Artifice
In 2367, the shivans returned to terran-vasudan space, launching a multipronged offensive against the GTVA through Capella and Altair. Though most could only see the scars left behind by the shivans, one man saw a gift that they had lost in the destroyers' wake. Now, in late 2369, you stand on the cusp of seeing this individual deliver the shivans' gift to the Alliance, but will it bring joy or misery?
Artifice is an eleven-mission sequel to Second Front. Artifice follows Second Front similarly to how FreeSpace 2 follows FreeSpace 1, in that you do not necessarily need to have played Second Front to enjoy Artifice, but knowledge from the earlier campaign will enhance your experience in the second. Additional information, screenshots, and download links can be found at the Artifice website (http://home.comcast.net/~blueflames/SF2site).
Oh, and cryptic teaser images....
(http://home.comcast.net/~blueflames/SF2site/images/Teaser1.png) (http://home.comcast.net/~blueflames/SF2site/images/Teaser2.png)
(http://home.comcast.net/~blueflames/SF2site/images/Teaser3.png) (http://home.comcast.net/~blueflames/SF2site/images/Teaser4.png)
Second Front (http://home.comcast.net/~blueflames/SF1site/) -- Artifice (http://home.comcast.net/~blueflames/SF2site/)
Artifice screenshots (http://home.comcast.net/~blueflames/SF2site/screens.htm) -- Artifice downloads (http://home.comcast.net/~blueflames/SF2site/download.htm)
Update
March 3, 2008
Walkthrough now available in the download section.
Special thanks to Mustang19 and Trashman for rounding up a number of bugs that I missed during the open beta period!
I played up to Mission 3 this morning before heading to class. Good, challenging, balanced missions. Just waiting for the plot to thicken. :yes:
One bug report though. In mission 2, if you fail secondary objective (let the sneaky pirate freighters get away with the cargo), the briefing sounds like you should be allowed to continue but you aren't allowed to proceed in the campaign.
Oh, and thanks for using the designers notes and mission description, not many other FREDers do that.
I've started work on a strategy guide to help those having trouble with the missions. I don't have a full walkthrough of mission nine yet, but there's some tips in the spoiler block below.
Note that these tips are for the version of "Burning the Village..." that you play after saving at least two Mjolnirs in "Anticipation". The whole thing plays out differently, if you do not meet that prior objective.
• Once the cruisers start arriving, don't worry about the Mjolnirs. In fact, the Mjolnirs are meant to be destroyed, one way or another, and defending them is just something to occupy your time until the warships begin to arrive.
• Focus on disabling, rather than destroying, the two cruisers. Friendly warships will be along later to finish them off.
• Save your Trebuchets for disabling the cruisers. There's no sense wasting them on bombers, since the first torpedo to slip through will destroy a beam platform.
• When the Mirage arrives, position yourself underneath and behind the jump node. (That is to say, get beneath the jump node and fly roughly in the direction the retreating freighter did in the beginning of the mission.) This will put you in a decent firing position to take out the Firestorm's engines.
• You only need to knock the Mirage's engines down to 50%. After that, they fail entirely on their own.
• You can advance to the next mission, even if all of the ships in the Altair fleet escape, but the next mission will get markedly more difficult with one or both cruisers there. If the Firestorm escapes, you will need to disable it very quickly after starting the next mission, and you'll only have Stilettos and primary weapons available for that task. If the Mirage escapes, it will provide AA coverage for the port side of the Galen. In either case, they will split your attention, when it really needs to be focused on the Galen and its bombers. If you wind up having to let one go, though, I'd recommend the Firestorm. You'll have to disable it quickly (like a minute-and-a-half quickly), but once you have disabled it, it will become less of a threat than the Mirage.
[spoiler]Place spoiler text here.[/spoiler]
At this point, as spoiler tags go, though, I'm inclined to say, "To hell with it," given the detailed discussion of the final missions already thrown out there in this thread.
The regenerating beam (and a couple other subsystems) are to prevent the Galen from ever being totally neutered. In the final mission, you'll need to destroy the non-regenerating beam cannons, but after that, as long as you can efficiently divide your time between shooting down bombers and keeping the Galen tagged, friendly damage output should outpace that of the hostile force.
Everything is fine, but tell me one thing: How am I supposed to disable that beam cannon that keeps repairing itself, even after I destroy it repeatedly?
I would have hoped that the continuous regeneration would have served as a hint that your efforts would be best directed elsewhere, such as swatting the fighters skirmishing around the Phoenicia or destroying the two starboard beams, capable of destroying the Hedetet (if you're coming in after a favorable conclusion to the sixth mission).
The Galen is meant to get away in that mission anyway, so there's no sense replaying the mission because of its escape. The Firestorm can be a fly in the ointment in the final mission, but it can be dealt with with an Akheton and some Stilettos, if you choose to advance.
Almost ready to say, "To hell with spoiler tags."