Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The FRED Workshop => Topic started by: Centrixo on December 11, 2006, 03:51:28 pm

Title: several problems with FRED2
Post by: Centrixo on December 11, 2006, 03:51:28 pm
i have noticed a few problems with FRED 2

1. first off, in fs2 i noticed that on certain missions you had certain objectives to watch or destroy, that cant be found on FRED 2.

2. jump node seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet for no reason in FRED 2.

3. finally you have a limited amount of ships you can put down before FRED and even FRED 2 crashes.

little help please :).
Title: Re: several problems with FRED2
Post by: karajorma on December 11, 2006, 04:01:17 pm
1) :wtf: Ummm. Is it just secondary and bonus objectives missing? Cause if so you need to change the type in the Display Types pull down menu to see them.

2) You've not installed the v1.2 patch. You can get the VP you need from the download section of my website. It's in the HotU crack pack file. Simply replace your VP with the one in there.

3) Put less ships in the game and stop trying to recreate the Battle of Endor (http://www.volitionwatch.com/articles/ArticleDisp.php?ID=26) :p
Title: Re: several problems with FRED2
Post by: Centrixo on December 11, 2006, 04:24:31 pm
ive already drawn up 120 missions it required over 68,000 ships 1500 different capital ships, over 480 different command figures (including Lt. Cmdr. Snipes and Adimral Petrarach) thats for the GTVA side alone!, there also are shivans and others to deal with. so i want to make 6 massive battles. with as many capital ships and smaller ships.

soon enough i will need voices for my campaign. im currently in the stage of trying to get a enemy fleet and the shivans to have a massive battle. much more bigger than the battle of endor :D

i guess i will try to find a way around this, i will need the website address, wondering around this forum with these topic names is confusing.

edit: i also want to create a campaign based on the shivan side, i have already tried to put alpha 1 into a shivan seraphim but i look at the shivan weapon manifest and it says '<none>' the same with missles and there is no afterburner either!.

btw ive watched a fight between a lilith cruiser and a hatshepsut the lilith came out on top and also being the noisiest as well :P.
Title: Re: several problems with FRED2
Post by: karajorma on December 11, 2006, 04:42:08 pm
You can't have more than 100 ships in a FRED mission. It simply stops saving them after that.

And if you read the article I linked to you'll see why Battle of Endor Syndrome tends to be bad for missions.
Title: Re: several problems with FRED2
Post by: Bob-san on December 11, 2006, 04:46:44 pm
Karajorma wasn't refering to making some huge cinema-based BoE... well actually he was! There's a point that Alpha 1 as disposable as an other fighter... Alpha 1 = invincible...

The only you you MIGHT be able to put in over 100 ships is if you manually do it with Notepad... I'm quite sure that won't work though....

Inshort, BoE is when there are so many major ships that nothing Alpha 1 can do will change the outcome... it's good for cinemetics, but still there is no point... the last mission in Capella approached BoE but was tamed by the actual objective of the mission... your mission(s) sound like you are rushing to BoE.
Title: Re: several problems with FRED2
Post by: Centrixo on December 12, 2006, 08:02:06 am
nope. you wont know until you find out, and 120 missions, are you sure im rushing!!. i had a hard enough time getting all the command scripts and escort paths layed out, not to mension the exact time when the pilots talk.

anyway at least i know now, 100 ships no more no less. i guess it will be a mini battle :pimp:
Title: Re: several problems with FRED2
Post by: Bob-san on December 12, 2006, 08:04:59 am
I'm not saying you're rushing through the missions... I'm saying it sounds like they are quickly going to many BoE's... I'm sure you have a great campaign coming; I'll play it when it's released. What are you going to call it?
Title: Re: several problems with FRED2
Post by: Centrixo on December 12, 2006, 12:54:17 pm
well ive worked it out, it will take me atleast 3-4 months to get the whole thing completed if not more. its called: Dark Space.

its based on the fs2 campaign as a base and it builds from the destruction of Capella, in depth command breifings upto 20 pages big in some cases. there are a few unpredictable missions in there, i will also test out the missions for any errors(can be time consuming).

right now im started work on the first mission that should be finished in 2 days time after that i also have a racing league to help look after as well as that, work and other family commitments.

because i work my own missions there will be no demo so it will be out when its out.

there is also a chance i might have to dump the whole project due to time limitations(un certain as of yet).
Title: Re: several problems with FRED2
Post by: Dark Hunter on December 12, 2006, 03:12:32 pm
Twe-twenty page command briefings...  :eek:


I get bored after about seven pages...


The more I hear about this campaign the more I feel the need to tell you to tone it down a bit. Hundreds of ships, twenty-page briefings... I'd recommend playing a few other user-made campaigns to get a feel for it. Derelict would be an excellent choice. Into the Depths of Hell series if you want to see some successfully made large capital ship fights.

Trust me, you can make a campaign impressive without having a heaping helping of BoE-style battles.
Title: Re: several problems with FRED2
Post by: Bob-san on December 12, 2006, 03:31:06 pm
Cut down the command briefings... incorperate future briefings and debriefings into mission.

Remember... everything important is classified above Alpha 1's level of clearance... people start to get annoyed when there is too much information. We discuss game dynamics here, future fleet development, and a bunch of other ideas.

I will agree with Dark Hunter... tone it down... focus on plot development, not on  BoE-style battles...
Title: Re: several problems with FRED2
Post by: Goober5000 on December 12, 2006, 07:54:11 pm
there is also a chance i might have to dump the whole project due to time limitations(un certain as of yet).
That's the way these things usually go. :blah:
Title: Re: several problems with FRED2
Post by: Cobra on December 12, 2006, 08:40:47 pm
Not to mention if you have 100 ship battles the FPS on people's PCs will be practically zero. (If they're using the mediavps, anyway). Dunno about vanilla FS2.
Title: Re: several problems with FRED2
Post by: Bob-san on December 13, 2006, 01:13:27 pm
It gets old quickly when you have to turn on or off the mediavp's, relaunching the game every time...

Anyways good luck.. and please stay away from BoE... it really sucks when you can't help out.
Title: Re: several problems with FRED2
Post by: Centrixo on December 13, 2006, 01:42:10 pm
ok thats one problem out the way. 5 page breifings at most.  :lol:

and its not all about boe alot of stuff, like logistical missions, important ships to watch, a few unpredictable missions.  :p

anyway.. comparing my campaign to boe i might just withdraw the entire campaign if your goingto be that critical about the campaign im going for :blah:
Title: Re: several problems with FRED2
Post by: karajorma on December 13, 2006, 01:50:10 pm
You have the right to make the campaign any way you want Centrixo. No one is stopping you from doing that.

However the warning they're trying to give you is that BoE missions can frequently suffer from the fact that you can simply afterburn away from the battle and still win the mission because the player is no longer vitally important to the success or failure of the mission. This is an enormous pitfall in this type of mission and it's one you needed to be warned about.

If you think you can avoid the problem in your missions you're more than welcome to give it a try but you should be aware that we see lots of people appear with similarly grandiose plans for a campaign who fail miserably once they realise how hard it actually is.
Title: Re: several problems with FRED2
Post by: Bob-san on December 14, 2006, 12:26:26 pm
The campaign you are designing is a bit ambitious, but it can work! We are just offering you tips on how to make it more enjoyable. We warn you that BoE, as Karajorma said, are generally just eyecandy. True, there are some missions that :v: made that are BoE... remember the mission where you have to destroy the Ravana? I played it the other day without even firing a shot! All I had to do is take power to engines. Hit the afterburner and get to the Vasudan Corvette. I only pressed equalize shields and launch countermeasures. I got to the corvette, and the Ravana's beams were destroyed. Timecompress 64x and it drops by 1% hull about every second.

It was rather depressing, as my entire mission was evading. I was on insane difficulty too!

Nobody can be critical of a campaign they never played. Make sure you have at least 2 different Beta's to test each mission; you have your own particular way to play the game, while other people try different things. Don't be afraid to use Notepad to modify your missions; just save originals every time.
Title: Re: several problems with FRED2
Post by: Centrixo on December 14, 2006, 01:05:42 pm
lol you dont know what im like, i happen to be one of the most unpredictable people out there. so you never know!. thats why i say what i said.

time to add a bit of spice to the sweet mix, il edit the missions.

il give you a basic overview of this campaign.

the beginning you rescue the survivors and warships, the shivans are still coming back via a unknown jump node in vega! but cant send through sathanas ships because its too damn big! meanwhile a revenege faction rises out of the ashes because it was about one of thier transport ships in the 3rd convoy that was destroyed hence RTD is born. this faction wears the entire GTVA down, to a point where or if they surrender?. you will find out soon.
Title: Re: several problems with FRED2
Post by: Centrixo on December 16, 2006, 05:28:26 pm
on fred2, kara install. im in event manager, i want to transferr cargo for my RTC Campaign, but when i click it i only see one arguement instead of 2.

edit: also another problem, it seems when i want to dock on a installation with extra docked, say like marines sweeping the installation plus the extras like a orion. and you want to change the iff of the orion. so i set so the ship dock then let it wait then iff change.
what im saying is i play the game and the orion iff is already changed, im like wtf???. in fred2 original i didnt have this problem.

edit2: again sorry for my piss poor english.
Title: Re: several problems with FRED2
Post by: karajorma on December 17, 2006, 02:39:26 am
on fred2, kara install. im in event manager, i want to transferr cargo for my RTC Campaign, but when i click it i only see one arguement instead of 2.

Right click on the transfer-cargo and click Add Data. You'll find that a lot of SEXPs need to do this to add optional data.

Quote
edit: also another problem, it seems when i want to dock on a installation with extra docked, say like marines sweeping the installation plus the extras like a orion. and you want to change the iff of the orion. so i set so the ship dock then let it wait then iff change.
what im saying is i play the game and the orion iff is already changed, im like wtf???. in fred2 original i didnt have this problem.

I'm having trouble grasping exactly what your problem is but I suspect that you've written an event that is triggered at the start of the mission. Just attach a message to that event and I bet you'll hear it at the start of the mission instead of whenever you think it should be triggering.

Post the event in that case and I'll take a look.
Title: Re: several problems with FRED2
Post by: Centrixo on December 17, 2006, 08:15:51 am
il post screenshots.