Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The FRED Workshop => Topic started by: Grunt on June 24, 2008, 01:49:40 pm

Title: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Grunt on June 24, 2008, 01:49:40 pm
(http://w3.enternet.hu/fscult/TheZone.jpg)

The Centaur Project

This release includes two chapters of the story in one VP file:

Chapter One: The Duke and the Emperor (released 2005)
Chapter Two: The Zone (released now)

It was created primarily for retail FS2, but can be played with FSO release 3.6.10 final, using the patch below.

FEATURES

- 18 missions with voices, in a branching structure (the player's actions will affect the next missions).
- 8 new ships (4 capital ships, 3 fighters, 1 installation)
- Several ship models from the original game, with corrected dock points and path data
- 5 new weapons (both fighter and capship weapons)
- Squad Logos
- Command briefing animations
- Missions of Chapter One have been updated based on player feedback

EXTRAS
Spoiler:
My voice ! :D
The second best bonus mission ever.

DOWNLOAD
http://www.pgrunt.com/tcp

Latest FSO patch:
http://www.pgrunt.com/tcp/FSOpatch.rar

MORE INFO
http://w3.enternet.hu/fscult/TCP.htm

And yes, it is old ...  :)
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Snail on June 24, 2008, 01:51:40 pm
EXTRAS
Spoiler:
???
Whoah. Intriguing...


I haven't played TCP 1 yet, but I may go play it later, this looks interesting.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Grunt on June 24, 2008, 01:59:40 pm
It has always been an interesting feature of the site, that I could receive critics even before I posted something...   :nervous:
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Mobius on June 24, 2008, 02:11:45 pm
Incredible...where have you been?!?

I particurarly liked your command briefing anis... ;7
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: colecampbell666 on June 24, 2008, 02:54:45 pm
I always thought that TCP died years ago. Cool.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: shiv on June 24, 2008, 03:06:50 pm
Cool. Downloading ;7
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Grunt on June 24, 2008, 03:29:22 pm
Incredible...where have you been?!?

In front of a PC ... FREDding and making anis.
Also devoted some time to life and family...  ;)
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Snail on June 24, 2008, 04:06:24 pm
I always thought that TCP died years ago. Cool.
Me too, but I do seem to remember some discussion about it a while ago. Though I forgot what brought it up.

Also devoted some time to life and family...  ;)
You did what now? :wtf:
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: ShadowGorrath on June 24, 2008, 04:22:20 pm
Doesn't work on SCP. And Retail doesn't work to me. . .
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: BloodEagle on June 24, 2008, 07:46:02 pm
I can't get it to run in retail or open.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Spicious on June 24, 2008, 07:59:07 pm
A debug build is nice enough to point out what it's unhappy about.
weapons.tbl, line 1165: move the damage entry to above the blast force entry.

It also whines about explode1 only having one LOD. You can get rid of that by adding
Code: [Select]
$Name: Explode1
$LOD: 1
to the weapons_expl.tbl
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Spicious on June 24, 2008, 09:08:45 pm
It's likely that the issue with the weapons.tbl is causing the game to give up after that entry, causing it to skip all the secondary weapons.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Grunt on June 24, 2008, 11:29:08 pm
You have secondaries in all missions (in retail).
If it does not work on retail then it is something with the installation.
Make sure you have cleaned your data subfolders and you have no other modded vp files in the FS2 main directory.
It is always good to start with a new pilot (as the readme says).

It is retail only because I had no time to follow the changes in SCP builds and to make the artwork for the advanced features either.
The previous release (Chapter One that is the first 7 missions of this release) used to work on FSO, only mission2 (tcp02.fs2) needed a patch.
I did not enclose the patch now, because I have changed / updated Chapter One missions as well (for retail), and it may not work with the old patch now.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: achtung on June 25, 2008, 03:22:29 am
So, you're not going to patch them for SCP use?
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: griffon67 on June 25, 2008, 04:05:32 am
maybe you could ask someone to patch it to SCP =)
then you continue modding with SCP use.

I'll try that campaign. there must be a way to add those secondaries with modding  :p
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Droid803 on June 25, 2008, 01:00:04 pm
I can't play this even though I want to, due to the fact it doesn't work on SCP...
*sigh*
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Grunt on June 25, 2008, 01:50:22 pm
So, you're not going to patch them for SCP use?
I can't do, I've never used SCP actually.
It was PhReAk who made the patch for Chapter One.
It was only one SEXP that had to be changed in the 2nd mission, all the rest worked well with that build.
I released mission 2 with that SCP-friendly SEXP now.
The secondary / capship issue is something new, that's a good example why it is difficult to follow SCP with user campaigns.
If someone takes the time to patch I'll greet him and give credits. That's all I can promise.
TCP has always been a retail campaign, even then it took quite a long time to get here.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Admiral MS on June 25, 2008, 03:28:28 pm
Just fixed the two things Spicious found and changed my tables according to it... haven't played many missions of the campaign but these worked without a problem. Attached the two changed files to my post so that everyone can test them.

[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Grunt on June 25, 2008, 03:57:24 pm
I also uploaded it here:

http://www.pgrunt.com/tcp/FSOpatch.rar

Will update the file if necessary.

Thanks to Spicious for the hint and to Admiral MS for the files !
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: achtung on June 26, 2008, 04:32:34 am
Uploaded to FreeSpaceMods.net (http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php?view.256)  Everything look ok?
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Grunt on June 26, 2008, 08:42:05 am
Uploaded to FreeSpaceMods.net (http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php?view.256)  Everything look ok?

Looks good except the following:

The old one should be removed. This release includes the old missions with improvements / corrections.
Authors are: Grunt, stepanshuk, Laibon
The image is not a screenshot actually but a render.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Admiral MS on June 26, 2008, 10:36:03 am
Mission 15 can't be completed with newer SCP versions because a SEXP is slightly different from retail and returns a true from the beginning and not just when it should do. Fixed the file...
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Grunt on June 26, 2008, 11:18:52 am
Great !
Merged into the patch file (see the download link in the firs post).
Thanks a lot !  :)

This one needs patching for retail FS as well :(
Thanks again Admiral MS for the feedback !
Uploaded a RETAIL patch, see first post.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Goober5000 on June 26, 2008, 01:01:48 pm
Which sexp is that?
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Mobius on June 26, 2008, 01:04:08 pm
Dammit I want to know how to create Command Anis!!! ;7

How did you create them, grunt?!?
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Grunt on June 26, 2008, 01:10:12 pm
Which sexp is that?
( secondary-ammo-pct "Alpha 1" 4 ) 100

In retail numbers from 0 to 2 are valid for bank selection, and 3 would check the average percentage of fired missiles for all banks.
In SCP 0-3 is valid for banks and 4 checks the average.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Snail on June 26, 2008, 01:14:44 pm
How did you create them, grunt?!?
It's easy enough to create static ones but you need something like Cinema 4D to make animated ones (FRAPS or GameCam work too I would guess).

You save each frame as a single .PCX file (ending in 0001.pcx, 0002.pcx, 0003.pcx, etc.) and then use the ANI creator to make it into an .ani.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Grunt on June 26, 2008, 01:20:19 pm
Dammit I want to know how to create Command Anis!!! ;7

How did you create them, grunt?!?

You need to model whatever you want in a 3D package (like Truespace, or MAX) and animate.
Preferably save all frames as separate images.
Convert all images into 8 bit color paletted format with a 2D package like Corel or Photoshop (for retail FS that is).
Do not use too dynamic color range because 8 bits can not handle that, and the converted images will look ugly.
All frames need to use the exact same color palette.
Use Anibuilder to make the ani.
:)
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Snail on June 26, 2008, 01:22:42 pm
I thought newer versions of Anibuilder standardized the color palette.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Grunt on June 26, 2008, 01:56:30 pm
I thought newer versions of Anibuilder standardized the color palette.
They do adjust the palette of all images to that of the first one.
It is not always what you want.
If the first one is red only, all frames will be red.
It's a lot of fiddling with palettes until it actually gets an acceptable look.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: achtung on June 26, 2008, 02:50:23 pm
Uploaded to FreeSpaceMods.net (http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php?view.256)  Everything look ok?

Looks good except the following:

The old one should be removed. This release includes the old missions with improvements / corrections.
Authors are: Grunt, stepanshuk, Laibon
The image is not a screenshot actually but a render.

Fixed.  Don't mind the "screenshot" name, I think it's pretty obvious it's a render.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Goober5000 on June 26, 2008, 04:07:08 pm
Which sexp is that?
( secondary-ammo-pct "Alpha 1" 4 ) 100

In retail numbers from 0 to 2 are valid for bank selection, and 3 would check the average percentage of fired missiles for all banks.
In SCP 0-3 is valid for banks and 4 checks the average.
Okay, that's a bug then.  I'm fixing it in the SCP.

EDIT: Fixed.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Admiral MS on June 26, 2008, 04:42:06 pm
I'm not sure if it's a bug (or maybe just something with my freespace? ) but in retail this seems to be no problem. In mission 13 there is a very long message, the soundfile plays over a minute. The player shouldn't be able to read all the message as text from the beginning so there are chained events with other textmessages which don't use sound files and these messages should be displayed when the person speaking starts saying this. For some reason SCP won't display any of the following textmessages before the soundfile comes to it's end. Then it displays all of them at the same moment.

Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Grunt on June 27, 2008, 01:00:19 am

Okay, that's a bug then.  I'm fixing it in the SCP.

EDIT: Fixed.

Wow. We need to patch the patch then. :D
Do capships have weapons now (flaks beams, etc.) ?
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Spicious on June 27, 2008, 01:43:54 am
The turret issue was there because the weapons.tbl was broken and fs2_open tends to be more strict about this sort of thing.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Grunt on June 28, 2008, 02:16:57 am
Okay, that's a bug then.  I'm fixing it in the SCP.

EDIT: Fixed.

When will that fixed build get to the players ?
Anyway the latest TCP patch is still for SCP 3.6.9 final.
The AI behaviour seems to have changed since retail, that is causing balance issues.
Wingmates now do not follow the lead as default (like they did in retail).
Instead they stay still and engage closeby enemy even if not instructed.
Also capship AAA looks to be more effective.
I've noticed only now that SEXPs "never-warp" and "break-warp" are ignored when wingmates are ordered to depart (also in retail). Should it work like that ?  :doubt:
Fixed these in the latest TCP patch ! It seems to be quite good with SCP now.
Still working on it ...
 
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Grunt on June 28, 2008, 08:37:50 am
I've played it through with FSO 3.6.9 final. It works well for that build with the latest TCP FSO patch.
One will also need the appropriate patch for retail FS !
See first post for the links.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Grunt on June 30, 2008, 02:42:41 pm
It closely follows the Half Life 2 episodes.
At least that's the pattern I 've noticed ... 
So don't panic ! :pimp:
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Goober5000 on July 22, 2008, 12:33:39 am
I completely forgot to highlight this earlier. :nervous:
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: achtung on July 22, 2008, 08:26:07 am
So how far along are the patches?

Should it be safe to upload this to fsmods yet?
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: starlord on July 22, 2008, 01:30:55 pm
Yeah, the centaur rises again.

great to hear about this, grunt.

Is your campaign complete or does it features more upcomming parts?
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Grunt on July 25, 2008, 01:02:58 am
I completely forgot to highlight this earlier. :nervous:

Thanks ! Good to see the highlight.  :cool:

Swantz:
It is all patched now. The retail fixes are included in the new VP file now.
The FSO patch has a mod.ini so that it uses the mediavps.

starlord:
A third, final chapter is in the making. It's hard to say when it comes though, because I also need to make new models for this one.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: starlord on July 25, 2008, 11:31:29 am
Final chapter? After having looked at the great centaur plan I thought it would run on five. But 3 is good indeed: makes it closer to the finish.

Best of luck! This will be one of the first times I see a campaign proposing a hypothesis on the last shivan terran engagement.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: nodikus on August 11, 2008, 10:48:38 pm
Hello,
I have been playing this campaign and I'm really enjoying it. However I've run into a problem on mission 15: alone in space.

After being spotted a few time no matter what I did I exited to doublecheck that I had the patch installed correctly. As far as I can tell I did and didn't alter anything. But When I started it back up to try again there are no ships in the selection screen. No ships are assigned and there are none to assign to either me or my wingmen. Nothing I've tried has changed this.

Any help would be appreaciated.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: colecampbell666 on August 12, 2008, 07:42:08 am
You have either corrupted your pilot file by switching midway through campaigns, or you have encountered the Red-Alert Bug. Use the 3.6.10 build in my signature, unzip it with 7-Zip, and put it in your FS folder, select it in the launcher.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Grunt on August 12, 2008, 09:45:28 am
Which sexp is that?
( secondary-ammo-pct "Alpha 1" 4 ) 100

In retail numbers from 0 to 2 are valid for bank selection, and 3 would check the average percentage of fired missiles for all banks.
In SCP 0-3 is valid for banks and 4 checks the average.

The above bug of SCP build 3.6.9 caused this issue (being spotted) in mission 15.
The current TCP patch fixes that, but when later SCP builds address the bug, the patched mission will no longer be needed.
Not sure if it has already been fixed with 3.6.10.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: nodikus on August 12, 2008, 12:32:20 pm
I might of changed pilots in order to test something, must have corrupted it then. The 3.6.10 build didn't help. Looks like I might just have to restart. Thanks anyway.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: BS403 on August 30, 2008, 01:57:46 am
I might of changed pilots in order to test something, must have corrupted it then. The 3.6.10 build didn't help. Looks like I might just have to restart. Thanks anyway.
Which sexp is that?
( secondary-ammo-pct "Alpha 1" 4 ) 100

In retail numbers from 0 to 2 are valid for bank selection, and 3 would check the average percentage of fired missiles for all banks.
In SCP 0-3 is valid for banks and 4 checks the average.

The above bug of SCP build 3.6.9 caused this issue (being spotted) in mission 15.
The current TCP patch fixes that, but when later SCP builds address the bug, the patched mission will no longer be needed.
Not sure if it has already been fixed with 3.6.10.
@ nodikus: in case you didn't notice
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: XM-09182b on October 27, 2009, 10:39:26 pm
Just downloaded the files and SCP patch for this campaign, but it keeps coming up with this error message:

Error: weapons.tbl(line 1166:
Error: Required token = [#End] or [$Name:], found [$Armor Factor:                  ]
in weapon: Particle Cannon
.

File: PARSELO.CPP
Line: 670


Call stack:
------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------


I have the 3.6.10 mediaVPs; any help is appreciated!
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Narwhal on October 31, 2009, 05:43:21 am
What exactly is the TCP mod ? Any universe ?

Could anyone add this to this page :

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Narwhal%27s_Campaign_List#Non-FreeSpace_continuity

I don't know where to put it.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Dragon on October 31, 2009, 06:00:57 am
TCP is set in FS universe.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Grunt on November 01, 2009, 01:22:11 pm
Just downloaded the files and SCP patch for this campaign, but it keeps coming up with this error message:

Error: weapons.tbl(line 1166:
Error: Required token = [#End] or [$Name:], found [$Armor Factor:                  ]
in weapon: Particle Cannon
.

File: PARSELO.CPP
Line: 670


Call stack:
------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------


I have the 3.6.10 mediaVPs; any help is appreciated!

It works well for me with 3.6.10 final and all mediaVPs for that build.
No table errors.
Make sure to follow the readme with your installation.
Clear all other mods.
Make a new pilot before starting the campaign.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: starlord on November 02, 2009, 04:15:18 am
Excellent to hear of you grunt...

Will part 3 be the conclusion of that campaign?
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Grunt on November 02, 2009, 11:14:03 am
Excellent to hear of you grunt...

Will part 3 be the conclusion of that campaign?

Hi there !
Yes it would be the conclusion.
If it will ever be made, as I've had no time to work on it yet.
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: High Max on November 09, 2009, 04:59:41 pm
*_*
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: starlord on November 10, 2009, 03:59:40 am
Yes, the worst thing that can happen in that case is to let the story unfinished: Hopefully someone could then see fit to finish it...
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: Grunt on November 11, 2009, 12:51:16 pm
If it isn't ever made, maybe you could write a small story or novel on what was supposed to happen in part 3 so we could know.

I was thinking about this, but I haven't entirely given up on it yet.
If I had time to write a novel I would rather start working on the mod .  :blah:
Title: Re: RELEASE - TCP - Chapter Two: The Zone
Post by: starlord on November 11, 2009, 01:15:06 pm
I quite agree! Besides, I miss the trifid!