Hard Light Productions Forums

Hosted Projects - FS2 Required => FreeSpace Conversion => Silent Threat: Reborn => Topic started by: Vretsu on February 08, 2009, 08:14:27 pm

Title: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Vretsu on February 08, 2009, 08:14:27 pm

All positive, so far. First mission felt like vintage FS1 with superior graphics. Voice acting was very professional and gives ST:R a very authentic and polished feel. Your Authoritative British Guy (every campaign needs one) does a sweet command briefing.

Took me a few tries to beat "Silence all Voices," which was refreshing. On my third try I won, but took heavy losses, so I went at it again. Fourth go, I made my clean sweep with only one loss (poor Beta 2...why is it always you?).

Well worth the wait, imho.

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Galemp on February 08, 2009, 09:48:35 pm

Excellent... keep us posted, on a mission-by-mission basis, if you can. :)

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Vretsu on February 08, 2009, 09:59:58 pm

Perhaps others can share their thoughts?

I did think that it was a good decision to skip the second part of "Silence all Voices." I remember that mission as being very tedius (was it 4 atens or 6? ffs like nobody would be suspicious anyways) in the original ST. Merging the recovery mission with an entirely new escort mission as prologue was a good idea.

Spoiler:

The confrontation between the two destroyers in the 'pod mission was an interesting idea, I'd actually wanted something like that to happen in the original. But who the hell put those Basilisks so close to the escape pods? Surprised me the first time to the detriment of those poor pods...I don't know how I made it into special ops with such overconfidence...

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Galemp on February 08, 2009, 11:01:24 pm

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,59120.msg1199723.html#msg1199723

And the next few posts after that.

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Goober5000 on February 08, 2009, 11:59:58 pm

Thanks for your comments, Vretsu... and yes, please do keep us posted. :)

I liked the original version of your post, which I've taken the liberty of quoting below. ;)

Quote

I'm playing ST:R right now. Figured that I (yes, me, personally) should alt-tab to the forums just to let you all know how awesome the voice acting is, so far.

"Welcome to the GTI..."

WUT!!!111eleventy. Authoritative british accents make everything awesome (except for the british).

Carry on.

Title: more slobbering praise
Post by: Vretsu on February 10, 2009, 07:43:20 pm

Whoever was voicing Admiral Glaive (sp?) played him a little too obviously as a villian. I kept expecting to hear "Curse you, Captain Planet!" as I disabled his ship. But alas, I suppose that he was too busy...

Spoiler:

...boarding his obnoxious, invisible escape pod to harass poor overworked Alpha 1. I'll have to watch for that next time (if there even is an escape pod, pfft). That was a fun mission. In general, it was a good idea to have the lokis retain their stealth capability, as they then become far more menacing opponents; Lokis were cannon fodder in the original ST.

I've noticed a lot of familiar ships from Silent Threat going through slightly similar situations...the Ratna being the most noticable. Its new fate is karma for having to sit and watch it get arbitrarily towed around for thirty minutes in the original.

"Something landed on my ship!"

I remember finding that on my old Silent Threat disc. :yes:



// restored deleted text - G5K

Title: Re: more slobbering praise
Post by: Goober5000 on February 10, 2009, 07:52:14 pm

Quote from: Vretsu on February 10, 2009, 07:43:20 pm

Spoiler:

(if there even is an escape pod, pfft)

Check the mission log. :)

Title: Re: more slobbering praise
Post by: Darkblade on February 18, 2009, 01:58:45 pm

Quote from: Vretsu on February 10, 2009, 07:43:20 pm

Whoever was voicing Admiral Glaive (sp?) played him a little too obviously as a villian. I kept expecting to hear "Curse you, Captain Planet!" as I disabled his ship. But alas, I suppose that he was too busy...
// restored deleted text - G5K

Sorry, that would be my fault. I saw Admiral Glaive as your regular handy-dandy a**hole so I gave him, maybe too clichéd, bad guy voice.

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Goober5000 on February 18, 2009, 02:13:23 pm

Uhhhhh...

Actually, we went with somebody else for Admiral Glaive. :nervous:

Not because we weren't happy with your voice (we were very pleased with your Admiral Ikeyev in Cardinal Spear) but because this other guy sounded perfect for the character.  And you're pretty much in every voice acted campaign out there. :)

Title: Re: more slobbering praise
Post by: Woolie Wool on February 18, 2009, 03:29:36 pm

Quote from: Vretsu on February 10, 2009, 07:43:20 pm

Whoever was voicing Admiral Glaive (sp?) played him a little too obviously as a villian. I kept expecting to hear "Curse you, Captain Planet!" as I disabled his ship. But alas, I suppose that he was too busy...

Well, considering that he is named after a bladed weapon, it was kind of obvious before he even said anything.

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Darkblade on February 19, 2009, 02:22:22 pm

Quote from: Goober5000 on February 18, 2009, 02:13:23 pm

Uhhhhh...

Actually, we went with somebody else for Admiral Glaive. :nervous:

Not because we weren't happy with your voice (we were very pleased with your Admiral Ikeyev in Cardinal Spear) but because this other guy sounded perfect for the character.  And you're pretty much in every voice acted campaign out there. :)

Aaah, that explains it. No problem mate, of course I would have been more than willing to make the guys voice different but since you found someone else, no harm done. :)

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Snail on February 19, 2009, 02:24:42 pm

Quote from: Darkblade on February 19, 2009, 02:22:22 pm

Quote from: Goober5000 on February 18, 2009, 02:13:23 pm

Uhhhhh...

Actually, we went with somebody else for Admiral Glaive. :nervous:

Not because we weren't happy with your voice (we were very pleased with your Admiral Ikeyev in Cardinal Spear) but because this other guy sounded perfect for the character.  And you're pretty much in every voice acted campaign out there. :)

Aaah, that explains it. No problem mate, of course I would have been more than willing to make the guys voice different but since you found someone else, no harm done. :)

Now you can rest assured that if they had chosen you it would have been a better product. ;)

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Darkblade on February 19, 2009, 05:43:21 pm

I guess it was for the best of Silent Threat Reborn when they chose someone else for Admiral Glaive. :)

Now there is no need to listen to a Finnish accented bastard.

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Spoon on February 23, 2009, 04:31:44 pm

Just finished ST:R (as in, 20 minutes ago)
ST:R >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> original ST
You guys did such an awesome job on this. VA was excellent, missions were all well made and most importantly, fun to play. Also a huge thumbs up for the way you guys fleshed out the story. In the original ST a lot of the story made very little sense and I constantly had the feeling I was just flying random missions thrown together in a campaign structure. Not to mention the utterly disappointing final.
Some pro's and con's
- Sneak bomber attack on the station was awesome! I took me completely by suprise the first time it happened, couldn't reach the bomber in time but the second try I managed to get the bastard right before he reached the core. Such a thrill! That mission was pretty challenging but really fun.
- Stealth loki's are beasts. In the original the whole stealth feature was negated after 1 or 2 missions or so (which was really lame) Good job on showing how evil loki's really are in their prime.
- Guarding the einstein's escape pods was pretty damn boring however. The shivan waves are little challenge and completely predictable.
- The mission in which you protect the convoy's carrying certain... Things had a really nice atmosphere. But when one of em latches on your hull it's not really clear on what you are suppose to do. The first time I simply died and I was sitting there "Oh, that must have been scripted, nothing I could do about it" but then I was confronted with the usual death screen. The second time I was thinking "okay, ill stay really far away from the convoy" but the bastard somehow managed to instantly leap 2000 clicks and attached himself to me anyway. So I was "okay, in that case i'll just jump" but before I could press alt+j the threat was removed and i'm not really sure what did so. (afterburners?)
After that the Orion (which was it again? Repulse?) just took a Demon class head on and prevailed. Here I was, thinking a Demon should easily be able to destroy a Orion class destroyer?
- EMP turkey shoot mission was a blast. I tried it several times just to see how much I could destroy before the Shivans could recover again.
- and lastly, the Hades really is a Tough son of a shivanbastard. Sure glad command saw it fit to supply us with enough Tsunami and Helios bombs.  :lol:

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Goober5000 on February 23, 2009, 10:32:01 pm

Thanks for the compliments. :)

As for the Repulse vs. the Demon... well, read the character description for Admiral Marcus Glaive on the ST:R website. :)

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: GrrCarl on March 24, 2009, 10:38:00 am

Just finished playing through ST:R as well. Being a little ill, I had time and played it all in 2 go's. Had to play it through, it really sucked me in  :yes:

I really liked ST:R. Now, it's been some time since I played the original ST, but hiding under the Hades and killing it with primaries on time compression x64 in the final mission is a good summary of how "great" that was I think.

This campaign was longer and much more consistant. I played it all on Medium settings, and for the most part that was fine. Some missions I did have to do a few times over for the "right reasons" (ie. me ****ing up :p), but really, only on the Ross 128 mission did I have to lower the difficulty not to be raped by Lokis I could barely see or target :) ("you go scan those ships Alpha 1, we'll cover you die to blob lasers while chasing Lokis"). Death by blob lasers. I can think of nothing more humiliating.

The voice acting was excellent, for the most part. Now, I can't recall whether those Vasudan "Someone set up us the bomb" and "BOOM shivan laser" lines were in the original ST, but they really took away from the experience of that mission. Was probably supposed to be funny, but it just wasn't (imo).

The mission balance seemed great, although things got quite a bit easier after you could target the Lokis. Funny how they go from being Dragon-class "annoying" to Anubis-style "laughable" :D. But that is of course the way it was with the original as well. Like the previous poster mentioned I too loved the PVI Egyptos mission. The GTI "Sneak" element was excellent, and I was scrambling to reach him the first time but failed miserably of course. On the second go, it went fine, and it was awesome chasing him into the station. It was also nice seeing the Hades in action, ripping apart the station like target practice.

I'm not sure about this, but I don't recall there being so much EMP usage in the original as there is in ST:R? In any case, I loved it. So great when you're THIS close to finishing off a bomber and the HUD goes nuts and you lose your target. Frustrating, but excellent  ;)

The final mission was great, although I took the liberty of equipping Alpha wing with Ursas and harbingers, hehe. Gotta love seeing your banshee turret racking up kills on the Lokis. All in all, the campaign was what I hoped for and more!

Thanks to everyone involved with making it, it was extremely enjoyable to play through!

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: FreeSpaceFreak on March 24, 2009, 12:17:43 pm

Quote from: GrrCarl on March 24, 2009, 10:38:00 am

The voice acting was excellent, for the most part. Now, I can't recall whether those Vasudan "Someone set up us the bomb" and "BOOM shivan laser" lines were in the original ST, but they really took away from the experience of that mission. Was probably supposed to be funny, but it just wasn't (imo).

I loved that :nervous: Never seen shellshocked people before in a game. Those lines did add a lot to the realism and the mystery IMHO.

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Locutus of Borg on March 24, 2009, 02:06:06 pm

I did LOL when I played that mission, but it did kill the atmosphere a bit.

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Goober5000 on March 24, 2009, 02:15:49 pm

It was intended to be a moment of comic relief during a high-stress mission. :)

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: GrrCarl on March 24, 2009, 02:31:03 pm

Stress and FS goes hand in hand. Lol.  :p

Like when you are so busy going from bomber wing to bomber wing to keep <insert terran installation/ship> safe, while at the same time stuff is happening (story and mission-wise) with other ships jumping in/out and joining/leaving the battle...

It's like a voice inside your head going "WHEN WILL IT END?". When the action finally slows down it's like "That's all you got? Bring it!"

For me personally, high-stress missions + story = Freespace. :)

The part with the slightly overused "someone set up us the bomb" joke was like the ONLY thing about ST:R that I didn't quite agree with. And it was quickly forgotten and I was back to blowing up GTI rebels. Those %"#%& traitors.

 :p

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Locutus of Borg on March 27, 2009, 12:27:30 pm

Shoot Shivan lasers shoot !

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Droid803 on March 27, 2009, 04:44:51 pm

It's "Poum! Poum! Shivan Super Lasers Shoot!" IIRC.
But yeah, the shellshocked vasudans were great for the comic relief. It made replaying that mission several many, many times bearable.

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: eliex on March 27, 2009, 10:30:13 pm

Laughing helplessly at the shellshocked Hope's communication officer resulted in my fighter's explosion the first time I played the mission.  :nod:

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on July 26, 2009, 05:51:24 am

I'm playing through the campaign and must be near the end . . . gave it a break after my Valkyrie disintegrated for the fourth time.

My only complaint so far is the node map and some of the other mission briefing images. The campaign feels very professional, of the same quality I would say as many of the game missions. But creating a node map in the mission briefing screen was an obvious mark that it was just a fan-brew. Some of the other screens were a little cluttered with too many icons as well.

It's not "bad", but lets just say it's something I think the campaign would've been better off without. If you don't have the capability to recreate one of those node maps don't even try.

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Snail on July 26, 2009, 06:53:14 am

Quote from: Akalabeth Angel on July 26, 2009, 05:51:24 am

My only complaint so far is the node map and some of the other mission briefing images. The campaign feels very professional, of the same quality I would say as many of the game missions. But creating a node map in the mission briefing screen was an obvious mark that it was just a fan-brew. Some of the other screens were a little cluttered with too many icons as well.

I agree on that actually...

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Goober5000 on July 26, 2009, 01:42:02 pm

wat... How else are you supposed to show the systems under attack without a command briefing?

And the FSPort team disagrees with you. :p  When I wrote that briefing, Galemp singled out the node map stage as one of his favorite parts.

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on July 26, 2009, 02:26:32 pm

Quote from: Goober5000 on July 26, 2009, 01:42:02 pm

wat... How else are you supposed to show the systems under attack without a command briefing?

And the FSPort team disagrees with you. :p  When I wrote that briefing, Galemp singled out the node map stage as one of his favorite parts.

That's the thing. I don't think it's necessary to show the systems under attack. If you don't have the capability, I wouldn't have done it. It's not something Volition would have done, so by doing that it reinforces the fact that it's just a fan campaign whereas before that, the quality of work sort of "cast an illusion" that it was not a fan campaign. Or like "wow, the quality of work and voice acting on this campaign is great. It feels just like a Volition campaign, oh wait, no no, they made a system map out of mission briefing icons."

Just list the systems off, no need for visual displays. That and on my resolution at least the map was a little cluttered, which made me think "wow that looks cluttered" rather than "oh so that's where they're attacking".


I mean it's a minor thing of course. Not "your campaign is the SUXXORS" or something. And were it not "Silent Threat: Reborn" I may not have even cared.

But anyway still got to finish it. I'm guessing I've got 2-3 missions yet including the one I'm currently dying on.

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Rhymes on July 26, 2009, 07:52:41 pm

Quote from: Akalabeth Angel on July 26, 2009, 02:26:32 pm

It's not something Volition would have done, so by doing that it reinforces the fact that it's just a fan campaign whereas before that, the quality of work sort of "cast an illusion" that it was not a fan campaign.

(http://spiritsofeden.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/lex-luthor-wrong.jpg) (I couldn't resist  :p)

Volition DID map out the systems in a briefing, that's just it.  Remember the mission "Reaching the Zenith" in FS1?  That whole thing where you see the Lucifer fleet closing in on Terran space?  That wasn't an animation, that was a briefing map.  Therefore, there is a precedent laid down by the original developers, therefore you can't say that it's not "professional" since the professionals did it too.

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on July 27, 2009, 12:09:00 am

Quote from: Rhymes_With_PSYCHO on July 26, 2009, 07:52:41 pm

Volition DID map out the systems in a briefing, that's just it.  Remember the mission "Reaching the Zenith" in FS1?  That whole thing where you see the Lucifer fleet closing in on Terran space?  That wasn't an animation, that was a briefing map.  Therefore, there is a precedent laid down by the original developers, therefore you can't say that it's not "professional" since the professionals did it too.

The mapped out the whole node map?

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: eliex on July 27, 2009, 12:15:52 am

No. The briefing picture consisted of a planet icon representing the heart of Terran space surrounded by icons of multiple cruisers and one Lucifer.

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on July 27, 2009, 12:51:07 am

Well anyway. Like I say, the quality of campaign is very good. Just a minor point.

Oh and for some reason, the Krios' Squadron Commander reminds me a bit of John Wayne. Seems like a bit of a similar accent, though with a lot less drawl. hahah

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Snail on July 31, 2009, 06:20:38 am

Quote from: Rhymes_With_PSYCHO on July 26, 2009, 07:52:41 pm

Volition DID map out the systems in a briefing, that's just it.  Remember the mission "Reaching the Zenith" in FS1?  That whole thing where you see the Lucifer fleet closing in on Terran space?  That wasn't an animation, that was a briefing map.  Therefore, there is a precedent laid down by the original developers, therefore you can't say that it's not "professional" since the professionals did it too.

You're comparing two things which are vastly different mah friend.

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Rhymes on July 31, 2009, 06:53:29 am

The concepts are related: using the briefing room to map out a situation, rather than using a command briefing .ani to show the same thing.

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Goober5000 on July 31, 2009, 10:21:27 am

Exactly.  In both cases, we have friendly systems and hostile systems, plus hostile forces to be aware of.

Though we could probably change the briefing icons to something besides waypoints, if you have a better idea.

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Cthulhugoat on August 01, 2009, 09:04:02 am

Spoiler:

Shivan meleers

should be featured on campaigns more often  :yes: Great job and all!

My only complaint is with the abundance of escort missions. They're pretty hard (on Medium, haven't tried any other settings) and annoying for rusty FSers such as myself. My teammates would often get themselves killed, making it really hard to assign proper defense squads for fragile ships. Still, as much as I don't like these kinds of missions, they do make sense, plotwise.

rock on

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on August 03, 2009, 04:03:34 am

Quote from: Goober5000 on July 31, 2009, 10:21:27 am

Exactly.  In both cases, we have friendly systems and hostile systems, plus hostile forces to be aware of.

Though we could probably change the briefing icons to something besides waypoints, if you have a better idea.

Well failing a custom-made icon to match the standard node map I can't think of anything.
Though that is one other thing, I was expecting the old FS1 briefing icons to be in use but they weren't. Unless that's not possible. Or perhaps I had something wrong with my setup.

Title: Re: ST:R first impressions
Post by: Galemp on August 03, 2009, 12:10:52 pm

Quote from: Akalabeth Angel on August 03, 2009, 04:03:34 am

Though that is one other thing, I was expecting the old FS1 briefing icons to be in use but they weren't. Unless that's not possible. Or perhaps I had something wrong with my setup.

No, we're using FS2-style icons in the interface. The higher resolution and color fidelity of the FS2 icon interface sort of called to us. We are using FS1 ships in the icons though (Orion, Medusa, etc.)

I'm curious as to what FS1-style ship, weapon, and briefing icons would look like now, though. Maybe some time in the future we'll make a single VP that you can plop in to replace the icons.