Hard Light Productions Forums
FreeSpace Releases => Mission & Campaign Releases => Topic started by: .::Tin Can::. on July 23, 2004, 11:25:01 pm
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Yay! I released mission 1 for my campaign. It is meant to be just an opener for the campaign, where it introduces the chaos of the upcoming assault fleet. I got screenies at my website here:
http://swooh.com/peon/tincan/web/screenshots.htm
The mission can be downloaded here:
http://swooh.com/peon/tincan/web/downloads.htm
Have fun! Mission 2 is in production. ;7
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hey cool, i'll get everything tomorrow.
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:D :yes:
EDIT: If anyone downloaded anything now, or before now, re-download because I changed some things. BTW, there is no debriefing on purpous. You will find out why in Mission 2.
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Where did you get that background from?
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Which background? I have a lot of them. If you mean the nebula background, they are lightspeeds.
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Yes, I meant the nebula. I also have a pack of nabulae by Lightspeed, but they are different.
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Well, I have the nebula's obviously listed in the downloads section. I asked him for his awesome nebula, and he gave me that link. So here they are, on my site.
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Downloads.....
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Yippy! Tell me what you guys think and how much I need to work on it because I bet its gonna suck. :lol:
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Looks pretty solid so far. The only real problem I had is not having the ability to order your wingmen around.
Also the 'Destroy bombers and fghters' order need to be worked on. Perhaps if you did 'First wave', 'second wave', and so on. And turn off the completion music for it to, since it gets kinda cheesy. :p
That's pretty much it. Keep up the good work. :)
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Horrah!
I wasnt critically insulted!
But no, the object was for the wingmen to do things on their own. Meaning, no orders. You are a fresh pilot and command is keeping it that way. After you survive the first wave, they see you as a more talented commander and give you more options in the field for mission 2. After that, and you win, they promote you to a field commander and you are granted command over all the fighter wings. :yes:
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*critically insults Tin Can*
:p
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! :eek2:
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Nice mission there Tin can :yes:
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:eek2:
I cant believe what is happening...
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Originally posted by .::Tin Can::.
:eek2:
I cant believe what is happening...
Looks like people are in a generous mood and are actually downloading and playing. I too am amazed. :yes:
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Originally posted by .::Tin Can::.
:eek2:
I cant believe what is happening...
See? Now what'd you go and ruin a praise fest like that for?
They will praise when praise is due. But they will also criticize when criticism is due... just because you get more of one than the other doesn't reflect people's opinion of you. So don't be shocked. :p
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It is a shocking thing because I never thought that it would be considered any GOOD at all. Probably after the last time I released that helluva-long dialouge-and-dogfighting mission that I put a lot of time into, and people still had their doubts about it. Now that I made something in a few hours, its actually good. Thats the amazing part.
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Tin Can, give yourself some credit... :p
It was good ;)
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Parade rainage time, I'm afraid.
The thing is... it didn't make sense. "Hey, Alpha 1, the Vasudans are shooting at us, so let's run away!"
I understand that you're making a mini-campaign and so can't spend a dozen missions detailing the current state of Terran-Vasudan relations during the twenty-seven years since the Second Shivan Incursion (and it would appear that the Terrans and Vasudans haven't been updating their ships in quite a while)... however, simply blurting out "Vasudans are bad guys now, 'kay?" without background or reason just lacks... effect.
If you can't fully explain the sudden hostility on the behalf of the Imperium and thus allow the mission to make sense, then go for the opposite effect - disorientation, surprise, befuddlement. Have Alpha go out as a welcoming committee for a Vasudan destroyer plus cruiser escort, only for the Vasudans to suddenly open fire and cause chaos and panic as they rip through the unprepared Terran forces...
As it is, without any element of surprise, nor any explanation of the matter, it just seems like you stuck the Vasudans in there for the sole purpose of the player having someone to fight.
And names: Geno, Meno and Cento? GTC Horus? GVC Aten 11, 12, 13, 33, 34; GVCv Sobek 28, 29, 30; GVC Mentu 31, 32? Please. Use real-life names (http://pantheon.org/) - don't just throw random syllables together, don't use pre-existing ship-class names and don't use the standard FRED ship names because, surprise surprise Cilla, they're not very good. I'm also somewhat baffled by your use of 'Xulu' and 'Escort' as wing names - of course, you can use such wing names if you want, fair enough, it is twenty-seven years on... but I don't know why you used Roman numerals as well. Why not use other wing names, instead of just repeating 'Xulu', 'Xex' and the like?
Balance is off somewhat, I would say. On Medium, Alpha and Beta got wiped out, leaving me to fend off multiple Taurets and Serapi... not to mention defending the Cento from Sekhmets. I survived, but only because I'm competent and can mash the keyboard often enough to dodge most incoming fire; however, survivable doesn't necessarily mean appropriate.
The atmosphere wasn't particularly well-defined. A Vasudan destroyer has just wiped out an Arcadia installation - and not only does GT(V)A Command fail to send reinforcements to kick the living daylights out of the damn Zod, but the survivors seem curiously blasé about the sudden violation of the otherwise strong Terran-Vasudan alliance, the destruction of their curiously under-manned installation (only eight escape pods?) and the death of all those on board the poorly-named Horus ("Haha, the Horus is dead, they suck?" I thought you weren't supposed to speak ill of the dead?). I would have thought they'd be a little more frightened, scared, upset... something other than jovial about a couple of thousand deaths. 'Course, the mission isn't very heavy on the dialogue in any case.
Just a few thoughts.
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After homesick you are talking about mission balance? :wtf:
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Originally posted by TopAce
After homesick you are talking about mission balance? :wtf:
Yep.
That was my first campaign, you know. Bound to suck. A while back, too...
Besides, the path of the modder is one of constant improvement. What, would you rather I lie to Tin Can? What would that achieve?
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They are friendly suggestions :)
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Of course I dont want you to lie. I'll be happy to make ajustments as they come.
But, the reason for throwing the player right into mission 1 is because its just that: your forces HAVE no idea what is going on or why anything is happening. You are imediately deployed into the field to face the enemy who is attacking you. In mission 2 you recieve a command briefing regarding everything that has happened over the past 7 hours or so after contact with enemy forces.
But, if its too hard, then play it on a lower difficulty setting. :D
But, its my first campaign too, so I'll see what I can do.
ANYWAY, here is a version of mission 2. You can tell me what is wrong with it and I will go back and fix it. I thought it was too easy because even I managed to beat it. Its still going to be a chaotic mission, but the briefing will tell you exactly how they plan the operation and how it will run.
http://swooh.com/peon/tincan/freespace2/Mission%202.fs2
I suggest you get all of Lightspeed's nebulas, since I'll be using them all in the campaign as you switch the battlefields.
On the notion of the size of the station's crew: havent you noticed that simple Argo transports, the sizes that they are, can carry hundreds of people? And I mean literaly hundreds? (thats what they say at least)
The Elysium class transport can carry an entire tech team and her security staff. Thats about 50 people. Give or take. Now, lets say the escape pods hold about 30 people each, given the relative size in comparison to Freespace's Universe. That is 240 people. Now, you dont need much to run a forward outpost. Some observation crew (About 10 people) some scientists (Maybe 20 to 30) some security staff (Maybe 50) and the rest to man the guns and do... well what else? Engineers, the cooking staff... not much when you think about it.
But, if I had a smaller model to use, I would use it. Arcadia is about the only damned thing I have that resembles a station.
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Okay. 'Course, this is all just what I think... you make the campaign you want to. What I or anybody else thinks of it is secondary to making what *you* want to make.
But, the reason for throwing the player right into mission 1 is because its just that: your forces HAVE no idea what is going on or why anything is happening.
Fair enough. I just feel that at the moment, it is halfway between 'established conflict' and 'major surprise', especially given the recent good relations between the Terrans and Vasudans. An in-mission twist would have a stronger effect than simply springing it on the player in a standard mission briefing.
But perhaps Mission 2 will make it a stronger opening. Alas, the problems of releasing individual missions for evaluation!
(Also, consider renaming the mission file to be something that is identifiably yours or your campaign's, like TC_SE01 or something. As is, you might accidently overwrite some aspiring FREDders first mission :( )
But, if its too hard, then play it on a lower difficulty setting.
Unfortunately, the converse of that argument is that if it is too easy, play it on Hard - and thus, Medium should form the perfect balance and not end up with everyone dead and the player getting pounded from all sides. 'Course, you might want to make another Aeos Affair, and that's fine - I would upgrade Alpha and Beta a little, however, with better AI or something. But, again, that's me, and not you.
This is mainly a matter of not showing up the poor wingman AI rather than anything else, though.
But, if I had a smaller model to use, I would use it. Arcadia is about the only damned thing I have that resembles a station.
Fair enough. I stand... uh, rebuffed or whatever it is, on that point.
Perhaps I should take a moment to indicate that while I can criticise the mission, I can also praise it. I think JR2000Z said it best - it's a solid mission, and it doesn't suck, certainly not in my eyes. Is fun, is fun. Personally, though, I figure it could be improved - like all things, no?
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I shall improve it. Dont get me wrong, I take all critisism into consideration and I will play on that critisism. Thanks Blaise. :nod: :yes:
Anyhow, I think I should explain some of the names on the ships:
Xulu - runs as primary fighter wings in the field. These wings are usually comprised of the norm for the enemy's fighters.
Xex - Bomber wings are given this call sign.
Guardian - the primary name for an enemy wing whos obvious order is to guard a target or another wing.
Keeper - the secondary name for wings who guard a target, only this is given to the smaller assortments of enemy fighters or bombers.
Tora - the enemy wing designed to wreak havok on the opposing force. They have no clear order: just attack anything on sight.
==Names after Names=
Fi - the primary version of that wing
Phi - the secondary version of that wing
Psi - the secondary version for a bomber wing, or the third version of a fighter wing
Ti - the third version for that bomber wing or the fourth for a fighter wing.
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As far as I know, Fi and Ti do not exist in the Greek alphabet, and I am not sure if Psi exists, too.
You can simply name hostile wings as Aries, Pisces, Cancer, Libra or any other Zodiac signs.
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Oh but that's so old fasioned. :p
Besides, who says I was using the Greek Alphabet and some-such? It's just short phrases put after names which classify the type of name. I've played Freespace 2 for a while and after they say "Eliminate Cancer wing" I dont know if its a bomber wing, a fighter wing, a wing of flying elephants, (hey, those elephants could fly out of NOWHERE and own you in a second) but now that I have a classification system, the form of wing being Xex or Xulu, etc, then I think it holds a much easier place for me.
But, do you really have TIME to analyze the wing name and think about it, when you are surounded by enemies trying to kill YOU? I personally dont care: its an enemy, kill it. :sigh:
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A good portion of any mission is style with the goal of immersing the player in your universe. For some of us, a small queer thing can ruin the atmosphere.
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*sigh* Just play mission 2 and tell me what you think.