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On: December 08, 2007, I created a topic called "First working model, unfinished". The ship posted there was rather crude, with crappy textures, and was done by me to learn a few things about modelling.
A few days later I got a PM from Hellstryker, where he asked me if I need help with the mod I was making. At first I was like... What mod???
I've stopped for a moment, figured out that it's not such a bad idea, and replied "Yeah, fine". We've later spent hours on AIM discussing the story and details, while in the mean time HLP created a name for the species flying the strange ship- the Tiigran-Merisst. And so the fighter was designated T-MF, and I named it the Hussar, after Hell&me decided to use cavalry units, castles, swords and other medieval weapons as our naming convention for strike craft, capships, guns and secondaries.
Once we had some 2-3 ships running, we figured out we need a FREDder, and Hellstryker found one- Retsof.
From that moment, the little snowball became an unstoppable avalanche, the team grew to a dozen full time/part time/ members- Hellstryker, Retsof, blowfish, Titan, Jadehawk, 0rph3u5, guest starring Shiv_pl (currently Shiv), snail (for a moment), Warp Shadow, Raven2001, Colonel Dekker- a big THANK YOU to all of you (I hope I didn't forget anyone), and finally- me.
And here we are today, after 5 unsuccessful release candidates:
http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php?view.475
P.S. This is the first mod I've ever worked on, so if there are any big bugs, just flame the living hell out of me (and my team too).
Enjoy!!!
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Sweet, another mod with missions to mess around in, I'll see how it is. :D
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If you can FRED and one thing to do per week is not too much or too little for you- PM me, I have a hobby for you :p
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YAY!
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Downloading now! :)
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Finally :P
Let's see if anyone can find the easter egg I put in mission 3 ;)
Look in the general vicinity of the freighters
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Why is the Lamia purple?
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Why is the Lamia purple?
You'll find out in later. It has significance though. Also spoiler tags plz.
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Why is the Lamia purple?
Because. Bengal wanted it be. :p
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Finally release :D
DLing :D
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Error: The following species are missing icon info in icons.tbl:
Tiigran-Merisst
File: missionbriefcommon.cpp
Line: 742
Call stack:
------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------
Err, J/K
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Some occasional spelling errors, but so far I like this mod, I didn't run into any other problems with it.
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Just finished the first briefing. Looking good so far.
Maybe I should reconsider my resignation.
I'll be doing a running commentary then.
First mission, about 2 minutes in: Could use a bit more chatter. Also the suns are annoying me.
"Let's see how hard it is to turn around in subspace. Should be fun... NOT!" Funneh dialogue.
First mission was uneventful.... From the Mission 2 splashscreen looks like the second one will be bettah.
Mission 2 - Ouch collision time in fighter bay.
Nice action.
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Yeah, I can't find the Easter Egg.
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OK, I'll try to find it...
And Snail- speak up on the super secret forum, I didn't kick ya out so you still have access.
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Ok, I finished the whole thing. All in all, it was fun, but a bit tedious.
The missions, overall, were way too long for my liking, and they are quite repetitive.
These are the issues I've found:
Mission 1:
Why isn't there a mission briefing, only a a command briefing?
Boring, no action, not enough chatter.
Long, unnecessary periods of waiting. Especially after the Triton jumps back. There should be something said. At first I thought everyone on the Triton died or something.
Mission 2:
Nice action, but way too damn long.
20 minutes!? WTF?
Also had unnecessary periods of waiting, notably between after the Molochs died, and when the Maras and Seraphims arrived.
At that point, there was nothing to rearm, nothing said, and nothing to do.
What was with the random subspace drive failure for? It just magically fixed itself after a while...
Mission 3:
There should be Nav Buoys for point A and B, or have the starting fighters jump in closer to the convoy's entry location.
I had absolutely no way to gauge how far I was from my initial position after my wingmen sped off to engage the shivans.
Again, this mission is way too damn long. 20 minutes AGAIN!?
Purple Lamia = ugly and non-shivan looking. I suggest you go back to red. Looks a whole lot better that way. Shivans are RED AND BLACK with perhaps A BIT OF GREEN. NO PURPLE. Purple are Nightmares. Is the Lamia a Nightmare?
The transports kept telling me to give them cover when they were getting killed by the Lamia...when they have already exploded.
Again, what is with the random subspace drive failure that magically fixes itself after the enemies are driven off? Are GTVA subspace drives really that bad?
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the purple is important. Just you wait. And I take the length problems to mean that we shouldn't have the hour long mission we're preparing for chapter 2?
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I saw in the weapon section that there's something called a "Higher Shivan" laser. I assume there are lower Shivans which are having a civil war against the higher Shivans. Or something.
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I have a problem in mission 2
The Kismat don't want to fire, he jump in, move to waypoint and then stay still doing nothing, and when his hull drop to 80% he become invunerable - making mission last forever :(
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Ugh. I have such bad luck.
1st play through of Mission 2 - Some idiot decided to nudge me on MSN. Epic CTD.
2nd play through of Mission 2 - Ran into Shivan Megabomb.
3rd play through of Mission 2 - Beamed by Kismat.
:doubt:
I am now convinced the universe haets meh.
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non-shivan looking. I suggest you go back to red. Looks a whole lot better that way. Shivans are RED AND BLACK with perhaps A BIT OF GREEN. NO PURPLE.
Well...
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/sohmingjian/dragon.jpg)
Normal thrusters were red, burners were purpleish when we were thinking about the color issue.
Think of the Lamia as Shivans on afterburners.
@mr.WHO, try re downloading the campaign... If it still doesn't work, I'll post a version where the <spoiler> is beam free'd.
@Snail- just edit the mission to have special HP, say 150 000.[/color]
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The Good
Overall, the GTVA comes off as remarkably competent compared to many campaigns; take for example and the deployment of ships in the second mission, particularly the Aeolus snuggling up to the Orion for extra fire support. They also sound reasonably professional in briefings, reinforcements are available to assist when things go bad, they have a backup plan, etc. The FREDding is high quality, overall. Use of what I assume was special hitpoints was well-played.
The Bad
Infatuation with default gun loadouts and giving the NPC pilots banks of trebs they don't know how to use properly, is a no-no. Similarly, there was no AWOL debriefing for the second mission, and probably the others; however I know there was no AWOL debriefing for the second because I tried to skip it via repeated warpouts at the start.
The intel files were not updated, nor was the ships available in the techroom. A lot of campaigns do this, and it's always stupid and annoying.
The writing was decent, but could have used more editing. I also noticed at least one major violation of the FS canon, in that it takes an Orion's worth of meson bombs to collapse a node, not a single one!
The Ugly
Referencing Another One Bites The Dust is silly. It's 2300-something. I doubt there's even a surviving recording. The in-mission dialogue was frequently awkward and occasionally non-sequitor. And the Lamia looks like an Ancients ship now, not Shivan...and yes, it is literally ugly.
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Yeah, I'm inclined to agree myself about the Lamia... The writing was a bit corny at times, and yeah, it could've been fixed, but would you rather have waited an extra month?
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I don't think you would have needed an extra month to fix that.
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For NGTM-1R:
I was the only person with the mission 2 bug (at least noone else observed it when I reported it and asked for everyone to check), so we figured out the problem is on my side, not on the mod's. If you check FRED, the SEXP's and debrief are there. If you find a fix for it, we'll be thankfull.
As for Trebs:
"$Flags: ( "player allowed" "Bomber+")"
That's our custom line in the Trebuchet's entry, and it fixes the AI, because the Huge flag made the Trebuchet a bomb in the AI's eyes, and even the AI isn't dumb enough to shoot bombers with bombs.
Watch closely and you'll see the NPC's do use these missiles. It's easiest to observe when you arm them with swarm missiles and Trebs, and watch for one or 2 missiles being fired. I think the AI will limit their use to bombers though, but I'd have to do more testing to check that.
As for the ugly- a lot of people today know Bach, Mozart or Vivaldi (all from 3 centuries ago)... Who knows if Queen won't be known as Classical 20-th Century music?
And we might do something about the Lamia, since it's so unpopular in purple (and since the purple A-burners disappeared from the 3.6.10 mediavps I'd assume they weren't popular either).
And the tech database- mea culpa, it'll be fixed.
Anyways- thanks for the feedback.
P.S. As for the dialogs- we've had sometimes 3 people work on one mission, so that's why they seem cheezy from time to time. We'll get better as the next release won't be my first.
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Yay a release! Downloading now! :D
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Ohhh, nice! Also downloading it now. :)
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there's no official data regarding any of the new ships until the first mission of ch1. :D so no tech updates. And please be patient with the lamia. all will be revealed.
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Why has nobody replied to my higher shivan lower shivan idea?
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@ Snail- you were right about the higher and lower Shivans, but not completely. Just check the super secret furm.
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@ Snail- you were right about the higher and lower Shivans, but not completely. Just check the super secret furm.
Then I guess my speculating days for TotT are over. On to the truth.
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;)
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Shoot! You had to release it when I don't have FreeSpace?! Ah well, no problem... yeah... I've been just waiting forever...
foch ^^
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It's only the first three missions. ;)
SWEET MOTHER OF GOD my luck is getting worse! Something like 2 dozen ships to kill with its subspace weapon and the Lamia just decides that it has to hit something behind me. :(
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The Ugly
Referencing Another One Bites The Dust is silly. It's 2300-something. I doubt there's even a surviving recording.
What makes you think that? We have extant examples of music from over 900 years ago still in existence and played today. A mere 300 year span isn't going to wipe out all references to a song by itself.
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What makes you think that? We have extant examples of music from over 900 years ago still in existence and played today. A mere 300 year span isn't going to wipe out all references to a song by itself.
There weren't all that many people composing 900 years ago, where there now? How many people do you suppose never even make it to the surface these days? It's very much easier to get buried in the outflow now, and 300 years from now it will be exponentionally easier yet.
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Still no one found the easter egg? :(
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What makes you think that? We have extant examples of music from over 900 years ago still in existence and played today. A mere 300 year span isn't going to wipe out all references to a song by itself.
There weren't all that many people composing 900 years ago, where there now? How many people do you suppose never even make it to the surface these days? It's very much easier to get buried in the outflow now, and 300 years from now it will be exponentionally easier yet.
Yeah, but the song in question did make it to the surface, and the fact that we have actual recordings rather than music passed down through generations of musicians (which is how music as old as the High Middle Ages still exists; music notation wasn't used in Europe until the 9th century, and then only for Gregorian chant, with modern musical notation not coming into widespread use until the Renaissance) make preserving the music far easier.
Besides, this is hardly unique to this mod; in the original Halo, Sergeant Johnson was making his squad listen to classic rock in their Pelican in one of the cutscenes. :lol:
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Still no one found the easter egg? :(
Nope. :D
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I'm telling ya, look in the general vicinity of the freighters. It's a small detail, but it's part of something you wouldn't even question being there.
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It would be a lot nicer if you put a Nav Buoy where the freighters jump in...
When you go hunting Shivans 5 clicks out you tend to lose your position.
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Why does keeping your position even matter? In space, everything is relative. And no matter where you are, once the convoy jumps in, you've got plenty of time to get to it before the Shivans start jumping in.
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The Good
Overall, the GTVA comes off as remarkably competent compared to many campaigns; take for example and the deployment of ships in the second mission, particularly the Aeolus snuggling up to the Orion for extra fire support. They also sound reasonably professional in briefings, reinforcements are available to assist when things go bad, they have a backup plan, etc. The FREDding is high quality, overall. Use of what I assume was special hitpoints was well-played.
My Good.
The Bad
Infatuation with default gun loadouts and giving the NPC pilots banks of trebs they don't know how to use properly, is a no-no. Similarly, there was no AWOL debriefing for the second mission, and probably the others; however I know there was no AWOL debriefing for the second because I tried to skip it via repeated warpouts at the start.
The intel files were not updated, nor was the ships available in the techroom. A lot of campaigns do this, and it's always stupid and annoying.
The writing was decent, but could have used more editing. I also noticed at least one major violation of the FS canon, in that it takes an Orion's worth of meson bombs to collapse a node, not a single one!
My Bad
The Ugly
Referencing Another One Bites The Dust is silly. It's 2300-something. I doubt there's even a surviving recording. The in-mission dialogue was frequently awkward and occasionally non-sequitor. And the Lamia looks like an Ancients ship now, not Shivan...and yes, it is literally ugly.
Mostly my bad.
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Naaah, don't be so hard on yourself Retsof, after all I gave the green light.
Since a few people complained about
purple glows
Here's a question:
What color would you want? They could be any color, including: >samples< (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,53430.msg1082016.html#msg1082016)
We're debating about it on the super-secret forum, and have not yet agreed on anything.
P.S. How did the Lucifer's death compare to a Meson bomb, in terms of destructive power, as far as node collapsing is concerned?[/color]
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Yellow or pink please.
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P.S. How did the Lucifer's death compare to a Meson bomb, in terms of destructive power, as far as node collapsing is concerned?
Many times worse. The Command Briefings about the plan to collapse the Capella nodes suggest that the explosion of the Bastion (with its twenty-odd meson bombs aboard) is expected to be less powerful than the explosion of the Lucifer, but the GTVA believes it will still be sufficent to do the job.
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Didn't the Bastion have five only? (well, the picture in the CBani only shows 5)
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Didn't the Bastion have five only? (well, the picture in the CBani only shows 5)
Err. Look closely. Each of those 5 red blobs is actually a cluster of 12 Meson bombs. Each. :P
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Oh then.
That's sixty, and its still weaker than the Lucifer blowing up.
One meson bomb won't do **** to a node then. Ready the Triton fleet.
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its still weaker than the Lucifer blowing up.
Says who? :wtf:
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its still weaker than the Lucifer blowing up.
Says who? :wtf:
P.S. How did the Lucifer's death compare to a Meson bomb, in terms of destructive power, as far as node collapsing is concerned?
Many times worse. The Command Briefings about the plan to collapse the Capella nodes suggest that the explosion of the Bastion (with its twenty-odd meson bombs aboard) is expected to be less powerful than the explosion of the Lucifer, but the GTVA believes it will still be sufficent to do the job.
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Give me specific quotes from command briefs and then I'll believe it. After reading the command brief from "Their Finest Hour", the main concerns seemed to be that the Shivans might be able to jump without nodes, and that they really didn't know exactly how big the Lucifer's explosion was. In fact, I suspect that they would have used more meson warheads than they thought they would need, just to be sure as this was a critical operation.
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Didn't the Bastion have five only? (well, the picture in the CBani only shows 5)
Err. Look closely. Each of those 5 red blobs is actually a cluster of 12 Meson bombs. Each. :P
Alright, screenshots or it didn't happen :p
Simple FREDding says that 16 TC-Meson bombs would fit inside an Orion, but 60 wouldn't.
BTW- is there canon evidence that the bombs on the Bastion were the same size as the TC-Meson bomb's bomb? Because if there were in fact 60, they'd have to be much smaller than the TC.
It takes 2-3 TC-Meson Bombs to kill a Knossos, and that was our base to think 1 could be enough change a node into a "disturbance" that will not allow anything to travel through.
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Alright, screenshots or it didn't happen :p
Alrighty then.
(http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/5320/proof1.png)
That's one.
(http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/9950/proof2.png)
The groups, consisting of multiple Meson Bombs.
A closeup of an individual MB is shown.
(http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/8118/proof3.png)
The rows/columns can be seen here.
BTW- is there canon evidence that the bombs on the Bastion were the same size as the TC-Meson bomb's bomb? Because if there were in fact 60, they'd have to be much smaller than the TC.
Yeah, TBH I think the Meson bombs packed onto the Bastion and Nereid were watered down (or downsized variants). Judging mainly from the fact the ones shown in the cutscene are much smaller than the TC-Meson Bomb.
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Well, I doubt they would have included the container into the warheads put on the Bastion.
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Given that it had been less than a month since the Meson Bomb was completed I doubt they'd have that many already in production. IMO the Meson Bombs on the Bastion and Nereid were probably faster production models or something.
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Well, you wouldn't have to put them in triton compatible transport units, for one.
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Well, the one used in the campaign is advanced meson technology.
And heres a screenshot of the new Higher Shivans, along with their weps (Will I ever learn? Not until i'm done being bored over vacation)
(http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj251/blowfishpro/rainbowbeam.jpg)
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RAINBOW SHIVANS! :shaking:
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I'll use the situation to the fullest:
Maybe purple ain't so bad after all?
And if it is, I could even make a poll thread in the modding section to see which color is the most popular, and recolor the appropriate unit(s).
As for the Meson bombs...:
(http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/9603/beztytuuq.jpg)
(http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/1873/beztytuucwt.jpg)
(http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/940/beztytuuv.jpg)
The front cluster (from THT 1 to THT 2 on the top) that had 18 bombs:
(http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/8878/beztytuuf.jpg)
3x3x2=18
Maybe 6 of the TC-Mesons would fit. Still more than I thought, especially since there are a few more of those clusters (I'll try to count them all when I'll have the time), but they could be going overkill, or the smaller bombs were quickly done and of poor yeld.
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A Meson bomb that's carried by a freighter is sealed in a container. Probably not to go off when Beta 1 colides with it. But in the Bastion/Nereid they probably weren't sealed in a container. Afterall, the bomb itself is inside the center of the Meson bomb container, right? So it's not too large.
And I vote either green or yellow. Purple is very much like the new species in Tides of Darkness. Green is seen on a lot of Shivan ships already. Yellow was seen on the Asmodeus and the Lucifer in the cutscenes. Makes more sense :p
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Actually, blue might be quite nice too.
But Green would still be better if its spitting out teal subspace vortexes.
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Give me specific quotes from command briefs and then I'll believe it. After reading the command brief from "Their Finest Hour", the main concerns seemed to be that the Shivans might be able to jump without nodes, and that they really didn't know exactly how big the Lucifer's explosion was. In fact, I suspect that they would have used more meson warheads than they thought they would need, just to be sure as this was a critical operation.
So you read the command briefings anyway and want quotes?
Oh well...
"A Great-War-era destroyer, the GTD Bastion, will contain multiple meson warheads that will detonate inside the node. Scientists beilive an explosion of sufficient magnitude will cause the node to collapse, as evidenced by the destruction of the Lucifer 32 years ago."
I looked through all the command briefings up to the mission where the Bastion goes into the node, not one word of it saying that it wasn't or wouldn't be as powerful as the Lucifer's explosion, but instead they're saying that if one destroyer exploded inside subspace and collapsed nodes, that it should happen again if they make a destroyer explode in subspace.
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Here's how green looked like (reskin by the Earth Defence team):
(http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/845/cainpg5.jpg)
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ah, just givr them a green lamia for lord's sake.
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ah, just givr them a green lamia for lord's sake.
:nod:
I happy.
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One last try with the purple:
http://s209.photobucket.com/albums/bb317/Tyrkeyz/?action=view¤t=PurpleLamia.png
If you don't like that, we'll do something else.
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We can still use Purple...just need to try using a varation of colors in a controlled way. Say the base color is purple and the shine could have hints of Pink or Red or another color. I have done this with the Chimera and looks pretty good.
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Eurgh, still not liking the purple.
Use that same effect with green and :yes:
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I vote blue, honestly. It looked bloody awesome in that batch of screenshots some chap put up in some thread.
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I vote blue, honestly. It looked bloody awesome in that batch of screenshots some chap put up in some thread.
Yes but Terrans and Vasudans are blue (and green, for that matter, although to a lesser extent)
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I vote blue, honestly. It looked bloody awesome in that batch of screenshots some chap put up in some thread.
Yes but Terrans and Vasudans are blue (and green, for that matter, although to a lesser extent)
Which is why we need to forget about Blue. Last thing we need is to muck up the colors between Terran, Vasudan, Shivans and now T-M Ships.
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Purple mucks up with the Nightmares...which aren't in your mod but still...
Vasudans are rainbow...no way NOT to muck them up. They're already mixing with the T-M (Hatshepsut gold-yellow, engine colors). And then you got blue on the FS1 stuff, and one ship has green.
Shivans were originally green in concepts, but were changed to red because it looks more EEEEEVILLL. I still say green because of this. It also kinda connects back to the green stuff on the Asmodeus and the Basilisk.
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Hey...you could always make them pink. ;7
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Uhm...That might be more eyeburning than the original purple, but I can't say that the idea didn't cross my mind once.
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Pink doesn't muck anyone up. :P
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Pink doesn't muck anyone up. :P
Or yellow. But we're most likely going with green.
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I redid the Shivan Cruiser in Green now. Also the Chimera just for kicks.
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And you can use Flaming_Sword's Shivan recolour packs, all in easy-to-use VP files. Come in colours of green, blue, white, purple, yellow and pink! Get it now, with a 75% discount! Just go to www.freespacemods.net and download it!
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25% being that not all Shivans might be recolored by this .vp. :P
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No, that VP recolours all, and even more than in FS2 actually. Would make capital ship map recolours so much easier.
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No, not all, try the Scorpian, the Shaitan, the Gorgon, doesn't work for them.
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And you can use Flaming_Sword's Shivan recolour packs, all in easy-to-use VP files. Come in colours of green, blue, white, purple, yellow and pink! Get it now, with a 75% discount! Just go to www.freespacemods.net and download it!
Yeah, but then we'd have to redo the glowmaps themselves. Easier off just recoloring the existing ones.
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Huh? The packs are only glowmaps.
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As a textureur, I'd rather do my own to get an effect I'm looking for. This is not to put down others who have, but just part of my creativity and satisfaction. :)
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Huh? The packs are only glowmaps.
Glowmaps of the Lamia, Shala
and Ishkur
? Doubtful.
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Unless the maps are tiles, then no. Oh well, can't blame for suggesting :p
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Well the thing is that the original FS and FS 2 units are going to stay original, so the glowmaps pack won't help us out too much.
And since people still want green, let's just go with green.
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OK Green it is. I already did some of them this color, but can't do anything until after this weekend. Go to the Super Secret area for why.
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This is mission 3.
And this is my problem:
(http://knossos.firenebula.com/temporary/mission3.jpg)
I'm guessing that's supposed to be a planet.
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It's the grand white cube planet.
Didn't you hear about it in the briefing?
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I just played the mission with it anyway . . .though I haven't gotten past it. Apparently I'm not supposed to attack the XXXXXXX because XXXXXX just blows me apart when I do.
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Damn, I forgot they'd managed to release this.
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Btw Droid and anyone else confused, the Mephisto IS purple. (and the Asmodeus is green)
That being said, none of the warships are purple so I'd probably not use it.
As for the campaign:
My biggest beef is that it didn't feel like my presence was necessary.
In mission #1 the player doesn't do anything except fly around.
In mission #2 the player basically does nothing as well. The GTVA has what, 2 destroyers, a base and at least one Aeolus there and the Shivans only send a couple fighters and bombers at a time. The player gets orders to "take out the shivan beams" but both the Demon and the Ravana get murdered in short order so they don't even get the chance to use them. Then when the Kismat arrives the player can't hurt that thing either so the allies get their butts kicked and everyone leaves.
In mission #3 the Shivans again only send a few fighters, while the convoy has plenty of guns to take care of 'em. Then when the Lamia arrives, it's basically unstoppable except versus TM guys. I even tried taking out its weapon system and instead the Lamia targetted me and blasted me out of the water. So I defend for 20 minutes against some shivan fighters, but it's not really useful because the super shivan cruiser is going to waste half the convoy regardless of what I do and even if I wasn't there the multiple AAAfs, 30+ terran turrets and allied fighters could probably handle the few shivan fighters and bombers that do engage.
Basically what I'm saying is that I have something to do in each mission, but if I wasn't there I don't think the mission would turn out any different so my presence doesn't feel necessary on any level.
Hmmn . . . some of the dialogue was a bit odd, though understandable given I've written some goofy dialogue myself.
Also is the Lamia's main gun supposed to be able to target fighters because it blew me to pieces when I tried to "make a difference."
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Doesn't the lucifer have a lot of purple on it?
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No not really, it's grey with a very light purple tinge, not bright glowing purple. The Lucifer's glows are Red (Rainbow is also acceptable).
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I meant the stock lucifer. I didn't think it had any glows.
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Yeah, the stock Lucifer had bright red, and very faded purple for the more metallic parts.
The cutscene one was rainbow.