Abandoned Armies 1.4

[thobson 38]

An Abrams as well!!  I take it the choppers are now gone.

Quote[/b] ]Need I search his soldiers all over the island and hunt them down?

Extract from the readme file:

Quote[/b] ]EndGame:

It is big map so how do you find all the enemies?  Well you just need to know where to look.  Under certain conditions a script will begin running that will move all units to random locations in and around their base and another script will run that will ensure that as they take casualties small groups join together to form larger ones.  So during the final stages of the destruction of one side look for survivors in their base, eventually that is where they will be.  Don't worry, you don't have to kill every single one, just do them enough damage and they will give up and either surrender or run away.

[Laahustaja 0]

Nice if they could surrender to me. I want to get prisoners, not kill them all!

[thobson 38]

If anyone is interested in downloading the mission while ofpec is down I have set up a new download file that has been updated to include GB's Editor Upgrade.  The link can be found in the very first post of this thread and in my signature below.

I am going to be away for a while.  I hope you all have fun.  I intend to.

[Laahustaja 0]

Copleted today. Was maybe best missions what I have ever played. The ending was cool, Odle for Joy was great choise for ending music. Starting with poor band and leading it to a tank army... Played over 6 hours, very long mission but it was quality time, not rubbish. Very impressive!

[thobson 38]

I am glad you liked it. 6 hours is very quick. Did you find everything though

[william1 0]

Hi, i have started playing this misson after reading all the mates comments and i didn't know what i was getting lost , i had no idea that it could be done such wonders with OFP it is a totally new concept of mission , the cutscenes are top notch , the story is great , the dialogs , the details ... you are an artist man !

there is only one thing that i could say in against , the high resources demanding it is , i only can play with ofp without addons because my computer is not that powerful , but is worthy to play nevertheless

thanks

[thobson 38]

I am so glad you like it. It took me quite a long time to make.

Playing without addons is safest anyway. Many addons that 'improve' the sky and rain effect can actually reduce visibility to nil. The previous version of ECP would also cause the large savegame bug, but the latest version of ECP appears to be okay. Also if you just put you addons into the addon folder then you can cause a significant deterioration in performance for all your missions, even those that don't use the addons. I give instructions in the readme file about how to deal with this.

[Connors 0]

I like this mission very much THobson, i played most of the older versions, when this was being beta tested (i never posted a report through ) and this makes a lot of nice improvments on what was already a great mission

[thobson 38]

Well thank you so much. It is a pity you diddn't post report you would have had your name in the list of beta testers.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Great job mate, great job. Oh, and the voices are quite good! Usually in a mission of this length, they stink - but I like them. Not too much bground static.

And the accent of the woman who plays Tatiana is H O T! (I'm a Aussie myself - wish I could have a Russian accent, but what can you do?) I think I might steal her voicebox and inplant it on my girlfriend...

[thobson 38]

Glad you like it. That's my 17 year old daughter you are talking about mate. Her boyfriend plays Yuri Visek so he would be after you.

[heklos 0]

Just joined, and had to post in here.

I have been following OFP off and on for years now. This by far is the best single mission I have ever had the pleasure to play. At first I was not sure, but when it all of a sudden hit me that it was so free-form, I was surprised. It really does feel like your fighting a guerilla war.

Every ambush is as intense as the last. The feeling of being surrounded is complete. I had always been annoyed in respect to OFP having all these towns and villages, but there was never anyone there. Your mission shows, that with a proper storyline it does become believable. When I read in the readme about the AP/AV mines I wasn't too impressed, until I got to the point in game where I could use them. Just the fact that you could use various ammunition types to create these AV mines brought the environment that one step closer to reality. After that I was impressed. Very impressed.

As a diehard OFPfanboy since the demo release, I have to say that this mission has the potential of being a classic.

It is a required download and play as far as I am concerned.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Forgive me, mate. Hope I didn't insult you there. I really oughta be more polite!

[karantan 0]

Damn, I knowed it's a benefit for OFP mission maker, if he have some 'adults' in the familly! My wife don't want even to hear about doing some voice acting (she's to shy and looks on all this 'OFP thing' as a childlish), and I'm desperate for a female voice for my next project! Well, it seems I'll have to use some syntetic voice. Or I'll wait for my daughter to grow up; she's 3 now.

Lucky you, TH!

[CameronMcDonald 146]

My girlfriend laughed at me, and told me to use my own voice so she could laugh at me some more. <sniff>

She's a funny one!

[thobson 38]

heklos:  So glad you like it.

Cameron: No offence taken

Karantan:  Synthetic voices are crap.  It really does pay to preserve and get some real voices

I am getting very few reports of people finishing the mission, it only seems like Laahustaja so far.

[karantan 0]

Well, regarding me; I've putted your mission aside, until I completely cast out the demons (mission ideas) which are haunting me. No worries here, the mission will be still there, on my HD ...

Don't worry, the people are finishing your mission. But there's 'nothing much' to report, except they've just played a masterpiece. But they've already told you this in their first report.

P.S.: Oh, just one thing; it's a shame you've used an 'official' flags (Albanian and Bosnian ...), not customly maded. But I should mention this during the beta testing, haven't I?

P.P.S.:About the voice: I've found quite a nice female syntetic voice, and with the right manipulating it sounds quite 'natural'. Beside, it's kind of OK if she will sounded a bit emotionless; it's a negative character after all! But if by chance it will not works, I can still later add her the balls and ...

[thobson 38]

Quote[/b] ]Don't worry, the people are finishing your mission. But there's 'nothing much' to report, except they've just played a masterpiece. But they've already told you this in their first report

Well.  Thank you for that comment, I do appreciate it and I was not fishing for compliments.  What I really had in mind was this:  

There are a lot of ways that this mission can be played successfully to the end, some players will miss a lot and some will not.  What I am interested in for example is:

- did you find the third group of civilians? Fourth? Fifth? Sixth? ….?

- did you make use of (did you even find) the second living (as opposed to the one dead) medic?

- did you find the ill woman?  How ill was she? What happened to her family? Her parents? Her?

- did you understand what was going on at La Trinite?  All of it?  Are you sure?

- did you understand the role of the choppers (apart from beating the shit out of the opposition)?

- How much did Ruslan really not want to go back to Vigny?

- Etc. etc.

It is perfectly possible to complete the mission with all objectives ticked and get a well done at the end but to have no clue about any of the above.  I am just interested in how many of these people came across and understood, or was I just wasting my time putting them in.

Obviously comments about any of these things would need to be coded to avoid creating a spoiler for others - but the lack of any even oblique references makes me wonder if any of it was found.

[karantan 0]

Yea, I know you're not a fisherman. To 're-confident' you let me put it like this:

- if only one of all the players that will-have play your mission will-have found that ill woman for instance ... then you didn't waste your time,

- if none will not find her ... then you didn't waste your time.

I hope you've putted something like a little 'hint' in the readme about the replaybility level of this mission..

[su27 0]

Looks very interesting - an ofp with some rpg. But...

First, an error, every time:

Then:

test1, test2, test3: FFUR - massive lag (for the first time, didn't experienced lag with ffur before, even with 1680x1050 resolution, 4xAA, wgl islands+nordic trees), unable to play

test4, test5, test6: ECP+DMA Army - massive lag sometimes, everything around stops, retry last savegame helps, i'm able to save civilians but nothing happens when i get them to the lodge (2 times)

You know, after several years playing ofp I don't want to play with original crappy units with their original crappy guns...

tests 7-10: Pure OFP with and without DMA Army - shots from nowhere kill me every time i try to climb the cliff at the beginning of the mission

I'm giving up. I become nervous...

EDIT: You should consider redoing your mission using DAC which gives you excellent control over dynamic spawning and behaviour of enemy without lag

[major grunt 0]

After being told to read the README, I cleaned up my Level 1.96 to a pristine original and the mission played very well. (Engineers don't read instructions until there is an explosion or at least smoke.) The point is that addons and mods can interfere with one another to make the mission fail. This is a great mission that reflects many of the dark and heavy aspects of actual armed conflicts. A variety of action is possible depending on the player's actions. The overall scenario of anarchy following a global holocaust is well done. Including the end where the islanders have won by defeating their combined enemies but have most likely lost since the chance of survival on the island in the up coming winter is extremely poor. As I told Trevor, I am glad that ofp does not have children or old people because this mission could be even more oppressive to anyone with a modicum of sensibilities. The variability of the play makes this a mission one can play several times without being bored.

[su27 0]

As I said, i was trying with pure ofp, without addons. No luck

I get the northbox error and something kills me everytime i try to climb the cliff.

[major grunt 0]

Su27: I had numerous wierd errors when I started also and Trevor gave me the the following sites to so that I could make sure my ofp 1.96 ws pristine. :

http://andrew.nf/OFP/BedtimeReading/modfolders.htm

http://andrew.nf/OFP/BedtimeReading/PristineAddons.htm

The other adice I got included downloading a fresh copy of the mission and worst of all re=loading OFP entirely. Once I cleared everything out except the "pristineaddons" the misson worked great with no lag and no other bugs per se. Hope this helps.

[su27 0]

You won't believe... I can't believe myself...

I had "worlds" folder instead of "Worlds". Changing one letter changed everything. Veeery strange...

SPOILERS BELOW!

You have been warned...

Anyway. The mission is great. I have now the russian guy and the medic in my team. I was in La Trinite... damn, those wolves, it is scary... I know about convoys and choppers. Rescued 2 groups of civs and now i'm going to Dourdan for a girl.

I haven't felt this way for a long time. During one or two hours of playing i felt real fear, loneliness, a strange feeling that not everything is what it looks like, and the feeling of hope i'm giving to my fighters and civilians. The mission is just amazing

[Connors 0]

Yeah, i didnt quite find out but i guessed about the convoys, bacicly i was using ffur 2005 and i fired a shot at a truck a la trinitate and i hit it only just getting out with my life, when i got back, well

SPOLIERS BELOW

I managed to start a  war