Hard Light Productions Forums
FreeSpace Releases => Mission & Campaign Releases => Topic started by: JSRNerdo on January 30, 2017, 12:24:35 am
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Hello HLP! I've been busy!
No pictures, sadly. The screencam script is simply too limited for what I want to do (player beams/muzzleflashes disappearing on activation, etc), so you'll just have to try it out for yourself!
The fortresses of Polaris have fallen. The Sol wormhole is lost, and with it, the war. Humanity's finest hour is at hand.
FEATURES:
- Capship command. Lots of it. As in, that will be the only thing you do in the campaign
- Manage your ship's heat, energy, weapons, and defenses in real-time while you fight an intelligent enemy that reacts to your every move
- An event-driven, gameplay focused campaign
- Innovation! Hopefully?
- You get to overcharge your beams then skewer an enemy cruiser with it. It's very fun.
DEMO LINK:
alt: https://www.dropbox.com/s/divsr5wotncz9os/LastStand_1.7z
INSTRUCTIONS:
Extract into root FS2 directory, Run with a launcher, make a new pilot and go to the ready room. The default campaign should be set
Currently, the demo is limited to only the first mission. For this, I intend to do episodic releases, but to the max. Every mission I complete will be released in its own package that you can just drop into the directory to run. I'm not sure how good an idea this is, but hopefully it will maximize everything from how much you get to play to how much I actually release.
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- I marked a jump behind engines of the Hatshepsut but I jumped still in range of all three crown beam cannons o___O. Nanojump system is pretty good here, but check if it's actually precise.
- And this is the same thing with vasudans used as alien antagonists again. I remember they were two or three times when someone just used vasudans as some other aliens. The problem is I still see vasudan Hatshepsut here, instead of command ship of some new alien race. Maybe try to recolor them? Make some visual distinctiveness for them.
- Maybe anti-fighter missiles need some little buff?
- Impervious_REV.pof is used in briefing, but not included in modpack just like majority of the ships. If you do partial release, please remove missing ships from tables.
Okay, enough rambling. I love it :D! Well made mission with good balance and cool music!
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This sounds great! I've never done capship command missions, but I think this would be a good place to try it out!
College work has me busy, but I'll try to take a look tonight. Thanks for all the work you put into this. :yes:
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Nice, downloading. Does it use that ancient Capship Command script me and my father adapted from an old BP release, or did you find/make a more elegant solution?
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How do I fire my beam cannons?
(so far this is looking totally awesome!) :D
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How do I fire my beam cannons?
(so far this is looking totally awesome!) :D
Training message should give you that information.
Press the left arrow or right arrow to fire left or right side beam cannons respectively
Beams must have 200GW charged to fire, and fire an additional pulse with every additional 50GW
Press F12 to cycle between enemy warships
Beam charge rate is determined by your weapons ETS setting
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This is a really solid, fun groundwork for a campaign. Capship mechanics are intuitive and fun and you can really feel the power of the massive ship that you're commanding. Those beams are super-satisfying to fire. Didn't get much utility out of the flak primaries due to the fact that enemy fighters and bombers rapidly close the distance to you and those heavy cruisers aren't really designed to dogfight.
The piranha-esque lateral launchers though look amazing - though i suspect their effectiveness doesn't match the visuals.
Died to the flagship though. Did my best to stay out of the fire arc by camping behind its engines but it somehow got a noscope jumpkill when it shot its front beams behind it.
Can I throw out some ideas? The railgun and flak primaries would be amazing with a smaller White Star-type ship. Combine this with some hard-hitting dumbfire lateral torpedo launchers, WoWs destroyer-style!
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- I marked a jump behind engines of the Hatshepsut but I jumped still in range of all three crown beam cannons o___O.
Died to the flagship though. Did my best to stay out of the fire arc by camping behind its engines but it somehow got a noscope jumpkill when it shot its front beams behind it.
wat :confused:
The Pharaoh is just using the mediaVPs Hatshetsput model, and it should have check hull enabled... bwuh
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- I marked a jump behind engines of the Hatshepsut but I jumped still in range of all three crown beam cannons o___O.
Died to the flagship though. Did my best to stay out of the fire arc by camping behind its engines but it somehow got a noscope jumpkill when it shot its front beams behind it.
wat :confused:
The Pharaoh is just using the mediaVPs Hatshetsput model, and it should have check hull enabled... bwuh
These beams have firepoints pointing upward [X:0.0 Y:1:0 Z:0.0] and FOV of 180 degrees. It means they can fire both straight forward to act as spinal beams, or backward. As far as I remember, it's default setting od retail Hatshepsut.
You may adjust it yourself and replace default Hats model in your modpack, or check out the jump. I jumped something like 600-800 meters from my marked destination point. Beams killed me instantly, leaving single, one "wtf? o__O" in my mind. I guess because jumping point is set to origin of the ship, not the firepoint. When people fly big capship they just don't realize how big their ass actually is.
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How do I fire my beam cannons?
(so far this is looking totally awesome!) :D
Training message should give you that information.
Press the left arrow or right arrow to fire left or right side beam cannons respectively
Beams must have 200GW charged to fire, and fire an additional pulse with every additional 50GW
Press F12 to cycle between enemy warships
Beam charge rate is determined by your weapons ETS setting
But my left and right arrows are my yaw controls... Are we assuming that I'm using the mouse? I used the arrow keys to fly the ship just like I normally would and no beams were fired.
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Incidentally, something about this story reminds me of a project called MindGames that Karajorma worked on, like, way more than a decade ago. At least, that's what I know of it.
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But my left and right arrows are my yaw controls... Are we assuming that I'm using the mouse? I used the arrow keys to fly the ship just like I normally would and no beams were fired.
Ah, yeah, it assumes default controls for most things. OK, whatever you're rebound "equalize shields left" and "equalize shields right" to are your left and right beam fire controls respectively.
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This is pretty cool. Really like those piranha launchers. Kinda felt the ship was anemic at anti-fighter defence without spamming them though. The flak primaries are basically useless since you can't get fighters in your sights, and the ship doesn't seem to have point defence guns at all?
There's all this talk about GWs for beams, heat, and capacitors for repairs and stuff but I don't seem to see it on my UI?
In fact I don't seem to see any additional UI at all. Is this normal or did I break something?
I couldn't really tell what was going on with my ship's systems at all. Repair seemed to restore 1% hull every time I pressed 4 and nothing otherwise, so I was just mashing it to heal.
Died to the hatshepsut, those beams have a really good FoV @_@
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There's all this talk about GWs for beams, heat, and capacitors for repairs and stuff but I don't seem to see it on my UI?
In fact I don't seem to see any additional UI at all. Is this normal or did I break something?
There absolutely should be an additional hud gague right above a panel on the right side of your screen. Don't know what's going on with that, that's pretty weird. What resolution are you playing at? It uses the BPTACCOM, have you had problems with that?
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Oh, there it is. Had to fiddle with res a bit.
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I agree that more feedback to the player is needed about what's available as a "spell" and a quick one-line reminder about what it does. Wasn't sure if my beams were overloaded or not, and not sure when the repair mechanics were available.
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BOLITHO COMMAND - The Last Stand submod
>>> DOWNLOAD (http://www.mediafire.com/file/2m3sb944hq3vvt0/BolithoCommand.7z) <<<
I was wondering how this command mission would play if I was in a ship that was small enough to actually be able to throw itself around in a fight but still large enough to bring MAXIMUM FIREPOWER to bear. So I spent a few hours tweaking up and putting together a minimod for JSRN's mod.
Download and extract the data folder into the same folder as JRSN's mod VPs. The mission should be selectable in the techroom under the mission simulator.
(http://i.imgur.com/NoYNWqw.jpg)
The hero ship: The Bolitho. She's small and sexy and perfect for the role. I stripped out the larger turrets, kept the underslung dual battery for forward primary firepower and added a broadside bank of dumbfire torpedoes as secondaries. This thing is meant to play like a ww2 destroyer - you pull up alongside a larger target and ripple fire a broadside into the hull (somewhat like how Rebel Galaxy does it, but in 3 dimensions). Unless you're very good at aiming, you'll want to release your payload at basically point blank range.
She's smaller than the Moscow and more fragile. You'll be able to get out of the way of beams easier, but if they hit you'll feel it more.
(http://i.imgur.com/nJWgLYA.jpg)
Other than the improved manoeuvrability and new broadside torpedoes, this ship differs from the Moscow in that she does not use lateral beams, beam overload or antifighter missiles. However she still has repair and active armour, as well as the Capacitor and Heat system. Watch that afterburner - it's powerful but heat builds up like a mofo and before you know it you're dead in the water and vulnerable to beams.
Weapons recharge energy is also linked to point defense firepower - use this to your advantage against bombers.
(http://i.imgur.com/qbkBDVQ.jpg)
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I heartily recommend this product and/or service, so much in fact that I'll probably flesh it out and make a full mini-campaign tie-in to go with the main mod!
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But my left and right arrows are my yaw controls... Are we assuming that I'm using the mouse? I used the arrow keys to fly the ship just like I normally would and no beams were fired.
Ah, yeah, it assumes default controls for most things. OK, whatever you're rebound "equalize shields left" and "equalize shields right" to are your left and right beam fire controls respectively.
Oh, gotcha, I know where those are. Thanks!
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[opening remarks]
Consider fluffing up the transfer order to be more formal. Google up some real naval documents for inspiration! Also proofread the CB, it's got a duplicate 'and and'.
I like 'the MIND' as a name for an antagonist.
I clicked on a briefing icon and it crashed.
Trantors are real cool and fun! So are the beam broadsides once I figured out how to use them - it feels a little ****ty that you can discharge the beam, and spend the power, while it's not actually in legal arc to fire. Bzzzzzoom
I alt-tabbed out, and now when I alt-tab back in, my HUD disappears every couple seconds and the tactical display is gone. :confused:
I replayed and that happened again without alt-tab: my HUD just kept shutting off. My only other feedback is that when you're given an order to take out incoming gunships, give me a directive and a hotkey too!
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I alt-tabbed out, and now when I alt-tab back in, my HUD disappears every couple seconds and the tactical display is gone. :confused:
I replayed and that happened again without alt-tab: my HUD just kept shutting off.
Watch your heat, engineering should be giving you a message that your heat is critical and you're about to shut down. Stop afterburning everywhere and watch out for space friction, your ship runs on space AMD don't think it can dissipate both afterburner, space friction and space AMD heat all at once!
Beams are unfortunately unfixable without a serious attempt at hacking stuff in with SEXPs or a script, because there's no "if beam can fire" or simple way to simulate that.
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You should probably pop up a training message or a regular message or whatever to say 'your hud is off because of heat', I didn't get that at all.
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EDIT: I... somehow broke the recent post warning, weird...
I asked about that on IRC after having the same thing happen. It's supposed to indicate reactor overheating (and, apparently, there are some other heat sources not mentioned anywhere...).
OP: The "overheating" also prevents you from reading messages unless you check the log. Is there a reason you're turning off the HUD? A simple training-message would seem to make more sense.
EDIT2:
because there's no "if beam can fire" or simple way to simulate that.
Trigonometry?
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because there's no "if beam can fire" or simple way to simulate that.
Trigonometry?
I don't think it's reasonable to expect FREDers to have to understand the maths behind 3D space, matrices & vectors :p
Also pretty sure that basic trig isn't going to cut it here :) (based on my experiences of trying to do exactly that and getting the wrong answers all the time. Maybe I'm just bad at it :lol: but I did figure out the 3D maths eventually so... !shrug)
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I dunno, if you're going to build systems in 3space you're going to run into it eventually. The math here isn't all that complicated and I can explain it if asked (the oracle at Google will probably do a better job, however), but this morning I realized that we're on the wrong track.
Like, we want to add heat when the beam fires, right? So, rather than trying to predict when it can fire, we should just ask the game when it has. There's a scripting hook for a weapon being fired, so why not just increase the heat variable from there?
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because there's no "if beam can fire" or simple way to simulate that.
Trigonometry?
I don't think it's reasonable to expect FREDers to have to understand the maths behind 3D space, matrices & vectors :p
Also pretty sure that basic trig isn't going to cut it here :) (based on my experiences of trying to do exactly that and getting the wrong answers all the time. Maybe I'm just bad at it :lol: but I did figure out the 3D maths eventually so... !shrug)
I think the easier solution would be to introduce a "is-valid-target" sexp that returns true if a given target is within a turret's FOV.
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I think the easier solution would be to introduce a "is-valid-target" sexp that returns true if a given target is within a turret's FOV.
Easier by far, considering the code to check whether something is within the FOV already exists and all.
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I'll give this another shot now that I know the vanishing HUD isn't a glitch. Consider playing a sound as well as a message on shutdown!
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Per the HUD effect, there's also some neat post-effects you can use to really sell it. Using some simple chained SEXPs you can fade the effects on and off and the result is pretty neat.
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My faithful ally, Let me see what you made here :)
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I made it up to the Pharaoh! But I lost the station. Probably I should turn it off insane lel.
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I've noticed you used old version of the Ophion here. Go ahead and replace it with newer version (http://www.mediafire.com/download/13mmrssa3i2w5up/Oprion_Final.rar) with properly modelled hangarbay, LODs, debris and other stuff.
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The beams are still confusing me. More than half the time when I hit the fire key my beam charge will drain but the beams won't fire.
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The beams are still confusing me. More than half the time when I hit the fire key my beam charge will drain but the beams won't fire.
That means the target wasn't in the firing arc for the beam emitter.
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The beams are still confusing me. More than half the time when I hit the fire key my beam charge will drain but the beams won't fire.
That means the target wasn't in the firing arc for the beam emitter.
...or part of the hull blocked the arc. Side beams are placed underneath some sticking out part. Despire firing angle of 170 degrees, you are not able to fire upward.
I guess multipart beams from newer version would be better in this case. I would also incrase their amount to four, also reducing firepower of each shot.
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Problem with that would be the intuitiveness of the controls. I'd have to add a forward and a backward beam for it to really make the same amount of sense, or with two beams on each broadside both would have to fire at once, which might not be exactly what you need. Right now, left and right arrows work well because you only have one each side.
Another solution would be to just force fire the beam after a range and a "is in box" sexp check. I don't really like that one though, as any bug could mean your beam shoots through your ship.
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Check the version I posted. Turrets 01, 02, 03, 04, 23 and 24 are multipart beams. Darius did outstanding job with new turrets and overall setup. By removing 03 and 04, the effect would be optimal.
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Nerdo, have you considered tying heat generation to the beams actually firing, instead of to the buttons? The beam still won't fire if it, uh, can't fire, but then you don't suffer heat from it. Conceptually, the arrows become more of a "permission to fire".
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If the event could detect the beam actually firing, then energy drain without a beam firing wouldn't be a problem either.
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Hrm. If that were possible, it would be cool, but unfortunately even after chatting to battuta and the others, the only solutions we came up with to detect firing are "check if the enemy ship is tagged and make our beam the tag beam" or even "invisible ship in front of the beam emitters and subtract when destroyed."
Code freeze :mad:
I suppose I'll go test the is-in-box solution for now, maybe.
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Good news: The is-in-box solution works, and is actually quite good enough for me. I'm also putting in better messages about the beams on the left side tac-hud, so you'll know if you can fire or if you can't. Hopefully the is-in-box solution should make it intuitive enough, and I'm also going to bank on the player not trying to fire their right side beam at an enemy on their left.
Expect a patch sometime this week, then once I confirm these issues are made better I'll get to work on the second mission.
By the way, everyone give Axem a great big round of applause for getting me a script that lets these solutions be a lot better!
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I'm also going to bank on the player not trying to fire their right side beam at an enemy on their left.
/me winces
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The beams are still confusing me. More than half the time when I hit the fire key my beam charge will drain but the beams won't fire.
That means the target wasn't in the firing arc for the beam emitter.
...or part of the hull blocked the arc. Side beams are placed underneath some sticking out part. Despire firing angle of 170 degrees, you are not able to fire upward.
Oh, gotcha. I was trying to fire in that direction.
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wrt beam detection: Is there any reason something like this wouldn't work?
-- beam-heat-sct.tbm
$On Mission Start: [
BeamHeat = mn.SEXPVariables["Heat"] --change "Heat" to whatever your heat variable is called
BeamCost = 10 --change this to the heat cost per beam
]
$On Beam Fired: [
if hv.User == hv.Player then
BeamHeat.Value = BeamHeat.Value + BeamCost
end
]
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That actually works really quite well. I'll just need to adapt it slightly for energy, since energy goes down by 200 the first firing, and 50 for every firing after that, but apart from that I'll probably give that a go instead of the ugliness of the is-in-box solution!
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Oooo, Capship command, loved doing that in BP!
Will have to play this later!
EDIT: Played it and this is awesome! ... just one tiny issue, on my system (at least) the game crashes when I click one of the corvette or cruiser icons.
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Oooo, Capship command, loved doing that in BP!
Will have to play this later!
EDIT: Played it and this is awesome! ... just one tiny issue, on my system (at least) the game crashes when I click one of the corvette or cruiser icons.
Yup, known issue. Should be fixed soonish, once I get a patch up and will also have other general improvements.
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So I've currently got the Hemsut clipped through the arm of the Arcadia.
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I've uploaded this to FSFILES for you: http://sectorgame.com/fsfiles/uploads/Projects%20-%20Campaigns%20-%20TCs/Demos/The_Last_Stand%20-%20Demo.7z
You can upload any patches or updates to the same location - Simply login with the user/pass combo: freespace/files :)
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You may adjust it yourself and replace default Hats model in your modpack, or check out the jump. I jumped something like 600-800 meters from my marked destination point. Beams killed me instantly, leaving single, one "wtf? o__O" in my mind. I guess because jumping point is set to origin of the ship, not the firepoint. When people fly big capship they just don't realize how big their ass actually is.
Figured this one out. Expect the fix in the upcoming patch.
Technical details: So it turns out the key-reset-multiple doesn't actually trigger fast enough. You have to be at 0 speed to cancel a warp or finish a warp, but it wasn't checking for that properly, so you could put yourself in one position, accidentally hit alt-J without having 0 speed, and come to a stop, and it'll warp you to that one place anyway even though you weren't at 0 speed. A simple fix is to wrap the whole thing in an every-time key-pressed key-reset, and have checking for 0 speed and the associated warp stuff inside a when inside that every-time.
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Patch #1 is up for those who have downloaded it before: https://www.dropbox.com/s/png6y0bl9j3ygoa/LastStand_CORE.vp
For those who haven't, the link in the first post is updated.
Changelog is basically "I've looked through the thread, facepalmed a lot at the things I missed, and went fixing them and adjusting things to match."
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I've been playing this from Knossos; pretty cool & lotsa fun. I only got to the HOOVER once and got nailed after jumping. I kinda find the instruction messages don't last long enough so I need to consult F4 to figure out WTF to do. Yeah, forgetting to do that is why I ded'd. Also had one completely random crash with no message at all, couldn't be arsed to figure out what was wrong (because when you're a coder, sometimes the rabbit hole doesn't end. Or at least it's frikken deep).
Anyway, need to go back and play this some more when I'm not working out how to drive gimp to make new shields anims. Or maybe I should try to add autogenerating conformal shield bubbles to FSO.... argh!! stoppit stoppit stoppit (I may or may not have consumed booozle on a Friday night after an awful week @ work)
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Yeah I've, uh, been experiencing some random crashes with no message at all-s as well while developing mission 2. Not even a debug build gives anything. I have a hunch it might be related to dynamic waypoints.
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Well, if dynamic waypoints were broken, then BP should be crashing as well. If you can figure out an even partially-consistent set of reproduction circumstances, I might be able to track it down.
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I can second the concern about short messages. I guess I playtested this campaign enough times that I don't notice them any more, but when I tried to read them, they were definitely too fast.
Hm, I think part of the trouble is that you're trying to explain not only the interface, but also the heat mechanic, which makes your messages complicated. Here's a thought: what about a giant bar somewhere labeled "heat" that fills up as heat is generated - and for each thing that generates heat, flash the heat gauge the first time the player does that? That will organically establish the relationship between, say, active armor and heat, letting you take that out of the training-messages. It's also more readable than a lil number off to the side.
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Instead of killing the HUD, EMP the player a bunch! Maybe!
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Or perhaps the training messages just need voice acting so that the player doesn't have to actually read them to get the information...
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Here's a thought: what about a giant bar somewhere labeled "heat" that fills up as heat is generated - and for each thing that generates heat, flash the heat gauge the first time the player does that? That will organically establish the relationship between, say, active armor and heat, letting you take that out of the training-messages. It's also more readable than a lil number off to the side.
This sounds good, you could probably repurpose Axems boss (or player) health bar script; althougth the "flash/pulse" on use would probably need to be added.
Instead of killing the HUD, EMP the player a bunch! Maybe!
This also sounds good!
Oh.. and maybe combining ideas, what about fade red into the entire screen when you get too hot (hawt!), I recall Lepanto used that in one of his BP Captains missions; there it represented Severanti bleeding out (iirc) but here it'd be a great visual cue on when your heat is getting too high. Combine that with the EMP blasts :)
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So how difficult is this script to customize?
Since having anounced a Aeolus campaign I'M toying around with ideas of how to customize the gameplay.
For example, running with full power to engines or weapons all the time and then using special abilities would damage the reactor over time, resulting in slower speed/ beam recharge to the point when your engines blow out (mission fail) or your beams won't work.
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So how difficult is this script to customize?
Since having anounced a Aeolus campaign I'M toying around with ideas of how to customize the gameplay.
For example, running with full power to engines or weapons all the time and then using special abilities would damage the reactor over time, resulting in slower speed/ beam recharge to the point when your engines blow out (mission fail) or your beams won't work.
It shouldn't be too hard, most of the systems were written with just this campaign and these missions in mind but should be fairly easy to adapt to a different ship, as they're all rather generic abilities. The reactor damage would also be rather simple to do in FRED, just a couple variables really and a few more if-then-elses.
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I can't find topic for Bollitho Command, only post here.
So mission is not installable through Knossos because of wrong dependency and missing Last Stand. :nervous:
Dunno who added this to Knossos.
[attachment eaten by a Shivan]
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I think I uploaded it and Darius also has access. If I can figure out how to download it, I can probably fix it.
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Bolitho Command is currently in the midst of some upgrades to make it work with the latest version of Last Stand as well as some general improvements. ETA is unknown unfortunately though since I'm mostly focusing on INF now.