1

Fate of the Galaxy / Re: SW:ESB-Revisited Released Today

« Last post by On_Your_Six on August 17, 2017, 12:09:35 pm »

I own the Art of A New Hope book, nice to see they have them all in one volume finally.  Might pick one up myself.

https://www.amazon.ca/Star-Wars-Art-Ralph-McQuarrie/dp/1419717936

2

The FRED Workshop / Re: A Knossos dilemma

« Last post by xenocartographer on August 17, 2017, 10:54:27 am »

Well, I guess there's still the problem of how they get through the node if the portal is supposed to be inactive.

You could say that the node is stable enough that very small craft can traverse it in small numbers. Upon finding the node, the Apocalypse sends an Anubis or Isis through to scout... and then the node suddenly stabilizes, as the scout finds the portal and accidentally activates it. This also helps makes the crew look "competent and forward-thinking".

Retail implies that the Ancients and Vasudans had peaceful contact in their history, and if you want to, you could even tie this into that. If the portal's subspace signature resembles that of a Vasudan jump drive, then the debrief could speculate that the scout's transit is what caused the node to reactivate. That answers the "no Shivans" question nicely - they could send a fighter or two through, and maybe have in the past, but there's no benefit to doing so, so they don't any more.

3

Fate of the Galaxy / Re: SW:ESB-Revisited Released Today

« Last post by chief1983 on August 17, 2017, 09:47:41 am »

I love McQuarrie concept art...anybody else?  If there's a big collection of it somewhere that can be grabbed all at once that'd be pretty neat, just saying.

Although, the first McQuarrie art I ever saw was his stuff for Star Trek.

4

The FRED Workshop / Re: A Knossos dilemma

« Last post by Kestrellius on August 17, 2017, 08:35:32 am »

If you choose option 1, you could also have the battlegroup scan the unknown node for stability on the way into the first node to make sure that it is usable.  They then detect a highly unusual and almost completely unstable signature. It is stable along a regular pattern or something, almost as if it is artificial.

  The arrival of a large shivan fleet forces them through against their better judgement, and if you give them about 90 seconds to scan and discuss the node and their options on the other side, then they can connect destroying the knossos with the unusual subspace signature and decide to attack the node - not necessarily even kill it. "Because of its low stability, maybe we can collapse the subspace pathway by damaging the artificial node structure."  Or something along those lines.

You could even have pieces of the knossos missing or damaged already to make low stability and attack more plausible.

Oh, that's a good idea. Especially since part of the catalyst for the next section of the plot is that the people living in the next system, which is only accessible via two Knossos'd nodes, have been having a war, and the other one is on the verge of destruction when the battlegroup arrives...

Well, I guess there's still the problem of how they get through the node if the portal is supposed to be inactive.

5

FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) / Re: Messages.tbl Query

« Last post by xenocartographer on August 17, 2017, 06:34:49 am »

Simms' "Target down!" is also a self-praise message, and I think there are a few others in WiH.

6

FreeSpace Conversion / [RELEASE] FreeSpace Port German Retranslation Package (1.0)

« Last post by Novachen on August 17, 2017, 05:44:24 am »

Heyya everybody,

as i already announced in the FSPort Mission Upgrade Pack thread i have finished my second Freespace Mod translation into german. This time it is the FreeSpace Port.
This thread is more an information for everybody who can speak german and maybe would like to experience the game with german text, but do not visit a german speaking community anymore because that is.. yeah, quite dead, unfortunately.

Of course i know, that the Freespace Port offer a german language pack that is based upon the official german retail release of FreeSpace: The Great War. But in my opinion the translation of the game was never really good. So i retranslated this game from scratch and ignored the previous translation completely. With this Package you will have a FreeSpace Port with english voice over and german text. Because i did not pay attention for the retail-compatibility i translated also all the single missions that are available through the tech room, even most of them are not very good by today standards.

What is this Package translating?
- 89 missions, that have german text to, if available, english voice over.
- The complete technical database in german.
- All cutscenes with english voice over and german subtitles.

What is different to the original files?
- This package includes everything from the Mission Upgrade Pack, look for details there.
- Some objects in the missions now have a german name.
- Especially in Act 2 of "The Great War" the text is different from the speech in terms of system names, because i tried to fix some chronology errors this way.
- A custom mv_root-lcl.tbm and mv_root-shp.tbm from the FS2-MVPs to fix some errors, that are caused if you use the string id system.

What is needed for this?
FreeSpace2 ( )
FSO3.8.0-RC4 (even it should also work with much older builds)
MediaVPs 2014
and
FreeSpace Port 3.5 with FSPort MediaVPs 2014 of course.

Download
The Translation itself:
FreeSpace Port (German) (900 KB)

Optional - The Movies with subtitles:
FreeSpace Port German Subtitled Movies in 480p (570 MB)
FreeSpace Port German Subtitles Movies in 720p (828 MB)
FreeSpace Port German Subtitled Movies in 1080p (1,03 GB)

The movie packages includes the community remastered Ancients and Ending Sequences in the desired resolution as well the other movies, that are not upgraded in 480p. For the Retail movies i used the German DVD edition of "FreeSpace: The Great War" as source, which had a higher resolution and so better picture quality than any of the CD or even digital releases of this game. So these videos should look better than the movies that are available in the english ogg package.

Also this package includes the extended Ancients4 sequence with the Destruction of Vasuda Prime as an additional and so deactivatable file.

Installation
You have to extract the downloaded archives into the Freespace2-Folder. If you using the wxlauncher, you have to load "FreiRaum: FreeSpace Port" as the active mod. If you use another launcher, that uses folder names, you have to load "FreiRaum_fsport" instead.
If you want to use the standard Ancients 4 sequence, you have to delete the "FreiRaum_fsport_Filme_<Resolution> Xtra.vp" after installation.

Interesting links
German Release Thread
Developmentthread for my German Translations
Page on ModDB

Some impressions






Also you can find additional images on ModDB page or in the mentioned thread for the Mission Upgrade Pack.

7

The FRED Workshop / Re: A Knossos dilemma

« Last post by Cyborg17 on August 17, 2017, 05:21:24 am »

If you choose option 1, you could also have the battlegroup scan the unknown node for stability on the way into the first node to make sure that it is usable.  They then detect a highly unusual and almost completely unstable signature. It is stable along a regular pattern or something, almost as if it is artificial.

  The arrival of a large shivan fleet forces them through against their better judgement, and if you give them about 90 seconds to scan and discuss the node and their options on the other side, then they can connect destroying the knossos with the unusual subspace signature and decide to attack the node - not necessarily even kill it. "Because of its low stability, maybe we can collapse the subspace pathway by damaging the artificial node structure."  Or something along those lines.

You could even have pieces of the knossos missing or damaged already to make low stability and attack more plausible.

8

FreeSpace Discussion / Re: Screencap Contest - August 2017

« Last post by Deathsnake on August 17, 2017, 03:28:47 am »

Torgo Sector Base with Shuttles, Medical Transport and two Marine Transporter for R&R.

9

Gaming Discussion / Re: What are you playing right now?

« Last post by Rhys on August 17, 2017, 01:05:14 am »

Just finished Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. If you haven't heard of it, it's a relatively short, modestly priced ($30 USD) hack and slash/puzzle game with a central theme of mental illness. A lot of games have tried to depict what psychosis is like and none of them have gotten anywhere close to what these developers have managed to pull off. They actually worked with various psychiatrists and people suffering from mental illness to make the experience as authentic as possible, and speaking as someone who's experienced some mild psychosis before, they really nailed what it's like at times. They make use of binaural ASMR-like audio to give you the impression that there are voices right beside you as you play (wear headphones!). They rarely stop talking and will constantly command you, comment on, question, and criticize your actions. It was so surreal. I had to put the game down a few times because it got a bit overwhelming, but the story kept bringing me back.

Without spoiling too much, you play as this Pict warrior woman who's on a psychotic quest to venture into Viking hell to rescue her lover's soul. The combat is pretty basic, and nothing to really rave about, and there's a bit of backtracking required when solving puzzles that I found a bit tedious at times. Other than that, it's fantastic. It's one of the best looking games I've played so far, and the soundtrack is awesome. I really can't stop gushing about this game. It really kind of connected with me on a personal level to an extent. Very few games have been able to do that. That's what I got from it, anyway. I'm sure others will have a different view of it. Just my two cents.

10

FreeSpace Discussion / Re: How to keep up with new builds, ships and effects?

« Last post by Goober5000 on August 17, 2017, 12:24:19 am »

The Asset Releases subforum is a good place to look.  The Apollo thread is the fifth one on the first page, currently.  The FreeSpace Upgrade forum is a good place to track works-in-progress.

The wiki is also a good place to look.  Here is a massive page filled with community-created ships.