OpenWorldGames Server ONE

Alright, I know you're waiting for this.

As I had hoped for, the installation dialog asked me to select a language and kept that language for the game. So I got it set in English and of course I am very satisfied that I now have the same language selection as you guys. The installation didn't take too long but required me to reboot my PC (apparently installed some new drivers, probably for the PhysX™ by AGEIA, which is required as well as directX© 9.0c)

Using a GTX260 @ 1920*1200 res and core i7 920 system with 3 GB RAM running Windows XP32, the game allowed me to manually set the graphics to overall high (which is the max). As usually I don't use AA nor AF, but trilinear filtering and the nVidia driver basically set to max quality. The graphics during the first mission were smooth, no stutter. I set the game difficulty to "normal" (there are only three options, starting with "normal").

First Mission

As expected, I didn't know what to do but fortunately I got popups which told me what to do, a little tutorial that happened on the way to the first checkpoint. So I got told to look out for resupply options, you can loot bodies and ammo crates, both of which may contain weapons. The first weapon switch I did revealed my combat knife with which I can slash and stab... nasty toy, might use it to fix dinner with :)

The latest vid we have (first 10 minutes of gameplay) is actually what you get when you fire up OPF:DR and start the first campaign. You see the popups in the vid, too.

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Well, I had to issue orders to my team, you hit a key (q) and a  command circle pops up, almost like Crysis. The commands are given by selecting from that "wheel" using movement keys. So you either command or move. Best to issue a command and then hit "q" again so you actually continue moving, rather than accidently revoking your recent orders and replacing them with new silly senseless suicidal ones, which I did. No one noticed, so I corrected my mistake before anyone got killed ;)

First contact. My teammates spotted the enemy and opened fire. I didn't see the enemy at first, but unlike ArmA2, you do get a chance to actually see them, even hit them if you're lucky or trained, which I wasn't (so far). However, I managed to proceed through checkpoints, shoot a little, and had to call an airstrike or something like that, as seen in the vid. That killed 11 enemies. I saw enemies flee into the woods but never killed anyone. I had found a sniper with a scope like the Dragunov but it's hard to tell where that bullet goes if you're far from the target. It is noticeable that it's ballistic, it takes a little time until you see a dust cloudlet where your bullet hit (the ground). Sounds are believable, combat sounds are appetising, moving around is fun until you get dirt splatter into your vision and hear that clink! clonk! of bullets zipping around you hitting the ground where you stand. It does give you a feeling of "feck, where'd that come from" and "bloody need some cover, now!" :) You immediately forget you're playing, because you're playing  :-X

Got to the extraction point, the heli picked us up. No artificial dumbness so far, no silly accidents, all smooth. I noticed I missed the secondary objective, to destroy some missiles... Will now go back and replay that mission. I don't like unfinished business :)

Alright, this game feels good, sounds good, the graphics in the first mission are a little like black and white, only in orange-ish colours. Probably dawn or dusk or something, was ok though. I was too busy checking my controls and weapons, reloading unecessarily etc so I didn't see much :)

But it's fun, alright :)  :-X

Thanks for that Art, I hope the swedish postal service are on there toes and deliver my game tomorrow. Otherwise I may have to FC2 on them  :-*

Enjoyed your first impression, especially the part about an installation that actually works (unlike HOE  :D )  ;D ;D ;D

Looking forward to further stories  :-X

If any OWG members have played OFP1 a compare/contrast would be cool. will be doing it when got my copy. And likewise a comparison to A2 . As both originally came from the same company at some point. Even though i'm still playing OFP1 and A2 i've noticed quite a difference in the AI of troops on my side of a game, A2 they seem to cope with fire fights and survive a bit longer, where as they sometimes act more like cannon fodder in OFP1. Reckon AI programming has advanced in leaps and bounds over the past 7-8 years tho...

Ok, time for a little more before I hit the sack :)

I didn't play all the time, in beween I had some stuff to do and threw a glance at the official strategy guide (the book I bought). The book looks promising, loads of detailed infos about weapons, ammo, vehicles etc. and covers xbox as well as PS3 (and PC of course). Apparently the game favours consoles, with the controller you can walk slow-medium-fast whereas the PC keyboard only allows fast. Hmm.

As I said, I went back to the first mission and ignored the primary target so I could take a look at the secondaries. My group followed me along the shore of that mini-island where you start the game (on the map it's small compared to the main island) but I can tell you, this spot is laaaarge already if you walk around. I can swim, they don't like it... more like walking around in shallow water. I can climb over an obstacle (you see an icon popping up suggesting you use "activate" which causes you to climb over it) but my fellow team mates can't. They need a way around it or they are trapped. Better remember that when you use shortcuts and find yourself pondering where the heck the team is.

We found a missile base and I killed my first enemy there. Playing on normal, your sights give some feedback: If you shoot and see nothing special, you missed. If you shoot and you see a white animated crosshair sort of icon, you did hit the target as in wounded it. If you see a red animation in your sights, you killed it. And then your character goes "enemy support gunner eliminated" and you go "YESSSsss!"  ;D I blew up the rockets with a remote explosive device, and the smoke kept crawling into the sky long after we left the place behind, and that smoke column was well visible.

We marched on to the northern part of that isle towards a lighthouse where another set of missiles was waiting. On the way we met opposition. This time I managed to snipe the bastards, yessss... and that was a nice thrill. They were on top of a hill, shooting at us, and I could see where my bullets hit sandbags or other objects. I needed to aim higher than the centre of my scope, needed some pre-aiming ability too, so the soldiers behind the sandbags got it right between the ears when they popped up from behind. I aimed high, guessed when he'd dare stick out his head again and shot before he did. To his surprise he timed my bullet just nice and I got that red mark in my sights and heard myself go "enemy gunman eliminated"  :) Took them out one at the time, and enjoyed myself. I found an ammo crate with weapons, one of them quite big... A Javelin.

When we proceeded to the north, we were on top of a hill and below was that encampment, hmm, no, bigger. A camp with a tank sitting there! I could hear the Diesel and see that thing. And then the camp personnel opened fire and I heard an alarm go off. I thought maybe that fat Javelin might come in handy to destroy either the missiles or that tank and started to unwrap that thing. Takes time. You watch yourself pulling it off your back (even hear carrying straps slide over your clothes) and put it to the ground, then assemble something and pull it up to use.

To my dismay I got shot during all that and started bleeding. I noticed the sound reception changed, I noticed my heart beat louder (so I heard it for the first time) and my vision started to turn red in the periferals. So I went to see my medic who patched me up.The blood loss is shown on your screen by means of a red circle that goes counter-clockwise, like some chronometers do when counting down a minute, and you understand you loose blood because that circle keeps dissolving at one end towards the other end. Gulp. I patched up a buddy with my field kit or what it's called: You equip that bandage bag and walk to him, he'll notice what you want to do and waits for you. Then you see the same system as the blood loss, only this time big and orange and in the middle of the screen, around a red-cross symbol. Aha, wait until time's up so he'll be ready to trudge on.

I tried to fire the Javelin but it wouldn't pick up a target and it showed a crossed-out range symbol. Damn. I replaced it with an assault rifle and shot some enemy but one ba$t@rd (lol!) had been hiding around the corner, lying on the ground without moving or shooting, until I thought that area was clear - then he clipped me for good.  ;D The AI is not bad at all, was quite fun to watch them.  :-X

Only one thing I don't understand, I lost the scroll function of my mousewheel during the game.  :D Don't know if it can be en- and disabled, but I guess it's a bug. Maybe due to some alt-tabbing too many or doing something the game didn't expect me to do, but anyway I lost that function which was bad. It has different functions, depending if you're on the map view or walking, where it serves to scroll through weapons (which auto-select themselves once you stop scrolling, the one highlighted gets picked). I quit the game for today and will play on tomorrow.

So far already very entertaining and good fun  :-X

Oh, by the way, I took so long to play around I realised the colours changed and a full moon (of course a FULL moon) could be seen... So there is a day/night cycle and the envrionment reflects that. :)

Sounds like the game has quite a bit of promise.  Also sounds like your team is exhibiting some of the "artificial dumbness" that the FC2 mercs do - afraid of water, and can't climb.  I'm looking forward to getting the game soon  :-X

Nice report on this, Art. Another great-sounding game that I can't afford yet (sigh).

I'm - damn, there's no smiley for jealousy... I'll just have to use this one :D

They say AI is smart enough to refuse to follow suicidal orders like a direct attack to a machine gun nest or a tank. They'll say something like "hell, no... are you serious? No way!!!" and apparently, if you start running in circles like a dumb maniac or start firing at trees they'll also react to that!
OhBoyOhBoyOhBoyOhBoyOhBoyOhBoyOhBoyOhBoyOhBoyOhBoyOhBoyOhBoyOhBoyOhBoyOhBoy

Quote from: JRD on October 09, 2009, 06:20:40 AM
... "hell, no... are you serious? No way!!!" ...

Reminds me of the fat National Guard guy in the movie "First Blood" when the goofy drug store officer told him to go in there and flush Rambo out.

I really need to stay away from this thread, I didn´t get my game today so I´m a little tiny PO:ed at the moment. And reading about how great it is just makes it worse   :D, I think I need to visit the post office in Bowa and vent some stuff  ;)

Cool - transference of aggression from your local post office to the one in Bowa - I'd say that's poetic justice.

Quote from: PZ on October 09, 2009, 11:38:15 AM
Cool - transference of aggression from your local post office to the one in Bowa - I'd say that's poetic justice.

Easy choice really, my local postoffice doesn´t contain any flammables + I don´t want to set fire to my game  ;D

hahahaha  :-X

Just an image of a combat situation. My team and I were taking out enemies that hid in a forest, the smoke and fire you see come from wrecked vehicles (one of my men has a missile launcher). It is dusk, that's why the colours are a little faint and orange-ish.

By the way, the scrollwheel works again, must have been a bug, then.

Also, by the way, you can screw up big time even throughout the first mission. You can't save on purpose, but there are checkpoints the game saves automatically (can't change that) and you can reload at any time from the last CP saved or restart. The higher difficulty levels have fewer checkpoints.

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I'm again or still playing the first mission.

If you really go for the secondary objectives, things get complicated a little. Doesn't mean no fun, it is fun, and the more I go along the line of trial and error, the more I understand how important it is to keep my eyes peeled and how suicidal it is to just run cross country. It makes sense to scan the area either with a rifle scope or binoculars, so you get to spot enemies eventually.

I'm now stepping around at night, and got killed more than once, by surprise, while getting close to an enemy who was hidden in a bush or behind a tree. They really seek out trees to hide behind and use cover efficiently. They tend to surprise you when you don't expect it and chances are levelled on either side of achieving a kill or a surprise. The own team mates have good eyes and not too bad a skill with weapons, but you never know if they get hit or dish out hits.

Playing for a good amount of time allows you to get used to your own weapons and how they shoot, ballistics and such, and you'll get much better at hitting and killing from afar with a sniper rifle. There is practically no chance to survive a close encounter. Neither for you nor an enemy. A burst from an assault rifle is deadly.  Who shoots first, wins, is the motto. On the other hand, if the enemy shoots and you see the muzzle flash, you can train your weapon on it and might get a lucky shot. Let's rephrase that: An educated guess before you shoot increases your chances :)

I panicked once when I was about to assault a building with my team. On my way an enemy popped up in front of me... after he shot me dead. He was actually sitting in a bush and waited until I got close enough for him to kill me at 100% chance and for me to have 0.00% chance to avoid it. Bastards  ;D The AI is not bad at all. What JRD mentioned about the AI refusing to obey silly orders, it is true that they see if something is possible or not, so if you issue an order to go to attack something that is not an enemy (a brick wall for example) they say "can't do that" or some such thing.

One tip I got from the book is to not use the airstrike option when being told to do so but to save it for later. I'll use it on the northern target near the lighthouse because there is a bloody tank sitting and some mean bastards waiting for us. It was not really a problem to fight where the airstrike was suggested by the tutorial.

I think it works quite well if you don't hurry a fight but to proceed slowly. Like that you can check the positions of enemies and react with small movements to avoid getting hit but at the same time marking your target and then stop to take it out. You'll see, it's actually a good mixture of thrill, anxiety and fun if you go into combat :)

Finished the first mission. Finally :) As "promised" I used the bombardment for the northern target which I took out last, this time the tank went up in flames - see pic :) By the way, if you do that lighthouse target in the north, grab the jeep and drive it a little away, let your team wait inside the jeep and go back to blow up the missiles. That way you both keep your team safe from the explosion and keep the jeep so you can drive with that back to the Landing Zone. If you did all the objectives thoroughly, there won't be any resistance left on your way back - enjoy the ride. Speaking of which, driving isn't exactly the best quality of the AI  :D Better drive yourself.

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Alright. 3 primary, 3 secondary goals in the first mission takes some time, at least for me, playing around with commands and silly tactics until I managed to get somewhat halfways decent going and all my men survived. I got shot once and died 6 times during the mission, took me about 1:45 hours but I reckon it can be done much faster. The very first time I did it rather quickly but I missed all secondary objectives lol  :)

This is cool. The next mission involves SpecOps weapons hehe, silencer here I come :)

Excellent read Art, and the pics are great to see as visuals.  A few questions/comments:

• When you're issued a mission, can you go do other things like you can in FC2?
• From the pics I've seen so far, the environment appears similar to ARMA2 - is there variation like in FC2?
• Can you go it alone or do you always travel with your companions?
• Is the driving AI as bad as in ARMA2? (I can't trust my drunken A2 driver farther than I can throw him.)
• ... and the $64,000 question: do you think might be our next "FC2" as far as general and replay value.
  

Quote from: PZ on October 10, 2009, 09:44:22 AM
Excellent read Art, and the pics are great to see as visuals.

Cheers :)

QuoteA few questions/comments:

Answers/comments in orange / Art

• When you're issued a mission, can you go do other things like you can in FC2?

Yes, unless it is time critical.

• From the pics I've seen so far, the environment appears similar to ARMA2 - is there variation like in FC2?

Not sure. Seems quite similar to me, too.

• Can you go it alone or do you always travel with your companions?

If they get killed, you will be alone. ;)

• Is the driving AI as bad as in ARMA2? (I can't trust my drunken A2 driver farther than I can throw him.)

Yes. But you can assign a route with any number of checkpoints of your choosing.

• ... and the $64,000 question: do you think might be our next "FC2" as far as general and replay value.

It might have a high replay value because you get a mission objective and are free to accomplish it in whatever way you see fit.

A sidenote...

QuoteMission Editor User Guide

Welcome to the Operation Flashpoint © : Dragon Rising ™ Mission Editor. With the Mission Editor tool you will be able to create your very own exciting and challenging missions. These missions could range from a simple skirmish with a small number of soldiers to a large scale battle which includes armoured vehicles, helicopters and boats.

Once you have created your mission you can then play it on your PC or distribute it to your friends or other Operation Flashpoint © : Dragon Rising ™ users so they can play your creations. The Mission Editor is extremely powerful and this help file will provide you with details of the core features that are available to you. By the end of the help file you will have already created a number of simple example files that will show you the basics of how to create your own missions.

:)

Second Mission

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This time the mission started with three teams. The player is team leader (as in the first mission) and has to get to a target unnoticed. You do see a couple of opportunities but, sigh, have to stay low and are not to engage the enemy (this is a secondary objective). However, not forever :) You sneak around under cover and get to the first primary -- a missile platform -- which of course is guarded. Now you may fight :)

The hard part is helos (flying gunships / helicopters) that patrol the area as well as enemy patrols on foot. Raising the alarm will cause one of your men to say "They are looking for us" and if the enemy doesn't see you during the next 25 seconds, your team mate will utter "we lost them." If they did spot you, he'll go "They know we are here" which will result in reinforcements being called in as well as helos that will attack you for 60 seconds. If a helo on patrol doesn't see you within 30 seconds, it will return to his routine patrol path.

Instinctively I had ordered my men use column formation and to tighten up the spread, as well as to only fire on my lead. I didn't want to appear spread out on the horizon with each and every man firing any second, giving away our position and by that failing to accomplish the secondary objective. During a break I read the strategy guide which recommended exactly the above mentioned modus operandi - I was beaming  :)

This mission is time critical. During my first attempt I was quite eager on scanning the area for enemies and observing their movements, so I was late for a rendevous with flanking fellow team to take out those missiles which were a threat to our ships coming into range of them. Mission aborted = restart. Thanks. The second attempt was alright, I decided to hurry this time, spending most of the trip running which caused me to pant like a dog on a hot summer day and my heart to hammer like a mad blacksmith. But we were early this time.

My gear was an assault rifle not with a silencer as I had hoped for but with termal view. You see your environment in b/w and warm objects as a white silhouette. Quite easy to spot enemies with that optical system on your rifle.

Taking out the enemy was comparatively easy this time, but those bastards had called in some helos. It was pure luck we managed to outrun them and go into hiding, they lost us for some reason and we ran away  ;D

3 primary and 2 secondary objectives completed, the mission was a success and I didn't even die. Funny was my statistics, because I had fired exactly 100 shots of which 27 hit and killed 8. Took me 29 minutes. I had a good mixture of luck and skill this time.

see this  (http://openworldgames.org/owg/forums/index.php?topic=934.msg12625#msg12625)topic, the second two links show codemasters playing this mission, with audio commentary.

A word on difficulty. The difficulty does not affect the AI, only how much help you get in your HUD. Since it is not easy to handle all the stuff I keep playing on "normal."

And a word on issueing commands. The "wheel" as I call it is always operated by using direction keys (wsad here) and you can actually try to learn a few commands by heart like this, thinking directions. Instead of wsad I'd call them Up Down Left Right. So, you'd remember a sequence like DLL or URL or LDR and so on. I am not able to do that without thinking but I get quicker now, and simple orders like "follow me" or "move" (towards some sort of spotlight) are always only just "D" or "U". This system is way easier than ArmA2.

Looks like it´s going to be easy to create makros for us with a G11/15/19 keyboard. Thanks for the tips on tactics Art, they´ll come in handy when I get my game  :-X

:)

yeah, maybe a good idea to try macros.

This is the Third mission which is a massive campaign. You start off the beach, see pic, and have to help other troops, take out enemies, seek cover, take out spotter teams, take out other threads, clean a village (more like a farm or ranch) and defend it. The mission is quite a challenge, haven't finished it yet -- I'm taking a break. I killed 21 enemies only in this ongoing mission, so you can get an idea how much more resistance there is.

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see this  (http://openworldgames.org/owg/forums/index.php?topic=934.msg12625#msg12625)topic, the first two links show codemasters playing this mission, with audio commentary.

I am still not comfortable with issueing the right orders quickly, and I am also not really comfortable with weapon changes. It always takes time, and so far I have not been able to throw a quick hand grenade (seems to take too much time to find, arm and throw it and then go back to selecting the weapon you'd like to use then). I have difficulties with getting a good plan of how to give my men orders individually creating a position = tactical approach. The game appears to rush me, and I don't have a relaxed moment to exercise command and tactics. Maybe I go back to the first mission and try to divide my group, issueing orders that should result in a flanking assault, taking enemies down from two or even three sides.

Hehe, you know, it feels like the game expects you to be a trained veteran who knows how to tell his people what to do in an instant, but to me it feels like I got the job lying to the recruiting officers, "Sir, I am fully confident I can handle that. No doubts whatsoever. Don't you know I have years of combat experience and have a sideboard full of decorations? I know the command system as if I was born with it." - "Alright, son, here's your team" ;D

I need to train that sh!$ so it helps me rather than takes time that gets me or my men killed  :)

Military command training would definatively give you an edge in this type of games. I have some military experiance because of my service in the swedish army (mandatory conscription) but I was only a private so I haven´t got any command experience. It´ll be interesting to see if that is any help to me.

That would be interesting, indeed. I'm not sure if you thought I was referring to real life experience, just in case, I was referring to a more detailed tutorial I'd like to have. The game doesn't train you in commanding apart from one single action.

The third mission is difficult. I managed to get to the final position, defending and holding a settlement of kinds, and finally survived three attack waves (which was really togh, had to reload several times). Now what... Silence... I guess I found a glitch. The mission accomplished won't pop up... So I can use the time of cease-fire and take photos...

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Quote from: Art Blade on October 11, 2009, 05:30:39 AM
... The game appears to rush me, and I don't have a relaxed moment to exercise command and tactics...

One of the reasons I like FC2 so much is that I have plenty of time to think about what I intend to do.  Remember on some of the other forums how people complained bitterly about being forced to drive so far?  My thought at the time, and today as well is that it gives me time to think and plan as well as view the environment at my leisure.

Quote from: Art Blade on October 11, 2009, 09:34:17 AM
That would be interesting, indeed. I'm not sure if you thought I was referring to real life experience, just in case, I was referring to a more detailed tutorial I'd like to have. The game doesn't train you in commanding apart from one single action.

I think IRL experiance would give you a little more confidence that you are giving the correct order and you wouldn´t have to wonder about what order to give in a given situation. But a good tutorial is also valuable in learning just how the command system works. 

@deadman:
Yeah, here you learn by trial and error - and reloading ;)

@PZ:
The biggest difference is that you only have one target in FC2, let's call it Sefapane with 18 mercs that can all be killed. In OFP:DR, the 3rd mission for example, you have to sustain three waves (apart from all the local resistance) of enemy troops and keep your position while they send rockets and mortars down at you. You have a couple of friendly teams around, each defending their part of that farm, but usually fail to defend it. That means, a breach... and enemies inside your area killing you from behind while you attack those in front... tough stuff :) Still trying to w@&k my way out of that mess.

I can't get this third mission done :-[ Maybe I should restart it (again). Only then I'd have to go through all that fighting again just to get to the last location... damn hard stuff! Right now, that last primary, the farm area, it feels like the rest of the friendly troops is cannon fodder (as are we) and the enemy keeps overrunning or disabling and then overrunning us. :D

Ahhhh at last. Didn't restart, only a different strategy. I had my men assigned different jobs: One to operate a stationary heavy MG, the other two defend his position. Meanwhile, I went to the side of the road and kept enemy teams in check and killed them with an assault rifle until I ran out of ammo. Just moments after, I was shooting with my sniper now, the mission accomplished sounded, enemies were retreating  :-*

Hard core stuff, that. Before, I somehow told the team to defend a squadrant, or to follow me. In all flavours. We always failed. Funny though, with my different strategy, the other friendly teams didn't feel like failing either and managed... god damn idiots  ;D

I just read a thread on the official forum about this mission and some ppl finished it by using an APC to take out the PLA, most were just whining about how hard it was  ;)

Quote from: PZ on October 10, 2009, 09:44:22 AM
A few questions/comments:

I would like to reply again, now with some more experience in the game:

• When you're issued a mission, can you go do other things like you can in FC2?

No. In FC2, you can always do stuff, even during missions. In OFP:DR it basically seems to w@&k like "don't take longer than x time" which leaves you not much time and opportunity. Only what's on your chosen way. The difference between FC2 and OFP:DR is that you can choose whether or not to take on a mission in FC2 or simply drive around. OFP:DR only allows you to proceed from mission to mission.

• From the pics I've seen so far, the environment appears similar to ARMA2 - is there variation like in FC2?

I think they use some sort of low resolution textures, it isn't full of details. I am running the game on max gfx settings, yet for example a wall of a house looks boring. Then again, the sounds are really great. Sounds from walking on different surfaces are really nice, too. But FC2 is simply beautiful, still top of the notch :)

• ... and the $64,000 question: do you think might be our next "FC2" as far as general and replay value.

Since I now have played three of 11 campaigns, each comprised of several goals, I dare say "no" - of course you can try to accomplish missions using different strategies, but in FC2 you have spare time to roam and ravage... not in OFP:DR.

Quote from: deadman on October 11, 2009, 01:08:23 PM
I just read a thread on the official forum about this mission and some ppl finished it by using an APC to take out the PLA, most were just whining about how hard it was  ;)

APC and PLA? please help me with that :)

I know I could have used a rocket launcher, but I didn't want to, and I did have an armoured vehicle that helped us, because I accomplished a secondary goal that meant keep that vehicle alive so it can help you. Only it blew up the second an enemy showed up - he had an anti-tank missile... so that vehicle didn't help us at all  :) I did it rock-solid with good old bullets, only.  :-* ;D

Quote from: Art Blade on October 11, 2009, 12:49:22 PM
Ahhhh at last. Didn't restart, only a different strategy. I had my men assigned different jobs: One to operate a stationary heavy MG, the other two defend his position. Meanwhile, I went to the side of the road and kept enemy teams in check and killed them with an assault rifle until I ran out of ammo. Just moments after, I was shooting with my sniper now, the mission accomplished sounded, enemies were retreating ...

It's a shame that the game is not more open world like is the case with FC2.  By "open world" I mean more than just being able to travel to all parts of the map - it is nice to be able to choose what to do just as you would in real life - FC2 seems the closest to that.  However, your change of strategy sounds intriguing - a diversion from the focus where you're the "one man show" to where you need to coordinate and issue orders effectively.  Still looking forward to the game  :-X

Hey guys,
Long time no see ;)
With regard to this game being less open than FC2, well, it's a military shooter, and you are no lone wolf but a cog in a wheel which means you must accomplish certain objectives as others' lives depend on that. The game gives you choice how to strategically approach an objective and therein lies your freedom.
As for replayability, I think it's infinite because we have a mission editor (well, PC folks do). I am having a hard time learning it but simple skirmishes are pretty easy to pull off. The AI acts so much better in cqc than arma2 and so it's so much more fun to assault a village! :)
I'm loving the game, though I do miss my mp5sd ;)

Good to "see" you again gvse - you have a good point, the mission editor should add replay value to the game.  Do you know if it is possible for people to create mods like in A2?

Quote from: PZ on October 11, 2009, 04:40:32 PM
Good to "see" you again gvse - you have a good point, the mission editor should add replay value to the game.  Do you know if it is possible for people to create mods like in A2?

People have started mod projects already, and if developers excluded such a possibility I guess they would have closed that section of the forum. But we will know for sure once we see an actual mod working in the game.
We should see some dlc in the upcoming weeks, and I hope it will include additional weapons. In fact, the editor has entries for e.g. shotguns, 3 other models of mp5, and other weapons than the ones we have but the models are not there so I think it might be a hint of what is coming. Or not?

Hey gvse :) good you're back  :-X

Quote from: gvse on October 11, 2009, 04:09:59 PM
The AI acts so much better in cqc than arma2

erm, "cqc"?

He probably means CQB, here´s a few abbreviations for you:

CQB = close quarter battle ie indoors and other small spaces
APC = armoured personel carrier
PLA = peoples liberation army = the enemy in OFP:DR

:)

thanks matey :-X :-X :-X :)

Now I understand why I had a CQB in a restaurant that had a huge "PLA" sign post in the front yard, which I accidently ran over with my APC, trying to park that thing.  ;D

Lol good one Art. OK got the game today and have just finished the first mission. First impression: OMG this is so completely different from any other game I have played, it´s a lot harder (have died twice already) and  having to think about orders and stuff is really a new experience. I´m going to leave this until the weekend when I have a lot more time to spend on it.

Cool, you're now 2nd in command, hehehe! Yeah, it's hard, I'm telling you :)

Alright, I'm on Mission Four.

Quite cool so far, I started off to take out a couple of tanks, and noticed both me and a team mate had rocket launchers. So I switched from sniper to RL and my good man took out one tank before I could, but luckily, just behind his destroyed tank, popped up my tank which I took out a second later. "On The Double" at its best  :-X

We then marched towards some barracks occupied by the enemy, and ding! I got an artillery strike, mortars GO!, and wham! roadblock cleared. Now we are to take and hold a command tower at an airport, where I am now, and I just had a "LOL-Moment". Check the pic closely.

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What you see there lying on the ground... not the guy! Those chunks of meat with bones sticking out. That was my number four. As you can see, I wanted to patch him up, when something went BANG in front of #4, who was in front of me, and he exploded in a cloud of blood, splashing all over my face, and showering down came his body parts. I was shocked at first, but the same instant Avery, the guy to the left shouted out "FOUR IS DOWN!" - and I dropped on my knees laughing   :D ;D ;D ;D

Alright, piece of cake. After bravely running across the airfield and some excellent sniper shots (I was really pleased with myself then), I took out the personnel of the control tower on my own, killed them from the outside, from afar, through their windows  :-* Sniped some riflemen on my way. I then ordered my men to assault and thereafter defend the tower. Of course they reported to me that the building was clear, hehe, and they started to defend it. Inside the tower were ammo crates and some anti-air missile launchers. I knew one objective was to take out an enemy helo... so I grabbed that weapon and waited for the right moment. Funny, after a while a radio message came through, informing us of some enemy helo, and that we should check the place to find an anti-air missile launcher... the helo was already crossing the border of the battlefield. And I was already aiming at him, with a smile on my face when I launched my rocket  :-*

Died 3 times during that mission, which were silly deaths (you know, like "I'm going in anyway") but mission accomplished after only 21 minutes. I think this was relaxing in a way. I got my team through all missions alive and unwounded so far.

Ahem, the conversation about "chunks of meat with bones sticking out" never happened, ok?  :P  ;D The glory of reloaded checkpoints (savegames)  ;)

Here is a vid by codemasters for this mission, which really looks like the actual game (apart from 3rd person views and cams flying around helos) :

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OK, a little more serious now  ;D

This game is really good. Once I'm "inside," I feel and think as if I was in fact in a hostile environment. I've learned to scan the area all the time, check trees behind which might be some hidden enemy, skim the horizon every once in a while, I walk crouched most of the time, I am always on the lookout for cover and ditches or the likes, I try to always have something behind me so I don't stick out like a silhouette with a neon sign reading "shoot me"  :) I try to understand the tactical situation and to anticipate the enemy. I actually managed to kill a few from only like 2m distance - to their complete surprise. I was so close once and that enemy didn't move I was in doubt he was a mate. But the crosshair turned red on him = enemy! And I shot him in the head. Tense moments. This is like being part of a story of a film. Good stuff.

Glad you're having fun with the game. So do I! I am one mission ahead of you and I think of going back to square one and starting everything on hardcore as I did some single missions on it, and it was a new and far more tense experience.
Also I am in the process of making a little mission in the editor but at this stage it's harder than in Arma2.
Btw, did you know you could kick the door in by running towards it and then hitting E? I only found out about it yesterday. Cool move.
Oh, cqc= close quarters combat (perhaps cqb is the correct variant?). OK, back to my mission :)

Glad you're enjoying it mate :) Three peeps in the boat already :)

I'm now playing the Fifth mission, too. Not bad that mission. It's a rescue mission, one of our helos has crashed and we are to get the boys out. First you help a friendly team survive an attack, then clear an enemy infiltrated and fortified farm of sorts, then clear an AA emplacement, then clear the crash site (the crash team is missing), then go to a nearby village full of resistance. Now it gets hard. Two enemy transport helos and some sort of APC drops in... bloody hell! :) I've just stopped there, I managed to shoot both helos down but I have to reconsider an artillery strike. I used it a little early... Nice though, the village was badly destroyed. What looked somewhat nice before is now a rubble field and smoldering wrecks of houses...  :-X

Cool move, gvse, cheers! Kick a door down, lol... I've got to test that move on some of my mates when they don't shoot properly  ;D

Ah, I think CQC sounds fitting, a combat in close quarters I can imagine. A "battle" might be a little too much :)

Oh, a small note on the AI. I think it's excellent. Apart from driving that is  ;) One thing I liked a lot regarding what the AI does, but didn't like it as the guy I am in the game: In the above mentioned village I was assembling that rocket launcher when I heard my men detecting enemies nearby, and I accidently hit the wrong button: I was rendered half naked in the door of a house with a cute pistol in my hands. Then an enemy rounds the corner and sees me. He and I both panicked, he shot half a mag with some assault rifle at me from like 3m distance and kept missing, I was shooting like five rounds around him, which was not even close to aiming - only I realised earlier than him and I aimed at his head and blew his brains out. Quite a thrill... Next time I'll be a little more focussed  :)

Cool - that guy reminds me of the guys in the bar with Little Bill  in the movie "Unforgiven" that were shooting wildly at William Muny, never hitting him once while he calmly gunned each one down.

It is damn hard to be cool in that environment. Too cool = instantly dead  :)

Ok, Fifth mission, II. Hard w@&k. I decided again to try a different approach, since the first strategy didn't add up the way I wanted.

Something about weapons and strategy here.
You have been equipped with a rocket launcher that bears HEAT and HE missiles, which are not guided and only go one click (km) max. HE has a "soft" explosion, good against people, HEAT cracks armour. Those were the missiles I took out tanks with in an earlier mission. The game briefings make us believe that "we" have superior weapons, but man... so far I only got basic guns and more than once won a battle with weapons (sniper rifles) I took from the enemy.

On an aside: I took a break yesterday, which by the way is nice -- you can quit the game amidst a mission. The next time it will reload your last savegame and you can continue. That is cool, for example in HitMan:BloodMoney you can't do that, it's either finish the mission or start over if you quit.

So this is "my" 2nd part of the mission. I was in the village to free the crashed crew which was hidden in a building somewhere. The easier way would have been to shoot the two transport helos down so the troops inside die from a high crash (mind you, if you shoot the helos down with HE missiles when they are close to the ground, the crews might bloody survive!) or shoot them with HEAT missiles so the helos would explode. That would leave me with two APC that have heavy guns which did kill some of my men during the last attempts, and that was bad. There is an artillery strike left for you if you didn't use it on the AA encampment earlier in the mission, to take out the APCs with now.

Alright, the helos and APCs arrive one after another and add up... the helos disappear though, but the landed crews and the APCs stay... adding up to the heavy resistance in and around the village. Funny how four men should defend a bunch of MIAs found hiding in a house and ocasionally defeat a platoon as a side job. Just great. But... we have to :)

I decided to keep my men near that house and have them defend that area while I allowed the helos to drop their men and disappear. Nothing as good as a good CQC :)
While my men distracted the enemy by killing them slowly, I assembled my RL and took out the first APC, then the second APC (that would have been a reward for the xbox and a trophy for the PS3 by the way). That must have frightened twelve shades of living sh!$ out of the enemy as all of a sudden no one was left... Cowards  ;D

We had been instructed to keep that position until our extraction helo arrived. After a while we heard it arrive and fly away some 500m. As if they wanted us to enjoy the extra bit of a walk over to them. Well, no enemies left, we hurried towards the extraction point and mission accomplished.

That was another thrilling mission. Starts halfways easy and turns into a nightmare :) Glad it's over. All secondary missions completed, taking a deep breath now.

I finished that one by shooting down the heli cause otherwise I kept dying in that village. A pretty hard mission that was.
Just did the stealth assault on oil refinery and yeah that was cool, though on the quick side. There's one surprise there which made me jump just as I let my guard down thinking it's all over.
I like the blue tint of night in this game as it's very atmospheric. Many people complain that the graphics are inferior to Arma2, but I find the ambiance much more appealing and immersive than anything in A2.

Finished Mission six too. Relatively quick, yes, and I like the environment, too.

This mission was to perform a stealth attack on a fuel depot (incapacitate its generator so the enemy can't use it but keep the installation intact so once the war is over and after the USMC has left the island, Russia can still make use of it). We finally had silencers ("suppressed" guns) but that was not half as funny as FC2. You can hear those weapons quite well if you are relatively close to it but the sound won't wash over the entire valley, hehe.

I didn't find any surprise there, gvse. I always do all secondaries (one in this case), which was a little shack with a soldier in it -- the bloody silenced weapon uses "underpowered" ammo so I can't penetrate a helmet with it  ::) -- so I shot him in the neck from behind to kill him with one shot.  :-*

I then let my men halt and moved alone to a cell tower right opposite the main entrance, where two guards were hanging out - the moment I shot them in their faces, our support team started a distraction (I don't know what the heck they did) and the wound I suffered instantly healed because the distraction caused the game to save (on "normal" it heals you up) That was luck :)

I went in, took out a couple of spec ops that had been brought in by an enemy transport helo. I told my medic to heal the wounded and then gave my team the order "suppressive fire" around the generator which I wanted to blow up. For some reason, it blew up without me doing anything... apparently the suppressive fire impressed the generator quite a bit :)

We then got ordered out, on my way I grabbed some machine gun from a dead body so I had decent firepower. We had five "Mike's" (FC2 joke) to get to the extraction point. I was already running upright with my men until our hearts hammered so we had to stop for a moment, then ran on. We got to the extraction point where some idiots thought it funny to shoot at us - I trained their MG at them (heh heh heh) and took them out while our helo was already landing. Without hesitation I jumped in bleeding... mission accomplished.

These missions are always tight, you barely have time for a picnic or a smoke, let alone sight-seeing.

Mission seven

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This mission was diverse. Breach the enemy lines. That meant, take out spotter teams, clear encampments, kill patrols, attack the fuel depot (again, as in a previous mission). Early daylight mission. I killed 36 enemies but had to tell my team to dig in and wait until I returned... I had run out of ammo. Man, there are so many enemies, if you are on a killing spree, you can't take them all out on your own because there isn't enough ammo  :D I mean, I had 39% accuracy in this mission, so I didn't waste too much ammo, and I was using an assault rifle as if it was a sniper rifle... I took out a couple of peeps with it that were 300m away, single shots. Crazy.  :-*

In the end, the last mission goal "attack the fuel depot" had to be postponed because I couldn't attack! With what, my pistol? Geezus. I ran all the way back, like 2km, found an abandoned enemy jeep, drove the rest to the start point and found that bloody hidden ammo crate. Thank goodness I have the paperback strategy guide with those maps to look up ammo crates. There I found a sniper and an assault rifle, one mag each  :D Had to drive back, found an abandoned APC on my way, swapped vehicles and drove to my unit. A friendly helo hovering above them. Don't think anybody would give me some spare ammo! You can't even ask them! Well, there was another ammo crate in front of that depot, but I had to kill the guarding maniacs first to get to it. Cool, at least I didn't have to run in with a knife between my teeth waving a sabre wildly above my head... hehehe. I did manage, all primary and secondary goals met. Good mission, but take good care of your ammo!

Mission eight

I enjoyed that mission. Rescue POWs  ;D

Something funny (and cool regarding game physics) - on the way to the LZ we were about to pass a little farm house on a hill (there is a yellow mark for you, so it's on your way). As there was a mark, I thought alright, nothing to worry, and took my men and POWs to the house. I walked outside around it and turning the corner to get to the opposite side of the house (or, behind it) I saw two enemies standing. We looked at each other for a moment... and then AAAARGH all three of us fired at the same instant. Needless to say I didn't survive that shock  ;D ;D ;D.

Alright, reload, again. I went inside this time and as I had hoped for, I could see the back of the guys from inside, through a window, and I applied a bullet to the head of the one to the left. The guy to his side had disappeared at that moment. Well, there was a door to the right of the window, so I opened it... I think he grinned when he stood right in the door when I got his bullet through my head... ba$t@rd, lol  :-X

OK, once more. This time again headshot through the window, and hehehe, walked over to the same door and aimed at where I guess his head was.... Bang! -- Outside, I heard someone go "AAaaah,... " and something in Chinese, like complaining and anger and pain, all at the same time  ;D I opened the door and mercy-killed the guy, who was now on the ground. So you can shoot through wooden doors  ;D :-X

In the pic, taken at the very beginning of the mission, you see an enemy sniper I killed (his mate is dead too). Take his mega-sniper rifle and ammo, and from the ammo crate next to them in that stand... it will be quite useful for the end of the mission when you have to clear the LZ for your extraction.

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Here is a vid of the mission. I chose it because it's short enough, gives you an overall idea of the mission, but does not reveal good tactics ;) Example, I took out the spotter (who got an assault rifle) with a single shot fired, and the sniper couldn't get his sniper rifle to w@&k quickly enough, let alone change weapons, so I took him out with another single shot. My men were just ordered to return fire, "if necessary"  ;D The second attempt (see, I got 29 bullets left) I used one, and my team a single burst.

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The lack of comments makes me wonder if you like me to go on with this topic...  ::)

Oh don´t stop now mate, I´m soaking up your tips like a spunge in preparation for my OFP marathon this weekend ;D

Thank you :) I was really worried :)

A tip on mission eight, and a comment on the strategy guide.

The big sniper rifle can also be found in an ammo crate before you get to the extraction point. The crate is around the ruins on the hill behind which the extraction point is. If you want to get it off the sniper team at the beginning of the mission, kill them with guns, not explosives, so the ammo crate with extra ammo for the rifle survives. Like that, looting the dead rifleman and the ammo crate, you will get 10 mags for it, sufficient for the mission, and if you add the ammo from the last ammo box, well, great :)

I'll tell you how I used that mega-sniper and how to get your men and POWs safely to the extraction point: Save it for that last part of the mission. You'll be doing fine with your assault rifle until then. When you are close to the extraction point, which to me somehow looks like a school compound from above the hill, order your men to stay (halt) behind so no stray bullet can hit them. Also, order them to return fire, in case they get shot at, without them engaging anyone first = pretty silent.

Now walk up to the hilltop and to the left, until you can see the buildings entirely (or almost entirely). Ignore the radio messages about your extraction helo arriving, he won't land before the compound is safe, anyway, and he will wait until it is safe, anyway. That leaves you enough time to practice sniping from far. Use your binoculars to check the distance and for enemies walking around, their routes etc until you've got the picture. I got as close as about 400m (check with binoculars). Now you'll experience and experiment with ballistic shots. The scope has little dots on the crosshair, but there are no numbers indicating which distance they mark. I found that about 1 and a half dots down were about where the shots hit, so you need to aim off centre and "too high" for a centre shot with that scope. Shoot the guys on the roof, there will be replacements every now and then, shoot them too. If you see someone is shot but doesn't walk away, leave him. He'll either die by the wound inflicted (good) or attract a medic (good) which you can shoot (very good) hehe. After a while you'll get the hang of it, and start taking out other targets that crawl or walk around. Reinforcements? Ha, you've got enough ammo if you aim properly. When I was finished and thought it was really time to get out, I had (all of) my men assault that building. They took the POWs with them. Meanwhile I shot single stray enemies. My men attacked the very few remaining enemies, stormed the building and almost immediately radioed "Building's clear!" - I was running down the hill, the helo had landed meanwhile, and I opened the map and clicked the helo, using "enter vehicle" command and kept running. There was no enemy left, and I got to the helo when the last POW got in. Mission accomplished, no one wounded, all POWs alive :)

The strategy guide gives you advice about how to accomplish your missions, and also mentions alternative strategies. The one above is what I came up with myself, but it is partly the last alternative mentioned in the book, which suggests you take out enemies with the sniper from 400m distance while, that's the difference, you order your men in to assault or the likes, with or without help/use of those POWs. I read the corresponding chapter in the book after I had finished the mission. In between missions I only use it as reference for ammo crates if I start running low or out of ammo, and then read about the missions to see if what I did was also a recommendation. Like that, I have come up with different strategies or partly similar strategies. Not always better, but well, so far I have managed to get the job done with all secondary missions completed. I think the book is good for that, a cross reference or a good read or inspiration of how to do it some other way. Of course, it helps if you are completely lost :)

I've been thinking about how this topic has changed from first impressions to some sort of a diary or maybe something like a guide.

I hope it doesn't put anyone off, thinking I might reveal too much, but I never told the entire mission. There will always be something in the missions you are about to play that is obvious and on that I commented, something you would probably have noticed without reading this topic, and of course you'll read some tactics or strategies I used that are very specific for a part of the mission. Missions are quite big, you walk a lot and a lot can happen. I don't mention small stuff, details, like there are spotters in a certain place or the likes. If you read about all the missions here, there will be enough for you to discover and, well, to survive, until you get to what I describe in my posts. Playing through for the first time, I write about missions because they are first impressions, something I find worth mentioning, and I do hope you enjoy the read.

For those of you who have not yet been able to play, you might get an impression of what it might be like once you finally get to play it for yourself. For those who are playing or even ahead of me, you might recognise and compare situations or strategies.

I write this here because for some reason the forum is very quiet for some time now, which is unusual, and it is strange to post away with a feeling no one reads it. Apart from deadman, apparently :)

I ask you people out there, who are reading this, to please slip in a comment or three to make this topic a little more vivid :) It is a little strange for me to add one post after the other without any insertions from you :)

hey Art, I read your reports.
Finished the mission you have described above without the sniper rifle. I did it on hardcore and at that final stage (heli extraction) I was praying that I didn't die cause otherwise it would have been back to square one. That difficulty makes you extra careful.
I have managed to get a couple of good MP games recently, and that's a lot of fun and highly addictive. Again, few servers run the game on hardcore but those that do give you almost a new experience as you don't even know whether you have hit the target or not.
Oh, and perhaps the lack of comments is due to people not having the game yet, but yeah, the lack of feedback can be disconcerting.

cheers, gvse :)

Heh heh, I can imagine it must be a totally different MP experience on HardCore, adding to that new way of command and weapon handling. I reckon it's interesting :)


I found out that the missions you finished during SP Campaign mode are unlocked for individual replay (mission mode). There you can change the difficulty level and replay them. I'll do that after completing the campaign.

Mission nine, I

This is a huge and intense mission. Taking a break at the moment, got some time for posting you up :)

Reason for my break: "Death Valley" - I died here. Good place for a screenshot, while being dead  ;D

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Alright. I have two tips for you guys that I think will be useful for you at the beginning of that mission.

1) Keep your assault rifle, don't exchange it with the one in the ammo crate, but take the sniper rifle. Why? The weapons in the ammo crate both use the same ammo... Happened to me. I thought wow, those are both cool. I fired the usual amount of rounds with the assault rifle, noticed there were 4 mags left, changed to the sniper I hadn't used so far... starting with 4 mags. "WHAT THE...?!?!?!"  :-[ :P Restart mission? Yes.  ;D

2) Your will encounter two APCs or something armoured that will shoot at you on sight and threaten your tank convoy. I read in the strategy guide book just now that you have NINE artillery strikes at your disposal but also that you cannot use them later on in the mission. So use them :)

Mission nine, II

I'm glad it's over (50 minutes "total," not counting like 10 reloads and I think 3 mission restarts). 38 kills total. 24% accuracy with 359 shots, most of which single shots fired, mostly sniper rifle, resulting in 28 kills (I replaced my assault rifle with an enemy sniper, so I had two hehe). Officially died 2 times, but it was more like 10 times (I sometimes reload without being killed first). 4 anti armour rounds fired and 4 hits with them, I used a "Queen Bee" enemy rocket launcher for the secondary objective. 8 artillery calls, 9 kills.

And yes... First time I threw handgrenades, 2 throws, two kills. Finally managed to use the numbers of my keyboard for direct weapon access, so this time it was cool. I was about to round a corner, saw enemies behind there - too dangerous to walk on, so I retreated but lobbed a pinapple over... bang... got one. So I had to chuck another gren over, bang, another kill  ;D

Tough mission, because after the kid's stuff you had to clear out a citadell or something like that, on top of a small mountain, and all the time, all the bloody time they kept us busy with mortar fire. MORTARS! (FC2 players will remember, hehe)

You'll enjoy that mission, lol  ;D

Mission ten

This mission is a night mission again but a little different from the previous ones if you want to complete the secondary objective: recon mission, follow an enemy General's movements and report his positon. Else, you have to destroy a radio station -- stuff we do every day. Don't we? :) Only this time there is no DJ we can threaten with a machete to his neck to read fake news (FC2 hint) but the firepower is worth the trip: Air Strike.

I issued the command and have just seen the stuff rain down on the station, from a far hilltop it looks like this:

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The hard part (not too hard) is to move around unnoticed, unless you want to mop up dozens of hard-boiled pissed-off chinese units and a couple of flying gunships. After the strike you have to run across half the island to get to your extraction point at the beach.

Kind of fun, that mission :)

I have renamed this topic. For some reason it has turned into a diary of my first playthrough :)

Mission eleven, I (the final mission)

As expected, this mission is massive. Strange, when I read about this game and watched pre-release vids, I was under the impression I would get a free game world to roam, use different vehicles and vast amounts of different weapons. Now, in the last mission I got the only opportunity to fly a helo which is crap, because you only use it as a transport for a very short flight - steering it was a nightmare, so I had the AI do the job at first. Tell you what, I did not take the helo, I decided to reload and walk (was only like 2km worth of walking, so what the heck).

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There were very few different weapons I actually used. There were a number of weapons, but mostly inferior to what you have equipped at the mission starts. Exceptions are sniper rifles. In this mission you can get the "mega-sniper" again, it is in an ammo crate inside of a house in that village you are going to take off in a helo.

Sniping is the greatest fun for me in the entire game. Trying to take out enemies from around 400m is cool, and my best shot was what you see in the pic (using a binocular here) - the gunner is gone. One single shot, on top a headshot, yessss :)

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I'm still in the mission, going to post more...

lol, 525m distance, the second dot below the centre (use that to aim), to the right of it there is the head I took off with a single shot just now  ;D

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Oh dear :D One of my men managed to get badly wounded right here (must have tried to squeeze through that wall) First I patched him up, then I called the medic (see pic). This is the first time my team's AI really did something silly. ;)

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Alright, done.

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Total campaign time (without the time lost due to reloading) about 9 hours. Now I can replay those campaign missions as single missions, and vary difficulty level. Also, there are a couple of bonus missions available.

I think this is going to be fun, play the first mission again... :)

Just one thing I always wanted to add, here it is:

"Looting bodies" -- yes, it is possible. Unless you wait too long (I reckon 5 minutes). And given you do find the body. In practical terms it means, remember where exactly your desired human ammo crate went down, hurry over there and pray you find it. If you shoot someone half a mile away, the body is most likely gone by the time you get there. Worse, I have seen this happen: I actually found the body, hit "e" to "activate" the body but no, it had to vanish exactly that very moment. Or, I shot a guy behind sandbags, so it was easy to find his location. It wasn't far, so the body was still there. Now try to actually recognise it! A couple of times I have only found it because a hand symbol showed up, meaning I could activate something, and despite the fact I nearly tripped over the body, I almost didn't see it. Those camo suits in high grass are a nightmare. I think during the entire game I only found five bodies in the grass, three of which were a group I took out, so they were close to each other (still took me some time to see them). It is pretty simple of course if they drop dead on a paved road. No problem, given you get there in time.

/rant mode off

hehe

Here is an example - just so you "get the picture" - can you see the dead body?

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solution (read backwards)

ti no gnileenk yllacitcarp si eh ,tfel eht ot yug eht fo tnorf nI

Quote from: Art Blade on October 15, 2009, 04:37:16 PM
I ask you people out there, who are reading this, to please slip in a comment or three to make this topic a little more vivid :) It is a little strange for me to add one post after the other without any insertions from you :)

I for one appreciate what you're doing, Art, and I've been reading all your posts on this topic. A most comprehensive report, I might add :) The only reason I haven't posted any replies is that I don't know if there's really anything I can add, and I thought replies like "nice screenshot" after each of your picture posts might get repetitive after a while ;D They are nice screenshots, by the way!

This sounds like a very tough game to master. I don't know if it's for me, I was never crazy about team-based, order-giving games of this sort. I've tried playing Arma2 and I find it a bit too much of a handful, what with all the keyboard commands and so on. OFP2 sounds like a significant improvement in this regard, however.

Plus, I've never liked the idea of checkpoint saves. I know it makes a game more challenging, but I get the sh#ts when I strike a tough spot where I die repeatedly and have to keep doing the same things over and over to get back to where I bought it, especially when the checkpoints are a long ways apart. I also don't like "race against time" things, I like to have time to plan things out, take in the scenery, or just muck around. I know you don't get that luxury in real combat - well, I can imagine, never having been in real combat - and I can see that the devs of OFP2 are trying to make it realistic, but that's just me.

OK, no more griping! It looks like a terrific game for those who are into this genre, and I'm glad you're having fun with it, Art. I'm enjoying reading your posts all the same, it's very entertaining reading! :)

cheers, fragger :)

This forum usually is quite busy, and someone usually replies between posts. I mostly try to avoid posting two times in a row, so the development of this topic made me wonder why there was no response at all for some time.

Actually, I like comments like "nice screenshot" because I do care about it as if it was a good photography. As professional photographers take vast amounts of shots of a single motive only to pick one for release, or arrange a photo with every detail so it looks perfect, so do I. For example, in FC2 I have taken about 8,000 shots, and only like 200 made it into the forum. Unfortunately OFP:DR doesn't come with a built-in screenshot system, I need to use an external program (irfanView) to capture a picture and save it manually (automation, like every 5 seconds a shot of whatever is going on, would be just silly in this case). So, if you like a screenshot, it is very welcome if you say so :)

About the game, or "war simulations," I am not an aficionado. It has only to do with how people at OWG comunicate and all the details and affection made me check out ArmA2. Since OFP2 (=OFP:DR) is very related and a rival to it, I simply had to test it for comparison reasons. Those are the first war simulations I ever played :) Previous to that I did play shooters, but never so much into simulation as these, more like quake and quake2, doom, wolfenstein, hitman and the likes. Well, there is Call of Duty, the series, but I would place them into the games category, whereas ArmA2 and OFP2 clearly belong into the simulations category.

Having played those, I do admit I have developed a different attitude towards that genre, I enjoyed it. Although I am uncertain if I am going to follow that path :)

I guess I won't know unless I try it. Arma2 sort of put me off a bit, and I know I shouldn't judge a game I haven't played based on the experiences of playing one that I wasn't keen on. OFP:DR sounds like a distinct improvement based on what you've written about it, I have to say. I may give it a go, but I'll have to wait until I can afford to splurge again. Entertainment items like books, DVDs, and video games, are costly in this country, more's the pity.

Chapter Two, Missions

Having played through the campaign (on normal) I decided to give single Missions a try. After playing around a little with campaign's single missions on hardcore, I thought what the heck, I know these missions. I want something new. Then I remembered the pre-order bonus I have and inserted the code. That revealed my single unlocked mission but also five empty slots... you can get the codes here (http://openworldgames.org/owg/forums/index.php?topic=1102.msg16074#msg16074) at OWG.

Bonus Mission 1 (Night Raid)

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First, I quarreled with myself whether or not to play on hardcore, straight away. When I hesitantly (cowardly) decided to put it on normal, I got to see the mission briefing. There was only a single objective, secure a pump station without destroying it (uh-oh, hehe) and fight down any PLA resistance. Then I thought heck with that, get the job done on hardcore! Let's do this! So I bravely switched to hardcore.

I like NightOps gear, they come with thermal scopes. "Piss easy," one might think, as long as the enemy doesn't sport the same gear.

On a sidenote, the last campaign mission held a lucky moment for me. I shot down a patrol with a night ops sniper... so the enemy has that gear! Until I took it away from him, that is, which made my mission a lot easier. I was lucky I could get hold of it.

Well, the Night raid. First mildly shocking realisation was oh no, two flying gunships on patrol, headed north, while we were headed west. I don't want to bully them right from the beginning, so let's keep a low profile. The sounds in the game are almost as important as visuals, and I am glad I have a 5.1 surround system. I can hear something making noises in my back :) So I kept silence to be able to hear gunships approach.

My team and I noticed quite a number of patroling enemies, and the pump station was also loaded with soldiers. I had ordered my men to walk in a tight Wedge formation and RoE was return fire only. We carefully made our way to the west side of the compound and waited for the right moment: Patrols not coming at us but walking away from us. When we were like 100m from the compound we got spotted, so I immediately ordered "fire at will" and a wide "combat spread," starting to return fire and attack every moving white thing in the grey soup of our thermal sights. After about five minutes later it went silent, so I tried to get my medic patch up two team mates who were slightly injured - I miraculously have remained without a scratch. For some reason no medic complied (I reckon I didn't have a medic with me lol) but that didn't matter any more: Radio message, congratulations on a job well done... only took me 10 minutes, didn't die once, killed (only) 3 enemies.

Fun job :)

Edit, tried it again because it was fun, 6:45 minutes, 6 kills, and I do have a medic ;)

Bonus Mission 2 (coastal stronghold)

You do already know the mission area... it was a secondary objective during the first campaign mission: The lighthouse, at the northern end of that little island. Now, once again, we are allowed to handle an impossible situation with superior planning, tactics and equipment, and to demonstrate a sparkling operation, executed flawlessly.

That does not exclude crapping in our pants or puking blood across enemies.

I went in three times (on hardcore), two times I didn't see the end of it. The third time none of my mates saw the end of it, neither did the enemy. I think my men did kill like three or four guys before they did a backflip into the casket, leaving me behind for the mopping-up.

The lighthouse is located on top of a cliff, hidden behind a steep hill, not accessible without being noticed. Attacking from the hilltop always leaves some enemies you don't see because they push their backs against the rock wall below you, blind angle. Also, they keep using the buildings for cover, and they are good at that. Only one road leads in, the other area is either open, steep or inaccessible (sea and rocks). The entrance has a few rows of concrete barriers behind which enemy riflemen can seek cover and shoot from there. The entrance also has an MK-19 (or similar) stationary grenade launcher.

I decided to have my men go in and defend the entrance while I went to the side and on the flat top of a hill, trying to flank the enemy from there. It did go quite well until both sides started to grind themselves in 1v1 cqc situations. My men had assault rifles, I had an M-21 sniper rifle (first time I got that one). I took out like 9 men with the sniper, in between I could hear men groan and whimper, then silence. The place covered with bodies all across the road. A silly situation now for me, a sniper for cqc is useless, so I looted two bodies and got an assault rifle off one of my dead mates, when I heard a transport truck approach. I ran over to the MK-19 just in time to blow it up only a few feet away from me, vehicle occupants sent flying away. Still no mission accomplished, so I went back into the compound, clearing building after building. When I looked around a corner, outside some barrack, I noticed someone hiding behind some electric installation which had some space beneath it I could see through. I saw a pair of feet, for frag's sake, so on turning around the corner, I squeezed off a burst from my assault rifle to take that last man standing out. He didn't have a chance, how's that for a surprise. ba$t@rd.

Well, I killed 14 men in total, took me like 20 minutes in that third try. I'll have to try that again, I want my men survive it. This is the first mission ever I finished on my own, until now my men always survived. Tough but cool mission.

You've done a great job in this mission description thread Art - I've been too busy doing life things to be online much, but as I am catching up (and playing a little OFP2), your stories are helping me get through the game in the way that I appreciate (I like knowing what is coming up).  :-X

Thanks for your comment, PZ, and enjoy catching up  :)

Actually there is something I haven't told you guys, regarding

Campaign: Mission Eleven,

Winning Strategy and Tips (no artillery used)

Walk instead of using the heli. Walk to the right and then ahead (like parallel to the road) over the hills, towards the closest stationary mounted weapon, some guard post near a road crossing. Take him out from the hilltop with your mega-sniper rifle you snatched in the village you just freed (looking on the village map, it's inside an ammo crate in the 2nd house from the left, in a row facing the helos that have landed there)

Look out for an armoured vehicle hidden between some trees, don't let him spot you. Take out the second guard post too, from the same hilltop. I think there is one more, well, kill him too.

Walk around the naval base behind the hills, towards the right. Careful, there is a guard post somewhere in the hills and some enemy nightops. Take them out and hurry over to grab the night-ops rifle, it has infra-red vision (white heat signature targets... great!) Remember, bodies and their weapons disappear after something around less than 5 minutes!

Then check your map, there is a checkpoint (at least on normal difficulty) somewhere near a road bend, walking away from the naval base, save your game there once you have the nightops gear. This will be very very helpful to complete the mission.

Then enter the naval base from the right. At least you can station your crew there, let them defend that part of the area, they will keep soaking lead and attract enemy forces. Friendly forces will enter from the left. The enemies will respawn until you get to the middle of the base, to the peers. So hurry there (staying alive, ha-ha-ha-ha, staying aliiiiiive.... <sings>) and get the mission done.

To do it a little cheeky, leave your men to the right, and run back, over the hills, and go to the centre of the naval base, still on the hills. Careful, there are two riflemen in the woods to the left of the base, in the hills. Kill them. Then, you can walk down, onto the roof of a building and descend into the base using stairs. Be careful, it's quite dangerous.

To keep the general alive, make sure your men don't kill him! He may stay in his hideout but he may also join the fight. He always joined the fight when I tried various tactics. All you need to do is keep him alive until the last enemy soldier is down. So, hurry to the peers, keeping enemies from respawning, your team works as a lead magnet (hell, let them die, it's to win the mission and finish the campaign, not to keep them alive)

Enjoy :)

I renamed the topic again  ;D

Bonus Mission 3 (ambush)

Playing on hardcore, I had no idea what was about to happen (apart from the briefing, secure the consulate building, repel counter attack, eliminate remaining forces) because, unlike other missions, you start right in the middle of a fight in a village. Overture: hand grenade explosion right next to the vehicle you are taking cover behind. Nice. And I wanted to be cool and turn "repel counter attack" into "attack them by surprise" before going to secure the Consulate. Scratch that, take bloody cover!

You have to quickly order your team to "fire at will, combat spread, line" so you gain control rapidly. We took out, no, my mates took out a couple of enemies while I was guessing wildly where those enemies were. Well, while I tried to follow the tracers to the source, my men did an excellent job keeping the enemy away. I had only an assault rifle, my men had 2 assault rifles and one SAW machine gun. Walking around instead of holding still proved to be a good idea, my men always on my sides, we sort of worked like a rotating line of fire. I once thought I got hit, but it was only a handful of mud splashed into my face, the bullet must have hit right in front of me. No scratch on my body, luck.

I told my men to move to the house we started from and have injuries treated. Meanwhile I skimmed the surrounding and there was a lone chap with his rifle around the corner. I remained cool and shot him down. No scratch. I decided to enter a building that had an open staircase, like outside, and heard a voice through the thin wall. Building clear, but someone was outside. I turned around, gun at ready, and I guess he had heard me too. Why? Because he uttered something that sounded like a child after the family pet had died, "Oowoowoowoowooooh..." - I saw the lone fighter and I guess I smelled the crap through his pants... Instead of shooting me he just stood there whimpering, so I gave him three presents. One lead comforter, one lead pacifier and one lead soother, with best regards from the English speaking world. Someone else will have to clean the mess up later, though. :-* Glad it wasn't me. Luck.

Then the shooting started again, so I had my men flank another building left of the road, while I used the looted sniper rifle, took it off the first guy I took out, (this was an automatic sniper, one I found before in the citadel mission during the campaign), I think it's weak as single shot rifle, but on automatic... quite convincing. I started taking out an MG nest to the right of the road, my team fired at some resistance to the left. Again I heard thumping sounds of hitting bullets next to me (or was it in me?) and my vision got distorted due to the splatter, but I kept killing the enemies in front of me, the ones that tried to reinforce them and the ones that tried to crawl away. Having finished the enemy off on my side of the road, thought it was time to patch myself up... I couldn't, because I hadn't been hit. It was all mud. Luck.

I thought of how the hell we were going to manage the situation once that counter attack arrived, as I heard one of my men shout "I'm hit!" - and at that moment I... saw the screen go black. Mission accomplished, all objectives completed, last enemy killed. Luck.

Took me 7 minutes. Only. The first time, on hardcore, and I had survived, and statistics showed I had 12 kills.

That was intense :)  :-X

I have to edit here:
The guy going "oowoowoowoowooh" really did that! The AI knew it was hopeless, incredible, but you have to act (kill) because he might just sucker you into believing he was no threat... and then you die? No way :)

FYI, I edited the first, second, third, fourth, and eighth mission posts with inserted matching videos we have in our gallery as well as two links to related vids in a topic here on this board. Might do that with the other missions, if you find some good matching vids, please let me know (post links to youtube here or upload them to the vid gallery).

I just did the first bonus mission (night raid) in which I set up sniper shop several hundred yards from the target area.  Started picking off enemy from a single position and was far enough away that none of the foe were able to make it to within 200 yards or so of my position - lots of fun, and before i knew it, the mission completed message popped up.

Having a great time with the game so far, and I really like the intro music.  Only wish that that style of music would continue through the game play.

I've got to do some missions again, now with more experience :)

I'm glad I can hear the enemy walk, helos close in, cars drive by... missing out on that (due to music) might be lethal  ;) I don't think I ever saw a soldier with a boom box on his shoulders (unless you call a javelin that) hehe

lol, you know it doesn't matter to a cheater like me Art - I'm just waiting to use my trainer with God mode!  ;D

[boom-box rockin' away]

Bonus mission 4 (Close Quarters)

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This is what you see, if you don't become entangled in some explosions and field battle right from start. A small village, at least two jeeps with mounted .50cal, and lots of armed people with only one thing in mind: getting rid of you and your men.

I have not yet managed to find a proper strategy because you are not allowed to go too far away (I wanted to take advantage of a nearby hill... and got radioed to return to the battlezone. Crap.) Right now I'm only wanting to get that bloody mission safely done :)

Oh, I got that sniper from a not so friendly enemy jeep driver...

What would happen if you ignored the radio message and continued to the hill?

Not sure, hehe, maybe they'd court-martial me?  ;D

Just finished the mission. I wouldn't call it "close quarters" because of two jeeps and fields around the village, and those gits kept tracing us down, we kept tracing them down, mostly outdoors.

Always before you start the mission, you may check your gear (even though you cannot change it) as well as "combat support" such as artillery, airstrike etc. For this missions there should be "10x howitzer" but I never managed to call them. Maybe I can't but the explosions I mentioned were the result. Silly.

I ended the mission with a surprise for me. I was outside a house, and I noticed a soldier staring at me from the inside of that house, and me going "rifleman ZERO meters" So I quickly raised my rifle, so did he, and we both shot at each other through the window. Only difference: he was the last of his kind  ;D :-*

Quote from: PZ on October 20, 2009, 03:43:58 PM
What would happen if you ignored the radio message and continued to the hill?

Nothing, except they keep telling you to return  :o :)

Just a tip on that mission four.

If you do ignore the "don't leave the area" radio message, you can go up that hill which does reward you with a nice scenic overview of the village. Skim the area with your binoculars, marking many targets, then go to map mode... command your mission using the map. If you can't see any enemy any more, repeat that routine. If you really can't find any enemies any more, go in yourself. That will make those explosions set off (obviously you trigger them), and find the last one or two guys hiding somewhere. Done, like 8 minutes, but well, lost a man. "Do you want to live forever?"

:-* ;)

Or, if you do like cqc:

If possible, use grenades, rifle or hand grenades. Get assault rifles from the bodies, they have those grenade launchers. They also may have MGs and snipers. Grenades and big firepower seems to be the right thing. Was quite fast, too :)

Bonus mission 5 (Encampment)

Well, that was a surprisingly eventless mission: Secure PLA camp alpha and beta, secondary objective "in case" you encounter a helo, shoot him down. You have a Rocket Launcher for that purpose. Mission takes place in the woods (sparse trees) and has a nice ambience light (green/blue). I used the RL which sports a thermal view, spotted the enemies, and had my men walk in a combat spread line (I like that, covers a big chunk of area) towards the enemy. I switched back to my assault rifle and we killed enemies. Most were killed by my men as we slowly paraded through the woods. I heard a helo, assembled the RL, saw the transport helo few hundred meters away, and shot him down. Really, it was just that easy :) The only missile gone, I watched myself switch to hand grenade mode... well, time to grab a sniper rifle from the body in front of me. Walking on, I managed to kill 4 enemies when the "mission over" hit me. 13 minutes of a "walk in the park" :)

I notice that my crew is much more proficient at killing than I am so my technique often is to ensure that I am close enough to heal them when injured.  I'm becoming a bit more comfortable with issuing orders, using the binoculars, and even shooting with sniper rifles - kind of immersive to need to compensate for bullet drop.

Hehe, your crew is better at spotting enemies in the woods or in grassy terrain, but you'll get plenty of chances to see the enemy and you will be getting quicker at spotting and killing them.

If you see one of your mates has his name changed to yellow, orange or red, hit "q" for qommand (I guess) and aim at the coloured name guy - you should see "treat wounded" as the top command. Issue that order and your medic (or someone of your unit who replaced him) will confirm and heal the wounded. On hardcore, you'll see that only if you are in command mode, with that command radial enabled that is, and only when you "aim" at one of your buddies. They will survive quite a bit longer than you if they are wounded, unlike yourself :)

---

Bonus mission 6 (Debris Field)

Geez, 3:26 mission time. Your team has 3 RL, including you, and there are a couple of APCs to take out. Take them out... done, kill a few enemies en passant, mission over? That was quick. LOL  ;D

Good tip - thanks.  I've not yet tried to issue commands for a medic to heal my crew members, although I did shout for a medic once or twice for my own wounds  ;D

Tell me about it  ;D Always a hilarious moment, when the last thing you can actually do (besides croak) is to holler for your medic  ;D

Darn, I'd like a personal nurse much better  ;D

Well, that's it, campaign completed, bonus missions completed.


All in all, a rather quick game, but I think a couple of those campaign missions and a few of the bonus missions are worth a replay or three, for a quick thrill. Missions are usually very intense, they always keep you busy.

I think I'll go through the campaign again, this time on hardcore. Maybe try some new tactics, or try to explore the isle during a non-time-critical mission.

The game really really gains weight if you play on hardcore. Consider this: Nothing changes compared to normal, you bleed to death all the same. The enemy is just as clever. The visibility of the enemy is the same. Well, you cannot save during a mission, but that makes you play with more caution than ever. The real advantage is, on hardcore, that the immersion is better due to missing "computer game tokens" such as yellow flags, a compass in your view, an ammo counter... You have a clean clear sight.

For those who don't know this about me: This is the first game ever I've played on hardcore (starting with the bonus missions and extending it to the Lone Snipers custom mission). And no cheats whatsoever. So far  ;D

Never seen so much fairness on hardcore, meaning the enemy is not perfect but clever enough to keep you on your toes :) The enemy and you have about equal chances in a combat and in fights, only difference is that you can improve your skills. Absolute stunning physics, as in ballistics and modelling 3D sound (sound travels slower than bullets). And no real bug encountered, apart from one time I couldn't complete a mission, but a reload made it w@&k. Well, once my team mate knocked himself out trying to penetrate a concrete wall... and the AI can't drive for the life of you. All in all, great game. No patch needed, works fine, graphics are smooth even on maximum... great job. Kudos to Codemasters  :-X

Quote from: Art Blade on October 18, 2009, 09:14:41 AM
Bonus Mission 2 (coastal stronghold)
I'll have to try that again, I want my men survive it. This is the first mission ever I finished on my own, until now my men always survived. Tough but cool mission.

Well, 18 minutes (most of the time recon and crawling up the hill). All men survived. Actually, they never even got shot once (no wounds at all).

Strategy:
- Keep men out of trouble, but let them do something useful.
- Self-assigned mission: Recon and find strategic sniper position.
Exercise:
Leave men behind, "guarding" (defending) the road, in case that transport truck shows. Orders: Combat Spread, Wedge, Fire at Will. Some distance to mission area, out of sight, yet close enough to assist me quickly.

I ran up the hill, went prone, crawled past that little shack, until I was in a straight line with the lighthouse, behind the rocky end of the plateau. Rocks partly covered me. Aim fixed on rifleman behind window. Called my men to "defend" the main entrance where that stationary Grenade Launcher is located. Good cover for my men there, no enemies were guarding the entrance (first and last mistake).

On a practical note, I used the map, and placed the mouse over their objective marker "defend" and the mouse turned into a hand, so I just moved the "defend" marker to the main entrance.

I knew they were ready when I heard the first shot from their position and that moment I took out the guy behind the window. I needed to crouch now, because a blind angle hindered me. Took out moving targets inside the compound (they kept me busy for a short amount of time, not easy to hit, either). Well, they could not see my men from there and vice versa so they focussed on me and vice versa. Once I was finished there, I moved towards my men, and killed enemies from behind <evil grin> who were taking cover from my men. Funny, they were prone - hard to see and hit for my men, for me like shooting pancakes on the ground hehe. That was so, well, peaceful... We were doing great, no rush, just picking one target at the time... Base clear. Finally the truck arrived, so I moved further on, and side-by-side with the truck (but still on the hill). My men were taking out the ones that were silly enough to try to assault the base entrance, I was taking out the ones who thought they were clever enough not to  ;D

Mission over, 53% accuracy, 12 kills  :)

That mission success felt really good because the stategy worked as planned :)

Just played some of the bonus missions again. The third (ambush) is one of those intense missions, and I tried it a couple of times with different strategies. Died a couple of times, then  :)

Now I have one suicide on my stats board. A moment of disbelieve and a stupid grin on my face, I realised that I had blown myself up with a barrel-mounted GL, shooting from the hip. What I had hit was the tree I was taking cover behind.  :D The cover prevented my unit from blowing up in sync with me  ;D What made me laugh was the death-cam, zooming out and away from my position, revealing me, knocked away from the blast, lying on my back, in a slowly dissolving cloud of smoke... lol  ;D

What did go well as tactics was using the GL immediately after the start and blowing up bunches of enemies from afar, killed 16 this time. And tested a SAW, man, now I know why it has that name  :-X

Mate, that's a terrific comprehensive report on the game, and a great read to boot. Many thanks for taking the time to relate your experiences! :)

And great screenshots, by the way ;D

ditto that - great read Art, and excellent tip on using the map to move the defender position.

An unrelated question: can you roam the island and encounter random enemies for chance battles like in FC2?

Cheers guys :)

Glad you like it :)

Quote from: fragger on October 22, 2009, 01:30:22 AM
And great screenshots, by the way ;D

;D ;D ;D

Quote from: PZ on October 22, 2009, 07:51:15 AM
An unrelated question: can you roam the island and encounter random enemies for chance battles like in FC2?

Yesterday night I had a non-time-critical mission going. I was radioed by Command to return to the combat zone, but I ignored it. After 10 minutes I was presented with the mission over screen, stating "mission failed."

So the answer to your question is "no." Unfortunately.

Quote from: Art Blade on October 22, 2009, 10:10:02 AM
So the answer to your question is "no." Unfortunately.

Shame - my definition of "open world" is slowly being qualified to now include having the ability to do what you like in the "world", not just the ability to walk every square inch.

indeed, same here. Well, actually "open world" never meant anything else to me but the ability to do what you like - that means to have a virtual life between missions.

I've been experimenting with mission one (dragon rising). It is indeed easier with the compass that, despite of hardcore mode, does pop up when you use the command radial (thanks gvse for telling me, lol). So once you know where your target is located, it is ok to look around and reorientate yourself using that compass, rather than whipping up the map all the time.

the pictures below show part of the mission, after destroying the SAMs to the west, you can take a helo stationed there at the beach and fly around a little. My men were ordered to take us to the LZ, then I had the idea that, instead of finishing the mission, it would be cool to get to the main isle, but the infamous radio message "return to combat zone" (or something like that) made me reconsider. I then decided to try to get close to the lighthouse by helo. Maybe we hit a cloud or something, but with a bang the adventure came to a sudden end. It is fun though to play around with silly ideas :)

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Cool pics  :-X

That message "Return to combat zone" is somewhat annoying and detracts from exploring the open world.  I'm increasingly interested in the mission editor, to see if you have enough control to eliminate that message altogether.  If the editor is anything like the one in A2, then you could put pockets of resistance in various areas on the island which would react to your presence rather than having that "don't leave the area" message pop up.  That would greatly enhance the game play and allow one to freely roam the world, and kill people when the mood strikes.  ;D

cheers :)

Oh, those messages and any consequences or missing consequences of you leaving the area, are all scripted.

The editor is quite different, you actually need to learn LUA programming (I'm right in the middle of learning the editor) so events w@&k. Of course you can place a few soldiers on a beach and have them have it, but a mission takes some time to be halfways a mission. But I'm enjoying it, although I need patience and time to get it sorted. Making some progress, though :)

Art I spent the morning reading and viewing all your missions posts :). Great job ;D ;D

I have just got the game thanks to kids last years Xmas present. Just reached the control tower in mission 3. I also just received the guide so with that and your great posts I hope to finish at some point. I was relieved you had the same command issues I have at the moment so I now feel less  :D and hope to get better.

By the way can you macro the commands on your keyboard. If so I may invest. :)



 

Although Art is more familiar with the G15 keyboards we both use than I am, I have not found a limit to the number of keystrokes you can assign to a key.

I'm glad that you're enjoying the game - it is still one that I revisit occasionally because I love the music, and I find the ability to mod the game loads of fun.  I recently visited the Armaholic forums and found that the Caa1 project has been updated so that the AI drives on roads - a problem that bothered me on my missions, plus a whole host of new mods including one that looks like the FC2 buggy that is heavily armed.  :-X

PZ, are you referring to ArmA2? This is OFP2 :)

MGFC4, thanks for your kind words, glad my posts helped you  :)

As for the macros, I restrained myself from doing that because the commands are dynamic. Like, the keys you press to issue some random command A are the same you need for some random command B.

How so? Well, for example if your medic was #4 of your men, and #3 perhaps a sniper, the sniper gets killed and the medic moves up the rank, becoming your new #3. Hence it makes no sense to bind "4" to "medic" or any specific weapon type soldier of your team. The next problem is, the commands available change depending on at what you're looking. Sometimes I wanted to quickly make someone follow me but ended up giving wrong orders because I had highlighted something or was looking at something that didn't make sense with the bound commands. You'll see when you play around with the commands. To me it seemed to be more troublesome to remember the keys and their macros, than to just use the command dial. Maybe there are a few orders worth binding, but instead I just learned to stop and get quick about issueing commands :)

Quote from: Art Blade on November 20, 2009, 08:38:46 AM
PZ, are you referring to ArmA2? This is OFP2 :)

oops, yes, I mix up the two if I'm too quick to read -  :D

Never mind, sir. Err, this is the online banking site, is it not? Ooh, terribly sorry, then. One never knows what those modern technical instruments are actually doing, silly things. I do hope you are not going to tell anyone we met. Well then, I shall be leaving. Right ho! Away I go, to bravely face some more challenges and embracing the opportunity of living new adventures, out there on the ever so stunning wilderness of the net. Cheerio, good man!

lol, it's a wonder I don't get lost every time I enter the FC2 world  ;D

Quote from: Art Blade on October 13, 2009, 01:30:38 PM
Ok, Fifth mission, II. Hard w@&k. I decided again to try a different approach, since the first strategy didn't add up the way I wanted.

Something about weapons and strategy here.
You have been equipped with a rocket launcher that bears HEAT and HE missiles, which are not guided and only go one click (km) max. HE has a "soft" explosion, good against people, HEAT cracks armour. Those were the missiles I took out tanks with in an earlier mission. The game briefings make us believe that "we" have superior weapons, but man... so far I only got basic guns and more than once won a battle with weapons (sniper rifles) I took from the enemy.

On an aside: I took a break yesterday, which by the way is nice -- you can quit the game amidst a mission. The next time it will reload your last savegame and you can continue. That is cool, for example in HitMan:BloodMoney you can't do that, it's either finish the mission or start over if you quit.

So this is "my" 2nd part of the mission. I was in the village to free the crashed crew which was hidden in a building somewhere. The easier way would have been to shoot the two transport helos down so the troops inside die from a high crash (mind you, if you shoot the helos down with HE missiles when they are close to the ground, the crews might bloody survive!) or shoot them with HEAT missiles so the helos would explode. That would leave me with two APC that have heavy guns which did kill some of my men during the last attempts, and that was bad. There is an artillery strike left for you if you didn't use it on the AA encampment earlier in the mission, to take out the APCs with now.

Alright, the helos and APCs arrive one after another and add up... the helos disappear though, but the landed crews and the APCs stay... adding up to the heavy resistance in and around the village. Funny how four men should defend a bunch of MIAs found hiding in a house and ocasionally defeat a platoon as a side job. Just great. But... we have to :)

I decided to keep my men near that house and have them defend that area while I allowed the helos to drop their men and disappear. Nothing as good as a good CQC :)
While my men distracted the enemy by killing them slowly, I assembled my RL and took out the first APC, then the second APC (that would have been a reward for the xbox and a trophy for the PS3 by the way). That must have frightened twelve shades of living sh!$ out of the enemy as all of a sudden no one was left... Cowards  ;D

We had been instructed to keep that position until our extraction helo arrived. After a while we heard it arrive and fly away some 500m. As if they wanted us to enjoy the extra bit of a walk over to them. Well, no enemies left, we hurried towards the extraction point and mission accomplished.

That was another thrilling mission. Starts halfways easy and turns into a nightmare :) Glad it's over. All secondary missions completed, taking a deep breath now.

Hell yeah... I am right at the point where you spot the AA and your command officer let you choose when to use an artillery strike...
I knew that putting down an enemy AA site was too easy to call for a strike... I'm glad you did this marvelous report of yours so I can save my strike for a better moment in the game... cheer mate  :-X
Man, the game always siggest you use your strikes too early in the mission!!  >:(

:) They're not as clever as we are  ;)

Quote from: Art Blade on October 14, 2009, 10:16:36 AM
Mission seven

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This mission was diverse. Breach the enemy lines. That meant, take out spotter teams, clear encampments, kill patrols, attack the fuel depot (again, as in a previous mission). Early daylight mission. I killed 36 enemies but had to tell my team to dig in and wait until I returned... I had run out of ammo. Man, there are so many enemies, if you are on a killing spree, you can't take them all out on your own because there isn't enough ammo  :D I mean, I had 39% accuracy in this mission, so I didn't waste too much ammo, and I was using an assault rifle as if it was a sniper rifle... I took out a couple of peeps with it that were 300m away, single shots. Crazy.  :-*

In the end, the last mission goal "attack the fuel depot" had to be postponed because I couldn't attack! With what, my pistol? Geezus. I ran all the way back, like 2km, found an abandoned enemy jeep, drove the rest to the start point and found that bloody hidden ammo crate. Thank goodness I have the paperback strategy guide with those maps to look up ammo crates. There I found a sniper and an assault rifle, one mag each  :D Had to drive back, found an abandoned APC on my way, swapped vehicles and drove to my unit. A friendly helo hovering above them. Don't think anybody would give me some spare ammo! You can't even ask them! Well, there was another ammo crate in front of that depot, but I had to kill the guarding maniacs first to get to it. Cool, at least I didn't have to run in with a knife between my teeth waving a sabre wildly above my head... hehehe. I did manage, all primary and secondary goals met. Good mission, but take good care of your ammo!

This one is giving me a hard time... holy crap, are there a bunch of foes or what?
I managed to move into the first line, cleared the MG nests and as I move in to eleiminate the AT threat I get  a radio comm saying that someone has sustained heavy casualties and we should fall back! Hell, I even move faster to eliminate the AT threat (leaving the MG nests behind) for someone else)vand even like that I get the same message... that mission has to be performed really fast or you cannot comply with orders...   >:(

Thats one negative point point of OFP2 you guys brought up before but only now I'm realising that!
Yes, open world, but it doesn't matter cos you just cannot enjoy it  :(

All right... one more try from the neginning now  :-*

yes, I remember I got that message too and had to learn how to speed up and survive at the same time.

Re-reading my report (that quote) I remember the circumstances that led me to write I used an assault rifle as if it was a sniper rifle: To save ammo. Once I realised it might not last until the end, I switched to single fire and took out targets from afar.

Awright.... some progress at last!
Had to restart level, but it worked... the idea here is RUN FORREST, RUN!

I moved into the first line as fast as I could, took out two enemies in the way, grabbed their ammo, reached an ammo crate a got one extra mag. Finished off the MG nests before they do some damage to my men and moved on

What I'm also doing is running towards a downed enemy asap and taking his ammo so I don't run out of it too soon!

I finnally realised I was being shot by a MG nest to the left of the first line, on top of a hill I didn't see early on. Once this guy was down, I managed to breach the line before the fradfull "You screw up big time" message. Second line was a bit tough too, but hiding in the bushes and shooting with their marksman rifle helps a lot  ;)

Cleared the AA site and wiped out the spotters... moving to the fuel depot now....phew... what a fight!

Have to stop for the day, but will soon finish that level... great, great firefights!  ;)

nice :) The fights are great. I found the game was rather fair to the player, even hard-to-spot enemies at least were visible. That means, in comparison to ArmA2, where I got killed a lot of times, never knowing where that came from. In OFP2, I never had the feeling to deal with invisible enemies. But they tend to hide :) I remember soldiers hiding in bushes or behind a tree and they sometimes managed to surprise me :)

Good luck with the rest of the mission, have fun JRD

I"m having a lot of fun for sure...

As for replay value, I know I'll play it at least one more time to try different things like issue orders to my men and see how they perform the tasks.
Not sure if it will live for long on my system because once you know what's ahead of you it becomes a bit easy to play, but it is for sure one of the best war games I ever played.
So far it differs from A2 when it comes to action... man, they know how to make a thrilling action firefight. I remember playing A2 for hours just wandering after a warlord without seeing no more than one or two scattered patrols after searching the whole country. OFP2 gets you always on the edge... there is always combat going on!
On the other hand in A2 you play a real open world game... the whole Skira island is there but you cannot see it... maybe in MP, Co-op or custom missions.

I'm looking forward to reading your report on the lone sniper custom mission (preferrably played on hardcore) :)

Quote from: Art Blade on October 17, 2009, 03:57:04 AM
Mission ten

This mission is a night mission again but a little different from the previous ones if you want to complete the secondary objective: recon mission, follow an enemy General's movements and report his positon. Else, you have to destroy a radio station -- stuff we do every day. Don't we? :) Only this time there is no DJ we can threaten with a machete to his neck to read fake news (FC2 hint) but the firepower is worth the trip: Air Strike.

I issued the command and have just seen the stuff rain down on the station, from a far hilltop it looks like this:

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The hard part (not too hard) is to move around unnoticed, unless you want to mop up dozens of hard-boiled pissed-off chinese units and a couple of flying gunships. After the strike you have to run across half the island to get to your extraction point at the beach.

Kind of fun, that mission :)

Wow... I should've read your description better... hahahahahaha

First of all... I shot General Han as soon as he got off his transport helo... Sabre One said to observe him but my itchy finger wouldn't let me... besides I received a "free to engage" order and popped the ba$t@rd... and about two dozens of other PLA around  ;D ;D ;D

Does it change anything in the game or the mission?

As there were more targets than bullets I took a long route and proceeded to destroy the antenna (didn't even checked my artillery availability  :D ). Moved east down the valley (everybody attending the party was coming from west  ;)), went uphill across the road an approached the antenna through southeast. Found armor and a landed transport helo. Gave my man orders to engage both as a distraction while I took off to the antenna alone. Killed a couple of guys on the way and blew up the antenna with a detonator charge.
Got my men together and delighted myself choosing targets from above that hill... muahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
After that, just a long shot to the beach to RV with Sabre three to go back to base... those combat helos didn't even saw my tracks!!  8)

hehehe  ;D Nice approach, JRD ;D

If I remember correctly, the Engage command is only given to you once you've blown the opportunity to do the silent observation ;)

As far as I know, it really doesn't matter what you do, as long as you complete the primary objectives. Whether or not you want to complete those secondary objectives, is entirely up to you, and you will always finish the game. The only noticeable difference I ever noticed was in the final mission: Depending on your success, the epilog changes a little.

Found another nice way to do this mission...
As soon as the mission starts I send my men to the RV point and proceed by myself. The first PLA soldier up on the crest of the hill can be dispatched with my trusty combat knife. I then keep my eyes peeled for general Han and move through the valley. Before cross the road I wait for the patrol to move on and rush to the other side unseen.
The sniper on the fortified position can also be dispatched with the knife.
I messed up somehow and was seen, but I'm sure I can re-do it and silently slash him.
All that would be left is to call the artillery strike and move away, still unseen, no shots fired  ;)

Meanwhile... I'm having a tough time on the last mission... didn't even managed to destroy the AAA yet. Damn Javelin is too clumsy to use... I couldn't lock on the AAA and have no detonators with me...
Will have to check another way to finish it off  :-\
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I also found OFP1, game of the year edition on amazon quite cheap........  ::)

Wow, stabbing a soldier or two like that, nice! I only killed one soldier with my knife, in a bunker, and he was already incapacitated (lone sniper custom mission).

That indeed sounds very intriguing, and like an adrenalin kick. Good luck with that  :-X

And with respect to the last mission.... "told you"  ;D It is a bitch of a mission, especially if you want to keep the general alive. Have fun :)

Geez... what general?  :(

Read the secondaries... "Capture Naval Base with General Zheng still alive"  :)

Quote from: Art Blade on October 17, 2009, 11:18:30 AM
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Awrighttttttt... managed to put down those triple A... what a hard time >:(.

First of all... they want me to to fight against armor and give me only one Javelin... lets see... one tank plus two AAA minus one round equals... TWO DAMN ARMOR!!!

Of course, you can grab one AT or C4 as you go on, only the corpses holding those last for about a couple of minutes before becoming dust and its damn hard to get ATs or C4s these days!! The house infested with PLA that had a Queen Bee was alright, but everytime I cleared the house and proceeded I got a mission fail due to Helos running into AAA before I could manage to destroy it... The hard trouble here is the time left to accomplish your objective.

Another thing was annoying me... everytime I managed to get an AT and get closer to the triple A position, the AAA itself was aiming at my position, so everytime I got out of cover I was shot dead by an Anti Aircraft Artillery that should be looking at the skies, not at me... geezzzz... if a soldier guarding the AAA kills me, fine, thats why he's there, but when the AAA itself "knows" I am a threat and waits for my head to pop out of a house and shoots me its pretty annoying...

Anyway... done... phew  :-*

Getting to the naval base... pretty nice... it's a true assault. I managed to finish armor, MG nests and specops on my way to the base but ended up flanked by some other specops... cool, enemy AI is really good when they don't cheat  ;)

This game is really good... I only miss being able to call the shots here sometimes so I could time my assault better and send some other units attack different positions or cover me... anyway... an outstandig tactical shooter...

 :)

Some of the missions seem almost impossible to solve. Then it is time to consider one's tactics -- can you get there using a different route or different weapons? Create a diversion by sending your men to poit A while you flank the enemy at point B? That is the freedom you get in OFP2, and it is a challenge at times.

The last mission is tough indeed, and I managed it by

A) not taking the helo but walking to the naval base, and on my way across hills I got a good angle to shoot with the sniper rifle I scavenged at the village from where on the game leads you to the final battle, and

B) using my men as bait, I had no intention to save them that time, but to make them save me. They attracted the enemy fire and troops while I walked around on a hillside and shot those enemies in the back or took out those who were to far away for my men. I believe all of my men croaked, but that was part of their job  ;D One reason I did that was the fact that they would attack the general, I couldn't tell them not to, so I kept them at distance and let them stay there.

yeah... I do walk to the naval base and take out whatever I find on my way!
I gives me extra rounds on my Queen Bee (AT) or a nice machinegun I haven't seen yet (don't know the name)
I can pretty much clear the way to the base but after shooting lots of enemies I get shot by some other specops coming from behind me, I don't know from where exactly, or how, as I have other teams behind me that should be covering my back instead of wandering around  >:(
I have to find a way to position my men to shoot ducks, cover their asses from the specops sneaking from behind and then get the general by myself!!!
... keep on trying...  :-*

When I first failed, I tried the helo way (had my men take over the helo and transport me). That helo flight ended badly, we got shot down. The second time, if I remember correctly, I didn't do anything, no orders, and got into one of the already manned helos, they flew on their own and of course a different route. Only then I realised it was scripted, and on passing a certain point, we got some radio messages and the pilot dropped me off. I don't remember if my men were on the same helo or if they boarded a second one. However, that flight led us to a savepoint to the I think east of the Naval base (I thought of it as the back entrance), and from there we marched on. The next time I walked again, and I remembered to go to the saving point. That was when I happened upon some SpecOps or NightOps, and I found a silenced sniper. I thought the enemy didn't have supressed weapons, at least that's what they say in the guide for OFP2 (some guide like prima guide for FC2). Well, with the silenced weapon I was happy, hoping for some fun, I walked to the savepoint to save with that silenced weapon. The rest was a few attempts when my men killed the general, and the last attempt was to make them stay somewhere near the "rear entrance" while support came in from the other end. I was in the middle, on the hills, taking out whatever I could :)

Quote from: JRD on January 21, 2010, 04:16:44 PM
Found another nice way to do this mission...
As soon as the mission starts I send my men to the RV point and proceed by myself. The first PLA soldier up on the crest of the hill can be dispatched with my trusty combat knife. I then keep my eyes peeled for general Han and move through the valley. Before cross the road I wait for the patrol to move on and rush to the other side unseen.
The sniper on the fortified position can also be dispatched with the knife.
I messed up somehow and was seen, but I'm sure I can re-do it and silently slash him.
All that would be left is to call the artillery strike and move away, still unseen, no shots fired  ;)

Awrightttttt... the sweetest deed  ;D ;D

Two enemies stabbed to death, no shots fired, general Han evaporated by JDAM strike  ;D ;D ;D ;D
On one attempt I shot the sniper at the fortified position across the valley and escaped by a long route through northwest, by the lakeside. As I was finnally getting at the beach I was spotted by some soldiers, shot in the leg ( :D) and, crippled, got a mission failed because I took too long to get to the RV point  :'(

Retry... stab, stab, JDAM, run, run, run... finish  8) 8) 8)

cool  ;D congrats  :-X

Re-reading my previous post I also realised another issue... I got a mission fail because I took too long to get to the beach.
It wasn't really a timed objective so, in theory, I could take as long as I wanted or needed to pass through the hordes of blood-thirsty, revenge-seeking PLA troops after Gen Han became Ham (ha...... ha......ha... Han, Ham.... get it? .... geezzzzz, it must be the coffee... :P )... So, not even when you supposedly can take your time you are really free to explore the island!  :(

Quote from: Art Blade on October 17, 2009, 08:22:53 AM
I have renamed this topic. For some reason it has turned into a diary of my first playthrough :)

Mission eleven, I (the final mission)

As expected, this mission is massive. Strange, when I read about this game and watched pre-release vids, I was under the impression I would get a free game world to roam, use different vehicles and vast amounts of different weapons. Now, in the last mission I got the only opportunity to fly a helo which is crap, because you only use it as a transport for a very short flight - steering it was a nightmare, so I had the AI do the job at first. Tell you what, I did not take the helo, I decided to reload and walk (was only like 2km worth of walking, so what the heck).

First part of the mission is a nightmare... you just don't have enough time or ammo to get the job done... one single Javelin (it looks like a washing machine, so big it is, so I guess you cannot carry more than one round with you at a time  :( ). So I had to rush and get an anti-armor weapon on the run... which proved to be quite annoying due to misterious body vanishing and, again, short time to do what you have to.
But I did it... despite the hurry, its no big deal... soldiers guarding a village and your team plus a few more teams assaulting the place. Take care of your flank and move on!

Second part is different. As I posted before, I had some trouble assaulting the base from the north due to some specops flanking me. I got their pattern now... they patrol the wood uphill west of the base and I was assaulting the place from there (higher ground), so I decided to try something different. Got the helo and went southwest, flying low to avoid AAA fire. Passing the tank and a machine gun nest you can land on a road behind the hills (I saw purple smoke and decided to check). Disembarked and went down the road. Shot one soldier on a MG nest and saw some friendly coming down the road as well. By their movement I could tell they were going to keep moving down the road, so I proceeded towards the hill tops, where you can spot one MG nest after another. It proved to be a nice approach as I was clearing the way for those men from above as they were moving to assault the base by the road. As I got closer to the base (I got one sweet sniper rifle, night vision, from one soldier on a MG nest) I got fire mission available. So by the time I reached the southern entrance of the compund I had 4 more friendly soldiers assaulting the base (not under my command though) and mortar fire to sweep the hills and get rid of the spec ops patrolling the area (or the base if I didn't care killing the general).
I only did it one time, but there are a few strategies that can be used from there
- Direct assault to the base. Clear the way for the other fire team to move on. They`ll kill some PLA and get shot... you do the rest
- Call mortar fire to the hills immediately west of the base, by the woods, where the specops patrol. Place your men guarding the hill top in case any soldier wants to flank you and move into the base by yourself. With a nice weapon like the night ops sniper rifle you can take pot shots on soldiers even if they set smoke to cover their retreat (thermal vision on the sniper scope ;) ), thus avoiding hitting general Zheng and saving the day!!

Will sure try this other approach!

Great reads guys - although I've not played the game for a while and probably won't in the near future because other games have captured my interest, it is great to read of your experiences.  I've done enough in OFP2 to visualize in my mind what you're doing in game, and it gives me a sense of appreciation to hear of your adventures.  :-X

Nice one. Really need to get stuck into OFP2 and get more missions done, so far only 1 campaign and 2 bonus mission completed so far :-[ .

Not sure what it is but it has not gabbed me as much as Arma2. In some ways OFP is actually a little better than Arma2, it looks better graphically in alot of ways but has no where near the variety on offer with Arma2.


Ooooo, new patch expansion just finished coming down. Going to get that installed and spend the evening trying not to get killed or run out of ammo!

Quote from: RedRaven on January 27, 2010, 09:47:38 AM
Not sure what it is but it has not gabbed me as much as Arma2.

Maybe the fake open world / sandbox nature of the Skira campaign as opposed to the "Ï dont care how you get the job done, just do it" nature of Arma2?

Could be, also the amount of good quality mods out for Arma means you can be from near enough any military, with any weapon / vehicle of choice trying to complete missions on the fly on any one of nearly a dozen different environments.
And still no signs of any mods coming out for OFP which I find surprising as the first one had a lot of mods made for it, so far have only found a couple of maps and campaigns (not tested any yet, have put a link on the 'Expansions' topic).

JRD, you wrote about seeing friendlies walking around in that area. I wrote I got a suppressed weapon of an enemy specOps. Later I found out they don't have any suppressed weapons. Now it is dawning on me...  :-[ :D ;D