Author Topic: RELEASE: Cyrene vs. Psamtik  (Read 9094 times)

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Offline Mito [PL]

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Re: RELEASE: Cyrene vs. Psamtik
To be honest, this release has surprised me with its quality. I've taken a moment to play through it a couple weeks back and I genuinely enjoyed it. Now, it's time for some sort of feedback, even if a very late one.

From the gameplay standpoint, most things are really solid. You've got decent writing going, both missions are paced pretty well, and aren't exceedingly difficult. They technically seem to be tied together pretty well. Beyond that, I haven't encountered any major bugs preventing me from progressing. I've enjoyed playing this.
Also you have brought in a couple of pretty novel, if rather minor, design decisions: using the perspective of two separate pilots and needing to scan the enemy destroyer's subsystems before commencing another destroyer to engage. These I haven't seen used in the community much and they work pretty well here. Although in your future campaigns please use these sparingly, they won't bring much positive quality if overused.

There's still a couple things you might like to polish up in the missions to make them as good as they can be. In the first mission, I have also experienced an issue with debriefing - I got both the positive outcome and AWOL debriefings after landing on the Cyrene. I believe it might be related to the "Protect Alba" directive that never actually becomes complete. Also, in my experience, the defense of the Alba gets a bit tough near the end, as the amount of enemies incoming at the same time increases about that time, but it's manageable.

In the second mission, I've noticed that the player craft is invulnerable since the start, which would be a really quick fix to do. Also, given how massive of a threat are the Orion's beams, I think the mission should tell the player to strike the beam cannons on Psamtik's side as soon as the scanning is done. I nearly lost the destroyer before I've noticed just how much damage can the Orion put out in a short period of time.


Also a word of comfort: while I'm not versed in the GitHub situation, remember that this community doesn't ban people just because some might find them annoying, or for poor quality mods, or for anything that isn't really harmful to anyone. If it did, I would have been kicked off months ago. :P

I may have a tiny suggestion too, actually: you could try using a single, about one second long fade-out to black when the player is landing on the Cyrene in the first mission. While it's a purely cosmetic thing, I think it could make the ending of this mission one tiny bit smoother and easier on players' eyes.

That said, carry on and good luck! I'm interested in seeing more campaigns like these.
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Offline Bryan See

  • Has anyone really been far as decided to use even go want to do look more like?
  • 210
  • Trying to redeem, but under Tiger Parents
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Re: RELEASE: Cyrene vs. Psamtik
To be honest, this release has surprised me with its quality. I've taken a moment to play through it a couple weeks back and I genuinely enjoyed it. Now, it's time for some sort of feedback, even if a very late one.

From the gameplay standpoint, most things are really solid. You've got decent writing going, both missions are paced pretty well, and aren't exceedingly difficult. They technically seem to be tied together pretty well. Beyond that, I haven't encountered any major bugs preventing me from progressing. I've enjoyed playing this.
Also you have brought in a couple of pretty novel, if rather minor, design decisions: using the perspective of two separate pilots and needing to scan the enemy destroyer's subsystems before commencing another destroyer to engage. These I haven't seen used in the community much and they work pretty well here. Although in your future campaigns please use these sparingly, they won't bring much positive quality if overused.

There's still a couple things you might like to polish up in the missions to make them as good as they can be. In the first mission, I have also experienced an issue with debriefing - I got both the positive outcome and AWOL debriefings after landing on the Cyrene. I believe it might be related to the "Protect Alba" directive that never actually becomes complete. Also, in my experience, the defense of the Alba gets a bit tough near the end, as the amount of enemies incoming at the same time increases about that time, but it's manageable.

In the second mission, I've noticed that the player craft is invulnerable since the start, which would be a really quick fix to do. Also, given how massive of a threat are the Orion's beams, I think the mission should tell the player to strike the beam cannons on Psamtik's side as soon as the scanning is done. I nearly lost the destroyer before I've noticed just how much damage can the Orion put out in a short period of time.


Also a word of comfort: while I'm not versed in the GitHub situation, remember that this community doesn't ban people just because some might find them annoying, or for poor quality mods, or for anything that isn't really harmful to anyone. If it did, I would have been kicked off months ago. :P

I may have a tiny suggestion too, actually: you could try using a single, about one second long fade-out to black when the player is landing on the Cyrene in the first mission. While it's a purely cosmetic thing, I think it could make the ending of this mission one tiny bit smoother and easier on players' eyes.

That said, carry on and good luck! I'm interested in seeing more campaigns like these.
I take this as a word for encouragement :)
Bryan See - My FreeSpace Wiki User Page (Talk, Contributions)

Full Projects:
Shattered Stars

Campaigns:
Lost in the Mist - Cyrene vs. Psamtik
FreeSpace: Reunited

Ships:
GTS Hygeia, GTT Argo, SC Raguel

Tools:
FSO TC/Game template

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Offline Colonol Dekker

  • HLP is my mistress
  • 213
  • Aken Tigh Dekker- you've probably heard me
    • My old squad sub-domain
Re: RELEASE: Cyrene vs. Psamtik
Please be encouraged.  I encourage I'm depth playtesting and bug fixing before release though.  As a process, I'm saying your latest work has any bugs that I know of.
Campaigns I've added my distinctiveness to-
- Blue Planet: Battle Captains
-Battle of Neptune
-Between the Ashes 2
-Blue planet: Age of Aquarius
-FOTG?
-Inferno R1
-Ribos: The aftermath / -Retreat from Deneb
-Sol: A History
-TBP EACW teaser
-Earth Brakiri war
-TBP Fortune Hunters (I think?)
-TBP Relic
-Trancsend (Possibly?)
-Uncharted Territory
-Vassagos Dirge
-War Machine
(Others lost to the mists of time and no discernible audit trail)

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Offline Alikchi

  • Neo-Terran
  • 210
  • Spooky ghost (RIP)
Re: RELEASE: Cyrene vs. Psamtik
Playing through this now, some thoughts -

Good story and set up! Just a few grammar/syntax issues in the command and mission briefings, but nothing major.

*When I'm playing as the NTF, I think it makes sense to have the Herc and Loki available. M1 is a Myrmidon only mission. The second mission allows a good selection (Seth, Horus, Thoth, Serapis, Tauret).
*It wasn't made clear to fly into the Cyrene's hangar at the end of the mission, though I figured it out pretty quickly I was confused why my jump drive wouldn't work.
 *Psamtik oftens loses duel to Cyrene in mission 2 even if all of Cyrene's Medusas are shot down before they can launch bombs.

Overall I really enjoyed this! There's a rich mine of engagements in the NTF war mentioned in command briefings etc in the FS2 campaign that I'd love to see more of. The story of the NTD Cyrene is a really good choice to focus on!
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