-
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/mjnmixael/BTA%20Screens/btademoheader.jpg)
BtA: Mefistofele Release!
The BtA Team is proud to release this small 2 mission demo. Consider it more like a prequel to BtA: Slaves of Chaos. In Mefistofele, you'll fly with local criminals and smugglers as they seek to make a simple profit, but they might have gotten in over their heads this time.
You might also want to read these (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=77153.0) and/or our pages on the Wiki. (http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Between_the_ashes)
Feel free to join #bta on IRC for discussion/support.
Team & Testers
Team
MjnMixael - Project Lead
MatthTheGeek - Modpack Extraordinaire
RgaNoris - Voice
Snail - Critical Critique
Slasher - Speed FRED
SDM - Testing, Grammar, & General Shenanigans
Testers
Admiral MS - Testing & Checkpoint Script <- SUPER THANKS
Bigchunk1 - Testing
Oddgrim - Testing
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/mjnmixael/BTA%20Screens/demo01.png)
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/mjnmixael/BTA%20Screens/demo02.png)
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/mjnmixael/BTA%20Screens/demo03.png)
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/mjnmixael/BTA%20Screens/demo04.png)
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/mjnmixael/BTA%20Screens/demo05.png)
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/mjnmixael/BTA%20Screens/demo06.png)
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/mjnmixael/BTA%20Screens/demo07.png)
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/mjnmixael/BTA%20Screens/demo08.png)
To Install:
You may install this manually, or you may also use the Freespace Installer. (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87537.msg1747938#msg1747938)
Download these required files and unzip them to 'game/freespace2'. You should end up with 3 VPs in 'games/freespace2/BtA Demo'. The MediaVPs 3.6.12 are required to play, you can get them here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=70736.0).
BTA_DEMO_Root (V1.1): MediaFire (http://www.mediafire.com/?sxayb4bhxkd22vf) | MjnServ (http://www.lunardigitalproductions.com/bta/downloads/demo/BTA_DEMO_Root.7z)
7z: f97e91526552fe6b867cc592e4e17702
VP: 706eebd0c2711d850af414b115013249
BTA_DEMO_Assets1: MediaFire (http://www.mediafire.com/?zmh14h7o2122444) | MjnServ (http://www.lunardigitalproductions.com/bta/downloads/demo/BTA_DEMO_Assets1.7z)
7z: 213ca83731d959d79fe36880cbf70ae6
VP: 52cfa540167d280df846daea0e273d86
BTA_DEMO_Assets2: MediaFire (http://www.mediafire.com/?sfxkg4zqccdod6i) | MjnServ (http://www.lunardigitalproductions.com/bta/downloads/demo/BTA_DEMO_Assets2.7z)
7z: 5850ec117082a562e60563a04b6de283
VP: fba32f83b6ca18e26c332a9bf8b247f8
Version 1.1 Patch
-Restructures HUD to use the more modern system that should not limit gameplay resolutions.
BTA_DEMO_Patch_1_1: MediaFire (http://www.mediafire.com/download/cm0uu5qt9fww3n4/BTA_DEMO_Patch_1_1.vp) | MjnServ (http://www.lunardigitalproductions.com/bta/downloads/demo/BTA_DEMO_Patch_1_1.vp)
VP: f6f5b567fe9380e79c4611d7fb2ef41e
All files also mirrored on freespacemods.net (http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php?view.845) as a single download.
Optional:
If you have a slower machine, or you experience lagging with the mainhall menu, download this pack and unzip it to your 'games/freespace2' folder. It will place a fourth VP in you 'games/freespace2/BtA Demo' folder.
BTA_DEMO_00LowEnd: MediaFire (http://www.mediafire.com/?7rsur95dvv6n07e) | MjnServ (http://www.lunardigitalproductions.com/bta/downloads/demo/BTA_DEMO_00LowEnd.7z)
7z: 192a045e90479e7570bdd647eae6f183
VP: e500623ed6ee6e4b6f5d943bf4023e18
To Play:
Select the mod 'BtA Demo' with your launcher (I personally love to use wxLauncher (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=67950.0)!) and make sure you are running 3.6.14 RC6 (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=80754.0) or greater.
Known Issues:
- Some HUD gauges don't change color properly. This is caused by a bug that has been fixed post 3.6.14 RC6.
- It's possible that checkpoints won't work on operating systems other than Windows. This is because our checkpoint system saves data to a file in the mod folder instead of FRED variables. We have not had any Mac or Linux testers. We would love to hear feedback on this.
Debug Info:
Checksums
Found root pack 'E:\FreeSpace2\BtA Demo\BTA_DEMO_00LowEnd.vp' with a checksum of 0x71ad0d7c
Found root pack 'E:\FreeSpace2\BtA Demo\BTA_DEMO_Assets1.vp' with a checksum of 0x29a49c25
Found root pack 'E:\FreeSpace2\BtA Demo\BTA_DEMO_Assets2.vp' with a checksum of 0xfa97a65e
Found root pack 'E:\FreeSpace2\BtA Demo\BTA_DEMO_Root.vp' with a checksum of 0x569d815a
File Counts
Searching root pack 'E:\FreeSpace2\BtA Demo\BTA_DEMO_00LowEnd.vp' ... 3 files
Searching root pack 'E:\FreeSpace2\BtA Demo\BTA_DEMO_Assets1.vp' ... 455 files
Searching root pack 'E:\FreeSpace2\BtA Demo\BTA_DEMO_Assets2.vp' ... 2346 files
Searching root pack 'E:\FreeSpace2\BtA Demo\BTA_DEMO_Root.vp' ... 201 files
-
/me sets up camp.
-
I brought marshmallows.
-
I got the bug nets
-
I'd keep an eye here but the stupid thing is attached somewhere in my head... so old fashioned topic watching...
Also I brought a lighter...
-
I'll go get wood!
-
I'm watching SIR, YES SIR.
-
The Demo has been released! See first post.
-
Seems like I'll be playing FS tonight :yes:
-
woooot, someone else is using my ships :D *happy dance*
DL'ing now!
-
Awesome missions, backgrounds, assets, and even more awesome music.
The only thing I don't like is how short it is. :P
In all seriousness this is a great teaser.
Though having that taste of BtA tells me Slaves of Chaos is going to be way up on the list of must-play campaigns. ;)
-
DL'd, played, t'was good ;) Somewhat unlike anything else, if only a demo. Very cool was the inclusion of the Mustangs and the Shrikes (if the latter only in Tech Room). A nice nod to the TVWP. Much luck with the Slaves of Chaos release :yes:
-
Congrats fellas. Will DL and play when I get back from work in a few days. :yes:
-
This demo was great. The second mission had me on the edge of my seat and music selection was prefect. Want more!
-
This has exceeded any expectations I've had for BtA.
This demo has me mighty impressed, its really really cool. I'll go indepth some more later.
-
Thanks for the positive feedback! Give it up for Slasher though, because he did all of the mission design here based on (couldn't have been more than..) a 4 sentence story synopsis I gave him.
-
mirurrrrer
http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php?view.845
-
A little review...
-General feeling of the demo was pretty awesome, especially with the music who fit perfectly with the mod's mood, as CKid wrote. :yes:
-In fact, the SIZE of the uncompressed demo already impressed me (911 Mb ?!? A distress call for low-bandwith users :D)
-There is a little problem if you use the checkpoint system in mission 2 (F***ing Death Squadron :banghead:) : The hotkeys (i.e. F6 for the Mako) won't work anymore...
-Apart from this point, nothing to say. Oh yes, one little thing : Pretty impatient to play the full version !
Non Spoiler:
Awesome.
-
A little review...
-General feeling of the demo was pretty awesome, especially with the music who fit perfectly with the mod's mood, as CKid wrote. :yes:
-In fact, the SIZE of the uncompressed demo already impressed me (911 Mb ?!? A distress call for low-bandwith users :D)
-There is a little problem if you use the checkpoint system in mission 2 (F***ing Death Squadron :banghead:) : The hotkeys (i.e. F6 for the Mako) won't work anymore...
-Apart from this point, nothing to say. Oh yes, one little thing : Pretty impatient to play the full version !
Non Spoiler:
Awesome.
Thanks! The music mostly comes from newgrounds.com. It's all in the credits.tbl. And yes, the mod is huge for only two missions.. we just had a lot of assets that needed to be included since we aren't using almost any of the FS2 ships.
Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure hotkeys being reset on mission-replay is an SCP code issue. If you completely restart FSO, then hotkeys should return to normal. I think it's been reported on Mantis.
-
Downloaded it, played it and it reeeeeally got me hooked. Waiting for the full release to play the **** out of it.
-
Man, this is cool! I love skyboxes from BtA, and this interface is just glorious :D. Can't wait for full release!
-
The demo is quite fun, and I look forward to playing the full campaign!
Darn you for emp-ing my sensors every time I tried to scan that box! I want to know what's inside >.>
-
Just finished, here's the review:
The good:
Background, assets and music is a big :yes:
Mission outline and storywise developments ok on both missions, they seemed relevant and not just a "filler mission", kudos for that cause it's really hard to achieve.
Checkpoint system: win. THANK YOU!
The bad:
I found the missions quite a bit fast-paced.
The dialogue (along with the mission progress) was just way fast for me to keep on it, half of the time I didn't know what to do!, IMO only a handfull of missions in a campaign should be as fast as these two were.
The directives list was not helping, press f6? for what??, press f7?? for what?, It diverted my attention from the battlefield, I pressed those in the hopes it would help me do something only to realize they were there to help me target the objectives :P
Note that this is not a bad idea, actually I use the same system but I found it better to just put a line saying: "destroy x wing (F6)", that way the player knows he's got to destroy wing x and to target he must use that key.
For the sake of keeping the player sane, and yourself while fredding and testing, try to keep your missions under the 10 minutes mark, if it goes up you can either go for the checkpoint system, maybe even consider splitting the mission in two or removing something from the mission objectives as well.
Of course these are all things I think are important, I hope you don't mind me pointing them up.
Anyways, nice job so far... that last mission got me really into the story so I'd say the demo fullfilled it's purpose.
-
The directives list was not helping, press f6? for what??, press f7?? for what?, It diverted my attention from the battlefield, I pressed those in the hopes it would help me do something only to realize they were there to help me target the objectives :P
Wait wut.
The directive list is pretty explicit about what the keypresses do. Do you have HUD issues or something ?
For the sake of keeping the player sane, and yourself while fredding and testing, try to keep your missions under the 10 minutes mark, if it goes up you can either go for the checkpoint system, maybe even consider splitting the mission in two or removing something from the mission objectives as well.
Ahem. Did you miss the big "checkpoint reached" in the middle of your screen halfway through mission 2 ?
EDIT: especially since you mentionned the checkpoint in the "the good" part. What the hell ? Did you suffer amnesia halfway through your post or something ? :p
-
The directive list is pretty explicit about what the keypresses do. Do you have HUD issues or something ?
No it's not, I might have some HUD issues, I don't know really...
I get :
Intercept XXXX wing
press F6
Protect XXXXX
press F7
Ahem. Did you miss the big "checkpoint reached" in the middle of your screen halfway through mission 2 ?
EDIT: especially since you mentioned the checkpoint in the "the good" part. What the hell ? Did you suffer amnesia halfway through your post or something ? :p
No, the checkpoint saved my life, so it's a good thing to add... but it doesn't take back the fact that a long mission is still long, and that playing long missions and loosing them at the end EVEN with checkpoints is kinda "meh".
I lost the transport right at the end of the second mission (which is long) because I didn't know what to do with the "press f9 to detonate" or something like that.. I pressed the button and all the fighters were 2 million miles away from the debris so.. I don't even remember there being a part in the dialogue that says I should detonate whatever it is that detonates when the enemy fighters are close to the cargo.
-
Thanks for the feedback Rodo. Glad you mostly enjoyed the demo. It is my hope that none of our missions fall to 'filler mission' status, so I'm glad these two missions didn't feel that way!
I feel I should address the discussion on Directives and Mission length.
The green text under the blue directive is the Directive keypress text. It's even labelled this in FRED. This is ideal for placing "helper" text for the directive it's related to, usually what keypress will help you complete the Directive. So you are told to Intercept XXXX Wing and the green text below tells you what hotkey will target them. When the directive is completed or failed, the green "helper" text will be removed from the directives list. This is what it was designed for and I think it's a very useful way to place even more relevant information on our Directives list in an efficient manner.
As for mission length. I realize there are varying opinions on mission length. However, as with most "mission design rules", it's up for discussion. Checkpoints in missions allow us to make our missions the length that we need, while still not forcing players to play then entire mission over again if they fail. So while we aren't striving for every mission to be 10+ minutes just because we can do checkpoints, we won't be adopting a 10 minute limit for our missions. We are quite comfortable with the balance we've struck so far.
Your confusion with how the directives list can/should be used is likely a reason why you were confused on what to do with the 'Detonate Charges' segment. The directive says to 'Detonate Explosives' with keypress text telling you that you can do this by pressing '1'. Additionally, assuming you weren't having HUD issues, you should have gotten some text displayed prominently on your HUD showing you how many fighters were in the blast zone and whether or not your own ship was in the blast zone. Pay attention to this because it will help you detonate at the right time so as to destroy the most amount of hostile fighters that are chasing you. If you aren't seeing this, then there's an issue that we need to debug! Let me know and I'd be glad to help.
-
*sip
No problem with the hud display, everything seems to be showing up alright.. I probably missed the message.
Glad the feedback was usefull in some degree, keep on it guys :yes:
-
Cool demo.
Way too lazy to try to figure out what putting an empty file named REDACTED into my scripts folder is supposed to do.
-
The atmosphere of the demo is top notch. Mjn and the BTA team has an eye for visual enviornments. I anticipate an immersive visual treat when the whole thing is completed.
-
Cool demo.
Way too lazy to try to figure out what putting an empty file named REDACTED into my scripts folder is supposed to do.
But it might be worth it!
-
FANTASTIC!
I was rather disappointed, but impressed. With what the cargo-container displayed if you could scan it through the emp bursts. :D
All in all, a very well presented demo. From design to visuals. I can't wait for the full release. :yes:
-
Just finished this myself. Was really impressed with the quality of the missions; you set a really nice atmosphere for them, and both missions had events quite unlike the usual 'just go and shoot stuff' feel of FS2. Excellent work, looking forward to seeing the rest.
Fav bits:
- Watching over the three ships in the first mission (how on earth did you manage to get it to read weapon bursts?)
- explosives bit (waited for it to say 10 and for them to be close to the platforms then MWA HA HA HA :drevil:)
- emp when you tried to scan the container (that was a nice touch :)).
-
Okay, the use of Flail Guns against the player near the end of Mission 2, if you fail to blow up enough fighters with the explosives, is just downright eeevvillll. Seriously. I get knocked backwards at 300+ km/s, and without access to Interceptors or similar I can't even fight back.
-
I'm slightly surprised that no one has wondered about my rather odd credit.
-
Okay, the use of Flail Guns against the player near the end of Mission 2, if you fail to blow up enough fighters with the explosives, is just downright eeevvillll. Seriously. I get knocked backwards at 300+ km/s, and without access to Interceptors or similar I can't even fight back.
:pimp: deal with it
-
I ran into a few ships that don't show up as having cargo when they should.
In the first mission, the Zabiela and Liquilade both start out as having Cargo: Nothing throughout the entire mission. They should instead show up as carrying passengers or privateers or something until they manage to dock with the station, and Vasudan Artifacts once they undock.
Those fuel containers that you remotely detonate near the end of mission 2? Those show up as empty as well, which can create a bit of confusion when you first come out of jump.
On an unrelated note:
I figured out that those Zeus Bombers always seem to be carrying a specialty weapon in their secondary bank. If it's not the aforementioned Flail Gun, then it's a Shield Breaker. We will probably see Leech Cannons and Disruptors employed against the player in the full campaign. Or maybe Railguns (http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/GTW_Railgun) or something, I dunno :P
-
Oh believe me, one of the Zeus wings in the demo does have Leech Cannons. Pretty deadly given the energy rate of the mustangs :p
-
Updated BTA_DEMO_Rood to V1.1, which fixes a few bugs that can stall mission 2.
-
OK, finished it. Liked it. Will probably play again to see what happens if I take the other path in mission 2. For what it's worth, I chose the needlessly aggressive, destructive path - much more fun, but I feel like I probably skipped right over a big chunk of the FREDding work for the first part of the mission - hence the replay.
A few quick specifics. First off, as everyone else has mentioned, the modpack was well chosen and generally awesome (I would say that though, I guess, given how much of my stuff is in there :D). The FREDding was also really good - I didn't encounter any bugs, and it felt incredibly polished. There were a few things I would have done differently, but nothing major (and there's nothing saying my stylistic choices would have been better, just different).
If I had a complaint (other than it being too short) it would be that both missions felt very busy - I had a lot to do, and didn't always know what was important and what wasn't. But the missions still played out OK, and I'm really excited for the full release, because this was (as is to be expected in a demo) only about 20, thirty minutes of playtime, tops.
-
Hey I didn't review this yet. I already told mjn the cool stuff about it, but I'm gonna preach to the choir and go "its cool stuff."
You sure packed a lot into the 2 missions and it all works out wonderfully. Mortal men would split it up and drag it out to 3 or 4 missions. Awesome use of new features (yay new hud gauges!) and mission styles. It's no longer about just doing one thing per mission, its now an entire range of actions the player has to follow from start to finish. It's not blow everything up, its more restrained which is nice to see with working as a private group. It all feels satisfying in this world you're creating.
I just want to point on one thing that I will never forgive you for.
Your lighting. My GOD the lighting. The slightly desaturated look, the ambient lighting, the perfect highlights off of the ships. It's all to die for and it sets the mood for the gritty atmosphere inside the missions. I'd totally want to steal it and use it for all my mods*, except its particularly defining for BtA and I don't think I could use it and feel right.
(*cept JAD, I'd gorge out on the saturation settings there)
So keep on doing what you guys are doing, I can't wait to see more from the amazing brains of mjn and his stalwart crew!
-
I'm slightly surprised that no one has wondered about my rather odd credit.
MOAR AWESOMENESS added to current awesomeness ?!? :yes:
-
What Axem and BW said.
I'm super lame because I just can't get myself to write a review for some reason. I'll give a semi proper one on full release, I promise.
-
I'm slightly surprised that no one has wondered about my rather odd credit.
Does it have something to do with
The Battle-Snail? :P
-
Does it have something to do with
The Battle-Snail? :P
Obviously it would be another member that would have to do with the Battle Snail. Obviously.
-
Actually, the Battle Snail was made by Angelus.
-
Strange, I don't have any form of HUD when I launch into a mission. I've downloaded all the files and I'm running 3614 RC6.
-
You wouldn't be running some ridiculously low resolution, like smaller than 1024, would you ?
-
No definitely not. I'm running at 1920x1200. I've tried removing all custom flags as well as disabling launcher HUD and graphics options to no avail. I've also tried removing things like 3D radar icons seeing if it would be conflict. Still no HUD.
I'm sorry if I'm not being helpful, is there any information I could give you that might be able to help here?
-
Place this file in freespace2\bta demo\data\tables.
[attachment deleted by a ninja]
-
That did it! Thank you sir, I can't wait to play.
I'll post my thoughts once I've finished the demo, but I'll just say the briefing alone had me hooked, as well as the backstory you've posted.
-
good job building the demo
ive finished everything
the 2nd mission is alot of jumping
and easy to complete
but at the end the ship jumped in
but than its over i hope the full version completed soon
-
After playing through the demo for the 20'th time, I have figured out that the fighter class that Mustangs most quickly kill are other Mustangs. They are easier to hit then an Angel, lack the shielding and power of the newer Apollos, and are generally cannon fodder for any any ace pilot in a medium fighter.
For a while I have suspected that heavier fighters become outdated more quickly then lighter fighters. This definitely seems to be the case here.
-
Late to the party with this but I played it last night and enjoyed it a lot. Felt like a good piece of creative work with a distinct voice, like Blue Planet or Vassago's Dirge (or WoD but that goes without saying). High productions values which are pretty important, even expected perhaps, nowadays from FS mods. Sounds dumb but when I first booted it up I was impressed by the animation on the title in the main menu. Felt like a very mjn.mixael touch.
The demo itself had a nice intriguing atmosphere and I felt was paced right. For just two missions the in-system jumping makes it feel like there's a lot more packed in there. The part with the detonator was cool and very satisfying, kind of cinematic as well which I appreciated. Looking forward to the full release, looks like another classic mod in the making.
-
I played it last night too (obviously a bit of a calender difference).
All good fun, do the transports jump out EVERY time in mission one, or am i just a gun-nut? Never got to use the drones either, how do they initiate?
I don't like the container in mission two, it feels, syncy..........
I had a bit of an Issue with Alt+J returning me to desktop (in an Alt+Tab veil) but throwing CTRL into the mix seemed to allieviate the issue. Not sure whether i've got some sort of latent sticky keys thing going on. No other key combo's (Alt H / Alt M) result in the same thing.
Good mod all round. :yes: bring on more.
I see the battle snail rolling in the lab, but in the campaign? Can has hint?
-
All good fun, do the transports jump out EVERY time in mission one, or am i just a gun-nut? Never got to use the drones either, how do they initiate?
I don't like the container in mission two, it feels, syncy..........
You are probably a gun nut. :lol: If you don't scare them too much then they will stick around and be quiet. The drones are initiated with the comm menu (attack my target command). They will fly toward the target to "repair" it but because of the hacking of your wingman, they will have an error and kamikaze the target instead.
You shouldn't admit that you don't like the container, because now it's coming for you...
I had a bit of an Issue with Alt+J returning me to desktop (in an Alt+Tab veil) but throwing CTRL into the mix seemed to allieviate the issue. Not sure whether i've got some sort of latent sticky keys thing going on. No other key combo's (Alt H / Alt M) result in the same thing.
Good mod all round. :yes: bring on more.
Odd, I can't say I've experienced issues with the keys there. The SEXP trigger is linked to the key bid for warp out, so if you change the key bind and still experience issues then it is (somehow) FSO and/or our mod. But I'm at a loss as to what could be causing that.
Glad you liked the mod though! :yes: We've got more coming.
I see the battle snail rolling in the lab, but in the campaign? Can has hint?
Watch the ending cutscene again.
-
This is simply one of the best campaign bit i ever played. Good dialogue writing - really nice to read,more then one approach to complete main objective also tip from Mr. Haupmann is always different,so no shortcut will work. Love the details puted in to small things,like derelict ship stories descritpions from your wingman, etc etc...
Keep up the good work.
-
Just finished. From what I'd read, my expectations were high enough, but you blew them away with flying colours.
The attention to detail is amazing. The hulk background infos, the randomization of where the container is to be found. The blasted, sooty look of the container after the detonation! As if it went to hell and back - perhaps it did? :)
The music was very well chosen, and the visuals in general were simply beautiful. I can confirm that the checkpoint does indeed work on Linux.
On the downside, as Rodo mentioned, the missions are rather fast-paced sometimes. As a non-native English speaker I found myself going through the comm log quite regularly, especially to figure out the, uh, 'unconventional' controls. In other places, the mission is just on the edge of dragging on, mostly because of a wide mission space combined with the lackluster speed of the Mustang. It would be nice if diverting extra energy to engines would increase max speed, even if just a little.
I did notice one or two typos along the way (M1, "Fire your breaking thrusters" comes to mind), and one little bug in the interface while changing my keyboard controls (there's a warning light with a bright green background). FSO compiled from trunk r9386, in case that's relevant.
Overall, a very high-quality release, and I'm looking forward to the full release!
-
Thanks for the kind words, guys. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I just spellchecked the missions. I'll have to punish our team member who's responsibility that is. :p
We've got a few non-native English speakers on the team, I'll ask them to keep an eye on our message pacing. I'm curious what "unconventional" controls you are referring to. I try to make sure any special controls are noted in the Directives list. Perhaps I missed a couple? We talked about speeding up the Mustang a bit too, that is likely to happen. and we already made that change back in June. :)
Thanks for the feedback! The demo campaign will be re-released with these changes/fixes and packed with the main campaign when it's done because it is sort of a prequel more than a demo.
-
I'm curious what "unconventional" controls you are referring to. I try to make sure any special controls are noted in the Directives list. Perhaps I missed a couple?
No, they were all in the directive list alright, but the description there is necessarily short. I found myself wondering 'Hey, how the hell can I suddenly do that?', especially for the one in M2.
Oh, two more details (forgot to mention them yesterday):
In the first mission you're allowed to choose your loadout, but there's no spare cannons, missiles or fighters to choose from. So why not make it a scramble mission? Now, that in itself is not a major issue, but then the next one is a scramble mission. For the sake of consistency, one of those should be changed (IMVHO).
I also found it odd that in M2, where you've only got Furies, my wingman was complaining about aspect lock so much. Did he have access to resources that his wing leader didn't have?
-
I think I opted for the first mission not to be a scramble just so the player can see the ship they are flying.
Then, given that these guys are black market smugglers, we assumed anyone could have any loadout with the assumption that they bought it off the black market. The player is just cheap! :p And yes, in m2, Alpha 2 has Hornets.
-
Those thrusters were meant for breaking things!*
Alpha 2 had Hornets because the AI seemed less effective with dumbfires. Stuck with Furies, the player will at least be able to use secondaries even when weapons lock is impossible.
*not really :o
-
Well I finally finished the demo, having it installed some 4 months ago or something like that.
I think it was just too over the top in quality sake. Plagiarizing NG right now:
The Good:
Almost everything. From the menu you can tell it's top notch quality when little details like the flashing animations that substitute the standard fixed menu backgrounds, or the surround sound when mouseovering the menu items. The aesthetic style of choosing one pallete of colors which favors the beiges, browns and yellows over everything else and sticking to it gives it a very singular thematic that is not only beautiful but also easy to remember. For me, BtA will always be that "yellowish mod from Freespace2", and that's a good thing that not many mods have done in the past (Vassago Dirge with its greyish backgrounds and its classical music for instance).
The heavy scripting of events and novelties (such as the hilariously easy to **** up "watch the freighters but don't scare them"), the usage of new good models and the new shaders (invisibility and so on) makes it clear the campaigns will be of top notch technical quality. And they are put to good use. Watching the freighters was fun, kamikaziying the drones was hilarious, time-bombing the fighters fell pretty good.
The missions have good pacing. Where I found pretty hard to follow the events in Vassago Dirge, for instance, I found it easy to do in here, understand what is going on and quickly decide what to do about it. The first mission seems pretty straightforward, and the events themselves follow realistically. The second mission is gargantuan, not only in size, but also in contextual scope, which hints to the kind of lens we will be enjoying in the full campaign. I like the fact there are dozens of ships in the asteroid belt (ashes belt?) each doing their thing as in a living universe of its own, designed as if we are crossing some kind of post-apocalyptic junkyard with its own anarchy, mafias and all sorts of dangers. The mission properly gave me the correct hints on how should I pace each moment and the story flowed pretty well.
The Bad:
It's a small hitch of mine, not anything major. The second mission felt somewhat like a deus ex machina at the end. I felt a little betrayed in the story, "right how convenient the package was unharmed", but I also understood this most probably happens for ulterior reasons. The plot point felt a little cheap however.
The Ugly:
The briefing and dialogue are still uneven in their quality. Sometimes, the one-liners are pitch perfect, sometimes they feel artificial. The briefing of mission 1 was annoyingly confusing and big, I had to click the back button a few times so I could be sure I understood everything that was supposed to happen in that mission. I understand the difficulty of briefing someone every detail of a somewhat complex hit job, but keep in mind that that briefing was the exact first thing I experienced in your campaign. And the kind of dialogue / briefing never got me into a suspension of disbelief. Who are these guys? Why am I a smuggler, and why should I care? I feel forcing myself to do all those things on my own, when it should be the campaign doing it.
I know this is a hard thing to do, and perhaps I'm being overly critical. Thinking back, I know I am. But if I am, it's only because the quality of the remainder tricked me into raising my expectations perhaps too high in every direction. And that in itself is comendable. This is a mod I'll be eagerly waiting for!
e: Oh I forgot. I'm still not sold in so much ambient lighting. The heavy ambient lighting gives it a dream quality, which combined with the chosen pallete almost feels like we are playing a Sepia instagramed game, which in itself might be good on its own. However, I'll always be a fan of low ambient light, what can I say.
-
Thanks for the feedback. I've heard from a few people about the dialog pacing, especially for non-native English speakers. I'm paying special attention to that for the campaign release.
-
I just downloaded the **** out of this
-
Great demo. Looking forward to the full version :)
You should be happy to know that the checkpoint system mostly works on OS X. By mostly, I mean:
In mission 2, say the Mako is at 50% after the first jump-out when the checkpoint triggers. Assume it takes damage from the fighters later in the mission and gets to, say, 32%. If you die after this and restart at the checkpoint, the Mako will spawn with 32% hull integrity instead of 50% like it should. This is cumulative, as well - so if it gets blasted down to 21% or 8% later and you die again, it'll start with the lower value every time you continue. I'm running the 3.7.0 RC2 build (if it matters).
Also, if I play at a resolution greater than 1600x1000, I don't get a HUD. Reducing the resolution to any 4:3 resolution or decreasing to 1600x1000 will get me a HUD, but then my view is pixellated. I'd like to be able to run at full resolution (2560x1600 in my case).
In any case, great job - I'll be patiently awaiting the full version!
-
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I'm also glad to hear checkpoints work on Mac. I've also got confirmation for Linux, so I no longer need to worry about that. :)
The bug you reported is interesting and I'm almost certain that it's not related to the actual checkpoint system but to player persistent variables. I'll look into it.
The HUD issues are easy and I think we already fixed them for the final release.
-
Mission 2 stalled each time after the Mako tried to recover its cargo (right after killing the bombers in the gas explosions). Waypoint timer says 00:02 seconds remaining, no dialogue, ships stop moving.
To resume the mission, I discovered that firing a few shots at the cargo, or colliding with it, works around the issue.
Is this a known issue ?
-
No, I have not seen that issue. I'll look into it, but a debug log would be handy.
-
Yeah I have no hud either :(
-
What resolution are you playing on?
EDIT: Place this (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6681376/mv_root-hdg.tbm) in 'BtA_Demo\data\tables' and see if it works. I've no idea what the HUD will look like, though. The demo was built in the middle of the HUD upgrades and I don't remember how I set it up originally.
-
I was playing at 1920 x 1200.
I will try, thanks !
*edit* yeah, I put it in there, but the HUD is completely missing, which makes it impossible to play.
Too bad, because it looks like one of the nicer and cooler looking campaigns !
I am using 3.7.2 RC1 and Mediavps 2014... no other problems.
I will try playing in a lower resolution. Hope it can be solved !
*edit2* Hud works at 1680 x 1050 and below. Will just play on those resolutions for this mod.
Looks fun :)
-
I might as well patch it with a new hud set... if you want to wait a day or 2 until you play it, I'll make a patch and upload it.