[Goober5000]

I tested the new mission on a different computer and it works for me.  Try creating a new pilot, or playing a different mission with the same pilot before coming back to this one.

Make sure you don't have any loose sa_s1_01.fs2 files floating around anywhere.  In fact, extract the one you have and attach it here so I can take a look.

[CT27]

How/where would I extract that particular file?


(BTW, some good news though:  creating a new pilot and playing it through the techroom worked.  It also worked to play it through your special 'branch' campaign link you posted).

[Goober5000]

It's in scroll.vp.  But I suspect switching to a new campaign cleared the cache and allowed the loadout to be regenerated properly.

[Goober5000]

The first post has been rewritten into a proper release-style post.

[TopAce]

That's too bad there is no more interest in one of the oldest project in HLP's history. That's it? Four pages of posts?

[Goober5000]

I'm surprised as well.

We do know a lot of people play the mods; FSMods regularly gets 3 TB of traffic per month.  But it appears that those who download and play are not necessarily those who post on the forum.

[Gloriano]

Trying to find some time to play this, been waiting for this a long time Grats on release!

[Goober5000]

Thanks!  Looking forward to your comments.

[General Battuta]

I'm surprised as well.

We do know a lot of people play the mods; FSMods regularly gets 3 TB of traffic per month.  But it appears that those who download and play are not necessarily those who post on the forum.

What's it about, like what is the poster slogan, the log line, beyond 'Vasudans'

[Goober5000]

What's it about, like what is the poster slogan, the log line, beyond 'Vasudans'

Yeah, sorry for that earlier explanation, it was rather flippant.

It is a tale of the rise and fall of a group of Vasudans, who came to be called by the term Atankharz'ythi, which means wanderers.  It is a tale of hubris and humility, of the search for meaning and purpose, and ultimately of the search for a force of good that can overcome the force of evil that is the Shivans.

Scroll is also one of the few campaigns that features a branching storyline.  Both Part I and Part II feature sections where the same period of time is chronicled from two different perspectives.

And we also wanted to make a bunch of really fun missions in the mode of classic campaigns like Derelict and Inferno.  The Scroll modpack borrows quite a few ships from the latter.

[CT27]

One thing I forgot to say earlier, I loved that new heavy Vasudan fighter you had in the campaign.  The Reshef (sp?) was really fun to fly (it was described in the campaign as a Vasudan Erinyes).

Can we fly that in Scroll II?

[Goober5000]

I think that's a safe assumption.

[CT27]

I know it's not going to be the main focus of the campaign since this is a Vasudan campaign, but are we going to see new Terran fighters in Scroll II (since we've seen a new Terran cruiser and the Warlock in Scroll)?  IIRC, Scroll took place a decade after Capella and I think you said somewhere Scroll II will take place a couple years later.


Concerning Vasudan ships though, I liked that new corvette (that could hold 32 craft) and it was great seeing the Tanen in action again (I haven't seen it since Inferno).

[Goober5000]

We included a bunch of new Terran fighters in the modpack, but we didn't really have an opportunity to feature them.  But they will definitely make an appearance in Part II, along with several additional ships.

Glad you liked the Udjat and the Tanen.  Check out the tech room as well; there are a number of ships that never actually showed up in the campaign.

On a related note, I was particularly excited to see TrashMan's WIP.  The Orc/Blade will be making an appearance in Part II, as the Terran counterpart to the Vasudan Udjat.

[General Battuta]

Okay that sounds pretty cool

[CT27]

This continues my discussion on the Lucifer from the Deneb III thread:


In the final level,

Spoiler:

could you explain why the destroying the Lucifer's reactors only brought down the shield and didn't destroy the ship?  In FS1, destroying the reactors brought down the ship.  Could you please explain your reasoning for how you handled the Lucifer at the end of the game here?

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the campaign overall but this plot aspect slightly confused me.

[Goober5000]

Yes, this led to an extended discussion in the Scroll internal. 

Spoiler:

I pointed out that the common understanding was that destroying all five reactors causes the ship to explode, and that this was the understanding used in Awakenings, Derelict, and my own campaign Fortunes of War.  Sesquipedalian's contention was that destroying the reactors merely causes the Lucifer to lose power.  When it is not traveling through subspace, this has the effect of reducing speed and deactivating the shield system, but not causing the ship to explode.  Here is his explanation of what happened at the end of FS1:

Spoiler:

Without power, the Lucifer's subspace drive could not maintain her in subspace, and so she began to erratically "phase out" into normal space. Even during the early stages when it was still mostly existing in subspace, such chaotic "phasing out" would almost certainly have destructive effects on the ship as different parts of her suddenly found themselves momentarily existing in different types of space than their neighbours; this easily accounts for the many smaller, randomly distributed explosions leading up to the large explosion. As the Lucifer's ability to maintain itself in subspace collapsed entirely, it began to exit into normal space, but could not even complete that before being torn apart and losing the entire rear half that had not yet re-entered normal space by the time the collapse became catastrophic.

Neither of us were persuaded of the other's opinion, but as a result of the discussion, we tweaked the briefing and dialogue for the last mission.  The revised dialogue expresses surprise that the Irkalla didn't start exploding but notes that the shields are now offline.

[CT27]

Since you brought up Derelict:

In Derelict the Lucifer destroyer was stuck in subspace (it still had its reactors) and when it came out of subspace it didn't have its shields.  Also, it wasn't destroyed by having its reactors destroyed, a Helios-stuffed Deimos rammed it. (I think by this point most know how Derelict ends but if you want me to spoiler this part I will)

Bringing it somewhat back to Scroll: 

Spoiler:

Since Derelict didn't have shielded Lucifers, basically we don't have enough canon information on all Lucifers and its up to the campaign creator to decide whether future Lucifers would have shields or not?  Derelict chose one way and Scroll chose another.

That's an interesting opinion he had on the FS1 Lucifer.  Like you, I'm not sure I agree with it, but he's at least made a good effort to justify his position.

I hope I haven't sidetracked things by bringing in Derelict comparisons.  I'll have a specific Scroll post later.

[Goober5000]

I stand corrected.  You're right, in Derelict they just outright destroyed the thing.

Campaign creators can do whatever they want.  Derelict chose to not have shields on the Nyarlathotep, and it worked for their story purposes.

Derelict comparisons are fine.  Scroll took a lot of inspiration from Derelict.

[CT27]

Back to Scroll:

1-I liked a new character you brought in.  That new

Spoiler:

Vasudan commander in charge of the ISF branch expedition was interesting and cool.  One of the descriptions of him was something like "He usually goes his own way, but he's usually right."  That was interesting because usually Terrans are the ones portrayed as individualistic and somewhat chaotic and it was somewhat new to see a GTVA Vasudan shown that way.  Most campaigns that I've seen show GTVA Vasudans as leaning more collectivist and less expressive.  Even though I preferred the 'regular' GTVA branch over the ISF mission branch style, I really liked this character.  Hopefully he at least makes an appearance in Scroll II.
Was this character your idea Goober? 

2-Since you said you used a number of Inferno mods and we may see new Terran ships in Scroll II,

Spoiler:

any chance we could see the semi-infamous superfighter Keres in Scroll II?  Vasudans have let Terrans use their fighters so Terrans could return the favor and let them try this.  I say infamous because some say it's too OP.