Dolores (miss2) is very very broken

[MrPing1000 0]

Trying to do this mission =

Under the bridge to put down the satchel charges at the supports however at random times objective complete will appear and i will drop everything I'm holding, this being my rifle and usually a few satchel charges. I cannot pick them up again.

It seems to be fairly random when this occurs, although it seems to happen most often when I've just put 2 down at the first support which if I blow don't damage the bridge at all.

Exercise in frustration

[Fred DM 0]

odd. can you give further details? what version of the game are you running?

is this the mission that requires you to trap the enemy tanks in the town by blowing the bridge, and then hunt down the tanks? if yes you have to place the charges on top of the bridge, in the middle. use at least 3 of them to blow the bridge.

[MrPing1000 0]

yes it's that mission and I'm using the UK 505 edition.

So placing satchels on the road itself works? Is there even enough time to do it before the first vehicle comes?

I have managed to blow the bridge by placing satchels at the supports underwater on the far side (your commander does say to do this) but usually on my way back the rest of my satchels and my gun drop in the water and I can't pick them up again.

[DaRat 0]

If you stay in the water too long you drop all your weapons. It's meant to be a feature, not a bug.

[Fred DM 0]

da rat is right. i didn't realize you were in the water at first.

i don't remember anyone saying you have to place the charges at the bottom of the supports.

if i remember correctly, there is an objective marker right on the bridge.

your team drops you off near the bridge. get on the bridge quickly and lay 3 charges (i tried it with only one at first, to no avail. i think i succeed with 3 charges. maybe you need more. you can test it easily by saving before placing the charges.) you may also want to lay some charges on your end of the bridge.

there is an ammo cache at the buildings to the right of the bridge. you can find anti-tank weapons there (and maybe even more satchel charges to mine the road.).

get to cover from where you can observe the bridge.

wait until all vehicles are on the bridge. the first ones will already have crossed it by the time you receive the signal to blow the charges. do it.

take out all remaining vehicles with your M-136. you may have to search the town for some of them.

then all you have to do is to get to the extraction point.

this mission worked very well for me, i didn't even need a second try. wait until you try the "Armored Fist" or "Sanitation" missions - they are buggy as hell...

[MrPing1000 0]

Did the mission today but it really is broken.

The commander in the hummer says specifically to put the charges under the bridge. (I'm UK 1.4 version btw)

However if you try and swim to the far bridge support (I'm not 100% sure but this seems like the only part of the bridge that will collapse) you'll drop everything you have.

To get around this drop everything except 2 or if you went to be sure the bridge will blow 3 charges. Then following the left hand shadow of the bridge swim in a straight line. You'll end up on a raised bit of the riverbed and you'll stop swimming. From here swim inbetween the pilon and plonk down your satchel charges.

Go get your stuff that you left on the shore and head to the hiding spot.

Next part was an exercise in frustration let me describe all the different ways it broke.

The most common bug would be for the big tanks to go across and perhaps 1 of the smaller ones then the last 2 would refuse to cross the bridge. It would take 5 mins but they'd sometimes decide to travel across the river itself. This led to some interesting things as well.

One time the tank went down the bank too quickly and did a front flip resulting in the crew ejecting. Have to restart as the tank never makes it across.

A few times the tank would make it across but get stuck on a tree at the top of the bank.

Another problem seemed to be with them spotting your friends from miles away. Often the last few tanks would start firing at the ambush force to the North West. Oh and a few times they'd spot what I presume was the car you were originally in to the south east and start firing at it. (On one occassion this caused a tank on the land side to travel down to the coastline then cross the river at it's mouth to try and get to the vehicle)

Then there was the truck carrying troops. It seemed to like unloading them all over the place. A few occassions it unloaded them just as it came over the hill towards the bridge. It would then carry on to the bridge sans troops. The troops wouldn't cross the bridge but when run along the bank towards the ambush forces. Then after a while they'd come back towards the bridge before swimming halfway across the bridge then going back to what they were doing to begin with.

The truck usually would unload them at the far side of the bridge but everytime it was guaranteed to kill at least one of them as it tried to turn to go along the road.

Oh and I also saw one of the big tanks try to go up the hill near the hiding spot but not have the horsepower to do it but continue trying for 5mins before falling back down turning left and getting stuck again. It finally got free only for me to find it later jammed into the corner of a wall.

Because of stuff getting stuck and doing odd things very often the commander would end up dead before he could blow the bridges. And other occassions he would survive but forget to blow one.

That was actually how i finished it. After he told me to blow the bridge I headed to bridge 3. I did this as he said there was a hidden boat here that I could use. There was no boat, it must be realllly well hidden because I looked everywhere. Anyway I headed around to bridge 2 and it wasn't destroyed. As i got to the bridge my orders changed to retreating (I'm like 700metres away from the forces to the NW lets not forget). So I went across the bridge stole a car and drove along the road until I got mission complete.

Very very broken mission. I think if they sorted out the pathing issues and the AI wanting to attack things that they shouldn't even be considering yet it would be ok. Planting the charges at the far support was difficult as well.

[NeMeSiS 11]

I just placed all the satchels on top of the middle part of the bridge, there is no localized damage for building objects in 1.2 and its probably the same in 1.4

[MrPing1000 0]

yeah placing ontop works fine, more chance of getting shot but it does work. But the commander does tell you to place them UNDER the bridge :P

[Fred DM 0]

like i said, i don't remember what the commander says . i played that mission months ago, last year.

who would shoot at you while you're placing the charges on the bridge? you've got enough time until the first vehicle (a scout UAZ) arrives. is anyone else around?

[MrPing1000 0]

just the UAZ but it's a close call before it arrives.

[the_bengine 0]

i remember doing this mission ages ago (v1.2) and i thought you HAD to lay the charges under the bridge. I also had to lay all of them in order for the next way point to appear and the commander to tell me to move off. Also, by placing them under the nearside of the bridge, the incoming vehicles don't see you.

Strangely, the only problem i had, which was quite a severe one, was that everytime i tried to lay a charge, i picked up the last one i'd laid if i was within about 5 metres of it. and no matter where i was laying it, i'd always get a red cross - is this to "aim" the charge coz it looks more like a warning? half the time the charge wouldn't lay at all (which also happens in other missions) and sometimes i would pick up all the charges i'd previously laid making it a very haphazard affair.

I'm suprised i'm the only one suffering from the problem actually...

as for the "dropping all weapons when wet" it took me a while to get used to that and i'm not sure i ever will but one mission is rendered nigh on impossible when you have to collect munitions from a boat at the end of a pier and if you accidentally walk onto the boat (god forbid) you freeze and have to restart, and if you fall into the water, you lose everything and have to restart. Have eventually found a "sweet spot" on the pier whereby if you inch along to the corner, almost falling in the water, you can finally access the munitions. great.

loving the game tho. looking forward to seeing a lot more brits on the server....

[MrPing1000 0]

well you actually have to be swimming to be able to plant a charge in the water, it doesn't work if you're standing (even if just your head is above water). Thats a bit odd

[JudgeDredd 0]

I've had exactly the same experiences as the poster with this mission. I'm going through it right now and I must've tried it a dozen times now. I've experienced nearly all the things he mentions...BMPs not going over the bridge...BMPs going under the bridge...BMP's dropping through the bridge...BMP's refusing to negotiate the bridge...the truck dropping the troops off on the wrong side of the bank...the truck dropping the troops off ON the bridge...the truck heading down to the water, then coming back up and refusing to cross the bridge...the tanks refusing to cross the bridge...

All of these I have experience dand I CANNOT get this mission finished. Turned it off in disgust tonight. Really annoyed with it.

[boake 0]

How do I destroy the bridge? Should I place the satchel under the bridge?

[Fred DM 0]

How do I destroy the bridge? Should I place the satchel under the bridge?

have you not read any of the previous posts?

place them either on top of the bridge, or below on the supports. use 3 charges.

[JudgeDredd 0]

How do I destroy the bridge? Should I place the satchel under the bridge?

I don't think it really matters, m8...I expect you will be prevented from continuing for some reason.

I've now reloaded this scenario a dozen times and also restarted in from scratch half a dozen times and still, something does not go over the bridge, therefore, I presume, preventing a trigger from occurring.

I don't know how it seemed to work so flawlessly for other people...but it seems to have. I don't think, in my history as a gamer, I've came across such a screwed up mission.

It is most definitely a futile lesson in patience and resilience!

But to help as much as I can, I found it difficult to place the 3 charges ont top of the bridge, because VERY soon, there is a UAZ heading onto the bridge...so I placed all 3 charges under the bridge...1 on each side of the nearest left hand support and one on the right hand support.

[boake 0]

Funny thing is, the bridge does NOT collapse when I detonate the charge. It doesn't collapse until I take out enemy tanks. That's weird. I thought the bridge was supposed to be destroyed as soon as I detonate the charge. Is it normal or a bug?

[Fred DM 0]

Funny thing is, the bridge does NOT collapse when I detonate the charge. It doesn't collapse until I take out enemy tanks. That's weird. I thought the bridge was supposed to be destroyed as soon as I detonate the charge. Is it normal or a bug?

are you using at least 3 charges at the same position?

[boake 0]

are you using at least 3 charges at the same position?

I placed 5 charges at the same position.

The bridge should collapse when I detonate the charge, but it doesn't.

[JudgeDredd 0]

I always plant my charges under the bridge on the first support...one on EACH SIDE of the left support and one on the right.

However, last night I placed all 5 on the top and it blew fine. HOWEVER, I do think there's a bug where you THINK you are laying all the charges, BUT because you are putting them in the same place, you are not...I can't realy qualify that argument except to say I went under the bridge and thought I placed all the charges on the same part of ground, when went to blow the brige, it came up with "Set off one charge" or whatever the text is when you click the button to detonate the charges...so it appeared that I hadn't set ALL of them down...only the last one...but I definitely put 5 down, because I had none left in my inventory.

If you try to lay the charges, I'd make sure when you lay a charge, a red X appears...move away from that charge until the red X dissappears and set the other charge down and repeat...that way you DO set all the charges down.

By the way, I completed this mission last night....t was a good one when it worked. Loved holding off the troops when I got to the fall back point.

[Dangerdog 0]

Hmm didn't have a problem with this one, placed the explosives in an X patern right under the bridge, didn't go near the water or supports.

Plenty of time to run up to where the ammo crates are and wait for the "flash, flash, flash" order.

Killed two armor units with AT rockets and then fled the area to the boat at bridge #3, used it to cross the water and then got out on the other shore, there's two vehicles, a car and a truck, both have civilians in them, shot the driver in the truck and stole it GTA style. (felt kind of bad about that but it sure beats walking.)

[Duffers 0]

I had no problems at all on my first attempt with the bridge.  Luckily I read about people losing kit and the placing charges problem (thanks PC GAMER) so I dropped my M4, ammo and all but 4 of my charges.

I swam to the first two supports and put a charge on each.  I had no 'Objective Complete' so placed another charge on one of the same supports and completed the objective.

I turned round, picked up my kit and ran 10 o'clock from the bridge to some buildings where the ammo stash was and loaded up on the M136.

When "Flash, Flash, Flash" came I detonated (success) and let rip on the two tanks and BRDM that had already got across.  The crews were quite tough and all bailed so I had a fire fight.

After this I got mean and went to the bridge and shot the guys in the water   .  

I cleared the area and went off to join my platoon.  I'd spent so long mopping up troops and tanks however, that when I reached the waypoint I'd missed the battle and blown tanks were everywhere - nice touch.

Carried on and completed the mission.

[JudgeDredd 0]

This is how I completed it do not read if you don't want to know how to do it!(although it was very, very hit and miss...too a lot of reloads, mostly because vehicles wouldn't cross for some reason!!

1. I planted bombs on bridge (if you do plant underneath, DO NOT go in the water, otherwise you will lose your rifle!

2. Ran to ammo crates and loaded up on ammo and AT launcher

3. Fired bombs ON COMMAND

4. Took out the truck full of troops, sitting on the bridge

5. Took out the BMP on my side of the bridge

6. Ran up hill and took out the T72 and some troops in the compound to the right

7. Ran down to the UAZ sitting in the compound (watch out for more troops)

8. Drove UAZ out the compound, staying left

9. Got to rendevous and took out the other BMP

10. Took out soldiers running to our location

11. Loaded men (my squad...don't know what happens to the other troops) up in Humvee and drove to retreat point

I never did find the boat at bridge 3...tried loads, but couldn't see it.

All in all, after it worked, it turned out to be a very atmosphearic mission!

[Fred DM 0]

BTW: there's no need to abort the mission if some of the enemy vehicles fall/drive into the water. that happened to me too and i just took them out with AT rockets.

what matters is that you get the command to blow the charges, no matter where the tanks actually are.

[JudgeDredd 0]

Yes, but the problem I encountered was I wasn't getting the command to blow the bridge, and I guess that was because there was a BMP or truck or something not setting off a trigger...I don't know.

At one point I sat and watched a BMP climbing the hill after going across the river (kewl to see it bobbing as it got in the water! and just wouldn't get up that hill...waited ages.