Author Topic: What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game  (Read 9143 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline karajorma

  • King Louie - Jungle VIP
  • Administrator
  • 214
    • Karajorma's Freespace FAQ
What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game
While I was sme coding I had to take a look at the original FS2 missions to see what red-alert-carry-status had been used for. Rather than simply open up SM3-09 and check I simply grepped all the missions and found something a little surprising. Although Clash of the Titans II is the only mission that ends in a red alert, it's not the only mission with ships set as red alert. Even more interestingly, even though red-alert-carry only works with fighters it has been set for several other ships.

Now some of this is probably just simple mistakes but some of it is obviously by design and gives us a glimpse at the early mission designs and script of the game.

1) The Place of Chariots and The Romans Blunder appear to have been designed as a linked pair of missions. The Freighters in the first mission appear in the second one and have been set to carry cargo containing the same things. Both freighters and cargo have been set to red alert.

2) Rather bizarrely the Sathanas is set to red-alert in High Noon. Not entirely sure what that means. It could be a simple mistake or it could be an indication that the Sathanas was meant to accumulate damage from a mission proceeding it (There is a systematic error in the :V: missions where they set red-alert-carry on both the mission proceeding the red alert and the red alert itself).

3) The Azrael that carries off Bosch in Return to Babel is also set to red-alert.

4) Most interestingly of all, Alpha wing in Their Finest Hour is set up to red-alert. I tend to feel that this is good proof that originally the last three missions were meant to run back to back. This probably proved too difficult so the first mission was turned into a stand alone.


Now if that's what I could glean simply from a single ship flag, I wonder what else becomes more obvious if you take a good look at the missions themselves. :D
Karajorma's Freespace FAQ. It's almost like asking me yourself.

[ Diaspora ] - [ Seeds Of Rebellion ] - [ Mind Games ]

  

Offline Cobra

  • 212
  • Snake on a Cain
    • Minecraft
    • Skype
    • Steam
    • Twitter
Re: What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game
Oh snap, I bet we would've gotten to find Bosch. D:
To consider the Earth as the only populated world in infinite space is as absurd as to assert that in an entire field of millet, only one grain will grow. - Metrodorus of Chios
I wept. Mysterious forces beyond my ken had reached into my beautiful mission and energized its pilots with inhuman bomb-firing abilities. I could only imagine the GTVA warriors giving a mighty KIAAIIIIIII shout as they worked their triggers, their biceps bulging with sinew after years of Ivan Drago-esque steroid therapy and weight training. - General Battuta

 

Offline Flipside

  • əp!sd!l£
  • 212
Re: What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game
So, if I'm reading that correctly, there may have been an intention to have a mission after Bosch was taken from the Iceni that involved his transport?

 

Offline karajorma

  • King Louie - Jungle VIP
  • Administrator
  • 214
    • Karajorma's Freespace FAQ
Re: What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game
Or maybe more of the transport in the mission immediately afterwards. The one where you find the Knossos in the nebula and the second Sathanas appears.
Karajorma's Freespace FAQ. It's almost like asking me yourself.

[ Diaspora ] - [ Seeds Of Rebellion ] - [ Mind Games ]

 

Offline Snail

  • SC 5
  • 214
  • Posts: ☂
Re: What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game
Straight, No Chaser.


Some intriguing comments can also be found in the Designer Notes box of most missions as well... Like "This is my first mission on the job lul"

 

Offline Goober5000

  • HLP Loremaster
  • 214
    • Goober5000 Productions
Re: What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game
Yep, lots of interesting stuff there.  This comment, which combines both categories, can be found in the notes from SM1-03:
Quote
This was the first mission I created for Volition.  Originally this was designed to be the recond [sic] of a red alert pair, to follow Brad's SM1-02.  The difficulty was toned down several times to make it suitable for the beginning of the campaign.

 

Offline Kie99

  • 211
Re: What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game
The Azrael that appears in the mission where the Iceni goes up can be destroyed, I don't think it was supposed to be carrying Bosch.
"You shot me in the bollocks, Tim"
"Like I said, no hard feelings"

 

Offline karajorma

  • King Louie - Jungle VIP
  • Administrator
  • 214
    • Karajorma's Freespace FAQ
Re: What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game
Fair point.
Karajorma's Freespace FAQ. It's almost like asking me yourself.

[ Diaspora ] - [ Seeds Of Rebellion ] - [ Mind Games ]

 

Offline Aardwolf

  • 211
  • Posts: 16,384
    • Minecraft
Re: What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game
2) Rather bizarrely the Sathanas is set to red-alert in High Noon. Not entirely sure what that means. It could be a simple mistake or it could be an indication that the Sathanas was meant to accumulate damage from a mission proceeding it (There is a systematic error in the :V: missions where they set red-alert-carry on both the mission proceeding the red alert and the red alert itself).

I thought that was responsible for making the main guns stay dead?

 

Offline Androgeos Exeunt

  • Captain Oblivious
  • 212
  • Prevents attraction.
    • Wordpress.com Blog
Re: What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game
The Azrael that appears in the mission where the Iceni goes up can be destroyed, I don't think it was supposed to be carrying Bosch.

What the debrief says is that the 203rd arrived too late to capture Bosch, so if it wasn't destroyed, Bosch might be in it, but if it is destroyed, Bosch would then be on a transport that had already left.

2) Rather bizarrely the Sathanas is set to red-alert in High Noon. Not entirely sure what that means. It could be a simple mistake or it could be an indication that the Sathanas was meant to accumulate damage from a mission proceeding it (There is a systematic error in the :V: missions where they set red-alert-carry on both the mission proceeding the red alert and the red alert itself).

I don't think it was a mistake. :v: might have removed it because of the low probability of the player destroying all four beam cannons on the juggernaut. If they are all destroyed, then the Red Alert will make sense because there was no fleet for the Sathanas to obliterate. However, if Red Alert was set and at least one cannon was still operational, the Sathanas would have obliterated a GTVA fleet, and it would definitely have sustained some damage during that skirmish, in which case the hull integrity of the Sathanas between Bearbaiting and High Noon will no longer be the same.
My blog

Quote: Tuesday, 3 October 2023 0133 UTC +8, #general
MP-Ryan
Oh you still believe in fairy tales like Santa, the Easter Bunny, and free market competition principles?

 

Offline karajorma

  • King Louie - Jungle VIP
  • Administrator
  • 214
    • Karajorma's Freespace FAQ
Re: What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game
I thought that was responsible for making the main guns stay dead?

They used a different method in the end for that. I suppose it could be a hold over from attempting to do it that way though.
Karajorma's Freespace FAQ. It's almost like asking me yourself.

[ Diaspora ] - [ Seeds Of Rebellion ] - [ Mind Games ]

 

Offline darkdaej

  • 27
  • Wingmen: Useless buggers
Re: What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game

I don't think it was a mistake. :v: might have removed it because of the low probability of the player destroying all four beam cannons on the juggernaut.

Huh?  low probability of the player destroying all four beam cannons?  Dude, I wipe out all four, wipe the flak turrrets and still have about 30-40 seconds to dogfight in my bomber...  Ok I admit It took me a lot of time to learn how to properly position myself so the bombs blow up properly, and I died quite a few times, but nowadays its a one-run mission.




 

Offline colecampbell666

  • I See Dead Pictures
  • 212
  • Evolution and ascension.
Re: What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game
And I managed to get the rear beam. On insane.
Gettin' back to dodgin' lasers.

 

Offline darkdaej

  • 27
  • Wingmen: Useless buggers
Re: What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game
And I managed to get the rear beam. On insane.

I do it on Hard, always thought Insane was plainly exaggerated in its difficulty...at least for the main campaign.  That and it makes me scream at my monitor

 

Offline colecampbell666

  • I See Dead Pictures
  • 212
  • Evolution and ascension.
Re: What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game
Well from what I can tell the AI are incapable of missing on insane.
Gettin' back to dodgin' lasers.

 

Offline General Battuta

  • Poe's Law In Action
  • 214
  • i wonder when my postcount will exceed my iq
Re: What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game
And I managed to get the rear beam. On insane.

I do it on Hard, always thought Insane was plainly exaggerated in its difficulty...at least for the main campaign.  That and it makes me scream at my monitor

The reason Insane is Insane is because it puts you on a fair playing field with the enemy. There's no limit (if I recall correctly) to the number of turrets/hostiles who can be shooting at you at once, and you don't get much special damage resistance.

 

Offline Flipside

  • əp!sd!l£
  • 212
Re: What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game
Well from what I can tell the AI are incapable of missing on insane.

Not incapable, but I think every shot it fires will hit you if you continue on a straight line path, the AI has almost perfect target-leading but as to whether that becomes a hit or not is up to you ;)

 

Offline Cobra

  • 212
  • Snake on a Cain
    • Minecraft
    • Skype
    • Steam
    • Twitter
Re: What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game
Going up?! HA NO I'M GONNA PITCH DOWN NOWZ.
To consider the Earth as the only populated world in infinite space is as absurd as to assert that in an entire field of millet, only one grain will grow. - Metrodorus of Chios
I wept. Mysterious forces beyond my ken had reached into my beautiful mission and energized its pilots with inhuman bomb-firing abilities. I could only imagine the GTVA warriors giving a mighty KIAAIIIIIII shout as they worked their triggers, their biceps bulging with sinew after years of Ivan Drago-esque steroid therapy and weight training. - General Battuta

 

Offline Flipside

  • əp!sd!l£
  • 212
Re: What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game
Actually that's more or less it. In X-Wing it was called jinking, though I'm not certain if that's an official term or not.

 
Re: What We Know About The Draft Script For The Game
There's no limit (if I recall correctly) to the number of turrets/hostiles who can be shooting at you at once
Wait, there IS a limit to this on lower difficulty levels? That would explain a lot :>