[SP] Punishment Battalion, scored 9/10 at Ofpec!

[impi]

Hi Lee

Does the mission contain anti armoured mines/and or trip wire claymores..?

If it doesn't this would be a great thing to have for ambushing patrols and quick reaction forces....just like real life guerilla/spec frce operations...

Impi

[thepiespy]

was great fun when i played it last night, but unfortunatly something with the save file got corrupted because every time i try and load it back up ArmA crashes and gives me an error message about how it cant find autosave.ArmASave

[leehunt27]

Hi thepiespy,

Do you have any backup saves? That's an ArmA problem unfortunately. I've played through the game over a dozen times and 100 people have betatested. The number of variables was reduced dramatically for the final version to allow saves to work. Did you check the save game folder as well and try renaming the file and "loading" it once in the mission?

Lee

[EricFr]

Very good job.

The AI don't shoot through the barbed wire easy to kill them.

Arma 1.12

[leehunt27]

thanks EricFr, glad you liked it!!!

Has anyone found the code word if you won the full victory?

[anc]

It seems to be a great mission, unfortunately i was able to play only 40 minutes.
After that i got an error, and couldn't play anymore =(
I posted the error here:
http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....t=72807
Regards

[leehunt27]

Sorry your PC is having problems with it Anc.

The mission is large with quite a few OPFOR and other vehicles, and your PC might be having memory problems-- but I don't believe its the mission itself after 100 betatesters went through it and I played it over a dozen times, etc etc. ***I've never seen that error-- maybe try reducing the graphics quality a bit?

I would also say try reloading an older save game (copy and paste backups to a separate folder if you can) as a couple people have tried that successfully. ***Please let me know what happens further (either here or in PM)

[Taconic]

I've been playing the mission for the past few days. It's quite a bit like Abandoned Armies, which is a good thing. The bad thing is that it is that it is interfering with my finals... but it's much more fun than finals, so that's OK.

For reference, I'm playing on 1.12b.

Comments/issues (be warned--potential spoilers):

-The blackhawk pilot absolutely refused to do anything but stand regardless of combat posture. I don't know if there was a script running on him or not, but he ignored every order but "stay crouched" and "go prone." It made him a bit of a liability since I had to micromanage his posture when in combat.

-The pilot never evaced. He left my group, but he just stands next to the blackhawk (he's still there.) I haven't looked at the mission, so I don't know if this is intentional or not.

-Augustine just dropped his weapon. left my group, and ran at a T-72. It didn't end well for him. Is this an unavoidable thing? Is there a way to get him to rejoin? Same thing with the guy near the airbase, but in his case I just assumed that he was a traitor and took off.


As for general comments:

I like the fact that the island is not just crawling with soldiers behind every bush and building, but I'm finding it tough to find fights. I'm not quite ready to take on the main bases yet, but I have completed the other objectives and attacked the marked garrisons. I've been looking for patrols to ambush or garrisons to hit, but I'm only finding a handful of guys every hour or so (and none of them have AT weapons.)

If you ever update the mission, I'd suggest adding an ammo dump or something as an optional objective. That way people that find themselves in my situation would have a place to get some decent weapons.

Another suggestion would be to add some regular military traffic. I haven't seen any aside from the odd UAZ in the first hour or so of the mission. One of my favorite parts of AA was ambushing the big convoys. Sometimes you had to wait an hour for them, but it was worth it.

I'd also give the UAZ MGs hanging out in the passes fuel. Or just remove them altogether and add defensive emplacements/roadblocks instead. At first I figured they had just run out of fuel, but I found another group of them in another pass.


That's about all that I can think of. My biggest complaint is that things seem a bit sterile and quiet, but I've been having a lot of fun and it's definitely the best mission I've played in Arma.

You asked for feedback in the readme about a possible Punishment Battalion II. I say go for it. This is a great mission and I'd love to see more like it. I realize how much work they are to make, but they're something special. You've set the bar pretty high.

[leehunt27]

hi Kurayami,

Thanks for the feedback, glad you are enjoying it. I hope you enjoy the finale when you get to the end as well.

For those about to play, i made the first hour much quieter so the player wouldn't be overwhelmed. ***But there are plenty of bad guys out there later-- see if you can avoid getting killed at all if you are up to really challenge yourself. ***If you get surprised and killed even once by a patrol, then those patrols are tough by definition.

I tried not to give away too many AT weapons in the patrols you find, otherwise attacking the main base might be too easy. ***A hint would be to use the Mando Mortar as much as possible....

The Blackhawk pilot not moving is ArmA AI unfortunately-- he actually has no orders and the squad control sometimes falls apart in this game unfortunately. ***That may be why he didn't get on board the chopper- but it should not interfere with the mission overall. ***





*** SPOILERS *******

Augustin does run away - he gets combat shock and flees after you kill X number of OPFOR.

[Taconic]

The Blackhawk pilot not moving is ArmA AI unfortunately-- he actually has no orders and the squad control sometimes falls apart in this game unfortunately. That may be why he didn't get on board the chopper- but it should not interfere with the mission overall.

That must be it. I've noticed that my squad doesn't always return to formation and that a few of my members will occasionally ignore all move/return orders until I order them into something. The pilot was just an odd exception and I only mentioned it because I once wrote a rivercrossing script that did the same thing until I fixed it.

I've just recently moved over to Arma from OFP, so I'm still learning about the AI quirks this time around. It actually seems to have more than OFP.


Have you considered creating a mission like this with the CoC CE? I first had that idea 2-3 years ago and planned to act on it, but never got around to it (and as far as I can tell, nobody else has either.) I envisioned a mission where you pick up members of your squad in the same manner as your mission or AA, but also have the ability to recruit members for a couple of other squads to be controlled through the CE. I think it'd add another dimension to a guerilla style "campaign in a mission" like PB since it would enable multi-pronged attacks or the ability to encircle an objective. It'd be great for ambushing (hide an AT squad at a crossroad,) recon (the player wouldn't have to physically run all over the place to find enemies,) and diversions (one squad could draw away patrols from an objective, leaving it open for the player.)

Just an idle thought for you or anybody else reading. I know it would be a nightmare to get properly working/balanced, so I'm not holding my breath.


I guess I'll go get in another hour or so of play time before I have to head out to class. I'd much rather focus on finishing up the mission tonight, but school is expensive.