[Shendemiar]

The ross 128 mission consist of fsport-Ross128.vp, readme, and 4 picture files.

Ive selected the containing folder as the Mod to play, but FS2Open says the active campaign cannot be found.

How do i set up / play this single mission?

[Colonol Dekker]

MAke sure all relevant file types are in the correct folders, IE-data/maps etc.

[Shendemiar]

Ive used the installer, all should be where they belong.

When i select the folder "fsport-Ross128" as the mod and run the game, it says "The currently active campaign cannot be found, please select another"

[Colonol Dekker]

Umms, i know this is really going to sound stupid, but did it install to your FS2 folder? I only ask because sometimes people move stuff around...........


Please dont think i'm being patronising,

Wheres the Author?

[Shendemiar]

The installer downloaded all for me, all the other mods seems to be in their own folders under the FS2 folder.

The Ross 128 single mission mod i downloaded manually, its a zip file that i extracted to FS2/fsport-Ross128/ cos thats the name of the zip.

[Herra Tohtori]

This may sound obvious but since it's a single mission, there is no campaign file. Thus, the mission can't be selected from Campaign room. It should be available in Tech Room -> Mission simulator -> Single missions.

The message "The currently active campaign cannot be found, please select another" will pop up often if you change mods and have a mod campaign selected. To get rid of this, simply go to campaign selection and pick one that is available. FS2 main campaign is always theoretically available for selection - although it won't be playable wih, say, FSPort enabled, because FSPort overrides FS2 table entries with FS1 tables...

Also, I would recommend putting it in ..Freespace2\FSPort\ directory, that way it'll be enabled when FSPort is selected. Since it is a FSPort mission after all, it requires that FSPort is selected as a mod as well.

You can of course have multiple mod directories enabled simultaneously (command line is -mod MOD1,MOD2,MOD3,...,MOD(N+1), although I don't know how many mod directories it can use - more than enough I would bet), and usually it indeed is better to install separate mods in separate directories, but in this case it's better to integrate the mission and the related files directly to the FSPort mod. I don't remember if this mission is packed to a VP or if there's a bunch of files, but in either case it should be relatively simple to install to FSPort directory.

Try that and tell what you find out.

[Dysko]

Also, I would recommend putting it in ..Freespace2\FSPort\ directory, that way it'll be enabled when FSPort is selected. Since it is a FSPort mission after all, it requires that FSPort is selected as a mod as well.

Sorry Herra, but this shouldn't absolutely be done. That mission uses its own tables (due to planet models used, I think) so it would a mess putting it in the same directory as the FSPort.
That mission comes with an already done mod.ini file, so it should be put in its own mod directory, you just need to make sure that the mod.ini has the right names for the FSPort 3 and Media VPs folders (they must match exactly the name of your folders).

[Shendemiar]

I can play it via the tech room... Thanks Herra

Sorry for the trouble... all this is new for me.

[Herra Tohtori]

<spock> Fascinating. </spock>


There are some minor differences in the ships.tbl included in the Ross 128 VP compared to the ships.tbl included in the FSPort 3.0.3. Most of the differences are formatting changes, but there are som fairly interesting changes that can indeed change gameplay if they are activated in FSPort, so in that sense you're correct Dysko, thanks for pointing that out. I haven't noticed that because the changes aren't really big, and there's only two additional entries in the Ross 128 table - the other being a cargo version of Karnak reactor, and the other is the planet model.

The main differences I can spot is that the GTF Angel has 250 HP and shields in FSPort tables and only 200 HP and shields in the Ross 128 tables. Other differences include some inexplicable point changes - you get a lot more points on the Ross 128 table than on FSPort 3.0.3 table. Also, some ships have an additional flag "ship copy", whatever it means. Which means that integration with FSPort would seem to work (as in, it won't produce any table errors) but it most likely changes some minor things.

Crafty bastard of a table... Here you see the most classic way of how to generate rogue tables.


I'm just wondering... what happens when there's two files in VP's in same mod directory, with same name (in this case, ships.tbl)? Which one has the priority? The one that is loaded first or what?

And what happens when the same situation occurs when they are in separate mod directories but activated simultaneously? I would think that in such case, the mod command line would determine which ships.tbl would be used...


And also, why doesn't the Ross 128 mission release use modular table since it requires the use of FSPort anyway...

[Snail]

The Ross 128 mission was a very complex mission that ate all your SEXP nodes, so it was originally released as a campaign, which resets the SEXP nodes or something...

This may have been what caused the confusion.

[karajorma]

I'm just wondering... what happens when there's two files in VP's in same mod directory, with same name (in this case, ships.tbl)? Which one has the priority? The one that is loaded first or what?

The VP files are loading alphabetically in that case and the game will use the one in the first one loaded.

And what happens when the same situation occurs when they are in separate mod directories but activated simultaneously? I would think that in such case, the mod command line would determine which ships.tbl would be used...

Spot on.

[Goober5000]

There are some minor differences in the ships.tbl included in the Ross 128 VP compared to the ships.tbl included in the FSPort 3.0.3. Most of the differences are formatting changes, but there are som fairly interesting changes that can indeed change gameplay if they are activated in FSPort.

Ah, I see you got your first look at the 3.1 tables.

The main differences I can spot is that the GTF Angel has 250 HP and shields in FSPort tables and only 200 HP and shields in the Ross 128 tables.

The Valkyrie and the Hercules both have 200 HP, so I saw no reason why the Angel should have more.

Other differences include some inexplicable point changes - you get a lot more points on the Ross 128 table than on FSPort 3.0.3 table.

Only on some ships.  On others, you get fewer.  The point curve is basically smoothed out.

Also, some ships have an additional flag "ship copy", whatever it means.

It means it's a copy of another ship.  Duh.

It's for the scoring system.  If you destroy a ship of the class GTD Orion#Galatea, it counts it as if you destroyed a ship of the class GTD Orion.

I'm just wondering... what happens when there's two files in VP's in same mod directory, with same name (in this case, ships.tbl)? Which one has the priority? The one that is loaded first or what?

The one that is loaded first, yes.  In that sense, there's no immediate harm in putting it in the same folder as the fsport mod, because the tables will override properly.  You just need to remember to take it out when you're done.

And also, why doesn't the Ross 128 mission release use modular table since it requires the use of FSPort anyway...

Because it's designed to be compatible with retail.  Just like the Port, which is also designed to be compatible with retail.

The Ross 128 mission was a very complex mission that ate all your SEXP nodes, so it was originally released as a campaign, which resets the SEXP nodes or something...

Sexp nodes are not only dependent on the current mission, they're also dependent on the current campaign.  So the FS1 version of Ross 128 shipped with a very small campaign in order to free up the maximum amount of nodes possible.  FS2 had the sexp node limits bumped, so the problem doesn't apply for the Ported version.