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Archived Boards => The Archive => Alcibiades' Gamble => Topic started by: Blue Lion on March 06, 2009, 11:46:58 am

Title: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Blue Lion on March 06, 2009, 11:46:58 am
Obviously the demo is not the end of the story. For those that have downloaded and played it, thank you.

I know it's still early in the demo release but I'm going to put this out since we're working on the rest of the campaign already.

What do you think? Is it too boring? Too hard? Was the dialogue written by a 5 year old? Is it too buggy to enjoy?

Or was it *gasp* pretty good?

If you haven't downloaded it, it's only 6 missions, give it a whirl and then chew us out!  :D
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Enioch on March 07, 2009, 04:18:41 am
A VERY good start.

A few notes, rather nitpick-y in character:

A) Is it normal for Fenrises to have main front beams? I thought the Levy was the one for the big guns.

B) In the mission where

Spoiler:
you're protecting the two cruisers who're parked next to the supply depot (the one where the enemy Fenris jumps in and pulverizes the Faustus),

I found that the escorted cruisers have a nasty tendency to twirl around once they reach their waypoints and ram into crates. It is a minor bug-like...thing, but it's kinda annoying to lose your Fenris because it couldn't see the crate in front of it and plowed through it...

C) That's it I think. Beautiful backgrounds, BTW. :D And excellent script.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: FreeSpaceFreak on March 07, 2009, 07:20:26 am
A few notes, rather nitpick-y in character:

A) Is it normal for Fenrises to have main front beams? I thought the Levy was the one for the big guns.
The Fenris has an LTerSlash by default. Remember the main FS2 mission "Into the Maelstrom"? The cruiser that is about to pulverize your convoy with its front beam is a Fenris.

Quote
B) In the mission where

Spoiler:
you're protecting the two cruisers who're parked next to the supply depot (the one where the enemy Fenris jumps in and pulverizes the Faustus),

I found that the escorted cruisers have a nasty tendency to twirl around once they reach their waypoints and ram into crates. It is a minor bug-like...thing, but it's kinda annoying to lose your Fenris because it couldn't see the crate in front of it and plowed through it...
I bet it is annoying... Aren't you supposed to have left by then? *looks at Droid*
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: utops on March 07, 2009, 09:40:04 am
Thx for new campagin to play, but  balance is bad ...
WTF is with that Sanrid....
 apears and  destroy Mathis almost instantly...
I don`t have chance, to destroy shes beams, beacause she just pop up from jump and BLOWF FfgSDdf everybody death...
im play it on easy...
Thats is ok? Shes one hell of the instant destroyer, or its just me?

Thx for reply...
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Snail on March 07, 2009, 09:42:36 am
I hear that, I had to cheat to get past that mission.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Rodo on March 07, 2009, 09:46:36 am
Thx for new campagin to play, but  balance is bad ...
WTF is with that Sanrid....
 apears and  destroy Mathis almost instantly...
I don`t have chance, to destroy shes beams, beacause she just pop up from jump and BLOWF FfgSDdf everybody death...
im play it on easy...
Thats is ok? Shes one hell of the instant destroyer, or its just me?

Thx for reply...

destroy the fighters, order delta to cover mathis and alpha to attack everything.
fly to the side of mathis, when the sarnid jumps in, target the rear-side beam and blast it to hell with the tempest and the double subach.

once that's done get back to the mathis and destroy fighters and bombers.

when the last pair of bombers is destroyed go for the forward beams of the sarnid and order all your wingmates to destroy the sarnid.

that should do it, keep your fighter and the mathis safe, that's the trick.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: utops on March 07, 2009, 10:12:48 am

Quote
destroy the fighters, order delta to cover mathis and alpha to attack everything.
fly to the side of mathis, when the sarnid jumps in, target the rear-side beam and blast it to hell with the tempest and the double subach.

once that's done get back to the mathis and destroy fighters and bombers.

when the last pair of bombers is destroyed go for the forward beams of the sarnid and order all your wingmates to destroy the sarnid.

that should do it, keep your fighter and the mathis safe, that's the trick.

Yep! thats the solution.

Thx mate.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: tinfoil on March 07, 2009, 01:48:48 pm
In this campaign the solution to the problem is usually, find what's dealing out the damage and blow it to hell. I learned that the hard way.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Rodo on March 07, 2009, 04:11:29 pm

Quote
destroy the fighters, order delta to cover mathis and alpha to attack everything.
fly to the side of mathis, when the sarnid jumps in, target the rear-side beam and blast it to hell with the tempest and the double subach.

once that's done get back to the mathis and destroy fighters and bombers.

when the last pair of bombers is destroyed go for the forward beams of the sarnid and order all your wingmates to destroy the sarnid.

that should do it, keep your fighter and the mathis safe, that's the trick.



Yep! thats the solution.

Thx mate.

you'll find mission 6 even more challenging mueje... muejejejeje!
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Enioch on March 09, 2009, 03:15:42 am

you'll find mission 6 even more challenging mueje... muejejejeje!

Can't play it. I finish mission 5 (with both cruisers' hulls at >50%) and the game freezes at Mission 6's loading screen.  :(

I'll run a debug build and try and find out what's going on....
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Rodo on March 09, 2009, 06:12:10 am

you'll find mission 6 even more challenging mueje... muejejejeje!

Can't play it. I finish mission 5 (with both cruisers' hulls at >50%) and the game freezes at Mission 6's loading screen.  :(

I'll run a debug build and try and find out what's going on....

happened to me also... it's a problem with the build, download the latest nighly build.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Androgeos Exeunt on March 10, 2009, 12:18:52 pm
I played the demo a few days ago, and I thought it was quite good.

Snail says that it isn't as awesome as the likes of BP, PI and Derelict, and I'll agree. However, I would also like to mention that this is probably the first mod I've played in FS2_Open that only uses canon ships. BP uses a massive number of fanon ships taken from all over HLP and PI uses ships from INFR1, while Derelict uses a recoloured Knossos. From what I've seen in AG so far, every ship is from vanilla.

The only issue I might see comes in the form of three letters: NTV. Mobius is doing an alternate storyline of FS2 that, as far as I know, starts off at the beginning of the FS2 campaign. Even though AG and NTV are two separate mods, I don't think running parallel to the NTV timeline is a good idea.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: tinfoil on March 10, 2009, 03:40:43 pm
Why? Like you say, NTV is an alternate story. What we're going for is to tell our own story and to maybe fill in some canon gaps.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Droid803 on March 10, 2009, 03:44:17 pm
Hey, I'm on both, and I don't see at all how they clash.

NTV starts shortly before the beginning of the FS2 campaign.
That is where we end.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Snail on March 10, 2009, 03:45:44 pm
The main issue I had with it was that it wasn't how I envisioned the beginning of the NTF. I saw it as a much more public event, more spontaneous and disorganized, rather than the conspiracy-like portrayal in AG.

I always thought of the NTF as starting off as a giant riot which used the GTVA's lack of immediate response to become a more organized military.

Also worth noting is that the GTVA only had 9 years of actual control in the galaxy: Before 2358, the Terran regional blocs were still in power. Until that time, the GTVA (and BETAC) was just a large trading agreement treaty. The GTVA wouldn't have been quite as relaxed at the time... The political climate, IMO, wasn't as peaceful as it was portrayed at the beginning of AG. (also, the fact that it described the first mission as a quiet patrol seemed to SCREAM at me the beginning of JAD2).
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: FreeSpaceFreak on March 10, 2009, 04:24:02 pm
Quote from: Species.tbl
Eighteen months ago, Admiral Aken Bosch, commander of the GTVA 6th Fleet, launched a violent military coup in the Polaris system. Within weeks, a regional domino effect also toppled the governments of Regulus and Sirius, all swearing allegiance to Bosch and his Neo-Terran Front.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: tinfoil on March 10, 2009, 04:27:03 pm
That can be interpreted either way.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Snail on March 10, 2009, 04:27:40 pm
Quote from: Species.tbl
Eighteen months ago, Admiral Aken Bosch, commander of the GTVA 6th Fleet, launched a violent military coup in the Polaris system. Within weeks, a regional domino effect also toppled the governments of Regulus and Sirius, all swearing allegiance to Bosch and his Neo-Terran Front.
Err. And?


What I meant is that I don't think the beginning of the rebellion was as organized as it was made in AG. I always saw it as a thing which more people latched onto as it gained power (snowball effect) rather than a conspiracy.

If anything, that quote more disproves your portrayal of the NTF, as a regional "domino" effect would have implied Sirius and Regulus would have defected well after Polaris rather than about the same time.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Blue Lion on March 10, 2009, 04:57:39 pm
To the best of my knowledge, AG doesn't mention a timeline of Regulus and Polaris rebellions or the state of the political systems in place. The information about it being a quiet system are, in fact, from NTF forces sending you off to your eventual death.

There is no real mention of a catalytic event, something to spur "normal" people into rebellion. No mention of long standing animosities or regional differences that would be expected in a breakaway type of rebellion.

In my opinion (and that's all AG is, my opinion on the NTF), the rebellion was too serious for it to be a slow percolation of resentment in 3 systems. There is no mention of infighting within these systems that defected (not systems that were overrun), no mention of civilian unrest and no mention of massive parts of other fleets in other systems attempting (and obviously failing) rebellion.

Does that mean it didn't happen? No of course, it's just not stated. However I find it very hard to believe that the NTF staged a slow, growing rebellion among loyal GTVA fleets in 3 systems, stopped, and then began attacking other systems.

To me (again my opinion), making sure your systems were secure of loyal men before attacking neighboring systems seems to be the most effective means of starting and sustaining the NTF rebellion.

Every member of the GTVA in those systems wasn't in on the deal obviously (as reflected in AG), but I don't buy the idea that Bosch took his fleet rebel on the hope that down the line some other systems might join him. Also that the GTVA wouldn't strike back on the one system that rebelled.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: tinfoil on March 10, 2009, 05:36:46 pm
Blue Lion's perception is about the same as my own, I just didn't know how to put it. Since this is all non-cannon all this is is opinions and perceptions anyway. Obviously there is some psychology involved and some accepted facts about rebellions in general but as far as this particular fictional one goes there is little canon evidence to support either opinion.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: eliex on March 11, 2009, 12:37:27 am
It should also be noted that most of the Lost Generation in Polaris, Sirius, and Regulus joined the NTF Rebellion during it's early stages. It reflects how in the past how governmental changes uses students to carry out their propaganda.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Androgeos Exeunt on March 11, 2009, 07:18:38 am
Like Mao Zedong and Adolf Hitler?
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Mobius on March 15, 2009, 05:57:36 am
You also need to take in consideration that all Terran forces in the GTVA sent to deal with the NTF might react in an unexpectable way. Many of the Terran sortied to help the Vasudans lost relatives in the Terran-Vasudan War, not to mention that so many new officers were part of the Lost Generation, an easy target for Bosch's ideals.

The Terran branch of GTVA authorities is not supposed to be the legitimate one, since it was formed by a group of individuals who exploited the collapse of the Sol jump node in Delta Serpentis to replace the true center of the GTA, Sol. It's pretty obvious that someone might not have shared the choice and defected to the NTF in order to fight for a different and possibly more legitimate authority.


Back on topic, speaking of the campaign (which is NTV's rival, in a good way :)) I really have to share Snail's opinion. I don't want to venture in political discussions...I'd rather analyze AG's FREDding choices. I didn't really like how NTF forces...



Spoiler:
There are fighters, bomber and warships sortied to fight the player, and that's weird. The NTF knows from the beginning that they're severely outnumbered so they'd be acquiring ships and spacecraft instead of attempting to destroy them.

Spending most of the time fighting incoming waves of spacecraft is not a good example of FREDding, IMO.
[/mobius]
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Snail on March 15, 2009, 06:15:35 am
Another thing I didn't like was how:

Spoiler:
You were able to easily tell who was an enemy and who wasn't simply through a short IFF scan. And the part where the Adellan went hostile, you just used change-iff rather than anything creative. In a more interesting situation, it would have been more interesting if there was total chaos in which only the NTF know what's going on -- I didn't sense the chaotic fog of war in AG that I always imagined taking place in the beginning of the NTF rebellion.

I also agree with Mobius on the fact that the NTF weren't acting like an intelligent enemy force, they were acting more like the generic Derelict-type pirates who just try blow things up for no reason regardless of how many pilots they lose in the process. This was further reinforced by the whole waved wings thing. I really don't like waved wings in any missions. To me it just seems like they were put in there to lengthen the mission rather than add more experience to it.


And on the political front, I really don't think the NTF rebellion would have been that organized at the beginning. I seriously doubt that the defectors would all have defected at the same time, all have stayed quiet at the beginning and organized some kind of secret conspiracy uprising thing.

As I said before, judging from the intelligence entry, especially the mention of a "domino effect", I always envisioned the beginning of the rebellion as a far more spontaneous event, in that it wasn't planned and people just decided to join in for the ride. Not so much a conspiracy as a giant huge riot which evolved into a proper military force. Given that ships were defecting even around 17 months into the rebellion (NTC Trinity), I don't really believe it was such an organized and well-planned beginning. Rather I think it was just the GTVA's lack of action and inability to address the problem in time that allowed the NTF to rise to power.

Additionally, I doubt that the political climate before the NTF rebellion's uprising would have been that calm and relaxed. Despite what I said about it being spontaneous, I don't think that the NTF rebellion would have just jumped out of the blue. The way I see it, Regulus, Sirius and Polaris would have been wrought with political turmoil and anger even before the rebellion. The NTF rebellion was just the result of this. Big rebellions don't spring out of the blue like they did in AG. I think that the GTVA would have expected something similar to happen, but didn't anticipate the sheer scale of the violence. AG's portrayal of this period as a kind of calm, peaceful time that suddenly got interrupted by the uprising, IMO, was pretty shallow.




But ignore my ramblings!! The campaign was great, I really did enjoy it. Above is just what I would do if I were making a similar campaign...
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Androgeos Exeunt on March 15, 2009, 06:18:52 am
In that case the NTF must have started small then, before it slowly expanded to encompass three systems.

It may be for the reason of acquiring supplies that the NTF rejects BETAC because they know they don't stand a chance against the full strength of the GTVA, but then attacking feasible ships like convoys, which usually involve civilians, violates BETAC. Perhaps they built their initial strength from attacking civilian convoys, as well as solitary smaller warships before trying to capture something larger, like an Orion. Maybe the materials they hijacked from the convoys also contributed in the construction of the Boadicea.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Snail on March 15, 2009, 06:25:12 am
In that case the NTF must have started small then, before it slowly expanded to encompass three systems.
Err, no. According to the intel entry the rebellion grew to encompass Sirius, Regulus and Polaris within a few weeks. The way I see it, these three systems had been neglected by the Reconstruction era's "miraculous recovery" and the people in there were just bloody pissed off at the GTVA, the Vasudans, life, the universe and everything. When Bosch came along with his idea of Neo-Terra, all the angwy pepoe in the three systems saw it as an opportunity to make things better (ie. cause trouble). Thus, in a short space of time, lots and lots of people grabbed their weapons and ships and started shooting.

It may be for the reason of acquiring supplies that the NTF rejects BETAC because they know they don't stand a chance against the full strength of the GTVA, but then attacking feasible ships like convoys, which usually involve civilians, violates BETAC. Perhaps they built their initial strength from attacking civilian convoys, as well as solitary smaller warships before trying to capture something larger, like an Orion.
Well, I dunno. I don't think the NTF would have become very popular killing civilians, at least not at the beginning. Vasudan civilians would have been fair game, sure, but I don't think they'd just kill civilians they could potentially get sympathy out of.

Maybe the materials they hijacked from the convoys also contributed in the construction of the Boadicea.
The Boadicea is weird. We know the Iceni was built before the Boadicea so the rocks and stuff must have been built around it or something...
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Androgeos Exeunt on March 15, 2009, 06:35:24 am
In that case the NTF must have started small then, before it slowly expanded to encompass three systems.
Err, no. According to the intel entry the rebellion grew to encompass Sirius, Regulus and Polaris within a few weeks. The way I see it, these three systems had been neglected by the Reconstruction era's "miraculous recovery" and the people in there were just bloody pissed off at the GTVA, the Vasudans, life, the universe and everything. When Bosch came along with his idea of Neo-Terra, all the angwy pepoe in the three systems saw it as an opportunity to make things better (ie. cause trouble). Thus, in a short space of time, lots and lots of people grabbed their weapons and ships and started shooting.

Good thoughts. I should read up on canon Intelligence more often. :nervous:


It may be for the reason of acquiring supplies that the NTF rejects BETAC because they know they don't stand a chance against the full strength of the GTVA, but then attacking feasible ships like convoys, which usually involve civilians, violates BETAC. Perhaps they built their initial strength from attacking civilian convoys, as well as solitary smaller warships before trying to capture something larger, like an Orion.
Well, I dunno. I don't think the NTF would have become very popular killing civilians, at least not at the beginning. Vasudan civilians would have been fair game, sure, but I don't think they'd just kill civilians they could potentially get sympathy out of.

Attacking doesn't equate to killing, though. Perhaps they captured the civilians, convinced them to join the NTF and then claim that they've "liberated" these captives from the GTVA.


Maybe the materials they hijacked from the convoys also contributed in the construction of the Boadicea.
The Boadicea is weird. We know the Iceni was built before the Boadicea so the rocks and stuff must have been built around it or something...

Well, at the time of FreeSpace 2, you could see some structure sticking out of the asteroid, so maybe that signified incomplete concealment. I remember that the Boadicea hid the Iceni completely, though, so maybe there were some other amenities built in the breakable portions of the Boadicea.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Rodo on March 15, 2009, 08:38:15 am
I have to agree in the concept that the assumption by the player of units being enemies and allies in this release was quite easy, there where no last minute traitors or so in situations where this kind of tactics would surely be of great use.

All other mentioned points are your own concepts of how the NTF is and how did it surge out of the water, of course many will agree with you but the general script for the campaign has already been sorted out by Blue Lion so we're sticking to that one.

because they know they don't stand a chance against the full strength of the GTVA

that's assuming that Bosch was already thinking about outrunning the GTVA and forming it's own government, I think Bosch acted more because of the general misstreat that they where suffering from GTVA, impulsed by popular and military unrest.
He took the lead, but was no funder of anything....he just was pointed as the responsible by GTVA because obviously a revellion such as the NTF should always be seen as a general conspiracy and never as a general riot.

Well, I dunno. I don't think the NTF would have become very popular killing civilians, at least not at the beginning.

agreed completely...

I don't think that was the original idea on Bosch mind in fact I think it was just a method to keep it's ranks still loyal... you know converts can convert again and in grater number if they are being defeated.
note I said "original idea on Bosch mind" actually when he took the command of the NTF he had to give those forces a purpose IMO, there's where the ancient artifact search was started....memories of a greater and much more important days in his life come to the mind of Bosch and well his own crusade to turn the NTF into something AND something more righteous is started, my thinking is based only on the messages that Bosch left in the monologues.
remember that Bosch said he had created a monster he was powerless to stop, that would inquire that the NTF was never meant to destroy the Vasudan, he mentions this many times in the monologues.

Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Androgeos Exeunt on March 15, 2009, 09:03:20 am
Did the exploit the Terran-Vasudan prejudices to find a way to communicate with the Shivans then?
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Rodo on March 15, 2009, 09:15:33 am
Did the exploit the Terran-Vasudan prejudices to find a way to communicate with the Shivans then?


The fact that Bosch had it's own ideas about how a righteous crusade for the NTF was supposed to be doesn't mean that the NTF as a hole would actually embrace that idea.
You can't keep all your subordinates happy, you need to keep at least most of them that way....

If killing Vasudan was the only thing that was capable to keep the NTF working together then I would dare to say that Bosch was gonna fell awfull at the end
(as he did:
Quote
have I led my people to a desert only to die here?
see he was not even sure that the ETAK was gonna work.. then why risking it all??? I'll tell you why...he wanted a righteous finale for the NTF).

and I quote again
Quote
the method behind the madness
  (as for my own opinion... best quote EVER on FS universe) explains this point of view.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Blue Lion on March 15, 2009, 01:40:49 pm

Err, no. According to the intel entry the rebellion grew to encompass Sirius, Regulus and Polaris within a few weeks. The way I see it, these three systems had been neglected by the Reconstruction era's "miraculous recovery" and the people in there were just bloody pissed off at the GTVA, the Vasudans, life, the universe and everything. When Bosch came along with his idea of Neo-Terra, all the angwy pepoe in the three systems saw it as an opportunity to make things better (ie. cause trouble). Thus, in a short space of time, lots and lots of people grabbed their weapons and ships and started shooting.

Except you don't see civilians fighting the GTVA. All I saw was military vs military. I saw no mention of suppressing civilian revolts or solving civilian problems. If a civilian backlash is what gave Bosch his get up and go for this, you'd think there would have been a mention of it somewhere. In the game however, civilians are almost completely removed, to the point we argue about what their roles were.


Quote
Well, I dunno. I don't think the NTF would have become very popular killing civilians, at least not at the beginning. Vasudan civilians would have been fair game, sure, but I don't think they'd just kill civilians they could potentially get sympathy out of.

I think there was something in BETAC they didn't like (possibly about rebellions or mutinies or something) and just ignored it completely. There is no way to know what part of BETAC they don't like.

Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Blue Lion on March 15, 2009, 01:48:54 pm


Spoiler:
There are fighters, bomber and warships sortied to fight the player, and that's weird. The NTF knows from the beginning that they're severely outnumbered so they'd be acquiring ships and spacecraft instead of attempting to destroy them.

Spending most of the time fighting incoming waves of spacecraft is not a good example of FREDding, IMO.
[/mobius]

That's why we have
Spoiler:
Mission 5 with the Kestrel being fought over. It would be extremely boring to have missions of NTF talking down GTVA ships. The basic assumption, and I know it is really explained well yet, is that that is almost all that's left. Out of the entire Sirius system, that's not a lot of ships that didn't go rebel.

As for why they sortie ships to take them out. These are GTVA pilots who aren't turning (you'll notice it never came up) and the NTF is still trying to keep this a secret. You and the other pilots have to be taken out to preserve that secrecy.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Mobius on March 15, 2009, 01:56:38 pm
I think there was something in BETAC they didn't like (possibly about rebellions or mutinies or something) and just ignored it completely. There is no way to know what part of BETAC they don't like.

I remember Roemig citing the BETAC when he claimed that he was a prisoner of war with no need to spread vital info regarding his task in the nebula.

A wingman(woman) then says that she thought the rebels didn't reckognize BETAC.

I assume that the NTF didn't really want to treat prisoners in a good way.


That's why we have
Spoiler:
Mission 5 with the Kestrel being fought over. It would be extremely boring to have missions of NTF talking down GTVA ships. The basic assumption, and I know it is really explained well yet, is that that is almost all that's left. Out of the entire Sirius system, that's not a lot of ships that didn't go rebel.

As for why they sortie ships to take them out. These are GTVA pilots who aren't turning (you'll notice it never came up) and the NTF is still trying to keep this a secret. You and the other pilots have to be taken out to preserve that secrecy.

Spoiler:
That's just one mission. What should have been the fundament of the whole Demo has been limited to a single mission...there should have been more episodes like that.
[/mobius]
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Blue Lion on March 15, 2009, 02:08:19 pm
I remember Roemig citing the BETAC when he claimed that he was a prisoner of war with no need to spread vital info regarding his task in the nebula.

A wingman(woman) then says that she thought the rebels didn't reckognize BETAC.

I assume that the NTF didn't really want to treat prisoners in a good way.

I just thought that meant they wanted to hamstring the GTVA by BETAC while they don't have to be.



Quote
Spoiler:
That's just one mission. What should have been the fundament of the whole Demo has been limited to a single mission...there should have been more episodes like that.
[/mobius]

I didn't really want to release a 6 mission demo, but there is no real "ending mission" before that.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on September 15, 2009, 08:06:49 pm
Since this is a review thread I don't see a need for spoiler tags but I guess I'll use them anyway.


Overall it was pretty good. I was actually at a bit of a loss as to what was going on at the start since I didn't know jack about the campaign. Then I read the launcher blurb and thought "oh, so that's what this is. Anyway".

Spoiler:
Overall the missions were pretty good though it was fairly predictable who was bad and who was good.

The thing with the Sarnid jumping in and vaping the Mathis. Hmmn, that was probably the low point of the campaign in terms of fredding. Maybe this has been said before, but the player should have the chance to win a mission the first time. But the only real way to win that mission is to know what's already coming so in that way I think it's poorly design. Basically the Sarnid should have some sort of delay before it lets loose with the beams. The first time I played it I was still near the Kestrel when it warped in so by the time I even got over there the Mathis was almost toast.

The last mission has an error. Iota wing accepts player orders so technically I could just tell them to bugger off and not have to fight them.

Also the bit about Command saying "take out the convoy if you can" is a bit of a joke since they're on the other side of the battlefield and there's no real opportunity to get anywhere near them. But I guess that's Command for you.

It might've been better to give the NTF a little more character. The only time they really talk is when the Kestrel is under conflict. Not that they talk much in the campaign either, but in the start o the rebellion one might think they'd be trying to recruit new forces rather than pre-determining who is bad and who is good. Logically there'd be some idea based on the Captainship of the vessel, but one would think that some crews would be a little on the fence and might go either way.

Oh I think you spelt acquired wrong somewhere but that might be a different campaign. I can't remember. Think it was either debrief 2 or brief 3.

Anyway. It was a good couple of missions.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Snail on September 16, 2009, 12:26:29 pm
My main issue with AG1 was that it was far too formulaic. There was very little innovation, it was simply old ideas done again. They were done well, but they were still recycled ideas...
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Blue Lion on September 16, 2009, 01:45:47 pm
That's exactly what I was shooting for.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: SF-Junky on November 28, 2009, 07:02:30 am
Since I finally managed to play the Demo I'd like to add a few notes. Let's start with the bad things:
- Several missions mainly consist of fighting off wave after wave of hostile fighters. That's okay in particular missions but see to it that it doesn't happen to often.
- There story doesn't begin very good imo. It looks like the pilots haven't yet heard about the NTF but already know that there is some sort of rebellion going on. If I recall the tech room entries right, Bosch first launched a coup d'etat against Polaris triggering a domino effect which caused Regulus and Sirius to fall to the NTF within weeks. So if this campaign is supposed to begin at the point Sirius is falling to the rebels everyone should already know about the NTF.
- If you don't have contact to you base destroyer, how exactly does your fighter get repaired and rearmed after every mission?

Good things:
- The missions where very well balanced in my eyes. The intro cutscene was superb!
- I stil liked the "wtf is going on?" - feeling at the beginning of the campaign.


All in all a good campaign so far. I'm looking forward to see the final release. :)
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Snail on November 28, 2009, 09:19:42 am
- There story doesn't begin very good imo. It looks like the pilots haven't yet heard about the NTF but already know that there is some sort of rebellion going on. If I recall the tech room entries right, Bosch first launched a coup d'etat against Polaris triggering a domino effect which caused Regulus and Sirius to fall to the NTF within weeks. So if this campaign is supposed to begin at the point Sirius is falling to the rebels everyone should already know about the NTF.
I didn't like the portrayal of the NTF's rise either. I imagined it as being far more spontaneous, like some kind of mass riot which quickly became more organized under Bosch's leadership.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Rodo on November 28, 2009, 04:13:15 pm
Thanks for the review, your points have been noted.

Also it's nice to know there's still some people out there playing this demo release ^^
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: tinfoil on November 30, 2009, 12:40:22 am
Yeah, excellent that people care enough to still be giving it a go.

We're going much more in depth with plot hole finding and such in the full campaign. Unfortunately, the conditions the demo came together under were far from ideal and if I could be so bold as to say so, I think we let it out a little half baked. No matter though, expect good things from the final release. :D
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Aardwolf on November 30, 2009, 11:49:11 am
I haven't played it yet. Is it worth playing?
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: SF-Junky on November 30, 2009, 01:19:16 pm
I haven't played it yet. Is it worth playing?
Go find out yourself. ;)
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: tinfoil on November 30, 2009, 04:20:02 pm
I haven't played it yet. Is it worth playing?

Yes! Absolutely. Play it and then review it here. ;) Pick things apart, give us feedback. We like that sort of thing.
Title: Re: Alcibades' Gamble Reviews
Post by: Blue Lion on December 02, 2009, 09:55:34 pm
I haven't played it yet. Is it worth playing?

:blah: It's alright








 :D