[CKid]

Finally got a round to playing Antwerp. Short but very sweet. Nice to see that the quality of missions, voice acting and just the attention to detail of the campaign is to the same standards as Slaves of Chaos. Very immersive. The trailer at the end had me at the edge of my seat. All aboard the hype train!

[General Battuta]

Who are you calling an twerp!?

[perihelion]

I also got around to playing Antwerp this weekend.  Excellent production values all around.  Polished.  Bad guys were dangerous despite the lower tech level.  It was vitally important to dodge well, make your shots count, and protect your wingmen.  I loved the pilot chatter towards the end of the 1st half of mission 1.  Beta 2 in particular had me in stitches.  "Um... can we talk about what just happened?"

Honestly, I'm going to have to play through the 2nd mission a couple more times to let it all sink in.  There was so much going on in that mission that I'm sure I missed most of the detailed touches.

The almost immediate desire to replay pretty much says it all, I think.

[perihelion]

Hmm.  Subtle didn't seem to do the trick.  Let me try again.

Oy!  HLP type people!  Get off your browsers, play BTA - Antwerp and PRAISE THIS MAN!

Sheesh.

[DefCynodont119]

So uh, did anyone try the included Operation: Templar? 


PLAY ANTWERP GOSH DARNIT.   

[0rph3u5]

Antwerp is a prologue and not a story it its own right; as such it resembles Mephistople, although that was less dependant on Slaves of Chaos to stand as Antwerp to whatever comes next. As such an substantial evaluation of Antwerp must wait IMO until there is something for it to lead into.

[mjn.mixael]

Antwerp is a prologue and not a story it its own right; as such it resembles Mephistople, although that was less dependant on Slaves of Chaos to stand as Antwerp to whatever comes next. As such an substantial evaluation of Antwerp must wait IMO until there is something for it to lead into.

Arguably the two Antwerp missions are more like an SOC epilogue than a prologue for what's next. It serves both, but as it developed it became more about what came before.

[perihelion]

So uh, did anyone try the included Operation: Templar? 


PLAY ANTWERP GOSH DARNIT.   

No!  I completely forgot!  I must rectify that.

* Perihelion dons the Cone of Shame

[CP5670]

I just played Antwerp and the new Operation Templar. Like Slaves of Chaos, this is amazing work, I love the CB animations and the overall level of polish, really a step beyond any other FS campaign. The new cutscenes are great and the music fits the missions perfectly. Definitely looking forward to more of this.

I do get poor performance in the second mission of Antwerp (FSO 19 and latest MVPs, with a 4790K/1080ti). I don't recall any issues in Slaves of Chaos, but this mission runs at 25-30fps and crashed the game a few times. I wonder if there is a memory leak or something, or there is just too much happening in the mission.

[DefCynodont119]

I just played Antwerp and the new Operation Templar. Like Slaves of Chaos, this is amazing work, I love the CB animations and the overall level of polish, really a step beyond any other FS campaign. The new cutscenes are great and the music fits the missions perfectly. Definitely looking forward to more of this.

I do get poor performance in the second mission of Antwerp (FSO 19 and latest MVPs, with a 4790K/1080ti). I don't recall any issues in Slaves of Chaos, but this mission runs at 25-30fps and crashed the game a few times. I wonder if there is a memory leak or something, or there is just too much happening in the mission.

That mission is near FSO's ship limit and has some very intense scripts handling the mines, Antwerp mission 2 is probably the biggest CPU burner on this site. . .       We never got any crashes though, when does/did it crash?

[Solatar]

Loved the new release. Everything's polished, fun, and up to modern professional standards. Antwerp was really cool (second mission was nearly unplayable on my rig, but I pushed through it). I also really liked Templar with the added tech and rebalancing of the missions a bit. Made me actually happy to be able to fly a Myrmidon for once.

I know it's a small detail in the grand scheme of all the cool stuff that this mod does well, but I really like the background skyboxes in this mod. They've got all the right nostalgic colors from the original FS1 in-game nebulae and CBanims, and a more retail aesthetic (IMO) than the now-traditional Lightspeed backgrounds that come in the MediaVPs. I figured they were based on output from Spacescape, but they're really tastefully done, and I love how the briefing screen backgrounds match the systems.

[CP5670]

The crashes seemed to be random. I have the memory dump files, but it's probably more of an issue with FSO than the campaign. The game tends to become unstable if there are too many ships/objects in a mission.

In Templar, I especially liked how the "Brothers rejoice" bit in the fourth mission was made into an actual threat. I just barely made it out of the blast radius in time. I did encounter a bug in the third mission (maybe also in the original version) where if only one of your transports gets destroyed, the mission doesn't fail or let you know, and eventually got into a stalemate with the Tanis where I couldn't damage it past 10% and no bombers were left.

[mjn.mixael]

I could probably tame Operation: Garden by removing some of the mines where the player is unlikely to fly... I'll look into it.

[DefCynodont119]

The crashes seemed to be random. I have the memory dump files, but it's probably more of an issue with FSO than the campaign. The game tends to become unstable if there are too many ships/objects in a mission.

In Templar, I especially liked how the "Brothers rejoice" bit in the fourth mission was made into an actual threat. I just barely made it out of the blast radius in time. I did encounter a bug in the third mission (maybe also in the original version) where if only one of your transports gets destroyed, the mission doesn't fail or let you know, and eventually got into a stalemate with the Tanis where I couldn't damage it past 10% and no bombers were left.

Ugh, Original Templar had SO many stalemates. . Figures one would slip past. .  Just to help narrow it down, do you know what transport it was?

[CP5670]

The crashes seemed to be random. I have the memory dump files, but it's probably more of an issue with FSO than the campaign. The game tends to become unstable if there are too many ships/objects in a mission.

In Templar, I especially liked how the "Brothers rejoice" bit in the fourth mission was made into an actual threat. I just barely made it out of the blast radius in time. I did encounter a bug in the third mission (maybe also in the original version) where if only one of your transports gets destroyed, the mission doesn't fail or let you know, and eventually got into a stalemate with the Tanis where I couldn't damage it past 10% and no bombers were left.

Ugh, Original Templar had SO many stalemates. . Figures one would slip past. .  Just to help narrow it down, do you know what transport it was?

I think Zeta 2 got destroyed and Zeta 1 jumped out. The bombers may also need a default order to attack the Tanis, or else they end up dying and you cannot destroy it without them. When I played it again, both transports jumped and I gave the bombers that order manually, and everything seemed fine.

[DefCynodont119]

I think Zeta 2 got destroyed and Zeta 1 jumped out. The bombers may also need a default order to attack the Tanis, or else they end up dying and you cannot destroy it without them. When I played it again, both transports jumped and I gave the bombers that order manually, and everything seemed fine.

That's very VERY strange, The bombers do already have "Attack the Tanis" as one of their default orders.  :/   Not only that but a second wing of bombers (delta) jumps in to help once the Transports are gone, and Delta is 5 waves of Ursa's with Harbingers with arrival delays of 8 - 12 seconds. .  Either Delta is not arriving or they are somehow getting killed super fast. . .

Also the Tanis is not supposed to be attacked until the Transports are gone/dead anyway, and it is protected before then. . That could be what you are seeing.

As for the unending state issue:
Just to disprove a hypothesis I have, did either Taurus one or two dock with the Tanis? I just want to make sure because I'm looking at it now and I might of just found a missing contingency with Zeta 3. .

[CP5670]

No, I disabled both of them before they docked. I think the bombers all died eventually, and I called in the Herc reinforcement wing but they could not damage it past 10%.

[DefCynodont119]

@CP5670 The cause of the issue(s) you had regarding Operation: Templar have been found.

Should be fixed When MjN releases the next update/patch. 

[CP5670]

Also, I think the performance problem I was having was due to some legacy FSO flags I had left turned on. I changed some of them and it seems to run fine now.

[SF-Junky]

Now that I've played through this for the third and fourth time (the first two runs were around 2019/2020), I'd like to share a few thoughts on it.

BtA is one of the best mods, definitely among my personal top 5. The hard work put into this and the extremely high production value are visible from the beginning, even from before starting the first mission (newsroom, system map). I totally like how you exploit FSO tools to give the player new functions and gadgets, extending the gameplay beyond the original games, while staying faithful to the classic Freespace experience. This is still Freespace at its best, enhanced with new stuff provided by this community. I wish I had the fredding skills shown by the BtA team!

Regarding world-building, I cannot say what hasn't been said before. Outstanding work here! In this regard, BtA is probably the best campaign out there. No other mod I know does such a good job at giving the player the feeling of actually being part of a bigger universe, inhabitated with people, institutions, corporations, factions, you name it, which and who - and this is the important part - do have a backstory. Even with things that do appear only once during the campaign, you leave them with the feeling that there is more that could be told. Hastings depot or Detiula station are not just some items put into the mission by a fredder. They are things that someone in this universe built once and that have a story to tell. It has been said before: BtA puts meat on the bones and shows that there is a world in Freespace outside the military.

The soundtrack: I heard what you did there. Total Annihilation, Game of Thrones and Dune (the Lynch version) are pieces I recognized. It's nothing memorable by itself (for me at least) but this is exactly its strength as it nicely blends in with the somber, tuned-down mood of the story. The same is true for the background images. The content, the look and the sound of this mod organically come together - nice!

The story itself is solid and builds up stepwise. I like that you often deal with everyday stuff like patroling a station or protecting civilians. There are plenty of hints for larger things that will happen in sequels. To be honest, I'm a bit skeptical of some of them because atm they look like this could become another universal armageddon story. I hope it doesn't. But let's see what future releases bring. 

The only main building block which is too underdeveloped in my opinion are the characters. There almost are none. Alpha wing is consistently voice-acted by the same actors, so they are the same people in every mission. Then why not give them a name and some background? This and the player character being a mute are strange anomalies in such a lively universe.

The Battle Snails... my heart is not in this. In my latest run I looked them up in Fred to find them all, but... meh, I don't know. Well, it's just a little gimmick which can be skipped. I appreciate the effort, though.

Another very minor thing: I feel like the AI could be a little more collision-avoiding.

A few thoughts on some individual missions:

The Will to Act
A lot of people seemed to have struggled with this mission. To me it didn't really stand out in terms of difficulty, though I usually need more than one go to beat it. I never had any trouble evading Cancer wing. In my recent runs, though, I was totally unable to destroy the HoL base's comm system which I swear was doable before. No matter how close I place my charges, it always stays functional. The directive to mine the fighterbay shows fulfilled after two charges already. And it always frustrates me that Sermakh just sits there after he has gained some distance from the base. He could be a little more evaside imo. Despite these issues this is a cool mission.

Acts of Volition
The helplessness comes along great! It's so frustrating and painful to see all those poor civvy ships go boom.

Bringing Down the Gavel
As with many other people, this was one of my favourites. Innovative mission design combined with some good old simple "blast outta the space whatever's in yer way".

To Steal a March On
The only mission I really don't like. I know it's supposed to be frustrating but this one's too good at it. I really think you should tone it down a little bit by putting fewer enemy fighters in here. It's just too much. Plus: why do I have to fly a bloody Herc? The Herc sucks! Plus, the "skip intro" function does not work.

The Texas Seven
Cool mission. One of my favourites. I started it at 12% hull integrity during my last run and made it. Wohoo!

The Armageddon Clock
A solid dive into the intelligence world. Thumbs up! The text is placed a little to deep, though, and sometimes overlaps with the radar HUD.

How the West Was Lost
Argh! On the one hand I love it because it's one of these great pieces that really drive world-building and immersion. On the other hand these magnetic grappler dudes are *****ES!!! And the convoy escort part is really, really tough! Also suffers from a few glitches: Hexamere suddenly speeds up and outruns the rest of the convoy. Alhambra was still in-system when I was given the RTB order and then I got my ass spanked by Lt. Maria because I did bad-bad during the mission. I didn't really get whether I lost ships to enemy fire or this is a bug. Just wanted to mention it. The first jump sequency is faulty.

Rebels & Revolutionaries
Why, why, WHY?!?!?! Do I have to fly this crappy Herc?! The Herc sucks!! Why do you do this to me?! And then this Command dude even mocks me telling me to evade the escorts. Move your ass out here and do try yourself in this damn tin can. To quote Lt. Mackie: Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!

Groundhod Day
Cool! Although targeting is somewhat tedious this is a great mission which shows what can be done when a skilled Fredder is at work. Thumbs up for this one!
Two minor things: The Snail does nothing. Please use another key combination to fire the turrets. I constantly hit Alt-1 instead of Alt-Shift-1 and end up in that other display.

Going Out With a Bang
This one's a *****! A tough nut to crack for the finale. Even though I curse a lot whenever I play it, it's a great ending. Just this morning it came to my mind that hiding in the Cardinal's fighterbay might either be a very good or a very stupid idea. Gotta try it out anytime soon.


Oh, and why is Khonsu already called the second when he is not emperor yet?