New file at the Repository: Hamid's ataack on Hill 412 v 1.1 (2011-07-02)

[Eddie]

Hi Phantom Captain,

Thanks a lot, thats really great!!! And never mind the comments, its all about the stars. To answer Your question; yes, I'm working on a new one. The map is already done, and it has become larger than I planned. This does not mean that there will be lots more units though. I am testing the first and second stage of the mission; units engaging each other, the outcome of firefights, timing etc. I would say the new mission is done for about 70%.

I also have a question which can only be answered if You downloaded Battlegroup Ivanov and installed it. This morning I saw a comment beneath this file in the repository that stated the file was broken and partly a winrar file. The latter could be the case as the file also contains a textfile which is not compressed with Winrar. I deleted my version, installed it again and it works perfectly well.:confused: In case You do have this file and experienced any abnormalities while unpacking the file would You be so kind to let me know? Maybe I can see what's wrong with it and upload a new version.

[Erik Springelkamp]

I downloaded Battlegroup Ivanov, and it unrarred just fine.

But unfortunately the floating icons mod doesn't support this change of sides.

Maybe I can use a rename tool to switch red and blue icons.

Haven't played it yet, the size is a bit intimidating. But I will, probably during my holiday.

[Eddie]

Erik, thanks for Your reply and help. As I mentioned, the file unrarred fine with me to so I guess there's nothing wrong with it at all. I agree the size of this mission is rather large and one has to like these kind of battles to give it a try. And it is indeed a bit strange one has to pick blue to play as Reds. Maybe this will be fixed one day so certain mods still function as well. If You do find a solution for this little problem I would like to know.

[Erik Springelkamp]

I very simple solution is to revert to the standard floating items for this scenario.

As it is now, half my blue - Soviet - troops have the default icons, because there is no modded one available. If I remove the mod, everything will use the blue circles.

But when I start up the Siren rename program, and figure out how it works again, I can probable produce a working mod in a few minutes by renaming red to blue and the other way around. I would even get red icons for blue soviets :-)

[Eddie]

If You could indeed produce a mod with the Siren program and give the Soviets the colours they should have when playing Red on Red this would be great. I would be interested in such a modification.

[Erik Springelkamp]

I renamed the icon files and the result is here:

http://springelkamp.nl/Files/CMA/FloatingIconsRedBlueInverted.brz

But it doesn't work fully.

The soviet blue icons are correctly replaced by my (Billy's) red soviet icons, the general red (hq and mines) icons are correctly replaced by Billy's blue versions, but all the mujahedeen icons are falling back at the default icons.

I don't know why, I checked the names with the rezexplode of the version101.brz, and they seem all ok, the icons named 'mujahedeen red' are the correct blue icons, but yet they don't show up in the game.

[Eddie]

If I click on the link I get a message explaining the page can not be found (HTTP Error 404 File or directory not found). I guess it won't be easy to find out exactly why the mujahedeen icons don't show up in the game the way You want them to. Maybe You will get it right, but after reading Your post I think it will be a difficult thing to do.

[Erik Springelkamp]

http://springelkamp.nl/Files/CMA/FloatingIconsRedBlueInverted.zip

It appears my webserver protects files of type .brz and refuses to serve them.

With the zip file it works for me (it also refused to give the .brz file to me through the webserver).

[Erik Springelkamp]

I guess it won't be easy to find out exactly why the mujahedeen icons don't show up in the game the way You want them to. Maybe You will get it right, but after reading Your post I think it will be a difficult thing to do.

I hope an experienced modder will have a suggestion.

[Eddie]

That excludes me.

[Vin]

Thanks Eddie, for creating the Hamid's Attack and Battlegroup Ivanov missions. I rated them both 5 stars. The briefings were great, highly detailed. I liked the fortifications layout and use of flavor objects on both maps. I enjoyed the mission designs too, and size of the battles. It's nice to be able to have tank battles in Ivanov, in most of the stock battles the armor usually just has to deal with infantry. I haven't finished either mission yet but I'm having a lot of fun playing them both. Props to you for putting your free time into creating these and releasing them to the community. There are much less user-created missions for CMA, vs. CMSF and CMBN as I'm sure you know.

[Eddie]

Hi Vin,

Thank You very much for Your ratings and I am glad You enjoy both missions as that is what they're intended for. For me it is as much fun to create a mission as it is to play one, and I concider releasing them as my small contribution to the community. And You are right, there are so many missions for CMSF and CMBN that I thought it would be nice if someone would create some for CMA as well. My new mission is making progress, there is only one group left that needs to react to its orders in such a way that it plays out well in the scenario. Somehow this group seems a bit obstinate (:mad:) but once I get them to do what I want them to do, I can create a briefing etc. and finish work on this mission.

[Vin]

A 30-second clip of a firefight on Hill 412A.

[Eddie]

Ha, that was a nice clip with some good firingsounds. If I'm correct You do not use any modification for uniforms. I use a mod for paratroopers and for me it is an improvement to the scenery on the field of battle. This mod just ads that little extra to the mission, well at least it does for me.

[Vin]

Thanks Eddie. I'm using Bill Lockton's Soviet Late War Paratroops mod (Khaki uniform, without helmets file). The great weapon sounds you hear are from AKD Sound Mod v1.2. I also use pro tracers lite and Bill Lockton's Mujahideen textures, in addition to about 15 other mods. I use very few stock textures for the game, and yeah the uniform, sound and texture mods enhance the battles a lot for me. I don't know if you noticed, but a few of the soldiers are wearing body armor, which I'm glad was modded in (at least as a texture). I made an earlier version of the video that was higher quality and better eye candy but it was taking too long to upload so I had to go with a lower quality one which doesn't show off the textures as well. My detail settings are all maxed, but you can't really tell by the video. Thanks again for working on another mission and taking the time to test it.

[Eddie]

I noticed the body armor, but it was the stock helmets that made me wonder if You used any mod that changes uniforms. I don't remember if there was any bodyarmor used in the game when it was released, but I do remember I did not like the helmets to much. That was one of the first things I noticed in Your video. But the khaki uniform without helmets file explains it then. And the video looks great, I could not see any problem at all with the textures. Thanks for making this video and posting it.

[Vin]

You're welcome, this is the first gaming video I have ever made, I downloaded FRAPS last night (free version) and decided to give it a try. Body armor was never implemented in the game, it's just a texture that was skillfully worked into the late war infantry uniform mods. I posted about the style of the helmets when the game first came out, I thought they needed to look more like the Ssh68 style. It's good to have mods that use the cap instead of the helmet. I don't think the Soviet soldiers wore their helmets much in Afghanistan anyway, too much extreme hot and cold weather.

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=93237

[Eddie]

I got Late Mech Infantry Camo_Helmtes from the Late Infantry file installed and I will take a look if these helmets look anything like the Ssh68 model. After reading the topic it seems there were others that had some questions about the presentation of Sovietuniforms as well, though I must admit that most of them where motivated by historical accuracy and not eyecandy as in my case. It could very well be that the Soviets actually did not wear their helmets much because of the climate, but I'm sure glad these mods were made available because I really think one can make the game more pleasant to the eye with them.

[Eddie]

I took a good look at the shape of the helmets in the game and after comparing them with the photo's on the website You linked in the topic You started on 09-20-2010 I would say Ssh40. But as You mentioned, it does look like the US army M1 helmet as well.

[Vin]

It isn't possible to change the models in the game so we are stuck with the helmets the way they are. The soviet models were based directly off the Syrian ones in CMSF and I guess the Russian developer didn't feel any need to change them. If there is another patch I seriously doubt things like this will get any attention, at least there are some good uniform mods now. I was playing Hamid's Attack last night and got to the 36 minute mark when the Group A reinforcement showed up. Hill 412 only had one soldier left alive occupying it. I rushed the BTR up to the top of the hill along with the other men from Group A. I left off with the BTR opening fire and backing up to deal with the rush of mujahideen that just kept on coming, the situation reminded me of the 9th company movie. That's where I left off. I'm going to to make a short video tonight of the BTR fending off the attack (I hope the crew and it survive). This is turning out to be a very challenging scenario for me and is more than worthy of the 5 stars I gave it. Keep up the good work, I look forward to playing your next one and also finishing Battlegroup Ivanov, though that will likely take me a lot more time to finish. Even if this upcoming one is the last scenario you design for CMA, you will then have the record for creating the most scenarios for this game.

[Vin]

Lt. Ponomarev's BTR-80 in position on Hill 412, trying to help the last soldier fend off the mujahideen attack.

[Eddie]

Haha, You have got a real talent for making combatvideos, very nice. Did Lt. ponomarev succeed in stopping the mujahedeen attack? And if You don't mind me asking, what was the outcome of the mission for You?

[Vin]

Thanks, Lt. Ponomarev broke the Mujahideen attack on Hill 412, with additional help. He held the hill for a few minutes and then Group B arrived. I rushed the tank and BTR to the side of the Hill and straight up to the trenches. The combined assault from the armored vehicles and one of the squads from the UAZ stopped the mujahideen, though when the infantry squad tried to advance and enter the trenches some mujahideen popped up from hiding and wasted 4 of the 5 men. The tank and BTRs then quickly finished them off. I left a few men in the area to hold Hill 412 as the attack appeared to have subsided. I sent the tank and Lt. Ponomarev's BTR off to Hill 412B and the other BTR to Hill 412A to pick up a squad and drop off the command squad. When the tank and BTR approached Hill 412B (they hadn't crossed over the bridge yet), a bunch of Mujahideen squads were sighted and the armor opened fire. The BTR picking up the squad on Hill 412A sighted the same group of enemies and started to fire on them too. I'm at the 22-minute mark in the scenario. I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish today, if not I'm trying to complete it tomorrow. I'll post the AAR for you, even if I lose. I gave up a couple months ago on trying to redo turns to get better results in wego. As a result I play battles more often than campaigns because if I lose it's not like it's going to have an impact on the campaign and contribute to me losing that, resulting in feeling like I wasted my time. I lost the early campaign after putting a lot of time into it, and have not completed the late one. I now feel like I need to accept the bad results and try to learn from my mistakes, it adds to the simulation and adds an element of risk. I like the way you have mentioned the CO's names and information about them in the briefing, it adds an rpg element to the battle that has really drawn me in.

[Eddie]

Your description of the first 22 minutes was a comprehensive AAR already for the time You played so far, I'm curious how You will end up. So You were cheating a bit when playing the first campaign in WEGO? When I was playing the first campaign I did this for the very same reasons You did. Sometimes if I loaded a saved game for a second, or even third time I lost just one man less then I did on my previous try. This one man would sometimes result in a minor victory instead of a draw or even minor defeat. When I was at the seventh mission of the campaign and I had reloaded saved games time after time for hardly a better result I gave up. The idea was to continue the campaign some other time but I still have to finish it.

In my new mission the CO's names and information about their tasks will be described in about the same manner as in the one you are playing now. I have started working on the briefing and I think it is safe to say I can upload it next week.

[Phantom Captain]

Awesome!! Looking forward to your new one Eddie!!