[NeonShivan]

Set about 30 years after the events of Freespace 2, Terran-Vasudan space is nothing like you remember. The nodes collapsed and reformed, galactic society all but collapsed and Sol suddenly finds itself back on the galactic stage. Join the Union of Sol in their journey in understanding the nature of the Cataclysm that brought the end to the GTVA and their attempts to carefully tread the new interstellar political landscape formed in its wake.

Inspired by the game Avorion I set out to make a new campaign under the pretext of “What if we just threw everything into the proverbial shredder.” It has been a while since I’ve even attempted anything as large as this and because of that I will be taking baby steps in this mod’s development. This is my attempt at taking said baby steps. This beta is meant to be a huge learning experience as, to be quite honest, I have zero idea what I’m doing and while I can keep mashing away at the mod in secret, I won’t learn anything if I don’t release even a small demo.

What does this Beta offer?
•   8 Missions
•   6 new playable ships (only 3 of which are available in the 8 missions)
•   11 new weapons
•   3 new factions
•   A new home for the Earth Defense Team’s beautiful creations (soundtrack and interface)
•   A chance to tell me how bad I am at modding and how to improve
•   Fury AI
•   Realistic point values for ships (let there be RANKS!)

Some Notes:
•   The campaign was tested on Insane
•   The writing is not final, suggestions/tips/black magic on how to get good is most welcomed.
•   There are some pieces here and there that are missing (no intel tech descriptions relevant to Cataclysm, for example.) I opted not to include any as they’re presently not relevant.
•   As a Beta, bugs are expected. I have not had any CTDs or noticeable performance issues while testing but I speak for myself, and only myself. Guaranteed I missed something, somewhere. Or just vagrantly ignored/forgot/insert excuse here to fix something.

Requirements:
•   Latest Stable FSO Release Version (Tested on 22.2.0)
•   Latest MediaVPs
•   Your strongest drink

Credits and Special Thanks:
•   See credit list.txt for a breakdown on assets used. PM if you see something of yours and you're not listed.
•   Nyctaeus for his contributions and unique ideas, I am forever grateful
•   Kiloku for his ideas, contributions, and being a proverbial wall for me to throw ideas at
•   DamnDirtyCat for not yet seen contributions (check out his Stellaris fan art on Reddit if you haven't already)
•   HLP for their continued contributions to Freespace and the entertainment their Discord has brought me every day

Download:

Find it on Knossos under "Cataclysm"

[Nyctaeus]

I highly endorse this release as one of the people who watched this project from it's very advent and infancy. It's fresh and unique take on post-Capella, completely different from typical "Sol + Third Shivan Invasion" scenarios, and will get more and more crazy as the story is progressing. This has a chance to turn into very successful post-capella campaign, and Neon is determined to achieve so... So come in, play and speak your mind :].

[CapellaGoBoom]

This mod sparks my curiosity! Definitely a fresh take on a post-capella scenario. The self-heals on the Pretan ships will make them a challenge to kill but those Gorgon missiles can delete them. That part I do like as it gives the player incentives to use missiles instead of just guns when fighting shivans. It says there are 8 missions total in this beta but I only found 4 in the combat sim. Also, I'm certain you are aware but in the main campaign there are no guns/missiles to choose from when trying to start mission 1. However they are available in the combat sim from the single mission menu. A bit weird...but I will keep an eye on this mod as it shows some potential!

[NeonShivan]

This mod sparks my curiosity! Definitely a fresh take on a post-capella scenario. The self-heals on the Pretan ships will make them a challenge to kill but those Gorgon missiles can delete them. That part I do like as it gives the player incentives to use missiles instead of just guns when fighting shivans. It says there are 8 missions total in this beta but I only found 4 in the combat sim. Also, I'm certain you are aware but in the main campaign there are no guns/missiles to choose from when trying to start mission 1. However they are available in the combat sim from the single mission menu. A bit weird...but I will keep an eye on this mod as it shows some potential!

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. The campaign should be functional from Mission 1 to Mission 8 so I will check in on that later on. Would you be able to elaborate further on what you see on your end, what missions are in the combat sim? Is it the single player or the campaign section?

[CapellaGoBoom]

This mod sparks my curiosity! Definitely a fresh take on a post-capella scenario. The self-heals on the Pretan ships will make them a challenge to kill but those Gorgon missiles can delete them. That part I do like as it gives the player incentives to use missiles instead of just guns when fighting shivans. It says there are 8 missions total in this beta but I only found 4 in the combat sim. Also, I'm certain you are aware but in the main campaign there are no guns/missiles to choose from when trying to start mission 1. However they are available in the combat sim from the single mission menu. A bit weird...but I will keep an eye on this mod as it shows some potential!

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. The campaign should be functional from Mission 1 to Mission 8 so I will check in on that later on. Would you be able to elaborate further on what you see on your end, what missions are in the combat sim? Is it the single player or the campaign section?

The single player missions in the tech room are fully functional and I can see the weapons in the loadout before launching the mission. The main campaign, however, is a different story. On my end, when I go to the loadout screen I see nothing. No weapons in the ship itself or the selection menu on the left hand side. Even when I launch straight from the briefing, I have nothing in the weapon banks. That is the best I can describe it. I may try putting up screens to give u a better look but I forgot where those go after taking them.

Almost forgot...4 missions are in the single mission section of the sim: M5-M8.

ok so I found something else: in the sim, I crtl-shift-S the main campaign missions, go into the 1st and I can see guns & missiles in the loadout. It seems there is something going on with the main campaign missions but not the single missions in the sim. When I launch, I found yet another thing: my wingmen have no guns. Just me and enemies have them. Because I am not Alpha 1, I can't configure my wing's weapons

Apologies for making this thread long with updates but it seems there might some kind of bug with M1 of the main campaign. I crtl-shift-S into M2 via the sim and all of a sudden my whole wing now has guns & missiles

[NeonShivan]

This mod sparks my curiosity! Definitely a fresh take on a post-capella scenario. The self-heals on the Pretan ships will make them a challenge to kill but those Gorgon missiles can delete them. That part I do like as it gives the player incentives to use missiles instead of just guns when fighting shivans. It says there are 8 missions total in this beta but I only found 4 in the combat sim. Also, I'm certain you are aware but in the main campaign there are no guns/missiles to choose from when trying to start mission 1. However they are available in the combat sim from the single mission menu. A bit weird...but I will keep an eye on this mod as it shows some potential!

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. The campaign should be functional from Mission 1 to Mission 8 so I will check in on that later on. Would you be able to elaborate further on what you see on your end, what missions are in the combat sim? Is it the single player or the campaign section?

The single player missions in the tech room are fully functional and I can see the weapons in the loadout before launching the mission. The main campaign, however, is a different story. On my end, when I go to the loadout screen I see nothing. No weapons in the ship itself or the selection menu on the left hand side. Even when I launch straight from the briefing, I have nothing in the weapon banks. That is the best I can describe it. I may try putting up screens to give u a better look but I forgot where those go after taking them.

Almost forgot...4 missions are in the single mission section of the sim: M5-M8.

ok so I found something else: in the sim, I crtl-shift-S the main campaign missions, go into the 1st and I can see guns & missiles in the loadout. It seems there is something going on with the main campaign missions but not the single missions in the sim. When I launch, I found yet another thing: my wingmen have no guns. Just me and enemies have them. Because I am not Alpha 1, I can't configure my wing's weapons

Apologies for making this thread long with updates but it seems there might some kind of bug with M1 of the main campaign. I crtl-shift-S into M2 via the sim and all of a sudden my whole wing now has guns & missiles

No need to apologize, whole point is to share bugs so I can iron them out. I'll look into it later today because all eight missions are supposed to be in the campaign so it's weird that they aren't.

[praseodym]

No weapons to chose?! Running on Ubuntu 20.04 with Knossos

[CapellaGoBoom]

No weapons to chose?! Running on Ubuntu 20.04 with Knossos

Go into the tech room sim and play the missions there. Guns and missiles can be used

[woutersmits]

no weapons at all
Assert: "(Species_info.shield_anim.first_frame >= 0)"
File: shield.cpp
Line: 110
Error while loading shield hit ani: BHBullet for species: Nightmare


ntdll.dll! NtWaitForSingleObject + 20 bytes
KERNELBASE.dll! WaitForSingleObjectEx + 142 bytes
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
KERNEL32.DLL! BaseThreadInitThunk + 29 bytes
ntdll.dll! RtlUserThreadStart + 40 bytes

[ This info is in the clipboard so you can paste it somewhere now ]


Use Debug to break into Debugger, Exit will close the application.

ntdll.dll! NtWaitForSingleObject + 20 bytes
KERNELBASE.dll! WaitForSingleObjectEx + 142 bytes
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_22_3_0_20221014_aa7a57ef4_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
KERNEL32.DLL! BaseThreadInitThunk + 29 bytes
ntdll.dll! RtlUserThreadStart + 40 bytes
https://fsnebula.org/log/6349abd306a1b0806fccee62

[NeonShivan]

What difficulty are you guys playing on?

[CapellaGoBoom]

What difficulty are you guys playing on?

I usually play on medium since that is the optimal difficulty for most of the campaigns

[Iain Baker]

I seem to remember Mantle having similar issues when it came out. It might be worth reaching out to the people who made and and fixed it to see what they did.

[woutersmits]

on very easy
but too mutch trouble debug inposseble

[NeonShivan]

Alrighty, updated the mod to include a working campaign file. For some reason the campaign file I had originally (which worked) just vanished into thin air. I'm not crazy, I promise.

Code: [Select]

Update: Hotfix version 1.0.41

Changelog:

Removed the original campaign file and replaced it with an entirely new one. This one should be functioning as intended.


[skdKitsune]

Always nice to see a new campaign set in the actual FS-universe. Will try it out for sure in the next days!

[Darius]

Every release post needs screenshots! 

[CRZgatecrusher]

I really like this campaign. The setting was interesting even before the shift which only made it better.

Spoiler:

The ending where your accidentally saved by the Pretan/Nightmare was very nice. The story-line of being caught up in a war between 2 unstoppable superpowers is something I've also seen in Age of Aquarious and I like it. I hope more is done with this but I am not a writer.

The missions were quite enjoyable. I have played through all 8 missions and have found no bugs. (Perhaps I just wasn't observant enough). Also yay another mod.

[NeonShivan]

I really like this campaign. The setting was interesting even before the shift which only made it better.

Spoiler:

The ending where your accidentally saved by the Pretan/Nightmare was very nice. The story-line of being caught up in a war between 2 unstoppable superpowers is something I've also seen in Age of Aquarious and I like it. I hope more is done with this but I am not a writer.

The missions were quite enjoyable. I have played through all 8 missions and have found no bugs. (Perhaps I just wasn't observant enough). Also yay another mod.

Thank you for your input, I'm glad you enjoyed it so far. Do you have any suggestions for what I could add in the future full release?

Every release post needs screenshots! 

Ok Mom.

[5thAce]

Just finished this, and it was quite fun to say the least! No bugs encountered on my end and balancing was well done; I played on hard difficulty. I look forward to the completed project!

Spoiler:

So did this subspace cataclysm redefine the subspace node map? With new systems becoming available and old ones becoming inaccessible? Is the GTVA a thing in this story? Also I wonder, do the Pretans hate the Shivans more than they hate Humans/Vasudans?

[CRZgatecrusher]

I don't have much I can add (I'm not a writer and I've never designed a mission). so take everything from me with a grain (or shaker) of salt

Spoiler:

I say I really like the dark atmosphere this campaign provides and on mission 3? (The one with the cargo containers) once the enemies stop appearing the mission should end or something should happen. currently there's a section where the furthest away freighter is still obtaining the cargo container while nothing else happens, no dialogue and no enemies. Its nothing major though, It's just something that sticks out to me, but I may be wrong (or really blind)

Another thing with that mission, if you destroy the container with prototype weapons the mission fails but the briefing is that of success the biggest problem is remembering which crates is valuable, I recommend adding cargo to them all or something. I don't know, I may just be an idiot.