Author Topic: [RELEASE] Lost  (Read 23553 times)

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Offline HLD_Prophecy

  • PVD_Hope in a former life
  • 29


Lost is about waking up in the middle of nowhere, alone.



It's a short story. I intended it to take no more than ten or fifteen minutes for a full playthrough.



It really is a short story. I came up with the plot, more or less, in a day; the mod itself has been continouously touched up for the past few years.



Lost was part FRED exercise, part hobby, part relaxing pastime. I hope all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.  :)



[I can pack up the mod files into a folder (classic manual install style) on request; however I highly recommend using Knossos for simplicity and user-friendliness. .]

CREDITS!

I'd recommend not reading these over until you've finished playing. Credits are also located in 'credits.txt' in the mod files.

Spoiler:
Voice:

HLP user Millbear (Simon) is the talent behind the superb voice clips used in the final mission. Many thanks for his endless patience and professionalism!

Ships:

AF Serio: FSF, Freespaceking.

Akrotiri: Bobbau, Esarai, FSF, Freespaceking.

Malia: Original model by the Inferno team, was upgraded by the ASW team.

Angel: Venom (Nico), with conversion help from Woomeister, HTL model by Vasudan Admiral.


Interface:

HUD and icons came from ASW. Custom HUD sounds are also from ASW. Loading animation is from ASW.

Other interface art was made for me by Spoon.


Weapons:
 
The Defender (Pharnec) and Intruder are from ASW. I don't know who is responsible for them, but thank you whoever you are.


Music:

The scary rise sound effect from the intro scene is from the game NaissanceE. Not a game I recommend playing, unless you crave brutalist architectural nightmares.

HomePlanet_Amb, AD_Battle3, AD_Victory: From the Ancient-Shivan War mod, these are uncredited so I'm not sure who made them.

The_White, Gentle, Gears, Not_Forgotten: From the Kairo Arranged Soundtrack (it's the indie game, not the movie), by Bartosz Szturgiewicz. Used under the Creative Commons license.


Beta Testers:

Xenocartographer and Cazao.
Massive thanks to these two totally awesome dudes and their awesome feedback for bringing my mod from a very rough draft to a possibly-release-worthy state!

General thanks to everyone who answered my innumerable questions through the forums.

Even more thanks to anyone who worked on Ancient-Shivan War.

I'd like to give a shoutout: Most of the music in this mod is taken from the indie game Kairo. It's a pretty awesome game, with a masterfully crafted ambient drone soundtrack by Bartosz Szturgiewicz (goes under the stage name Wounds). The tracks I included are clips, not full tracks, and there are many more to be found in the full OST. If you liked the music, consider giving the album a buy!

On the Bandcamp page linked above, Bartosz specifically permits reuse with credit, under the Creative Commons License.

« Last Edit: April 12, 2019, 08:06:08 am by HLD_Prophecy »

 

Offline HLD_Prophecy

  • PVD_Hope in a former life
  • 29
OH MY GOODNESS I DID IT

I actually RELEASED! A MONTH AHEAD OF SCHEDULE

OH YEAH OH YEAH OH YEAH

Let the bug reports... BEGIN!!!   :D


 

Offline HLD_Prophecy

  • PVD_Hope in a former life
  • 29
I want to take this chance to thank my two Beta Testers, Cazao and Xenocartographer. They were totally great, sending me way more feedback than I had thought possible and helping me to make massive changes.

I can't believe that I actually thought it was ready to release before beta-testing. :P Thanks guys, you get kudos!

 

Offline 0rph3u5

  • 211
  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Congratulations on the release! :D

I will mark this down as "play after my release"
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline HLD_Prophecy

  • PVD_Hope in a former life
  • 29
Congratulations on the release! :D

I will mark this down as "play after my release"

You mean The Lost Generation, right?


 

Offline Nyctaeus

  • The Slavic Engineer
  • 212
  • My "FS Ships" folder is 582gb.
    • Minecraft
    • Exile
Interesting :)

Spoiler:
Somekind of ancient dream? Tenebra-styled set of missions played completly inside of mind of some ancient individual?
I really have no idea what exactly I played, but I like mysterious feel and the whole wtf vibe from it :D. Open each mission, than Background window and enter "starfield.pof" in skybox section.
Exile | Shadow Genesis | Inferno | Series Resurrecta  | DA Profile | P3D Profile

Proud owner of NyctiShipyards. Remember - Nyx will fix it!

All of my assets including models, textures, skyboxes, effects may be used under standard CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

 

Offline HLD_Prophecy

  • PVD_Hope in a former life
  • 29
Interesting :)

Spoiler:
Somekind of ancient dream? Tenebra-styled set of missions played completly inside of mind of some ancient individual?
I really have no idea what exactly I played, but I like mysterious feel and the whole wtf vibe from it :D. Open each mission, than Background window and enter "starfield.pof" in skybox section.


Hey thanks!

Spoiler:
How many times did you try the last mission?

Thanks for the tip, I didn't know that skyboxes were included in the MediaVP's by default. I thought you had to get custom made ones. I'll add them and update the download link. :)

 

Offline Nyctaeus

  • The Slavic Engineer
  • 212
  • My "FS Ships" folder is 582gb.
    • Minecraft
    • Exile
Spoiler:
One time. I just scanned the Malia and mission ended after all. I was curious where is the Akrotiri, as it's in the database but I didn't meet it in any misssion
Exile | Shadow Genesis | Inferno | Series Resurrecta  | DA Profile | P3D Profile

Proud owner of NyctiShipyards. Remember - Nyx will fix it!

All of my assets including models, textures, skyboxes, effects may be used under standard CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

 

Offline HLD_Prophecy

  • PVD_Hope in a former life
  • 29
Spoiler:
One time. I just scanned the Malia and mission ended after all. I was curious where is the Akrotiri, as it's in the database but I didn't meet it in any misssion

Spoiler:
The Akrotiri should have come out of the Knossos.

I can neither confirm nor deny that there might possibly be a chance of there being more than meets the eye in that mission.  :p Have you tried disobeying?

 

Offline HLD_Prophecy

  • PVD_Hope in a former life
  • 29
I've updated the download link with 1.1!

Changelog:

-Added starfield.pof skybox to every mission

-???

 
Hmm, atmospheric stuff (like Sync) isn't really my cup of tea, but i'll give it a go. I've seen you posting a lot lately, but i'm new, so take anything from me with a grain of salt :P

-----

Spoiler:

Impressions as i'm playing through:

I don't think the opening cutscene added a great deal - especially with the sudden cut to the pilot select screen.

The Main menu looks nice, however. The font is from BP, correct? It's lovely and nice on the eyes.

Is there a reason for the ship entries being cleared, but the weapons and intel not being cleared? As I said, i'm not really a fan of these kinds of things, but i'm not sure if this is an oversight or supposed to add to the mindgames.

The loading screen looks nice. Now i'm interested in learning how to make a custom one.

----

Well, the first mission is interesting. I spammed Shift-O for a bit trying to get the hud to work and eventually realized it was disabled.

The debris from the start of the second mission is from an Elysium and TAC containers, but a Faustus warped out last mission. Is that a plot point, or something?


The mindgames started to get real around the second mission when I couldn't move through a gap:



Spoiler:
Continuing with the second mission, I found some very...interesting interactions when I tried to play with the interplanetary bovines. Perhaps making them invincible/unable to be moved/clip through wouldn't be a bad idea.

After finally managing to make my spaceship an hero to free myself from the steel prison, I attempted the second mission again.

I scanned the things, then went into Jump Node 0 - Are they meant to be called Jump Node 0 and Jump Node 1? - When leaving Jump Node 0, the message "Jump Now" dissapears, but I am still able to warp. I'm not sure if that's intentional or not.

---

Moving to mission 3 - it seems pretty straightforward. However, the "jump now" feature is still there - If I move out of the jump node, I can still jump. Are you supposed to be able to take down the shivan fighters? My weapons seem pretty weak, and despite giving it a few goes I haven't been able to (But then again, i'm a pretty bad player). If I afterburn to the node, I can jump out before the "desperate" is destroyed (which seems to be the departure cue for the shivan fighters) - is that also intended?

---

Gee, no shields, debris field, bad weapons, and a dragon behind you? After 3 non-combat missions that's kind of evil, man.

After slogging out the gauntlet...Well, I kinda felt like shooting stuff still, so I shot the sentry. And then the Ravana appeared Lion's-den style. Unfortunately I have hit my burners too many times for this to be a big surprise, so it didn't catch me off guard. Nice try though! I'm not sure if it's linked to blowing up the sentry gun or approaching the jump note, but i'll continue regardless and come back later.

---

I booted up the final mission and saw some neutral IFF fighters in the distance. I went over and tried to ram them to death, but before I could succeed everything exploded and the...GTC Orff warped in? How did it get here?

So I rebooted it, and then the Akrotiri warped out in front of my face at ludicrous speed, smacking me in the face and flinging me across the map. I'll have to wait more then 15 minutes to change my shorts, since now i'm a stain on the edge of my fighter's cockpit.

---

I went back to mission 4, and turns out you can just afterburn right through. Don't need to kill any shivans or anything, or even dodge the Ravana if you burn straight ahead. I'm not sure what the significance of the little turret is - I must have destroyed it just as I got within distance of the portal the first time around.

Overall, this was a pretty great playthrough, but probably not in the way you intended it to be - I had more fun in a JAD-esque way then in an atmospheric kind of way.

 

Offline HLD_Prophecy

  • PVD_Hope in a former life
  • 29
It's kind of hard to quote your whole post Neptune, so I'll just give general responses. Thanks for playing!

Spoiler:
As for the atmosphere and plot... I guess all I can say is that I didn't mean for it to appeal to people if you don't like atmospheric stuff like Sync. I'm not sure what to say, it's just the genre I chose to work with. I'm not trying to be anywhere near as good as Sync and Transcend...  :p

Yes, the Faustus is related to an important plot point.

My intention was that you're supposed to run when the Shivans show up, not fight. The missions are supposed to be runs from the start, just shoot to the node.

The interplanetary bovines is a reference to a comment that Axem made about my mod. I wasn't intending the player to interact much with the station, so if you got stuck then... you got stuck.

The font I used for the buttons is actually called TradeMarker Light. I've used it for creative projects ever since I saw how it was used in Lego's Bionicle theme. The font I used for the title is called Goudy Trajan, also having been used in Bionicle.

The opening movie was never intended to be much. It took me all of ten minutes to throw together in windows movie maker. I mostly did it for fun, and I was bothered by how the default cutscene had nothing to do with the mod.

The Akrotiri jumping on top of you didn't happen to me, it's supposed to jump in at the Knossos. Thanks for telling me about it, I'll see if anyone else has the problem and fix it if so.

And just a final note - please remember that this is my first mod.  :) I'm just an amateur, and I had to ask like a hundred questions on the forums just to get it to work as it did. I'm no Axem, and at the end of the day Lost was largely a FREDing exercise.

 

Offline HLD_Prophecy

  • PVD_Hope in a former life
  • 29
I've updated to 1.2!

Changelog:
Spoiler:
-Made Key cargo show up

-Removed ability to give orders to Key

-Made Terran debris in mission 4 Unknown (was previously Friendly)

 
It's kind of hard to quote your whole post Neptune, so I'll just give general responses. Thanks for playing!

No problem. Despite this kind of stuff not being my cup of tea - as I mentioned, I quite enjoyed it.

Quote
And just a final note - please remember that this is my first mod.  :) I'm just an amateur

Hey, so am I! You did a great job, and I wanted to present my playthrough in a slightly different way with more then just the usual "Yeah it was good."

 

Offline HLD_Prophecy

  • PVD_Hope in a former life
  • 29
It's kind of hard to quote your whole post Neptune, so I'll just give general responses. Thanks for playing!

No problem. Despite this kind of stuff not being my cup of tea - as I mentioned, I quite enjoyed it.

Quote
And just a final note - please remember that this is my first mod.  :) I'm just an amateur

Hey, so am I! You did a great job, and I wanted to present my playthrough in a slightly different way with more then just the usual "Yeah it was good."

Right - I mean, I'm glad you enjoyed it even if it was in a JAD-ish way. :P

 

Offline Mito [PL]

  • 210
  • Proud Member of Slavicus Mechanicus
Well, this was refreshing. Something that hasn't been done since Sync, I suppose...
Spoiler:
Did I see everything that has been in these mere 5 missions by burning through first 4 ones and looking at both endings of no. 5?
Now, should I go for an over-interpretation? Is it somehow related to purpose of all the events of Freespace? Is the science ship a symbol of humanity tinkering with something they shouldn't tinker with? Is the freighter a symbol of somehow awakening the Destroyers by us and getting kicked by them hard?
...did the Faustus awaken the player's avatar?
Is Orff a symbol of humanity recovering from the second Incursion? Would this mean that Shivans have been somehow stopped by the Child refusing to release "it"?

... is all of this somehow related to BP's Great Darkness?
I have so many questions.
How do you kill a hydra?

You starve it to death.

 

Offline HLD_Prophecy

  • PVD_Hope in a former life
  • 29
Well, this was refreshing. Something that hasn't been done since Sync, I suppose...
Spoiler:
Did I see everything that has been in these mere 5 missions by burning through first 4 ones and looking at both endings of no. 5?
Now, should I go for an over-interpretation? Is it somehow related to purpose of all the events of Freespace? Is the science ship a symbol of humanity tinkering with something they shouldn't tinker with? Is the freighter a symbol of somehow awakening the Destroyers by us and getting kicked by them hard?
...did the Faustus awaken the player's avatar?
Is Orff a symbol of humanity recovering from the second Incursion? Would this mean that Shivans have been somehow stopped by the Child refusing to release "it"?

... is all of this somehow related to BP's Great Darkness?
I have so many questions.

But if I told you the answers it would ruin the fun. :P

Spoiler:
I guess I can say that you don't need to worry about reading too much into it. I think the truth is less complicated than you may be thinking.

GTI does have a habit of tinkering with things that they shouldn't and waking up things that were better left asleep. Just sayin'.  ;)

 

Offline Mito [PL]

  • 210
  • Proud Member of Slavicus Mechanicus
Well, so I think I'll get it a bit simpler.

Spoiler:
So either the GTI found this... entity and the campaign is the recollection of its memories that have been recovered by the GTI...
Or the GTI awakened it and the player is just there, witnessing the events, making decisions.
How do you kill a hydra?

You starve it to death.

 

Offline HLD_Prophecy

  • PVD_Hope in a former life
  • 29
Well, so I think I'll get it a bit simpler.

Spoiler:
So either the GTI found this... entity and the campaign is the recollection of its memories that have been recovered by the GTI...
Or the GTI awakened it and the player is just there, witnessing the events, making decisions.

Well, do you want the truth?

Thanks for playing, by the way, glad you liked it. :D

 

Offline Mito [PL]

  • 210
  • Proud Member of Slavicus Mechanicus
Well, I'm so damn intrigued that I simply can't resist... :P

Perhaps if not here (if you don't want to spoil it for someone) than just PM me with that?
How do you kill a hydra?

You starve it to death.