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The Antagonist
(http://i1178.photobucket.com/albums/x380/Brandon_Rehayem/logo-1.jpg)
Thanks to everyone who helped out in making 'The Antagonist' a reality. This mod absolutely would not have been possible without the FSO community who got me invested in such a project.
If you would like a small preview, you can read the announcement thread. (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=78078.0)
Dedicated to The_E
To install 'The Antagonist' you need to do the following:
1. Ensure you have FSO installed with a recent nightly (7877 or later) (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=78573.0) and up to date launcher!
2. Ensure you have mediavps_3612
3. Create a new folder in your freespace2 root directory titled 'The Antagonist' and unpack the .7z file into that folder.
4. Run the mod by opening the launcher and selecting 'The Antagonist' folder under the mod tab.
5. Play the mod with a new pilot. Do not use the same pilot you used to play retail!
6. Download this hotfix (http://www.mediafire.com/?6jq9no09xlf3q6q) to get one of the weapons working properly. Put it in freespace2/The Antagonist/data/tables
If the folders don't exist, create them.
Important: This mod WILL NOT run on 3.6.12! You should try to play this mod on a recent nightly (Oldest compatible build is: <edit> 7877)
Please select 'The Antagonist' campaign in the campaign room before clicking 'Start' in the main menu. The main freespace2 campaign is NOT playable with the mod files.
DOWNLOAD HERE! (http://mvp.fsmods.net/Antagonist/The_Antagonist.7z)
Edit: If you don't have them already, I recommend using Nighteye's shockwaves (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=72539.0). Part of the fun of them is picking your own color!
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One of my four weaknesses! Shmups!
Best birthday gift for me ever! I shall play instantly! I love you so much bigchunk1. No homo, though.
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owww, another campaign release!
downloadingggg..
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Freaking nice, my birthday is tomorrow, and this is good , a very good gift, downloading :)
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happy birthday for you both guys :yes:
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Hey, Gracias Rodo ^^
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This is some really fun stuff. Even though I'm getting my ass kicked by the first oligarch it's still a blast. Well done sir. :yes:
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Excited to play this. Downloading now!
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The concept certainly sounds interesting. Downloading Now!
Is there voice acting in this release?
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Is there voice acting in this release?
Yes there is.
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Crashes after killing the commodore for me...
Edit: got through, then crashed after laying waste to the x87
Edit2: didn't crash this time, though I must say the final fight is pretty easy compared so some of the other battles you're put through.
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Why does your computer not want you to beat the campaign?!
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gratuitous kill counts wheeeeee
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It is a fun campaign, and I would go on about my favorite parts, but I am sure you know my thoughts on it already. :D
Will go on my recommendation list for sure.
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So excited! Although who knows when I'll have time to play... :blah:
Could you include a link to a recent OS X nightly as well, such as this one (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=78378.0)?
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Pretty good so far. Interesting gameplay concepts, I'm very much liking the new weapons. Some normalization issues with the voices, as some are much quieter than others, but that's a minor point. Will post more once I've finished it!
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Nobody informed me this has voice acting.
I hate it even more now! :p
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Way to take in-mission subspace jumping to the next level, that was fun mission jumping in and out at will.
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nice to see it released :)
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Nobody informed me this has voice acting.
I hate it even more now! :p
Aah he's here! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUac8MfFsV0)
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So I completed it now. It was a marvelous mod that I sincerely enjoyed. I had to lower the difficulty from Normal to Easy to M5 though cause I couldn't get past 2/3 the way before dying.
In the end I chose to defy Edward. Nothing is worth killing billions if not trillions of people. Though I have no idea what kind of past that Edward had to make him so incredibly self aware and willing to play with the player's mind.
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Yes, Edward.
Now that was a really fun ride!
Let's get all the negative things out of the way first: The X86 has a terrible looking texture, the loading bar is kinda ugly and sound of the APE weapon is kinda dumb.
I experienced 3 game crashes in total (one right when I was jumping out at the end of a battle) without any warnings. I very much doubt that's anything I can blame you for though, just making a note of it here.
There.
Now on to all the fun things.
Didn't expected the voice acting, while not class A+ stellar acting, it did add a nice touch to the whole campaign overal. I liked it :yes:
The weapons are all fun to play with and they all have their use. I constantly found myself switching between secondaries for different situations. I approve of this. Though I did find that most enemies became easy prey once you activated glide and just sprayed missiles at your slow pursuers.
There was a lot of variation between the missions and this mod really started to shine its brightest from the first capitalship boss (with the reactor in front), I accidently found myself enjoying the jumping in and out of subspace a lot too. (I'll get you for this eventually bigchunk! Stop making me enjoy things!)
There was just a whole lot of cleverness involved with the subspace jumping. This has got to be the only mod so far that has a battle in which 2 fighters try to get each other with subspace missiles while one is in subspace itself.
In the end I pulled the trigger and made the shivans green with envy (at least now they match their .ani's!). Take that 'great destroyers', it only takes one fighter to do what you guys do with 80 jugs!
All in all an excellent mod, Good job. I award you my Top award: Ace.
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Impressive.
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I lent a bit of voice stuff to this, so I have no excuse for not playing it right away. :D
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The campaign is so damn cool. But, I've got several crash randomly. For example, in the mission where you have to track down a cruiser between space and subspace, when I destroyed it, the game just crash. :(
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A review... nice. Thanks Spoon, it's nice to see things like this.
The X86 has a terrible looking texture
I imagined someone would say this, in fact I was waiting for it. Almost to the point where I was going to give kudos to the first person with the level of frankness to mention it. I agree, it looks like a pre-schooler took a crayon to it, but I am very proud of this terrible looking texture. This is the first texture I have ever done. I opened paint.net, put on some music from the band tool and started making patterns... for hours. I considered using all the colors people don't use on ships simply because they are seldom used; yellow was one of them. I began drawing strange patterns on the wings which ended looking like the ship was overgrown with the vines of corruption, and then I thought what might happen if the whole thing looked like a star with 'sunspots' all over it. It was a very organic creative process. When I looked at the final iterations of the product I thought to myself, "someone is certainly going to say something about how outlandishly bad this looks" but there is another name for outlandishly bad... I like to call it 'unique'. I also like the idea of a player flying a bad art show into a somewhat surreal campaign.
So in short, yes it's bad... but I like it.
Whether or not to do voice acting was an easy decision. It's fun to do, at least for me, but I understand why many campaigns opt out of it because it is a time consuming process. This campaign was also much easier to voice act than most because there were no briefings or debriefings.
Glad you enjoyed yourself playing a game lol.
The campaign is so damn cool. But, I've got several crash randomly. For example, in the mission where you have to track down a cruiser between space and subspace, when I destroyed it, the game just crash. :(
Noo!
I wish the campaign was not that evil to pull you out of a mission right after you beat a boss. A sick part of me thinks that's kind of funny but that's actually very cruel. I have played this mod quite a few times and this used to happen to me a lot. I started removing excess particle effects, cut down on unit count and stripped the sexps for efficiency and that seemed to cause the problem to go away (but I guess It didn't). No matter what it is, just know that persistence will get you through. If you beat it on insane and the game kicks you at the end... take your revenge and go very easy.... just for that level no one will know.
Please don't take this as a big 'don't play the campaign cause it's broken' flag. It's not an error debug seems to catch and more often than not the mission will not crash on you. Besides you want to play more than once anyways right?! :rolleyes:
@Mongoose, you're going to find your role pretty quickly good doctor.
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There is something that should be noted about Into the Mist,
During some parts of that fight, the shield generator's integrity does not drop when being fired at, usually I catch this behavior when dropping it from 50% to 25% in normal space, it remains at 50% until both of us have jumped into Subspace.
I've also had it crash twice in a row during my second playthrough, though the third time running in Debug I finished it.
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I had be lucky, didn't crash once, I already completed, is awesome, liked the different game play
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Not a bad campaign. Definitely a new take on Freespace combat. I especially loved jumping in and out of subspace at will.
I will agree that the APE weapon's noise sounds silly, though. Did someone just go "Dih!" into a microphone to make that, or something?
Okay, people: who wins, X-86 Starcracker vs the Prometheus Frame from Wings of Dawn? I call a superfighter battle!
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Okay, people: who wins, X-86 Starcracker vs the Prometheus Frame from Wings of Dawn? I call a superfighter battle!
The Prometheus Frame would simply be a large bullseye for something like the Starcracker, waiting to be blown up.
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Thanx,, downloading right now,, sounds like a lot of fun ,,I'm verrry excited :D :D
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Looks nice. :)
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Just beat it. That was ...something else. Fun, wild, hectic- all good words to describe the campaign at large.
Specifics:
*I went for the supernova ending, pretty sure that's "evil" quite pure.
*The mission (don't know any mission names, sorry) where you fight the Arbalest for the first time was crazy. Quite possibly the most creative use of in-mission subspace I've yet seen. Sure this is your first campaign? :p
*The Vicia (spelling?) is quite possibly the nastiest weapon in the campaign. I managed to beat the Inhibitor mission at 1% integrity by kiting the reinforcement wings and spamming Vicias. Silly.
*While we're on weapons, I didn't care much for the Grenade Cannon. It's helpful early on, but when attempting to pair it with the Anti-Capital torp is a bad idea. Friggn' auto-detonate. The APE was my bread-and-butter, persistence with it will easily drag down anything. The X-Ray was fun, but I preferred to dump any excess gun energy into my shields. I only ever used the Ion against the Oligarchy Commodore.
*There were a couple of times (particularly during long missions, or boss fights) where the music cut out. I'mma guess that you used Play-Sound-From-File; check to make sure they all loop.
*Voice acting was a nice touch, even if it does mostly come from unremarkable characters who die within a maximum of 5-ish minutes after saying their lines. I interrupted my own character before he could finish his taunt! :lol:
*Yeah, to jump on the bandwagon, both Starcrackers look ...let's just say awkward and out-of-place with the texture job they have. Though I really can't complain too hard, since I know you did the tex yourself, and I'll assume the model as well.
Overall, lots of fun, and a refreshing, unique project to take advantage of FSO. Excellent work for pretty much anybody, for a first-time FREDder... I'm simply not sure I believe you.
/me rates this campaign... EXCELLENT
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Alright.
When you give to the player a ship that can glide, TELL HIM. I had to read through Spoon's spoiler (so, AFTER having finished the campaign) to realize it. It was exactly the same issue for the Cyrvan fighter in WoD (smoopid Spoon, lrn2inform your players).
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Glide? Hmm. Well I don't use Glide anyway so I probably wouldn't have missed it.
What I came on here to say- besides "W0000000000000T my ships got used in a campaign :D"- was that I'm getting a crash almost invariably while fighting the Oligarch in mission 2. LOG (http://pastebin.com/gUcRXkWE). Naturally, when I ran the mission in debug mode, it worked fine, but maybe this log has something useful in it. I played through it and only quit on loading the next mission when FS barfed up a cutscene-related error.
Going to play mission 3 now, hopefully no more crashes! Seems excellent so far, btw!
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... I'm getting a crash almost invariably while fighting the Oligarch in mission 2. LOG (http://pastebin.com/gUcRXkWE). Naturally, when I ran the mission in debug mode, it worked fine, but maybe this log has something useful in it. I played through it and only quit on loading the next mission when FS barfed up a cutscene-related error.
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Be careful when using the word invariably; it is a very scary word when talking about crashes. I never got a crash in mission 2... Perhaps you have a <gunship>.pof file laying around somewhere?
I believe the warning about the 'camera trying to point to self' is of little consequence. Thanks for going bughunting though.
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no stray pof files anywhere.
by "invariably" I mean 4 out of 4 times, and once in the next mission. I'm just about sure it happens whenever I'm damaged (however slightly) by an explosion from my own Grenade. It never happens in debug mode, so I've been playing the campaign through on debug mode since mission 2.
[EDIT] now that I think about it, it's probably not your fault at all. I remember getting this same bug a while ago. I forget the exact conditions I used to replicate it, but it definitely happened whenever I took damage from my own missiles' explosions (or, I think, a ship explosion, but I'm not certain)/
Also, a question:
How do you defeat the other Starcracker in mission 7b? I got it down to 13% by using the Ion, but then it went into subspace- and of course, I can't go into subspace because of the inhibitor (I tried). I hammered at it for several minutes while it constantly warped away from me like an Enderman on cocaine, but fighters in subspace are unkillable.
[EDIT2] Wait, I just figured it out. I'm a noob. Derp
Some commentary, since it seems I've played most of the campaign itself: By the time I went through the first intrasystem gate, I thought this was shaping up to be another "kill-everything" campaign with gameplay on the level of Transcend. Fortunayely, the next few missions proved me very wrong; it's still a dogfightfest, but the weapons and tactics you come up with (especially involving subspace) make for some extremely original gameplay. I'm impressed, and I imagine other campaigns might end up borrowing a few ideas :P
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Urgh e_e
Pretty challenging campaign
been trying to run 2nd mission on insane, and i keep dying on 3rd wave or 50% boss hp atm
tactical/range play makes it very easy if you fly clean and stay aware of your surroundings, but any mistake can make everything go fubar.
i find it kind of sad that the afterburner has a that low accel... while it makes perfect sense for cruise/range control and long range combat, it's just a pain for missile evasion - especially since the speed of long ranged missiles makes you hear the incoming sound about a second before they hit. also on insane with pretty low ab recharge, and you're getting in a missile swarm, you rapidly end up dead - since if you dont evade you die, but on the other hand if you stay on defensive you lose your speed and missile defense. or probably i need more practise :p...
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Urgh e_e
Pretty challenging campaign
been trying to run 2nd mission on insane, and i keep dying on 3rd wave or 50% boss hp atm
tactical/range play makes it very easy if you fly clean and stay aware of your surroundings, but any mistake can make everything go fubar.
i find it kind of sad that the afterburner has a that low accel... while it makes perfect sense for cruise/range control and long range combat, it's just a pain for missile evasion - especially since the speed of long ranged missiles makes you hear the incoming sound about a second before they hit. also on insane with pretty low ab recharge, and you're getting in a missile swarm, you rapidly end up dead - since if you dont evade you die, but on the other hand if you stay on defensive you lose your speed and missile defense. or probably i need more practise :p...
Or probably, you shouldn't play this campaign on insane because it is, literally insane. :p
Why do everyone encounters crashs? I play the campaign with Antipodes 8 r7538 and it runs fine.
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@Firartix
Props for attempting on insane. It is difficult, but very possible to beat. Hopefully things will get easier for you as you get more familiar with the gameplay style.
You have the right idea about afterburners. Tap bursting isn't as effective as in freespace2. Your afterburner is an effective getaway tool as well as for closing distances fast, but you need to conserve your AB reserves to be able to charge up long boost durations. This is especially true for insane as you have such a low recharge rate. See if you can't find ways to save your energy by using your afterburner only when you absolutely need to.
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Yes, Edward.
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This was one amazing campaign, bigchunk1. Great work. Everything about it was fresh and the new weapons really managed to keep the gameplay fun. And the setting was awesome. More campaigns like this, please ;) The space-time around me got filled with quality when playing this one :yes:
I did encounter random crashing on the mission where...
your beam weapon gets activated.
But there are always ways to circumvent trouble. Like switching to insane, killing yourself five times and proceeding to the next mission. Or extracting the missions out of the vp-file, renaming them and playing them in the mission simulator... Lots of options ;7
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:nod: Fully used features of 3612 of FSO? That was the first campaign,that i jumped in to or (and) out of subspace.
The subpace missile is a new idea inbound a mission. :nod:
Peter
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I think there were player usable SSM in Shivans!, and that some TBP Campaigns (the one with the whole raiders/pirate deal, cant recall the name?) was using in-mission subspace jumps
Anyway, now stuck on M05B due to the imbawsmoness of the turrets D:... cant get boss lower than 50%
Any suggestion?
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Uhh, there are subspace-missiles in BP, too.
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...Anyway, now stuck on M05B due to the imbawsmoness of the turrets D:... cant get boss lower than 50%
Any suggestion?
Read the spoiler text if you want a hint:
Playing on insane forces you to approach this one with a sightly different strategy. Use the range of the Zwide to your advantage. Try to keep a reasonable distance from Emerald or his turrets will cut you up. Also you should constantly be zigzagging away those projectiles and only making attack runs when necessary. The cluster warheads which are launched at you require a nonstandard evasive strategy.
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**** me for actually using glide.
Stuck on SUBSPACE DRIVE ENGAGED, drifting at 80m/s :/
y u force me jump
can't cancel can't jump out. can't even open menu.
GG.
SCP, plz fix force-jump.
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Wow, I just confirmed it and submitted a mantis report. Good catch, that's quite a nasty glitch.
Be careful about using glide I guess... especially if you think the mission is about to end.
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The_E just fixed after I harped on it a bit in #SCP, I think :P
**** YEAH I'M IN A SUN CRUSHER. TIME TO CRUSH SOME SUNS. WHOOOOO.
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haha! loved the ending there :yes: :yes:
for once I get to be the bad guy!
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Hahahahaha this is a hoot! Thanks for releasing it! :) Very well done, your hard work shows.
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Haven't had a crash yet, but I'm seeing some odd graphic glitches. The radar gauge randomly loses most of its transparency and the edges get kinda fuzzy. Sometimes when I fired a secondary weapon the skybox would disappear and a new background would show up, and the effect for the APE would turn into a solid color instead of the giant fireball it is.
[EDIT]Seems like most of the issues have been fixed. Experimental features are experimental for a reason.
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I forgot the recommend playing the campaign using Nighteye's shockwaves. Just edited the original post.
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Good thing I always use those shockwaves. :D
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Eh, the basic mediavps shockwaves worked fine for me (2D)
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I just completed The Antagonist. I really like it! This post will contains spoilers.
The gameplay is the main attraction here, and it is a lot of fun. The lack of mission objective diversity (destroy enemies, survive) is not an issue, as there are some interesting gameplay mechanics that I haven't seen before, and a wide range of cleverly designed enemy ships and weapons. There are balance issues; some player weapons are rarely useful, and the final missions (near the star) were disappointingly easy (possibly due to the overpowered low-cooldown Zwide SSM).
There are a lot of novel ideas in this campaign, particularly with regards to jumping in and out of subspace to fight enemies; unfortunately, the execution is buggy (probably due to engine limitations). For example, when entering normalspace, subspace missiles are still visible and still collide with the player. Also, if the player warps to subspace while another ship is in the process of warping out from normalspace, that other ship will still be visible disappearing into a portal from subspace.
The boss fights are an excellent idea. Each boss personality of their own and a unique battle strategy. However, the Ozmund boss fight is too rigidly scripted, and the FREDding is transparent. The mission will not allow the player to cause more than 25% to the shield generator at a time. It is obvious that it is a different ship every time it warps. This breaks the illusion that the player is chasing the quarry between dimensions. It would be great if there were more ways of fighting this boss than by following Edward's commands (such as simply depleting the shields by force) and if damage done carried over between jumps.
I like the quirky setting, with its caricature villains. The player gets the impression that they are all alone in a hostile world, at the helm of an extremely advanced machine; powerful, yet vulnerable. The voice acting is a nice touch; it's not convincing, but it is better than silence, and it works fine for the cartoony tone of the campaign. I'd like a plot hole filled: why would anyone in the Oligarchy program Edward with his mission? Also, why does the Oligarchy have a navy?
Stylisitcally, the ship designs are well chosen, and the music is unintrusive. The ABE cannon really needs a better sound effect; also, the giant flash it makes seems disproportionate to the damage it causes.
The game crashes from time to time; I haven't noticed a particular trigger.
In conclusion, while this campaign lacks polish in some areas, it is a lot of fun to play. I would welcome an update that fixes issues, and I am looking forward to Bigchunk's future works.
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Great Review, thanks.
About the subspace missiles: They actually don't harm you if you are in normal space so they work as intended as far as gameplay is concerned. I tried to use the explosion sexp to remove them when you jump out by enabling EMP but it caused the missiles to simply hang and rotate in one spot until an inevitable crash occurred, so I decided to remove the emp.
Commodore Ozmund is one of my personal favorite characters, especially after darkblade agreed to voice act him. All the bossfights are supposed to have a somewhat classic arcade feel about them, the multistage 'contrived' format is perhaps more familiar to those who used to play such games.
"Why would anyone in the Oligarchy program Edward with his mission?"
This is really the spoiler to end all spoilers so read the text below only if you have beaten the campaign.
If you read the tech description 'secret projects' under intelligence in the tech room you might be able to derive the answer to that question. Edward and the X86-Starcracker are part of a new military doctrine for the Oligarchy to expand. It is both a scout and a first strike unit, able to destroy a whole star systems on first contact should any extra-human life in that system be identified as a serious threat to the Oligarchy. Why does the Oligarchy believe there is intelligent life out there all the sudden after all these years with no such evidence? That question is unanswered.
Edward has been programmed to see these extermination missions through and psychologically assist the pilot of the ship in carrying them out. Unfortunately for the Oligarchy (if you picked that ending) Edward was never supposed to attack a home system.
"Also, why does the Oligarchy have a navy?"
The Oligarchy's fleet, or at least the bulk of it, is what's left of the Nationalist Union's former fleet. They have been decommissioning ships on a slow and sure basis since the 'civil drug act' which you can read about in the tech room. The Nationalist Union needed a military for many of the same reasons one might need forces at times of international peace. Rogue corporations, criminal factions or 'pirates' to coin the cliché. It's a big universe out there and a sizable force was required to police it. I don't think the Nationalist Union would have been as well equipped as say the GTA or the PVN in the event of invasion by an alien race.
Is the APE sound effect that bad?! I thought it sounded cool lol.
Anyways, glad you liked the campaign.
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They're all haters. The APE sound is kool. Let em hatin'.
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They're all haters. The APE sound is kool. Let em hatin'.
+1
I like that sound too. Reminds me to the old FS1 sounds.
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Played through the campaign again (on very easy) with build 7877 and experienced no crashes. Glide force-warp glitch has been fixed by this and all later builds.
Original post updated.
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Okay, so I finally did start in on this, and the setting and gameplay seem like they're going to be a lot of fun (woo one-man killing machine!), but...I'm getting my ass handed to me on the very first boss, on Medium no less. :p I must be approaching it wrong, because staying close means its laser turrets shred through my hull way too quickly, and moving too far away means, well, Death By Beam.
Also, I'm not sure if it was just on my end or not, but most of my lines during that intro (along with one or two others) were super-quiet, except one or two that got really crazy loud. They all sound like they're at the same level when I play back the original files on this end, so I'm not sure what happened there.
Edit: The volume thing is probably on my end, since I'm seeing the same thing happen to primary weapons sounds while I'm playing through the Warzone beta.
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Listen to Edward, he gives your a number, not just "stay close", and the number he gives is about as safe as you're going to get.
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Well, that first boss is kind of your first real test, but after all the difficulties I'm hearing about people trying to beat him here's a hint:
Edward says if you get more than 1500 away from Crimson, missiles will be launched at you. You don't want this so try to stay a comfortable 1300 away at all times. While at this range you should be able to anticipate the turret fire. Continue to deal damage and prepare to dodge when you see the flurry coming. The turret fire is shot at regular intervals, try to get a rhythm of dodging and dealing damage. Grenades are great for dealing fast damage before dodging.
And if that's not good enough here's a real hint:
Save the APE-86XP powerup for Crimson
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Recently got FRAPS so i'm frapsing just about anything, especially FreeSpace, and since there seem to be so few videos of The Antagonist on YT i figured I could add one :D
So i fraps'd mission 4B, i know it's not best one in term or features or fun, and that i'm really bad at flying stuff (especially missile avoidance..), but it doesnt contain anything like a story spoiler i think
Linkage => http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kQZYoQnbpM
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Very cool, I approve.
You're a lot better than me at that mission, heh.
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Poor Kyad always bites it in that mission.
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The fighter could be geat with a true HTL design ( cockpit, ect... ) and without ITS 2 BULL**** 100M LONG WING MOUNTED CANONS !!!
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Always been wondering... what the hell are the cannons for?
They should be the HPE's output point.
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@Firartix The hyperbolic sized cannons are for the Grenade Cannon weapon. You can see this by firing the grenade cannon while looking at the fighter from the external view using '.' on the number pad. When I just started making The Antagonist, grenades were super powerful, making the hardest part of the game to avoid killing yourself with your own grenades. The size of the cannons reflected the initial design of the weapon.
When I first showed this model on irc, a few people also made the point that the cannons were way oversized, certainly larger than any fighter's weapon in the FS verse. I like the over the top presentation, I think it's fun haha.
@StarDestroyer Keep in mind that I am a novice as a modeler and that the finer points of HTL design are probably beyond me, though I am learning. It might be interesting if someone else wants to make an alternate design/model, or even an alternate texture for the x86-Starcracker. The mesh is quite basic compared to most other models out there, so It should not be too daunting to play around with. I can upload the .blend file if anyone's interested.
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I really enjoyed this. The missions were unique, and the APE is quite possibly the most fun weapon I've used in FS2. I hope to see some of the things you've pioneered here popping up in other campaigns.
My only complaint is that I saw the ending as something of a false dilemma--why not tell Edward to piss off, and then proceed to kill Amethyst and continue the rampage through the Oligarchy? In the face of the choice between "channel Hitler" and "pussy out", I feel that the player should have the right to try a third option, even if it just results in the player getting curbstomped (as it probably would).
Or is there something I missed to the effect that the Starcracker can't operate at full combat potential without Edward?
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@LP
Your superweapon SK-1 is not a 'kill all' death ray, but rather a catalyst for creating supernovae out of stars. Plotwise Amethyst would crush you if you try to fight him directly. I was considering having Amethyst abandon his bargaining and simply destroy you if you happen to get too close in the final mission, but then I figured it would be a detail no one would notice/encounter. Not to mention that the player would have to fight the x87 again.
Surprisingly enough, people seem to like the ending where you blow up the star quite a bit. The other branch in my mind is left to the imagination as the player character is finally free from the grasp of control of both Edward and the Oligarchy, and can go 'wherever you want'. I would think the player could try to spark some kind of revolution somehow, but as a cheap cop out I'll just say that's up to you.
In other news, I was able to get The Antagonist on mod db (http://www.moddb.com/mods/brandon-r). Thanks go out to mjn.mixael for the banner art, otherwise something horrendous would have taken its place! Thanks also to Firartix and Metal Destroyer for the video content.
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Why couldn't you just go back into subspace and start dinking the Amethyst with ZwideSSMs like *before* the x87 showed up with its subspace inhibitor? That was going rather well.
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Would you believe me if I told you that Amethyst had reinforcements on the way? I guess that would explain why Edward says "time's up sir".
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Yeah, that clears it up, it just could have been communicated a little more clearly in-game. I'll reiterate that this is just a quibble and I really enjoyed the campaign.
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I finally finished the last few missions of the campaign. I had to bring the difficulty down to easy more times than I would care to admit. While the weapons were over the top sometimes they certainly were a blast to use. The subspace mission was certainly different. Took me awhile to figure out the trick to that one.
This one gets five stars in my book. This campaign was the most fun I've had playing FreeSpace in awhile. You really made the player feel like a one man army. Are you considering doing a followup campaign?
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Thanks for the comments.
Are you considering doing a followup campaign?
Mostlikely no. The storyline/setting was created almost entirely to serve the gameplay and give the actions of the player some meaning. If and when I decide to make another campaign, I will probably want to try something new. FSO allows a lot of opportunities for creativity.
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Mostlikely no.
:(
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So after finishing all my exams, I decided to finish the campaign (I was up to the mission where you destroy Osmund).
I do enjoy the new type of gameplay. What you did with the subspace battle parts was really clever. I ended up turning down the difficulty a notch from medium twice - the first time when I was fighting Emerald (I was reduced to near-insanity but came to my senses and just turned it down), the other when I was fighting Osmund (damn K-10s). However blowing up everything in the Starcracker was very fun, and there are plenty of unique challenges - evading torpedos rather than using coutermeasures, the subspace stuff, power-ups.
Kudos for using a whole range of user-made ships; There's quite a few I haven't seen before in campaigns (I don't know how I recognised the Landsknecht as the Selkie - I just seem to have downloaded lots of ships myself). Personally despite its low-res I do like the Starcracker model myself, what with having those torpedos slung under the wings and those huge cannons ... you're right about yellow being a relatively unused colour, so nice work having the Starcracker coloured that.
I must say that my favourite voice-actor was the one that did Osmund, just because he sounded like some kind of dictorial person. Good job at getting the whole thing acted. :yes:
All in all I think you did a great job in doing this campaign, bigchunk, and all the best for any future projects you have. :D
Surprisingly enough, people seem to like the ending where you blow up the star quite a bit.
I think people just like blowing stuff up and a supernova is quite a big bang. It's what I did first, although I felt horrible about it (I'm not good at being evil, thankfully not being an evil person after all) and went into the simulator to see the "good" ending. Wouldn't mind using the Starcracker on uninhabited systems though, so I could have my big boom and not hurt anyone. EDIT: probably was stupid of me to say that last sentence - I was thinking of being like the Mythbusters and making big explosions in "safety" (refer to my later post).
Incidentally I guessed what Edward was made for as soon as Ameythst started blabbing on about it - I mean, the ship is called "Starcracker", isn't it?
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You wouldnt mind possibly killing billions of billions of people you dont know about?
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No no no no! :eek: Did my post suggest that?
...Did you mean if I didn't know if there were actually people (or aliens) there? :nervous:
What I meant by "Wouldn't mind using the Starcracker on uninhabited systems" means that in a game if I was given the option to blow up stars or not (barring Galactic Civilizations II) and the game would show you the consequences of such an action if you used it on an inhabited system, I'd make sure that the star I was destroying would be in an uninhabited one (if given that option), so that I could not harm any innocent people or aliens.
I wouldn't do it in any real life situation, especially if it meant killing innocents (thinking about that story with the Babyeaters and Superhappies here). And especially if I was given the situation in The Antagonist in real life.
Hope that clears up what I meant. Sorry Firartix (and anyone else who thought the same thing as him) for looking like I'd want to blow up stars without regarding whether the system would be inhabited. I don't know whether I'm overreacting or not but I don't want to seem like I'd be irresponsible like that. :nervous:
EDIT: Modified for clarity. Also I apologise to bigchunk for semi-hijacking the thread with that.
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END HUMANITY
SOLVE ALL PROBLEMS EVER
???
PROFIT
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Kay, so I finished it. I started it weeks ago, but got stuck at a mission, and then just ran through the last few missions today. So I might have forgotten some of the things I wanted to mention.
Before I go on, this is a very nice campaign. A little rough on some edges, but very much worth your time.
What I liked:
The original universe gave you the freedom to do whatever you liked. Not much time is wasted on showing the "sides", not that you needed much with the Oligarchy! :p
The Starcracker, oh the Starcracker. Fun to fly, fun weapons. Jumping in and out of subspace to avoid fire and/or attack. As a superfighter, it does the job.
Boss Fights, they were all so nicely varied. Osmund was probably my favorite; I liked his recurring appearances in the early missions. Gave me the time to build up my aggression to him and his smarmy voice.
Edward, what is it with AIs being power hungry beings that like to kill everyone? Well no matter, slyly guiding the player to nuke the sun under the guise of overthrowing this regime was a nice twist. You could tell the Edward was up to something, but the scale was still hidden (though on retrospect, the ship's name sort of foreshadows it!).
Voice Acting: Some of the VA was hit and miss, but it added to the campaign in any case.
What I would have liked to see: (aka crit time!)
Noooo countermeasures... Most advanced fighter in the galaxy and there's NO COUNTERMEASURES?! :mad:
Sort of related, but it was easy to get overwhelmed by the enemy. Sure you needed a lot of enemies to try to take down this super fighter trying to destroy the regime, but there were some ways to help the player out. Using hotkeys and directives would help. Giving everyone an F9 hotkey would help in keeping track of just whats around trying to kill the player, as well as a directive would help the player keep track of what's left to kill.
Also those beam cannon fighters! The bane of my existence! Finding them was a pain. "T-T-T-T-T-T-oh there he is-T" D'oh! My suggestion there would have been to give them "targetable as bomb" and flash that as a training message the first time they appear. That way b is for "Target those Beam Sons of Bit-"
More Power-ups! I liked the idea, but they seemed far and few. It would have been nice to see stuff like limit health regen or weapon energy maxing out for a period of time.
Anyway, good campaign. Everyone play it and learn from it to make extraordinary missions. I mean seriously, there aren't any escort missions! That's a big thing you can learn from right there!!
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It's just me,or mission "Destroy all subspace inhabitants" gets buckets of frustration?
I mean,maybe I'm using wrong weapons... or tactics perhaps? The thing is im going like this:
Heat up inhibitiant -> afterburner -> destroy fighter waves - repeat. It works to the point of being swarmed by too many buggers after doom of rocket frigate and my juggernaut end up as a space dust.
Any helpful tips will be appreciated.
Campaign is good and innovative almost feel like oldskool arcade space shooter due to power ups and many weak against one buffed also bosses ,its good to have something like this in freespace campaign soup.
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It's just me,or mission "Destroy all subspace inhabitants" gets buckets of frustration?
I mean,maybe I'm using wrong weapons... or tactics perhaps? The thing is im going like this:
Heat up inhibitiant -> afterburner -> destroy fighter waves - repeat. It works to the point of being swarmed by too many buggers after doom of rocket frigate and my juggernaut end up as a space dust.
Any helpful tips will be appreciated.
Campaign is good and innovative almost feel like oldskool arcade space shooter due to power ups and many weak against one buffed also bosses ,its good to have something like this in freespace campaign soup.
Thats pretty much the strategy, ya... I generally go for killing 3 of them, then let the fighters get to me and move at random while picking them off. Remember, one of your missiles is a heatseaker swarm missle, and you dont have to be looking at anything to fire it. Just let off a salvo every once and a while while dodgeing everything and pound the missile frigates hard when they appear. A couple grenades and heavier missles should due the trick nicely, just point and shoot. Don't worry about lock-on, it takes too long.
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I consider that mission the hardest one of them all. It also happens to be the longest. The strategy varies on what you're comfortable with, but it almost always involves the shooting and runing. I will give you a hint though: If you destroy inhibitors without first defeating combat units, you will find yourself overwhelmed. So get fighters first, then the inhibitors.
I balanced this mod to be a challenge, so much so that it takes me a few tries on insane to beat it even after knowing everything that goes into it. I think there are a number of players out there who got frustrated with this mod and set it aside. I was considering down the road making a patch which is more balanced with the casual player in mind, at least on the skill levels very easy through medium. One of the things that has been stopping me is the mysterious random crash error some players get when fighting Commodore Osmund. I would like for the patch to fix that, but I haven't found the exact cause of it. I'm not even sure if it persists through the newer, more stable builds that have recently come out.
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I recently gave this a rerun on easy with RC5 to test for compatibility. It ran smoothly and there were no crashes whatsoever, even on mission 8. The Ion Cannon weapon, however, now has a cooldown it didn't have with a previous build. The weapon's fire rate much slower now making the weapon nearly ineffective. I am guessing there is a parameter (wait time?) which FSO ignored before that now is calculated for beam weapons.
Can others who have played the mod run mission 8 and see if you are getting the same issue? ;7 Also, I want to know if the potential crash to desktop error went away.
Note: The X-Ray can also penetrate shields for m8
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I think you've hit this change (http://scp.indiegames.us/mantis/view.php?id=2443), which altered the way fire waits worked. Previously, any primary fire wait longer than 5 secs was changed to 1 sec. The Ion Cannon is tabled to 10 secs, which would have been 1 sec prior to the change.
$Fire Wait: 10.0 ;; in seconds
After the change, you get the as-tabled 10 secs fire wait :)
So, umm... update your tables? :nervous:
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Niffiwan picked it out exactly. It's a one line fix.
Here's a hotfix which solves the problem. Put it in freespace2/Antagonist/data/tables
http://www.mediafire.com/?ek3a44z8e3fg51a
This is NOT a patch. The only purpose of the update is to change the cooldown of the Ion to what it was originally intended to be.
Still no crash to desktop errors. I am going to assume they have been fixed if no one else says anything.
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The Antagonist
Live impressions up first, in spoiler tags:
I started my playthrough in techroom intelligence. I really appreciate the effort put into cleaning up the ship and weapon entries and offering some background on the setting - I really like the themes of control and systemic inefficiency that crop up here. The intel entries could've used an editing pass, but it's nothing major, and they're very readable.
The techroom art does a great job of setting a hard-SF mood which jives nicely with the setting.
Onwards!
Mission 0
Very effective intro - atmospheric, cinematic, lays out the sociopolitical background that I was afraid would be left in the techroom. It's a little longer and a little wordier than it needs to be - just a bit - but it's excellent at setting up a fundamental conflict and a cool hook. The Oligarchs are a really exciting idea for a video game player, because they concentrate the interesting bits of a society down to just a few individuals, which makes for easier, uh, antagonism.
There was a peculiarity here where the ship in the first shot stopped moving well before the shot ended.
Mission 1
Love the in media res beginning. I like the decision to go with a voiced protagonist/narrator - he's personable and sympathetic. And I enjoy the effort put into the presentation here, the guard grunting as he's tackled, the camera pan simulating movement down the length of the ship.
I think this is an interesting, and challenging, stylistic decision -- instead of bypassing the components of storytelling where FreeSpace is weak (action outside the cockpit), you've tackled them head on.
Mission 2
well that's certainly a fair bit of firepower
The AI companion reminds me a bit of Defense Grid.
The gameplay's a lot of fun - I like the slow-acceleration afterburner and the area-of-effect attacks, and the upgrades are cool.
I actually really enjoyed the final fight in this mission. The ship's capabilities bring particular depth to ETS - unlike in regular FreeSpace, you can get pretty tactical with your allocation, going full on engines to blow through a group and get some breathing room, then full to shields to charge up.
That was a really well-engineered boss fight - and close! Got out with 6%.
I like the hint dropped at the end here that there's something more going on than 'you stole a fighter, lucky you'. Edward has some objectives in mind.
Mission 3
Smart of these guys to realize they can't just zerg me and win.
Hooooooooly **** that was fun, I got out with like 4%. I love the capship artillery and those anti-fighter torpedoes are hilarious - they're so big and persistent and when I'm on afterburner they like to trail along like 10 feet behind like we're in a Looney Tunes skit. I never shot any of them down because I didn't want to abandon my mad rush for the gate.
I wonder if I should've stopped and fought any of those people!
Mission 4
OH GOD BUGS
thank **** for vicias
I like the Homeworld-esque overall narrative you've got going here - not in the sense of 'go home', but in the sense of 'break through the defensive layers of an entrenched enemy'.
A MORAL DECISION cool
**** that I'm gonna leave that broadcast center broadcastin.
Oh, damn, I guess I don't get any choice. :(
Thank **** you made a new mission
Mission 5
Very cool fight. I was surprised to see Sapphire didn't react when I brought down a wingmate. When she dies I got a message from Command which probably was meant to come from one of the surviving wingmen.
Damn, Edward's starting to sound a little...megalomaniacal. Maybe I'M the evil guys, did we ever think of that
Mission 6
torpedoes cool
Your music doesn't seem to like to loop, you should add some loops to your play-sound-from-file SEXPs.
This mission was a lot of fun, I ran around taking out inhibitors one by one. Then I realized I had to kill everyone else too. That didn't turn out so well. :( Was still fun on replay, though.
Mission 7
i am going to kill your dick oligarch
Hahah I killed his dick
I bet Edward is one of the Oligarchs and he's making a power play on all the others. I'm so smart
Mission 8
uhguhuguhghuguhg this is so ****ing cool
Mission 9
Ahaha it's that dick Ozmund again. I am going to kill his dick
AGH IT CRASHED i don't care i'm going to kill him anyway
hahaha suck my ion dick
Mission 10
This is ****ing epic
(I really like how you introduce new mechanics, teach them with simple scenarios, then ramp them up into boss fights. That's classically excellent game design.)
SUCK MY SUBSPACE DICK CORNELIUS
Okay I'm getting ready for a big plot twist here, SK-1 seems like it's gonna stand for STAHH CRACKER
oh christ, I need to think about this for a while
Okay. What I know about the Oligarchy tells me that it's a dictatorship run by mustache-twirling villains who keep the populace in line through chemical coercion. This doesn't seem to be a government worthy of support.
That said...
The Oligarchy seems to be doing its job. Humanity is expanding and preparing itself to meet potential alien threats, better than its predecessor did. Technological development is clearly a priority. I'm not sure I can justify destroying a government that's --
But. Wait a second. In the case of the one individual we're aware of who escaped Oligarchy control - me - we know that his immediate reaction was revulsion, disgust, and a fateful decision to avoid falling back under chemical thrall.
That suggests to me that, given the chance to consent, most individuals would not favor Oligarchy rule. And that makes it a government that, no matter how effective, I'm not sure I can support.
fire the starcracker
Mission 11
OH **** **** DAMN
I...think I made the wrong call.
The Antagonist Review
This is one of the finest mods ever made, and one of the cleanest, most flow-inducing experiences I've encountered in gaming over the past few years. It'd be a fine XBLA title or indie PC release. It surprised me more than anything I've played since Windmills, and I would rank it alongside Wings of Dawn as one of the most important new milestones in recent modding.
I'm going to drop some spoilers in here, so please stop reading if you haven't played the campaign: just trust me, go get it.
Plot and Metaplot
Let's talk story, atmosphere, and presentation. A good game story isn't a good book story or a good RPG story. It eschews sprawling background material and excess scripted narrative; instead, it strives to bury elements of its world and themes in the gameplay, where the player will uptake them and - hopefully - assimilate them as part of play. Where there are characters, they must serve dual functions both in the narrative and gameplay.
Edward's role in The Antagonist is functionally similar to Cortana in Halo or the raspberry AI from Defense Grid, but narratively, he's a bit more complex - a GLaDoS figure whose goals locally parallel the player's, but, it's hinted, may ultimately diverge. One of the absolutely strongest pieces of writing in the Antagonist is in the way Edward seduces both the player character and the player himself. I can't indicate strongly enough how well this is played. Here's why:
When we meet Edward, the player character has a need: get the **** out of this situation, get oriented, figure out a goal. And the player has a need: get a plot. Get a reason to keep playing. Edward is a catalyst who converts the player character's need into an answer to the player's need. 'I need a mission', he says. 'Don't you want to complete the mission? You want to bring down the Oligarchy? Great. Let's do it.'
Gameplay, plot, and player psychology work together here: the player character supplies a hook to Edward, who supplies a hook to the player. That's going to be a theme in this review. And, of course, there's a metatextual through-line here: ultimately, the hook that the player character gives to Edward will come back around in the final confrontation, which brings the player character into conflict with Edward, and the player into conflict with the narrative arc. This is a really beautiful piece of game writing.
Let's talk setting and setting writing. Again: fantastic use of setting to empower gameplay. The player steals, and is stolen by, a special ship: the player has special powers and an advantageous position in the gameplay space. Alpha 1 syndrome is justified. The Oligarchy consists of a few specific, powerful, unique individuals supported by hordes of mindless drones - and so the minion/boss structure of gameplay is justified.
There are criticisms to be leveled here: the writing on the line by line level is nothing special and the voice acting is, well, you know. But they get the job done.
The plot moves forward in a way that enables new and interesting gameplay. Edward's movement towards the center of Oligarchy space creates a logical escalation of enemy types and threat levels. And we get important progress on the metaplot: we learn to trust and work with Edward. He is our friend. At only one point are we put in conflict with Edward, when he demands the destruction of a comm station. And -- get this --
You cannot refuse.
That struck me, at first, as a flaw - I don't want to kill civilians. But because Edward is the connection between player and plot, the plot cannot proceed without Edward's approval. This sets the player up to trust Edward's judgment even in morally conflicted situations, and it also contributes to the clever foreshadowing that Edward is not truly human; he is a mission-driven organism, consumed by his goals. (Is he not, in a sense, a twisted reflection of the player, who works only to complete the task, to annihilate and destroy?) Because we can do nothing but destroy the com station, we learn that listening to Edward keeps us moving forward towards our goal.
Only at the end of the narrative, of course, do we finally reach the apex of the metacrisis, the struggle between player agency and plot agency, Edward's agency. We are given the chance to complete our mission, but we must consider the cost. For the first time, player and player character can choose to break from Edward, Edward who has guided and saved us -- to realize that he kidnapped us as much as we stole him, and that we have not been in control, any more than the player controls the narrative they are railroaded down.
This is the scope of the final choice: to choose between the player accepting the tyranny of narrative control, as Call of Duty, as any number of scripted triple-A titles, and accepting slavery to Edward in an unending mission to destroy without purpose. Or to reject narrative control, to break free, to go wherever the player pleases -- and, in doing so, to end the game, because, after all, the game cannot support such freedom.
It's beautiful.
And, of course, there's a plot crisis to go along with the metaplot crisis: the tension between destroying the Oligarchy, at great personal and humanitarian cost, or allowing the Oligarchy to endure, and securing personal freedom. This was a really tough decision, and one I wavered on several times. The Oligarchy is clearly totalitarian and dehumanizing; yet it is also efficacious and useful; yet there are no threats that seem to demand its extreme measures; yet such threats may well arise; yet - in the end - everyone who we have ever seen who has escaped Oligarchy control desperately wants to avoid returning, even if death is the alternative. It seemed worthy of destruction. That, too, is a really strong conflict.
Gameplay Design
Again: very little here except praise. The grenade was pretty bad in all but a few specific situations, but all the other weapons had their uses and were a lot of fun, though I usually just spammed the cluster missile.
The gameplay allowed some really interesting decisions not present in core FreeSpace. Evasion and recharge is a much more viable option, making ETS play - favoring afterburner-heavy breakaways followed by a lot of shield love - much more viable. The ability to attack in all directions eliminated the frustration of the circle fight against multiple adversaries. I don't think there was a single enemy attack that felt like bull**** to me.
Really, I'm struck by how smooth and confident the design was. New mechanics - subspace/realspace shifting, for example - were introduced in simple scenarios (kill one Arbalest), escalated to multiple foes, complicated with other elements, and then ramped up into boss fights. This is sterling game design and I can't praise it enough.
The enemy types offered a lot of fun variety, though I never really got a sense for what a lot of the basic enemy fighter types did. I loved your take on capships as artillery and irritating-missile platforms - really fit the setting and the arcadey style. It struck me again and again that these were gameplay elements that simply wouldn't work in a FreeSpace setting, and you made the most of that creative freedom.
Inducing flow states is, I think, the best thing a game can do for the player. It needs to be challenging, with death a constant but never-quite-overwhelming risk, attention demanded but not exceeded. Playing on medium, The Antagonist did that for me better than almost anything else I've played. Even in a relaxed mod like JAD 2.21, bull**** beam kills can lead to frustration and 'done for the night' syndrome, but the quick mission structure in Antagonist made death mostly just inconvenient, and the player has plenty of tools to stay alive.
I really can't praise this mod enough. I think I'm going to do a post in the near future on my big concern: why aren't more people playing it?
Spoilers end.
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Excellent review :yes:
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SUCK MY SUBSPACE DICK CORNELIUS
:yes:
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Definitely worth it after seeing a review like that. Much appreciated.
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PLAY THIS MOD ****
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Make a sequel... :nervous:
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Make a sequel... :nervous:
No, don't, it's said everything it needs to say. It's perfectly self-contained.
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I agree this thing is perfectly paced. I had to stop halfway through a combat segment when I realised what time it was: there's a constant narrative drive that makes it hard to find a spot to say "that's it for now."
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but I want MOAR Antagonist!
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Then replay it, this time knowing that you can glide.
BAM, instant replay value.
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I just have one question:
How does one pilot fresh out of a drug stupor high-jack a super-advanced fighter by himself?
I know [ur=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FallingIntoTheCockpit]Falling into the Cockpit[/url] is not an uncommon trope, but mayhaps you should have put more effort into the story start?
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I just have one question:
How does one pilot fresh out of a drug stupor high-jack a super-advanced fighter by himself?
I know [ur=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FallingIntoTheCockpit]Falling into the Cockpit[/url] is not an uncommon trope, but mayhaps you should have put more effort into the story start?
Play the damn mod instead of being a jackass about it. It's not a ****ing documentary.
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I can't believe I passed this up for so damn long (Especially since it's dedicated to me, man do I feel like a jackass now). It is really great. Play it NAO.
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Oh, forgot to post here, just wanted to say :yes:
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Woo-hoo! What a ride! Just finished. Now I'm going to bed.
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:bump: Just played this again, almost 6 months later. Because it is awesome! I think this may well be one of the most fun campaigns I've every played. It's kind of like living a personal fantasy.
I keep trying to put into words the impression this mod keeps leaving me with, and why I enjoy it so much, but for some reason the words just aren't flowing today. Basically, I really enjoy the whole, "You are hinge around which the whole universe pivots," thing. Complete with God-level firepower. That bit is fun too.
I realize I'm double posting over a 6 month span (pretty bad form), but I just wanted to say again how much I keep enjoying this campaign! Thanks!
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Just Finished it, very very entertaining, I can tell a lot of work went into this, really don't know why I didn't play this sooner. Just two things 1. wish there was a way to see what happens if you make a different decision. 2. How seriously are we supposed to take this? Like bp serious or WOD serious?
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Finished this a couple of months ago. It's a little short, but all the new gameplay mechanics more than make up for that. I also thought the story was pretty good, as far as FS campaigns go.
Edward's betrayal
was painful, and I even felt bad for some of the enemy fighters (just Sapphire and that guy Granite killed, actually).
Good job. :yes:
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Damned. I really want to play this but ain' got the time!
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It really is pretty short and sweet. If you have two hours to bang together for warmth, use them and play this. Even if it means giving up sleep for one night, it's worth it.
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I totally agree with perihelion. I actually think The Antagonist could do really well as a standalone indie game.
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Yeah well my home computer is just a mess.... I'll try to try it tonight!
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:bump: Just played this again, almost 6 months later. Because it is awesome! I think this may well be one of the most fun campaigns I've every played. It's kind of like living a personal fantasy.
I keep trying to put into words the impression this mod keeps leaving me with, and why I enjoy it so much, but for some reason the words just aren't flowing today. Basically, I really enjoy the whole, "You are hinge around which the whole universe pivots," thing. Complete with God-level firepower. That bit is fun too.
I realize I'm double posting over a 6 month span (pretty bad form), but I just wanted to say again how much I keep enjoying this campaign! Thanks!
Hey thanks for the comments. It's really surprising (in a good way) that people still play this.
Just Finished it, very very entertaining, I can tell a lot of work went into this, really don't know why I didn't play this sooner. Just two things 1. wish there was a way to see what happens if you make a different decision. 2. How seriously are we supposed to take this? Like bp serious or WOD serious?
It's certainly intended to be taken as a ride. The plot is meant to be felt rather than studied if that makes sense.
I totally agree with perihelion. I actually think The Antagonist could do really well as a standalone indie game.
That's not a bad idea. One major obstacle to that is this mod assumes the player understands the standard freespace controls as no tutorial is provided. Not sure how effective a "here are the controls" readme would be.
Really appreciate that review you made. Just read it again... dang.
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Nothing prevents you to make a tutorial and re-release with it.
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standalone sounds like something you should do, tutorial or not!
one more thing: if i remember correctly you voice acted the ships computer and the player character both yourself, didn't you? now, since the board computer is, well, a computer - and be it a advanced one, i think TTS voice-acting wouldn't be too unfitting for him, even by higher standards -> give me a word if you want me to provide you some TTS voice acting for him
thinking of it, now that people know how cool this campaign is, maybe they would be more willing to contribute than the first time you tried, if you'd ask for some voice actors again
this campaign/mod is worth it
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Noooooooooooooo...
Edward has a perfectly creepy and fitting voice right now. TTS won't save the inflections and deceiving tones that Edward throws around. If the mod needs polishing up, it is not in the voice acting department.
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If the mod needs polishing up, it is not in the voice acting department.
Well, it wouldn't hurt to normalize the volume, since as mentioned here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=78402.msg1550739#msg1550739), some voices (such as yours truly :nervous:) are much softer than others, but presumably that's pretty easy to do.
EDIT: I did play this around the time that it came out and loved it, but for some reason never thought to post about it. :blah:
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I played this yesterday and it's a remarkable campaign, easily one of my all time favorites. This kind of visceral gameplay is something I've long wanted to see in singleplayer FS2. :yes: Almost every mission brought in some new gameplay twist, while still maintaining a consistent, action-packed feel throughout the campaign. The plot is simplistic but has a slick presentation and fits the gameplay well (although the universe has potential for more, looking at the tech room entries), and the new models and music are great as well.
I usually tried to keep my distance from enemies, since most of them (except the final boss) are less effective at long range and can be picked off with the APE. It helps to alternate between maximum energy on shields while afterburning, followed by maximum energy on engines to recharge the burners. The missiles are all useful in different situations but the APE is the only truly effective primary, and I used that almost all the time. The shield-piercing gun is powerful but uses up too much energy to be worthwhile.
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I played this yesterday and it's a remarkable campaign, easily one of my all time favorites. This kind of visceral gameplay is something I've long wanted to see in singleplayer FS2. :yes: Almost every mission brought in some new gameplay twist, while still maintaining a consistent, action-packed feel throughout the campaign. The plot is simplistic but has a slick presentation and fits the gameplay well (although the universe has potential for more, looking at the tech room entries), and the new models and music are great as well.
I usually tried to keep my distance from enemies, since most of them (except the final boss) are less effective at long range and can be picked off with the APE. It helps to alternate between maximum energy on shields while afterburning, followed by maximum energy on engines to recharge the burners. The missiles are all useful in different situations but the APE is the only truly effective primary, and I used that almost all the time. The shield-piercing gun is powerful but uses up too much energy to be worthwhile.
I wanted to add that (having just shipped a campaign with a bunch of new gameplay mechanics that are not taught too well!) I still endlessly admire the way Antagonist teaches its mechanics to the player. Like CP said, you get something new every mission, but the consistent grammar of the introductions - use this new ability, and now in combination with another, and now under stress - makes it really easy to grasp every new challenge and understand how to attack it. Stellar design.
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Just re-downloaded this and accidentally did an iron-man of it in one life.
Its uniquely satisfying to experience this campaign completely contiguously, from start to finish. Weapons are awesome, gameplay is awesome, fairly cool story, etc.
I noted what seemed like altered voice acting files though, I have to say that
the part where the oligarch screams "NNNNOOOOOOOO--" was better when the VA totally overloaded the microphone. (not sure if it was changed, I remember a distinct overload however) It added almost hilarious emphasis to his horror.
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This was a blast! Playing it again, with glide this time. :) I still ran into the occasional crashes in the usual places, using 3.7.2 (RC5) and nightly 11251, but was able to finish the campaign.
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Nice game, though its hard. The new ship is a blast to fly along with the awesome weapons. I really hate its skin though. Also did you guys make the sounds custom? It sounds like beatboxing :lol:
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Oh dang, sorry to hear about the bugs. It has not been updated in almost 3 years so I guess that's expected. Do you remember when the crashes happened and what you were doing when they did?
All the sounds are custom with some taken off the internet from military weapon demos, explosions and the like. I tried to use effects to make it sound like the voiced sounds are not beatboxing, but people caught me in the act.
The ship skin is explained as Edward's wiring over the ship. However, I have a lot of respect for people who can actually do texture art.
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Oh dang, sorry to hear about the bugs. It has not been updated in almost 3 years so I guess that's expected. Do you remember when the crashes happened and what you were doing when they did?
No apology needed! I was able to finish the game, and I enjoyed it immensely.
I posted some more detail in the RC5 release thread:
Playing The Antagonist using 3.7.2(RC5) and 3.6.12, I keep crashing to desktop ("FSO has stopped working" dialog box) while fighting with the Granite (Osmund's ship), both in and out of subspace. It happens at various points, and I cannot determine what triggers it.
I posted a few logs, too, but I don't know if anyone found anything, or if they were even useful. :) Reading through older posts, it looked like others had had similar issues in the past.
Thanks again for an enjoyable experience! This was one of the first mods I have played - I had been sticking with the FS2 main campaign, and Diaspora, for years.