U Company

[-Snafu- 78]

Hi,

This is a mission I created with the WW1 mod by ProfTournesol. The mod is about a special Company of The Gordon Highlanders.

U Company of 4th Gordons Battalion was a University Company from the University of Aberdeen and that's what made it unique.

WW1 MOD:

WW1 mod plus Fix

The ReadMe:

Quote[/b] ]

U Company v1.1 BETA

BY: -snafu-

REQUIRED ADDONS:

WW1 MOD: http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....18;st=0

FEATURES:

- Large Mission with lots of AI, artillery barrages and flares

- Custom combat ambience

- Machine Gun script that makes gunners fire into the attackers with heavy fire.

- Relatively historically accurate briefing and notes. The objective codename, 'The Jocks Society' (even the food they had there), the other units that participated in the containing action etc. are all historically accurate.

MISSION:

This mission is loosely based on U Company, 4th Gordons containing action at Hooge on the 25th of September 1915. The main British offensive was at Loos but 4th Gordons along with 1st Gordons and 2nd Royal Scots attacked the German positions at Hooge in order to tie them down there preventing them moving ot Loos.

U Company was unique at the time as it was a University Company (from the University of Aberdeen) hence the U. It was officially re-designated as D Company but they were allowed to keep the U in recognition of its University status. U Company volunteered for WW1 as they were a Territorial Unit.

Their action at Hooge was their last battle as a true University Company as they took many casualties and were replaced by non University personnel. U Company suffered a total of 104 casualties during the battle. After the battle a Gordons officer saw six men under the command of a junior NCO and asked why they were not marching as a platoon. 'Platoon?' came the reply. 'This is D Company'.

CHANGE LOG:

From 1.0 BETA:

- Looped custom ambience via script

- Added flares at the German trenches

- Added few extra German squads

CREDITS:

ProfTournesol for his help on looping sounds, artillery script, flare script and for making the WW1 mod.

The book 'The Student Soldiers' by John McConachie for Historical reference.

The book 'The Gordon Highlanders: A Concise History' by Trevor Royle for Historical reference.

KNOWN ISSUES:

It can get laggy at areas. Nothing too bad, it will get less once the arty stops and some units have died.

Can't think of any else. Please report on the mission thread at BIS Forums or the contact details below.

FUTURE ADDITIONS:

- Intro

- Outro

- Custom voices

CONTACT DETAILS:

BIS Forum via PM. Username is -snafu-.

EMAIL/MSN: broch_loon@hotmail.com

Hope you enjoy the mission!

Link:

U Company v1.1

[zwobot 22]

The mission is about 18MB which is quite big for what it is. This is because I included custom combat ambience. However it only lasted 15 seconds so I had to loop it: hence the size of the mission. I don't know how to fix this or if it is even possible.

You can loop the small sound file with a script and in this way reduce the file size of the mission.

[ProfTournesol 956]

Yes, just a little script :

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">#loop

playsound "nameofmysound"

~duration of the sound

goto "loop"

Name it "mysound.sqs" and launch it by writing anywhere you want (init line of the player for example) : [] exec "mysound.sqs"

And you could put some flares on the german trenches, it would give a nice atmosphere : put for example invisible H (or game logics) where you want the flares to be fired, then name the following script "myflare.sqs"

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">_object = _this Select 0

#loop

_flare = "Flare" CreateVehicle [getpos _object select 0,getpos _object select 1,getpos _object select 2]

_flare setvelocity [0,0,60]

~10

goto "loop"

Exit

Then launch the script by puting this in the init line of the H (or game logic) :[this] exec "myflare.sqs"

Flares are not always visible, depends on day time.

[-Snafu- 78]

Mission updated, check first post.

Changes:

Looped sound via script

Added Flares

Extra enemy groups

Feedback on the mission would be appreciated.

[ProfTournesol 956]

Nice battle atmosphere, i just don't see any flares (maybe it's because of day time...). By the way, all credits about artillery must go to Reyhard !

I would have added several specific secondary objectives to raise the difficulty / interest level, such as helping a wounded officer, destroying a field canon, killing some snipers before the main attack etc.

Nice work anyway.

[-Snafu- 78]

Well I could see the flares fine when I tested it. I'll also add Reyhard to the credits.

I would have added more objectives but I am thinking about making this into a 3/4 mission mini campaign. It would show the Company at full strength and by the end of it the Company would have a few remaining members left (it would almost completely detract from reality with the 2nd and 3rd missions).

1st Mission:

Assault and capture the German trenches.

2nd Mission:

Push forward from the trenches into open warfare, clear forests and destroy an artillery battery.

3rd Mission:

German reinforcements arrive, push the British forces back.

4th Mission:

Hold the Germans at their former trenches then fall back.

[CAPTUSNR 0]

Thanks for the good work on the U Company mission Snafu. And your idea about making a mini-campaign sounds terrific! I hope you release it soon for all of us OFP Mod players whom aren't accomplished mission makers. I assure we all appreciate your work.