Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The FRED Workshop => Topic started by: Strygon on June 10, 2020, 12:47:52 pm

Title: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Strygon on June 10, 2020, 12:47:52 pm
Hey ho, it's good to be back in the modding seat. After 2 years of hiatus (caused by real life, massive modding burnout and countless hours of wrestling with the game to make carpet bombing a thing) I've decided to start things off with yet another mini-campaign, before I get back to work on A Cold Day in Hell.

Shadow of the Colossus takes place some time after the events of Freespace 2, though it's only loosely trying to be canon, as many things in this campaign are... let's say, "creatively fabricated" for the sake of making logical sense. J-just watch the pretty explosions, don't pay attention to the questionable plot please!

With that warning out of the way:

During a time of peace and stagnation, conflict is sure to arise quickly and brutally. A group of former NTF Officers and pilots, now known as the "Neo-Terran Remnant" have broken into a GTVI Blacksite and retrieved stolen plans for some kind of superweapon. But due to the economic impacts following the loss of Capella, the forced downsizing of the GTVA Fleet Command has lead to a rather chaotic system where nothing gets done due to never ending bickering between various parties.

Meanwhile, during a regular pirate hideout raid, your squadron, the 28th Bloodhounds, stumble upon a strange relay beacon coded for an NTR Frequency. The message transmitted on it is brief but haunting.

"Hades has awoken again."


Yet another quick n easy 7 mission campaign. Not placing a release deadline this time because I want to avoid pulling triple allnighters like last time.
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: starlord on June 10, 2020, 03:22:52 pm
Oh hey. Welcome back.
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Nightmare on June 10, 2020, 03:55:16 pm
Sounds promising, will play~ :D
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Mobius on June 10, 2020, 04:17:17 pm
Welcome back, I'll be following this.  :)
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Nyctaeus on June 11, 2020, 08:50:00 pm
Stryggie, mah boi! You're alive :]

Pics! Gimme pics!
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Strygon on June 12, 2020, 01:13:39 am
Stryggie, mah boi! You're alive :]

Pics! Gimme pics!

Ask and ye shall receive.

(https://i.imgur.com/WhV6gqV.png)

Testing out a way of putting down turrets via Reinforcements.

(https://i.imgur.com/q9cop8x.png)

Look at this tiny thing. Would be a real shame if you had to defend it from several waves of fighters.

(https://i.imgur.com/EdoOpW2.png)

A beefed up Hippocrates with flaks and beam cannons defending a depot.
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Nyctaeus on June 12, 2020, 06:38:27 am
Looks promising :yes: . So far I can say: Don't buy asteroids on sell-outs :P
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Strygon on June 21, 2020, 06:33:46 am
Hmm, I've hit a bit of a planning-related snag. I've got a mission planned involving a boarding team, but I'm not sure if it's going to be fun. So to this extent, I want to ask:

Would you rather have:

A. Boarding mission where you defend the transport from waves of fighters until the team returns and the transport departs?

OR

B. Boarding mission where you defend the boarding team itself by blowing up the boarded ship's subsystems, thus killing the enemy troops in these areas?
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Nightmare on June 21, 2020, 07:22:05 am
Depending on how long the mission is going to take, it might be interesting to have both. You could have A and B alternating, or at the same time to make it more challenging.
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: 0rph3u5 on June 21, 2020, 07:34:54 am
B. Boarding mission where you defend the boarding team itself by blowing up the boarded ship's subsystems, thus killing the enemy troops in these areas?

That.
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: 0rph3u5 on June 21, 2020, 07:38:29 am
Suggestion: Combine it with subsystem scanning.
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Strygon on July 14, 2020, 08:44:51 am
Quick update to show that this project has not died.

I've managed to complete about 3 missions and partially finish 2 more, but the first mission I ultimately ended up unhappy with, so I dumped it in favor of a better one, which is what's been the workload for the past few days.
I can attach the dumped mission if anyone wants to play it. It's a bit... ehhh, quality wise but it's pretty much complete from command briefing, to backgrounds, to debriefing.
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Su-tehp on July 14, 2020, 04:08:47 pm
Did you need an editor for your briefings, debriefings and mission dialogue? I have some experience in that area. :D

(Don't look at me like that, Nyct! The Exile work is still ongoing, albeit slowly! Another 7 missions to my workload won't take too much longer! :p )
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Strygon on July 14, 2020, 04:13:40 pm
No thanks, but I appreciate the offer. I was talking more in regards to quality of that one phased out mission. I think what I've got for writing right now is sufficently adequate for this small scale campaign.

I will certainly keep your offer in mind though, for when I might actually need an editor.
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Su-tehp on July 14, 2020, 04:50:28 pm
No problem at all, just holler if you need me. (And by "holler," I mean a PM or something. :p )
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Strygon on July 14, 2020, 04:54:43 pm
Really? I thought you meant I should go to your neighbourhood and just repeatedly shout "HELP ME SU-TEHP, I CAN'T WRITE THIS BRIEFING PROPERLY"  :P

But yeah, I'll shoot ya a PM, no worries.
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Su-tehp on July 14, 2020, 05:02:14 pm
Really? I thought you meant I should go to your neighbourhood and just repeatedly shout "HELP ME SU-TEHP, I CAN'T WRITE THIS BRIEFING PROPERLY"  :P

Dude, I live in Washington, DC. That would the least crazy thing thing being shouted in this city, especially when you take into account all the exhortations emanating from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the last 3 and a half years...so go right ahead and shout it if you feel the need, I won't mind. :D (I can't speak for any of my neighbors, though... :nervous:)

But yeah, I'll shoot ya a PM, no worries.

Cool, I await your convenience. :)
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Strygon on July 15, 2020, 04:20:10 pm
Here's a sneak peek at a lil fun feature I've been working on for this entire day for this mission. A simple carrier landing + loadout change.


Was it worth it? Probably not, but I wanted to see if I could do it anyway.
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Strygon on July 19, 2020, 06:29:24 pm
All missions save for one is "complete" in terms of gameplay, all that is needed is some extra polish and dialogue. Expect a release next week.
The mod is also open for anyone who wishes to playtest it.



EDIT 22/07/2020: I'll still try to aim for a release sometime this week but during playtesting the plot has turned out to be in dire need of a serious re-writing, and a couple major elements may need changing.
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Nightmare on July 19, 2020, 07:12:50 pm
Oh that's VERY cool! :yes: :yes:
Looking forward to play it! :nod:
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Strygon on August 11, 2020, 09:59:25 am
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/565970375662501914/742758845771677696/unknown.png)


Proof this mod ain't dead. Here's a bit of a peek at what I cooked up.
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Nightmare on August 11, 2020, 01:54:35 pm
Nice :yes:
Title: Re: [DUMPED] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Strygon on September 04, 2020, 08:14:18 am
I'm closing development of this mod now. In a couple hours, a playable release will be uploaded to Knossos, though beware that it is not of usual release quality. It will contain all but two playable missions and a campaign that ties them together. I might go back some day and fully finish this thing, but not today or in the forseeable future.

Why? Well, this mod wasn't really as much of a story I wanted to tell, but rather a loose assortment of various ideas I wanted to try and pull off with FRED. In that regard, the mod's been a complete success. But in an attempt to make it an actually playable and fun experience, I tried to rewrite the plot and add new elements here and there that bogged down development and made it very unfun to work on. Couple that with a mod I'd much much rather be dedicating my work time to, this project ultimately felt more like a burden than an actual project. But rather than let it fall into irrelevance, I've decided to open it up and let whoever wants to, play what I produced so far. All missions, safe for Mission6 and Mission5 are completable, though I cannot guarantee all of them are fully polished.

Want to claim the mod and work on it yourself or use anything I dumped into this mod for your own work? Feel free to do so, I'm happy if this mod made at least one person happy. Thank you for the support, and I'm sorry for being unable to finish it.

On the bright side, expect a much more exciting project to start blooming soon.
Title: Re: [WIP] Shadow of the Colossus
Post by: Nightmare on September 04, 2020, 07:10:20 pm
Oh noes