[Goober5000]

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.   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...

[Voelkel]

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.   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...

[Nyctaeus]

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 . Certainly worth to be continued.

[Voelkel]

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 . Certainly worth to be continued.

Thanks for the feedback and the assets as well!

[Voelkel]

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

[Iain Baker]

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?

[Nyctaeus]

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.

[Voelkel]

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

[perihelion]

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

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.

[Nyctaeus]

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.

[Voelkel]

Thank you for the feedback, I'll take a look at it.

[praseodym]

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

[Voelkel]

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.

[Voelkel]

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%.

[CT27]

Pt. 1 was fantastic and I'm really looking forward to the next chapter.

How is progression on Act 2 going?

[Voelkel]

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.

[Voelkel]

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:

[0rph3u5]

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 the fruther ahead you go, the better you will be, I am sure of it.

[Voelkel]

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 the fruther ahead you go, the better you will be, I am sure of it.

Thank you very much for your honest feedback!

[Voelkel]

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:

• The rebalancing of many ships and weapons.
• Amendments to mission difficulty (making the campaign overall easier).
• Minor adjustments to the storyline and dialogues.
• A large amount of bug fixing and grammar corrections.
• Minor visual changes (ie. skyboxes and textures).
• The replacement of some music tracks.

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.