I had been planning to finish this mission before I posted this, but after another one of many, many frustrating deaths, I kind of had enough. And for reference, I've been playing ever map on Mental.
As much as I enjoy this mod (better than any of the original campaigns), Hammer to Fall is honest to god the worst mission I have played so far. It's not exactly the hardest. I know what to do and it's easy enough to follow the patterns in the mission, but it is the most frustratingly tedious and repetitive one I've played so far, all because of the Wolfhounds, which are basically unkillable. They are the one unit that prevents you from proceeding directly throughout. There are a large number of them throughout the map that follow set patrols and are the one unit you cannot kill.
What makes it all so ridiculous is the fact after you infiltrate the airbase, you're given units who can kill them- 3 Guardian GI's. But you can't control them. They're under AI control and they sit in the starting camp the entire time. The only purpose they apparently serve is to provide anti-armor support against the vehicles that will be periodically sent to kill your other units. Oh, and to kill one Wolfhound early on that follows Tanya, and you have to lure it all the way back to them, because you can't control them.
So the entire mission, you have to endlessly evade units you can't kill because the units that can actually do damage to them are under permanent AI control and sit in the same spot the entire mission. As if to say "Yeah, we could let you control the exact units that could make this mission far less of a headache, but without any explanation, we'll have them sit in the same exact spot the entire time and force you to spend most of the mission evading helicopter patrols."
This is made all the worst by just how slowly Tanya heals, to the point it becomes necessary to often drag the medic around. And that adds another layer of excessive micro-management and tedium to an already ridiculously tedious mission.
Again, as much as I love this mod, this mission is just awful. I have yet to play a Tanya mission, or any other commando mission where the deterrent is unkillable units (for which there technically are units on the map you can use to kill them, but for no real reason, you can't control them.) Making the Wolfhounds the deterrent seems like sheer laziness in design and makes the mission just seem like a chore.
UPDATE: Just finished it. I noticed what seems like actually a fatal level design flaw. The lower left hangar is surrounded by a Soviet base wall. This base wall, though heavily damaged, was still standing all around. You have no units the entire mission capable of destroying base walls. Tanya is incapable of this. I was lucky enough to still have the Sea Stallion, so I was able to lift her over and destroy it.
The Guardian GI's would have been able to destroy the walls though. And if I lost the Sea Stallion beforehand, I'd be fucked. Although I did lose it repeatedly, I'd just reload saves. But I never once got a mission failure for losing it after destroying the mining facility. I never got any indication I'd still need the Sea Stallion, because of the walls. They do apparently get destroyed for some people when you blow up the barrels, as I saw in one of the playthroughs, but they were still standing for me.
If anything, either the explosives should be changed so they will always destroy part of the wall, or a portion of the base walls should be removed altogether so nobody has to run into this. But at the very least, you should be given control of the Guardian GI's, and maybe other aspects redesigned to make it so it isn't too easy if you get access to them (but not where it's obscenely repetitive like this.)
Edited by Carpotum, 04 July 2018 - 03:59 AM.
