Operation: Armageddon

[Anthony]

John

Played this evening with EP_Geez and dropped out a number of times through the course of the game. (Almost certainly a Gamespy fault).

The invisible barrier reported by Viper prevented me from getting to the alarm to disarm it however I was able to drop off the upper level without dying.

Good gameplay, no lag or glitches, FPS around 120-180, but some wicked snipers firing in from Mars, it seemed, eventually found them on the farside - of the map.

Keep up the good work

Anthony

[JohnTC02]

Ok, version 1.2 is ready for testing.

I have made quite a few changes in this version, most are by popular request.

1. I have removed the invisible barrier near Adat A and replaced it with a destructible fence which will be destroyed when the Adat is blown up.

2. Added some more cover at Adat A to stop players locking on to it with the Zeus.

3. Opened up the cliff top and added another objective there which will become active when the main mission is completed.

4. Added another location trigger at the extraction point, this will activate another vehicle and more AI, you will need to destroy the vehicle before you can extract.

I think that's about it, spent quite a few hours on this today so I hope it all works as it should.

Thanks for testing,

John

Link:

Operation: Armageddon v1.2.

[davros]

Hi John, just saw your PM, sounds like you have a work around. I did make a removable barrier a while back and I think it worked ok on dedi servers, so let me know if you still want to try it or are happy with current workaround.

Dav

[JohnTC02]

Thanks Dav,

I will see how this version goes, if there are still problems with the barrier then I might need to call on your services.

John

[rahnman]

John,

Played with the TAW guys last night. All the changed items appeared to work well. There were a few things that I noticed that you might want to look at. We were not running on a dedicated server and I was not hosting. After the initial fence blew (ADAT A) I noticed that the tirggers (1, 2, 3 ) did not work as usual. We were able to trip all 3 simultaneously instead of in sequence as we normally do.

Also, Zero threw a nade in the alarm area to quiet it down, but I never heard the alarm at all (even the muffled sound you get after it is damaged). The objective still worked, however, as I was able to disable the alarm. It could be a fluke. It would be good if someone else could comment about this as well.

I never saw the transmitter on top of the "office" on the stairs.

I didn't get a chance to verify these by playing it again, but I will try again later (probably not tonight though). If someone could comment on what they saw, that would be good.

Also, I forgot that there is a glitch by the HQ objective which allows you to get on the hills above and around the permanent fence you placed up. Of course, our "glitch kings" (I won't mention who they are .... ZERO and MARTYR, nor would I presume to post a picture of their cheating ways ) went to it like flies to paper.

Here is the spot where they can gain access to those hills:

The path up is approximately where my crosshairs are. Sorry, I don't have the way cool software to draw it in like Viper does.

Everything else worked great. The guys really enjoyed the HQ objective and the tank at the end was AWESOME!! (yeah, we worked the tank in ). A few more tweaks and this one should be ready.

Cheers,

Rahn

[Viper714]

John,

Excellent revision. Loved that you opened up to top of the quarry. It flows through a lot better. Totally LOVED the tank at the end!! Boy was that a surprise!!!

We had only two issues on the map. Kinda hard to explain so I have attached video's to help with the explanation.

• After the destruction odf the first ADAT and the barrier wall, all seemed to work fine. Except when you walked up to the barrier wall the planks that were blown off mysteriously came back up at foot level restricting your ability to move forward. Very strange. See Here
  
• Unlike Rahman an his team, we heard the alarm. It later got muffled as well never really going out until the objective was completed. We had a different issue with the alarm. When trying to deactivate the alarm, you get the message to press "X", you do and nothing happens. You Move away and come back and the same message appears. You press "X" and again nothing happens. This happens over and over. Once you walk away and forget about it, it some how calls the objective complete. BTW even blowing up the alarm does not seem to help. See Here
  

In contrast from what Rahnman experienced, the transmitter objective did show for us and I think TAW_RedDog destroyed it when the TAW guys showed up. So apparently the map plays different on a dedicated server. We didn't notice the glitch that Rhanman mentioned, then again AGB does not cheat, OH I mean look for glitches of that manner

Rahnman: Way cool software!! No you are making me feel bad!!

Other than these two issues everything seems to work great!! Oh the placement of the snipers WOW!! "Where the hell did that come from!!! ", seems to be the mantra for this map! Might be a good title too

Excellent job!! Now you guys are really giving us challenging maps with all these AI's. BTW because of the high amount of AI's it is really difficult to remember where they are all at from game play after game play, thus the new mantra as well!!! I think it is difficult for you mission developers as well!!!

[JohnTC02]

Thanks for the replies.

I noticed that the triggers (1, 2, 3 ) did not work as usual. We were able to trip all 3 simultaneously instead of in sequence as we normally do.

This is very strange as nothing has changed with the triggers you mention, maybe you shot more AI than you thought.

I never saw the transmitter on top of the "office" on the stairs.

The transmitter objective appears once you have completed the "HQ" objective, I tested the mission last night just before posting v1.2 and for me it was all working as it should.

Also, I forgot that there is a glitch by the HQ objective which allows you to get on the hills above and around the permanent fence you placed up.

Thanks for that Rahn, I did have a quick run around there but couldn't find any way onto the hills, trust your mates to find it , All it needs are a few movers there to stop you.

After the destruction odf the first ADAT and the barrier wall, all seemed to work fine. Except when you walked up to the barrier wall the planks that were blown off mysteriously came back up at foot level restricting your ability to move forward. Very strange.

I had a look at your vid, never seen anything like that before, the fence is destroyed the same way as the one at the air strike after the Transmitter, lets just hope it's a one off.

When trying to deactivate the alarm, you get the message to press "X", you do and nothing happens. You Move away and come back and the same message appears. You press "X" and again nothing happens. This happens over and over. Once you walk away and forget about it, it some how calls the objective complete.

I had the same problems when testing, if you destroy the alarm with a grenade then the press "X" will not work and the alarm keeps making a noise, what I did was to place a player trigger there so when you move away from the alarm (leave the trigger area) it will show the objective as complete, maybe it would work better if I made the trigger a bit smaller.

Hopefully there will be some more reports so I can see if any of these issues arise again so I can look into it.

Cheers,

John

[TAW_Zero]

that "glitch" has been there since the beginning of the game its on all versions of quarry lol

guess i will just have to keep my secrets to myself till after the release of a map from now on lol

[JohnTC02]

guess i will just have to keep my secrets to myself till after the release of a map from now on lol

Yeh, you should have kept it quiet, you won't be going that way anymore on my version!!

[Viper714]

I had a look at your vid, never seen anything like that before, the fence is destroyed the same way as the one at the air strike after the Transmitter, lets just hope it's a one off.

Unfortunately it was not a one off. It happened on two occasions last night. Both in GRAW2 Vanilla and Bretzzies

that "glitch" has been there since the beginning of the game its on all versions of quarry lol

guess i will just have to keep my secrets to myself till after the release of a map from now on lol

Ah come on Zero we know you are a "Glitch King!!" Actually I am glad you found it so John can fix it!!!

Thanks again!!!

[JohnTC02]

Here we go again, v1.3 is ready for testing.

Only a couple of changes here, I have removed the destructible fence located down the hill from Adat A and replaced it with a solid fence.

Previously I was using Dav mines to destroy the fence, these have been replaced by a composition so when the Adat is destroyed there will be an explosion near the fence which will create a lot of smoke and then the solid fence will be removed from the game.

I have used the element "SetSlot" to remove the fence, as I have used this on other fence panels in the mission without any issues so far I'm hoping it will work here.

If you have a close look at the fence it's possible to see it disappear but I don't think it's to bad, it's not as pretty as before but the result is no fence debris left behind to get in the way.

I have also fixed the problem at Adat A where the fence there stayed in place after it was blown up, I have also placed several movers around the hill that Zero and his mates were able to get over.

Well that's it, I hope the fence works better, it would be good if Viper and his team could retest the mission as it was him that reported the issues with the fence.

Thanks all,

John

Download:

Operation: Armageddon v1.3.

[Viper714]

Good job John!! Will test tonight and see if it is OK. Get back to you tomorrow!!!

[Viper714]

John,

Good morning. Tested the map yesterday with TAW_Zero and Leff last night. It appears the the barrier issue was successfully destroyed (disappeared) without a trace. Boy that was some serious explosives!!

Only saw one issue that may need to be fixed or players could exploit this issue.

• After destroying ADAT "A", the wall by it and the famous disappearing wall are destroyed. Apparently Trigger One is activated when passing the disappearing wall. Reason, Zero was able to drop down by the destroyed wall of the ADAT "A", get down in the area of the of the alarm without activating Trigger 01. It only activated when I crossed the disappeared barrier. This exploit could be used to position personnel before activating Trigger 01 thus ambushing the AI making it easier. Not sure if you find this acceptable.
  
• After destroying the Gate on the top of the cliff you are confronted with AI that you thankfully inserted in that area. However, should you be killed your spawn point is way by supply "A". Is it possible to create another spawn point closer to the current battle area? Then after you destroy the transmitter change it back to a point closer to the new action area.
  

That is the only issues that I and the rest of the guys found. Other than that I think this map is ready for release into the wild!!

Great Job!! BTW what is the final count on AI insertion??

[JohnTC02]

Hi Viper,

Thanks for testing.

I didn't realise you could get down that wall without dying, this defiantly needs changing so I will add some movers at the top near the fence, this should stop you from going that way.

The only place I can think of for a spawn point is at the bottom of the stairs near the destroyed tank, I think having a spawn point somewhere on the staircase might cause problems as there isn't a lot of room and players might end up spawning and falling off but I will have a look, if you have any suggestions then please let me know.

As to the final AI count all I can say is PASS , I will need to do a final check and get back to you.

Thanks,

John

[JohnTC02]

Ok, version 1.4 is ready for testing.

There is only two changes from the last version.

Added some movers around the fence at Adat A to stop players getting down the hill and bypassing some of the triggers.

There is now an extra spawn point under the staircase that will be activated when the gate at the HQ objective is destroyed.

Not sure if anyone will want to test this version as there aren't many changes but I have posted it here in case. I think we are nearly done with this one so if there are no more issues I will make a start getting it released in a few days.

As the mission is designed for team play I will only be doing a day and night version, there won't be a lone wolf version.

Thanks to all that have tested the mission, it's much appreciated.

John

Download:

Operation: Armageddon v1.4.

[bogiegraphics]

Added some movers around the fence at Adat A to stop players getting down the hill and bypassing some of the triggers.

Worked very well. Also tried to intentially get stuck there with the debris and couldn't. Some of the other AGB guys tried the same thing and they were able to release as well. Looked really good.

There is now an extra spawn point under the staircase that will be activated when the gate at the HQ objective is destroyed.

First time I've played with the top HQ area opened up. I died once I got up there the first time, respawned below the stairs and the area was essentially cleared by the other team members (which was full @ 12 AGB members). I do like this respawn point better than if we would have had to run all of the way back to that location.

I don't want you to mess up the map or reduce the AI in any way, but is there a way that you can open up a path from the HQ towards the extraction? Perhaps have two active respawn points; keep the current one and add one by the HQ so you randomly spawn between the two?

I keep watching for the hot spawning in view and it was much improved. The only spots were the spawns after ADAT A on the hill with the destructable wall (the Panhards & support) which I do not think that you can really help or would even distract from the game the way it is.

All in all, John, this map was great to play last night with the larger squad!!

Bogie

[Viper714]

John:

We all had a blast last night on the map!!! As Bogie mentioned, the mover worked well and the new spawn point was much, much better!!! FPS was great and this was playing Brettzies customized for AGB by Rahnman.

As far as opening up the top area that would be awesome, but I think this would put you behind the AI that you are trying to have us focus down the main pipe.

[JohnTC02]

Hi Bogie and thanks for testing.

I don't want you to mess up the map or reduce the AI in any way, but is there a way that you can open up a path from the HQ towards the extraction?

Although this would probably improve the game play I'm afraid this is not really possible as there are quite a few AI plus a Panhard that spawns just behind the fence that is blocking the road so making the changes required to open up the road would be a lot of work.

What Viper said here is true, you would be able to go around behind the AI that spawns in that area so all the AI there would need relocating as well so it's not really worth the hassle.

Progress on my next mission is slow, the map I am using is very large and is causing a lot of lag so I have spent the last few days changing the map, removing a large amount of the buildings and other dynamic props then re-rendering the lightmaps which is taking 6 hours each time, then yet more testing and making even more changes, and so it goes on..... and on......

Anyway, I am still making missions but it could be a while before I have something worth testing.

Thanks,

John

[Viper714]

SIX HOURS!!!

Holy smokes!! Wow!!

[TAW_Zero]

wish my map took 6 hours to do lightmaps

try 22 hours

[JohnTC02]

"try 22 hours"

WOW!! I thought 6 hours was a long while, it normally takes around 2 hours to do them on my PC.

[JohnTC02]

Beta Phase concluded,

Thanks to all the beta testers that have contributed to the release.

Link to the public release thread:

Operation: Armageddon.

John