BETA testing of new missions

Campaign using BIS standard units

Moderators: Lone Wolf, Snake Man

User avatar
The_Avon_Lady
Recruit
Posts: 58
Joined: 2002-10-27 17:50:41
Contact:

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by The_Avon_Lady » 2003-07-30 13:10:16

Mission Rolling Promise: the Abrams did everything for me except knocking out one almost dead T72 and killing one surviving BMP crew member running around outside of Chapoi.
The Avon Lady
MPO: theavonlady@theavonlady.org
INTEL: THE OFP FAQ

Reacher
1st Lt
Posts: 104
Joined: 2003-05-31 19:46:26

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Reacher » 2003-07-31 22:50:17

Finally reached Nogova! What a treat! (I thought) :(

Novgova Airstrip: This mission will not end. The island is small enough that no one could hide. Spent a long time searching, no one left... mission would not end.

Pink Air: Same thing. Mission would not end. Killed 3 BMP's, 2 Fastboats and 1 MI-17. Nothing left to kill.

Nite Play: Nothing happens. There are 3 or 4 enemy choppers that try to approach the island, but they're shot down quickly. After that... Nothing. I went from one end of the island to the other, waiting for something to happen. Never fired a shot. A trigger or something is missing. Everyone just stands around with nothing to do.

I re-tried each one of these missions, (reverted), a couple of times, but nothing helped.

Reacher

Reacher
1st Lt
Posts: 104
Joined: 2003-05-31 19:46:26

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Reacher » 2003-08-01 06:06:16

More bad news:

Anatoli's Eyes: Objective: Destroy radio tower. No explosives available. We all end up standing around scratching our nuts looking for something to destroy the tower. LAW Rocket is like shooting it with a cork gun. All soldiers and the one BMP destroyed. Still no way to destroy the tower. I even left the moutaintop and went to the extraction site, but had earlier noticed that I had no way to call for extraction. I'm assuming I had to complete the objective before given the opportunity to call the chopper.
Frustrating

Blue Relief: I knew I was in trouble when the chopper that took us to the insertion site, crashed after lifting off to return to base. It did this 4 straight times. Anyway, I finished the mission and got the hostages to the extraction point. I then called for the chopper to pick us up. No response, nothing left to do.

I'm not sure what's going on, but so far every mission I've played on Nogova has been bugged, most of which is a failure for the mission to end. Some missions never really started.

Sorry, but that's what I'm finding. :-/

Reacher
PS: Is anyone else playing these missions?

Snake_Man

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Snake_Man » 2003-08-01 11:01:53

I dont comment on individual missions, but if I recall PMC Fury missions are rather old now and I'm not sure if 1.91 was out at the time I created them.

When I have more time from my holiday mood, I'll take a look at them.

Reacher
1st Lt
Posts: 104
Joined: 2003-05-31 19:46:26

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Reacher » 2003-08-14 15:06:09

Snake, when you finally decide to come off vacation... ;) take a look at mission Op Liberty. Not only is this an extremely difficult mission, (ok with that), but the lag is terrible. You introduce at least 12 T-72's and 5 or 6 more BMP's right in the middle of a major firefight with infantry. The lag is awful and makes the mission unplayable.

My system:
AMD 1.5 Athlon
Soyo Dragon Plus KT-266A DDR MB
GeForce 4 ti 4600 Vid card (128 MB Ram)
768 Meg DDR Ram

I have the graphics turned as low as I can get them and still use an 800 X 600 resolution. Anything less than that and you might as well turn off the computer.

Great mission! Just unable to play with the terrible lag.

Thanks
Reacher

Reacher
1st Lt
Posts: 104
Joined: 2003-05-31 19:46:26

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Reacher » 2003-08-23 22:49:08

Snake, found a couple more problem areas that you might wish to address:

Mission: Beach Broom - Something is kicking me back to the desktop. No other mission I've played of any of your campaigns does this. It seemed to occur when the first BMP is heading up the road to the lighthouse... (I think) Anyway, it just shuts everything down and sends me to desktop hell.

Mission: Final Invasion - This mission won't end. I believe that part of the next mission is being revealed. I clear both objectives, (as indicated), I get the congratulations from Papa Bear, and I wait for the mission to end. It doesn't. It could be me, but I tried everything I know.

thanks

Reacher

Reacher
1st Lt
Posts: 104
Joined: 2003-05-31 19:46:26

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Reacher » 2003-09-04 14:31:01

Beta Test Update

I have no idea how many missions I've run so far in this campaign, but it must be close to 70 probably more! What I have noticed is once the action shifted to Nogova, the missions have become much more challenging and frankly, tough as hell. I am noticing far fewer bugs which is also good.

I currently am on a mission, (actually a series of missions), called Scud Hunt 2. I am on the third and final mission of this series, and I have to say, it is one of the hardest and most challenging missions I've EVER played in OFP, (and that covers a helluva lot of missions!) :)

I have been running this one mission, (Scud Hunt 2 the last mission), so long that, what started out at mid-morning has turned into a night mission! I wondered why Snake outfitted the squad with NVG's. ;D In this group of 3 missions, you have to keep your guys alive and conserve your ammo because what you have at the end of the first mission is what you'll have going into the next... etc.

Well, without getting into the gist of this mission, I really like it simply because it challenges you to use every single skill that you've ever developed playing OFP.

I'm not sure if anyone else is running this campaign, (since I rarely see any postings on it), but if anyone is looking for some missions that rock, then give this campaign a whirl.

Just allow yourself plenty of time because I have a feeling this campaign has over a hundred missions, maybe more. And that is just part two of the overall Fury campaign!

Some are fairly easy, and frankly, some are kinda boring, but don't let that fool you. The good stuff will arive. ;)

Very nice work, Snake

Reacher

Snake_Man

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Snake_Man » 2003-09-04 15:35:31

Thanks for the bug reports and feedback. I've stayed away from PMC Fury work for some time and right now I'm working on the NAM stuff which keeps me busy at least few weeks.

I'll surely will return to PMC Fury when time allows and fix all the reported bugs as best I can. So keep on posting a feedback it will be surely read and appreciated.

Reacher
1st Lt
Posts: 104
Joined: 2003-05-31 19:46:26

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Reacher » 2003-09-10 04:56:09

Bug Report - Nogova New Year (I believe this is mission #167 in the new section of Fury missions, (starting with #62 I believe).

This is supposed to be an airial/tank asswhupping to the Russians while us grunts get to watch.

In truth, the view is great and the 2 west choppers do a decent job until they run out of ammo. The tanks never show up. As a result, me and 8 other guys with 2 LAW launchers have about 15 T-80's, 15 T-72's and no telling how many BMP's and a whole shitload of enemy soldiers to fight. Needless to say, we didn't do well.

I've restarted the mission 3 different times and let it run for up to 30 minutes, but still no West tanks.

Can you fix it so that the tanks do show up? I'd bet this is a really nice mission to play if it's right.

Thanks
Reacher

Reacher
1st Lt
Posts: 104
Joined: 2003-05-31 19:46:26

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Reacher » 2003-09-16 19:16:51

Bug Report:

Mission Name:

Party Night and Distant Glow
Neither mission will end. Both missions take place near the big bridge. If I remember correctly, missions around this bridge have been plagued with bugs. Also, I believe it is Distant Glow, the soldiers will not completely cross the bridge. I tried single file and more, but they get about 3/4 of the way across and then refuse to move any further. When I tried to move them back to our side of the bridge, 3 of the soldiers jumped off the bridge, to their deaths, obviously.

Mission Name:

Silent Sparrow

Not sure if this is a bug or not, but the Apache helicopter that is supposed to take out the armor, destroys maybe 1 or 2 tanks and then he bugs out. Tried it a few times with the same result. Now, the mission can be beaten but it's tough having to take out so many tanks not to mention dodging the infantry.

I think I'm the only one left on the planet that is still playing PMC-Fury... ;) I gotta say the missions are getting extremely more fun to play and are very challenging.

Reacher 8)

Taconic
Recruit
Posts: 13
Joined: 2003-09-27 18:30:10

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Taconic » 2003-09-28 01:50:25

I know I'm a bit late on this, but I figured I'd offer some critisisms in case you're still working on it.

1: The end mission triggers really need to be reworked on almost every mission. You'll never see a mission in the real world that wouldn't be complete if a lone enemy was hiding in a bush 2km away. I've literally had to endmission 1/2 of the campaign because I didn't want to spend 20 minutes searching for that last enemy to end the mission.

2: I don't mean this in an offensive way or anything, but it seems like you went for sheer quanity over quality. 248 missions is indeed an impressive number, but I noticed a good number of what I'd call "filler" missions in the campaign. Now don't get me wrong, there are some cool missions that I really liked, but there were some that I did not find fun or interesting at all.
Some examples:

-The blackhawk ride early on in the campaign. It's rather pointless and doesn't serve any real purpose.
-Many of the "clear the forest" missions. Beyond it being unlikely that the same platoon is going to be ordered to clear every forest in an AO, it gets kind of repetetive and boring.

My suggestion would be to cut the "filler" missions. The player doesn't need to take every inch of the theater. I think that doing that would make the missions that are cool and unique shine more. Either that or maybe focus less on new missions and more on polishing what you've already got. Either way I think that you should try to ensure that each mission is special or a little different.

3: You might want to get an editor to go over the briefings and stringtable (if that's what you're using for radio messages, anyway) and give them a bit of polish.


Don't take this as me being down on it or anything - I thought there were some really cool missions in it. Missions I've replayed a bunch because they simply worked really well. I just think the campaign has the potential to be much better.

Reacher
1st Lt
Posts: 104
Joined: 2003-05-31 19:46:26

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Reacher » 2003-09-28 04:53:37

Kurayami, I happen to agree with most, if not all you said. I have no idea where I am as far as the number of missions completed or left to complete. All I know is I'm on Nogova, and have been for quite some time. I assume this is the last island of the campaign.

You were dead on about the "filler missions". I almost stopped running the campaign after coming across a few of those early. But since being on Nogova, the missions have gotten sharper, more difficult and a lot of fun to run.

I've had the same problem as you with missions that won't end. Either the trigger was fouled up or an ememy had fled the area. Missions near the bridges on Nogova have been a disaster for the most part.

Also, same thing... there can be a firefight in progress and the mission will end, if the objective was taken, (according to the briefing.)

My biggest beef has been with the lack of weapon selection. The inconsistancy of weapons is also irritating... for example, for some reason, pistols are furnished to the squad in a few missions, some pistols are available from ammo crates or enemy ammo crates. But most missions do not offer this choice.

Since the LAW soldiers are the worst shots in the world with the rocket launcher, I end up taking it away from #4 prior to the mission starting, thus becoming the 2nd LAW soldier on the mission.

I've corresponded with Snake on the weapon selection issue, and he said that he was going to "fix that". But I think the problem is Snake has a lot of irons in the fire with newer campaigns. And to take on the re-design or additions of a campaign the size of Fury has to be a monumental task.

Would I recommend Fury to other OFP fans? Yes, definitely. The campaign has too many good points to allow some of the weaker points to prevent recommendation.

There are missions in Fury that are some of the best and most difficult I've ever run into. I also have played some of them several times, just for the experience.

As with Kurayami, I am NOT knocking Snake's work or his efforts. This is a beta campaign, and Snake asked for beta reports from players. I only offer constructive criticism to help make this a great campaign.

Reacher

Snake_Man

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Snake_Man » 2003-09-28 05:58:17

in case you're still working on it.
Lack of recent updates for PMC Fury doesn't mean its not supported anymore.

PMC Fury is and will be supported until we reach v1.0 RELEASE status, then again when OFP 2 comes out I hope to convert it to that.
it seems like you went for sheer quanity over quality. 248 missions is indeed an impressive number, but I noticed a good number of what I'd call "filler" missions in the campaign.
Partly true.

If we look at the PMC history books, the time I started PMC Fury it was OFP v1.20 and I believe OFP v1.30 patch had just came out or so. Now the first version of this campaign was massive 31 missions... then there was "PMC Fury Part 2" to complete the Everon war and mission numbers rise to 60.

Lot of time passed... I got bored and started to work on the Malden, Kolgujev and Nogova. At this time I had absolutely and honestly NO mission number in mind, I thought it takes as many missions as required to get every inch of these islands covered. I did not make missions just to get X amount of them into the campaign.

It is true that if I've made one 5 mission campaign the mission quality would be much much better since I'd have all these months to work on only five missions.
My suggestion would be to cut the "filler" missions. The player doesn't need to take every inch of the theater.
Oh but he does, leave no stone unturned heh :)
You might want to get an editor to go over the briefings and stringtable (if that's what you're using for radio messages, anyway) and give them a bit of polish.
Examples please?

Like is it the spell checking, grammar or that radio messages wont reflect to real military style?

Snake_Man

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Snake_Man » 2003-09-28 06:03:10

My biggest beef has been with the lack of weapon selection.
Trust me I'll add weapon selection. PMC Ranger Path and PMC NAM 1965 which are my latest work uses gear/weapon selection and so will be PMC Fury in the future.
And to take on the re-design or additions of a campaign the size of Fury has to be a monumental task.
Well if we still are speaking about the weapon gear, its just to copy paste some description.ext text ... hmm about 240 times, no biggie :)

I might have asked this before (didn't search sorry), but should I use all BIS default weapons or just some to reflect the NATO weapon selection?

Taconic
Recruit
Posts: 13
Joined: 2003-09-27 18:30:10

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Taconic » 2003-09-28 09:57:01

Lack of recent updates for PMC Fury doesn't mean its not supported anymore.

PMC Fury is and will be supported until we reach v1.0 RELEASE status, then again when OFP 2 comes out I hope to convert it to that.
That's good news. People abandon projects far too often in this community. (I'm one of them :P Though, I may one day actally finish what I've started. Especially now that I have until 2005.)
If we look at the PMC history books, the time I started PMC Fury it was OFP v1.20 and I believe OFP v1.30 patch had just came out or so. Now the first version of this campaign was massive 31 missions... then there was "PMC Fury Part 2" to complete the Everon war and mission numbers rise to 60.
I actually haven't even made it off of Everon yet. I'm somewhere in the 50s. It seems that the "interesting" missions are getting closer together... probably a reflection of your increased skill level as you gained experience.
Examples please?

Like is it the spell checking, grammar or that radio messages wont reflect to real military style?
All of the above. It's OK in some places. It's not OK in others. A quick example I could find after DePBOing the campaign:
We start to move along due south. Now we see what we are up against in this island.

No intel to provide you as you are going to be the intel collector in this patrol. We do not have detected any air activity from the Russians yet which seems very odd.

The morning patrol contains two locations to be scouted out. You are part of the three man patrol here, the first objective is to patrol city of Saint Phillippe here and second objective is to check out the hospital here
Things like that could be cleaned up a bit. I mean, it's not like it's a huge deal or anything, but every little bit adds to the overall polish of the finished product.



A couple of questions were raised on the official forum the other day (I don't recall where.) I don't know if you saw them.

Do you plan to make the campaign JAM compatible?
Somebody mentioned something about you using Earl and Suchey's MARPAT Marines in the future as well...

Reacher
1st Lt
Posts: 104
Joined: 2003-05-31 19:46:26

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Reacher » 2003-09-28 13:35:55

Trust me I'll add weapon selection. PMC Ranger Path and PMC NAM 1965 which are my latest work uses gear/weapon selection and so will be PMC Fury in the future.
That is great news, Snake. When I first started with Fury, (your addition to the original Fury Campaign), I wasn't a real fan of pure infantry missions. But I have to say that since running as many missions as I have in PMC Fury, I'm getting to where I enjoy them. An occassional mission that allows me to utilize a tank or other form of armor is nice as well.

One other thing that I left out of my last post. Lag. A few of the missions that have lots of armor on the ground plus air activity are extremely difficult to run due to lag. It is nothing more than just too much going on at one time. I have a fast computer and a great video card, so for me to suffer lag tells me that those with average systems will find some missions unplayable. I made some notes somewhere regarding a few recent missions on Nogova, but cannot find them. All involved a lot of tanks, both East and West, and choppers.

I have noticed that for quite some time on Nogova, you eliminated enemy choppers in the missions. I'm not sure if that was to reduce lag or simply represent the destruction of the enemies air capabilities.

Looking forward to the upgrades to the campaign.

Reacher

Reacher
1st Lt
Posts: 104
Joined: 2003-05-31 19:46:26

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Reacher » 2003-09-28 13:45:44

I actually haven't even made it off of Everon yet. I'm somewhere in the 50s. It seems that the "interesting" missions are getting closer together... probably a reflection of your increased skill level as you gained experience.


Do you plan to make the campaign JAM compatible?
Somebody mentioned something about you using Earl and Suchey's MARPAT Marines in the future as well...
Kurayami: I didn't realize that you had only started the second half of the campaign. (Not off Everon yet.) :) I can assure you that as you go along, there will be some missions that aren't that exciting, but I can also guarantee you that there are quite a few missions you'll encounter that will test every skill you have in OFP. I'm not sure if once the action moves to Nogova if Snake got re-juvenated or what, but the absolute best missions are on Nogova. The missions are not only more "fun", but are at times extremely difficult to complete and take a great deal of planning to execute properly. (Unless you want to do the save/redo/save redo situation constantly). It's just one, long, long campaign! :)

As for JAM, I do know that Snake implemented it recently in the PMC Ranger campaign along with a new group of soldiers. I haven't run the Ranger campaign since he's done this, as I'm trying to finish Fury. (If you haven't run the Ranger campaign yet, you're in for a real treat.)

Reacher 8)

Snake_Man

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Snake_Man » 2003-09-28 14:19:49

Do you plan to make the campaign JAM compatible?
No because PMC Fury has always been the one big campaign that you can use with BIS default units, no hassle with addons of any kind.

But I could make outlaw/unofficial version of it for ehm private use (link not available from the web page, just some quick forum post), but that would go without any support at all. I cannot maintain two versions and support each one. Well maybe I can but I wont.

Its quite easy to replace default BIS units with the ultraedit editor that does several directories at once.

If there is demand for JAM version, I can do such for private and not supported use...
Somebody mentioned something about you using Earl and Suchey's MARPAT Marines in the future as well...
Never even heard about this :)

I'll look into the BIS forum for details.
When I first started with Fury, (your addition to the original Fury Campaign), I wasn't a real fan of pure infantry missions. But I have to say that since running as many missions as I have in PMC Fury, I'm getting to where I enjoy them.
Hehe I'm other way around now. I've been doing the infantry campaign stuff for so long, that some Tank, Helicopter campaign is quite interesting challenge ;)
Lag. A few of the missions that have lots of armor on the ground plus air activity are extremely difficult to run due to lag.
Indeed sometimes I lost it with the unit amounts, you know the "size does matter" thing. I will tweak the unit numbers on the missions.

Recently I've worked on quite few missions on our PMC Tactical linux dedicated server (shown resistance ingame browser btw) and there I've got some experience of making non lagging missions (for multiplayer).
on Nogova, you eliminated enemy choppers in the missions.
Hmm I dont recall having that as eliminating enemy resources considering the situation on Nogova (dont want to give any spoilers).

Would you have any suggestions which missions could use enemy air threats?

Reacher
1st Lt
Posts: 104
Joined: 2003-05-31 19:46:26

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Reacher » 2003-09-28 17:24:55


Hehe I'm other way around now. I've been doing the infantry campaign stuff for so long, that some Tank, Helicopter campaign is quite interesting challenge ;)

Hmm I dont recall having that as eliminating enemy resources considering the situation on Nogova (dont want to give any spoilers).

Would you have any suggestions which missions could use enemy air threats?
;D I knew if I could ever get you in a tank or a chopper you'd be hooked, Snake!

As for specific missions needing enemy air threats, I don't think there is any specific mission that comes to mind, but the constant threat of it existing is what I think gives the player more incentive to plan for anything. I realize that is what intelligence is for, but to specifically state that there will be "no enemy air activitiy" in the briefing, is kind of a spoiler in itself. Now, with that said, having enemy choppers show up and no AA Rockets anywhere to be found, could make the mission unbeatable. Again, until you change the ammo selection situation, that might not be a good situation, (random enemy aircraft). Just a thought, Snake.

And by the way, your "intelligence officer" has been known to lie when he says there will be "no enemy armor in the area". LMAO! I've gotten killed many times by "armor that wasn't supposed to be there!" :o

Reacher 8)

Reacher
1st Lt
Posts: 104
Joined: 2003-05-31 19:46:26

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Reacher » 2003-10-02 04:10:45

***** Sort of a SPOILER!!! ***** Read at your own risk. ;)






Well, I finally completed all (god knows how many there were), the missions in the Fury Campaign. It had to be close to 200 missions just with the missions added after Fury Part 1.

In the final mission, "Freedom", I discovered some glaring problems that need your attention.

First, I managed to get into a damaged T-80. The air support was limited and left a bunch of tanks, mostly un-damaged. So, I figured once I crawled in the tank I was dead meat. But none of the enemy tanks fired on me. As a matter of fact, I could just drive up to them and then shoot them. Same with the enemy soldiers. They would run when I shot at them, but their AT Soldiers refused to fire on me while in the T-80. It had to be a recognition error. It made it so easy, I didn't even have to call up the M1A1's or other support groups to help with the mission.

Next, The Counter you had in the final mission didn't work. Maybe I screwed it up good by getting into that T-80? Who knows?

I've already posted a note on the final cutscene, (your favorite cutscene) ;) and how it repeats indefinitely.

Overall, the final mission was "OK". I don't mean to be critical, but the enemy wasn't very agressive. BMP's would drive right up to my squad and never fire a shot. It was almost like they never saw us.

I had expected a masterpiece for the final mission, and that could happen yet. Just a suggestion: That final mission would be wonderful if it started out about dusk and continued into the night, (depending on how quick you completed it). The desert scenery just doesn't do the mission justice without the lighting differences that dusk and later give it.

Well, I'm sad that the final mission has been played, but glad that I can move on to the other campaigns. I HIGHLY recommend this campaign for every OFP fan out there. There are a lot of skills that can be learned by running this campaign, not to mention some SUPER missions along the way.

Thanks, Snake!

Reacher 8)

Snake_Man

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Snake_Man » 2003-10-02 04:33:58

First, I managed to get into a damaged T-80.  But none of the enemy tanks fired on me.
Hmm wonder if I can make the tanks Locked status so player cannot get in.
Next, The Counter
Err what counter? :)
I've already posted a note on the final cutscene, (your favorite cutscene)  ;) and how it repeats indefinitely.
Yup, thanks. Its now fixed.
Overall, the final mission was "OK".  I don't mean to be critical, but the enemy wasn't very agressive.  BMP's would drive right up to my squad and never fire a shot.  It was almost like they never saw us.
I have been playing my latest mission, PMC Metro with the JAM soldiers in the Nogova desert. There BMP2 (crew with random skill) usually can drive by only from few meters of 9 men squad laying low and not moving. So this is plain OFP issue in my mind and not much I can do as mission maker, well maybe just bump up the vehicle crew skills.
I had expected a masterpiece for the final mission,
and that could happen yet.
Thinking about it, I could do major tweaks to it with all the mission making knowledge I've gathered since it was done.

But how was the processor lag on the mission, I do remember making the mission quite heavy?
That final mission would be wonderful if it started out about dusk and continued into the night
I like this suggestion, would be nice to make it somehow longer battle too, as player REALLY has to fight his way into the target inch by inch.

Please feel free to post more specific tweaks what would make it better.

I could think of few things I can do with my (lame) skills now... Artillery and Airstrikes using the map click command, so player could pretty much pinpoint where he wants the ordnance dropped/fired.

Reacher
1st Lt
Posts: 104
Joined: 2003-05-31 19:46:26

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Reacher » 2003-10-02 05:55:36

Snake, regarding the BMP's not being agressive. I don't think that's really a big issue here. I forgot to add that those hidden machine gun placements were damn tough to knock out. So that pretty much balanced things out. I wouldn't worry about the BMP's, as they really don't play much of a roll in this mission.

The "Counter" was listed as command #9 along with calling airstrike, (command #1) and calling assault group, (command #2) It gives you the number of East units/soldiers and the number of West units/soldiers. Hell, maybe that's not supposed to be in the mission, and might be a programming assist? :)

I'd seen the "counter" in other missions, such as the pilot rescue mission. It kept track of the East and West soldiers, and announced when the next wave of attacks was to begin. Jeeze, I hope that was supposed to be in the mission? ;D

Lag: Believe it or not, there was little or no lag whatsoever in the final mission. However, keep in mind that the tanks rarely moved about. They would only move when attacked by the choppers. I think possibly it was because the battle was spread out all over the desert. Hell, I took the enemies BMP Ambulance and 3 soldiers and drove all over the country. We must have killed another 25 soldiers that never made it to the battle. Oh, that reminds me... When I got into the enemy BMP Ambulance, the ememy did the same thing... they refused to fire on the BMP Ambu. And, (there's more... ;)), when I returned to my group with the stolen T-80, they fired on ME! ::) So, anyway, that's all I have on that problem.

I never like vehicles of any sort to be locked. I would think that this is a simple matter of enemy recognition. Maybe someone out there knows the answer to fixing that. But to lose the ability to mount a tank that you've captured in battle kinda takes a lot of the realism out of the mission.

I really liked how you had those enemy soldiers hidden in the weeds, along with ammo crates. If this mission was converted to night, then the player could arm his guys with mines and/or satchel charges from these crates and infiltrate the area where the tanks are, prior to calling in an airstrike or atrillery, and hopefully take out some of the armor. As it stands, you couldn't get close enough to do anything in broad daylight in the desert.

This final mission is close to really being a good one. Just a few tweaks here and there. Luckily, I was able to snatch a sniper rifle, but it was that god-awful SVD Dragonov, but it was still highly effective.

Reacher

Snake_Man

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Snake_Man » 2003-10-02 07:17:40

The "Counter" was listed as command #9
Bah, debugging test system for me. It is NOT supposed to be in the final mission, sorry about that.
I'd seen the "counter" in other missions... Jeeze, I hope that was supposed to be in the mission?
No its not.
I never like vehicles of any sort to be locked.
Okay, but then I have little I can do for OFP AI. Its been my believe until now that AI fires on its own vehicle captured by enemy.

Also if you capture enemy tank, board it (thats important) then get out and destroy it, you own guys will shoot you.
to lose the ability to mount a tank that you've captured in battle kinda takes a lot of the realism out of the mission.
Understood, I leave the vehicles as they are.
This final mission is close to really being a good one.  Just a few tweaks here and there.
OK lets make it a good one then :)
but it was that god-awful SVD Dragonov, but it was still highly effective.
Well in next version you get the NATO weapon selection.

Reacher
1st Lt
Posts: 104
Joined: 2003-05-31 19:46:26

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Reacher » 2003-10-02 13:53:59

Bah, debugging test system for me. It is NOT supposed to be in the final mission, sorry about that.

No its not.
Ok, no problem. But I distinctly remember it showing up at least twice in other missions. The only one I remember for sure is the Pilot Rescue Mission where you have the "Locator" that assists you in the direction of the missing pilot and gunner. Hell, I thought it was kinda cool to see where ya stood against the enemy! ;D No big deal, Snake.

Okay, but then I have little I can do for OFP AI. Its been my believe until now that AI fires on its own vehicle captured by enemy.
Yes, in every other instance I've ever captured an enemy vehicle, the enemy will immediately fire on you.
Also if you capture enemy tank, board it (thats important) then get out and destroy it, you own guys will shoot you.
That is the first time that has ever occured as well. Something isn't quite right, Snake. It has always been possible to destroy an enemy vehicle after you've used it since in a lot of cases, the trigger to end the mission depends on all armor being destroyed. As a matter of fact, I did get out and destroy the T-80 when I was done and the other squad members did not attack me. It was only the first incidence of me driving back to where I had the squad hidden that they fired on me. I had to put them on "Hold Fire" to get them to stop! :)

Well in next version you get the NATO weapon selection.
YAHOO! ;D This is one thing that would get me to run this campaign all over again! There were missions that, given a weapons choice, would have been 100% better than they were. (Not to say they weren't good, but that they would have been even better.) I have learned to love the pistol, and find it a definite necessity in close combat. Also, needless to say, an option to carry the M-21 is always good! ;D

Thanks for your efforts, Snake!
Reacher 8)

Hacker
Recruit
Posts: 20
Joined: 2003-01-08 20:30:03

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Hacker » 2003-10-06 17:51:23

Well, I finally found my OFP CD and repaired my I-Net to get back to your campaign...and got two reports right away.

Mission #40-something (Ghosts):

What is supposed to happen there? I only sat in the UH-60s, waiting for the codeword...but it never came. So I jumped out the UH-60, only to find that nobody was in the mentioned castle.

From this point - nothing. No radio messages, no new objectives...ran to the meeting point, ran back - used -endmission.

Mission #40-something (Ghostchasers):

When I was at the Natz camp I heard BMP gunfire. I thought they'd be shooting ducks or something, but when I got back to my base, I saw two of 'em sitting there...was really hard to get them out of there^^.

Was that supposed to happen?

Oh, BTW: Are there any radio messages in the campaign? I don't get any...

<edit>
Mission #50/King Of My Castle:

The convoy doesn't move out when I radio them to do so. Radioed in several times, but nothing happens.

Been at the convoy afterwards, they don't seem to do anything...
Last edited by Hacker on 1970-01-01 00:00:00, edited 1 time in total.

Snake_Man

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Snake_Man » 2003-10-07 15:18:26

Today I did some PMC Fury fixing, quickly noted 13 fixes are now done most of them being very old ones... I found this ancient text file listing all kinds of weird errors in Fury.

Next step is to decide what weapons / gear to add, please participate in the other topic. And to fix the few critical bugs where mission was either too difficult or with too much cpu lag.

Stay tuned.

Snake_Man

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Snake_Man » 2003-10-07 20:35:36

Reacher I quoted you from the Weapons / Gear topic since it was going bit offtopic.
Nah, the more I think about it, that would be a dumb idea and basically ruin at least those 3 missions. You are warned ahead of time to conserve ammo and not be shooting enemy unless fired upon.
Were the scud missions OK with the ammo, I mean did you had enough LAW's or was there some "convenient" russian ammoboxes with satchels laying around (sorry I dont remember)?
Man, it would be great if we had access to those cool weapons available in the PMC Ranger campaign!
Well those Rangers are well above us regular grunts :)
I do suggest the skill level of the AI be cranked up a bit in some of those missions.
If you just can recall which missions were too easy please list them here, I could tweak the enemy forces or plain and simple add more of them.

Hacker
Recruit
Posts: 20
Joined: 2003-01-08 20:30:03

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Hacker » 2003-10-07 22:46:45

About missions too easy...just been at "Good Morning Everon"...

What a challenge ::)

Planted the mines in a staggered line pattern. T72 ran on mine, BOOM. Shot LAW at BMP, BOOM. One Ural got Charlie's LAW, BOOM. Other Ural got my last LAW, BOOM.

That simple? I nearly couldn't believe it...what about adding a second convoy to ambush ;)

And, about the radio messages which don't show up - did you find a fix?

Reacher
1st Lt
Posts: 104
Joined: 2003-05-31 19:46:26

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Reacher » 2003-10-07 23:18:49

Reacher I quoted you from the Weapons / Gear topic since it was going bit offtopic.
Yeah, ya gotta watch me, I tend to do that sometimes :-[
Were the scud missions OK with the ammo, I mean did you had enough LAW's or was there some "convenient" russian ammoboxes with satchels laying around (sorry I dont remember)?
By the time I got to each Scud it was toast. By the time I got to where I could get to the ammo boxes, I really didn't need them. ;) But I did get to one Scud and yes, it had rockets for the enemy launcher, (which helped a bunch) I know you can't remember all the missions, but I think for pure excitement, the Scud Hunt Missions were the toughest, the most dangerous and the most fun of the entire mission.
Well those Rangers are well above us regular grunts :)    


I take it that means, "no?" ;D
If you just can recall which missions were too easy please list them here, I could tweak the enemy forces or plain and simple add more of them.
I knew you were going to ask me, and I'm sorry, but there were just so many missions! This is an ongoing thing, Snake. When the weapon selection is done, I'll start over and list the ones specifically that need some improvement on the AI.

For those that don't know, the PMC Fury Campaign has over 200 missions.

Reacher

Reacher
1st Lt
Posts: 104
Joined: 2003-05-31 19:46:26

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Reacher » 2003-10-07 23:23:23

Hacker, yeah, there are some no-brainers in the mix, no doubt. Just enjoy them while you can... ;) I was ready to give up the campaign due to some lackluster missions that didn't seem to be getting any better.

As the campain progresses, the missions go from being No-brainers, to kick-ass tough. There were some that I'd put up against anyone's missions as for difficulty. Just wish I'd made better notes! >:(

Reacher 8)

Snake_Man

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Snake_Man » 2003-10-08 12:01:54

PMC Fury v1.0b revision 18 has been uploaded.

changelog

Oct 8th, 2003. v1.0b rev 18
- fiery sword. notes missing, added.
- ghost bat. noname in description.ext, fixed.
- angry bear. briefing: tactical missing, added.
- Meaux Stronghold, leader lays middle of town, moved bit south.
- decisive flash. radio call 001 is missing, fixed.
- decisive flash, added ending radio traffic.
- proud forge. radio 0-0-1 seen from start, fixed.
- proud forge. no radio indication of cleared hill, added.
- cosmopolitan warrior, Reastdead2 msg not found, fixed.
- sheeps and wolves. mgunner ambush dont work due terrain obscure, fixed (I hope).
- beach party. radio calls hidden. added 0-0-2 to briefing.
- Bright Horizon, mission ending trigger was reversed, fixed.
- Steel Convoy, the tank Convoy will not trigger, fixed.
- Steel Warror would not end, hopefully fixed.
- Shepherd, ending trigger tweaked, should end ok now.
- Rolling Promise, added some "punch" for Russian defenses.
- Nogova Airstrip, mission will not end, hopefully fixed.
- Pink Air, mission would not end. Fixed (again I hope).
- Night Play, ending trigger fixed.
- Anatoli's Eyes, Destroy radio tower. No explosives available, fixed.
- Blue Relief, helo crashing after insert, fixed.
- Blue Relief, added helo extract radio call reply.
- Op Liberty. extremely difficult mission, the lag is terrible. Tweaked some...
- Beach Broom gets CTD at some point, fixed.
- Final Invasion, mission won't end. Hopefully fixed.
- Nogova New Year, west helos run out of ammo. Added firepower & radio call for tanks.
- Party Night mission will not end. Added some tweaks to ending triggers.
- Freedom, hint debug counter removed.
- Freedom, added artillery support.
- Freedom, mission start time set to 1530hrs. late/dusk enough?

Still some fixing to do, but I thought this was enough for this upgrade. Please keep testing and let me know of any remaining bugs so I can add/fix/tweak more.

Download here, 959kb.
http://www.pmctactical.org/ofp/download ... 0b.r18.rar

Reacher
1st Lt
Posts: 104
Joined: 2003-05-31 19:46:26

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Reacher » 2003-10-08 14:26:21

Thanks, Snake. Do you recommend a complete deleting of previously played campaign? Like was necessary in the PMC Ranger Campaign?

Reacher

Snake_Man

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Snake_Man » 2003-10-08 15:01:23

Do you recommend a complete deleting of previously played campaign?
No, since PMC Fury dont use the campaign-save thing... but of course the 6 Scud missions does use it so they would play the same with "replay mission" selection when you now try them without deleting saved dir.

6 versus rest of the missions doesn't really call for saved dir removing in my opinion.

BTW: before anyone asks, the Weapons / Gear did not make it to this version yet because I have not formed a decision what to add. I'm starting to lean towards the NATO-US only stuff, so leaving out all Eastern block hardware but allowing all the toys from US side. If someone wants to see the full list ingame PMC Fury, check out the first mission, Recon, the gear is available there as in test version.

Snake_Man

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Snake_Man » 2003-10-09 09:31:23

(Ghosts): What is supposed to happen there? I only sat in the UH-60s, waiting for the codeword...but it never came.
Works fine here on OFP v1.92b
(Ghostchasers): When I was at the xxxx camp I heard BMP gunfire. when I got back to my base, I saw two of 'em sitting there... Was that supposed to happen?
Nope. I'll try to see if they were on guard waypoint etc.

What was your viewdistance?
Are there any radio messages in the campaign?
Yes there are radio messages, but these dont have any voice/sounds, its just the blue text on the screen.
King Of My Castle: The convoy doesn't move out when I radio them to do so.
The radio call was bit faulted, it was listed in the radio menu from the mission start but if you didn't clear the target objective issuing the radio call had no effect.

Now its fixed (will be in next revision) so that you cannot see the radio option before its available.

Hacker
Recruit
Posts: 20
Joined: 2003-01-08 20:30:03

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Hacker » 2003-10-12 22:15:58

Works fine here on OFP v1.92b
Works for me now, too, just had to wait a tad longer...man, I'm impatient ;D
What was your viewdistance?
1500, as suggested for the campaign.
Yes there are radio messages, but these dont have any voice/sounds, its just the blue text on the screen.
That's the problem, as I can't see the blue messages. :(

Reacher
1st Lt
Posts: 104
Joined: 2003-05-31 19:46:26

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Reacher » 2003-10-12 22:48:55

Hacker, Is it just the blue messages? Or also other text messages? Do you have text messages turned off? Some do turn off the text messages and use voice only I guess to save puter resources.

Also, with each message it will have the very familiar sound of "breaking squelch". It's the sound when a mike is clicked either "on" or "off". A very distinctive sound.

If you haven't turned off the text msgs., I have no clue why you're not seeing them

Reacher

Hacker
Recruit
Posts: 20
Joined: 2003-01-08 20:30:03

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Hacker » 2003-11-09 16:19:38

Just the blue text is missing.

Tried turning the subtitles off and on again - nothing happened, same error.

BTW, what is supposed to happen in "Prisoners of War"? Have reached the prisoner camp and the convoy arrived, but now the prisoners are just standing in front of the trucks doing nothing...

Snake_Man

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Snake_Man » 2003-11-09 19:34:05

now the prisoners are just standing in front of the trucks doing nothing...
Well they are supposed to board the trucks. I haven't played that mission in the new OFP versions so I dont know if it works. I'll try to test it ASAP.

Btw what OFP version do you run?

Hacker
Recruit
Posts: 20
Joined: 2003-01-08 20:30:03

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Hacker » 2003-11-10 17:03:31

Am running 1.91, Resistance.

edit: Just passed Babysitter - same bug as in Prisoners of War, the POWs just stand in front of the CH-47 doing nothing.

edit2: Found the "no messages" cause - my language settings. I had to switch the OFPs language to "English" instead of "German".
Last edited by Hacker on 1970-01-01 00:00:00, edited 1 time in total.

Snake_Man

Re: BETA testing of new missions

Post by Snake_Man » 2003-11-25 06:54:23

PMC Fury v1.0b rev 19 has been uploaded

changelog

Nov 25th, 2003. v1.0b rev 19
- Nomad Stick, overview was incomplete, fixed.
- Hounds, overview was incomplete, fixed.
- Death Tracp, overview was incomplete, fixed.
- weapons can now be selected from mission briefing/gear.
- Ghostchaser, added additional objective for return to base.
- New Beginning, tweaked ending trigger delay.
- New Beginning, slight change to AI assault tactics.
- Morning Patrol, patrol helos to never fire on the UAZ.
- Morning Patrol, added objective radio messages.
- Threesome chotain/figari captured, papabear reply is with 0 delay, fixed.
- Hostage Rescue, enemy kills helo before landing, Fixed.
- Hostage Rescue, cleaned up briefing language (bad bad snake).
- Artillery Denial, added start position to the briefing.
- Ambush at Durras, radio messages enabled from start, removed.
- Ambush at Durras, ends early, fixed and added mission complete radio message.
- Airborne, one radio message at wrong place, fixed.
- Road Block, added four radio messages.
- Entre Deux, chopper lands too near to a machine gunner, fixed.
- Entre Deux briefing, "easter" typo, fixed.
- Thirsty Tanks, truck at the beginning didn't move, fixed.
- King of my castle, convoy radio command tweaked.
- King of my castle, changed the enemy unit system completely. Should be lag free now.

If you find any pending bugs, please remind me to fix them. I am especially interested of any showstopper bugs remaining on the missions.

Download rev 19 here
http://www.pmctactical.org/ofp/download ... 0b.r19.rar

Thanks

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 10 guests