FR1: Guerillas in the Mist

[PhillipEarl]

Description:
After the crushing defeat by the combined forces of Acme and Omni, the Free Radicals are determined to regain a foothold on Icarus! With limited resources, they return to launch a guerilla campaign designed to wreak random havoc. The first step is to disrupt Acme's mining operations in the southern mountains....

I tried something new with this mission; you can use the terrain to gain an advantage over the enemy. Hide in the trees to avoid or ambush enemy forces, or take the high ground to gain a distinct (if temporary) advantage in battle! Be warned, though. Hiding and ambushing are risky ventures, and sometimes don't work. Also, once you've ambushed a patrol from a certain spot, future patrols will be watching that spot for a while!

This is my first mission, so let me know what you think!

Author:
Phillip McCollam (PhillipEarl)

History:
Released 5/19/04
Bug Fix 5/19/04
Tweaked 5/20/04 - Because I can't leave anything alone!
Updated 6/03/04 - Changed some patrol routes, added troops to base for "hard" setting
Bug Fix 6/07/04 - now runs smoothly on ALL devices (I hope?)
Bug Fix 6/22/04
Bug Fix/shortened Objective 3 text 6/23/04
Major Update (2.0 now!) 11/23/04:
Changed Player's units
Tweaked Acme's unit groups
Cleaned up the "Ambush" code a bit

[mfriedma938]

Hi. Just downloaded it and copies to PDA, but don't see it in the list of custom missions. Is it FR1: Guerillas...? Is it a multiplayer game that isn't for the PDA?

thanks

[PhillipEarl]

mfriedma938 wrote:

Hi. Just downloaded it and copies to PDA, but don't see it in the list of custom missions. Is it FR1: Guerillas...? Is it a multiplayer game that isn't for the PDA?

thanks

It's a single player mission. Let's get the obvious out of the way, first. What version of WI do you have? It's probably for the best that you can't see it right now, considering the bug I found (see above).

[Donw35]

I played it and it works, just need to play it again to complete it..

Nice idea..

[PhillipEarl]

Fixed the Bug! Everyone who's downloaded the mission before need to download it again!

[Liberator]

Are you the author of the last story mission: bringing closure

[PhillipEarl]

Uh....wow. No, that wasn't me. But thanks for the compliment! (Assuming you weren't being sarcastic? )

[Liberator]

But in "generic discuss" forum, it seems that you're the author, and people call the mission 'yours'. why?

I really love that mission and completed it more than 30 times.

[PhillipEarl]

Man, I've got to go back and re-read the General Discussion Forum!
You might have gotten that idea from the Mission Walk Through, which I volunteered to write, but I have no idea why anyone would refer to that mission as "mine!" Heck, if you've completed that mission thirty times, you're WAY ahead of me! Hey, maybe we should call it "your" mission!

Incidentally, how do you like this one?

[dws90]

Finally. I was beginning to think I was the only person that knew how to have the human control something other then ACME.

Nice Job. I haven't finished it yet (extremely difficult), but I love the guerilla warfare aspect. This might completely change how I play every mission.

[Donw35]

I got to the point were I distroyed all the bullpups, now I need to blow up the base but there is a large army in there. How do you complete this with out the resources..

[PhillipEarl]

Donw35 wrote:

I got to the point were I distroyed all the bullpups, now I need to blow up the base but there is a large army in there. How do you complete this with out the resources..

Okay, I've been told more than once that this one's a toughie, so here's a little help:

Patience is a virtue... just because you see a bullup at the beginning of the game doesn't mean you have to take it out right away. Do a little reconnaissance first, find out where the bullups are going, and get a feel for the patrols. Plan your ambushes, hiding places and maneuvers in advance, then get your troops in position before engaging.

Patience may be a virtue in the beginning of this game, but you've got to be quick about getting the lay of the land and destroying the bullups! The large army you found in the base most likely was the large armored column you were warned about via ecom about twenty-five to thirty minutes into the mission. It is possible to destroy the bullups and be well through the base before they arrive. Also, you might want to re-download the mission; one of the "tweaks" I made was to that same armored column that you encountered in the base!

But how to get to the bullups so quickly? Okay, here's a bit of a spoiler, so don't read any further if you don't want it spoiled!....... Get some troopers to the crossroads at the north of the base before destroying the first bullup. All the bullups pass by that point, and as long as you dodge the passing patrols, you should have no problem picking them off in short order. The more troopers at the crossroads the better. Destroy the bullups before the column comes through the area, and you'll find the base a much softer target.

This is a hard mission, make no mistake about it! But its difficulty lies mainly in the fact that it requires you to think a bit more outside the box than usual! Large armies don't necessarily have to be destroyed, and most of the patrols can be avoided altogether!

I hope this helps, but let me know if you have any more trouble! I made this mission for people to enjoy, and that's hard to do if you feel you can't win!

[Liberator]

It's a nice mission which I still haven't completed yet.

I don't know why the units move so slowly on my device, even I set the speed to 100%. It's a really hard mission in deed, hard to move

[ajcross]

PhillipEarl wrote:

Okay, I've been told more than once that this one's a toughie, so here's a little help:

Patience is a virtue... just because you see a bullup at the beginning of the game doesn't mean you have to take it out right away. Do a little reconnaissance first, find out where the bullups are going, and get a feel for the patrols. Plan your ambushes, hiding places and maneuvers in advance, then get your troops in position before engaging.

Isn't this the way to play every mission for the first time? Use fast or cheap troops to fan out and get the lay of the land as quickly as possible. Then restart after you know some of the map and decide on your strategy.

PhillipEarl wrote:

Patience may be a virtue in the beginning of this game, but you've got to be quick about getting the lay of the land and destroying the bullups! The large army you found in the base most likely was the large armored column you were warned about via ecom about twenty-five to thirty minutes into the mission. It is possible to destroy the bullups and be well through the base before they arrive. Also, you might want to re-download the mission; one of the "tweaks" I made was to that same armored column that you encountered in the base!

Is this the second column? I was quick enough that the second column appeared after I was heading to the exit.

The "4th" squad definitely made the base easy to take out.

[SPOILER]
Here is an ambush pattern that I used when the patrol came around a hill corner. P's are the patrol, h is the hill, T are Rocket Troopers and X is the attack spot. The Troopers form a ring 3 squares from the attack point. It degenerates when an is not instantly killed and other enemy units move around the attack point. It can be rotated for any attack direction. It is the same kind of defense used for towers in C3: Sand Dune Snafu

Code:

PP   T
hhX  T
hh   T
hh  T
hhTT

If you can set it just right this works out in the open

Code:

P   T
 X  T
    T
   T
TTT

[/SPOILER]

[PhillipEarl]

ajcross wrote:

Isn't this the way to play every mission for the first time? Use fast or cheap troops to fan out and get the lay of the land as quickly as possible. Then restart after you know some of the map and decide on your strategy.

Yup!

ajcross wrote:

Is this the second column? I was quick enough that the second column appeared after I was heading to the exit.

The "4th" squad definitely made the base easy to take out.

Awesome! Did you stick around long enough to build your own base and take the reinforcements out?

ajcross wrote:

[SPOILER]
Here is an ambush pattern that I used when the patrol came around a hill corner. P's are the patrol, h is the hill, T are Rocket Troopers and X is the attack spot. The Troopers form a ring 3 squares from the attack point. It degenerates when an is not instantly killed and other enemy units move around the attack point. It can be rotated for any attack direction. It is the same kind of defense used for towers in C3: Sand Dune Snafu

Code:

PP   T
hhX  T
hh   T
hh  T
hhTT

If you can set it just right this works out in the open

Code:

P   T
 X  T
    T
   T
TTT

[/SPOILER]

Niiice! Did you ever try it from the top of the top of the hill, so that the patrol was downhill from you?


So what'd ya think? Too easy? Too hard? Any recommendations?

[Verdagon]

I love this level! Really good piece of work!

Quote:

Did you ever try it from the top of the top of the hill, so that the patrol was downhill from you?

Downhill and uphill don't matter in this game. It's all one layer.

[PhillipEarl]

Verdagon wrote:

I love this level! Really good piece of work!

THANKS! Coming from the illustrious author of The Return of Fox, that's high praise, indeed! You've made my day!!

Verdagon wrote:

Downhill and uphill don't matter in this game. It's all one layer.

Oh, yeah. It does in this mission.... I wrote it into the triggers! Try this:

Place a squad of rocket troopers at the top of the pass at the bottom of the large hill just north of the base and wait for a patrol to come along. For a limited time, the patrol coming up the pass will have roughly HALF the firing rate of your troopers! Then, just for fun, move them to the bottom of the pass and wait for a patrol to come around the hill from the base and attack. It won't be pretty.

[ajcross]

Ugh! Beautifully crafted response shredded by the server timing me out.

PhillipEarl wrote:

Try this:
Place a squad of rocket troopers at the top of the pass at the bottom of the large hill just north of the base and wait for a patrol to come along. For a limited time, the patrol coming up the pass will have roughly HALF the firing rate of your troopers! Then, just for fun, move them to the bottom of the pass and wait for a patrol to come around the hill from the base and attack. It won't be pretty.

Uh, not pretty for who?
That is where I set up with 6 troopers
Here comes a Guard - Dead while moving.
Hmm, a second Guard - Reload and Repeat.
Liberator is 3/4 gone in first volley, takes a trooper to 2/3 health, then toasted tank.
Broadsword moves in, takes a trooper 1/3 down. Dead in fourth trooper volley.
I still need to see if I can take the Liberator in one volley or make him move by retreating his target.

Of course, now I have to try and take the base to take on the columns.

[PhillipEarl]

ajcross wrote:

Ugh! Beautifully crafted response shredded by the server timing me out.

PhillipEarl wrote:

Try this:
Place a squad of rocket troopers at the top of the pass at the bottom of the large hill just north of the base and wait for a patrol to come along. For a limited time, the patrol coming up the pass will have roughly HALF the firing rate of your troopers! Then, just for fun, move them to the bottom of the pass and wait for a patrol to come around the hill from the base and attack. It won't be pretty.

Uh, not pretty for who?
That is where I set up with 6 troopers
Here comes a Guard - Dead while moving.
Hmm, a second Guard - Reload and Repeat.
Liberator is 3/4 gone in first volley, takes a trooper to 2/3 health, then toasted tank.
Broadsword moves in, takes a trooper 1/3 down. Dead in fourth trooper volley.
I still need to see if I can take the Liberator in one volley or make him move by retreating his target.

Of course, now I have to try and take the base to take on the columns.

Well I didn't mean AMBUSH them! I just meant to send them down the pass like so many picnickers on a Sunday just to illustrate the difference in firing rates.

By the way, remind me to be extra cautious with corners if I ever play you in multiplayer (if I ever get a capable device!)

[ajcross]

PhillipEarl wrote:

Awesome! Did you stick around long enough to build your own base and take the reinforcements out?

I'll have to try that. Hmm, get 'Made' and take out the guards/tanks. Hit the power, HRC, VTS and Surv Ctr. Let the bullpup's mine to fill up the Warehouses. Take the HQ, a Processor w/Bullpup and a Warehouse.

PhillipEarl wrote:

Niiice! Did you ever try it from the top of the top of the hill, so that the patrol was downhill from you?

I have not seen this work. All the troops head down the pass.

PhillipEarl wrote:

So what'd ya think? Too easy? Too hard? Any recommendations?

Taking out the Bullpups was easy. My ambush made taking out patrols easy. Taking out the power was easy after enemy mobile units were taken out. It was dicey getting into the base proper and taking out the HRC and VTS because of attrition.

Did you have "Pitbull" set instead of "Defender" on the Rocket Troopers? It was very annoying that they would start attacking towers and buildings instead of guards and tanks that were firing at them.

I had some troops in the forest in the middle of the middle ridge. When some patrols saw me and started attacking, the bullpup also went to the forest and then sat there. You may need to tweak your "Move to Area" command to not include Bullpups.

For Hard $difficulty, you could put some guards as a second line of defense behind the second set of towers. When the troopers get close to the towers, a trigger could pull all troops in the base to this second line. Then they wait for the troopers to come through the narrow gate. This might make base entry to difficult. But it is more realistic than having the guards and tanks sit at the HRC and VTS where they are more easily taken out.

For patrols, I have several ideas.
1. You could use triggers to move enemy units instead of Unit Actions. Their Unit Actions would be "Attack for 2" and "Wait for 0". This seems to be a more aggressive attack pattern than Pitbull. Pitbull follows a unit even when that unit flees behind superior defenses.
2. Divide a mining area into 6 areas. Then when an area has a Bullpup and Troopers, a Patrol would be sent to that area. This may need a state persistent variable to make this happen.
3. A guard could be sent to one of these areas. When troopers enter an area with a guard, a patrol is sent out.
4. A switch or some 'state' persistent variable could be used with area movement to move patrols more dynamically from area to area. Say clockwise, then switching to counter clockwise after some event say when a bullpup dies.
5. The crossroads or the first set of towers could be a default resting spot for patrols before they are sent out.
6. Once a bullpup enters one of the 6 areas in a mining zone, a Patrol could walk the mining areas. With a 'MiningZoneA' persistent variable, setting of 1 would walk areas 1 and 2, setting of 2 walks areas 1, 2, 3, setting of 3 walks areas 2, 3, and 4. This would be more human like but trigger expensive.

BTW, my Tungsten C wifi is gone because of the MAC address resetting to all 0's.

[ajcross]

PhillipEarl wrote:

Awesome! Did you stick around long enough to build your own base and take the reinforcements out?

Ah, ... Finally. Poor ACME. My tactical response troops didn't even get to them before the towers ... Well, it wasn't pretty as you might say. 90% of the map was controlled. I kind of built more towers than enemy units. Of course, I resorted to 1/8 time to get into the base without killing the last bullpup. It kept coming in as I was attacking the base guards and getting hit on as I stated before.

And about The Family: Exactly what kind of family is this? Are there any favors involved? I felt that the ...father was indebted to me.

[PhillipEarl]

ajcross wrote:

And about The Family: Exactly what kind of family is this? Are there any favors involved? I felt that the ...father was indebted to me.

I was worried someone might make the mafia connection, here, and almost didn't use that term. I wanted to show that the Free Radicals were a close-knit - and yes, in many cases genetically related - group of independent miners. They refer to themselves as "Family" and "brothers" and "sisters" because circumstances have forced them into isolation with each other.

Okay, so I took a few creative liberties. If you like the mafia route, I can see how that would make for a good story, too.

BTW - thanks for your suggestions! You can probably expect to see a few of them implemented, if not on this mission, then on future missions!

[BluePalms]

Great Level. I managed to take over the base and destoy all of the reinforcements that were coming from the bottom of the map due to the advantage of the higher ground. You might want to consider having the reinforcements approach from the top of the map so you would have to run or be destroyed.

[PhillipEarl]

Okay, not a major update, but I did follow some of the suggestions mentioned above.

ajcross will be happy to note that the base now has a second line of defense for the "hard " setting. Hopefully it works as it's intended.

I also changed a couple patrol routes to make the patrols a bit harder to ambush as they come down the hill and around the corner from the base. ajcross beware!

I also followed BluePalms' advice and tweaked the route of Acme's reinforcements! You might want to head out into the galaxite fields to claim the high ground, this time on one of the columns!

Thanks to all for the great feedback, and I hope the changes are to everyone's liking! As always, let me know if I should tweak it some more. Heaven knows I enjoy tweaking things!

BTW Liberator - I haven't forgotten about your post a while back regarding the level slowing way down on your device. I've noted the same problem on a Palm M130. I'm working on it....

[PhillipEarl]

Liberator wrote:

It's a nice mission which I still haven't completed yet.

I don't know why the units move so slowly on my device, even I set the speed to 100%. It's a really hard mission in deed, hard to move

FINALLY! I fixed it! Liberator, this mission should run fine on your device, now! For anyone who has a device that runs a Palm OS lower than 5.0, you should re-download the mission and try it again. It should run smoothly on ALL devices, now. (I hope.... At least it did on an M130!)

[UGMC]

I just played this level last night. Cool! I love the patrols and everything! But, there were a few things. Often the patrols simply ignored my units and let themselves get ambushed. Most often it was far away from any tree patches. Sometimes the enemy units would come up to my rocket troopers and act as though they were going to attack, but did nothing at all and died. Most often the computer didn't recognize me as an enemy, and I won without a single loss.

By the way, what kind of triggers did you use for this level? Must have had a lot! And how did you get the computer to stop shooting at me?

[PhillipEarl]

Okay, as far as the ambush triggers go, I did it with a simple area-dependent "Allies" trigger. When a patrol passes nearby an ambush site with your troopers hiding in it, the triggers tell side1 to ally with side3 for a few seconds. Usually, that's more than enough time to finish off a patrol. After the time period is up, side1 allies with no one and can return fire. This is meant to simulate the "surprise" effect an ambush has (ie - they're so shocked by the ambush that confusion reigns for the first few seconds of the firefight).

When you passed the Acme forces in the open, did you have an ambush in progress somewhere else? Even if your troopers didn't open fire, and Acme units were in the right spot, it could temporarily turn on the allies switch. Otherwise, when a unit is given orders, they'll focus on those orders first before firing on an enemy, meaning that if I've given my units the order to move to a certain place, they'll move right past an enemy to get there without firing a shot. This is part of the mechanics of the game, and I think it's more noticeable in this level due to the ambush triggers. The Acme units should have still fired on you, though, but I've noticed that even in the core missions of the game, units can be within what I would consider sight range and not fire on each other (?).

[UGMC]

So, if you just keep one guy in one ambush spot you've got the whole enemy side to destroy with luxury?

[PhillipEarl]

No. Acme catches on after they've been ambushed from a certain spot, and once you've entered their base, ambushing anyone is pretty much out of the question. Also, keep in mind that they do recover from the initial surprise after a few seconds. It would take some massive coordination on your part to exploit that. I guess it's possible if you play at 1/8 speed, but it would completely suck all of the challenge out of this level...

BTW - I found a bug that I've since corrected. You might want to download the new (hopefully FINAL) version!

[PhillipEarl]

UGMC wrote:

I just played this level last night. Cool! I love the patrols and everything! But, there were a few things. Often the patrols simply ignored my units and let themselves get ambushed. Most often it was far away from any tree patches. Sometimes the enemy units would come up to my rocket troopers and act as though they were going to attack, but did nothing at all and died. Most often the computer didn't recognize me as an enemy, and I won without a single loss.

UGMC, I owe you one. After reading your post, I went back and replayed the level myself and saw the behavior you were talking about. That was a bug. Big, blatantly obvious one, too. Some of the triggers I altered before to make the level run smoothly on smaller devices were compensating for that particular trigger's defect. When I changed those first triggers, the latter's defect became apparent. I fixed it, and uploaded a new version. Thanks, again!

(Note to self: always, always, ALWAYS check for a preserve trigger action! )

[hmm]

This must be obvious, but I can't get near the base without getting taken out by the towers. How can I take them out without being destroyed?

[PhillipEarl]

Before you get to the towers, and attached to the base, is a walled-off area containing three power generators. The entrance to that area is outside the base and to the northeast sector of the wall. It is relatively easy to sneak a trooper through that entrance and above the generators to take them out. Be careful, though, because that area is patrolled. You should be able to time your attacks between patrols, though. Good luck!

[PhillipEarl]

Well, it's been a while since I looked at this mission. I went back the other day, got to playing around, and saw some things I didn't like about the flow of the mission. First, I thought it was just too hard to play the way I originally intended, and second, I thought it was too easy to play if you did certain things. I also want to leave it open for a bonus mission at a later date, so I've changed it.

Think you've played this mission? Try it again. I don't think it's any harder. In fact, it might be a little easier. I changed the code so that you can (and should) use ambushes to take out your opposition before approaching the base. I also tweaked the unit composition of your teams so that you should be a little more effective in doing so.

For those of you who enjoyed taking over the base and starting one of your own: I'm sorry, but that wasn't in the scope of what I wanted for this mission, not to mention the fact that it just plain sucked the suspense right out of the end, so I removed that ability.

I've given the new file a different name, so this one won't overwrite the old one. You have the option of keeping both or deleting the old one before you install.

As always, I value feedback, so feel free to comment!