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Hosted Projects - FS2 Required => FreeSpace Conversion => Topic started by: Goober5000 on September 23, 2017, 12:30:28 am

Title: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on September 23, 2017, 12:30:28 am
Deneb III

(http://fsport.hard-light.net/images/typhon.png)

A three-mission minicampaign set during the height of the Battle of Deneb in 2335. As a Vasudan pilot assigned to the PVD Guardian, you must defend your systems against the Shivan advance at any cost.

This campaign was the grand prize for the Phoenix alternate reality game to promote ST:R, and has story tie-ins with Phoenix, ST:R, Shrouding the Light, FS1, and FS2.  It also includes a short story fanfic.

(https://fsnebula.org/static/kn_download.png) (https://fsnebula.org/mod/denebiii)

You can also use the FSO Installer (http://www.fsoinstaller.com/) or download manually (https://porphyrion.feralhosting.com/datacorder/fsport_files/releases/Deneb%20III.zip).  Requires FSPort 3.1 or later and SCP 3.7.4 or later.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: CT27 on September 25, 2017, 04:24:14 pm
I tried it but when I started the first mission (I was using FSO 3.8) I didn't have any primaries or secondaries.  There was also no primaries or secondaries in the weapon select screen to put in my ship.  Any suggestions?
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Solatar on September 25, 2017, 05:00:40 pm
Sweet little vignette of a campaign. Like ST:R, this has high-quality classic FreeSpace game play.



Check the mod.ini to be sure it's pointing to the version of the FSPort that you have installed.

Change this (the mod.ini that comes with it):
Code: [Select]
[multimod]
secondarylist = fsport;
to this (copied from Silent Threat: Reborn, courtesy of -Joshua-)
Code: [Select]
[multimod]
primarylist = fsport-mediavps_2014;
secondarylist = fsport,mediavps_2014;

A few ships will still show older models, but it's by design (docking points and Other Reasons)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: CT27 on September 25, 2017, 05:31:02 pm
I actually tried that too.  Both mod listings (Deneb III's original, and a copy of ST:R) came up with no primaries and secondaries for me.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Solatar on September 25, 2017, 05:46:05 pm
Doesn't the latest version of the port come in a folder called "fsport3_5" not "fsport"? If that's not what's getting you, I'm sure it'll get somebody (it got me initially) so posting it won't be a waste.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on September 25, 2017, 09:53:25 pm
Sweet little vignette of a campaign. Like ST:R, this has high-quality classic FreeSpace game play.

Thanks. :)


I tried it but when I started the first mission (I was using FSO 3.8) I didn't have any primaries or secondaries.  There was also no primaries or secondaries in the weapon select screen to put in my ship.  Any suggestions?

The first step is always to post your fs2_open.log file.


Doesn't the latest version of the port come in a folder called "fsport3_5" not "fsport"?

The zip is called fsport3_5.7z, but it, like previous releases, is supposed to be extracted into the "fsport" folder.  The Installer is configured that way, but if you did it manually, you may have extracted it to a folder of the same name as the 7z file.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: CT27 on September 25, 2017, 10:36:26 pm
I don't know what I did differently, but I just redownloaded Deneb III and it works this time.


Thanks for a great campaign Goober5000. :)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on September 25, 2017, 10:41:12 pm
Glad to hear it!  You're welcome.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: CT27 on September 26, 2017, 09:14:19 pm
I ran into a problem on the third and final mission.  The dialogue said the Eva was jumping out, but it didn't even move (and it's engine subsystem was intact).

Here's a log if it helps.

[attachment stolen by Russian hackers]
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on September 26, 2017, 11:01:56 pm
Thanks.  I suspect its nav subsystem was destroyed; Deneb III has that AI Profiles option set and I forgot to subsys-guardian it for the Eva.  I've uploaded a fixed version.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: CT27 on September 26, 2017, 11:04:50 pm
Thanks.  I suspect its nav subsystem was destroyed; Deneb III has that AI Profiles option set and I forgot to subsys-guardian it for the Eva.  I've uploaded a fixed version.

I just checked the Installed and it said Deneb III was up to date, should I download the link in the thread?
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on September 26, 2017, 11:15:42 pm
I hadn't updated the Installer version number.  I just did; try again.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: CT27 on September 27, 2017, 12:03:24 am
That did the trick, thanks.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: CT27 on September 27, 2017, 05:27:42 pm
One more thing I wanted to add:

I felt the final mission was very engaging and drew you in.  Even though plotwise we knew what was going to happen, the mission felt compelling in that I was really pulling for the Ursas and was hoping to change FS history.  So you did a great job with that one.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on September 27, 2017, 05:42:28 pm
Thanks. :)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: woutersmits on October 01, 2017, 01:44:27 pm
Ive saw that on your websits an mini campaign i will tezt tormorrow too
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Galemp on October 06, 2017, 12:23:17 am
Dropping by to say thanks to Goober for finally putting this together. It's been anticipated for a long time. :)

For anyone who prefers the MediaVPs, I've put together a small package that includes a modified mod.ini, updated maps (and glowmaps) for the retail Orion model, and high-res Aten maps for the PVT Qeb. (I will upgrade that someday, I have the concept art sitting right here...) Download the ZIP at this link. (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwhLOWpTEeADRTJ2d0FWODYxNEU/view?usp=sharing) Goob, you may want to fold this into your download package.

Missions 1 and 2 were a great warmup and I think Mission 3 was executed beautifully! Thanks so much for the checkpoints.

Spoiler:
Unfortunately I couldn't beat it without cheats. Those Nephilims broke the Guardian's legs, stabbed it to death, and then shot it in the head for good measure. Checkpoint 4 left it at 53%. Being unwilling to play through the whole mission again to change armament and reassign wingmen wasn't an option with my schedule (I *just now* got to play it, on Easy no less) so I ~I'd the Typhon at 1%. It still had to sit there taking a lot of hits before it jumped out--and to my horror the Lucifer's beams landed a glancing blow instead of a near miss. I would really appreciate some checks at this last phase to tone down the difficulty based on the challenge that lies ahead for the player.

The beam impact on the Legion was flawless! Seriously, congrats on pulling that off.  :nod::yes: Particle effects were beautiful, the model swap was seamless, the drift was really smooth. Also, regarding the aforementioned glowmaps: Can you add an event to turn off or better yet, flicker glowmaps on the Legion once it's been hulked? It would help with the atmosphere.

All in all it's the Battle of Deneb we've all been waiting for and I can't imagine any better way to execute it. Except maybe have a trio of Anubis fighters arrive near the end, since they're so far away at the start of the cutscene.  :p You should be proud of this, thanks for sharing.

Now, I'm off to the internal to discuss shoehorning this into Vasudan Imperium...
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on October 07, 2017, 11:11:53 pm
Dropping by to say thanks to Goober for finally putting this together. It's been anticipated for a long time. :)

Thanks, I'm delighted to finally publish it. :)

Quote
For anyone who prefers the MediaVPs, I've put together a small package that includes a modified mod.ini, updated maps (and glowmaps) for the retail Orion model, and high-res Aten maps for the PVT Qeb. (I will upgrade that someday, I have the concept art sitting right here...) Download the ZIP at this link. (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwhLOWpTEeADRTJ2d0FWODYxNEU/view?usp=sharing) Goob, you may want to fold this into your download package.

Awesome.  I've added these to the campaign.

Quote
Missions 1 and 2 were a great warmup and I think Mission 3 was executed beautifully! Thanks so much for the checkpoints.

Glad to do so.  It helped during development as well; I couldn't imagine FREDding this without checkpoints.  That's one of the reasons I put it off for so long.

Quote
Spoiler:
Unfortunately I couldn't beat it without cheats. Those Nephilims broke the Guardian's legs, stabbed it to death, and then shot it in the head for good measure. Checkpoint 4 left it at 53%. Being unwilling to play through the whole mission again to change armament and reassign wingmen wasn't an option with my schedule (I *just now* got to play it, on Easy no less) so I ~I'd the Typhon at 1%. It still had to sit there taking a lot of hits before it jumped out--and to my horror the Lucifer's beams landed a glancing blow instead of a near miss. I would really appreciate some checks at this last phase to tone down the difficulty based on the challenge that lies ahead for the player.

Having tested this with the checkpoints you sent me, I entirely agree.  I've made some adjustments  to the difficulty.

Quote
Spoiler:
The beam impact on the Legion was flawless! Seriously, congrats on pulling that off.  :nod::yes: Particle effects were beautiful, the model swap was seamless, the drift was really smooth. Also, regarding the aforementioned glowmaps: Can you add an event to turn off or better yet, flicker glowmaps on the Legion once it's been hulked? It would help with the atmosphere.

Thanks!  I actually had to learn scripting and hack one of the mediaVP scripts to do the effects the way I wanted.

Good idea; I've added your suggestion to the mission.  The download has been updated.

Quote
All in all it's the Battle of Deneb we've all been waiting for and I can't imagine any better way to execute it. Except maybe have a trio of Anubis fighters arrive near the end, since they're so far away at the start of the cutscene.  :p You should be proud of this, thanks for sharing.

There is actually a wing of Anubis fighters present: Sigma.  I thought about having them start from way off (possibly from a different ship) but couldn't think of a way to do that plausibly.

Thanks for the kind words. :)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: CT27 on October 08, 2017, 12:25:19 am
I would like to echo again the sentiments Galemp said, it's a great campaign to flesh out the FS1 era.

A plot question about mission 3 though:

Spoiler:
I get that they would want the ship to be destroyed, but if they see it glassing worlds, wouldn't some of the Ursas have been devoted to destroying the beams of the Lucifer?
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on October 08, 2017, 12:38:25 pm
Thanks. :)  The latest update, version 1.1, has some additional fixes and enhancements.

Spoiler:
I get that they would want the ship to be destroyed, but if they see it glassing worlds, wouldn't some of the Ursas have been devoted to destroying the beams of the Lucifer?

Spoiler:
By that point Deneb III had been written off, so there was no immediate need to destroy the turrets.  (They obviously didn't think it would deviate from attacking the planet, or they wouldn't have parked the Legion right next to it.)  If the Lucifer was destroyed, the state of the turrets wouldn't matter; whereas if they didn't manage to destroy it and it escaped, it would be able to repair its turrets and those Harbingers would have been wasted.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Nyctaeus on October 14, 2017, 08:14:51 pm
Just finished. Veeery cool little campaign, with nicely freded BoE. I guess it's a good way to solve Lucifer side beam cannon inconsistency as they are orange in FS2 intro. Gosh, even placement of other warships is correct. This is really impressive :yes: !
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on October 14, 2017, 09:10:22 pm
Thanks! :)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: CT27 on October 17, 2017, 02:37:14 pm
I came up with two more questions Goober, hope that's okay (you could take it that people engaging in dialogue about your campaign means it's really cool):


1-This is a response to your recent response to my previous question:

Spoiler:
Why would they think it wouldn't deviate from attacking the planet?  That seems like a risky assumption to assume a ship wouldn't make a slight maneuver since they know ships can move.  In a similar vein, wouldn't it have been better to park the Legion behind the Lucifer instead of to the side which is in close view of its planet cannon?  I understand you had to place it the Legion there though because that's where it was in the FS2 cutscene.




2-This question kind of is about the final mission but also about FS in general:

Spoiler:
The FS wiki says that while Helioses do much more damage to an overall target, Harbingers are much more effective at destroying subsystems/parts of a ship.  Does that mean if a shielded Lucifer came back in the FS2/post-FS2 era and heavy enough bombs can damage it, the GTVA would be better served to bring back Harbingers rather than use Helioses?
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on October 17, 2017, 10:00:52 pm
I came up with two more questions Goober, hope that's okay (you could take it that people engaging in dialogue about your campaign means it's really cool):

Indeed it is.  And yes, I take it in that spirit. :)

Quote
1-This is a response to your recent response to my previous question:

Spoiler:
Why would they think it wouldn't deviate from attacking the planet?  That seems like a risky assumption to assume a ship wouldn't make a slight maneuver since they know ships can move.  In a similar vein, wouldn't it have been better to park the Legion behind the Lucifer instead of to the side which is in close view of its planet cannon?  I understand you had to place it the Legion there though because that's where it was in the FS2 cutscene.

Spoiler:
The Lucifer had already attacked two planets previously, SR-5 (in Ross 128) and Ribos IV.  In both cases, once it reached its target orbit, it followed its pattern of bombarding the surface and did nothing else until the bombardment was complete.  (Reference the mission briefing, which says "We do not believe the Lucifer will leave orbit until it has devastated most of the surface with its flux cannon weaponry.  In previous engagements, the Lucifer has demonstrated unwavering focus on its primary mission objective, its shielding system allowing it to shrug off any distraction.")

Either the Lucifer needed to route all available power to the planetary bombardment beam, or it takes a bit of time to reconfigure from "planetary bombardment mode" to "capital ship attack mode".  Note that in the mission, the Lucifer stops bombarding the planet after its reactor is destroyed.  Furthermore, it doesn't attack the Guardian right away; it sits there doing nothing for several minutes.

The GTI expected the Lucifer to do exactly what it had done in previous engagements.  In both previous occasions, it a) did not deviate from its orbit, b) used its forward beam cannons for attacking warships and its side beam cannons for attacking planets, c) did nothing else while it was bombarding the planet.  But the GTI failed to consider that the destruction of a reactor might provide sufficient incentive for the Lucifer to alter its behavior.  It may be single-minded, but it's not stupid.

Both the Legion and the Guardian were positioned out of the firing arc of the Lucifer's forward cannons, which is where the GTI assumed that any attack would originate, if the Lucifer decided to switch from "planetary bombardment mode" to "warship attack mode".  They also assumed they would have a bit of warning if this were to happen.

Quote
2-This question kind of is about the final mission but also about FS in general:

Spoiler:
The FS wiki says that while Helioses do much more damage to an overall target, Harbingers are much more effective at destroying subsystems/parts of a ship.  Does that mean if a shielded Lucifer came back in the FS2/post-FS2 era and heavy enough bombs can damage it, the GTVA would be better served to bring back Harbingers rather than use Helioses?

Spoiler:
I suppose, but neither Harbingers nor Helioses are particularly effective when the Lucifer's shield is operating.  The overriding factor is the shield penetration ability.  If the Helios is good at penetrating shields, it may inflict more subsystem damage despite being less effective against subsystems on unshielded craft.  This is the sort of thing that would be up to the mod designer.  The ideal strategy, of course, would be to use beams, against which shields offer no protection.

By the way, The Scroll of Atankharzim, Part I features the arrival of a Lucifer-class destroyer in the post-FS2 era.  Though Sesquipedalian and I hold different opinions on what precisely happens when all five reactors are destroyed and the ship is not traveling through subspace.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Vidmaster on November 02, 2017, 03:04:28 pm
Played it this evening, very neat overall :-) I felt that M1 was the weakest and M2 the strongest (suprised?) due to the thematic writing there.

Issues I noticed:
* M1: the line "all remaining lambda transports have docked" is played when all 4 transports go down. While technically true, its somewhat cynical ;-)
* M3: there seems to be no Debriefing when loosing the Guardian in the fourth phase + plus some instances of colliding cruisers

Overall, it felt very FS1-like in all the right (or wrong) places. Great job. Voice-acted would be much appreciated by the way.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on November 05, 2017, 11:28:56 pm
Played it this evening, very neat overall :-)

Thanks!

Quote
I felt that M1 was the weakest and M2 the strongest (suprised?) due to the thematic writing there.

Oh, interesting!  Would you mind elaborating?  M2 has a lot of plot development, but it's more in moving the pieces on the chessboard than any overt actions.

Quote
Issues I noticed:
* M1: the line "all remaining lambda transports have docked" is played when all 4 transports go down. While technically true, its somewhat cynical ;-)

I'll look at this.

Quote
* M3: there seems to be no Debriefing when loosing the Guardian in the fourth phase + plus some instances of colliding cruisers

The no-debriefing is intentional.  Note where Command orders you to jump to. ;)

Which cruisers collided?

Quote
Overall, it felt very FS1-like in all the right (or wrong) places. Great job. Voice-acted would be much appreciated by the way.

On my list of things to do is to ask Sesquipedalian to generate synthesized speech for these missions using the same technique we used for Scroll Part I.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Vidmaster on November 19, 2017, 11:13:28 am
I am one of these people how always found the beginning of a story or teasing for future plot points most interesting. As long as the story is not locked onto a single plot branch, it could "go anywhere" which means the narrative possibility space is largest. M2 is very interesting from a plot standpoint: Lots of things happen "around" us, tension mounts and "irregularities" start to occur. I really like how it escalates purely through writing.

Yeah, voice acting would really go a long way here (as usual). Personally, I would *REALLY* interested in the technique used for generating good Vasudan Voices.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on November 21, 2017, 06:00:51 pm
I am one of these people how always found the beginning of a story or teasing for future plot points most interesting. As long as the story is not locked onto a single plot branch, it could "go anywhere" which means the narrative possibility space is largest. M2 is very interesting from a plot standpoint: Lots of things happen "around" us, tension mounts and "irregularities" start to occur. I really like how it escalates purely through writing.

Excellent. :)  This is the kind of feedback I love to hear.

Quote
Yeah, voice acting would really go a long way here (as usual). Personally, I would *REALLY* interested in the technique used for generating good Vasudan Voices.

I'm going to see if I can get Deneb III voice acted using the same speech generation that was used in Scroll Part I.  That particular technique is known only to Sesquipedalian, but if you want to use the style in the main FS campaign or in ST:R, we have snippets of the Volition Vasudan voice posted in the Extras section on the FSPort website.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Assassin714 on July 19, 2018, 06:29:33 am
The only thing I really did not like about this campaign was the idea that the Lucifer's shields can be overwhelmed by conventional weapons. I am generally of the opinion that only special shield-piercing weapons (like beams) should really do anything to a sheath shielded ship. I do think that enough energy could defeat the shields (like flying into a supernova or something) but Harbinger bombs doing anything at all seems very sketchy to me. I recall Ancient-Shivan War where the Akrotiri and other ships fired their cannons at the Lucifer for many minutes on end and did no damage whatsoever. I know this campaign and ASW probably aren't meant to be canon to each other but it seems jarring and the ASW version makes more sense IMO.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on July 19, 2018, 05:11:20 pm
That's a fair criticism.  But this particular concept was based on statements from Volition that the SD Lucifer was not invulnerable per se, merely that the Terrans and Vasudans didn't have weapons powerful enough to damage it.  I decided that for the purposes of this campaign, the Harbinger was just on the ragged edge of being powerful enough.

(Of course, once you have the ability to bypass shields using beams, the use of conventional weapons to damage them becomes a moot point.)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Nightmare on July 19, 2018, 05:20:30 pm
Why didn't they just fly into Lucys fighterbays... Vasudans did kamikaze in the past, they could've done something useful...
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on July 19, 2018, 05:35:10 pm
That's an interesting thought.  But IIRC in retail FS1 you just bounced off the opening.  Maybe there are force fields there.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Nightmare on July 19, 2018, 06:04:10 pm
Or they were able to close the doors to the fighterbay, and only opened them when tons of Scorpions came out.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: rubixcube on July 20, 2018, 06:25:17 pm
Welp, finally got round to playing this.

Not quite as true to the intro as the other campaign "Death of the Legion" or whatever it was called, but the mission design is better.

This campaign makes me wish FS had a more complex damage mechanics system; something more along the lines of world of warships.
Shields would maybe act like Armour plating that regenerates but also degrades when shot at. Beam cannons probably shouldn't totally bypass shields, but have a high enough penetration value that they can usually punch through without issue. The lucy's shields might provide some protection from sgreen's and terslashes, but almost none against anything larger.
And as you say, Harbinger bombs might be right on the edge of being able to penetrate.

Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: DefCynodont119 on July 20, 2018, 09:31:46 pm
Welp, finally got round to playing this.

Not quite as true to the intro as the other campaign "Death of the Legion" or whatever it was called, but the mission design is better.

This campaign makes me wish FS had a more complex damage mechanics system; something more along the lines of world of warships.
Shields would maybe act like Armour plating that regenerates but also degrades when shot at. Beam cannons probably shouldn't totally bypass shields, but have a high enough penetration value that they can usually punch through without issue. The lucy's shields might provide some protection from sgreen's and terslashes, but almost none against anything larger.
And as you say, Harbinger bombs might be right on the edge of being able to penetrate.

"Legion's Demise" you mean?  :p
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: rubixcube on July 21, 2018, 06:13:39 am
Not quite as true to the intro as the other campaign "Death of the Legion" or whatever it was called, but the mission design is better.

"Legion's Demise" you mean?  :p

Yes, that's the one, derp, sorry  :P.

Interesting there are some areas of the cutscene up for interpretation:
Are the Lucy's bombardment beams orange or blue?
Was that Demon the Eva or another destroyer?
Did the Lucy bombard Deneb III?
Was the Typhon the Hope or another destroyer?
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: DefCynodont119 on July 21, 2018, 06:57:18 am
Not quite as true to the intro as the other campaign "Death of the Legion" or whatever it was called, but the mission design is better.

"Legion's Demise" you mean?  :p

Yes, that's the one, derp, sorry  :P.

Interesting there are some areas of the cutscene up for interpretation:
Are the Lucy's bombardment beams orange or blue?
Was that Demon the Eva or another destroyer?
Did the Lucy bombard Deneb III?
Was the Typhon the Hope or another destroyer?

There is a massive continuity error in the mission dates: the battle of Deneb happened on 2/28/35 according to the intro, but the in-game briefings state the the Lucy and Eva did not enter Deneb until 2/31/35.

So, you could say the first thing that's up for interpretation is whether or not the mission even happened.  :lol:

I wanted the destroyer kill-able for gameplay reasons so I used an AoA one instead of the Eva.  :nervous:  The Anhur at least is a cannon ship.
As far as I can tell from In-game text, the Hope was nowhere near Deneb at this time. (But It's never mentioned for the entire 2nd act of FS1)

I dunno, the Hope could be anywhere.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on July 22, 2018, 06:22:07 pm
Welp, finally got round to playing this.

Not quite as true to the intro as the other campaign "Death of the Legion" or whatever it was called, but the mission design is better.

I take pride in my mission design, so thank you. :)  But "not quite as true to the intro"?  Dagger! :snipe::p  Did you look at the ship placement, the number and type of ships, the various easter eggs?  Did you look at the different camera angles?

In what way do you think it was not quite as true to the intro?


Quote
This campaign makes me wish FS had a more complex damage mechanics system; something more along the lines of world of warships.
Shields would maybe act like Armour plating that regenerates but also degrades when shot at. Beam cannons probably shouldn't totally bypass shields, but have a high enough penetration value that they can usually punch through without issue. The lucy's shields might provide some protection from sgreen's and terslashes, but almost none against anything larger.
And as you say, Harbinger bombs might be right on the edge of being able to penetrate.

A good concept.  Yes, it would be interesting to have weapons partially penetrate shields when the shields are at middling integrity, as opposed to preventing any hull damage whatsoever until the last 1% of shield integrity is gone.

Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: jr2 on September 09, 2018, 01:07:45 pm
Can you edit the OP to include this  link + image?

(https://fsnebula.org/static/kn_download.png) (https://fsnebula.org/mod/denebiii)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on September 09, 2018, 01:52:53 pm
Done, thanks. :yes:
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on November 17, 2018, 06:20:18 am
Version 1.2 is released, now with synthesized speech generated by Sesquipedalian.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: woutersmits on November 17, 2018, 10:09:50 am
goober5000 im busy with deneb 3 as holstile play as bad guy
i dont know you like it but ive maded first mission i sand to you so you can change everything
but no events changes
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: HLD_Prophecy on November 17, 2018, 01:49:47 pm
Cool! I wish I had noticed this campaign sooner. Probably a great chance to test out my *cough* GRAVIS FIREBIRD which I totally never tried to sell on HLP lol *cough*

(https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/fkEAAOSwMtxXso-M/s-l225.jpg)

Actually I really am looking forward to this!  :D
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Nyctaeus on November 21, 2018, 05:42:12 am
I need to replay this.

Seriously guys, play this! It's awesome. Truly awesome. It has Official Nyx's Seal of Approval. Oh wait... Such thing does not exist... Yet...
Anyway my statement stays the same :P
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on November 21, 2018, 04:08:56 pm
:D
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Novachen on November 30, 2018, 10:07:12 pm
Played through that campaign during the last days, several times (for my multi-language release of it :D)

I liked the last mission a lot, mostly because of the Legion effect and the small build up to that. This one would be even more awesome with an Orion in full MVP glory  ;)

Even the shooting angle of the Lucifer to the planet is strange, IMO.
But well... it make some kind of sense, because why the Lucifer would need two devastator beams otherwise? The Shivans should have built them on top or bottom on the Lucifer to be properly used as in this mission?  :D

The "normal terran speech" before it gots translated is kind of funny  :lol:.  What is this gibberish?
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on December 02, 2018, 12:49:15 am
Thanks. :)  When the newest MediaVP Orion is completed, I will ask for a modified version to use in Deneb III.

The gibberish is actually Latin.  If I recall correctly, the Terran voices are excerpts from various readings of the Latin Mass.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: HLD_Prophecy on December 02, 2018, 01:54:23 am
All Terran speak High Gothic Latin in the future.  :D

#ExtraordinaryFormRomanRite  :yes:

Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: PIe on December 02, 2018, 03:11:51 am
Omnes naves, defendite Legionem!
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on December 03, 2018, 02:21:01 am
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.

You know, I wouldn't mind seeing some of the Roman civil wars reimagined as FreeSpace campaigns.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: HLD_Prophecy on December 03, 2018, 02:54:57 am
Bem Cavalgar tho. Kinda.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Novachen on December 03, 2018, 06:26:44 am
Okay, Latin... my sister speaks five languages (or well.. four and a half.. she still learns chinese for a few years now) but not Latin. So i did not knew that.

Could only determine, that it was not German, English, French and Spanish and it did not sound very chinese, too :lol:

But would Ancient Greek not GTA's language of choice due to the designations of ships, weapons and wings? :D
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Colt on October 08, 2019, 08:03:30 pm
I think I've hit a bit of a snag...

Spoiler:
I'm on the third mission, and after defeating the Lucifer's bomber attack+cruiser escorts and the Legion's arrival, the mission kinda of just stops. The Legion did say they were preparing bombers, but after 25 minutes nothing happened. I replayed this three times with the same results.

Also came across a smaller bug in the first mission. The engines on the transports can be disabled, thus preventing the mission from continuing. Putting Omega 3 out of their misery got things rolling again.

I've really enjoyed this campaign so far. Looking forward to finishing it!
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on October 08, 2019, 11:06:28 pm
I think I've hit a bit of a snag...

Spoiler:
I'm on the third mission, and after defeating the Lucifer's bomber attack+cruiser escorts and the Legion's arrival, the mission kinda of just stops. The Legion did say they were preparing bombers, but after 25 minutes nothing happened. I replayed this three times with the same results.

That's odd.  I've never experienced that problem nor have I heard about it from anyone else.  Can you post your FSO log?  Also, what is the last thing that happened in the mission before everything stopped?  Did the GTSC Yggdrasil arrive?

Quote
Spoiler:
Also came across a smaller bug in the first mission. The engines on the transports can be disabled, thus preventing the mission from continuing. Putting Omega 3 out of their misery got things rolling again.

Will fix that, thanks.

Quote
I've really enjoyed this campaign so far. Looking forward to finishing it!

Glad to hear it!
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Colt on October 08, 2019, 11:17:59 pm
That's odd.  I've never experienced that problem nor have I heard about it from anyone else.  Can you post your FSO log?  Also, what is the last thing that happened in the mission before everything stopped?  Did the GTSC Yggdrasil arrive?
Spoiler:
Yggdrasil arrived right after the Legion. Laskhmi wing Dragons arrived (I think after?) and continue to respawn and attack the player. The Lucy took out 2 of the 4 cruisers over time, but the two front-most cruisers (Atlantis and Victory) were safe. After that it's just an endless fight with Dragons.

And yep I'll post a log. Just need to remember how (if not within the hour, definitely tomorrow).
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Colt on October 09, 2019, 08:14:28 pm
Sorry for the delay. Just ran through the mission with the debugger. Here's the log https://fsnebula.org/log/5d9e823acb0d3320a3dd8189

Specifically, here's where the errors occur (I think), moments after the Legion announcing they are launching the bombers.

Code: [Select]
4330: ANI Head-CM1a.ani with size 160x120 (6.3% wasted)
4331: Warning: Too many triangles in shield hit.
4332: Warning: Too many triangles in shield hit.
4333: Warning: Too many triangles in shield hit.
4334: Warning: Too many triangles in shield hit.
4335: Warning: Too many triangles in shield hit.
4336: Warning: Too many triangles in shield hit.
4337: Warning: Too many triangles in shield hit.
4338: Warning: Too many triangles in shield hit.
4339: Warning: Too many triangles in shield hit.
4340: Warning: Too many triangles in shield hit.
4341: WARNING: "A counter increment of 0 is illegal!  (start=0, stop=11, increment=0)" at sexp.cpp:9710
4342: WARNING: "A counter increment of 0 is illegal!  (start=0, stop=15, increment=0)" at sexp.cpp:9710
4343: Frame 33538 too long!!: frametime = 6.764 (6.764)
4344: WARNING: "A counter increment of 0 is illegal!  (start=0, stop=15, increment=0)" at sexp.cpp:9710
4345: Got event GS_EVENT_PAUSE_GAME (6) in state GS_STATE_GAME_PLAY (2)
4346: Got event GS_EVENT_PREVIOUS_STATE (7) in state GS_STATE_GAME_PAUSED (3)
4347: Frame 33539 too long!!: frametime = 1.074 (1.074)
4348: WARNING: "A counter increment of 0 is illegal!  (start=0, stop=15, increment=0)" at sexp.cpp:9710
4349: Frame 33540 too long!!: frametime = 2.586 (2.586)
4350: WARNING: "A counter increment of 0 is illegal!  (start=0, stop=15, increment=0)" at sexp.cpp:9710
4351: Warning: Too many triangles in shield hit.
4352: Got event GS_EVENT_PAUSE_GAME (6) in state GS_STATE_GAME_PLAY (2)
4353: Got event GS_EVENT_PREVIOUS_STATE (7) in state GS_STATE_GAME_PAUSED (3)
4354: Frame 33541 too long!!: frametime = 2.751 (2.751)
4355: WARNING: "A counter increment of 0 is illegal!  (start=0, stop=15, increment=0)" at sexp.cpp:9710

I was able to hit continue twice. After that the stop=15 part repeats and I had to close Freespace through task manager.

EDIT: Forgot to mention. When hitting the "continue campaign" button I got the following error. There was no issue upon pressing "continue" on the error window however.
Code: [Select]
DenebIII-3.fs2(line 205): Warning: Variable 0 has the same name as an eternal variable. One of these should be renamed to avoid confusion
WARNING: "DenebIII-3.fs2(line 205):
Warning: Variable 0 has the same name as an eternal variable. One of these should be renamed to avoid confusion" at parselo.cpp:301

Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on October 11, 2019, 12:41:46 am
Ack!  Well thank you, you've just found a bug.  All builds since May 7 (https://github.com/scp-fs2open/fs2open.github.com/pull/2035) will break in this same way.  I have proposed a fix here (https://github.com/scp-fs2open/fs2open.github.com/pull/2102) which is awaiting review.

As for that second error, it may be a bug, but unfortunately there is a bug in the error message. :(  I have another fix (https://github.com/scp-fs2open/fs2open.github.com/pull/2103) that will need to be merged before we can find out for sure.

Both of those changes are included in this build.  Can you use it and then tell me what error is displayed when you hit "continue campaign"?
http://scp.indiegames.us/builds/temp/fs2_open_3_8_1_AVX2-FASTDBG.7z
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Colt on October 11, 2019, 02:48:25 pm
I just drop the application into the FreespaceOpen>FS2 directory right?
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on October 11, 2019, 03:31:14 pm
I'm not super familiar with how to do it on Knossos, but I think what you do is download it anywhere, but then select it by going to the mod Options, selecting FSO Settings dialog, then using Browse to get the custom build.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Colt on October 11, 2019, 04:09:34 pm
Upon selecting the application with the browse feature, I get the following when attempting to press Play or go to FSO Settings;

fs2_open_3_8_1_AVX2-FASTDBG.exe - System Error
The code execution cannot proceed because avcodec-57.dll was not found. Reinstalling the program may fix this problem.

It repeats three more times, with the avcodec part being replaced with avformat-57, avutil-55.dll and swscale-4.dll.

Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on October 11, 2019, 04:26:59 pm
I was afraid of that.  Try extracting these into the same directory.
http://scp.indiegames.us/builds/temp/FastDebugDLLs.7z
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Colt on October 11, 2019, 04:38:22 pm
That worked. Upon pressing "ready" I got this brief error.

Code: [Select]
Warning: DenebIII-3.fs2(line 205):
Warning: Variable 0 has the same name as an eternal variable. One of these should be renamed to avoid confusion
File: parselo.cpp
Line: 301

Mission's loaded, gonna play and edit this post if I come across anything else.

EDIT: My bad. Yeah selected wrong version.

EDIT 2: Well, this is strange. In FSO settings I have the fs2_open_3_8_1_AVX2-FASTDBG selected, but pressing "play" will briefly say "fso launching" and then nothing happens. Going options>fast debug will start the game however, but in the 19.0.0 RC build (I changed preferred engine stability to nightlies, and in that case it used the most recent nightly build).
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on October 11, 2019, 04:44:46 pm
That still says Variable 0, instead of the variable name.  Are you sure you are running the build I provided?
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on October 13, 2019, 11:23:44 am
@Colt, ngld had this to say:
Quote
Yeah, those were the right steps. The issue with "FSO is launching..." only appearing for a short moment either means that FSO crashes very early or some other weird issue prevented Knossos from starting FSO.

In order to continue making debugging this, can you switch to a non-Knossos installation?  Deneb III is on the FSO Installer, so you should be able to install that and then use the build I provided without having to go through Knossos.

You may need to launch the debug build via wxLauncher once to select the Deneb III mod and configure your settings.  After that, you can launch the build directly.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Colt on October 13, 2019, 03:30:36 pm
Hmm. I can not find Deneb III, which is strange because I remember seeing it when I was still using FSO/wxlauncher last year (current FSO Installer is V2.3.2 right?)

I'll copy/paste the mod from my knossos folder into the one wxlauncher uses. Already downloaded the 19.0.0RC AVX update. Changing the .jsom to mod.ini worked last time I fiddled around with them.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on October 13, 2019, 05:27:06 pm
Looks like the SectorGame host is blocking automatic downloads again; that's why Deneb III isn't showing up.  I'll ping Hunter and ask what's going on.  You can download it manually from here (http://sectorgame.com/goober/denebiii.html) if you want.  Copy/pasting the mod from Knossos might work but I've never tried it.

Alternatively, a new nightly build that includes the fixes is in progress.  It's currently waiting on the integration tests, which have been blocking for the last few hours, but as soon as that's posted you will be able to select it in Knossos.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Colt on October 14, 2019, 10:22:07 pm
 Just replayed the campaign with the new nightly and everything worked out! That was a very fun mini-campaign from beginning to end. :yes:
Spoiler:
That final battle was pretty neat, but I don't know how I feel about the Legion going down. On the one hand, it's an absolute tragedy; ten thousand of GTI's best instantly vaporized or sucked out into space, with deadly consequences because of it after the war (ahem-Silent Threat-ahem). On the other hand, watching it get hulled and turned into a derelict instead of just outright exploding was an amazing sequence.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on October 14, 2019, 11:09:22 pm
Wonderful!  Glad you enjoyed it! :D

Yes, I worked hard on that sequence.  Scripting really came in handy for the explosions and particles. :)


To tie up loose ends now that a new FastDBG build is available, can you try loading mission 3 again and see if the "Variable 0 has the same name as an eternal variable" message is different?
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Colt on October 15, 2019, 11:17:52 pm
Everything seems fine with the debug too. No crashing or windows popping up when Omega launches. I tried uploading a debug log just to make sure everything was 200% fine but after almost 10 minutes of waiting I closed the link.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on October 16, 2019, 09:59:31 am
Er, wait.  If you played mission 3 through the Tech Room, that error would not appear.  It is only checked during campaign mode.  Would you mind playing through (or cheating through) missions 1 and 2 again, then loading mission 3 in the debug build? :nervous:
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Colt on October 16, 2019, 08:11:15 pm
Aight, just did a full run on debug. I've included all other errors I received, but they're all minor model-related bugs (they're in "hidden" to keep this post tidy  :p).

Hidden Text: Show
Upon starting the campaign:
Code: [Select]
Warning: Not all subsystems in model "capital01-multidock.pof" have a record in ships.tbl.
This can cause game to crash.

List of subsystems not found from table is in log file.

File: modelread.cpp
Line: 805


Warning: Couldn't open glowpoint texture 'glow_white'
referenced by model 'GVT_Qeb.pof'

File: modelread.cpp
Line: 1979

Mission 1, when Omega and Lambda wings arrive:
Code: [Select]
Warning: Unable to find 'turret04' in ship subsys_list!
File: missionparse.cpp
Line: 2349

Warning: Unable to find 'turret03' in ship subsys_list!
File: missionparse.cpp
Line: 2349

Warning: Unable to find 'turret02' in ship subsys_list!
File: missionparse.cpp
Line: 2349

Warning: Unable to find 'turret01' in ship subsys_list!
File: missionparse.cpp
Line: 2349
Nothing on mission 2.

Mission 3 when it loads:
Code: [Select]
Warning: DenebIII-3.fs2(line 205):
Warning: Variable saveexist has the same name as an eternal variable. One of these should be renamed to avoid confusion
File: parselo.cpp
Line: 301

EDIT: This run was done with the 20191015 nightly version.

Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on October 17, 2019, 10:54:26 am
Excellent, thank you!

These are minor errors, and most of them can be fixed easily, but that variable message is intriguing.

The shipsave script requires the use of the saveexist variable.  Many campaigns use this script, including Deneb III, but there are no eternal or persistent variables in the Deneb III campaign with the name "saveexist".  My guess is that one of the campaigns you previously played marked this variable as persistent, and this caused an "infection" where it complains about any other campaign that uses this variable.

I will have to ask karajorma to comment on this.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on October 18, 2019, 09:23:23 pm
It sounds like the eternal variable warning is just a nuisance left over from someone else's campaign.  As for the rest of the errors, I've fixed them and uploaded a new version of Deneb III to the FSO Installer, to Knossos, and to the Phoenix grand prize area. ;)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Antares on November 14, 2019, 10:48:06 pm
This is a punishingly difficult campaign, even on Medium. I've finished it twice out of I-don't-know-how-many attempts.

That being said, I love all the little bits of lore and attention to detail, like how the Terran pilots speak in Simlish, the Vasudan fighters have their own Vasudan-specific weapons, and
Spoiler:
how the lights flicker and go out on the Legion after the Lucifer bores a hole through her.

A few possible bugs:

Spoiler:
I don't know if it's intentional, but the Guardian will not ask for reinforcements when the Radru cruisers jump in if its engines are disabled soon after; it will only call for help if someone is around to play bomber defense and keep it operational (and even then, the engines are scripted to blow out after the third wing of bombers is destroyed). This is how things will play out for most players, as they will probably be occupied with all of the other Shivan craft in the area, and it makes the "defend the Guardian" part of the mission much harder.

Spoiler:
The Lucifer's shield animation is not showing up. Is this so it can take damage?

Spoiler:
Does the Avenger use a special damage table in this campaign? Or has the enemy AI been tweaked for better shield management? Maybe it's because you're mostly attacking bombers, but it feels like it takes forever to get Shivan shields down, even on a Basilisk.

Spoiler:
The first time I played this mission and used the checkpoint system (after the fighter screen was wiped out), the action in the mission stopped; I blew up the Cain cruisers, but nothing happened afterward. However, I've been unable to reproduce this behavior.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on November 15, 2019, 11:15:38 am
This is a punishingly difficult campaign, even on Medium. I've finished it twice out of I-don't-know-how-many attempts.

I think I do have a tendency to make harder-than-average missions...

Quote
That being said, I love all the little bits of lore and attention to detail, like how the Terran pilots speak in Simlish, the Vasudan fighters have their own Vasudan-specific weapons, and
Spoiler:
how the lights flicker and go out on the Legion after the Lucifer bores a hole through her.

Thanks. :)

The "Simlish" is actually Latin.  The voice files were generated by Sesquipedalian, using the same process he devised for Scroll, by combining recordings from the Latin Mass with synthesized speech on the Mac.


Quote
A few possible bugs:

Spoiler:
I don't know if it's intentional, but the Guardian will not ask for reinforcements when the Radru cruisers jump in if its engines are disabled soon after; it will only call for help if someone is around to play bomber defense and keep it operational (and even then, the engines are scripted to blow out after the third wing of bombers is destroyed). This is how things will play out for most players, as they will probably be occupied with all of the other Shivan craft in the area, and it makes the "defend the Guardian" part of the mission much harder.

I'm not sure what you mean by "ask for reinforcements".  Can you elaborate?  You can send a PM if you prefer.

Quote
Spoiler:
The Lucifer's shield animation is not showing up. Is this so it can take damage?

Spoiler:
Do you mean the HUD icon or the surface lighting effect?  I just loaded the mission and I see the HUD icon.  As for the surface lighting, I think that doesn't appear if the ship is using surface shields.  And unfortunately, the MVP model doesn't have a shield mesh so it must use surface shields.

Quote
Spoiler:
Does the Avenger use a special damage table in this campaign? Or has the enemy AI been tweaked for better shield management? Maybe it's because you're mostly attacking bombers, but it feels like it takes forever to get Shivan shields down, even on a Basilisk.

Good catch.  The ai_profiles table option for $smart shield management: (https://wiki.hard-light.net/index.php/Ai_profiles.tbl#.24smart_shield_management:) is enabled, so that's probably what you're seeing.

Quote
Spoiler:
The first time I played this mission and used the checkpoint system (after the fighter screen was wiped out), the action in the mission stopped; I blew up the Cain cruisers, but nothing happened afterward. However, I've been unable to reproduce this behavior.

That is probably the for-counter bug, which has been fixed in recent nightlies.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Antares on November 15, 2019, 06:41:14 pm

I'm not sure what you mean by "ask for reinforcements".  Can you elaborate?  You can send a PM if you prefer.

Spoiler:
Guardian: Command, additional Shivan cruisers have jumped in. Our situation is perilous.

Command: We are deploying our reserve cruisers and bombers. We suggest you do the same.

This event will not happen if the Shivan bombers in Yamu wing quickly disable the Guardian.

Quote
Spoiler:
Do you mean the HUD icon or the surface lighting effect?  I just loaded the mission and I see the HUD icon.  As for the surface lighting, I think that doesn't appear if the ship is using surface shields.  And unfortunately, the MVP model doesn't have a shield mesh so it must use surface shields.

Spoiler:
I don't understand the distinction. The shield surface effect shows up in FSPort, and this campaign uses the FSPort MediaVPs, so shouldn't it show up here, too?
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on November 15, 2019, 09:48:55 pm

I'm not sure what you mean by "ask for reinforcements".  Can you elaborate?  You can send a PM if you prefer.

Spoiler:
Guardian: Command, additional Shivan cruisers have jumped in. Our situation is perilous.

Command: We are deploying our reserve cruisers and bombers. We suggest you do the same.

This event will not happen if the Shivan bombers in Yamu wing quickly disable the Guardian.

Spoiler:
Upon further inspection, what is actually going on is that the event doesn't fire until all Yama bombers are destroyed.  And this is only because it's inexplicably chained to the Yama directive.  I can see no reason why this should be the case, and looking through the SVN history, I'm positive that this is a bug.  I've removed the chain, so it should fire independently of what Yama is doing.

This is a pretty subtle bug, and it might explain some mysterious reports from back when this was beta-tested.  Glad to have this squashed!


Quote
Quote
Spoiler:
Do you mean the HUD icon or the surface lighting effect?  I just loaded the mission and I see the HUD icon.  As for the surface lighting, I think that doesn't appear if the ship is using surface shields.  And unfortunately, the MVP model doesn't have a shield mesh so it must use surface shields.

Spoiler:
I don't understand the distinction. The shield surface effect shows up in FSPort, and this campaign uses the FSPort MediaVPs, so shouldn't it show up here, too?

Spoiler:
Current versions of the FSPort actually have a SD Lucifer model with a proper shield mesh, removing the need for the "surface shields" flag.  Deneb III uses the non-shielded model with surface shields.

I'll make a new release shortly.  Thanks for letting me know, and well done noticing these bugs!  Just for that, I'll let you choose a new custom title. :D
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Antares on November 15, 2019, 10:30:39 pm
If it's all the same to you, I think I'd prefer that my custom title be erased.  :nervous:
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on November 15, 2019, 10:43:12 pm
I almost set your custom title to "erased". :P
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: ShivanSpS on November 18, 2019, 09:15:32 pm
There is definately a rare bug on mission 2 that makes the mission to never end under a chain of events. I cant be certain of the order trought, petty sure it was a failure, the last part is very difficult on hard, my wing is very innefective on hard on this mission.

I have it on video and i could upload it if you wish.

BTW, if you are going to update it it may be a good idea to add a counter to see the number of ursas currently alive / landed.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on November 19, 2019, 09:12:30 am
There is definately a rare bug on mission 2 that makes the mission to never end under a chain of events. I cant be certain of the order trought, petty sure it was a failure, the last part is very difficult on hard, my wing is very innefective on hard on this mission.

I have it on video and i could upload it if you wish.

Yes, please do.  I'd like to see it.

Quote
BTW, if you are going to update it it may be a good idea to add a counter to see the number of ursas currently alive / landed.

I'll think about that.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: ShivanSpS on November 19, 2019, 05:44:17 pm
Here
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on November 19, 2019, 09:49:25 pm
Hmm.  It looks like the mission is losing count of the bombers for some reason.  The goal should complete, either success or failure, when the bombers have either departed or been destroyed.  However, the goal remains incomplete for some reason.  I will take a look at it.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on November 20, 2019, 01:12:51 pm
I carefully looked at the mission and everything appeared to be correct.  There are several possible things that could cause this bug, but all of them looked okay.

There is one other possibility, and that is that the bombers get "stuck" in the hangar bay without actually departing.  If this happens again, can you look inside the fighter bay and see if any bombers are stuck there?

Another thing you could do is press F3 and see if it shows any of the bombers (or cargo containers) still present in the mission.

I have edited the mission to include a count for the bomber directive.  I haven't updated Knossos, but the modified mission is attached to this post.

[attachment eaten by a Shivan]
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Colt on November 20, 2019, 01:55:59 pm
Had some time to spare, and I suppose some extra input is good  :P

I just gave the mission a spin (Version 1.2.3,  Nov.12 nightly) and encountered no issue on my end. Looking at ShivanSpS' video it looks like all the bombers depart normally, but for whatever reason the Legion depart cue didn't trigger.

EDIT: Hold up! In the video at 11:20 there are only 7 bombers (in addition to the other 8), yet ShivanSpS was able to save all of the containers. One of the containers exploded by itself 10:53 and I don't think it spawned an Ursa.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on November 20, 2019, 03:06:18 pm
Ha!  You're right!  Outstanding work, Colt, thank you!  I've given you a Gold Star for your efforts.

The cargo container was struck by debris from one of the other containers exploding.  It must have been so low on hitpoints that the hit was enough to destroy it.  And it happened right in the small window of time when one event check was finished and the other event check hadn't started yet.

This is one situation where the fix is much easier than the detective work.  I'll patch it and upload a new release shortly.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: ShivanSpS on November 20, 2019, 03:15:58 pm
This is what i call a job well done. :)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on November 20, 2019, 04:02:35 pm
I doubt we would have figured it out if not for the video. :)

New version is now available on Knossos, the FSO Installer, and the 162/Phoenix grand prize hidden area.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Colt on November 20, 2019, 04:52:13 pm
Glad I could help. :D
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: ShivanSpS on November 20, 2019, 08:19:39 pm
It is increibly lucky that i was looking at the right direction at the right time.

About the mod itselft, it reminded me how much of a pain in the a* were the Dragons and Nephilims on Hard. haha. Also i think i saw more warships in a single mission than in FS1+FS2 combined, the GTA really lost a lot in Deneb, and that was a good day compared to Ribos and Vasuda.

Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on November 20, 2019, 09:08:13 pm
Yeah, considering how apocalyptic the atmosphere of FS1 is, we really didn't see too much of the Shivans' impact directly.

You may want to re-read Aadarsh's post following the devastation of Vasuda, now that you have additional insight into what the GTI was up to. :)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Antares on November 20, 2019, 10:18:54 pm
Something wonky is definitely going on in mission 3, but I'm not sure what. It could be for-counter (I'm still using the default build for the campaign), or it could be something else.

I have "captured" checkpoint #1 in a tech room playthrough of the mission, after all the fighters are destroyed. Some mission events fire after that (Krishna wing jumps in, for example), but the allied cruisers never "get into position"; they reach their waypoints and idle there forever, and the Legion never arrives.

I don't know what I could be doing to make this happen. I'd been playing with different strategies to have as many of my wingmen survive the early part of the mission as possible (so they'd be of greater use during the later parts), which entailed having them mass attack the Shivan fighters one by one, then destroying the Cains once their fighter cover is gone.

Example: Destroy fighter group 1 -> Destroy Cain 1 -> Destroy fighter group 2 -> Destroy Cain 2, etc.

EDIT: I did some testing and was able to reproduce this, though I'm still not entirely sure what's going on.

It looks like if you restore the mission from checkpoint #1 with only one surviving Cain (there may be other variations on this but I haven't tried), and then destroy that Cain, the game "forgets" that this triggers one of your secondary objectives. The Legion never jumps in and the mission never advances.

Note that this weirdness won't happen if you play the mission straight through from the beginning. You have to use the checkpoint for things to bork up.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on November 21, 2019, 08:18:08 am
Try using the latest nightly build and see what happens.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Antares on November 23, 2019, 12:10:37 am
No joy with the latest nightly.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on November 23, 2019, 01:07:11 pm
Well, attach your checkpoint file and I'll take a look at it.  You should be able to find it in %AppData%\HardLightProductions\FreeSpaceOpen\DenebIII\data\scripts.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Antares on November 23, 2019, 05:26:53 pm
Actually, it's in fsport-mediavps-3.7.2/data/scripts. There's no Deneb III folder under FreeSpaceOpen at all.  :wtf:

Also, I found that this still happens even if more than one Cain survives to the checkpoint. (There are two in this copy.)

[attachment eaten by a Shivan]
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on November 23, 2019, 09:03:05 pm
I think I found the culprit.  Try the attached mission and see if it works.

[attachment eaten by a Shivan]
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Antares on November 24, 2019, 12:15:23 am
That seems to have done the trick!
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on November 24, 2019, 02:42:53 pm
Excellent!  I uploaded a new version to FSO Installer and 162, and the Knossos version is being uploaded as I type this.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Mobius on December 06, 2020, 02:28:31 pm
Playing through this minicampaign for the first time. I see the style of voice acting from the Vasudan perspective is the same as the one seen in Scroll - nice touch.  :yes:

Furthermore, I found out what's the best way to tell the player to perform a cargo container inspection. :lol:


(https://media.moddb.com/images/members/1/310/309249/Immagine2.1.png)
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: starlord on December 06, 2020, 02:51:37 pm
This reminds me: any plans to port your fs1 campaign fortunes of war to the Fsport?
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Mobius on December 06, 2020, 03:48:39 pm
Now, for the plot part:

Spoiler:
The Harbinger's capacity to penetrate the Lucifer's shields sure has certain consequences in terms of plot, and we eyewitness the complete destruction of Reactor 4 in the last mission. Considering how unique this scenario is, I wonder if Deneb III was initially meant as a prequel to another FS1 Era campaign during which the Lucifer could be destroyed ahead of its final run for Sol. Right now, I can't think of any other fan-made project which took this storytelling path.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on December 07, 2020, 01:23:21 pm
This reminds me: any plans to port your fs1 campaign fortunes of war to the Fsport?

Yes, eventually.  But right now FoW is in a partially-completed state.  My long-term plans are to finish the FS1 version first before converting it using the FSPort.

Have you played the partial FoW release on FS1?
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on December 07, 2020, 01:41:05 pm
Spoiler:
The Harbinger's capacity to penetrate the Lucifer's shields sure has certain consequences in terms of plot, and we eyewitness the complete destruction of Reactor 4 in the last mission. Considering how unique this scenario is, I wonder if Deneb III was initially meant as a prequel to another FS1 Era campaign during which the Lucifer could be destroyed ahead of its final run for Sol. Right now, I can't think of any other fan-made project which took this storytelling path.

Spoiler:
No, Deneb III was intended as its own thing - a campaign vignette to fill in some missing parts of the ST:R and FS2 stories, in the same sense as Shrouding the Light: Origins.  I had the story outline in mind as far back as 2007; take note of the conversation in the final ST:R mission between the Soyakaze and the Guardian.

I found inspiration for the mission 3 scenario from the following points:

1) Word of :v: said that the Orion in the FS2 intro was not the Galatea.  Since this Orion wasn't mentioned in the FS1 command briefings, this implied it was a secret mission, perhaps a GTI mission.
2) If GTI was involved, it was a nice solution to the problem of what to use as the GTI logo.
3) Now, why would the GTI be involved in such a mission, and why commit so many resources to it?  Perhaps they figured out a way to attack the Lucifer.
4) Word of :v: also said that the Lucifer's shields didn't make actually it invulnerable, and that more powerful weapons would be able to punch through the shields.
5) Perhaps the Harbinger was on the ragged edge of being sufficiently powerful.  This would explain why a bomb used for planetary attacks (from the FS Ref Bible) would be adapted for tactical bombers.
6) At this point the mission scenario began to write itself.  Per the FS Ref Bible, the Vasudans used missile prototypes to attack the Lucifer.  It would make sense that the Terrans would try as well.
7) The nuking of the Orion could be explained as the Lucifer reacting to neutralize an enemy ship as soon as the ship was proven to be a legitimate threat.  The legitimacy could be achieved by the successful destruction of a single reactor.

The rest of the campaign could be filled in naturally by working backwards from mission 3.  For example, the identification of the planet as Deneb III was a nice extra detail from the debriefing of Enter the Dragon in FS1.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Mobius on December 07, 2020, 04:04:38 pm
Spoiler:
What's the source of 4?

I always thought the Lucifer was never supposed to be truly invincible, and enough punching would have crippled its shields at some point. Whether the ship could be exposed to such firepower for a sufficient amount of time was a different tactical matter, however.

I literally had no idea this concept on the Lucifer's supposed vulnerability could be backed up by "canon" information provided by :v:. I'm surprised, and this is definitely worth some extra investigation.

I remember several arguments focused primarily on how the Lucifer was deemed responsible for wiping out the Ancients due to its supposed invincibility, and I found this concept hard to believe due to the massive scale of the (canon) A-S War. If I recall correctly, Derelict provided a significant contribute to this idea. It may be one of the several reasons why fandom didn't venture further into the Lucifer's vulnerability argument.
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Goober5000 on December 07, 2020, 08:16:44 pm
Unfortunately, a lot of comments posted by Volition are now lost.  The Volition Bulletin Board is gone, and the VolitionWatch Bulletin Board is trapped in a backup somewhere.  And the folks at Warpcore deleted their backups of the FreeSpace Developer List, where Volition employees used to give a lot of inside information.

But this is the closest I could get to finding a comment posted here on HLP:
https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=26456.msg531216#msg531216
and
https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=28173.msg585518#msg585518
Title: Re: RELEASE: Deneb III
Post by: Mobius on December 08, 2020, 04:50:05 am
Thanks for these hints, they are exactly what I've been looking for. It'd be great to recover these VWBB backups and learn more about this argument in favor of the Lucifer's vulnerability.  :yes: