[Thadeus]

 I rather enjoyed Dilmah G's version of High Noon, and that inspired me to remake another mission that gets a lot of flak. The only obstacle was the fact that I had never used FRED before. This is literally the first thing I have FREDed after the practice mission, so be very afraid.


http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php?view.497


 The GTVA is overwhelmed. While the juggernauts aren't actually doing much, their supporting fleet is running rampant across Capella. The Security Council has authorized sealing off the system, and the Bastion has been deployed to close the Epsilon Pegasi node. In order to give the Bastion time to complete it's mission, a diversionary force is sent to the Gamma Draconis node. It's goal - piss off the Shivans as much as possible. Survival is not guaranteed.


INSTRUCTIONS

- Extract into your main FreeSpace 2 folder.

- Select it with the launcher.

- Go to the tech room, select Single Missions, and play.

- ????

- Profit.


REQUIRES

- I don't know the first thing about what builds will or will not work, but I was using 3.6.10 when I made it.


FEATURES

- New music

- Table mod to alter appearance/performance of some weapons, particularly capship turrets.

- The Colossus kicks slightly more ass.


 As I said earlier, I'm very inexperienced with FRED. Any advice and constructive criticism will be appreciated. Some things I'm particularly worried about are, in no particular order:

Balance - I tested it on easy, because I'm a horrible pilot, and managed to win at about 70% hull. Others may find it too easy.

Conversations during battle - I read fast, so it never really bothered me, but I'm worried I might have a little too much speaking going on during fights.

Briefing - For some reason, if there was more than a few briefing icons then they would never be where they were supposed to. That's why the briefing graphics are kinda sparse. If anyone knows a solution, I'll redo it.

[Commander Zane]

Sure, the High Noon remake ruled, let's see how you did with this.
Looks like you just joined too, welcome.

[Rodo]

 


good... and this is your first time fredding??

the only problem I noticed was the arrival messages from cap ships... they come from command I suspect you are sending the message right when the ship arrives, don't do that, send the message a couple of secs after so that the games registers the sender as the ship and not command.

the atmosphere is nice, you did a great work with the constant combat thing... really dinamic, and the music adds a really good touch.

is that ace combat's music?

[Romanmolf]

nice.

[Commander Zane]

Yeah, Ace Combat 4's music.
I like it, I think it's fitting for battle music.

[Thadeus]

 Yeah, I did use a few tracks from Ace Combat games. Both from 4 and 5.

[Rodo]

Yeah, I did use a few tracks from Ace Combat games. Both from 4 and 5.

watch out for the copyright hammer!!!  

just kidding... If you use it with no profit purpose it's ok.... I guess  

[dragonsniper]

Yeah, I did use a few tracks from Ace Combat games. Both from 4 and 5.

watch out for the copyright hammer!!!  

just kidding... If you use it with no profit purpose it's ok.... I guess  

Would it...? I've had the same question to. It would be nice to know for sure.

[Mobius]

Welcome to the HLPBB!!!

Which AC soundtracks did you use?

[Commander Zane]

I can't remember what level they're on but I know the battle music is from AC4...

About the appearance mods, trails are nice to see but the projectiles themselves are at a bit of a downgrade.

Yeah I'm posting as I play...

Can anyone else verify the second Sathanas overshooting the Colossus before it's no longer capable of destroying it with its beam cannons?

The dialogue reminds me of how people in the military talk...

[Thadeus]

the only problem I noticed was the arrival messages from cap ships... they come from command I suspect you are sending the message right when the ship arrives, don't do that, send the message a couple of secs after so that the games registers the sender as the ship and not command.

I played through again and noticed that. I had previously just assumed that if I set a message to fire after a ship arrives, it would be okay. Guess I'll have to fix the timing.

Which AC soundtracks did you use?

From AC 4, I used Comona (the battle music that everyone seems to like). From AC 5, I used Closure (beginning music) and Into The Dusk (when the second Sathanas shows up). The other two tracks are from different games.

About the appearance mods, trails are nice to see but the projectiles themselves are at a bit of a downgrade.

I honestly haven't seen what the projectiles look like in 3.6.10. I made the alterations while playing 3.6.9, and I thought they were an improvement. I'll give the standard graphics a whirl and see if I can work with them.

Can anyone else verify the second Sathanas overshooting the Colossus before it's no longer capable of destroying it with its beam cannons?

I've never once seen that happen. I set the Sathanas to leave a good 45 seconds after the Colossus dies, and in every playthrough it has been able to keep firing (and does keep firing) until right when it jumps out.

The dialogue reminds me of how people in the military talk...

If anything, I was afraid I might have made them too unprofessional. But I probably have a unique opinion, seeing as I'm in ROTC at my college.

[Commander Zane]

If anything, I was afraid I might have made them too unprofessional. But I probably have a unique opinion, seeing as I'm in ROTC at my college.

I'm IN the military, the others are extremely immature.

[Thadeus]

Even so, you're supposed to be commanding an elite squadron here. Seems to me like there should be less irreverent chatter in combat, but I decided to err on the side of a more enjoyable mission.

[TacOne]

Anyone else getting a corrupt file from freespacemods?

[Dilmah G]

Here I am

The Dilmah himself 

I'll test ASAP, sounding pretty good 

EDIT: Just had a playthrough twice. However my efforts on insane didn't yield very successful. HOWEVER, I loved the music, and the mission was well done  Quite impressive for someone whose starting out. I'm thinking maybe we should get this done and redo some of the other missions with bad publicity and release them in a package similar to "What-If, Another Great War."

My only recommendation was to probably have a wing of bombers standing-by as reinforcements. I'll have to tone the difficulty setting down and play through the whole thing and get back to you. 

[Thadeus]

I was just thinking that if enough people jump on the bandwagon, we could redo FreeSpace 2 with 100% more awesome. 

Anyway, I was about to upload a second version, but I can wait until you're done testing.

[Commander Zane]

I was just thinking that if enough people jump on the bandwagon, we could redo FreeSpace 2 with 100% more awesome. 

That would be epic.

[Dilmah G]

I was just thinking that if enough people jump on the bandwagon, we could redo FreeSpace 2 with 100% more awesome. 

That would be epic.

Yeah, if we could pull it off we could release as the retail campaign re-imagined. Fixing all the shortcomings of the retail campaign, most notably the lack of anything above cruiser class etc. BTW you should release the second version, I'm currently doing a stack of homework which is going to prohibit me from testing for a few hours.

[Commander Zane]

What about for the arrival of the first Sathanas, music extremely dramatic like Heaven's Warriors from Immediate Music, a good "desperate struggle" theme.

Though to me for some reason it seems only certain things sound good for the campaign Blue Planet...like Aim...Spiritus Elektros...etc.