-
As one of the top-notch pilots of the NTF, you take part in an operation that will change the future of mankind. Little do you know of the burden that rests on your shoulders...
Contains an NTF interface (thanks to GalEmp and Flaming_Sword)
Thanks also to ShadowGorrath and Droid803 for testing.
EDIT: A great thanks to 0rph3u5 for bringing this old mod into 2019! All information in this post (https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=64271.msg1887720#msg1887720).
-
This sounds interesting. DL'ing now.
-
Review after work. :P
-
Loved it FSF!
A polished campaign, with some beautiful in mission cutscenes, and clean interface art to boot.
- I love the optionality around the exact end of the campaign!
- Great use of some of the locations from the FS2 campaign, shown from another perspective. You've done justice to the ETAK backstory, which was always going to be a big ask.
- My one criticism is that you are mysteriously re-armed and re-countermeasured during the set of missions as you race back to Terran space. Hrmm, I can understand why that might have been decided from the "let's-not-make-this-insanely-hard-department", but I finished the campaign only dying once; and thus making some later missions harder with that change wouldn't be to the campaign's detriment.
- Wow, the GTC Aeolus is my new favourite capital ship. Very nice in that up close cutscene.
It's already taking place for me as one of the most enjoyable fan made campaigns IMHO.
-
Outstanding campaign. It recaptures that sense of fighting on the edge of hoplessness that the Original FS1 campaign had. I couldn't stop playing once I started I had to see it to the end.
-
Just got through playing this, or at least one pathway of it, since I get the impression that there's more than one way to reach a conclusion. At least at the moment, right after finishing, I'm left with somewhat of a mixed impression. I'll put this all in one big ol' spoiler box, since it's early in the thread.
Concept-wise, I think you pulled off some really brilliant stuff. I was incredibly surprised to see an honest-to-goodness opening cutscene. Starting things off with a simulator version of the actual operation was a nifty idea that really added to the atmosphere. (Nice Easter egg, too, though I failed at defense and only came across it when poking around in FRED. :p On a related note, that bonus mission you threw in seems like a cool concept, although I haven't played it yet.) The cutscene at the Knossos portal had some of the best camera work I've ever seen, and its implications were rather creepy. The entire atmosphere of the campaign gave a great sense of desperation and loneliness, particularly during the internal monologue sequences. I really like how you played with the uncertainties of the player character when he realized the implications of his actions, though that was somewhat tempered on my end by the unavoidable foreknowledge of what was "supposed to happen" in the future. The eventual duplicity on the Trinity's part was a nice touch too, though I thought it was a bit of a shame that I jumped out without any sort of further elaboration on its motivations.
From a gameplay standpoint...that's where things broke down a bit for me personally. Maybe it's just me, but being faced repeatedly with seemingly never-ending waves of Shivan fighters got really old really fast. I know it's probably a function of having played this game for so long, but I find the most tiring missions to be those where you're set alone against an endless stream of enemy fighters, which happened in nearly every mission. In most of these instances, I think limiting the enemy wings to a few waves would have achieved the same effect without crossing the line into frustration. This was most problematic at the end of a few of the missions, when I found myself having to afterburn at full engine power thousands of meters away from the node, then back again, just to open up enough distance from the multiple Shivan fighters on my tail. The infiltration into the binary system was particularly trying, as I managed to die in it twice after the full fifteen minutes had elapsed; the real killer was when I was left at 1% hull integrity after scanning the Rakshasa, managed to survive until the rest of the convoy jumped out, and then got tagged by a random Astaroth shot. I never did find a way to scan that cruiser without taking a significant amount of damage.
Also, touching on the story one more time, the ending I wound up with seemed rather...anti-climactic. I decided to make my way back to Capella, and then to surrender to GTVA forces when they arrived. And when I had done so...that was it. No debriefing, no resolution, just the main hall screen again. I think some sort of conclusion alluding to the player character undergoing a court-martial, or providing information on NTF activities to the GTVI, would have been a really beneficial inclusion here. Along the same lines, after poking through the campaign file, I think allowing the campaign to end if the player had chosen to let himself be killed in Gamma Draconis would have been a very chilling and effective option.
Overall, I think you accomplished some really cool things with this, although there were a few areas that didn't exactly do it for me. Thanks for getting it out to us. :)
-
The Good
Third mission/cutscene. The conception you probably had was "this is what happens when you shut down the node in mid transit, everybody gets trapped in subspace for a few thousand years and can't handle it coming out again" but my first thought was actually "have the Shivans been trying to force this node since the end of their war with the Ancients? They send through a strike force every year, or few years, or hundred years, but it just can't take it? And we happened to be here for that."
I counted exactly two grammar errors. Blaise Russel and Darius did comparatively worse in that department.
The Bad
The reproduction FS1 mainhall you start with has some bugs about going to the briefing room.
The nuking of the Trinity immediately at the post-five-minute mark of the training/first mission screams mission designer fiat. From the jump-in location being so close to the Trinity and the salvo of bombs that go off being almost immediate thanks to how they jump in, to the placement so any rational posistion you'd take for escort is going to make it impossible to intercept.
Amateur's misappreciation of the value of blobs for ship defense. The adding of Subaches to the convoy ships actually makes things worse, not better, because of the slowed firerates and shorter range. They don't kill attacking fightercraft any better, and they intercept bombs far worse. Fortunately, this isn't actually an issue beyond the training mission! (What the ****?)
The Repulse does not manuver to bring her broadside to bear in the second mission and as a consequence tends to get rather severely messed-up while waiting for the Pax (which is damn near useless in this, as the particular angling of everything means the Pax's beams have barely got an angle at all on the Tobuk) and the bombers to do their jobs. I don't think Koth's quite that incompetent.
Enemy craft use their default loadouts. This actually helps the Serapiseseses you face, since the SDG's pretty good at nuking shields, but it means a number of enemy bombers come into missions without bombs. This is actually good on the second mission; the Repulse gets ****ed up badly enough already. It's ridiculous on the first.
The third/mission cutscene passes with way too little comment or panic on the fact a Shivan strikeforce just came out of subspace and blew the **** up in front of you. At the very least, there should have been serious discussion about continuing or a communication from Bosch to precede in spite of it.
The fourth mission has an insidious, useless directive (Scan Shivan) that isn't linked to anything it talks about in any way; you can't possibly scan all the devices before being recalled to the convoy; recalling you to the convoy is impractical anyways with a mob of Maras and Astaroths on your tail; the convoy ships get ****ed up severely in your absence and would almost certainly die but for ship-invul and ship-guardian monkey business, which is never the sign of a well-planned mission; the Astaroths are identified as Astaroths which should not happen; most but not all Shivan fighters can be scanned, but doing so serves no purpose; the entire conception of jumping in the whole damn convoy without some kind of recon is stupid.
The music doesn't work until mission five.
Missions six and mission seven are tedious dogfights as easily solved by running the hell away as fighting. Mission eight probably is too, except I'm trying to break it by wiping out the Shivans and becoming the savior of human race.
The Ugly
Bosch is, well, Bosch, and he's not being a very good Bosch this time around in the first CB. There's no charisma or flair to him. It's a wonder the man made Lieutenant, much less Charismatic Rebel Leader.
This ties into the other point: the writing's not very good. At several points in the beginning it verges on No Fourth Wall, the tone is terribly casual and informal, not at all suited to the situation.
The Trinity and Orpheus blow up their only fighter cover in an environment swarming the Shivans. I believe the phrase is "WHAT THE ****". Further, the Orpheus should probably have kept the fighters as extra insurance against exactly what happened, or just presented them with a straight up choice to join up or be stranded. Just to boot, the Orpehus might be able to take the Trinity, and the player is forced to warp out because he could definitely take the Trinity and the Orpehus and save the other two ships, so by mission designer fiat he's not allowed to try. This is Bad Mission Design.
The player is forced to jump to the Capella node despite the possible "or not" direction. (Or at least I was!) He is also not given the opportunity to go one-man-squadron on the Rakshasa and everything else in the area. Considering I blasted twenty-odd Manticores, it's clear you don't want the player to (much like in several other situations in this campaign) and have to resort to blatant fiat.
After taking the Rakshasa down to 2% hull (and disabled, and de-weapons-subsystemed) at the Capella node (and killing god knows how many Maras) then getting abruptly beamed at an angle that shouldn't have worked, I gave up. I will make another attempt to go one-man squadron on the Shivans tomorrow and see if the game's capable of acknowledging that.
There are some great concepts here, but the execution is amateurish and the spit-and-polish details (except, amazingly, the proofreading) are lacking.
-
Thanks for all the good comments so far :)
Echelon: I noticed that too, I think it's a code issue; the hull integrity is carried fine. The first mission where you're alone is the only one that should recharge everything; that's both for technical (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,62340.msg1231210.html#msg1231210) and difficulty reasons.
Mongoose:There's only one path, it just has multiple end points.
Indeed, the second half gets incredibly repetitive. I tried to find a way to make it more interesting, but I couldn't. It was just the "Transcend Problem" : the player just needs to cross all those nodes, and there's nothing really interesting that could happen.
Initially, all of those missions lasted 15 minutes. Thanks to Droid803 for pointing out that that was really way too long.
Being a very bad pilot, I tested the campaign on Easy level, so I didn't really have big problems with the mission in the Binary or the solo ones. The cruiser didn't beam me while scanning, and I just stayed away from the nodes until my drive recharged, then full-burned towards it.
You're right about the anti-climactic ending. For me, since I made up the story, it seemed obvious enough that he would be extensively debriefed, then thrown into captivity; I just didn't think of adding that. But yes, I should have.
NGTM-1R:Bugs in the mainhall? Huh? I didn't notice any.
The training, yeah, I guess it was too challenging. I always fail when the Bakhas start their run. From that point onwards, it was... just a shot in the dark. I probably should have hired an elite tester for it.
The blobs, that was decided over a year ago, when I hadn't learned to appreciate them yet. But you're right, I should have kept them.
The Repulse not maneuvering, the default loadouts, the comments on the strikeforce: Damn, it seems so obvious now that you're pointing at it. *headdesks*
Fourth mission, yeah well. The idea was that you take those data back home to the NTF R&D department. But indeed, it doesn't really make a difference. The convoy jumping in without recon first: *headdesks again*
Now, I initially had quite some troubles with the ships ramming each other instead of jumping out, so I played that mission at least twenty times. (Yes, really.) It was a real pain. I didn't want the player to have to do it even just five times, since it's a full fifteen minutes. That's why the ships survive regardless of anything. Fighters not scannable, class names visible: indeed, that's not supposed to happen.
I never had all those fighters on my tail; I just ignored them while scanning, so they didn't come after me.
Music not working, what the hell? I think that's on your side.
Yes, the second half is dull and repetitive. I tried to keep it somewhat realistic, but that made it a pain to play.
I freely admit that I'm not good at writing. But I wanted to make that campaign anyway :nervous:
The player is briefed by Alpha 1, a veteran pilot who isn't easily impressed - hence the casual, informal tone. I should have worked that out somewhat deeper, yeah.
You definitely have a point with blowing up that fighter cover. Yeah, I should have left them a choice. Again, it's an obvious thing now that someone says it.
And, erm, you're not supposed to one-man-stop the Shivans :nervous: Needs more fighters around the Rakshasa?
Well, I could have the campaign end oon player death, but that would frustrate players who want to continue but die "by accident".
So yeah, overall, I agree with you. On the amateurish execution and the bad details as well. I should have had more people testing and commenting it.
-
Good job, FreeSpaceFreak! :yes: :yes:
More of my comments and feedback is on the Game Warden (http://game-warden.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7002).... :pimp:
-
Mongoose:Being a very bad pilot, I tested the campaign on Easy level, so I didn't really have big problems with the mission in the Binary or the solo ones. The cruiser didn't beam me while scanning, and I just stayed away from the nodes until my drive recharged, then full-burned towards it.
I guess I really am that rusty, then, because I was playing on Easy too. :p The main problem I kept having is that I would be repeatedly drawn into a furball by the newly-arriving wings, which I never managed to drive off enough to get a clear shot at jumping out peacefully; the only strategy I found that worked was, like you said, flying way off and then making a run back at the node. (It probably doesn't help that the Ulysses isn't exactly my favorite fighter to fly; the hyper-sensitive maneuverability throws off my aiming something fierce.) Short of capping some of those wing respawns at much lower numbers, I think what really would have helped is giving the player some sort of interval between waves, even if it was only ten seconds or so. That way, you'd be able to take care of the current fighters and then jump out unmolested.
I am kind of surprised to hear that the cruiser didn't beam you, though. Maybe there's some optimal way to approach a Rakshasa that I don't know about, but every time I settled in somewhere around the middle of the ship to complete the scan, I got blasted with at least one salvo. In fact, I'm fairly sure that the damn thing was managing to fire through its own hull in the process. :p
Anyway, I hope these criticisms don't get you down too much. Like I said, I enjoyed the concept you were going for here. If you tweaked a few elements of this release, or re-visited the concept at a later date, I think you could have something really special. :)
-
I'll get it after work today. :yes: nothing wrong with being a zod hater ;)
-
A perfect fit!
right for the weekend!
ps. the NTF interface is permanent, isn't it?
-
Yeah looks like I've got something to keep me busy this weekend too, from what I've heard.
-
Just finished the campaign. The cut-scenes were really cool and were effective. BUT the second half of the campaign got rather repetitive as others have mentioned. If you could have had more chatter going on for whatever reason, or had more of your(Alpha 2's) own thoughts displayed that might have done more to make things interesting and also reveal a little more about the story/peoples motives. As it was I'm still rather confused as to why anything happened after the midpoint of the campaign. Still cool though, backgrounds were really nice too (I don't know if you made those or what, but cool neway :D)
-
Someone needs to update the Wiki that this campaign has been released...
-Thaeris
-
Mongoose:
I know exacly what you mean about it being too maneuverable. I hate that too, and I would have chosen any other fighter if two of it would fit into a Faustus. Personally, I never really needed extra delay though. Hell, I even managed to outrun Manticores.
I usually approached the cruiser from the side... And yeah, that beam does fire through its own hull sometimes.
0rph3us: What do you mean by permanent? It will stay as is, unless someone notices a bug. I'm just gonna leave the multi screens logo-less, I think.
Falcon: I only did the Capella background and the planet in the last mission, the other backgrounds are from the MediaVPs.
-
Ooh NTF Campaign :eek:
Dling now!
-
interesting. Trying it out
-
Good concepts, but not so great writing.
I'm sorry to say this, but I found the second half of the campaign quite tedious, for the same reasons given above.
The player choices weren't really choices per se - one-man-squadroning the Rakshasa was in fact what I thought you were supposed to do.
- The moment I got the 'realisation', I turned around and tried to wipe out its engines, nav and weaponry.
(I failed twice by trying that one.)
To my mind, the two logical options at that stage are to die (maybe give the player a 'suicide' option?) or to take out the Rakshasa's engine, nav, and comms.
I'm fairly sure the latter is doable.
The remainder of the missions were actually rather easy.
I think you can probably pass the whole thing by running away!
Edit: Spoiler tags aren't in the buttons, which is why I didn't have them to start with.
-
Spoiler tags too much to ask?
Good first release overall... Much better than some.
-
Here's (http://freespacemods.net/download.php?view.564) a mirror. :)
-
you got the same issue as the STR last version, you are able to jump to the next mission completely dissabled, how I regret staying still while those GTVA fighters aimed at me now
nice concept, I like the "giving the player a choice" ..I myself wanted to try something like that in some missions but I never found a good thing for the player to choose so far :P
also the continuous amount of enemy fighter I had to destroy made me almost go crazy, but I know it's the only way to keep the player on the game for that amount of time.
overall :yes:
recommended to other community members.
-
Tomo: Yes, you can pass it that way.
Thanks for the mirror, Swantz :)
Rodo, you're right, I should have thought of that.
General remark: if you liked the third mission, you may want to last till the ninth, or take a look at it via the tech room (it's called CtS_10).
-
i can not see the campaign in the campaigns menu in fs2.
-
i can not see the campaign in the campaigns menu in fs2.
Then you're doing it wrong. Works fine on my end.
Didn't play it yet but I have one thing to say as feedback: The mod.ini says "secondrylist = ,mediavps;". Even though both forms work, it would be better conduct to have it say "secondarylist" instead of "secondrylist". Also, the comma before the "mediavps" is unnecessary, and might even cause problems to some users.
-
Well, both the mis-spelling "secondrylist" and the comma are necessary for it to work on older versions of FSO (ie. 3.6.9), IIRC.
Those were only recently fixed.
-
Well, both the mis-spelling "secondrylist" and the comma are necessary for it to work on older versions of FSO (ie. 3.6.9), IIRC.
Those were only recently fixed.
o rly
According to the wiki article about mod installation (http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Installing_Mods_for_FS2_Open#Installing_a_mod), it was an issue with Launchers older than 5.4.
-
Ok then, people with older launchers.
Regardless, there is little to no harm using the older form, but people still using the older launcher will experience problems using the 'fixed' form.
-
I think we're well past anyone using Launcher 5.4 with new campaigns. There's no reason to not have the latest launcher if you're getting other new stuff from HLP. It's still completely backwards compatible with any SCP release or retail FS2.
-
Yes. If a person is using Launcher 5.3 and wants to play Crossing the Styx, he'll/she'll have to update. CTS requires the 3.6.10 MediaVPs -> CTS requires a (recent enough) 3.6.10 build, and I've understood that really old Launchers won't necessarily get along with new builds.
Keeping the old and, in a way, wrong format in mod.inis is sort of like making sure the cavemen have enough wooden clubs; I mean, OK, it can be done but what's the point?
-
"If it's not broken don't fix it" ?
Just seemed needless to change something like that (which works anyway).
-
As I attempted to explain before, it is not good conduct. Sure, it might work but (especially) the comma thing was a MacGyver-chewing-gum fix to begin with, because of poor functionality in the old Launchers. If there is a good way to do something and a bad way to do something, and both will end up in a working situation, why settle with the bad way?
-
Because it was already done the bad way and would be redundant to do it again?
Yeah, next time do it the good way but don't bother with changing it now...
-
Dammit, I wanted ten new posts of people discussing the merits of the campaign, not wanking about whether or not an .ini file is spelling things right. :p
-
Campaign is cool so far, didn't manage to beat it this weekend though. Got stuck on some L4D and coding instead.
-
FreeSpaceKing: Are you sure you have the mod enabled? NTF interface, Bastion mainhall?
Jeff Vader: I took a mod.ini from another mod, only adapted the necessary things. But I'll keep it in mind.
-
For the record everything ran fine for me first time. All I had to do was choose the campaign.
I'm definitely getting immersed, but the first mission. . . . I didn't realise it was training til afterwards. Apart from that, I like it :)
-
Yeah :)
-
For the record everything ran fine for me first time. All I had to do was choose the campaign.
I'm definitely getting immersed, but the first mission. . . . I didn't realise it was training til afterwards. Apart from that, I like it :)
It _did_ mention it in the briefing, as well as there being a big "Skip Training" button.
-
Got some error reports, need help!
Error: Unrecognized operator.
In sexpression: ( when
( true )
( lock-rotating-subsystem
"Ancient subspace portal"
"jump2a"
)
( lock-rotating-subsystem
"Ancient subspace portal"
"jump1a"
)
( deactivate-glow-points
"Ancient subspace portal"
)
( deactivate-glow-points "Eurydice" )
( deactivate-glow-maps
"Ancient subspace portal"
)
( deactivate-glow-maps "Eurydice" )
( break-warp "Alpha 2" )
( set-subsystem-strength
"Trinity"
"Hull"
[]
)
( set-camera-position -1194 58 -286 )
( set-camera-fov 24 )
( fade-out )
( player-use-ai )
( lock-primary-weapon "Alpha 2" )
( lock-secondary-weapon "Alpha 2" )
( add-goal
"Alpha 2"
( ai-play-dead 89 )
)
)
(Error appears to be: set-camera-fov)
File: MissionParse.cpp
Line: 6016
Call stack:
------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------
-
What build are you using?
-
3.6.10, launcher 5.5c
-
3.6.10
Which one? RC3 is good.
launcher 5.5c
5.5d is available (see link in my signature).
-
This may relate to ngtm-1r’s issue with the music: I can play the mod (and enjoy it), but only after clicking through half a dozen errors like this:
Error: mv_music-mus.tbm(line 14:
Error: Missing required token: [#Soundtrack End]. Found [#SoundTrack Start] instead.
File: parselo.cpp
Line: 262
Call stack:
------------------------------------------------------------------
fs2_open_3_6_11r-20090713_r5434.exe 00514e0a()
fs2_open_3_6_11r-20090713_r5434.exe 00562ddc()
fs2_open_3_6_11r-20090713_r5434.exe 006a5756()
------------------------------------------------------------------
Then I get the splash screen and a message that the currently active mod has generated 7 errors with a disclaimer that the errors are in the mod not in the exe. I'm using 3.6.11 nightly build 5434, run not debug, media vps 3.6.10. I thought maybe the mv_music had corrupted somehow so I re-downloaded it from the release thread but I get the same error; only in this campaign, others seem okay. Computer is an Athlon 7850, 4 gb ram and the video card (this can’t be relevant) is a Geforce 260. I’m running Windows 7 64 bit with no other issues that I’ve found.
I never got a command to scan the Rakshasa – actually went back to check, but it’s not there. I tried to scan it anyway, nothing happening, subsystem targeting on or off, range down to zero.
So I ignored it, and it and its escort of Maras ignored me. That’s good, I was busy enough.
Overall I like the campaign a lot – I found the atmosphere effective, as others have commented. For me it ended disabled by those pesky Pegasi in the final mission, and it was a bit anticlimactic. Of course, projected into reality, that IS how it would have felt.
Thanks!
-
Well, I've got to admit that my music.tbl is pretty messed up :nervous:
Playing with 3.6.11 is at your own risk though, I've only tested it up to 3.6.10 RC3.
-
Pretty good campaign.
The binary system mission is totally doable even in medium, and I'm not that good either. My tactic is :
-full engine, scan the 3 devices
-when the cruiser show up, go to the other side of it, to have plenty of time to scan it while the enemies move around.
-full engine to the convoy and defend it. You won't be hit more than once or twice by the AAA beams this way.
It's probably because I'm playing in medium, but I didn't even thought of attacking the rakhsa when it shows up at the knossos. I just ran away - as I was supposed to do anyway.
Even if I was at 8% health, I didn't have difficulties to survive the whole run, until the bomb explodes.
And yes, the final debriefing is missing, too bad.
-
You weren't kidding about your music table. Half your missions point to empty soundtracks. If it's working I'm guessing it's using the soundtracks that aren't commented out below it, and not the listed ones. I have no idea what FS1-9 would use though, there's no more below it. You want some help cleaning that up a little bit? I can only see it causing more headache later.
-
I couldn't bring myself to enjoy this campaign, Transcend had it bad enough when it was on its repeat stages but this really drove me into madness, it's good that I got to have another go as a traitor faction (Considering I played this after Sol: A History, and EA is rogue in the eyes of the GTVA).
Plus, for some reason now trying to pick the campaign breaks my pilot data which forces me to delete and remake my pilot. :wtf:
-
It wasn't anything spectacular, but I enjoyed the story... and while flying a Ulysses the entire time was annoying, at least it had Harpoons instead of TAG missiles. (And that cutscene when they activated the portal was freakin' cool. :yes:)
The campaign went pretty smoothly as far as gameplay, but I did notice one issue. In the mission where the Trinity force-jumps you away, I was fairly close to the Trinity and facing it when that happened, so the portal opened in the middle of the cruiser. I don't know if there's an easy way to account for something like that, but yeah...
-
++ cutscenes
+ story idea
+ reference to the main campaigns were nice
- unclear mission objectives, no alternative ending to the jump out or not
-- difficulty/mission design; seriously, why do so many mission designers think sending endless waves of fighters is a good idea? I toned the difficulty down to easy after I died in the mission on the other side of the second Knossos[/spoiler, because it seemed so obvious how this would continue...
It's neither fun nor "realistic" to have 43 kills after finishing a mission, without even being covered by allies. Just so you can understand: Spawn a wing of Maras, in ~1200m range. Try to kill of them on insane.
Think again if it's a good idea to have 42 shivan fighters chase after the player.
Well, but the cutscenes were superb.. especially the aeolus cruies <3
-
Pretty good campaign.
The binary system mission...
This one's annoying to me. There is literally no payoff to wiping out enemy wings, as unlimited replacements immediately warp in; the full engine tactic is cheesy. It's also hard to scan the cruiser; one thing noticeable is that some sides are much safer to scan than others, since it's arbitrary which beam cannons actually fire. They're also very tough to kill with the equipment you start with.
-
;-)
-
Ok, just saw the ending.
The bomb going off and the support ship coming in to capture you was all disappointing, shocking, and outright hilarious at the same time. :lol:
-
:-)
-
Still, I didn't have any music problems in 3.6.10 RC3. I knew it's a mess, but I thought "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
I don't think I'll make a patch; what this needs is a complete remake, and I'm too busy for that.
And, umm, yeah, you're all right :nervous:
-
I don't think I'll make a patch; what this needs is a complete remake, and I'm too busy for that.
Don't completely get rid of the current ending, it's unique and funny. A few new different ending possibilities would be good though.
-
Hmmn, I seem to be playing through FS2 campaigns today. But anyway here's my comments:
Hmmn.
The Cutscenes: As others have said the cutscenes were quite well done. It seemed pretty clear that you did quite a bit of work on them, including co-ordinating beam fire? Though one thing of note. When the Aeolus dies, the Vanguard or whatever. What is taking the picture?? Realistically there should've been another unit besides the Aeolus, even a fighter craft, which survives the engagement long enough to record and transmit the destruction of the Aeolus.
The Missions: As others have also said, the latter half of the campaign is a bit tedious. I think the real problem is not the mission structure itself, it's the jump drive recharge requirement. Blue Planet has a sequence of missions that have the same sort of set-up, but in BP it works. Because the player isn't required to wait they just have to go from A to B. See when the player reaches Capella and says "enough of this, I'm going to fight" it's very ironic because with the 8 minute requirement he would've HAD to fight at least twice in Gamma Draconis (or do the lame run away from the node and run back again bit). Personally I avoided fighting altogether because on my way out of the nebula I was at 5% hull.
I thought the opening brief was a little too deus ex machina as well. I don't think Bosch new about the nebula and the lions den. Remember he never left the Nebula. The GTVA only found the second portal because the Shivans took Bosch through it. I'm guessing what you thought is that Bosch found some ancient library or datacore that told him what to expect but I don't think this was the case or if it was it isn't supported by his actions in FS2. I also don't think the player would be privy to that information, "need to know" and all that.
Also the GTVA was a little too accommodating in trying to capture me. In the initial encounter, I waxed 5 Myrmidons. Do they REALLY want me that bad that they don't resort to using lethal force? If you're implying that he's a high priority intel target I would've included some GTVA pilot chatter like:
"damnit he's killing us out here, permission to use lethal force?"
and then the control ship "permission denied! we want him alive!"
Speaking of the GTVA the two Perseus scouts seemed pretty damn unconcerned that the player just fought Shivans. Were they supposed to be expecting him to be fighting shivans?? The Aeolus was surprised, but the others weren't so it was a bit confusing.
As for my end. Well, I was jumping out from Capella when the damn Pegasus fighters disabled me. But I still transitted so I watched the resulting battle in EP and ended up getting captured of course. Luckily the GTCv whatever didn't run me over on its way in.
Overall. A good concept, with some flaws in its execution but still pretty decent overall.
-
The Cutscenes: As others have said the cutscenes were quite well done. It seemed pretty clear that you did quite a bit of work on them, including co-ordinating beam fire? Though one thing of note. When the Aeolus dies, the Vanguard or whatever. What is taking the picture?? Realistically there should've been another unit besides the Aeolus, even a fighter craft, which survives the engagement long enough to record and transmit the destruction of the Aeolus. -->Well, I didn't imagine it as "something taking the picture"... But I see what you mean.
The Missions: As others have also said, the latter half of the campaign is a bit tedious. I think the real problem is not the mission structure itself, it's the jump drive recharge requirement. Blue Planet has a sequence of missions that have the same sort of set-up, but in BP it works. Because the player isn't required to wait they just have to go from A to B. See when the player reaches Capella and says "enough of this, I'm going to fight" it's very ironic because with the 8 minute requirement he would've HAD to fight at least twice in Gamma Draconis (or do the lame run away from the node and run back again bit). Personally I avoided fighting altogether because on my way out of the nebula I was at 5% hull. -->BP was post-Capella, they probably had better fighter jump drives by then. I already stretched canon by shortening the recharge time to 8 minutes; originally it was a full 15, as in the SOC Lion's Den.
I thought the opening brief was a little too deus ex machina as well. I don't think Bosch new about the nebula and the lions den. Remember he never left the Nebula. The GTVA only found the second portal because the Shivans took Bosch through it. I'm guessing what you thought is that Bosch found some ancient library or datacore that told him what to expect but I don't think this was the case or if it was it isn't supported by his actions in FS2. I also don't think the player would be privy to that information, "need to know" and all that. --> If the second portal was already active before FS2, wouldn't there have been more Shivans in the Nebula? To me, it seemed that the Binary System was their furthest outpost.
Also the GTVA was a little too accommodating in trying to capture me. In the initial encounter, I waxed 5 Myrmidons. Do they REALLY want me that bad that they don't resort to using lethal force? If you're implying that he's a high priority intel target I would've included some GTVA pilot chatter like:
"damnit he's killing us out here, permission to use lethal force?"
and then the control ship "permission denied! we want him alive!"
--> Would they chat like that on public channels? They probably said that kind of things, but not where you could hear them :P
Speaking of the GTVA the two Perseus scouts seemed pretty damn unconcerned that the player just fought Shivans. Were they supposed to be expecting him to be fighting shivans?? The Aeolus was surprised, but the others weren't so it was a bit confusing.--> You're right. Didn't think of that.
As for my end. Well, I was jumping out from Capella when the damn Pegasus fighters disabled me. But I still transitted so I watched the resulting battle in EP and ended up getting captured of course. Luckily the GTCv whatever didn't run me over on its way in. --> Yeah. You're not supposed to be able to transit. Another oversight from me.
-
BP was post-Capella, they probably had better fighter jump drives by then. I already stretched canon by shortening the recharge time to 8 minutes; originally it was a full 15, as in the SOC Lion's Den.
Oh right the canon jump drive requirement. Had forgotten about that.
If the second portal was already active before FS2, wouldn't there have been more Shivans in the Nebula? To me, it seemed that the Binary System was their furthest outpost.
Hmmn, I don't think so. I think the Shivans would've regarded it for what it was, a source of gas to mine. That sort of scenario doesn't really require a large military presence especially when the only known working exit leads to friendly space.
--> Would they chat like that on public channels? They probably said that kind of things, but not where you could hear them :P
I don't know, would the Trinity broadcast "Phase 1 and Phase 2" on public channels?
--> Yeah. You're not supposed to be able to transit. Another oversight from me.
Was that an oversight on your part? I thought the jump worked just because I hit alt-j. Though maybe its some sort of mission scripting I'm not aware of. Anyway I got to "win" via that so I can't complain.
-
Interesting campaign. The beginning was very intense, I mean - beyond the second knossos with the NTF... I was always thinking where did the Trinity show up! The optionality was nice, and is good that you rearmed and repaired the player in every mission. If that fix wasnt there, it'd be realistic, but very hard to complete.
The psychology was interesting, too. Should I fight and die... or bring the Shivvies back? Can't say I didn't have goosebumps.
Classic cutscenes, I can't grasp any script errors neither, BUT... what frustrated me were the missions at the end, very stereotypical and same. Fight/go. Some more plot twists would be welcome, rememer RA's Sync ;) You don't have to keep the original storyline, as you are the choosing pilot ;)
If I'd be to rate, I'd go 100/30. Chronologically.
Keep it up!
-
Interesting campaign. The beginning was very intense, I mean - beyond the second knossos with the NTF... I was always thinking where did the Trinity show up! The optionality was nice, and is good that you rearmed and repaired the player in every mission. If that fix wasnt there, it'd be realistic, but very hard to complete.
The psychology was interesting, too. Should I fight and die... or bring the Shivvies back? Can't say I didn't have goosebumps.
Classic cutscenes, I can't grasp any script errors neither, BUT... what frustrated me were the missions at the end, very stereotypical and same. Fight/go. Some more plot twists would be welcome, rememer RA's Sync ;) You don't have to keep the original storyline, as you are the choosing pilot ;)
If I'd be to rate, I'd go 100/30. Chronologically.
Keep it up!
Okay, thanks for playing :) Sorry for the repetitive end.
-
Replayed the campaign on Insane level of difficulty. Who said this campaign is too easy? It definitely isn't - most missions are way too unbalanced to play them on Insane (you will die again and again and again) or even on Hard. I suspect it wasn't even playtested on higher difficulty levels before release. Unfortunately, the only efficient tactics in almost every mission is to cowardly run away from any fight.
-
Things aren't supposed to be easy on Insane :P But yeah, I only tested up till Medium (IIRC), I'm a really crappy pilot.
-
Rakshasas firing through themselves happens in every campaign.
How do you do the "or not" path in the gamma drac mission after you get out of the nebula? I tried jumping through the Knossos and every time that fails I have to play the whole campaign again. Do you have to do something weird with the Rakshasa?
-
Hmm, well, that's not an actual branch in the campaign. The directive will trigger if you just get killed, but then you'll be prompted to play the mission again (just in case you died unexpectedly). You're right, I should have considered the possibility of going back through the Knossos.
-
At the beginning of the week I got permission from FreeSpaceFreak to get Crossing the Styx out onto Knossos. As a contribution to the Anniversary proceedings I decided to make it a priority and here we are!
CROSSING THE STYX
2019 Knossos re-release
(https://fsnebula.global.ssl.fastly.net/storage/f5/c6/5a7b1306da882d58a70f3967a66028fd859cdce065ab96e7c00ecd4563c6.png)
Join a NTF task force on a daring mission behind Alliance lines. Your objective is nothing short of altering the future of the Terran people.
(https://fsnebula.org/static/kn_download.png) (https://fsnebula.org/mod/CtS)
Credits
* Made by: FSF
Special thanks to:
* ShadowGorrath
- General modding help, beta testing
* Droid803
- Beta testing
* GalEmp
- NTF logo, interface concept
* FlamingSword
- Interface help
Knossos re-release:
* Mjn.Mixael
- GTD Bastion A interface art
* Jan ''0rph3u5'' Dombert
- Curator
* themaddin
- Video Editing
* carbunch aka Rhys
- Intro Movie Music
In my capacity as "curator" I added a few conveniences (e.g. player subsystem protection when applicable) but mostly kept the campaign as is. One "big" omission however is that the Intro-movie that originally came with the campaign is not included in the Knossos-version (tl;dr: It's a copyright thing).
Images:
(https://media.moddb.com/images/members/5/4078/4077319/cts_promo_1.png)
(https://media.moddb.com/images/members/5/4078/4077319/cts_promo_2.png)
(https://media.moddb.com/images/members/5/4078/4077319/cts_promo_3.png)
-
Good job! :)
But what is the point about not including a roughly 20 second long cutscene? :wtf: Nobody will ever care about that.
-
But what is the point about not including a roughly 20 second long cutscene? :wtf: Nobody will ever care about that.
The audio track of cutscene contains material from another game, for which I don't own and don't have the EULA at hand - as such I can't comment on legality of its use.
Also, since copyright law in the EU is currently a bit complicated pending the national implimentation of the rules passed the European Parliament in May; and both I and (acording to this legal brief (https://dev.tproxy.de/impressum.html)) Knossos fall under german jurisdiction when it comes to copyright law - and german copyright law is terrible, esspecially after a court case in July (https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/musik/moses-pelham-und-kraftwerk-vor-gericht-eugh-faellt-urteil-zu-sampling-a-1279527.html) which further complicated everything about it.
Since the cutscene only serves to establish that campaign starts on the NTD Repulse, which is also done by using the Bastion mainhall and some of the mission loading screens, I decided that I rather not have that kind of legal exposure.
FreeSpaceFreak can, of course, override me anytime.
-
Yeah German judges are trapped in stone age. :lol: I kinda understand that you're careful on this one even though HLP mods often contain parts/remixes and nobody ever cared about it (in fact, ngld is from here too and hosts all the stuff XD). Still you should find somebody to put the intro back in. :nod:
-
Well, because the Intro is only a flight into NTD Repulse Hangar bay.. it would not even a big challenge to recreate that... without Modern Warfare music.
But well, i am also not sure if this make a big difference on Knossos. Because there are many uploaded mods that have Tracks from Star Trek: Elite Force II, StarCraft 2, Mass Effect and Halo...
not to speak of several movie soundtracks like District 9 or most of Two Steps from Hell discography... :D
-
I kinda understand that you're careful on this one even though HLP mods often contain parts/remixes and nobody ever cared about it (in fact, ngld is from here too and hosts all the stuff XD). Still you should find somebody to put the intro back in. :nod:
Well, they get to play by a different set of rules due to being subject to fundamentally different sets of copyright laws - tl;dr Most of german common law is predicated on the idea that you have to ask permission for anything outside your own property. While in anglo-saxon law a prioriy is basically "if no one objects...."* - and ngld gets to make use of the best portions of german copyright law, e.g. that it favors arbitration over filing a full suit and that under german law you can only sue for past damages in almost all chases. (Also the case would be different if I had an actual Rechtsschutzversicherung at the moment)
* Not a lawyer; don't use in court.
-
Still you should look for somebody to upload that thing if you don't want to do it yourself.
-
I'd still be legally accountable if I asked someone, Nightmare.
Now if someone had the software (which I don't) to change the audio track on the .ogg things would be different.
-
Then PM people on Discord or whatever.
-
I am not going to discuss the omission further.
There are two scenarios for the bringing the cutscene back into the released version:
A) FreeSpaceFreak tells me to (and thus at least partially accepts legal liability).
B) I get the audio-track removed and/or replaced.
If you have the software and time to make Scenario B happen, you can contact me via any of the given options listed on my forum profile - a private message here on HLP is the prefered option.
-
Version 1.0.3 released
- Added a failsafe to Mission 12
You will now take 100x the damage from the Disruptors on the SOC fighters, which in turn will only take 1% of the usual damage from your weapons.
This should ensure that you can't destroy the SOC fighters anymore and they disable you without fail.
-
But I like intro cutscenes. :p Good thing I still have the original~
-
Thanks a lot 0rph3u5 for taking the time and effort to bring this back into current era :) Regarding the cutscene thing, of course it's a pity it had to be omitted, but I agree that this is not the time or place to take risks with copyrights. (Much less would I ask someone to break the law!) I think you made the right decision in omitting it.
-
Version 1.0.4 released
- Thanks to community member themaddin, a version of the original release's intro movie without the audio track is now included.
- A minor fix to the failsafe from 1.0.3 so there is no more potential unwanted messages from the Debug Build.
Thanks a lot 0rph3u5 for taking the time and effort to bring this back into current era :) Regarding the cutscene thing, of course it's a pity it had to be omitted, but I agree that this is not the time or place to take risks with copyrights. (Much less would I ask someone to break the law!) I think you made the right decision in omitting it.
I'd say "you are welcome" but considering the curation is also a "thank you" to you for making this, it would have the potential to be looping :)
-
Version 1.0.5
Thanks to the iniative of the themaddin and the excellent work by Rhys (aka carbunch), Version 1.0.5 is now live.
The intro-movie now has an original music track by Rhys.
Sounds small but isn't. So please a big round of applause for these two.
-
Version 1.0.6
Resolves an issue with the MVPs dependency at version 4.3+ - MVP dependency is now fixed at 4.3.3.