fa3_c64_thrustingcrusader_v3

[Lord Penney]

At time of post, we have just finished our first thrust as crusaders and I'd be interested to hear your feedback. Below I will list points so far:

1) EI presence markers
2) Start mounted
3) Start closer
4) More grenades
5) Less grenades
6) Fewer patrols

I would like to point out that whilst this mission is supposed to be difficult, it's not supposed to be unfair. To me, fairness is the priority over all else.

EDIT: Also be sure to mention what you liked so that a) I don't change that b) Long term learning!

[wolfenswan]

• Give squads a reason to use transports (min 2km travel distance) or place them close enough to leg it into the AO. (maybe with a few empty/locked trucks nearby for "fluff"). If you want to have logistics, maybe use the base further to the NE? It might enable the CO to decide on various directions of attack.
• Spread out EI a bit more? Hard to judge from a player's perspective, but maybe a bit less in the town itself and a few more patrols?
• Grenades are fine. Most units have 6 grenades (3 frag + 3 mini) and can collect more from enemies.
• Disable thermals on the blackfoot. A thermal + gun is a bit too powerful, unless you'd enforce a RoE such as "no attacking buildings" (then it would be more of a spotting role), then thermals would be okay as it would be serving more of a spotting role. If you want to keep using the blackfoot I'd remove the ATGMs so it doesn't take out vehicles from miles off. Alternatively make the AH a pawnee and maybe add a UAV dude with a darter.
• A ground-based support vehicle might be a good replacement for the blackfoot.

[Dogface]

The layout of the mission seemed okay to me (but starting closer would be just fine) -- my main issue personally was with the performance, which was very slow for me (6FPS on my admittedly outdated PC, but I can usually hope for at least 12-15FPS on coops). Given how quickly we got wiped out, I'd imagine you could go for considerably fewer AI, especially in the city, drop the civvies, and possibly implement more in the way of AI caching/dynamic spawning. Personally, I'd much prefer a manageable framerate even if it does risk seeing the occasional EI-teleport, but maybe others would differ there...

Anyway, a neat mission, here's hoping we get to play an adjusted version at some point!

[Ferrard Carson]

As CO (however momentary that distinction may have been) I feel like I completely misjudged the rhythm of this mission. My understanding was that we'd have an easy ride to whatever positions we wanted to assault the town from, and that we would come under fire once in LOS of Agios Marina proper. Obviously, I was mistaken. From the point that we took contact to the town, however, was already fairly long trek without our vehicles, and the town itself was only the first of two objectives + two sidequests. As it currently stands, this mission will always turn into a slogfest of survivors at the end being watched for upwards of half-an-hour by dead guys, which is not very fun for DeadFor.

As an aside: Early enemies should always be very clearly indicated. Save the sneaky ones for later in the mission when people won't mind as much being killed without a chance to respond. Replace the forest patrol with a manned checkpoint, for instance. Same effect, more "fair" to the players who are killed early.

Consider doing like Fer and Wolf's "Bay" and "Bay II" missions, Wolf's "Rolling Matryoshka" or Mamba's "Rolling Bohica" missions, and a few others: Split the mission into two independent missions based on your two separate objectives. They'll just happen to share the same storyline. This splits up the rhythm and gives DeadFor a chance to get back into the action while also cutting down the playtime required to complete the mission, making it more likely to be played by hosts.

I'd also echo Wolf's call for a limit on the chopper - I would lean towards the "allow thermals, but prohibit attacking built up areas," because the chopper is much more valuable as recce than fire support.

That said, good mission - very good use of Wolf's Garrison script, which I'll have to explore in more detail. Enemy composition was pretty good, there were enough surprises to keep us on our toes, and the terrain is great. Keep it up!

~ Ferrard

[fer]

I really enjoyed this mission once it got going, but I do have a few recommendations:

• As Carson suggests, split it up into parts 1 and 2 (or even 3); it's just too big an AO with too many enemies for us to handle without taking the level of casualties that would force the host to consider calling it early.

• If you intend to use ground transport, the ideal approach is to pre-mount the squads. Personally, I am opposed to putting lots of different vehicles in the starting area and letting the CO decide. Instead, after we've had a good playthrough of the mission in 'motorised infantry' form, consider making a 'mechanised infantry' version (for example), and tweaking the enemy accordingly.

• You don't need to put markers on all the enemy concentrations, but do try and indicate the point at which shit will get real for players. In real life, we wouldn't drive down a road in open-topped vehicles if we had any worries about running into enemies. Perhaps put a marker down for 'last known EI contacts' to indicate the start of the badlands?

• Air cover in an FA coop mission should almost always have 'don't engage buildings' ROE. Having the Blackfoot take out an enemy APC/IFV that's bearing down on our platoon is cool, but having it snipe buildings full of EI isn't. We have IceRaiser for clearing duties - use him.

• In the future, because the Party will be run by fucking millennials, we've relaxed the rules on 4x scopes like the MRCO. If you think the platoon is going to spend a lot of time shooting at the enemy on the other side of a valley, it's okay to use them. I can't recall if you gave some out, or none, but I didn't have one and was pixel sniping for much of the mission.

Great to see this (and other) missions coming out of the ever-expanding list of comrade mission makers. Keep it up, comrades!

[Lord Penney]

Thanks for the great feedback guys! This is what I have taken from it thus far and will implement in v4:

• FOCUS: Honestly, I always thought it might end up being a slog, but I didn't see a way around that until you guys pointed out making it a 2/ 3 parter. I'll cut down on the excess objectives and focus much more on clearing the town in part 1. If the party likes it, I will go on to make part(s) 2 (and 3).
• BLACKFOOT: After much debate with myself, I have settled on keeping thermals on but adding a town ROE for it. The only problem is that I don't want it to simply be a INF mop for units outside the town, but I've thought of a few ways around that.
• MARKERS: In my defence, I had designed this mission to have a touch of a Dark Souls feel by trying to force the CO to be very cautious. However, based on your feedback and my own ponderings, it might be a bit of a tall order to suddenly demand that mid FA session. Furthermore, that may not trickle down as fun for everyone else. I will find a happy medium by including a few markers that indicate where EI can (very roughly) be expected.
• MOTORISED: Here's a point where I slightly disagree with the feedback, as some have suggested getting rid of the vehicles altogether. I find that the vehicles add flexibility to the mission by allowing the CO to more easily exploit the four main pathways to the town; therefore, I do not believe that their addition hinders the operation. But I do agree that comrades should start mounted. That was due to laziness on my part!
• SCOPES: I will add 4x scopes to the standard loadout, although not everyone will receive the same optics. Honestly, I felt it was a bit too much of a pixel hunt for my liking.

Again, thanks for the feedback. Now, to work!