Question for the vets: Did mohaa meet your expectations?
 

Im addressing this paticular question to those of us who joined the forum around may\june or earlier of 2001.

I was sitting thinking tonight of how we went nuts over every screenshot, how every movie was awaited with baited breath and then picked apart by some of us (me in paticular) as some errors were noted. We spent ages in the aa.net chatroom at night tossing out random scenarios and basically lapping up every scrap of information we could find on the game.

It wasn't untill a couple of months before the release that we even got to see what the mp-40 looked like.

IMO the game was very good in some ways and in others it was below expectations. The release date change from around october 2001 to january 2002 i recall pissed off a lot of us. For months we were told yes everythings on schedule only for ea to add on another couple of months to "polish the game".

It really baffles me how they could consider "polishing" the game when it appeared to be released in an unfinished state. Multiple levels were ever left out or screwed over, the multiplayer map thats played in a french village was originally intended to be a single player mission, we seen pic sof germans and so on in this map as part of a sp mission but this was never included in the game.

The much vaunted omaha beach level never really lived up to expectation, the background on the map was completly devoid of cruisers firing at the bunkers and the lack of ships in the background made me wonder "umm where the hell are these higgins boats coming from". At the time i never mentioned it but omaha could have been much better. Even the skyline on omaha looks sorta too bright, some weather effects like light rain fall and a darker sky would have set a better and more dark mood for the map but it just didn't happen.

The beach itself was fairly easy to navigate seeing as the machine gun emplacements seemed to (rather lamely) focus their fire on you then fuck off for a few seconds before swinging back to your position. The only real challenge in the map was at the bluff where you had to go from 1 impact crater to another and hope you didn't trip a mine, but even this got easy after 1 or 2 attempts. The actual finale to omaha was a joke, you walk through a door and don't bother having to take out the 88's which were there to be blown away but it never got coded.

Snipertown was another highly anticipated level but tbh i preferred the version in the vids as opposed to the version that shipped with the game. The snipers in this level are nothing short of a joke, they have bolt action rifles but are seemingly able to fire them at garand semi auto speeds, add to the fact that they can spot you from any distance imaginable and sometimes THROUGH objects and this leads up to a feeling of the only way the ai can actually beat you is to cheat like a mofo.


Also anyone remember these levels which were supposed to be in the game.

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/sc ... een012.jpg
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/sc ... een004.jpg
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/sc ... een011.jpg
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/sc ... een004.jpg


I know for a fact the screenie with the bridge is one level everyone was busting a nut to see but alas it wasn't included. When you think about all the stuff that was left then the game was probably around 80-85% complete when it was release. Just makes you wonder what could have been with about 6 months more development time :(


Other stuff that was supposed to be in the game was hitching rides on german vehicles when you're disguised as a german but this never happened either.

The multiplayer portion was a late addition but imo its a shell of what it could have been. 2015 for some reason felt the need to include 2 whore weapons, the rocket launcher for the lamer that can;t aim and the shotgun for the gheyzor that can't be arsed to take out individual enemies but feels comfortable runing in like a tard and spray and pray with his little noob cannon.

One of the biggest letdowns was the lack of a prone option. This was a big mistake imo and will hopefully (yeah right chances :roll: ) be fixed in the addon. One of the flaws with multiplayer is your actual movement. You seem to bounce up and down a lot which can be sorta disorientating and you move at a very slow speed, a sprint button would have been handy but this wasn't added. Add to the flaws the suspect netcode and the multiplayer component is probably the worst part of the game but is being built up by the modding community.

When its all said and done i dont blame 2015 at all for what the game was lacking, i blame ea. EA has a track record of releasing games in unfinished condition, take fifa world cup for the cube the xbox and the ps2. Each version of this was released at a different stage of development to coincide with the world cup. They have so far held back the proper mohaa sdk saying it will be released when the addon is brought out. I wait with baited breath for that. :roll:

Opinions anyone?

hah u got some funny points there. anyways yea mohaa was good but it could have been better. For starters i ordered it off of the EA website, big mistake. When i got the game the cd was fucked up it would install to 20% then ask for cd 2. after a week of testing and technical support i returned it for a refund and got off my lazy ass and went to the store and bought it myself. if you want it done ya gotta do it yourself so it seems. Even the new cd i got at best buy i think is a bit busted. First impression on the first level i was excited riding in the truck rangers away, the second the other truck explodes it laggs all to like 10 frames per second, and i got a really good system here! the lagg really pissed me off.
Didnt 2015 say that they had finished ahead of schedual? i tink they should have used that extra time they had to fit in some of those levels, and then i think they should of said the hell with multiplayer, they should have used that time to fix the ai and do more animationes and such.

So to round things up i say:

1-incomplete game, lack of animationes, levels cut out, BS AI.
2-Lag lag lag lag
3-multiplyer? you should of thought of it before the project was almost over. now u got crap net code, wasted resorces, stupid weapons, glitchy maps, etc

To conclude, for the amount of time they had, or used i say good job. good work overall with the limited time you used to make it. But needed improvement. To look at what could have been with more time all we have to do is look at moh frontline, i mean just a bit more time and look at what they where able to make. Fantastic game. What was needed to be done was work on it longer.

overall my expectationes where very high and i was a bit let down when i finished the game with a lack of an end, i gave it a 8/10.

excellant thread, i must say.

although i wasnt an aa.com'er during those months, i was very interested of the games contents seeing as how i was a big fan of the games for PS1.

i became deeply consumed towards the months of september, and when the demo rolled out in december i was thrilled. i swear, i had so many fun hours playing that demo. those days were more fun then what exists now.

no, it did not meet my expectations. i believe we were also promised sticky bombs, flame throwers, and sherman tanks. not to mention the things you previously stated (like prone, missing levels, etc.). all these features are "convienently" going to be placed within this next expansion....and a full SDK to "be released shortly after"

im guessing, the "full SDK" will be nothing more then a model and skin editor.

although, it sounds naive, i do believe EA is going to cover all the features missing from MOHAA into this new game. why? because it doesnt seem like there will be another title in the MOH series on the PC for a while. im not getting my hopes up, though.

EA not only has a tendency to release things when not fully developed, they tend to base their game on amazing graphics and expect the gamer to be pleased. Not to mention the obvious lack of care for the modding or gaming community in general. The patches released were done only by 2015, and dont expect 1.2 any time soon. They also showed much disrespect towards gamers not based in the US or UK, by releasing their respective patches weeks (even months i believe) later.

its a shame. this game had so much potential too.

[img]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/screenshots/gs/news/010306/moh_screen004.jpg[/img]

actually this is a level in the game. the german village where you have to blow up those two comunication things...the level was just fixed up or something

It's all been said by you or someone else already so I'll just answer the
first question: did MOHAA meet my expectations ?

Man, HELL no ! Muthafuckin' hellz nah! Not even close.

I swear to <insert your deity here> that I almost wished I didn't try the
fucking game: I wanted to go back 6 months in time when we were really
having a blast !

Alas, these days are over now... time to move on, eh ?

Well, as Sloi said, we all had a blast waiting for the game, all those awesome looking screenshots really got us pumped up for a fantastic game. You know, this game would have been THE SHIT if 2015 and EA actually LISTENED to us. We had some fucking awesome idea's that would have made this game rival the likes of DoD, which I think is a much better multiplayer game. MP in MoHAA is a joke, if it's supposed to, in anyway represent WW2 combat it has definately lost the plot completely. It's a fucking deathmatch set in WW2. No tactics, just run and gun bullshit. Animations arent, as far as I am concerned up to scratch. They should have done motion capture for the animations. It all just looks so fake compared to other games. Graphics and sound are the only good things about the game. Yes I was dissapointed, not entirely, but I feel like I've been robbed of atleast $50, it cost me $100 to buy. Hopefully the addon will make some much needed changes to the MP area and the SDK breathe life into this game again, although, I'm not sure how much of a TC mod community there will be left when the Addon pack is released.

To be honest i think motion capture animations would have been more derrogatory to the game. Ive seen a lot of games use motion capture, sometimes it works right and other times the outcome is crap. Wrestlemania x8 for the cube uses motion captures moves and poses and they really look crap compared to the moves that are animated by hand. Mostly they look very stuttery and not smooth.

I think the most annoying animation is that god damn walking\tottering along animation. I said it ages ago but it looks as though your character is friggin either tap dancing or attemping to impersonate a moon walk. He just seems to prance along and not run at all and the end result is very.... well this smiley says it all [img]http://homepage.ntlworld.com/gerald.marley/wtf.gif[/img].


The movement animations really got fucked over, i mean in the videos we seen the charactes were hunched over a bit and running and it looked a lot better, then when the game comes out everyones in the ballet ffs. :evil:

I can't complain about the weapons reload animations and so forth as i think theyre top notch, theyre not long drawn out exagerrated animations like in frontline theyre straight and to the point which i prefer. Id rather have a quick animation than have one that takes 5 second and leaves me open for a whooping.

I started playing MOHAA at about the same time I started playing SoF2. I find SoF2 a little harder to play, but MOHAA had a more "rush and fun" approach to ganimg... I was able to get through most missions with a run in and guns blazing approach, which although fun in new settings and new enemy AI, doesn't make it as challenging as some of the scenarios in SoF2 (still having trouble..) SoF2 you can't go in blazing; you have to take a look at the environment, make placement assessments and be prepared to play a level for a long time and carefully... so I found MOH to be a little Half-life-esque, but with more challenging weapons.

The ending disappointed me, and could have been either a better cutscene or a more challenging final fight...

Dont ge wrong, the SP aspect was pretty cool, but it could have been better. Well, yes, hand drawn anims do look better most the time, but a nicely done motion capture looks great. All I can say is the anims needed about another month of work. That hunching in the models looks ridiculous, the kneeling looks all wrong, any movement at all, as you said Gerard, looks like they are prancing, or once again as you said months ago, have a stick up their ass ;).

Single player (for the most part), models, skins, textures/graphics and sounds were all great. All other aspects need ALOT more work to improve upon.

For anyone wondering why were moaning about the animations check this small vid out. The first part shows the animations from about 5 months before the games realease. The second part shows the multiplayer walking\prancing animations. Notice how in mp the characters tend to bounce\slide along the ground when compared to the other half of the vid. Vid is 4mb

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/gerald.marley/moh.WMV

I was really looking forward to this game. I had high expectations, after all we were going to fight on D-Day. Biggest mistake EA made was releasing the video of the Omaha level. It just ruined the experience for us, we had seen the level in that vid. I agree completly that the Omaha level was FAR too short, ending the moment you stepped out of the bunker.

The AI was incredibly frustrating, they would fire at you and start running away and the bullets still are hitting you. They had eagle eye vision and incredible aim. They could also do HEAPS of shit you couldn't. Fire around walls, dive on grenades or pick them up and throw them back, go PRONE and beat you with the butt of their guns.

I was shocked with this because I can't understand how the animation was there, but the player couldn't do it, I mean nearly all the guns don't have the 2ndary fire so it wasn't like the binding of a few keys was difficult.

Multiplayer is just terrible, there are no tactics, rifles are obsolete, they made the huge mistake of having rockets and shotguns considering there is no armour to fire at and few trenches to clear on any maps it makes the point of having them completely futile.

Buddy AI were often stupid and would see and enemy and point their gun, but not fire. They also looked like propaganda tools, US soldiers taking a milllion zillion bullets before they died.

You didn't see ONE friendly vehicle in action apart from the jeep and the planes. No Sherman or half tracks to support you. None of your buddies ever carried a bazooka, only a secret hidden one carrie a sniper rifle (German at that)

You were never put in command, you always took point, never gave orders and must have been the only guy in the war who got through without saying a word.

I say the job was rushed towards the end with HUGE scenarios and cool possibilities left out. I blame both developers for not listening to us gamers.

Also the AI was either incredibly brave, or really fucking dumd, you could have them lying on your back, looking up at you and if you left them would get up and presume firing. Prisoners were never taken and only in sniper town did you command a large amount of men 5-6.

I would have liked to been placed in command of about 15-20 men and give them orders, alas no. Damn EA and 2015.

Well on the obsolete rifles issue i think theresa 2 reasons for this.

1. The standard mauser is not used because it only has 5 rounds and a slow rate of fire.

2. The m1 garand is not used because you can't reload it whenever needed, but it does have a god fire rate.

Ive emailed rudedog a file which will enable the garand to be reloaded in multiplayer whenever you like and hopefully its added to the server.

There seems to be some myth making people think it was hard to reload in mid clip. To tell ya the truth its utter bs, the garand has a button to the right hand side of the receiver, all you do is press this in pull back the bolt and remove the clip.

People make it out like its a big long complicated process but its not at all. With a bit of luck if that files added maybe more will start using the garand instead of the whore weapons.

i hated snipers last stand it was impossible to make it out alive. i never finished the game i got as far as the team you had to pick up than it was unbelieveably hard thats when i started playing multiplayer on gamespy.

It's just a game...

[quote="Old Reliable":1934c]It's just a game...[/quote:1934c]

No its not! I's real!

I was there! Your a fool!

Fool I tell you! Its just like the Matrix!

It has you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[quote="Old Reliable":8d890]It's just a game...[/quote:8d890]

if you were here earlier, you would have realized what potential this game had, and how excited the community was. we expected so much, but got so little. i cant even begin to imagine the letdown for guys who had been here since the beginning. for myself, it was shitty enough for a december-guy like me

to us, at the time it was simply amazing.. the community was full of people you knew. so many conversations in the aa.net chatroom...

DEMO IN 5 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
---------
5 days later
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wow that map was really cool... FOR ME TO POOP ON
good times

I disagree with the reason for the mauser and garand ot being used cos of the reload and the rate of fire.

If there was a one shot means one kill basis when hit in the chest on BOTH rifles they would be used a lot more. ATM it takes two rounds with KAR to kill guys. I don't care if your a Nepalese Gurkha, you get shot in the chest you die or get very very seriously wounded