Author Topic: My first mission SP/MPCoop  (Read 3891 times)

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Offline Geallen

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My first mission SP/MPCoop
Well folks I've spent nearly 24 hours on this bad boy. Started out as an simple "Defend the survivors" mission, to something much more complicated. Has been tested in SP, and if you run into any problems on either version specify which.

The first part which is rather small was made Thurs.-Friday. The rest was made today(Sunday) with a total of 19 hours staring into the computer screen, photons bombarding my poor eyes. With more to come, and new mission and ideas to try out. Enjoy and comment!

PS: SP is Berilion, MP is Berillion; don't peek in Fred it ruins the fun :P

Updated SP- http://www.sendspace.com/file/8kzurf

Updated MP- http://www.sendspace.com/file/k1o2bs (2P)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/p80kbt (3P)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/3pqu6a (4P)

To Do list:
Improve Objectives.
Create a larger emphasis on defending the survivors late stage.
Fix the damned rearm code I copy-pasted from a topic off this forum.
Enhance dialogue, and put more emphasis on fighter to ship communication.
Perhaps in the future create a PvP version.
Learn to use directives and implement them.
Balance late stage Battlestar V Basestars. Cylons get eaten for breakfast.
Actually create a ending.
Perhaps draw the community together, and put voice acting in.
Finally if I've lost all stuborness fix the Raiders not in Squadrons caused by me missing the entire "Wing Editor".

[attachment deleted by an evil time traveler]
« Last Edit: April 24, 2014, 10:40:42 am by Geallen »

 

Offline Geallen

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Re: My first mission SP/MPCoop
Here is a update for singleplayer. Multi will have to wait until I can actually figure out most of SEXP's. ATM I am bashing my head agianst Directives, and none of the trouble shooting, or guides present are helping me. First part of the mission is messed up now. But the only thing missing really is Dialogue.

New Squadrons. Increased difficulty, and some more events.

PS: Combat landings work, however they are difficult to attain, and also have encountered a bug wherein I was stuck to the carrier.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/syuq2a
« Last Edit: April 21, 2014, 07:33:05 pm by Geallen »

 

Offline karajorma

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Re: My first mission SP/MPCoop
Why are directives giving you problems? They should be pretty simple, the Diaspora walkthrough should cover how to set them up and the only real gotcha is covered in the troubleshooting section.
Karajorma's Freespace FAQ. It's almost like asking me yourself.

[ Diaspora ] - [ Seeds Of Rebellion ] - [ Mind Games ]

 

Offline Geallen

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Re: My first mission SP/MPCoop
I seemed to have solved them now. The problem was that from the troubleshooting/event section. It gave me the suggestion that all directives needed is-even-true-delay, that was the crux that really made yesterday not fun for me. It would be helpful to show a picture of a simple directive using the chain option.

Now I'm working to make the mission more interactive. Then will move onto tackling any problems with Multi-coop.

Edit: Also here's an update, the mission now has a ending. But I won't be able to test it until tomorrow. I got this done on my freetime in work so enjoy.
« Last Edit: April 22, 2014, 11:10:19 am by Geallen »

 

Offline Geallen

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Re: My first mission SP/MPCoop
Well, I've encountered a problem with any mission derived from the original file. At first I thought it was because that all those files had the same Mission Spec name. That wasn't the case so then I moved every other duplicate(well sortive dups) from the mission folder elsewhere and it still gives me this message. I'll have to look into it later and figure it out. But posting here could give me an answer as well. So hopefully I can resolve this so I can play with my friends :D.

"ERANGE: String error. Please Report.
Trying to put into 32 byte buffer:
Berillion Graveyard Rescue(2P).fs2
ntdll.dll! KiFastSystemCallRet
kernel32.dll! WaitForSingleObject + 18 bytes
fs2_open_Diaspora_R1.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_Diaspora_R1.exe! <no symbol>
"

 

Offline General Battuta

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Re: My first mission SP/MPCoop
The file path + file name is too long. Either give the mission a shorter name or move your Diaspora director to C:\Games\ instead of wherever you have it.

 

Offline karajorma

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Re: My first mission SP/MPCoop
I don't think the problem is the file path, that should give a different error. File name could very well be the issue though.

It's pretty much what it actually says. There's a name somewhere that is over 31 characters long and shouldn't be. The debug build is much better at tracking the cause of this sort of error down but checking the filename is a great place to look at first. Remember the .fs2 extension counts as 4 of the allowed 31 characters.

Or if Geallen can post the broken mission a coder could probably figure out which sting in a few minutes.
Karajorma's Freespace FAQ. It's almost like asking me yourself.

[ Diaspora ] - [ Seeds Of Rebellion ] - [ Mind Games ]

 

Offline Geallen

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Re: My first mission SP/MPCoop
Ahh, alright I'll start looking at that in my free time. BTW all those missions up in DL section that are Multi, have this problem. I think I know the exact causes though.

Update: Alright I found the exact cause now. It was the file names, so I'll post updated version after I'm done. Thanks alot for the help.
« Last Edit: April 24, 2014, 10:26:28 am by Geallen »

 

Offline karajorma

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Re: My first mission SP/MPCoop
Well it seems that I finally get time to play and review this, and you decide to update when I'm halfway through playing it. :p Anyway I'll comment on the issues I found in the earlier version I played, if you've fixed the issue already, just ignore it.

As usual when reviewing / playtesting a mission, I'm going to be absolutely merciless about complaints. I know that can come off like I'm whining about the mission but I do this not cause it was a bad mission (it wasn't) but cause I think that even expert mission designers need every scrap of feedback they can make to make the best mission possible. With that in mind, here are my issues with the mission.


1) When the mission briefing starts, the gridlines are somewhat askew. I know there are a few Diaspora missions that have the same issue, but you won't find that in any of my missions cause I consider it to be somewhat sloppy. Make sure you use the  Level Object and Align Object controls to get them looking good.

2) The mission starts with a blank grid which is visually unappealing. Get at least an icon or two up.

3) The briefing has a large number of icons piled on top of each other. You're also using the fighter icon when the fighter wing icon is much more suitable.

4) You haven't changed the Custom Wing Names settings from the Mission Notes Editor. This means that only Alpha wing shows up on the HUD while Bravo wing doesn't appear on either the loadout screen either. This seems rather strange since the player is able to assign at least two members of Alpha wing to fly Raptors but yet can't change the loadout on the raptors that are supposedly under their control in Bravo wing.

5) Yeah I know it's a minor point but your wing name choices differ from those that the Diaspora team used. If you check the help file you'll see a link to the BSG Phonetic Alphabet which we generally use for naming Cylon wings but not Cylon capital ships or Colonial wings. The use of colors for Colonial wings is canon but somewhat vaguely used in the show. That said, I don't know if anyone other than a Diaspora FREDder would have noticed.

6) The Escort Pathios objective evaluates to true when waypoints are done. But without a message, there is no in-game reason why one of your objectives suddenly appears on screen as completed. A "Pothios on station" message would work wonders here. (The actual objective itself is rather strange with 3 triggers, two of which are simply TRUE.

7) The same goes for the Assume CAP objective which suddenly comes true when Tyber is destroyed, regardless of whatever else is going on at the time.

8) You might want to consider making the 3rd secondary objective into a bonus or invalid objective so that it isn't present at the start of the mission. I cover the use of bonus and invalid objectives here.

9) None of the Cylon basestars are on the escort list. They all really should be on there but given that some of those basestars are mission critical objectives, they definitely need to be on there. Cobolt should also appear on the list for the same reason.

10) Similarly the priority targets such as the Cylon heavy raiders should all have the Targetable As Bomb ship flag set for them. This allows player to simply press the B key to cycle through their priority targets.

11) You should be using the No Arrival Message flag from the Wings Editor for any wings that have a message associated with them. This prevents the scripted message you added being immediately followed by the builtin "New Contacts on DRADIS" type message from a wingman.

12) One of the Daliance's messages is actually sent from the Cerberus by mistake. I forget which one but it specifically refers to the Cerberus which makes the whole thing very, very odd.

13) I noticed that (at least) the Pathios and the Virgos Valor were engaging the enemy basestars but not actually pointing at them, unable to bring the under nose cannon to bear. This is rather stupid as this is the Bolitho's primary cannon.

14) I couldn't rearm (despite being told I could) and the ending of the mission was a red-alert rather strangely. I assume this is cause the mission is unfinished rather than by mistake / design though.


Anyway, overall I enjoyed the mission (although it might be a bit long at nearly 20 minutes). If you need any help implementing any of my suggestions, I'll be more than happy to help.
Karajorma's Freespace FAQ. It's almost like asking me yourself.

[ Diaspora ] - [ Seeds Of Rebellion ] - [ Mind Games ]

 

Offline Geallen

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Re: My first mission SP/MPCoop
Writing this on my way to work. The above points are valid, and don't worry I'll never be offended by criticism especially helpful criticism.  Its good now in foresight you didn't play the newer version, I was quite tired after doing some home renovations that have been going on for too long now. And accidentally left on invulnerability! XD