Author Topic: [PREVIEW] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft  (Read 17851 times)

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Offline HLD_Prophecy

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Re: [PREVIEW & HELP WANTED] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft
The story is fine as is. The plot however needs a bit of work, which is currently what is going on behind the scenes.


This is interesting, I've never heard a distinction between story and plot. Could you explain? I should know for my own mod's sake... :P

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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Re: [PREVIEW & HELP WANTED] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft
I've never heard a distinction between story and plot. Could you explain? I should know for my own mod's sake... :P

That's not suprising considering plot and story are used interchangeably often.

A plot is what structures a story, turns it from a sequence of events into a narrative. There is a famous destinction (wikipedia tells me it's a quote from E. M. Forster):
- "The king died and then the queen died" qualifies as a story
- "The king died, and then the queen died of grief" qualifies as a plot

One thing to remember is that not every story must have a plot, but most do - it's just the way we usually think.
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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Re: [PREVIEW & HELP WANTED] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft
This has been staring me down from my door far too long:

Image no longer avalible - Sorry - 0rph3u5
All mission titles are WIP and maybe subject to change.

Who can say what it is going to look like after this long weekend?



And a long overdue shout-out to HLP-user xenocartographer who has agreed to help out with the plot and the new fiction. Hopefully quelling my lingering fears and making sure you are going to see this campaign in the near future.


Two weeks remain to ask questions....
« Last Edit: November 17, 2017, 09:45:27 am by 0rph3u5 »
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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Re: [PREVIEW & HELP WANTED] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft
"Understand please that as you stand in this hall you stand in a monument of failure. A failure that 30 years of your predecessors have sought to redeem. For 30 years ago the Shivan destroyer [...] Lucifer attacked Vasuda Prime. It decimated our people, it wiped out entire cultures and it reduced our civilisation to ash and glass.

You and your classmates were born in a time were this is irrevocable fact. To let nothing like it happen ever again has been your duty since the day you were born."


- Admiral Usor (GTVA), opening speech to the class of 2365 at the Vasudan Imperial War College



"[...] Earth had been humanity's by coincidence, not by design. For the colonies this could be different: Their worlds had been made by humanity (in a sense) and would continue to be formed by humans. The new society of the colonies, without Earth, would be build from the ground up; No cosmic coincidences, only human ability and determination would make Neo-Terra. As builders Hideo and his peers would eclipse the achievements of the Great War."



Since there were no questions I've been busy writing unlockable bonus content ...
« Last Edit: May 04, 2017, 03:25:01 am by 0rph3u5 »
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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Re: [PREVIEW & HELP WANTED] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft
Production Update
I usually make these later in month but I want to accellerate the work scheulde a bit and making progress reports seems to keep me on track like it did last year. Screenshots will soon follow, esspecially since the theme is this month's screenshot contest is playing to my advantage :D

1. Mission 10 - working title "Dark Amaltheia"

Mission 10 has been notoriously difficult to get right; simply because where it stands as one of biggest battles of the campaign, but not being a climactic mission. In order to trim the fat almost a 1/5 of original content has gone out of the window, cutting away the inital 2-3 minutes of pure dialogue and an in-mission jump.

Image no longer avalible - Sorry - 0rph3u5
All gone.

This has happened because I am transfering some of the content I originally had planned for a fiction entry into the mission. Original dialogue and fiction would have had some overlap as it were, but the pre-mission fiction now has a very different focus so I need to re-write the dialogue. Some of it also transfers over to Missions 11 and 12 which had some inital content overlap in the dialogue (uhm, long development cycle and all). Hopefully it will be also more lean now.

It also has the advantage as it cuts one of the more bug-prone set-ups in the mission which has the actual in-mission jump into an active combat area. The NTF's 71st is now in vanguard of the assault on the Epsilon Pegasi-Capella Node, instead of reinforcing an attack in progress.

While this means that I am skipping out of one of the opportunties SCP-enhancements provide, I hope this will make the mission better in the long run.

The Mission's central feature - that it is tailored to depending on your pick between the Zeus and the Medusa for yourself - is still alive and well. Though the balance is still a bit off, as the Medusa-path seems to easier overall, it will stay the integral part of this mission.

2. Mission 13 - working title "The Good died young"

Speaking of cutting room left-overs:

HEAVY SPOILER WARNING

Hidden Text: Spoiler includes an image • Show
Spoiler:
The GTD Ithaca will no longer make an appearance in Mission 13. She has been replaced by the GTD Phoenicia in all respects.


While no longer in mission per se, I am leaving the ship and related messages in the file. They will be deactivated and hopefully that will be it bugwise

Spoiler:
The original appearance of the Ithaca and her primary squadron the GTVA's 41st Dragon Knights was a shout-out to The Lost Generation's parent campaign, Workings of the Warp. That campaigns protagonist would lead the charge to force the NTF into retreat. However as Workings of the Warp is no longer a thing, I figured to cut out the reference.

As the Phoenicia has a rather unfortunate destiny ahead of her, I figured I would give her a moment of glory here. It also helped culling the number of Orions in the campaign which would have been 6 (GTD Carthage, GTD Messana, NTD Vasa, NTD Vindicator & NTD Uhuru plus the GTD Ithaca) as opposed to 1 Colossus, 1 Hecate, 1 Typhon and 2 Hatshepsuts; something is even more pressing as the both the Aquitane, the Hedetet and the Memphis never appear in any mission of this campaign.
The GTVA's technological advantage should be more appearent now.

3. various missions

I have begun adding the conditions for the unlockable side-stories, which will flesh out aspects of the story or just provide a (hopefully) nice read. All content will be added to the Intelligence section of techroom. Currently there are some incidental clusters of unlocks (e.g. Mission 9 or Mission 12), but I hope to strech them evenly across the campaign.

No techroom-animations are planned right now, but it is something I would like to do after the inital release (just like voice acting).

4. Tables

4a. I have given the IFF system a overhaul, adding 6 new purpose build IFFs via iff_defs.tbl. Considering the original FS2 made due with just five, this happened because I no longer could make due with just the 5 for some mission. Special behavior had to be added.

4b. All tables data for the Bonus mission has been entered into respective ships- and weapons-.tbms, adding 4 new ships, including Black Wolf's GTSC Whiteside and Woomeister's/Trashman's Perseus Adv, as well as 6 new weapons exclusive to the bonus mission. SSM.tbl is in the works.

5. Squadron Logos

To keep with the current scheudle I had to cut corner here and there, so the squadron logos for the NTF's 71st and *spoilers*-squadrons will not make it in the inital release.

The logo for the 71st is a design nightmare, as it has to display the warped self-perception of the self-styled "Liberators" while not being too insensitive or too tame. (Logo designs for the NTF's 38th and 87th squadrons were easy to design in by comparision, as you will see in a post release update)

For the logo for the *spoilers*-squadron I have a very clear vision, as there is a historical example I would like to emulate. Early modern military heraldy is a bit complicated, esspecially when it mixes some very elaborate elements.
« Last Edit: November 17, 2017, 09:45:56 am by 0rph3u5 »
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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Re: [PREVIEW & HELP WANTED] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft
Production Update

1. Integration of FuryAI

So to deal with complaints against mission balancing during the Beta Test in November/December I switched from retail AI to Fury AI. This has caused the expected balance upset and I am fixing/micromanaging it.

Act 1 (Mission 1-5) are already done.

I require some beta testers to help me see if things are working out. Apply here:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=93316.msg1848154#new


2. Targeting Helper

To prove that I have not been just pressing buttons and playing games in the forced development pause, I added a series of events to several missions in Act 2 (in which you canonically fly a Zeus) which help highlight mission critical ship-to-ship-beam turrets. Now I finally managed to debug it and it works:




3. Message box!

Thanks to Axem, the mod now features the super useful message box-script. This put dialogue front and centre. Also it will be readable regardless of resolution!


Dialogue WIP

4. Mission 11

... is on track now that xenocartographer's script to make the IFF bending happen.


5. Screenshots

... were entred in this month's Screencap Contest.

This is no new material but the AI keeps me busy with the old missions at this time.


More updates next week!
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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Re: [PREVIEW & HELP WANTED] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft
Production Update

1. Mission 10 is coming along fine


The NTD Vasa and the GTD Messana ready to fight for control over a jump node - the LOD settings on those Mjolnirs aren't helping.


The NTCv Jacquerie protecting a NTF science cruiser (it's not the Hinton). I like my additional light sources.

Quote
MISSION STATISTICS
Ship Count: 65
Start Count: 1
Waypoint Count: 31
Jump Node Count: 1

Quote
#Wings      ;! 21 total
[...]
#Events      ;! 113 total

... and far from done

2. BETA TESTERS WANTED

Still looking for Beta Testers to help me sort out all the changes after the changing to FuryAI. This is really urgent as all data I previously had is practically worthless at this point.
« Last Edit: November 17, 2017, 09:46:19 am by 0rph3u5 »
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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Re: [PREVIEW & HELP WANTED] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft
(cont. from previous)

3. Interface & Mainhall

Another small update:

Thanks to FreeSpaceFreak, Glamep and Flaming_Sword, I know have access to an almost complete set of NTF-specific interface art (the fiction viewer is missing but I can fix that until release)  :yes:

And Mjn.Mixeal's "Soyakaze" mainhall is now working  :yes:

4. Sample fiction

I think you know this one....

Quote
Excerpt from a declassified GTVI report

> Begin Excerpt

The goal of Operation ''Alley Cat'' was determine the current status of the ETAK device(s) as well as to re-evaluate the viability of the ETAK technology as a whole in response to recent developments.

While multiple operatives acquired scans of the NTF Iceni as well as supports ship, including the NTSC Hinton, NTSC Daubney and the NTT Sunder, Special Operations Command was unable to provide additional specifications on the ETAK device(s). Our understanding of the technology Admiral Bosch seeks to utilize remains limited due to the destruction of all original research materials.

In lieu of results from scans, Special Operations Command opted to capture the NTT Sunder while in transit to the Sirius-Regulus Jump Node. While this action compromised all Operatives involved the NTT Sunder was captured.

Preliminary, non-invasive investigation of the NTT Sunder's cargo however revealed that the ship was not carrying proprietary technology unique to the ETAK Project. In fact, as far as Analysis can determine the capture of transport ship had little impact on what material is being loaded onto the NTF Iceni.
This suggests that all critical components for the completion of the ETAK device(s) are already aboard the Rebel command ship or that the device has already been completed.

> End Excerpt
Small note: "Analysis" is an entity within the GTVI, hence the capitialisation.

Spoiler:
If you are know thinking: "wait, the first loop of the main campaign was pointless?" - There is still something you do not know :D
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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Re: [PREVIEW & HELP WANTED] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft

Moving pictures! MOVING pictures!

The mission is obviously not polished to perfection yet but here we are! (same goes for the video but embarassing problem with the capture quality I had last year are gone!)
« Last Edit: May 23, 2017, 12:13:23 pm by 0rph3u5 »
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: [PREVIEW & HELP WANTED] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft
Production Update

1. Mission 11

Mission 11 almost done. It is going through a debugging phase at the moment. But I am once that is out of the way, I will but the balancing screws in, so to say, and add all those lovely failstates. And it will be finished!

Code: [Select]
MISSION STATISTICS
Ship Count: 59  [may increase due to balancing]
Start Count: 1
Waypoint Count: 45
Jump Node Count: 1

Code: [Select]
#Events ;! 132 total [does not include events for failstates yet]
It is also about 20 minutes long. (Yes, I am considering to add a checkpoint at the 9 minute mark, but finish first quality of life later).

2. Mission 10 - Changes to the Zeus and Medusa

As I talked before, the Mission 10 will have some alterations in response to which bomber you pick. To prevent that there cross-contamination between the archetypes I have established, I introduced a new rule to the -shp.tbm that makes a minor alteration to the loadout options available to the Zeus and Medusa:

Zeus:
- All banks can now take Hornets, previously the Zeus could only take the non-player "Hornet#Weak"
- Banks 1 and 2 can no longer take Cyclops or the non-player Cyclops#Short

Medusa:
- Banks 2 and 3 can no longer take the Stiletto II.

Giving the Zeus Hornets is to further upgrade its role a missile boat, despite its low per bank-capacity (40, 40, 40). It is maneuverable enough to do fine and the selection between 3 kinds of secondaries (including the Infyrno and Harpoon) makes it somewhat versatile.
Taking away the Cyclops from 2 banks means to restrict its maximum loadout of the torpedoes to 2, down from 6. However since there will always be plenty NTF warships around when you fly the Zeus by default, the lack of torpedoes doesn't have a critical impact. This also encourages more anti-turret and anti-subsystem play which is less frustrating than the torpedo dive bombing.

With the Medusa the change is just so you don't cheat your way around the mission rules in Mission 10 (yes, I am petty like that) but I didn't remove the Stiletto from the loadout options completely because using it against turrets is still a good away to increase your survivability. It just means that you only take in the lowest capacity bank (Bank 1 has 40, Bank 2 and 3 have 80 each), so you can still hold up to 5 for an attack.

3. Teasing you

Watch this space on the 22nd.
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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Re: [PREVIEW & HELP WANTED] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft
I may not have mastered the art of moving pictures yet but here is another gameplay preview!


Since the campaign is set parallel to the main Freespace 2 campaign it was quite inevitable to address where it would end. This is when the end begins.

The mission is still a bit in disarray due to the implementation of FuryAI - competent wingmen are the worst. And I am sorry that I didn't manage to show you the acrobatics the GVF Heset is capable of (especially now the FuryAI actually makes them use their ability for limited directional thrust), but believe me you are better of hidding form them in the Alexandria's flak screen most of the time.

ps. Moddb-page is now live:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-lost-generation-ashcroft
« Last Edit: June 22, 2017, 05:46:57 am by 0rph3u5 »
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline HLD_Prophecy

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Re: [PREVIEW & HELP WANTED] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft
Sorry that I didn't get to see this sooner. Nice work! You've made some great progress since I did that bit of testing a while back. Good luck!

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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Re: [PREVIEW & HELP WANTED] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft
Sorry that I didn't get to see this sooner. Nice work! You've made some great progress since I did that bit of testing a while back. Good luck!

.... considering FuryAI is doing most of heavy lifting, Sushi is most deserving of that credit.



So minor, tiny, downright small update:

As I had problems with my GPU recently (that's what you get for getting a 4k capable card, so you won't have to upgrade for some time soon), work came to stand-still I didn't plan for ... and then everything became tangled with my semester work and the on-going pre-production on The Lost Generation - "Serqet" (a working title, another was the "weather project").

All my commitments are wrapping up now and I will be able to get this done soonish.*

* If you would like to help, please build a weather control device. All this summer sunshine is keeping me from working.



Rehosting the screenshots is something I will do over the weekend. Most are either on the mod's or my ModDB page anyway.
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

  

Offline 0rph3u5

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  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: [PREVIEW & HELP WANTED] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft
Hi from Gamescom!

I am sorry that I've been out of touch lately - and I wish there was a good reason.

But being generally unproductive in my free time isn't really a reason now, is it?

Regarding the delays and "didn't you say you wanted it out before Gamescom?":
As I said Ive been generally unproductive, blame all the summer, sea and sunshine I was able to enjoy (it a almost-an-hour bike ride to the nearest beach from my appartment) and tweaking all the AI-behaviors - which is the main driver of the delays - is rather tideous and time consuming.

Add to that "semester paper crunch time" and the trouble I had with my brand-new GPU (a replacement arrived last week), there weren't enough houres in s day...

Once Gamescom is done I might also have something to show - one of main story fiction pieces finally came out alright and previously I wanted to keep it under wraps ... but I changed my mind on that...
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: [PREVIEW & HELP WANTED] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft
So...

Let be start this by acknowleding that we are at this point because I didn't get my act together and keep putting off my deadline (in part because I was playing some really worthwhile games - e.g. Trails of Cold Steel - and well, working solo is recipe to be lazy). When I originally wrote the teaser at the being of this topic I was sure that there was not so much time between me teasing and you getting to play.

However things being as they are - and considering I am now satisfied with how some of things have turned out after re-working them again and again - I want to get away from the obnoxious "mystery box" tease, I laid out originally.

However of course, everything that comes now, enters spoiler territory and one the one hand is actually stuff I rather think would be worthwhile to discover on your own while playing - so, there is going to be a hidden-tag and a spoiler-tag coming up to allow you to limit your exposure pre-release. On the other hand of course, it might be a draw to people - esspecially to those who would like to a discussion on the modes of story telling with the FS_Open engine and at same time don't have the time to sample every release.

What is coming up is going concern the motivations of the protagonist of the The Lost Generation - Ashcroft, Sam Ashcroft. Procceed at your own discression:

Hidden Text: Main Story Fiction, working title "Stargazers" • Show
Note on the title: This scene has existed in my mind for quite some time and has gone through multiple iterations, including a rather substantial change in setting, while the title stuck around. In the release version it will most likely not have that title



Neu Bochum-Colony, Polaris
11 years ago


The Park Tangent was cool and serene.
Ruhr was high in the night sky and the light bouncing off it onto Neu Bochum created the illusion that the planet itself was the moon – a reversal of the relationship these two celestial bodies shared in reality.

On the other side of the central shaft a crab like mining rig emerged from below and briefly flashed on of its lights across this section of the Park Tangent, dispelling the night’s embrace and revealing the soothing green that artificial light would bring to the attention of all visitors during daytime.

Jonah had not seen Sam since dinner and had come here looking for her. It was not unusual for his little sister to go out late, and no one in Neu Bochum actually minded that teenagers like Sam roamed the quite spaces of the Habitation and Park Tangents. Life on the moon offered so little privacy otherwise, that to the children and teenagers it would otherwise find it to be suffocating.

Any other day Jonah too would not have minded. But today was the last day he would be in Neu Bochum for long time. For the first time since taking up military service for the GTVA he would depart on a mission that would take him beyond Polaris. When the Erikson left the system it would not return to port for entire duration of the journey. And the destination of its deep space exploration mission would take it to a remote system outside the Sirian Transit.

He, by himself, was delighted to have this opportunity and not only because Commodore Bosch had been selling it had as great career move. As much as he wanted to make this tour, however he would not leave without his family as a whole giving him a proper send-off before.

He finally found Sam sitting underneath a tree that with years to grow might turn into beautiful willow, hanging its branches down to the waters of the Park Tangents largest lake. What gave her away was the tell-tale glow of two handheld computers, one which rested in her lap and other which she had left in grass next to her.

“So this is where you have gone to.” Jonah said announcing himself.

“Did mom send you to fetch me?” Sam replied without looking up from the screen in her lap.

Jonah leaned against the tree so he could see over his sister’s shoulder and read what she kept her locked to the screen.

“It’s Paula new screenplay.” She offered up, preempting his question, while reaching for her second device. She typed something into it and the screen flashed to a Datasphere page, which was quickly read and then put aside again.

“How is it?”

“It’s Paula. She spends so much time trying to say something that she ends up saying nothing at all.”
Jonah could never tell if critical remarks such as this from his sister were truly statements of a discerning mind or just a teenager’s attempt to appear beyond her years.

“So she handed it to an Ashcroft for feedback? A family practiced in saying so little that we hardly seem to be speaking with another at all?”

Sam chuckled and finally tore herself away from her friend’s work.

“You didn’t come out here to debate a screenplay you will never see made into a movie.”

“I will make sure Paula hears that you said that.”

“Oh, please don’t.” Sam replied overly theatrically. “How will my social life survive this?”

As much as he enjoyed this kind of verbal sparring with his sister, he had to cut right to the case.

“I don’t want you to say out late today. I rather not have you miss my send-off tomorrow.”

“As if I would miss the opportunity to show you how glad I am to get rid of you and your speeches.”

Jonah shallowed a sigh. “I mean it, Sam. I will not be back for two years at least, maybe even longer if Commodore Bosch gets his promotion. As much as I like to go, I don’t want to leave without a proper goodbye.”


Only just then he realized that Sam was staring at her feet now.
He did not need her to say any of the question that probably bubbled to the top of her mind right now. She probably was not saying any of it because she had not sorted them out just yet, but Jonah knew them all the same since he agonized over possible answers.

But he knew something that would help break the silence.

“Hey, Sam.”

“Yeah?”

“How about one more speech before I leave?”

“I’d like that.”

Jonah lowered himself to the ground, sitting down shoulder-to-shoulder with Sam. From this position he briefly scanned the sky, searching for a familiar constellation. Once he found one, he pointed it out.

“Do you see these stars out there in the distance?”

“Yeah.”

“There are people in the universe that think one of specks is the most important place in all of universe. They believe it against all evidence to contrary, despite the fact that almost all of night sky, here and on any other planet, is pitch black.

“This light in the distance is unimportant. Every other light in galaxy is unimportant. Actually they are the most boring things imaginable.

“They are rendered insignificant by the vastness of space, which makes any one place small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things…



Spoiler:
The scene above is part of the effort to connect the player to Sam's motivation for being with the NTF, even though she is neither one of "good people making a bad choice" or a die-hard fanatic (or any of the stripes in between).

The question(s) Sam is looking to answer are all concerning the whereabouts of her older brother Jonah, who along with the corvette under his command disappeared months earlier. While everyone else in her life seems to have resigned themselves that Jonah is dead, Sam is actually holding out hope that he is alive somewhere - esspecially becasue if he had died, she figures, the Ashcrofts would have been told as much.

Joining with the NTF fighter corps is one of the last options she has to gain information about what happened to Jonah and if need be to find him and bring him back home.
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline 0rph3u5

  • 211
  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: [PREVIEW & HELP WANTED] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft
Uhm ... Hi to everyone who is still checking out when I am posting...*

I have some news that you probably anticipated already, considering I went away for an extended period of time. Before the last post in this topic there had been a development which derailed me working on this quite a bit - and I am not talking about the time I put into playing Destiny 2 and its raid. At the time I was not sure if I could talk about it openly because ... well, I kinda feel guilty about the subject.

During Gamescom I recieved an offer for a consulting job. That in itself isn't that objectionable except that I got said offer only through personal connections - and the whole connections-before-merrit still troubles me to no small degree (even if I am confident that in a fair competion I could have come out ahead anyway). However it was also a too good to pass on offer and I only write about it in the past tense now because I am realistic about consulting work in general and since I have not heard any news I just have to assume that the post has been cut from the project at this point.

The whole "too good to pass on" aspect of the offer is the part that derailed me in to no end simply because it was such a tempting offer I was willing to go all it and tackle some obstacles to make it happen - this included getting prepared to move to another country (including starting to learn a new language) and doing research into a different specialisation from my chosen field of enquiry into History.

I poured a lot of time and effort into this because despite the limited time of employment and the effort neccessary - it was just that good an offer.

That's the story why I went away for a bit and why development has suffered as a result. Ergo, don't expect any news or a release in the near future because I spend a lot of time with a unrelated issue.

But I can promise you that I am committed to a release, even if I cannot see when it is going to happen.

* Before I forget, thank you for sticking around and indulging me...
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline Axem

  • 211
Re: [PREVIEW & HELP WANTED] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft
That's pretty cool! Don't worry about us, we're not going anywhere and its not like you've got publishers breathing down your neck for a Christmas release. This is a hobby, not a job. :) Take it easy!

 

Offline 0rph3u5

  • 211
  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: [PREVIEW & HELP WANTED] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft
Don't worry about us, we're not going anywhere and its not like you've got publishers breathing down your neck for a Christmas release. This is a hobby, not a job.

:D



Meanwhile, due to time table surrounding my Master-thesis, I will not be making a trip to my family for the holidays.
During that time I have set aside sometime to make new gameplay videos (like Shard of Infinity's "The No-God" 3 mission arc) and I will set some time aside for stream on Mission 10 of The Lost Generation Ashcroft, which will alternate between FRED and gameplay while I work to finish the mission. I am still working out the details and exact schedule, but it is going to be either 27th, 28th or 29th.

If you are worried on SPOILERS, Mission 10 is actually rather light on story and more a "I am going to do this gameplay-thing which conceptionally cool"-situation.

ps. If you haven't noticed already, I finally did the 5 minutes of work required to fix the screenshots.
« Last Edit: December 03, 2017, 08:15:40 pm by 0rph3u5 »
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline 0rph3u5

  • 211
  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: [PREVIEW] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft
This is a sign of life... also anothing quote from the side-story-fiction:



We had the tactics, technology, and logistics to beat the Rebels, but we never knew how. Not because we were stupid or lacking in creativity. While we were inexperienced, except maybe for the Old Hounds, none of it actually mattered for a simple fact: We didn’t know who to defeat the rebels.

There was an arms race at HQ to find the perfect data set, the one measurement to rule them all. And in doing that, we made the same mistake that commanders made in wars from Vietnam to Greenland, from the Vega Planetoid Hoping to Operation Thresher:
When you have no clear way to count your accomplishments, counting becomes the accomplishment.

That’s why we were so shell shocked when Koth ploughed through the blockade with the Repulse and Andronicus. That mad dash was flying into face of every indicator we had based our strategy on. And made them all meaningless within an hour:
On that day Koth sacrificed two-thirds of the Repulse’s air group without a plan to replenish the losses. Our fighter kill-ratio might have 5 to 1 but it didn’t matter because they just kept going. The Andronicus charged into our cruiser line, beams hacking and blasting away at the ship's internal structure and turning the ship into hulk before our eyes. Every sane commander would have prioritised the survival of the destroyer over kills in made, but Koth didn’t.
With that he broke every plan we ever made and our superiority crumbled away into nothing. If not for the Colossus, we would never have recovered.

It is easy now to dismiss Koth as an unhinged fanatic looking from this side of his grave. But there was rationale to all that he did. He must have known that this war would not be contest of arms, but a contest of wills – the kind we were taught had gone the way of the Musket, the horse-mounted infantryman or the main battle tank: made obsolete by the next ''smartest person to come along''.
In that dogma a contest of arms is a methodical and mathematic thing. It easily disassembles into its components and is as easily counted and numbered. Soldiers deployed, weapon systems assigned, and enemies killed.
But what does it matter if you will ten enemies when you cannot bring yourself to kill the eleventh, twelfth or fiftieth? What does it matter if you can match every ship they have with two of yours when they hurl themselves at you not caring if the ship goes down?

The saddest part of this is, that the Great War with the Shivans could have taught us all this. But like delinquent students in every school during every period of history, we were too arrogant to listen.
I think Koth listened. I think that’s why Bosch put in on line that day.


‘’The In-Art of Modern War’’
By Aoife Karlsen, former Commodore in the GTVA 6th Fleet
published in 2368

"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 
Re: [PREVIEW] The Lost Generation - Ashcroft
Stumbled upon this by accident...sounds like a cool campaign! Will this be on knossos when it comes out?