[Legate Damar]

Another thing I remembered that I had to comment on: The text in the opening cutscene doesn't look very good and is partially cut off. I don't know if that's just a problem with my computer or what.

Also I just completed this, it is very good. I am excited to see where the story will go next!

However I have another thing to comment on:

Spoiler:

Why do they still call the Shivans inferior even when they are getting completely destroyed? It is a bit strange to hear one message saying "They are so beyond what out Empire is capable of" and then another one saying "Inferior vessels are incoming".

[Dragon]

Engine limitations. That's a generic message defined for "enemy arrival". It could be changed, but it'll be a lot of hassle, because you'd have to make a new persona for it.

[Legate Damar]

Yeah I know, I put those kinds of messages in my mod too but I was just pointing out something I noticed. And making new personas is not that difficult.

[NeonShivan]

Another thing I remembered that I had to comment on: The text in the opening cutscene doesn't look very good and is partially cut off. I don't know if that's just a problem with my computer or what.

Also I just completed this, it is very good. I am excited to see where the story will go next!

However I have another thing to comment on:

Spoiler:

Why do they still call the Shivans inferior even when they are getting completely destroyed? It is a bit strange to hear one message saying "They are so beyond what out Empire is capable of" and then another one saying "Inferior vessels are incoming".

Its from an ideaology aspect. Many of the ancients are still too stubborn to see that they're losing. These kind of messages are in my mod too. But from an cultural aspect: The Ancients view everyone as inferiors. They would even view the modern GTVA as inferiors if they were to ever face them. Its how their culture developed: through ignorance, which will be their downfall

[Legate Damar]

Yeah I can understand that but when you have them saying that the Shivans are so much more powerful than them and then calling them inferior right afterwards it is kind of confusing. But it is not a major problem, overall I think this mod (both parts 1 and 2) are excellent and maybe even better than Inferno but not quite as good as Blue Planet (in my opinion)

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Two small issues...

Screen shot 2012-06-16 at PM 04.31.32.png: "It is currently in orbit around the system only planet in the system, a gas giant." - The Avenger
Screen shot 2012-06-16 at PM 05.23.01.png: Akrotiri posing as a civilian convoy after it has departed. - Finale

[attachment deleted by ninja]

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Another thing I remembered that I had to comment on: The text in the opening cutscene doesn't look very good and is partially cut off. I don't know if that's just a problem with my computer or what.

Partially caused by GIMP font hinting, partially by OGG compression. Redoing the subtitles would be more work than it's worth, though.

Spoiler:

Why do they still call the Shivans inferior even when they are getting completely destroyed? It is a bit strange to hear one message saying "They are so beyond what out Empire is capable of" and then another one saying "Inferior vessels are incoming".

Technically, that's something we didn't change from the ASW1 pack. An explanation, besides those already given, is that "inferiors" has simply become a common term for all non-Ancient races, a synonym to the Terran 'aliens'. Anyway, we might change that for ASW 3.6.14.

Two small issues...

Screen shot 2012-06-16 at PM 04.31.32.png: "It is currently in orbit around the system only planet in the system, a gas giant." - The Avenger
Screen shot 2012-06-16 at PM 05.23.01.png: Akrotiri posing as a civilian convoy after it has departed. - Finale

Gotcha, thanks! The screenshots are very useful

[ssmit132]

Spoiler:

Played through the Act II beta a couple of nights ago, and I must say I'm very impressed with it. The Lucifer's introduction was brilliant (and I love those effects for the Shivan Super Laser), and I was legitimately surprised with the arrival of the Sathanas juggernauts (though it's odd to see blob turrets coming from the arms instead of beams). Another thing I was impressed with was the schism between the Akrotiri's group and the Sopul fleet command - for the first time I found a group of Ancients to act reasonably. Then there's the supernova mission - that little view that showed the Sathanas footage was a nice touch. I admit I was surprised at how quickly the Shivans decided to go with the supernova solution. They must have found out how nasty the Ancients were quite fast!

The couple of things I'll nitpick on:
- The first mission seems to have rather little action. I'm not sure how intentional that was, but I did expect to be fighting several more wings than there was.
- In the mission where you have to protect the evacuation of Sopul HQ, there doesn't seem to be any indication to jump out if the station is destroyed early. The first time I played this, it was destroyed early, but I proceded to destroy the Demon destroyer and then departed to find that I'd failed the mission (in the same attempt one of the fighters flew into the path of my bombs and was utterly annihilated - not a problem in terms of the mission but it was funny ).

All in all, though, I enjoyed it, both gameplay- and story-wise.

[Mobius]

I remember playing ASW Act I ages ago but I stopped right in the middle of the campaign, for reasons I don't know. I managed to complete it, and played through Act II as well.

It shows its age and some graphical improvements could make future playthroughs more fascinating. I have to admit I'm glad we've had at least one fanmade campaign set during the war between the Ancients and the Shivans. The ASW Team did a great job. 

[Nightmare]

FWIW I think that ASW is still one of the best FS campaigns ever made; even though I don't think the 2nd part was as good as the first.

[starlord]

Part of me is still hoping act3 will come out someday, especially as i heard it was half completed.

[Nightmare]

Check the other thread, the files for Act 3 were dumped and the plot of the remaining acts published: https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=82887.msg1905318#msg1905318

[starlord]

Yes, I knew they released story documents on sectorgame, but I realised only recently that some act 3 missions were done at all.

[Novachen]

FWIW I think that ASW is still one of the best FS campaigns ever made; even though I don't think the 2nd part was as good as the first.

I did not like the story approach they began with ASW2.

But mission wise... alone "River of Iron" and "Pressure Point" were worth it. Two of my most-favorites missions ever.

This satisfaction after I beat "Pressure Point" on Insane and as a reward I was allowed to snatch the disabled SD Titivillus. Unforgettable.

In ASW1 i actually only remember the "A new Adversary" mission. That was also a very intense dogfight mission, as you need much effort to kill even one single shivan fighter after you have blasted through the Aesdherian's ranks easily.

[Mobius]

I remember several debates over the scale of the project well before it was started.

The point is, that if the team stickied 100% with canon information, the scale of the war between the Ancients and the Shivans would have been colossal, with juggernauts and possibly superjuggernauts on both sides, and the consequent risk of most missions derailing for sure into BoEs. The chosen scale is better suited for the perspective of a spacecraft, where the player is allowed to turn the tide of a mission. It doesn't do justice to the Ancients and their true power, but that's a different topic for another discussion (The Gameplay Problem^tm).

[Novachen]

The biggest issue i had was always, that a Knossos can survive a super nova if even meson bombs can destroy it.
And so that Knossos 2 was never built in the Nebula in the first place.

And i always had problems with the Sathanas stuff as complete ASW is a look into the data the Vasudans found in Altair '35 according to the introduction cutscene. I mean, if the Altair data talks about a fleet of star destroying juggernaughts, well, i do not think, that the GTVA would be so arrogant in terms of the Shivans 

In ASW1 that concept with the "Look into the data" works much better than it does for the later missions in ASW2.

[Mobius]

What we know about the Ancients is mostly due to FS1's cutscenes and Intel entries, plus the whole Knossos deal in FS2. We have sketchy information on what archeologists have found in Altair, and we have to assume a significant chunk of that information has been classified to the highest levels.

Also, ETAK demonstrates that even though the GTVA had access to certain knowledge, they decided to bury it and focus on something else. They had the means to start a project that would have enabled them to communicate with the Shivans, yet they cancelled it, regardless of its potential benefits. In a similar fashion, they may have disregarded precious hints given by the Ancients on the true extent of the Shivan fleets. It took Capella to drive them to mental sanity, because no matter what the GTVA would do, 80 Juggernauts are well beyond their capability.

[Nightmare]

It's difficult to say whether the Knossos was build before the supernova or not. Decades passes between the Great War and the supernova in FS, so if the Lucifer had done its job there would be no Ancients left to build a Knossos. Also the monologs never mentioned a supernova (although there are obvious dev reasons why didn't do that); so the only way to have it there after the supernova would be the Ancients getting invaded; survive long enough to witness the explosion and then afterwards decide to build a Knossos there (the exact opposite of what the GTVA did).

Perhabs the Knossos was build at the very rim of the system and survived that way; yet as nodes would likely change after a supernova it wouldn't explain how the node and the Knossos are still in the same location.
The briefing only mentions that it is "deep inside the nebula", what can mean that it is close to the center (the former star) or far away from the Gamma Draconis node.