Hmm, pretty nice preview...the Custos is a pretty good damned looking ship. That little bit of cyan there doesn't fit, though. Since the ship seems pretty well suited for low observability.Blame people with "absence of light" settings.
:eek2: MY BODY IS NOT READY AND IT NEVER WILL BE
Is that bit about multiplayer in reference to WiH r1 or is it a new feature in r2? "Games happen quite regularly" is kind of confusing me.
Just make sure non of the new HUD elements are on the same space as the pause label.Press Alt-pause instead?
To have the ability to take a break and check each gauge in peace does sound like a good idea to me.
Doing a hub world is actually rather easy. By using variables to track where in the campaign the player is, and by using a hand-hacked campaign file (FRED's campaign editor can't handle loopbacks). If you look at it in the campaign editor, it'll look like this:
As for the squad management, that's again an application of variables. It's not that hard, if you have a bit of programming experience.
...I was sort of seeing the hub world as the inside of a ship with you walking into a rec-room or briefing room and talking to other characters and squad mates.
Doing a hub world is actually rather easy. By using variables to track where in the campaign the player is, and by using a hand-hacked campaign file (FRED's campaign editor can't handle loopbacks). If you look at it in the campaign editor, it'll look like this:
As for the squad management, that's again an application of variables. It's not that hard, if you have a bit of programming experience.
I guess my question is how are you guys doing the UI for interacting with other characters in that world and squad management? Perhaps I've let my imagination run away with me, but from what Gen Battuta was saying I was sort of seeing the hub world as the inside of a ship with you walking into a rec-room or briefing room and talking to other characters and squad mates. But I thought that was beyond the capabilities of the FSO engine which is understandable since it is a space-flight sim. Is it a comm list that you bring up in the hub world and you then have dialogue options? If you can't say too much about the UI and hub world as not to give away plot points I understand. But I'm interested in how you guys are handling the UI.
Doing a hub world is actually rather easy. By using variables to track where in the campaign the player is, and by using a hand-hacked campaign file (FRED's campaign editor can't handle loopbacks). If you look at it in the campaign editor, it'll look like this:
As for the squad management, that's again an application of variables. It's not that hard, if you have a bit of programming experience.
I guess my question is how are you guys doing the UI for interacting with other characters in that world and squad management? Perhaps I've let my imagination run away with me, but from what Gen Battuta was saying I was sort of seeing the hub world as the inside of a ship with you walking into a rec-room or briefing room and talking to other characters and squad mates. But I thought that was beyond the capabilities of the FSO engine which is understandable since it is a space-flight sim. Is it a comm list that you bring up in the hub world and you then have dialogue options? If you can't say too much about the UI and hub world as not to give away plot points I understand. But I'm interested in how you guys are handling the UI.
It'll be a regular space mission with ships floating around.
I'm curious as to how you plan on justifying the hub experience, seeing as how I highly doubt anybody will just let Noemi fly a fighter around whenever she wants.It's explained.
If the hub environment ends up being something like one of the UEF fleets, maybe it will be something like "every hub visit is ostensibly Noemi being assigned to Close Patrol" or something like that?
I'm curious as to how you plan on justifying the hub experience, seeing as how I highly doubt anybody will just let Noemi fly a fighter around whenever she wants.
If the hub environment ends up being something like one of the UEF fleets, maybe it will be something like "every hub visit is ostensibly Noemi being assigned to Close Patrol" or something like that?
That Typhon makes me wonder if R2 will coincide with the release of the new mediavps. :warp:
So, the Typhons are going to be buffed up like the Carthage?Probably, or else they'd die instantly. If nothing else they'd get armor.tbl stuff.
Huh, I figured the hub mission would just be taking place inside the twisted confines of Laporte's deteriorating mind, with all the ships and wingmen and stuff being symbolic.
Clarified the Custos image in an editing program: (http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/9690/custos.png)
Looks great!
I hope my Trebs and Helioses work against it, despite the ECM. If not I'd have to drag a Maxim or two along...
Isn't the Custos intended to be a missile/torpedo boat?
As such, she could have a 360° field of fire and also could carry anti strikecraft rockets.
We're going to charge it head-on with full power maximum destruction!Such a bad idea...
We're going to charge it head-on with full power maximum destruction!
The black ops gunboat variant carries forward-firing Gattlers and a mass driver.The man is not joking about this. Dakka dakka. More than enough if you're on the receiving end.
The design of the ship is really, really...sleek. It's practically a perfect ship gunship-ish design that entirely caters to my taste. I can't wait to be flying near/with it. I like that ship a lot, so I'll befriend the Custos, lots and lots! (http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww286/TSADestiny/Friendship.jpg)We're going to charge it head-on with full power maximum destruction!Such a bad idea...
who needs a normandy?The Fedayeen and the SOC, seeing how it can almost completely disappear from sensors for hours and can make FTL jump without utilizing subspace.
Are these forward Gattlers the stock variant or the SuperGattler on the Solaris? The former is going to kill you, but the latter is going to kill you faster, and I think thats a distinction we need to make here, for Destiny's sake :DFor my sake...? Nah, you don't have to...because it's my playstyle to go full power maximum destruction. Salute me if you would, but you should salute the ship because my Trebuchets will knock out the forward guns while I go BOOSTO with all guns blazing to Maxim range.
Either way, wonderful amounts of Dakka on that little boat.
Are these forward Gattlers the stock variant or the SuperGattler on the Solaris? The former is going to kill you, but the latter is going to kill you faster, and I think thats a distinction we need to make here, for Destiny's sake :DFor my sake...? Nah, you don't have to...because it's my playstyle to go full power maximum destruction. Salute me if you would, but you should salute the ship because my Trebuchets will knock out the forward guns while I go BOOSTO with all guns blazing to Maxim range.
Either way, wonderful amounts of Dakka on that little boat.
Want to fly it more and more every time I read this thread.Are these forward Gattlers the stock variant or the SuperGattler on the Solaris? The former is going to kill you, but the latter is going to kill you faster, and I think thats a distinction we need to make here, for Destiny's sake :DFor my sake...? Nah, you don't have to...because it's my playstyle to go full power maximum destruction. Salute me if you would, but you should salute the ship because my Trebuchets will knock out the forward guns while I go BOOSTO with all guns blazing to Maxim range.
Either way, wonderful amounts of Dakka on that little boat.
The black ops Custos is shielded and can fire countermeasure swarms, so neither Maxim nor Treb would be very effective.
That's quite a problem, isn't it. If there was only a 16-gun Morning Star-er in R2...well, depends on the regeneration rate of the shield, perhaps. Although, since the Custos is that epic, it's worth the wait to go charging head-on at it in the tech room. Hope it appears in many missions!Are these forward Gattlers the stock variant or the SuperGattler on the Solaris? The former is going to kill you, but the latter is going to kill you faster, and I think thats a distinction we need to make here, for Destiny's sake :DFor my sake...? Nah, you don't have to...because it's my playstyle to go full power maximum destruction. Salute me if you would, but you should salute the ship because my Trebuchets will knock out the forward guns while I go BOOSTO with all guns blazing to Maxim range.
Either way, wonderful amounts of Dakka on that little boat.
The black ops Custos is shielded and can fire countermeasure swarms, so neither Maxim nor Treb would be very effective.
Speaking of interesting choices, you'll also be tangling with and flying alongside some new hardware.<UninformedOpinion>
The Federation's Custos patrol combatant can't stand on its own in line combat, but it's a useful torpedo attacker and it shines as a screening element and convoy raider. Of course, the GTVA has its own answer. Credit goes to our partner Cadius, an X3 modder.
If you liked flying the Karuna frigate in The Blade Itself, you'll probably like the Custos too. It comes in two breeds: a mass produced torpedo attacker, and a more advanced special operations combatant. A nimble sub-cruiser gunboat, the advanced variant of the Custos mounts a spinal mass driver, select-fire torpedoes and heatseeking antifighter missiles, and adequate point defenses. Its real advantages lie in its electronic warfare and tactical systems.
One of the Custos' abilities plays into something beautiful we've implemented in R2: capship mounted countermeasures. Fighters have been able to deploy decoys ever since FreeSpace 2, but now warships will fire volleys of flares to decoy incoming torpedoes and bombs, in a manner inspired by (but not quite as cool as) this. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfO3tBjZHZk)
Why would they need two full logistic ship to build a new small capship and capship countermeasures?To build a whole lot of them. Perhaps GTVA equipment is special somehow? Maybe taking the spare beam cannons? Who knows?
small escort cruisers are "the secret plan that will save us all".... That would be even worse than the overused super ship.Whitestars were both. :P
Yes, they can be targeted by beams,
And no they are not a war-winning swarm of death bees that will tip the strategic balance.
Nah the Custos can do stuff about the beam threat. It's a ship with a tactical niche, and like most other ships it's boned in certain mission profiles and strong in others.
With 470 or so meters in length a Whitestar ought to be quite a bit bigger than a Custos (a Hyperion is something around 300 m in length according to FRED, when you place a fighter in front and back and take the distance between them, for comparison).small escort cruisers are "the secret plan that will save us all".... That would be even worse than the overused super ship.Whitestars were both. :P
I didn't say the Custos is Blue Planet's Whitestar. I said Whitestars were the secret plan to save everyone as well as the overused super ship.With 470 or so meters in length a Whitestar ought to be quite a bit bigger than a Custos (a Hyperion is something around 300 km in length according to FRED, when you place a fighter in front and back and take the distance between them, for comparison).small escort cruisers are "the secret plan that will save us all".... That would be even worse than the overused super ship.Whitestars were both. :P
And the Whitestar were only so strong because they incorporated Vorlon technology. A GTVA logistic ship wouldn't help them with building Vishnan/Shivan technology into their ships, even if they got their hands on some samples.
Why?
Am I the only one who really hopes the UEF fails miserably by the end?Nah, I do as well, not to mention it's a hell of a lot more likely than them winning.
You folks seem to assume that one side has to win and the other lose. I wonder if it's really going to be quite as black and white conclusion.
Aren't those just voices in Laporte's head?
Ken certainly seems to try to turn the war into one of annihilation, with one side being completely wiped out, but that doesn't mean he's going to be successfull.
The Tev side of the GTVA actually could wipe them all out, but doesn't have the will to commit enough forces to actually do so.
Materializing her hatred as a physical weapon!?
I don't think it's important for Ken which side wins, as long as one side is going down. And the harder the UEF is fighting back, the harder the GTVA will try to beat them and thus move closer to fullfilling Kens seeming goal.
Materializing her hatred as a physical weapon!? C-4-1 the Shivans?!Taking "externalize" a bit too literally, methinks...
The Tev side of the GTVA actually could wipe them all out, but doesn't have the will to commit enough forces to actually do so.
More that they don't have the logistical weight to do so.
Doesn't it seem that an unstable young woman, faced with a conflict between her deeply held beliefs and the need to hate the enemy in order to survive, might find a way to externalize that hate? :nervous:
So we will learn that Laporte is actually the god of BP universe, unbeknownst to even herself, and that the Shivans are the creation of the internal conflict of Laporte between her peaceful drives and the need to kill humans who are out to get her because her peaceful beliefs are no match against the Shivans she created herself. Now that would be fun.
Doesn't it seem that an unstable young woman, faced with a conflict between her deeply held beliefs and the need to hate the enemy in order to survive, might find a way to externalize that hate? :nervous:And if this wasn't a video game, I'd believe you.
Blue Planet: Haruhi Suzumiya?XD
Perhaps. But she's special somehow, otherwise the Elder wouldn't have messaged her.
Unless she was just going Noemi, you must get some fried chicken for Martin on the way back.
that looks hideous. those effects are going to be optional right?
that looks hideous. those effects are going to be optional right?
No wait, I'm an idiot -- Klaustrophobia, what you're seeing here is simply the usual whiteout you get when you look at a sun, but withgod rayscrepuscular rays added.
No wait, I'm an idiot -- Klaustrophobia, what you're seeing here is simply the usual whiteout you get when you look at a sun, but withgod rayscrepuscular rays added.
Fix'd
Oh. Dear. Unexistant. GOD.Fix0r'd for great justice.
Grow up, man.
No wait, I'm an idiot -- Klaustrophobia, what you're seeing here is simply the usual whiteout you get when you look at a sun, but withgod rayscrepuscular rays added.
Fix'd
Why are you two so incredibly sad?Oh. Dear. Unexistant. GOD.Fix0r'd for great justice.
Grow up, man.
No wait, I'm an idiot -- Klaustrophobia, what you're seeing here is simply the usual whiteout you get when you look at a sun, but withgod rayscrepuscular rays added.
Fix'd
TAG-slaved Trebuchet launchers
This would be so sick, an AAA-beam hits you some thousand metres away from the ship and BAM, you have multiple Trebs coming for you :)
Something like a TAG-Gauss cannon with Grimlers (oh wait Slammers) appearing of nowhere?This would be so sick, an AAA-beam hits you some thousand metres away from the ship and BAM, you have multiple Trebs coming for you :)
Can I has this for the UEF too?
I could live with a beam painting me for long range missiles rather then a GAuss projectile hitting, and most likely piercing my fighter...Something like a TAG-Gauss cannon with Grimlers (oh wait Slammers) appearing of nowhere?This would be so sick, an AAA-beam hits you some thousand metres away from the ship and BAM, you have multiple Trebs coming for you :)
Can I has this for the UEF too?
I could live with a beam painting me for long range missiles rather then a GAuss projectile hitting, and most likely piercing my fighter...
That Custos looks cool.
Hopefully the GTVA will get some new toys too that can match it. :cool:
No, existing GTVA fighter wings get shredded by UEF point defense and have trouble with the UEF's high-performance fighters.Looks like Threat Exigence Initiative's new fighters aren't making the cut. Guess it's time for a Wave Three of those?
TEI fighters are for wading through endless waves of flimsy Shivan fighters.Which, realistically, aren't exactly flimsy and that's more of a game balancing thing than anything.
That'd not make for a fun gaming experience.If done right, it could be. But the end result would be very different from original FS.
To be fair, BP is already quite different from the original FS. I'd say for the better. If/when we see Shivans again in BP, I really hope they get rebalanced. The powerful fighter opponents we have fighting the GTVA make for much more interesting gameplay than the rather boring Shivan ones. It'd be a real shame if that wasn't preserved.That'd not make for a fun gaming experience.If done right, it could be. But the end result would be very different from original FS.
I mean really, imagine Shivan ships and guns being highly superior to yours like they are in the canon lore. That'd not make for a fun gaming experience.They are not canonically highly superior, except for being much more maneuverable, which was also stated in the mission dialog.
Oh, don't know why, but I thought we were speaking about a capship massdriver/gaus-cannon thing^^I could live with a beam painting me for long range missiles rather then a GAuss projectile hitting, and most likely piercing my fighter...
Or not even piercing your shields. Gauss cannons don't do much damage against shielded targets (just 300. The Perseus has 350 shields).
They are not canonically highly superior, except for being much more maneuverable, which was also stated in the mission dialog.In FS1 they practically screamed that Shivan ships were drastically superior every mission or so, even with shields.
But this is BP, where I think there's a real explanation somewhere in the tech room....
The ships are not detectable by our sensors. Worse, they appear to have some type of energy-shielding system, making them nearly immune to our attacks.
But the greatest concern is their weapons. They are more powerful than anything in the GTA or VPE arsenal.
Oh, don't know why, but I thought we were speaking about a capship massdriver/gaus-cannon thing^^We were. And I was saying that capital ship gauss cannons do next to no damage (relatively speaking) to shields, so your concerns about your fighter getting destroyed by one was unfounded.
Why would the GTVA need a corvette as a Treb platform? Long range subsystem disabling? Anti-fighter/bomber sweeper?
Because existing fighter wings can already do that.
From the debriefing of FS1's "Out of the dark, into the night" :Note, by that time, you were armed with ML-16 and Furies. Then, it was correct, as neither GTA nor PVE really had anything better. This did not stayed true for long though, Avenger outclassed Shivan weapons by a fair margin.QuoteThe ships are not detectable by our sensors. Worse, they appear to have some type of energy-shielding system, making them nearly immune to our attacks.
But the greatest concern is their weapons. They are more powerful than anything in the GTA or PVE arsenal.
Note, by that time, you were armed with ML-16 and Furies. Then, it was correct, as neither GTA nor PVE really had anything better. This did not stayed true for long though, Avenger outclassed Shivan weapons by a fair margin.There's no canon information for that and game balance isn't really evidence for an argument like this.
Avenger outclassed Shivan weapons by a fair margin.There's no canon information for that and game balance isn't really evidence for an argument like this.
Shivan's destroy species to preserve the balance of the universe.
What's wrong with game balance? It could be the case that there is a canon universe with facts contradicting the tables, but that doesn't have to be the case. I think it's okay to take the in-game stats as canon especially in the absence of any contradictory canon.In-game balance is typically the way it is not because of fluff. Like how the Deimos nearly has the same hull hit points as most destroyers, or the Hecate supposedly having more firepower than the Orion but in-game processing next to nothing in comparison, the Orion supposedly having 'dozens of death dealing turrets' while having a mere 17, etc etc.
EDIT: That was the part you were referring to?
EDIT2: And once again this is all moot, because Blue Planet explicitly draws attention to the inferiority of Shivan weapons, along with epic confusion as to why.
I thot those were the Vishnans....FS1 pretty much said that it was the Shivans in what, every Ancient's cutscene?
TEI fighters are for wading through endless waves of flimsy Shivan fighters.Which, realistically, aren't exactly flimsy and that's more of a game balancing thing than anything.
I mean really, imagine Shivan ships and guns being highly superior to yours like they are in the canon lore. That'd not make for a fun gaming experience.
FS1 said what the Ancients believed about the Shivans, not necessarily how the Shivans really are.It'd be pretty silly to throw in an unreliable narrator in a segment that's meant to advance the plot in some way.
In-game balance is typically the way it is not because of fluff. Like how the Deimos nearly has the same hull hit points as most destroyers, or the Hecate supposedly having more firepower than the Orion but in-game processing next to nothing in comparison, the Orion supposedly having 'dozens of death dealing turrets' while having a mere 17, etc etc.Those are all examples of fluff contradicting tabled stats. There is no canon evidence that Shivan primaries are better than the Avenger.
There is no canon evidence that Shivan primaries are better than the Avenger.(Meaning no fluff, specifically.)
Whatever the case in FS1 and FS2, the Shivan/Vishan dialogue in AoA all but confirms that the Shivans in BP are supposed to destroy species which endanger the enlightenment of others.FS1 said what the Ancients believed about the Shivans, not necessarily how the Shivans really are.It'd be pretty silly to throw in an unreliable narrator in a segment that's meant to advance the plot in some way.
This may be a bit off topic, but I've ALWAYS assumed unreliable narrator on the cutscene narrations, in both games.FS1 said what the Ancients believed about the Shivans, not necessarily how the Shivans really are.It'd be pretty silly to throw in an unreliable narrator in a segment that's meant to advance the plot in some way.
Then tell me now the Ancients could have been able to get reliable information on the Shivans? The Shivans don't communicate and the game never mentioned any archeological sites the Ancients uncovered, that gave them information of the Shivans.FS1 said what the Ancients believed about the Shivans, not necessarily how the Shivans really are.It'd be pretty silly to throw in an unreliable narrator in a segment that's meant to advance the plot in some way.
I'll buy that the narrations could possibly be incorrect. But it always seemed that they were at least intended to be correct.You've hit the nail on the head. The writers intended them to be correct, even though they gave no logical reason to assume that the narrators had sufficient information to puzzle out the Shivans' intentions.
But it also gives the benefit of deniability. If you tell the words through a possibly biased, or even possibly mistaken source, like the ancients, you can just rewrite the story later, without contradicting yourself.That doesn't prove anything. That just means they acted differently for different reasons, they're a sentient species, they've got a goal.
I think that is just what :v-old: did. They changed how the Shivans acted, or rather why they acted in FS2 and if someone said "But in FS1 it was told that the Shivans are like this and that, so it makes no sense for them doing X and Y in FS2!", they can just say that the cutscenes only showed what the Ancients (or the single Ancients who made the recordings at any rate) believed, not how the Shivans really are.
In my eyes, the fact that the Shivans stopped at Capella, instead of immediately sending their 80 Sath' onwards to wipe out the GTVA shows that there is more, or something completely different, going on with them than just "destroying the destroyers" and thus proved the views the Ancients expressed in their cutscenes wrong or at least incomplete.
And a good change it was too, I think. "Kill them all" is just such a flat and boring goal for an enemy, better to have them mysterious like the FS2 Shivans and keeping the player wondering what they'll do and why, untill short before the end.
...shows that there is more, or something completely different, going on with them than just...Notice the "something more, or"?
1. What happened to Kappa 3 in the nebula, and what did he see?
2. What if a UEF squadron saw the same thing?
3. Was für Geschichten sind es um den Nebel hinter Gamma Draconis?I'm sorry, this sentence does not even begin to make sense in german. I think you're asing about stories about the Gamma Draconis nebula? Not sure.
Is there a 6th race?
Who will tell the truth in the end?
Ihr könnt mich ...mal nachmachen. Peter
That makes me wondrous. Maybe I should write in german too. Would make sense.
EDIT: Advanced german spambot.
And how is a UEF squad supposed to even see the nebula? That's impossible.
So Jetzt mal auf Deutsch,langsam und zum Mitschreiben. Dieses ist kein Werbemüll. !!!!!Wie sind Sie, meine Herren!! Alle Ihre Basis sind gehören zu uns. Sie sind auf dem Weg zur Vernichtung. Du hast keine Chance zu überleben machen Sie sich Zeit. Ha ha ha ha ....
Ich habe nicht immer die Zeit,auf Gammatik zuachten order eine Ü-maschine zu benutzen!!!!!! :hopping:
1. Was ist mit Kappa3 in FS 2 passiert und was hat er gesehen?
2. Was ist,wenn ein UEF Geschwader das auch gesehen hat was Kappa 3 sah und und und?
3. Was für Geschichten sind es um den Nebel hinter Gamma Draconis? Gibt es wirklich die 6te Art?
Und wer wird wen am Ende die Wahrheit sagen?
Ihr könnt mich ...mal nachmachen. Peter
So Jetzt mal auf Deutsch,langsam und zum Mitschreiben. Dieses ist kein Werbemüll. !!!!!Wie sind Sie, meine Herren!! Alle Ihre Basis sind gehören zu uns. Sie sind auf dem Weg zur Vernichtung. Du hast keine Chance zu überleben machen Sie sich Zeit. Ha ha ha ha ....
Ich habe nicht immer die Zeit,auf Gammatik zuachten order eine Ü-maschine zu benutzen!!!!!! :hopping:
1. Was ist mit Kappa3 in FS 2 passiert und was hat er gesehen?
2. Was ist,wenn ein UEF Geschwader das auch gesehen hat was Kappa 3 sah und und und?
3. Was für Geschichten sind es um den Nebel hinter Gamma Draconis? Gibt es wirklich die 6te Art?
Und wer wird wen am Ende die Wahrheit sagen?
Ihr könnt mich ...mal nachmachen. Peter
Brahmans (who do exist, for certain values of "existing")
You will!
Well I do want to say that the idea of an ancient creator race which lefts its relics behind (Ancients/Protheans/Forerunners/whatever the ****) is possibly a little played out so don't expect it to be played completely straight
Brahmans (who do exist, for certain values of "existing")
This statement intrigues me. I wish to learn more.
Not at this time, sorry.
Weren't you at some point trying very hard to replace Vishnan ships with something less Ancient-ish ? What happened to that idea ?
The Shivans waltz into Capella, a colony of exiled Terrans, and blow up a star. How does Petrarch interpret this? "Oh, they must have been trying to get home, like we are."
To me, both these assumptions are flawed. The Ancients try to figure out the Shivans by thinking like Ancients. The exiled terrans try to figure out the Shivans by thinking like Terrans. This is like trying to puzzle out why the sky 'decided' to rain one day and remain clear the next.