Abandoned Armies 1.4

[thobson 38]

A few months ago a beta version of Abandoned Armies was prematurely released into the wild, well I have now finished it and it is finally ready for the public. ***

If anyone is interested <s>it is available from the ofpec site here</s>

EDIT 12 February 2006:

The ofpec site is down so the above link will not work. Get it here instead

Edit October 2006:

OFPEC is now back so you can get it here and read the OFPEC review

There have been many improvements and fixes since the earlier beta version. ***I hope some of you like it.

Edited February 14, 2010 by THobson

[.kju 3244]

cheers

i played some beta way back. impressive stuff here

[thobson 38]

Well I hope you enjoy it.  If you had commented on it you could have had your name in the list of beta testers, and you must admit that at one letter you don't take up much room

There are two ways to see that list.  

The easy one is to look in the readme file.

The hardest is to finish the mission!!

Best of luck

[ebud 18]

Before I restart that mission, are there any incompatibilities that you know of with running it under ECP or FFUR?

[thobson 38]

This is a relevant extract from the readme file included in the download:

Quote[/b] ]Addons:

(ECP, FlashFX, SkyPack etc.)

If you are using ECP:

This mission includes a custom script to give a realistic burn to vehicles (thanks to Babalon).  This code is not added to vehicles if ECP is running.

I do not use ECP, FlashFX, SkyPack or any other similar addon so I have not personally tested the mission with any of these.  Several of the beta testers were using these addons and from their reports it seems that ECP 1.071 & FlashFX do cause the large savegame bug to occur with this mission.  If you are using these addons then I assume you are familiar with this bug.

Users of SkyPack found that the rain enhancements provided by that addon reduces visibility in this mission to an unacceptable level.

On that basis my advice is not to use ECP, FlashFX, SkyPack or any similar addon enhancements.  This mission was written with the editor upgrade as the only addon.  To use any other addon could result in you playing a mission different from the one I intended you to play, possibly with significantly lower visibility.

Update for ECP 1.085:

ECP 1.085 was released while this mission was in the late stages of beta testing.  Early indications are that ECP 1.085 does not cause the large savegame bug to occur with this mission. I cannot comment on whether it changes the effective visibility when there is rain or fog so the comment above still applies.

I would add that the beta testers using ECP 1.085 reported no problems subsequently, and in fact seemed to enjoy the experience. I have no information on FFUR I am afraid.

[Daniel 0]

Wow, finally finished it Thobson?

I'll have to try the finished masterpiece.

[bonko the sane 2]

ditto, i played a beta version of it and IMO its a landmark in missionmaking and gaming experience.

cant wait to try the final

[sanctuary 19]

In the readme.txt , if you follow the link to download General Barron Editor Upgrade , depending on your security settings , you maybe not able to download it from OFPEC that will consider you are direct linking.

If you are in that case, use this link instead

http://www.ofpec.com/editors/resource_view.php?id=612

then download it from this page and not directly with the link from the readme.

[thobson 38]

Sanctuary.  

Thank you.  I just tested from my office PC and it fails in the way you describe. This must be a recent change - or maybe I neglected to test it from my office before. Damn it!

Thank you for posting the link.  Be sure and use General Baron's Editor Upgrade not one of the others.  That is the one it was tested with.

[CAS] Daniel:

Yes finally, and I have been working on it all that time.

[Nemesis6 0]

I can't see how FlashFX could trigger the oh-so-dreaded savegame bug... it's simply not made like ECP is(no global variables whatsoever for example... as far as I can remember, that is.)

[thobson 38]

Quote[/b] ]I can't see how FlashFX could trigger the oh-so-dreaded savegame bug... it's simply not made like ECP is(no global variables whatsoever for example... as far as I can remember, that is.)

I have no experience of it. I can only go by what the beta testers told me.

[Nemesis6 0]

Are you sure they didn't mean FFUR? Regular FlashFX doesn't have any features of ECP other than the stuff that I stole after maniacally laughing. Even then I'm sure there's nothing that could interfere with the OFP engine. Oh well, looking forward to trying out the mission.

[thobson 38]

Quote[/b] ]In the readme.txt , if you follow the link to download General Barron Editor Upgrade , depending on your security settings , you maybe not able to download it from OFPEC that will consider you are direct linking.

If you are in that case, use this link instead

http://www.ofpec.com/editors/resource_view.php?id=612

then download it from this page and not directly with the link from the readme.

Okay I have uploaded a new version with the corrected reference in the readme file.  The link above will take you to the new version.

Quote[/b] ]Are you sure they didn't mean FFUR? Regular FlashFX doesn't have any features of ECP other than the stuff that I stole after maniacally laughing. Even then I'm sure there's nothing that could interfere with the OFP engine. Oh well, looking forward to trying out the mission.

They said FlashFX.

[Pathy 0]

Nice, i never got very far in 1.3, but i'm going to give this a proper go this time and get it done. From what i played of 1.3 i was very very impressed.

I'll be back in a few days *cancels all meal breaks ect, locks himself in his room, and loads ofp*  

Edit: Havent played it yet, but i'm marking it down 1 point if it doesnt have music with bagpipes in. All missions from now on should have them. (decreed)

[Sabin Stargem 0]

Pretty good so far, but I have noticed a bug. I was attempting to clear Dourdan of soldiers and the local jeep patrol, when I have noticed something: The enemy didn't attack one of my soldiers who was sitting in my police jeep at the time...a relief, since I don't have to bother with moving the guy and jeep away from Dourdan. This bug can occur multiple times.

[thobson 38]

Quote[/b] ]The enemy didn't attack one of my soldiers who was sitting in my police jeep at the time...

This is a bug in Flashpoint itself.  It is often possible with the right vehicle to safely drive around killing soldiers, especially if it is dark and/or the visibility is low.  The soldiers just ignore you as you drive over them and their team mates.  This applies to any mission.  I have gone some way to fixing the problem in this mission - it is now dangerous and unpredictable for the player to do this, but I made no attempt to do anything about the AI behaviour if the player is not in a vehicle but one of his team is.  There has to be a limit to the cpu resources that I consume on issues like this.

This is just a feature of the FlashPoint that we all love - but perhaps never fully noticed before.

Bye the way I have only ever noticed infantry making this mistake.  Armour units get you every time.

Just pretent that the soldiers were fooled and didn't recognise your guy for what he really was - such things do happen.

[Placebo 29]

Congrats on finishing it, good job

[thobson 38]

Thank you. I had a very gratifying response from the beta testers. I now wait with baited breath for the response of everyone else.

[xawery 0]

Hi THobson,

When I read about your mission being released, I simply had to have it - it is exactly what I have been looking for since I've reinstalled OFP. A dynamic, yet not completely random mission, with a plot and a lot of freedom. Excellent!

Before playing the mission I read the Read Me, thoroughly. Usually, read me's are pretty brief, containing only installation instructions and credits. Yours was quite the opposite: well-written and exhaustive. Every aspect I might have had questions about was covered. It is not often that you see properly written and spelled read me's. Well done!

Now to the mission itself. Point one: performance. The first time I gave it a try was with ECP running. It was slightly sluggish at the beginning and only got worse as more soldiers appeared on screen. I then restarted the mission in combination with FFUR, but the resultant lag was even worse. I was thus forced to run Abandoned Armies on plain vanilla OFP, with the unsightly models and the utterly horrible sounds. The fact that this did not stop me from enjoying the mission is a statement in itself!

Let's move on to the gameplay. You really managed to create the right atmosphere. Sneaking through the bushes, while the reddish glow of the rising sun illuminates the clouds in the east... Silhouettes of unknown soldiers appearing in the thick fog... Outstanding! I am only in the early stages of the mission, but the atmosphere is definitely set. The large amount of cutscenes certainly helps (although the voiceacting is, if you don't mind me saying so, somewhat cheesy at times). The squad management function is an excellent idea! Not only does it give you perfect control over the composition of your squad, it also makes your squad members seem like real people, with their own desires, fears, etc. It reminds of Jagged Alliance II, really.

As far as I can tell, this is a great mission. Truly a unique experience. To be quite frank, I think this is what the OFP:R campaign should have been like. THobson, thanks for this great little gift!

[thobson 38]

Thank you so much.  I really appreciate your comments.  Your reaction is exactly the one I hoped the mission would create.  I hope you continue to feel that way as things progress.

Voice acting: well we did our best, but we are not profesisonal actors.

[l etranger 5]

I m stuck near the Uncle mountain house, i keep getting killed in jeep, if i quit it, i still be killed, but i get killed by noone, i can't dodge, i can't hide. I just die without fireshot

Help

The missions seem very good so far, but i don't see anything with this rain and hard fog (i m using llaumax sky).

[LoTekK 0]

@L'etranger:

From the first page of this thread, as well as from the readme that came with the mission:

Quote[/b] ]Users of SkyPack found that the rain enhancements provided by that addon reduces visibility in this mission to an unacceptable level.

[thobson 38]

L etranger:

You should also be getting some warning messages telling you to halt. If you ignore them you must understand how some nervous frightened people would deal with you.

[LoTekK 0]

Oh, if you still want to use one of the high res sky packs, you can delete the desta01-04 files from the newdata folder before running the install.bat. That will keep the default BIS rain textures while using the high res skies (as well as whatever else you put in there).

THobson, I have to say, this is one amazing mission. I haven't gotten very far yet (I'm currently trying to find the old man's mountain house), but it's super tense. I do have to admit being incredibly annoyed about the initial trek up the cliff, though.

Some things, though. I'm not sure if I maybe didn't hit a trigger I was supposed to, or maybe there was something in the intro that I forgot about, but I initially found the first encounter very confusing. I was expecting to find the old man and talk to him, but got shot with no warning. Then I shot the girl. It was really really dark, so I couldn't actually see, and I certainly wasn't expecting a non-combatant after all that shooting. Maybe for future endeavors you could consider some internal monologue? I'm not a huge fan of trial and error in situations like this.

Otherwise, thumbs up for such an incredibly ambitious project, and for completing it. Wish I had gotten back into Flashpoint earlier to help out with the beta testing. Cheers!

edit:

Scratch that. I only thought I was looking for the cabin. Turns out I first have to concentrate on getting out of Vigny in one piece first. Once again, thumbs up for some great work. I'm having a hell of a time evading the soldiers because they're constantly on the move. That alone is upping the tension level immeasurably. I'm just glad I ran into a nearby ruin for a breather before I quit last night after the first in-mission cutscene.

[thobson 38]

LoTekK:

One piece of advice: Don’t play this mission as if it were a normal OFP mission. Play it as if you were young inexperienced and on your own facing an army of soldiers.

In other words: run like hell.

If you stay in Vigny you will die there – the same applies to anywhere where you might think of lingering. Eventually you will be swamped by overwhelming force.