Campaign and Bonus Mission Diary (Tips included)

[PZ]

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

[Art Blade]

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 :)

[nickjb69@hotmail.com]

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. :)



 

[PZ]

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

[Art Blade]

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 :)

[PZ]

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

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

[Art Blade]

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!

[PZ]

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

[JRD]

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!!  >:(

[Art Blade]

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

[JRD]

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  :-*

[Art Blade]

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.

[JRD]

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!  ;)

[Art Blade]

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

[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.

[Art Blade]

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

[JRD]

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)

[Art Blade]

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.

[JRD]

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........  ::)

[Art Blade]

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 :)

[JRD]

Geez... what general?  :(

[Art Blade]

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

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[JRD]

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...

[Art Blade]

 :)

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.

[JRD]

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...  :-*