Where's my payment?!?!

[fragger]

@D_B: Sorry mate, I overwrote that save already after I completed the mish :D But I've had the convoy run into the patrolling GLAT on several occasions in the past when playing that mission. To the best of my knowledge, that's the only convoy-type mission where the local patrol remains in business - without a glitch being involved, that is. Once I was waiting in those same rocks behind the Weapon Shop and the red circle showed the convoy to be still some distance away and out of sight, when the circle winked out and I got a "Mission Completed" message. When I went to where I'd last seen the circle I found the vehicles abandoned, including the GLAT. The two groups had apparently run into each other there (it was near the road fork at the Crash Site) and even though there were still a couple of mercs hanging around, there were no bodies anywhere that I could see. They must have spontaneously disappeared.

Since this mission doesn't involve a Weapon Shop convoy, maybe the absent-AT rule doesn't apply. I'm not 100% sure if the GLAT is present in this mission every time or not, but I think it probably is. Note that this is the only cell tower mission in Bowa where the target is in a convoy, and it's the only such mission that sticks to main roads. The only other cell tower convoy mission is that one that goes around the Airfield in Leboa, but it doesn't follow any roads, so there are no ATs for that convoy to run into, and so you don't see any merc wars happening in that mish. I think these are the only two cell tower missions in the game where the target is in a convoy.

Maybe next time you (or I, or anybody that's curious) take on the Bowa mission, try hanging out in the Weapon Shop for a while and see what happens. Keep your map out, and if you hear a vehicle going past, you'll be able to tell from the map whether it's the convoy or the GLAT. They travel in opposite directions around the same loop of road, so they have to meet at some point, one would think.

Sorry I didn't save that game, I just didn't think of it ::)

[mandru]

Some good info there fragger.  :-X

Definitely some things I am going to keep in mind the next time I get that mission.  First I'll make a save once the mission is assigned and then I'll play it out repeatedly to try to catch the fun.

I usually draw all of my 2nd game half cell missions from the cell tower North of Dogon Sediko.  From there I have rapid access to the majority of the Target of Opportunity missions and literally puts me just seconds away from that loop of road shared by the convoy and GLAT.

Usually I swoop in so fast I guess I've never given the game the chance to move events forward naturally and yeah, the AT patrols clockwise and the convoy is moving counter that.

You got me looking forward to it fragger.  :)

[Dweller_Benthos]

No big Fragger, just a thought. I don't think I've done that mission yet in this play through, so I'll keep an eye out this time. I'm like Mandru, I usually don't let them hang around for too long before I'm done with them and on to the next thing.

[fragger]

Just a little more on this one, and getting back to JRD's original post...

Evidently, you'll only get paid for this mish if you personally take out the target. I did this one again yesterday, and I let the merc war happen on the road again. This time though, the GLAT guys took out the mark instead of myself, and even though I got the "Mission Completed" message, I didn't get any diamonds for it. So it appears that if you don't personally take out the suit yourself, you won't get any dough for it, defunct though said suit may be.

[Dweller_Benthos]

One time I did a mission and the jeep carrying the suit crashed into a tree and I'm pretty sure I got the diamonds for that one.

[JRD]

So it works as if the game "knows" if you caused th target`s death or if someone else did it. Whatever happens that send him to the other life but is caused by you - fire, car crash... anything other than a direct hit will grant you the diamonds.

But back to my first post, the target never actually died... at least not that I`m aware! He disappeared from where I was exchanging pleasantries with his colleagues and I got the mission accomplished message! No body at all!

Seems like it counts as a mission complete because he vanished from the map but since no corpse is there, I get no payment either!  :-(

[fragger]

It seems to be a bit of an iffy mission at times :-\\

[PZ]

I liken it to something similar I experienced in Red Dead Redemption - a mission where I needed to kill someone, but because I did it in an unorthodox way, the target kept appearing after his death and I was able to gain several thousand dollars before I triggered the next mission.  In other words, something unexpected that the programmers might not have anticipated, or perhaps just a momentary glitch.

[JRD]

Indeed... you are not supposed to chase your target. You either kill him or die trying. Once he escapes and there is nothing else for you to do (kill?) the game doesn`t know what to do!

[fragger]

That's true. I guess that with fairly complex games like FC2 or RDR, it must be quite difficult for the programmers to foresee all ends, as it were. Even though that's what beta-testers are ostensibly for. Like proof-reading a book, there's bound to something that escapes scrutiny on occasion.

[PZ]

I suspect that game developers would greatly benefit from having OWG members do their beta testing  ;)

[fragger]

Absolutely - I don't think we'd miss much!

[JRD]

I suspect that game developers would greatly benefit from having OWG members do their beta testing  ;)

Where do I sign?  >:D

It also got me thinking... what we call Artificial Intelligence is, in fact, just a bunch of pre programmed reactions of as many actions as devs and beta testers can come up with. If you, by any chance, do anything that escapes scrutiny on occasion - like fragger said - there's no Intelligence backing up. The game, the machine, just can't evaluate a new/unpredicted situation and decide what to do next!

It's always an If-Then-Else situation.

[PZ]

...It's always an If-Then-Else situation.

Spoken like a true programmer!  :-()

[Art Blade]

 ;D

[JRD]

...It's always an If-Then-Else situation.

Spoken like a true programmer!  :-()

Cheers... I'm learning a trick or three around here!  ;)

[fragger]

IF
   user_does_something_unexpected
THEN
   pretend_nothing_happened
ELSE
   hang_pc
END IF

;D

[Art Blade]

 >:D

[PZ]

LOL!  :-X

[mandru]

One of my favorite error traps incorporated into a game was in either the first or second game of the original  HalfLife series.

There was one spot in the game where you met up with Barney, Black Mesa's friendly security guard who was originally nameless but called Barney by the players because of his resemblance to the goofy deputy Barney Fife from the Andy Griffith show and the name stuck by way of the developers in the HL2 series. 

He was hiding in an air conditioning shaft, too terrified to go on and wishes you well as you leave him and proceed on in to a portion of the game that starts out by leaving the air ducts and breaking into an underground parking complex where a huge cross dimensional horror is ripping things up.  You have to get the monster outside and call down what I believe was a geosynchronous satellite based laser beam strike from a cryptic control panel on a roof top perch to move on through the game.

The error trap occurred when you left Barney and dropped down through an open air duct  triggering the next area to be loaded for play.  If you used the cheat Noclip to get back up into the ventilation system and tried to speak to Barney again instead of a response from him (he just glared at you) the system would print what I'm sure was an error message.

Spoiler

That message displayed in the corner of the screen was simply "You're evil."

[Art Blade]

hehe, nice error message  :-D

Reminds me of a game (not sure, perhaps DukeNukem3D) when you somehow managed to climb into an area that didn't belong to the actual designated map, you'd see a pop-up along the lines of "you're not supposed to be here."  :)

[PZ]

Funny line - reminds me of the other day when I was baking ginger cookies in my office.  :-()

[Art Blade]

I was baking ginger cookies in my office.  :-()

Assuming you're not a baker, what kind of office is it to have a stove in it? All we've got is a coffee maker lol  :-D

[PZ]

That the funny part of the story - years ago we purchased our kids (now adults) a children's cookie oven that we recently found as we were going through old things.  This is one of those press type machines that is much like a panini maker without the grill ridges.  Laughingly my wife and I remarked to each other that we should bring it to the office to make cookies, so we tried it at home.  It worked perfectly - you open the lid, put in 4 balls of dough, close the lid and "bake" for 10 minutes.  Out come 4 perfect cookies, warm and chewy, ready to eat with a cup of espresso.

You can't purchase a kids cookie maker like this any more - because of the heat (danger) involved, and the fear of litigation, the toy makers of today will not venture into such territory.  :-()

EDIT: the other funny part of the story is that as I walked down the long hallway of the building, several of my colleagues came out of their offices and asked as they sniffed the air "is someone baking cookies?".  My office is well stocked with cookie maker, espresso machine, panini press, and of course a tiny refrigerator - now I need to find a way to make soup  :-()

[JRD]

Whatever it is that your company does... I want to be a client... you can set up a meeting anytime with ginger cookies, paninis, espressos... make it in a large room with comfy chairs, dim light and set the video conference TV for "playstation mode" ... otherwise any movie/cartoon channel will do  8) ;D