Black Sword

[dr_chris 10]

I had a fantastic game on this tonight with some clan members and publics - it really is a fantastic mission. It is very adaptable and you can do so many things in it without it being complicated to try and do or laggy.

It's certainly a challenge, but not so challenging that you give up hope. Very well done Igor!

[CooliO 0]

Thx Igor had allot of fun with this. Hope to see more like that.

Ingame video:

[max power 21]

Sorry plaintiff1, I'd overlooked your question.

The default VD is set at 1200m., and it is adjustable in 100-meter increments. It's up to the squad leader to adjust the settings, as it is done via radio triggers.

Thank you muchly!

[rok 0]

Great mission! So different from any other mission out there.

Keep up the good work.

[Tijai 1]

As usual really enjoying this game as are most of the joining public however, noticed a couple of things.

The Laptop sometimes seams to stop working unless you drop it and pick it up again.

..and sometimes wont allow you to pick it up, which means no EVAC at end (so had a deathmatch free for all instead )

Also the enemy tropps who decide (sometimes) to cross expanses of water and lose all weapons, what a turkey shoot after!

Something else we found with the new version were the codes needed to drive BMPs. Couldnt find these anywhere - is the info in the notes? or amI missing something.

Hope you find these comments constructive.

[Tyn 0]

Found an issue, not sure if it's been mentioned. Three players including myself playing the map, I'd joined half way through. The other two died and I was still alive but the mission ended claiming all operatives were dead. I'm guessing this may be to do with me JIPing.

Cheers *tips hat*

[KilJoy -SFG- 0]

Great mission. Enjoyed it a lot.

[hees 0]

I was on a side mission to mine all the entrances to the center base. Did I notice correctly that the explosive power of the mines is tuned down? I even had a Shilka driving over one and survive. Do I need to place 2 mines, side by side?

[hees 0]

I was on a side mission to mine all the entrances to the center base. Did I notice correctly that the explosive power of the mines is tuned down? I even had a Shilka driving over one and survive. Do I need to place 2 mines, side by side?

[wolfsblut_ 0]

I was on a side mission to mine all the entrances to the center base. Did I notice correctly that the explosive power of the mines is tuned down? I even had a Shilka driving over one and survive. Do I need to place 2 mines, side by side?

No. Thats not a special thing in the mission.

Sometimes in mode "difficult" not even 2 mines (on a street in formation line) are enough to damage a t72.

But most often is 1 mine enough to damage a t72-chassis.

[wolfsblut_ 0]

Okay, i have tested the v3.1 SPlayer for a while. No doubt about it, great mission, but...

- after i loaded a saved(!)-black-sword-single-player-mission there is no more mobile radio-device on the map. While the saved version set the viewdistance to the default-value to 1200meters then without the radio-device you have no chance to increase the viewdistance. But this is badly needed for long-range-fights because the enemy is strong and outnumbering.

- at the beginning the teammates have no weapons besides pistols when they landed on the ground.

- i dont know this exactly but (difficult-mode veteran) i think alarmed enemies are cheating also if you doesnt have a laptop-device-thingy. Is here anybody who is thinking the same?

[manzilla 1]

Can this be loaded fresh? I've tried with no mods on but it CTD everytime.

[igor drukov 0]

<ul>[*]@ Dr_Chris

Thanks mate, fighting side by side with you is a pleasure - great NCO you are, Chris.

[*]@Cooli0

Excellent stuff there Cooli0, thanks a lot! One question though: have you noticed how harder it is now to steal T72s than in previous builds  

[*]@Rokka

Thank you thank you thank you!

[*]@Tijai

Thanks a lot for your comments, they are indeed extremely helpful. As to the LD, I've tried to solve that issue, but there's no easy way that I could find. The infantry swimming across the water and losing their weapons is also something that seriously p*sses me off, but I don't want to add more scripts and trigers to fix that hardcoded absurdity: it may cause unwanted fps drops.

Just a hint to find the codes: what sort of soldier do you think carries that sort of information ?

[*]@Tyn

Thanks for reporting this bug, it may be related to the revive set of scripts. Had the last man alive previously died in the water?

[*]@Kiljoy

I'm extremely flattered sir, thank you!  

[*]@Hees

Wolfsblut's said it all, I haven't tinkered with mines at all, and their power has been considerably notched down compared to OFP.

[*]@wolfsblut_

Thanks a lot for your reports.

I must say I haven't extensively tried the SP version, as the mission was devised for MP playing from day one. I therefore plead guilty.

norrin's sent me a PM where he says he's got an SP version of the mission with a lot of stuff improved, including the SP revive scripts. I'm waiting for him to greenlight the mission.

The enemies can be considered to be cheating, as once they've spotted you, it's extremely hard to lose the tail. Is it what you're talking about? The hunt is all handled by the grouplinkII set of scripts.

[*]@Manzilla

This is strange. You're the only one to report those CTDs. Feel free to PM me for "live" support  

Regards to you all,

Igor.

[mr.g-c 6]

Please, how do you made it possible to have a group-link2 Mission without the client need the grouplink.pbo in their addons folder?

Please tell me it... This would be great!

Regards, Christian

[RogueSnake 0]

So many great responses to this mission of yours, but I still have to throw in my 2 cents.

Best mission to date. I've had so much fun with this one. 2 thumbs up from all the guys from the SteelBeasts Pro online comunity.

[naash 0]

a very good mission !

congratulations !

[gonza 8]

igor je t'aime  

mission excelente

but there is to much tanks sometime

after destroying eponia radar , 7 T72 come to me !!!

so it is impossible to stay alive

if you add less tanks per groups , people could destroy them and stay alive

is it possible to add only 2 BMP and 1 T72 by tank group

is it possible to take your  respawn system for include it in our coops missions ?

and if yes , how to do that ?

[gonza 8]

toctoc ??

don't be affraid Igor  

you are dead ?

[Batstat 10]

I play ARMA once i a week, and last monday we played Black Sword 3.1. Best mission ever, not often you identify yourself with the avatar, but in Black Sword - you do!

After we was done, I used http://stats.swec.se/game/list to check for updated versions, and found one unofficial version ...(halo) 3.2. With winmerg I noticed 3 difference, 3 minor one. Two text change and one update of the class Header in description.ext, where maxPlayers where corrected from 8 to 12. As I understand, this change only reflect MP gamespy browser window. No big deal.

I also understand from your statement Igor, 3.1 is final and you work on other projects. But if you for any reason should reconsider and make adjustment to the mission I has one request.

Make the mission for more players, we will often be between 12 - 20 players. And it is a shame not to be abel to play your mission then.

For adjusting balance accordingly, I suggest you could use a mission admin start parameter

01 - 08: Number of AI reduced to best suit up to 8 players

09 - 16: Number of AI adjusted for up to 16 players

17 - 24: Number of AI adjusted for maximum number of players 24.

OK this may be simplified, the resistance you meet in the mission consist of more than the number of AI.

One bug we noticed: We did call for air support, 1 pilot bailed out in a parachute when his air plan was shoot down. He landed not far from us, and when he later was killed, we all got a script error. At this moment only one of us was alive, but as I remember we all got the same error. Sorry i can't remember the error, but it was something about a pilot...pd3 file not found.

Anyway: great great mission, keep up the good work Igor.

[igor drukov 0]

Thank you very much for your feedback all of you, and sorry for the late reply, I'm a bit snowed under these days...

@ mr.g-c

Well AFAIK (or at least for the version I'm using), the .pbo of GLII is only sounds: so you don't need them to play.

@ RogueSnake and naash

Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply in this thread. Thank you!

@gonza

Désolé, vraiment débordé en ce moment ! Take a look at norrin's set of scripts here to implement the revive respawn.

@ Batstat

The dev is indeed stopped, so I won't implement the excellent ideas you suggest (sorry!. 3.2 is a version I've uploaded on the server I was renting this summer, and there's only one tiny change from 3.1 (IIRC, the  number of supporting groups has been reduced in 3.2).

Thank you for reporting this bug! It's a situation I've never experienced while testing, I will take a look at it - even if the dev is over... but the .p3d message sounds strange, as I'm not using any addon.

At any rate, do modify the mission to suit your own needs!

Thank you all again for your support,

Igor.

[norrin 9]

Hi Igor,

I'm a bit embarrassed about this but I only got to play Black Sword online for the first time last night. The mission looks great but I was a little disappointed with how the revive script performed - on some occassions it skipped the unconscious camera and on other occassions revived players got locked in the unconscious animation.

Do you mind if I update the mission with the latest version of the AI_disabled revive script which is a lot more robust and has several bug fixes that will hopefully fix the the problems I've seen in the version you are currently using? Anyway I'll PM you the revised version and then you can decide whether you want to post it or not.

As for the AI_enabled version of the script I've still got a couple of probs that I need to fix before it will be ready. I'll keep you posted.

EDIT: Played again last night on a different server with 12 players and little lag and the revive worked well with none of the problems described above so I'll leave it for time being as the problems may be related to an over worked server rather than the revive script.

[whisper 0]

Indeed a superb mission

Chapeau bas m'sieur!

[wolfsblut_ 0]

...

- i dont know this exactly but (difficult-mode veteran) i think alarmed enemies are cheating also if you doesnt have a laptop-device-thingy. Is here anybody who is thinking the same?

As i mentioned for weeks, Grouplink is cheating:  

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....3;st=15

Suma, Sep. 17 2007,17:14, to Grouplink : "I guess you are sending the reinforcements into the real position of the player, as given by something like position player? That is definitely a problem - the AI is cheating then."...

So the truth is: this mission is great, but unfair.

My advice: the timeslot between attacking an enemy-unit and escaping is very very small. You have to leave the area of danger as fast and as far as possibly so that no AI cant get your trace ever. In theory for this mission (and in RL?) its the best you act only in the dark and incognito.

[mr.g-c 6]

Igor, please answer me one question:

why do you added a eventhandler (killed) in the init-line of each enemy vehicle?

Regards, Christian

[Batstat 10]

Igor, please answer me one question:

why do you added a eventhandler (killed) in the init-line of each enemy vehicle?

Regards, Christian

It may be connected to a radio trigger where you can get up information about how many tanks and officers are killed. Not sure because I has not cheked it, but it seems logical