Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The FRED Workshop => Topic started by: Maksio58 on February 14, 2011, 05:59:30 pm

Title: Testin needed.
Post by: Maksio58 on February 14, 2011, 05:59:30 pm
So i more or less completed the 1st act (7 missions) and first 2 missions of the 2nd act of my campaign (for now i call it New Front, maybe ill think of something more original later).

I need someone to test what i have so far. The briefings definatly need some revising (both merythoric and spellchecking) but ill get on that later. Also the text is going out of bounds every time i use color codes (any help on that would be apreciated).

http://www.box.net/shared/b2is5cjf0r <-----Mod.
http://www.box.net/shared/4mxb3pxyp4 <------Missions

The download is a mod. It contains several extra ships and weapons. Most are taken from the FSport some are custom ships i found usefull and a few weapons were made by me by modification of existing ones. Not all of it is used in the missions but they are integrated with a lot of the files and i didnt want to tamper with them too much and risk an error. You can toy around with them in FRED. The unused extras are: GVD Apophis, GVDr Jackal, LRBVas (Vasudan beam), MRed(slightly upgraded SRed), Archangel bomb (it has a special purpouse), Modified Lucifer (includes shields), modifed GTD Hades (Revised weapons + 1 extra turret)

Note: In mission 5 you have 2 choices: capture or destroy the target. If you decide to destroy him you will skip missions 6 and 7. Also mission 7 contains an easter egg (hint: its related to the containers scattered around the area)


Please post your impressions.
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Spoon on February 14, 2011, 06:32:49 pm
would you like feedback here or in a pm?
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Maksio58 on February 15, 2011, 05:37:50 am
here is fine.  (that way it will keep the thread from "drowning"   :P)
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Nemesis6 on February 15, 2011, 10:43:55 am
Straight off the bat, if you know the word merythoric, I doubt there's much work needed, but I'll take a look later tonight. :)
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: General Battuta on February 15, 2011, 10:52:04 am
Straight off the bat, if you know the word merythoric, I doubt there's much work needed, but I'll take a look later tonight. :)

Someone enlighten me what this word means and what language it's from :|
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Zacam on February 15, 2011, 11:11:29 am
if you know the word merythoric

Is it of Polish origination?
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Maksio58 on February 15, 2011, 11:22:19 am
yeah i MIIIGHT have transfered it from Polish.  *checks an online dictionary* ooops. Says the correct translation would be essential but.....thats not what i ment :confused:. Any way i was refering to factual errors in the briefings. For example: i just tested the campain again myselfe and found i mixed up 2 systems in 1 of the briefings.
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: General Battuta on February 15, 2011, 11:24:06 am
Consistency or continuity would probably do in English, but it's a cool sounding word in Polish.
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Spoon on February 17, 2011, 03:58:14 pm
Finally gotten around to trying this, my first impression:
You forgot to include any of the missions in the download  :p
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Dragon on February 17, 2011, 05:05:51 pm
Bummer.  :)
Update the link and I'll try to find some time to download it and give it a try.
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Maksio58 on February 17, 2011, 06:13:46 pm
What do you mean update the link? I just checked it, works fine for me.
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Spoon on February 17, 2011, 06:17:02 pm
update the link, as in, upload new front with the missions included
so we can actually test stuff
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Maksio58 on February 17, 2011, 07:03:51 pm

Ugh im too tiered. seems i made some kind of error when modifying the tech descriptions and didnt remove the table entry for 1 of the ships i removed. Ill reuplad the file AGAIN without the moded descriptions.
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Nyctaeus on February 17, 2011, 07:26:13 pm
Your nickname sounds so... Polish, so I guess you're from Poland. If you don't know about out polish site, please check it :) www.freespace.pl (http://www.freespace.pl). Every new project is welcome in polish FS community.

[polish]Polska społeczność jest silniejsza niż sie wydaje :D[/polish]
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Aurora Paradox on February 17, 2011, 07:30:15 pm
update the link, as in, upload new front with the missions included
so we can actually test stuff

I'll test the campaign as well once you upload the mission files.  I will post my thoughts on each mission as I clear it.

EDIT: Could you post a synopsis of the campaign?

Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Maksio58 on February 17, 2011, 07:31:39 pm
There! Reuploaded, missins present and it doesnt give error messages on laung. Now i have 5h of sleep to get back to. :banghead:

A synopsis? ok.

What i have right now is an operation iagainst a peculiar and unusualy well equiped group of pirates in the first act and skirmishes with shivans in the second.
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Aurora Paradox on February 17, 2011, 09:58:42 pm
The WinRAR archive is corrupt.
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Suongadon on February 17, 2011, 10:54:03 pm
Huh. It works fine for me - though I had to restart the download a couple times because it kept quitting about 3/4th through.


I'll play through it and post comments tomorrow.
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Aurora Paradox on February 18, 2011, 12:33:24 am
though I had to restart the download a couple times because it kept quitting about 3/4th through.

That is most likely what happened to me.  I've re-downloaded the file and everything seems in order.  I'll start my testing tomorrow.
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: swamper123 on February 18, 2011, 09:03:28 pm
The first mission is very difficult, there are to much ships coming to you, and you cant protect the vasudan ship , also its generates a large explosion that kill any ship in a considerable radius , and  , Thief 1 and 2 have a very good escort also , and when I was able to reach thief 2 and destroy it  ,I destroyed accidentaly the cargo and failed the mission , and one more thing , I think you should make my wingmates invulnerables, Well that was my first impression  but I like so much the story so far
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Maksio58 on February 19, 2011, 04:23:06 am
Wierd, i was certain i made the 2 cargo containers invunerable becouse i came to the conclusion it is too difucult (not impossible mind you) to destroy the freighters without destroying them. Inicialy i had them become invounurable for a second when the  respective freighter is destroyed. Ill check if i forgot to remove that SEXP (It removed the invunurability after the freighter exploded). As for the Pirate fighters, i supose i can remove 1 ship from every wing.
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: swamper123 on February 19, 2011, 07:39:59 am
Probably it become vulnerable because I used cheats cause all the ships was attacking me. I don't know if that is possible
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Spoon on February 19, 2011, 10:47:30 am
First off, this campaign desperately requires a spelling check. There are so many typo's in here. Just throw the misssion files into openoffice/word and check it.
Second off, there is no starfield.pof used anywhere!
First mission could do with a initial directive, and I think you used ships orders instead of a wing order on alpha for the nav points. Alpha 2 is pretty much flying with its nose up the thrusters of alpha 1.
There are several cases where there is no delay between messages, causing 3-4 messages to appear on screen at the same time.
I didn't really found mission 1 too hard, especially since this campaign uses retail a.i., making the enemy slow&sluggish and just not very dangerous
In the mission where you have to protect the convoy, I find it odd that those ships are not moving away from the node before jumping. I was also already done killing all the enemies and had to wait around for a minute with nothing happening before the convoy jumped.

This campaign feels like derelict lite so far. Same kinda setting, same endless waves of pirate wings only without the interesting banter.
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Maksio58 on February 19, 2011, 03:52:49 pm
Yeah i noticed the mesagege thing just today. Its strange sicne it worked properly before and when i look into the mission files the delays are set. I have no idea why that is hapening. It worked fine when i played through the campaign the first time and when i tested the missions individualy before. I allso have a wierd problem with using color code in briefings and command briefings. The text just goes off screen, in effect "eating" 1 or 2 words before startin a new line. This only hapenes to lines which include at least 1 colored word.


As for the second mission, ive had some balancing issues with that. Inicialy the pirate force had 1 more wing and more waves but i found they eventualy overwhelmed the wingmen. In retrospect that might have been becouse i orderd Alpha to guard the Alaska every time so it was just me and Kappa against 3 wings of fighters while Alpha wiped out the Athenas. Im not sure wether to just add 1 wave to each of the fighter wings or also re-add the second wing of Apollo's.

As for the convoy being stationary, i would have to add even more wings or waves of pirates if it were moving away since it would be increasingly harder for the Athenas to reach the Alaska. Though i might just drop the "pirates are coming from Antares" idea and just have them apear around the convoy. Or i just might redesign the mission completly.

Also what do you mean by a starfield.pof? Im seting the number of stars in the background editor and i didnt see any problems.
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: General Battuta on February 19, 2011, 03:53:50 pm
It's often better to set stars to 0 in the background editor and enter 'starfield.pof' in the 'skybox model' field.
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Maksio58 on February 19, 2011, 04:05:12 pm
oh i see. But then the starfield will be the same in every mission correct? So far all the action in act 1 is in a single system but act 2 is in another. Then, I supose not many people would even care.


The message delay thing fixed itselfe....i dont know how. I did some unrelated tweaks to most of the missions but i didnt touch the message delays (as i said before they were set fine when i checked). Come to think of it i did have some wierd self fixing glitches in the past. Like fighters taking the special explosion from the imhotep in mission 1. I would shoot down a fighter and wonder why its swirling for so long and then BOOM.

As for the wingmen flying so close to eachother in mission 1......n ide why they are doing it. The waypoint order is given to the wing not the ships. Fighters remain in formation in every other mission which includes a wing folowing waypoints.
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Zacam on February 19, 2011, 04:31:26 pm

Skyboxes can be different every mission. And the starfield itself is separate from the suns/nebula/planets (unless you decide to bake them all into a skybox)
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Maksio58 on February 19, 2011, 06:55:04 pm
Updated the first post with 2 links (The mod assests and missions are nowin separate .vp files so you dont have to download the entire package every time i modify the missions).

Changes:
 
  -Briefings and messages spellchecked in all missions except the second mission in act 1 (will be remaking this one from scratch later)

  - Pirates in mission 1 have been slightly weakened, added a Follow Alpha 1 directive and the stolen containers will become vunerable a few seconds after the freighter carrying them is destroyed (so be carefull)

   - 1 wave extra added to the 2 pirate fighter wings (did this before deciding to remake the mission)

   - Fixed the Red alert status not transfering properly from mission 4 to mission 5.

   -Modified the loadout options for mission 7 (forgot to do it before so you could rip those pirates apart with kayser armed Maras if you wanted :P)

   - Fixed the message delays not working (at least i hope i fixed them, i still dont know what went wrong in the first place)




Next update will include a completly new second mission and a third mission for act 2 + any tweaks i may do based on sugestions until then.
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: swamper123 on February 19, 2011, 09:09:06 pm
Nice I will test them tomorrow (:
Title: Re: Testin needed.
Post by: Aurora Paradox on February 19, 2011, 11:08:10 pm
I haven't had much time to do any testing.  I'll download the updates and try and find some time to play the new version.  Can't make any guarantees though.  I think I might need a vacation from testing.