Gambit Royale FDF Edition

[nettrucker]

Thanks for the enthusiastic comments, they are appreciated
nettrucker mentioned that the name display feature sometimes stops working. That happens whenever you reload a mission. The best way to avoid the problem is not to die

yeah I gonna bear that in mind next time I gonna get shot at. LOL!
I'm currently on mission 5 - Sleet. Everything works perfect. This campaign is really awesome. every detail has been taken care of.
It really gives me the thrills like back in OFP when everything was still new. The plot is really laid out very well and it's just addicting to play this campaign. Not to mention the awesome cut scenes and the voice acting. IMHO this campaign is of very high standards might be even better than certain BIS campaigns.
Just amazing.

[tom3kb]

Im on 2nd mission now but i must say its great campaign, very good mission with cool stuff (colored teammates names wenn you target them with mouse) etc. You added also few great looking things in cutscenes (in 2nd mission ANN news with "movie in movie" with CSLA units, i see something like this first time in usermade campaign-awsome). Cant wait to play more tonight. Great work

[Variable]

Sounds great. Adding to my "to play" list!

[Inlesco]

Excellent campaign. I admire your efforts. A campaign without proper cutscenes is simply a bunch of missions (deceitful advertising, you know). I've managed to playthrough all 13 missions and it was really impressive. I don't know why, but at first I expected longer cutscenes. Also, I was looking forward to better explanation of the way all characters behave. In particular, their motives, methods, attitude on various things (this type of details does not require a voice-over I think). This is acceptable if you reasonably left some aspects unexplained for a sequel which will follow later on. Nevertheless, this is a fine work everyone should take as an example.

Suggestions & feedback (story spoilers):

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Mission 1... Helicopter extraction: IMO, it'd better to implement a system which lets you change pre-set chopper's course to EZ.

Gratitude... Here's how I escaped Thirsk: I rushed to SUV, got in and simply drove away from the town by the roads. Several FDF troops intercepted me but quite strong SUV armor compensated everything and I escaped without a scratch. However, for some reason signalizing of SUV didn't turn off on entire trip Russian border. Perhaps it's a bug? Besides, this mission gives a good thrill when you're alone. Suggestions: 1) change time into night-time and modify the intro accordingly. I think this adjustment is a key to a more immersed mission. 2) Include a script which lets dogs attack humans (Denmark would be their primary target, ofc ).

Turblence... The only thing I didn't like is the way 'Secure Plasma' objective is presented. I mean, newly spawning enemies in designated locations when I secure the base is breaks realism apart. IMO - you should make 1 obj instead of 2. Or only 1 - 'Occupy and hold Feruz Abad'. Everything else was fine!

Gambit Royale... When I drove the warhead out of Zargabad, the clock was counting 6+ minutes left. In that time, you can try requesting an evacuation helicopter to take you away from the bomb.

2 endings? 1: Ian is alive - he manages to escape the nuclear explosion by successfully heading back to Zargabad. 2) Ian dies the way he did in this v1.0. Sure increasing flexibility of the storyline takes time, but IMO, it's a right thing to do. 2 different cutscenes would be needed.

As I probably mentioned, more details on characters is always welcome: information about their past, shocking moments in the lifetime, etc. I think these little details are worth consideration.

Good luck expanding & improving this magnificent work, AZCoder!

[AZCoder]

@Inlesco - Thanks for the feedback. I will put my responses in spoiler, and please nobody read this if you haven't finished the campaign:

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Mission 1 - I agree, good idea

Gratitude - the alarms/barking implemented are fairly simplistic, so unfortunately they never shut off, but I can see it would be a good idea, and night time? Maybe, I was probably tired of using NVG's in so many missions

Turbulence - this was a very difficult mission to implement, the enemy is actually "disabled" from the start and re-enabled after the first objective. I did this because FDF tanks, soldiers, and Marines would decide on their own to go and kill most of the enemy, leaving the player little to do. The Takistani are literally inside the buildings from the start, then I shut off simulation and made them invisible so that friendly AI would ignore them. This seems fairly realistic to me, because they are simply hiding out until it's time to strike back at the invaders. I hope that clarifies my intentions on that.

Last mission - There is no helicopter rescue because of the expected EMP from the nuke, so HQ orders all flights to ground. I could have Ian radio HQ and have this explained, though. At any rate the original plan was to have 2 different cutscenes as you mentioned, LOL! I axed that ultimately because I want continuity with the next campaign Dark Tides, and also wanted to portray the selfless sacrifice of elite warriors. Always caught between give and take on plot decisions I might change my mind on this later, who knows. Thanks for you ideas, it helps a lot to see how others view it, especially when it's all in my head, and I'm not sure if I conveyed enough or not.

One other thing on the last mission, Denmark is at the final firefight, but he tries to escape by vehicle. He can be stopped if your approach is right and you have enough firepower. Just letting you know.

Also, Inlesco, if you have any lingering questions about the plot, I would welcome any PM's to me if you feel up to it. Some of it will be explained in Dark Tides, but I would like to make sure the important parts are covered in this one.

[nettrucker]

Best user made campaign for ArmA II I've played so far since release. Superb quality, on par with the official campaigns even better then some. This a is must play for everyone who likes single player campaigns.

Mission 4 - Regret

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Not really much to report here awesome cut scenes.

Mission 5 - Sleet

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Also this mission went perfectly. The robbery at the fuel station was a cool idea.

Mission 6 - Frostbite

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in this mission I was obviously too slow . . . when I arrived at the town the party was all over, nothing left to fight. Meanwhile I was setting the load out for my team at the ammo crate. The fighting already started between the FDF forces and enemy forces. They were already engaged in fighting before I reached my attack position. Most probably the attack position of the FDF forces are too close to the enemy position and once the fighting starts there's no way to stop. Casualties taken none due to the fact that we didn't get into the fight. My bad was too slow equipping my team.
I believe that something went a bit square in this mission needs a replay
Mission time: 11 min

Mission 7 - Gratitude

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Loved that mission. At mission start I immediately went for the next car nearby (it was not the SUV), hearing the sirens of nearing police cars, I decided get some distance and get disappeared.

I got shot various times during my escape ride with the car. So I decided to abandon the car when I was somewhat close to my destination and went on foot. Had to cross one last road where 2 tanks were patrolling, in order to reach safety. So I waited some time to figure out if I could understand if there was some kind of patrol pattern. I slowly sneaked past the patrolling tanks without them noticing me and reached safety.
I did not take the boat to avoid certain death by boredome. LOL.

Mission 8 - Infiltrator

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Wow back to Takistan.
Captured myself two enemy jeeps equipped with machine guns. At the first ammo cache I encountered, I loaded some ammo and weapons onto the jeeps and then I went to all marked objectives taking out 1 AA gun after another. During the operation a Shilka appeared which got promptly taken out by an RPG from my team.

Suggestion:
This mission was a little bit to easy in my opinion since none of the AA positions were guarded it was not really challenging. put some guards around the AA positions and this mission is good as the others.
All AA guns destroyed casualties taken none.
satcheled also a grad position I found.

Mission time 3 h 2 min. can be done in less but I lost some time to get my jeeps loaded with all the necessary goodies.

Mission 9 - Turbulence

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Another well made mission. Enjoyed the attack on the base at Feruz Abad. Once the base was cleared we proceeded
to secure the 2nd objective and then set up defensive position awaiting the enemies counterattack which promptly started as soon as the 2nd objective was accomplished.
counter attack defeated - Casualties 3 KIA on my team
Mission Time: 30 min.

Mission 10 - Maelstrom

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Awesome mission. Everything worked perfectly. Extremely cool the video overlay at mission end.
All objectives accomplished casualties taken none.
Mission Time: 26 min.

Mission 11 - Gambit Royale

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Sad ending but awesome the mission idea. Very well done. Managed to get the bomb out before being blown to oblivion.

Mission time: 1h 6 min. casualties suffered 3 KIA.

thanks for this jewel.

[AZCoder]

@nettrucker, I have a couple comments on that:
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mission 6 - the same thing happened to me once, and in retrospect I should have fixed it. I'll get it in a patch.
mission 8 - there are random patrols, but if you miss them then yeah it's kind of easy, plus I found a bit of a problem that the Takis don't seem to ID you very well since they don't have NVG's, I will definitely revisit this in the future.

Well you and Inlesco have given me some things to think about. Now only if I could get another Finnish voice actor....

[nettrucker]

Send you a PM concerning the Finnish voice actor. Couldn't do more for the time being.

[Brainbug]

I second nettruckers comment on Frostbite, I was still a few meters east of the road and just about to make contact when the scripted end sequence set it and ended the mission. I also spend quite a while rummaging around in the ammo crate, but I expected the FDF teams to wait for my signal. I suspect some triggers to be set wrong; didn't inspect the mission in the editor though, but from the lines at the end (get out blabla) it must have been intended differently.

[AZCoder]

It is fixed in the upcoming patch. The support team started too close to the enemy, and after a time the enemy patrols would find the support team causing combat to begin, after which the hold waypoint doesn't really seem to matter. There are a few other changes in the patch, I am still working on the last change and then I will release it.