Recommended playing: Operation Muppet v1 1.0.0

[Koen]

One of the most atmospheric, cinematographic scenario's I played !

Very detailed, lot of sights & sounds.

 

Lot's of arty too, so FPS goes down - still this is compensated for by the immersive experience.

 

You will be ordered in the game to go here, there ... !

 

Not a victory for me: I went too slow, for various reasons - but when the evening fell, my fighting capabilities also decreased.

In the end I went - as ordered - into leaguer, upon which the mission halted.

=> reason to replay this one !

 

There were no map updates for the ENY-side: that makes the mission rather difficult to me.

 

The verdict: an original, richly detailed and entertaining platoonlevel mission.

 

Many thx @Hedgehog for creating this mission, must have been a lot of work

I'll be looking if you made other missions ...

 

 

[Koen]

 

 

[Apocalypse 31]

Thanks for the recommendation, and to @Hedgehog for this massive effort.

 

I gave it a shot....Major Victory 200/200, but I got my nose bloodied....mostly by the non-stop artillery. I did not pursue the 2nd OBJ.

 

My plan:

Recon to Hill 329 / Happy Valley to identify the enemy defensive positions

Strike with mortars, attack with Infantry supported by tanks from high ground positions

In sequence clearance - south to north to envelop the northern OBJs and attack from the rear.

 

 

Recommendations:

 

Improvements:

1. Make Player the default team so it can be played in SP without the MP trick / put all of the forces on one side (option for player to take control of the Task Force)

 

2. Enable Map Contacts. The scenario is too large for SP to be managing contacts like that. 

 

3. Reduce Red Artillery - I understand the aim for 'realism', but RED has 4 onscreen batteries (I'm not sure what was given offscreen, because the sce is pw protected) but the only blue element moving is the player, so ALL of that artillery is dedicated to fighting solely against the player. The artillery literally didn't stop hitting me from crossing the LD to the end of the scenario. I always enjoy the stressors from artillery, but this was a bit overkill. It literally didn't stop hitting me.

 

4. Maybe give players a trigger to take over the actual Task Force, to include T22 elements. Those lazy bums sat there (and retreated!) while I was doing all of the work. 

 

Sustains:

1. Great use of vehicles. A Shot'kal scenario is a great challenge. I also really liked the use of the VAMTAC for recon (it can actually survive a hit!) as well as the degraded M113A4. The RPG-29 teams (proxy for...?) were also nice to give the infantry some reach. They saved my ass in Happy Valley during the <redacted>, but then were entirely wiped out from....enemy artillery.

 

2. Nice use of UAVs to emulate planes and build the atmosphere. I especially enjoyed the sound effects! I did the same thing in a recent Korean War scenario. I like the initial RED AIR attack after SP against the friendly artillery position.

 

3. Good ambiance. Lots of civilian vehicles and some traffic to add life to the scenario. 

 

 

Edited November 12, 2021 by Apocalypse 31

[Hedgehog]

Awwww, shucks guys 😊

Thanks

 

I dislike the "Sterile" battle field with just you and the enemy.

I'm like, no, this is World War 3!

It's not just you and the enemy, it's Eeeeeeeeeeeeevvvvvvveeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrryone!

Medics, Supply, MPs, Refugees, POWs, Airpower, Artillery, literally everyone!

Once you cross the LD, and you're short of everything but the enemy...You're in Combat.

(Though I did tone down the REMF factor to seeing just what you drive past.)

 

My responses below:

22 hours ago, Koen said:

One of the most atmospheric, cinematographic scenario's I played !

Very detailed, lot of sights & sounds.

 - 👍

 

Lot's of arty too, so FPS goes down - still this is compensated for by the immersive experience.

 - 😁

 

You will be ordered in the game to go here, there ... !

 - Was this OK? eSim testers were not keen on this.

 

Not a victory for me: I went too slow, for various reasons - but when the evening fell, my fighting capabilities also decreased.

In the end I went - as ordered - into leaguer, upon which the mission halted.

=> reason to replay this one !

 - I think this is the neatest ending to be honest

 

There were no map updates for the ENY-side: that makes the mission rather difficult to me.

 - OK - noted I could probably fix this easily, stay tuned.

 

The verdict: an original, richly detailed and entertaining platoon level mission.

 

Many thx @Hedgehog for creating this mission, must have been a lot of work

I'll be looking if you made other missions ...

- Why, thank you, think it was about ~400hrs, but then I didn't have much to do at the time, so.....

 - There's "The Christmas War" (I think it is in the downloads section but is a large Multi Player scenario) and

 - "The Valley of Heros 1961" (but the ending is, uh, unfinished, and is only suitable for experienced players in SP, it is intended for Multiplayer use 8-9 players recommended, 5 min, but you will be overworked)

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Apocalypse 31 said:

Thanks for the recommendation, and to @Hedgehog for this massive effort.

 

I gave it a shot....Major Victory 200/200, but I got my nose bloodied....mostly by the non-stop artillery. I did not pursue the 2nd OBJ.

 

My plan:

Recon to Hill 329 / Happy Valley to identify the enemy defensive positions

Strike with mortars, attack with Infantry supported by tanks from high ground positions

In sequence clearance - south to north to envelop the northern OBJs and attack from the rear.

 

 

Recommendations:

 

Improvements:

1. Make Player the default team so it can be played in SP without the MP trick / put all of the forces on one side (option for player to take control of the Task Force)

 - Yeah, I know, the eSim testers said this too.

 - But I'd have to rewrite it from the ground up.

 - Sorry about that.

 

2. Enable Map Contacts. The scenario is too large for SP to be managing contacts like that. 

 - OK - noted I could probably fix this easily, stay tuned.

 

3. Reduce Red Artillery - I understand the aim for 'realism', but RED has 4 onscreen batteries (I'm not sure what was given offscreen, because the sce is pw protected) but the only blue element moving is the player, so ALL of that artillery is dedicated to fighting solely against the player. The artillery literally didn't stop hitting me from crossing the LD to the end of the scenario. I always enjoy the stressors from artillery, but this was a bit overkill. It literally didn't stop hitting me.

 - OK, I'll reduce it to 3 batteries next time 🙃

 

4. Maybe give players a trigger to take over the actual Task Force, to include T22 elements. Those lazy bums sat there (and retreated!) while I was doing all of the work. 

 - They were working! By holding the line long enough for you to get up there and help them.

 - It is a "small" scenario, it would defeat the point of the scenario by giving you a whole 'nother company of tanks.

 

Sustains:

1. Great use of vehicles. A Shot'kal scenario is a great challenge. I also really liked the use of the VAMTAC for recon (it can actually survive a hit!) as well as the degraded M113A4. The RPG-29 teams (proxy for...?) were also nice to give the infantry some reach. They saved my ass in Happy Valley during the <redacted>, but then were entirely wiped out from....enemy artillery.

 - I have a soft spot for the Sho'tty

 - The VAMTAC is a not Ferret The M113AS4 are Canadian RAM APCS (But better, much much better)

- Super Bazookas / dismounted WOMBATs I think, I used the RPG29 for the extra reach primarily.*

 - See the enemy artillery weren't fighting just you. (This is why SB needs Foxholes, as soon as AI leg Infantry is spotted...whap!...Arty strike wipes them out.)

 

2. Nice use of UAVs to emulate planes and build the atmosphere. I especially enjoyed the sound effects! I did the same thing in a recent Korean War scenario. I like the initial RED AIR attack after SP against the friendly artillery position.

 - I did like scripting that TBH 😁

The SFX was a BBC recording of Seafires so that's a Merlin or Griffon engine, and the Command and Conquer Guardtower SFX was the Cannon sound.

(The DPICM proxy'ing PTABs went on a bit too long though 5 or 6 salvoes rather than 1-2, but ces't la vie)

 

3. Good ambiance. Lots of civilian vehicles and some traffic to add life to the scenario. 

 - Yes, I hate "sterile" battlefields, that's why there was a mini battle before you got there. "Set dressing"

 

 

 

Other things that drew critisim from eSim testers was the in game order messages:

Was that a draw back for you guys?

Or was that OK?

 

*My logic on the RPG29 use:

1 extra reach over a typical modern RPG 800m as opposed to 300/400m

2 Against a T-55/T-62, an RPG-29 HEAT round with 720mm RHAe will do the same amount of damage as a HEAT round with ~260/300mm RHAe (Which is the RPG-7 capability)

3 it looks kinda like a super bazooka.

 

For the next one

I have various ideas floating around.

Berlin 1961 (which would be, uh, interesting, I'm making a map, but it's on hiatus, untill I get my mojo back for that one) or Yom Kippur 1973 (but that's been done already)

I might scratch a Vietnam itch.

But I'd have to make a/the map first.

 

 

Thanks for the thread though guys, much appreciated.

👍

[Apocalypse 31]

2 hours ago, Hedgehog said:

Other things that drew critisim from eSim testers was the in game order messages:

Was that a draw back for you guys?

 

You did good with it, but I would have made SFX for some of the air attack messages - its hard to keep up - but this isn't a scenario problem. The problem is that messages often get lost with contact reports and are immediately scrolled away. I think this is just a function of SB not having more pronounced message/alerts (different colors would be cool)

2 hours ago, Hedgehog said:

Super Bazookas / dismounted WOMBATs I think, I used the RPG29 for the extra reach primarily.*

I liked them. I think it balanced the scenario nicely. I lost my first 3 tanks very quickly and soon relied on the infantry to carry the attack forward into Happy Valley. If not for those RPG teams, then we'd probably be speaking commie right about now.

[Apocalypse 31]

2 hours ago, Hedgehog said:

 - But I'd have to rewrite it from the ground up.

 - Sorry about that.

Why not just add the player stuff to that team and then delete the current player team? 

I guess: What is the purpose of having them on two different teams, anyway? I think seeing it all was nice, and helped me understand the big picture.

[Hedgehog]

38 minutes ago, Apocalypse 31 said:

Why not just add the player stuff to that team and then delete the current player team? 

I guess: What is the purpose of having them on two different teams, anyway? I think seeing it all was nice, and helped me understand the big picture.

 

Oh it was a choice to have your map "Updated" when you got past the supply dump/area. (AI blue goes from "Neutral" to "Allied")

I might make a version 1.1 where the updates when you meet the CO (Which was the original intention but got dropped for some reason that I can't remember.)

 

To fix it I'd have to copy down and (re)write logic, events conditions and event messages etc, after forgetting it all. (and shoehorn it in around the AI Blue logic.)

And the work around, well, works.

Not ideal, but we deal with worse in SB on a daily basis.

 

Maybe, who knows in the future I'll address this.

But right now, after an 9 hour work day in a warehouse being bored shitless and my brain dribbling out my ear going "Imma check out now, have fun."

Let us just say "it is on hold for the foreseeable future"

 

Again, thank you for the feedback

Edited November 12, 2021 by Hedgehog

[Apocalypse 31]

21 minutes ago, Hedgehog said:

To fix it I'd have to copy down and (re)write logic, events conditions and event messages etc, after forgetting it all. (and shoehorn it in around the AI Blue logic.)

Yup.

 

Either way, the scenario is good. Thanks for the upload. I'm definitely going to try this in coop.

[Koen]

14 hours ago, Hedgehog said:

You will be ordered in the game to go here, there ... !

 - Was this OK? eSim testers were not keen on this.

Personnally, I definitely like this 👍 

[Koen]

14 hours ago, Hedgehog said:

Not a victory for me: I went too slow, for various reasons - but when the evening fell, my fighting capabilities also decreased.

In the end I went - as ordered - into leaguer, upon which the mission halted.

=> reason to replay this one !

 - I think this is the neatest ending to be honest

Actually, I was hoping the scenario would not stop:

I was going to let it literally run for the next 7 hours and then, when daylight was back, resume the operation 😊

Because you got me into it …

 

(and I had set up inf patrols around the leaguer, as a night attack in yr scenario would not have been impossible 😎)

 

NB I’ll have a quick look at yr other scenario’s.

Edited November 13, 2021 by Koen

[Ssnake]

That SB Testers didn't like everything they saw is due to certain acceptance criteria that I gave them. That doesn't mean that the scenario is bad, it's just that we wouldn't distribute it with Steel Beasts, officially.

[Lumituisku]

On 11/13/2021 at 10:22 AM, Ssnake said:

That SB Testers didn't like everything they saw is due to certain acceptance criteria that I gave them. That doesn't mean that the scenario is bad, it's just that we wouldn't distribute it with Steel Beasts, officially.

 

Is such criteria open for public?

[Ssnake]

1)

We prefer event messages low on slang and profanity. It may add a colorful texture to the narrative but if it confuses players who aren't native speakers of the language as to what the actual message/instruction is, it's going a bit far.

 

2)

We have to check for copyright violations. Is the scenario based on a map that is supplied by eSim Games in the official distribution, or a derivative of same by the scenario's author? If not, we have a problem.

 

3)

Is it fun?

Arguably a highly subjective thing, but at the same time possibly the most important question of them all.

 

4)

Should avoid extensive night combat while it's not officially supported. Steel Beasts allows you day/night transitions, and yes, you can of course set a mission to the middle of the night, but simulation results will then simply be substandard and create a bad impression of Steel Beasts because you're putting it to a task for which it wasn't made, even if there are "generous margins".

 

5)

Does it require media files to come with the scenario (e.g. audio playback for events).

Most likely, that's going to be a problem as well because of the potential for us getting sued years later for copyright violation (if it's lifted from a film, say, which we might not correctly realize during one or two playthroughs (if we don't know the film, or the event doesn't activate)); then there's the additional complication of distributiing these media files.

I admit that it's a bit of a bummer because adding such sounds could offer a lot with respect to atmosphere but I'm shy about opening a flank to extortionist litigation because we might be found liable for commercial exploitation of unlicensed, copyrighted 3rd party content and were found guilty/forced to pay a hefty compensation. Even if we got off lightly with the first case, there'd still be considerable lawyer's fees and it would create a precedent for the next case where we might then be found as "repeat offenders". So, I'd rather stay away from it unless the author could make a credible (and undersigned) statement about how he generated all the content all by himself.