Author Topic: Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'  (Read 11947 times)

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Offline Taranis

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Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'
Announcing the relase of my first campaign 'A Walk in the Sun'

You are Alpha 1, wing leader on the GTD Messana during the Second Shivan Incursion and one of very few surviving officers from the Battle for Capella.  That war is now over. The GTVA fleet has been devastated. Some fleets have effecively ceased to exist and experienced pilots are a rare breed.

It is in this backdrop that you have been posted to the GTD Phonecia, currently in the Mintaka system. Your mission; to take a destroyer's worth of untrained fighter pilots and turn them into a force which could withstand the next Shivan invasion. However, fate has other things in mind and the inexperienced ships of GTVA Training Command Group 2 are about to face yet another crisis from an unexpected direction.




Well after around 30 playthroughs (seriously I am getting a beta tester next time) I think this is ready for release.  A Walk in the Sun (Slang for a mission with low chance of encountering the enemy) is a four mission mini-campaign set in the Post-Capella period. Fredding this has been a very interesting experience, much more challenging than making a single mission and I found I was learning new Sexps and ways of doing things in every mission. Balancing was by far the most time consuming part of this project and some missions would swing from impossible to self playing with just a minor change.

The campaign was made with Fred 2 open 3_7_3 and should be played on that or later builds. Just unzip the mod folder into your Freespace main directory and set as the mod on your launcher of choice.

Hopefully some people out there will enjoy this and any comments, positive or negative are welcomed.

Disclaimer: Whilst writing this post I have just realised that Phoenicia has been mispelt Phonecia throughout the whole campaign. I am now sobbing quietly but will press on with the release regardless. Please try and ignore this.

Download link

http://www.mediafire.com/file/tceo9q8c8dd6l5u/A_Walk_in_the_Sun_V1.00.rar
« Last Edit: January 02, 2017, 05:31:51 pm by Taranis »

 

Offline Nyctaeus

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Re: Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'
New mod ^^

I will download it ASAP after school. Any mods included?
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Offline Taranis

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Re: Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'
It uses several ships which have been released for open use by their creators (you're actually in the credits), some skyboxes, music and a few other things. 135 MB so not massive. Only external mod it uses is the 2014 Media VPs.

 

Offline mjn.mixael

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Re: Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'
Downloaded. Shall play soon! Thanks for sharing it.
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Offline Nyctaeus

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Re: Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'
Bad:
- Lack of directives - Things like Escort Phoenicia etc. I would add some more to make player sure what he should do in each part of mission. I know you are doind this via messages, but... That's what directives are for :P
- Mission failure as campaign ending?
- VERY classic scenario.

Good:
- Balancing
- Nice nebulae :D
- Bug-free!
-
Spoiler:
BHAAL! ^^

Hummm... Pretty good start :yes:. I really like when a newcomer bring something good quality to the community. Maybe try to extend your dialogues a little bit? Add some jargon. War in Heaven is probably the best source of inspiration in terms of dialogues. Also, this is post-capella. Why not to add some new weapons and beautiful warships :D?
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Offline Cyborg17

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Re: Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'
Disclaimer: Whilst writing this post I have just realised that Phoenicia has been mispelt Phonecia throughout the whole campaign. I am now sobbing quietly but will press on with the release regardless. Please try and ignore this.

Someone correct me if this is dangerous (I'm pretty sure it's not), but a quick fix could be, open all your mission files in Notepad++, hit ctrl+f, there should be a button for replace in all open files, replace the misspelled words and do a mass save.  It should replace all the briefings, in mission references, events, goals, etc. 

The only thing it wouldn't replace is references in fiction files, which you could easily just open, too.

  

Offline Taranis

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Re: Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'
Thanks for playing Betrayal, the fact you listed Balancing as a Pro has just made the last few weeks all worthwhile.

About the campaign ending in failure check the directives and mission text and make sure you fulfil the comms one in particular

 

Offline Nyctaeus

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Re: Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'
Spoiler:
I returned to base when the Bhaal appeared and destroyed Phoenicia. I assumed that she have to be destroyed here for obvious reasons :P. Only one minor thing is worth to be noted here. I recived a message about changing course of the demon on something like that, just before Phoenicia fell down by the Bhaal main beams. Like it's not supposed to be mission ending. So... Maybe I did something wrong xD. Is Phoenicia supposed to be destroyed here?

Another note is that I destroyed Demon's comm subsystem, so in theory enemy destroyer should be unable to call reinforcements.


I forgot about one, minor issue. RTB in second mission [the one with GTC Diadem and GTC Impulsive] appear as completed [lightblue], while it supposed to be white.
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Offline mjn.mixael

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Re: Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'
Disclaimer: Whilst writing this post I have just realised that Phoenicia has been mispelt Phonecia throughout the whole campaign. I am now sobbing quietly but will press on with the release regardless. Please try and ignore this.

Someone correct me if this is dangerous (I'm pretty sure it's not), but a quick fix could be, open all your mission files in Notepad++, hit ctrl+f, there should be a button for replace in all open files, replace the misspelled words and do a mass save.  It should replace all the briefings, in mission references, events, goals, etc. 

The only thing it wouldn't replace is references in fiction files, which you could easily just open, too.

That works, I've done it. I've even done it to change whole wing names...
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Offline Black Wolf

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Re: Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'
Downloading, will give it a whirl soon.

Congrats on releasing - highlighted.
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Re: Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'
Not to be a prick, but is there a reason you chose not to use FuryAI? It really makes a big difference. Was that an intentional choice or were the missions already finished by the time you realised it existed?
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Offline Black Wolf

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Re: Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'
First reactions to Mission 1:

Minor stuff:
Level off your briefing map! this is a pet peeve of mine, but it makes them look so much better.
The loadout seemed very open, but that may have been a choice. Still, the fact that I can fly a Perseus and a Boanerges on the same first mission of the campaign seemed a little off.
No akhetons for my wingmen?
The Tampa didn't use a head ani, and started on the opposite side of the ship to where it was docking, leading to a long docking sequence of mostly dead air. Personally, I'd either adjust the Tampa's arrival location to ensure that docking path is shorter and quicker, or use that time for some expositionary dialogue.

Structural stuff:
Not much! The mission was fun and well balanced, but didn't feel frantic unless you stay alive too long and end up overwhelmed by enemy interceptors. One suggestion I'd make is to use guardian-threshold on the Rookies, then use events to protect them at 1% hull (so the AI will stop shooting at them), then get them to jump out a few seconds later. I know that the briefing says "an explosion effect will be played" but it's a pretty realistic one when you see the fighter break apart into debris. :P

Overall, mission 1 is a fun start - and not an escort mission! :) Good stuff, looking forward to M2.
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Offline Taranis

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Re: Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'
Thanks Cyborg, that tip's going to save a lot of time when I get around to fixing it.

The highlight is awesome Black Wolf, I've spent so much time playing Freespace mods I never really thought I'd have one of my own up there.
Fair critique of the first mission. The rookie explosion thing was mostly laziness, by the time I thought of doing something like that I was in the middle of Fredding M3 and 4 which took much more time than expected. Loadout choices are pretty open throughout the campaign, I like having choice although you may be right in that an interceptor and heavy bomber might be a bit too far apart. I found giving your wingmen Akhetons instead of duel kaysers made them under-perform in the early dogfight.

I knew about FuryAI before making the campaign and will definitely be using it in the future. However it's been a little while since I played a campaign that uses it and was used to the retail AI behavior. By the time I thought about using AI improvements I had the bones of all four missions Fredded and working reasonably well and going back to rejig them around better AI would have killed my motivation probably.

 

Offline Black Wolf

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Re: Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'
Mission 2:

Minor Stuff:
Again, the briefing map needs levelling (I'll stop mentioning this from now on :P)
I played the mission many times before I finally got it with both cruisers alive - is it passable with only one?

Structural Stuff:
Nothing big, the mission seemed sound, not too much dead air or anything. Could have timed it a bit more carefully - if you're slow killing Seths, you get the suicide message after the cruiser has jumped in.

Mod Stuff:
I love flying the Draco, especially against Seths ("Oh, your afterburner gets you up over 100 m/sec? That's nice..."). But there's something funky with the rearming - the support ship seems to take ages to get to you, often minutes when the counter says it should be second. This felt like a pathing issue, so I deleted the existing path on the model and used PCS2's auto generate feature to redo it, seemed to help quite a bit. Might be worth considering for future releases (also, you're using the model for Aesaar's Draco, but the HUD ani for mine and StratComm's, so there's a mismatch there).
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Offline Black Wolf

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Re: Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'
And finished. Felt like it ended too abruptly, which is praise - I was getting into it. :) Really solid little release, enjoyed playing it. Congratulations!
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Offline Taranis

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Re: Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'
Thanks for playing and the mission reviews. Could you just say how mission 4 ended for you. Betrayal said he
Spoiler:
destroyed the comms but the Bhaal jumped in anyway. Did you have the same experience or could you destroy the Bergelmir and finish the mission?

 

Offline Black Wolf

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Re: Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'
Spoiler:
I destroyed the Demon I think my wingmen must have gotten the comms. I was somewhat disappointed that the Bhaal never showed up, actually. :P
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Offline Nyctaeus

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Re: Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'
Thanks for playing and the mission reviews. Could you just say how mission 4 ended for you. Betrayal said he
Spoiler:
destroyed the comms but the Bhaal jumped in anyway. Did you have the same experience or could you destroy the Bergelmir and finish the mission?
I had problems with orders. I assigned Delta wing to destroy comm, but they had "no orders" instead and did nothing. It's obviously not a bug of mission itself, bur rather my nightly is having some strange issues. I will replay the mission in days
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Re: Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'
i had trouble with secandary objactive destory the cruisers
mission named illumenetion the m3
it didnt achived it if i destoryed the cruisers
even the last mission its onbalanced becouse you have to be quick with everything it isnt fear
and fun and if i beaten the last mission you can do better with credits or to be continued
becouse it looks it isnt finished
but the rest was away too easy fast too finish it
even its small
you can better make 1 mission before building the campaign
i know it isnt easy
but even my missions are 10 a 20 minits long
« Last Edit: March 19, 2016, 03:20:07 pm by woutersmits »

 

Offline Taranis

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Re: Release - Minicampaign 'A Walk in the Sun'
Thanks for playing Woutersmits.

If you found the campaign too easy try playing on insane difficulty. Extra enemy wings are added to some missions and the last mission is particularly tricky on insane.

I didn't want to add 'to be continued' at the end as at the moment I do not have any plans to continue this storyline, the next project I plan on working on will be significantly larger in scope and whilst I'm not certain what direction I want to go in will probably break with Freespace canon.

On mission length I'm afraid I have to disagree. I've seen very few good missions longer than 15 minutes in length and I personally feel that anything that length either has to be quite easy or include checkpoints (beyond my current ability). Thanks for the feedback though and I'll certainly be making some full fleet engagements in future that will be longer missions.