Hard Light Productions Forums

FreeSpace Releases => Mission & Campaign Releases => Topic started by: EatThePath on May 20, 2020, 09:44:51 am

Title: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: EatThePath on May 20, 2020, 09:44:51 am
(https://i.imgur.com/iDAteNB.png)

Get it on Knossos (https://fsnebula.org/mod/Warmachine)

Built for FSO nightly build 22.1.0-20220529
Warmachine presents a remix of Blue Planet part 1, Age of Aquarius, featuring modern engine features. Inspired by sci-fi visuals both classic and modern, all sides of the campaign have received new deadly and dazzling weapons, and in some cases ships, that raise the intensity of combat. Many BP missions, once that once tested the community when they were new but became old hat since, have been given adjustments and twists to get the blood pumping again.

ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Release 2 (May 2022) brings new fighters from Talhydras, new effects from Kestrellius, and music from Shadows of Light along with many other community contributions. Try out a new re-balanced fighter roster, avoid the blistering PULSEQUAKE of the rearmed warships, and find out what new surprises the Shivans brought this time. Then check out the mission simulator to see if your reflexes and computer are up to pushing it even further.

Likely-asked questions:
Q: But canon?
A: Warmachine started out as a reaction to early Blue Planet, and branched of into exploring alternate ideas about the GTVA's post-Capella future.It is not made by the Blue Planet team, knowingly conflicts with BP canon, and will continue to do so as we develop more content of our own.

Q: Is this just Age of Aquarius?
A: We've developed a few stand alone missions in the tech room, and will continue to do so, but currently AoA is the primary content.

Q: War in Heaven?
A: No. At least not by us, not any time soon. We've included a rearmed version of the Icarus cutscene, but this is merely for fun.

Q: Why are there so many models with the wrong names in the wrong places?
A: We are developing new models, but art production takes a lot of time. In the mean time we have new ships we want to explore, and we're using models already in BP that more or less fit the properties we want for the final ship.

Q: How can you rip off Blue Planet so much?
A: Blue Planet's developers have been aware of and at times quite helpful in development since the beginning.


Credits
Warmachine
Talhydras - Lead
EatThePath - Bass
Kestrellius - Pyro


Invalubale testing by
Lafiel
JadedDragoon

Music used
Freespace Soundtrack Expansion Project by ShadowsOfLight
Supersede by Carbon Based Lifeforms
Authority by Vondkreistan.

Sounds used from
Starcraft by Blizzard
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak by Blackbird Interactive
Mass Efect 3 by Bioware
Halo 3 by Bungie
Supreme Commander by Gas Powered Games
Tyrian by Epic Megagames
Iji by Dan Remar

Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door
Stargate SG-1
Macross II
Star Trek
Star Wars
Titan AE
Yukikaze

Freesound

Models and effects used...
Shielded Lucifer from FSPort
Edited SF Manticore from Kestrellius
Something Special from Nyctaeus
Remade warp effects from Gamma39er

Scripts used...
Axem's targetbox and turret hotkeying
Wookiejedi's capship maneuvering

Thanks to...
The Blue Planet team, for creating such an engrossing and inspiring experience we built on, and for being so excited about what we're doing with it
The SCP team, for making so many new things possible over the years, and also for putting up with our outlandish requests
Axem and DahBlount in particular for their work on multi-lock missile features
Sab0o, for patiently teaching Talhydras how to import a model file all those years ago
Icefox, for providing dev repo hosting and troubleshooting
And of course, please see the Blue Planet credits for everyone who contributed to that which we built on.

2.0 changes:

New fighter models, all new missile models with TEI fighter options now sporting externally mounted missiles to show them of, re-turreting of most TEI ships, player equipment balance tweaks and overhauls, remade effects for most things by Kestrillius and Talhydras collaborating, a fresh batch of mangling with AoA the missions with some things I'm excited to hear first reactions to, select music from ShadowsOfLight, shinier TEI ships, new shader and lighting settings, some smart weapon targeting modes, and too much more that I didn't keep track of in detail
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: Nightmare on May 20, 2020, 10:47:28 am
YEEESSSS!!!!!
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: woutersmits on May 20, 2020, 12:52:29 pm
Assert: "(swp->secondary_bank_weapons[bank] >= 0) && (swp->secondary_bank_weapons[bank] < weapon_info_size())"
File: ship.cpp
Line: 19343

ntdll.dll! NtWaitForSingleObject + 20 bytes
KERNELBASE.dll! WaitForSingleObjectEx + 147 bytes
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
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fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
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fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
KERNEL32.DLL! BaseThreadInitThunk + 20 bytes
ntdll.dll! RtlUserThreadStart + 33 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 + 147 bytes
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
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fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_20_1_0_multilock_x64_SSE2-FASTDBG.exe! <no symbol>
KERNEL32.DLL! BaseThreadInitThunk + 20 bytes
ntdll.dll! RtlUserThreadStart + 33 bytes
your mod doesnt work
https://fsnebula.org/log/5ec56ebccb0d3321b2c98673 (https://fsnebula.org/log/5ec56ebccb0d3321b2c98673)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: EatThePath on May 20, 2020, 01:50:13 pm
Sorry about that. Looks like in our testing we neglected to retry mission 0 again in the final passes. Both it and the final cutscene mission of AoA have that problem, but the other cutscene-type moments in AoA don't. Investigation is ongoing into why, but in the mean time I've updated the mod to start you at mission 1 instead of mission 0 of AoA. May require a new pilot or restarted campaign or whatnot, I'm not entirely certain what gets saved in the pilot file.

1.0.2 with this fix has already been uploaded.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: themaddin on May 20, 2020, 03:37:39 pm
I can't find the mod in Knossos. Running the install link on the nebula page gets me the
"Mod "Warmachine" could not be found!" dialog. I'm running v0.14.0 built from source on Arch Linux.

EDIT: Now it appears, seems like Knossos had connection trouble getting the current mod list.

Also, are there multilock builds for Linux or is the source available to build them myself?
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: EatThePath on May 20, 2020, 03:58:02 pm
Regarding finding the mod, Knossos seems to be taking about a day to display new mods in the explore tab. I think Woutersmits got it through the install link, but I really can't troubleshoot too much on how Knossos serves the mod.

Regarding building multilock, I believe https://github.com/scp-fs2open/fs2open.github.com/tree/test/multilock is the correct place to get current code. The test build server appears to only generate windows builds.

Also, 1.0.3 has been uploaded now that should resolve the cutscene mission issues and restores the campaign to including them. Sorry if that messes things up for anyone who has already started in on it. It also resolves a few other issues, including one that was broadly breaking missile behavior. That was caused by a last second solution of mine to another minor problem just before launch that I didn't test broadly enough, apparently. Hopefully the whack-a-mole is done with this release.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: themaddin on May 20, 2020, 04:38:33 pm
OK, thanks. I'll try to build it from there.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: Su-tehp on May 20, 2020, 07:59:48 pm
Can't wait to play this...after I finish with all the other Freespace mods on my list. Soooooo much to do.... :sigh:

But yeah, I'm not finding it on Knossos yet either. Maybe in a day or two, but it's not like I'm in a rush to get it right away.

Also, the music is not "Supersede" by Carbon Based Lifeforms (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xj2BmxEkcI).

Rather, it's "Authority" by Vondkreistan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqZ_GA4pTTg).

Both are awesome songs though.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: Antares on May 20, 2020, 08:10:09 pm
Man, the tracer effects on those primaries are gnarly. Pew pew pew pew.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: EatThePath on May 20, 2020, 08:23:08 pm
Also, the music is not "Supersede" by Carbon Based Lifeforms (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xj2BmxEkcI).

Rather, it's "Authority" by Vondkreistan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqZ_GA4pTTg).

Supercede is used ingame as menu music(edit: though apparently I'd flipped artist and title). The trailer is indeed Authority, as credited in the video description if you go through to youtube, though below the 'read more' button.

I suppose it wouldn't be bad idea to add it to the credits here, even if it doesn't make much sense to add it to the ingame credits since it doesn't feature in the game yet.

-----------------

To be clear, since it appears I may not have been clear enough initially, this release includes ONLY: The Age of Aquarius missions from Blue Planet, and two stand-alone tech room instant action missions. One of those missions is pretty simple mindless action, the other is a lot more ambitious.

Our broader ambitions may bring you more story content in the future, but that's what we have for you at the moment.

-----------------

If you don't know how to use the multilock builds, here are some instructions for windows users.


(https://i.imgur.com/3JCxWYU.png)

Do that and you should be able to launch the mod as you would any other from that point.



Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: EatThePath on June 07, 2020, 01:47:15 pm
An update went up yesterday that addresses some issues people have pointed out since launch. Full details are at the bottom of the release post.

We've been at work, thinking about ways to polish up the rough spots of the mod and how we want to expand it in the future. Most close to the fore is reworking the fighter and bomber selection, as the goal is to have the 14th BG fielding only new fighters but the existing TEI lineup doesn't entirely satisfy what we want out of the aesthetics or gameplay. Also, gonna cover those suckers in external mounted missiles.

(https://i.imgur.com/QmjWoBn.png)

No telling when that or any of the other things we're doing will be ready for the public, of course.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: SpardaSon21 on June 10, 2020, 10:36:26 pm
You're doing Lord Itano's work, my friend.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: EatThePath on July 30, 2020, 12:07:50 pm
At long last, you can play feature-complete Warmachine on nightly builds now. The earliest I've tested it on is 20200727, but the missiles appear to be entirely well behaved there. No more needing to download custom builds! So if you've been holding off for that reason, wait no longer. Itano Circuses for everyone!
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: manwiththemachinegun on July 30, 2020, 07:43:18 pm
Yaaay!
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: Su-tehp on July 30, 2020, 07:49:14 pm
Ok, I'll bite: what's an "Itano Circus?"
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: perihelion on July 30, 2020, 08:36:07 pm
(https://i.imgur.com/d7u8h8A.gif)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: EatThePath on July 31, 2020, 10:37:51 am
The Itano Circus is the anime visual trope of a fighter or mecha dancing through a swirling dense swarm of missiles. It's named after an animator/animation director by the name of Ichiro Itano who originated it. It is probably most associated with Macross, hence it's other popular name, the Macross missile massacre, but it's been seen in a lot of anime since.

Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: Su-tehp on July 31, 2020, 07:05:12 pm
(https://i.imgur.com/d7u8h8A.gif)

I don't get it. :P

*disengaging snark mode*

The Itano Circus is the anime visual trope of a fighter or mecha dancing through a swirling dense swarm of missiles. It's named after an animator/animation director by the name of Ichiro Itano who originated it. It is probably most associated with Macross, hence it's other popular name, the Macross missile massacre, but it's been seen in a lot of anime since.

Yeah, the famed Macross Missile Massacre I knew of, mainly from TVTropes. Oddly enough, I never saw a link to the Itano Circus at TVTropes, but then again, I wasn't looking too hard, so it's more than likely I missed it.

Now I have to download Warmachine and add it to the list of the FS2 campaigns I need to play....
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: neoterran on August 01, 2020, 11:33:01 pm
This is broken on Knossos for me. While it's installed and all files verified, it says it can't find the executable.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: EatThePath on August 02, 2020, 02:14:57 pm
I just uploaded a new version that both fully accounts for targeting nightlies instead of custom, and also uses the new MVPs version. Hopefully that'll clear up your executable problem. If it doesn't, check the mod settings and make sure it's actually selecting an executable version at all.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: neoterran on August 18, 2020, 09:50:41 pm
Works now
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: EatThePath on October 30, 2020, 09:28:48 pm
A few days ago I released a version that cleans up a few things and mostly gets the model and texture of the SD Abel back where it needs to be. The animated tubes still need some attention, but that'll happen eventually. Beyond that, I wanted to say some stuff about the future of Warmachine. I've talked openly about most of this with discord folks, but I realized that the forums are mostly in the dark, so lets fix that.

There are a number of further revisions we've been working on that apply to AoA. A few are fairly close at hand, and are together being refined into what will hopefully be a releasable version before too long.


My attempts to build a new alternative TEI fighter lineup to switch the missions over to are probably not going to be included in this version, as my attention has been elsewhere.

Beyond that, we are looking into making some ship models. This is a thing both myself and Talhydras have done for other games in the past, but we need to catch up a bit on modern skills. More will be shared when it's more sharable, but we're going to try to not let anything else get hung up on waiting for these.

In similarly long term ideas, I do want to be clear that we do intend to build a campaign for Warmachine. Some work and planning has been done here, but results won't be overnight. I'm sure you know the drill around here. More when there's more here too. But I want to say now; Warmachine as a project first emerged as speculation about and reaction to AoA back before there was a WiH, and trying to adapt those ideas to stay compatible with all the BP out now wouldn't let Warmachine remain Warmachine. So, we're not going to go out of our way to contradict BP, but there's quite likely going to be a lot of places where we do. That's just the nature of the thing.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: manwiththemachinegun on February 13, 2021, 10:22:35 am
It would be interesting dancing in and around the margins of the Shivan threat. Remnant forces, splinter fleets, strange signals, ghost ships, weird subspace events. It seems like it would be right up the TEI's alley to hunt and sweep for any hint of Shivan presence for both weapon testing and research. Which leads to all kinds of opportunities for the hunters to become the hunted, as is usually the case in FS2.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: TitanUranus on April 12, 2021, 09:19:21 pm
I really like what you've done with this mod. In particular, I think that the bomb-by-bomb lock system is an easy way of answering the question of how to make bombing runs interesting. The missiles are all really fun to use, the multi-lock system clearly has a bright future. I have a few suggestions, though.
One of the issues with adapting a tight, story-focused campaign like AoA is that it doesn't offer many opportunities for playing around with ships and weapons loadouts. Most of the missions don't have relatively calm periods. Retail FS2 has a lot of missions where you jump a couple of freighters and a cruiser + fighters or defend against unfocused respawning Shivan fighters. One of the reasons for those missions is to encourage the player to experiment with weapons in a permissive environment.
I would suggest adding a mission like that to the simulator. Maybe you kill a cruiser and disable a couple of transports. Then defend against large numbers of unfocused bombers and fighters while some marines aboard Argos storm the transports. Maybe you have to defang a corvette or a destroyer while an allied ship kills them. You then have to defend the allied ship against waves of fighters and bombers.

Also, I really think you should make sure beams are the longest ranged weapon on a given ship. It looks really goofy when the Orestes guns down the Sathanas before it even enters beam range. It feels really wrong for beams to not be the most visually impressive weapon on a FreeSpace capital ship, but that's an aesthetic matter.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: EatThePath on April 13, 2021, 11:41:15 pm
Thank you for your kind words!

...doesn't offer many opportunities for playing around with ships and weapons loadouts. Most of the missions don't have relatively calm periods. Retail FS2 has a lot of missions where you jump a couple of freighters and a cruiser + fighters or defend against unfocused respawning Shivan fighters. One of the reasons for those missions is to encourage the player to experiment with weapons in a permissive environment.
I would suggest adding a mission like that to the simulator. Maybe you kill a cruiser and disable a couple of transports. Then defend against large numbers of unfocused bombers and fighters while some marines aboard Argos storm the transports. Maybe you have to defang a corvette or a destroyer while an allied ship kills them. You then have to defend the allied ship against waves of fighters and bombers.

That's a pretty valubale piece of advice I think, thank you. My tendancy when I open FRED seems to be to start cobbling together another high intensity set piece battle involving at a minimum of three destroyers, but that kind of bread and butter freespace gameplay is I think pretty important to tie things together and let the big brawls breathe a little. Right now if I open FRED it's probably to build things for the eventual Warmachine campaign, but it's very worth keeping in mind.

Also, I really think you should make sure beams are the longest ranged weapon on a given ship. It looks really goofy when the Orestes guns down the Sathanas before it even enters beam range. It feels really wrong for beams to not be the most visually impressive weapon on a FreeSpace capital ship, but that's an aesthetic matter.

It is largely an aesthetic choice yeah, one of Talhydras's early motivations was a frustration with capital ship weapons besides beams feeling like they didn't come into play outside of knife fight games, especially relative to the lengths of destroyers.  But perhaps you'll find some solace in the eventual next update when I get it out, where he's gone and made the pulse cannons a bit more true to their name...  :D
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: EatThePath on June 04, 2021, 09:39:36 pm
It's sure been a minute since I put updates here hasn't it? Easy to fall into the trap of dropping bits and dabs in discord as they happen and never posting here.

It's been a busy year so far for me, but a lot of it with non-warmachine things. I've got some things working that we'll talk about some other time, because I want to show you what Talhydras, who has been busy on Warmachine, has been busy with.

If you've played the mod you may have noticed two fighters with names that don't match their models and crazy good stats, the GTF Achilles and GTF Ishtar. These are intended as powerful next-next-generation fighters, representing the next step beyond the main-line TEI fighters. Talhydas has been stepping up his 3D art game to produce at last his vision of the Achilles.


This fighter is being worked into the game currently, and while there might be some kinks for a while owing to the fact that it's design was not tightly constrained to engine limits, I see no reason why it shouldn't be part of the next release version.

You may notice the missiles it carries look new, and you're right. To fit with the new model Tal also rebuilt the missile models so we're not leaning on either his last pass on them from many years ago or on the even older BP missiles that have been filling in our gaps. He's also modeled some of the powerful new secondary-bank gun pods, as they form an important part of the superfighters' identity and silhouette. He's collected them here for exhibition:


These two are going into game presently, for use on all GTVA fighters, with the same Warmachine missile behaviors you're familiar with.

If you want to know more about his process, inspirations or objectives, he's been chronicling his work on the Achilles and on other things too over at his art blog. (http://www.talhydras.com/) There's several posts about the Achilles, both WIP and background thoughts, if that's what you're into.
Title: Warmachine: r2 development sprint, testers recruitment
Post by: EatThePath on June 13, 2021, 11:49:57 am
Some features we’ve been waiting on got merged into FSO this last month, and it is currently our objective to have the next version of Warmachine ready for testing when the release candidates start up, hopefully in just a few weeks. If you’re interested in testing it, please post here or PM me, here or on Discord(EatThePath#6123).

Internally titled R2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS, Warmachine 1.2 will consist of all the same missions as it has so far, but with at least the following changes, and possibly a few more.
If you expect to have the time and temperament to give any significant chunk of that a good through stress test in late this month and early next month, please consider testing

I thought I’d also throw in an art tease here too. Alongside the Achilles Talhydras has been working on a new bomber model, the Marathon. This is intended to be in some ways more and in some ways less like a traditional bomber than the Sirrush, the gameplay concept includes a steath mode/variant, attempts to make having a turret more fun, and ideas for special bombs/bombing gameplay. A lot of that will need custom missions to really shine, but when done it should be able to flesh out the roster of bombers in regular missions immediately.


I don't think I can say for sure if the Marathon will or won't be in the initial r2 release, we'll have to see how the various timelines pan out there.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: woutersmits on June 14, 2021, 03:19:06 am
is this your own campaign
if il tet your thing
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: EatThePath on July 04, 2021, 09:58:35 pm
Wouter: The testing will be of Age of Aquarius again, new missions are still in the pipeline but not here yet.

My hope is still to get that version out to testing for the FSO release candidates, but that's waiting on a few things. In the mean time... I thought about making a different video for today, but I got side tracked on this other novelty. The Icarus cutscene mission War in Heaven gets used for benchmarks and references fairly frequently, and I have often wondered what it would look like with Warmachine's GTVA in place. While we still have no plans at all to make a 'Warmachine in Heaven' conversion of WIH, because god help anyone who tries to make flying against this **** fun without completely gutting it, a little(okay a lot) of find replace and minor tweaks got something pretty spectacular, and the dogfight in the middle makes for a pretty solid Achilles showcase.

Besides the Achilles fighting, keep an eye and ear out for the revamped TEI point defense turret at around 54 seconds, and also the Carthage has gotten the weapon set from the Orion I used on the Isen simulator mission. Because of the somewhat quick and dirty method used to get the new pulse cannons firing there's also just a lot more gratuitous beamfire in general, and some double-beaming going on. I have deemed this acceptable for the goals here.

Once R2 is out I'll probably post that mission file separately for anyone who wants it.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine
Post by: Colonol Dekker on July 05, 2021, 03:01:09 am
It's sure been a minute since I put updates here hasn't it? Easy to fall into the trap of dropping bits and dabs in discord as they happen and never posting here.

It's been a busy year so far for me, but a lot of it with non-warmachine things. I've got some things working that we'll talk about some other time, because I want to show you what Talhydras, who has been busy on Warmachine, has been busy with.

If you've played the mod you may have noticed two fighters with names that don't match their models and crazy good stats, the GTF Achilles and GTF Ishtar. These are intended as powerful next-next-generation fighters, representing the next step beyond the main-line TEI fighters. Talhydas has been stepping up his 3D art game to produce at last his vision of the Achilles.


This fighter is being worked into the game currently, and while there might be some kinks for a while owing to the fact that it's design was not tightly constrained to engine limits, I see no reason why it shouldn't be part of the next release version.

You may notice the missiles it carries look new, and you're right. To fit with the new model Tal also rebuilt the missile models so we're not leaning on either his last pass on them from many years ago or on the even older BP missiles that have been filling in our gaps. He's also modeled some of the powerful new secondary-bank gun pods, as they form an important part of the superfighters' identity and silhouette. He's collected them here for exhibition:


These two are going into game presently, for use on all GTVA fighters, with the same Warmachine missile behaviors you're familiar with.

If you want to know more about his process, inspirations or objectives, he's been chronicling his work on the Achilles and on other things too over at his art blog. (http://www.talhydras.com/) There's several posts about the Achilles, both WIP and background thoughts, if that's what you're into.


Well..... Here we go again.gif
(complimentary I assure you)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: woutersmits on July 13, 2021, 09:03:42 am
Yeah but someone else is busy with this projact
Blue planet is not from you
Its from someone else
Bp team is it from but i like testing but you really need te make your own campaign stuff instead of bp bp is from them bp team that edit is also for them idea you can give but dont use someone else content
No offencive to you eat the path but its true previeuwsly told about it
Look at goober campaigns and all other ppl made thier own content with designers
Make a own one its mutch better then stealing from other ppl  :p
I hope you understand what ive saying

Nothing agenst you at all
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: Colonol Dekker on July 13, 2021, 10:19:57 am
There's nothing wrong with making mods of mods as long as credit is given and consent is reciprocated.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: Iain Baker on July 13, 2021, 12:14:32 pm
There's nothing wrong with making mods of mods as long as credit is given and consent is reciprocated.

Does Orestes control approve?  ;7
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: EatThePath on July 13, 2021, 05:27:50 pm
Personally I don't think that a mod of a mod should need permission from the original mod team any more than I think a mod should need permission from the original game developers. Legally both are needed, but ethically, I fall on the other side of the question.

But that's probably a matter for another thread if people want to chew on it more. In this specific case, the only reason Warmachine ever even approached release is the encouragement and help of the blue planet team back in the IRC #BP. Blue planet devs have been in the loop for years, and have only ever had positive things to say about the idea.

It's certainly true that the mod would be better off with our own campaign. Some recent chat on Discord made it clear to me that AoA's first few missions are deeply inadequate at teaching the player enough mastery of the arsenal by the time they get to Forced Entry, for instance(though Forced Entry being a sudden difficulty wall that makes you repeatedly hammer your face on it until you Git Gud is very nostalgic for pre-WIH Blue Planet, I must say). We're working on it, but neither Talhydras nor I have a surplus of unallocated creative energy or a great deal of FRED experience. So, enjoy AoA and Isen Defense for now. Or don't, I guess.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: Colonol Dekker on July 14, 2021, 05:15:30 am
Orestes Control is very uncontrolling.

I should've said, regarding RELEASE
There's nothing wrong with making mods of mods as long as credit is given and consent is reciprocated.
but overall it's not the sort of thing we normally get hung up on.

Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: EatThePath on August 03, 2021, 10:25:51 pm
Well, life has repeatedly thrown wrenches at both Talhydras' life and mine, and it seems like the same is true for some of the SCP critical to getting their release candidate out too, so... that thing about a few weeks from testing feels close at hand, but not any closer than it did the last time I said it, so, it'll be done when it's done I guess.

Tal has been plugging away at the Marathon bomber I posted a little bit back, deep into the texturing of it.


I think it's turning out pretty great, and sooner or later I'll have to start editing/making missions to give it a chance to shine.

Speaking of shining, I've been distracted a lot by the shader work Qaz has been doing, and got sucked into that. There's stuff on the horizon there that's very visually exciting for me... but it nerd sniped me hard along two different angles. One angle is hopefully going to grow into an FSO code contribution, but that's a topic for another time and place. The other angle concerns Warmachine more specifically though.

Simply put, the good old TEI ship models, while glorious works of art in their own rights, are done a disservice by the modern game, both the lighting engine and how they compare to the recent monsters produced by Nyx and Oddgrim, and AoA puts them right next to one another often. That's by no means a critique, it's a nessicary evil, but messing with the shader options made those new ships look even better, while doing next to nothing for the TEI ships.

That largely owes to the fact that the BP ships don't have PBR textures, coming from the era before that. It is highly impractical to overhaul so many ships with their complex textures, and with PBR textures you'd probably have to start over from scratch to get good results, since the workflow is just so different from the old way.
 
So anyway, last week I overhauled all the TEI ships to update their original textures to be (sorta) PBR assets.

In some lighting conditions the effect can be subtle, in others it can be dramatic. The conversion was highly automated, but I strove to tune the pipeline to bring out some of the different materials implied by the old textures as much I could. It still is humbled by the MVPs' PBR capital ships, or the texture work Talhydras has been doing lately, but it is enough of an upgrade to really make me feel better about seeing the ships together.

Of course, these textures will be made available to BP whenever they want, and anyone else using these ships in a mod is welcome to them as well. And if anyone wants to update other old ships, I'm not offering that as a service but I'd be happy to talk to you about how I did it.

And finally, as a break from texturing Talhydras surprised me by revealing a deeper affection for the Hecate than I ever suspected and churned out a Warmachine-era upgrade package for it, and after he added it to Isen I recorded a run, with fully polished up TIE textures to boot.


Tomorrow night I might post a shinier Icarus too.

Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: Trivial Psychic on August 04, 2021, 01:17:19 am
I must admit I hadn't looked into your mod before, but that was INTENSE!  Those rapid fire turrets really give more action than the usual blob turrets.  Are they actual short-period beams with same-cooldown flags, or just really long and fast laser pulses?  I did note that they aren't always following the turret normals though.  Is that deliberate behavior?
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: Iain Baker on August 04, 2021, 05:00:46 am
The videos are beautiful :-)

If I had a recommendation, it would be to tone down the particles spewing all over the place when the pulse turrets fire, since they look like the ship itself is being shot at, sparks are flying and its' taking damage. :-)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: EatThePath on August 04, 2021, 06:25:43 am
Are they actual short-period beams with same-cooldown flags, or just really long and fast laser pulses?  I did note that they aren't always following the turret normals though.  Is that deliberate behavior?

To the first, they're short period beams with a texture that has gaps in it and scrolls at many km/s. Though the 'classic' version in the current public build is very fast lasers with long trails.
To the second, no it isn't deliberate. it is I believe an engine bug that has proven... difficult to pin down.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: Trivial Psychic on August 04, 2021, 07:46:53 am
You can force a beam to fire ONLY down a turret's normals by making it a Type 4.  You just have to make sure you add enough flags to the turret to tell it only to engage when its pointing at the target.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: EatThePath on August 04, 2021, 03:45:48 pm
Yup. We're using type 5 beams, a new feature(that I really ought to make a post about the possibilities of, argh) Asteroth put together largely to help me ditch certain problems with how Type 4s pick their target point. The new type 5 pulse cannons have actual cones of fire that are not dependent on target size or position, which produces a very natural effect compared to how type 4's miss factor works.

I made a comparison clip some time ago (https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/223511391531827200/842251195291795496/2021-05-12_23-04-36.mp4) about the differences, with a type 4 on the left side of the screen and a type 5 on the right, and while there's still some room for improvement with the 5's dynamics(much of it on the table side with my own tunings) it doesn't make me pull my hair out like the type 4's very deliberate looking misses do.

The pulse cannon beams and turrets have flags and settings that together should make them only fire when the turret is pointed at a target, emulating type 4. I believe it was Asteroth's intention that type 5 can replicate most behaviors of other beam types. But something squirrely is happening that is letting them fire sideways sometimes, just not predictably enough for me to build a useful isolation for yet.

Anyway. I should probably wait until Talhydras finishes overhauling everything else's turrets and picking out new sounds for the sterpulse and stuff, but the dogfight in this run was too cool not to post.

Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: Trivial Psychic on August 05, 2021, 01:20:16 am
Thanks for the explanation.  I caught sight of the new Type 5 beams when I was verifying which beam type was the fire-down-normals type, and was quite surprised to see it.  I saw that 'programmable slash pattern' capability, and just now had an idea.  If they ever get damage decals to work with beams, you could arm a ship with a series of custom slash pattern weapons, fire them in sequence and have them write a message on the hull of a ship.
:jaw:
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: EatThePath on August 15, 2021, 10:53:24 am
Well! Since last update the SCP got unstuck and pushed out RC1, and Talhydras has mostly finished the marathon textures, so I'm doing my best to actually push through the test prep tasks that I intended to get done months ago.

But, the intention is to take advantage of and test various 21.4 features, and a new one slipped in near the end, the better nebula options from Asteroth seen in the recent Fate of the Galaxy update post. I've never been a big fan of nebula levels, but the new system can look very pretty, so I decided to deploy it in Finding Sanctuary. Here's a quick run of the current version:

Also on display here is the Theia, one of the new replacement TEI fighters I've talked about recently. The Theia takes over for the Aurora in most places where the latter was used, and is a relatively lightly armed fighter with intensely powerful afterburners and engine overclock. It's the only thing that can keep up with the powerful burners on the superfighters. I was afraid it wouldn't really have a good niche in the fighter roster until playing it here, where the speed is really palpable and useful despite the lighter firepower.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: Trivial Psychic on August 16, 2021, 03:49:07 pm
That last Nahema kill with the missile swooping in right in front of you was awesome!
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: EatThePath on August 16, 2021, 05:21:32 pm
As I rode the tail of that missile the one thought running through my mind was "hm did I make this fighter too fast?"  ;)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: EatThePath on August 22, 2021, 10:57:28 pm
Another weekend, another video and assurance that things are coming along. It was my intention to get the mod out testers along side the engine release candidates to help ensure a more stable 21.4, and we've not yet gotten there yet... maybe this week? Maybe? Depends on how good I am at managing my sleep schedule probably. But the effort to get there is serving that original purpose, at least, with a few bugs uncovered and reported this week. Nothing that roadblocks continued development, thankfully.

This week most of my work went into adjusting and updating The Dragon Awakes, AoA mission 2. This is one of those missions that back in the day was a real trial by fire, the first indication that this Blue Planet thing was going to ask perhaps more of me than FS1 or FS2 really ever did. Survival was hard, excellence was harder, and it was a real blood pumping and memorable moment. I cherish the memory of sweating bullets, wondering why this Darius guy thought a 12 dragon ambush was a good first combat encounter, and loving Al'Fadil for saving my ass.

But with years of replay, and all the upgrades we've given the GTVA, even with their souped up lasers those dragons just can't really threaten me any more if I bring the right weapons, and that's a bit sad. So like with Forced Entry and A Time For Heroes in R1, I've give the shivans a little help from FRED and I can once again sweat bullets, cheer Al'Fadil, and mourn Lieutenant Wilhelm Nehru. I look forward to hearing back from you after you fight for your very lives, every one of you.

No video of that, to keep some surprises. But know that if it's too hard, or too easy, it's going to be difficulty level responsive... and if you want to see it all without playing on insane, there'll be something in the tech room for you.

Instead, have a video of the shiny A Time For Heroes. Of course, after taking it I, as always, noticed a few things I need to fix or can improve, so it might still be a little tuned up in final, but the spectacle here still manages to make me stop and watch and the TEI texture upgrades certainly don't hurt.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: manwiththemachinegun on August 23, 2021, 02:22:32 pm
God, nothing is so beautiful as watching that Juggernaut burn to nothing under righteous fire. :P
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: manwiththemachinegun on August 24, 2021, 07:44:28 pm
On a second note: I was finally able to play and finish Warmachine. And no surprise, it's great. It's getting a permanent addition to my FS library.

It actually fixes the balancing on the Vishnan missions I find, since you're able to deal with fighter swarms and special objectives like sniping the SCv's reactor with beam missiles rather than waste time for a proper aspect lock.

Forced Entry and other large scale battles are well balanced on medium. Plenty of stuff to blow up, but plenty for your wingmen and capital ships to do as well.

The only things I noticed that were bugged is the Lucifer's health depletes too rapidly on easy difficulty which triggers a fail state as it jumps, in addition to the Miranda jumping in late to the party on the Sathanas mission, its dust in the wind before it can even jump. Maybe custom health values would fix this, but otherwise WM is consistently winable on higher difficulties.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: EatThePath on August 25, 2021, 06:17:30 pm
Glad to hear all that, manwiththemachinegun. The vishan missions especially, I've gotten a lot of feedback that even in 1.1.2 they're pretty frustratingly hard, so r2 is buffing vishnans again, mostly in mobility since currently they're solidly less mobile than the GTVA.

We've also done some work on the Lucifer mission. It may be the most rough mission, quality wise, still, but I think it'll be a bit more consistent anyway. It's a bit of a difficult mission for us to deal with, Talhydras would quite like the Lucifer to have it's classic invincible shields back, regardless of the reasons BP has for it not having them there, but that makes adapting a mission that requires the Lucifer to be decisively vinced rather challenging. We've tossed around some ideas on how to square those two goals but they involve enough fredding that I'd rather just make new missions instead of doing that, so the version in the next release is rather much a compromise.

For the Sathanas, I thought I'd done it before 1.1.2 but perhaps not... in either case, the version in the next release resorts to some staged guardianing to keep the sath alive long enough for everyone to get their lines. IIRC the version you see there already has 20% more health than a retail sath and I just couldn't bring myself to pump it up any further. This mission too could benefit from a deeper rework, get some more escort craft in, maybe get that sath beam hedgehogging and rolling around so the player has something to do, sniping beams constantly instead of kicking back to watch... but again, fredding time is finite, alas.

Glad you enjoyed, and I hope you'll be able to check out r2 when it's finally in the wild.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: manwiththemachinegun on August 26, 2021, 12:40:27 am
Yeah, I had to try a few strategies, but for the current release, clearing enemy fighters and spamming the Vishnan beam missiles with your wingmen was enough for me to disable the Lucifer with about 30% hull consistently on medium. I haven't tried doing the reactor strategy.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: EatThePath on September 04, 2021, 06:35:38 pm
Real quick folks, there are many shiny things to share but right now I have too much of a headache(unrelated to modding) to pick any. Suffice to say Talhydras and Kestrellius have made many pretty things.

That aside, my check list to getting a test version out is very short, and I want to get at least *some* testing in on the RC4 that should be coming out this weekend before it's finalized, so, going to try very hard to make that happen. I've made a test application sheet of sorts, very few questions, it just makes sure I don't lose anything. I'm pretty sure some people offered last time I mentioned it who I can't find any notes about, so, hence the sheet.

Click here if you want to test, especially in the next week. (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeMen2lpJ7aC2npNjQdwma1W_PwhmEKWa1iKgG6q0X6JeTXpw/viewform?usp=sf_link)

I'll try to post some shinies tomorrow or monday, too.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: EatThePath on February 03, 2022, 03:14:19 pm
 :rolleyes: I should stop talking about things I intend to do, it rarely works out well.

So a general update, especially for folks not on discord. The attempted sprint to the finish ended up kind of burning me out on fred and a few other tasks, and I still haven't quite managed to pour myself back into it fully. I've not been disengaged from Freespace, nor fully from warmachine, just from the stuff that really needs it before we release.

A release to match 22.0 is the goal now, though it remains to be seen how practical that will be. If you're interested in testing it when it's ready for another round the link above is still a good one.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: Iain Baker on February 04, 2022, 02:41:20 pm
I'll be free for playtesting from about the middle of next week once I'm done playtesting Reunion Act 2 :-)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: manwiththemachinegun on February 04, 2022, 11:42:10 pm
Still looking forward to it!
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: EatThePath on April 01, 2022, 03:58:52 pm
Universal Truth was playing too slow again so I attacked FSO performance again.
I optimized the game so hard that I got invited to the SCP, and broke UT. Random freezes make it completely unplayable now.
I know what day it is. These are not jokes.
I'm working on ways to fix it. Ways besides reducing the pew pew.
More when I next remember to post.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: manwiththemachinegun on April 02, 2022, 12:12:26 am
Never sacrifice pew pew.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: EatThePath on April 02, 2022, 09:26:25 am
I'd just like to confirm, now that it is april 2nd, my last post is in fact all true.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: EatThePath on April 03, 2022, 10:54:50 pm
Well! This weekend I was able to submit code that, if and when it all gets merged in, will make Universal Truth not have a 'your computer must be no more than this powerful to play' sign on it. Unfortunately that means that 22.0 won't be a stable we can hard-target for R2, but hopefully 22.2 will be. I won't use that as an excuse to put something out though, if it's ready but it has to run on nightlies so be it.

In doing this I set up a version of the mission that has the AI take over while I watch. This has helped identify a number of other issues, AI and otherwise, and is generally fun for me to watch.

Here's a clip, sorry for the low audio.

Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: EatThePath on April 17, 2022, 10:58:57 pm
Some long needed triage of priorities has let me refocus my efforts on an achievable goal list, and over the past week I've been able to cross at least two thirds of the goals off that list. 

I also got an engine change in that lets more overlapping instances of a sound play. To test it, I busted out one of our old partial missions... and for extra fun, stuck Nyctaeus' latest monster in there.


And with many things being locked down and most of my long teased lighting and rendering changes finally in nightlies, I figured it was time for yet another Isen Defense upload.

Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: Nightmare on April 18, 2022, 09:48:04 am
That looks pretty nice  :yes:

Btw, how did you get these icons on small ships into place? Wasnt able to find it on the wiki
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: EatThePath on April 18, 2022, 01:03:20 pm
That's Lafiel's radar icons script. Really helps with situational awareness I find. A bit heavy on performance, but not as heavy as it used to be  ;)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Warmachine(Looking for testers for next version)
Post by: Nightmare on April 19, 2022, 07:18:42 am
Ah thx, that comes in handy~ :)
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: EatThePath on May 30, 2022, 07:19:21 pm
After better than half a year, soon has finally become now. The first post of the thread has been updated to reflect the current version of the mod. There's no detailed changelog because there's just too much. Get it on Knossos, have fun, be sure you're launching with the proper nightly build or everything will explode. And not in the fun way.

New fighter models, all new missile models with TEI fighter options now sporting externally mounted missiles to show them of, re-turreting of most TEI ships, player equipment balance tweaks and overhauls, remade effects for most things by Kestrillius and Talhydras collaborating, a fresh batch of mangling with AoA the missions with some things I'm excited to hear first reactions to, select music from ShadowsOfLight, shinier TEI ships, new shader and lighting settings, some smart weapon targeting modes, and too much more that I didn't keep track of in detail.

And at the same time, Talhydras would like to share something he's been working on, a new GTVA warship concept.

And I'll add to that my own modeling efforts of the last months
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: perihelion on May 30, 2022, 08:27:59 pm
Whoa! Is she Vasudan?
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: EatThePath on May 30, 2022, 08:44:00 pm
The ships? They're both intended as GTVA, but both with a lot of our own aesthetic tastes blended in.
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: EatThePath on August 02, 2022, 12:22:07 am
Two updates have been rolled out since 2.0.

2.1 changed some lighting settings and added the GTB Promachos to a mission or two. This ship is intended in part as a transitional step from FS2 era bombers towards the beast that is the GTB Sirrush, and generally exploring ways to make bombers fun. A Time For Heroes is a good place to try it.

2.2 is makes the mod now target a custom build I've uploaded to Knossos. This mainly brings in the new lighting myself and qazwsxal(mainly qaz) have been working on, and TEI capship texture revisions that take advantage of it. If this gives you any trouble, let me know. This should also free us from the versioning headaches that we've been seeing lately.

Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: manwiththemachinegun on August 04, 2022, 07:37:35 pm
Looking forward to trying this out.
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: EatThePath on September 04, 2022, 06:52:43 pm
You know, I don't actually intentionally post updates on holiday weekends, but somehow that seems to be the case surprisingly much of the time. Weird.

A few weeks ago RedMageJoe streamed a playthrough of our version of AoA, which you can watch here:



It was quite interesting to watch. And a little concerning in places too, if lots of people are finding the first dragon fight an absolute brick wall they can't hammer through, please please let us know.

In any case, I was sitting on a video of the new-new A Time For Heroes until after Joe's stream to preserve the surprise for some people. Now that it's out and r2's been out for a while, here's a look at the changes to the mission, the Promachos light bomber in action, new lines from Dekker, Shadows of Light's excellent FS soundtrack expansion plugged in, and a few other small odds and ends.


Finally, I bring you a tease of the future.

Some months ago I shared with ShadowsOfLight a video of a work in progress mission that was using some copyright darksynth as music, and asked if he was interested in some day taking a shot at replacing it with something new. We talked about what worked about the 'temp' music, and then shortly after he dropped a whole track on Talhydras and I that we fell instantly in love with. That mission isn't in any public videos and we're probably going to keep it that way for a while, and the full suite of music is probably going to not be released until the mission is. so the full tracks he made for it will remain in waiting for us to get more mission content together. But it's too good to sit on entirely, so, check out this segment of The Impending Dawn (https://www.dropbox.com/s/q89h27zanitw48s/impending_dawn_seg2.ogg?dl=0).

SoL has consistently blown us away with how his music meets and exceeds our requests. Having this music in our pocket has provided no small amount of extra motivation to work on our own campaign content, and there's stuff there I'm increasingly proud of. I don't want to suggest we're close to publishing things, we're quite far still, but wheels are turning.
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: manwiththemachinegun on October 30, 2022, 01:26:22 pm
Any optimization tips? I have a decent rig for FS2 modded games, it's not the massive quantity of capship fire or explodes that cause me the most slowdown, but when my Wingmen fire off their seeker swarms, oh boy, that runs pretty poorly.
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: EatThePath on October 30, 2022, 07:39:20 pm
For those, there's three things I can imagine that are hitting you there.
First is the fact that each missile has a light attached. If this is the problem, -no_deferred as a command line flag might help, though it'll likely murder all the pretty lighting. With a lighting profiles file change you could make all the dynamic missile lights tiny and black, and the engine may be smart enough to not render them at all, though I can't swear to that without a deep code dive. Also I think if you turn down the lighting detail setting in the in-game options far enough it'll stop using those lights.

The other things that might be slow are particles and trails. Both are potentially slow in my past performance tests. It doesn't look like there's any command line flags for those. Turning down some detail options in the settings may have a bearing on them, otherwise you'd need to edit the weapon tables to disable those properties of the weapons in question.

This is mostly speculation though, if you put -profile_frame_time in your flags and screenshot the output when it's at it's slowest that could give some better insight as to what's slowing you down.

If you try any of these, or want to but aren't sure how, let me know!
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: manwiththemachinegun on October 30, 2022, 08:18:48 pm
Huh, dropped the ingame lighting down one setting from 5 stars to 4 and now everything is smooth as butter. Thanks for the advice!
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: manwiththemachinegun on November 19, 2022, 08:41:40 am
Unless I'm missing something horrible and obvious, when WM is updated, can there be a link to whatever WM nightly build is required to get it to run? I tried doing a fresh install and the mod is still asking for "22200.9.0" which I can't find in the game folders or in the nightly build section.
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: roadnottaken on December 07, 2022, 01:39:11 am
Is there any chance WM-FSO could be built for Linux?  Alternatively, could you point me at the source repo so I can try building it myself?  I'd love to take this mod for a spin, but I don't game on Windows.   :(
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: EatThePath on December 07, 2022, 10:26:45 pm
Unless I'm missing something horrible and obvious, when WM is updated, can there be a link to whatever WM nightly build is required to get it to run? I tried doing a fresh install and the mod is still asking for "22200.9.0" which I can't find in the game folders or in the nightly build section.
Ah shoot I missed this until just now. Knossos is such a pain about this...
What you need is the "Warmade Builds" special engine version on knossos. You may have to toggle the "show engine builds in mod list" option in the knossos settings.

roadnottaken: unfortunately the process I'm using to build it for linux is failing, but the source for the current version the mod is running on should be https://github.com/EatThePath/fs2open.github.com/commit/74e912dead356a9731cf5bb8a2d5d2c4177cfae2

Alternatively if you know how to get around any roadblocks your launcher puts in your way, you can just use a current nightly. While at times the special builds do have divergences from the main builds, at the moment they're pretty closely synced and mostly exist to provide some version stability. Knossos doesn't really behave when trying to pin a build to a nightly, loving to just use newer versions if the user has them, which defeats the point... since nightlies do break these builds are my way around that. But right now any working nightly newer than november 17th should run warmachine 2.5.1 just fine.
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: roadnottaken on December 11, 2022, 11:32:57 pm
I use knossos, and managed to get things (seemingly) working on the latest nightly build with a bit of mod.json tweaking.

For my own future reference: I ended up installing knossos under wine in order to get a clean download of Warmachine including the mod.json file.  Is there a more straightforward way to either get knossos to download a mod without checking for dependencies or find the url(s) knossos would have downloaded files from for manual retrieval?  The direct download link on fsnebula.org doesn't include a mod.(json|ini), and I wasn't fully confident in my ability to create a working one.
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: roadnottaken on December 13, 2022, 10:35:54 pm
Playing through Warmachine has been an utter joy so far.  I really like what you've done with the difficulty and game balance.

I want to focus in on Forced Entry in particular.  I fondly remember playing through AoA in the early days, when AoA was only partially complete and FE was this massive setpiece battle to serve as a capstone.  The battle was a massive challenge, and I had to replay it many times, slowly building up the skill and tactics to make it through this nailbiter of a fleet battle and emerge victorious.

On later replays, the mission lost much of its luster.  The strategies were known.  The player's task devolved to racing from the front of the battle line to the back, defanging enemy warships.  There simply wasn't time to help out in dogfights, or even maintain situational awareness of the overall battle beyond ordering wingmen to defend each new ship as it arrives.  Blue Planet is still some of the best content to come out of the FreeSpace community.  Updates to War in Heaven and the rebalance of the retail FS2 campaign have kept things fresh and interesting.  But the passage of time has not been kind to Age of Aquarius.

Warmachine brings back the challenge and discovery of the early days, while very clearly forging its own path and showcasing all the massive leaps forward the FSO engine has made over the years.  Battles are fast-paced and dynamic.  Ordering a kill and watching my squadmates annihilate an enemy formation or cruiser in a matter of seconds is a sheer delight.  There is real choice in which engagements to wade into and which to leave to squadmates.  The new weapons add immense variety and require much greater strategy than the classic trebuchet spam.  And the new HUD icons massively improve battlefield awareness.  And best of all, the massive power boost of the WM arsenal doesn't feel the least bit cheap because the shivans have become just as lethal.  The gameplay of the reimagined Forced Entry mission was dynamic, engaging, and unforgiving without ever feeling unfair.  I had to relearn how to effectively use the weapons at my disposal, push my squadron to their limits while being careful not to overextend them, and die and/or watch the Temeraire go up in flames several times in the process.  And I enjoyed every minute of it.

Thank you, truly, for breathing new life into one of the community's most venerable campaigns, and for bringing to it a style and flair that is so clearly your own.  I've spent many an hour enjoying FreeSpace content stretching back even to the retail FS1 days, and it's an absolute joy to find continued innovation in the community twenty-plus years later.
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: EatThePath on December 18, 2022, 10:56:18 am
Thank you very much for that post, it was a delight to read. I am glad you stuck through getting it to run, and that you're getting what we hoped out of the reworks!
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: EatThePath on December 18, 2022, 10:41:22 pm
2.6.0 uploaded just now targets FSO 23.0 and potentially fixes a few mission bugs.

Warmade Build x.11 just went up to. It is no longer needed for the mod but is currently trialing some new bloom changes
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: Colonol Dekker on December 19, 2022, 02:29:23 pm
Just wanted to say, really big fan.

But I can only read this threads title in a Bill Cosby voice.
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: roadnottaken on December 19, 2022, 11:47:43 pm
I'm getting a crash to desktop on Universal Truth, shortly after the initial cutscene ends and shivan fighters start arriving en masse.  Interestingly enough, I was able to play through the entirety of Maximum Truth without experiencing a CtD.  This is with WM 2.6.0 and FSO 23.0.0-RC1, although it also happened when I tweaked WM 2.5.1 to run with a recent nightly build.

Running Fast Debug popped up several modal dialogs on game startup with warnings.  Shortly into the mission, I started getting spammed with dialogs referencing the Lua error at the bottom of the linked logfile.  I don't know for certain if this was at the same point as the original crash, because

https://fsnebula.org/log/63a149753c97ea8ae9ccee8d
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: EatThePath on December 20, 2022, 10:02:35 am
Thanks for letting me know, I'll do what I can to get a patch out quick.
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: EatThePath on December 27, 2022, 08:35:54 am
roadnottaken, if you could try it with 23.0-RC2 and wm 2.6.1 I'd appreciate hearing how it goes. The stream of error popups should be handled now, so if you hit the crash again a debug log should be worth another try
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: roadnottaken on December 28, 2022, 02:12:50 pm
I just played from Universal Truth through to the end of the campaign without any crashes.  Thanks for the fix!
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: Omnipraesens on August 15, 2023, 05:22:04 pm
I haven't played through the *whole* campaign just yet, although I would be done it I hadn't stopped to replay each of the major battles a few times to try different strategies, but I just want to say... the first time I played this, I found myself grinning from ear to ear because it's utterly bonkers and I immediately loved it. I really hope we get to see more of this style of combat/campaign, because it's freakin' awesome!

I'd say calling Warmachine a remix of BP is selling it short; to me it feels more like a reimagining/modernization of FS2 combat (clearly inspired at least partly by modern fighter combat, given the hugely increased lethality of everything involved, the staggering variety + greatly increased importance of missiles, and of course who can forget the absolutely stunning model for the GTF Achilles), that just happens to be using BP AoA as a testbed. Oh, and the visuals in general (especially the weapon visuals) are gorgeous - major props on that!

The battles feel much more dynamic and engaging; Forced Entry in particular is brutally hard in an awesome way, as it challenges all your prior assumptions about tactics. Shivan heavy assault fighters have become much more of a real threat (as they should be); previously you could afford to ignore a wing of Basilisks or Lakshmis for a while, as they couldn't do that much damage to a capship... if anything, Shivan HAFs were just easy prey, but now they're as much a threat (or almost as much) as bombers are, pounding ships into oblivion if you're not careful.

At the same time, missiles like the Spectre hard-counter bombers, allowing a single Achilles to - at least on lower difficulties - take down three whole wings of them at long range in short order, which helps balance the increase in heavy assault fighter lethality by letting you dispatch bombers more efficiently.

One of the more fun gameplay elements, IMO, is dealing with Shivan swarm missiles launched at you... they'll launch a huge salvo, you'll go "oh crap", turn around, hit your burners, hit glide, flip around again, shoot down all the missiles before they hit you, and fire back at the fighters if they're still in range - before coming out of the glide and hitting your burners straight at the enemy fighters to commence your counterattack. When pulled off successfully, it's very satisfying.

As feedback: the Sarissa is good in power, but I find myself feeling like its range is too short pretty regularly given it's supposed to be a sniper weapon.
And the Massacre is great fun, but given the effect on target often feels a tad lacklustre (I'm pretty sure its shield damage is quite low, which means you need to spam an absolute boatload of them to take down or even significantly weaken a wing of enemy fighters... which is what its targeting style suggests it's for) I think it might be a good idea to make them smaller / allow fighters to carry a few more of them :)

The Tiamat is an excellent weapon, other than the fact it has a pretty high chance of hitting my fighter any time I use it - regardless of my opponent's distance or my speed. It even hits me when fired into empty space! I've come to call it the "stop hitting yourself" gunpod :lol: On the Achilles it's around a 50% chance, on the Ishtar it's more like a 100% chance.

Oh, and here's a - possibly very dumb - idea (just throwing it out there) regarding the Vishnans' ship/weapon selection: it might be interesting to have a very large class of Vishnan "bomber" (more like a long-range strike platform) with dismal maneuverability and only a single primary - but that primary is a cruiser beam, albeit quickly chewing through its (necessarily large) energy reserves [giving it a slow fire rate, dependent on the use of ETS to maximize its damage potential]. Perhaps a couple turrets could compensate for the weakness against strikecraft without making it too terribly OP.

There's way more I could say, but I'll end with this: bravo, y'all have done amazing work here! *claps* Warmachine blew my mind just as much as playing BP for the first time did, potentially even more so. It's absolutely incredible what you - and the FSO team, having made so much of the new stuff possible - have done. Sincere thanks to everyone involved for making this, and to the wonderful community who made it possible; I for one had and am having a blast.

And I'm certain plenty of other people definitely have/are too, who simply didn't think to post about it.

This is definitely getting added to my list of all-time favourite campaigns (in no particular order - Blue Planet, Exile: Into the Dark Waters, and now Warmachine). The FS2 community never ceases to amaze me.

Sorry for the wall of text :nervous:
Title: Re: Warmachine Release 2: ZIPSANDZAPSANDMISSLERACKS
Post by: EatThePath on August 16, 2023, 02:53:28 pm
Have no fears about the wall of text! It's all very appreciated, and it made us quite happy to read it! The extensive gameplay changes don't always click with everyone, so it's great to hear about it when they do. Realizing you can and should shoot down the swarm missiles in particular makes me smile. When you exhaust the campaign, be sure to check out the tech room Single Missions, there's some fun fighting to be had there too, and don't hesitate to share any more thoughts you have.

One thing I want to point out in response to your balance feedback is that the Massacre doesn't rip through fighters the same way that an Enyo bank or Wraith volley can, but what it can do is get 4-8 enemy fighters to stop what they're doing and start evading. Firing just a few missiles each at a heavy bomber wing can get them to stop beating on their target for a second, so it's a powerful tool even if it's not the most lethal weapon. It'll also lock multiple turrets if you target anything cruiser scale or larger, so it's got a target stripping niche... one that admittedly doesn't come up that often in AoA, but it's there.

That doesn't mean we're dismissing the feedback, just thought I'd pass it along :)