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The Scroll of Atankharzim / Re: ISF Branch, Mission 5, Impassable

« Last post by Trivial Psychic on May 07, 2021, 01:44:56 am »

In that case, you should probably find a way to ensure a continuous stream of replacement Shivan fighters should the player decide to do as I did.  I'm the guy who likes to find any way to rack up the kills.  In the GTVA branch when you're flying the stealths against the Aracnas, instead of following the plan, I just sit outside weapons range and use my Prom cannons to take out each cruiser and weapons platform myself, then take out all of the turrets myself.  I like to take all of the kills for myself. 

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FreeSpace Discussion / Re: modding sucks - a realization

« Last post by Asteroth on May 06, 2021, 10:32:41 pm »

I'm not here to naysay or deny your experiences. Your experiences are your experiences, they actually happened and I'm sorry that they did. But I don't want this forum to be filled with vocal negativity, when there is also positivity to be had that would otherwise be quiet. I can't say much to counteract any of your experiences, you described them well, and why you feel the way you did. But I really need to express pretty much the opposite opinion on almost all your points. Again, not to contradict you, but merely to provide other voices to this community, to show that not everyone here feels negatively. That onlookers can balance the good with the bad.

There is a lot of things I could say about your other points, that I've wrote and re-wrote, but really, all I mostly want to say is about the community. I've had almost entirely positive interactions with the community, here and on the Discord. In general, people are very helpful and its been very enjoyable to collaborate and help people where I can. There is occasionally drama, but this is exception, rather than the rule, and there has always been some level of drama, even here on the forums and as long as this forum has existed. The low barrier to communication on the Discord is why I personally am drawn more there than to the forums, as it allows for much quicker iteration, when it comes to collaboration and bug fixing. I can't recount how many bug fixes and features I've implemented and put in a nightly the very same day it is brought up on Discord!

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The Scroll of Atankharzim / Re: ISF Branch, Mission 5, Impassable

« Last post by Goober5000 on May 06, 2021, 10:19:48 pm »

You were detected; that's why all the fighters converged on you.  The debriefing assumes that if you were detected after Arjuna appears, it is Arjuna itself that detects you.  In any case, you should have gotten a conversation when the detection occurred.

You really should jump out when the Admiral tells you to leave and the AWACS jumps.  The mission isn't designed for players to stick around.  You're not supposed to be able to scan everything, either - that's why you're supposed to prioritize the most important things.

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The Scroll of Atankharzim / Re: ISF Branch, Mission 5, Impassable

« Last post by Trivial Psychic on May 06, 2021, 09:42:03 pm »

Well, I was able to pass the mission now, but things still aren't perfect.  I took out Arjuna when the got in close, though I still got the debriefing message indicating that I shouldn't let them get beyond the 3k range.  Anyway, after destroying Arjuna the Admiral told me to jump out and the AWACS jumped, but I decided to stick around.  I got a scan of the Byrn corvette but the fighters all converged on me and then the warships started shooting at me.  I led the fighters away from the warships, shot them all down, went after most of the freighters and took them down.  Then picked a careful course towards the Ravana (I hadn't scanned it yet) and set about taking out the turrets from close in until I could get the scans done.  That completed all of the objectives for me.  I was hoping to snipe out the turrets on the cruisers and take a couple of them out before jumping away, but I was taking too much damage when a nearby Lilith targetted me with its AAA turret so I decided to make a break for it and jump out once I was out of range.

Aside from the debriefing thing, I would suggest giving the player a bit more time to scan everything before things take a turn, then make sure that if the player managed to take out any of the fighter wings, more are launched to replace them.  I tried it over and over and never managed to scan EVERYTHING unless I did so AFTER the whole Arjuna situation, which I shouldn't be able to.

Regardless, thanks for looking into my initial problem and creating a resolution so quickly.

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FreeSpace Discussion / Re: modding sucks - a realization

« Last post by karajorma on May 06, 2021, 09:11:17 pm »

This actually reminds me of a post of mine from a few months back when I quit the SCP. Some of the reasons were personal to do with how things are organised and some were to do with how on a personal level my fraustration with those issues were having the effect of making modding a lot less fun for me.

Ironically, since I quit, I've spent more time looking at code and modding than I have in years.

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FreeSpace Discussion / Re: FreeSpace be Thicc ;-)

« Last post by TopAce on May 06, 2021, 09:05:35 pm »

Updating to forever the newest MediaVPs is a lot more time than you think especially if you haven't touched your said mod for a while now and had no remote idea whether they at all ran with the latest and shiniest.

First, you will have to run through the whole campaign(s) again, with debug builds. The more you have released, the more time it will take. Already, the thought of running through all those missions for the 192,684th time again just once more requires some dedication I wouldn't blame anyone for not having. Second, unless you're extremely lucky and everything works perfectly, you'll have to extract all the files and fix whatever stuff you've run into. Good for you if those are just little things like renaming subsystems or getting rid off unused-but-not-deleted weapons or ships from the tables. Chances are, over the years, the debug build you used for the old release became obsolote, and the new one will find errors you have no idea how to fix. Searching the forums then asking for advice if you can't find the solution you're looking for? Some might say this is ridiculous and stop there.

Assuming you fix all the errors the debugs complain about, and the many missions run through as a campaign from start to finish fine, you will inevitably run into stuff you want fixed/polished now that you've decided to revisit your old battlegrounds. A directive forever remaining incomplete here, cluttered messages, missions starting so abruptly it surprised even you as the maker of said mission, weird briefing icon placements, stupid messages here and there, unclear, confusing, or nonexistent recommendations in mission messages of debriefings. Oh, and WTF was I thinking when I released this mission with this difficulty? Have I forgotten to play or was the mission so ridiculously unbalanced in the first place? And the list goes on and on. Rinse and repeat for all the missions you're revising.

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The FreeSpace Upgrade Project / Re: [WIP]SD Lucifer

« Last post by manwiththemachinegun on May 06, 2021, 08:43:25 pm »

It's the devil!

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Series Resurrecta / Re: RELEASE: The Spirit of Ptah

« Last post by 0rph3u5 on May 06, 2021, 07:34:32 pm »

Okay - I ran the checks on my end (Windows). 20.1.0-20201130 should work with SerRes 1.0.6 and MVPs 4.4.2.

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Series Resurrecta / Re: RELEASE: The Spirit of Ptah

« Last post by 0rph3u5 on May 06, 2021, 07:10:03 pm »

Running on Ubuntu 20.04, game start crashes. Debug log here

https://fsnebula.org/log/608f01c5d6a16939c4391300

Ideas?

Sorry for the late reply - I think I know this one, even if I am not Linux user.

 It seems to be a mismatch between the build required for SerRes and the MVP-version you are using. I will have to check if SerRes 1.0.6 is actually compatible with 4.4.2 MVPs.

Have you tried using the build mentioned in the post above (20.1.0-20201130)?

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FreeSpace Discussion / Re: modding sucks - a realization

« Last post by Cyborg17 on May 06, 2021, 06:59:43 pm »

I don't know that I understand the hold up.

...

Honestly, the biggest boon for me was finding a solid group of individuals to mod with. The group currently working on BtA is fantastic. Great individuals laboring together creatively to tell a story. DefCynodont119 put it best a couple weeks back and I hope he doesn't mind me sharing... he said as a result of this group working together "This has honestly made me a better person".

For qtFred, I know a good chunk of the problem is that those who were working the hardest on it are no longer active.  Niffiwan put in a lot of work into it, and probably would have finished it, if he were still around.  Dahblount has been less active also because of his master's, and I heard that will end in a few weeks.

It's been mostly me, Asteroth, Goober, Taylor, and, when they have time, The_e and m!m still making contributions. (Sorry if I forgot anyone, my memory is not the best)

I actually got the qt environment set up yesterday, which means that I can start making some contributions to it.  I started designing the campaign briefing editor.  It has most of the buttons, but not the menu set up.


Also, really glad you found that kind of a team!  That is a unique thing.