo 29]

On the way to adding the latest release to the new FlashNews I uplaoded it to another mirror site to be safe......

http://www.savefile.com/files2.php?fid=9874205

[Mamba Six 11]

Thanks Placebo

'Nother update (with picture) to come within a few days though.

Next version will just have a few minor tweaks.