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Hosted Projects - Standalone => Wings of Dawn => Topic started by: Spoon on April 04, 2015, 04:10:45 pm

Title: Old Reviews and Feedback thread Episode 1
Post by: Spoon on April 04, 2015, 04:10:45 pm
Feel like giving your thoughts about WoD in a review form? Please leave it in this thread!
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: FrikgFeek on April 04, 2015, 10:42:00 pm
Alright, just beat Episode 1 so I'll post my thoughts here. It was short but sweet, some of the engine-bending straight up blew my mind when I first saw it and the missions are pretty varied.

I might replay it later while using the dragonfly, but the Ray seems like by far the better option. It has great versatility and the ability to glide means you can take some power off the engines and into guns and shields. I did find the campaign a bit too easy, probably because it's the introduction campaign. Managed to beat it on insane without dying(although I did fail an objective a few times, and that Cyrvan assault ship got me down to like 3% hull). The multilock missiles are awesome just for what they do and how good they feel, even though dumbfires and guns are still the quickest way to blow stuff up.

One thing I didn't really like were the voice lines plucked from VNs. Random Japanese while everyone is supposed to be speaking "Terran basic" or Cyrvan just seemed weird. Though that's a nitpick, as you can easily just disable voices. I like anime, I just found it weird in this context.

The VN segments are straight up mindblowing. Sure, JAD 2.2 did something similar but this is a whole different level. The seamless transition between interior and exterior shots is pretty immersive and the artwork is nice too.

Spoiler:
Getting to shoot down some smug space elves felt great. That's what they get for messing with Alpha1 Dawn. Praise the almighty VK-0103N.

I was amazed how quickly I got attached to the Zephyr, this Episode felt like one of those "4 fighters and a corvette" campaigns, except you only get 2 fighters and a cruiser-sized ship.

Your cockpit cracking added some real stress when your shields were down, much more so than just watching a number on your HUD go down.

It might be short, but it's some of the most fun I've had flying in quite a while.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Dark Hunter on April 05, 2015, 03:54:41 am
Well, I just finished it up.

I'm liking Dawn's new design, as well as Tempest's and Justice's retools. Gives them all more personality. Especially Tempest, she's easily my favorite character so far. Having Dawn as the protagonist also makes more sense story-wise, though I miss Misuzu.

The mission variety is excellent, and the conversation sections go a long way toward making this feel more like an inhabited universe.

I agree with FrikgFeek, though: the random Japanese sound bytes should go. They're out of place and jarring. (On the other hand, the Cyrvan language has me laughing when I look more closely at it. Are the not-Japanese words just gibberish or is there a method to the madness?)

I guess my impression is overall favorable. It's just too short at the moment and I want more story! :p
I'm hoping Episode 2 will come out soon-ish.

Spoilerrific stuff now:
Spoiler:
Such major changes in the setting's history were unexpected to me. Suddenly we're at the outbreak of the Cyrvan Invasion and the Battle Thralls are sniffing around a good deal earlier than in the old timeline. Tempest and Justice are mercenaries, not soldiers, and the  JGASF can't exist now because the Cyrvans are not allies. Part of me loves this new universe that has a greater amount of thought put into it. Part of me is disappointed that we're not expanding on the original. But, as this iteration of the story is still brand-new, judgment must be reserved until later.

Dawn's new plotline is so anime-cliche: the mysterious amnesiac girl with psychic powers. But hey, that's part of WoD's charm, I'm not complaining.  ;)

Please tell me Misuzu and the rest of the bunch make an appearance soon. I caught Crystal's... I'm guessing it's her father getting name-dropped, so I imagine she might show up soon, but I'd love seeing more of the old cast in their new roles.

Saw the new designs for the various species, and am slightly surprised that the Prometheus Frame is still around with all the other changes that have been made. I look forward to seeing them in action.

Also, an O'Neill Cylinder. An actual Island III space colony in the Freespace engine. The Gundam nerd in me was geeking the **** out during that mission.


I guess this also means it's time to give the TvTropes page an overhaul...
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Spoon on April 05, 2015, 06:59:06 am
Thanks for the reviews!

Regarding the voice bytes; I personally like having them there, as it gives an impression on how I envisioned the characters sounding in my head. I liked it in Recettear, and that game isn't set in Japan either. But I understand what you guys are saying, it's a valid complaint.

And yes, the Cyrvan words are not just random gibberish, there is some method to the madness  :p

Quote
The Gundam nerd in me was geeking the **** out during that mission.
The Gundam nerd in me really wants to drop it onto something.  :D
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: FrikgFeek on April 05, 2015, 07:34:13 am
If you look at the class descriptions in the F3 lab you'll see some of them are signed by Misuzu.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Flak on April 05, 2015, 07:59:39 am
Let's see, now there are a lot more space for Elf-hater characters.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Flak on April 05, 2015, 11:12:56 am
Oh yeah, I forgot one more thing

Admiral Kalazonitov is badass
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Meneldil on April 05, 2015, 01:41:30 pm
I really liked how narrow this episode's story was, placing it on a mercenary ship was a perfect idea for an introductory release.
There's nothing in here that could overwhelm new players: no huge info-dumps, no huge new-game-mechanics-dumps, no overly-complex missions. I know WoD was a popular mod, but i'm guessing there's still quite a few people who never completed it (i'm one of them), and this episode is perfect for bringing those people into the WoD universe. There's no excuse for not trying this out, especially considering the effort that was put into it, go play it!

One thing I didn't like was the total lack of faction/history data in the database; the info in the short conversation with justice and tempest as short and simple as it might have seemed was 100% abstract at the time, so i didn't really process it and suffered from wtf is this acronym syndrome later. I feel that a couple of short, one-paragraph entries in the database would help keep you on top of what's going on in the game.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: LoneFan on April 05, 2015, 08:54:24 pm
Ok, played it and it was great, I enjoyed it more than any consumer product I have purchased in a very long time.

As a game, it is damn near perfect, the story is interesting and engaging, and the universe is very well fleshed out at this point, human factions are a little transparent but depth can come latter. This has the making of a true Sci-fi property and I don't want to see it go to waist. We need to get this out there.
Come on people, I want to see some fan art, and fanfics. Someone could publish a novel on this rich a story, there's so much to work with here. 
The only problem I have now, is that now, I want more, MORE!

The between mission story sequences were a little hard to figure out since I changed the controls.
Quote
I agree with FrikgFeek, though: the random Japanese sound bytes should go.

Yeah, that was a little painful to listen to.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Droid803 on April 06, 2015, 01:32:47 am
Just finished up. As expected from having played nothing but autoaim for years, I couldn't aim for ****, so that took some getting used to. The alternate control setup is actually pretty good (I daresay better than the default FreeSpace one if you can get over the force of habit).

Brief Thoughts

Amazing:
VN segments (that's impressive scripting :eek2: only thing missing is the number options actually working like having numbers for options would suggest haha)
The reworked universe - a lot more depth an thought put in, while still having the feel of the original
Title character being main character
2Fighters1Cruiser (and I like what you did to the Rhea design for the Zephyr)
Tempest
Last Inferno

Almost-amazing:
Colony (wasn't dropped onto anything :( )
Bombs-in-the-tunnel (amazing idea, if only the outcome was a bit more consistent)
Card Game (couldn't actually play it :( )
Felt like a demo/prequel (MOAAAAAR)

Not-so-amazing:
RiP Misuzu, Crystal, JGASF
Cliff hangar
Running out of ammo shooting at Winter/Autumn, realizing no support ship, and being stuck in endless dogfight where nobody could kill the other because they couldn't hit me and I couldn't outdamage their shield management/regen and hull regen (I get the story reasons for no support ship, but it opens up the possibility of being "stuck" until you give up and get shot down on purpose)
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Spoon on April 06, 2015, 09:50:47 am
Woooh, thanks for the reviews and kind words!
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Dragon on April 06, 2015, 06:24:52 pm
Played it, loved it. :) Great work, really. The VN segments are really innovative, certainly more immersive than long Fiction Viewer monologues. The biggest problem with it is that it was too short. That's not to say it isn't impressive, just that it ended way too quickly. Oh, and I love the new mass driver, they Type 74. KA-BLAM! :) Makes Cyrvans feel a lot less powerful, you can really clean their clock with that gun if you have knack for aiming it. Looking forward to the next chapter.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Veers on April 06, 2015, 07:06:51 pm
So when can we start taking Cyrvan 101 classes?
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: SpardaSon21 on April 06, 2015, 10:58:00 pm
Hail our new Cyrvan overlords!
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Darius on April 07, 2015, 01:46:51 pm
At first I was sad-faced, getting crashes when starting the game. Then I read how someone was getting them too and I followed the advice of disabling GLSL. It worked! excited3.gif

For some reason my lappy had switched to the intel GPU  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The most important part of any gaming experience to me, secondary to story, looks and audio (well, probably not audio) is that it's got to be fun to play. I enjoyed the first incarnation of WOD simply because it was unadulterated fun that wasn't emotionally or cognitively demanding. Happy to report that WoD2 is just as much fun and twice as charming.

I love the countermeasure graphical effect.
The visual novel format and anime style didn't detract as much from the experience as I expected.
Music still feels good to listen to. Sound perhaps lacks a bit of punch, especially with weapons.
Love the mercenary ship and the Firefly feel.
Still in early stages of the campaign but looking forward to seeing some capships in action later.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Eratharon on April 09, 2015, 04:00:10 pm
Review Time! (So spoilers)


The moment I saw this I downloaded it then played it through. It was awesome.

This really looks like Wings of Dawn in a way that Dawn is the protagonist of the campaign. Well Episode one at least. The characters are loveable for me: I liked that their names represent them very well like how Justice is portrayed as a "goody two-shoes" guy and Tempest as a temperamental woman. I wonder who Swifty is though.

The storyline was interesting though certainly different from the original. I don't know which one I like more. I am leaning towards the original since it's a little more complete than this but that may very well change when this gets finished. I wonder what you'll make out of Dawn being a "Cosmic Horror" huehuehue. I would like to ask, will you bring back other characters from the original Wod?

The missions were good in a way that on normal it was challenging but not on a frustrating level. My favourite was when you mine the asteroids and detonate them on by one. What I really liked was that when you are choosing your weapons there are no weapon models but screenshots! I often forget the names of the weapons I use in user created campaigns and only remember how they look so this helped me lots! Macross Missile Massacre FTW!

The visual novel style worked for me because I read some of those already. It fleshes out the universe in a way that you don't have to go to the Techroom for info. Character interactions are done well also.

The ships look awesome and are distinct. The character portraits are also well done (though Justice is a little iffy :p). Soundtrack is very similar like the other WoD so no complaints there.

The only negative I could find was performance but I think it's more on my end than yours. I got only one crash when I watched the Human/Cyrvan battle feed but the second time I did it went through it without a hitch.

All in all I enjoyed it extremely. I would recommend this campaign to anyone. It is a bit on the short side but which good campaign is ever long enough when you want to play it forever.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Spoon on April 10, 2015, 08:35:14 am
Cheers for the reviews :)
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Phantom Hoover on April 12, 2015, 06:51:41 am
10/10 a masterpiece — PH, after getting to blow up cyrvans
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: LoneFan on April 15, 2015, 11:26:18 pm


Spoiler:
Spoiler:
I hope Swifty and Axem survived that battle so they can be part of the triumphant return of the HARD LIGHT SQUADRON.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 13, 2015, 10:26:36 am
Okay so I'm about to head up to Palomar for stuff, but I promised I'd babble about this, so babble I shall.

When naming a new pilot for Wings of Dawn, you must ask yourself one question: What Would Misuzu Do? And then you name yourself TheRedComet and put on your Earth Attack Force jacket.

OH GOD THERE'S A CUSTOM MAINHALL. I love you already, Spoon. And you've added a...custom feature to the custom mainhall? Ship logs? I shall have to investigate further when I return from the mountain.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: General Battuta on June 13, 2015, 11:17:12 am
The 'mainhall' is LUA wizardry and you can add new screens to pretty much your heart's content. You can also add things to the existing interface, like a 'go to techroom' button in the briefing, or a 'pilot's log' button in the CB.

It's not so much an addition to the interface code as it is sidestepping it entirely.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Phantom Hoover on June 13, 2015, 12:00:07 pm
I did notice that there wasn't much background information to be found in the mainhall after the setting jump. It didn't really detract from my enjoyment that much but the absence did seem a bit odd given how much detail you've put into other things, and given the diegetic frame around all the extra fluff you'd expect the protagonist to orient herself a bit more after the timejump.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Spoon on June 13, 2015, 01:20:53 pm
That's because I'm not very good at writing cut and dry text on background story things and because of that I don't really enjoy typing them. That's why I've opted to have all the 'background' stuff be told to the player in VN segments through other characters, because I find that easier to write and I think it's more interesting to the player that way too.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: General Battuta on June 13, 2015, 01:33:37 pm
Checking up on the characters between missions is a lot better than checking for new tech entries.

I wouldn't mind seeing Dawn's comments on what she learns about her new timeframe, but I dunno, I'm not mad to have it.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: -Norbert- on June 14, 2015, 12:45:02 am
Dawn's diary might be a good place for such comments.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 14, 2015, 10:08:52 am
Okay, so, start the game

Spoiler:
EXCUSE ME SIR ARE YOU SPACE ELVES? PLEASE LEAVE MY DREAMS ALONE

...the fact that Dawn's uniform is more revealing than the tank top she sleeps in amuses me far too much. Not sure about her redesign so far though. Also, I haven't played FreeSpace in a long time so it was somewhat awkward that your tutorial mission did the movement controls, but not the firing ones. Welp.

UEU, naming sequential ships in the same class Oppressor and Liberator. I'm dealing with an entire civilization of derp, aren't I?

SPACE ELVES, I WAS JUST ABOUT TO KILL THE ENFORCER TOO. Tempted to try firing on them, but as I turned to do so the great god Spoon faded my screen to black.

Please tell the winged one to put on some clothes. Even I feel uncomfortable and I'm wearing a latex jumpsuit.

Oh **** you all, I SHOULD have shot at you!

Meanwhile, Tempest's shirt is made of cling-wrap.

And the Space Elves are Space Elfing about trying to conquer humanity now. ASSHOLES I'LL KILL YOU ALL

And then the smugglers killed me instead. Welp. That was quick.

More of my hilarious deaths or possibly just turning the difficulty down from medium when we come back.

Running Tally of Music I Recognize: The Labyrinth Called Yourself, Mobile Doll's Eyes (oh hey it kicked in when talking about unmanned fighters, well done Spoon)
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 14, 2015, 11:10:49 am
And we're back with more exploding. Also turning down the music, it's a little loud.

Spoiler:
Because I didn't mention it last time: ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL

Tempest's numerical tag is "Snarky 1". Heh.

So I got one kill (two assists I picked up off Tempest as well) in my first fight. Using the keyboard with the default setup is awful; your afterburner and weapons are on opposite  sides of the keyboard and one hand is immobilized to fly on the numpad. This pretty much demands mouse or joystick flying.

Combat in general feels very Babylon Project, with ultra-short-range just-over-100m dogfighting being the norm, and weapons ranges that reach out beyond about 250m being something of a joke because all the targets are very small and you can't hit them at those ranges. One kill off the second fight, while Tempest Captain-Killsteal'd off a couple of ones the Zepyhr's point-defense guns were eating and the Zepyhr got one.

Justice compliments me and Tempest, despite the fact that the Zephyr was very obviously doing most of the work. Also the rearm drone seems to wander around a lot...but it's a fast little bugger.

And the Hazels entered.

And then I lost the mission because I somehow turned on Glide and the key that did this or turned it off wasn't mentioned in the help list. That...is a significant oversight, Spoon.

Once more with feeling. Two kills off the Dragonflies, and I lost a third to the asteroid. Oh FS AI and your inability to cope with large objects, never change. Two kills off the Ray 2s this time as well, despite Tempest's attempt to Captain-Killsteal both of them. The Zephyr got the other two.

And the Hazels are remarkably easy to take out when GLIDE DOESN'T **** EVERYTHING UP.

Now let's walk around and talk to people!

And...and...oh god. I named this pilot TheRedComet on the theory of WHAT WOULD MISUZU DO... And my options for cool mercenary nicknames? #5? Even if Dawn is way more an Amuro than A CHAR, somebody should have warned me.

Ah crap, I misclicked and went to bed without talking to Tempest.

SPACE ELVES SAPPIN' MAH BRAINS shoot shoot as fast as you can you can't hit me I have unlimited afterburner!

Running Tally of Music I Recognize: The Labyrinth Called Yourself, Mobile Doll's Eyes, Christmas Eve AC195

Next time: stuff happens.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 14, 2015, 01:10:54 pm

Spoiler:
Dawn's white shirt? By far the best outfit in the game.

Dawn confirmed for best girl when she says exactly what I was thinking about the smuggler's name.

Lady, I already hate you for calling Dawn and Justice "cheeky" (have to cop to it for Tempest, though), and for trying to steal Dawn's awesome white shirt look.

Dawn reconfirmed for best girl by saying exactly what I was thinking about Ophelia.

Figured out what the glide key is! Lost the mission again because of it, but figured it out. Then hit the Contravention with dumbfires a whole bunch and did most of my damage that way because I'm hardcore like that. After that a tandem shield-killer and asteroid-debris hit nearly totaled it.

OH HAI ISLAND 3, it's like I haven't just finished a rewatch of MS Gundam. After announcing myself as the Dread Pirate Wafflesnatcher, buzzing Amuro Ray's house, and threatening to Operation British the place, they're all pretty mad. Unfortunately they can't fly and beat themselves to death against the colony while I skillfully traverse the entire Island 3 cylinder from the front to the back and then go fly out to say hi to the Contravention. Did anyone ever tell you you look a poor rendition of a Diagosse Giar, Contravention? Because you do! They get kind of mad about that and send some Kazes out to kill me, so I decide alternative methods are out and call the strike.

Meanwhile, the UEU is ZAFT (and I better not be Jesus Yamato), the CRF named their planets after the Queen from Freelancer because they are definitely Bretonia, and the SPACE ELVES ARE COMING. Destroy them all!

Break for lunch.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 14, 2015, 02:12:22 pm
Spoiler:
Tempest is a veteran of the Great Salt Shortage of UC 0097, I see.

Dawn is a Newtype. Also, I really half expected to hear the Newtype flash and see the little white line go across my screen.

And then I'm having a Nordera Day. Death2AllBattleaxe; I warned people I was an attack pilot at heart, but they did not believe me! Six kills...I only remember three of those. Oh well!

Now, to save the Ostfront. Tempest is very unhappy, but that's cool because at this point DawnxJustice OTP, and also I'm vaguely reminded of Mihoshi by the Ostfront's captain. Which isn't Tenchi best girl, but it's pretty close. Also, I noticed that I can actually swipe Tempest's Dragonfly in ship selection. I didn't do it, but I should because I'm sure she'd complain hilariously.

HLP-1 Homing Lasers: don't leave home without them. In other news, the Crusader wishes to inform you that your boarding actions are very unwise because it is FIRING ITS LAZOR. I don't think it was supposed to do that.

Then the CSA Brillant Empyrean jumps in and complains it didn't give permission to run away, and I throw it the finger as we all jump out. Because **** space elves.

In fact, **** them even more. That was cheap and your MCWS are going to die for it. Not even your-dammit Spoon, at least let me kill ONE space elf?!

THERE IS NO DEBRIEFING FOR THIS MISSION! SPOON! Bad! Wait what. I failed? I'm pretty sure I won. I chased the MCWS off and everything! I don't think Spoon considered I and my endless supply of homing lasers could do this.

Well that wasn't very smart of you, Spoon. I can't let myself get disabled, that's a fail, and I can't win, that's a fail.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 14, 2015, 03:02:23 pm
Let's beat our brains against the paradox some more.

Spoiler:
Dawner, Dawnster...TEMPEST IS SECRETLY BUFFY SUMMERS! IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW.

Spoon, you just gave jumpout thing before the mission wants you to actually do so, didn't you? It works this time without silliness of no debriefing because I waited a bit longer for Justice's last not-actually-a-line. Baka.

Moving on to the inside of subspace. Tempest is very gung-ho about chasing them, especially now that they're after her precious Dawnie. Sorry Tempest, I don't like you that way. Also, minefield clearance missions, the worst of all space game missions. Homing lasers, you are my only hope!

...this mission needs a checkpoint system. Also, the mainhall music desperately needs to be turned down a notch. I do find it amusing that Dawn lampshades how useless Tempest is in this sequence. I just wish I wasn't hearing it for the second time.

It's also wrong considering Tempest just saved my ass taking down the V3 while I was chasing the V6.

Justice snarks back at Tempest. Tempest, I think you're overlooking a key point: a captured Cryvan pilot is worth a lot of money to the right people. We should sell the Space Elves for experimentation. Serves them right! Spoon still hasn't let me kill an elf, though. Kind of sad about that.

In the meantime, Tempest does a nature presentation on Supply Drones, which apparently mate with space elves. HOLY FANFIC FUEL BATMAN, etc. I'm trying to move over to the Zephyr without crashing into it because I can't see it through the giant crack in my canopy/panoramic cockpit and linear seat setup.

Anyone up for more bugs? I was too close to the Zephyr when the directive popped, so now it's popped but I can't leave until the drone gets back but there's nothing to tell me that so I spend the next minute thinking the mission is broken. I frowny face at your mission design, Spoon. It's fun but the directives are not handled well. :nono:

Next time: will Spoon finally let me kill a Space Elf?
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 14, 2015, 03:26:12 pm
In this chapter, even more HOLY FANFIC FUEL BATMAN

Spoiler:
Twintails, Wynter as she was marked in the mission, is blamed for getting them captured. That's cool with her, though, because she's perving on Justice. Double facepalm that I wrote that line, for the record. Think he's taken, lady.

She forgot the translator, and is now going to attempt to speak our language. Tempest thinks this will be good. She's going to talk lolcats or something, isn't she?

No, but she is going to say "WE COME IN PEACE" and you are so lucky Spoon hasn't given me an option to throw you out the ****ing airlock for that one, Wynter. You gain minor points by suggesting we torture your uptight companion, though. I'm cool with that, because **** space elves. And HOLY FANFIC FUEL BATMAN, she actually tries to get some alone time with Justice on her third line in English.

Tempest gets upset. Damn, so much for the OTP. Dawn! She's muscling in on our man! Come on!

...HOLY FANFIC FUEL BATMAN...I'm pretty sure Wynter just moaned about being checked for weapons by Tempest. Jesus, are you for real lady? And if you are, why are you even still wearing clothes?

And Dawn threatens Wynter with the Comfy Chair. So, what am I, asks Dawn. Well, you're an esper, but the guy writing this is just going to keep calling you a Newtype since he finished watching MS Gundam a week ago and is working his way through Zeta right now. These two geniuses tried to pull Dawn out of subspace, nearly killing her, so I have them to thank for my freedom but seriously **** space elves.

Also, they're not in the regular fleet, and in fact aren't finished with academy. I feel as though I've been insulted. Perhaps I'll get to space them for it? A man and his female avatar ingame can dream! And they are here because...the Cyrvans have a cunning plan. Or one of them does. To use Dawn for something. Also Dawn is the Antichrist, or something.

NO DAWN! DON'T BE NICE TO THE SPACE ELVES! THEY'RE EVIL!

And then we get Breaker'd by our Cryvan Overlords and the game's over.

Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Spoon on June 14, 2015, 04:09:28 pm
Quote
THERE IS NO DEBRIEFING FOR THIS MISSION! SPOON! Bad! Wait what. I failed? I'm pretty sure I won. I chased the MCWS off and everything! I don't think Spoon considered I and my endless supply of homing lasers could do this.
Was this in the ostfront mission or the last mission? Cause in the last mission this has been a reported bug that is incredibly elusive and not even best fredder, Axem, could figure it out.

Quote
Anyone up for more bugs? I was too close to the Zephyr when the directive popped, so now it's popped but I can't leave until the drone gets back but there's nothing to tell me that so I spend the next minute thinking the mission is broken.
Sorry about that. (that was a new one for me)
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 14, 2015, 04:43:04 pm
There are no Cryvan fighters in the Ostfront mission. From my experience it appeared to be something to do with the appearance of the directive to jump out vs. the last line of dialogue being later, but if it's something else, welp.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Spoon on June 15, 2015, 06:51:41 am
The CSA Brillant Empyrean deploys a few if you stick around for too long. The bug is super weird because the player is at no point in the mission 'allowed' to jump out. And the only end mission trigger should be impossible to trigger at that point. It's a mystery ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyway, thanks for your amusing play by play.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: redsniper on August 08, 2015, 09:03:27 pm
This is a fantastic rebuild of Wings of Dawn. Spoon's kept what worked from the original WOD, improved what was lacking, and made the whole package into a more mature and nuanced work.

We've still got coolio spaceships and guns (and now multilock! hnnng), rocking music, and more anime styled character art. The variety of missions and use of space terrain is a lot of fun. Part of me wants to say "let's fight somewhere other than around an asteroid," but the rest of me realizes there's not much else in space. I especially liked laying traps for the pirates and making the GOTTA GO FAST run on the space colony. The Zephyr and its small crew keep the SPACE ADVENTURE type campaign alive, like Homesick or WOD: Stranded; always a fun time. Also, props for the canopy cracks as your fighter takes damage. I love that kind of ****.

My main gripe with WOD1 was that most of the characters didn't have... character, they were just faceless wingmates, so why bother? So I was really glad to see this has basically been turned around completely and now we have art for everyone and even ZOMG personalities, interpersonal dynamics, and even dialogue trees like some kind of RPG or VN. I particularly liked the Wynter/Akyha dynamic. Furthermore there was another gripe I didn't realize I had until I saw how much better it is in nuWOD, that being the setting didn't seem very fleshed out. It was just "there was a UEU, then war with Cyrvans, now we're bros and it's time to fight aliens, gg." The various Terran factions and their uneasy peace in the face of Cyrvan invasion feels much more believable, and getting to see it all from an outsider's point of view keeps any one of them from being the obvious "good guy's" or whatever.

There are also a lot of little things that basically go unnoticed and unappreciated unless they're missing. Like the characters commenting on how well equipped the pirates are or how much use they get out of the rearm drone, lol.

I keep in touch with Spoon and Axem pretty regularly on IRC, so I've seen bits and pieces of their scripting magic over the past few years. Seeing it all at once in a single campaign is mind-blowing though. If it weren't for like the HUD and briefing layout I wouldn't know it's FS.

So there's the praise, now for the crits:
Dawn doesn't seem to care at all about the UEU ending, which I thought was weird. Maybe it can be chalked up to the drugs, but it would have been nice to see a little more of her adjusting to the new time period. I also thought that Tempest and Justice accepted her too readily, but it fits the light-hearted anime theme. Which is all well and good, except I think it leads to some tonal dissonance between the whimsical VN segments and gritty space battles. It wasn't really an issue with WOD1 since you're just fighting invading aliens, but when it's other humans there should be some more gravitas. Really, I think I just feel bad about killing Ophelia because she seemed like a lovable dumbass. :p

All in all, this new WoD is a fun time and I can't wait for the next ep!
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Spoon on August 08, 2015, 09:14:07 pm
As I already said on IRC, great review. Thanks :D
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Cpt. Ritter on December 19, 2015, 03:57:15 pm
I mostly lurk and like... never post. But after getting FS2 working again, yay Win8 stupidity, I sat down to play Wings of Dawn: Episode 1.

Now, my Freespace skills have clearly suffered from lack of use, so it was definitely hard... but...

The entire style of Wings of Dawn was mind-blowing. I didn't think Freespace could even do some of the things you've made it do here. From the moment I sat down to start playing it, I didn't stop, that's compelling gameplay, but definitely compelling story. I absolutely love the characters your developing and how you've managed to put them together inside a slapstick-scifi-anime-comedy mix with nothing short of beautiful models supporting it. (for the record, I was a fan of even the initial models).

I do look forward to future installments and thank you for sharing.

Now if only I was as accurate as those AI tend to be sometimes....
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: AdmiralRalwood on December 19, 2015, 06:23:26 pm
I didn't think Freespace could even do some of the things you've made it do here.
Weeeellllll... there is as reason it comes with its own executable. ;)
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Spoon on December 19, 2015, 07:21:27 pm
I mostly lurk and like... never post. But after getting FS2 working again, yay Win8 stupidity, I sat down to play Wings of Dawn: Episode 1.

Now, my Freespace skills have clearly suffered from lack of use, so it was definitely hard... but...

The entire style of Wings of Dawn was mind-blowing. I didn't think Freespace could even do some of the things you've made it do here. From the moment I sat down to start playing it, I didn't stop, that's compelling gameplay, but definitely compelling story. I absolutely love the characters your developing and how you've managed to put them together inside a slapstick-scifi-anime-comedy mix with nothing short of beautiful models supporting it. (for the record, I was a fan of even the initial models).

I do look forward to future installments and thank you for sharing.

Now if only I was as accurate as those AI tend to be sometimes....
Thanks, glad to hear you enjoyed it  :)

Weeeellllll... there is as reason it comes with its own executable. ;)
I actually think that by now, most things that WoD requires are in trunk by now. With the exception of the increase of BMPman slots.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: AdmiralRalwood on December 19, 2015, 07:31:56 pm
Still haven't had a pull request for multilock.
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Spoon on December 19, 2015, 08:53:02 pm
Still haven't had a pull request for multilock.
Silly me, forgetting about that. You're right
Title: Re: Reviews and Feedback thread
Post by: Torchwood on March 06, 2017, 09:58:03 am
Thread, I command thee to rise from your grave!

After three times playing through the new Wings of Dawn (and a bit of the old one just to get a picture of how much the remake imrpoves on it), I am ready to give my personal review.

Wings of Dawn has been my favourite Freespace fanmade setting ever since I've discovered it. The animesque atmosphere has been a welcome breath of relief from the grim darkness of regular Freespace 2 and the looming threat of extinction-by-Shivans that appears all but inevitable. In contrast, even when at it's darkest, Wings of Dawn never fails to shine brightly with hope for the future with a look and feel that says 'epic space fantasy' through and through.

The remake has done an excellent job enhancing what made the first Wings of Dawn such a joy to play. I daresay the Visual Novel engine is the most revolutionary breakthrough for storytelling devices since the interactive cutscene.

The new Wings of Dawn is even more pleasing to the eye than its predecessor, thanks to the improvements made to FSO since then. The gameplay is also improved thanks to some new features such as the multilock system. I was very excited for the homing lasers, and they did not disappoint.

All in all, I've had a great time following the adventures of Dawn Crossfire and her merry band. Well, except that one time I got lost in a space colony, but that's another story for another time. Can't wait to see what the future has in store for them.

This total conversion has my seal of approval and my official letter of recommendation.