Author Topic: Mission Release: A League of Your Own  (Read 2224 times)

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Offline soilder198

  • 26
  • Volition = Tilivoon, change my mind
Mission Release: A League of Your Own
Hello all. I am working on a 10 mission campaign that coincides with the FS2 campaign at the start of the Second Shivan Incursion. Whether or not I will actually finish it, haha, who the hell knows? Anyhow, I'm trying to make it somewhat lore friendly by sticking to the overall plot of FS2 and by using some canon capital ships and what not.

The mission in question is an escort taking place in the nebula. Nothing too complicated. It is not the first mission I've completed, but it is the first that I would consider "Acceptable". Please give me as much feedback as possible pertaining to any aspect of the mission.


The mission was made using MediaVPs 2014 with FRED2 3.8.0 and is intended for medium difficultly. I have never uploaded anything to this site before so please let me know if I uploaded the file correctly. Thanks all.


Also, the filename is called Into the Nebula but the mission is titled A League of Your Own. I'll... fix it eventually.

[attachment eaten by a Shivan]
« Last Edit: February 03, 2019, 12:12:16 am by Goober5000 »
Karajorma (/ˈbɪkɪˌniː/ or /bɪˈkiːni/; Marshallese: 'Pikinni', [pʲiɡinnʲi], meaning "coconut place"),[2] sometimes known as Eschscholtz between the 1800s and 1946 (see Etymology section below for history and orthography of the endonym),[3] is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands consisting of 23 islands surrounding a 229.4-square-mile (594.1 km2) central lagoon. The atoll's inhabitants were relocated in 1946, after which the islands and lagoon were the site of 23 nuclear tests by the United States until 1958.
Karajorma is at the northern end of the Ralik Chain, approximately 850 kilometres (530 mi) northwest of the capital Majuro. Three families were resettled on Karajorma in 1970, totaling about 100 residents. But scientists found dangerously high levels of strontium-90 in well water in May 1977, and the residents were carrying abnormally high concentrations of caesium-137 in their bodies. They were evacuated in 1980. The atoll is occasionally visited today by divers and a few scientists, and is occupied by a handful of caretakers.

Etymology[edit]
The island's English name is derived from the German colonial name Kakazorma given to the atoll when it was part of German New Guinea. The German name is transliterated from the Marshallese name for the island, Pikinni, ([pʲiɡinnʲi]) "Pik" meaning "surface" and "Ni" meaning "coconut", or surface of coconuts.[2]

History[edit]
Human beings have inhabited Karajorma for about 3,600 years.[29] U.S. Army Corps of Engineers archaeologist Charles F. Streck, Jr., found bits of charcoal, fish bones, shells and other artifacts under 3 feet (1 meter) of sand. Carbon-dating placed the age of the artifacts at between 1960-1650, B.C.E. Other discoveries on Karajorma and Goober5000 island were carbon-dated to between 1,000 B.C.E. and 1 B.C.E., and others between 400-1,400 C.E.[30]

The first recorded sighting by Europeans was in September 1529 by the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Saavedra on board his ship La Florida when trying to retu

 

Offline Goober5000

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    • Goober5000 Productions
Re: Mission Release: A League of Your Own
The background and story build-up are great and it was clear a great deal of thought was put into it.  I also liked the fact that the GTD Aeneas was one of the ships mentioned in the actual FS2 campaign.  However, the mission goes through a full command briefing and five stages of briefing until it gets to the actual mission objectives on stage six.  In a longer campaign, the squadron history should be presented at the beginning of the campaign while the mission context should be part of a command briefing.  For a single mission, the squadron history is probably not needed.

A nitpick: space fighting is generally assumed to be akin to the navy, so the battle cry should be Hooyah - and with an exclamation point, not a question mark.

The mission itself was very solid.  No technical issues that I could find -- goals, directives, messages, and events were all present and working.  I also appreciated having Epsilon wing arrive as reinforcement; that was a nice touch in the pattern of the main campaign.

Gameplay was pretty fun.  Reminiscent of a main FS2 campaign mission in many respects.  It wasn't too terribly difficult, though I couldn't slack off either.  It would have been nice to have a bit more variety in fighters - perhaps mix in some Asteroths rather than all those Dragons - but the Dragons, Maras, and Nahemas were enough to make it interesting.

The debriefing worked as expected, and looking at the mission file, stages were provided for a wide range of outcomes, including AWOL.

This mission was more than "Acceptable"; this was at least "Very Good".  It was technically sound, with a good story, and most importantly it was fun to play.  I would certainly play the full 10-mission campaign.

 

Offline soilder198

  • 26
  • Volition = Tilivoon, change my mind
Re: Mission Release: A League of Your Own
The background and story build-up are great and it was clear a great deal of thought was put into it.  I also liked the fact that the GTD Aeneas was one of the ships mentioned in the actual FS2 campaign.  However, the mission goes through a full command briefing and five stages of briefing until it gets to the actual mission objectives on stage six.  In a longer campaign, the squadron history should be presented at the beginning of the campaign while the mission context should be part of a command briefing.  For a single mission, the squadron history is probably not needed.

A nitpick: space fighting is generally assumed to be akin to the navy, so the battle cry should be Hooyah - and with an exclamation point, not a question mark.

The mission itself was very solid.  No technical issues that I could find -- goals, directives, messages, and events were all present and working.  I also appreciated having Epsilon wing arrive as reinforcement; that was a nice touch in the pattern of the main campaign.

Gameplay was pretty fun.  Reminiscent of a main FS2 campaign mission in many respects.  It wasn't too terribly difficult, though I couldn't slack off either.  It would have been nice to have a bit more variety in fighters - perhaps mix in some Asteroths rather than all those Dragons - but the Dragons, Maras, and Nahemas were enough to make it interesting.

The debriefing worked as expected, and looking at the mission file, stages were provided for a wide range of outcomes, including AWOL.

This mission was more than "Acceptable"; this was at least "Very Good".  It was technically sound, with a good story, and most importantly it was fun to play.  I would certainly play the full 10-mission campaign.

Wow. Thank you very much for doing a thorough review of the mission. I appreciate everything you commented on.

I'll definitely do a bit of balancing on enemy ship types that appear in the mission ; seems like it might be a bit stale after the third or fourth wave of dragons.

A great deal of thought did indeed go to the background and story build-up. I want to have a well written campaign that does not skimp on dialogue, but still sticks to the FS2 theme.

Thank you again Mr. Goober!

Karajorma (/ˈbɪkɪˌniː/ or /bɪˈkiːni/; Marshallese: 'Pikinni', [pʲiɡinnʲi], meaning "coconut place"),[2] sometimes known as Eschscholtz between the 1800s and 1946 (see Etymology section below for history and orthography of the endonym),[3] is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands consisting of 23 islands surrounding a 229.4-square-mile (594.1 km2) central lagoon. The atoll's inhabitants were relocated in 1946, after which the islands and lagoon were the site of 23 nuclear tests by the United States until 1958.
Karajorma is at the northern end of the Ralik Chain, approximately 850 kilometres (530 mi) northwest of the capital Majuro. Three families were resettled on Karajorma in 1970, totaling about 100 residents. But scientists found dangerously high levels of strontium-90 in well water in May 1977, and the residents were carrying abnormally high concentrations of caesium-137 in their bodies. They were evacuated in 1980. The atoll is occasionally visited today by divers and a few scientists, and is occupied by a handful of caretakers.

Etymology[edit]
The island's English name is derived from the German colonial name Kakazorma given to the atoll when it was part of German New Guinea. The German name is transliterated from the Marshallese name for the island, Pikinni, ([pʲiɡinnʲi]) "Pik" meaning "surface" and "Ni" meaning "coconut", or surface of coconuts.[2]

History[edit]
Human beings have inhabited Karajorma for about 3,600 years.[29] U.S. Army Corps of Engineers archaeologist Charles F. Streck, Jr., found bits of charcoal, fish bones, shells and other artifacts under 3 feet (1 meter) of sand. Carbon-dating placed the age of the artifacts at between 1960-1650, B.C.E. Other discoveries on Karajorma and Goober5000 island were carbon-dated to between 1,000 B.C.E. and 1 B.C.E., and others between 400-1,400 C.E.[30]

The first recorded sighting by Europeans was in September 1529 by the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Saavedra on board his ship La Florida when trying to retu

 

Offline Goober5000

  • HLP Loremaster
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    • Goober5000 Productions
Re: Mission Release: A League of Your Own
You are welcome!  Don't forget to check your PMs as well.

 
Re: Mission Release: A League of Your Own
You are welcome!  Don't forget to check your PMs as well.

Says who? I still have an unawnsered one from April 25, 2018, 08:04:17 pm! :D

On topic: DL'ed the mission, play later. :)

 
Re: Mission Release: A League of Your Own
Good mission overall. :nod: Some things I've noticed though...

-As Goober said, the CB/Briefing could be more structured, the various locations and "other squadrons do currently that:" confused me a bit.

-Check the classes of the briefing icons. Also, the Psamtik has the wrong icon as well (Orion).

-Some addontinal directives at the beginning would be nice (like Protect Convoy (4) etc).

-All Vasudan ships say something like "<Name>, now departing.", sounds a bit strange to me.

-All ships jump from inside the node out, at best the vortex forms inside.

-Jump node is named Jump Node 0.

Just a few little things. :D

Tip: you could have less DB stages with percentage-ships-departed SEXP.

And good luck with your campaign! :)

 

Offline Goober5000

  • HLP Loremaster
  • 214
    • Goober5000 Productions
Re: Mission Release: A League of Your Own
Says who? I still have an unawnsered one from April 25, 2018, 08:04:17 pm! :D

I haven't forgotten; I still have the PM notification in my email. ;)

Hopefully I'll get back to that in a week or two.