[herkie423]

Darkblade seems to do a lot of voicework, I think he might be good for Robert Prescott.

I think the voice of Presscot must be like "Command" voice.

[redmagejoe]

Got a sweet splash screen and thumbnail courtesy of the man himself, Asteroth!

[CT27]

Darkblade seems to do a lot of voicework, I think he might be good for Robert Prescott.

I think the voice of Presscot must be like "Command" voice.

Darkblade has done a number of authority figures/admirals before so I think he'd be good for this.

Examples of his work:
Admiral Po in "BTA"
Admiral Wilson in "Fall Of Epsilon Pegasi"

[herkie423]

Got a sweet splash screen and thumbnail courtesy of the man himself, Asteroth!

This is a good "palate-cleanser" (or is it "pallette-cleanser") before going into AF2:TBG. I was worried that you'll go straight into AF2 because I felt that AFR worn you down. Hell, it did to me too everytime I played the campaign... I say EVERYTIME.

AF2:TBG is the next level. The designs are very complicated now because I have learned many tricks from BTA, Exile, and Blue Planet Acts 1 to 3. AF2 uses  modified AI profiles similar to BP-Complete. Meaning, AIs (friendly and hostile) can use Widowmakers, use the most powerful weapons, link their weapons if necessary, manage their shields and power levels, and even lure you away from the battle or make distractions and diversions. Many people complained about TBG being very very difficult. So, I rebalanced it again in a series of updates. AF2 is playable now. Anyway, the campaign is short, 5 Acts, only 32 playable missions plus 6 cutscenes (I've learned my lesson).

But before you get into AF2:TBG (if you are pushing through with it), read the campaign description first to get an idea of what you are heading into. Here's the link:

https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=96405.0

[CT27]

Red, I'll give you some more advice on TBG later, two brief comments for now though:

1-I know you play most campaigns on Medium, however TBG is a jump up in difficulty from AFR.  I would suggest playing it on Easy since Herkie has made it 'less simple' than AFR gameplay (some things a first time player might find frustrating).  Heck, I would not be against you doing it on Very Easy (I don't want to scare you though; while TBG is more difficult than AFR...subsequent updates have made it not nearly as difficult as the original release version of TBG).

2-If you want to take another week off after Blighted before you do TBG that's fine too.  Herkie is working on another update for TBG (which will address some of the difficulty concerns I mentioned earlier) and I'm not 100% sure when it will be out (it's probably not a super long time but I can't guarantee it would be within the next couple weeks). 

[Asteroth]

For Blighted, make sure you're using version 1.3.2. It's been updated to require, and I've been testing on 22.0, but anything afterwards should be ok too. I've been doing a bit of bugfixing, and me and Mito have been giving it a thrice-over/blowing off any dust, so there shouldn't be any major issues. There's been one or two minor bugs I haven't been able to pin down yet but nothing show-stopping.

[CT27]

I've tried some testing of TBG and did a playthrough of it.  On some later builds there's a gamebreaking mission bug in "Lightning From Heaven" that comes up in recent official builds.  Herkie's looking into it but can't seem to fix it right now (I'm not saying it will never get fixed but it won't be in the near future).  There are some other problems with more recent builds (like 21.0...I tested on that version too).  I tested a number of missions on FSO 19.0, 21.0, 21.4, and 22.0.


An older version we tested it on was FSO 19.0.  That version worked the best and had no gamestopping errors like other builds.  You would have to play that on the 4.3 MVPs but the newer versions of ships in 4.4 and 4.5 MVPs are barely used at all in TBG.  If you want an uninterrupted experience I would recommend playing TBG on FSO 19.0 and 4.3 MVPs (there are a couple minor glitches in 19.0 I found but no gamebreaking/gamestopping errors).  This is also Herkie's recommendation for the time being.


Herkie is working on an update to TBG that will reduce the difficulty of the campaign, but it might be a week before it's out (it probably won't fix the issue I mentioned in the beginning though).  If you wanted to take some more time after Blighted before doing TBG to do another campaign or two, that's no problem.  If you wanted to do BP stuff before TBG that would be fine as well.  This will ensure that this newest update will be available.  Herkie is also working on trying to learn Knossos and the newest official build (FSO 22.0) and relatively new MVP 4.5.X  (I know there's a 4.6 MVPs out but he hasn't tried downloading those yet).



 

[redmagejoe]

The more I'm reading, the more it sounds like perhaps I should move AFR2 a bit further until some of the kinks get worked out...

[CT27]

The more I'm reading, the more it sounds like perhaps I should move AFR2 a bit further until some of the kinks get worked out...

You posted this just as I posted my previous message.   


That wouldn't be a bad idea.  Though I can't promise there will be a version on the newest builds that will work flawlessly.  There's a gamebreaking bug that Herkie can't figure out right now on recent builds.  When it comes to at least relatively recent official builds, there were a few gamebreaking issues on 21.0.  21.4 and 22.0 (tested using 4.5 MVPs) worked better but had that "Lightning From Heaven" gamebreaking issue.


I wouldn't say all is lost. This issue is only on recent builds.  On FSO 19.0 (4.3.X MVPs) TBG runs fine and encountered no major issues (one or two minor glitches that don't mess up gameplay or cause any real problems...that's about it).  For the time being (unless we hear from Herkie otherwise), that's the route I'd go.

[Mito [PL]]

I would suggest that herkie posts about said bugs in his topics. I'm pretty sure people more up to date with FSO developement could spare him a ton of bug hunting.

[herkie423]

I would suggest that herkie posts about said bugs in his topics. I'm pretty sure people more up to date with FSO developement could spare him a ton of bug hunting.

Oh, I already know what the bug is. It's the ships that I flagged "Don't move" (ship miscellaneous option). With FSO 3.7.4, the ships flagged as "Don't move," will stay in place but they can still rotate to face their target (like the Mjolnir). Now, with FSO 22, they absolutely don't move at all. That's understandable, I guess. I used the "don't move" feature in 1 AFR mission and 2 TBG missions as a "Mjolnir-type" remote artillery strike gameplay.

And I solved them already. It's just a matter of adding ship assets with the same model and table data but with zero value in their foward or backward movements like the Mjolnir. So, I won't have to use the "don't move" flag anymore and, instead,
use those new assets. I have already done the fix and it will be in an upcoming update.

With the Archangel dreadnaught bug in the mission "Lightning From Heaven," I mistakenly gave an SEXP order to the ship before it stopped decelerating from subspace, 10 seconds after it energed ("has arrive" SEXP). Players will notice its speed to be 300ms even if it had stopped moving. I already fixed this too along with the bug of the dreadnaught not firing.

[Colonol Dekker]

I love a good Dreadnaught.

[CT27]

If Herkie can get this Archangel bug fixed, then TBG might be able to be moved back up Joe's list since that was the only gamebreaking problem I found in TBG on 21.4 and 22.0.

[Darius]

Looking forward to seeing some Blue Planet Complete! I won't be able to make the next couple streams but I'll try to pop in after that.

What resolution do you want for your thumbnail screenshots? I'll swing something over that's a bit more up to date, the current pic has the old Raynor and Titan models from around 2007.

[herkie423]

If Herkie can get this Archangel bug fixed, then TBG might be able to be moved back up Joe's list since that was the only gamebreaking problem I found in TBG on 21.4 and 22.0.

Hey, CT. I already fixed it. Well, on my end using 374. It should work with the new FSOs (I hope).

[redmagejoe]

Looking forward to seeing some Blue Planet Complete! I won't be able to make the next couple streams but I'll try to pop in after that.

What resolution do you want for your thumbnail screenshots? I'll swing something over that's a bit more up to date, the current pic has the old Raynor and Titan models from around 2007.

1920x1080 would be awesome my dude. I had to make due with the same splash I used for Battle of Neptune because I couldn't find anything "FreeSpace + Neptune" -y enough for that one.

[CT27]

If Herkie can get this Archangel bug fixed, then TBG might be able to be moved back up Joe's list since that was the only gamebreaking problem I found in TBG on 21.4 and 22.0.

Hey, CT. I already fixed it. Well, on my end using 374. It should work with the new FSOs (I hope).

What I meant was when I can get the update you did and test it.  I'll test it on 22.0 and let Joe know how it went.

No rush Herkie.

[Colonol Dekker]

Looking forward to seeing some Blue Planet Complete! I won't be able to make the next couple streams but I'll try to pop in after that.

What resolution do you want for your thumbnail screenshots? I'll swing something over that's a bit more up to date, the current pic has the old Raynor and Titan models from around 2007.

1920x1080 would be awesome my dude. I had to make due with the same splash I used for Battle of Neptune because I couldn't find anything "FreeSpace + Neptune" -y enough for that one.

You've not BP'd yet???

[Ertanax]

In my position as 2022's blue planet Stan and a creator of Blue Planet content from Wish.com, I shall probably stick around on teamspeak for the Blue Planet Saga.

It would be cool if we could get Darius in the TS.

[Darius]

Got a couple early Monday starts and seeing as the streams start 11pm Western Australia time I'll give those sessions a miss.

Probably be able to TS it up by the time Joe gets to AoA, assuming next few weeks are FSBlue.