BlunterII

brandeburg, Thanks for the info and the ideas. I am planning to introduce other NKVD agents (sleeper and regular ones). I found most of the historical background you mentioned quite helpful... and the radio communication terms are also appreciated. I will elaborate and ask questions about that specific encounter and the characters involved a little later. September's been a pretty busy month for me. _______________________ Hey, Fireman. Nice to see you too. _______________________ iknowjack123, Two points: 1) I agree with almost everything you said and am planning to make appropriate changes. 2) I am not working on that mod anymore. This is a different story, no Sentinels, no Hammer, no vanilla randoms. Thank you for your comments and compliments. ______________ ~ Blunter ~

Very nice job, Heruvim! So you've figured out how to combine those geometries without any visual glitches and texture inconsistencies. (At least I didn't notice any...) Bravo! That desert rifle soldier + allied sniper combo is really good. ___________ ~ Blunter ~

F@1km@r, Thank you. I appreciate your kind words. The mod is not ready to be released yet. I'll need to finish testing, debugging... Besides, there are only 2 encounters, nothing else is completed yet. _______________________________________________ brandeburg, Thank you. You have some interesting ideas... and ... some pretty wild ones... I don't know how to create/implement new AP requirement perks and changes without accessing and adding or modifying the hard-coded functions and ids... If you know how to do it - tell me. I'll add it. The same goes for the 'enemy healing'. I am not aware of a way to determine what they are holding in their hands at any given moment (it's not H&S).... I am not even sure if adding an 'enemy doctor' running around will improve the game by much. If we want to increase the difficulty or present the player with a challenge - we can just add more enemies, ad infinitum if needed, period. --------------------------------------------------- Thank you for the radio alphabet. It might come in handy. What I was asking for was a conversation example (In German)... unsuccessful attempt: - Unit (such-and-such) requesting assistance. Over. - (Radio noise) (transmission terminated) successful attempt (wrong recipient): - Unit (such-and-such) requesting assistance. Over. - (short radio noise) Lubni North Tower responding. State your coordinates. Over. - (pause...self induced radio noise)... (transmission terminated) successful attempt (correct recipient): - Unit (such-and-such) requesting assistance. Over. - (short radio noise) Unit leader (such-and-such) responding. State your coordinates. Over. - West of your position, moving east. Experiencing mechanical problems. Over. - Proceed to your designated area. We'll take a look. Over. Out. (transmission terminated) ---------------------------------------------------- I can see how a snap shot can be confused with 'blind firing' or 'spray and pray' for automatic weapons ( that's what "tir au jugé" basically implies) There are a lot of references to snap shooting in hunting where the hunters shoot the birds with minimum preparation. I believe they have a similar term for that in Russian as well - "выстрел навскидку". It has nothing to do with blind firing or firing around corners in enemies' general direction. It's just a quick shot at the enemy without using the weapon's iron sights. ---------------------------------------------------- Classes and encounters (random primarily) is what I'd really appreciate help with. Not just the classes that make sense militarily, but the ones I need for special characters as well. I've seen the panels you posted. I'll examine them more closely when I have more time... In terms of Scenario zone/RE ideas - here is what I'm looking for: - describe the encounter, make a sketch of that zone. Mark where everything and everyone is, major loot locations + their proposed contents, landmarks, terrain specifics, etc. It can be just a primitive drawing, a rough draft of your vision of the encounter, basically. Like this one I made for the "A1 Peacekeeper" scenario zone: GP2 and GP3 are in 'pocket' and will show up only if we start shooting. - what are we doing there? - if our presence there is self-explanatory then what are our goals (if any at all)? - how does it start? - allies, enemies, neutrals behavior, goals (plot related, please), equipment (plot stage limited) - what tactical challenges are we presented with (if any) - possible splits with logical consequences: if we do this then.../ if we do that then... - if you are unsure whether something is possible, or if I'm willing to implement it - ask. To illustrate ("Peacekeeper" rough draft): 1) we arrive at Brovari, park the bike behind a building (a 'club' or taverns perhaps) 2) we witness a heated argument between some young Nazi sympathizer punk and Dr' Sed'yih's brother. 3) At this point we get a choice of either: - challenging that punk to a fist fight, (would require Str. > 8 or 9). A German patrol shows up. Beating him into a pulp will get us a +1 with Wehrmacht (repW) and +1 with the civies (repC), maybe -3 with UPA?. The Germans marvel at our skill and invite us to an officers' club boxing event or something (I mean they were heavily into sports then, even played Kiev Dynamo in 1942, IIRC). At the club we could get an opportunity to steal some intel(???), sabotage something and/or win some money.... - talking sense into him/threatening him to leave the brother alone. Req. Int. > 8 or 9 (75% chance of success) - fast/smooth talking him into leaving. Req. Dex. >9 or 10 (75% chance of success) 4) if we fail the doctor will have a 50-50% of making the punk back off. 5) if she fails - her brother gets shot... (dead or wounded??? don't know yet). A German patrol shows up and takes the punk into custody (he laughs it off saying he's going to be out the moment they bring him to the polizei station). His father is some local businessman in bed with the Germans (we'll deal with him later) 6) Here we get a choice of: - attacking the punk along with his buddies and the Germans. repW (Wehrmacht) -5, repC -1 (+5 to repW and +2 to repC if we destroy/hide the bodies and kill a German runner who will try to leave the map within several turns) - do nothing 7) if the doctor survives and her brother is alive and healed we are invited to her house and she gives us the lab worktable (reward). Later, when we hook up with the partisans we might see her there too... ------------------------------------------------------------ I don't know what will happen with Kat and Scar yet. I don't have a detailed master plan for them or for the actual plot. There is a general direction I'd like to steer it in... but I don't have any specifics yet. ------------------------------------------------------------ Well, I can assure you there'll be no long lasting romances of any kind. Although, some of my family members might take an issue with Hello Kitty not being able to fight the empire of Evil. They did draw a mustache on those dolls at one time, don't know why,... signifying its machismo and readiness, I suppose... hmm... I wonder if that felonious gender change was consensual at all... Gotta ask them. ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ I am guessing cordite is going to be used in subsonic ammunition production. Here I'm listing some of the new RPG item descriptions and the simplified chemical reactions necessary to produce them: ------------------- Cordite N is a triple based smokeless military propellant. It is well known for its slow burning and brisance that cause a subsonic deflagration wave. It is produced by combining nitroglycerin, nitrocellulose, petroleum jelly and nitroguanidine. Use: artillery shells and small gun subsonic ammunition. Nitroglycerin (3 bottles) + nitrocellulose (3 bottles) + petroleum jelly (1 container) + nitroguanidine (1 flask) = 8 cordite N (sticks) ------------------ We already have a description for nitroglycerin ------------------ Cellulose is a polysacharide organic compound found in plant cells. It is usually obtained from cotton that contains 90% cellulose. It can also be extracted from cotton-containing clothes and uniforms. Cellulose is mainly used in nitrocellulose manufacturing. Any regular uniform = Cellulose (1 jar) If there are no other uses for cellulose we could skip it and do this: any regular uniform + nitric acid (1 bottle) = Nitrocellulose (1 bottle) ------------------ Nitrocellulose or guncotton is a highly flammable compound used as a military propellant. It is one of the main components in cordite N manufacturing. Nitrocellulose is produced by exposing cellulose (90% in cotton) to nitric acid. It can also be found in pre-war films. How to make: Cellulose (1 jar) + nitric acid (1 bottle) = Nitrocellulose (2 bottles) ------------------ Petroleum jelly or Vaseline is a semi-solid mixture of hydrocarbons. It is frequently used in medicine and cosmetics as a skin protectant. It is also used in the production of a triple based smokeless powder cordite N. How to make: find in the game world ------------------ Nitroguanidine is a colorless crystalline solid. It is primarily used as a military propellant, as well as a fertilizer and an insecticide in civilian use. Its ability to reduce flash and flame without sacrificing chamber pressure earned it its place in triple based smokeless powder production. Manufacturing of cordite N utilizes nitroguanidine. How to make: Fertilizer (1 bag) + Ammonium Nitrate (1 flask) = Nitroguanidine (1 flask) ------------------ Fertilizer, nitric acid, ammonium nitrate, uniforms and nitroglycerin are already in the game... ____________ ~ Blunter ~

Thanks, brandeburg. I'm glad you liked the update. I just checked your classes info (in your other thread) - very practical perk assignments. I think the "saboteur" pulled a short straw somehow and some of the marksman perks I am not totally convinced about... But overall, it's a very nice and balanced chart. Great work! I am looking forward to seeing those perk tree charts and having a discussion about them. I think it'll be very helpful... -------------------------------- [EDIT] When preparing those perk trees, please consider adding the "Look for free" too. I changed the default Crawl rotate cost from 4 to 6, the Rotate from 2 to 4 in RPG APs, and changed the parameter in RPG Perks from 0 to 2. I already tested it. It's 2 APs for all rotations now after applying the perk. So, no freebies anymore. What would we call it now? "Born Curious"... "Reduced AP cost for looking"... "Observant"... "Spinner"..? -------------------------------- Scar and Kat are not military trained, so I wouldn't expect them to have skills and abilities that make sense from a "let's create a class that is efficient and serves a specific purpose" type of approach. Their skills/perks are a mixed bag, some might have certain synergy but most probably won't. That's why I was asking about perk ideas for a civilian medic-turned-sniper, and a civilian mechanic-turned-bandit. They'd be separate classes, specifically tailored for Scar and Kat, not available to any of the possible mercenaries or the main character. Would they be a pain to play? I don't know...maybe... well, if I add all the bizarre conversations I've imagined they could engage in, yeah...a very strange couple of folks, indeed. I am also thinking about adding rare, unique perks. From the start, Scar would have an "addict" or "alcoholic"; ex.: he'd be the only person who could use spiked alcohol and heroin. Kat could have a "bookworm" perk that wold allow her to use magazines and other literature, we find in the game world, to temporarily increase her medical, engineering (or some other) skill above the normal levels. The same goes for the main character... based on the class we chose for them. - It might be a "Diplomat" perk (that would help us with various negotiation and persuasion checks), - "Eagle Vision" would have a higher than normal Spot value. - "Commando training" would add an otherwise unavailable "Good Evasion" perk (???) ... basically minor, not necessarily critical but a decent helpful boost to something... They'd be 'attached' to different classes with proper visual representation but without any visible prerequisite, basically not selectable by the player...can only be given through a script. ----------------------------------------------------------- Well, all that was about our average grunts/mercenaries/hirelings or whatever we call them. Now, what about the officers? I think "inspiration" should have a huge aura and be available only to officers. With that in place, eliminating them as soon as possible would finally make sense. Seriously, in vanilla, they were restricted to pistols, had no perk panels, nothing special or outstanding except for Acks, and even those were kinda meh... I think they need a major boost: proficiency in most weapons, higher Spot and stealth values, plenty of VPs, higher interrupt etc. (maybe even some 'evasion' skills, not too much... just a little bit...) ----------------------------------------------------------- You know, redesigning all the item sizes is a big undertaking. If we have our bike with us then the whole "increased difficulty" goes right out the window, since we can access anything we need right there in the zone (once the objective are completed). Besides, aligning every item in the backpack, x, y, z and the distance adjustment for thousands of items (because for most items it's not just a size increase)... is a lot of work... and could potentially be worth it if we had a lot of zones (25-30) to visit and could really appreciate the new challenge. At the moment - there are only 2 completed zones. In short, I hear you and get your point... Actually, I agree with you to a certain extend. Carrying two MGs in one's backpack is pretty unbelievable. But right now, I'd rather get on with developing the plot and building more encounters. ----------------------------------------------------------- I think using snapshot is somewhat similar to shooting from the hip... no aiming is necessary or required. At least that's my understanding of it. (...and that's based on the fact that we already have the "aimed" and "careful" shooting modes using the iron sights, and also the low AP requirements and relatively low accuracy when in snapshot mode just screams 'not aimed'.) ----------------------------------------------------------- I haven't decided what the main character's rank and specific branch are. They could be a Senior Lieutenant of State Security, from Department 3 (counter-intelligence) or 4 (special) ... not sure... they are gonna be dealing with quite a few of doppelgangers here... more like Department 13 (ghost-busters???) Main task: discover what happened to the missing agents (4 NKVD agents disappear without a trace in Lubni/Poltava areas) - check if any of the safe houses have been compromised - ensure competency and loyalty - find and eliminate traitors (we don't know about the doubles yet) - once we find out what's really going on - find their training facility and destroy it, find both surgeons and kill them, capture the Intel on the remaining doubles and deliver it to the drop. Opportunity objectives (while keeping a low profile): - kill any doubles you come across - assist allied groups and forces in the area (partisans, civilians, resistance...) - capture any Intel we encounter - eliminate or compromise any targets of opportunity - sabotage German military installations - increase tensions between UPA and Wehrmacht/SS There will be a time when we are joined by a couple of other State Security agents (if we use your classes then they'd probably be a Skirmisher and an MG gunner)...but that's going to be later... in the winter... --------------------------------------------------- As far as I am aware the vehicles don't move... --------------------------------------------------- In Sentinels, there is no way to determine the type of uniform a character is wearing... UnitGetUniform() is not a valid function is S^3, unfortunately. --------------------------------------------------- Thank you for bringing up some excellent points, brandeburg. __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ Now, I have a question: What was the correct German radio communication procedure for the tank and aircraft crews? Why I am asking is because when we find our first radio in a destroyed/abandoned Tiger (transceiver's operating radius around 150-200 km) we'd need to pretend we are not who we are while trying to reach the right 'audience'. So what would that exchange be like? - An example of a successful (we get to talk to one of our operators in the area) and unsuccessful (we happen to get someone else) transmission would be great. Perhaps this will help. I've found it somewhere (I think it was on axisforums.com): -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. to call another radio operator (otto calling ida): Ida, von otto. Ida, von otto. Wait 5 seconds Repeat if no answer 1a. to call with priority: Ida, von otto. Ida, von otto. K R. (I have no idea what K R stands for) Wait 5 seconds. Repeat if no answer. 1b. to call with message and no reply required: Ida, von otto. Ida, von otto. Keine quittung, Keine quitting Send message. Repeat. 1c. to call with message and ask for verification: Ida, von otto. Ida, von otto. Bitte prüfen, bitte prüfen Send message. Wait 10 seconds for reply. If no reply, repeat. 2. to answer (ida answering otto): Ida empfäng. Ida empfäng. Kommen. 2a: to answer but not ready to receive: Ida empfäng. Ida empfäng. Warten. 2b. to answer 1c. Ida quittung, ida quittung. 3. to report signal strength: Lautstärke ... - eins (weak) - zwei - drei - vier - fünf (strong) 3a. to ask for a repeat: Bitte wiederholen 4. to end a message: ende. There are 3 bullet points at the bottom, written in red, which I assume are important: - speak clear - speak monotone - speak short (I assume this means keep it brief!) Underneath that is the mnemonic: KMK (klar, monoton, kurz) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Does anyone have any ideas? ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ Hey, Tsylie, thanks for editing. (Corrections entered!) I added a full canister to the first mission's template. ____________________________________________________________________ Oh, and here is one of the female models Heruvim shared with me. Doesn't she look fantastic? ______________ ~ Blunter ~

Hey, folks. It's me again! Our next topic is the bike, its enormous hunger for refined hydrocarbons and the available to us options to satiate that hunger. I remember Heruvim and I brainstorming on this very topic.. we talked about fuel consumption, some kind of fuel storage (possibly at the camp site), various ways to refill the gas tank, time limited missions relying on speed (on foot it's about 6 times slower) etc. It took me a few days to process it and to come up with something I was happy with... What is this bike to us, as players? - A convenient way to collect the loot... Check! - A very convenient way to access our storage... Check! - An extremely powerful stationary MG (particularly at the beginning of the game)... Check! - And now a fast, reliable transport that would allow us to get wherever we need to get to -ON TIME! ... Check! Now, what do we do to keep it with us?.. Well, not much, except for maybe keeping it from being destroyed...an unlikely occurrence, really. That was the driving (excuse the pun) reason behind creating the refueling/refilling mechanic. If we didn't pay attention to the "place, month, weather, fuel, hours" notification after entering the encounter, we can always check fuel levels later. ______________________________________________ 66%? And how did you arrive at this magical number, Blunter? (now imaging Bill Burr speaking in a mocking voice)... that's pretty arbitrary! Okay, the list of assumptions I made in this case: - bike is important (we don't want to lose it) - bike should not be taken for granted (we should do something to keep it operational) - bike's speed (loaded) is ~ 30 kmph (18-20 mph) - long trips utilize some paved highways (at least part of the way)(higher speed, lower fuel consumption) - short trips primarily use secondary roads (lower speed, higher fuel consumption) - since "camp" can be anywhere on the map, and there no way to tell which sector it is in - it's in the same sector as our last encounter, just 30 min (0.5 hour) away. - if we run out of fuel (<14%) the bike is left at the camp (can't use it until it's refueled) - And the last one (partly derived from the one's above) - any one way trip on a chapter map consumes around 29% of the tank (+1 - 3%) In essence, we can travel 3 (maybe 4) times between refueling. ________________________________________ ______________________________________ __________________________________________ _____________________________________ ____________________________________________ _____________________________________ Canister refills are pretty straightforward: ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ____________________________________ ___________________________________ Right. There is another thing I introduced the OnExit() check: This is currently the only way to lose the bike. Not sure if anyone is interested in any scripts. If you do - let me know... ____________________________________________________ These are our Globals, set in the "Escape" mission: ------- SET COORDINATES --------------------------------- SetGlobalGameVar("Column", 1) --C1-to-C6- SetGlobalGameVar("Row", 1) --R1-to-R3- ------- SET TIME ---------------------------------------- SetGlobalGameVar("Hours",3.5) --cumulative-- SetGlobalGameVar("Time",9) --Evening-- ------- SET VEHICLES ------------------------------------ SetGlobalGameVar("BikeStatus",2) --1(Broken)--2(Present)--3(NoGasLeftAtCamp) SetGlobalGameVar("Gas",100) -- Full --- INTERACTIVE CAMP OBJECTS ---------------------------- SetGlobalGameVar("LabStatus",1) -- 1 No -- 2 Yes SetGlobalGameVar("WorkshopStatus",1) -- 1 No -- 2 Yes SetGlobalGameVar("RadioStatus",1) -- 1 No -- 2 Yes ----- REPUTATION --------------- SetGlobalGameVar("RepP",10) SetGlobalGameVar("RepSS",10) SetGlobalGameVar("RepW",10) SetGlobalGameVar("RepUPA",10) SetGlobalGameVar("RepC",10) SetGlobalGameVar("RepNKVD",10) ----- FOR LATER ---------------- --SetGlobalGameVar("PriorkaDoctor",2) -- 1-Dead / 2-Alive _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ Oh, I forgot to show the "Reputation" color coding scheme: ______________________________________ ...and some silly stuff for last: ________________________________ Unless you guys are interested in the character Acks, that's it for now. __________ ~ Blunter ~

All right, to the rest of the "Supplies" mission... The medical supplies package is located in the back of the second truck (the one that's broken). The thread checking its presence in our inventory runs in parallel with the other two objectives, so it doesn't really matter when we pick it up. Whenever we do - the objective gets updated... _________________________________________ ...almost there... _____________________________________________ ...and viola! ...the partially blocked message says: "The package contains a wide variety of wound care items and a field med kit. You might have also noticed the "Suture Kit", I added, among the spawned items. _______________________________________________________ ...a couple of PDMs an engineer of 1-2 lvl should have no problem removing... ____________________________________________ And finally, one of the bandits in the opposite (to our starting position) corner drops a scoped 33-40. I think the girl was quite happy with that. _______________________________________ Okay, about the scoped rifles... I feel the need to limit all of them to a "snap" and a "scoped/sniper" shooting modes only. I am also thinking about slightly raising their snap shot AP requirement... by 5-7% (bulky, scope is in the way...) and maybe (just maybe) increasing their damage. Their counterparts, carbines especially, should probably have slightly cheaper snap shots. We'll probably need to have a discussion about this. Pros and cons, the observations and the wishes... ____________________________________________________________ ------------------------ NOTIFICATIONS -------------------------------------------- ____________________________________________________________ Well, not being a programmer, it took me a while to figure out the scripts that could support the ideas Heruvim and I talked about. Some of those ideas were: - Fully scripted transport (Loot, storage, loss upon destruction..) - Fuel consumption and refueling - Daylight cycle - Time tracking So, here it goes: The place and month will change with each chapter where as other variables are tracked through various behind the scenes counters. but before we touch upon those subjects let's look at the new chapter grid that started it all. ...and the chapter view after the grid's been applied. I remember looking through Novik's scripts for H&S's traveling routine that covered all possible variations (for all 11? zones) with a separate calculation/value assigned to each and every one of them. You can imagine A, B, C, D, E, ...etc. A to B, A to C..., B to C, ... so on and so forth. That seemed a little too bulky, so I decided to do it differently. ...now we have 6 columns and 3 rows dividing the map into 18 sectors. I also made several assumptions: - minutes don't count when we travel on the Chapter map. Hours do. - it takes around 2-3 hours to travel 30-50 km using secondary roads to any adjacent sector on a fully loaded Zundapp K750 - it takes 2-3 hours for any major light change to happen. - we don't spend more than 2-3 hours in any given encounter. Then I created 10 Daylight cycle phases: Moonrise, Moon, Moonset, Dawn, Morning, Noon, Afternoon, Sunset, Evening, and Midnight. Traveling from C1R1 - Nemyeshaeva ("Escape") to C2R2 - Priorka ("Supplies") would equal (C2-C1) + (R2-R1) = 2 light cycle zone skip would determine the light and the time in the next one. then multiply that by 2.5 (approx. amount of time it takes for one light state to change to the next), so 2*2.5 = 5 hours I didn't use the 2.4 because it created a very long decimal and I haven't found a way to round it down. (Yes, I read the various LUA manuals and forums already ) I also added a small random number to that result to make it look more natural. So, after the initial global for "Time" (as in time of the day) was set in "Escape" for Evening ("9") then when we arrived at Priorka outskirts it moved two daylight phases forward to "Moonrise". There is a behind the scenes "hours" counter as well. ----------------------------------- I don't really know how interested you guys are in the mechanics of it all...(???) so I'm gonna stop here. But if you'd like to see the script itself I can definitely copy/paste it in the thread. _______________________________________________________ ---------- R E P U T A T I O N ------------------------- _______________________________________________________ All the Globals are set to "10" in "Escape" then constantly readjust based on our actions: After all, we were on the roster (Germans were famous for excellent record keeping, right?) and now we are gonna be gone leaving a bunch of dead SS faithful behind. Thus -2 to RepSS. On the other hand we risked our life and helped the partisans... as a result +2 to RepP. (only +1 if their leader doesn't survive, and 0 if none of them survive) Of course, if we hide the bodies then... ...the reputation returns back to its default value. It works the same way in "Supplies". If the doctor lives civilian reputation RepC goes up +1 and so does RepP. __________________________________________________ ------- E S C A P E ----- C H A N G E S ------------------------ __________________________________________________ There were a few things I thought were necessary to address: - the strange key - the source of "Supplies" marker ___________________________ At first, I wanted to introduce the med supply raid through a somewhat heated conversation between Kat and Scar: It went something like this: Kat (screaming): That's not what I said! Scar: You are gonna get us all killed. Kat: It's pointless talking to you! Pointless! You: What are you arguing about? Kat: I want to get some medical supplies, if I am to be of any use to you. I heard them talking about a delivery to Priorka today. Scar: All I heard was "...medikamente.." Kat: Well, you didn't study German at school and then at the university like I did. Scar: Right! That's all I need...a bookworm covering my ass in a firefight! Bah! You: Armored convoy? Kat: No, just trucks. "LKW"...and a medical facility in Priorka was mentioned. You: I see. Hmm... We could check it out but if's anything other than a lightly guarded convoy we withdraw immediately. ------------------------------------ Eventually, I scrapped it and found a shorter way to introduce that encounter: ________________________________________ Oh, and the new global map marker: (to be continued) ______________ ~ Blunter ~

Hey, brandeburg. Thank you for the info and the ideas. I have a few questions (thoughts, if you will) for you: (if anyone else wants to chime in - go for it. The more the merrier!) 1) If I am to create an encounter where we need to lay some mines (I assume they'd be given to us) then what would stop us from just taking them? There is no script support for checking if the mines were actually placed, is there? Did you develop that encounter any further? (How do we learn about this secret place? Why would they want our help? What is the threat and how would it affect us if we helped? If there is a fight - what kind of fight? If thee is a trader - what do they offer? What is the payoff if we succeed (aside from a reputation boost)? We are going to be moving eastward, how do we re-establish contact when we are in a different chapter?) 2)I really enjoyed your perk assessment and new class ideas in another thread. Did you work out any perk panels/ perk taking order for each/any of those classes? I don't mean panels themselves, I can make them no problem... what I mean is this: 1 > 12 > 4 and 17> 68 >43 and 3 and so on... (where the numbers are perk IDs). I would love to have a discussion on that. Since in the "Partisans" scenario we don't have any standard "mercs" here are the classes I am especially interested in creating: - a Engineer/Scout hybrid for Scar - a Doctor/Sniper hybrid for Katya - any hybrid (or not) ideas for the main character. - any enemy classes (with specific flaws and advantages)... from Bandits to Wehrmacht, from crazy SS chicks to insane asylum patients and perhaps even uber-soldat types. I realize you don't necessarily favor the "free look" and "I am a rabbit" perks. And I also share your concern about the ridiculously powerful 'Evasion' attribute. 3)Now about ammo and weapons. If I understand correctly, all the "Partisanskiy..." stuff is going to be produced and/or sold by the partisans. Of course, we could (theoretically) acquire the blueprints and make those ourselves at the worktable. The worktable is already scripted to produce some pretty complicated contraptions... provided we have a skilled engineer in our party but still... Anyway, the thing I am still unsure about is if there is an actual niche for them in the game. We are already picking up a lot of 9x19 Parabellum and 7.92x57 Mauser rounds along with a few others. How would a homemade/makeshift ammo and weapons compete (in desirability) with much superior, already in abundance German made counterparts. There are only 2 ways I can think of: - to delay/limit the introduction of weapons like silenced Mauser pistol and Kar98 silenced and make the partisan weapons the only ones available and/or - to make partisan weapons truly silent, but then the question of balance creeps in immediately... and this one will require quite a bit of testing. Hmm... very interesting, brandeburg. I appreciate the opportunity to brainstorm about this issue, thank you. _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ All right, moving along. There are a few changes I've introduced into the game: - a fully functioning "Reputation System" for RPG purposes: faction reactions, levels of hostility, scale of resistance (opposition numbers and overall skill), trade possibilities, random help or ambush probabilities. - Traveling time (to set markers for timed missions) - Fuel consumption/vehicle refueling/canister refill routine - Daylight cycle routine, 10 light variations (each 2-3 hours long) - Map quadrants (with columns and rows) to all chapter maps Other things done: - cleaned up some of the scripts - added SS and partisan reputation adjustments to the "A1Escape" mission - introduced new global variables to better control the plot. - finished the "A1Supplies" mission (intro and dialogues, combat scripts, variables, vehicle dialogue mode, etc.) - new RPG item: Suture kit (blood stopping med item), full gasoline canister, empty gasoline canister. - wrote new Acks for the main character, Scar and Kat (500 - 600 replies in total) - ...other things I don't remember at the moment. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, let's start with the "Supplies" mission. Here is its PWL image: It is foggy and rather dark. _____________________________________ The template is the same size as the previous one (64x80). Since we don't have any range boosting perks yet, no "Night Vision" and no weapons to justify a larger template I decided to go with this. I think it's big enough... ___________________________________ [ready for editing] A1Supplies_Dlg1: Scar (whispering): Hey Chief. There are three trucks, one is broken…stuck in the mud. I spotted six Germans and a civilian doctor. You (quietly): That's too many. Besides, there might be more of them...What are they waiting for, anyway? Scar: I don't know. They unloaded the broken truck but didn't move the cargo to the others. It seemed like they were checking the road for something. You: What are you thinking... mines? Scar: It's possible. You know Chief, I think there was someone else in the forest. Not German… but I didn't get a very good look at them. It's too dark. You (thinking): Hmm… That's strange... _____________________________________________________ [ready for editing] A1Supplies_Dlg2: You: Well, a three way fight is a different story altogether. _____________________________________________ That's the new notification feature, I mentioned earlier, we'll see at the beginning of every encounter. _______________________________________ ____________________________________ I won't be posting the detailed fight pictures... I'll just say that it was somewhat unpredictable... sometimes Germans had the upper hand, but most of the time it was a tie... _____________________ Once we cleanse the place of evil we are presented with a hint: [ready for editing] Scene staging There will be situations where hiding or destroying the bodies, planting evidence, inciting one group to attack another could turn out to be useful. You can get what you need and even earn favor with certain factions and individuals as a result. In this case, however, the stage had already been set before you arrived. The highwaymen set a trap, killed the German guards and made away with the supplies. That's what the evidence would indicate anyway. As long as it's plausible... and in this instance - it is. _____________________________________ There is a whole line-up of various bandit types. This is one of the local bandit bosses: _______________________________________ I'll probably need to create a few new uniforms for us to change into. I didn't include the Russian helmet and the fleece hat ("Papaha") on purpose... I'll save those for the partisans. Although a white fleece hat could fit the bandit theme... hmm... _______________________________________ After all the hostiles are eliminated the doctor is 'set to talk'. ______________________________________ [ready for editing] A1Supplies_Dlg4 Doctor: Thank you for sparing my life. You: Sure… What's your name and what are you doing here exactly? Doctor: Svetlana Sed'yih… Well, I am working… was working. We were transporting medical supplies to the local hospital before all this… started. You: How did you end up working for the Germans, Svetlana? Doctor: I am NOT working for the Germans! I service local population…primarily… Look, it was either tend to the locals or go to a concentration camp. I volunteered… it was an easy choice. You (pondering): Hmm...All right. You can go. Doctor: Thank you. I'll go check on my brother. I think he is in trouble... Oh, and if you are in Brovari, please stop by. ________________________________________ Don't worry... we'll see her again...very soon. ____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ [ready for editing] As the fragment falls apart in your hands you manage to make out "...sis..." and "Bravari" on it. _________________________________________ On a completely unrelated subject of... drinking... when I noticed it...I had to take a screenshot of that... ____________________________ (to be continued) _________ ~ Blunter ~

Just a small update (well, it's actually a pretty significant step for me... new models and all). Heruvim was kind enough to share some of his models with me... so I took a few screens with them in the pictures. Thank you, Heruvim! ____________ ~ Blunter ~

brandeburg, It's all right, I appreciate your comments. No need to apologize. I'll need to think about it. I don't have a problem with creating new ammo types. I think it adds extra depth to the game, if balanced properly. But the naming conventions in this case might create some confusion. I mean, picking up a clip of subsonic 7.62x25 Tokarev rounds and not being able to use them in a PPS 43 or a PPSh 41 is a bit confusing. We'd probably need to give them a different label altogether. Something like "Partisanskiy Patron" or use some mysterious number or a code... -------------------------------------------- Now, I am very interested in making unique classes for Scar (Eng/Scout)?? and Kat (Medic/Sniper)??... as well as completely new classes for the main character. We could initially try them out through the 4 pre-built heroes and later overhaul the rest of the 6 class selections available on the customize your hero screen. So any ideas about hybrid classes, their strengths, weaknesses and proposed perk trees are welcome and encouraged. ______________________________________ All right, back to our A1 camp. Here I'm going to cover the currently available vehicle interactions. _____________________________________ -------- VEHICLE --------------------------------- _____________________________________ This switch is a recolored Switch01 found in the "Buildings"/"Underground" sub-folder in the editor. It doesn't seem to interfere with the bike's MG function and doesn't appear to damage the object ("Zundapp") it intersects... _____________________________________ it looks like this on a template: Now you know why the bike will always have a log, a rock or some other object under its rear wheel... _______________________________________ _____________________________________ Pretty self-explanatory, I think. _________________________________________ ____________________________________ _______________________________________ The Engineering requirement is currently at 40... __________________________________________ I added a "Wrench" (a new weapon repair engineering item) and fixed the oiler which for some strange reason had an overlapping ID with an "unnamed melee" RPG item and wouldn't show up if placed on surfaces, etc. _________________________________________ _________________________________________ Sob... ________________________________________ I forgot to mention the hint that pops up after our first attempt to use the bike's storage in A1 "Escape": The text: ------------------------------------------------ Using Your Vehicle, Your newly acquired Zundapp motocycle can be used for accessing your storage and loot screens and it can also act as a stationary machine gun (MG). The button to access your bike's interactive menu is located below the back seat. You can only access your storage or loot in real time. Sometimes, during certain missions, you might be blocked from accessing your storage or loot screens until you complete the objectives. In case the vehicle is damaged a character with high engineering skill can try to fix it. Having a screwdriver, a wrench or an oiler in their inventory is necessary for a successful repair attempt. If you vehicle is destroyed there is nothing you can do but abandon it and hope to find another one elsewhere. Later in the game you'll be able to acquire larger vehicles able to transport more people and some important equipment. ----------------------------------------------- (Please, feel free to edit if necessary) ________________________________________ ------------- WORKSHOP ----- LAB --------------------- ________________________________________ The workshop and the lab menus, possible recipes and associated with them requirements are the same as in the previous version of the mod. Only the first 3 are fully scripted and functioning. Special ammunition and weapon mods and upgrades need to be developed further. _________________________________________ This puppy is finished and ready for use. __________________________________________ -------------- CURRENCY ------------------------------------ __________________________________________ If you remember we brought different currencies into use in BlunterMod. Well, this version is no different. ______________________________________ __________________________________________ _______________________________________ Talking to the bank clerk, in order to convert banknotes into funds, is not an option here, well stashing them away in a chest seemed like the next best thing: _____________________________________ __________________________________________ Ta-da! Transaction complete! ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ Oh, and if you run your editor for too long - this might happen : That's it for now. __________ ~ Blunter ~

Fixed the images now. Heruvim, Awesome new objects! The new Panzer looks great!.. and the destroyed Tiger (nice burn marks and rust spots), ...and the half-track now! Wow! The trick with the MG-34 tripod is very clever. That new smg looks interesting too. Thanks for the feedback. Corrections entered. _______________________________ Lt., I didn't ditch it. I switched to a different project. Actually, I don't mind adding some minor sci-fi elements to the Partisan Mod at all. Only minor... - Our main character will work with the partisans, civilians and the Red Army, but he/she has their own orders. I haven't decided what those orders will be... - I was thinking about exploiting the tularemia outbreak (I think it was the fall of 1942???) to involve or at least to mention the Professor. - Strange encounters could certainly be introduced. An underground Nazi research facility...partially built... abandoned or in operation, strange afflictions (no zombies though), etc... - Nothing too hi-tech or too fantastic. _______________________________ Before I introduce the A1 regional camp site I'd like to mention a few texture changes on the chapter and the global maps. Since we are working for the Soviet government here I thought the British flag needed to take a break. I forgot to take a global map screenshot so I'm just posting the new textures used. Since we don't have a base zone attached to the global map now (a place where we'd usually be sent to after completing a scenario block), I thought instead of removing the marker completely a message "In this dire circumstance, deep behind enemy lines..., there is no base, no re-supply and no reinforcements" would be appropriate. It might be kind of wordy and awkward. Feel free to edit. _____________________________________ That's right. A new seal was born... The signature is one of the "illegible" signatures found on the web. "Illegible" is how it was advertised. _________________________________________ Okay, now on to the Base - Camp. The template is larger than the usual 32 x 32 vanilla camp zones. Here is the template itself: I tried to make it mossier and dirtier than the "redone UK camp". _____________________________________ Every object (except for the radio) is scripted and ready to be used, well once we find/discover them and bring them back to the base, of course. _____________________________________ ...the vehicle interactions, new money RPG items, the "Stash", the "workshop" and the "lab"... I'll have to postpone till later. Night! ______________ ~ Blunter ~

brandeburg, Although I appreciate the ammo info, I don't think we can make subsonic ammunition in the game. That mechanic is defined in the RPG Weapons DB table column called "Silencer". 0 - completely silent, 1 - some noise,... 40 a whole lot of noise. Basically, in S^3 ammo doesn't/can't determine how much noise any given weapon will produce, the weapon itself does......So for now we are stuck with weapons not ammo types making them silenced or suppressed...unless, of course, you discovered some other way (I don't know about) to achieve that. ______________________ Heruvim, Very good write up. Thank you. I've taken a lot of screenshots, so it's going to be a long post ______________________ All right, A1 "Escape" is fully finished.Tsylie and I tested it in the editor and in the game. It works fine, the fight is really unpredictable... which is a good thing.Quite a few bugs were found and dealt with in the process.The encounter begins with a short cut-scene and a couple of dialogues: It was a dark, foggy evening... ______________________________________ "A1Escape_Dlg1" Officer (admin): (in German) What do you think you are doing bringing them here, Unterscharfuhrer? I don't have any room for all these… Officer (convoy): (in German) It's just till dawn, Herr Obersturmfuhrer. I don't think it's safe for us to continue to Korosten' right now. Several supply convoys have been attacked in that area recently by the UPA. Those nationalists are getting bolder and bolder every day. Officer (admin): (in German) ... right, well, it doesn't change the fact that I don't have room for all of you in here... (whispering) ...besides, why don't you just get rid of them... in the forest, huh? Officer (convoy): (in German) (frowning) I can't do that, Obersturmfuhrer. I've been ordered to bring them to Korosten' for questioning, especially one of them…Officer (admin): (in German) (interrupting)... This is ludicrous! I have only 2 cells, no decent living arrangements for my staff... Hell, I myself sleep on a hay bale in the attic above my office. No, no, no! I'm going to call the Kiev Reichskommissariat and complain about it right now!... (this is an almost exact copy of the one I posted earlier) __________________________________________ "A1Escape_Dlg2" Prisoner: (in Russian) Korosten'? They've butchered several hundred of ours there... just in the past few months. Bastards!.. (to the rest) Wait till the officer goes back inside and then let's jump them... (to you) ... here take this. (sneaks you a knife). (I think this one works okay. Edit if you feel there is a need...) ____________________________________________ We end up with a Finnish Knife (I believe the Russians call it "Finka") in our inventory. __________________________________________ I removed the MP40-II later. The best MP we can get our hands on here is MP-40. __________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ...a rare opportunity, indeed! ________________________________________ In case all the Partisans are dead we get a message on the screen notifying us about their demise. No dialogues, obviously. __________________________________________ The interesting dynamic is that our allies pick up the dropped weapons and use them pretty effectively. The downside is - sometimes, we end up running around without any firearms... ________________________________________ There is a folder ("Intel") and a "Strange Key" in that chest. __________________________________________ ______________________________________ For Silent Storm veterans it might feel like I'm holding their hand too much here... well, I am... it's an introductory mission, after all. Right?_________________________________________ _________________________________________ ...various warnings and unsuccessful interactions are sometimes accompanied by eerie or sad sound ques. ___________________________________________ ... knock, knock... ___________________________________ "A1Escape_Dlg4": Prisoner: (speaking fast) Oh, thank god… finally! There was all that noise and commotion… You: (staring at her) Name? Prisoner: Oh, Katya, I mean Ekaterina Ivanovna Sharapova. I've been with a group of… You: (speaking over her) Kat', what can you do? Katya: Oh, I… err… I can be useful, I can patch you up and I can shoot too… (begging) Please, don't leave me here! Can I come with you? You: Fine. Follow me. (Like with any other dialogue - please, go ahead and edit it, point out the parts that don't work or don't make sense and so on...) _________________________________________ "A1Escape_Dlg6": Prisoner: (sizing you up) Thank you, Chief. I owe you one. Name's Yakov, but…(pointing at his face)… they dubbed me Scar. You: (staring at him) I see. Occupation? Scar: A little bit of this and a little bit of that. I used to be a mechanic before I got mixed up with… You: (interrupting) Just a mechanic, nothing else? Scar: Well, I know my way around guns, explosives… You: Good. Let's go. (I know it needs work, so please, feel free to edit, reap it apart, etc..)Possible points to make:- we are an officer and he senses it- we are in charge and he knows it- he reveals some information, we reveal none.- we need him and he feels that- he needs us and we use that ______________________________________ ___________________________________________ It's not the Curse of Monkey Island's bottomless mug but... similar... _______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ Spooky! BTW, partisans took care of their killed comrades. The XP we get is 1/2 a level or so...Not much but still... ______________________________________________ Yup! This little guy ("Zappy") is fully scripted and functioning properly. ________________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ...and now off to our base "Camp"... ______________________________________ (to be continued) ___________ ~ Blunter ~

@Lt Hey, it's been a long time... About your images... Have you tried Google? I've been using them for a long time with no problems. It's free and pretty efficient. _______________________________________________________________ @brandeburg I am glad you are back in the saddle. I checked your post about the new classes and left a few comments there. Thank you and good work! _______________________________________________________________ @Heruvim Very nice models! Thank you. Hey, I was thinking about introducing various factions who, depending on our actions, will treat us differently. They have to be distinct enough to be able to act independently of each other. So far I've come up with these: 1) Partisans (we help them >> + to our favor with them; we attack or fail to help >> -...) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We can control it with global variables, starting at "10" being neutral. From "0-5" hostile, "6-9" cautious/mistrustful, "10-14" neutral, "15-18" friendly, to "19-20" ally. - at "0-5" attack on sight, at low levels might attack your camp site. - at "6-9" very uneasy, attack at the first provocation, won't trade. - at "10-14" they are fine with us, might even trade, but won't offer anything special and won't share their line of sight with us. - at "15-18" they trade, might offer special stashes for trade or exchange, share line of sight, might send a trader to our camp site from time to time. - at "19-20" they trade, always offer special stashes and rare items if they have them, can access their chests and lockers, share line of sight, install a permanent trader at out camp site. ----------------------------------------------- ...earning favor with them through: - successfully (and timely, if I can figure that one out) completing their missions - helping them out with funds, materials - ????? ------------------------------------------------ To prevent abuse: - the worse the relationship is and the larger the numbers of attacking/defending partisans the lower their levels are (less XP)/ higher spot and VP values (harder to kill and to hide from.) ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ 2) Wehrmacht (attacking their posts and installations will generate heat with them) ------------------------------------------------------------ We start with a Bolo (be on the lookout...) on us at "10" "0-5" Very high security. They are hunting us down in large numbers (damn! I wish we had dogs in the game...), might attack our camp site, most German occupied installations and check points are on high alert (more soldiers, higher Spot skill, possibly better trained/ lower level defenders, no decent weapons) "6-9" Heightened security, more soldiers. Mostly lower level soldiers (Lower XP) and weapons. "10-14" are on the lookout for us. Default (since we escaped their captivity). Regular security. Occasional good weapons. (Reg XP) "15-18" largely unaware of us. Lower than normal security. Frequently well equipped. Higher level soldiers (more XP) "19-20" don't know we are here. Minimum security. Very well equpped. (Max XP) ----------------------------------------- To bring the heat down (or to stop it from going up) we can: - hide the bodies/ destroy the bodies with acid (in a tub, with nitric acid) or in an incinerator if present - make it look like an accident (a gas/munitions/gasoline explosion) - plant evidence (incriminating bandits, UPA or a specific person or a group of people) - kill all the witnesses (prevent enemies from escaping) - reaching objectives in a non-violent way. - ????? --------------------------------------- To prevent abuse: - same as above. _________________________________________________ 3) Civilians 4) UPA 5) Bandits 6) SS (Gestapo???) Ideas? _________________________________________________ BTW, I'm done with the first zone and am working on a A1Kiev chapter camp adding a makeshift workshop and a lab to it, along with a radio and a 'treasure' chest to 'deposit' (convert) money items into party funds. I also finished the bike script, figured out the objectives (you know I usually use hints), created a few new RPG items including the 1942 Karbovanets and introduced a hidden objective - 'hide the bodies' to the goals... _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ @orc01 We are working on a partisan plot. That's the overall direction that we agreed upon. There are several plot elements I already started developing while the rest are still to be determined. The things I'm more certain about are: 1) The main character is an NKVD agent, who either failed their mission (the 'Escape' wasn't planned and our hero missed his/her target) or they were betrayed and captured as the result. 2) Either way they'd need to obtain some sort of a transceiver (possibly from a fallen aircraft), get within its operational range (50 - 400 km/30 - 250 mi) and contact their handlers... That could start the final missions... 3) For now they are stuck deep behind enemy lines with a couple of civilians under their command. 4) There is going to be no base. Just camps. 5) Going back to previous chapters will be blocked. Instead we'll be ambushed which in turn will raise the heat with whomever ambushed us (Germans most likely, but if we are hated by the Partisans or UPA then by them) __________ ~ Blunter ~

Good stuff, brandeburg! I like the idea of different dedicated classes. Did you, by any chance, develop the perk trees themselves?.. (a perk with this ID/name leads to that/those one(s)... and also their tactical/gameplay justification.) I think it would be of great help to, at least, start that discussion... There is a fine line between creating an irrelevant class and a dedicated class, while avoiding making them over-powered. I would like to create a few of those "just right" ones. The same goes for various enemy classes (Similar to my "Grunt", "PK Operator" and "Zombified"), since they didn't have any classes, except for the blanket 'Enemy', in the vanilla game. Keep going! ______________ ~ Blunter ~

Wow, beautiful! Thumbs up! Thank you, Heruvim. -------------------- Thanks, brandeburg. Nice SD plot chart, BTW. Unfortunately, we are not going to operate in Galicia. It starts in Kiev and then proceeds east. -------------------- I'm still working on the first encounter... will update when ready. __________ ~ Blunter ~

Wow, lvl. 32 is quite an accomplishment, brandeburg! Sorry to hear about your friend and your accident... that's terrible. I like the plot lines you mention: Smersh, SD, and especially Ahnenherbe. The latter one could accommodate a lot of 'unconventional' ideas and technology without raising too many eyebrows or feeling awkward and incongruous. BTW, did you manage to recover any of those plot details or the new classes you referred to previously? Oh, and the To Hit (accuracy) percentages for those characters look fine to me. Being lvl. 31-32 I assume they've taken all their perks. The rifle specialization gives a character +10 to shooting with rifles. It doesn't show (something that Novik tried to remedy in H&S) but it does affect the calculation nonetheless. So, let's see: - rifle specialization (unlisted + 10 to shooting) - shooting skill - increased range - good shot from any pose - dex modifiers (whichever applicable) It appears it's working the way it was intended... and the sniping skill has little to do with it. --------------------------------- Heruvim and I decided to go with a plot about a partisan unit operating in Eastern Ukraine in the summer of 1942. I already prepared the chapter maps. They include: - Kiev (A1) >> Lubni (B2) >> Poltava (C2) ...with Sumy (C1) and Dnepropetrovsk (C3) being bonus chapters, potentially. And then from Poltava choose/or be randomly/evidence/clue based directed to either: - Kursk (D1) >> Varonezh (E1) - Kharkov (D2) >> Rossosh (E3) - Slavyansk (E4) >> Voroshilovgrad (Lugansk) (E5) Here's the screen of the Global map with those chapter markers. This map has a grid to make it easier to specify the exact position of the chapter's marker and associated with it texture. Well, that's the old version of the background. The new one looks like this: __________________________________________________________ Now to the first chapter (A1)... Chapter A1 Kiev region chapter background image (annotated): I've yet to script the initial cut-scene, still at the planning stage, so bear with me here, please. The game starts with our hero being one of the prisoners transported to an unknown location. There are about 8-10 prisoners lined up next to a local police station and a few (3-4) guards armed with rifles and smgs. Upon fading in we witness a conversation between two German officers (in gray SS uniforms?), one who brought us and the other is the head of the town's German administration, I don't know what to call it exactly... Reichskommissariat? sub-section (need help here..) It goes something like this: ---------------------------------- Officer (admin): (in German) What do you think you are doing bringing them here, (such and such...rank)? I don't have any room for all these... Officer (convoy): (in German) It's just till dawn, Herr (... higher rank?). I don't think it's safe for us to continue to Korosten' right now. Several supply convoys have been attacked in that area recently by the UPA. Those nationalists are getting bolder and bolder every day. Officer (admin): (in German) ... right, well, it doesn't change the fact that I don't have any room for you in here... (whispering) ...besides, why don't you just get rid of them... in the forest, huh? Officer (convoy): (in German) (frowning) I can't do that, (...rank). I've been ordered to bring them to Korosten' for questioning, especially one of them... Officer (admin): (in German) (interrupting)... This is ludicrous! I have only 2 cells, no decent living arrangements for my staff... Hell, I myself sleep on a hay bale in the attic above my office. No, no, no! I'm going to call the Kiev Reich...(something) and complain about it right now!... ----------------------------------- (Feel free to edit it) As he is walking off towards the building on the left, one of the prisoners next to you whispers: Prisoner: (in Russian) Korosten'? They've butchered several hundred of ours... just in the past few months. Bastards!.. (to the rest) Wait till the officer goes back inside and then let's jump them... (to you) ... here take this. (sneaks you a knife). A fight ensues. Objectives are updated: Main: Escape captivity Other: Arm yourself, eliminate the enemies, free the prisoners, find a map, secure a transport. Optional: Hide the bodies??? After all the enemies are dead we search and loot the place and, most importantly we free the two prisoners occupying the cells in the police station. At this point we don't really care if any of the original prisoners survive, but if they do there could be a dialogue between our hero and their leader. He might want to go and join one of the partisan groups in the area... till we meet again, type of thing. Prisoner: (in Russian) Thank you. comrade! Despite the terrible odds, we prevailed. I am gonna head east to meet up with ...(???) _______________________________________________ The freed prisoners, a middle aged male and a young? woman, join your party. I'm not sure about the names yet, maybe Yakov (nickname "Scar") and Katya ("Kat" for short)... Tsylie and I spent an hour or two developing their personalities and talking about their potential skills, which I think are important since we are going to be 'stuck' with them for a while. So... Yakov ("Scar") (45) is a former car mechanic who turned criminal. Larceny and burglary that soon escalated to armed robberies and banditry. He got caught for speculation (reselling at a mark up) by the Soviets a couple of times. Last time escaped, joined a bandit group operating in Sumy region. He excels at stealth and engineering: - fixing and modifying weapons, - repairing vehicles, - lock picking, - making remote explosives and home made grenades, - setting, spotting and defusing booby traps, mines He is also an OK shot, has a reasonable hand to hand abilities, fair spot and throwing skills. Preferred weapons: explosives, pistol or a knife. For acks and dialogues - he is angry, witty and likes to drink... Picked up a little bit of German while in incarceration... Kat (19) is a nursing (maybe medical) school drop-out. Joined the Red Army auxiliary female unit(?) in 1941, got wounded and was saved by a group of partisans. Traveled with them for a while tending to their wounded, learned how to use a scoped rifle... until an attack on a German convoy, north of Dnepropetrovsk, where she got captured... She excels at chemistry, sniping and medicine: - healing - stopping bleeding, - removing various other penalty conditions - making various chemical concoctions, drugs, poisons, etc. She is a decent shot, has good stealth and spot skills. Prefers to stay back and use scoped rifles. For acks and dialogues - she is idealistic, intelligent, childish, anxious. Studied German at school. _______________________________________________ All right, I finished the first encounter yesterday. Take a look at the screenshots I've taken. Keep in mind, it's an early build... The size of the template is pretty large for a first mission, but... why not, right? ___________________________________________ I haven't added any units yet... I'm thinking MP 38 or 40 and Kar 98 wielding troops would be appropriate. Lugers for officers... _____________________________________________ ________________________________________________ The other building could benefit from a "Reichskommissariat..." something plaque. Any German speaking folks here? ______________________________________________ Right, so without a base we'll need a reliable access to some kind of storage. Well, this Zundapp should do. ...its MG-34 will come in handy too. Of course, we'll need to script it to act as a stationary weapon during fights (default) and as a party storage when in real time or when the objectives are complete. _____________________________________________ We don't have real mud...so the gr256 (I guess it stands for 'gryaz' - mud in Russian) spots will do. Besides it's a summer template, it's not supposed to be too muddy anyway. ________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ ______________________________________________ It took me about 450 terrain spots to achieve the looks I wanted. ______________________________________________ Here we might find the other prisoners' papers. ______________________________________________ The following image is my attempt to redesign the default PWL (Please Wait Loading) screen templates. Let me know what you think. ______________________________________________________ I'm sure Heruvim will update you on whatever he is working on when he feels it's appropriate. I'll just mention that he is working on adding some awesome models to the game. Frankly, I am very excited about it! ______________________________________________________ Things to do: 1. Finish the (Off1Escape, Off2Escape) dialogue 2. Add a Hero - Kat, Hero - Scar short dialogues. 3. Finish Kiev (A1) Global UI (marker, name, description) 4. Complete "Escape" scenario zone entries 5. Create, arm and place enemy, ally units. 6. Script the "Escape" encounter 7. Place appropriate loot in chests, cabinets and attic. (maps, documents, booze, axe, etc.) 8. Script Zundapp. 9. Create and test the objectives 10. Figure out what global variables are going to be set in this encounter. ---------------------- That's all for now. [EDIT] I think I fixed the images now. They should be visible... Sorry about that... _______________ ~ Blunter ~