Hard Light Productions Forums
Hosted Projects - Standalone => Wings of Dawn => WoD Archive => Topic started by: Lorric on December 20, 2012, 11:25:42 pm
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Hi there. I always wanted to make something for WoD, but decided to wait for WoD2 to arrive first. With that cancelled, I decided to go ahead and try.
I can't promise I'll finish what I started, but my goal is to make a campaign based around the events in Alpha Draconis in WoD, and it will be branching.
To accommodate branching, the missions should simply be placed loose in the missions folder within the data folder inside the Wings of Dawn folder. Make sure you extract them out of the Demo folder first. Don’t just put the demo folder in there, or they won’t work. You start at "Lorric 0" and the mission debriefing will tell you what to play next. Or that you lost or died. Even if you die, you may be able to continue, and the briefing will tell you so. Your ejector pod will have been scooped up, and the campaign will continue.
Don't expect anything fabulous, I'm a beginner FREDder, so be nice (please). But I'm happy with the 5 mission files I've created so far, which can be picked up here:
http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php?view.885
The campaign is designed to be played on medium difficulty.
Oh, and it may seem awkward your wingmates giving the orders when you are the wing leader, but I decided to leave Seraphim 1 silent. You can of course still tell your wingmates what to do.
One more thing, you don't need it right now, but the campaign will require A Nordera Day in future.
Link to Bombing Run screenshots and another set of screenshots further on in the thread:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=83179.msg1703620#msg1703620
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Why don't you just set up a branching campaign file like everybody else who's ever done branching :wtf:
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Well, that requires actual effort - in learning how the campaign file system works! :rolleyes:
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Why don't you just set up a branching campaign file like everybody else who's ever done branching :wtf:
I don't want people to have to play through the entire campaign again to get to the branches. Many of the missions will branch, we're not talking about an odd mission here and there off to the side. This way, they can go back and follow the losing or winning path that they missed on each mission. This might be a clutter problem for a standard Freespace campaign, but no one's making anything for WoD save Spoon anyway, so they can just be put in there. The missions folder will be empty but for the Ray IV guantlet and Axem's single mission.
Additionally, it allows me to release missions as I go along if there's any interest, rather than having to make the whole thing first.
Also, no need for another pilot profile.
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but no one's making anything for WoD save Spoon anyway
:doubt:
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but no one's making anything for WoD save Spoon anyway
:doubt:
Do you know something I don't? I hope you do, because it is my favourite mod. I suppose someone else could be quietly putting something together. It is a fairly long time since WoD was released though.
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but no one's making anything for WoD save Spoon anyway
:doubt:
Do you know something I don't? I hope you do, because it is my favourite mod. I suppose someone else could be quietly putting something together. It is a fairly long time since WoD was released though.
... :banghead:
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but no one's making anything for WoD save Spoon anyway
:doubt:
Do you know something I don't? I hope you do, because it is my favourite mod. I suppose someone else could be quietly putting something together. It is a fairly long time since WoD was released though.
... :banghead:
Damar. Please use words to communicate with me.
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(I think he's making a campaign in the WoD universe)
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(I think he's making a campaign in the WoD universe)
If he is, I can't read his mind. Why not just say so?
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...Because I said so many times earlier. Partially in that universe. Partially in other universes.
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...Because I said so many times earlier. Partially in that universe. Partially in other universes.
I have not seen. What other universes?
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That would be a spoiler
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That would be a spoiler
Let me guess. Legate Damar and the Cardassians are coming to crush and conquer all of Spoon's races one by one and show the Hertak how you enslave and enthrall other races :lol:
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Oh I wish I could, but unfortunately modeling all of those ships would be beyond me. So I am doing something else instead.
Now back to the topic, I will play your missions and tell you what I think after I finish doing some playtesting for someone else.
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Actually, Omniscapper once made a Trek mod with some Cardassian ships. Though it may be hard to find these days.
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Oh I wish I could, but unfortunately modeling all of those ships would be beyond me. So I am doing something else instead.
Now back to the topic, I will play your missions and tell you what I think after I finish doing some playtesting for someone else.
Heh. You could maybe model one ship, for Damar... :)
Alright. I have just finished mission 3. It was well on the way to completion when I posted this. Although I haven't tested it as much as the others, I do believe it works fine. I will attach it in another topic to get around the 4 attachment limit.
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I wanted to get this out too so both branches for mission 1 are available. It is attached here.
[attachment deleted by a basterd]
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Got it.
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Don't use forum attachments, they don't last very long before they get auto deleted. Use a file host like mediafire.
That way you can keep things in a single thread too.
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Don't use forum attachments, they don't last very long before they get auto deleted. Use a file host like mediafire.
That way you can keep things in a single thread too.
I certainly will if I finish this. Don't worry, I don't plan on cluttering up your page with threads as I complete missions. I intend on finishing the campaign. The most I'll do is put more in my second thread, where there's room. I don't want to release anything past mission 5 until it is finished.
I don't know how long the attachments last exactly, but hopefully anyone who wants them will have grabbed them by the time they disappear.
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They may last a week. They may last an hour. It is basically impossible to tell.
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IIRC, They last as long as there's space in the HLP forum storage. Admins should know how much is left, so if you really want an estimate, try catching one on IRC. Though this would still be little better than a guess, just use Mediafire.
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but no one's making anything for WoD save Spoon anyway
Aside from Legate's reputed project of dubious intent of which nothing tangible has ever been seen from, there is this (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=76659.0). Which I hope is still alive (Deadly in a Shadow if you're still there say hi, please) :P
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but no one's making anything for WoD save Spoon anyway
Aside from Legate's reputed project of dubious intent of which nothing tangible has ever been seen from, there is this (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=76659.0). Which I hope is still alive (Deadly in a Shadow if you're still there say hi, please) :P
Ooooh, that looks nice. No news on it in almost a year though. I wonder why it wasn't put here in the WoD folder.
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Also FYI you can add attachments without starting a new thread.
But still don't use attachments, for small files like this I like to use DropBox (http://db.tt/47uZELI) when SVN isn't available, though MediaFire is also a solid choice.
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but no one's making anything for WoD save Spoon anyway
Aside from Legate's reputed project of dubious intent of which nothing tangible has ever been seen from, there is this (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=76659.0). Which I hope is still alive (Deadly in a Shadow if you're still there say hi, please) :P
Hey I released a demo and I told my entire plot to mobcdmoc3 and he said it was good.
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Damar. I know how you feel.
So where's the demo? It's not that thing under Cardassia forever, is it?
I see you there, Spoon.
Go on. Take the missions. You know you want to... :D
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I released it a while ago... the download link might be expired.
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I released it a while ago... the download link might be expired.
If you used forum attachments, this is a good reason why you shouldn't be.
Either way if you have it on a stable file hosting service (MediaFire, Dropbox), you wouldn't have this problem! :P
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I think I used a hosting service.
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Lorric your missions are not working. At first they downloaded as just "files" (not fs2 files) so I changed the file extension to fs2 but when I tried to open the single missions part in the tech room the game crashed with an error saying the required token was #mission info but it found []
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That's odd. I just grabbed one and it worked for me. It recognised the file too when the download box came up with the freespace logo.
It did curiously come out as "Lorric+0" instead of "Lorric 0", but that just made it easier for me to test. I know it wasn't just my own mission, because the Freespace logo is in the command briefings for these links, and I've since cleaned that minor problem up.
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I've attached a couple of little screenies showing what the download box looks like, and missions in my mission folder.
Does anyone know what the problem could be, or would you like to have a try at testing one yourself please?
[attachment deleted by a basterd]
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Try uploading them to a file hosting service and maybe then the download won't screw up.
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I have attempted an upload to Freespacemods. It seems you have to wait for an administrator to review it, so we play the waiting game. No idea how long that will take, or even if it will be approved.
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Why not just use mediafire or a site like that?
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I thought I would pick the site designed to take Freespace stuff, which I've always had 100% success with before and downloaded most of my Freespace stuff from.
However, I've never uploaded anything to it. I thought it would go straight up. Anyway, I'm going to wait and see what happens, and I have to go now anyway.
Thanks for trying Damar. Hopefully this will work.
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The + instead of the space is easy to explain. Many hosters can't (or at least don't want to) handle spaces in filenames, so they automatically replace them with some other sign, most often the % or + in my experience.
To avoid that you can use something like uppercase formating (FileName1) or underscores (File_Name_1) or simple put the files into an archive like 7z or winrar.
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The + instead of the space is easy to explain. Many hosters can't (or at least don't want to) handle spaces in filenames, so they automatically replace them with some other sign, most often the % or + in my experience.
To avoid that you can use something like uppercase formating (FileName1) or underscores (File_Name_1) or simple put the files into an archive like 7z or winrar.
Thanks Norbert. The + doesn't concern me much, since it's only the file name not the mission name, and won't interfere with the order of the missions, but it was nice to know.
Anyway, you've given me an idea. Don't know if it will do anything, but I had to pack the files into a .rar file to get it up on Freespacemods. No word on that yet, but I can try uploading that .rar file here, attached to this post. So Damar, if you're out there, or anyone else, do you want to try this?
[attachment deleted by a basterd]
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FreeSpaceMods is for completed mods/assets.
Use MediaFire or whatever for WiPs.
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FreeSpaceMods is for completed mods/assets.
Use MediaFire or whatever for WiPs.
It has a demos/teasers section. That's where I sent it.
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I played a bit with the first two missions (0 and 1) and here are my first thoughts and observations:
-Why are we flying Seraphim wing? I thought that was a JGASF designation, while in this campaign I'm playing a member of the LSF.
-The Kaze is something of an elite fighters. Why is it handed out for a mission which's only purpose (story-wise) is to make sure the pilot knows that the commander is in charge? From a gameplay perspective it's good, since you can get used to the fighter you are given in m1, but maybe put some justification into the command brief. I'd let the commander say something along the lines of "Since you have such high scores, let's see how you can handle the Kaze" and I'd also give the wingmen Rays, especially Firestreak.
-You can cannibalize the other two wings for missiles, while your own wingmen don't have any missiles. If you want to make sure they don't waste missiles on the containers, you should forbid the player from editing the other two wings.
-I couldn't load any missiles into launcher two (only this mission, in m1 it worked again). It's something of an oddity without any real consequence, but I thought I'd still mention it.
-Is it possible to put containers into targeting groups (you can't do it in the F3 window)? That would be very convenient.
-The mission success music is playing during the emergency call. I think it doesn't really fit that you hear happy "I Win! Yay!"-music while you hear about a system-wide invasion and the slaughter of innocents.
Fazit: Not much to tell about the mission. It's mostly there to introduce you to the setting and maybe get to know your fighter a little bit, which it does well. Slap a bit of polish on it and it's fine.
Mission 1:
Here I should mention that I only started the mission twice now, so I'm not yet done with it. I'll test it some more later, but here's the first impressions anyway:
-As I mentioned before, the missile slot2 works fine now.
-Why are we restricted to the one weapon? Not even the other ion particle gun VX-02B is available (the one with the bursts, instead of circling gunpoints).
-After not even a full minute the mission already failed. Is it supposed to fail, or is it "just" very hard to pull off, or am I just having a bad day?
-When you fail to protect any transports you are told that "your wingmen did their job, but you didn't". If non of the innocents survived, how did they do their job? Didn't we all fail together?
-When you get killed (for example from taking the shockwaves of at least six shield breakers point blank in the face) you get the same de-brief as if all the transports had been destroyed. Is it supposed to be that way?
What I can say about the mission so far: It does create an atmosphere of frantic action and shows how you get overwhelmed by the alien invasion, but not completely hopeless yet. More I can't yet say without some further testing.
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Hey, thanks for the constructive feedback.
Where did you take the mission files from, the OP or the .rar file?
- I never thought about it. I just saw no reason to change it. It was WoD. I would have to come up with some new names, I also don’t know how you change the names, but it’s something to think about. Do you know how to change the names while keeping the Wingmen dots?
- *Goes to read Kaze techroom description* I don’t see anything to suggest it’s an elite fighter. It seems to me like it simply fills the interceptor role in the LSF. I chose the Kaze simply to speed up the player’s progress between the cargo containers. And besides, I don’t want it to be a restricted ship, the number of flyable ships is limited enough as it is, and I’m sure I’ll put the player in the Ray for the bulk of the missions anyway.
- Yes, I didn’t want people unloading missiles into cargo containers. It would just be silly, wouldn’t it? Taxpayers would be pissed off with the LSF wasting missiles on them :)
I’ve never been able to figure out how to grey out the weapon/ship selection, I would just grey it out for this mission. I'd like to know. As for the wings, that was a complete oversight, though I've never looked into how to do that.
- You also for some reason can’t empty out the player’s banks, they have to have at least one bank. That explains the second back, I tried to empty them out and could only empty one.
- I don’t know. I would have liked them to register as hostile. I designated them as hostile, but they stay unselectable with the H button.
- You’ve given me an idea. I’ll let the victory music play, but see if I can get it to cut off when the bad news comes through. I think that would be a good effect.
What does Fazit mean?
- I want the player to stick with standard issue right through. Because you’re a regular unit and only fighting the Nordera and Cordi, so you shouldn’t need anything else, but you do have a point, I could make that weapon available to the player.
- The first mission is a rude awakening, where you find out you’re not going to be coddled at the start and it’s serious business right from the get go. The mission can be won, and my success rate is about 60% I would say. You’ve just got to stick your game face on, burn in there, and hunt those Cordi down. This mission is an example of what I’m aiming for, short (though not as short as that one), intense missions. If you can get a couple of quick kills right out of the gate, you’ll be in a good position to win the level.
- They are usually very good at dealing with the Cordi. In addition, you don’t usually need to kill many Cordi to get the job done, so chances are the failure will be on your end if the mission fails. I also think some people could get caught out “Yeah, first mission, shouldn’t be too hard…”
- It works okay for me. I just tested it again. You do get a different debrief if you die. Unless you died in an explosion which killed the last transport so it might have triggered the debrief for losing the transports first?
Again thanks, very good feedback. I’m looking forward to more.
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Oh sorry, I thought fazit is international (it does sound a lot like latin), but I seemed to have been wrong there.
It's a concluding summarization with a few final thoughts.
And I was using the one from the .rar archive.
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First time I've heard it. I wondered if it was short for something. Unusual word. I didn't think it was anything bad.
Right. After you've come back with the rest of your thoughts and I've made any changes to the missions, I'll clean things up a bit here, remove the 4 attachments from the OP and the .Rar from the post, attach an updated .Rar to the OP and remove the Mission 3 thread.
I have implemented some changes already. Before you posted your initial thoughts, I found out about how you can use the # key for messages, so I've added some death/ejection dialogue to the combat missions, and made it so a wingman getting taken out early in Lorric 1 won't mess up the mid-mission message chain with Command speaking their lines.
I've also now cut off the music in Lorric 0 like I wanted, and provided the player with the option to put that VX-02B gun in their weapon banks in all missions but Lorric 0.
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Upload it to mediafire, it won't work for me with attachments,
Also go to editors -> mission specs and click on custom wing names
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Upload it to mediafire, it won't work for me with attachments,
Also go to editors -> mission specs and click on custom wing names
Hi Damar. Did you take the .Rar file attached to the bottom post on page 3 and that not work either?
Either way, you're in luck. I just checked Freespace Mods, and the demo has now appeared. It is available here:
http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php?view.885
Thanks for the information on Wings. It's something to think about, I've no idea what I would call the player wing though. Might end up going back to Alpha. I don't know. Spoon used names like Wolf and Tiger in Stranded. It's something to think about.
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Yes, it didn't work. It came out corrupted. I'll try the fsmods link.
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Umm, what am I supposed to do with the files by the way?
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You put them into your "Freespace2\Wings of Dawn\data\missions" folder and then you can start them from the techroom.
Let's continue with the testing.
Mission 1:
-I finally managed to save one transport. I think Command is a little too happy about the outcome, saying the evacuation was a complete success, even with 3 out of 4 transports destroyed. Usually a 75% casuality rate isn't something you celebrate as a great victory.
Maybe let them say something a bit more subdued like "you did well saving as many as you could" or "good work considering the circumstance" with the overall evacuation going "very good" or somesuch, but I definately wouldn't use "perfect" or "complete success".
Mission 2a:
-LSF Dirt Warrior :wtf:
-I think the scron went a bit over the top here. I really, really had to fight myself down to not just waste the assholes.... the first time I started the mission anyway... the second time I went for it, which brings me to my next point.
-"Don't fire on friendly targets MKay?" I assume that comes from WoD, but either way it was certainly good for a quick laugh. More to the point, considering how you were treated it's not surprising for the player to snap, maybe you could catch that possibility in-mission and give it some comments from your wings and command.
-Any chance you could tie 2a and 2b together with a subspace effect and auto-starting 2b?
Mission 2b:
-Nothing much to say about this here, all in all a solid mission to get you back on track if you messed up in m1. Maybe a few re-spawns for the bug fighters might be nice though, to keep it from being a pure turkey shoot in the end, with the two destroyed gunships making up the trigger for calling in the Caliburns.
Or maybe give the option of calling the Calis as reinforcements at whatever point you wish, with them giving fitting comments "At least the screwup is smart enough to know he's incapable of anything" if you call them in early for example and command chewing you out if you didn't call them at all "This is not your personal proving ground! We can't afford to accomodate your wish for recognition, we have a war to win! Another stunt like that and you'll be courtmartialed for disobeying a direct order and dereliction of duty!"
Mission 3:
-"Prepare to receive bombs" That like sounded a bit odd to me.
-It also felt a bit odd that command would just leave the ships undefended after you left, even if they are no longer in the alien's sphere of influence. Maybe let them say that another wing is takeing over the escort and you may return to base (like in the very first FS1 mission for example).
-In my tests I blew up the Lotus Flower quite early in the mission, but it still kept talking, but with the messages comming from "Command: Lotus Flower:". Also noone commented about the destruction of any of the freithers. No "damn we lost the <inser shipname>!"
-The debriefing doesn't care for how many freithers survived. It always congratulates you on getting the freithers (note the plural) through, even if just a single one survived. It would be nice if command would comment differently depending on how many ships you got through.
I guess there's not much to say about an escort mission that hasn't been said a hundred times before. A definately good thing is that you don't have to wait for 5 minutes till anything happens.
All in all the missions do raise my interrest in the final campaign. They can do with more work and a bit more finesse in some places (like tying 2a and 2b together), but for a beginner and a point so early in the WIP definately not bad.
I hope in the later missions the player isn't getting too much respect too quickly. If it were up to me, I'd have him gather respect only slowly (except for your wingmen of course.... they are in the same boat as you, which fosters respect and friendship).
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Finally was able to download and play the missions. In my opinion they were too easy.
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You put them into your "Freespace2\Wings of Dawn\data\missions" folder and then you can start them from the techroom.
Let's continue with the testing.
Mission 1:
-I finally managed to save one transport. I think Command is a little too happy about the outcome, saying the evacuation was a complete success, even with 3 out of 4 transports destroyed. Usually a 75% casuality rate isn't something you celebrate as a great victory.
Maybe let them say something a bit more subdued like "you did well saving as many as you could" or "good work considering the circumstance" with the overall evacuation going "very good" or somesuch, but I definately wouldn't use "perfect" or "complete success".
Mission 2a:
-LSF Dirt Warrior :wtf:
-I think the scron went a bit over the top here. I really, really had to fight myself down to not just waste the assholes.... the first time I started the mission anyway... the second time I went for it, which brings me to my next point.
-"Don't fire on friendly targets MKay?" I assume that comes from WoD, but either way it was certainly good for a quick laugh. More to the point, considering how you were treated it's not surprising for the player to snap, maybe you could catch that possibility in-mission and give it some comments from your wings and command.
-Any chance you could tie 2a and 2b together with a subspace effect and auto-starting 2b?
Mission 2b:
-Nothing much to say about this here, all in all a solid mission to get you back on track if you messed up in m1. Maybe a few re-spawns for the bug fighters might be nice though, to keep it from being a pure turkey shoot in the end, with the two destroyed gunships making up the trigger for calling in the Caliburns.
Or maybe give the option of calling the Calis as reinforcements at whatever point you wish, with them giving fitting comments "At least the screwup is smart enough to know he's incapable of anything" if you call them in early for example and command chewing you out if you didn't call them at all "This is not your personal proving ground! We can't afford to accomodate your wish for recognition, we have a war to win! Another stunt like that and you'll be courtmartialed for disobeying a direct order and dereliction of duty!"
Mission 3:
-"Prepare to receive bombs" That like sounded a bit odd to me.
-It also felt a bit odd that command would just leave the ships undefended after you left, even if they are no longer in the alien's sphere of influence. Maybe let them say that another wing is takeing over the escort and you may return to base (like in the very first FS1 mission for example).
-In my tests I blew up the Lotus Flower quite early in the mission, but it still kept talking, but with the messages comming from "Command: Lotus Flower:". Also noone commented about the destruction of any of the freithers. No "damn we lost the <inser shipname>!"
-The debriefing doesn't care for how many freithers survived. It always congratulates you on getting the freithers (note the plural) through, even if just a single one survived. It would be nice if command would comment differently depending on how many ships you got through.
I guess there's not much to say about an escort mission that hasn't been said a hundred times before. A definately good thing is that you don't have to wait for 5 minutes till anything happens.
All in all the missions do raise my interrest in the final campaign. They can do with more work and a bit more finesse in some places (like tying 2a and 2b together), but for a beginner and a point so early in the WIP definately not bad.
I hope in the later missions the player isn't getting too much respect too quickly. If it were up to me, I'd have him gather respect only slowly (except for your wingmen of course.... they are in the same boat as you, which fosters respect and friendship).
- Command is referring to the evacuation of the station. Besides, I’m not sure if you even can save more than one. I might have done it once in testing, but I’m not sure. But either way, it’s not something I expect the player to achieve.
2a
- Hey, what’s wrong with that name? I like it. I’m even considering having a wing of fighters calling themselves the Dirt Warriors to go with it.
- Ha ha! It sounds like I did what I was trying to do. I want these guys to get right under the player’s skin. I want them to be exactly that, absolute assholes. I’m going to separate the campaign into a winning and losing path, though victory will be achievable from the losing path. If you go down the winning path, and win mission 1, you’ll never have to deal with these guys. But if you end up on the losing path, then I’m going to jam them down the player’s throat. I’d like to set up a confrontation down the line if possible to allow the player that satisfaction, but if I can’t do it in the context of the campaign, a bonus stage will be created.
- Ha ha, I’ve never seen that either. It must be something Spoon put in :)
I don’t know how I would do that. It’s an interesting idea, but not a priority.
- I wanted to separate these and future such missions like this in order to allow a player to skip such talking in future replays if they want to go straight to the action.
2b
- Sometimes this mission can be surprisingly tricky. But I didn’t want it to be too hard for the start of the campaign. But I did actually have more fighters to begin with, and actually chose to delete some because I thought it was too hard. It was winnable, but I thought it too hard for this early. I don’t want cakewalk missions, but I don’t want brutally hard missions either, especially this early. The mission will turn into a cakewalk if those guys are on station early, so they’ll be staying as they are. They are assholes, but they know how to fly a ship.
3
- I’ve seen that kind of language used before. Like “Prepare to receive arrows” or “Prepare to receive torpedoes”, which is more in line with this.
- The original escort wing (if it is still there) will be staying. You were only brought in as temporary extra cover.
- I thought about this kind of thing early, and decided I don’t want to go fighting fires entirely of the player’s own making like this. They won’t die in the first wave, the fighters are scripted to ignore the freighters and attack the escorts. However, like I said in an earlier post, ejection and death lines have been added to the missions, so the Lotus Flower does have a death line now.
- Perhaps. Unlike mission 1, it is indeed possible to save all three. I have been having trouble trying to figure out how to work such sexps though, and have been working around them in a kind of crude but effective fashion. If I can figure it out though, I’ll make a secondary objective to save all three, complete with praise in the debriefing.
What is WIP? EDIT: Oh yeah, work in progress.
Oh yes. If you end up on the winning path and keep winning, it will all be good. On the losing path, not so much. Of course, like you say, your wingmen will be nice to you all the way through.
Finally was able to download and play the missions. In my opinion they were too easy.
I guess you could try raising the difficulty above Medium and see where it gets you, though opening missions shouldn't be overly hard anyway. Though with your talk of tangling with Aestivals, I imagine dealing with mere Cordi and Nordera will be somewhat trifling for you.
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The OP and download links have been adjusted.
Hey Norbert, go to the OP and download the new .rar file, if you want to see some of your suggested changes now in effect. Thanks for those :)
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I mastered the strategies for defeating Cordi and Nordera long ago.... adding enemy Aestivals would help.... say the Hertak captured them or something.
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I mastered the strategies for defeating Cordi and Nordera long ago.... adding enemy Aestivals would help.... say the Hertak captured them or something.
You can do that in yours if you want. This campaign is set in Alpha Draconis. The only Aestivals around are the two outdated ones on the Guardian Angel, and Crystal and Luna will be keeping those.
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About mission 2b, I didn't mean to have more fighters in the beginning. I meant that new ones are started by the Mothership, once the old ones are all shot down, but only few of them (maybe a wing of 3 or 4 roughly with a short delay after you wiped the last wave out) so you have to guard the Caliburns, while they demolish the mother ship.
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In mine you get to fight lots of Aestivals... among many many other enemies.
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About mission 2b, I didn't mean to have more fighters in the beginning. I meant that new ones are started by the Mothership, once the old ones are all shot down, but only few of them (maybe a wing of 3 or 4 roughly with a short delay after you wiped the last wave out) so you have to guard the Caliburns, while they demolish the mother ship.
Ah. Still, I'd rather the Caliburns got the job done. They're not going to look much like elite if they're asking for help against a few Cordi, are they. As far as I'm concerned the mission is complete as soon as they jump in. All you have to do is not get yourself taken out by the Mothership. I also want the player free to read all that chatter from them.
EDIT: The Mothership only has a few fighters, because it sent them in against the station.
In mine you get to fight lots of Aestivals... among many many other enemies.
Yes, I'm sure. You have a thing about Aestivals, don't you. I bet you got a kick out of the new one.
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Well it is nice to have a shield mesh, however the (very limited) autoaim is pretty annoying. It's like I don't know when I can afford to lead my shots or not... I say either have no autoaim or a wide-FoV autoaim. Don't half-ass it.
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Well it is nice to have a shield mesh, however the (very limited) autoaim is pretty annoying. It's like I don't know when I can afford to lead my shots or not... I say either have no autoaim or a wide-FoV autoaim. Don't half-ass it.
Are you talking about flying the Aestival? I was thinking so you could destroy it. Did Spoon give it a small auto aim then?
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Yes, I have flown it (the new one from Stranded). It has minimal autoaim which is, as I said, annoying.
I have also flown against it... other than the shields it's not much different than the original one to deal with.
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Yes, I have flown it (the new one from Stranded). It has minimal autoaim which is, as I said, annoying.
I have also flown against it... other than the shields it's not much different than the original one to deal with.
Yes, I had a brief look at it's table file after I played Stranded. It's almost the same as the R4 besides the shield from what I could tell.
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Although trying to get an AI-controlled wing of them to disarm a capship is rather difficult...
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Although trying to get an AI-controlled wing of them to disarm a capship is rather difficult...
I expect they just blow it away with all that firepower.
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Although trying to get an AI-controlled wing of them to disarm a capship is rather difficult...
I expect they just blow it away with all that firepower.
More like they all get shot down before making much progress... this is a tough ship. However I have some ideas to make it work.
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I've totally been meaning to check this out but I've been busy lately.
Soon™
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I've totally been meaning to check this out but I've been busy lately.
Soon™
Nice! :D
Yes, I bet you've been busy-busy-busy with the remaking of WoD and Christmas too, if you celebrate it that is.
I have been continuing on with this project too.
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I have changed the title of this topic to be more in line with convention around here, with the [RELEASE] thing. Perhaps people who would like to try it are missing out because of that.
I uploaded the superior version of the demo to Freespace Mods 3 days ago (I think) but it hasn't appeared yet. I will notify you if and when it does. You can still grab it in the attachment though, and you should try that first if you want to try this out.
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Maybe a link in the "Missions and Campaigns" forum might help too.
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Hmmm. Perhaps. I will wait awhile longer though, to see if the better version appears on Freespace Mods first, it still hasn't. Then I'll just post something linking to this.
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V1.01 is now available at the link in the OP, and the attachment has been removed, as it is no longer needed. The OP has been updated.
Oh, and Norbert, I'm going to wait till 1.02 before putting a thread in the Missions and Campaigns forum, with the A Nordera Day thing. (Future versions will require A Nordera Day, but not this one.)
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Not bad!
I like the 'LSF perspective from the start of the war' you've picked here. Lots of untold mission/story potential there.
Mission 1 was kind of hit and miss. First time everything got blown up, second time I ate too many bombs and only the third time did I manage to save one ship. Then when I looked at the time I saw it only took 2 minutes to complete the mission. But I liked the different debrief I got in both failure cases.
In mission 2a & b it stuff got a bit funny as the ships of your wingmen aren't locked. So I swapped the caliburns of heavy wing and laughed my way to the Cordi mothership with missilebays full of BOMBS. That made heavy wing sure look stupid when they arrived in a wing full of III's! :p
Heavy wing were a bunch of meanies anyway.
(Protip: Lock wingmen ships if they aren't suppose to be changed)
Mission 3 was a tad on the easy side. I dont think a single warhead made it even close to the convoy!
To quote -norbert-
All in all the missions do raise my interrest in the final campaign. They can do with more work and a bit more finesse in some places (like tying 2a and 2b together), but for a beginner and a point so early in the WIP definately not bad.
You've done well with the timing of the chatter and the missions don't have any 'dead time' in them. So keep it up. :)
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Not bad!
I like the 'LSF perspective from the start of the war' you've picked here. Lots of untold mission/story potential there.
Mission 1 was kind of hit and miss. First time everything got blown up, second time I ate too many bombs and only the third time did I manage to save one ship. Then when I looked at the time I saw it only took 2 minutes to complete the mission. But I liked the different debrief I got in both failure cases.
In mission 2a & b it stuff got a bit funny as the ships of your wingmen aren't locked. So I swapped the caliburns of heavy wing and laughed my way to the Cordi mothership with missilebays full of BOMBS. That made heavy wing sure look stupid when they arrived in a wing full of III's! :p
Heavy wing were a bunch of meanies anyway.
(Protip: Lock wingmen ships if they aren't suppose to be changed)
Mission 3 was a tad on the easy side. I dont think a single warhead made it even close to the convoy!
To quote -norbert-
All in all the missions do raise my interrest in the final campaign. They can do with more work and a bit more finesse in some places (like tying 2a and 2b together), but for a beginner and a point so early in the WIP definately not bad.
You've done well with the timing of the chatter and the missions don't have any 'dead time' in them. So keep it up. :)
I am happy indeed that you like it.
Mission 1 seems about right. Bomb death is infrequent, but it's not an easy mission to win, and chances are you'll win with just one ship left when you do.
Sneak! You go back and play that properly! :lol:
It is genuinely funny that you got one over on those guys though :lol:
How do you lock wingmen then? This possibility is something I discovered very recently, although I was more worried about the fact you could remove the ships entirely. For some reason, swapping them around didn't occur to me, but either way I need to know how to fix it. A quick and dirty fix for that particular mission would be just to redisignate them as Heavy Wing so they'd disappear, but it would be best if someone tells me how to do it, anyone. I've just had a look, but can't find it. I've never had much luck with this aspect of FRED and only found out about the scramble mission thing by chance because someone mentioned it in their own topic in the FRED thread. It's confusing, you'd think all this stuff would be in the Team Loadout section.
Mission 3 I may consider tweaking. Sometimes it can be too easy, but other times it can give you a hard time. Usually it sits at about the kind of difficulty I want though for this one, so I'm wary of changing it.
Avoiding "dead time" is a strong goal of mine.
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Ship editor -> Initial Status
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Ship editor -> Initial Status
Thanks. So that's a third location (with scramble mission in the mission specs) for things which ideally (at least to me) should be in a central location. It's strange that :v: would do that in their editor.
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With the forum game starting up, Lorric wants to revive interest in this campaign and thread, so I'm posting some of my private comments here. (Spoon was fine with necroing this thread.)
Overall, it's a solid FS campaign. Nothing deeply original, besides the branching structure, but you've got the basics of campaign-making down.
I also just couldn't beat mission 1, even after multiple tries. I can hardly hit the Cordi, and they murder all the transports well before I can kill them all. Strange; I believe I beat it back when I played this campaign the first time. I understand if you made it deliberately hard, so players have a real chance of losing and therefore having to do the failure-branch missions, but for me at least, it's still a bit too hard if I can't beat it after multiple tries.
Yeah, mission 3 was a bit easy, if it matters to you.
Nice work with your characters and characterization; Firestreak and especially the Psycho Caliburn Guys stood out for me.
You've got a nice setup going with the success-failure mission branch structure. It kinda subverts the "Alpha 1 Syndrome" of FS campaigns, where the player has to complete difficult objectives every time, without fail, to proceed in the campaign. I'm almost inspired to restructure my own campaign like this, but it'd be a lot of work to change it at this point.
I like the branching structure you've got going, but I think you might get a better response from the community if you found a way to mostly keep your unique branching structure but use a conventional mod structure and campaign file. Keep going with your current format if you want to, but I'm personally advising you to switch to a standard campaign file somehow.
I'd advise using the standard WoD Alpha, Beta, etc... enemy wing names.
If done right, this could be an enjoyable WoD fan-campaign.
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Yes, that includes my own interest in it. When Spoon said he wants to go to a turn a week on the forum game, initially I was like awwww, but then after seeing potential positives to the game, it also got me thinking it will give me more room to try and get back to working on this thing again.
Anyway, I appreciate this feedback. Mission 1 I'm surprised you couldn't clear it, it's not that hard, it's designed so it's got a good chance of defeating the player the first time out and introducing them to the branching structure, but it's certainly well within a player's capabilities to win, I'd say I can clear it about 6/10 times at an estimate, and I don't like the Cordi. You were on medium difficulty, right?
Mission 3, I've looked into it since the last post here, and I think I'll leave it as it is, it can pose a decent challenge occasionally depending on how things go you see. Other times it's easy. I don't want it to be too hard that early in the campaign. Mission 1 is an exception, but I'd be aiming for roughly a traditional campaign difficulty spike after that.
I am quite surprised that you singled out Firestreak. I'd be very interested to know why if you don't mind. Spoiler tags will be necessary I guess.
That's kind of what I am aiming for. The goal is that you play the campaign if it's ever completed without replaying missions. You begin at the start and you try to get through to the end, with many of the missions allowing you to fail and not lose the campaign. But at the same time, you have the freedom to do it any way you want to.
This might be something to look into if I ever complete the job. For the future incremental releases, I think things will go smoother this way.
This is kind of a personal choice here. And different units could have different structures for such things. Every game does something "fancy" with this kind of thing, Alpha, Beta, Gamma / Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, or something else, like Aries, Virgo, Gemini... with me, the humble First, Second, Third get to shine :)
Well, that's the idea! :)
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I think I would've been on Medium. I'm not great at aiming or dogfighting, for what it's worth.
Well, alright then. I find the Nordera easier than the Cordi, for the simple reason that they're a lot easier to actually hit.
I'm not a very attentive player sometimes, and his "rookie" characterization was the only one I noticed much during missions, for whatever it's worth to you. The Psycho Caliburn Guys for obvious reasons.
It's convenient that you can play the campaign as you will. I don't think most people will want to retry the campaign from the beginning if they fail, though.
On both campaign structure and name schemes, it's your design choice.
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It's meant to be played on medium, so that's good.
I was just curious why you picked out Firestreak over the others. And yes, obvious reasons, there's a reason I didn't ask you to specify about those guys! :)
Indeed. Me too. So it's lucky they don't have to. :nod:
In other news, since Axem helped me out in the screenshot contest thread, it might be time for me to go and pick up a few screenies and spice up my OP with them sometime in the near future... :D
Again, thanks for the feedback. Oh, did you see this?
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=85185
So don't worry about the necro thing if you want to comment on threads like this in the future. :)
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Bombing run:
(http://oi44.tinypic.com/2nw1ypu.jpg)
(http://oi42.tinypic.com/24b13cz.jpg)
(http://oi44.tinypic.com/256wdg2.jpg)
(http://oi40.tinypic.com/2z52o3m.jpg)
(http://oi42.tinypic.com/14m5jdd.jpg)
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More screenshots. :)
A link to the location of these screenshots has been put into the OP so they can be found again and to avoid cluttering up the OP with screenshots.
(http://i39.tinypic.com/2870z6c.jpg)
Opening briefing.
(http://i40.tinypic.com/a4u8sx.jpg)
The LSF Warhammer flanked by the escort ships LSF Surgefire and LSF Dirt Warrior, plus escort fighters.
(http://i39.tinypic.com/2qa1vmo.jpg)
Combat with the Cordi.
(http://i43.tinypic.com/ri526v.jpg)
Combat with the Nordera.
(http://i44.tinypic.com/wcj190.jpg)
Nordera too close for comfort...
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I have been polishing up mission 3, but I haven't changed anything in the balance at all. This is the mission several of you said was too easy. Now, it's turned into a slaughterhouse!
At first I wondered if A Nordera Day was responsible, as I was playing it through there, but I'm still getting slaughtered playing it through WoD. Maybe it's something in the code since 3.6.12, which it was initially made with. I was playing through 3.7.0. So I'm attaching the mission. Could you please play it through 3.7.0 people, and tell me what happens? I can't even get past the first wave, I've put directives in and I wanted to test the one for the bombers to see if it's working properly, but I can't even get past the fighter wave!
Feel free to just play mission 3 in it's old form if you have it or download that from the OP with the rest if you want also. It should be exactly the same as far as game balance goes. Just please play it on 3.7.0.
[attachment deleted by an evil time traveler]
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Well I managed to register a win on the level. I'm wondering if I panicked over nothing. I got the old version (as the new version won't play on 3.6.12) and played the mission on 3.6.12 and 3.7.0. At first, I thought I was on to something. I played the mission 3 times on 3.6.12 and won it 3 times. I then played it twice on 3.7.0, and got crushed. But the third time I won. So I played another 3 times and got at least one more win. I then went back to 3.6.12 and stated taking losses. And now I've played the new version and while I did get brutally slaughtered on the first attempt, I won on the second. Maybe some more tests later, I'm sick of that mission now, but I was tired when I played it the last time, who knows. I was about ready to jack the campaign in and wait for Spoon's standalone remake, but maybe there's hope yet...
Anyway I'll leave a little update on what I've been doing with it before this little panic, I've added directives to the old missions and polished up the campaign briefings with the pictures you see in WoD (before I only had one in the very first page of the intro mission) and put briefing icons into the briefings.
I'd still appreciate some testing on that mission if anyone would care to oblige though. I really can't remember experiencing the quick slaughters that have been happening when I originally made and tested it and people told me it was too easy.
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Now that I have had new feelings about this work, which I put here in the WoD development thread:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=85256.msg1741586#msg1741586
And then later that same day joined Black Wolf's project:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=85256.msg1741586#msg1741586
I shall explain what I currently have in mind for this campaign. What I am currently thinking to do is wait for Spoon to release the WoD remake. I will then play it, and see if the story I am telling with this campaign is still viable in the new WoD, whether in exact form (Evacuating Alpha Draconis) or whether I can repurpose it for a different system. If so, I will try to update my missions with the new WoD setting and the project will continue.
If the story of the new WoD is so different that I can't do this, I'll release everything I have made for this project here, and try to come up with a new campaign idea.
Whatever happens, the characters you have met here will be in whatever work I do.
So, I'm attaching the latest versions of the missions here.
[attachment deleted by an evil time traveler]
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Now this post contains the final mission of the demo campaign, and a bonus mission which you have never seen before. You'll need A Nordera Day to play it, and you'll be playing as the Nordera. Enjoy! :)
EDIT: So if interested, delete whatever missions of mine you already have, and place these new ones in your Wings of Dawn Mission Folder.
EDIT2: Lorric3b is the bonus mission.
[attachment deleted by an evil time traveler]