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General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: Lucika on February 20, 2011, 02:46:10 pm

Title: Let's Play Casualties of War! [FINISHED]
Post by: Lucika on February 20, 2011, 02:46:10 pm
After playing SGWP2 (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=68847.0) (ehh...) and Ridiculous (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=72646.0), it is time to LP Casualties of War!

I will be doing Vassago's Dirge as well if I figure out how to pronounce it. :D

Anyway, Part 1 is here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ_ee-RLWf8) and the second one is currently uploading.
Full playlist here (http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=5C5CD8DFE8748049).

Enjoy! :)
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Hades on February 20, 2011, 02:58:20 pm
Va-sa-goes Der-je is probably how you pronounce it.

Also cool, I'll give Part 1 a watch soon.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: TopAce on February 20, 2011, 03:26:55 pm
Whoops. You spotted the first - and hopefully the last - typo in the mod. :)

Looking forward to some actual gameplay, though.

Also you wrote in the video description that "it should be better than SGWP2." Why do I get the impression that you have low expectations? :lol:
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on February 20, 2011, 03:40:16 pm
:lol: I don't but the two FS campaigns I LPed so far were SGWP2 and Ridiculous (which I have to consider a wasted opportunity and has a loads of gameplay similarities IMHO with the aforementioned turd). As such, (only!) as an LPer I have bad experiences. :P

EDIT: Part 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt87OpL1Yxo).
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: General Battuta on February 20, 2011, 03:46:38 pm
Christ dude, you could let up on the guy's first campaign a bit.  :blah: It was generally well-liked, you've registered your opinion, now we want to encourage IronBeer to keep FREDding instead of driving him off.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on February 20, 2011, 03:49:02 pm
Christ dude, you could let up on the guy's first campaign a bit.  :blah: It was generally well-liked, you've registered your opinion, now we want to encourage IronBeer to keep FREDding instead of driving him off.

I myself said I am sure that his next campaign (and I encourage him to make one) will be really good, and this one didn't start half bad either.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: TopAce on February 20, 2011, 04:07:34 pm
Remember that the Banshee X is NOT any useful against hulls. Just use your Prom Ses against the fighters. I admit that its name is misleading, though.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on February 20, 2011, 04:11:18 pm
I realize this during Mission 2. And again, curse you for forcing me to do these things like thinking and energy management. :P
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: IronBeer on February 20, 2011, 09:18:58 pm
I myself said I am sure that his next campaign (and I encourage him to make one) will be really good, and this one didn't start half bad either.
(http://files.sharenator.com/I_aint_Even_mad_RE_REPORTED-s294x210-95117.gif)

If yours was the most negative posted response to Ridiculous, then I think I'm doing OK. You do raise some decent points, but I'd appreciate it if you could have been a little more specific. But let's not get derailed here, hm?
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on February 21, 2011, 05:53:46 pm
Yeah, let's not get derailed spice up the seemingly endless waves of hostiles, shorten them, add more dialogue, you wrote good ones

Anyway, here is Part 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B23cFq3c7jM), the next will be up soon as well. I get CONFUZ- (but I prevail)
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on February 21, 2011, 06:40:54 pm
And here is Part 4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjBRqgOcu6g).
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: TopAce on February 22, 2011, 04:25:59 am
The latest two vids call for some comments, I guess.

I have never had a problem with mission 2. You have to scan the container, disable the freighter, then dogfight. Even when I ordered wingmen to protect the freighters, and joined in, it all came down to dogfighting, far away from the freighters (just like in your walkthrough). In many of my playthroughs, I simply ordered everyone to either defend me or engage the enemy, and fought until the mission ended.

The "invisible" fighters are Ptahs, who are stealth fighters armed with Banshee Xs. There will be some more Ptahs in the campaign as well, so if you get EMPed, look behind you and you'll likely get across one or two of those guys.

The dogfighting part was much longer (and bogus) in the original version. Apparently, even now when they jump out once the freighters are down/escaped. It wasn't rare, in previous versions of the mission, for the mission to drag on for 12-15 minutes, 7-10 of which was destroying Horuses.

The debriefing is indeed faulty. It was present in the original and left in in the rebuilt version, so it's partly my fault too. I don't recall changing anything in the briefing texts apart from spellchecking.

Mission-wise, I was primarily interested in fixing mission-breaking bugs. You'd have broken mission 2 in two of your playthroughs had you played the original.

As for the freighters:
Spoiler:
I'm aware that it's strange that Freighter 1 happens to contain Icarus. In the original version, the freighters were given default names, and Icarus was in Ma'at 17 (no, not Bes 17). I advised Shadow to change the freighters' names, which he apparently did. I didn't complain, because I was concerned with getting the debriefs and the campaign file work right. I'd rather see people compain about a freighter's name than complain about getting a success debrief and not able to progress in the campaign.


Mission 3:
Looks like the release contains an older revision of the mission. The spelling errors (like "breifing") and that damn comma in "Get cracking pilot" were fixed in the latest revision, and there should be also a "Wait for Transport to Dock" directive.

About the Weapons subsystem: You have to tag it so the fleet knows where the Queb is, and you have to destroy it to disable its beams, like it is said in the briefing.

Generally speaking:
It's good that you're doing these video playthroughs, so thumbs up for your efforts, Lucika. :) Now we can see it through the eyes of one of our players. I'm certain that these videos will be useful for CoW2.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on February 22, 2011, 07:12:08 am
I'm glad that you appreciate the effort. :) For the Ptahs I'd probably recommend a message, maybe from a wingmate, saying something along the lines of "What the hell, I can't target some of these Vasudans", that'd be enough to clue the player (or at least me) in that everything is going as it is supposed to.

I think the freighter difficulties are mostly due to my personal lack of dogfighting skills. :D

M3: I put the pieces together post-recording. :D Next run will be coming soong (currently setting up my brand new computer ;7)

I'm glad that you appreciate these playthroughs I'm doing. :)

And again, updates will be coming soon.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: TrashMan on February 22, 2011, 08:50:30 am
UUU..a new Let's play..I love let's play's.  :D

They seem to be popping up recently. The more the merrier I say!
Hopefully someone will do a let's play of a FOW... ;7
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Sololop on February 22, 2011, 10:47:10 am
I dunno if its your videos or what, but your videos always play through my headphones in Mono. (Right speaker only) and its quite odd.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on February 22, 2011, 10:52:09 am
Yes, my microphone sucks. That is, it sucked. Yay for the new comp!
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on February 26, 2011, 12:56:05 pm
Part 5 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lLNXgCVQV8). Laptopland hates me. :(
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: TopAce on February 26, 2011, 02:23:26 pm
Lucika, there's a walkthrough stickied on the CoW forum. You can consult that for some tips.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on February 26, 2011, 02:24:29 pm
I probably will. Thanks :)
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: TopAce on March 03, 2011, 09:42:31 am
Small bump...

Any news on this? I hope your present difficulties with mission 3 didn't discourage you from continuing.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on March 03, 2011, 10:11:02 am
It definitely didn't, I am merely having problems with my new laptop and that takes away my time - plus I try not to use the old one as much because it has overheating issues. I hope that it will be working fine soon and I can present you CoW in total eyecandy mode. :)
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on March 16, 2011, 10:04:28 am
!!UPDATE!!

Just held another session, managed to progress :yes:, curently rendering the footage and will be uploading soon.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on March 16, 2011, 12:03:14 pm
Part 6 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCb_MN1xUwk) is up! :)
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: TopAce on March 16, 2011, 12:36:51 pm
What the hell? :wtf: The Queb's Weapons subsys isn't meant to be invulnerable at any stage of the mission. Most of the time I simply fall back and snipe the Weapons from a distance between the "Wait for transport to dock" message and TAGging. I'm convinced that either your download is corrupted, or the main download is messy. No one has posted any feedback on the campaign, so I can draw conclusions based on your video walkthrough only.

However,

Spoiler:
Not having to follow the transport to fulfill the "Follow Transport" directive is definitely a design and testing error.

[EDIT]I've just replayed the mission, and the Queb's Weapons are vulnerable, as they should be.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on March 16, 2011, 01:03:43 pm
No one has posted any feedback on the campaign, so I can draw conclusions based on your video walkthrough only.

'Tis a shame. It is an enjoyable experience. :)

I'm convinced that either your download is corrupted, or the main download is messy.

I'd be happy to check that for you, I'll reDL the campaign and replay the mission from the tech room, probably tomorrow.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: TopAce on March 16, 2011, 02:58:24 pm
As a heads-up, the following couple of missions will be easier, and I think, better. Start to worry when you reach "Breaking the Wall" though.  :P That's the 8th mission.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on March 16, 2011, 03:07:37 pm
I've currently played until the mission where the player assaults the FAA installation. :nod: Uploads will be coming soon.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: TopAce on March 16, 2011, 03:32:29 pm
Please see the official release thread as well. I uploaded the most recent missions. Apparently, Shadow didn't include the most recent versions. There are no major changes, but the most recent versions run more smoothly, and stuff happen at a more followable pace, especially in the last mission.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on March 16, 2011, 03:50:19 pm
Please see the official release thread as well. I uploaded the most recent missions. Apparently, Shadow didn't include the most recent versions. There are no major changes, but the most recent versions run more smoothly, and stuff happen at a more followable pace, especially in the last mission.

Will do, thanks. :) However please be advised that everything up until part 9 has already been recorded and as such it will feature the currently present versions.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on March 17, 2011, 06:42:58 pm
Part 7 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U61XUa3mmAs)! :)
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: TopAce on March 18, 2011, 10:29:52 am
My answers to your video:

The statement in the Command briefing was issued by the Adharan Government, the faction that you fight against in this campaign. That's why they said the GTVA was working in conjunction with known terrorist cells. Don't ask why he says "known terrorist cells," because I don't know what he's referring to. I guess it's a flat-out lie to get the people of Upuaat and Adhara on his side. I don't know, ask Shadow if you're interested.

Breifing and attemtping are indeed there. I even put a comma between the misspelled breifing and pilots. I don't know why I failed to notice that misspelling. It was misspelled a couple of other places too, so I guess I should have paid more attention. Prejudice, however, is spelled correctly in the most recent version of the mission.

As for the mission itself: it played out as well as it was meant to. In the original version, the AWACS had the "big damage" flag AND you were not given Trebuchets as a default loadout, so you'd have been stuck with it for a while more had you played the first release. You'd have also broken the mission at one point also.

Remember that CoW1 is a really old campaign. That's why there are some fillers in the campaign, like this nebula mission ("Between Heaven and Hell")
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on March 20, 2011, 07:21:50 pm
My answers to your video:

The statement in the Command briefing was issued by the Adharan Government, the faction that you fight against in this campaign. That's why they said the GTVA was working in conjunction with known terrorist cells. Don't ask why he says "known terrorist cells," because I don't know what he's referring to. I guess it's a flat-out lie to get the people of Upuaat and Adhara on his side. I don't know, ask Shadow if you're interested.

Breifing and attemtping are indeed there. I even put a comma between the misspelled breifing and pilots. I don't know why I failed to notice that misspelling. It was misspelled a couple of other places too, so I guess I should have paid more attention. Prejudice, however, is spelled correctly in the most recent version of the mission.

As for the mission itself: it played out as well as it was meant to. In the original version, the AWACS had the "big damage" flag AND you were not given Trebuchets as a default loadout, so you'd have been stuck with it for a while more had you played the first release. You'd have also broken the mission at one point also.

Remember that CoW1 is a really old campaign. That's why there are some fillers in the campaign, like this nebula mission ("Between Heaven and Hell")

I see, thank you for the clarifications.

By the way, here is Part 8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9aYNu-9L_g) :)
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on March 21, 2011, 01:37:01 pm
Part 9 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-wL9PSevwY) is here. Time to hold a new session ;)
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: TopAce on March 21, 2011, 04:03:15 pm
Comments:

The Tempest:
Glad you liked it. :)

A Hen in the Foxhouse:
You are supposed to defend the cargo, not the freighters. If the cargo is down, the freighter's fate has no consequence to the outcome of the mission. In the original, the freighters were important. I figured it makes no sense to consider the mission a success if cargoless freighters make it home. The debriefing wasn't changed, because voice acting was fixed.

Dante's Inferno:
The reason the station fired simultaneously with asking a cease-fire is because the Icarus device (the big beam) is still unreliable. I guess :nervous: I'm not 100% about this, because I didn't ask Shadow about it.

The warships behave the way they behave because they have attack orders, not properly set up waypoints. By the time I'd have gotten to work on these miniscule details, I lost enthusiasm. I was concerned with getting the battle end every time. There were occasions (this is valid for the next two missions too) when one of the Vasudan warships just went out of range, breaking the mission.

Expect some more big battles in the next two missions. The last mission will also feature a rather big battle, but you'll be given a different order, so that battle won't appear as hectic as the three missions preceding it.

I'll comment on those once the vids are up.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on March 22, 2011, 05:26:04 pm
Part 10 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tznWIWNE9hA)
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: TopAce on March 22, 2011, 05:53:14 pm
Well, "Breaking the Wall" is probably the worst mission in the campaign, so don't get discouraged.

Some hints: Use energy management and use Banshees against the beams. The beams you have to destroy are the forward anti-warship beams. That's two turrets per Sobek if you're minimalistic.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on April 09, 2011, 06:01:41 am
Part 11 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8ucN77cbKw)
Part 12 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zUGFz_JFdU)
Part 13 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZEaCpAlzo0)

I honestly don't know. The dialogue was so vague! I mean, vengeance/justice? What? Where? Who? Why didn't anyone mention this?
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: TopAce on April 09, 2011, 06:47:21 am
Spoiler:
The Ogdoad was meant to go down. The mission played out as it should; however, the dialog and the action were out of sync, as you noticed. I was worried it would happen, but I always disliked this mission, that's why I lost the last bits of my enthusiasm to get this part right. I spend a bunch of time to get the big warship battle play itself out. Some Sobeks always got out of range and the friendly warships never pursued them. I'm glad the mission didn't break.

Storywise: Command wanted the Ogdoad captured IIRC, but Captain Houser lost his mind and destroyed the station in revenge of his son, whom he lost before the mission (this is mentioned in the brieifng). Well, yes, this plot element came out of nowhere, but a storyline rewrite fell outside the scope of the project. That's why it strikes you (and me too, BTW) as vague.

About mission 8, "Breaking the Wall":

Glad you didn't struggle too much with it, even though you didn't disarm one Sobek until later in the mission. The Apep (I think) wasn't meant to do anything in the mission but show its face. I really don't know. Ask Shadow.

Looking forward to your overall review after finishing the last mission (which is where you are now).

Also, a bit of advice for the last mission: You aren't in a hurry. Head toward the Apep with all your wingmen, take down the fighters that cross your path, then destroy the engines.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: starlord on April 09, 2011, 09:43:41 am
Hey lucika, what about a let's play of shrouding the light next? it is a really good campaign...
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on April 09, 2011, 12:16:04 pm
I know it, I love it. I might as well do it but it might be too long ;)

Final videos recorded, processing will take place soon.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: starlord on April 12, 2011, 04:17:51 am
start with StL: origins then, it's less long it seems!

Or cardinal spear.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on May 01, 2011, 03:16:02 pm
Conclusion! Last mission + Opinion videos

Part 14 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFAksL_GuC8)
Part 15 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsr7hkFu6Gw)
Part 16 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Z0v7iBRio)
Part 17 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k6w1ZTegYI)

Thank you for watching, VD will be coming up soon.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: TopAce on May 01, 2011, 05:07:44 pm
I wholeheartedly agree with your analysis there, Lucika. Yes, we should have spent much more time on this. Well, the timing is indeed off in the later missions, but at least they played out reliably, and here comes the already-mentioned "loss of motivation" excuse (from my part), and Shadow was very busy throughout the dev period.

I hope that those that played the original view the revamp in a more favorable light.

As for the last mission: I'm nearly 100% convinced you didn't play the latest version of it, because the end cutscene should have played out somewhat differently and the Other Big Event should have happened much sooner than it did. The stealth fighters kept you distracted from following the events, unfortunately.

CoW2 Revamp will be different than this. I don't know if it'll be better or not; Shadow is reworking the last two missions completely, but I don't know how different they'll be from the originals, because I haven't seen them yet. Shadow has been AWOL again for a good while now.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War!
Post by: Lucika on May 01, 2011, 07:36:34 pm
Yes, that wasn't the latest version since I haven't transferred those files to my new laptop.

As for the campaign, may I ask what stood behind the set public release date? I myself also know that that can cause issues but while in my case it was an outside necessity, I am interested if this case was just a self-set deadline or not.

I am looking forward to CoW2 Revamp. :)

Also, playlist added to OP.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War! [FINISHED]
Post by: TopAce on May 02, 2011, 01:10:06 am
There was no particular reason for setting that release date, as far as I'm aware.
Title: Re: Let's Play Casualties of War! [FINISHED]
Post by: starlord on May 02, 2011, 02:16:30 am
what do you count on playing next lucika? you mentionned VD? what is this? Also, what about cardinal spear at some point?