Author Topic: Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign  (Read 7802 times)

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Offline Bryan See

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Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign
Okay, since several years ago, y'all asked me to start something small - no voice acting, stick in FS2 territory, few missions. And I did.

While designing these missions, I've decided to not to make the player character, Kappa 3, a talking character until the very end of the campaign. I made these missions continuous without a briefing screen in between via red alert setting.

It can be played in Vanilla FS2 at minimum, but it is best be played if MediaVPs is enabled, and even better if Blue Planet is enabled.

The campaign is packed into a file called fs2-litm.zip. It is attached here.

To play the campaign, extract its contents to the data/missions folder. Then run FS2 and go to Campaigns and select "Lost in the Mist", and start playing.

As a first-time modder, I am starting small. And this is the result.

[attachment eaten by a Shivan]
« Last Edit: December 08, 2019, 12:55:09 pm by Bryan See »
Bryan See - My FreeSpace Wiki User Page (Talk, Contributions)

Full Projects:
Shattered Stars

Campaigns:
Lost in the Mist - Cyrene vs. Psamtik
FreeSpace: Reunited

Ships:
GTS Hygeia, GTT Argo, SC Raguel

Tools:
FSO TC/Game template

I've been under attack by Tiger Parents like Jennifer Pan...

 

Offline NeonShivan

  • Previously known as BTA
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  • By the Omnisiah's grace.
Re: Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign
Congratulations. You’ve managed to crush what little expectations we had for this campaign.
In German even the most beautiful love letter sounds like an execution order -Mito

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Author of Dusk Wars - A modification for Freespace 2.

 

Offline wookieejedi

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  • Intensify Forward Firepower
Re: Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign
Okay, since several years ago, y'all asked me to start something small - no voice acting, stick in FS2 territory, few missions. And I did.

While designing these missions, I've decided to not to make the player character, Kappa 3, a talking character until the very end of the campaign. I made these missions continuous without a briefing screen in between via red alert setting.

It can be played in Vanilla FS2 at minimum, but it is best be played if MediaVPs is enabled, and even better if Blue Planet is enabled.

The campaign is packed into a file called fs2-litm.zip. It is attached here.

To play the campaign, extract its contents to the data/missions folder. Then run FS2 and go to Campaigns and select "Lost in the Mist", and start playing.

As a first-time modder, I am starting small. And this is the result.

It is indeed encouraging that you are taking the advice to start small. Building skills takes time and patience and small steps. Listening to the the constructive feedback is a very vital first step. The key now is to always play-test missions and do your best to take future constructive criticism as feedback to improve. Key word is construction, if someone is taking the time to write out something in a constructive way it is a good idea to try and follow that advice.

 

Offline spart_n

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Re: Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign
Lost in the Mist is boring at its best. Let's keep to its best.

I understand that you've made a decision to keep Kappa 3 silent, but the entire wing has also lost their voice. Communications are breaking down and Kappa just completely ignores the problem, flying past without as much as an input. This is made even more glaring when you fly for a minute and a half in awkward silence. I don't expect voice acting, but *something* would be great so it doesn't feel so lifelessly dull. When Pisces wing showed up, in the middle of the dogfight I realize my fellow wingmen were not assisting at all, resulting in Kappa 1's death. On my second playthrough (will explain later why I played this through a second time) is when Kappa assisted me; I was about 10k+m away by the Aquitaine curious to see what happened. Nothing did. They reached their waypoint and waited around, and Pisces wing didn't show up until I closed distance. Then and ONLY then did Kappa wing actually assisted with no casualities; because whatever Waypoint you had going prevented them from such. After the Dogfight, there was a slap black screen that made me think my PC crashed.
It's called 'fade to black', not 'slapped black on screen', mate.

The second half is where problems start to arise. "Escape" means nothing to me, at all. There's no waypoint, no objective marker, just "escape" until I flew adrift for a couple minutes until yet another black screen. I get the FS2 dialogue and...nothing happens. The screen remains black, I'm pretty sure I hear Shivan fighters, but it doesn't end.

Also was there a reason to be able to call in the support ship for both halves? I assumed the second one I was completely on my own.

All in all, if I had to give this a numbered review, it'd be low. Things feel slapped on without much context and this extends to the briefing where you're ordered to follow Zeta wing. The campaign virtually doesn't end and overall it just feels like a wasted execution of a decent idea. Some more context, polish and something to actually interest the player outside of two dogfights and an escape with no escape plan and this would've been worth the 10 minutes.

 
Re: Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign
I'm positvely surprised. Compared with Shattered Stars it is a tremendous improvement. I played through the entire campaign without a single crash-to-desktop. What I liked most was your extensive use of the fade-out SEXP; even though other players might not like it, the sole reliance on acustic rather than visual enviroments over most of the campaign was truly unexpected.

 

Offline Bryan See

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Re: Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign
I'm positvely surprised. Compared with Shattered Stars it is a tremendous improvement. I played through the entire campaign without a single crash-to-desktop. What I liked most was your extensive use of the fade-out SEXP; even though other players might not like it, the sole reliance on acustic rather than visual enviroments over most of the campaign was truly unexpected.
Nightmare, I take this as a complement.

Shattered Stars is now back to the drawing board, and remains a terrifying daunting prospect. The newly announced project, Fractured Suns, is less daunting and may bridge the gap into it. And two new demo projects, are coming up. One is a scaled-down version of what was announced five years ago (pre-2018 Shattered Stars), and one does not use any custom assets yet requires Wing Commander Saga to play (a mod-for-a-mod).

My extensive use of the fade-out SEXP is to make the campaign less-mission based, and I made Kappa 3 a non-talking character because I wanted to immerse themselves.

And for the problems one said, I've corrected them. It's all included in the update in the attachments. Download it, replace them if you have. If you don't have, just extract into the data/missions directory.

[attachment eaten by a Shivan]
Bryan See - My FreeSpace Wiki User Page (Talk, Contributions)

Full Projects:
Shattered Stars

Campaigns:
Lost in the Mist - Cyrene vs. Psamtik
FreeSpace: Reunited

Ships:
GTS Hygeia, GTT Argo, SC Raguel

Tools:
FSO TC/Game template

I've been under attack by Tiger Parents like Jennifer Pan...

 
Re: Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign
At maximum 1% of it were meant as a compliment.

 

Offline Bryan See

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Re: Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign
At maximum 1% of it were meant as a compliment.
What? What do you mean? I've corrected much of the issues.
Bryan See - My FreeSpace Wiki User Page (Talk, Contributions)

Full Projects:
Shattered Stars

Campaigns:
Lost in the Mist - Cyrene vs. Psamtik
FreeSpace: Reunited

Ships:
GTS Hygeia, GTT Argo, SC Raguel

Tools:
FSO TC/Game template

I've been under attack by Tiger Parents like Jennifer Pan...

 
Re: Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign
I was reffering to the initial mod anyway, haven't tried the other one.

 

Offline Bryan See

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Re: Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign
I was reffering to the initial mod anyway, haven't tried the other one.
You'd better get the updated one, and let me know.
Bryan See - My FreeSpace Wiki User Page (Talk, Contributions)

Full Projects:
Shattered Stars

Campaigns:
Lost in the Mist - Cyrene vs. Psamtik
FreeSpace: Reunited

Ships:
GTS Hygeia, GTT Argo, SC Raguel

Tools:
FSO TC/Game template

I've been under attack by Tiger Parents like Jennifer Pan...

 

Offline Colonol Dekker

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Re: Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign
As a very strong suggestion, please conduct your own playtesting before release to avoid negative feedback.   Take note of some o the highlighted issues such as
-boredom
-lack of fun
-lack of defined objectives
-no joy

And please be your own worst critic when you play before release, rectify boring missions where nothing happens for minutes at a time without context, it will only benefit your campaigns reception by the community.
Campaigns I've added my distinctiveness to-
- Blue Planet: Battle Captains
-Battle of Neptune
-Between the Ashes 2
-Blue planet: Age of Aquarius
-FOTG?
-Inferno R1
-Ribos: The aftermath / -Retreat from Deneb
-Sol: A History
-TBP EACW teaser
-Earth Brakiri war
-TBP Fortune Hunters (I think?)
-TBP Relic
-Trancsend (Possibly?)
-Uncharted Territory
-Vassagos Dirge
-War Machine
(Others lost to the mists of time and no discernible audit trail)

Your friendly Orestes tactical controller.

Secret bomb God.
That one time I got permabanned and got to read who was being bitxhy about me :p....
GO GO DEKKER RANGERSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
President of the Scooby Doo Model Appreciation Society
The only good Zod is a dead Zod
NEWGROUNDS COMEDY GOLD, UPDATED DAILY
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Re: Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign
I was reffering to the initial mod anyway, haven't tried the other one.
You'd better get the updated one, and let me know.

Sure but I don't have time for that right now.

 

Offline Bryan See

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Re: Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign
As a very strong suggestion, please conduct your own playtesting before release to avoid negative feedback.   Take note of some o the highlighted issues such as
-boredom
-lack of fun
-lack of defined objectives
-no joy

And please be your own worst critic when you play before release, rectify boring missions where nothing happens for minutes at a time without context, it will only benefit your campaigns reception by the community.

I love to do that. And that's why my projects have, time and again, shown a proven tendency to undergo drastic changes well into development all this time, due to these as you pointed out. Yet, Nightmare praised me of my use of fade-out SEXPs, which I'll use to maximal effect to partially address the aforementioned issues.

Furthermore, my playtesting is hampered due to technical issues. Most laptops have outdated graphics drivers, and one desktop (which generate a lot of heat and eats more power sadly) suffered a hang and an unexpected shutdown despite a graphics card change back in September.
Bryan See - My FreeSpace Wiki User Page (Talk, Contributions)

Full Projects:
Shattered Stars

Campaigns:
Lost in the Mist - Cyrene vs. Psamtik
FreeSpace: Reunited

Ships:
GTS Hygeia, GTT Argo, SC Raguel

Tools:
FSO TC/Game template

I've been under attack by Tiger Parents like Jennifer Pan...

 
Re: Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign
-boredom
-lack of fun
-lack of defined objectives
-no joy
Yet, Nightmare praised me of my use of fade-out SEXPs, which I'll use to maximal effect to partially address the aforementioned issues.
..

 

Offline Bryan See

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Re: Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign
-boredom
-lack of fun
-lack of defined objectives
-no joy
Yet, Nightmare praised me of my use of fade-out SEXPs, which I'll use to maximal effect to partially address the aforementioned issues.
..
What do you mean? I wanted to maximise the use of fade-out SEXPS to try to address the issues of boredom, lack of fun, lack of defined objectives, and no joy whatsoever in my future projects.
Bryan See - My FreeSpace Wiki User Page (Talk, Contributions)

Full Projects:
Shattered Stars

Campaigns:
Lost in the Mist - Cyrene vs. Psamtik
FreeSpace: Reunited

Ships:
GTS Hygeia, GTT Argo, SC Raguel

Tools:
FSO TC/Game template

I've been under attack by Tiger Parents like Jennifer Pan...

 

Offline The E

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Re: Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign
None of those criticisms can be addressed by using more fade-out sexps.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline Bryan See

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Re: Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign
None of those criticisms can be addressed by using more fade-out sexps.
Indeed. It needs more than just dialogue, mission briefings, command briefs, debriefs and fiction viewer, as well as FMV cutscenes.

In many cases, a design document is required.

Despite the shortcomings, is it okay for me to make campaigns and mods further to improve myself?
Bryan See - My FreeSpace Wiki User Page (Talk, Contributions)

Full Projects:
Shattered Stars

Campaigns:
Lost in the Mist - Cyrene vs. Psamtik
FreeSpace: Reunited

Ships:
GTS Hygeia, GTT Argo, SC Raguel

Tools:
FSO TC/Game template

I've been under attack by Tiger Parents like Jennifer Pan...

 

Offline deathspeed

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Re: Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign
None of those criticisms can be addressed by using more fade-out sexps.
Indeed. It needs more than just dialogue, mission briefings, command briefs, debriefs and fiction viewer, as well as FMV cutscenes.

In many cases, a design document is required.

Despite the shortcomings, is it okay for me to make campaigns and mods further to improve myself?

Absolutely!  Keep your projects small and manageable while you build up your skill set, and listen to the feedback you receive.  It's fine to have grand ideas for the ultimate mod with all the latest bells and whistles, but it takes a lot of practice to build up the experience needed for that eventual project.  These smaller projects may be the best way to do that.

I think "fun" may be that hardest, most ethereal aspect.  I'm sure I could learn to FRED and maybe even code, but I don't think I could come up with an original mission, let alone story or campaign, that is "fun". 
Maybe someday God will give you a little pink toaster of your own.

 

Offline Colonol Dekker

  • HLP is my mistress
  • 213
  • Aken Tigh Dekker- you've probably heard me
    • My old squad sub-domain
Re: Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign
At this point I want you to finish the Fred tutorial mission.  Then make a SINGLE mission that has no mundanity.

If you follow the Fred tutorial this should pose zero problem.
Campaigns I've added my distinctiveness to-
- Blue Planet: Battle Captains
-Battle of Neptune
-Between the Ashes 2
-Blue planet: Age of Aquarius
-FOTG?
-Inferno R1
-Ribos: The aftermath / -Retreat from Deneb
-Sol: A History
-TBP EACW teaser
-Earth Brakiri war
-TBP Fortune Hunters (I think?)
-TBP Relic
-Trancsend (Possibly?)
-Uncharted Territory
-Vassagos Dirge
-War Machine
(Others lost to the mists of time and no discernible audit trail)

Your friendly Orestes tactical controller.

Secret bomb God.
That one time I got permabanned and got to read who was being bitxhy about me :p....
GO GO DEKKER RANGERSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
President of the Scooby Doo Model Appreciation Society
The only good Zod is a dead Zod
NEWGROUNDS COMEDY GOLD, UPDATED DAILY
http://badges.steamprofile.com/profile/default/steam/76561198011784807.png

 

Offline Bryan See

  • Has anyone really been far as decided to use even go want to do look more like?
  • 210
  • Trying to redeem, but under Tiger Parents
    • Skype
    • Steam
    • Twitter
Re: Lost in the Mist, a FreeSpace 2 short side campaign
At this point I want you to finish the Fred tutorial mission.  Then make a SINGLE mission that has no mundanity.

If you follow the Fred tutorial this should pose zero problem.
I am following, but it would be better if this Fred tutorial is to be improved, with maximal uses of the MediaVPs to take advantage of the features that came with FSOpen.

I am working on a Fred tutorial mission. Then I'll make another one.

If I finish, where should I post?
Bryan See - My FreeSpace Wiki User Page (Talk, Contributions)

Full Projects:
Shattered Stars

Campaigns:
Lost in the Mist - Cyrene vs. Psamtik
FreeSpace: Reunited

Ships:
GTS Hygeia, GTT Argo, SC Raguel

Tools:
FSO TC/Game template

I've been under attack by Tiger Parents like Jennifer Pan...