Mission: razor two

[JRD]

==============SPOILERS=================

[smg id=1089]

OK, grab your favourite drink and move on, this is a tough one to report...
After Sgt Mile's assassination by Lopotev following Nikitin's betrayal, Razor team has a new leader, you!
You are to search a huge area after Lopotev and his second in comand, Bardak and any other evidence of his war crimes you can gather.
First things first:
Both warlords are somewhere and I see no pattern to their whereabouts. I met Bardak once and in the next try, he wasn't there anymore. Evidence you gather will be always there though. Multiple ways of finishing this missions that probably leads to multiple endings on the campaign... I love that  ;D
Execution:
Go to Elektrozavodsk and meet Capitain Dressler.
He'll give you some insights about where and how to find Lopotev.
- He'll indicate in your map 3 areas of increased activity you should check, marked as three red X.
- He'll tell you look for Lieutenant Tomas Marny, a man with connections in the local guerrilla. He's in the same base and has more info to you.
- He'll also indicate the location of Vyshnoye, to the NW of your position. You heard Lopotev saying something about this place.
Find Ltn Marny and talk to him... he's got an attitude, but don't disrespect him or he wont say all he knows (you actually get the option to tell him to shut up  ;D )
- He'll report Lopotev has supporters and camps between Stary Sobor and Shakova, to the NW and N, respectively.
- Most important, he'll tell you to look for a man named Olegish in Staroye, north from you.
I did this mission four times and din't manage to find both warlords and all four pieces of evidence. I did find Bardak and 3/4 pieces of evidence, but never saw Lopotev. I gave up trying cos I want to move on on the campaign, so here is a suggestion as how to proceed...

By the way, I got a Humvee at the base, set 2 as driver and issue him orders as to where I want to go and just man the machinegun... weird driving on PC, and weird AI driving as well  :(. , besides, as he drives you can enjoy the view and eventually shoot some Chedakis  ;D ;D

Begin your search by the farthest area, Vyshnoye, to NW.
Expect enemies around, but don't worry. In Vyshnoye, find a man by the pump in the middle of the village, ask civillians if necessary. He's name is Pepa and he'll tell you about a farmer named Malek. He lives just south of town. Interrogate him and use force if necessary, he'll tell you about some activity in the castle nearby. Go there and find a mapcase near a tent inside the castle grounds... its a deserted place. (evidence 1/4).
Go to the northern red X. its a rebel camp by the hills... there you'll find a few Chedakis lying around... finish them and find some photos inside a tent. (evidence 2/4). Expect more enemies around... I met a patrol east of the camp and another one by the road to the south. Also, your men will spot an enemy tank in Novy Sobor, west from you... be careful.
I then moved east, to the other red Xs and Staroye, to meet Olegish.
When you reach Staroye, find Olegish by the road intersection in the middle of the street. Chedakis soldiers are inbound and you and Olegish's guerrilla will fight them (if you already didn't as you were getting close to the village).
He then says something about looking under your nose, you should try looking at Elektrozavodsk as Lopotev was very popular amongst workers in the area, who might be hidding him. I never went back there though cos I get a radio message reporting Lopotev was seen heading north, to Gorka or Krasnostav, to north and NE respectively. I tried reaching him before he cross the Russian border, but always failed... maybe calling a chooper? (you have 20 minutes to find him or mission will be over).
The southern red X is a cold trail. When I reached the place, other marines were there too and I got the radio message reporting Lopotev's run... again, failed to catch him. The castle nearby might have some evidence as well... I never had the chance to completely search the place
The central red X is also a deserted camp and there is no evidence around BUT... as I was heading there, from Staroye by a dirt trail, I runned into a blue car with Bardak in it... he tryed to run but we got him (evidence 3/4). After that, you report his arrest and a chopper is sent to pick you up with the prisioner.
That count as a successful mission... but I met him there only once, so it was a lucky shot, I guess... never found him again...
Probably, thats a mission you cannot find all pieces of evidence and both warlords and depending on your partial success, the story will have a different ending.
Any other experience about that mission is greatly appreciated... the replay value is very good when missions are open ended like this...
Try to search the southern red X first and as you get the radio message reporting Lopotev's run, get a chopper and head north, to Krasnostav... I never did it... maybe its another ending this way.




Sorry for the massive post, but its a looooong mission... last attempt took me 2 hours!!!  ;)

[PZ]

Excellent, JRD - we should come up with some kind of printed version of a walk-through guide (perhaps rtf) so people can download, print and then read/use offline.  Your story on how to approach the mission is exactly the kind if intel I enjoy reading because I can then go into the game knowing what I need to do rather than stumble around.  For instance, I was doing boot camp armor yesterday and was commanding the Abrams - was instructed to have the gunner target a tank to the left and I had no idea how to accomplish that - had to restart the session!

[Art Blade]

thank you very much JRD  :-X and hell, don't worry about massive posts. It was a massively enjoyable read  ;D

I read in the manual that you do influence the outcome of the story, ie vary it from peace to insane wars between factions... probably more than two endings of a mission. Souns like it is branching early already... interesting informations you revealed, again thanks a lot  :-X

[JRD]

Thanks...
Now... how to make it availble to users in a better format?
I mean, people can just read it, ok, but it would be very cool to have, as PZ said, another version... maybe with mission specific clickable maps... imagine that. Click on a red X and see "Photos evidence", "Mapcase evidence" or click a black X and read "Find Olegish and help him fight Chedakis" ... "Bardak might be here" etc...
I wonder how to come up with something like that... an interactive walkthrough... members could add their findings or PM us what they found and we update the maps with relevant info... oh I'm dreaming here  :P

[PZ]

Well, we could do as we did with the FC2 click-able maps - would take a bit of thought, but do-able !  :-X

[JRD]

That's true... and thats the direction I'm heading...
FC2 has maps for the entire game, but maps for each mission we think deserves one in A2 would give us a tremendous w@&k... and I don't want it to be a task for you... I wanna help too... only thing is that I know nothing about HTML (am doing a basic research though to move on  :-[ )...
I moved two missions ahead already (the next one is too silly) and I see it might need even more info on a map... several tasks and pop up tasks make for a looooong progression...
Well, good to share my thoughts with you guys, I'm sure we gonna put a great content together, one way or another  :-X

[Art Blade]

If we had a way of simply recording it... a vid... would probably make things easier. Or some screenshots of the map, edited, named after the mission... I think it is a huge effort to place all that in a map. I have no idea how to do it since my abilities with html are zero and I don't have any software but irfanView, but that works for simple tasks.

[JRD]

Thats why I used a simple jpg map and placed some markings over it... maybe the simple way is the best way!!!  ;)

[Art Blade]

:) absolutely  :-X