Another weekend, another video and assurance that things are coming along. It was my intention to get the mod out testers along side the engine release candidates to help ensure a more stable 21.4, and we've not yet gotten there yet... maybe this week? Maybe? Depends on how good I am at managing my sleep schedule probably. But the effort to get there is serving that original purpose, at least, with a few bugs uncovered and reported this week. Nothing that roadblocks continued development, thankfully.
This week most of my work went into adjusting and updating The Dragon Awakes, AoA mission 2. This is one of those missions that back in the day was a real trial by fire, the first indication that this Blue Planet thing was going to ask perhaps more of me than FS1 or FS2 really ever did. Survival was hard, excellence was harder, and it was a real blood pumping and memorable moment. I cherish the memory of sweating bullets, wondering why this Darius guy thought a 12 dragon ambush was a good first combat encounter, and loving Al'Fadil for saving my ass.
But with years of replay, and all the upgrades we've given the GTVA, even with their souped up lasers those dragons just can't really threaten me any more if I bring the right weapons, and that's a bit sad. So like with Forced Entry and A Time For Heroes in R1, I've give the shivans a little help from FRED and I can once again sweat bullets, cheer Al'Fadil, and mourn Lieutenant Wilhelm Nehru. I look forward to hearing back from you after you fight for your very lives, every one of you.
No video of that, to keep some surprises. But know that if it's too hard, or too easy, it's going to be difficulty level responsive... and if you want to see it all without playing on insane, there'll be something in the tech room for you.
Instead, have a video of the shiny A Time For Heroes. Of course, after taking it I, as always, noticed a few things I need to fix or can improve, so it might still be a little tuned up in final, but the spectacle here still manages to make me stop and watch and the TEI texture upgrades certainly don't hurt.