EDF: Invasion

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Incoming! <Ducks>

30/3/06 - 2300hrs.

CAMERONMCDONALD BETA TEST INC.

*EDF INVASION*

BY XCESS

SYSTEM TESTED ON:

3.94GHz P4 - 6410 OFP Benchmark.

2048MB DDR2 RAM.

256MB ASUS GeForce 6800GTO (overclocked to God-Knows-What), ZGO 84.25 (Forceware) Drivers

Soundblaster Audigy Z2 w. 5.1 speaker setup.

OFP SETTINGS:

DXDLL (Set for best picture quality, reflections on, etc etc.)

ECP 1.085e

CAM DSAI Extension V1.1 (coming soon! )

Material Properties Addon

WGL Texture Replacement Pack

WGL Nature Replacement Pack

Berghoff Nordic

INGAME SETTINGS:

Veteran Mode - All options disabled except crosshair and Super AI.

2070m Visual Distance

Visual quality to full

Frame rate to full.

1280 x 1024 x 32 Resolution.

.005 LODS on objects + shadows

BETA TEST BEGINS

-- SPOILERS BELOW --

- Overview:

That's a bloody nice picture, XCess. I will be pestering you to make some for my FacePlant campaign, once I get around to it. As others have mentioned, a border would make it perfect, but no gripes from me, it's certainly excellent.

- Intro:

A decent effort, not too bad. I like the first flying-over-the-island-bit, but keep the camera off the ground so it's not a sliding-over-the-island-with-a-small-bit-of-the-camera-underground-bit - that can detract from the mission's professionalism. It might take a bit more effort on your part, but I'm sure it won't hurt the mission at all.

Music is suitable (another nod to Didart), but the intro itself is a bit plain - wouldn't the Russian invasion force be bigger than one BMP (though I thought I saw a T72 somewhere - how about some choppers, trucks, tents, troops and more tanks when we first see that BMP)? The fighting was a little bit bland, as well, with the entire conflict ending after one shot (PG9 from the BMP into the EDF truck) - how about a little bit more gunfire from both sides? Otherwise it looks like one of those funny medieval warfare battle reenactments - a whole lot of people running around.

May I once again underline the importance of custom voices - titletext just doesn't do it for anyone (well, not for me ). There are also two sentences you should change in the big titletext narration at the end of the intro:

1. These men, with limited weapons and equipment, and no contact with the outside world, have made landfall on a small island south of Everon and plan their attack.

-> Poor wording, change it to this:

These men, with limited weapons and equipment, and no contact with the outside world, have made landfall on a small island south of Everon. Here, they are planning a counterattack.

2. About 60 men of the EDF made it off of the island alive.

-> You don't get "off of" something - NEVER! Try this:

About 60 men of the EDF made it off the island alive.

- Briefing:

Ah, good to see you've added one. The objectives portion was good, BIS-like and straight to the point. Kudos. However, there is no "evac" objective - I was quite surprised to find that marker on the map, without an objective underpinning its existence. Another point, radio equipment should not have capitals (unless it's a person or town - "Everon, with its capital city Radio Equipment, is a large island...") <- Just playing around.

My main (and not very big) complaint here is in the notes. Spotted one small grammatical error - "he get's killed" should be "he gets killed." One or two spacing errors as well.

The main point I wish to put on the table is that when people are writing in a diary (to themselves), they don't write like they are speaking. If I were to read the notes out loud to someone else, it'd sound fine. However, people usually do not add "..." (and it's three fullstops, not two) to written text, unless of course they are quoting someone else. I'm a bit of a perfectionist as far as briefings go (I believe they should be something every (English-speaking) mission maker can do well), so I think your notes should read like this:

I can't believe these last few days. Brian was sent to Morton to check out reports coming from residents in Morton about helicopters flying around at night - something we don't usually have in Everon. Then, he gets killed. We got a radio transmission from him saying they were under heavy fire by two squads and some armor. We never heard from him again. An hour later the Russians had control of most of the island - we had to evacuate. Four squads managed to get away to an island to the south. Well, I guess I've got to go. We think they have radio equipment in Morton, which we need to destroy. Damn, I hope I survive this.

I apologise again for my anal-retentiveness, it's just they way I am (and I am beta-testing this, so there - some bonafide beta-testing! ) Let's get onto the mission...

- Mission:

As before, nice RSC at the start of the mission. Intro script runs well, but I'm still suffering from a teeny stutter during the blackout phase of the cutscene, but examining your script, I'm not sure what it is - doesn't detract from my enjoyment, though.

Nice lil' conversation at the beginning, however, the officer would probably say "So much for getting in undetected," he wouldn't groupchat it, seeing as his troops are <2m away. Not a major problem, again. Boat drops us off nice and easily, good inclusion of a savegame at this point (though I might ask you to put it when the player has left the boat, for the sake of continuity).

The combination of a nasty BMP's PKT and some good ole mortars rips my squad (and me) to shreds about 5 times, before those LAW soldiers get their acts together and hit the APC once, spalling the BMP's gunner into oblivion. 3 of us left, a machinegunner, a rifleman and me. I hide behind some corpses and pick off the mechanised squad looking to catch us in enfilade from the east and north. All 3 of us survive - phew! I decide it's a good time for a savegame.

After whacking an erstwhile Russian wandering around on the ridge, I grab an RPG from a long dead Ruskie and KO the disabled BMP (easy kills - woot! ). The three of us head up towards the forest rendezvous, only to be pinned (again) by a Russian squad set up in the valley to the northeast. My leader (the rifleman) takes a bullet to the chest (KIA), I cop one in the arm, and I gain command - Operation Turnaround begins! After a quick RPG snapshot through the trees, wasting the enemy squad's machinegunner and RPG grenadier, I take cover near the edge of the forest. True to my style, I plant the machinegunner prone and stationary near a small knoll with excellent fields of fire, with orders to smear anyone coming into the forest. I cover his right (eastern) flank with my M16A1.

I tell you, sometimes the AI are my best friend - this lone machinegunner wasted that entire Russian squad (I got one :S ), so surely he deserves the EDF Not-So-Congressional Medal of Honour, or whatever medal they have. And here, I must comment again on the wonderful ECP effects, especially DSAI ([hijack] in my DSAI update, v1.1, the Russians WHISPER a lot when they are in combat - it's so bloody scary hearing these Reds whispering as they crawl through the forest after us! [\hijack]). Lying shoulder to shoulder, I binoc the area so we can be sure of safe progress to the rendezvous. From here on in, things become insanely easy.

Being lazy (I could see the waypoint on my map - yippee! ) I send my machinegunner to the waypoint, where Bravo shows up in one 'o them rad Kias. Nice scripting there, but I'd advise you NOT to deletevehicle the Kia, seeing as I was standing 2m away, and it was quite funny to see it vanish into thin air. Just lock it, or remove its fuel, if you must. A truck of motorised infantry started meandering out of Morton up the road near us - thinking quickly, I shoulder my RPG and launch a PG7 into the cab from 300 metres - ah, the ECP explosion was sweet, another 10 or so kills to me. One soldier escapes the carnage but is bowled over by my 2 PK gunners.

At this time, I get pissed off at that Mi17 flying around. After firing and missing with my RPG, I grab a PK, head to the nearest hill and shot it down (it actually had a tail rotor failure, but both the pilot and gunner died). After clearing the wreckage, I found another 4 PG7s and headed back to my squad, overwatching Morton to the west. From the forest, I told my team to stay prone, and set them up around the shed just west of Morton (slightly south of the road). The Russian infantry squads in the town had a couple of potshots, but noone died (mostly because 2 PK gunners on my team removed their Soviet heads from their shoulders). Rather than risking my pretty EDF skin getting the explosives from the ammo trucks, I RPG'd the all to bits from 150 metres - mission accomplished.

- Outro:

The outro was "in" the mission, as a direct continuation. I thought it odd that all the Russians in the town I had left alive were suddenly gone, but I have a (crappy) idea for how you can fix this - instead of using the Kia (though I hate to see it go), put Bravo in a P3S (so everyone can fit in at the end), and lock it when they disembark (somewhere out of the line of fire, of course). Then, you can make the cutscene revolve around the EDF group running WEST away from Morton, back to the truck, and then outta there, because it doesn't make sense that the whole town should be clear if the trucks are blown up - you didn't make a "clear the town" objective, and shouldn't heavy armored reinforcements be showing up any second on a Russian held island?

Also, make the Spetsnaz place the bomb using sp1 fire [''Put'', ''Pipebomb''] (this method will also prevent you from having to camcreate a satchel charge on the road) - switchmove looks crappy. Either that or use playmove. A solid ending, I reckon - but please, next time, make the mission end! I had to abort, in the end, and didn't get to see how high my score was (somewhere in the uber-thousands, I reckon ). You want the command "endgame."

COMMENTS:

An entertaining effort, XCess, certainly an improvement over your previous beta (no beach crawling this time - though I was tempted). I compliment the inclusion of HD weapons - so so SO much more realistic than "holyshitIcanhitsomeonefrom500mwithanironsightedrifle" crap. This said, the mission still needs a touch of polishing. Be warned, if you release this mission without custom voices, I will personally come over to wherever your folks live and say an expletive, then claim you told me to do it (bet you're trembling in your boots now!

On a more serious note, it's a lot more playable than last time, and I look forward to any more missions you release (not that you should suddenly stop work on this one! )

ADVICE:

- Fix briefing errors.

- Spice up intro a little (get a bit of gunsmoke into ya! )

- McCustom voices (or else...)

- Smaller Russian groups (3 - 5 troops each). Smaller groups = more spontaneity, more possible positioning, more fun for player, yadayadayada. Split that large group in the valley up, and give one of the smaller groups static waypoints near cover, while the others can be patrolling the road, or something like that.

- Modify end cutscene to not have EDF dudes running through Morton like they own the place.

- IMPORTANT: I think you should incorporate a time-related factor to this mission. Being on hostile territory, surely the EDF troops can expect heavy armor to come and whoop their asses if they don't fade out by, say, 10 minutes? Have a T80 and/or a T72 waiting in Figari, and when the player's time is up? Ah shit, an MBT heads to Morton, and mission failed (don't fail the mission until the tank(s) have reached Morton, and if the trucks aren't blown up by that time). I'm fairly sure this would give a nice sense of desperation to the mission.

Until next time, happy editing!

BETA TEST ENDS

[XCess 0]

Thanks for the test Cameron, very useful

I'll see what I can do with the intro. I'll definately put a t72 or two into the fight, and send another EDF squad or two into there. maybe show some more fighting across the whole island.

Definately can't change the savegame point otherwise the mortarswill kill your squad. Every time.

Will also change the storyline text to tahoma font, and implement your suggestions into the writing.

Briefing was totally last minute. Do youthink I should keep it BIS style or add sub sections?

Will change "so much for getting undetected" to text (most of this text will be replaced with tahoma, I hate the titletext font)

Will switch the KIA for a PV3S.. and I might extend the mission a bit for the player to leave the area. Once the player has left then the endscene will play out the same.

Will definately add one t72 and perhaps a t80 that come searching after 10 minutes. But I don't think I'll include a mission end.. I've always hated them. I'll let the player try and complete the missionm with the tanks around

I'm thinking of adding a tail rotor failure to the mi17 as standard, about 3-4 mnutes into the game.

Will spread the groups out a bit more like you said.

Thanks for the test cameron Just the kind of beta test I was lookin for.

[456820 0]

Quote[/b] ]The artillerry is generated randomly by a script. I could widen the fire zone though.

mmm i would make use of the coc artillery cause we have to download it for the soldiers but its not used maybe change the bombardemant at the begning to a COC arty style?

[XCess 0]

You don't need CoC for EDF Plus I don'twant the player to be killed by arty. If you react quick enough you'll be fine.

[456820 0]

thats what it says here

Quote[/b] ]Besides JAM3 you also need COC Unified Artillery to run this addon

qouted from the official thread

[XCess 0]

Strange, cos I don't have CoC in my addons folder anywhere.

[456820 0]

very strange.

Anyway im having a little trouble with my ofp so im going to try reinstalling and some other things to solve my problem and then ill try to test the mission again

[XCess 0]

Thanks, 456820. Have fun with the mmission

**edit**

I had to reinstall windows yesterday, and now I have the face texture problem. Very strange hat it didn't happen on my old windows install and now it does.

Hope it's fixed with the next version of the EDF by Ironsight.

[Serclaes 0]

First of all very good mission. As Cameron McDonald already mentionnned every little bugs/errors/however you call it i will only tell my impressions.

I agree with Cameron that the Briefing/notes part could be better.

Then, the mortar shelling is too dense. It should be a bit wider scattered with less rounds.

Its hard enough for AI to kill that damn BMP. I have a bit the feeling as if this is due to the soldier config. Well, and if the LAW operator gets killed, which is highly probable to happen due to the arty, you're dead too.

There are 2 major points why this is a good mission :

First the player is always invovlved in firefights. But the russian squad coming out of the woods in your back is evil

Second because its short. I dont like missions where you have to play for hours. Its boring after a while, no matter how excellent the mission is.

So the only that would need to be "fixed" is the landing phase. If you avoid frustration at the beginning you can be sure the mission will be played to the end by everybody.

[XCess 0]

Thanks for the comments Serclaes. I think I'll increase the distance on the mortars, lower the amount slightly and make the interval between rounds slightly higher.

I'm thinking of maybe using the reveal command on the bmp.. might make the LAW soldiers kill it bit quicker.

As I said before, the briefing was very last minute. There will certainly be a new briefing in the next version of the mission.

Still need voice actors

[-Snafu- 77]

Download link doesn't work.

[XCess 0]

***EDIT** ok the forums didn't like that link..

Thry this

D/l link at the bottom of the page.

Seems to work for me on the tk site hough.. sometimes links don't work for a couple of mins.. it's a hosting issue I believe.

[-Snafu- 77]

Great mission it's the best i have played in a while. Nice site too.

[XCess 0]

thanks

[XCess 0]

As Invasion part 1 is nearing it's development completion, I have started writing a design document on Invasion part 2.

I am looking for people to help me develop the ideas in Invasion Part 2, and so have created a hidden board on my forums at xcessofp. If you are interested in helping the design process in Invasion 2, and later possibly beta testing the mission please apply to join the "Invasion Team" user group on my forums.

There will ofcourse be limited space on the design team so please apply quickly if you wish to be a part of it.

[POPKA 0]

XCess I have uploaded your Misson onto my FTP so there will be a faster download than freewebs:

Download Link

[XCess 0]

Thanks POPKA, appreciated muchly

Have you played the mission?

[POPKA 0]

Yeah i have i gave it a go right after i uploaded it. I have to say this is a pretty fun mission, anyway im going to list some things i think need to be dealt with:

-Overview

The main problem with this is the picture has no boarder, just a little shading and an alpha channel would make it look neater, and maybe a bit more explenation, its good enough though.

-Briefing

The briefing has all of the information required, the only problem is that it is not paragraphed, if it is put into paragraphs it will make it easier to read

-Mission

The mission was great fun, there were no real problems i saw. When i played it Vitually all of my squad was wiped out at the beggining, only one guy was left apart from me but his legs were injured so i had to "let him out of his misery" so to say so i could get on with the mission. I killed 20 odd men while searching for some binoculars, destroyed the bmp with an RPG, almost got killed a number of times but remained unscaved.

I ran out of ammo in my m16 and couldnt find any more so i ended up picking up an ak74 which was a big mistake as it was a High dispersian Jam one (making aiming practically impossible), 2 or 3 squads of enemys suddenly appeared in some trucks in the distance so i went back to my usual tactic of running away and hiding in a bush. Until i noticed that i had 5 new men in my squad, anyway i quickly dealt with they squads, moved into the town, killed all the defenders and destroyed the Urals.

The end was good as it left the mission on a cliff hanger, when you expect the mission to be over it opens the way for a whole new escape style mission.

I'd also like to say that you have a good use of CutRsc's in this mission for the intro

[rainbow 0]

I can't run this campaign.

When i run campaign then i have error communication:

Edit:

LoL, i put mission file into campaigns folder. Mission run now.

[POPKA 0]

it is a mission only

[XCess 0]

EDF: INVASION v1.2B

RELEASED

Download:

bottom of page

Quite a few improvements on the last version, new briefing, improved intro, new ending etc

Hopefully this is the last version... but probably not

Still need voice actors *hint*

**EDIT**

Uploaded an updated version which fixes a few issues with v1.2b

[CameronMcDonald 146]

I'm on it, maestro.

[XCess 0]

sweett

can't wait for the review *waits impatiently*

[XCess 0]

EDF: Invasion v1.22b

There were a few bugs in Invasion v1.21 (outro not working properly, typos) So I've uploaded a new version (1.22) to my freewebs site.

version history

v1.00b

- First Version

v1.20b

- Fixed typos

- Added fight sequence to intro

- New briefing

- Added t72 and more opposition

- Changed end

- Adjusted outro to fit new ending

- Changed text to tahoma font

v1.21b

- Adjusted one message

- Fixed more typos

v1.22b

- Fixed outro (non moving truck)

- Moved Urals foward to stop player destroying them at long range

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Ah crap, another version! OK, take 2 on that "I'm on it."