[Fregle]

Goober5000 suggested the FSCRP team for what I've been working on: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87730.0

That thread explains most of it, but I'll be a little more specific about the changes to mission 2 here:

I removed 1 Asmodeus from Vishnu wing, 2 Azraels from Loki wing and 2 Azraels from Enki wing (strangely the rest of the wing is composed of Mephistos). To balance things out again I added 2 Manticores to Arjuna wing. I also fiddled around with the ai priorities a bit to get more believable behavior from certain wings. It's still the hardest mission for me to get all objectives, but it's a lot more fun and doable.

please try it out if you have some time and tell me what you think (this is an upgrade of fightermedics voice acted version of the crucible):
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/89803965/TheCrucible.rar

If you like the changes I could have a more in depth look at the rest of the campaign to iron out some more wrinkles and do some more balancing. I love the fact that this campaign is fully branching, so I don't mind working on it and testing it.

[CT27]

This was an overall fun campaign so seeing a more in depth update would be cool.

I did have a problem with mission 2 (not with this recent update you just did but the version right before that as far as I know).  I completed all objectives (primary and 2 secondaries) but the mission debriefing said I failed to destroy all cargo and shouldn't leave any to the Shivans (when in fact all the cargo had either been recovered or destroyed).

[Fregle]

I'll look into it, I didn't notice that but I've only completely succeeded this mission once...

Well right off the bat I can see that that is a Bonus Objective and not one of the Secondaries so it is perfectly possible to complete Primary and Secondaries and still get that message at debriefing. But I assume you checked your radar before you departed and didn't see any remaining cargo. As far as I can see the formula that checks whether the Bonus Objective is achieved is correct. The cargo needs to be destroyed or departed and you need to complete the Retrieve Cargo Secondary Objective, which would both be true in your case. Every piece of cargo gets generated in the Objects part of the code. I don't see it immediately so I'll have to try reproducing the error by playing. I'll get back to you if I have more information.

If someone else wants to have a look, this is the code for the goals (I couldn't add the #Objects code as it would exceed the character limit for a post):

Code: [Select]

#Goals ;! 4 total

$Type: Primary
+Name: Destroy Convoy
$MessageNew:  XSTR("Eliminate Shivan Supply Convoy", -1)
$end_multi_text
$Formula: ( percent-ships-destroyed
   75
   "Vishnu"
   "Loki"
   "Kali"
)
+Score: 250

$Type: Bonus
+Name: Destroy Containers
$MessageNew:  XSTR("Destroy Remaining Cargo Containers", -1)
$end_multi_text
$Formula: ( and
   ( destroyed-or-departed-delay
      2
      "SC 5 1"
      "SC 5 2"
      "SC 5 3"
      "SC 5 4"
      "SC 5 5"
      "SC 5 6"
      "SC 5 7"
      "SC 5 8"
      "SC 5 9"
      "SC 5 10"
      "SC 5 11"
      "SC 5 12"
      "SC 5 13"
      "SC 5 14"
      "SC 5 15"
      "SC 5 16"
   )
   ( is-goal-true-delay
      "Retrieve Cargo"
      8
   )
)
+Score: 50

$Type: Secondary
+Name: Destroy Empty Freighters
$MessageNew:  XSTR("Destroy empty freighters and transports", -1)
$end_multi_text
$Formula: ( percent-ships-destroyed
   66
   "Enki"
   "Loki"
)
+Score: 150

$Type: Secondary
+Name: Retrieve Cargo
$MessageNew:  XSTR("Salvage Shivan Cargo Containers", -1)
$end_multi_text
$Formula: ( and
   ( is-event-true-delay
      "Recovery Vessels"
      0
   )
   ( percent-ships-departed
      12
      "SC 5 1"
      "SC 5 2"
      "SC 5 3"
      "SC 5 4"
      "SC 5 5"
      "SC 5 6"
      "SC 5 7"
      "SC 5 8"
      "SC 5 9"
      "SC 5 10"
      "SC 5 11"
      "SC 5 12"
      "SC 5 13"
      "SC 5 14"
      "SC 5 15"
      "SC 5 16"
   )
)
+Score: 150



[Macfie]

If you are going to upgrade the campaign I have a few thing for you to keep in mind.
1. We always try to preserve the original intent and story of the campaign Author.
2. Be careful not to change anything that affects the voice acting.
3. Don't make it too easy.  Remember that people who have been playing awhile may not be as challenged on the missions as someone who is relatively new. 
4. Many of the older campaigns rely on managing your wingman so they may not have been designed with initial orders for the wings.  They may have been designed to rely on the player to direct the actions of the wings to achieve the mission goals.  This campaign appears to have been written with this in mind.
5. Also this campaign does not repeat the missions.  Any result (other than getting killed), you get will move you to a new mission.
6. I also noticed that some of the Shivan ships are not using Shivan missiles, that is something you may want to look at and correct.
If you decide to go forward and make corrections then good luck and feel free to ask for help.

[CT27]

Fregle, fyi my freighters took away two pieces of cargo.

[Fregle]

Macfie:

I read the wiki page about upgrading campaigns and I will try my best to adhere to it. I'll keep in mind the points you brought up too.

1. I do too, and I'm not changing anything there, not even the spelling errors (yet). I didn't make any drastic changes to timing or coordinates either so the voice acting is still spot on.

3. I hope I didn't make mission 2 too easy, it certainly still is extremely hard for me to get into mission 3a (after succes) instead of 3b (after failure), harder than to get into mission 6a or 7a. That could be because my play style is more suited to the other missions so it would be useful if someone can help me by testing a mission from time to time.

4. Well, you're actually wrong on that one, the allied wings all have a set of AI Goals (some of those had and still have a priority of 89, which is equal to a player command if I'm not mistaken). They sometimes didn't correllate exactly with the briefing so I only changed the priorities of their existing goals to get them more in line with the story. I also slightly changed the priorities of the enemy wings to make their behaviour more believable. Up until now I only made changes to mission 2 but other missions have AI Goals for allied wings as well.

5. That's why it's one of my favorites, I wish there were more like it. But I also feel it can be ameliorated. Compared to campaigns made in the last 6 years it does show its age, and by reading the mission files I've become convinced that a few small nudges can make it tighter and thus more fun. The relatively simple structure also makes it a good case for me to learn the ropes and find out if I like doing this enough to get involved more seriously.

6. Thanks, I'll look into it.

I won't hesitate to ask for help, up 'till now you guys have already been very helpful and quick to reply.

CT27: Thanks for the information. I haven't yet tried to recreate the error you encountered, but I will soon (I'm too enthralled by the Cold Element campaigns right now ).

[Macfie]

4. Well, you're actually wrong on that one, the allied wings all have a set of AI Goals (some of those had and still have a priority of 89, which is equal to a player command if I'm not mistaken). They sometimes didn't correllate exactly with the briefing so I only changed the priorities of their existing goals to get them more in line with the story. I also slightly changed the priorities of the enemy wings to make their behaviour more believable. Up until now I only made changes to mission 2 but other missions have AI Goals for allied wings as well.

The AI goals were capped at 89 in retail so the player commands would override them.  The priority for player commands was slightly higher than 89.  So if you set the priorities higher than 89 it will prevent the player from being able to override the scripted commands.