1-6 Behind Enemy Lines

[Alpha-Kilo 36]

I read this thread and the one at OFPEC. Unfortunately I cannot download it from OFPEC.

The mission directory doesn't list a single entry for ArmA2. For ArmA1 and OFP missions and campaigns are listed. Am I doing something wrong? Do I have to register for ArmA2? I searched the forum at OFPEC but I didn't find any help. Could someone please tell me how to use the OFPEC website?

This is a general request and not related to this particular mission which I have found at Armaholic. If it is too much off-topic, please simply disregard this posting.

[nominesine 0]

@1212PDMCDMPPM: The only thing you seem to have missed is that it is a heavily randomized mission that will never play the same way twice. As the feedback given here and elsewhere implies it can sometimes be a walk in the park, sometimes a real killer. But you cannot know in advance. That's the beauty of it.

@alpha-kilo:The mission is still undergoing testing in the OFPEC BETA Test Forum. The mission is attached to the first post in the thread. Scroll down and click on the download link. The current version is 0.92 BETA. I suspect that the final version will only contain very small changes compared to the one provided, if any. In my opinion it's almost flawless as it is.

[Alpha-Kilo 36]

nominesine,

noted with thanks. The link worked fine. I already suggested this mission to my group and I hope I can give some feedback soon.

[nominesine 0]

I'm sure Laggy will appreciate it. Remember that he cannot see any feedback you give him in this thread though. But we still allow him to visit Ofpec, as long as he's kept on a tight leash ;)

[Alpha-Kilo 36]

nominesine,

please give Laggy my regards. We played the mission and it was not laggy at all. From reading the forum threads we knew what to expect so we survived the first skirmishes and made it to relative safety. After approximately 50 minutes someone said: "We are making good progress and the mission is not very hard." 30 seconds later we were all dead.

So we played again, this time more carefully and it took us one hour and 7 minutes to reach the base. Our medic was killed at the beginning of the mission but we did not have any more casualties.

The best thing about this mission is that it really forces the players to play in a slow and disciplined way and fully concentrated at all times. We are definitely going to play it again and I will also try it in SP mode.

We noticed something strange at the end of the mission: Our group reached the base and we approached the officer who was standing next to his desk. He said: "I will only tell you my name, rank and serial number." as if we were enemies capturing him. But then we heard the music and a message informed us of the successful completion of the mission. Did we trigger the wrong ending somehow or is the officer supposed to say this sentence?

[The Outcast 10]

@ alpha-kilo

Glad you enjoyed the mission, I did too.

The officer at the end speaking "weirdly" is the standard built-in conversation system in ArmAII. It has nothing to do with the mission design. Try it out in the editor yourself by placing some friendlies (not in your group) and they will probably give the same "out of place" response.

I guess Laggy didn't know how to turn that function off yet, ArmAII is after all pretty new for all of us.

The Outcast

[chaplainDMK 10]

He's been working on a way to introduce moving pictures into OFP/Armed Assault/ArmA2 for as long as I can remember. A week ago he succeded and sent me a missionette where some soldiers were looking at film inside a hangar building. Really good job, though the movie itself sucked. He also made a short youtube video of the mission and posted a link to it in these forums. That was his downfall. It's been removed now, as the content of that film was a wee bit pornographic. His final post is here. I don't know if he's permanently banned or on a longer supension. Time will tell. Meanwhile he's quite active on the OFPEC Forums. And Behind Enemy Lines doesn't contain any sex at all. Only a huge amount of mindless violence, wich isn't against the rules.

;)

Haha, when i saw the trailer, and you mentioned moving pictures it all became clear ;)

[Alpha-Kilo 36]

The Outcast,

thanks for your explanation!

[The Outcast 10]

Latest version (most likely final) of this mission can be found here:

http://www.ofpec.com/forum/index.php?topic=33587.msg231472#msg231472

During testing, this mission has sometimes turned out to be one of the most intense missions I have ever played.

It now has an outro added as well as some surprises :)

Edited July 20, 2009 by The Outcast

[nominesine 0]

I took part in the final BETA-test of the mission yesterday and even though I've played through the mission more than 20 times it still amazes me. The 0.95 version seems to be the "release" version, since Laggy asked Ofpec to review the mision as well. Version 0.95 highlights include:

Higher difficulty

An outstanding outro

Some really scary artillery attacks

I totally recommend it. It's a top notch quality mission. At the moment, Behind Enemy Lines is THE bes mission available for ArmA2, in my humble opinion.

[el_muerko 0]

i'll grab that for my server tonight so :)

[The Outcast 10]

i'll grab that for my server tonight so :)

Great! Hope it will keep you busy and entertained, just make sure it's the 0.95 version.

You can post any feedback in this thread, since Laggy (who is banned from this forum) has asked me to keep an eye on this thread.

The Outcast

[Mafiozo 10]

Started playing the Mission earlier, with a smile because of the humor. Really enjoying it so far, I got ArmA 2 a week ago after much anticipation and frustrating delays in getting it, and just today when playing this game I suddenly got this "OFP" feeling. feels like I'm back home. Thank you!

[nominesine 0]

Had another go at this one all by myself last night. Damn! This mission is hard to beat. Almost three hours of overland trekking, dodging bullets, hiding in desolate barns and crawling through dense forests to avoid being shot. And I still didn't make it back to base. But I hade great fun. Has someone tested the mission with only human players and no AI in the team?

[Alpha-Kilo 36]

nominesine,

I tested version 0.92 with only human players except the pilot. It was challenging and we needed a little more than an hour to reach the base.

Last night I started version 0.95 as single player and after half an hour I had already lost most of my team. My current position is roughly 2 km northwest of the crash site, just before crossing a foot path and reaching a forest. I guess I won't be able to make it to safety.

I find it incredibly hard to control the AI efficiently and I prefer to play team missions with humans. This one is no exception.

[nominesine 0]

Version 0.95 is significantly more difficult than it's predecessors. I tried it with Laggy playing as our team leader (thinking that the mission designer would be able to beat his own creation). We still failed miserably despite three attempts :)

[Alpha-Kilo 36]

Sounds great! I will try 0.95 with an all human team.

[The Outcast 10]

Anyone found any bugs or annoyances in 0.95 version ?

Otherwise I'll tell Laggy that the mission seems to be done.

[Alpha-Kilo 36]

I have completed 0.95 in single player mode. As I said before, I lost several men at the beginning of the game. For me, this was the most difficult phase of the mission. After that, not much happened and I reached safety as a fire team leader instead of a squad leader.

I used forests and hills as cover and avoided enemy contact as much as possible. My men were issued the "hold fire" command. Before crossing open spaces I carefully scanned the area from a concealed position and then we dashed into the safety of the next forest. I followed this routine until we reached the base. For me this version was very similar to 0.92 even though I chose a different route. This time I approached the base via the village in the northeast.

After reading that this version was supposed to be more difficult than its predecessors, I expected at least some enemy presence at the end of the mission. Even a weak enemy might have at least have a few spotters watch the base. Some enemy groups lying in wait of possible convoys or targets of opportunity would also seem believable. A strong enemy might even have roadblocks on the main road and/or some tents with reinforcements in the area. The friendlies might send out patrols to secure the vicinity of the base. This kind of activity would provide an additional challenge to the group. Some of it may have to be scripted and randomized with Kronsky's patrol script or similar means. An option to skip a few hours and try and sneak into the base after nightfall might also be worth considering - though I personally don't like night missions in the ArmA world except in full moon - always on the 15th of a month in the ArmA2 world.

Something strange happened at the end: I approached the officer and ended the mission. This time, no "weird talk", thanks for changing that. The outro was strange, though.

With the survivors of my team I was facing the body bags of those who had not made it home. A helicopter was waiting. We saluted the fallen.

Suddenly I heard machine gun fire and two of my survivors were shot down. As this was the outro I had no control. I was not hit and the mission ended.

Then, I remembered that when I pushed the middle mouse button to report to the officer a voice called out an enemy APC. I had seen one during my final approach. It had not been able to shoot at us but it may have spotted and followed us. But there were so many armed vehicles and friendly soldiers in the base that I did not consider this single APC a threat and decided to end the mission. Could this APC ruin the outro or was this one the surprises of version 0.95?

Criticizing the uneventful part of the mission may be unjustified because the mission relies on the modules - perhaps I was just lucky or the extra difficulties were programmed to happen in areas which I chose to avoid. I must also say that a serious battle would surely have obliterated my team because I am not good at commanding AI. And a feeling of suspense is always there, even if nothing happens. This makes this mission a favourite.

[The Outcast 10]

Thanks a lot for the serious feedback alpha-kilo. Laggy will really appreciate it.

Regarding your "walk in the park" after the initial contact, it seems like you were extremely lucky (or skilled :)) since the enemy is active all the way down to Chernogorsk.

The idea of a skiptime option sounds interesting and I'll recommend it. Not sure if it would make sense though since some patrols are tracking you and if you skiptime you'll probably have to setpos all the visible enemies to make it feel realistic. That could also be used for cheating... Hmmm this is a tough one.

The chaos during the outro is NOT supposed to happen and never has during my sessions. However, it did for you and I'll tell Laggy about this bug which will make him fix it and release a most likely final version. It again has to do with the modules. Much obliged for this info.

Again, thanks a lot for your input and great that you like the mission.

The Outcast

[MaXyM 10]

Thank you for the mission.

I'm quite inexperienced player even if I played in OFP 10u ago. But I found this mission very entertaining (yeah, I know, that war and death should not make a fun).

However very good mission and what surprising me a lot, clue to get the base is not shooting but avoiding contact with enemies. I suspect it is very close to reality (in opposite to shooting anything moving)

Best regards

[The Outcast 10]

clue to get the base is not shooting but avoiding contact with enemies. I suspect it is very close to reality (in opposite to shooting anything moving)

You got it right for sure, fighting only if necessary is a good strategy. In real life if you wanted to get back home I doubt you would engage your enemies if you could avoid it.

Thanks for the positive words MaXyM :) I'll tell Laggy.

The Outcast

[laggy 0]

Hello all of you,

Thank you so much for all the positive words and serious feedback on this mission. I could never have hoped that it would get this kind of response. Thanks to nominesine and The Outcast, for answering questions while I was away and keeping the dialogue alive. Now, I'm currently working on a 0.96 version and I intend to make it the final version. I just wonder if anyone has encountered any additional bugs, not previously discussed above.

Version 0.96 will so far fix the following issues:

- No possibility of enemy spawn during outro, this was sometimes caused by a faulty ACM module setting.

- No more weird conversations with friendlies, this was caused by the setCaptive command in combination with the built-in conversation system.

- The difficulty and enemy presence will be a little more even through out the mission. The last part in the south can/will now be more eventful.

Please let me know if you have any other bugs or annoyances to report.

I would be very grateful for your input during the last polishing stages of this mission.

Thanks again everyone, you all made this mission designer very happy

Sincerely,

Laggy

Edited July 28, 2009 by laggy

[Reapy 0]

Thanks for the mission, Laggy :)

Very sympatic and funny ambiance, good moments spent with my mates.

Just one thing, once we have grab a truck, nobody tried to stop us on our road to the base. So I find the end a little more easy, but maybe we was in lucky day :)

[Alpha-Kilo 36]

Reaper,

I daresay, this was luck. My group also tried to take a truck and we were spotted by an APC. We dismounted and hid in a village before the APC could shoot. One of us destroyed the APC but there was a skirmish with a few enemies who engaged us on foot.

After this fight we continued our journey with the truck. On a narrow road in a forest we were attacked by a UAZ with a machinegun. This time most of our team were shot down immediately. I was the medic. In this role I avoided the confrontation and jumped off the truck at the first sight of the enemy. I was lucky to make it into the safety of the trees. Soon I was the only survivor. I tried to shoot the gunner but I was killed by a second UAZ I had not even seen.

This was our last attempt to beat this mission using vehicles. The engine sound makes it too difficult to check for enemies. We found hiking and hiding worked better for us. Perhaps I would try it with bicycles if there were any at our disposal, but certainly not with engine-powered vehicles.

Laggy,

Good to see your ban has been lifted!