Freedom fighters......ends too soon.

[Kevy 1]

Thanks for the tip, Kevy!

Glad to be helpful.

I've been using Precision before too. But yep! Afterburner is en unique cool free software now.

I think you can record your first attempt, and then cut off failed parts. I guess, videos will be long, so you can record in 480p to lower the files' sizes. Or 720p. And don't forget to set optimal compression (think it would be 90...100%). And you don't have to hurry. Furthermore, if you are tired of it too, we can just leave here a demand for such walkthrough for others to make))

Edited December 30, 2011 by Kevy

[OMAC 254]

The Village Sweep video was recorded at 1/2 screen, 85% jpeg quality, and 30 FPS. If I go down to 1/3 screen, it may be doable.

---------------

I just installed 2.2.0 beta 9 as you mentioned, and it can record with game sound! :)

Edited December 30, 2011 by OMAC

[Kevy 1]

The Village Sweep video was recorded at 1/2 screen, 85% jpeg quality, and 30 FPS. If I go down to 1/3 screen, it may be doable.

---------------

I just installed 2.2.0 beta 9 as you mentioned, and it can record with game sound! :)

Now I see why you set music as a track.

Have to say, there are some weird things with your video:

1) the frame is less than flash-player frame size on YT

2) you've said that video was recorded at 1/2 from screen size, and YT shows 1080p. So you've resized afterburners' video to 1080p before uploading? there is no need. It is too blurred for 1080p. You can resize to 720p for video to be present in search results with HD filter ON.

Checked few variants for optimal recording:

1)ARMA res set to 1280x720. AB set to 85%, full frame, 24FPS. Result: 15 min video - 2.4GB (need to be 2GB MAX for YT, compressed more with VDub/XViD:1.2GB. Good, but too much troubles)

2)ARMA res set to 1280x960. AB set to 80%, 1/2 frame, 24 FPS. Result: 15 min video - 1 GB. Ready to be uploaded. No HD, but IMO it's OK considering the long gameplay.

[OMAC 254]

Ah. If you get to their base fast enough, there may be empty ones.

The base is in full armor spawn mode (Tunguska, BTR-90s) by 3:30am, 1/2 hour after start. BTRs spawn fully manned and will spot and kill you instantly if you are waiting for them. Shooting out their tires doesn't make the crew disembark so you can get in and commandeer it (I've blown at least 6 of 8 tires to no avail). I did get into one of the AA pods after shooting the gunner, but eventually get shot after blowing up as much as possible, to no avail; but that still is my best bet so far to waste the base, other than the frustrating ZU-23 method from the outpost up on the hill.

I see no empty armor around, only swarms of roaming troops on full alert, and roving Tunguskas and BTRs hunting you down. I think now that sneaking into the base to get one is preposterous.

I think it is only through sheer luck that you can find an undamaged Russian armored vehicle to steal. That has been the case for me in the past.

[Kevy 1]

Did anyone clear towns from invaders? What actually does it give?

Edited January 2, 2012 by Kevy

[maturin 12]

The base is in full armor spawn mode (Tunguska, BTR-90s) by 3:30am, 1/2 hour after start. BTRs spawn fully manned and will spot and kill you instantly if you are waiting for them. Shooting out their tires doesn't make the crew disembark so you can get in and commandeer it (I've blown at least 6 of 8 tires to no avail). I did get into one of the AA pods after shooting the gunner, but eventually get shot after blowing up as much as possible, to no avail; but that still is my best bet so far to waste the base, other than the frustrating ZU-23 method from the outpost up on the hill.

I see no empty armor around, only swarms of roaming troops on full alert, and roving Tunguskas and BTRs hunting you down. I think now that sneaking into the base to get one is preposterous.

I think it is only through sheer luck that you can find an undamaged Russian armored vehicle to steal. That has been the case for me in the past.

When I played it, the base tended to be pretty empty. Differente ArmA builds and mods enabled, of course. If you use ACE, there is always the chance that an RPG will kill the crew of a vehicle and leave it intact.

[OMAC 254]

When I played it, the base tended to be pretty empty. Differente ArmA builds and mods enabled, of course. If you use ACE, there is always the chance that an RPG will kill the crew of a vehicle and leave it intact.

I never use mods to play official missions; they can cause problems, and is basically cheating IMO. Other notes:

1) An AI-driven Russian truck was standing at an intersection in Elektro near the Offices. After planting charges in Office, I shot the driver through the side window (2 shots), and then ordered my AI squadmate to "repair" the truck (the repair option isn’t always available here). We then both got into it. About 5-6 seconds later, the truck exploded, killing us both. Just breaking the side window when killing the driver makes the truck so "damaged" that it will explode within about 20 sec. This is the dreaded clutter "auto-cleanup" which renders stealing damaged enemy vehicles nearly impossible. I have described this extensively in this thread and others. This will happen for any of the Russian supply trucks in FF. I think it only occurs in A2 Warfare mode. In the editor, one can shoot the driver and steal the truck with no problem.

2) Near that truck, lying dormant in wait for intruders, were a Vodnik (2xPK), BTR-90, and tracked BMP-3. Get near them and they wake up and hunt you down ruthlessly. More evidence that a stealth infiltration of the base, even early in the mission, is a fool’s errand. In A3, disguises will make it a piece of cake to infiltrate a base.

[OMAC 254]

Yes, but I hardly ever could get my hands on one. When I did, it was damaged and would soon vanish due to "clutter auto-cleanup."

The key would be to partially damage one near a remote town, get in and quickly drive it to a captured strongpoint, and then repair it. Then you are 100% good to go. I will focus all my energies on that task.

But I am not 100% sure if strongpoints or even the factory at the rebel base can repair captured enemy vehicles. But I will find out! :cool:

I gave up on infiltrating the base and retreated to Mysta after blowing the offices. I just captured and repaired a BTR-90. Heh heh. We'll see if it sticks around, though. It may just blow up on me....

[maturin 12]

It probably won't. I've captured Tunguskas, Tanks and BTRs, and I don't think ACE messes with the cleaning script. Just don't leave it unattended.

[OMAC 254]

Yep, I've wasted 3 T-90s, 2 Volniks, and 2 other BTRs with it. Now I've purchased 2 BRDMS, a Ural with a ZU-23, and a technical with a SPG-9, and am heading from Mysta (rebel base) towards Staroye. After I take that, I'll head downhill, blow the checkpoint, and then attack the main enemy base. Wish me luck. Most importantly, I'm having lots of fun, and the dreaded red x's have not shown up in the objectives thanks to Jezuro's awesome fix. I'm lovin' it so far!

[OMAC 254]

Well, all of the above went very well. After wiping out the checkpoint, I proceeded toward Elektro along the road, with my convoy trailing behind me except for one BRDM which somehow flipped on its side after Staroye. Then three of the vehicles drove themselves into the reservoir and were destroyed. Nice route following, eh? At least three of the men escaped their watery tombs and swam to safety. I ordered them to board my BTR, and, my convoy toast, returned to my base near Mysta to rearm. However, at Mysta, four, yes four, T-90s ambushed me and destroyed the BTR immediately (2 sec) after an autosave, so I had to revert to my one user save game (playing on Veteran) to get my BTR back. :( Now, many hours later, I have finally destroyed the Russian base, and am cleaning out the villages. Looking good. There is light at the end of the tunnel, I think....

[Hanzu 10]

one BRDM which somehow flipped on its side after Staroye.

Maybe it was because of this:

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/3961

Just kidding heh. ;) But remember you can push tanks back on their belly if they fall on their side. Just ram several times on their top with another tank until they rock back on their wheels/tracks. Been there done that.

Then three of the vehicles drove themselves into the reservoir and were destroyed. Nice route following, eh?

Reservoir means Topolka Dam right? The one that has many design errors:

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/1919

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/2143

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/16344

There may be something seriously wrong in the road between Toplka Dam and Elektro. I wasted some hours trying to reproduce this,

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/8763

but all I found out that vehicles in convoy seem to wander quite far from the road (climbing to hills and all that), but I didn't manage to break anything. Well it has been proven that road network in Chernarus is messy

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/8068

Looking good. There is light at the end of the tunnel, I think....

Seems like not everyone yet know we are purists and do not like ACE and other mods in our official missions to stir up indesigned difficulty balance. :)

Nice thead to follow. Very entertaining. :)

[OMAC 254]

Ha! No wonder my convoy got lost at Staroye! ;)

Yes, Topolka Dam. The bugs you mentioned explain why the vehicles drove in there - it is apparently not tagged as water. But the guys who escaped from the drowned vehicles did swim, not walk, through the water.

Those bugs reports are great. Excellent documentation. Topolka needs some work for sure. Those bugs are very interesting, and important, as they explain what I have found by trial and error, namely that building a big AI-driven convoy to attack the base is a waste of time due to the problematic road network which renders AI route finding iffy at best. Along the coast road it is generally ok, but inland? Uh oh. I am SO TIRED of seeing the dreaded "Away" marker on my lost AI units!

In the end I destroyed the enemy base with a single BTR-90. That is one awesome war machine: MG, rapid-fire grenade launcher, 300-600 RPM cannon (AP/HE), Reflex rockets.

I should have banged the flipped BRDM with my BTR to turn it over. The two crewman inside were desperately trying to drive on, but weren't doing to well, so I told them to disembark and had them get in my BTR. But they were soon to be killed in Mysta by the T-90s. The flipped vehicle definitely sounds like Bugs #8763 and #8068.

Anti-mod A2 purists rule. ;)

Look who I found hanging out right next to the Russian base:

Edited January 5, 2012 by OMAC

[OMAC 254]

Not good. Mission still won't end.

https://dev-heaven.net/issues/18491

[Hanzu 10]

Not good. Mission still won't end.

https://dev-heaven.net/issues/18491

Thank you for trying again. Seems like beating the enemy is not such an issue anymore and the timelimit is not what ends mission.

Ofcourse if you still have the save. You could try leave the game running overnight and let the last red troops finish themselfves to your defences to see if that matters (in the screenshots I see 2 red markers in Elektro).

Not sure where we can go from here since original mission designer is unreached and Jezuro is probably too busy to help again. The best I could do for now was to re-Assign the ticket to Dwarden and edit it a little.

How about you PvPscene. You seem to understand scripting way better than most of us, so could you check END conditions in the scripting once again if anything is changed with timelimit corrections?

Epic battle between Freedom Fighters and Mission Purists continues...

Edited January 5, 2012 by Hanzu

[OMAC 254]

Epic indeed. Thanks for your attention, and for updating the ticket. I've got everything depbo'd. The end conditions look good in that they should cover all possible situations, but still there's a problem.

Will ForceEnd do the trick, or is endMission ""ENDx"" needed for each condition?

The issue noted in the description about the 10 second check vs. immediate end at TimeUp is something else to look at. Hopefully kju can check this out.

[OMAC 254]

It is sad to note that after MANY hours of playing FF in several different A2 CO builds, I have NEVER seen the mission end with a debriefing screen. Is the custom game logic regarding the end states and time limit incompatible with recent A2 and/or CO builds? I've always played the mission in A2 CO (arma2oa.exe). Would playing it using the arma2.exe make any difference?

The mission has been fubared for about 1.5 years. It should be definitively fixed or removed from A2. The fact that it takes so long to complete (except for END 1 condition which can occur before 3 hr limit), makes it difficult to test the custom end conditions. Such testing by BIS has apparently not taken place for years.

Edited January 13, 2012 by OMAC

[Kevy 1]

OMAC, you did not answer this:

Ofcourse if you still have the save. You could try leave the game running overnight and let the last red troops finish themselfves to your defences to see if that matters (in the screenshots I see 2 red markers in Elektro).

It's clear that we can't claim scripting bugs until all enemies are neutralized.

[maturin 12]

Enemy riflemen can spawn infinitely without buildings in all of BI's 'fantastic' warfare missions. Bad idea.

There is nothing in the victory conditions that says 'destroy all enemies.' This isn't Age of Empires.

I have seen a victory screen in this mission, having hit the sweet spot of game versions and tactics. It's bugged all to hell.

[Kevy 1]

Enemy riflemen can spawn infinitely without buildings in all of BI's 'fantastic' warfare missions. Bad idea.

There is nothing in the victory conditions that says 'destroy all enemies.' This isn't Age of Empires.

I have seen a victory screen in this mission, having hit the sweet spot of game versions and tactics. It's bugged all to hell.

Oh... roger that.

[OMAC 254]

Yep. Opfor soldiers infinitely spawn out of the ground at the enemy base. Very bad idea indeed. I place a BRDM there to mow them down as they pop up. There is no kill all opfor requirement in the game logic that I can see, although "Eradicate all Russian forces, destroy their main base..." is in the mission briefing.

I'm doing testing in the editor, and the time limit-based special end conditions are bugged and do not trigger. The infini-spawning wouldn't be an issue if the game ended after 3hrs as it should.

Edited January 8, 2012 by OMAC

[OMAC 254]

Ok. Hours of digging has revealed massive amounts of unused dialog in the stringtable.xml in languagemissions.pbo. Samples:

That's it, we've liberated our first town. There's no going back now..

That's the second town we've freed now. Things are really going great!

Yes! I knew this would work! Ivan is in big trouble! D: Three for three. Three towns captured. Nothing can stop us now!

Man, this is a national uprising! The people from that third village want a piece of the action!

I make that four villages captured. I never thought we'd get this far!

Well they just keep coming. We've got more volunteers from that second town.

The fourth village is offering support too. I never dreamed we'd have so many so soon.

Hey listen up! I can see the Russian Checkpoint! Fucking hell this will be heavy!

Tonight we begin nothing less than an uprising. We will rally the true men of Chernarus and teach Ivan that we are not afraid, that we will fight and that we can win. Tonight in Elektrozavodsk and Vybor and Staroye and all the rest we will destroy enemy camps, we will crush that nest of liars and lackeys in the municipal office and we will free our people!

The municipal building in Elektrozavodsk is down, I repeat the municipal building is down! This is a great moment brothers! We've shown them what we're capable of, now it's their turn to be afraid!

And many more. None of these play in the game. It looks like the developer, Joris, stopped developing in the middle and never finished. The result is a mess. What a shame, as the potential is awesome. I'll bet the plan was for Razor Team to help you, etc. It could be that the scenario was originally meant to be another Harvest Red Campaign mission, but was cancelled.

I'll keep digging. I'm not sure, but I think that only END1, Eat this, Ivan!, will end the mission with a debriefing, as pointers to the other debriefings are incomplete or missing. I added another end condition, END6, that required nothing to be done, and got the mission to end. That proves that the time of day checks and ForceEnd are working.

---------- Post added at 02:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:31 PM ----------

Looks like it was meant to get a little nasty between Razor and the resistance!

ID="str_razor_team_c_1">

<English>Advance and be recognised.</English>

ID="str_razor_team_c_10">

<English>Hey fuck you asshole. You don't mean shit to me. Now clear out of here before I get angry...</English>

:D

Edited January 7, 2012 by OMAC

[Kevy 1]

It looks like the developer, Joris, stopped developing in the middle and never finished.

I can't believe they put unfinished mission as the top single scenario.. This studio is too famous to work that way. How could that be?!

[OMAC 254]

Good question. I guess they just ran out of steam on this one, or changed priorities. Check out the updated ticket and let me know if you have any suggestions.

https://dev-heaven.net/issues/18491

[maturin 12]

I had a hankering to try this mission again, so I made some alterations to it. Namely, I tweaked the buildings costs and supply rates to give the Resistance a bit of a boost (no discernible result; they were still useless), and also made the Russian tank factory too expensive to ever afford.

Then I made Razor Team join your group if you enter the castle, and put a crate of RPG ammo near the barn in Msta, where the base is every time now. Also, I gave you an extra three hours. Just beat the mission by taking Msta, burning up the first wave of Russians and then rushing their base in a BRDM. I was able to steal a BTR-90 an destroy everything, and after that it was a game of whack-a-mole with villages.

The mission is pure bullshit, really. It is impossible to deal with the vehicles their base uses, but the endlessly respawning riflemen there force you to park BRDMs everywhere to kill waves and waves of enemies.

Anyways, the mission wouldn't end, after all that. Let me know if anyone wants the file.