thobson

4. Cutscenes: There are a total of 15 cutscenes in this mission but because some are mutually exclusive the maximum that could be seen in any one run through is 13. Many players will not get the full 13 but most should experience a minimum of 8 or 9 scenes in a successful run through. In addition, for several scenes the dialogue will be different depending on whether certain things have or have not happened. A complete list of all possible scenes is as follows: 1. Meeting with Tatyana at Vigny 2. First mountain lodge cut scene when the player meets Ruslan, Karl, Erik and Irena. Alexi’s greeting here is different depending on whether: he has spoken with Tatyana or not; has previously killed one of the civilians at the lodge or not; arrives on foot or in a vehicle; arrives carrying a weapon or totally unarmed. 3. First civilian hut where the player meets Yuri. 4. Second mountain lodge cutscene when Alexi takes the first group of civilians back to the lodge. This scene is different depending on whether (i) they arrive back on foot or in a vehicle; (ii) Yuri is alive or not; (iii) Any of the rescued civilians have been killed or not. 5. Second civilian hut where Alexi meets Marek and Pavel. The dialogue is different depending on whether the north and south armies are already fighting. 6. Meeting with Sergei at Houdan. The dialogue is different depending on whether: (i) the north and south armies are already fighting; (ii) Alexi has or has not already visited La Trinite. 7 to 10. Woman at Dourdan: Scene 1: if Alexi visits her before Sergei has told him about her. Scene 2: First visit after Alexi has been told about her. The dialogue is different depending on whether Sergei is dead, badly injured, or not badly injured. Scene 3: Alexi has already spoken to her (Scene 2), but has not yet visited her home in Larche Scene 4: Alexi has already spoken to her (Scene 2), and has visited her home in Larche. Not a scene as such – but something different happens if you try to repeat scene 4. 11 to 14. Le Port Concentration Camp: Scene 1: Alexi arrives at the camp before Pavel (the medic with the second group of civilians) has joined the team. In this case Viktor will join him and there will be no further scenes here. Scene 2: Alexi arrives at the camp after Pavel has joined the team and Pavel is still alive. In this case Viktor will not join and Scene 4 below becomes a possibility. Scene 3: Alexi first arrives at the camp after Pavel has joined and then subsequently killed. In this case Viktor will join and there will be no further scenes here. Scene 4: (only possible after Scene 2): Alexi returns to the camp after Pavel has been killed. In this case Viktor will join and there will be no further scenes here. 15. Endscene when the mission has been completed successfully. In the endscene the player is shown all of his team members, the living ones first and next those that have died. There is some sad music playing while looking at the dead ones, the track chosen depends on how long it has to play for and so will depend on how many casualties your team took. Also there is a shot of ‘The innocent’. If you have visited the woman at Dourdan after visiting her house in Larche, then you will see her again here. If you did not discover her fate then the shot you get in this scene is of the dead civilians by the truck south of Houdan. 5. Trade: It will become clear to the player during the mission that La Trinite is a special place. Sergei tells the player that the two sides are trading there. This trade is simulated as follows: there are two huts at La Trinite and road convoys running back and forth between the two main bases (Chapoi in the south and the airbase in the north) and La Trinite. The content of the huts and the ammo tucks in the convoys represent the trading taking place. When the northern convoy travels from the airbase to La Trinite it carries rifles, hand guns and associated ammunition. When the southern convoy travels from Chapoi to La Trinite it carries mainly explosives, rockets and associated weapons. When a convoy arrives at La Trinite the weapons and ammo carried by the convoy are placed in ammo crates in one of the huts and the weapons and ammo in the other hut are placed in the ammo truck in the convoy. The convoy then returns to its base. So the contents of the huts at La Trinite will depend on which convoy last visited the town and the contents of the ammo truck in the convoy will depend on whether it is travelling north (Chapoi to La Trinite, La Trinite to the airbase) or south (airbase to La Trinite, La Trinite to Chapoi). Note that the soldiers are not good record keepers so if some of the stuff they leave at La Trinite goes missing then no one notices. J There is one further refinement. Each side will take strong exception to any damage being done to its hut at La Trinite. If a convoy arrives at La Trinite and finds its hut destroyed then they are likely to call in some infantry – with obvious consequences when the other side’s convoy arrives.

2. Tactics: This is a mission where there are a lot of soldiers and many of them are on guard so if you make your presence known and stay in one place long enough they will find you. The key to winning is to survive while whittling them down. Hit and run, especially run. It doesn’t matter if the hit is only one soldier – it is one less for you to deal with later. It is standard OFP that if you hit and wound a soldier – he knows about you, so his group knows about you and the guard units on his side also know about you – it doesn’t matter if the next shot kills him you are a marked man. In the early stages of the mission when you have an inexperienced team and very little ammunition, just get out of there. The key priority should be to do them damage and survive. Later you might have the chance to leave a few mines around your position as you leave as a little present for any armour that might come looking for you. In fact this is a good way of dealing with the armour in the mission. A better way is mentioned below (though my long-term preference remains the satchel charge) La Trinite is a good place to get weapons and ammo as this is where each side leaves the goods they are trading. However there is a complication, at any one time only the ammo crates of one side are available at La Trinite. Depending on which side most recently visited the town you may find one set of crates with only rifles and hand guns and associated ammo in them, or you may find crates with rockets, explosives and associated weapons. You cannot get all you want on a single visit to the town, you need to dodge the visiting convoys to build up your weapon pool. Also if you kill the ammo truck in one of the convoys the trade will cease and La Trinite will get no more weapons or ammo. If your presence at La Trinite is detected, and especially if you attack one of the convoys, then the chances of you being able to get any more weapons from there is very slim. Note that in keeping with the sloppiness of the southern army the crates in the southern hut are untidy (randomly), and in keeping with the efficiency of the northern army you will find a medical cabinet in their hut. I said above that a good way of dealing with armour is to scatter some mines around when you leave a position known to the enemy. A better way is to get the other side to kill it, the choppers are particularly good for this. Get north and south fighting each other (see War Trigger below). So that is it: don’t attack the convoys until you have got all the weapons you want; don’t get spotted in or near La Trinite; don’t kill the choppers until it is absolutely necessary; and don’t forget the ‘run’ in hit-and-run. Just in case it is not clear after all this – don’t go attacking any of the main bases until very very late on!! 3. Player’s Environmental options: The player is given the option at the start of the mission to select either: Full Environmental effects, or Reduced Environmental effects. This feature is provided to enable players with low spec PCs to reduce the load on their CPU by removing some of the environmental effects available in the full mission. The gameplay will be exactly the same, what will be missing are various sights and sounds that add to the atmosphere. I chose to allow the player to make the selection rather than doing it myself based on the benchmark of the player’s PC for the following reasons: 1. Some players with low spec PCs may wish to play with all the environmental features selected and be prepared to suffer the resultant lag. 2. The results returned by the benchmark command are not a reliable indicator of the performance of a PC. Low spec, high lag PCs have been known to return higher benchmark results than more highly powered machines that suffer from less lag. The results of choosing the Reduced Environmental Effects are: 1. No custom burn/smoke script for destroyed armour. 2. No environmental sounds (birds, dogs, owls, electricity generators, wolf packs, eerie music at Sainte Marie). (See Environmental sounds below) 3. No civilians peeping from houses (see Elusive Civilian Population below). 4. The number of custom AV and AP mines will be halved, from 10 AV and 20 AP mines to 5 AV and 10 AP mines. 5. The flags carried by the leader of several groups will not transfer to the new leader when the previous leader is killed (see Flags with mobile groups below)

1. Story – high level overview: Go to Vigny, get the voiceover at the various bodies you find there. Talk to Tatyana and find out about the mountain lodge. The voiceovers for the bodies are only available before you speak with Tatyana, not after – they would be out of context after speaking with her. Go to the Mountain Lodge, find a resistance solder and three civilians. Find out about the fate of Uncle Nikolai. Listen to the radio message and find out about a group of civilians. Bring the first group of civilians back to the mountain lodge. Providing they all survive the journey you find out about a second group of civilians and are told about two women captured in Houdan. Team members give you conflicting advice on what to do next. At the second group of civilians you are joined by a resistance soldier and then later by a resistance medic. You are also told about a third group of civilians. If you do find this third group you will come across one of the many atrocities on the island. At Houdan you are joined by a Russian soldier, providing you don’t kill him first! If you do kill him that is okay – you will just play a different mission. The Russian soldier gives you a lot of information about the armies and also tells you that the two women from Houdan you are looking for have been sent to Chapoi. The information you get here includes: - the armies are trading with each other and they are using La Trinite to make the exchanges – a good place to check out; - helicopters are patrolling continuously, the real purpose for this is for each side to know how strong the other side is, if one side is very weak then the other side may launch an all out attack. When reordering your team the Russian soldier tells you of a seriously ill woman in Dourdan. Providing of course you haven’t got him killed before you do this, in which case you will not find out about this woman. The woman in Dourdan tells you about (1) all the citizens of Sainte Marie being taken away to Chapoi by the soldiers; (2) her husband and family in Larche – she gives you a map. The map is a picture that you can display via a radio trigger. When you get to the woman’s house in Larche you get a voiceover about the fate of her family. If you return to her to give her the news you will also discover her fate. When you get to Chapoi you may see the citizens of Sainte Marie escaping, any that are not killed in the escape attempt will die in the minefield at Sainte Marie. So more bad news for the woman you found at Dourdan. When you get to Stamenov’s HQ you hear the two women from Houdan being shot by Stamenov. If you visit Le Port you will find a concentration camp containing the surviving male inhabitants of the southern towns. There is a medic amongst them who will join you if you have no medic in your team. This would happen either because Pavel (the medic at the second group of civilians) has been killed or has not yet joined you. Note that Le Port does not feature in the story and no one tells you about the place – but you might notice the road-block on the road leading down there and wonder what it is about. At various places you may come across groups of murdered civilians where there will be an appropriate voiceover. Once you have captured one of the bases you will find damaged armour units in a repair facility. The ability to repair, re-arm and re-fuel these units is provided so the player has the possibility of a different experience when attacking the other base. Throughout the mission you may notice a lot of little things (damaged vehicles, vehicles with little fuel, untidy ammo crates etc.) that indicates the difference between the two armies on the island. The northern army is ruthless and efficient. The southern army is sloppy but brutal.

August 2016: As the link to the document has since been irrevocably broken I have copied and pasted (with permission) the full text of the document below as posts 11 to 27 (It was too long to all go in one post). Apologies that some of the formatting has got screwed in the process. The reason for putting it here after all this time is that apparently there are some who are playing this mission Also it is good to have a complete historical record. Abandoned Armies v1.40 Design Notes/Spoilers Things that might not be noticed by the player the first few times the mission is played but which might enhance the experience for subsequent attempts. This should not be read until you have played the mission completely through at least once. This document should be read in conjunction with the Readme file Contents: 1. Story – high level overview: 2. Tactics: 3. Player’s Environmental options: 4. Cutscenes: 5. Trade: 6. Stolen vehicles: 7. Stationary Flags: 8. Flags with mobile groups: 9. Elusive Civilian Population: 10. Atrocities: 11. Random Weapons: 12. Incomplete magazine load-out: 13. Officers: 14. Prison break from Chapoi: 15 OFP Bug – Re-arming empty armoured units: 16. Sainte Marie minefield: 17. ‘Ear candy’ Choppers and mad women: 18. Soldiers Surrender/runaway: 19. War trigger: 20. All out attack - Plan of attack: Andropov (Northern Army): Stamenov (Southern Army) A Counter-attack Player involvement 21. Weather: 22. Convoys and Patrols: Convoys meeting at La Trinite: Vehicles sharing the same piece of road: Non-lead vehicles getting stuck: Lead vehicles getting stuck Vehicles being damaged 23. Convoy guards: 24. Re-boarding the convoy at La Trinite: 25 Another strange bug: 26. Music players in vehicles: 27. Environmental sounds: 28. Visiting the offshore islands: 29. Messages when re-organising the team: 30. Skill levels: 31. Save Games: 32. Visiting the locations out of sequence: 33. Different dialogue in the cutscenes: Le Port Concentration Camp cutscene(s) 34. State of bodies: 35. Driving over soldiers: 36. Avoiding conflicting messages: 37. De-Bugging and Testing: 38. Other stuff: Appendix 1 – Instructions for Testing the Mission Appendix 2 – Statistics

That really is most kind of you. Many thanks.

www.OFPinfo.com seems to no longer exist, or am I using the wrong URL? I am in touch with OFPEC but given there are threads here on the mission I thought it might be useful to have it here where I think there are more active users. There is already a thread here called something like Abandoned Armies Secrets Revealed (mostly) and so I thought it would be good to link it there if possible. I suppose I could just copy and paste it in to a post on that thread, but it is nearly 40 pages long and I doubt the moderators would be happy with that.

Thank you that is much appreciated. The problem is I do not have anywhere to store the file for me to link to it. Is there a way I can upload and attach a pdf file to a post? As you can probably tell I have been out of touch for quite some time. As for repeating the mission on ArmA3 or anywhere else: I have given some help to others who wanted to write something similar and all my scripts were well commented to explain how they worked. Making that mission was good for me given what else was going on in my life at that time but that mission took over my life for nearly two years and I don't have the time or energy to do anything like that again. I will leave that to other, younger, people.

@Macser, Yes I am wanting to put the file up myself. @.kjui I have looked through the BIKI, many thanks. In fact I now remember putting some editing information there many years ago. What I don't see though is a logical place to to put the Abandoned Armies design note document. Nothing there seems to be mission specific. There is a thread here called something like Abandoned Armies Secrets Revealed - or some such. It is the links in that thread that are broken. I could provide a word file or a pdf file but I have no idea how to link them now, alternatively I could just put the whole of the text in a post on that thread. As this is a very old mission and people have moved on to other things I don't want to upset anyone by this.

Many thanks for this vote of confidence, it really is much appreciated. Please bear in mind that I have been away from all this for a very long time so please help. What/where is BIKI and can I attach a document to it? All the best

I'm glad you liked it.

A few months ago a beta version of Abandoned Armies was prematurely released into the wild, well I have now finished it and it is finally ready for the public. *** If anyone is interested <s>it is available from the ofpec site here</s> EDIT 12 February 2006: The ofpec site is down so the above link will not work. Get it here instead Edit October 2006: OFPEC is now back so you can get it here and read the OFPEC review There have been many improvements and fixes since the earlier beta version. ***I hope some of you like it.

@riffleman. I am not sure if you had a question. If you want an idea what to do I suggest you help the attacking army. I will be wiped out but the more damage it does the less you will have to face later. @seeniya. The simplest way to start the war is to put some mines where the convoys will hit them at La Trinite. You need to use the standard OPF mines and you need only to place them where one convoy will travel, but make sure it is close to the town. Try putting some by the church. The best way to start a war is to only attack one side, kill its units, especially tanks and capture the front line towns eventually you will weaken the side so much the other side will attack - assuming you have not killed the choppers.

Well done. It usually takes me nearly 24 hours. I like to take my time and anyway it takes me a long time to collect all the weapons I need from La Trinite. As you can imagine getting NV goggles is a priority for me as I do alot of fighting at night, the jeep patrols are good for that.

Just make the island safe for the civilians, and enjoy the experience.

You do not need the spoiler, you just need patience. A small team like yours cannot successfully attack these main bases, yet. Think about how you can whittle them down.

Yes. As I said in the readme file. Use OFP with the editor upgrade I provide with the mission and with nothing else. Many of the unofficial addons do very strange things to missions. In most missions they will not be noticed, in this mission they are.

The visibility should be okay by 14:00. It does get better, and then worse again, during the day. The best weather is at 16:00. Some people had problems with visibility if they had downloaded some addons that 'improved' the experience. I believe I mentioned that in the readme file. You might wish to check that you have no unofficial addons.

Also bumped in view of the recent interest expressed by a new thread being opened.

Given that a new thread has been started on this I thought I should bump this one to save people looking

No need to start a new thread. Look here for the originals. Original Mission thread Spoiler thread

In short - yes. Your use of addons is also causing you to have very poor visibility when it rains. From your description (finding the armed civis - but them not talking to you) it is clear that the object IDs on your map are different from those in the standard map - so a lot of things in the mission will now not work correctly. Also buildings that should be destroyed will not be and some that should not be will be destroyed, guards will be looking in the wrong direction etc.etc.Best of luck with your attempt with a clean installation.

1) No I have no plans to make a mission for Arma 2) You are right a resistance army of only 12 is not right, but what I had here was not an army but a rag tag bunch of assorted resistance solders, desperate civilians and a deserter with a conscience. Â I wanted the player to have feelings for each member of the team, I wanted it to be personal. Â Originally I was trying for a team of only 7 then I could have made references to medieval Japanese samurai etc. but the plot flowed and I got a team of 10 (yes I know most people will only get 9, but it possible to get 10). 3) As for the limit of 12 in a group and 63 groups each side for east and west: I came nowhere near these limits.

I suppose I could have used absolute grid references, but that would be seriously tedious. Â Imagine destroying all those buildings, fences etc. without using object IDs!!

Coincidentally someone has just e-mailed me about this (was it you?) Â I have been away on holiday hence the slow reply. Â Here is my e-mail reply, which did solve the problem: The mission is so large that I had to make a lot of use of the location of objects on the map rather than use triggers to help cut down on lag so any modification to the island that changes object IDs willcause problems. I have also found that some other unofficial addons also cause problems even though they are not used in the mission.

Apologies for the delayed response. Â Many thanks for your comment R0adk11. Â Much appreciated. Â Just in case anyone is still playing this mission and thinks they have found everything, there is a complete spoiler document to be found on this thread.