[jediben20]

Spoilers, but if you're still reading this, GO DOWNLOAD THE CAMPAIGN!

I had to play it a few times before beating it, but I thought it wasn't that difficult. Try playing on Medium. Also, don't do anything complicated with your wingmen, just have them guard the Pinnacle. No way you're going to save the cruiser. Basically you have to just fly like a maniac and kill as many bombers as you can.

Any time you think a mission is too easy/too hard, remember, the difficulty settings are there for a reason.

Nice work on the campaign, Orpheus. Doesn't have the polished feel of the "major" campaigns (PI, Derelict, etc.) because of some grammar errors and mission bugs, but I'm not one to care about small details like that. Great atmosphere in some parts, and an interesting approach to mission balancing. Really feels like you're fighting "the horde".

If you haven't played it yet, do so. It starts out slow, but gets much more interesting after the first few missions. 8/10. 

It was definitely an awesome campaign. 4 stars out of 5.

The mission with the Pinnacle trying to break the Shivan blockade was absolutely frustrating, even in medium. I must have seen the Pinnacle blow up in my face a couple dozen times before I finally got a good strategy going.

For me, going after the bombers like a madman was quite futile. By the time I got to the point where the Pinnacle was right about to jump, 12 minutes later, it would always go BOOM! and it would be quite the task overload, trying to go after nine different bombers in an Apollo fighter with only four avenger cannons and a couple interceptors, no wingmen support (because they all dropped like flies by that time), mega bombs blowing up in my face (as I somehow managed to shoot them down, which was difficult enough with the Apollo's awkward firing configuration that I never really appreciated) and jerking me all around, in addition to scorpion and basilisk fighters rabidly knocking down my hull strength as they peeled away my battered shields.

My wingmen seemed capable enough of going after the bombs/bombers for me, at least when they were still alive. Moreover, they would ensure that not every single shivan fighter and bomber would go after me. I needed that wingmen support I had at the beginning of the game- at the very end of the mission when the bombers were coming at the stupid Pinnacle from both ends. It didn't help, by the way, that Delta and My wings already completely destroyed when we jumped into this damn mission.

So I looked into somehow defending my wingmen from destruction and noticed in the logs after the Pinnacle had yet again been destroyed right before it could enter subspace that, Krishna was responsible for all but one of their deaths. So I concentrated on  those damn basilisks with their hornet missiles and, after perfecting this strategy with a few desperate assaults on those stupid bombers, the Pinnacle finally jumped to subspace with a couple percentage points of hull integrity to spare.  saving the vas cruisers was never a problem, except at the beginning when the Duty kept getting destroyed. For some reason the wingmen somehow managed to defend them without any instructions. So that is my tip of the day.



I also liked that mission with the Pledge attacking the Lucifer, after Tombaugh's destruction, which seemed only so implausible and impracticle that a vasudan would think of it. (To be fair, sending in a couple of Valkyries to save the Beta Aquilae Installation from the Lucifer was also incredibly brilliant). Imagine, after all, the Lucifer turning around so its main flux cannons could bear on and destroy the Vasudan fleet! such a novel concept! so ingenious of the Shivans! Consider also that they don't know anything about the capabilities of the Lucifer and yet they seem to think that the pathetic a single vasudan Typhoon would be enough to cripple a Shivan destroyer in a short window of time before shivan reinforcements could arrive. how arrogant. How vasudan. So as I said, the mission was quite well thought of and seems faithful enough to the vasudan stereotype.   

[Jeff Vader]

Two things, jediben20:

1. It's Typhon, not Typhoon. Typhoon is a weather anomaly and Typhon is, well, just see the Wikipedia entry. Misspelling it can lead to violent results here.

2.

[0rph3u5]

Hi jediben...
yeah I know mission 12 (to one you are refering to) is ... difficult but now to give you some feedback; to ought to keep the Hercules since it has 6 gunmounts and can carry Phoenix V (I took them in not only because I was lacking a bomb like the Tsunami but because two of them can killer every bomber is FS1 with not evaded)
- also there will be change to that mission for reasons of bugfixing once I've time; until the 1.2 update of this campaign you can feel glad that I was able to fix the stuff with My wing which tended to simply starting dead 'cause of a bug related to red alert (it is part of much larger RA-bug series so it is in mantis - note for the programmers)

mission 17b is another thing ... that's not intended to be stereotype-vasudan; it is rather that it is the way of the vasudan Admiral Meth who is quite a zealot and tactical leader... (I really wished someone would give me a hand and help me doing the voice acting - Meth sounds great in my imagination)
and after all up to than point the GTA-PVE alliance had not scored a huge victory against the shivans and their capital ship's abilities were unknown -- and originally the cruisers were ment to escape and the Lucifer ought to cripple the Pledge (the events to cripple the Pledge are still in the mission) but I had to drop that for certain reasons which base on capital-ship-AI issues

[The Spac]

I agree the herc does heaps. I am normally a herc hater because of its super wide guns where I prefer them to be tighter, however I found in some of the harder missions it's extra life and missiles help in long missions and the wide firing arc didn't hurt too much when dealing with the large bombers.


First campaign where I actually liked being in a herc lol.

[lostllama]

Thanks for a nice little campaign. I've just begun Hellgate Ikeya too.

[Hades]

Yea I am not done, but it is a good campaign.

[jediben20]

Hi jediben...
yeah I know mission 12 (to one you are refering to) is ... difficult but now to give you some feedback; to ought to keep the Hercules since it has 6 gunmounts and can carry Phoenix V (I took them in not only because I was lacking a bomb like the Tsunami but because two of them can killer every bomber is FS1 with not evaded)
- also there will be change to that mission for reasons of bugfixing once I've time; until the 1.2 update of this campaign you can feel glad that I was able to fix the stuff with My wing which tended to simply starting dead 'cause of a bug related to red alert (it is part of much larger RA-bug series so it is in mantis - note for the programmers)

mission 17b is another thing ... that's not intended to be stereotype-vasudan; it is rather that it is the way of the vasudan Admiral Meth who is quite a zealot and tactical leader... (I really wished someone would give me a hand and help me doing the voice acting - Meth sounds great in my imagination)
and after all up to than point the GTA-PVE alliance had not scored a huge victory against the shivans and their capital ship's abilities were unknown -- and originally the cruisers were ment to escape and the Lucifer ought to cripple the Pledge (the events to cripple the Pledge are still in the mission) but I had to drop that for certain reasons which base on capital-ship-AI issues

well, 0rph3u5, don't make that mission any easier. it is the incredibly difficult, almost impossible to win missions that stick with you and i this one qualifies. and really i am just whining about My and Delta wings. they are unnecessary and it is a red alert mission, so their destruction before the mission while unfortunate is explainable and plausible enough.

As for mission 17b, all the good, memorable vasudans (especially the HOL ones) were zealots. if you need any help, i'll see what I can do. no promises though; i'm not sure my voice would be the best for Meth.

[SF-Junky]

So..
I've not been finished it yet but I've made some notes so far

- In the second mission the briefing icons show Apollo fighters for the Lance and Rapier.

- In mission 3 the "Bombers!"-warning comes a few seconds bevore the bomber arrive. I would also add the second freighter (which comes when the Hulkins goes down) to the e-list. The same is for the shivan cruisers in the fifth mission.

- Mission 7 was good. I liked that one!

- Number 8 is one you could let out completely. I mean, what happenes there? You have do guard four escape pods from four Dragons. Thats annoying because of the damned bustling of these fighters. Mission 9 was quite nice, but... meh, I would have let those two out.

- Mission 10 has a very good timing. The Elysium undocked exactly at the moment the cruisers come into firing range. Good atmosphere there. Liked that one, too.

- What I find a bit confusing is that the player is just given the Herc and this Athena junk. I would have prefered the Apollo and that mission - or in the next one to be precise. And here I'm finally at my point. Mission 12. Could have been such a fantastic one, but I just hate it. Thats one of those "Fight off millions of waves for 20 Minutes"-missions I already mentioned in the Hellgate Ikeya thread. Its just impossible to fight off that many ships for such a long time!! I suggest that you remove one of those nephilim-wings that attack the Pinnacle and reduce the Scoprion wings to two ships - those Scoprions drivin' me crazy! The most annoying ship after the Dragon. I cheated the mission after playing it three or four times. All right I admit that three or four times a not very much, but I hate it to play such a long missen a dozen or more times. Shorten it  (down to 7-9 minutes or so) and reduce the number of enemies, than its a fantastic mission - at least in my opinion of course!

Now I'm hanging in the 13th mission. Any suggestions how to defend a rickety Faustus from Tsunami bombs while Scorpions (Grrrr) and Dragons are on your six?

EDIT: Almost forgot to mention: The debriefs are really short. The debrief in mission 12 for example was just a bad joke - sorry to say this that hard. Write a real debrief or let it out completely and go to the next mission directly.

But apart from all those negative points it's really a good campaign so far. I enjoy playing it! But it would be much better if the missions weren't so... drab.

[0rph3u5]

I would also add the second freighter (which comes when the Hulkins goes down) to the e-list. The same is for the shivan cruisers in the fifth mission.

I'll look into it ... noted for the 1.2 patch list

- Number 8 is one you could let out completely. I mean, what happenes there? You have do guard four escape pods from four Dragons. Thats annoying because of the damned bustling of these fighters. Mission 9 was quite nice, but... meh,

Mission 8 is about what happened the before Alpha 1 got there (for once Alpha 1 was unable to save the day 'cause he was too late! - OMG!) - and its about how to get rid of FS1 Command 
Mission 9 is MY tribute to the Alpha 1  (Alpha 1 saves the day by blowing up a cargo container! - OMG!)
sry just needed that

Mission 12

the fighter selection you get has a deeper meaning actually -- athena and herc can both carry PHOENIX V and Interceptors! Now guess why you are needing those!
compared to other shivan fighters the scorpion is very weak... once its MX-50 are shot it will be no harm to you if you just know how to evade primary shots

Now I'm hanging in the 13th mission. Any suggestions how to defend a rickety Faustus from Tsunami bombs while Scorpions (Grrrr) and Dragons are on your six?

you are complaining 'cause the AI has a bright moment and is able to think of firing Tsunamis at a distance of 200 instead of more than 2k?
the easiest way is to assign one or two full wings to kill one bombers while you got for the other - and if you are being chased by the shivan fighters the chronos freighter and the faustus are your best friends

The debriefs are really short. The debrief in mission 12 for example was just a bad joke

maybe I'm saving up real debriefs for a voice acted version (if that would ever going to happen)

[TrashMan]

Athena junk???  Dude, that's the best ship in FS1, period!

[jediben20]

Athena junk???  Dude, that's the best ship in FS1, period!

I have to admit, I hate the rickety athena as well.

[SF-Junky]

the fighter selection you get has a deeper meaning actually -- athena and herc can both carry PHOENIX V and Interceptors! Now guess why you are needing those!

Hm... I don't think that the right way. By this you force the player to do the mission a way you think is the best one. I think I would do much better in this mission in an Apollo of Valkyrie. You have hardly time to reload you secondaries anyhow.

Compared to other shivan fighters the scorpion is very weak... once its MX-50 are shot it will be no harm to you if you just know how to evade primary shots

You prefer to blow them back tho whatever hell they came from instead of evading them. And that's hardly possible with these damned blowflies.

you are complaining 'cause the AI has a bright moment and is able to think of firing Tsunamis at a distance of 200 instead of more than 2k?
the easiest way is to assign one or two full wings to kill one bombers while you got for the other - and if you are being chased by the shivan fighters the chronos freighter and the faustus are your best friends.

Thx. Gonna try that later today.

Athena junk???  Dude, that's the best ship in FS1, period!

Athena best ship? Did I miss something? The Athena is the greatest piece of junk ever produced by the GT(V)A! The only thing that is good at this thing is the design. But that's it.

And the best ship in FS1 is the Ulysses, period!

[Mustang19]

If you find the missions too hard, lower the difficulty level accordingly. There are easy campaigns and there are PI-style challenge campaigns, this is one of the latter.

 However, in all fairness, Orpheus, remember that you're the mission designer. The missions always seem simple to you because you've already studied them and know the ins and outs of the strategy. If I were you, I would keep mission balance as it is. However, if you want to help people out, consider making a PI-style mission guide or having more descriptive recommendation text.

The Athena/Ulysses debate depends mostly on the difficulty level you're flying at. Athena can carry 20 Pheonix, which is an incredible ammount of destructive power and enough to turn it into a Demon-killing bomber (you can't shoot down Phoenixes but they do 1/2 the damage of a Tsunami!). On Medium and below, though, your primaries are all-powerful and you don't really need that missile load, therefore you can afford the Ulysses' low secondary banks. I always prefered armor to maneuverability myself; all you have to do is hold down Z and come to a complete stop, and you can kill Lokis in an Ursa. The AI isn't smart enough to make use of that.

OTOH, the Ulysses and Loki are the best fighters to equip the AI with; your wingmen don't last long enough to need a whole lot of missiles, and the manueverability is a big asset for them. Try playing the FS1 campaign on Insane and you'll see how much of a difference this makes.

[colecampbell666]

The Ulysses is available more, though.

[0rph3u5]

this got way off topic now; everyone has his/her own fighter/bomber prereferences...

I'll add the possibility to fly Apollos in Mission 11/12 (again) but not the Valk for the 1.2 version of the missions
that was originally included but IMO the Apollo was not durable enough to make both missions in a row (I even had probs when doing this with Herc/Athena) and it can't carry Phoenix V which will make fighting the bombers very difficult

[0rph3u5]

Patch 1.1 to 1.2 is here

NOTE: this patch does NOT replace "RoR-patch1_1.vp"!

Changes:
Mission 3
---------
Excellsior added to E-list
Krishna wing has no more Hornets (gave them Fang instead)

Mission 11
----------
added Apollos to team loadout
added additional Interceptors to team loadout

Mission 12
----------
Indra & Deva wing recived different ordinance (Hornet, Synaptic, 2x Unknown Megabomb instead of 2x Hornet, 2x Unknown Megabomb)
Indra & Deva wing now have 8 instead of 10 waves
Indra & Deva wing's have a wave delay of 28-46 instead of 18-36
Krishna & Vishnu wing have no more Hornets (gave them Fang instead)
Minor event tweaks


EDIT: this patch is optional

--now I'm going back to fix up LoA--

[Akalabeth Angel]

         Anyone else get like a crackling sound in the audio? Or is it just me?

[0rph3u5]

         Anyone else get like a crackling sound in the audio? Or is it just me?

I used no audio files except for commnode.wav -- so your problem lies elsewhere

[Lucika]

I loved the Fahrenheit 2-destroying mission
And the whole campaign until now - didn't play it thru yet tho.

[Aurora Paradox]

 

I'm playing through this campaign now and so far I'm thoroughly enjoying it.  However I've just realized that I'm not using the latest version of the campaign.  The download links on the release page are all dead.  If its not too much trouble could someone upload the 1.2 patch file.

Thanks in advance.