Beta for Marine Raider II: Off Guadalcanal

@NJG -Those are some interesting ideas… I’ll get to them in a minute. First, when you say ‘get a medal’ do you mean a nomination to be awarded a medal? Bronze Star, Silver Star, Distinguished Service, Navy Cross… etc? It can take a while for the military bureaucracy to turn.

@CaesarCzech -That’s good. I like the sudden surprise realization and turn of fate. Stranger things have indeed happened in war.

There is, believe it or not, a possible place for Ishiro in Marine Raider II. I hadn’t planned on that, but the opportunity is there. As to Ishiro’s prior fate, I could make that the player’s choice. Did Ishiro die on Toga island? Okay, then choose accordingly and this story has that basis. Was Ishiro captured? Then with one choice this story will mention him being captured. Was Ishiro captured, but then escaped (There was an outcome for that in the original) and then had to sail his way from Toga Island all the way back to Tulagi? Well, choose this option and there he is again.

Does that sound preferable? The player chooses Ishiro’s prior fate? I don’t want to kludge things like Deus Ex II. I loved the original and it had three possible endings. For the sequel, the writers just kind of shoe horned in all three outcomes together and none of it felt satisfying.

@AllenGies, regarding the medal thing, yes, that is exactly what I was referring to. I also noticed that getting wounded because of the BAR thing results in that event appearing in the ‘List Events’ section of the stats and it also says that you will get a Purple Heart when you make it back. Do we get the Purple Heart after the mission? Regarding Lt. Ishiro, yes, it’s good. I wonder what will be the squad’s reactions when they discover that Ishiro is alive.

@AllenGies

well i think unless he is dead Ishiro Should appear, throught it should be noted how crazy it is for him to basically just, escape and get back to commanding units, essentialy i believe that if he would be captured he would be keept in near facility essentialy about 60 Kilometers from frontline and thats possible to escape, bassicaly just make it so that japanese pushed the Allies defences to about 20 kilometers near Ishiro prison, and he escaped from there, but the japanese push has to retreat soon after that in mere hours. it still keeps realism, but it is suitably crazy to actually not be common thing.

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@AllenGies, I forgot to ask in my earlier posts, can the player get a promotion?

@CaesarCzech - Realism will be slightly strained if the player indicates that Ishiro was captured, taken off Toga Island (One of four options for him) and then somehow escaped. This is the Pacific after all, where the islands can be hundreds of miles apart. But I expect I can write up something that covers this possibility such as the S-2 on Espirtu Santo taking Ishiro up in a B-17 to identify various buildings on Tulagi and Guadalcanal. The B-17 gets shot down, Ishiro survives the crash and is rescued by his own unit…

… In fact, that’s probably what I’m going to use. :slight_smile: Stranger things have happened.

@NJG -Well, the purple heart would only matter if I mate up the old Marine Raider with the new one, but yes, it would be indicated in the service jacket. Though I could include a bit or two about that in the sequel, giving the player a choice between never having been wounded and the medal.

As for a promotion, the MC is assumed to be a 2nd Lieutenant. A promotion to first Lieutenant might be possible after a single mission but the gears of bureaucracy turn slowly and it has been only two months since Toga island. Any promotion would be in the works down the line. That said, I would be reluctant to promote the MC to Captain anytime soon because promotion means more responsibility, more men under one’s command, paperwork, logistics, and so on. That would change the scope of the game and I’m not yet ready for that. Not with this current effort anyway.

@AllenGies, yeah I agree. So far I can’t think of any situation on how Ishiro escaped. And the situation is very unrealistic. one of those situations I thought about is Ishiro jumping off the Schley (but that can’t work cause Ishiro will probably get eaten by sharks). So yeah, the B17 thing, in my opinion, is the best and realistic situation on how Ishiro escaped. I wonder what will be the squad’s reaction when they see Ishiro is alive.

Well, I finally have an update for Marine Raider II. Frankly, it felt rather chaotic to write and the amount of ground covered isn’t that large. Essentially, it largely deals with the formulation of a plan for retrieving Sergeant Martin from Ile Petite Fleur as well as the possibility of a reconnaissance of that prison island.

I got a little too involved with the details and that nearly tripped me up. The entire file is 800k, but it may play quick depending on what choices a player wants to make. There will be mistakes, I am certain of it, so if you find a scene that doesn’t seem to fit or plays out oddly, make a post and I’ll try to figure out what went wrong.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/89217689/Marine%20Raider%20Test/web/mygame/index.html

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Marine Raider 2 is already 800,000 words? X_X Allen Gies, y u do dis.

@Samuel_H_Young - No, no. The file size is for the newly added chapter is 800k. The word count for the chapter is just a bit over 100,000 actual words.

In comparison the original Marine raider was 258k. The sequel’s intro is 420k, the Mbungana chapter is 770k, and now ‘The Plan’ chapter is that 826k. So, already, what I’m working on is roughly 2016k of file space, or eight times larger than the original. Call it 250,000 words, tops.

Of course, there is still more to write… So, yeah, why do I do this?

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Because creating is fun!

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how do you shot down that Aircraft with deck gun ? i dont know how to do it

line 8753: increasing indent not allowed, expected 1 was 2

in part of plan if you choose to check dimension of bulding after getting closer.

@AllenGies, the update was awesome. A few questions about the next update:

  1. Does the MC’s soldiers know how to use Japanese weapons?
  2. Telling Col. Edson that Ishiro is stuck in Toga island will mean that he’s in the game, right?
  3. Does Holben always get wounded after meeting Miss Ross? Every time I play he gets injured in the leg.
  4. If Merrik drowns, why does it not appear in the ‘List Events’ area? Surely it must appear because it’s a significant event.
  5. If the MC lets Timmons borrow the lighter, Timmons says he’ll give it back before they go ashore. Did he give it back?

I managed to do so by aiming at the plane a few times before firing. Considering that the submarine commander says that there was a 30% chance of shooting the plane down, I’m not sure whether the method guarantees the kill. Then again I haven’t looked at the code yet.

And yay, new update!

@CaesarCzech -Interesting error message. I wonder why autotest didn’t find it. Should be fixed now. Thanks for posting about that because it might not have been caught otherwise.

As for shooting down the plane from the submarine, knocking it down with a personal weapon requires high morale and waiting until the aircraft is in range. Being a Hollywood Marine and/or having the Browning Automatic Rifle really helps. Hmm, should I keep this as a morale check or move it over to Enterprise?

Shooting it down with the deck gun is easier, especially if you take the time to aim, but a high Discipline is of great assistance. Again, perhaps I should sub in Judgement for Discipline…

@NJG - 1) I think that Baker, having been a Marine for so long, knows how to use most Japanese fire-arms. That is especially true for the Type 11 Machine-gun which was based on a French design or the Type 92 Machine-gun which was originally the British Lewis gun. Ransom also has the capacity to use various Japanese weapons (Including mortars and artillery), though his knowledge comes largely from manuals and not practical experience.

  1. Yep. If you tell Edson that Ishiro was stuck on Toga island, it will mean that Ishiro managed to sail, alone, some five hundred miles in a hand built canoe just so that he could possibly be in this sequel. If you say he was captured, then he has an equally harrowing, but quicker, trip back to the Solomon island chain aboard a doomed B-17.

  2. If you are talking about the bombing portion, then yes, Holben tends to be the first target in the attack hierarchy owing to his limp. Does that happen too many times? I could throw in a random variable to scatter who gets hit.

  3. Whoops. Merrik drowning should definitely be an event. I’ll have to throw together a special variable just for that. Glad you caught it.

  4. Oh, Timmons forgets. He likes his cigarettes too much. Should I put in a few possible ‘Can I have my lighter back?’ options? The lack of a lighter can come up during reconnaissance (and sabotage), but only once.

@AllenGies, thanks. About the bombing portion, I think that you don’t need to change anything. I keep forgetting Holben’s foot injury since he wasn’t wounded in Toga island. It makes it realistic that he gets injured. About the lighter, it would make sense to ask it back from Timmons, preferably after the landing. And a few more questions:

  1. Can the MC use Japanese weapons?
  2. Did the MC take a sword-fighting class? There is an option to take a sword.
  3. Can Baker and Ransom teach the others to use Japanese weapons?
  4. In WW2, how is lung cancer treated? Hopefully Timmons doesn’t get sick of using too much cigarettes.
  5. If I might ask, as of now, how many percent of the game is finished?
  6. When Holben gets wounded in the leg again, shouldn’t it appear in ‘List Events’?
  7. What’s the mission of the Marine Parachutists?

Oh, and I found the part in which the MC wished that he didn’t give Timmons the lighter.

@AllenGies, I think I found an error:

Corporal Gerhard is the first to stand in anticipation of the coming order. He signed up in 39’ when war was breaking out in Europe

Shouldn’t it be '39?

@AllenGies, I think I found errors:

  1. When requesting a heavy machine gun,
    “A machinegun? Aren’t BAR’s and Thompsons enough?” Edson asks.

Shouldn’t it be ‘BARs’?

  1. During the floatplane attack on the USS Nautilus, if the option to order Kramer is available, it appears like this: Kramer!"

Shouldn’t it be “Kramer!”

@NJG - Several nice catches there, on BARs and year '39 both. There is always something to neaten up, but enough about the inevitable parts of writing…

  1. The MC can definitely use Japanese weapon. There haven’t been many available, besides their inferior Arisaka and the pitiful MG atop the barge that would probably jam after just a dozen rounds (A failing common to the model no matter which nationality made the weapon).

  2. Sword fighting classes? Its a bit late for that… but Private Landry is the squad’s close quarters expert owing to his rough early life in Chicago and it might be possible for him to give a few pointers concerning bladed weapons later on.

However, it would be difficult to represent this as I’ve shied away from giving the MC percentile skills as I did in Tin Star. Besides, there won’t be ten chapters for this one to develop a character. Perhaps if/when I try to string them all together then that will come about. Something to think about.

  1. Baker and Ransom, as well as the MC, can certainly instruct the others on the basics of particular Japanese weaponry if given time. However, instruction doesn’t equal proficiency and so if something does go wrong, then a simple combat jam might make the weapon useless for inexperienced hands.

There really shouldn’t be too many reasons for the squad to use captured Japanese weaponry at all, though perhaps an exception for some of the Japanese light MG’s… but there probably won’t be a chance to use mortars, HMG’s, AA guns, etc. At least not in the present scenario.

  1. Lung cancer treatment? Sadly, chemotherapy was in its infancy in the 40’s and so the best bet is to remove a portion of the lung; a dangerous operation. Usually that sort of effort wouldn’t even matter because by the time a doctor detects the cancer it is usually because the patient is well on their way to dying. But don’t worry about Timmons, given his occupation it is far more likely he’ll die from combat, jungle sickness, or an accident before he perishes from his coffin-nail habit.

  2. It is always dicey to estimate this sort of thing. I’d say, tentatively, forty percent.

6)I hadn’t thought of including soldiers wounds in the list of events. Do you think a ‘Private Holben has earned himself a purple heart’ entry would be sufficient?

7)The Marine Parachutists (1st Battalion)? Oh, they were assigned an extremely difficult mission during Operation Watchtower. The island of Gavutu was their assault target and, despite their training, they went ashore like ordinary Marines. What happened there was a far from ordinary and extremely brutal fight.

Glad you found the place where the lighter matters. Hopefully I can work it in further, as well as have a pay off for not taking the lighter back from Timmons at some point.


@Hell_Satan -I think you are referring to ‘The Great Raid’, which was also a great movie. I especially liked the bazooka and loader team who had to rush in like madmen and position themselves deep inside the prisoner camp when the battle erupted in order to be able to take on any tank or armored vehicle that the Japanese had available. Certainly the lightly armed Rangers would have suffered extremely high casualties if there had been a tank there as even a little steel can shrug off small arms fire.

Thinking along those lines, there were plans to liberate American prisoners of war near the end of the conflict. The worry had been that the Japanese would kill all the POWs rather than let a single one be freed, but the location of the camps made that difficult. None of the plans were put into action owing to the speed and completeness of the surrender, but I’m sure I can find a way to work around that. Certainly it is an idea worth cultivating.

@AllenGies, thanks. I think that wounds should be placed in “List Events”. And, it’s good that the MC or the squad don’t need to use Japanese weapons. I really thought that the ammo will run out and they need to use other weapons.
Also, a question:

  1. Will there be commendations like in the 1st Marine Raider?
    1a) If yes, then how do we get the commendation “No marine suffered serious injury” if Holben gets shot by the floatplane?
    1b) If no, then just disregard the 1a and 1b.