Author Topic: BP: War in Heaven discussion  (Read 908365 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline MP-Ryan

  • Makes General Discussion Make Sense.
  • Global Moderator
  • 210
  • Keyboard > Pen > Sword
    • Twitter
Re: BP: War in Heaven discussion
So Batt, do you still need me to test the file you sent or is it now in the new core?
"In the beginning, the Universe was created.  This made a lot of people very angry and has widely been regarded as a bad move."  [Douglas Adams]

 

Offline General Battuta

  • Poe's Law In Action
  • 214
  • i wonder when my postcount will exceed my iq
Re: BP: War in Heaven discussion
So Batt, do you still need me to test the file you sent or is it now in the new core?

It's in, no worries.

 

Offline Infamus

  • 26
Re: BP: War in Heaven discussion
the ubersath? wtf?
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH
BARRA
BARRA
BARRA CUDA
yeah

 
Re: BP: War in Heaven discussion
Kill the Carthage and find out.
"You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?" -DEATH, Discworld

"You can fight like a krogan, run like a leopard, but you'll never be better than Commander Shepard!"

 

Offline Shivan Hunter

  • 210
  • FRED needs lambdas!
Re: BP: War in Heaven discussion
Just did. All I can say is... ROFL.

 

Offline Aardwolf

  • 211
  • Posts: 16,384
    • Minecraft
Re: BP: War in Heaven discussion
I did it first, back on like... page 20 or so.

I actually found out about it looking at the mission in Notepad++, and was like "I've gotta try that"

 

Offline Snail

  • SC 5
  • 214
  • Posts: ☂
Re: BP: War in Heaven discussion
Yeah, when I realised that it was the 212th Silver Scythes, I did a little fanboy squeal, it must be admitted.

Seems they've finally gone up in the world, no longer in the boonies but flying off a top of the line Destroyer, and in some of the GTA's newest space superiority fighters  :yes:

(I know that this isn't the same squadron as the Cold Element continuity, merely a nod to one of the community's more famous campaigns, but a man can dream, a man can dream.)
Well given that Blue Planet includes alternate realities and all, it's fully possible that Mackie's alternate self was in that wing. ;)

 
Re: BP: War in Heaven discussion
Which mission spawns the Ubersath?  Delena Est, or the one before it?
17:37:02   Quanto: I want to have sexual intercourse with every space elf in existence
17:37:11   SpardaSon21: even the males?
17:37:22   Quanto: its not gay if its an elf

[21:51] <@Droid803> I now realize
[21:51] <@Droid803> this will be SLIIIIIGHTLY awkward
[21:51] <@Droid803> as this rich psychic girl will now be tsundere for a loli.
[21:51] <@Droid803> OH WELLL.

See what you're missing in #WoD and #Fsquest?

[07:57:32] <Caiaphas> inspired by HerraTohtori i built a supermaneuverable plane in ksp
[07:57:43] <Caiaphas> i just killed my pilots with a high-g maneuver
[07:58:19] <Caiaphas> apparently people can't take 20 gees for 5 continuous seconds
[08:00:11] <Caiaphas> the plane however performed admirably, and only crashed because it no longer had any guidance systems

 

Offline Aardwolf

  • 211
  • Posts: 16,384
    • Minecraft
Re: BP: War in Heaven discussion
Delenda Est

 

Offline Venox

  • 23
Re: BP: War in Heaven discussion
/unlurk

Hey all, lurker here. I don't hang around the community often as I really don't fit in with such a stellar collection of talented modders, modellers, coders, voice actors, and just general awesome individuals in general. I would have absolutely nothing constructive to add and would probably seem like a blubbering, incoherent n00b who tried to act what he was talking about! Everyone here continues to amaze me with what I feel just isn't a game, but the FS2 SCP as a story-telling platform itself. The fact is, regardless of what I'm about to write here in this little post - good or bad - buried all the way back on the 24th...or 25th? page now... you guys, the entire SCP community, will continue rolling on churning out great, beautiful stuff, even if no one reads my post because... well, TL,DR! But, that's the way I like it.

Anyhow, I'm here in this thread to obviously talk about BP2: War in Heaven. . . where to start? Not that I have a hundred, million things to talk about as numerous as the stars themselves about it, more like...

What could I possibly say that hasn't already been said? What could I praise that hasn't already been praised? I had absolutely zero technical/gameplay problems with the mod, so I can't really criticize such problems like others have been having; quite the contrary, I consider myself so very lucky that I was able to run this mod with maximum detail, advanced graphics, with anti-aliasing (I can't stand jaggies!) and not have my computer explode on me. I felt like you get the full experience of the story that way.

But what experience? One that in my opinion, transcends stories of not other, also brilliant FreeSpace2 mods, but that of literature and film. War in Heaven was something moved me. No, I don't mean in the literal, physical "OMG THE MUSIC WAS SO AWESOME BLEW ME OUT OF MY CHAIR W-WAIT DID THAT NARAYANA JUST NAIL A TEV PERSEUS FROM 25,000K?! *goes flying out of chair*" (although that'd be pretty awesome), but that it simply...made me think about war. About life.

Life lost.
Life created.
Life saved.

Destroyers, Creators, and Preservers respectively. I'm not just Über-Alpha-One, but Noemi Laporte. And yet at the same time, I am not Noemi Laporte. She made decisions that were not up to me. But to her. To someone who truly was, not just the collaboration of a skilled mod team, but actually a real fictional character who I felt was the best part of the story.

Why? Combat high. The side of Noemi who is in increasingly dangerous situations. For while I couldn't dictate her actions on the flight deck, on Mars, on land... when she's in that cockpit, and the adrenaline starts flowing, guess who's in control? Not Noemi Laporte, but me. You. Whoever else sat behind those controls. We are her other half, the side hungry for more. She was flying, but yet I could control how bloodthirsty, or human she would be in combat. It was up to us whether she'd die in a blaze of glory or survive another nerve-rattling sortie. Yes yes, I know, it's still just my opinion (and believe me, I know that many will probably disagree with me and call me crazy) and my take on things, I know that literally, the story has a set path but... still, it felt like when she talks about being afraid of her other side, of embracing it at times, hating it at times... it was my fault.

I've played many SCP mods and stories over the years. Seen the many alternate universes that the story of FreeSpace itself has encompassed. I never really thought of any as superior or inferior to others, just different ways of telling tales of epic struggles of survival and warfare. How I determine whether a story is great and praise worthy, is if months and even years later, I remember every second of them. Back in 2007, I came across Blue Planet: Age of Aquarius and thought - nothing would ever be the same again. Little did I take into account back then, that the only thing that would exceed the original BP mod, was BP2. And it's not even a complete story that I've seen yet. I could probably go on to write dozens of more paragraphs about everything else, but I'm sure I'm losing folks attention by this point!

As I eagerly and patiently await for the next installment, just as I awaited for War in Heaven, as did many others who lie silently, lurking but secretly appreciative of not just what Darius and his team do, but everyone here does, I just wanted to say thanks guys.

Thanks for taking me to a whole 'nother universe, guys. Bleak as it seems - it's beautiful.

Yeah, it's corny. It's TL,DR - DEAL!! But keep on kicking ass. I've taken up enough of everyone's time already! Back to lurking.

/lurk

 

Offline swashmebuckle

  • 210
  • Das Lied von der Turd
    • The Perfect Band
Re: BP: War in Heaven discussion
Quick problem report before bed here--I just started the campaign with a new pilot (cloned from a finished Vassago's Dirge pilot if that makes any difference), and I didn't get a debrief after the first mission.  The text box read something like "No debrief for mission xxxx.fs2" and it registered me as having failed the mission (I had lost the medical ship I think, so 2 ships got away besides the cruisers).  I downloaded all the bp2 and AoA and MediaVP files just after release but didn't get started on this one until tonight, so I replaced my bp2 core vp with the August 11th updated one from the release thread.  I'd check out the mission file myself, but X11 and Darwine have decided to flake out on me tonight :(  The mission itself was awesome though! :yes:

Sorry if this was covered before--the thread is a bit long for 3 in the morning.  Using 3.6.12 release build on mac.  Cheers

 

Offline -Sara-

  • 29
Re: BP: War in Heaven discussion
If something is working strangely, use a fresh new pilot. I suggest letting the medical ship die on intention in a playthrough (cheat if you must) to see if the bug is gone or not.
Currently playing: real life.

"Paying bills, working, this game called real life is so much fun!" - Said nobody ever.

 

Offline Shivan Hunter

  • 210
  • FRED needs lambdas!
Re: BP: War in Heaven discussion
omfg. I just took a look at the "BP massive battle" mission.

one. frakking. half. of. a. frame. per. second.

but it was GLORIOUS. Once the ships are optimized, and I get a new PC someday, I'm going to play that mission again, as a testament to just how awesome FS can look.

  

Offline -Sara-

  • 29
Re: BP: War in Heaven discussion
The Maya program can average triangles etc to reduce poly's etc.
Currently playing: real life.

"Paying bills, working, this game called real life is so much fun!" - Said nobody ever.

 

Offline The E

  • He's Ebeneezer Goode
  • 213
  • Nothing personal, just tech support.
    • Steam
    • Twitter
Re: BP: War in Heaven discussion
That is not the problem with our models.

The problem is that the Karuna, Sanctus, Narayana and ... ALL UEF fighters EXCEPT for the Uhlan, are not optimized for in-game usage. They don't have LODs for the most part, and they use waaaaaaaaay too many textures.
The latter part is the important bit for FSO, thus our models need re-UVing to reduce texture counts. The Karuna, for example, uses 25 unique textures, which is about 20 too many.

That is to say, the base LOD0 meshes are fine (except for wonky smoothing in places), it's just that the other LOD meshes are missing.
In addition, they lack Debris pieces for better asplodination.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline Androgeos Exeunt

  • Captain Oblivious
  • 212
  • Prevents attraction.
    • Wordpress.com Blog
Re: BP: War in Heaven discussion
The Maya program can average triangles etc to reduce poly's etc.

Autodesk products, to my knowledge, aren't used very much in this community. It's mostly Blender, Wings and/or PCS2 here.
My blog

Quote: Tuesday, 3 October 2023 0133 UTC +8, #general
MP-Ryan
Oh you still believe in fairy tales like Santa, the Easter Bunny, and free market competition principles?

 

Offline -Sara-

  • 29
Re: BP: War in Heaven discussion
The Maya program can average triangles etc to reduce poly's etc.

Autodesk products, to my knowledge, aren't used very much in this community. It's mostly Blender, Wings and/or PCS2 here.

Usually import/export is safe, but Maya has an option to turn models or parts of a model into their own LOD version. I don't know if Blender, Wings etc do that.
Currently playing: real life.

"Paying bills, working, this game called real life is so much fun!" - Said nobody ever.

 

Offline The E

  • He's Ebeneezer Goode
  • 213
  • Nothing personal, just tech support.
    • Steam
    • Twitter
Re: BP: War in Heaven discussion
But, as I pointed out, that's not the problem with our models (not the biggest one, anyway).

Also, Androgeos, PCS2 is NOT a modelling program. It's a converter to convert models to the engine's pof format.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline Spoon

  • 212
  • ヾ(´︶`♡)ノ
Re: BP: War in Heaven discussion
Its mostly an editor for the .pof format for some smart folk who do the .pof conversion in the actual modelling program (Screw the haters, the .pof export plugin for max works way way better than thT collada mess :P )

Autodesk products, to my knowledge, aren't used very much in this community. It's mostly Blender, Wings and/or PCS2 here.
Well you are wrong :p
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline The E

  • He's Ebeneezer Goode
  • 213
  • Nothing personal, just tech support.
    • Steam
    • Twitter
Re: BP: War in Heaven discussion
Its mostly an editor for the .pof format for some smart folk who do the .pof conversion in the actual modelling program (Screw the haters, the .pof export plugin for max works way way better than thT collada mess :P )

IF you have a version of Max that can use it, that is.

Anyway, we now return you to your regularly scheduled WiH talk.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns