Codemasters has announced on their website the release of the new DLC for Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. The DLC map pack entitled Skirmish includes 4 new multi-player maps, 2 Fire Team Engagement (FTE) missions and the chance to explore the entire 220 km² island of Skira alone or co-operatively with a range of vehicles at their disposal in Island Tour.
The four new multi-player maps include the two Infiltration maps Lumberyard and White Fang. Lumberyard has players aiming to destroy SAM launcher sites in a vast, sprawling complex, where as White Fang has the US Marines assaulting the dug in PLA in room to room combat. The other two maps, Annihilation maps, sees players make use of infantry and vehicles to destroy each other across a vast valley in Stomping Grounds, then in in Force Dispersal players will use close-quarters combat, in and around military bases to defeat their foes.
The New FTE missions include All Round Defence, which places gamers in control of air support and helicopters as they defend a fortified complex against unrelenting waves of PLA. In Uphill Struggle players must avoid fire from uphill reinforcements to capture the bunker located between the two armies.
In addition to the new content, Codemasters are releasing a patch to rectify some of the various problems with Dragon Rising. The DLC will be available for download today on Xbox 360 for 400 Microsoft Points.
March 1, 2010
#1
For the DLC Skirmish I inform you of two missions, All Round Defence & Uphill Struggle.
All Round Defense in fact is easy. I just headed out 250 meters from the base and patrolled in circles around the base, hitting inbound PLA squad after squad from the flank in sharp short firefights. More than 200 yards because most USMC infantry weapons will not cause friendly fire incidents beyond that range & your PLA opponent is caught in a crossfire & has choose his priority (you or your mates in the perimeter). PLA will get into compound but you just spiral into the center and clear them out again just in time for the cavalry to arrive.
Uphill Struggle has a massive software glitch in it which has so far stopped me from completing it. You have 3 major routes by which to approach the bunker from the beach, namely center right or left. On the right I can clear out all the PLA, but not in the center or the left. These last 2 we characterise as valley approaches, an entrance to each valley and an exit. The exits are marked by checkpoints. Any PLA you kill on entry will be respawned if you leave the valley without reaching the checkpoint but your losses will not be made up and the strategic gain in clearing the valley is lost. This appears due to an abuse of or error in object oriented programming. The program knows these PLA soldiers should exist at certain points on the map but it waits until you get within say 200 meters of them before it actually creates them in game, I have witnessed this happen, and when you move out of range it will destroy these units until you once more move back into range. If you kill them and keep closing in on the checkpoint this recreation is delayed, and it will not happen if you reach the checkpoint. I have actually tested this theory once I had formed it by moving towards and then away from the location of a given unit and I saw the computer suddenly create a soldier & then suddenly decreate his whole squad. This is bonkers. The only flank that I can really clear then is the right flank, but I do not think that you can complete a final assault on the bunker from there because I think there is a constant conveyor belt of PLA troops being created in the vicinity of the bunker that simply will overwhelm your force if your force does not retire. Needless to say I have not completed this mission.