Author Topic: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I  (Read 204899 times)

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Offline 0rph3u5

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
Stilettos are honestly much better for taking out a ship's weapons rather than its subsystems. 

That's because the collision detection for subsystems is appears to be different than the one for subobjects (which turrets are).

Weapons like that would have better effectiveness if they had a shock-wave associated with them, but then there'd be the risk of getting your subsystems fried by your own bomb if you fire from too close or it gets shot down near you.

That's a simple fix of giving the shockwave damage a damage type and all fighter subsystems an armor type that negate (most of the) damage applied. Probably would snowball if applied retroactively.
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

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"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
Yes. Note that you can't actually select the laser, as it's not really in your inventory; the weapon data is just left over from being loaded in Masks.

Well that would be a loadout cache problem.  Sounds like an engine bug.


Borked Terran speech file: "Hull integrity failing! Get me out outta here, Command!"

I guess "outta" wasn't in the simulated speech dictionary.

 

Offline Antares

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
A few things in Masks:

- Alpha wing has a lousy default attack vector toward the Ashkelon, as many of their Stilettos impact the "shield" on the back of the ship instead of hitting the engine. This might be intentional, as it gives the player more time to attack other ships, but it also means that the player must attack the Ashkelon in order to make up the difference; otherwise, it has a good chance of getting away.

- If the Ashkelon is able to repair its engines and is subsequently destroyed without being disabled a second time, the "Disable the Ashkelon" objective will register as failed.

- The sensor subsystem in the Nahema bombers is fragile and can be easily destroyed even if shields are still up; because the Nahema cannot be rearmed, its subsystems also cannot be repaired. This doesn't make the mission impossible to complete, as TAGs can still be dumb-fired, but it does make things significantly more challenging, requiring you to get up close and personal with your targets.
We have returned to continue our purification of this galaxy. It is again your turn to be crushed beneath the great force that is the Antaran army. All your petty squabbling with the other beings in this galaxy is meaningless. The Antaran fleet will destroy you all, one by one. You may not surrender. You cannot win. Your only option is death.

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
1) I don't know if it's intentional or not, but I guess we'll have to live with it.  Changing this would affect the mission balance, which I don't want to mess with at this stage.

2) I've fixed this, and it will appear in the next update.

3) I've added a subsys-guardian to Alpha 1.


You've made several posts now with some pretty clever bug sleuthing.  Thanks for reporting them. :)

  

Offline Goober5000

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
Version 1.8.5 is up with

a) the aforementioned mission fixes,
b) nameplates for all Terran ships (thanks to Colt)
c) a fixed Rahu model (thanks to Durandal)

 
Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
A few things in Masks:

- Alpha wing has a lousy default attack vector toward the Ashkelon, as many of their Stilettos impact the "shield" on the back of the ship instead of hitting the engine. This might be intentional, as it gives the player more time to attack other ships, but it also means that the player must attack the Ashkelon in order to make up the difference; otherwise, it has a good chance of getting away.

Personally I don't like it when this "attack vector" thing happens, it feels so unnatural. I think all that would need to be done to change the balance would be a SEXP that controls when the ships start firing, or limit their ammo.

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
Version 1.8.6 is up to fix an incompatibility between the new Rahu and the existing missions.


Personally I don't like it when this "attack vector" thing happens, it feels so unnatural. I think all that would need to be done to change the balance would be a SEXP that controls when the ships start firing, or limit their ammo.

Would you like to try experimenting with this?  If you can come up with something that fixes this issue while minimally affecting balance, I'll be happy to include it.
« Last Edit: August 22, 2021, 09:57:04 pm by Goober5000 »

 
Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
Personally I don't like it when this "attack vector" thing happens, it feels so unnatural. I think all that would need to be done to change the balance would be a SEXP that controls when the ships start firing, or limit their ammo.

Would you like to try experimenting with this?  If you can come up with something that fixes this issue while minimally affecting balance, I'll be happy to include it.

Im not an expert on balance testing but the problem of attack vectors is rather trivial; I'll certainly look into it when I get there but I don't remember the mission atm.

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
It's sa_s1_07.  I wouldn't mess with the attack vectors; just experiment with locking the wingmen secondary weapons until they get close enough.

 

Offline Antares

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
The Kraken's fighterbays still don't take damage from the front in Captain Nemo.
We have returned to continue our purification of this galaxy. It is again your turn to be crushed beneath the great force that is the Antaran army. All your petty squabbling with the other beings in this galaxy is meaningless. The Antaran fleet will destroy you all, one by one. You may not surrender. You cannot win. Your only option is death.

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
I don't think that can really be helped.  It has to do with the way the model is designed.

 

Offline Trivial Psychic

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
I see new updates with new ships.  I see the Claymore MKII (though listed as just Claymore) and the Gagana, both from INF-R1.  Have you considered using any of the high-poly versions?  Are they considered proprietary or just not the designs you were looking for?

I think there is a hi-poly version of that Vasudan station kicking around somewhere.
The Trivial Psychic Strikes Again!

 

Offline Antares

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
The speech synthesizer appears to render all instances of "defeat" as "defeature."

There's some kind of scripting issue going on in Daddy Longlegs. It looks like once your primary mission objectives are complete and at least one of the three cruisers is destroyed, your wingmen immediately receive orders to depart. This makes it very difficult to destroy the remaining two cruisers, especially with the heavy Shivan fighter cover and all the fire you're taking from the Arachnas.

You've made several posts now with some pretty clever bug sleuthing.  Thanks for reporting them. :)

Scroll is probably my favorite user-made FS2 campaign. It's very well-done and pays such great attention to the lore, plus it has plenty of beams and explosions to go around. I'd never even played it before you asked me to take a look at it, and I'm glad I did. I want new players who find the campaign to have the best experience they can, so when I notice things that don't quite work right, I try to report them so they'll get fixed and make the campaign even better. I hope it's not annoying.  :nervous:

EDIT: MORE PROBLEMS  :warp:

Things got a little wonky on my last playthrough of Live Trapping. Not enough of the first wave of bombers survived to be captured, so the second wave was sent in. When the last bomber in this group was disabled, the "capture" objective was triggered as soon as the bomber was disabled, even though Kidnapper hadn't actually captured it yet. I destroyed the bomber (thinking that Kidnapper had already gotten out and that one was left over), which triggered a failure message. I jumped out and passed and failed the mission at the same time.



And blurk, something is definitely up with the ship survival logic. It might be this issue, but I did a perfect run of Masks, and when I started Irkalla Passes, the Himnoltep was the only task force ship to jump in. The Pallas, Mem Hardot, and Khitteb were nowhere to be found.
« Last Edit: August 27, 2021, 05:00:54 pm by Antares »
We have returned to continue our purification of this galaxy. It is again your turn to be crushed beneath the great force that is the Antaran army. All your petty squabbling with the other beings in this galaxy is meaningless. The Antaran fleet will destroy you all, one by one. You may not surrender. You cannot win. Your only option is death.

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
The speech synthesizer appears to render all instances of "defeat" as "defeature."

Not much we can do about that without access to Sesq.

Quote
There's some kind of scripting issue going on in Daddy Longlegs. It looks like once your primary mission objectives are complete and at least one of the three cruisers is destroyed, your wingmen immediately receive orders to depart. This makes it very difficult to destroy the remaining two cruisers, especially with the heavy Shivan fighter cover and all the fire you're taking from the Arachnas.

Each fighter in Delta wing receives orders to depart when its hull integrity falls below 50%.  Is that what you're referring to?

Quote
You've made several posts now with some pretty clever bug sleuthing.  Thanks for reporting them. :)

Scroll is probably my favorite user-made FS2 campaign. It's very well-done and pays such great attention to the lore, plus it has plenty of beams and explosions to go around. I'd never even played it before you asked me to take a look at it, and I'm glad I did. I want new players who find the campaign to have the best experience they can, so when I notice things that don't quite work right, I try to report them so they'll get fixed and make the campaign even better. I hope it's not annoying.  :nervous:

Thanks for the kind words. :)  It is annoying, but if there are legitimate bugs, I'd rather know about them so they can be fixed.

Quote
EDIT: MORE PROBLEMS  :warp:

Things got a little wonky on my last playthrough of Live Trapping. Not enough of the first wave of bombers survived to be captured, so the second wave was sent in. When the last bomber in this group was disabled, the "capture" objective was triggered as soon as the bomber was disabled, even though Kidnapper hadn't actually captured it yet. I destroyed the bomber (thinking that Kidnapper had already gotten out and that one was left over), which triggered a failure message. I jumped out and passed and failed the mission at the same time.

It took me a while to figure this one out, but I think I have it.  The objective was set to complete when the respective Kidnapper clone had departed, not when the bomber had departed.  And each Kidnapper will depart if its bomber target is destroyed.  This should be fixed in the next update.

Quote
And blurk, something is definitely up with the ship survival logic. It might be this issue, but I did a perfect run of Masks, and when I started Irkalla Passes, the Himnoltep was the only task force ship to jump in. The Pallas, Mem Hardot, and Khitteb were nowhere to be found.

Can you upload your checkpoints, just like ShivanSlayer did?


Also, would you be interested in joining the Scroll team?  Given your enthusiasm and your contributions, you'd make a great team member.  And we would welcome contributions in other departments (primarily FREDding) as well. :)

 

Offline Antares

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
Quote
Can you upload your checkpoints, just like ShivanSlayer did?

I've attached everything that was in my scripts folder for Scroll.

Quote
Each fighter in Delta wing receives orders to depart when its hull integrity falls below 50%.  Is that what you're referring to?

No. At a certain point late in the mission--but before the mission is actually over--all of your wingmen receive an order to depart and simultaneously jump out. I haven't played around with this a lot, but as near as I can tell, here are the steps to reproduce:

1. Destroy the Bryn (Primary Objective 1).
2. Destroy one of the Arachnas's main turrets (Primary Objective 2).
3. Destroy any one of the three Shivan cruisers in the area.
4. Completing Step 3 triggers automatic wingmen departure before the surviving two cruisers have been destroyed.

EDIT: I've done some testing using cheats and have confirmed that completing your primary objectives and destroying any of the three cruisers immediately triggers the "Well done, pilots. You are authorized to return to the Himnoltep," message, which results in wingmen departure.

Quote
Also, would you be interested in joining the Scroll team?  Given your enthusiasm and your contributions, you'd make a great team member.  And we would welcome contributions in other departments (primarily FREDding) as well. :)

I appreciate the offer, but I really wouldn't be good for anything other than testing, so you can invite me to the next beta, if you like. FREDding scares me.  :shaking:

[attachment deleted to save space]
« Last Edit: August 30, 2021, 12:48:22 am by Antares »
We have returned to continue our purification of this galaxy. It is again your turn to be crushed beneath the great force that is the Antaran army. All your petty squabbling with the other beings in this galaxy is meaningless. The Antaran fleet will destroy you all, one by one. You may not surrender. You cannot win. Your only option is death.

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
I've attached everything that was in my scripts folder for Scroll.

Thanks.  Your checkpoints confirm it - only the Himnoltep is stored for the next mission.  I think I figured out why, though.  There's a subtle error on the sexp logic that's allowing the mission to complete before all the other ships have been saved.


Quote
No. At a certain point late in the mission--but before the mission is actually over--all of your wingmen receive an order to depart and simultaneously jump out. I haven't played around with this a lot, but as near as I can tell, here are the steps to reproduce:

1. Destroy the Bryn (Primary Objective 1).
2. Destroy one of the Arachnas's main turrets (Primary Objective 2).
3. Destroy any one of the three Shivan cruisers in the area.
4. Completing Step 3 triggers automatic wingmen departure before the surviving two cruisers have been destroyed.

EDIT: I've done some testing using cheats and have confirmed that completing your primary objectives and destroying any of the three cruisers immediately triggers the "Well done, pilots. You are authorized to return to the Himnoltep," message, which results in wingmen departure.

Ah yes.  I've confirmed that the mission logic works essentially as you say here.  I think this is within the parameters of the mission, as the Bryn and the primary beam cannon are the primary objectives.  If you really want to get everything done, I suggest leaving one of those until last.


Quote
I appreciate the offer, but I really wouldn't be good for anything other than testing, so you can invite me to the next beta, if you like. FREDding scares me.  :shaking:

Fair enough.  Good testing is valuable on its own. :yes:

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
I think I solved the checkpoint problem.  Download the attached files, put them in data/missions in the Scroll mod, and then choose the "Masks and Irkalla Passes" campaign from the campaign room.  Click on the ISF emblem to jump to Masks.

Try these scenarios:
1) Normal mission success with all ships surviving, entering the hangar as soon as the Himnoltep tells you to
2) Normal mission success with all ships surviving, but not entering the hangar until the other three ships have departed
3) Mission success but only the Himnoltep survives
4) All enemies destroyed but the Himnoltep is also destroyed

[attachment deleted to save space]
« Last Edit: September 01, 2021, 10:24:18 pm by Goober5000 »

 

Offline Antares

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
Try these scenarios:
1) Normal mission success with all ships surviving, entering the hangar as soon as the Himnoltep tells you to
2) Normal mission success with all ships surviving, but not entering the hangar until the other three ships have departed
3) Mission success but only the Himnoltep survives
4) All enemies destroyed but the Himnoltep is also destroyed

1) All task force ships appear in Irkalla Passes.
2) All task force ships appear in Irkalla Passes.
3) Only the Himnoltep appears in Irkalla Passes.
4) Mission failed, died in the cold of space.  :snipe:
We have returned to continue our purification of this galaxy. It is again your turn to be crushed beneath the great force that is the Antaran army. All your petty squabbling with the other beings in this galaxy is meaningless. The Antaran fleet will destroy you all, one by one. You may not surrender. You cannot win. Your only option is death.

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
Very good; those are all the correct outcomes.  Thanks for testing!

Version 1.8.7 uploaded to Knossos and the FSO Installer with the mission fixes for Crashing the Party, Live Trapping, and Masks.

 

Offline Antares

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Re: RELEASE: The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I
Okay, this one's pretty wild.

At some point in Live Trapping, a support ship turned hostile. I've seen this happen before, and I would guess that it's a result of friendly fire; there's some pretty heavy dogfighting in that mission, so it's probably caused by splash damage from all the missiles flying around. (Then again, with how support is scripted in Live Trapping, it could just as easily be FREDding wonkery.)

What I haven't seen before is that the enemy support ship repaired and rearmed one of the disabled Shivan bombers. This caused Kidnapper to follow the bomber around, trying to capture it while it attacked the Khitteb and caused its hull integrity to fall below 50%, resulting in mission failure.



Must be some Hammer of Light aboard that ship.  :mad2:
We have returned to continue our purification of this galaxy. It is again your turn to be crushed beneath the great force that is the Antaran army. All your petty squabbling with the other beings in this galaxy is meaningless. The Antaran fleet will destroy you all, one by one. You may not surrender. You cannot win. Your only option is death.