Hard Light Productions Forums

FreeSpace Releases => Mission & Campaign Releases => Topic started by: Voelkel on April 04, 2021, 01:06:22 pm

Title: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Voelkel on April 04, 2021, 01:06:22 pm
(https://i.ibb.co/sCjYjLP/nt7-KZ1617552635.png)

                                                                                                              DOWNLOAD LINK (https://fsnebula.org/mod/Reunion_Crisis_1)

THE MOD
______________________________________________________________ ___


(https://i.ibb.co/vBv4q5m/reutitle1.png)


Reunion is a lore-friendly, story-driven Freespace 2 campaign with fast-paced fighter combat and epic capital ship battles. The mod aims to capture the look and feel of the original Freespace franchise, providing new content with a sense of authenticity. This is an open beta release, which means that Act 1 is fully playable, but Act 2 and 3 are still in development.

The mod contains:
     ○   10 new missions, which compose Act 1 of the Reunion campaign.
     ○   More than 50 new ships, installations and stellar objects.
     ○   Over a dozen new weapons, most of them never before seen in any other mod.
     ○   A dynamic plot with interesting and diverse characters.
     ○   Epic music and custom skyboxes.



THE STORY
______________________________________________________________ ____________


(https://i.ibb.co/yFvTtHX/m7s1.png)

You assume the role of Commander Simmons, a fighter pilot freshly assigned to the GTVA's 54th fighter squadron aboard the Nagoya, a Rhea-class carrier.

The main campaign is set 12 years after the Capella incident, as the GTVA is nearing the conclusion of its gate construction effort in Delta Serpentis. The Alliance couldn't quite recover from the second Shivan incursion, stretching its resources thin in an effort to both rebuild its fleet and find a way back to Earth.

The voices of those, who never want to return to Sol are getting louder by the day. Some are dissatisfied with the decreasing living standards, others imagine a bright future among the stars. Most however, fear what lies on the other side of the jump gate. A movement to abandon the construction of the gate has started, its radical wing rapidly gaining momentum. As the GTVA fears another insurrection, shadowy powers manipulate the political climate to their own ends.


SHIPS, WEAPONS AND COMBAT
______________________________________________________________ ____________


(https://i.ibb.co/wdjGFbw/action.png)

Reunion draws upon the vast creative talent the Freespace 2 modding community has amassed over the years, introducing a wide variety of new ships, skins and weapons, some entirely unique to this mod. Fly lightning-fast interceptors. Use bombs that are able to eradicate entire convoys. Take out enemies from afar with your antimatter lance. Confront deadly enemies driven by Blue Planet's enhanced AI. Take part in massive battles between enormous starfleets. Help humanity return to Earth.

Successful completion of the campaign requires quick reflexes, good tactical thinking and command abilities. As an officer of the GTVA security forces, you will have to work together as a team with your wingmen, who depend on your judgement as their leader. You will not be able to complete Reunion simply by flying up to hostiles and pulling the trigger.

Full credits are listed in the mod's root folder, it will also be listed at the end of the campaign once it is fully complete.


GAMEPLAY SCREENSHOTS
______________________________________________________________ ____________


(https://i.ibb.co/TmVKW3J/m3s5.png)
(https://i.ibb.co/sVC7FNB/m6s2.png)
(https://i.ibb.co/XS1TtQQ/m8s3.png)
(https://i.ibb.co/CVXjZcj/m2s2.png)
(https://i.ibb.co/2Y32VWR/m1s8.png)
(https://i.ibb.co/TW26V53/m4s1.png)


FAQ
______________________________________________________________ ____________


Q: How is this mod any different from Blue Planet / Inferno?
A: Reunion's storytelling is centered around the gate construction effort to Sol and an internal conflict within the GTVA. Blue Planet and Inferno are inspiring works of art, however, I felt like telling a different story with this mod. Telling what exactly is different would be delving too much into spoilers, I can only urge you to explore.

Q: But do you get to take part in an epic brother war between the GTVA and Earth forces?
Spoiler:
A: No.

Q: I found a bug or have a suggestion! Where can I make a report?
A: If you encounter any bugs not listed in the "more to come" section, please contact me either via a private message or post in this thread. Please do the same if you have any suggestions with which this campaign could be improved. I am very grateful for any feedback I can get.

Q: When will Act 2 be released?
A: 2021 Q4-2022 Q1 hopefully.

Q: Bro, this campaign is pretty decent, is this seriously your first mod?
A: Nope. This is actually my fourth attempt at making a campaign, but this is the first one I found to be worthy of a public release. The first three will be lost in the labyrinth of space and time forever. Sorry!


MORE TO COME
______________________________________________________________ ____________


(https://i.ibb.co/kmPksT8/2.png)

Presently, the Reunion mod is in open beta stage, which means an expansion to the project is yet to come. So far, this release contains only Act 1, which is composed of 10 missions. The development of Act 2 is already in progress. Since this is the first campaign I have ever released to the public, your feedback is invaluable to me in the development of the upcoming chapters.

Long term plans include the addition of:
     ○   Act 2 and Act 3
     ○   Custom HUD
     ○   Custom mainhall and briefing animations
     ○   End credits cutscene
     ○   Full character voiceovers
     ○   Custom fonts
     ○   Better tech descriptions
     ○   Correction of potential grammar and spelling mistakes


While the development continues, do not hesitate to give feedback! Your thoughts are very much appreciated.

                                                                                                              DOWNLOAD LINK (https://fsnebula.org/mod/Reunion_Crisis_1)
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Open Beta
Post by: General Battuta on April 04, 2021, 02:03:33 pm
Yo this looks awesome! Also that's a very cleanly formatted and intriguing release post, you told me everything I wanted to know right when I got curious about it.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Open Beta
Post by: Voelkel on April 04, 2021, 02:18:22 pm
Yo this looks awesome! Also that's a very cleanly formatted and intriguing release post, you told me everything I wanted to know right when I got curious about it.

Thanks! I would love to hear your feedback when you're finished!
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Open Beta
Post by: Goober5000 on April 04, 2021, 04:25:40 pm
This looks amazing.  Highlighted. :yes:
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Open Beta
Post by: ShivanSlayer on April 05, 2021, 12:44:25 am
Stuck on mission 5 with attack on Regulus, but like it so far.  One small flaw I found is that in the first 2 missions, the nebulas and planets don't mesh well into the background. They look as if somebody glued them on
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Open Beta
Post by: Voelkel on April 05, 2021, 01:42:03 am
This looks amazing.  Highlighted. :yes:

Thank you, much appreciated!

Stuck on mission 5 with attack on Regulus, but like it so far.  One small flaw I found is that in the first 2 missions, the nebulas and planets don't mesh well into the background. They look as if somebody glued them on

Thank you for the notice! I'll correct that ASAP.

As for the Regulus missions, wingmen commands are absolutely essential to achieve success in this operation!
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Open Beta
Post by: Voelkel on April 05, 2021, 07:35:07 am
Added a minor update that
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Open Beta
Post by: TopAce on April 05, 2021, 08:02:05 am
...As for the Regulus missions, wingmen commands are absolutely essential to achieve success in this operation!

Is this hinted at or told explicitly somewhere? If not, some would consider it a design flaw. I'd add a message something along the lines of: "Alpha 1, what do you want us to do?" Ordering wingmen around to achieve great results is good, but having a hard time progressing the campaign at all because of it should be avoided. Generally speaking, you must make sure your missions are beatable without the player having to replay said mission numerous times just to figure out what the FREDder had in mind during development.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Open Beta
Post by: Voelkel on April 05, 2021, 08:28:59 am
...As for the Regulus missions, wingmen commands are absolutely essential to achieve success in this operation!

Is this hinted at or told explicitly somewhere? If not, some would consider it a design flaw. I'd add a message something along the lines of: "Alpha 1, what do you want us to do?" Ordering wingmen around to achieve great results is good, but having a hard time progressing the campaign at all because of it should be avoided. Generally speaking, you must make sure your missions are beatable without the player having to replay said mission numerous times just to figure out what the FREDder had in mind during development.

It is indeed! There are numerous instances during the campaign when your wingmen prod you for orders, including the very first mission, which has a strong element in it that so-to-say teaches / reminds you to order your wingmen around frequently.

The need for you to lead your wingmen is also explicitly mentioned in the mod's description text and is part of the introductory briefing.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Open Beta
Post by: woutersmits on April 06, 2021, 02:36:02 am
you passed the test i see good reactions fro,m you
i going to try voelkel
een goober gived you highlight thars means you are good to go
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Open Beta
Post by: Voelkel on April 06, 2021, 05:33:52 am
you passed the test i see good reactions fro,m you
i going to try voelkel
een goober gived you highlight thars means you are good to go

Thank you! I hope you'll enjoy the campaign, make sure you give feedback as well!
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Open Beta
Post by: Dilmah G on April 06, 2021, 08:30:23 am
Yo Voelkel, congrats on your first release on HLP! I agree with Battuta - that is a spectacular opening post and it definitely motivated me to make the extra effort to download and play a bit after I finished work today!

I've only played through what I imagine is 3/4 of the way through the first mission. In my finite wisdom I left my difficulty set to insane, so it's good to know at least that I got all the way until the end before it became a drama! The overall production quality (especially the music!) is great and it's clear that a lot of effort has been put into the mod. I did also enjoy the use of the Fiction Viewer. My thoughts in detail below:

Spoiler:
As I said, congrats and great work! Mods like BP and Inferno definitely make this a more intimidating piece of FS history to explore but I think you really took that in your stride with the way that you went straight to work with the worldbuilding. I really enjoyed the detail in the opening Fiction Viewer piece and how you made an effort early on to distinguish between the different key characters in the story. IMO it's that level of detail that really sells the story and it's that sort of attention to detail that really made mods like Derelict (and BP!) popular.

That being said, my overriding piece of feedback is that I felt your writing didn't fully enable the power of your content because it was quite overt from the get go. I don't consider my creative writing to be good by any stretch and I'm sure there are plenty of people who've experienced mine who would say you should take my criticism with a grain of salt (including me!), but one of the most helpful expressions I learned when it came to writing was the phrase "Show, don't tell". A brief google search tells me that there are plenty of people smarter than I who have written about it, but the fundamental principle that I pull out of it all is that the balance between "telling" your audience information and "showing" them through your development of the story and descriptions of a scene are key to writing a page-turning narrative. Or in your case, a narrative that makes people want to play until the next mission.

A few examples of this are when you describe how certain characters are during the opening Fiction Viewer, and give little personality snippets about the wingmen during the Command Briefing. I think the fact you have this level of detail is excellent, and that tells me that you've clearly invested a lot of thought into how you think these characters should look and feel. What that then allows you to do is let the interactions between your characters show how they are. This is where wingman dialogue during the mission can really show some nuance and breathe life into your characters. Derelict is a great example of this - I can't see the word "Mackie" written anywhere now without thinking of goddamn duct tape! And on this note, I felt that the wingman dialogue was a tad on the overt side as well when it came to telling the meatier parts of your story. As the audience, I got the impression you really wanted to set this universe up for me in double-time - which I absolutely understand - but it's just hard to do quickly through one mission opening's worth of dialogue without it feeling a bit on the forced side. That being said, I do genuinely think the level of detail in all of the exposition was fantastic, and when it's not closer to 11pm over here in Australia I absolutely will get around to playing the rest of it!

In any case, your overall quality of the mod (music, custom loading screens, custom ships!) was great and in the overall sense, it felt like a polished product. And to be honest, that's all the really hard stuff behind modding anyway. Writing obviously requires much less time spent wanting to throw your monitor through the window because FRED isn't playing ball but potentially a bit more "soak" time to really refine. If you want more specific feedback from me I'm only too happy to oblige later in the week when I have some time. There are plenty of actually accomplished writers kicking around the joint who will have some great feedback for you as well (and might even disagree with everything I have to say!), so I won't be offended at all if you print my post out only to have the ability to then put it through the shredder!  :lol:
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Open Beta
Post by: Voelkel on April 06, 2021, 09:08:59 am
Yo Voelkel, congrats on your first release on HLP! I agree with Battuta - that is a spectacular opening post and it definitely motivated me to make the extra effort to download and play a bit after I finished work today!

I've only played through what I imagine is 3/4 of the way through the first mission. In my finite wisdom I left my difficulty set to insane, so it's good to know at least that I got all the way until the end before it became a drama! The overall production quality (especially the music!) is great and it's clear that a lot of effort has been put into the mod. I did also enjoy the use of the Fiction Viewer. My thoughts in detail below:

Spoiler:
As I said, congrats and great work! Mods like BP and Inferno definitely make this a more intimidating piece of FS history to explore but I think you really took that in your stride with the way that you went straight to work with the worldbuilding. I really enjoyed the detail in the opening Fiction Viewer piece and how you made an effort early on to distinguish between the different key characters in the story. IMO it's that level of detail that really sells the story and it's that sort of attention to detail that really made mods like Derelict (and BP!) popular.

That being said, my overriding piece of feedback is that I felt your writing didn't fully enable the power of your content because it was quite overt from the get go. I don't consider my creative writing to be good by any stretch and I'm sure there are plenty of people who've experienced mine who would say you should take my criticism with a grain of salt (including me!), but one of the most helpful expressions I learned when it came to writing was the phrase "Show, don't tell". A brief google search tells me that there are plenty of people smarter than I who have written about it, but the fundamental principle that I pull out of it all is that the balance between "telling" your audience information and "showing" them through your development of the story and descriptions of a scene are key to writing a page-turning narrative. Or in your case, a narrative that makes people want to play until the next mission.

A few examples of this are when you describe how certain characters are during the opening Fiction Viewer, and give little personality snippets about the wingmen during the Command Briefing. I think the fact you have this level of detail is excellent, and that tells me that you've clearly invested a lot of thought into how you think these characters should look and feel. What that then allows you to do is let the interactions between your characters show how they are. This is where wingman dialogue during the mission can really show some nuance and breathe life into your characters. Derelict is a great example of this - I can't see the word "Mackie" written anywhere now without thinking of goddamn duct tape! And on this note, I felt that the wingman dialogue was a tad on the overt side as well when it came to telling the meatier parts of your story. As the audience, I got the impression you really wanted to set this universe up for me in double-time - which I absolutely understand - but it's just hard to do quickly through one mission opening's worth of dialogue without it feeling a bit on the forced side. That being said, I do genuinely think the level of detail in all of the exposition was fantastic, and when it's not closer to 11pm over here in Australia I absolutely will get around to playing the rest of it!

In any case, your overall quality of the mod (music, custom loading screens, custom ships!) was great and in the overall sense, it felt like a polished product. And to be honest, that's all the really hard stuff behind modding anyway. Writing obviously requires much less time spent wanting to throw your monitor through the window because FRED isn't playing ball but potentially a bit more "soak" time to really refine. If you want more specific feedback from me I'm only too happy to oblige later in the week when I have some time. There are plenty of actually accomplished writers kicking around the joint who will have some great feedback for you as well (and might even disagree with everything I have to say!), so I won't be offended at all if you print my post out only to have the ability to then put it through the shredder!  :lol:

Thank you very much! :)

Spoiler:
I concur entirely with your assessment regarding the opening dialogue, you are also right when observing that the reason for it is that I felt the need to bring the player up to speed with the storyline. Even though much of it is written in the briefing and the fiction file, I thought that relying entirely on those is not enough and highlighting the campaign's more important political developments should be a priority in the starting missions. I look forward to your suggestions as to how exactly this could be improved :)
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Open Beta
Post by: Voelkel on April 08, 2021, 11:23:52 am
Update!

Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Open Beta
Post by: Iain Baker on April 08, 2021, 03:13:45 pm
Excellent work!

I'm a bit tied up Friday and over the weekend with family stuff, but I can get back to playtesting on Monday. I should have the entire campaign playtested with notes by this time next week - I only get enough free time to test about one mission per day at the moment. After that I can get to work on the proof-reading :-)

All the best,

Iain.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Open Beta
Post by: Voelkel on April 08, 2021, 03:35:12 pm
Excellent work!

I'm a bit tied up Friday and over the weekend with family stuff, but I can get back to playtesting on Monday. I should have the entire campaign playtested with notes by this time next week - I only get enough free time to test about one mission per day at the moment. After that I can get to work on the proof-reading :-)

All the best,

Iain.

Thank you, Iain!

I wish you a great weekend!
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Open Beta
Post by: Antares on April 10, 2021, 04:02:37 pm
Okay. Good news first.

- I like the campaign's presentation. The "civil war" plot is one that pops up in fan campaigns too often for my liking, but Reunion handles it pretty well. The mission briefings, while sparse (Scroll of Antankharzim has spoiled me with its luxurious briefing animations), are well done and have no obvious problems. A lot of campaigns have difficulties with this and use a kind of tone that isn't appropriate to the FS military sci-fi setting ("Anyways, pilot, we don't really expect you to run into any trouble in this mission, so it should be a walk in the park for you, amirite?"), and Reunion avoids that. It takes itself seriously, which is good.

- So many mods gives the campaign a sense of variety, especially if (like me) you haven't played a lot of campaigns in general or have been absent from the community scene for a while, so everything seems new. The custom comm animations are a nice touch.

- I haven't finished the campaign yet, but what I've seen of the story has kept me engaged. The wingmen in Alpha have a good group dynamic without being over-the-top. (However, I wouldn't go so far as to keep censoring profanity with convenient bursts of static; it seems childish.)

The bad news:

- In general, the campaign is too difficult. This is due to a combination of several factors, but the most significant is probably the highly aggressive "Blue Planet" AI. I started the campaign on medium (my default setting) and had to scale back to Easy because I kept getting killed before I could make any progress. Now--playing on Easy--I'm limping back to base with my ship shot full of holes.

- Corollary to the above: wingmen simply aren't as capable as the enemy AI. They almost seem like they're moving in slow motion and don't turn or fire as quickly as enemy ships. So far, I've ended every mission of the campaign with all of my extra wingmen shot down; the only reason that Alpha wing don't get killed too is because they all have Plot Armor and can't be destroyed.

- Weapons consistently feel underpowered, either because they're not doing enough damage, because the AI is using advanced shield management, or both. The Claymore positions itself as a refined version of the Keyser, but it's nothing of the kind; given its high power drain, it just doesn't do enough damage in exchange. I regularly run out of gun power hammering on enemy ships; you shouldn't have to keep a fighter under sustained, accurate fire for ten seconds or longer before it explodes. The tech room also has no weapons entries, so you can't look up any information on your new guns and missiles.

- The enemy Terran ships are all extremely fast and highly maneuverable, which greatly lessens the effectiveness of your secondary weapons. As a result, your stock FS2 missiles are essentially useless. There have been multiple occasions where I've had half a dozen wingmen trying to shoot down a single enemy fighter; they aren't accurate enough with their guns to hit it, and all of their missiles--and mine--explode harmlessly behind it. In addition, owing to the Macross-style design ethos of all the Terran fighters, they have sleeker designs and more narrow target profiles than the stock FS ships, which makes them harder to hit in general. More than once, I've been tailing a fighter that I've been unable to hit because my gun mounts are wider than the fighter is.

- The music is different, but the quality is uneven. I like the atmospheric choral pieces; the DOOM-style heavy metal, not so much. After replaying a difficult mission for the third or fourth time, I got tired of having that blaring in my ears.

When I resume the campaign, I'm going to set the difficulty to Very Easy and keep it there, because frankly, I need the edge.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that, for whatever reason, it takes support ships a godawful long time to dock with the new fighters. I would guess that the new ship models have docking points in out-of-the-way places, and support is having trouble finding them.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Open Beta
Post by: Voelkel on April 11, 2021, 04:05:14 am
Okay. Good news first.

- I like the campaign's presentation. The "civil war" plot is one that pops up in fan campaigns too often for my liking, but Reunion handles it pretty well. The mission briefings, while sparse (Scroll of Antankharzim has spoiled me with its luxurious briefing animations), are well done and have no obvious problems. A lot of campaigns have difficulties with this and use a kind of tone that isn't appropriate to the FS military sci-fi setting ("Anyways, pilot, we don't really expect you to run into any trouble in this mission, so it should be a walk in the park for you, amirite?"), and Reunion avoids that. It takes itself seriously, which is good.

- So many mods gives the campaign a sense of variety, especially if (like me) you haven't played a lot of campaigns in general or have been absent from the community scene for a while, so everything seems new. The custom comm animations are a nice touch.

- I haven't finished the campaign yet, but what I've seen of the story has kept me engaged. The wingmen in Alpha have a good group dynamic without being over-the-top. (However, I wouldn't go so far as to keep censoring profanity with convenient bursts of static; it seems childish.)

The bad news:

- In general, the campaign is too difficult. This is due to a combination of several factors, but the most significant is probably the highly aggressive "Blue Planet" AI. I started the campaign on medium (my default setting) and had to scale back to Easy because I kept getting killed before I could make any progress. Now--playing on Easy--I'm limping back to base with my ship shot full of holes.

- Corollary to the above: wingmen simply aren't as capable as the enemy AI. They almost seem like they're moving in slow motion and don't turn or fire as quickly as enemy ships. So far, I've ended every mission of the campaign with all of my extra wingmen shot down; the only reason that Alpha wing don't get killed too is because they all have Plot Armor and can't be destroyed.

- Weapons consistently feel underpowered, either because they're not doing enough damage, because the AI is using advanced shield management, or both. The Claymore positions itself as a refined version of the Keyser, but it's nothing of the kind; given its high power drain, it just doesn't do enough damage in exchange. I regularly run out of gun power hammering on enemy ships; you shouldn't have to keep a fighter under sustained, accurate fire for ten seconds or longer before it explodes. The tech room also has no weapons entries, so you can't look up any information on your new guns and missiles.

- The enemy Terran ships are all extremely fast and highly maneuverable, which greatly lessens the effectiveness of your secondary weapons. As a result, your stock FS2 missiles are essentially useless. There have been multiple occasions where I've had half a dozen wingmen trying to shoot down a single enemy fighter; they aren't accurate enough with their guns to hit it, and all of their missiles--and mine--explode harmlessly behind it. In addition, owing to the Macross-style design ethos of all the Terran fighters, they have sleeker designs and more narrow target profiles than the stock FS ships, which makes them harder to hit in general. More than once, I've been tailing a fighter that I've been unable to hit because my gun mounts are wider than the fighter is.

- The music is different, but the quality is uneven. I like the atmospheric choral pieces; the DOOM-style heavy metal, not so much. After replaying a difficult mission for the third or fourth time, I got tired of having that blaring in my ears.

When I resume the campaign, I'm going to set the difficulty to Very Easy and keep it there, because frankly, I need the edge.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that, for whatever reason, it takes support ships a godawful long time to dock with the new fighters. I would guess that the new ship models have docking points in out-of-the-way places, and support is having trouble finding them.

Thank you for the feedback!

I've been looking at rebalancing the combat encounters and am already looking at replacing the "Doom" track. It's actually quite controversial, as some people love it, others seem to think it's out of place too. As for the challenging combat, the compromise will likely be the implementation of a save feature, which I'm already working on.

I noted the support ship issue as well, it seems to be a problem with the Chiron only, which I'll hopefully get fixed with the next update.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Open Beta
Post by: spart_n on April 11, 2021, 08:55:49 pm
(this review was written by the time of the 1.1.4 open beta release)

i'll echo what everyone's so far has said on the presentation. superb, very nice, very cool. music choice is adequate enough, The Only One They Fear Is You was definitely unexpected but having an ear for metal it didnt really bother me. i wish it played in a different mission though. for a fourth campaign first publically released you nailed a lot of atmosphere

mission and, by consequence (and therefore spoiler'd), story designs:

Spoiler:
ill get what annoys me out of the way first; you have either misintepreted the purpose of the kayser as an endgame fighter shredder that delivers high damage per guns, enough to kill things short of a cruiser in a single burst, or you completely forgot and/or botched the balancing of your civilian ships. the claymore is beyond disappointing as the kayser upgrade when the only thing it inherited is the energy drain. it's essentially the subach due to high ROF but none of the early game advantages the subach comes with it. even then, the civilian fighters are unnecessarily tough, and strangely in use by the enemy GTVA faction? let me chew through civvies with my kayser upgrade or dont call it a kayser upgrade at all

now that that is out of the way, i actually liked the missions. ive always been an easy player on M+KB but ive started leaning to medium. i like the frantic dogfights and they're easy to get into a rhythm. i like that there's not set-in-stone mission failures i can get away with such as the radio station with the three transmitter things. they're difficult, but doable imo, with the only major danger being what's shooting at the player. we've already discussed what i'd appreciate in our discord DMs and im sure others would have a better opinion as to what needs balancing or changing.

characters and story writing/plot...yeah ill just say it, alpha wing is forgettable, except for dice, who has too much dialogue of him just being the loose cannon.
Spoiler:
I do like however the attempt at creating a cast, although they're just as forgettable and dull, but the attempt is there at giving them names and personalities. I also like that vasudans have a stronger presence than just passively sitting on their ass while the monkey terrans go off killing each other. very cool.

that's all i have to talk about reunion, really. i hope it doesnt fall into the trap of yet another freespace campaign being left unfinished, i think it was fun and worth returning to the community for, it's rough around the edges but it has soul into it. and good on you for not taking the inferno or blue planet route of an activated sol gate incident.

for what it's worth, this campaign has my (un)official stamp of KinoTM. congrats, first of 2021.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Open Beta
Post by: Voelkel on April 12, 2021, 01:15:31 am
(this review was written by the time of the 1.1.4 open beta release)

i'll echo what everyone's so far has said on the presentation. superb, very nice, very cool. music choice is adequate enough, The Only One They Fear Is You was definitely unexpected but having an ear for metal it didnt really bother me. i wish it played in a different mission though. for a fourth campaign first publically released you nailed a lot of atmosphere

mission and, by consequence (and therefore spoiler'd), story designs:

Spoiler:
ill get what annoys me out of the way first; you have either misintepreted the purpose of the kayser as an endgame fighter shredder that delivers high damage per guns, enough to kill things short of a cruiser in a single burst, or you completely forgot and/or botched the balancing of your civilian ships. the claymore is beyond disappointing as the kayser upgrade when the only thing it inherited is the energy drain. it's essentially the subach due to high ROF but none of the early game advantages the subach comes with it. even then, the civilian fighters are unnecessarily tough, and strangely in use by the enemy GTVA faction? let me chew through civvies with my kayser upgrade or dont call it a kayser upgrade at all

now that that is out of the way, i actually liked the missions. ive always been an easy player on M+KB but ive started leaning to medium. i like the frantic dogfights and they're easy to get into a rhythm. i like that there's not set-in-stone mission failures i can get away with such as the radio station with the three transmitter things. they're difficult, but doable imo, with the only major danger being what's shooting at the player. we've already discussed what i'd appreciate in our discord DMs and im sure others would have a better opinion as to what needs balancing or changing.

characters and story writing/plot...yeah ill just say it, alpha wing is forgettable, except for dice, who has too much dialogue of him just being the loose cannon.
Spoiler:
I do like however the attempt at creating a cast, although they're just as forgettable and dull, but the attempt is there at giving them names and personalities. I also like that vasudans have a stronger presence than just passively sitting on their ass while the monkey terrans go off killing each other. very cool.

that's all i have to talk about reunion, really. i hope it doesnt fall into the trap of yet another freespace campaign being left unfinished, i think it was fun and worth returning to the community for, it's rough around the edges but it has soul into it. and good on you for not taking the inferno or blue planet route of an activated sol gate incident.

for what it's worth, this campaign has my (un)official stamp of KinoTM. congrats, first of 2021.

Thank you for the feedback, glad to hear you enjoyed the campaign!

Looks like I'm going to have to buff the Claymore, been also thinking about introducing a civilian HL-7 variant in the next update.

Spoiler:
Also, civilian fighters are not in service by the rogue GTVA element, they're supposed to be two different factions fighting on the same side, bundled together for operations, but maybe I'll need to clarify that in the dialogue :)

Also fixed the "second lieutenant" mishap in the final mission, thanks for that too :)
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Open Beta
Post by: Voelkel on April 23, 2021, 12:24:25 pm
Major update!

Fixes:

- Replaced and rebalanced the Chiron, the Pantheon and the Rhea
- Added a save/load checkpoint feature to the longer missions
- Buffed the UD-10 Claymore
- Replaced some out-of-place music tracks
- Rebalanced the fighter AI in many combat encounters
- Replaced mission 7's skybox
- Modified the carrier launch sequence in Mission 3
- Gave a facelift to the new Vasudan weapons
- Fixed a rare bug where some mission-critical ships unexpectedly died
- Rearmed most of the civilian ships with their own weapon variants
- Made several other significant gameplay, mission and balance changes
- Updated the original post to reflect the current status of the mod more accurately

Many thanks once again to everyone who gave their thoughts on this project, either in the thread, on Discord or in PMs.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Madeye on April 24, 2021, 07:29:12 am
After update I no longer have access to the campaign (active campaign cannot be found) :(
I verified file integrity, got "no problems detected".
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Iain Baker on April 24, 2021, 09:38:09 am
I had the same issue -  the campaign doesn't show up.

The ships are still there in the F3 ship viewer, however one has a problem as you can see in the screenshot.

Hope this helps :-)

NB if the image doesn't show, it reads:

Error: There are 2 primary banks in the model file, but only 1 primary bank specified for GTF Sigyn. This must be fixed, as it will cause crashes.

File: ship.cpp
Line: 9489



[attachment deleted to save space]
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: ShivanSlayer on April 24, 2021, 10:01:12 am
When I load the mod, the campaign doesn't show up in the campaign room.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: CapellaGoBoom on April 24, 2021, 10:15:22 am
Yep...only the vanilla campaign was in the campaign room
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: woutersmits on April 24, 2021, 12:07:32 pm
Voelkel ppl needs hotfix
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Iain Baker on April 24, 2021, 01:06:48 pm
He might be a little busy ATM - he told me his wife was just about to have a baby so he wanted to get everything done before the patter of tiny feet and a chronic lack of sleep grinds mod deving to a halt  :) 
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Voelkel on April 25, 2021, 06:03:23 am
Sorry about that! A hotfix should be out now.

Also, apologies that I didn't get it fixed earlier, my kid was born this Friday.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: theperfectdrugsk on April 25, 2021, 06:17:41 am
Congrats on the new rugrat!

Looking forward to playing this as I finally get back to playing FS2 after a pretty long hiatus.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Iain Baker on April 25, 2021, 08:40:24 am
Congratulations on the little sproglet  :yes: :nod:

Just fired up the campaign and I can confirm it works, and the offending Sigyn has been removed (going by the F3 ship viewer thingy).

I'll play it properly during the week :-)

Let me know if/when you want me to proof-read it  :)
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: theperfectdrugsk on April 25, 2021, 06:39:07 pm
First off, I'm seriously having a blast so far! Really tight mission crafting, really having fun with this.

One thing that I'm struggling with (and this is by no means a problem unique to this campaign) is...how am i supposed to really decide between weapons? The UD-10 Claymore is listed as a "6 hull, 5 shield, standard issue" while the Prometheus X is listed as "5 hull 4 shield, medium energy usage". It's a) not at all clear how rate of fire plays into those ratings and b) not clear how either of them actually consume energy since "standard issue" and "medium energy usage" could easily both mean the same thing. Is there any reason to prefer one over the other besides personal preference of "shoot faster with less damage" versus "shoot slower with more damage"?

Another issue (and apologies, this is again not unique to your campaign)... is it possible to have instructions like "Press 1" read dynamically from user settings? For example I tend to rebind 1 to cycle primaries, but i know that mods with scripted commands use the "multiplayer message all", which defaults to 1...so I know to just use whatever button I've bound that to. Is it possible to have the objective/commands read the user bindings? That might be more of a SCP team question I guess...

Seriously though, awesome work.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: themaddin on April 26, 2021, 01:36:01 pm
Hi, playing your mod right now, I really like it!

Looking through the tech room descriptions, I've encountered one bug: On the current nightly for Linux,
the game crashes when I select the GTFr Parthenon, being unable to read "sizif.pof"
I don't know if the same issue ocurs on other engine versions.

That model isn't used in the published ACT1 as far as I can tell, so this bug doesn't detract anything from a great experience yet.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Voelkel on April 30, 2021, 05:49:36 am
Congrats on the new rugrat!

Looking forward to playing this as I finally get back to playing FS2 after a pretty long hiatus.

Thanks! I hope you'll enjoy it!

Congratulations on the little sproglet  :yes: :nod:

Just fired up the campaign and I can confirm it works, and the offending Sigyn has been removed (going by the F3 ship viewer thingy).

I'll play it properly during the week :-)

Let me know if/when you want me to proof-read it  :)

Thank you! I still have a few tweaks left, but I'll send it over once it's done :)

First off, I'm seriously having a blast so far! Really tight mission crafting, really having fun with this.

One thing that I'm struggling with (and this is by no means a problem unique to this campaign) is...how am i supposed to really decide between weapons? The UD-10 Claymore is listed as a "6 hull, 5 shield, standard issue" while the Prometheus X is listed as "5 hull 4 shield, medium energy usage". It's a) not at all clear how rate of fire plays into those ratings and b) not clear how either of them actually consume energy since "standard issue" and "medium energy usage" could easily both mean the same thing. Is there any reason to prefer one over the other besides personal preference of "shoot faster with less damage" versus "shoot slower with more damage"?

Another issue (and apologies, this is again not unique to your campaign)... is it possible to have instructions like "Press 1" read dynamically from user settings? For example I tend to rebind 1 to cycle primaries, but i know that mods with scripted commands use the "multiplayer message all", which defaults to 1...so I know to just use whatever button I've bound that to. Is it possible to have the objective/commands read the user bindings? That might be more of a SCP team question I guess...

Seriously though, awesome work.

Thank you! Glad to hear you enjoy the campaign!

Tech descriptions in general are arguably the weakest aspect of the mod, I'll be working on enhancing this aspect when I get the time. With gun descriptions, I'll most likely go with calculating the same parameters for the Reunion guns that we can see in the MediaVPS upgrade.

Hi, playing your mod right now, I really like it!

Looking through the tech room descriptions, I've encountered one bug: On the current nightly for Linux,
the game crashes when I select the GTFr Parthenon, being unable to read "sizif.pof"
I don't know if the same issue ocurs on other engine versions.

That model isn't used in the published ACT1 as far as I can tell, so this bug doesn't detract anything from a great experience yet.

Thank you, I'm glad to hear you like the mod!

The offending ship is one I replaced with another freighter class, but I've yet to remove in from the tables as well! This issue should not be a problem during the campaign itself, but I'll fix it with the next update! :)

------------

I'll be enjoying a few weeks of hiatus due to parenting stuff, but I'll hopefully get back to working on Act 2 during the summer.

In the meantime, I'm looking for someone who has experience with custom fonts! It should not be much of an issue, but I seem to be unable to make progress on it, if you can help me, please contact me either here or via PMs! Thank you! :)
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: ShivanSlayer on June 02, 2021, 11:00:49 pm
I FINALLY beat mission 5 tonight and proceeded to complete the rest of the campaign.  Hope to see part 2 not too long from now
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Iain Baker on June 03, 2021, 07:14:44 am
Hi there!

I have now played through the new and improved version f the campaign. Much better! Only thing I noticed was that the skyboxes on the last few levels had the hard edges and angles some of the earlier levels had in earlier builds. You fixed those so I'm confident you can fix these too when you have the time and aren't too sleep deprived?  :p
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Voelkel on June 12, 2021, 06:26:27 am
I FINALLY beat mission 5 tonight and proceeded to complete the rest of the campaign.  Hope to see part 2 not too long from now

Glad to hear that! I'm working on Act 2, but not sure when it'll be finished. It's about 10% complete right now.

Hi there!

I have now played through the new and improved version f the campaign. Much better! Only thing I noticed was that the skyboxes on the last few levels had the hard edges and angles some of the earlier levels had in earlier builds. You fixed those so I'm confident you can fix these too when you have the time and aren't too sleep deprived?  :p

Sure thing! I'll make sure to explore my options when I have the chance!

Also, just a quick heads up, I'm writing the SEXPs of Act 2 in a way that it's fully TTS-compatible.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Colonol Dekker on June 12, 2021, 04:23:08 pm
I'm a. It late to the party, but I'm a busy guy.   This is now added to my queue 😉😉
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Voelkel on June 18, 2021, 06:57:25 am
I'm a. It late to the party, but I'm a busy guy.   This is now added to my queue 😉😉

Enjoy! I'm also interested in hearing your feedback!
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Goober5000 on June 26, 2021, 09:09:56 pm
Just got around to playing this, and finished it yesterday.  Impressive work!

The Good:

The Bad:

The Ugly:


Overall though, this was a lot of fun to play, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you produce next. :yes:
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Voelkel on July 02, 2021, 10:18:49 am
Just got around to playing this, and finished it yesterday.  Impressive work!

The Good:
  • The campaign shows a very high level of technical skill.  Mission design, event handling, mastery of the different aspects of FRED, etc.
  • Similarly, the gameplay works very well.  There are a variety of fun and interesting missions.  I'm sure that you learned quite a bit by practicing in your first three projects, because this fourth campaign feels mature and polished.
  • The characterization was effective and added some texture to the story.  (And the fact that Alpha wing had plot armor meant that I could send them into hazardous situations.)
  • There are several intriguing loose ends in Act I which I'm sure will be followed up in future Acts.  I'm looking forward to seeing where these go.
  • Spoiler:
    I also liked the double-meaning of "Reunion" that subverted your expectations.  And it was quite a twist to see what happened in the final mission.  That sort of twist had been discussed on HLP in the past, but I think you're the first person who has actually released a campaign where it happens.

The Bad:
  • There was an enormous difficulty spike on mission 6, Showdown.  I found the difficulty in the rest of the campaign to be manageable, but on this particular mission I tried multiple attempts, using multiple fighters and loadouts, without success.  There was just way too much going on and I kept either getting killed or losing some objective.  I issued plenty of orders to my wingmen, but it didn't seem to help.  I finally beat the mission by ignoring the mission recommendations and just telling everyone to guard the GVD Nekhen while sending Kappa's heavy bombers against the Forseti.
  • The briefings mention a few newly discovered star systems.  It would be nice to have more information on where they are and what canon systems they link to.
  • "Isolationists" is an odd name for a group that is a member of an alliance of two species and dozens of star systems.
  • Spelling! :P

The Ugly:
  • I found it very hard to believe that a Terran faction would be against the Sol Gate.  The NTF rebellion occurred because Bosch promised the Lost Generation a metaphorical Earth, which indicates that the desire for Earth is a core part of the identity of the Lost Generation, even the ones who didn't actually rebel.  So the desire for the actual Earth would be that much stronger.  And yet, the Isolationists represent a complete 180 degree turn from that.  It just doesn't make any sense.


Overall though, this was a lot of fun to play, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you produce next. :yes:

Thank you for your feedback, I'm glad to hear you've had an overall positive experience :)

I'll comment on the bad and ugly feedback:
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Goober5000 on July 02, 2021, 03:29:52 pm
The campaign certainly did explore a civil war setting in a way that hadn't been done before, so the story definitely gets points for originality. :yes:  It was a fresh and interesting approach, even if it was a logical leap.

It just occurred to me that it would make a lot of sense for the Vasudans to be opposed to the gate construction project.  They wouldn't feel the same attachment to Earth as the Terrans, they might see it as an unnecessary expense, and they might be more willing to "let sleeping dogs lie" than the Terrans.  Perhaps that's why Vasudan Intelligence was involved... :nervous:
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Voelkel on July 03, 2021, 07:26:24 am
The campaign certainly did explore a civil war setting in a way that hadn't been done before, so the story definitely gets points for originality. :yes:  It was a fresh and interesting approach, even if it was a logical leap.

It just occurred to me that it would make a lot of sense for the Vasudans to be opposed to the gate construction project.  They wouldn't feel the same attachment to Earth as the Terrans, they might see it as an unnecessary expense, and they might be more willing to "let sleeping dogs lie" than the Terrans.  Perhaps that's why Vasudan Intelligence was involved... :nervous:

(https://eaglescry.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/d5a.jpg)
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Nyctaeus on July 19, 2021, 07:59:56 pm
Just finished. It's gonna be one of the campaigns I promise to write detailed review, to do it after couple months.

But so far:
+ Original, thinking, unique enemy with multiple plot layers.
+ Excellent mission design, pure flow of action that's mostly intuitive for new player.
+ Big-ass modpack! I'm glad to see my stuff put to good use.
+ Congregates lots of ideas I wanted to see in actual campaign, but never had an opportunity.
+ Varied but not exaggerated difficulty level.
+ Sucking in. Makes player wanting to go straight to finish.
+ Few bugs.
+ Kalandra! I didn't encounter it in actual missions, but it's in modpack. I guess it was used in the other ending.
- Somewhat bland character development. They contribute very little to overall story.
- Notorious chatters overlapping action parts.
- Very few, but still present fredding mistakes.
- Inconsistent asset style. A mixture of old and new. Also lots of old assets using vanilla tilemaps. Can't say it's really something on author's end, as community model pool is limited. Still replacements are always possible.
- Some music pieces are too epic or too anime.

Overally a solid piece of a dope mod! One of the best recent releases :yes: . Certainly worth to be continued.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Voelkel on July 22, 2021, 09:01:33 am
Just finished. It's gonna be one of the campaigns I promise to write detailed review, to do it after couple months.

But so far:
+ Original, thinking, unique enemy with multiple plot layers.
+ Excellent mission design, pure flow of action that's mostly intuitive for new player.
+ Big-ass modpack! I'm glad to see my stuff put to good use.
+ Congregates lots of ideas I wanted to see in actual campaign, but never had an opportunity.
+ Varied but not exaggerated difficulty level.
+ Sucking in. Makes player wanting to go straight to finish.
+ Few bugs.
+ Kalandra! I didn't encounter it in actual missions, but it's in modpack. I guess it was used in the other ending.
- Somewhat bland character development. They contribute very little to overall story.
- Notorious chatters overlapping action parts.
- Very few, but still present fredding mistakes.
- Inconsistent asset style. A mixture of old and new. Also lots of old assets using vanilla tilemaps. Can't say it's really something on author's end, as community model pool is limited. Still replacements are always possible.
- Some music pieces are too epic or too anime.

Overally a solid piece of a dope mod! One of the best recent releases :yes: . Certainly worth to be continued.

Thanks for the feedback and the assets as well! :)

Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Voelkel on August 04, 2021, 03:36:57 am
A small update on the progress of Act 2: almost all assets are implemented and 6 missions are done. There's a good chance of Act 2 dropping before the end of the year, as originally planned.

I'll be looking for beta testers again before the open release :)
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Iain Baker on August 04, 2021, 04:53:37 am
A small update on the progress of Act 2: almost all assets are implemented and 6 missions are done. There's a good chance of Act 2 dropping before the end of the year, as originally planned.

I'll be looking for beta testers again before the open release :)

Sweet! Time permitting I may be able to help with testing and spellchecking etc. I can probably still do spellchecking/editing of act one too :-)

FYI - I looked at the SD Vassago in the F3 viewer thingy and I noticed it appears to be more blurry / lower res than the version used in Ancient Shivan War. Perhaps see if you can use the nicer one from that?
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Nyctaeus on August 04, 2021, 06:18:44 am
He reskinned it for his liking. Nothing wrong with that. It needs to be checked if tiles it uses contain "a" in the filename. They should not, as the tiles with "a" are vanilla ones. For example, if it used some Sathanas tiles, they should go as "Supertile1" instead of "Supertile1a". Other assets in this mod have this issue as well.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Voelkel on August 04, 2021, 06:58:02 am
A small update on the progress of Act 2: almost all assets are implemented and 6 missions are done. There's a good chance of Act 2 dropping before the end of the year, as originally planned.

I'll be looking for beta testers again before the open release :)

Sweet! Time permitting I may be able to help with testing and spellchecking etc. I can probably still do spellchecking/editing of act one too :-)

FYI - I looked at the SD Vassago in the F3 viewer thingy and I noticed it appears to be more blurry / lower res than the version used in Ancient Shivan War. Perhaps see if you can use the nicer one from that?

Sure! I plan to update Act 1 before the release of Act 2 as well, I'll send you the texts before then :)

He reskinned it for his liking. Nothing wrong with that. It needs to be checked if tiles it uses contain "a" in the filename. They should not, as the tiles with "a" are vanilla ones. For example, if it used some Sathanas tiles, they should go as "Supertile1" instead of "Supertile1a". Other assets in this mod have this issue as well.

The Vassago I used was missing its textures, so I had to find temporary replacements. Thanks for the tip on using the proper textures; skinning / modelling is absolutely not my field of expertise and I modified original models only out of necessity :)
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: perihelion on August 08, 2021, 10:02:07 pm
Has anyone else had the problem of a CTD when playing mission 7 (Ruins) concerning interactions with the big meson freighter?  FSO keeps crashing on me when I: a) disable the freighter, b) take the hull down to zero on one of the meson cargo pods, or c) take the whole freighter out.

It didn't crash the first couple times.  I managed to get a pod blown up without blowing myself up with it.  Then I went on to blow up the whole freighter.  That I didn't quite pull away from fast enough.  But since then I get a crash every time I try to do anything to that ship.  Is there a persistent variable that isn't getting reset, maybe?

I'm beginning to suspect that I shouldn't be trying to play this with a Nightlie build.  When I tried to run in Debug, I didn't even get to the main-hall before it had enough errors it wouldn't let me proceed.  Debug spew uploaded https://fsnebula.org/log/61109a0c0384e1a5ed95ce65 (https://fsnebula.org/log/61109a0c0384e1a5ed95ce65)

I'll try this again with a stable build, methinks.

[EDIT] Nevermind.  I think this was an issue with the nightly.  Didn't have any problems playing on 21.0 RC5.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Nyctaeus on August 09, 2021, 01:28:24 am
It didn't crash during my playthrough, but when I disabled the freighter, the battle was going forward... To the end, as it's supposed to go, but then the mission froze when all enemies were dead and Gladiator jumped out.

The freighter was hoovering around and nothing was really happening with it, until I killed it. It's clearly meant to be destroyed earlier, but it may never happen and the mission may freeze after the battle.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Voelkel on August 09, 2021, 01:51:09 am
Thank you for the feedback, I'll take a look at it.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: praseodym on September 04, 2021, 07:50:20 am
Hi all,

a lot of mods, including this one, tell me that the mainhalls are missing. But they are there.

https://fsnebula.org/log/61336b380384e1a5ed95ce83
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Voelkel on September 11, 2021, 09:03:26 am
Hi all,

a lot of mods, including this one, tell me that the mainhalls are missing. But they are there.

https://fsnebula.org/log/61336b380384e1a5ed95ce83

Hey there.

AFAIK, Mainhalls is not a requirement of this mod, only vanilla and MVPs are.

My wild guess is that it is a local problem, which might be solved by a reinstall. Might be.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Voelkel on October 02, 2021, 10:23:35 am
A quick update on the status of Act 2:

- FRED-ding about 75% done. There will be altogether 11-13 missions, depending on the choices you make.
- There will be three different endings.
- Parts of Act 1 will be overhauled as well.
- There will be new primary weapons, missiles and bombs to equip your fighters with.
- A release this year is still very likely.

It will be difficult to post screenshots without major spoilers, but I'll try to do so as progression nears 90%.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: CT27 on January 19, 2022, 06:13:53 pm
Pt. 1 was fantastic and I'm really looking forward to the next chapter.

How is progression on Act 2 going?
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Voelkel on February 03, 2022, 03:58:12 am
Pt. 1 was fantastic and I'm really looking forward to the next chapter.

How is progression on Act 2 going?

Thank you kindly, it is almost done.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Voelkel on February 03, 2022, 04:20:14 am
I am delighted to notify the community that closed beta testing of Act 2 has begun.

If you are looking to participate, write me a PM.

In the meantime, please enjoy some gameplay screenshots:

(https://i.ibb.co/qptPxKK/5-OLJ31643885573.png)

(https://i.ibb.co/N1yvtvk/6u-UFi1643885683.png)

(https://i.ibb.co/cvPcxq9/f-GD1z1643885838.png)

(https://i.ibb.co/hfGhn7d/It-FZp1643885398.png)

(https://i.ibb.co/w07S7yJ/s4kh-O1643885518.png)

(https://i.ibb.co/hZ8BbCB/YFJfx1643885768.png)
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: 0rph3u5 on February 15, 2022, 04:32:07 pm
I finished your campaign last night...

There are some things, I would applaud: You obviously but a lot of thought into the design of many of your missions, however the execution seems to be lagging behind (e.g. when you see capital ship engagements build wholly using the "Destroy ship"/ai-chase order instead of using waypoints).

And I am having a really hard time to match up how the campaign started with how it ended.
Much of it has to do with the presentation, particularly the music; the music is just too bombastic and relentless to match what is happening on screen and what I read in the dialogue in most situations in the campaign - which leaves you with the impression of that dissonance first and foremost, and doesn't help for things to stick in you mind. Worse still, it seems to layer scences that are meant to be played straight with a layer of unintentional melodrama (e.g. the dialogue with the Forseti).

I am also not too hot about the presentation of the new assets - like many campaign which want to show of the "new shinies" (including some I've worked on, see Gehenna's Gate) Reunion seems to be in quite the rush to present you with new things - that most just don't get to form lasting impressions, e.g. I can't remember what a Hel-class cruiser does.

I like your scenario, there is more than a germ of good ideas there - and you should keep working on them :yes: the fruther ahead you go, the better you will be, I am sure of it.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Voelkel on February 17, 2022, 07:05:34 am
I finished your campaign last night...

There are some things, I would applaud: You obviously but a lot of thought into the design of many of your missions, however the execution seems to be lagging behind (e.g. when you see capital ship engagements build wholly using the "Destroy ship"/ai-chase order instead of using waypoints).

And I am having a really hard time to match up how the campaign started with how it ended.
Much of it has to do with the presentation, particularly the music; the music is just too bombastic and relentless to match what is happening on screen and what I read in the dialogue in most situations in the campaign - which leaves you with the impression of that dissonance first and foremost, and doesn't help for things to stick in you mind. Worse still, it seems to layer scences that are meant to be played straight with a layer of unintentional melodrama (e.g. the dialogue with the Forseti).

I am also not too hot about the presentation of the new assets - like many campaign which want to show of the "new shinies" (including some I've worked on, see Gehenna's Gate) Reunion seems to be in quite the rush to present you with new things - that most just don't get to form lasting impressions, e.g. I can't remember what a Hel-class cruiser does.

I like your scenario, there is more than a germ of good ideas there - and you should keep working on them :yes: the fruther ahead you go, the better you will be, I am sure of it.

Thank you very much for your honest feedback!
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Voelkel on February 17, 2022, 02:40:24 pm
A major update to Act 1 is being uploaded right now. It is in large part a preparation for the release of Act 2.

It will contain:

If you were looking to (re)play Reunion, but didn't end up doing so or you intend to catch up on the story before the release of Act 2, now is a good time.

Act 2 should drop in a few weeks, unless certain geopolitical events in my region result in armed conflict.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: ShivanSlayer on February 18, 2022, 05:07:59 pm
Maybe you should upload the files somewhere safe so if the worst happens, someone else could finish the mod
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Strygon on February 18, 2022, 08:02:57 pm
I mean the testers get access to somewhat recent versions.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Voelkel on February 21, 2022, 02:58:00 am
It's extremely unlikely that I would end up in a life-threatening situation, however, significant real-life obligations will arise that will render me unable to work on the mod for a few weeks, if not months.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: CT27 on March 14, 2022, 07:58:12 pm
It's extremely unlikely that I would end up in a life-threatening situation, however, significant real-life obligations will arise that will render me unable to work on the mod for a few weeks, if not months.

How are things going for you?
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: perihelion on March 15, 2022, 05:57:32 pm
Also concerned about your well-being.  I was extraordinarily slow on the uptake when you mentioned "unless certain geopolitical events in my region result in armed conflict."  Are you ok, Voelkel?
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: starlord on March 15, 2022, 07:39:44 pm
Ditto.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Voelkel on March 16, 2022, 04:25:11 am
Thank you for your concern, I appreciate your sentiment. <3

I am not in personal danger and I am not in the country where the armed conflict escalated, only in an adjacent location, which seems to be uninvolved for now. Everything is fine on my part, my personal obligations have been more or less fulfilled as well. I can only urge you to donate to any humanitarian helpline seeking to aid civilians and refugees from Ukraine.

I will continue my work on the mod as well.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: perihelion on March 16, 2022, 10:28:43 am
Glad to hear you aren't in harm's way.  Be safe!
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Iain Baker on March 16, 2022, 11:59:36 am
Thank you for your concern, I appreciate your sentiment. <3

I am not in personal danger and I am not in the country where the armed conflict escalated, only in an adjacent location, which seems to be uninvolved for now. Everything is fine on my part, my personal obligations have been more or less fulfilled as well. I can only urge you to donate to any humanitarian helpline seeking to aid civilians and refugees from Ukraine.

I will continue my work on the mod as well.

Gald to hear you are ok. Let me know if/when you need more help with the mod :-)
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: Voelkel on March 16, 2022, 02:23:57 pm
Thanks for your thoughts, everything is perfectly fine with me :)

I'll continue working on the mod, if the political climate stays the same, Act 2 should release in a few weeks.
Title: Re: [RELEASE] Reunion Act 1
Post by: praseodym on April 18, 2022, 12:33:47 pm
"Copying retail files failed". Act 2 does not recognize the Act 1 or retail installation via "old-knossos" on Ubuntu 20.04

Ideas?