Hard Light Productions Forums

FreeSpace Releases => Mission & Campaign Releases => Topic started by: Goober5000 on November 20, 2005, 02:44:59 am

Title: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Goober5000 on November 20, 2005, 02:44:59 am
This hardly counts as a release since it's not my campaign, but I thought you might be interested anyway. :)

A few weeks ago I was playing through the FS2 demo, just because it had two cool missions, and I wondered if it would be possible to convert it to retail FS2 so I wouldn't have to keep the demo installation on my computer.  It turns out that simply extracting the mission and voice files from the demo VPs and packing them into a separate VP did the trick.  So rather than install the entire demo whenever you want to play the demo campaign, all you have to do is keep a nice convenient little (well, 7 MB) VP file on hand. :)

Now these aren't the exact files from the demo installation.  I realized that they could use a few tweaks, so I spent a few hours adding personas and talking heads to all the messages and adjusting certain sexps.  It should play exactly the same as the demo campaign, just with a bit of extra cosmetic polish that you probably wouldn't notice unless you played the actual demo right before it.  Oh, and I removed the training mission. ;)

So without further ado, here's the link (thanks to FreeSpace Files for the hosting):
http://sectorgame.com/fsfiles/?dir=uploads/Projects%20-%20Campaigns%20-%20TCs/Demos/ [search for fs2demo.zip]

The VP contains the two single-player campaign missions (with the campaign file) plus the two multiplayer standalone missions, complete with voice acting.  It's compatible with retail, and you can run it right alongside any retail-compatible campaign.  The only caveat is that I changed messages.tbl to use the CM1 head and voice for Terran Command, since the demo had a white guy voice.  This will affect built-in messages for every campaign installed in parallel that doesn't override messages.tbl.  (To fix this, either move the VP or copy the retail messages.tbl to the tables folder.)

So, let me know if those six or so hours were worth it. ;)
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: karajorma on November 20, 2005, 07:16:56 am
Sounds good. I'll give this a try :)
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Nuclear1 on November 20, 2005, 01:08:49 pm
This should jog some good ol' memories. Downloading now. :)
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Depth_Charge on November 20, 2005, 02:36:29 pm
looks good....so is this going to be a remake of the main campaign, if so, then this should be fun.......
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Nuclear1 on November 20, 2005, 04:24:07 pm
I just played it through. It felt good having the voiceacting back, as I sorely missed it in the SOTY edition.

Thanks for putting this together, Goob. :)
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Goober5000 on November 20, 2005, 06:38:30 pm
You're welcome. :)
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Fenrir on November 20, 2005, 06:47:55 pm
Quote from: Depth_Charge on November 20, 2005, 02:36:29 pm
looks good....so is this going to be a remake of the main campaign, if so, then this should be fun.......

Nah, it's a port of the old Freespace 2 Demo to Freespace 2 itself.
I've never played the demo, so I'll be downloading this.
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: StratComm on November 20, 2005, 07:04:02 pm
I loved the FS2 demo.  Had nothing to do with the actual campaign, but it was still pretty awesome nonetheless.

EDIT: Minor, but a couple of bugs.  Most notably, you fail the second mission (but get the success debrif) if the Moloch isn't destroyed.  I think I did this the first time through by telling all ships to ignore the corvette, which means the cruiser just cruised on by it and continued escorting the convoy.  The cruiser made it all the way to the node and jumped out, but the Psamtik never arrived to finish of the Moloch.  I'm actually not 100% sure what caused that to happen, as I got the RTB directive once before the corvette was destroyed but while the Aeolus was still engaging it, so there's a bit of an oddity there.  Also:
Spoiler:
Easter Egg: The disabled Pegasus sucks any support ships in mission straight to it.  And since it's a million miles from anything, it you effectively have no support ship through that mission unless you tell the existing one to bug out and call in a new one.
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Mongoose on November 20, 2005, 07:25:52 pm
I must have played through this at least ten times before I finally managed to buy FS2.  I think someone else also released a VP-ified version of it recently.  I'll have to make time to run through it again. :)
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: CP5670 on November 21, 2005, 01:29:04 am
I still have the original demo missions and their voices with me. Pretty cool. The "choice" in the first mission was a nice touch.

You know, since these are official missions, I suppose the ships in them should go into my ship database.
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: pyro-manic on November 22, 2005, 05:06:00 pm
Ooh, I never played the demo. Cheers goob :)
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Setekh on November 22, 2005, 06:45:19 pm
Heh. Highlighted. ;)
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Terminator on November 22, 2005, 10:04:09 pm
a few things i noticed:

1. both missions in the demo had exodus as the music, since that was the only track the demo came with
2. in the demo ships.tbl, the max speed for the herc II was 130 m/s and the perseus max speed was 150 m/s.
3. the demo's flak and explosion sound effects were a bit different as i recall.
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Vasudan Admiral on November 22, 2005, 10:13:53 pm
Never seen this before, and though some of the voice acting was...iffy, 'twas overall pretty fun; - thanks muchly for converting. :)
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Col. Fishguts on November 23, 2005, 06:32:27 am
Ooh nice. I never realised that the FS2 demo had non-main-campaign missions, downloading now.
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: SnakeEyes on November 23, 2005, 06:49:25 am
Thanks Gobber, will obviously give it a try.
Can it be run as a MOD in SCP?
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: pyro-manic on November 23, 2005, 12:22:05 pm
Yep. Just use the mod directory thingy as usual.

One thing I did notice is that they used the FS1-style voices, with the more "radio-ified" (yes, I made that word up, and I'm sticking by it :p) sounding recordings. And when the Adamant dies, the recording is cut off with a little bit of static, which I'm sure doesn't happen in the full game (it just cuts out completely).

The Psamtik does it's spin-round-the-waypoint-forever thing, which is very annoying, but apart from that there weren't any bugs that I could see. :yes:
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Goober5000 on November 23, 2005, 01:57:02 pm
Quote from: Setekh on November 22, 2005, 06:45:19 pm
Heh. Highlighted. ;)

Yay! :)

Quote from: Terminator on November 22, 2005, 10:04:09 pm
a few things i noticed:

1. both missions in the demo had exodus as the music, since that was the only track the demo came with
2. in the demo ships.tbl, the max speed for the herc II was 130 m/s and the perseus max speed was 150 m/s.
3. the demo's flak and explosion sound effects were a bit different as i recall.

1) Actually, the first mission in the demo didn't have any in-game music, and the second mission had the same briefing music as the first.  I took the liberty of changing both. :)
2) Yeah, and in the demo, the Perseus could carry the Maxim too. :( You'd need to edit the tbl files for this, something I didn't want to do as it would break compatibility with the retail campaign.
3) I actually thought the demo's sound effects were much more subdued.
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Charismatic on November 26, 2005, 10:58:33 am
Quote from: Col. Fishguts on November 23, 2005, 06:32:27 am
Ooh nice. I never realised that the FS2 demo had non-main-campaign missions, downloading now.

Same same..
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Rake on December 12, 2005, 09:17:10 pm
Could this be revamped with the various SCP/hi-poly models/nebula's/etc. updates? This would be a nice way to introduce those to gamers that haven't seen them yet.

It'd be even better if you could update the standalone demo this way as well.
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Whitelight on December 12, 2005, 10:07:50 pm
Ah, cool..  :nod:

VP`s are your friend.  :D
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Ypoknons on December 13, 2005, 11:53:08 am
Given that the FS2 demo was the first Freespace I ever played, yes, this is worth a lot sentimentally.
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Antares on December 16, 2005, 09:35:14 pm
Not to complain, Goober, but the demo missions were already available as included in the "X Missions" released in the FS2 Sci-Fi Game of the Year Edition.  You didn't have to go to the trouble of ripping them straight from the demo.  :p
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Goober5000 on December 17, 2005, 02:48:30 pm
Well I don't have the GOTY edition, and neither do a bunch of other people, so this is useful for them. :p
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Mongoose on December 19, 2005, 02:22:08 pm
And besides, the X-mission versions don't have all of the voiceacting included with them. :)
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Goober5000 on January 19, 2007, 03:46:33 pm
:bump:

Now modified to include Admiral Nelson's backgrounds using Lightspeed's Nebulae. :nod:
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Axem on January 19, 2007, 03:51:29 pm
Copy cat. :p

Oh wait... :nervous:
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Huggybaby on January 19, 2007, 05:06:39 pm
Cool, thanks.
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Grizzly on April 09, 2017, 08:48:06 am
:bump:
It has been mentioned in a brainstorming thread that it would be usefull to release a standalone SCP version of the FS2 demo. I remembered playing Goober's rendition of the FS2 demo a long time back, and here it is! However, the link is no longer working. How much chance do we have of reviving a 12 year old Goobwork?
Title: Re: RERELEASE: FS2 Demo Campaign
Post by: Goober5000 on April 09, 2017, 04:50:29 pm
As long as I'm on HLP, I'll provide support for my mods. :)

The fs2demo.zip was mirrored to FreeSpace Files, but on further investigation it's been overwritten by something Lorric made. :confused:  I'll contact Hunter to get that fixed.

EDIT: Fixed.