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Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The FRED Workshop => FRED Academy => Topic started by: karajorma on September 03, 2004, 03:44:17 pm

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 03, 2004, 03:44:17 pm

Okay. The campaign ideas are in and it's time to start signing people up for the FRED Academy. :)

I need all the people who are interested to post here so I can get an idea of the numbers involved. I also need to know if you want to FRED using FRED Open or FRED 2 Retail. There is very little difference in the difficulty level of the two programs so it's basically down to whether or not FRED 2 Open will run for you.

We'll be running two campaigns similtainiously. One for FRED2 Retail and one for FRED2_Open. That way no one will be excluded from the project and there should be no problems regarding running out of missions.

Anyway without further ado here are the chosen campaign plots

Campaign 1 is based on Black Wolf's ideas.

Spoiler:

The campaign revolves around discrepancies in the time and locations that the Iceni was spotted. After Capella the GTVA discover that the Iceni wasn't the only ship of its class ever built and that a second one was built by Bosch as a backup plan. Basically the campaign revolves around stopping a plot by the remains of the NTF.

Campaign 2 is based on mr.Who's idea of making a campaign based on the 6th Fleet desperately trying to stay alive following Rear Admiral Koth's attack on Epsilon Pegasi. I liked this one cause it's a piece of FS2 history we all know quite well. Plus it's a nicely desperate scenario :)

Which campaign ends up with which version of FRED is basically dependant on the numbers of people who sign up :)

Since I got to pick which campaigns we're doing this time I'm not going to take any part in the process next time. It will be down to all the newbie FREDders, playtesters and experts to chose what gets made once one of these campaigns finishes :D

I'll wait till Sunday and then I'll post the mission outlines and let people get to work. :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: jdjtcagle on September 03, 2004, 03:51:06 pm

Wait what's going on?
Whatever it is, I'm likeing it... go on :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 03, 2004, 03:54:17 pm

The details of how the FRED Academy came into existance and what it's about are on these threads

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,26495.0.html

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,26535.msg537320.html#msg537320

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: jdjtcagle on September 03, 2004, 03:56:07 pm

Hmmm... I wonder what other things I'm missing, anyway looks good :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on September 03, 2004, 04:12:18 pm

Hmmn, I could sign up for a mission or two I guess. I'm starting to re-work my own Campaign but it's ages from ever being completed so in the meantime it might be cool to do something on the side that will be released.

I'm still using FS2 v1.2 retail btw, I've never downloaded open because I'm not sure it'll run on my pooter :rolleyes:

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: magatsu1 on September 03, 2004, 04:15:00 pm

I could do a couple. Not sure about FRED3.6 though. Any idea which FRED_Open we might use BTW ?

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 03, 2004, 04:23:06 pm

Which ever one you want :D The only reason I'm running two campaigns is cause I'd consider it horribly unfair to have someone FRED missions for a campaign they couldn't play cause other missions used FS2_Open.

If you don't mind the fact that you might not be able to play the finished campaign you could FRED for the FS2_Open campaign using retail. :)

Personally I'd reccomend FRED2. 3.5.5 which you can get from here (http://fs2source.warpcore.org/exes/3.5.5.zip) or the version available here (http://fs2source.warpcore.org/exes/latest/C06172004.zip)  over the latest version of FRED2 which is available here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,25742.0.html)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on September 03, 2004, 04:26:21 pm

Doesn't matter, I could play my own mission and get feedback from others about it so that's mostly what matters.

I like the campaign idea that is blacked-out btw.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Singh on September 03, 2004, 04:33:16 pm

pffft...Black Wolf beat me at it again :( :p

I'll sign up for Campaign two - Chasing down (or being chased down by) rear Admiral Koth seems like a rather interesting proposal indeed.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 03, 2004, 04:38:44 pm

You don't need any training Singh. I've played your missions :D If you want I'll take MG mission 3 apart over the weekend though :D

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Ghostavo on September 03, 2004, 05:14:53 pm

meh... why not... if you need anyone you can count me in if you wish :D

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Fergus on September 03, 2004, 05:19:58 pm

I too wish to take part in this experiment.  I had a campaign idea but looking at the forum lots of people have had ideas and disappeared.  Lets just hope all our meager talents arn't completely rubbish

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: JR2000Z on September 03, 2004, 08:09:01 pm

*signs for FS Open*

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Pilot Of The US on September 03, 2004, 08:46:42 pm

Well, I'd like to sign up to use FRED2 Retail. and like the blacked-out mission. pretty cool.


I actually had the same idea only with shivans. I made a mission about it, and put it up for download.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Singh on September 03, 2004, 09:49:19 pm

Quote

Originally posted by karajorma
You don't need any training Singh. I've played your missions :D If you want I'll take MG mission 3 apart over the weekend though :D

something  which ive been asking ye to do for a month too :P

Edit:
And yes, I still need training. Ive only made a few missions (I have yet to make any Red Alert ones) and my experience aint THAT good. This will allow me to get practice, not to mention be part of a project that has a chance of finishing within a few months too :P

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Mongoose on September 03, 2004, 11:34:49 pm

I would sign up, but my question would be, what exactly would working on one of the campaigns entail?  I have a basic knowledge of Fred2 (I successfully completed the tutorial mission), but I wouldn't be much good at coming up with story ideas/dialogue.  In short, I don't have a creative bone in my body :p.  Is there any place in a project like this for someone who can handle the technical aspects but not the imaginative ones?

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Goober5000 on September 03, 2004, 11:40:06 pm

Read the threads karajorma quoted...

Quote

Originally posted by karajorma
The details of how the FRED Academy came into existance and what it's about are on these threads

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,26495.0.html

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,26535.msg537320.html#msg537320

All you have to do is learn FRED.  Karajorma will handle all the story and campaign aspects as well as the training of FREDders.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 04, 2004, 02:28:35 am

Quote

Originally posted by Singh


something  which ive been asking ye to do for a month too :p

Edit:
And yes, I still need training. Ive only made a few missions (I have yet to make any Red Alert ones) and my experience aint THAT good. This will allow me to get practice, not to mention be part of a project that has a chance of finishing within a few months too :P

I didn't take it apart cause it worked and I could see very little wrong with it as a player. :) Besides I didn't want to tread on anyones toes by appointing myself Lord High FREDder of MG and disparaging everyone elses code :D

Ghostavo, Fergus and Mongoose I need to know which version of FRED you'd prefer to use. I need to know the numbers so that I can decide which campaign is which. :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: mr.WHO on September 04, 2004, 03:25:31 am

*signs for FS Open* + campaign 2 :).
I goona need a lot of history of that event. I've completed main Fs2 campaign about 15 times :) , but last time when I've that campaign was 1,5 year ago :(.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Deepstar on September 04, 2004, 03:37:02 am

Oh it's a very good idea. I have done only Translations of Missions, but it was nice to create own Missions.

Signing up for both.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 04, 2004, 03:55:17 am

You can't really pick a campaign. As I've said I don't know which one will be retail and which one FS2_Open. It all depends on the numbers. :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Fergus on September 04, 2004, 04:25:43 am

I could use either or, so I can go where you would prefer me.  But I have mainly been using retail.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: mr.WHO on September 04, 2004, 04:50:45 am

Both campaigns are interesting but as I said I forgot most of small thing from orginal Fs2 like (secondary important) ships names. (too long I've been plaing TBP and Infern :D )

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on September 04, 2004, 04:59:53 am

I still insist on giving a hand to new FREDers.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 04, 2004, 05:04:39 am

And I'm glad to have you on board TopAce :D

Now you can use your nitpicking skills for good rather than evil ;) :lol:

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on September 04, 2004, 05:05:16 am

:lol:

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Ghostavo on September 04, 2004, 07:28:47 am

I'd prefer to use the original, but if it needs be (very unbalanced Fred choice) I can use the open :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Hippo on September 04, 2004, 08:21:15 am

I'll be one of them mission reviewer type persons...



Just a warning about FRED_Open:

Half the builds after 3.5.5 do NOT do breifings correctly. And you can't go backwards to 3.5.5 to do them either...

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Singh on September 04, 2004, 08:50:53 am

so.......when do we get started?

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 04, 2004, 09:44:16 am

I'll post the mission outlines tomorrow and everyone will be able to start then. I just want to get a little bit longer to see what sort of numbers of people sign up.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on September 04, 2004, 10:14:11 am

Shouldn't we need a new forum?

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Singh on September 04, 2004, 10:16:57 am

yeah...perhaps an internal too ;)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on September 04, 2004, 10:33:44 am

An internal for ... the trainers?

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 04, 2004, 10:41:30 am

I think a new forum or sub-forum of this one is likely to be needed. I was thinking of doing it all in here and just having all the posts include [FA] in the title but I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed by the number of people signing on. :eek:

 It looks like about 10 people have already signed on and I think we're bound to get a couple more once we're up and running and people see things in action.

On the other hand I don't know how willing the admins will be to support a project that is mostly experimental at this stage. I think that if the project works and we're flooding this forum we'll probably get shunted into a new forum just to keep things tidy anyway.

As for an internal I think it would cause us a lot of hassle getting people access and I can't really see the need for one at this point. If people who participate want to talk in secret about campaign number 3+ then maybe the admins will be generous but since I'm not going to be involved in that I'll leave that up to everyone else to decide :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on September 04, 2004, 10:43:43 am

A sub-forum in the FS Modding section will do, if you ask me.
I don't think the Admins would have any objections against this project, it cannot die, since it cannot be finished.

The only thing I do not understand right now is the purpose of an internal.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 04, 2004, 10:44:36 am

Make it a sub forum of campaigns. Campaigns is the FRED forum remember? :D

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Culando on September 04, 2004, 12:05:40 pm

Is it too late to sign up? >> I saw this before but I've been thinking a lot about it, and I think it might help me out. I can't tell you how many camps I come up with, that I believe have really good stories backing them up. But I can never get them into actual missions. XP

Now that my own PC (in my room rather than the main one in my house) can run FS2, it should help. But this'll help me make sure the missions can tell my story correctly. >>

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 04, 2004, 01:27:40 pm

You're not too late but I need to know if you'll be using FS2 or FS2_Open :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Mongoose on September 04, 2004, 04:58:05 pm

All right, I guess I'll give it a try :).  I'd be able to use either retail Fred2 or Fred_Open, depending on what you guys need.  I'm not sure which build of Fred_Open I have, though I think it's the most recent one linked to from the Wiki.

Edit:  It's funny that I have the reverse situation of most of the other people who are signing up.  A lot of other people have great campaign ideas without the know-how to implement them.  I, on the other hand, could probably pick up most of the editor on my own, but I'd have nothing to use it on.  I've had the same problem with the Descent series; I know the editors, but I don't have any ideas for a good level.  Hopefully, I can come out of this project able to aid a mod that's looking for some people who know Fred :).

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Singh on September 04, 2004, 09:46:11 pm

Quote

Originally posted by Mongoose
All right, I guess I'll give it a try :).  I'd be able to use either retail Fred2 or Fred_Open, depending on what you guys need.  I'm not sure which build of Fred_Open I have, though I think it's the most recent one linked to from the Wiki.

Edit:  It's funny that I have the reverse situation of most of the other people who are signing up.  A lot of other people have great campaign ideas without the know-how to implement them.  I, on the other hand, could probably pick up most of the editor on my own, but I'd have nothing to use it on.  I've had the same problem with the Descent series; I know the editors, but I don't have any ideas for a good level.  Hopefully, I can come out of this project able to aid a mod that's looking for some people who know Fred :).

Quick!! Karajoma! Kidnap him to MG before someone else gets to 'im!! :drevil:

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Pilot Of The US on September 04, 2004, 10:58:07 pm

lol.

run Mongoose, run.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Jetmech Jr. on September 04, 2004, 11:06:30 pm

I suck.

Seriously, I feel like crap right now. I want to say ''yeah, sign me up" but I just can't. I've been meaning to learn how to FRED, but I can't seem to get the hang of it, apart from making simple little 'pit fights' between two ships. I even tried to make the tutorial mission, but I actually messed that up :wtf:. So, I'm gonna give it another try, and if I can get it right, I guess I'll join up.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Black Wolf on September 05, 2004, 12:16:58 am

Quote

Originally posted by Jetmech Jr.
I suck.

Seriously, I feel like crap right now. I want to say ''yeah, sign me up" but I just can't. I've been meaning to learn how to FRED, but I can't seem to get the hang of it, apart from making simple little 'pit fights' between two ships. I even tried to make the tutorial mission, but I actually messed that up :wtf:. So, I'm gonna give it another try, and if I can get it right, I guess I'll join up.

Indeed you should. Also, if you need help with specific issues, post them up here and people will help you out. Guaranteed.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Culando on September 05, 2004, 01:23:38 am

Quote

Originally posted by karajorma
You're not too late but I need to know if you'll be using FS2 or FS2_Open :)

Probably Open. I likes the shineys.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Pilot Of The US on September 05, 2004, 02:10:15 am

hmmm, ok.

how do you add mission directives to the list? (the list on the left hand side of the screen, which tells you to destroy ememy wings, etc...)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 05, 2004, 02:14:05 am

Quote

Originally posted by Singh
Quick!! Karajoma! Kidnap him to MG before someone else gets to 'im!! :drevil:

I'll see what his first FA mission is like :) I'd like to have FREDders who are creative as well as technically good. Hopefully we can develop that skill too as part of this :)

If the project works we should have 10 or so good FREDders within a few months so they'll be less need for campaigns to grab at FREDders as soon as they display a hint of promise :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Ransom on September 05, 2004, 03:15:19 am

Quote

Originally posted by Pilot Of The US
how do you add mission directives to the list? (the list on the left hand side of the screen, which tells you to destroy ememy wings, etc...)

Directives are controlled by SEXPs. There's a field in the Event editor for them.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Pilot Of The US on September 05, 2004, 03:20:32 am

ok, ill have a look

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: ShadowFox on September 05, 2004, 03:37:04 am

I'm in. I'll join the Retail FREDing since it seems you need more of those.

I like the sound of the desperation one. Desperation campaigns are usually the best. :)

Do you need my email or shall this be done using the forum?

Edit: I think we should get little forum icons. ;7

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 05, 2004, 04:23:07 am

I doubt the admins will give us avatars for this project cause the idea is supposed to be that you get trained until you're good enough to join one of the big Hosted projects and then you get their avatars :D

Basically the idea is that you work on missions until talent scouts from the hosted campaigns sign you up :) This is of course one reason why talented FREDders should spend time checking the missions the new people write. It means you can spot the really talented designers and snap them up first :D

Don't worry about hurting my feelings if you quit to join a hosted campaign BTW guys. When you get signed up it means I've done my job :lol:

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Black Wolf on September 05, 2004, 05:01:54 am

Quote

Originally posted by Ransom Arceihn

Directives are controlled by SEXPs. There's a field in the Event editor for them.

Specifically, Directive Text. The easiest example is desroying a wing of fighters. Make a sexp that says when, is destroyed delay, Wing name, 0, do nothing. Then Put destroy Wingname in the Directive text button. The dot will go red and FS2 will do the rest for you (Numbers of fighters remaining, and have it pop up when the wing arrives). If you only want your directive to show up after a certain event has happened, chainit to another event timed to fire when you want your directive to show.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Pilot Of The US on September 05, 2004, 05:08:14 am

ok, but what do i type in the "directive keypress key" field???

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Black Wolf on September 05, 2004, 05:09:10 am

Nothing, unless you want the player to press a key (EG Alt-J for a return to base directive).

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Pilot Of The US on September 05, 2004, 05:10:42 am

oh ok, thanks alot!!! you've been a great help!!!

im gonna try to polish up my single mission now!

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on September 05, 2004, 06:55:26 am

Quote

Originally posted by Pilot Of The US
ok, but what do i type in the "directive keypress key" field???

It can also be used for some other things:
Directive: Neutralise all incoming bombers
Key: Cancer and Gemini wing.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Fergus on September 05, 2004, 07:03:39 am

By the way I'd rather sign up for the retail but I dont mind if you need me in Open (I hate being difficult)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Pilot Of The US on September 05, 2004, 08:50:53 am

so instead of:
Return To Base
(press alt+j)

It will say:
Neutralise all incoming bombers
Cancer and Gemini wing

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Hippo on September 05, 2004, 08:58:15 am

Yes, but it then expects you to press Cancer and Gemini on your keyboard to be marked complete... (in my experience at least)... You can just as easily say Neutralize Cancer and Gemini ...

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 05, 2004, 09:01:43 am

I don't use the Key press option either unless I've got something special going on in the mission. If you can't summarise the directive in one line it's too long anyway.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Hippo on September 05, 2004, 09:03:10 am

yeah

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: magatsu1 on September 05, 2004, 09:17:46 am

(http://premium.uploadit.org/magatsu1/blahblah.JPG)

I usually make a list of these at the end, for each directive.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Hippo on September 05, 2004, 09:18:51 am

Bingo

The [V] Missions have a line saying <<<<<<>>>>>> near the end seperating them... Its just a blank event...

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 05, 2004, 09:37:30 am

I've never bothered seperating out the directives cause they're easy enough to spot in FRED anyway.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Blaise Russel on September 05, 2004, 11:37:51 am

Quote

Originally posted by karajorma
I've never bothered seperating out the directives cause they're easy enough to spot in FRED anyway.

:yes:

I have a code. Directives start with 'Dir'. For 'Directive', see. So, 'DirDesCancer' would be 'Destroy Cancer'. 'Defend Gorgon' would be 'DirDefGorgon'.

Utterly useless, really, but still.

Other events are more cryptically named, depending on how I'm feeling at the moment. They can end up with some quite bizarre names, actually.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Black Wolf on September 05, 2004, 11:43:41 am

Yeah, I do that in my missions too :). Except mine are

Dir - Directive Name
Msg - Message Name
AI - AI Goal
BFA - Shipname (Beam Free all, also BLA, TFA, TLA)
Etc.

It makes stuff really easy to find if you need to edit a particular event.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 05, 2004, 03:09:25 pm

Okay time to total up the results and see what to do about what.

All in all I've been staggered by the number of people who replied. When I first thought of the idea I figured I'd get 3-4 people who wanted to try and that numbers would slowly build from there.

I've just counted up the numbers on this thread (and the other threads) and 13 people have signed on (not counting the FRED experts).  

This has presented my with something of a dilema. My original outline for the Epsilon Pegasi campaign was only 5 missions long and rather short on the details anyway. That would basically give each of the FREDders 1 mission with nothing for anyone who finishes quickly to do except twiddle their thumbs if I gave it to the people who wanted to use retail :D There aren't enough missions to consider giving it to the people who prefered FSO :D

As a result I'm dropping the Epsilon Pegasi campaign and going with Singh's suggestion (which has twice as many missions) for now. If you guys like it we can come back to it later on :)

Anyway I'll be posting a thread shortly with all the details of the missions, who's on which team and the way things will work.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: magatsu1 on September 05, 2004, 03:41:05 pm

how about a reserves list ?

I'm happy to throw some stuff in, but I can always stick with my other mods at the mo. if there are people more keen to be accepted.

Hell, even if you just fancy releasing some mission ideas that'd do for me. I can always FRED and release in my own time.

edit: plus if other people drop out later on, you'll have other members to go to.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 05, 2004, 03:54:34 pm

Well I've included you in the list. If you want to work go ahead. Otherwise wait until things calm down :)

One thing we'll need is play testers fo be sure to give a hand with that what ever you decide :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: magatsu1 on September 05, 2004, 03:57:09 pm

cool.

I've still got about 3/4 big campaigns to play as it is though....

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Gloriano on September 05, 2004, 03:57:27 pm

Fantastic job Kara getting this started :yes: :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 05, 2004, 04:01:23 pm

With 13 newbie FREDders even if only half stick with it and become decent FREDders that's 6 new FREDders for the community.

BTW this doesn't mean that sign ups are closed. We'll still take on new people. You haven't missed your chance :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: magatsu1 on September 05, 2004, 04:26:46 pm

Quote

Originally posted by Holy Imperial Gloriano
Fantastic job Kara getting this started :yes: :)

yeah pal, nice work.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: NGTM-1R on September 05, 2004, 08:09:29 pm

Sign me up for whichever mod needs another person. I have both versions of FRED, though my experience with it is entirely in the retail version...

Title: Cool
Post by: InfernoGod on September 05, 2004, 08:47:34 pm

Well then, u can sign me up. I have skills somewheres in between intermediate and average in FRED (retail). I'm learning to use the SCP version, but the ships keep turning green and screwing up my computer... so, I should probably try SCP if this is learning about FRED, as I understand.
EDIT: oops, my uber slowness has lost me a position, u've already assigned people. oh well!

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: redmenace on September 05, 2004, 09:49:29 pm

:welcome:

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: InfernoGod on September 05, 2004, 09:52:19 pm

uh... i've been around here for a while, lol, unless that was directed to someone else.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: redmenace on September 05, 2004, 09:56:40 pm

ngtm1r is brand stinkin new :D

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on September 05, 2004, 10:09:07 pm

Inferno God, you can still sign up as far as I know. Maybe go and pick a mission in the other thread under SCP? I don't see why you couldn't still get in.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: redmenace on September 05, 2004, 10:23:42 pm

actually if I plan to create my narn-centauri war campaign. I need some skills and practice inorder to create it. can you pick up one more?

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: GoulMeister on September 05, 2004, 11:01:56 pm

sign me up, i havnt tryed to fred in years, only ever made one working mission but i could use some skills and actually do something since i just finished school.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: AqueousShadow on September 05, 2004, 11:23:55 pm

All I can say is... :wtf:

What the hell. It's Sunday night and I'm sitting here reading FOUR FRIGGEN pages of a thread that I didn't even know existed! If I'da known, I'dve signed up an ass-long time ago. So...without further ado, you've got 14 newbie fredders.

I'll be working in FSO, and I'm liking that second idea more than Mr. Bosch's wonderful Iceni No. 2.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Axem on September 05, 2004, 11:45:40 pm

Where did they come from?

HLP -- The oddity of the Fredder (Fredderae Campaignae) is one that will forever be a mystery. Not just 2 weeks ago they were offically declared an endangered species. Fredder expert karajorma explains a typical Fredder behavior. "They sometimes just come out of nowhere, show off a few missions, then POOF, they're gone! Gobbled up by the Productivity Lions."

Recently karajorma has set up the Fred Academy to attempt to train the Fredders. As soon as the sign up thread came around, 14 Fredders were signed up within 48 hours. This sudden increase in population asks the question, where did they come from? Scientists are working around the clock trying to solve this mystery. Experts theorize that they were in hiding, and their Fredding instincts were neglected. The promise of Fredding once again may have lured them into the open again.

Soon training will begin and those young Fredders will learn how to use varibles and the art of balancing. One day these Fredders will be released back into the wild where they can join up with other herds or try to make it on their own.


I have waaaay too much time on my hands...

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Black Wolf on September 05, 2004, 11:47:37 pm

Oh yeah, might as well make it official and sign up as an expert (though the terms open to interpretation I suppose :))

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: freespacegundam on September 06, 2004, 01:07:09 am

Count me in on this.  I need some experience if I'm ever going to make my own campaign, or do anything really good FRED wise.  I've got retail freespace 2, if that's a big issue.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Ransom on September 06, 2004, 02:51:10 am

I guess I'll join too. I'd prefer using FRED2 Open but I can use the old FRED2 as well.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 06, 2004, 03:06:44 am

The idea of the Academy is that it will be an on-going thing. Newbies join when they first come to the community (or first start using FRED) and people in the Academy leave when they are clubbed over the head and dragged off kicking and screaming into one of the Hosted projects :D

The only reason I did the sign up thread in the first place was to get an idea of the numbers. It's a good thing I did. I was planning on making the first campaign a 7-8 mission campaign and as you can see I have double that number of people signing on :D

RedMenace and Goulmeister : I need to know if you want to use Retail or FSO.

EDIT : I've counted up the number including the new sign ups I've gotten today and now I've got 20 FREDders to deal with! Between Singhs and Black Wolf's campaigns I've got 17 missions to assign :eek:

Basically that means that I need a good, well planned out campaign idea rather badly. I've got lots of plotline ideas but what I need is a campaign with around 10 missions with the actual missions already laid out ready for FREDding. If anyone has one submit it now and you're almost certain to see it get made.  If anyone wants to write up the Epsilon Pegasi campaign as a 10 mission campaign that would be exceedingly useful to me.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Singh on September 06, 2004, 04:56:58 am

I believe I can elongate the Epsilon Pegasi Campaign a bit if you prefer; but definately going to need permission first.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Hippo on September 06, 2004, 08:36:54 am

Quote

Originally posted by karajorma
I've never bothered seperating out the directives cause they're easy enough to spot in FRED anyway.

I meant FRED1, since they don't turn red when you add a directive...

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on September 06, 2004, 09:11:27 am

You can easily separate by naming the event that makes it obvious it is a directive.
'Gemini directive' or 'Make all the red dots disappear on your radar directive'

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: redmenace on September 06, 2004, 10:56:13 am

I will be using FRED_Open AND fs2_open

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 06, 2004, 11:01:28 am

Quote

Originally posted by Hippo
I meant FRED1, since they don't turn red when you add a directive...

aha. That explains it :)

Personally I don't seperate out the directives cause I like the events that occur first to be at the top.  That and the fact that an event with a directive in it can quite often be chained to an event below so that something happens once the directive is accomplished.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Fergus on September 06, 2004, 11:25:26 am

I can plan out the Epsilon Pegasai campaign on paper in quite some detail.  (Yes I too had my own campaing idea, but I put it on hold for the good of this wonderful comunity).  But I would want to know how long it's meant to be ( for the pace of missions)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on September 06, 2004, 11:47:25 am

Singh already has an Epsilon Pegasi campaign, think about something else.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: GoulMeister on September 06, 2004, 11:51:49 am

i can use either one, ill try fred open.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on September 06, 2004, 12:08:16 pm

Which one have you used more? I suggest you to start with FRED_Open anyway, provided you have ever started FREDOpen and made some missions.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 06, 2004, 12:15:30 pm

Quote

Originally posted by Fergus
I can plan out the Epsilon Pegasai campaign on paper in quite some detail.  (Yes I too had my own campaing idea, but I put it on hold for the good of this wonderful comunity).  But I would want to know how long it's meant to be ( for the pace of missions)

Quote

Originally posted by TopAce
Singh already has an Epsilon Pegasi campaign, think about something else.

Singh actually planned out the wrong EP campaign (his is Bosch's defection in EP rather than Koth's attack on the system) so you're welcome to go ahead if you wish. Considering that 20 people have signed up after 3 days I may need more missions :D

As for the length of the campaign. You've got 36 hours from the start of the NTF attack until the Colossus is deployed. If you want to continue the campaign until the NTF are kicked out of the system you have a little longer.

Basically the longer the better. Just don't strain credibility by forcing 20 missions into a 36 hour stretch :D

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: GoulMeister on September 06, 2004, 12:19:19 pm

ive only ever used fred retail, open is better or so everyone says so ill use it.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 06, 2004, 01:04:45 pm

I've added you to team 3. Just waiting for a mission write up and then you can start working.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: AqueousShadow on September 06, 2004, 01:42:01 pm

Umm....moo :D

So...when do we start? Where are the plotlines? HUH?! HUH?! :nervous:

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on September 06, 2004, 02:28:04 pm

Check out the other thread [FA] Getting the Ball Rolling

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 06, 2004, 03:04:56 pm

FreespaceGundam has come up with a really nice (and above all LONG) plotline for a campaign. I'll be posting that up shortly and then everyone will have work they can be doing :D

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Singh on September 06, 2004, 04:47:03 pm

Quote

Originally posted by karajorma




Singh actually planned out the wrong EP campaign (his is Bosch's defection in EP rather than Koth's attack on the system) so you're welcome to go ahead if you wish. Considering that 20 people have signed up after 3 days I may need more missions :D

As for the length of the campaign. You've got 36 hours from the start of the NTF attack until the Colossus is deployed. If you want to continue the campaign until the NTF are kicked out of the system you have a little longer.

Basically the longer the better. Just don't strain credibility by forcing 20 missions into a 36 hour stretch :D

This does focuses on Koth's betrayal. Mission three has Bosch in it for reference only, and to add to the momentum of the attack - i'll explain everything in the outline later :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 06, 2004, 05:55:49 pm

I'd assumed that Koth had been with the NTF since Bosch's original defection. If you're saying that he defected 18 months later during the events of FS2 I get you now.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: redmenace on September 06, 2004, 10:21:09 pm

Can we get everyones emails and ICQ numbers that is currently "enrolled"

Secondly, could we get a seperate forum for the Academy inside the Freespace Campaigns Forums?

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Black Wolf on September 06, 2004, 10:32:42 pm

I'm 92576264 for the record. And I don;t think we need a separate forum, especially if everyone keeps up with the [FA] Prefixes. Gets the campaigns forum active after all.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Pilot Of The US on September 07, 2004, 12:37:19 am

my email is [email protected]

i dont have ICQ. but i do have msn.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 07, 2004, 04:25:31 am

Wow. I logged on this morning and what I saw was a ton of [FA] posts and some people even having missions up for download already! :D

Looks like I didn't underestimate the speed you guys work at, even if I underestimated how many of you there would be.  :D

Thanks a lot Black Wolf for keeping an eye on things while I was sleeping :D

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: redmenace on September 07, 2004, 08:59:08 am

About the forum.
It might be wise considering as things grow. it will be harder to keep threads seperate and organized as time goes on. Obviously the forum should be public. Those who don't have ICQ I stongle suggest getting it.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Blitzerland on September 07, 2004, 08:59:29 am

I'll sign up. I'm waiting for Hippo to finish my upgraded Hades model, so my Legacy campaign is on hold.
 

*Signs up

Let me know what you want me to do.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Ghostavo on September 07, 2004, 09:13:50 am

ICQ - 305489057
MSN - [email protected]

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 07, 2004, 10:06:09 am

Quote

Originally posted by redmenace
About the forum.
It might be wise considering as things grow. it will be harder to keep threads seperate and organized as time goes on. Obviously the forum should be public. Those who don't have ICQ I stongle suggest getting it.

I agree that once we're running a sub forum would be nice but for the moment not having one means that we get wider access. Which is nice too. :D

Once we're in our own forum we won't get people stumbling by and playtesting/correcting a mission or two when they've got nothing better to do.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Fergus on September 07, 2004, 10:16:36 am

E-mail: [email protected]

ICQ: 253838332

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: redmenace on September 07, 2004, 01:17:16 pm

Quote

Originally posted by karajorma


I agree that once we're running a sub forum would be nice but for the moment not having one means that we get wider access. Which is nice too. :D

Once we're in our own forum we won't get people stumbling by and playtesting/correcting a mission or two when they've got nothing better to do.

you're balancing the access issue and publicity and the organization. karajorma it is your call. But I think will be more attractive later on.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Aphenicus on September 07, 2004, 09:11:21 pm

Id like to sign up for this if still possible. Ive got 2 copys of FS2 on my comp...so I can Fred in both FRED 2 and FRED2_Open.....Which ever is available...I used to make a few missions here and there....but lost interest when my comp crashed and I lost hours and hours of work....now Im lookin to get back into all of it. That is, if theres still time to sign up.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Flipside on September 07, 2004, 09:24:59 pm

I think you should be fine the thing only opened 5 days ago ;)

I think this is a great idea, I would sign up myself, but I'm too beaten down with modelling and texturing at the moment, but I'll certainly have a play of the campaigns as they are written :D

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 08, 2004, 06:19:04 am

Quote

Originally posted by Aphenicus
Id like to sign up for this if still possible. Ive got 2 copys of FS2 on my comp...so I can Fred in both FRED 2 and FRED2_Open.....Which ever is available...I used to make a few missions here and there....but lost interest when my comp crashed and I lost hours and hours of work....now Im lookin to get back into all of it. That is, if theres still time to sign up.

You're more than welcome to join in. Go visit the Getting The Ball Rolling thread and pick yourself out a mission from campaign 3.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: redmenace on September 08, 2004, 06:05:19 pm

karajorma:
officially who is all signed up to what campaigns.

A strong suggestion:
when you post an email include in it the word nospam like this:
[email protected]

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: GoulMeister on September 08, 2004, 07:03:17 pm

Email : [email protected]
no ICQ, how do u get one

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: redmenace on September 08, 2004, 07:31:32 pm

www.icq.com

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: NGTM-1R on September 08, 2004, 11:33:52 pm

My e-mail ought to be visible in the profile. As for the rest, I don't have ICQ and don't intend to get it.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: redmenace on September 08, 2004, 11:41:43 pm

Code: [Select]


FRED Academy Head
karajorma     156694411 karajorma@[SendMeNoSpam]gmail.com

Campaign 1
Akalabeth Angel
Pilot of the US lylatwars00[nospam]@hotmail.com
Fergus 253838332 Fergus_W_M_Andrew[nospam]@hotmail.com
Ghostavo 305489057 Ghostavo2002[nospam]@hotmail.com
ShadowFox
Freespacegundam
Black Wolf 92576264         the_lone_black_wolf[nospam]@hotmail.com

Campaign 2
Magatsu
Singh
JR2000Z
mr.WHO
Deepstar
Culando
Mongoose

Campaign 3
GoulMeister GoulMeister[nospam]@eircom.net
ngtmlr
InfernoGod
AqueousShadow
Aphenicus
Ransom Arceihn     150904767 ransom@[nospam]the-avatar.com

Advice
topace                  235325080

since everyone is posting here is this forum there really isn't a need for ICQ at the moment. My experience is that for some projects it is just more convenient.

karajorma, I have not yet been assigned to a campaign. I stated before that I am using fs2_open.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 09, 2004, 02:42:49 am

Sorry about that. An oversight on my part. Anyone new will be assigned to campaign 3 if they're using FS2_Open since thats the campaign with the most missions left open.

My ICQ is 156694411.
My E-mail is karajorma@[SendMeNoSpam]gmail.com

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Ransom on September 09, 2004, 03:05:22 am

Email: ransom@[nospam]the-avatar.com

ICQ: 150904767

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on September 09, 2004, 09:23:24 am

Some of you can also turn to me for advice:

ICQ: 235325080
My E-mail is in my profile as well as my Yahoo messanger name.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Black Wolf on September 09, 2004, 12:07:55 pm

Oh, MSN. the_lone_black_wolf at hotmail.com

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: z3r0_tr0jAn on September 09, 2004, 08:41:10 pm

Awesome! I'd be totally game to learn some FRED2!
I'm a big FreeSpace and Descent fan and have been watching this site for a while, but only just signed up for the forum. I know a little FRED, but never really got into it. But, until I get my new computer (which will be in a couple days!!) AND it gets internet (unknown when), I'll have to stick with the retail FRED2. And I like the blacked out campaign idea, too.

I had an idea for a mini-campaign a little while ago, and I should've posted it earlier, but I only just discovered this Academy today.

It would be called, "Running the Gauntlet" (unless that's already taken by something) and you would play as a NTF pilot, running the GTVA blockades alongside the Iceni. I kinda forget the FreeSpace2 campaign right now, but it would be parallel to that.

Anyway, sign me up!

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: z3r0_tr0jAn on September 09, 2004, 10:09:18 pm

Just reading other ppl's posts... My MSN is [email protected]

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: redmenace on September 09, 2004, 10:41:16 pm

let us hear from karajorma

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 10, 2004, 08:26:19 am

New members are always welcome :D

:welcome:

I'll have to check if there are still slots available on the retail campaign though. If not you'll be able to use retail to make missions
for campaign 2 or 3 but you won't be able to play the finished game.

EDIT : I checked. There are still a couple of missions available on campaign 1. Pick one and I'll add you to the staff :)

As for your plotline. Post it up. At the rate the Academy is going at we'll need a new campaign before the end of the month :) Plots for the next campaign won't be chosen by me. I've ended my reign as tyrant now :D

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: z3r0_tr0jAn on September 10, 2004, 05:44:11 pm

I'd like to try my hand at mission 5... If not, mission 6 is ok too (figuring they're the only missions left!)
Are there any special parameters I have to follow besides the stuff written on Getting the Ball Rolling, or am I free to design the mission as I please?

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 10, 2004, 06:46:51 pm

You're pretty much free to design the mission yourself but things like personas for important characters and backgrounds need to worked out so that they all look the same across the campaign.

Feel free to dabble to with both of those for the time being until they get sorted out by the campaign team.

I would have set these all out in stone except that

a) I'm lazy
b) I feel that everyone should dabble with backgrounds themselves rather than enter details monkey-fashion into the editor.  That way everyone learns how to create a background.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: z3r0_tr0jAn on September 13, 2004, 09:44:50 am

I thought I posted this somewhere but I'll say it again:
I don't have my 2nd FS2 disk, so I can't work on my mission for a little while. I might get it back sometime this month. If that means I lose my mission, so be it.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 14, 2004, 03:51:16 am

If you lose this mission there will be others you can try. :)

I've unassigned you from mission 5 but as soon as you're ready just post and you can get back to work.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: z3r0_tr0jAn on September 14, 2004, 10:56:39 pm

Ok I got my FS2 Disk 2 today, and I can work on mission 5. One thing is though Im going to be doing it on a different computer that doesn't have internet *yet*, so I'm just gonna have to get a disk ready to transfer it to this one with internet.

Oh yeah, is there any deadline for the mission?

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 15, 2004, 05:39:24 am

That was quick :) Fortunately FS2 missions are pretty small so you should have no trouble moving them by floppy.

There's no deadline but if after a couple of months everyone is waiting for you to finish the mission so the campaign can be released people might get a bit annoyed. Otherwise just work at your own pace.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: z3r0_tr0jAn on September 15, 2004, 11:51:47 pm

Uhh... I'm not too great with backrounds. Got any suggestions?
Btw, this is supposed to be, like, an academy for learning how to map better. So, when we send our finished products, are you gonna give us pointers or something? 'Cause I wanna get better.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Black Wolf on September 16, 2004, 05:10:43 am

Quote

Originally posted by z3r0_tr0jAn
Uhh... I'm not too great with backrounds. Got any suggestions?
Btw, this is supposed to be, like, an academy for learning how to map better. So, when we send our finished products, are you gonna give us pointers or something? 'Cause I wanna get better.

Roughly, yeah. Check out some of the released mission threads - basically, people will go through your mission, show you what you did wrong, and generally how to fix it as well. Hopefully that'll prevent you from making the same mistakes again, and improve your overall FREDding.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Hippo on September 16, 2004, 10:23:44 am

Quote

Originally posted by z3r0_tr0jAn
map

*Shudders*... :shaking: :shaking: :shaking:


Singh is great at backgrounds, perhaps he can give you (and the rest of us :p ) some advice...

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Grass69er on September 16, 2004, 01:08:39 pm

This is a great idea!,
if there are any spots left I'd love to be a part of it.
my email : [email protected]
My ICQ: 108495854
I've done a few tutorials, even abit on my own.

GRASS!

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Hippo on September 16, 2004, 01:18:49 pm

Hm... Put me down for advice as well... 329810870 and < email >] ... I can help out when i'm around...

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on September 16, 2004, 02:54:57 pm

I will also be available for help: You can find my ICQ number in my profile. It is 235325080, by the way.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: z3r0_tr0jAn on September 16, 2004, 08:42:35 pm

At the risk of sounding noobish...
What is an ICQ number and what do you use it for? Because I don't have any chat clients like that (if thats what they're used for)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 17, 2004, 03:52:25 am

ICQ is a chat program as you guessed. You are assigned a unique number to identify yourself rather than using a unique screenname like many other chatters use. (i.e no more conversations with John_4735231 :D )

You can use ICQ (http://www.icq.com/) itself to connect or trillian (http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/) which I personally prefer.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Calaerial on September 23, 2004, 09:18:31 am

Y halo thar.

Is it too late to sign up? :D

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on September 23, 2004, 09:19:44 am

It's never late until FS is alive. Just tell us whether you want to be a master or an apprentice.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Calaerial on September 23, 2004, 09:25:47 am

Oh im very much in the apprentice stage at FREDing.
Plenty of ideas, too little experience to execute them. :D

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Calaerial on September 23, 2004, 09:35:29 am

On that note :P

Im trying to create some VERY simple missions (We're talking 1 objective, 2 ships here) to try to the hang of things, and no matter what i do:

A: The campaign wont save where i tell it to
B: It crashes the came as soon as i attempt to load the briefing room.
C: When i try to use the branches in campaign editor to make a failed objective restart the mission, i cant get it to load the objectives of the mission for me to select. It just says String or Number (Number greyed out)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on September 23, 2004, 09:42:52 am

1. What do you mean? Do not make the campaign file yet, finish the missions first.
2. There are several reasons FreeSpace can crash. What version of FreeSpace are you using? Retail Volition Freespace or the Source Code Project release?

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Calaerial on September 23, 2004, 09:49:48 am

Well the problems i have creating missions come mainly in the last leg, where i am putting them into campaigns, so i thought id create a simple campaign, to try to figure it out.

And im using the SCP, release 3.6, the mission fails to load and it brings up an error in a warning window.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on September 23, 2004, 09:52:46 am

Take my advice: Do not put the missions into a campaign yet. Test them individually in the missions simulator. Or are you able to test the mission only WHEN it is not in a campaign?

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 23, 2004, 11:09:56 am

It's not too late Calaerial. That's why I directed you over here :)

I'm assuming that you'd want to use FRED2_Open to build missions for the Academy.

If so head over to this thread (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,26793.0.html), pick a mission from campaign 3 and get to work. :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Calaerial on September 23, 2004, 05:10:52 pm

Could anyone tell me how to set an arrival event so that a wing of ships can jump in at a certain waypoint along a path, since at the moment its only allowing me to select the path, but not the individual point.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on September 23, 2004, 05:16:06 pm

I can't see what you mean. What about you kara?

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 23, 2004, 05:21:33 pm

Quote

Originally posted by Calaerial
Could anyone tell me how to set an arrival event so that a wing of ships can jump in at a certain waypoint along a path, since at the moment its only allowing me to select the path, but not the individual point.

Seperate the original path into two paths Path A and path B. Path B starts from the first point you want the wing to go to and ends up whwerever the original path ends. Path A is the rest of the original path.

 Tell the new wing to follow path B. Tell anything else that was following the original path to follow path A and then add an Event that simply says that when the waypoints are done for those ships that they should follow path B.

Sometimes the simple things are the easiest :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Calaerial on September 23, 2004, 06:43:58 pm

:) Works perfectly

Also, is there any way to lock a non-player ship to a certain max speed?

I have a mission with a mixed convoy of Poseidons and Tritons, but the Poseidons travel 20m/s faster than the Tritons, so they smack in their engines, and once they get past they speed off faster, ruining the whole convoy effect :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on September 23, 2004, 07:08:18 pm

Use cap-waypoint-speed to stipulate what speed you want the ships to travel.

It's under "change", so you could have something like this:

--when
-----has-time-elapsed
-------5
-----cap-waypoint-speed
-------GTFr Trition 2
-------30

    And then do the same for all of the freighters in the convoy.
    Also, it's a good idea to have them with different waypoint paths, like if you have two columns of freighters have two parallel paths instead of one dot in the distance where they're all going to (to eventually collide)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Calaerial on September 23, 2004, 07:17:15 pm

oooh, good idea :D
Thanks muchly.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Calaerial on September 23, 2004, 09:51:34 pm

Well i think ive gotton the basics down, but the thing that really strikes me is that the mission ive created is....boring.

Functional, but boring.

:(

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 24, 2004, 04:13:23 am

That's the real skill in FREDding, making the mission interesting :)

I'd offer to look at this mission but I'm really swamped right now so I'm only playtesting mission for MG or the FRED Academy at the moment. Post it up though and I'm sure someone will give you some feedback.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: z3r0_tr0jAn on September 24, 2004, 05:34:09 pm

Sadly, it looks like I'm gonna give up my mission, mission no. 5, because I've had no time for the last while maybe I'll do a mission for an upcoming campaign, because I like this fred academy thing.
Keep up the good work!

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 24, 2004, 05:41:24 pm

I'll it assigned to you until someone else wants it in case you change your mind. Just post if you get the time.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: z3r0_tr0jAn on September 24, 2004, 05:42:57 pm

Sounds good. I've got a couple questions, then - What is the vp thing at the start for download? And plus, can someone point me to where I can get more info on the storyline of the FRED2 Retail campaign?

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on September 25, 2004, 05:12:07 am

VP = Volition Package. It's like a ZIP file, which contain files. Download the VPViewer and open the Volition .vp files with it. Look here and there and you will get acquinted with this extension.

As for the storyline, you can find tons of info on the FreeSpace Wikipedia. Click on the fsdoc(wiki) next to your profile.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 25, 2004, 11:08:01 am

By the way is anyone dragging their heels cause they're waiting for mission testing? I've noticed a slowdown in the number of missions being posted at the moment.

Does anyone feel that they've finished their mission? If so then it also needs some proper beta testing (Which is where I get to be evil and deliberately try to break the mission :D )

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on September 25, 2004, 11:42:07 am

They're simply not perfectionists.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 25, 2004, 03:13:42 pm

Ah. But perfectionism is a required trait to be a good FREDder :D

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on September 25, 2004, 10:58:44 pm

I think my mission is more/less finished, though one of the events at the end has screwed up and I'll have to see what the deal is (stopped working for no reason at all).

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 26, 2004, 02:14:06 am

Is the mission the last version you uploaded? What's the name of the event? If you want to figure it out for yourself I can give you a hint to help you ;)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Fergus on September 26, 2004, 06:25:38 am

I believe my mission is just about completed, though no doubt riddled with faults, so I'm gonna give it one more once more and give it up to the evil of karajorma and see what happens.  Also where can I find VPViewer, because I have been searching around for it and can't find it.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Calaerial on September 26, 2004, 06:40:44 am

*EDIT*

Removed :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on September 26, 2004, 06:55:58 am

Open a new thread, please.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Calaerial on September 26, 2004, 07:05:14 am

Are we supposed to open new threads to post missions for people to look at?

Sorry, i didnt know, someone said i should post it so i did.

Im still pretty new here.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on September 26, 2004, 07:10:32 am

Just post a new thread. :D

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 26, 2004, 07:22:54 am

Quote

Originally posted by Fergus
I believe my mission is just about completed, though no doubt riddled with faults, so I'm gonna give it one more once more and give it up to the evil of karajorma and see what happens.  Also where can I find VPViewer, because I have been searching around for it and can't find it.

There's a link to it in my FAQ (well several actually). As for the mission get it finished and I'll do some heavier playtesting on it :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on September 26, 2004, 07:24:03 am

Quote

Originally posted by Calaerial
Are we supposed to open new threads to post missions for people to look at?

Sorry, i didnt know, someone said i should post it so i did.

Im still pretty new here.

Post a new thread for each mission you do for us.

Always start the topic's name with [FA] so we can tell FRED Academy posts apart from the usual forum traffic.

That's about it :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Fergus on September 26, 2004, 09:01:20 am

Thanks, I was mainly looking through the wiki one.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on September 26, 2004, 09:03:05 am

Might an admin please sticky this?

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on September 26, 2004, 10:20:23 am

Quote

Is the mission the last version you uploaded? What's the name of the event? If you want to figure it out for yourself I can give you a hint to help you

I'm guessing it's either Alex Repair Failed or one of the subsequent chain events, I believe the last time I played it the mission failed to produce the series of messages which follows the NTT Omega's destruction. Even though they worked the previous time I played it, and I had not changed any of those events since.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Pilot Of The US on September 26, 2004, 09:17:37 pm

Well, im trying to finish my misson, but i need a new HDD coz i keep getting total system failures. Ive ordered one but it hasnt arrived yet. Also i think that the lastest saved version of my mission is corrupted coz it keeps freezing as soon as you click on the commit button, but it just could be my comp.

Ive got it safely onto a cd for now. Ive got most of the ships ingame. all i need to to do is fine tune the ship's arrival ques, more messeges to setup, and playtesting.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: GoulMeister on September 30, 2004, 05:41:00 pm

i think my mission is finished, i posted it awhile ago, give me feed back so i can fix it or move to another mission.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Gai Daigoji on October 03, 2004, 06:01:09 am

I have my own project to work on, but I don't mind doing some levels for a community project such as this :)

Plus there is still loads I'd like to learn.

*Signs up for FRED2_Retail*

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on October 03, 2004, 06:21:21 am

Okay. I'll put up the voting thread for the next retail campaign as all of the slots on the current one are already assigned.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on October 03, 2004, 11:16:10 am

In case you're wondering I haven't been slacking, I've been playtesting today. :)

I'm working through the missions I know of that need playtesting.  As far as I know that's Missions 1&2 from campaign 3 and missions 3 and 6 from the retail campaign. If I've missed anyone shout out and I promise I'll get to it today or tomorrow (if I can tear myself away from Rome : Total War that is).

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: GoulMeister on October 03, 2004, 09:09:29 pm

is rome any good?

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on October 04, 2004, 05:57:18 am

Damn good. There's a thread up about it on Hard Light

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,27443.0.html

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: mnftg64 on November 13, 2004, 11:48:15 pm

First of all, I think this is a great thing going on here. I left the community a while ago because of various reasons, including that I felt like a useless newbie because I couldn't even FRED a decent mission.

It looks as if its too late to get in on this academy run but if not, I am definately interested in helping and learning.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on November 14, 2004, 04:05:58 pm

It's not too late at all. The whole point of the academy was for it to be an ongoing thing that trained up new people constantly.

Would you want to use FRED2 or FRED2_Open?

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on November 15, 2004, 10:58:01 am

It's never too late, remember that.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: pecenipicek on November 25, 2004, 10:14:16 am

kay then... im actually lookin for a way to establish myself on the fredding scene. not to train myself. if this is it then im in.
retail fred of course(i cant run fso because of the friggin mfc42.dll)
mission with a complex plot please :D

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on November 25, 2004, 10:34:50 am

I'd prefer to keep the mission slots for people who actually need training so if you don't need training best not to take up a mission.

However that doesn't mean that you don't have a place in the academy. If you want to make a rep for yourself you can help me out greatly by going through missions and pointing out errors/solutions. I hope I'm not being big headed when I say that a few people think I'm a good FREDder but with the exception of the MindGames team and a couple of outsiders no one has ever played one of my missions. What reputation I've gotten for FREDding has come from always having an answer when people pose FRED questions.

The academy needs playtesters/mission critics quite badly as only myself and TopAce still seem to be active. Show that you know what you're talking about when describing how to set up events to do various things and you'll build yourself up a reputation pretty quickly :D

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: pecenipicek on November 25, 2004, 10:49:36 am

well i can be a playtester/mission critic.
but i will also analyze the mission in fred.
but fs2 vannila only.
i cant run fso, and i hate mods. they mess up my system completely.
with exception of derelict! it was a great campaign. but sadly its got no "replay value". oh well... we cant have both sheep and the money

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on November 25, 2004, 11:26:38 am

Campaign 1 is FS2 Retail so feel free to look at any of the missions and (gently) criticise them :D

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: pecenipicek on November 25, 2004, 11:34:59 am

:D
sweet.
will do now.
im makin one short convoy defend mission so youll have it prboably tomorow

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: pecenipicek on November 25, 2004, 11:41:45 am

so where is it?

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on November 25, 2004, 12:51:35 pm

Basically have a look at some of the older posts on this forum.

Ghostavo had a mission halfway finished that you can find at the bottom of this thread

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,27744.0.html

I'd certainly appreciate a frank view of what is needed to finish off the mission since he's left the project. (If you want to feel free to actually finish the mission).

Other missions in the retail campaign are FreespaceGundam's

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,26972.0.html

Fergus's

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,26825.0.html

and Akalabeth Angel's

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,26831.0.html

With those three playtest and see if anything is wrong with them. Don't fix them, just report the errors so that they can fix the problem.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: pecenipicek on November 26, 2004, 08:01:39 am

sure. expect it done today :D

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on November 26, 2004, 08:03:54 am

Put any replies for the individual missions in the threads above. IF you actually want to finish off Ghostavo's mission tell me so that I can change the campaign thread to reflect that. :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: pecenipicek on November 26, 2004, 09:30:50 am

yup. have to test em tough... i havent yet... will do very soon. see ya in 5 hours.(thats my time for takin apart a few missions.)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: pecenipicek on November 26, 2004, 11:39:06 am

**** :D
ghostavo's mission(at least i think its his... the one you asked me to finish) is a pin in the ass. you have a minute of lazyness and the next minute 8 lokis descend on you armed with promsR,hl-7's & harpoons.
and you have a bloody myrm with the same primaries and bloody rockeyes and tempests. is it just me or is it generaly accepted that having anything weaker than Proms S and tornado's is rather stupid?
only thing that needs to be added is a decent debrief.
argh

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on November 26, 2004, 12:05:18 pm

Yeah. On looking back at the comments on the earlier thread it looks like this one was set to be a little too hard.

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,26827.0.html

You're welcome to delete a few ships/improve the starting loadout or whatever it takes to balance the mission a bit more :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: pecenipicek on November 26, 2004, 01:43:30 pm

improve loadout?
holy **** the whole mission has to be redone...
i didnt test them all yet.
mind if i add some sweet minor capship fight? or just passing by?
its supposed to be "traffic" there right?
im goin to remake the whole mission

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on November 26, 2004, 03:25:47 pm

If it's that bad leave it and I'll reassign it to someone new. Like I said I'd prefer that the missions are done by people who need the training :)

Giving someone a half finished mission is actually harder than starting from scratch most of the time so if there was only some polishing needed I didn't have a problem with you doing it.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: pecenipicek on November 27, 2004, 04:48:22 am

its not that...
you try fighting lokis with a myrm! without kaysers! and with bloody rockeyes and tempests. still write me in. just tell me what loadout should i use?
ill do it gladly! just need a little extra job.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: pecenipicek on November 27, 2004, 05:49:41 am

mission3 of campaign 1(Akalabeth Angel) is one helluva *****!
i got killed twice i matter of two minutes.
must be that lardass perseuses.
mission is overall good but needs helluva play balancing!
there is unfortunately too many myrms for a squad of perseuses to take down...

mission6 of campaign one(FreespaceGundam) is excellent!
its very neatly play-balanced(okay okay i got 50% hull and no fighters but the actium survived :D)
as from my point o view this mission is polished up and ready to go.
if anyone has a problem with that well you can simply die.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on November 27, 2004, 08:10:42 am

Yeah. I enjoyed mission 6 too but I had a couple of reports that it was too hard :) (I believe FreespaceGundam has changed the mission since then). Okay. I'll give it a try and if I'm happy with it that will be the first officially completed FA mission :D

As for mission 3, I seem to remember it being hard but pretty well polished apart from that.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: TopAce on November 27, 2004, 09:28:07 am

Quote

Originally posted by karajorma
...and if I'm happy with it that will be the first officially completed FA mission :D
...

Why can't you consider any MG missions being complete so soon?
:)
Yeah, I think it is a stupid question to ask.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Hippo on November 27, 2004, 09:30:57 am

It seems to me, that some of the missions i've quickly run through were balanced on either easy or very easy... Considering i tried them on medium (i moved past my very-easy habit :p ), and a lot were near impossible...

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: pecenipicek on November 27, 2004, 02:06:55 pm

mission3 is a *****! i still havent finished it... and ive tryed it at least 5 times on very easy! and i stilll get roasted.
mission6 though is easily the best mission up to date.
i gave mission1 to willy_principal if you dont have anything against that.
im just waitin now for campaign 4.
if the plots not defined yet do you have anything against me givin it a plot? some of my ideas might be quite good.
i think.
you can read a shorter version in cobra's first best campaign poll

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: karajorma on November 27, 2004, 02:24:00 pm

Check the Neo Terra Victorious forum here on HLP. Basically we'll be taking over and FREDding it (apparently everything else was done with that exception).

I've got to agree with the general sentiment that the missions in general have been hard. I wonder why? That said I remember completing most of them so maybe I've gotten better at playing on Medium from somewhere :)

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: pecenipicek on November 27, 2004, 02:56:47 pm

oh ****... i hate neo terra...
but i love the speed up thing i proposed :D
you gotta see it!
speed of all ships is x2 :D
okay ****ty example but an orion movin at 30 m/s,
horus moving at 200m/s :D i love this baby!
though shivans are a ***** to kill with this speed...
and lokis? holy ****! there is now bloody way to kill one except with a ****load of harpoons

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: willy_principal on November 27, 2004, 09:23:06 pm

right.............so.................................i star makin' campaign 1's mission 1...

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on November 27, 2004, 09:41:16 pm

I don't get people saying that my mission, or at least the first part of it , is hard. The Myrmidons are dogmeat when I play it. Maybe that's just because I know what's supposed to happen, I dunno. But I think some other dude complained it was too hard as well.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: pecenipicek on November 28, 2004, 03:12:02 am

either the flak gets me or the rockets of the myrms...
and i cant get away even in my perseus...
and im a vet at playin freespace...

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on November 28, 2004, 09:33:48 am

Well at the start of the mission, don't run at the Alexander. What I do is hang around the Mentu until given the order to attack. Then the Mentu's beams can help against the Myrmidons and you shouldn't get in range of the Alexander until the fighters are dealt with. Then come at the Alexander from below with your akhetons and take out the engine. If the Alex gets a bead on you, break off and hit your burners and let the next poor Beta Wing bloke gets shot down, and come at the Alex again. Once the engine is toast you should be alright.

Title: [FA] FRED Academy Sign Ups
Post by: willy_principal on December 04, 2004, 10:26:01 pm

The Mission 1 for the Campaign 1 is ready and complete...go to this page and from there you can download the different files you need to play it...
This is the Version 3 of the mission and i think it's pretty good...

(this page)look down, at my signature