[freespacegundam]

Hopefully, everything is straightened out now.  After fighting with the SEXP for the debriefing, I think the matter is fully straightened out on the desertion stage.  The spelling has also been fixed(both errors).  The weapons ratios were also done a little better.  The reason I had most of the others so high was due to a personal peeve of mine.  

Here's hoping this is the last update, or at the very least, one that reveals only one final and easily remedied error.

[TopAce]

I don't want to go into deeper testing. You would definitely start hating me if I pointed out some more mistakes.

[freespacegundam]

Well, I might, but knowing if I made any more real big mistakes will help me learn better.

[TopAce]

I don't think there would be any major bugs in this mission, unless you intentionally do not make some.

[freespacegundam]

I never intend to have bugs in the mission, but I always seem to forget a few minor things and then have to go back and fix a big error caused by those minor things.  Oh well, mistakes are how we learn, and I think I learned a whole lot from making this mission.

[TopAce]

Use it wisely while doing the next mission.

[karajorma]

More testing.

Basically apart from some minor things I'd say the mission was done.

1) I found the reccomendation text a shade too flipant for my liking. You definately shouldn't have reccomendations for completed objectives either.

2) I managed to get the deimos out on 31% hull on my 3rd-4th try at the mission so it's a little hard (but definately not impossible). I asked TopAce to give it a try and he found it too hard I can understand that you wouldn't want to get rid of the Ursa's cause otherwise the mission becomes too easy so I'd suggest a compromise of moving the Ursa's back about 500-800m to give the player a little more time to deal with them.
 Adding a message to say that they are more heavily armed than you'd usually expect wouldn't do any harm either. Without a warning the player will almost certainly lose the mission first time round.
  (you might also want to mention the Ursa's as a particularly large threat  in the briefing).

Apart from that I'm quite happy with the mission.

[TopAce]

Try depriving the Ursas of their Helios bombs first. I tried it twice and failed both times. When I tested the mission was 11PM, so I was quite tired and my perseverance was low, making me not try the mission for a third or forth time.
Before letting a mission go out of your hands, you should double or triple check the difficulty.
[EDIT]
Here is a piece of writing about mission balancing:
http://dynamic4.gamespy.com/~freespace/fsdoc/index.php?pagename=FRED%20Tips

Go down until the end and read the last section.
If you have time to, read the whole.

[karajorma]

Actually I'd leave the helios bombs in actually. Without them I doubt it would be possible to lose the mission easily.

As you say on that page moving the bombers further away from the capship helps a lot. If the player isn't keeping an eye out for the Ursa's he will lose the Deimos but if he stays on the ball it should be possible to save it.

[freespacegundam]

I fine tuned it a little bit, alerting the player to the new bombers, while also giving the Medusa's in Taurus wing their own Helios warheads.  I played it a few times because of message issues, and managed to save the Actium each time.  On the last try, however, it did drop to 41%.  Granted this isn't severe, but it is mostly the final bomber wing doing the most damage.  With the debreifing text I got rid of the recommendations for completing objectives.  If there's a problem with the failure ones, let me know.  It should be uploaded now.

[Singh]

ill give it a whirl after my duty.

[TopAce]

Originally posted by freespacegundam
I fine tuned it a little bit, alerting the player to the new bombers, while also giving the Medusa's in Taurus wing their own Helios warheads.  I played it a few times because of message issues, and managed to save the Actium each time.  On the last try, however, it did drop to 41%.  Granted this isn't severe, but it is mostly the final bomber wing doing the most damage.  With the debreifing text I got rid of the recommendations for completing objectives.  If there's a problem with the failure ones, let me know.  It should be uploaded now.

Can the Medusa carry the Helios?

[Singh]

yes. Only it and the Boanegeres can carry the things.

[TopAce]

The MEDUSA? You are thinking of the Ursa ...

[Singh]

ach. you are right; the Ursa can carry it, not the medusa. Medusas can only carry Cyclops.

*blames lack of sleep.

[TopAce]

The difficulty is acceptable. I also noted two things which need changing:
- Pisces is mispelt as Pices
- Messages sometimes overlap(especially at the beginning)

[freespacegundam]

Actually, the Medusa can carry the Helios.  If you don't believe me, play the mission.  All things aside, the message problem is by far the most frustrating, its difficult to time them well, especially with send-message-list.  A few of the other ones can be fixed, but the ones at the beginning are just a big pain.  I fiddled with the messages a bit, and I'm hoping this will work alright so as not to overlap or state the obvious.

[TopAce]

Now that you say, the Medusa can only carry the Helios if the Ai flies them and they are hostile(or not placed in Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta or Epsilon wing).
To successfully fine-tune the delay between messages, copy/paste the messages one by one into the Simulated Speech test field and stopwatch it. It is hard work, but it is worth it.

[karajorma]

Okay. Final mission in this campaign that I have to test today

Basically I enjoyed it a lot. Can't really fault it. It's a bit hard but at 5 minutes long that's not as big a problem as it is for a 15 minute long mission

Odd thing is that despite you putting in a message when Ursa wing appear I don't recall ever hearing it. I guess I must be busy flying my arse off to survive the mission.

I'll wait for another tester to play it cause the Helios bombs may be too much (maybe only one wing of medusas with Helios bombs and an extra wing of cyclops armed Medusas instead might be an idea) but otherwise the mission seems pretty much finished to me.

Well done FSG

[TopAce]

I guess I must not take a look at a mission considered final.
Well done, freespacegundam.