Make the PromR useful? (I know you have a nice fluff explanation for BP but as a design element in FS2 it sucks.) For that matter, make the Akheton worthwhile (a la the Scalpel?)
If you want an excuse to replay FreeSpace 2, you've got it.
I know its a bit more work, but why not make the capships use some kind of piranha#cap version instead thats the same as the current useless one is right now.
The Piranha desperately needs some kind of buff or functionality rework.
Ya know, over the years while playing I've had many, MANY thoughts of "why didn't they just....", but for the life of me I can't recall a single one of them now. Will post if any come back to me.
Oh, one just struck me. Capital ships being invulnerable to fighter weapons. Uhg. I get the idea, and a reduction factor would certainly be appropriate, but I think it would be better to still have the ability to kill things given enough time with primaries. For example the Moloch in the nebula mission where you have to protect the Aquitaine as it is repaired (I really suck at remembering mission names).
Oh, one just struck me. Capital ships being invulnerable to fighter weapons. Uhg. I get the idea, and a reduction factor would certainly be appropriate, but I think it would be better to still have the ability to kill things given enough time with primaries. For example the Moloch in the nebula mission where you have to protect the Aquitaine as it is repaired (I really suck at remembering mission names).I completely disagree with this. The idea that a lone fighter could kill a 2-3km destroyer (or even an 800m corvette) with nothing but the FS2 equivalent to 20mm guns is just dumb. Hell, I advocated giving all destroyers the supercap flag and only giving that flag to bombs and other dedicated antiship weapons.
Ya know, over the years while playing I've had many, MANY thoughts of "why didn't they just....", but for the life of me I can't recall a single one of them now. Will post if any come back to me.
Oh, one just struck me. Capital ships being invulnerable to fighter weapons. Uhg. I get the idea, and a reduction factor would certainly be appropriate, but I think it would be better to still have the ability to kill things given enough time with primaries. For example the Moloch in the nebula mission where you have to protect the Aquitaine as it is repaired (I really suck at remembering mission names).
I also like the fact fighters can't kill the bigger ships.Oh, one just struck me. Capital ships being invulnerable to fighter weapons. Uhg. I get the idea, and a reduction factor would certainly be appropriate, but I think it would be better to still have the ability to kill things given enough time with primaries. For example the Moloch in the nebula mission where you have to protect the Aquitaine as it is repaired (I really suck at remembering mission names).I completely disagree with this. The idea that a lone fighter could kill a 2-3km destroyer (or even an 800m corvette) with nothing but the FS2 equivalent to 20mm guns is just dumb. Hell, I advocated giving all destroyers the supercap flag and only giving that flag to bombs and other dedicated antiship weapons.
Ya know, over the years while playing I've had many, MANY thoughts of "why didn't they just....", but for the life of me I can't recall a single one of them now. Will post if any come back to me.
Oh, one just struck me. Capital ships being invulnerable to fighter weapons. Uhg. I get the idea, and a reduction factor would certainly be appropriate, but I think it would be better to still have the ability to kill things given enough time with primaries. For example the Moloch in the nebula mission where you have to protect the Aquitaine as it is repaired (I really suck at remembering mission names).
No, you can enable the Aquataine to kill the Moloch; you just have to play the level on Medium or higher difficulty and you have to stay within range of the Moloch because you're providing sensor support.
Do something about the Maxim
Ya know, over the years while playing I've had many, MANY thoughts of "why didn't they just....", but for the life of me I can't recall a single one of them now. Will post if any come back to me.
Oh, one just struck me. Capital ships being invulnerable to fighter weapons. Uhg. I get the idea, and a reduction factor would certainly be appropriate, but I think it would be better to still have the ability to kill things given enough time with primaries. For example the Moloch in the nebula mission where you have to protect the Aquitaine as it is repaired (I really suck at remembering mission names).
No, you can enable the Aquataine to kill the Moloch; you just have to play the level on Medium or higher difficulty and you have to stay within range of the Moloch because you're providing sensor support.
Now you can TAG her too.
We're actively looking for more suggestions, ideas, and things to fix! This is a beginning, not an end. You've got sixteen years of experience with this game. Speak up!
First, I'd like to say that I love the FS2 plot. FS1 had a more epic finale IMO, but overall FS2 was more in depth. But there was always one part that seemed strange to me. After the events of "Straight, No Chaser", the player naturally would be shaken up a bit, with the discovery of a second Sathanas. In the debriefing however, the Vasudan squad leader (do we ever get his name?) says that there are multiple Juggernauts in the nebula. He says this in such a "Oh, by the way..." manner that it doesn't give much weight to the revelation. Also, in "Into the Lion's Den", Snipes refers to the Sathanas that almost hits you as "Sathanas Number 3" instead of number 8 or 13 or something. If he knew about the second Sathanas, shouldn't he also know about the others, even if he and/or command doesn't know the exact number? I think that at some point, the plot was changed and that changing it back would make the whole story that much better.
You have the player and everyone else think that there is only a second Sathanas headed to Capella. That would still initiate the evacuation of the Nebula (and the continuing evacuation of Capella too). Rescuing the Aquitaine in the next mission would still make sense. By the way, in that mission ("Argonautica"), there is an unused debriefing stage applauding you for sighting the (singular) Shivan juggernaut.
When you get to "Into the Lion's Den", the revelation of a THIRD sathanas will be even more shocking, kinda literally. And each new Sathanas sighted will make it even more menacing, making it a very dramatic slow reveal instead of a ho-hum "By the way...". Snipes' comments would make much more sense ("We got to warn the Alliance!"). In the success debriefing, he says that he warned the Alliance that multiple Juggernauts are headed to Capella. That wouldn't make much sense if they already knew that. You could have Xinny and Zero mildly freaking out (why don't they talk in the mission?) to add to the drama. This mission is already pretty epic and I think that a few changes would make it even more epic, along with the entire storyline.
As far as I can see, the only changes needed would be the debrief for "Straight, No Chaser", saying that there is only another Sathanas, and the Command Brief for "Exodus", officially revealing the existence of multiple Juggernauts, since the SOC missions are optional.
Play in campaign mode, click 'database' on the briefing screen.
Play in campaign mode, click 'database' on the briefing screen.
Whoops, sorry — you won't be able to do this unless you're playing one of the BP campaigns.
Also during Endgame, the Iceni sort of bumps on the nose of the collossus when it jumps in.Yeah, I think it does that with the stock 2014 MVPs as well.
Play in campaign mode, click 'database' on the briefing screen.
Whoops, sorry — you won't be able to do this unless you're playing one of the BP campaigns.
So we won't be able to see intelligence entries in FSBlue?
Wait... so this is an improved retail FreeSpace 2 single-player campaign, but wtihout Petrarch?Just the lines for the ace medals
Sounds like a feature request to me. Lame to have to disable that for one campaign in a mod to prevent it from affecting the other.Campaign files can specify different debriefing personas for different missions, with it just defaulting to Petrarch if one isn't provided, and each "$Promotion Text:" in medals.tbl can have a corresponding "+Persona:" (followed by another "$Promotion Text:" if you want to specify more personas/the default).
Petrarch is disabled because we don't want him popping up in BP.
Sounds like a feature request to me. Lame to have to disable that for one campaign in a mod to prevent it from affecting the other.Campaign files can specify different debriefing personas for different missions, with it just defaulting to Petrarch if one isn't provided, and each "$Promotion Text:" in medals.tbl can have a corresponding "+Persona:" (followed by another "$Promotion Text:" if you want to specify more personas/the default).
The downside is that you have to actually supply audio files for this new persona; otherwise, it will say "hmm, that audio file doesn't exist, guess we'll just use Petrarch's line for that". Although if FS Blue is currently supplying empty audio to overwrite Petrarch's audio files, it should be trivial to just move those to a different index.
Also, they talk of Lokis, but the first enemies on site are actually Hercs.I bet battuta used retail mission files instead of MVP's. Both those things are fixed in MVP missions.
EDIT: Also, why are Shivan bombers using Terran torpedoes? We have plenty of Shivan missiles available already.
You're not wrong, which is really frustrating. :( I'll have to redo all the load out edits on the MVPs missions.It's ok, I did the same mistake a few years ago and had to run a diff between my remastered missions & the MVP ones while trying not to break stuff. It was really frustrating, but I didn't want some retail mission-design bug to slip in, or missing out on some other MVP improvement.
Do you think you could spice Argonautica up a bit?
$Formula: ( false )
$Multi text
XSTR("Your sighting of the Shivan juggernaut has provided Intelligence with valuable information regarding the potential strength and movements of the enemy fleet.", 1710)
$end_multi_text
$Voice: SM305_DB_03.wav
$Recommendation text:
XSTR("", 10)
$end_multi_text
Also, they talk of Lokis, but the first enemies on site are actually Hercs.I bet battuta used retail mission files instead of MVP's. Both those things are fixed in MVP missions.
Is pretty close to my pc, which can handle it just fine, so yes.
We've shipped a new patch!
Maxims will have slightly reduced damage versus large ships.
The Bakha is now a fighter-bomber available in all Vasudan missions.
You fly the Sekhmet in Bearbaiting/High Noon.
TAG systems received a slight nerf.
A number of bugs got fixed.
As Lightning Fall has visual clues indicating the position of the next beacon.
The Prometheus R has been buffed to about the same level as the Subach.
Weapon energy levels on FS2 ships have been reworked.
i7-2600k 3.4ghzIs pretty close to my pc, which can handle it just fine, so yes.
Thank you!
What are your PC's specs?
i7-2600k 3.4ghzIs pretty close to my pc, which can handle it just fine, so yes.
Thank you!
What are your PC's specs?
8gb ram
GTX 760, also running on 1680x1050
Hey guys! I'm really proud of one of our latest changes.I am really looking forward to playing now!!! I'll be able to play starting sometime tomorrow or maybe Saturday!
All ships in FreeSpace 2 will now drop flares instead of countermeasures. They should behave exactly the same in gameplay terms, but you'll now be able to see when your target is trying to decoy your missiles. And they look really gorgeous!
Hey guys! I'm really proud of one of our latest changes.
All ships in FreeSpace 2 will now drop flares instead of countermeasures.
A special variety of flare is used in military aircraft as a defensive countermeasure against heat-seeking missiles.
Nitpick: Flares are countermeasures. :PExcept in FSO they're considered weapons.
FSO also considers countermeasures to be a type of weapon, and these flares are still considered countermeasures by FSO.Nitpick: Flares are countermeasures. :PExcept in FSO they're considered weapons.
I CAN NITPICK STRONGER THAN YOU
The Morningstar isn't gonna do **** to those guys, nope. Does the mission text suggest you use Morningstars?
I think the tradeoff is worth it to make the Morningstar possibly useful elsewhere in the game.
In one of my tries at Bearbaiting, the destroyer got its engine subsystem knocked out by the Sathanas and couldn't jump out. Since it's invulnerable the Sathanas just kept shooting impotently at it until I finished off the beam cannons.
The dialogue in High Noon was spotty, as in it didn't have any flow at all. It felt like the timing on the dialogue triggers were off, but perhaps that's an artefact left over from the original mission. It's always bugged me that the dialogue doesn't change even when the Sathanas has been completely defanged. Would love to see the mission changed to something like the old High Noon 2.0 from Dilmah G.
The mission's already been changed! Keep an eye on the Sath, never loses its bite.
In Proving Grounds you are supposedly providing targeting data to the Aquitaine, but it really doesn't feel like it. The Aquitaine barely shoots that Moloch, whether or not I'm over there.What difficulty level? It needs to be on Medium or higher for this to work.
In The Sixth Wonder, disabling and disarming the Cato ruins the mission since even if the Colossus arrives it will not fire on it. Destroying the Cato allows the Hawkwood to arrive and be blown to pieces. Maybe the Hawkwood arrival queue should be timed or linked to one of the bomber wings. It doesn't make any sense for it to wait until the Cato has been blown, specially if the Colossus is in station. Also, the Colossus should beam the Cato if its still there.
I used a Pegasus on Endgame and I was constantly getting targetted by AA beams from the Aelous. It didn't felt quite stealthy.
I'm on Medium.In Proving Grounds you are supposedly providing targeting data to the Aquitaine, but it really doesn't feel like it. The Aquitaine barely shoots that Moloch, whether or not I'm over there.What difficulty level? It needs to be on Medium or higher for this to work.
Consider building a SEXP stealth system for the Pegasus, Fedayeen-style.
The SRed spam is awesome and cool.
The Colossus doesn't grow any new beams, it just fires its standard load out.
It's pretty much exactly what capship combat looked like in retail FS2. When a Ravana jumps in it fires all of its beams at once if they're in range. And it's especially what capship combat looks like in Bp2 due to not inserting a random refire delay.
Why would a ship NOT fire all of it's beams? It's a great improvemet, can't wait to try it all.
Well, the Shivans sometimes seem to...
It's pretty much exactly what capship combat looked like in retail FS2. When a Ravana jumps in it fires all of its beams at once if they're in range. And it's especially what capship combat looks like in Bp2 due to not inserting a random refire delay.
When a Ravana jumps in it fires two beams, not a dozen tiny AAAs.
Dozens of beams firing at once is a pretty big and jarring difference from the way capship combat looked in FS2 retail and I'm clearly not the only one who thinks this, but apparently you've already made up your mind.
Dozens of beams firing at once is a pretty big and jarring difference from the way capship combat looked in FS2 retail and I'm clearly not the only one who thinks this, but apparently you've already made up your mind.Given that the FS2 retail capship combat in that mission sucked balls, that's actually a nice compliment.
You're straining your logistics network if you fire everything haphazardly. You don't turn your AA guns on a surface combatant or your CIWS on the horizon except out of desperation; doubly so in Freespace where you're dealing with energy weapons on shared power grids and heatsinks. The Colly's imploding under the stress of her LRBGreens in High Noon, it doesn't make sense for her to worsen it for the superficial damage of lighter weapons.Why would a ship NOT fire all of it's beams? It's a great improvemet, can't wait to try it all.
Exactly. It's a war. This is the way it would be in real life. You don't go easy on your enemies.
When a Ravana jumps in, it fires four beams from two firing points with the usage of beam-fire sexp because **** logic. Those Corvettes are scripted to die.It's pretty much exactly what capship combat looked like in retail FS2. When a Ravana jumps in it fires all of its beams at once if they're in range. And it's especially what capship combat looks like in Bp2 due to not inserting a random refire delay.
When a Ravana jumps in it fires two beams, not a dozen tiny AAAs.
Endgame already had the Pegasus available.Yeah, thats kind of what he was saying.
Current fix of RAND_MAX may cause more problems with SRed spam. Currently they always fire to rear part of the Colossus because of previous limit. I guess most of players stay next to the Colossus in High Noon after disrming Sath's beam cannons. It may be hard to avoid beam fire, when all the SReds fires all across the Colossus hull.
But that's exactly what warships do with their AAA beams if they ever get in range of a warship with no other targets to shoot at. All AAA beams can be fired directly and are actually quite good if scripted to target subsystems.If they get in range. We aren't talking about a close broadside duel, but an artillery battle where the Colossus is devoting all available power to overload its main beams. Having it go ham with every other beam as well just because the player shot a TAG is silly.
Best Ship (i.e. the Pegasus)That's a funny way to spell Ares.
If they get in range. We aren't talking about a close broadside duel, but an artillery battle where the Colossus is devoting all available power to overload its main beams. Having it go ham with every other beam as well just because the player shot a TAG is silly.It happens when the Sath is TAGged by anyone and the beams are off cooldown. The Colossus isn't even firing 3 of its main beams once it starts overloading anyway. There's no reason to think the problem lies with the whole reactor grid rather than the heatsinks and sub-reactors powering those beams.
That's a funny way to spell Ares.
Speaking of the Pegasus, I recommend we use live ammunition in Proving Grounds, and guardian Delta when they hit 30% or something.
You need BP. I don't know exactly what you could strip out to save space. Presumably the BP audio VPs, at least...ah, but then you might get errors when it loaded the BP weapons tables...
Are you trying to use FSO 3.7.2 or a recent nightly?
What is differed lighting, anyhow? I disabled it and it did wonders for my FPS but I don't see anything lacking visually.Deferred lighting basically means that the scene is rendered multiple times, with the lighting being done in a separate pass after geometry. It's all very technical and I don't really understand the finer details of the rendering engine (or even the broad strokes of the rendering engine, really, for that matter), but the upshot of it is that it drastically increases the number of light sources that can be projecting light simultaneously at the cost of poorer performance, depending on the mod/mission and the system FSO is being run on.
I've experienced some graphics glitchery as well, but only in the nebula. The little lights on ships have squares around them and when the Trinity exploded in the first nebula mission it made all kinds of weird artifacts.
Something strange going on with the shadows of the Knossos portal, in the lens flare... A Lion at the Door.
http://i.imgur.com/6ki1Q1o.png (http://i.imgur.com/6ki1Q1o.png)
Edit - not just Knossos - all ship "shadows" in the lens flare seem to do that.
I'm guessing either your graphics cards are oooold, or ya gotta update ya dang drivers. Eicca, what launcher are you using?
I've experienced some graphics glitchery as well, but only in the nebula. The little lights on ships have squares around them and when the Trinity exploded in the first nebula mission it made all kinds of weird artifacts.Something strange going on with the shadows of the Knossos portal, in the lens flare... A Lion at the Door.
http://i.imgur.com/6ki1Q1o.png (http://i.imgur.com/6ki1Q1o.png)
Edit - not just Knossos - all ship "shadows" in the lens flare seem to do that.
Run the debug builds, then post the fs2_open.log that appears in the main FreeSpace 2 folder.
I'm guessing either your graphics cards are oooold, or ya gotta update ya dang drivers. Eicca, what launcher are you using?
Yeah, let's not pretend it was useful anywhere outside of Proving Grounds. It wasn't even good for disrupting formations because it cost so much energy(more than the kayser!) to fire meaning you'd be better off just using a real weapon to kill them instead.True, I would have decreased its energy cost. This is mostly a problem in higher difficulties. On easy, this was a somewhat useful anti bomb/bomber supplementary weapon. Dual HL-7s are, strictly speaking, not any more effective than a single one, due to ROF reduction. The second slot is good to use for a supplementary weapon such as Morning Star. TBH, the most useless FS2 weapon for me was the Prometheus R, followed by Akheton SDG.
So your problem with the new Morning Star is that it's more generally useful and less of a gimmick weapon?Yes. FS has many other "generally useful" weapons. Shortly after you get Morning Star, you get Prometheus-S, which now makes it utterly obsolete. It sort of had its niche before, even if it was very situational. If anything, the role it now fills should be filled by Prometheus R (which is utter crap, unfortunately).
Losing control is anti fun for players. Still, it might be worth bringing it back so as to keep compatibility with the CB text...It's not you who is losing control there, isn't it? I don't remember AI being issued Morning Star very much. You can keep the kinetic effect off (or reduce it) on the "D" version if you feel the need to balance stuff for multiplayer. Besides, compatibility with the CB text would also be good to have, since it's now quite blatantly false.
Dual HL-7s are, strictly speaking, not any more effective than a single one, due to ROF reduction.This is only true of 4/2 banks, like the Myrmidon. For a 2/2 pair like the Perseus or Herc 2, firing both banks gives you a 50% DPS increase, as the ROF reduction for two linked banks only drops it to 2/3rds.
Your math is off.Yes, it is. The point, however, remains unchanged.
Yes. FS has many other "generally useful" weapons. Shortly after you get Morning Star, you get Prometheus-S, which now makes it utterly obsolete. It sort of had its niche before, even if it was very situational. If anything, the role it now fills should be filled by Prometheus R (which is utter crap, unfortunately).It's better for it to be made obsolete by the Prom-S than to be useless from the start. Gimmick weapons suck.
It's not you who is losing control there, isn't it? I don't remember AI being issued Morning Star very much.Why do you think that is? The kinetic effect is what makes the Morning Star completely unusable by enemy AI because it just isn't fun to get shot by it.
It's not you who is losing control there, isn't it? I don't remember AI being issued Morning Star very much.You're mistaking effect and cause. The MS isn't issued a lot to AI because it would suck for the player (same as EMP). By making the MS more of a "standard" weapon, it opens the way for it to be used more widely in the future.
You're mistaking effect and cause. The MS isn't issued a lot to AI because it would suck for the player (same as EMP). By making the MS more of a "standard" weapon, it opens the way for it to be used more widely in the future.No, I'm not. I'm pointing out that in retail FS, it's a player-only weapon, so as far as retail experience goes, nerfing the kinetic effect only harms the player. I have never felt the need for yet another regular weapon. It's been changed from useless to redundant, a lateral move IMO.
It's better for it to be made obsolete by the Prom-S than to be useless from the start. Gimmick weapons suck.How about making it somewhat useful even after Prom-S is introduced? Kinetic effect should stay, because it's what sets it apart from other weapons. Gimmick-only weapons suck, but if it's got useful damage on top of that, it might be fun to use. Flail was like that, being a decent shield killer for early FS1 missions. It wasn't used much by AI (well, except if you gave it to them, which was kind of fun), but I haven't heard complaints about it.
You're mistaken. The current Morning Star has capabilities no other weapon can provide. (And the Prom R has been buffed to about Subach levels too).What would those capabilities be? It's sort of a long range anti-shield weapon. It's also a decent anti-bomb weapon. What can I do with it that I can't do with a Prom S (or any other gun, for that matter)?
You're mistaken. The current Morning Star has capabilities no other weapon can provide. (And the Prom R has been buffed to about Subach levels too).What would those capabilities be? It's sort of a long range anti-shield weapon. It's also a decent anti-bomb weapon. What can I do with it that I can't do with a Prom S (or any other gun, for that matter)?
Also, I would really like the tech description (and CB that introduces it) not to be a complete lie. Whatever it is, it's currently nothing like the Flail. Really, BP should introduce more new GTVA weapons than just the Balor (consider that as GTVA replaced every single weapon aside from Prometheus and Hornet between FS1 and FS2), instead of appropriating FS2 ones into a completely different role from what they used to be.
You're mistaken. The current Morning Star has capabilities no other weapon can provide. (And the Prom R has been buffed to about Subach levels too).What would those capabilities be? It's sort of a long range anti-shield weapon. It's also a decent anti-bomb weapon. What can I do with it that I can't do with a Prom S (or any other gun, for that matter)?
Also, I would really like the tech description (and CB that introduces it) not to be a complete lie. Whatever it is, it's currently nothing like the Flail. Really, BP should introduce more new GTVA weapons than just the Balor (consider that as GTVA replaced every single weapon aside from Prometheus and Hornet between FS1 and FS2), instead of appropriating FS2 ones into a completely different role from what they used to be.
Also, I would really like the tech description (and CB that introduces it) not to be a complete lie. Whatever it is, it's currently nothing like the Flail.And if Battuta had any interest in making a Blue version of FS1, you can bet that the Flail would change too. Almost certainly not going to happen though. It needs it a lot more, but it's also not worth the effort.
With how poor it is in comparison to the Tornado, it could be argued the Hornet was defacto replaced.The Hornet wasn't replaced because the GTVA has millions of them stockpiled and they're still useful against Shivans.
And if Battuta had any interest in making a Blue version of FS1, you can bet that the Flail would change too. Almost certainly not going to happen though. It needs it a lot more, but it's also not worth the effort.Now what's wrong with the flail? Why would that need a change?
How well AI uses them is getting game-y though, not a real in-universe reason.As far as I'm concerned, in-universe it means rookies will also be able to use them better - pretty sure it makes sense for rookies in-universe to be able to use hornets better than tempests.
How are Hornets still useful Aesar? If you have access to both, why not take Tornadoes?Because they're there and you don't need Tornadoes to kill bombers. This is a strategic concern, not a tactical one. You give pilots Hornets because they're dependable and you have a ****load of them.
Now what's wrong with the flail? Why would that need a change?Same thing wrong with the Morning Star. Whack effects aren't fun, which means you can't outfit enemies with weapons that have it.
The goal with FS Blue is to make the FreeSpace 2 primaries more interesting within FreeSpace 2.That sounds like something GTVA would develop in order to counter UEF's bomb swarms. Yeah, I suppose I can try using it in bomb-heavy missions, but as far as I'm concerned, the old version would've worked for that purpose well enough if it wasn't for the energy drain (it did work on lower difficulty levels). Shivans don't use huge bomb swarms, so I see no particular reason to have a weapon specifically designed to deal with them. "Can't give it to (enemy) AI" is a crappy reason for depriving the player of an otherwise useful weapon. FS2 is ultimately player-oriented, there's nothing wrong with having a weapon which "player/friendly AI only".
The Morning Star can proximity-detonate and deal CIWS damage, making it excellent against bombs at long range.
The Morning Star's original niche as described in the voiced CB is not an interesting design space right now.
depriving the player of an otherwise useful weapon.
That sounds like something GTVA would develop in order to counter UEF's bomb swarms. Yeah, I suppose I can try using it in bomb-heavy missions, but as far as I'm concerned, the old version would've worked for that purpose well enough if it wasn't for the energy drain (it did work on lower difficulty levels). Shivans don't use huge bomb swarms, so I see no particular reason to have a weapon specifically designed to deal with them. "Can't give it to (enemy) AI" is a crappy reason for depriving the player of an otherwise useful weapon. FS2 is ultimately player-oriented, there's nothing wrong with having a weapon which "player/friendly AI only".Considering FS Blue is essentially the BP continuity version of FS2 (you might be able to tell by the name and the fact that it needs BP to run), having a weapon which is player/friendly AI only is absolutely an issue.
I would certainly have been against changing Flail at all. In fact, all the original FS1 weapons are perfectly fine except for the Synaptic.You're kidding, right? This has got to be a joke.
We're talking about the Morning star here. Stop pretending it was useful in any way aside from saving the Fenris in Proving Grounds.No, but it could be made useful. There are far better ways of making it so, among them being actually making it "Flail Mk2" it's supposed to be. The current weird "anti-bomb flak" with anti-shield effect is kind of meh.
And what exactly would be the problems with the original FS1 weapons? The Disruptor and ML-16 were of limited utility later on, but this was by design (seeing as they were pre-shield era weapons). Synaptic was crap, but all similar weapons were. I didn't see any problems with the others, last time I played.QuoteI would certainly have been against changing Flail at all. In fact, all the original FS1 weapons are perfectly fine except for the Synaptic.You're kidding, right? This has got to be a joke.
And what exactly would be the problems with the original FS1 weapons? The Disruptor and ML-16 were of limited utility later on, but this was by design (seeing as they were pre-shield era weapons). Synaptic was crap, but all similar weapons were. I didn't see any problems with the others, last time I played.How about the fact that the Avenger was according to stats flat-out the best weapon and if you took anything else you were less effective?
Is the retail Morning Star really as annoying in hands of AI as it's made out to be (note, we're not talking turrets, as they're governed by slightly different rules to main guns), or is that actually a misconception? I know that their firing technique is somewhat artificial, not to mention heavily altered by difficulty. Maybe the solution would be not changing the Morning Star, but making the AI use it more like a human player would?Make and play (on insane) a test mission and put it on bomber turrets and enemy fighters. Try to score kills with your primaries.
How about the fact that the Avenger was according to stats flat-out the best weapon and if you took anything else you were less effective?
Make and play (on insane) a test mission and put it on bomber turrets and enemy fighters. Try to score kills with your primaries.Bomber turrets I can agree with. As I said, they don't fire the same way as primaries do. I would expect them to be trouble. Having them mounted on a fighter with low agility, however (or a bomber), could make them manageable. Alternatively, an agile but flimsy fighter that could be easily taken out with missiles (Morning Star doesn't interfere with your turning ability, IIRC). I really wonder how it worked in multiplayer, where it somehow managed to be commonplace, despite the supposed "anti-fun" effect.
The Avenger also sounds so nice when firing. :DNo FS1 weapon sounds nice when firing. FS1 had awful sound design.
I always thought that the Avenger had a problem with shield damage (hence pairing it with Flail). The Banshee was always my favorite, with Prom being a close second (it made a wonderful capship killer). But then, you're mostly fighting the Shivans in FS1, with only a few mission that have Vasudans as primary enemies. Flying a Herc, I always used a Banshee in the lower slot (for killing fighters) and Prom S in the 4-gun bank (for maximum anti-capship DPS). I suppose the Avenger might've been superior against the Vasudan fighters.The Avenger does more shield damage than the Prometheus and nearly identical hull damage. It also has a lower power draw, longer range, and higher velocity. It's better. There is absolutely no reason in FS1 to take any weapon other than the Avenger and maybe the Banshee.
Bomber turrets I can agree with. As I said, they don't fire the same way as primaries do. I would expect them to be trouble. Having them mounted on a fighter with low agility, however (or a bomber), could make them manageable. Alternatively, an agile but flimsy fighter that could be easily taken out with missiles (Morning Star doesn't interfere with your turning ability, IIRC). I really wonder how it worked in multiplayer, where it somehow managed to be commonplace, despite the supposed "anti-fun" effect.Or, even better, you could just turn it into a weapon that doesn't suck the fun from combat when you stick it on enemies. You're devoting a lot of effort into thinking up way to keep this weapon's gimmick and I don't understand why. It's not even an interesting gimmick.
No FS1 weapon sounds nice when firing. FS1 had awful sound design.
tss tss tss tss tss tss
it's better than the new balor sound effect at leastIf you have ideas for a better one, I'm all ears. Seriously, I've looked for one but have found nothing suitable. I'm very open to a replacement.
I really wonder how it worked in multiplayer, where it somehow managed to be commonplace, despite the supposed "anti-fun" effect.It wasn't despite of that feature but because of it that it became so commonplace in multiplayer. How can the enemy player even fire back if they're busy being bounced around?
The Avenger does more shield damage than the Prometheus and nearly identical hull damage. It also has a lower power draw, longer range, and higher velocity. It's better. There is absolutely no reason in FS1 to take any weapon other than the Avenger and maybe the Banshee.Fair enough, so perhaps Avenger could use a nerf to both stats. I didn't use it because I tend to believe loadout screen stats at the time I played FS1, I suppose.
And who gives a **** about FS2 multiplayer? The issues with FS2's netcode means the meta there is nowhere near the same as it is in singleplayer, and no one is designing multiplayer mods.Well, BP has a multi component, which Hades has a badge for. Also, ideally, there would be no significant difference between combat with AI and combat with human players (at least as far as BP goes, with its entire "player and AI equality" shtick). We're still quite far from that ideal, but that doesn't mean we can't be thinking of how to get closer to it.
BP Multi is effectively dead because everyone lost interest due to the decrepit state FSO's multiplayer is in.And would require a significant modding overhaul just to be compatible with current BP versions, as it was based on now obsolete BP versions from years ago. And yes, FSO multi is not exactly in a playable state right now.
Just like the Boanerges' supposed maneuverability.
What changed in FSO Multi to make it not playable?This is an open question, however it's inarguable that the latency is untenable in its current state. At some point, I intend to see if it's still possible to play retail multi in direct IP mode to make a proper comparison.
That's probably because the fitting screen lies.
That's kind of a touchy issue. In one ideal the weapons would be rebalanced. The fsport team has not generally followed that ideal, radical change isn't something the fsport team really like to do. AFAIK fsport is still set up to run on vanilla fs2, and the weapon stats etc. have been picked to be as true to an authentic fs1 experience as possible.
That's kind of a touchy issue. In one ideal the weapons would be rebalanced. The fsport team has not generally followed that ideal, radical change isn't something the fsport team really like to do. AFAIK fsport is still set up to run on vanilla fs2, and the weapon stats etc. have been picked to be as true to an authentic fs1 experience as possible.It's not really the stats that are the problem.
That's kind of a touchy issue. In one ideal the weapons would be rebalanced. The fsport team has not generally followed that ideal, radical change isn't something the fsport team really like to do. AFAIK fsport is still set up to run on vanilla fs2, and the weapon stats etc. have been picked to be as true to an authentic fs1 experience as possible.It's not really the stats that are the problem.
As I said, the game lies to you. The loadout screen says the Prometheus has better shield damage than the Avenger, which isn't true. it gives descriptors to all the weapons that essentially imply that whatever weapon you got most recently does the most damage.
I like how the complaint is network code when the difference between the network code now and the network code in the 90s is zero.Because you are the only person who holds this opinion. No matter how many times you repeat "it was fine back in 1999!", this isn't going to magically change what people are experiencing with FSO right now in 2016. You think the multiplayer netcode holds up, good for you! Nobody else seems to agree with you.
....And connections are better these days, and people played it just fine back then.
Game is no different now and hasn't been ever. It's totally playable, and modern games have the same problem (SC/E:D/Valkyrie).
Meh. HLPs opinions of multi is one of the things that made me give up giving a **** here :(
Multiple times...
The fsport team has not generally followed that ideal, radical change isn't something the fsport team really like to do.If that were true, the Typhon and at least one other ship wouldn't have been given check hull flags on its turrets, they're perfectly willing to bend gameplay when they want to
The stats are absolutely the problem in the sense that it would make more sense to boost the Prometheus damage rather than change the command briefing to say "It's kind of beside the point now that we have the Avenger, but our scientists invented this!"
If that were true, the Typhon and at least one other ship wouldn't have been given check hull flags on
The stats are absolutely the problem in the sense that it would make more sense to boost the Prometheus damage rather than change the command briefing to say "It's kind of beside the point now that we have the Avenger, but our scientists invented this!"
The fsport team has not generally followed that ideal, radical change isn't something the fsport team really like to do.If that were true, the Typhon and at least one other ship wouldn't have been given check hull flags on its turrets, they're perfectly willing to bend gameplay when they want to
Overall, Blue is fantastic. But a few polish things to perhaps take a look at.
I still have difficulty getting the Aquitane to destroy either Shivan corvettes in both evac from nebula missions. It would be nice if these missions were slightly modified so that destruction of these ships is at least possible. Such as allowing Alpha wing to fly bombers. And yes, this was on Medium difficulty. Each corvette always survives with around 15% health left.
How's the TAG balance in the latest iteration?
Overall, Blue is fantastic. But a few polish things to perhaps take a look at.
I still have difficulty getting the Aquitane to destroy either Shivan corvettes in both evac from nebula missions. It would be nice if these missions were slightly modified so that destruction of these ships is at least possible. Such as allowing Alpha wing to fly bombers. And yes, this was on Medium difficulty. Each corvette always survives with around 15% health left.
Did you try TAGging them?
Well, the campaign itself is a single less-than-5MB VP file called "bpc-fs2blue.vp", and "bpc-core.vp" is around 21 MB and contains all the tables. I'm not sure if anything relies on changed model files, though (for extra turrets, for instance). If it did, though, they'd probably be the MediaVPs' models, and therefore combining those two VP files with the 2014 MediaVPs could, theoretically, be all you need to play FS: Blue by itself. I would just note that I obviously haven't tested this myself, and do not really recommend it if you have the space/bandwidth to download all of BP Complete.
I feel like Slaying Ravana might be too quick now; although, does that just put it in line with the early game difficulty curve? Probably, yeah...
Don't think so. The changes probably lie in the move from free fire to a repeating fire-beam event.
The suggested ship is non-canon. The point is to improve on the original FS2 campaign without fundamentally altering the story. Introducing a non-canon ship would be a pretty fundamental alteration. An Aeolus would be campaign appropriate.
Try EMPs on Delta
Well, that's not the fault of the EMPs. If you can't get a visual you need to keep your eyes open.
More of a question than anything... I've got 3.7.4 installed and downloaded all the mods (from FSOinstaller), and I'm playing through the Freespace 2 campaign that's present in Blue Planet's campaign room... it is just called 'Freespace 2', right? It's not meant to be Freespace Blue or anything? Just wondering as I'm not noticing a huge difference between the reg campaign and the new one.No, it should say "Freespace Blue" in the campaign room. Please post your fs2_open.log file. Instructions on how to do this can be found in this post.
Delta don't even seem to react much to your fire except by sometimes turning away after you sustain fire on them for a few seconds. EMPs seemed to do nothing. Moving on to the Tiamat, I kept it in sensor range for about as long as it was actually in the mission and I even shot out its engines. The Aquitaine still quickly moved past it to an angle where none of its beams could fire, so the Tiamat couldn't be killed. That was pretty annoying.
You're running an older version of Blue Planet. Download Blue Planet Complete from the FSO installer or the Blue Planet forum!
You need to select "bpcomplete" as your folder, not "blueplanet". Blueplanet is the old release that doesn't include FSBlue or many other changes.
Retail AI can't use trebs and that's unlikely to change in FSBlue all that soon. Maras and Basilisks are equipped with like 80 trebs by default, imagine what every mission would look like if they actually used them.
The AI are set to 'guard alpha 1' in a lot of missions, I noticed, and become way way way more effective when ordered to engage. This is on medium, of course.
Can the Hecate or other destroyer classes or above survive such attacks?No idea what you are talking about, but I'm gonna go with "yes".
Can the Hecate or other destroyer classes or above survive such attacks?No idea what you are talking about, but I'm gonna go with "yes".
I'm unable to destroy the first enemy ship (NTD Uhuru) in The King's Gambit. It jumps out extremely quickly, and (as Joshua stated), the Mjolnirs miss their shots completely.
I tried ordering my allies to disable it and to destroy it. Neither attempt changed the results. I bombed the engines and TAGged the Destroyer. None of these attempts changed the result.
The ship arrives at 0:10, and leaves at 01:13. 1 minute is far too little time to take down an Orion with blind Mjolnirs.
(I'm playing on Normal Difficulty)
edit: I might have talked too early. I tried a loadout with Stilettos and just barely managed to disable it before it left. The Deimos afterwards was a bit difficult but manageable (because I needed to rearm, so some time was lost)
edit 2: Still find it too difficult to kill it regardless.
Why don't the Mjolnirs track their target even while firing their beams?
I've only ever seen a Mjolnir stay in place and fire in a straight line.
Can a Mjolnir be made so that it can at least turn to point at a target?
Maybe by hacking it such that the entire model is a turret, attached to an invisible & nocollide ship?
Making the Mjolnirs actually aim would probably be retail-breaking and just odd, though. The in-game, Mjolnirs are supposed to be static beam sentries that fire on ships emerging from the node.
Or... maybe, just maybe...
wait for it
Two reasons. The first is that I've seen the Colossus kill the Repulse before Koth's monologue even finishes in normal gameplay, even in a single shot. That might have changed due to the new model, but still. Second, perhaps the Colossus doesn't fire on the Repulse because they're trying to get Koth to surrender, or they hope someone in Koth's crew will see reason. You know, "Don't do it, Koth! You're sacrificing ten thousand lives for nothing!"
But what do any of us know, really.
Play it right now! Included in Blue Planet.[/url]
Is there a non-bundle version?Not yet.
Freespace Blue is definitely imperfect. I like that you made Slaying Ravana less frustrating, but now it's the complete opposite: a cakewalk. Also, King's Gambit keeps crashing for me every time the Uhuru jumps in. Every time. This mission is unplayable for me.
I don't think the Amun is in FS2, is it?
Morningstar does not have any kinetic effect any more.Which makes Proving Grounds even more frustrating than it already was. But overall I think I like the change.
The Cyclops thing sounds like a genuine bug though. Which MVPs were you using?I play via Knossos which automatically uses the most recent ones. I wondered whether this can be right as the latest release of BP dates back a while longer afair. But neither can I change it.
We spiced up that duel a little in FS Blue.Using FSBlue TAGs on High Noon is certainly something no-one should miss out on. :nod:
You should really try TAGs out. They’re not just viable but maybe overpowered.
You should really try TAGs out. They’re not just viable but maybe overpowered.I indeed did so in High Noon. But what's the benefit in, say, Return to Babel? Effectively it gives you one mere AAA beam. If you manage to hit a target with a missile you might as well use a salvo of Tornados which will do a much faster and more effective way killing it.
GTW ML-70 Morning Star
Two next-generation weapons are now available: the Morning Star and the EMP missile. The GTW ML-70 Morning Star improves upon the Flail gun developed during the Great War. Recent advances in high-temperature optics enable the primary focusing chamber of the Morning Star to produce a more coherent charge. Though an energy weapon, the Morning Star has a powerful kinetic effect on its target.
The Flail has a much higher kinetic effect than the Morning Star btw. :p
IMHO The morning star should have at least a small amount of push, like the same as the flail or less, to keep it consistent with canon.
Having a briefing segment explicitly claim that it's a successor to the flail and is designed to alter the course of targets, then for it not to do that is kinda jarring.Quote from: Battle of the Wilderness COMMAND BRIEFING stage 7
GTW ML-70 Morning Star
Two next-generation weapons are now available: the Morning Star and the EMP missile. The GTW ML-70 Morning Star improves upon the Flail gun developed during the Great War. Recent advances in high-temperature optics enable the primary focusing chamber of the Morning Star to produce a more coherent charge. Though an energy weapon, the Morning Star has a powerful kinetic effect on its target.
This briefing stage is unchanged in FSBlue by the way.
Replaying Dunkerque, a sneaky group of Basilisks sniped one of the Omega transports. I didn't automatically get a mission fail, as is tradition from Command, and after saving the other there was dialogue from Petrarch saying the performance was acceptable. Was that a change for FS2 Blue? Or was it always there and I just never noticed???
Also, is FS2Blue/BPC playable on the latest (4.1) MVPs?
(My recent test was on 2014/3.7.2 MVPs)
All I know is I looked away for for second and by the time I had turned back that ship was *dust*. Very strange.
But in so far as victory conditions, can you actually pass that mission saving one transport only? This was on mission simulator not campaign mode, so I don't know what the actual pass conditions are. I assume losing both transports is a fail.
Had the same problem with Aftermath 2, most likely not a problem with the mod.
The Intro cutscene of AF2. Another problem I had was that the "infinite weapon/energy" cheat causes a CTD.
The new Morning Star as I mentioned a few posts back also allows you and the Aquitaine to FINALLY kill that #$*@ Moloch in Proving Grounds.
The new Morning Star as I mentioned a few posts back also allows you and the Aquitaine to FINALLY kill that #$*@ Moloch in Proving Grounds.
:wtf: The Aquitaine always kills it on it's own tho. . .
(assuming we are thinking of the same mission) I've never seen that Moloch escape the Aquitaine's beam salvos.
As for the differences it's mainly down to the fact that FSBlue uses the BP mopack, therefore the ship and weapon rebalances done for AoA are carried over to FS2. So you get the buffs for underused ships like the Myrm, the Bakha rework, and the weapon energy buffs for bombers and heavy fighters(because in retail the Erinyes has the same weapon energy as a Perseus at 150 while bombers are even lower at 100).
Remember that there is completely different set of PvP weapons in retail, which is evidence that issues from the progression of the single player was to side-stepped in competetive play.Except this set of weapons is also hilariously unbalanced. Look up the stats for the Mekhu HL7-D, it's the best MP weapon by far. Not to mention that not all multiplayer modes use "Dogfight" weapons. Then look at the UD-D Kayser and see how incredibly bad it is. The Kayser does lower damage than the Subach while costing literally 10 times more energy to sustain. The Subach HL7-D while not as stupidly overpowered as the Mekhu is still vastly superior to all other options, having the 2nd highest DPS and the lowest energy drain. Only the Mekhu's honestly idiotic damage beats it(it has better hull AND shield DPS than the singleplayer Kayser while costing the same energy as the singleplayer Mekhu).
With the bombers, the low primary energy capacity, is a clear move to push the use of secondaries for the bomber role.Except this doesn't matter because their high shields grant them high shield regen which then lets them tap shields for weapon energy with 0 ETS on weapons.
The Myrmidon is most definitely not a jack of all trades.