[Blaise Russel]

Originally posted by karajorma
I ended up getting horribly stuck on the mission where you have to prevent the Sobek from leaping out. I could never disable the bastard quickly enough to stop it jumping out.

You're not supposed to. You're supposed to clear up the Shivans so the Custodian can pursue the Khufu.

What, you were going to abandon the Custodian? Shame!

[karajorma]

Actually I was trying to disable it before I jumped out wrecking the node. I'm sure I managed to clear the shivans out the first time and save the Custodian but I got a message saying I'd failed so I assumed the point of the mission was to prevent the Sobek from leaping out.

I'll have to give it another try now

[Dough with Fish]

Wow......

Just, wow.

This is the kind of campaign that I really dig. Where you are more then just some random flight jock, and you and your wingmates actually mean something to one another other than just a ship. And that ending, man.... talk about a kick in the nuts, but in a good way. I, for one, cant wait for part two.

[Black Wolf]

You sir, have the single best username on this forum.



Welcome to HLP. There are exits to the left and rear. Do not attempt to use them. Under your seat you will find empty beer cans, cookie crumbs, dog eared dungeon Porn mags left by Shrike... oh, and a Flamethrower. Unfortunately, we're out of napalm, so you'll have to bludgeon people to death with them.

In the event of serious conflict, there are plasma rifles in the forward locker, though these can only be opened by an Admin, [V], God, or Hyperintelligent shade of the colour Blue. If, for whatever reason, you find yourself crawling around in the ductwork, there's a better than average chance you'll encounter a Shivan. They're easy to spot with the five legs and all. If you're lucky, it's just Carl, who responds well to food rewards. If not, then at least you die quickly. Be aware that the entrance to the main control room is guarded by subspatial claymore mines.

[arthur_tuxedo]

Great campaign. I do have to take issue with a certain mission, though. The one where you have to distract the Mammon is just bad. First of all, it's hair pullingly difficult, and not the good kind where it's a great challenge and you feel rewarded after beating it, but the kind where only pure dumb luck will work, and you just end up feeling angry, defeated, and disgusted.

Even worse, it seems to be broken for me as well. After failing it 5 times, I gave up and just clicked "Advance to the next mission." To my surprise and dismay, it didn't advance to the next mission at all, just stuck me right back in briefing for the same one. So I set the difficullty to very easy and managed to do it, and after it said "downloading new orders"  when I got to the node, instead of taking me to the next mission, it just plopped me right back into the briefing for the same damn mission. It's like some sick version of Groundhog Day. Any ideas on what might be causing this, and will I have to start all over again to clear the problem?

Using FSOpen 3.5.5 v. 1.20.04 with the latest version of the launcher, D3D HTL, PCX32 and D3D mip mapping are on, and have always been one without causing any problems, so it's not that. I'd try it again under regular FS2, but I just can't bring myself to play that sadistic mission again unless I was absolutlely sure it would work.

Anyway, I strongly recommend that the mission be re-worked so that A) The Mammon doesn't notice the Custodian anyway even though you neither led it into the Custodian's direction nor got farther than 2kms, B) Don't design it so that the Mammon may or may not just blast you with anti-fighter beams, taking you from full shields and health to dead with nothing you can do about it, ditto on the flak guns. When you have to win a difficult mission by pure dumb luck, that's not a challenge, that's just crap.

[kv1at3485]

Hmm, I can't see anything particulary wrong with the SEXPs, but since something isn't working, I could suggest a few things or two that might make it a bit more robust...

For Hmsk-C1.fs2 "Return to Oz" (and for me, a return to this mission in FRED...)

In the campaign editor, make the 'Branch to Hmsk-C2.fs2' to only check if the event 'DirDepart' is true, not the current three.  DirDepart contains the Red Alert flag, so this may help.

To help this along, make the Custodian and the Shield invulnerable the moment the event 'AtNode' returns true.

Oh, and just one more little thing.  In the mission, you have the Custodian sending the message saying that the Custodian has been destroyed.  And you have the Shield sending the message saying that the Shield has been destroyed.  Judging by the messages, I think you want the Shield sending the 'CusLost' message, and the Custodian sending the 'ShiLost' message.

Now, back to waiting for the AoB missions to be sent my way...

[Blaise Russel]

I'm sorry C1 is royally sucking for you... I've tried a fix, made the Mammon a little less lethal and kv's suggestions... one day, I'll come back and do a Homesick Redux, with no bugs and stuff.

One day.

[karajorma]

The groundhog day bug is actually a problem with FS2 open not this campaign. When I tried it with FS2 1.2 it worked fine.

As for the mission itself I simply sent the other ships off to deal with the Mammon and followed the Custodian's path instead. Got to the node and just stuck on time advance

[Blaise Russel]

*breathes sigh of relief*

[Lightspeed]

Dunno where all those problems are coming from, everything worked fine when I played

[arthur_tuxedo]

Originally posted by karajorma
The groundhog day bug is actually a problem with FS2 open not this campaign. When I tried it with FS2 1.2 it worked fine.

As for the mission itself I simply sent the other ships off to deal with the Mammon and followed the Custodian's path instead. Got to the node and just stuck on time advance

OK I'll play it using regular FS2 then. I can see how that work work on "Very Easy", on Medium I tried that and the Mammon just blew away all the fighters, spotted the shield and custodian, and ripped them to shreds before they were even halfway to the jump point, and of course, since my armament consisted of either HL-7s or Promethius Rs I could hardly take out the anti-ship beams. Hey, I've got an idea to make the mission better: Make those beams easier to take out. That would take care of a lot of my complaints.

P. S. I would like to re-inforce again that I think this campaign rocks the house. You rock, Blaise!

[Zarax]

Playing Sol: A History and it really rocks, a bit hard in some places but having great fun...

[Blaise Russel]

Yay! I like it when people are happy.

[Lightspeed]

I gave up on Sol A History. The sneak-up after the cruiser mission is impossible. Also, the missions lack difficulty balancing. Some are too hard to play, some are ridiculously easy. (I play on "Hard")

[Akalabeth Angel]

I gave up on Sol A History. The sneak-up after the cruiser mission is impossible. Also, the missions lack difficulty balancing. Some are too hard to play, some are ridiculously easy. (I play on "Hard")

    Impossible? In what way exactly? If you mean not getting seen, then its easy. Just fly to the point where you're more or less directly above it. I did this and they didn't spot me, though I got a few warnings. You have to be aware of where the Cruiser is and when its turning though, so I suggest using the external view when its not changing direction. As for the battle which happens afterwards, I don't believe it was too difficult though it was a while ago that I played it.

There's more ways to "follow" something than directly behind it.

[Blaise Russel]

Originally posted by Lightspeed
(I play on "Hard")

Advisory: Play on Medium. It's what it was made for, at any rate.

And tailing the Macavity is easy enough. As said, try going up above it. Stick to the right of the cruiser, and you should be fine. You got room of 500 to 1000 m, so it shouldn't be that difficult.

[Zarax]

Hey Blaise, are you working on something in particular?
If not, i've got something that may interest you...

[Flaser]

He FREDs for TVWP.

[Zarax]

Finding a good FREDER with free time is near to impossible as always...
Well, i'll keep developing concepts...

[Goober5000]

Originally posted by Blaise Russel
Advisory: Play on Medium. It's what it was made for, at any rate.

And tailing the Macavity is easy enough. As said, try going up above it. Stick to the right of the cruiser, and you should be fine. You got room of 500 to 1000 m, so it shouldn't be that difficult.

Even on Medium the balance is off.  The mission where the Nemesis assaults Jupiter is about three times longer than it should be.

The Macavity mission is flat-out impossible if you're not the mission designer.  I replayed that mission dozens of times before I finally gave up and hacked it apart in FRED.