Author Topic: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition  (Read 177087 times)

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Offline CT27

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Re: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition
In addition to what I recently posted, I encountered what might have been a glitch that actually helped me.


On "Burning Skies...", the Neya is always supposed to explode, correct?  Well, I just played it through the techroom and the Neya survived and never exploded.  I only lost one other warship so I got the achievement for that mission.


Weird huh?

 
Re: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition
So, I played this through a little while back. Mostly for the simple reason that I just wanted to fight the Nightmares, to be perfectly honest.  :p It was good -- far better than I was really expecting based on the first couple missions. (It took me a week or two to return to it after playing those -- first, I had to figure out how to switch the zoom key because I use D for yaw right, and then I ran into a bug on the second mission where landing on the carrier wouldn't end it, and it was a long mission so I didn't want to restart right away. When I finally did, it worked fine.)

And the writing was honestly quite good. On a small scale, anyway. Large-scale, the plot is almost identical to FS2, except that destroying the Sath-equivalent actually works.
Spoiler:
(Until the secret missions, anyway, which I haven't really played.)

Two questions. One: why'd you name it the Hiven? It's...not a very compelling or scary name, and I always just ended up thinking of an NPC from Star Trek Online (although that part is hardly your fault). I was expecting it to be the name of some demon or something, but Google didn't turn up anything. Is it just derived from "hive"?

Question two: what's the track labeled "ToYptWE", or something along those lines? It's used as the main battle music in the mission where the Nightmares first appear. It sounds Mass-Effect-y, but I wasn't able to find it in the ME2 OST.

 

Offline Nyctaeus

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Re: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition
To be honest, Hiven and numerous names in SG are actually... Lingular abominations I created when I was younger and didn't know how to name ships properly. It's hard to believe, but my english was even worse :P. Hiven is going to be renamed to NJ Vichama in the further update, alongside with ND Darkhorn that is gonna be named ND Requiem. More crap like that is waiting for us in further updates.

As for the track, it's actually ToEDwYD if I remeber correctly. It's Modern Warfare 2 soundtrack from The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday mission. I actually don't like that, and want to replace it with something different.

Perhaps in further updates. Now first act of Exile is our priority.
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Re: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition
Yeah, Darkhorn struck me as odd at first as well.

Thanks. Personally, I really liked it. Samara's theme fit the Nightmares really well, too.

Oh, and I still had the issue people mentioned earlier in the thread with the Meshulam's main beam. Sometimes dual Penetrators would do full damage and destroy it, but most of the time they'd only do like eleven percent. And there didn't seem to be much consistency with the angle.

 

Offline Nyctaeus

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Re: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition
SG was never supposed to be easy :P. In fact it's firing angle related issue, but also a problem with Meshulam [and Eliyahus too] main beam submodel. It's composed of four long spikes, and pivot point is in the middle of them. Penetrator is always targetting the pivot point, so you have to have one of four spikes between you and center of submodel. The best way to have hole-in-one is proper positioning. 45 degrees on every direction from basic Z axis of the ship will solve the problem.

Use HyPAcS! I mean, really! It's extremely powerfull weapon, well suited for sniper combat model in later SG missions. Excellent against bombers, and main beams of Nightmare warships alike.
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Re: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition
I use keyboard-only, the downside of which is that primary targeting at extreme long range is very very difficult. I did have a lot of success with the Hellion and especially the Titan, but the HyPAcS just had too low a rate of fire and too high an energy drain to be much use to me, even though I tend to really enjoy those types of weapons for close-range dogfighting.

Ah, so it's about the angle of rotation around the beam, not something getting in the way. That's useful info, thanks.

  

Offline Nyctaeus

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Re: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition
I will replace the beam in some further update. Maybe also start to upgrade Nightmares' models at all.
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Offline Vidmaster

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Re: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition
I am on vacation now, so I am finally downloading this months late...        Expecting good things ;-)
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Offline TrashMan

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Re: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition
OK, played trough it.

The good:
- top-notch quality and polish
- good assets and sounds
- good FREDing


The Bad:
- the Plot. It's full of gaping holes*.
- repetition. You don't even fly a bomber in any mission. You don't need to.

*
Spoiler:
Nightmares are ancients? So the ancients had a empire spanning two galaxies and they got stomped by the shivans. And their remnants activate a super-secret project to transfer their minds to bio-ship and build an armada without shivans noticing, then anihiliate shivans - when their empire at it's prime couldn't. So the shivan trap them, and the same people that built the knossos portals and out-tech the shivans can't figure how to turn it on?

That Cerberus leader - it feels like you were trying to make another Bosch/TIM, but honestly his plan never did make sense and he comes off as insane with all that "ascension" rambling. Actually, both him and the nightmares are just flat out insane.
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Offline Nyctaeus

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Re: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition
Spoiler:
Nightmares are ancients? So the ancients had a empire spanning two galaxies and they got stomped by the shivans. And their remnants activate a super-secret project to transfer their minds to bio-ship and build an armada without shivans noticing, then anihiliate shivans - when their empire at it's prime couldn't. So the shivan trap them, and the same people that built the knossos portals and out-tech the shivans can't figure how to turn it on?

That Cerberus leader - it feels like you were trying to make another Bosch/TIM, but honestly his plan never did make sense and he comes off as insane with all that "ascension" rambling. Actually, both him and the nightmares are just flat out insane.
Spoiler:
Ancient empire wasn't spanning two galaxies. At least not whole of them. Phi Minoi was one of their major settlements, like 40-50 systems and the edge od Andromeda. They discovered Shivan Gates and advanced through them to Milky Way, where they finally encountered Shivans. Ancient Empire was defeated, and remnants of Ancients fled deeper to the Andromeda, where they actually "found" something and engineered Nightmares based on something they found. SG2 was supposed to reveal, that Nightmares concept wasn't actually truly of Ancient origin, and why Shivans actually decided to cut off Nightmares instread of fighting them. That's why Nightmares are so advanced. Adraelon wasn't aware of that, just as majority of remaining Ancients. They grew Nightmares in the distant sector of Andromeda, far beyond range of Shivan fleets.

Adraelon was, in fact, completly insane. Thousands of years of sleeping and dreaming about vengeance... Well, thats nuts. Ovadiah was aware of that, so he wanted to compensate it... And he did.

Shivan Gate in Spica was actually used by Shivans as a block for Nightmare armada. Without access to Spica gate itself, so Nightmares weren't able to interfere with it from Wandering Star system. This concept was inspired by idea proposed by some member of old, and now defunct polish Freespace community. In his theory, Knossos wasn't built as a subspace motivator, but as a device to control stability of individual subspace node. Although it wasn't primary usage for Spica Gate [as connecting galaxies was], Shivans used it that way to stop Adraelon.
To be honest, I would not make that unbalanced story today :P. Story of SG isn't full of holes, but it suffers from it's age and needs some improvements. SG:Reborn was supposed to do that, but Reborn was cancelled due to lack of time and motivation. We finally decided to upgrade everything we already released without significant plot changes, but further improvements for first act are still possible.
« Last Edit: September 20, 2017, 07:43:31 am by Nyctaeus »
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Re: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition
- repetition. You don't even fly a bomber in any mission. You don't need to.
It's because of evolution of GTVA military doctrine. Role of bombers in SG is relatively small when compared to FS2. Assault fighters with Maxim-like weapons and snipers with Penetrators/HYPACS took most of their tasks.

Quote
Spoiler:
Nightmares are ancients? So the ancients had a empire spanning two galaxies and they got stomped by the shivans. And their remnants activate a super-secret project to transfer their minds to bio-ship and build an armada without shivans noticing, then anihiliate shivans - when their empire at it's prime couldn't. So the shivan trap them, and the same people that built the knossos portals and out-tech the shivans can't figure how to turn it on?

That Cerberus leader - it feels like you were trying to make another Bosch/TIM, but honestly his plan never did make sense and he comes off as insane with all that "ascension" rambling. Actually, both him and the nightmares are just flat out insane.

Spoiler:
You are missing what Adraelon told us in his monolog. Ancients started the Nightmare project in a very late phase of the war. Too late for the armada to grow in strength enough to save the "pure" Ancients. So Ancient Empire was destroyed, but Nightmares, not detected by the Shivans, survived. They evolved, reproduced, consumed matter for centuries before they reached "maturity" and were strong enough to bring the war to the Shivans.

As Nyctaeus said and as it was supposed to be revealed in SG2, it could not be possible to create the Nightmares with Ancient technology alone. They are hybrids of Ancients themselves and some beings much older and much more powerful.

From time perspective I see that some details of SG storyline may seem plot holes because they are revealed only enigmatically. We kept too much stuff for next chapters. Well, maybe some day we will decide to make a sequel or at least write some short stories that would reveal the missing parts.

 

Offline Nyctaeus

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Re: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition
Spoiler:
Nightmares in SG are still... Nightmares. If anybody is familiar with Reciprocity may suspect further outcome of events in SG. Shadow Genesis is in fact my amalgam of original ideas by Aldo and other people involved in creation of original Nightmares. And also it's a tribute.

Let's say we have detailed explanation about Nightmares' true origin and motives. All original Recriprocity ideas were actually a foundation for SG, and become more or less incorporated in Shadow Genesis plot. One of signature features of SG:Reborn was cleaning off all the issues, but Reborn was cancelled.
« Last Edit: September 26, 2017, 11:44:43 am by Nyctaeus »
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Offline AdmiralRalwood

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Re: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition
[spoilers]...[/spoiler]
That's a potentially disastrous mismatch...
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Offline theperfectdrugsk

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Re: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition
Found a bit of a problem.  In the mission "Through the Back Door," the checkpoints are basically useless, as they disable afterburners.  My guess is that since you start the mission with pilot control disabled, it doesn't adequately return control when loading the checkpoint.  As far as I can tell, it's only afterburners that don't work. If you wait until the mission gives you pilot control, the 15 second window for loading a checkpoint is passed, so that's not an option either.

Good campaign though, really enjoying it so far.

 
Re: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition
Played the campaign 3 or 4 times since it came out... awesome work!

One thing that I noticed...

Spoiler:
Basicly the last message Jadhav leaves to Miles is: "STAY AWAY FROM THE SOC!!". Miles ignores that, with the consequence of almost becoming assasinated by them. He survives due to being an ace fighter pilot and having help from his friends. What does he do next? He leaves his friends and goes aboard an SOC ship where they have infinite opportunities to get rid of him.

Spoiler:
Nightmares in SG are still... Nightmares. If anybody is familiar with Reciprocity may suspect further outcome of events in SG. Shadow Genesis is in fact my amalgam of original ideas by Aldo and other people involved in creation of original Nightmares. And also it's a tribute.

Unless you don't have them already - I managed to obtain some of Reciprocitys original design docs in case you're interested.

 
Re: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition
Found a bit of a problem.  In the mission "Through the Back Door," the checkpoints are basically useless, as they disable afterburners.  My guess is that since you start the mission with pilot control disabled, it doesn't adequately return control when loading the checkpoint.  As far as I can tell, it's only afterburners that don't work. If you wait until the mission gives you pilot control, the 15 second window for loading a checkpoint is passed, so that's not an option either.

Good campaign though, really enjoying it so far.
Ok, thanks for noticing. We don't have a plan for a patch in the nearest future, still working on Exile 1.2, but we'll keep this in mind.


[/quote]
Played the campaign 3 or 4 times since it came out... awesome work!

One thing that I noticed...

Spoiler:
Basicly the last message Jadhav leaves to Miles is: "STAY AWAY FROM THE SOC!!". Miles ignores that, with the consequence of almost becoming assasinated by them. He survives due to being an ace fighter pilot and having help from his friends. What does he do next? He leaves his friends and goes aboard an SOC ship where they have infinite opportunities to get rid of him.
Spoiler:
He's taking a great risk, that's for sure. But keep in mind that when he decides to join the SOC, he knows much more about the plot, factions and conflict within the special forces than Jadhav did when he sent the message. Beyond the Shivan Gate Miles eliminates some of the conspirators and learns Sinclair is on the "good side" in the Nightmare research project, but after losing Jadhav's squadron the admiral lacks men he can trust.

Another thing that influenced his decision was witnessing Ovadiah taking control over the Nightmares - now Miles knows GTVA's survival may depend on ability to get Nightmares on their side so he is more willing to take the risks if it can help achieve that.
« Last Edit: January 29, 2018, 03:26:58 pm by Macielos »

 

Offline Redox

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Re: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition
Question, I started to play SG through wxlauncher but now play all my mods through Knossos. I can't seem to transfer my save games over. I've tried to copy pilot files from the default C:\Freespace 2\data\players to multiple places in the C:\FreespaceOpen directory. Any suggestions?

 

Offline Nyctaeus

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Re: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition
Got any errors or similar stuff?
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Offline Novachen

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Re: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition
Maybe you played with portable mode in wxlauncher. That means, that all Pilot files are saved in the game directory. In data\players.

Default setting in Knossos is system mode, so you have to copy the pilot files into the C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\HardLightProductions\FreeSpaceOpen\data\players folder.

AFAIK Portable Mode is not very usable in Knossos atm, because it generates a working game folder only with the start of the game.

Maybe it could work, if you create a data\player folder in the SG-2.1-2017-A Folder and so make your pilot part of the mod itself... but i am not sure. The AppData path is a much better solution in this case.
« Last Edit: March 04, 2018, 01:09:24 am by Novachen »
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Offline Redox

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Re: [RELEASE] Shadow Genesis: 2017 Edition
It worked thank you!!!!!! I didn't know where Knossos stored its save games until now. Apparently wxlauncher was installed in portable mode but I don't remember selecting that option.
Appreciate it!

One other thing. The mod seems to have the E key assigned to zoom. I use that key to roll right. Anyway to change it?


Maybe you played with portable mode in wxlauncher. That means, that all Pilot files are saved in the game directory. In data\players.

Default setting in Knossos is system mode, so you have to copy the pilot files into the C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\HardLightProductions\FreeSpaceOpen\data\players folder.

AFAIK Portable Mode is not very usable in Knossos atm, because it generates a working game folder only with the start of the game.

Maybe it could work, if you create a data\player folder in the SG-2.1-2017-A Folder and so make your pilot part of the mod itself... but i am not sure. The AppData path is a much better solution in this case.
« Last Edit: March 04, 2018, 09:37:06 pm by Redox »