Author Topic: Exile - Discussion  (Read 58786 times)

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At the time of writing, I am ten missions through the campaign and about to start the eleventh; The intro cutscene and the first few missions quickly hooked me. There have been times where I admit I was a little confused by certain dialogue or their grammar.; wasn't sure what to make of a few things. However, it is only a minor distraction from the real treats that Exile offers. Hats off to the team for its superb work; I am really enjoying the narrative, atmosphere, cutscenes and audio/visual quality.

Spoiler:
Oh, and that one mission in the prologue act which made me want to cold shower in guilt. I can't really think of many games that have had that effect with me. Very well played.

Well done with the release of Exile! I look forward to playing through the rest of Into The Dark Waters!
« Last Edit: November 11, 2017, 11:05:30 pm by starwolf1991 »
Previous Projects: Ancient-Shivan War | GTF Durandal

Current Projects: Exile: Into The Dark Waters (Proof-editing/misc)

 

Offline HLD_Prophecy

  • PVD_Hope in a former life
  • 29
Sorry if I take some time to post my thoughts and questions. I don't often have time and energy to play through full missions. But I'm totally appreciative of the work you guys put into this and I am playing it.  :D

 

Offline Vidmaster

  • 211
  • Inventor of FS2 bullettime ;-)
Problematic first impression here...       long cutscene (1), followed by a long cutscene (2) and then I am in the subspace tunnel. Tension builds :-) and dialog (3) supports it. We emerge into the battlefield and I am instructed to take out the beam. Uncautious as I am, I fly towards my target and start pounding that ship. I get killed. My attempted replay is quickly disincentiviced by the way that I am back at (2) and I seemingly cannot skip forward. There was a hint around (3) to skip (3) but I am at (2). Taking to the HLP forums to post this instead.

Will replay tomorrow.
Devoted member of the Official Karajorma Fan Club (Founded and Led by Mobius).

Does crazy Software Engineering for a living, until he finally musters the courage to start building games for real. Might never happen.

 

Offline Macielos

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  • 26
Sorry, we have implemented skipping long dialogs, but not skipping cutscenes. But you can always use time compression in the beginning. It automatically resets after the cutscene.

 

Offline CT27

  • 211
Two questions:

1-Were there any Vasudans in Exodus Fleet or did all Vasudans in Sol at the time of the Lucifer's explosion die off by the time of Exile?

2-  Is there a way to differentiate between the Federate and Syndicate military fleets?  For instance, in Blue Planet you can generally say the UEF military is built around heavily armored ships that overwhelm opponents with mass amounts of firepower and GTVA ships in general seem to be more built around maneuverability and high-damage shock jump precision attacks.

 

Offline Nyctaeus

  • The Slavic Engineer
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  • My "FS Ships" folder is 582gb.
    • Minecraft
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1. Not really. There were not many vasudans in Sol when Delta Serpentis-Sol node collapsed, and all of them are presumbly assimilated by terran society. We may introduce some vasudan character in Act II.

2. Syndicate warships are more heavily armored than EFN counterparts, and have more sustained way of dealing damage. EFN is all about fast-firing torpedoes and plasma cannons to deal damage as fast as possible, but they have lighter armor. EFN were also very dependant on their bomber wings, while ORS capships are their main source of anti-capital damage. Additionally ORS warships are all about self-sustaining for extended periods, while EFN rely mostly on constant logistics support. That was direct reason why Redemption wasn't used before Entrenchment. Still both factions have lots of similarities, because they were frequently adapting technological advancements of other side.
Exile | Shadow Genesis | Inferno | Series Resurrecta  | DA Profile | P3D Profile

Proud owner of NyctiShipyards. Remember - Nyx will fix it!

All of my assets including models, textures, skyboxes, effects may be used under standard CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

 

Offline HLD_Prophecy

  • PVD_Hope in a former life
  • 29
Finished the first mission and subsequent cutscene.

Aesthetic is easily my favorite part of this mod so far. Everything's crisp and oh-so cool to look at. Colorful weapons keep things interesting and help me to differentiate easily in combat. Epic cutscenes! Music is great too, where are you guys getting it all from?

Dialogue might be a little heavy on the language, but it looks like you guys thought it out well.

Spoiler:
The horror I felt at abandoning Earth and watching it's systematic destruction... wow. Well done.

 

Offline Nyctaeus

  • The Slavic Engineer
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  • My "FS Ships" folder is 582gb.
    • Minecraft
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Other games, TV series, indie composers, royality-free libraries and also other mods. Tons of sources, all credited in outro cutscene. I tried to avoid music with heavy copyrights.

Overall, modpack of Exile accumulate long years of modding. I personally spend the most preparing models. Majority of them were my learning subjects, ranging from SC Daeva [first model I ever converted] to later HTLs like Vitalius. Still majority of Exile models are kinda outdated for me.
Exile | Shadow Genesis | Inferno | Series Resurrecta  | DA Profile | P3D Profile

Proud owner of NyctiShipyards. Remember - Nyx will fix it!

All of my assets including models, textures, skyboxes, effects may be used under standard CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

 
Just finished the campaign tonight! What a long ride through hell and back and all the sweet satisfaction that came from at the end of it. By the conclusion, I ended up with 12/19 achievements and Triple Aced. Definitely planning on replaying it again later on, once I've finished letting victory sink in.  :D

Having finished it, I thought I should provide some points on problems or bugs I encountered during my playthrough for reference. They are, in spoiler tags, as follows:

Spoiler:
1. Mission 11 'Dangerous Game' -- As aforementioned by another, no mission debriefing was issued despite completing all objectives and a successful outcome of the mission.

2A.  Mission 21 'Lost in Space' -- The grey color of the anomalies made them difficult at times to read on the hud.
2B. Proximity detection was also a bit wonky at the third beacon. Had to reload the mission two times before it wanted to play ball and let me proceed.

3. Missions 22 'Day of Reckoning' -- My first attempt of this mission, Gamma wing was destroyed before the first checkpoint was issued. I perished sometime after in the closing minutes. On my second attempt, the checkpoint did not factor in that Gamma wing had been wiped out. I had a completely fresh wing of bombers ready to fight as a result.

4A. Mission 26 'Sol Invictus' -- I was awarded the achievement for keeping all ships above 40% hull integrity. However, when it was awarded, I noticed the Anjaneya was NOT above 40%. Is it counted toward the goal?
4B. Between after the Anjaneya arrives and before the cutscene showing the Tyrant's destruction, all music abruptly cuts. Nothing plays until the cutscene begins.

On a side note, I'd also like to point out a missing point in the models section of the credits. Once again, in spoiler tag:

Spoiler:
For the GTF Durandal, listed in the models archive as 'Exile_EFN_Durandal.pof, I am personally credited on the HLP wikia for its concept and original table data. You've already credited FreeSpaceFreak (FSF) in the models section (He did all the other bits of the Durandal) so that is all good. Could I please ask that this be corrected if you make any patches to Exile? I've included a link to its wikia page for reference:
http://wiki.hard-light.net/index.php/GTF_Durandal


Once again, well done with Exile and thank you for all the entertainment it brought!
« Last Edit: November 16, 2017, 12:52:56 am by starwolf1991 »
Previous Projects: Ancient-Shivan War | GTF Durandal

Current Projects: Exile: Into The Dark Waters (Proof-editing/misc)

 

Offline Nyctaeus

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Thank you :]. All noted and fixes will be included in upcoming patch.

As for Durandal, I'm really sorry for not including you in credits list. If I remember correctly when I took this model, only FSF was listed. I've got it from Dimensional Eclipse or FreeSpaceMods. Don't exactly remember. We will include your nickname in 1.1 patch as well.
Exile | Shadow Genesis | Inferno | Series Resurrecta  | DA Profile | P3D Profile

Proud owner of NyctiShipyards. Remember - Nyx will fix it!

All of my assets including models, textures, skyboxes, effects may be used under standard CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

 
As for Durandal, I'm really sorry for not including you in credits list. If I remember correctly when I took this model, only FSF was listed. I've got it from Dimensional Eclipse or FreeSpaceMods. Don't exactly remember. We will include your nickname in 1.1 patch as well.

Thanks! I do remember it was included in Dimensional Eclipse from a while back now so all is good there!
Previous Projects: Ancient-Shivan War | GTF Durandal

Current Projects: Exile: Into The Dark Waters (Proof-editing/misc)

 

Offline Macielos

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  • 26
We're glad you liked the Exile :).

Spoiler:
4A. Mission 26 'Sol Invictus' -- I was awarded the achievement for keeping all ships above 40% hull integrity. However, when it was awarded, I noticed the Anjaneya was NOT above 40%. Is it counted toward the goal?
Spoiler:
Ok, the description is a bit misleading. You need to keep over 40% Ironclad's battlegroup only (Ironclad, Harmattan, Andrasta and Akka).

 

Offline CKid

Done the campaign. Extremely impressed with has been created here. Earlier I mentioned that it felt like ItDoH, well I guess I hit the nail on the head. Small confession, ItDoH was my favorite and most played campaign until the original release of BP: AoA, so getting to play something so similar really got me hooked quickly.

Spoiler:
All missions played well without any major hiccups or bugs. (Besides the one with the missing debrief) Playing on Hard difficulty was challenging but never impossible. However I did have to drop it to medium for the mission "Distraction" due to the fact that the ORF Defender's primary weapons energy capacity sucks and there is a lot of targets to kill before they escape.

Use of the fiction viewer was a nice touch. It's a great way to get the Fleetmasters different points of view, really lets you connect with them as they do their best to guide the fleet through hell. The commander of the Halifax can be one very scary SOB.

Hell of a job creating the cut-scenes. Seeing Paris and the Eiffel tower being blown away in an orbit bombardment and shuttles escaping the space installation certainly stood out the most for me. Great selection of music which matched the tone of the mission being played. Some great tracks to listen to while killing shivans.

One issue I would like to bring up is the lack of information of the EFN in the Fleet. We are told that there was survivors from many planets including Earth and Mars however we not told about what EFN forces joined us. Its not until about half way through the campaign in the mission "Apple of Discord" that we meet our first EFN ship since the exodus but at this time because no one mentioned to tell us what EFN assets are in the fleet, we don't know if any of them are friendly. Even later in the game when we are briefed on the new fleet formations (Roaming fleet, Heavy fleet, ex) the Federate task force including the EFD Redemption is not mentioned at all. Imagine my surprise 4 missions later and 2/3 of the way through the game that a EFN Destroyer, 1/4 of the Exodus fleet's destroyer complement shows up out of nowhere to assist a node blockade. I had to check the techroom database just read about them.

Nothing else to say other then that I love this campaign and can't wait to see what's in store next. Also got 12/19 achievements on my first run.
« Last Edit: November 15, 2017, 10:34:42 pm by CKid »
If I agreed with you, we would both be wrong

 

Offline Macielos

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  • 26
Spoiler:
Hell of a job creating the cut-scenes. Seeing Paris and the Eiffel tower being blown away in an orbit bombardment and shuttles escaping the space installation certainly stood out the most for me. Great selection of music which matched the tone of the mission being played. Some great tracks to listen to while killing shivans.

Spoiler:
Well, Fall of Earth was a tremendous work for me, setting cameras, preparing Paris and its surroundings being evacuated, placing all these skyscrapers, explosion effects simulating beams hitting the surface... We even reached the limit of 400 ships in Fred when adding skyscrapers on the hills around Paris :P.

BTW, did nobody so far notice an easter egg on the Eiffel Tower? :)

Quote
Spoiler:
One issue I would like to bring up is the lack of information of the EFN in the Fleet. We are told that there was survivors from many planets including Earth and Mars however we not told about what EFN forces joined us. Its not until about half way through the campaign in the mission "Apple of Discord" that we meet our first EFN ship since the exodus but at this time because no one mentioned to tell us what EFN assets are in the fleet, we don't know if any of them are friendly. Even later in the game when we are briefed on the new fleet formations (Roaming fleet, Heavy fleet, ex) the Federate task force including the EFD Redemption is not mentioned at all. Imagine my surprise 4 missions later and 2/3 of the way through the game that a EFN Destroyer, 1/4 of the Exodus fleet's destroyer complement shows up out of nowhere to assist a node blockade. I had to check the techroom database just read about them.
Spoiler:
Hmm, originally Caliphtys didn't mention EFN or Admiral Leibniz in his speech about fleet organization because by this time Federate Task Force was effectively dissolved following the events in Apple of Discord and EFN ships were split among various ORS fleets. And Redemption itself was out of fight, so we didn't see it on any war theatre. We only know about EFN presence from briefing of Distraction, we know they're on our side, but we do not know the scale.

But now when I think about it, you are right. We'll probably add some info about EFN ships in the fleet when we work on the patch.

 

Offline kimo

  • 24
Spoiler:
"When all hope for Earth seemed lost, France made her last stand against the Shivan invasion and used her most deadly weapon..."
Evil  :wakka:

 

Offline CT27

  • 211
I thought of an interesting dialogue addition to the final mission "Sol Invictus":

Spoiler:
  When it looked like the Ironclad might have to close the Knossos before everyone got through and trap themselves in the system so the Shivans couldn't get to Andromeda...maybe there should have been some dialogue by the Ironclad CO telling the fighters to go on ahead.  It could have been something like "Pilots, we can't make it but there's no reason for you to sacrifice yourselves.  You can still be of help to Exodus Fleet, go jump through the Knossos when I give the signal."

It would have been rendered moot when the reinforcements came from beyond the Knossos, but militarily I don't see why they didn't try to get the fighters through.  Capships may not have been able to get through those two Shivan destroyers, but fighters could get past them I think. [/spoilers]

 

Offline Vidmaster

  • 211
  • Inventor of FS2 bullettime ;-)
I like it thus far, despite the problematic introduction and my first contact. A campaign like this would benefit tremendously from being voice acted.

Edit: Later impressions on page 5.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2017, 03:12:13 pm by Vidmaster »
Devoted member of the Official Karajorma Fan Club (Founded and Led by Mobius).

Does crazy Software Engineering for a living, until he finally musters the courage to start building games for real. Might never happen.

 

Offline Macielos

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  • 26
Alright, I've already fixed most of the issues mentioned in this topic, we'll soon need someone to check our dialogs and improve their style a bit. Any volunteers? :P

Spoiler:
4B. Between after the Anjaneya arrives and before the cutscene showing the Tyrant's destruction, all music abruptly cuts. Nothing plays until the cutscene begins.
Spoiler:
Hmm, to be honest I can't reproduce this error. Did the music stop exactly after Anjaneya arrived or some time later? Did you use any checkpoints or get an achievement "Dream Team"?

 

Offline CT27

  • 211
In this universe, how is the GTVA doing during the events of Exile?

 
Alright, I've already fixed most of the issues mentioned in this topic, we'll soon need someone to check our dialogs and improve their style a bit. Any volunteers? :P

Spoiler:
4B. Between after the Anjaneya arrives and before the cutscene showing the Tyrant's destruction, all music abruptly cuts. Nothing plays until the cutscene begins.
Spoiler:
Hmm, to be honest I can't reproduce this error. Did the music stop exactly after Anjaneya arrived or some time later? Did you use any checkpoints or get an achievement "Dream Team"?

1. Checking and improving dialogues? I'd certainly be willing, if you or Nyctaeus are onboard with that. Some of it is a tad confusing but if pointed in the right direction, then all should be grand. I'd be happy to discuss this further over PM.

2. The music stopped some time after the aforementioned arrival. I succeeded in the mission on the first try; no checkpoints were used and the achievement was awarded. 
« Last Edit: November 21, 2017, 03:07:14 am by starwolf1991 »
Previous Projects: Ancient-Shivan War | GTF Durandal

Current Projects: Exile: Into The Dark Waters (Proof-editing/misc)