Author Topic: RELEASE: Windmills  (Read 66501 times)

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Offline General Battuta

  • Poe's Law In Action
  • 214
  • i wonder when my postcount will exceed my iq
Defiantly worth the time to play it. Very good story, could use a bit of a graphics enhancement. Still this is only a Beta version. This could a very amazing style very quickly. Would defiantly play more like this.

Kudos my good man.

Were you playing with the MVPs on? I don't think this is any kind of beta.

You're supposed to use the command line settings from the first post so everything is pure red or pure green.

 

Offline Commander Zane

  • 212
  • Spoot Knight of Anvils
You kind of have to let it freak you out, and really think about the implications.  Kind of like the "Blair Witch Project".
Blair Witch Project didn't freak me out the first time I saw it...even if I tried being freaked out, I'd be lying if I said it was scary.
It was just retarded.

 

Offline Hellstryker

  • waffles
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I didn't really like the first few missions, everything seemed as though it was set in stone too much. The installation battle was very enjoyable though, until I ordered my Epsilon to destroy that transport... and then thrown into the cockpit of a fighter I actually tried to kill my wingmen, but they were invulnerable. I think that shouldn't been an option as well, tbh.

Other than that, deep **** man. deep ****.  :yes:   :shaking:

 

Offline General Battuta

  • Poe's Law In Action
  • 214
  • i wonder when my postcount will exceed my iq
Set in stone? Did you try replaying them and making different choices? It seemed like they had different possible outcomes. 'Save more civilians' vs. 'save more military', so on.

 

Offline Hellstryker

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Yeah, but they all had set goals "Go here, defend this" etc etc. The last one let you do your own thing entirely so long as you won.

 

Offline Mikes

  • 29
This is not how you train an officer.
You are quite right.

This is pretty much exactly the kind of reaction I was terrified of while I was working on this. It's a misinterpretation of the project's intent, but the fact it's happened demonstrates my failure here. I apologise for that.

Longtime Lurker... rarely, if ever, posting... but i just reset my password to disagree with you here.

What you offered us here is almost a piece of art... it poses more questions than it answers, it wants to be interpreted, and it almost begs you to think about it...   it's not for everyone, but is there anything that really IS for everyone ? ;)

Seriously... the only thing that i am disappointed in is that you seem to take such badly thought out critcism to heart. So it's not "Harpoon in Space" ? or "realistic GTVA Officer Training" ? ...  either notion is absurd for anyone who went at it with an open mind and really thought about it - or even just read your introduction post.

Spoiler:
As already said, your work poses more question than it answers and if anything my impression was that "Windmills" offers us a glimpse at the very troubled (and bitter) mind of a Pilot trying to rationalize how "Command's" decision making process might work...  the insistent questioning from Command during the missions really sounded to me like someone thinking to "themselves" and wondering constantly about the "Why?" behind the orders - the orders that they someday in the past received and that led them to commit acts that deeply trouble them up to the present....     alternatively it might be said pilot accusing or confronting an officer of Command with the result of their decisions... maybe just in their head as well. ;)

What could i have done ? What could someone else have done differently ? Did this really have to happen or could it have been avoided ? Did you really want to do this ? Would you do the same ? How could you have done this ? What purpose is there to anything if it ends with so much pain/guilt ?  Isn't that exactly what goes on in peoples heads after a tragic accident or traumatic experience ? ... and that is exactly what Windmills and "Command" was all about to me. The "tone" of Command at least suddenly makes perfect sense.

I can only speculate about the title. "Windmills" certainly brings Don Quixote to mind... and the thoughts, the many "what ifs", people have after tragic events certainly appear to be just as futile as Don Quixote's charging of windmills... but i am only really blindly guessing now. ;)

In any case, "Windmills" certainly is not about actual "real" officer training (LOL) and it's quite a bit diferent from "Ender's premise as well. Ender "thought" he was playing a game, when in fact everything was real.
The Protagnist in Windmills - again, as i interpret it - isn't playing a game at all... rather, it is all going on inside his head and it is all about a traumatic experience that (in the context of the story) really happened in the protagnists past and that he simply can not come to terms with.

The one (quite ironic) similary to "Ender" would be that we, as actual players, at first might "think" we are playing a simulation that may "really" exist within the context of the canon of the Freespace universe, when in fact it is all going on inside a persons mind and not "real" at all. Kind of the perfect direct opposite of Ender's premise. And as in perfect symmetry, we have the appearance of a "simulation" on the one hand... and a quite real tragic event as the trigger of the "thought process" that we as players are actually observing on the other.

Now i don't want to pretend that i have it all figured out and understand your work perfectly - and maybe i am just completely off as well heh - ...  but what i certainly can do is appreciate the thought that went into it, the questions it poses... and the room for interpretation it leaves. It was creepy and absolutely mindblowing storytelling. Please make more of it for those of us who can appreciate it...   trying to please "everyone" and especially those who are unable or unwilling to think outside the box is a one-way trip to mediocrity as so many commercial games constantly demonstrate.

To round out my impression... Gameplay appeared secondary to me ... it was - no question - revolutionary for Freespace Modding and it was an essential vehicle for telling your story... but the "main course" of the Windmills experience clearly was the storytelling, not the gameplay, if that makes any sense - and it really is astonishing to see such an intricate piece of work in the form of a Freespace Mod of all things...  all the more shame on the people who can't appreciate it.
« Last Edit: April 15, 2009, 12:18:41 pm by Mikes »

 

Offline Ransom

  • M. Night Russel
  • 210
  • It will not wait.
    • Rate of Injury
Thank you, Mikes. It's posts like yours that make the whole ordeal worth it.

 

Offline tinfoil

  • i'm 13 remember
  • 29
I agree completely with Mikes. I knew as some point someone would sum up what I thought of the campaign without my having to type out a novel or two :D
Alcibades' Gamble - We Love Our Ice Cream

Everything you need to know, and more can be found at The Freespace Wiki

 

 

Offline FoxtrotTango

  • 27
  • "...in a way, you've stolen his soul."
With so much good press about it, I decided that I needed to try it. I grabbed the wanderer build that worked for Ransom and gave it a shot. Now I have a problem.

While I'm playing through the tutorial, the playing field is suddenly wiped clean randomly and I'm not able to continue the mission. Is there anything I'm doing wrong here?

 

Offline Mikes

  • 29
With so much good press about it, I decided that I needed to try it. I grabbed the wanderer build that worked for Ransom and gave it a shot. Now I have a problem.

While I'm playing through the tutorial, the playing field is suddenly wiped clean randomly and I'm not able to continue the mission. Is there anything I'm doing wrong here?

I simply installed the "Good old Games" Version and let Turey's installer do the rest, put the Windmills directory in and changed the command line settings as recommended in this thread.

Worked just fine without any kind of issues.

 
AMAZING!

I'm speechless... The ending definitely rivals Transcend in its crushing cinematic flavor. Ransom would make a great film director since he can come up with visions like those. Gameplay wise, its about as much as you can get from FRED. Storyline wise, its one of the deepest campaigns so far, the final mission actually lets you contemplate the thoughts on the nature of war that are placed. I didn't feel temped to use time compression.

As for the whole "simulation" convention, I got more of a feeling that this would be more of a crazy nightmare someone would have from spending too much time in the actual simulator that the training program itself. A person who isn't morally flexible and determined would suffer from such doubts if placed in a commanding position. The whole point of a chain of command is to remove such doubts.

I'm interested in unveiling all the depth behind this campaign, there is surely much more to be seen if you make different choices throughout:

READ ONLY IF YOU FINISHED IT AT LEAST ONCE:

In my first playthough I:

1.
Spoiler:
Saved the entirety of the convoy, SIMULATION said that it was miraculous and perhaps the mission should be recalibrated. I didn't call in the reinforcement cruiser at all.

2.
Spoiler:
I don't know what options there are here. I was allowed to call in the Aeolus from mission 1 as I haven't used it then. A enemy Corvette arrived, then a Destroyer, communication was broken and I saw the pilot die.

3.
Spoiler:
I helped the transport and the fighting cruisers but didn't make it on time. Got slandered for derailing from main objective.

4.
Spoiler:
I was doing awesome at first. O1 was 100% with 4 cruisers pounding down O2 at 64%... and then the sides switched... i later received a corvette as reinforcement saying that "their contempt for civilian lives has fueled our propaganda and led to defections." Regardless of that O2 later got smashed and I ordered the fighters to chase down the fleeing transport. As a pilot I shot down the transport and then the crazy wingmate. The pilot was later said to have became admiral.
« Last Edit: April 16, 2009, 10:37:26 am by Molybdenum »

 
I've downloaded and installed the campaign, but all I get when I try to run it are several error messages and then it crashes and quits.

 

Offline Dilmah G

  • Failed juggling
  • 211
  • Do try it.
I've downloaded and installed the campaign, but all I get when I try to run it are several error messages and then it crashes and quits.

Walk us through what you did. Are you running the R2 version of the 3.6.10 builds?

 

Offline The E

  • He's Ebeneezer Goode
  • 213
  • Nothing personal, just tech support.
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Which error messages do you get? And could you run a debug build and post the <FreeSpace>\data\fs2_open.log file here afterwards? And, yeah, have you tried the 3.6.10 RC2 builds?
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 
no, I'm using 3.6.9, and my computer's kinda out of a freespace state right now... will get that as soon as possible.

 

Offline Dilmah G

  • Failed juggling
  • 211
  • Do try it.
no, I'm using 3.6.9, and my computer's kinda out of a freespace state right now... will get that as soon as possible.

Yeah, you can't do much with 3.6.9 anymore, R2 FTW

 

Offline Jeff Vader

  • The Back of the Hero!
  • 212
  • Bwahaha
23:40 < achillion > EveningTea: ass
23:40 < achillion > wait no
23:40 < achillion > evilbagel: ass
23:40 < EveningTea > ?
23:40 < achillion > 2-letter tab complete failure

14:08 < achillion > there's too much talk of butts and dongs in here
14:08 < achillion > the level of discourse has really plummeted
14:08 < achillion > Let's talk about politics instead
14:08 <@The_E > butts and dongs are part of #hard-light's brand now
14:08 <@The_E > well
14:08 <@The_E > EvilBagel's brand, at least

01:06 < T-Rog > welp
01:07 < T-Rog > I've got to take some very strong antibiotics
01:07 < achillion > penis infection?
01:08 < T-Rog > Chlamydia
01:08 < achillion > O.o
01:09 < achillion > well
01:09 < achillion > I guess that happens
01:09 < T-Rog > at least it's curable
01:09 < achillion > yeah
01:10 < T-Rog > I take it you weren't actually expecting it to be a penis infection
01:10 < achillion > I was not

14:04 < achillion > Sometimes the way to simplify is to just have a habit and not think about it too much
14:05 < achillion > until stuff explodes
14:05 < achillion > then you start thinking about it

22:16 < T-Rog > I don't know how my gf would feel about Jewish conspiracy porn

15:41 <-INFO > EveningTea [[email protected]] has joined #hard-light
15:47 < EvilBagel> butt
15:51 < Achillion> yes
15:53 <-INFO > EveningTea [[email protected]] has quit [Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client]

18:53 < Achillion> Dicks are fun

21:41 < MatthTheGeek> you can't spell assassin without two asses

20:05 < sigtau> i'm mining titcoins from now on

00:31 < oldlaptop> Drunken antisocial educated freezing hicks with good Internet == Finland stereotype

11:46 <-INFO > Kobrar [[email protected]] has joined #hard-light
11:50 < achtung> Surely you've heard of DVDA
11:50 < achtung> Double Vaginal Double ANal
11:51 < Kobrar> ...
11:51 <-INFO > Kobrar [[email protected]] has left #hard-light []

 
the R2 version of the 3.6.10 builds
R2 FTW
RC2. This ain't Star Wars.
I thought that's what they meant...

OK... how do I get my hands on 3.6.10 RC2?
« Last Edit: April 17, 2009, 09:16:56 am by maelstrom0511 »

 

Offline Jeff Vader

  • The Back of the Hero!
  • 212
  • Bwahaha
23:40 < achillion > EveningTea: ass
23:40 < achillion > wait no
23:40 < achillion > evilbagel: ass
23:40 < EveningTea > ?
23:40 < achillion > 2-letter tab complete failure

14:08 < achillion > there's too much talk of butts and dongs in here
14:08 < achillion > the level of discourse has really plummeted
14:08 < achillion > Let's talk about politics instead
14:08 <@The_E > butts and dongs are part of #hard-light's brand now
14:08 <@The_E > well
14:08 <@The_E > EvilBagel's brand, at least

01:06 < T-Rog > welp
01:07 < T-Rog > I've got to take some very strong antibiotics
01:07 < achillion > penis infection?
01:08 < T-Rog > Chlamydia
01:08 < achillion > O.o
01:09 < achillion > well
01:09 < achillion > I guess that happens
01:09 < T-Rog > at least it's curable
01:09 < achillion > yeah
01:10 < T-Rog > I take it you weren't actually expecting it to be a penis infection
01:10 < achillion > I was not

14:04 < achillion > Sometimes the way to simplify is to just have a habit and not think about it too much
14:05 < achillion > until stuff explodes
14:05 < achillion > then you start thinking about it

22:16 < T-Rog > I don't know how my gf would feel about Jewish conspiracy porn

15:41 <-INFO > EveningTea [[email protected]] has joined #hard-light
15:47 < EvilBagel> butt
15:51 < Achillion> yes
15:53 <-INFO > EveningTea [[email protected]] has quit [Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client]

18:53 < Achillion> Dicks are fun

21:41 < MatthTheGeek> you can't spell assassin without two asses

20:05 < sigtau> i'm mining titcoins from now on

00:31 < oldlaptop> Drunken antisocial educated freezing hicks with good Internet == Finland stereotype

11:46 <-INFO > Kobrar [[email protected]] has joined #hard-light
11:50 < achtung> Surely you've heard of DVDA
11:50 < achtung> Double Vaginal Double ANal
11:51 < Kobrar> ...
11:51 <-INFO > Kobrar [[email protected]] has left #hard-light []

 

Offline Dilmah G

  • Failed juggling
  • 211
  • Do try it.
the R2 version of the 3.6.10 builds
R2 FTW
RC2. This ain't Star Wars.

Well SORRY for not being a stickler for proper acronyms.  :lol: