[Rogue Assassin04]

Woah.

This campaign is epic! I must now break into GTVA intelligence to recover the ETAK specs and hope i can construct a similar one using whatever i find in my kitchen.

But this campaign showed me a great deal about shivans and all. Amazing campaign man.

[McMad]

Man, after all these years fighting the Shivans, it's really hard not to blast your wingmen as they unexpectedly fly in front of you

[CKid]

All done.

Spoiler:

Starting out, you think you're just seeing the events of FS1 from the shivans perspective however you begin noticing things are not lining up with what we know of FS1. Those fighters aren't in FS1, wasn't that Demon destroyed? Why is the PVN Hope not being defended by Terran escort? The moment that I realized this taking place in a certain alternate universe my jaw hit the floor. What you did for the shivan comms was brilliant, really gave the campaign an eerie feel. I don't think I have ever played a mission where you witness the bombardment of Vasuda Prime. Well done creating this campaign, It certainly was a fun little play-through.

I did have one bug. Playing the last mission the Lucifer was absence, leaving it to me and the few fighters that survived the battle in the subspace node to engage the Terran forces. It did not end well. Had play it through the techroom to complete it.

[Asteroth]

@CKid

Spoiler:

I'm super happy that you managed to figure out the subtext of the campaign, really the whole campaign is filled with stuff that can only be implied instead of outright stated, and it was a bit of gamble to see if enough would actually be understandable to players to prevent them from simply being confused.

And the Lucifer bug is unfortunate, but should be fixed in 1.0.5.

[emark4]

All done.

Spoiler:

Starting out, you think you're just seeing the events of FS1 from the shivans perspective however you begin noticing things are not lining up with what we know of FS1. Those fighters aren't in FS1, wasn't that Demon destroyed? Why is the PVN Hope not being defended by Terran escort? The moment that I realized this taking place in a certain alternate universe my jaw hit the floor. What you did for the shivan comms was brilliant, really gave the campaign an eerie feel. I don't think I have ever played a mission where you witness the bombardment of Vasuda Prime. Well done creating this campaign, It certainly was a fun little play-through.

I did have one bug. Playing the last mission the Lucifer was absence, leaving it to me and the few fighters that survived the battle in the subspace node to engage the Terran forces. It did not end well. Had play it through the techroom to complete it.

Aside from playing at least FS1 and silent threat reborn, do you recommend playing another mod to understand said plot point?

[rubixcube]

All done.

Spoiler:

Starting out, you think you're just seeing the events of FS1 from the shivans perspective however you begin noticing things are not lining up with what we know of FS1. Those fighters aren't in FS1, wasn't that Demon destroyed? Why is the PVN Hope not being defended by Terran escort? The moment that I realized this taking place in a certain alternate universe my jaw hit the floor. What you did for the shivan comms was brilliant, really gave the campaign an eerie feel. I don't think I have ever played a mission where you witness the bombardment of Vasuda Prime. Well done creating this campaign, It certainly was a fun little play-through.

I did have one bug. Playing the last mission the Lucifer was absence, leaving it to me and the few fighters that survived the battle in the subspace node to engage the Terran forces. It did not end well. Had play it through the techroom to complete it.

Aside from playing at least FS1 and silent threat reborn, do you recommend playing another mod to understand said plot point?

Spoiler:

BP AoA

[ssmit132]

Whew, it's been a while since I've posted on anything around here

Hi there Asteroth

I really like the concept of this campaign and the interesting way you've presented the Shivans 

Spoiler:

However I've hit a bit of a snag on mission 3. It seems that I can't stop the wing of Valkyries from destroying the cargo container - it doesn't take long for the Faustus to detect the jamming and even lowering the difficulty to Very Easy, I can't really take down one, let alone all four of the fighters before they turn to the container and easily destroy it since it's, well, a cargo container I had a go at positioning myself to be near the Terran ships when I switched out of regeneration, and I tried playing around with my wingmen's loadout - changing them between Basilisks and Scorpions and giving them the swarm missile - but that didn't really seem to help.

It's possible that it might be me being too rusty on FS2, but Is there something in particular that you would recommend to try to pass the mission?

[emark4]

All done.

Spoiler:

Starting out, you think you're just seeing the events of FS1 from the shivans perspective however you begin noticing things are not lining up with what we know of FS1. Those fighters aren't in FS1, wasn't that Demon destroyed? Why is the PVN Hope not being defended by Terran escort? The moment that I realized this taking place in a certain alternate universe my jaw hit the floor. What you did for the shivan comms was brilliant, really gave the campaign an eerie feel. I don't think I have ever played a mission where you witness the bombardment of Vasuda Prime. Well done creating this campaign, It certainly was a fun little play-through.

I did have one bug. Playing the last mission the Lucifer was absence, leaving it to me and the few fighters that survived the battle in the subspace node to engage the Terran forces. It did not end well. Had play it through the techroom to complete it.

Aside from playing at least FS1 and silent threat reborn, do you recommend playing another mod to understand said plot point?

Spoiler:

BP AoA

Interesting.

[Asteroth]

Spoiler:

However I've hit a bit of a snag on mission 3. It seems that I can't stop the wing of Valkyries from destroying the cargo container - it doesn't take long for the Faustus to detect the jamming and even lowering the difficulty to Very Easy, I can't really take down one, let alone all four of the fighters before they turn to the container and easily destroy it since it's, well, a cargo container I had a go at positioning myself to be near the Terran ships when I switched out of regeneration, and I tried playing around with my wingmen's loadout - changing them between Basilisks and Scorpions and giving them the swarm missile - but that didn't really seem to help.

It's possible that it might be me being too rusty on FS2, but Is there something in particular that you would recommend to try to pass the mission?

Spoiler:

Go straight for the Kestral. Don't bother trying to keep them off the cargo container. The time it takes it to realize it's jamming, destroy it, and jump out should be enough time to to destroy the Kestral, and certainly with Acerbities. You can also try revealing yourself earlier, making the fighters take longer to take out the jammer.

[Kestrellius]

Just wanted to say that I played part of it several days ago and have had a very positive reaction so far. I will give in-depth critique once I finish.

[Farkas]

Great campaign, with very good ideas! When I got suspicious that it isn't exactly the same universe than the retail I waited for TAHT moment in the end. That connection brought great satisfaction!:D The only thing I wanted to ask, that why did you use the new type of fighter? For balance reasons? Or just some creator freedom?

[ssmit132]

Spoiler:

Go straight for the Kestral. Don't bother trying to keep them off the cargo container. The time it takes it to realize it's jamming, destroy it, and jump out should be enough time to to destroy the Kestral, and certainly with Acerbities. You can also try revealing yourself earlier, making the fighters take longer to take out the jammer.

Spoiler:

Oh, that makes sense - for some reason I thought the Faustus in this mission was tougher than it was. Thanks

Other missions I'd like to comment on:

- Mission 4: In my first run I fell for the Medusa bombers distracting me from the cargo hook line and sinker. These smart Terrans, who do they think they are?

- Mission 5: This was a bit shorter than I expected - It makes sense since the GTA doesn't throw wing after wing at things but just having to take down two waves of enemies does seem a tad short.

- Mission 6: I found it amusing that the Lucifer Hurricane arriving is a failure condition. It made me imagine some kind of rivalry between the Tempest and the Hurricane. "Geez I have to clean up after these bungling Tempest guys..."

- Mission 7: A fun mission and a bit challenging for me - I ended up taking advantage of having to replay the mission by going to disable the Kamikaze Satis at mission start and sending Shiva to destroy the Thoths before they got near the Cyclone I did think the sudden kamikaze was a clever touchh; considering the mission's recommendation I did expect more kamikaze attempts though, such as some fighters.

- Mission 8-9: Giving the Nephilim an afterburner but giving it limited fuel was an interesting touch. It took me a little while to adapt to that. Also, is it supposed to keep its shields when regenerating?

I'm enjoying the campaign a lot Since we've prevented some canon aspects of FS1 such as the destruction of the Eva Tempest and destroying the Hope, I'm wondering just where this is going...

Also, something I encountered often: If I give my wing or "all fighters" orders while in regeneration, my ship will start responding to that order as well. It can get a bit awkward when I need to give orders while regenerating, since I need to switch out and back in to stop moving. I'm not sure how tricky that would be to fix, though.

[Asteroth]

Spoiler:

- Mission 7: A fun mission and a bit challenging for me - I ended up taking advantage of having to replay the mission by going to disable the Kamikaze Satis at mission start and sending Shiva to destroy the Thoths before they got near the Cyclone I did think the sudden kamikaze was a clever touchh; considering the mission's recommendation I did expect more kamikaze attempts though, such as some fighters.

- Mission 8-9: Giving the Nephilim an afterburner but giving it limited fuel was an interesting touch. It took me a little while to adapt to that. Also, is it supposed to keep its shields when regenerating?

Spoiler:

There are actually some kamikaze fighters. They simply aren't very effective. I'm not sure what exactly to pin it on, but they end up sort of missing and circling around Cyclone several times before impacting (giving it plenty of time to destroy them.)

And that is not a bug, that's correct.

Also, something I encountered often: If I give my wing or "all fighters" orders while in regeneration, my ship will start responding to that order as well. It can get a bit awkward when I need to give orders while regenerating, since I need to switch out and back in to stop moving. I'm not sure how tricky that would be to fix, though.

And this, unfortunately, is a known SCP bug.

[rubixcube]

Spoiler:

- Mission 7: A fun mission and a bit challenging for me - I ended up taking advantage of having to replay the mission by going to disable the Kamikaze Satis at mission start and sending Shiva to destroy the Thoths before they got near the Cyclone I did think the sudden kamikaze was a clever touchh; considering the mission's recommendation I did expect more kamikaze attempts though, such as some fighters.

- Mission 8-9: Giving the Nephilim an afterburner but giving it limited fuel was an interesting touch. It took me a little while to adapt to that. Also, is it supposed to keep its shields when regenerating?

Spoiler:

There are actually some kamikaze fighters. They simply aren't very effective. I'm not sure what exactly to pin it on, but they end up sort of missing and circling around Cyclone several times before impacting (giving it plenty of time to destroy them.)

And that is not a bug, that's correct.

Spoiler:

Interesting design choice, but why?

[Asteroth]

Spoiler:

Interesting design choice, but why?

Spoiler:

Mostly to counterbalance it's sluggishness and the extra time you'll be spending regenerating in order to regain afterburner fuel. The Nephilim is meant to feel rather 'tanky' even while regenerating.

[Kestrellius]

So! Finished it, finally. You get tons of points automatically just for doing something with a Shivan PoV. Spoopiness was well-executed, fractals were cool...Mission design was pretty good, considering the constraints of FS1. I didn't have too much trouble figuring out what I was supposed to do.

Some of the missions were pretty difficult, mostly because Shivan gear is ass. Or, possibly, I'm just bad at this game. That's an option too. I had particular difficulty with the rescuing-cargo-and-defending-Tempest one -- don't remember what it was called. I got through it in the end, though.

I ran into the same bug as CKid; had to come here and use his solution. I wasn't even sure it was a bug at first, or if I was supposed to fight like five wings of fighters with three ships.

I liked the Apoplexy. Nice shotgun-bomb.

Out of curiosity, how much did you modify the fighters' stats? Like, I'm pretty sure the Shaitan wasn't usably good in retail. Maybe I'm wrong, though. I could check.

Spoiler:

It took me a little while to realize that this was the AoA-verse. I was starting to get the sense that it was an AU during the Battle of Deneb, and then destroying the Hope confirmed it. It wasn't until after I'd finished Last Hope that it occurred to me this might be the Sanctuary universe.

[Asteroth]

Out of curiosity, how much did you modify the fighters' stats? Like, I'm pretty sure the Shaitan wasn't usably good in retail. Maybe I'm wrong, though. I could check.

'Hard' specifications like HP and shields were unchanged, rotation times and speeds were slightly adjusted to create distinctions were they didn't exist before (Shaitan and Nephilim both had identical speeds, so I slightly sped up the shaitan to give it more of a logical role as a fast strike bomber) or swap values were it seemed logical (Did you know the scorpion is more maneuverable than the dragon?!). And perhaps most obviously the Shivan bombers were given afterburners so as not to make playing them horribly painful.

But otherwise the Shaitan isn't that massively changed, you'd be surprised what actually decent primaries and a player behind the wheel can do for a ship.

[rubixcube]

Okay, just finished it

Spoiler:

As I've already said, very good atmosphere, music choices for briefing and final mission was spot on. Nice to see the enemy behave intelligently, I also like how you logically prevented the Lucifer from making missions impossible to fail (except the last one of course).
Not making the Lucifer invincible was a nice small touch that I appreciated; 800000 shield hp already make it practically (if not literally) impervious to all weaponry

Some small critiques:
Some missions, such as Evangelist and Good Luck could have been longer.
I wish there was more Shivan-suited music for all the missions; the standard fs1 music kinda breaks the mood at times, though I can't really fault you for this as there aren't many other tracks available.

Some other observations:
Why didn't we start with interrupting the T-V skirmish then following LT Ash to Tombaugh?
The series of numbers in the briefings, I noticed they're all 0's, 1's, and 2's, are the Shivans communicating in some kind of Ternary computer code?

Can't wait for Battuta to try this

[Asteroth]

Spoiler:

Some small critiques:
Some missions, such as Evangelist and Good Luck could have been longer.
I wish there was more Shivan-suited music for all the missions; the standard fs1 music kinda breaks the mood at times, though I can't really fault you for this as there aren't many other tracks available.

Spoiler:

Evangelist and Good Luck are indeed rather short, which isn't ideal, but the standard FS1 approach, far more befitting of the Shivans, would be many wings coming in over a long time, or at least however long you want them to fight. This approach jars a bit with human beings, especially so since they have furyAI, since it would seem they would be smarter than that. And for Good Luck as well my initial draft of the mission had extra fighters and bombers warping in, but it simply breaks immersion (is it really so easy to just warp in to an in-progress battle in subspace) and breaks the strong memory of continuity we have of the event since we KNOW that there were only the 4 wings of 4 fighters each (although it's 3 wings in my version for unrelated reasons). So my intention was merely to settle for 'short, but intense'.

Custom music for everything would have been ideal of course (the 'victory' music that plays once you've completed your objectives and destroyed all enemies, being the worst offender in terms of breaking the mood), but I simply didn't have the skill/ability to do that. There is a custom track, but it's used for a very specific scenario, for a particular purpose, and happened to be within the purview of my abilities.

Spoiler:

The series of numbers in the briefings, I noticed they're all 0's, 1's, and 2's, are the Shivans communicating in some kind of Ternary computer code?

Spoiler:

Quite possibly!

[CKid]

Great campaign, with very good ideas! When I got suspicious that it isn't exactly the same universe than the retail I waited for TAHT moment in the end. That connection brought great satisfaction!:D The only thing I wanted to ask, that why did you use the new type of fighter? For balance reasons? Or just some creator freedom?

Spoiler:

I got a theory and Asteroth can tell me if I'am close or not. The new fighter replaced the GTF Ulysses. The Ulysses was built by Terran and Vasudans engineers together, however in this other universe the Terran - Vasudan relationship was maybe more strained. I point to the mission of taking down the PVN Hope where we are told that the Terrans where not coming to assist as evidence. What we end up getting is a Terran fighter built to match the specs of the Ulysses like high speed and agility but with out the Vasudan input in deployment.