Ghost Recon: Heroes Unleashed

[Tinker]

Thnx for the update Apex, hope to try it out real soon.

[wombat50]

Wow!

That is an awesome amount of work and I can't wait to give it a go.

Kudos to Apex

[Gache]

Wow... I've been stuck without internet for a couple of weeks... check GR.net... and Apex is back! :D

Sure to be great work as ever Apex, dl'ing now. Can't wait to hit a server with it

- Gache

Edited May 31, 2010 by Gache

[CR6]

Great to see you back Apex! Nice work!

[ApexMods]

Thanks, guys. Hopefully, it won't take me another year to get the next update ready. Have fun with the new version!

[ApexMods]

Jamie from StrategyInformer.com was kind enough to once again mirror the latest version of Heroes Unleashed (PC) at his site.

>> DOWNLOAD MIRROR (PC VERSION) <<

Thanks a lot for your continued support, Jamie.

[Vozd]

...eyes closing... head falling...

New HU?!? Whaaaa? :'>

...must... get... new... version... can't... give... up... now...

Thanks Apex!

[Gache]

Jamie from StrategyInformer.com was kind enough to once again mirror the latest version of Heroes Unleashed (PC) at his site.

>> DOWNLOAD MIRROR (PC VERSION) <<

Thanks a lot for your continued support, Jamie.

Thank you thank you thank you! I've been trying to get the update practically since it came out and my "always on, superfast broadband" (which is not only intermittent but currently running at sub-dialup speeds) keeps screwing it up every single time. Now it's available from a resumable server maybe I can finally get my hands on it...

- Gache

[ApexMods]

Sorry to hear about your download trouble, Gache. Here's hoping the SI mirror works OK for you. If there's anything I can do to help, please don't hesitate to let me know. I know the sheer size of HU's downloads can be problematic and I'm still thinking about better ways to distribute the files - e.g. torrent - but have not yet found a practicable solution.

[Gache]

Hey, the problem's at my end, not yours - normally a file the size of this beta 6 update wouldn't be a problem The beta 5 update was fine for instance. It's just that I have a really bad connection recently...

Anyway, I should be able to get beta 6 within, oh, a day or two now!

- Gache

Edit: Got it

Edited June 12, 2010 by Gache

[ApexMods]

Edit: Got it

Hope you'll like it. Would love to hear some feedback.

[twcrash]

Great job Apex. I did notice in the readme but were the multiplayer problems fixed along with the one map you spawn in Walls?

[Tinker]

Heads up!

O 17 Flame pillar - Train depot

Mission did not end tonight. Message box appeared stating mission completed.

Hanged around for several minutes, nothing happened.

*Edit*

Group: <Default>

Comment:

G - mission complete if co-op

Trigger Event:

Timer - Start Outro has expired.

Responses:

Continue executing responses if (The game mode is Coop).

Display "?Mission complete." to all players for 3 second(s)

Should this be:

Display "?Mission complete." and register mission completion.

[ApexMods]

Great job Apex. I did notice in the readme but were the multiplayer problems fixed along with the one map you spawn in Walls?

Thanks, twcrash. Yes, co-op spawn locations should be fixed now.

Heads up!

O 17 Flame pillar - Train depot

Mission did not end tonight. Message box appeared stating mission completed.

Hanged around for several minutes, nothing happened.

*Edit*

Group: <Default>

Comment:

G - mission complete if co-op

Trigger Event:

Timer - Start Outro has expired.

Responses:

Continue executing responses if (The game mode is Coop).

Display "?Mission complete." to all players for 3 second(s)

Should this be:

Display "?Mission complete." and register mission completion.

Hmm... I will have to take a look at that one. Sorry for the inconvenience, Tinker. Hope you guys don't mind if I add this to my (pretty long) to-do list for the next update. Among other things, I'm trying to finish re-scripting the remaining campaign missions for the next patch. Due to work load IRL it'll probably take me a while, though.

[MarkAm_i]

Is there a reason Heroes Unleashed might conflict with CENTCOM somehow? I'm not talking about having them activated at the same time.

After downloading Heroes a while back, I began getting crashes with CENTCOM when I was going through soldier selection in the MP screen.

At the time, I wondered if it was because of Heroes as I had never had the crashes before. It's like the Rifleman kit 50 card is missing, I CTD when I come to it.

Tonight I deleted Heroes and have begun crashing in new ways with CENTCOM. When I select the SPR sniper &the M24 sniper and launch the game, I crash when accessing the soldier panel. So I switched back to the Barrett that I had been using just yesterday and I was allowed to access the soldier panel, but the soldier card for the SR25 sniper appeared bugged, it showed the weapon image, but not the soldier stance. The soldier was missing, it was just blank on the card.

I noticed before uninstalling tonight that the night vision for Heroes is the exact same shape and clarity as in CENTCOM. Is it possible that other mods can be overwritten somehow by the installation of another? Or that GR starts looking in the wrong paths for the previously installed mods?

I guess I'll be re-downloading/installing CENTCOM. Just a heads up that something may be wrong here.

[Tinker]

If, as you say, you do not have them both activated, there is no way they could cause any issues. By the sound of your post, Centcom is corrupt, maybe missing some files. A reinstall should fix it up.

[ApexMods]

Is there a reason Heroes Unleashed might conflict with CENTCOM somehow? I'm not talking about having them activated at the same time.[...]Is it possible that other mods can be overwritten somehow by the installation of another? Or that GR starts looking in the wrong paths for the previously installed mods?

Heroes Unleashed (or any other non-overwriting mod for that matter) cannot conflict with another mod when not activated. In fact, I play CENTCOM just fine with Heroes Unleashed activated (with HU having higher priority). The thing you should watch out for is HU's XL and XXL game types. They spawn a very high number of enemies and on some complex maps this may lead to problems due to GR's limitations for dynamic objects. The game engine allows up to 256 dynamic objects to be active at any given time on a map - any more than that and the game will CTD.

I play Heroes Unleashed more or less regularly on LAN and GameRanger with my friends without CTD issues, so you probably have a missing file or file corruption issue within CENTCOM and - as Tinker already pointed out - a reinstall should fix that.

On another note: I still have lots of work IRL which severely limits my GR modding (and forum) time, but don't despair folks - although it may take some time to complete, the next update of Heroes Unleashed is in the works.

[xxxToasTy]

I have to say this is my favorite mod but if I remember correctly, isnt there a way to turn the crosshairs back to normal?

[ApexMods]

Thanks a lot, xxxToasTy. Yes, there is an add-on mod called 'Heroes Unleashed - ARCADE' in the 'X-tras' folder of the mod which - among other things - enables the default/standard reticles.

Once more I am sorry for my sporadic visits here - ongoing time constraints. But much of the little spare time I have is spent on building the next version of Heroes Unleashed. I don't want to spoil any surprises so I won't go into details, but the next installment will be a huge update - probably the largest so far.

[Rocky]

Nice to see you post again Apex, you tease.

[ApexMods]

[Ghost Recon Fan]

I was really excited when I downloaded this mod the other day. I was only looking for a skin/weapon mod, but I found so much more in Heroes Unleashed.

But I just uninstalled it after countless bungled mission attempts that give me hardly any chance at all to succeed. I was doing fine when I was playing HU regular on Veteran difficulty. I got up to the swamp mission when I heard about this "hardcore" extra mod. I thought that harder is always better, boy was I wrong. I don't know if it is intended that Hardcore mode be used with single player, but it is beyond hardcore.

I started a new campaign with HU Hardcore on Elite difficulty. The first mission was very hard, but lots of fun. Enemies were in places I had not seen them before. I went in clockwise fashion, Alpha three man team of rifles and lmg, Bravo rifles and grenadier, and Charlie sniper. A lot of waiting followed, preparing for unexpected enemy movement. I decided to get Papashvili from the caves before I take out the Eastern camp. After I grab the guy in the caves literally _EVERYONE_ from the camp came rushing over the hill to kill my ass. This normally would be no problem, but time after time, even when I set my team to LOOK in that direction with every possible ROE, if I were not baby sitting my cover team watching the hill they would be wiped out BY A SINGLE GUY, time after time after time. One guy reaches the top of the hill and just shoots timed single shots and my guys just sit there looking at him. Pop pop pop pop we need a medic pop pop we got a casualty, I check my Stats window and the entire damn cover team was wiped out. Fine, so if I have to babysit them to get to the next mission so be it.

Then I got to the night rescue mission. This was WAY easier than the first mission, but in HU Hardcore Elite difficulty the enemy can see your guys from a VERY far distance. Even if they are crouching and everyone in the team has full Stealth ratings. Is this the way it was intended to be?

After that I got to the mission where tanks are coming toward the Georgian cabin and patrols flank both sides of the map. I put a sniper at the cabin aiming down the road (why would I do this since the enemy AI has better eyesight than my sniper apparently). This is usually not an easy mission, but thanks to my guys getting their asses whooped by flanking patrols because I was off fighting the center patrol and was not available to babysit them, this made me rage a little bit. Seriously, this is the kind of rage I would get playing Rogue Spear when there is literally NO REASON the friendly AI shouldn't be stomping the crap out of an enemy directly in front of it. No, they just sit there getting blasted by the enemy AI.

After I beat that, I was so happy to get to the Crossroads/UN rescue mission. Run over the hill, blast the guys on the bridge, move cover team to the other side, run around the shops and the gas station and secure the crossroads. I hear popping coming from the UN building. I begin running over there, but before I can even reach the top of the hill A UN TROOPER HAS BEEN KILLED. Well F me. Retry, only this time we run STRAIGHT for the UN building, killing everyone that stands in our way. Secure the crossroads, damn I must be making record time. Rush up to the hill to defend the UN troopers, but before I can even see the building A UN TROOPER HAS BEEN KILLED. Mother--, okay, try again, and again, and again. Uninstall forever.

Yeah the regular mod was fun. But how can I continue playing the regular version knowing that I was not A Bad Enough Dude to play it on Hardcore mode Elite difficulty? I have brought great shame upon my family.

Aside from that, I really do like the mod. The Ghost skins look nice (if you do add ACUs or something, please keep the current skins as optional), the custom reticles are the best customs I have ever seen in a GR mod. The weapon selection and ballistics are great. The OICW is amazing now. The sounds are great. The random placement and erratic behavior of enemies is really fun and the new map intros and outros are well made.

Maybe you can't beef up the friendly AI any, but with the improvements made to the enemy behavior, my Ghost team feels like a school of guppies getting eaten by Russian ultranationalist sharks. It really makes me feel like a noob again, but no matter what I do, I absolutely cannot rely on the friendly AI to do anything. Hell even moving five feet ahead on Recon ROE is destined to get them killed. They should call it Baby Recon because compared to the new enemy behavior the Ghosts are about as dangerous and competant as a gang of infants...at least on Hardcore mode Elite difficulty---which is the only setting to play on unless you want to admit you are a thumb sucking Cowa Dooty Modern Warfare player.

See attached picture. It's my face after uninstalling Heroes Unleashed.

(I have actually reinstalled, I guess I will just play HU regular, Elite difficulty, maybe I can be satisfied with that.)

Edited January 23, 2011 by Ghost Recon Fan

[Ghost Recon Fan]

I don't know what the deal is. It isn't any easier on regular HU, Elite difficulty. My team will literally just stand there and get killed by guys running over the hill after I clear the caves in mission 1. They won't even return fire.

[ApexMods]

Yeah the regular mod was fun. But how can I continue playing the regular version knowing that I was not A Bad Enough Dude to play it on Hardcore mode Elite difficulty? I have brought great shame upon my family[...]Hardcore mode Elite difficulty---[...] is the only setting to play on unless you want to admit you are a thumb sucking Cowa Dooty Modern Warfare player.

Amazing post and great feedback! Thank you so much!

Yes, hardcore mode is... well... HARDCORE! It's very difficult in MP co-op and next to impossible in SP. Welcome to the Special Forces, son. Here's a Reddit post a good friend of mine pointed me to because it reminded him of Heroes Unleashed - HARDCORE:

Let me tell you about Demon's Souls.

Demon’s Souls is a game that will make you into a man. A scrawny fourteen-year-old, after two hours with this game, will be grooming his muttonchops and ready to ship off on the next boat to fight the Kaiser. If you are already a man, it will make you into some sort of bizarre double-man. What’s that you say? You’re a woman? You don’t want to be a man? Too bad. Too bad. That’s the Demon’s Souls way.

You’ve probably heard that Demon’s Souls is hard. Pshh. Lots of games are hard. Some are even harder than this one. The difficulty is not the point. What sets Demon's Souls apart is the way that it doesn't just kill you, but also stomps on your genitals when you’re down. And it will make you realize that that’s what you needed all along.

It’s a lot like life. Sometimes in life you win, and sometimes the giant armored skeleton stabs your face off because the flying mantis monster you didn’t even see shot you in the back with a spike at just the wrong time. And when that happens in life, do you respawn at the same spot and carry on like nothing happened? NO, ######. You go back to the beginning of the level, leaving all your hard-earned souls out there on the pavement, and you fight your way back. And you learn a lesson from the whole thing, because you should have been wearing your Thief’s Ring, now shouldn’t you? That’s life.

The trend in hard games these days is to unlock “Easy” mode for you once you’ve died enough times. Do you think Demon’s Souls does that? Do you think Demon’s Souls is so much as aware of the concept of “Easy” mode? NO IT IS NOT. If Demon’s Souls even knew we were talking about “Easy” mode, it would come over here and kick the ###### out of all of us. And we would deserve it.

I’ll tell you what happens in Demon’s Souls when you die. You come back as a ghost with your health capped at half. And when you keep on dying, the alignment of the world turns black and the enemies get harder. That’s right, when you fail in this game, it gets harder. Why? Because ###### you is why.

Have I told you about the online elements? At any time when you’re in Body form, another player from anywhere else in the world can invade your game and murder you to regain his own body, or just to keep you on your toes. This happens when you’re in the middle of fighting armies of unthinkable monsters that are probably already three-quarters of the way towards killing you. And no, you cannot opt out of this feature! This is what you signed up for when you agreed to be a man.

When this happened to me -- when a guy strolled into my game like it was Taco Bell and exploded my torso, costing me my body and all my progress in the level -- was I mad? No, because I was too busy being in awe at how ######ing hardcore the experience was.

Now, don’t let this dissuade you. Demon’s Souls is a pitiless master, but let it never be said that it is not fair. The game rewards handsomely those who stand up to it, and the greater the challenge, the greater the glory.

What the hell are you waiting for?

Seriously though, there are certainly still some balancing issues for AI/NPCs in Heroes Unleashed, and this probably goes double for hardcore mode. But don't expect this to become an easy shooter. As you so eloquently put it, there's plenty of "thumb sucking Cowa Dooty" shooter fare out there, and Ghost Recon: Heroes Unleashed is intentionally supposed to be hard. Maybe you noticed HU's new tag line in the readme for v1.0.0b6 : "The Ruthlessly Unforgiving Tactical Shooter Experience". Well, Heroes Unleashed tries to deliver on that promise.

[Ghost Recon Fan]

So about that Crossroads mission (I think mission 4 of the first campaign), on Hardcore mode, do you have any kind of tip or suggestion for how to reach the UN soldiers before they get killed? Is there a trigger I can avoid to get to them in time? I can run almost straight for them at full speed, killing everyone on the way and still have them get killed before I get to the top of the hill to kill their aggressors.

I am playing on the Arcade mode, which I prefer because of the default crosshairs. Your customs crosshairs look good, but I just prefer the smaller default crosshairs. In terms of enemy stats, how does Arcade mode compare to default Ghost Recon? The enemies in Arcade easier than in default?