I Got Operation Flashpoint GotY

[Adrian Laguna]

Fun game, I love the realism. OPF shows you why after two world wars the major powers stopped bothering to make guns that could hit anything at more than 500 metres. It's hard to even see the enemy at that distance, let along hit him. I now understand why it was so impressive that the USMC troops in the Great War could hit targets at 800 yards, I find it very difficult even with the help of a scope. I've also learned to appreciate the value of a machine gunner on open ground, those guys can really clean house.

Also, being a tank commander and giving orders to your driver and gunner is way more fun than the typical videogame system where one guy magically controls the driving, targeting, and shooting.
"Right"
"Forward"
"Target T-72 10 o'clock"
"Slow"
"Fire!"
*boom*

I don't like the helicopters though, they are fucking hard to control. I can't even approximate the level of competence of the AI pilots.

Oh and Shep?

Special Forces are I think pretty well done with FFUR, you can sneak around in the darkness around enemy outposts, sentries, etc, but if you try to do anything more "daring" than planting bombs and then sneaking off into the night to remotely detonate them, the enemy will react to you, and special forces ubermensch die just as easily from AK-74s as normal grunts.

Granted I'm not playing FFUR, but still. Also, it's not on the list but I destroyed an Mi-8 on the ground and shot down two Mi-24s. Apparently it's a very bad idea to leave your T-80s unlocked.

So, anyone know of any good mods? Custom missions? I'm mostly interested in the latter, since my computer is shit I can't run OFP on full settings, so adding new shinier graphics will probably cause it to seize-up and die.

[weemadando]

Helis, once you have a bit of practice are a beautiful thing. I could make a blackhawk dance.

As for mods - there are fucking thousands upon thousands. I'd recommend EVERYTHING by BAS, KEG, Nashe Ourije, LSR and... err... more. Can't even begin to remember them all. Oh - and get Op French Point. It's a pretty good addon.

[Adrian Laguna]

As for mods - there are fucking thousands upon thousands. I'd recommend EVERYTHING by BAS, KEG, Nashe Ourije, LSR and... err... more. Can't even begin to remember them all. Oh - and get Op French Point. It's a pretty good addon.

Yes, but where do I get them? So far the only thing I've been able to find are a few custom missions, a dead website, and FFUR which looks like the awesomest thing ever but will probably murder my computer (I'm now considering buying a graphics card).

[Mobius]

Get "Battle Over Hokkaido" good mod with a decent campaign a few fun vehicles

If you like the tank control; you should try Steel Beasts (well wait for Steel Beasts 2) or hunt on-line the first one.
it's the Lomac of Tank Sim

[CaptHawkeye]

Fun game, I love the realism. OPF shows you why after two world wars the major powers stopped bothering to make guns that could hit anything at more than 500 metres. It's hard to even see the enemy at that distance, let along hit him. I now understand why it was so impressive that the USMC troops in the Great War could hit targets at 800 yards, I find it very difficult even with the help of a scope. I've also learned to appreciate the value of a machine gunner on open ground, those guys can really clean house.

Welcome to one of the most impressive games ever made and my personal favorite. One thing OFP accomplishes better than any other game i've yet to play, its first impression is fucking inspiring. Open world, open gameplay, almost everything is interactive, and for a game that clearly wasn't designed with character in mind, it DOES have atmosphere. Don't believe me? Wait until you get a mission in a forest. "I THOUGHT I SAW THAT BUSH MOVE!"

Remember, this game doesn't get mainstream attention of any kind because it's a dirty sim. Even though it did things that many games still can't do.

Also, being a tank commander and giving orders to your driver and gunner is way more fun than the typical videogame system where one guy magically controls the driving, targeting, and shooting.
"Right"
"Forward"
"Target T-72 10 o'clock"
"Slow"
"Fire!"
*boom*

Well, much as I love OFP it isn't perfect. Play with the tanks in a combat a lot and you'll start to get tired of your environmentalist drivers who hate driving over bushes and turn "left" when you tell them "forwards." OFP:Elite fixed almost all of the problems with the AI. Too bad it wasn't released on PC.

I don't like the helicopters though, they are fucking hard to control. I can't even approximate the level of competence of the AI pilots.

They're hard at first largely because the game's flight model isn't sure to be forgiving or real. You get used to them with practice.

Apparently it's a very bad idea to leave your T-80s unlocked.

Bah, I hated most of the "uber spec ops" missions on account of crushing difficulty and the fact that OFP isn't as strong a game when you're doing shit on your own.

[Adrian Laguna]

Well, much as I love OFP it isn't perfect. Play with the tanks in a combat a lot and you'll start to get tired of your environmentalist drivers who hate driving over bushes and turn "left" when you tell them "forwards.

Eh yeah, they should fucking drive forward when I tell them to, even if it drives the tank off a cliff. It's especially annoying because the tank can easily drive over vegetation. I think the tank driver AI is from an earlier build where trees couldn't be run over.

Bah, I hated most of the "uber spec ops" missions on account of crushing difficulty and the fact that OFP isn't as strong a game when you're doing shit on your own.

They're only difficult if you try to do things that SpecOps aren't supposed to do, like running and gunning. You have to sneak, not shoot anyone you don't have to, hide the bodies of those you do shoot, put your bomb down and run like hell. The only reason I don't finish those mission in my first try is my insistence in doing as much damage as humanly possible, which naturally involves dying a few times while memorizing when and where enemy re-enforcements will come so I can properly counter them. If instead of doing that you just act like a real SpecOps guy and don't stick around to see what happens after the fireworks, then the missions are challenging but not difficult, all you need is a little patience and abuse of the invisibility bushes.

[Commander 598]

OFP's flight model seems more fluid than ArmAs...it wasn't exactly realistic but it was quite functional and easy to do and still basically looked realistic from the ground.

I'd like to add that you should get a proper artillery mod. Can't remember the REAL one I used way back... CoC I think... It made your chosen artillery piece (You could use a tank or the M109 that I think came with it for the artillery) actually fire rounds into the air that would come back down and smack into the target location, assuming that you didn't set the artillery behind a tall mountain that they can't shoot over.

[Sea Skimmer]

I always thought OFP had some of the most flyable attack helicopters I’ve seen in a game which had anything like realistic movements. I found flying the planes impossible with a keyboard though and hard as shit with a joystick.

[Commander 598]

Pffft. I could fly an SU25 up and over a cliff with less than 5m between the belly and the cliff edge just using a keyboard. Flying with the mouse was ridiculous though.

[Adrian Laguna]

Why doesn't OFP have a "follow this guy/vehicle" command? It seems so simple yet I can't find it in the command options.

Another complaint, why does the commander's cupola of a tank only turn when in third person view? Because I don't like using third person view, I'm stuck with using the scope all the time.

Also, does anyone know how to reply to "where are you?". Apparently you can't report your status if you're the commander.

[Commander 598]

I think it does have a follow command...maybe. I'd have to reinstall it to find it though.

"Where are you?" I have no fucking clue. In my OFP playing from as far back as the original demo, I think I may have found it ONCE and promptly forgot about it.

[defanatic]

I found operation flashpoint lots of fun, although there were some bugs. For example, you could strafe run up a hill so long as you were facing perpendicular to the direction of the slope. You could also climb down the sides of buildings by lying down and slowly crawling off the edge.

But that aside, I found it loads of fun, and even made my own multiplayer co-op missions!

[Companion Cube]

I was always bad at Flashpoint.

"Oh no, one is down!"

"Where are you?"

"Enemy, soldier, two-hundred!"

"Three is down!"

"Damn, five is down!"

[PeZook]

Oh, I loved this game! Even goofing off was fun.

Me and a buddy of mine once had a SCUD rade across Everon in multiplayer...who would be first to arrive on the southern shore and fire off the missile?

Good times, good times...

As for helicopters and airplanes, I always flew them with the mouse. And I just plain loved spec ops missions of various kinds, though I always save-cheated in them. The feeling when you finally sneak away from the base, turn around, blow the bombs and watch the fires wad just plain awesome.

By the way, most awesome way to do the "Blow up enemy T-80s" mission? There's an unlocked Mi-8 there. Mine the ZSUs, get into the Mi-8...blow the bombs right before that, fire up the chopper, kill the T-80s with rockets, shoot down the Mi-24s which come for aid, strafe the ammo dump nearby, eject over a forest and skitter away

[K. A. Pital]

I play for the Russians I like LAN flashpoint playing

[PeZook]

I play for the Russians I like LAN flashpoint playing

Yeah, it rocks

I actually prefer most Russian weapons in Flashpoint ; The Dragunov in particular, but I also love AKs more than M-16s. If only they had better sights...

EDIT: And the PK is simply without comparison to that pig, the M60...

[Vympel]

The abomination that is ArmA permanently soured OFP for me. I'll wait for the full OFP2- both from Bohemia Interactive and the competitor from [insert whoever their dispute is with, I forget].

[CaptHawkeye]

The abomination that is The Game Which Shall not be Named permanently soured OFP for me. I'll wait for the full OFP2- both from Bohemia Interactive and the competitor from [insert whoever their dispute is with, I forget].

DO NOT SPEAK IN UNRIGHTEOUS TOUNGES.

TGWSNBN shall be forever discarded to bargain bins and the back shelves of Dollar Stores. It has SHAMED its family name.

I await Codemasters to lead us into the light, but Christ knows they're taking their sweet ass time.

[Commander 598]

To be fair, ArmA was never supposed to be anything other than Flashpoint 1.5, I was active enough on the BIS forums then that I probably coin the term. I think maybe they took it a too far by dumping all those gfx upgrades into it. Don't get me wrong, it's pretty but it's totally unnecessary. Also didn't help that it didn't have any of OFP's Eastern European feel.

BIS could have basically given us OFP:E PC, which is what everyone wanted really, and been fine. All anyone wanted were engine upgrades allowing multiple vehicle turrets, ricochet/penetration effects for munitions (Which I'm not sure anyone knew about till ArmA was released), and the new terrain loading feature because we all wanted a 5+km view distance.

At least for ArmA 2 they're bringing back red stars.

[weemadando]

OFPEC - a good mission repository.

BAS - very high quality addons and resource packs (the Tonali campaign is awesome).

OFP Gamepark - the biggest addon archive you'll find.

[Adrian Laguna]

Helis, once you have a bit of practice are a beautiful thing. I could make a blackhawk dance.

What control scheme did you use? I'm trying mouse and keyboard because I think trying to select targets for my gunner with anything else is likely to be dammed near impossible.

I always thought OFP had some of the most flyable attack helicopters I’ve seen in a game which had anything like realistic movements.

Oh they are realistic all right, that's a part of the problem. There is no "forward" button, there is a "pitch the nose down" button, and if you press it too much your chopper starts diving. Furthermore, if you stop pressing it your aircraft doesn't stop in place and starts hovering so you can conveniently annihilate the enemy in one pass. Instead, merely trying to go slow is hard, and hovering harder.

However the main part of the problem is that they confuse the control mechanisms. The mouse controls the pedals and the y-axis of the stick, which gets really awkward when you have a realistic handling chopper. If the mouse controlled the stick's y and x axes, and the pedals were controlled from the keyboard, I think I would have an easier time.

By the way, most awesome way to do the "Blow up enemy T-80s" mission? There's an unlocked Mi-8 there. Mine the ZSUs, get into the Mi-8...blow the bombs right before that, fire up the chopper, kill the T-80s with rockets, shoot down the Mi-24s which come for aid, strafe the ammo dump nearby, eject over a forest and skitter away

Uh, how can you fire the rockets without having a gunner?

OFPEC - a good mission repository.

BAS - very high quality addons and resource packs (the Tonali campaign is awesome).

Awesome, thanks. If anyone knows of any more, by all means, don't hold back.

OFP Gamepark - the biggest addon archive you'll find.

The broken website I mentioned in the OP? That's it.

EDIT- Apparently that sentence didn't make it to my final draft. Anyway, the site appears to be down, probably permanently.

[defanatic]

Uh, how can you fire the rockets without having a gunner?

Turn on auto-fire. That way, your helicopter shoots when you click, rather than when the bot (or your friend, if in LAN) decides to.

[weemadando]

Helis, once you have a bit of practice are a beautiful thing. I could make a blackhawk dance.

What control scheme did you use? I'm trying mouse and keyboard because I think trying to select targets for my gunner with anything else is likely to be dammed near impossible.

I used W and S for forward/reverse pitch, A and D for "slipping"/"strafing" left and right, Z and C for rudder motion and F and V for increase/decrease power (read: alititude).

I keep the mouse complete free for free look for target designation and the like.

Just crack open the mission editor, hop into an empty map and spawn yourself in a chopper. Then just tool around and around and around until you're better and better and better.

[Steel]

Anyway, the site appears to be down, probably permanently.

The site has definitely been working for the last couple of days, i've downloaded stuff myself, last update is dated 11. 5. 2008, 22:15:37 too. Keep trying it, theres thousands of things on there.

As for flying the choppers, i always used the mouse myself. The only thing to watch out for is that you keep aware of when you need to pitch up to slow down, and keep looking around so you can judge where things are.

A handy thing i discovered 3 days ago after flying planes with the mouse for ...7 years now is that if you hold down the alt key you can move the mouse in free look mode, which means targeting stuff in the A-10 doesnt become a death spin each time.

[Vympel]

The plot for Codemasters' OFP 2 (as opposed to Bohemia's OFP2/ArmA2) seems cooler to me. Yanks and Russkies vs the Chinese? All on the one island? Awesome. I'll take the Russo-American Alliance, thanks very much.

Still, ArmA2 apparently has BMP-3s and BTR-90s. So there's hope for it too.