Author Topic: The Aftermath by Herkie423  (Read 7548 times)

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Offline herkie423

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The Aftermath by Herkie423
 Hello guys,

   I know this way old news. But I am re-working my old "The Aftermath" at present. My compputer broke down two years ago and I have not bought a replacement until now. It's the reason why I was literally off the internet grid. Anyway, I have a new PC now but when I played my old Freespace 2, I had graphics issues so I downloaded the FS2OPEN 3.7.0. version. I am still using the old MediaAVP3612. My "Aftermath" works fine. Unfortunely and appologize for it, most gamers who tried to play it had huge problems and some tried to fix it and I really appreciated that especially of the effort and patience, I am overwhelmed and I never expected it to be noticed. The problem is that it was dependent on the very old version of Blueplanets 1 and 2. Now I have managed to remedy this so it will not be dependent on the two mods. It can stand on its own now (still needing the "MediaAVP3612). I want release this as a Beta version and hope to have feedbacks. The whole folder is 600mb but I don't know how to uppload it so that it will be available. I'm getting rusty. I also realize that I have to download the latest MediaAVPs so that I can further update the mod properly. To the fans of Freespace, thank you very much.

Herkie423
Herkie Del Socorro

 

Offline Lepanto

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Re: The Aftermath by Herkie423
Well, I know you've got one devoted fan, who's incoming in 3...2...1... :lol:

Before he gets here, let me say that I like the idea you were (and are) going for. A big over-the-top blow-stuff-up-save-the-galaxy extravaganza. It's obvious you put quite a bit of effort into it.

I could give you constructive criticism on how to make NuAftermath better than the old one, if you want. One point I will say is: if you're making a new version, please cut down on the number of waves in the enemy wings. Better to have a short mission, than to have a repetitive long mission dragged out by killing the same wings 40 times in a row.

If you haven't seen it already, you may want to use this bug-fixed version as a starting point. Some guy put a lot of hard work into smoothing out the rough parts, so you won't have to do as much bugfixing yourself if you take advantage of his work.
"We have now reached the point where every goon with a grievance, every bitter bigot, merely has to place the prefix, 'I know this is not politically correct, but...' in front of the usual string of insults in order to be not just safe from criticism, but actually a card, a lad, even a hero. Conversely, to talk about poverty and inequality, to draw attention to the reality that discrimination and injustice are still facts of life, is to commit the sin of political correctness. Anti-PC has become the latest cover for creeps. It is a godsend for every curmudgeon and crank, from fascists to the merely smug."
Finian O'Toole, The Irish Times, 5 May 1994

Blue Planet: The Battle Captains: Missions starring the Admirals of BP: WiH
Frontlines 2334+2335: T-V War campaign
GVB Ammit: Vasudan strike bomber
Player-Controlled Capship Modding Tutorial

 

Offline CT27

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Re: The Aftermath by Herkie423
Great to hear from you.

No campaign is everyone's cup of tea, but I had a lot of fun playing "The Aftermath".  It was fun blowing up lots of ships in big fleet engagements with a epic scale storyline (one where the fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance).  I certainly agree with Lepanto on that part.

I also agree with him on a point of constructive criticism.  There's a number of missions where the same enemy wave repeats itself for a long time.  I'm not telling you to take out those missions; I would merely suggest shortening them.  To use one mission as a specific example:  the mission where you escort an AWACS through the atmosphere of Shivana lasts about 17 minutes (defending it against waves of fighters and bombers repeating).  It didn't feel like it needed to be that long; in my opinion that mission would have been fine at about 10 minutes or so.
Another example would be the mission where you're escorting a shielded captured Shivan Rakshasha through the remains of Capella (I won't say more about the mission because that would give away a lot more spoilers).  That mission lasted around a half hour and was defending against tons of waves of Maras and other fighters.  Cutting the length of missions like that would make them more enjoyable.
I could give you more suggestions if you like (though shortening missions like that would be my main suggestion).

Some of my favorite missions were the capital ship missions.  Mowing down destroyers left and right is fun; those missions don't need to be shortened. :cool:

Like Lepanto said, check this thread:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87904.0
Cyborg17 did a ton of work to get "The Aftermath" playable on the current MediaVPs and FSO builds.  I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind you using his work as a starting point (though I'd ask just to be sure).

 

Offline herkie423

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Re: The Aftermath by Herkie423
Thank you very much for the replies. Don't get me wrong, I greatly appreciate constructive criticism. Its important for one to improve. You are absolutely right, most of the missions are long. I actually slept halfway through the "Rakshasa" mission. I do find some of the missions tedious. I may have to scrub some of them. I will shorten them but I will throw a surprise or two for gamers to panic (he he he). There will also be new missions which I'm going to add or replace the "cookie cutter" missions. By the way, I'm not familiar with that term. What are "cookie cutter" missions? I will gladly accept all the help from more experienced modders. As of present, the mod in working well on FS2OPEN 3.7.0. (still using MediaAVPs 3612) but not the DEBUG because it gave tons error messages, I don't why, I'm bothered. Oh, I added 6 more ships; the cruiser prototypes.
 

 

Offline CT27

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Re: The Aftermath by Herkie423
I do hope the three missions where you pilot capital ships (one with a Boreas cruiser and two with the Vengeance corvette) are able to stay in the campaign.

 

Offline Cyborg17

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Re: The Aftermath by Herkie423
Oh! The error messages, right. Um, there were a lot of model issues. I believe a lot of the models were the cause of the issues.  Submodel problems, mostly.

 

Offline CT27

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Re: The Aftermath by Herkie423
After using Cyborg17's update of "The Aftermath", I didn't get any error messages.  Again, rather that starting completely from scratch it might be easier to start from his update and do your fixes to missions/grammar from there since his update already works with current VPs and FSO builds.  However, this is just a suggestion, I'm not trying to force you to do anything.

 

Offline Lepanto

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Re: The Aftermath by Herkie423
Herkie, I approve of the direction you're going in. :cool: Shortening missions, changing up their gameplay, and scrapping dull ones altogether are all good moves. And going independent of the BP releases.

Cookie-cutter missions are missions that follow the same repetitive template. i.e. any convoy escort mission that has you killing wave after wave of the same bombers. Nothing to surprise the player, force them to think, or feel like they're making progress. IMO, three or more waves of the same enemy wing is too much, and you should come up with something different to shake up the mission's gameplay.
"We have now reached the point where every goon with a grievance, every bitter bigot, merely has to place the prefix, 'I know this is not politically correct, but...' in front of the usual string of insults in order to be not just safe from criticism, but actually a card, a lad, even a hero. Conversely, to talk about poverty and inequality, to draw attention to the reality that discrimination and injustice are still facts of life, is to commit the sin of political correctness. Anti-PC has become the latest cover for creeps. It is a godsend for every curmudgeon and crank, from fascists to the merely smug."
Finian O'Toole, The Irish Times, 5 May 1994

Blue Planet: The Battle Captains: Missions starring the Admirals of BP: WiH
Frontlines 2334+2335: T-V War campaign
GVB Ammit: Vasudan strike bomber
Player-Controlled Capship Modding Tutorial

 

Offline Cyborg17

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Re: The Aftermath by Herkie423
If you want to fix many of the errors, you don't have to dump your version or my version.  For many of the model files I simply fixed the model files themselves.  If you replace your model files with the model files I fixed, there should be no more errors except for the GTCv Nike (I believe.) and you'll end up with a more stable mod. 

I can probably also help you with additional errors if any arise.  Shoot me a PM if you need to.


 

Offline herkie423

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Re: The Aftermath by Herkie423
Right, the "cookie-cutter missions." I will modify those "escort" themes that has no meaning and re-arrange their placement in the campaign, adding some story elements in them. But I will retain the "Enterprise in Danger" mission because it's important to the plot. I have an idea of a "Vasudan" arc in the storyline. I felt it necessary because the campaign's story did not really elaborate the "Vasudan issue" when the GTD Archangel showed up. It was stated in the debriefing, command briefing and fiction viewer (Richter'e Logs) that the vasudans were agitated. I will add 7 missions (replace the boring ones) to complete and resolve the arc and since I have added 6 more ships (cruisers) and a cruiser-sized medicraft, those ships will play an important part. I just hope they don't have modelling issues. I don't make models, you know. I just download, re-texture and created their tables and most of the models I got from Steve-O and Blueplanet with proper acknowledgement of credit. I will download MediaAVP 2014 and the FS2OPEN 3.7.2. I will download the bugfix made by Cyborge17 so that I won't back in square one. Once again, thank you, guys. :)

 

Offline herkie423

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Re: The Aftermath by Herkie423
The 3 "Avenger/Boreas" missions will definitely be retained because without them, the entire story will break. And I have a couple more missions ideas for "Strike Group Alpha." By the way, I replaced the Avenger corvette model. It is now the re-textured version of the NTF Iceni with a separate POF (duplicated the original except for the added 3 gun banks) and a new table entry.  Anyway, I will post some screenshots of "The Aftermath" as soon as possible.

 

Offline herkie423

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Re: The Aftermath by Herkie423
REPLY TO CYBORGE17: I will surely use those models that you have fixed. Well, I have just downloaded those models from SectorGames but I modified them like adding gun banks and change their texture. I was using the POF builder that came with the original installer (Volition and not the Hard Light FS2OPEN installer which I had used to download the MediaAVP3612) and that POF software is ancient. Maybe that was the problem. What I used and still using is the POFC2, MODVIEW32, VPVIEW, VPCS, ANIBUILDER and ANIMVIEWER. I hope that you good guys can help me to obtain the latest modding tools. It will be great.

PS: Is it still ok to use .PCX file format for the texture maps? DDS formats are efficient because they have their own mipmap levels but they are big files and take up space.
« Last Edit: September 12, 2015, 01:53:15 am by herkie423 »

 

Offline mjn.mixael

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Re: The Aftermath by Herkie423
I would highly recommend you use DDS over PCX.
Cutscene Upgrade Project - Mainhall Remakes - Between the Ashes
Youtube Channel - P3D Model Box
Between the Ashes is looking for committed testers, PM me for details.
Freespace Upgrade Project See what's happening.

 

Offline CT27

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Re: The Aftermath by Herkie423
On another note, if I may ask you Herkie:

How did your time in the Philippines army go?  Someone said a while ago you were in that.  Glad to see you're okay.

 

Offline Cyborg17

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Re: The Aftermath by Herkie423
REPLY TO CYBORGE17: I will surely use those models that you have fixed. Well, I have just downloaded those models from SectorGames but I modified them like adding gun banks and change their texture.

The fixed models were fixed from your model files and tables, so any adjustments you made before I got my hands on the files were kept.

 

Offline CT27

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Re: The Aftermath by Herkie423
A minor issue that I just thought of:  since various campaigns get version release numbers, what 'version' would this upcoming one be?

Here's my view:
version 1-Herkie's original version
version 2.x-Cyborg17's updated version and subsequent patches
version 3-Herkie's upcoming remake

 

Offline CT27

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Re: The Aftermath by Herkie423
May I make another suggestion Herkie?

 

Offline CT27

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Re: The Aftermath by Herkie423
The 3 "Avenger/Boreas" missions will definitely be retained because without them, the entire story will break. And I have a couple more missions ideas for "Strike Group Alpha." By the way, I replaced the Avenger corvette model. It is now the re-textured version of the NTF Iceni with a separate POF (duplicated the original except for the added 3 gun banks) and a new table entry.  Anyway, I will post some screenshots of "The Aftermath" as soon as possible.

One more thing:  if you're going to use the Iceni model for the Avenger, you should probably reclassify the Avenger as a frigate instead of a corvette.

  

Offline CT27

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Re: The Aftermath by Herkie423
I just thought of this:  since the new Erebus destroyer came out, would you want to use that instead of the Raynor in your upcoming update?

 

Offline herkie423

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Re: The Aftermath by Herkie423
I am back again... I got off the grid for sometime there. The internet in my area was somewhat erratic and I could not connect. Anyway, I read some of the "newer" post and I will reply them. During my "offline" period, I have spent the updating and modifying "The Aftermath" campaign. I also found some new useful features in the new FS2OPEN 3.7.2 release. The campaign right now is working fine using the MEDIAVPs 2014. No more errors (DEBUG) except for the "resize" error message when I access the techroom. Nevertheless, the original campaign is working as I have intended it to be (not using the Debug). Now that there are new cool models that released, I might download some to revamp my missions.