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Decided this morning that I'm going to cut M14 - Epilogue from the initial release, and I'll release it in the first update (or as soon as it's ready). This is in the interests of getting the Camp out ASAP, so I'll have 2 less cinematics to worry about and I'll have more time to actually make the scenario and work out the voice stuff, etc. I've been really inspired by Far Cry 3 and Skyrim, and would like to give the Epilogue enough time to make it a more detailed "treasure hunt" that allows you to revisit scenes from the Camp and collect intel, hunt down randomly-spawned enemies and IEDs.

So let's hope it will be even better hehe... I am beginning to feel confident that this Campaign will go over well, and perhaps for some players it will be up there with BIS-released content or Op: Cobalt / Blood on the Sand (which set the standard in my eyes). If people who have played one of my SP Scenarios enjoyed them, they will get more to like in Lions. My style of editing is pretty simple and rather safe, but I tried to bring as much variety into the missions as possible, within the confines of Rusty's actual story. The intros/outros are going well- they serve their purpose either by providing a closer look at the story, or by helping set the stage for the missions by showing conditions in the AO. Good progress last night saw me get through the outro for M8 and the intro to M9. Should be able to get even more done in the next day or two.

Things are getting a bit intense-- my obsession with this project is at what I hope is the height, feels like it's getting a bit unhealthy. Talk about an artist suffering for his art-- my mind is constantly occupied with this Campaign, I sometimes have dreams about the story, or dreams that I'm trapped in the editor somehow haha. It's tough to focus sometimes when I'm not working on this project, but I know that this Camp has the potential to be really well-received, and I'm at the home stretch here basically. Just need to finish off these cinematics and make the fixes uncovered during testing and then I can have a break and maybe do a short and quick SP scenario release.

As cool as the RG-31 is, and as excited as I am to do something with it, the MRAP will not be making an appearance in LoK-- it wasn't mentioned anywhere in the story, ODA331 used GMVs (Ground Motor Vehicles), assault-customized HMMWVs that are approximated by the SOV from vanilla OA. I would like to do something more recent in a separate project, with the OCP (multicam) uniforms, MRAPs, and other fun details, but that is one in a bucket of a dozen ideas to play with after LoK. Been working through the intros/outros-- finished M6 outro, M7 intro/outro, and M8 intro. Working on M8 outro, still a good bit of work left. The release date may have to be pushed back a week or two. The cinematics are good (in my own humble opinion), so they're worth taking the time to perfect.

To be honest, I was highly disappointed with IF-L, felt like it was a waste of money. They should release this DLC for free to people who already paid for a game that was broken and never fixed. I44, on the other hand, was more technically-sound and was for free. Unless the IF-L and this DLC actually works and isn't entirely ridden with bugs, then I'll stick with I44, thanks.

Downloading now, excited! Sounds like I'm in for a treat, thanks to the HitP team!

Fantastic work guys! The texture and modelling detail is excellent-- love the bottled water and MREs in the cargo on the shelves, all the little wires and things, the details that make the vehicle such an ugly mother (I mean that in the nicest way) but one you feel safe riding around in. I'd love to find a way to add this to a scenario. Any plans to create some simple variants for different branches of the US military or other countries? The RG-31 is the MRAP of choice for the UN, according to the Wikipedia, and is used by a ton of different countries. Would be cool to see some more variants than USMC in the future. EDIT: I see you can change the branch there in the readme, astounding! Also, not to be overly critical, but since this is v1.0 and may actually be able to be changed-- the headlights look a bit strange to me, like the texture is magnified. I think the textures of the vehicles as a whole would be 100% perfect if the headlights were tweaked. No bugs observed so far. EDIT: And going through the readme, hats off on such comprehensive editor functionality! If BIS ever did an official community addons pack, I'd vote for this one to be in it simply for how comprehensive the animations are. EDIT 2: Any plans to light up the dash when the vehicle's headlights are on at night time? I know there's NVGs, but man that would be so cool if the dashboard was lit.

Testing for Missions 1-5 by a small core group has been yielding some very helpful feedback! Here are a couple of the more positive points of feedback: Meanwhile, I figured out how to get custom cutRsc's working, so the intro sequence is even cooler now with the LoK logo and my HeadUp logo in there. Also added more music, including some authentic Afghan Star pop music, because even though the Taliban tried to outlaw music as sacrilegious, the Afghan people demand their tunes!

Thanks for posting the link to those missions! You should have that link on the Armaholic download page, as a newcomer to this mod I would have missed it if I were less observant.

You mean the briefing.html dialogue that actually displays the debrief text? As for the story, I really could see how the player goes from an innocent (or is he, does he have a dark past even before the Guglovo tragedy) villager with a knack for hunting and perhaps some soviet-era military training, into the feared warlord he would eventually become. Perhaps he is forced to make some of the same kinds of morally questionable choices his own enemies made. Would be interesting to see how things change for the brothers as their cause catches like wildfire, perhaps they are catapulted into unlikely positions of immense power and influence.

Cool, nothing wrong with a brief Camp, the BAF one from BI was only a handful, but it was quality. It's cool this is based on the real story too, looking forward to get into it. For voice acting, if you need an American, you know you can call on me. I spent some time in Nanjing studying Mandarin and Economics, and I did well with it when I was immersed in the culture, but at this point, I doubt I'd be able to do a good Chinese voice, those tones just don't come out right. So unless you want an American speaking poor, but not incorrect Mandarin I can't help much.

Thanks to Wiki's help, the issue with Mission 1 is resolved. Kommiekat submitted the last of Dave's voice lines, which means that the 2nd full round of voice acting is done. I am taking care of all un-voiced lines myself, or I'll be sending a couple of PMs to those who did characters with lines I still need. Perhaps in a future update I'll be able to replace our goofy attempts at an Afghan accent with authentic ones, I wasn't able to get together with my friend in time. There will be a brief, closed round of testing for missions 1-5 later this week, while I try to focus on the last few steps before release-- finishing the intros/outros for missions 7-14, adding music and details, and auditing the entire thing to ensure consistency. Stay tuned! EDIT for UPDATE: Closed Testing for Missions 1-5 has begun! I went and completed 99% (only a couple voice lines missing AFAIK) of each mission last night, did a brief test run myself, and then began to send out to my testers. Missions 6-13 should not be far behind. As for the Epilogue, well, I'll get to it when I can.

Very cool, how many missions are in this Camp? Looking forward to playing soon!

Ahh yes, Ali's commander won't be allowed to give you the assistance until "ordered" to do so by Ali. If you take the two other guys in your AFO, as well as the two from Ali, you have all the available squadmates. This strategy makes for a decent enough strike force, but it also makes stealth a little tougher, and there are also the challenges of managing the larger squad. Still, they can be used to try and intercept the HVT while you work on the other obj's.

Hey glad you are enjoying it so far -- I'm not quite sure why this would happen. Hazrat Ali has the action added to him via the editor, so perhaps a restart or giving it a second (sometimes an action takes a little while to load). Other than that I'm afraid I don't have much, other than to suggest you talk to him before you head to OP COBRA A.

Because it would just be easier if this thread had an answer when Googling, here are some of the animations I pulled out of the viewer...turns out they ARE in the moves list, but they're not really specified clearly. Various cheering and clapping moves, that only seem to work with switchMove, not playMove. Cheers :cool:

Lions of Kandahar, the Campaign I was working on (see my sig for the thread) is almost ready for release! Another week or two before a public beta. I spent a lot...and I mean a LOT of time on the hills to the east of Dilshad (Ishfaaq sits at the foot of the main "hill" I think it's called "Nur" which I've made into Sperwan Ghar, the decisive landmass that dictated Op. Medusa in 2006). All in all, I never ran into any major bugs, the AI seems to handle all the roads I've got them on just as well as a BI-released map. Hats off, I'm really excited to be releasing this Camp, I think a few more people will be spending a lot of time in Reshmaan Province in the near future! I did notice in the village of Usaimah there is a pair of houses on a raised stone/brick platform, and the platform is missing it's siding (the 3D portion is invisible) on the opposite side of the one facing the road. I can provide a screen as I continue to test the Camp if needed. Not a big deal, none of the two bugs I've seen in the villages are that bad, in fact it may be one of the model configs you noted was mission in the Known Issues section of the last release. Fantastic release, thanks for this awesome contribution to the community! Proud to be giving it a substantial chunk of content!

Thanks Wiki, I believe you may have seen this issue when you did the early testing play-through - it has to do with the trigger in IED alley not going off when it's supposed to (when a trigger grouped to the player is activated), sometimes one thing happens and not the others until 10 seconds later, sometimes nothing happens at all. I'll PM you all the specifics and upload the mission in question for you to have a look at. Savage, if Wiki is stumped, I'll send it your way. I was going to open up a non-public testing round to you and a few others who have helped me out on this project.

I have a ton of voice work now, almost everything is done. AND EVERYONE SOUNDS GREAT- seriously, thanks to everyone who has gotten involved in this project. The voice recordings are all excellent for what they need to do, we're not talking about Gary Oldman as Victor Reznov, we're talking about gamers coming together to help a modder achieve a vision, it's heartwarming in a sense. OK so I've laid out the next steps, I'll keep you guys updated. I simply set the Video settings to Very High. My framerate tanks, but it's just so pretty, what a powerful engine RV is. EDIT for UPDATE: I mastered and flowed in all the voice acting from everyone - 90-95% of the voice acting is now done!! I will ensure everything is perfect on that end when I do my final run-through and audit, which is close at hand. Now, I have a pressing issue with Mission #1. I'm considering simply removing the part that is causing an issue. I'm having problems with a script never triggering properly, the frame rate seems to take a hit as well, I'm at a loss for what to do. Perhaps I should wait until I get some testing and suggestions from others?

I have a really unreliable unPBO tool, I could use a stable one for creating the PBO. I would be fine to send you all the files to pack up when the initial release is ready, if needed. Thanks for the offer! Each and every mission folder, I would think? Maybe not. I have all my music in the fx folder of the individual mission. That's another loose end I need to tie up, there are already a bunch of tracks in there, but I really loved the ambience from the music in For Guglovo. I had been mulling with putting some ambient/drone stuff in the soundtrack but couldn't see it doing anything but being out of place. But it was nailed in For Guglovo, and I can now see where it could fit. Also have a few techno tracks I'm going to put in as "Dave's" DJ picks, the problem is I'm house-centric and all my techno is not aggressive enough for what I'd imagine Dave to have been into. Either way, you'll get a taste of my music library in the Camp.

In case anyone of us non-French speakers are wondering how to pronounce Châteauneuf-du-Pape: Anyway, I had a chance yesterday to record all the voice lines I had assigned myself (mostly just Rusty), and put together the overview images. Pretty soon it'll be time to start packing everything up. I've never tried putting together a Campaign .pbo, but I've read about it and it looks like you just need to have a special Description.ext file in the root directory. The other thing I need to look into is whether you need any special code to get intros/outros to run, or if they do so automatically. If anyone has insight on either to offer, that'd be helpful and appreciated! So what remains is to master the voice stuff and drop it in, address any missing lines (I am going to need to do something about all the Afghan characters who don't have voice acting), finish off the intros/outros, and add a couple of final details. If anyone feel like they could do a good Afghan/Paki/Indian-sounding accent, please let me know, I could use a bit of assistance.

Played through this one last night, probably the first time I've taken a break from my own project in over a month. Really enjoyed this one, the story really got my imagination going is strong because you are meeting the player half-way, letting them fill in the rest of the details. The voice acting is minimal but very solid, and the mission design felt very much like one of those from the vanilla campaign. Would really like to see this project turn into a campaign of some sort, by the time it was over I was hungry for more action, and more importantly, I was interested in where the story would go. Good work!

No need to apologize yet, dude. I haven't gone through and mastered/dropped in the voice acting sound files yet-- though this will likely happen later in the week/weekend. Since I've got the dialogue set up already, all I need to do is drop the files into the proper "radio" folder and they should work automatically. Should be pretty easy. There will be a handful of characters who will still need some voice acting done. Any that I am not able to do myself I'll try to have someone else work on. We're getting close, folks. We're getting reeeeeal close.

Last night, I got the dialogue sorted for Missions 12 and 13 -- essentially, as I go through and add the lines, it forces me to finalize almost all aspects of the mission. So, all I have left to do this for are Missions 10 and 14 (which still needs to be written), along with a few minor adjustments to Missions 1, 5, 9 and 10. Then all I need to finish off is the intros/outros. Things will be ready for a round of closed testing with only partial voice acting pretty soon. I'll try to address any obvious or easy fixes before public release. Early December is still looking like a good ETA. Now, why don't you get acquainted with some of the main characters of the story: Rusty - Team Leader, Talon 31 - The author of the book, much of the story is told through his perspective. He is a humble but effective leader who cares for his men more than anything else, even his own well-being. Jared - Company Commander, Talon 30 - The commander of ODA 331, Jared acts as Command & Control element throughout the campaign. Bill - Team Sgt, Talon 31 - A supporting character, basically Rusty's assistant TL, you play as Bill in Mission 5 and the Epilogue. Dave - Engineer, Talon 31 - Dave is responsible for the team's vehicles, but he goes above and beyond any chance he gets. You play as Dave in Missions 7, 11, and 12. Brian - Sr. Comms Sgt, Talon 31 - Brian is the communications tech responsible for keeping all the radio equipment in working order. Riley - Sr. Medical Sgt, Talon 31 - Riley plays a dual role as both medic and machine gunner. His courage and calmness under fire is legendary. Zack - Weapons Sgt, Talon 31 - Zack is the team's weapons sergeant, ensuring you have access to any weapons available during the briefing (each mission allows you to customize your loadout during the briefing with various weapons depending on the mission) Smitty - Intel Sgt, Talon 31 - Smitty is the team's intelligence analyst, you don't interact with him much, but he's there in the end.

Thanks a lot Dibbz! Glad you enjoyed, and 5hrs - whew! Talk about getting the experience of a real op, taking your time to check it out. This is exactly how the mission was designed, but since I myself had played through it hundreds of times as I built it, I never had the opportunity to really take my time. I actually sort of got motion sickness after playing too long, something about all that uneven terrain. As for avoiding detection-- ASR_AI most likely will affect things, as I did not factor these kinds of mods into the experience. However, team size plays a role (you can play with as few as 1 other squadmate), or really just who is actually going into the village to accomplish the objective. For the first village, there is an explosives cache with IEDs, a large IED is more than enough to get the party started. ;)