H&D Deluxe; the ultimate mod; Mission overhauls

[p.jakub88]

The ghosts of Italy 2 aren't giving up without a fight.

Standing in front of me is a German who can't see me. And my bullets can't hurt him. You can walk through the barrier and then he will engage you. But hitting from where I am is impossible.

You were right Myron - i checked that in-game myself a while ago.

The problem was caused by additional collision volumes, that i placed alongside the tunnel walls - to prevent the enemies on the surface to shot your men while being in the sewers. I re-positioned the collisions a little and now everything is OK. Please download the updated Italy 2 mission uploaded below.

In addition i removed the "sewer fog", because our teammates AI were still able to detect enemies through it, while at the same time enemies were mostly unaware of our presence there. I also replaced 3 "German engineers" armed with Luger pistols with standard German soldiers (privates) armed with K98 Mauser rifles. This way the gunfight in the sewers will be more fair, since the "engineers" were set to open fire up to max 50 meters, while the map visibility range is set to 300 meters. In the place of removed "sewer fog" i added an "sewer ambient light", so the sewer tunnels are not that dark (still not too bright though).

See pictures below.

[Myron]

No, no, leave the engineers there.
The above is hard enough with all those guard towers.

Plus, the fog makes some sense, as it's really humid in there from all the rain last night, and the engineers are down there making repairs from the bomb impacts.

Another thing, the SAS are better trained, and have the element of surprise, hence why they can take out the engineers without trouble.

(The vanilla game had several dark zones where the lights were out thanks to the bombs).

[p.jakub88]

No, no, leave the engineers there.
The above is hard enough with all those guard towers.

Plus, the fog makes some sense, as it's really humid in there from all the rain last night, and the engineers are down there making repairs from the bomb impacts.

Another thing, the SAS are better trained, and have the element of surprise, hence why they can take out the engineers without trouble.

(The vanilla game had several dark zones where the lights were out thanks to the bombs).

I simply knew that you will say that, lol. I told you why i did that. Why should the AI see through dense fog while the human player can't? That is unfair. This is not a CoD game for such stupid things to be left unfixed, sorry.

[Myron]

Okay, you can remove the fog.
But don't remove the engineers. Give them soldier escorts then, but mechanics/engineers are rare enough in this game.

[p.jakub88]

Okay, you can remove the fog.
But don't remove the engineers. Give them soldier escorts then, but mechanics/engineers are rare enough in this game.

Thanks for your permission.

I added few "mechanics" armed with Luger pistols to the refinery area surface (including the interior of the main refinery building and its roof) - they will "check" the damage done by the bombing raid. This is my last Italy 2 update regarding the "mechanics", unless noticeable bugs will be found regarding their behavior.

[Myron]

Please, forgive my zeal over what I think is logical. Forgive me.

[p.jakub88]

Please, forgive my zeal over what I think is logical. Forgive me.

OK. No problem. Forget about that - it was your opinion after all. I was just waiting for your feedback.

Is everything working now in the Italy 2 mission?

If so, please check my custom Flak 88 AA gun model next.

I would like to update my H&D Deluxe Ultimate Mod in a near future. I am "behind the schedule" right know, due to all those delays related to countless Italy 2 mission updates. I am feeling like a serious AAA game developer releasing patches in lightning speed one after another, lol.

[Myron]

Well, I got it done. All is excellent. :)

In weird news, I think when someone falls into the abyss, there must be some random number generated, or something.
Basically, I got the work-prisoners to follow me to the extraction point, but only one was with me when I got there. The other two vanished from the map. I concluded they "fell into the abyss", and thus when I completed the mission, it said that 20 enemies died, and 576 civilians died. Weird.

[p.jakub88]

Well, I got it done. All is excellent. :)

In weird news, I think when someone falls into the abyss, there must be some random number generated, or something.
Basically, I got the work-prisoners to follow me to the extraction point, but only one was with me when I got there. The other two vanished from the map. I concluded they "fell into the abyss", and thus when I completed the mission, it said that 20 enemies died, and 576 civilians died. Weird.

Thanks for the feedback Myron!

The AI pathfinding in H&D Deluxe is terrible (i.e. Allied POWs from Germany 1 mission) - maybe those 2 workers got simply lost on the way to the extraction point? However, those workers could have been killed and their bodies dissapeared. Such thing happened in the Greece 4 mission on one of the corridors on the top floor of the complex, until i fixed it.

Now I added extra collisions to ALL of the mission area.

[p.jakub88]

I tested my latest Italy 2 mission update to be 100% sure that the "rescued" forced laborers will follow me to the mission extraction point. Despite their "minor problems" to use the ladder properly to enter the sewers, all of them successfully reached the extraction zone. However, i would rather not save such idiots, lol.

See pictures below.

The lower number of killed enemies is due to the fact, that i spared 2 enemy soldiers in the sewers and one mechanic on the refinery building roof (near the AA gun). Other than that it was a brilliant military operation behind enemy lines.

EDIT: I still have few ideas for changes in the Italy 2 mission, so stay tuned.

[p.jakub88]

OK Myron. Further changes in the Italy 2 mission:

- i re-positioned one of the "mechanics" from the refinery building roof close to the destroyed part of the fence (makes more sense now);

- i added ladders to each of the big oil tanks (except the one destroyed by "bombs"), so you could actually climb to their top and place time-bombs in places shown on the mission briefing. This also opens more possibilities for a sniper to eliminate enemies on guard towers and on the oil refinery area. See pictures below.

Planned changes:

- NilsZ improved the enemy AI behavior and added the possibility for them to react upon detecting their killed comrades. I am testing this new feature, because it could be used only in specific situations effectively. However, this is still a big improvement over the default enemy AI behavior.

[p.jakub88]

Latest changes implemented in the Italy 2 mission:

- "3-men prison patrol" is now more aggressive. They will now react to dead comrades in their line of sight and then run to investigate. They will also chase the player and his team upon detection;

- lowered accuracy of Italian soldiers carrying submachine-guns and "mechanics" carrying pistols to be more realistic at longer distance;

- edited default Opel truck model. Visually it's the same as the default one, but the difference is in the static collisions placement (it now matches the truck more precisely and your shots won't be blocked by invisible barrier anymore);

- small bugs fixed - including some of the oil stains on the ground flickering when the player got closer.


Below i uploaded the updated Italy 2 mission, the edited Opel truck and ladder models used in that mission. I also attached the updated game engine files by NilsZ, which include improved AI behavior. Unpack the bin.rar archive to your main H&D Deluxe directory and replace the default files when asked.

I am not planning any further Italy 2 updates, unless some noticeable bugs will be found or there will be some new interesting ideas to implement.

[Myron]

LOL, yeah, when I reported that two prisoners went missing, I searched the ENTIRE facility to find them. They weren't anywhere, and then the number of "civilians killed" confirmed my suspicion; that they fell into the abyss.

Excellent choice about the destroyed part of the wall. I wanted to point that out, but I felt like I made enough of an ass of myself already.

It's too bad there is no "spring time" model of the Opel Blitz from the MOH games. They all look like they belong in the desert.

Thanks for the ladders.
One last thing about that up there; I remember in the vanilla game, there was ramps for you to cross from one tank to another; just a plain, metal plate. But in Deluxe, what we have is a miniature "destroyed face" of the oil tanks, if that makes sense, for crossing ramps.

[p.jakub88]

Excellent choice about the destroyed part of the wall. I wanted to point that out, but I felt like I made enough of an ass of myself already.

Thanks for the ladders.
One last thing about that up there; I remember in the vanilla game, there was ramps for you to cross from one tank to another; just a plain, metal plate. But in Deluxe, what we have is a miniature "destroyed face" of the oil tanks, if that makes sense, for crossing ramps.

Thanks for your feedback Myron!

Having ladders make more sense, than a metal ramp that remains floating in the air after the oil tank got destroyed. In addition, the oil refinery engineers would like to have the possibility to inspect every oil tank in the facility. Periodic control or something like that.

[p.jakub88]

It's too bad there is no "spring time" model of the Opel Blitz from the MOH games. They all look like they belong in the desert.

Hmm. I read, that EA used Afrikakorps Opel Blitz model in MOH: Spearhead and Breakthrough. However, i am not sure about MOH: Allied Assault.

I will make some research.

I will continue this discussion in the "H&D Deluxe, the ultimate mod: Vehicles" forum thread: viewtopic.php?f=27&t=38004&start=135