Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The FRED Workshop => Topic started by: Grimloq on November 30, 2004, 08:11:28 pm
-
...because i may set up a mini-campaign. well, not maybe, definately :p
its called '900 Days', and its prolly about 10-12 missions, including a few new ships (maybe 10 at ABSOLUTE maximum), new music, and a new mainhall. its about (yet another) return to terra. however, to my (limited) knowledge, this type of return hasnt been done much.
those of you who know your history will prolly recognize the comparison between the battle of leningrad and this campaign, then again, you might not, so here:
leningrad was a city ordered destroyed by hitler in the second world war. his forces laid seige to it, and wreaked general havoc. many russians died in the siege, lots of them from starvation or malnutrition. 900 days after the seige started, it was finally stopped by a large russian offensive.
thats leningrad in a nutshell (i hope i got it right... :nervous: )
so, you can look forward to this. its not especially tense or ESPECIALLY unique, but it will have interesting homeworld-like missions and new music... and good gameplay hopefully.
right now its only an idea (and idea supplemented with some concept art, missions planning, and music...) so don get yer hopes up even if you like it.
well, just thought id announce it.
-
Sounds cool, new campaigns are always great!
*Now we can both wait for 5 other people to post 'join up another campaign and help with it instead'. But if someone like Blaise Russel can churn out campaigns, any one person can do it. (Top Ace did a campaign by himself too, probably others)*
-
its possible. this is just a little background practice thing. although you get to look forward to meeting the Falconer :)
itll be fun ;)
-
Originally posted by Akalabeth Angel
*Now we can both wait for 5 other people to post 'join up another campaign and help with it instead'. But if someone like Blaise Russel can churn out campaigns, any one person can do it. (Top Ace did a campaign by himself too, probably others)*
I tend to be the person who says that a lot but if you notice I generally say that I've go nothing against someone trying to make a campaign on their own (In fact I'm doing exactly that myself).
What I tend to do is warn new people exactly how much effort is required to make a campaign single-handed cause a lot of people come in, makes 3-4 missions quickly and then feature creep comes in and they get stuck. It's very easy to start with a simple no-mods mini-campaign and end up trying to write a 60+ mission campaign with no original FS2 models in it.
10 Mods is a lot. That's actually more new stuff than MindGames has. We've been going for more than a couple of years now and we haven't even finished half of them (although the lack of a full time modeller is mostly to blame for that!).
Making a campaign on your own or starting up a new one is a
lot of hard work. I wouldn't dream of saying that you can't do it single-handed. If I believed that I'd pack up TMA forever and work full time on MindGames. What I'm saying is that before you need to be realistic about what one person or a small team can achieve.
You mentioned TopAce and Blaise Russell as examples of people who have managed to make campaigns single-handed and I consider them very good examples because neither of them went mad when it came to the number of new mods they were using.
TopAce's RR had two or so while Blaise IIRC simply used other peoples.
Now I'm not going to say to Grimloq that he should abandon his idea. I'm not even going to say that he should use mostly released mods as I know that he can model. All I'm saying is that before starting he needs to know what a large task lies ahead of him.
Unlike most of the newbies who I give advice to Grim has actually been in the community a little while. He's worked with the TI team too IIRC so I'm sure he actually understands what a long slog a campaign can be.
With all that in mind I'm gonna say good luck Grim. :D
-
*counts up total MODs...*
lesse... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 for the TC... maybe that much, anyway... a new mainhall (not easy, but then again SO cool!)... maybe, 3-4 new music tracks, and music tracks are pretty easy to do (easiest tables to deal with IMO), and possibly- POSSIBLY 2-3 MODs for the shivans. anytihng else will prolly be other d/lable MODs.
the only reason im having ANY MODs in this is that the TC (cant tell you what the 'TC' is, i might later, but for now i dont know if it will have an effect on the storyline) has some very specific needs, and is technically a new race, so they have a whole new theme of ships (though not many). the shivans have very few because i only need a few new ships, and then again only for storyline reasons.
thx for the warning karaj, but i do kinda know what im up against, and this is kinda like a slow little project ill work on when im very bored of everything else. like i said, dont get yer hopes up too much. itll prolly take upwards at a year or something to complete (a few new MODs and 10 or so missions, maybe that long, maybe not).
id like to point out that im tryint to keep the number of MODs down :) i know truespace very well, and i have in fact churned out a model in less than 30 minutes before.
and remember to factor in that when im the only person working on a campaign, until i release it there no uploading files to share, coordinating efforts, dealing with ideas and incorperating them (maybe), keeping everything organized... the list goes on and on. so, skipping all that, that save a LOT of time and hassle, and is also what scares away a lot of people :)
-
I certainly mean no disrespect to those who give the often heard "help with another campaign instead", but everyone knows it's coming so I just thought I'd be the herald.
I'm struggling with my own campaign of similar size to what you've just listed. I think many of my missions however are overly complicated and consequently take both time to write up and playtest (playing the mission is the REAL time hog). I think if I can get past the first few missions I'll be alright though, the first few missions are more of an intro and thus are kind of boring (though no repetative). Once I get into the simpler battles, rather than the patrol, scan, change of mission parameters, etcetera I should be okay.
-
*nods* i know what you mean. then again, i can zoom through SEXPs like a well-oiled squirrel.
-
That image will quite possibly give me nightmares Grim :p
-
It takes me about 3/4 of a month per model I do, incidentally. 1-5+0/3 models can be quite a lot.
-
Before you decide you need to create a bunch of new mods, check around to see if there are any that will suit your campaign. I have a bunch of MODs in my campaign, but there all either from existing MODs or other released models, or even simple table modifications.
Someone like Aldo for instance has put out a lot of models, but they haven't necessarily been used too often (I'm using a couple of his if I'm not mistaken). Some people make missions, some people make models. So check out the latter to see if they're right for your missions.
-
ok, ill look around for anything that will work. but what i need is VERY specific, im afraid... and im sure the falconer (a ship) will be by me, its too specific. anyhow, ill look. there will be a few terran ships, i think, that ill use. since this is about a return to sol, the vasudans dont do much. (they really cant care alot right now in the campaign :p )
aldo_14: well, in 1/2 hour, i mean the LOD0 mesh, untextured :) but its a starting point. and i know thats alot of MODs for one person.
-
I will finish The Truth Revealed alone. Unfortunately all story line details are currently classified. Apart from it involves killing Vasudan ""Rebels"" (HINT)
-
I must say as a Vasudan sympathiser I prefering killing Terrans or Shivans myself :) Though my campaign may have a little bit of everything, speaking of which:
Wow - after 2 days I'm 90% finished a mission involving zero combat. What progress!
-
:nervous: i hope you don mean the type like 'smart-casual, minimyum wage'... (the first mission in 'homesick')
:p
-
That's no so bad, Akalabeth. I've taken forever to finish non-combat missions before.
Although, on the other hand, my campaign was built over the course of about six days...
-
Non-combat missions are fun... espically when you have 25 messages all in one send-message-list sexp.
Or making an ingame cutscene thats 5 minutes long. Now THAT's fun! :D
-
hey, with ingame cutscenes, how do they work?
is it like, one entire mission? or do you FRED it in so its literally ingame? and then it switches back to game? how does it work?
-
you use sexps to disable the HUD, and teleport the player ship around as your camera.
-
-and make sure he doesnt move? :p
soooo, its not so much 'ingame cutscenes' as a handy manipulation of the player :p if it works.
anyway, this is good. it makes a fitting end to some missions!
-
All cutscenes are just a handy manipulation of the camera are they not?
And there are easy ways to make the player stay in one position. Really simple if you look at the Coordinate Manipulation sexps. With those you can even make the player face one way, and move in another direction.
-
i hope you don mean the type like 'smart-casual, minimyum wage'... (the first mission in 'homesick')
Uh, I don't quite recall the original homesick mission. But it's not quite the same, the player actually has some stuff to do. Bit of scanning, and 60+ messages to fill the 10-12 minutes. It's got a red-alert after it with some combat :).
That's no so bad, Akalabeth. I've taken forever to finish non-combat missions before.
Although, on the other hand, my campaign was built over the course of about six days...
Well I'm doing one of those overly-ambitious campaigns with a slew of missions which will never be finished. So it'll take longer than 6 days.
-
Originally posted by Axem
And there are easy ways to make the player stay in one position. Really simple if you look at the Coordinate Manipulation sexps. With those you can even make the player face one way, and move in another direction.
-or... you can disable his ship? :p
sheesh... good luck AA :) youll need it!
BTW, the first mission was basicly fly to a jump node and leave. maybe 10 messages alltogether. :p
-
Well, it was an introduction, wasn't it?
I don't really see the problem.
-
Well, it was an introduction, wasn't it?
I don't really see the problem.
The only thing I find problematic with these missions is actually making them, as they're darned boring to both create and playtest. But as the player, most of the time you'll only have to play it through once so it's not that big of deal. But if the mission doesn't advance the story in some way, the question is why is it even in there? That's a new clause in my mission creating, it must advance the story either through the action or dialogue.
-
There's also the possibility of simply establishing or exploring the game milieu. Say: a raid on a pirate facility may not advance a storyline to do with corrupt GTVA officers betraying military secrets to the NTF during the Second Great War, but it can add flavour and depth by showing how Alpha Centauri is a system under pressure from both the NTF and pirate factions, which might explain why nobody's actually sorted out these traitors until now - because they were too busy - but doesn't actually advance the plot at all.
But yeah... gratuitous missions tend to feel odd, and that's because they're superfluous and distract from the main thrust of the campaign.
-
Sometimes you can have too much story, though. One of the problems I've, er, 'considered' is when you have a fairly complicated storyline and need to convey it to the player in a reduced number of missions.
-
Sometimes you can have too much story, though. One of the problems I've, er, 'considered' is when you have a fairly complicated storyline and need to convey it to the player in a reduced number of missions.
Well personally I'm long winded, so If I tell any story it's gotta be a long one. :) But it's for a good cause, enhancing the player's gaming experience (hopefully). One thing I've tried to do is to have recurring ships, so that the player has more connection with them. Especially if he ends up having to put those ships out of their misery as some point in the future.
-
Originally posted by Blaise Russel
Well, it was an introduction, wasn't it?
I don't really see the problem.
i didnt say it was a problem :p i liked it, it was a nice opening mission.
-
Okay, I see. No worries either way, 'course. :)
-
i cant beleive it... i told you guys i was going to make a campaign, and didnt tell anything about it :D here:
you are Ensign James Hallock, the leader of alpha wing in the 266th HellDrummers inteceptor squadron.
two years after the loss of capella, the GTVA did remarkably well in settling people, especially since the announcment of the construction of node-stabilizing device to reopen the Sol jump node boosted morale considerably all through GTVA space. Besides the few shivan destroyers that got through the jump node before the supernova, no shivans have shown up. although the long-dead Hammer of Light has shown up again, apparently some of its highest-ranking 'officials' were lying low on various planets around the GTVA.
All that was 16 months ago, the Subspace Portal is completed, and is simply awaiting activation. Youre elite squadron has been chosen to oversee the activation, and also to jump in alongside the GTD Aquitane herself to Sol, to make contact with our homeworld. the Vasudans arent playing a large role in this operation, as they arent particularly interested in our homeworld.
you will be launched to oversee the deployment of the stabilizer, and then you will jump through.
And find what everyone thought they would never see...
-
a fleet of angry sathy's who misteriously jumped from capella to sol?
-
think realistic here....
-
well... i am. thats my thought on it. a fleet of saty's blowed up capella because there wasnt any other way to reach sol...
or the lucy didnt blow up and it wiped the earth out.
or the gtva gets a warm hug from the EA...
silver beamz style
-
we SAW the lucy die, its dead.
the EA is an inferno thing. this is... different.
the sathanass dont play a part in this mission. only a handful of shivan capships (destroyer size and cruiser size) got through from capela, and theyre mostly cleaned up.
mostly...
[cue 'DUM-DUM-DUUUUUUMM!!!']
-
i thought soo :D
they find a nebula instead of sol?
-
although that WOULD be REALLLLLLLY cool, no. this campaign doesnt take place in any nebulas. although it might in a 'dust cloud' if the SCP implements either volumetrics or distance-based fading. (never trust a coder who uses that kind of terminology ;) i = dumb)
-
please PM me with what they find :D
-
They find the GTOHMYGODITSHUGEANDOBSCENELYARMED Gaia "testing" it's weaponry the very moment the Acquitane jumps in front of it...
-
welll... that would be an interesting sight
-
uhm... no. no UbErShIpS in this campaign.
peicenpeiskdfjaoeifh(cant spell it...): ok, check PMs
-
i didnt get it yet...
-
just sent :)
BTw, if peicentpiekdfaskfjs(still cant spell it :) ) posts ... 'spoilers', MODs please delete the post.
so dont post em peicey :)
-
nah... im no spoiler.. you dont have to worry about that...
you have an interesting concept there tough...
i wonder how will it turn out...
-
:drevil:
me too...