Weirdness: Submerged Weapons and Dead Stowaways on a Swamp Boat

[eor123]

Occasionally, you just have one of those missions where everything goes weird.

The objective was the destruction of the truck and ammo pile on the river below the large plantation house in Leboa.

I piloted the swamp boat to the safe house just east of the objective and planned to approach the ammo pile on foot.

Since the safe house had not been previously unlocked, I had to deal with four mercs guarding the front door.

The plan was to drift toward the front of the house, shift to the boat mounted machine gun  and mow down the mercs without expending any of my ammo.

Too fast.

The boat slammed into the dock before I could get on the machine gun and acquire a target. I was nose-to-nose with four surprised mercs who were grabbing for their weapons. I swept across them while firing, hoping to buy enough time to jump out of the boat and seek cover somewhere...anywhere. I was taking a lot of hits and was near death as I jumped from the boat, firing my AK in the face of one Merc in order to clear a path to the rear of the safe house where I could perform some field surgery, restore my health, and reload.

While digging rounds out of my leg, I heard a swamp boat join the fray. I peeked around the corner, killed one merc while he was reloading and watched two apparently being crushed between the just arrived swamp boat and one that was docked there -- a lot of screaming and flailing about, but no shots being fired.

Just as I targeted and started to fire on the surviving mercs in the boat, the swamp boat I had crashed into the dock exploded. I'm not sure if my shots, the explosion, or both killed the Mercs but they both fell dead inside the boat.

While I was surveying the carnage, I started taking fire from three or four mercs rushing down the foot path from direction of the objective. By the time I had dispatched them I was dangerously low on ammo [15 rounds] and certainly wasn't well equipped to handle another heavy firefight near the ammo pile.  I was additionally armed with a .45 and an RPG -- a pretty minimalist load out for this play-through.

I started searching the area for ammo. One gun on the busted up and burned dock yielded no ammo and I got 15 rounds from an AK submerged in shallow water next to the dock.

I knew there had to be additional weapons/ammo in the water so I attempted to push the two smoking but still in tact swamp boats aside to get to the ammo. I thought I was pushing a boat out of the way, but accidentally exchanged my relatively fresh AK with a rusty G3 from underwater.

And then I couldn't find and retrieve my AK.  :D

Just as I would get the weapon exchange prompt on the screen I would go under water and my hands would be committed to swimming.

I figured out if I crouched, I could be totally submerged but my hands would remain free to pick up the AK from the bottom of the river. I looked around in the murky water and found my AK. I retrieved a weapon while I was under water. I thought that was pretty cool.

I didn't get much ammo from all this effort but it wasn't needed anyway as one round from the RPG took out the ammo dump and resultant ammo cooking off killed the nearby mercs, allowing me to run back to the swamp boats and make my escape.

The swamp boat easiest to get into happened to be the one with the two bodies. I jumped  in and headed to Mike's Bar to report in to Paul. I assumed the dead mercs would "de-materialize" or fall out as I started moving -- as they do when tangled up in a commandeered AT.

But they didn't.

The two dead mercs made the entire trip from the Plantation to Mike's Bar, roughly half way across the map.

This whole play-through has been odd. I've had problems unlocking safe houses as one merc remains out of sight. It happens occasionally but I've had it happen three times already. And I got the safe house unlocked prompt when I killed a merc in a firefight at guard post -- a long way from the nearest safe house.

I assassinated a suit in Pala with a grenade. He blew straight up into the air, off the screen. After the SAVE prompt..he was gone. No body.

Strange things happen when you SAVE while mercs are in motion. At the safe house near the pipeline in Bowa, if you SAVE while the AT is driving past, the mercs on the AT are killed and become entangled in the AT.  ;D

These random, odd things make this game enjoyable even after many play-throughs.

[Art Blade]

Very nice story, eor  :-X

[JRD]

Occasionally, you just have one of those missions where everything goes weird.

Oh, and I LOVE those moments  8)

These random, odd things make this game enjoyable even after many play-throughs.

You can say that again, pal!!

Countless times I found myself on a situation I didn't meant to be on, and absolutely happy to be there!!!  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Great story eor123... I can almost see you searching the water with your whole body submerged and only your head out while patting for a gun down on the murky waters, dead bodies and wrecks laying around you!!

I always think of what a merc would think if looking the scene from afar!!!

[PZ]

Great story eor123 - you're correct - this is what makes FC2 a game that you can always return to, even when new games have made their entrance.  :-X

[Art Blade]

Same here, I always relax with FC2 between other games  :)

[mandru]

Strange things happen when you SAVE while mercs are in motion. At the safe house near the pipeline in Bowa, if you SAVE while the AT is driving past, the mercs on the AT are killed and become entangled in the AT.

Worth verifying and confirming that it's not a peculiarity to your system and adding to Funny tips and tricks.

Great story telling eor123.  :-X

The frantic scramble at the dock had me right there with you.  ;D  That and the horrifying sick feeling you get when you have your weapon of choice accidentally swapped out for some piece of junk "Chinese crap" or otherwise rusted up widow maker, I am very familiar with. Usually for me I swap off my secondary or special instead of being able to grab the right weapon back.

I've often thrown my hands in the air and hiked to the nearest gun store so I could get re-kitted and back on task.

[fragger]

This is what I love about FC2 - the spontaneous and unanticipated situations that come about.

Who was it that said, "No plan survives initial contact with the enemy", or words to that effect? FC2 sometimes demonstrates that principle quite vividly.

Nice story, eor123, and very well-written :-X

[Art Blade]

Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke (26 October 1800 – 24 April 1891) was a German Generalfeldmarschall. The chief of staff of the Prussian Army for thirty years, he is regarded as one of the great strategists of the latter 1800s, and the creator of a new, more modern method of directing armies in the field. He is often referred to as Moltke the Elder to distinguish him from his nephew Helmuth Johann Ludwig von Moltke, who commanded the German Army at the outbreak of World War I. ... His thesis can be summed up by two statements, one famous and one less so, translated into English as No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main strength (no plan survives contact with the enemy)  and Strategy is a system of expedients

:) (thanks to wiki and google)

[fragger]

Cheers Art :-X :-X

For some reason, I thought it was Patton, although I believe he said (plagiarized?) something similar to that.

[Art Blade]

My first thought was Patton, too... lol  ;D